RTHK: Bobby Kennedy's killer granted parole

Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee convicted of assassinating US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968, was granted release by a California parole board on Friday, state prison officials said.

Whether Sirhan, 77, is ultimately freed from prison is now up to the parole board's legal staff which has 120 days to finalise the decision. The governor of California then has 30 days to let the decision stand or reverse it.

The Palestinian-born Sirhan is serving a life sentence for gunning down Kennedy, 42, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. The shooting occurred minutes after the US senator from New York and former US attorney general gave his victory speech after winning the California Democratic primary. Kennedy died the next day.

Sirhan has said he had no recollection of the killing, although he has also said he fired at Kennedy because he was enraged by his support for Israel.

Two members of the slain senators family, including his son, Robert Kennedy Jr, sent letters to the parole board in support of his release, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Sirhans attorney Angela Berry told the newspaper her client has never been accused of a serious prison violation and that prison officials have deemed him a low risk.

Parole board officials and his attorney were not immediately available for comment.

Sirhan, who is imprisoned in San Diego, has been denied parole 15 times. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-08-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: Chinese embassy says US Covid probe 'not credible'

China's embassy in Washington has accused US intelligence agencies of "wrongly" claiming that Beijing continued to hinder the investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and added that "a report fabricated by the US intelligence community is not scientifically credible."

"The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts," the embassy said in a statement, hours after the release of a declassified summary of the report.

The embassy charged that the report was aimed at "scapegoating China," an approach that would "disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origin-tracing and on fighting the pandemic."

The statement also said that Washington "has been shying away from tracing the origin in the United States and closing the door on any such possibility."

China has ridiculed a theory that coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 infections emerged in late 2019, setting off the pandemic, and has pushed other theories including that it slipped out of a lab at the US Army's Fort Detrick base in Maryland in 2019.

The embassy statement suggested the United States should invite World Health Organisation experts to Fort Detrick to investigate.

US officials said in the summary that the US intelligence community does not believe it can resolve a debate over whether a laboratory incident was the source of Covid-19 without more information.

They said that only China can help solve questions about the true origins of the virus that has now killed 4.6 million people worldwide. "China's cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of Covid-19," they said.

US President Joe Biden, who received a classified report this week summarising the investigation he ordered, said Washington and its allies will continue to press China for answers. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-08-28. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
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Update: 28-08-2021 | 15:01:26

Algerian newspapers and websites have published stories to mark the 110th birthday anniversary of late Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap (August 25, 1911  2021), stressing his military talent and influence on the revolutionary movement of oppressed people around the world.



At an exhibition on General Vo Nguyen Giap held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria (Source: VNA)

Algerian newspapers and websites have published stories to mark the 110th birthday anniversary of late Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap (August 25, 1911  2021), stressing his military talent and influence on the revolutionary movement of oppressed people around the world.

The newspapers and websites include El Moudjahid, Liberte Algerie, La Tribune Diplomatique, LExpressiondz, Le Grand Soir, Algerie 360, Cresus, Reporters, and El Massa.

Their stories said the General has spent his entire life to defend the ideals of national independence and communism. He made significant contributions to the victories of the Vietnamese people's army during the resistance wars against the French colonialists and then American imperialists. From such victories, Vietnam developed and became a model for international friends not only regarding its liberation process but also its national construction cause.

The articles praised Giaps extraordinary career and feats and honoured his name along with leaders of revolutions around the world such as Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, Cuban President Fidel Castro, and Latin American revolutionary hero Che Guevara.

They associated Giaps role with the Dien Bien Phu historical victory, forcing the French colonialists to sit down for peace negotiation, ending the Indochina war and completely liberating North Vietnam.

The General was also the chief architect of Vietnams resistance war against the invading US imperialists, reunifying the nation. In addition to his military talent, Giap was also an excellent diplomat. His great experience in the national liberation revolution made an important contribution to the development of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and other countries.

The articles showed their respect for his talent and personality, considering him a great figure of the world.

They also covered the news on a photo exhibition on the General held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria.

VNA
FDA Does a Bait and Switch with COVID Shots

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Liberty Counsel

Aug. 27, 2021



WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has done a bait and switch by announcing it approved its "first COVID-19 vaccine" in order to push the "vaccine" mandates and protect the Pfizer pharmaceutical company from legal liability. However, there is currently no fully licensed COVID shot on the United States market.

Albeit confusing, and probably intentionally so, this summarizes the current status of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots:

All existing Pfizer vials (in the hundreds of millions), remain under the federal Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) (meaning people have the "option to accept or refuse");

The third or "booster" Pfizer shot is identical to the above and remains under the EUA with limited use to certain categories of people;

BioNTech received FDA approval for people ages 16 and above under the name Comirnaty, but there are no Comirnaty doses available in the United States;

In other words, there is currently NO FDA approved COVID-19 injection available anywhere in the United States. Every COVID shot in America remains under the EUA law and thus people have the "option to accept or refuse" them; and

Even when an FDA approved COVID shot becomes available, individuals are protected by federal law and many states laws from being forced to get these shots based on their sincere religious beliefs or conscience rights.

On August 23, the FDA issued two separate letters for two separate injections. There are now two legally distinct (Pfizer vs. BioNTech), but otherwise identical products.

The first letter is regarding FDA's biologics license application approval for the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 injection which has been named Comirnaty. Yet Pfizer has not started manufacturing or labeling this drug for U.S. distribution, so it is not even available in the U.S. It is unclear whether or not it is protected by a liability shield, but web-based U.S. government communication indicates that the same program that provides compensation for COVID vaccine-related injuries will apply Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) rather than the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. At this point, there apparently has been no compensation paid to people injured by one of the COVID shots via the CICP.

The Pfizer injection, on the other hand, is still considered experimental under U.S. law. There is a legal difference between products approved under authorization of emergency use (EAU) compared with those the FDA has fully licensed. The FDA issued another letter for the existing Pfizer shots which confirms they are still under EUA, are not fully approved, and has a liability shield.

EUA-approved COVID shots have a liability shield under the 2005 Public Readiness and Preparedness Act. Vaccine manufacturers, distributors, providers and government planners are immune from liability. People who have been injured can file a lawsuit if they can prove willful misconduct, and if the U.S. government has also brought an enforcement action against the party for willful misconduct. No such lawsuit has ever succeeded.

That means people must be told the risks and benefits, and they have the right to decline a medication that is not fully licensed. The federal Emergency Use Authorization law and the FDA, including the FDA Fact Sheet, state unequivocally that each person has the "option to accept or refuse" the shots. In addition to federal law, the FDA includes the Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration on its website, emphasizing the fact that people cannot be forced to take experimental drugs without their full consent.

The FDA's approval letter to Pfizer regarding the BioNTech injection, Comirnaty, states: "Under this license, you are authorized to manufacture the product, COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA, which is indicated for active immunization to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 16 years of age and older."

This letter affirms the FDA has not approved the Pfizer/BioNTech injections for the 12- to 15-year age group, nor any booster doses for anyone.

Regarding the Comirnaty injection, the FDA admits, "We have determined that an analysis of spontaneous post marketing adverse events reported under section 505(k)(1) of the FDCA will not be sufficient to assess known serious risks of myocarditis and pericarditis and identify an unexpected serious risk of subclinical myocarditis."

Therefore, follow up studies will be required with children six months to 15 years as well as six studies for up to five years regarding the adverse effects of myocarditis and pericarditis.

In addition, the FDA bypassed and disregarded the normal advisory committee and public comment process for this license.

The letter states, "We did not refer your application to the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee because our review of information submitted in your BLA, including the clinical study design and trial results, did not raise concerns or controversial issues that would have benefited from an advisory committee discussion" (emphasis added).

The FDA also acknowledges that while Pfizer-BioNTech has "insufficient supplies" (in other words, it is not currently available on the U.S. market) of the newly licensed Comirnaty vaccine actually available. However, the letter also states there is "a significant amount" of the Pfizer-BioNTech shots which has been produced under the EUA and will continue to be offered under the same EUA status. In its approval letter, the FDA specifies the Pfizer shot under the EUA should remain unlicensed, is still available for use, and can be used "interchangeably" with the newly licensed Comirnaty product. According to the FDA, the newly licensed Comirnaty injection and the existing Pfizer shot, while "legally distinct," are not any different in terms of their "safety or effectiveness."

Despite whether these COVID shots are licensed or not, they cannot be mandatory under Title VII. In general, employee vaccine religious exemption requests must be accommodated, where a reasonable accommodation exists without undue hardship to the employer, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many people hold sincere religious beliefs against taking the COVID shots or taking those derived from or which used at any stage of the development aborted fetal cell lines.

Title VII defines the protected category of religion to include "all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief." 42 U.S.C.  2000e(j). Moreover, as the EEOC has made clear, Title VII's protections also extend nonreligious beliefs if related to morality, ultimate ideas about life, purpose, and death. See EEOC, Questions and Answers: Religious Discrimination in the Workplace (June 7, 2008), ("Title VII's protections also extend to those who are discriminated against or need accommodation because they profess no religious beliefsReligious beliefs include theistic beliefs, i.e. those that include a belief in God as well as non-theistic 'moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.' Although courts generally resolve doubts about particular beliefs in favor of finding that they are religious, beliefs are not protected merely because they are strongly held. Rather, religion typically concerns 'ultimate ideas' about 'life, purpose, and death'").

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "The FDA has apparently tried to deceive people by issuing its two confusing letters without proper explanation. Despite the FDA's slight of hand, there is currently no FDA approved COVID shot available in the United States. Even if there were an FDA approved COVID shot available, people still may request that employers, schools, and the military accommodate their sincerely held religious beliefs."

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Xi leads the way in promoting ethnic unity, development

Xinhua) 09:11, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- In China, a unified multi-ethnic country, the proper handling of ethnic affairs concerns the lasting security and prosperity of the entire country and the Chinese nation's rejuvenation.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has said that ethnic unity is the cornerstone of development and progress.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core has been making long-term policies to consolidate the foundation for ethnic unity and development.

By putting forward the call of heightening a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, Xi has been leading China's efforts in making innovative progress in the work related to ethnic affairs.

INNOVATIVE IDEA

The central leadership has always attached great importance to ethnic affairs and development in areas with large ethnic populations.

In May 2014, Xi put forward an important notion -- the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

In September 2014, at a central work conference on ethnic affairs, Xi once again highlighted the importance of laying a solid foundation for the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

He has since on many occasions stated the profound implications and great significance of consolidating such a sense.

At the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017, the idea was officially written into the Party's Constitution.

Four inspections to regions with large ethnic populations have been made by Xi so far this year, deepening and extending the implications of the theories and practice of the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

RESEARCH-BASED INSIGHT

In 2014, Xi carried out frequent inspections and research to learn about the opinions on ethnic affairs at the primary level.

During his inspections to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, Xi had face-to-face talks with people from multiple ethnic groups.

He also joined lawmakers from Guizhou Province during the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) and visited members from the ethnic minority groups of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Based on in-depth research, Xi noted that strengthened Party leadership is a must for advancing the work of ethnic affairs in China.

The system of regional ethnic autonomy has played an important role in promoting ethnic equality and unity, fueling development in ethnic areas, and enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation, he said.

He also noted that to enhance the unity of the Chinese nation, the long-term and fundamental way is to strengthen the cultural identity and consolidate the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

"An ethnic group will enjoy sustainable development only when it integrates into the big family of the motherland," said Kurban Niyaz, a primary school principal in south Xinjiang.

DEVELOPMENT IN ALL ASPECTS

Xi has long paid close attention to the economic and social development of areas with large ethnic populations.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2018, he paid a visit to Sanhe Village, a poor village inhabited by the ethnic Yi people in Sichuan Province.

In February 2021, at a gathering to mark the country's poverty eradication achievements, Li Kai, a Party official of Sanhe Village, expressed the villagers' gratitude to Xi using the Yi ethnic language.

All the 28 ethnic-minority groups with relatively smaller populations in China have shaken off poverty.

What is more, ethnic areas have sped up efforts in fostering and promoting high-quality development in all aspects. In 2020, these areas contributed more than 10 percent of the national GDP.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), these areas registered an annual GDP growth of 6.6 percent, 0.9 percentage points higher than the national rate. During the same period, 12.8 million new urban jobs were created in these areas, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the country's total.

Also, the traditional cultures of ethnic groups are flourishing. More than one-third of China's cultural heritage items inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List are related to ethnic minorities.

Ecological conservation has also been pushed forward in these areas, where people enjoy bluer skies, lusher mountains and clearer waters.

Safe housing, safe drinking water, accessible medical services and education all speak volumes about the improved livelihoods of various ethnic groups.

Earlier this month, 10 veteran Party chiefs from nine border villages of the Wa ethnic group in Yunnan Province wrote a letter to Xi, reporting local progress in poverty relief and expressing their willingness to build a more beautiful and prosperous home under the CPC's leadership.

MIRACLES TO COME

After securing a victory in fighting poverty, China has embarked on a new quest to fully build a modern socialist country. Xi has personally drawn the blueprint for the modernization drive in the ethnic areas.

During the annual sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee in March, Wei Zhenling, a representative of the Maonan ethnic group, one of the 28 ethnic groups with relatively smaller populations, from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, told the poverty-to-prosperity story of her hometown, expressing her villagers' confidence in a brighter future.

"I used to think that my hometown would never be connected to the outside world unless a miracle happened," said Wei, a member of the CPPCC National Committee. "That miracle has really happened."

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
China urges Japan not to mislead the next generation

Xinhua) 09:14, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes Japan unveiling a defense white paper for children, and has lodged solemn representations with Japan, urging Japan not to mislead the next generation, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Japan's defense ministry on Aug. 16 released a 30-page white paper for elementary and junior high school students on its website, which covers China's military development, the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea issues.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing that China already stated its solemn position on Japan's 2021 defense white paper before, saying China firmly opposes Japan's unreasonable accusations against China's regular national defense construction, irresponsible remarks on China's legitimate maritime activities, and hype about the so-called "China threat."

"It is unconstructive for Japan to highlight external threats to minors and incite confrontation," Zhao said.

He urged Japan to face up to and reflect on history, learn the lesson from history earnestly, and not mislead its own nationals, especially the next generation.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
China unveils plan to boost employment

Xinhua) 09:15, August 28, 2021

Graduating students search for job opportunities at a job matching fair at Tsinghua University in Beijing, capital of China, on March 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council has released a plan to boost employment during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

To achieve more employment and better quality jobs, efforts should be made to implement the employment-first policy, improve the policy system, strengthen training services, and promote prosperity for all, says the plan.

By 2025, the country's employment situation will be generally stable, and the quality of employment would have steadily improved. Structural problems would also be effectively addressed by then, business startups would create more jobs, and the ability to cope with risks would be significantly enhanced, the plan noted.

It puts forward key tasks, including continuously expanding employment capacity and promoting the development of the human resources market system.

By 2025, China aims to add over 55 million new urban jobs and conduct skills training for employees engaging in new forms and models of businesses.

The country will subsidize vocational skills training sessions, the plan said.

It also aims to improve the public employment service system, increase people's income, and improve their rights and interests protection.

Companies should shoulder their social responsibilities of being maternity-friendly, the plan noted. It added that employers are encouraged to offer flexible parental leave or flexible working methods.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
-- After a two-decade war has left tens of thousands of Afghans dead and displaced millions, observers say the latest bloody explosions at the Kabul airport point to a legacy of disaster for the U.S. in Afghanistan.

-- While U.S. President Joe Biden said he would "bear responsibility for fundamentally all that's happened" during the chaotic withdrawal, the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops would mean a "devastating moment" for his presidency.

-- The attacks have drawn a torrent of criticism and condemnation from worldwide, and some have expressed concern that more deadly attacks could follow as Washington continues its pullout.

KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people and injuring 158 others, five days before the deadline of a hasty evacuation of U.S. troops from the war-torn country.

The deadly attacks were claimed by an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS), a terrorist group that grew in Afghanistan where Washington and its allies waged a 20-year war.

The war has left tens of thousands of civilians dead and displaced millions of others. Observers say the bloody explosions point to a legacy of disaster for the U.S. in Afghanistan.

People injured in the Kabul airport attacks receive medical treatment at a local hospital in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

"BODY AFTER BODY"

"There was just body after body" at an emergency hospital, Afghanistan-based journalist Matthieu Aikins of The New York Times told CNN after the attacks.

Witness Abdul Wakil told Xinhua that the first explosion happened in the middle of a crowd roughly at 6:00 p.m. local time (1330 GMT) at the airport's Abbey Gate where refugees had been held after they passed through the Taliban check points and before they were allowed to enter the airport controled by the U.S. military.

What followed was a number of IS gunmen "who opened fire on civilians and military forces" and another explosion soon after at the adjacent Baron Hotel, according to Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command.

Ambulances, taxis and vehicles arrived near the site shortly after the blast, the witness said. Those injured were soaked in blood and shifted on hand carts and stretchers, as the road leading to the Abbey Gate had been blocked in recent days.

"Those who arrived could not speak, many were terrified, their eyes totally lost in emptiness, their gaze blank. Rarely have we seen such a situation," said Alberto Zanin, medical coordinator at the emergency hospital.

The IS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to a statement from the group's Amaq News Agency cited in multiple media reports.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that the Taliban "strongly condemns the bombing of civilians at the Kabul airport, which took place in an area where security is in the hands of U.S. forces," and is paying close attention to the security and protection of Afghans.

Afghan civilian deaths have risen to 90, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior Afghan health official. The Afghan Ministry of Public Health previously confirmed the attacks had killed over 60 Afghans and injured 140.

As many as 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attacks, with 18 more injured troops being flown out of Afghanistan, according to the latest update by Bill Urban, public affairs officer at the U.S. Central Command.

An ambulance is seen at the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

U.S. RETRIBUTION

Following the suicide bomb attacks, U.S. President Joe Biden made an appearance at the White House, vowing retribution at a time when the president is already under fire for ordering the evacuation.

"We will respond with force and precision in our time, in a place we choose in a manner of our choosing," Biden said during remarks at the White House, adding that his administration could deploy additional troops to Afghanistan to ensure the continuity of the evacuation.

While Biden has said he would "bear responsibility for fundamentally all that's happened" during the chaotic withdrawal, the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since 2011 would no doubt mean a "devastating moment" for Biden's presidency.

Republicans in the Congress quickly escalated their criticism of Biden's handling of the ongoing and chaotic evacuation.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Biden in a statement. "Americans' hearts are breaking for our service members and diplomats. They are doing heroic work to rescue American citizens and Afghan partners in the predictably chaotic wake of the President's decision to withdraw," he said.

"Terrible things happen when terrorists are allowed to operate freely. This murderous attack offers the clearest possible reminder that terrorists will not stop fighting the United States just because our politicians grow tired of fighting them," McConnell added.

"Joe Biden has blood on his hands," tweeted Rep. Elise Stefanik, the no. 3 House Republican. "This horrific national security and humanitarian disaster is solely the result of Joe Biden's weak and incompetent leadership. He is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief."

Photo taken on Aug. 27, 2021 shows the explosion site near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua)

WORLD CONDEMNATION

The attacks have also drawn a torrent of criticism and condemnation from around the world.

"China is shocked at and strongly condemns the explosions near Kabul airport which caused heavy casualties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing on Friday.

The explosions show that the security situation in Afghanistan remains complex and grave, he added.

"We hope relevant parties will take effective measures to ensure a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan and ensure the safety of the Afghan people and foreign citizens in the country," Zhao said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following with great concern the ongoing situation in Kabul, especially at the airport, his spokesman said at a daily noon briefing.

"He condemns this terrorist attack which killed and injured a number of civilians," the spokesman said, noting that "this incident underscores the volatility of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan."

In a late-night statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, India strongly condemned the blasts, saying that there was a need for the world to stand unitedly against terrorism.

Addressing the attacks, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, "Australia condemns the evil, the calculated and inhuman attacks that were undertaken in Kabul overnight on the innocent and on the brave."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned the "cowardly and inhuman attacks" on Twitter, while stressing that "the international community must work closely together to avoid a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan and beyond."

Some have expressed concern that more deadly attacks could follow as Washington continues its chaotic pullout.

The U.S. decision not to extend its deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 has put "all of us in a situation which is no more under control," said French President Emmanuel Macron.

Commander of the U.S. Central Command McKenzie also told reporters during a press conference that U.S. military officials are aware that the threat to U.S. forces posed by the IS "is extremely real," adding that "we believe it is their desire to continue those attacks, and we expect those attacks to continue."

In a report titled "After Decades of War, ISIS and Al-Qaeda Can Still Wreak Havoc," The New York Times said, "The U.S. and its allies waged war for 20 years to try to defeat terrorists in Afghanistan. A double-suicide bombing demonstrated that they remain a threat."
7,000 more residents evacuated due to wildfires in California

Xinhua) 09:35, August 28, 2021

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) said on Friday currently 42,100 residents were evacuated due to wildfires across California, 7,000 more people than 24 hours ago.

Over 6,000 of the people evacuated on Thursday came from Calaveras County, where a wildfire dubbed Airola Fire burned about 700 acres (2.8 square kilometers) and threatened many communities.

As of Friday morning, most of the evacuation orders triggered by the Airola Fire were downgraded to evacuation warnings, but many parts of Calaveras County and its surrounding area were still inundated with smoky conditions and limited visibility.

Meanwhile, more people could be evacuated in Kern County due to the French Fire, which had forced 3,600 residents to flee from their homes.

The American Red Cross opened up a third shelter Thursday for those fleeing the French Fire as more Kern County residents are placed under an evacuation warning.

The blaze, started on Aug. 18, west of Lake Isabella in Kern County, had scorched up to 22,916 acres (92.7 square kilometers) with 19 percent containment, the Inciweb said Friday noon, adding it remained active on both the north and south sides and threatened communities nearby.

The Caldor Fire raging in Northern California, started on Aug. 14, was still the top firefighting priority in the nation. It burned down 143,941 acres (582.5 square kilometers) with 12 percent containment until Friday.

About 3,200 firefighters, including some from other states, are battling the fire, Inciweb said, adding it was estimated to be contained on Sep. 8.

Some 24,548 residents were recorded on the evacuation list of CalOES due to the Caldor Fire Friday.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Twenty-nine Fortune Global 500 banking institutions and enterprises to attend China's services trade fair 2021 CIFTIS

09:38, August 28, 2021 By Wan Yu ( People's Daily

A total of 143 Chinese and foreign financial institutions, including 29 leading banking institutions and renowned financial service providers on the Fortune Global 500 list, will participate in the thematic exhibition on financial services of the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which is slated to be held at Shougang Park in Shijingshan district in Beijing from Sept. 3 to 7.

Visitors try virtual reality devices at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services, Sept. 9, 2020. (People's Daily Online/Du Jianpo)

Among the 143 banking entities, there are 59 overseas financial service providers from 18 countries and regions, including Societe Generale, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Bank of Montreal, Morgan Stanley, Mastercard, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), DBS Bank, Hana Bank, Mizuho Bank, and Ueda Yagi Tanshi Co., Ltd.

This year, overseas financial institutions accounts for 41.2 percent of the total participants in the thematic exhibition on financial services.

Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020, shows visitors at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services. (People's Daily Online/Chen Xiaogen)

The thematic exhibition on financial services, whose theme is "Green Beijing, Open Finance" this year, covers an area of over 17,000 square meters and is subdivided into eight exhibition areas for headquarters finance, international finance, finance in two zones (a national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the service sector and China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone), digital finance demonstration zones, financial services for science and technology innovation, green finance, wealth management, and comprehensive financial services.

Morgan Stanley, a global leader in financial services that has operated in the Chinese market for 27 years, exhibited its development achievements made in China over the years at the CIFTIS last year. "We couldn't have made such development achievements without China's efforts to continuously open its financial market wider," said Dong Gang, chairman of the board of directors at Morgan Stanley Bank International (China) Limited, adding that Morgan Stanley will continue to support and participate in the CIFTIS this year.

Ueda Yagi Money Broking (China) Co., Ltd., which was inaugurated in Beijing in July, is the first wholly foreign-owned money broker in China.

Last year, a group established for making preparations for the establishment of the money broking company, a subsidiary of Ueda Yagi Tanshi Co., Ltd., attended the CIFTIS, according to Huang Hong, president of Ueda Yagi Money Broking (China) Co., Ltd.

Now that the company has settled in the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center, it has been invited to share its stories during an activity for attracting foreign financial institutions at this year's CIFTIS, Huang added.

Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2020, shows visitors at the thematic exhibition on financial services of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services. (People's Daily Online/Chen Xiaogen)

A digital finance carnival, a highlight of the thematic exhibition on financial services of this year's CIFTIS, is expected to impress visitors with digital finance demonstration zones, fintech competitions, robo-advisor platforms, digital RMB avenue and various activities, aiming to bring them closer to the recent advances in digital finance in scenarios that are closely related to their daily life.

At the digital RMB avenue, visitors can see how convenient it is to shop and pay in diversified consumption scenarios, including cultural and creative product stores, unmanned supermarkets, mobile convenience stores and stores selling handcrafts, books and products of time-honored brands, thus gaining a better understanding of digital RMB.

Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2020, shows visitors at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

Beijing has endeavored to make this year's CIFTIS more interesting, interactive, and visitor-friendly, said Wang Ying, deputy head of the Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration.

Besides exhibitions, many forums and summits on financial services will also be held at the CIFTIS, including the China International Finance Annual Forum 2021, China International Fintech Forum 2021, and China Capital Market Forum 2021, during which guests from all over the world will conduct dialogues on the frontiers of finance.

This year's CIFTIS will also include activities for the signing of major cooperation projects and the releasing of achievements in the financial sector. By holding targeted matchmaking activities for financial service providers and seekers, the event will facilitate cooperation and speed up the commercialization of achievements in financial services.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
Xi says China ready to continue supporting Malawi's socio-economic development

Xinhua) 09:39, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to continue providing support for and aid to Malawi's economic and social development within its capacity, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Friday in a phone conversation with his Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera.

Noting that China is a sincere and reliable development partner of Malawi, Xi said that China supports the country in independently exploring a development path that suits its own national conditions.

Since the establishment of China-Malawi diplomatic ties, Xi said, bilateral relations have witnessed rapid and sound development, with political mutual trust continuously enhanced, friendship between the two peoples constantly deepened, and the two sides understanding and supporting each other in international affairs.

The two sides have joined hands to fight against COVID-19, and their practical cooperation has been steadily moving forward, he added.

China is ready to continuously strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation with Malawi, Xi said, expressing the hope that the COVID-19 vaccines provided by China will play a positive role in helping the country prevail over the pandemic.

The Chinese side appreciates Malawi's adherence to the one-China principle, Xi said.

China, he added, stands ready to better synergize development strategies with Malawi, deepen exchanges and cooperation in such areas as state governance, poverty alleviation and development, promote cooperation in infrastructure, agriculture, health care and other fields, and continuously achieve new results in bilateral friendly practical cooperation.

He said China is also ready to expand cooperation with Malawi on international and regional affairs and safeguard the common interests of developing countries as well as international equity and justice.

Chakwera extended congratulations once again on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and on China's historic achievements in poverty alleviation.

He said the Malawian side attaches great importance to its relations with China, values the sound cooperation between the two countries in various areas, and hopes to build an even more solid and robust relationship with China.

The Malawian leader also expressed gratitude for China's valuable assistance for his country's fight against COVID-19.

Investment from and cooperation with China have played an important role in Malawi's economic and social development, he said.

He added that his country looks forward to working with China to strengthen practical cooperation in infrastructure, development and other fields, and deepen cooperation within the framework of the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation, so as to help Malawi achieve national development.

The Malawian president said his country unswervingly upholds the one-China policy, opposes interference in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights, and rejects the politicization of COVID-19 origins tracing.

The Malawian side, he added, is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with China on international and regional affairs.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Xi calls for steady, long-term development of China-Philippines ties

Xinhua) 09:41, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China stands ready to work with the Philippines to keep bilateral relations on the right track and achieve steady and long-term development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday.

In a phone conversation with his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, Xi said China attaches great importance to relations with the Philippines, and supports the Philippine side in firmly upholding an independent foreign policy of peace.

Xi said China is ready to deepen friendship and mutual trust with the Philippines, and stay committed to the general direction of good-neighborliness and friendship.

During the past few years, the two countries have witnessed a turnaround, consolidation and elevation of their relations, as well as the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship, which has brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries and positive energy to the peace and stability of the region, Xi said.

Citing a Chinese saying that "only heart-to-heart exchanges can last long," Xi said China always honors its commitments to friends.

Xi said he is willing to keep close contact with Duterte and frequently exchange views on important matters of mutual concern.

He stressed that the top priority for all countries now is to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic at an early date and achieve economic recovery and growth.

China, he added, will continuously strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation with the Philippines, and provide as much assistance and help as it can for the Philippines' fight against the coronavirus.

Noting that important achievements have been made in synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative with the Philippines' "Build, Build, Build" program, Xi said China is willing to work with the Philippines to implement more cooperation projects and allow the people in both countries to benefit more from bilateral cooperation.

China, he added, is ready to work with the Philippines to grasp the general trend, promote the common values of humanity, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, so as to make more contributions to regional peace and prosperity.

For his part, Duterte said he would like to extend warm congratulations once again on the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is a milestone in history, and the lifting of over 800 million people in China out of poverty, which is an extraordinary historic achievement of the CPC.

Over the past five years, he noted, the Philippines and China have opened a new era of their comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship.

In the face of the pandemic, the Philippines-China friendship has withstood the test, with bilateral economic cooperation growing despite the challenges, which offers a good illustration of the saying that "a friend in need is a friend indeed," he said.

He added that the Philippine side appreciates China's contribution to championing global unity against the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks China for providing vaccines and other assistance to the Philippines, and hopes to continue strengthening anti-pandemic cooperation with China.

The Philippines, he said, welcomes more Chinese investment in its planned construction projects, and hopes that bilateral practical cooperation in areas such as infrastructure and agriculture will achieve more results.

Stressing that the Philippines cherishes its friendship with China, he said his country will not engage in geopolitical activities that harm China's interests, and is willing to actively push for sustainable development of the relationship between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Uganda to receive 300,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China

Xinhua) 09:42, August 28, 2021

KAMPALA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's vice-president Jessica Alupo has said that the east African country is set to receive some 300,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China.

Alupo in a tweet on Friday said this new batch of vaccine doses would be donated by the Asian country.

"As government, we applaud this development and our strong bilateral ties with China," Alupo added.

Uganda has already received some 300,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccines from the Chinese government. The country's National Medical Stores on Wednesday said it had started the distribution of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

According to the ministry of health, Uganda expects to receive at least 12.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by early 2022.

The country aims at vaccinating about 22 million people, or nearly half the population, as a measure to put the pandemic at bay.

As of Friday, about 1.35 million doses have been administered since the exercise started in March this year.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Japan's severe COVID-19 patients hits record of 2,000

Xinhua) 10:01, August 28, 2021

TOKYO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Japan's number of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms on Thursday rose to a record of 2,000, reaching a new record for the 15th consecutive day, the health ministry said Friday.

The number of such patients, which includes those who are being treated in intensive care units or are using ventilators, increased by 26 from the previous day. Japan has been battling an alarming rise in daily COVID-19 infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

Japan confirmed more than 24,000 new infections across the country on Friday. According to prefectural governments, Tokyo reported 4,227, Osaka recorded 2,814, Kanagawa logged 2,662, and Aichi marked a record 2,347.

The Japanese government the same day put another eight prefectures, which include Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama, and Hiroshima, under its latest COVID-19 state of emergency. So far, 21 of Japan's 47 prefectures are now under the state of emergency.

The measure that will last until Sept. 12 affects more than 75 percent of the population.

Under the state of emergency, restaurants are asked not to serve alcohol or provide karaoke service, and are instructed to close by 8:00 p.m. local time. Major commercial facilities like department stores are asked to limit the number of customers allowed in at the same time.

Since the anti-COVID-19 measures rely on voluntary public cooperation, some prefectural governors have called for stricter lockdown measures, which would require a new legal framework.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Chinese schools asked to strengthen health monitoring before new semester

Xinhua) 10:21, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Education (MOE) on Friday asked schools to strengthen the health monitoring of their students and faculty members before the beginning of the fall semester.

Schools are not permitted to begin classes if they fail to meet local COVID-19 control standards or if they are not fully prepared for an emergency, the ministry said at a press conference.

Schools in areas that are at high or medium risk for COVID-19 should postpone the start of the new semester.

Students and teachers who have been to high or medium-risk areas should delay their return to school, the MOE said.

Students, faculty members and other staff of higher education institutions are required to show negative results of nucleic acid tests taken within 48 hours of their return from vacation, it said.

A COVID-19 control plan for schools that was recently issued by the MOE and the National Health Commission has required students at higher education institutions to wear masks on campus.

Primary and middle school students in low-risk areas and children in kindergartens do not have to wear masks in class, the document said.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
Turkish president condemns terror attacks in Afghanistan

Xinhua) 10:25, August 28, 2021

ISTANBUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned on Friday the terror attacks that hit Afghanistan's capital Kabul, killing more than 100 people.

"Yesterday's attack showed once again how dangerous and unhuman the Daesh terror organization is in the region and the world," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, using the Arabic acronym to refer to the Islamic State.

The president also said a Turkish official had a meeting that lasted 3.5 hours with the Taliban in Turkey's Kabul embassy, and talks could be held again if needed.

Erdogan said the Taliban invited Turkey to run Kabul International Airport but Ankara has yet to decide due to security concerns.

"Turkey's current priority is evacuating Turkish citizens and the Turkish troops serving in Afghanistan," he added.

Speaking before departing to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, Erdogan also highlighted the growing threat of migrants from Afghanistan to Turkey, noting that Turkey has been boosting measures along its border.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
China to further release national metal reserves

Xinhua) 10:28, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's state reserves authority said Friday that the country would release the third batch of national reserves of copper, aluminum, and zinc this year.

Some 30,000 tonnes of copper, 70,000 tonnes of aluminum, and 50,000 tonnes of zinc will be released from the national reserves in early September, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration announced.

Only processing and manufacturing enterprises of copper, aluminum, and zinc will be eligible to bid, and the purchased metal shall be used for production promptly. It shall not be resold or hoarded, said the administration.

Since the beginning of this year, bulk commodity prices have surged due to factors including the overseas spreading of COVID-19 and the imbalances of supply and demand, causing pressures on medium and small firms.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
China donates anti-pandemic supplies to Myanmar border regions

Xinhua) 10:51, August 28, 2021

KUNMING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony Friday in Tengchong, southwest China's Yunnan Province, to donate COVID-19 prevention medical supplies to Myanmar border regions, including Kachin and Shan states.

After the ceremony, the first batch of anti-pandemic materials for Kachin State, worth more than 1.55 million yuan (about 239,781 U.S. dollars), arrived in Myanmar via Houqiao Port in Tengchong.

The supplies include protective and surgical masks, disposable protective suits, hand sanitizer gel, thermal scanners, and portable oxygen generators.

Thaw Tar Aung, consul general of Myanmar in Kunming, accepted the donations and thanked China for its support for the Myanmar government's fight against COVID-19. The consul general said it reflected the traditional friendship between the two countries and made the concept of a China-Myanmar community with a shared future more popular.

According to the foreign affairs office of Yunnan Province, the governments of the border regions of China and Myanmar have cooperated and supported each other in fighting the pandemic, including establishing a joint prevention and control mechanism to curb the cross-border spread of the virus.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
China, Kyrgyzstan to boost cooperation in fight against COVID-19

Xinhua) 14:28, August 28, 2021

BISHKEK, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China will strengthen cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in the joint fight against COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese embassy said in a press release on Friday.

Chinese Ambassador Du Dewen met with Deputy Chairwoman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Zhyldyz Bakashova on Friday, according to the press release.

The ambassador emphasized that in the joint fight against COVID-19, China and Kyrgyzstan, adhering to the spirit of good neighborliness, always provides each other with support and assistance.

She noted that in order to support Kyrgyzstan in countering the pandemic, the Chinese government decided to provide Kyrgyzstan with a new batch of Chinese vaccines.

Bakashova, on behalf of the government of Kyrgyzstan, thanked the Chinese government.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, China has continued to provide assistance to Kyrgyzstan, which makes a significant contribution to its fight against COVID-19, said Bakashova.

"The decision of the Chinese government to provide Kyrgyzstan with a new batch of vaccines once again reflects the fraternal friendship between the peoples of the two countries," Bakashova said.

The government and people of Kyrgyzstan will always remember the tremendous support and assistance provided by the government and the people of China, she added.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
U.S. intelligence COVID origins probe "not scientifically credible," only for scapegoating China

Xinhua) 15:12, August 28, 2021

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The report on COVID-19 origins by the U.S. intelligence community "has not produced an exact answer the U.S. side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science," said the Chinese embassy in the United States on Friday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States Friday released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

The Chinese side "expresses its firm opposition and strong condemnation" of the report and the White House statement issued on the same day which "also purported that China tries to hold back international investigation and rejects calls for transparency. It urges like-minded partners to exert pressure on China," said the embassy in a statement.

NEW "MASTERPIECES" OF U.S. INTELLIGENCE FABRICATION

"A report fabricated by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible," the embassy said, adding that the origins tracing is a matter of science and "it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts."

The embassy noted the U.S. intelligence community had produced some known "masterpieces", such as using a tube of laundry powder to convict Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, or staging the "white helmets" video as evidence for launching a chemical weapon attack in Syria.

"Now, the U.S. side is using its old trick again. Ignoring the Report by the WHO-China joint mission, it chooses to have its intelligence community put together a report instead. How can this possibly be science-based and reliable origins tracing?"

The U.S. accusation of a lack of transparency on the part of China is "only an excuse for its politicizing and stigmatizing campaign," said the embassy.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken "an open, transparent and responsible attitude," said the embassy. "We have released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time."

On Dec. 27, 2019, Wuhan authorities made the first reporting of suspected cases. On Dec. 30, emergency notices were issued on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause. On Dec. 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On Jan. 3, 2020, China began sending regular updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO and other countries, including the United States.

On origins tracing, China has taken a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach. Being the first country to cooperate with the WHO on global origins tracing, China has twice invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations in China.

"We were completely open, transparent and cooperative when the experts were in China. They visited every site on their list, met every individual they asked for, and were provided with all the data they wanted," said the embassy, adding the formulation of the Report of the WHO-China joint mission issued on March 30, 2021 followed WHO procedures and adopted a scientific approach.

"It is authoritative and science-based. The openness and transparency China has displayed has won full recognition from international experts," it said.

The embassy said the report by the U.S. intelligence community shows that the U.S. is "bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation." The United States has registered the most infections and death cases from COVID-19 in the world, and the American people have paid a heavy price.

STOP SLINGING MUD AT OTHERS

"The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China," it said. "Such a practice will only disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origins tracing and on fighting the pandemic, and has been widely opposed by the international community."

Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, firmly opposing politicization of origins tracing. "Doesn't the U.S. side feel it necessary to listen to what they have to say?" said the embassy.

Moreover, Washington has been "shying away from tracing the origins in the United States and closing the door on any such possibility," the embassy said.

"If the U.S. side is 'transparent and responsible', it should make public and examine the data of its early cases," it said, noting the timeline of the outbreak in the United States has been revised to earlier dates several times.

In at least five American states, there had been infections before the first confirmed case in the United States was announced. According to a latest coverage by American media, the first COVID-19 death in the country was in early January 2020, several weeks earlier than the date previously announced by the authorities, which was early February.

Wuhan Institute of Virology has received two visits from WHO experts and the WHO-China joint study report has reached the clear conclusion that introduction through a lab accident in Wuhan is "extremely unlikely."

If the United States insists on the lab leak theory, it is necessary for the U.S. side to invite WHO experts to Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC) for investigation, said the embassy.

Fort Detrick has long been engaged in coronavirus research and modification. After its shutdown in 2019 because of serious safety incidents, disease with symptoms similar to COVID-19 broke out in the United States.

The team of Professor Ralph Baric at UNC possesses extremely mature capability in synthesizing and modifying coronavirus. From January 2015 to June 2020, the UNC reported to the National Institutes of Health 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered organisms. Six of them involved coronaviruses including SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2.

"However, instead of finding out what happened in its own labs first, the United States keeps slinging mud at others," said the embassy.

"China's position on global origins tracing is consistent and clear. This is a matter of science. China always supports and will continue to participate in science-based origins tracing," it said.

"What we are against is political manipulation, presumption of guilt and putting blame on others. Any Phase II origins study must be a comprehensive extension of Phase I and conducted in multiple places and countries to find out the truth," said the embassy.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
Why China-Africa relations continue to thrive during the pandemic

Xinhua) 15:22, August 28, 2021

ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China and Africa have shown the world how a bilateral relationship can continue to thrive despite a raging pandemic.

Ever since the outbreak of the pandemic, China and Africa have supported one another with good faith, further enriching their brotherhood.

When China struggled to contain the pandemic within its borders, leaders of more than 50 African countries offered their sympathy and provided support to China's battle against the virus. Later, China also proved a reliable friend in deed who honors its pledges of support to an Africa in need.

In solidarity with the African people's fight against the pandemic, China delivered countless batches of urgently-needed medical supplies, sent over teams of medical experts, and shared its own anti-pandemic experience.

China continues to offer help as the African continent is racing against time to meet a minimum target of at least 60 percent of COVID-19 vaccine immunization -- the continent's entire adult population -- by the end of 2022.

To fulfill its commitment to making COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, China has provided and will continue to provide vaccines to more than 30 African countries. It has furthermore been assisting Africa in producing COVID-19 vaccines, offering technology and expertise.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more than once spoken highly of Chinese vaccines in mitigating the continent's vaccination gap.

The two sides' joint commitment to cementing an existing partnership to realize Africa's new public health order serves as another shining example of togetherness.

Of all the ongoing efforts China is making to help Africa build its capacity locally is the state-of-the-art future headquarters of the Africa CDC, which is under construction in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa with Chinese support.

China has also been lending a helping hand to Africa in accelerating its economic recovery.

The African Union recently announced that the pandemic has plunged the continent into its first recession in 25 years, calling for prioritizing African integration to accelerate its economic revival.

In the face of such hardships, China has signed debt service suspension agreements with, and reduced or waived the interest-free loans for multiple African countries, becoming the biggest player in terms of relieving African debt among the Group of 20. A number of Belt and Road projects remain ongoing across Africa even amid the pandemic.

Chinese enterprises are becoming a significant force in boosting Africa's economic development and improving livelihoods. They have not only actively supported local COVID-19 containment and prevention measures, promoted the resumption of work and daily life, and provided materials, vaccines and technical assistance, but also facilitated trade and investment in Africa.

A special survey by the China-Africa Business Council of nearly 100 key Chinese private enterprises from June to July this year found their proportion of reinvestment in Africa to be around 30 percent.

No one is safe until all are safe. Taking this grain of truth to heart, China has also been calling on the rest of the world to support Africa's anti-pandemic fight.

"We must provide greater support for Africa," Chinese President Xi Jinping said last year when addressing the opening of the 73rd session of the World Health Assembly via video link. He later reiterated this call on various bilateral and multilateral occasions.

An opinion article published by Zimbabwean newspaper Herald in late August noted that "global solidarity is key in fighting the disease," adding that "for countries in Africa, there is further cause to actually look towards China for solutions to this pandemic."

Indeed, what China and Africa have done together during the pandemic testifies to their determination to build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future, and has become living proof of the importance of unity in the face of global challenges. Expect more stellar outcomes to emerge in the future.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
Annual horse racing event held in China's Tibet

Xinhua) 15:31, August 28, 2021

A rider competes during a horse race in Gangdan Village of Gonggar County, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Aug. 26, 2021. An annual horse racing event was held here on Thursday to celebrate the upcoming harvest season. (Xinhua/Purbu Zhaxi)

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Interview: Politicization of COVID-19 origins probe damages global cooperation, says U.S. expert

Xinhua) 15:33, August 28, 2021

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The investigation of the origins of COVID-19 should be dealt with solely by scientists and any politicization of this issue is deeply regretted and damaging global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, said a renowned U.S. scholar.

"SORT OF POLITICAL RAKING UP"

"The (COVID) origins inquiry...should be left to the scientists to do, and it will take time to come to a conclusion on that," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua in an interview.

"But a lot of the evidence will be hard to sift through if it is not done during the early stages. So there should not be any interruptions and this sort of political raking up of issues stalls the issues at the scientists," Gupta said of the U.S. intelligence community's probe of the origins of the virus.

The U.S. intelligence community reached an inconclusive assessment about the origins of the virus following a 90-day investigation ordered by President Joe Biden, according to an unclassified summary of the probe released on Friday.

The report which "tends to give an equivalence to all the various theories" is "in my view very unfair" and will be remembered as "something negative," he said.

MAINTAINING NARRATIVES TO BLACKEN CHINA

By doing this, the United States is "trying to maintain those two big narratives" as it first proposed that China was not transparent about the origins of the virus and was not quick enough to deal with and inform the global community about the virus, said Gupta.

"The whole purpose is to blacken China on the COVID-19 in some way. And that is how it has played out in the U.S. media with U.S. political leaders, giving oxygen to this argument, and considering the power of Western media that will de facto hover above us in some way, shape or form, even down the line," he said.

"They will try to stick that in our images, in our head. And so that itself is a challenge for China to deal with considering the power of the Western media," Gupta said.

The expert noted that "unfortunately there has been so much politics" with regard to the fight against COVID-19 starting from origins of the virus to masks and vaccination, and so on.

GLOBAL WHOLE-SCALE ROUTE NEEDED

"Now what we are in fact having is a lack of political will to actually come together to deal with COVID-19. And the origins issue has hurt the political space to cooperate at a multilateral level and to deepen multilateral cooperation on global public health," said Gupta.

"We should have been thinking of a whole-scale route and brand-changing in how global public health is dealt with at the multilateral level. There has just not been that political foundation and political momentum to do it because so much of it has been spent in bickering about origins from a very politicized angle," he said.

"I think in the long run that will hurt us as a global community of not being able to create that institutional infrastructure to tackle these sorts of pandemics in the future," he said.

"There will be many more of these, and we know the extent of the damage it has created, not just in terms of human life, but also in terms of economic dislocation ... that is why any politicization of this issue is deeply regretted," said Gupta.

"I think the origins inquiry, which will take time, must allow to be proceeded on its own steam," he said, adding that the task "has been dealt with by scientists and should be dealt with solely by scientists."

CHINA'S RESPONSE "INCREDIBLY COMMENDABLE"

Gupta said what China has done in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is "incredibly commendable."

China's COVID response "has preserved human life. And I think it will, in the longer run, be a case study of how you deal with viruses," he said. "China has the global public health case study which will be written for posterity on how it needs to be followed."

"I think East Asia broadly, and China specifically, have done a great job. And this is really the model of how pandemics need to be dealt with in the future," he said.

(Web editor: Du Mingming, Liang Jun)
Commentary: U.S. attempt to pressure China by politicizing COVID-19 origins-tracing doomed to fail

Xinhua) 17:56, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States is playing its old trick again by releasing a so-called summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, under the delusion that it can hamper China by politicizing COVID-19 origins-tracing.

The summary, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States on Friday, does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident, and blatantly claims that China "continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries."

Obviously, the "report" concocted by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible. As a matter of science, the origins-tracing should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts.

The assertion of lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for the U.S. politicizing and stigmatizing campaign. China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude since COVID-19 cases were reported in the city of Wuhan.

As the first to cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) on global origins-tracing, China has invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations twice in the country. The openness and transparency China has displayed have won full recognition from international experts.

The joint study report of the scientists of the WHO and China, which was released earlier this year after two joint study missions in the country, has reached the conclusion that introduction through a lab accident in Wuhan is "extremely unlikely". The United States, however, has chosen to ignore this finding.

The U.S. intelligence community's "report" is based on a presumption of guilt on the part of China, seeking to scapegoat China for the U.S. side's failure to effectively protect its citizens from the virus.

With its rich medical resources, the United States has, however, registered the most infections and death cases from COVID-19 across the globe.

The U.S. side has been shying away from tracing the virus origins at home and closing the door on any such possibility. If the U.S. side insists on the lab leak theory, it should invite WHO experts to investigate military bio-lab Fort Detrick.

If the U.S. side is "transparent and responsible," it should make public the data of its early cases and examine it to find out what happened on its turf first, instead of continually slinging mud at others.

China stands a clear-cut position on global origins-tracing: this is a matter of science. And any attempt to pressure China by politicizing COVID-19 origins-tracing is doomed to fail.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
Xi stresses high-quality development of Party's work on ethnic affairs

Xinhua) 17:58, August 28, 2021

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has stressed consolidating the sense of community for the Chinese nation and unswervingly taking the correct approaches with Chinese characteristics to handling ethnic affairs when he addressed the central conference on ethnic affairs.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for promoting high-quality development of the Party's work on ethnic affairs in the new era.

The conference, held in Beijing on Friday and Saturday, was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng, while Wang Yang made concluding remarks.

(Web editor: Liang Jun, Du Mingming)
The Luxury Venture Group (LVG) announces Bulgaris Jean-Christophe Babin as the President of the Jury of the Luxury Innovation Awards 2021. The Awards take place at the Luxury Innovation Summit, an in-person and online event, at which Jean-Christophe Babin will deliver a special keynote to young entrepreneurs and leaders in the luxury space.

It is vital for the luxury industry to explore not only the way forward for established brands but how start-ups and young entrepreneurs can build and grow their businesses, says Jean-Christophe Babin, Group CEO, Bulgari. While sales of major and established luxury brands have shown a strong post-pandemic recovery, we must not forget the next generation of luxury, and tomorrows creators, designers, and business leaders. The Luxury Innovation Summit and the Luxury Innovation Awards should be essential for anyone who cares about the future of luxury. I am excited to be involved in the Luxury Innovation Awards 2021 edition as the President of the Jury.

Our own Brice Lechevalier, editor-in-chief of GMT Magazine, will be a member of the jury.

About the Luxury Innovation Awards

The Luxury Innovation Awards celebrate and showcase emerging brands and companies developing innovative solutions and products for the luxury world. We invite award submissions from all over the world. The winners and finalists would receive visibility and possible investments from the Luxury Venture Group and its network. The 2020 edition of the Awards saw 149 entries from 34 countries.

The award premiere is scheduled for 21 October 2021 at 15:30 CET at the Luxury Innovation Summit in Geneva and the award show will also be live-streamed. The second edition of the Luxury Innovation Awards will recognise 6 winners of the competition. One winner will be selected from each of the following six categories:

 Art and Culture;

 Watches, Jewellery, and Accessories;

 Fashion and Design;

 Lifestyle, Beauty and Travel;

 Responsibility and Sustainability;

 Technology, AI, Space, Data and Marketplace

About the Luxury Innovation Summit

The Luxury Innovation Summit is a business conference and networking event aimed at start-ups, established brands and houses, investors, industry observers, and creative figures from the global luxury community. Speakers include brand CEOs, Creative Directors, Industry Commentators, and Innovators.

Meeting safely and securely

The physical experience at the Luxury Innovation Summit is being designed with a health and safety front of mind. In-person attendance at the Summit and all associated social events is being organized following all relevant international and national guidelines relating to physical meetings and COVID-19. According to the latest development of the COVID-19 situation and to meet the hygiene guidelines from the Swiss government at that time, the agenda and format may be adopted. Attendance of the Luxury Innovation Summit is possible both in-person as well as digitally, with added flexibility.

About the Luxury Venture Group

The Luxury Venture Group (LVG) is a Swiss-based venture capital company focused on venture capital investment in startups from the luxury industry. Initiated in 2019, the LVG aims to establish itself as a world leader in venture capital investment for startups from the luxury and related industries. With the carefully selected and most promising startups from the industry, LVG uses the full power of its unique ecosystem to support its portfolio companies in their journey towards success. LVGs network helps these startups grow and make them investment-ready for Series A and beyond and provides them with new investors / co-investors all along with the fund-raising phases.
By Wen Weiru

Japan Ground Self Defense Force (JGSDF) members are conducting fast-roping training

Japan has made frequent military moves recently, not only forming several new forces, increasing its defense budget by a large margin in the new fiscal year, but also stepping up the purchase and R&D of sophisticated weapons and equipment, in the undisguised endeavor to reinforce its combat forces and capabilities. Yet on August 15, the anniversary of Japans surrender in WWII, Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga was still claiming Japan has consistently walked a path of a country that values peace , arousing intense condemnation from the public.

Japan is busy forming new forces

Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun reported on August 22 that the JGSDF made a budget proposal to the Defense Ministry for ship building. It planned to buy a mid-size vessel with the displacement of 1,800t and a number of small ones with the displacement of 420t, which seemed to prove that the formation of a maritime transport force, as previously announced by the Japanese government, has come to the substantial stage.

The Japanese Defense Ministry is also busy forming and replenishing several other forces, with the cross-over Space Operation Squadron, Cyber Defense Group and electronic warfare unit drawing special attention.

First of all, the Space Operation Squadron is an important base for Japan to build its space combat force. Recently, the Japanese Defense Ministry is stepping up efforts to form a space operation command and control force in charge of the squadron. It has also set up an office in charge of space affairs under the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency, which is tasked with promoting projects related to space warfare.

Second, the Defense Ministry is moving fast to form the Cyber Defense Group. Apart from integrating and reorganizing the former cyber operation forces, it has set a new position of cyber security advisor and plans to recruit top hackers from across the country to help the group grasp the latest cyber technologies and developments.

Third, the JGSDF is pushing the formation of a new electronic warfare unit and will create an Electronic Warfare Command and develop electromagnetic combat capabilities based on three electronic warfare forces.

Moreover, the Defense Ministry is also expanding the marine force, a Japanese version of marine corps, and preparing for the 3rd marine mobile troops (regiment-level) besides the current two, which will drive the total number of its marine mobile troops to 3,000 by 2024. The marine mobile troops will carry out marine maneuvers and operations, amphibious assaults, air attacks, and other combat tasks.

Clamoring to be a country "values peace"

To support the formation of new forces and equip them with necessary weapons and equipment, the Japanese Defense Ministry once again increased the 2022 defense budget dramatically to develop aggressive weapons.

The series of moves indicate that Japan is reinforcing the JSDFs combat structure and capabilities as planned, and is taking ever faster steps toward its so-called goal, which has seriously bloated many right-wingers confidence. On August 15, 2021, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun published a commentary saying that Japan needs to develop its military capabilities targeted at rivals and threats. That sounded like Japans real stance in the military sector.

Ironically, while several officials of the Japanese Cabinet visited the Yasukuni Shrine and Yoshihide Suga also paid tribute in the capacity of president of the Liberal Democratic Party, he, on the very day of August 15, had the nerve to claim that since the end of the war, Japan has consistently walked the path of a country that values peace  and we must never again repeat the devastation of war. We will continue to remain committed to this conviction .

Worshipping the ghosts of militarism and developing military strengths on the one hand and clamoring to value peace on the other, which is the real face of Japan? Does Tokyo think the public is blind? Yes, it claims to value peace, but the world has long learned the lesson that to understand Japans real intention, we should watch what it does rather than hear what it says.
At least 90 Afghans died in the attack, according to the Afghan news agency Pajhwok. Including the 13 American servicemen, more than 100 people were killed. Eighteen injured American military personnel were being evacuated from Afghanistan on specially equipped C-17s with surgical units, according to Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command. A gun battle occurred after the bombings, U.S. General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said during a Pentagon news briefing .

Biden said he had ordered commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities, saying, "We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing." Shortly after the president's remark, the White House press secretary amplified his message: "We will hunt down these terrorists and kill them wherever they are."

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in a report on its news agency's Telegram channel, hours after suicide bombers had struck two locations along the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport: near the Abbey Gate and outside a nearby hotel. A regional offshoot of Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, has been blamed for the attacks.

"To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive," Biden said in a nationally broadcast address. "We will hunt you down and make you pay."

U.S. President Joe Biden is vowing vengeance on those responsible for Thursday's deadly attacks outside the Kabul airport that killed at least 13 American military personnel and dozens of civilians who had gathered there in hopes of fleeing the Taliban-controlled country.

It was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in a decade. That also made Thursday the most somber day of Biden's 7-month-old presidency, prompting the last-minute postponement of Biden's meeting with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. During the gloomy afternoon, thunder echoed around the White House as a rainstorm enveloped Washington.

The loss of life also intensified political flashpoints around the Democratic president, with several Republican members of Congress immediately issuing statements saying Biden bore personal responsibility and calling for him to resign.

"It's not a day for politics," replied Psaki, when asked about the resignation calls. "And we would expect that any American, whether they're elected or not, would stand with us and our commitment to going after and fighting and killing those terrorists wherever they live, and to honoring the memory of service members."

More than 100,000 people have left Afghanistan on evacuation flights, Biden said Thursday, vowing the evacuations would continue until the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all troops. "We will get Americans out who want to get out," the president said.

Biden and Psaki said there was no evidence, so far, of collusion between the Taliban, which seized control of Kabul nearly two weeks ago, and ISIS in carrying out the attacks. The United Nations and NATO condemned the attacks, as did Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. Speaking about the first blast, a senior Taliban source confirmed to VOA that a suicide bomber had blown himself up in an area holding a large number of people.

The explosions came hours after Western governments had warned of the threat of a terror attack at the airport and said those gathered in the area should move to a safe location. "The overall sense of mission is focused right now at the [passenger] terminal. Lots of Marines and consular officers cared deeply about the Afghans we were helping," said a U.S. State Department official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity. The U.S. is "trying to carry on with the mission ahead while knowing our security is severely compromised," the official said. "Attacks occurred right at our shift change; otherwise, consular officers might have been casualties, too."

Many of those wounded Thursday arrived at Kabul's Emergency Hospital, run by an international nongovernmental organization that treats victims of war and landmines. Afghan news channels tweeted pictures of civilians transporting their wounded in wheelbarrows.

Pakistan officials have asked that beginning Friday, hotels across the capital, Islamabad, cancel reservations and keep all rooms at the government's disposal for at least three weeks to accommodate the thousands of foreigners being urgently evacuated from Afghanistan.

Biden on Thursday issued a proclamation lowering U.S. flags across the country through Aug. 30 "as a mark of respect for the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack." Minutes later, the flag above the White House was lowered to half-staff.
UN agencies are appealing for nearly US$300 million in preparation for the possible exodus of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, seeking safety and protection from conflict and persecution under Taliban rule.

The UN refugee agency and partners are planning for what they call a worst-case scenario of more than 515,000 newly displaced refugees fleeing to countries neighboring Afghanistan.

UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Kelly Clements says preparations are underway to assist host governments in the region with financial and material support to care for a large influx of refugees.

She says discussions with national authorities are underway on scaling up the humanitarian response. She notes the proposed regional response plan is a critical part of that process.

"While we have not seen large outflows of Afghans at this point, the situation inside Afghanistan has evolved more rapidly than anyone expected. We need therefore to be prepared for any number of eventualities. That takes resources, preparation and a reasonable amount of lead time," Clements said.
Children of neighboring countries maintain friendship through art

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-08-28 15:27

When spring comes after COVID-19 ends, we will grow taller, and our hearts will be full of flowers. Lets follow the prevention rules and protect ourselves from the epidemic, so that we can meet each other with a healthy body, a South Korean child said in front of the camera, at the opening ceremony of the ninth China-Japan-Korea Childrens Painting Exhibition on August 28.

Participants in the painting exhibition attended the ceremony through a video conference held between Shanghai, Fukuoka and Busan.

In her speech, a fifth-grader from Japan said that she believes that painting gives people positive energy and expands ones mind. Having been painting since the age of three, she hopes to create empowering artworks. A South Korean girl in traditional South Korean costume invited everyone to come together and paint when the pandemic is over. A Shanghai boy also offered his invitation: You are welcome to come to Shanghai and I will be your guide. I will take you sightseeing along the Huangpu River and you can try a local delicacy: steamed buns with crab meat.

Children from China, Japan and South Korea also impressed the audience with their lovely performances. South Korean children wanted to cheer up everyone through music and singing. Kids from a Japanese kindergarten played the drums, and Chinese children displayed their talent in musical instruments and traditional handicrafts.



They also expressed their wishes for the post-pandemic era.

(Young artists send gifts to Consuls of Japan and South Korea in Shanghai)



Since 2013, the China-Japan-Korea Childrens Painting Exhibition has attracted thousands of child participants. This year, 300 paintings have been selected to be displayed both online and offline. Shanghai and Busan will exhibit the artworks to the public in the next two months.

(Scan to see the online exhibition)



Hosted by the Shanghai Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (SPAFFC), the Japanese social education group Bellpo Organization, and the South Korean Busan Foundation for International Cooperation, the event was organized by the Childrens Palace of the China Welfare Institute, with Eastday.com offering media support.

(Photos/Guo Shenglin)


A nurse does rounds to check on coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa on Monday, July 13, 2020. MIKALA COMPTON | Herald-Zeitung
Yosemite National Park plays a significant role in the imagination, culture, and history of California and the United States. It is a land of contrasts, with its thundering waterfalls, soaring granite cliffs, serene meadows, and the largest trees on earth. Yosemite is also a wellspring of human aspiration. It is the birthplace of the national park movement, a muse for writers, painters, and photographers, and a natural resource that has fueled the growth of California and the Western United States. Our goal with Yosemite: Then and Now is to tell the parks story by matching beautiful and fascinating archival photographs with photos from today. Join us as we reveal the hidden history of familiar locations. The galleries of this collection are set up thematically and mostly chronologically, from the earliest explorers in the 1850s to mask-wearing tourists visiting in 2020. Click on the titles below to go to each gallery. And please check back periodically as we are building this collection over time. Explorers and Recorders After the Mariposa Battalion became the first known European Americans to enter Yosemite Valley in 1851, doors opened for intrepid tourists and promoters to exploit the extraordinary natural wonder of Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Painters and photographers like Thomas Ayres, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, Charles Leander Weed, and Carleton Watkins provided imagery as evidence needed for Congress and President Lincoln to establish the original Yosemite Grant in 1864. Promoters Walworth and Hite, James Hutchings, and George Leidig found the imagery useful to encourage visitation to the newly protected lands. Early Tourism  Lodging and Preservation Promoters established rough accommodations as early as 1857 to house tourists and scientists, such as Clarence King and Charles Hoffmann of the Geological Survey of California. The state of California built the Stoneman House in 1887 in an attempt to provide finer accommodations than previously afforded. John Degnan and his wife established a bakery in 1884 that eventually became the store and restaurant present today. The Currys, former teachers who provided camping tours during their summer vacation, arrived in 1899. Their venture evolved into the Curry Village of today. Early Tourism - Roads and Trails For tourists to get to Yosemite before the automobile, they sailed from San Francisco to Stockton, boarded a stage for a rough, dusty ride to Mariposa or Coulterville, then rode with their luggage up various horse trails. The Mann Toll Horse Trail opened in 1856. Riders traveled 45 miles from Mariposa to Wawona, then followed old Indian routes into the valley floor near Bridalveil Fall. There are now roughly 800 miles of trail in Yosemite. John Conway, described by John Muir as the master trail builder of the Valley, configured the Yosemite Falls Trail with its 60 switchbacks, the Chilnualna Falls Trail near Wawona, and the Four Mile Trail from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point. Roosevelt, Muir, and the Grace of Place In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Yosemite and was guided by naturalist John Muir. The two men spent three memorable nights camping first under the outstretched arms of the Grizzly Giant in the Mariposa Grove, then in a snowstorm atop five feet of snow near Sentinel Dome, and finally in a meadow near the base of Bridalveil Falls. Their conversations and shared joy with the beauty and magnificence of Yosemite led Roosevelt to expand federal protection of Yosemite, and it inspired him to sign into existence five national parks, 18 national monuments, 55 national bird sanctuaries and wildlife refuges, and 150 national forests. Encroaching Civilization - Dams and Trains Californias growth after the gold rush and the completion of the transcontinental railway accelerated demand for natural resources from the Sierra Nevada mountains. The city of San Francisco, in particular, reached into the Sierra initially for wood to house its expanding population. After the 1906 earthquake and fire exposed the vulnerability of the citys water supply, San Francisco moved aggressively to tap the fresh water flowing from Yosemites highest alpine peaks through the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Encroaching Civilization - Visitor Activities As the population grew and word of Yosemites magnificence spread, tourists came from across the globe to see its wonders for themselves. Tunnels were carved through giant sequoias. Politicians, artists, Olympians, soldiers, and everyday travelers made the pilgrimage to pose in front of the grand waterfalls and granite vistas. Encroaching Civilization - Visitor Services To accommodate the rapidly expanding number of visitors, infrastructure was built to service and house them. A variety of lodging was established from the rugged tent cabins of Camp Curry to the stately grandeur of The Ahwahnee. Sensitive meadow habitats were paved and trees removed for roads, parking lots, stores, restaurants, and ski runs. Even some hiking trails were paved. Encroaching Civilization - Transportation The first automobile bumped its way into Yosemite Valley in 1900, dramatically expanding access for tourists. Roads were improved, Tioga Pass opened to cars in 1919, and in the same year, the first aeroplane landed in the Valley. Highway 140 opened in 1927 providing all-year access to the park through the Merced River canyon. Visitation increased from about 5,500 in 1906 when Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove were incorporated into Yosemite National Park, to 210,000 visitors in 1925, to 490,000 in 1927 after Highway 140 opened, to over a million in 1960, two million in 1970, three million in 1987, and four million in 1996. Visitation reached a high of 5.2 million in 2016. Paintings of Yosemite Artists have been drawn to capture the magnificence of Yosemite since humans first set foot on the land, from the American Indian basketweavers to the plein air artists of today. They paint the grandeur of the massive granite cliffs and thundering waterfalls as well as the constantly shifting incandescence of this graceful land. In this section, we attempt to provide a perspective on the artists eye, to see what they see. Photographers Note: To photograph some of these artists views, it required lengthy and rugged hikes, carrying only a camera and tripod. Imagine doing a similar hike, without a trail, carrying a canvas, easel, and painting supplies, dealing with wind, blowing dust, and insects.
Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

A steady rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 59F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected..

Tonight

A steady rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 59F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected.
Woburn, MA (01801)

Today

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Low around 60F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Low around 60F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected.
Scottsboro High School principal Brad Dudley (left), assistant principal Scott Hodges (middle) and band director Jimmy Leek (right) wearing their masks in school Thursday after a mask mandate was passed on Wednesday. The mandate is in effect until Sept. 2, where it will be voted to either extend or end.
Jussie Smollett will not be allowed to call the Chicago prosecutor who dropped his alleged hoax charges as a witness in his case.

The 39-year-old actor was issued with a 16-count felony indictment for filing a false police report after he claimed he was the victim of a shocking racist and homophobic attack in Chicago in 2019, as it was alleged he knew two men investigated over the incident and claims were made that he had staged the attack.

Jussies initial charges were dropped by Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxxs office in the same month they were filed, but in February 2020 he was indicted once again for allegedly staging the attack.

And on Thursday (26.08.21) a judge in his case ruled the former Empire star would not be allowed to call the prosecutor who dropped the first case as a witness in the new one.

Jussies legal team also cannot mention various lawsuits linked to his case, although they can tell jurors about an AR-15 and other guns that were discovered after police searched the home of the two brothers - Abel and Ola Osundario - who allegedly attacked the actor.

As of the time of writing, no trial date has been set.

Meanwhile, Jussie said last year he wished he could "yell from the rooftop" about his ongoing criminal case with the city of Chicago.

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Addressing the case on Instagram Live, Jussie explained: "It's been beyond frustrating because to be somebody that's so outspoken ... it's been difficult to be so quiet.

"To not be able to say all of the things that you want to say, to not be able to yell from the rooftop.

Despite maintaining his innocence, Jussie isn't feeling optimistic about his case, saying the city of Chicago "won't let this go".

The actor also fears the court could seek to make an "example" of him.

Jussie said: "They won't let this go. It doesn't matter. There is an example being made.

"And the sad thing is that there's an example being made of someone that did not do what they're being accused of."
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Harrisburg, Pa.  Its a throwback to the hardball politics of the Capitols past: a powerful legislative leader stripping one of his colleagues of staff, committee assignments  and, ultimately, status.

The ongoing story of the explosive yet still mysterious feud between Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R., Centre) and state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) over how to conduct a forensic audit of last years election in Pennsylvania has been making headlines nationally since it burst into public view last week.

But underlying that story is a lesser-known one about far-reaching powers that come with being in one of the top legislative leadership posts in Pennsylvania.

At the start of every session, legislators in the Democratic and Republican caucuses in both chambers gather behind closed doors to elect a slate of leaders. In doing so, rank-and-file lawmakers hand them the reins to the millions of dollars that the legislature gets to spend every year  and all the perks that flow from there.

If a lawmaker wants to hire someone to staff their Capitol office, they have to get the blessing of their caucus leaders. If they want a specific committee assignment, more money to operate their district offices, or to work with an outside spokesperson, consultant, or lawyer? They have to run it up the ladder.

And though any representative or senator can author legislation, its the leaders who ultimately decide which legislative committees to assign bills to and whether to bring them up for a floor vote.

"The legislature is a feudal system, said Eric Epstein, co-founder of the nonpartisan good-government group Rock the Capital. Caucus leaders are powerful despots who lord over the rank-and-file like serfs on the manor.

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Epstein joked, Most legislators cant go to the bathroom without permission.

In the Senate Republican caucus, where Corman holds the top leadership post, staffers who work in the Capitol  including those assigned to individual legislators  officially work for the caucus, and can be yanked and reassigned at the top leaders whim.

That is what happened last week when Corman took away Mastrianos staff. Corman also removed Mastriano from his chairmanship of the legislative committee that was pursuing the forensic audit. Corman gave few details about his decision, saying only that Mastriano was more concerned with grandstanding, and had failed to get the job done.

Though Mastriano and his supporters cried foul  countering that it was Corman who had tried to obstruct the audit work at every turn  he ultimately had little recourse.

It was a power move that hasnt been seen in more than 15 years. According to interviews with current and former legislators and staffers, those types of actions were far more common in the 1980s and 1990s  and were almost always perceived as punitive.

One of the last times it happened was in 2005, during a politically volatile time in the Capitol. The legislature had just approved a controversial legislative pay raise in the middle of the night.

In the politically tumultuous days that followed, the Houses then-Democratic leader, Bill DeWeese, removed 15 members from committee leadership posts who had voted against the pay raise  a move widely viewed at the time as punishment for not falling in line with leadership.

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(The Center Square) Billions of available federal dollars for rental assistance remain in limbo after the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time rejected President Joe Bidens plans to perpetuate a federal eviction moratorium without Congressional approval.

"If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it," the court ruled in a 6-3 decision late Thursday, with the court's three liberal justices dissenting.

Sidestepping the court's first ruling, which said the executive branch did not have the authority alone to issue the sweeping moratorium, the Biden administration continued the eviction moratorium through a modified U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) edict.

Despite its earlier decision, the high court left the first moratorium in place because it was set to expire. The Biden administration's latest moratorium, though, has also been ruled unconstitutional.

"Congress was on notice that a further extension would almost surely require new legislation, yet it failed to act in the several weeks leading up to the moratorium's expiration," the court wrote in the unsigned opinion. It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened. Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.

When the first moratorium expired this year, Biden cast doubt on his ability to do anything about it because of the high courts ruling. However, after facing political pressure, Biden signed off on a slightly more limited moratorium.

The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that its not likely to pass Constitutional muster, Biden said earlier this month, before signing off on the new moratorium the following day.

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Landlords have argued the moratorium put an undue financial burden on them.

About half of all housing providers are mom-and-pop operators, and without rental income, they cannot pay their own bills or maintain their properties, National Association of Realtors President Charlie Oppler said. NAR has always advocated the best solution for all parties was rental assistance paid directly to housing providers to cover the rent and utilities of any vulnerable tenants during the pandemic. No housing provider wants to evict a tenant and considers it only as a last resort.

Critics have pointed out that much of the billions of dollars allocated by the federal government for rental assistance sits in state coffers, unspent because of red tape and bureaucracy.

For example, recent reporting found that in Missouri, the State Assistance for Housing Relief Program (SAFHR), had distributed just 5.2% of the $590 million in funds allocated for federal rental assistance.

This was entirely avoidable, especially if the Administration properly managed and ensured the rental assistance Congress had already passed was sent to people who needed it, said Rep. Cathay McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. President Biden said himself extending the unlawful eviction moratorium was not likely to pass constitutional muster. Now, as predicted, we have more uncertainty and confusion. Its because of the administrations mismanagement and disregard for the rule of law.

Rodgers went on to suggest a solution.

Financial Services Committee Republican Leader Patrick McHenry and I continue to urge Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to work with us on H.R. 3913, the Renter Protection Act to ensure help gets into the hands of the renters who are most in need, she said. We sent a letter with our committee colleagues to Speaker Pelosi weeks ago urging her to take action in a bipartisan way to help both renters and property owners across the country who face eviction and the loss of their livelihoods. No one wants to see people lose their homes and the lives theyve built, and another unconstitutional moratorium is clearly not the answer.
AUBURN  After serving in the Indiana legislature since 1989, Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, will not run for re-election in 2022.

The reason is deeply personal  his wife, Kay.

Shes been suffering with cancer the last couple of years.  She said whatever time she has left here on the earth, she wants to spend it with me, Kruse said at a news conference Aug. 27 in Kruse Plaza south of Auburn, a building co-owned by his son, John.

Kay Kruse watched from the front row of chairs set up for the event, surrounded by other family members.

Weve done the things we wanted to do, including extensive travel in the U.S. and Europe throughout their marriage, Sen. Kruse, 74, said. We are content, staying home in the same house weve been in for 52 years.

Kruses public career will span more than 40 years when he retires at the end of the 2022 legislative session. He began as trustee of Jackson Township in southern DeKalb County from 1982 to 1989, then served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1989 to 2004 and the Indiana Senate since 2004.

Its been my privilege and honor to be able to serve the people here in Allen and DeKalb counties, he said. At times, his legislative districts also included portions of Steuben and LaGrange counties.

Announcing his decision now will give people time to launch their 2022 campaigns for his Senate District 14 seat, Kruse said. The district includes the eastern three-fourths of DeKalb County and most of eastern Allen County.

I have a couple of very good people who I think are going to announce pretty soon that theyre going to run.  I have an inkling there might be more, Kruse said.

Both of the potential candidates he mentioned, East Allen County school board member Ron Turpin and Dr. Tyler Johnson of Parkview DeKalb Hospital, attended Kruses news conference. Afterward, Kruse said he has been meeting for discussions to encourage both men. Turpin announced later Friday that he will declare his candidacy at 10 a.m. Aug. 30 in Leo-Cedarville Town Park.

Turpin and Kruse share a connection. Turpin now serves as chief financial officer and head of civic engagement for Ambassador Enterprises. Kruse was working for its predecessor, Ambassador Steel, in 1989 when state Rep. Orville Moody, R-Angola, died, creating a vacancy that Kruse was elected to fill.

The death of state Sen. Charles Bud Meeks, R-LaGrange, in 2004 led to Kruses election to fill the Senate District 14 seat. It took four ballots for a Republican caucus to select Kruse over four rivals.

Since joining the Senate, Kruse has been re-elected four times with no opposition in either the primary or general elections. He faced only three opponents  in 1992, 1996 and 1998  during his years in the Indiana House.

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I appreciate the people putting their trust in me all these years. Its been a humbling experience, he said.

Kruse began his legislative career as a member of the minority party  with the House speaker often ignoring his attempts to be heard  during 13 of his 15 years in the lower chamber.

In the Senate, Kruse saw Republicans grow from a majority to a supermajority, a change he attributes to southern Indiana flipping from Democratic to Republican.

He served three years as chairman of the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee, then became chairman of the influential Senate Committee on Education and Career Development from 2009-2018, resigning that position at the onset of his wifes health issues.

Kruse said he is proud of passing dozens of bills on education choice and that today, we have one of the best education-choice laws in the nation. When he learned Indiana was rated third-best for its charter school laws, he asked what it would take to rank No. 1 and drove passage of laws to reach that status.

Kruse often championed controversial causes, and Aug. 27 he said he is most proud of pushing for a state constitutional amendment to have marriage be one man and one woman. It was passed and signed into law, but the change required approval in a second year. A U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized same-sex marriage before Indiana legislators could pass the amendment again.

Kruse also authored the contentious Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was passed but later amended to moderate it. He recalled that the world caved in on the Statehouse during debate over the law, which critics said would have legalized discrimination against same-sex couples.

Kruse also introduced a 2013 bill calling for public school students to start each school day by reciting The Lords Prayer. That failed, but in 2019 he succeeded in passing a law that requires Indiana public high schools to administer an exam to students identical to the test for people seeking U.S. citizenship.

Not backing away from social issues, Kruse said in his final year as a senator, he plans to file a bill that would prohibit transgender counseling or surgery for Hoosiers under age 18. He contended that 80% or 90% of adult transgender people believe theyre not ready for that in their life as minors.

While he pushed conservative issues. Ive tried to actually get along with the Democrats in the legislature, Kruse said. I worked with the Democrats constantly in improving our bills and adopted suggestions from the Indiana State Teachers Association, he said.

Ive tried to do what I can to be a good Christian person to everybody in the Legislature  not just my party people, he said.

Kruse added that he is proud that in the Statehouse, I had one of the most aggressive constituent services. He said he helped constituents without asking their party affiliations.

Throughout his career in the Statehouse, Kruse said, he has tried to follow his pledges from his first campaign: To do what is right, the best that I can, and to establish truth in Indiana government. Ive done my best to keep those two premises. The Bible is my premise for establishing what issues match biblical principles.
Watch the Livestream here.

8 p.m.

Sanders entertained questions from the crowd on topics from rising pharmaceutical prices to students getting involved in politics.

If we are successful in our bill, itll be the first time in history that the Senate has stood up to the pharmaceutical industry, Sanders said.

Sanders said a good way for young people to get into politics is by going to local school boards.

You have to go out and talk to other students about what is on their minds, he said. You guys can go together to your local school board. You have the right as students to go to the school board.

You are very important. When you put together a meeting with hundreds of young people, politicians are going to want to listen, Sanders said.

7:40 p.m.

Addressing young people in the audience, Sanders motivated the crowd to take part in their local politics.

Im here to encourage all of you to educate and organize and get people to stand up for their rights, Sanders said.

7:30 p.m.

The final audience count for the event is 2,328, according to Sanders' volunteer team. As Sanders introduces local guests to speak, however, some members of the crowd leave.

7:20 p.m.

Shannon Kang, Purdue student body president and West Lafayette city council member took the stage to talk about the climate crisis.

"I (know) that my passion as a climate activist is essential," she said.

7:00 p.m.

Sanders continues to share his campaign goals, generating cheers from the audience.

The crowd slowly continues to grow as more individuals come to listen to Sanders speak.

6:45 p.m.

Sanders quickly moved to discrimination issues facing the United States.

If we do not allow politicians to divide us up based on the color of our skin or where we were born or our religions or our sexual orientation, Sanders said, If we can stand together I am absolutely certain that not only can we successfully address the crises that we face, but that we can move this country forward in a very different and positive direction.

Unemployment is down by half and wages are going up compared to last year, Sanders said.

We have reduced childhood poverty by over 50 percent. We are giving working families the help they need to raise their families with dignity.

The plane continues to fly overhead in protest, making circles around the venue.

6:38 p.m.

Sanders first began speaking at 6:32 p.m. after having a moment of silence for soldiers lives lost. He was introduced by West Lafayette City Councilor James Blanco.

Sanders was greeted by a standing ovation and chants of Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.

We are living in very difficult times, Sanders said. COVID-19 has claimed over 600,000 American lives. The ICUs are filled, mostly with the unvaccinated.

Sanders thanked medical professionals for saving our lives, and urged every citizen to get vaccinated.

He addressed global climate change as well as the crisis in Afghanistan.

6:25 p.m.

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Sanders has taken the stage behind a group of police officers.

A plane flew overhead and continued to make circles with a banner behind it reading STOPTHESPENDINGSPREE.COM. The group sponsoring the banner is Americans for Prosperity, a group founded in 2004 that opposes President Biden and Sanders spending plans, according to their website.

6:20 p.m.

The venue has reached maximum capacity, and around a dozen individuals are still searching for seats. Those who did not reserve seats have begun gathering outside of the venue to listen. The venue has exceeded 1800 people.

6:19 p.m.

The Amphitheater is more than full  about 20 people are looking for a place to sit. The event still has not begun.

6:12 p.m.

The stage continues to be set up, as the Sanders team is delayed because of the nature of public events, volunteers said. Media interviews with Sen. Sanders began a half hour after anticipated, also delaying the start of the town hall.

6:01 p.m.

With only minutes left before the town hall begins, fewer than 20 seats are empty and groups of individuals are struggling to find where to sit as people await Sen. Sanders.

5:50 p.m.

RSVP forms that audience members filled out prior to the event stated that masks were required in both indoor and outdoor spaces. Less than half of the crowd has abided by that rule, and while no volunteers from Sen. Sanders team are enforcing the mandate, they themselves are following it.

5:48 p.m.

Tippecanoe police say the protesters who showed up earlier had RSVPed, and were allowed entrance. Those protesters told The Exponent they were barred from entering. They left the scene more than 20 minutes ago.

5:38 p.m.

The roughly 1500-seat capacity amphitheater has reached around 75% capacity. The town hall is scheduled to start in 20 minutes.

5:30 p.m.

Stay Outside, a musical group from Marion, Indiana is performing in front of the growing crowd before Sanders takes the stage.

5:28 p.m.

Two buses full of protestors have arrived, and officials are not allowing them inside. It's unclear at this time if the group had RSVPed for the event.

5:15 p.m.

Randy Conkright, a Purdue maintenance worker and Afghanistan veteran, expressed his distrust in the media while he waited for the event to begin, a Donald Trump hat on his head.

Ive heard all kinds of things, and I want to hear it straight from the horses mouth, Conkright said. Its going to take a lot, but Im here with an open mind.

5 p.m.

Doors opened, letting an estimated 400 people through the gates, not counting additional people going through bag check.

4:35 p.m.

West Lafayette Junior and Senior High School students Rahul Durai and Lily Shen, along with a dozen other members of Confront the Climate Crisis, began waiting outside of the amphitheater at 3:30 p.m.

We are the leaders of Confront the Climate Crisis, a group of high school students fighting for climate justice in the state of Indiana, Durai said. Sen. Sanders is a key leader in the fight for climate justice."

Over 150 student volunteers from cities all around Indiana are a part of the climate action group. The group began in West Lafayette, and through word of mouth and social media, the group has expanded state-wide.

We are working for state-wide legislation for this years legislative session, Shen said. Were really pleased with the amount of climate justice initiative Bernie has put into the budget resolution.
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Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution.
Press Release

August 28, 2021 De Lima lauds Senate's ratification of amendment on higher penalties for perjury Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has lauded the Senate's ratification of an amendment that seeks to impose higher penalties for perjury to prevent people from committing the crime. De Lima made the statement after the Senators approved the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 1354, which she co-authored and House Bill 8268, that seek to increase the penalties for perjury and amend Articles 183 and 184 of Republic Act No. 3815 or the Revised Penal Code. "I am glad that the Senate ratified the bicameral report on the perjury bill, considering that I am a victim of perjury who remains unjustly detained over bogus charges based mainly on perjured testimonies of convicted felons and other shady witnesses," she said. "This is timely in light of many instances when those entrusted with the duty to see that justice is done are the ones coercing and using government resources to manufacture falsehood," she added. Under Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code, the penalty for the crime of perjury is arresto mayor in its maximum period (four months and one day to six months) to prision correccional in its minimum period (six months and one day to two years and four months). Under the proposed measure, perjury will now be punishable with prision mayor in its minimum period (from six years and one day to eight years) to its medium period (from eight years and one day to 10 years). The measure also seeks to impose a fine not exceeding P1 million if the person responsible for the commission of the felony is a public officer or employee, and perpetual absolute disqualification from any appointive or elective position. Under the present administration, De Lima said the sacredness of statements made before legislative, judicial, and quasi-judicial proceedings, and that of sworn affidavits "are being disregarded, seemingly without fear of the consequences of such criminal and immoral acts." "Nowadays, the assertion of falsehood, under oath or affirmation, is employed, not only to harass and unjustly punish innocent persons, but also to persecute political dissenters and government critics. That is why we need this law now more than ever," she said. De Lima is one of the first Senators who pushed for the passage of a measure amending the country's Anti-Perjury Law since the 17th Congress. Considering the bill as one of her priority measure, she refiled it in the current 18th Congress under SB No. 1354.
Press Release

August 28, 2021 Dispatch from Crame No. 1134:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Duterte's continuing attack on COA Duterte asked the other night who will audit the COA. He asked the question in the manner of a eureka moment, as if only someone of his level of intelligence on Earth could have thought of the question. For someone who almost always makes it a point to remind everyone that he is a lawyer, and therefore knows the law (which is not always the case), Duterte most often than not only reveals his ignorance of the law. Who audits the COA? The Constitution itself provides that constitutional bodies and commissions that enjoy fiscal autonomy, viz, the Civil Service Commission, the COMELEC, the Ombudsman, the Judiciary, and of course, the COA, are different from executive agencies of the government in that they are only subject to reporting on a post-audit basis. Some other institutions fall under the same classification of being subjected on a post-audit basis. These are autonomous state colleges and universities, GOCCs and their subsidiaries, and such non-governmental entities receiving subsidy or equity, directly or indirectly, from or through the Government. So to answer Duterte's question, the COA is not treated like any ordinary department of the Executive branch. The COA, like any other constitutional body enjoying fiscal autonomy, and not a part of the Executive branch, is subjected only to post-audit. In short, it is not treated to the same audit scrutiny as the Executive Department simply because the bulk of the annual budget is spent by the latter, while it is only fiscal autonomy that protects the former from attacks by the political branches of government, like what Duterte is now doing to COA. If Duterte has any beef with this constitutional set-up, then his problem lies with the Constitution, as it has always been the case since day one. Duterte simply has no respect for the republican and democratic form of constitutional government set up in the 1987 Constitution. What Duterte is not saying of course is that his question is in fact another attack on COA, after his administration has supposedly proved the absence of irregularities mentioned in the COA reports in the Senate and House hearings on the 42 billion transfer of DOH funds to the DBM's Procurement Service without any supporting MOA. That his officials have purportedly come through scot clean in the Congressional hearings is in itself doubtful, as the hearings raised more questions than answers. That is just Duterte patting himself on the back, because no one else will. But what is definitely glaring is that Duterte will not stop attacking other institutions, whether the COA, the Senate, or the House, just to divert attention from his own administration's irregularities and deficiencies in the utilization of anti-COVID funds amounting to tens of billions of pesos. He will even raise dead ghosts of supposed irregularities reported by COA on the DOJ under my leadership to divert attention from his rotten administration. The bottomline here is that Duterte is not interested in transparency or accountability. All he is interested in is managing the political fall-out from his underlings' incompetence and corruption. He is prepared to demolish institutions and destroy personalities just to get his way. This is the Duterte brand of leadership. It definitely does not inspire confidence in the survival of our institutions when they attempt to work within and live up to their constitutional mandates. In order to survive, they just have to follow the whims and caprices of Duterte as the all mighty lord and leader. Access handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 1134 here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_from_crame_no._1134


Press Release

August 28, 2021 Dispatch from Crame No. 1135:

Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the Anomalous 8 Billion Peso PPE Contract Several facts were quickly unraveled at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing yesterday. At first, former DBM PS Director Lloyd Christopher Lao denied that he ever worked for Sen. Bong Go, and that he never met the owner of Pharmally Corporation, Huang Wenlie, to whom he awarded an 8 Billion peso contract for PPEs. It turns out that he, in fact, worked for Go's Office of the Special Assistant to the President, and was present when Huang Wenlie and Michael Yang met with none other than Duterte and Sen. Go in 2017. The 8 Billion pesos was part of the 42 Billion peso anti-COVID fund channeled by Duque to the DBM-PS for disposition. The very first question answered, therefore, was why would Duque transfer the responsibility in the procurement of medical supplies for which the DOH has the expertise to the DBM-PS under Lao? Apparently, simply because Lao is directly connected to the Davao Mafia led by Duterte and Go. Before being posted to the DBM, Lao has already made the rounds in other high government offices. He was appointed Undersecretary of the PMS under Go's Office of the Special Assistant to the President, HLURB Commissioner, then, finally, DBM Undersecretary and DBM-PS Director. At one time, he also applied for the position of Overall Deputy Ombudsman. Lao, it seems, is not your average well-connected guy, to be able to land all these plum government positions. He is, in all probability, one of the go-to operators and hatchetmen of the Davao Mafia led by Sen. Go and the President himself. It does not take rocket science to figure out what happened in this transaction. Step 1) Duque channeled the 42 Billion in DOH funds to Lao, who, in turn, directly reports to the Davao Mafia. Step 2) The Davao Mafia, in turn, causes the awarding of the 8 Billion peso PPE contract through Lao to one of their Chinese buddies, Huang Wenlie, owner of Pharmally Corporation. Step 3) The Davao boys are all happy. Duterte's announcement that the Senate investigation will turn out nothing is, therefore, premature, to say the least, and apparently for the self-serving purpose of sweeping all evidence of corruption under the rug. With one more hearing to go, several officials from the DBM and the DOH are still expected to be on the dock, unless the Davao Mafia silences them before they do. Duterte even has the gall to accuse me and Sec. Mar Roxas of corruption, when apparently it is he and his Davao Mafia whose dirty fingerprints are all over the DOH-DBM anomalous transactions. Bilyones na dapat sana ay napunta sa pagtaguyod ng buhay, kaligtasan at kapakanan ng mga front liners at ng mga naghihirap nating mga kababayan at nakuha pang ibulsa ng mga gahaman. Imbis na makatulong sa ekonomiya at kabuhayan ng mga Pilipino, nasikmura pa nilang nakawan ang taumbayan. This is the reason why Duterte can never publicly disclose his SALN. Bilyones pala ang bukol sa SALN niya. (Access the copy of the handwritten version, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_from_crame_no._1135)


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SpaceCast Weekly is a NASA Television broadcast from the Johnson Space Center in Houston featuring stories about NASA's work in human spaceflight.

They include the International Space Station and its crews and scientific research activities, and the development of Orion and the Space Launch System, the next generation American spacecraft being built to take humans farther into space than they've ever gone before.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
A big night of harness racing with Grand Circuit action on Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park will be topped off by a massive carryover in the Jackpot Hi-5 after Friday's finale wager had multiple winners while Sporty Tori crushed the competition.

Closing out the 12-race card on Friday, driver Scott Younger sent 7-2 second choice Sporty Tori to the lead in the $16,000 fillies and mares conditioned pace and put up a :26.4 opening quarter with Kat following in the pocket and Goodnight Irene tracking in third.

After a :55.4 half, 2-1 favourite Town Delinquent went first-up from fourth while Sporty Tori began to open up on top past three-quarters in 1:23.4. Up three lengths at the top of the stretch, she continued to widen her lead down the lane with a :26.4 kicker, winning by 7-1/4 lengths in a career-best clocking of 1:50.3.

Goodnight Irene, the 4-1 third choice, got up for second, finishing three-quarters of a length in front of Town Delinquent. Sunday Afternoon finished a close fourth at odds of 20-1 while 9-1 shot Mia Culpa passed half the field in the stretch to complete the top five.

With back-to-back victories at Mohawk, the five-year-old daughter of Sportswriter is now a 20-time career winner with nearly $185,000 in earnings for trainer Gord McKnight and owner/breeder M&S Racing.

Sporty Tori returned $9.50 to win and led the 6-1-7-4-8 winning Jackpot Hi-5 combination that paid $1,340.80 for a $1 ticket. The Jackpot is paid out when there is only one single winning ticket. The carryover heading into Saturday night's finale (Race 13) is $217,077.07.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Arab Banking Corporation (Bank ABC) has announced the appointment of Amr Tharwat as new MD and CEO of its Bank ABC Egypt franchise, following the Board of Bank ABC Egypts approval of the appointment.



Tharwat brings to the role over 26 years of substantial local and regional corporate and investment banking experience gained from a variety of senior positions in Mena and Turkey (MENAT). He joins from HSBC, where he has worked for over 15 years, out of which he spent seven years in Egypt as the Head of Global Banking, and the remainder based in Dubai covering the region.



He was most recently the MD, Deputy Head of Global Banking and Head of Corporate Banking MENAT for HSBC out of Dubai.



Tharwat holds a Masters degree in Finance from Cass Business School in London and is a graduate of the American University in Cairo with a major in Economics and a minor in Political Science.



He joins Bank ABC Egypt at a pivotal moment of growth, amid the final stages of Bank ABC Groups acquisition of BLOM Bank Egypt. The acquisition was closed on August 11, 2021; the Bank is now working towards the integration of BLOM Bank Egypt into Bank ABC Egypt.



Bank ABC Egypt Chairman, Dr Yousef Al Awadi said: Amr brings a diverse strategic and operational perspective to Bank ABC Egypt. He has an excellent track record, and we are confident that he will be a great addition to our team in Egypt.



Tharwat is expected to begin his tenure on September 26, 2021.  TradeArabia News Service
Qatar Petroleum has awarded a major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for its North Field Expansion Project to Tecnicas Reunidas, a Madrid-based contractor that provides EPC services to the energy industry.



Tecnicas Reunidas will act as the EPC contractor for the expansion of existing liquid products (condensate, propane and butane) storage and loading facilities and the expansion of import facilities for Mono-Ethylene Glycol within Ras Laffan Industrial City, as well as other ancillary facilities and pipelines serving the North Field Expansion Project.



These new facilities will be utilised to handle liquid products from the four new LNG trains comprising the North Field East (NFE) project, which is scheduled to start-up before the end of 2025. The facilities will also support two new LNG trains comprising the North Field South (NFS) project.



Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, The President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum said: The award of this major EPC contract is a part of the North Field Expansion Project, which supports the further development of Qatars substantial natural gas resources and reinforces our position as the worlds largest LNG producer.



The contract provides for the expansion of the existing infrastructure required to ensure the safe loading and on-time delivery of associated liquid products to our international customers. We look forward to working with Tecnicas Reunidas to deliver this important project in a safe, timely and successful manner.



The award of this contract is the culmination of front-end engineering and design (FEED) work that began in early 2018, and represents another important milestone to deliver on Qatar Petroleums commitment to significantly increase Qatars LNG production capacity. When completed, the NFE project will increase Qatars LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (MTPA) to 110 MTPA, while the NFS project will further increase Qatars LNG production capacity from 110 MTPA to 126 MTPA.



Al-Kaabi added: The NFE project, with a capacity of 32 MTPA, is the largest LNG project ever to be undertaken. I would like to thank Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the CEO of Qatargas, and his team for their valuable contributions to the project, and to commend the world-class performance of Qatar Petroleum and Qatargas project teams to successfully deliver on this ambitious mission.



Activities on the ground are progressing well on all fronts and according to plan, and we are on target to deliver the first LNG from the NFE project by the end of 2025.



As part of the contract, Tecnicas Reunidas will perform the detailed engineering work in Qatar, leveraging the growing technical capabilities in the country for the development of major projects.  TradeArabia News Service
Hotpack Global, one of the worlds leading manufacturers of disposable food packaging products, has signed a terminal agreement with DP World, UAE Region, expanding the export capacity for its products through Jebel Ali Port.

The agreement was signed at Hotpacks head office in Dubai Investment Park by PB Abdul Jebbar, Group Managing Director, Hotpack Global and Shahab Al Jassmi, Commercial Director, Ports and Terminals, DP World - UAE Region.

Hotpack Global has a group turnover of AED950 million ($258.65 million) and a presence in 27 locations in 12 countries across the Middle East, UK and a chain of networks in the Gulf and African regions. The companys sales centres are present across the seven emirates in the UAE, as well as in other GCC countries.

In the last two years, the company exported products worth AED700 million at an estimated volume of 4,625 containers. Recently, the company was certified as a `Verified Exporter by Dubai Industries & Exports, the trade promotion entity of the Department of Economic Development (DED), which will enhance future international trade opportunities for the company.

Jebbar said: This agreement with DP World, UAE Regions Jebel Ali Port comes in the context of Hotpacks export push and expansion of its global market footprints. We are close to reaching a milestone in our export market reach. Our products will soon be available in 100 countries across the world from the current 95. The terminal agreement will help us consolidate our exports logistics to a single-point strategic gateway to the world. DP Worlds extensive global network and vast experience in operating terminals worldwide add immense value and ease trade facilitation.

Al Jassmi explained: The Jebel Ali Port has underpinned the success of numerous packaging solutions companies including Hotpack Global. As the 12th largest port worldwide, the port has a capacity of 22.4 million TEU. Additionally, DP Worlds global connectivity in over 40 countries, seamless services, and rapid turnaround time will boost the companys growth and amplify their reach. We are confident that we will be able to help them realise their export growth strategy, thus, empowering them to contribute to the UAEs Operation 300 billion initiative and stimulate the national economy.

Hotpacks export growth was a result of the sustainable development of its manufacturing strengths owing to their fully automated, state-of-the-art factories, benchmarked at 4.0 industry standards. International quality accreditations and certifications have also ensured their success. Additionally, their investment in technology and innovation has helped the company stay ahead of its competitors, while its continued product expansion has supported reach to newer markets.-- TradeArabia News Service
Several Middle Eastern leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron today (August 28) met in Baghdad during ''Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership'', being hosted by Iraq, mainly aimed at facilitating discussions with neighbouring countries.

Iraq has invited regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran to the summit in bid to calm tensions which have brought them close to open conflict in recent years, reported Reuters.

The Baghdad summit comes as part of Iraqi government's efforts to make them talk to each other instead of settling scores on its territory, it stated.

Iraq's security has improved in recent years but it is still plagued by big power rivalries and heavily armed militia groups, the report added.

Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, and his delegation has already arrived in Baghdad where they were received by Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Fuad Muhammad Hussein and Saudi Ambassador to Iraq Abdulaziz Al Shammri.

Early in the day, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, arrived in the Iraqi capital with the UAE delegation. They were welcomed upon arrival at Baghdad International Airport by Mustafa Al Kadhimi, Prime Minister of Iraq, and a group of Iraqi ministers and senior officials.
(Photo: GIUSEPPE CACACE via Getty Images)

The UK evacuation mission in Afghanistan is into its final hours, the defence secretary has said.

But Ben Wallace said on Friday morning the terror attack at Kabul airport didnt hasten our departure.

Despite airlifting nearly 14,000 people out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks, the defence secretary also admitted not every single one will get out.

Speaking to Sky News, Wallace said the Baron Hotel processing centre, near where the bombings took place, was shut at 4.30am, as was the Abbey Gate to Kabul airport.

We will process the people that weve brought with us, the 1,000 people approximately in the airfield now, and we will seek a way to continue to find a few people in the crowds where we can, he told Sky News.

But overall the main processing is now closed and we have a matter of hours.

Watch: Australia ends evacuations in Kabul after bombings

Wallace insisted the Kabul airport terror attack didnt hasten our departure and the main UK evacuee processing site was closed almost exactly on schedule.

The threat is obviously going to grow the closer we get to leaving, he told Sky News.

The narrative is always going to be certain groups, such as IS, will want to stake a claim that they have driven out the US or the UK.

Thursdays bombings near Kabuls airport killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops in the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

In an emotional speech in Washington DC, US president Joe Biden blamed the incident on the affiliate of the so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan (Isis-K), a far more radical force than the Taliban militants who seized power less than two weeks ago.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.

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The government intends to expropriate 106 square kilometres of land, one third of the total. The subsoil contains copper and magnesium. Authorities believe earning potential could be worth up to four billion. Experts deny the figures and speak of a maximum of 30 million dollars. Ecologists propose 'sustainable tourism' industry as an alternative.

Amman (AsiaNews) - Jordanian environmentalists are on the warpath against Amman, which has decided to change the boundaries of one of the country's most important nature reserves in order to exploit the copper and magnesium reserves underground for mining purposes. The controversy was sparked by the announcement on 20 August by the Ministry of Energy that it wants to expropriate about 106 square kilometres of land in the protected area of Dana, in the south, equivalent to a third of the total reserve.

The government, which is desperately seeking economic resources to exploit in times of crisis since Covid-19, is interested in the more than 45 million tonnes of copper that lie underground, with an estimated value of about four billion dollars. In a note, authorities in the Hashemite kingdom say that mining in the area will provide at least 3,500 new jobs, with an initial investment of 0 million. In 2016, Amman had signed an exploitation contract with a mining company, which withdrew because those in charge of the nature reserve repeatedly prevented their technicians from accessing the area.

The nature reserve was created in 1989 and officially named Dana Biosphere Reserve in 1993. It encompasses much of the Great Rift Valley, formed by mountains, plateaus and desert plateaus. According to Unesco, there are four different biogeographical zones within it: Mediterranean, Iranian-Turanian, Saharo-Arabian and Sudan penetration zone, and it is home to many protected or endangered species.

It is managed by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (Rscn), which has been fighting against the cutting of one third for economic purposes, calling copper mining in the region 'unfeasible'. Speaking to al-Monitor, President Khalid Irani stressed that the government had not consulted with the SCN before making the decision, which he called "a black day" for the kingdom. The company has also instructed its lawyers to block the project.

Mining activities will harm the unique ecosystems of the biosphere, Irani said, adding that the reserve employs 85 local Jordanians, indirectly supporting 200 families, and provides almost 2.37 million dinars (.3 million) annually to the local community. He contested the governments legal authority to change the boundaries of the reserve. "

Irani said that mining activities will have dire consequences for the biodiversity of the reserve. The area boasts breathtaking scenery due to its varied terrain, geological diversity that ranges from limestone to granite and biological diversity that includes hundreds of plants and dozens of reptiles and mammals, some of which are rare or endangered." He added, "Thousands of migratory birds pass through the reserve every year.

Among the critical voices is former Economy Minister and environmentalist Yusuf Mansour, who disputes the figures provided by the government (not billions, but a maximum of 30 million) and the feasibility of the extraction operations. "There is an exaggeration in the government's figures,' he points out, 'which should instead invest in the reserve as a privileged eco-tourism destination. "Dana is unique and it would be much better to invest in it to attract tourists,' he concludes, while creating a 'sustainable economy'.
Temporarily, Bredars order says that those who are not fully vaccinated can present a negative COVID-19 test result that was administered within the last three days. The judge expects to eliminate the testing option for visitors in the near future, though the order does not provide a date.
Its not right for [tenants] to be sitting around in these units not paying rent and [not] communicating what the issue is, said Katherine Kelly-Howard, vice president and general counsel of Regional Management Inc., a property management firm with properties in Baltimore City and County. Perhaps the only way to get them to focus on these issues is to begin filing failure to pay rent again.


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Gillette artist Hannah Mooney paints a bison within her mural on the exterior of the AVA Community Art Center. Mooney led a team of students in painting the mural over the summer. (Photo by Mike Moore, Gillette News Record)
Chapman, who resides in Finksburg, brings 20 years of clinical experience, with 13 of those in leadership. She comes to Carroll Hospital from University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, where she was director of surgical nursing, rehabilitation and vascular access. She has extensive experience in infection prevention and intensive care, including surgical intensive care. Chapman earned her Master of Science in nursing leadership and management from the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore, and a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Stevenson University in Greenspring. She has also traveled internationally for health and wellness missions.
Among the improvements being proposed by city officials would be the removal of a pedestrian overpass built in 1982 that has effectively segregated Aberdeen into two distinct socially diverse areas and needs to be addressed, according to a statement from the city.
Only unvaccinated students and adults who are identified as close contacts must quarantine. Vaccinated students and staff will not be required to quarantine unless they receive a positive test or are displaying symptoms; however they will be expected to monitor their symptoms closely for 14 days. It is also recommended that vaccinated individuals get tested three to five days after exposure regardless of whether they are exhibiting symptoms.
Officers responded at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday to the 7000 block of Periwinkle Way where they found the victim, Eddie Dawson Jr., 35, of Odenton, lying unresponsive in the road suffering from apparent trauma, police said. Dawson was pronounced dead by members of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
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Britain says it has evacuated more than 14,500 people from Kabul in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind. Some British lawmakers who have been trying to help stranded constituents and their families believe the true total is higher.
Right now we are having a carjacking crisis, and to the people out there I would say just do your best to be aware of your surroundings, Deenihan said. The normal things we talk about. And obviously, they were, in this case, and this still happened.
About the same time on the South Side, a 30-year-old man was shot in the foot in the 7600 block of South South Chicago Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. He got himself to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in fair condition, police said.
Jesse Jackson has Parkinsons disease, but has remained an active voice in voting rights, mask mandates for schools and affordable housing, among other causes. Earlier this month, he was arrested for civil disobedience, and in late July, Jackson was arrested during a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has faced pressure over her opposition to ending the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.
Im so glad the cameras are going up but its more that needs to happen, Hill said. Its a tool  one Im so grateful for  but its not magic. Are they going to invest in the manpower to monitor the cameras? Are they going to dispatch police in real-time to investigate? Id like to see, you know the Amber Alerts? Id like to see them notify the public about danger in real-time.
But Illinois renters have other eviction protections, even if they are waning as fall approaches. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in May he would be phasing out the eviction moratorium that had been in place in one form or another since he announced his initial stay-at-home order at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. By Aug. 2, landlords were allowed to begin filing evictions, which begins the often monthslong legal process of removing a tenant from their home.
CGTN: The Japanese Ministry of Defense recently released for the first time a white paper on defense for elementary and junior high school students, which contains criticism of China with regard to the military buildup, Diaoyu Dao and South China Sea. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi also said that the children who are responsible for the country's future must be able to understand and support Japan's defense. People familiar with recent Japanese history all know Japanese militarism's dangerous acts during the period of militarism aggression when it inculcated militarism and fanned the flames of war in teenagers and children by using the Imperial Rescript on Education. Also, Japan tried to revive the education philosophy before WWII and introduce training subjects of WWII soldiers among students, as reported by Japanese media. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: China has made clear its solemn position on the Defense of Japan 2021 white paper. I would like to stress once again that China firmly opposes Japan's unreasonable accusations against China's normal defense building, irresponsible remarks on China's legitimate maritime activities and the hype-up of the so-called "China threat".

Japan intentionally released a children's version of the defense white paper, which repeats the same old rhetoric to smear China. China expresses firm opposition to this and has lodged solemn representations with Japan. I would also like to point out that it is not constructive at all for Japan to highlight external threats and incite confrontation among minors. The Japanese side should earnestly face up to and reflect on history, learn lessons from history, and refrain from taking wrong actions to mislead its people, especially the next generation.

CRI: Recently, an BBC anchor set multiple traps during her interview with Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and threw mud at bilateral exchanges and economic cooperation between China and Caribbean countries. Prime Minister Mia Mottley elaborated on Caribbean countries' cooperation with China including Barbados in an objective way, and refuted the anchor's presumption of guilt. Does the Foreign Ministry have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: BBC maliciously smeared China's foreign diplomacy and overseas economic cooperation, and distorted the normal exchanges of Barbados and other Caribbean countries with China as being a pawn of the power. I'm not at all surprised at what the BBC has done. As what is said by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the questions raised by the BBC anchor reflect that BBC does not regard Barbados equally as a country able to charter its own destiny. It fully reveals the zero-sum mentality and sour grapes attitude of BBC.

Barbados is China's good friend and partner in the Caribbean region. Over the last 44 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, China-Barbados relations have maintained sound momentum. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China and Barbados have been supporting each other to overcome the challenge, opening a new chapter of our friendship. I want to stress that China actively advances the relations and cooperation with Latin-American and Caribbean countries including Barbados, and brings tangible benefits to our peoples. China remains committed to forging a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation for a community with a shared future for mankind. We have never bullied, oppressed, or enslaved the people of any other country, or forcibly imposed our will on others, and we never will.

People know too well, in today's world, who is stuck in the old dream of colonialism to wantonly wield the big stick of hegemony and bullying, forcibly imposes its will on other countries, and brings misery to people there. BBC should have viewed China's normal cooperation with Latin-American and Caribbean states from an objective and fair perspective, instead of looking at others through tinted glasses in an arrogant and condescending attitude and setting discourse traps with presumption of guilt.

Shenzhen TV: Two explosions occurred near Kabul airport on April 26, causing heavy casualties. ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing. What is China's comment on that? Were there any Chinese casualties? What has China done to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Afghanistan?

Zhao Lijian: China is shocked at and strongly condemns the explosions near Kabul airport which caused heavy casualties. The explosions show that the security situation in Afghanistan remains complex and grave. We hope relevant parties will take effective measures to ensure a smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan and ensure the safety of the Afghan people and foreign citizens in the country.

The Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan has received no report of Chinese casualties so far. The embassy has reached out to the small number of Chinese citizens who choose to stay, maintaining close communication and providing necessary help. The embassy reminded them to protect themselves and urged relevant parties to take measures to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals.

China Review News: According to reports, a senior US official said that "China continues to obfuscate and deny the international community the needed access" to COVID-19 information. "If there were sound, technically credible reasons for a US investigation, we would of course support it. But there are none," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: Origins tracing is a matter of science. China always supports and will continue to participate in the science-based origins study.

Instead of thinking about how to control the epidemic in the US and save people's lives, some US politicians and officials are trying in vain to shift the blame for their own failure in fighting the virus onto China with a report drafted by the intelligence agencies. This will only disrupt and undermine international cooperation in the origins study and epidemic response. The allegation that China refuses to provide "needed access" is nothing but an excuse to cover the US' own failed intelligence-led origins tracing.

The US side said they need "reasons" to support an investigation in the US. Then, please answer the following questions. First, patients of the EVALI outbreak in July 2019 in Wisconsin in the US had symptoms highly similar to that of COVID-19. Isn't this a reason? Second, according to the US NIH website, research has shown that evidence of infection in five states appeared back in December 2019. Isn't this a reason? Third, the US government sealed blood samples collected before January 2, 2020 from further testing on the ground that it interferes with the origins tracing agenda and is detrimental to US national security. Isn't this a reason? Fourth, Florida Department of Health once removed data from its website that showed 171 patients had coronavirus symptoms or positive test results in January and February, 2020. Isn't this a reason? Fifth, many comments on social media like Facebook indicate that more than 200 people in the US or countries having close ties with the US said publicly people they know or they themselves had suspected infection of the novel coronavirus as early as in November 2019, with COVID-like symptoms. Isn't this a reason? Sixth, 12 countries including Costa Rica and Kenya publicly said that their "patient zero" of COVID-19 came from the US. Isn't this a reason? Seventh, Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC) have a dark chapter in history and poor safety records of coronavirus researches. The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which is based in Fort Detrick, was shut down by the US CDC because of serious safety incidents in the fall of 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19. Isn't this a reason?

Given that the US is confident that it has nothing to hide, then it should face up to the questions of the international community by inviting the WHO to do the origins study in Fort Detrick and the UNC, and release the raw data on early cases in the US. Should the US refuse to cooperate, it would only further expose its true intention of politicizing origins study.

Bloomberg: Going back to the Afghanistan issue, I'd like to ask how the wider terrorist threat impacts how China deals with the Taliban. So for example, is it in everyone's interest for China to work together with Western nations against ISIS-K and other groups? How would that happen? And then the second part of my question would be talking about how confident is China that the Taliban will be able to stabilize the country and fight ISIS-K?

Zhao Lijian: On your first question, China condemns the terrorist attack and expresses deep sympathies and condolences to those who lost their loved ones and the injured. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns all forms of terrorism, and stands ready to work with the international community to jointly tackle the threat of terrorism and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a source of terrorism again.

On your second question, we noticed that some terrorist groups have gathered and developed in Afghanistan over the past two decades, posing a serious threat to international and regional peace and security. In particular, as an international terrorist organization listed by the UN Security Council, the ETIM poses an immediate threat to the security of the China and its people. The head of the Afghan Taliban made it clear to the Chinese side that the Afghan Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts that hurt China. The Afghan Taliban should earnestly honor its commitment, make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, resolutely fight against the ETIM and clear the way for regional security, stability, development and cooperation.

CCTV: According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, China and Belarus hosted the opening ceremony of Belarus-China Year of Regions in Minsk on August 26. Could you give us more details?

Zhao Lijian: China and Belarus are comprehensive strategic partners featuring mutual trust and win-win cooperation. Under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Aleksandr Lukashenko, China-Belarus relations achieve sound and steady development. Last June and this January, the two heads of state made two telephone conversations to make strategic plans and arrangements for the bilateral ties. Bilateral trade volume grew by 10.7% in 2020, and 50.6% year-on-year in the first half of 2021. The construction of China-Belarus industrial park has been advancing steadily, and projects such as the full cycle high-tech agro-industrial complex have gained positive progress. In the face of the pandemic of the century, our two peoples offer each other support, writing a touching story of fighting the virus with joint hands. Our two countries also coordinate and cooperate closely in multilateral platforms including the UN, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, defend basic norms governing the international relations, and uphold international fairness and justice.

To promote sub-national cooperation, China and Belarus decided to host Year of Regions for 2021-2022 within the framework of China-Belarus Intergovernmental Committee of Cooperation. Relevant departments and regions of both sides will host a series of activities in an appropriate manner that suits the pandemic situation. We believe that it will give a strong boost to sub-national cooperation between our two countries, and enrich and invigorate China-Belarus Comprehensive and Strategic Partnership.

The Swedish Radio: The UK regulator Ofcom has fined CGTN 100,000 after CGTN twice broadcast their footage and interviews of Gui Minhai when he was detained in China back in 2016 and 2018. According to Ofcom, the use of this material constitutes as unfair or unjust treatment and an infringement of the privacy of Gui Minhai. Does the foreign ministry have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: We oppose Ofcom's decision. It is not the first time for relevant agency in the UK to make wrong decisions targeting Chinese media.

China is a country governed by law. China's judicial authorities handle all cases in accordance with law. Gui Minhai committed the crime of illegally providing intelligence to overseas with solid evidence, and China's local court has reached a verdict accordingly.

Relevant agency in the UK should revoke its wrong decision, and provide support and facilitation for Chinese media to conduct normal news reporting in the UK.

Bloomberg: I just like to go back to your earlier answer if that's okay. I talk a little bit more about it because you condemned the terror attack which I understand, but I'm hoping to talk about maybe more medium to long term approaches about how to solve terrorism. Now you also mentioned ETIM and as we all know, that's been removed by the US from their list of terrorist organizations, so how critical is the US' stance on ETIM as an element of possible further collaboration between China and the US on counter-terrorism in Afghanistan? Would it be essential or required for the US to recognize the ETIM, is that one of the conditions?

Zhao Lijian: China's position on combating ETIM is consistent and clear. ETIM is an international terrorist organization designated by the UN Security Council. Regrettably, the former US administration revoked the designation of ETIM as a terrorist organization. China opposes the double standard of the US. The US should not claim to fight and oppose terrorism on the one hand and refuse to designate the ETIM on the other hand. Such US moves does no good to the counter-terrorism cooperation between China and the US.

NHK: Today, the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party and the Taiwanese Democratic Progressive Party held an online "2+2" meeting. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. China firmly opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic ties with China. The Chinese side has lodged solemn representation to the Japanese side.

The Taiwan question concerns the political foundation of China-Japan relations. On the Taiwan question, the Japanese side bears historical responsibilities to the Chinese people for its past crimes and should especially be prudent with its words and actions. We seriously ask Japan to stop interfering in China's domestic affairs, and refrain from sending wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.

PTI: Are there any reports that in Afghanistan, ETIM is part of IS?

Zhao Lijian: I have no information on your question.

AFP: Firstly, can you confirm reports that the US climate envoy John Kerry will visit China next week? Secondly, do you have any details about the crane collapse at a Nairobi construction site operated by the Chinese construction company?

Zhao Lijian: On John Kerry's visit, I don't have anything to offer at the moment.

On your second question, I am not aware of the relevant situation and would like to refer you to competent authorities or the embassy.

AFP: Taiwan officials said yesterday that they will tighten economic espionage laws in order to protect trade secrets from being leaked to Chinese companies. Does the foreign ministry have a comment on this?

Zhao Lijian: This is not a diplomatic issue. Please refer to the competent authorities.
On August 27, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The report wrongly claims that China "continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries". The statement by the White House issued on the same day also purported that China tries to hold back international investigation and rejects calls for transparency. It urges like-minded partners to exert pressure on China. The Chinese side expresses its firm opposition and strong condemnation to this.

First, a report fabricated by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible. The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts. There has been no lack of "masterpieces" by the U.S. intelligence community, such as using a tube of laundry powder to convict Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, or staging the "white helmets" video as evidence for chemical weapon attack in Syria. Now, the US side is using its old trick again. Ignoring the Report by the WHO-China joint mission, it chooses to have its intelligence community put together a report instead. How can this possibly be science-based and reliable origin-tracing?

Second, the assertion of lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for its politicizing and stigmatizing campaign. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude. We have released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time. On December 27, 2019, Wuhan authorities made the first reporting of suspected cases. On December 30, emergency notices were issued on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause. On December 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On January 3, 2020, China began sending regular updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO and other countries, including the United States. On origin-tracing, China has followed a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach. We are the first to cooperate with the WHO on global origin-tracing, and we have invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations twice in China. We were completely open, transparent and cooperative when the experts were in China. They visited every site on their list, met every individual they asked for, and were provided with all the data they wanted. The formulation of the Report of the WHO-China joint mission issued on March 30, 2021 follows WHO procedures and adopts a scientific approach. It is authoritative and science-based. The openness and transparency China has displayed has won full recognition from international experts.

Third, the report by the U.S. intelligence community shows that the U.S. is bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation. The U.S. has registered the most infections and death cases from COVID-19 in the world, and the American people have paid a heavy price. The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China. Such a practice will only disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origin-tracing and on fighting the pandemic, and has been widely opposed by the international community. Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, firmly opposing politicization of origin-tracing. Doesn't the U.S. side feel it necessary to listen to what they have to say?

Finally, the U.S. has been shying away from tracing the origin in the United States and closing the door on any such possibility. If the US.. side is "transparent and responsible", it should make public and examine the data of its early cases. The timeline of the outbreak in the United States has been revised to earlier dates several times. In at least five American states, there had been infections before the first confirmed case in the U.S. was announced. According to a latest coverage from American media, the first COVID-19 death in the U.S. was in early January 2020, several weeks earlier than previously announced by the authorities, which was early February.

In addition, Wuhan Institute of Virology has received two visits from WHO experts and the WHO-China joint study report has reached the clear conclusion that introduction through a lab accident in Wuhan is "extremely unlikely". If the US insists on the lab leak theory, isn't it necessary for the U.S. side to invite WHO experts to Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC) for investigation? Fort Detrick has long been engaged in coronavirus research and modification. After its shutdown in 2019 because of serious safety incidents, disease with symptoms similar to COVID-19 broke out in the U.S. The team of Professor Ralph Baric in the UNC possesses extremely mature capability in synthesizing and modifying coronavirus. From January 2015 to June 2020, the UNC reported to the National Institutes of Health 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered organisms. Six of them involved coronaviruses including SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2. However, instead of finding out what happened in its own labs first, the U.S. keeps slinging mud at others.

China's position on global origin-tracing is consistent and clear. This is a matter of science. China always supports and will continue to participate in science-based origin-tracing. What we are against is political manipulation, presumption of guilt and putting blame on others. Any Phase II origins study must be a comprehensive extension of Phase I and conducted in multiple places and countries to find out the truth.

The report by the U.S. intelligence community has not produced an exact answer the U.S. side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science.
You are here: China

A senior Chinese legislator called for fully leveraging the leading and supporting role of scientific and technological innovations to make new progress in revitalizing northeast China.

Wang Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, made the remarks during an inspection to northeast China's Jilin Province from Tuesday to Thursday.

During the visit, Wang learned about automobile manufacturing, the research, launch, and application of satellites, study on advanced producing technology of optical systems, and other high-tech use in upgrading traditional industries.

He urged efforts to step up the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy to improve the quality and competitiveness of the economy.


You are here: China

Cai Guohua, former chairman of Hengfeng Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve at his second trial on Friday for abuse of power, graft and other crimes, said a court in Jinan, Shandong Province.

All of Cai's personal property is to be confiscated and his political rights deprived for life, noted the verdict by the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court.

Cai abused power for personal gain on several occasions between 2014 and 2016 and illegally issued a 3.5 billion-yuan loan in 2017, which caused extraordinary losses to Hengfeng Bank.

He also received bribes from entities and individuals for helping them get loans and construction contracts between 2006 and 2017.

Based in Shandong, Hengfeng Bank is one of 12 nationwide joint-equity commercial banks in China.

The trial on Friday upheld a verdict in the first instance.
Local legislative bodies should play their due role in conducting review and oversight of local government debt to rein in risks, according to a recent meeting.

The video conference was attended by members of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the NPC Standing Committee's Budgetary Affairs Commission. The meeting was held following the release of a set of guidelines on strengthening local lawmakers' oversight of government debt.

Issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the guidelines addressed the prominent problems with the management and oversight of local government debt, and clarified how local people's congresses should carry out law-based review and oversight.

Demanding a full grasp of the guidelines, Shi Yaobin, vice chairman of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee and director of the NPC Standing Committee's Budgetary Affairs Commission, urged stricter supervision of local government debt to achieve a long-term balance between stabilizing growth and preventing risks.

According to the meeting, oversight of government debt should be listed among the key tasks of local legislative bodies, and detailed measures should be rolled out for implementing the guidelines.

The meeting also demanded whole-process supervision of all kinds of government debt and giving full play to the role of deputies from relevant fields.

Leading officials of the Ministry of Finance and the National Audit Office also attended the conference.










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China stands ready to work with the Philippines to keep bilateral relations on the right track and achieve steady and long-term development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday.

In a phone conversation with his Philippine counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, Xi said China attaches great importance to relations with the Philippines, and supports the Philippine side in firmly upholding an independent foreign policy of peace.

Xi said China is ready to deepen friendship and mutual trust with the Philippines, and stay committed to the general direction of good-neighborliness and friendship.

During the past few years, the two countries have witnessed a turnaround, consolidation and elevation of their relations, as well as the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship, which has brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries and positive energy to the peace and stability of the region, Xi said.

Citing a Chinese saying that "only heart-to-heart exchanges can last long," Xi said China always honors its commitments to friends.

Xi said he is willing to keep close contact with Duterte and frequently exchange views on important matters of mutual concern.

He stressed that the top priority for all countries now is to prevail over the COVID-19 pandemic at an early date and achieve economic recovery and growth.

China, he added, will continuously strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation with the Philippines, and provide as much assistance and help as it can for the Philippines' fight against the coronavirus.

Noting that important achievements have been made in synergizing the Belt and Road Initiative with the Philippines' "Build, Build, Build" program, Xi said China is willing to work with the Philippines to implement more cooperation projects and allow the people in both countries to benefit more from bilateral cooperation.

China, he added, is ready to work with the Philippines to grasp the general trend, promote the common values of humanity, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, so as to make more contributions to regional peace and prosperity.

For his part, Duterte said he would like to extend warm congratulations once again on the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is a milestone in history, and the lifting of over 800 million people in China out of poverty, which is an extraordinary historic achievement of the CPC.

Over the past five years, he noted, the Philippines and China have opened a new era of their comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship.

In the face of the pandemic, the Philippines-China friendship has withstood the test, with bilateral economic cooperation growing despite the challenges, which offers a good illustration of the saying that "a friend in need is a friend indeed," he said.

He added that the Philippine side appreciates China's contribution to championing global unity against the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks China for providing vaccines and other assistance to the Philippines, and hopes to continue strengthening anti-pandemic cooperation with China.

The Philippines, he said, welcomes more Chinese investment in its planned construction projects, and hopes that bilateral practical cooperation in areas such as infrastructure and agriculture will achieve more results.

Stressing that the Philippines cherishes its friendship with China, he said his country will not engage in geopolitical activities that harm China's interests, and is willing to actively push for sustainable development of the relationship between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday discussed the Iranian nuclear issue and bilateral security ties with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Biden was supposed to meet with Bennett on Thursday, while the White House rescheduled it to Friday after deadly attacks at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 U.S. troops and wounded 18.

Sitting with Bennett at the Oval Office, Biden reaffirmed U.S. "unwavering commitment" to Israel's security and supported the Jewish state to deepen its relationship with Arab and Muslim countries.

"And we're also going to discuss the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon," said Biden. "But we're putting diplomacy first, seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options."

Bennett extended his condolence for U.S. casualties in the Kabul attack.

The prime minister said the Iran nuclear program was the main topic in his discussion with Biden. "We've developed a comprehensive strategy that we're going to be talking about with two goals," he said. "The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box; and the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to break out their nuclear weapon."

Israel opposed Biden's diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Washington and Tehran conducted multiple rounds of indirect talks in Austria's capital Vienna since April to revive the deal, but the process had stalled for weeks as the two sides could not settle their differences.

The two leaders also held different views over the Palestine-Israel issue. Biden expressed his support for a two-state solution, which Bennett rejected.

Bennett took office in June, ending his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. This visit was Bennett's first meeting with President Biden. He met separately with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday.

Analysts believe that both Biden and Bennett seek a fresh start of the bilateral ties after years of strained relations between Netanyahu and the Democratic leadership.

Bennett's visit came amid Israel's heightened tension with its archenemy Iran and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In early August, the United States and Israel blamed Iran for a deadly attack against an oil tanker managed by an Israeli-owned company in the north Arabian Sea. Iran rejected the accusation.

Over the past few days, violent incidents on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip have increased speculation that a renewed escalation with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is nearing.

Israel and Hamas clashed for 11 days in May, during which 256 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
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The United Nations Security Council on Friday strongly condemned the attacks near the Kabul airport on Thursday with dozens of civilians and military personnel killed and injured.



Through a press statement, the members of the Security Council condemned "in the strongest terms the deplorable attacks," which were claimed by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

They expressed their deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, and wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.

The members "recalled that all parties must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances, including those related to the protection of civilians," the statement said.

They reaffirmed that terrorism in all forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, said the statement. "Deliberately targeting civilians and personnel assisting in the evacuation of civilians is especially abhorrent and must be condemned."

They underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all states, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard.
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Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), is still pushing for a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan as its last evacuation flight leaves Kabul on Friday.



Italy's last airlift flight, carried out by a military C-130 plane, is expected to land in Rome early on Saturday, bringing back "all the Italians who asked to be repatriated," Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

The minister confirmed that some 4,900 Afghan nationals who wanted to leave the Asian country have been evacuated by Italian forces during the operation.

At a joint press conference held here on Friday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Di Maio reiterated the country's plan to hold an extraordinary G20 summit on Afghanistan in September to outline a global strategy.

"Afghanistan has been at the core of our talks today... in this context, we see the dialogue with Russia as essential," Di Maio explained.

He added that Italy's push to organize a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan stemmed from the belief that only "a comprehensive, coherent and shared action can be effective with the new authorities in Kabul."

"We believe Moscow is a key player in dealing with the current crisis and, in a longer perspective, in achieving a unified international approach," he noted.

"We deem that the G20 could be the right platform for a common management of the crisis, which has to be shared with the countries that will bear the largest migrant influx, that is the neighbouring countries."

Neighbors' concerns over border security

Lavrov, who paid a two-day visit in Italy, said that the security of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries should be a key priority after all evacuation operations are completed.

He also urged for speeding up support for the Afghan people in order to facilitate the formation of an inclusive executive as soon as possible.

"Common solutions are never easy and, in our opinion, the most important thing in the current situation is the security of our borders," said the top Russian diplomat, who also discussed the issue with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi earlier in the day.

Russia is ready to discuss the proposal of the G20 special summit, but "we want to better understand what role our Western partners would see for Russia in the G20 context," Lavrov said.

Lavrov recalled that Russia has kept open a dialogue with the Taliban leaders, together with China and Pakistan, and asked for the possible G20 summit on Afghanistan to be opened to countries that are not members of the group but nonetheless directly affected by the Afghan crisis, such as Pakistan and Iran.

EU condemns "barbaric" attack

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 U.S. service members, while injuring 158 others.

Condemning "the cowardly and inhuman attacks," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter late Thursday that: "The international community must work closely together to avoid a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan and beyond."

European Council President Charles Michel voiced his concern about the explosion, saying his thoughts were with the victims and their families. "Securing safe passage to the airport remains vital. We need to ensure the current instability cannot give rise to a resurgence of terrorism," he tweeted.

Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign affairs and security policy, tweeted: "The EU stands in solidarity with the Afghan citizens. We will continue fighting terrorism together with international partners."

On Friday, David McAllister, Maria Arena and Petras Austrevicius, the chairs of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation for relations with Afghanistan, respectively, strongly condemned the "barbaric" terrorist attack, saying "this barbaric act against innocent people is unforgivable."

In a joint statement, they called upon those in power to hold to account those responsible for the attack, and urged EU member states and partner nations to continue the safe and orderly evacuation of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country.

"We reiterate our call to all sides in Afghanistan to abstain from any form of violence, to put in place an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to pursue peace negotiations. International humanitarian law and basic human rights, in particular the rights of women, girls and minorities must be respected," they said in the statement.
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Ghana has received a sum of 1 billion U.S. dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to boost its post-COVID-19 economic recovery, the Ministry of Finance said in a release on Friday.

The package is part of the fund's 650-billion-dollar package approved to support the post-COVID economic recovery in IMF member states.

"The new allocation will meet the additional financing needs of the country, caused by the impact of the pandemic on public financing," said the release.

The gesture from the IMF "provides additional policy space to support Ghana's efforts to counter the impact of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods," Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said.

He added that the government would follow all statutory requirements in spending the IMF support funding.

In 2020, Ghana received an initial package of 1 billion dollars from IMF to support its fight against the pandemic.
 Flash

The United States has launched a drone attack against a planner for the Islamic State (ISIS), the U.S. Central Command said Friday, less than 48 hours after a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.

"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," U.S. Central Command Spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement, referring to the terror group affiliated to ISIS that claimed responsibility for Thursday's bombing at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," the statement said.

U.S. officials have warned of heightened terror threats to U.S. troops in the aftermath of what was one of the deadliest attacks in the 20-year U.S.-led invasion in Afghanistan.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told a news conference Friday that "specific credible threats" are believed to exist, "and we want to make sure we're prepared for those" threats.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed the concern over those security threats, saying in a press briefing that American officials believe "another terror attack in Kabul is likely."

Also on Friday, Major General Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, clarified to reporters that the blast at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport involving a sole suicide bomber was the only attack that happened Thursday, correcting earlier reports that a second attack was launched at the adjacent Baron Hotel.

"I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel; that it was one suicide bomber," Taylor said. It was not clear the individual killed in the U.S. airstrike was specifically involved in Thursday's bombing.

The U.S. reprisal came after President Joe Biden promised to strike those responsible for the suicide bombing.
She said the work is relentless and the calls, which can last an hour, can be emotional. Workers making contract tracing calls not only help people learn about what they should do to keep themselves and others safe, but they can hear from people who are scared, lonely or grieving or in need of assistance, such as with paying rent or getting food. Beck said the staff on her team try to help and connect people with other resources.
Shes really going to miss him, said Syreeta Green of her daughter, Tolleyah Greene, 9, as she hugs her brother, Demarques Stevens, 17, of New Haven, (right) while helping him move into his dorm at the Towers residence halls at the UConn campus at Storrs Friday. Four generations of his family came to help along with his sister - his great grandmother Mary Nelson, grandmother, Lotheria Nelson and mother, Syreeta Greene, all off camera. The political science major plans to run for office someday. My plan is to one day be president! he said. Classes start on Monday. (Cloe Poisson/Cloe Poisson)
The federal bureau of prisons lists Rudkin on its website as deceased as of Aug. 24. Prison officials in Washington and Indiana did not respond to questions. The Associated Press reported that Rudkin was beaten to death in a fight with another inmate. The Bureau of Prisons is notoriously unwilling to discuss inmate deaths. Three years after he was beaten to death in a West Virginia prison, the bureau has yet to explain the circumstances of Boston gangster James Whitey Bulgers death.
Meers is all about supporting farmers and said the pilot isnt like a traditional cooking show. It doesnt focus on techniques, but highlights farmers who work from sunrise to sunset, then get up and do it all over again the next day. For now, this is the only episode.
I think because were in such a desperate place that people are more willing to work with one another. And so it keeps me going, Brown said. I know that it can be different.  I guess Im stubborn. I know it personally, I know professionally. I know scientifically that it doesnt have to be this way. And so Im not going to give up.
Lubbock, TX (79409)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Lubbock, TX (79409)

Today

Mostly cloudy. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Entry of visitors to the Kukkarahalli lake premises has also been prohibited after 6.30 pm, said sources in University which has issued the circular announcing the measures. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: The circular of the University of Mysore imposing curbs on movement of girl students alone on its Manasagangotri campus after 6.30 pm has been withdrawn, Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said on Saturday.

He said it's true that generally campuses of Universities are vast but to bar the movement of girl students is not correct.

Narayan directed Vice-Chancellors of Universities to take security measures and create safe campuses.

The University of Mysore's move on Friday was prompted by the gang-rape of a college student near Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24 which has created a scare.

Entry of visitors to the Kukkarahalli lake premises has also been prohibited after 6.30 pm, said sources in University which has issued the circular announcing the measures.

The steps were taken as part of "safety and precautionary measure" following verbal instructions by police, the sources said.

Security guards have been asked to patrol the campus from 6 pm to 9 pm, they said.

Narayan termed the rape incident as 'condemnable' and said one should not snatch the freedom of girl students because of this case.

"It's our responsibility to give them protection without violating their freedom", the Minister said.

"Wherever required, Closed-circuit cameras should be installed".

"There should be greater vigil in University campuses. Already, steps have been taken by the Government in this regard. Measures will be tightened by leveraging technology", he added.
A circular issued by the University Registrar on Friday, also stated that women are restricted from moving alone and relaxing inside the Gangotri campus after 6.30 pm. (Representational image: DC)

Mysuru: Days after the alleged gang rape incident in Karnataka's Mysuru, the University of Mysore has barred students from going to the Kukkarahalli Lake area after 6.30 pm.

A circular issued by the University Registrar on Friday, also stated that women are restricted from moving alone and relaxing inside the Gangotri campus after 6.30 pm.

It also directed security officers to make arrangements to patrol the lake area from 6 pm to 9 pm.

The action came in the wake of the alleged gang rape of a girl student at Lalithadripura layout, Mysuru on August 24. As per the complaint, six men committed the crime and also beat up the girl's male friend.

Amidst the rising uproar in the state on the Mysuru gang rape case, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra assured that action will be taken and police investigation is underway to nab the culprits.

The Home Minister also assured that security will be tightened in the state from now onwards.

Terming the Mysuru gang rape incident a "horrendous act", Karnataka Minister for Tourism, Environment and Ecology Anand Singh on Friday said that the government is committed to curbing such acts.

"Gang rape is a horrendous act, and it is well-known that criminals should be harshly punished. Our government is committed to curbing such acts," Singh had tweeted.

Singh had further said, "My opinion is women must be given rifle licences to safeguard themselves from such heinous incidents and for self-defence."

Meanwhile, Former Karnataka Chief Minister and JD-S leader HD Kumaraswamy on Friday advised the Karnataka government to handle the Mysuru gang-rape case "just like Hyderabad police" and said that the state government should not allow youngsters to have liquor in open deserted spaces.
Such is the strategic importance attached to rare earths that President Xi Jinping has made it a habit to flex Chinas Trade Muscle by visiting to Rare Earths Hub, mining sites and plants frequently. (Twitter)

Rare Earth Elements (REE) are an ace in Chinas hand, read a Global Times headline in 2019. China currently controls nearly 90 per cent of the worlds REE mining and refinement and forms the bedrock of its global supply chain.

Chinas dominance of the rare earths industry is the result of a reckless and destructive ecological campaign to cut down costs, and a long-term strategic plan involving more than 20 years of precise planning by the Chinese state. Such is the strategic importance attached to rare earths that President Xi Jinping has made it a habit to flex Chinas Trade Muscle by visiting to Rare Earths Hub, mining sites and plants frequently.

But why are rare earths so important? Rare earths, a set of 17 nearly indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals, are present in almost everything we use from processors to advanced alloys to electric vehicles to consumer electronics and industrial machinery. Moreover, they are extremely crucial for various weapon systems including missile navigation and sensor systems.

Therefore, China is fully aware of just how strategically important their position is. It has never shied away from using mercenary tactics to make others tow the line. With financial and ecological subsidies, the Chinese REE industry was successful in knocking down the global prices and forced the closure of several mines across the world including the Mountain Pass in the United States. Now reports suggest that the ministry of industry and information technology of China is finetuning a rare earth weaponisation strategy.

For the sceptic conventionalists, it would be hard to believe that this is anything more than an idle threat, but it indeed is. One only needs to be reminded of the Senkaku showdown with Japan in 2010. China (which then controlled 97 per cent of the market) imposed export quotas on rare earths and stopped all supplies to Japan, as a result of which most of the prices of RE metals and oxides experienced a thousand per cent increase. Within two months the Japanese electronics industry was brought to its knees and a Japanese delegation had to be dispatched to Beijing.

While China has about 36 per cent of the world REE deposits, and other countries including Brazil, Russia and Myanmar also have significant rare earth deposits, it would be difficult to decouple from its dependence in the short term. The US relies on China for 80 per cent of its rare earth needs while EU gets 98 per cent of its supply from China. This, combined with the growing Chinese assertion in the Indian Ocean Region (an area rich in rare earth deposits) where the state-backed Chinese private firms have been actively securing mineral sand mining concessions, places a very real threat against the Chinese dominated global supply chain.

Coming back home, India, which has the fifth largest deposits of REEs in the world, imports much of its goods from China. Our production capacity is severely limited. In fact, despite having more ore than the US, India only mined 3,000 tonnes of rare earths in 2020 while the western nation mined 38,000 tonnes.

Additionally, whatever little REE we produce falls very low in the value chain as we mostly do upstream processing (extraction and purification). The most profitable activities related to rare earths, happen in countries that have downstream industries that use them to manufacture profitable finished goods, such as consumer electronics. This becomes significant with the increasing risk of China restricting the exports of these products to India.

In the growing global consensus in favour of clean energy (which will require batteries with REEs as critical components) and demands for diversified supply chains for critical minerals, there is no better time for India to utilise its large deposits of rare earth elements.

For starters, as suggested by some thinktanks as well, we need to create a new department for rare earths (DRE), which would play the role of a regulator and enabler for businesses in this space. Currently, mining and processing has been largely concentrated in the hands of IREL (India) Limited, a PSU under the department of atomic energy. Its progress and capacity to produce rare earths, while growing slowly, is nowhere close to international REE conglomerates given that its principal focus is the production of raw materials such as thorium and uranium for Indias nuclear energy.

The DRE will then look at deregulation of this sector and will also promote R&D in the field. Its sole focus will be on ramping up Indias REE production and make India a part of the global supply chain. For this purpose supervision of IREL should also be shifted from the department of atomic energy (DEA) to the DRE, and its primary remit needs to change from atomic minerals to rare earths.

There is also a need to look at introducing more players in the value chain and opening it up for investments. While private investments alone may not be able to suffice the upstream processing which require an enormous amount of capital investment and government financing. It is the downstream processes where a public-private approach can help attract investment and purchasers as more efficient processes are put in place.

Secondly, we need to counter the tactics used by Beijing to prevent any non-Chinese mining to attain feasibility. The indirect ecological subsidies of the Chinese state can only be matched if REE can be recovered as a by-product of an industrial activity. The largest such global opportunity exists in the Indian Ocean Region. Geologically the entire region around the IOR is rich in REE formed by millions of years of natural concentrating process. Producing REE from these mineral sands is cheap, as it comes as a by-product of industrial mineral mining and can easily compete with the subsidised Chinese REE production, even without any major subsidy.

Third, and most importantly we need to get QUAD on board. The US-China geopolitical rivalry followed by the global pandemic has ensured that supply-side shocks to the system cannot be ruled out. The QUAD nations need to devise strategies to blunt the effectiveness of coercive Chinese economic policies. If they can collaborate all along the chain, from production to consumption, their influence in the critical sector will rise.

India needs to act quick and it needs to act fast before it misses the bus. We scramble to look overseas even with 6.9 million tonnes of rare earth metals. There is a need to develop a long term strategic vision for REEs, and a good starting point would be to look at it from Deng Xiaopings eyes, who in 1992 famously said, the Middle East has oil; China has rare earths.
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The northbound lanes of Interstate 55 are filled with traffic as people evacuate ahead of Hurricane Ida in McComb, Miss., on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021.
ATLANTA, Indiana, Aug. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beck's, the largest family-owned retail seed company in the United States, today announced the completion of its new east soybean tower. As one of the largest soybean processing towers in the world, it's capable of processing three million bushels of soybeans per year, doubling Beck's processing to six million at the Atlanta, Ind., location.

"Our family and family of employees are driven to help farmers succeed," stated Sonny Beck, CEO of Beck's. "We couldn't be more excited for the completion of the new east soybean tower, which allows us to more efficiently process and deliver additional units of high-quality soybeans to current and future customers."

The 221' x 300' facility features a ten-story, stand-alone processing tower that includes an observation deck with a glass floor for visitors to see soybeans being processed; video monitoring on all machinery operations; state-of-the-art batch treating to allow more versatility of ingredients; five new warehouses for seed and equipment storage; and office space.

"I'm honored to be part of today's celebration at Beck's, a strong contributor to Indiana's agriculture industry," said Governor Eric J. Holcomb. "Life sciences and innovation-based economic development continue driving Indiana's economy forward, and the growth of Beck's and the rest of our agriculture industry is proof of that. We'll continue cultivating an environment where companies like these can thrive for generations to come."

It will take 60,000 soybean production acres to run at full capacity, equaling 150 incoming semi-trailer loads of soybeans delivered per week. Upon arrival, the soybeans will be stored in the new 125,000 bushel receiving storage facility  20 bins storing 6,250 bushels. In addition, the facility contains two receiving dumps, two scales, and can process two varieties at once. The tower can process 24,000 bags per day through automated package filling for bulk and mini-bulk bags. Once the soybeans have been processed and packaged, 140 semi-trailer loads will be outgoing weekly.

"This project would not be possible without the support of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Hamilton County officials," said Beck. "With their foresight, dedication to Indiana agribusiness, and passion for the growth of the Hoosier economy, we've increased capacity, added jobs, and can better serve farmers across our 14-state marketing area."

Founded in 1937, Beck's began when Lawrence Beck and his son, Francis, planted hybrid parent seed corn developed by the Purdue University Botany Department. Today, Beck's has seen tremendous growth, doubling in size every 6.5 years, leading to the number one selling corn and soybean seed brand in Indiana and the third-largest corn and soybean brand in the United States.

About Beck's

Beck's- Farmers At Heart - revolutionized the customer seed buying experience by remaining true to a foundation built on faith, family, and farming. Founded in 1937, Beck's appreciates the farmers who have helped them become the largest family-owned retail seed company and the third largest seed brand in the United States. The Beck family is now in its fifth generation of family members who work in the business to honor God and help farmers succeed. The Beck family and team of employees help farmers achieve success from generation to generation through authentic customer experiences, product diversity, seed quality, and performance. With a home office located in Atlanta, Ind., Beck's serves farmers throughout the Midwest and Mid-South. For more information about Beck's, visit www.beckshybrids.com. Follow Beck's on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/becks-completes-new-soybean-tower-at-indiana-headquarters-301363069.html

SOURCE Becks Hybrids
President Joe Biden said on Friday that China was hiding "critical information" about COVID-19 origins after the US intelligence community stated it didn't believe the virus was a bioweapon, but experts were divided on whether it escaped from a lab.

According to an unclassified summary of a widely expected intelligence assessment, the US does not believe Chinese authorities had awareness of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has already claimed 4.5 million lives.

Biden said that China had blocked efforts to study the virus from the beginning in a fiery statement released after a three-month investigation. According to data revealed on Friday, US intelligence services are split on the COVID-19 origins but believe China's authorities were unaware of it before the worldwide pandemic began.

Biden vows to dig into COVID-19 origins

An unclassified report tells four intelligence services to believe the virus was first transferred from an animal to a human with "low confidence." A fifth intelligence agency believes the initial human infection was connected to a lab with "moderate confidence."

The virus was not created as a bioweapon, according to experts. As new variations emerge, the cause of coronavirus remains a serious public health and security issue, The Daily Telegraph reported.

President Joe Biden has promised to keep looking into the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic and has pressed China to provide "critical information" that has been suppressed. The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated an already tense relationship between the US and China, with Beijing accusing US officials of using the outbreak for political gain, as per Newsweek via MSN.

China, believing they were being unfairly targeted, stopped participating in foreign inquiries, and the origin of COVID-19 may remain a mystery without Beijing's cooperation. The most widely held theory was that the COVID-19 pandemic originated spontaneously, with animals passing the virus on to people.

Read Also: China Reportedly Introduces "Xi Jinping Thought" on Chinese Schoolchildren as Part of Marxist Brainwashing

Beijing vehemently blasts the idea that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak

One intelligence agency, however, had "moderate confidence" that the outbreak began when someone at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became infected. Some members of the Intelligence Community couldn't agree on how the pandemic started, either because analysts couldn't agree on the cause or because they felt both causes were equally plausible.

Beijing has categorically denied that the pandemic originated as a consequence of a laboratory accident and has chastised individuals who have raised the idea as part of an anti-China campaign. Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-run newspaper the Global Times, urged China to scale up its nuclear program after Biden requested the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to discover the source.

Per NDTV, the natural origin explanation - that the virus originated in bats and subsequently spread to people via an intermediate animal - was generally accepted at the start of the pandemic. As time passed and scientists were unable to identify a virus that matched the genetic profile of SARS-CoV-2 in bats or another animal, investigators became increasingly receptive to the possibility of a leak involving the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted bat coronavirus research.

Recent scientific publications, on the other hand, are refocusing the discussion on a zoonotic origin. "Animal-to-human transmission associated with infected live animals is the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic," according to a report published in Science by researchers from China and the University of Glasgow.

Related Article: Joe Biden Vows to Complete Evacuations in Kabul, Avenge US Deaths After America's Longest War Turned Into Deadly Debacle



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The suicide explosion at the Kabul airport, which killed more than 180 people, including 13 American military members, reportedly killed two British nationals and a child of another British person.

The suicide attack claimed by ISIS-K, an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State organization, killed 95 people, primarily Afghans, and 13 US troops. The three deaths came from three separate families, and they were all waiting outside the airport for an evacuation flight out of Afghanistan when the Taliban took control earlier this month.

A third British citizen was hurt. This individual was transported to the airstrip, was treated by military medics, and is scheduled to be evacuated to the United Kingdom. A second individual, an Afghan youngster with ties to a British family, was injured and is being treated at a Kabul hospital, Sky News reported.

A fourth family member was one of the two persons injured. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK government will "move heaven and earth" to get the remaining eligible people out of Afghanistan.

The UK vows to evacuate people out of Afghanistan

Per Evening Standard, Boris Johnson vows to get people out of Afghanistan beyond August 31 as he acknowledged British casualties in the "condemnable" incident at Kabul airport. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the deaths and said two more people were injured in the incident, which US authorities now think was one bomb rather than the two originally reported at Kabul airport on Thursday.

Raab told reporters after the deaths were verified that he felt "a great sense of remorse" for individuals who were left behind in Afghanistan as the evacuation operation neared its end.

When questioned if the scenes in Afghanistan amounted to national disgrace, he described the situation as "extremely difficult and extremely horrible." Johnson also reiterated his warning to the Taliban that any future administration in Afghanistan must enable individuals who want to leave the country to do so if it wants to interact with the West.

Read Also: China Reportedly Introduces "Xi Jinping Thought" on Chinese Schoolchildren as Part of Marxist Brainwashing

The US is still investigating the attack

Officials in the United States are still investigating the attack's specific circumstances, particularly how the ISIS-K bomber was able to approach so close to the airport gate and explode his bomb device near US troops and Afghans. According to the Pentagon, at least 169 Afghans were killed in the assault, which used just one bomb rather than two.

As the UN refugee agency prepared for as many as half a million individuals escaping the new Taliban rule in Kabul, more than 1,000 former workers of UK organizations who have been left behind were advised to make their way to nations bordering Afghanistan.

The three British people killed in Thursday's attack are said to have been among the thousands of people standing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in the hope of catching one of the last evacuation planes. After being injured in the bomb claimed by Islamic State, two more British people, including a child under the age of ten, were evacuated.

Members of the Taliban are likely to have been killed since the Taliban has previously been targeted by Isis-Khorasan, Afghanistan's branch of the Isis terror network. The United Nations denounced the strike as "especially abhorrent" since it targeted people fleeing the nation, however a reference to the Taliban's need to stop backing terrorists was deleted from the statement at China's request, as per The Independent via MSN.

Related Article: PHOTOS: Troops in Desperate Situation, Helping People in Kabul Airport as Evacuees Struggle to Escape Chaos in Afghanistan



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Authorities are investigating the case where an Arkansas doctor from Washington County allegedly used ivermectin on coronavirus-infected jail inmates to treat them.

The state's medical board is responsible for handling the case after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has specifically warned against the use of the parasite drug against COVID-19. Details of the investigation will not be revealed to the public and will be provided to the full Board review at the next scheduled meeting after completion, Amby Embry, the director of the Arkansas State Medical Board, said.

Parasite Drug Ivermectin

The issue was raised by Eva Madison, a county elected official, during a Tuesday finance and budget committee meeting. Jail officials, including the physician who is now under investigation, were presenting their budget for 2022. The suspect, identified as Dr. Rob Karas, requested a 10% increase to their medical services contract.

Madison told committee members and jail officials that a county employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was told to get tested for COVID-19 at the jail. They said they later tested negative and were immediately given a $76 prescription for ivermectin, CBS News reported.

The employee was concerned and later asked his primary care physician about the prescription, who told him to "throw that in the trash." During the meeting, Madison noted that the employee had the good fortune of having a physician that he could go to and ask for a second opinion but said the inmates did not have that luxury.

Read Also: Chinese Conspiracy Theory Spreads Rumor That US Is Behind Pandemic Amid Officials' Refusal to Cooperate in COVID-19 Origin Investigation

Madison argued that the sheriff defended the use of the parasite drug on COVID-19 patients, even offering to put her in contact with the medical provider. She showed screenshots of the conversation to confirm her statements.

Karas has been the medical provider to the Washington County jail since 2015 and defended his use of ivermectin during a phone conversation. He said he began prescribing the drug last October and has also given it to family members and thousands of other patients, CNN reported.

Potential Side Effects

The medical practitioner said he began giving the parasite drug in November to high-risk patients over 40 years old. Karas defended his decision by saying no patient has died due to COVID-19 out of the 531 cases inside the prison.

The Arkansas Medical Board ordered an investigation into the case, Meg Mirivel, a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Health, revealed. The department was not able to comment further about the issue due to the ongoing investigation.

The FDA previously urged against the use of ivermectin to treat coronavirus patients due to its potential to cause serious harm. The drug has many possible side effects, including skin rash, nausea, and vomiting. In a Twitter post, the agency said, "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."

On Thursday, the CDC also cautioned doctors about the trend of the use of the parasite drug on COVID-19 patients. The agency cited an increase in reports to poison centers of severe illness caused by people self-prescribing with the parasite drug, USA Today reported.



Related Article: Long COVID-19 Symptoms: High Percentage of Patients Returns to Hospital After 1 Year Due to Respiratory, Fatigue, and Muscle Weakness

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A documentary claims Prince William was so fed up with the media attention Princess Diana was receiving that he urged her she should leave England.

Princess Diana's ill-fated marriage to Prince Charles was formally ended 25 years ago. The couple's divorce was finalized in August 1996, four years after they chose to split in 1992.

The princess was permitted to maintain her Kensington Palace apartments, and the couple agreed to split custody of their two boys. Her HRH title, on the other hand, was something she couldn't keep.

Prince William vows one thing to Princess Diana

Princess Diana became Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales on her fairytale wedding day in July 1981, but following her divorce, she was known as Diana, Princess of Wales, leaving her devastated.

Friends and colleagues no longer had to bow or curtsy in Diana's presence when she lost the HRH. It also meant she'd have to bow to her husband, two sons, and a slew of other lesser royals, thus severing her ties to the royal line.

After seeing her distress at losing her title, Prince William, then 14 years old, is said to have made her a heartfelt vow. "Don't worry, Mommy, when I become King, I will return the HRH title to you," William assured her, as per MIRROR.

According to Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, the discussion left her in tears. Princess Diana died about a year after the divorce was finalized, which made the statement even sadder.

The Princess of Wales had started dating Dodi, the oldest son of former Harrods owner and billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, and media interest intensified in the months preceding her death. Dodi asked Diana, William, and Harry to spend the summer of 1997 aboard his boat in the south of France.

Dodi asked Diana, William, and Harry to spend the summer of 1997 aboard his boat in the south of France. Diana looked radiant as she frolicked on a beach with her kids,

Read Also: Prince Charles' Monarchy Plan in Tatters; He Can Choose Prince William as King But Unlikely to Make Camilla as Queen

Princess Diana's last word before she died

Prince Harry and Prince William, on their final vacation a month before her sad death in a Paris car accident. During that summer, however, not everything went smoothly because the media was always following them around.

Royal photographer Arthur Edward stated in the 2007 documentary "Diana: Last Days of a Princess" that the Princess of Wales had reached a breaking point. At the inauguration of Princess Diana's statue earlier this month, Princes William and Harry stood shoulder to shoulder. While the brothers attempted to present a unified face in honor of their mother's 60th birthday, they did not appear to interact much with one another, Express.co reported.

In an interview with Oprah, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, made a series of bombshell accusations against the Royal Family, including that the Duchess had suffered racism and was not supported when she struggled with her mental health. During the interview, the Duke of Sussex also stated that his connection with his brother is now "space."

Per Daily Mail, the late royal's final hours are shrouded in mystery, but it's thought Princess Diana spoke her last words when her boyfriend Dodi Fayed was taken from the car. The Princess was subsequently removed from the Mercedes S280, but her heart stopped beating when she was transferred from a wooden board to a mattress intended to keep her from moving.

Princess Diana talked to her son Prince William, her butler Paul Burrell, and her close friend Susie Kassem before the accident. She also called Richard Kay, The Mail's royal correspondent, on her phone, a valued confidant. "Her intentions had gone awry," Kay later reflected on the conversation. She was eager to see her boys, and she remembered the sights from their arrival in Paris in the afternoon with the press chasing them. The photographs made her feel extremely entrapped, the correspondent added.

Related Article: Princess Diana Knew "Tragedy Awaited Her" and That She Still Loved Prince Charles Despite Extra-Marital Affair, Sources Reveal



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Nigerian gunmen released more students who were kidnapped at gunpoint at a school in the country's north-central Niger State three months ago, reuniting them with their families who paid a ransom of $140,000.

A government spokesperson announced the incident on Friday, saying the parents of the hostages also gave the suspects motorbikes in exchange for their children. Abubakar Alhassan, the school headmaster, addressed journalists after the students were freed, saying the money for the ransom was raised after residents from different sectors banded together to rescue the victims.

Kidnapped Children Released

In a statement, Alhassan said contributors included members from the government, residents, imams, and pastors. The official said they also received donations from TB Joshua, who offered support despite being a Christian.

However, Mary Noel-Berje, a spokeswoman for the Niger State government, said officials did not contribute and were not part of the negotiations with the kidnappers. She said that only the parents of the hostages discussed with the suspects about the terms of their children's release, CNN reported.

On July 5, more than 100 students from the Bethel Baptist High School were abducted by armed individuals. So far, 56 of the kidnapped children have been released, including the 15 from the most recent incident.

Read Also: Mississippi Man, Girlfriend Arrested After Innocent Neighbor Died During a Fight Between Couple

However, there were still 65 more children who were taken by the bandits and are waiting to be rescued by officials, Reverend John Hayab, the school administrator, said. Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna state's commissioner for internal security, confirmed the release of the students but did not immediately comment on the ransom.

The Bethel kidnappings were part of a string of abductions by gangs who were infamous in the area for terrorizing northwest and central Nigeria. The suspects were known for looting, stealing cattle, and kidnapping residents for ransom money, Aljazeera reported.

Armed Abductions in Nigeria

Since December, about 1,000 students have been kidnapped in total after gangs began targeting schools and colleges in the region. After negotiations, most of the victims were released and reunited with their families.

However, many children remained captive, including the 136 kids from June who were studying at an Islamic seminary in Tegina in central Niger State. Officials revealed that four of the hostages died in captivity.

One of the parents of the abducted children said the gangs asked on Friday for clothes for the children, citing they have been in the same clothes for months after being kidnapped. Maryam Mohammed, whose seven kids were among the abducted children, said the gangs called the school and told them to ask parents to send clothes for the children.

Despite the country's government urging against the payment of ransoms for the kidnappers' demands, desperate parents and communities continued to raise money to be reunited with their family members. Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said they would do everything in their power to bring the kidnappers to justice. He said they would quickly put in place necessary measures to hunt down and prosecute all those involved in the heinous crimes of kidnapping innocent young children from their schools, Reuters reported.



Related Article: Former President Trump Faces Legal Charges From Police Who Defended Capitol Hill During Riot

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Elon Musk is fed up with the lawsuit filed by Blue Origin against SpaceX. The billionaire businessman took to Twitter to mock Jeff Bezos, misspelling his name as "Besos" and poking fun at his retirement as Amazon CEO.

Two of the richest men on Earth are in a heated "space race." Bezos and his Blue Origin have filed multiple complaints against SpaceX, which Musk actively ridicules in his tweets. This has sparked a long thread of squabbling between the two.

Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos: The History of Their Dispute

One of the oldest recorded disagreements between the two happened over dinner in 2004. According to New York Post , Musk said: "We talked about rocket architectures. I actually did my best to give good advice, which he largely ignored."

In 2013, they fought over the rights for the NASA launchpad lease, which ended in favor of SpaceX. Afterward, they had another disagreement over rocket landing patents.

Musk also scoffed at the Blue Origin technology in 2015. When Bezos dropped the tweet that said "controlled landing not easy," Musk responded, "[controlled landing is] not quite the rarest."

@JeffBezos Not quite "rarest". SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights 3 years ago & is still around. pic.twitter.com/6j9ERKCNZl  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2015

The arguments continued to get worse this 2021. In April, NASA awarded SpaceX as the sole winner to develop the next lunar lander for their Artemis Program to the Moon. Bezos was unsatisfied with the results and so Blue Origin submitted a complaint to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which officially got rejected.

Musk was quick to respond on social media:

Cant get it up (to orbit) lol  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2021

Read Also: Ethereum, Bitcoin Price Forecast: 'Seismic' Change Could Boost Value!

Some time in August, another Blue Origin complaint against SpaceX was reported by Christian Davenport. In summary, the complaint was about the SpaceX spacecraft Starship and its weaknesses. It also concluded with Blue Origin's promise to work with NASA by waiving $2 billion in developmental fees. Musk mocked this move by tweeting a deflated image of Blue Origin's lunar lander, with a comment, "this wasn't convincing..."

More recently, Amazon filed a complaint against SpaceX through the Federal Communications Commission, urging the agency to deny SpaceX's plan to launch second-generation Starlink satellites in Earth's orbit. Musk replied with a tweet, "Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX..."

Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX   Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2021

SpaceX and Blue Origin Aerospace Research and Development

Early this year, Jeff Bezos officially retired from his Amazon CEO position, which was then awarded to Andy Jassy. Bezos said he would "focus energies and attention on new products and early initiatives," which was later revealed to be Blue Origin and its Human Flight Mission.

Since then, SpaceX and Blue Origin have competed in many space projects, like commercial flights to space, satellite internet systems, and the previously mentioned lunar lander project from NASA.

Note that the satellite internet system and lunar lander are both still in development, so fights between the two could continue to escalate until these projects have officially been completed.

As of time of writing, Forbes ranked Jeff Bezos as the richest man in the world with a $193.5 billion net worth, followed by Elon Musk and his $185.7 billion net worth. These two will understandably continue to feud as each other's biggest business rival in the industry.



Related Article: Hubble Space Telescope Captures Rare Phenomenon: Why Do 'Einstein Rings' Occur?
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured yet another amazing celestial phenomenon in space. NASA posted a rare image of six brilliant spots of light in a circular formation around a central pair. However, appearances can be deceiving because this formation is apparently composed of two galaxies and one distant quasar.

NASA recently tweeted, "How many galaxies do you think are in this image?" The post featured a photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which showed a bright cluster of stars. First impressions led many to believe these are four stars in a circular formation around two bright spots of light.

Twitter user Venus responded, "Incredible Einstein ring. Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity that massive objects will deform the fabric of space itself."

Incredible  Einstein ring 

Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity that massive objects will deform the fabric of space itself. pic.twitter.com/MWfPvIIJVv  venus  (@venus47203379) August 27, 2021

Hubble Telescope Pictures: A Rare Galaxy Phenomenon

According to NASA, this photo contained seven brilliant spots of light in total. Four of them are surrounding three others at the very center.

NASA emphasized this image is actually two separate galaxies and one quasar imaged four times. This photo captured a rare phenomenon where the two central galaxies bent space and acted as lens for the central quasar (known as 2M1310-1714).

Notably, the quasar is a very luminous but distant object. It is not elaborated how far, but it is predicted to be galaxies away from the others. However, its light is seen clearly through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This occurs when celestial objects with enormous mass (like a pair of galaxies) warp the fabric of space. Light that travels through the gravitationally warped space becomes magnified.

Read Also: NASA Hubble Telescope Pictures of Heaven: Space Observatory Snaps Remarkable Spiral Galaxy

To emphasize, the three stars near the bottom possibly belong in one galaxy, and the single star on top belongs to another. In the middle of these for is a single quasar that lies far beyond them.

This fantastic photo was taken by the Hubble Wide Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which was installed back in 2009. WFC3 notably continues to provide top-quality images 12 years after its installation.

NASA Observatory Spotted Iconic Eagle Nebula

The Hubble telescope also unraveled another beautiful phenomenon in space. After repeatedly capturing the same "empty" sky in space, Hubble observed the cosmos with multiple wavelengths of light. After using the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared range, Hubble peered the iconic Eagle Nebula.

Here is a tweet reveal of the image. The Eagle Nebula featured countless stars within its territory, all having different sizes and colors. The stars cover up every corner of the photo, with some interesting grand spires of dust extending by the middle and the sides.

Hubble observes the cosmos in multiple wavelengths of light. They range from ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared. Hubble peered at the iconic Eagle Nebula in visible and infrared light, revealing these grand spires of dust and countless stars within and around them. pic.twitter.com/1Uc9AeVjvt  NASA Universe (@NASAUniverse) August 26, 2021

Note, however, that Hubble is only one of the many amazing space telescopes currently operating in Earth's orbit. Others like Spitzer, Chandra, and Webb might also reveal exciting images and surprises later this year.



Related Article: Hubble Space Telescope Captures Rare Phenomenon: Why Do 'Einstein Rings' Occur?
Actors Ahn Hyo-seop, left, and Kim Yoo-jung pose during an online press conference for SBS's upcoming series, "Red Sky," Thursday. Courtesy of SBS



By Lee Gyu-lee



Actress Kim Yoo-jung will star in a period series for the first time in five years  SBS's upcoming drama, "Red Sky"  after she played the lead in the 2016 hit period romance series "Love In The Moonlight."



Based on a bestselling novel of the same name by Jung Eun-gwol, the writer behind the original novels for the TV dramas "Sungkyunkwan Scandal" and "Moon Embracing the Sun," the new fantasy series follows a romance between two royal officers.



Hong Cheon-ki (Kim), whose name in classical Chinese characters translates to "red sky," is a genius painter who becomes the first woman to work at the Korean Royal Academy of Painting. One day, she runs into a blind man, Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo-seop), who is an officer at a royal unit in charge of astronomy, geography and meteorology, and finds herself instantly attracted.



The actress revealed that she has been a fan of the original novel, which led her to take the title role in the series.



"I've read the book in the past and really enjoyed it, which influenced me to decide to take the role. The elements of the character were appealing to me," she said during an online press conference for the series, Thursday. "Cheon-ki is a bold, high-spirited person. She defies all the odds against her in her own way and becomes the Joseon Kingdom's only female royal painter."



Kim shared her difficulties in working on a period series and make it appealing to the audience.



"I tried not to put myself in any boxes, although I also tried to maintain the nuances of the specific historical period in my acting. Factoring in historical elements put limitations in certain gestures and aspects of language," she said. "So I tried to put focus on how I can make my role convincing and express it in a way so that people, living in modern times, can understand it."





A scene from "Red Sky" / Courtesy of SBS
Female members of Seongnam City Council hold up a banner during a press conference at the council building in the city, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, denouncing a civil servant who created a list of 151 single female coworkers and then offered it to Seongnam Mayor's former secretary. Courtesy of Seongnam City



By Nam Hyun-woo



Criticism is mounting over a male civil servant at Seongnam City, who created a list of 151 single female coworkers and offered it to an unmarried male former secretary of the mayor, apparently seeking favors.



Ten female members of Seongnam City Council held a press conference at the council building in Gyeonggi Province on Friday, and denounced the case as "a serious human rights abuse and crime which harmed women's dignity and infringed on privacy of information."



The council members demanded the city to review the allegation and take immediate action against those involved.



Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi also issued an apology on Thursday, calling it "an unimaginable and unacceptable incident," and pledged to take all necessary measures.



The case was made public on Wednesday after the secretary, who resigned from the post in March last year, reported to the Anti?Corruption and Civil Rights Commission that he received a 12-page document containing photos, names, ages and ranks of 151 single female civil servants in their 30s working at the city government or affiliated organizations from the male civil servant in 2019. The document's creator worked in a human resources team of the city government at the time.



The secretary, surnamed Lee, claimed that the document creator told him to select one of the women, adding he did so to curry favor with the secretary.



Lee claimed he did not report this document to the mayor immediately after receiving it because he believed it would be ignored by the mayor, adding that Eun had ignored a number of his reports on multiple corruption allegations within the city government. Lee quit the post in March 2020.



According to the city government, the civil servant admitted that he created the list, but said he does not remember why he created it. It said the civil servant did not leak the document outside of the city government, and it requested Seongnam Police investigate the case.



Lee has been at odds with Mayor Eun after filing a separate whistleblowing report to the National Human Rights Commission. In November last year, he reported that 33 associates of Eun were illegally hired in the city government and affiliated organizations.



Lee is also criticized for keeping the document for nearly two years and now reporting it in the name of whistleblowing as part of his campaign against Eun.




A statue symbolizing "comfort women" in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul / Korea Times file



A group of ruling party lawmakers have withdrawn a controversial bill designed to curb alleged "slander" of former wartime sexual slavery victims and their advocacy groups, in the face of strong criticism from opposition parties.



According to a National Assembly website tracking legislative bills, the proposal to revise the act on protecting so-called comfort women was withdrawn Wednesday after its submission 12 days ago. "Comfort women" is a euphemistic Japanese term for those who were sexually enslaved by the imperial Japanese army before and during World War II.



Jointly proposed by nine lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and former DPK member Rep. Youn Mee-hyang, Aug. 13, the proposed bill sought to prohibit, through legislation, alleged defamation against not only the former wartime sexual slavery victims and their families but also civic organizations working on their behalf.



The bill, however, immediately came under heat from opposition lawmakers and critics who warned that the participation of Youn, the former leader of comfort women advocacy group the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, as the bill's co-sponsor, would constitute a conflict of interest.



Opponents, in particular, branded the bill as Youn's attempt to "protect herself" at a time when the lawmaker is facing a trial on charges of misappropriating donated funds while leading the civic group.



Lee Yong-soo, one of the surviving victims, has also come forward to publicly denounce the bill.



As controversy grew over the proposal, the DPK distanced itself from the bill, saying it was independently pushed by some party lawmakers on their own right, not by the party.



"The bill was meant to protect victims, but (we) decided to withdraw it in consideration of resistance from (some) victims," said DPK Rep. In Jae-keun, one of the bill's co-proposers. "For now, we have no plan to propose it again." (Yonhap)


An aide holding an umbrella kneels behind Vice Justice Minister Kang Sung-kook at a state-run human resources development center in Jincheon, 91 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Aug. 27, as Kang holds a press conference on the government's support for Afghan evacuees, who entered the center for a six-week stay to help them adapt to Korean culture. About 380 Afghans, who worked for South Korea in the war-ravaged nation, and their family members were airlifted to South Korea the previous day. Yonhap
A group of children looking at the photographer, circa 1900s / Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



Photographs of Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries often are graced with the images of children. They captivate the viewer. In many pictures, the children are more like accessories  used as a scale to indicate the size of an object or to breathe life into a rather dull image of a building or artifact.



In other pictures, children are the main subject. They gaze curiously out at the viewer  the interloper  who has accosted them in the street while they are playing with their friends or are busy with chores.



Many photographs were staged, with the children placed to capitalize on their beauty and innocence  in hopes of appealing to a greater market.



These images of Korean children in photographs are flattering but the images portrayed in contemporary books, newspapers, magazines and letters home were not.



One of the most frequent comments about Korean children was their lack of clothing. In the late summer of 1888, an American correspondent blushingly described small Korean children as rarely wearing anything "more than a little jacket coming down two inches below the arm pits." A little over a decade later, an American gold miner told his parents that Korean children ran around "dressed only in a smile." Perhaps this is why a missionary in 1891 declared Korea to be "a land of naked children."





A view of Gwanghwamun in the early 1900s / Robert Neff Collection



Their observations were rather amusing and benign but others, like Isabella Bird Bishop, may have been overly harsh. Describing her first impression of Fusan (part of modern Busan), she disparagingly wrote that "mangy dogs and blear-eyed children, half or wholly naked, and scaly with dirt, roll in the deep dust or slime, or pant and blink in the sun, apparently unaffected by the stenches which abound."



Westerners also wrote about the high mortality rate of Korean children  especially from smallpox. Horace Allen, a missionary doctor, claimed that about 50 percent of Korean children died before the age of five due primarily to smallpox. Many parents did not even name their children until after they contracted and survived the disease. (It might be interesting to note that the mortality rate among missionary children was also quite high, which they stoically  if not a little coldly  accepted as the will of God).



Foreign visitors often described seeing mothers and elderly grandmothers wandering the streets with sick babies and small children upon their backs. The women spoke softly, in honorific Korean, to their small ward in an attempt to quiet their cries of discomfort and misery, and not to excite the wrath of the demon they believed was responsible for the disease.





A mother and her children in the early 1900s / Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection



Sometimes their efforts were futile and the child died. The corpse was sometimes taken outside the city gates and displayed in the fields as a reminder to the demon that it had already claimed a life and that perhaps it should move on. Others were wrapped in straw and sometimes placed in trees.



Poor families were sometimes forced to make practical but horrendous decisions. Unwilling or unable to pay for treatment, they abandoned their children (those unlikely to survive) outside the city walls among the corpses or tied them to trees in the vicinity to prevent them from wandering back to their homes.



By the late 1880s, Western missionaries established many small hospitals and clinics. At first, they were viewed with suspicion but as time passed their popularity grew  especially in cases where traditional medicine seemed inadequate.





A Korean mother and her young ward, circa 1900s / Robert Neff Collection A young Korean porter and his rude feathered passenger, circa 1900s / Robert Neff Collection
In this July 29 photo, students and parents leave after attending private after-school education in the Haidan District of Beijing. AFP-Yonhap




Children evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, hold hands as they walk through the terminal to board a bus at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Aug. 27. AP-Yonhap



American forces working under heightened security and threats of another terrorist attack pressed ahead with evacuations from Kabul's airport Friday, the day after a deadly suicide bombing wrote a devastating closing chapter on the United States' withdrawal from its war in Afghanistan.



The death toll from the attack rose to 169 Afghans, a number that could increase as authorities examine fragmented remains, and 13 U.S. service members.



The White House and the Pentagon warned there could be more bloodshed ahead of President Joe Biden's fast-approaching deadline to end the airlift and withdraw American forces, Tuesday. The next few days ''will be our most dangerous period to date'' in the evacuation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, hours before the U.S. issued a security alert for four of the airport's gates.



Thursday's bombing  blamed on Afghanistan's offshoot of the Islamic State group, an enemy of both the Taliban and the West  marked one of the most lethal attacks the country has seen. The U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.



As the call to prayer echoed Friday through Kabul along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds thronging the airport in hope of escaping Taliban rule appeared as large as ever, despite the scenes of victims lying closely packed together in the aftermath of the bombing.



Around the world, newly arriving Afghan evacuees, many clutching babies and bare handfuls of belongings in plastic bags, stepped off evacuation flights in the United States, in Albania, in Belgium and beyond. In Kabul, Friday, Afghan families looked for loved ones among the bodies  placed along a hospital sidewalk for identification  of the bombing victims who died pleading for a seat on the U.S.-run airlifts.



Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners are all acutely aware the window is closing to get out via the airlift.



Jamshad went to the airport Friday with his wife and three small children. He clutched an invitation to a Western country he didn't want to identify.



''After the explosion I decided I would try. Because I am afraid now there will be more attacks, and I think now I have to leave,'' said Jamshad, who like many Afghans uses only one name.



The Pentagon said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber  at the airport gate  not two, as U.S. officials initially said. A U.S. official said that the suicide bomber carried a heavier-than-usual load of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel.



The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the attack. The officials who gave the Afghan death toll also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.



The Afghan victims ranged from a hard-working young journalist to an impoverished father, driven to the airport by hopes of a better life.



The American dead were 11 Marines, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier. Many had been children when U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan in 2001.



One, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Mae'lee Grant Nikoui, sent a video to a family friend in the United States just hours before he was killed, showing himself smiling and greeting Afghan children.



''Want to take a video together, buddy?'' Nikoui asked a young boy, leaning in to be in the picture with him. ''All right, we're heroes now, man.''



British officials said two of the country's citizens and the child of another Briton were among those killed when the bomb exploded.



On the morning after the attack, the Taliban used a pickup truck full of fighters and three captured Humvees to set up a barrier 500 meters (1,600 feet) from the airport, holding the crowds farther back from the U.S. troops at the gates than before.



U.S. military officials said that some gates were closed and other security measures put in place. They said there were tighter restrictions at Taliban checkpoints and fewer people around the gates. The military said it had also asked the Taliban to close certain roads because of the possibility of suicide bombers in vehicles.



The Pentagon said the U.S. would keep up manned and unmanned flights over the airport for surveillance and protection, including the use of AC-130 gunships.



U.S. officials said evacuees with proper credentials were still being allowed through the gates. Inside, about 5,400 evacuees awaited flights.





A US Air Force aircraft takes off from the military airport in Kabul, Aug. 27. AFP-Yonhap
President Joe Biden listens as he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Aug. 27. AP-Yonhap



Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate Saturday.



The strike came amid what the White House called indications that IS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation from Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as his deadline for completing the exit.



Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly announced.



The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days left in a final U.S. withdrawal after 20 years of war. U.S. Central Command provided few details; it said it believed its strike killed no civilians.



The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.



Central Command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangahar Province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said.



It wasn't clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.



The airstrike came after Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. ''We will hunt you down and make you pay,'' he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.



''We have options there right now,'' said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff.



The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of the frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.



''They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport,'' Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at the airport.



Late Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from the airport's gates, including ''the New Ministry of Interior gate.''



Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one  at or near the Abbey Gate  followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.



Based on a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, a U.S. official said Friday. A suicide bomb typically carries five to 10 pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.



Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.



Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Biden's assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistan's borders. The Pentagon, however, insists this so-called ''over the horizon'' capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.



In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war over the past two decades and tens of thousands were injured.



The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves ''difficult conversations.''



Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.



Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.



They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for the militant group to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all American troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all forces out by September.



Psaki said the next few days of the mission to evacuate Americans and others, including vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, ''will be the most dangerous period to date.''



The White House said that as of Friday morning, about 12,500 people were airlifted from Kabul in the last 24 hours on U.S. and coalition aircraft; in the 12 hours that followed, another 4,200 people were evacuated. Psaki said about 300 Americans had departed and the State Department was working with about 500 more who want to leave. The administration has said it intends to push on and complete the airlift despite the terrorist threats.



Kirby told reporters the U.S. military was monitoring credible, specific Islamic State threats ''in real time.''



''We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts,'' Kirby said. He declined to describe details of any additional security measures being taken, including those implemented by the Taliban, around the airport gates and perimeter. He said there were fewer people in and around the gates Friday. (AP)


On 26 August Colombias main trade unions held another day of anti-government protests across the country.

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On 26 August the head of Mexicos interior ministry (Segob),, announced that she was stepping down in order to return to her seat in the federal senate.

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST- Full Time, Grant Funded 15 month position with possible extension.

Come be a part of a team that is building resilience and helping community members thrive. We are

committed to reducing suicide, reducing substance misuse, and creating a culture of wellness in

Goochland and Powhatan Counties. We use community data and input from many sources to create plans that influence wellness in

Goochland and Powhatan. This major undertaking happens through building relationships across

organizations and individuals who work together to create a measurable impact. The type of applicant that we are seeking loves collaboration, planning, and coalition work. This type of

person is able to organize and track information, to read and understand data, to work on collaborative

teams with multiple levels of focus, to provide public trainings and workshops, and must be detail

oriented, organized, and proficient at writing and planning. Applicants must possess a bachelors degree in a human services-related field, communications field, or

public health field, and one year experience working/interning/volunteering in one of these fields. Applications will be scored based on experience in the following areas:

Education and Training

Prevention Experience

Communication and Media Skills

Coalition and collaboration experience FT 40 hour/week with benefits. Salary is commensurate with education and experience. This position

closes on 9/10/21 E.O.E. DEFINITION

Under supervision of the Prevention Supervisor, this position is responsible for coordinating

substance misuse prevention and suicide prevention efforts within the community. This

position provides overall direction for Behavioral Health and Wellness Services, including

the planning and provision of behavioral health wellness, education, consultation and early

intervention counseling. This position works collaboratively with community partners in

these efforts. The Community Development Specialist provides support for the initiatives of

Goochland Powhatan Community Services and the Rural Substance Abuse Awareness

Coalition (a collaborative community group that addresses alcohol and drug issues in

Goochland and Powhatan) and participates in a variety of community teams and coalitions.

This is a grant funded position that will last until March 2023 with a possible extension. JOB EXPECTATIONS AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

 Research and report on community needs concerning substance misuse prevention,

suicide prevention, and Behavioral Health and Wellness services.

 Provide consultation to community agencies regarding substance misuse prevention,

suicide prevention, behavioral health and wellness prevention, and intervention

services.

 Identify and prepare grant proposals to obtain funding and expand substance misuse

prevention, suicide prevention, and behavioral health and wellness prevention and early

intervention programming.

 Collaborate with other agency programs and community partners in writing grants.

 Support the work of task forces, including planning, scheduling and follow-up for

meetings and activities.

 Maintain active partnerships with other agencies with which GPCS interfaces.

 Conduct workshops and programs for community and other organizations.

 Facilitate Mental Health First Aid and other trainings.

 Assist in planning, coordination and oversight of special initiatives or events.

 Develop educational materials and reports.

 Assist Prevention Supervisor with planning, budgeting, and program development.

 Respond to citizen requests for information.

 Volunteer coordination and sustainability management as needed for local initiatives

 Participate in interagency committees and coalitions.

 Attend in-service training sessions, conferences, workshops, and seminars related to the

provision of developmental services for professional and program development.

 Establish and maintain effective working relationships with consumers, organizations,

and agencies responsible for providing services to target population.

 Provide consultation and education to community-based organizations and individuals

as needed.

 To perform other assigned duties as necessary within established policy and

procedures.

REQUIREMENTS EDUCATION

Bachelors Degree in human services field of study, Communications, or Public Health EXPERIENCE

1-year experience working/interning/volunteering in one of these fields. LICENSE(S)

Position will be required to possess a valid Virginia driver's license PRE-EMPLOYMENT

Must submit to pre-hire criminal background check KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES

 Knowledge of theories, delivery systems and techniques of substance misuse

prevention, suicide prevention and behavioral health intervention and community-based

prevention planning.

 Knowledge of consumers with substance misuse, suicide and behavioral health issues,

the impact on individuals, families, and the community and related behavioral situations.

 Knowledge of effective substance misuse and suicide prevention strategies.

 Knowledge of youth development.

 Knowledge of community services and resources for youth and families.

 Knowledge of community coalitions.

 Knowledge of grants, application process and management of grant.

 Knowledge of social media, audio/visual communication, public relations and marketing.

 Knowledge of research methods.

 Knowledge of Goochland Powhatan Community Services policies and procedures.

 Ability to demonstrate strong writing skills, including grant writing.

 Ability to plan and development programs in support of objectives and goals provided by GPCS Executive Director, Board and Supervisor.

 Ability to operate within a budget.

 Ability to safely operate a vehicle.

 Ability to work independently, take initiative, maintain flexibility, and make sound judgments.

 Ability to be self-directed and demonstrate creativity.

 Ability to work effectively and communicate with other professionals, organizations, and

diverse groups of community volunteers.

 Ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing,

 Ability to complete required training including Crisis Intervention/Emergency Behavior

Support and in-service First Aid and CPR training.

 Ability to work under pressure; meet inflexible deadlines; set priorities; and deal

diplomatically with difficult individuals.

Ability to access internet and use appropriate applications including Microsoft Word

Excel, and Publisher.

 Ability to maintain confidentiality of consumers information.

Persons with mental or physical disabilities are eligible as long as they can perform the

essential functions of the job after reasonable accommodation is made to their known

limitations. If the accommodation cannot be made because it would cause the employer

undue hardship, such persons may not be eligible.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS

Work environment will typically be working in an office setting and in the community.

Work environment will involve traveling within the community and will include exposure to

road hazards usually experience in driving in rural, county surroundings, interstate highway

driving, including exposure to weather and temperature extremes that may affect driving

conditions. Sitting: 75%; Standing/Walking 10%; Driving: 15%

Average Weight Required to lift or carry at any one time: 50 pounds for brief periods of time.

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Under the supervision of the Respiratory Care Department Manager, the Respiratory Therapist is responsible to provide respiratory care services in accordance with specific physician's orders and department policies and procedures. Duties: The therapist utilizes judgmental responsibility for therapy.

The therapist assesses the effectiveness of the therapy associated with therapeutic gases, aerosols, chest physiotherapy, cardiac monitoring, and pulmonary function testing.

The ideal candidate must be able to work with many ancillary department team members to provide patient care.

Therapist will use the following equipment: Vapotherm, Volara, Trilogy 202 vent, Trilogy EV300 vent, and I-stat machine.

Therapist will also work in the out-patient area to provide testing that includes: Holter monitors, Pulmonary function testing, Stress testing, and Pulmonary clinic days. Education and Training Requirements: Must be NBRC Registered Therapist or NBRC Certified and licensed by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The job involves extensive walking, bending, and lifting of approximately 25 pounds.

Must have current ACLS and BLS certifications.

PALS is required within 6 months of hire.

The candidate must have at least one year experience in respiratory therapy. Schedule: This is a full-time opening with competitive salary and benefits. Open shift is: 36 hours a week

12-hour shifts / 72 hours a pay period Click apply now to email your resume today! Grow as a professional! We offer a great environment to use all your respiratory skills and grow. At Virginia Gay Hospital, you become an important member of our community's commitment to high-quality care provided close to home. Virginia Gay Hospital is the community's largest employer and provides many services. Services provided are diagnostic testing, clinical expertise in Acute inpatient area, Emergency Medicine, Home Health, Imaging Services, Laboratory, Nursing and Rehabilitation, Respiratory Therapy, Sleep Lab Services, Surgical Services, and Therapy Services. As a leader in rural healthcare and specializing in family medicine Virginia Gay Hospital and Clinics serves families in the greater Benton County, Iowa area with family medical clinics in Atkins, Van Horne, Urbana, and Vinton. Virginia Gay Hospital was founded with a gift from Virginia Walcutt-Gay in 1914. The hospital has maintained independence with the generous support from the community.

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System ID 727044

Category Food Service

Relocation Type Yes - According to Grade

Employment Status Full-Time

Unit Description

A passion for helping people and attention to detail are the hallmarks of your success. Join a team where you can make a difference!!



**RELOCATION ASSISTANCE OFFERED**

Sodexo is seeking a General Manager 3 - Food for Centenary University located in Hackettstown, NJ. With a student enrollment of approximately 3,000 student, Centenary University is a private liberal arts college. It continues to serve the needs of its diverse student body through a tradition of offering innovative programs that makes the college experience special.

The successful candidate will: have oversight of day-to-day operations over our residential dining program, retail programs (Starbucks, Equestrian Center, mini market), and catering;

create a positive working environment;

have a strong financial acumen and be able to achieve company and client financial targets and goals (currently 2M in sales);

have experience managing multiple locations;

integrate fully within our client's organization becoming a trusted adviser and member of the accounts leadership team;

develop and execute a strategy to accelerate business growth;

create an exceptional student experience through marketing, menu design, and food quality;

lead and motivate the team, inspiring strategic direction;

ensure the fulfillment of all contract commitments;

sustain client satisfaction and retention; and

maintain strong employee relations (non union employees). Is this opportunity right for you? We are looking for candidates who: have a work history demonstrating strong leadership skills and the ability to work collaboratively with all levels of the organization;

possess the ability to manage multiple priorities, demonstrate professional communication skills, and exhibit a passion for a high-level of customer service;

exhibit flexibility to take on additional responsibilities as needed; and/or

demonstrate working knowledge of automated food inventory, ordering, production and management systems as well as menu graphics programs. At Sodexo, we believe every employee should have the resources to be their best. As part of our overall rewards, we offer benefits programs designed to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle including health, dental and vision insurance. We also offer other benefits like paid time off, financial and savings programs, 401k, and access to our employee assistance program and other discounts. Click here for more information about Sodexo's Benefits.

Working for Sodexo: At Sodexo, you will find the ingredients for a great career in food service management. With benefits including schedules that encourage work-life balance and continuing education opportunities, you'll enjoy an improved quality of life that's unique in the hospitality industry Keywords: food service, resident dining, campus dining

Position Summary

Directs all contract management service operations at a single account/unit. Plans and supervises special functions. Maintains cash control and payroll records. Hires and trains unit personnel. Maintains customer satisfaction and good public relations. Manages through managers and is accountable for the contract. Senior-most person assigned to a one client account

Provides local leadership and strategic direction while developing team for new and emerging business solutions that sustain growth in the day to day operations.

Key Duties

- Provides team leadership & training

- Controls unit financials

- Directs daily food operations for quality & safety standards

- Supervises day to day activities

- Delegates authority

- Assigns & prioritizes activities

- Monitors operating standards

- Establishes a safe work environment

- Support workplace inclusion activities

Qualifications & Requirements

Basic Education Requirement - Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience

Basic Management Experience - 3 years

Basic Functional Experience - 3 years Sodexo is an EEO/AA/Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran employer.




Duties



Summary The United States Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General (USAID OIG) is seeking a highly qualified applicant to fill a Supervisory Human Resources Specialist (HR Development) position located in the Office of Management (M), Learning and Development Division in Washington, D.C. Learn more about this agency



Responsibilities As Director of the Learning and Development Division, you will: Assist OIG managers in carrying out their responsibilities for planning and conducting employee learning and development.

Identify best practices, areas of improvement, and opportunities to reduce risks and increase quality of the agency's learning and development program.

Provide corporate leadership and serve as an advocate for improving customer responsiveness, agency-wide coordination, and communication of the employee development program.

Provide leadership and guidance to OIG supervisors, managers, and senior executive staff in the development, administration, and continuous improvement of OIG's employee learning, training, and supervisory development programs.

Collaborate with the HC Director in assessing current and future workforce needs; oversee/manage the training budget; and ensure the efficient and cost-effective development and maintenance of an OIG training delivery system.

Provide a range of services that are designed to support the training and development of the OIG staff.

Plan, evaluate and administer programs designed to develop OIG employees, supervisors, and senior executives.

Conduct training surveys and analyzes information and data to anticipate human resource development and training needs for specific categories of positions that involve well-defined and readily understood duties.

Establish goals, objectives and plans for staff supervised; schedule and plan the work to be completed by staff; and determine resources required to accomplish the work.

Develop management processes and procedures in the areas of strategic planning and workforce development.



Travel Required Occasional travel - Occasional travel - Incumbent must be willing and able to travel both domestically and internationally. Supervisory status Yes Promotion Potential 15 Job family (Series) 0201 Human Resources Management Similar jobs Human Resources Specialists

Specialists, Human Resources



Requirements



Conditions of Employment U.S. Citizen

Must be able to obtain and maintain a SECRET security clearance

Designated and/or random drug test required

Males born after 12/31/1959, must be registered with the Selective Service

Travel to domestic and overseas locations may be required



Qualifications You must have one year of specialized experience at the level similar, related, or relevant to the work of this job that has given you particular knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform. Typically we would find this experience in work within this field or a field that is closely related.



Your resume serves as the basis for qualification determinations and must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable) as it relates to this job opportunity. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Your resume must include the dates of all qualifying experience (from month/year to month/year) and the number of hours worked/volunteered per week. To qualify for the GS-15: Applicants must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 or higher in the Federal service or equivalent. Specialized experience is defined as: (1) providing leadership and guidance to agency leaders, supervisors and staff in the development, administration and continuous improvement of an agency's/organization's employee learning, training and supervisory development programs (2) Conducting training surveys and analyzing information and data in order to anticipate human resource development and training needs for specific categories of positions (3) establishing goals, objectives and plans for staff supervised; determines and plans work to be carried out by staff, and ascertains resources needed for accomplishment of the work , and (4) Ensures the revision and/or development of new regulations, guidelines and instructions as necessary to ensure compliance with all governing statutes, regulations and directives. There is no substitute of education for specialized experience for the GS-14 position. Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent. Applicants must meet basic eligibility requirements such as minimum qualifications, and other regulatory requirements by the closing date of the announcement.



Education Education requirements in this grade level and series are not applicable.



Additional information To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, your latest discharge must be issued under honorable conditions (this means an honorable or general discharge), AND you must be either: (1) a preference eligible (defined in title 5 U.S.C. 2108(3)), OR (2) a veteran who substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. Points are not adjudicated and preference is not applied under this type of appointment. Interagency Career Transition Program/Career Transition Program (ICTAP/CTAP) : This program applies to Federal workers whose positions have been deemed 'surplus' or no longer needed, or an employee has been involuntarily separated from a Federal service position within the competitive service. For information on how to apply and what documents to submit as an ICTAP or CTAP eligible, go to: http://(see application details) . ICTAP/CTAP candidates must be rated well-qualified for the position to receive consideration for special priority. Interchange Agreement with Other Merit Systems: An agency may noncompetitively appoint an employee covered by an interchange agreement to a career or career-conditional appointment subject to the conditions listed below. For more information to determine if you meet this criteria, please go to: (see application details) U.S. Agency for International Development is a part of E-Verify. E-Verify provides an automated link to Federal databases to help employers determine employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of the social security numbers. Please note that travel and relocation expenses will not be paid. Additional selections may be made from any certificate of eligibles that result from this announcement. DIRECT DEPOSIT: All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing. TESTING DESIGNATED POSITIONS: These are Testing Designated Positions (TDPs) under the Agency's approved Drug-Free Work Place Program. All applicants selected for this position will be subject to random drug testing once they begin working for the Agency. SELECTIVE SERVICE: The Defense Authorization Act of 1986 requires that all male applicants born after 12/31/59 who are required to register under the Military Selective Service Act, be registered or they are not eligible for appointment to this position. For further information concerning Selective Service requirements, please visit (see application details) . EEO Policy Statement Reasonable Accommodation Telework People with Disabilities Read more



How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above. We use a multi-step process to evaluate and refer applicants: Qualified applicants receive a score of 70 to 100. You will be rated on your qualifications for this position as evidenced by the education, experience, and training you report on relative to this positions that show the degree to which you possess the competencies listed on this vacancy announcement. Paid or unpaid experience will be considered. USAID must be able to conduct reference checks as part of its assessment process. Applicants who do not permit reference checks from previous employers may be disqualified. This position requires the following core competencies: Leadership and Management

Developing Others

Human Resource Management Theories

Strategic Thinking

Oral Communication

Written Communication Note: Your answers to the assessment questions, which attest to your work experience, must be supported in your resume.

To preview questions please click here . Read more



Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance Secret Drug test required Yes



Required Documents

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes: Your Resume showing work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment and duties performed. Submit your last step increase or promotion SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action); your document must reflect grade, step, tenure code "1" or "2", and type of position occupied. Veterans' documentation, if requesting consideration under any veterans' hiring eligibilities such as VRA, preference point entitlement (e.g. DD214, SF-15, and Veteran's Administration Letter). For a detailed list of documents, click here . Supporting documentation if seeking eligibility based any other special hiring authority (e.g., disabled veteran, Schedule A) For a detailed list of documents, click here . Proof of government service documenting that you have met the time-in-grade requirements. Noncompetitive appointment eligibility documentation, if applicable. Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP)/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program(ICTAP)Documentation, if applicable (e.g. Certification of Expected Separation, Reduction-In-Force Separation Notice, or Notice of Proposed Removal; SF-50 that documents the RIF separation action; and most recent performance appraisal.) Failure to submit any of the above mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted. If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements: Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education . Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.



Benefits

A career with the U.S. Government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new window Learn more about federal benefits . Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time, or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.



Fair & Transparent

The Federal hiring process is setup to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.



Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

The United States Government does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) for federal employees & job applicants Read more



Reasonable Accommodation Policy

Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process should follow the instructions in the job opportunity announcement. For any part of the remaining hiring process, applicants should contact the hiring agency directly. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. A reasonable accommodation is any change to a job, the work environment, or the way things are usually done that enables an individual with a disability to apply for a job, perform job duties or receive equal access to job benefits. Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodations when: An applicant with a disability needs an accommodation to have an equal opportunity to apply for a job.

An employee with a disability needs an accommodation to perform the essential job duties or to gain access to the workplace.

An employee with a disability needs an accommodation to receive equal access to benefits, such as details, training, and office-sponsored events. You can request a reasonable accommodation at any time during the application or hiring process or while on the job. Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis. Learn more about disability employment and reasonable accommodations or how to contact an agency. Read more Legal and regulatory guidance Financial suitability

Social security number request

Privacy Act

Signature and false statements

Selective Service

New employee probationary period




Salary $112,819.20 - $172,307.20 Annually Location Arlington *METRO-accessible*, VA Job Type Full-Time Department County Attorney's Office Job Number 9701-22B-CAO-HQ Closing Continuous Position Information Note: This position may be filled as Assistant County Attorney III, II or I depending on qualifications - see salary information under Additional Informatio n.



The appointee to this position will provide legal services in a wide variety of local government law areas. The primary duties expected of this position focus on complex transactional matters, or alternatively, employment and labor law. The position is expected to function with general supervision and requires comprehensive, in-depth knowledge of general and local government related Virginia law, and federal laws and regulations, including their relationship to the authority and functions of county government.



Additional responsibilities for this position include: Reviewing and preparing agreements, contracts, ordinances, resolutions, and other legal documents, as well as preparing opinions for and rendering legal advice to the County Board, the County Manager, and County departments and staff;

Organizing, interpreting and applying difficult legal principles;

Analyzing and addressing complex legal problems using sound professional judgment, as well as excellent research and writing skills; and

Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with public officials, staff, and the general public.

Selection Criteria Minimum: A Juris Doctor from an accredited school of law, and significant experience in the practice of Virginia law. Must be an active member in good standing of the Virginia State Bar. Attorney III and Attorney II: Significant experience with complex transactional matters including but not limited to transactions for municipal finance and affordable housing loan and financing; intergovernmental agreements, leases, grant agreements, and renewable energy related agreements, among others. Alternatively, significant experience in employment and labor law, including but not limited to issues related to FMLA, FLSA, grievances, retirement benefits, EEO complaints, application of the County's internal administrative policies and procedures, and interpretation and application of collective bargaining agreements.

Attorney I: Some experience in transactional matters, or alternatively, employment and labor law as described above.

Desirable: Preference will be given to applicants with the following: Handling administrative investigations and hearings;

Previous employment with a Virginia city or county government; and

Previous experience in complex transactional deals.

Special Requirements A letter of application is required. Please use the space in the supplemental questionnaire or attach a cover letter to your application that addresses how your education, training and experience meet the SELECTION CRITERIA as stated in the job announcement Minimum and Desirable Qualifications as well as the statements in the Desirable section of the job announcement. Please be specific regarding your role and responsibilities in relevant positions; also indicate the employer(s) where experience was gained.

Additional Information Work Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.



Telework: The office has a generous flexwork and telework policy.



Please Note: The position grade and salary to be commensurate with experience. The salary listed on top of the announcement is for an Assistant County Attorney III.



The salary range for an Assistant County Attorney II is $94,744.00 - $144,664.00 Annually.

The salary range for an Assistant County Attorney I is $83,220.80 - $127,067.20 Annually.



Completion of the Supplemental Questionnaire is required and a part of the application process for consideration for this position. Please do not give "see resume" as a response to questions. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Arlington County Government employee benefits depend on whether a position is permanent, the number of hours worked, and the number of months the position is scheduled.



Specific information on benefits and conditions of employment can be found on the Arlington County Human Resources Department website: (see application details)



Permanent, Full-Time Appointments

All jobs are permanent, full-time appointments unless otherwise stated in the announcement. The following benefits are available:



Paid Leave : Vacation leave is earned at the rate of four hours biweekly. Leave accrual increases every three years until eight hours of leave are earned biweekly for twelve or more years of service. Sick leave is earned at the rate of four hours biweekly. There are eleven paid holidays each year.



Health and Dental Insurance : Three group health insurance plans are offered - a network open access plan, a point-of-service plan, and a health maintenance organization. A group dental insurance plan is also offered. The County pays a significant portion of the premium for these plans for employees and their dependents. A discount vision plan is provided for eye care needs.



Life Insurance : A group term policy of basic life insurance is provided at no cost to employees. The benefit is one times annual salary. Additional life insurance is available with rates based on the employee's age and smoker/non-smoker status.



Retirement : The County offers three vehicles to help you prepare for retirement: a defined benefit plan, a defined contribution plan (401(a)), and a deferred compensation plan (457). The defined benefit plan provides a monthly retirement benefit based on your final average salary and years of service with the County. You contribute a portion of your salary on a pre-tax basis to this plan. General employees contribute 4% of pay; uniformed public safety employees contribute 7.5% of pay. Employees become vested in the plan at five years of service. The County also contributes to this plan.



For general employees, the County also contributes 4.2% of pay to a defined contribution plan (401(a)) . The County also matches your 457 contribution, up to $20 per pay period, in this plan. The 457 deferred compensation plan allows you to set aside money on either a pre-tax (457b) or post-tax (457 Roth) basis up to the IRS annual limit. New employees are automatically enrolled with a pre-tax contribution equal to 2% of your base pay.



Other Benefits: The County also offers health, dependent care, and parking flexible spending accounts; long-term care insurance; tuition assistance; transit and walk/bike to work subsidies; a college savings plan; wellness programs; training opportunities; and a variety of other employee benefits.



Permanent, Part-Time Appointments:

Part time employees who work ten or more hours per week receive paid leave and benefits in proportion to the number of hours worked per week.



Limited Term Appointments:

Benefits are the same as permanent appointments except that the employees do not achieve permanent status.



Temporary Regular Appointments:

Temporary regular employees who work 30 hours or more per week are eligible for health, dental, and basic life insurance as described above. They are also eligible for vacation, sick leave, and paid holidays.



Temporary Seasonal and Occasional Appointments:

Temporary employees who work on a seasonal basis or variable hours receive sick leave, but do not normally receive other paid leave or benefits. Exceptions are noted in individual announcements.


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Magnolia, AR (71754)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.


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he Ministry of Health and Wellness informs the public that vaccination sessions for the administration of Johnson &

Johnson Vaccine (Janssen Vaccine) (single dose), Sinopharm 1st dose or Sputnik V 1st dose will be carried out on

Saturday 28, Monday 29 and Tuesday 31 August 2021.

The vaccination programme will be opened to all Mauritian citizens aged 18 and above.

All those persons wishing to get vaccinated are kindly requested to bring their National Identity Card along

with them.
In respect of the fire incident involving Fishing Vessel FV RUEY CHIEN TSAI 112 which occurred in the evening of 24 August 2021, the Mauritius Ports Authority (MPA) wishes to provide an update of the situation as at 27 August 2021.

Despite the fact that the fire was brought under control on the evening of 26 August 2021, at about 23:00 hours, it was observed that there were visible signs that the fire had rekindled due to the fibre glass and oil base paint construction.

The fire was again attended to by the MPA Port Emergency Services with the assistance of Tug Dombeya and firefighting operations were carried out.

The fire fighters encountered difficulties to board the vessel to combat the fire.

For the moment, no oil spill has been observed in the lagoon and MPA has installed booms around the casualty to prevent any spill.

The Mauritius Fire Rescue Services jointly with the MPA Port Emergency Services undertook a temperature assessment on board and around the wreck using a Thermal Imaging Camera in the afternoon of 27 August 2021 so as to confirm whether the fire has been completely subdued.

The temperature on board has been monitored with the assistance of the MFRS and NCG. The temperature did not go above 25 degree C and it can therefore be confirmed that the fire has been extinguished.

In the meantime, the Scene of Crime Office (SOCO) team of the Police will complete its investigations.

The Agent, Chang Fong Marine & Shipping has signed an agreement with Messrs. Taylor Smith Co Ltd for the pumping and salvage operations.

Taylor Smith Ltd would arrange with Eco Fuel Ltd for the removal and disposal of all marine gas and lube oil on board of the wreck as from 28 August 2021.

An environmental monitoring would be undertaken by Taylor smith ltd around the wreck site to ascertain that no pollution is caused.

Based on the outcome of the above actions, a decision would then be taken as to whether the wreck can be towed to the dry dock of Taylor Smith Ltd on Monday 30 August 2021.

The MPA has taken all precautionary measures in case of any spillage and to avoid any damage to the marine environment. Moreover, the situation is being closely monitored by the authorities concerned.
La Tourism Authority va signer un Implementation Agreement avec le National Productivity and Competitiveness Council afin de mettre en application un COVID-19 Occupational Safety & Health and Resource Efficiency Project pour le secteur touristique.

Cabinet has taken note that the Tourism Authority would sign an Implementation Agreement with the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council for the execution of the COVID-19 Occupational Safety & Health and Resource Efficiency Project for the tourism industry. The objective of the project is to engage into capacity building of employees of tourist accommodations (Hotels, Tourist Residences, Guesthouses, Domaines), restaurants, pleasure craft operators, Destination Management Companies, Travel Agencies, taxis based at hotels and airport, amongst others, with a view to contributing to the promotion of Mauritius as a safe destination.
African businesses and consumers will now be able to benefit from a direct connection to the USA as Liquid Intelligent Technologies opens an Internet Point of Presence in Miami, connecting to the Liquid network via a South Atlantic subsea cable.

As part of Liquids East-West route between the US and Asia via Africa, the new POP is connected to their 100,000km of fibre across 11 countries on the continent and another 14 countries via the Operators Alliance Programme and Liquid Satellite Services. This results in customers being able to leverage a better connection to the US, giving them access to Cloud services, OTT resources, Internet content and high-quality voice and video calls with family and business partners.

Speaking about the impact, David Eurin, Chief Executive Officer, Liquid Sea, said: The new POP in Miami will enable US-based operators, businesses, OTT, Cloud service providers and CDN operators to access 40 data centres across Africa, including nine data centres operated by Africa Data Centres and six operated by Teraco. We will be able to interconnect with all our partners in the USA and provide a direct connection to US Internet resources to our Africa customers.

Liquid will connect to Miami via Fortaleza in Brazil and Luanda in Angola via the South Atlantic SACS and MONET subsea cables. The POP will be hosted at the Equinix data centre in Miami. To guarantee the best level of service, Liquid will peer at Equinix Miami Internet Exchange (MI3 in Boca Raton) with access to 116 potential peers, including most of the largest US companies. Liquid can already provide access to all data centres and millions of destinations in North America through its partnership with ZAYO.

Notably, an important destination to African business customers and consumers, connecting Africa to the USA enables more opportunities for global trade and encourages cooperation, as indicated by the growing interest from companies in North America to invest in Africa. A significant part of Liquids IP transit traffic is routing towards the USA.

This significant connection comes off the back of the recent announcements of a $300 million loan by USA-based DFC and a new equity investment of approximately US$90 million by the IFC into Liquids data centre capacity expansion in Africa through Africa Data Centres. Liquid has also introduced its partnership with Facebook to build a fibre network in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is expected to improve internet access for more than 30 million people and help meet the growing demand for regional connectivity across Central Africa.

With the Miami POP and new direct link across the South Atlantic, latency is expected to fall by 100ms to 163ms. Currently, Cape Town to Miami is sitting at 263ms via Europe. Video calls with family and business partners will be faster and of better quality thanks to a direct, lower latency route.
Its no secret that the Covid pandemic has shaken the travel and tourism industry to its core. But the pandemic also brought the opportunity to not only rebuild but also reimagine and reinforce the tourism trade.

Initiatives are already being reported from across the globe, showing that innovative technology and artificial intelligence, public-private partnerships like the one strongly in place in Mauritius now, the introduction of innovative technologies and data analytics are becoming the emerging norms that will help to fast-track the sector towards its recovery.

Recent international research has shown that travelers tend to use, on average, almost 40 travel sites. They also increasingly use social media for travel tips or to post their holiday photos. Many also pay for much of their trips online. This allows for a huge amount of information and insights, which, if used properly, can allow wider engagement with travelers, while giving essential insights to all travel and tourism sector stakeholders, including operators, policy makers and investors.

Accelerated some time back already, the MTPA has further fire-powered its strategy of optimization of its digital assets. A dedicated team has been hard at work not only for the upgrading of all of the MTPAs digital tools, but also spent a lot of energy on research. It was indeed essential for the MPTA, as a data-driven marketing organisation whereby projects are in synchronisation to each key market context, to have a contextualized approach to data.

It is, therefore, our privilege to present to our key collaborators, stakeholders of the tourism sector, the first issue of the Travel Intelligence Insights Report. This twice monthly report will provide insights about internet analytics, Indian Ocean trends, forward-looking data, competition and would be tuned to market happenings as we progress towards the grand re-opening.

It is our wish that as business collaborators, we gain as much insights as possible, so that we can together successfully and increasingly ensure a competitive industry which will be even more adaptable, inclusive and sustainable.

Sincerely,

Nilen Vencadasmy

Chairman
Friday, a day after a deadly suicide bombing at the Kabul airport and the threat of more attacks, officials in the Philadelphia region said that they would do everything possible to ensure a safe haven for the hundreds of evacuees from Afghanistan expected to arrive in the area this weekend.
Thomas said her goal isnt to defund the police, but to make better use of them. Officers are being tasked with responding to too many non-criminal matters, putting them in impossible situations and endangering vulnerable people in crisis, she said. While she was disappointed the city and county will continue to rely solely on police responding to calls, she felt there was value in expanding the CIS program.
This is a time of grief for the family, our campus and the community, university President Daniel A. Wubah wrote in the alert. I ask that the campus community come together to support each other, and our students, during this difficult time.
There is no need to stick to the Tuesday deadline he set for the evacuation to be complete. The operation should be considered finished when its finished, and everyone who deserves to get out is able to get out.
This looks like the future of education, not only here in Allentown, but throughout the Lehigh Valley. Its a symbol to all the communities around us that ... our community is able to come together to build something that we can all be incredibly proud of for our children, Schweyer said.
: Yonggexing (Yongge), : Military

 : 97

: BBS  (Fri Aug 27 12:46:11 2021, )



El Salvador's President says the country has prepared to adopt bitcoin as

legal currency in September by installing 200 ATMs and prepping bank

branches to handle crypto



A woman withdraws money from a bitcoin ATM in El Salvador.

Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

El Salvador is installing 200 ATMs ahead of its bitcoin adoption on

September 7, said the president.

This will work alongside the government's cryptocurrency app called Chivo.

President Nayib Bukele has emphasized again that no one will be forced to

use bitcoin.

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said his country is gearing up for its

cryptocurrency adoption by building infrastructure to support his ambitious

goal.

The millennial president announced that El Salvador is installing 200 ATMs

and preparing over 50 bank branches ahead of the implementation on September

7, according to a Sunday tweet thread.

This will go hand in hand with the government's cryptocurrency app called

Chivo, which can be viewed as a digital wallet that is accessible to both

citizens and tourists. Those who download the app will receive $30 in

bitcoin. Chivo, according to previous reports, will allow users to

automatically convert bitcoin into US dollars.

Transactions in the app will be commission-free, saving the Central American

country $400 million per year in fees, Bukele said in a tweet.





Bukele in June announced the country's intention to become the first in the

world to accept bitcoin as a legal tender alongside the US dollar, drawing

both praise and backlash.

Many critics have questioned the decision, pointing to bitcoin's intense

volatility. The cryptocurrency has lost almost 25% of its value since

hitting an all-time high of nearly $65,000 in April. It is trading around $

49,000 as of August 23.

The president has emphasized that no one will be forced to use bitcoin,

which he also reiterated in his Twitter thread.

The legislation, dubbed the Bitcoin Law, has touted financial inclusion and

economic growth as reasons for adopting bitcoin, highlighting the 70% of El

Salvadorans who are unable to access "traditional financial services."

Still, international organizations including the International Monetary Fund

and the World Bank, as well as major banks such as JPMorgan and Bank of

America have expressed concern.





A small survey conducted in June by a university in El Salvador also

suggested that a majority of citizens don't understand cryptocurrency and

are skeptical of Bukele's move to make bitcoin legal tender

--

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The local authorities in places in many districts and upazilas have decided to suspend administering the first dose of Covid vaccine from today until further notice due mainly to a shortage of Sinopharm vaccine.

The authorities are suspending inoculation of the first dose when only 4.3 per cent of the Bangladesh population have been fully vaccinated which is the lowest in South Asia.

About 4.3 per cent of people of Bangladesh have received two doses and about 10.6 per cent received at least one dose till August 27, according to oneworlddata.org operated from Oxford in England.

Several health officials at the upazila and municipality levels told New Age Saturday evening that they would suspend administering the first dose today due to an inadequate stock of Covid vaccine.

A health official in Cumilla said that they might also stop administering the second dose depending on the stock unless fresh deliveries were received from the central depots.

Directorate General of Health Services director general Professor Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said that administering vaccine depended on the availability of supplies from the sources.

He said that the local authorities at vaccination centres made decisions on inoculation depending on their stock and demands on the ground.

We will make vaccine available at the earliest after getting supplies from foreign sources, he said.

About 1.9 crore registrants have yet to get text messages for receiving the first dose of Covid vaccine while some 3.7 crore people have completed registrations under Surokkha app of the government for receiving vaccine till August 27, according to DGHS data.

Some 74.3 lakh people have been fully vaccinated and 1.78 crore people received a single dose till Friday since the launching of the vaccination on February 7.

Bangladesh has procured some 3.13 crore doses of Covid vaccines from various sources and over 2.6 crore doses have been administered till Saturday, DGHS officials said.

The government has a stock of less than 60 lakh doses, including the last consignment of more than 6 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine received from Japan, officials said.

There is an adequate stock for administering the second dose of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for the recipients of the first dose of the same vaccines across the country, they said.

The stock of vaccine Saturday evening included about 21 lakh doses of AstraZeneca, less than 24 lakh doses of Moderna and less than 10,000 doses of Prizer vaccines.

The stock of Sinopharm vaccine, which is mainly administered in rural vaccination centres, stood at about 10 lakh doses Saturday afternoon.

Bangladesh is scheduled to get a consignment of over 10 lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine through Covax from the US on August 30, according to a Bangladesh government official.

The official also said that there had been no confirmed information about any fresh delivery of Sinopharm vaccine from China till Saturday evening.

Health minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday, however, said that 7 crore people would be brought under the Covid vaccination coverage by December.

We are planning to increase administering Covid vaccine in rural areas due to rising infections in the areas. Rural people have got less vaccine, he said while addressing a function in Manikganj.

People above 50 years of age will get vaccine on a priority basis, he added.

The government is set to procure at least 6 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China.

Incepta Pharmaceuticals Limited, a private drug maker in Bangladesh, is set to co-produce Sinopharm vaccine for delivering locally under a fill-and-finish mechanism after getting bulk supplies from China.

Bangladesh now administers about 5 lakh doses of Covid vaccine in a day across the country.

At the regional level, Bhutan is on the top in South Asia with fully vaccinating 61 per cent of its population and administering at least one dose to 72 per cent of people.

Some 55 per cent Maldivians are fully vaccinated and 70 per cent people of the country have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine.

Sri Lanka has fully vaccinated 30 per cent of its population and administered at least one dose to 57 per cent.

Only 10 per cent Indians are fully vaccinated and 34 per cent of the population of the country have got at least one dose of Covid vaccine.

Pakistan is lagging behind too on Covid vaccination in the region as only 6.8 per cent of its population are fully vaccinated and 17 per cent of people have got the first dose.

Myanmar is lagging much behind as it has brought 3.3 per cent of people under the full Covid vaccination coverage and administered single dose to 8.1 per cent of people till August 27, according to oneworlddata.org.

Professor Rashid-E-Mahbub, chairman of the national committee on Health Rights Movement, said that procuring adequate and quality vaccines and administering to people at the earliest was a need of the day for safety as well as helping them to maintain their livelihood.

The government also requires increasing capacity to administer more doses in a day across the country, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-27 19:30:54|Editor: huaxia

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File photo taken on Aug. 10, 2017 shows new houses built for relocated villagers in Srekor Thmey village in Sesan District of Stung Treng Province, Cambodia.(Lower Sesan II Hydropower Company/Handout via Xinhua)



STUNG TRENG, Cambodia, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- "If there had not been this project, we would have still been living in hardship, using kerosene-burning lamps or batteries," Souy For, a 51-year-old father of two, said of a new power station in the country.

He noted that the key project, Cambodia's Lower Sesan II hydropower station, is bringing unprecedented development to his village.

"At the new village, because of low-priced and stable electricity, we have experienced something new such as air-cons, fans, refrigerators and televisions, which we had never had at the old village due to the lack of electricity," he said, adding that the future is very promising for them in the new Srekor Thmey village.

Souy For was among hundreds of families who voluntarily agreed to leave their old villages for relocation to new places to pave the way for the development of a 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II hydropower station in the Sesan district in Cambodia's northern Stung Treng province.

Completed in 2018, the Lower Sesan II hydropower station is a joint venture between China's Huaneng Hydrolancang International Energy, which held 51 percent of the stake, Cambodia's Royal Group with 39 percent of shares, and Vietnamese EVN International Joint Stock Company, which possessed 10 percent.

Cambodian Environment Ministry Secretary of State and Spokesman Neth Pheaktra said the project is empowering the Southeast Asian nation's socio-economic development with the capacity of 400 megawatts of clean renewable energy.

"This project is essential to ensure Cambodia's energy security and it has been providing tremendous benefit to the whole Cambodia and its people," he told Xinhua.

NEW LIFE

Foeun Heng, a 63-year-old man, was relocated to the village in 2016, beginning a new life with an 80-square-meter wooden house and five hectares of farmland provided by the local government and the project company.

He had planted cashew trees on his five-hectare land, which had earned him nearly 3,000 U.S. dollars a year from cashew nut harvest.

"Now, my family has a steady income and our living conditions are much better," Foeun Heng told Xinhua recently. "In the old village, we lived from hand to mouth, depending only on rice field and fishing."

"Life is convenient here because we have good roads, drainage systems, pumping wells, cheap electricity prices, schools, health centers, pagodas and police stations," he said.

Foeun Choeun, chief of Srekor Thmey commune, said the relocated community currently has 996 families with nearly 3,000 people.

"Their living conditions have positively changed after the moved to this new place," he told Xinhua. "Some families had only bikes or old motorcycles at the old village, but now, they own two or three motorcycles or a car."

He added that currently, each relocated family has a few smartphones, and it's quite different from the past when few families could even afford a cellphone.

NEW AWARD

Last month, the Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) gave the "Excellent Power Generation Enterprise Award" to the Lower Sesan II hydropower plant, commending it for continuously supplying stable and reliable clean power to Cambodia.

"During the past two years of operation, the Lower Sesan II Hydropower Project has been professional by providing reliable electricity supply to the Kingdom of Cambodia," EDC Managing Director Keo Rottanak said in the certificate of commendation.

Electricity provided by this project accounted for 18.69 percent of the total power generated in the Southeast Asian nation in 2020. As of Aug. 2, 2021, electricity generated here had exceeded 600 million kilowatt-hours this year.

"Despite disruption caused by the COVID-19, the hydropower plant has still supplied electricity to the national power grid stably because our workers have worked around the clock and they have not gone home during this time in order to curb the spread of COVID-19," Chhay Khaymeng, a public relation officer for the Lower Sesan II Hydropower Station, told Xinhua.

In July, the Fisheries Administration of Cambodia issued a certificate to this project in recognition of the company's achievements in fish protection.

Neth Pheaktra said the plant has paid high attention to not only the affected people, but also environmental protection by complying with all requirements in the Environmental Impact Assessment paper. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-27 22:52:11|Editor: huaxia

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Rick O' Shea has been living in China for many years and he's always wanted to know more about Tibet. Inspired by a book written by Polish-born journalist Israel Epstein who visited the Roof of the World four times in the last century, Rick will show you stories about a transformed Tibet. #Tibet70Years

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 04:58:03|Editor: huaxia

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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (R, front) meets with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L, front) in Rome, Italy, on Aug. 27, 2021. Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), is still pushing for a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan as its last evacuation flight leaves Kabul on Friday. Lavrov recalled that Russia has kept open a dialogue with the Taliban leaders, together with China and Pakistan, and asked for the possible G20 summit on Afghanistan to be opened to countries that are not members of the group but nonetheless directly affected by the Afghan crisis, such as Pakistan and Iran. (Xinhua)

ROME/BRUSSELS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), is still pushing for a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan as its last evacuation flight leaves Kabul on Friday.

Italy's last airlift flight, carried out by a military C-130 plane, is expected to land in Rome early on Saturday, bringing back "all the Italians who asked to be repatriated," Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said.

The minister confirmed that some 4,900 Afghan nationals who wanted to leave the Asian country have been evacuated by Italian forces during the operation.

At a joint press conference held here on Friday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Di Maio reiterated the country's plan to hold an extraordinary G20 summit on Afghanistan in September to outline a global strategy.

"Afghanistan has been at the core of our talks today... in this context, we see the dialogue with Russia as essential," Di Maio explained.

He added that Italy's push to organize a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan stemmed from the belief that only "a comprehensive, coherent and shared action can be effective with the new authorities in Kabul."

"We believe Moscow is a key player in dealing with the current crisis and, in a longer perspective, in achieving a unified international approach," he noted.

"We deem that the G20 could be the right platform for a common management of the crisis, which has to be shared with the countries that will bear the largest migrant influx, that is the neighbouring countries."

NEIGHBORS' CONCERNS OVER BORDER SECURITY

Lavrov, who paid a two-day visit in Italy, said that the security of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries should be a key priority after all evacuation operations are completed.

He also urged for speeding up support for the Afghan people in order to facilitate the formation of an inclusive executive as soon as possible.

"Common solutions are never easy and, in our opinion, the most important thing in the current situation is the security of our borders," said the top Russian diplomat, who also discussed the issue with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi earlier in the day.

Russia is ready to discuss the proposal of the G20 special summit, but "we want to better understand what role our Western partners would see for Russia in the G20 context," Lavrov said.

Lavrov recalled that Russia has kept open a dialogue with the Taliban leaders, together with China and Pakistan, and asked for the possible G20 summit on Afghanistan to be opened to countries that are not members of the group but nonetheless directly affected by the Afghan crisis, such as Pakistan and Iran.

EU CONDEMNS "BARBARIC" ATTACK

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 U.S. service members, while injuring 158 others.

Condemning "the cowardly and inhuman attacks," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter late Thursday that: "The international community must work closely together to avoid a resurgence of terrorism in Afghanistan and beyond."

European Council President Charles Michel voiced his concern about the explosion, saying his thoughts were with the victims and their families. "Securing safe passage to the airport remains vital. We need to ensure the current instability cannot give rise to a resurgence of terrorism," he tweeted.

Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign affairs and security policy, tweeted: "The EU stands in solidarity with the Afghan citizens. We will continue fighting terrorism together with international partners."

On Friday, David McAllister, Maria Arena and Petras Austrevicius, the chairs of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation for relations with Afghanistan, respectively, strongly condemned the "barbaric" terrorist attack, saying "this barbaric act against innocent people is unforgivable."

In a joint statement, they called upon those in power to hold to account those responsible for the attack, and urged EU member states and partner nations to continue the safe and orderly evacuation of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country.

"We reiterate our call to all sides in Afghanistan to abstain from any form of violence, to put in place an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to pursue peace negotiations. International humanitarian law and basic human rights, in particular the rights of women, girls and minorities must be respected," they said in the statement. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 13:45:23|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Jan. 12, 2019 shows the White House and a stop sign in Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

To the White House, origins tracing is never about science or facts, but about fabricating wished-for evidence to draw a wished-for conclusion.

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- After more than 90 days of so-called investigation, the U.S. intelligence community on Friday released a summary of its COVID-19 origins tracing fiction.

Without any persuasive new evidence, the fiction still points the finger at China, exposing its nature as being politically manipulative.

Origins tracing is far from an easy task. It must be left to scientists to take time to unravel the truth through careful research, and with a scientific approach and a rigorous attitude.

Clearly aware of this principle, Washington had nevertheless assigned the mission to those notorious intelligence agencies long known for lying, cheating and stealing, and the result is no doubt a fabricated report.

Tourists visit the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Aug. 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

For a long time, Washington has been attempting to politicize origins tracing. The report of the China-World Health Organization (WHO) joint mission released in March has drawn a clear conclusion, but Washington viciously discredited the report.

To redouble its efforts to smear China, Washington later ordered the U.S. intelligence community to complete the political mission within three months. To the White House, origins tracing is never about science or facts, but about fabricating wished-for evidence to draw a wished-for conclusion.

In fact, the United States' malicious scheme to politicize origins tracing can cheat not so many around the world.

A staff member works in a laboratory in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 13, 2020. (Xinhua/Cheng Min)

Noting that America is deeply upset about China's rise and wishes to curb its development by all means possible, Benyamin Poghosyan, head of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies in Armenia, wrote in an opinion published in late July on the Voice of Armenia newspaper that the U.S. disinformation campaign against China, which uses COVID-19 out of geopolitical interests, has hampered global joint efforts against the pandemic.

Any sinister attempt to smear China without regard for the facts is doomed to fail. The ugly farce staged by Washington on origins tracing has achieved nothing but bringing to light America's disreputability and irresponsibility. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 15:45:29|Editor: huaxia

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A pedestrian wearing a face mask passes in front of Pfizer's World Headquarters in New York, United States, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

"A report fabricated by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible," the Chinese embassy in the United States said, adding that the origins tracing is a matter of science and "it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts."

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The report on COVID-19 origins by the U.S. intelligence community "has not produced an exact answer the U.S. side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science," said the Chinese embassy in the United States on Friday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States Friday released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

The Chinese side "expresses its firm opposition and strong condemnation" of the report and the White House statement issued on the same day which "also purported that China tries to hold back international investigation and rejects calls for transparency. It urges like-minded partners to exert pressure on China," said the embassy in a statement.

A medical worker prepares the COVID-19 vaccines for local residents at the COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Aug. 19, 2021. (Xinhua)

NEW "MASTERPIECES" OF U.S. INTELLIGENCE FABRICATION

"A report fabricated by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible," the embassy said, adding that the origins tracing is a matter of science and "it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts."

The embassy noted the U.S. intelligence community had produced some known "masterpieces", such as using a tube of laundry powder to convict Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, or staging the "white helmets" video as evidence for launching a chemical weapon attack in Syria.

"Now, the U.S. side is using its old trick again. Ignoring the Report by the WHO-China joint mission, it chooses to have its intelligence community put together a report instead. How can this possibly be science-based and reliable origins tracing?"

The U.S. accusation of a lack of transparency on the part of China is "only an excuse for its politicizing and stigmatizing campaign," said the embassy.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken "an open, transparent and responsible attitude," said the embassy. "We have released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time."

Photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows an exterior view of the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

On Dec. 27, 2019, Wuhan authorities made the first reporting of suspected cases. On Dec. 30, emergency notices were issued on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause. On Dec. 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On Jan. 3, 2020, China began sending regular updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO and other countries, including the United States.

On origins tracing, China has taken a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach. Being the first country to cooperate with the WHO on global origins tracing, China has twice invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations in China.

"We were completely open, transparent and cooperative when the experts were in China. They visited every site on their list, met every individual they asked for, and were provided with all the data they wanted," said the embassy, adding the formulation of the Report of the WHO-China joint mission issued on March 30, 2021 followed WHO procedures and adopted a scientific approach.

"It is authoritative and science-based. The openness and transparency China has displayed has won full recognition from international experts," it said.

The embassy said the report by the U.S. intelligence community shows that the U.S. is "bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation." The United States has registered the most infections and death cases from COVID-19 in the world, and the American people have paid a heavy price.

A man receives a COVID-19 test at a mobile testing site in Times Square, New York, the United States, July 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

STOP SLINGING MUD AT OTHERS

"The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China," it said. "Such a practice will only disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origins tracing and on fighting the pandemic, and has been widely opposed by the international community."

Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, firmly opposing politicization of origins tracing. "Doesn't the U.S. side feel it necessary to listen to what they have to say?" said the embassy.

Moreover, Washington has been "shying away from tracing the origins in the United States and closing the door on any such possibility," the embassy said.

"If the U.S. side is 'transparent and responsible', it should make public and examine the data of its early cases," it said, noting the timeline of the outbreak in the United States has been revised to earlier dates several times.

In at least five American states, there had been infections before the first confirmed case in the United States was announced. According to a latest coverage by American media, the first COVID-19 death in the country was in early January 2020, several weeks earlier than the date previously announced by the authorities, which was early February.

Healthcare workers transfer a patient into a hospital in New York, the United States, Jan. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Wuhan Institute of Virology has received two visits from WHO experts and the WHO-China joint study report has reached the clear conclusion that introduction through a lab accident in Wuhan is "extremely unlikely."

If the United States insists on the lab leak theory, it is necessary for the U.S. side to invite WHO experts to Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC) for investigation, said the embassy.

Fort Detrick has long been engaged in coronavirus research and modification. After its shutdown in 2019 because of serious safety incidents, disease with symptoms similar to COVID-19 broke out in the United States.

The team of Professor Ralph Baric at UNC possesses extremely mature capability in synthesizing and modifying coronavirus. From January 2015 to June 2020, the UNC reported to the National Institutes of Health 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered organisms. Six of them involved coronaviruses including SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2.

"However, instead of finding out what happened in its own labs first, the United States keeps slinging mud at others," said the embassy.

"China's position on global origins tracing is consistent and clear. This is a matter of science. China always supports and will continue to participate in science-based origins tracing," it said.

"What we are against is political manipulation, presumption of guilt and putting blame on others. Any Phase II origins study must be a comprehensive extension of Phase I and conducted in multiple places and countries to find out the truth," said the embassy. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 16:05:16|Editor: huaxia

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Passengers with face masks are seen in a bus in New York City, the United States, Aug. 2, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

"We should have been thinking of a whole-scale route and brand-changing in how global public health is dealt with at the multilateral level. There has just not been that political foundation and political momentum to do it because so much of it has been spent in bickering about origins from a very politicized angle," renowned U.S. scholar Sourabh Gupta said.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The investigation of the origins of COVID-19 should be dealt with solely by scientists and any politicization of this issue is deeply regretted and damaging global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, said a renowned U.S. scholar.

"SORT OF POLITICAL RAKING UP"

"The (COVID) origins inquiry...should be left to the scientists to do, and it will take time to come to a conclusion on that," Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua in an interview.

"But a lot of the evidence will be hard to sift through if it is not done during the early stages. So there should not be any interruptions and this sort of political raking up of issues stalls the issues at the scientists," Gupta said of the U.S. intelligence community's probe of the origins of the virus.

The U.S. intelligence community reached an inconclusive assessment about the origins of the virus following a 90-day investigation ordered by President Joe Biden, according to an unclassified summary of the probe released on Friday.

The report which "tends to give an equivalence to all the various theories" is "in my view very unfair" and will be remembered as "something negative," he said.

A medical worker prepares the COVID-19 vaccines for local residents at the COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Aug. 19, 2021. (Xinhua)

MAINTAINING NARRATIVES TO BLACKEN CHINA

By doing this, the United States is "trying to maintain those two big narratives" as it first proposed that China was not transparent about the origins of the virus and was not quick enough to deal with and inform the global community about the virus, said Gupta.

"The whole purpose is to blacken China on the COVID-19 in some way. And that is how it has played out in the U.S. media with U.S. political leaders, giving oxygen to this argument, and considering the power of Western media that will de facto hover above us in some way, shape or form, even down the line," he said.

"They will try to stick that in our images, in our head. And so that itself is a challenge for China to deal with considering the power of the Western media," Gupta said.

The expert noted that "unfortunately there has been so much politics" with regard to the fight against COVID-19 starting from origins of the virus to masks and vaccination, and so on.

People walk in Times Square, New York, the United States, on July 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

GLOBAL WHOLE-SCALE ROUTE NEEDED

"Now what we are in fact having is a lack of political will to actually come together to deal with COVID-19. And the origins issue has hurt the political space to cooperate at a multilateral level and to deepen multilateral cooperation on global public health," said Gupta.

"We should have been thinking of a whole-scale route and brand-changing in how global public health is dealt with at the multilateral level. There has just not been that political foundation and political momentum to do it because so much of it has been spent in bickering about origins from a very politicized angle," he said.

"I think in the long run that will hurt us as a global community of not being able to create that institutional infrastructure to tackle these sorts of pandemics in the future," he said.

"There will be many more of these, and we know the extent of the damage it has created, not just in terms of human life, but also in terms of economic dislocation ... that is why any politicization of this issue is deeply regretted," said Gupta.

"I think the origins inquiry, which will take time, must allow to be proceeded on its own steam," he said, adding that the task "has been dealt with by scientists and should be dealt with solely by scientists."

Health workers wearing the air-conditioning medical protective suits developed by Tuoren Group collect swab samples for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests in Changyuan City of Xinxiang, central China's Henan Province, Aug. 19, 2021. (Photo by Yan Songhao/Xinhua)

CHINA'S RESPONSE "INCREDIBLY COMMENDABLE"

Gupta said what China has done in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is "incredibly commendable."

China's COVID response "has preserved human life. And I think it will, in the longer run, be a case study of how you deal with viruses," he said. "China has the global public health case study which will be written for posterity on how it needs to be followed."

"I think East Asia broadly, and China specifically, have done a great job. And this is really the model of how pandemics need to be dealt with in the future," he said. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 18:35:37|Editor: huaxia

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Children are seen at a border crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in southwest Pakistan's Chaman, on Aug. 27, 2021. Pakistan has been facilitating the evacuation of people from Afghanistan including members of the international community. Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain told the media on Tuesday that over 3,400 people have been evacuated through airplanes, while around 19,000 have come through the borders to Pakistan. (Str/Xinhua)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 19:31:39|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends and addresses the central conference on ethnic affairs in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held in Beijing on Friday and Saturday. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has stressed consolidating the sense of community for the Chinese nation and unswervingly taking the correct approaches with Chinese characteristics to handling ethnic affairs when he addressed the central conference on ethnic affairs.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for promoting high-quality development of the Party's work on ethnic affairs in the new era.

The conference, held in Beijing on Friday and Saturday, was presided over by Li Keqiang, and attended by Li Zhanshu, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji and Han Zheng, while Wang Yang made concluding remarks.

In his speech, Xi summarized the formation of the Party's important thoughts on strengthening and improving ethnic work since the reform and opening-up, especially after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

The historical position of the Party's ethnic work in the new era must be understood from the strategic perspective of national rejuvenation, Xi said.

Guiding all ethnic groups to jointly strive for fully building a modern socialist country must be taken as a crucial task of CPC's ethnic work in the new era, Xi noted.

Forging the sense of community for the Chinese nation must be the focus of CPC's ethnic work in the new era, he said, adding that the right perspective of the Chinese nation's history must be upheld, and the sense of national identity and pride must be boosted.

All ethnic groups must be equal; the banner of the unity of the Chinese nation must be held high, he said.

The system of regional ethnic autonomy must be upheld and improved, and the implementation of the CPC Central Committee's policies and decisions as well as China's laws and regulations must be guaranteed, he stressed.

The sense of belonging for the Chinese nation must be established; extensive exchanges, communication and integration of various ethnic groups must be promoted, according to Xi.

Ethnic affairs must be governed in accordance with the law; national sovereignty, security and development interests must be resolutely safeguarded, Xi said.

The CPC's leadership over ethnic work must be upheld, he stressed. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-29 00:46:25|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Aug. 28, 2021 shows the site of an airstrike conducted by the U.S. against a planner for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. The Pentagon said on Saturday that two high-profile targets of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, were killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday. The strike came after a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack. (Str/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon said on Saturday that two high-profile targets of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, were killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties," U.S. Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters in a Pentagon briefing.

U.S. Central Command initially assessed on Friday that the drone strike, which occurred in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, killed one ISIS-K planner.

The strike came after a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in the briefing that the U.S. military supporting evacuation had begun its withdrawal from Kabul airport.

President Joe Biden set Aug. 31 as the deadline to end U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

The United States has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban entered Kabul on Aug. 15. The White House said on Saturday around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since Aug. 14. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 16:02:31|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is helping Uganda with its development of the information communication technology (ICT), which could drive the East African country's economy amid the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China is one of the key countries that are helping Uganda spur its development through ICT, Ugandan Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja said at the launch of Huawei's ICT Competition Awards and ICT Talent Development Report on Friday.

Amid such infection prevention measures as social distancing, there is a need for ICT upskilling to drive growth even with limited physical contact, said Ugandan government officials.

In 2006, Uganda acquired a 106-million-U.S.-dollar loan from the Export-Import Bank of China to build the country's National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and Electronic Government Infrastructure. The project included the installation of optical fiber cables.

Government figures indicated that a total of 321 ministries, departments, agencies, local governments, hospitals and universities have access to the network, which allows reduced physical contacts and also enables saving of transportation costs in accessing service delivery.

"The ICT now is part of our daily life, we need to accept the changes and embrace and prepare for future technologies," Nabbanja said.

Jiang Jiqing, economic and commercial counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Uganda, said the ICT is critical as the world is in the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 (Artificial Intelligence).

As part of the outcomes of Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China and Africa reached a consensus to enhance cooperation on the ICT, Jiang noted.

Chinese private companies, like Huawei Technologies, have been setting up ICT Academies in universities across Uganda. Huawei also has other projects like sowing the "Seeds for the Future."

These projects, said Ugandan government officials, are key to ICT upskilling, which is critical for fast tracking development.

Rukia Isanga Nakadama, third deputy prime minister and minister without portfolio, said Huawei's ICT skilling projects are critical for building the country's capacity to use ICT in fast track development.

According to Huawei figures, about 5,000 local students in 15 universities in Uganda have benefited from the company's ICT Talent Development initiatives since 2019.

Nakadama said the ICT sector is one of Uganda's fastest growing sectors and contributes significantly to the country's gross domestic product.

John Chrysestom Muyingo, minister of state for higher education, said COVID-19 has posed the country a challenge, where over 15 million learners are out of school due to measures to stop the spread of the pandemic.

ICT professionals, including those who have acquired skills from Huawei's projects, have a responsibility to develop infrastructure where learners can access education amid the pandemic, said Muyingo.

"With the broad experience that Huawei has developed over the years, I am very confident that this partnership can help us to find more innovative solutions to these challenges which we are facing," Muyingo said.

He added the government is committed to upscaling and mainstreaming ICT in the delivery of education as a measure to facilitate continued learning. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 17:12:58|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) military commanders have resolved to accelerate the implementation of joint operations with the Somalia National Army (SNA) and enhance electoral security in Somalia.

The military chiefs who ended a two-day meeting in Mogadishu on Friday said they have already established mobile and quick reaction forces within their areas of responsibility to enhance the effectiveness of military operations in countering the threat posed by al-Shabab militants.

Diomede Ndegeya, AMISOM Force Commander said the output of the meeting will inform and feed into the upcoming conference which the AU mission will have with the Somalia security forces and Somalia's international partners.

"Whatever the nature of the post-2021 mission, it is imperative for all our troops in the sectors to strengthen their offensive capability," Ndegeya said in a statement issued in Mogadishu on Friday evening.

During the meeting, the AU commanders evaluated the progress made so far on AMISOM's Concept of Operations, the Somalia Transition Plan and on implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 2568 (2021).

The Somalia Transition Plan is a comprehensive strategy developed by Somalia and its partners to guide the transfer of security responsibilities to Somali security forces ahead of AMISOM's exit from the country.

The Concept of Operations (CONOPS) supports the implementation of the Somalia Transition Plan. As part of the Concept of Operations, AMISOM has been reconfiguring its military, police, and civilian components.

Ndegeya said the reconfiguration has enabled AMISOM to maintain operational effectiveness, respond to threats, and plan future target operations, in line with the gradual transfer of security responsibilities to the Somalia forces.

He lauded the enduring work AMISOM forces have done in the sectors to ensure security and stability in Somalia.

"However, there is the need to generate a revised joint AMISOM/SNA realistic, workable, and fixed concept of operations, which will respond appropriately to threat assessments and an assessment of the friendly forces," Ndegeya added.

William Kitsao Shume, deputy force commander of AMISOM in charge of operations, told the commanders that while challenges exist, great progress has been made.

"Our mandate is to degrade al-Shabab, which we continue to do since we came into Somalia. We have secured population centers which give the local population the freedom to go about their day-to-day activities," Shume said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 17:41:17|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police on Saturday confirmed that another batch of 32 students kidnapped by gunmen from a secondary school in the country's northwestern state of Kaduna has regained freedom.

The students of Bethel Baptist High School were freed on Friday, about a week after 15 kidnapped students of the school were freed on August 21, said Mohammed Jalige, a spokesman for the Kaduna police, in a telephone interview with Xinhua on Saturday.

Jalige did not provide further details of the release or whether a ransom was paid.

The released students were among an unspecified number of students kidnapped from the Bethel Baptist High School in Chikun local government area of Kaduna on July 5, following an attack by unknown gunmen in large numbers.

John Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna, who also confirmed the release of the students, said 32 students were freed on Friday evening.

"We still have 31 with the captors and we are praying that they too will be released soon," he said.

There have been a series of gunmen attacks in Nigeria in recent months, leading to deaths and kidnappings. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 20:26:28|Editor: huaxia

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WINDHOEK, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming has called for greater solidarity and cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 in an article recently published in local media.

The official said this is very necessary as new COVID-19 variants raging around the world are currently affecting more than 130 countries and regions, including China and Namibia.

However, he said that despite this, some countries are busy cultivating a "political virus" by politicizing the issue of virus origins-tracing, coercing the World Health Organization (WHO), maliciously discrediting China, and interfering in the overall situation of global unity in fighting against the pandemic.

"Virus origins-tracing aims to prevent the further spread of the virus and avoid the recurrence of a similar pandemic by studying the origin, transmission, and evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be impossible to achieve the goal if we do not take science as a guide and carry out extensive research in multiple countries and regions across the world," he added.

Zhang said China firmly supports and has actively participated in the origins-tracing research led by the WHO since the pandemic broke out.

"Since 2020, WHO experts from 10 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan, have been invited to China twice to carry out research together with their Chinese counterparts," he said.

"Virus origins-tracing should not be politicized, stigmatized, or instrumentalized, nor should it be used as a means for one country to attack other countries," he said.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhang said, China has upheld the concept of a community of health for all. Since March 2020, the Chinese government has donated 58 batches of anti-pandemic materials, and taken the lead in donating 100,000 vaccine doses to Namibia, and listed Namibia as the first batch of countries to purchase vaccines produced in China.

"All the above reflects not only the high-level bilateral relationship between our two countries, but also China's positive role in the international community's fight against the pandemic as a responsible major country," he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 21:14:55|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Uganda and South Sudan have agreed to carry out patrols along a major route to the latter's capital, Juba in a bid to stop attacks on travelers by armed militants, a top government official said here on Saturday.

Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda's First Deputy Prime Minister, also Minister for East African Community Affairs said the patrols would be set up every 10 km along the route from Uganda to Juba.

The agreement comes after Uganda expressed its concern about the continued attacks and killings of Ugandan travelers on the Juba-Nimule route.

Uganda on Tuesday announced it was in talks with South Sudan over a growing number of deadly ambushes on South Sudanese territory targeting transit trucks.

Local media reported on Tuesday that at least seven Ugandan drivers had been killed by militants in areas between Juba and the border with Uganda.

In April Uganda asked South Sudan to compensate families of drivers who were killed by unknown militia in different road ambushes. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 21:46:31|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Inside his feed store in Kajiado, south of Nairobi, Kenya's capital, livestock farmer Paul Sosonik has tens of hay bales that he has stored for his 12 Friesian dairy cows.

Sosonik has further stored some silage in a bunker, but it is not as much as the hay. "I grew the fodder grass in March; the rains were not adequate but I managed to harvest, and store," he said.

While his animals are assured of feed, he knows the coming months are not going to be easy as the east African nation is going to experience drought. "I belong to several farmers' social media groups and the weather forecast in the coming months was posted there. We know how tough it is going to be," he said.

Eastern Africa will between October to December experience drier than usual periods, according to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate Prediction Center. Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia are among countries in the region that will experience a tough climate.

"Observations of rainfall over the past months reveal that the region has been facing rainfall deficits in many parts of central and southern East Africa and this is forecasted to continue until December 2021," observes IGAD in its latest forecast released Thursday.

Having received the forecast, Sosonik and many farmers in the east African nation are planning on how to survive the tough climatic conditions. And they are doing it using social media groups, discussing what they can do to survive the period so that they can continue with their farming activities.

"One way to beat the drought is to till the land this September and then plant fodder grass as soon as the rains start," Bernard Kirui, a farmer advised livestock keepers in one WhatsApp group.

Eric, another farmer, weighed in. "We have to be smart. A smart person thinks ahead and turns misfortune into fortune. Now that we have heard of the big drought that is coming, we should arm ourselves with wonder foliar; grow fodder for livestock and turn it into silage and pack it with nutrients. We will sell these feeds to livestock farmers helping save their animals as we make money."

Similarly, Kenyan crop farmers are working to ramp up food production through irrigation during the dry period.

"Farmers have no excuse, we now know in advance about the upcoming adverse weather conditions thus we must prepare adequately," said George Karithi, who farms tomatoes in a greenhouse in Kitengela, south of Nairobi. Having received the weather prediction, he is going to work on his water harvesting and store enough for his crops to survive and thrive during times of extreme scarcity.

"By the time October comes, I would have already constructed a farm pond which I will use to harvest water as soon as the little rains start," said Karithi, who currently uses borehole water.

Beatrice Macharia, an agronomist with GrowthPoint, an agro-consultancy, said that with social media groups, the spread of climatic information has become faster and easier. "Farmers are no longer farming in the dark as they know what to expect and do as they discuss the issues. I am in several social media groups and the expected drought information spread so fast as soon as it was released," she said.

Macharia noted that the online groups have become key in planning for measures to mitigate climate change as most of them are formed by experts and farmers in one region or locality, thus helping members understand what needs to be done and how it should be done. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 23:56:08|Editor: huaxia

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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) on Saturday called on stakeholders in Chad to amicably find a lasting solution to political differences as it emphasized there can be no sustainable military solution to the country's current challenges.

The statement was made by the Peace and Security Council of the 55-member pan-African bloc on Friday, which followed the Council's recent meeting that dwelt upon the progress of the political transition in Chad and the AU Support Mechanism.

The Council "restates its call for unconditional dialogue between the transition government and all relevant Chadian stakeholders including opposition political parties and armed groups," the statement said.

The Council further called on the Transition Government to respect the 18 months' period for the completion of the transition and reiterates that the members of the Military Transition Council shall not be eligible to be candidates for the elections at the end of the transition period.

Noting the dire humanitarian situation in Chad aggravated by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it appealed to all capable African countries as well as to the global humanitarian community to scale up support to the Chadian population in need.

Meanwhile, the AU called for the "urgent withdrawal from Chad, of all mercenaries and foreign fighters including those from Libya."

Following the sudden death of former Chadian President Idriss Deby, the head of the transitional military council had in April assumed the functions of president of the republic.

The transition period is planned for 18 months and can be extended only once by the national transitional council, which exercises the legislative power after the dissolution of the National Assembly, according to the transitional charter. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-29 00:04:38|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Saturday it was relieved that scores of students abducted by gunmen from a school in north-central Nigeria's Niger state in May have been freed from captivity.

Abubakar Sani Bello, governor of the Niger state, told reporters at a press conference in the state capital Minna that 92 kidnapped persons, including 90 students, have regained their freedom after being held for about three months by unidentified gunmen who attacked on May 30 the Salihu Tanko Islamiya School at Tegina town in the Rafi local government area of the state.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Peter Hawkins, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, said the UNICEF rejoiced with the families whose children have been freed and expressed deepest condolences to the family of one child who died while held by his abductors.

Hawkins condemned the attacks targeted at schools across the most populous African country in recent months.

"Children who went in search of knowledge were abducted at their school, which is supposed to be a safe place for them," he said.

"Schools should not be a target. Children should not be a target," he added.

According to the UNICEF official, education is a fundamental right of every child and any attack on an educational institution is a violation of that right.

"We reiterate our call to authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure schools are safe for all children," Hawkins said.

UNICEF said it will work with partners to provide mental health, psychosocial support and counseling services to both the freed learners and their parents.

Hundreds of Nigerian students have been abducted in frequent gunmen attacks on schools in the country since December 2020. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-29 01:42:56|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit called on Saturday for accelerating efforts to form a Lebanese government that will implement the necessary reforms immediately.

In a statement, Aboul-Gheit stressed that this step will enable the Arab and international community to engage effectively in "saving Lebanon."

Aboul-Gheit noted that he received the Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati's appeal to the AL to continue supporting Lebanon, wishing Mikati success in forming a cabinet.

The Arab country has been without a cabinet since Aug. 10, 2020 when caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned in reaction to the Beirut port's blasts which killed over 200 people and wounded thousands of others.

Saad Hariri was appointed as the prime minister on Oct. 22, 2020, but he failed to form a new cabinet given his differences with President Michel Aoun over ministers.

Lebanon has been going through the worst economic and financial crisis in its history and the political vacuum during the past year contributed to worsening the country's multiple woes. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 13:42:39|Editor: huaxia

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by Yosley Carrero

HAVANA, Aug 27 (Xinhua) -- Hurricane Ida crashed onto Cuba's westernmost region Friday as it moved toward the Gulf of Mexico.

After making landfall on the Isle of Youth special municipality in mid-afternoon, the category 1 hurricane left fallen trees and damaged roofs.

Earlier on Friday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel urged people to take precautions in light of the imminent impact of Ida on the island.

"Tropical storm Ida is nearing Cuba. The western territories have prepared to confront it. I ask our people to be disciplined and responsible not to regret the loss of human lives," he said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, rainfall and sustained winds of more than 100 km per hour caused damage to agricultural crops and the national grid in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio.

Consequently, local authorities on the island said that conditions have been set for electrical infrastructure to be repaired during the recovery phase.

"It has been raining a lot but me and my family are safe. The most important (thing) is to protect people's lives," Milagros Iglesias, resident of Pinar del Rio, told Xinhua via phone.

In addition, in Vinales, located some 180 km west of the country's capital of Havana, plantations that grow tobacco for making Cuban premium cigars were damaged by strong wind gusts.

Thousands of people living in low-lying areas were evacuated to makeshift shelters and relatives' places in line with social distancing guidelines, according to local media.

In the coastal town of La Coloma, where the island's largest fish processing plant is located, preventive measures were adopted to protect facilities and more than 60 fishing boats.

As Ida battered the country, no major damage was reported in Havana, the island's most populous city with 2 million inhabitants.

So far, no casualties have been registered in the country as a result of the hurricane.

Forecasters estimate that Ida, which formed as a tropical storm in the Caribbean on Thursday, is expected to hit the United States on Sunday.

The hurricane season in the Caribbean runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-29 06:39:39|Editor: huaxia

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NEW YORK, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Intensive care units (ICU) at hospitals are reaching their capacity in more states, and more mandates of vaccine and mask are being placed across the United States, as the COVID-19 pandemic claimed new highs of confirmed cases and fatality toward the weekend.

On Friday, the country reported 155,365 new cases of daily coronavirus, with the 14-day change seeing a 21 percent rise. The daily hospitalizations stood at 98,337, with the 14-day change a 28 percent increase. The daily death toll was 1,266, with the 14-day change a starling 95 percent hike, The New York Times (NYT) updated on Saturday.

MANDATES AND REQUIREMENTS

New York State has ordered all students, staff and visitors inside school buildings to wear masks, a mandate that will not just apply to public school districts but also to private, charter and religious schools throughout the Empire State.

The policy was filed in an emergency regulation Friday night, out of the government's fear that the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant might spread as students head back to school.

New York City already had a mask mandate in place for city schools in advance of the first day on Sept. 13. Mayor Bill de Blasio has also ordered all Department of Education staff to get vaccinated by Sept. 27.

Liberty University is enacting a campus-wide quarantine after reporting its highest rate of COVID-19 cases to date, just days after the Virginia-based evangelical college reopened with no mitigation measures.

The university announced late Thursday it would be switching to online classes and banning all large indoor gatherings starting Monday, reported Forbes on Friday.

The shutdown, which will last through Sept. 10, follows a large uptick in the number of coronavirus cases since students made their return to campus in mid-August. The university's COVID-19 dashboard shows the number of active coronavirus cases increased from three on Aug. 15 to 159 as of Wednesday, including 124 among students and 35 among faculty.

As coronavirus cases surge again across the United States, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, some hotels have announced they will require proof of vaccination from guests and staff, according to an NYT report published online on Friday.

Accommodations such as PUBLIC Hotel, Equinox Hotel and Wythe Hotel, all in New York City, Urban Cowboy Lodge in New York State, and Pilgrim House in Provincetown, Massachusetts, are among the first in the United States to announce that they will require evidence of vaccination, via a physical card or a digital verification, from their guests.

The American Hotel and Lodging Association, an industry trade group, has issued safety guidelines based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which includes encouraging employees to get vaccinated.

ICU OCCUPIED

Arizona surpassed 1 million COVID-19 cases on Friday, becoming the 13th state in the United States to reach the grim milestone while contending with yet another major spike in infections, according to the CDC's COVID-19 Data Tracker.

"The benchmark is the latest in a tumultuous year and a half where Arizona went from being touted as a pandemic success story to being 'the hot spot of the world' and then being a model again when vaccinations became available." reported the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Now the state, like the rest of the country, is coping with a surge, mostly among the unvaccinated, and in conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates, it added.

Louisiana's hospital system is already straining due to large numbers of COVID-19 patients, and it must now tackle another challenge: Hurricane Ida is expected to hit the majority of the state on Sunday.

Approximately 68 percent of all hospital beds in the state are filled, including 84 percent of all ICU beds, according to The Daily Advertiser's hospital capacity table.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has swept through the United States, including Louisiana, straining hospital resources, reported Business Insider on Saturday, adding that many hospitals in the state are approaching "major failure" and have already begun delaying non-emergency procedures and patient transfers.

Texas hospitals are also overwhelmed with the latest surge in coronavirus patients. As of Thursday, there were 13,932 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas and only 356 available ICU beds statewide, reported news website Changing America on Friday.

"There are many patients that are not doing well," Shawn Nishi, a doctor and associate professor of critical care medicine at University of Texas Medical Branch's Jennie Sealy Hospital, was quoted as saying. "It's very chaotic, because these patients are very unpredictable. At one moment they look great and the next moment, they're dying."

In Texas, just more than half, or 56.2 percent, of the eligible population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, said the report, adding that on Wednesday, coronavirus hospitalizations across the United States eclipsed 100,000 for the first time since January. Enditem
There is no question that the delta variant had changed everything, Pino told the paper. But if we were at higher rates of vaccination, lets say 80 to 85% of our eligible population, the numbers would be smaller.
Were not currently concerned about bus staffing, thanks in part to the citys fair compensation and generous benefits, said DOE spokeswoman Katie OHanlon. Safe transportation for our kids to and from school is crucial, and we will continue to work with our labor partners to support their staffing efforts.
I only have one comment, Quirk told the Daily News. The chief judge of the state of New York, okay, Janet DiFiore, is the most corrupt and unethical judge in the history of the state of New York, okay?
Last month, a U.S. judge cleared the way for his extradition. But in new court papers, Yoo, also known as Keith Yoo, is appealing the extradition, claiming that the South Korean government has an animus against Yoo and his family, and scapegoated him for the disaster.
The cyclist was struck by a vehicle at the intersection of 111th St. and Atlantic Ave. in Richmond Hill around 8:30 p.m., police and sources said.
But the bullet missed its target, instead striking innocent bystander Christopher Farrell, who was standing by a concrete barrier near the stations New Jersey Transit entrance. He was texting when he was hit by the bullet, witnesses said.
The 26-year-old victim was speaking in Mandarin to a friend when cops said Yvonne Yehudah started following and harassing her about 8:40 p.m. July 25  and then ran away.
The deadly shooting was the first homicide in the 100th precinct this year, according to NYPD records. As of this time last year, two murders had occurred in the Queens precinct.
A woman was struck just before 6 a.m. Saturday by the driver of a black sedan who fled the scene at Queens Blvd. and Hillside Ave. in Jamaica. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Were not the same state we were 16 years ago, he said, citing major improvements to a federal levee system. This system is going to be tested. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.
Werking was living at his parents home in Grand Haven for 10 months following a divorce and, after moving to Indiana, he learned that his collection was nowhere to be found.
Im overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face, he said, according to the Associated Press. I think Ive lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.
So far, he said hes doled out exemption letters to 90 church members and received calls from about 170 people outside his congregation seeking them in the last two days. He said most of the calls came from city workers  teachers, nurses, cops and MTA workers.
Sirhan Sirhan committed a crime against our nation and its people, the Kennedys statement said. He took our father from our family and he took him from America.
The infants mother was struck with labor pains just as the C-17 airplane made its way from a staging base in Qatar toward Germanys Ramstein Air Base on Aug. 21. The Afghan mom began experiencing complications, prompting the pilot to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft, which military officials said helped stabilize the woman and save her life.
After they recovered the missing jewelry, they were also able to link the suspect to another disappearance at the funeral home: a wallet, which had been stolen from the body of a man on that same day.
Christo has wrapped museums, parliaments as in Germany, but a monument like this? Not really. This is the first time. This is the first monument of this importance and scale that he has done, said Vladimir Yavachev, the late couples nephew.
The fate of many people is up in the air, such as an Afghan who worked as a translator for the U.S. military, who said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. He was stopped by a checkpoint by the Taliban, who said they had been told by the Americans to only let U.S. passport-holders through.
There is nothing in the 6-3 Supreme Court opinion that discounts the threat of COVIDs delta variant or the importance of keeping people in their homes when bills come due. The question is who can enact the moratorium. The answer, according to the prevailing side, is Capitol Hill. The expiration of the protections lies at the feet of the House and the Senate, now enjoying their summer vacations as their constituents are at risk of being thrown on the street.
Most people have a photo ID and support the idea that IDs should be required. However, the people most impacted by the lack of a photo ID are predominately poor, people of color and older people who no longer drive or travel, and those are the same people for whom securing government identification is expensive, daunting and burdensome. That is why this suppression tactic is so insidious: It is the excuse that states have found to keep people they dont want to vote from voting.
I did not know that I could miss both his laughter and his silence in equal measure, the Us star captioned the photo. One year after his passing, the memory of @chadwickboseman remains this alive in me.
The lock-down didnt work  the virus still got in  so we know it got in through the workers, she said. If the staff loves the residents as much as they say they do, and I believe they do, then they have to do everything in their power to protect them. And in my opinion, that includes getting vaccinated.
More than 570 people from across the country have been accused of participating in the insurrection after a Stop the Steal rally where former President Donald Trump promoted lies about election fraud and urged his followers to fight like hell against his presidential loss. The pro-Trump mob marched to the Capitol and stormed the building in a failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Bidens victory.
The evidence of the past 34 years of behavior by [Andrews] demonstrates that he has assisted various fellow inmates and formed some social relationships, there is no evidence of hostility to women and no impulsivity or violence, Marques wrote. In other words, the record demonstrates [Andrews] has exhibited the skills and coping mechanisms that counseling and therapy are meant to develop.
I understand that everyone is not pleased with this 60-day mandate, but I want to ask parents and other adults to help keep our students calm during these trying times. I am asking that you please keep our school environments peaceful, Jenkins said. I realize that the debate will continue among the adults, but we want to continue to provide quality education for each of our 200,000 students.
The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.
Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one  at or near the Abbey Gate  followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagons Joint Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.
Officer Robert German was known for his spirit of service and his commitment to his community, she said in a statement distributed by her Congressional office. He served Windermere honorably for five years, turning down other opportunities in order to stay in the community he loved.
To understand the importance of intellectual property, look no further than the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Scientists at those firms spent decades researching their underlying mRNA technology. They discovered that by taking advantage of the bodys own molecular devices, mRNA can teach our cells how to make a protein similar to that of a given pathogen  which, in turn, triggers an immune response. That way, whenever confronted with the virus itself, our bodies know exactly how to react.
The sad truth is that he had an opportunity to lead in a courageous way that everyone would have embraced. He could have appealed to our patriotism and better angels to encourage people to adopt healthy practices and lean in to the sacrifices the moment demanded. Instead, he makes it a political opportunity, Gelber said. He continues to double down even when its clear he cant point to a single metric that supports his success. Our governors hubris is now the organizing principle of Floridas pandemic response.
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - A journalist from the London-based television channel, MTA International, Taalay Ahmed, was Monday killed by armed robbers while working in Ghana, local media reported here Friday
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here
The Indian Express, August 28, 2021

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi

Kabul airport blasts LIVE updates: The Pentagon said on Friday that a deadly attack at the gate to Kabul airport in Afghanistan yesterday was carried out by one suicide bomber, not two. I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber, Army Major General William Taylor was quoted as saying by Reuters.



Afghan health officials saying that as many as 170 people were killed and at least 200 were wounded. (AFP photo) Afghan health officials saying that as many as 170 people were killed and at least 200 were wounded. (AFP photo)

Meanwhile, the reported toll of the bombing outside Kabuls airport rose sharply on Friday, with Afghan health officials saying that as many as 170 people were killed and at least 200 were wounded, the New York Times reported. Health officials estimate of the number of bombing victims, which did not include the 13 US service members killed and 15 wounded, was supported by interviews with hospital officials.

In other news, Russia has called for rapid efforts to help form an inclusive interim government in Afghanistan after the deadly attack at Kabul airport, saying Islamic State was trying to capitalise on chaos in the country and endangering everyone.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Espanola, NM (87532)

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Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 59F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 59F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone will be shooting a song in Spain for the upcoming film "Pathan", directed by Siddharth Anand.

Shah Rukh and Deepika will not only shoot crucial parts of their film in Spain but will also shoot a massively mounted song there.

A source said: "No Bollywood film has ever shot song sequences in these places. Sid Anand will shoot a spectacle of a song in Spain and things are totally under wraps to control all possible leaks. The intent is to create a song that is visually so grand that it is an instant hit.

"All necessary permissions are being worked on for a smooth shooting experience in Spain."

The source shared that 'Pathan' is "turning out to be an insanely awaited visual extravaganza".

Added the source: "Sid Anand and Aditya Chopra want to redefine Indian cinema on the world map and every attempt is being made to achieve this goal."

"Pathan" also stars John Abraham.

Other details about the movie are still under wraps.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday moved a resolution in the Assembly urging the Central government to revoke the three farm laws as they are affecting the farmers' interest.

Opposing the move, the BJP members walked out of the House.

Moving the resolution in the Assembly, Stalin said the three farm laws are against the farmers and would destroy agriculture.

He said the farm laws are of no use for the farmers and are also against the principle of federalism and taking away the powers of the states.

Stalin said the erstwhile AIADMK government did not bring such a resolution.

The three laws are: The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.

According to him, the farmers have been protesting against the three farm laws since August 2020.

The three laws are beneficial for the corporates and not for the farmers, he added.

He said the laws are silent on the minimum support price (MSP) for the farmers for their produce.

He also said the government had presented a separate Budget for agriculture this year.

Tamil Nadu's Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare M.R.K. Panneerselvam while presenting the state's first Budget for agriculture recently had said it was dedicated to the farmers protesting in Delhi against the three farms laws.

Majority of the parties in Tamil Nadu-barring AIADMK and the BJP -- were opposed to the three farm laws introduced by the Centre.

While in the opposition, Stalin had urged the former Chief Minister K. Palaniswami to convene a special session of the state Assembly to pass a resolution for revoking the three farm laws.

Palaniswami was a vocal supporter of the three farm laws saying that they are beneficial for the farmers.
Violence between police and protesting farmers in Haryana broke out on Saturday with the former trying to reach Karnal city to protest against a state-level BJP meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on holding local bodies elections.

At least 10 protesters were injured when they were canecharged by the police to stop and disperse as they were forcing their way towards Karnal.

BJP state president O.P. Dhankhar was also present at the meeting in Khattar's hometown.

Reacting to the situation, Bharatiya Kisan Union's (Haryana unit) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni called for blocking all highways in the state to protest the use of force against the farmers.

"We slammed the state BJP government for using police force on farmers. I request all farmers to come out and block all highways in the state," Charuni said.

Reports of traffic disruption were received from Hisar, Jind, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Dadri, Fatehabad and Ambala.

The traffic bound for New Delhi from Amritsar was disrupted on the Shambu border in Punjab. Also the traffic bound for Uttar Pradesh via Ambala and Yamunanagar towns was impacted.

Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body under which farmer groups have been staging protests against the farm laws, leader Darshan Pal urged farmers to carry out a road blockade at 5 p.m. and called for the release of those who were arrested during the clash.

Congress leader and two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda condemned the lathicharge.

"The action on farmers at Karnal is undemocratic and inhuman. Everyone has the right to protest in a democracy. Governments are not run with fear of the bullet but by winning hearts," Hooda said in a tweet.

The BJP government and its leaders, mainly in Punjab and Haryana, have been facing farmers' ire against the three contentious agriculture laws that have triggered widespread protests, particularly on the borders of the national capital, where farmers have been protesting since November-end.
Who is Diksha Shinde? 14-year-old from Pune gets selected to work at NASA

While many prodigies in India have either been selected by NASA or other prestigious globa
The US military said it believes it has killed a planner for the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in a drone strike in the east of the country, the media reported.

"The US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an IS-K planner," US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement on Friday night.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," the statement added.

Urban described the drone attack as an "over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation", the BBC reported.

Most of IS-K's several thousand extremists are believed to be in hiding in Nangarhar province.

The IS-K claimed responsibility for the deadly attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday that may have killed as many as 170 people, including 13 US service members.

Officials in Washington have warned of heightened terror threats to American troops in the aftermath of what was one of the deadliest attacks in the 20-year US-led invasion in Afghanistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told a news conference Friday that "specific credible threats" are believed to exist, "and we want to make sure we're prepared for those" threats.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the concern over those security threats, saying in a press briefing that American officials believe "another terror attack in Kabul is likely".

Also on Friday, Major General Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, clarified to reporters that the blast at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport involving a sole suicide bomber was the only attack that happened Thursday, correcting earlier reports that a second attack was launched at the adjacent Baron Hotel.

"I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel; that it was one suicide bomber," Taylor said.

It was not clear the individual killed in the US airstrike was specifically involved in Thursday's bombing.

The US reprisal came after President Joe Biden promised to strike those responsible for the suicide bombing.
The Taliban members, who were once designated as wanted terrorists for 9/11 attacks in the US, are now in charge of the war-torn Afghanistan.

Some of these prominent members were earlier incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and some in Pakistan and Afghanistan jails. They were released in the last six years once the US started back-channel talks with them for their exit from Afghanistan.

The US' plan to hand over Afghanistan was made way back in 2012 and eventually it started taking shape and they started regrouping and taking control over Afghan territory.

A sudden pullout of the US forces gave the Taliban enough time to completely take over Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, Taliban captured Kabul marking the end of US intervention in Afghanistan since in the 1970s.

The security establishments are fully aware that the terror group Al Qaeda has a clear link to the Taliban and however the US decided to leave the country as quickly as it can, ultimately triggering a huge humanitarian crisis.

But who are these prominent Taliban members of 2021? Most of them are the same old Taliban members which ruled from 1996 to 2001. IANS profiles some of these Taliban members.

Shahabuddin Dilawar

Shahabuddin Dilawar is an ethnic Pashtun from Logar province, and his father, Syed Akbar, was a member of the Wolesi Jirga during King Zahir Shah's reign. During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, he held positions, including Ambassador to Pakistan, a representative in the Peshawar Consulate, Charge d'Affaires in Saudi Arabia, and Deputy Chief Justice of the Kandahar Appeal Court.

He also fought in the 1980s anti-Soviet jihad.

Until September 1998, Dilawar was the Taliban's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He has since led or participated in several Taliban delegations in other countries. He was the Taliban's chief delegate during talks in Chantilly, France, in December 2012. He has continued to act as a Taliban envoy since moving to Qatar, helping to set up the Taliban's office in Doha. In April 2016, Dilawar took part in a three-person Taliban delegation in Islamabad for "exploratory" meetings with Pakistani government authorities.

Dilawar is currently based in Doha and is a member of the peace negotiating team. He is fluent in Arabic, English, Dari, and Pashto and has completed his higher education.

Abdul Latif Mansoor

Abdul Latif Mansoor is a Pashtun from the Paktia province and had served as Agriculture Minister during the previous Taliban regime. He spent the majority of his life in Pakistan, where he completed his Islamic studies at the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He is the nephew of Mewlavi Nasrullah Mansoor, a former jihadi commander.

He was also a member of the Taliban Supreme Council and Head of the Council's Political Commission in 2009. He was the Taliban shadow governor of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, in 2009 and the head of the group's political commission as at mid-2009.

In May 2010, he served as a senior Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan.

He is a member of the Taliban's peace negotiation team.

Abdul Kabeer

Abdul Kabeer is of Pashtun ethnicity and hails from Paktia province, which borders Pakistan, but has spent time in Baghlan province as well.

During the Taliban regime, he was governor of Kandahar and deputy director of Kabul's ministerial council on economic affairs.

He was a member of the Taliban's high leadership council in October 2006, and was appointed military commander of the eastern zone in October 2007. He was a member of the Taliban Supreme Council as at 2009. He used to collect money from drug traffickers on behalf of the Taliban. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009, but he was later released.

He was part of the negotiating team.

Khairullah Khairkhwa

Khairullah Khairkhwa is an ethnic Pashtun and belongs to the Kandahar province. During the former Taliban regime, he had served as a military commander, Interior Minister and Governor of Herat province.

When the September 11, 2001, attacks took place, Khairkhwa was posted as governor of the Taliban-run Herat Province, where former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ran a training camp.

He was directly associated with bin Laden and former Taliban leader Omar. He is closely acquainted with current Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Khairkhwa was arrested by Pakistani border patrol officials in February 2002 and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay from May 2002 to May 2014. He was one of five Taliban senior leaders transferred to Qatar as part of the Doha-mediated exchange for captive US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

He was part of negotiating team.

Mohammad Fazel Mazlum

Mohammad Fazel Mazlum belongs to Uruzgan province and had studied in Pakistani seminaries. The 53-year-old is a Pashtun from Kandahar province. He was a military commander during the fight against the US, and he previously served as interior minister and governor of Herat province during Taliban rule.

He stands accused of administering a series of massacres targeting Shia and Tajik Sunnis Muslims in central and northern Afghanistan.

He was taken into custody in 2002 near the Afghan border in Pakistan and held in the Guantanamo Bay prison for nearly 12 years. He is currently residing in Doha and is a member of the Taliban peace negotiation team.

Noorullah Noori

Born in 1967 in Zabul province, Noorullah Noori is a senior Taliban military commander in the northern Mazar-e Sharif province.

During the Taliban's rule, he was the governor of Balkh and Laghman, as well as the military commander of the northern zone. He was implicated for the execution of ethnic Uzbeks in May 2001 and of at least 31 ethnic Hazara civilians and Shia Muslim detainees at Robatak Pass, in north central Afghanistan, in May 2000.

He was arrested by the Panjshir-based Northern Alliance in November 2001 and detained in Guantanamo Bay from January 2002 to May 2014. He was an associate of former Taliban commander Omar, and was at one point one of 25 Taliban officials who met him most frequently.

He was part of negotiation team.

Amir Khan Muttaqi

Amir Khan Muttaqi is ethnically Pashtun from Paktia but has lived in Zabul, Kandahar, and Helmand provinces. During the Taliban regime, he was the minister of culture, information, and education. He had also served as a Taliban representative in UN-led talks during the Taliban regime.

He was also a member of a regional Taliban Council in June 2007.

Muttaqi is close to Taliban chief Haibatullah, having served as his personnel secretary before being appointed to the Doha negotiating team.

Currently, Muttaqi is the head of a Taliban commission that oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents.

Abdul Haq Waseeq

Abdul Haq Waseeq, a resident of Khogyano district in Ghazni province, is 49 years old and had completed his religious studies from Zia-ul-Madares in Pakistan's Quetta City.

He was assistant officer of intelligence during the Taliban regime. Waseeq was arrested in the Muqar district of Ghazni province in 2001 and was sent to Guantanamo Bay. He was released in a prisoners swap deal after spending 12-years in the US military detention centre.

He was present in the US-Taliban talks that lasted for 11 months and currently is a member of the Taliban negotiating team. He lives in Qatar with his family.

Matiulhaq Khales

Matiulhaq Khales is a Pashtun from the province of Nangarhar. He is the son of Maulvi Younas Khales, a former jihadi commander who founded the Hizb-e-Islami (Khales group), the same as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party. The two are commonly differentiated as Hizb-e Islami (Khales) and Hizb-e-Islami (Gulbuddin). After the overthrow of Mohammad Zahir Shah by Mohammad Daoud in 1973, Khales fled to Pakistan and joined Hekmatyar's Islamic Party (Hezb-e Islami). After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Khales broke with Hekmatyar and established his own party (Hizb-e-Islami Khales).

His son Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales completed his bachelor's degree from the Madina Monawwara in Saudi Arabia. He had created an armed group called Torabora Mahaz for some time. In 2016, he pledged allegiance to the Taliban. Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales is currently a member of the Taliban negotiating team.

Mohammad Naeem

Mohammad Naeem is from Maidan Wardak province. He studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqani seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. He received his doctorate in Arabic Literature from Islamabad's Islamic University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha.

Suhail Shaheen

Suhail Shaheen is from Paktia, a Pashtun-majority province in Afghanistan. He attended the Islamic University in Islamabad, and Kabul University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha. He was the editor-in-chief of the Kabul Times during the Taliban regime. He has also served as the second secretary in Afghanistan's embassy in Islamabad and as the spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

Shaheen is a fluent English speaker and prolific writer.

Anas Haqqani

Anas Haqqani is son of renowned jihadi leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani Network. Sirajuddin Haqqani, his brother, is the network's commander.

From Paktia province, Anas Haqqani is the youngest member of the Taliban's Doha negotiating team. He was arrested in 2014 and transferred to Qatar after serving six years in Bagram prison.

The Haqqani Network is directly associated links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has carried out a series of high-profile attacks against foreign and Afghan troops since the US invasion.

Mohammad Shirin Akhund

Mohammad Shirin Akhund was close to the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar. A member of the Alizai tribe from Kandahar province, he and was in charge of Omar's security. He was also the commander of military intelligence and the governor of Kandahar province.

Akhund is a long-time member of the Taliban and its leadership council the Rahbari Shura, better known as the Quetta Shura. During the US invasion, Akhund was one of the close associates of Omar who helped him escape from the province and evade coalition forces. After fleeing from coalition forces, Akhund became head of Omar's personal security for the next several years, becoming the latter's close confidant.

In 2016, he was placed in charge of overseeing the Taliban war efforts in 19 provinces in the country's east and north as part of the organisation's military committee. By 2018, a UN Security Council report described Akhund as the group's head of intelligence for the southern region, before he was moved to the shadow governorship of Kandahar in the same year during a political reshuffling of Taliban leadership by Haibatullah Akhundzada.

After the fall of Kabul on August 15, he has been appointed as the Governor of Kabul. He was a member of the negotiating team in the Taliban's office in Doha, Qatar.


With the Haqqani commanders in Afghanistan being assigned important responsibilities in the last few days ever since the Taliban takeover of the war-torn nation on August 15, experts feel that Pakistan wants to run the Taliban government and will have a major say in the important decisions taken by the Afghan militia in the days to come. Leaders such as Khalil-ul-Rehman Haqqani has been appointed as the new security chief of Kabul, while the son of Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Abbasin, has been given the charge of managing the supplies of arms and ammunition to Taliban troopers who have been trying to get control of the Panjshir valley. Referring to the series of new responsibilities given to important commanders of the Haqqani network, experts said that Pakistan would try to dominate the important decisions in the war-torn nation. They also admitted that the Taliban at this juncture will not open a channel of confrontation with any of the other militant groups operating in the region, including the Al Qaeda. Noting that the Haqqani network and the Taliban in general have been the domain of the Pakistani military and its Intelligence wing ISI since the late 1980s, former diplomat Anil Trigunayat said that they fought with the US, Saudi Arabia and Soviet Union in the past and since then, they have been closely connected with the Pakistani design. "The Haqqani network is actually a key of Pakistan to hold the Taliban. It is also one of the groups which is against India and has been trained totally by Pakistan. It takes most of the decisions on the behest of Pakistan," Trigunayat said. The Haqqani network is a powerful group which is part of the Taliban, but takes instructions from Islamabad, and the Taliban are not in a position to stop them, he added. Similar views were expressed by defence expert Major General G.D. Bakshi (Retd), who said that Pakistan has been using the Haqqani group, Taliban and other terror outfits to destroy Afghanistan. Now that the new Taliban have seized power there, Pakistan wants to play a pivotal role in Afghanistan, he said. "Pakistan is trying play smartly and it will pressurise the new administrative set up through the Haqqani network to have an important say in the governance of Afghanistan indirectly," Bakshi said. Another West Asia expert, Nishikant Dubey, said that within the Taliban, there are two groups -- Pak Taliban and Afghan Taliban. Pak Taliban comprises Al Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are in direct control of Pakistan and the ISI has been providing them all aid such as weapons, medical assistance and free access to the country for long. Therefore, they will be working on the instructions of Pakistan, Dubey said. "ISI is also pushing its trained terrorists to join the Taliban forces which is evident from the rising number of Taliban militia, which rose from 70,000 to around 1,10,000 in the last six or seven days," Dubey said. The Haqqani network is based out of North Waziristan in Pakistan and has been operating along the Afghan border since the 1980s.




The government should know that there are certain set practices in Christian, Islam and other religions about the appointment of priests

by N.S.Venkataraman

In the last one hundred days after the present Tamil Nadu government has assumed office , there has been excessive focus on reforming Hindu religion. So many other issues such as corruption in the government machinery at all levels , rapidly increasing liquor addiction in the state , tax evasion , huge debt burden ,problems of farmers in delta region whose paddy stock has been spoiled due to lack of storage ., corruption in procurement price of paddy etc. have not received much attention, similar to what reforming Hindu religion has received.

Every other day, government has been announcing that it has retrieved the un authorisedly occupied land belonging to Hindu temples. . Concerned minister is visiting temples frequently and has inaugurated Tamil archana , as if Tamil archana has not been done before.

While this has created an impression that Tamil Nadu government is favourably disposed towards Hindu temples, it has been then said that some retrieved land belonging to temples could be utilised for setting up educational institutions

While the government is administering many Hindu temples , government is not owner of them. Hindu temples are not public sector undertakings. The government cannot use the temple land for any purpose and it cannot change or modify the procedures for conducting rituals in the temples as per its whims and fancies.

Now, the government has appointed archakas belonging to various castes for several Hindu temples , replacing the traditional archakas who have much knowledge and experience about temple rituals, gained over several years.

The government says that the existing superannuated priests would be getting daily wages . For the priests in Hindu temples, there is nothing like superannuation and they continue life long as priests until such time that their health would permit. The government should understand that it can not administer temples like government departments. As a matter of fact, the Hindu devotees, whatever the caste or sub caste that they belong to, view the aged priests with lot of experience in conducting rituals with special respect.

Government says that it has appointed trained archakas who are not brahmins. The question is as to whether these so called trained archakas have been tested by senior priests who have been traditionally trained as per agama shastra. As per the Vedas and other spiritual texts, people belonging to Brahmana Varna (not caste) are to be ordained as priests. They need to undego Vedic learning under an Acharya for several years before they can become priests. There are several rules and regulations. Only knowledge does not make one a priest. Have the government appointed persons attained such knowledge and experience to fulfil what the scriptures tell?

As the government has now made caste as an issue in appointing the priests for Hindu temples , one may soon find reservation being demanded for scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and OBC for appointment of priests in the temples and government may even reduce the level of qualification for the SC/ST and OBC candidates. Certainly, the government has created a caste conflict in Hindu temples, knowingly or unknowingly.

Already demand is being made by some parties who are known to be antagonists to Hindu religion that women should be appointed as priests in Hindu temples . In such case, will the government provide special leave for women for certain days in a month ?

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has given an impression that he is a rationalist, which may virtually imply that he is an atheist. While the Chief Minister is entitled to have his own views on Hindu temple rituals , as the Chief Minister is responsible for taking decisions to reform Hindu temples, he has to make it clear whether he owes his allegiance to Hindu religion.

The government should also know that there are certain set practices in Christian, Islam and other religions about the appointment of priests

In this scenario, one cannot miss the point that the Tamil Nadu government has not cared to reform practices in Church for Christians or in Mosque for Muslims or in Gurudwara for Sikhs. Then, why target Hindu temples alone?.,

While the government may argue that it is administering the Hindu temples and not Churches , Mosques and Gurudwaras, the christians, muslims and sikhs also live in Tamil Nadu and the government must be concerned about the practices in their places of worship also. While government is trying to reform the Hindu temples, it has not even expressed its concern about the prevailing practices in churches, mosques and gurudwaras with regard to practices in appointing the priests. Has the government no concern at all about the pattern of appointment of priests in them ?With regard to these , there is a deafening silence heard from Tamil Nadu government.

In the recent budget, government of Tamil Nadu has allotted Rs. 6 crore for maintenance of Churches and Mosques but nothing has been mentioned about allotting money for maintaining the Hindu temples or Gurudwaras . One has to ponder about this point, as there is a differential treatment given by Tamil Nadu government between different religions.

The decision of the Tamil Nadu government to appoint trained archakas  has introduced an element of confusion amongst the Hindu devotees belonging to all castes and sub castes.

Many believe that the forced change of the traditional practices of appointing priests in Hindu temples could even dilute the traditional practices of rituals in Hindu temples, as the appointed trained archakas are not adequately trained as per the shastra.

Temples occupy pivotal place in Hindu religion. Weakening the Hindu temples could be the sure way of weakening the Hindu religion.
The State of Afghanistan, represented by its people, is a member of the United Nations and in that capacity is a party to many international treaties.

by Dr. Ruwantissa Abeyratne from Montreal

Is it really a new Afghanistan - now that the Taliban has taken control of running the country - or is it the same Afghanistan as it was before? This is the first intelligible question that would cross the mind of the active reader. The short answer to this question would ineluctably lie in legal semantics rather than political rhetoric. However, the world being what it is, or rather what it has become, the answer may be a bit more complex.

To start with legal legitimacy, one has to go back to Emer de Vattel, who wrote in his monumental work The Law of Nations in 1758  Nations or states are bodies politic, societies of men united together for the purpose of promoting their mutual safety and advantage by the joint effort of their combined strength. Such a society has her affairs and interests; she deliberates and takes resolutions in common; thus becoming a moral person, who possesses an understanding and a will peculiar to herself and is susceptible of obligation and rights. Vattel goes on to say that the glory of a nation is inextricably linked to the power it wields, which in turn receives the recognition and acceptance of other States.

Of course, since this eighteenth century exhortation, the concept of Nation or State of Vattel has been bifurcated where the two bear distinctly different characteristics. According to the 1933 Montevideo Convention, a State has four characteristics: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other States. On the other hand, a Nation represents the people of a State, as embodied in the United Nations Charter which talks of the peoples of the world in its preamble.

The State of Afghanistan, represented by its people, is a member of the United Nations and in that capacity is a party to many international treaties. Practically, the United Nations would deal with the representatives of the Afghanistan government appointed to represent the State in The United Nations General Assembly. Other States would deal with Afghanistan the same way, on a State-to-State basis. For example, The Government of Britain in 1980 adopted a practice concerning its recognition of governments saying:  we have decided that we shall no longer accord recognition to governments. The British Government recognize States in accordance with common international doctrine. Professor Ian Brownlie of the University of Oxford in his textbook Principles of Public International Law says:  where an unconstitutional change of regime takes place in a recognized State, Governments of other States must necessarily consider what dealings, if any, they should have with the new regime, and whether, and to what extent it qualifies to be treated as the Government of the State concerned. This would invoke the fourth characteristic of a legitimate State as enunciated in the Montevideo Convention.

In one instance of adjudication of the issue of legal legitimacy of a regime that takes control by usurpation, the legal position at common law was clearly laid out. Whether this is a sign of things to come with regard to the recognition of the new regime in Afghanistan and its policy and processes, is to be seen. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in the 1967 case of Madzimbamuto v. Lardner-Burke rejected the validity of detentions in Rhodesia after the usurpation by the Government of Ian Smith, as well as overturned decisions rendered in divorce decrees by British Courts under that government.

The legal position aside, the other dimension under the current circumstances for consideration of States revolves round what Brownlie called dealings, if any, they should have with the new regime. This brings in aspects of compromise between the new regime and the rest of the world.

Dr. Renata Dwan, writing an article for Chatham House on 20 August 2021 titled The Aftermath: Navigating a Taliban-led Afghanistan says:  Afghanistans enduring partners must now focus on building a consensus around five conditions for international acceptance of a Taliban-administered Afghanistan and prevent the Taliban again reaping the benefits of international divisions. The G7 began to articulate some of these conditions but they need to be set out and negotiated with Afghanistans neighbours before being formally articulated by the UN Security Council. Dr. Dwan identifies the following compromise actions that the new regime of Afghanistan must carry out: adherence to Afghanistans human rights obligations. This must specify the rights of women and girls to education and work, the protection of ethnic and religious minorities, and safe passage for all Afghans and internationals leaving the country; ensure amnesty for all individuals who worked for the Afghan government or international embassies, forces, or aid organizations since 2001; refrain from harbouring of terrorist groups - the main condition insisted on by the US when they agreed on the deal with the Taliban, and the overriding concern for both China and Russia; non-lethal public order that would enable supply routes to open, evacuations to continue, and aid to be delivered. This is essential and one that Russia has made as a condition for its future relations; negotiation of inclusive political arrangements with Afghanistans political and ethnic factions.

Both the legal implications and political machinations that need to be untangled in this complex web rest squarely with the United Nations. In addition to the conditions discussed above, the G7 countries should insist, along with the rest of the international community through the United Nations that, to preserve the status of Afghanistan as a State, the new regime must adhere to international treaties Afghanistan has already ratified or otherwise adhered to and also abide by the provisions therein, whether to follow or withdraw from them in the appropriate manner prescribed. This is an irrefutable principle at customary international law (which States have to follow whether they like it or not) as embodied in The Vienna Convention on the Succession of States in Respect of Treaties (1978) which entered into force in 1996. Another relevant treaty is the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts, (1983) which has yet to enter into force but nonetheless provides principles that would apply to the current circumstances of Afghanistan.

Another condition that should be at the table in the United Nations is that the new regime ensures that all Afghans are provided with the essentials of life-sustenance as well as security and safety, devoid of differentiation. These are the two most compelling needs for human existence in Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Professor Malcolm Shaw of Cambridge University in his text International Law cites the German Federal Supreme Court in the Espionage Prosecution Case: The problem of State succession is one of the most disputed areas of international law. In the instance of Afghanistan, it may become more disputed and even more complicated considering how some States view the protagonists in the new regime as a terrorist organization.

Dr. Abeyratne is a former senior official in the United Nations system.
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DATV Contest Report August 2021

A good number of radio amateurs took part in the Reduced Bandwidth DATV contest held August 21-22 in the 50, 144 and 430 MHz bands



A translation of the VERON post by Poll van der Wouw PA3BYV reads:



The still almost brand new DATV contest on 6m, 2m and 70cm can look forward to a lot of interest. There were no special conditions, according to some they were even bad. Nevertheless, connections have been made over considerable distances. As can be seen on the accompanying map [on VERON site], there were mainly many north-south connections. While a few years ago there was only a single station with ATV in the north, I now count 10.



There were again a large number of QRV stations. Some for a short period of time, but others almost all day. Only at night it was quiet on the chat. Because the BATC DXSpot was used, especially for 2m and 70cm. At 12:00 UTC it started right away. The conditions were nothing to write home about. However, considerable distances were already being worked. Especially Patrick, ON1BTE and Jack, PA0BOJ were very active. Some connections worked right away, sometimes it took a while, sometimes it just didn't work. But in general there has been a lot of experimentation again.



One of the things that stand out to me is how much QSB can be on a DATV signal and how many different types of QSB. Aircraft scatter, windmills and probably also atmospheric QSB. Reflections and multipath effects can also play a role here.



What happened at 50 MHz could not be seen in DXSpot. But when asked, there has probably only been some activity around Amsterdam. So there is still a lot to achieve. Apparently not many amateurs have their stuff in order for 6m yet. Including myself, by the way. No antenna and no amplifiers yet. But that is also being worked on.



Read the full post on the VERON site at

https://tinyurl.com/IARU-Netherlands



BATC DXSpot

https://dxspot.batc.org.uk/
Huntsville Hamfest hosts 2021 ARRL Southeastern Division Convention

The annual Huntsville Hamfest this past weekend, August 21  22, served as host for the 2021 ARRL Southeastern Division Convention.

Convention visitors were able to meet with many ARRL officials and staff, including President Rick Roderick, K5UR; Chief Executive Officer David Minster, NA2AA; Director of Membership, Marketing, and Communications Kathleen Callahan, KC1MBY, and Product Development Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R. Also on hand at the ARRL booth were many Southeastern Division officials, Section Managers, and Field Organization volunteers.

The convention, held annually at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, had to be canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of us, this was our return to a large in-person convention after nearly 18 months, Inderbitzen said. The crowds were big, but the organizers had spread out the exhibits and widened the aisles, allowing for plenty of physical distancing. It was nice to have eyeballs on so many members and friends Ive missed seeing.

ARRL author Glen Popiel, KW5GP, presented a forum on the Arduino and various ham radio applications using this microprocessor prototyping platform. Popiels recent book, More Arduino for Ham Radio, is now available from ARRL and its dealers. Other forums included an update from principals for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS), an ARRL Membership Town Hall, and an opportunity to hear from ARRL Alabama Section leaders regarding key areas of volunteer activity, including the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES).

Volunteers from the North Alabama DX Club (NADXC) hosted a sold-out banquet on Saturday night that included a presentation from DXpeditioner Adrian Ciuperca, KO8SCA. He shared stories and photos from his 2019 DXpedition to Bhutan, where he operated as A50BOC, A50BPC, and A5B. Just ahead on his travel agenda, Ciuperca will be a member of DXpedition teams to Swains Island and Bouvet Island in 2022. NADXC members were also on hand throughout the convention to help check applications for DXCC and other ARRL Awards.

A Youth Lounge at the Convention included opportunities for young hams and future hams to listen and get on the air. There were also demonstrations of robotics, 3D printing, and activities that included a radio direction finding foxhunt and kit building.

ARRL CEO David Minister, NA2AA, and ARRL Instructional Designer Steve Goodgame, K5ATA, organized a YouTube Meet Up with many content producers for popular ham radio-themed YouTube channels  an opportunity to thank the community for its part in nurturing active radio amateurs with information and learning.

ARRL has produced a YouTube video chronicling the Convention.

Source: http://www.arrl.org/news/huntsville-hamfest-hosts-2021-arrl-southeastern-division-convention
When Mr. Carlson interviewed the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, the thoughts on encouraging families, education and support of students and his definitions of national boundaries did not appear very controversial.

by Michael R. Czinkota

The other day I was watching a Tucker Carlson Talkshow with a focus on Hungary. Several reasons motivated my interest: one was that Hungary is hardly ever mentioned in broadcasts or social media, and if so, only with a heavy negativity, as the bad guys. For example, Mr. Biden referred to Hungarys democratically elected Prime as thug, second, Carlsons visit provided me with an instacheck opportunity of any claims made since my wife was in Hungary at the same time and in similar locations as was Mr. Carlson, so I could check his claims every evening with her.

A good opportunity for improving my understanding of the Hungarian condition and also of my analysis of are some results of my investigation : Hungarians are not feckless monopolists living in a scrapped together dictatorship. There are (and in April next year again will be) serious elections which, so far have resulted in clear and stable majorities. As reported by their embassy communications, their thug made major contributions by accomodating, feeding and clothing Afghani refugees. The education sector in Hungary, particularly on the university level, is said to be under strong government directive and control. I could not find that in conversations, but rather encountered domestic university conditions of good structure and high repute. Students are ready for discussions and analysis about great varieties of topics. Hungarian Nobel prize winners are extraordinarily frequent. Most recently, Katalin Kariko was a major contributor to the mRNA development, the basis of the Pfizer COVID vaccine.

My excellent Washington dentist tells me about Istvan Urban of Budapest where he goes for learning and training. When Mr. Carlson interviewed the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, the thoughts on encouraging families, education and support of students and his definitions of national boundaries did not appear very controversial. The policy steps taken have yielded good results. Orban also has developed his own approach to government response to incoming migration. Guided by his belief that 10 million Hungarians cannot accommodate a large number of migrants, He has his border guards support any migrants and then has them escorted back to the other side of the border. I have witnessed large groups of migrants pick fruit trees bare within minutes, leaving their owners without income and food. When implemented, Orbans policy was firmly scolded by Europeans, even though by now they have adapted his approach as well.

Hungary has given much ongoing support to Europe. Even though located on the verge between Asia and Europe, its society has always seen itself as clearly a part of Europe. It has held European occupants at bay as a member of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, limited the century-long occupation by the Turks, and gloriously lost battles that protected the West. I remember when in 1956, in an eerie similarity to Afghanistan today, American encouragement led to all Hungarian revolutions against the occupying Soviet forces which resulted in many killings and emigrations from Hungary. I remember, as do many others, how the Hungarian politician Gyula Horn opened the border from Hungary to Austria, which permitted East Germans to flee in large numbers and triggered the beginning of German reunification. For all these good measures delivered by Hungary I have great difficulty finding any long-term gratitude as payback.

Yes, politics tends to be reflected by the steps of the moment, but perhaps, as we appear to redesign relations, obligations, and renew spheres of interests, this might be the right time to forge relations that are based on long term history, making up for past services rendered within a Europe in flux. Such obligations deserve to be addressed clearly and driven by transparency. Trying to make opposition whither by silencing it or ignoring it will not work in an era of global communication. Closer and better recognition of the past may well be the key for a realignment a better future for all. In conclusion, the dimensions highlighted byTucker are true. His perspective of Hungary, confirmed by my wife and my personal insights emerge with little challenge. I wish the country well.

Professor Czinkota represents international business and trade at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. his latest book with Cambridge is International Business, 9th ed. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the U.S.A.
The St. Louis County Council held a special meeting Friday afternoon, Aug. 27 and voted along party lines to support a mask mandate after five weeks of contentious debate and at least two votes against the mandate.
Some of those homeowners, including Margate resident Wendy Longley, have been anxiously waiting to get their hands on a share of $9.9 billion in federal assistance approved last spring by Congress and the Biden administration. More than five months after it was approved, though, states are waiting for the U.S. Treasury Department to approve their distribution plans and no one can predict when the money will become available.
He said courts are presided over by judges who are sympathetic, and so are the landlords, by the way. There are options. Okay, lets try to keep you here, but what can you do so I can get some revenue from you?
Along with infecting Floridians, COVID continues to take lives. Florida reported a whopping increase in new deaths on Friday: 1,727 in the last seven days, compared with 1,486 the week prior. Seventeen months into the pandemic, Florida has reported a total of 43,979 deaths from the virus. The toll includes all ages: 256 deaths have occurred in people younger than 29, which is 38 more in the last seven days. Deaths can take several days or weeks to be reported to the state.
This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.
The states where the death rate is higher than the national average have varying vaccination rates. The New York Times database shows Florida has 52% of its population fully vaccinated, the same as the United States. Mississippi, which is No. 2 in deaths per capita, has just 37% of its residents vaccinated. In Louisiana, which has the highest seven-day COVID death rate, 41% are vaccinated, the New York Times database showed.
While Rivkees hasnt been on DeSantis schedule, the governor has been getting input from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine, and Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard Medical School professor. Both are controversial figures who signed the Great Barrington Declaration, which called for letting the virus spread in the lower-risk population with the goal of herd immunity.
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Iraq's Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership on Saturday ended on a positive note with the participating countries agreeing to unify efforts to stabilise the region.

The conference discussed a number of security, political and economic dossiers, in addition to emphasising support for the Iraqi government and the fight against terrorism, said the SPA report.

It was attended by several Middle Eastern leaders and also French President Emmanuel Macron.

Iraq had invited regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran to the summit in bid to calm tensions which have brought these countries closer to open conflict in recent years, reported Reuters.

The Baghdad summit comes as part of Iraqi government's efforts to make them talk to each other instead of settling scores on its territory, it stated.

Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, took part in the summit along with his delegation.

Besides Macron, the heads of state who attended included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Kuwait and the UAE sent their heads of government, while Turkey sent its foreign minister.

Macron was due to stay an extra day to meet Iraqi leaders and visit French special forces fighting Islamic State insurgents.

Speaking at a regional summit in Iraq, Macron said his country would continue to deploy troops there to battle terrorism even if the US were to withdraw. The comments come in the wake of a deadly attack claimed by the Islamic State in Afghanistan, a country which has come under Taliban control. "Given the geopolitical events, this conference has taken a special turn," Macron said at the summit convened by Iraq as it seeks to play the role of regional mediator. "No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism," Macron told a news conference in Baghdad.

The opening session of the conference began in the afternoon with the participation of nine countries and several regional and international organizations to enhance security and economic cooperation in the Middle East.

Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah said the convention was held at critical and crucial time in the region. Sheikh Sabah emphasized that the region could never witness stability as long as Iraq remained unstable, reported Kuwait Times. "Iraq is one of the basic security and economic foundations in the region," he said, lauding the nations success in overcoming and tackling majority of the problems it had encountered since years back. Iraq will experience a pivotal phase in its political process that is the parliamentary elections due on October 10 (2021), said the Kuwait Premier, adding that the nation would need support from the regional states and the international community to back up the scheduled polling process.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi said in his speech that the convening of the conference embodies Iraq's vision of establishing "the best relations," voicing his hope that economic partnerships will be achieved through the gathering.

Later in the day, the final conference statement welcomed the Iraqi diplomatic efforts to "reach a common ground at the regional and international levels to strengthen political, economic and security partnerships, adopt constructive dialogue, and consolidate understandings on the basis of common interests."

The participants acknowledged that the region "is facing common challenges that require the regional countries to deal with them on the basis of cooperation and mutual interests," the statement said.

They also renewed "rejection of all types and forms of terrorism and extremist ideology," the statement said.

The conference also stressed the need to continue "cooperation in confronting the Covid-19 pandemic through sharing expertise and exchange of successful experience," it added.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein told a press conference that the conference, which he described as an "important historical event," will have influences on the Iraqi and regional situations in the future.

He said that the conference will ease pressures and tensions in the region, and there will be more such conferences later.
New Delhi, Aug 27 (UNI) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, amid speculations that he could be replaced as the chief minister.

State health minister TS Singh Deo, who is also in the national capital since the last meeting on August 24, has staked claim to the top post in the state.

Baghel met Rahul Gandhi for the second time in a week of Friday. Chhattisgarh in-charge PL Punia and KC Venugopal were also present. Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi was also present in the meeting.
New Delhi/ Karnal, Aug 28 (UNI) A lathi charge was carried out against farmers at the Gharaunda toll plaza in Karnal, prompting farmers to call for a road block in the state, and drawing sharp criticism from Opposition.

According to Samyukt Kisan Morcha, farmers were gathering to protest against the visit of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and other BJP leaders who were visiting Karnal. Jai Kisan Andolan Chief Yogendra Yadav said farmers wanted to show black flags to the leaders, but they were not allowed and force was used against them.

Several highways in Haryana were blocked by farmers in protest to the action, after a call was given by Darshan Pal from Samyukt Kisan Morcha, Gurnam Singh Charuni of Bharatiya Kisan Union, and other farmer leaders called for it.

As photographs and videos of farmers injured in the lathi charge flooded social media, it drew strong criticism from the Opposition.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi shared a photo of a bleeding farmer and said "once again farmers are bleeding, India's head hangs in shame".

It was also condemned by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and party leader RS Surjewala.

Surjewala issued a statement comparing the incident to the action by Brig Gen Dyer who was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

"The way farmers were beaten up while they were carrying out peaceful protests reminds of General Dyer," he said.

The comment comes on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the renovated Jallianwala Bagh Smarak.

Dr. Darshan Pal from the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, in a video message on his Facebook page, said many farmers were injured.

"Haryana Police has done a brutal lathi charge, many farmers are injured, they have suffered fractures, many have been hit on the head..."he said.

Samyukt Kisan Morcha called for blocking roads till 5 pm in protest.

"Gather wherever you can, at toll plazas or other points, and block the roads till 5 pm today," Pal said.

He said instructions for the next action will be given later.

Pal also said that many farmers were detained, and demanded their release.

He said if anything happens to any farmers, the agitation will be intensified.

"Farmers were gathering at Gharaunda toll plaza for a peaceful protest against chief minister's Karnal visit. Police carried out a brutal lathi charge. We condemn it," he said.

Farmers have been protesting against the new farm laws for over nine months now, with protest sites springing up on Delhi borders and other places, specially in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In Haryana, several protests have been held against BJP leaders, and they have been not allowed to hold public meetings on several occasions.

The last visit of Chief Minister Khattar to Karnal was in June, when he came an hour and half earlier than scheduled for a tree plantation program to avoid protesters, according to reports.

UNI AO SHK1813
PJTSAU creates SPV AgHub to promote innovation, entrepreneurship in Agriculture

Hyderabad, Aug 28 (UNI) Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU) here has created a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) AgHub - Agri Innovation Hub, which is a first of its kind Innovation Hub to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in Agriculture.

The Hub will be inaugurated by Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Nirangan Reddy at the University campus here on Monday in presence of Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao.

Agricultural Universities in India are recent entrants in the entrepreneurial spaces and thus the talent pool of agri graduates, post graduates and agricultural Scientists is still in infancy in terms of exposure to the Agri entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Kabul/Washington, Aug 28 (UNI) The US Embassy on Saturday issued a fresh security alert asking its citizens gathered at four gates of Kabul airport to leave immediately, even as the US military conducted a drone strike against an alleged Islamic State-Khorasan planner following Thursdays deadly suicide bombing outside the airport.

The US Embassy in Kabul asked US citizens at the Abbey Gate, the East Gate, North Gate and the New Ministry of Interior Gate to leave immediately.

Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates.
MEGAN SPOERLEIN is a News and Features Reporter for The Vidette. Spoerlein can be contacted at mkspoe1@ilstu.edu. Follow Spoerlein on Twitter at @meganspoerlein.

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
"The end of the race was a great feeling, despite the setbacks that we had. We're very proud of our performance. Getting this far was an achievement."

Callaghan McGintye, senior engineering technology student

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ELIZABETH URBAN is News Editor for The Vidette. Urban can be contacted at emurba1@ilstu.edu. Follow Urban on Twitter at @eliizabethurban.

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
JORDAN MEAD is News Editor for The Vidette. Contact her at jnmead@ilstu.edu. Follow Mead on Twitter at @meadjordan19

IF YOU SUPPORT THE VIDETTE MISSION of providing a training laboratory for Illinois State University student journalists to learn and sharpen viable, valuable and marketable skills in all phases of digital media, please contribute to this most important cause. Thank you.
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Man Jailed from Undercover Sex Crime Investigation

By West Kentucky Star Staff

PADUCAH - A Tennessee man was arrested Thursday in Paducah after an investigation into internet sex crime.The McCracken County Sheriff's Department participated in an undercover investigation, and was solicited by someone for sexual pictures. After multiple conversations, the man believed he was communicating with someone under the age of 16.The suspect, 21-year-old Noah McCoy, eventually traveled from Clarksville to Paducah to meet with the person he believed was a juvenile. When he arrived, he was arrested by the Sheriff's Department and Paducah Police.McCoy was charged with use of a minor in a sexual performance, and was booked into McCracken County Jail.During the investigation, the sheriff's department also worked with the Kentucky Attorney General's office and Kentucky State Police.
Graves County Collision Leaves Two Injured

By West Kentucky Star Staff

GRAVES COUNTY - A two-vehicle collision in Graves County Saturday sent two people to the hospital.While on patrol Saturday morning, Sergeant Dale Mason with the Graves County Sheriff's Office found a collision that had just taken place at the intersection of KY 849 East and Hopewell Road.Authorities said 33-year-old Larry Travis of Sedalia and 25-year-old Jamie Gamble of Paducah collided at the intersection. Both vehicles rolled over as a result of the wreck.Travis was ejected from his truck and was flown to an out-of-state hospital to treat significant injuries. Gamble was taken to Baptist Health Paducah for treatment.
Ida Now Tropical Storm; No Power in New Orleans

By The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Ida became a tropical storm as its top winds slowed over Mississippi on Monday, while across southeast Louisiana residents waited for daylight to be rescued from floodwaters and see how much damage was caused by one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. mainland.All of New Orleans lost power right around sunset Sunday, leading to an uneasy night of pouring rain and howling winds. The weather died down shortly before dawn and people began carefully walking around neighborhoods with flashlights, dodging downed light poles, pieces of roofs and branches.Levees failed or were overtopped in the maze of rivers and bayous south of New Orleans, threatening hundreds of homes. On social media, people posted their addresses and locations  directing search and rescue teams to their attics or rooftops.Officials promised to start the massive rescue effort as the weather broke and the sun rose.The torrential rains mostly moved into Mississippi on Monday as the storm slowly moved north. Destructive winds and water already had a catastrophic impact along the southeast coast of Louisiana, and life-threatening river flooding continued well inland, the National Hurricane Center said.Ida made landfall on the same day 16 years earlier that Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi, and its 150 mph winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland. It was already blamed for one death, someone hit by a falling tree in Prairieville, outside Baton Rouge, deputies with the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office confirmed on Sunday.More than a million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi were without power according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages nationwide, increasing their vulnerability to flooding and leaving them without air conditioning and refrigeration in sweltering summer heat.On the Net:
Lawmakers Flooded by Afghanistan Evacuation Pleas

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Tissue holders sit atop the conference table where the congressman's aides field frantic requests from constituents desperate for help in getting friends and loved ones out of Afghanistan before it's too late.Stories have poured in by the thousands with heartbreaking pleas not to be left behind.The tissues are used for crying breaks, one of the aides explained."The hardest part is just the sense of helplessness," said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. "We're seeing all of this, you know, anxiety, and we can't do enough."Across the county, the offices of members of Congress have become makeshift crisis centers, flooded with requests for help getting people onto one of the last flights leaving the Kabul airport before President Joe Biden's Tuesday deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces out of Afghanistan.More than 109,000 people have been evacuated since the Taliban takeover Aug. 14, in one of the largest U.S. airlifts in history. The work could hardly be more urgent or dangerous, as Thursday's suicide bombing attack killing 13 U.S. service member and injuring 18 demonstrated. Some 169 Afghans were also killed and scores more wounded.Biden said after the devastating attack that the U.S. would not be intimidated, "and our mission will go on." But he also acknowledged the limits of what can be done as the U.S. focuses on safe passage for Americans, while countless others remain, many fearful for their futures."Getting every single person out is  can't be guaranteed of anybody," Biden said.In the race against time, the lawmakers are stepping up where the other branches of the U.S. government have maxed out. It's infuriating, emotional work, the rare undertaking that crosses party lines, Republicans and Democrats working around the clock to help the friends, families and loved ones of their constituents  and helping the U.S. keep its word.In Northern Virginia, the office of Democratic Rep. Don Beyer reports that the number of constituent requests coming in  more than 100 a day  is what they would typically have in a full month. The area is home to many Afghans as well as military personnel and defense contractors, some with ties to the region. In the adjacent congressional district, the office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly reports that staff has submitted the names of nearly 10,000 Americans and Afghan interpreters and others to the State Department for consideration.Swalwell's district is home to a large Afghan diaspora community. The city of Fremont has a neighborhood called Little Kabul. But from coast to coast, and across the heartland, lawmakers around the country are also seeing huge spikes in requests for help.Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon said his office is working with more than 800 people seeking to get out of Afghanistan  a workload that grew in part because of the number of veterans working for him, including two retired colonels plus a Gold Star wife whose husband was killed in Afghanistan, who still have connections overseas. They are having some success, but more often than not, they are hearing from people who can't get through Taliban-controlled checkpoints, he said."When you're working 18 hours a day or so for a week and people are not getting through and you hear about people dying, yeah, it's emotional," said Bacon, who served in Iraq. "These guys are on the edge of their nerves."Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said many lawmakers are forwarding cases his way. "I get texts every night, every hour, every half-hour," McCaul said.The effort is personal for those members of Congress who served in the national security apparatus in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to joining Congress, Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., had provided strategic advice to Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He said his office has received more than 6,000 evacuation cases in just more than a week."This is about the expectation of what the American handshake means to those that were willing to put their lives at risk to help us and our service members and our diplomats on the ground," Kim said.In North Carolina, which is home to Fort Bragg, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has been working with veterans from the 82nd Airborne to help people he said they consider "brothers and sisters" in arms, having worked alongside the U.S. troops for years."They've seen their families grow up, they spent time on the battlefield, they saw people die there," Tillis said.Tillis pushed back against those critics, particularly in his own Republican Party, who warn against welcoming the foreigners out of fears they could be terrorists themselves. "You probably ought to get to know them, maybe get to know their story and welcome them to this country," he said. "We owe them a debt of gratitude for saving American lives."On Thursday, he said his office has a list of 1,000 people in Afghanistan he's trying to help evacuate  and he's just one senator out of 100."Focus on the math," he said. "That's one office, and it's growing every single day. ... It's fairly easy to see how the number gets up in the tens of thousands."For all the horror stories lawmakers are hearing about people being turned away or having their papers ripped, they are getting word of some successes. Bacon said his team helped arrange for the rescue of an American family by helicopter, plus the evacuation of an Afghan general and his family."Our folks can know that, for the rest of their lives, they made a lifetime impact on a family," Bacon said. "They can cherish that until the day they die."Swalwell beamed at the photo of one little smiling Afghan girl who made it out safely. "That's what keeps us going," he said."It's like one photo of joy for hundreds of stories that are painful and may not have a happy ending."
OP-ED: Count Your Legal and Pension Blessings

By Jim Waters, Bluegrass Institute

LEXINGTON -Welcome to the dog days of August.The Cincinnati Reds are hotter than usual and 90-degree temperatures have returned along with some semblance of legal sanity in the form of a crushing defeat handed Gov. Andy Beshear by the Kentucky Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of legislation passed during this years General Assembly session limiting governors executive authority during emergencies like COVID.It was just in November that the same court upheld the legality of Beshears executive orders, even calling them necessary.But legislative sessions  like the elections which determine their participants  can have far-reaching consequences.The legislature rightly responded this year by passing new laws which restrain rather than completely remove the governors ability to act in times of emergency by limiting executive orders during those times to 30 days unless extended by lawmakers.In upholding these new laws, the court stated: The General Assembly, as well as the Governor, are trustees of the Commonwealths welfare."The courts decision was a needed reminder to the Beshear administration and bureaucrats who run the executive branch that while the commonwealth has a part-time legislature, it has a full-time constitution  in effect year-round to protect Kentuckians liberties.Whether the courts action results in the governor calling the legislature into a special session to decide the future path for responding to the virus nasty delta variant remains to be seen.It also remains to be seen how the legislature responds.The ruling definitely puts the Kentucky legislature in arguably its best position historically to function as a truly co equal branch of government.Will its legislative leaders seize the opportunity to defend the commonwealths freedoms and liberties by providing a badly needed check-and-balance to the governors power?Or will they take a tentative approach, preferring instead to fritter away their newfound stature by merely lecturing Kentuckians about the seriousness of COVID, getting vaccinated, wearing masks and so on?Instead of more such pontificating, we need political leaders to protect each Kentuckians liberty to make the decisions best for them.More good news that might also lose its luster should leaders respond unsuitably is found in a report by the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority (KPPA): the commonwealths state and local pension plans experienced historically high investment returns last year.Its most definitely good news for the nations worst-funded public pension plan, and an indication of the KPPA's competent leadership and smart investment decisions.If these funds are used to put state workers pension plans on more stable footing and to move the retirement systems farther away from the precipice of economic collapse, then its very good news.However, the systems havent always responded well to such good news in the past.The KPPAs report makes a point of mentioning the last time returns reached such heights in the investment-return stratosphere: 1997.Those 1997 returns made the pensions systems flush with cash  a situation immediately seized upon by the state teachers union to demand large and sudden increases in benefits.But later, those increases  which were applied not only to future years but retroactively, as well  nearly ran the state workers pension system into the ground.The Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) dropped from being the nations healthiest retirement fund at 139.5% funded in 2000 to becoming its most underfunded plan in only 14 years, remaining less than 20% funded today.A recent MarketWatch analysis of Kentuckys 21st century pension woes summed up the swift KERS decline as a few careless decisions turned into a crisis.With more cash flowing into the system again, big-spending types are likely to propose more careless decisions such as increasing benefits or jimmying assumed rates of expected returns on investments to offer the impression of a system being healthier than it really is.Thus, Kentuckys pension ship is turning, but a few careless decisions could still slow that turn or even swamp the boat altogether.Jim Waters is president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentuckys free-market think tank. Read previous columns at www.bipps.org. He can be reached at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com and @bipps on Twitter.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-17 19:56:04|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming speaks at a Chinese vaccine co-production signing ceremony in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 16, 2021. Bangladesh is all set to start locally manufacturing China's Sinopharm COVID-19 inactivated vaccine as an agreement on co-production of the Chinese jab was signed via video with relevant authorities. (Xinhua)

DHAKA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh is all set to start locally manufacturing China's Sinopharm COVID-19 inactivated vaccine as an agreement on co-production of the Chinese jab was signed via video with relevant authorities.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between China's Sinopharm Group, Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Incepta Vaccine Ltd., a leading local vaccine manufacturing company, on Monday afternoon.

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said that the successful signing of the MoU will be a successful model for cooperation between China and South Asian countries. He emphasized that vaccine cooperation requires full mobilization and joint efforts from the government and enterprises.

Bangladeshi Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said the signing of the agreement is a new milestone in China-Bangladesh's relationship.

The minister expressed the hope that the local production of the Chinese vaccine will be started as soon as possible.

For his part, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said it is a historic day for Bangladesh and China-Bangladesh friendship.

Liu Jingzhen, chairman of Sinopharm Group, said after the agreement is implemented, the Bangladeshi company will be able to distribute at least 5 million doses of COVID-19 inactivated vaccine every month in the country for local pandemic prevention and control. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-27 11:37:00|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Australia has recommended vaccination against COVID-19 for all individuals from 12 years of age, extending the current recommendation for those aged 16 years and older.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) on Friday advised the government that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for children aged 12-15.

"ATAGI concludes that the benefits of offering COVID-19 vaccination to all younger adolescents aged 12-15 years outweigh the known or potential risks," it said in a statement.

"As such, ATAGI recommends inclusion of this age group in the Australian COVID-19 vaccination program over time."

Following the announcement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in Canberra that vaccine appointments for children would open in September.

"Principally I would see that happening especially through the General Practitioner (GP) network, and that provides the opportunity for family vaccinations, for the family to go along together across those age groups."

It came as Australia reported 982 new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 on Friday morning, as the country continued to battle the third wave of COVID-19 infections.

Of the news cases, 882 were from New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state with Sydney as the capital city.

Victoria, the second-most populous state with Melbourne as the capital city, reported a further 79 new cases, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) recorded another 21, the highest in three days.

So far, about half the Australian population in NSW, Victoria, and ACT is still in lockdown.

As of Thursday afternoon, there had been 47,840 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the number of cases reported in the previous 24 hours was 1,131, most of which were locally acquired, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 10:37:08|Editor: huaxia

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KABUL, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 169 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. soldiers were killed following a deadly attack outside the Kabul airport in Afghan capital on Thursday evening.

"The United States and Western countries were aware of an imminent attack on Kabul airport even before that bloody day. They were alerted and they repeatedly issued signals to their citizens to avoid entering Kabul airport Thursday. However, they failed to foil the deadly attack," well-known Afghan journalist Mohammad Shaker Zarbi told Xinhua on Friday.

At least two massive suicide bomb explosions occured at the Kabul airport while several gunmen opened fire at soldiers and civilians during the attack on Thursday.

"It was a big mistake. When everybody had known that a terrorist attack was looming, why U.S. and coalition military and intelligence officials failed to properly respond to the attack? At least they could use any means to disperse the big crowds," Zarbi, chief editor of state-run Anis Daily, said.

On early Friday, all the gates of Kabul airport remained closed and the crowds outside the airport had been cleared, according to locals.

"The big crowds outside the airport were cleared after big explosions. People were sleeping outside the airport on the ground over the past two weeks after Aug. 15 when Taliban took over Kabul and evacuation flight began," Sayyed Mohammad, a vendor near the airport told Xinhua.

"When everybody knows that an attack is happening, it is not difficult to control the situation. They must do their best at least to minimize the casualties," Zarbi said.

Nearly 6,000 U.S. troops have been deployed at the Kabul airport to secure the airlifting operation since the Taliban's takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15. Over 90,000 people had been evacuated since then.

The IS or so-called ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement from the group's Amaq News Agency cited in multiple reports.

When asked whether the attack was indicative of resurgence of IS and that the group may become a big threat, Zarbi said, "The Taliban are now facing another season in war on the Islamic State or Daesh, although the supreme leader of IS was killed, which heavily deterred the outfit's fighters anywhere to regroup."

"Like before, the Taliban can resist and defeat the IS, because Taliban foot soldiers were enjoying a single military leadership. Even if the IS receives support from any foreign countries, the Taliban will defeat it," he said.

"The IS framework was broken, shattered and dispersed a couple of years ago and I do not think the group could have strong fighting influence enough to fight the Taliban, but it may remain as a short-term guerrilla fighting or carrying out suicide and terrorist attacks," he said.

Meanwhile, Abdul Satar Saadat, former legal advisor to President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and ex-chairman of the Afghan Electoral Complains Commission, opined that the IS group could be a big threat to Afghanistan and countries in the region.

"The last terror attack on airport would alert regional countries that there could be a serious threat to their national security," he tweeted Friday.

The Taliban were focusing in Afghanistan but the ISIS-K has transnational purposes; so there is an urgent need to cooperate and recognize the legitimacy of new government to be formed soon, Saadat said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed his grave concern. "The incident underscores the volatility of Afghanistan, but also strengthens our resolve as we continue to deliver urgent assistance to the Afghan people," he tweeted hours after the attack.

The Taliban spokesman and acting Minister of Information and Culture Zabihullah Mujahid, and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of High Council for National Reconciliation, also strongly condemned Thursday's attack. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 16:38:52|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mongolians are welcoming the new semester amid the resurging COVID-19 pandemic as a two-day expo for the new academic year kicked off in the country's capital here on Saturday.

Under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science, more than 160 pavilions at the expo across the 4-km-long avenue displayed school supplies and uniforms, children's shoes, clothes, and personal protective supplies.

During the expo, the capital decided to close its main roads off to traffic, and open them up to expo visitors, pedestrians and bikers.

Students of general educational schools, colleges and universities across the country will return to classrooms as the 2021-2022 academic year starts on Sept. 1, according to the ministry.

However, general educational schools in areas classified as high-risk for COVID-19 are expected to rotate classroom training and TV or online classes on a weekly basis.

Over the past two years, Mongolian educational institutions have conducted more than 30 percent of their classes in classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said.

Until Wednesday, daily coronavirus infections in the country had dropped to around 1,000. However, the Delta variant has spread rapidly across the country, and more than 2,000 COVID-19 infections have been reported daily. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 20:50:21|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers have recovered five bodies from the landslides that hit a village in Indonesia's province of North Sumatra days ago, a statement from the local disaster mitigation agency said Saturday.

The landslides, triggered by heavy rains, also injured four people and damaged seven houses in Laubawang village in the province's Karo district on Thursday night, the Karo regional disaster mitigation agency said in the statement.

The statement said the injured are now receiving treatment at a local hospital, and the bodies of the five victims have been returned to their families.

Floods and landslides frequently occur in the country after heavy rains. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 20:56:51|Editor: huaxia

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SINGAPORE, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine will be available at some hospitals and clinics in Singapore from next Monday.

The IHH Healthcare Singapore, a private healthcare provider, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that it will open appointment bookings for the Chinese vaccine on Monday, and the vaccines will be offered at an affordable 99 Singapore dollars for two doses, including Goods and Services Tax.

Vaccinations will take place at Singapore's Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital and selected Parkway Shenton clinics, it added.

Another private healthcare provider Clearbridge Medical Group also said in a Facebook post on Saturday that the first batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines are available in the company's Medic Surgical & Laser Clinic.

The Straits Times reported on Saturday the Sinopharm vaccine is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Singapore. It is imported under the Special Access Route, along with the Sinovac vaccine. The Special Access Route is Singapore's arrangement to allow private healthcare providers to bring in COVID-19 vaccines that are on the World Health Organization's Emergency Use Listing but not administered under the city-state's national vaccination program.

As of Aug. 26, 79 percent of Singapore's population has completed their full vaccination regimen of COVID-19 vaccines, and 83 percent have received at least one dose. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-28 23:34:26|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Saturday that the Southeast Asian nation will provide a temporary refuge to 300 Afghan refugees before they are granted asylum by a third country.

Hun Sen said the decision was made based on humanitarian principles, according to government-friendly Fresh News.

The prime minister agreed to accept a maximum of 300 Afghan refugees, providing them a visa on arrival and allowing them to use their identification cards for travel document, the Fresh News said.

However, they must strictly comply with anti-COVID-19 health measures including testing and quarantine when they arrive in Cambodia. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-19 01:48:56|Editor: huaxia

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A man receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Skopje, North Macedonia, Aug. 18, 2021. (Photo by Tomislav Georgiev/Xinhua)

SKOPJE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The government of North Macedonia has decided to impose new restrictions from Sept. 1 to fight the spread of COVID-19, Health Minister Venko Filipce announced on social media on Wednesday.

Filipce said the new restrictions are based on recommendations from the Commission for Infectious Diseases.

Starting from Sept. 1, every traveler entering the country must present a vaccination certificate, or a document proving they have either had COVID-19 in the last 45 days, or had a negative test result from a PCR test taken 72 hours before entering the territory of North Macedonia.

Meanwhile, citizens of North Macedonia returning to the country after Sept. 1 without a PCR test, or a certificate proving they have had COVID-19 or been vaccinated will have to self-quarantine for seven days.

In addition, foreign nationals transiting through North Macedonia will have to do so within five hours, with a pre-signed declaration. This declaration must also be submitted to border controls when leaving the country.

North Macedonia's government has tightened measures against COVID-19 due to the increased number of new daily infections. Starting from Aug. 16, new safety measures have been introduced to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, including a ban on all indoor celebrations in restaurants, cafeterias, bars, nightclubs, and other venues which host large events.

Moreover, as of Aug. 16 individuals over the age of 18 are required to present proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to enter any facility with a capacity of 30 people or more.

On Wednesday, Filipce told local media that people working in institutions will not be ordered to have a vaccine, underlining that such an obligation is only applied in highly frequented places where the risk of transmission increases.

According to official data from the Health Ministry, a total of 17,427 people have been vaccinated over the past 24 hours, taking the total number of vaccinations in the country to 1,097,855, of which 485,464 have received both doses of a vaccine.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported 1,081 new coronavirus cases and 15 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed cases in North Macedonia to 164,529. Of these, 151,235 people have recovered, while 5,589 people have died. Enditem
Parents without adequate school fees are free to approach school authorities with payment plans, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said.

She said Government's decision to have children between the age of 14 and 17 years vaccinated did not mean that the programme was compulsory.

Minister Mutsvangwa, who is also Leader of Government Business in the Senate, said this while responding to questions during the Question and Answer session yesterday.

She said Government's decision to have schools opened starting next week was made after considering that learners have not been going to school for a long time.

Covid-19, said Minister Mutsvangwa, had made planning with certainty difficult given that there have been successive three waves of the pandemic.

Midlands Senator Morgan Komichi (MDC-T) had expressed concern over what he felt was short notice given to parents to raise school fees.

"It is not easy to balance all the issues that ought to be put under consideration. If parents have no fees they can approach school authorities.

"I think all parents have been looking forward to see children going back to school. Covid-19 came unexpectedly and we have had three waves, no one wants people to suffer or fail to travel," said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Government has directed that examination classes begin face-to-face lessons next Monday while other learners would resume a week later.

Minister Mutsvangwa said Covid-19 had resulted in Government trying to balance between the desire to save lives and that of allowing economic activities.

"Our people are clamouring for vaccination, which has not been the case before. We appreciate that children have not been going to school.

"We have been doing a lot of work to make sure that we prepare. The dates have been (announced) after a careful consideration," she said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said social media reports suggesting that pupils should first be vaccinated before attending lessons were not true, hence the weekly post-Cabinet briefings so that people can validate.

"There is no Government policy to have children vaccinated before going to school," said Minister Mutsvangwa.

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However, she said the decision to have children vaccinated was taken after a careful scientific study.

Meanwhile, the Senate commended Minister Mutsvangwa for her religious attendance of Parliament to field questions from backbenchers.

Earlier on there had been concern on the failure by some ministers and their deputies to attend Senate.

Senate President Mabel Chinomona said while Senate took exception at the failure to attend by some ministers they were encouraged by Minister Mutsvangwa's attendance.

But she implored Minister Mutsvangwa to convey the Senate's displeasure to the President on the successive failure by some ministers to attend the Question and Answer session.

Responding to another question, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Deputy Minister David Musabayana said Government's engagement and re-engagement efforts were bearing fruit.

He said the United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Brian Nichols, who have been hostile to Zimbabwe, has started to soften up and now encouraging investors from Washington to invest in Harare.

"The writing is now all over the wall; it's high time we celebrate but it's a process," said Deputy Minister Musabayana.
Kassala / Khartoum / Sinkat  Sudan's health crisis is far from over as stunting, diarrhoea, haemorrhagic fevers, and the general lack of medical supplies and resources put further pressure on a healthcare system that already suffers greatly under the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal Minister of Health Omar El Najeeb visited Kassala state for three days to discuss the healthcare situation in the state.

During a three-day visit to Kassala, Federal Minister of Health Omar El Najeeb reported that stunting rates (impaired growth) among children in Kassala increased by 76 per cent and described this as 'a dangerous indicator'.

Director of the ministry's National Nutrition Programme Mohamed Abu Manga reported that the rate of stunting in Khartoum reached 36.3 per cent while stunting in some states had increased to 50 per cent. He noted that that 50 per cent of children under the age of five have stunting.

'50 per cent of children under the age of five have stunting (impaired growth)'

The World Health Organisation explains stunting as the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.

At the end of his visit on Tuesday, the Omar El Najeeb announced the implementation of a national programme to combat stunting with the participation of UNICEF and other aid organisations, which is to be launched from Kassala to then reach all of Sudan.

The programme specifically targets pregnant women.

Haemorrhagic fever

Kassala also recorded the emergence of cases of haemorrhagic fever, including five suspected and one confirmed. Haemorrhagic fevers can be caused by the Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, and yellow fever viruses.

The minister of health expressed his concern over the emergence of cases and announced that a team with specialists from various fields has been sent from Khartoum to carry out the necessary work to investigate the cases and avoid the spread of the disease.

Red Sea state health reports

In Red Sea state, the Health Emergency Technical Chamber revealed the registration of 14 cases of acute heat strokes, resulting in 11 deaths.

The chamber denied recording any new cases of COVID-19 during the past 72 hours and noted that the epidemiological curve of virus continues to decline in the state.

In its meeting on Tuesday, the chamber did say that it will tighten the control procedures at border crossings and increase the efficiency of medical examinations for arrivals from abroad through Port Sudan International Airport.

In Sinkat, also in the Red Sea state, medical sources revealed the emergence of diarrhoea cases in the town and surroundings.

Journalist Osman Hashim told Radio Dabanga that the area is witnessing a great environmental and health crisis, especially now that many health services in the hospital have been suspended due to the nurses' strike over the non-disbursement of their COVID-19 benefits and lack of support.

'A child died due to the lack of medical tools'

He pointed out that the lack of medicines and support in the hospital caused the death of a child on Monday due to the lack of medical tools to provide him with intravenous solutions.

COVID-19 vaccinations

The Federal Ministry of Health announced that shipments of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will arrive tomorrow and that the vaccines will be distributed to different states on Saturday.

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During the weekly briefing, Director of the Immunisation Department of the Ministry of Health Ismail El Adani announced the start of vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next Sunday in most of the states of Sudan.

In Darfur, however, vaccination will start on September 5 and in Red Sea state it will start in the middle of next week.

He called on citizens who received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to take the second dose of the vaccine next week and not to take any vaccine other than AstraZeneca.

Most of Sudan's vaccines are supplied through COVAX, the global initiative that delivers COVID-19 vaccines to less privileged countries. Sudan was the first country in the MENA region to receive the vaccine from the COVAX Facility.

Amna Osman, UNICEF's Supply and Logistics Officer,
Nseobong Okon-Ekong regrets that a track record of performance in office does not matter in Nigeria, otherwise, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State and former Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party wiould be a beautiful bride, strongly desired to replicate what he did in Anambra on a national scale

While some Nigerians think it is preposterous to have a mutual agreement that can ensure an unimpeded handover of the Nigerian presidency to an Igbo man or woman in 2023, the din of voices calling for a president of South-east extraction keeps growing louder like deafening chatter from the ever boisterous Onitsha Market.

For the cheerleaders of Igbo Presidency, the rest of Nigeria, particularly Northern Nigeria is unjustifiably filled with funk about what the Igbo man can do with power. The longstanding conspiracy against the Igbos is that they will split Nigeria, despite the fact that Igbos fought a 30-month war to own a country called Biafra, they lost. But Igbos are not the only Nigerian ethnic group to take up arms against the federation. Major Isaac Adaka Boro did. He declared a Niger Delta Republic which lasted for 12 days in the 1960s.

By some measure, the Bolo Haram insurgents are, as well, secessionisst as they have boldly declared war against Nigeria in a bloody pursuit of their avowed ultimate goal of an Islamic Republic.

Lately, ethnic separatistism has become a pastime. The ambition of many youths to lord it over a kingdom of sorts have been fired by the quick rise to fame of Gani Adams, the sturdy carpenter from Mushin who became generalissimo of the Yoruba nation.

So, Igbos are not the first and may not be the last Nigeeian ethnic group to seek self determination. That being the case, what, exactly is the offence of the Igbo man against Nigeria, apart from the botched attempt to create Biafra? Why is the rest of Nigeria so scared of an Igbo in the political saddle of Nigeria? It certainly is not about being President of Nigeria. Or is it? Are the Hausa/Fulanis afraid of the enthronement of the kind of nepotism foisted on Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari? Are there other reasons for the conspiracy to keep Igbos away from the Nigerian presidency? For some of these reasons, which are not clear, there is a need to continue to push lies about the Igbo presidency. It is not as if an Igbo man can also be the Vice President while his kinsman is President. We are not talking about Ohaneze Ndigbo here. No! An Igbo can't be Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives. They have been all of these at different times. It is the Office of the Executive President of Nigeria that has eluded them, so far.

Igbos of Nnamdi Kanu's generation are all hot-headed and willing to shoot from the hip. But what an elder sees from his seat, a youth may not see even if he climbs the tallest palm tree. Now, Kanu's Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has stampeded Ralph Uwazuruike's Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) into the background, blackmailing him to merge with IPOB under curious circumstances. Kanu has browbeaten everybody. His boys force people to stay at home in the South-east, whenever they chose. Any elder who does not worship at the feet of Kanu is deemed a traitor of the Igbo cause. Kanu may not know that everything is for a time and a season. The transient authority he commands today is coveted by some of his boys, who will push him aside one day, when they find the nerve.

Kanu and his boys did not see the bodies of Igbos killed in the pogrom in the North arrive the railway station in Enugu. Kanu and his boys do no know that people committed suicide in Igboland, the day the then Col. Olusegun Obasanjo received the instrument of surrender from 'Gen.' Phillip Effiong. Kanu and his boys care nothing about the humongous casualties and losses their method of agitation for Biafra may incur.

To keep their head above the stormy waters of the Biafran struggle, Igbo elders have learnt to be circumspect on matters concerning Kanu. They have been cowed to walk with their tail between their legs, lest Kanu's boys destroy their country homes and declare them persona non grata in their ancestral home.

The IPOB generation know nothing about the resilience of the Igbo spirit, that rose like the phoenix from the ashes of defeat after the civil war to build a personal and regional fortune in less than three years! From a mere 20 Pounds that each Igbo man was given to start a new life in 1970, the East Central State won the Gold Gong in the National Arts Festival of 1973; Chief Augustine Ilodibe, owner of Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport and Chief Onwuka Kalu had bounced back into reckoning as multi-millionaires!

Since then Igbos have been irrepresible! They came back from the war, subjugated, depleted and systematically engineered to remain under, but they fought back tooth and nail for their rightful place in commerce, in industry, in the civil service, in education. Nine years after the war, an Igbo man, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was elected Vice President. A couple of years after, the leader of the Biafran secession, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was pardoned and returned to the country. He even sought political office on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

Alhaji Aliko Dangote may be acknowledged as the wealthiest African, but there are many boys in their early or late 30s from Anambra State who are not on the stock exchange, but can buy out Dangote. That is what the Caliphate and their apologists in the South are afraid of-an Igbo man with the combined control of business and politics.

And they find collaborators in some, not-so-smart Igbo men who like Esau prefer to sell their birthright for a meal of Jacob's porridge. If we were in a country were a sparkling track record of performance in office mattered, Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State and former Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be a beautiful bride, strongly desired to replicate what he did in Anambra on a national scale. But that, as Americans say, ain't happening!

The first predictable reason is that Igbos are a greedy lot. Zone the presidency to the South-east and all manners of cockcroaches will creep out of their dark crevices to be crowned King of Nigeria! None of them will be willing to get out of the way. While they are at their best cut-throat fight, a wild card entrant will slip through their porous ranks and lift the crown. There are the Governor Hope Uzodinma types who betray the collective good for personal gain.

The Nigerian political class does not like intelligent people. They put their nose in the air when a suave, urbane and educated contestant appears on the scene. How does Peter Obi hope to win among a people who hate deductical analysis? Obi cannot be trusted to join in the heisting of the commonwealth. What manner of politician leaves the kind of money he left in the coffers of Anambra State-USD86 billion and N9 billion in liquid cash! Obi can be President in Mars or another planet, certainly not in Nigeria. He will ruin the party for the political rogues. Who wants a killjoy?

Once upon a time, Obi had the best chance to strengthen his political hold with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); the party that gave him the platform to govern Anambra. Instead of consolidating the South-east like Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu did with the South-west; using ACN, he turned his back on APGA and became President Jonathan's campaign manager in the South-east. It was a tactical error for a long distance runner in politics. He is still struggling to explain himself to a people who saw APGA 'as their own.'

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Another cardinal sin that will keep Peter Obi out of Aso Rock Villa is that he is a one woman man. How does he manage all the pretty angels who are on his case with Kaya Mata? If he can't keep a harem of women from all Nigerian ethnic groups like his political associate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar or former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he can, at least, be as discreet as former President Goodluck Jonathan. But Obi is the one-woman and church going type. That is not good for his reputation in Nigerian politics.

Has anyone seen Peter Obi laugh? I mean real laughter from his soul; enjoying a good joke? He is too seriously engaged with the business of how Nigeria can get out of the woods. He doesn't know how to make light of things like Obasanjo or put his legs up on a stool, poking his teeth with sticks like President Muhammadu Buhari, while the country burns. He has no sense of humour, even if its morbid.

Obi goes to political rallies to talk germane issues of nation building. Who does that? Political campaign rallies in Nigeria are colourful shows to sing, dance and abuse opponents; that's all.

The Nigerian political class want a president who is on their leech like a suspended dog; someone with a baggage of corruption they can pull back when he barking too hard. But Obi is as clean as a whistle; or so it seems. He is not known to ever be on a spending bazaar; so who is going to queue behind him, when free spenders are out to buy votes?

QUOTE

Has anyone seen Peter Obi laugh? I mean real laughter from his soul; enjoying a good joke? He is too seriously engaged with the business of how Nigeria can get out of the woods. He doesn't know how to make light of things like Obasanjo or put his legs up on a stool, poking his teeth with sticks like President Muhammadu Buhari, while the country burns. He has no sense of humour, even if its morbid.
Abuja  The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has queried Channel Television for broadcasting a programme on Tuesday that had Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State as guest.

The query titled: 'Notice of Infraction,' dated August 24, 2021, was addressed by the Director-General NBC, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah to the Managing Director of Channels Television.

In the letter, the NBC rebuked Channels Television over the failure of its anchors to properly interrogate Ortom, who was alleged to have made inciting, divisive and unfair comments on the peak hour Sunrise Daily programme.

This, the agency said was in violation of some provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

Ilelah, who cited the infraction of some sections of the Code subsequently directed the television station to explain within 24 hours of the receipt of the letter why it should not be sanctioned.

The NBC stated that Channels Television violated during the airing of the programme, Section 1.10.4, Section3.1.1, Section 3.3.1 (b), Section 3.3. 1 (e), Section 3.11.1 (a) and Section 3.12.2 respectively.

Section 3.11.1 (a) says that the broadcaster shall ensure that language likely to encourage or incite to crime or lead to disorder is not broadcast, while Section 3.12.2 says that the broadcaster shall not transmit a programme that incites or is likely to incite violence among the populace, causing mass panic, political and social upheaval, security breach and general social disorder.

While appearing on the programme, Governor Ortom had criticised the present administration and described President Buhari as the worst when it comes to handling of security matters.

He also alleged that the President had a subtle agenda to 'Fulanise' the country by treating the alleged attacks carried by suspected herdsmen with kid's glove.
analysis

President Saied's extension of emergency measures has aggravated fears of autocracy - but hope is not yet dead.

This week, instead of providing Tunisians with greater clarity about where he is taking the country, President Kais Saied indefinitely extended the 30-day emergency powers he seized on 25 July.

His actions a month ago were prompted by violent protests. In response, Saied suspended Parliament, revoked legislators' immunity from prosecution, took control of the prosecutor's office and fired prime minister Hichem Mechichi as well as the defence, justice and civil service ministers.

The president's political opponents were already calling this a 'constitutional coup.' His moves this week worsened the uncertainty and fears that Tunisia's fragile 2011 Arab Spring is regressing, like all the others in the region, back to autocracy. Tunisia's is the only transition still surviving.

The situation is certainly perilous. Yet there still seems to be hope, though it will require all Tunisians - with the international community's support - to come together to rescue the country's fledgling democracy.

If Saied allows the uncertainty to drag on, he could inspire another popular political uprising

Silvia Colombo, a North Africa and Middle East specialist at the Italian Institute of International Affairs, says Saied's actions have enjoyed quite wide support among Tunisians who feel they haven't reaped the fruits of democracy.

The economy is in terrible shape, worsened by COVID-19. Unemployment is high and rising, and poverty and deprivation are growing. Tunisia relies heavily on tourism, which has been badly knocked by the pandemic. And many felt Mechichi's government bungled the economy, especially on COVID-19 and the vaccine rollout.

Many of those who backed the president's strong measures were opponents, like he is, of Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party in the governing parliamentary coalition that still arouses ideological suspicion.

Colombo notes that Tunisia created a vibrant democracy where power is shared among the presidency, Parliament and civil society. The price for this pluralism though is seemingly endless battles among political parties, the Speaker of Parliament - Ennahda's powerful leader Rached Ghannouchi - the prime minister and the president himself.

Extending emergency measures without a roadmap for Tunisians has created 'a very dangerous moment'

And so for Saied there were just 'too many voices, too much pluralism.' He enacted the emergency measures to assert his authority in an attempt to coordinate the disparate centres of political power.

Saied wanted to shield Tunisia - a small country of just 11 million people - from what Colombo says was the growing 'encroachment' of regional states. These intrusions, both ideological and material, meant that Tunisia was starting to be 'used as a battlefield for their own struggles.' Indeed the country appears to have become a proxy battlefield of regional contests, especially between the conservative United Arab Emirates and the more radical Qatar.

Yet Colombo says that although many Tunisians agreed with Saied's motivations, the emergency measures he took on 25 July were counter-productive. She said they had set the country 'on this sliding slope of gradually but relentlessly abandoning the democratic course and putting Tunisia more and more into the hands of those same external pressures.' By extending those measures on 25 August without showing Tunisians where he is taking the country, Saied had created 'a very dangerous moment.'

The Arab Spring is not yet dead, she nonetheless feels. 'Consolidating democracy takes much more time and is a much more painful journey ... in which there are U-turns and moments in which the process seems in danger. So what's going on now is part of this big process.'

Saied hasn't cracked down with mass arrests of political opponents since 25 July as some feared

Yet Colombo fears that if Saied allows the uncertainty to drag on much longer, he could inspire another popular political uprising, which could be very damaging for the country's young democracy. Tunisians are capable of handling the crisis, she says, and should mediate an inclusive national dialogue on the way forward. She adds that external players have been too quiet and should put pressure - through engagement, not sanctions - on Tunisians to pursue dialogue.

What would Saied's roadmap to the future look like if he cared to share it? Would it show a path to autocracy? Matt Herbert, Research Manager at the North Africa and Sahel Observatory of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crimes, thinks not. He says the 25 July measures were, as the president said, in article 80 of the constitution. Herbert acknowledges some ambiguities, suggesting that the suspension of Parliament might have exceeded constitutional bounds.

He credits Saied with taking action to address many of the problems Mechichi's government was bungling. For example, COVID-19 cases have continued to fall substantially, and the number of people vaccinated has increased exponentially since 25 July, Herbert says. Lifting legislators' immunity has been 'tremendously popular' because it has allowed some to be prosecuted for corruption.

Like Colombo, Herbert notes that Saied hasn't embarked on a political crackdown with mass arrests of political opponents since 25 July, as some feared. Tunisia is not a police state and the political debate - including about the new measures - remains vigorous.

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Although Saied has not signposted his future plans, Herbert doesn't think he intends to go down the road of autocracy. He has faith that, as a constitutional law academic by profession, the president will remain on the constitutional path.

There is speculation, Herbert notes, that Saied intends to try to amend the constitution to strengthen the presidency relative to Parliament. He says this will not necessarily create a dichotomy of autocracy versus democracy, noting that the United States has a very powerful presidency. 'I think what we're seeing now is stresses on Tunisian democracy ... but at the same time there's no reason to write the obituary of the Arab Spring.'

It's a time both of substantial hope and substantial risk. Herbert seems to come down on the side of hope. He believes Tunisia has proven over the past decade that it is a consensual society that should find a collective way to navigate out of the current crisis.

Peter Fabricius, ISS Consultant

In South Africa, Daily Maverick has exclusive rights to re-publish ISS Today articles. For media based outside South Africa and queries about our re-publishing policy, email us.
Bulawayo  Investing in digital technologies can help African small island developing states (SIDS), vulnerable to extreme weather events, cope with growing impacts of climate change, says the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Cape Verde, Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe and the Seychelles are the African members of the SIDS, a grouping of 38 countries located in the Caribbean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South China Sea.

The increased risk of natural disasters, coupled with sea level rise, which accompanies climate change makes African SIDS particularly vulnerable because their economies are anchored on tourism and fisheries, according to Jean-Paul Adam, Director of Technology, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management at the ECA.

While African countries risk losing up to 15% of their GDP to climate change by 2030, a major climate disaster could completely wipe out the economies of African SIDS

Jean-Paul Adam, ECA

In an interview, Adam added that opportunities for economic diversification are limited for African SIDS due to their distance from markets and lack of economies of scale. Besides, access to development finance in the form of grants and loans from institutions like the World Bank and bilateral donors is challenging. This type of finance is determined by the GDP per capita -- the amount of income generated by an average person in a given area in a specific year.

Owing to their small populations, Adam noted, SIDS are disadvantaged from accessing this funding because they are more likely to have a higher GDP per capita. One high net worth individual in such a small population can skew the overall result much more than in a large one.

While African countries risk losing up to 15 percent of their GDP to climate change by 2030, according to an analysis by the ECA's African Climate Policy Centre, a major climate disaster could completely wipe out the economies of African SIDS, Adam said. "In the same way that in the face of Covid-19 no one is safe until all are safe, the same applies to the climate crisis. As such, SIDS illustrate the extreme vulnerability of all African countries to climate change."

The UN, which recognised SIDS as a special case for environment and development at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, describes these countries as facing unique social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. With a total population of just over 4 million, African SIDS are located in remote, low lying areas that are vulnerable to sea level rise and cyclones.

Climate change impacts and unmanageable high population growth means that African SIDS may not meet several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, according to the UN's report on World Population Prospects 2019.

While climate change affects the development of all nations regardless of location or economy size, SIDS - which contribute only one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions -- are the most vulnerable to its devastating impacts, the UN Development Programme warned.

"Digital strategies are part of the means by which SDGs implementation can be accelerated," said Adam.

"Digital strategies can facilitate efficiencies in terms of investing in resilience as well as efficiencies in terms of economic returns," added Adam. He noted that artificial intelligence (AI) used in digital technologies for analysis of climate change data can help African SIDS better understand the impact of climate on key industries like fisheries, and to measure environmental impacts.

The ECA is supporting African countries, including SIDS, to improve their climate information services by tapping into potential digital technologies like remote-sensing AI to measure environmental impacts. This could be done through remotely deployed cameras and drones, according to Adam.

"Digitisation strategies can also improve the monitoring of environmental risks through the use of remote sensing equipment, and these strategies can also be deployed to improve investment in key sectors such as tourism, allowing more cost effective and targeted marketing, for example," he added.

Adam said the ECA is supporting the establishment of a regional centre on AI in Brazzaville, Congo, to explore opportunities for the use of the technology to address environmental impacts.

Digital technologies are already being used extensively by countries like Seychelles and Mauritius to target their main tourism markets more effectively, he added.

African countries have a unique opportunity to use digital technologies to drive large scale transformation and competitiveness, according to the US policy research think tank, Brookings Institution. Brookings said that AI, which is projected to add 15.7 trillion dollars to global GDP by 2030, presents avenues for the public and private sectors to optimise solutions to the most crucial problems facing Africa today.

Beyond digital technologies, Adam said that by adapting economic strategies that prioritise climate resilience, African SIDS can be better placed to respond to climate change, and also create more jobs and value addition.

"Focusing on the blue economy approach, for example, can build long term economic multipliers in terms of improved yields from fisheries resources, and also build more inclusive value chains that bring more benefits to local populations," he said.

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A blue economy approach uses the principles of a green economy, the sustainable use of resources based on the ability to regenerate them, in an environment where the main resources are aquatic. For example, fisheries are managed based on the status of fish stocks, and measures are taken to protect areas critical for fish reproduction such as mangroves and coral reefs.

African SIDS have access to very limited land space but large ocean area, and the proper management of this space can yield numerous benefits," Adam observed, including as sources of financing.

"Seychelles successfully raised a 30-million-dollar blue bond from the international market on the basis of sustainable management of its fisheries sector," said Adam, adding "the sustainable management of oceanic spaces can also lead to opportunities for potential carbon pricing transactions although this is something at the early stages of exploration."

Other possible financial innovations to mobilise funding, he added, include SDG-linked green or blue bonds and proposals for debt swaps -- refinancing debt on better terms and investing the savings in climate resilience.
Ethiopian refugees fleeing clashes in the country's northern Tigray region, rest and cook meals near UNHCR's Hamdayet reception centre after crossing into Sudan.

Aid workers inside Ethiopia have warned that hostilities will only aggravate the humanitarian situation in the Tigray region. Clashes have already driven hundreds of thousands of people into famine-like conditions.

Ongoing fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region has helped bring hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, with the UN warning of a major hunger crisis.

The United States had already warned that food aid would run out this week for millions of hungry people under a blockade imposed by Ethiopia's government on the embattled region. Ethiopia is embroiled in a conflict that flared nearly 10 months ago in Tigray and that has spilled to other regions.

The government has also struggled to contain other outbreaks of ethnic and political violence over land and resources. As a result, up to 900,000 people in Tigray face famine conditions in what the UN has called the world's worst hunger crisis in a decade.

"The humanitarian situation in Tigray is now dire because the people there have not had access to the basic needs to survive for a long time," Saviano Abreu, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told DW.

According to OCHA, access inside Tigray is still minimal for humanitarian aid. Estimates indicate that at least 100 trucks of aid supplies are needed every day to meet the needs of the Tigrayan people caught up in this conflict.

"Since the end of June, we managed to get just about 320 trucks -- and this, of course, has devastating consequences for the aid operations in the region," Abreu said.

"We have been working as United Nations in these kinds of crises and conflicts all around the world. And we have our own mechanisms to determine who needs assistance. We have no means of collaboration with any party to the conflict in northern Ethiopia," Abreu added.

Conflict spillover

Meanwhile, the conflict has spread into Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands of people in recent weeks. Mohammed Hussein, Afar regional state emergency protection and food security chief, told DW that TPLF fighters attacked their territory and that as a result, more than 12,000 people have been displaced.

"We need food, shelter and medical supplies. We also need military support. We have a free and safe passage for humanitarian supplies and commercial activities," Hussein said.

The head of communication at the International Red Cross in Ethiopia, Zewdu Ayalew, described the living conditions of the displaced people as extremely difficult. According to him, some are sheltered in schools, and others are sleeping in open spaces.

"We are trying to help these people in the Amhara and Afar regions. For example, we recently distributed basic relief kits to about 24,000 IDPs in the Afar region," Ayalew told DW, adding that they had provided materials including blankets, rugs, sanitary ware, solar lamps and cooking utensils. "We are also supporting about 26,000 people in the Dessie and Debark areas."

Social media -- a necessary evil?

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have aggravated the situation in Ethiopia, according to aid workers. OCHA's Abreu says the platforms are "very damaging and dangerous for us -- because the main principles of humanitarian assistance are neutrality, impartiality and humanity."

"Our obligation is to assist everyone who needs assistance, no matter who they are or where they are," Abreu told DW. "We don't support any party to the conflict. Our obligation is to the people that need help.

Ethiopia's National Disaster Risk Management Commissioner Mitiku Kassa told local media that it is unacceptable for the people of Tigray to repeatedly criticize the government without ensuring that the food aid is delivered properly and without fulfilling their responsibilities. Mitiku also accused the TPLF of diverting aid meant for the people of Tigray for their own gain. "In the future, aid agencies will be required to report on the areas where they are engaged," he warned.

"It is unacceptable to accuse the federal government of everything while lagging in ensuring that food aid is delivered to those in need," Mitiku told local media, including the state-owned Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation.

But in a separate interview with DW, Mitiku said that the "access to the Tigray region on the Afar side for humanitarian aid has not been interrupted. On the contrary, it is improved now and going well."

Few sources to quote

DW's efforts to reach the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda to comment on the situation were futile. Several independent and international organizations also declined DW requests to speak even under conditions of anonymity, saying it would endanger the lives of their local staff.

"The humanitarian situation in Tigray essentially remains a black box because, in addition to the military standoff, there is an information war being fought," says Ludger Schadomsky, head of Deutsche Welle's Amharic Desk. "What we do know for sure is the situation is very dire indeed as people are being deprived of food and medical supplies. The situation is particularly bleak for girls and women," Schadomsky said.

Inflammatory rhetoric

The heated rhetoric on both sides has led to growing international calls for an immediate cease-fire. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council on Thursday that the conflict in Ethiopia has spread beyond the northern Tigray region and "a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes."

Guterres told the 15-member Council that ethnic profiling is tearing apart the social fabric of Ethiopia. "All parties must immediately end hostilities without preconditions and seize that opportunity to negotiate a lasting cease-fire." Guterres said more than 2 million people have been displaced in the conflict and millions more need aid, including food, water, shelter, and health care, adding: "At least 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions."

The United States has also criticized the Ethiopian government for not responding positively to proposals for negotiations and instead publicly calling for the mobilization of militia. It equally condemned the TPLF for expanding its military campaign into the Afar and Amhara regions and neighboring Eritrean Defense Forces for reentering Tigray.

In a statement, Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and current administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said, "the TPLF's offensive into other regions will only prolong this conflict and the suffering of the Ethiopian people."

"The United States urges the TPLF to halt its offensive and withdraw its forces immediately from the Amhara and Afar regions. It also urges the Amhara regional government to withdraw its forces from western Tigray and the Eritrean government to withdraw its forces immediately and permanently from Ethiopia," Samantha Power said. Both the United States and European Union already raised the alarm over the recent deployment of troops from Eritrea to Ethiopia's Tigray region.

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Despite Power's plea for all warring parties to end hostilities, authorities in Addis Ababa still accuse USAID and other international aid organizations of abetting the conflict and supporting the TPLF. In a tweet, USAID rejected the allegations, saying it "monitors food distributions to ensure we are supporting the neediest, not combatants."

Fraught negotiation

The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia, Debretsion Gebremichael, has expressed commitment to a "negotiated end" to the conflict.

In a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres, Gebremichael said the Tigray side requires an impartial mediator, among other conditions. But he warned that the African Union, whose headquarters are in Ethiopia, "cannot provide any solution to the war". He accused the continental body of "endorsing" one side early in the fighting.

The prospect for talks between Ethiopia's government and the Tigray leadership, who dominated the national government for 27 years before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office, remains deeply challenging. Ethiopia's government earlier this year declared the TPLF a terrorist group.

What began as a political falling-out now threatens to destabilize Africa's second-most populous country. At the same time, all sides have committed abuses in the mix of armed groups that include those from neighboring Eritrea.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
interview

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is the world's leading shipping organization, accounting for about 80 per cent of global merchant tonnage. An ICS study published in March this year titled Protectionism in Maritime Economies found that reducing restrictive trade policies could boost Africa's post-COVID-19 economic recovery by billions of dollars. For Africa Renewal, Finbarr Toesland interviewed ICS Secretary-General Guy Platten on a range of shipping and trade-related issues, including how the organisation can support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The interview was edited for brevity.

Africa Renewal: Let's talk about the ICS' recent study. What were its most striking findings, particularly those relating to trade?

What we found in the report is that non-tariff barriers have a disproportionate effect on GDP and getting rid of them could make a considerable difference in terms of actually increasing a country's wealth. We know that African nations could boost their prospects of a post-COVID-19 economic recovery by removing some of these restrictive maritime trade policies.

Currently, the global maritime trade is worth $14 trillion. Africa has a lot of potentials to become a maritime trade hub. We are suggesting that if members of the African Union were to just halve their trade restrictions, that could lead to a 1 per cent increase in GDP for an average African economy.

What are some of the measures that countries can take to improve trade?

Protectionist measures really hinder free trade. There are many administrative hurdles to overcome in many countries just to establish a business or engage in trading. Getting rid of some of these hurdles and looking at how standards are set will make a significant difference.

Like we saw with Brexit, it's not the tariffs that matter the most; it's the non-tariff barriers that stall trade. For example, the imposition of complex standards that require the checking of all goods, on the face of it may seem perfectly reasonable, but it can hinder trade.

It's also about looking at all the areas of business. From the barriers you face to import and export goods, to the standards on the use of ships.

What role can ICS play in the successful implementation of the AfCFTA?

Where we can help is to establish a dialogue between ourselves, the contacts we have and the African Union; to explain in perhaps more granular detail what practical steps can be taken to increase trade. We want to support the implementation of the AfCFTA and create a good dialogue between the AU and the global shipping industry. We can help African countries harness the goals of the blue economy strategy.

We know that free trade promotes wealth: it can lift millions out of poverty. And shipping is the lifeblood of commerce.

Our Protectionism in Maritime Economies index ranks nations according to how restrictive their trade policies are, based on factors including licensing rules, government integrity and tariffs. We'll revisit this in a few years to see if any country has introduced or removed protectionist policies so that such countries can be moved up or down in the ranking.

UN launches key initiative to protect seafarers' human rights amid COVID-19 crisis

Do you believe the AfCFTA will boost intra-African trade?

Absolutely. It's difficult to gain a breakdown of the data at this stage, but I think the conversation about what free trade means is vital. It is important to explain the various non-tariff barriers that are in place currently and try to persuade nations that removing some of those barriers will be economically advantageous.

Discussion and debate may change some perceptions. For example, in terms of maritime trade flows, goods exported and imported from Africa account for just 7 per cent and 5 per cent of the global trade totals respectively. Now, compare that with Asia where the figures are 41 per cent and 62 per cent respectively. There's a huge potential in the blue economy that African countries can take full advantage of.

According to a World Bank assessment, the implementation of the AfCFTA, alongside trade facilitation measures that cut red tape and simplify customs procedures, will drive billions of dollars in potential income gains.

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the world. With regards to shipping, what challenges has COVID-19 brought to trading in Africa?

It's not just in Africa. With countries around the world closing their borders in response to COVID-19, we had a crisis of our global workforce that could not get off or go on ships.

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The shutdowns in some countries have not ended, remember, and that could impact recovery. It's important to not lose sight of the longer-term picture in terms of post-COVID-19 recovery.

What does efficient shipping look like for Africa?

It's having ships being able to trade freely in the ports; it's having services that facilitate the import and export of goods without too many administrative barriers. The entire supply chain becomes more efficient when you're not stopping things from being loaded onto ships or being discharged from the ships. It's about proportionate regulation.

How do you see the future of trade in Africa?

Africa has a huge global potential. The continent has an increasingly well-educated workforce. It can take advantage of all these opportunities and become a maritime hub for the world. I genuinely believe that Africa is strategically well placed to do just that.

With a population of 1.3 billion people, consumer buying power is huge. Efficient maritime transport services can really help in this whole process.
The defendants with undisclosed nationalities allegedly made the moves from at least November 2017 through July 19, 2019.

The United States government has charged three men with attempted illegal importation of arms and ammunition to Nigeria.

The defendants, who are all residents of Maryland in the U.S., are: Wilson Nuyila Tita, age 45, of Owings Mills, Maryland; Eric Fru Nji, age 40, of Fort Washington, Maryland; and Wilson Che Fonguh, age 39, of Bowie, Maryland.

Announcing the fresh indictment on Friday, the United States Attorney's Office in the District of Maryland said the defendants conspired with each other and with others to export from the U.S. to Nigeria "defence articles and items identified on the United States Munitions List (USML) and the Commerce Control List (CCL) without first obtaining export licences."

They allegedly made these moves from at least November 2017 through July 19, 2019.

"The defendants also allegedly conspired to conceal from the United States that those items were being shipped from the Port of Baltimore in Maryland to Nigeria and at least one other location in Africa.

"The defendants and their co-conspirators allegedly contributed funds for the purchase of firearms, ammunition, reloading materials and other equipment for shipping overseas," the statement announcing the approval of the charges by a federal grand jury earlier on Thursday, read, in part.

The indictment also alleged that the defendants and their co-conspirators communicated about their efforts and plans to ship weapons and ammunitions using an on-line encrypted messaging application and code words in order to conceal their activities.

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"As detailed in the indictment, the defendants and other conspirators concealed the firearms, ammunition, rifle scopes, and other items in heavily wrapped packages and duffle bags, and inside sealed compressor units, placing those items into a shipping container destined for Nigeria without obtaining the requisite licenses from the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Commerce," the statement added.

It stated further that, as part of the conspiracy, "one of the co-conspirators allegedly caused the submission of electronic export information to the U.S. government for the container which listed materially false information as to the identity of the exporter and the intermediate and ultimate consignee, as well as the ultimate destination of the container's contents."

The indictment alleged specifically that on January 17, 2019, the defendants and their co-conspirators "exported, attempted to export, or caused to be exported to Nigeria articles on the USML the export of which was controlled under the Arms Export Control Act, without first having obtained the required license or written approval from the U.S. Department of State, specifically: 38 semi-automatic firearms; over 35,000 rounds of ammunition; and 44 magazines."

Arms exported

They were also said to have on that same day, "allegedly exported to Nigeria one Bushnell Trophy Rifle Optic and one Burris AR Rifle Scope."

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The exportation of the items was sent to being controlled under the Commerce Control List, without first having obtained the required license or written approval from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"Finally, the indictment alleges that the defendants transported 28 firearms with obliterated serial numbers, including 18 rifles," the statement added.

Federal jury returns indictment

The statement said on Friday that a federal grand jury has returned the indictment charging the three Maryland residents with four counts.

Federal charges approved by the grand jury, according to the statement, include conspiracy, violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Reform Control Act, related to the export of firearms and ammunition from the United States to Nigeria.

The indictment was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge, James R. Mancuso of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Special Agent in Charge Timothy Jones of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division, the statement said.

Punishment

The statement said if convicted, the defendants each face a mandatory sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy; a maximum of 20 years in federal prison each for violating the Arms Export Control Act and for violating the Export Control Reform Act; and a maximum of five years in federal prison for transportation of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

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Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties, it added.

"A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors."

The defendants were each expected to have an initial appearance on Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. DiGirolamo beginning at 3:00 p.m.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt, the Attorney's Office said in the statement. "An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings."

Seven charged in related cases

Seven defendants have been charged in related cases and of those six have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

The revelation about the allegation of illegal importation of arms and ammunition into the country is coming amid worsening insecurity situation in country fuelled by perpetrators who are believed to be better equipped than the Nigerian police.
The PDP governors reportedly asked the embattled National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, to resign his position at their Thursday's meeting.

Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have denied reports that they asked the embattled National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, to quit his position.

The governors denied the reports in a statement by the Director-General of the PDP Governors Forum, Cyril Maduabum, on Friday in Abuja.

The governors, during their meeting on Thursday, reportedly asked Mr Secondus to resign despite an order of a Kebbi State High Court reinstating him to the position.

The court reinstated him hours after he stepped aside following an order of the Rivers State High Court restraining him from parading himself as the national chairman of the main opposition party.

Mr Secondus had handed over to the deputy national chairman (South), Yemi Akinwonmi, that Thursday.

The governors explained in the statement that they "merely endorsed the NWC resolution adopting Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, the Deputy National Chairman, South as acting National Chairman of PDP, and the holding of the NEC meeting of PDP on Saturday, 28th August, 2021."

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Read the full statement:

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PDP GOVERNORS FORUM DENIES ASKING SECONDUS TO QUIT

The PDP Governors Forum hereby categorically denies the insinuation in some media, that it had asked Prince Uche Secondus to quit as National Chairman of PDP, in spite of the Kebbi State High Court Order reinstating him.

The PDP Governors Forum at its emergency meeting on Thursday, 26th August, merely endorsed the NWC resolution adopting Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, the Deputy National Chairman, South as acting National Chairman of PDP, and the holding of the NEC meeting of PDP on Saturday, 28th August, 2021.

For the avoidance of doubt, this warped interpretation of the statement of the Chairman of the PDP-GF, Rt. Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal CFR, after their emergency meeting on Thursday is clearly mischievous. At the time Tambuwal spoke on Thursday night, the Kebbi State High Cout Order had not been received by the Forum, and consequently was not discussed or commented upon.

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This clarification has become necessary to set the facts straight.

Hon CID Maduabum, LL.M,

Director General,

PDP GOVERNORS FORUM
Presidente @PedroCastilloTe: En #Tacna es donde empieza la patria. El heroismo de los tacnenos es historico y es un ejemplo para todos los peruanos.#VivaTacna pic.twitter.com/PW1sVu44oQ
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. Artsakhs Minister of Labor, Social and Migration Affairs Mane Tandilyan has announced on social media that she is going to resign on September 1.

Mrs. Tandilyan informed that from September 1 she will continue her service to Artsakh within the frames of the activity of Artsakh To Live foundation which will implement numerous programs in Artsakh.

Nearly 80% of the population of Artsakh has returned to live. This means that Artsakh is getting rid of the post-war social-psychological burden and stands on the development and strengthening path which became possible due to work and commitment. Now its the time for long-term programs and economic boost, she said in a statement.

Tandilyan thanked all her colleagues in the government, the ministry staff for the joint work and for the opportunity to serve Artsakh.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. The European Union and World Health Organization - WHO Country Office in Armenia handed over 30 medical refrigerators for vaccine storage to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia, the EU Delegation to Armenia said in a statement on social media.

The Charge d'affaires a.i., EU Delegation to Armenia Jan Plesinger, Armenian Deputy Minister of Health Lena Nanushyan, and the Special Representative of WHO in Armenia were at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Armenia to receive the equipment and discuss the upcoming procurement and technical assistance.

The EU is honoured to provide assistance to Armenia jointly with the WHO, in order to strengthen capacities of the healthcare sector and to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The refrigerators will be used to keep vaccines and other medical products at a stable temperature, thus offering safer storage facilities, and  consequently - benefiting Armenian citizens. We need to patiently continue the fight against this pandemic together, said Charge d'affaires a.i. at the EU Delegation to Armenia Jan Plesinger.

The EU and WHO stand by the Government of Armenia to provide sufficient supply of vaccines to citizens and overcome the pandemic faster, the statement says.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS. Vice-President of the European Commission, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell sent a congratulatory message to Ararat Mirzoyan on the occasion of assuming the position of the Foreign Minister of Armenia, the ministry told Armenpress.

The message reads:

Excellency,

I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. Armenia is an important partner of the European Union. Our relations have intensified significantly since 2018 and the entry into force of our Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement on 1 March 2021 was another important, positive milestone. The implementation of this agreement is a central part of our bilateral relations and we stand ready to continue cooperating in areas of mutual interest, including strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights, jobs and business opportunities, the environment, better education and opportunities for research.

Your appointment comes at a crucial time for Armenia. Following last years hostilities, I would like to reiterate the EUs readiness to contribute, including through the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, in the shaping of a durable and comprehensive settlement, for instance, where possible through support for post conflict rehabilitation and confidence building measures. We continue to support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in this regard. In addition, we are also prepared to provide assistance related to border delimitation. Given that all our countries are still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, let me also emphasize that the European Union continues to be committed to supporting Armenia in dealing with this public health crisis and its consequences.

I wish you every success in your new important role.
Most read of the week
Artsakhs Minister of Labor, Social and Migration Affairs Mane Tandilyan has announced on social media that she is going to resign on September 1, Armenpress informs.

August 28, 2021, 09:42 Artsakhs Minister of Labor, Social and Migration Affairs to resign

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 28, ARTSAKHPRESS: Mrs. Tandilyan informed that from September 1 she will continue her service to Artsakh within the frames of the activity of Artsakh To Live foundation which will implement numerous programs in Artsakh.

Nearly 80% of the population of Artsakh has returned to live. This means that Artsakh is getting rid of the post-war social-psychological burden and stands on the development and strengthening path which became possible due to work and commitment. Now its the time for long-term programs and economic boost, she said in a statement.

Tandilyan thanked all her colleagues in the government, the ministry staff for the joint work and for the opportunity to serve Artsakh.
Russia fully lifts restrictions on flights to the Dominican Republic, South Korea and the Czech Republic starting Friday. A respective decision was made by the anti-coronavirus crisis center in the middle of August, Tass informs.

August 28, 2021, 10:58 Russia lifts restrictions on flights to Dominican Republic, South Korea, Czech Republic

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 28, ARTSAKHPRESS: Those are the first three countries, to which Russia has fully resumed flights since restrictions were started to be imposed amid the pandemic, with the remaining countries still covered by the mechanism of flight quota arrangement. Moreover, the center has decided to increase quotas for regular flights to Egypt starting Friday.

As of now no air carrier has reported additional flights opened to those countries. Flights to Prague are performed by Rossiya from St. Petersburg, and Aeroflot and Czech Airlines from Moscow. The Czech Republic remains closed for tourists as only passengers with citizenship or residence permit, or those arriving for studies or medical treatment can enter the country.

South Korea is also fully closed for tourists. All those entering the country (only citizens or passengers holding residence permits) will be required to be quarantined for 14 days. Moreover, last April the country abandoned visa-free travel with Russia and suspended visas issuing. Only Aeroflot performs flights to the country.

Flights to the Dominican Republic were opened in August, with only Azur Air performing charter flights there. Aeroflot has also announced its interest in the destination, though the company has not yet announced the exact date of the beginning of flights.
Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will depart for Moscow on a working visit on August 31 to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

August 28, 2021, 11:59 Armenian FM to discuss implementation of trilateral agreements with Russias Lavrov in Moscow

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 28, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: During his first foreign visit after appointment the Armenian FM will discuss issues with his Russian counterpart relating to taking further actions to develop the Armenian-Russian allied relations in various areas, expanding the partnership in common integration unions, such as the CIS, CSTO and EAEU, as well as coordinating the positions in the UN, CSTO and other international organizations.

The implementation process of the agreements signed by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on 2020 November 9 and 2021 January 11, including the humanitarian issues and the unblocking of economic and transportation ties in the South Caucasus will be discussed.

We expect that the talks in Moscow will contribute to the mutual allied partnership with Yerevan, the strengthening of security and stability in the region, the Russian foreign ministrys statement says.
When Microsoft released the Windows 11 Insider preview earlier this summer, it did so with some confusion around minimum system requirements. It quickly reversed course, saying that more people could install the software update than its requirements originally stated so the company could gather more performance on how the OS performed. After a few months of users testing and providing feedback, Microsoft says that, for the most part, its system requirements from June will stand  but there are a few notable changes.

This means that you'll need a compatible 64-bit processor, 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage, as well as "UEFI secure boot, graphics requirements and TPM 2.0." For the most part, Microsoft is still requiring an 8th-generation or newer Intel processor, but the company is adding a few 7th-generation Intel options to the supported list, including Intel Core X-series, Xeon W-series and the Intel Core 7820HQ. For the latter, Microsoft will only support "select devices that shipped with modern drivers based on Declarative, Componentized, Hardware Support Apps (DCH) design principles, including Surface Studio 2."

After working with AMD, Microsoft has declined to include the first generation of AMD Zen processors in its officially supported list. The full list of supported processors can be found here.

There is some good news for people running older hardware, though. According to The Verge, Microsoft won't prohibit computers running processors on its "supported" list from installing Windows 11  they just won't be able to do so through the official Windows update software. You'll instead have to download a Windows 11 ISO file and install it yourself. The Verge says this method will primarily be for businesses to try Windows 11 and it won't be publicizing this method to standard users.

If you're still wondering whether or not your computer will be able to officially run Windows 11, Microsoft has released an update for its PC Health Check, which was originally giving users some rather vague and unhelpful messages regarding compatibility. The new version should make it much clearer whether your computer is supported and, if not, what it needs to meet the Windows 11 system requirements.
India gave out more than 10 million Covid-19 jabs on Friday, breaking the country's previous daily record of 9.2 million (AFP/Manjunath Kiran)

India has given more than 10 million Covid-19 jabs in a single day for the first time, authorities said Saturday, as the South Asian giant bolsters its defences for a predicted new surge.

The health ministry said the 10 million landmark was passed on Friday, beating the country's previous daily record of 9.2 million. The government has been stung by criticism after a brutal coronavirus wave in April and May killed more than 200,000 people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the milestone as a "momentous feat" for the nation of 1.3 billion people.

"Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success," he said on Twitter.

The government had aimed to vaccinate about 1.1 billion adults by the end of the year but shortages, administrative confusion and hesitancy have held back numbers. Only around 15 percent have had two doses since the drive began in January.

India's daily infection count has dropped dramatically since the devastating surge in April-May which overwhelmed its creaking health infrastructure.

Almost all restrictions on movement and activity have been lifted even though experts have warned of a new wave hitting as early as next month as the festival season starts.

Daily case numbers have started rising again above 40,000 and more than 500 deaths were reported on Saturday. The 46,000 new cases reported Saturday was the highest figure in two months. Much of the spike has been blamed on a surge in the southern state of Kerala.

India is currently administering three vaccines -- the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, known locally as Covishield, Covaxin by Indian firm Bharat Biotech and the Russian-made Sputnik V.

The country has so far recorded 437,370 deaths and more than 32 million infections, the second-highest in the world after the United States. Experts say that because of under-reporting, India's true toll could be more than four times higher.

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John and Andrea Pilgrim Seamans hosted this years Pilgrim picnic at another beautiful Cayuga County park, Deauville Island at Emerson Park. We gathered in celebration of our grandmother Kukums 121st birthday, our shared memories and our matriarch Margaret Hutchinson. Among those 25 present, we had four generations: Margaret Pilgrim Hutchinson, Joe Hutchinson, Jennifer Hutchinson Mistico and Daisy Mistico. Another highlight was the bagpipe concert by Deborah Hutchinson Houck. Our great-great-grandfather Gideon Halcrow came from Tingwell in the Shetland/Orkney Islands to northern Canada to work with Hudson Bay Co. Another great-great grandfather Donald McLeod also immigrated from Scotland. Thank you Deb for celebrating our heritage in such a wonderful musical fashion!

History venues continue to present our wonderful past. The Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park welcomes folks from near and far. We are open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Oct. 31. The park is accessible from the Thruway or Route 31 just west of Port Byron. We also welcome a new director, Dan Wiles, who brings his own Erie Canal memories, heritage and considerable energy to our remaining 2021 weeks. We have docent positions available if you can spare a few hours to be part of this amazing park! Please call the visitor center at (315) 776-4601.
Cayuga County reported more than 150 new COVID-19 cases in four days this week, with unvaccinated residents accounting for nearly three-quarters of the positive cases.

From Monday through Thursday, the Cayuga County Health Department said there were 157 new cases  114 of whom are unvaccinated and 43 who are vaccinated. The new cases are individuals who have tested positive and were admitted into isolation by the department.

The recent surge shows no sign of letting up in Cayuga County. There have been 221 new cases in a seven-day period. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the county's seven-day positivity rate is 10.39%. The case rate is 231.14 per 100,000 people.

Based on the CDC's metrics, Cayuga is a county with a high level of COVID-19 transmission. In areas with high or substantial transmission, the agency recommends individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in indoor public settings.

The county's active case count is up to 251, an increase of 17 since Tuesday.
BOSTON (AP)  The first Dreamer to be awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship is finally poised to attend the University of Oxford after years of uncertainty about whether the U.S. would allow him to return home as a DACA recipient.

Federal immigration officials last week approved Jin Parks application to travel to England in the coming weeks, according to his law firm WilmerHale in Boston.

Park, whose family immigrated from South Korea when he was 7 years old, will be joined at Oxford by Santiago Potes, a Miami resident and 2020 graduate of Columbia University in New York who became the second American on DACA status to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship last November, according to the Rhodes Trust.

We are thrilled that two DACA Rhodes Scholars will be heading to Oxford next month to start their courses, finally knowing they can safely and legally return after their studies to the only homes they know, said Elliot Gerson, the American secretary for the British organization, which is helping prepare the visas for the two incoming students.
The investigation into Cuomos varied alleged misdeeds were paid for with taxpayer money. The committees report  and the documentation it accumulated  should be made fully public so that the states residents know the full truth about not just the sexual harassment scandal that ended Cuomos tenure, but the handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes and the use of state resources on Cuomos pandemic leadership book.

State residents paid for this investigation  they should be allowed to see everything it turned up.

 Jamestown Post-Journal

Gov. Kathy Hochuls address to New Yorkers on Tuesday was an encouraging start that held at least a promise of some refreshing changes.

Just 15 hours on the job, the 57th governor of New York and the first woman to hold the post had her immediate priorities straight.
Jharkhand aims to become one of the biggest electric vehicle manufacturing hub in Eastern India. The state government is in talks with a number of carmakers, including Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki, to set up EV manufacturing facilities in the state.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren

on Friday offered sops and facilities to several carmakers as his government inches closer to finalise its first electric vehicle policy. Besides Tata and Maruti, the state delegation is believed to have approached other carmakers like Toyota, Hyundai Motor and Honda Cars as well.

The proposed Jharkhand EV policy, which was presented to the carmakers, promises full exemption in stamp duty and registration fee. The government also promises to provide land for carmakers at a 50 per cent subsidy through the Jharkhand Industrial Area Development Authority (JIADA) if they promise to invest in electric vehicles within the first two years since the launch of the Jharkhand EV policy. It also proposes full exemption from vehicle registration fees and road tax.

"The proposed electric vehicle policy has been presented in front of you. If we look towards the future then I believe electric vehicles are the future vehicles where we can do as much as we want," Soren said on Friday.

The state government aims to mop up 1 lakh crore funding and generate five lakh jobs through two days investors meeting that started on Friday. "During one on on meeting with Tata Group officials, the Chief Minister asked them why can't they open an electric vehicles manufacturing plant in the state," an official privy to the meeting told news agency PTI.

Among the carmakers approached by the state government to set up EV facilities, Tata Motors already has a vehicle manufacturing plant in Jamshedpur. Sushant Naik, Global Head of Corporate Affairs at Tata Motors, along with other senior officials from the group, are likely to hold meeting with Chief Minister Hemant Soren and other officials on the matter.

Jharkhand's EV initiative comes days after Odisha emerged as the tenth state in India to come out with its own comprehensive electric vehicle policy. The state also wants carmakers to set up EV manufacturing units along with components industry to produce batteries for electric cars.
Popular Hollywood star Tom Cruise's bodyguard's BMW X7 was stolen from Birmingham while the former was shooting for his latest movie, Mission Impossible 7. According to a report by The Sun, when the luxury car was stolen, it also had the actor's luggage worth thousands of pounds. The value of

the car stood at 100,000 which is approximately 1.01 crores. The report said that the thieves used a scanner to clone the signal of the car's keyless ignition fob while it was parked outside a hotel in Birmingham. Since modern-day cars now use mostly keyless entry and ignition fobs, these become more susceptible to theft as these crooks use wireless transmitters.

(Also read | BMW X7 M50d Dark Shadow Edition launched in India at 2.02 crore)

They capture the signal by getting the targeted car to emit a message to the keyless fob, informed the report. Then one of the accomplices who stand close to the vehicle captures the signal and tricks the car to think that its key is within the range. This unlocks the car and once the thief gets in, the same process can be repeated to start the engine using a blank fob that can be programmed using the car's technical port.

The report also explained that in an alternate method the crooks can also jam the driver's fob with the help of radiofrequency to keep the car unlocked. This will help them to get access to the car's computer hardware. Although authorities have tracked and recovered the BMW X7, it has been reported that the luggage inside the car is missing.

(Also read | BMW X5, X6 launched in Black Vermillion edition, X7 launched in Frozen Black)

Coming to the luxury car, the BMW X7 is a four-door luxury car that has a sleek exterior and features a 4.4-litre V8 engine under its hood. This engine is capable of churning power of 523 hp. It can also attain a speed of 96 kmph from zero in 4.7 seconds. It has a top speed of 249 kmph.
Honda has revealed the new 2022 version of the Honda Africa Twin 1100 motorcycle. Apart from the new aesthetic revisions, the latest adventure tourer motorcycle has received mechanical tweaks as well.

On the outside, the new updated dual sport bike has received a new colour theme and the rear luggage

rack now comes as a part of its standard fitment. Other additions include a five-step adjustable windscreen that is 110 mm shorter and comes as a replacement for the previously found fixed screen.

(Also Read: Honda CB200X ADV launched in India at 1.44 lakh)

One of the key updates on the bike includes the use of a revised transmission. The automatic gearbox (DCT) now gets revised settings to improve first and second gear experience. In addition to that, the manual transmission version also gets updated electronics to provide smoother gear shifts.

Pricing of the updated dual-sport offering from Honda will be announced within the next few weeks and the bike will also start appearing in the international dealerships around the same time. As far as the Indian market goes, the new 2022 Africa Twin is expected to be introduced sometime in the first half of 2022.

(Also Read: Honda Motorcycle starts delivering 2021 Gold Wing Tour in India)

While Honda was previously reported to be working on a radar guidance system on its Africa Twin adventure motorcycle, the feature is likely to be introduced only in the next update. As per a previously leaked patent image, the future Africa Twin motorcycle will get new sensors positioned below the front headlamp as part of its radar guidance system. For the record, similar sensor placement is also found on other motorcycles such as the Ducati Multistrada and the KTM Super Adventure.
Clements, who submitted the petition to the city manager's office, had last spoken to city council in May of 2018, when the ordinance was previously considered for amendment or repeal as a formal agenda item. She told city council then that she was homeless and living in an RV, unable to afford rent.

Clements said she returned to speak to Council after the recent developments in the city. Tuesdays discussion took place during the first regular Council meeting following a five-week summer break.

Council addressed a similar agenda item request from Councilmember Adam Shimoni during the previous July 6 meeting -- which happened to be the same day the Coconino National Forest's full closure was lifted.

Shimonis request asked that Council schedule a discussion regarding the unsheltered and vulnerable populations, given the recent forest closures and camping ordinance.

I asked for this discussion because it seems like our forests are closed every summer and it doesnt seem like we have a clear plan as to how best to support our population that typically lives in the forest, Shimoni said during the July 6 meeting.
I dont think the right answer is to throw hundreds of thousands of Arizonans out of work right before the holidays, Ducey said at the time.

The number of cases topped 500,000 by Dec. 28. Hospitals and intensive care units filled up, and some were forced to turn away ambulances.

At that time, Molly Elkins, 27, was three months into what would end up being an eight-month stint as an ICU nurse in Phoenix. When she started her nursing career three years ago, she wanted to work in the ICU. But she never pictured constantly being surrounded by death and crying with patients families as they said a final goodbye on FaceTime.

Worried about her mental health, Elkins switched to being a surgical nurse in May.

I would have nightmares. I would come home and still be physically and emotionally upset at the end of the day, Elkins said. I feel like Im more protective of myself. I know how to stand up for myself and put my needs first.

On Jan. 3, Arizona posted its highest count of new cases for a single day: 17,234. But with mass vaccine distribution on the horizon, there was reason for hope.
Despite facing a pandemic, natural disasters and other unforeseen challenges, the 2020 census results thus far are in line with overall benchmarks," the statement said.

Cabrera said the city is pulling data to show that the 2020 count was off and plans to appeal.

Somerton Mayor Gerardo Anaya worries about the city's share of state revenues. He says Somerton's sales tax revenue, school enrollment and building permits have gone up in the past few years. Developers continue to build.

As it did in many Latino communities, the pandemic had an outsized effect in Somerton. Latinos were almost twice as likely to become infected and more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Somerton, few people have jobs they can do from home. Anaya says there was a point last summer when the Somerton zip code had the highest infection rate in Arizona.

This time it was just chaotic here during the summer. We all had family members that were in the hospital or dying or infected with COVID. So it was very scary, Anaya said.
This exponential growth has sparked a call for officials to reconsider protection for the species. The presence of too many bald eagles has been a problem for decades in Alaska, where the birds were able to hold on better than in the Lower 48. In 1917, bald eagles were causing so many issues for the Alaskan fishing industry that the government placed a bounty on the birds. An editorial in 1920 from Douglas Island News in Alaska stated that: Sentimentally, [the bald eagle] is a beautiful thing, but in life it is a destroyer of food and should be and is killed wherever found.

Similar situations could start to become more common in the Lower 48, where bald eagles have grown so much in population that they pose a significant threat to farms and pastures where chickens, ducks and other animals roam. Farmers dont know what to do about it, though, as shooting a bald eagle is a $100,000 fine along with a year of jail time.

One option for farmers is to get an eagle-depredation permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if the birds have become injurious to wildlife, agriculture or other personal property, or human health and safety. Once granted, non-lethal deterrents like air horns, scarecrows and pyrotechnics can be used to scare them off, though farmers have little recourse if these tactics fail. In the end, were just going to have to get used to having so many of these majestic creatures around, reminding us not only of our freedom and national pride but also of what good stewards we can be for nature when we set our hearts and minds to it.

EarthTalk is produced by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss for the 501(c)3 nonprofit EarthTalk. See more at https://emagazine.com. To donate, visit https://earthtalk.org. Send questions to: question@earthtalk.org.

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Most of the stories in this column have to do with cats and dogs and an occasional rabbit or hamster who have spent time at the Beatrice Animal Shelter. Today I am going to branch out a bit and share a love story about a goose and gander.

The incident was reported as a CBS special feature from journalist Steve Hartman last week and was a welcome feel good tale during a week of mostly bad news.

It all happened at a Massachusetts wildlife center where Arnold, a Canada goose was being treated for a badly damaged foot. As he was being prepped for surgery, the medical team heard a faint tapping at the door of the facility. Arnold had a visitor.

Zak Mertz, the director of the center, made an exception to the no visitors rule. After surgery, Arnold was moved to the floor for recovery where his mate, named Amelia, comforted and preened him. Good medicine for a good gander!

Now, you ask, how did Arnolds spouse find him? It is believed that she saw the wildlife team capture him the day before and then heard his honking in his cage overnight. And since geese mate for life, there was no way that Amelia was going to abandon him.
In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades.

The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves difficult conversations.

Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.
Its free, and you can get it at any drug store or any number of places, Brown said. They even have million-dollar lotteries in some states. I was waiting to see if the situation (with vaccinations in Wyoming) would change, and it still hasnt. I figure Ill just do my bit.

The other two judges in Wyomings Seventh Circuit, Judge Michael Patchen and Judge Brian Christensen, have not been offering fine reductions for vaccinations.

Brown said the reductions usually knock around $100 or $200 off what a person owes the court in exchange for proof of full vaccination, to anyone willing to take the deal.

Not everyone does take it, Brown said, and he makes it clear he isnt requiring anyone to get vaccinated. But if they turn it down, theyre still on the hook for the full fine amount.

A lot of people who come in front of me dont have a lot of money, Brown said. I have a lot of discretion on ordering community service, so Ill say, Ill give you credit off your fines.

Court fines can add up to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the case, and failing to pay on time can actually send someone back to jail.
For two decades, Americans have debated what role, if any, the nation should play in Afghanistan. Now, after the Biden administration pulled forces out of the country and the Taliban took over, that question is coming to a head, this time in a new light.

In early 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban in an effort to end the war there. After Biden took office, he pledged to get U.S. troops out by September of this year. Once they started to leave, the Taliban rapidly gained control of the nation. Now, many Afghans are risking their lives to get out of their county.

The latest flash point in the conflict came Thursday, when a suicide bomb attack outside the Kabul airport killed 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops.

Heres a look at how Wyomings congressional delegation has responded to the Talibans takeover and the Kabul airport attack.

Rep. Liz Cheney
The official word from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the fate of the Dakota Access Pipeline is expected to come in September 2022, six months later than anticipated.
The latest North Dakota coronavirus news: court masks, federal aid and more.

Courtroom masks

South Central Judicial District Presiding Judge Bruce Romanick is requiring face coverings in courtrooms during all trials and hearings, citing rising COVID-19 cases in the region.

Such a precaution will allow the court to continue to operate, provide justice to court participants, and to protect the safety of the public as well as staff during this health emergency, Romanick said in his order.

Judges will have the discretion to allow people to remove face masks to testify or to address the court.

The judicial district will continue to operate with a mix of remote and socially distanced in-person hearings, the judge said.

FEMA aid

North Dakotas Health Department is getting more federal aid to help cover the cost of responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
Game and Fish calls the birds a charismatic native species in North Dakota. They are famous for a courtship ritual in which they strut around, puff out their chest and fan their tails to attract females to mating grounds known as leks. For those lucky enough to observe the ritual its fascinating.

The Tribune editorial board has supported past efforts to maintain the habitat and hopefully increase the population. Landowners who have worked with the department and others to preserve the habitat should be commended.

It might seem like a lot of money and work has been invested in the birds. Its about more than saving a few birds that do a silly dance during mating season. Its about retaining part of the heritage of the West. The sage grouse is one of many species that create the character of the region.

We should take the necessary steps to keep from chipping away at what makes the West so special.

Apex argues the state shouldnt take away the rights of private landowners to develop and maintain the land as they want. The Tribune has been supportive of landowners rights in the past. We also know that most landowners are very conservation-minded and go out of their way to maintain wildlife.

In this case we believe the state should do whats possible to maintain the habitat for the sage grouse. Sometimes a silly dance is worth preserving.

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For fair and balanced geopolitical analysis at its best, why would you look anywhere else but the supermarket tabloids? It's probably a coincidence that the two top stories this week both attack president Joe Biden, while Biden is tainted by association with Barack Obama, still branded "Public Enemy No.1" for daring to throw a party amid a pandemic  not to be confused with the maskless thousands who attend Trump rallies and must presumably be acknowledged as true Americans.

'National Enquirer'

"Biden's Vietnam" screams the cover story. "Afghanistan Falls & Taliban Wins!"

It's fair game for the 'Enquirer' to brand Biden's ordered pull-out of American troops in Afghanistan "an unequivocal disaster," but the magazine might be taking the increased threat of terrorist attack on the US mainland a little too far.

"Sleeper cells unleashed in YOUR HOMETOWN!" proclaims the headline, which is quite a claim, considering that the 'Enquirer' can't possibly know the location of every reader's hometown. Or has the 'Enquirer' learned that the Taliban has terrorist cells in every hometown in America?

At last, the 'Enquirer' brings us news we can use: "How to Spot a Terrorist and Protect Yourself."

Among the clues that your best friend might be a terrorist: "They have a grudge against America . . . . They use threatening language or incite others to commit violence . . . They stockpile assault rifles, pistols or other weapons and/or materials used for bomb-making." Sounds a lot like the average QAnon supporter.

Of course, the tabloids couldn't let a week pass without revisiting the scandal-plagued British royal family.

"Andrew Unravels In New Epstein Teen Sex Probe! Charles sics Scotland Yard on ruined royal."

As if Prince Charles can command Scotland Yard to do his bidding. He can't. It would be a major breach of protocol if Charles even suggested that Scotland Yard look into anything.

In the wake of a sexual abuse lawsuit filed against Prince Andrew in the US earlier this month, Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick merely said that the British police will review their position, but insisted: "at the moment there is no investigation."

'Globe'

More political insight and analysis courtesy of the 'Globe,' whose cover story reports: "Biden Blackmail Nightmare! President's explosive secret emails hacked! Russians have another laptop lost by son Hunter!"

For those who thought that Biden's troubled son Hunter had lost only one incriminating laptop, the 'Globe' informs us that he's actually hit his hat-trick, losing three of them. As Lady Bracknell might have said: to lose one laptop may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness.

Hunter Biden's third laptop computer was supposedly purloined by "a trio of mysterious Russians in Las Vegas" after Hunter blacked out in his hotel room. There's no evidence that there was anything incriminating about Hunter Biden or his father on the laptop, but speculating wildly, the 'Globe' reports: "US intelligence agencies fear the commander in chief could be the target of blackmail based on drug addict Hunter's hacked emails and files!"

The report points to dark web posts offering to sell "USA President secret" and "Biden laptop HDD copy" for $5,000 in cryptocurrency. If genuine, how damning can the secrets be that they are worth a meagre $5,000?

"Harry & Meghan Hated in Hollywood!" The royal renegades have won lucrative deals with Netflix, Spotify and various publishers, allegedly without doing much for it, and now resentment is supposedly mounting in Hollywood as they "sink to the D-List!" And all because they weren't invited to Barack Obama's "superspreader" 60th birthday party earlier this month.

"Brazen Barack Branded Covid Superspreader!" The former president's 60th birthday party attracted numerous guests to three days of celebrations on Martha's Vineyard, but all were tested for Covid in advance, and observed Covid protocols under the watch of a coronavirus coordinator. Nobody who attended the party is known to have tested positive for the virus, but the 'Globe' nonetheless reports that Martha's Vineyard has seen a spike in infections  therefore Obama must be to blame. Local health authorities say "it's impossible for us to know at this point" whether Obama's party caused even a single case of coronavirus on the island, but the 'Globe' continues to call Obama "Public Enemy No.1 for his shocking behavior."

'People'

"Why Did A Devoted Dad Kill His Two Young Children?" asks the cover story

The answer appears to be: He was a QAnon supporter. Isn't that evidence enough of mental unbalance? Arrested for killing his children, Matthew Coleman told investigators that "his children had serpent DNA and that killing them was the only way to save the world." If you believe that Hollywood and the Democrats run child sex rings and kill infants to drink their blood, perhaps it's not so far-fetched to imagine that your own children are carrying serpent DNA.

"Val Kilmer: I wasn't ready to die." Is anyone? As if he had a choice in the matter.

"Crisis in Afghanistan: We Thought We Had More Time," says one evacuee. Think again.

'Us Weekly'

"Escape From Scientology," proclaims the cover story. Actress Laura Prepon recently revealed that she left the cult five years ago, and other adherents have jumped ship including Lisa Marie Presley, Leah Remini, Katie Holmes and Jason Lee  all departing several years ago. So apparently the church hasn't had any major Hollywood defections in years, but that doesn't stop 'Us' declaring: "A Church in Crisis," even though the cult still has its star names including Tom Cruise, John Travolta and KirstieAlley.

Thankfully we have the crack investigative squad at 'Us' mag to tell us that Gayle King wore it best (what the hell were Kelly Clarkson and Amber Tamblyn even thinking?), that 'Schitt's Creek' alum Emily Hampshire suffers from "misophonia. If you eat with your mouth open, I might have to murder you!" and that the stars are just like us: they feed the meter, hunt for their keys, carry two drinks at once, and "find it hard to walk in snorkeling fins." Exhilarating, as ever.

Onwards and downwards . . .
Greg Epstein is the New York Times-bestselling author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. Since 2005, he's served as a Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University  an institute that was founded by Puritans, with the intention of educating the aspiring clergy. The school's original motto was "Truth for Christ and the Church."

And now, the university's 40+ chaplains  each representing a different religious community  have unanimously elected Epstein as the new Chief Chaplain.

From the New York Times:

"Maybe in a more conservative university climate there might be a question like 'What the heck are they doing at Harvard, having a humanist be the president of the chaplains?'" said Margit Hammerstrom, the Christian Science chaplain at Harvard. "But in this environment it works. Greg is known for wanting to keep lines of communication open between different faiths." The dozens of students whom Mr. Epstein mentors have found a source of meaning in the school's organization of humanists, atheists and agnostics, reflecting a broader trend of young people across the United States who increasingly identify as spiritual but religiously nonaffiliated. That trend might be especially salient at Harvard; a Harvard Crimson survey of the class of 2019 found that those students were two times more likely to identify as atheist or agnostic than 18-year-olds in the general population.

The Guardian adds:

As Harvard University's new chief chaplain, Epstein will coordinate activities of over 40 chaplains from more than 20 different religious, spiritual and ethical traditions. "I want to support students and the university community together around the fact that it's been an extraordinarily trying time and almost anybody could be expected to have lost a little faith in humanity in recent years," he told the Guardian on Friday. "We have a lot that divides us theologically but we have a tremendous amount in common when it comes to our shared desires  to support the human beings in our community as they try to live lives of meaning and purpose in a world that can sometimes threaten to rob us of [those senses], regardless of our beliefs," he added.

Epstein, who was born to Jewish parents and raised in a Jewish household, was technically ordained as a Humanist Rabbi by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. (The Times of Israel article about his appointment specifically describes him as a "Jewish head chaplain  who doesn't believe in God.")

Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain [Harvard University]
Liberty Hound is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays in the height of the Canalside visitor crunch.

Shuck Shack is open just Friday through Sunday.

Fresh Catch Poke has already switched to its shortened fall and winter hours.

Lloyd Taco Factory's food trucks are running on an abbreviated schedule.

+4 Restaurants are back  and busy  but challenges remain The end of social distancing requirements means restaurants can fill customer tables wall-to-wall once more, and newly vaccinated customers are clamoring for seats.

Across the Buffalo Niagara region, restaurants are struggling to find workers, and it's holding them back as they try to recover from the severe constraints that pushed them to the brink during the pandemic last year.

Without enough workers, many have been forced to cut back, reducing hours or even closing some days  a move that denies them the opportunity to bring in customers  and badly needed revenue  during the prime summer dining days.

For restaurants  like many other firms  the competition for workers has become especially intense, and wage demands are on the rise, even with supplemental jobless benefits set to expire in early September.

The shortage also has forced restaurants to address issues that have plagued the industry for decades: stagnant wages, poor working conditions and a lack of benefits.

But even rising wages aren't enough to attract workers in sufficient numbers for many restaurants to keep their doors open as long as they once did.

Take Liberty Hound. It's open seasonally and needs to make the most of the short summer months when people flock to Canalside, clamoring to dine on the waterfront. After a year lost to Covid-19, there was a lot riding on the business this summer.

But instead of basking in the throng seven days a week, Liberty Hound is turning customers away. With its roster down about a dozen workers, it has had to close on Mondays and Tuesdays for lack of staff. Without additional help, the current staff is working full time and co-owner Jason Davidson doesn't want them to get burned out.

+3 Help wanted: Worker shortage hurts restaurants, retailers as reopening picks up Business owners feel like they are fighting a losing battle to hire qualified workers at a time when enhanced unemployment benefits make many low-paying or part-time jobs less appealing.

"The decision to close was made for us," he said.

He said some workers left the restaurant industry during the pandemic.

"It's a great business to work in, but it's not easy," he said. "People either love it or they don't."

Some restaurant workers decided to ride out the summer on unemployment, which now pays $300 per week more than it did before Covid-19.

+2 Heading into the second Covid summer, restaurants use lessons they've learned With a year of experience under their belts, restaurant owners are feeling more prepared and hoping for better fortunes.

Davidson doesn't blame them. He would have done the same thing earlier in his career, he said.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime scenario," he said. "A lot of these people haven't had a vacation or a break and they've been busting their butts living paycheck to paycheck for years."

The worker disruption allowed him to give pay increases he had already wanted to offer, he said.

Buffalo is a cost-conscious city. Restaurant pricing is so competitive, and margins are so thin, that the only way for wages to rise quickly was for everyone to have to do it at the same time, he said. Covid-19 leveled the playing field and set the stage for that to happen.

'It killed us': Downtown Buffalo lunch spots hit hard as usual patrons work from home Restaurants that cater to the office crowd have been hit with a double whammy since workers were sent home because of the pandemic.

"It's hard for one person to raise their prices to accommodate their wages. Before, it was so competitive. You're like, 'Well I can't pay more because I can't charge this much for an order of wings or a fish fry,' " Davidson said. "But now everybody's used to paying a little bit more."

Restaurant supply costs have risen 30% across the board since the pandemic began, and staffing costs are no different. Still, now that customers have a better idea of the challenges restaurants are facing, they've been more understanding and have accepted higher menu prices, he said.

Now, Davidson  like other owners  is more able to offer paid time off, better hours and signing bonuses.

"Hopefully we can make it more alluring or recruit more people with some higher wages and a better work environment," he said. "Hopefully the word spreads and as more people come back to work they'll consider the restaurant business."

Michael Tobin owns the Shuck Shack on the Buffalo River  a prime spot during Buffalo's prime season, in a city that goes long stretches without the kind of warm, sunny weather that makes the concept work. The brief season ends on Labor Day.

"In Buffalo, everyone's looking to get out there in the summer," he said.

Even more so after more than a year cooped up in quarantine. Being the first summer since vaccinations have been available, patrons are more comfortable going out and demand has surged. But instead of leaning in to capture all of those ready dollars, Tobin has cut back.

Like Liberty Hound, Shuck Shack has had to turn down catering opportunities and shave business hours. Originally slated to open Thursday through Sunday, it didn't have enough workers to meet demand and had to take Thursday off the schedule.

"With a limited staff, when you're out in the heat all weekend, come Sunday you're pretty fried," Tobin said. "We've been going to 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. every Sunday just because we can't really handle any more."

In August, Tobin changed closing time to 8 p.m. at his restaurant Fresh Catch Poke, which jump started his usual shortened fall schedule. He noticed staff was getting fatigued and weren't bouncing back quickly  something extra important after working through a pandemic and the mental stress it brought.

Other short-staffed businesses were closing early and Fresh Catch workers weren't able to go out after work and enjoy their summer evenings.

"My manager, he hasn't been able to take his girlfriend out to dinner because he was getting out at 9:30 and there wasn't anything open," he said. "In August, I decided to close at 8, just to give our staff that little extra hour to get outside."

He knows he's leaving money on the table. Sales are down 10% but, at this point, Tobin says, "I'm OK with that."

"Customers get a little frustrated with us. I've gotten a few nasty emails," he said. "But you know, it's what's best for our staff and for the longevity of the business."

This is despite skyrocketing supply costs: lobster has doubled in price. Nitrile gloves went from $49 a case to $149. Rice, the base for all its dishes, has gone up 28% since the pandemic started. Fresh Catch's rice prices hadn't moved by even 10% over the past four years.

Starting Labor Day, for the first time ever, Tobin's Williamsville store, The Market, will close on Sundays. That will shave 10% off the store's sales, but "it's what's best for us to keep moving," he said.

"For the longevity of the staff, I made the call," he said. "At least through the fall and winter it will give everyone a day where we know there's not one staff member that has to work."

Fresh Catch has always paid above average, and even offers scholarships. Turnover, which is notoriously high in the restaurant business, is less of a problem there, Tobin said.

"We don't like to hire someone for a couple months and keep having a revolving door," he said. "We want people to be with us long term."

+2 Staffing shortage idles Ted's Hot Dogs restaurant, Lloyd Taco food trucks Teds on Friday posted on Facebook that its Union Road restaurant was closed indefinitely and that the companys locations in Lancaster and Lockport would close on Mondays, at least for now.

Lloyd Taco Factory idled its entire fleet of food trucks in spring because it didn't have workers to drive them. Owner Pete Cimino had hoped the situation would improve by summer, but the food trucks are still running sporadically and stay parked several days each week.

"I think a lot of people either were absorbed by the restaurants because we shut down the truck department, or they just got out of the hospitality industry in general," said Tiffany Gee, the company's head of human resources. "That's something we face. We've had quite a few crew members leave the industry because the past year and a half has been really tough."

Lloyd is struggling to find workers for its brick-and-mortar locations, too. The restaurant's Hertel Avenue location (along with its Hertel Avenue ice cream shop Churn) have been easier to staff than its store on Main Street in Williamsville, where there are fewer public transit options. The last bus out of the area leaves before the shop closes.

"It seems like the transportation has been a little bit of a pain point," Gee said. "For people who live in the city, it's hard for them to get out there."

To address that, Lloyd started a corporate Uber account and pays for workers to get to and from the store.

It has also increased pay since the pandemic started. Workers start "above minimum wage" and front end workers usually make an additional $5 per hour in tips, Gee said. The company also offers paid time off, medical insurance including vision and dental, and a 401(k) with matching employer contributions. Want ads tout staff parties and free food, and social media highlights workers on their employment anniversaries.

Prior experience is not necessary and some Lloyd employees are working the first job they've ever had.

"We will give anyone a shot," she said.

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There is a problem in the country, whether its Georgia or Texas or Erie County where people want to bend election law requirements and rules to accomplish short-term political goals," Cooney said. "Thats not what should be permitted anywhere in this country.

And from a practical view, Cooney said, If the timing did not have to be followed  there would be no point in having it.

Brown said his challenge over the new petition filing date was set in motion when his campaign heard from a national ballot expert who said Brown had a chance to get an independent line on the ballot.

Once we got that outreach, we hired election law experts. They confirmed it. They suggested that we move forward, Brown said.

The drive to try to place the mayors name on the ballot was viewed as an effort to better his chances for re-election, his campaign has said.

Brown is staging a write-in campaign that will continue for now.

A write-in effort requires each voter to write the candidates name in a box on the paper ballot, rather than fill in a circle beside a candidates name that is already listed on the ballot.

Obviously to have your name on the ballot when people go to vote, they see the name, and thats easier for folks, but were pursuing a dual course, Brown said. Obviously, we would love to be on the ballot, but if that doesnt work out, we are still pursuing our write-in candidacy, he said.

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Goodwill washed over Biden through his first six months or so, when he scored points with the public and much of the world simply by not being Donald Trump. The United States appeared on the verge of victory over the pandemic, too. Vaccine supplies surged, cases plunged in response and even Republicans gave Biden a measure of the credit.

Those days now seem like a distant memory. Criticism is raining down on him, with Republicans blaming him for the calamity in Kabul and even Democrats breaking from him for the first time on a major issue.

Asked whether Biden is feeling frustrated or a sense of resignation from the turmoil of the moment, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said "there's just not a lot of time for self-reflection right now."

To Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis, the bloody, harried scenes the world is witnessing from Kabul are not the fruit of poor evacuation planning or incompetence by the United States, but, simply, of defeat.

"It seems to me that we're watching something occur that was inevitable once we stepped in," he said. "There's no memory here. This is what happens when you lose a war."

Presidents are defined by how they handle crises, and Biden now confronts more than one, each requiring urgent attention.
Condolences poured in Saturday and a vigil was organized upon news that a Marine from Massachusetts was among the U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The family of Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, was notified Friday evening and asked for privacy, said Jaime Melendez, director of veterans' services in Lawrence, where Rosario attended high school.

We will not allow her to be forgotten, Melendez said.

Dozens attended a vigil in Rosario's memory Saturday afternoon in Boston that was hosted by Massachusetts Fallen Heroes, an organization founded by veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The group had a wreath in Rosario's memory. Veterans and family members who lost loved ones to war also brought 13 roses and lit 13 candles in honor of U.S. service members lost in the bombing.

My veteran community is grieving. My Gold Star family members are feeling the shock all over again. Should it have happened? Never. What can we do as a community? We can stand behind the our military right now and pray, said Mary Ellen Callahan, who lost a Marine son in Iraq.

Jeff Lau, a U.S. Army veteran, led the group in a moment of silence.
LONDON  Military planes carrying British troops and diplomats from Kabul are landing at a U.K. air base after the U.K.s two-week evacuation operation ended.

The U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, was among those who arrived Sunday at RAF Brize Norton northwest of London, hours after the government announced that all British personnel had left Kabul.

Britain says it has evacuated more than 15,000 U.K. citizens and vulnerable Afghans in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind.

Vice Adm. Ben Key, who was in charge of the British operation, said: We tried our best.

In a video message, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the colossal effort, saying it was a mission unlike anything weve seen in our lifetimes.

But he is facing strong criticism over the failure to bring to safety all those Afghans who helped British forces during the 20-year deployment in Afghanistan that began in the wake of 9/11.
Calling for criminal justice reform, Black Lives Matter was founded in July 2013 as a response to the brutal injustice against Trayvon Martin. The innocent African-American boy was murdered by a racist neighbor for looking suspicious.

Liberty and justice belong to all Americans equally, however legal standards for African-Americans have been shamefully unfair. An appeal is found in each verse of America, the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates: America, America, God shed his grace on thee may God thy gold refineGod mend thine every flaw

God helps those who help themselves, therefore America must mend the justice systems flaws, ensuring liberty and justice for all.

Commencing in 2014, the movement of Blue Lives Matter has advocated for employing hate crime statutes against those who attack and kill police officers. Louisiana has a state law to that effect and Floridas HB1 legislation protects innocent citizens, especially police, against vicious rioters, looters and other forms of violence. Now, 2021 requires all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., to follow suit starting with the vicious Capitol rioters. Inconsistency is unacceptable and inequality is un-American.
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Yet when in the hospital recently for treatment of COVID-19, the father told police he was going through his phone and found the sexually explicit videos involving their son.

"(The father) stated he was 100% confident that the male in the videos was his son," police said.

The alleged victim told investigators his father forced them to do the videos and that his mother "fake child molested him," a court document states.

The father had not been charged in the matter as of Friday morning.

The child said the videos were shot at their apartment and a hotel where the used to live in Muscatine, Iowa, investigators said. The boy said his father would sometimes hold the phone to record the videos, and other times his mother would record the videos when they were alone.

"Victim 1 stated they placed a pillow over his face during the videos so he would not see any bad stuff," the charging information reads. "Victim 1 knew that the videos were sent to Hank."

Winchip believed the child in the videos was the couple's 12-year-old son, but the father pointed out a birthmark to confirm it was the 8-year-old boy, according a court document.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28)  The Department of Health on Saturday said reports of contaminated Moderna shots in Japan will have no impact on the Philippines' vaccine procurement and inoculation.

During a virtual briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire assured the public that local health authorities inspect all vaccine deliveries before they are approved and deployed for use.

The Japanese government suspended the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses after finding contaminants in some vials.

"Pero hindi naman sinabi na ang kabuuan nang na-deliver sa kanila ay hindi na gagamitin, tinanggal lang 'yung batch na 'yun," Vergeire said.

"Here in the Philippines, we inspect lahat ng batches ng bakuna bago gamitin, at wala tayong nakitang ganyang contamination," she added.

[Translation: But it did not say that the whole delivery will not be used, they just removed that batch. Here in the Philippines, we inspect all batches of vaccines before we use them, and we have not found any contamination.]

The reports will not affect the Philippines' plan to procure Moderna vaccine doses, according to Vergeire.

"We are not going to stop the Moderna inoculation," she said.
(CNN) -- Elephants are the largest land mammals on Earth, and understanding them better could lead to some incredibly large breakthroughs in science.

Researchers backed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 innovation program are doing a deep-dive study on elephant trunks, with the aim of improving the future of robotics, materials science and biology.

Elephants' trunks are both delicate and sturdy -- they are capable of grasping a single blade of grass but can also carry nearly 600 pounds. And scientists argue that these versatile trunks -- called proboscis -- are incredible inspiration for the next generation of bio-inspired robots.

"Classical robots are extremely good for performing a specific task for which they've been designed...If you want that robot to do something a little different, it will fail miserably," said Michel Milinkovitch, professor of the physics of biology at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. "But when you look at living organisms, they've been optimized also for versatility."

Red carpet research

In new research published in Current Biology, Milinkovitch's lab explained how elephants can move their trunks with almost infinite degrees of freedom, combining about 20 basic movements to carry out more complicated manoeuvres.

Using technology borrowed from the movie industry, the University of Geneva researchers were able to conduct a high-resolution motion capture analysis of elephants' trunks as they picked up objects of various shapes and sizes.

The team placed reflective markers along the trunks of two African elephants, and then they set up infrared cameras around the elephants to capture their movements and measure the trajectories of their trunks in three dimensions. The process is similar to how actors wearing motion-capture markers were used to create the movements of the characters of Gollum in "Lord of The Rings" and Na'vis in "Avatar."

"Elephants have sort of a toolkit of simple movements, and they can combine these simple movements to complex trajectories," Milinkovitch told CNN. "They can adapt to the object you give them."

Elephants use suction to pick up lightweight objects. But to pick up heavier things, they use suction to secure the position of the objects, and trunk wrapping to actually grip and lift things, he said. The study also found that elephants can form "pseudo-joints" with their trunks, similar to the structure of a human elbow and wrist.

"There's a very fine control over what part of the trunk is contracting," Milinkovitch said. "It's not the whole trunk that is elongating and shortening -- it's portions, depending on what the elephant is doing."

Researchers also performed CT scans and MRIs on the trunk of a deceased elephant and used high resolution cameras to create a 3D model of a trunk, allowing them to better understand the anatomy of an elephant's muscle groups, skin and connective tissues.

From trunks to tech

The study data will be used to help design an innovative "soft" robotic arm, which is being developed alongside researchers from Italy's Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Pontedera and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, as well as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and 3D printing company Photocentric.

"It's a new paradigm in robotics," Milinkovitch said. "Instead of using metallic segments connected by articulations, the idea is to have objects that are moving but they are made of flexible materials."

Scientists say copying the natural anatomy would be impossible, but they plan to use the data on elephant trunk movements to create similarly versatile movements in a robot. Lucia Beccai, the scientific coordinator of the EU-backed "Proboscis Project," told CNN that they plan to have a working prototype in about a year.

"The data is exceptional, but now the effort is really to translate this biological data into some engineering specifications, which don't need to copy the natural organ," said Beccai, who is a senior researcher at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. "(We) need to extract some simplifying principles that can make the behavior simple enough to be effective, adaptable to changes, and efficient."

The project is also spurring advancements in material science, as researchers have developed a new material that mimics the useful properties of elephant skin and can be 3D printed for robotic prototypes.

"You will have something that can deal with high payloads and small payloads. From an industrial point of view, it could have a great impact," Beccai said, adding that the new materials and technologies will be commercialized for a wide range of uses.

The team envisions the soft robotic arms they are creating will be able to work on factory production lines, be utilized for search and rescue operations, or even be used in the healthcare field to lift and assist elderly patients.

Raising awareness about elephant conservation

Milinkovitch added that aside from the industrial applications of the research, it's also important to understand the animals better.

"It's also a feeling of wonder just looking at these amazing creatures," Milinkovitch said, noting that African forest elephants and African savanna elephants are endangered species.

Elephants face threats from habitat loss, as well as poaching due to the illegal ivory trade. An estimated 20,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

In the last three decades, the population of African forest elephants fell by more than 86%, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"We also hope to increase awareness of the conservation of this very unique animal," Beccai said. "There are a plethora of principles that we can learn from nature, it's not just there for our well-being and happiness -- it is really an incredible source of engineering principles."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Understanding elephant trunks could be a breakthrough for robotics"
(CNN) -- British Airways is planning to launch a new, low-cost short-haul carrier as it seeks to compete with Ryanair and EasyJet in the one area of aviation that appears to be recovering well from the pandemic.

In a memo to staff first reported by travel website Headforpoints.com, CEO Sean Doyle said that British Airways was planning a "new operating subsidiary" to run alongside its existing long-haul operation at London's Gatwick airport.

Doyle added that the new airline would seek to serve "highly competitive" short-haul routes from London's second-biggest airport by the summer of 2022.

A spokesperson for the carrier, which is owned by International Airlines Group, told CNN Business that it was working with labor unions "on proposals for a short-haul operation at Gatwick" but declined to comment further.

This isn't the global airline's first shot at launching an airline focused solely on short-haul flights to Europe. Go Fly was a low-cost carrier founded by British Airways in 1998 that operated out of London's Stansted airport to various destinations across the continent. It was purchased four years later by EasyJet, now the biggest airline operating out of Gatwick.

But it could be crucial for IAG after the company incurred huge losses over the last 18 months as traffic collapsed during the pandemic. With passenger demand remaining low, the group reported a pre-tax loss of 2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) for the first half of this year. British Airways, based near its main hub at London's Heathrow airport, accounted for the largest share of the losses, slammed by restrictions on what used to be its most lucrative transatlantic routes.

Ryanair and EasyJet expect to have recovered between 60% and 80% of their pre-pandemic passenger traffic between July and September, significantly higher than the 45% projected by IAG.

The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) confirmed it is in the final stages of negotiations with British Airways over revised pay and conditions for pilots for the new operation.

BALPA General Secretary Martin Chalk said the union "cautiously welcomes this decision" to restart British Airways' short-haul operations. He said the move would "create a number of much needed new pilot jobs."

The discussions come as the UK Government's furlough scheme is set to end on September 30. This imposes imminent cost increases for IAG as wage costs will increase sharply.

This story was first published on CNN.com "British Airways could launch a new low-cost airline for Europe".
(CNN)  China is putting companies that overwork their employees on notice.

The country's top court on Thursday issued a lengthy condemnation of what's commonly known in China as "996," the practice of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week that is said to be common among the country's big technology companies, startups and other private businesses.

"Recently, extreme overtime work in some industries has received widespread attention," the Supreme People's Court wrote in its statement, which it issued with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Workers deserve rights for "rest and vacation," adding that "adhering to the national working hour system is the legal obligation of employers," the court wrote.

It cited several examples of companies across a range of industries it said violated labor rules, including an unnamed courier company that it said told employees to work 996 hours. Telling employees to work that much "has seriously violated the law on extending the upper limit of working hours and should be deemed invalid," the court said.

The public backlash against the excessive-work culture isn't new. Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, for example, was heavily criticized in China two years ago after he called 996 culture a "huge blessing." And Chinese labor law already prohibits employees from working that long.

But the latest edict from the country's top court comes as Beijing embarks on a massive crackdown on private business in China, rolling out new regulations and fines to curtail the influence of powerful corporations. The crackdown has been justified by President Xi Jinping and other top officials as necessary to tackle data security risks and inequality in education, and to prevent social instability.

"There is nothing wrong with advocating working hard, but it cannot be a shield for employers to evade [their] legal responsibilities," the court wrote Thursday.

The debate about 996 culture has been revived this year during the crackdown on private enterprise. In January, e-commerce company Pinduoduo faced an intense backlash over allegations that it overworks its employees, after two of its employees died unexpectedly, including a man who died by suicide.

The company did not respond at the time to questions about the allegations made against its work culture, but did say that it had set up a team to provide psychological counseling following the suicide of a worker.

Recently young people in China have also begun rejecting an intense work culture by invoking a desire to "lie flat," or "tang ping." The philosophy calls on people to reject societal pressures to work hard, get married, have children or buy property because of the diminishing rewards of achieving such goals.

 Laura He and Sophie Jeong contributed to this report.

This story was first published on CNN.com "China blasts '996' excessive work culture"
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 27)  The government hasn't been able to maximize the national contact tracing app StaySafe at the moment, its developer said.

"Nung na-donate namin ang StaySafe sa DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government), ang isang inaasahan namin ay ma-activate lahat ng features ng StaySafe," David Almirol Jr., founder & chief executive officer of MultiSys Technologies Corp., told CNN Philippines' The Exchange.

[Translation: When we donated StaySafe to the DILG, among our expectations was the activation of all its features.]

While Almirol acknowledged that the DILG was able to take over the system "over a short period of time," he said the app has features other than being a digital logbook.

StaySafe can also be used to inquire whether a person entering an establishment is COVID-19-positive, Almirol added.

The app earlier made the news again after Health Secretary Francisco Duque criticized its supposedly limited impact. DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing and Contact Tracing czar Benjamin Magalong, however, defended StaySafe.

Contact tracing is often referred to as the weakest link in the country's COVID-19 pandemic response.

Integration key to sustaining contact tracing efforts

Almirol also emphasized the importance of linking contact tracing efforts by local authorities, the national government, and the private sector with StaySafe.

"Kailangan mag-integrate tayo. 'Yun yung matagal na naming inaasahan na mangyari nung na-donate namin ang StaySafe sa government...API-based lang naman po 'yan, hindi po mahirap gawin," he explained.

[Translation: We need to integrate. This is what we've been expecting to happen for so long since we donated StaySafe to the government. It's just API (application programming interface)-based, it's not hard to do.]

AppCase Inc. co-founder and business development director Hancy Narida said they are gearing up for integration with other providers like StaySafe, but are still awaiting for a policy to be drafted by ICT authorities.

The developer handles the contact tracing platforms of Valenzuela, Pasig, and Mandaluyong, along with Antipolo and Taytay, Rizal - which have already been integrated. Users of any of these platforms may use their generated QR codes among the five applications instead of manually filling up their details.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28)  The Philippines will send two more cube satellites into space.

Maya-3 and Maya-4 will be launched off to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a Dragon C208 cargo on Sunday at 3:14 p.m., Philippine time.

The two cube satellites were supposed to be launched Saturday afternoon, but the rocket cargo's liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was aborted.

Maya-3 and Maya-4 were designed and developed by scholars of the Department of Science and Technology's (DOST) Space Technology and Applications Mastery, Innovation, and Advancement (STAMINA4Space) Program.

Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) director-general Joel Marciano, Jr. said the two cube satellites will help improve the data gathering of Filipino experts in agriculture, weather monitoring, and disaster management, particularly in getting information from rural areas.

"Habang sila nago-orbit, ire-relay nila ang mga signals or data na galing sa mga remote areas papunta sa mga laboratories natin sa Metro Manila or sa ibang urban places para mapag-aralan ng ating mga scientists at ibang concerned groups," Marciano told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Weekend on Saturday.

[Translation: While they (Maya-3 and Maya-4) are orbiting (in space), they will relay signals or data from remote areas going to our laboratories in Metro Manila or other urban places so that scientists and concerned groups can study those information.]

Marciano said the satellites' data sensor collection will also contribute in strengthening government policies on food security, disaster risk management, maritime domain awareness, and environmental monitoring.

The PhilSA chief added that the satellite technology will be useful in the mining sector, which he said will be a source of income for the country post-pandemic.

"The space technology and satellites will help ensure concerned groups to comply with environmental protection measures by looking at the data from the mining sites obtained by our satellites," he noted.

Both satellites are made with the same specifications - measuring 10 x 10 x 11.35 centimeters with a mass of 1.15 kilograms.

The Filipino-made cube satellites also have two deployable UHF and VHF antennas, solar array panels, global positioning system (GPS) patch antenna, lever switch, and five-megapixel visual cameras for capturing images of the country from space, and visual assessment of landmass and bodies of water.

Maya-4 has an additional feature of a near-infrared camera for technology demonstration.

The date of the two cube satellites' deployment into orbit has yet to be announced.

Maya-2 is currently in space after being launched into the ISS in February and deployed into orbit in March.

Maya-1, the predecessor of the three cube satellites, was launched into space in June 2018 and was deployed into the orbit two months after. It returned to earth in December 2020.

The country also launched its first two microsatellites, Diwata-1 in 2016 and Diwata-2 in 2018. Diwata-1 was decommissioned in March 2020 while Diwata-2 remains in space.
(CNN)  Afghans who narrowly avoided the terror attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday have described horrifying scenes and piles of victims' bodies at the site of the blast.

Muhammad, who said he assisted US forces and worked with NATO in Afghanistan, was at the airport with his family Thursday, trying to speak with American troops and find a flight out of the country.

"I was standing just 50 steps away from the blast that occurred yesterday with my family," he told CNN. "I cannot describe the situation to you ... it was like a scene from a movie that I saw in reality."

"There was a river of blood ... if you wanted to make a few steps you had to first check to see if there were any dead bodies under your feet to move," he said. He did not provide his last name for security reasons.

"I covered my daughters' eyes so she wouldn't see the situation, because it was a very bad situation. After that, I took my family out and went on our way to go home."

The bombing, claimed by the ISIS-K terror group, killed more than 170 people. Thirteen US troops also lost their lives in the attack.

Muhammad said he has been sent multiple threatening messages by the Taliban, warning him he would be killed if he did not work with them.

But despite the atrocity, he said he would return to Kabul airport with his family on Friday, as he has done throughout the week. "I try to go to the airport gates so I can speak with (foreign troops) and show my ID and papers to say that I have worked with them, but I have not been successful."

The main entrance to the airport

The deadly attack happened at the Abbey Gate of the airport, which has recently became the main entry point to the airport and primary security there has been provided by US Marines. The area around that gate had been used for holding refugees after they passed through the Taliban checkpoints outside the airport, and before they were allowed to go to the airport.

Thousands of Afghans had been gathering at the airport's gates in recent days in hopes of being evacuated. Footage posted to social media on Thursday after the explosion showed chaotic scenes of crowds trying to help the wounded amid bodies on the ground. Photos showed bloodied people being transported away from the scene in wheelbarrows.

Other witnesses described similar carnage and tragedy. "It was as if someone pulled the ground from under my feet; for a moment I thought my eardrums were blasted and I lost my sense of hearing," a former employee of an international development group with a US special immigrant visa told Reuters on Thursday.

"I saw bodies and body parts flying in the air like a tornado taking plastic bags ... into the air. I saw bodies, body parts, elderly and injured men, women and children scattered in the blast site," the man said.

"It is not possible to see doomsday in this life, but today I saw doomsday, I witnessed it with my own eyes."

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence to support the claim.

US officials have said the group was likely behind the attack, and President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he had ordered US military commanders "to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities."

"We will hunt you down and make you pay," Biden said.

In previous days, the President had cited the risk of a terror attack among the reasons for getting US troops out of the country by August 31. The US Embassy in Kabul has warned US citizens to avoid the airport airport. Pentagon officials said they were receiving reports of credible threats to the evacuation effort in Afghanistan and are monitoring those threats "virtually, in real time."

"We still believe there are credible threats. In fact, I'd say specific, credible threats, and we want to make sure we're prepared for those," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday.

This story was first published on CNN.com 'I was 50 steps from the blast:' Witness describes carnage of Kabul airport attack
Each night from 7 to 8, the sisters and those on the retreat participated in an activity together, such as volleyball, board games or reading stories out loud. Following recreation time, they all ended their day with a nightly prayer.

It was always full of so much laughter, joy and competition. It always filled my heart up with so much love and joy, Ferguson said.

On my last night there while we were all praying together ... I felt a call from the Holy Spirit to start something in Columbus that would be similar to what I had been doing with the sisters.

The following day, Ferguson went on a walk and stumbled upon a statute of Mary behind some trees.

I sat there and made a lesson plan, she said. It took me like 30 minutes and I planned out all seven weeks I planned out every activity we would do that week, where we would do it at and what sort of prayer.

Once home, Ferguson called her mom, Cheryl, and then got in touch with Sarah Doerneman, whos involved with youth ministry for the Columbus Catholic churches.

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It just happened that that night I was coming home from the retreat we were going over to their house for supper, which hardly ever happens, Ferguson said. She thought it was a great idea.
Education

top story

Education

Masks, vaccines and CDC quarantine guidelines at play for Midstate school districts

Alexandra Wimley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Students walk through the hallway during the first day of school at Mars Area Elementary School in Mars, Pa. Masks are optional for students and teachers at the school. provided by Harrisburg Academy Harrisburg Academy will deploy a 2021-22 pandemic health and safety plan that includes mask-wearing, spatial-distancing, daily health self-reporting and heightened hygiene and sanitation protocols for the school year that started on Aug. 24.

An exception to a rule influenced the decision by Carlisle and South Middleton school districts to require students to wear masks at the start of the 2021-22 school year.

Prior to Wednesday, the first day of classes, South Middleton posted on its website a letter to district families providing a rationale for its mask requirement for students and staff.

The use of masks allows us to minimize the number of students who may need to quarantine due to exposure to a positive case, the letter reads.

That sentence referenced an exception specified in contact tracing and quarantine guidelines handed down by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

COVID-19 mask policies for Sentinel area school districts A look at how area school districts plan to use mask policies as school opens across the area the next two weeks.

The guidelines define close contacts as individuals who were within six feet for 15 consecutive minutes of a person found to have COVID-19.

Under the exception, quarantine is unnecessary for the close contact if both the close contact and positive case were wearing properly fitted masks during the exposure and if the close contact was not within three feet of the positive case.

A mask requirement makes it easier for school officials to apply the CDC exception with a goal to keep as many students in school as possible, said Eric Sands, director of management services for the Carlisle Area School District.

Fully vaccinated individuals will also not be required to quarantine in Carlisle if proof of vaccination is provided, Sands said. Officials at Carlisle and South Middleton school districts said they do not have a precise count on how many people are fully vaccinated among students and staff.

Carlisle High School students comply with mask requirement as they learn block schedule during opening week The first day included an extended homeroom period to brief students on the changes that went with the decision this year to pilot a block schedule configuration.

South Middleton School Board votes to mandate masks The South Middleton School Board voted Monday to begin the academic year with mandatory masking in place, citing rising COVID-19 case numbers locally as well as school outbreaks around the nation.

Mask mandates

Carlisle and South Middleton declared early on that a mask requirement would be in effect when students returned to school this past week. Officials in both districts said cooperation is needed if students had a chance at in-person instruction five days a week for as much of 2021-22 as possible.

We are asking that our families encourage their students to wear their masks so that we can make the start of the school year as productive and positive as possible, the South Middleton letter reads. It is hoped that conditions surrounding COVID-19 will rapidly improve. If this improvement occurs then district leadership may be able to lift the mask requirement.

Carlisle will continue this year to post on its website the school building and confirmation date of each positive COVID-19 case as the cases emerge, Sands said. Through Friday morning, the district had reported three cases this week.

Sands said contact tracing will be run for each case coordinated by the building principal, nurse and classroom teachers.

With each investigation, students will be asked questions and seating charts will be examined to trace the movements of the positive case through the building to determine who else may have been exposed and needs to be quarantined.

Mechanicsburg Area School District "strongly recommends" masks for unvaccinated students The Mechanicsburg communitys division on student masking continued prior to Tuesdays school board meeting as two crowds gathered outside, standing yards apart from each other.

CV board votes to require masks if county moves into "high transmission" status CV students will not start the school year with required masking if Cumberland County remains below the point of high transmission as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Proximity and masks

One goal is to identify those students who were located within six feet of a positive case and then determine if each close contact and positive case was wearing a properly fitted mask, said Matthew Strine, superintendent of South Middleton School District.

Because of the CDC guidance of 15 consecutive minutes, the chances of exposure are not as great when students pass each other in the hallway, Strine said. However, students are particularly vulnerable to exposure during lunch periods, he said. As much as possible, both school districts plan to separate students during lunch periods.

In its letter, South Middleton School District briefed families on what could happen if the mask requirement is not followed.

Students who refuse to wear a mask will first be addressed before entering the school building or sent to the school office once inside, the letter reads. If they continue to refuse to wear a mask, their parents/guardians will be contacted to pick up their student for that day.

The letter states that, as much as possible, 10-minute mask breaks will be provided during class periods and such other opportunities as lunch and recess.

In Carlisle schools, infractions of the mask requirement will be handled by building principals on a case-by-case basis, Sands said. We will try to work with the students and their families.

Based on CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidance, Carlisle school district will require a 10-day quarantine for anyone who has been exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19. However, quarantine can end after day seven if an exposed individual has a negative COVID-19 test result performed on or after day five and if that person has no symptoms.

COVID cases reported in three Cumberland County school districts this week Carlisle Area School District and Shippensburg Area School District have reported five cases each of COVID-19 in their districts since the start of school. South Middleton has reported one.
At the end, I was thinking, We might get hurt. It will be a little hard to get there. But well have a future,' she said through a cousin, who translated for the family and has taken them in.

The cousin, who asked to be identified only as Khan, also to protect relatives back home, has made three airport runs this week for family arriving from Afghanistan, some of them U.S. residents or citizens who had been visiting when Kabul fell.

His family has had as many as 22 people fill their suburban home, where the smell of qabli, an Afghan chicken and rice dish, and green tea wafted through the first floor on Thursday, as the newly arrived youngsters  the 3-year-old in a bright red Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt  squealed and ran up and down the center hall staircase.

Their mother had enjoyed running their busy household in Kabul, where the couple said their two daughters along with their four sons could have gone to college, or even graduate school, given the progress they saw during the U.S.-led occupation of the past 20 years.

People got educated, places got built, it helped our economy, Mohammad said. The way of life was getting better in Afghanistan. We could have benefitted if they extended their stay.
If you have ever wanted to be on stage but dont or didnt have the courage to do it, now is your chance to be part of a great show, he said. Youll get to be under those stage lights in costume, probably get to do a little singing and dancing (but not by yourself), and you wont have to worry about memorizing lines or having to speak to a crowd.

After the cast is selected after auditions on Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, rehearsals will be Mondays through Fridays from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Not all cast members will be required to attend every evenings practice. Carrs goal is to plan the practices so each person only has two or three nights per week until the final two weeks before the show when the entire cast and crew will do full run-throughs.

The Music Man will be performed Nov. 11-13 at 7 p.m. each evening in MACs theatre.

Carr offered advice to those who may audition.

Just show up ready to have fun and dont be nervous, he said. Thats easier said than done, I know, but this stuff should be fun. Even if you feel like you bombed your audition, I assure you that it probably wasnt as bad as you think. Just relax, and enjoy the experience.

Those who would like to audition should dress comfortably (no flip flops or open-toed shoes) and prepare a one-minute vocal piece with either a CD or Bluetooth device and show off their vocal range and abilities. He said the song choice should not be from The Music Man.

Pam Clifton is a contributing writer for the Daily Journal

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Amsterdams municipality said in its statement announcing the return of the painting: We have a history as a city and with it comes a great responsibility for dealing with the injustice and irreparable suffering inflicted on the Jewish population during [World War II].

James Palmer  founder of the Mondex Corporation, which works with people, including the Lewenstein heirs to reclaim looted art  hailed a courageous decision.

In an email to The Associated Press, he said it recognizes that the property rights of the claimants are fundamental in a democracy, regardless of a museums interest in retaining such property.

The municipality said it has a moral obligation to act in accordance with this responsibility. The city stands for a fair and clear restitution policy, returning as much looted art as possible to the rightful owners or the heirs of the owners.

Amsterdam said that under new Dutch guidelines for dealing with looted art, the Kandinsky would likely be ordered returned to the heirs.

The College of Mayor and Alderpersons has therefore started consultations with the heirs to reach a settlement agreement, after which the artwork ... can be returned immediately to the rightful owners, the statement said.

Palmer said the decision will have a broader impact for heirs seeking to reclaim looted art as it clearly disposes with the flawed approach of the balance of interest test, which effectively placed the rights of the museum to display stolen property ahead of the rights of the property owners to enjoy their property and if they choose to sell, lend or display such art in the museums of their choice.
Greene County Water & Sewer is our future. We will have to fix or replace the fire hydrants that dont work and make the water and sewer improvements that RSA has ignored for many years. The new infrastructure we need will not be cheap, but we will be building it for ourselves and for our own future. Greene County is determined to provide good value to our citizen customers while keeping costs as low as possible. The county is seeking and applying for grants to fund our major projects and is optimistic that we could benefit from federal and/or state infrastructure dollars. Our Water Supply Project is literally shovel ready and we are looking forward to it. Plans are also in the works to finally fix the water and sewer problems in the Town of Stanardsville that RSA has long ignored.
Several artists at the news conference said they received emails from antifascists the day before, warning them that works were being shown by far-right artists.

Some said they were unsettled by that message, including Emma Elliott, an antifascist artist whose works explore how women are usually the first targets of fascist regimes. But she and the others present  including two Jewish artists  defended the exhibit as an important platform for different voices.

Yes, I find some of the images here not only disturbing but offensive, said Marc Provisor, an Israeli artist. "But I think its important for the writers of those letters to come (and) face what disturbs you.

Separately, an anti-fascist network in Poland also condemned the attempts to use Polish art institutions to platform artists infamous for their neo-Nazi sympathies.

Among the works by Park being shown in Warsaw is a poster that presents Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in twin attacks in Norway, as a supposed model for the clothing brand Lacoste.
LYNCHBURG  Nelson County Public Schools were closed Friday for several reasons, including an investigation into an incident at the high school.

The school system said law enforcement officers were at Nelson County High School on Thursday for an unrelated event when they disrupted an altercation between two students.

While in the presence of law enforcement officers, another student became confrontational and is currently being detained by the authorities, the school system said.

Staff and administration are collaborating with authorities and conducting a thorough investigation into this incident involving several students at Nelson County High School. In an effort to secure the safety of all of our students and staff, there will be heightened security measures in place as long as necessary.
Land use categories are assigned to properties and serve as a marker to community members and developers about which kinds of potential projects the community wants to see on a site. Land use categories are not zoning categories. Ultimately, a developer would need approval from the Board of Supervisors to change the zoning of a property to allow for any designated land use denser or different than existing zoning.

CAC member Joe Fore pointed to a previously discussed land use overlay, the Downtown Neighborhoods Overlay, as something he thought would address supervisors concerns about wanting more middle density and affordable housing.

County staff had proposed it as a way to try to address concerns about loss of historic homes and future development pressure for homes located adjacent to downtown Crozet, and provide a broader range of missing middle housing types. Ultimately, after opposition from most CAC members and some on the Planning Commission, the overlay was removed from the draft future land use plan and replaced with a recommendation for a Downtown Neighborhoods Architectural and Cultural Resources study.

Fore said he felt the board was brining an axe to a problem that needed a scalpel.
Those unfamiliar with the post might not notice it right away. The current building is the organizations second structure and tucked behind Abundant Life Christian Church, opposite the Orange County Airport. The original post building was a brick-faced Quonset hut, which remains inside the adjacent church.

Abundant Life minister the Rev. Dwane Pugh said he and the church family had been praying about finding a building for the nascent church and first had gotten the old Pizza Shanty building on Route 20 across from the airport.

That wasnt really big enough for a church, he said. But I was driving down Route 20 and God told me to go right, right now and I turned up by D & J and found commander Lewis Byram mowing grass at his house and he said he was praying about what to do with the posts Quonset hut.

While the original post members met in the hut for years, they later constructed the block building that has since served as the meeting room. The hut was rented out for gatherings and functions, but increasingly had become the site of unfavorable behavior, Pugh noted.

He said the post members were looking for a tenant that would more accurately share its mission in the community.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Republican Party of Virginia filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the courts to remove Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe from the ballot for failing to sign an official form declaring his candidacy. The McAuliffe campaign dismissed the suit as desperate" and Trumpian.

McAuliffe won a June primary election for the Democratic nomination. But the lawsuit argues that McAuliffe should be disqualified from running in the November general election because of the omission of his signature  a move election experts say is unlikely.

"The declaration must be declared legally insufficient, and McAuliffe must be disqualified from appearing on any general election ballot, Republicans wrote in a complaint filed in Richmond Circuit Court.

Renzo Olivari, a McAuliffe spokesperson, dismissed the suit, saying the campaign had submitted the required paperwork.

"This is nothing more than a desperate Trumpian move by the Virginia GOP to deprive voters of a choice in this election because Terry is consistently leading in the polls," he said in a statement.
The assembly already had moved to shore up Virginias finances before S&P downgraded the states financial outlook. Led by then-Appropriations Chairman Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, the assembly created the cash reserve fund as part of the budget in 2017 to give the state a more flexible way to save money than the constitutionally governed rainy day fund.

We knew it was coming, said Jones, who lost his re-election bid in 2019 after 21 years in the House.

Under the Virginia Constitution, the state can withdraw money from the rainy day fund if it experiences a shortfall in core revenues  individual and corporate income taxes and sales and use taxes  of 2% or more. The cash reserve fund can be tapped if those revenues fall short by 1% during a fiscal year.

I hope there is a super deposit required because that would go into the rainy day fund, and thats going to be harder to get to, Layne said.

The assembly didnt put the new reserve fund into state code or fund it in 2017, but Jones said he told the national bond rating agencies that fall that he was committed to introducing legislation and including money in the budget the next year.
RICHMOND  Nearly all of Virginias $1.8 billion in spending on land conservation over the past two decades has gone toward tax credits for private land, with a state agency review finding that a large number of those credits are likely being used to help reduce the tax burden of high-earning individuals and corporations.

Additionally, more than 30% of that spending, amounting to more than half a billion dollars, has gone toward land conservation in five counties: Loudoun, Albemarle, Fauquier, Culpeper and Orange. All of the counties except Loudoun have white populations far above the state average of 69.4% and all five have Black populations below the state average of 19.9%.

In fairness, rural areas are where the land is, and many rural areas have lower minority populations, said Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources Matthew Strickler. But rural places like the Eastern Shore, western Hampton Roads and some parts of Southside Virginia have higher than average African American populations and are not even in the top 10 localities for tax credit spending.

The findings were presented by Strickler this week to the states Commission to Examine Racial and Economic Inequality in Virginia Law, a body convened by Gov. Ralph Northam to examine the intersection between institutional racism and economic inequality.
RICHMOND  Over the last week, Dr. Henry Ranger estimates hes gotten hundreds of calls about COVID-19 booster shots  not only from Williamsburg, where he co-owns a pharmacy with his wife, Dr. Jade Ranger, but from Newport News, Hampton, Richmond and other cities across the state.

We were the first pharmacy in Williamsburg to get the vaccine, so were really known for it at this point, he said. The problem, for Ranger, is that most adults wont be eligible for boosters until at least Sept. 20, when federal officials plan to offer them  eight months after a patients first vaccine series  following an evaluation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In the meantime, third vaccine doses are available, and recommended, for some immunocompromised patients  an announcement made just a week before officials outlined their timeline for booster shots. And while federal health agencies arent recommending those patients be required to show proof of their condition, Ranger said hes had to take matters into his own hands.

You cant go by the honor system  mask-wearing has shown us thats completely ineffective, he said. Its tough to take somebodys word for it. Weve had plenty of people trying to deem themselves immunocompromised even when they dont meet those criteria.
Yes. I will do my part to conserve household energy usage, even if I'm uncomfortable in my home.

No. It is too hot to conserve household energy usage.

I already conserve, even before ERCOT requested it.

Maybe, depending on the reason ERCOT provides and whether or not I am home during that time.

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An Albany man has been sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison for child pornography charges.

James Stratton, 71, was convicted in Linn County Circuit Court of 14 counts on Tuesday of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, one count of encouraging sexual assault of an animal and one count of attempt to encourage child sexual abuse.

Judge Brendan Kane sentenced Stratton to 16 months in prison for each charge of encouraging child sexual abuse. The sentences are to be served consecutively for a total of almost 19 years. The judge sentenced the defendant to 30 days each for the other two charges, to be served concurrently with the other sentences.

Stratton previously pleaded guilty to all charges in July 2021.

According to prosecutor Michael Paul, each count represents a different victim. Court documents state that the crimes occurred between April 16, 2020 and Sept. 22, 2020 in Linn County. The Albany Police Department investigated the case.

In July 2020, a Benton County Sheriffs Detective used a forensic computer in the sheriffs office to investigate the sharing of child sexual abuse material over online peer-to-peer networks. They downloaded a file with suspected child sexual abuse from an IP address that was ultimately linked to Stratton.
The defendant was found guilty of the menacing charge and was found not guilty of attempted murder or attempted assault. According to court documents, Murrays husband and daughter, who were there the night of the incident, testified during the trial.

Lulay said prison wouldnt benefit Murray during the sentencing hearing.

The state argued for a five-year prison sentence.

Obviously this was not the result that the state was hoping for, but I respect the system that we work in, McCahill said.

Since the incident, Lulay said Murray has been living in a drug and alcohol recovery home. She said the defendant completed an anger management course and passed every drug and alcohol test shes taken since the incident.

Murrays sponsor at the house as well as a fellow housemate spoke at the sentencing in support of her. They argued that Murray has already made significant changes in her life and prison would disrupt this.

Along with the bench probation, Delsman ordered the defendant to pay $300 in fines. Murray is not allowed to possess firearms during probation and cannot possess any alcoholic beverages or enter a bar. She is ordered to report to an evaluator at Linn County Alcohol and Drug. The judge also ordered Murray to not have any contact with her husband or daughter.

Maddie Pfeifer can be contacted at 541-812-6091 or Madison.Pfeifer@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @maddiepfeifer_

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ATLANTA (AP)  Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections.

Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections  from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results  were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year's election.

Its a game-changer in that the environment we have talked about existing now is a reality, said Matt Masterson, a former top election security official in the Trump administration. We told election officials, essentially, that you should assume this information is already out there. Now we know it is, and we dont know what they are going to do with it.

The software copies came from voting equipment in Mesa County, Colorado, and Antrim County, Michigan, where Trump allies had sue unsuccessfully challenging the results from last fall.

The Dominion software is used in some 30 states, including counties in California, Georgia and Michigan.
They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban in which the militant group halted attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that the 2,500 to 3,000 troops who remained would be out by September, ending what he has called America's forever war.

With Biden's approval, the Pentagon this month sent thousands of additional troops to the Kabul airport to provide security and to facilitate the State Department's chaotic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the United States during the war. The evacuation was marred by confusion and chaos as the U.S. government was caught by surprise when the Afghan army collapsed and the Taliban swept to power Aug. 15.

About 5,400 Americans have been evacuated from the country so far, including 300 in the last day. The State Department believes about 350 more want out; it said there are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country, or who have said they plan to remain.
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Fall festivals grapple with variant, but most plan to push on

DRC file photo Children pet a long-haired dachshund during the Spokesdog of Denton competition at Dog Days of Denton in October 2018. DRC file photo People dance during a performance by Brave Combo to close out the 2019 Denton Arts & Jazz Festival. The free outdoor festival is still slated to happen this fall. DRC file photo People dance during a performance by Brave Combo to close out the 2019 Denton Arts & Jazz Festival. The free outdoor festival is still slated to happen this fall. DRC file photo Children pet a long-haired dachshund during the Spokesdog of Denton competition at Dog Days of Denton in October 2018.

Most of Dentons fall events will roll out as planned with officials asking attendees for kindness, sources say. But one popular fall festival has pulled the plug on its 2021 event, citing fears of spreading the COVID-19 viruss delta variant.

DRC file photo Two-time Grammy-winning Denton band Brave Combo performs on Sunday, April 28, 2019, to close out Denton Arts & Jazz Festival in Denton.

Which events are still on? The North Texas Fair and Rodeo wraps this weekend. Arts & Autos, Dog Days of Denton and the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival will happen in September and October.

Organizers of Dentons Day of the Dead Festival, though, voted Thursday night to cancel the event for a second year in a row. It was scheduled for the last Saturday in October.

Founder and festival director David Pierce said the decision was driven by projections for fall coronavirus infections in North Texas, but hes also the father of a 4-year-old, who is too young to be vaccinated.

Organizers had been planning to host the event, a free family festival that celebrates the hallmarks of fall in the Southwest, until this week, when Denton County Public Health Director Matt Richardson cautioned county commissioners that county hospitals had four ICU beds left and that nurses are still scarce.

I think, for me, its about following the data and the science, Pierce said.

When a board member shared a model of COVID-19 infections and predictions by UT Southwestern Medical Center, Pierce and the board were troubled by data that showed the fastest-growing group of hospitalizations in Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties is the 0-17 age group.

I was at a local hospital with my dad earlier this week and spoke to different nurses about their reality, Pierce said. The nurses said fall festivals will hurt North Texas, not help.

Other festival organizers said they are watching trends as well as local, state and national guidelines regarding coronavirus. But they hope that a mix of messaging, planning and open spaces will keep attendees safe.

Christine Gossett, executive director of Denton Main Street, said Arts & Autos will happen as planned from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 11.

Gossett said organizers will ask attendees to wear masks, but wont require them since the event is outdoors.

We are asking people to have a mask on them and to use them if they go into the businesses that require them, Gossett said.

The event will have hand sanitizer at the ready, and an outside hand-washing station for chalk art contestants and anyone else who needs to wash up.

What we did at Twilight Tunes, thats what were going to do for Arts & Autos, Gossett said. We had signs, and we had the VIP area sectioned off. We dont have that kind of setting for this event. Theyre walking around, looking at the cars. We have moved our silent auction out of the courthouse, and you have to wear masks in the courthouse if you use the restrooms inside.

The vendor booths will be set up with additional space between them, and the cars and motorcycles have always been carefully spaced out around the Courthouse on the Square.

The people with the cars, they dont like to be set up where a car door can swing open and hit their car, of course, Gossett said.

While the Denton Main Street board is watching the news and data regarding the coronavirus, Gossett said organizers are hoping for the best.

We understand just from doing the events we did last year that now everyone is aware of the risks, Gossett said. If youre feeling sick, dont come. We want everyone to have a good time and spread out. The good thing is that our downtown is big enough to do this.

Brooke Moore, who heads up the Denton Parks Foundation, said Dog Days of Denton and the Splish Splash Doggie Bash have been planned with safety in mind. Both events are also from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 11. The doggie bash will be at Denton Civic Center Pool, and Dog Days will be in Quakertown Park between the pool and the Denton Senior Center.

In the pool area, well have a counter so we dont have too many people in the pool at the same time, Moore said. Were having our vendors spread out, tent to tent, so there will be space. There will be seating available and spread out.

The foundation leadership will encourage attendees to socially distance.

Were selling VIPaw tickets to get into the pool party, Moore said. We will encourage people to wear masks and will ask them to wear masks in the restroom because its city property, and youre supposed to wear masks inside in city buildings.

VIPaw tickets cost $15 and are available at www.dentondogdays.com.

Quakertown Park will also be the site of the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival on Oct. 1-3.

Kevin Lechler, assistant director of the Denton Festival Foundation, said the board is following the data on COVID-19.

We are cautiously moving forward with a careful eye on the current rise in cases and making adjustments to the layout to eliminate and minimize any indoor crowds, Lechler said. We will be encouraging the wearing of masks and will have masks and sanitizer available for the public.

Carl Finch, the frontman and founder of Brave Combo, said he decided to book the band for the festival because the band members have been taking precautions and the festival is outdoors. The polka band always closes down the jazz festival with a high-energy show.

Every member of Brave Combo is fully vaccinated, Finch said.

I have, by design, not booked anything for the fall indoors, fully thinking that those gigs just werent going to happen, he said. I pretty much have turned down everything where the band is too close to the audience. Outdoors, though, were still 10 to 15 feet away from the crowd.

Finch said he and his band members have confidence in the science regarding the virus.

When I was a kid, we had to eat sugar cubes for polio or smallpox or something, he said. This isnt new. I believe in science. It was never a question for any of us.

Finch said he has mixed feelings about the audience. Brave Combo audiences arent a great example of social distancing. People dance, link arms and sing-shout along to the music. When the band breaks into its crowd pleasers The Hokey Pokey and The Chicken Dance, the crowd shows how a live concert can become a contact sport.

Part of me feels like I should take this really high ground and say, I cant participate in any of this. Count me out, Finch said. But if you do that, what are you accomplishing? That came into play in the spring. These were all indoor things, and we could tell, Wow, this isnt very safe. If its outdoors, then I really do have to say the responsibility is on them. I cant take that on myself.

Organizers said they hope attendees will be friendly and thoughtful.

Were asking everyone to be kind, Gossett said. Its been a tough year. If stuff changes, well have everything on our website.

Pierce said canceling Day of the Dead felt like the kindest decision for the community.

If last year showed us anything, Pierce said, its that we all need to be proactive and not reactive to potential superspreader events.
Should the U.S. military have remained in Afghanistan past Aug. 31 and until all American civilians and Afghans who helped our country's efforts could get out?

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As a wildfire approached her Moscow Mountain rental home Monday, Ruth Garfield smelled smoke but was unsure of how close the danger truly was. When she heard a helicopter overhead, Ruth said she went onto her back porch to see if she could catch a glimpse. It was then she saw the fire that would swallow the home roaring up the hill perhaps 30 yards away.
Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, worries about the thousands of older people who potentially could be affected by about 9,000 pending eviction cases in the county.

Book said hes been trying to find people at risk new places to live, but many haven't taken the situation seriously because the moratorium has been extended numerous times.

But some local officials around the U.S. say the court's action is unlikely to set off the flood of evictions some advocates predict.

Scott Davis, spokesman for the Maricopa County Justice Courts that handle the bulk of Arizona's evictions, said he does not expect anything dramatic overnight. He said how things play out will depend on how landlords and their attorneys decide to handle cases.

We know that eviction case filings over the last 17 months are down about 50% from pre-pandemic, Davis said.  Some believe there will be a large flood of case activity; others believe it will be just a light sprinkle, which builds gradually over time. Again  its up to landlords.

Davis emphasized no one can be evicted immediately without due process, and the cases could take weeks to be carried out in the courts.
We anticipate being able to make more progress over the weekend because of favorable wind conditions, Herrera said. But the slower winds were only expected to last two days.

A Fire Weather Watch was issued for Monday and Tuesday that will lead to elevated fire weather concerns in higher elevations of the Northern Sierra, Cal Fire said.

The Caldor fire has destroyed more than 600 structures since it started on Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada. It has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers this week pushed back the projected date for full containment from early next week to Sept. 8. But even that estimate was tenuous.

It is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. Many are in the West, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
A committee formed to set up infrastructure for Alabamas medical cannabis gained ground in a meeting in Montgomery last week.

Dothan physician Steve Stokes MD, chairman of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission, said several committee chairmen reported progress made in their specific areas.

The search committee vetting applicants for the executive director position drew 10 applicants after posting the search on the state personnel website, said committee chairman Dwight Gamble of Headland. The committee will screen the applicants and interview the top three before reporting its top candidate to the full commission in a September meeting.

Dr. Bill Saliski of Montgomery reported that progress was under way for the Alabama Medical Society to design an offer a four-hour training course for physicians to be certified to prescribe medical cannabis. The goal is for medical cannabis to be available to patients by fall 2022.
Alabamas elected officials seem to have forgotten that their primary charge is governing in the interest of the people who elected them. Our state has myriad challenges, many of them imminently urgent, but far too many people who weve elected in leadership positions have been distracted by national partisanship, behaving like a schoolyard scold whod rather point out the deficiencies of others than put their own house in order. A few months ago, we observed that much of the information sent out by the office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall detailed how our states top law enforcement official had joined the fray supporting national efforts supporting his political partys agenda. We suggested his taxpayer-supported time would be better spent working for the people of Alabama, and that he should exercise his partisan pursuits on his own time. Last week, the world gasped in horror as a U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan devolved into a nightmarish series of missteps that culminated in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport that killed dozens, including 12 U.S. military personnel. Members of Alabamas congressional delegation quickly issued statements decrying the violence, as they should. But many seemed to welcome the opportunity to condemn the U.S. president, a member of the opposing party, suggesting he is personally responsible for the preventable deaths. That assertion may or may not be fair; but its a good bet that our congressional representatives statements would be far less damning if their party held the White House. Even more regrettable is the reality that the partisan acrimony would be the same if the political stripes were reversed. With the specter of preventable death raised, we cannot help but wonder where our leaders fervor is with regard to the preventable deaths tallied every day across Alabama, where elected officials seem unconcerned with the woeful rate of vaccination  our best defense against COVID-19 death  and the inexplicable resistance to masks in schools and elsewhere  our second best defense. Alabamas elected officials must realize that some responsibility for deaths theyve done little to nothing to prevent could well land on their own doorsteps.
Shippers are seen in Ho Chi Minh City before August 23, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

People in HCMC are being defrauded by delivery people who are taking advantage of the current shortage.

Chi, a durian seller in Phu Nhuan District, has not been able to book deliveries through apps due to the mobility restrictions and so called a man who used to deliver for him in the past.

Nguyen came and picked up VND2.3 million ($101.26) worth of durian and delivered to customers but never returned with the money.

All Chis calls and messages went unanswered.

He said: "He was kind and enthusiastic when I first booked him. I never thought I would be tricked like this."

Thao of District 7 tried to find a delivery person on Facebook groups to send a package of food to a friend in need.

A man named Dinh took the package worth nearly VND2 million and went away. Thaos friend never received it.

With people ordered to "stay where they are", at least 10 complaints about such shipping frauds have been posted on a Facebook group of 69,000 members this week.

Similar stories are found on other groups selling cosmetics and snacks, as shippers take advantage of the high demand to make money even if it is by simply stealing.

They also demand three or four times the normal rate.

Delivery companies claimed these frauds only happen to those who book services outside their apps.

Some companies are operating in a limited manner in comply with the restrictions.

AhaMove does not offer services in Thu Duc City and seven districts which are deemed to be high-risk. It does not offer delivery by motorbike either, only trucks and vans.

LoShip still operates but does not do inter-district delivery.

Starting July 26, HCMC only allows shippers to transport essential goods while requiring strict social distancing measures.

For over a month now, HCMC has been the epicenter of the ongoing Covid-19 wave that began in late April. It has recorded nearly 200,000 local Covid-19 cases ever since the fourth coronavirus wave hit Vietnam in late April.
China reacts to Covid threat by closing border gate with Vietnam, again

Container trucks carrying dragon fruits at a parking zone near the Tan Thanh Border Gate in the northern province of Lang Son on February 4, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

China has suspended all imports and exports at one of its border gates in Guangxi Province with Vietnam's Lang Son Province from Thursday as a pandemic prevention measure.

According to the Asia-Africa market department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Chinese custom officials temporarily shut down its Lung Vai border gate in Guangxi Province with Coc Nam in Lang Son Province starting 4 p.m. Thursday.

Reopening of the border gate would depend on the pandemic situation and demand for customs clearance of goods through this area.

Lang Son authorities said as of Thursday night, there were no containers stuck at Coc Nam border gate. Provincial authorities have notified businesses and traders to stop sending goods to the border.

In order not to interrupt cross-border trade, the ministry is working with relevant agencies to develop a plan to regulate vehicles moving through Huu Nghi border gate in Lang Son Province or Ta Lung in Cao Bang for export to China. Currently, these border gates are still operating normally.

China had earlier this month shut down another border gate with Vietnam's Lang Son Province to review Covid-19 safety measures, but reopened it several days later.

Vietnam is grappling with its most challenging outbreak triggered by the Delta variant, with over 400,000 infections since the fourth coronavirus wave struck in late April.

China was Vietnam's second largest export market in the first seven months with a value of $28.7 billion, up 24 percent year-on-year, according to General Statistics Office.
A farmer harvests coffee beans in the central highlands province of Gia Lai on December 12, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Hoa

Global coffee supply chains have been disrupted due to mobility restrictions in southern Vietnam amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

With export hub Ho Chi Minh City continuing to be under social distancing due to surging number of infections, traders and suppliers told Bloomberg that exporters are struggling to transport beans to its ports for shipment.

Shortage of containers and soaring freight rates have worsened the situation.

The Vietnam Coffee-Cocoa Association has urged the government to ease the curbs.

Earlier this week Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The said all types of legal goods must be considered "essential" and their transporters must be allowed to pass through Covid checkpoints.

Authorities in the south need to do everything possible to facilitate the transport of agricultural products such as coffee and rice, he added.

Vietnam is the second biggest coffee producer globally behind Brazil. Last year its exports fell marginally and were worth $2.74 billion.
Members of the USAID Saving Species project support Save Vietnams Wildlife (SVW) staff to use drones and software to monitor pangolins in the wild at Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern Ninh Binh Province, November 2019. Photo by SVW

A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) project has helped strengthen wildlife protection system and reduce demand for wildlife in Vietnam, officials said.

USAID and Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development celebrated the completion of the USAID Saving Species project Friday.

Over the past five years, the project, which cost an estimated $9.9 million, has supported the Vietnamese government to improve and harmonize the legal system related to wildlife protection, strengthen law enforcement and prosecution of wildlife crimes, and reduce demand and illegal consumption of wildlife, according to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy.

The project has supported the development, amendment and adoption of four important legal documents that are key to ensuring consistent management and protection of wildlife in Vietnam, resolving legal gaps and overlapping regulations.

Via the project, more than 2,600 officials from agencies including forestry protection departments, customs officials, environmental police, wet market managers, border guards, courts, and prosecutors have been trained to more effectively tackle wildlife crimes.

As a result, prosecution rates for wildlife violation arrests have increased from 25 percent in 2018 to 75 percent in 2021.

In coordination with CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Management Authority of Vietnam, the project ran three large social behavior change communication campaigns that raised public awareness on wildlife protection legislation, targeting consumers of ivory, rhino horn and pangolin products, and encouraged traditional medicine practitioners to reduce their use of wildlife products for health treatments.

Those campaigns reached tens of millions of people with messages about protecting wildlife and reducing the demand for wildlife products and resulted in millions of online interactions.

"USAID is proud to support Vietnam to reduce consumer demand for illegal wildlife products, build wildlife law enforcement and prosecution capacity, as well as augment and harmonize the legal framework for combating wildlife crime in Vietnam.

We are very pleased to see the cooperation between the two countries through this project has brought meaningful results. Vietnam is a critical partner of the U.S. for countering wildlife trafficking," said USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishock at an event held virtually Friday.

Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "The joint effort of USAID and the Vietnamese government through USAID Saving Species project has contributed significantly to protect wildlife species and maintain important eco-services for national and regional sustainable socio-economic development."

Vietnam is one of the destinations and transit countries for illegal African rhino horn, elephant ivory, and pangolin scales.

Demand for wildlife in Vietnam is driven by strong cultural norms that encourage consumption of wildlife for prestige and by erroneous traditional beliefs regarding health benefits.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A robotics company that produces driverless vehicles for grocery, pizza and prescription deliveries said Thursday it intends to spend $40 million to put a manufacturing facility and test track in the Las Vegas area.

Nuro, a firm founded in 2016 and based in Mountain View, California, announced it will build the manufacturing plant for the companys next-generation autonomous vehicle in North Las Vegas and its closed test track at the nearby Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Gov. Steve Sisolak and U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen joined Nuro co-founder Jiajun Zhu to announce the project, which in March received about $170,500 in tax abatements over 10 years from the Nevada Governors Office of Economic Development.

Zhu pointed in a statement to partnerships his company has with pizza giant Dominos, supermarket owner Kroger and delivery company FedEx, and operating in Californias Silicon Valley, Houston and the Phoenix area.

We are now able to invest in the infrastructure to build tens of thousands of robots, he said.

Sisolak, a Democrat, pointed to a company promise that a $10 million capital investment will create 250 skilled tech-sector jobs during the next decade in southern Nevada.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A robotics company that produces driverless vehicles for over-the-road grocery, pizza and prescription deliveries said Thursday it intends to spend $40 million to put a manufacturing facility at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Nuro, a firm founded in 2016 and based in Mountain View, California, announced it will build an end-of-line manufacturing facility and a closed test track at the Las Vegas-area raceway for the companys next-generation autonomous vehicle.

Gov. Steve Sisolak and U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen joined Nuro co-founder Jiajun Zhu to announce the project, which in March received about $170,500 in tax abatements over 10 years from the Nevada Governors Office of Economic Development.

Zhu pointed in a statement to partnerships his company has with pizza giant Dominos, supermarket owner Kroger and delivery company FedEx, and operating in Californias Silicon Valley, Houston and the Phoenix area.

We are now able to invest in the infrastructure to build tens of thousands of robots, he said.

Sisolak, a Democrat, pointed to a company promise that a $10 million capital investment will create 250 skilled tech-sector jobs during the next decade in southern Nevada.
The Delta covid-19 variant is behind a surge of new cases across the country which is affecting children more severely. California Governor Gavin Newsom is urging all school staff to get vaccinated or be tested at least once per week "to give parents confidence that their children are safe as schools return to full, in-person learning.

California was the first state to make such a requirement even before the US Food and Drug Administration gave the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine full approval for those 16 and older. That move has now been followed by other states. So far one school district, Culver City Unified, informed that students will also be required to show proof of vaccination and other districts are expected to follow suit.

What are the covid-19 requirements for returning to school in California?

Following guidance from the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics California has implemented universal masking in school settings. School staff, students and visitors 2 and older will be required to wear facial covering to help mitigate the spread of covid-19.

Although California has a statewide vaccination rate of 55 percent for all ages, there still exist large swaths around the state below 50 percent. In Lassen county only 28 percent of the population is vaccinated. Data from the state shows that the likelihood of getting infected with the coronavirus and ending up in hospital is much higher for those who are unvaccinated, especially in denser urban areas.

The statewide vaccine mandate applies to staff members serving students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The policy took effect 12 August and schools will have until 15 October to be in full compliance. Not everybody will be overwhelmed by this, but we think will be well received because its the right thing to do to keep our most precious resource healthy and safe, our children here in this state, Newsom said when he announced the policy.

Vaccine mandate for students and masking outdoors

The Culver City Unified district which has 7,000 students is already collecting information on student and staff vaccine status. The deadline to provide proof of vaccination is 19 November to give everyone the opportunity to make their vaccine plans. The school district will also require universal masking outdoors for elementary and middle schoolers.

So far it is the only district that has put in place such a requirement but other districts are thinking about it, according to Quoc Tran, superintendent of the Culver City Unified School District. He told the Mercury News that he has been in conversation with other district superintendents about the vaccine mandate. Currently, Pfizer's vaccine is the only one approved for those between 12 and 17.

What has the reaction been to the California vaccine mandate

Teacher unions and teacher associations have come out in favor of the vaccination mandate in California. Randi Weingarten, president of the nation's second-largest teachers union, speaking to Meet the Press said " Now, let me just say, my members have stepped up. 90% of the teacher members have actually gotten the vaccine. But I do think that the circumstances have changed and that vaccination is a community responsibility. And it weighs really heavily on me that kids under 12 can't get vaccinated. Adding that she felt the need to say this as a matter of personal conscience.
Chinese President Xi Jinping conducts field research on ethnic unity at the Chengde Museum during an inspection tour of Chengde in north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- In China, a unified multi-ethnic country, the proper handling of ethnic affairs concerns the lasting security and prosperity of the entire country and the Chinese nation's rejuvenation.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has said that ethnic unity is the cornerstone of development and progress.

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core has been making long-term policies to consolidate the foundation for ethnic unity and development.

By putting forward the call of heightening a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, Xi has been leading China's efforts in making innovative progress in the work related to ethnic affairs.

Chinese President Xi Jinping talks to villagers who are participating in festive activities, and extends his New Year's greetings to people of all ethnic groups across the country, on a public square in Huawu Village, Xinren Miao Township of Qianxi County, Bijie City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

INNOVATIVE IDEA

The central leadership has always attached great importance to ethnic affairs and development in areas with large ethnic populations.

In May 2014, Xi put forward an important notion -- the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

In September 2014, at a central work conference on ethnic affairs, Xi once again highlighted the importance of laying a solid foundation for the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

He has since on many occasions stated the profound implications and great significance of consolidating such a sense.

At the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017, the idea was officially written into the Party's Constitution.

Four inspections to regions with large ethnic populations have been made by Xi so far this year, deepening and extending the implications of the theories and practice of the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

RESEARCH-BASED INSIGHT

In 2014, Xi carried out frequent inspections and research to learn about the opinions on ethnic affairs at the primary level.

During his inspections to Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, Xi had face-to-face talks with people from multiple ethnic groups.

He also joined lawmakers from Guizhou Province during the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) and visited members from the ethnic minority groups of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Based on in-depth research, Xi noted that strengthened Party leadership is a must for advancing the work of ethnic affairs in China.

The system of regional ethnic autonomy has played an important role in promoting ethnic equality and unity, fueling development in ethnic areas, and enhancing the cohesion of the Chinese nation, he said.

He also noted that to enhance the unity of the Chinese nation, the long-term and fundamental way is to strengthen the cultural identity and consolidate the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

"An ethnic group will enjoy sustainable development only when it integrates into the big family of the motherland," said Kurban Niyaz, a primary school principal in south Xinjiang.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with villagers as he visits Sanhe Village of Sanchahe Township in Zhaojue County of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 11, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

DEVELOPMENT IN ALL ASPECTS

Xi has long paid close attention to the economic and social development of areas with large ethnic populations.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2018, he paid a visit to Sanhe Village, a poor village inhabited by the ethnic Yi people in Sichuan Province.

In February 2021, at a gathering to mark the country's poverty eradication achievements, Li Kai, a Party official of Sanhe Village, expressed the villagers' gratitude to Xi using the Yi ethnic language.

All the 28 ethnic-minority groups with relatively smaller populations in China have shaken off poverty.

What is more, ethnic areas have sped up efforts in fostering and promoting high-quality development in all aspects. In 2020, these areas contributed more than 10 percent of the national GDP.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), these areas registered an annual GDP growth of 6.6 percent, 0.9 percentage points higher than the national rate. During the same period, 12.8 million new urban jobs were created in these areas, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the country's total.

Also, the traditional cultures of ethnic groups are flourishing. More than one-third of China's cultural heritage items inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List are related to ethnic minorities.

Ecological conservation has also been pushed forward in these areas, where people enjoy bluer skies, lusher mountains and clearer waters.

Safe housing, safe drinking water, accessible medical services and education all speak volumes about the improved livelihoods of various ethnic groups.

Earlier this month, 10 veteran Party chiefs from nine border villages of the Wa ethnic group in Yunnan Province wrote a letter to Xi, reporting local progress in poverty relief and expressing their willingness to build a more beautiful and prosperous home under the CPC's leadership.

A formation featuring ethnic unity takes part in a mass pageantry celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)

MIRACLES TO COME

After securing a victory in fighting poverty, China has embarked on a new quest to fully build a modern socialist country. Xi has personally drawn the blueprint for the modernization drive in the ethnic areas.

During the annual sessions of the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee in March, Wei Zhenling, a representative of the Maonan ethnic group, one of the 28 ethnic groups with relatively smaller populations, from south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, told the poverty-to-prosperity story of her hometown, expressing her villagers' confidence in a brighter future.

"I used to think that my hometown would never be connected to the outside world unless a miracle happened," said Wei, a member of the CPPCC National Committee. "That miracle has really happened."

Editor: Zhang Zhou
Chen Xufeng (L), charge d'affaires of the Chinese mission to the African Union (AU), attends a handover ceremony with Bankole Adeoye, the AU commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Aug. 26, 2021. AU Commission on Thursday received China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines here in the Ethiopian capital. The vaccines, donated by the Chinese government, will mainly cover envoys of the AU Commission and African countries in Addis Ababa, said Chen Xufeng at the handover ceremony. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) Commission on Thursday received China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines here in the Ethiopian capital.

The vaccines, donated by the Chinese government, will mainly cover envoys of the AU Commission and African countries in Addis Ababa, said Chen Xufeng, charge d'affaires of the Chinese mission to the AU, at a handover ceremony.

"We hope it will help the AU Commission and African diplomats in Addis Ababa to fight the virus and support the AU to better proceed with its work," he said while the Chinese mission was delivering the doses in the bloc's headquarters, with the presence of senior AU Commission officials.

Chen stressed that since the COVID-19 outbreak, China and Africa have consolidated mutual trust through overcoming difficulties together, during which China provided the continent with much-needed supplies and tens of millions of vaccine doses.

"China has always prioritized African countries in vaccine supply," Chen said, adding that China has so far provided vaccine to 47 African countries and the bloc.

For his part, Bankole Adeoye, AU commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, praised the Chinese government for the timely donation.

"What is important now is how we work together as a globe, as an international community and defeat this pandemic," Adeoye said.

Africa is racing toward a minimum target of vaccinating 60 percent of its population across the continent, or about 750 million people, by 2022.

By Thursday evening, Africa has confirmed 7,627,954 COVID-19 cases, with 191,982 deaths and 6,747,290 recoveries, said Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Editor: Zhang Zhou
ATHENS, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greece will not become a gateway to Europe for irregular migration flows, like it happened in the period 2015-2019, Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi told the Greek parliament on Friday, pointing to recent developments in Afghanistan.

The Taliban takeover of most of the country following the withdrawal of U.S. forces has sparked deep concern in Greece, and across Europe, over a possible replay of mass migration flows and the humanitarian crisis of recent years.

Since 2015, over one million people have reached Greece fleeing warzones and extreme poverty, and most continued their journey to other European countries until the borders along the Balkan route to Central Europe were sealed off.

Currently, Greece is on alert and bolstering security along the borders with Turkey, Greek officials have said. The erection of a fence along the Turkish border in the north was completed a few days ago, the government said.

The 27-km-long and five-meter-high steel fence was added to an existing 12.5-km-long wall, which was reinforced. A new electronic border surveillance system had also been installed.

The project cost nearly 63 million euros (74 million U.S. dollars), started last year following the increased pressure on this part of the borders by thousands of asylum seekers in March 2020.

"The Afghan crisis is creating new data in the geopolitical sphere and at the same time is creating possibilities for migration flows. We have to prepare ourselves for the possible consequences," Minister of Civil Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis told Greek national broadcaster ERT during a recent visit to the area.

The Greek government is in talks with the European Union (EU) for financing the extension of the border fence, local news site "in.gr" has reported.

The country has also called for prompt and close cooperation between EU member states and with third countries to cope with the arising new challenges.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jointly urged the international community last week to provide more support to countries closer to Afghanistan to handle the crisis, the PM's office has said.

Political analysts in Athens noted that the new challenges will take concerted efforts by the international community to address them.

"The withdrawal of U.S. troops may have caused the chaos, but the majority of Afghans fleeing the country for fear of the Taliban will not head to the United States. Most will head to Europe...It is a very difficult situation, and it is obvious that for Europeans this is the main issue," Constantinos Filis, Executive Director of the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University of Athens, told local news website "Newsbeast".

"The EU must move very quickly and offer material and technical assistance where needed to ensure that people fleeing Afghanistan stay in neighboring countries with the prospect of returning to their homeland at some point," he said.

Sotiris Serbos, associate professor in international politics at the Democritus University of Thrace, heavily criticized the U.S. for not preventing the current situation.

The U.S. had made the decision to withdraw a long time ago, as from the first moment the war in Afghanistan was a lost cause, "they just could not accept their defeat," he told the local "Reader" news website.

"Afghanistan is entering into uncharted waters after the Taliban's rise to power and this is a source of great concern in the West," he added. (1 euro= 1.17 U.S. dollars) Enditem

Editor: Zhang Zhou
NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States should approach China with humility and out of respect for its longer history despite the current obstacles and difficulties, a Singaporean diplomat has said.

"China is not threatening the United States. China is not mounting a military invasion of the United States. China is not sending troops to the U.S. border or naval ships close to the United States," Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean civil servant, career diplomat and academic, said in an article published online by Newsweek on Tuesday.

"China has been around for 5,000 years. The United States has been around for 250 years. And it's not surprising that a juvenile like the United States would have difficulty dealing with a wiser, older civilization," said Mahbubani, who served as a diplomat for Singapore for 33 years.

Editor: Zhang Zhou
WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday discussed the Iranian nuclear issue and bilateral security ties with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Biden was supposed to meet with Bennett on Thursday, while the White House rescheduled it to Friday after deadly attacks at the Kabul airport, which killed 13 U.S. troops and wounded 18.

Sitting with Bennett at the Oval Office, Biden reaffirmed U.S. "unwavering commitment" to Israel's security and supported the Jewish state to deepen its relationship with Arab and Muslim countries.

"And we're also going to discuss the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon," said Biden. "But we're putting diplomacy first, seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options."

Bennett extended his condolence for U.S. casualties in the Kabul attack.

The prime minister said the Iran nuclear program was the main topic in his discussion with Biden. "We've developed a comprehensive strategy that we're going to be talking about with two goals," he said. "The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box; and the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to break out their nuclear weapon."

Israel opposed Biden's diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Washington and Tehran conducted multiple rounds of indirect talks in Austria's capital Vienna since April to revive the deal, but the process had stalled for weeks as the two sides could not settle their differences.

The two leaders also held different views over the Palestine-Israel issue. Biden expressed his support for a two-state solution, which Bennett rejected.

Bennett took office in June, ending his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule. This visit was Bennett's first meeting with President Biden. He met separately with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday.

Analysts believe that both Biden and Bennett seek a fresh start of the bilateral ties after years of strained relations between Netanyahu and the Democratic leadership.

Bennett's visit came amid Israel's heightened tension with its archenemy Iran and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In early August, the United States and Israel blamed Iran for a deadly attack against an oil tanker managed by an Israeli-owned company in the north Arabian Sea. Iran rejected the accusation.

Over the past few days, violent incidents on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip have increased speculation that a renewed escalation with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is nearing.

Israel and Hamas clashed for 11 days in May, during which 256 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. Enditem

Editor: Zhang Zhou
KUNMING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a ceremony Friday in Tengchong, southwest China's Yunnan Province, to donate COVID-19 prevention medical supplies to Myanmar border regions, including Kachin and Shan states.

After the ceremony, the first batch of anti-pandemic materials for Kachin State, worth more than 1.55 million yuan (about 239,781 U.S. dollars), arrived in Myanmar via Houqiao Port in Tengchong.

The supplies include protective and surgical masks, disposable protective suits, hand sanitizer gel, thermal scanners, and portable oxygen generators.

Thaw Tar Aung, consul general of Myanmar in Kunming, accepted the donations and thanked China for its support for the Myanmar government's fight against COVID-19. The consul general said it reflected the traditional friendship between the two countries and made the concept of a China-Myanmar community with a shared future more popular.

According to the foreign affairs office of Yunnan Province, the governments of the border regions of China and Myanmar have cooperated and supported each other in fighting the pandemic, including establishing a joint prevention and control mechanism to curb the cross-border spread of the virus.

Editor: Zhang Zhou
NEW YORK, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- China opposes politicizing efforts to uncover the origins of the coronavirus, the Chinese Consulate General in New York has said.

"Some U.S. politicians and media never stop their stigmatizing and politicizing campaign" but origins tracing is a serious scientific matter, the consulate's spokesperson said in a Boston Herald editorial Thursday.

The U.S. intelligence community isn't qualified to reach any scientific conclusion tracing the origins of the virus, and its report on the issue will only "interfere in and undermine the global efforts of origins tracing and cooperation on pandemic response," added the spokesperson.

The joint report on origins tracing done by the World Health Organization and Chinese scientists in early 2021 is authoritative and "can stand the test of science and history," said the spokesperson, adding that "it must be respected and implemented. Future global origins study should and can only be carried out on this basis," the spokesperson said, expressing China's position to support and willingness to continue to take part in science-based efforts to uncover the origins of the virus.

As the pandemic continues to rage, priority remains to enhance solidarity and cooperation, and the Chinese Consulate General in New York will keep promoting anti-pandemic cooperation between China and its consular district, the spokesperson said.

Responding to increasing xenophobia against Asians in the United States during the pandemic, the spokesperson said that Asian Americans' concerns should not be ignored.

Discrimination, bullying, even hatred and attacks against racial minorities have been intensified by the spread of stigmatizing remarks by U.S. politicians to "blindly blame China and shirk its own responsibilities," said the spokesperson.

Editor: Zhang Zhou
JINAN, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Cai Guohua, former chairman of Hengfeng Bank, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve at his second trial on Friday for abuse of power, graft and other crimes, said a court in Jinan, Shandong Province.

All of Cai's personal property is to be confiscated and his political rights deprived for life, noted the verdict by the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court.

Cai abused power for personal gain on several occasions between 2014 and 2016 and illegally issued a 3.5 billion-yuan loan in 2017, which caused extraordinary losses to Hengfeng Bank.

He also received bribes from entities and individuals for helping them get loans and construction contracts between 2006 and 2017.

Based in Shandong, Hengfeng Bank is one of 12 nationwide joint-equity commercial banks in China.

The trial on Friday upheld a verdict in the first instance.

Editor: Zhang Zhou
A U.S. congressional report on the origins of COVID-19 drastically exaggerated budget numbers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) by up to a thousandfold, misleading the public and the media with false information.

The report cited the exaggerated numbers to suggest that something "unusual" was happening at the WIV, speculating "safety concerns and unusual maintenance" as "evidence of a lab leak."

The report, published in early August by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee minority staff led by Republican Representative Michael McCaul, includes on Page 20 a chart that quoted figures from the WIV's government procurement web pages. For unknown reasons, the numbers in the report far exceeded those on the WIV website.

The chart includes a total of seven budget figures. Three were exaggerated tenfold, one was exaggerated a hundredfold, and one was exaggerated a thousandfold.

Take the budget for a new ventilation system at the WIV as an example. It was recorded as 3.92687694 million yuan or just under 3.93 million yuan on the Chinese web page. But the number in the congressional report was 606 million U.S. dollars -- equal to 3.93 billion yuan, 1,000 times the number originally written in Chinese.

Similarly, the budget for security services was 830,000 yuan, but the number was translated into English as 1.3 million U.S. dollars -- equal to 8.3 million yuan, 10 times the number in Chinese.

It is unknown how the errors came into existence as the media contact person for Representative Michael McCaul did not reply to emailed requests.

A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19, published at the end of March, said that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely." A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Aug. 3 called the U.S. congressional report "not credible or scientific."

Recently, two major newspapers in the United States on their opinion pages cited the exaggerated numbers sourced from the congressional report. They later issued corrections.

The Wall Street Journal correction said, "The authors relied on a House Foreign Affairs Committee report, which cited an evidently mistranslated Chinese document."

The Washington Post correction said, "The congressional report referenced in this article misstated the value of service contract requests issued by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in September 2019."

The congressional report itself remains uncorrected.

Editor: Zhang Zhou
The most realistic guarantee of the preservation of gas transit through Ukraine is, in particular, the transfer of gas transmission points in the existing contracts of Gazprom with Europe to the Russian-Ukrainian border, so that European companies themselves order its transit through Ukraine until 2035, head of the NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy board Yuriy Vitrenko said.

"If Russia does not want to play by European rules, then Nord Stream 2 should never earn money," he wrote on his Facebook page, indicating that he held meetings on these issues on Thursday and Friday with Special Representative of the Federal Government of Germany for the transit of gas through Ukraine Georg Graf von Waldersee.

At the same time, Vitrenko noted that maintaining the transit of gas through Ukraine, at least until 2035, until natural gas is replaced by renewable energy sources, is necessary for the security of Europe itself.

Among other mechanisms to guarantee the preservation of gas transit, Vitrenko named the creation on the Gazprom Export electronic platform of a point for the supply of additional gas volumes at the Russia-Ukraine border, as well as unblocking access to the Ukrainian gas transportation system from the Russian Federation for other gas exporters to Europe, in particular from Central Asia.

"This is not a whim of Ukraine. This is the embodiment in practice of the European rules on the conformity of 'word and spirit,' mentioned by Germany and the United States in a joint statement on Nord Stream 2," Vitrenko said.

Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko also announced his meeting with Georg von Waldersee, noting that the threats to the implementation of Nord Stream 2 for the energy independence and energy security of Europe and Ukraine were discussed, and special attention was paid to guarantees of gas transit to Eastern Europe through Ukraine and the security of its supply.

"It is necessary to ensure the proper application of the Third Energy Package to Nord Stream 2 and thereby demonopolize the position of Gazprom in Europe. This is a matter of common European interest and fully corresponds to the spirit of the joint statement of Germany and the United States regarding support for Ukraine, European energy security and our climate goals," the press service of the Ministry of Energy quoted the minister as saying on Facebook on Friday.
On Thursday, Washington was actively preparing for the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the meeting with his U.S. counterpart Joseph Biden, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"As of now, there are no indicators from Washington about the possibility of postponing the visit. Yesterday in Washington, active preparations continued for the visit of the President of Ukraine from the American side," Kuleba said on the air of the Ukraine 24 television channel on Friday evening.

The minister said that Zelensky's visit to the United States was 99% agreed.

"There are a couple of subjects that the presidents will discuss directly, but in principle everything else has been agreed, therefore I am optimistic," he said.

According to Kuleba, a number of documents are already ready for signing.

"Among them is a document in the defense and security sector. We are ready to sign documents in trade between our countries. So far everything is going according to schedule," he said.

The minister said that "this will be a visit that will bring relations between Ukraine and the United States to a new level."
A Ukrainian serviceman was wounded in Donbas as a result of shelling by Russian-occupation forces on Saturday, the press service of the Skhid (East) task force said.

"As a result of the shelling, one serviceman received a penetrating shrapnel wound. After providing first aid, the wounded was transported to a hospital. The state of his health is satisfactory," the Skhid task force said on Facebook.

The OSCE representatives were informed about the enemy's actions through the Ukrainian side of the JCCC.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba called inappropriate the statement of Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid that Ukraine will need at least 20 years to join the European Union.

"We are disappointed with such statements and consider them inappropriate. We brought this position to the Estonian Foreign Ministry, to the Estonian Ambassador to Ukraine. We believe that such things should not be heard from friends and partners," Kuleba said on the air of the Ukraine 24 television channel on Friday.

Kuleba said it was strange for him to hear this from the Estonian leader after their communication during the Crimea Platform and events on the Independence Day of Ukraine.

"A little over 20 years ago, Western countries in the same mentoring tone told Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians that it takes 20-30 years to mature in the EU and NATO. Therefore, of course, it was strange for me to hear these words from the President of Estonia. I spoke to her in the Crimea Platform summit and it was optimistic. I do not know what influenced it in the interview, but these statements do not correspond to the friendly nature of our relations," Kuleba said.

Earlier, in an interview with the European Truth newspaper, Estonian President Kaljulaid said that in order to become a full-fledged member of the European Union, Ukraine will have to work hard for 20 years. According to her, neither Ukraine, nor Georgia, nor Moldova still meet the requirements for EU membership.
Ambassador of Ukraine to Tajikistan and Afghanistan Vasyl Servatiuk said that more than 230 people remain on the territory of Afghanistan, who are citizens of Ukraine or their relatives.

"According to our latest data, a little over 230 people remain in Afghanistan, citizens of Ukraine or their relatives," Servatiuk said in an interview with the LB.ua online edition, released on Friday evening.

According to him, all of these people are ethnic Afghans, except for two.

"Of these people, there are only two ethnic Ukrainian women who got married and lived in Afghanistan on a permanent basis, the rest are ethnic Afghans who have relatives in Ukraine and for various reasons are now on Afghan territory," the ambassador said.

According to him, more than 250 Ukrainian citizens, family members and foreign citizens have already been evacuated from Afghanistan. Most of these people were transported through three Ukrainian evacuation flights, 20 citizens (one still had two relatives) were evacuated by Ukraine's international partners.

The ambassador also said the fourth Ukrainian flight to Kabul is expected.

"Now I cannot disclose all the details of this operation. However, I will say this: we continue to move according to the schedule with the fourth and subsequent stages of evacuation, we continue to collect people," he said.
The plane of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine with evacuees from Afghanistan landed at Boryspil airport.

The broadcast is hosted by the Ukraine24 television channel. It has not yet been reported how many people were evacuated.

According to the Foreign Ministry, about 90 Ukrainians were expected to be evacuated in Afghanistan. Ukraine has already exported more than 250 of its citizens, their family members and foreigners.
To date, it is planned to land three aircraft from Afghanistan to evacuate 360 people, including 80 Ukrainians  MFA

On Saturday, August 28, three aircraft with evacuees from Afghanistan will arrive in Kyiv, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Enin has said.

"To date, it is planned to land three aircraft carrying 360 people. According to preliminary information from the Ministry of Defense, there are about 80 Ukrainian citizens on board. After all the procedures and verification of documents are completed, we will be able to provide more accurate information," Enin told reporters at Boryspil airport.
On 28-30th September 2021, the high-level international investment conference Energy Week Black Sea will take place in a hybrid format: offline in Bucharest, Romania and online.

The event is organised by a UK-based consultancy Invest in Network in partnership with Romanian Energy Center (CRE).

The largest renewables conference in the region for the second year will bring together government authorities, local companies from Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, and Turkey, as well as IFIs, DFIs, and foreign private investors to discuss RES policies for the energy transition, financing renewable energy, solar & storage, on & offshore wind, green hydrogen, regional interconnection and much more.

Investing in renewable energy in the Black Sea region is gaining momentum. Although the countries surrounding the Black Sea may differ in terms of politics and economic background, they are all very keen on increasing the share of RES. Cooperation and interconnectivity become keys in reaching this target.

The Energy Week Black Sea was launched in 2020 during tumultuous times for the events industry and nevertheless brought together the major energy companies from 20+ countries such as NBT, Scatec Solar, Grupo Cobra, Tractebel Engineering, Siemens Gamesa, Global Hydro, AGL, FMO, EBRD, IFC, KfW, DEG (KfW), Green For Growth Fund, Goldwind, IRENA, Mott MacDonald, Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, EDF, Eksim Investment Holding, Asian Development Bank, Enel, CE Oltenia, ROMGAZ, Electrica, Georgian Energy Development Fund, TRYBA ENERGY, EDPR Romania, Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission (GNERC), State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (Ukraine), Republic of Turkey Energy Market Regulatory Authority, The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, Electricity System Operator of Bulgaria and many others.

In 2021, the organisers are excited to return to offline events and invite all the interested companies to join the EWBS filled with networking opportunities as we step away from our screens. For international participants unable to travel this year the live footage will be streamed online to view and participate in any Q&A.

During the 2-day conference, participants will discuss reforms implemented by each country to foster or further scale up renewable energy deployment, how individual countries attract investors in global competition, suitable support schemes and policy reversals in some countries, as well as will address intermittency and energy security issues. The conference will be followed by the technical visit and a cultural programme.

Interfax-Ukraine is the Media Partner of the event.

Learn more on the events official website www.bsenergyweek.com or contact the organisers for details at info@investinnet.com
A Huawei logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, China (Photo : REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo)

The Biden administration, which was criticized this week for approving licenses for auto chips for Huawei, said it has not changed the policy on restricting sales of goods and technology to the Chinese company that was put in place during the Trump presidency.



"The policy has not been eased or amended," a Commerce Department spokesperson said.



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The comments came in response to demands https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-senator-rubio-demands-answers-huaweis-auto-chip-approvals-2021-08-26 from Sen. Marco Rubio that U.S. officials explain why they approved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of auto chip sales to the company, as reported by Reuters https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/exclusive-us-approves-licenses-huawei-buy-auto-chips-sources-2021-08-25 this week.



Rubio called the move "yet another example of President Biden's failure to protect America's economic and national security."



Huawei was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, after the Trump administration said it was operating contrary to national security and foreign policy interests.



The so-called "entity list" restricts suppliers from selling U.S. goods and technology to the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker. The Commerce Department is prohibited from disclosing license approvals or denials, the spokesperson has said.



But some sales were allowed and others denied as the United States intensified its crackdown on the company and expanded U.S. authority to require licenses for sales of semiconductors made abroad with American technology.



An August 2020 rule said that licenses for products with 5G capabilities were likely to be rejected, but sales of less sophisticated technology would be decided on a case-by-case basis.



During the Trump administration, $87 billion worth of licenses for Huawei were approved after its blacklisting, but $119 billion were denied as the presidency wound down in January, according to a Commerce Department document seen by Reuters.



"The Biden Administration has not changed the regulatory restrictions on Huawei and its affiliates on the Entity List imposed in 2019 or 2020 or the policy for implementing those restrictions developed during the Trump administration," the Commerce Department spokesperson said.



Other congressional China hawks also have criticized the auto chip approvals, with Mike Rogers, lead Republican on the Armed Services committee, urging that the licenses be revoked.


The logo of technology company Nvidia is seen at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California (Photo : REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Nvidia is likely to seek EU antitrust approval for its $54 billion takeover of British chip designer Arm early next month, with regulators expected to launch a full-scale investigation after a preliminary review, people familiar with the matter said.



The world's biggest maker of graphics and AI chips announced the Arm deal last year, sparking an immediate backlash in the semiconductor industry.



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Arm has long been a neutral player licensing key intellectual property to customers who are otherwise intense rivals, including Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.



However, Nvidia said it has garnered the support of Arm customers Broadcom, MediaTek and Marvell, according to a presentation on its website.



A request to the European Commission for approval of the deal will kick off a 25-working day preliminary review. Nvidia is unlikely to offer concessions during this period, the sources said, which will then prompt a 90-working day full-scale EU investigation.



Sources previously told Reuters in June that Nvidia may not be able to meet a March 2022 deadline for closing its deal due to European regulators' reluctance to consider the case until after the summer holidays.



The Financial Times reported earlier that the European Union was set to launch a formal competition probe into the planned takeover early next month.



Britain's competition regulator said last week that the deal could damage competition and weaken rivals, and required a further lengthy investigation.



"This transaction will be beneficial to Arm, its licensees, competition, and the industry. We are working through the regulatory process and we look forward to engaging with the European Commission to address any concerns they may have." Nvidia said.



Arm did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.



Arm, currently owned by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp is a major player in global semiconductors, a sector fundamental to technologies from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to 5G telecoms networks. Its designs power nearly every smartphone and millions of other devices.


Members of the scout emergency response team, survey amid the burned wreckage, after a fire broke out at a multi-story chemical factory, in Karachi, Pakistan (Photo : REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)

At least 16 people were killed in a factory fire on Friday in Pakistan's largest city and financial hub, Karachi, raising questions about the industrial safety in a country not new to such accidents.



The fire broke out at a multi-story chemical factory in eastern part of the city, and most windows of the factory were blocked, police and fire officials said.



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Many factory workers died after being trapped on the second floor in the fire, which broke out on the ground floor of the three-story factory.



"At least 16 people have died in the fire," Saqib Ismail Memon, deputy inspector general of Karachi's eastern part, told Reuters.



Private television channels' footage showed thick grey smoke billowing out from the top floors of the factory.



"The factory had only one entry point, which was also being used as exit, and the roof exit was blocked, which badly hampered rescue efforts," Mubeen Ahmed, chief fire officer of the fire department, told a Geo, a private television channel.



Over 260 workers were burnt alive when a multi-storey garment factory was set on fire in September 2012 in what became the deadliest industrial blaze in Pakistan's history.



Blazes and accidents are common in South Asia's factories, many of which operate illegally and without proper fire safety measures.


U.S. Capitol Police officer Lieutenant Michael Byrd, who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt as she tried to force her way into the House of Representatives during the Jan. 6 attack, (Photo : NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt/Handout via REUTERS)

The U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a woman as she tried to force her way into the House of Representatives during the Jan. 6 attack said the shooting was a "last resort" because he believed she posed a threat to members of Congress.



"I tried to wait as long as I could," police Lieutenant Michael Byrd said in an interview with "NBC Nightly News" that aired on Thursday, in what were his first public remarks since the violence.



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"I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers."



Byrd described the shooting as an act of "last resort" as he spoke publicly three days after a review by the Capitol Police concluded https://www.reuters.com/world/us/probe-clears-police-officer-who-shot-woman-jan-6-us-capitol-attack-2021-08-23 he had acted lawfully and within department policy in shooting the supporter of then-President Donald Trump as she tried to force her way through a smashed window into the House of Representatives' Speaker's Lobby.



"It was a very terrifying situation," Byrd said.



The shooting of Ashli Babbitt, 35, came on a day of violence that saw hundreds of Trump supporters fight their way into the Capitol, attacking police and sending lawmakers running.



Babbitt was a U.S. Air Force veteran who embraced far-right conspiracy theories on social media, including Trump's false assertions that his 2020 presidential election loss was due to fraud. She was one of four participants in the riot to die on Jan. 6.



Far-right groups have embraced Babbitt as a martyr, arguing she was murdered. Her cause has also been taken up by Trump, who falsely claimed last month that the officer who shot her was the "head of security" for a "high-ranking" Democratic member of Congress.



VIOLENCE RECOUNTED



Police officers who fought the mob recounted scenes of violence in which rioters beat them, taunted them with racist insults and threatened to kill an officer "with his own gun" in testimony https://www.reuters.com/world/us/police-who-defended-us-capitol-testify-riot-probes-first-hearing-2021-07-27 last month to a congressional committee.



A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by rioters died the following day. Four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than 100 police officers were injured.



The Capitol Police review of the shooting concluded that it may have saved lives.



"The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters," the department said. It added that the officer's family had "been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats."



The Justice Department in April closed https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-closes-probe-capitol-police-shooting-woman-killed-jan-6-riot-2021-04-14 its investigation into the death of Babbitt, saying there was no evidence that the officer had acted criminally in the shooting.



The worst violence at the Capitol since the War of 1812 delayed the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory by several hours and brought a huge military presence into the city for several months.



Trump supporters, including some of his Republican allies in Congress, have since tried to play down the day's events. Representative Andrew Clyde, who was photographed on Jan. 6 helping to barricade the House chamber door against attackers, has since compared the mob to "a normal tourist visit."


During the official closing ceremony that took place at the Anfoushi Cultural Palace Theatre, the Theatre Without Fund Festival closed its 11th edition (22-26 August) by announcing the winners.

Performances from Egypt, Oman and Spain scooped the majority of awards.

Egyptian plays The Witness and The Wanderer took a significant share of major awards with the first one winning best creative solutions, best scenography and the latter scooping second prize for the best play and best actor in supporting role awards, among other wins.

Oman's production Henna Pounder won best play, best director and best costumes alongside numerous other wins.

Spanish production Clowns garnered a total of five awards including best actress in leading role, best music and best light design.

The winners are as follows:

Creative Solutions Award

First prize: The Witness (Egypt)

Second prize: Clowns (Spain)

Best Play

First prize: Henna Pounder (Oman)

Second prize: The Wanderer (Egypt)

Best Dramatist

First prize: Iyad Al-Raymouni (Jordan) for the play The Night of the Singing

Second prize: Ehab Gaber (Egypt) for the play The Witness



Best Director

First prize Yousef Al-Balushi for Henna Pounder (Oman)

Second prize: Ehab Gaber for The Witness (Egypt)

Best Actor in Leading Role



First prize: Mohamed Al-Titi for Sharshuh (Palestine)

Second prize: Ahmed Askar for The Witness (Egypt)



Best Actor Award in Supporting Role

First prize: Abdel Rahman Mohamed for The Wanderer (Egypt)

Second prize: Salat El Siyabi for Henna Pounder (Oman)

Best Actress in Leading Role



First prize: Elizabeth Quevedo for Clowns (Spain)

Second prize: Leqa Al-Serafi for The Wanderer (Egypt)



Best Actor Award in Supporting Role

First prize: Jana Salah for The Rose and the Crown (Egypt)

Second prize: Sela Conde for Clowns (Spain)

Best Costumes

First prize: Tariq Kaufan for Henna Pounder (Oman)

Second prize: Amira Saber for The Wanderer (Egypt)

Best Make-up

First prize: Fatima Al-Jishi for Dance of Death (Saudi Arabia)

Second prize: Lamia for The Rose and the Crown (Egypt)

Best Music

First prize: Mattia Rosso for Clowns

Second prize: Youssef Al-Harthy for Henna Pounder (Oman)

Best Light Design

First prize: Eric Robo for The Clowns (Spain)

Second prize: Mohamed Jamil for Dance of Death (Saudi Arabia)

Best Scenography

First prize: Donia Aziz for The Witness (Egypt)

Second prize: Youmna Al-Nashar for The Wanderer (Egypt)



The Theatre Without Fund Festival was founded by Gamal Yakout, president of the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre's 28th edition (14 and 19 December 2021). Yakout also presided over the TWFF, and stepped back from this role this year, passing the torch to the festival's artistic director Ibrahim Al-Forn.

The festival was held on the stages of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina under the auspices of its Arts Centre, as well as at the Lycee El-Horreya theater, the headquarters of the Alexandria Theater Troupe and the Anfoushi Culture Palace Theater.

The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture with logistical support extended by its numerous affiliates  the General Authority for the Cultural Palaces, the Artistic House of Theater, the Cultural Production Affairs Sector  in addition to Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Egypt rejects all foreign interference in Iraq's affairs and the illegal aggression on its territories, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said during his speech at Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership on Saturday.

President El-Sisi affirmed that Egypt calls on all countries to respect Iraq's sovereignty, adding that Egypt will continue to support the Iraqi government.

Our meeting today is to confirm support and commitment to the established principles in international relations, which are good neighborliness, mutual respect, unconditional refraining from interfering in internal affairs, and refraining from supporting extremist groups or transferring their elements from one country to another, El-Sisi said.

The conference, which is attended by a number of regional and international leaders, discusses the ways to resolve the region's crises, with a view to creating better circumstances for establishing economic partnership and cooperation between Iraq and neighboring countries.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, France, Turkey, and Iran, as well as the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation attended the event.

The presidents participation in the conference comes within the framework of Egypt's keenness on supporting Iraq in restoring its active and balanced role at the regional level and also for guaranteeing its security and stability, according to Egypts Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

El-Sisi, moreover, hailed the great achievements made in Iraq over the past period under the leadership of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.



He also praised the great role played by the Iraqi army and police to eradicate terrorism.

Addressing Iraqi people

During his speech, El-Sisi urged the Iraqi people to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which are slated for 10 October.

You are a nation with an ancient civilization and history I tell you: Preserve your country build, cooperate, and participate in the elections.

"You have brothers in Egypt who are keen on your renaissance, and welcome the transfer of their experience in various fields, El-Sisi said.

Egyptian-Iraqi relations

El-Sisis visit to Baghdad is his second to the Iraqi capital in two months.

In June, on the first official visit by an Egyptian president to Iraq in 30 years, El-Sisi attended the trilateral summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and Jordanian King Abdullah II to strengthen economic cooperation between the three countries. The summit was the fourth between the three leaders since March 2019.

During their summits, the three countries hammered out the details of a long list of cooperation agreements in the fields of energy, health, construction, reconstruction, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and food.

Egyptian-Iraqi relations witnessed a remarkable boom during the last few years and entered a new phase of cooperation, with the economic file topping the field of cooperation between Cairo and Baghdad.

The trade exchange between Egypt and Iraq increased from $800 million in 2015 to $1.650 billion in 2018, which is considered the largest figure in trade exchanges between the two countries since 2003, according to data from Egypts State Information Service (SIS).

The Egyptian president arrived Saturday in Iraq where he was received by Iraqi Al-Kadhimi at Baghdad International Airport.

He later held a meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih at Baghdad Presidential Palace to discuss bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern.

He also held a meeting with Kuwait Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah to discuss Gulf region security and bilateral relations.

The President also met with the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Saturday morning on the sidelines of the conference.

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Ethiopia expressed its disapproval of Tunisias ongoing preparation to submit its proposal on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) issue to the UN Security Council, describing the endeavour as inappropriate, a statement by Ethiopias foreign ministry read on Thursday.

According to the statement, the remarks came in a meeting held in Ethiopia this week between Ethiopias Minister of Foreign Affairs Redwan Hussein with representatives from the upstream riparian states of the Nile Basin.

The meeting was held to reaffirm Ethiopias unwavering commitment to equitably utilising the Nile Rivers waters via close consultations with riparian countries, according to the Ethiopian foreign ministry.

During the meeting, Hussein said that Tunisias initial GERD proposal was in favour of Egypt and was rightly rejected by the security council.

Hussein warned that submitting the proposal again to the council would put all riparian countries in a difficult position.

He called for cooperation between the riparian states to reverse the Tunisian proposal, labelling it is unacceptable.

The Ethiopian minister warned that such an endeavour will undermine the tripartite negotiations between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia over the GERD.

At the request of Egypt and Sudan, the UNSC held a session early last month to discuss the GERD issue, during which, the two downstream countries expressed their grave concerns regarding Ethiopias unilateral acts on the matter.

While the two countries have urged Ethiopia to cease its intransigence and sign a legally binding agreement that regulates the filling and operation of the mega dam, Ethiopia announced that it would be proceeding with the second filling of the dam unilaterally nonetheless only a few days before the councils session.

As the only Arab non-permanent member in the UNSC in its current session, Tunisia presented a draft resolution aiming to resume the GERD talks between the three countries within six months to reach a legally binding agreement on the dam and immediately suspend the second filling until a consensus is reached.

Ethiopia, however, maintained its course and announced the completion of the second filling on 19 July.

The three countries have affirmed on different occasions, including in the UNSC session, that they would like to continue to delegate the African Union to sponsor and mediate the talks between them.

Egypt and Sudan, however, have urged the involvement of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, along with the AU in mediating the talks, a proposal that Ethiopia rejected.

Russia and Algeria have also recently proposed to play a positive role in the GERD issue.

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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi held a meeting on Saturday with Iraqi President Barham Salih at Baghdad Presidential Palace to discuss bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern ahead of the start of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership later today in the Iraqi capital.

El-Sisi and Salih reviewed the overall joint bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, as well as ways to enhance areas of economic, commercial and investment cooperation.

The Iraqi president welcomed El-Sisis visit to Baghdad, stressing Iraq's keenness to continue intensive coordination and consultation with Egypt at all levels, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.

Salih affirmed that such coordination and consultation comes in light of the deep-rooted relations and ties that bind the two countries together.

It also comes, Salih added, in light of the importance and centrality of the Egyptian role in the region and support for Iraq, which contributes to facing the common challenges that the Arab nation is facing.

From his side, El-Sisi affirmed Egypt's pride in the historical relations with brotherly Iraq, stressing Cairo's keenness to strengthen its Arab national role, the presidential statement said.

El-Sisi also stressed the necessity of providing full support to the Iraqi people in all fields, whether at the bilateral level or within the framework of the tripartite cooperation mechanism with the Kingdom of Jordan, in support of mutual cooperation relations and the process of joint Arab action.

The Egyptian president arrived earlier on Saturday in Iraq when he was received by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi at Baghdad International Airport.

President El-Sisi met with the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Saturday morning on the sidelines of the conference, according to Rady.

Back in Baghdad

El-Sisis visit to Baghdad is his second to the Iraqi capital in two months.

In June, on the first official visit by an Egyptian president to Iraq in 30 years, El-Sisi attended the trilateral summit with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and Jordanian King Abdullah II to strengthen economic cooperation between the three countries. The summit was the fourth between the three leaders since March 2019.

During their summits, the three countries hammered out the details of a long list of cooperation agreements in the fields of energy, health, construction, reconstruction, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and food.

Egyptian-Iraqi relations witnessed a remarkable boom during the last few years and entered a new phase of cooperation, with the economic file topping the field of cooperation between Cairo and Baghdad.

The trade exchange between Egypt and Iraq increased from $800 million in 2015 to $1.650 billion in 2018, which is considered the largest number of trade exchanges since 2003, according to data from Egypts State Information Service (SIS).

Sisi meets Kuwait premier

During a meeting on the sidelines of the Baghdad conference, El-Sisi told Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah that "the security of the Gulf region is one of the main pillars of the Arab national security, and is closely linked to the Egyptian national security."

El-Sisi and Al-Sabah agreed to maintain joint efforts to enhance cooperation and coordination among Arab countries to face the growing challenges and threats to regional security and the stability of Arab countries and peoples, according to Rady.

El-Sisi and Al-Sabah exchanged views on the most prominent files on the regional arena, and the discussions reflected a mutual understanding of ways to deal with these files.

Baghdad conference

The presidents participation in the Baghdad conference comes within the framework of Egypt's keenness on supporting Iraq in restoring its active and balanced role at the regional level and also for guaranteeing its security and stability, according to Rady.

The conference, which is attended by a number of regional and international leaders, is set to discuss ways to resolve the region's crises, with a view to creating better circumstances for establishing economic partnership and cooperation between Iraq and neighboring countries.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, France, Turkey, and Iran, as well as the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are confirmed for the event.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Nayef Al Hajraf, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian arrived in the Iraqi capital to attend the event.

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Related Sisi discusses bilateral relations with Iraqi president ahead of Baghdad cooperation conference

The security of the Gulf region is one of the main pillars of the Arab national security, and is closely linked to the Egyptian national security, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi told Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah on Saturday.

El-Sisis comments came during a meeting with Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, which is set to start later in the day.

El-Sisi and Al-Sabah agreed to maintain joint efforts to enhance cooperation and coordination among Arab countries to face the growing challenges and threats to regional security and the stability of Arab countries and peoples, Egypts Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

Rady revealed that they exchanged views on the most prominent files on the regional arena, and the discussions reflected a mutual understanding of ways to deal with these files.

El-Sisi highlighted the close relations binding the two brotherly countries, and Egypts keenness to develop the mutual distinguished cooperation at various levels in an effort to consolidate security, stability and development in the region, Rady said.

The Egyptian-Kuwaiti cooperation and coordination towards developments in the Middle East represent a mainstay for achieving regional stability, and a major pillar of the priorities and constants of the Egyptian policy, El-Sisi said.

The Kuwaiti premier, from his side, emphasised the depth and strength of the historical relations that unite the two countries, lauding the role of the Egyptian community in Kuwait in the construction and development process in the country as a bridge of interdependence between the two brotherly peoples.

Al-Sabah stressed Kuwaits keenness to enhance cooperation with Egypt at all levels, and to consult and coordinate with Cairo periodically on various issues, appreciating in this context Egypt's pivotal role in the region as a fundamental pillar for the security and stability of the Arab world, the statement said.

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The National Press Authority (NPA) mourned the death of veteran radio presenter Hamdi el-Konaysi, who died on Friday at the age of 80.

In a statement, the authority paid tribute to El-Konaysi as a prominent media figure.

It also offered its heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has commended Egypt's diplomatic role on all international forums and the ongoing cooperation between the country and the UN and its specialised international agencies in all domains.

Guterres' remarks came during his meeting with Egypt's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Ambassador Mohamed Idris whose tenure came to end, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry highlighted the successful efforts exerted by the two parties to handle several positions and crises at both the regional and international levels in order to back goals of the UN, stipulated in the UN Charter.

Guterres pointed out to Egypt's crucial role in supporting initiatives and reform efforts in the work of the international body while chairing G77 and China in 2018 and its current presidency of the Peace building Commission.

The UN secretary general appreciated the efforts exerted by Idris during his work in New York.

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Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani agree to continuing consultation to boost bilateral relations during the coming period as they met in Baghdad on Saturday.

They also agreed to proceed with mutual steps aimed at resuming the two countries' bilateral cooperation mechanisms, Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

The agreement comes in line with the progress taking place in the path of the Egyptian-Qatari relations within the framework of the Al-Ula declaration, Rady added.

El-Sisis meeting with Sheikh Tamim of Qatar took place on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership, which started in the Iraqi capital Saturday.

Al-Ula Agreement

Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council signed the Al-Ula agreement for Arab reconciliation with Qatar last January during the 41st GCC summit in Saudi Arabia. The declaration ended around 3.5 years of rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbors in addition to Egypt.

In the wake of the declaration, Egypt and Qatar agreed to move beyond their dispute and work towards settling all outstanding issues.

In June, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul-Rahman Al Thani in Doha.

In an official statement both ministers expressed satisfaction with developments in Egyptian-Qatari relations following the signing of Al-Ula Declaration and agreed to fully restore diplomatic relations.

El-Sisi and the Qatari emir have also exchanged telephone calls and invitations to visit.

After the signing of the agreement, flag carriers Qatar Airways and EgyptAir also resumed flights to the two countries' capitals.

This comes in addition to rounds of meetings of joint Egyptian-Qatari committees that have been held this year to follow up on the development of the bilateral relations following the agreement.

Positive Progress

During his Saturday meeting with El-Sisi, Sheikh Tamim voiced Qatars appreciation of the positive progress seen in the Egyptian-Qatari relations, the presidential spokesman said.

The Qatari emir also hailed the recent exchange of visits between the two countries and the resumption of their cooperation frameworks.

Sheikh Tamim affirmed Qatars aspiration to enhance consultations with Egypt over the ways to strengthen the bilateral relations in a way that serves the interests of both countries.

This comes especially in light of the strategic and pivotal role Egypt plays under President El-Sisi to establish security, stability and development on the regional level and within the framework of defending the Arab issues, Rady explained.

Mr. President [El-Sisi] also affirmed Egypts keenness on comprehensive, productive cooperation for the sake of prosperity, construction, development and support to Arab solidarity, the spokesman noted.

The president also noted that this keenness on cooperation comes within the framework of mutual respect, joint interests and sincere intensions as a firm principle and approach of the Egyptian policy, according to the spokesman.

Exchanging Ambassadors

In late July, the Qatari emir issued a decree appointing Salem bin Mubarak Al-Shafi as an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Egypt. Al-Shafi is the first Qatari ambassador to Cairo in four years.

This came a week after El-Sisi appointed Amr El-Sherbini as Egypts ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Qatar.

Al-Shafi arrived in Cairo from Doha and presented his credentials to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on 23 August to take up his duties.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi expressed keenness to benefit from the French experience in the Egyptian project to develop the countryside as part of the national Decent Life initiative.

His remarks came in a meeting on Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership in Baghdad, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

The Decent Life initiative aims at improving standards of living, infrastructure, and services for the approximately 59 million rural Egyptians who live in 4,658 villages across the country.

El-Sisi launched the first phase of the countryside-focused project at the Cairo Stadium in mid-July.

During his Saturday meeting with Macron, El-Sisi affirmed Egypts keenness to maximise available capabilities of both countries, especially in the fields of transportation, renewable energy and the manufacturing of trains and electric vehicles, the presidency added.

El-Sisi also called for enhancing political consultation with France on the regional and international issues of mutual concern, especially the issues related to sustainable development and support for peace and security in the region.

The Egyptian leader also encouraged French companies to benefit from the investment opportunities available in Egypt, transfer expertise and localise industries in Egypt, especially in terms of the mega national projects.

Macron, during the meeting, hailed Egypts firm relations with France and the unprecedented, significant progress in these relations recently in various fields, especially on the level of economic and commercial ties, the Egyptian presidency said.

The French president also stressed his countrys keenness to intensify coordination and consultation with Egypt as one of its most important partners in the region.

Macron hailed Egypts role in establishing the pillars of stability in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa.

He also praised Egypts role in countering terrorism, extremist thought as well as illegal emigration.

According to the presidency, the meeting discussed enhancing Frances involvement, through its developmental institutions, in Egypts priority developmental plans in various fields.

The meeting also tackled the need to boost French investments in Egypt and enhance economic cooperation between the two countries, the Presidency added.

Egypt has been intensifying economic and political cooperation with France over the past years. Trade volume between Egypt and France was estimated at $2.4 billion in 2019 and $2.2 billion in 2020 during pandemic, according to a report by the Egyptian states statistical agency CAPMAS last May.

El-Sisi held talks in May and June of this year with Frances Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire to review means of boosting French investments in Egypt and enhancing economic cooperation.

Also in June, Egypt signed development financing agreements with France that amount to 1.76 billion in light of a new financing package between Egypt and France for 2021/2026.

The agreements cover various sectors, particularly transportation.

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Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi affirmed Iraqs keenness to benefit from Egypts inspiring experience in building state institutions, achieving sustainable developments and carrying out national projects, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Al-Kadhimis remarks came as he met with Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership held in the Iraqi capital.

Al-Kadhimi, during the meeting, expressed keenness to transfer the Egyptian experience to Iraq, especially in the fields of infrastructure and power.

He also called for boosting economic cooperation as well as trade and investments between the two countries, the presidency added.

El-Sisi affirmed the need to accelerate the implementation of joint projects between Egypt and Iraq so that the economic achievements between the two countries align with their political achievements.

The meeting followed up on the executive position on the bilateral cooperation projects between the two countries in various fields, the Presidency said.

El-Sisi and Al-Kadhimi also followed up on the implementation of trilateral cooperation projects involving Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

They affirmed the necessity to build on the outcome of the latest trilateral summit in Baghdad last June, the presidency added.

The Iraqi premier hailed Egypts role in supporting Iraq on all levels, especially in facing joint challenges, chief of which is counter-terrorism and achieving security, stability and development.

He said the Egyptian role represents a strategic depth for his country on the regional and international levels

Al-Kadhimi expressed willingness to enhance cooperation frameworks with Egypt on the bilateral level and also on the trilateral level along with Jordan.

El-Sisi expressed appreciation of his visit to Baghdad, the presidency said, adding that it strengthens the established principles of the Egyptian policy to support Iraq and maximise the Iraqi Arab national role.

This comes through establishing a strategic partnership between the two countries that is based on integration and the achievement of joint developmental goals.

El-Sisi and Al-Kadhimi discussed the political and security situation in the region as well as developments of a number of regional issues of mutual concern.

They also discussed Egyptian-Iraqi efforts to counter terrorism, extremist though and establish security and stability.

El-Sisis visit to Baghdad is his second to the Iraqi capital in two months.

Delivering a speech at Saturdays summit in Baghdad, El-Sisi hailed the great achievements made in Iraq under the leadership of Al-Kadhimi.

He also praised the great role played by the Iraqi army and police to eradicate terrorism.

The president urged Iraqi people to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which are slated for 10 October.

He also affirmed Egypts rejection of all foreign interference in Iraq's affairs and the illegal aggression on its territories.

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Related South Korea selects Egypt as key ODA partner in MENA region through 2025

South Korean Minisrter of National Defense Suh Wook highlighted on Saturday the significant progress in relations with Egypt since President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis visit to Seoul in 2016.

His remarks came in a meeting with Egyptian Ambassador to South Korea Hazem Fahmy, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Wook said Sisis visit in 2016 has upgraded the relations between the two countries to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership, the statement read.

The minister revealed that the South Korean side is keen that President Moon Jae-in makes a visit to Cairo early in 2022.

Wook, during the meeting, mentioned the South Korean governments decision earlier this year to choose Egypt as one of South Koreas official development assistance (ODA) countries.

The South Korean government announced last May that Egypt will be ODA priority partner country and the key development partner in the MENA region over the coming five years (2021-2025).

The announcement came during a meeting between Egypts Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat and South Korean Ambassador to Cairo Hong Jin-wook.

During the meeting, they reviewed the status of ongoing ODA grants, worth $2.7 million including $1.9 million for newly implemented projects in 2021.

This includes the master plan for the modernisation of urban transportation in Alexandria and the waste management in Greater Cairo project.

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Related South Sudan swears in new parliament vowed under peace deal 'Just a dream': hope for South Sudan dashed after horror decade South Sudan's vice president Riek Machar has been ousted as head of his party and its armed forces, say rival leaders who accuse the rebel-turned-politician of no longer representing their interests.

Machar, a pivotal figure in South Sudan's bloody road to independence and subsequent civil war, was deposed following a three-day gathering of senior SPLM/A-IO leaders in the country's far north, the party's military wing said.

Its chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, was declared interim leader of the opposition movement that governs the troubled country in a shaky alliance with former enemies.

It is unclear what the putsch means for Machar, currently South Sudan's first vice president, or his fragile 2018 power-sharing agreement with his old rival President Salva Kiir.

The military wing said Machar had "completely failed" to show leadership and greatly weakened the party's position in the post-war coalition government formed between the warring sides in early 2020.

Machar had engaged in a years-long "policy of divide and rule" and favoured nepotism over unity or advancing their cause, according to a statement signed by the SPLM/A-IO military leadership and dated August 3.

"As a result, the meeting saw there was no option rather than to come up with the decision and finally prompted to declare the denouncement of Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon from the chairmanship of the SPLM/A-IO," the statement said.

Political Disunity

Machar's spokesman in Juba told AFP only that the rival political wing of the party was meeting to discuss the matter and would issue an update on the outcome.

Machar, a wily leader who survived years of bush warfare, close attempts on his life and stretches in exile, served as vice president in the first post-independence government alongside Kiir.

But the pair fell out and Machar was sacked two years later. Troops loyal to each man turned their guns on each other, and South Sudan descended into five years of horrific bloodshed.

In 2018 -- after a string of failed peace accords and violated ceasefires -- a fresh truce paused the fighting that left nearly 400,000 South Sudanese dead.

Under that arrangement, Machar entered another unity government as deputy to Kiir in February 2020.

But distrust lingered and cracks soon appeared, as key provisions of the peace accords went unfulfilled.

As the process drifted, Machar faced growing opposition within his own ranks, with top cadres complaining they had lost out under the power-sharing arrangement struck with the ruling party.

The political disunity comes as South Sudan faces economic disaster and its worst hunger crisis since independence, with tens of thousands of people enduring famine-like conditions in the world's youngest nation.

Already, there are calls for a peaceful public uprising to topple the current regime and end the chronic political and economic crisis.

At least two prominent activists were arrested Monday after they signed a declaration by a coalition of civil society groups saying they have "had enough" after a decade of troubled independence and called for the resignation of Kiir and Machar.

The arrests came the same day that hundreds of lawmakers were sworn in to a newly created parliament, a key part of the 2018 peace deal that had been delayed for almost a year.

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As fighting erupts between rival factions in South Sudan, threatening to destabilise the fragile democracy, we look back at the world's youngest country's bloody first decade, marred by a civil war that claimed 380,000 lives.

- 2011: New nation -

On July 9, South Sudan proclaims itself independent from Sudan following six years of autonomy and two decades of war.

The president is Salva Kiir, with Riek Machar as his deputy. From different ethnic groups, the rivals also led the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) that spearheaded the push for independence.

The new South Sudan takes over three-quarters of oil reserves of the old Sudan while Khartoum retains control of all pipeline and export facilities.

Other thorny issues are the tracing of the new border and the status of disputed regions such as oil-rich Abyei.

- 2012: Oil clashes -

The countries clash between March and May over rights to the oil fields around Heglig, a town just inside Sudan.

South Sudanese troops briefly occupy the area, which accounts for half of Sudan's crude oil production.

Arguments erupt over pipeline transit costs and Sudan confiscates millions of barrels of South Sudan crude.

South Sudan halts its production in January for more than a year, accusing Khartoum of theft.

- 2013: Civil war -

Kiir fires Machar and all government ministers, their deputies and several police brigadiers on July 23.

Machar later accuses him of "dictatorial" behaviour.

After a night of fighting in the capital Juba, Kiir says on December 16 his forces had thwarted an attempted coup by Machar, who denies the claim.

Rival army units clash in Juba. The fighting spreads beyond the capital, fuelled by rivalries between Kiir's Dinka group and Machar's Nuer.

It sets off tit-for-tat massacres that turn into five years of war.

- 2016: Leader in exile -

Machar and Kiir sign a peace accord in August 2015 that provides for Machar's reappointment as vice president.

He returns to Juba and is sworn in on April 26, 2016.

But fighting between supporters of both leaders breaks out again in July. Machar goes into exile, accusing Kiir of trying to have him killed.

- 2018: Peace deal -

Kiir and Machar meet for the first time in two years on June 20.

On September 12 they sign a new peace agreement to end a war that has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced roughly four million.

It paves the way for a power-sharing government which is eventually installed in March 2020, with Machar again vice president.

- 2020: Slow progress -

However, sporadic fighting continues.

The UN several times extends its peace mission, as well as an arms embargo.

In June 2020 Kiir and Machar agree on control of the country's 10 states, the main remaining sticking point.

- 2021: Violence flares -

A UN report in April warns that the slow pace of implementing the peace accord risks a relapse into "large-scale conflict".

On May 8, after a delay of more than a year, Kiir includes opposition lawmakers in a new parliament.

A final drafting of a constitution begins on May 25.

Barely 19 weeks later, growing murmurs of discontent in Machar's camp come to a head, when a rival faction of his party led by General Simon Gatwech Dual announces his ouster as chief, accusing him of failing to represent their interests.

Machar insists he remains in full control and dismisses the "peace spoilers", who he says are out to derail the formation of a unified national army, a key component of the agreement that ended the civil war.

Within days, fresh fighting erupts between the two sides, according to Machar's military spokesman, who says forces loyal to the 68-year-old have fended off an alleged attack by Dual's camp.

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Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah discussed over the phone with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita the latest regional and international developments, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday.

During the phone call, they discussed issues of mutual interests, and means of boosting bilateral relations in a way that serves the interests of the two countries and peoples.

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Related Sisi discusses bilateral relations with Iraqi president ahead of Baghdad cooperation conference

Iraqi President Barham Salih said that France is a key partner in the fight against Daesh terrorist group and in other various fields.

In a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, Salih added that a stable Iraq is a cornerstone of a regional system fighting extremism and terrorism, the National Iraqi News Agency reported Saturday.

At another press conference with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Macron said that Baghdad conference, that will be held later today, is important for regional stability.he added that France is keen on the stability and security of Iraq.

He underlined the necessity of fighting Daesh terrorist group which is threatening regional peace.

Fighting terrorism is one of the priorities of the Iraqi government, he said, adding that France is supporting Iraq in this war.

Macron is set to participate in the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership later today.

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A 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot in the head by Israeli fire during a demonstration at the Gaza-Israeli border last week died of his wounds Saturday, Gaza health officials said.

Hassan Abu al-Neil was shot Aug. 21 during the demonstration organized by Palestinians to protest the crippling 11-year-old blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.

Violence erupted when Palestinian protesters began throwing rocks and explosives at Israeli troops near the fortified border. Israeli troops responded by opening fire, wounding over 40 Palestinians, including al-Neil.

Another Palestinian man, later identified as a member of Hamas military wing, died from his wounds Wednesday.

An Israeli soldier remains in critical condition after being shot in the head from point blank range by a protestor during the clashes.

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters demonstrated Wednesday near the Gaza-Israeli border, again calling for the easing of the blockade. Hamas kept demonstrators away from the separation fence and the protests ended without a recurrence of last weeks deadly violence.

Following Wednesdays protest, Israel said it was easing some of the commercial restrictions on Gaza, allowing vehicles, goods and equipment for rebuilding projects to enter the Palestinian enclave. Israels Defense Ministry said the easing could expand further if things remain quiet.

The Israeli government reached an agreement with Qatar on Aug. 19 allowing the gulf country to resume aid payments to families in the Gaza Strip, a move aimed at reducing tensions with Hamas in the aftermath of Mays 11-day war, the fourth since the militant group seized power in 2007. Israel suspended aid payments in May and said the move was necessary to ensure Hamas did not benefit from cash injections.

At least 260 Palestinians were killed during Mays Gaza-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

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Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said on Saturday that the Baghdad Cooperation and Partnership conference embodies Iraq's vision to establish distinguished relations with the other countries.

Addressing the opening of the conference in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and other regional and international statesmen, Al-Kadhimi said that Iraq's ties with the world countries should be based on mutual cooperation, integration and non-interference in the domestic affairs of each country.

Al-Kadhimi added that the conference is held at a critical time that represents a new impetus for Iraq's endeavors to consolidate its relations with the other countries.

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The Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit asserted on Saturday that the Iraqi people deserve peace, stability and security as well as more development and prosperity.

Addressing the Baghdad Cooperation and Partnership Conference, he stressed the importance of supporting Iraq and its struggle.

He pointed out to the great human and material Iraqi capabilities, saying that the history and the present asserts that the Iraqi people are capable of reaching great achievements.

The Arab League chief noted that Iraq engaged in a war against terrorism since 2014 in which it lost many Iraqis and huge amounts of funds, but it managed to win the war to protect civilisation and humanity everywhere not only in Iraq.

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Frances President Emanuel Macron reiterated Saturday his countrys support to Iraq and its war against terrorism.

Addressing the opening of the Baghdad Cooperation and Partnership conference in the presence of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Macron said that the Iraqi people have suffered from wars, especially against terrorism.

We are here to reinforce the sovereignty of Iraq, Macron added.

France has several projects on table for Iraq, especially amid the tangible international interest in supporting investments in Iraq, he added.

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Related US airstrike targets Islamic State member in Afghanistan

France ended evacuation operations on Friday and its team at the makeshift French Embassy at Kabul's airport pulled up stakes.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly announced that evacuations drew to a close with nearly 3,000 transferred out of Afghanistan.

``The team at France's embassy in Kabul reached Abu Dhabi before returning to France,'' the statement said, suggesting that Ambassador David Martinon was returning home, too. A French base in Abu Dhabi has been the transit points for French evacuees before heading to Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron had said on Thursday that the ambassador and other diplomatic staff would leave Kabul ``in the next few days'' aboard one of the last French flights out. He said the ambassador would maintain his posting but ``for security reasons he will be operating from Paris'' for the time being.

The statement by the ministers said that France would continue its work of sheltering Afghans who are threatened, ``including after Aug. 31.''

``We are continuing with our efforts with Taliban officials to guarantee they will in no way hinder the departure of those who wish to leave after Aug. 31,'' the statement said.

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The German, British and Dutch leaders agreed Saturday that evacuating those under threat in Afghanistan remains a "priority" although the international airlift operation is ending, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said.Merkel talked by phone with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dutch PM Mark Rutte, with the end of the evacuations and the general situation in Afghanistan and the region "at the centre of their discussions", spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a brief statement.The three leaders "agreed on the fact that the evacuation of their nationals, Afghan personnel (who had worked with their armed forces) and people in danger was always the highest priority, as well as providing humanitarian supplies to the populations. and refugees from the region," said Seibert.The international airlift from Kabul, including rescuing Afghans seeking to flee the new Taliban regime, entered its final phase on Saturday ahead of the August 31 deadline set for the withdrawal of American soldiers from Afghanistan, after 20 years of fighting.According to US government figures, the air bridge allowed for the evacuation of 112,000 Afghans and foreign nations since August 14, the eve of the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, and 117,500 people since late July.Most countries involved have already announced the end of their air operations, including Germany and the Netherlands.The British army's airlift efforts were set to wind up on Saturday .However thousands of Afghans wishing to leave the country have failed to get on one of the crowded flights out and many countries are seeking diplomatic solutions for these people, notably through discussions with the Taliban.Johnson said Friday that London would "shift heaven and earth" to help the Afghans left behind.Several British nationals were killed in Thursday's bomb attack at Kabul airport, claimed by the regional Islamic State chapter.
The management of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) announced a new team to be in charge of the Forum Expanded segment of the festival.

The Kuwaiti artist and curator Ala Younis will be heading the segment together with Ulrich Ziemons, while Egyptian artist Maha Maamoun is among the curatorial committee. The are also joined by Shai Heredia (India), Karina Griffith (Guyana-Canada).

Forum Expanded are programmes independently curated and organised by Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art as part of the Berlin International Film Festival

Younis and Ziemons are replacing Stefanie Schulte Strathaus who headed the Forum Expanded for 16 editions.

Ala Younis is an artist with curatorial, film and publishing projects. Since 2012, Younis has collaborated with Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art on researching, presenting and publishing on film archives and collections in Berlin, Cairo, Amman and Dresden. Younis has been a member of the advisory board of Forum Expanded since 2013, and co-curated the exhibition for the Archival Assembly #1 in 2021.

Maha Maamoun is an artist, curator and independent publisher based in Cairo. She is a founding board member of the Contemporary Image Collective (CiC), an independent non-profit space for art and culture founded in Cairo in 2004. She co-founded with Ala Younis the independent publishing platform Kayfa ta in 2013. Maha is a member of the curatorial team of Forum Expanded (Berlinale), and the Akademie der Kunste der Welt, Cologne.

The Berlin International Film Festival's 71st edition took place in two parts, May and June 2021, in an unusual format (online and physical events) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The dates of the upcoming 72nd edition of Berlinale are yet to be revealed by the festival's organisers.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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As part of Egypts strategy to engage further with the African states, especially those in the east of the continent and around the Nile Basin, Cairo unrolled the red carpet for Prime Minister of Somalia Mohamed Hussein Roble during a visit to Egypt this week.

Roble was in town for a three-day visit and was received by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli who held two rounds of talks, one attended by both prime ministers and one also attended by Egypts ministers of foreign affairs, education and health and their visiting Somali counterparts.

Robles visit is the third by a high-ranking Somali official to Cairo in a year, with previous visits having included one by the Somali foreign minister.

During his visit, Roble was received by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb. Al-Azhar operates a prominent institute in Mogadishu and offers scholarships to Somali students.

Education has always been one of the most prominent areas of cooperation between our two countries. For decades, Egypt, through the national education system and through Al-Azhar, has provided educational support to Somalia, Mohamed Nasr, the Egyptian Ambassador in Mogadishu, said.

He added that this support had always been highly appreciated by the Somali people, who thought fondly of Egypt as an education destination.

Actually many prominent Somali figures received their education in Egyptian schools in Somalia, or by Egyptian teachers, or even went to Egyptian universities, Nasr said.

Roble himself studied for a few years in Egypt, and one of the things that was agreed during his talks in Cairo was to boost educational cooperation between the two countries, Nasr said.

In the years prior to the outbreak of over a decade-long civil conflict in Somalia in the early 1990s, Egypt had run a school in almost every region of the country. In Mogadishu, it ran a prominent school that carried the name of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, whose memory is cherished on the continent 50 years after his death.

In the 1990s, Egypt tried to put an end to the devastating civil conflict and hosted several rounds of political dialogue in pursuit of reconciliation. However, with so many political developments around the Middle East, Cairo got a lot more focused on the Arab problems, while Somalia was falling into disrepair.

With the end of the conflict in Somalia, Egypt tried to pick up the pieces of its educational presence in this important country in the Horn of Africa. Starting in 2015, Egypt has been systematically working on consolidating its relations with Somalia, Nasr said.

Robles visit, he added, was designed to underline the commitment of both sides to working together towards stronger ties. I think part of what makes our relations so important is that they never overshadowed the many other issues that we are both interested in, Nasr said.

Robles visit comes a few months ahead of the national elections that are scheduled tentatively for October this year in Somalia. The elections, earlier announced by Roble, are meant to spare the country from the possible political crisis that has been in the making since Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo attempted to delay these elections for two years.

The attempt stirred political unrest, and Roble stepped in to offer a political compromise through the elections. He has since been at the head of the process leading to the elections.

Nasr said that Egypt was not planning to get involved in internal Somali affairs. What Egypt was keen on was boosting development in Somalia and aiding in political coordination, he added.

According to Amira Abdel-Halim, lead researcher on the Horn of Africa at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, in the final analysis the outcome of these elections is important for Egypt in the sense that anything that influences the stability of Somalia is important for Egypt.

For Egypt, the Horn of Africa is a national security concern, especially vis-a-vis the Red Sea. It is also close to the Nile Basin.

These have always been two strategic areas of concern for Egypt, Abdel-Halim said, adding that the Red Sea is a very important region for Egypt, and it has become highly militarised with many foreign countries building military or logistics bases in the countries of the Horn of Africa.

In addition to Turkey  that has become during the past two decades a key player in this region and other parts of Africa including the equally crucial Sahel and Sahara zone  other foreign countries that have some sort of presence in the Horn of Africa include, Italy, US, France, Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt, government officials say, is not planning to press its interests in the region at the expense of members of the region, but it cannot look the other way when foreign powers, including Arab and non-Arab states, are expanding their presence.

For example, Qatar, for several years a political foe of Egypt and both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who have had alliances with Egypt, acted during the past decade to expand in the region, Abdel-Halim said.

Egypt, she added, has been legitimately trying to balance this situation to make sure that its strategic interests around the Red Sea and in the Nile Basin are not compromised. This reach-out, she noted, has been trying to cover all the countries of this region at the highest level possible.

She added that winning Somalia over is crucial both for the security of the Red Sea and also in view of the current conflict with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) was also important for Egypt.

Ethiopia has often tried to undermine Somalia, she said, adding that this had been either through military interventions or political maneuvering.

According to Abdel-Halim, Ethiopia was largely to blame for the radicalisation of the Al-Shabab movement in Somalia. Originally Al-Shabab was stimulated to resist Ethiopias military and political presence in Somalia and along the road the movement got radicalised, she said.

Today, Abdel-Halim argued, helping Somalia stand on its own two feet is crucial to helping it face up to the attempts of foreign countries to intervene in its affairs, Ethiopia or any other country.

Sparing Somalia from the conflicting agendas of other countries is a crucial first step for stability since the country has suffered a lot due to repeated interventions from countries in and out of the region, she said.

I think there is an understanding in Somalia, both at the official and public levels, that Egypt is not trying to take control of the political will of Somalis, Abdel-Halim said. Still, she added, it is also understood and accepted that Egypt has some crucial interests that it would wish Somalia to accommodate, including those related to Red Sea security and the GERD conflict.

According to Nasr, coordination and consultations between the two countries will continue, covering all aspects of bilateral and regional issues.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The Egyptian community in Afghanistan, including the Azharite delegation and the diplomatic team, arrived in Cairo on Monday following their evacuation on direct orders from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.

The country is no longer safe or stable on the return of the Taliban to power following the complete withdrawal of US forces. Here, while thousands have left to the Gulf and millions await their fate, Afghan refugees are seen arriving at the Pakistani border.

No agreement was reached on Western policy on Afghanistan at a G7 meeting on Tuesday, with NATO allies openly expressing their dismay at US policy, writes Manal Lotfy

As the Taliban make a comeback in Afghanistan, the Middle East region wakes up to a new reality and renewed threats, writes Salah Nasrawi

Taliban pledges to form an inclusive government and their sudden professed moderation will likely vanish as soon as US and NATO troops depart from Afghanistan, writes Khaled Dawoud

Researcher on Islamist movements Ahmed Kamel Al-Beheiri explains to Dina Ezzat why it would be wrong to lump the Taliban in Afghanistan in with other militant groups

Ahmed Mostafa registers the effects of Afghan refugees on intra-Gulf politics

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What does it mean to make art during a global pandemic? Does the role of art change after death, illness and isolation have rocked the world? Should artists make art to personally cope with the trauma, or should their work help release viewers from their pain?

Lina Osama embarks on a post-pandemic creative process with her recent series, Becoming Vintage, currently on display at Access art space. These canvases express nostalgia through 20th-century film and television stars, paired with comfortable domestic interiors illustrated in bright colours in acrylic paint. American stars like Madonna, Johnny Depp, and Marilyn Monroe cavort alongside Egyptian legends Samia Gamal, Souad Hosni, and Umm Kulthoum.

Clearly drawn from photographs or film stills, these iconic performers evoke a time that was simpler for Osama and her generation: afternoon television at home. The square shapes of the canvases even mimic the square box of tube television sets. Before personal computers, Wi-Fi, and Facebook, people curled up on the couch and watched the stars of the twentieth century glide by on the small screen.

While the stars in the paintings are immediately recognizable, it is hard to place the source images. This is because Osama finds numerous photographs using Google image search and blends them together, creating recognizable faces without a single source. In Souad Hosni and Vintage Car, a bust of the legendary performer appears before a black background, crumbling gold squares surrounding her. A large turquoise Cadillac hovers over her shoulder, and Osama uses household fabric to stamp a floral design across the gold.

The exhibition is on until 5 September.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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This was a week from hell! Every which way you turned, human beings were crying, suffering, dying, from natural or man-made disasters.

An earthquake in Haiti, anti-lockdown demonstrations in Australia, shootings in Mexico, blowing mines in Columbia, and above all the havoc in Afghanistan.



The return of the Taliban to Kabul to form a new government was more than pitiful.



After 20 years of US military presence, following the 9/11 terrorist attack on New Yorks Twin Towers, the terrorists took a back seat. The US military, sacrificed many American lives as they fought to keep the merciless Taliban terrorists at bay. By supporting, aiding and protecting a legitimate Afghan government, some form of neutrality was established.



Suddenly they shocked the world by announcing their immediate departure.



Former British prime minister Tony Blair put it best when he said: It was tragic and unnecessary.



This sudden pullout was a rash decision sending shivers up your spine. It was un-planned, under-cooked, and unwise. Where was the strategic outline of such a move? Should it not have taken weeks or months to remove American and other foreign diplomats, military personnel, equipment, residents and Afghan allies, before announcing their careless, premature abandonment.



Indeed, it would have happened sooner or later, with cool caution, discretion and precision.but what was the purpose of their presence to begin with? Was it not to put an end to the terrorist rule of the Taliban? Now they are spreading out the red carpet for their return with little regard for the people of Afghanistan, the women, the US allies  as though those past 20 years were for naught, except for the loss of lives, money, valuable intricate equipment left in the hands of the enemy. Need we go on with the list of damages caused by an act of stupidity, we do not know what else to call it.



The whole area is now at risk. Pakistan and India at the border of Afghanistan own nuclear weapons. An obviously weakened US urges China to exercise more control over Taiwan as well as Afghanistan. Now South Korea also wants the US military out- the whole geography of the area is sure to change. The US president is either unaware or uninformed, to say the least.



Did you know that the US military is present in 150 countries? They are everywhere Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and especially the Middle East. We see no legitimate reason why, is it to aid, to protect or to support? Can anyone trust their commitments after the vivid pictures of flight from Kabul, with roads blocked to the airports by the Taliban.



The grim images on our screens as families rush to safety, mothers dropping their babies to Americans, who, as of this writing, are still trapped, awaiting help from the US, breaks our hearts in a million pieces.



It is a deja vu of what happened in Saigon as the defeated Americans fled the city in disarray, hanging on the wings of flying airplanes.



Does history repeat itself? If not, it certainly rhymes said Mark Twain.



A new dawn had been breaking in this ancient country, over 100,000 years old. A land of great mountains, scorching deserts, fertile valleys and rolling plains. Located is southwestern Asia, it is bordered by Russia on the north, China on the far northeast, Pakistan on the east and south and Iran on the west.and no seacoast. Suddenly darkness and hungry neighbours.



No wonder at one time or another invaders have ravaged the country, rich in oil, copper, gold, natural gas, uranium, coal, iron ore, chromium, lead, sulfur and more  giant assets still to be developed. China has a 30-year lease for the largest copper project  no surprise there.



Its long and troubled history of tribal wars has encouraged invaders from early days  among them Greeks, Persians, Mongols and in modern times interference from Great Britain, Russia. Their guerilla war tactics helped overcome invaders. No wonder the country has earned the title of the graveyard of foreigners.



With 99 per cent Muslims, their form of Islam is like no other. The Taliban claim they follow Sharia Law (Islamic rule), but their interpretation is far stricter than any other to the extent that they justify the killing of fellow Muslims of the Shafei sect, a sect accepted by the holy prophet and Islamic law.



Is man a child of peace or a creature of war? While he seemingly embraces peace, he continuously finds a necessity to exercise those primal instinct he shares with his cousins in the animal kingdom. Yet he alone reserves the distinction of being the only animal to kill his own people.



Many of our baser instincts such as prejudice, intolerance and violence remain etched in our brains despite our sophistication in all matters technical, philosophical or lyrical.



The Taliban and other terrorists have proven that.



In 2001, the remarkable Iranian Film Director Mohsen Makhmabaf presented his masterpiece Kandahar, second city in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took refuge after the US wars: I shall call it the land of no pictures, he said. With no paintings, no music, a library burned to the ground and women hidden under burqas, useful only for mans needs, whipped regularly, mercilesslyI shall write a book about it.



Is this the legacy the US is leaving after 20 years of occupation  a shameful, abrupt departure?



US allies, in 150 countries must be restless or sleepless nowadays.





An open foe may be a curse. But a pretended friend is worse.



John Gay (1685-1732).

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The scenes coming out of Kabul last week after the Taliban reached the Afghan capital and the president of the country fled with dozens of senior officials have shaken world opinion.

In the meantime, the US and its NATO allies have begun evacuating their diplomats and nationals, along with those Afghans who worked with Western embassies and forces over the last two decades. At the time of writing, the US and its allies had successfully managed to evacuate 18,000 people from Kabul International Airport, named after former Afghan president Hamed Karzai.

The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has raised questions about the NATO alliance and whether its member countries should continue to rely on the US for their defence. The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan that US President Joe Biden announced last April was taken without close coordination with NATO.

The British wanted to keep a small NATO force in Afghanistan, of perhaps some 3,000 soldiers, in order to provide deterrence on the one hand against an all-out offensive by the Taliban and on the other hand to give support to the Afghan army in case it needed military assistance to repel Taliban attacks.

The US turned down the British proposal, and the Biden administration may regret having done so. In retrospect, it would have been a realistic decision on the part of NATO, and it would have prevented the Taliban from controlling 90 per cent of Afghanistan, as they do today.

What went wrong in Afghanistan over the last two decades that allowed the Taliban to come back with such force, taking not only the US administration but also the whole world by surprise? It is interesting to note that as recently as June US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives that he did not expect an immediate deterioration in the situation as US forces began to draw down over the summer.

Moreover, when Biden received Ashraf Ghani, the outgoing president of Afghanistan, last spring at the White House, he asked him to establish political unity among the various factions in his country including the Taliban and not to disperse his forces trying to defend the entirety of Afghan territory. Ghani turned a deaf ear to this advice.

On 16 August, Biden in a three-minute speech to his countrymen said that Afghanistans political leaders gave up and fled. He added that the Afghan military collapsed sometimes without trying to fight.

We can pinpoint two main causes for the lightning collapse of the Afghan state in just a week: the fragility of political power and authority, let alone the pervasive corruption within the apparatus of this pseudo-state, and the lack of discipline and morale within the ranks of the Afghan military.

Of course, speaking of morale within the Afghan forces, we should also take into account the feeling of powerlessness that spread in the army once the US reduced dramatically the number of air sorties it was carrying out to assist Afghan military units in fighting advancing Taliban fighters.

I guess the turning point came when the Americans left the Bagram Air Base over night without alerting the Afghan military. The Afghan army realised then that without decisive air cover by the Americans, the fight against the Taliban would be almost useless. That was accompanied by secret communications between the Taliban and many Afghan commanders and officers to surrender without a fight. Furthermore, the Taliban gave money to unpaid Afghan soldiers, some of whom had not received their salary for the last six months. It is not unusual in this part of the world to get your way by doling out money.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, speaking last week before members of the US Congress to explain what could have gone wrong in carrying out the withdrawal from Afghanistan, said that you cant buy will and you cant purchase leadership. From his standpoint, thats what was missing in this situation.

But to better understand the situation on the ground today, we have to go back to February 2020 when the administration of former US president Donald Trump signed a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, without the Afghan government being a party to the agreement, whereby US forces would withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021 without conditions as to what the Taliban should do in return. From that day onwards, the Taliban began serious planning for their comeback, both militarily and politically.

Quoted in the UK Financial Times last weekend, Ahmed Rachid, a well-known expert on South and Central Asia and the author of a book entitled Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, pointed out that without the withdrawal deal, nothing would have happened. It changed the whole equation. The Afghan army was no longer a fighting force. It tipped the balance in favour of the Taliban.

The big surprise, as well as the dismal failure, was that neither the Americans, nor the NATO allies, nor the Afghan government, anticipated or simulated an all-out Taliban offensive once the American forces began their withdrawal. Misreading the Taliban after all these years is inexcusable, to say the least.

General Douglas Lute, a three-star general who served as the White Houses Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, said that we were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan  we did not know what we were doing We did not have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.

Biden said that much as well, although implicitly, in his remarks defending his administration, when he made clear that US forces went into Afghanistan with one mission, which was to hunt down and defeat Al-Qaeda after the September 11 attacks on the US, and that this mission had been accomplished.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and its short and medium-term consequences means that the US for many years to come will not get involved in grand schemes of nation-building. The irony is that after two costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are no traces whatsoever of nation-building, however. In fact, the opposite could be true.

But the return of the Taliban to power in Kabul does not only testify to shortcomings and failings in the US strategy, but also to a certain failure on the part of the Muslim world in dealing with Islamist fundamentalism and extremism.

*The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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KYODO NEWS - Aug 28, 2021 - 21:00 | All, World, Japan

Japan has transported 14 Afghans aboard a Self-Defense Forces aircraft from Kabul to Islamabad in neighboring Pakistan at the request of the United States amid heightened tensions in the Afghan capital following bombing attacks near the city's airport, government sources said Saturday.

The 14 Afghans, who are not local staff of the government-related entities, were evacuated Thursday in the first SDF airlift of foreign nationals to another country as part of a mission to evacuate Japanese citizens.

The airlift took place a day before the evacuation of a Japanese national aboard an SDF plane from the war-torn country.

Two C-130 aircraft and a C-2 transporter sent by Japan for the mission made several round trips between Kabul and the Pakistani capital on Wednesday and Thursday, but none of the Japanese nationals wishing to board the planes was able to reach the airport.

Japan's evacuation mission is for local staff of the Japanese Embassy and Japan International Cooperation Agency as well as their families, in addition to Japanese nationals.

According to a diplomatic source, up to about 500 people are due to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Japan has been exploring alternative methods to evacuate them, including using commercial airlines, as an Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops approaches.

On Friday, one of the SDF aircraft carried Hiromi Yasui, a 57-year-old Kyodo News staff member who lives in Kabul and also runs a business there to Islamabad. According to government officials, a small number of Japanese remain in Afghanistan as they did not wish to leave the country.

Japanese government officials have said the SDF planes will remain on standby as developments in Kabul are assessed.

Related coverage:

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New Delhi:

A Doordarshan cameraman Achutyanand Sahu and two security personnel were killed and two others injured in an attack by Naxals at Dantewada's Aranpur in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, according to news agency ANI.

Dantewada Naxal attack: Two security personnel who were injured brought to hospital. Two security personnel and a DD cameraman lost their lives in the attack. #Chhattisgarh pic.twitter.com/ZiqbwiNbNs  ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2018

"Today our patrolling party was ambushed by Naxals in Aranpur. Two of our personnel were martyred, and a DD cameraman was also injured and later succumbed. Two more personnel injured," said DIG P Sundarraj.

Today our patrolling party was ambushed by Naxals in Aranpur. Two of our personnel were martyred, and a DD cameraman was also injured and later succumbed. Two more personnel injured: DIG P Sundarraj #Chhattisgarh pic.twitter.com/ZgZMF6xdRJ  ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2018

I&B Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore condoled the death of the DD cameraman and the security personnel. "Stand in solidarity with family of the camerman, we will take care of his family. We salute all those mediapersons who go for coverage in such dangerous situations, remember their bravery," Rathore said.
New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court on Monday said CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, who was sent on leave by the government, cannot be arrested till November 1. A bench of Justice Najmi Waziri questioned the CBI for not filing reply to pleas of Asthana and another official, Devender Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, seeking quashing the of FIR in the matter.

The CBI has lodged an FIR against Asthana and Kumar in connection with bribery allegations. The high court also directed the CBI to file reply on the two pleas on or before November 1.

The CBI prosecutor told the high court that delay in filing of reply occurred as the case files have been sent to Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and sought more time for filing the response.

Kumar, earlier the investigating officer in a case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, was arrested on October 22 on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Sana, who had alleged to have paid bribe to get relief in the case.

The high court had on October 23 directed the CBI to maintain status quo on the criminal proceedings initiated against its special director Asthana, who has challenged the FIR lodged against him on bribery allegations.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

In a strong retaliation to the shelling in Poonch and Jhallas on October 23, the Indian Army on Monday targeted Pakistans military administrative headquarters across the Line of Control, security officials said. The Army retaliated in the Khuiratta and Samani areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), they said.

"In response to Pakistani army's firing of stray shells on Poonch and Jhallas on October 23, 2018, the Indian Army has sent a strong signal by firing at Pakistani army administrative headquarters... and the residents of border villages also reported that they could see smoke emanating," the officials said.

#WATCH: Pakistan army administrative HQ targeted along LoC near Poonch by Indian Army in retaliation to Pakistans mortar shelling of Poonch and Jhallas on October 23 pic.twitter.com/o0C6UJQqcr  ANI (@ANI) October 29, 2018

News agency PTI reported that Pakistani troops fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at around 10:35 hours during ceasefire violation.

One round landed on a barrel type store shelter in Poonch causing it to catch fire," defence spokesperson Lt Colonel Devender Anand said.

Following the shelling in Poonch, the Indian Army has in its "strong signal" to Pakistan, fired on its army administrative headquarters in PoK, they said.

Pakistan army administrative HQ targeted along LoC near Poonch by Indian Army in retaliation to Pakistans mortar shelling of Poonch and Jhallas on October 23 pic.twitter.com/BGxda5dhWd  ANI (@ANI) October 29, 2018

The officials claimed that several photographs "stood testimony" to the reports of border villagers that they had seen smoke emanating from the Pakistani headquarters after the Indian military's retaliatory action. According to them, the Indian Army has exercised maximum restraint, despite continuous provocation by the Pakistani army.

However, the army has avoided targeting civilian population living in the close proximity of the Line of Control (LoC) in PoK areas such as Hajira, Bandi Gopalpur, Nikial, Samani and Khuiratta, the officials said.

"Deprivation and penury of locals of PoK suits the Pakistan army that while ensconced in the safety of their posts, use these unwitting and brainwashed youths as cannon fodder for actions along the LoC, a cowardly and unprofessional modus operandi for any self-respecting army," the officials said.

"These acts of the Pakistan army are accentuated by their propensity in refusing to acknowledge and accept the dead bodies of their soldiers as also of terrorists, each time the terrorists are neutralised in operations along the LoC or the hinterland," they said.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi:

US attorney Scott Brady in Pittsburgh says he is seeking approval for the death penalty against shooting suspect Robert Bowers. Brady says he has begun the process to get Attorney General Jeff Sessions approval as required by law to pursue a capital case against Bowers.



Earlier, in a statement US Attorney's Office of the Western District of Pennsylvania said that the gunman has been slapped with 29 counts of federal crimes of violence and firearms offenses. This is the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in recent US history. The charges against shooter Robert Bowers include 11 counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death; and 11 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence.

US attorney in Pittsburgh says he's seeking approval for the death penalty against shooting suspect Robert Bowers: The Associated Press  ANI (@ANI) October 29, 2018

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"The crimes of violence are based upon the federal civil rights laws prohibiting hate crimes," the statement said.



Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf described the shooting incident as a tragedy. "The shooting in Pittsburgh this morning is an absolute tragedy...These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans. My thoughts right now are focused on the victims, their families and making sure law enforcement has every resource they need," he said.



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"We cannot accept this violence as normal," Wolf said.







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New Delhi:

Three Central Industrial Security Force ( CISF) personnel, including assistant sub-inspector Mohit Kumar Sharma, are being praised for saving the life a who had suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed inside the Mumbai airport on Friday.

The man collapsed near the security clearance area of the airport following which people gathered around him. A video posted by the CISF on Twitter shows a personnel jumping over the baggage checkpoint counter and rushing to assist the man. While one was seen massaging the passengers sole, another performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

#CISF personnel saved the life of a passenger who fell down due to cardiac arrest at Domestic Terminal of Mumbai Airport.#CISF ASI/Exe Mohit Kumar Sharma rushed to unconscious passenger & immediately gave CPR to him.Prompt response of #CISF personnel saved the life of passenger. pic.twitter.com/d8TEb94YGF  CISF@India (@CISFHQrs) October 28, 2018

CPR is an emergency procedure that combines chest compressions often with artificial ventilation to manually preserve intact brain function until further medical assistance arrives.

This primary emergency procedure increases the chances of recovery of a person who has suffered a cardiac arrest.

Many, including veteran Anupam Kher, on social media hailed the trio for their heroics.

Well done @CISFHQrs Personnel. Aapki Jai Ho.

CISF personnel gives man CPR at Mumbai airport, saves his life https://t.co/vVIJ3F8P8c  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) October 28, 2018

In a similar incident on July 5, assistant sub-inspector Parthasarthy Pal from the CISF saved the life of a 68-year-old US national, Frank Russell, at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport.Soon after Russel collapsed near the VIP exit gate, Pal rushed to him and started giving CPR, is part of the training of all para military forces.

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New Delhi:

Apple is all set to host an event in New York on October 30. The event this week follows just a month after Apple launching the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. Apple fans will see the launch of iPad Pro (2018), new range of MacBooks as well as the new AirPods 2, taking over the bud-shaped wireless earphones. However, Apple has remained pretty tight-lipped about the event details, but various leaks, rumours suggest what the company has in store.



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Theres more in the making is written in the Apple event invite. Apple is likely revamping the hardware products.



According to reports, Apple is said to be launching two new models of the iPad Pro. They are likely to adopt the iPhone Xs-style with slimmer bezels and no Touch ID, in terms of design. iPad Pro may be a switch to USB-C and a redesigned Smart Connector. There can be Face ID biometric authentication mechanism in the new models.



"The new iPad Pros are getting completely overhauled with a new design. It's the iPad equivalent of the jump Apple made with the iPhone X last year," The Verge reported on Monday.



Apples new MacBook Air could sport a Retina display and thinner bezels than the earlier model, according to reports.



Rumours about second-generation AirPods which swirled for many months will finally be put to end. The upgraded earphones are apparently going to bring noise cancellation and waterproofing along with them.



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Apple Launch Event: How to watch live stream



The Apple event on October 30 will begin from 7.30pm IST. The company will live stream the event on its website, as well as through the Apple TV app. Apple website option can be accessed from the Safari browser. The event can also be accessed through Windows 10.
New Delhi:

The Lion Air plane JT610 that crashed in Indonesia on Monday morning was assigned to Indian-origin pilot Bhavye Suneja and his co-pilot Harvino. Suneja had 6,000 flight hours of experience and the co-pilot has 5,000 flight hours, according to news agency Bloomberg. According to media reports, Suneja was a resident of Mayur Vihar and studied at the Ahlcon Public School in the locality. He joined the low-cost carrier Lion Air in March 2011, Times of India reported.

The Lion Air jet that crashed was fit for operations, the airline said in a statement. The plane was manufactured in 2018 and entered service for Lion on August 15 this. The plane was a Boeing Co. 737 Max-8 model. Lion Air said it will cooperate with authorities in relation to this incident.

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The Lion Air passenger plane from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang, that went missing 13 minutes after take-off on Monday morning at 6.33 am, crashed in the Java Sea, 15 miles off Jakarta Airport. According to The Straits Times as quoted by news agency ANI, the plane had requested a return to base before disappearing from radar. The aircraft was at 2,500-3,000 feet before disappearing from radar. It had reached a maximum height of about 5,450 feet after take-off and descended rapidly at about 6.31 am, according to data on Flightradar24.com. The site where the plane crashed is within the Java sea. These are shallow waters with an average depth of about 46 meters, or 141 meters.

The Indonesian aviation ministry said that there were 189 people on board, including 179 adults, three children, seven crew members. Indonesia's rescue agency says they have found plane debris at the crash site, while a statement from Boeing on its Twitter handle said that "Boeing is aware of reports of an airplane accident and is closely monitoring the situation."

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As per Indonesia's finance ministry spokesman Nufransa Wira Sakti there were 20 officials on board the crashed Lion passenger jet.

Indonesia's Air Force says it has deployed three helicopters for search and evacuation in the waters of Tanjung Karawang. The National Search and Rescue Agency says debris spotted so far include aircraft parts, a handbag, driving license and national identity card.

Lion Air is the largest privately-owned Indonesian airline and among the major customers for Boeing and Airbus in Asia.

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Salem:

A 13-year-old Dalit girl was beheaded at a hamlet in this district of Tamil Nadu allegedly by her neighbour after she reportedly spurned his advances.

A senior police official said on Wednesday the accused Dinesh Kumar has been arrested and lodged in Salem jail and a probe was on.

The incident happened at a small village near Attur in Salem district recently.

In a complaint filed by the victims relatives, they have levelled allegations of sexual misconduct against the accused, a caste Hindu, the official said.

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The police dismissed media reports that the accused was mentally disturbed.

According to reports, the deceased teenager had rejected the accuseds advances and also informed her mother.

Police said Kumar beheaded her using a sickle.

The victim was studying at a nearby government school and was the last of three siblings. Her parents are said to be labourers.
New Delhi:

An Indian-origin man was fined US dollar 8.6 million in compensation and serve six months of home imprisonment for launching a series of cyber-attacks on the computer network of a US university. Paras Jha, 22, of New Jersey had previously pleaded guilty before US District Judge Michael Shipp to violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He also took part in creating click fraud botnets, infecting hundreds of thousands of devices with malicious software.



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According to documents filed in this and other cases and statements made in court, between November 2014 and September 2016, Jha executed a series of distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on the networks of the New Jersey-based Rutgers University - during which multiple computers acting in unison flood the Internet connection of a targeted computer or computers.



Shipp, who imposed the sentence last week in Trenton federal court, also sentenced Jha to five years of supervised release and ordered him to perform 2,500 hours of community service.



Jhas attacks effectively shut down the varsitys central authentication server, which maintained, among other things, the gateway portal through which staff, faculty, and students delivered assignments and assessments.



At times, he succeeded in taking the portal offline for multiple consecutive periods, causing damage to the university, its faculty, and its students.



In December last year, Jha along with Josiah White, 21, of Pennsylvania and Dalton Norman, 22, of Louisiana had pleaded guilty to criminal information in the District of Alaska charging them each with conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act in operating the Mirai Botnet.



In the summer and fall of 2016, White, Jha, and Norman created a powerful botnet a collection of computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the knowledge or permission of the owners of the computers.



The Mirai Botnet, targeted Internet of Things devices such as wireless cameras, routers, and digital video recorders.



The defendants attempted to discover both known and previously undisclosed vulnerabilities that allowed them to surreptitiously attain administrative or high-level access to victim devices for the purpose of forcing the devices to participate in the Mirai Botnet.



At its peak, Mirai consisted of hundreds of thousands of compromised devices. The defendants used the botnet to conduct a number of other cyber-attacks.



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Further, from December 2016 to February 2017, the defendants successfully infected more than 100,000 primarily US-based Internet-connected computing devices, such as home Internet routers, with malicious software.



Last month, all three defendants were separately sentenced in federal court in Alaska to serve a five-year period of probation, 2,500 hours of community service, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of USD127,000, and have voluntarily abandoned significant amounts of cryptocurrency seized during the course of the investigation.



(With PTI inputs)









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New Delhi:

Pakistan's Supreme Court Wednesday acquitted a Christian woman convicted for blasphemy, prompting protests by far-right groups that have been demanding her execution for years. The apex court, in a three-member bench led by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, issued the verdict on Wednesday morning, three weeks after they had reached a decision. The delay followed threats by blasphemy campaigners to hold protests.

Protests break out in parts of Karachi (pic 1), Lahore & Islamabad (pic 2) after Pakistan's Supreme Court acquitted a Christian woman #AsiaBibi. She had been earlier sentenced to death for blasphemy. (Pics & info: Samaa TV) pic.twitter.com/6R6C6v9pl9  ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2018

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On Wednesday, judges said they agreed that Bibi had not been tried fairly, noting "glaring and stark" contradictions in the prosecution's evidence, and ordered her immediate release.



Chief Justice Saqib Nisarm, who read out the ruling, said Asia Bibi could walk free from jail in Sheikupura, near Lahore, immediately if not wanted in connection with any other case.



"I can't believe what I am hearing, will I go out now? Will they let me out, really?" AFP news agency quoted Asia Bibi as saying.



Bibi, 53, a native of the central Pakistan village of Ithan Wali, was accused by two Muslim women of having insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad and the Quran during an argument sparked by their refusal to drink water from the same vessel as her in 2009.



Bibi's case gained prominence when when former governor of Pakistan's Punjab province Salman Taseer was killed in 2011 for supporting her and criticising the blasphemy laws.



The blasphemy laws were promulgated by former military dictator Ziaul Haq in 1980s. A person convicted under these laws is given death sentence.



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Critics say strict blasphemy laws have often been used to get revenge after personal disputes, and that convictions are based on thin evidence.



Dozens of people have been charged under the laws. Though, Bibi is being released but there are fears that she might be at risk of being attacked by militants.





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New Delhi:

India on Wednesday said it has lodged strong protests with China and Pakistan over a proposed bus service between the two countries through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Wednesday the bus service will be a violation of Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity.

According to reports, the new bus service will be launched between Lahore in Pakistan and Kashgar in China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on November 13.

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Kumar said it has been Indias consistent and well-known position that the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963 is illegal and invalid, and has never been recognised by the Government of India.

Therefore, any such bus service through Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir will be a violation of Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity, he added.

The MEA spokesperson was responding to media queries regarding the proposed bus service.

The $50-billion CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking Chinas resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistans strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.

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New Delhi:

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph on Monday adjourned the matter on the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court's 2010 verdict that had divided the disputed land on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area into three parts and said that a new bench will decide the date for hearing of pleas in January 2019 .

On September 27, the Supreme Court had said it had to find the context in which the five-judge bench had delivered the 1994 judgment stating that a mosque was not integral to Islam which arose during the hearing of the Ayodhya land dispute. The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra pronounced the verdict on Ayodhya land dispute case. Declining the matter to refer to a larger bench, Justice Ashok Bhushan and CJI Misra fixed the matter for further hearing on October 29.

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Justice Ashok Bhushan read the judgment for himself and the CJI.A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court in its 1994 Ismail Faruqui judgment said mosque did not constitute an essential part of Islam.

Post that, the Allahabad High Court had in 2010 ruled a three-way division of the disputed 2.77 acres of land, which was challenged by Muslim litigants seeking direction that a larger Constitution bench hear the clutch of petitions in the case.

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A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had on September 30, 2010, ordered that the land should be partitioned equally among three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.

10:57 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and KM Joseph arrive at the court.

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New Delhi:

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia sentenced to seven years in jail in a corruption case, according to news agency ANI. The Bangladeshi Supreme Court had earlier cleared the way for a lower court to deliver its verdict on Monday in the graft case against imprisoned ex-prime minister and main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia, rejecting her plea to halt the proceedings.

Zia, 73, who is already serving a jail term since February after being convicted in another case related embezzlement of funds of an orphanage named after her husband president Ziaur Rahman in February, was sentenced along with three others.

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The latest sentence is related the Zia Charitable Trust. According to the case, Zia and three others abused their power and raised funds for the trust from unknown sources.

The apex court rejected a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Zia challenging the High Court judgment that allowed a lower court to continue trial in the graft case in her absence.

The court on September 20 decided to continue the trial inside the old Dhaka central jail in Zias absence.

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The former premier on September 27 filed a revision petition with the High Court (HC) challenging the courts September 20 order.

On October 14, the HC rejected the revision petition of Zia and cleared the way for the trial court to continue with its proceedings.

Zia had skipped appearances in the case citing illness.

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Bangladesh: In a shocking incident, a passenger boat carrying more than 100 people sank after a collision Friday in a large pond in Bangladesh.

According to reports, 21 people were dead and about 50 missing. Firefighters and locals were looking for the missing people well past midnight. The sinking occurred in the Bijoynagar area in Brahmanbaria district in the evening, local police official Imranul Islam said over telephone. Rescuers recovered at least 21 bodies by late Friday, while survivors said about 100 people were on board, he said. Local news reports, quoting the areas top government administrator, Hayat-Ud-Dola, said about 50 people were missing. An eye witness said two cargo vessels hit the boat, which sank quickly, I was grazing cattle on the bank of the pond. I heard a loud noise and saw the cargo vessels hitting the passenger trawler. I saw the trawler sinking quickly, witness Nurul Amin told the media.

The area is 82 kilometers east of the capital, Dhaka. Bangladesh is a delta nation where water transport is heavily used to move people and goods, but deadly accidents are common because of unskilled operation and poor enforcement of safety rules. The deputy commissioner of the district reportedly visited the area later and announced that Tk 20,000 would be given to each family of the deceased.

Kabul Attack: 'Wipe out city in Afghanistan in exchange for every American's life'

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Baghdad: The well-known Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr has reversed his earlier decision to boycott the parliamentary elections slated for October 10.

Addressing a televised meet on Friday, al-Sadr said that he had received a paper on reforms in the country pledged by the political parties, calling him to return to the elections, reports Xinhua news agency. He said, he has received the reform paper from politicians and found it to be in accordance with our aspirations. "We will participate in the elections with determination to save and reform Iraq from corruption," he added On July 15, the cleric announced his withdrawal from the parliamentary elections due to "rampant corruption and unfair competition between political parties," He said, adding that he backed Sairoon Coalition, which includes hiss loyalists allied with some other political parties, became the largest group in the Iraqi Parliament after the 2018 elections.

Iraq is scheduled to hold the early parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, in response to the anti-government protests against corruption and lack of public services. The previous parliamentary elections in Iraq were held on May 12, 2018, and the next polls were originally scheduled to take place in 2022.

Bangladesh Tragedy: Boat sinks in pond, 21 dead, several missing

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Washington: U.S President Joe Biden has discussed the Iranian nuclear issue and bilateral security ties with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Sitting with Bennett at the Oval Office, Biden reaffirmed US "unwavering commitment" to Israel's security and supported the Jewish state to deepen its relationship with Arab and Muslim countries, according to reports..

"And we're also going to discuss the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon," said Biden. "But we're putting diplomacy first, seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we're ready to turn to other options." Bennett extended his condolence for US casualties in the Kabul attack.

The prime minister said "We've developed a comprehensive strategy that we're going to be talking about with two goals," he said. "The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box; and the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to break out their nuclear weapon." Israel opposed Biden's diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Washington and Tehran conducted multiple rounds of indirect talks in Austria's capital Vienna since April to revive the deal, but the process had stalled for weeks as the two sides could not settle their differences.

The Iran nuclear program was the main topic in his discussion with Biden. The two leaders also held different views over the Palestine-Israel issue. Biden expressed his support for a two-state solution, which Bennett rejected.

US Federal Powell likely to give few hints on bond-buying taper timeline

South African photojournalist John Parkin dies at age 63

Sri Lanka extends its nation-wide lockdown till Sept 6 as cases surge
According to a report, at least 14 Kerala residents are said to be a part of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) terror group that took the responsibility for suicide bombing attacks at Kabul airport. The number of deaths from the suicide bombings was somewhere around 170, including 13 US soldiers.

According to media report, the 14 Keralites were among the terrorists and militants freed by the Taliban from Bagram jail. As of now, unconfirmed reports state that two Pakistani residents were detained by the Sunni Pashtun terrorist group for trying to blow off an Improvised Explosive Device device outside Turkmenistan embassy in Kabul on August 26.

As per reports, a Kerala resident contacted his home, while the remaining 13 are still in Kabul with the ISIS-K terrorist group. After Syria and Levant occupied Mosul in 2014, people from the Malappuram, Kasaragod and Kannur districts left India and joined the jihadist group in West Asia from where a few Keralites came down to Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The government of India is worried that the Taliban will use these Keralites to tarnish Indias reputation by using terrorism in Afghanistan.

Britain concludes its evacuation programme of civilians from Afghanistan

Italy wants to host a special n emergency G20 meeting on Afghan crisis

Iraqi Shia cleric revert the earlier decision to boycott October polls
Kabul: 103 people, including 13 US commandos, were killed in a fidayeen attack near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. After which the operations of the aircraft from Kabul airport have been stopped. The Khurasan group of the terror group ISIS has taken responsibility for the attack. However, the US has claimed that it has killed the mastermind of the Kabul attack by conducting an airstrike. But the dreaded terror group continues to be a headache for the world. While Britain had convened an emergency meeting on the issue, France has also decided to bring back its ambassador from Afghanistan. The French Ambassador issued a message alerting his citizens to withdraw if they were near Kabul airport.

It is well known that the Taliban, the terror group, has captured power in Afghanistan and is oppressing the people of the country, but hardly anyone knows enough about the ISIS that attacked Kabul. So let us tell you what is ISIS Khurasan?

ISIS Khurasan is part of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), run by Afghanistan-Pakistan terrorists. It is headquartered in Afghanistan's Nangarhar state, which is very close to Pakistan. After the death of Taliban commander Mullah Omar, many dreaded Taliban militants were recruited in ISIS Khurasan. In this way, it can also be called a group from the Taliban. ISIS Khurasan aims to establish the State of Khurasan. In fact, the Persian word 'Khurasan' means from where the sun rises. In the third-fourth century, Arabs arrived in present-day Iran, where they were inhabited, named Khurasan. their scope widened and emerged as a great force. Later, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi caught sight of Khurasan and mapped the Islamic State of Khurasan. The map of the State of Khurasan also includes Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Jammu, and Kashmir of India. It also includes half of China, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

ISIS-K's relationship with the Taliban:

The Taliban and ISIS-K are enemies of each other. In fact, the Taliban have influence in Afghanistan. ISIS-K also wants to leave Afghanistan and fulfill Baghdadi's dream of the Khurasan state. ISIS-K does not believe in any political agenda like the Taliban. He believes that what the Taliban is doing is not enough to form an Islamic regime, so it is more hardcore and dangerous than the Taliban. That is why Afghanistan, has strictly enforced Sharia law in the areas they dominate. Whoever refuses to obey or violates the Law of Sharia, ISIS-K punishes them very brutally. The same makes ISIS-K a more dangerous terrorist organization than the Taliban. Their aim is to establish the kingdom of Islam all over the world.

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Home  Politics  Britain hands over 130,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Nepal

Kathmandu, August 27

The British government has donated 130,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Nepal to help the country expand its vaccine coverage.

British Ambassador to Nepal Nicola Pollitt handed over the vaccines to State Minister for Health and Population, Umesh Shrestha, on Thursday evening.

On the occasion, Ambassador Pollitt said her government had been regularly providing support including ventilators and personal protective equipment for the health workers in the past also.

Pollitt clarified it was not a part of the support via the Covax facility but that of the UK-Nepal bilateral cooperation.

Meanwhile, Minister Shrestha thanked the British government for the help.
Weather Alert

FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON The Flash Flood Watch continues for * Portions of southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and southeast New York, including the following areas, in southern Connecticut, Northern Fairfield, Northern Middlesex, Northern New Haven, Northern New London, Southern Fairfield, Southern Middlesex, Southern New Haven and Southern New London. In northeast New Jersey, Eastern Bergen, Eastern Essex, Eastern Passaic, Eastern Union, Hudson, Western Bergen, Western Essex, Western Passaic and Western Union. In southeast New York, Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), New York (Manhattan), Northeast Suffolk, Northern Nassau, Northern Queens, Northern Westchester, Northwest Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, Southeast Suffolk, Southern Nassau, Southern Queens, Southern Westchester and Southwest Suffolk. * Through Thursday afternoon. * The remnants of Ida as a post-tropical low will move near Long Island late tonight into early Thursday. This approaching post-tropical low will allow for deep tropical moisture along the Middle Atlantic and Northeast to produce heavy rain showers this morning through early Thursday morning. The heaviest of the rain showers are expected late this afternoon through tonight. The rainfall should begin to taper off Thursday morning into the early afternoon from west to east. A widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain is forecast with locally higher amounts likely. This rainfall combined with wet antecedent conditions will likely lead to flash flooding. Flooding of fast responding rivers and streams is likely, with potential flooding of main stem rivers as well that could linger into the day Thursday.
Workforce

Biden orders 2.7% pay raise for civilian feds

President Joe Biden told Congress on Friday that he will give civilian federal employees a 2.2% base pay hike plus a 0.5% increase in locality pay.

The adjustment takes effect in the first pay period that starts Jan. 1, 2022. It affects civilian federal employees working under the general schedule.

The planned 2.7% increase was included in the administration's budget.

Some House Democrats have been pressing for a 3.2% increase, but so far appropriations bills have been silent on the subject of pay, leaving space for Biden to offer an "alternative pay plan" under administrative authority.

Ken Thomas, the president of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, greeted the move saying that "the market-value 2.7 pay increase is a welcome change after the nominal 1% increase federal employees were provided in 2021, one that fell far short of what they deserved for the essential work many carried out on behalf of the American people throughout a global pandemic."
Industry Eagle Award

Craig Abod: Taking the pain out of procurement

Photo credit: Zaid Hamid

IT acquisition is dauntingly difficult for government customers and would-be vendors alike  so much so that innovative technology firms sometimes steer clear of the public sector entirely. For 17 years, Craig Abod and Carahsoft have been working to make those purchases easier and more effective.

The result is an ecosystem of roughly 500 industry partners delivering analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, customer experience and other solutions through dozens of different federal contract vehicles. (Carahsoft also serves the education and state and local government markets.) The success of that ecosystem is apparent in Carahsoft's performance  the 1,900-person firm now ranks 61st on Forbes' list of America's largest privately held companies, and is the largest IT software and services company on that list. But the more important indicators are on the customer side, where agencies have been able to accelerate their technology acquisition and deployment.

The latest example of Abod's career-long commitment to helping government learn about and procure effective IT solutions is Carahsoft's Cloud Purchasing Program. Launched in 2020, the CPP dramatically simplifies the cloud procurement process and covers services from more than 90 vendors. Government customers can acquire cloud products and services from multiple vendors through a single SKU. More than a dozen other resellers participate in the CPP, and federal agencies can purchase via NASA SEWP, the Army's ITES-SW2 contract, and the General Services Administration's Multiple Award Schedule Contract.

The customer benefits have been quick and clear. There were 94 CPP awards made in the first 12 months, and the Department of Defense's Cloud Computing Program Office picked CPP to modernize its infrastructure, noting that it was the only solution found that "met the CCPO requirements for providing flexible and rapid access to a wide variety of clouds to support real-time operations." A senior DOD executive confirmed to FCW that CPP has a been a substantial help to Defense agencies in particular.

CPP's combination of customer service, aggressive pricing and extensive education and training is typical of Abod's approach to business, and his commitment to connecting as many customers and companies possible in order to help government perform better.
President's Award

DARPA's Pandemic Prevention Platform

The President's Award differs others that are part of the Federal 100 awards. The Eagle Awards and the Fed 100s themselves are for individual achievements made in a single calendar year. This award can be given to a team or individual, and often recognizes work over a longer period of time that has finally come to fruition.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was designed for just that sort of innovation.

Created in 1958, DARPA's mission is to look ahead and invest in emerging technology for the military. As part of its goal to protect U.S. troops around the world from biological hazards or attacks, the agency has been funding work on DNA and RNA vaccines and antibody treatments since 2011. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, that decade of research and development proved critical.

In 2013, DARPA awarded $25 million to Moderna to help establish its messenger RNA platform. That work laid the foundation for the creation of the Biological Technologies Office in 2014 and the Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3) in 2017. The goal of the P3 program was to develop a scalable, adaptable rapid response platform that could produce the needed new vaccines or antibody treatments within 60 days when a new threat emerged.

In response to the COVID outbreak, Amy Jenkins, the P3 program manager, responded quickly and made awards to four groups to use the newly developed technology to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, which was accomplished in record time and has saved countless lives.

Many other individuals and organizations contributed to this success: former DARPA program managers Dan Wattendorf and Matt Hepburn, along with Geoff Ling, the Biological Technologies Office director at that time, and former DARPA Directors Regina Dugan and Arati Prabhakar. In addition, a large interagency group that included officials from the Department of Health and Human Services and its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the National Institutes of Health, and DOD's Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense, played an essential role.

But DARPA has been leading the effort for more than 10 years and its funding of potential vaccines and antibody treatments created the framework for the deployment of new vaccines in record time.

This article was changed Aug. 31 to correct the name of the P3 program. It is the Pandemic Prevention Platform, not the Pandemic Protection Program.
The Australian dollar has gone back and forth during the course of the trading session on Friday as we continue to see the 0.7250 level will attract a little bit of attention, but quite frankly I think there is even more resistance near the 0.73 handle. That is an area that was previous support, so it should now be significant resistance. The market has been in a downtrend for a while, and now that we are finally going to see whether or not the Federal Reserve is going to start talking about tapering. Ultimately, that is the only thing that seems to matter to markets at the moment.

AUD/USD Video 30.08.21

That being said, we also have to pay close attention to China, and what is going on over there as the Australian economy is so highly levered to exporting commodities to that part of the world. We have seen economic numbers in that part of the world slump, and that of course is going to have detrimental effects on the commodity markets, as well as the Australian dollar in and of itself. The 0.70 level underneath was the support level that I thought we were going to test but failed to. After this most recent bounce, but maybe we are getting ready to do so finally?

If Jerome Powell does in fact start talking about tapering, then it will probably send more money towards the US dollar regardless. With this being the case, I think the Australian dollar will be extraordinarily sensitive to this due to the fact that the Australian economy is relatively shut down anyway.

For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Ninety children abducted from a school in Nigeria were reunited on Friday with their parents after being held captive for nearly three months, part of a wave of mass kidnappings by armed gangs that have spread fear across the north of the country.

"Today is the happiest and most joyful day for me and my family," said Ali Gimi, whose five children were among those kidnapped from an Islamic school in Niger state on May 30.

"We had lost our joy and happiness. This is like a dream, after I had started losing hope," he said. "As I am speaking to you, the whole of our family has gathered at my house to celebrate their safe return."

Authorities say 136 children were initially seized at the school, though some later escaped. One, a five year old boy, died during captivity. The kidnappers had initially said six had died, but this proved to be a lie to scare parents into paying the ransom.

"We suffered terribly in their hands," one child, Ahmed Mohamed, told journalists. "They tied us up from morning till evening."

Mass kidnappings of schoolchildren, once a notorious tactic by Islamist militants to intimidate the population, have become a money-spinning industry for armed gangs demanding ransom payments. Authorities say 1,000 children have been abducted since December in northwestern Nigeria.

The 90 schoolchildren, along with two other abductees who were not identified, were released late on Thursday. Parents had sent a total of 65 million naira ($160,000) and six motorbikes as ransom, three parents told Reuters.

In a separate incident on Friday, kidnappers also released 15 students and four staff members who were taken earlier this month from an agricultural college in Zamfara state, a school source told Reuters.

The government has implored states not to pay ransoms, but desperate parents and communities often raise the funds themselves.

"We will do whatever it takes to bring them to justice," Niger state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said of the kidnappers. "We have put in place all necessary measures to hunt down and prosecute those involved in this heinous act."

($1 = 411.0000 naira)

(Reporting By Maiduguri newsroom; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Peter Graff)
President Biden and officials are calling on Gulf Coast residents to urgently finalize preparations for Hurricane Ida ahead of its expected landfall in Louisiana as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm on Sunday.

Driving the news: Thousands of residents had already left Saturday, as Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) said at a news briefing that the "window of time" for hurricane preparation was "rapidly closing" as the weather would "deteriorate very quickly" Sunday.

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At least five parishes in southeast Louisiana have called for mandatory evacuations ahead of the storm. New Orleans issued a mandatory evacuation order on Friday for areas outside of the city's levees.

Of note: President Biden has approved emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi to enable federal assistance and spoke with Gulf states governors Saturday, ahead of Ida's expected arrival on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed nearly 500 employees to Louisiana and Texas, and more than 2,000 staffers to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

The entire Louisiana National Guard, which includes about 5,000 members, has been deployed to respond to the storm, per The Advocate.

What they're saying: Biden said at a briefing with the FEMA on Saturday that officials had "prepositioned food, water, generators and other supplies" in the likely impacted region.

"Power restoration and mobile communications support teams are also en route," he added. "We've also closely coordinated with the electric utilities to restore power as soon as possible."

Edwards warned at his briefing, "This will be one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s."

Flashback: Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwestern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm in August last year.

Story continues

What to expect: Hurricane Ida was gaining strength Saturday over the Gulf of Mexico and predicted to hit southeastern Louisiana.

The storm has the potential to cause significant damage from high winds, nearly 2 feet of rain and up to 15 feet of storm surge.

New Orleans is likely to experience hurricane-force winds and a storm surge.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

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U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil futures are edging higher on Friday amid fresh worries about supply disruptions as energy companies began evacuating oil platforms and shutting down production in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of a possible hurricane strike over the weekend.

At 10:03 GMT, October WTI crude oil is trading $68.41, up $0.63 or +0.93% and October Brent crude oil is at $71.91, up $0.84 or +1.18%.

For the week, WTI is headed for a weekly gain of more than 9%, which would be its strongest rise since October 2020. Brent is on track for a rise of about 10% this week, its biggest weekly jump since June 2020.

In addition to the hurricane worries, there are growing expectations OPEC+ might resist raising output given the recent Delta variant impact over crude demand. This could become a heated debate because about two weeks ago, OPEC stuck with its demand forecast into the end of the year and early 2022.

Production Stops on Offshore Platforms

According to Reuters, energy companies started airlifting workers from Gulf of Mexico oil production platforms on Thursday and BHP, BP and Shell said they had begun to stop production at offshore platforms as a storm brewing in the Caribbean Sea was forecast to barrel through the Gulf on the weekend. Chevron said its production remained at normal levels on Thursday, while Occidental Petroleum and Hess Corp said they are monitoring weather conditions.

Gulf of Mexico offshore well account for 17% of U.S. crude oil production and 5% of dry natural gas production. Over 45% of total U.S. refining capacity lies along the Gulf Coast, Reuters said.

Exxon Mobil Corp said it was preparing its 520,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery for severe weather, but operations were normal on Thursday.

Phillips 66 operations at refineries in Lake Charles and Alliance, Louisiana, will be adjusted based on the storms progression, spokesman Bernardo Fallas said.

Story continues

OPEC+ May See No Need for Supply Hikes at September Meeting

OPEC+ agreed in July to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day a month starting in August until its current oil output reductions of 5.8 million bpd are fully phased out.

However, in early August, two of the OPEC+ sources said the latest data from OPEC and the International Energy Agency (IEA) also indicated there was no need for extra oil.

Concerns about the spread of the delta variant around the world and the effects this will have on oil demand and prices may encourage OPEC+ to refrain from making any production increases in September.

The prospect of less supply hitting the market could help to underpin prices over the near-term.

Short-Term Outlook

Short-sellers are covering ahead of the hurricane because of fear of the unknown. As of early Friday, traders dont know the size of the Hurricane and wear it will strike. They need to know this so they can assess the impact of any potential damage to the platforms and future demand. This is also likely to determine whether were looking at a short-term or longer-term event.

Prices could glide higher throughout the session until traders get clarity. However, keep in mind that prices could retreat quickly if the hurricane avoids the major production facilities.

For a look at all of todays economic events, check out our economic calendar.



This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
SEOUL, Aug 22 (Reuters) - South Korea's health ministry said on Sunday that Moderna Inc will supply the country with 7.01 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the first week of September, following a government request to speed up delivery.

Some 1.01 million doses are expected to arrive on Monday, the ministry said, with another 6 million to be supplied sequentially.

Moderna delivered 1.3 million doses earlier this month. It had at the time informed South Korea that it would only be able to deliver less than half the 8.5 million doses it had been due to ship in August.

"In response to our request to speed up and expand the vaccine supply, Moderna informed us that it will supply 7.01 million doses by the first week of September," the ministry said in a statement.

Under the plan, the country will be able to give 36 million people at least one dose of the vaccine before the Sept. 20-22 Chuseok holiday.

The statement also said that the government is currently in talks with Romania for a vaccine swap deal, but denied a local media report that said the Romanian government approved donation of 450,000 doses of Moderna vaccines.

It gave no details of the planned swap, saying more information on the discussion with Romania will be provided as soon as it is finalised.

On Saturday South Korea reported 1,628 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 236,366. A total of 2,215 people have died so far.

As of Saturday midnight, 50.4% of the 52 million population have had at least one dose of vaccine, while just 22.5% have been fully vaccinated, government data showed.

South Korea aims to immunise over 70% of the population by September. (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
(Corrects typo in first name of Foxconn founder in paragraph 3)

By Yimou Lee

TAIPEI, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Taiwan could get its first delivery of BioNTech SE's COVID-19 vaccines one month ahead of schedule as a delay in regulatory approval of the shot for use in mainland China made a surplus available for the island, a source told Reuters.

Taiwan's tortured bid for the vaccine, jointly developed with Pfizer Inc, has become an issue of high political and diplomatic drama, after Taiwan accused China of blocking a deal earlier this year, which Beijing denied. China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory.

Taiwan's government subsequently allowed tech giants Foxconn , its billionaire founder Terry Gou, and TSMC , to negotiate on its behalf for the shot, with a $350 million deal for 10 million shots inked last month.

More than 1 million doses, which had been originally destined for China, are expected to arrive in Taiwan between the end of August and early September, around one month earlier than initially planned, the person who has direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

"Shanghai Fosun did not manage to get approval so they gave up their plan for vaccine imports," the source said, referring to BioNTech's Chinese sales agent Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd.

"The original manufacturer was meant to make the delivery to Shanghai Fosun, but Fosun had to release them (the vaccines) as they didn't get the emergency use authorisation" from China, the source added.

Two other sources with direct knowledge of the matter said the supplies are due to arrive next week, but declined to say what led to the change of schedule.

While BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said in April he expected its COVID-19 vaccine would win approval from the Chinese authorities "by June at the latest", no approval has been granted yet. It is approved in Hong Kong and Macau.

It was not immediately clearly how many doses had been earmarked for delivery to China and to which other destinations the surplus would be re-directed as a result of the uncertain approval outlook.

Story continues

Taiwan will be among several places getting the orders "abandoned" by China, the first source said, who declined to name other recipients that include a European country.

BioNTech and TSMC declined to comment. Fosun and China's National Health Commission did not respond to requests for comment.

The made-in-Germany vaccines Taiwan will get will have labelling in the simplified Chinese characters used in China though not in Taiwan, along with the name of Shanghai Fosun, according to the first source.

Responding to requests for comment for this article, Gou's spokesperson referred Reuters to Taiwan's health authorities.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters he could not say when the vaccines would arrive, as there were still some procedures that needed to be completed, and dismissed any concerns about the labelling.

"During this period of time, epidemic prevention is our only consideration. The important thing is whether the vaccine is safe and effective," he added.

The BioNTech vaccine drama has transfixed Taiwan and dominated headlines. While a relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is well under control, fewer than 5% of its 23.5 million people are fully vaccinated.

Taiwan's government has ordered millions of vaccines itself, from Moderna Inc, AstraZeneca Plc and local developer Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.

Once the BioNTech vaccines arrive they will be donated to and administered by the government.

A Taiwanese Buddhist group has also ordered 5 million doses. (Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, and Taipei and Beijing newsrooms; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Kim Coghill)
TOKYO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Two people died after receiving Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shots that were among lots later suspended following the discovery of contaminants, Japan's health ministry said on Saturday.

The men in their 30s died this month within days of receiving their second Moderna doses, the ministry said in a release. Each had a shot from one of three manufacturing lots suspended on Thursday. The cause of the deaths is still being investigated.

Japan halted the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-withdraws-16-mln-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-doses-over-contamination-nikkei-2021-08-25 shipped to 863 vaccination centres nationwide, more than a week after the domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, received reports of contaminants in some vials.

The government and Moderna had said no safety or efficacy issues had been identified and the suspension was just a precaution.

The contaminant is believed to be metallic particles, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported, citing health ministry sources. (Reporting by Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard)
But if youre paying on time (and you are not, because you are breaking up your payment into two parts), and the landlord is accepting those payments, and your lease does not permit the landlord to cancel the lease for any reason, then you should be able to stay and may even be protected by local or state laws governing how landlords and tenants interact with each other. The key to your question is whether your semi-monthly payments have been agreed to by the landlord and if accepting them constitutes his agreement to the payment plan.

You need to look at the terms of your lease, and see whether your landlord has the right to kick you to the curb, and under what conditions. You should also read the lease to see if you have the right to renew your lease.

While we dont know what kind of storage locker you have, if its movable and not permanently attached to the apartment, you should be able to take it with you. Even if it was attached to the property, you should be able to remove it and return the property to the condition in which it was provided to you. Our view might be different if the storage locker is more like kitchen cabinets, that are permanently fixed to the wall. In that case, most people would assume it would stay with the property.
Britain warns attack on Kabul airport could come within hours; Biden, Israeli PM to meet for first time; MLS seeing boost in popularity. Here are this morning's headlines.
Area students have been in school for between two and three weeks, and plans are still evolving for ensuring students who must quarantine can keep up with their education.

According to a presentation given by King George County Schools staff at last weeks School Board meeting, the divisionwhich started the 202122 academic year Aug. 9has been providing customized packets of work for elementary students under quarantine, and some parents are concerned that isnt enough.

Students who are considered to be close contacts of someone who is positive for COVID-19 will be asked to quarantine at home for 14 days, according to Virginia Department of Health guidelines.

According to King Georges presentation, high school and middle school teachers use the Canvas online learning program to deliver instructional work to students in quarantine and some high school teachers are using Google Meet to give students at home a live view of whats going on in their classrooms.

Staff said Monday that they are considering proposals for enhancing academic support of quarantined studentsincluding the possibility making teachers available after school hours for synchronous virtual instruction or assistance.
Patrons were cooperating with the gunmen, witnesses told police, until one of the suspects fired shots before they fled in a nearby vehicle. Police later identified Jackson and Jenkins as suspects. Jenkins was taken into custody on Wednesday and Jackson was arrested Thursday, police said.

Ogg said prosecutors were seeking no bond for Jackson and Jenkins. She said both men were free on bonds when the shooting happened.

At the time of the shootings, Jenkins was out on a bond for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, while Jackson was out on bond for an aggravated robbery, Ogg said.

Police said they are also looking for a third man who is considered a person of interest and is being sought for questioning.

Briscoe, a 13-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, was in Houston while vacationing with friends. Both Briscoe and Riculfy were members of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club and were taking the trip with club members, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported.
At another point, they saw a house on a rise, surrounded by floodwaters but not yet engulfed. Boyers touched down, picking up two men, and saw a girl in the window who refused to come out. He flew out, dropped off one of the men and Among, and brought the other man back with him to hoist the girl into the helicopter. When he landed again, he was able to rescue the girl and a woman who was with her.

"I'm in a little hole with power lines all around. It takes enormous energy to take off vertically like that," he said. So he left the man briefly and then came back for him. "I just kept doing that over and over again until I was low on fuel."

All the time, he knew he really was not supposed to be doing any of this.

"Every landing was pretty dangerous," he said. He's already had a conversation with the Federal Aviation Administration about it.

"I know the FAA can take my license away if they see me flying like that," he said. He assured them that he did not charge anyone for the rescue, no one was hurt, the helicopter was not damaged, and there were no law enforcement helicopters in the area. After he left Waverly, he stopped at an airport in the nearby town of Dickson to refuel and heard that the state police and National Guard still had not flown in because of the bad weather.
Northeast Community College in West Point will hold a nurse aide class in West Point beginning in September.

The class (NURA 1110/21F & CRN #15335) will be held Sept. 8-Oct. 18, in the Northeast Extended Campus, 202 Anna Stalp Ave., Room 207, in West Point. The class will be held in a hybrid format. Lectures will be offered virtually online. Clinicals will meet Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4:30-8:30 p.m. The first class will meet from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Kara Chase is the instructor.

This course is designed to meet the Nebraska Health and Human Services System training requirements for nurse aide certification and employment in long-term care facilities. It combines classroom lecture and laboratory application for the development of basic skills needed to provide safe, effective, and caring services to the elderly or chronically ill patient of any age, in a long-term care facility.

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Upon completion, students are eligible to take the state written and practical skills exam. After successfully passing the examination and completing the application procedure, their name will be placed on the basic nurse aide registry at the Nebraska Health and Human Services Regulation and Licensure, Credentialing Division.
Because I was teaching at a parochial school at that time, I felt like all of us together as staff and students really were able to share that moment and support each other and to help each other through the fear and the questions, Spies said.

That day, Richmond was home on maternity leave with her oldest son, Carter.

Richmond was feeding her baby and watching the Today Show, a TV news program, when the first attacks occurred.

She wondered what would unfold for her childs future.

You already have all those concerns as a mom and a new parent, but I think that was especially heightened being home by myself, she said.

Richmond called her husband, Brett, and wanted him to come home.

It was scary, she said.

No one knew what would happen next.

Or what the next target would be.

I think it was a time when people really turned to prayer and their church home and their faith foundations, Richmond said.

Medina recalls his reactions to the terrorist attacks.
We also offer kids in our academy take an [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] certification, she said. Theyre safety courses, so when they graduate Cedar Bluffs, they are certified in OSHA, which makes them really marketable when it comes to getting and applying for jobs.

The Career Academy will also help Cedar Bluffs students take part in other opportunities such as job shadowing and internships, Chrisman said.

So by the time they are seniors, we are setting them up with a mentor out in the business world, whatever their field might be that theyre studying, and helping them kind of create those connections so that they have networking outside of just the high school or their education that they can kind of rely on as they leave, as they work toward their career goals, she said.

While this is Cedar Bluffs first school year with the Career Academy, Chrisman said the school first started introducing its concepts at the end of last school year.

We had a lot of interest, and kids were excited about the idea of focusing their education, she said. Were still kind of working out what that looks like, but just in collecting their classes, the options that they had to choose from, they were excited about the many options for class that they have.
Saturday

Bargains For You On 92, over 30 towns along Nebraska Highway 92. Bargains For You is organized similar to city-wide garage sales, but includes over 30 towns. In addition to garage sales, vendors can also include antique dealers, direct sale vendors, re-furbishers, crafters, bake sales, club or organization fundraisers, brick-and-mortar stores, food trucks and junkers.

HomeStore, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 701 E. Dodge St., Fremont. The HomeStore sells donated items at discounted prices. Proceeds support the mission of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity.

Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.

Thinking Money for Kids exhibit kick-off event, 10 a.m., Blair Public Library and Technology Center. The 1,000-square-foot exhibit will be on display through Sept. 18. This is a multimedia, interactive exhibit using games and activities with a fun storyline to help children understand what money is, its function in society, money choices, and money values.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP)  Jurors convicted Friday two former Colorado sheriff's deputies accused of causing the death of an intoxicated man by placing him on his stomach and squeezing him into a van to take him to a detox center.
This system is going to be tested, Edwards said. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged in 14 parishes for search and rescue efforts with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters. And 10,000 linemen were on standby to respond to electrical outages.

A tropical depression two days earlier, Ida was strengthening so quickly that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the citys 390,000 residents, a task that would require coordinating with the state and neighboring locales to turn highways into one-way routes away from the city.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called for a voluntary evacuation and reiterated Saturday that the time to safely leave was growing short. Collin Arnold, the citys emergency management director, said the city could be under high winds for about 10 hours. Officials warned those who stayed to be prepared for long power outages amid sweltering heat in the days ahead.

Ramsey Green, the citys top infrastructure official, stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting the city have been much improved since Katrina.
Martial Law 1990 Written by Richard Brandes, directed by Steve Cohen. I didn't think I had seen this before but I had back in 1999.

Steve McQueen's son Chad plays a police detective and Cynthia Rothrock is his girlfriend. Andy McCutheon plays Chad brother and David Carradine is a psycho gang boss who steals expensive cars for foreign customers. He's ruthless and prone to killing. He especially likes killing them with his special kung fu fist to the heart. The police keep finding bodies and Chad gets assigned to the case with Cynthia as his partner.

Andy gets deeper and deeper into David's clutches, trouble is he's not that smart and David's response to his failure is a fist to the heart. Poor Andy's mom. Chad goes all out to get David and give him a taste of his own medicine.

It's all rather familiar and the fights scenes are only passable. There's a lot of melodrama and that slows things down. At least it had David as a psychopath, he worked well with his psychotic second in command, played by Phillip Tan, both men enjoy killing way too much.

Barbarian Queen 1985 Written by Howard R Cohen, directed by Hector Olivera. Another I wasn't sure I had seen, but I had. Other than for one character, I didn't remember anything else. The movie was one of the selections in a 2011 Friday Night Movie night.

Here's that post:

Sperhauk picked up a cheap DVD of a pair of Roger Corman movies. We watched Barbarian Queen. I wasn't sure if I had seen it before, my list of watched movies says no, but the movie came out in 1985 which was before I started that list and it sure didn't seem familiar. Lana Clarkson is the BQ and she's also the gal that Phil Spector murdered a few years ago. The BQ lives in a small village attacked by Roman's from the local camp. They kill and rape and burn the BQ's hut down. Most of the village was killed or carted off to be slaves. The BQ and three other gals who survived vow revenge. They get to the Roman city and meet a young girl who leads them to the resistance group. The gals want to rush in and the leader of the resistance is reluctant to act just yet. He's a big wimp, that one. The gals get captured, one or two get killed, but Lana stabs her way to success. There's a lot of nudity and not much of a story. There's a lot of rapin' and torturin' and a crazy mad scientist who gets his. You'd think a scientist would know that a human sized trough of acid is a dangerous thing to be leaving uncovered. I got a huge laugh out of his skeleton and goofy glasses in a later scene. It's got pretty big production values for a Roger produced film, huge sets and lots of extras. The fighting is crap. The director, Hector Olivera, made 5 films for Roger between 1985 and 1990. Hector had already been a film maker in Argentina and he used the money from Roger's films to make his own films. He's still making films down there but I haven't seen them. It's was fun enough for what it was.

I'm betting the Blu-ray we watched was better looking than the DVD we watched so long ago. I still feel the same way about the movie. I doubt I'll need to see it again.
The Colorado Air National Guards 140th Wing will see a shuffle in leadership Sunday as a new colonel assumes command.

After two years at the helm of the lead Air National Guard wing, Col. Micah Fesler will hand the 140th over to his vice commander, Col. Christopher Southard, during a change of command ceremony scheduled for Sunday at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora.

Southard was appointed vice commander of the wing in June of 2020. In that job, he helped Fesler manage personnel and missions, which include Air Force Space Command and Air Combat Command missions, and was responsible for overseeing wing inspections.

His assignments before becoming the 140th Wings commander include a stint leading the 120th Fighter Squadron, where he guided the unit on a deployment to Kadena Air Base in Japan. Between 2017 and 2019, he served as the 140th Wings Operations Group commander, and deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan, where he served as the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group deputy commander alongside active-duty mission partners.

Southard, known as Wedge in the air, has around 3,200 flight hours, and has flown T-37s, T-38s, and F-16 jets. Hes married, and is a father of two.

Fesler, the outgoing commander, assumed leadership of the wing in August of 2019 and helped guide it to becoming a lead wing in the U.S. Air National Guard for agile combat employment, a warfighting concept the U.S. Air Force began to adopt in 2017. Fesler also led the wing through the first 1 1/2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also saw the wings 138th Space Control Squadron through its first combat deployment.

Fesler was instrumental in the wings efforts to support some of the largest operations its carried out in Colorado, including providing over 700 personnel to support the states response to the spread of COVID-19 and the presidential inauguration, according to a press release.

The 140th Wing, which became part of the Colorado Air National Guard in 1946, flies F-16 jets under Air Combat Command and stands alert 24/7 to protect the central U.S. from airborne threats. The wing operates two space missions  one an early-warning ground system for missiles and, another a space control squadron stationed at Peterson Space Force Base.

The 1,600 personnel that fall under three Air Force major commands provide our nation with fighter, space-based early missile warning, and support forces capable of global employment, Colorado National Guard officials said in a press release.
Drug overdoses were the leading cause of accidental deaths in El Paso County last year, according to the coroners office.

The county had 186 drug-related deaths in 2020, a 43% increase over 130 deaths in 2019.

Several local organizations will commemorate the annual International Drug Overdose Awareness Day on Tuesday during a public event that will start at 6 p.m. outside City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.

Its important to recognize people who have lost their lives to substance use disorder because the number of deaths are skyrocketing, said Rebecca Berg, spokeswoman for Springs Recovery Connection, a nonprofit that provides peer mentors for people overcoming addiction.

While the community has had gatherings to mark the day in past years, this is the first time multiple agencies are uniting for a large-scale observance, said P.J. Higgins, project manager at Community Health Partnership.

Organizations from the partnership's Coalition for Prevention, Addiction Education and Recovery are presenting the event.

The program in Colorado Springs will include a reading of a city resolution commemorating the day by City Council President Tom Strand, an address by Dan Hugill of fitness recovery program Phoenix Multisport, training in Narcan administration by Southern Colorado Health Network, time for remembering those who have passed and a candlelight vigil.

It's important to speak publicly about overdoses because we often think of substance use disorder and overdose as an issue that affects people who aren't in our community," Higgins said, "when in fact the problem is getting much worse."

Last year's overdoses accounted for more than half of El Paso County's 356 deaths due to accidents.

The observance is the worlds largest campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died and acknowledge the grief of families and friends left behind, according to the initiative, which started in 2001 in Australia.

Locally, heroin or fentanyl were ingested in 86% of the accidental opioid deaths, according to the El Paso County Coroners Office.

The average age of victims was 41 years old, 20% had a known history of mental illness, and 66% had a prior history of substance abuse or addiction.

Other statistics on last year's drug deaths from the coroner's office:

 Of the countys 186 drug deaths in 2020, 40% involved a combination of substances.

 There were 118 total opioid-related deaths last year, which include accidental deaths and deaths by suicide, up from 82 in 2019. Thats a 44% increase.

 Fentanyl deaths more than doubled, from 21 in 2019 to 47 in 2020.

 Methamphetamine deaths increased from 66 in 2019 to 91 in 2020.

 Cocaine deaths rose from 20 in 2019 to 30 in 2020.

 Heroin deaths were up from 35 in 2019 to 43 in 2020.

 About one-quarter of deaths by all causes have marijuana metabolites present in the autopsies.

North America has the highest drug-related mortality rate in the world, accounting for one in four drug-related deaths globally, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports.

"It is a community-wide issue," Higgins said. "Everyone needs to learn how to reach out to those struggling and encourage them to get help."
Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 58F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 58F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Clear Lake tourists may have to wait a little bit longer before staying at the citys newest hotel.

The Fairfield by Marriott currently under construction was scheduled to open and begin operations sometime in August. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic the hotel is now not scheduled to open until October.

According to Clear Lake City Administrator Scott Flory, the hotel has experienced a delay receiving a large quantity of items due to the COVID-19 pandemic such as furniture, fixtures and similar equipment needed before the hotel can begin operations.

The hotel, located off I-35 and Highway 18 in Clear Lake, is now expected to be complete on Oct. 1, but Flory says that date is fluid and could be sooner or later depending on the time it takes to get the necessary equipment. Flory also said the estimate of Oct. 1 is a few weeks old and the situation could very well have already changed.

The developers of the Marriott hotel, Kalpesh Patel, CEO at VKB Management LLC, of West Des Moines, and Ryan Huegerich CEO at HCI Hotel Supply, of Omaha, Nebraska did not respond to requests for comment from the Globe Gazette.
We understand people are tired, Mizner said. We understand people are frustrated with the pandemic, we understand there is a lot going on here. We just want them to draw on their better selves to care about the kids in their communities who are most at risk and really need their help at protecting them.

Schools already have plenty of restrictions aimed at protecting the health of kids. Rules against peanuts are a good example, said Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State University and a disability-law expert.

Those rules are aimed at protecting kids with potentially fatal peanut allergies that can be triggered by particles in the air. Similarly, the argument goes, kids especially vulnerable to COVID-19 need everyone to wear masks so they dont get sick.

They need the people around them not to be spreading the particles of peanuts, Colker said. COVID is just like peanuts. In fact, is more contagious.
Carter said attorneys have heard from dozens of Iowans suffering economic hardships after having been initially promised by the state they would be eligible for the aid through early September.

Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said the governor believes "we cannot continue to pay able-bodied people to stay home." He said the number of people looking for jobs at unemployment offices and participating in the state's labor force has increased since May.

"This was not only the right decision, but also in accordance with the law and this lawsuit has no merit," he said.

Reynolds is one of 26 governors, mostly Republicans, who have taken similar steps, ahead of the Sept. 6 date that the federal aid will expire.

Lawsuits have been filed challenging the cuts in several of those states, including Ohio, Texas and Florida, and have had mixed success so far.

An amended Iowa lawsuit names four plaintiffs and estimates the class could involve 55,000 who have been illegally deprived "life-sustaining benefits."

They include claimants who were receiving the $300 weekly supplement; who were eligible for unemployment after exhausting 26 weeks of state benefits; and others who were made eligible if they'd been unable to work due to COVID-19.
Talk about mixed messaging.

Two homemade campaign signs from last falls presidential election remain on the edge of a sprawling, well-kept dairy farm I recently passed. One, large and white against a green backdrop of tasseled corn, touts Donald Trump; the other, smaller and more wordy, declares that if Biden wins, all Americans soon will be working for China.

In large parts of the U.S., many -- maybe even most -- American farmers already are working for China and, even more ironically, they got there courtesy of former President Donald Trump, not Joe Biden.

Perhaps more upside down, at least according to the logic contained in the Wisconsin signs, President Joe Biden appears to be in no hurry to undo the Trump trade policies that continue to deliver todays massive American ag sales to China. In fact, trade with China was just one of the two geopolitical topics the 2020 presidential foes agreed on.

How did we get to this whos-on-first mashup? Lets review.

In the 2016 presidential race, candidate Donald Trump threatened a tariff fight with China and, after his election, acted quickly to keep his word. Then, for almost two years thereafter, if China made it -- washing machines, steel, aluminum, solar panels -- Trump put a tariff on it.
Re: GMAT CLUB OLYMPICS: Each of the past four years, the number of applica [ #permalink

Bunuel wrote:





Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion EXCEPT:





A. The average age of applicants to United States literature Ph.D. programs has changed markedly over the past four years.



B. The number of international students applying to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States has declined by nearly half in the past four years.



C. The cost of attending a literature Ph.D. program in the United States has more than doubled in the past four years.



D. The average number of Ph.D. programs that the average Ph.D. applicant applies to has dropped from seven to four over the past four years.



E. The number of Ph.D. programs reporting data to American College Daily has declined precipitously since the publication stopped compensating for such submissions three years ago.









This question was provided by GMAT Club

for the GMAT Club Olympics Competition



Win over $40,000 in prizes such as Courses, Tests, Private Tutoring, and more Each of the past four years, the number of applications to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States has declined by more than ten percent year over year according to a recent report by American College Daily. From this statistic, it can be reasonably concluded that fewer U.S. students are interested in literature Ph.D. programs now than were four years ago.Each of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion EXCEPT:A. The average age of applicants to United States literature Ph.D. programs has changed markedly over the past four years.B. The number of international students applying to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States has declined by nearly half in the past four years.C. The cost of attending a literature Ph.D. program in the United States has more than doubled in the past four years.D. The average number of Ph.D. programs that the average Ph.D. applicant applies to has dropped from seven to four over the past four years.E. The number of Ph.D. programs reporting data to American College Daily has declined precipitously since the publication stopped compensating for such submissions three years ago.

Explanation

the average age of applicants to United States literature Ph.D. programs has not changed markedly over the past four years

that fewer U.S. students are interested in literature Ph.D. programs now than were four years ago

the number of international students applying to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States has declined by nearly half in the past four years

the number of applications to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States

the cost of attending a literature Ph.D. program in the United States has more than doubled in the past four years

the number of applications to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States

the average number of Ph.D. programs that the average Ph.D. applicant applies to has dropped from seven to four over the past four years

the number of applications to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States

the number of Ph.D. programs reporting data to American College Daily has declined precipitously since the publication stopped compensating for such submissions three years ago

the number of applications to literature Ph.D. programs in the United States

Choice A: Yes. Thathas no definitive impact on the conclusionand is therefore the exception in the choices that does not weaken the conclusion.Choice B: No. This is a reversal, because if, this would be another possible cause for the decline inin the report and the conclusion would be weakened.Choice C: No. This is a reversal, because if, this would be another possible cause for the decline inin the report and the conclusion would be weakened.Choice D: No. This is a reversal, because if, this would be another possible cause for the decline inin the report and the conclusion would be weakened.Choice E: No. This is a reversal, because if, this would be another possible cause for the decline inin the report and the conclusion would be weakened.The correct answer is choice A._________________
The victory put Wendell Scott into the record books as the first African American race car driver to win the Grand National, NASCARs highest level.

NASCAR President Steve Phelps gave Scotts son, Frank Scott, the trophy on stage following a pre-race concert and just before driver introductions, the Associated Press reported. Driver Bubba Wallace, NASCARs lone full-time Black driver, joined several of Scotts family members on stage for the ceremony.

As they started to leave the dais, Warrick Scott got his chance to pose with the trophy. Instead of holding or hoisting it, he decided to kiss it. It was maybe the most telling scene of what this meant to the family, the AP reported.

Warrick Scott told the Danville Register & Bee in June 2020 there had been no effort from NASCAR to rectify this injustice in all the years since.

The Wendell Scott Foundation was formed in 2010 to further his legacy and now also helps youth in underserved communities find mentors and STEM-based educational opportunities. As part of its mission, the foundation has worked to convince NASCAR to find a time to properly honor the driver that has been partially scrubbed from the sports history.
Our Standards of Learning test scores for last year are not where they normally are, and to a large degree can be attributed to the loss of teacher-led instructional time experienced last year, said Pittsylvania County Superintendent Mark Jones. We will use these results to develop instructional plans for students for this year.

Danville Public Schools fell in reading from 52% to 43%, from 51% to 30% in math and 49% to 33% in science.

We know that students learn best while in the classroom face-to-face, but a majority of our students did not have that opportunity for a year and a half, Danville Superintendent Angela Hairston said in a release. This data gives us the insight we need to address learning loss.

Hairston said a recently approved 5-year plan should put the school district back on course.

Our work for the next five years is guided by the Strategic Plan, said Hairston. We are working hard to ensure that achievement gaps close and create an environment that leads all students to success.

Despite possible learning loss in core subject manner, adjusting and adapting during a pandemic has been an education unto its own.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in February 2020 found that 17% of Republicans had a favorable view of Sanders, roughly the same share of Republicans who had a favorable view of Biden.

Sanders is making his case anew based on a budget proposal that promises universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college, while increasing federal funding for child care, paid family leave and combating climate change. It also expands health care coverage through Medicare, creates pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally and encourages states to adopt labor-friendly laws.

Republicans say the plan is loaded with unnecessary spending and tax increases. But Democrats, as long as they stay united, can use their narrow advantage in each congressional chamber to muscle it through anyway.

This is the peoples budget. This is the budget that will impact tens of millions of lives in this country: the elderly, the children, the working families, the middle class, Sanders said in an interview before Friday's rally. So it is appropriate to me that the chairman of the budget committee get out and around the country, hear what people have to say. Explain what were trying to do.
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Amtrak train No. 98 was traveling north to Raleigh from Charlotte at that time with 28 passengers and three crew members on it, police said. No injuries were reported among the passengers and crew members.

This weeks incidents are sad not only for the victims and their families, but also for the crews of trains, said Margaret Cannell of Hillsborough, the executive director and state coordinator of North Carolina Operation Lifesaver.

North Carolina generally ranks in the top 10 in trespassing fatalities in the nation, and usually in the top 15 in the number of highway/rail collisions, Cannell said.

It is only due to the pandemic that these numbers fell for 2020, and then only because train traffic was significantly curtailed, Cannell said. The COVID-19 pandemic affected everything, including rail safety.

Statistics for 2020 show that North Carolina ranked No. 12 in the nation in the number of trespassing fatalities, Cannell said. There were 13 deaths involving trespassers on tracks and highway and rail crossings in 2020, federal transportation statistics show. A total of 22 people were injured in those incidents.
Updated 8:43 p.m.

GREENSBORO  Chief Brian James said the Greensboro Police Department is "shaken" after one officer was injured and a suspect killed during a shooting Friday afternoon at the department's parking lot downtown.

Someone set fire to a police vehicle about 3:10 p.m. Friday, which led officers to confront the person in the parking lot at 100 E. Police Plaza, James said during a news conference Friday evening.

The suspect assaulted an officer and three officers shot at the suspect "ending the threat," James said.

Police have not positively identified the suspect, who was pronounced dead on scene. They do not yet know the motive, James said.

The injured officer was taken to a local hospital. James said his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening and are consistent with a "physical assault."

The names of the officers involved were not released publicly Friday, but James said all have been with the department for some time.

"I would consider all three of the officers to be veterans," he said.

They have been put on administrative duty, which is normal procedure in such cases.
Jamie White is a mother of six  three boys and three girls. For three years, she and her six children have lived off bottled water, delivered in cardboard boxes, all because the water from their well is tainted with toxic chemicals.

White receives bottled water from Chemours, a chemical maker who owns a manufacturing plant a little more than four miles down the road from her Cumberland County home.

For more than 30 years, Chemours, and before them DuPont, contaminated the area around White and the Cape Fear River with hundreds of toxic chemicals called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which have been linked to various diseases including cancer. Four years ago, a StarNews investigation brought the contamination to light.

"I'd just like to know how bad I've been poisoned," White said. "Part of me really doesn't want to know. I don't want to know that these people are killing me, you know, but I know for my children that have lived in this house that we need to know how bad we've been poisoned."
Plus, the production donated $10,000 to the foundation in exchange for being allowed to film both inside and outside of the lighthouse. One Summer, based on the book by David Baldacci, stars Sam Page and Sarah Drew in the story a man who travels to his late wifes hometown with their kids to seek closure after her death and to honor her memory.

Of course, the tony Bald Head Island has roots in Wilmingtons film industry dating all the way back to the late 1980s, when the goofy comedy Weekend at Bernies shot there. Still, its relatively rare for Bald Head to be featured so prominently, in part because getting equipment on and off set is more difficult than on your average shoot.

Hallmark movies, with a wrap-to-air time thats measured in weeks rather than months, arent always what youd call prestige pictures. But if theyre not critically acclaimed, exactly, the movies are popular.

According to a news release from the company, in the fourth quarter of 2020 The Hallmark Channel was the most-watched entertainment cable network among women 18 and over for the seventh consecutive year. The company attributes that viewership to its Christmas-heavy programming in the fourth quarter of those years.

When you do Hallmark, its all about love. About happiness, Ferguson said. Id rather do that than something that reminds me of the news.
Ridgeview Middle School was one of the projects in Visalia that 4Creeks provided surveying, planning and engineering to. They are looking at opening an office in Hanford.
Ciya Kurd pointed out the importance of the meetings they held, and said, "I expect that these developing relations will be a new beginning for the AA from political point of view. Official negotiations will start with the Autonomous Administration."

Regarding Bashar al-Assad's statements, he said that the Damascus government may wish to reconsider some of its policies and open the way for dialogue to reach an agreement.

We asked Ciya Kurd, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, about the meetings between the Autonomous Administration and the countries of the world, the attacks of the Turkish state, Bashar al-Assad's statements, and the impact of the situation in Afghanistan on Syria.

For a long time and you have been holding many meetings with world countries, at first, can you talk about the outcome of these meetings?

We have held important meetings at the level of foreign ministers, parties and personalities. Our meetings are still going on. Autonomous Administration launches a political campaign. Many European countries enter into relations with the Autonomous Administration without fear. There are many other countries that would like to meet with us. There are also some common issues between us.

There are many common points and much debated about them, for example, our country today is still fighting a serious war against terrorism. All countries consider themselves indebted to the Autonomous Administration, and they tell us, "We owe it to you for offering such a sacred struggle." The countries we met with say, "We will support you and continue our cooperation together."

All of them stress the need to protect the stability of the region. They say they will do what is necessary from the human, economic and political side. They also say that without the Autonomous Administration, a political solution cannot be implemented in Syria. They say that they will also try for the Autonomous Administration to become a party to the political dialogues and to present a solution in this way. These discussions and opinions are very important to us. We expect that in this way this relationship will continue to progress. This will be a new beginning for the political acceptance of the Autonomous Administration. In this way, the official negotiations with the Autonomous Administration will develop.

Negotiations are underway with the de facto Autonomous Administration. Some countries are open, while others are willing to negotiate.

We are aware that they have interests with Turkey, the Damascus government and the various parties. Therefore, they are apprehensive, but they still want to negotiate with the AA.

The AANES recently opened a representative office in Geneva, Switzerland. How do you see the opening of representations in general and in Geneva in particular? Can it be said that it is a step for political recognition of the existing administration in the region?

The opening of a representative in Geneva was a very important step In developing of relations and negotiations. This is a new developing stage. This is the fifth representation to be opened in European countries. The opening of a special representation in Geneva is of great importance as it is seen as the center of politics. The role of the representation is to be able to communicate the problems of the peoples of northern and eastern Syria to the world by all means. On the political side, it will work on recognizing the Autonomous Administration and developing economic, security, stability and humanitarian relations. At the same time, it will work to bring the crimes committed against our people in the occupied areas such as Serekaniye, Afrin and Gire Spi to public opinion and to start a political and legal struggle against them.

Reactions appeared against the opening of a representative office in Geneva by the Turkish state and the Damascus government...

Yes, both the Turkish state and the government of Damascus took a violent stand against the opening of the representation in Geneva. This shows that both regimes will never accept that the region becomes democratic and will not accept the recognition of the achievements of the Kurdish people in the world.

Therefore, they face these gains with a racist and chauvinistic mentality.

The Turkish state protested the opening of such a representation in Geneva. The Damascus Foreign Ministry also took the same position, saying, "This office is illegitimate, it is against international law, it represents the people who took up arms against us to divide Syria."

At the outset, we say that this representation is not a substitute for the Syrian embassy and consulate. It represents the peoples of northern and eastern Syria. These representations will convey the pain and problems of the peoples of northern and eastern Syria to the world. Because today, the Damascus government and its embassies abroad are no longer able to represent northern and eastern Syria until they represent all of Syria.

The Damascus government distances itself from the problems of northern and eastern Syria. There are attacks by the Turkish state, water cuts, security issues, terrorism and economic issues, and the Damascus government sees that these issues are outside the scope of its powers and responsibility. So the opening of these representations is very important.

Do you have moves to open representations in other countries?

Other representative offices will be opened in places where it is necessary, we have no plans to open a representative office in every country. The work will be done for the countries that need it. Some of these works are on our agenda.

Syria will not go back to before 2011. It can be governed by a decentralized administration, Bashar al-Assad said in recent statements. How do you evaluate this statement by Bashar al-Assad?

We, as an Autonomous Administration, consider the statements of the Syrian President important. We hope that the ideas and assessments that have been made will open a new door and the possibility of dialogue, the results of which will include political alliances that bring all parties together around a Syrian solution. One of the main points in the statement was that Syria will not return to the way it was before 2011. This is our opinion and all of Syrians, and as we always say, Syria will never return to before 2011.

Under the current circumstances and conditions, how can we build a new system among all Syrians where everyone can find their place in it and protect their rights.

Our hope is that the Damascus government will join these meetings again. There must be practical steps in this regard to really believe in it and make this assessment a fresh start.

The other important point was that Syria cannot be managed through a central system, it must be a decentralized system. This is what we have been saying over the years. We stress once again the need to protect the different nationalities, cultures, and beliefs that exist in Syria.

Each person may interpret the decentralized system according to his opinion. But the truth is the diversity of Syrian society. There is a need for a decentralized system in which the rights of all are protected. Not, as was said before, by establishing administrative decentralization only. It is necessary to increase the responsibilities of local administrations. In this way, this will solve all problems.

Before 2011 Law 107 was adopted for local administrations. It is said that this law is an alternative to the decentralized system in Syria. We say that it is not possible for this law to solve the problems in Syria. The political, cultural, economic and security aspects of the decentralized system should be discussed and responsibilities identified. Thus, this will be a lasting solution for the future of a democratic Syria.

As you said, these statements are not new and are also the demands of the Syrian people. But the interesting thing is that this is the first time that Bashar al-Assad has said this...

Economic and living problems are increasing, especially in Daraa, As-Suwayda, Idlib and many other areas of Syria. A wave of emigration has already begun in Syria. The situation in Syria is critical at this stage. Either he will change the policy for Syria, or he will make the situation worse. The army of the Damascus government entered the areas where an agreement was reached with the aim of solving the problems there. Daraa was one of these areas. They believed that they had expelled the armed opposition groups from there. But they find that there are also unresolved issues. The problems worsened over time. The methods and mentalities of the previous Damascus government cannot find a solution to the problems. It is possible that at this point they may wish to reconsider some of their policies and open the way for dialogue in order to reach an agreement. For this, practical steps must be taken. Then everyone will believe that the Damascus government wants to change its policy and mentality. But so far we have not seen any practical steps. We want these statements to be proven with practical steps.

On the one hand, important political and diplomatic developments are taking place in your region, and on the other hand, the attacks of the occupying Turkish state are increasing. The attacks on Sengal, northern and eastern Syria and southern Kurdistan are being carried out simultaneously. What do you say about these attacks?

The Turkish state launches its attacks on the peoples of the region with great brutality and a fascist mentality. Especially in these last days, without distinguishing between the military and civilians, hospitals and military sites, but rather attack randomly on everything that appears in front of it. This indicates that the power of the AKP-MH is in a very critical situation at home and that it is facing many major setbacks and has lost many of its supporters. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria continues to make successful steps. Especially on the political level, it is experiencing an important state of openness. The Turkish state strongly opposes this and does not want the Autonomous Administration to enter such a political process. Therefore, in this period, it seeks to send a message that "as long as we exist, you cannot maintain and protect your political position, we will always creat instability, and threat you." They want to send this message to the peoples of the region and the countries that communicate with us. They primarily seek to warn them and say, "This is a war zone and we can attack and eliminate it whenever we want."

They can no longer achieve what they want through ISIS as they did before. There is no stability in Idlib. In fact, the Turkish state's calculations about Idlib were not successful. The violations in Afrin also caused the Turkish state to enter a very difficult and bad situation. There is a lot of political and legal pressure. Their practices have been discussed in some reports by international legal institutions.

Their plans failed

Today, they resort to various schemes through their allies, such as the Syrian National Coalition and the Kurdish National Council. For example, they are trying to return the people of Afrin who were displaced to al-Shahba to relieve the pressure on them. They want to show that there are no problems in Afrin. As if Afrin is safe and everyone can go back to their homes and regions. Ghannouchi in Tunisia is a major ally of the AKP at the moment. He has been overthrown. This was also a blow to them. They launch attacks and operations in legitimate defense zones. But they did not achieve the result. They also sought to ignite an internal war between the Kurdish parties, but to no avail. Therefore, today they attack northern and eastern Syria and Singal with great hatred. They want revenge for their failure. Through these attacks, the Turkish state wants to create big problems in the region. Everyone should be vigilant about these attacks. In particular, we must realize that the Turkish state does not allow stability in northern and eastern Syria.

Countries with forces in the region are responsible for these attacks

Everyone is responsible for these attacks, and they must take a stand. European countries and member states of the international coalition and NATO, especially the United States and Russia, have responsibilities in this region, and the forces of those countries are here. Although all these forces are here, the Turkish state attacks. They must take a firm stand against these attacks in order to achieve lasting stability, so that terrorism and ISIS do not return to the region again, and so that the Autonomous Administration can develop itself as a democratic experiment to be important part of the solution to the Syrian crisis. We say that AA is the most successful and essential model. It could be a basis for resolving the Syrian crisis. It is everyone's responsibility to confront the attacks launched by the Turkish state.

There is talk around the world of the situation in Afghanistan and the Taliban coming to power after the withdrawal of the United States. How will this situation in Afghanistan affect Syria and the Middle East?

The changes and events taking place in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US forces are significant events and will affect the entire region. How the United States intervened in Afghanistan in 2001 and how the resistance created a new balance and created a new influence in the region, all of which we believe will lead to new balances. It will have a major impact on Iran, Russia, China, Syria and Iraq.

There are different problems in Iraq and Syria. If the United States remains in the region under the pretext of fighting terrorism, then this situation continues. Therefore, the situation in the region is not similar to the situation in Afghanistan in many ways. But the important thing in Afghanistan today is the Taliban coming to power. This happened within a few days. Turkey in particular will want to take advantage of the Taliban to use them again in the region. Everyone knows that ISIS existed, and in some other countries political Islam was dominant, but they were defeated. The Turkish state is now looking for other places where these groups can seize power, with the aim of relying on them and making them a focus for all the extremist Islamic forces in the world. The Turkish government has sent many messages of support to the Taliban. Everyone knows that in Afghanistan, before the American intervention and even after 2001, extremist Islamic groups settled in many areas under Taliban control. Many people were trained there and went to Syria and Iraq. Now this task will be much easier. It is the Turkish state that opens the way and helps them. The groups that are part of the Syrian opposition under the control of the Turkish state, are very close to the Taliban. They even wanted to entrust some groups of mercenaries with responsibility for the security of Kabul airport.

We know that Turkey will do a lot of joint work between it and the mercenary groups and the Taliban forces. This will become evident in the coming days. It is clear that Afghanistan will become the epicenter of chaos and conflict in the region. If a civil war breaks out in Afghanistan, it is impossible to achieve and maintain stability in Afghanistan, many groups will emerge against the resistance.

A new phase of trouble will begin in the region

The Taliban and Iran are not on the same page. They are historical enemies of Iran. And Iran is afraid of this and could support Shiite groups in Afghanistan. This would pose a threat to Russia and China as well. Therefore, the main party that will support the Taliban is Turkey. This means that a new phase of turmoil will begin in the region. As the peoples of northern and eastern Syria and the Autonomous Administration, we must never rely on foreign forces present within our territories.

The presence of the United States and the international coalition in our region is to fight terrorism. We will continue this struggle. We will try to work with these forces for stability and a political solution. Any country that these external forces enter for its interests and the implementation of their plans, it will not be able to establish a permanent system for the benefit of the people and society in that country. What is important is that the Autonomous Administration in northern and eastern Syria is based on the values of democracy in the region. The Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and everyone participates in this project.

By relying on these forces, the continuity of this project will be ensured, and not by relying on some external forces. Of course, we will benefit from the cooperation of foreign powers with us against terrorism. But these forces are not fully relied upon. The Autonomous Administration and many other gains existed and proved their existence before the presence of the international coalition forces in the region. From now on, these gains will continue, and we will head towards the final victory through consensus among the peoples of northern and eastern Syria.

(A)

ANHA
"We have been and will continue to share all of their recommendations and encourage our campus community to do everything they can to help keep each other healthy and safe," Bauman said. "We are also continuing to advise members of our campus community to perform daily self-checks and remain at home if they feel unwell. We have both disposable and reusable face coverings available as well as hand sanitizing stations across our campuses."

Bauman said the college has also updated many classrooms to be "smart classrooms" to allow for quality remote delivery of classes in case that becomes necessary.

According to Donna Breitbart, director of marketing and communications, these upgrades were performed over the summer and include a combination of smart board technology connected through Microsoft Teams, enhanced microphones and speakers and strategically placed television screens that allow both students in the classroom and those joining remotely to hear and see the instructor. This will also allow them to engage in conversation and group work with classmates who are attending in person.
Leaping to today, Barna tells us fewer than half of American adults can name the four Gospels. Twelve percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Over 50 percent of graduating high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were married. Sixty percent of Americans can't name five of the Ten Commandments. Not surprisingly, in 2016, only 16% of Americans believed Scripture is a reliable guide for establishing morality.

Many find exposure to the Bible more and more limited. What will they do?

Perhaps, like Augustine, they will Take up and read the Bible and be found by Christ and find Christ. Perhaps somewhere, theyll read a Scripture that the Holy Spirit will make come alive  giving them a hunger and a thirst to know God as he has revealed himself.

What about we who claim to follow Jesus? Have we read the Scriptures?

According to Barna: Nearly six in ten adults believe the Bible has transformed their lives. But, many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the twelve disciples.

Why give Scripture such weight?
Ekalaka, population 399, seat of Carter County, isnt the kind of place where a U-Haul rolling into town goes unnoticed. The key word being into town, not out of town.

Carter County had lost population in every U.S. Census from 1940 through 2010, more often by percentages expressed in double digits. So, it was surprising when the 2020 Census announced earlier this month that Carter County was in the middle of a population boom. The growth estimate was one of a few in Montana that caused some head scratching over the data.

The Census had Carter County's population surging 22%, an addition of 255 people in the past decade, pushing the population to 1,415. The only Montana county with a stronger growth pace was Gallatin, with a 33% boom that translated into 29,447 more people.

Hmm. I dont know, said Steve Rosencranz. The county commissioner wasnt up on the latest Census news. In a part of the world where the latest population figures aren't a hey, ma! moment, word that Carter County was Montana's second fastest growing community didn't arrive for a week. You might try the clerk and recorders office.
BLOOMINGTON  A weed that Central Illinoisans see along roadways, at the edges of fields or at construction sites has been domesticated in Central Illinois into a crop that researchers say has the potential to help combat climate change and provide additional income to farmers.

The high-protein seed oil that derives from the pennycress plant, with genetic modifications, has a plethora of environmental positives. It can be converted to biofuels for airplanes, feedstock, detergents, lubricants and more.

Agronomists and geneticists at Illinois State University, Western Illinois University and the University of Minnesota, with help from other institutions and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are working to convince farmers that the genetically-modified version of pennycress, dubbed covercress, is a worthwhile plant that can be a cover crop and a second cash crop for farmers to grow from the fall until spring.

It would act as any other cover crop that absorbs and stores precious nutrients in the winter, said ISU professor of soil science Rob Rhykerd, but the cool thing about pennycress is that we can use the seed to help produce these renewable fuels.

This can be a multi-billion-dollar a year new crop here when it gets established, said Dr. John Sedbrook, ISU professor of genetics.

Sedbrook was a leader in modifying pennycress DNA to allow its seed oil to become identical to canola oil using a technology called CRISPR gene editing.

He said most of the credit goes to Terry Isbell, a researcher at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, who noticed pennycress growing alongside the road and thought to research its viabilities as an alternative crop.

Essentially its been sitting on the sidelines waiting to be a crop and weve just helped it along here, Sedbrook said. Just as a weed, its got agronomic traits that are quite attractive. It produces a lot of seeds and those seeds have about 33% oil content and about 20% protein, so just as a weed it has a good start.

The genetic modifications reduced the seeds fiber content, which increased its oil and protein contents further and allowed it to become edible. It resulted in a more golden-colored seed, compared to the weeds dark brown seeds.

Sedbrook said he used a similar method from the 1960s that converted rapeseed into canola oil, but with newer technology. Two important steps contributed to the conversion: a mutation that reduced erucic acid content in the oil, making the oil edible, and another that reduced glucosinolate content, which is a defense compound that gives the protein and oil a bitter taste, he said.

At the same time, investors in St. Louis realized this change in the pennycress plant and began a startup company called CoverCress, which is working to commercialize the new plant derived from pennycress, now called covercress.

The company will have its soft commercial launch this fall for the first-generation covercress crop in Arenzville, about 50 miles west of Springfield.

The initial crop will be used to feed poultry.

Along with venture capital money CoverCress has received, ISU and the partnering universities received two five-year grants: $10 million from the USDA and $13 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Sedbrook said the USDA grants goal is to help commercialize the crop and the DOE grant is designed to develop the subsequent generations of the crop.

Environmental benefits

The DOE grant also aims to improve the crops stress resilience.

You know from climate change here the weather is just all over the place. This is a weird summer, Sedbrook said, pointing to the high rainfalls and cooler weather in Central Illinois, a drought in Minnesota, and the heat dome and wildfires in the Pacific Northwest.

The goal we have is to find genetics that will improve the stress resilience so that covercress the crop can handle these big swings in weather. This is going to be an ongoing project, Sedbrook said.

Not only will the seeds oil be used for biofuels to help combat climate change, but the crop itself can help capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and absorb nitrates and phosphates in agricultural runoff.

After fall harvesting, bits of chemicals applied throughout the growing season  especially nitrogen and phosphorus  are left over in the field.

Cover crops are planted during fall to absorb the leftover nutrients and store them throughout the winter into spring, stopping them from leaching into surface waterways. Those nutrients held in the cover crop then act as another fertilizer for the next seasons crop  usually corn or soybeans.

Covercress also will help increase the soils organic matter and fertility, and reduce erosion.

When a rain drop hits bare soil surface, it detaches soil particles, and then if you get more water coming down running off the field, itll erode the soil, Rhykerd said.

But if a plant is there instead, the vegetation absorbs the rain drops energy and the water trickles into the soil rather than washing off the surface and taking soil with it.

Farmer interest

A University of Tennessee study surveyed farmers and found that about 58 percent of them were interested in growing covercress if it is profitable.

Farmers concerns about growing the crop lay within the lack of knowledge of how to grow covercress, as well as the use of no-till practices, which require mechanical agitation of the soil.

The study said the tipping point at which growing the crop becomes more appealing to farmers is at about 1,500 pounds of seed per acre, which would come out to be about $75 per acre.

Rhykerd said it has been difficult to get farmers to buy in to growing the new crop. He said ISU has field days at its farm in Lexington to attract and educate farmers about it.

So far I would say its been slow, Rhykerd said. I think demonstrating that pennycress can be profitable will really help.

Sedbrook said the USDA project, called IPREFER, includes education and outreach efforts. He said they have booths set up at different county fairs.

He said after CoverCresss soft launch this fall, the company plans to expand and begin extracting oil from the crops seed for future development.

Within two or three years they want to be on over 10 to 20,000 acres and keep growing from there, Sedbrook said. Its a process to get it established, but the market is there, so there certainly is incentive to get this to work.

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CRESTWOOD, Mo.  The day Brian Vazquez died, he walked out of a friend's house on Conover Lane, saying he was going to smoke a cigarette. It was about 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 13. Vazquez was wearing flannel pajama pants, a T-shirt and slippers.

How he ended up dead from a shotgun blast, in a stranger's home in Webster Groves, Missouri, a half-block away, is still a mystery to his friends.

He was temporarily staying in a spare bedroom with a family he knew, after breaking up with a longtime girlfriend. The friends' home is six houses from the home on Grant Road where he was shot.

Simona Loultchev, who dated Vazquez for 10 years, said she thinks Vazquez had gotten lost and wandered into the home by mistake, not to steal something or for some other criminal purpose. "He wasn't trying to hurt anyone in that house," she said. "He didn't hurt people."

In an interview Thursday night near the shooting scene, Loultchev tearfully told a reporter she noticed changes in Vazquez's personality in recent weeks as he grew depressed and seemingly paranoid. Vazquez, 42, thought people were hacking his computer accounts, and he looked menacingly at the stars as if someone followed him, she said.

"It recently got weird," Loultchev said, "like he thought people were spying on him and he was looking at the sky."

Loultchev said she learned since his death, after speaking with Vazquez's father, that Vazquez had struggled with mental health issues before. Had she known earlier, Loultchev said, she would have gotten help for him at a psychiatric hospital, even if it meant tricking him to go. Vazquez's father declined to speak to a reporter and his mother couldn't be reached.

Toxicology tests to determine if Vazquez had drugs in his system when he died will take weeks. Loultchev "started to suspect drugs" as Vazquez burned through money, she said, and his facial expressions signaled he was confused or scared.

The friend who let Vazquez stay in a spare bedroom on Conover Lane said Vazquez was supposed to be moving out of her house and into a homeless shelter the day he died. She has a theory about how Vazquez ended up inside the stranger's home: "I truly believe, 100 million percent, that Brian thought he was walking into my house," said Erin Epperhart. "He was on a walk, he got confused and he thought it was my house."

She acknowledges the houses and fences don't look alike, but she said Vazquez was new to the neighborhood and it was dark out, made more so by the power outages reported at some homes in the area after thunderstorms blew through hours before.

Police were called at 2:51 a.m. on Aug. 13 for a burglary in progress at a home in the 1400 block of Grant Road. Police said they were told that an intruder entered the home from a rear door. The homeowner confronted him with a shotgun, ordered him to get out and shot him when he wouldnt leave, police said. Vazquez died at a hospital.

Webster Groves police have been tight-lipped about the death investigation. Detectives expect to present their findings, included in 14 supplemental police reports, to St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell's office next week. The police chief said it's now the prosecutor's call if more information will be released to the public.

The homeowner has not been arrested, and the fatal shooting of an intruder may well fall under the protections of the state's Castle Doctrine.

Webster Groves has about 23,000 residents and a low crime rate. It has had 10 reports so far this year of "breaking and entering," but none on Grant Road before the Aug. 13 incident.

Loultchev, 32, said she desperately wants to know what, if anything, Vazquez said to the homeowner before being shot. "It doesn't make sense. Why did the homeowner feel so threatened?" she asked.

Loultchev said she has not spoken with detectives about Vazquez, and she faults authorities for not doing more to identify him sooner. He had no wallet or identification on him, and police said Vazquez was identified through fingerprints. Police said the delay in releasing his name after 10 days was because they had trouble finding relatives to notify.

Loultchev and Vazquez met through a mutual friend in Denver, and Loultchev claims he earned money by growing pot in Colorado. Later, they moved to Washington state and Vazquez worked as production manager at Blacksmith Farms in Belfair, Washington, in charge of growing marijuana plants on 15 acres in 2016 and 2017, she said. His prior run-ins with the law included a drug case in North Carolina, she said.

Loultchev and Vazquez moved to St. Louis four years ago. In Missouri, the only court cases tied to Vazquez are for municipal traffic violations in Shrewsbury. Loultchev and Vazquez lived at a home on Lou Court in Crestwood that is owned by Loultchev's father. Vazquez was unemployed; the father wanted him to move out until he got a "regular 9-to-5 job." Loultchev said Vazquez told her he wanted to go back to Colorado and grow pot.

About a month ago, he moved out and the couple broke up. But they remained friends, Loultchev said, and she saw Vazquez daily. He was living in hotels early on and then later with acquaintances. Police considered him homeless.

Kim Bell covers breaking news for STLtoday.com and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter here.

Kim Bell  314-340-8115 @kbellpd on Twitter kbell@post-dispatch.com

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Five more Southwest Virginia residents who conspired with more than 30 others to file fraudulent claims for more than $499,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits, mail fraud and associated offenses have pleaded guilty.

Patrick Payne, 43, Randall Johnson, 42, Steven Mullins Jr., 33, Curtis Mullins, 25, and Melinda Davis, 58, appeared in U.S. District Court in Abingdon over the last two weeks. The five conspired with others to file claims for unemployment benefits through the Virginia Employment Commission website, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office on Friday.

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The scheme involved submitting claims for various individuals who were not eligible to receive benefits, including several prisoners at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail. So far, 19 people have pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors say the individuals lied to make filers appear eligible for benefits. Because pandemic benefits are paid weekly, each of the individuals reverified and recertified the false statements on a number of occasions. In all, prosecutors said the conspiracy filed claims for 37 people, causing at least $499,000 in false claims to have been paid.
DAMASCUS, Va.  A quaint, boutique short-stay lodge in the heart of downtown Damascus has opened for business, expecting to woo more travelers to the trail town.

After a yearlong restoration to an existing building, Brinkwaters Hotel held an open house last week to spotlight the business, which will rely heavily on the towns tourism population.

I think Damascus is on the verge of a small-town renaissance  bringing economic vitality back to the rural town, said Trey Waters, who, along with business partners Eric and Emily Brinker of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, has refashioned a former business site into a 13-room lodging facility. The new business will cater to outdoor enthusiasts who are attracted to what the Damascus area has to offer.

Waters believes Damascus is a prime location for their new business because of its proximity to the Virginia Creeper and Appalachian trails.

People come to Damascus and stay one night. They ride the Creeper Trail and go home. Were trying to create the opportunity for two- or three-day stays.

Ive often heard that people come and enjoy Damascus and then go stay in Abingdon because were at capacity in town. Our business was an attractive opportunity to turn space into a nightly rental program, said Waters.
Appalachia will also benefit from the $332 billion that Biden proposes to spend on decent and affordable housing. That has been hard to come by here in the mountains. The pandemic  which brought in outsiders relocating from more urban areas  has only exacerbated the problem.

And then theres the $726 billion allocated to the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee to enact universal pre-K, which will alleviate the cost of child care in an area considered a child care desert. Universal pre-K will also help children keep pace with their peers in more affluent districts and private schools.

Having myself benefited from Pell Grants  I never would have been able to afford college without them  I was excited to see that Biden wants to expand this program. This will allow more Appalachian students to realize their dream of a college education.

So, too, will the Biden administrations proposal to make the first two years of community college free. Community college is an especially attractive option in Appalachia, where the nearest four-year university might be several hours away.
Former President Donald Trump experienced something new during his rally in Mobile, Alabama, last Saturday: He was briefly booed.

That never happens when Trump speaks to gatherings of his loyal followers. Yet the boos came when he urged those in the crowd not yet vaccinated to get protected against COVID-19.

You know what? I believe totally in your freedoms, Trump told the crowd. You got to do what you have to do, but I recommend: Take the vaccines. I did it  its good.

That his request received a negative response from many in the audience is indicative of how entrenched the opposition is to the vaccine among some groups.

About 90 million Americans have not taken the shots, which are 95% effective in preventing the deadly virus. Their hesitancy is contributing to the new surge in COVID cases.

A study by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University found vaccination resistance is highest in counties where a majority of voters supported Trump in the 2020 election. Also among the laggards are African Americans and those 18-24 years old.

The latter group is chronically resistant to preventative medical measures. Trump backers and Blacks, according to the study, dont trust the government.
BEND, Ore. (AP)  The death toll from COVID-19 in Oregon is climbing so rapidly in some counties that the state has organized delivery of one refrigerated truck to hold the bodies and is sending a second one, the state emergency management department said Saturday.

So far, Tillamook County, on Oregon's northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, requested the trucks, said Bobbi Doan, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw wrote in his request to the state that the county's sole funeral home is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity of nine bodies.

"Due to COVID cases of staff, they are unable to transport for storage to adjacent counties," he wrote, adding that suicides are also up in the county.

The refrigerated truck arrived in the county on Friday, loaned by Klamath County, Doan said in a telephone interview.

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners said Friday the spread of COVID-19 "has reached a critical phase.
CONCORD  Cabarrus paramedic Jonathan Maulden will become the first deputy chief of operations for Cabarrus County Emergency Medical Services. Under the direction of Chief Jimmy Lentz, Maulden will work alongside Deputy Chief of Administration Justin Brines, with a focus on logistical management.

Our operations are steadily growing, and Jonathan has the skill set to keep it all in line, Lentz said. His technical and logistical expertise will make the best use of resources needed to support our team and provide the best possible service to our residents.

Maulden first worked as an EMT-Basic for Johnston Ambulance Service and Winterville Rescue and EMS before joining Cabarrus County EMS in 2006.

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A nationally registered paramedic, Mauldens most recent role was as shift supervisor.

Over the past 15 years, hes held several positions with Cabarrus EMS, including as a tactical specialist with Kannapolis Police SRT, and assistant team leader for the countys STORM and SMAT III teams. He helped establish the countys EMS ATV team, provided training for various teams and services, secured grants for programs, and procured supplies and equipment for the department.
More than 1,100 snackpaks were delivered to Cabarrus county Schools (CCS) on Friday, Aug. 20 and 300 snackpaks were dropped off to Kannapolis City Schools (KCS) on Wednesday Aug. 25. Due to their schedules and school-start dates, Perry, Crowe, Hinson and Williams delivered Bags Aug. 20 and Yarborough, Cox and Perry delivered bags Aug. 25.

While loading up a cart to transport the snackpaks into the school, Cox said she was excited to finally get the food to where its needed.

Putting together the food drive was really rewarding, I have been involved with Cabarrus 1Can for a few years stocking blessing boxes, especially during the pandemic and so it was nice now to have the opportunity to be involved in a more hands-on way and seeing the impact its making on schools in my local area. It is a really rewarding experience, Cox said.

Jacobia Williams, a CCS social worker, was at Weddington Hills Elementary School when the girls and 1Can dropped off the snackpaks. She said the donations would be shared between several of the CCS area schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
CHARLESTON  Concerned community members pushed tensions and questions over cash bail to the forefront Friday afternoon as they protested outside the Coles County Courthouse in Charleston.

Members of the new organization Justice in Coles County were motivated by several instances when violent offenders were released on cash bail  usually for small amounts of cash.

Among them was Teresa Grammer, who came to the protest on behalf of her friend who she said was murdered while she was pregnant in a drug-induced homicide.

Grammer was upset that the alleged killer was freed after posting $5,000 as he awaited trial.

Since this is a very serious crime, I feel that it was a paltry amount to allow him to walk free, said Grammer.

Meanwhile, other issues rose, including the prioritizing of orders of protection, warrants for dangerous criminals, and more.

Law enforcement needs to enforce the laws and I don't feel like they're doing that, said organization leader Jodee Gravil. Also, I think our state's attorney that we elected needs to do his job that we elected him for, and that's to protect the citizens.

I know it's everywhere, it's not just in Coles County, said Alex Walker, who attended the protest. But we need more people to stand up in Coles County.

In Illinois, cash bail will be eliminated in 2023 under the criminal justice equity law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in February. This means that offenders will either be able to walk free or they will be jailed as they await trial.

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The intention is to release those arrested for non-violent offences while removing the possibility of freeing those who committed more violent crimes.

This act was created to combat racial and class-based disparities in the criminal justice system.

According to Coles County States Attorney Jesse Danley, who oversees bond hearings, this actually did not help the situation because it further complicates the jobs of criminal justice workers.

When it comes to identification and racial equality, we always need to be the cutting edge and be considerate of that, but there were many changes to the criminal justice system that were, just from a prosecutors standpoint, it made our job extremely harder and took some of the tools out of our belt, said Danley.

Each bond hearing is different based on the individual in question, said Danley. They rely on a combination of different factors including prior offenses, whether or not they have made it to court dates, and more.

The bond hearing must also be set within the first 48 hours after the suspect has been arrested, said Danley. The judges must make decisions based on all the information they have at that point in time.

Danley says he is sympathetic to those who would like to see changes in the community.

My door is always open, said Danley. A dialogue needs to be had, and an education as to what the law that I have to follow everyday is, but also consideration of how this is affecting people in their communities in their households. I think that's relevant and I'm always happy to listen to people that have constructive criticism about what we do here.

Danley also urges the community to call on their legislators, who can impact the changes of the laws that are in place.

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News reports from Afghanistan remind me that I have written several columns about injustice and violence. Powerful people in Afghanistan are bringing suffering to their people. May those who are leaving their country find refuge in the hands of strangers. I praise the civic and religious groups that are providing shelter and food to strangers as directed by scripture. Even though violence and injustice will continue, the stories need to be discussed.

Man-made sorrow and suffering have been recorded. In addition to political and power-hungry conflicts, we continue to have religious conflicts. Historical accounts reveal that people of faith have been involved in warfare and religious oppression as victims and instigators for centuries.

Violent struggles against oppressive foes can be found in the Old Testament. Biblical stories describe that Gods people had to fight to protect their monotheistic religion.

Young Davids actions against Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45 is an example of fighting for a cause. Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. David used violence to defeat the enemy and honor his God. The Old Testament describes acts of violence without condemnation.
GREENSBORO  Chief Brian James said the Greensboro Police Department is "shaken" after one officer was injured and a suspect killed during a shooting Friday afternoon at the department's parking lot downtown.

Someone set fire to a police vehicle about 3:10 p.m. Friday, which led officers to confront the person in the parking lot at 100 E. Police Plaza, James said during a news conference Friday evening.

The suspect assaulted an officer and three officers shot at the suspect "ending the threat," James said.

Police have not positively identified the suspect, who was pronounced dead on scene. They do not yet know the motive, James said.

The injured officer was taken to a local hospital. James said his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening and are consistent with a "physical assault."

The names of the officers involved were not released publicly Friday, but James said all have been with the department for some time.

"I would consider all three of the officers to be veterans," he said.

They have been put on administrative duty, which is normal procedure in such cases.
Barbara Burke, who represents the Northeast Ward on the Winston-Salem City Council, will hold a rally Saturday about her request for school officials to donate the former Hanes-Lowrance middle schools on Indiana Avenue to the city of Winston-Salem.

The rally will be held at 3 p.m. at Greenway Park at 2701 Greenway Ave. in Winston-Salem, according to a news release.

Mayor Pro Tem Denise Adams, who represents the North Ward on the council, is scheduled to attend the rally as well as Fleming El-Amin, a Forsyth County commissioner, and representatives of the Winston-Salem chapter of the NAACP, the Winston-Salem Police Department and the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity.

Burke, a former member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, has proposed that the city convert the site into a community center.

A school board committee voted on Aug. 10 to give the school district the go-ahead to pursue other programming options for the middle schools.

The Hanes-Lowrance site closed abruptly in 2015 amid concerns about contaminated groundwater and its effect on air quality inside the buildings.
Make-A-Wish officials called Rick Jarvis, a retired city firefighter and a Make-A-Wish volunteer, to arrange for Kashton and his family to visit Fire Station 19, Jarvis said. The fire department was receptive, Tretsky said.

A group of firefighters and administrators with the fire department greeted Kashton and his mother, Jillian Barnowski, as they arrived at the fire station Saturday morning in a limousine. The fire station, at 4430 Glenn Hi Road, is surrounded by fields of soybeans growing under their green leaves.

Fire Chief William Trey Mayor then swore Kashton in as an honorary Winston-Salem firefighter.

Im a firefighter now, Kashton said. I want to sit in the fire truck.

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As part of his training, Kashton rode in the fire truck to the scene of the brush fire. Kashton and his mother also toured the fire station and later had lunch with Mayo and the stations firefighters.

Before lunch, Kashton was given a toy fire ladder truck, which Mayo helped him assemble.

Kashton deserved to be honored by the Winston-Salem Fire Department, Mayo said.
COLUMBIA, S.C.  South Carolina students will again be required to wear masks on school buses starting Monday as COVID-19 cases among children and students are rising rapidly and health care workers are increasingly struggling to deal with the crush of unvaccinated patients of all ages.

The state Education Department told schools in July they did not have to make students on buses wear masks. But the agency changed its mind in a letter Thursday, bringing it into line with federal health rules about masks on buses.

Education Superintendent Molly Spearman said the delta variant of COVID-19 appears to be spreading quickly in children and more must be done to keep students safe and schools open.

Districts who need masks will get them by the end of the weekend to pass out to students who board buses without a face covering. Drivers can't kick a student off a bus for not wearing a mask.

Spearman's letter does not change the ban on mask mandates in schools and classrooms passed in the state budget by the General Assembly.

Nearly 30% of new COVID-19 cases in South Carolina in the past two weeks have been in people age 20 and under. During the same time in 2020, about 17% of cases were in that age group, according to data from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Williams, one of the lead prosecutors on the case, said the mass shooting was one of the worst events in South Carolinas history.

Our office is grateful for the decision of the court, a decision that ensures, as the Court stated, that the harshest penalty a just society can impose is indeed imposed, Williams said in a statement.

All of the judges in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers South Carolina, recused themselves from hearing Roofs appeal; one of their own, Judge Jay Richardson, prosecuted Roofs case as an assistant U.S. Attorney. The panel that heard arguments in May and issued the ruling on Wednesday was comprised of judges from several other appellate circuits.

Following his federal trial, Roof was given nine consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in 2017 to state murder charges, leaving him to await execution in a federal prison and sparing his victims and their families the burden of a second trial.
Dale and Ruth graduated from high school in 1944, and Dale went into farming with his dad and brother. He went through intake for military service but was turned away because of high blood pressure readings.

Meanwhile, Dale and Ruth continued their courtship  not without hitting a few bumps in the road, but never encountering a conflict they couldnt overcome.

Woods said family members have asked her mother if she and Dale ever broke up during their years of dating, and the answer is a definite yes.

Mom said, Oh, yeah, lots of times  usually right before our birthdays,  Woods said with a chuckle.

Ironically, then, Dale and Ruth chose their birthday week for their wedding in 1946. After the nuptials, they headed off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for their honeymoon in the same 1936 Ford they had driven to the movies so many times. (The brakes didnt work too well on that car, but they obviously survived.)

One of their most memorable wedding presents was the kind of gift that keeps on giving  especially for a young farm couple.

We got a milk cow for a wedding present from my dad, Ruth said.
I would like to share with you a brief conversation about politics that I didnt want to have. But the man in the Arizona bar sitting a couple of stools down from me was persistent, so I reluctantly engaged.

He first brought up President Joe Bidens handling of Afghanistan, specifically the idiocy  his word, not mine  of making a deal with the Taliban in the first place. When I pointed out that it was the former president and not the current one who negotiated the deal  going so far as to pull up video of Donald Trump bragging about making the deal  the man pivoted to Hillary Clintons email. The Fox News buzzwords just kept coming. It was like playing a drinking game at Tucker Carlsons house.

The best part was when he said the Electoral College had to be protected so that California and New York dont ruin our democracy. I asked how a system saves democracy when it allows the candidate with fewer votes to claim victory.

He paused for a moment. Then went back to Clintons emails.

But, hey, at least he paused.
Morning coffee thoughts

On the domestic side, locals are militantly debating whether or not to have a 3-foot grassy strip between their sidewalks and the street (Sidewalk plan draws criticism). Meanwhile, both local and state representatives argue how millions of N.C. tax dollars are spent on the details of high school sports, as though that is of primary value in how we educate our young citizens (Proposal to disband NCHSAA returns). Who knows if they might enter their careers and be expected to tackle a competitor to the ground or run a ball the length of corporate headquarters? Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in an obscure part of the world, we have American citizens as well as Afghan men, women and children risking their lives to exit Kabul before they are potentially killed by a radical sect associated with those who previously bombed the World Trade Center (Biden says US-led evacuation from Kabul is accelerating). All of this news, neatly arranged on page one, easily read before the coffee gets cold.
Crime-and-courts

editor's pick topical alert featured

Third night of Fiji protests focuses on survivors, continues call for cultural reckoning at UNL

EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters applaud deeply personal stories shared by many sexual assault survivors during Thursday night's rally outside the Nebraska Union. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters hold banners outside the Phi Gamma Delta house on Aug. 26. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protestors hug on the steps of the Nebraska Union as people filter home after Thursday night's protest. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protestors raise their middle fingers toward the Phi Gamma Delta house on Thursday. EAKIN HOWARD, Courtesy photo People sit in front of Phi Gamma Delta and listen to speakers talk about the issue of sexual assault on the UNL campus Thursday night. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star A protester faces the Phi Gamma Delta house with a message from the steps of the Nebraska Union. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters listened to messages from sexual assault survivors on Thursday night. Speakers stood on the steps of the Nebraska Union, facing the Fiji house where an alleged sexual assault on Monday prompted demonstrations this week. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters holding signs face the Phi Gamma Delta house on Thursday night. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star At Thursday protest, participants where encouraged to leave sticky notes behind in support of sexual assault survivors. EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters listen to speakers talk about their experiences on Thursday outside the Nebraska Union.

In a demonstration that differed markedly from the previous two nights of protests outside the Phi Gamma Delta house, University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and supporters largely shifted their attention away from the fraternity on Thursday night and toward one another.

For more than two hours, speakers who had signed up in advance shared deeply personal testimonies from the steps of the Nebraska Union  directly across from the Fiji house at 1425 R St. where a sexual assault was reported to have happened Monday night.

After two evenings of tense gatherings that included chants and demands focused on the fraternity and the 19-year-old member who is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl and UNL student, the tone and nature of Thursday's demonstration changed, focusing instead on survivors of sexual assault.

More than a dozen activists, students and supporters took turns speaking to the crowd on Thursday, including Omaha state Sen. Megan Hunt and representatives of student government.

EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Sen. Megan Hunt speaks to the crowd gathered for Thursday night's protest outside the Nebraska Union.

Nearly all the speakers  including Hunt  identified themselves as survivors of sexual violence, as organizers continued to demand further action from UNL while placing an increased and palpable emphasis on supporting one another.

"The powers that be  the power of the university, the power of the legislature, the power of the state  they are not gonna be here for you," said Hunt, who later critiqued university leaders on Twitter for failing to address a culture of sexual violence she indicated was prevalent among fraternities on campus.

"We're here for you," she continued. "We're here for each other. We're here for us."

Im a 35 year old mom who never went to UNL and even I have heard the word of mouth warnings about the fraternities she mentioned. These open secrets are a big clue @UNLincoln https://t.co/1S1l76m2fN  Senator Megan Hunt  (@NebraskaMegan) August 27, 2021

Hunt  joined by Sens. Matt Hansen, Machaela Cavanaugh, Terrell McKinney, Adam Morfeld and Carol Blood  signed an open letter to UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green pledging solidarity with student protesters seeking a safer campus.

"It is clear that university leadership has already lost the trust of a significant portion of the student body on basic issues of safety on campus," the letter reads in part. "We empathize with these students and their advocacy, and are deeply concerned that these issues have been of repeated public concern over the last several years."

Green temporarily suspended Fiji  already on probation for previous violations of university policy  on Wednesday afternoon, about 36 hours after the sexual assault was reported.

The fraternity was put on probation in 2015 for reports of reckless alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct among its members, and it was later suspended from 2017-20.

Fiji members were linked with confrontations with individuals taking part in the January 2017 Women's March in Lincoln, which led to a campus Title IX investigation.

The alleged assault that prompted the protests was the 103rd rape reported to UNL Police since 2005  and the 78th such incident reported since 2015, according to data reviewed by the Journal Star. Another rape was reported to campus police hours after the one alleged to have happened at the Fiji house.

The alleged sexual assault reported Monday was the second at the Fiji house since 2010  coming after a reported rape in November 2013, police archives show.

In 2015, UNL police responded to a disturbance call at the house, where officers fielded a "report of three males aggressively attempting to get females to attend a party," according to reports. In October 2019, a UNL student reported inappropriate sexual behavior at the fraternity house, the Journal Star's review of archives revealed.

In all, University Police fielded 73 reports from or involving the Phi Gamma Delta house since 2010, where minors in possession, narcotics violations, physical assaults and an arson have all been tracked by officers.

The reports of sexual violence and inappropriate sexual behavior set the backdrop for Thursday night's gathering, where at least three women who spoke said they were instructed as freshmen to avoid Fijis.

In previous nights, protesters had gathered only steps away from the knee-high stone wall that separates the fraternity's lawn from the sidewalk on R Street. On Thursday, attendees largely remained across the street, gathering around the Union staircase that doubled as a platform for students sharing painful, intimate details with a crowd of several hundred people.

EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protestors listen to speakers on Thursday night across the street from the Fiji house, where an alleged sexual assault prompted a series of demonstrations this week.

Despite the softened nature of the protest, the crowd still often chanted "F--- Fiji" in between speakers and continued to call for the fraternity's UNL chapter to be abolished.

And organizers repeated a theme that emerged at Wednesday's protest as they called for UNL officials and faculty to attend the nightly gatherings  once again calling out Green by name.

The university's suspension of the Fiji chapter will launch an investigation of the fraternity as the police investigation into the alleged sexual assault continues. Green met with campus leaders on Thursday and issued a statement later in the day. "As a university, we have a responsibility to follow that defined process and protect the rights of all involved  even while we move as quickly as we can," Green wrote. "And I know that the end of that legal process sometimes just doesnt feel like justice.

'I'm angry too'  UNL chancellor responds to calls for justice as new details emerge in Fiji assault case New details have emerged surrounding the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman at the Fiji house on Monday night, where the accuser had been attending a gathering with a friend in the hours before the assault was reported.

"I get that. I understand many of you are angry. Im angry too." UNL officials on Thursday confirmed that the accuser is a 17-year-old student and University Police are handling the investigation independently. Relaying information from police, UNL spokeswoman Leslie Reed said the 17-year-old went to the Fiji house with an 18-year-old female friend Monday night. The 18-year-old left the gathering at the house before the 17-year-old, who later called the friend to pick her up. The 18-year-old picked up the accuser from 17th and R streets  a block from the fraternity  and took her to Bryan East Campus, Reed said, where they reported a sexual assault to LPD, which turned the case over to UNL police. Reed said the accuser identified a 19-year-old man as the person who allegedly sexually assaulted her at the fraternity house. Police are employing "trauma informed investigating," Reed said, moving at the pace of the accuser while focusing on providing care, comfort and empathy for the 17-year-old. Rumors alleging the accused man, who has not been arrested or charged, had fled the country were not true, according to university and police sources. The student has left campus, returned home and hired an attorney. A university spokesperson said on Thursday that Green would "continue to talk to the campus as a whole about this situation," referring to statements like the one Green put out on Thursday. In it, Green told students, "If youre a young man who somehow thinks this is cool  think again. It is unacceptable. No means no. And if you violate that, and we can prove it  you have no place on our campus."

Kiara Williams, a UNL senior and grassroots activist with Change Now LNK, a public policy solution organization, spoke first at Thursday's rally and gave among the longest speeches of the night.

EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Kiara Williams speaks to the crowd gathered outside the Nebraska Union on Thursday.

While organizers' specific demands had previously focused on the expulsion and prosecution of the accused 19-year-old and abolishment of his fraternity, Williams made further demands of UNL's administration, calling on officials to address root issues within its culture that have allowed 47 reported rapes that have resulted in criminal investigations in the past six years.

"This girls blood is on the universitys hands, she said, noting what she called the widely known culture of sexual violence associated with fraternities on campus and UNL's perceived inaction.

After more than two hours of listening to speakers, many protesters who had spread out around the 1400 block of R street moved toward the Union stairs with pens and pencils in hand.

EAKIN HOWARD, Journal Star Protesters on Thursday night left behind sticky notes in support of sexual assault survivors.

They passed Post-it notes to one another. They wrote messages  encouragement, concerns, demands  and stuck them to the stairs, windows and nearby light poles.

"We are here for you," one note read.

Watch Now: Hundreds protest outside UNL fraternity after reported sexual assault Hundreds of protesters gathered outside a UNL fraternity house Tuesday evening, rhythmically chanting "kick him out" at a fraternity member who was accused of rape.
Protesters who gathered for the fourth night of demonstrations outside the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus clashed with police early Saturday morning.

After protesting for much of the evening outside the Fiji house at 1425 R St., where a sexual assault was reported to have occurred Monday night, hundreds spilled into the streets of downtown Lincoln just before midnight.

After marching through downtown, chanting "No means no" and at times blocking traffic, the demonstration appeared to be winding down as protesters returned to the steps of the Nebraska Union.

Just as many began to leave, however, the crowd was informed that a man had been tased by a Lincoln Police Department officer a few blocks away.

That prompted many of those in the crowd to march back to the area of 11th and O streets, where they confronted officers, surrounded police cars and chanted "No justice, no peace" and "Show your badge."

LPD Capt. Ben Miller confirmed to the Journal Star early Saturday that officers conducted a traffic stop in the area of 12th and O streets just after midnight. The officer approached the driver, 27-year-old Reuben Nyakundi, who refused to provide identification and paperwork for his vehicle.
THE FACTS: An article shared widely on social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram, misrepresents data from Scotland to falsely conclude that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is more dangerous than getting the virus. In fact, reports of death resulting from COVID-19 vaccination are rare while more than 4 million people worldwide have died from COVID-19. Yet the article claims more people have died due to the Covid-19 vaccine in 8 months than people who have died of Covid-19 in 18 months. This bogus claim rests on U.K. data presented without proper context, according to an Associated Press analysis confirmed by medical experts. The article cites data from Scotlands national public health agency that shows that between Dec. 2020 and June 2021, 5,522 people died within 28 days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. It compares that number to a report from the National Records of Scotland showing that between March 2020 and July 2021, 704 people who had no pre-existing conditions died of COVID-19 in Scotland. But using those figures alone leaves out key context. Public Health Scotland explains that though 5,522 people did die within 28 days of receiving a vaccine, that number includes all recorded deaths due to any cause and does not refer to deaths caused by the vaccine itself. The agency adds that this tally of coincidental post-vaccine deaths is actually lower than the 8,718 deaths that would be expected based on average monthly death rates in Scotland. National Records of Scotland Communications Manager Ewan Mathieson told the AP that out of millions who have received COVID-19 vaccine doses in Scotland, a total of four people there have died from adverse effects of the shot. Reducing virus deaths in Scotland to the 704 people without pre-existing conditions is also misleading, because it excludes anyone who had any condition that preceded COVID-19 or was listed as a contributory factor in their death. In total in Scotland between March 2020 and August 2021, there have been more than 10,000 deaths involving COVID-19, Mathieson said. The article also points to reports made to the British governments Yellow Card scheme, a program for reporting adverse drug reactions. It claims that nearly 300,000 adverse reactions and 501 deaths reported through the program are proof that the vaccines are dangerous and can be deadly. Thats not accurate, according to the U.K. government, which explains that any member of the public can submit suspected side effects so the Yellow Card reports should not be considered conclusive. The nature of Yellow Card reporting means that reported events are not always proven side effects, the U.K.s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency explains on its website. Some events may have happened anyway, regardless of vaccination. This is particularly the case when millions of people are vaccinated, and especially when most vaccines are being given to the most elderly people and people who have underlying illness. Sheena Cruickshank, a professor and immunologist at the University of Manchester, called the piece an irresponsible article that is using data in an unethical way. In an email to the AP, Cruickshank wrote: Current data clearly shows that unvaccinated people are much more at risk of catching the delta variant of COVID and being hospitalised or dying. The vaccines are proving highly effective against protecting against the worst effects of this condition.
In recent weeks, the topic of election integrity has even become a wedge issue between U.S. House candidates Sen. Anthony Bouchard (R-Cheyenne)  who has contested claims of rampant voter fraud in Wyomings elections  and Rep. Chuck Gray (R-Casper), who mounted an unsuccessful effort to bring the Wyoming Department of Audit under Legislative oversight for the purpose of auditing elections. Bouchard is a traitor, one member of the Telegram group wrote. Totally agree, another responded. I think we are to flood Chuck gray with phone calls. He is the one that went to Arizona.

Rep. Dan Laursen (R-Powell), who is supportive of national election integrity efforts, traveled to South Dakota earlier this month to attend Lindells symposium. What Lindell produced during the forum  even if only halfway or a little bit true  should be concerning to everyone, Laursen said. Even the slightest bit of doubt should be enough to compel an audit, he said.

Would it be wise for us to at least do one? It might be, Laursen, a member of the Wyoming House Freedom Caucus, said. I dont know if the Secretary of State would ever be interested. To put peoples minds to ease Its pretty darn important, I think.

The biggest dangers, Gierau said, are signals from elected officials boosting irresponsible allegations.
Building another school in a remote area in northern Uganda, where children have no access to education, is in the final stages. Schools are built in partnership with Growing Hearts of Africa Foundation.

Davidson said the partnership focuses on creating sustainable schools that can one day be handed over to the community to run. Sustainability plans are being developed to make this possible.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nahla and Hayden schools are currently closed, reversing years of progress made toward access to education in Uganda. Many students in rural villages, like the ones served by Deki, can't access remote learning options. Only 3% of households in Uganda have an individually owned computer, and only 6.6% of rural households have access to internet. Many of these families don't have electricity in their homes.

The longer students are disengaged from education, the lower the likelihood they will return to school in the future, as students start working to help support their families and girls get married early, Davidson said. Deki is taking action to keep the students engaged in education. Many of the teachers go to a trading place and let the students know that they can go there to pick up lessons and tbring back their homework. This helps keep the students engaged.
Lincoln South Rotary Club members, besides Vrana, met with Zaineb and were equally impressed with more than her project. The board members noted the integrity and character of Zaineb and felt that she was insightful in her views of our environment and cultures, believing in oneself and pursuing a dream.

Zaineb has an important message for the next generations  using our planet's resources wisely, and taking lessons from many indigenous cultures of how they live a happy life through sharing and not through possessions, said Lincoln South Rotary board member Suni Kasibhatla. She wants to make sure the next generations and society think about the give and get culture, not only learning how to preserve our planet's limited resources but how to be happy with what we have.

Board member Mary Gilbride said she was impressed with Zainebs maturity, and also felt privileged to meet her sister, Shahad, whose loving support for and admiration of Zaineb inspired and delighted all of the board members.

We read about young people today not maturing until they are well into their 20s, but when I had the pleasure of interviewing Zaineb, I met someone more mature than her age, said Chan Tyrrell, South Rotary board member and past president. The journey she is on will take her far in life and should be an inspiration to each of us.
By 2004, the dance team had received gold medals in the Cornhusker State Games Talent Show; in 2005, they were honored with the Mayors Cultural Celebration Award by the Lincoln Arts Council. Twice, members have toured Ireland in celebration of the groups 10th and 20th year anniversaries.

Public service has included answering phones for Nebraska Public Television, organizing a green food drive for the Lincoln Food Bank, and participating in the annual Alzheimers Walk in honor of founder LuAnne Anderson, who passed away in 2017. Members have presented pre-talks at the Lied Center prior to Irish-themed performances. Their reputation as a cultural interest group resulted in many non-performing members, as well as television and radio interviews. All functions except teaching have been handled by volunteers within the group.

Business as usual

In spite of plans to close their doors next year, the group will be running the 2021-22 season the same as prior years. Classes are taking place, and performances may be booked through the spring of 2022. Several commemorative events are being planned for both members and non-members. This spring, the group will host its annual ceili, a public dance that anyone can join in with no previous experience.
RACINE  When Deejae Kober was signing her daughter Jordyn Harvey up as a Little Sister as a part of the Big Sisters of Greater Racine program, the application asked for suggestions of the type of Big Sister the applicant was seeking.

And while most applicants usually write traits such as outgoing, kind, relaxed, patient or high energy, Kober just put down a name: Jennifer Zygmunt.

It was awesome, said Big Sisters Director Susan Sandvick, who handles the matchmaking process. I was like, OK, done. Usually I have a big screening process and all this. So it was really nice to be able to be like, And everythings here.

Zygmunt was Kobers former Big Sister, a match that dates back to 2007. The two got very close over the years and remained in touch even after Kober graduated from the program in 2015  the same time of her high school graduation. And now that bond will continue, but in a different way, as Kober passes off the sisterhood to her daughter.

The need for Big Sisters

The Big Sisters of Greater Racine program matches young girls with adults to serve as mentors, friends and supporters. The program helps girls become more likely to graduate high school, form healthier, stronger relationships and make healthier lifestyle choices, enhance their self-esteem and confidence, improve their behavior at home and at school and improve interpersonal skills.

From March 2020 to June 2021, Big Sisters had to close 20 matches due to losing touch during the pandemic, which amounted to about 40% of total matches. Most of the closed matches resulted in the Little Sister placed on a waiting list to get a new Big Sister.

Right now, the organization is waiting for six Big Sisters. As the school year begins, more Little Sisters are likely to sign up as recommendations from school counselors come in. So, that means even more of a need for Big Sisters.

Theres always a need for bigs, Sandvick said.

Additionally, PALS (People Assisting Little Sisters) are needed. PALS help out Big Sisters who are unable to attend events and girls on the waiting list by accompanying Little Sisters and unmatched littles to group activities and events.

How to sign up The Big Sisters program accepts little sisters ages 5-14, and girls can stay in the program until age 18 or high school graduation. Big sisters must at least be 18. Those interested can apply to be a big sister or a PAL at bigsistersracine.org. Those with questions can call 262-902-6310 or email director@bigsistersracine.org. Current unmatched little sisters: Age 12, living near S. Memorial Drive and 9th Street

Age 10, living a half-mile northwest of the Racine Zoo

Age 12, living near Douglas Avenue and 3 Mile Road

Age 6, living near Ohio Street and Durand Avenue

Age 12, living near Highway 31 (Ole Davidson Road) and 4 Mile Road

Age 13, living near Chicory Road and Highway 32 (Sheridan Road)

The first match

Big Sisters was something both Kober and her biological sister Jaecee Kober joined  their mother signed them up.

Zygmunt said she enrolled in Big Sisters in 2007 because she wanted to help out an organization, and she had two sons.

I just wanted to do things with girls, Zygmunt said.

Zygmunt was matched with Little Sister Kober, both from Racine, when Kober was in fifth grade. That was Zygmunts first match, and shes had one more Little Sister since then, who she is still working with.

Big Sisters hosts four optional events throughout the year where all the matches can get together. Its pretty much up to the sisters what else they want to do.

Zygmunt and Kober went to a Milwaukee Bucks game, Apple Holler in Yorkville, watched The Lion King, cooked food, attended banquets, made crafts, sewed and played plenty of games while matched together.

Kober said some of her biggest, standout memories with Zygmunt were while sewing. Kober recalled making a leather jacket, a dress, a purse and other bags.

Now, Zygmunt is working on alterations for Kobers wedding dress  plus her sisters, her daughters and her moms dresses that they will wear to the wedding on Oct. 16.

Zygmunt said she doesnt have an extensive background in sewing; she just knows how to do it.

I learned a lot just from doing it with Deejae, she said. It actually improved my skills a lot.

Starting a new match

The match between Zygmunt and her third Little Sister, Jordyn Harvey, 6, officially began Tuesday night  14 years after the match between Zygmunt and Kober.

Sandvick checks over Big and Little Sister applications, performs background and reference checks, and looks at the Big Sisters drivers licenses and car insurance. Then the Big Sisters attend orientation; there is no initiation ceremony or anything else like that.

Zygmunt said she plans to get to know Harvey, bring her to her home, have lunch and play games  just as she did with Kober.

And then I try to figure out what her interests are, Zygmunt said. Kober said Harveys interests include art.

When asked why Kober signed Harvey up for Big Sisters, she said its the same reason her mother initially signed her up.

Shes very attached to me and shes very, very quiet, Kober said of Harvey. Shes planning on enrolling her other daughter Jaedyn Harvey, 2, for Big Sisters once shes old enough. The Big Sisters program accepts girls as young as 5. But certain exceptions allow 4-year-olds in the program as well.

Zygmunt said being in Big Sisters has brought her to meet more people. Kober said being in Big Sisters helped her come out of her shell.

I was very shy, Kober said. It took me a while to be able to talk.

Kober said a large part of becoming more social was getting close with Zygmunt, Zygmunts sons and husband. At one point, Kober lived four doors down from Zygmunt and her family. This wasnt planned, however. It was just where Kobers mother found a place to live.

Now Kober is almost 25, and Zygmunts sons are 26 and 28.

Zygmunt said she hasnt spent much time with Harvey yet. She said she is looking forward to getting to know Harvey and seeing Kober more as a result of the match.

This story was just so cool to me because of the generational effect, Sandvick said. I love this match.

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Milwaukee Public Schools is set to receive about $796 million, the highest total figure of any Wisconsin school district, or about $11,217 per student. The U.S. Census poverty percentage in Milwaukee is 30%.

Aid programs

Wisconsin schools are set to receive around $2.6 billion in federal stimulus aid provided through three major stimulus programs: the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act from March 2020; the Consolidated Appropriations Act from December 2020; and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) from March 2021, which will send about $1.5 billion to Wisconsin school districts.

Under the largest of the aid programs provided across the three federal stimulus packages  the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funding program (ESSER)  90% of the funding, or about $2.2 billion, is directed to schools based upon the formula for Title I Part A, a program that provides financial assistance to schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. The formula is based on a census count of the number of low-income pupils residing in each district.

The other 10% of the roughly $2.4 billion ESSER program from the three stimulus packages is up to the discretion of the state, although some of the money must go toward federally required causes.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take up a conservative legal groups challenge to Dane Countys mask mandate in a 4-3 ruling issued Friday afternoon.

The court refused to exercise its own jurisdiction over the recent public health order, instead leaving it up to the states lower courts to consider any future legal challenges first.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty challenged the mask mandate in a lawsuit on behalf of Sun Prairie resident Bryant Stempski against Dane County and Madison, their joint public health department, and the departments director, Janel Heinrich, asking the court to declare the relevant county and city ordinances unconstitutional, according to court documents.

WILL claims that previous rulings by the court limit the powers of local public health officers and a mask order like the one issued in Dane County must be approved through legislative action.
1. Yes. An unvaccinated worker is a potential health liability for the entire workforce.

2. Yes. But it should only be required in some businesses, like health care or food service.

3. No. The requirement shouldnt be forced on employees; its a discriminatory practice.

4. No. Not only should they not require COVID shots , but no proof of vaccination either.

5. Unsure. Its a hard choice between public safety concerns and personal freedoms.

Vote

View Results
COVID-19 has stormed back into the Two Rivers region after a summer lull. Some 255 new cases were reported in its seven-county area Aug. 19-26. Thats nearly triple the number of new cases reported just two weeks ago. Last week, 170 new cases were reported.

More disturbing, COVID is now more prevalent among younger people.

Last November, all age groups were impacted but significantly, most were over the age of 60, Aravind Menon, Two Rivers epidemiologist, said. Now it seems to be younger people who are unvaccinated, and children aged 0-17. That gap has never happened before. Children have never accounted for most cases.

Puckett said children under age 12 are the most vulnerable because many are among unvaccinated adults much of the day.

Hospitalization of younger people is reaching unprecedented levels nationwide, Puckett said. Its not like that in Nebraska yet, but remember, everything comes from the coasts and into Nebraska. If we want an indicator of where we will be, this is probably it.

Eschliman said hospitals are challenged by any medical surge, but working with kids is a different ball game. This is a serious risk right now.
Doane University is expanding the footprint of its cannabis studies program in a new partnership with Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago.

After hemp production was legalized in the 2018 Farm Bill, Doane launched a series of self-paced, online courses for students around the globe interested in all things hemp.

Students could enroll in classes focused on cultivation, processing, testing and the growing business of cannabis, receiving a certificate at the end of their course.

Last year, the liberal arts college in Crete began offering those courses both in-person and online to Doane students, becoming the first college or university in Nebraska to do so.

Now, Doane will begin offering seven different courses taught both online and in-person at Little Priest, a land-grant college named for the last war chief of the Winnebago Tribe.

The partnership formed following discussions earlier this summer about how to further hemp cultivation at Ho-Chunk Farms owned by the Winnebago Tribe.
The Nebraska State Fire Marshal's Office found no sign of foul play in the barn fire that killed about 10,000 hogs at Pillen Family Farms in May.

State Fire Inspector Garrett Weidner also wrote in his report that the cause of the fire could not be determined.

The fire started at the front of the building, on its south side, according to the report. That is also the side of the building where an addition was being built, but Weidner wrote that he could not pin down the exact starting point of the fire. The barn was located near Albion.

Investigating the fire was made more difficult, he wrote, by the extensive damage and inability to inspect the interior of the collapsed barn.

The day before the fire, workers at the hog barn reported smelling smoke, according to the Weidner's report.

Marcia Medina, site leader for the farm, told Weidner that she searched for the source but was unable to find it and could not actually see any smoke or flames. Medina told Weidner that in addition to searching the rooms in the barn, she climbed into the attic to look.

According to the report, Medina reported the fire at 3:11 a.m. on May 12, after receiving alarms from the building's sensors.
Winona Healths CEO/president Rachelle Schultz, Winona County Health and Human Services director Karen Sanness and Winona County Health and Human Services supervisor Melanie Tatge shared that the current spike in the city is very concerning.

Tatge shared with the council that the county was, as of Thursday, at a seven-day COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 people of 402.11.

This high case rate puts the county at a high transmission level, which begins at 100.

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The average cases per day for the week leading up to Thursday was at 30.2 cases, which is a quick increase from the week of Aug. 25-31 when the average cases per day was at 4 cases.

It was echoed throughout the health leaders presentations that the current COVID-19 situation is similar to how it was at the end of August 2020.

More variants, the health officials shared, are expected to continue to enter into Winona County  similar to how the now present Delta variant did.

It was shared during the meeting that, with the contagiousness of the Delta variant, breakthrough cases are making up about 28% of the countys current cases, according to Schultz.
Were in good spirits, he said. We were not anticipating the level of interest in the business as it sits as a turnkey operation.

Dilba, just a few days into negotiations, of course declined to name any of those could-be buyers or partners but did say they included several well-known and respected members of the Wisconsin and Midwest brewing scene as well as name-brand entrepreneurs outside the industry.

I cant pick a single one that I wouldnt want to work with, he said.

What an outright buyer would be getting, in addition to Ale Asylums name and recipes, is a top-of-the-line brewery thats only nine years old and has a lot of excess capacity. Dilba said the brewery can make 50,000 to 60,000 barrels per year; in the past five years Ale Asylum has brewed between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels, in addition to making some beer for other companies.

The only craft brewery in Wisconsin that made more of its own beer last year than could be made at Ale Asylum is New Glarus Brewing at about 210,000 barrels; Lakefront was next at about 40,000. (That excludes contract brewers like the big and growing Octopi Brewing in Waunakee.)
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  At least half of Michigan's public K-12 students must wear a mask in school, a figure that has grown as local health or education officials order requirements that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer supports but is hesitant to reinstitute statewide.
Once vacated, Hanson said, Brickworks would incorporate the current cemetery site into its operations and mine it for clay needed to make the thousands of bricks that are produced and shipped from the plant daily.

Bonnie Stevenson, a Sergeant Bluff resident whose great grandparents and other relatives are buried in the cemetery, said that after hearing of the proposal, she didnt need long to make up her mind. She thinks of the cemeterys steep terrain and the difficulty reaching graves at the top of the hill. A new, level cemetery would solve that problem.

There was no difficulty to understand the benefit of what moving the cemetery would be, said Stevenson, one of five members of the Woodbury Township Cemetery Expansion Committee formed to explore its expansion and relocation.

For others, the thought of relocating a family members remains isnt as easy.

This is kind of a historical area, and were disturbing the area of those buried there. But to honor them is to allow people to visit them, Logemann said. The end result here is anyone, whether theyre in a wheelchair or a walker, can reach up and touch the gravestone of their loved one.
Lebanon restaurants have a new supplier for products and nonperishables.

M & C Restaurant Supply opened for business at 201 East Lehman Street on Tuesday to service small restaurants with necessities including takeout containers, paper cups, bags, rice, oil, sugar and salt, according to a Lebtown report.

The business is the only one of its kind in Lebanon County.

Owner Cesar Harwood told Lebtown that many business owners he spoke to currently buy stock from Reading or Hershey. Now, Lebanon restaurants have a much closer supplier  one that offers free delivery within five miles of the store.

We are expecting a positive reaction from the community because theres nothing like it in Lebanon, he told Lebtown.

The Restaurant Supply has locations in Reading and Lancaster city. Other nearby suppliers include Seigfrieds Restaurant Equipment in Berks and Brubakers Restaurant Equipment in Robesonia.
As a journalist-turned-novelist, Richard Fellinger, of Harrisburg, is used to writing about the countrys sins in the form of hard-hitting tragic news stories.

He has written newspaper stories about the abhorrent racism of Ku Klux Klan and the violent crime of the Mafia. With Summer of 85, Fellinger's latest book. the Elizabethtown College writing fellow and instructor tackles another national problem: mass shootings.

Summer of 85" was recently selected as a finalist in the general fiction category for the American Fiction Awards.

I feel like these are the topics writers have to write about, and I believe that deep down, Fellinger said in a press release for the book.

Fellinger is the author of the novel Made to Break Your Heart (2017) and the story collection They Hover Over Us (2012). The Summer of 85, which was released on June 15 by TouchPoint Press, won the Seven Hills Review novel excerpt contest.

Summer of 85, which also received an honorable mention in the general fiction category at the Hollywood Book Festival, is both a coming-of-age and a mid-life crisis novel that explores love and loss.

Summer of 85 focuses on Dan Fehr  an editor at a Harrisburg newspaper whose second marriage is in trouble  as he learns that one of the victims of a mass shooting in Philadelphia was someone from his past. Fellingers former life as journalist shines through in this timely novel (Fehrs editorial after the mass shooting opens with Once again, a community has been ravaged by gun violence...).

Fellinger takes an intimate look at the social issue of gun violence as he guides readers through feelings of loss and broken dreams.

Fellinger directs the Writing Wing at Elizabethtown College. He also occasionally has written columns that appear in the Opinion section of LNP | LancasterOnline.

Read an excerpt from Summer of 85 here.
When: Aug. 23 Borough Council meeting.

What happened: A pandemic-related shortage of construction materials has forced the borough to delay a much-needed stormwater project. Council decided not to accept a time extension requested by Affordable Paving Inc. of Lititz to install stormwater basins and new pipes along a stretch of South Ninth Street.

The issue: The construction company has asked council for a time extension until June 30, 2022, citing an industrywide shortage of materials including pipe.

Whats next: Borough Council decided to wait until Nov. 16, when the $118,752 project was to have been completed. By then, if Affordable Paving still doesnt have the material, a time extension can be requested.

Bike ride: Council also approved a request by the American Cancer Society to allow its Sept. 19 Pennsylvania Hope Ride to use borough streets. The bike ride, which will include about 200 riders, will flow along Diamond Station Road, Main Street, South Third Street and Scenic View Drive. The ride starts and ends in Lancaster. The event supports more than 30 American Cancer Society Hope Lodges throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

Christmas wreaths: Council announced there are still several Christmas wreaths needing sponsors. The wreaths will be placed on utility poles in the business district and will include the name or names of the sponsors. Sponsoring a wreath costs $35.
In May, when Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health announced a new COVID-19 vaccine mandate for staff, the hospitals vaccination rate was about 66%. With less than a week before the Sept. 1 employee deadline, roughly 98% of LG Health employees are either vaccinated or have an approved exemption.

Roughly four in 10 hospitals nationally have such a mandate.

As the delta variant wreaks havoc on unvaccinated communities across the United States and threatens to overwhelm health systems, infection control experts and a statewide association for long-term care facilities say health care workers should be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

If youre a health care worker and you dont realize the value of the vaccine, I question your clinical judgment, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Adalja added, If they quit, good riddance.

But dont expect the other health systems in Lancaster County to adopt a staff vaccine mandate.

Neither UPMC nor WellSpan Health  hospital officials told LNP | LancasterOnline  intend to implement a staff mandate, despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) having granted full approval for the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 earlier this week.

Starting Sept 12, though, unvaccinated WellSpan Health employees working in patient care areas will be required to be tested for COVID-19 every other week.

Reinforces trust

The University of Pennsylvania Health System  which includes Lancaster General Hospital and five other patient-care facilities  has been a leader in vaccine mandates. The health system was the first to adopt a mandate in Pennsylvania and among the earliest nationally.

In the three months since, roughly 2,400 U.S. hospitals have created a vaccine mandate, according to the American Hospital Association.

Unlike nursing home facilities  which must report staff vaccination rates weekly  hospitals, health systems and other health care workers do not have such a requirement.

Therefore, Pennsylvania Department of Health officials dont know how many of the more than 12 million vaccinations administered in the state were health care workers.

Maggi Barton, a Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesperson, declined to say whether the state would or should require hospitals to report staff vaccinations.

She did, however, say she hopes full FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine reinforces trust in all available vaccines and encourages people who may have been hesitant to get vaccinated to protect their loved ones and the community.

Short of a reporting requirement, the public cannot know the vaccination rate for their health systems. And in Lancaster County, getting this information depends on the hospital.

A pandemic of the unvaccinated

An internal LG Health communication obtained by LNP | LancasterOnline shows, as of Monday, the health system had a 97.5% staff vaccination rate. This appears to include those employees who received a medical or religious exemption.

John Lines, an LG Health spokesperson, did not respond to an email seeking confirmation.

The system-wide percentage UPMC has provided has remained unchanged for three months: 70%. UPMC operates 40 hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Ohio. Acceptance rates often differ  sometimes significantly  among facilities.

WellSpan declined to disclose the percentage of vaccinated staff.

Were in a pandemic of the unvaccinated and its disgusting to me that there are health care workers who are not vaccinated, said Adalja, with Johns Hopkins.

With COVID-19 cases rising after vaccinations plateaued in the U.S., President Joe Biden last week announced his intention to implement a vaccine mandate for the nations nursing homes.

Nursing homes have been the hardest hit in the pandemic. Residents of long-term care facilities, which include nursing homes, account for about 6% of all Pennsylvania infections, but half of the deaths. At one point last summer, resident deaths represented more than two-thirds of all COVID-19 fatalities in the state.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to issue emergency regulation requiring vaccinations among nursing home staff in late September, a CMS spokesperson said in an email to LNP | LancasterOnline.

Not the way to raise vaccination rates

A universal mandate would safeguard an industry already plagued with staffing shortages in the pandemic, according to officials with the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, which represents nearly 200 nursing homes.

The way Zach Shamberg, the associations president and CEO, sees it, vaccine hesitant nursing home workers could flee to health care jobs in hospitals and doctors offices that do not require a staff vaccination.

Why is this not consistent throughout health care? Shamberg asked.

A staffing shortage exacerbated by the pandemic, Shamberg said, means the loss of a single employee could be disastrous.

This is not the way to raise vaccination rates, Shamberg said.

Nursing home staffing was an issue long before the pandemic and will likely to be after the return to normal, noted Diane Menio, executive director of the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly in Philadelphia.

Before Bidens announcement, the Pennsylvania Department of Health had instructed nursing homes to reach an 80% staff vaccination rate.

Nationally, 61% of staff are vaccinated against COVID-19, according to CMS data. With 57% of nursing home staff in Lancaster County vaccinated, the county lags behind the state average, 62%.

White House officials did not respond not respond to an LNP | LancasterOnline inquiry into whether the Biden administration will extend a mandate to all health care workers.
An Ephrata Borough family physician received a statewide honor Thursday thanks to an employee who said the doctor goes above and beyond with her patients.

Dr. Danielle Miller, a 40-year-old Manheim Township resident Luz Medicine in October 2020, received an Everyday Hero Award by the Pennsylvania Medical Society, a physician-led organization that represents .

Potential award winners must be nominated and reviewed by the society. Several are awarded each year.

Millers nominator, Luz Medicine patient liaison Emily Meneghini, said she advocated for Miller to receive the award because f Millers gift in treating and caring for the whole person - emotionally, mentally and physically.

Dr. Miller goes above and beyond with her patients. She takes time with each of them, working with her patients to find a solution for their concerns, Meneghini. Dr. Miller believes that each patient knows their body and ultimately knows what they need. She has worked to create a space where her patients feel safe, comfortable and know that they are truly heard.

Miller, who received a glass plaque, said she felt excited to be recognized.

Its exciting to have the people who help you realize a dream, be a part of that dream and celebrate with you that what was once an idea is now a reality...., said Miller.

Miller received her medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2008 and completed her residency at Lancaster General Hospital in 2001.

her own practice at Luz Medicine, she worked as a family physician at Oyster Point Family Health Center in Lancaster.

Miller said she opened Luz Medicine to give patients the experience she felt they wanted, which was to have excellent medical care and flexible time to connect with their doctor.

As for the future, Miller said, I hope that itd not be so remarkable that doctors and patients are able to work and connect in a way that works for everyone. We all go into healthcare to help others. Im hoping that well all be able to work in a meaningful way thats sustainable; for our profession and for the patients to be able to sustain connection to their medical care and get the care that they need.
When: Ephrata Township supervisors meeting, Aug. 17.

What happened: Township supervisors approved the revised final plan by local retailer Goods Store to develop a new store and a supermarket at the former Ephrata Kmart. Kevin Varner, of Diehm & Sons Inc., a Lititz-based land planning firm, presented the plan to the board.

Background: Goods Store, which describes itself as a general store for the whole family, is working on a land development project estimated to cost more than $7 million. Goods is proposing to redevelop the 10.4-acre property at 1127 S. State St. into a 46,471-square-foot store and a 41,590-square-foot Dutch-Way Farm Market. The former Kmart site closed in February 2020 after 38 years of operation.

Details: A new loading dock is proposed for the back of the existing building. New covered entrances are proposed for the two new stores. The board approved a traffic evaluation study, as well as a waiver of requirement for a wetlands study.

New bikes: Ephrata police Chief John Petrick informed the board that the department recently put three new electric bicycles into service. The $12,000 bicycles were donated by WellSpan Health.
Parkesburg resident James Gebhardt, 110 Hamilton Ave., asked Borough Council during its Aug. 16 meeting for clarification about an undeveloped street on his property that has existed on paper for more than a century.

Council responded by voting 5-0 for an ordinance formally declaring White Hill Avenue an abandoned road in the borough. Council members Mark Agen and Lyle Gillespie were absent at the in-person meeting.

The issue came up while installing a new septic system at Gebhardts home. He told the borough the unbuilt street starts at the edge of his driveway on Hamilton Avenue and goes eastward.

Council President Sharon Wolf said the abandoned street runs through property owned by Pennsylvania American Water Company. There is a need to create an ordinance to abandon White Hill Avenue, Wolf said.

Gebhardt also found out through his title company there was a right of way issue. His title company requested a letter of abandonment from the borough for a potential land purchase from Pennsylvania American Water to Gebhardt.

White Hill Avenue was declared a borough road in an ordinance from June 2, 1890, and was intended to be developed. Borough Manager Joe Reali said the road was never built and its status as a borough road may have expired in the past.

It only exists on paper and was forgotten all these years, Reali said.

Council member David Mellema suggested a motion to formally recognize the abandonment, based on the history because the borough never developed it.

Solicitor John Carnes Jr. said he will write a letter formally declaring White Hill Avenue a paper road, which he said happens after 20 years if no development occurs. The simplest solution is to simply state it (the road) expired, Reali said.

In other business, Borough Council voted to amend an ordinance that corrects antiquated procedures for identifying sunset and sunrise to determine when borough parks are closed to the public, in case of curfew violations.

At previous meetings, police Chief Brian Sheller told council and officials in his reports about a rise in minors breaking curfew at public parks.

The curfew in the borough is 10:15 p.m. to 5 a.m. for minors.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia held a rare meeting Saturday at a conference hosted by Iraq. The meeting is aimed at easing Mideast tensions and underscored the Arab countrys new role as mediator.

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the Baghdad meeting, hailing it as a major boost for Iraq and its leadership. The country had been largely shunned by Arab leaders for the past few decades because of security concerns amid back-to-back wars and internal unrest, its airport frequently attacked with rockets by insurgents.

On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordans King Abdullah and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose countrys ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.

Among the participants were also the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry over regional supremacy has often played out to deadly consequences in Iraq and other countries across the region, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia was represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iran with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

It was not immediately clear if the two ministers held a meeting on the sidelines. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hassan avoided a question as to whether they did, saying only: These meetings in fact began in Iraq, and in Baghdad, and these meetings are continuing, and will continue."

"What we understood from the two sides, or the parties, is a great and wide desire to reach positive results to solve the outstanding problems between the two countries, he added.

The high-level meeting in Baghdad sent a message of Arab solidarity with Iraq, which has increasingly been pulled into Irans orbit in recent years.

This summit marks the return of Iraq as a pivotal player in the region, said political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, who heads the Iraqi Political Thinking Center in Baghdad. Having rival parties be seated at the same table is a significant step in that direction.

Iraqi special forces deployed in Baghdad, particularly around the Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, where the meeting was held. Participants were expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Lebanon, which has been without a functional government for the past year, and Syria, which has been suspended from the Arab League since 2011, were not represented at the meeting.

Macron, whose country is co-organizing the meeting, described Saturdays meeting as historic, showcasing Iraqs return to stability following the ruinous war against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in 2017.

Sundays meeting was a chance for Iraqi leaders to underscore their recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the regions crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Iraq, which for years has been a headline for war and conflicts, is hosting leaders and representatives of the region today to affirm their support for Iraqi sovereignty and prosperity, said President Barham Salih.

Earlier this year, Iraq hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

An Iraqi government official had told The Associated Press he anticipated Saudi and Iranian officials would hold talks on the sidelines of Saturdays meetings. He said the aim was to create a political atmosphere for resolving outstanding problems.

Iraqs message at the summit is that it stands at the same distance from all sides, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

After decades of conflict, Iraq is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the countrys top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.



Karam reported from Beirut.
Its incredibly frustrating that most Lancaster County public schools are forging ahead with what I view as reckless, mask-optional policies this year.

Weve been given every indication of how this will play out. Weve already watched many students elsewhere across the United States go back to school without masks and be sent home almost immediately. We are watching pediatric intensive care units fill up.

Schools have been given clear masking guidance from local, state and national public health organizations. Countless local physicians have pleaded with schools to require masks. A recent Axios/Ipsos poll found that 69% of Americans support mask mandates for schools.

But most schools are instead bowing to the loudest and most disruptive members of the community  some of whom I believe are being guided by local political organizations and who are using school board meetings to fight political battles.

I do believe that some kids dont want to wear masks, because Ive listened to their parents claim  wildly and inaccurately  that masks are dangerous and unsafe. Ive heard parents scream and threaten school boards over masks  with their kids in tow. Parents set the tone on masks, and I believe many of them are failing spectacularly.

But the real failure lies with our school officials, who are responsible for keeping our kids safe in the classroom and, ideally, keeping them in the classroom. I fear that our kids are going to be sent home repeatedly. Hopefully thats the worst that happens. There is a simple, safe, effective way to help prevent illness, hospitalizations and lost days. Why wont all of our schools do it?

Rachel Rank

Conoy Township
EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR SATURDAY, AUGUST 28 , 2021

It Was Time To End a Twenty-Year War

Aug. 27 , 2021 (EIRNS)These wordsit was time to end a 20-year war, were the closing remarks by President Joe Biden at the White House press conference Aug. 26, the day of the deadly terror bombing at Kabuls Hamid Karzai International Airport, when Biden announced that the U.S. mission of evacuation from Afghanistan would nonetheless continue. Bidens words are anathema to the geopolitical networks in London, NATO and their cohorts, who want to perpetuate conflict, fear, and perpetual warfare, under their R2P doctrine, responsibility to protect, launched by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

From this perspective, look at the terrorist attack on the Kabul Karzai International Airport. Cui bono? Who benefits from this incident, which killed 170 people and wounded dozens more? Former career CIA analyst Ray McGovern raised this question on his website yesterday, under the headline, False Flag? He wrote, Do todays bombings at Kabul airport have signs of a false flag attack? If prior intelligence was so accurate, why was the attack not nipped in the bud? Key question, as always: Cui Bono? Who profits from killing Americans at this point? Biden better ask it, before he gets sucked back in.

The prior intelligence McGovern cites, even allowed time for general advance warnings to be issued. Other security experts are asking the same questions. Meantime, there is a new alert today, about the risk of more terrorist acts that may come.

What is indisputable, is that the war factions of the world want to use terrorist attacks as a pretext for re-launching war. There are hysterical calls for the U.S. to send in awesome military force, and air strikes to Afghanistan, especially from crazed circles in the U.S. and Britain. In fact, the United States and the Taliban are both targets of these warhawks. The opponents of peace and development are plain freaked out by any collaboration between the U.S. and the Taliban, which is going on at Kabul airport, as well as over the past year. The real enemy is terrorism, and the forces and conditions which foster it. President Vladimir Putin repeatedly has called for major power collaboration on counterterrorism.

There are institutional initiatives at present, which are potential venues for collaboration to root out terrorism, and for support for economic development in Afghanistan and all of Central Asia. This week UN Secretary General Guterres sent invitations for a meeting on Afghanistan for Monday, Aug. 30, to the five permanent members of the Security CouncilU.S., China, Russia, France and Britain. Putin has been calling for a summit of these five heads of state and government since January 2020, without a response, to address the multiple global crises now facing the world. Today, the UN Security Council, chaired this month by India, issued a denunciation of the Aug. 26 Kabul Airport bombing.

Meantime, today was the test run for what is to be a UN humanitarian air bridge of aid to Afghanistan, through Pakistan, conducted by the UN World Food Program. WFP Executive Director David Beasley, has been in Islamabad this week, meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. He released a video from Islamabad airport, to underscore that the WFP runs transportation for all UN purposespersonnel travel, medical and food aid, and other functions, and has the assistance of Pakistan.

Yesterday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi came back from a multi-nation tour to the other neighbors of AfghanistanIran and the Central Asian neighbors, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistandiscussing connectivity for mutual economic benefit. Representatives of three of those countries are invited for more discussion to Vienna next week, hosted by the Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

What is required in this process of diplomacy for development is both a vision for the region and concrete proposals, which are the hallmarks of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. The necessity of supporting economic works in Afghanistan is stressed strongly by Pino Arlacchi, formerly Director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) from 1997-2001. Both Arlacchi and McGovern have been active in the policy dialogues on Afghanistan with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, held by the Schiller Institute on July 31 and Aug. 21.

Arlacchi said, in an interview with Sputnik Mundo today, that the only way out now is an ambitious recovery plan based on the development of Afghanistans domestic resources. Arlacchi has done a blitz of international media this week, on the urgency of various actions for Afghanistan, including a drug eradication program, and working with the Taliban for stability. Arlacchi led a program which successfully nearly eliminated opium poppy in Afghanistan during the period he was at the UN, working with the Taliban.

In France, a guest column in Le Figaro today, headlined, How the West Let Afghanistan Again Become the Land of Drugs, presents a devastating rundown of how the opium poppy production was drastically reduced in Afghanistan over the years 1999-2001, but then was pumped up again, during the occupation by U.S., British and NATO forces. The author is Bernard Frahi, former Director of the UNODC Regional Office for Afghanistan and Pakistan (1998-2002), during the overall UNODC directorship of Pino Arlacchi. Frahi gives date, time and place of when, after the post-9/11 invasion, the British and U.S. leadership countermanded the actions needed to end opium production.

This takes us right back to the question, cui bono? Who benefits from terrorism, drug-running and war? We can make the time to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the time to forever end the control by those who promote endless wars.
Ken Smith wipes the sweat off of Firebug as they finish a ride at Hells Gate State Park earlier this week in Lewiston. Smith is training Firebug to be a performance horse who will follow in the hoofprints of her mother that placed second at the Pendleton Roundup, competing in barrel racing a
A vigil decorated with flowers, candles and rosaries has been erected in a public display of grief in the front yard of the home of Juan Luis Olvera-Preciado, a Guadalupe man who was unintentionally killed in an officer-involved shooting Aug. 21 on Obispo Street.

The vigil is covered by a tent and has folding chairs for friends and family to pray and mourn their loss in accordance with Catholic tradition.

Olvera-Preciado, 59, was sitting inside his vehicle near the intersection of Birch and Obispo streets when he was struck by police gunfire shortly after 9:30 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene a short time later, according to Guadalupe Police Chief Michael Cash.

Cash said that just before the shooting, two of his police officers attempted to detain a suspect wanted on a felony no-bail warrant near Olvera-Preciados vehicle and one officer discharged his service pistol in the process.

Were just hurting, were really hurting, said Olvera-Preciados son, who did not want to be identified, but who added the family is raising funds for funeral expenses and to ship his father to his home city of Guadalajara, Mexico, where he can be buried.

Bystander struck, killed by gunfire in Guadalupe police-involved shooting A 59-year-old Guadalupe man was shot and killed Saturday when a police officer fired at a wanted suspect but, instead, hit the man who was sitting inside his vehicle near Birch and Obispo streets.

The family established a GoFundMe page to raise money for that purpose. As of Friday afternoon, $4,427 of a $10,000 goal had been raised.

Expenses to ship someone for burial in another country can run as high as $15,000, according to funeralwise.com.

On behalf of the family Olvera, with a heavy heart and in disbelief and severely hurting, [we] are trying to put Juan Luis Olvera-Preciado to rest, said Zuleima Olvera, who is listed as the organizer of the GoFundMe.

Details about the shooting are scarce. Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office detectives responding to the scene immediately recognized that the incident fell under AB1506, according to Cash.

The law, which went into effect July 1, requires notification be given to the state Attorney Generals Office, which independently investigates a case whenever an unarmed person is shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting. Statistics provided by the Attorney Generals Office show three such officer-involved shooting investigations have preceded Guadalupes under AB1506, with the first occurring on July 15 in Los Angeles County.

Cash hasn't released the name of the two responding officers or the name of the person they arrested. The Santa Maria and Guadalupe police departments, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office are assisting with the investigation.

A woman and neighbor of the Olveras who was celebrating a birthday with family in her backyard Friday, recounted the events that occurred immediately after the shooting.

The neighbor, who did not want to be identified but was interviewed by investigators, said she heard three shots that sounded like fireworks, and then saw the flash of police lights through the windows. Her children, who usually sleep in separate rooms, slept together in the nights following the shooting, she said.

Until official findings are released by the Attorney General's Office, Cash requested patience from the public and privacy for the family.

We all really have to wait until all this is really brought out, Cash said during a Monday press conference. And then were all going to deal with it at the same time.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Wade Modisette is a local husband and father that seeks the best and most appropriate entertainment for his family. A movie connoisseur in his own mind, he seeks to educate his friends and community on quality choices for their family. Find more reviews and information at wadereviewsstuff.wordpress.com.
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Trent Ashby is the state representative for District 57 that includes Angelina, Houston, Leon, Madison, San Augustine and Trinity counties. His email address is trent.ashby@house.state.tx.us.
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I was sorry to see on the news the other day that the city of Madison is doubling down on its recent policy of lowering speed limits. They pla
Hemp in Wisconsin

After decades of prohibition, Wisconsin farmers could again grow hemp in 2018 under a pilot program unanimously supported by the state Legislature and signed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

The program, which is overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, was initially hailed for the "industrial hemp" it would bring back to a state that once was one of the country's leaders in production before the industry died at the end of World War II and the plant later outlawed.

Lawmakers and industry representatives spoke of a variety of health, manufacturing, high-tech and food applications for hemp upon its return. But CBD oil  a nonintoxicating component of the plant touted for medical benefits  quickly became the dominant byproduct of the plant.

After the inaugural growing season in 2018, the number of licensed hemp growers and processors ballooned in 2019, stayed steady in 2020 and significantly dropped this year.
MOBILE, Ala.  Since the late 1970s, when Jerry Falwell Sr. and Paul Weyrich seized on the tactic of promoting anti-abortion politics, the Christian right has been obsessed with repealing Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that enshrined womens reproductive rights in law. With a right-wing Supreme Court now in place, opponents of Roe may be close to the victory they have long pursued.

But like so many other behaviors and beliefs associated with the Christian right, the fanatical opposition to abortion has long since lost any moral luster. The anti-abortion measures passed over the last several years by right-wing state legislatures look less like compassion and more like control, less like morality and more like a contempt for modernity.

If ultraconservative Christians genuinely care about newborn babies and their families, their politics ought to include advocacy for policies that help those families thrive. But there is precious little generosity or kindness in their approach. Just as these so-called Christians are often disdainful of refugees, scornful of the needy and contemptuous of the common good, they show little genuine concern for poor babies once they have left the womb.
Scientists have a better feeling about Citadelle than the rover's previous attempt of the Roubion rock on the crater floor. The ridge is topped with a rock layer that seems more resistant to wind erosion than the rock within the crater floor that Perseverance tried to sample on August 6.

"The boulders of Citadelle provide good targets for another coring attempt because they are very solid in appearance, a conclusion supported by the fact that they stand high in the landscape even after eons of erosive action," wrote Ken Farley, Perseverance's project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, in an update.

The flat polygonal-shaped rock Perseverance initially tried to sample is an example of a "paver stone." The rock crumbled and broke apart into powder that couldn't remain in the sample tube. However, the tube was filled with a sealed up sample of Martian atmosphere  something scientists were planning to capture anyway.

"By returning samples to Earth, we hope to answer a number of scientific questions, including the composition of Mars' atmosphere," Farley said. "That's why we're interested in an atmospheric sample along with rock samples."
Using data provided by state governments, The Associated Press tracked more than $550 million that went to virtual charters across the country over three rounds of pandemic relief. The analysis, which covered allocations to 76 virtual schools in 10 states, showed that some online charters received among the highest funding rates in their states, getting as much per student as some of the poorest districts.

The federal government has not released nationwide data on the money given to virtual charters. Some states, including Wisconsin and Texas, said allocations for online schools were managed by local districts and not tracked by the state.

Most of the pandemic aid was distributed using the same formula as Title I money, the largest federal funding source for public schools. But some states also used discretionary pools of federal money to send additional help to virtual charters, including in Idaho, Minnesota and Ohio.

Of the 76 virtual schools tracked by the AP, more than a third are operated by the industrys two largest companies, Stride Inc. and Connections Academy. Others are run by different for-profit companies, while some are run by nonprofits or state or local governments.
The Crime Victims Fund (CVF) was created in 1984 as part of VOCA to ensure survivors have the resources they need to take care of expenses related to the crime they suffered. Expenses include medical bills, counseling, lost wages, funeral costs and more. The CVF provides grants to states and local communities to establish crime victim programs that can get the funding to where it is needed most.

The CVF is primarily financed by criminal fines, so funding fluctuates annually. Deposits into the CVF are historically low due in large part to greater use of deferred prosecutions and non-prosecution agreements. In Idaho, federal VOCA funds for programs have dropped by around 65 percent since Fiscal Year 2018, according to the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance. This has resulted in victims service providers in our state and across our country facing catastrophic cuts in their VOCA grants.

The enacted VOCA Fix Act addresses these issues by directing revenues collected from deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to be deposited into the CVF, rather than the U.S. Treasurys General Fund.
Northam visited the cosmetology class, where first-year students were fixing the hair of mannequins, using brushes, curlers, curling irons and flattening irons. One girl was practicing giving a manicure.

Instructor Sheree Dandridge showed Northam around and said that, when they are in their second year, the students would work on the hair of live models.

HVAC and industrial maintenance instructor Jerry Byrd showed her around his lab, where boys were rewiring a vintage bowling game. He told Northam that pinball games have the same wiring as cranes or refrigerators, so working on them is an engaging way for students to learn those skills.

Students showed her the original game control board with a tangle of old wires. She asked one how old it, was and a student said he figured maybe from the 1970s. More like the 1910s, Byrd said, and the adults laughed at teenagers ideas of how old is defined.

Minter said the students fix video games for Uptown Pinball, and then we put a sticker with our logo on it so they know theyve done the work.

It was from there to another building loud with the sounds of machinery, and bright with the sparks of students welding.
In the article, Hudson made a simple plea for everyone to get vaccinated and wear their masks, and when Pearson asked her if she wanted to say a few words, she repeated the request.

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Im what they call a long-hauler, Hudson said. Im still on a walker and have a long road of recovery ahead of me. I would encourage everyone to take this thing seriously and get vaccinated.

Pearson said as an incentive to encourage more people in the community to get vaccinated, she had a gift for anyone that gets the shot.

I am offering every unvaccinated person in Martinsville and Henry County who gets fully vaccinated something really special, a pulled pork sandwich, smoked by us, and if you like, you can even get it with our extra hot, limited time COVID killer sauce from our new upcoming barbecue restaurant opening in a few months, Pearson said. But since that restaurant is not yet open, come by and enjoy your free sandwich at Wild Magnolia or Shindig.

Pearson, who owns the restaurants with her husband, Will, noted that the incentive applied to nearly 38,572 people in Martinsville and Henry County who have yet to get fully vaccinated, and she challenged other restaurants and businesses to consider adding an incentive to their products or services for people to get vaccinated.
Ma was hired in 2014 as an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, and exceeded expectations in annual evaluations for the next five years, according to the lawsuit.

However, the department chair said he was uncomfortable with Mas goatee in 2019 and told him he needed to shave, the filing stated. Ma had a goatee in observance of his Daoist religion, according to the lawsuit, and no one at VMI had previously complained about it.

While the department later voted unanimously to support Ma for tenure, a recommendation letter reportedly made a brief reference to his professional demeanor and said he did not dress appropriately.

In March 2020, the departments Tenure and Promotions Committee denied him tenure solely based on alleged concerns about Professor Mas professional appearance, the lawsuit states.

A general order at VMI requires faculty to meet certain dress code requirements. For civilians, beards shall be maintained; otherwise, grooming standards shall be the same as uniformed faculty, it states.
She has served as Board Chair on several of these boards. At McDowell Tech, she has previously served on the Office Management Advisory Board and participated in MTCC Resource Fairs as a representative of the Senior Center and SHIIP program. She has been honored with a number of awards for her service and volunteerism.

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Outstanding Alumni Award (Career and Technical): Shirley Brown 85 and 88

Shirley Brown is no stranger to anyone who studied or visited McDowell Tech from 1978, when she began working at the college, until her retirement in 2012. During that time, she served in a variety of professional roles, from Adjunct Faculty to Executive Secretary to Academic Affairs, Backup to Systems Administrator, Coordinator of Computer Services, Coordinator of Continuing Education, and most notably, Vice-President for Learning and Student Services.

Robert Ayers, who has served the college as a member of the MTCC Board of Trustees, said, Shirley was a driving force at the college for a number of years. There was a time that I am not sure that MTCC would have survived if not for her driving force and hard work. There is NO person who has given more to this college through time and talent She has always represented the college in the highest light.
Carol Price, director of the McDowell Tourism Development Authority, said to The McDowell News she hopes local residents will participate in this contest and cast their votes for Old Fort.

Price added Old Fort is in the tiny town category of this year's top 2021 Adventure Town contest, which is being promoted by Blue Ridge Outdoors.

Old Fort is being promoted because it has so many of the countys trails, trout fishing streams and is an official N.C. Heritage Mountain Trout City. It has one of the most popular western North Carolina waterfalls (Catawba Falls), and has the Curtis Creek Area at the front door, which is the birthplace of the National Forest system. Old Fort now offers food and drink amenities provided by Hillman Beer, the Old Fort Ride House and Old Fort Outdoors. This earned Old Fort as place in the tiny town category.

There are also the outdoor experiences and events provided and hosted by Camp Grier. Outside the summer camping season, the public has access to a per day fee to use some of their amenities and trails, including horseback lessons and rides. The Pisgah Enduro Race starts and finishes in Old Fort and the Hellbender 100, both are popular outdoor races.
In this Aug. 6, 2020 file photo, Joseph Ortiz, a contact tracer with New York City's Health + Hospitals battling the coronavirus pandemic, disinfects his tablet after leaving a potential patient's home in New York. Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nation's pandemic response.States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been completely overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases. Credit: AP Photo/John Minchillo, File

Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar of the nation's pandemic response.

States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases.

Some states trimmed their contact tracing teams this spring and summer when virus numbers were dropping and are now scrambling to train new investigators. Others have triaged their teams to focus on the most vulnerable, such as cases involving schools or children too young to be vaccinated.

Texas got out of the business entirely, with the new two-year state budget that takes effect Sept. 1 explicitly prohibiting funds being used for contact tracing. That left it up to local health officials, but they can't keep up at a time when Texas is averaging more than 16,000 new cases a day.

Mississippi has 150 staff working full time to identify people who have had close contact with an infected person, but they are swamped, too.

"A lot of times by the time of cases are reported, transmission has already occurred by the time we reach that person," state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.

Since the pandemic began, states have been relying on the practice of contact tracing to track down, notify and monitor those who were exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that while contact tracing can be time-intensive, especially if one person potentially exposed a lot of people, "it does in the end prevent additional cases."

Maldonado said it's a "staple of public health" and can be the only way someone can find out a stranger may have potentially exposed them to the disease.

In this Monday, May 11, 2020, photo, Salt Lake County Health Department public health nurse Lee Cherie Booth points to a board showing a hypothetical case that serves as a training tool to teach new contact tracers how to track all the people they need to reach out to after a person tests positive for the new coronavirus. Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nation's pandemic response. Credit: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

The contact tracing response has varied from state to state throughout the pandemic.

New York, which has had a robust team, has adjusted its contract tracing staff with the pandemic's waves. The state had more than 8,000 contract tracers in February and March of this year but now has 3,860 staff working on contract tracing. That does not include New York City, which has its own $600 million tracing initiative with thousands of staff.

Arkansas has hired two outside firms, General Dynamics Information Technology and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, to handle the investigations for the state. The firms have about 257 people working right now and are each trying to add about 100 more.

In Louisiana, another virus hotspot, state officials have added 130 people in recent weeks to their staff working on contact tracing. They now have more than 560 people working on tracing efforts.

In Idaho, a new public health website, VolunteerIdaho.com, encourages people with health care skills or a simple willingness to volunteer for Idaho's Medical Reserve Corps. Among the volunteers they are seeking are people who can with contact tracing and data entry

Health officials say with the overwhelming number of new cases, they're not able to track every case and instead try to focus on infections that could have exposed large numbers of people or vulnerable groups.

That's the case in Alabama. Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Health said her agency encourages anyone who tests positive or is exposed to follow isolation and quarantine guidelines and notify anyone they had close contact with, but the health department is focusing its resources on bigger outbreaks, clusters and group settings.

In Nevada, the investigators are prioritizing their efforts around cases involving children or schools, according to Julia Peek, Deputy Administrator of Community Health Services at Nevada's health department.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott last year approved a $295 million contract with a firm to run contact tracing for the state, but the deal drew conservative backlash and a lawsuit from lawmakers who said the governor overstepped his authority by approving the deal with the Legislature was not in session.

In this June 25, 2020 file photo, contact tracers work at Harris County Public Health contact tracing facility in Houston. Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nation's pandemic response.States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been completely overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases. Credit: AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File

Abbott eventually won the lawsuit, but contact tracing funds were stripped from the new budget.

Local governments say they're continuing the effort and trying to ramp up staffing as cases climb. In Austin, for example, the local health department had about 50 investigators working on contact tracing at the peak of the pandemic. But when cases dropped, they reduced their staff to 12, according to Austin Public Health spokesman to Matt Lara.

In California, state workers have been dispatched to help county health department teams working on contract tracing. At the peak of the pandemic, Los Angeles County had about 2,800 people working on the effort until this spring, when cases began falling, said True Beck, a public health worker who manages a team of contract tracers for the county.

Beck said some staff in the spring were reassigned to make calls encouraging people to get vaccines and others were sent back to their regular jobs at other county departments, but lately they've been bringing people back and have about 1,000 working.

She said the work is relentless and the calls, which can last an hour, can be emotional. Workers making contract tracing calls not only help people learn about what they should do to keep themselves and others safe, but they can hear from people who are scared, lonely or grieving or in need of assistance, such as with paying rent or getting food. Beck said the staff on her team try to help and connect people with other resources.

"It's hard to do this day in and day out calling perfect strangers," she said.

She said people are not as eager to talk or do interviews as they were earlier in the pandemic, when there was a lot more fear and unknowns about the virus.

"Now I think people are a little tired of COVID. I think we all are, frankly."

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
In this Tuesday, July 13, 2021 file photo, a medic wearing a special suit to protect against coronavirus prepares to treat a patient with coronavirus at the City hospital No. 52 for coronavirus patients in Moscow, Russia. A new report from Russia's state statistics agency on Saturday, Aug. 28 shows the country recorded a record number of deaths in July of people infected with coronavirus. The report from the Rosstat agency said 50,421 people suffering from COVID-19 died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December. Credit: AP Photo/Denis Kaminev

A new report from Russia's state statistics agency shows the country recorded a record number of deaths in July of people infected with coronavirus.

The report from the Rosstat agency said 50,421 people suffering from COVID-19 died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December.

However, the agency said in the report that only 38,992 deaths were directly attributed to the disease. In another 5,206 deaths, the virus was assessed as likely the main cause but that more investigation would be need; in 1,449 other cases, the virus contributed to the deaths but was not the main cause.

Rosstat said the other 4,844 deaths of infected people were not connected to the virus.

The report said the total of virus-related deaths in Russia by the end of July was 215,265well higher than the 180,840 cited by the national coronavirus task force. Russian officials ascribe that to different counting methods, saying the task force only includes deaths where COVID-19 was the main cause.

Officials also say the task force uses data from medical facilities while Rosstat takes its numbers from civil registry offices, where registering a death is finalized.

In this Monday, July 12, 2021 file photo, a medical worker administers a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Gostinny Dvor, a huge exhibition place in Moscow, Russia. A senior Russian official says that the country has seen mortality rise at a faster pace last month amid a surge in coronavirus infections. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who leads the government's coronavirus task force, told the Tass news agency Friday, Aug. 6, 2021 that Russia saw a 17.9% increase in mortality in July, year-on-year. Credit: AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File

A homeless man reacts as he gets a shot of the one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine at a mobile vaccination station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Russia has faced a surge in new infections blamed on the growing prevalence of the more contagious delta variant and low vaccine uptake. Credit: AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva

Stanislav, a homeless man gets a shot of the one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine at a mobile vaccination station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Russia has faced a surge in new infections blamed on the growing prevalence of the more contagious delta variant and low vaccine uptake. Credit: AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva

Russia's vaccination drive against COVID-19 has lagged behind other nations. As of mid-August, only a quarter of the country's 146 million people had received at least one vaccine dose, while 20% had been fully vaccinated.

Authorities in many regions have made vaccines mandatory for certain groups of workers, including those employed in health care, education, retail, public transportation and government offices.

Explore further Moscow reports surge in deaths last month due to coronavirus

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Taylor supports and works with local companies, but Missoula needs a variety of developers to build in the community, he said.

The city expects to hire more planners and is looking to speed up the permit process, but Taylor said more direct measures need to be taken.

"The regulations themselves are too much. It needs to be toned down," Taylor said. "There's individuals there that make it difficult in their job task and they're doing it, but ... they're so tunnel-visioned on a certain item that it changes things and makes it hard.

"They're fighting for the wrong things. It's like, end of the day, you need a house, not worry about what kind of trees."

As far as city-backed development goes, he says that land banking is "well intentioned" but can be abused. He would push for individual builders and families.

"The government's picking and choosing who succeeds and who doesn't ... it just kind of doesn't happen naturally," Taylor said.

Taylor feels city agencies try hard to spend tax increment financing money well, he said, though he did take issue with the building of the AC Hotel in downtown Missoula.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)  The North Carolina-based Bojangles chain of restaurants announced Friday it will close all of its company-owned establishments on two upcoming days, portraying it as a chance to provide its thousands of employees a well-deserved break amid very challenging times.

But Bojangles employees will not get paid for those days off.

In a statement, the chicken and biscuit chain described its 8,000 crew members and managers as its most vital asset." It encouraged them to use the upcoming closures on Aug. 30 and Sept. 13 for an opportunity to rest and recharge.

The restaurant company's written statement made no mention of whether its workers would be compensated during these closures, framing it as a benefit to its valued employees that would support their health and well-being.

The Associated Press asked company spokesperson Stacey McCray to clarify whether staffers would be paid. In an email, McCray responded: The two days will be unpaid.

Responding to subsequent questions, she said many staff have been working overtime lately and the company thinks they would benefit from having a couple of days off. She said Bojangles would offer employees opportunities to work additional hours if they chose.
CHICAGO (AP)  Chicago officials on Friday accused DoorDash and Grubhub of harming the city's restaurants and their customers by charging high fees and through other deceptive practices when delivery and takeout business became essential to the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city officials believe their lawsuits against the delivery companies are the most sweeping of their kind brought by a city.

It is deeply concerning and unfortunate that these companies broke the law during these incredibly difficult times, using unfair and deceptive tactics to take advantage of restaurants and consumers who were struggling to stay afloat," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement.

Representatives for the two companies called the lawsuits filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court baseless.

Delivery companies have been the target of legal authorities in other cities and states before, but those efforts have targeted specific policies compared to Chicago's attack on numerous elements of the companies' operations.
The Idaho Land Board, comprised of the governor and four other statewide elected officials, directs the Department of Lands and is constitutionally required to maximize long-term profit. In all, the board manages about 3,900 square miles (10 million square kilometers) that generate money mainly for public schools.

The Land Board is open for business on those lands. It does have some discretion, but is typically required to take the best deal.

In this case, the conservation lease was the use that won the auction and made the most money for the Public School Beneficiary, Sharla Arledge, spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Lands, said in a statement.

In the 1990s, Western Watersheds Project, then known as Idaho Watersheds Project, won a grazing lease at an auction but was denied the lease by the Land Board, which awarded the new lease instead to the rancher who had the previous lease.

The group sued and prevailed when the Idaho Supreme Court ruled the Land Board didn't have that discretion. That court decision made possible the new lease in the Sawtooth Valley.

Molvar said it was an expensive way to achieve conservation and not applicable to all public lands, but worth it in an area rich with wildlife and that's also a tourist destination for outdoor enthusiasts.

The Sawtooth Valley is one of the crown jewels of Idaho that is really valuable for wildlife and for fisheries, he said.

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday she was in talks to call a special session of the state legislature after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration's temporary federal ban on evictions, just days ahead of the expiration of the state's own ban Aug. 31.

I am in talks with the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker to call a special session to address the impending eviction crisis, given the Supreme Courts decision, Hochul said in statement Friday afternoon. Our teams will be working through the weekend to address how best to deliver relief to renters and homeowners in need as quickly as possible.

The court's ruling Thursday gave new urgency to Hochul's efforts to aid tenants behind on their rent because of pandemic financial hardship.

The state since the spring has been working to dole out more than $2.4 billion to provide up to 12 months of past-due rent directly to landlords on behalf of eligible low- and moderate-income renters, but the program got off to a slow start.

As of Monday, it had distributed $200 million for 15,500 households. Another $600 million worth of aid has been approved based on applications from tenants, but has not been distributed yet because of trouble identifying and contacting landlords.
Vos originally hired Gableman to do the election probe for $44,000 and hired three investigators at an additional cost of $28,800. But Gableman's new budget will be more than nine times bigger. Details on what the money will be spent on will be released Monday after the funding is approved, Vos said.

He said Gableman will use the money for a variety of purposes, including hiring investigators. Gableman has already traveled to Arizona to speak with Republicans working on an audit there and attended an event in South Dakota hosted by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.

Gableman told the AP at the time that the trips were part of his fact-finding for the investigation. The Arizona audit has been widely discredited and purveyors of election conspiracy theories attended the Lindell event.
A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday urged states that oppose a settlement plan with Purdue Pharma to try to work out differences with the OxyContin maker before he issues a ruling next week.

During a videoconference hearing, Judge Robert Drain warned of lengthy and expensive appeals if he approves the plan over their objections.

Time is no ones friend, he said, noting that legal delays can keep settlement money from flowing to victims of the opioid crisis and programs to address the epidemic.

He encouraged the 10 states that continue to oppose the settlement to use the next few days to negotiate with with Purdue and members of the Sackler family who own it.

It would be a real service to millions, if not tens of millions of people, if the objecting states or at least some subset of them were able to resolve their differences with the Sacklers, Drain said.

The judge said he expects to issue his ruling Wednesday on a reorganization plan for Purdue that would settle some 3,000 lawsuits against the pharmaceutical giant.
The state reported 8,105 new virus cases Friday, with a daily positivity rate of 12.8%, and 3,651 people hospitalized throughout North Carolina. The state also reported a total of 14,319 deaths due to COVID-19, up from 14,272 total deaths reported Thursday.

The Burke County Health Department said in its briefing on Friday that as case numbers of the virus continue to rise, it is important to get the vaccine as soon as possible. Residents may take any one of the three safe and effective vaccines that are available to help prevent any further spikes of the virus within the community.

The Burke County Health Department will hold a COVID-19 vaccine clinic from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 3 at Fonta Flora Brewery, located at 317 N. Green St., Morganton.

The health department said there will be Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines available at the clinic.

This event is a great opportunity for anyone who is needing a first, second, or third dose, the health department said in its briefing on Friday. Come out and grab a bite to eat and get your vaccine before or after your meal!
Poe said they accomplish this goal through daily assigned readings that keep everyone on the same page.

The studies are broken down into daily sections, he said. Usually, every day, five days a week, there is a passage and then five or six questions. The questions are written so that anyone can pull the answers directly from the verses themselves.

In addition to creating a program that engages people at every level of education and experience, Poe also said Bible study classes are available for all age groups, from infants to senior adults.

Its designed so that all ages are studying the same thing, he said. This way, as families are having dinner together or at the house, they can all share in the discussion about what theyve been studying that week, because everybody has been studying the same thing.

The Morganton chapter of Community Bible Study will include a new program for the deaf community. Poe said the leaders and translators are already in place for the deaf ministry, and they have developed a new curriculum specifically for the deaf community.

Were piloting this for the nation and hopefully the world, Poe said. This has never happened before. There has never been a deaf core group that we know of.
Overall, the company plans to spend $5 million over the first 16 months of the project, and at least $5.8 million more in the following 18 months if core results warrant the second phase.

The second phase, still exploration, would entail repairing the Chief Joseph tunnel near the Badger and extending the decline to evaluate the ore underneath.

The company has to spend those amounts at minimum to maintain its lease, Hartmann said.

Commissioner Shawn Fredrickson asked Hartmann what an actual underground mine would look like. Many in the community have said the reclamation and disturbance stakes would be raised in the event the project progresses to that point. Another permitting process would be required as well.

A lot of people in my family are miners but underground mining went away before I was born, Fredrickson said with a laugh.

Hartmann said that would depend above all on the quality and quantity of the resource, which the company is trying to establish with exploration.
Butte police reports

Asleep at wheel

Early Friday morning in the 500 block of South Main Street, an officer found the driver of a 2010 Dodge pickup with Arizona license plates asleep at the wheel with the truck still running.

The officer could smell alcohol and found it difficult to wake the driver, Darylson Lee Attcitty, 28, of Cameron, Arizona. Once Attcitty was awake and taken out of the truck, he appeared to be highly intoxicated.

He was brought to the Butte Detention Center, where an officer discovered he had two previous DUIs out of Arizona. He failed a maneuver before refusing to cooperate any further. He was taken to St. James Healthcare for a blood test and then jailed for DUI (refusal).

Felony theft

Ronald Lee Evans, 45, of Butte was arrested Thursday afternoon on a warrant for felony theft from a previous incident.

Stolen items
WASHINGTON  The United States military struck back at the Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an IS member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.
Critical care workers insert an endotracheal tube into a coronavirus disease positive patient in the intensive care unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida on Feb. 11, 2021.
U.S. service members assist at an Evacuation Control Check Point during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021.
That's why that fire is so complex, because in every direction there are significant risks, he said, adding that it's right in the back door of communities on the west side.

The Caldor Fire is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. Many are in the West, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

In California, 14 active, large fires are being fought by more than 15,200 firefighters. Fires have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate in the state this year while blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

The Caldor Fire has continued to grow, but not as explosively as its early days when it ravaged the community of Grizzly Flat. Ongoing tallies have counted 469 homes and 11 commercial properties destroyed, along with many smaller structures.

In the Lake Tahoe area, visitation began to drop when Highway 50, the major route to the south end, closed and again when a Dierks Bentley concert was canceled, according to Carol Chaplin, president and CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, which promotes tourism to the south side.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  A former government official who says she is a sexual assault survivor is demanding that the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate stop using her story as a political prop in a campaign video that bashes Gov. Phil Murphy.

Katie Brennan, who has said she was sexually assaulted by a peer while they both worked on Murphy's behalf in 2017, said Friday she wasn't consulted before Jack Ciattarelli this week launched PhilMurphyDoesNotCare.com. The site prominently features a video of Brennan publicly testifying before legislators and charges that Murphy uses women as political props."

She said in a tweet earlier she wasn't a prop or a pawn herself.

Take it down, she said Friday.

I wasnt consulted prior to the creation of the website and the ad campaign and had I been would have expressed my displeasure with it. It looks like an endorsement of the Ciattarelli campaign, which is not my intent, she said in a phone interview.

She added: There is a way to hold people accountable and talk about the mistakes of the past and what their vision and plans for betterment and equity and reform are in the future without dragging me into the fight in a way that I certainly did not ask to be.
Talks between Biden and Zelenskyy kicked off at the White House

Google appeals EUR 500 million fines imposed by French regulators

Israeli FM: US plan to reopen consulate in Jerusalem is 'bad idea'

Armenian FM: There are no talks on delimitation and demarcation of borders

Armenian FM briefs his Iranian counterpart on consequences of Azerbaijan's illegal invasion

Digest: Armenian soldier killed at Ararat positions, Azerbaijan returns Karabakh citizen injured

Human rights activist: We have indisputable evidence of 80 more Armenian POWs being captured by Azerbaijan

Artsakh parliament holds special session dedicated to 30th anniversary of declaration of Karabakh independence

Azerbaijan prosecutor general complains about Russia peacekeepers in Karabakh

Armenia opposition MP: Azerbaijanis throw burning wheels at several Gegharkunik Province villages

Caucasus Heritage Watch: Azerbaijanis destroy Makun Bridge in Karabakh

Russias Lavrov: Armenia is our ally

Soldier, 39, killed after Azerbaijan opens fire on Armenia positions

Russia, Azerbaijan deputy FMs discuss implementation of Karabakh agreements

Armenia army General Staff chief meets with 3-month training camp reservists

Armenia health ministers adviser appointed deputy head of UCLA Promise Armenian Institute

Prosecutor's Office: Numerous injuries found on Artsakh citizen returned by Azerbaijan

Artsakh President appoints new labor, social, migration affairs minister

Armenia national airline to be named Fly Arna

Armenia defense minister pays working visit to some military units

Pashinyan: I am convinced that Armenia-Uzbekistan mutual relations will further develop

615 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Moody's leaves Armenia sovereign rating unchanged

Russia peacekeepers ensure order, security in Karabakh on Knowledge Day

Psaki: US partners with Turkey, Qatar on Kabul airport

Artsakh to mark Independence Day anniversary for first time without Armenia top leadership attendance

President to Armenia students: Learn to overcome challenges, to pursue dreams without despair

Five missing after US Navy helicopter crashes off California coast

Armdaily.am: Armenia President reacts to recent events taking place in Syunik Province

Newspaper: Azerbaijan carrying out large-scale construction in Artsakhs Shushi

Newspaper: Armenia authorities compile 'blacklist' of opposition MPs

Biden calls Afghanistan evacuation mission extraordinary success

Armenian Foreign Minister and CSTO Secretary General discuss Armenian-Azerbaijani border situation

Merkel says that Germany is trying to establish contact with Taliban

Digest: More on COVID-19 in Armenia, armed robbery takes place in Yerevan

Russia FM calls on Azerbaijan to unconditionally release Armenian POWs

Russias Lavrov: Rhetoric of both sides of Karabakh conflict needs to be moderated

Armenias Mirzoyan: We will respect Afghanistan peoples choice

Armenia FM: No negotiations on peace agreement with Azerbaijan underway

Eurasian Development Bank wants to become one of largest creditors of Armenia economy

Armenia Investigative Committee: Man found dead with gunshot wound inside car in Yerevan

Lavrov: In talks with Armenia FM we will separately discuss Nagorno-Karabakh situation

Opposition MP: Positive signals being exchanged with Turkey are new trap for Armenia

Armenia FM: Tense situation in region is consequence of Azerbaijan's destructive policy

ECtHR ruling: Ambassador to Sweden, Iceland to get compensation from Armenia government

Armenia, Russia FMs hold tete-a-tete meeting

Armenia ex-president Kocharyan, former deputy PM Gevorgyan case court hearing not held

Ombudsman: Azerbaijan MOD aims to cover up their criminal acts against Armenia civilian population

Fallen soldiers family stages protest outside Armenia government building

No electricity in court where Armenia 2nd president Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM Gevorgyan criminal case is heard

Armenia ex-president Kocharyan, former deputy PM Gevorgyan criminal case court hearing resumes

524 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

OSCE Minsk Group new Russian Co-Chair visits Azerbaijan

Armed robbery occurs at bank branch in Yerevan shopping mall

37,000 first-graders start school in Armenia

Armenia PM congratulates Kyrgyzstan President on Independence Day anniversary

Some 30,000 people evacuated in California due to wildfires

Russia peacekeepers hold humanitarian action for Nagorno-Karabakh children

Dead body of man, 37, with gunshot wound is found in car in Yerevan

Newspaper: Artsakh independence anniversary to be celebrated without Armenia top leadership for first time in history

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to cause rift among parliament opposition factions, MPs

Armenia PM goes on short vacation

UN Security Council adopts Afghanistan resolution

Pentagon announces US completion of evacuation out of Kabul airport

Armenia ombudsman reaffirms Azerbaijan soldiers deliberate starting fire near Sotk, Kut villages of Gegharkunik

Ukraine and Armenia to cooperate in attracting investments

Armenian Ministry of Education and French Embassy sign cooperation agreement

Israeli Defense Minister meets with the President of Palestine

Uzbekistan completely closes border with Afghanistan

IAEA: North Korea seems to have restarted nuclear reactor

EU recommends restoring restrictions on US tourists

Digest: Turkey talks normalising relations with Armenia, soldier injured in Karabakh

Dollar drops in Armenia

Azerbaijans Aliyev calls Karabakh Armenians hated enemy

Azerbaijan president: Current course of events shows that Karabakh conflict would never be resolved peacefully

Divine Liturgy served in Armenian church of Turkeys Malatya for first time since 1915 (VIDEO)

Economist: Armenia exports growth connected with external factors

Opposition Armenia Faction MPs health grows worse in prison

Moscow Armenian Theater actor dies during performance

Artsakh FM: Azerbaijan, with Turkeys complicity, sending militants from Afghanistan to occupied part of Karabakh

Opposition Armenia Faction MP summoned to Special Investigation Service

Officer charged with Azerbaijans capturing of 62 Armenia soldiers in Artsakh: They were forces 15 times greater

FM: Armenian captives in Azerbaijan are subjected to torture

Lawyer of Armenia officer accused in 62 Shirak residents case: How was connection cut off on day of Azerbaijan attack?

Health ministry: 275,138 people so far vaccinated in Armenia against coronavirus

Russia peacekeepers in Karabakh carry out actions to find drones

Confusion arises during Armenia appellate court hearing of case of ex-President Kocharyan, others

Armenia 2nd president Kocharyans lawyer submits to appellate court motion to cancel or reduce bail

Prosecution in case on Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan, others: Charge should be re-qualified

Artsakh Investigative Committee: Azerbaijan soldier who entered Martakert city apartment is arrested

275 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia appellate court continues considering lawyers, prosecutors appeals in ex-President Kocharyan, others' case

Armenia FM to pay working visit to Russia

Coronavirus casualties worldwide exceed 4.5m

One dead, 2 injured after road accident in Armenia town

Brazil unveils largest Buddha statue in country

Unidentified gunman opens fire inside Toronto shopping mall

Explosions occur in Kabul Monday morning

Armenia ombudsman: Azerbaijan soldiers deliberately set fires near Sotk, Kut villages

Biden declares major disaster in US State of Louisiana
YEREVAN.  Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: After the parliamentary battles in recent days, another genius idea has radiated among the MPs of the ruling faction [in the National Assembly NA)]: to ban the MPs from taking their [smart]phones to the [NA] sessions hall.

As it is known, seconds after the situation in the hall became tense, the SPS [(State Protection Service)] bandits removeby the order of the authoritiesthe reporters accredited in the NA from the [NA booth] booth, not allowing them to video record and cover the disorderly in the hall, and the opposition MPs do that workby going livestream with their smartphones.

The authorities are thinking of new methods so that these disgraceful scenes do not reach the public.

The [ruling] CC [Civil Contract Faction] had an internal discussion, and decided that it would apply to the NA presidency with a proposal to adopt a new decision in this regard, whereby they will deprive the public of the last opportunity to see the reality.

However, the [parliamentary] opposition believes that such a decision will hardly be made, as it will cause a lot of noise, the authorities already do not digest the restrictions on the movement of reporters [the NA], and [NA speaker] Alen Simonyan recently promised to resolve the issue of the [NA] booth and to no longer remove reporters from there.
YEREVAN.  Vice-President of the European Commission, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, has sent a congratulatory message to Ararat Mirzoyan on his assuming the position of the Foreign Minister of Armenia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed.

Armenia is an important partner of the European Union. Our relations have intensified significantly since 2018 and the entry into force of our Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement on 1 March 2021 was another important, positive milestone. The implementation of this agreement is a central part of our bilateral relations and we stand ready to continue cooperating in areas of mutual interest, including strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights, jobs and business opportunities, the environment, better education and opportunities for research, the message reads, in particular.

Your appointment comes at a crucial time for Armenia. Following last years hostilities, I would like to reiterate the EUs readiness to contribute, including through the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, in the shaping of a durable and comprehensive settlement, for instance, where possible through support for post conflict rehabilitation and confidence building measures. We continue to support the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group in this regard. In addition, we are also prepared to provide assistance related to border delimitation. Given that all our countries are still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, let me also emphasize that the European Union continues to be committed to supporting Armenia in dealing with this public health crisis and its consequences, the message adds, in part.
Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani in a Twitter message reacted to the first meeting between Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett and US President Joe Biden and their threatening Iran, IRNA reported.

"The first meeting between Bennett and Biden and the emphasis on using 'Other Options' against Iran, while being an illegal threat to another country, establishes the Islamic Republic of Iran's right to reciprocal response to 'Available Options,'" Shamkhani wrote in his Twitter message on Saturday.

To note, Biden had said during his meeting with Bennett that the US could take other measures to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
An Englishwoman fell in love with a little village and the surrounding countryside while on holiday in Switzerland. She asked a local church pastor if he knew of any houses with rooms for rent that were close to town but out in the country.

The local church pastor took her to look at a property that had a room for rent. Immediately after she saw it, she fell in love with the house and decided to rent a room. Then she returned to her country to finalize her plans to relocate to Switzerland.

But there was one thing the woman couldn't seem to locate. | Source: Shutterstock

On getting to England, the woman recalled that she did not spot a WC in the room or any of the rooms in the hall. In her country, England, WC stands for water closet. So the woman wrote the pastor an email to ask about the location of the WC.

Unfortunately, the local church pastor in Switzerland had never heard of WC, so he looked it up on Google and found an article titled "Wayside Chapels." The Swiss pastor assumed the woman was inquiring about a country church near her new house so he replied to her saying:

"Ms. Smith,

I'm looking forward to your relocation. In response to your query about the W.C.'s location, the nearest W.C. is only two miles from the accommodation you've leased, nestled in a magnificent grove of pine trees. The W.C. has a maximum capacity of 229 persons, however, few people visit during the week.

I recommend going on Thursday evenings when they have a sing-along. The acoustics are incredible, and the cheerful sounds of so many people can be heard all throughout the W.C."

Sunday mornings are hectic. Locals are known for arriving early and bringing their lunches to make a whole day of it. Those that arrive just in time are usually able to get inside the WC before the event begins, although this is not always the case. If at all possible, arrive early!

It may be interesting to know that my own daughter was married in the W.C., where she met her spouse. Everyone crammed in to sit close to the bride and husband, I recall.

Our friends and family were pleased to share a seat that would normally be occupied by one person. I'll admit that when it was finished, my wife and I were both relieved. We were exhausted.

I can't travel as often as I used to because of my responsibilities in town. In fact, it's been almost a year since I've been out there. So, of course, I miss going to the WC as often as I would like to, but we can make plans to go together when you return. I can get us seats where you'll be seen by everyone.

Sincerely,

Pastor Kurt Meier

Enjoyed the joke? Read this one about a new pastor of a local parish who decided to pay a visit to his members' homes over the weekend.

Source: Reddit
G7 wants 'safe passage guarantee' for Afghans

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks back to Downing Street after hosting a virtual G7 meeting. Photo: AP

The Taliban must "guarantee" safe passage for those fleeing Afghanistan beyond the current August 31 evacuation deadline, the G7 said on Tuesday, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.



Johnson, who convened the emergency meeting, said that he and his colleagues had agreed "a roadmap for the way in which we're going to engage with the Taliban" in the future.



But he added that the "number one condition" was "to guarantee... through August 31 and beyond, a safe passage for those who want to come out."



The UK chaired the emergency talks among the group of wealthy countries on Tuesday, saying it would urge Biden to extend his August 31 deadline to pull American forces out of Afghanistan.



France also called on Washington to push back the timeline.



However, Biden decided after the G7 talks that he would stick to the deadline, US media reported.



Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said earlier Tuesday it was "unlikely" evacuations from Afghanistan would be extended beyond August 31.



A spokesman for the Taliban on Monday warned that the hardline Islamist group would not agree to any extension, calling the issue a "red line", with any delay viewed as "extending occupation".



"If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations -- the answer is no. Or there would be consequences," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News.



Britain has continued to evacuate Western citizens and some Afghans from the capital, with Wallace warning the security situation was getting "more and more dangerous" as August 31 approaches.



The defence ministry said 8,458 people have been evacuated by the UK since August 13, with nine military flights leaving Kabul in the last 24 hours.



More than half -- 5,171 -- are Afghans eligible to relocate to Britain under its programme to protect those who aided its military and civilian officials during their two-decade involvement in Afghanistan.



An individual on the UK's no-fly anti-terrorism watchlist arrived as part of the evacuation, the interior ministry confirmed.



A spokesman said the individual was identified "as part of the rigorous checks process" and that after further investigation was deemed "not a person of interest to the security agencies or law enforcement".



The G7 leaders also agreed that the Taliban will be "held accountable for their actions on preventing terrorism, on human rights in particular those of women, girls and minorities and on pursuing an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan", according to a statement issued by Johnson's Downing Street office.



Britain currently chairs the G7, which also comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. (AFP)
Tech rules a key risk, SenseTime warns investors

SenseTime shows off its artificial intelligence software at a tech conference in Shanghai in 2018. File photo: AFP

Mainland artificial intelligence start up SenseTime Group has identified Beijing's tightening technology regulatory regime as a key risk for investors in its proposed Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), according to its filings.



SenseTime, which is also blacklisted in the US, lodged its preliminary filings on Friday with Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing.



It did not identify a raising size but Reuters reported on August 19 that the firm is aiming to raise up to US$2 billion. SenseTime declined to comment on the size of the deal.



The company provides technology-based applications including, facial recognition and video analysing and autonomous driving.



In the filings, SenseTime said China's changing regulations, especially towards sensitive data handling, could impact its business but it was unable to quantify the effects of the new rules.



"We cannot predict the impact of the draft measures, if any, at this stage, and we will closely monitor and assess any development in the rule-making process ... it remains uncertain whether the proposed measures will be applicable to our business," it said.



China announced on August 20 new rules governing the better storage of users data which has instructed companies not to mismanage or misuse the data.



SenseTime was among eight Chinese tech companie placed on the US Entity List in 2019 amid trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. The US alleges the companies played a role in human rights abuses.



SenseTime said at the time that it strongly opposed the US ban and would work with relevant authorities to resolve the situation.



In the filings it said: "If our subsidiary remains on the Entity List on a prolonged basis, we may not be able to compete effectively in certain business lines, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected."



SenseTime has not identified when it will list but applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange typically take three to four months from its first filings. (Reuters)
US drone strike targets Afghan IS 'planner'

US marines on the ground at Kabul's international airport. The airport was a target for a series of bombings. Photo: AP

The United States launched a drone strike against an Islamic State attack "planner" in eastern Afghanistan, the military said on Friday, a day after a suicide bombing at Kabul airport killed scores of Afghan civilians and 13 US troops.



President Joe Biden vowed on Thursday that the United States would hunt down those responsible for the attack, saying he had ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans to strike at the perpetrators.



US Central Command said the strike took place in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul and bordering Pakistan. It did not say whether the target was connected with the airport attack.



"Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," a US military statement said.



Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K), an affiliate of militants who previously battled US forces in Syria and Iraq, said it had carried out Thursday's attack, which killed dozens of people  including Afghans who were trying to leave the country.



In addition to the 13 US troops killed, 18 injured were flown to Germany.



There are roughly 5,000 US troops at Kabul's airport, helping to evacuate American citizens, at-risk Afghans and other nationalities before Biden's Tuesday deadline. (Reuters)
Two lifelong friends stepped into a Texas Walmart last year expecting to exchange a defective 58-inch television one of them purchased earlier that day.

Instead, the Sept. 10, 2020, trip to the Walmart in Conroe, Texas, led to theft accusations by white employees against Dennis Stewart and Terence Richardson, who are Black, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Courts Southern District of Texas.

The men said a routine trip to the store resulted in police being called on them on suspicion they stole the television. They added that they were placed in handcuffs despite Stewart showing store workers the $300.94 receipt for the Hisense television he bought, according to suit, which names Walmart Inc. as a defendant.

Walmart Stores Texas, LLC, and multiple store employees identified as John Doe and Jane Doe are also named in the civil suit as defendants.

Stewart and Richardson allege they were falsely imprisoned and discriminated against because of their race, the lawsuit said. The moment in handcuffs was so overwhelming and degrading for Stewart, he broke down while detained inside the store, court filings stated.

Plaintiffs repeatedly asked for an explanation for being detained, searched, handcuffed and embarrassed in such a demeaning fashion, and also why the defective television was not allowed to be exchanged, the lawsuit said. The mens questions went unanswered. It was at this point Dennis  a grown 50+year old man  began to cry and begged for answers, according to the suit.

Walmart said in a statement Friday: We do not tolerate discrimination and take allegations like this seriously. When the claims were brought to our attention in April of this year, we investigated them. We are not getting into further detail given the litigation and will respond as appropriate with the court.

Conroe is about 40 miles north of Houston.

Stewart, 55, works as a road foreman and is a church deacon. He is also a former police officer, the lawsuit said. Richardson, 53, is a church pastor, according to the filing. The plaintiffs also allege breach of contract because Stewart was not allowed to exchange the television or get his money back. Employees were also grossly negligent because their actions could have led to Richardson and Stewart being seriously injured by responding police, the lawsuit said.

Story continues

Officers could have mistaken the situation and, as Black men, they could have been shot, injured or permanently disfigured, the filing said.

Stewart presented the receipt at the customer service counter, the lawsuit said. But employees took an hour to examine it. While at the counter, the lawsuit said, four white police officers approached them from behind and instructed them to put their hands on their head, ordered them not to move, searched their bodies and emptied their pockets, and handcuffed them as criminals in plain view of everyone at the vicinity.

While the men remained detained, Stewart cried for about an hour, according to the lawsuit. They were eventually freed from the handcuffs after a female employee screamed at them to take the TV and get the f--- out of this store, and never come f------ back," the filing said.

In one last indignity, the men, according to the lawsuit, were required to sign a Criminal Trespass Warning, which guarantees that criminal charges remain on file at Walmart if the men try to return to the store, the lawsuit said.

According to the suit, Stewart and Richardson are asking for a jury trial as well as compensatory and punitive damages.
Two Afghan athletes arrived in Tokyo on Saturday to compete in the Paralympics, after initially canceling plans to compete following Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban, per a statement from the International Paralympic Committee.

Driving the news: Zakia Khudadadi, a Taekwondo athlete, and track athlete Hossain Rasouli were evacuated from Kabul a week ago and landed in Tokyo on a flight from Paris on Saturday, per the IPC.

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Khudadadi made a video appeal for assistance to leave Kabul to compete in the Games, per Reuters.

"I request from you all, that I am an Afghan woman and as a representative of Afghan women ask for you to help me," Khudadadi said in her video appeal, per Reuters.

What they're saying: "Twelve days ago we were informed that the Afghan Paralympic Team could not travel to Tokyo, a move that broke the hearts of all involved in the Paralympic Movement and left both athletes devastated," IPC President Andrew Parsons said in a statement.

"That announcement kickstarted a major global operation that led to their safe evacuation from Afghanistan, their recuperation by France, and now their safe arrival in Tokyo."

Go deeper: Afghanistan flag displayed at Paralympics as "sign of solidarity"

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From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year.

With international travel heavily restricted, foreign tourists can't enter many countries and locals can't get out. In the metropolis of Hong Kong, glamping and staycations have replaced trips abroad for at least some of its 7.4 million residents.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, international tourist arrivals were down 95% in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period before the pandemic in 2019, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

New variants of the virus loom  a constant threat to any recovery in even domestic tourism. Warnings of a possible third wave in India worry Imraan Ali, whose houseboat on Kashmir's Dal Lake is his only source of income.

Since we are expecting a good influx of tourists, we dont want that to be affected," he said.

INDIA CAUTIOUS AS OUTBREAK RECEDES

Tourists are returning to the valleys and mountains in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as infections in the Himalayan region and nationwide come down after a deadly second wave earlier this year.

The shikaras, or traditional Kashmiri houseboats, are back on the calm waters of Dal Lake as Indians travel at home. India is reporting about 30,000 new coronavirus cases a day, down from a peak of 400,000 in May but still enough for many countries to restrict travelers from India.

Nihaarika Rishabh said she and her husband were relieved to finally get away from their home in the city of Agra for their honeymoon, after their wedding was postponed during the second wave. The vacation in Kashmir has helped calm their nerves after months of the pandemic, she said.

Ali, the houseboat owner, is happy that the number of visitors has gone up. We have been suffering from past two years," he said. Our livelihood depends on tourism.

But mountainous areas like Kashmir have seen an uptick in infections as the number of visitors rises, fueling worries about a third wave.

Story continues

BANGKOK'S BUSTLE GOES QUIET

Erawan Shrine in the center of Bangkok once bustled with foreign tourists and locals making offerings day and night. Today, it is eerily quiet. Only a handful of people buy incense or flowers from the vendors who set up stalls outside.

We are still here because we dont know what else to do, said one, Ruedewan Thapjul.

As Thailand battles a punishing COVID-19 surge with nearly 20,000 new cases every day, people who depend on tourism struggle in what was one of the most-visited cities in the world, with 20 million visitors in the year before the pandemic.

Suthipong Pheunphiphop, the president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, urged the government to commit to its plan to reopen the country to foreign tourists in October.

Currently, the streets are all but empty in Bangkok's Siam Square shopping district.

Passavee Kraidejudompaisarn, the third-generation owner of a popular noodle shop, wiped away tears as she talked about her fears of losing the family business.

Previously, the 60-year-old restaurant would be filled with locals and foreign tourists, bringing in about $2,000 a day. Now, she said, she earns a little more than $2 on some days.

CHINESE STAY IN CHINA

Strict virus control measures have allowed China to return to relatively normal life. The number of tourists visiting Beijing in June and July tripled compared to the same period last year, while revenue quadrupled, according to Trip.com, Chinas largest online travel booking platform.

"I personally feel very safe, Olaya Ezuidazu, a Spanish national living in Beijing, said on a recent visit to the Great Wall.

But even China is not immune to the delta variant. Outbreaks in July and August prompted authorities to suspended flights and trains to affected cities. Parks and museums reduced the number of visitors to 60% of capacity, down from 75% previously.

Phil Ma felt the resulting dent on tourism at his cafe in a traditional hutong neighborhood, steps away from Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. It is obvious during the three or four days from the weekend to today that the number of guests has decreased a lot, he said.

The alley outside his cafe was quiet, in contrast to the line that formed for a cup of coffee during a major holiday in May.

GLAMPING IN HONG KONG

The difficulty of traveling abroad has made glamping  or glamourous camping  popular in Hong Kong.

Berina Tam and Vincy Lee went with We Camp, a campsite located in Yuen Long, a rural area in the north of Hong Kong.

Its actually a good opportunity for us to really, to try to explore Hong Kong a bit more, Tam said.

Many glamping sites provide clean beds, showering facilities and barbeque sites for campers to grill kebabs and chicken wings. The typical charge is $65 per person a night.

Bill Lau, the founder of Hong Kong travel platform Holimood, said that glamping offers an alternative for those who find camping too primitive.

Families and couples need to find somewhere to go during weekends," he said. "If we are trying to recreate the experience of traveling, it must be an overnight experience.

___

Umar Meraj in Srinagar, India, Olivia Zhang in Beijing, Pattarachai Preechapanich in Bangkok and Katie Tam and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed.
By David Milliken

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's last military flight left Kabul late on Saturday after evacuating more than 15,000 people in the two weeks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, ending nearly 20 years of British military presence in the country.

"The final flight carrying UK Armed Forces personnel has left Kabul," Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

Britain on Friday had said its evacuation mission would end within hours and that its military would be unable to fly out any Afghan citizens eligible for resettlement who had not already entered Kabul airport.

"We should be proud of our armed forces, welcoming to those coming for a better life and sad for those left behind," Defence Minister Ben Wallace said after the final British flight.

Britain was at Washington's side from the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that overthrew the then-ruling Taliban in punishment for harbouring the al Qaeda militants behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than 450 British armed forces personnel died during two decades of deployment in the country.

President Joe Biden has set an Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan, while allied forces including Britain have chosen to leave before then. Britain has also suspended embassy operations in Afghanistan.

Wallace estimated on Friday that between 800 and 1,100 Afghans who had worked with Britain and were eligible for resettlement would not make it out by air, and pledged to help them if they could leave by land.

General Nick Carter, the head of Britain's armed forces, told the BBC on Saturday that the total would be in the "high hundreds."

"People like me ... we are forever receiving messages and texts from our Afghan friends that are very distressing. We're living this in the most painful way," Carter said.

TALIBAN COOPERATION?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised Britain's armed forces.

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"I want to thank everyone involved and the thousands of those who served over the last two decades. You can be proud of what you have achieved," he said.

Carter said Britain and its allies might cooperate with the Taliban in the future to tackle threats from the Islamic State militant group. The group, enemies of both Western countries and the Taliban, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack just outside Kabul airport on Thursday that killed scores of people, including 13 U.S. service members.

"If the Taliban are able to demonstrate that they can behave in the way that a normal government would behave in relation to a terrorist threat, we may well discover that we (can) operate together," Carter told Sky News.

"But we've got to wait and see. Certainly some of the stories we get about the way that they are treating their enemies would mean it would be quite difficult for us to work with them at the moment," he added.

Johnson discussed the Afghanistan situation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday, when the two leaders agreed that the Group of Seven rich nations should take a common approach to dealing with any future Taliban government.

"The Prime Minister stressed that any recognition and engagement with the Taliban must be conditional on them allowing safe passage for those who want to leave the country and respecting human rights," Johnson's office said.

(Reporting by David Milliken; additional reporting credit by Aishwarya Nair;Editing by Andrew Heavens and Leslie Adler)
It is the middle of the night in Cameroon's largest port city, Douala, and the floodwaters are rising fast and quietly.

Alerted by frightened neighbours, Hummel Tsafack hastily sends his children to safety and grabs a few possessions. A few minutes later, brackish water pours into the family home.

Flooding is an annual hazard during the July-September rainy season in Makepe-Missoke, a poor district in the heart of this city of more than three million people.

But, impelled by suspected climate change and worsened by urban planning and blocked drains, such events have become more and more frequent.

"The TV burned out, the refrigerator burned out," Tsafack, 35, sighed after the most recent flood earlier this month. "Everything has been trashed."

"As soon as we hear thunder, we raise the beds," his neighbour Francois, a man in his fifties, said. "Everyone here is scared. The water rises so fast."

The two men have stark memories of a flood in summer 2020 that devastated the neighbourhood and paralysed Cameroon's economic capital on the Atlantic coast.

Francois's small home is steeped in damp and none of his household appliances work. The concrete floor has holes in numerous places.

"We have already patched that area seven times. Every time there's a flood, it breaks up and we have to start again," he said.

- Population growth -

"We moved here because it was cheaper. We aren't going to move again," Francois said, though the endangered neighbourhood is located in a flood zone where building is officially banned. People continue to settle there, driven by the lack of space in a city with a population growth rate of more than 5.5 percent per year.

The gap is widening between demand and supply for available land as nearly 110,000 newcomers per year look to put down roots in Douala.

Even before climate change, Doula was already prone to rising water.

The region has almost 250 kilometres (155 miles) of inland waterways and abundant tropical rainfall which averages around 4,000 millimetres (157 inches) per year.

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The city lies at the mouth of the Wouri River, on a low coastal plateau, and is influenced by the tides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Meteorological data for the past 20 years record a decrease in precipitation, but the overall decline masks an increase in extreme weather events such intense rainfall.

The latest report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that coastal cities are on the front line of the climate crisis, threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges.

Floods will displace millions of Africans in the coming decades, and by 2050 inflict costs of up to $60 billion (51 billion euros) per year in the 136 largest coastal cities, it predicts.

- Plastic waste -

But part of the impact from flooding also comes from environmental management.

The banks of the river in Makepe-Missoke are littered with plastic waste.

"Look at all the rubbish that the people here have thrown away," said environment specialist Didier Yimkwa.

"Add to this the silt and the spread of invasive plants which build up the river bed. When there's heavy rain, the water overflows," he said.

To tackle the problem, the city has built around 40 kilometres (25 miles) of drains since 2012 and improved basic services in some neighbourhoods, such as waste collection.

But trash is strewn everywhere in poor districts of Douala and the drains are often clogged with plastic, preventing them from doing their job.

"Thirty percent of waste is estimated to end up in the wild," Joseph Magloire Olinga, Douala's deputy director of research and environmental protection, told AFP.

"We need a serious change in land use when it comes to providing homes for people," Olinga said.

"This means having a denser city centre and building high-rise dwellings -- but in some areas, property developers have bought up the land and don't want to sell it."

The authorities are still allocating flood-prone areas to construction projects.

"In neighbourhoods like Makepe-Missoke, the goal is to strengthen resilience -- to live with the risk of flooding while also minimising it," Olinga said.

"But what's sure is that it will also be necessary to get some inhabitants to move because of the threat."

amt/nb/lc/ri/spm
The Wrap

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Dan Crenshaw were among those who falsely declared Tuesday that a video showed Taliban fighters flying an American helicopter and hanging someone from it. The New York Post was duped, too, but wasnt quite as credulous. The Post wrote a story on the man suspended from the helicopter, but noted it was not immediately clear exactly how he is attached or if he is alive. In fact, he was alive. The video was posted from a now-suspended account, but another video of
On Thursday, Ana Amira Rivera celebrated her first birthday. But earlier this month, her mom worried her baby girl wouldnt make it.

Ava woke up one night in early August with a fever and seizures. Estefani Lopez rushed her to the emergency room, where her daughter stopped breathing, going limp in her arms. The otherwise healthy baby was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Doctors stabilized Ava and said she needed to get immediately to the ICU, but there were no beds. All pediatric ICUs in Houston were full. She was airlifted to the closest, 150 miles away in Temple, Texas.

"My heart sank to the floor, said Lopez, 22. I felt like I was going to lose my daughter before she even turns 1."

While severe illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 are still considered rare among children, those of color like Ava have been disproportionally sickened. And with cases climbing as the contagious delta variant rips through the unvaccinated, health experts fear what's to come.

Earlier this month, baby Ava Amira Rivera was hospitalized with severe illness from COVID-19. Pediatric ICU beds in Houston hospitals were full, and she had to be flown to a hospital 150 miles away.

The COVID-19 vaccines aren't yet available for children younger than 12, and with schools reopening more kids are getting infected. In Florida, where new cases lead the nation and Gov. Ron DeSantis has banned school districts from mandating masks, children make up roughly 10% of cases since the start of the pandemic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

COVID vaccines and children: Pfizer's vaccine is FDA-approved for adults, but it's still a 'no-no' to vaccinate kids under 12

Nationwide, children accounted for more than a fifth of COVID-19 cases reported the week ending Aug. 19, the AAP reported. In the past two weeks alone, cases among children increased 7%. Doctors expect it will only get worse.

Science is still catching up with the pediatric surge, but experts worry about children of color, who disproportionately suffer from lack of access to health care, obesity and other chronic conditions, and COVID-19, too. The disparity is likely to continue.

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I dont see a reason why it wouldnt, said Dr. Sean OLeary, a Denver, Colorado pediatric infectious diseases specialist and vice chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. "Those kids are at higher risk for hospitalization in general."

People of color have disproportionately higher hospitalization rates among every age group  including kids under 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

Since the start of the pandemic through last month, children who are Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native were all hospitalized about three times more often than white children and teens, according to the CDC.

To date, more than a third (34.8%) of the more than 450 children and teens who have died of COVID-19 were Hispanic, according to CDC numbers. Almost a quarter (23.3%) were Black, even though Black children only make up 13% of U.S. children. Hispanic kids make up about 25%. White children, who make up half of U.S. kids, accounted for less than a third of those who died.

And more than half  63%  of reported children with the rare but serious multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 were Hispanic or Black, CDC data shows.

Dr. Cindy Darnell Bowens, who oversees the pediatric ICU at Childrens Medical Center in Dallas, said the medical community is working hard to figure out which children are in most danger of getting seriously sick.

Ava Amira Rivera turned 1 Aug. 26. Earlier this month, she suffered severe illness from COVID-19. ICU beds in local hospitals were full, and she had to flown to a hospital 150 miles away.

More: The delta variant of COVID-19 is more contagious for children. Is it making them sicker, too?

"We do worry about the children who don't have access to receive treatments, to receive routine follow-up visits, to receive preventative care, for obesity, for asthma, for diabetes," she said. "I do worry that those children will be more susceptible to becoming severely ill from this illness and other illnesses."

Across the medical center, more than three dozen children were hospitalized with COVID-19 Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. On her ICU rounds that day, Darnell Bowens, also a University of Texas Southwestern critical care professor, said she saw many children with those comorbidities.

We are seeing a significant number of obese teenagers present with respiratory failure from COVID, said Darnell Bowens. There does seem to be some connection with severity of illness and obesity, but it's hard to, at this point, say how causal that connection is.

'Need to be on higher alert': Babies and toddlers more likely than teens to transmit coronavirus, study says

Pediatric pulmonologist and professor of pediatrics Dr. Deepa Rastogi specializes in asthma in children of color and obesity-related asthma at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. While scientists are still learning about the new disease, she said it appears children with poorly controlled asthma and with obesity might be at greater risk from COVID-19.

Rastogi said it's possible to infer that the same racial disparities seen in adults might continue among children.

"For the sake of the children I take care of, I hope that is not the case," she said.

Dr. Judith Flores, a New York City pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said it's up to adults to get vaccinated to ensure children are surrounded by a "good community of protection."

COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12: When are they coming?

"The most important thing for them is to make sure that as many people around them are vaccinated," said Flores, who provides COVID-19-related education for Latino communities. "If you look at it nationally, risk is determined by your locality, risk is determined by your community, and the rate of infection and rate in vaccination."

Experts like Darnell Bowens are racing against time to both keep children alive and healthy, and to learn more about COVID-19.

Earlier this month, baby Ava Amira Rivera was hospitalized with severe illness from COVID-19. Pediatric ICU beds in Houston hospitals were full, and she had to be flown to a hospital 150 miles away.

I feel like we all need roller skates," she said. "With the admissions and discharges and our ongoing surgeries and resuscitating kids, we escalate to a 15 out of 10. We've been operating in overdrive for weeks now.

Lopez wishes people would adhere to mask mandates and get the shots. She said it's the least adults can do to protect other people, especially children and babies who can't effectively wear masks.

"You might be able to fight it off, but my daughter almost died from it," she said. Our children, they have their whole lives ahead of them."

Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@usatoday.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID and children: Doctors worry about disparities in kids of color
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

Just as in the Marvel Universe, a ransomware group that goes by the name Ragnarok caused catastrophic harm and ended in a snap.

Ragnarok, a hacking gang thats locked victims out of their computers and extorted them since 2019, suddenly appears to have called it quits. The group shared a free tool Thursday that will help previous victims unlock their files and gain access to their computers again, according to security researchers.

Its not clear why Ragnarok is abandoning its pilfering ways. But the apparent decision to self-destruct is a move that other ransomware gangs have been adopting as well. Ragnarok is the fifth ransomware operator thats appeared to backtrack on its previous grift following increased international attention to ransomware hacking. Ziggy ransomware hackers, as well as Avaddon, SynAck, and Fonix hacking groups have all also retreated from their ransomware hacking this year, each giving up their keys and neutralizing their attacks.

Inside a Ransomware Negotiation: This Is How Asshole Russian Hackers Shake Down Companies

The uptick in hackers backing down in recent months is somewhat unorthodox, according to Brett Callow, an analyst at Emsisoft, which helps ransomware victims recover from ransomware attacks.

While its not unprecedented for gangs to do this, its certainly unusual for so many to have done it, and I suspect the exits are due to increased attention from law enforcement, Callow told The Daily Beast. Put simply, they got cold feet.

In its statement about its withdrawal, Ziggy explicitly declared that their intention in backing down was to avoid law enforcement crackdowns and repercussions, according to an earlier interview with Bleeping Computer.

Other ransomware gangs in recent weeks have been working to avoid the watchful eye of law enforcement and world powers as wellseveral gangs that drew the attention of President Joe Biden following their attacks that led to shutdowns at Colonial Pipeline, a massive fuel supplier across the East Coast, and meat supplier JBS, have gone dark. REvil, the gang behind the JBS attack, has since mysteriously disappeared from the internet. And DarkSide, the gang behind the Colonial Pipeline incident, also announced it was backing down and retiring.

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Inside the Secret Codes Hackers Use to Outwit Ransomware Cops

Even those operating in underground criminal communities have started treating ransomware hackers like pariahs. Popular Russian language cybercriminal forum administrators have announced in recent weeks that ransomware gangs would be barred from posting and coordinating their hacking schemes, following increased law enforcement attention.

In the meantime, hackers have found workarounds. In response to the heightened legal attention, ransomware gangs have resorted to using code words on cybercriminal forums to avoid getting booted, security researchers recently told The Daily Beast.

Of course, cybercriminals statements that theyre retiring are not always serious. In recent days the two gangs behind the JBS and Colonial Pipeline hacksalthough they appeared to call it quitshave fused their operations together in a new gang.

Neil Walsh, the United Nations chief of the cybercrime and anti-money laundering department, at the U.N.s Office on Drugs and Crime, told The Daily Beast he was glad to see Ragnarok go for now.

The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed people and economies around the world The disruption and dislocation of the Ragnarok ransomware group is welcomed, Walsh said.

For Ragnarok, the motivation behind its apparent U-turn isnt so clear at the moment, leaving a quagmire for security analysts to unwind in the coming days. But one thing is clearjust because Ragnarok is gone for now, it doesnt mean ransomware is over.

Raj Samani, a chief scientist at security firm McAfee, told The Daily Beast that it was difficult to ascertain what the conclusion about the decision is since the motivation [is] unclear for now.

Broadly speaking it is positive that there is one less ransomware group to contend with, [but] it is imperative to not lose sight of the fact that there are many other threat groups out there causing damage across the globe, said Samani, who is the founder of No More Ransom, an organization that maintains a repository of keys and applications that can apply to different kinds of ransomware should victims need.

Ransomware Hackers May Be in Over Their Heads. They May Not Even Get Paid.

Ransomware hacking has continued steadily despite the apparent global recoil. Even as the coronavirus pandemic has raged on with new surges around the world, ransomware gangs have been targeting hospitals, causing one hospital in Indiana to divert ambulances.

Just this week Boston Public Library was hit in a ransomware attack, according to The Boston Globe. (Boston Public Library declined to confirm if it was hit with a ransomware attack when reached for comment.)

Walsh urged that victims looking to recover from Ragnarok attacks consult with Europol, the European Unions law enforcement agency, and No More Ransom.

Europol did not immediately return a request for comment.

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Erika Jayne owes $25 million to her estranged husband's law firm, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Aug. 26 and obtained by E! News.

The trustee behind the Girardi Keese bankruptcy case sued the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 50, for more than $25.5 million plus interest, after Erika allegedly paid for her "extravagant lifestyle" using firm funds.

"The glam cannot be supported by a sham," trustee Elissa Miller states in the first amended complaint.

Erika, along with her EJ Global and Pretty Mess companies, allegedly received jewelry and other luxury items that were purchased using funds from Tom Girardi's Girardi Keese company.

"Erika has taken the ludicrous position that since she did not receive the payments directly from the [firm] she is not liable," the suit states.

It continues, "She attempts to create a distinction between handing her money directly versus paying all of her bills directly. The distinction, like her prior motion for reconsideration is meritless. Any payments made for her benefit are her responsibility."

Per the lawsuit, $14 million was charged on her American Express card and another $11 million was paid to shopping vendors.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Through The Years

None are "legitimate" law firm payments, the suit claims, but were for the "sole benefit" Erika's "massive spending" on her glam squad, travel, clothes, purses, shoes, jewelry and other "lavish expenses."

Even though Erika contends "she did not know her husband was maintaining a debt," the trustee feels "it would be a miscarriage of justice" if the reality star was allowed to "simply walk completely free" while owing more than $25 million to the estate, according to the filing.

Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2 Presented by Amazon Prime Video

"Erika signed all of her tax returns, numerous credit card slips, and was well aware of the money she spent on the Debtor's credit cards and the Debtor's payment of her personal expenses," Miller argues. "Her feigned willful blindness and ostrich approach to these expenditures will do absolutely nothing to limit her liability."

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The trustee is hoping the lawsuit will "provide a come to Jesus moment" for Erika, according to a statement from her attorney Ronald Richards to E! News.

"We are hopeful that Ms. Girardi comes down the mountain from a place of privilege and obscene wealth and returns some of these expenses so the former clients and creditors of this law firm can mitigate the horrific and unfair losses perpetrated by her husband and others," he said in part, adding that "some effort to do the right thing would go a long way in backing up her public claim that the victims should come first."

Meanwhile, Erika's attorney Evan Borges asserts that "no one was deceived" and "nothing improper was done," he said in a statement to E! News.

"The fact that the trustee continues to try to assert claims based on transactions going back 12 years, which are barred by statutes of limitations, is an example of the overreaching and willingness to say and do anything to hurt Erika, despite the law," he said. "Erika will defend the case, and we will seek sanctions and all appropriate remedies for the claims brought in bad faith and without any legal merit."

Borges added that the trustee and her legal team are "jumping to conclusions without a full investigation," as well as "bullying and blaming Erika for actions taken by Girardi Keese for which Erika does not have legal liability."

In June, a trustee in the case filed a motion in court to attempt to "uncover the whereabouts of potential assets of the estate," alleging Erika was loaned $20 million from Tom's firm.

The couple, who split in 2020 after 21 years together, were also sued in December. Tom, 82, was accused of embezzling money from an airplane crash settlement fund in order to pay for their "lavish Beverly Hills lifestyles." The filing also claimed their divorce was "simply a sham attempt to fraudulently protect Tom and Erika's money from those that seek to collect on debts owed by Tom and his law firm."

Tom was officially disbarred by a California judge on Aug. 20, documents filed under the Central District of California and obtained by E! News showed.

According to reports, a hearing in the embezzlement case is set for mid-September. Reps for both Erika and Tom didn't return E! News' request for comment at the time of the December lawsuit, and have not commented publicly on it.

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
Reuters

The United States may have left behind the majority of Afghans who helped in the 20-year war effort along with their families as U.S. citizens were prioritized in the airlift that came to an end this week, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday. The departure of the last U.S. military flights out of Kabul on Monday marked the end of an operation that saw more than 123,000 people brought out of Afghanistan in less than two weeks. President Joe Biden has pledged to keep helping 100 to 200 U.S. citizens left in the country who wanted to leave and a much larger group of at-risk Afghans, including former interpreters for the U.S. military.
PixelsEffect / Getty Images

Talk of a fourth stimulus check  and even recurring monthly stimulus payments  keeps making the rounds in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere, especially since the COVID-19 Delta variant has caused more uncertainty about the American economy.

See: Fourth Stimulus Checks Are Coming From These States  Is Yours on the List?

Find: Missing a Stimulus Check? Heres How to Get Your Payment

But so far there is no evidence that a fourth check will be coming anytime soon, if ever, and recent developments make the prospect of another check increasingly unlikely.

President Joe Bidens main relief priority is the child tax credit program rather than another stimulus round, according to CBS. And as GOBankingRates noted earlier this week, the latest job report  which showed that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.4% in July  doesnt bode well for those still holding out for a fourth payment.

The July employment rate is the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting employment in early 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 943,000 new jobs were also added to the economy, with leisure and hospitality jobs leading the growth.

See: Stimulus Forecast  Latest Jobs Data Makes a Fourth Check Less Likely

Find: Didnt Get Your Child Tax Credit? Heres How to Track It Down

Meanwhile, the BLS reported that the labor force participation rate changed very little in July, coming in at 61.7%, which is within the same range of 61.4-61.7% since June of last year. The participation rate is actually 1.6 percentage points lower now than it was in February of 2020.

One result is that businesses are scrambling to find workers and fill jobs, and some lawmakers put part of the blame on stimulus payments, which they say have taken away the incentive of eligible workers to find jobs.

So far, the United States government has delivered $3,200 in stimulus payments to each eligible adult, CBS News reported: $1,200 under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act in March 2020; $600 in a December relief package; and $1,400 under the American Rescue Plan signed in March.

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See: More Americans Are Moving Back to Pre-Pandemic Life  How Will It Affect Spending?

Find: Remote Workers Wanted  These Cities Are Offering Thousands in Cash, Bikes, Free Land for You to Move

As of June, about 9.5 million Americans were looking for work, GOBankingRates reported, citing data from The Wall Street Journal. Some economists attribute the gap between job openings and unemployment to skills or geographic disparities between workers and available jobs.

We have fewer people in the labor market now than we did before Covid, Julia Pollak, a labor economist at job-search site ZipRecruiter, told the Journal. She added that multiple rounds of federal economic stimulus and benefits mean businesses have surged back far more quickly than job seekers.

See: Job Openings Reach Record High, Now Exceed Number of Employment Seekers

Find: Eviction Moratorium  How It Could Affect Millions and Where to Seek Additional Aid

While all this makes a fourth stimulus check unlikely, plenty of people still support the idea They cite the fact that millions of Americans are still struggling financially. About four in 10 say their income remains below its pre-pandemic levels, according to a survey from TransUnion. And as CBS News reported Thursday, about 14.6 million Americans currently get some form of jobless assistance.

In March, 21 senators, all Democrats, signed a letter to Biden in support of recurring stimulus payments. And as GOBankingRates previously reported, about 2.8 million people (and counting) have signed a petition calling for $2,000 monthly stimulus checks for every American, making it one of the top 10 petitions that changed 2020, according to a statement on the Change.org website.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Fact Check: Is a Fourth Stimulus Check Going to Happen?
Former University of Mississippi student Brandon Theesfeld pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Friday in the July 2019 killing of fellow student Alexandria "Ally" Kostial.

The remains of 21-year-old Kostial, who was working toward a marketing degree at Ole Miss, were found about 30 miles from campus near Sardis Lake with multiple gunshot wounds on July 20, 2019.

Theesfeld, who was a business student at the school, was arrested two days later at a gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, in possession of a .40-caliber Glock. Prosecutors said in court Friday that ballistics from the scene at Sardis Lake were a match for his gun.

MINNESOTA MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER ALLEGEDLY DRIVING INTO PROTESTERS, LEAVING 1 DEAD

Kostial told Theesfeld three months before she was killed that she was likely pregnant, but Theesfeld responded in messages that "he felt becoming a father at this point in his life would ruin his life," a prosecutor said in court Friday, according to a stream of the proceedings recorded by Fox affiliate KTVI.

Theesfeld avoided meeting in person with Kostial over the next three months and eventually drove to the Dallas area and got the Glock handgun about a week before the slaying.

Kostial was last seen on surveillance video leaving a bar shortly before midnight on July 19.

Around 1 a.m. on July 20, Theesfeld could be seen driving toward Kostials home then driving away toward Sardis Lake. Gunshots were heard by someone near the lake around 2:15 a.m. and GPS coordinates on Theesfeld's phone show him leaving the lake about 30 minutes later, the prosecutor said Friday.

All of the bullets in Kostial's body that were whole enough for forensic testing were confirmed to have been fired from Theesfeld's Glock.

Authorities performed a search warrant at Theesfeld's residence and found a letter addressed to his parents.

"I am not a good person. It is not your fault. Something in me just doesnt work," the letter said, according to the prosecutor. "Ive always had terrible thoughts Ive always had these demons. I just kind of fell off. I think this is the end for me. Im either going to prison or going to die. I know I will be caught."

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Theesfeld will now be sentenced to life in prison. He apologized to Kostial's family and his own family Friday.

"I wish I could take it all back but I cant," Theesfeld said. "There is no excuse for my actions. I have asked God for forgiveness and I hope that one day youll find it in your heart to forgive me."

A letter by Kostial's mother that was read in court Friday described her as bright, compassionate, sweet and hardworking.

"We take comfort in the fact that Ally will never be defined by how she was ripped out of our lives, but how she lived her life and all her great qualities," the letter said.

"Our lives have been forever altered and shattered and her absence haunts us every day."
Milwaukee County Jail

A man known for his work as Silly the Clown in southeast Wisconsin has been charged with the murder of his newborn daughter 30 years ago. Ronald Schroeder, 52, was taken into custody this week and charged with first-degree reckless homicide and two counts of physical abuse of a child for the death of baby Catherine Schroeder in August 1991.

The infant, not yet two months old at that time, was rushed to a hospital with what doctors determined to be shaken baby syndrome. According to local media reports, she suffered fractured ribs, contusions to her brain and enough force to cause detached retinas, resulting in blood behind the eyes.

Just hours before doctors documented all of these injuries and pronounced the baby girl dead, Schroeder had taken the stage at a local restaurant and performed as Silly the Clown for a room full of elementary school children, according to a profile by Milwaukee magazine. He was said to have been adored by audiences for his balloon sculptures and high-pitched clown voice, and was even praised by the then-director of the International Clown Hall of Fame for being always funny and always courteous.

Behind the scenes, however, he had repeatedly been accused of abusive behavior by the family of Catherines mother, Christine. He has denied those allegations and has denied hurting the baby.

The former clown went three decades without facing any punishment for his babys death. Prosecutors cited insufficient evidence at the time, and Schroeder continued to perform as Silly for young children for several years. Meanwhile, investigators were unable to shake their suspicions about Schroeders involvement in Catherines death, and they reopened the case in 1998 only to once again run into a lack of evidence, Greenfield Police officer Mike Brunner told Milwaukee magazine at the time.

It was not immediately clear what new evidence, if any, led to prosecutors finally charging Schroeder this week.

The new charges come after a review of the original autopsy was conducted in June 2021, with the Milwaukee County medical examiner concluding that Catherine Schroeder died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, according to the criminal complaint against Schroeder. The medical examiner deemed the manner of death to be homicide.

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Court records in Milwaukee County show an arrest warrant was issued for Schroeder on Wednesday and an initial court appearance via video link was held on Thursday. A judge shot down an attempt by his defense to have the case dismissed due to the statute of limitations, and bond was set at $350,000.

Schroeder was convicted of sexual assault in 2008 and was released from prison only in 2013. In that case, he sexually assaulted a girlfriend while she was unconscious and took photos of the attack.

After his release from prison, police sent out a bulletin warning residents of Waukesha that the man previously known as Silly the Clownnow a convicted sex offenderwould be moving into the neighborhood. Residents were assured that he would not be allowed in bars or around children without supervision and that he would be tracked by a GPS monitor.

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Geber86 / Getty Images

Although an official fourth stimulus check from the federal government might seem unlikely at this point, states are doing their own part in making sure federal stimulus money gets distributed. As part of the American Rescue Plan stimulus relief bill, states were allotted over $200 billion dollars to spend towards their economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

See: Stimulus Update  States Give Out Thousands of Bonus $1,000 Checks  Will You Get One?

Find: Bipartisan Senate Group Unveils $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

States have until the end of 2021 to give their money out, and governors have already begun doling out cash where they feel their states need it the most.

State Stimulus Checks

Certain residents of the following states might be eligible for stimulus money.

California

California is currently the only state to have sent out a type of stimulus check with its own money. California has a state budget surplus, largely due to its unique tax system. California has a progressive income tax schedule, meaning that the more you make, the more you pay in taxes. This, plus thrifty budgeting, provided enough money for actual checks in the amount of $500 or $600 to residents earning between $30,000 and $75,000 per year. This is in addition to $500 to be paid to households with dependent children.

See: California to Issue More Stimulus Checks as Newsom Signs $100-Billion Recovery Plan

Find: Heres How You Can Boost That Emergency Fund 8 Times Over

Colorado

Colorado is sending $375 to those who received at least one unemployment payment between March 15, 2020 and Oct. 24, 2020. Higher-income workers who qualified for more than $500 per week in base unemployment benefits are not eligible, CPR News reported.

Maryland

Maryland passed legislation several months ago to repeal all state and local taxes on unemployment benefits and included immediate stimulus payments of $500 for families and $300 for individuals who filed for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Story continues

See: Stimulus Update  New Bill Proposes Expansion of Worker Benefits on the Heels of Child Tax Credits and COVID Relief Checks

Find: Stimulus Package Update Offers Free Health Insurance Through the End of the Year

New Mexico

New Mexicos state stimulus program has earmarked $5 million to be distributed to New Mexicans who didnt qualify for federal stimulus payments, KRQE reported.

New York

New York state created a $2.1 billion fund for undocumented workers unable to claim federal stimulus monies. To qualify, you must be a resident of the state and have made less than $26,208 in 2020.

Federal Funding  Retention Bonuses

Several states have decided to use some of the federal money as retention bonuses for their teachers, as most schools are expected to open in-person this year, AS reported. The bonuses also act as a thank you for the particularly rough school year most teachers had to endure.

Florida

Florida allocated a $1000 check to most teachers and administrators, but controversy arose when Governor DeSantis notably left some educators out. The situation is still developing.

See: Coronavirus Reveals How Much Teachers Should Really Be Paid

Find: 7 Money-Saving Tips for Teachers



Georgia

Georgia has one of the more generous plans, with Governor Kemp authorizing all full-time teachers and administrators to receive $1,000 checks, with part-time teachers receiving $500. There is a plan underway to provide for pre-K educators as well.

Michigan

Although a retention bonus like Georgia and Florida has not yet been outlined, Michigan sent out $500 hazard pay bonuses to its teachers earlier in the year.

Tennessee

Tennessees state government passed a bill in June that scrapped an expected 2% raise and replaced it with a $1,000 check it labeled as a hazard pay bonus to full-time teachers. Part-time teachers get $500. Eligible individuals will receive their checks by the end of the year.

See: COVID-19s Economic Impact on Education

Find: 25 Experts Predictions on When We Will Bounce Back From COVID-19

Texas

The state of Texas has not confirmed a state-wide retention bonus, but certain districts are doing their part for teachers. Fort Worth and Arlington will increase pay 4% for all district employees. Denton and Mansfile teachers will receive a 2% raise. Denton employees will also see a $500 bonus, and in Irving, a $2,000 payment will be distributed to staff who return to the classroom in September.

If you believe you could be eligible for these checks, make sure to log on to your states Treasury website to either register with your state or contact its Treasury department. Most families and individuals under the income thresholds will be eligible to receive full state benefit amounts, regardless of whether or not they pay taxes. It will not be held against you if you have not paid taxes this year or last  in most cases these are fully refundable checks, meaning you do not have to pay them back and they do not count as income towards this years taxes.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Fourth Stimulus Checks Are Coming From These States  Is Yours on the List?
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty

By the fourth week of the new school year this month, COVID had exploded across Georgias Bulloch County School District. As of Monday, 900 students in the district of just 11,000 had tested positive for coronavirus in the first three weeks of school.

For weeks, teachers and many parents had called for a mask mandate. But superintendent Charles Wilson refused to issue one. Instead, on Thursday night, he sent an email blast with the subject line word of encouragement to all the teachers in the district. After thanking them for all that you are doing for our students and for each other, the email, which has been seen by The Daily Beast, continued:

I talked with principals today and we all agreed that, though it is a small gesture, you would enjoy the liberty of wearing jeans for the next month. So, by all means, please enjoy your jeans throughout the month of September (and the rest of August).

If Wilson had meant his email to quiet the growing anger among his employees, it did just the opposite.

It was super offensive, one teacher at a school in the district, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of professional reprisal, told The Daily Beast. She said she has written to Wilson and the school board several times this year to beg for mask mandates but has never gotten a response.

Every day we march into school is like going to war, and the only weapons that we have are masks and vaccines if weve chosen to get it, a second elementary school teacher in the district, who also asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional reprisal, said. And our administrators sit in their offices sending out condescending little emails, as if jeans are going to help protect us or our families from getting sick.

Wilson, who as superintendent has the authority to impose COVID-mitigation measures such as mask mandates, did not respond to multiple calls, emails, and text messages on Friday.

In many ways, the problems in Bulloch County are a microcosm of the growing problem in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemps steadfast refusal to impose any COVID mitigation measures in the schools has combined with low vaccination rates to create one of the fastest COVID spirals in the Southeast.

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Since the start of the school year, COVID cases in Georgia have nearly tripled, soaring from a seven-day average of 4,500 to almost 13,000 between Aug. 5 and Aug. 26, according to Johns Hopkins University data. But among school-aged children between 5 and 17, the virus is spreading even faster. In that same time period, that average more than quadrupled from 390 to 1688.

As the crisis has mounted, many districts in Georgia have rolled out mitigation measuresfrom mask mandates to district closures and hybrid schedules. But Bulloch County has not been one of them.

I am surprised Bulloch is still at the point of discussing masks when so many other districts in the area have closed because of the number of cases, said Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, an advocacy group for public school teachers in the state.

As of Wednesday, more than half the students in the state were attending a school with a mask mandate, and another 26 districts and charter schools were currently shut down, temporarily moving to all-virtual curricula, according to an AP analysis.

And, teachers say, the consequences of inaction in Bulloch County have been obvious. In the last two weeks, more than 1 percent of all school-aged kids have tested positive for coronavirus in Georgia. But in Bulloch County, 3.5 percent of all school-aged children, more than triple the rate statewide, have been infected with COVID in the last two weeks, according to data from the Georgia Department of Health.

By Monday, three weeks into the school year, 4,900 students were in quarantine, though in this district, which allows students with direct contact to continue attending classes unmasked until they show symptoms, that was less restriction than label.

This district has also apparently tried to give the impression of taking action on masks without really taking much action. On Aug. 12, during the second week of school, the district announced in a Facebook post that Wilson had activated the districts high spread protocol. But the dramatic-sounding move represented just a sliver of change: signs encouraging mask-wearing would now be placed throughout each school. Masks were still not required, classes remained in session and students who had been exposed were still allowed to attend those classes, unmasked, until they showed symptoms.

This flies in the face of current CDC recommendations for schools, which advise masking for all students and teachers as well as vaccines, social distancing, routine testing, ventilation and sanitation.

We dont need to be at the school. We dont even want to be at the school, and I hate to say that because Ive done this job a long time. But our students are sick, were getting sick. Our families are getting sick. We dont need to be here, a third teacher, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Beast.

Many parents seem to agree. Since the start of the year, the Bulloch County Schools Facebook page has exploded with angry comments from parents. Their concerns have generated responses but little action.

On Aug. 19, in response to what Wilson called the many and diverse perspectives across our community regarding COVID-19, the superintendent posted on Facebook a letter to parents with tips on how to keep their kids safe, such as daily hygiene and mak[ing] sure your child gets their necessary exercise, rest, and dietary needs met to help develop a healthy immune system. Wilson made no mention of masks or vaccination. He closed the message with a hang in there.

Unbelievably insulting and entirely tone deaf, Adam Brady, a parent in the district, commented below the post. I cannot believe that I live in a community with this level of failure to acknowledge and address a problem of this magnitude.

Just 21 percent of people in Bulloch County have been fully vaccinated. In comparison, the statewide rate in Georgia, which has one of the 10 lowest vaccination rates in the country, is 40 percent.

On Wednesday, Jonathan McCollar, the mayor of Statesboro, which is Bullochs county seat, wrote on Facebook that the local hospital was nearly at capacity, with 18 COVID patients on ventilators. The Mayo Clinic, he wrote, is predicting that we may begin to see as many as 300 cases per day in the town of 31,000 people.

On Sunday, two employees of Sugar and Spice, a daycare in Bulloch County, were found dead in their homes after testing positive for COVID. A third worker at the same daycare is currently hospitalized.

Some Georgia school districts have been so overrun that they cant staff classrooms. In Bulloch County, a shortage of bus drivers has forced the district to change its bus routes and dismiss some classes early to accommodate the delays.

It really is like sailing off to war. After the weekend, we dont know whos coming back, the second teacher told The Daily Beast. I walked in on Monday and we realize half the staff isnt there.

All three teachers who spoke to The Daily Beast said that Wilson hasnt grasped the severity of the situation.

It seems like he has no idea whats happening in his district, almost like he doesnt really believe that it could exist, that something bads really happening, the first teacher told The Daily Beast. Its just, Oh think positive thoughts and dig in there and well get through this, when people are sick and dying.

One teacher told The Daily Beast that her school told teachers during a meeting in July that this year they were not to use the word COVID when discussing the virus with students and their parents. They were instead to use the word infectious diseases.

People arent dropping like flies from diarrhea. Its the same thing we dealt with last year, that teacher said. Why cant we use the same name?

When it comes to the olive-branch of blue jeans wearing, Morgan, however, said she can see, at least somewhat, where Wilson may have been coming from.

Yall dont know how important our jeans are to us, Morgan told The Daily Beast. My former principal, our Christmas gift would be five jeans passes. So I can see to educators how that would be a boost to morale. But it doesnt help much when youre in a district that isnt following CDC mitigation guidelines and cases in Georgia are the highest they have ever been among school children.

This Explains Why Delta Variant Is Hammering Hospitals

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By Paresh Dave

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's Google generated $11.2 billion in revenue from its mobile app store in 2019, according to a court filing unsealed on Saturday, offering a clear view into the service's financial results for the first time.

Attorneys general for Utah and 36 other U.S. states or districts suing Google over alleged antitrust violations with the app store also said in the newly unredacted filing that the business in 2019 had $8.5 billion in gross profit and $7 billion in operating income, for an operating margin of over 62%.

The figures include sales of apps, in-app purchase and app store ads. Google told Reuters the data "are being used to mischaracterize our business in a meritless lawsuit."

The company and its accusers said in a separate filing on Saturday a trial in late 2022 is possible over whether Google abuses its alleged monopoly in app sales for Android devices.

In its quarterly financial disclosures, Google groups Play app revenue with that of other services and accounts for the store's ad revenue as part of another broader category.

Attorneys general, as well as mobile app developer Epic Games and others separately suing Google, have contended that it generates huge profits through the Play Store by taking 30% of the fee for every digital good sold inside an app. The plaintiffs say Google's cut is arbitrarily high, siphoning app developers' profits.

Google argues that alternatives exist to Google's store and payment systems, though critics say those routes are unfeasible and were sometimes blocked.

Plaintiffs allege Google through anticompetitive deals extended benefits to and imposed restrictions on major developers such as "League of Legends" maker Riot Games to keep them from leaving the Play Store.

A filing by Epic Games unsealed this month said Google, according to internal documents, feared losing $1.1 billion in annual app store profit if the Play Store was successfully bypassed.

(Reporting by Paresh Dave;Editing by Marguerita Choy and Andrea Ricci)
Western nations simply must do more to strengthen their defences (Getty Images)

As the "information society" matures, we are becoming increasingly aware of its dark sides  and by far the most disturbing among them is the inevitable loss of privacy. In recent years a huge part of major scandals that shook western societies emerged from leaks and hacks when confidential information went public.

Dozens of hacking groups believed to be based in nations like Russia, China, North Korea, and the Middle East have been investigated in recent years  but the Western governments seem to be losing this fight with allegations of state links in a number of cases. Such problems are hard to combat in cyberspace, but for the sake of our freedom we need to try.

One recent case highlighting how vulnerable we all are involved an investigation from Amnesty International (AI) and others into a massive data leak around the use of a professional spyware called Pegasus, which was designed in the mid-2010s by an Israeli company, NSO Group, and supplied to over a dozen of governments.

First found in one smartphone back in 2016, the spyware was considered a real masterpiece as it allowed its users to gather all kinds of information from victims phones, including contacts, photos, voice messages, passwords, etc., while being installed through a single text message sent to a mobile device.

AIs investigation has exposed Great Britains particular vulnerabilities. According to the leak, the principal government responsible for selecting numbers from the UK appears to be the United Arab Emirates. At the top of UAEs hit list in the UK were "politically exposed" emigres based in London, their British lawyers and British journalists and academics critical of the Emirates.

The UK is no stranger to foreign powers targeting those who (mistakenly) believe they enjoy the protections of its laws as evidenced by the savage poisonings of Alexander Litvinenko as well as Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Western nations simply must do more to strengthen their defences against concerted efforts by both friend and foe alike to compromise the sanctity of its laws and civil safeguards. The NSO example demonstrates that spyware has become an "offensive" tool that foreign governments are using to suppress their political opponents and limit citizens liberties. I should mention that very few, if any, US-based mobile numbers appear to have been hacked.

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As a first step, the western powers should hold the relevant states and people accountable for such hostile actions. This would also send a strong signal to future transgressors More broadly, collective action at the highest possible level is necessary to stop the rise of internet spying by rogue states and their spy services. The NSO-produced spyware is just the tip of the iceberg: with other companies active in this field, its an entire industry that needs to be regulated.

The worlds democracies should agree that any use of spyware is legal only within their own borders, while its application to foreign nationals or their own subjects residing abroad should be authorized by the host governments. The governments that fail to develop such requirements or abuse cyber surveillance tools to spy on dissidents and political critics should be put on a global no-transfer list. The international sharing, transfer and sale of such technologies should be put under strict control, similar to non-proliferation agreements regulating weapons of mass destruction and dual use technologies. If governments demonstrate a pattern of abuse, they should be denied access to any research in the field.

Moreover, the unauthorised use of spyware should be criminalised, which would allow targeted individuals and public entities to sue both the spyware providers and the governments whose responsibility it is to protect their privacy rights.

The NSO scandal has made it clear that we have already stepped over the precipice into a brave new world of electronic espionage. This case is of profound importance not only because any liberal government must protect civil rights and enhance security and privacy of its citizens.

The "information revolution" of the last thirty years has completely changed our lives, and we all agree that some part of our privacy is lost. Its actually the price we pay for enormous amount of services each of us enjoys for free in many cases. Its the price we pay for our physical security (CCTV cameras in use diminish our privacy, but for the sake of many, including ourselves).

Therefore, the collective action on highest possible level is needed for stopping the rise of internet spying. Because otherwise we may undermine not only peoples trust in governments, but also their faith in both technological and economic progress.

Vladislav L Inozemtsev is a special advisor to MEMRIs Russian media studies project
HIV advocates and LGBTQ+ rights leaders brainstormed with U.S. House members this week during the 4th annual Illinois Congressional Delegation Breakfast. The online event was hosted by Pride Action Tank, a project of AIDS Foundation Chicago, and was in partnership with Equality Illinois and the Human Rights Campaign.

The event is a chance, according to AIDS Foundation Chicago, for these advocates to provide information to the state's congressional delegation. The House members were able to speak on what they had been able to accomplish on the federal level to impact LGBTQ+ people and those living with HIV.

In a prepared video, Sen. Tammy Duckworth said that she acknowledges the burden the COVID-19 pandemic has had on LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV, and especially communities of color.

This pandemic has proven once again that no one can predict when they'll get sick or have an accident and need immediate access to quality health care, she said.

Duckworth added that there is a significant amount of work to be done when fighting for equality. I am excited and hopeful for the future. I am grateful to all of you as advocates and I look forward to working together to advance those priorities, she said.

Coleman Goode, a community organizer with AIDS Foundation Chicago, urged congressional members to address the criminalization of HIV by supporting the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act.

HIV specific criminal transmission laws have been on the books since the late '80s, and was an actual requirement for states to receive Ryan White funding in the early '90s, Goode said. What we know is there is no scientific evidence that laws criminalizing non-disclosure, perceived or potential exposure, or transmission have any public health benefit.

In fact, research suggests that HIV criminalization laws may discourage testing, treatment, and disclosure, which is what we want people to talk about.
Often a critic of President Biden, Rep Ilhan Omar has stepped forward to defend his handling of Afghanistan (Getty)

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has praised the Biden administrations evacuation of US citizens and Afghan allies from Kabul, as the deadline for Americas full withdrawal fast approaches.

On Saturday, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asked Ms Omar if the president surprised her with his commitment to ending the 20-year war.

He certainly has, the congresswoman responded . The level of evacuation that his administration has been able to undertake is really inspiring and theres important work thats getting done.

The White House said on Saturday that it had evacuated 111,900 people from Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of Kabul in mid-August. On Friday alone, 6,800 people were airlifted out  in spite of an ISIS-K attack on the citys airport that killed over 180 people.

Ms Omar, a progressive Democrat who often criticises President Biden, believes in this case he deserves more credit.

Even after the terrorist attack at Kabul Airport, we continue to airlift and evacuate people, Ms Omar said. That is commendable work.

The Minnesota representative also urged Americans to welcome in as many Afghan refugees as possible in the wake of the crisis, especially those who risked their lives to assist the US military.

Weve made promises obviously that we couldnt keep, Ms Omar said, but the one promise we can keep is making sure that we protect everyone that has been made vulnerable because of our mission.

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For Ms Omar, who came to the US as a refugee after fleeing the Somali Civil War , the issue is personal.

Its really hard to watch any of these images that we continue to see on our screens without being taken back, she said. I was a child in a family that was scattering and searching for refuge.

The congresswoman credited her survival to her familys faith in humanity and the welcoming spirit of the American people.

Read More

US says it kills Isis-K planner in reprisal strike after deadly Kabul attack

UKs last evacuation flight for Afghans has left Kabul, Ministry of Defence says

Story continues

US victims of Kabul blast named, as father of one hits out at Biden: He turned his back on him

Ilhan Omar calls on Biden to pardon drone program whistleblower Daniel Hale

Ilhan Omar calls out Fox for anti-refugee rhetoric on Afghanistan: This is their playbook

Afghanistan news live: UK into final hours of evacuation mission

Who are Isis-K?

Pen Farthings animals could die of heat at Kabul airport
Aug. 28CHEYENNE  Some industrious Wyoming high school students will receive focused mentorship this fall through a new Impact Wyoming initiative.

Be Entrepreneurial is a free education opportunity that focuses on teaching business planning skills, marketing, finance and ethical decision-making.

The base activities for the program will begin in October, with virtual courses concentrated on business development Oct. 9, 16 and 23, and at the end of the month there will be a local pitch night. Anyone is welcome to sign up, but there will only be 20 spots available.

Be Entrepreneurial is not just a learning opportunity for students in Wyoming, it also will engage communities. On Oct. 28, the local pitch night will feature a panel of judges made up of area business leaders who will pick two business plans to receive startup money.

Each selected student will receive $5,000 in financing, as well as a $2,000 marketing package. The marketing package includes a website, business cards, logo and other resources to get their businesses off the ground. The money for the startup packages comes from grants found by Kelly Eastes, the director of development for Impact Wyoming.

Elissa Ruckle, who founded the overarching Impact organization, said the effort is an investment in Wyoming communities she's wanted to make for a long time.

"Our greatest export in Wyoming is our youth," she said. "We're losing a lot of brain power and brilliance because they don't feel like they belong in the communities."

Ruckle said she sees a lack of entrepreneurial opportunities, even for younger adults who are past high school. Her son graduated from the University of Wyoming, and after not being able to find a job within his field of interest in the state, he left.

She wants Be Entrepreneurial to show students that there's a reason to stay  and it may be through creating a space for themselves. This could be a way to help them be successful and diversify the economy in Wyoming at the same time.

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Other young entrepreneurs in the state want to encourage those aspirations in students, as well, which is why the program offers mentorship from local business owners, she said.

Chad Pollock is the head owner and distiller of Backwards Distilling Company and will be part of the mentorship program in next month. He got his start in business at age 22.

He said it was jarring to go from school straight into opening his own business, and advice from other entrepreneurs helped refine his knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities. This pushed him to pay that same kindness forward in any way he can, like mentoring with Impact's new program.

"I really hope that I can provide some inspiration to young entrepreneurs," he said.

Brian Deurloo is another mentor who said he's excited to teach more than just the "hard skills."

His background is in environmental engineering, and he started his own environmental technology company, Frog Creek Partners. From his experiences, Deurloo said he wants to show students that becoming an engineer or working in an industrial trade requires often overlooked abilities.

He put an emphasis on "soft skills," like learning how to study, listen and communicate effectively.

"There's a lot more to being entrepreneurial than just coming up with an idea and building a business around it," he said. "You've got to build a personality and drive, and develop certain characteristics."

The business leaders will take on the task of teaching local students lessons from their lives  and said they can't wait to get started.

High schoolers interested in registering for the program can get the Be Entrepreneurial Registration form at tinyurl.com/n94z7t2b, or contact Ruckle at elissa@elevatewyoming.org.

Impact has two other programs in Laramie, Cheyenne and Casper that focus on professional development. The Wyoming Youth Council and Stand Tall are both options for those who are interested in City Council or leadership courses.

Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's education reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia held a rare meeting Saturday at a conference hosted by Iraq. The meeting is aimed at easing Mideast tensions and underscored the Arab countrys new role as mediator.

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the Baghdad meeting, hailing it as a major boost for Iraq and its leadership. The country had been largely shunned by Arab leaders for the past few decades because of security concerns amid back-to-back wars and internal unrest, its airport frequently attacked with rockets by insurgents.

On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordans King Abdullah and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose countrys ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.

Among the participants were also the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry over regional supremacy has often played out to deadly consequences in Iraq and other countries across the region, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia was represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iran with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

It was not immediately clear if the two ministers held a meeting on the sidelines. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hassan avoided a question as to whether they did, saying only: These meetings in fact began in Iraq, and in Baghdad, and these meetings are continuing, and will continue."

"What we understood from the two sides, or the parties, is a great and wide desire to reach positive results to solve the outstanding problems between the two countries, he added.

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The high-level meeting in Baghdad sent a message of Arab solidarity with Iraq, which has increasingly been pulled into Irans orbit in recent years.

This summit marks the return of Iraq as a pivotal player in the region, said political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, who heads the Iraqi Political Thinking Center in Baghdad. Having rival parties be seated at the same table is a significant step in that direction.

Iraqi special forces deployed in Baghdad, particularly around the Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, where the meeting was held. Participants were expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Lebanon, which has been without a functional government for the past year, and Syria, which has been suspended from the Arab League since 2011, were not represented at the meeting.

Macron, whose country is co-organizing the meeting, described Saturdays meeting as historic, showcasing Iraqs return to stability following the ruinous war against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in 2017.

Sundays meeting was a chance for Iraqi leaders to underscore their recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the regions crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Iraq, which for years has been a headline for war and conflicts, is hosting leaders and representatives of the region today to affirm their support for Iraqi sovereignty and prosperity, said President Barham Salih.

Earlier this year, Iraq hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

An Iraqi government official had told The Associated Press he anticipated Saudi and Iranian officials would hold talks on the sidelines of Saturdays meetings. He said the aim was to create a political atmosphere for resolving outstanding problems.

Iraqs message at the summit is that it stands at the same distance from all sides, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

After decades of conflict, Iraq is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the countrys top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told President Biden in their meeting on Friday at the White House that although he is against a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, he isnt going to publicly campaign against it like his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, two U.S. sources briefed on the meeting told Axios.

Why it matters: Biden and his senior advisers are veterans of the intense confrontations between Netanyahu and former President Obama on Iran.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

The differences between the parties turned into mud fights in the media, which only exacerbated tensions and harmed relations. This situation reached its height when Netanyahu campaigned against the nuclear deal in 2015, including during a speech before the U.S. Congress.

Driving the news: The two sources said Bennett reiterated this message during his meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday. They added that Bennett said he believes dialogue between the United States and Israel will achieve better results.

Prime Minister Bennet told the president that regardless of policy differences he wants to work according to rules of honesty and decency, said a senior Israeli official who attended the meeting.

Behind the scenes: In his meetings with Biden and other senior U.S. officials, Bennett explained he wants to manage the U.S.-Israel relationship like he manages the relationships within his eclectic government, which has many diverging views, and solve differences in direct private conversations and not in the media, Israeli officials said.

In his meeting with Blinken, Bennett said he never thought he would head a coalition with left-leaning parties or a Muslim party, but he realized that although it is difficult, it is doable, a source briefed on the meeting said.

According to the source, Bennett said his philosophy of running the coalition is that when someone makes him angry he doesnt go to the press but picks up the phone. This is how I want us to work. If you have an issue with something we do call us and dont go to the press, he told Blinken.

The other side: The White House was satisfied with Bennetts message. Barbara Leaf, one of Bidens top Middle East advisers, stressed that in a conference call with representatives of Jewish organizations on Friday, two people who were on the call told Axios.

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According to the people on the call, Leaf said she spent five hours with Bennett in different meetings, including with the president. She said that regardless of their differences, the relationship got off to a good start.

Leaf said Biden also wants "drama free" and direct communication, the people on the call told Axios.

Leaf said Biden will be frank and tough if needed but only in private and not in the media, according to the two people who were on the call.

Worth noting: The White House readout of the Biden-Bennett meeting referred to one of the main differences between the parties and said the president spoke to the Israeli prime minister about the importance of refraining from actions that could exacerbate tensions, contribute to a sense of unfairness, and undermine efforts to build trust.

A source briefed on the meeting said this line was referring mainly to the possible eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Leaf said in the call with the Jewish organizations that Biden raised the issue with Bennett, according to the sources on the call.

Whats next: The understandings between the parties on how to run the relationship will be tested in the coming weeks and months when Israel approves new building in the occupied West Bank settlements, which were delayed, and when the reopening of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem will come up again after the Israeli government passes its budget in November.

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Brishna Yousafzai, center, blows bubbles with her brothers Huzzaif, left, and Murtaza as they get settled in their new apartment in Houston on Aug. 24, 2021. (Meridith Kohut/The New York Times)

HOUSTON  As an interpreter working alongside the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Zar Mohammad Yousafzai taught English to Afghan soldiers and Pashto to U.S. troops. He helped negotiate agreements with tribal leaders to halt attacks on Americans and instructed Afghans on how to use American weapons.

He dodged mortar attacks and Taliban ambushes and, eventually, repeated death threats from insurgents who regarded him as a spy. One text message read, You are a traitor. You work for the infidels. We are going to kill you. His third son, just 7 at the time, was kidnapped for ransom by militants in 2017.

On Aug. 14, as the Taliban were storming across Afghanistan, his family of nine was evacuated on a U.S. military flight. By the time they touched down in Virginia, the insurgents had entered Kabul and taken full control of the country.

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Everyone is calling me and saying, You are a very lucky person, he said.

This week, the family was settling into a new apartment in Southwest Houston. The atmosphere was festive. Brand-new kitchen items, cleaning supplies and toys, donated by a local nonprofit group, spilled out of large storage bins. Brishna, 13; Huzzaif, 11; and Murtaza, 2, blew bubbles.

But Yousafzai and his wife, Bibi, worried for the fate of several brothers, nephews and cousins, who also had worked for the Americans. The attack Thursday at the Kabul airport and the fast-approaching U.S. withdrawal made it less likely that they would get out any time soon.

Despite all the trauma, they said, their only daughter now has a future very different from the one she would have had in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. I can study in school and become somebody, Brishna said.

And for Huzzaif, who was kidnapped four years ago and held for ransom, there would no longer be any fear. I can walk comfortably to places, he said. My mother doesnt have to worry about me being stolen anymore.

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The Yousafzai familys saga with the Americans started in 2007, when Zar Mohammad, the youngest and most educated of six brothers, applied for a job with the U.S. military. The money was good, and the family believed in the U.S. mission to root out extremists and develop their homeland.

Then 30, he traveled from his home in Jalalabad to Kabul, where he easily passed oral and written exams demonstrating his English proficiency.

Soon, he was attached to U.S. Army units in Kandahar, a hotbed of Taliban activity, and Zabul province, where the Taliban enjoyed support among many villagers and reaped financial rewards from cultivating opium.

Yousafzai won accolades for his performance and helped three brothers, three nephews and a brother-in-law secure jobs on bases. With the salary he earned, he was able to build a two-story section for his family in the extended-family compound.

Maj. Austin Bird, who commanded the Army engineer company at the base, appointed him chief interpreter. Together, they taught Afghan military personnel how to use and maintain equipment, like bulldozers and backhoes.

Yousafzai went on combat missions with Birds soldiers in several provinces, and they came under fire on and off the base.

But there were light moments too, and a friendship blossomed.

I remember celebrating the birth of his fourth child in 2012, Bird said in an interview. We discussed the joys of fatherhood over tea. Zar and I talked about how great it was to be a father and the unique joys of having both boys and girls.

Sometime in 2011, Yousafzai was notified by U.S. intelligence personnel that he was being targeted by insurgents. He should vary his travel routes back and forth to the base and try to disguise himself, they advised.

He remained devoted to his work but became increasingly uneasy. He decided to apply for a special immigrant visa to relocate to the United States.

When you went home, everybody knew you worked for the Americans, Yousafzai recalled.

His world became smaller. He avoided leaving home, except to go to work.

Quit your job, said one of the texts he received. We can see you. You are teaching the infidels.

In 2012, his eldest son, Abrar, then 6, was on his way home alone from a nearby mosque when a car approached with three men inside. The men called out to him, and when he backed away, one of them stepped out and tried to snatch him. He managed to escape.

Threats against Yousafzai intensified. He was blamed by members of the community for the killing of a village elder by U.S. commandos.

In 2015, he quit his job with the military and moved to Kabul, where he took a position with the government as an audit manager, putting his accounting degree to use.

But his troubles were not over. As he was riding back to Kabul from Jalalabad, where his family had remained for a time, insurgents sprayed his car with gunfire. He emerged unscathed.

In 2017, Huzzaif was kidnapped while walking home from school with two friends. Days went by without any news.

Then a caller with an unidentified number demanded $200,000 to release the child alive. On the phone, Yousafzai could hear Huzzaif being whipped. The boy cried, begging his father to pay the ransom.

Yousafzai told the caller that he had $10,000. You are an asset of the Americans, the voice said.

He scrambled to gather as much money as he could, borrowing from family and friends, providing few details to his wife about their child, who was being shackled and beaten. The kidnappers set impossible deadlines  five days, three days  until they finally accepted $40,000.

Huzzaif, who had been born with a heart defect, returned home even more frail. He woke up screaming at night.

Yousafzai moved his family to Kabul.

In 2019, to his dismay, the U.S. authorities denied his application for a special immigrant visa. He immediately filed an appeal and reached out to Bird for help.

Why they denied him, I never got a clear answer, Bird, who had written several recommendation letters for Yousafzai over the years, recalled.

By the time he was notified by consular officials that his application had been approved, in August last year, he had been trying to get a visa for nine years. Still, the process stalled. The coronavirus, which had caused embassy closures, brought consular operations to a standstill.

One night last year as they were waiting, when everyone was fast asleep, a car bomb exploded outside their house in Kabul. Shrapnel struck heads, knees, arms and chins. The children can still roll up sleeves and pants legs to show scars.

I was just desperate to get to America, Bibi Yousafzai said.

In late July, shortly after President Joe Biden pledged that he would expedite the departure of U.S. allies, Yousafzai received an email from the U.S. Embassy informing him that he could board a relocation flight to the United States.

On Aug. 12, after Yousafzai and his wife had tested negative for the coronavirus and every family member had passed a medical exam, the family was notified that they had been booked on an evacuation flight leaving Kabul Aug. 14.

They sold their appliances, mattresses and furniture as quickly as they could, telling people outside their immediate circles that they were moving to India. Yousafzai scribbled a resignation letter, which he asked a colleague to deliver.

On the appointed day, the family drove to the airport and boarded the military plane, carrying 10 bags loaded with their possessions, including two valuable rugs.

After the processing at Fort Lee in Virginia, they flew to Houston, where YMCA International Services, a resettlement agency, received them. On Tuesday, they moved into their apartment  half a world away from everything that had come before.

Neighbors stopped by to say hello and to teach Bibi Yousafzai how to use the electric stove, so she could bake the naan dough that she had kneaded.

Volunteers from Houston Welcomes Refugees showed up with boxes of items to furnish the familys new home. The children gleefully retrieved robots, cars and other toys. As the beds were being set up, Melad, 6, and Murtaza, 2, bounced on the mattresses.

Bibi Yousafzai hugged the iron; she admired the crockery, glasses and porcelain bowls as she unwrapped them. One day I will speak English and talk to you guys, she said through her husband.

A text popped on Yousafzais phone from Bird, asking for the Yousafzai childrens clothing sizes. He planned to visit on Labor Day weekend with his family.

By Thursday, five Yousafzai children were starting school  close enough to walk, which was fortunate, because the family has no car.

Yet within days of arriving, Yousafzai was facing a quintessential American problem as he juggled drop-offs at three schools with getting to appointments. I am having time management challenges, he said ruefully.

On their first outing to a Walmart, everyone was bewildered by the wide selection of products and the size of the store.

America does have everything, Bibi Yousafzai said as she scanned the aisles.

In addition to basic household supplies, the couple filled the cart with bananas, pears, plums and honey cake. In the cookie aisle, they tossed in a pack of vanilla Oreos.

Their first U.S. shopping spree set them back $82.43, which Yousafzai paid in cash.

On the way home, he muttered that he needed to find a job very soon.

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The beloved onscreen couple sit down more than 30 years after the series to talk about Black love and how the show would adapt in todays environment.

After its premiere in the late 1980s, A Different World became Black sitcom royalty.

Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison, who played one of the most iconic couples on the show  bourgeois southern belle Whitley Gilbert and math geek Dwayne Wayne  recently reflected on their on-screen romance and how it would hold up if A Different World were still on the air.

I realized that Whitley becomes another kind of character when shes with him, Guy said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy (Getty Images)

A spinoff of The Cosby Show, A Different World which first aired on Sept. 24, 1987, focused on the life of young adults entering a Black college and became popular in part to its relatable plots and ensemble cast. Hardison and Guy played the up and down couple pairing that won over audiences hoping that the two would finally make it work.

Dwayne brought out her vulnerability, which she was never comfortable with. She always had to think she was in control, Guy continued.

The two actors recent sit-down comes more than 30 years after the shows premiere.

During the first season, Hardisons character Wayne was enamored by the main protagonist Denise Huxtable, the eldest daughter from The Cosby Show who was played by Lisa Bonet.

The attraction between Wayne and Guys character Whitley was teased throughout the first season, but by season four, the two finally were in a relationship.

I dont think I looked at our love story as a Black love story, said Guy in the interview. It just seemed like a story that people can go through. People that keep missing each other and then somehow find a way back and then split again. I think at the age that our characters were, you always think there may be something else.

The couple broke up after making it official, with Whitley almost marrying another man before Dwayne Wayne crashed the wedding, confessing his love. Soon after, the two got married.

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Hardison and Guy also talked about how some of the shows plots are parallels to the situations they see today.

In a two-part episode during season six, the couple traveled to Los Angeles for their honeymoon after the acquittal of the four LAPD officers charged with beating Rodney King nearly to death.

A Different World stars Kadeem Hardison (left) and Jasmine Guy (right) talk about the romance of their iconic characters Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne. (NBC)

During the episode, the two grapple with the reality of police brutality and its effects on the Black community  a sentiment Guy says is still relevant today.

I dont think that we changed the world with the riots episode, but we did acknowledge how it affected all of us, she said. See, when things were happening in the outside world, it was happening to us, personally.

I remember when Darryl [M. Bell, who played Ron Johnson] got locked up for some kind of parking ticket; I remember when another actor on our show got stopped, head to the pavement, because of some tinted glass.

A Different World was set for a reboot, but plans were put on hold after the numerous accusations of sexual assault and eventual conviction of show creator Bill Cosby.

Theres a studio and network situation where they cant allow any money to go into his company, industry powerhouse Debbie Allen said. I said, Cant we contribute it to schools or something? But you cant take somebodys name off of a show. A Different World needs to have a second life, and we know how to do it. I was so close to doing it with Issa Rae.

The cast of A Different World united in late June for E! Onlines show Reunion Road Trip, where the cast of several beloved shows reunite and speak about their time on set.

Have you subscribed to theGrios Dear Culture podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!

The post Kadeem Hardison and Jasmine Guy reflect on A Different World appeared first on TheGrio.
A Kansas City man suspected of stealing a car last week with a 2-year-old girl inside is faced with a felony kidnapping charge in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Truman Brown, 38, was arrested Friday after the girl, Khalecia Richards, was seemingly abducted by accident last week. Brown is also charged with tampering with a motor vehicle.

Richards was inside a white Ford Mustang stolen from the BP gas station at Linwood Boulevard and Indiana Avenue around 5:40 p.m. on Aug. 17. Kansas City police sent out a local emergency alert seeking help to find Richards roughly an hour later.

Richards was found safe in Kansas City, Kansas around 7:20 p.m. The car was discovered nearby.

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Brown is currently held in Jackson County Jail on $50,000 cash-only bond.
Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park at Central Los Angeles Learning Center No. 1. The school was built on the site of the old Ambassador Hotel, where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

It could ultimately be up to Gov. Gavin Newsom to determine whether the man who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 should be paroled.

Sirhan Sirhan  who was 24 when he shot and killed the U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate at a Los Angeles hotel in 1968  was deemed suitable for release by a two-person parole panel Friday afternoon. Sirhan, now 77, later admitted to the killing and has been in prison for 53 years. He originally faced the death penalty, but his sentence was commuted to life after the state briefly outlawed capital punishment in the 1970s.

Members of the Kennedy family have been publicly divided on the question.

Supporting parole

Two of Kennedys children submitted letters on Sirhans behalf. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  who has previously expressed doubt about Sirhans guilt and echoed others claims that a second gunman actually killed the senator  said he believed his father might extend mercy to Sirhan.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, Kennedy Jr. wrote in a letter submitted in advance of Fridays hearing.

In an interview with The Times late Friday, Kennedy Jr. said he was very happy Sirhan had been recommended for release and reiterated concerns that the wrong man was convicted.

Kennedy, who was a teen at the time of the murder, pointed to an autopsy report indicating the senator had been shot from behind when Sirhan had been standing in front of Kennedy. Some have argued that this would have made it impossible for Kennedy to have been shot in the back by Sirhan, while others have said that Kennedy turned after the first shot.

Authorities rejected this theory when Kennedy first made it in 2018.

His comments are just way off base, Russell Iungerich, who worked as a deputy attorney general for the state of California when officials reopened the Kennedy case from 1975 to 1976, told The Times that year.

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Opposing parole

In a joint statement late Friday, six of Kennedys surviving children  Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy  said they were devastated that the man who murdered their father received the recommendation.

Our fathers death is a very difficult matter for us to discuss publicly and for the past many decades we have declined to engage directly in the parole process, the statement said.

The six Kennedy siblings said they adamantly opposed Sirhans parole and release, and were shocked by a ruling they believe ignores standards for paroling a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California, according to the statement.

The siblings said that the parole boards decision has inflicted enormous additional pain, and that they were in disbelief that Sirhan would be recommended for release.

We urge the Parole Board staff, the full board and ultimately ... Newsom, to reverse this initial recommendation, according to the statement. It is a recommendation we intend to challenge every step of the way, and we hope that those who also hold the memory of our father in their hearts will stand with us.

What's next?

Sirhans fate could now lie with Newsom.

Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for Newsom, said the governor will review Sirhans case if it is presented to him.

Newsom has not hesitated to reject the recommendations of parole boards in the past. In November, Newsom blocked the release of Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten. He did the same last month for Royce Casey, one of three men who brutally murdered a 15-year-old boy in Nipomo more than two decades ago.

Still, earlier this month Newsom faced harsh criticism for not blocking the release of David Weidert, who served four decades in prison for killing a developmentally disabled Clovis man whom he buried alive.

Although Sirhans case would not reach the governors desk until after the Sept. 14 recall election, the decision could still affect Newsom politically if he remains in office.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Citing the statute of limitations, prosecutors ruled out charges against Larry Elder, shown at a campaign event in Woodland Hills last week. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles prosecutors have declined to pursue a criminal complaint against Larry Elder for allegations of brandishing a gun and domestic abuse, in a 6-year-old case related to statements made by his former fiancee.

With a one-year statute of limitations for misdemeanor cases, a spokesman for the district attorney said Friday that prosecutors were not in a position to prosecute the accusations made by Alexandra Datig, who split with Elder in 2015.

Datig said she had been told that the L.A. city attorney's office also would not continue an investigation because of the time that had elapsed. Neither office ruled on the substance of her allegations, but said their findings would be rendered moot because the alleged incidents occurred six years ago or more.

Datig, 51, said in prior interviews with the media that, during a 2015 argument about the couple's breakup, Elder checked to see whether his .45-caliber revolver was loaded. She also told Los Angeles detectives that the longtime talk radio show host pushed her in 2014, in what she called a fit of drug-induced anger. She alleged Elder, 69, was a habitual marijuana user.

"From the beginning, Larry has said that he will stay focused on the issues that animated over 1.7 million Californians to petition for a recall of Gavin Newsom," Elder's campaign said in a statement that went on to list a series of grievances against the governor, whose fate will be determined in the Sept. 14 recall election.

Elder is leading dozens of other contenders who hope to replace Newsom if he is rejected by voters in the first question on the ballot.

Datig said she understood when she filed her complaint with police that the chances of a criminal filing were small because of the time constraints. But she said she felt compelled to report the allegations as a matter of record because of Elders denials.

She opposes his candidacy for governor and is supporting Kevin Faulconer, a former mayor of San Diego.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
District Attorneys in California are criticizing Los Angeles County's top prosecutor for not arguing for the continued imprisonment of the man granted parole Friday for the 1968 killing of Robert F. Kennedy.

A two-member board voted in favor of releasing Sirhan Sirhan for the fatal shooting of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after Kennedy delivered a speech. Kennedy was walking through the hotel kitchen and greeting employees when Sirhan, now 77, shot him.

Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has said he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. Friday was his 16th appearance before the parole board. The decision still needs to be approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

LA NEIGHBORHOOD SHUTS DOWN AFTER SUSPECT ALLEGEDLY BEATS WOMAN TO DEATH WITH BAT IN DRUG-FUELED RAMPAGE

George Gascon, a former police officer who was elected as Los Angeles County district attorney last year on a progressive platform, declined to send a prosecutor to the parole hearing.

"This is one of the most notorious political assassinations in American history and the killer is being considered for release without benefit of a representative on behalf of the people of California," Vern Pierson, El Dorado County district attorney and president of the California District Attorneys Association, said in a statement. "That is disgraceful."

"Its a deviation from historical precedent. Over the last 50 years in every county in California including Los Angeles, DAs routinely appear in these hearings to provide information to the parole board," he added. "Even in San Francisco, where the DA is considered by most to be the most progressive, prosecutors regularly appear at lifer hearings. Theres a saying that 90% of life is showing upRobert F. Kennedy was a visionary Attorney General and historical giant, yet Gascon cannot even bother to show up?"

Before Gascon took office, the district attorney's office routinely sent prosecutors to parole hearings to argue against the early release of offenders.

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The ended with Gascon, even when the inmate was involved in notorious killings, who has enacted a series of changes such as revoking cash bail and the banning of death penalty cases and scrapping gang enhancements.

Gascon's office has said opposing parole for some offenders does more harm than good and can result in unjustifiably long prison sentences. He is facing a recall effort over his policies.

In a statement to Fox News, Alex Bastian, a special advisor to Gascon said: "The role of a prosecutor and their access to information ends at sentencing."

"The parole board however has all the pertinent facts and evaluations at their disposal, including how someone has conducted themselves over the last few decades in prison," he added. "The parole boards sole purpose is to objectively determine whether someone is suitable for release. If that someone is the same person that committed an atrocious crime, that person will be correctly not be found suitable for release."

Greg Totten, CEO of the CDAA, said the remarks from Gascon's office are "further proof that Mr. Gascon has neither the competence nor the integrity to run the nations largest district attorneys office."

Fox News has reached out to the office of San Diego County Prosecutor Summer Stephan, a harsh critic of Gascon. In January, she warned that his actions could have ramifications across California.

"What happens in LA affects all of California," she told Fox News. "Los Angeles is the largest jurisdiction in the state and in the country. I am very concerned about any negative ripple effects from Los Angeles and I'm concerned about people committing crime sprees in San Diego and continue to LA where they're going to not face the legal consequences."

In the absence of prosecutors, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva in February said he would send representatives from his department to parole hearings to argue on behalf of victims.

Gascon is facing a recall over his policies, which have been championed by criminal justice reform supporters but harshly criticized by law enforcement and victims' rights advocates.

Desiree Andrade, whose son was brutally murdered in 2018, organized the "Recall George Gascon" movement after his policies allowed her sons killers to have their sentences reduced.

"Im feeling let down by the justice system," she recently told "The Ingraham Angle. "These gentlemen are now facing 25 years and only having to do 80% of that time which is 20 years. That is not enough. My son has a sentence; his sentence was death. I will never see my son again. How is it even a thought that they will be out in time to create families of their own and do everything that my son was cheated from?"

Fox News' Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.
As it loses steam in the polls, Poland's right-wing populist government is playing the anti-immigration card that helped it win in 2015, hoping to take back the political initiative, analysts said.

Thousands of migrants -- most of them from the Middle East -- have crossed from Belarus into eastern EU states, including Poland, in recent months.

The EU suspects the influx is engineered by the Belarusian regime in retaliation against increasingly stringent EU sanctions, with Poland the Baltic states calling it a "hybrid attack".

Political attention in Poland in recent weeks has focused on a group of around 30 migrants camped out on the border between Poland and Belarus.

Poland is refusing to let in the migrants, said to be Afghans by a charity trying to help them, or give them aid without the consent of Belarus.

"It cannot be ruled out that there will be early elections next year... and it is by no means certain that the Law and Justice (PiS) party will win a majority or manage to piece together a coalition," said Agata Szczesniak, a political analyst for the news portal OKO.press.

The government lost its formal parliamentary majority earlier this month after the departure of a junior coalition partner.

A recent poll by Kantar also found that PiS had fallen by three points in the polls and is now neck-and-neck with the main opposition grouping, Civic Platform, at 26 percent.

"To go back up in the polls, PiS is trying to replay what happened in 2015 but even more so. It is focusing public emotion around the image and rhetoric of a war" against migrants, Szczesniak said.

During Europe's migration crisis of 2015, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski scored electoral points in parliamentary elections that year with his anti-immigration rhetoric, including warnings about the diseases and "all sorts of parasites" that the migrants might bring with them.

- 'Holy Polish territory' -

The government has remained intransigent over the migrants on the border even after multiple appeals from the UN refugee agency, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

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Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has said he is protecting "holy Polish territory".

Dressed in military-style wear, he has visited the border to announce the building of a fence.

Culture Minister Piotr Glinski has promised to "defend Poland against migrants" and Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has sent 2,000 soldiers to the border.

"What is happening at the border is political gold" for the government, said former EU chief Donald Tusk, now head of Civic Platform.

Adam Szostkiewicz, a political commentator for the weekly Polityka, said the government was "building its election campaign around this".

But analysts pointed out that public feeling around the issue has changed in recent years.

Many Poles sympathise with Afghans and are growing used to higher levels of immigration in the country, particularly of Ukrainians and Belarusians.

"At the time, around 70 percent of Poles said they were opposed to letting in refugees. Today, it is 55 percent," said Szczesniak.

- Confusion -

The government may also be sending a mixed message.

In recent days, it has also evacuated almost 1,000 Afghans who worked for Poland's military contingent.

"On the one hand, the PiS is helping Afghans and on the other it is rejecting them. This creates confusion," said Szczesniak.

Szostkiewicz said the fact that the crisis could be orchestrated by Minsk "does not justify the lack of basic empathy... and Poles can see that".

The situation of the group blocked at the border has also prompted pleas from Polands Catholic Church, which is traditionally close to the current government.

Poland's leading Catholic clergyman, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, has appealed for political leaders "to be guided above all by the spirit of hospitality, respect for new arrivals and goodwill".

bo/dt/spm
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle speaking to Oprah Winfrey. CBS

Meghan and Harry reportedly considered naming royals who made racist comments about their son.

A source told the "Finding Freedom" authors that they ultimately decided against this.

The couple told Oprah Winfrey that there were concerns about how dark Archie's skin would be.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex considered naming the royals who took part in racist conversations about their son's skin color, according to their biography "Finding Freedom."

The couple told Oprah Winfrey on March 7 that there had been "concerns and conversations" about how dark Archie Harrison's skin color would be before he was born. And while Prince Harry told Winfrey that he is "never going to share" the specific details of the conversation, nor would he name the royals involved, the couple reportedly considered doing so at one point.

"While a source said that the couple considered sharing this detail, they decided not to," biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in the revised version of the book.

Winfrey later told "CBS This Morning" that Harry had confirmed it was not the Queen or Prince Philip who took part in the discussions.

The royal family's reactions to the interview were varied, with Prince William telling reporters that the royals are "not a racist family" days after it aired in the UK.

Meanwhile, the Queen announced that Harry and Markle's allegations of racism would be investigated.

"The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan," Buckingham Palace said in a statement on behalf of the Queen on March 9. "The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."

Scobie and Durand wrote that this Queen's statement "'did not go unnoticed' by the couple, who a close source said were 'not surprised' that full ownership was not taken."

Story continues

"'Months later and little accountability has been taken,' a pal of Meghan added. 'How can you move forward with that?'" the book reads.

"Finding Freedom" was originally published on August 11, 2020. The revised version of the book will be released in paperback on Tuesday.

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
The Biden family dog was a bit more of a problem pooch than the White House initially acknowledged, according to Secret Service emails obtained by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.

The White House said at the end of March that Major, the Bidens' 3-year-old German shepherd, was involved in a pair of "nipping" incidents, but the emails show he was involved in several more.

"At the current rate an Agent or Officer has been bitten every day this week (3/1-3/8) causing damage to attire or bruising/punctures to the skin," one of the emails said.

When asked on Friday why the administration had provided reporters with a misleading account of the dog's difficulties, White House press secretary Jen Psaki sidestepped the question.

As weve stated previously, Major has had some challenges adjusting to life in the White House. He has been receiving additional training as well as spending some time in Delaware where the environment is more familiar to him and he is more comfortable. I dont have any additional specifics but I think that speaks to where Major is located, to be fully transparent in your ongoing interest in the dog, Psaki said.

The emails were released after Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Dept. of Homeland Security earlier this year. The group is best known for lengthy legal battles seeking information about Hillary Clintons emails, the Clinton Foundation and the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Major's problems appear to have started at the end of February, a month after Biden took office, when the first family was in Delaware.

"This weekend in Wilmington, there were 3 minor incidents where Major nipped/ brushed up and nudged" agents, a March 1 email recounted while also offering safety advice.

"Panicking or running with only embolden animals so stand your ground and protect your hands/fingers by placing them in your pockets or behind your back," the email warned.

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Another email to agents on the same date warned Major "is not always predictable. Be careful."

Emails show he nipped an agent on March 3rd, and a visitor to the residence staff on March 5th.

The March 5 incident led to a "Who's on first?"-style back and forth between agents.

After seeing a report of a dog bite, an agent asked, "Was it Major?" The other agent responds, "Minor. Did break the skin." The first agent then explains he was referring to the dog. The second agent responds, "Dog: Major. Injury: Minor."

The emails also recounted a March 6 incident where Major "attempted to bite" an agent. "He didnt make contact with agents skin, but did bite a hole through his overcoat," the email said.

Major was one of two presidential pooches at the time. The Biden's other German shepherd, Champ, died in June at age 13.

Image: Joe Biden with his dog Major (Delaware Humane Society)

Michael LaRosa, the press secretary for Jill Biden, said in a statement to NBC News that Major has been "spending more time in Delaware" while undergoing additional training, but suggested he's not banned from the White House.

"Major may come and go to Delaware, as the First Family often does as well," he said.

Despite his issues, both the president and first lady have made clear that Major is a beloved member of the family. "He's a sweet dog," the president said earlier this year.

Franklin Roosevelt also had a German shepherd named Major that didn't take well to life in the White House. That Major wound up being banished to the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, N.Y. after biting incidents that involved the British prime minister and the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, Hattie Caraway.
Nigerian gunmen have freed scores of students abducted from three schools in the northwest this year, officials said Friday, following a burst of sudden releases.

The mass abductions were part of a string of kidnapping for ransom attacks on Nigerian schools and colleges this year by heavily armed gangs known locally as bandits.

Nearly 100 pupils abducted from an Islamic seminary in Tegina, Niger State were reunited with their families on Friday after three months in captivity.

Wearing blue headscarves and tunics, the male and female students, some younger than 10 years old, were met by the state governor and their families.

"I have a child and I am very happy. I give God all the glory," said one father Fasilat Jimoh Danjuma. "Thank God they are back hale and healthy and we are happy."

During the Tegina seminary kidnapping on May 30, around 200 motorcycle-riding gunmen stormed the town in Niger State's Rafi district before transporting the pupils to a rural hideout.

School officials said one pupil had died during captivity.

In a separate case, gunmen also released 32 more students kidnapped in July from a Baptist school in northwest Kaduna state, a church leader and family representative said on Friday.

A gang had snatched more than 100 students from the Baptist school, and since then dozens have been freed or escaped.

"The bandits released 32 more of the students today, Friday. We still have 31 in captivity and we have hope they will be released soon," Reverend Joseph Hayab, a representative for the families, told AFP.

"As with previous students, we had to pay ransom to have them freed but I don't want to reveal the amount."

In neighbouring Zamfara State, another 18 students and staff were taken from an agriculture college earlier this month were also freed, state police said.

Nigeria's northwest and central states have been caught up in a surge in violence from heavily armed criminal gangs who loot villages, steal cattle and carry out mass kidnappings.

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The violence has its roots in years-long tensions and tit-for-tat raids between farmers and nomadic herders over grazing land and water resources.

But insecurity has worsened since criminal gangs emerged. Most of them are based in vast forests across Kaduna, Katsina, Niger and Zamfara states.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered military operations and air strikes on bandit camps but attacks have not stopped. Some local governors have attempted amnesty deals with the bandits but most have failed.

abu/pma/lb
Our letter writers are angry, and it's hard to blame them. Right now, they're deep into yet another COVID-19 surge that didn't have to happen, with multiple effective vaccines in circulation (including one just given final approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and the experience of our winter pandemic trauma. Unvaccinated children attend newly reopened schools at the mercy of one of the most contagious respiratory viruses ever, still in wide circulation because of actions taken (or inaction) by adults.

One of those adults is Cristian Granucci, a Los Angeles Fire Department captain who recently recorded a video of himself railing against the city's vaccine mandate as a "show me your papers" slide into tyranny. Now, at a time when the collective reaction to a spike in disease and death isn't grief and fear but rather anger, a first responder has become the whipping boy for that anger.

Since we published letters earlier this week inviting Granucci to quit if he disapproves of this job requirement, several dozen more readers have sent us letters expressing dismay over the persistent anti-vaccination movement and the fact that so many public servants refuse to take one small step to protect themselves and others from serious illness.



To the editor: In January, my 89-year-old mother-in-law who was in assisted living died from COVID-19. She had other health issues, but she never had lung issues until the COVID hit. She was a sweet woman who did not deserve to die.

In her final days, she was visited by firefighters twice before being transported to the hospital. If these guys had Granucci's mentality, I wonder how many of them were catching COVID and infecting others.

No one has the freedom to drive drunk, smoke in public places or do many other things. We certainly do not have the freedom to infect other people.

Chuck Heinz, West Hills

..

To the editor: "I am so hopping mad right now, you have no idea. My head could pop."

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Granucci said this about the vaccination mandate, but it also describes how I feel about first responders who do not want to get their shots. Because of people like him, I am stuck at home while the unvaccinated spread COVID-19 and put people like me with health problems at risk.

There are many people who would love to have his $247,000 in annual earnings while getting vaccinated, so if he is hopping mad he can leave California and work in a state where firefighters can spread the virus.

How selfish can you get? When it comes to public health, there is no freedom not to get vaccinated.

Barry Bernstein, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: I wish I could summon an ounce of sympathy for Granucci, who clings to the belief that he has a constitutionally protected right to place the lives of others at risk by being a walking potential incubator for the deadly Delta variant. As a lawyer, I can tell him there is no legal basis for that position, which his "shark" lawyer will soon discover.

I just spent several days at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a spectacular hospital with some of the best doctors and nurses anywhere. I've been vaccinated, and I got several COVID tests as I waited for admission. A CT scan showing "extensive pulmonary embolism" got me admitted.

Finally. It could have killed me in an instant.

My assigned "room" was a curtained partition. There were two toilets and two sinks for 32 "rooms" to share. There was zero privacy, and it was really noisy.

The dedicated nurses and doctors who treated me are exhausted and furious, and rightly so. They cared for me, and I am alive only because of them. But God help those vaccinated folks who have heart attacks, strokes or any number of problems that require intensive care.

So, if Granucci is "hopping mad" over the city's vaccination mandate, I'll match his anger and raise him tenfold. Behind me are teachers and healthcare workers who are even angrier.

Peter Dekom, Beverly Hills

..

To the editor: I don't know about you, but I am so tired of the whining coming from first responders about getting a simple vaccine. Here's a solution, which could apply to all willfully unvaccinated people:

You pay for your own hospitalizations and other medical interventions, and you also cover those costs for the people you infect. And, you should also pay for your own COVID testing as an alternative to vaccination.

There's your "freedom of choice."

Cynthia Sabatini, Simi Valley

..

To the editor: Does one have the "freedom" buy cigarettes for minors? To drive after downing three whiskeys?

These "freedoms" have been deemed to be against the public's right to health and safety, so there are laws against them.

When you refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19, you place yourself and every single person you come in contact with at risk. You are welcome to refuse medical treatment, but you are not welcome to risk the lives of the unsuspecting public.

Get over yourself. Get the vaccine.

Anne Beaty, Los Angeles





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Hurricane Ida could cause big problems for New Orleans, even if it doesn't make a direct hit. The storm is bearing down on The Big Easy and is expected to come ashore in the U.S. as a Category 4 storm.

It could make landfall 16 years to the day after the Gulf Coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The storm on Saturday was moving north over the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to rapidly intensify. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion on Saturday, forecasters said in a morning advisory. The storm, they say, is expected to become an "extremely dangerous major hurricane."

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has called for the mandatory evacuation of all New Orleans residents outside the city's protective levee system and a voluntary evacuation for those inside it.

Cars were stacked bumper to bumper on Interstate 10 on Friday as people were looking to get out, CBS News' Omar Villafranca reports.

Many stores were already struggling to keep up with demand during pandemic-fueled supply shortages.

"Shopping during COVID is always hard but it's a little bit harder now," said Nicole Liggio, a resident of Metairie, Louisiana.

Michael Richard of Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts boards up Crescent City Pizza on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter before landfall of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, August 28, 2021. / Credit: Matthew Hinton / AP

Health officials are concerned about COVID-19 spreading in shelters. Less than half of all Louisiana residents are vaccinated, and cases hit an all-time high in the state less than two weeks ago. "Please make sure you are making plans to stay healthy and safe and the way you do that is by masking when you are not with people that when you are with people that you don't normally live with," said Dr. Jennifer Begnaud, head of the New Orleans Health Department.In coastal St. Bernard's Parish, the race was on to get boats out of the water. "Nobody was out there shrimping today, opening day of shrimp season," said George Barisich, a shrimper. "So that ought to tell you. When I got in this morning, late last night ... about 75, 80% of the boats already left." For those staying behind, Mayor Cantrell had one final message: "Shelter in place. Hunker down. It is vitally important."

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The Dish: JuanMa Calderon and Maria Rondeau on reimagining the modern restaurant

Girl, 4, finds colonies of rare stingless bees in California neighborhood

Paralympian Melissa Stockwell competes for triathlon gold in Tokyo
The Guardian

As sovereign nations, Indigenous groups are using their authority to make their own rules to protect students and teachers A mural on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico. Photograph: Andrew Hay/Reuters Native American tribes across the handful of US states with bans on school mask mandates have asserted their powers as sovereign nations to defy the orders, with some also implementing their own testing and vaccine directives for tens of thousands of students and faculty in schools on t
Miami Herald

Twenty years ago, we had a brutal serial killer in our midst, and no one noticed  not police, not the public. This guy was a real-life Dexter, flying under the radar. But commend the South Florida detectives who would not let it go.
Police in Portland, Oregon, on Friday morning shot and killed a suspect who allegedly shot an officer in the hip while federal agents were serving a search warrant.

The unidentified officer, a 14-year veteran, was released from a hospital and was recovering at home, the Portland Police Bureau said in a release.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents serving the warrant at an apartment called for assistance after hearing threats that they would be fired upon if they went inside, FOX 12 of Portland reported.

JOURNALIST COVERING PORTLAND CLASHES SAYS SHE WAS ATTACKED BY ALLEGED ANTIFA PROTESTERS

Officers began evacuating the apartment building and surrounding homes when a shot was reportedly fired through a wall and hit the officer in the hip around 7:30 a.m. PT. The officer was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening wounds, the station reported.

More shots were fired and two Portland police officers fired back, killing the suspect who remained unidentified. The officers have been placed on paid leave, per protocol, until the investigation is finished, the release said.
Members of the Afghan all-girls robotics team make adjustments to the team robot in the practice area July 17, 2017, between 2017 FIRST Global Challenge competitions at DAR Constitution Hall, in Washington, DC. (AFP via Getty Images)

Last week, many monitoring the situation in Afghanistan celebrated as at least a dozen members of a famed, all-girl Afghan robotics team managed to escape the country as it fell to Taliban control.

Now, as more detail emerges about how the girls got out, things have gotten more complicated: government officials and Afghan organisers have lashed out at an Oklahoma woman who received headlines around the world for supposedly securing their release, dubbing her a White saviour who exaggerated her role. Meanwhile, she maintains the media misrepresented her story, and that it was always a team effort.

The Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), the parent organisation of the team dubbed the Afghan Dreamers, sent Allyson Reneau, an Oklahoma-based entrepreneur and STEM advocate , lauded for her apparent role in the rescue, a cease-and-desist letter on Wednesday.

The groups attorney blasted Ms Reneau, writing, It is highly unfortunate that you would use such a tragically horrible situation  for what appears to be your own personal gain, adding, Continuingly recycling old pictures with the Afghan Girls Robotics Team, many of whom are minors, as validation that you had anything to do with their immensely stressful and dangerous escape not only impacts the safety of the girls but it also significantly affects the safety of the members of the team who still remain in Afghanistan.

The Qatari foreign ministry offered a similar account. It said in a statement to the Washington Post that the rescue came about when Roya Mahboob, an Afghan business executive who founded the DCF, contacted a Qatari diplomat in mid-August. The girls then met with the Qatari ambassador to Afghanistan in a secure location, before being transported to Doha and Mexico City.

She took the agency from the girls and she claimed credit, ministry spokesperson Ibrahim AlHashmi said. The media let her be a White savior, claiming the girls were saved by her. They came to global attention because of their work  so it should be about them and their courage and the work they have done. This should be the story that the media is focusing on, not a woman who is thousands of miles away who is claiming credit.

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The foreign ministry added it hadnt worked with Ms Reneau, and that the US Embassy hadnt mentioned her doing any work on the rescue. (The State Department declines to comment on individual cases to protect privacy.)

This clashes with Ms Reneaus version of events, and how the media subsequently represented them.

Ms Reneau, who sits on the board of the nonprofit Explore Mars, began getting international attention for what she represented as a central role in the rescue. One typical headline, from CNN , read, How an Oklahoma mom rescued 10 Afghan girls.

Explore Mars had flown the robotics team to Washington DC for a space conference in 2019, and Ms Reneau said she had kept in touch with the organisation. As it became clear the country would collapse, Ms Reneau said she connected an old friend in the US embassy in Qatar, who helped arrange the rescue.

I decided to take some action, she told CNN on 20 August. She went back to work at midnight, and stayed up all night preparing their information and their packets, and presented it, and the leadership there and in Kabul went to town and took action.

The interview made no mention of DCF or the other partners who said they were part of the airlift.

Whats more, some outlets including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal initially reported Ms Reneau had flown to Qatar herself, before later making corrections. The Journal even called for putting this extraordinary woman in charge of Afghan rescue efforts in an editorial.

The STEM advocate wrote on Facebook on Friday that allegations she overstated her role in the rescue were slanderous and untrue.

I can produce HUNDREDS of texts, emails and phone calls that shows the collaborative efforts between myself, Roya (mentioned in the article), the US Embassy in Qatar, and also with [US] Senator [Jim] Inhofe, she added.

"My wish for these girls is that theyre the architects of their own future and they have the freedom to choose their own future," Ms Reneau told NBC News . "I never stepped into this rescue effort to bring attention to myself."

She has sent her own cease-and-desist letter to DCF over the fracas, which the organisation called ridiculous.

Ms Reneau has raised more than $50,000 for her nonprofit that she says she will use to help transport more girls out of Afghanistan.

At least a dozen members of the team have left the country, with five arriving in Mexico on Wednesday and others remaining in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Other members of the team, like many Afghans with ties to the West, remain stranded in the country and at risk of Taliban persecution. The DCF is raising money to provide the young women with scholarships for continuing education.

Read More

What is the difference between the Taliban and Isis?

Why did US leave Afghanistan and how much did America spend?

The Taliban: Who are they, who are the leaders and what do they want?
President Nayib Bukeles government has been secretly negotiating with El Salvadors three main gangs in order to fulfill his 2019 campaign promise to lower the number of murders to zero, according to official documents dug up by news site El Faro.

Why it matters: Bukele had repeatedly criticized previous officials who secretly bargained with gang members for negotiating with the peoples blood on the line.

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Those past backdoor deals were also controversial because they were seen as a capitulation to criminal groups, and the officials involved were prosecuted under Salvadoran laws for illicit association with gang members.

Bukeles purported talks with the gangs started after his election in mid-2019. In exchange for less bloodletting, gang members were supposedly granted benefits like job opportunities, microfinancing, or getting fast food in jail.

While murders have gone down, forced disappearances and kidnappings attributed to gangs have risen.

Flashback: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Barrio 18 Surenos and Barrio 18 Revolucionarios were originally formed in California in the 1990s.

Gang members were returned to El Salvador in keeping with U.S. policy to deport immigrants convicted of crimes, and there they have routinely committed crimes like extortion, assault, kidnapping and murder.

The violence is one of the reasons thousands of people have fled to seek asylum in the U.S.

The other side: Bukele dismissed the El Faro report on Twitter, but did not confirm nor deny the documents and photographs cited.

His government claims the reduction in violence is instead due to a crackdown.

Get more news that matters about Latinos in the hemisphere, delivered right to your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sign up here for the Axios Latino newsletter.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow will work more closely with fellow members of a post-Soviet security alliance as the withdraw of U.S. forces from Afghanistan raises regional security risks, Russia's defence minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The U.S. exit from Afghanistan has created a security headache for Moscow, which sees former Soviet Central Asia as part of its southern defensive flank and fears the spread of radical Islam.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had stepped up contacts within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led alliance that groups six former Soviet states.

"We're in close contact with CSTO members over Afghanistan ... That's why our interaction within CSTO should be strengthened," Shoigu was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.

He said the risk of Afghan militants crossing into neighbouring countries had spread following the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country this month as U.S. forces withdrew.

Drug trafficking is another concern, he added.

The CSTO said on Friday it would hold military exercises in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan from September to October involving several thousand troops due to the situation in Afghanistan.

Shoigu said an ongoing programme to rearm the armies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan would continue.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Helen Popper)
Retirees, veterans, disability pensioners, and workers expressed their concerns that the government would start paying their pensions in bitcoins instead of U.S. dollars.

"We know this coin fluctuates drastically. Its value changes from one second to another and we will have no control over it," said the member of the Supreme Court of Justice's workers union Stanley Quinteros.

There is also a concern that people don't understand the technology needed to use crypto-currency.
Aug. 28NASHVILLE  U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is calling on President Joe Biden to resign while fellow Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty is accusing the president of "hiding from his duty and shirking responsibility" after Thursday's deadly terrorist bombing outside Afghanistan's main airport that left 13 U.S. service members dead while killing dozens of Afghans.

Tennessee Republican congressmen have also jumped in to express sorrow for victims while slamming Biden. The list includes U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischmann of Ooltewah and Scott DesJarlais of Sherwood.

In Georgia, Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome renewed earlier calls to impeach Biden.

"It's time for Congress to hold this administration accountable," Greene tweeted Friday. "Joe Biden must be impeached. Immediately."

Democrats like U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper of Nashville are avoiding criticisms of Biden while offering sympathy for the dead and support for survivors in Thursday's suicide bomber attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. It came as thousands of Afghans seek to flee the nation amid the takeover of the country by the Taliban as the U.S. military prepares to leave.

In her statement, Blackburn said she was "devastated to hear about the servicemembers who lost their lives today. We owe a debt of gratitude to them for their sacrifice and pray for comfort for their families."

She added, "It's time for accountability, starting with those whose failed planning allowed these attacks to occur. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley should all resign or face impeachment and removal from office."

Hagerty, former President Donald Trump's U.S. ambassador to Japan, said his heart "grieves for the families and loved ones of these brave heroes who have now made the ultimate sacrifice. Sadly, it did not have to be this way, but it is exactly what I have feared as we have watched the chaotic and dire scenes around the airport in Kabul.

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"This moment requires decisive American leadership and strength, but sadly President Biden is hiding from his duty and shirking responsibility," Hagerty added in the statement.

Noting it was the deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2011, Fleischmann said the situation "has been directly caused by the actions taken by President Biden and his national security team. Now, American lives have been lost due to this Commander in Chief's incompetent and rushed withdrawal."

Fleischmann said that for weeks, "the military, intelligence community and members of Congress from both parties have begged President Biden to increase the security perimeter at the airport and not rely on the Taliban to protect Americans trying to evacuate the country. President Biden must throw out his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline and commit to rescuing every single American currently stranded in Afghanistan. Anything less is a disgrace to our nation."

DesJarlais, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called the bombing and chaos a "failure of the Biden administration." Offering condolences to the families of soldiers killed, the congressman said he supports a call by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for Congress to come back into session.

Cooper, also a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he is "closely monitoring the situation in Kabul" and his office "has been working tirelessly to assist with the safe evacuation of Americans and our Afghan partners.

"We will continue to do so until every American and individual eligible for evacuation is out of harm's way," Cooper said.

In a social media post, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., called the attack "heartbreaking. Sending love and hope for healing to the families of the 12 American servicemembers killed. ... We honor the ultimate sacrifice of your loved ones, and as a nation we are with you during this difficult time."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, R-Ga., as calling the bombing a "cowardly and despicable terrorist attack" while avoiding criticism of Biden.

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.
Associated Press

Flooded out by Hurricane Katrina, Roy Comardelle wasn't going to let another hurricane beat him. Comardelle thought he was winning against Hurricane Ida until the Category 4 winds at its heart battered his house and sent water spilling over the grassy walls of his handmade levee, which includes a pump and a homemade flood gate for the driveway. As he worked, Comardelle couldn't help but wonder when he might be able to get back out on the water to make a living catching crabs.
Aug. 28For a couple years, the Northwest African American Museum in Seattle has hosted a series of conversations with descendants of legendary Black Americans as a way of expanding the region's knowledge of African American history.

On Sunday, the program will feature Spokane NAACP chapter president Kiantha Duncan in conversation with Arthur McFarlane II, great-grandson of W.E.B. DuBois. The program will be streamed for free at 3 p.m.

DuBois, one of the founders of the NAACP in 1909, was not only a civil rights activist. He was an author, writer and historian of African American history and culture. He died Aug. 27, 1963, the day before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic "I Have a Dream Speech" during the March on Washington D.C.

LaNesha DeBardelaben, president of the Seattle museum, said she chose Duncan for her work in and out of the NAACP . Duncan hosts "Conversations with Kiantha" a communications platform that produced live discussions with The Black Lens, Spokane's Black-owned newspaper.

"We seek a moderator who is a thought leader and able to inspire and form activism through their example," said DeBardelaben, who has been at the museum's helm since 2017. "We felt that there was no other moderator who could engage with the descendants of these national luminaries like Kiantha Duncan."

The Seattle museum launched "The Descendants" series as a quarterly program in 2019 to "educate viewers on Black history by engaging in conversation with Black history luminaries." Duncan called her role in the event an honor and thinks its a "telling and interesting" opportunity for how early civil rights activists knew the fight for equality would be an ongoing bout centuries later.

"(Activists from the 1800's) knew that these systems would still be inequitable and still not offer the same opportunities to people of color," Duncan said. "They knew then that it wasn't going to be ready now. We're all cooking this cake and it is a very slow bake. I certainly don't hope the work I'm doing in 2021 is still just a seed planted from something problematic 200 years from now."

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She will also be hosting a "Descendants" conversation with Tina Wyatt, Harriet Tubman's grand-niece, on Oct. 17.

McFarlane lives in Colorado, where he works as a population health analyst at Children's Hospital of Colorado. Before that, he spent 25 years with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The event Sunday will feature representatives of Northwest NAACP chapters, as well as a performance by Walter Hobbs, a ballet dancer who will perform a dance interpretation of "Lift Every Voice & Sing," a song commonly regarded as the Black National Anthem.

DeBardelaben said the program may receive some national exposure as well.

"We have been contacted by C-SPAN to see if they can broadcast it nationally," DeBardelaben said. "Officials will examine the series to determine whether it fits within C-SPAN's fall scheduling programming."

Duncan hopes that the virtual event will help Spokane's historic entities such as the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture lift up diverse narratives. Washingtonians complete surveys about diversity, equity and inclusion for programs and educational experiences like the Descendants series.

"What I think this does is create a precedence to do these kind of partnerships (in Spokane)," Duncan said. "This sets up an opportunity to do this and bring more culturally diverse programming to the museums here and I'd love to be a part of that."

{%%note} {/%%note}Those interested in viewing the virtual discussion can register for the streaming event at www.naamnw.org.

Amber D. Dodd's work as the Carl Maxey Racial and Social Inequity reporter for Eastern Washington and North Idaho primarily appears in both The Spokesman-Review and The Black Lens newspapers, and is funded in part by the Michael Conley Charitable Fund, the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund, the Innovia Foundation and other local donors from across our community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
Aug. 28St. Paul police were called to the Summit-University neighborhood Friday afternoon about a reported shooting, authorities said. No victims were found, but a man later showed up at a hospital with a stab wound apparently related to the incident.

Police were first dispatched about 3:45 p.m. Friday to the 300 block of Milton Street on a report of shots fired.

Upon arriving, officers encountered a "chaotic scene and an uncooperative crowd," according to Steve Linders, a police spokesman.

Officers were told there were multiple victims; however, no victims were located at the scene, Linders said.

A short time later, an uncooperative man showed up at Regions Hospital with a non-life-threatening stab wound to his neck, according to Linders.

No arrests were made and the incident remains under investigation, he said.
Steven Seagal has been a Russian citizen since 2016 and lives in Moscow. (Photo: Donat Sorokin via Getty Images)

A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, unleashed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to collect more than $250,000 from Steven Seagal after the 90s action star failed to pay up for his alleged role in promoting a cryptocurrency.

U.S. District Judge William Kuntz ruled Friday that the federal agency can go through the actors business manager to collect the remainder of the $330,000 he had agreed to pay. The Under Siege actor, who lives in Moscow and is a Russian citizen, last year settled allegations that he failed to disclose he was being paid to promote a digital token.

Seagal was allegedly promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 in tokens for promoting an initial coin offering for Bitcoiin2Gen, according to the SEC. The offering was one of as many as 20 similar crypto frauds run by a group of Serbian nationals who bilked some 500 investors out of millions, prosecutors have said.

Seagal has so far paid just $75,000 and is delinquent on the rest of the settlement, according to a lawyer for the SEC, Bloomberg reported.

The devoted fan of Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to Moscow in 2016. Putin then issued a presidential decree making him a Russian citizen. Since 2018, Seagal has been Russias goodwill ambassador to the U.S.

In 2018, the Los Angeles Police Department launched a sexual assault investigation into Seagal. More than a dozen women have accused the actor of sexual misconduct. He has denied the allegations.

There was no immediate comment from Seagal.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
House Democrats and Republicans are clamoring for congressional action following Thursday's Supreme Court ruling striking down President Joe Bidens eviction moratorium.

The high court decision on Thursday shifts the moratorium fight back to Congress, where disagreements between parties and within the Democratic caucus have blocked legislative action.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement on Friday opposing the ruling but gave no clear indication about how Congress would attempt to resolve the issue. The House is not set to reconvene until Sept. 20.

SUPREME COURT BLOCKS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION'S EVICTION MORATORIUM

The 6-3 ruling specifically rejected Bidens executive authority to block evictions for those who dont pay rent and said if the moratorium is to continue, Congress must authorize it.

Congressional Democrats have not and will not ever accept a situation of mass evictions, Pelosi said Friday. We will continue our work to ensure that families suffering hardship during the pandemic can have the safety of home, as we also work with communities to ensure the immediate disbursement by states and localities of the over $45 billion allocated by Congress for rental assistance.

Pelosi pressured Biden earlier this month to take steps to extend the moratorium via the executive branch, despite indications it could face a successful court challenge. Democrats argued the delta variant has led to a rise in cases and hospitalizations, and renters deserved additional protection.

Pelosi lacked the votes within her own party to pass a moratorium due to a disagreement among centrists and liberals about the length of the extension. When Congress failed to act, Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, drew national attention by camping out on the front steps of the Capitol to highlight homelessness. Bush also criticized top Democrats for adjourning Congress without passing an eviction moratorium. Biden then announced he would extend the moratorium in many states, although he cast doubt on the legality of the move.

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Pelosis statement on Friday suggests the House could respond to the high court ruling with a two-pronged approach that would include legislation restarting the eviction moratorium. But she'll again be faced with intraparty division over how long to extend it.

She is unlikely to get any help from Republicans, who oppose extending the moratorium outright.

They cite the $45 billion in federal aid that has yet to be disbursed to both renters and landlords. Republicans say extending the moratorium would continue to place too heavy of a financial burden on landlords, who cannot collect rent but must still maintain and pay taxes on the buildings they are leasing.

On Friday, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina called on Pelosi to take up the GOPs Renter Protection Act, which would speed up distribution of roughly $45 billion in aid away from the Treasury Department and into a single Emergency Rental Assistance program within 30 days.

McHenry, the lead Republican on the Financial Services Committee, said in a statement the high court ruling was largely expected, and he blamed the Biden administration for mismanaging the aid, which would be provided to both renters and landlords.

The blame for this entire situation rests squarely with the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats, McHenry said. Instead of fixing the flawed Emergency Rental Assistance program to provide support to families in need, the Biden Administration extended its unconstitutional eviction moratorium.

Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this summer that would have extended the eviction moratorium until Dec. 31.

Without the votes to pass it, action must still be taken, Waters said Friday.

In a statement, Waters indicated shes working on a new legislative solution that addresses this crisis and meets the moment.

Pelosi told lawmakers in a memo Friday, the House is assessing possible legislative remedies, to the Supreme Court ruling and made reference to a measure in the works by Waters that would speed up distribution of federal aid.

At the White House on Friday, press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration would also work to distribute federal money to needy renters and landlords faster.

The federal government, she said, was working to make it easier for renters to prove their pandemic-related financial hardship and secure funding.

"If there were enough votes to pass an eviction moratorium in Congress, it would have happened. It hasn't happened, right?" Psaki said. "So what we're looking at now is how to achieve the objective that we all share."

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Bush is calling on Congress to return and immediately pass an eviction moratorium.

We were outside the Capitol for 5 days. Rain. Heat. Cold, Bush tweeted. If they think this partisan ruling is going to stop us from fighting to keep people housed, theyre wrong. Congress needs to act immediately. For every unhoused or soon to be unhoused person in our districts.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Congress, Evictions, Coronavirus, Nancy Pelosi, Cori Bush, Patrick McHenry, Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Original Author: Susan Ferrechio

Original Location: Supreme Court eviction ruling puts new pressure on Pelosi
Women with their children from Central America rents an apartment in Nogales, Sonora, for their safety and waiting for their turn for MPP.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by the Biden administration to stay a lower court order requiring it to restart a controversial Trump-era immigration policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. In effect, it ordered the new administration to return, for now, to the previous administrations immigration rules  shocking some observers who see the protocols as a foreign policy issue.

The case is still under appeal, and the Biden administration has said it will comply in good faith with the order while continuing to challenge it in court.

Heres what the ruling means for migrants at the Southwest border, the U.S. relationship with Mexico and the state of the U.S. asylum system.

Question: What did the Supreme Court rule, exactly?

Answer: The Supreme Court denied on Tuesday the Biden administrations request to stay a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that found that the administration had improperly ended the Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly known as the Remain in Mexico program.

Under the program, asylum seekers are sent to Mexico to await the outcome of their cases, rather than pursuing them inside the U.S.

Does this mean the Supreme Court has made the MPP program permanent?

The Supreme Court ruling doesnt actually address the MPP policys legality. The current question before the court was only about whether the administration indeed terminated it in an incorrect manner.

Biden paused the Migrant Protection Protocols after his inauguration in January, and then formally ended the program in June. The attorneys general for Texas and Missouri sued, claiming the administrations decision to end Remain in Mexico was arbitrary and capricious. A federal judge in Texas agreed, and the 5th Circuit upheld the ruling.

The Biden administration appealed the decision, and asked the Supreme Court to stay the ruling while the appeal is pending. The high courts decision on Tuesday effectively requires the Biden administration to restart the program while their appeal continues to play out in court.

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The Supreme Courts order said the Biden administration failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memorandum rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols was not arbitrary and capricious. The order noted that the courts three liberal justices would have granted the stay.

The administration said it will comply while continuing to vigorously challenge the lower court ruling.

Other organizations maintain that MPP itself violates both U.S. and international law.

"It was merely an administrative question," said Brian Griffey, researcher and adviser for Amnesty International and an expert working in international human rights law. "MPP is a fundamentally illegal policy, no matter how you slice it."

What happens to people who had previously been forced to 'remain in Mexico' but now have been admitted to the US?

Since February, the Biden administration has admitted nearly 13,000 asylum seekers that were previously sent to Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols. The number represents a fraction of the estimated 70,000 people sent back under Remain in Mexico between January 2019 and January 2021.

Once admitted into the country, asylum seekers were tested for COVID-19 and allowed to travel to their final destination, usually with relatives already living in the United States. Their admission into the U.S. with I-94 permits allows them to remain in the U.S. legally for one year, until at least their first immigration court hearing.

Tuesdays Supreme Court decision, or the injunction from the lower courts, made no mention about what would happen to these individuals who have already been paroled into the country.

Judy Rabinovitz, special counsel and lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union litigation on MPP, said she did not think these asylum seekers would be affected.

I think it would be a huge overreach if there was to be a suggestion that somehow or other this new injunction affects them, she said. It affects MPP going forward, it doesnt affect people who have been taken out of MPP.

What happens to people currently seeking asylum at the border?

At least two separate, overlapping programs may have the same effect of halting asylum seekers and holding them south of the border.

One was the MPP program. But U.S. officials under the Trump administration also implemented restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2020, as COVID-19 cases began to rise globally. The restrictions included a freeze on asylum processing for all migrants, including those sent to Mexico under MPP, whose court dates were postponed indefinitely.

Using a public health rule under Title 42 of the U.S. Code, the Trump administration began to immediately expel most migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border, including asylum seekers. Biden kept the Title 42 rule in place, and in early August his administration extended it indefinitely. To date, U.S. officials have turned back more than 1 million migrants at the border under Title 42, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

There have been exceptions to these policies. Shortly after taking office, the Biden administration stopped expelling unaccompanied children to their countries of origin under Title 42. They are instead taken into the temporary care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which works to place them with sponsors, usually relatives who already live in the U.S.

After ending MPP, the Biden administration also began to process asylum seekers with active MPP cases that were sent back to Mexico. That meant that, even with Title 42 in place, those who had an active case were allowed to enter. The United Nations worked with the U.S. to test MPP migrants for COVID-19, processing several hundred people per day in Mexican border cities.

To date, about 13,000 people have been processed at ports of entry, according to the federal government.

U.S. border officials have also allowed some asylum seekers to be paroled into the country on a case-by-case basis, including pregnant women and people with pre-existing health conditions. Additionally, a number of other vulnerable migrants were processed as humanitarian exemptions to Title 42 at certain border crossings.

But those exemptions have since ended. In all, the Biden administration admitted approximately 16,000 people under these categories, according to court filings for a lawsuit targeting the legality of Title 42.

Does the court ruling mean Mexico has to return to sheltering migrants who are required to remain there awaiting US asylum hearings?

From the start, when the MPP policy was created, Mexico had the choice to refuse it. The former Trump administration exerted pressure, threatening to increase tariffs on goods to Mexico, but the neighboring country was never obligated to comply. Without the consent and coordination of the Mexican government, MPP cannot be implemented.

Mexicos foreign ministry on Wednesday said the government wouldnt comment on the Supreme Courts ruling. The country is engaged in a technical dialogue with the United States on how best to manage migratory flows, the ministry said in a statement.

Were always going to try to have a very good relationship with the United States, said Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in a Thursday news conference. We had a good relationship with Trump and we have a good one with President Biden. Were working on the root causes, looking for ways to invest in development, jobs and well-being in the countries of Central America so that people dont feel obligated to migrate.

More than 75 organizations from both Mexico and the U.S. are calling Mexico to reject the reinstatement of MPP.

The inhumane policy would gravely amplify the threats that asylum seekers are already facing, said the organizations in a letter addressed to the Mexican president and his cabinet.

When the Biden administration ended the MPP process, did that mean all migrants could come into the country?

No. Title 42 restrictions remain in place, so many migrants are still immediately deported.

When MPP ended, the administration began processing those already enrolled and allowed them to cross the border and continue to their destinations in the U.S., where their asylum cases will be transferred.

Others who arrived at the border seeking asylum are also subjected to Title 42 and immediately expelled, regardless if they have claims for asylum.

So what happens to migrants who try to cross the border now?

Because of the ongoing pandemic and Title 42, there is effectively no way for migrants to seek asylum at a U.S. port of entry or at the border. Those who attempt to cross at or between ports of entry are, with few exceptions, being expelled to Mexico or their home countries under the authority of Title 42.

Some migrants traveling in family units have been allowed to seek immigration relief in the U.S., in part because Mexico stopped accepting expulsions of families at certain points along its border. For that reason, enforcement of Title 42 has been uneven at the Southwest border.

Why was the program called 'Migrant Protection Protocols' in the first place?

Migrant advocates claim that the formal name of the Remain in Mexico policy, the Migrant Protection Protocols, is a misnomer because rather than protect, it places migrants in harm by sending them back to danger in Mexican border cities.

The Trump administration touted the program as a success and said it helped bring down border crossings and discourage meritless asylum claims.

But numerous advocacy and community groups along the U.S.-Mexico border have documented instances of kidnapping, extortion and other forms of violence against asylum seekers sent back to Mexico under MPP.

Human Rights First, a U.S.-based advocacy group, documented at least 1,500 incidents of violence, extortion and other crimes in Mexican border cities directed at asylum seekers returned under MPP. But researchers have said that number only represents reported incidents. They believe true numbers are higher.

The group said similar dynamics are at play for migrants expelled to Mexico under Title 42. On Tuesday, Human Rights First released its latest report documenting some 6,300 instances of violence against migrants in Mexico since Biden took office.

What are the Biden administrations options now?

The Department of Homeland Security has not said how it plans to respond to the Supreme Courts decision this week, saying only that they would comply with the order in good faith.

But migrant rights activists say there are a number of options, and they are calling on the Biden administration to exercise their broad authority to prevent the reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols.

Karen Tumlin, the founder of the legal advocacy group Justice Action Center, said Biden and DHS could respond in several ways. First, the administration could rewrite and issue a new memo to terminate the Remain in Mexico policy.

There are three courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, that have already opined that they believe that the first Biden memo to end the Remain in Mexico program was not done lawfully, she said. So lets make no mistake that if the administration wants to win this case in court and end the shameful Remain in Mexico program a new memo now is the best way to make that possible.

Second, Tumlin said the U.S. government has the legal authority to parole asylum seekers into the U.S. Both the Trump and the Biden administrations used that authority to admit certain migrants enrolled in MPP, particularly those who are most vulnerable. Tumlin called on Biden to work with service providers and nonprofit groups at the border to exercise that authority broadly.

She also encouraged the Biden administration to exhaust all legal options, but added that the government must also work outside the courts to implement new policies that live up Bidens promises of having a fair and humane system.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Remain in Mexico': What to know on Migrant Protection Protocols rule
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

An American man living in Turkey claims to be the hacker behind a massive T-Mobile breach, the Wall Street Journal reported.

T-Mobile customers are left feeling frustrated by their wireless carrier over security concerns.

Customers are experiencing fraudulent charges on debit cards and spam calls and text messages after the breach.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

T-Mobile customers are dealing with the fallout of a security breach that exposed the personal information of more than 53 million people, with some telling Insider they've recently experienced fraudulent charges on debit cards and spam calls and text messages.

Customers also expressed frustration that the man who took responsibility for the attack said it was easy.

"Their security is awful," John Binns, a 21-year-old American who now lives in Turkey, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday, claiming to be the hacker behind the breach.

Binns gained access to the servers after discovering an unprotected router by scanning T-Mobile's internet address for weak spots, The Journal reported. Over 53 million people had personal information compromised in the hack such as names, addresses, dates of births, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and driver's license information.

Many customers are now dealing with the repercussions of the hack and feel as though T-Mobile is not doing enough to protect them as some information hits the dark web.

Eddie Richards, a T-Mobile customer from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, told Insider he did not know about the hack until it reached the news. Richards is part of T-Mobile's family plan, and while only the primary account holder was notified of the data breach by the company, he believes that all customers should have been made aware.

"It just frustrates me, honestly," Richards said. "If our data is a priority for you guys to keep safe, how come I haven't gotten a notification or anything like that?"

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The telecom company has previously said that no financial information was compromised in the breach, but Richards said he has dealt with several fraudulent charges on his debit cards since.

"I put two and two together," Richards said, explaining that although he can't prove it's connected to the breach, he feels it is too much of a coincidence. Richards has also started getting more spam calls and messages on his cell phone, including several emails.

Like Richards, Amina Jeffery and her husband Trent have also received an increased number of spam calls and text messages since the breach. Most of the fraudulent messages involve sending or receiving money in transactions the Jefferies did not make.

The Jefferies, who have been T-Mobile customers out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for many years, feel let down by the wireless carrier.

"I felt like they tried to just basically downplay it, that's what kind of irritated me," Amina Jeffery told Insider in an interview. "For me, they're just trying to avoid responsibility."

T-Mobile did not specifically comment on what customers told Insider and referred back to an apology statement released by the company's CEO, Mike Sievert, on Friday. Both Richards and the Jefferies want more to be done.

"What does that have to do with the rest of my life?" Amina Jeffery said. "If somebody has my social and my birthday and my name, that is enough right there to go and be me so that just doesn't work for me."

Despite this, the Jefferies and Richards are still T-Mobile customers.

T-Mobile and Sprint merged in April of 2020. Now the company has a total of approximately 104.7 million customers, according to its latest earnings report. Nearly half of the company's current customers were affected by the breach.

The company is almost done with its investigation into the incident and the breach is contained, according to a statement released by T-Mobile on Friday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Biden said on Saturday that U.S. commanders in Afghanistan told him earlier in the day that the threat of another terrorist attack near Kabul's airport was "highly likely in the next 24-36 hours."

Driving the news: Hours later, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a new alert that Americans should "immediately" leave the airport area due to "a specific, credible threat."

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Taliban security forces closed off Kabuls airport to most Afghans seeking to evacuate Saturday, as the U.S. and its allies were wrapping up a "chaotic airlift," per AP.

Biden said in a statement earlier Saturday that the situation on the ground "continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high."

Of note: The U.S. Embassy had warned American citizens late Friday that due to continued security threats, they should "avoid traveling" to Kabul's airport and "to avoid airport gates."

"U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately," the notice warned.

The big picture: Biden's remarks came after the Department of Defense announced on Saturday that U.S. forces had begun to drawdown ahead of the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.

"We have begun retrograding," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a press briefing.

The United Kingdoms final flight for civilians departed Saturday.

"Its time to close this phase of the operation now," U.K. Ambassador Laurie Bristow said in a video message. "But we haven't forgotten the people who still need to leave and will continue to do everything we can to help them."

Go deeper: The Afghan refugee crisis is about to get much worse

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of the U.S. Embassy's new warning and to reflect that the Taliban has closed off Kabul's airport to most Afghans.

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The U.S. launched a drone strike against the Islamic State in Afghanistan early Saturday, two days after President Joe Biden first vowed revenge for a suicide bombing that killed 13 American troops and as the deadline for complete evacuation loomed.

In a Saturday statement, Biden said the drone strike was not the last.

I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have, Biden wrote. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Saturday morning that the strike killed two high-profile members of Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, an Afghan offshoot of Islamic State. A third person was wounded.

The strike in the Nangarhar region killed one ISIS-K planner and one facilitator, but Kirby would not provide further details or confirm what role, if any, they played in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport on Thursday that killed at least 170 people.

The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the earth, thats is a good thing, he said.

Dad of Marine Slain in Kabul Vents Anger at Military, Biden

Navy Capt. William Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, earlier said there were no known civilian casualties.

The White House had warned that ISIS-K, a rival of the Taliban, was likely to strike again in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal. And Biden had promised the terrorists behind Thursdays horror could expect retribution.

We will hunt you down and make you pay, Biden said.

Several family members of the Americans who were killed have slammed the Biden administration for its handling of the withdrawal agreed to by President Donald Trump.

Ive lost my son, but there are still Marines over there, Jim McCollum, whose son Rylee, 20, was among the dead, told The Daily Beast. We gave them everything they need, and we are pinned down at the airport. I am scared shitless to see whats going to happen next, and whats going to come our way.

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The U.S. military announced Friday that it has conducted an unmanned airstrike against ISIS-K in Afghanistan, and said "initial indications" show it killed one of the group's planners. The strike came one day after ISIS-K claimed responsibility for an attack at one of the airport's gates that left at least 170 dead, including 13 U.S. service members.

"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed Friday night. "The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."

The statement did not identify the target of the attack, or what role a "planner" has in the group. It is unclear whether the planner was involved in Thursday's attack, which also injured 18 U.S. service members and scores of Afghan citizens.

An affiliate of ISIS, the group that spread into northern Iraq from Syria six years ago and once controlled territory roughly the size of Britain, ISIS-K first emerged in Pakistan around the same time, in 2015. Its members have come from other Pakistani militant groups, including disillusioned Taliban fighters.

Earlier Friday evening, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul sent out an alert telling people to stay away from the Kabul airport due to "security threats," adding that those at four of the airport's gates should "leave immediately."

"Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates," the embassy wrote on its website. "U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately."

It wasn't immediately clear what intelligence prompted the advisory, but earlier Friday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby and Army Major General William Taylor, joint staff deputy director for regional operations, cautioned that the U.S. expects more attack attempts.

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The White House has not offered any comments since the strike. But President Biden had pledged to retaliate after a suicide bomber killed 13 American soldiers, as well as scores of Afghan civilians.

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down, and make you pay," he said in remarks Thursday.

When White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked earlier Friday about a U.S. response to those responsible for the attack, she said the president "made clear yesterday that he does not want them to live on the Earth anymore."

The U.S. is still working to evacuate the remaining Americans and Afghan allies in Afghanistan before Mr. Biden's August 31 deadline to pull the remaining American forces from the country. Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 105,000 people, according to the White House.

David Martin contributed to this report.

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The Taliban sealed off large portions of the area around Kabul's airport on Saturday as the threat of more Islamic State attacks remained ahead of the impending withdrawal, AP reports.

Driving the news: The U.S. Embassy had warned American citizens late Friday that due to continued security threats, they should "avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."

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"U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately," the notice warned.

The big picture: The U.S. carried out a retaliatory drone strike on Saturday local time in response to Thursday's Kabul airport attack.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan," Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said in a statement. "Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."

Of note: The United Kingdoms final flight for civilians also departed Saturday as the wind-down continued ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline.

"Its time to close this phase of the operation now," UK Ambassador Laurie Bristow said in a video message, but we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave and will continue to do everything we can to help them.

Go deeper: The Afghan refugee crisis is about to get much worse

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Paul "Pen" Farthing won CNN's Hero of the Year Award in 2014 for his efforts to reunite soldiers with animals they cared for in Afghanistan. Kevin Mazur/WireImage for CNN, Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images

A Royal Marine veteran, Paul "Pen" Farthing, runs an animal-rescue charity in Afghanistan.

The UK government ordered a charter flight to evacuate Farthing and his nearly 200 animals.

Critics have asked why the animals are out when people are still stuck.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

The British government intervened to support Paul "Pen" Farthing and his 173 rescue animals' journey from Afghanistan to the UK.

Farthing, a Royal Marine veteran who founded the Nowzad animal-care charity in the Afghan capital of Kabul, is now poised to leave Afghanistan with his animals.

Confirming the news on Twitter, the UK Ministry of Defence said British armed forces had assisted Farthing and his animals through Kabul airport, with a charter flight awaiting them that had been sponsored by the British government.

Read more: The UK is in a frenzy about the death sentence of an alpaca called Geronimo. It says a lot about the British national psyche, experts believe.

As the safety of the 94 dogs and 79 cats was confirmed - but that of Farthing's staff was not - voices have been raised as to why the animals got out when people remained stuck.

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The Telegraph reported that Ben Wallace, the UK defense secretary, told members of Parliament that the mission to rescue the animals and the attention it was receiving were taking away resources from evacuating vulnerable people.

Wallace also used Twitter to hit back at Farthing's supporters and condemned "bullying, falsehoods and threatening behavior" toward Defence Ministry staff, saying such views were "unacceptable."

Tom Tugendhat, a member of Parliament who previously served in Afghanistan as an army officer, said on LBC Radio: "The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we've just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs. Meanwhile, my interpreter's family are likely to be killed."

The LBC radio host Matt Frei asked: "What would you say if I sent an ambulance to save my dog rather than your mother?"

Story continues

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There was speculation that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his influence to make the evacuation of Farthing's animals possible, as Johnson's wife, Carrie Johnson, is an animal-rights activist.

Asked about the reports, per the Evening Standard, the prime minister said: "I've had absolutely no influence on any particular case, nor would that be right. That's not, that's not how we do things in this country."

The UK evacuation efforts stopped Saturday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
U.S. Soldiers and Marines assist with security at an Evacuation Control Checkpoint during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 19, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (U.S. Central Command Public Affa)

A colonel in the US Marine Corps has been removed from command after going viral for posting an emotional video demanding accountability over the failures of the war in Afghanistan.

Colonel Stuart Scheller, a Marine battalion commander who knew one of the 13 US service members killed in an attack in Kabul on Thursday, posted a video on Facebook blasting senior military and political leadership.

Potentially all those people did die in vain if we dont have senior leaders who own up and raise their hand and say, We did not do this well in the end, he says in the video, seated in an office in front of a helmet and flak jacket. Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes. Its this amalgamation of an economic/corporate/political/higher military ranks not holding up their end of the bargain.

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The video, which has been shared 47,000 times on Facebook, took particular issue with how the US government has handled its exit from Afghanistan, set to be complete on 31 August.

Im not saying weve got to be in Afghanistan forever, Mr Scheller adds in the video. But I am saying: Did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, Hey, its a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic air base, before we evacuate everyone?

Less than a day later, the colonel was relieved of command, and his 17 years of service mean he may not qualify for the full, lifelong US Marines pension awarded to servicemembers after 20 years.

The Corps decided to relieve the colonel, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Jim Stenger told The Washington Pos t, because of a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command.

This is obviously an emotional time for a lot of Marines, and we encourage anyone struggling right now to seek counseling or talk to a fellow Marine, Mr Stenger said. There is a forum in which Marine leaders can address their disagreements with the chain of command, but its not social media.

Mr Scheller wrote in a later post he didnt fault the service branch for removing him, saying the Marines were doing exactly what I would do  if I were in their shoes.

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America has many issues  but its my home.  When my Marine Corps career comes to an end, I look forward to a new beginning, he added. My lifes purpose is to make America the most lethal and effective foreign diplomacy instrument. While my days of hand-to-hand violence may be ending  I see new light on the horizon.

Commenters who saw the video also expressed their support.

You threw it on the line and if big government takes it away. Many service members / veterans are willing to give, one Facebook user wrote. We have your back financially and any other way.

Veterans have expressed their dismay about the end to the US war in Afghanistan, the countrys longest modern conflict, which has ended chaotically, with few gains to show.

Its pain  pain I thought I had gotten used to, Javier Mackey, a retired Army special forces soldier who deployed six times in the country, told the New York times . I sacrificed a lot, I saw death every year. And the guys I served with, we knew it would probably come to an end like this. But to see it end in chaos, it makes us angry. After everything we gave, I just wish there had been a way to leave with honor.

Others faulted the US for failing to evacuate all of the numerous Afghans who assisted American military forces in the country, and now could face violent retribution from the Taliban.

"Its already scary enough where daily Im messaging both of these individuals and sometimes they take a little long to respond and Im like, Oh my God, are they still there? Are they still alive?" Ed McCormick, a US army veteran, told Business Insider on Thursday of two Afghan interpreters hes trying to help. "Eventually they respond, but theres a good chance that at some point theyre not going to, and you can only assume the worst has happened."

Read More

Afghanistan news live: UK into final hours of evacuation mission

Who are Isis-K?

Pen Farthings animals could die of heat at Kabul airport
The U.S. military launched a drone strike against a "planner" from ISIS-K, the terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed about 170 people near the Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The military conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan, Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.

13 US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN TWIN EXPLOSIONS OUTSIDE KABUL AIRPORT

"Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," Urban added. He did not say whether the target was involved in planning the airport attack on Thursday.

The announcement was released Friday evening in Washington, D.C., which would be Saturday morning in Kabul.

An ISIS-K fighter walked up to the Abbey Gate entrance at the airport on Thursday evening where U.S. and coalition forces have evacuated more than 110,000 people this month who are afraid to live under Taliban rule. The fighter detonated an unusually large suicide vest, according to the New York Times, which weighed about 25 pounds, whereas a normal one is between 10-20 pounds.

The explosion killed more than a dozen U.S. soldiers and 170 people total, wounding countless others.

In his first address after the bombing, President Joe Biden vowed to get revenge for the attack.

"To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay, he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president made clear that he doesnt want [ISIS-K] to live on the Earth anymore, during Friday's briefing.

U.S. officials are concerned about the possibility of a second attack.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said there were specific credible threats against the U.S. troops during Fridays briefing while the White House spokesperson described the possibility of an attack as a likely occurrence.

Story continues

We believe it is their desire to continue those attacks, and we expect those attacks to continue," CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said during Thursday's Pentagon briefing.

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The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a warning urging Americans to leave the airport early Saturday morning.

"Because of security threats at the Kabul airport, we continue to advise U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates," the warning reads. "U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately."

U.S. forces are still assisting with evacuations of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies at the Kabul airport ahead of an Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline. Biden has repeatedly resisted calls to extend the self-imposed deadline date, in part citing the concern for attacks.

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Tags: News, Defense, National Security, ISIS, War in Afghanistan, Afghanistan

Original Author: Mike Brest

Original Location: US military launches drone strike against ISIS-K 'planner' after Kabul attack
At least 170 people were killed in attack on Kabul airport (AFP via Getty Images)

The US military has said it believes it killed an Isis-K planner in its first reprisal strike in Afghanistan after the deadly Kabul attack that killed at least 170 people, including 13 US military personnel.

Approximately 36 hours after the suicide bomb attack at Kabul left hundreds dead or wounded and Joe Biden vowed to hunt down those responsible, the US said an unmanned drone had been dispatched to attack a suspected member of ISIS Afghanistan branch, which it described as a planner.

It did not say whether the individual was believed linked specifically to the attack on Thursday at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

However, the US military said it believed the mission to kill the militant had been successful.

US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an Isis-K planner, Capt Bill Urban, a spokesman for the US Central Command said in a statement, referring to the Afghanistan-baed Isis franchise that claimed responsibility for Thursdays attack.

The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan.

He added: Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.

On Thursday, Mr Biden insisted the US would continue its evacuation mission, even as the nation mourned the service members killed, along with the Afghans killed and wounded. More than 110,000 people have been flown out since the Taliban seized control of the country on August 15.

We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place of our choosing, Mr Biden said. These Isis terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans; we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated.

He said military commanders in Afghanistan had told him it was important to complete the evacuation mission. And we will, he said. We will not be deterred by terrorists.

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There had been questions about how the US would manage to launch such a strike given it was giving up its military presence in the country. The answer appears to have come quickly, in what was termed an over-the-horizon operation, potentially launched from outside of Afghanistan itself.

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While Barack Obama used hundreds of unmanned drones to target alleged militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, critics say the USs claims that civilians are rarely killed is not true.

Indeed, verifying not only correct targets, but also the outcome of such strikes is notoriously difficult in hard-to-reach regions.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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Afghanistan news live: UK into final hours of evacuation mission

Who are Isis-K?

Pen Farthings animals could die of heat at Kabul airport
Aug. 28Dozens of Walker County, Georgia, residents marched down Main Street to the courthouse Thursday evening to call for the resignation of Commission Chairman Shannon Whitfield, who they believe illegally rezoned property without their input.

They believe that while serving as sole commissioner, Whitfield approved the rezoning of a 19-acre parcel across from Ridgeland High School in Rossville from agricultural and commercial to residential without properly holding the second of two required public meetings related to the request.

Some residents, like Kisha Parker of the nearby Mission Glen subdivision in Rossville, believe Whitfield never wanted feedback from residents about the property and pushed it through for "his own reasons."

"The rezone was not done legally. It did not fall through the cracks as a lot of people have been told. You're very meticulous about your meetings, so there's no way that it fell through the cracks just this one time," Parker told Whitfield after asking him to resign during public comment at Thursday's commission meeting. "It's ridiculous what's happened and how we've just been pushed aside. The community, not revenue, should be the priority."

Other residents who spoke at Thursday's meeting also expressed concerned about what the rezoning might mean for the community surrounding the property.

Gateway Co. is the developer and plans to build a 156-unit multifamily housing development on it through the use of the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Residents said they fear the effect those low-income housing units might have on their property values and worry about what adding that many new residents will mean for schools and traffic.

"We've brought up several concerns that we have with that area. Nothing has been done about any of them," Parker said. "It gets ignored repeatedly, but then you pile on more housing and more traffic to that already dangerous intersection at the school. We're worried about our community and about the kids, and we're very sad that you're not doing anything about it."

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Walker County Planning Commissioner Elliott Pierce called for an investigation into Whitfield at the meeting.

"We can't really trust you at this point," Pierce told Whitfield on Thursday. "We need an investigation."

Whitfield acknowledged he made a mistake in the process of rezoning the property but denied allegations the project was intentionally pushed through without allowing the public a chance to offer input. Instead, he said it was a simple advertising mistake.

For the rezoning to be approved, two public hearings are required. The first one was held Feb. 20 at the monthly planning commission hearing. The commission recommended Whitfield deny the rezoning request, and a second hearing was scheduled for Feb. 27. It was tabled at the request of the developer. In October of last year, an "informational meeting" was held instead.

Whitfield on Thursday said the October meeting was attended by "40 plus" people to discuss traffic concerns related to the rezoning for "probably an hour and a half." Invitations were sent to nearby residents at Mission Glen subdivision, he said, and others in the Happy Valley Road area. The meeting was not, however, advertised as a public meeting as required by local zoning ordinances.

Later, on Nov. 12, Whitfield officially signed and approved the rezoning request as the sole commissioner.

"There was a period of delay after that so when the developer was ready to move forward on the project we put it on our regular agenda. I did not think about going back and looking to see if we had advertised that, so it did not get advertised. When it came on the agenda, I approved that zoning. That was a mistake," Whitfield said. "I messed up. I publicly messed up and made that mistake."

Whitfield said the rezoning request will now start over in its entirety and that the public will be notified at each stage of the process.

"Nothing will happen until this goes through the process again entirely," he said. "If anything immoral or illegal was done here, I'd resign. But this is one step that was missed completely accidentally."

The county switched to a board of commissioners in January of this year. Whitfield chairs the panel, which has four other members.

While residents said they are happy something is being done to allow them the chance to share their opinions about the project, Pierce said he worries it is too late for the county to right the "colossal wrong" that was done when the rezoning was originally granted. Walker County has approved $19 million in tax-exempt bonds on behalf of Gateway for the project that he said were set to close Aug. 18, and he questioned what would be done about those now.

Commissioner Whitfield on Friday said the county facilitated the bond process for Gateway through the Walker County Development Authority but has "no financial liability at all."

"Neither the county, the development authority nor our citizens or anyone locally has any financial liability. Worst case scenario, if everything fails, is the bond owner takes a haircut," Whitfield said. "If it comes up that we decide not to change the zoning, then we may have some liability. That's the only way. That doesn't mean we're going to just push it through, though. That's why we want to be transparent about this process. With our board of commissioners now in place, it is important to me that we let them make the decisions on this and that we let everyone be part of the process."

The first reading for the rezoning is set for Sept. 16 and the second reading is set for Oct. 14.

Contact Kelcey Caulder at kcaulder@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @kelceycaulder.
While glam rocker Alice Cooper wasnt referring to digital devices when he sang No more pencils, no more books, educational tools have changed considerably since Schools Out topped the charts nearly 50 years ago.

Today, students tote around laptops, tablets and smartphones  all of which are wirelessly connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi or 5G  providing access to online libraries, endless multimedia content and face-to-face video communication.

But with this digital revolution comes additional risks, such as malware (malicious software) and hackers, cyberbullies, stalkers as well as scammers and other bad actors who want to monitor your activity for financial gain.

Software like a Virtual Private Network (VPN), however, can help protect your privacy.

VPNs, which conceal your online identity by using encryption, are especially useful for college-bound kids using less-than-secure campus networks and free WiFi hotspots at coffee shops, public libraries and more.

 VPNs: The essential privacy tool to protect you from Big Tech

Since theres no way you can be sure that a WiFi router is secure, it makes sense to use a VPN for school, to keep your connection safe on shared Wi-Fi with fellow students and teachers, says Daniel Markuson, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN, a leading VPN provider that's been named a top choice for the privacy-concerned by Security.org.

And no, your browsers Incognito or In-Private mode isnt the same. Sure, this will scrub your browsing session of history, passwords and cookies after youve logged off, but your online activity is still visible, saved and could be shared or sold to third parties.

This means your activity is still visible to the Internet Service Provider (ISP), as well as to the organization that provides the Internet connection (such as a school or restaurant). The websites you visit may be able to view the session, too.

Only a VPN can mask your browsing activity, offering true anonymity on the device youre using it on.

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And what if you don't use a VPN? For starters, a virus could delete the essay youve been working on for days, apps may secretly lift info from your smartphone or you may see more phishing scam attempts from legitimate-looking emails.

VPNs, which conceal your online identity by using encryption, are especially useful for college-bound kids using less-than-secure campus networks and free WiFi hotspots at coffee shops, public libraries and more.

Wait, so whats a VPN?

Instead of browsing the Internet openly, which allows your activity to be monitored, a VPN changes your devices IP address to ensure your surfing session is private.

An IP address is a unique numerical address, such as 192.185.2.1, that identifies a devices (general) geographical location on the Internet.

With your data encrypted, you dont have to worry about potentially unsecured public Wi-Fi, adds Markuson. Even if your educational establishment has substandard router security, your personal information will still be safe.

A few other student-centric advantages to using a VPN:

Bypass firewalls and censors. Some school networks use word-based firewalls to ban certain words or phrases and may include inoffensive words by accident. A VPN allows you to circumvent these restrictions, to easily access the resources you might need for school projects, says Markuson.

Borrow an IP address from another country. This allows students to access international materials to improve the reach of their research. An online library in Britain, for example, may not allow ebooks to be accessed by someone in the U.S., but with a VPN you can make it seem like youre in London based on a servers IP address from that city.

Safeguard your identity and sexuality. Connecting to college Wi-Fi could be a real issue for students at certain institutions, where certain sexual orientations or gender identities are disapproved of, adds Markuson. With a VPN, individuals have the privacy to access online communities, support and other resources, without worrying about a university spying on them.

Are VPNs legal?

Using a VPN is completely legal, as long as youre not doing anything online that breaks the law.

Its likely that your school, college or university will know youre using a VPN, cautions Markuson, but not what youre doing online. Some organizations may have rules against VPN use, while others will have no issue with it.

If youre worried about getting in trouble or violating school rules, we recommend discussing VPN use with a school administrator or a teacher, Markuson adds.

 Computer shopping: 3 steps to buy the right computer or laptop for your student

How to choose a VPN

OK, so you like the idea of a VPN, but notice there are hundreds of companies that offer them.

How do you choose which one is for you?

A few things to consider:

Resist from using free VPNs. They likely need to monetize their software somehow. Ironically, while VPNs are designed to provide privacy, your information may be monitored, recorded, logged, stored or passed to any third party. Ensure that company you go with has a strict policy against this.

NordVPN, for example, has been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers to validate the companys no-logging policy claim is accurate.

Put the price in perspective. Keep in mind, most premium VPNs costs less than a latte per month, so there really is no need to use free ones. Like other cybersecurity software, most VPNs are subscription -based and need to be renewed.

(A current NordVPN offer costs$3.30 a month for two years or a $4.92 per month for a 1-year plan. The software can be installed on up to six devices and used simultaneously.)

Research before you buy. Read reviews from both users and critics, for a well-balanced look at the quality of service youre considering. For example, some VPNs may limit in how many servers you can choose from or how long you can stay on in any given session.

Check compatibility. Read up on which devices play nicely with a particular VPN and make sure all of your go-to devices are on the list.

Look for bonus features. Some VPNs offer extra services (sometimes as part of the same subscription price), like a password locker, so look for these extras, if they matter to you, to save money elsewhere.

How hard is it to reach a human? Dont underestimate the importance of good tech support and customer service. Research which companies do this well  in case you ever need it.

 Breaking up or getting divorced? How to remove your ex from your digital life

Follow Marc on Twitter for his Tech Tip of the Day posts: @marc_saltzman. Email him or subscribe to his Tech It Out podcast at https://marcsaltzman.com/podcasts. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: VPNs: What are they and why do college students need to use them?
Barbara Johnson, business manager at the school, said the donor will match all new gifts and pledges up to $75,000. Once that goal is reached and matched, the school will have met its $950,000 goal and construction can begin.

We are hoping within the next two months to be able to meet that goal and then we can move forward, Johnson said.

In addition to a gymnasium, the money raised will support two new science labs and an art room. Eaglin said this will allow the school to increase its science curriculum to include courses it hasnt been able to offer on campus in the past, such as chemistry.

The campaigns name, Mind-Body-Spirit, refers to the areas of student need the projects it funds will work to address, Eaglin said. The science classroom space and expanded curriculum will increase learning opportunities and improve the students minds. The gymnasium will provide a space where students can play and nourish their bodies, and the art classroom will allow the schools art program to better serve students artistic and emotional  or spiritual  needs, she said.

The schools current capacity is 60 students, but Johnson said the addition of these classroom spaces will increase the amount of students the school can serve.

Johnson said the $250,000 gift from the Schewel Charitable Foundation has been the largest single gift to date in the campaign. The largest amount of support, she said, has come from community members and current and past parents, and some alumni also have contributed.

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It involves the replacement of 905 feet of 12-inch sewer pipe, 505 feet of 8-inch sewer pipe, 15 manholes, four stream crossings and an aerial crossing, among other work. While primary construction is located in the Blackwater Creek Natural Area off the East Randolph Place lot, construction also will occur off Sumpter Street and Norfolk Avenue along the creek.

A few residents came out to Thursdays public meeting to voice concerns, with others engaging online.

For Whitney Delaney, who lives on East Randolph Place just a few homes up from the trailhead, she fears the closure is going to have a big effect on the neighborhood.

The trailhead lot will be used as a construction laydown area for the entirety of the project, and no pedestrians or vehicles will be allowed to access the trail from that point.

For about the first 90 days, beginning in September, a section of Blackwater Creek Trail, about 100 feet on either side of the Randolph Place Trailhead, will be gated off and impassable.

Greg Blair, a construction manager with Lynchburg Water Resources, said it was a decision officials agonized over for a long time. Ultimately, the department decided to keep the trailhead and lot closed for the duration, based on safety concerns.
We had to build the foundation and the tracks and get it all inspected, she said. That was probably one of the hardest parts, is like finding out who knows how to build train tracks and who would be able to go bring a caboose from West Virginia to Lynchburg.

Their original plan was just to build a small house with a wall of glass to overlook the river, Amy Corbett said.

But when we priced that, I mean it was ridiculous, especially after COVID. So, even with a unique stay like this, it was actually much cheaper, she said.

The Corbetts worked with CSE, which went out to West Virginia and brought the caboose back to the area last week.

We wanted to have it coordinated because we wanted to have all our neighbors and friends here to see it, Amy Corbett said. So it kind of all came together pretty quickly, even though the planning of it has been over seven months.

In order to clear the road, the neighbors were all notified with flyers asking them to temporarily move their cars so the caboose could fit down the narrow street.
When I was in public school, a TV ad asked: Its 10 oclock. Do you know where your children are?

Heres a better question for today: Do you know what your children are being taught and exposed to in their schools?

This summers controversy over the teaching of critical race theory and whether to wear masks is only part of the problem. When kids claim to be a different sex than what they were born as and are allowed to use the locker rooms, restrooms and showers previously reserved for what we used to call girls and boys, it further erodes the morals and values we once considered part of a solid education.

Added to this is a bill passed by Oregons legislature and signed by Gov. Kate Brown that suspends essential-skills testing in order for a student to graduate from high school  despite an uproar from parents. This is where the education establishment is headed.

The rationale behind the law is that minorities dont test well. Is that not racist on its face? Why dont schools focus on bringing struggling students of whatever race or background up to a standard instead of lowering the bar and making their diplomas worth less than Confederate money?
ARTE Documentary - Aug 23

It can be hard to make new friends as an adult, but sometimes catching up with old friends can feel more like keeping up with the Joneses. But the Cheerful cheerleading group is different. They are all about discipline, energy, and mutual support.
Last weekend saw what was billed as a Special Fuji Rock under Special Circumstances, with those circumstances being the COVID-19 pandemic.

While a limited number of people made the trip to Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, where the event is held annually, most music fans had to settle for following along on three YouTube channels that livestreamed different stages.

On a purely musical level, the online portion of the event went well, with Saturday headliners King Gnu bringing in hundreds of thousands of viewers during its set. It also allowed people to marvel at the long-running success of musician Susumu Hirasawa, who was compared to a 23rd century religious guru by one Twitter user.

Much like another major event that was postponed from last year and held this summer, Fuji Rock could not escape the sour notes played by COVID-19. With new cases climbing nationwide, the idea of holding a festival  even an outdoor one as scaled-down as Fuji 2021 was  attracted the attention of those who normally ignore such gatherings, resulting in possibly the most scrutinized edition of the festival ever.
Aidan Reitz has a passion for animals, and its one that runs in the family.

Reitz, 18, is a Council Bluffs native and a member of Abraham Lincoln High Schools Class of 2021. She said it was a fun and eventful high school experience, noting how the COVID-19 pandemic made her upperclassman years like no other.

Reitz worked for Kids and Company for nearly two years, but this summer she took a job working at Midlands Humane Society. Her parents have been volunteering with SOLAS since she was 5, so a job at an animal shelter was a natural fit for her.

Her family is currently fostering three kittens, and they have a number of their own pets. Her stay wont be long, though, as she is heading west in just over a week to begin her college journey. Reitz will be studying psychology at Pierce College in Puyallup, Washington.

She said she is interested in a career as a school psychologist. She said those in the field often work with special needs students, kids with behavior issues and learning disabilities. Having grown up with dyslexia and struggling in school because of it, Reitz said she thinks she could use her past experience to help future generations of students.
And he would repeat that at every opportunity. That sentiment is now a guiding principle of our movement and is at the heart of the move toward community-supported sheltering, an approach that, among other things, enlists local animal lovers to foster and rehome pets. The other day, I came across a great story that highlights the energy and creativity of one caring and motivated individual, whose efforts will soon safely place a foster pet. Meet Christine Clauder, a foster caregiver who found herself in a challenging situation with a rambunctious though very cute young dog named Hank. Christine found Hank sitting in the middle of traffic in an industrial section of Houston, Texas. Concerned about his safety, she opened her car door and in he jumped  a bit hungry and dirty, but a totally lovable rascal. An experienced volunteer at Abandoned Animal Rescue in Texas, she decided to foster him. While getting Hank cleaned up and ready for adoption, Christine got to know him and his endearing and sometimes annoying quirks. She took an approach that not many would, creating a satirical website to display the good, the bad and the ugly reality of life with Hank  using some very colorful language. This direct approach has attracted millions of people (not to mention national news outlets) who appreciate Christines efforts to describe the adventure of fostering a dog with behavioral quirks. While some might consider it a risky move, her honest approach has won the heart of many and has turned Hank into a celebrity. Christine partnered with a local rescue organization to handle adoption applications (Hank has a bunch), so it wont be long before hes in a great new home. Christine and Hank have made the news, but she is not unique. Individuals across the country are fostering pets for shelters and rescue groups and, like Christine, after their own serendipitous rescues. There are foster programs for dogs and puppies, cats and kittens, bunnies and birds, and even horses. Whats so cool about Christines warts-and-all approach is that she tells Hanks story with obvious affection and humor. In a normal shelter setting, a dog like Hank would be bouncing off the walls, would show poorly to potential adopters and would get more hyped up the longer he remained there. Being able to tell the story of a real-life relationship, as Christine has done, is just not possible for a shelter, no matter how well-intentioned, and thats why community-supported sheltering is getting so much traction. For a homeless pet awaiting adoption, there is no better place than a temporary home with kind, understanding people. In the middle of the pandemic, communities everywhere stepped up to the plate and were there for animals more than ever. As a result, fewer animals were killed in shelters in 2020 than in any previous year. Right now, as our lives get busier, it is crucial that we continue that progress. Never forget the positive impact that you can have: Fostering or adopting even one pet or volunteering a few hours of your time at your local shelter, can make a significant difference.
DES MOINES  A Council Bluffs mother is suing the state to end its ban on schools enacting face mask requirements.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a district court in Polk County on behalf of Frances Parr, who has two young children who attend Council Bluffs public schools.

The suit names Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, state Public Health Director Kim Garcia and state Education Director Ann Lebo as defendants.

The ban was approved by the Republican-led Iowa Legislature and signed into law by Reynolds, also a Republican, in May.

The suit says the ban violates the rights of Parrs children and other students to attend school without a threat of contracting COVID-19 or the delta variant, the symptoms of which could lead to hospitalization, permanent physical harm, emotional harm and even death.

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The suit notes the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends all students and staff wear face masks inside school buildings and includes a statement from the childrens pediatrician, who wrote of the dangers of children who contract COVID-19.
The 18-year-old picked up her friend from 17th and R streets  a block from the Fiji house  and took her to Bryan Medical Center, Reed said, where they reported a sexual assault to Lincoln police, who turned over the investigation to UNL police.

Reed said the accuser identified a 19-year-old man as the person who sexually assaulted her.

If youre a young man who somehow thinks this is cool  think again. It is unacceptable, Green said in his statement to students. No means no. And if you violate that, and we can prove it  you have no place on our campus.

Police are employing trauma-informed investigating, Reed said, moving at the pace of the accuser with techniques focused on providing care, comfort and empathy for the 17-year-old.

The university said there is no evidence to corroborate reports that the accuser was found lying on the fraternity houses lawn with cuts and bruises.

Rumors that the accused man, who has not been arrested or charged, had fled the country were not true, according to university and police sources. The student has left UNL, returned home and hired an attorney.

UNL police said a widespread screenshot purportedly showing the student fleeing to a tropical foreign country is fake.
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People that I know from the Sandhills seem more peaceful and serene. There is something about them that is calming.

When we stopped to eat, we were quickly joined by half a dozen flies that Himmy chased out of the van, with the exception of one pesky fly. The freeloader enjoyed the ride all the way home.

I was so thankful to be able to say I had been to the Nebraska Sandhills. In my opinion, the word Sandhills doesnt give it justice. People on the East and West coasts and people from big cities have no idea what they are missing. They dont know what its like to travel for miles and see only wide-open spaces under a beautiful sky, where cows quietly graze and drink fresh water pumped out of the ground by windmills.

The day could not have been more perfect. We got out of the van to walk the Cowboy Trail that led to the bridge over the Niobrara River. The view was gorgeous. Below us were trees and the flowing water glistened in the sun. It was 96 degrees, but I didnt care.

We left for Valentine at 10 in the morning and arrived home at 7:30 p.m. Needless to say, it was a very long day for me, but I expected that, and it was worth it.

Everyone should drive through the Sandhills at least once in their life. There is nothing else like it in the world. It is the perfect picture of Gods pristine land.
The scene at the Kabul airport during Moultons visit. Photo: Courtesy of Seth Moulton

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Seth Moulton saw things during his trip to Afghanistan that were truly out of this world. He spent about 15 hours on Tuesday at the airport in the capital city of Kabul, the epicenter of Americas messy withdrawal from the nearly 20-year war there. The Massachusetts congressman described the scene as the most visceral, raw view of humanity that I will probably ever see in my life, with thousands upon thousands of refugees camped out and desperate to fly out of the country, which was overtaken by fundamentalist Taliban forces. The experience left Moulton more convinced than ever that President Joe Biden made grave mistakes in his handling of the exit.

Moulton was on his way back from Kabul in the wee hours of Thursday morning when he spoke to New York about the trip, during a layover in Madrid.

The thing that everybody needs to understand, even if you completely agree with the Biden administrations decision to withdraw, the way they have handled this has been a total fucking disaster, said Moulton, who traveled to the country with Representative Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan. It will be measured in bodies, because a lot of people are dying because they cant get out.

That brutal toll began earlier this month as crowds of civilians and Taliban fighters rushed the airport. Biden ultimately ordered 6,000 troops to secure the facility following shocking images of terrified people hanging onto planes as they took off. The surge allowed the U.S. to rapidly evacuate over 100,000 people, including special visa holders, ethnic minorities, and others who faced persecution by the Taliban. But the violence and danger has not ended. On Thursday, as Moulton and Meijer made their way back to the States, two suicide bombers and gunmen staged attacks at the aiport that killed at least 60 Afghans and 12 American troops. The Pentagon has blamed fighters associated with the militant group ISIS-K for the latest violence.

Amid clearly dangerous conditions at the airport, many of Moultons fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill saw his clandestine trip as blatant attention-seeking that only added to the risky atmosphere on the ground. However, Moulton insisted the mission brought him valuable insights, including about dire conditions at an airfield in Qatar, where refugees are being held and where the congressmen stopped en route back to the States.

Refugees are going to start dying today if we dont get them help in places like Qatar. Thousands will get slaughtered by the Taliban if we dont somehow devise a plan to get them out before we leave, Moulton said. These are all things that the administration has failed to do, and I know that because the people on the ground are telling me.

The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Moulton, 42, has been no stranger to high-profile battles with members of his party since he first took office in 2014. Hes a broad-shouldered, square-jawed former Marine captain with notably sharp elbows and ambitions. Last year, he mounted both a long-shot presidential campaign and an unsuccessful effort to oust House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

His military experience means the threat to Afghan refugees, many of whom were granted special immigrant visas for helping American troops during the war, is personal for Moulton. During four deployments in Iraq, he relied extensively on local translators. Moulton later worked to help multiple interpreters emigrate to the U.S. and opened his home to Mohammed Harba, one of the interpreters he worked closely with in Iraq.

I wouldnt be alive today without people like Mohammed. I put my life in their hands every single day I went out the gate, and I knew that they put their lives in mine, Moulton said of his time in Iraq. I promised him, I will have your back. We will protect your family  and we will never leave you behind.

Since his arrival in Congress, Moulton has repeatedly pressed to have the special immigrant visa program, which was started in 2009, expanded or expedited. His efforts took on new urgency this year as Biden prepared to follow through on an Afghanistan withdrawal plan initiated by former president Donald Trump. In May, Moulton called the delays in processing SIVs an immediate crisis, as he urged the Biden administration to move applicants to an American territory for processing ahead of the exit.

We do not have time to fix the SIV process before we withdraw, Moulton said. We need to evacuate our Afghan allies and friends before they are slaughtered in the wake of our departure.

Over the next three months, Moulton backed a plan for evacuation and raised the issue in hearings and on the House floor. He also claims to have brought the issue up in multiple private meetings with administration officials.

Moulton and Meijer, who served as an intelligence adviser in the Iraq War, have not been alone in banging the drum about issues with the SIV program and looming dangers ahead of the withdrawal. Last June, the State Departments inspector general conducted a review of the program, which found multiple obstacles that would prevent most visas from being issued in nine months or less. The audit described the program as generally understaffed and noted no one was appointed to oversee and direct it throughout the Trump administration. Multiple lawmakers have joined Moulton in recent months in urging the Biden administration to expedite the visa process.

As the situation morphed into an immediate crisis with the Talibans swift advance earlier this month, Moulton and Meijer have also joined efforts to evacuate individual Afghans. These unofficial rescue operations have been coordinated in Slack channels and group chats on encrypted messaging apps with current and former Hill staffers, members of the military, and others. One current staffer who has helped arrange multiple successful evacuations in recent days said the two congressmen have been very involved in this.

For those trying to aid evacuations, getting people past the crowds outside the gates of the Kabul airport is a major obstacle. Moulton said hes worked to get a few people over the wall. When he arrived in Kabul, he could hear gunshots outside the gates along with with the cries of people on both sides of the divide. Inside, Moulton said he saw troops and diplomats trying to make the best of a bad situation, but who were overwhelmed by the difficulty of the task and the number of people they wouldnt be able to save.

Ive never seen more people cry, just salty Marines, seasoned State Department veterans just break down in tears, talking about their work, and hugging me, and saying thank you for coming, Moulton said.

According to Moulton, one of the exhausted officials summed up the situation by saying, I know this had to end someday, but none of us wanted it to end like this. Moulton said that by raising alarm bells about the evacuation in recent months, he had hoped to avoid this very situation. He described watching those warnings go ignored as an unfolding disaster.

I did everything I could. I mean, I would get on these calls with like a small number of members of Congress, mostly Democrats, who would all very politely say, We love you Biden administration, but can you do a little bit more on this, he recalled. I would be the only one who would just say starkly, Here are the stakes. People are going to die.

Moultons years of work on the issue and personal involvement complicate the idea that hes simply rushing into the spotlight, but he clearly relishes playing the role of hero. As he discussed the trip with New York, Moulton read text messages he received from people praising his work and quoted anonymous officials who he claimed had privately expressed appreciation for his demands for more urgent action from the White House.

Following one of these meetings with administration officials, Moulton said a deputy secretary of State pulled him aside and said, Thank you for all your advocacy and thank you for pushing us so hard. Moulton believes leaders at the Defense Department and diplomats were ready and willing to begin a mass evacuation more quickly. They were never given the order, or probably more accurately, they were stopped from doing this, Moulton said.

Moulton said he doesnt know why the evacuation didnt begin earlier. However, its something hed absolutely like to investigate as part of a congressional commission. With deadly violence outside the airport and thousands of potential refugees stranded, Moulton is adamant that the administration has created a disaster of epic proportions.

And Moulton lays the blame squarely at the feet of the White House. In contrast to the president and his Cabinet, Moulton said a lot of people below the top get this, as U.S. diplomats and leaders in the Pentagon have relied on translators as well throughout their careers.

While Moulton might have allies behind the scenes, the public response from leaders in Washington following his trip has been overwhelmingly negative.

Shortly after news of Moulton and Meijers secret mission broke on Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to members of Congress to reiterate that the Departments of Defense and State have requested that Members not travel to Afghanistan and the region during this time of danger. On Wednesday, a Hill source said Pentagon officials led with a request for members to avoid travel to the region during a briefing call with congressional staffers. The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment. When asked about the trip during his briefing on Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said they were not encouraging VIP visits and that, by virtue of their presence, Moulton and Meijer took time away from what we had been planning to do that day.

However, Moulton claimed he and Meijer repeatedly tried to obtain permission for an official congressional delegation, or codel, before the emergency at the airport began.

Peter and I had been talking for a while about going to Kabul because all our official requests had been denied  which I had made many over months, not just recently, he said.

Monica Matoush, a spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committees Democrats, said they had not received a formal request from Moulton.

The House Armed Services Committees policy for congressional travel requires a formal letter from the member requesting international travel at least two weeks prior to the requested travel date, Matoush said. To date and since the beginning of the year, the committee has not received any formal requests for congressional travel to Afghanistan.

A spokesperson for Moulton said he did not make a written request because he was eventually informed at the staff level that a formal request would not be approved.

Once they decided to go rogue, Moulton said the pairs visit had the lightest footprint of any codel in history.

Our goal was to be as efficient as possible at finding the truth and saving a few lives, he explained.

To that end, the pair flew commercial to the United Arab Emirates before boarding military planes to Kabul. The C-17 cargo jets being used for the airlift are largely empty on the way into Afghanistan. When they left Kabul, Moulton said that he and Meijer traveled in vacant space in the crew cabin located behind the cockpit, noting these spaces are not accessible to refugees, before boarding commercial a flight out of the Middle East. Moulton, who has made multiple prior codels to Afghanistan, said it was easy for him to make the travel arrangements.

Look, man, when youve been in the Middle East as long as I have, its not that hard to find a friend who can get you on a flight, he said.

A senior Democratic House staffer said Moulton and Meijers trip had all of official Washington talking about them.

Ive been arguing with staffer friends about this since the minute the news broke, said the staffer, who requested anonymity to discuss the situation candidly. I am very much of the thinking this is a crazy thing to do.

The staffer said they know Moulton really cares about this and that there are some on the Hill who think this was amazing. Personally, though, they dont believe it would have been possible for the trip to avoid wasting resources.

Once you have a member of Congress there, someone is going to have to babysit you  The worst-case scenario is that bad actors find out who they are and try to use them as leverage, the staffer said of Moulton and Meijer. You have to be able to not make the story about you.

Meijer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In their initial statement announcing the trip, Moulton and Meijer said, As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch. The staffer doesnt buy that justification.

I dont feel super-convinced that they are returning with some kind of special info that changes everything, said the staffer. What Moulton is saying when he comes back sounds remarkably similar to what Moulton was saying before he went there.

Another Democratic Hill aide, who also requested anonymity to offer a frank assessment of the situation, similarly said the trip was reckless.

I dont doubt their intentions of also wanting to assist the appropriate people, the aide said. There are ways to do that from home thats not putting yourself into a literal combat zone.

While they agreed that the SIV program had been handled badly, the aide said that considering the wall-to-wall coverage prior to the visit, they questioned whether Moulton and Meijer werent just overly eager to get into the spotlight.

Was this driven by wanting to be at the center of a story that was finally getting the attention that this deserves? the aide asked.

Moulton angrily brushed off the critiques.

Theres nobody in Congress who understands our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan better than me. So for a colleague to second-guess this decision is pretty hypocritical and it just shows how many people dont understand whats at stake, Moulton said. The overwhelming response from everyone we met on the ground was, Thank you for coming. Thats what matters. What matters are the people on the ground, not the critics in Congress.

Moulton argued that oversight was necessary, particularly since foreign journalists have largely left Kabul. He also believes he gained vital information from the trip. Prior to visiting Kabul, Moulton thought Biden needed to extend the U.S. troop presence beyond the August 31 deadline that the president has set for withdrawal. Based on what he saw in Afghanistan, Moulton said getting along with the Taliban is a diplomatic necessity that makes getting out on time imperative.

We understood as one only can from being on the ground in Kabul that we were never going to finish this in time, even if we extended to September 11th, he explained. As crazy as this sounds, we need a positive relationship with the Taliban to have any hope of getting out the thousands of people well leave behind down the road.

The journey home through Qatar also alerted Moulton to what he described as deadly conditions for refugees. He said Afghans there are packed in at an air base in 120-degree heat literally sheltering under aircraft wings, which is not safe, by the way.

Theyre in hangars, some of them are just on the tarmac, and its crazy, he said.

Photos provided by Moulton and another source showed refugees in Qatar crowded shoulder to shoulder at an airfield. Some sat on the hard ground, which was visibly dirty.

Photo: Courtesy of anonymous Hill staffer

Despite what he described as heroic efforts by U.S. troops and officials at the airfield, Moulton said the situation is potentially deadly. According to the congressman, One of the many State Department officials who couldnt stop thanking us for coming said, You have to tell the administration to call off their lawyers and stop preventing donations of food and water to these refugees in Qatar, because theyre going to start dying tomorrow. Moulton claimed he relayed that warning to Democratic House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith, who immediately passed it on to administration officials. Smith and the White House did not respond to questions about this incident.

Thats just one example of how critical congressional oversight is at this moment, said Moulton.

Moultons outspoken criticism of the Biden administrations handling of the withdrawal has put him and his Democratic colleagues in a politically awkward position. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed Pelosis view that members of Congress should not go to the region to avoid taking focus from the military, but he also expressed some sympathy for Moulton and Meijers concerns over the handling of the withdrawal.

Theyre both veterans and theyre both frustrated, McCarthy said.

Moulton said he hates criticizing Biden, a fellow Democrat. However, he also said, If telling the truth is whats required to save a few lives, then its worth all the bad politics in the world.

I agree with 95 percent of his agenda. Im still onboard with him and I believe this was a massive mistake, Moulton said. But I come to all of this as a Marine first and politician second. Thats always who Ive been and its always who Ill be.

And there are people on Capitol Hill who are on his side. A Hill staffer who has been heavily involved in the ad hoc efforts to evacuate Afghans said they felt both Moulton and Meijer had abandoned party lines and are operating purely as military men.

Theres nothing disingenuous about this, the staffer said. I think what they did was brave, and it was necessary.
Editors note: After reading my July 25 column about a family road trip to Wisconsin, Mike Ecks wrote me this letter about driving his daughter to Auburn University from their home in California. Enjoy.

My daughter Summer and I had just spent four days driving across this wonderful country that we have the privilege to call home. Our journey started at our residence in San Diego County. We drove to Scottsdale to have lunch with my aunt at her favorite spot of Los Olivos. She had not been out to eat in two years due to health issues and Covid. Our journey continued that afternoon to Las Cruces, N.M., driving through the start of the monsoon conditions that would flood out Scottsdale that evening.

Day Two we traveled to San Antonio. After checking in late we went along the riverwalk and in the morning we saw the Alamo. Our travels in Texas continued to Katy where we had lunch with a good friend who has a passion for rescuing dogs.

Travels continued along Interstate 10 for a dinner at Palmettos on the Bayou in Slidell. The new chef there used to be at Commanders Palace in New Orleans, and the dinner was delicious with our server sitting down at our table to show us photos of her recent trip to Hawaii for a friends wedding.


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Well for one there wasnt social media in 2003

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Oh yeah I forgot about that lol

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He harassed and groped women, she's a brat who has no talent, and they're both success stories. Hallelujah.

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How does Jennifer not have talent? She's not to my personal taste, but at her prime she was an amazing singer, dancer, and actress.

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Now sis ... she is not an amazing singer at all. Acting is just okay. Where she truly excels is business savvy. She represents American capitalism to me. She's actually a lot closer to Kim Kardashian than, say, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron or any number of her peers from that acting generation. I feel she would do anything to secure the bag ... from launching perfumes to stealing songs from Mariah Carey.

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The only thing amazing about Jlo is her hustle. None of her skills add up to a top tier entertainer

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She was a decent dancer. But singing and acting? Sis.

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respectfully disagree with amazing singer

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she's good enough, but has an amazing work ethic. the work ethic will carry you through mire that just talent anyway.

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Now I want to go reread The Unbearable Sadness Of Ben Affleck because I remember being fascinated by how Anne Helen Petersen dissected all of his relationship. IDK how well it'll hold up but it was a fun read back in 2016

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That was a great read, thanks.

Yes, ONTD reads when it allow us to procrastinate.



I now realize why I hate portmanteaus so much- it means that two actual people are stuck in (what in tv would be) the natural narrative or plot course for a couple:

once in a partnership all plot points will be about their partnership, they have stopped existing as individuals and are now a weird mutant fusion devoid of charisma.

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Wow thats a really good article.

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This was a great read.

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Make a post! =)

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The companion article on Jennifer Garner is pretty good too

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How did that ruin ben Oscar winner affleck's career?





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http://popdirt.com/jennifer-lopez-makes-bathroom-request-to-ben-affleck/11966/



Also I agree with your comment. His career was fine and anything that happened to it was and is on him.



Edited at 2021-08-28 06:26 pm (UTC) Im an old and Im here to say that it wasnt the video that was talked about as much as that fucking story about her sending him to find a softer roll of toilet paper while she was doing her business in a cafe loo. This was rehashed in every single article about them until they were dunzo. That and Gigli.Also I agree with your comment. His career was fine and anything that happened to it was and is on him.

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He was consistently working, his poor career choices had little to do w her

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Dont be obtuse. At the time of the relationship, every movie he starred in was a colossal flop. It took him 7 years to build up goodwill again in a Hollywood and turn in a good performance in The Town for him to have his career renaissance.



Yes, he was consistently working but it was all b-level shit like Paycheck, Gigli, Smokin Aces, Surviving Christmas, Man About Town, etc. Nothing on the level of his previous level of film.

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who could possibly care, they're both irrelevant. this whole pr tactic is so dated.

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Noones that invested in these two. He's a twat asshole and she's a narcissist.

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Stop fucking calling it Bennifer 2.0. Its Bennifer 3.0 and those are the facts.

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Bennifer 1.0- the Reboot



Everything is getting rebooted

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YES YOU GET IT.

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I agree there was racism/colorism under the guise of harmless gossip from their first go-round. Also, this relationship came after the PDiddy/club shooting I think? So theres that additional drama layer.



For me, especially this time around, Im always down to clown on their rabid, obvious thirst for fame and not each other. She would be fine with ARod if he hadnt been less choosy with his hookups, shes gotta maintain that public perfection gloss.

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damn I completely forgot about the club shooting thing. I feel so old now.

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Ill join you in the Feelin Old club. The youths here dont understand how epic JLos butt was considered by the press in a pre-Kardashian world. Her career was bubbling under (mostly due to Out of Sight critical acclaim), but her in the Versace dress at the Grammys with Diddy is when her career truly took off because even the national news programs mentioned her scandalous dress the next evening which is all very quaint now! Then she quickly dumped Diddy after the shooting arrest and off she went to Affleck.

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Thoughts:



1. JLO wore her best outfits while she was dating PDiddy



2. It blows my mind that she was in the Thats the way love goes vid



3. Here are my JLo underrated tunes:



JLo - Que Hiciste



LL Cool J - Control Myself



Wisin y Yandel - Follow the Leader







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In 2021....it's still a joke to me.

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lol I love how media just literally makes up lies out of their ass.



Who is thinking this debacle is a redemption??? It's the biggest joke of 2021.



Edited at 2021-08-28 08:52 pm (UTC)

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in 2003 Bennifer was a joke and in 2021 they are a tired joke



their desperation was bad enough the first time around but you could say they were young and hunger for fame then but now its just pathetic how calculated it all is to stay relevant.



this is all punishment for not giving Ben an oscar (for directing) for Argo and Jlo for Hustlers. you did this to us Hollywood



Edited at 2021-08-28 05:43 pm (UTC)

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Think I was too young during Ben Affleck's early days of being a "heart throb" and being in tabloid magazines for that. I most associate him as a fat guy with a really bad tattoo. It's been weird to see him consistently in the news over the past two...three? years for whoever he's dating.

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I maintain the only time Affleck came close to being a heartthrob was Armageddon. Even by Pearl Harbor the girls had moved on to Josh Hartnett.

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I have no memory of this movie whatsoever.

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umm I think you mean Josh Hot-nett!



god Pearl Harbor was awful

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whatever happened to josh hartnett?? i feel like he disappeared of the face of the earth.

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That narrative was the one the press embraced: Lopez as a social-climbing man-eater, and Affleck as her oblivious pawn. "I think it has to do with race and class, the fact that Im white and shes Puerto Rican. Thats whats underneath, although nobody says it, because its not politically correct."



Was this a thing???? This was years ago so I could be wrong but what I remember most was people saying they were both desperate for attention.





Edited at 2021-08-28 05:44 pm (UTC)

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There was absolutely a vibe of JLo being beneath him.

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smdh @ people who thought she was beneath him



What I remember most about their engagement was gigli, the iconic Jenny from the block video and just the general feeling that they both wanted attention. Oh and of course that engagement ring.

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I remember that she was seen as a tacky latin woman who slept her way up in the business.

I have no memory of Affleck, because he was always so very bland in a slightly brooding way. Noone really cared about him.

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It absolutely was a thing and she was objectified racially too. I was graduating high school when If you had my love got huge and I was instantly put off by her being marketed to the male gaze and the racist thing with her ass. And to answer your question, she was very much a pop R n B gal and she got her hits by collaborating with black artists. She was absolutely seen as beneath wunderkid white boy Affleck.

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It's not giving what they think it's giving.

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Im curious if Ben and Jlo were alwuas in contact post break up in the 2000s. Like they both moved on married other people, but were they talking when Alex and jlo were together?

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I'm pretty sure they were because he stayed close to JLo's ma.

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Apparently they love to gamble together which is not the best for a gambling addict like Affleck.

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Later, Affleck would say that appearing in that Jenny From the Block video ruined his career.



How exactly???? Wasn't he picking bad film projects and maybe that's what slowed down his career even tho I don't think his career was ever ruined.

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This year, the district has about 500 bus routes. Sallis estimated that 50 to 60 of those routes are being affected by the driver shortage.

We care deeply about our students, and we want to get every student to school on time, he said. However, the reality of it is we do have several routes, 50 to 60, that are running behind or have been late.

In extreme cases, Sallis said students can be an hour late getting to school or back home. In other cases, students might miss breakfast but not actual class time.

He said district officials work closely with families and the school to make sure that students are fed if they do miss breakfast.

Sallis said the district is consolidating routes. That could mean that a bus driver picks up one group of students, transports them and then comes back for more students. Or it could mean combining two routes on one bus.

Either way, he said the buses are going to be delayed.

Sallis thinks that the district will start to see some staggered relief after Labor Day but that the driver shortage will continue.
The U.S. Supreme Courts decision Thursday to throw out a federal eviction moratorium will have a devastating impact on thousands of Nebraskans struggling to pay rent and at risk of eviction, Legal Aid of Nebraska said Friday.

But legal and financial help for Nebraskans facing eviction is still available.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reimposed the moratorium on Aug. 3. It was issued to temporarily halt evictions in counties with substantial and high levels of COVID-19 transmissions and was to last until Oct. 3.

But the high court said the agency lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The courts action ended protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the country who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.

In Nebraska, legal and financial help for those facing eviction is still available.

One avenue for help is the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which provides money to eligible renters and landlords to cover back rent, future rent and bills for utilities, internet and cellphones.
As of Friday, there were 211 children with COVID-19 in Florida hospitals. Although the number of pediatric cases have increased, such cases still only represent 1.3% of the total patient load.

In Columbia County, which now has the state's highest cases of COVID-19 per capita, 17-year-old JoKeria Graham died just days before she started her senior year of high school.

The teen, who loved taking care of kids and called her grandparents daily to check on them or help at their office, was in quarantine at her Lake City home after testing positive for the virus shortly before school started, her grandmother Tina Graham said. She seemed to be on the mend and asked her grandparents to come to her house and bring her breakfast. They were still on the phone with her when she collapsed in the bathroom.

She was saying, I cant breathe, I cant breathe,' Graham said.

JoKeria, who died earlier this month, was buried in her cap and gown, her grandmother said.
Biden said after the devastating attack that the U.S. would not be intimidated, and our mission will go on." But he also acknowledged the limits of what can be done as the U.S. focuses on safe passage for Americans, while countless others remain, many fearful for their futures.

Getting every single person out is  cant be guaranteed of anybody," Biden said.

In the race against time, the lawmakers are stepping up where the other branches of the U.S. government have maxed out. Its infuriating, emotional work, the rare undertaking that crosses party lines, Republicans and Democrats working around the clock to help the friends, families and loved ones of their constituents  and helping the U.S. keep its word.

In Northern Virginia, the office of Democratic Rep. Don Beyer reports that the number of constituent requests coming in  more than 100 a day  is what they would typically have in a full month. The area is home to many Afghans as well as military personnel and defense contractors, some with ties to the region. In the adjacent congressional district, the office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly reports that staff has submitted the names of nearly 10,000 Americans and Afghan interpreters and others to the State Department for consideration.
But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of his release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.

Sirhan, whose hair is now white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after hes served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.

The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.
What has happened in Burt County is representative of challenges across rural parts of the state, where there are large shortages of nurses, doctors, and techs, and where many critical medical treatments are becoming harder to access. Every single county in the state, except for Douglas and Lancaster, is designated as a shortage area for at least one type of primary care provider.

Western, northeastern, and parts of south-central Nebraska are most adversely affected, as only 39 counties of the states 93 have an OB-GYN, a huge drop from 49 just two years previous. A pregnant woman in a place such as Arthur will have to take a four-hour round trip to North Platte to see the nearest obstetrician.

In the absence of a critical hospital, Burt County is trying to pick up the pieces. Emergency Manager Andrew Donawa has proposed a community paramedic program that would place four trained paramedics in the county. These professionals would work in tandem with volunteer services to ensure patients are stabilized and moved to the nearest medical facility as safely and quickly as possible. This may be a necessary measure to fill the gap where a hospital ought to be. Even so, this solution is no replacement for hospital services, and is necessary only because those crucial services have become unavailable.
I was recently moved by the story of Shelly Wachter, an unvaccinated Nebraskan recovering from COVID in a Lincoln hospital. She did not get the vaccine because the messaging felt political and became white noise, making it difficult to discern the truth. Sorting through the messaging frenzy is hard for patients, and it has been a nightmare for doctors.

It is bizarre that our leaders are failing us in this epochal pandemic. Amazingly, there are still members of Congress who refuse to wear a mask, even as their fellow members and staff have perished from COVID. We have learned some hard lessons from this virus. Some 600,000 U.S. lives lost have taught us that the same measures that protect us from the alpha virus will protect us from the delta variant. Today, virtually all of the very sick and dying COVID patients are unvaccinated. It is not possible to look at this data and come to a different conclusion.
Virus-death truth

Between December 2020 and July 19th, 2021, VAERS received 6,207 reports of death (0.0018% of doses) among people who got a vaccine, but this does not mean the vaccine caused these deaths. Doctors and safety monitors carefully review the details of each case to see if it might be linked to the vaccine. There are three deaths that appear to be linked to blood clots that occurred after people got the J&J vaccine. Since we now know how to correctly treat people who develop these blood clots, future deaths related to this very rare side effect can be prevented. After careful review of the additional data, doctors have decided that there is no evidence at all that the vaccines contributed to the other patient deaths. Nonetheless, the CDC and FDA will continue to investigate every single report of death (and other adverse events) reported to VAERS.
Streetwise - Out for a Walk

by Frank Dunnigan

February 2016

As a veteran walker in the western neighborhoods (having first pounded the pavement between my parents home at 18th Avenue and Vicente Street and the shopping areas of Taraval Street and West Portal Avenue back in the early 1950s with Mom), its always interesting to see how things change. Until recently, the City and County of San Francisco did little more than lay down concrete sidewalks and asphalt pavement, perhaps with an occasional playground drinking fountain, rare bus shelter (Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue) or a wooden bench painted forest-green along Sunset Boulevard. Today, however, municipal government has a vast stockpile of new amenities available for the enjoyment of walkers.

Activating Street Space: Merchandise displays, outdoor cafe and restaurant seating, street fairs and block parties, parklets, and street vendors.



ParkletsThese amenities began to appear circa 2011 in locations such as 3rd Avenue and Clement Street, 37th Avenue and Balboa Street, and along some of the retail portions of Judah, Noriega, and Taraval Streets. By transforming a small number of curbside parking spaces with minimal construction, many neighborhoods now have additional public seating and container plantings that can be enjoyed by everyonethus encouraging pedestrians rather than cars in neighborhood shopping areas. These spots are often located adjacent to bakeries, delis, and coffeehouses, thus creating a bit of a neighborhood social center, while still ensuring quick turnover, as there are generally benches, but no tables. Many merchants thoughtfully provide large water bowls for four-legged visitors.

Cafe and Restaurant SeatingDepending on the width of the sidewalk, established food-service businesses may apply for permission to place their own tables and chairs on the sidewalk adjacent to the business for the exclusive use of their customers.

Street VendorsIndividual vendors may apply for permission to sell food or other goods from mobile carts on public streets.

Street Fairs and Block PartiesPopular since the late 1960s, street fairs continue to enjoy support in many neighborhoods. Individual residents may also join together to request temporary use of a city street for informal gatherings. These temporary street closings (mysteriously called street openings in City-speak) can accommodate large regional events or smaller neighborhood block parties.

Merchandise DisplaysSidewalk displays of merchandise (often produce or books) can enliven a neighborhood walk. City officials monitor such displays to ensure that they do not overwhelm the available sidewalk space or cause unnecessary congestion.

Greening/Storm water Management: Median plantings, street trees, sidewalk landscaping, parking lane planters, permeable pavement, and others.



MediansThe center divides on major streets, officially known as medians have changed considerably in recent years, some for the better and somewell, lets just say that the City and County of San Francisco has had mixed results on this one.



One area that has been vastly improved in recent times is 19th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard. Since the street was widened in 1940, this stretch of California Highway 1 was a long, dismal six-lane stretch of concrete and asphalt. It was vastly improved in 2014 when the median was planted with a variety of small, hardy plantings that seem to be thriving. Its not exactly a scenic parkway, but those plants provide a softening effect and are a vast improvement over the plain concrete center islands that were once home to various bits of trash and lost hubcaps.



On the other hand, Sunset Boulevard from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard represents a mixed bag of results. Since the 1930s, this street has long been a grassy, tree-lined parkway, and its entire length was upgraded about 40 years ago with new lawns and automated sprinklers. In fact, when there was a proposal just a few years later, circa 1975-76, to route a new MUNI streetcar line along the Sunset Boulevard median, there was a huge neighborhood outcry of protest, claiming that the plan would destroy the freshly renovated landscaping. By 2010, that old 1970s landscape was looking pretty sadthe lawns dead and weed-infested, with many of the older trees, planted by WPA crews in the 1930s, beginning to topple over with alarming frequency. A new variety of grass, claimed to be both drought-tolerant and low-maintenance was installed to replace the dead grass. In less than a year, though, neighborhood complaints increased as the newly planted grass began looking worse than what it had replaced. The City then ripped it out and began to replant the median with a variety of plantings, some of which look more attractive than others, though weed control still seems to be something of a challenge. Dead and dying trees are being replaced sporadicallya project that might best have commenced in earnest 20 or 30 years ago.





One area that has been vastly improved in recent times is 19th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard. Since the street was widened in 1940, this stretch of California Highway 1 was a long, dismal six-lane stretch of concrete and asphalt. It was vastly improved in 2014 when the median was planted with a variety of small, hardy plantings that seem to be thriving. Its not exactly a scenic parkway, but those plants provide a softening effect and are a vast improvement over the plain concrete center islands that were once home to various bits of trash and lost hubcaps. On the other hand, Sunset Boulevard from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard represents a mixed bag of results. Since the 1930s, this street has long been a grassy, tree-lined parkway, and its entire length was upgraded about 40 years ago with new lawns and automated sprinklers. In fact, when there was a proposal just a few years later, circa 1975-76, to route a new MUNI streetcar line along the Sunset Boulevard median, there was a huge neighborhood outcry of protest, claiming that the plan would destroy the freshly renovated landscaping. By 2010, that old 1970s landscape was looking pretty sadthe lawns dead and weed-infested, with many of the older trees, planted by WPA crews in the 1930s, beginning to topple over with alarming frequency. A new variety of grass, claimed to be both drought-tolerant and low-maintenance was installed to replace the dead grass. In less than a year, though, neighborhood complaints increased as the newly planted grass began looking worse than what it had replaced. The City then ripped it out and began to replant the median with a variety of plantings, some of which look more attractive than others, though weed control still seems to be something of a challenge. Dead and dying trees are being replaced sporadicallya project that might best have commenced in earnest 20 or 30 years ago. Street TreesThe greening of San Francisco began in the 1960s, with small street trees planted by Friends of the Urban Forest, and located along neighborhood shopping areas, such as West Portal Avenue. Unfortunately, some of the choices made in those early days included some varieties that were not particularly well-suited to sidewalk planting areas. Trees with invasive roots were sometimes used, with unfortunate long-term results, and other trees were allowed to grow to second-floor and higher elevations, thus diminishing the architectural effect of bay windows that were intended to bring in more daylight. As some of these trees begin to exceed 30 and 40 years old, there has been renewed discussion about long-term maintenance issues, for although the City was involved in planting great numbers of them in the past, the responsibility for the trees was eventually assigned to individual property owners.

Pedestrian Safety/Traffic Calming: Crosswalks, curb ramps, bulb-outs, chicanes, medians/islands, speed humps, and traffic circles.



Pedestrian Refuge IslandsMost of Noriega Street is an over-wide thoroughfare that was laid out for the possibility of a never-built streetcar line (public transit on Noriega has always involved MUNI bus service), so this area has long posed a challenge to pedestrians. Crossing from one side to the other, especially in the busy retail areas clustered between 20th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, has long been especially dangerous. Circa 2011, the City began to address this problem by installing what are known as pedestrian refuge islands at many of the intersections, where pedestrians can pause safely at the mid-point of the crosswalk when navigating such a wide thoroughfare. Each of the small islands has been planted with native grasses and other drought-tolerant plantings. Overall, the project along Noriega has been a big improvementboth in visual effect and in traffic safety.



In order to slow traffic on another nearby street, the City installed another of these small pedestrian refuge islands smack in the middle of the 2400 block of 20th Avenue, just south of Taraval Street back in 2011. Several motorists, not anticipating this new feature, managed to drive over the top of it, and some damaged cars had to be towed off. The City later added yellow lines on the pavement, plus warning signs mounted on steel posts and orange plastic cones on the island to provide further warning to motorists to slow down. At least a couple of drivers managed to plow down the metal signs and keep going. This particular traffic calming experiment was eventually removed in 2015.





In order to slow traffic on another nearby street, the City installed another of these small pedestrian refuge islands smack in the middle of the 2400 block of 20th Avenue, just south of Taraval Street back in 2011. Several motorists, not anticipating this new feature, managed to drive over the top of it, and some damaged cars had to be towed off. The City later added yellow lines on the pavement, plus warning signs mounted on steel posts and orange plastic cones on the island to provide further warning to motorists to slow down. At least a couple of drivers managed to plow down the metal signs and keep going. This particular traffic calming experiment was eventually removed in 2015. Bulb-OutsThis design (also known as curb extensions) continues the sidewalk into the parking lane and the intersection. By doing so, the distance between opposite sides of the street is shortened and pedestrians are able to cross more quickly, while remaining highly visible to oncoming traffic. Depending on a particular street configuration, some bulb-outs also provide space for landscaping, street trees, benches, trash receptacles and other amenities. Generally located near corners, bulb-outs seldom require the loss of any on-street parking spaces.

Parking Lane PlantersBy removing a single parking space and extending the sidewalk with a 5-foot stretch of landscaped space, there is a visual narrowing of the roadway, which has the much desired effect of slowing down traffic to a speed that is safe for pedestrians in neighborhood shopping areas.

ChicanesA chicane involves multiple mid-block islands or curb extensions that are designed to force vehicle traffic into a weaving pattern, rather than a straight line, thus discouraging motorists from speeding on residential streets. These installations are often difficult to implement, since the City is careful to avoid such installations on streets with MUNI lines, as well as in areas near hospitals that receive regular ambulance traffic. Overall, chicanes are loved by some residents and despised by others. Rather ironically, the word chicane comes from the French chicaner meaning to argue or to prevent justice.

meaning to argue or to prevent justice. Speed HumpsNo longer called bumps since the effect has been slightly diminished to prevent possible damage to vehicles or passengers, speed humps are generally installed by the City in response to neighborhood requests for help in slowing traffic through residential areas. Speed humps are practical only on streets with fewer than 6,000 daily vehicles.

Traffic CirclesLikely the most controversial of all street projects. Although San Franciscans, especially in the western neighborhoods, have long understood the conceptthink of the St. Francis Wood intersection at Santa Ana Way and St. Francis Boulevard with the massive fountain that was often filled with bubbles from dishwashing liquid. Most people know how to navigate around this, but when similar circles have been installed elsewhere in the city, motorists have demonstrated confusion, anger, and sometimes just plain poor judgement.

Reclaiming Roadway Space: On-street bicycle parking, living alleys, and pedestrian-only streets/alleys.



Living AlleysThese are generally complex projects, that often limit motor vehicles, but do not ban them outright. Maiden Lane off Union Square is a classic example that has been in place for more 50 years, with limited hours for vehicle access, and then conversion for several hours to a pedestrian-only environment. Living alleys often involve various combinations of streetscape elements, such as special sidewalk paving, distinctive street lighting, benches, and cafe/restaurant seating.

On-Street Bicycle ParkingRather than restricting pedestrian access to limited sidewalk space with the installation of bike racks, an alternate solution has been to convert a single curb-side parking space to bicycles-only parking by bolting a metal bike rack to the street itself, and protecting the space from vehicle damage/intrusion by installing sturdy planter boxes on each end.

Other Streetscape Elements: New items include special sidewalk paving, street lighting, seating, banners, informational kiosks, fixed pedestal news racks, public art, public toilets, transit shelters, trash cans, etc.



Street LightingCity government maintains an extensive catalog of different types of street lighting. The so-called Path of Gold three-lamp fixtures on Market Street are unique to their setting, as are the similar, but smaller, two-lamp fixtures on downtown commercial streets in the Union Square area. Many individual neighborhoods are now working with the City to replace the harsh mercury vapor streetlights that were widely used in the 1960s with smaller fixtures, more suited to providing greater sidewalk illumination for pedestrians.

BannersBanners lend a festive air to commercial strips as well as to major thoroughfares like Nineteenth Avenue. Often used to advertise events (deYoung Museum exhibitions, Fleet Week, etc.), they are also available to public and private organizations to advertise their own events (Lowell High Schools 50 years at its Lake Merced campus in 2013, the 150th anniversary of St. Ignatius in 2005). Sponsors pay the City a fee for a one-month-long display of such banners.

Water Bottle Refill StationsOne of the newest sidewalk amenities, water bottle refill stations, provide a tremendous convenience, but without the sanitary concerns or maintenance costs of drinking fountains. The program, begun in 2010, now has more than 36 locations on the streets of San Francisco, plus additional spots on the grounds of many public schools.

Public ToiletsAs any walker will attest, this is an essential city service.

While there is always some disagreement about certain aspects of city life, it is generally accepted that most of our neighborhoods have become far more pedestrian-friendly in recent times with these newer items.

Contribute your own stories about western neighborhoods places!
NORMAL  What will the sales tax impact be when Rivian Automotives all-electric vehicles finally come off the west Normal assembly line in September? The answer remains unclear.

"While this remains an outstanding question, the town understands Rivian is currently busy with production and startup, and we know this will be resolved when they start selling vehicles, said Cathy Oloffson, a town of Normal spokeswoman.

Oloffson added, "The town isn't interested in getting deeper into hypotheticals because ultimately, this isn't something the town controls."

Community leaders say the company's contributions to the area economy far outweigh what its customers might generate in sales taxes. But the amount in question could be significant: Depending on how the sales are recorded, the town could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in sales tax proceeds from Rivian vehicles  or none at all.

The reason for the uncertainty is that Rivian's business model bypasses dealerships, instead selling and delivering the all-electric vehicles directly to consumers. Pre-orders started in November and a fall launch is planned.

At any hour of any day customers can customize, configure and buy an R1T pickup or R1S SUV  no middleman needed. The idea is for vehicles to roll off the line and be delivered directly to driveways.

Several showrooms have opened across the country, but the business model calls for all purchases to be made online. That presents a curveball about where tax money from the pricey vehicles  the inaugural pickup model starts at $67,500  ends up.

In Illinois, consumers are charged one of two kinds of taxes on vehicle purchases. The first is a 6.25% sales tax. The state sends 1% of that to the local municipality and .25% to local county government units in the community where the goods were purchased.

The second is a 6.25% use tax. The state sends 1% of that to the municipality where the vehicle is registered with Illinois Secretary of State.

Typically, dealerships handle the various taxing. But with Rivian, there wont be any dealerships. Everything is sold online, making Rivian both the manufacturer and the retailer.

Where the money ends up will depend on what is considered the location of the sale and where the inventory is. Those details arent being released yet, and a Rivian spokesman declined to comment.

"To our knowledge, it has not been determined if transactions will be recorded as direct sales from the factory here in Normal or if they will be recorded as sales in the locations where customers take delivery," Oloffson said.

Rivian on Friday announced that it has filed for an initial public offering, and Bloomberg reported the company is seeking a roughly $80 billion in valuation.

Follow the money

That means there are several possible scenarios when it comes to the taxes, based on overlapping factors.

For example, Rivian's online sales model means Illinois consumers would be subjected to a 6.25% use tax, unless Rivian vehicles are from inventory located in Illinois.

If Rivian vehicles are from the Normal inventory, or if customers took possession of the vehicle in Normal, then customers would pay the sales tax.

"For Rivian internet sales, a rule of thumb would be  if the order is fulfilled from inventory in Normal  the sale is sourced to Normal," said Maura Kownacki, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Revenue.

That would mean 1% of sales tax collected, or about $675 per truck sold and $700 per SUV, would be directed locally. Illinois would also collect thousands of dollars for each sale.

Less clear is what happens if the delivery happens off site, as the Rivian model calls for.

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Thats because sales made in Illinois to out-of-state consumers are generally exempt from the sales tax if the purchaser uses a drive-away permit issued by the secretary of state or affixes their out-of-state plates to the vehicle.

Exceptions are the eight states in which retailers must collect tax from out-of-state purchasers at varying rates.

Rivian could also create a separate legal entity to make online sales and locate its sales inventory out of state, which would change where the sale is considered to have occurred.

"It is important to note that Rivian will bring an overall economic benefit to the region," Kownacki said. "Rivian will contribute to the local economy and create jobs  which extends beyond the use and sales tax."

In the grand scheme, the taxes Illinois collected for the state would be negligible, said Kenneth Kriz, a university distinguished professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield and director of the Institute for Illinois Public Finance.

The reason, he explained, is that the amount would be comparable to someone purchasing a Ford or GMC truck from a car dealership.

But for Normal, shifting that 1% could greatly benefit the town, depending on Rivian sales.

Watch now: COVID vaccines aren't required in every nursing home. Here's what we know about staff vaccinations in McLean County. While the governor on Wednesday made masks mandatory in all long-term care facilities and vaccines mandatory for workers at all state-run congregate or long-term care homes, private entities can still allow staffers to make their own choice about vaccination.

"That local component is going to be extra revenue for Normal; for the state as a whole, it washes out," he said. "That's great for Bloomington-Normal. That's extra revenue you can use to fund your services."

Apart from the question of sales tax, Kriz said the state and local communities would ultimately benefit from Rivian's presence in additional ways.

"I think ultimately what creates revenue for the state is having productive industries in place," he said. "The fact that you have a potentially thriving business in your community is going to be a positive.

"Yes, it might not be a revenue boon in the sense of millions of dollars, but it certainly would benefit the community."

Clarification from Illinois attorney general

The direct-to-consumer plan also has triggered litigation. The Illinois Automobile Dealers Association in March filed a 70-page lawsuit against Rivian, the Illinois Secretary of State and the electric vehicle company Lucid Motors saying state law requires franchised dealers to sell new vehicles.

"The big concern with the direct sales model is how the consumers get the service if they live far away from the vehicle," Pete Sander, president of the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association, said recently in an interview with The Pantagraph. "If there is an accident or a recall, how do they get the parts or the service performed if they live a couple hundred miles away from the dealership?"

Rivian rival Tesla has faced similar legal battles over selling directly to buyers. The company, along with Rivian and Lucid, has mounted efforts to get legislation passed in several states to allow the practice.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued an opinion in July 2020 saying that the state Motor Vehicle Franchise Act does not require a newly established motor vehicle manufacturer to establish and utilize franchise dealerships to sell vehicles. He also stated the act does not prohibit a newly established motor vehicle manufacturer from selling motor vehicles directly to the public.

That move cleared the way for the Secretary of State's Office to issue a dealership license to Rivian to sell directly to the public, said Dave Druker, a department spokesman.

Rivian has been registered as a retailer through the Illinois Department of Revenue since Jan. 1, 2017.

Given the national interest in electric vehicles, a sizable chunk of tax revenue could be in play. This month, President Joe Biden said he wants half of all U.S. vehicles to be electric by 2030 and made in America.

Additionally, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Samsung is in talks about building a battery plant in Normal.

Rivian bought the shuttered Normal Mitsubishi plant in 2017, added another 800,000 square feet and purchased 380 adjacent acres for expansion. Amazon is one of the biggest investors in the company, which has amassed $10.5 billion in funding and is developing plans for a second factory.

Launch of the inaugural truck set for June was pushed back because of a global shortage of microchips. Rivian also is building 100,000 electric delivery vehicles for Amazon.

Contact Sierra Henry at 309-820-3234. Follow her on Twitter: @pg_sierrahenry.

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BLOOMINGTON  Jaylin Bones was pedaling his bike across a west-side street late at night in September 2017 when a car blew the stop sign at an intersection two blocks away and sped toward him.

Within moments, despite swerving, the vehicle struck Bones and kept driving, leaving the teen unconscious on the pavement.

Pursuing the vehicle, a stolen black Toyota, was a Bloomington police squad car.

That accident and the sequence of events that led to it do not mean the city can be held liable for Bones' injuries, a McLean County judge ruled Friday.

Eleventh Circuit Court Judge Paul Lawrence found that Bloomington is protected under a clause within the Tort Immunity Act, a state law that extends amenity to municipalities and their employees in a range of circumstances.

"This court is certainly mindful of the fact that this plaintiff is in a difficult position because he was injured by a runaway driver, certainly at no fault of his own," Lawrence said Friday at the end of an hour-long virtual hearing.

"But this court must make decisions based on applying the law. This court must not base decisions on sympathy," Lawrence said.

The ruling comes more than two years after Bones  who was 17 at the time of the accident  first filed his suit against the city in May 2019, seeking at least $50,000 in damages from the city for the "willful and wanton conduct in the operation of its official vehicle in the exercise of its official duties as police officers."

That conduct included pursuing the stolen vehicle "when the risk of the injury or death to the general public exceeded the benefit of apprehending the suspects" and police failing "to activate their emergency lights and/or siren during the pursuit in conscious disregard for the safety of the general public," the suit claims.

Bones' attorney, Garrett Browne, previously told The Pantagraph that a ruling in favor of the city would be appealed.

The attorney hired to represent the city, James VanRheeden, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon, following the hearing.

At the heart of the attorneys' filings and their arguments Friday was a disagreement over how to interpret a section of the law that extends immunity to police officers  and the municipalities they work for  in cases where injuries result from an "escaped prisoner." Courts in previous cases have defined "prisoner" as someone "held in custody."

In this case, the "escaped prisoner" was the driver of the stolen car, Damarian Andrews, a minor who was later arrested and pleaded guilty in juvenile court.

The officers involved in the case were BPD patrol officers Caleb Zimmerman and Brandt Parsley. Parsley still works for the department, while Zimmerman left in 2018, according to a Pantagraph database of BPD roster lists.

Zimmerman first identified the car as a stolen vehicle on Sept. 27, 2019, while it was traveling west on Washington Street, near Allin Street. After Zimmerman called for additional units, the car around 10:30 p.m. turned onto Jefferson Street and pulled to the curb.

Zimmerman, according to dashcam footage and his deposition, pulled his squad car behind the vehicle and shined a light in its rearview mirror. At that moment four people exited the car and one fled on foot.

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Zimmerman, after asking the remaining passengers, "How come your buddy took off?" and telling them to stay at the scene, walks to the rear of the vehicle. Within seconds, the driver starts the car and begins to pull away at 10:31 p.m.

Zimmerman moves to the driver-side door, attempts to open it and yells at the driver, who nonetheless speeds away.

Within minutes, Parsley identifies and follows the vehicle onto North Allin Street, where it blows the Market Street intersection and continues on. At 10:32 p.m. the vehicle serves, subsequently hitting Bones and leaving him injured on Allin Street, between Locust and Chestnut streets.

VanRheeden, the attorney for the city, on Friday said it was unclear whether Zimmerman ordered the driver to stay in the vehicle after he started it.

Despite that, Zimmerman's attempts to "corral," stand "in close proximity" to and "chase and grab" the vehicle after it began to pull away "paints a picture here, one where it was obvious the driver was held in custody and not allowed to leave at that time," VanRheeden argued.

It was "clear the occupant of the vehicle knew in his own right that he was not allowed to leave," VanRheeden argued, trying to demonstrate how the driver was in Zimmerman's custody, then fled, qualifying him as a "fleeing prisoner."

Browne fully disagreed with that interpretation, explaining how previous courts have ruled that "held in custody" means there must be "some control over (a prisoner's) freedom of movement."

Browne further argued that although previous courts have not ruled it a requirement of holding someone in custody, Zimmerman did not use his squad car's emergency lights.

Zimmerman also "never attempted to touch any of the occupants of the vehicle" and "never touched or displayed his weapon." He also "didn't park his squad car to prevent the vehicle from moving" and "didn't place his body to prevent the vehicle from moving."

Browne also argued that the "entire interaction was less than one minute" and that "at no point does (the driver) stop moving," meaning he was not in Zimmerman's custody and therefore not a fleeing prisoner as defined under the section of the law.

He concluded that were Lawrence to rule in favor of the city, the judge would be adopting a legal standard "never adopted by any other court."

Nonetheless, Lawrence sided with the city, finding that Zimmerman's order to the occupants of the stolen car, including the driver, to not leave the scene was effective, until it wasn't.

The occupants didn't immediately flee after Zimmerman's order, meaning it's "clear no reasonable person felt they were free to leave," meaning they were in Zimmerman's custody.

Once the driver did drive away, ignoring Zimmerman's attempts to stop the vehicle, the driver was breaking from his custody, qualifying him as an "escaping prisoner."

"Therefore, the city of Bloomington is immune from liability under the Tort Immunity Act," Lawrence said.

Contact Timothy Eggert at (309) 820-3276. Follow him on Twitter: @TimothyMEggert

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Scandals Bring Scrutiny

Loretto, a cash-strapped safety-net hospital, changed leadership in 2018, bringing on current President George Miller and installing Dr. Anosh Ahmed as chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

In recent months, its come under scrutiny over a series of scandals.

, where Ahmed lives, as well as a

Ahmed resigned from Loretto in March after Block Club reported ineligible people were vaccinated at places with ties to Ahmed  including

But questions about the hospital have extended past its vaccines.

from the hospital. An investigation in May showed

Block Club and the BGA reported in April that Ahmeds friend and business partner, Sameer Suhail, created

Lorettos board is responsible for overseeing contracts and financial billings to ensure top vendors arent overcharging or charging for services that werent provided.

Lightford has been paid by an insurance firm owned by Loretto, which also paid for her to travel to the Caribbean for firm meetings, records show. Loretto paid for those trips, including stays at a luxury hotel, Lightford said. Lightfords campaign fund also has accepted more than $38,000 in contributions from a key hospital management contractor, records show.

Lightford said in an interview she was not aware of the attorney generals investigation.

I don't know anything about the attorney general's probe, she said.

After the stories disclosing Lorettos contracts with Suhail, Loretto imposed stricter oversight of the hospitals largest contracts, Lightford said.





We made sure we put parameters in place, she said. Now we have to review every contract that's over $750,000 as a result of this.





Lightford said she received $4,800 annually from the hospitals insurance firm and had little say in choosing the Caribbean hotel where she and other Loretto board members stayed.





Loretto was forced to create its own offshore insurance firm several years ago when leading U.S. firms wouldn't service the hospital, Lightford said. Cayman Islands laws require board members to travel to the island to attend board meetings, she said.





There was nothing wrong with what I did, she said. I've just been busting my butt to try and keep the hospital open for 20 years.  It hasnt been easy.





The BGA and Block Club also found the board chairmans law firm billed the hospital for at least $3 million in legal fees over 11 years, although Loretto said his firm worked at a discount.





And the hospitals compliance officer, who vets all staff and board conflict of interest statements, has private business ties to Lorettos top attorney, who is tasked with defending the institution against legal claims and government investigations.





Health care ethics experts said its not illegal for board trustees to do business with the hospital, but such personal financial entanglements could compromise the boards independence.





The hospital is also facing questions about the contracts awarded to Suhail.





Soon after Ahmed joined Loretto in 2018, Suhail created three companies that received contracts with Loretto worth nearly $4 million in that first year, Block Club and the BGA first reported in April . One of the contracts was to overhaul the hospitals billing system and another was to revamp the hospitals psychiatric unit.





Suhail attorney Joseph Hylak-Reinholtz said Suhail has not been contacted by the attorney general or any government investigators about the contracts. Suhails companies have improved care at Loretto and saved the facility millions of dollars, he said.





Suhail and Ahmed severed their business ties in May following the Block Club and BGA reports, Hylak-Reinholtz said.





Ahmed could not immediately be reached for comment.





The 122-bed safety-net hospital serves mainly low-income people and patients of color, records show. It is run as a tax-exempt non-profit corporation, and its $81 million annual budget comes through the taxpayer-financed Medicaid program, as well as state grants and donations.





Inquiries like this one by the attorney general are not particularly common, said David Bea, a Chicago attorney who has represented hundreds of nonprofit clients over the past two decades. Ive seldom seen an organization under investigation. Its pretty rare.





If the Charitable Trust Bureau does find serious problems, it can impose fines or even revoke a charitys authority to operate in Illinois and its power to solicit contributions, Bea said. The attorney generals office also can make a referral to the IRS if they believe a further audit is warranted.




CHICAGO  A 27-year-old man was shot dead while driving Friday night in the Englewood neighborhood, and at least 16 other people were injured, including four young teens, in city shootings since 8 p.m. Friday, Chicago police said.

The fatal shooting happened about 11:55 p.m. Friday in the 900 block of West 59th Street . Police said the victim was driving when someone inside a black sedan pulled alongside and opened fire, hitting him multiple times throughout the body.

The victims vehicle crashed into two parked cars before he was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

He has not been identified as of early Saturday morning.

In the latest attack, a man and a woman were both shot while traveling on the West Side in the 1500 block of South Homan Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said.

Shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday, two people were traveling on Homan Avenue when someone in a passing blue vehicle fired shots, striking them both. A 33-year-old woman was shot in the arm, and was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

The man, 31, suffered a graze wound and refused medical help, police said.

About the same time on the South Side, a 30-year-old man was shot in the foot in the 7600 block of South South Chicago Avenue in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. He got himself to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was listed in fair condition, police said.

Also around 3 a.m. on the Northwest Side in the 5100 block of West Agatite Avenue in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, a 27-year-old man was shot in the groin as he sat in a parked car, police said.

An unknown male approached the car and asked for money, and the when the victim refused and attempted to drive off, the male fired shots. A friend drove the victim to Community First Hospital where he was transferred to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition, police said.

The gunman was described as black and in his 20s with a face tattoo, and wearing a black sweater and blue jeans, police said.

In other shootings from 8 p.m. to Saturday morning:

Around 2:50 a.m. Saturday, a 36-year-old man was discovered shot in a vehicle in the 1500 block of West Cornelia Avenue in the Lakeview neighborhood. The victim suffered gunshot wounds to the back and legs, and was taken in serious condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

About 2 a.m., a 41-year-old man suffered a graze wound while he was standing outside in the first block of North Long Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. He was taken in good condition to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, police said.

Shortly before 12:30 a.m., a 47-year-old woman was driving in the South Lawndale community when she was caught in crossfire between occupants of two vehicles who were shooting at each other in the 3500 block of West Kedzie Avenue. She suffered a wound to the face, and was taken in fair condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

Around 11:55 p.m. Friday, a 16-year-old boy and girl were both shot while walking in the 8700 block of South Holland Road in the West Chatham neighborhood, police said. The boy was shot in the chin, and the girl suffered a graze wound to the leg. The teenage victims said they did not see where the shots came from, and police said it does not appear they were the intended targets. Both victims were dropped off at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in good condition, but the boy was later taken to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Shortly after 10 p.m., two males were discovered inside a vehicle on the West Side in the 2800 block of West Adams Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. The first male, 15, was shot in the neck, and was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital. The second victim, 19, suffered wounds to the chest and arm, and was taken in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

About 10:15 p.m., a 14-year-old boy was shot while on a porch in the 4100 block of West West End Avenue in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. Police said the boy was with a group of people, but witnesses were being uncooperative. The boy was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital.

About 8 p.m., two 26-year-old men were shot inside an apartment in the 6900 block of Eggleston Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood. The first victim suffered a wound to the left leg and left arm, and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where his condition was stabilized. The second man was shot in the head, and was taken in critical condition to the same hospital, police said.

No one was in custody and detectives were investigating.

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WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-Oakland, has joined a chorus of congressional Republicans calling for President Joe Biden's resignation after a suicide bombing outside of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, left at least a dozen U.S. servicemembers dead.

"President Joe Biden has shown a reckless disregard for the safety and security of our troops stationed overseas and Americans here at home," Miller said in a statement. "Congress must act and begin immediate impeachment hearings to hold the President responsible for the decisions he made that cost service members their lives."

Miller represents Illinois' 15th congressional district, covering the conservative central and southwestern portions of the state.

She joins about two dozen GOP lawmakers who have called for Biden to resign or be impeached, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, and Josh Hawley, R-Missouri.

It comes amid a chaotic evacuation of remaining American citizens and Afghan allies from the country, which is now controlled by the Taliban following the collapse of the American-backed government in mid-August.

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The U.S. military is still in control of the airport as it rushes to get as many people out before the August 31 deadline to withdraw all troops and put an end to America's longest war.

Other members of Illinois' GOP congressional delegation had harsh words for Biden, but stopped short of calling for his removal from office.

This situation was completely avoidable," said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville. "Regardless of the decision to withdraw, the way in which President Biden has conducted this withdrawal has been an absolute disaster. The deaths of our troops and Afghan civilians are a direct consequence of the Presidents botched, rushed withdrawal. His attempts to meet an arbitrary, political deadline has cost American lives."

"The attacks in Kabul must be a wake-up call for President Biden," said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria. "He is the Commander-in-Chief, and he must reverse his arbitrary deadline, work to ensure evacuation routes are protected, and make sure that no American is left behind."

Miller is one of the most conservative members of the House and was an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump.

One of her first votes as a member of Congress was against impeaching Trump for inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, saying that "what this country desperately needs now is unity and healing."

Democrats control both the U.S. House and Senate, meaning there's essentially no chance calls for Biden's impeachment go anywhere.

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Madison County State's Attorney Tom Haine says his office is not "willing or able" to file criminal charges to enforce Gov. J.B. Pritzker's recent mask mandate.

On Thursday Pritzker announced his latest executive order requiring face coverings indoors for the foreseeable future to combat rising COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

In a statement Friday, Haine said Pritzker's executive order is not "criminally enforceable," meaning people or businesses who defy the order will not be punished in Madison County.

"This executive order  like the other executive order in 2020  relies on the Emergency Management Agency Act," Haine said. "It provides for no possibility of criminal enforcement."

Haine said he isn't trying to weigh in on masking, but rather letting the people of Madison County know his legal opinion on the order. He issued a similar opinion publicly in December 2020.

"I'm trying to be clear and objective so people have an accurate understanding of the law so there isn't confusion and miscommunication," Haine said. "The only reason why I'm making my opinion known is because of the criminal law component. I'm not trying to be a pundit on the issue."

"I don't get to make the law, I just enforce it," he added. "I want people to have a good understanding of what I understand the law to be and in this case, this executive order provides for no punishment."

Haine said businesses have the right to enforce their own COVID-19 rules and said individuals who refuse to leave businesses could be prosecuted.

"While my office cannot charge any individual with a crime for not following these COVID-19-related state directives, we can prosecute individuals for trespass or disorderly conduct if someone refuses to leave an establishment after being asked by the business owner," Haine said in a statement.

"Just as individual citizens have rights, businesses also have rights which will be protected. Businesses must be given discretion on how and when to operate in accordance with applicable guidelines and subject to their own risk management."

Mask mandate starts Monday

The governor's newest mask mandate will go into effect Monday and applies to everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status.

According to the executive order, masks will be required in indoor public places but can be taken off briefly to eat or drink and in workplaces where workers can stay at least six feet apart.

The order does not require masks outdoors, but state officials are strongly encouraging people to wear a face covering in crowded outdoor settings like festivals or concerts or any activities that require close contact with unvaccinated people.

The executive order also included new requirements for education and healthcare workers to be vaccinated.

Rising cases, hospitalizations

Pritzker said new masking and vaccination rules were needed due to a resurgence of COVID-19 in the southern and east central parts of Illinois.

As of Friday, 78 of Illinois' counties were at warning levels, due mostly to dwindling ICU bed availability. Madison County

The warning list, which is updated weekly, is based on several indicators that measure the health burden of COVID-19 on Illinois counties.

A county reaches warning status when it hits certain criteria such as ICU bed availability, total hospitalizations due to COVID-19, case clusters, the number of new cases per 100,000 people, the number of COVID-19 tests performed, and COVID deaths.

The state health department reported Region 4 as a whole had less than 22% of its total intensive care unit beds at hospitals available to new patients on Friday.

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Frustrated drivers in Kenya have been venting their anger after spending hours overnight in an enormous traffic jam in the capital, Nairobi.



"Ridiculous that I'm getting home at 4am" after an 11-hour journey, tweeted lawyer Pauline Otsyula.



Other commuters explained that they arrived home in the early hours just in time to leave for work once again.



Nairobi is notorious for its traffic jams but Thursday night saw the worst many residents can remember.



Videos and photos show irritated drivers still stuck on one of the city's main highways, Mombasa Road, early on Friday morning.



One tweeter said that people had parked at the roadside to sleep in their cars.



Communications specialist Anthony Ndiema commented that someone could have taken a flight to Doha and done two hours of work in the time he took to get home.



The gridlock happened on a stretch of road where a massive new expressway is being built but the traffic jam was reportedly made worse by a road accident.



Some called for the contractors to provide alternative routes while the work was being carried out.



While Gerald Ngui urged businesses to let their employees who lived in the area work from home. "It's the humane thing to do," he said.



The road construction is part of the $550m (410m) project aimed at providing a fast road linking cities northwest of the capital to the country's main international airport.



On completion, it will stretch 27km (17 miles) across Nairobi and it is meant to ease traffic flows in and out of the centre of the city.



It is being financed and constructed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) - and the Chinese firm will operate the highway under a public-private partnership.



The stretch of the road most affected on Thursday night connects the city centre to highly populated suburbs in the east.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Farmers and people of Domeabra, a farming community in the Akuapem North municipality are asking Government to come to their rescue to help salvage or solve a life threatening situation in their community.



According to them, the Bridge that joins their community to some communities about 8 communities near suhum built in 1808 by Swiss missionaries led by Engineer Jacob Isliker serving Cocoa and Peasant Famers is a verge of collapsing due to lack of Maintenance.



The bridge that serves Cocoa farmers and children in the communities and villages has trapped many people.



As only in this year, 5 children have been trapped dead in the densu river which the bridge is on.



A visit to the Wharf at Domeabra and mmetiamu, the farmers lamented that, they have no choice and other means to cross the river than to put their lives in danger and access the tattered wooden bridge at Mmetiamu.



Speaking to Michael Akrofi Akrofi, the farmers claimed that, when it rain, all their Agricultural and socio economic activities as well as education is affected.



Therefore the need for the government to come to their rescue to help give them a new bridge.



Also, Residents staying in the communities behind the wharf namely, Abrodi3m, Anomansa, Mia wani, Koransan

Kukua, Akorabo explained that, they carry ill persons at their back and pregnant women to cross the Deplorable bridge to access health care.



The situation also affects them because most at time they end up losing their beloved ones



Making life difficult and unpleasant for them.



Some schools children using the bridge also shared their experience using the Deplorable bridge.



The Queen mother for the Akuapem Domeabra on her part expressed worry over the situation and also disappointment in successive government's for not help to put their bridge in a good state to get to this state.



NANA OYE APIM ASIWAA 1 Domeabra Queen mother added that residents and farmers are always on her with complaints about the bridge.



Several letters has been written to authorities responsible but no action or response.



Finally, the Assembly man for the Area, Mr. Charles Adu on his part narrated action and role played to draw the attention of authorities and the Akuapem North municipal Assembly to urgently come to the rescue of the farmers and residents accessing the bridge. As its a life threatening situation.

Source: Michael Akrofi









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A Northern Regional polling station executive of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Saani Abdulai Hassan has refuted claims that the executives have kicked against the candidature of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as flagbearer of the party for the 2024 elections.



A communique purportedly coming from the executives in the Northern Region of which Saani Abdulai Hassan has been cited as one of the signatories read; ''We express our utmost displeasure and anger at attempts by some of the Northern Regional Executives, notably, the Regional Chairman, Regional Secretary, Regional Organizer, among others, to impose Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on us, and any attempt, thereafter, to direct us to endorse him in the upcoming presidential primaries of the great NPP.



''We are also certainly aware that these Regional Executives who have no regard for the Partys Presidential Primaries Code of Conduct, and collaborating with some Constituency Executives, are championing this course so that they can further attract favour and support from Dr Bawumia for their incoming elections after their wanton display of incompetence has lost them a favour, satisfaction and touch with the members of the party at the grassroots.''



The communique which has caught media attention with some headlines such as ''We Will Resist Any Attempt to Impose Dr. Bawumia On Us - Northern Region NPP'', according to Abdulai Hassan, is falsehood.



''I, Saani Abdulai Hassan 'Xpen6th', have not been part of a group with unwholesome agenda to hurt the political fortunes of the party...Breaking the 8 is only possible with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as our torch bearer and nothing can change that'', he emphasized in a rejoinder to Peacefmonline.



Read full rejoinder below:

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Madam Sophia Afriyie Danso, Bono East Regional Women's organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has called on the rank and file of the Party to channel their energies towards promoting Party peace, unity, and harmony.



She also urged them to desist from actions that sought to ruin their electoral fortunes ahead of the 2024 elections.



She said the Government is working assiduously to accelerate socio-economic development across the country, hence, it behooved Party members to embrace unity and work harder to improve the lot of the people.



As a democratic party, we must stand firm and commit ourselves to our common goal to build a new Ghana we all desire under the able leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu-Addo.



In every election, there will always be winners and losers and, therefore, we should be able to appreciate the fact that we are a Party with a common destiny. Lets see it as such and stay united in the supreme interest of the NPP, she stressed.



Madam Sophia Afriyie Danso made the remarks during the 2021 annual delegates conference for the Npp members in the Atebubu Amantin constituency.



She urged Party folks to bury their differences, saying the NPP has a team that was solidly knitted together with a focus on pragmatic socio-economic policies and had stayed true to the people by delivering most of its promises.



Again the Npp party Chairman for Bono East, Mr Thomas Adu Appiah, who also spoke at the event said the party is strong, healthy, and poised to secure more votes during election 2024.



He therefore calls for unity among the party members.



The acting Municipal Chief Executive for Atebubu Amantin, Mr Edward Owusu said, there are a lot of developmental projects done by this government in the Municipality and therefore the party can based on it to campaign for victory in 2024 polls only when there is unity among in the party.



On his side, Mr Musah Shaibu the Npp Atebubu Amantin constituency Chairman also commended the party members for their hard working, he therefore called on them to do extra work for them to take back the parliamentary seat from Ndc in 2024.

Source: Kwabena Manu









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan have waned since the Taliban took over Kabul on Aug. 15, as U.S. troops pulled out of the country, but at least one organization that has worked there for decades says it expects to continue providing assistance.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, is one of the largest aid groups working in Afghanistan. The organization has more than 1,800 personnel, made up of both Afghans and foreigners, at 10 sites around the country.

Crystal A. Wells, media and editorial manager of the ICRC, told Yahoo News in a video interview that the group expects to continue working uninterrupted, despite the Talibans takeover of Kabul and most of the nation as a whole.

Weve worked in areas that theyve controlled for years, Wells said. So today, in many ways, that doesn't change for the ICRC. We will continue to speak to the Taliban, because ultimately we want to continue to provide services to the Afghan people.

Patients receive physical therapy at the ICRC Orthopedic Center in Kabul. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

With the Taliban in control and the threat of more attacks following Thursdays deadly bombing at the Kabul airport, both foreign aid organizations and U.S. forces find themselves at an impasse in helping those in need. The attack claimed the lives of at least 170 people, including 13 U.S. service members. At least 155 others were injured.

U.S. officials say they believe that ISIS-K, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, is responsible for the attacks.

On Friday, United Nations officials appealed for $800 million in aid to fill a dire funding gap in Afghanistan.

Humanitarian needs are catastrophic at large scale and are increasing, Wafaa Saeed Abdelatef of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said at a briefing. These humanitarian needs are coming from decades of conflict, compounded by drought and COVID-19.

One-third of Afghan citizens are expected to face hunger if current conditions persist, according to Reuters. Earlier this year, the U.N. appealed for $1.3 billion to help more than 16 million people in Afghanistan, but a nearly $1 billion gap remains.

Story continues

Turkish soldiers serve crowds of people at the Kabul airport waiting for evacuation. (Aykut Karadag/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Many aid groups looking to deliver medical aid, supplies and other assistance have also been slowed by the unrest in the country. But a number of those groups, including the ICRC, had experience working in Afghanistan prior to 2001, when the U.S. ousted the Taliban regime.

[The ICRC] exists to serve people who are living through war and conflict, said Wells, noting that the organization does not choose sides.

We have a strictly humanitarian mandate, which is to serve people affected by armed conflict and violence and to provide them with assistance, like medical care, food and water, and make sure that their basic needs are met, she said.

The group has a history of providing aid to Afghans dating back more than 30 years. And the help extends beyond ordinary Afghan citizens, Wells said, adding that the ICRC also has a very good working relationship with the Taliban.

Other humanitarian groups have asked the U.S. for guidance in aiding Afghanistan with two major networks of development and humanitarian aid, InterAction and the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The U.S. Treasury Department has given permission for groups to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, easing concerns that they might end up violating sanctions placed on the Taliban.

Taliban fighters in a first-aid training class organized by the ICRC at a hospital in Ghazni province. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

In the meantime, U.S. forces remained on high alert Friday for more attacks as they worked to evacuate Afghans and Americans ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Despite the devastation on Thursday, the Biden administration has continued its evacuation effort. According to the White House, more than 12,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in the last 24 hours, via 35 U.S. military flights and 54 coalition flights.

Cover thumbnail: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

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Read more from Yahoo News:
The atonomous Danish territory of Greenland has grabbed headlines in recent years, most notably in 2019 when former US president Donald Trump said he wanted to buy it.

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be the world's northernmost landmassa yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters.

Researchers came upon the landmass on an expedition in July, and initially thought they had reached Oodaaq, up until now the northernmost island on the planet.

"We were informed that there had been an error on my GPS which had led us to believe that we were standing on Oodaaq Island," said the head of the mission, Morten Rasch from Copenhagen University's department of geosciences and natural resource management.

"In reality, we had discovered a new island further north, a discovery that just slightly expands the kingdom" of Denmark, he added.

Oodaaq is some 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of the North Pole, while the new island is 780 meters (2,560 feet) north of Oodaaq.

Copenhagen University said in a statement late Friday the "yet-to-be-named island is... the northernmost point of Greenland and one of the most northerly points of land on Earth."

But it is only 30 to 60 meters above sea level, and Rasch said it could be a "short-lived islet".

"No one knows how long it will remain. In principle, it could disappear as soon as a powerful new storm hits."

The autonomous Danish territory of Greenland has grabbed headlines in recent years, most notably in 2019 when former US president Donald Trump said he wanted to buy the Arctic territory.

The proposal, described as "absurd" by the Danish government, caused a diplomatic kerfuffle, but also signaled renewed American interest in the region.

It has also been hard hit by climate change as warmer temperatures have melted its glaciers, causing alarming sea level rise.

Explore further Five things to know about Greenland

 2021 AFP
QUEENSBURY  Warren County will hire a firm to identify short-term rentals, so officials can get a better handle on the occupancy tax revenue the rooms are generating.

The Tourism and Occupancy Tax Coordination Committee on Tuesday recommended the county contract with Granicus, based in St. Paul, Minn., which will develop an online platform to collect the data.

The cost of the contract is not to exceed $35,000. The company will provide the county Treasurers Office with monthly data on property owners, with address and assessment information.

Warrensburg Supervisor Kevin Geraghty, chairman of the committee, said the information can be used by the various towns.

Queensbury Town Board member Tim McNulty said his town had been briefed by the company, which identified twice as much revenue from rental properties through April as the town had previously estimated.

The platform can also be used by residents to report complaints about short-term rentals, he said. It will help officials identify where the problems are.

Glens Falls 1st Ward Supervisor Claudia Braymer said Lake George is already using the companys services, and Glens Falls is considering it.
Editor:

I love when someone makes my point for me. Barron Knobbs says we all lack common sense, and then thinks I was serious when I asked Mr. Gordon how to pick these smart leaders Mr. Gordon always recommends we pick. 'Nuff said? Thanks, Barron.

So. The publisher of the local pennysaver is trashing Biden, eh? I seldom pick up his product anymore. There's no news, and the publisher's right wing screeds drove me bonkers. He once said, in response to a complaint about the middle class getting hammered, that the middle classes in other countries are thriving and to say otherwise is mere "Democrat class warfare."

Talk about getting it backward. I'd wanted to ask him if it would console an American worker with an underwater mortgage who's wondering how to feed his family to know the middle class in Pakistan, one of the countries the publisher mentioned, is doing great.

Now, a quick shout-out to Dominick Tom who might've missed his calling as a TV programmer. That fall lineup was great! Laughed myself silly.

And here's something for Al Meunch. You had one of the best and earliest nicknames for Trump in "Deadbeat Donald." Maybe you can get some miles out of "Lyin' Elise." It's all yours if you want it, sir.
A Philadelphia man was found guilty of murder Friday in the January 2019 shooting of an Atlantic City man, the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said.

Avery Bracey, 39, was convicted of more than a dozen charges before Judge W. Todd Miller in the murder of KyLee Haynes, 21, the Prosecutors Office said in a news release.

Bracey was charged with robbery, criminal restraint, unlawful possession of a handgun, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, aggravated manslaughter, murder, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and attempted witness tampering.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29.

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Philadelphia man charged in 2nd Atlantic City murder of 2019 ATLANTIC CITY  Authorities have arrested a Philadelphia man in two shooting incidents, incl

The fatal shooting occurred Jan. 4, 2019, at the Sunset Inn on Absecon Boulevard. Police arrived at 8:44 p.m. and found Haynes. He was transported to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, City Campus, where he was pronounced dead.

Vinod Vellore, a night manager at the inn, told The Press on Jan. 5, 2019, that the business was closed for a few hours while police investigated but reopened the next day.

(Bracey) came straight to the room, he shot and then he flew, Vellore said, adding it seemed planned from video footage.
What is the bases role in sheltering Afghan evacuees?

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One of four military installations welcoming Afghan refugees, the Air Force has proposed Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst provide shelter for up to 9,500 evacuees who assisted the U.S. and our allies, according to a news release from the base.

On Friday, VanHerck said the South Jersey base has the capacity to house 3,500 evacuees, and has received 1,192 since Wednesday. They arrived at the base via bus and plane, a base spokesperson said. VanHerck said the military hopes to increase capacity at the base to shelter around 10,000 refugees  part of an effort to expand nationwide capacity to 50,000 by Sept. 15.

An Air Force draft proposal outlines plans to provide the newcomers shelter in three of the bases billeting areas, as well as in temporary tent city housing, set on 26.4 acres of the Doughboy Parade Grounds. There, the Air Force estimates its 378 tents can house up to 4,500 evacuees.

The temporary lodging can house families of up to a dozen people, and will be powered by electric generators, the report said. Showers, restrooms, meal services, medical services, religious support, COVID-19 testing, and child and youth services would also be made available, according to the draft proposal.
If that forecast holds true, Ida would hit 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm with 125 mph (201 kph) winds near the riverside community of Buras, just down the Mississippi River from New Orleans.

Katrina is blamed for an estimated 1,800 deaths from the central Louisiana coast to around the Mississippi-Alabama state line. A massive storm surge scoured the shores and wiped houses off the map. In New Orleans, failures of federal levees led to catastrophic flooding. Water covered 80% of the city and many homes were swamped to the rooftops. Some victims drowned in their attics. The Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center became scenes of sweltering misery as tens of thousands were stranded without power or running water.

Memories of Katrina still haunt many who scrambled to prepare for Ida on Friday, lining up for groceries, gas and ice, as well as sandbags that the city was offering.

Traffic snarled at entrances to a New Orleans Costco, where dozens of cars were backed up at the gas pumps and shoppers wheeled out carts stacked with cases of bottled water and other essentials.
Or the complaint from Armin Laschet, the German conservative who could be his countrys leader after elections next month: The greatest debacle NATO has experienced since its founding.

Whether he likes it or not, Biden has repair work to do.

The first step, already underway, is making sure the endgame in Kabul doesnt get any worse.

That means keeping U.S. troops on the ground until every American is out, as Biden has promised. It also requires an energetic effort to evacuate Afghans who worked with the U.S. government and other institutions, even if that requires risking the lives of some American troops. Those Afghans trusted us; if we abandon them, it will be a long time before we can credibly ask the same of anyone else.

And, of course, the administration needs to prevent al-Qaida and other terrorist groups from replanting themselves in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. If the United States fails at that  the original reason we invaded the country almost 20 years ago  Bidens decision to withdraw will justly be judged a fiasco.

Theres repair work to do beyond Afghanistan, too.
With Biden's approval, the Pentagon this month sent thousands of additional troops to the Kabul airport to provide security and to facilitate the State Department's chaotic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the United States during the war. The evacuation was marred by confusion and chaos as the U.S. government was caught by surprise when the Afghan army collapsed and the Taliban swept to power Aug. 15.

About 5,400 Americans have been evacuated from the country so far, including 300 in the last day. The State Department believes about 350 more want out; it said there are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country, or who have said they plan to remain.

Untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. Biden and the leaders of other Western countries have said they would try to work with the Taliban to allow Afghans who had worked with them to leave after the U.S.-led evacuation ends.

The Pentagon said that about 6,800 people, mostly Afghans, were flown out in the 24 hours that ended Saturday morning, bringing to 117,00 the total number of people of all nationalities evacuated since the hurried exit was begun Aug. 14.
As we say, we're glad the city is considering ways to help give renters more warning, as well as beef up inspections. But this needs a holistic approach to helping those most at risk.

Thumbs Up ... to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for taking aggressive action against the resurgence of the coronavirus. Pritzker announced Thursday he is requiring that all educators, from kindergarten through college get the COVID-19 vaccine.

These moves come after he announced earlier that state workers in congregate settings, like nursing homes and prisons, must be vaccinated.

The governor is right. Vaccination is the key to getting this pandemic under control, and as anybody can see, we are losing control of it. Hospitalizations and deaths are increasing in Illinois, as elsewhere, and unless we want it to get even worse, we must act.

Public health officials often describe this effort as a race. And, indeed, we don't know when the next variant will come along that will be able to evade the effective, safe vaccines we have now. It is imperative that more people in this country, and the world, get inoculated.

The governor also has issued a mask mandate.
Undeterred, Ross said Rachel researched procedures and medical journals. She stayed in contact with the Mayo Clinic and sent them ideas and questions. Her efforts paid off this spring.

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We received a call from Mayo saying Rachel clearly wasnt going to give up and had actually spurred an idea. They proposed a ground-breaking procedure to use MRI in guiding an egg retrieval. It had never been done before in the entire world, Ross said. They told us everything that could go wrong and that we would be defying all odds if this worked.

Typically, egg retrieval is done with the assistance of an ultrasound machine, Rachel said. Because of scar tissue from Rachels multiple surgeries, the Mayo Clinic team needed to perform an MRI-guided egg retrieval, which is new and more complex than using an ultrasound. The surgeon and medical team also had to be trained for the new procedure.

Having a dedicated team all wanting the same thing has been so incredible, Rachel said.

Rachel temporarily moved to Minnesota in May to begin a regimen of hormones, shots, blood work and MRIs before she could undergo the MRI-guided egg retrieval. Rachel said the couple's embryo can safely remain frozen for about two years or more, until the Pfeifles find a surrogate.
Over the last four weeks, Tiana Shuster and her Australian Shepherd, Tango, found two missing teenage boys in the Black Hills.

Tango and Shuster are part of the Pennington County Search and Rescue team. Shuster said the successful searches are the result of Tango's eager-to-work disposition.

"In the last month we've had two finds where the dog was actually able to go all the way in to the victim," Shuster said. "It was really cool for him."

As a reward, Tango receives all the praise Shuster can give  and a hotdog.

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"He just really likes the loves, that's all he wants," Shuster said. "He just wants me to pet him, that's the kind of dog he is."

At the beginning of a search, Shuster presents Tango with a scent article, which is something that smells like the subject of the search.

"I give him that scent and he follows that person footstep to footstep, from where I know they left until he finds them," Shuster said. "He takes their scent, and he just follows. I'm just the dope on a rope."

The two have been working with each other for all of Tango's life.
The recent increase in violence that has victimized the residents of this neighborhood is unacceptable, Chief of Police Don Hedrick said. We will continue to maintain an active presence in this area to deter crime, but this is an issue that is bigger than the police. It will take an entire community to come together to tackle the violence plaguing this neighborhood. The RCPD remains committed to partnering with residents, property owners, cultural leaders, and community stakeholders to reduce the victimization taking place in this part of our city. Todays incident is another example of senseless crime, and the collective sympathies of the Rapid City Police Department go out to the victim and her loved ones.
A night following the exciting, though rain-drenched, Xtreme Broncs Finale on Thursday night, an event featuring fireworks both in the rodeo arena and in the sky above, the large Friday night crowd on hand for the 2nd performance of the Central States Fair Range Days rodeo was treated to excellent weather and a couple of changes atop the overall leaderboard as well.

Included among them, another stellar saddle bronc effort featuring Newell's Lane Schuelke who moved to the top of the leaderboard fashioning an 83.5-point ride aboard J Bar Js Tickled Pink, a bucking horse that came into the event with a less than impressive resume.

I kind of looked at him a little bit, and everybody I talked to didnt have too many good things to say about him, and a lot of people have been turning out on him, scared of him, I guess, Schuelke said. I saw some video though and he looked pretty fine and I was excited to come here and get on him.

Schuelke struggled a bit out of the chute before falling into a comfortable spurring rhythm.

He had a lot of drop (ducking low with his head) to him, and I tried to stay aggressive but right there when the whistle blew, I felt it was a good ride. He was a good horse, all there, and it was fun.
The conservative House rejected that bill, thereby stopping the heavy hand of government from infringing the right of the People to assemble and to freely associate.

Governor Noem tried to gain the power to shut down businesses through her appointed department-head proxy. The same Governor Noem who claimed on Facebook that government telling businesses what to do is not conservative. Noem, who boasts that she is the only Governor in America who never closed a business certainly pressured Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls to close in mid-April last year, and her Executive Order on April 6, 2020, placed mandatory restrictions on Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties, close to thirty percent of the states population.

While Noem criticizes Representatives Jon Hansen and Scott Odenbach, the sponsors of the proposed Freedom of Conscience Act as headline grabbers, Noem has shamelessly promoted herself to the world as a bold leader. When faced with real opportunities to do the right thing, however, she punts.
Certainly we can all look back to our early education days and highlight an impactful teacher. These professional adults may be the first college educated mentors in a young persons life. This past year, the teachers of Rapid City have risen to challenges, operated with professional determination, and utilized their own higher education to safely educate our kids.

Thank you, teachers.

Thank you for showing up in classrooms of unknown complications. Thank you for pivoting and for staying flexible as science and statistics unfolded. Thank you for engaging with empathy. Thank you for comforting children who lost loved ones to Covid-19. Thank you for crying with high-schoolers who lost friends to suicide.

Thank you for reminding students that the way out of almost any predicament, problem, or pandemic is to look for the helpers, to examine the research, and to always choose kindness. Thank you for continuing to walk into unsafe buildings, with inadequate funding, with little leadership support. Thank you for showing up, within your credentials and professional training, to lead, to instruct, and to love our kids so well.

Natalie LaFrance-Slack, Rapid City

Kids are not invulnerable
PARIS (AP)  The Arc de Triomphe has seen parades, protests and tourists galore, but never before has the war monument in Paris been wrapped in silver and blue recyclable polypropylene fabric. That's about to happen next month in a posthumous art installation designed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Christo has wrapped museums, parliaments as in Germany, but a monument like this? Not really. This is the first time. This is the first monument of this importance and scale that he has done, Vladimir Yavachev, the late collaborating couple's nephew, told The Associated Press.

Preparations have already started on the Napoleon-era arch, where workers are covering statues to protect them from the wrapping.

The idea for LArc de Triomphe, Wrapped, was formed in 1961, when Christo and Jeanne-Claude lived in Paris. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and in spite of Christo's death in May 2020, the project carried on.

He wanted to complete this project. He made us promise him that we will do it, Yavachev told The Associated Press.

It was to be realized last fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the installation.
In the first day since the public learned about the death of a Wyoming Marine in Afghanistan, more than $319,000 was raised online to benefit his pregnant wife and the couple's unborn child.

Rylee McCollum died Thursday in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. He and 12 other service members were providing security at the airport as it was being overwhelmed with evacuees trying to leave the county after the Taliban's takeover.

McCollum, who was from Bondurant, was expecting his first child in three weeks, his family says.

In the aftermath of his death, two verified GoFundMe fundraisers have been started to benefit his wife, Jiennah Crayton, and the couple's unborn child.

The fundraisers collected more than a quarter million dollars in the first 18 hours they were created, according to a GoFundMe spokeswoman.

As of early Saturday afternoon, a fund dedicated to the "education and upbringing" of McCollum's child had alone raised $215,000. The child is due in September.

A second fund, set up by McCollum's mother in law, will benefit his wife.
Students will be under all manner of pandemic-related stresses as they hit classrooms for the new school year, but there is a lot of help available to make the transition back to school easier.

Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a pediatrician and medical director for the Pediatric Mobile Clinic at the University of Miami, says her best advice for parents whose children are anxious or are having a difficult transition back to school is to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, talk with your child every day and communicate regularly with teachers.

Some students havent seen their pediatricians during the pandemic, so Gwynn advises parents to watch for any new health issues that crop up and make sure kids are up to date on their other vaccines.

Signs to watch for in kids for anxiety, depression

Parents also should watch for signs of anxiety and depression such as not wanting to get up in the morning or resistance to going to school, said Gwynn.

Beginning-of-school jitters are normal, but parents need to see if something above and beyond is going on, said Dr. Elizabeth Pulgaron, a psychologist and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at UM. Eating and sleeping disruptions and tantrums, this is above and beyond.
Richmond and Henrico are setting up community hubs in the coming weeks to ramp up the one-on-one conversations that Cotina Brake, outreach leader at the local health districts, said have become critical to changing the minds of those who remain skeptical.

Just listening to what a person has to say starts to build trust right there as that conversation grows because someone who is not trying to talk, I promise you they will not talk, Brake said. But just sharing the information that we have ... sharing our personal experiences, I think a combination makes it more real for people right in front of you.

The vaccination gap between Black and white Virginians has narrowed since April following aggressive outreach, and Latinos have pulled ahead as the third-most vaccinated statewide.

But efforts to combat a legacy of disparities have also conflicted with lack of changes in state or federal policies that health officials repeatedly said could have limited the rampant spread.

Paid sick leave, workplace protections and stable access to food and housing are among them.
These pets are available for adoption in the Richmond area. Please check with the shelters before visiting as many have changed hours and adop
Until now we have refrained from accusing District Attorney Jose Garza of waging a war on police officers. After todays two new murder indictments, we do not know how else to characterize what he is doing, said Austin lawyers Ken Ervin and Doug O'Connell in the joint statement.

The District Attorney's Office responded in a statement that the allegations leveled by Taylor's attorneys are false. It was not immediately clear if Krycia has an attorney.

Taylor already was under a murder indictment in the April 2020 shooting death of Michael Ramos, who was unarmed and shot as he started to drive away from a possible drug bust.

Police said officers were investigating reports of people in a car, including an armed man, doing drugs when they encountered Ramos.

Manley said Ramos got out of the car with his hands up and his shirt raised as if to show he had no gun in his waistband, but then ignored officers orders to remain outside the car and was shot first with a beanbag, then as he drove away, Taylor shot him with a rifle.
However one judges the effectiveness of governors in the crisis, the pandemic experience made it absolutely clear that states have power, and they matter. The decisions of governors showed citizens the impact that state actions have on their daily lives.

As vaccines became available, many decisions about how and to whom they were distributed were made at the state level. Almost every state prioritized health care workers, but variations emerged between state plans. Some, such as Colorado and Alabama, elevated university students above the general public, while others, such as Florida and Louisiana, prioritized correctional workers.

The new president improved the federal response, but the challenge of vaccinating 330 million was daunting, time-consuming, and again placed governors in the hot seat of decision-making.

As the nation seeks to recover from this major disruption, many of the consequential decisions will continue to be made by state executives and lawmakers.

How will states respond to the budget challenges created by the economic slowdown? How will education at all levels return to some kind of normalcy? To what extent will regulatory patterns relaxed during the pandemic be restored? Will legislatures attempt to rein in the executive powers of the executive?
By Irma Becerra and James Dyke

Last year, Marymount University achieved a significant milestone when it was independently designated as the first Hispanic-Serving Institution in Virginia  an achievement acknowledged by Gov. Ralph Northam in his State of the Commonwealth address.

By 2030, the Latinx population in the U.S. is expected to increase by 25%. As this group grows, so does the need to create a more equitable pathway to success through higher education. Latinx success in higher ed will not only benefit the Latinx community but our economy as well. Experts predict we will need 6.2 million more Latinx students to earn a college degree over the next 10 years just to meet workforce needs.

The deck, however, is stacked against Latinx students. They have the lowest educational attainment rate for any major racial group in the U.S., with just 19% earning a bachelors degree or higher compared with 25% for Blacks and 35% for whites. In Virginia, we see similar roadblocks for underrepresented groups in both college degree completion and high school student enrollment in college.
Democrat Jennifer Lewis of Waynesboro on Friday announced her candidacy for the seat that represents large parts of the Roanoke Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lewis, 39, said her middle-class income and work in mental health enable her to know better than incumbent U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt County, the needs of Virginias 6th District, which also includes most of the Shenandoah Valley. This will be her second try at winning the office.

As she anticipates the vote in November 2022, Lewis declared the districts top need to be more-affordable health care. Federally funded health care from birth, sometimes called Medicare for all, is the solution, she said.

Asked if the nation can afford it, she said: I dont see how we can afford not to, really, especially during the pandemic as weve seen the inequities of health care. Im in a middle-class family, I struggle with health care costs. I put off getting things done, getting things checked out, she said.
A decade after a Vermont teenager disappeared as Tropical Storm Irene was bearing down on the state, his mother is still hoping someone will be able to answer the question about what happened to him.

Marble Arvidson was 17 when he left his Brattleboro foster home with a man who appeared to be in his 20s on the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2011, saying he'd be home in half an hour. That was hours before the rains started. He has never been seen again.

By the time Marble was reported missing the next day, regular communications were down and emergency responders overwhelmed by the scope of the natural disaster.

At first, everyone held out the possibility the lanky teenager with a volatile temper and a fondness for black clothing might have run away  Marble did have a history of staying out overnight  but over the years his mother, Sigrid Arvidson, has all but discarded that possibility.

As a mother, I can't stop looking for his physical body, whether he is in it or his body is the husk he used to live in, Arvidson, who now lives in Abiquiu, New Mexico, told The Associated Press on Friday.
Why was it necessary for Republican states to try and make it more difficult to vote? Things went well in this election, Hill said.

Marches were also scheduled for Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and other cities under the banner of March On for Voting Rights, organized by Sharpton and King. Because of concerns over the fast-spreading delta variant of COVID-19, a march in Houston did not go on as planned.

A daughter of the late civil rights leader, Bernice King, led the march in Atlanta. In an interview with The Associated Press, she called for new levels of civil disobedience to push against voting restrictions.

We're going to have to disrupt some things. We've got to disturb this country to the point that people who are still uninvolved and on the periphery to get involved in some fashion, she said.

In Phoenix, the Rev. Terry Mackey, the pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, urged those attending an indoor rally to honor those who fought and shed blood for voting rights.

I want you to stand up and fight," he said, "until every person in this state has the same voting rights as anybody else.



Calvan reported from New York. Associated Press writers Alex Sanz in Atlanta and Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
My daughter is in a good situation right now with her school, but I worry with every change in a principal and when she goes to middle school that all of the sudden she will no longer be called by her name, her pronouns and I never know, Joanna said. Theres not a single cisgender kid who will start school next week that has to worry about whether someone will call them by their name.

The policies would make it so she could stop going to sleep at night worrying about the what if?

I would stop going to bed worrying what if the kids find out. What if she gets a teacher that isnt supportive? What if the school changes its mind about how they want to treat her? I would be able to stop worrying about all of that, Joanna said.

The first Newport News school that Joanna tried to enroll her daughter in would not let her use the bathroom that aligned with her gender identity, so they found another school in the district that would.
And then consider what a disheartening sentence that is in 2021. Youd think that fight was won long ago. And in a sense, it was. It was won in 1870 with ratification of the 15th Amendment. It was won in 1915 when the Supreme Court struck down the so-called grandfather clause. It was won in 1965 with passage of the Voting Rights Act. Now we are required to win it yet again, eight years after the Supreme Court tore the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, with gleeful Republicans passing new laws designed to suppress the Black vote.

Progress shadowed by setback. Dreams deferred. It is the story of our lives.

Im tired, said the great man, in an America so long past that telephones had rotary dials, TV was in black-and-white and Barack Obama was a 5-year-old boy living in Hawaii. And indeed, there was about King a palpable exhaustion as he addressed that America, standing there in shirt sleeves, face puffy, mopping at sweat that trickled down his neck, describing how it felt to live under constant threat of death. I must confess, Im tired, he said yet again.
Glenn Youngkins position on COVID-19 vaccinations in Carolina-blue Virginia is the same one that got Donald Trump booed at the former presidents rally in Crimson-red Alabama.

An opponent of mandatory jabs, increasingly the rule in Virginias public and private sectors, Youngkin says they should be voluntary  this being the land of the free and the home of the brave. The Republican nominee for governor says he has been vaccinated and is hoping  not recommending, not urging  that inoculation-averse supporters do the same.

This is another of Youngkins tricky high-wire acts  performed without a net.

It is one in which he doesnt want to terrify the voters he needs to win but who have little in common: those in the libertarian countryside who consider the vaccine a matter of personal freedom and those in the liberal suburbs who consider the vaccine a matter of life and death.

Along the Potomac River, in Fairfax County, the states largest locality and one of its most Democratic, 60% of residents have been fully vaccinated. Along the North Carolina line, in Patrick County, among the states smaller localities and one of its most Republican, the full-vaccination rate is 33%.
Contrast that with Old Dominion University, which gets nearly $8,000 per student but has a 38% low-income student body; Radford University, which receives just over $7,000 per student and has a 33% low-income enrollment; and George Mason University, which gets only $4,500 in per-student funding but has a low-income enrollment of nearly 29%.

The report doesnt bypass the University of Virginia, which it describes as having the nations fifth highest in-state tuition and fees among public flagships. But the reports own figures show the main campus getting just $5,839 per student in state aid in 2018  one of the lowest on its list. The Charlottesville campus serves a student body that is 12.5% Pell-eligible.

In other words, UVa serves a slightly higher percentage of low-income students than does W&M, but at far less in state cost.

UVas College at Wise receives the highest amount in state aid among all public colleges and universities, $14,121 per student, but also serves a respectable percentage of low-income enrollees  nearly 36%. The university has committed itself to supporting Wise, located in economically depressed rural Appalachia, as part of its mission to reach underserved students.
I could never afford to attend college without tuition assistance, and I know Im not the only one. Families, like mine, all across Virginia face the struggle of paying for college every day, and tuition prices are at the highest theyve ever been.

Recently, Gov. Ralph Northam and Del. Chris Hurst announced a plan to invest more than $100 million in tuition assistance for students at Virginia Tech and other universities in Virginia. Its hard to understate how life-changing this can be for our local students and their families.

As a student of Virginia Tech and the president of the VT Democrats, I meet classmates almost daily who worry about affording their tuition payments.

I remember one student telling me how they rotate through three different jobs, on and off-campus, to raise the money they need.

Some students have told me theyre forced to skip classes entirely and work to make their payments. The plan by Northam and Hurst is going to help these students and make college more affordable to them.

I also know how dependable Chris Hurst is in the fight to make college more accessible and affordable for thousands of families in the New River Valley and all corners of our commonwealth.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Florence is now solidly a majority-minority city.

The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office recently released the 2020 Census information for the 46 counties and 271 cities or towns in the Palmetto State.

That data shows that the populations of African Americans grew by 9.81% from 17,038 in 2010 to 18,710 in 2020. Combined with the those who are listed as other race  this should include Asians and Native Americans  at 1,480 people and people describing themselves as multiracial (1,555), this equals 54.5% of Florences 39,899 people. In 2010, these same groups equaled 49.98% of the citys population.

In the census, Hispanics are not counted as a separate race. They are included in all of the races and later asked to identify themselves as Hispanic.

Four of the six counties in the Pee Dee region show a similar pattern of getting more diverse racially.

In Florence County, the number of African Americans grew by 1.20% while the percentage of whites decreased by 7.1%. The county, however, is still just under 51% white compared with just under 55% in 2010.
NEW YORK (AP)  Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a new poll, at a time when such mandates gain traction following the federal government's full approval of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that about 59% of remote workers favor vaccine requirements in their own workplaces, compared with 47% of those who are currently working in person. About one-quarter of workers  in person and remote  are opposed.

Keep scrolling for the latest charts tracking vaccinations and virus cases

The sentiment is similar for workplace mask mandates, with 50% of Americans working in person favoring them and 29% opposed, while 59% of remote workers are in favor.

About 6 in 10 college graduates, who are more likely to have jobs that can be done remotely, support both mask and vaccine mandates at their workplaces, compared with about 4 in 10 workers without college degrees.

Christopher Messick, an electrical engineer who is mostly working from home in Brunswick, Maryland, said he wrote to his company's human resources department to ask that employees be required to get vaccinated before they are recalled to the office.
Throughout South Carolinas history, there has been a streak of independence that morphed into an ingrained hard-headed reactionary reflex. Its not uncommon for people on either side of the aisle  and people who dont even care about politics  to react in one similar way: Dont tell me what to do.

You can see it in the life of slave-holding patriot Christopher Gadsden before the Revolutionary War as he gathered like-minded people under an oak tree outside Charlestons walled city to talk about liberty. He later designed the Dont Tread on Me coiled snake flag that was appropriated by the modern tea party movement.

You can see it today in zealous people who get red in the face when told they or their children need to wear masks to protect themselves and others from getting COVID-19. They dont listen to reason; they instinctively react on emotion, misinformation and the old dont-tell-me-what-to-do attitude.

The difference between now and 250 years ago is that people then believed governments could actually do something. And they did. They organized the nations economic system, provided for the common defense, built infrastructure, invested in public works, education and people. In short, a strong government created America as the worlds powerhouse and innovator.
 Lots of interesting sentencing issues as South Dakota's Attorney General avoids any incarceration after killing pedestrian | Main | "What's (Really) Driving Crime in New York" 

August 27, 2021

RFK killer. Sirhan Sirhan, recommended for parole after decades of denials

As the saying goes, if at first you do not succeed, try, try again. As detailed in this Los Angeles Times article, after trying again and again to get a positive parole recommendation, the assassin of Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan, today finally succeeded:

Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy at a Los Angeles hotel more than 50 years ago, was recommended for release by a California parole board Friday, the first step toward making him a free man. The two-person panel Sirhan appeared before Friday granted parole, but the decision is not final. Parole staff still have 90 days to review the matter. After that, Gov. Gavin Newsom  or whoever might replace him following next months recall election  could still decide to block Sirhans release. Sirhan, then a 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant who had written a manifesto calling for Kennedys death, shot the senator at the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1968. Kennedy was considered a leading candidate for president and had just won primaries in South Dakota and California at the time of his assassination. Sirhan admitted to the killing in 1969 and has been in prison for 53 years. The board granted his release Friday, in part, after receiving letters of support from two members of the slain senators family. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has previously expressed doubt about Sirhans guilt, said he believed his father might extend mercy to his own killer. While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, Kennedy Jr. wrote in a letter submitted in advance of Fridays hearing. Douglas Kennedy said that while hed lived in fear of Sirhan for years, he saw him now as worthy of compassion and love. I really do believe any prisoner who is found to be not a threat to themselves or the world should be released, Douglas Kennedy wrote. I believe that applies to everyone, every human being, including Mr. Sirhan. The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department submitted a letter opposing Sirhans release, on behalf of the Kennedy family. Erin Mellon, a spokeswoman for Newsom, said the governor will review Sirhans case if it is presented to him.... Angela Berry, Sirhans attorney, says the 77-year-old has not been accused of a serious violation of prison rules since 1972 and that prison officials have deemed him a low risk for violence. Sirhan first became eligible for parole in 1972. Between 1983 and 2006, he was granted parole hearings every one to two years, but was always denied. Beginning in 2006, those hearings were held just twice a decade. He was last denied release in 2016. The recommendation for Sirhans release also came without opposition from L.A. County prosecutors, who are barred from fighting release at parole hearings under a policy enacted by Dist. Atty. George Gascon. While Gascons policy had been in effect for nearly nine months, it attracted new scrutiny this week because of Sirhans case. Gascon has said it should be up to the parole board to determine an inmates suitability for release, rather than prosecutors who are simply relitigating the facts of old cases, sometimes decades later.... Critics of Gascon have said the parole policy is indicative of a broader abandonment of victims under his administration. Some victims have complained to The Times that they felt helpless without an advocate present when they went to oppose the release of a loved ones killer earlier this year. L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, a staunch opponent of Gascon, has also said he would send staff to aid victims at parole hearings if Gascon wouldnt send prosecutors, but he has yet to explain how often hes done so or what impact, if any, the move has had in such cases.... While critics of Gascon have claimed the parole policy will end with a flood of violent criminals returning to the streets, data suggest otherwise. Records show the state parole board only granted release in about 19% of all cases it heard from 2018 to 2020, and that does not factor in cases where Newsom later blocked an inmates release.

It will be interesting to see if Gov. Newsom says anything publicly about this case before the recall election in a few weeks at a time when his rivals are accusing him of being "soft on crime."

August 27, 2021 at 08:26 PM | Permalink

Comments

As I understand it, the governor doesn't have to make a decision for a while. So, it would be dubious of him to make much of comment about it, though it is doubtful it would affect the election much.

Every little bit counts though. So, best to avoid the question.

Posted by: Joe | Aug 27, 2021 9:35:21 PM

There are various Kennedy family members against the decision.

The fact is in these cases that family members will often disagree. I recall one death penalty case where two elderly brothers disagreed on what was justified. Ultimately, the decision should rest elsewhere.

I think the prosecutor's policy is reasonable. The rejoinder about concern for the family/victims really doesn't refute it. I don't think the prosecutor's office would be the best proxy.

I would like more information on how the two members make a decision. Do various advocates have a means to submit opinions or other information. Also, ultimately, the possibility of the governor to veto provides another means for a voice of all to be involved.

Posted by: Joe | Aug 28, 2021 12:08:34 PM

This won't hurt Newsom's chances if re-election. RKF was assassinated in 1968 and a large bulk of the electorate weren't alive when it happened and are unaware of the historic ramifications of Kennedy's assassination. Besides, crime has dropped in California and Newsom's team should publicize the dropping crime stats as proof that criminal justice reform is effective.

Posted by: Anon | Aug 28, 2021 1:49:22 PM

Sirhan deserves his freedom. No way he killed Bobby Kennedy. The senator was shot in the back of his head, while Sirhan was clearly positioned in front of the senator in that cramped kitchen walkway.

good evidence exists that Sirhan was under some kind of hypnosis that night...

For a convincing analysis, see the recent book A Lie too Big to Fail by Lisa Pease.

I am a veteran journalist and longtime student of the Kennedy assassinations.

Posted by: Russ Tarby | Aug 29, 2021 5:47:10 PM

Post a comment
OTTAWA/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Canada has joined Mexico in seeking formal consultation with the United States over the interpretation of content rules for automobiles set out in the North American trade pact, Mexico and Canada said on Friday.

Mexico on Aug. 20 requested the formal consultation over the interpretation and application of tougher content rules for cars under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), after voicing disagreement in May over the issue in a virtual meeting when it cited differences with the United States' methods.

Canada and Mexico use more flexible interpretations.

"We know how important the auto industry is to Canada's workers and the Canadian economy. Canada has advised the U.S. and Mexico that it intends to join the consultations as a third party," said Patricia Skinner, spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada.

Skinner said Canada continues to work with the auto industry on this and other important issues.

"We are pleased Canada has decided to join the request for consultations, which we requested on August 20, in relation to the interpretation the United States makes of the rules of origin in USMCA for the automotive sector," Mexico's economy minister, Tatiana Clouthier, said on Twitter.

The USMCA, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, requires 75% North American content for a vehicle to be considered as being from North America.

The same percentage will apply for essential parts from July 1, 2023, up from 69% now, and compared with 62.5% under the previous trade pact. Mexico argues that once the level of essential parts hits 75%, it is considered 100% and should be counted as such toward the overall value of the automobile.

The request for consultation is the first non-contentious stage of a dispute resolution mechanism provided for in the trade pact.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito in Mexico City and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Leslie Adlerediting by Cassandra Garrison)
The first batch of 135 Indians who were evacuated from Kabul to Doha over past days being repatriated tonight to India.

Doha [Qatar], August 22 (ANI): The first batch of 135 Indians who were evacuated from Kabul to Doha over the past few days, are being repatriated to India, the Indian Embassy in Qatar informed on Sunday.

"1st batch of 135 Indians who were evacuated from Kabul to Doha over past days being repatriated tonight to India. Embassy officials provided consular and logistics assistance to ensure their safe return. We thank Qatar authorities and all concerned for making this possible," India in Qatar tweeted.

Some 500 odd people are set to return to India on Sunday morning from Afghanistan, through various destinations and flights.

External Affairs Ministry (EAM) spokesperson informed that an Air India flight carrying 87 Indians has departed from Tajikistan for New Delhi. "Bringing Indians home from Afghanistan! AI 1956 carrying 87 Indians departs from Tajikistan for New Delhi. Two Nepalese nationals also evacuated. Assisted and supported by our Embassy in Dushanbe. More evacuation flights to follow," said Arindam Bagchi, EAM spokesperson.

Earlier on Saturday, government sources told ANI that India has been allowed to operate two flights per day from Kabul to evacuate its nationals stranded in Afghanistan.

The permission has been granted by the American and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces which have been controlling operations of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Afghan capital was taken over by the Taliban on August 15.

A total of 25 flights are being operated by them as they, at present, are focusing on evacuating their citizens, weaponry and equipment.

Hundreds of Indian nationals have to be taken out of Kabul which is now under the Taliban's control. India is airlifting its citizens through Dushanbe in Tajikistan and Qatar. The Indian Air Force has already evacuated around 180 passengers including its Ambassador to Afghanistan and all other diplomats.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and instructed all concerned officials to undertake all necessary measures to ensure the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan in the coming days.

Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace. The Indian government has been closely monitoring all developments in Afghanistan. (ANI)
Chinese flag

Beijing [China], August 28 (ANI): China has lodged a strong opposition to first-ever security talks between the ruling parties of Japan and Taiwan and urged Tokyo to stop interfering in China's internal affairs.

The ruling parties of Taiwan and Japan on Friday held their first diplomatic and defence policy discussion, with representatives of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pledging to support Taiwan's bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Global Times reported.

This comes as China is escalating its military and economic pressure on Taiwan.

The Japanese representatives asked Taipei to facilitate investment by the Taiwanese semiconductor industry -- especially Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co-- into the Japanese chip industry, Lo said.

Japanese politicians accused the Chinese mainland of "unilaterally changing the regional status quo," which not only "affects the security of the Taiwan Straits, but also Japan's security," Taiwan media reported.

Tsai Shih-Ying, a DPP representative in the dialogue, said that military exchanges were discussed, like Coast Guard cooperation, but more details cannot be disclosed due to its sensitivity, Japan Times reported.

Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, and China has lodged solemn representations with Japan, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Friday, noting that China firmly opposes any form of official exchange between China's diplomatic countries and the island of Taiwan.

"The Taiwan question bears on the political foundation of China-Japan relations. Japan bears historical responsibility to the Chinese people on the Taiwan question and needs to be cautious in its words and actions. We solemnly urge Japan to stop interfering in China's internal affairs and not send wrong signals to Taiwan secessionists," Zhao said.

Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.

Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing. China has threatened that "Taiwan's independence" means war. (ANI)
Representative Image (Indian Defence Ministry)

New Delhi [India], August 3 (ANI): A task force of four warships from the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet is scheduled to proceed on an over two-month overseas deployment to South East Asia, the South China Sea and Western Pacific, which will include exercises with Quad partners the United States, Japan and Australia, the Defence Ministry announced.

The deployment of the Indian Naval task force will begin early this month and includes guided-missile destroyer Ranvijay, guided-missile frigate Shivalik, anti-submarine corvette Kadmatt and guided-missile corvette Kora.

The latter three ships are indigenously designed and are equipped with a versatile array of weapons and sensors, and are Made in India by Defence Shipyards, a Defence Ministry press release said.

The warships will participate in a series of exercises during the two-month deployment, including the Malabar 2021 naval exercises with US, Japanese and Australian forces.

In other bilateral exercises during the deployment, the Indian warships will work with naval units from South China Sea littoral states, including Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, the Defence Ministry said.

During the deployment in the Indo Pacific, the ships are scheduled to participate in bilateral exercises with the Vietnamese Peoples' Navy, the Republic of Philippines Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (SIMBEX), Indonesian Navy (Samudra Shakti) and Royal Australian Navy (AUS-INDEX).

Further, they would also participate in multilateral exercise MALABAR-21 alongside the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, Royal Australian Navy and the United States Navy in Western Pacific.

"These maritime initiatives enhance synergy and coordination between the Indian Navy and friendly countries, based on common maritime interests and commitment towards Freedom of Navigation at sea," the release said.

"The deployment of the Indian Navy ships seeks to underscore the operational reach, peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and countries of the Indo Pacific," the defence ministry said.

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The Indian Navy undertakes regular deployments to friendly foreign countries and Indian and the Pacific Ocean regions in furtherance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of 'Security and Growth for All in the Region - SAGAR'. Further, such engagements build 'Bridges of Friendship' and strengthen international cooperation.

Moreover, it will enhance military cooperation with friendly countries which is India's pursuit as per 'Act East' policy.

The South China Sea has become a hotbed of naval activity in recent weeks. Last week, a British aircraft carrier strike group transited the 1.3 million square mile waterway, while an American surface action group and forces from China's People's Liberation Army staged exercises in it.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory, turning numerous obscure reefs and sandbars throughout the waterway into man-made artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems. (ANI)
Changi International Airport in Singapore. (PHOTO: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  Singapore will be tightening its border measures for travellers from New Zealand from Monday (30 August), due to the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases there.

At the same time, it will ease its border restrictions for travellers from the Chinese province of Jiangsu, as the COVID-19 situation has improved.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a media release on Saturday that from 11.59pm on Monday, Singaporeans, permanent residents (PRs) and long-term pass holders entering Singapore with travel history to New Zealand within 21 days before departure will be subject to these measures:

an on-arrival COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test;

a seven-day Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at their place of residence;

another PCR test before the end of the SHN period.

Short-term travellers with travel history to New Zealand will not be allowed to enter Singapore.

New Zealand, which is currently under a lockdown, reported 82 local COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

No SHN needed for travellers from Jiangsu if PCR test is negative

Also from 11.59pm on Monday, all travellers entering Singapore with travel history to Jiangsu province within 21 days before departure will undergo a PCR test upon arrival. If the test result is negative, they will be allowed to go about their activities in Singapore, and will not need to serve a seven-day SHN.

Currently, travellers from Jiangsu are subjected to an on-arrival PCR test, a seven-day SHN at their place of residence, and another PCR test before the end of the SHN period.

Short-term visitors with travel history to Jiangsu with 21 days before departure to Singapore can apply for an Air Travel Pass (ATP) with immediate effect for entry on or after 4 September. Similarly, they will undergo a PCR test upon arrival, and will be allowed to go about their activities in Singapore if the PCR test result is negative.

Travellers who are already serving their seven-day SHN at their place of residence as of 11.59pm on Monday will still be required to complete their SHN and exit PCR test.

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All other travellers with travel history to mainland China (excluding Jiangsu) in the last 21 days prior to travel will continue to be subject to a PCR test upon arrival at the airport, in lieu of their SHN.

From Monday, New Zealand will be re-classified under Category II for travel and border measures to Singapore, while Jiangsu will be re-classified under Category I.

Easing of entry into Singapore rules for overseas travellers. (INFOGRAPHIC: Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore)

First batch of Sinopharm vaccine available

Meanwhile IHH Healthcare Singapore (IHH SG) announced on Saturday that it will be offering its first batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Singapore at $99 (including GST) for each regime of two doses.

Sinopharm vaccination will take place at Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital and selected Parkway Shenton clinics. Interested persons may now book their vaccination appointments at the Parkway Shenton website.
US President Joe Biden

Washington [US], August 28 (ANI): Amid the US withdrawal from Afghanistan which will have many geopolitical and strategic consequences, a group of 68 Congress lawmakers asked President Joe Biden to "outline" his plan to "move America forward", and urged him to make sure that the Taliban do not destabilise Pakistan and acquire nuclear weapons.

In a letter dated August 24 addressed to the US President, 68 members from the House of Representatives and the Senate, also asked Biden to answer critical questions on the downfall of Afghanistan and what his plans are.

Post the fall of Kabul, there has been much talk about how China could seize the moment to fill the vacuum left behind by the US and expand its presence and influence there.

Earlier, a high-profile meeting took place between Taliban leaders and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month.

Expressing concern about these issues, the US lawmakers asked Biden, "What is your plan to counter the Chinese Communist Party's growing relationship with the Taliban?

Regarding the situation in Afghanistan that has rapidly metastasized into Taliban rule with reinstated oppression of women and girls, the repression of civil society, the displacement of countless Afghans from their homes, the lawmakers asked, "What is your plan to evacuate Afghan SIVs and other vulnerable Afghans like women, girls, and former Afghan civil service employees from Afghanistan?; Do you have a plan to protect prominent women journalists, scholars, and employees of prominent non-government organizations?; and will you ensure that religious and ethnic minorities, like the Hazaras, are also prioritized for PI/P2 visas within this evacuation sequence?"

The lawmakers also asked whether the Biden administration will continue its non-combatant evacuation operation post the Taliban deadline of August 31.

"Will you commit to abandoning the arbitrary August 31 withdrawal deadline and continue non-combatant evacuation operation until all Americans, allies, and at-risk Afghans are processed for evacuation?" read their letter.

The lawmakers also asked Biden to lay out his plan on ensuring that Al Qaeda does not "resurge and regain a foothold in Afghanistan." "What 'over the horizon' operations are you prepared to use to counter this threat?" they asked, noting that the intelligence community has cautioned against al Qaeda and ISIS-K getting full liberty from the Taliban to use Afghanistan as a safe haven to train and equip for future terrorists.

They also enquired about Afghan security forces' former personnel, equipment, and infrastructure that have now passed into the hands of the Taliban. "What is your plan to ensure that more US and Afghan military equipment does not end up in the hands of the Taliban?; What is your plan to reclaim U.S. military equipment that has already fallen into the hands of the Taliban?" read the letter. (ANI)
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Washington [US], August 28 (ANI): US policymakers should recognize that cloud computing is strategically important and it needs to stay ahead as it has an edge over China.

Jonathan E Hillman, Director of the Reconnecting Asia Project, one of the most extensive open-source databases tracking China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) writing in Politico said that the cloud computing is the next frontier in Beijing's quest to dominate the information supply chain, from handheld devices to data servers.

China's cloud providers have been thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Huawei more than doubled its share of the global market for Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS. Unless US policymakers make cloud computing a strategic priority, that acronym may become as hauntingly familiar to them as 5G.

"The flow of information guides the flow of technology, capital and talent," Chinese President Xi Jinping explained in 2014. "The amount of information controlled has become an important indicator of a nation's soft power and competitiveness."

The cloud is critical because it's where everything comes together. It powers email, databases and storage, as well as artificial intelligence and big data applications requiring mountains of computing power. Like other digital infrastructure and services upon which modern societies increasingly depend, it's everywhere, but also out of sight -- and for many policymakers, out of mind, said Hillman.

Moreover, China's leading cloud providers are doing much more than selling services. Alibaba Cloud recently unveiled a USD 1 billion push in Asia, where it promises to train 100,000 developers and invest in 100,000 startups over the next three years. It is even partnering with foreign universities to design courses for artificial intelligence, reported Politico.

China's cloud providers are also effectively packaging services with investments in hard infrastructure, which the world desperately needs. Huawei counts dozens of foreign governments among its customers for cloud infrastructure and e-government services.

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China's cloud ambitions are not limited to Asia. Huawei has formed partnerships with federal data centers and IT providers in Mexico and Brazil, positioning itself to handle even more sensitive government data in the years ahead. It is also investing in Chile and Argentina. The strategy, Huawei regional president Xiao Fei explained, is "to form a giant triangle of improved coverage and better connectivity in Latin America."

Meanwhile, the leading US providers -- Amazon, Microsoft, Google -- have a massive first-mover advantage. But, if China's cloud ambitions are uncontested, the developing world will prioritize affordability over security, said Hillman.

After acquiring Chinese data centers and signing service contracts with Chinese providers, foreign governments and businesses may find it difficult to switch providers down the road. On top of the normal expenses of migrating from one cloud to another, they may also face Chinese economic coercion, reported Politico.

The good news is that the United States has superior services on hand. But that also means Chinese cloud providers are effectively selling a weaker product, just as Huawei did during its rise as a telecom equipment provider. "Huawei's products may not be the best, but so what? What is core competitiveness?" Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei once asked his employees. "It's choosing me and not choosing you!"

For starters, US policymakers should recognize that cloud computing is strategically important. Competing with China is not just about catching up in areas where the United States has fallen behind. Just as important, if not more so, is staying ahead in areas like cloud computing where the United States has an edge. That will require doing more in developing markets, said Hillman.

Encouragingly, the G-7's recently announced "Build Back Better World" partnership includes digital infrastructure among its four pillars. As the G-7 partners work to begin that effort, they should include a focus on cloud computing.

The United States should also continue to push back against data localization overseas. Key allies and partners, including the European Union and India, are far from aligned with U.S. preferences. Another promising avenue for US leadership is pursuing digital trade deals with countries at various stages of development, advised Hillman. (ANI)
Thursday's bombing marked one of the most lethal attacks the country has seen. The U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

The anxious crowds thronging the airport Friday in hope of escaping Taliban rule appeared as large as ever, despite the scenes of victims lying closely packed together in the aftermath of the bombing.

The Pentagon said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber  at the airport gate  not two, as U.S. officials initially said. A U.S. official said that the suicide bomber carried a heavier-than-usual load of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel.

The U.S. official and the officials who gave the Afghan death toll spoke on condition of anonymity.

On the morning after the attack, the Taliban used a pickup truck full of fighters and three captured Humvees to set up a barrier 1,600 feet from the airport, holding the crowds farther back from the U.S. troops at the gates than before.

U.S. military officials said that some gates were closed and other security measures put in place. They said there were tighter restrictions at Taliban checkpoints and fewer people around the gates. The military said it also asked the Taliban to close certain roads because of the possibility of suicide bombers in vehicles.
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U.S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Wesley J. Brown, 25, of Oto, was among the 429 crewmen of the USS Oklahoma killed in the attack. The battleship took multiple hits from Japanese torpedoes and capsized quickly, trapping dozens of men below deck. When Brown's remains were finally recovered as an unknown, he was buried with other victims in Honolulu. He was disinterred in 2015 as part of a project that since 2003 has identified the remains of more than 300 of those killed and previously unidentified.

Brown's remains were identified in 2020, and the family was notified in January, news received with much joy, Struble said.

"They're so glad that he's home," Struble said. "This is his final resting spot. This gives them some closure."

Veterans and community members turned out on a hot, humid day to help provide that closure. As flags of each military service branch snapped in the breeze behind them, sailors with a Navy funeral honors team lifted Brown's casket from the hearse and solemnly moved it to his grave, where Struble read the 23rd Psalm from the Bible and spoke of Brown's duty and sacrifice.

"He sacrificed his life for our freedom," Struble said. "We honor him for that today."
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden vowed Thursday to complete the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan despite the day's deadly suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport. He promised to avenge the deaths of 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack, declaring to the extremists responsible: We will hunt you down and make you pay.
Until now we have refrained from accusing District Attorney Jose Garza of waging a war on police officers. After todays two new murder indictments, we do not know how else to characterize what he is doing, said Austin lawyers Ken Ervin and Doug O'Connell in the joint statement.

The District Attorney's Office responded in a statement that the allegations leveled by Taylor's attorneys are false. It was not immediately clear if Krycia has an attorney.

Taylor already was under a murder indictment in the April 2020 shooting death of Michael Ramos, who was unarmed and shot as he started to drive away from a possible drug bust.

Police said officers were investigating reports of people in a car, including an armed man, doing drugs when they encountered Ramos.

Manley said Ramos got out of the car with his hands up and his shirt raised as if to show he had no gun in his waistband, but then ignored officers orders to remain outside the car and was shot first with a beanbag, then as he drove away, Taylor shot him with a rifle.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Forecasters warned residents along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast to rush preparations Saturday ahead of an intensifying Hurricane Ida, which is expected to bring winds as high as 130 mph (209 kph), life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it slams ashore in Louisiana on Sunday.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover and killed more than 100. The U.S. warned more attacks could come ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending Americas longest war.
EL PASO, Texas (AP)  A man who gained worldwide sympathy and support after his wife was killed in a mass shooting in the Texas border city of El Paso was remembered Friday as kind and thoughtful  and haunted by the loss of the woman he loved.
In response, the state board, made up of four members and two alternates, stepped up its review process to release 6,375 offenders  3,023 paroles and 1,440 work releases  into the community, for a net decline of 904, to reduce over capacity from 22 percent in fiscal 2019 to 9 percent. But that inched up to 12 percent at the end of fiscal 2021 on June 30.

Weve reviewed everybody that the Department of Corrections has sent us. Its not as if we havent reviewed some folks. We have and the numbers are down, Boettger said. Objectively, we did a big push at the beginning of COVID and got some low-hanging fruit in the form of folks that were ready to transition, we just needed to get them in the pipeline earlier.

However, the parole board chairman said the task became more challenging the past fiscal year as members reviewed risk factors and assessments from the state Corrections Department in weighing which offenders were the best candidates to parole or release to work in Iowa communities.

As a result, total releases in fiscal year 2021 were cut by 3,032 from the previous 12-month period.
That, too, was a huge boost to the overall ConnectCR vision, said Mike McGrath, the ConnectCR campaign chair.

It would be very difficult to try to raise money for a lake that might get flooded and destroyed in any kind of future flooding, he said.

A 2016 feasibility study found that improvements to the lake would drive an estimated $17.5 million in revenue and an increase of 370 jobs, creating a signature destination that would attract business and leisure travelers to stay in town. This analysis fueled the connection of Cedar Lake transformation efforts to a proposal for a bridge linking NewBo and Czech Village before they were officially known together as ConnectCR.

It just becomes an amazing resource for all of our citizens and really something that we can use as a tool to retain and recruit folks to the area, McGrath said.

With citizens including Felicia Wyrick, Steve Sovern, Todd before his time on council and others rallying to change hearts and minds about the lake, the project was inching forward before the citys purchase.

Its the largest public-private campaign in the citys history, and it was done with very few people, McGrath said.   It was a volunteer vision.
From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year.
Matthew Mindler has died at the age of 19.

The former child actor - who was best known for starring opposite Paul Rudd in 'Our Idiot Brother' - has been found dead, after going missing from Millersville University in Pennsylvania, earlier this week.

A message on Millersville University's Twitter page stated: "Dear Campus Community, It is with a grieving heart that I let you know of the death of 19-year-old Matthew Mindler from Hellertown, Pennsylvania, a first-year student at Millersville University. Our thoughts of comfort and peace are with his friends and family during this difficult time.

"A search had been underway for Matthew since Thursday, after he was reported missing. Millersville University Police and law enforcement agencies from the area had been searching for him since that time. Matthew was found deceased this morning, Saturday, August 28 in Manor Township near campus. Matthew was transported to the Lancaster County Forensic Center by the coroner for further investigation.

"This is a time of grief for the family, our campus and the community. I ask that the campus community come together to support each other, and our students, during this difficult time.
Refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was already a reckless health decision. Lately, its been turning into an expensive one, too.

Take the price of insurance. On Wednesday, Delta Airlines announced that it would charge unvaccinated employees an extra $200 per month for their health coverage and require that they be tested for the coronavirus weekly. At least part of the airlines motivation was financial. Like many major corporations, the airline is self-insured, meaning that it pays the medical claims of its own workers, and in an open memo to staff, CEO Ed Bastian noted that the average hospital stay for COVID had cost it $50,000. While 75 percent of its workforce is vaccinated, Delta wants to push the number higher.

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It wouldnt be surprising if other big companies followed suit. A number of employers, from hospital networks to Disney, have decided to simply require that their workers get vaccinated or submit to testing. But for various reasons, others worry that mandates will seem too overbearingDelta, for instance, might be concerned about blowback from Republican politicians in its home state of Georgiaand may prefer to prod their employees with insurance surcharges. One corporate consultant told the New York Times that about 50 companies had spoken with him about imposing these sorts of penalties.

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There are probably limits on how much companies can increase premiums for the unvaccinated. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Actbetter known as HIPAAemployers generally are not allowed to charge workers extra for insurance based on their health status (the rule is somewhat similar to the Affordable Care Acts regulations for the individual market). But federal law makes an exception for employer wellness programs, which can offer workers financial rewards or penalties to take steps such as quitting smoking. Vaccine surcharges would probably have to be structured under the same rules, which means the punishments for going without a shot cant be so stiff that they can be considered coercivea slightly fuzzy standardand are limited to no more than 30 percent of the cost of individual coverage under the companys plan. Delta seems to be keeping all of this in mind, though all their spokesman would tell me when I asked about it was that the company is well within the plan and legal parameters to make this change.

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Simply mandating vaccines for employees might be the more straightforward and superior strategy as far as public health is concerned, compared to using the wellness program model. After all, theres no question that businesses can outright require workers to get vaccinated before they return to the workplace (which, ironically, is a vastly more coercive option than any premium increase). And some hardline anti-vaxxers might choose to simply go without the shot or coverage, which could further isolate them from mainstream medical advice.

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Im not sure that pricing someone out of their insurance by charging them more is a good strategy for getting them vaccinated, Sabrina Corlette, the director of Georgetown Universitys Center on Health Insurance Reforms, told me. Why would we cut people off from their family doctors or pediatricians to convince them to get vaccinated? That seems like biting off your nose to spite your face.

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But companies arent necessarily looking for the optimal choice from a public-health standpointtheyre looking for an option that makes sense to them financially, politically, and from a workforce-management perspective, which might mean using higher premiums as a strong nudge.

Policies at large corporations, meanwhile, arent the only way its getting pricier to go unjabbed.

Lets say you get sick. At start of the pandemic, private insurers largely chose to waive out-of-pocket expenses for coronavirus patients who needed hospital care. But most have stopped offering those breaks; a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that almost three quarters of insurance carriers have brought back cost-sharing, and another 10 percent plan to do so by October. As a result, Americans who land in the ER with COVID might well face a hefty bill. (Unlike with coronavirus testing, federal law doesnt require free care for people who actually get sick.)

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Why are insurers no longer waiving out-of-pocket costs? Theres a confluence of factors. Covering COVID care at no charge was essentially an inexpensive way for carriers to generate good will early in the pandemic, not to mention avoid a federal mandate requiring them to do so, Cynthia Cox, a health care expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told me. The Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to spend 80 percent of the premiums they collect on medical claims; otherwise, they have to refund some of the money to enrollees. When Americans cut back on hospital visits early in the pandemic for anything other than COVID, insurers essentially found themselves earning too much money, and needed to spend it on something in order to meet Obamacares rules. Using the money waiving out-of-pocket costs was essentially a free way to build good PR, Cox said.

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They werent losing anything, Cox further explained. But this year, health care use has mostly rebounded, and theres a vaccine, so hospital costs can mostly be avoided. So there isnt as much sympathy, I think, for people who are hospitalized with COVID.

How much can COVID patients expect to pay for a trip to the hospital? Cox told me that her think tank hadnt found good real-time data yet, but that they had looked at the charges faced by pneumonia patients in past years, which averaged out to around $1,300 to $1,464 depending on complications, similar to the deductibles on many health plans. People with a higher deductible or out-of-pocket maximum could pay moreespecially if they wind up in the intensive care unit or need a ventilator.

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One way you could look at all this is that some of the worst aspects of the U.S. health care system are currently being used to reasonably good ends. After all, wellness programs are a major loophole in insurance law that allow companies to discriminate against some of their employees, which is why patient advocates fought hard against writing them into the Affordable Care Act. Likewise, it is generally a bad thing that Americans can face thousands of dollars in charges when they end up in the hospital with an illness.

But right now were in an exceptional situation, where a major chunk of the country has made the personally and socially irresponsible decision to not get vaccinated in the midst of a plague. If the threat of a potentially deadly illness wont convince them, well, hopefully the threat to their bank account will.
Coronavirus Diaries is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting peoples lives. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with An Luu, a 21-year-old senior at Rice University in Houston, who got a false positive due to a COVID-19 test glitch earlier this month. Luu was one of many Rice students whose positive (later discovered to be false positive) test results caused the university to move classes online. Ninety-five percent of the student population of Rice is vaccinated, including Luu. Slate reached out to Rice Universitys Crisis Management Team for comment on Luus experience. They pointed us to the statement the university issued about the false positives earlier this week. This piece has been transcribed, condensed, and edited for clarity by Julia Craven.

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I took the test last Wednesday, during the first week of orientation for new students. I had come back to campus two weeks before school started, with all of the upperclassmen selected to serve as advisers. Were put through training so we can help new students prepare for student life here. The following week, new students arrive and have orientation week, or O-week for short.

During O-week, we all had sore throats and we were all tired. Were constantly helping and cheering on the new students. We were already very stressed out and were trying to give all these students the best possible experience. Wed heard that around 15 people tested positive in one of the residential colleges. They were just rumors at the time.

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Once that happened, we were really worried. The coordinators of our residential college stated that we all had to get a COVID test. We scheduled it and I went with the group of new students that I was taking care of. We all went and got the COVID test together, didnt think anything of it, and went back to our residential college. Then, around 7 p.m. on Thursday, I got a call from the university Crisis Management Team stating that I tested positive. I was really shocked because I followed all of Rices guidelines. I was wearing a mask indoors and limiting contact.

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I tested positive for COVID last summer. So, when I heard I got COVID twice, I was just really scared. Also, O-week is one of the most significant experiences for new students and I couldnt be there. I couldnt be fully present for my students. And I just broke down because it was very stressful.

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That same night, I was told to move out of my dorm and I was placed in the housing available for visiting professors. They told me to pack bedding and clothes. I brought one suitcase and a small backpack. I packed as much as I could. And I was very cautious. I waited until 9 oclock at night to walk over because, if I had COVID, I didnt want to give it to anybody.

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I was rooming with another person that had a false positive as well. We had no symptoms whatsoever. We were really wary of each other. We both wore masks all the time and there was no divided area. And I was fortunate to have just one roommate.

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I got an email later that night stating that all asymptomatic positives were being retested on Friday morning. So, I went and took Rices LAMP test the next day, which is saliva based, and I tested negative. But they wanted to confirm, so they sent me to a Methodist Hospital testing provider for a PCR test on Saturday. There were only two nurses on call when I went. There was a very long line and I waited for at least two hours to get a COVID test. I was exhausted and weary from all the testing. I didnt even want to see if I actually got COVID or not. But the test came back negative.

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After that, Rices Crisis Management Team told me that I was free to move back into my residential college. I was angry once I found out that it was a false positive. I was mad that I missed out on O-week. I felt like I missed something that I applied for, basically a job, something that I had training for and I wasnt able to use any of it for the new students during orientation week. That was really upsetting. I really wanted to help my new students. But I missed everything. And its like an experience for yourself too.

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But I was also relieved that it was a false positive and happy that I got to see my new students and friends again. Its totally understandable that mistakes happen. But at the same time, it sucks.

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Unfortunately for me, my experience with crisis management was worse than others. I got that call stating that I had to move from my residential college with no in-depth instructions from anybody whatsoever. They told me to submit a health reporting form, which I did. I was isolated in my room. They said the food was going to be delivered to me. Food was not delivered to me. I had to ask my friends to bring me food. I was really worried because I felt like there wasnt going to be anybody to help me out.

I was just left in the dark, stuck with COVID, supposedly.
Both of the favourites in the two $8,000 divisions of the Future Stars Series for two-year-old trotters romped to victory on Friday (August 27) at Hippodrome 3R.

The most impressive was HP Felicity and driver Jocelyn Gendron in the seventh race division for the fillies.

Leaving from post five, Gendron took his time getting HP Felicity past La Surprenante (Simon Delisle), taking command at the opening quarter-mile in :30. HP Felicity then led the field past the half in 1:01. She was then pressured slightly by a first-over Cleveland Moneyka (Stephane Brosseau) to the three-quarters in 1:32 before they dropped into the two-hole. HP Felicity then pulled away in the stretch for the easy triumph by 3-3/4 lengths in 2:02. Cleveland Monkeyka was second with La Surprenante third.

The win was the second from seven starts -- both in the series -- for HP Felicity. She is trained by Jean Tourigny for co-owners Claude Hamel and Michel Damphousse, who also bred the Muscle Mass-Canaco Runner filly.

Sent off as the overwhelming 1-9 race favourite, she paid just $2.10 to win.

In the colt division, a non-wagering race due to a short field of just five starters, Royalty Beer continued his winning ways.

The Royalty For Life-Beer Maggs gelding left from post three for driver Kevin Maguire and never looked back. Royalty Beer coasted through slow fractions (31, 1:03.3, 1:35.2) then pulled away from the field after the three-quarters and won in a romp by 7-3/4 lengths in 2:05. Kenogami Rebel (Stephane Brosseau) sat the two-hole trip but could not keep up and finished second. Stablemate Cleveland Massimo (Jean Francois Maguire) was third.

Royalty Beer earned his third straight win in the Future Stars Series and is now three-for-four lifetime. Jean Francois Maguire trains and co-owns with breeder Ecuries Maguire Inc.

In the $5,500 Preferred Handicap Trot, Choo Choo Blue and driver Stephane Brosseau wanted the lead and ended up wiring the field.

Pressured on the outside by Precieuse CC (Kevin Maguire) to a quick opening panel in :28.2, Choo Choo Blue would not give way and forced Precieuse CC to take the two-hole spot. They went past the half in a slow 1:00.2 as Morally Flexible (Daniel Theroux) came first-over, giving outside cover to Goaltender (Pascal Berube). Morally Flexible hung tough past the three-quarters in 1:30.4 and around the final turn. Precieuse CC waited in the two-hole for an opening. But as they came down the stretch, Choo Choo Blue still had some late kick to win by two lengths in 2:00.4. Precieuse CC was second with Goaltender third.

Choo Choo Blue earned her third win from nine starts this year. The five-year-old mare by Angus Hall is trained by Brosseau for owner Richard Fortier.

She paid $4 to win.

Track Notes: This was the last Friday race card at H3R for 2021. Live racing resumes Sunday, with first-race post time at 12:10 p.m., featuring the final round of the Future Stars Series for two-year-old pacers. Driver Louis-Philippe Roy returns and will compete in eight of the 10 races. For a free race program, visit hippodrome3r.ca.

To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Hippodrome 3R.

(With files from Quebec Jockey Club)
Veteran trotter Meladys Monet, a career winner of more than $1.8 million, picked up another Open victory on Friday night (August 27) at Yonkers Raceway and now boasts a dozen wins in his 12-year-old campaign.

Friday nights featured race was the $45,000 Open Handicap and the popular trotter Meladys Monet staved off challenges by Champagne On Ice (Joe Bongiorno) and Chaptiama (George Brennan) to win in 1:54.2.

Jason Bartlett was in the sulky for the Revenue S gelding's 79th career triumph. Meladys Money is trained by Hermann Heitmann for owner Melady Enterprises LLC.

He paid $3.40 to win and led a $6.50 exacta and a $24.40 trifecta.

Only four other Standardbreds -- and just two trotters that are nine years younger -- racing in North America currently have more wins in 2021 than Meladys Monet. Five-year-old pacing gelding Catch Me Conrad and three-year-old trotting filly Swan Fine Lady have 14 wins each this year while three-year-old trotting colt Top Me Off and eight-year-old pacing gelding Dontcallmefrancis both have 13 wins.

Meladys Monet, who has earned $178,640 through 23 starts this year, last won 12 races in a career-best season ($364,450) as a six-year-old in 2015.

The Pick 6 was not hit again on Friday night at Yonkers Raceway, thanks mostly to upsets by 21-1 Well Done Son and 7-1 Kerrin Joseph A. As a result, when racing resumes at Yonkers on Monday night (August 30), there will be a $5,414.93 carryover and a $10,000 guaranteed pool in the wager.

The guarantee is being offered as part of the United States Trotting Associations Strategic Wagering Program. Free past performances for the Pick 6, courtesy of TrackMaster, are available here. Yonkers Raceway's Pick 6 has a takeout rate of 20 per cent, as do the track's nightly Pick 4 and Pick 5 wagers.

Monday nights 12-race program at Yonkers kicks off at 7:15 p.m.

(With files from Yonkers Raceway)
In this week's edition of Rewind Robert Smith delves well back in time to recall a headline event from 80 years ago. One of the sport's top events at that time was The Canadian Pacing Derby held at the small Waterloo County town of New Hamburg, Ont.

In August of 1941 much of the world was in turmoil as WWII was being fought on several fronts. Many annual race meetings were cancelled and a large number of Fairground properties were being used for military purposes. Additionally many young horsemen had traded their silks for military uniforms. The world was focused on a larger picture as the preservation of freedom and democracy were at stake for the entire world. However one locality that still held their twice yearly meetings was New Hamburg, Ont. It was believed that in good times and in bad, harness racing served as a unifying force and morale builder as it brought people together for a worthwhile purpose.

Sixth Annual Canadian Pacing Derby at New Hamburg Draws 8000 People



Owner of Miss Vera Bars, J. W. Brown of New Liskeard, Ont. proudly displays the silver rose bowl presented to him by the previous year's Derby winning owner W.J. Hyatt who won the 1940 edition with Bob Lee. At the age of 44 he was a fairly young owner. (Photo courtesy of Canadian Sportsman) Owner of Miss Vera Bars, J. W. Brown of New Liskeard, Ont. proudly displays the silver rose bowl presented to him by the previous year's Derby winning owner W.J. Hyatt who won the 1940 edition with Bob Lee. At the age of 44 he was a fairly young owner. (Photo courtesy of Canadian Sportsman)

On August 13, 1941, the Sixth renewal of their annual signature Race  The Canadian Pacing Derby went on as scheduled in front of a crowd estimated to be around 8,000 people. First held in 1936, this race was gaining in momentum and popularity with each passing year. This year's edition attracted a field of eight starters, all eyeing a piece of the huge $1,500 purse and more importantly a chance to wear the crown of victory. One horse who was considered the heavy favourite that year was Dazzle Direct. Originally brought out by Kerwood, Ont. horseman John Brigham this speedy pacer had made his way to U.S. ownership and had starred at several stateside tracks including a sub 2:00 mile at Lexington, Ky., then handled by the legendary horseman Morris MacDonald. He was indeed the horse to bet and the horse to beat. He was owned by sportsman J.C. Ridley of Detroit and driven on this day by the young Michigan reinsman Tommy Winn.

However, as is often the case, the pre-race scenario does not play out as the so-called "experts" predict. Chestnut Bars set the pace in the early going of the first heat with a rapid opening quarter of 32 seconds. He continued to lead throughout most of the race but was eventually collared by the very lightly regarded Miss Vera Bars with favourite Dazzle Direct taking second. In the second heat the starter disqualified driver Bill Harvey behind Pine Ridge Alex for beating the pole horse away. He was replaced by driver Harry Fields who promptly sent his catch drive to the lead carving out a half in 1:04 3/4, closely pursued by Miss Vera Bars who once again paced home a winner with the Detroit-owned horse unable to get the lead and settling for second spot.

With victory assured from two heat wins, driver Litt came out for the final skirmish intent on a clean sweep. He hustled the little mare to the lead immediately and led for the entire race until a few steps from the wire when Bert Patch, a Kingston-owned horse driven by railroader Steadman Craig, grabbed the lead and won in the fastest heat of the afternoon  2:07 flat. This was by far the closest finish of the event and once again the heavy favourite took the second place finish. As so often happens in horse racing, a horse lightly regarded steals the show. A foal of 1935, Miss Vera Bars was six years old at this time and this win was one of 31 she tallied during the 1941 season in 46 starts. Her season ending bankroll was a meagre $1,653.80, an indication that racing during this era was not all about money.



Aug 13, 1941: Miss Vera Bars poses with driver Gid Litt following her Derby victory as the only mare to ever win the New Hamburg Pacing Derby. Mr. Litt handled the driving for trainer Cliff "Chappy" Chapman Sr. who had another entry in the race. (Photo courtesy of Canadian Sportsman. My apologies for the less than perfect picture quality undoubtedly attributable to the passage of time) Aug 13, 1941: Miss Vera Bars poses with driver Gid Litt following her Derby victory as the only mare to ever win the New Hamburg Pacing Derby. Mr. Litt handled the driving for trainer Cliff "Chappy" Chapman Sr. who had another entry in the race. (Photo courtesy of Canadian Sportsman. My apologies for the less than perfect picture quality undoubtedly attributable to the passage of time)

Owner Brown Addresses Huge Crowd

At the race's conclusion, an on-track presentation took place with Mr. W.J. Hyatt of London, the owner of the previous year's winner Bob Lee presenting a beautiful silver rose bowl to Mr. James W Brown of New Liskeard, Ont., the owner of Miss Vera Bars. It was customary in those days for the winning owner to address the crowd and Mr. Brown proceeded to thank his trainer "Chappy" Chapman Sr. for the way he had conditioned his mare for the race and also thanked driver Gid Litt for his outstanding drive in each heat. This victory gave Litt his second Derby win, having also won the race in 1937 behind Grattan Axworthy, coincidentally in the same time of 2:08 3/4. Mr. Brown was also quick to announce that he would donate a similar trophy to the next year's winner, thus continuing a tradition dating back to the Derby's beginning.

The day following the race, The New Hamburg Turf Club revealed that this had been the most successful race day from a financial standpoint that the club had ever enjoyed. Future plans called for an increased purse for the following year, several improvements to the grounds and buildings, and also various charities related to the wartime effort would also benefit. The Canadian Pacing Derby was on its way.

Thus concluded a great day of racing. Four races, each of three heats provided a total of 12 exciting races for purses totalling $2,600. As we reflect back on days such as this, we see many of the participants of that day still have connections to the modern day sport. Also unbeknownst at the time, many future Hall of Famers were on display that day, including the winning horse, her owner and trainer, to name just a few. In 1976 Miss Vera Bars was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Her qualifications had little to do with her lifetime record (which was 2:05 1/4) or her paltry earnings, but mostly to do with her great heart and competitive spirit in an era now long forgotten.

Results of 1941 Canadian Pacing Derby - Purse $1,500

Miss Vera Bars (Gid Litt)  1-1-3

Bert Patch (Sted Craig)  4-3-1

Dazzle Direct (Tom Winn)  2-2-2

Tom Grattan (Vic Rowntree)  3-5-6

Pine Ridge Alex (Wm. Harvey, Harry Fields)  5-4-7

Chestnut Bars (Cliff Chapman)  6-7-4

Leah Guy (Jack Finnerty)  7-6-5

Beatrix Lee (Allan Elliot)  8-8-8

Times: 2:08 1/4; 2:08 1/4; 2:07

Note: This year's version of The Canadian Pacing Derby will take place on Saturday, September 4th with all entrants in search of a piece of the $600,000 purse.

Closing Comments: The story of the original Canadian Pacing Derby is an amazing one and today's piece is just a small sampling of what it meant to Canadian harness racing at that time. First held in 1936, it survived through good and bad times and was staged at Fountain Park in New Hamburg for 22 straight years without fail. It was managed and promoted mainly by volunteers and served as the premiere pacing event in Ontario for virtually all of that time.

The story of today's winner Miss Vera Bars is just a small portion of the success enjoyed by her owner Jim Brown of New Liskeard, Ont. During the decade of the 1940's Mr. Brown would win no less than five Derbies; one being the victory described today and four more recorded by his sensational roan gelding The Count B. In yet another Derby The Count was second to that year's winner Blue Again. As most readers might know, Jim Brown was the father of Dr. Glen Brown, a man who has served our sport so admirably for so many years. Perhaps a coincidence that the senior Brown owned the only mare to win the Pacing Derby while Dr. Brown remains the only person to own a mare that has won the Little Brown Jug!

Quote For The Week: "Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns Grow."

Who Is It?

Can you identify this gentleman from yesteryears? His name is mentioned in today's story which should be a help. (Hoof Beats photo)

Who Else Is It?

Let's go with a little newer photo to try to reach a few more in the reading audience. Who is this fellow?

What Is It?

Can you correctly name what this document was called? It was in use at virtually all racetracks for many years and was an important part of the information all horse people required. It was usually just issued as a single sheet of paper. Today we take for granted how easy it is to reproduce a piece of paper but it was not always that way. Dating way back, an office machine called a "Gestetner" (named after the inventor) was often used to run off multiple sheets of the same item.
Agencies in three different cities, including Scottsbluff, participated in a sex trafficking operation on Aug. 26, according to information released from the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office.

In a press release, the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office said Nebraska conducted three sex trafficking operations as part of Operation United Front, a joint venture of 12 Midwest states.

Among other arrests, a man was arrested for seeking to purchase sex acts with a 15-year-old girl who was actually an undercover police officer.

Agencies participating included Nebraska State Patrol, Scottsbluff Police Department, Kearney Police Department, Buffalo County Sheriffs Office, South Sioux City Police Department, Sioux City Police Department, Omaha Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, Omaha FBI Field Office, and Nebraska Attorney Generals Office.

The operations were conducted in three locations  Kearney, and South Sioux City, as well as Scottsbluff.

Details on arrests had not been included in the press release. The Star-Herald has reached out to the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office and Scottsbluff Police Department for additional details about any local arrests.
Billingsley then got the itch to learn how to play the fiddle.

My brothers were gone (having been drafted during the Korean War), he said. I played bass fiddle, but I wanted to learn how to play the fiddle. Dad didnt want anybody messing with instruments unless we were in the room with him.

His dad wanted to ensure they were handling the instruments properly because the band was the familys livelihood, he said.

The family band would help buy the seed and the fertilizer. We played music so we could farm. We would get hailed out so we had to play. It was a vicious cycle, he said.

Billingsley said with all of the chores on the farm it was hard to find time for his dad to teach him to play the instrument.

I wanted to learn how to play. So, when I came in from irrigating, and right after lunch, mom would go in her bedroom and listen to the radio. So, I slipped in the house and would take the fiddle. I would sneak out to the meat house behind the shop (because it was soundproof), and I learned how to play the fiddle. I think the first song that I learned how to play was Soapsuds over the Fence.

He also taught himself to play Red Wing and Golden Slippers.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP)  Jurors convicted Friday two former Colorado sheriff's deputies accused of causing the death of an intoxicated man by placing him on his stomach and squeezing him into a van to take him to a detox center.

Former Boulder County sheriff's deputies James O'Brien, 52, and Adam Lunn, 39, were found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Demetrius Shankling, 23, in 2018, the Longmont Times-Call reported.

According to an arrest affidavit, they put the 6-foot (1.8-meter) tall man, with his hands behind his back, in a compartment that was less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) long.

O'Brien and Lunn had to press on the compartment door to close it, causing Shankling's leg to get wedged against the inside of the door, the affidavit said.

When they reached the detox center the early hours of Sept. 9, 2018, Shankling was unresponsive and not breathing.

He died after spending 27 days in a coma, Senior Deputy District Attorney Christian Gardner-Wood said. An autopsy found that Shankling died of suffocation because of his positioning, with alcohol and amphetamine as contributing factors.
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Face coverings are currently optional for Prosper ISD students, staff and visitors. The Prosper ISD School Board addressed is COVID-19 protocols during a Monday night meeting.
Recently, I learned that Dr. Joyce Sloop, my old Sunday school teacher and mentor, had passed away. We have lost a luminary of a teacher. When I returned to North Carolina after 17 years of living away, one of her students invited me to attend her Sunday school class at my old home church, First Presbyterian in Mooresville. It had been years since I attended any Sunday school, but I decided to give it a try.

Joyce Sloops classes were like nothing I had ever experienced. She went over the material like many other teachers, but she did not lecture or repeat the book. She explained what was happening in the background as the events unfolded before our eyes. Many times she would tie in something that the Greeks or Romans did that was a result of something else in the lesson. Not only was she a veritable encyclopedia of information on the Holy Bible, but she was well-versed in English classics and many philosophers especially the German philosopher Hegel. She tied in many works of literature or other arts into the lesson. I traded books with her and she loaned some of hers to me.

Someone without a strong liberal arts education might have trouble keeping up due to the enormity of her knowledge. She encouraged discussion and questions all through the period. Many people like me learn the best when we can ask questions and raise objections or simply have different points of view.

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Michael Nader, the actor known for playing Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter on the hit soap "Dynasty" and for his role on "All My Children," has died at age 76.

The Missouri-born star's manager, Richard Schwartz, confirmed to USA Today that he died in his California home on Monday after a short battle with cancer.

A statement from Nader's wife, Jodi Lister, to Michaelfairmantv.com, read: "With heavy heart, I'm sharing the news of the passing of my beloved, Michael. We had 18 wonderful years together with the many dogs we fostered and adopted."

Nader's acting career spanned several decades after he landed his first acting gig in William Asher's 1963 comedy "Beach Party."

In 1978, he secured his first soap job as Kevin Thompson on "As the World Turns."

He rose to prominence in 1983 when he joined the cast of "Dynasty" as the love interest of Alexis Carrington, played by Joan Collins.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)  Hundreds of Hamas-backed activists on Saturday launched what they said was the first in a series of nighttime protests along the Israeli border, throwing explosives toward Israeli forces who responded with live fire.

Organizers said the gatherings, which are to continue throughout the week, were meant to step up pressure on Israel to ease a crippling economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The occupation will not enjoy calm unless the siege on our beloved land is lifted, said Abu Omar, a spokesman for the protesters.

Israel and Egypt have maintained the blockade since Hamas, a group sworn to Israels destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won Palestinian elections.

The blockade, which restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, has ravaged the territorys economy. Israel has tightened the closure since an 11-day war in May, demanding the return of the remains of two dead soldiers and freedom for two Israeli civilians believed to be in Hamas captivity.

Amateur footage and photos from inside Gaza showed hundreds of Palestinians protesters engaged in Saturdays gathering. Some appeared to be throwing explosives and chanting in celebrations as blasts sounded.
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Woodlands resolution asked for Gov. Jay Inslee to rescind the declaration of a state of emergency for COVID and called for a special legislative session to limit the governors powers.

Councilwoman DeeAnna Holland said her vote for the resolution was not about the politics of the virus, but was in support of the bodily autonomy of American citizens. Holland compared the vaccine mandate to the IUD Britney Spears unwillingly received as part of her conservatorship.

To lose your job because you dont want to take a medical procedure, that in itself is horrific, Holland said.

In addition to opposing vaccine mandates, several members of the public opposed the idea that vaccines allowed for any level of different treatment. A construction worker called it discrimination that after one employee tested positive for COVID, he and other unvaccinated workers were isolated until they provided a negative COVID test while vaccinated workers stayed on the job.

A Woodland doctor who called in was among the few voices of opposition to the citys resolution. Dr. Randy Olson did not speak about the broader opinions in the resolution but said the citys decision to not require vaccines for employees may not be legally enforceable.
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Cowlitz County Friday recorded 111 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 8,375 confirmed and 951 probable cases. The county has recorded 119 COVID-19 deaths.

As of Wednesday, 50.8% of Cowlitz County residents had initiated vaccination and 45.8% were fully vaccinated. Statewide, 60.1% of people initiated vaccination and 54.6% were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday.

Our community continues to have one of the highest unvaccinated rates in the state of Washington, and we are seeing the undeniable results, Montanye said. The OHSU and UW COVID-19 forecast models, which have been very accurate thus far, continue to show that we are not at the peak yet of this current surge.

PeaceHealth expects COVID patient numbers to peak at St. John and Southwest in Vancouver around Sept. 4 before plateauing and then slowly decreasing.

As of Tuesday, about 18% of the 257 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at the 10 PeaceHealth hospitals in Washington, Oregon and Alaska were fully vaccinated, according to the organization.

PeaceHealth St. John prepares for COVID-19 patient increase, health officials urge vaccination As Cowlitz Countys COVID-19 hospitalization rate hit a new high this week, PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center is bracing for a continued inc

Cowlitz County Health and Human Services Friday urged residents to consider risks of holding in-person gatherings and events.
A roughly 10 year-old fundraiser is leaving locals in homes and a sweet taste in donors mouths.

Two Mark Morris High School seniors donated more than $3,000 in cookie sales on Aug. 20 to a local nonprofit to prevent homelessness.

For nearly a decade, 17-year-old Erica Snyder has been baking and selling cookies to support Lower Columbia Community Action Program, or CAP.

+2 Cowlitz County contracts with CAP to distribute $6.1 million in rent, utility assistance from feds Cowlitz County commissioners approved an agreement Tuesday with Lower Columbia CAP to distribute $6.1 million in rent and utility assistance t

Last school year, Snyder teamed up with her classmate Jazz Frazier, 17, to sell cookies as part of a Longview Rotary youth service project. The teens sold cookies at lunch over the last three weeks of school and raised $3,392. Snyder said she gave a rundown of the fundraiser to each customer.

Longview adds $170,000 in mortgage payments to plan for low-income rental assistance The change comes after the county government received millions of federal dollars to help renters since the pandemic began.

A lot of people didnt know what CAP is, so I tried to explain to them, she said. They knew all their money was going to support homeless services.

Sweet support

The fundraiser, called Cookies for CAP, started as a way for Snyder to occupy herself at age 7 while her mom sold items at the Longview Terry/Taylor Garage Sale.

+2 AmeriCorps volunteers provide free labor for Ryderwood home repairs thanks to Lower Columbia CAP With a drop in volunteers since the start of the pandemic, Lower Columbia CAP is playing catch up on local projects thanks to AmeriCorps members.

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Microsoft is going to stop supporting its android apps for Office on Googles Chromebooks from next month. From September 18 onwards, Microsoft is going to direct users to use Office.com and Outlook.com instead of the native Android apps. However, these apps are going to be available on Android smartphones and tablets still. to be able to access the sites, Chromebook users will need to sign in to their personal Microsoft Accounts or their Microsoft 365 subscription accounts.

Microsoft announced the change through its Office for Chromebook support page and mentioned that users will be able to access apps like Outlook, OneNote, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and Word using the web services. Earlier, this page used to direct users to download the corresponding Android apps.

This decision to direct Chromebook users to Microsofts web services might seem like the company is withdrawing support for a competing platform but it makes sense. Googles ChromeOS is meant to run an entire system inside the Chrome browser so Chromebooks perform better when you are working inside the browser.

"We're pleased to see Microsoft offer Chrome OS users a more optimized experience and embrace the open web. People love Chrome OS because it provides a speedy, secure, and simple computing experience and helps them stay connected while they work, study and stay entertained," a spokesperson from Google told ZDNet.

In an effort to provide the most optimized experience for Chrome OS/Chromebook customers, Microsoft apps (Office and Outlook) will be transitioned to web experiences (Office.com and Outlook.com) on 18 September 2021. This transition brings Chrome OS/Chromebook customers access to additional and premium features. Customers will need to sign in with their personal Microsoft Account or account associated with their Microsoft 365 subscription. More information is available here," Microsoft told AboutChromebooks in a statement.
Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc., the payments duopoly worth a combined $850 billion in market value, spend most of their time running silently in the background of a $2 trillion payments industry that enables purchases with little pieces of plastic. Yet every so often, the elephant in the room becomes impossible to ignore. The kerfuffle around OnlyFans, a social network that says it was pressured by banking-service providers including Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to ban explicit content  a move its since reversed  is one such revelatory moment. It points to the centrality of online payments in peoples lives and the increasingly fraught role of the firms that manage them.

Like Casablancas Captain Renault, who was shocked, shocked to discover gambling under his roof, payment firms are being prodded to confront their ties to online porn. A text message in December from billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman to the boss of Mastercard, over reports of illegal content on Pornhub featuring underage victims of assault, spurred action that led the card to suspend the website.

A similar turn of events seems to have struck OnlyFans: It blamed banking partners and payout providers for pushing it to hurriedly pivot away from porn, after a BBC report into apparent tolerance of illegal content. It has since pivoted back again.

In this case, the trigger seems to have come from banking partners in the background rather than the card firms  Mastercard has said it didnt contact OnlyFans  but pressure has been building across the payments chain. After the Pornhub clampdown, Mastercard tightened its rules on explicit content in a move that was seen as a huge extra cost on the likes of OnlyFans. Porn industry advocates say card firms, alongside banks, are censoring their industry.

The weaponization of payments in these ESG times is hardly surprising. Financial firms have vested interests to please; they dont want to look asleep at the wheel when it comes to online risks. Payments firm Wirecard had, after all, raised red flags at Visa and Mastercard before its collapse.

A processor like Stripe has explicit terms of service listing many restricted sectors and high-risk countries. Cannabis firms sit on literal piles of cash because theyre too risky to bank. Its not just prudishness: The Pay Off, a book co-authored by the former boss of money-transfer network Swift, flagged the higher incidence of fraud and denied transactions in these vice industries that result in higher payment costs.

Yet the angry public backlash from OnlyFans users shows how these decisions are rippling out unpredictably after Covid-19. As the pandemic dragged more of the global economy online, more people have had to rely on tech platforms to scratch out a living. Its not every day you have performers like Erica Cherry calling on banks to hear the voices of the sex-work community. We shouldnt dismiss the dark side of online porn, but legitimate sex workers  not just banks  have networks to maintain, too.

How we pay is increasingly defining who we are. And in an increasingly cashless world, private firms are having to make decisions on who gets access to an economic lifeline. This isnt just about porn: Wikileaks was cut off by card firms in 2010, and, during the Trump administration, officials in Europe feared tougher payments sanctions on firms dealing with Iran would hurt Europeans access.

As the pressure on gatekeepers to clean house grows, whether from political or business stakeholders, so does the risk of clumsy overreach.

Some argue it would be better to go off the existing payments grid and build new infrastructure, whether via the libertarian extreme of Bitcoin or the statist proposal of a new European Payments Initiative to establish financial sovereignty by grouping the regions banks.

But these are niche solutions with high costs  think Bitcoins volatility and complexity  and few benefits, given a Europe-specific network would have a smaller scale and emptier pockets than the current duopoly. Its likely most merchants and consumers will still prefer clunky costs, like the OnlyFans debacle and anti-fraud measures that can block legitimate payments, for the global reach that U.S. networks provide.

A better short-term answer, then, is closer supervision and regulation of the private firms that are handling a system that functions like a public good, according to Garen Markarian, a professor of financial accounting at HEC Lausanne. The digital breadcrumbs our card swipes leave behind are also valuable and need to be governed by stricter rules.

The need for more vigilance hasnt been lost on regulators. Visa recently abandoned its proposed acquisition of fintech firm Plaid after U.S. antitrust concerns, a move that points to a potentially tougher ride for card firms empire-building abroad, according to Julie Chariell, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. And a class-action lawsuit against Mastercard in the U.K. is calling attention to the fees paid by merchants, which will quintuple in the U.K. after Brexit.

Longer term, regulators have a card to play in promoting new ways to pay. Account-to-account payments without cards and central-bank digital currencies could bring huge changes in transparency, regulation and financial inclusion. Theres a good chance improving payments can one day be done without trying to turn the likes of OnlyFans into LonelyFans.
Next Match: at Abilene Christian 8/31/2021 | 6:00 PM

The Red Raiders closed out the weekend in Knoxville with a five-set win over NC State at the Tennessee Classic. After dropping the first two sets, Tech responded winning the next three to reverse sweep the Wolfpack 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-9.was dominant in the final few sets, finishing the match with a team-high 13 kills with a .343 hitting clip.recorded her first double-double as a Red Raider with 12 kills and a team-leading 21 digs.also recorded a double-double with 35 assists and 16 digs, adding five kills in the match. The Red Raiders tallied 14 blocks in the contest, eight of which came fromNC State never surrendered the lead in the first set as the Red Raiders struggled offensively with six attack errors. Trailing 13-10, Tech tallied the next three points to tie things at 13, but the Wolfpack recorded eight of the next nine points to open a 21-14 lead. The Red Raiders were unable to pull back within range as the Pack took the first set, 25-18.The second set saw four runs of five-points or more starting with a 6-0 Red Raider run to open the frame. After two long runs of their own, the Pack took a 12-9 advantage until Tech came surging back with a five-point swing to retake the lead, 15-14. NC State rattled off seven of the next nine points to force a Tech timeout at 20-17. The Pack used the late surge to claim the second set 25-21.The Red Raiders battled back with a 25-22 win in set three. Tech got out to a strong start again, taking a 9-3 lead before the Pack tied the match at 10. NC State jumped ahead off a couple of Tech errors, but the Red Raiders answered with three straight points to lead 15-13. Tech held off the Pack for the remainder of the frame to force a fourth set.After trading points for the majority of the fourth set, the Red Raiders pulled ahead at 18-17 and controlled the pace from there. The Red Raiders clinched the 25-20 set win to force a deciding set taking 10 of the final 13 points, half of which came from Cooper.A six-point surge in the fifth set propelled the Red Raiders to a 15-9 win to complete the reverse sweep of the Wolfpack 3-2. Sauer took control in the final set with four kills and sealed the victory an ace.Tech travels to Abilene for a midweek matchup on Tuesday, Aug. 31 before returning home to host the Red Raider Classic featuring Rhode Island, Texas State and Ohio State.For the latest information on the Texas Tech volleyball team, visit TexasTech.com or follow @TexasTechVB on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
College of Coastal Georgia students are back on campus for their fall semester, and the college is continuing to encourage all on campus to get vaccinated and to wear face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
OMAHA  Andrea Gall, a 22-year-old Grand Island woman, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Court Judge John M. Gerrard to 10 years in federal prison for possessing 50 grams or more of actual or pure methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.

Following her prison term, Gall will serve five years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

On Oct. 4, 2019, Jose Negrete was on probation and a state probation officer stopped by Galls and Negretes house in Grand Island to conduct a home inspection. The probation officer observed a .22 caliber handgun. Negrete first asserted that the gun was a toy, and later admitted it was a real firearm. Negrete had been convicted previously of a felony offense and is prohibited from possessing firearms.

The police obtained a search warrant. Inside the home, they found about $20,000 in U.S. currency and more than a pound of methamphetamine. The meth was later sent to the Douglas County Sheriffs Offices Forensic Services Bureau. Testing completed by its laboratory showed the drugs contained at least 514 grams of actual or pure methamphetamine.
Two longtime veterans of the Nebraska State Fair ran into each other Friday morning.

Allen Beermann, attending his 72nd Nebraska State Fair, was glad to see Joe Hedrick, whos brought his racing pigs to the fair for at least 25 years.

Hedrick said the two men could tell lots of stories about each other.

When it was suggested that the former Nebraska Secretary of State get a tour of his petting zoo, Hedrick said he didnt have the time. But Ill do it for you, he said, smiling at Beermann.

The petting zoo is called Hedricks Around the World in One Display. In addition to Hedricks Racing Pigs, he also offers camel and pony rides.

Hedrick, who lives at Nickerson, Kan., came to Grand Island from the Missouri State Fair. Later, hell be taking his six rigs full of animals to the Kansas and Texas state fairs.

The dozen pigs who race around the track have fun names, such as Arnold Snoutsenhogger and Kevin Bacon. The latest is Nancy Pigolosi.

Those names pop into Hedricks head while hes driving down the road, listening to music or the news.
KEARNEY  Kearney Public Schools is implementing additional precautionary measures for students and staff as a result of an increase in local COVID-19 cases.

The school district is not currently experiencing a high level of positive COVID-19 cases and remains in the green zone. However, KPS leaders want to be proactive and add an extra layer of protection for students and staff while maintaining a balance between parents wanting no masks and maintaining a healthy in-school learning environment, said KPS Superintendent Dr. Kent Edwards.

KPS began this school year with masks being recommended, and now, unless students are returning from being ill or exposed to COVID, masks remain not required. Masks are only required for 10 days for those students and staff members who have been sent home ill or called in sick, or students and staff that have been exposed to a COVID positive person, Edwards said in an email.

If a sick student or staff member seeks medical attention and receives an alternate diagnosis or negative COVID test, they may return to school after being symptom-free for 24 hours without a mask. Students are required to report to their school. Staff are required to report to human resources if they test positive for COVID, have symptoms of COVID or were in close contact with a COVID-positive person.
The final product for his uncles cabin looked like a bear  so much so that Kern still uses it as an example of his work.

I love doing caricature bears, he said. Im not good enough to do realistic looking bears. I did an owl for a woman, but mostly I stick with bears and pumpkins.

Kerns pumpkins range from small autumnal decorations to ones so big they require a forklift to move. He can carve the small pumpkins in a few minutes. His bears, take much longer.

I never do a bear in one sitting, he said, adding that he prefers to take his time, making sure everything is right. There are many times I dont like how the nose or mouth turns out. Ill chop it off and hell end up with a little smaller head because I want the nose to look different. The trouble is that it is really easy to accidentally make a bear look like a pig.

Both Bollman and Kern approach their art with safety foremost in mind.

Probably the hardest part was to learn how to use the saw without hurting myself, Bollman said. My dad helped me with that, but basically, once you get the technique on how to hold the saw and what you're not supposed to do, the rest of it is practice like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get.
Derek and Libby Ervins story sounds somewhat like the plot of a Hallmark movie.

Two people, who grow up in the southern part of their respective states, move to Chicago to pursue careers. They meet, fall in love and, after inheriting Southern Illinois acreage, the couple with no farming experience decides to try their hands with their own orchard, fruits and vegetables. Along the way, the couple becomes farmers, entrepreneurs and recognized leaders and lobbyists for small agriculture.

The Ervins story is far from fiction and their farm, called Glaciers End, is no soundstage or movie studio. Its a working nearly 40-acre family farm with an orchard, specialty plants and crops that they use to create a wide variety of cottage food products, selling them at the farm and area farmers markets  for now.

That is for now because the markets for the jams, jellies, syrups and other products the Ervins and other farmers across the state produce will soon be expanding through the Home to Market Act  legislation awaiting Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzkers signature. The act, which will become law at the beginning of 2022, will open new avenues for the sale of cottage foods including direct-to-consumer sales.
Educators Rising

To promote interest in education as a career, the School of Education is partnering with Shawnee Community College, John A. Logan College, and nine area high schools as part of an Illinois State Board of Education-funded Education Career Pathways grant. This grant aims to develop high school students interest in education as a viable career, prepare them for postsecondary education, and engage them in hands-on teaching-related activities led by the Educators Rising programs at the high school.

Fifty Educators Rising students from six high schools visited the School of Education in early May. This fall plans are afoot to invite area superintendents and high school principals to discuss the promotion of education careers among high school students, and the diverse pathways leading to a career in education. The School of Education was excited to offer the popular Challenge to Excellence summer camp this past July and about 15 high school students and four camp counselors participated in a variety of academic and recreational activities throughout the week-long residential camp at SIUC.

Partnerships
Like clockwork, a team of nurses stand at the ready at 8:30 a.m. to help turn patients with severe breathing issues in a prone position. The routine rotating of COVID patients so that they are belly and face down puts less weight and pressure on the lungs, giving them a chance to heal, he said.

A seemingly simple task of proning a person is actually traumatizing to the body because the critical care patient is hooked up to a ventilator and IVs, he said.

Before COVID came, I may have only proned 2, 3, patients in my 11-year career. Its easy to us now, but its still a very traumatizing thing for the body  In that moment, thats when you have a high risk of something happening, he said. (Thursday), as we were getting the turn team together, we had (someone) code upstairs and I had to go intubate. She took our last bed (at the time)."

Then the pulmonary team makes its rounds to determine the effectiveness of proning for each patient and charts a plan of action for the rest of the day, he explained.

Thats also when we start discussing how to communicate to families if we believe our efforts are now becoming futile and that we can no longer help these patients. And thats the hardest conversation to have with people, Ackerman said.
The south regions increase in vaccination may be spurred by more sobering figures out of the same area, which is seeing the states biggest rises in hospitalizations from COVID-19.

Hospitalizations are among the best markers for tracking the severity of the pandemic, because overall case numbers can vary based on who decides to get tested and when. Hospitalizations have been rising across the state since early July, but the increase is steeper in regions outside the Chicago area.

In the south region, for example, the rate of occupied hospital beds per 100,000 residents had dropped below 2 in June. That rate has jumped to nearly 40, nearly as high as it was at the peak of the fall surge in that region.

The rise in hospitalizations has tightened the space available in hospitals, particularly in the south region, which reported just five beds in intensive care units available as of midnight Thursday.

Of the states 10 other regions, half are averaging fewer than 20% of their ICU beds available, which is one of the thresholds the Illinois Department of Public Health uses to consider mitigations. That includes Chicago (17% available), suburban Cook County (15%) and Lake- McHenry counties (15%).
Shortly before 12:30 a.m., a 47-year-old woman was driving in the South Lawndale community when she was caught in crossfire between occupants of two vehicles who were shooting at each other in the 3500 block of West Kedzie Avenue. She suffered a wound to the face, and was taken in fair condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

Around 11:55 p.m. Friday, a 16-year-old boy and girl were both shot while walking in the 8700 block of South Holland Road in the West Chatham neighborhood, police said. The boy was shot in the chin, and the girl suffered a graze wound to the leg. The teenage victims said they did not see where the shots came from, and police said it does not appear they were the intended targets. Both victims were dropped off at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in good condition, but the boy was later taken to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Shortly after 10 p.m., two males were discovered inside a vehicle on the West Side in the 2800 block of West Adams Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. The first male, 15, was shot in the neck, and was taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital. The second victim, 19, suffered wounds to the chest and arm, and was taken in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Loultchev said she learned since his death, after speaking with Vazquez's father, that Vazquez had struggled with mental health issues before. Had she known earlier, Loultchev said, she would have gotten help for him at a psychiatric hospital, even if it meant tricking him to go. Vazquez's father declined to speak to a reporter and his mother couldn't be reached.

Toxicology tests to determine if Vazquez had drugs in his system when he died will take weeks. Loultchev "started to suspect drugs" as Vazquez burned through money, she said, and his facial expressions signaled he was confused or scared.

The friend who let Vazquez stay in a spare bedroom on Conover Lane said Vazquez was supposed to be moving out of her house and into a homeless shelter the day he died. She has a theory about how Vazquez ended up inside the stranger's home: "I truly believe, 100 million percent, that Brian thought he was walking into my house," said Erin Epperhart. "He was on a walk, he got confused and he thought it was my house."

She acknowledges the houses and fences don't look alike, but she said Vazquez was new to the neighborhood and it was dark out, made more so by the power outages reported at some homes in the area after thunderstorms blew through hours before.
Wednesdays Republican event on the lake was mostly confined to a large room packed with people, including some (like GOP gubernatorial candidates Darren Bailey and Gary Rabine) who have publicly said they arent vaccinated against COVID-19. There were no ceiling fans, the doors were closed and the air conditioner was having real trouble keeping up. It was hot and close. And nobody, of course, was wearing masks.

I didnt stay longer than 15 or 20 minutes, and talked to a few people about potential stories, said hello to others like Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie, then left. I called a close friend on my way home to say that Id probably just made a mistake. Im fully, vaccinated, but if I was going to get one of those breakthrough cases, that was going to be the place.

On Friday, Leader McConchie, who is also fully vaccinated, announced that he had a mild breakthrough case. I received a text message later that evening from someone else who was at the lake party at the same time as me to tell me he had been exposed to the virus and suggested that I get tested.
The public is invited to join in the commemoration events marking the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Eutaw Springs taking place on Saturday, Sept. 4 at several different venues near the historical site. There is a patriotic service scheduled at the Church of the Epiphany in Eutawville at 10 a.m., where special presentations will be made. The guest speaker for this portion of the celebration will be J. Bobo, president of the South Carolina Society of the Children of the American Revolution.

Following the service, participants will travel two miles east of Eutawville to Battle Monument Park in Eutaw Springs for an 11:15 a.m. wreath-laying ceremony.

Remarks will be given by Ewart C. Irick, Battle of Eutaw Springs Chapter president, and Washington Light Infantry Color Guard will present the colors at the wreath-laying ceremony in Battle Monument Park. Wreaths must have been pre-registered to be presented at the program.

After lunch at Sweatmans BBQ in Holly Hill, there will also be a second wreath-laying observation at Maj. Gen. Francis Marions tomb at Belle Isle Plantation in Pineville.

We certainly encourage all youth and interested individuals to attend the events, said Doug Doster, secretary of the Battle of Eutaw Springs Chapter SCSAR and current state historian SCSAR.
Southerland said vaccinations are critical in helping reduce the proliferation of the virus, more specifically the much more contagious delta variant.

"We have got to encourage everybody to do that. We have seen vaccination rates go up with the number of people that are coming to the various clinics that we provide. We do provide a clinic over in our urgent care department every Friday, and then we also offer the vaccines in all of our primary care offices, he said.

Those are all available. The vaccinations are free. They are also offering vaccinations at CVS and Walgreens. I think Grove Park Pharmacy does it as well," he said.

Southerland said he has been telling people in his own family to get vaccinated.

I would say the largest percentage that are coming to the hospital that need to be admitted are people that have not been vaccinated. Then there's also a smaller percentage of people that have been vaccinated, but with the delta virus now coming out, they're getting re-infected. That's called breakthrough cases. So we're seeing a growing number of them as well, he said.

Powell said of the outpatient testing provided in the hospital emergency department, 49 tests out of approximately 153 administered on Friday came up positive.
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I was like, at least theyre painting, she said. Thats pretty cool. At least theyre being creative in some way. Its OK if they dont want to paint this, but at least theyre being creative in however they want to.

Just because the YES House students found themselves with brushes in hand doesnt mean they were all artistically inclined.

At first, Mooney said that some talked about, Oh, I can only draw stick figures or made other excuses why they couldnt help. That attitude and those refrains, at one time, were things she related to herself.

I hear those same things that I used to say, Mooney said. Its interesting, because I used to be there, too.

Even though she cant remember a time in her life when she didnt paint, she does remember a time in life where her relationship to art passed the threshold from love to hate. As a teenager, she said she considered giving it up all together.

I just hated art class, she said. I would never put it on the teachers or anything like that, but the experience was very structured. It wasnt very expressive, it was like youre just going there to get a good grade.
Wyomings unemployment rate fell last month from 5.4% to 5.2%, recently released figures show.

The decline was the result of more of the states unemployed dropping out of the labor force, according to a news release from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.

The states jobless rate is significantly below the 6.8% it experienced a year ago, when the state was reopening after pandemic-caused closures, and slightly lower than the current U.S. unemployment rate of 5.4%.

Every county in the state saw rates fall from June to July. Employment growth occurred in construction, retail trade and other services, according to the report.

Sublette County experienced the largest drop in unemployment from 6.9% to 5.2% from June to July, followed by Uinta, from 6.5% to 5.5% and Natrona, from 7.4% to 5.8%.

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Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused unemployment rates to jump significantly, and several sectors are still hurting, including tourism and energy.
AS majority State-owned First Citizens Bank (FCB) ponders whether to participate in the new Additional Public Offering of shares in publicly listed Barita Investments Ltd, dozens of financial executives in Jamaica are more concerned to find out the details of a company called Barita Finance.
I never knew I was being abused... There was no hitting, no drinking, no cussing Nah that wasnt abuse; it wasnt happening because he was a pundit- so I would think. He was God sent. But yet still I always felt unworthy; I always felt abandoned
VACCINE plea: Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, third right, applauds along with Minister in the Ministry of Education Lisa Morris-Julian, second left, during yesterdays commissioning ceremony for the Siparia Union Presbyterian Primary School. From left are Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe,

chief executive of the National Maintenance, Training and Security Company (MTS) Lennox Rattansingh and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Eduction Lenor Baptiste-Simmons. Photo: NIKITA BRAXTON-BENJAMIN
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The Arizona State Museum has reopened to the general public with a new exhibit, Wrapped in Color: Legacies of the Mexican Sarape.

For thousands of years, Indigenous people of the Americas have woven textiles on backstrap looms using local materials, including cotton, other plant fibers, and animal hair, a news release said. The sarape is particularly associated with the town of Saltillo (the largest and capital city of the Mexican state of Coahuila) where they were popular trade items from the 1600s to the 1800s.

The exhibit tells the story of the iconic textile through historic and contemporary Indigenous, Mexican, and New Mexican examples, including six woven by Porfirio Gutierrez, a renowned Zapotec textile artist and the shows guest curator.

Gutierrez is based in California, born and raised in the historic Zapotec textile community of Teotitlan del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Visitors will also learn about the cultivation of wild plants and insects for producing dyes and how the Porfirio Gutierrez Studio is helping a new generation of weavers deepen their connection to Zapotec culture and embrace a path toward sustaining their identity for the future, a news release said.

Other related objects, photographs, illustrations and videos will also be on display.
She said the ones around Tucson tend to be on or near the mountains, close to bedrock, though Agua Caliente Spring, on the east side of the city, gushes warm water up from a fault line.

Whether springs flow or not is influenced by geology, climate and human activity such as land development and groundwater pumping, she said.

Some springs have gone dormant  or dried up altogether  as a result of the ongoing megadrought in the Southwest and rising temperatures from human-caused climate change, Fonseca said.

Free water

Based on the volume of water, the primary outlet for the Desert Crest spring is somewhere right behind Dave Penas back wall.

Pena used to work for the city water department, so the first time he saw water running down his street  decades ago now  he reported it right away.

Once he learned it was a natural flow, he figured the water was fair game.

Years ago, I used to put out a hose with a funnel. Id use it for my wifes plants, said Pena, who has lived on Desert Crest since 1978.
Its possible the same thing could happen with Nora 2.0.

Zell said tropical storms and hurricanes that enter the Gulf of California have a tendency to curl to the east into Mexico long before they reach the international border.

Its almost impossible for Tucson to take a direct hit from a named storm, he said. This far inland, the risk from a tropical storm like Nora is flooding, not wind. We get worse winds with our monsoons, Zell said.

If lots of rain is what you want, the best case scenario is for Nora to come right up the gulf like they have it doing now, he said.

Of course, there is also such a thing as too much moisture, which can cause the sky above Tucson to cloud over without producing much in the way of rain. Zell said heavy downpours often require a sweet spot of moderate moisture and sufficient sun to heat things up just enough to trigger thunderstorms to form.

Tucson will see an increased likelihood of rain starting Monday, regardless of where Nora decides to go.

By Tuesday, Zell said, there is a 60-80% chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Any precipitation will only add to what already ranks as Tucsons third wettest monsoon season on record.
For example, the weekly number of doses administered in Arizona from August 15-21 increased by 5%, reaching 104,038 doses, according to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

In Pima County, the weekly number of doses administered increased by 17%, reaching 13,679 doses over the same period.

We really are actually doing pretty darn well however you want to slice the vaccination story, Garcia said.

About 54.6% of the countys total population has been vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 63% of the population has received at least one dose.

Statewide, just about 50% of the total population has been vaccinated, according to ADHS data. And about 55.6% of the population has received at least one dose.

After several weeks of surging case counts, the COVID-19 numbers may be cooling off in Pima County.

The optimist in me believes that we may be nearing the top, but it is way too early to make that call. And its way too early to be sort of claiming victory, Dr. Francisco Garcia, the countys chief medical officer, said Friday.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Minnesota troopers on Friday arrested four people protesting Enbridge Energy's Line 3 replacement pipeline project at the state Capitol.

Videos posted on social media showed law enforcement officers surrounding about a dozen protesters. About 1,000 demonstrators gathered earlier in the week for a major rally calling on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and President Joe Biden to pull permits and shut down the replacement pipeline project.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Bruce Gordon told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the arrests happened after a teepee remained on the Capitol grounds Friday after the event permit expired Thursday evening. The State Patrol, which is responsible for Capitol security, met with tribal liaisons, owners of the tepee and other group leaders to come to an agreement for the group to voluntarily take the tepee down, he said in an email.

The tepee was removed by its owners while troopers provided security today. Personal property that remained at the site was also removed by members of the group, Gordon said. Some individuals were uncooperative with creating space for the tepee to come down.
We looked like we were going to war  and I think that we were, she said. We were raging against an unknown entity that we had no answer to.

The patients kept coming.

"I think the numbers are numbing, she said. I think for the state of Arizona, I think for the country, I think theyre abstract, I dont think theyre concrete for people anymore.

COVID-19 patients struck by the virus die a horrible death, their lungs ravaged by the disease and unable to absorb enough oxygen to support life.

Were hoping for that miracle, but you see the writing on the wall, she said. Their lungs are like steel gates, you cant expand the oxygen in their lungs.

Making it worse, their families are not allowed to be there to hold their hands. Nurses at hospitals across the nation have become the link between ill patients and their families, holding phones and tablets so patients can hear loved-ones' voices, reporting on their progress or decline.

By January, mask mandates had split the state and the country, but the COVID-19 vaccine brought a bright glimmer of hope for a way out of the pandemic.
Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar of the nation's pandemic response.

States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases.

Some states trimmed their contact tracing teams this spring and summer when virus numbers were dropping and are now scrambling to train new investigators. Others have triaged their teams to focus on the most vulnerable, such as cases involving schools or children too young to be vaccinated.

Texas got out of the business entirely, with the new two-year state budget that takes effect Sept. 1 explicitly prohibiting funds being used for contact tracing. That left it up to local health officials, but they can't keep up at a time when Texas is averaging more than 16,000 new cases a day.

Mississippi has 150 staff working full time to identify people who have had close contact with an infected person, but they are swamped, too.

A lot of times by the time of cases are reported, transmission has already occurred by the time we reach that person, state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP)  Microsoft says it has fixed a flaw in its cloud computing platform that cybersecurity researchers warned could have enabled hackers to take over a cloud-based database product used by many big companies.

The company said Friday there's no evidence the potential opening was exploited by malicious actors or that any customer data was exposed.

The cybersecurity firm Wiz, led by former Microsoft employees, said it discovered what it called an unprecedented critical vulnerability" in Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and notified the tech giant earlier in August. Microsoft paid the firm a bounty for the discovery and said it immediately fixed the problem.

If exploited, the flaw could have affected thousands of organizations, including numerous Fortune 500 companies," according to a blog post from Wiz, which is based in Israel and California. Microsoft said Friday it affected only a subset of customers using the product.
PHOENIX (AP)  Police arrested six members of a Phoenix-area family they say targeted a 20-year-old relative and tried to kidnap her because they disapprove of her boyfriend, who doesn't share their Muslim faith.

The woman, who is 20 weeks pregnant, told police she was afraid her relatives will kill her because they believe she has brought dishonor to the family, detectives wrote in a probable cause statement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court following the arrests on Th ursday. Police believe the family wanted to send the victim back to Iraq, authorities wrote.

Police in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria said Friday the victim, her boyfriend and his family have filed more than 20 police reports from the West Valley to Yuma alleging crimes including disorderly conduct, harassment, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Police did not identify the victim or the boyfriend.

Those arrested include the victim's parents, ages 63 and 59, and four siblings, who range in age from 31 to 36.
ORLANDO, Florida (AP)  A Tesla using its partially automated driving system slammed into a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser Saturday on an interstate near downtown Orlando and narrowly missed its driver, who had pulled over to assist a disabled vehicle.

Earlier this month, the U.S. government opened a formal investigation into Tesla's Autopilot driving system after a series of similar collisions with parked emergency vehicles.

The trooper whose cruiser was hit shortly before 5 a.m. Saturday had activated his emergency lights and was on the way to the disabled vehicle when the Tesla hit the cruiser's left side and then collided with the other vehicle, highway patrol spokeswoman Lt. Kim Montes told The Orlando Sentinel.

The report said the 27-year-old man in the Tesla and the driver of the disabled vehicle suffered minor injuries and the trooper was unhurt.

Tesla did not immediately respond to an email sent to its press address.

Autopilot has frequently been misused by Tesla drivers, who have been caught driving drunk or even riding in the back seat while a car rolled down a California highway.


PRISTINA, Kosovo  Kosovos government has postponed the start of school for two weeks and installed new restrictive measures to cope with a rise of coronavirus cases.

In August, the numbers increased significantly to about 2,000 new cases a day. On Saturday, there were 18 deaths and 1,891 confirmed cases.

The government says the pre-university school year now will start Sept. 13. Public institutions will limit the number of people in the office, and there will be no gatherings of more than 50 people.

It also reimposes the overnight curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and only the main public service employees are exempt.

Sport and culture events can use only 10% to 30% of the seats and restaurants 70% of the outside seats. Masks are obligatory in all closed spaces and outdoors.



MOSCOW  Russias state statistics agency shows a record 50,000 deaths in July were related to the coronavirus.

The report from the Rosstat agency says 50,421 people suffering from the coronavirus died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December.
Oh, to heck with it all!??? I predict that in 30 years, the fields of Yuma will be brown, and those near Casa Grande will be almost barren. La
OPINION: "The "Tucson Fight For 15 is a bad bill for Tucson. Now is the time for us to take a hard look at our future. Will there be opportunities for our children? Grandchildren?" writes Tucson business owner Joshua Jacobsen.
For Star subscribers: As Tropical Storm Nora tracks toward the Gulf of California, long-time Tucsonans can't help but recall a 1997 storm by the same name that jokingly came to be known as Hurricane Snora.
Liz Mermin, the films director, says the offspring of 9/11 victims have had lives bracketed by tragedy.

They were born in the wake of one and graduated in the midst of others, she says. What have they made of the world? What has the world been made of in between? Thats what I would find fascinating  getting to hear their take on the world around them.

Some, like Gorki, didnt read much about 9/11. It is really rare that I go out of my way to find information about the subject.

For Retik, interest ebbs and flows. I can find out general facts about 9/11 online so easily, she says. But there are questions about her father, that she cant ask online. It definitely kind of comes in waves.

All three say they appreciate hearing more about their fathers.

Growing up, I was told that I look identical to my father or I do some acts that he did, Szurkowski says. Thats the type of connection I feel I have. I feel hes always around and his presence is always here.
Gretchen Catherwood felt like she could feel in her hands the red sweater shed been folding the moment she learned her son was dead.

Her phone buzzed with messages from the family shes assembled since that horrible day: the officer whod dodged the flowerpot; the parents of others killed in battle or by suicide since; her sons fellow fighters in the storied 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, nicknamed the Darkhorse Battalion, that endured the highest rate of causalities in Afghanistan. Many of them call her Ma.

Outside of this circle, shed seen someone declare what a waste of life and potential on Facebook. Friends told her how horrible theyd felt that her son had died in vain. As she exchanged messages with the others whod paid the price of war, she worried its end was forcing them to question whether all they had seen and all they had suffered had mattered at all.

There are three things I need you to know, she said to some. You did not fight for nothing. Alec did not lose his life for nothing. I will be here for you no matter what, until the day I die. Those are the things I need you to remember.
Of the 127 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the district, 108 were among students. Tulsa Public Schools does not differentiate between staff and students in its campus-level reporting.

The updated numbers come just one day after TPS announced that staff must wear masks in its buildings starting Monday and students will follow suit starting Sept. 7.

The only exceptions will be for students who have a documented, medical exemption form on file with the district or on a district-approved, case-by-case basis.

Families seeking an exemption would need to be able to demonstrate how wearing a mask would harm their student emotionally, socially or academically, a district spokeswoman said.

Senate Bill 658, signed into law in the spring, prohibits boards of education for public school districts from requiring masks on campus unless a state of emergency has been declared by the governor. That has not happened, and Gov. Kevin Stitt has publicly indicated that he has no plans to do so.
When the photo first began to circulate several days ago, my first reaction was to try to ignore it.

But I couldnt completely. And even now, the thought of it stings a little.

The image, if you havent seen it, shows a group of Taliban fighters posing as they raise a flag on a pole.

From the way it was staged, the point was hard to miss. They were mocking another photo, the famous one of U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima.

Part of what makes me sensitive about it, Im sure, is that the Iwo Jima photo  possibly the most recognized photograph ever taken  has become more personal.

Whenever I see it, I see more than just whats depicted.

In my mind at least, I also see faces.

Faces of the men Ive interviewed who fought there.

Or, because the iconic photo has come to represent all of them, the faces of every American Ive known who has fought in any war.

Thankfully, though, for me, the Taliban image has since lost most of its ability to provoke.
Until now we have refrained from accusing District Attorney Jose Garza of waging a war on police officers. After todays two new murder indictments, we do not know how else to characterize what he is doing, said Austin lawyers Ken Ervin and Doug O'Connell in the joint statement.

The District Attorney's Office responded in a statement that the allegations leveled by Taylor's attorneys are false. It was not immediately clear if Krycia has an attorney.

Taylor already was under a murder indictment in the April 2020 shooting death of Michael Ramos, who was unarmed and shot as he started to drive away from a possible drug bust.

Police said officers were investigating reports of people in a car, including an armed man, doing drugs when they encountered Ramos.

Manley said Ramos got out of the car with his hands up and his shirt raised as if to show he had no gun in his waistband, but then ignored officers orders to remain outside the car and was shot first with a beanbag, then as he drove away, Taylor shot him with a rifle.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
In the early hours on Saturday morning, the Wagoner County Task Force and Swift Water teams loaded up their emergency response gear and headed south to Louisiana for hurricane relief efforts.

Eight personnel from the Wagoner County Emergency Response team made the trip to Monroe, La., said Heath Underwood, director of Wagoner County Emergency Management.

Their team was activated to go by the state of Oklahoma, he added.

According to a Facebook post from Wagoner County Emergency Management, please keep our guys in your prayers as they go do what they have trained hard for. We are proud to represent Wagoner County."

In addition, a crew from the Grand River Dam Authority is heading to Lafayette, La. to help repair any damage the storm may cause to the citys electric system.

According to their Facebook post, the GRDA crew of 20 volunteers, including powerline maintenance and vegetation management personnel, mechanics and law enforcement, left Pryor early Sunday morning to make the nearly 600-mile drive to the Lafayette area.
The Biden administration has told U.S. aid groups to expect as many as 50,000 Afghans to be taken out of the nation during the chaotic days of the Taliban takeover.

We suspect many, many more want out but havent found a way.

Explicitly and implicitly, the U.S. has promised Afghans that we would be there for them if they stood up for the rights of women, LGBTQ citizens and others who face oppression at the hands of the Taliban. We made the same promises to those who aided our military. Translators and journalists, employees of nongovernmental organizations and ordinary citizens who demanded the right to live freely all have a claim on our nations word.

Those promise are due.

At the same time we are getting our own citizens out of harms way, the U.S. must open its doors to Afghans fleeing the Taliban.

Recently, the Tulsa World published a column by retired U.S. Army Capt. Adam Pasque, a U.S. Military Academy graduate living in Tulsa and a veteran of two tours of duty in Afghanistan.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has announced that certain batches of instant noodle products, including two from Vietnams famous Japanese-invested instant noodle maker Acecook, are being recalled due to the presence of the unauthorized pesticide ethylene oxide.

The mentioned batches contain Acecooks Hao Hao sour-hot shrimp flavor instant noodle and Good spare ribs flavor instant noodle products, according FSAIs announcement on its website.

Their use-by dates are September 24, 2022 and November 11, 2022, respectively.

In addition to the two made-in-Vietnam products, the recalled batches also include Chinas Yato seafood flavor instant noodle product with an expiry date of November 30, 2022.

FSAI said it found ethylene oxide, a pesticide not authorized for use in food sold in the EU, in those batches of the three products.

Although the consumption of the contaminated product does not pose an acute risk to health, there may be health issues if there is continued consumption of ethylene oxide over a long period of time, the announcement reads.

Therefore, exposure to this substance needs to be minimized.

The food safety governing body added that point-of-sale recall notices will be displayed in stores supplied with the implicated batches.

In response to the recall, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said on Saturday that the Vietnam Food Administration under its management will request the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is in charge of administering instant noodle products, to clarify the case.

Replying to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspapers query regarding the issue, Vietnams Acecook said that a clarification is underway.

The global demand for instant noodles has increased sharply 14.79 percent in 2020 from 2019 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Instant Noodles Associations data.

In 2020, Vietnamese people consumed 7.03 billion packages of instant noodles, ranking third after China and Indonesia.

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I was happy to compile ideas that would help elevate the city globally, Lee Andre Chan who won a consolation prize at the Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global contest wrote to Tuoi Tre News from Canada.

I am humbled that my entry received recognition from the panel, the environmental specialist from University of Toronto expressed his thoughts on winning.

From an environmental profession, Lee Andre Chan said hes keenly interested in the citys vulnerability to climate change, so he wanted to help strengthen adaptation and resilience.

In 2013, he even developed in his spare time a roadmap to a sustainable city specifically for Ho Chi Minh City.

The city should capitalize on greening, circularity and internet opportunities that would both elevate it economically and environmentally on the world stage, he said.

A global marketing program would showcase these achievements.

Lee Andre Chan won the prize thanks to his entry suggesting a number of solutions to make Ho Chi Minh City a sustainable and livable city that meets UN Sustainable Development Goals.

A livable Ho Chi Minh City would meet several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by embracing a circular economy that reduces waste and improves the urban environment and socio-economic prosperity, he wrote in the winning entry.

In his plan for Ho Chi Minh City to go global, Lee Andre Chan pointed out how the city should ease traffic with bus rapid transit systems, as well as go green with electric-powered scooters and cars, as well as green infrastructure.

A successful circular economy program can be showcased to demonstrate globally Ho Chi Minh Citys commitment to clean oceans, job creation for the poor, and resource conservation opportunities, he wrote.

According to him, this contest was an opportunity to not only suggest ideas based on his experience and expertise, but to also learn other ideas from its residents.

I am hopeful that these ideas can be further developed and implemented in the city with official support, he expressed.

From my childhood memories and recent visits, Ho Chi Minh City has a special place in my heart and I hope that it continues to develop in prosperity as well as sustainably.

It is a unique city which can become a more globally recognized metropolis, he concluded.

Lee Andre Chan is seen in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News

In explaining his interest in the contest, Lee Andre Chan said many of his relatives including his mother are from Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta.

I have visited Ho Chi Minh City many times for both tourism and a climate change resilience project in the delta involving Vietnamese non-for-profit organizations. I, therefore, have Vietnamese ethnicity and have fond memories of Ho Chi Minh City.

The 'Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global' contest, an open forum for readers to contribute their ideas and solutions to raise the position of Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City in the international arena, has wrapped up after a two-month journey, with ten prize winners announced.

The contest was co-organized by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations, along with the accompaniment of Global Embassy and Vietnam Signature.

From June 16 to August 16, the organizing board received over 420 entries including articles, PowerPoint files, graphics, and video clips presented in both Vietnamese and English.

Aside from Vietnamese contestants, many foreigners who are living in Ho Chi Minh City or have visited the metropolis also participated in the competition.

I am very honored to be one of the winners of this contest, Guillaume Rondan who won a consolation prize with his video entry of five minutes presenting why Ho Chi Minh City should be Asia's new business-friendly hub.

In his Vietnamese and English subtitled video, Guillaume Rondan suggested the southern metropolis should relax visa policies for foreigners, as well as tax incentives for entrepreneurs, among other suggestions for the city to develop.

Obviously, not all the ideas will be implemented, especially right now the top priority is keeping everyone safe and healthy, but I am still grateful that Tuoi Tre has organized this contest for people to speak their mind and contribute to the growth of the city we love, he told Tuoi Tre News.

Guillaume Rondan is seen in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News

Over the last two years, I have seen more and more foreigners contacting me through my company Movetoasia.com to find job opportunities, open businesses or invest in Vietnam, he added.

I am confident that this trend will keep going up in the next few years as Vietnam has been getting attention in the international market. That's the reason for my application to focus on key topics such as visa policy for foreigners, incentives to attract more investors or business owners as well as easier conditions for foreigners wanting to settle down for the long term in Vietnam, he explained.

Guillaume Rondan said he will continue to stay optimistic on the rebound of the economy after this current chaotic time, as he believed the authorities are doing their best to protect the entire country.

Video participating in Ho Chi Minh City Goes Global contest by Guillaume Rondan

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COPENHAGEN -- Scientists last month set foot on a tiny island off the coast of Greenland which they say is the world's northernmost point of land and was revealed by shifting pack ice.

The discovery comes as a battle is looming among Arctic nations the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway for control of the North Pole some 700 km (435 miles) to the north and of the surrounding seabed, fishing rights and shipping routes exposed by melting ice due to climate change.

"It was not our intention to discover a new island," polar explorer and head of the Arctic Station research facility in Greenland, Morten Rasch, told Reuters.

"We just went there to collect samples."

The scientists initially thought they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered by a Danish survey team in 1978. Only later, when checking the exact location, they realized they had visited another island 780 metres northwest.

"Everybody was happy that we found what we thought was Oodaaq island," said Swiss entrepreneur Christiane Leister, creator of the Leister Foundation that financed the expedition.

"It's a bit like explorers in the past, who thought they'd landed in a certain place but actually found a totally different place."

An undated handout image with a view of a tiny island off the coast of Greenland, discovered during the Leister Expedition, which they say is the world's northernmost point of land. Julian Charriere/via Reuters

The small island, measuring roughly 30 metres across and a peak of about three metres, consists of seabed mud as well as moraine - soil and rock left behind by moving glaciers. The team said they would recommend it is named "Qeqertaq Avannarleq", which means "the northernmost island" in Greenlandic.

Several U.S. expeditions in the area have in recent decades searched for the world's northernmost island. In 2007, Arctic veteran Dennis Schmitt discovered a similar island close by.

Though it was exposed by shifting pack ice, the scientists said the island's appearance now was not a direct consequence of global warming, which has been shrinking Greenland's ice sheet.

An undated handout image of Swiss entrepreneur Christiane Leister, creator of the Leister Foundation that financed an expedition which discovered a tiny island off the coast of Greenland which they say is the world's northernmost point of land, in front of a cairn in which expedition members left a message with details of their visit. Julian Charriere/via Reuters

Rene Forsberg, professor and head of geodynamics at Denmark's National Space Institute, said the area north of Greenland has some of the thicket polar sea ice, though he added it was now 2-3 metres thick in summer, compared with 4 metres when he first visited as part of the expedition that discovered Oodaaq in 1978.

Any hope of extending territorial claims in the Arctic depends on whether it is in fact an island or a bank that may disappear again. An island need to remain above sea level at high tide.

An undated handout image of Henrik Lassen, chief logistician for the Leister Expedition, which discovered a tiny island off the coast of Greenland which they say is the world's northernmost point of land, in the process of collecting samples for later scientific analysis. Julian Charriere/via Reuters

"It meets the criteria of an island," said Forsberg. "This is currently the world's northernmost land."

But Forsberg, an advisor to the Danish government, said it was unlikely to change Denmark's territorial claim north of Greenland.

"These small island come and go," he said.

The discovery was first reported earlier on Friday by Danish newspaper Weekendavisen.
Vietnams self-developed vaccine Nano Covax has got approval from the medical ethical agency of the Ministry of Health, making it closer to getting licensed for emergency use in the country.

The ministrys National Ethics Council in Biomedical Research has approved the mid-term report of the third trial phase of Nano Covax vaccine, local sources reported on Friday.

The vaccine profile has been referred to the ministrys Advisory Council for the Registration of Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients for approval within three days after the receipt date.

If this council approves for vaccine to be registered for circulation, the ministry will within 20 days grant a license for emergency use of the vaccine, which has been developed by Ho Chi Minh City-based Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC.

After successfully conducting the previous trials, which began on December 2020, the research team has entered phases 3a and 3b of the trial process with the participation of 13,000 people, who have been administered two doses.

Among these vaccinated people, only two reported anaphylaxis and all of them later recovered, while the rest had some common reactions such as pain, itching, swelling at the injection site, nausea, and mild fever.

The trials have showed that the geometric mean concentrations of Anti-S IgG reached 57.56 U/ml, an increase of 218.93 times compared to that before injection, and the seroconversion rate amounted to 99.2 percent.

The trial results have also proved the vaccine meets all the requirements on safety and immunogenicity.

The research team has said they will continue the current trial phase and propose the health ministry grant a conditional emergency license for the vaccine.

The Nano Covax developer said it can provide 100 million vaccine doses this year at a price of VND120,000 (US$5.3) per shot.

If Nano Covax is licensed, Vietnam will become self-sufficient in COVID-19 vaccines, marking an important milestone in the countrys epidemic prevention and control effort.

Earlier on July 29, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked health authorities to promptly authorize Nano Covax to make the first Vietnamese vaccine available soon.

The second vaccine, Covivac, being developed by Vietnams Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, is expected to begin the third phase of testing in September.

Vietnam has so far received some 27 million vaccine doses from different sources while it needs to secure 150 million doses to inoculate two-thirds of its 98-million population.

As of Friday evening, more than 18.8 million doses had been administered nationwide and the numbers of people receiving the first and second vaccine jabs had reached over 16.6 million and 2.2 million, respectively, the health ministry reported.

Since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the country has documented 410,366 COVID-19 cases, including 10,053 deaths, equivalent to 2.4 percent, or 0.3 percent higher than the global mortality rate.

The coronavirus has spread to 62 out of the countrys 63 cities and provinces, with Ho Chi Minh City topping the list with nearly 199,500 cases, followed by Binh Duong and Dong Nai with over 94,700 and 24,400 cases, respectively.

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An art auction held virtually from Ho Chi Minh City has amassed over VND1.27 billion ($55,714), which will be put towards purchasing resuscitation beds of a local hospital.

The fundraiser was hosted by art researchers Ly Doi and Le Quang Dong Quan after the two heard about a shortage of resuscitation beds at Makeshift Hospital No. 5 in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City  a facility erected for the sole purpose of battling the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A painting by artist Luu Cong Nhan is auctioned at a fundraiser for Makeshift Hospital No.5 in Ho Chi Minh City.

After posting a call for donations on Facebook, Doi and Quan were contacted by over 80 artists and art collectors who contributed a combined 90 pieces for the charity auction, including works by major names in the local art scene such as Luu Cong Nhan, Nguyen Quoc Thai, Le Trieu Dien, Thanh Chuong, Pham An Hai, Dinh Quan, and Bui Tien Tuan.

In the current context, all acts of help matter, said Bui Quoc Chi, a well-known collector who donated five works from his assemblage to the charity auction.

Im delighted to help get medical amenities for the hospital.

A painting by artist Le Trieu Dien is auctioned at a fundraiser for Makeshift Hospital No.5 in Ho Chi Minh City.

A painting by artist Pham An Hai is auctioned at a fundraiser for Makeshift Hospital No. 5 in Ho Chi Minh City.

Over four auction sessions held between August 20 and 23, the auction raised over VND1.27 billion, the entirety of which will be put towards purchasing 20 resuscitation beds, four ventilators, and 10 wheelchairs for Makeshift Hospital No. 5.

While that sum is less than the market value of the pieces, the artists and collectors who donated works did not seem to mind.

It is understandable. We needed the financial support as soon as possible, said Bui Tien Tuan.

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You could be mistaken in watching opening scenes of Vigil for thinking you are watching a Hollywood blockbuster. What goes down is a money-on-the-screen moment, or possibly very convincing CGI.

Either way its an arresting statement Vigil means business.

Produced by World Productions (Line of Duty, Bodyguard, The Pembrokeshire Murders), this 6 part drama takes place on a British submarine -not your typical small screen setting.

When a crew member is found dead on board the Trident nuclear submarine HMS Vigil, police in Scotland are called in to investigate. With the sub unable to stop at sea, Detective Chief Inspector Amy Silva (Suranne Jones) is lowered from a helicopter and given just 3 days to solve what turns out to be murder.

But in a world of 140 men and just 8 women, she is barely tolerated. It doesnt help that shes largely seen as the enemy.

Yet Silva is no shrinking violet. Shes highly experienced and stands her ground with Commander Neil Newsome (Paterson Joseph) and Lieutenant Commander Mark Prentice (Adam James). On board she must be escorted at all times as she tries to question the crew. Such is the protocol by the ranking officers that she is even demeaned by staff as if she is not in the room.

At her most vulnerable moments Silva also has flashbacks to a turning point in her life

Meanwhile her partner DS Kirsten Longacre (Rose Leslie) is leading a similarly unwelcoming investigation on land in which she pursues a cover-up in the Royal Navy. Local environmentalists have intel which paint a much bigger conspiracy than one death

No submarine tale is complete without moments of peril, jeopardy and brinkmanship. Writer Tom Edge may be delivering Agatha-Christie-at-sea, but it isnt without its tense moments.

Thankfully Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster, Gentleman Jack) is masterful in her lead role as the inquisitive, determined cop. Is there any role she cant do? In addition to Game of Thrones Rose Leslie the cast includes Line of Duty favourite Martin Compston as Chief Petty Officer Craig Burke.

If I have any concerns, it is around the thick Scottish accents. This could be one to watch with subtitles.

Otherwise strap yourself in and get ready to dive.

Vigil Ep. 1 airs Monday on Binge / Foxtel on Demand, Ep 2. Tuesday then each Monday until 27th September.
Families walk towards their flight during ongoing evacuations at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan (AP)

I have no memories from Afghanistan, all of my life has been in exile. Bahars lively eyes become darker as she narrates her refugee journey, which started 15 years ago.

Despite being an exceptionally bright student, fluent in English and Greek with a passion for maths, its unlikely Bahar (not her real name) will be allowed to attend a Greek university next year. She and her family have been stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos for three years, waiting for a positive asylum decision inside a refugee camp.

The Talibans takeover of Afghanistan aggravates the uncertainty that many Afghan asylum seekers in Europe face. Families like Bahars live with the fear of return to Afghanistan while waiting for their cases to be decided.

Bahar was just three years old when her parents left Herat, northern Afghanistan. Like the majority of Afghans fleeing their country, her family first settled in a neighbouring country  Iran. After years of exile and precarity without receiving refugee status, they made the long and perilous journey to Europe; a place where the fundamental right to asylum seems only to be protected on paper.

Despite the risks that Bahar and her family face in their home country, the Greek asylum service has twice rejected their application for refugee status. Instead, they have been ordered to return to Turkey as a safe third country with risk of onward deportation to Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans in other European countries live in a similar limbo: as of May 2021, 32,250 cases of Afghan asylum applicants were pending in Germany alone. In France, 18,515 people were waiting on a decision, while in Greece the numbers were 15,675. Such numbers should be manageable given the size of European states and their functioning asylum systems but, in total, Europe hosts less than 10 per cent of the 2.5 million UN-registered, displaced Afghans globally.

Neighbouring countries carry the burden of Afghan displacement, with Iran hosting almost 1 million Afghan refugees and Pakistan taking in 1.5 million. These numbers double when adding undocumented or Afghan passport holders.

Story continues

While 56 per cent of Afghans in Europe receive protection status, a large proportion remains in limbo in various European asylum systems. Authorities often leave people waiting for months or years to receive an asylum decision, and governments can insist on deporting unsuccessful applicants back to Afghanistan.

Only after the Talibans takeover of Kabul, did some governments halt deportations. Others still maintain deportation policies at the time of writing  such as Austria, which has even suggested setting up deportation centres in countries neighbouring Afghanistan.

While European countries joined the international community in pledging support for the departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who want to leave, their unwillingness to provide refuge to Afghans residing in their territory shows that European governments fall far short of their promises.

In practice, the opposite seems to be the case as European countries securitise their responses and shut external borders  Greeces metal wall at its border with Turkey clearly shows this hardline stance.

Following the Taliban takeover, French president Emmanuel Macron called for Europe to protect itself from irregular migratory flows from Afghanistan. Similarly, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, and EU home affairs chief Ylva Johansson confirmed securing European borders was a priority. Preventing people from reaching Europe seems to trump humanitarianism and the right to asylum.

This disconnect is not new. Reports of illegal pushbacks on European land and sea borders alarmingly intensified in 2020, as authorities sent migrants back to neighbouring countries without assessing asylum claims.

At the EU level, aid to countries such as Afghanistan has been dependent on their governments adherence to the blocs migration objectives: preventing asylum seekers from reaching European borders and facilitating the repatriation of people refused asylum in Europe.

Right now, European authorities need to act fast to improve the treatment of Afghans in limbo. I feel hopeless waiting in this camp for almost three years now. I want to get out, go to university, and start a normal life, said Bahar, stranded on Lesvos, waiting for her future to start.

European governments should cease all deportations of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or to third countries considered safe now. They should expedite pending Afghan asylum and family reunification cases, while re-examining rejected asylum applications, given whats happened in Afghanistan. Appropriate funding also needs to be put in place to support integration.

Now more than ever, amid the chaotic US and Nato military retreat from Afghanistan, European countries must do more to ensure Afghan asylum seekers are not left in limbo.

Anna Iasmi Vallianatou is a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Academy Fellow and Emily Venturi is a Schwarzman Academy Fellow, both at Chatham House

Read More

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The Taliban: Who are they, who are the leaders and what do they want?

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday France was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the possible evacuation of more people from the country.

Macron, who spoke in Baghdad where he was attending a summit with several Middle Eastern leaders, said France was also discussing with Qatar how it might re-establish a pathway for Afghan evacuations, though nothing was yet certain.

"We have begun having discussions, which are very fragile and preliminary, with the Taliban on the issue of humanitarian operations and the ability to protect and repatriate Afghans who are at risk," Macron told a news conference.

U.S. military forces, which have guarded the airport in Kabul, are due to withdraw by a Tuesday deadline set by President Joe Biden. [L1N2PZ02Y]

The French government said on Friday it had finished its evacuation operation from Kabul in line with that timetable, but would continue to help those who needed protection to leave Afghanistan.

Macron also said France would keep troops in Iraq as part of anti-terrorism operations for as long as the Iraqi government needed them to stay, regardless of whether or not the United States decides to withdraw.

"Whatever the Americans decide, we will maintain our presence to fight against terrorism in Iraq," he said.

(Reporting by Manuel Ausloos; Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Helen Popper)
WSOP 2021: COVID-19 Vaccination Required for Players, Update on Staff

August 31 2021 Jon Sofen

Update Aug. 30:

PokerNews reached out to WSOP officials to inquire if dealers and staff will be required to have been vaccinated. They offered the following statement:

As with all Caesars Entertainment Team Members, WSOP Team Members are strongly encouraged to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Caesars is committed to making vaccination easy and accessible for all Team Members. Additionally, the Company is providing significant incentives for Team Members who choose to be vaccinated."

In addition, PokerNews several other follow-up questions including:

What will happen if a player is caught trying pass off illegitimate/forged vaccination documents? Will they be banned?

The Nevada governor has said masks are not required at events where everyone has been vaccinated. How come the WSOP will require masks? Could this potentially change?

How will the WSOP know if someone tests positive for COVID? Will the WSOP be conducting any testing?

Has the WSOP considered allowing unvaccinated individuals who have antibodies to attend the WSOP? Could this become a possibility?

"For all your other questions, we recommend reviewing the FAQ and release as we wont be responding beyond them," the WSOP official offered."

All attendees at the 2021 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas  players, media, and spectators--must provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19, the WSOP announced in a Friday press release.

Earlier this month, the WSOP introduced Rule 115, which permits staff to remove any player who is suspected to have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. The WSOP then clarified that confusing rule last week by stating that those who are vaccinated wouldn't be removed.

Rule 115 likely won't come into play as often as many expected now that proof of vaccination is required for everyone in attendance at the Rio.

"One of the primary reasons for the vaccination requirement is to avoid rule 115 ever being invoked at the 2021 WSOP," said Ty Stewart, WSOP Executive Director, told PokerNews. "However, all gaming licensees in the state of Nevada are required to follow the guidance of the CDC. Should there be an unfortunate incidence of a rare breakthrough case for a fully vaccinated player, and the WSOP staff receives information to determine that patron has tested positive for COVID-19, appropriate action would need to be taken given positive cases must individually quarantine according to CDC guidelines. What todays announcement ensures, in addition to providing the safest and most comfortable environment for players, is that there will not be any disqualification due to contact tracing, as no fully vaccinated player would be required to quarantine due to close exposure to a positive case."

The WSOP isn't the only major event in Nevada going down this route. The NFL's Las Vegas Raiders, which play at Allegiant Stadium just off the Strip, announced earlier this month that fans must be vaccinated to attend games, and the popular Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in October is also requiring the same.

Vaccination Rule Details

Not only are players ineligible to compete in bracelet events without proof of vaccination, but they also can't even register without a vaccination card. And they must be fully vaccinated, meaning two doses (if applicable, depending on the shot).

This is not a decision we have taken lightlyit is made with no agenda beyond protecting player eligibility and the operations of a unique televised gaming event, said Stewart. The nature of poker is to be in close proximity with your opponents for extended periods of time, and a seat at the World Series of Poker is a commitment for both our company and the participants. We want players to be excited for their return to the WSOP, while offering the greatest level of protection and limiting complications during the tournament this fall.

Players are only required to show proof of vaccination one time. So, if they're already in the system as vaccinated, they won't again have to provide their vaccine card. The WSOP will utilize a free mobile app and Health Pass feature so the players can quickly and easily upload vaccine cards.

That app is only for US residents. Other alternate documentation including physical vaccination cards, & state/country-specific health passes will be verified at the Belize room prior to first registration.

For those who aren't yet vaccinated and want to play in WSOP bracelet events or daily deepstacks and cash games at the Rio during the series, the 2021 World Series of Poker begins September 30, so there's still time to get the jab in time to compete. All attendees must be fully vaccinated, which means you'll need a 14-day window following the last dose, per CDC guidelines.

As for face masks, they are currently still required in all Nevada businesses. Unless that mandate changes, players and staff won't be permitted to enter the Rio without a face covering on.
Having relied on missile imports from China since the late 1980s, in the last few years Saudi Arabia appears to have sought an indigenous production capability. Despite this concerning development, its missile programme does not elicit the level of concern sparked by Iran, The International Institute for Strategic Studies writes. If Iran were to enter into negotiations over its missile programme, it would be unlikely to accept limits that did not also apply to other countries. It is, therefore, useful to examine the ballistic-missile capabilities of Irans regional rivals.

For over three decades, Saudi Arabias ballistic-missile inventory consisted of large systems imported from China that exceeded range requirements to target regional adversaries. In the past couple of years, however, the Kingdom has supplemented these symbols of strength with capabilities that may prove to be more useful in practice.

In a defence parade on 29 April 2014, Saudi Arabia displayed publicly for the first and, so far, only time two of the Dongfeng-3 (East Wind, DF-3) ballistic missiles it had secretly imported from China in 1988. Reportedly designated CH-SS-2 by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, but referred to as CSS-8 in many reports, the single-stage liquid-fuelled missiles may have a range of 2,500km with a 2,000kg payload, or up to 3,000km with a lighter warhead. They weigh 64 tonnes and are 24m long.

In 198384, China developed an improved version of the DF-3, increasing its range, payload and accuracy, and likely developed an export-only version intended for conventional payloads. Saudi Arabia has no nuclear weapons, but at the time of sale, it was widely believed that any ballistic missile that could deliver a warhead in excess of 500kg further than 300km was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, and thus a proliferation risk. Chinese missile sales such as the DF-3A to Saudi Arabia were a major driver for the creation of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which was devised specifically to prevent sales such as this in the future.

One might ask why Saudi Arabia acquired such far-reaching missiles. Its main adversary, Iran, is about 250km at the closest point. Israel is even closer. The answer is probably that the Saudis wanted a land-based alternative to aircraft delivery to contribute to a nuclear hedging strategy, and the DF-3 was the only system then available on the market.

The inaccuracy of the DF-3  estimated to have a circular error probable (CEP) of 1,0004,000m, meaning it had a 50% chance of falling within a 1,0004,000m radius of the target  contributed to speculation about Saudi intentions: at that level of imprecision, the missiles would have little military utility unless nuclear-armed. But even inaccurate systems can provoke terror among civilian populations and Saudi leaders may see symbolic importance in being able to respond in kind against any future missile attack. However, the Saudis reportedly assured the United States that they would not use nuclear or chemical warheads with the DF-3 and, in fact, acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in October 1988. While some sources indicate that 50 of the DF-3 were imported, others say at least 30. The IISS Military Balance estimates the current number of DF-3 launchers at 10+ and notes that their service status is unclear, given their age, the difficulties of maintenance, a lack of spare parts and likely general degradation of the systems. The Saudis have apparently never flight tested the DF-3, nor any other ballistic missile.

Seven years before the 2014 parade, Saudi Arabia had reportedly already acquired less cumbersome solid-fuel DF-21 missiles from China. According to a 2014 Newsweek article by Jeff Stein, the US Central Intelligence Agency approved Riyadhs acquisition of the DF-21, called CH-SS-5 or CSS-5 by the US, on condition that the nosecones were modified so as not to carry nuclear weapons. CIA analysts who reportedly examined the missiles after their import concluded that the modified nosecones did not have room to accommodate unsophisticated nuclear weapons of the kind that Saudi Arabia conceivably could acquire from Pakistan or China. How many of the missiles were imported is unclear, and at least one reputable Chinese scholar doubts the reports entirely.

The DF-21 weighs about 15 tonnes and has a range of 1,700km. It also has a significantly higher accuracy than the DF-3, with an estimated CEP of 300m. A terminal speed of Mach 10 makes it difficult to defend against with common missile-defence systems. The Saudi government has never acknowledged possessing the DF-21, apart from displaying it in 2013 in a commemorative glass-encased set of three missile models, two of which appeared to be the Chinese systems and the third of which is a mystery. For the boost it gives to the Kingdoms ambiguous deterrent posture, however, authorities cannot be unhappy to be thought to have such a weapon, even if it has never been revealed nor tested from Saudi Arabia. With a replacement nosecone, it would contribute to the clear Saudi intention to follow suit if Iran were to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Missile production

Saudi officials might not have been happy to see press reports in early 2019 featuring overhead imagery of the al-Watah missile base, which appeared to show a factory to produce solid-fuel motors. The key indicator was an apparent rocket-engine test stand that bore close similarities to a similar facility in China, although on a smaller scale. The evidence angered members of the US Congress at a time when the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi had frayed relations. How close Saudi Arabia is to being able to produce ballistic missiles is unknown. An observable sign of progress would be the depiction by infra-red satellites of ground engine testing, for which there have been no reports in the public realm.

What role China had in building the apparent missile-production facility is unclear, although US intelligence agencies appear to have no doubt about Chinese assistance. While China is not an MTCR member, it has agreed  at least in principle  to apply the original MTCR guidelines, which would preclude any sale of such missiles and related technology, but especially manufacturing capacity such as this. The US assesses (without providing public detail) that China has not adhered to this commitment.

In 2018, Ukraine unveiled a new solid-propellant short-range ballistic missile that was said to have been covertly financed by Saudi Arabia. Based on Ukrainian efforts to produce an Iskander-class missile called Sapsan, the new system, called Grom-2 (Thunder-2) can reportedly carry a 500kg warhead and has a range of 280km  so as to keep it MTCR compliant. A US defence journal reported in 2019 that Saudi Arabia was expected to receive the Grom system in 2022. Interestingly, the Kingdom has not sought to purchase the US MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System ballistic missile (unlike Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates), and there is no public reporting that it has sought Chinas short-range ballistic missiles (unlike Qatar).

Benign capability?

Other than a general desire to keep pace with Iran, Saudi Arabias motivations in acquiring ballistic missiles are not entirely clear. That said, Riyadhs missiles do not elicit the level of concern sparked by Irans missile programme, and for good reason. While the DF-3 does have a longer reach than any of Irans current systems, Saudi Arabia is not known to have initiated any work to develop a nuclear warhead for its missiles, which are of questionable utility, and it does not engage in missile test launches. Its import of Chinese missiles was a challenging blow to the non-proliferation policies of Riyadhs Western partners, however, as is its secret work on solid-fuel motor production. Non-proliferation norms should apply to all parties. And if ballistic missiles are to be constrained everywhere in the region, systems in Egypt, Syria, Turkey and the UAE, as well as those in the hands of rebel forces in Yemen, should also be taken into account.
A few days before the final withdrawal of US troops, a terrible terrorist attack took place at the Kabul airport. More than a hundred people were killed, over a thousand were injured. Why did this become possible, and what does this attack indicate?

So, on the evening of August 26, at about 18:00 local time, a double act of terrorism was committed near the Kabul airport - first near the airport building, then near the Baron hotel. The terrorists have chosen the right moment. Due to the fact that the Taliban (a movement banned in the Russian Federation) seized power, thousands of people are pounding into the air harbor of the capital of Afghanistan for the second week in a row to leave their homeland on foreign planes. People sleep and eat right on the ground under the scorching sun. In the first days after the Taliban took Kabul, many managed to break into the airport. But now it is almost impossible. The Taliban blocked the roads, and the Americans guarding the airport let people in there strictly on paper. One by one. Because of this, a crowd of many thousands was formed here.

Due to the high concentration of people, even a small explosion leads to large casualties. This is exactly what the militants of the "Islamic State of Khorosan" (an offshoot of the ISIS organization banned in the Russian Federation) were betting on, who claimed responsibility for the attacks. In order to understand the reason for the terrorist attack, let us briefly analyze what this structure is. The Islamic State of Khorasan is a terrorist organization created in 2015 in the wake of ISIS coming to power in Syria and Iraq. In fact, this is the branch of IS in Afghanistan. The northern and northeastern rural areas of the country are considered to be their strongholds. Three years ago, there were up to 2,000 militants. They drew their strength by recruiting terrorists who had broken away from the Taliban. The backbone of the Islamic State of Khorosan consists mainly of citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and its small groups come from local Tajiks and Uzbeks living in Kunduz and Badakhshan.

According to the index of the Institute for Economics and Peace, it is one of the four most dangerous terrorist organizations. The main activity of this structure is the recruitment of supporters from other terrorist groups and large-scale terrorist attacks. They more than once beheaded foreign journalists, executed representatives of the national and religious minorities of Afghanistan - the Hazaras and Shiites. Over the past couple of years, under the attacks of the American and Afghan military, local ISIS members have been defeated. However, given that up to 10,000 foreign fighters are concentrated in the country, they can always replenish forces.

Now the US is leaving, the Taliban are trying to build power. This transitional period could be a chance for IS to remind of itself and even take over territories. According to Amira Yadun, an expert at the authoritative American West Point Academy, the Islamic State of Khorosan has set itself the goal of establishing itself as the leading extremist organization in the region. Moreover, unlike the Taliban, the IGH is not limited to the territory of Afghanistan, but is aimed at all of Central, South and Central Asia. In the short term, according to the estimates of the same expert, this organization wants to create chaos and uncertainty in Afghanistan. Through terrorist acts, they call into question the ability of any government to ensure the safety of the population.

Now power in Afghanistan, with the exception of the Panjshir Valley, is controlled by the Taliban. Therefore, even if the terrorist attack killed the American military and the attack took place near a US-guarded airport, the attacks undermine the authority of the Taliban. Of course, someone can speculate that the attack could have been committed in collusion with the Taliban, because they gave the United States an ultimatum to withdraw troops by September 31 and oppose the export of their citizens abroad. However, the creation of chaos in the country is extremely unprofitable for the Taliban. After all, over the past two weeks, the movement has shown with all its appearance that it is in control of the situation in Afghanistan.

The forgotten and defeated IS had to remind of itself and at the same time wipe its nose with its enemy. For IS, the Taliban are as much an enemy as the local pro-American government. In 2019, the Taliban, together with their opponents - the US and Afghan forces - attacked the ISIS. There are many reasons for the discrepancies between IS and the Taliban. First, IS is targeting the so-called "world Caliphate," while the Taliban are not, and IS supporters consider the Taliban "dirty nationalists". Secondly, they have an ideological abyss: the Taliban are supporters of the Deobandi school, and IS are Salafis, that is, they are more radical. IS militants call the Taliban "bad Muslims" because the Taliban made a deal with the United States, as a result of which the Americans are now leaving Afghanistan. So after the final withdrawal of the United States, the new authorities in the person of the Taliban will have to deal with a very dangerous rival.

Although Biden is threatening IS retaliation, the Americans are unlikely to be able to do anything about them. They leave on August 31, and this decision is final and irrevocable. It is difficult to say what will happen after this date. In general, the Taliban have every opportunity to defeat IS, but terrorists can always hide in remote mountainous areas and replenish their ranks at the expense of those dissatisfied with the new government. In an extreme case, ISIS may move north and try to shake stability in Central Asia. Therefore, Russia needs to strengthen military ties not only with the CSTO countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan - but also with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Sophisticated military equipment, including aircraft and armoured vehicles, were initially prioritised for strengthening Afghan security forces before the Taliban's (banned in Russia) takeover. While it remains to be seen how many  and what kind of  weapons have fallen into the hands of the Taliban, there is no doubt about the abandoned or seized equipment giving a major advantage to the armed group.

TRT World writes about the top 10 military-grade weapons seized by the Taliban and what they are capable of doing on the battlefield:

1. A-29 Super Tucano

A light attack aircraft, it is estimated to cost around $20 and 30 million, a relatively low price compared to other same-level fighter aircraft, according to the American defence contractor, Sierra Nevada Corporation. It can carry a wide scale of weapons and is designed for riot controlling, close air support and reconnaissance missions in low-hazard environments. At least one Super Tucano was seized in Afghanistan's Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport.

2. UH-60 Black Hawk

It is a military transport and attack helicopter. One of the most expensive helicopters on the market with a $5.9 million cost, its advanced system facilitates pilots to identify static targets with its firing rifles and laser-designated missiles. It can measure the required range for pilots to hit targets during day and night operations with sharp accuracy even from high distances. Black Hawk was captured soon after Kandhar fell on August 12. Kandhar is Afghanistan's second-biggest city, where the US had one of its main bases containing substantial military equipment.

3. ScanEagle mini military drone

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that fulfils the trinity of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions during exclusive service, escort operations while obligated to protect secure data and collect swift wireless voice and video evidence. The UAV can give a bird's-eye view for more than 24 hours at a rapid speed. Each system costs about $3.2 million.

4. MD-530F

A light attack rotorcraft, MD-530F is capable of enhancing ambush, armed escort and close air attack. It is a multi-purpose military helicopter that cost over $2.4 million and functions for tactical and transportal operations. The helicopter's rapid take-off power distinguishes it from other military aircraft, granting effective and strategic attacks during offensive air operations. The Taliban reportedly have captured at least one MD-530.

5. Mine-resistant vehicles (MRAPs)

These are armoured, all-terrain vehicles that provide effective protection against land mines and ambushes and cost between $500,000-$1,000,000. The MRAPs can furnish safe shipments even in intense conflict areas and are designed to protect personnel and passengers from explosive roadside bombs.

6. M1151 Humvee

It is an upgraded armament carrier with more than a price of $220,000 per vehicle and was created to protect passengers with exceptional armours, allowing it to function more like a lifeguard. In 2017, the US had supplied a stock of 4,700 Humvees to Afghanistan. Most of them, as per various media reports, are now in the hands of the Taliban.

7. M24 Sniper Weapon System

Referred to as a system, its accessories and attachments help the weapon transform into an eagle eye sniper rifle. M24 is known for its simplicity and reliability and provides superior accuracy by its cost and versatility.

8. M18 assault weapon

It is a single-shot rifle that can shoot at a tank and personnel with high accuracy. This recoilless rifle is capable of firing artillery-type bullets more effectively than anti-tank weapons. The Taliban has seized thousands of such assault rifles.

9. M4 Carbine

It is a gas-operated weapon with a $700 average cost and has a multi-firing system. The system allows the rifle to be equipped with a laser, grenade launcher, night vision, flashlight, laser mark and even a tiny shotgun that bestows extra lethality. The US left thousands of them behind and the Taliban happily added them to their inventory.

10. 40 mm high explosive grenade

Designed for grenade launcher ammunition, the weapon consists of high-velocity shells. 'An AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) with a high velocity 40mm gun gets you an effective range of around two kilometres' says defence expert Helge Stadheim, explaining the functionality of 40mm grenades. (Cost: $400 to $500 per cartridge)
At the international military-technical forum "Army-2021" Dagestan manufacturers presented the aircraft "Alpha-KM" (MAI-411). The four-seater plane of the Moscow Aviation Institute and the Kizlyar Electromechanical Plant may be useful for the republic's sanitary aviation, the acting head of Dagestan Sergey Melikov told the forum participants.

According to him, the plane will also help in the fight against coronavirus infection. "This means delivery of vaccines, evacuation of patients with severe or moderate forms of the disease, delivery of doctors to the place of necessary medical measures," Melikov said. You can get to the high-mountainous regions of the republic by light-engine aircraft much faster than by car. The aircraft can reach a speed of 290 km / h, cruising altitude - up to 3 thousand meters.

Before the Army-2021 forum, experts checked the Alpha-KM in local conditions. It flew from the plain Kizlyar to the high-mountainous village of Machada in the Shamil region, located at an altitude of 2 thousand meters - the highest-mountainous runway in the region was built here. The flight lasted two and a half hours; by car, this route has to be done in six hours. Between Kizlyar and Machada there are about 300 km, while half of the way falls on the highlands.

Honorary President of the International Aviation and Space Salon, Hero of Russia Magomed Tolboyev, in his conversation with Vestnik Kavkaza, emphasized the special importance of small aircraft for the development of such a vast country as Russia. "We cannot do without such aircraft. It is impossible to develop Russia only thanks to cars and trains - not everywhere there are comfortable roads. Flying at the helm of military vehicles over many countries, I watched light aircraft, like butterflies in a meadow, flutter over the ground - there are a lot of them We need to study the experience of Canada, Alaska. We have a government decree on the development of small aircraft, but practical steps are also required, for example, the creation of a unified management structure for this system. Take the North Caucasus. There are many airfields, but some of them belong to the Federal Air Transport Agency, others to the Ministry of Defense, third local administrations. All of them need to be linked into one system. Develop a state program with funding. And then it will be possible to get from Makhachkala to Vladikavkaz not in six hours by car, but in an hour by a light-engine plane. Sergey Alimovich Melikov and I recently discussed this in detail question. He initiated the development of small aviation in Dagestan, and if the heads of neighboring republics, the North Caucasus can become an example for Russia in this pressing socio-economic issue, "- said the interlocutor of Vestnik Kavkaza.

Magomed Tolboyev clarified that the Dagestani production workers managed to make a significant step in the development of small aircraft: The general director of JSC Concern KEMZ Ibragim Akhmatov did a lot to implement the project - I only helped him to establish professional relations with the Moscow Aviation Institute. aircraft with one engine, which were used for the needs of agriculture. This aircraft is already a passenger aircraft. Such aircraft is the future, but time must not be lost, otherwise other countries will occupy a niche. "

The light twin-engine aircraft "Alfa-KM" will be useful not only in the "country of mountains" (this is how the word "Dagestan" is translated from the Turkic languages). It will be irreplaceable in the steppes, deserts, in the taiga, in a word, where the automobile and railways have not yet run. In Dagestan, the tourism industry is pinning its hopes on the Kizlyar plane. Small groups of tourists can not only quickly move around the republic, but also make introductory flights over picturesque mountainous places. The aircraft will be able to carry out air patrols, engage in aerial photography and transport people.

"Alfa-KM" was developed in the Branch Special Design Bureau for Experimental Aircraft Building (OSKBES) of the Moscow Aviation Institute. In 2019, the aircraft was tested in accordance with FAP-118 and received a certificate of airworthiness for a single copy of the aircraft. It was featured in the flight program at the MAKS-2019 air show. The total investment amounted to about 200 million rubles.
Part 2

Maintaining a high ranking and improving electricity access scores continue to be the mission of the reform program.







Vietnams electricity access index has made great progress in the World Banks business environment ranking. In 2020, Vietnam ranked 27th, a jump of 108 grades in the ranking after two more procedures were cut and the time needed to access electricity was cut by 84 days compared with 2015.

How have ministries and branches made efforts to accelerate reform in electricity access?

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) have been presiding over reform to improve the electricity access index. The ministries and agencies joining forces to carry out reform, including MONRE (Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment), MOC (Ministry of Construction), Ministry of Public Security and municipal and provincial peoples committees. In cities and provinces, local departments of industry and trade; construction; architecture and transports, and districts peoples committee have the major responsibility in implementing the program.

MOIT, aware of its responsibility and the importance of the electricity access index improvement, has been actively and quickly amending circulars in order to support EVN, the backbone enterprise in the power industry, to solve problems in electricity access. In the last five years, the ministry amended Circular 33 four times as per the proposal by EVN.

Carrying out reform and improving the electricity access index are completely consistent with the interests and the demand for the power sector in general and for EVN in particular. Therefore, EVN has been taking initiative in implementing tasks to improve the index, including things not mentioned in Resolutions 19 and 02.

EVN has standardized, simplified and made electronic all internal administrative procedures. It has been pioneering in digital transformation and providing digital services to customers. The improvements in the scores of the post-electricity supply indicators are mostly the results of efforts in applying modern equipment and technologies in the operation and maintenance of the power system.

And finally, all the tasks and solutions to improve the electricity supply indicators shown in the resolutions are within the competence of the Government, MOIT and local authorities at all levels.

Motivation for reform

For the reasons behind successes in improving the electricity access index, the following lessons can be drawn for the reform process:

First, it is possible to improve the indexes about business environment and jump from the bottom to the top of the rankings within a reasonable time, thereby, obtaining substantial improvement in the corresponding quality of the business environment.

Second, the concordance between wealth interests and the interests of the agencies and organizations in charge of organizing the implementation of the reform will create a strong and sustainable impetus for reform. They will be creative and dynamic, bringing into full play their capacity in performing assigned tasks to achieve the highest possible goals.

Third, it is necessary to quickly put reality into policies, so that policies can best solve practical problems. Thanks to this, unreasonable barriers will be removed, modern management methods and technologies will be applied, and the quality of the business environment will be upgraded.

In the next development period, maintaining the high ranking and improving the scores of electricity access will continue to be a mission of the business environment reform program.

Reform solutions include:

Researching and applying international good practices of the countries leading in electricity access index.

Synchronizing solutions in investment, construction, power system operation and management in an effort to obtain the perfect score of 8/8 in power supply reliability and electricity price transparency.

Power supply reliability indicators: average number of customer outages (SAIFI)  1 time/year; average outage time of customers (SAIDI)  1 hour/year.

Applying IT, automating the distribution grid to detect and handle problems early, automatically switch on/off, and automatically calculate SAIDI, SAIFI indicators.

Completing the database about medium and low voltage grids, applying digital map technology (GIS), integrating management software systems, and equipping with field application software for employees to reduce the number of internal procedures among divisions (supplying installation materials, approving documents and procedures, etc.) so as to shorten time and cut procedures for surveying steps and connection point provision.

Connecting the national database on population, businesses and land, and reducing the number of documents customers have to provide, as well as taking the initiative in approaching customers when they register for business establishment.

Nguyen Minh Thao

Central Institute of Economic Management

Reform lessons from electricity sector: nothing is impossible Electricity access is one of 10 indicators that measure the quality of the national business environment according to the World Bank global business environment ranking.
After one year of teaching online, Vietnamese schools and teachers have become familiar with the new teaching mode.

Local education and training departments have asked the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) to create digital courseware and teaching software to be used throughout the country, and give detailed guidance on the content and requirements of lesson plans.

After one year of teaching online, Vietnamese schools and teachers have become familiar with the new teaching mode. Teachers not only prepare lesson plans thoroughly, but also try to use information technology in their teaching and seek new methods to have effective lessons.

However, many problems still exist.

Vu Thi Gioi, a teacher at Minh Duc Primary School in Hai Phong City said first grade teachers have to work harder.

In in-person classes, teachers can meet students face to face and help them and remind them of work. In online classes, teachers don't know what students are doing, she said.

Meanwhile, teachers have to do more to prepare for an online lesson. They have to make video clips to guide students in their school work and give exercises.

Gioi stressed that online teaching is not that effective and she feels unsatisfied about the quality of lessons. If MOET creates digital courseware for teachers to download and use after making some adjustments to make it suitable to their circumstances, this would help teachers save time, and teaching would be more effective.

Thai Van Thanh, Director of the Nghe An Education and Training Department, also said there were still many difficulties in organizing online teaching, especially for first and second graders who still dont have a sense of self-study.

The Department therefore believes that it should organize online teaching in the evening, when parents are at home and they can help their younger children with online learning.

The department has also asked some education sub-departments to design online lesson plans and advice for parents, showing them how to help their children.

One of the biggest difficulties of schools in mountainous areas in Nghe An is the lack of smartphones. Only 60 percent of students have tools to serve online learning. Because of the lack of devices for online learning, teachers have to meet students at their homes.

Thanh agrees that MOET should create digital courseware for common use by schools throughout the country.

It will be difficult if each province has to build courseware for itself. I think MOET should ask cities and provinces to contribute certain numbers of lesson plans for every subject. These will help create a bank of lesson plans for common use throughout the country, he said.

Noting that this is the best solution, Thanh said it would be better to share experiences among schools and provinces. Students would be able to learn with the best teachers in the country.

Schools need guidance

Phan Thanh Cong, Director of the Ninh Binh Education and Training Department, said there is not much unity in online teaching deployment. Schools, for example, choose software themselves for online teaching in their localities.

Therefore, he said MOET needs to stipulate the specific software to be used for online teaching, give directions, and train teachers on the criteria to build lesson plans, which are necessary to ensure unity among schools nationwide.

As for Bac Giang province, according to the provincial education departments deputy director Bach Dang Khoa, the province now has 500,000 free Microsoft Teams accounts. With the platform, Bac Giang can organize online teaching uniformly across the province.

However, he stressed that online teaching has been organized by localities in the ways they feel are best and online lessons are operating based on teachers creativity. There has been no official training course on online teaching.

Khoa said one online lesson should last 30-35 minutes.

Thuy Nga - Thanh Hung

Most students use mobile phones for distance learning Kaspersky's latest survey shows that 59% of children in the Asia Pacific region have used their phones to attend online classes.
On August 17, when hearing from a volunteer that two members of a family with four Covid patients were getting worse, Nguyen Van Chanh of the Thay thuoc dong hanh network (Companion Physicians) immediately picked up the phone.

He contacted a representative of the family and realized that the mother, 103, and her daughter, 73, had SpO2 indexes of 89 percent and 90 percent, respectively.

Since it was impossible to contact the local medical unit at that time, Chanh tried to calm the patients down via phone and helped them to practice breathing.

The patients felt more secure thanks to the guidance of the consulting doctor and they began following the doctors instructions. Chanh also showed them how to contact someone to get oxygen tanks and give advice on health care.

All members of the family are better. They sent a clip showing the 103-year-old woman feeding herself and doing physical exercise. I am so happy about this, Chanh said.

This is just one of many cases that the doctors of Companion Physicians, a network of 6,000 volunteer doctors and nurses, has given support to since the establishment of the network.

Chanh registered to become a member of the network soon after reading the news on Facebook that the network needed volunteers.

We dont enter pandemic-hit areas and directly treat patients, but we still can help by giving advice to patients, easing the pressure on the citys healthcare sector, he said.

After online training courses and tests, volunteers  doctors in Vietnam and overseas  can begin working as members of the network.

For the Covid cases turning severe, the doctors contact local medical units, while giving guidance and helping them to overcome difficult situations. In cases of emergency, they call hotline and emergency services.

Volunteer doctors call the patients every day to ask about their situation. The oxygen index and blood pressure are always required to monitor patients conditions. In addition to giving professional advice, the doctors give advice on nutrition and physical exercise.

Optimism and nutrition are the important factors that help patients overcome disease, Chanh said.

Givng support online, however, is more difficult than face-to-face examination.

We assess patients situation via the descriptions from patients or their relatives. If necessary, we use telehealth to more accurately assess patients situation, he said.

Sometimes, we ask to talk to patients, because patients relatives are too worried and give the wrong assessment about the patient situation, he explained.

The number of patients who ask for help from the doctors of the network has increased rapidly, reaching 450,000 after three weeks of operation. After recovering from illness, the patients who received support have introduced the network to their relatives and friends.

After giving advice, I went to bed but could not sleep. I kept contact with them throughout the night, Chanh said, recalling a case on August 10.

The family consisted of a wife, husband and 20-year-old son. The husband died of Covid-19, and the wife and son were also infected.

When calling us, the son panicked because his mother had turned severe: she had difficulty in breathing and suffered from diarrhea for two days."

Believing that the patient was at third-level risk, Chanh instructed the patient to practice breathing and contact the Oxygen ATM Program and local healthcare units. The mother was not hospitalized, but she luckily got an oxygen tank.

Two days later, the patients situation improved. She no longer needs an oxygen tank and the situation has become stable.

I spent a sleepless night that day. If something bad had happened, the young person would have become an orphan. So I tried to encourage him throughout the night and closely monitor the signs of the patients, he recalled.

Chanh collects the addresses of free oxygen tank providers, which he gives to patients when necessary. He helped an older woman that way.

When he called the patient, she was in very bad condition: she could not eat, had a mild fever, cough, and loss of taste.

I called the local medical agency and was told that her SPO2 was 64 percent, which meant she needed medical oxygen. After that, the index rose to 90 percent and blood pressure was 120/90mmHg. I reported the case to the teams head and activated the emergency. After getting confirmation from CDC, the patient continued to have medical oxygen and practiced breathing, he recalled.

The patient is recovering. And the doctor continues his work as there are many patients who need help.

Ngoc Trang

Recovering from Covid-19, young man drives ambulance to help seriously ill patients Whenever he receives calls from relatives of F0 cases asking for help, Nghia always tries to get to the site as quickly as possible because he understands that every second is valuable.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has ordered authorities to seek proper vaccine sources and make students a priority group for vaccinations so they can return to school.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the conference (Photo: VNA)

The PM made the statement at a national online conference of the education and training sector on August 28.

He requested the Ministry of Education and Training to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to implement the COVID-19 vaccination programme for students.

They will have to access vaccine manufacturers, seek sources of vaccines suitable for people over 12, and work out a plan to prioritise vaccinating students according to their age groups.

Vietnam should have vaccinated students return to school like in other countries, he said.

Leaders of many localities also suggested prioritising vaccinations for students.

According to Nguyen Thi Quyen Thanh, Vice Chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of Vinh Long province, 91 percent of teachers in the province have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 44 percent have been fully inoculated.

The students havent been vaccinated so they have no other choice but studying online.

This form of learning was not effective, especially for more than 14,000 disadvantaged students, she noted.

She suggested priority should be given for students over 12 to be vaccinated so schools can reopen.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Lich, Vice Chairwoman of the Peoples Committee of the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, said it was hard to keep students learning amid school closures in the province due to the socio-economic situation here.

She said she expected a vaccination programme for students so they could return to school and the traditional way of learning.

Vu Dai Thang, Secretary of the Quang Binh Provincial Party Committee, said the pandemic was still developing in a complicated manner with many positive cases recorded in the past three days.

He suggested the Ministry of Education and Training issue guidance so localities could be more flexible and the vaccination programme be made available at schools.

Vietnam has to date received about 28 million doses of vaccines from various sources. The country has administered about 19 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Ho Chi Minh City, currently the hardest hit locality by COVID-19 in Vietnam, has recently announced its plans to vaccinate people aged 12-18 from September if there is a suitable vaccine source./.

Source: VNA
Vietnam has been elected to the Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for the 2022 - 2025 term. This is an opportunity for Vietnam to deeply participate in international postal operations.

The 27th Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) was organized online and on-site on August 9-27 in the city of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Mr. Masahiko Metoki, Japanese nationality, the new General Director of UPU International Office for the term 2022-2025 (left). He will take office from January 2022.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and international organizations represented Vietnam at the event directly in Abidjan and Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Anh Tuan led the Vietnamese delegation at the event online.

The Congress is the highest body of the Universal Postal Union, which convenes every four years with the participation of representatives of UPU member countries.

At the plenary session on August 25-26, the Congress elected the positions of General Director, Deputy General Director of UPU International Office, members of the Board of Directors, members of the Executive Council and the Postal Operations Council for the term 2022 - 2025.

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai attended the Congress in the Ivory Coast.

Masahiko Metoki, a Japanese national, was elected as the General Director and Marjan Osvald, a Slovenian national, was elected as Deputy General Director of the UPU International Office. The Congress also selected 40 members of the Executive Council and 48 members of the Postal Operations Council for the term 2022 - 2025.

Vietnam was elected as a member of the Postal Operations Council for the first time.

As an official member of the Postal Operations Council for the 2022-2025 term, Vietnam, especially Vietnam Post as a designated postal corporation, will have good opportunities to participate deeper into international postal operations; enhance the position of Vietnam Post; directly contribute to the development of policies on international postal operations; and have a voice in formulating and making professional policies to ensure the interests of developing countries.

Department of International Cooperation - Ministry of Information and Communications
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) wants to have 95,000 more teachers as regular personnel in the next five years, including 31,000 in 2021.

The country lacks 94,714 teachers, but it has 10,178 teachers in excess at different education levels, a report found.

MOET said in 2020-2021 it asked local education departments to check the recruitment and use of teachers to determine if teachers were being used in the most effective way, and recruitment found enough teachers for all subjects.

After checking, MOET asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to report to the Government a plan to recruit 94,714 more official personnel in 2021-2025.

Of this number, 30,000 workers are expected to be recruited in 2021, including 20,000 teachers for new subjects at the primary education level, and 10,000 teachers for nursery schools in remote areas.

Currently, 77.8 percent of preschool education teachers meet standards in accordance with the 2019 Education Law. The figures are 69.4 percent for primary education, 83.3 percent for secondary education and 99.9 percent for high school.

In 2021, localities will send 37,389 teachers to training courses to upgrade their qualifications, including 9,859 preschool teachers (10.96 percent of teachers who still cannot meet standards), 17,822 primary school teachers (6.36 percent who don't meet standards), and 9,708 secondary teachers (3.86 percent who don't meet standards).

MOET reported that problems at preschool and general education in some localities still have not been settled, which has hindered teaching plan implementation.

Meanwhile, a quality gap between teachers in difficult areas and in areas with favorable conditions exists. Some teachers still cannot catch up with the requirements of education reform. They cannot use online teaching solutions well enough to manage classrooms and organize learning activities.

One of the key tasks set by MOET for the 2021-2022 academic year, therefore, is implementing a plan on upgrading teachers qualifications, giving regular refresher courses to improve their managerial skills.

The ministry plans to give advice to appropriate agencies to increase the number of teaching personnel and recruit new teachers to follow the principle where there are students, there must be teachers.

The ministry emphasized that training needs to be implemented based on demand in order to provide a sufficient number of and quality teachers at different education levels.

The methods of teacher training need to be improved and reformed. Training in pedagogical schools also needs to be associated with practical activities in schools. Recruiting needs to become flexible so that schools at different education levels employ enough teachers.

Dong Ha

Teacher in HCM City dedicates life to inclusive education for disabled children Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, a 55 year-old teacher in HCM City, is pioneering inclusive education for autistic children.
Le Anh Tuan, a lecturer of Vietnam Maritime University, was honoured to receive the title of professor last year when he was 40.

Professor Le Anh Tuan.

He is the youngest professor in Viet Nam working in the mechanical engineering field.

He is passionate about research on automation and robotics to solve practical problems, for example, application of robotic arms in maritime, construction and healthcare sectors.

Tuan has published a series of scientific studies in leading journals including 31 studies in international journals and 21 in domestic journals.

He is working on research under the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development Programme about four new control structures (algorithms) for floating container cranes that can be applied at river ports with narrow and shallow inlet channels like the ones in Hai Phong and HCM City.

Associate Professor Pham Xuan Duong, director of the Vietnam Maritime University, said: Professor Tuan is a scientist dedicated to research.

In 2014, the Board of Directors of Vietnam Maritime University appointed Tuan as the head of the automotive engineering department of Mechanics Institute.

However five years later, Professor Tuan resigned from the position to focus on in-depth research.

He said: I have achieved success in my work thanks to my love and passion for science, and I only choose one path."

That passion started more than 20 years ago when Tuan was a computer science student of Quoc Hoc Hue High School for Gifted Students in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.

He passed the university exam and was admitted to three universities: University of Science and Technology - University of Danang, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering and Vietnam Maritime University.

Finally he decided to choose the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vietnam Maritime University located in northern Hai Phong City.

Tuan said due to difficult financial circumstances, he chose Hai Phong because he could stay with his aunt to save on living expenses which were covered mostly by scholarships.

After graduation, he became a lecturer thanks to excellent academic records.

Professor Tuan continued to make efforts to bring his studies to the world, but his lack of foreign languages held him back.

The young lecturer learned English by himself. He bought English books and studied day and night. He struggled at first, but eventually passed an English exam and received a TOEFL certificate.

Tuan started his studies in the Republic of Korea in 2010 thanks to the scholarship offered by Kyung Hee University. He completed a Doctorate degree in 2012.

The professor participated in many research co-operation programmes with foreign universities such as Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), University of University of Technology Sydney (Australia), University of Birmingham (United Kingdom).

In November 2016, he received the title of Associate Professor granted by the State Council of Professors.

Talking about scientific research in Viet Nam, Tuan stressed the necessity of studying and researching abroad for a scientist.

Tuan has also edited and given feedback on international journals, and participated in professional councils of a number of international conferences. This is a good way to approach and learn knowledge and research trends from colleagues, scientific researchers, and international scholars, and apply it in Viet Nam.

Source: VNS
The World Health Organization (WHO) has handed over medical supplies and consumables to the Ministry of Health as part of its continuing support to the Vietnamese Government for COVID-19 response.

WHO Representative in Vietnam Dr. Kidong Park (left) and Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan. (Photo: Ministry of Health)

In this batch of donation, WHO presented 413,451 USD worth of medical supplies, including 36,000 surgical masks, 70,000 respirator masks and 50 sets of High Flow Nasal Cannula systems to Vietnam. More supplies are expected to arrive in coming days.

We hope that these supplies will help protect our health care workers and save patients lives. We have seen their tireless commitment to take care of the sick and we salute each one of them for their contribution. More than these medical supplies and materials, WHO continues to provide technical support to the Government on the overall response strategy and we stand ready to provide more assistance as needed, said Dr. Kidong Park, WHO Representative in Vietnam.

He also emphasised WHOs commitment to support the Government in increasing vaccine availability in the country as a co-creator of the COVAX Facility, along the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF as the delivery partner.

At the handover ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan expressed the gratitude to WHO. These medical supplies and consumables from WHO have arrived at the critical time as the Government and Vietnamese people are making effort to control and prevent the spread of COVID-19. They will be delivered immediately to Ho Chi Minh City as COVID-19 emergency response for southern provinces. Vietnam also expects WHOs continuous technical support, especially in research and development of treatments and vaccine, he said./.

Source: VNA
There were veterans that slipped up and messed up and came up dirty, and instead of kicking them out of the program and sending them to prison, they only sanctioned them and gave them another chance. This program is the best thing that has come to McLennan County, and I can honestly say I dont think I will ever drink again, Lott said. I had been sober nine years when I moved up here. I had just started back to drinking when I got that DWI. I kind of kick myself in the butt for going back to drinking.

Judge Gary Coley Jr. of Wacos 74th State District Court, who oversees the Veterans Treatment Court, said COVID-19 kept the treatment courts in McLennan County from getting off to the rapid start they had hoped for. But he said the success so far really exceeded our initial expectations because of the dedication of the courts team and its participants.

As we celebrate the first group of graduates from our VTC, I think that I can speak for all of the stakeholders in saying we are excited and look forward to many more graduates in the coming months and years, Coley said. Forming our VTC was a local commitment that reflects not only our belief in these men and women, but also in our gratitude for their commitment to our country.
WAVERLY  Over 30 walkers trekked from Lincoln to Omaha over the weekend, stopping in Waverly and Greenwood along the way.

The second annual 50 Mile March was an effort to raise funds for Moving Veterans Forward and Guitars for Vets.

Over the past 12 years, Guitars for Vets has refined a guitar instruction program aimed at providing veterans struggling with physical injuries, PTSD and other emotional distress a unique supportive program.

The organization pursues its mission to share the healing power of music by providing free guitar instruction, a new acoustic guitar and a guitar accessory kit in a structured program run by volunteers, primarily through the Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and community-based medical centers.

Moving Veterans Forward was founded by Ron Hernandez of Omaha. He now dedicates a large part of his time helping homeless veterans in Iowa and Nebraska to get placed in homes.

The Veterans Administration in Omaha notifies him of pending placements and Herdandez begins to move them in and find the necessities that they need. A large part of their endeavors are collecting furniture, clothing and other household items.

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Since then the group's growth has been limited and its militants have fought the Taliban. But they have capitalized on uncertainty in Afghanistan in recent months to launch brutal attacks, and the impending withdrawal of troops by the United States threatens to give them a window in which to regain strength.

How was ISIS-K formed?

The group is a branch of ISIS, the terror group that first emerged in Syria and Iraq and, at its peak, controlled a huge stretch of territory stretching from western Syria to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The original group had its self-declared caliphate ended by US-backed forces in recent years.

But the connection between ISIS-K and its apparent parent group is not entirely clear; the affiliates share an ideology and tactics, but the depth of their relationship with regards to organization and command and control has never been entirely established.

US intelligence officials previously told CNN that the ISIS-K membership includes "a small number of veteran jihadists from Syria and other foreign terrorist fighters," saying that the US had identified 10 to 15 of their top operatives in Afghanistan.
WAVERLY -- Rebecca Nederhiser, a conductor and oboist, will lead the Wartburg Community Orchestra for the 2021-22 season.

Nederhiser comes to Wartburg from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, where she was an associate conductor for three years.

I have been incredibly impressed by the Wartburg Community Symphony board, college staff and strong support of the Waverly community, she said.

A move to a new school in eighth grade and some encouragement from her mother prompted Nederhiser to join the band at her middle school.

The band director said I could play the tuba or the oboe, she said. I liked the oboe because it was unique and challenging.

Her senior year she was accepted into the Portland Youth Philharmonic, the oldest and one of the most prestigious youth orchestras in the nation. This was her first foray into playing with an orchestra, and being led by a female conductor sparked a passion she didnt know existed.
Since then, Mack formed the Constitutional Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association, which seeks to educate county sheriffs about their responsibility toward the public, namely to defend them from any encroachment upon their rights as the highest law enforcement officer in the county.

The vertical separation of powers in the Constitution makes it clear that the power of the sheriff even supersedes the powers of the President, according to the CSPOA website.

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, is among the most famous faces of the movement. In 2013, Arpaio joined nearly 500 other sheriffs who vowed not to obey any federal law that required them to confiscate guns from private citizens. After Arpaio lost a class-action lawsuit filed in 2007 by individuals who claimed they had been racially profiled during his immigration raids and traffic stops, he was held in contempt of court for continuing the same raids and stops. In his defense, Arpaio said he never violated his oath of office, according to a story on Politico.com.
Some hard-core supporters of an audit are unhappy over Mastrianos ouster and remain unconvinced by Corman's conversion, labeling him Jake the Snake while rooting for a primary challenger to beat him next May.

Others seem comfortable with the anointing of a new leader of the effort, Sen. Cris Dush, who has said he has doubts about the election result and embraced Arizona's audit in June when he visited to see it up close.

Corman said he has been in touch with Trump and that Trump seems to be comfortable with where were heading."

Perhaps the most important audience is Trump himself, and he has been officially silent about it.



COULD THE ELECTION IN PENNSYLVANIA BE OVERTURNED?

Corman maintains that the aim of the audit is to find out the truth about last year's election and use it to ensure future elections are fair.

The Senate, he said, has no authority to overturn an election, but if our work leads to someone else taking that work into a court of law, and changing those results, then so be it.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

The Wild West continues to capture the imagination of the world. And, on Friday, a piece of New Mexico history during this era broke a record at auction.

The Colt Single Action that Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett used to shoot Billy the Kid in the chest on July 14, 1881, killing the outlaw, was bought for $6,030,312.

According to auction house Bonhams, it sold for over double its high estimate of $3 million  setting a world auction record for a firearm.

The previous record for a firearm was $1.98 million, set by Christies in 2002 for a pair of flintlock saddle pistols carried by (George) Washington during the Revolutionary War that were gifts from his friend and ally the Marquis de Lafayette, said Jessica Stanley, Bonhams senior press manager.

The revolver is part of the collection of Texas-based collectors and college professors Jim and Theresa Earle. The couple have been assembling a collection of firearms for decades.

Stanley said this was the first time Garretts gun had been up for auction.

While Garretts pistol is the star of the show, The Early West: The Collection of Jim and Theresa Earle included 265 lots.

These include the most important and well-documented collection of historical firearms belonging to Western lawmen and outlaw legends, along with manuscripts, photographs and memorabilia. The lot also includes more of New Mexico and Old West history, including:

 Billy the Kids Whitney Double Barrel Hammer Shotgun taken from Deputy Bob Olinger and used to kill him during the Kids dramatic Lincoln County Courthouse escape on April 28, 1881. It was estimated to go for between $200,000-$300,000. It sold on Friday for $978,312.

 Wild Bill Hickoks Springfield Trapdoor Rifle buried by his side at Deadwood, South Dakota, on Aug. 3, 1876. Its estimate was between $150,000-$200,000. It sold for $475,312.

 The most famous of Bat Mastersons Colt Single Actions, ordered July 24, 1885, from the Opera House Saloon, Dodge City, Kansas. It was estimated to fetch between $200,000-$300,000. It sold for $375,312.
This column is not about relitigating the 2020 election. Joseph Biden is the duly certified U.S. president. Period. Now, lets talk about the mess in which we find our election system. Lets talk about voter fraud.

It does exist; claims to the contrary are incorrect. And discussions about voting integrity matter because we have about one year to decide how to avoid the confusion and controversy surrounding the 2020 election.

Flagrant election fraud has been documented throughout this nations history, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. And so it goes today. Voter fraud never went away, it just got more sophisticated. Both political parties have suffered.

Thousands of recent cases of voter fraud have been identified and more than a thousand people have been criminally convicted of trying to sway elections through bribes, intimidation, duplicate voting, impersonation of another or manipulation of absentee ballots. Judicial findings of election fraud have overturned contests in California, Missouri, Georgia, Texas and other states.

Facts are facts, yet it has somehow become taboo to even mention ways to strengthen election laws. Suggest that states should follow federal law and more diligently purge voter rolls and risk being charged with voter suppression. Recommend that all states require voters to show ID, as is the current practice in 34 states, and risk being labeled racist. Seems as though any proposal to ensure election integrity is automatically condemned as discrimination against minorities or the poor. Details on exactly how these proposals might discriminate seem vague.

Look, we need to determine exactly how this nations population should cast votes. In-person only? Vote exclusively by mail? Should Election Day be changed to Election Week? It is a dense subject but, please, lets not follow the 2020 paradigm.

As a run-up to the pandemic-plagued 2020 election, nine states and D.C. decided to mail out absentee ballots to all registered voters. That totaled 44 million ballots floating around, at risk of being lost, put in the wrong mailbox or stolen and returned with unauthorized votes. In addition, 34 other states sent a ballot to anyone who asked, no excuse required. The infrastructure to deal with all that paperwork simply didnt exist. Within the chaos the opportunity for fraud was ripe.

We now know that in the 2020 election more than 90 million absentee ballots were mailed out. Fifteen million went unaccounted for, more than a million were undeliverable and 560,000 were rejected for various reasons. So much for one person, one vote. Theres got to be a better way.

So instead of repeating that fiasco, how about following the lead of the 45 states (including New Mexico) and D.C. that offer pre-election in-person voting? It is held as early as 55 days before an election, or as late as the Friday before Election Day, and weekend days are often included. And since polls show 81% of Americans support voter ID cards, lets require that too. With more time to vote and more fully identified voters, the chance for fraud is reduced. Special needs citizens who cannot get to the polls can always get a mail-in ballot.

Also, if all states would purge their voter rolls of inactive, non-resident or dead voters, that would help reduce the number of available names fraudsters could use to cast a ballot. But, beware, critics of voter reforms will always find some negative way to spin change.

Ohio, for example, published a list of 116,000 dormant voters who hadnt voted for six years and didnt respond to requests to confirm their residency. Activist groups wailed! The inactive were advised to either vote in the next election (2020) or confirm they were still eligible. Some 10,000 came forward to say they wanted to remain on the rolls. The media breathlessly spun that to say Ohio had nearly purged 10,000 voters! The state maintained it had lawfully reminded 10,000 citizens about their civic duty.

While the next election wont choose a president, it will decide the all-important makeup of the U.S. House and Senate, and many other state and local elections. Dont we want the most accurate, uncorrupted vote counts possible?

Trust in the current election system has eroded. The clock is ticking to enact common-sense reforms. Can it happen before November 2022? Only if citizens demand it.

www.DianeDimond.com; email to Diane@DianeDimond.com.
New Mexicos passionate and diverse charter school teachers, leaders and advocates work relentlessly to cultivate a tomorrow in which every student has access to an inspiring and meaningful k-12 public education that prepares them for our modern world. Charter schools in New Mexico are free public schools for all and are small public entities that can nimbly meet the needs of students regardless of the circumstance. As we begin a new school year that will hopefully be less impacted by the pandemic, its important to reflect on what weve learned.

When public charter schools meet the individual needs of students, they are strengthening families, communities and the public school system. Charter schools across the state showed that, even though their campuses were closed, their schools were open to meeting the needs of families. Three Albuquerque charter schools below are an example of how public charters stepped up to the plate to put students first during the pandemic.

 Tierra Adentro of New Mexico assigned families to its entire school staff to touch base with throughout the pandemic, ensuring their needs were being met. The school provided technology access, along with art, music and dance materials, to be able to continue their Flamenco-based and arts instruction while students were learning from home.

 Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education (SABE) kept all of its extracurricular activities going when students were learning remotely, including cooking in the classroom. As soon as they had the chance to serve students in person, they moved quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

 Digital Arts Technology Academy (DATA) used a video-game platform to host students for their classes, group projects and document storage. The system worked well for them and provided a platform that most students could easily navigate and were familiar with.

These Albuquerque-based public charter schools found ways to keep students engaged and learning during the pandemic.

This student-first action from public charter schools is one reason Bernalillo County residents have such high regard for their charter schools. In December 2020, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico teamed up with partners to survey 500 residents with the help of Research and Polling Inc. The findings were moving. Over 75% of Bernalillo County voters want more charter school options, a finding that held across all ethnicities. Further, in our polarized political world, having additional charter schools resonated across the board with all political affiliations: the finding included 76% of Democrats, 78% of Republicans and 76% of Independent voters.

Public charter schools in New Mexico reflect the amazing diversity of our state, and each school chooses to put those students first when making decisions. We all know a one-size-fits-all approach to education does not work for our children. Lets create more public school choices so every child has a chance to go to a school that meets their needs. Its a big reason why the people want more.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

A month after Mayor Tim Keller, Albuquerque police and law enforcement partners jumped onto an initiative to fix the broken criminal justice system rather than point fingers, the citys top cop publicly blamed the courts after a homicide suspect got loose by cutting off his ankle bracelet.

The Court is putting too much faith into ankle monitors, rather than keeping offenders in jail, Harold Medina, chief of the Albuquerque Police Department, said in a news release Wednesday. Making matters worse, we get no notification from the Court that a dangerous murder suspect has been on the loose for nearly 24 hours.

Minutes later, he posted on Twitter, This is unacceptable, the community deserves more. This is a murder suspect!

A spokesman for the 2nd Judicial District Court declined to comment.

The court followed the current guidelines set for pretrial services in response to the violation, but the incident has 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez and Medina pleading for changes to the process.

Torrez and Medina sent a letter Thursday to 2nd Judicial District Chief Judge Stan Whitaker, asking pretrial services to monitor GPS tracking 24/7, and directly notify law enforcement and a judge of a violation.

Pretrial services learned on Tuesday that 19-year-old Trey Bausby  accused in the January stabbing death of a woman  cut off his GPS monitor after leaving a halfway house in Espanola. Bausby was arrested early Friday off East Central.

APD officials fumed that they were never told about Bausbys escape until they asked about it 24 hours later. A prosecutor on the case maintained she told the homicide unit within hours of the bracelet being cut.

Torrez said the judges repeated refusal to detain Bausby until trial and his eventual escape from pretrial services built on a really, really serious level of frustration.

Its impacting peoples morale, its impacting the morale of police officers, the morale of prosecutors and its shaking the confidence of the public in whether or not this system can make the right kind of changes to keep them safe, he said.

Current court guidelines dictate that pretrial services file a report with the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney within 24 hours of a violation being received. All of those steps were taken in Bausbys case.

Torrez called the guidelines inadequate to the threat posed by Bausbys escape and said they should come up with some new guidelines.

Megan Mitsunaga, Bausbys attorney, said that, by and large, the GPS monitoring system is an excellent program thats benefitting the community.

Pretrial services and monitoring work very well. This is an unfortunate incident, she said, adding that nobody could have predicted what happened in Bausbys case.

Jennifer Burrill, president-elect of the New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association, said APDs public outcry undermines Bausbys constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

She said it changes the communitys view of the accused, presumes their guilt and makes it hard to get a fair trial when the defendants face has been splashed all over the news with that kind of messaging.

This young man has not been shown to have committed any violence after cutting off his ankle monitor, Burrill said. The fact that police cant know where he is at every second of every minute until his trial does not make him a threat to his community.

Bausby was initially arrested Feb. 12 and charged with an open count of murder in the Jan. 29 death of 42-year-old Jessica Benavidez.

Benavidez was found stabbed three times outside the Amberly Suites near Eubank and Interstate 40. Statements from multiple witnesses, including Bausbys grandmother, led police to arrest him in the homicide.

Shante Bausby, Bausbys mother, said her son told her he didnt mean to stab Benavidez and it was an accident that happened as the two tussled over his backpack.

Thats all I can go by, is what he said. Because she doesnt have a voice, unfortunately, she said. Bausby said her son, who was raised in foster care until the age of 17, told others about the homicide in an attempt to scare people so they would think he was cool.

District Judge Richard Brown denied a motion to detain Bausby until trial, finding that, while prosecutors proved he posed a danger to the community, they did not prove conditions of release couldnt mitigate that danger.

Prosecutors filed two motions to reconsider pretrial detention, citing Facebook messages Bausby sent asking for money to leave town and an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center who said Bausby threatened to kill his mother and grandmother.

Both motions were denied, the second because the inmate  a confidential informant who did not testify  was not deemed reliable or credible.

Bausby was accepted into Darrins Place, a rehab facility, and released to its care on Aug. 9.

On Aug. 24, pretrial services received a tamper alert around 3 p.m. from Bausbys ankle bracelet, indicating it had been removed. Darrins Place told pretrial services he had been discharged from the program for new criminal activity.

An email was sent around 4 p.m. to prosecutor Christine Jablonsky, Bausbys attorney Mitsunaga and to an account shared among judges.

Torrez said Jablonsky saw the email at 5 p.m. and called an analyst within APDs Homicide Unit to tell them Bausby was on the loose. He said Jablonsky spoke with the analyst again Wednesday morning to let them know they were waiting for an arrest warrant.

District Judge Courtney Weaks issued an arrest warrant at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said APD was never officially notified, but heard Bausby was on the run, and had to call and ask about it.

Officers and the public are at risk in a situation like this, Gallegos said.

He noted that James Ramirez, the 27-year-old man accused of injuring four officers in a recent shootout, had fled from a halfway house in California 10 days before the shooting.

Chief Medina has been extremely patient and made every attempt to work with District Court on a variety of issues, Gallegos said. However, he is understandably frustrated, especially after four APD officers were injured by a wanted felon.

He said detectives arrested Bausby Friday, some time before 3:30 a.m., near Central and Tramway.

In their joint letter to the chief judge, Medina and Torrez are asking for changes to GPS monitoring procedures, which, they say, are wholly ineffective at preventing offenders from committing new crimes, and protecting the public.

According to pretrial services guidelines, if a violation happens on a weekend, holiday or after hours, the report wouldnt be filed until the next business day. Medina and Torrez said this allows a violation to go unnoticed for hours or even days and requested 24/7 monitoring without delay.

Crime does not stop at the end of a work day or on weekends and holidays, and neither should GPS monitoring, the letter states.

The letter asks that the courts notify a judge and authorities immediately after a GPS violation and should result in a search warrant being issued.

The letter states that, if defendants are not detained by the courts, then the least the community can expect is the court to take steps to ensure public safety.

Torrez said, from his perspective, Bausby should have never been let out of jail. He said the real solution will have to come through the upcoming legislative session, but he did not elaborate.

This is not rocket science. Heres the case  heres the dangerousness of the individual, heres a written record in his own words of I want money so I can leave. I dont know what else we have to do, Torrez said. Were worn out  were sick and tired of it. Sometimes, man, Ill be honest with you, its like I have to do this again? Say this again? I have to scream this from the rooftops one more time? Its exhausting and its got to stop.
New Mexico is seeing soaring numbers of deadly overdoses from fentanyl and methamphetamine and alcohol-related deaths reached an all-time high in 2020 despite the state tripling spending on treatment over the last several years, according to a report presented to state lawmakers Thursday.

Preliminary figures show that fentanyl-related deaths alone increased by 129% between 2019 and 2020, legislative analysts said. That percentage is expected to climb even higher when final totals for the last year are calculated.

The trend mirrors what has been happening nationally. Drug overdose deaths in the United States rose nearly 30% in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to statistics released by federal health officials. That marked the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period in the U.S.

The report says the pandemic contributed to the surge of overdose deaths in New Mexico by disrupting outreach to treatment and increased social isolation. It also noted that the lingering pandemic has highlighted the need for behavioral health care given the high levels of grief, isolation, unemployment and anxiety that many people have been experiencing.

The report was presented to members of the Legislative Finance Committee, a key panel that sets the states spending priorities and crafts the budget each year.

Cally Carswell, a program evaluator with the committee, outlined some of the grim statistics for lawmakers. More than 43,000 New Mexicans have died from alcohol and drug overdoses in the last three decades. The deaths in a single year reached their highest point yet in 2020, with 1,770 alcohol-related deaths and 766 overdose deaths.

While New Mexico has long had some of the highest death rates from such causes, Carswell said the nature of the drug epidemic has shifted.

Fentanyl and meth have surpassed heroin and prescription opioids as the leading causes of overdose deaths in the state. In fact, the two drugs were involved in 78% of overdose deaths in 2020.

This is important because the details of the problem should inform the solutions, she said.

She noted that some of the states harm-reduction programs dont have the flexibility to address fentanyl and meth due to outdated statutes that focus only intravenous drug use and restrict the distribution of test strips that could help identify whether fentanyl has been cut into other drugs.

The New Mexico Human Services Department spent at least $147 million in state and Medicaid funds last year to provide core treatment services to people with a substance use disorder. Thats more than triple the $45.6 million spent in 2014. The number of services also increased by 85% over the same period, with more than 60,700 patients receiving some kind of treatment last year.

While New Mexico has increased provider rates and made other changes to bolster the states behavioral health safety net, officials said treatment is only part of the equation. They pointed to the need for more prevention and early intervention programs that can tackle the underlying causes of substance abuse, including poverty and childhood trauma.

According to the report, an estimated 134,000 New Mexicans are living with a substance use disorder and receiving no treatment.

The report also states more work needs to be done to improve the quality of behavioral health care, boost access, increase financial incentives, and build a workforce that better represents the states cultural and racial demographics.

Lawrence Medina, executive director of the Rio Grande Alcoholism Treatment Program in Taos, told lawmakers about efforts there to reopen a detox center and eventually a residential treatment center. He said people are falling through the cracks and land either in jail or the hospital.

He called for gaps in recovery options to be closed, saying he himself was a client of the treatment program 30 years ago.

Recovery is alive and well, he said.
PHOENIX  An endangered Mexican gray wolf that was roaming near Flagstaff has been captured and relocated to an area near the Arizona-New Mexico border.

The wolf had ventured into housing developments, raising concern from state wildlife officials that it might be intentionally or accidentally shot, or struck by a vehicle, said Jim deVos, the Mexican wolf coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

We believe that the wolf was in jeopardy, he told the Arizona Republic. Now hell be back in an area with females, finding a female partner, forming a pack and contributing to the recovery. Thats what our goal was.

The wolf was captured earlier this month in the Coconino National Forest and has rejoined other wolves that are part of a recovery program centered in a forested area spanning parts of southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. North Americas rarest subspecies of gray wolf, the Mexican gray wolf was listed as endangered in 1976 after being pushed to the brink of extinction.

The population has grown since the first wolves were released in 1998 as part of the reintroduction program. The latest annual census found about 186 Mexican wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona, a 14% increase over the previous census.

The latest quarterly report released this week shows several of the wolves have died this year.

Environmental groups had been hoping the wolf captured in Flagstaff could stay, even if it was beyond the northern boundary of the designated recovery zone. The groups have been referring to the animal as Anubis, a name chosen by students in a contest not associated with government agencies.

The groups said the wolf fed on elk carcasses, stayed away from livestock and didnt exhibit any signs of danger.

Im disappointed to hear that Anubis was captured, said Emily Renn, executive director of the Flagstaff-based Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. Most people chose to live surrounded by the national forest for a reason, because they love the seclusion and are willing to coexist with wild nature.

Arizona wildlife officials said the wolf had crossed Interstate 40 at least three times, and the agency received reports that it had been spotted by people six times. Under a 2017 recovery plan, the Arizona Game and Fish Department is required to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to capture and release any wolf that ventures north of the highway.

Federal officials are currently rewriting the regulations in response to lawsuits filed by conservation groups.
WASHINGTON  The rancorous debate over whether returning students should wear masks in the classroom has moved from school boards to courtrooms.

In at least 14 states, lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. In some cases, normally rule-enforcing school administrators are finding themselves fighting state leaders.

Legal experts say that while state laws normally trump local control, legal arguments from mask proponents have a good chance of coming out on top. But amid protests and even violence over masks around the United States, the court battle is just beginning.

Mask rules in public schools vary widely. Some states require them; others ban mandates. Many more leave it up to individual districts.

Big school districts that want to require masks are in court and battling governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Worried parents are suing over similar legislative bans on mandates in Utah, Iowa and South Carolina.

Suits fighting mask requirements have popped up in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Montana.

At the heart of the debates are parents, scared or frustrated for their children in an unprecedented time. The early court record is mixed, with victories for mask proponents in Arkansas and Arizona followed by back-to-back decisions in two big states going opposite ways. The Texas Supreme Court blocked another school mask mandate Thursday while a Florida judge allowed the rules to go forward Friday.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending universal mask wearing in schools. Students age 12 and younger remain ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

Republican officials who restrict mask mandates argue there are downsides to kids being masked all day and that parents should decide whether to put them on children, who are generally less vulnerable to the virus than are older adults.

But public health experts say masks are a key coronavirus-prevention tool that does not pose health risks for children older than toddler age, and truly effective when worn by a large number of people.

This idea of parental freedom to decide whats best for their child is not unlimited. It has never been unlimited in our system, said Ellen Clayton, a pediatrician and law professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nationwide, COVID-19 deaths are running at more than 1,200 a day, the highest level since mid-March. New cases per day are averaging over 156,000, turning the clock back to the end of January.

The surge is largely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant among people who are unvaccinated. In areas where vaccination rates are particularly low, doctors have pleaded with their communities to get inoculated to spare overburdened hospitals.

They have also sounded the alarm about the growing toll of the variant on children and young adults.

In Tennessee, for example, children now make up 36% of the states reported COVID-19 cases. Gov. Bill Lee has not banned schools from requiring masks but has ordered that any parent can opt out  and remote education options are limited this year. Few schools in the state have adopted mask mandates.

South Carolina passed anti-mask regulations and is now facing a federal lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU argues that the state is putting students with disabilities at greater risk in violation of federal law amid skyrocketing infections, particularly among younger children

Susan Mizner, director of the ACLUs Disability Rights Project, said offering students with disabilities or medical conditions a remote option is not a good alternative. Limiting medically fragile students and those with disabilities to a remote-only education denies them equal opportunity, she said.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, public schools cannot exclude students with disabilities or segregate them unnecessarily from their peers. Schools are also required to provide reasonable modifications to allow students with disabilities to participate fully. Lawyers have filed for a temporary injunction requiring masks while the court case plays out.

We understand people are tired, Mizner said. We understand people are frustrated with the pandemic, we understand there is a lot going on here. We just want them to draw on their better selves to care about the kids in their communities who are most at risk and really need their help at protecting them.

Schools already have plenty of restrictions aimed at protecting the health of kids. Rules against peanuts are a good example, said Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State University and a disability-law expert.

Those rules are aimed at protecting kids with potentially fatal peanut allergies that can be triggered by particles in the air. Similarly, the argument goes, kids especially vulnerable to COVID-19 need everyone to wear masks so they dont get sick.

They need the people around them not to be spreading the particles of peanuts, Colker said. COVID is just like peanuts. In fact, is more contagious.

Because schools that accept federal money are subject to federal disability law, she sees those arguments as likely to win in court. While many court decisions generally apply to one school or state, that could change if the federal government enters the legal fray. President Joe Biden has ordered his education secretary to explore possible legal action against several states that have blocked school mask mandates and other educational public health measures.

Whatever happens in court, though, is unlikely to bridge the vast and contentious political divides over masks. A recent poll from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 6 in 10 Americans wanted students and teachers to be required to wear face masks while in school.

But that poll also found just 3 in 10 Republicans favor mask requirements, compared with about 8 in 10 Democrats.

The divide is playing out in Florida and Texas, where several big school districts are defying governors executive orders against school mask mandates.

In Texas, dozens of school districts have defied Gov. Greg Abbotts mask mandate ban. But the states highest court sided with the governor this past week as the Republican judges found the status quo of authority on masks should rest with him while the case plays out.

The decision to enforce mask mandates lies with the governors legislatively-granted authority, Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday. Mask mandates across our state are illegal.

In Florida, more than half of public school students are now in mask-requiring districts, despite an executive order from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. He wants to leave such decisions up to parents, but on Friday a judge decided that schools need to be able to require masks to protect public health.

In places such as Utah and Iowa, where legislatures have passed laws restrictions or bans on mask mandates, the state could have a legal upper hand because state laws generally trumps local control. Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown and director of the World Health Organization Center on Global Health Law, said he considers restrictions on mask mandates utterly irresponsible and a breach of public trust but sees the legal landscape as hazy at best.

Theres going to be really fierce battles in the courtrooms across America, he said.

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Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City.
WASHINGTON  Its called the loneliest job in the world for a reason.

Surrounded by everything a superpower can offer and watched by all, President Joe Biden wore the weight of a lonely man as he came to grips in recent days with the deadly end of the American effort in Afghanistan and tried to keep the focus on what, to him, is the bottom line.

Ladies and gentlemen, he said as the death toll mounted in Kabul, Afghanistans capital, it was time to end a 20-year war.

The need for crisis-driven leadership comes to all presidents. Now, on several fronts at once, it has come to him, and fast.

In the aftermath of the Kabul suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 Afghans, U.S. military forces are racing to get fellow citizens, aligned Afghans and themselves out of the country by Bidens stated deadline of Tuesday.

Biden found himself in a real-time crisis that overrides the platitudes he offered when running for the office and in the early months of his presidency. America is back, he likes to say. But in Afghanistan, after the longest war in U.S. history, America is conspicuously leaving.

The U.S. is leaving with the Taliban forces it long fought against back in control and with an affiliate of the Islamic State group  an organization declared vanquished by the last U.S. president  reasserting its virulence in the devastation at Kabuls airport.

Goodwill washed over Biden through his first six months or so, when he scored points with the public and much of the world simply by not being Donald Trump. The United States appeared on the verge of victory over the pandemic, too. Vaccine supplies surged, cases plunged in response and even Republicans gave Biden a measure of the credit.

Those days now seem like a distant memory. Criticism is raining down on him, with Republicans blaming him for the calamity in Kabul and even Democrats breaking from him for the first time on a major issue.

Asked whether Biden is feeling frustrated or a sense of resignation from the turmoil of the moment, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said theres just not a lot of time for self-reflection right now.

To Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis, the bloody, harried scenes the world is witnessing from Kabul are not the fruit of poor evacuation planning or incompetence by the United States, but, simply, of defeat.

It seems to me that were watching something occur that was inevitable once we stepped in, he said. Theres no memory here. This is what happens when you lose a war.

Presidents are defined by how they handle crises, and Biden now confronts more than one, each requiring urgent attention.

While the drama in Kabul unfolds, the delta variant of the coronavirus threatens to undo much of the progress his administration had achieved in the first six months. On top of that, he has had to address deadly flooding in Tennessee, devastating wildfires in the West, a hurricane that grazed the East Coast and relief efforts for earthquake-stricken Haiti.

This past week, he was also dealt setbacks by the Supreme Court. First, justices ordered the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy that forced migrants seeking U.S. asylum to wait in Mexico, often in dire conditions.

Then, as pandemic-era housing aid sits bottlenecked in state and local governments, the courts conservative majority blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban on evictions, leaving perhaps 3.5 million people at risk of losing their homes.

For now, Afghanistan overshadows everything. Biden declared the buck stops with me yet has alternately blamed Afghan forces and their government for caving to the Taliban, and Trump for negotiating a bad agreement for the U.S. exit.

It was Bidens choice, though, to execute the U.S. withdrawal called for in that agreement, even if a few months later, and he will be measured by the consequences of having done so. One of his central rationales for the presidency is being tested: that four decades of experience at the highest levels of government prepared him to handle the pressures of the office with seasoned competence .

Cal Jillson, a presidential historian at Southern Methodist University, said there was no good way to leave Afghanistan.

You cannot stick the dismount, he said. Unless you win, it is bound to be ugly. And we did not win.

He said that while Trump actually arrived at a deeply flawed agreement with the Taliban, it was Biden who undertook to execute that plan, with minor revisions. Biden, he said,  along with the public, wanted out of Afghanistan, the sooner the better. Nobody likes the exit.

Crises can forever stain the legacies of presidents, or they can pass.

President Bill Clinton in his first year endured the bloody tragedy of the battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, while President George W. Bush had the false predicate of weapons of mass destruction for starting a war with Iraq. President John F. Kennedy survived the embarrassment of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Trump survived himself.

At least one of those presidents was enough of a student of history to know that the loneliness of the office, spoken of by William Howard Taft as he left that office in 1913, would come with the territory.

He is alone  at the top  in the loneliest job in the world, Kennedy told a 1960 Democratic dinner before his election that fall.

He cannot share this power, he cannot delegate it, he cannot adjourn.  He alone must decide what areas we defend  not the Congress or the military or the CIA. And certainly not some beleaguered generalissimo on an island.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
NEW ORLEANS  Forecasters warned residents along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast to rush preparations ahead of Hurricane Ida, which is expected to rapidly intensify and bring winds as high as 130 mph (209 kph), life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it slams ashore Sunday in Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center warned that super-warm Gulf waters are expected to soon rapidly magnify Idas destructive power, boosting it from a Category 2 storm to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in just 18 hours or less. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon.

Coastal highways saw heavy traffic Saturday as people moved to escape the storms path. Trucks pulling saltwater fishing boats and campers streamed away from the coast Interstate 65 in south Alabama. Traffic jams clogged Interstate 10 heading out of New Orleans.

Were going to catch it head-on, said Bebe McElroy as she prepared to leave home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. Im just going around praying, saying, Dear Lord, just watch over us.'

Ida was poised to strike Louisiana 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths and caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, which took years to recover.

Were not the same state we were 16 years ago, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system thats seen major improvements since Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005.

This system is going to be tested, Edwards said. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged in 14 parishes for search and rescue efforts with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters. And 10,000 linemen were on standby to respond to electrical outages.

A tropical depression two days earlier, Ida was strengthening so quickly that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the citys 390,000 residents, a task that would require coordinating with the state and neighboring locales to turn highways into one-way routes away from the city.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called for a voluntary evacuation and reiterated Saturday that the time to safely leave was growing short. Collin Arnold, the citys emergency management director, said the city could be under high winds for about 10 hours. Officials warned those who stayed to be prepared for long power outages amid sweltering heat in the days ahead.

Ramsey Green, the citys top infrastructure official, stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting the city have been much improved since Katrina.

That said, if we see 10 to 20 inches of rain over an abbreviated period of time, we will see flooding, he said.

In Washington, President Joe Biden on Saturday called Ida very dangerous and urged Americans to pay attention and be prepared.

Lines at gas pumps and car rental agencies grew long as residents and tourists alike hastened to leave Saturday.

We were willing to wait it out but the hotel said we had to leave, said visitor Lays Lafaurie of Fort Worth, Texas, waiting in a rental car line at the citys airport. They said we had to leave by 7 tomorrow morning. But if wed waited that long there wouldnt have been any cars left.

Ida posed a threat far beyond New Orleans. A hurricane warning was issued for nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Louisianas coastline, from Intracoastal City south of Lafayette to the Mississippi state line. A tropical storm warning was extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Mobile Bay in Alabama was under a storm surge watch.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency Saturday for the states coastal and western counties, warning Ida could bring flooding and tornadoes there.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves urged residents to stay off of interstate highways to make room for people evacuating from Louisiana. He said 19 shelters had opened to take in evacuees. Several casinos on the Mississippi coast had closed ahead of Ida.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground, said Ida is forecast to move through the just absolute worst place for a hurricane.

The Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a critical hub of the nations petrochemical industry, lined with oil refineries, natural gas terminals and chemical manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisianas major electricity provider, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.

A U.S. Energy Department map of oil and gas infrastructure shows scores of low-lying sites in the storms projected path that are listed as potentially vulnerable to flooding. Phillips 66 said it was shutting operations at its refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

Many gas stations in and around New Orleans were out of gas, and the few still open had lines more than a dozen cars deep.

Mike Laurent of Marrero, Louisiana, was filling up about a dozen gas canisters to fuel his generator and those of friends and family. Laurent said his family planned to weather the storm at home despite concerns about whether the nearby levee would hold.

I dont think its ever been tested like its going to be tested tomorrow or Monday, Laurent said. I bought a dozen life jackets, just in case.

Ida was a Category 2 hurricane late Saturday night with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 kph). The storm was centered about 235 miles (375 kilometers) southeast of coastal Houma, Louisiana, and traveling northwest at 16 mph (26 kph). Idas core was also about 145 miles (235 kilometers) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Cuba started to clean up Saturday after Ida tore through Isla de la Juventud and then western parts of the mainland. The storm toppled trees and damaged crops and buildings. There were no reported deaths.

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Associated Press writers Stacey Plaisance and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Frank Bajak in Boston; Michael Biesecker in Washington and Andrea Rodriguez in Los Palacios, Cuba, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. He warned another attack was highly likely and the State Department called the threat specific and credible.

The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Bidens deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.

After getting briefed on a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of the Islamic State groups Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday, Biden said the extremists can expect more.

This strike was not the last, Biden said in a statement. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. He paid tribute to the bravery and selflessness of the American troops executing the hurried airlift of tens of thousands from Kabul airport, including the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Thursdays suicide bombing at an airport gate.

The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack. The State Department issued a new security alert early Sunday morning Kabul time instructing people to leave the airport area immediately due to a specific, credible threat.

Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours, Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule.

The remains of the 13 American troops were on their way to the United States, the Pentagon said. Their voyage marked a painful moment in a nearly 20-year American war that cost more than 2,400 U.S. military lives and is ending with the return to power of a Taliban movement that was ousted when U.S. forces invaded in October 2001.

The remains of troops killed in action overseas are usually flown back to the U.S. via Dover Air Base in Delaware, where fallen troops return to U.S. soil is marked by a solemn movement known as the dignified transfer.

The White House on Saturday did not say if Biden would travel to Dover for the troops return. Bidens press secretary, Jen Psaki, said shortly after the attack that the president would do everything he can to honor the sacrifice and the service of those killed.

The Pentagon released the names of those killed  11 Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier. Twelve of them were in the 20s; some were born in 2001, the year Americas longest war began. The oldest was 31.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban in which the militant group halted attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that the 2,500 to 3,000 troops who remained would be out by September, ending what he has called Americas forever war.

With Bidens approval, the Pentagon this month sent thousands of additional troops to the Kabul airport to provide security and to facilitate the State Departments chaotic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the United States during the war. The evacuation was marred by confusion and chaos as the U.S. government was caught by surprise when the Afghan army collapsed and the Taliban swept to power Aug. 15.

About 5,400 Americans have been evacuated from the country so far, including 300 in the last day. The State Department believes about 350 more want out; it said there are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country, or who have said they plan to remain.

Untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. Biden and the leaders of other Western countries have said they would try to work with the Taliban to allow Afghans who had worked with them to leave after the U.S.-led evacuation ends.

The Pentagon said that about 6,800 people, mostly Afghans, were flown out in the 24 hours that ended Saturday morning, bringing to 113,500 the total number of people of all nationalities evacuated since the hurried exit was begun Aug. 14.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. military force at the Kabul airport, which peaked at about 5,800, had begun its final withdrawal. The number had dropped below 4,000 on Saturday, according to a U.S. official who discussed details not yet publicly released on condition of anonymity. Kirby said that for security reasons the Pentagon will not provide a day-by-day description of the final stages of the militarys withdrawal, which includes flying home troops as well as equipment.

The Pentagon said an airstrike early Saturday local time in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, killed two IS planners and facilitators.

They have lost some capability to plan and to conduct missions, but make no mistake, nobodys writing this off and saying, Well, we got them. We dont have to worry about ISIS-K anymore. Not the case, Kirby told a news conference, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan.

Biden also faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation. Critics say Bidens withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves the door open for al-Qaida, the Islamic State and other extremist groups to grow and potentially threaten the United States. It was al-Qaidas use of Afghanistan as a base, with the Talibans acquiescence, that prompted the United States to invade the country in October 2001, beginning the longest war in U.S. history.

Saturdays drone mission came less than two days after the Kabul attack and a public pledge by Biden that he would make IS pay for their suicide bomb attack. Officials made no claim that the two individuals killed played a direct role in Thursdays Kabul airport attack.

Kirby declined to release the names and nationalities of the two killed. He said one other person was wounded in the strike. The speed with which the U.S. retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate the threat from extremists, who some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Kirby said the U.S. had the ability and the means to carry over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities and were going to defend ourselves, referring to the militarys use of aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere to carry out strikes in Afghanistan.

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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that the total number of those evacuated is 113,500 since Aug. 14. The previously cited figure, 117,000, was for all of August.
NACO, Ariz.  Cochise County sheriffs Deputy Bobby Zavala is surrounded by a group of fifth-graders who are about to raise the American and Arizona flags on a metal pole in a tiny yard in front of Naco Elementary School.

Before the flags are hoisted, however, Zavala runs over to another group of 10-year-olds standing behind them in a perfect queue and turns on the cell phone one of the youngsters is holding. The national anthem blares from the device and now the flag-raising can begin.

Zavala, 53, in full sheriffs deputy uniform, is the Naco schools first school resource officer and the second Cochise County sheriffs deputy to work as a school resource officer, the Herald-Review reported.

Raising the American flag and teaching children about its importance and how it should be respected is just one of the many duties he performs throughout the day at this unique place of learning about 700 yards (640 meters) from the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is truly a blessing, Zavala says about the experience hes had so far at the elementary school. I absolutely love it.

School Superintendent Tim Mayclin said he tried for two years to get someone like Zavala to become the schools first SRO. But there was never grant money available make it happen.

That changed about a year and a half ago when state Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman visited the K-8 school and was struck by a poster created by first-graders during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Mayclin said.

Our first-graders had put up something that they had a dream that we could get rid of all the guns and drugs and that really touched her, Mayclin said. When she went back (to Phoenix) after making a lot of rural visits, she saw there was a need for way more school resource officers out in the country. She went back and took some of their federal money and sent me an email telling me we could get one (an SRO).

Mayclin began searching for an SRO, but was rebuffed at almost every turn because, a lot of people werent interested.

Then he heard about Zavala.

The veteran deputy said he received a call about the job at the Naco school while he was living in Phoenix with his family. Zavala said he had been a full-time deputy with Cochise County since 2010, but became a reserve in 2019 because he wanted to pursue a graduate degree. He and his wife and their 9-year-old son  the Zavalas have four grown children  had been in Phoenix for almost two years when the call came about the SRO position.

After discussing it with his spouse, Zavala, a Bisbee native, decided that returning to Cochise County was the best thing and what his family really wanted.

He became a full-time sheriffs deputy again  a requirement to be an SRO  and started his new gig at the Naco school in mid-July.

The need for an SRO at the Naco school has a lot to do with its location and the areas demographics, Mayclin said.

Being on the border adds a different dimension to things, he said. Were high poverty, were extremely rural. There are just a lot of intangible things, but being close to the border, I mean when I moved here it was just after a bunch of people had just gotten killed by the cartel. When we needed somebody to come here (a police officer) it was usually a couple of hours before we could get anybody if we had an incident.

Anything I can do to to make our school better, to make our school safer and better for our kids and our staff thats my emphasis.

The fact that Zavala is a Bisbee native who is also bilingual improved the situation, Mayclin said.

Someone coming here from Phoenix or Tucson just wouldnt have the same understanding, Mayclin said.

In his school office Zavala, with a ready grin, expanded on Mayclins comments regarding the need for a law enforcement officer at the elementary school level.

Aside from what Zavala called the exterior benefits of being at the Naco school, such as teaching the students civic responsibility and engagement through the flag-raising ceremony, there are underlying factors that are crucial, Zavala said.

What is even more important is to teach these young children that law enforcement here in the United States is here to help, were here to protect, were here to serve, he said. Were here to provide peace to these children who come from another country or another set of variables. They can come here, they can study at peace and be comfortable.

The staff also needs to know that they can come and be comfortable that they can teach with ease and they dont have to worry about violence.

Before stepping into his office and after the flag-raising ceremony, Zavala stood in the breezeway at the school greeting numerous children with a good morning or the Spanish counterpart, buenos dias. He asked a few of the older youngsters if they were OK in both languages.

Most of the students have responded favorably to Zavalas presence, as have many nearby Naco residents who have told Zavala that they feel safe that hes at the school. Some of the older students though, have looked at Zavala askance, he said.

I think its just the age groups, Zavala says in a matter-of-fact tone. Theyre going from pre-teen to teen and they  especially the boys  like to think that theyre tough. We have some young ladies that are the same way.

The issue presented by some of the older students  mainly some of the eighth-graders  has been the bullying of some of the younger children, Zavala said.

His day at the school normally begins at about 6:30 a.m. Thats when Zavala and Mayclin meet to discuss any expected issues. Then the SRO reaches for a cup of coffee  which he calls paramount  before he heads out and greets arriving teachers and some of the early-bird students. He also teaches a class in Arizona law to the upper grades that deals with drugs, bullying and weapons in order to prepare the youngsters once they get to high school.

By the time they get to high school, theyll be aware that they cant be bringing drugs to school, they cant bring weapons to school and they cant be bullying, Zavala says.

He says teaching the courses helps break the barriers with some of the less-trusting students.

Its a great time to bond with the children, Zavala says. Our classes are interactive. Its not just a lecture. I want to learn from them because these young kids see more and know more than we think they do.

A great majority of the youngsters who attend Naco school cross the border daily from Naco, Sonora, Zavala said.

On this particular Thursday morning, large groups of children  some with their parents, some without  are making their trek along Towner Avenue in Naco, Arizona, after theyve walked through U.S. Customs and Border Protections port of entry.

Although the children are attending school in the U.S., the parents of some of these youngsters are not allowed to enter the country for whatever reason, Zavala said.

In the afternoon, after school lets out, Zavala sees to it that the same youngsters who crossed the border without an adult get accompanied by him to the port of entry.

Most days he must make the same trip five and six times, until all the children have gone home to Sonora.

Hopefully their parents are waiting on the other side, he says. These are kids who are 5 and 6 years old. There are about 600 to 700 yards of street that they have to navigate before they get to the international border.

The hope is that if anyone wants to harm one of the youngsters, theyll think twice once they see that theyre accompanied by a cop, Zavala said.

Weve had no problems, but I would rather err on the side of caution, he said.

The daily walks to the border, like teaching the classes on Arizona law, have created a bond between Zavala and some of the children he escorts.

The kids are winding down at the end of the day, he said. Ive learned a lot of names, Ive learned about the families, I know where theyre coming from. They are sweet children. Its nice to have that walk with them at the end of the day.

For Mayclin, the addition of Zavala to the staff has been nothing but a win-win.

Its been really positive, Mayclin said. Weve been able to use Officer Zavala to start some really positive relationships with the kids.

The only time many of these kids see a law enforcement officer is when somebody has done something wrong or if something has happened to someone. Our goal is to change that a little bit. Zavala also makes teachers and community members feel safer because we have someone here. Its really been a nice thing to add.

Sheriffs officials said Zavalas position is being funded by a two-year grant.

Sheriff Mark Dannels said Zavala is a great fit for the position and represents the agency with professionalism and pride.

Deputy Zavala has proven that he has the passion to wear the badge and will undoubtedly make a difference in our future generations through daily examples to the kids he has taken under his wing, Dannels said.
A decade after a Vermont teenager disappeared as Tropical Storm Irene was bearing down on the state, his mother is still hoping someone will be able to answer the question about what happened to him.

Marble Arvidson was 17 when he left his Brattleboro foster home with a man who appeared to be in his 20s on the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2011, saying hed be home in half an hour. That was hours before the rains started. He has never been seen again.

By the time Marble was reported missing the next day, regular communications were down and emergency responders overwhelmed by the scope of the natural disaster.

At first, everyone held out the possibility the lanky teenager with a volatile temper and a fondness for black clothing might have run away  Marble did have a history of staying out overnight  but over the years his mother, Sigrid Arvidson, has all but discarded that possibility.

As a mother, I cant stop looking for his physical body, whether he is in it or his body is the husk he used to live in, Arvidson, who now lives in Abiquiu, New Mexico, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Shell be back in Vermont on Saturday for a public gathering in Brattleboro near where her son was last seen. Shes going to place a marker and make a statement that will be in part a plea for more information.

The reward for information about what happened to Marble is now $10,000, she said.

Arvidson said there were probably 10 possibilities of what happened to her son, from the relatively benign like falling and hitting his head before tumbling down a slope into the water, to murder.

Brattleboro Police Lt. Jeremy Evans said they reopened the investigation into what happened to Marble earlier this year, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of his disappearance.

They are in the process of reinterviewing about 100 possible witnesses and following up on the scores of tips they received a decade ago and more recently through the departments tip line.

Evans said they are getting help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the New England State Police Intelligence Network. The case is listed on the Vermont State Police missing persons page.

Evans doesnt know what happened to Marble, either.

The only thing we can be comfortable saying is hes deceased, Evans said.

When Irene roared up the coast in August 2011, it killed at least 46 people in 13 states and a handful of others in the Caribbean. Many in the Northeast breathed a sigh of relief when the New York City area largely was spared. Then the storm settled over Vermont.

Parts of Vermont got 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain in 24 hours. The storm killed six in the state, washed homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles (805 kilometers) of highway.

A number of events are being planned to mark the 10 years since Irenes fury on Aug. 28, 2011, the date of the states biggest natural disaster since a 1927 flood.

For much of Vermont, Irene is now history, the rebuilding complete. But not for Arvidson or the Brattleboro police.

It very much is part of Irene because it hampered every aspect of trying to search for him, Arvidson said.

Arvidson said she believes there are people out there who know something about what happened to her son. She hopes those people have matured and are ready to do the right thing to help find Marble.

Maybe theyve been holding onto something and they assume somebody knows, she said. But now is a good time to get that off your chest.
SHANKSVILLE, Pa.  The hills in Shanksville seem to swallow sound. The plateau that Americans by the millions ascend to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, to think of those who died in this southwestern Pennsylvania expanse, sits just above much of the landscape, creating a pocket of quiet precisely where quiet needs to be.

It is a place that encourages the act of remembering.

Twenty years have passed since United Flight 93 made its final descent, chaos unfolding aboard as buildings burned 300 miles to the east. Nearly one-fifth of the country is too young to remember firsthand the day that changed everything. Yet at the memorials overlook, near the patch where the plane hit, remembering is the whole point.

Remembering is not merely a state of mind. As those who beseech us to never forget the Holocaust have long insisted, it is an act. And when loss and trauma are visited upon human beings, the act of remembering takes many forms.

Remembering is political. Those who disagree about the fate of Confederate statues across the American South demonstrate that, as do those who dispute how much the war on terror and its toll should be part of discussions about 9/11 memories.

Remembering arrives in ground zero ceremonies and moments of silence and prayers upon prayers, both public and private. It shows itself in folk memorials like those erected at the sides of lonely roads to mark the sites of traffic deaths. It is embedded in the names of places, like the road that leads to the Flight 93 memorial  the Lincoln Highway. It surfaces in the retrieval of flashbulb memories  those where-were-you-when-this-happened moments that stick with us, sometimes accurately, sometimes not.

There are personal memories and cultural memories and political memories, and the lines often blur.

And for generations, remembering has been presented to us in monuments and memorials like Shanksvilles, fine-tuned to evoke memories and emotions in certain ways.

Yet while monuments stand, remembering itself evolves. How 9/11 is remembered depends on when 9/11 is remembered. What, then, does remembering come to mean on a 20th anniversary of an event like 9/11, even as its echoes are still shaking the foundations of everything?

Our present influences how we remember the past  sometimes in ways that are known and sometimes in ways that we dont realize, says Jennifer Talarico, a psychology professor at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania who studies how people form personal memories of public events.

Evidence of that is obvious in the past five weeks in Afghanistan, where a 20-year war waged in direct response to 9/11 ended pretty much where it began: with the repressive and violent Taliban in charge once more.

But even within more static forms of memory, such as the Flight 93 National Memorial, the question of how remembering evolves hangs over so much.

In the visitors center, visceral, painful artifacts of the moment still bring back the past with astonishing efficiency; twisted, scarred cutlery from in-flight meals is particularly breathtaking. But the variety of remembering that is presented yards away at the quiet overlook and its thoughtful memorial feels more permanent, more eternal.

Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles, the lead architect on the memorial, says it was carefully calibrated to resonate across multiple stages of memory about the event and its implications.

You can imagine a memorial approach that sort of freezes anger in time, or freezes fear. And that can be a very expressionistic piece of art. But I feel like for something to endure over a long period of time, I think it has to operate a different way, says Murdoch, who co-designed the memorial with his wife, Milena.

Now we have a generation of people who werent even alive on 9/11, Murdoch says. So how do you talk to people of this new generation  or of future generations?

That question is particularly potent on this anniversary. Society tends to mark generations in two-decade packages, so theres an entire one that has been born and come of age since the attacks. That hardly means they havent been paying attention, though: They remember, too.

Krystine Batcho, a psychology professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, studies how nostalgia works. She found something interesting a couple years ago when she was researching how young people encountered stories that resonated with them  both personally and through the news.

Even those who lacked living memories of 9/11, Batcho says, responded with stories about the event. It was remembering as shared experience.

So many first encounters with 9/11 were, in the tradition of an information age, both separate and communal. People in different parts of the country and world, under vastly different circumstances, watched the same live camera angles on the same few feeds and saw the same, now-indelible views of the destruction in the same way. They experienced it apart, but together.

That formed a communal memory of sorts, even if sometimes people who saw the same things didnt remember them the same way  a specific camera angle or vantage point, a key figures comments, the exact sequence of events. Remembering can be like that, experts say.

You would think that the memories would be more cohesive and homogeneous, Batcho says. It turns out that its much more complicated than that.

The fundamental tension of this kind of remembering  it feels like yesterday but is also becoming part of history  confronts us in the coming days. Memory becomes history. And history  shared history  is held onto tightly, sometimes rabidly. Its why so many people grasp tightly to comforting, nostalgic historical narratives  even when theyre shown to have been destructive.

When memory does become history, it can become more remote, like a Revolutionary War memorial for people whose passions and sacrifices have been sanded down by time. With distance, it can calcify.

Thats not going to happen with 9/11 for a long time, of course. Its politics are still roiling. The arguments that it produced  and the ways they sent society hurtling in a different direction  are just as intense as in those early days.

And when a nation pauses to remember the morning 20 years ago when it was attacked, it is not only looking over its shoulder. It is also looking around and wondering: What does this mean to us now?

___

Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, was APs director of Asia-Pacific news from 2014 to 2018 and covered the aftermath of 9/11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to 2003. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/anthonyted
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Police say one man was killed and another wounded in an overnight shooting in a neighborhood off East Central.

The incident happened a block from where a man was found fatally shot inside a minivan on Friday morning.

Albuquerque police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said theres no indication the two are connected. No arrests have been made in either case.

Gallegos said officers were dispatched around 1 a.m. Saturday to the 500 block of Tennessee NE after a gunshot detection device reported gunfire in the area.

He said police found multiple bullet casings in the street and bullet holes in a nearby apartment complex. A man was found dead inside one of the apartments.

Gallegos said another man showed up to the hospital with gunshot wounds from the same shooting. He said that man is in stable condition.

APD did not immediately identify the man who was killed.

The incident marked the 84th homicide investigation by Albuquerque police so far this year. By this time last year, there had been 50.

Journal staff writer Matthew Reisen contributed to this report.
KABUL, Afghanistan  Taliban forces sealed off Kabuls airport Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation, as the U.S. and its allies were ending a chaotic airlift that will end their troops two decades in Afghanistan.

Western leaders acknowledged their withdrawal would mean leaving behind some of their citizens and many locals who helped them over the years, and they vowed to try to continue working with the Taliban to allow local allies to leave after President Joe Bidens Tuesdays deadline to withdraw from the country.

Although most of its allies had finished their evacuation flights, the U.S. planned to keep its round-the-clock flights going until the deadline, saying 113,500 people had been evacuated since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban claimed Kabul. Biden warned Saturday that commanders had told him another attack was highly likely in the next 24-36 hours, and the U.S. Embassy issued a new warning early Sunday for all Americans to avoid the airport area entirely.

Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to shift heaven and earth to get more of those at risk from the Taliban to Britain by other means.

Britains ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul airport and posted on Twitter that it was time to close this phase of the operation now.

But we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave, he said. Well continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.

As the flow of planes leaving Kabul slowed, others arrived in locales around the world carrying Afghans who managed to secure places on the last evacuation flights, including in the Washington area, Philadelphia, Madrid, and Birmingham, England. Some passengers were relieved and looking forward to starting new lives far from the Taliban, but others were bitter about having to flee.

In Spain, Shabeer Ahmadi, a journalist targeted by the Taliban, said the United States had doomed the work he and others had put into making Afghanistan a better place by allowing the insurgent group to reclaim power.

They abandoned the new generation of Afghanistan, Ahmadi said.

An evacuation flight to Britain landed with an extra passenger after the cabin crew delivered a baby girl midair, Turkish media reported. The parents named her Havva, or Eve, and she was at least the fourth baby known to have been born to Afghan mothers who went into labor on evacuation flights.

Meanwhile, families of Afghans killed in Thursdays suicide bombing at the airport by an Islamic State group affiliate continued burying their dead  at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed. Among them was Belal Azfali, a 36-year-old contractor for a U.S.-funded project who had gone to the airport on his own, without his wife. His remains were so disfigured that he could only be identified when someone picked up the familys repeated calls to the cellphone he had with him, relatives said.

The U.S. on Saturday released the names of the 13 Marines, Navy and Army personnel who were killed in the bombing. One of the Marines  recently promoted Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23  was seen in a widely circulated photo cuddling an Afghan infant temporarily rescued from the crush of the crowds outside the airport gates this month.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed Saturday that the groups forces were holding some positions within the airport and were ready to peacefully take control of it as American forces flew out. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied the claim.

The Taliban did deploy extra forces outside of the airport to prevent large crowds from gathering in the wake of Thursdays bombing . New layers of checkpoints sprang up on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees and night-vision goggles captured from Afghan security forces. Areas where the crowds had gathered over the past two weeks in the hopes of fleeing the country were largely empty.

Officials said U.S. forces were taking every precaution at the airport, as there were concerns that IS, which is far more radical than the Taliban, could strike again. A new security alert from the U.S. Embassy on Sunday morning said due to a specific, credible threat all U.S. citizens should avoid certain gates at the airport and avoid traveling to the area.

In his statement earlier, Biden said a drone strike he ordered that killed what military officials described as two high-profile IS militants believed to have been involved in planning or facilitating attacks would not be his last response to Thursdays suicide attack.

An Afghan who worked as a translator for the U.S. military said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. After passing through three checkpoints they were stopped at a fourth. An argument ensued, and the Taliban said they had been told by the Americans to only let U.S. passport-holders through.

I am so hopeless for my future, the man later told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. If the evacuation is over, what will happen to us?

Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday that Afghans who had worked with American forces still were being allowed in.

According to a State Department spokesperson, 5,400 Americans and likely more have been safely evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including nearly 300 Americans in the last day. Another 350 were still seeking to leave the country, and those were the only ones the department could confirm were still in Afghanistan.

Biden has said he will adhere to a self-imposed Tuesday deadline for withdrawing all U.S. forces, and the Taliban have rejected any extension. They have encouraged Afghans to stay, pledging amnesty even to those who fought against them, and have said commercial flights would resume after the U.S. withdrawal, but its unclear if airlines will be willing to offer service.

As the deadline neared and with the Taliban controlling nearly all of the country, hundreds of protesters, including many civil servants, gathered outside a bank while countless more lined up at cash machines. They said they hadnt been paid for three to six months and were unable to withdraw cash. ATM machines were operating, but withdrawals were limited to about $200 every 24 hours. Later Saturday, the central bank ordered commercial bank branches to open and allow customers to withdraw $200 per week, calling it a temporary measure.

The economic crisis, which predates the Taliban takeover, could give Western nations leverage as they urge Afghanistans new rulers to form a moderate, inclusive government and allow people to leave after Tuesday.

Afghanistan is heavily dependent on international aid, which covered around 75% of the toppled Western-backed governments budget. The Taliban have said they want good relations with the international community and have promised a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last governed the country, but many Afghans are deeply skeptical.

The Taliban cannot access almost any of the central banks $9 billion in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve. The International Monetary Fund has also suspended the transfer of some $450 million. Without a regular supply of U.S. dollars, the local currency is at risk of collapse, which could send the price of basic goods soaring.

The U.S. and its allies have said they will continue providing humanitarian aid through the U.N. and other partners, but any broader engagement  including development assistance  is likely to hinge on whether the Taliban deliver on their promises of more moderate rule.

___

Faiez reported from Istanbul, Lawless reported from London and Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers Frances DEmilio in Rome, Joseph Krauss from Jerusalem, Robert Burns in Washington, Arritz Parra in Madrid and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report.

___

An earlier version of the story contained an incorrect figure for the evacuation total since Aug. 14.

___

More of APs Afghanistan coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Single Ladies' hitmaker, who has drawn backlash for modeling the diamond with husband Jay Z in a Tiffany and Co.'s ad, reportedly is 'aware of the criticism.'

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - Beyonce Knowles wished Tiffany & Co. had told her about the history of its blood diamond. Having sparked backlash for unknowingly modeling the $30 million jewelry with her husband Jay-Z, the "Single Ladies" hitmaker is reportedly "disappointed and angry."

"Beyonce is aware of the criticism and is disappointed and angry that she wasn't made aware of questions about its history," a source told The Sun. "She thought that every final detail had been vetted, but now she realises that the diamond itself was overlooked."

The 128.54-carat yellow gem was discovered in 1877 in Kimberley, South Africa, where black laborers were forced to work under British colonial rule. Upon learning its origin, many internet users put Beyonce on blast.

"I feel like Tiffany & Co. wanted beyonce/Jay z for the basquiate ad so they could frame the public discourse," one person argued on Twitter. "Truly brilliant move bc now everyones defending blood diamonds and capitalism in the name of our cultures black icons which makes no sense but here we are."

"We in a global pandemic but certain brands JUST now thinking about including BW in their visual representations of capitalism and blood diamonds LOL," another individual tweeted. "Can someone tell @TiffanyAndCo to read the room or nah?"

While Beyonce has yet to respond to the backlash, her mom Tina Lawson already came to her defense. "How many of you socially conscious activist own diamonds ? I thought so ! Well guess what did you go to try to check to see where the diamond came from? Probably not !" Tina commented on The Grio's Instagram post rounding up some of the critiques.

"So when you guys get engaged you won't have a diamond you gonna put on a sterling silver band," the 67-year-old further stressed. "And you better check out where it came from and the origin of where came from and why you add it check out the calls for the Leather that you weird because they made it came from another country to to ban and not buy diamonds right because your righteous !!"

Beyonce is the fourth person and the first black woman to wear the priceless diamond. It was previously worn by Mary Whitehouse, Audrey Hepburn and Lady GaGa.
Instagram/WENN/Instar Celebrity

In a new interview with Los Angeles Times, the 20-year-old TikTok star shares that people shouldn't have assumed that she's a Trump supporter just because of one moment.

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - Addison Rae has distanced herself from Donald Trump. Nearly a month after she was seen introducing herself to former president during a UFC 264 fight, the social media influencer has explained herself over the brief encounter.

In a new interview with Los Angeles Times, the TikTok star shared that people should not have assumed that she's a Trump supporter just because of that moment. "I mean, I dont support Trump," the 20-year-old said. "And if someone does, that's their opinion and I respect everyones opinion, for each their own."

As for why she had a brief meet-and-greet with Trump, Rae explained, "But it's very rare on occasion that you ever get to meet a former president, and I think most people could agree with me on that. It's very uncommon. And I consider myself a friendly person, and so introducing myself does not mean I stand behind anything that any respective person condones."

In a video that went viral in July, Raecould be seen excitedly greeted Trump during a UFC 246 match. She approached the former president, who entered the arena and took a seat directly in front of her. She tapped him on the shoulder before introducing herself.

"Hi," she said to the former president in the short clip. "I'm Addison. Nice to meet you, I have to say 'hi.' "

Fans quickly expressed their disappointment in the social media personality after watching the clip. Prior to that, Rae was also accused of being a Republican after a suspected Trump flag was featured in a picture of her bedroom. Of the flag, Rae said, "my meme used to buy us these for my papas bday (July 4th) a good 2010 souvenir."
Instagram TV

The former 'Love and Hip Hop: Hollywood' star weighes in on the YouTube personality being first contestant a same-sex partner in the upcoming season 30 of the ABC show.

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - JoJo Siwa is celebrating her joining "Dancing with the Stars". The YouTube personality, who came out as pansexual earlier this year, is set to make a history on the show as she'll be the first contestant a same-sex partner. However, Safaree Samuels doesn't seem to agree with the title.

The former "Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood" star weighed in on in the matter while commenting on Hollywood Unlocked's Instagram post on Thursday, August 27. "Wow so this is considered history [laughing and crying face emojis] I'm really laughing at this," so the father of two said. "They're not teaching this in no history class in 20 years this ain't history."

Safaree's response apparently put him in hot water. "just be honest and say you hate gay ppl. y'all are so homophobic. it's sad," one critic said. To that, Safaree fired back, "so because I said it's not history I'm homophobic? your name for the day is dumb a**. Scram fella."

Some others, meanwhile, defended the rapper. Among them was "Love & Hip Hop: Miami" star Bobby Lytes, who wrote, "He ain't lie tho, how is this history in the making???! Oh, cuz she's white? just say that." He added in a separate comment, "And how is he homophobic cuz he said 'it's not history in the making' ??? I'm confused."

Another fan said, "I'm a lesbian and he ain't wrong that ain't no history." Someone else added, "Having an opinion is not homophobic.. geesh."

JoJo has yet to react to Safaree's comment.

"Dancing with the Stars" announced on Thursday that JoJo and Olympic gymnast Suni Lee will be joining season 30 of the long-running dance competition show on ABC. "I think it breaks a wall that's never been broken down before," JoJo shared. "Not only do I now get to share with the world that you get to love who you want to love, but also, you get to dance with who you want to dance with. I think it's really special."

"There [are] a lot of barriers that we're going to have to break through," the "Dance Moms" alum added. "Who leads? How do you dress? What shoes do you wear? But I think it's all something that I'm looking forward to."
Celebrity

While the 79-year-old civil rights leader is transferred to The Shirley Ryan Ability Lab to begin therapy for his Parkinson's disease, his wife Jacqueline remains at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - Rev. Jesse Jackson's family has shared an update on his condition as well as his wife's after they both contracted coronavirus. In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, August 27, his son Jonathan Jackson revealed the civil rights leader's "COVID-19 symptoms abate," but his Parkinson's is getting worse.

The 79-year-old was diagnosed with the degenerative nervous system disorder in 2017, a condition his son says has come more "in focus" as his COVID symptoms have dissipated. He has been moved to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to begin intensive occupational and physical therapy for his Parkinson's disease.

Meanwhile, his wife Jacqueline Jackson remains at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The 77-year-old was moved to the intensive care unit, but she is breathing on her own. The statement noted that she is receiving increased oxygen in the ICU, but is not on a ventilator.

"Both of our parents are continuing to receive excellent medical care," Jonathan said, before imploring to fans, "We urge that you continue to keep them in your prayers because we know this is a serious disease."

"We continue to receive the love that is being poured out to our family from around the world and it is greatly appreciated, as we express our love and concern for the millions of people who have been victimized by the COVID-19 virus and its variants," the family statement continued to read. "We know this is a dangerous disease so please remain prayerful for all of those who are suffering as a result."

The family went on urging others to get vaccinated. "We urge all who have not yet been vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus to do so immediately," so they reminded.

Jesse and his wife's COVID diagnosis was revealed on Saturday, August 21. On Tuesday, the civil rights leader, who was a protege of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, told Associated Press reporters that he was thankful for the great care he was receiving. "I'm doing fairly well," he assured.

Jesse is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but Jacqueline has not received any doses due to a pre-existing condition, the AP reported.
Instagram Celebrity

Having used to be called 'The Rock and Vin Diesel's love child,' Lieutenant Eric Fields says, 'It's flattering, but it's also a little nerve-racking as far as what others expect.'

Aug 29, 2021

AceShowbiz - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may have found his twin in an Alabama cop. Morgan County Sheriff's Office has become a sort of local celebrity due to his uncanny resemblance to the wrestler-turned-actor.

The Morgan County Sheriff's Department recently posted about a Walmart employee who asked another officer if he could meet Eric. "This gentlemen recently ran into Sgt. Mason and informed him he wanted to meet our Deputy that people say looks like 'The Rock,' " so read the post. "Sgt. Mason passed that along and Lieutenant Fields was happy to swing by the Hartselle Walmart to see him. Tyler is one of their many hard workers and it was great to meet him and some of his coworkers!"

A TikTok user also shared two photos of the Patrol Lieutenant posing with fans which were earlier uploaded on Morgan County Sheriff's Department's official social media accounts. "People swear up and down it's him," the user said in the video. "This is insane You cannot tell me that is not Mr. Dwayne."

Internet users have been gushing about the officer's resemblance to the "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" star, which would make everyone give a double take. "Wow, I would have sworn he [was] the Rock!" one wrote on Facebook. Another quipped, "Nice try Morgan County Sheriff's Office, you guys got The Rock working there part time, don't you?"

In an interview with Fox affiliate WBRC, Eric shared how he feels being The Rock doppelganger. "It's always been a running joke of people saying I resemble the Rock or Vin Diesel and I just go with it," he admitted, adding, "I've been called The Rock and Vin Diesel's love child."

"It's humorous. It's flattering. It could be worse people, I guess," the 37-year-old officer further gushed, before opening up about the minor downside. "I don't want to disappoint anybody," he said of the pressure. "I walk up one day and at a different angle, I don't know. It's flattering, but it's also a little nerve-racking as far as what others expect."

Eric confessed he'll sometimes do an impression of "Fast and Furious" actors Dwayne or Vin if asked. The officer said, "I just plan on being me. I'll cut up. I'm a big cut-up. If it comes up and somebody says that, I'll play along. I really couldn't be anybody but me. I'm just glad I could be part of someone's happiness and laughter."
Instagram Celebrity

Khloe's Instagram post arrives after Jordyn seemingly threw shade at Khloe, who was rumored to be rekindling her romance with Tristan Thompson, saying that 'only God' can canecel her.

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - Is Khloe Kardashian clapping back at Jordyn Woods? Days after the latter claimed that that "only God" can cancel her, the former "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" star wrote cryptic message about "shady b***hes" on Instagram Story.

In the Thursday, August 26 post, the mom of one wrote, "Be careful outside, it's raining shady b***hes everywhere!!" The 37-year-old reality TV star also added a green snake emoji on her post.

The post arrives after Jordyn seemingly threw shade at Khloe, who was rumored to be rekindling her romance with Tristan Thompson. In the Wednesday, August 18 episode of MTV's "Cribs" as she talked about being canceled as she opened a package of tees which had the phrases that read, "Oh, s**t I've been canceled," and "Please don't cancel me," written on them.

"They tried it already, I've already been in that position," the 23-year-old social media personality said. The former "Life of Kylie" then added, "I truly believe the only person who can cancel you is God and God isn't going to cancel you." Her mom then chimed in, saying, "And that's the truth."

Jordyn made headlines back in February 2019 after she was photographed kissing Tristan, who shares a daughter with Khloe. That was beyond shocking because Jordyn was among Kylie Jenner's closest friends. "Khloe loved Jordyn before this," a source revealed at the time. "This is completely shocking to Khloe's family."

Khloe broke up with the Sacramento Kings player subsequently. The two, who are co-parenting for daughter True, were later in a on-and-off relationship as they called it quits once again in June. The pair were rumored to be getting back together earlier this month, but a source shut down the speculations. "[Khloe and Tristan] are telling people they aren't back together, but have been hanging out pretty often with True," the informant spilled. "[She] will always have feelings towards Tristan... It's hard for her and she wishes these weren't the circumstances."
WENN/John Rainford Celebrity

Being heavily pregnant, the Duchess of Sussex could not join her husband Prince Harry in attending the funeral ceremony for Prince Philip which took place in April.

Aug 28, 2021

AceShowbiz - While Prince Harry flew to the U.K. to attend Prince Philip's funeral in April, his then-pregnant wife Meghan Markle wasn't able to join him due to doctor's advice. It was unfortunate, but a new report suggests that royal family members were "quietly pleased" over her absence.

"Despite the difficulties Harry and Meghan faced in the aftermath of their interview, there was never any doubt that Harry would race back to England to be with his family," Royal experts Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie wrote in the bew epilogue of the Sussex biography "Finding Freedom" which was obtained by E! News. "Meghan also hoped to accompany Harry, but as she was heavily pregnant with their daughter, her doctors wouldn't give her medical clearance to fly."

The authors then added, "In truth, several members of the royal family are understood to have been 'quietly pleased' that Meghan stayed in California because they 'didn't want a circus.' " They were allegedly afraid of "the Duchess creating a spectacle."

As for Queen Elizabeth II, she was said to be glad to be reunited with her "beloved" Harry. The Duke of Sussex, meanwhile, wanted to support his grandmother in the wake of the death of Prince Philip.

The royal family allegedly "put on a unified front" at the funeral "out of respect for Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh" regardless of any recent tension. A source claimed, Where we are today versus where we were six months ago, versus where we were 12 months ago there is actually progress. There are efforts on all sides."

Prince Philip passed away in his sleep at Windsor Castle on Friday (9Apr), two months before his 100th birthday. Following his death, Harry paid tribute to his grandfather in a lengthy message, writing, "My grandfather was a man of service, honour and great humour. He was authentically himself, with a seriously sharp wit, and could hold the attention of any room due to his charm-and also because you never knew what he might say next."

"You will be sorely missed, but always remembered-by the nation and the world. Meghan, Archie, and I (as well as your future great-granddaughter) will always hold a special place for you in our hearts. Per Mare, Per Terram," so he concluded.
Renee Melendez is frustrated with the unvaccinated for more reasons than just the renewed spread of Covid-19, she said.

The Virginia woman says she and her whole family got the vaccine as soon as it was available. She's immunocompromised and susceptible to getting really sick if she caught Covid-19. She has lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and it is these diseases that add an extra layer to her frustration and anger.

To keep her rheumatoid arthritis symptoms under control, to be able to function every day, once a month she gets an infusion of a biologic called Actemra, also known as tocilizumab. But now, because of the pandemic and the recent surge in cases, there is no Actemra available

"We did our part to preserve ourselves, our community, in trying to help battle this by getting vaccinated," Melendez said. "It's just unfortunate that the ignorance and laziness, for lack of better words, of other people who avoided taking the vaccine and ended up in the hospital with Covid, now has to impact me."

Repurposing drugs to treat Covid-19

In June, the US Food and Drug Administration gave Actemra an emergency use authorization to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients. This monoclonal antibody can reduce inflammation that can make patients sicker.

The antibody treatment blocks an inflammatory protein called IL-6 that causes damage in rheumatoid arthritis. That same protein plays a role in some of the serious symptoms in people with severe Covid-19 infections.

The latest surge in cases caused a global shortage. Genentech, the company that makes Actemra, doesn't have enough for everyone who needs it. Last week, the company said demand for the drug went up more than 400% beyond pre-Covid levels in just two weeks.

In the United States, supplies of several dose levels of this medicine have been out of stock since last Monday.

A life saver and life changer

For patients with Covid-19, the drug can be lifesaving. For patients with rheumatoid arthritis, like Melendez, it can be life-altering.

"It has restored my ability to have a fully functioning life," Melendez said. "Before it, it was so bad that simple things like brushing my teeth, combing my hair, opening a bottle of water, unfastening a pair of jeans, going to a restaurant, feeding myself were all challenges. Standing up and walking was hard. That's how bad my RA gets and I'm only 47."

Without the medication, even for a month, people can suffer debilitating flare-ups.

"There are thousands of patients who take monthly Actemra to help their inflammatory diseases," said Dr. Marcus Snow, chair of the committee on Rheumatic Care at the American College of Rheumatology, who works at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. "The people who need these medicines have been through significant trials and tribulations to get to the point where they need these medicines, and to all of a sudden have a shortage is terrifying for a lot of people."

Steven Taylor, the executive vice president of mission and strategic initiatives for the Arthritis Foundation, said that while there are other drugs available, they aren't easily interchangeable.

"It isn't easy to switch drugs, especially when you're on a serious drug like Actemra," Taylor said. "You surely don't want to be bouncing around."

The American College of Rheumatology said it has received "a number" of emails from concerned members. The organization sent out a notice about the shortage last week, as did the Arthritis Foundation.

Genetech is expanding manufacturing

On Thursday, Genentech sent a notice to customers saying it was "working as urgently as possible to expedite replenishments and increase manufacturing capacity and supply wherever possible."

The company said the medicine should be available for distribution starting Monday, August 30, but "given continued tight supply, Genentech anticipates additional intermittent periods of stockouts in the months ahead if the pandemic continues at the current pace."

A subcutaneous injectible form of Actemra that has not been authorized to treat Covid-19 is still available for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Snow suggested patients ask their doctors about it. It's unclear if insurance would cover it.

And for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, there are some alternatives if Actemra is not available.

The World Health Organization recommended in June that Actemra be used to treat Covid-19 patients. Worried for them now, it has called for Roche, the parent company of Genetech, to ensure there was equitable allocation of current stocks for all countries.

"We also strongly encourage Roche to facilitate technology transfer and knowledge and data sharing to broaden access to this important treatment," the WHO said in its statement.

Roche, Genentech's parent company, said it would not enforce its patents in low- and middle-income countries during the pandemic so more companies can make the medicine. Doctors Without Borders complained this was not enough. It had argued the drug is "inaccessible and unaffordable for the majority of the world."

More pandemic shortages

This is not the first shortage in the pandemic. Supply chains were disrupted when factories had to shut down to prevent the spread of the virus, and Covid-19 put a real demand shock on top of a system that was already fragile, according to Erin Fox, an expert on drug shortages who works as a senior director, drug information and support services at University of Utah Health.

"All it takes is a little spike in demand and we have problems," Fox said.

Because of the uncertainty of surges, some facilities also hoarded some medication. Genentech recently said it would not take orders back, and that should cut down on hoarding, Fox said.

The way pharmaceutical companies typically operate can also cause problems, according to Michael Ganio, the senior director of pharmacy practice and quality at American Society of Health System Pharmacists.

"The same as any other manufacturer, they're going to make enough for what they think they need for the year. Nobody wants to have extra inventory sitting around," Ganio said.

Ganio said the American Society of Health System Pharmacists has also heard reports of shortages of in-line filters that are used with IV bags. There's been more demand for them due to the increasing use of the Regeneron antibody cocktail used to treat people with Covid-19.

Some electrolyte products have also been in chronic shortage, he said.

Even before the pandemic, drug shortages have been considered a "real challenge for public health" according to the FDA, and it's been going on for decades.

There are currently at least 110 drugs in shortage according to the FDA. The American Society of Health System Pharmacists counts 183.

"It's very frustrating. In shortage after shortage after shortage the manufacturer does not have a plan for when they can't supply product. It's often 'good luck, we're out,' " Fox said. "All decisions are made about the business first and unfortunately, there's no requirement to make anything, no matter how life saving it is."

In its 2020 report to congress, the FDA said that it is "doing everything within its authority to help prevent and alleviate" disruptions and shortages and worked with manufacturers to prevent 199 shortages, but for now that doesn't help patients like Melendez.

"I know I can't be the only person who's sitting here today on edge," Melendez said. "I want to make sure they don't forget about us."

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The US military carried out a drone strike against what it said was an ISIS-K planner in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, amid warnings of possible further terror attacks targeting the last-ditch US evacuation effort from Kabul.

The desperate mission to airlift US citizens and Afghans who assisted US forces and officials from the country by the end of the month is now in its final phase.

The drone strike in Nangarhar came a day after US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate for a terrorist attack Thursday that killed 13 US service members and at least 170 others outside Kabul's international airport.

The man targeted in the drone strike was believed to be "associated with potential future attacks at the airport," a US defense official told CNN Saturday.

The US located him and "had sufficient eyes on and sufficient knowledge" to strike, the official said, adding that he "was a known entity" but that the US is not calling him a "senior" ISIS-K operative.

US and other Western countries have been racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies ahead of an August 31 deadline, after the Taliban retook control of the country -- prompting fears of deadly reprisals against anyone linked to international forces.

Those efforts, hampered by fears of further security threats at the airport, now appear to be in their closing stages.

The last UK military flight dedicated to civilian evacuees has now left Kabul airport, a UK defense source told CNN. A small number of civilians may make it on to remaining UK flights, the source added.

Earlier Saturday the head of the UK's armed forces, Gen. Nick Carter, told BBC Radio 4 that the UK's effort to evacuate Afghan civilians would end "during the course" of Saturday. "And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft," he said.

UK Ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul posted to Twitter that Britain "hasn't forgotten the people who still need to leave" Afghanistan and would "continue to do everything we can to help them."

Carter said the number left behind who were eligible to be brought to the UK was in the "high hundreds."

"It's gone as well as it could do in the circumstances... but we haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking and there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground," he said.

Several other allied nations concluded their evacuation operations on Friday, among them France and Italy.

Minimal US diplomatic crew left

Meanwhile, it's unclear how many Afghans remain at the airport desperate to find a flight out.

An eyewitness told CNN he saw Taliban members fire shots in the air outside the main Kabul airport entrance gate on Saturday morning to disperse crowds that had gathered again in attempts to flee Afghanistan.

A source directly familiar with the situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport told CNN that only a skeletal US diplomatic crew of staff to process evacuees would remain after the bulk expected to be departed in the next 24 hours.

The source said that some individuals or small families were still "being pulled through the gates somehow" as of Saturday. The gates have been closed for days. The numbers getting on were thought to be "a very tiny subset, consisting of single people or families." The US has said they had alternate routes to the airport.

The source added that US airport staff were "still getting hit up by tons of people trying to get in. All Afghans, either SIV or no credentials. They feel bad but there is literally nothing they can do."

SIV refers to the Special Immigrant Visa program established more than a decade ago to provide a pathway to the United States for Afghans who were employed by or worked on behalf of the US government.

The source added it was unclear if the evacuation of local embassy employees had finished, but that hundreds more had been reported as having got to the airport and that "hundreds more have departed for interim locations."

The US Embassy in Kabul on Friday again warned US citizens at a number of gates at the city's airport to "leave immediately," citing security threats. The alert advised US citizens "to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."

The Pentagon said the US was "still planning on ending this mission at the end of the month," representing a final exit from a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Targeted drone strike

Further details have emerged of the drone strike against what the US military described as an ISIS-K planner, although the identity of the target has not yet been confirmed.

An Afghan journalist who visited the scene of the drone strike said it destroyed a house close to Jalalabad in Nangarhar. Photos shared with CNN by the journalist show a small vehicle at the compound badly damaged as well as what appears to be heavy shrapnel damage in the immediate vicinity.

A second US defense official said surveillance had continued on the compound until the target's wife and children left before the US conducted the targeted drone strike.

US Central Command said in a statement Friday that it was not aware of any civilian casualties.

Biden approved the strike on the ISIS-K planner, according to an official familiar with the matter.

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed that an ISIS militant carried out Thursday's suicide attack at an airport gate, but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the bombing.

Twenty US marines who were injured in the attack are being treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Ramstein Air Base Commander Brig. Gen. Joshua M. Olson said at a press conference Saturday.

The wounded and deceased service members were flown to Ramstein from Kabul on Friday, he said.

Evacuee numbers slowing

The US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 111,900 people from Afghanistan since August 14, according to the White House.

Approximately 6,800 people were evacuated from 3 a.m. ET Friday to 3 a.m. ET Saturday, a White House official said.

Those evacuations were carried out by both US military and coalition flights, with 32 US military flights taking approximately 4,000 people and 34 coalition flights carrying 2,800 people, the White House said.

The latest numbers are noticeably smaller than those from recent days, something White House press secretary Jen Psaki said should be expected in the final days of the mission.

"That is a result of the retrograde process that needs to take place, but also, I will note that, of course, force protection is front and center and is vital to the mission," Psaki said at Friday's White House press briefing.

Approximately 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan during the same time period on the previous day.

France announced the end of its evacuation effort Friday but vowed to "stand by the Afghan people" after August 31, in a statement released by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly.

The country had evacuated nearly 3,000 people since August 15, the statement said. An extra 1,500 Afghans who had worked for France were evacuated before August 15 in anticipation of the current crisis, it added.

Italy's Defense Ministry also said Friday that it had concluded its military evacuations of Afghan nationals out of Kabul. Since June, 5,011 people have been evacuated in total, of whom 4,980 are Afghan citizens, it said.

Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and Spain have all said their evacuation missions ended or were scheduled to end on Friday.

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SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. - A 23-year-old Anderson man was sentenced to 19 years in state prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, according to the Shasta County District Attorneys Office.

Jacob Ryan Fuentes pleaded guilty to human trafficking of a minor, conspiracy to commit lewd or lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14, using a minor as a model for the creation of images of sexual exploitation and distributing obscene matter depicting an underage person.

During the investigation, Fuentes sent an image of child porn to detectives who tracked down Fuentes.

Fuentes admitted to contacting a 15-year-old and sending child porn as well as encouraging her to create child porn of herself or others.

When released from prison he will be required to register as a sex offender.
ORLAND, Calif. - The Orland Unified School District is changing its mask guidelines after a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Starting Aug. 30, all students and staff will be required to wear masks indoors.

Students at Orland High School say they are glad the school district is enforcing the use of masks.

I think that's a good idea because, before last year when we had to wear masks, the cases were lower, and it was better, and now that they don't require it, it's like more cases went up, Orland High School student Citlalli Diazalvarez said.

The school district says employees complained to Cal/OSHA about enforcing the states Department of Public Health mask mandate.

They also contacted the school district and demanded to work in a safe environment.

I was hoping that it was just, you know, your body, your choice, but everything is spreading right now. I think it is pretty safe to put a mask on, Orlan High School worker Mike Skidmore said.

While students will now have to wear a mask indoors, masks will remain optional outdoors for all K-12 school settings.

Some students at Orland High School said they have continued to wear a mask to protect themselves and their relatives.

I prefer to wear it because I just feel safer because my grandma is older, and I'm scared to get her sick, and something happening, Orland High School student Genevieve Velasquez said.

Staff from other schools said off-camera that they are preparing for Monday and following the guidelines set by the school district.

The district says Glenn County Public Health also reached out to the district through the Glenn County Office of Education about following the mask mandate.
Ambitious, driven Sharan Pillai is a skilled and fascinated human who has worked for more than 75 brands and has reinvented his career from Engineering to Advertising. He has worked his way through almost every part of marketing which includes Product Marketing, Campaign Management, Media Planning & Strategy, Branding and Communication. Pillai joined Flipkart in May 2021 as a Manager for Digital Media and is responsible for evaluating multiple platforms, Onboarding partners, Set planning principles and Managing campaigns. His role focuses on collaborating with brands like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Pillai believes in selling all sorts of things by adding value & making a positive difference in business. His expertise lies in Strategic Planning, Audience Behaviour Research, Advertising, Media Planning, Digital Marketing, Business Development and Engineering. He is always learning to build the business with demonstrated capabilities in collaborating with eccentric clients & opportunities.

Pillai has over seven years of experience and started his career as an Intern at Delhivery where he used to scan the Mumbai market to understand current inventory management practices of retailers and onboarding them for implementation of the Hyperlocal Model. He has also worked with Forbes Marshall as a Business Consultant where he was responsible for developing both long & short term strategic goals, product promotion, marketing, developing client and dealer network. Pillai has been associated with top notch agencies like Publicis Media, Publicis Worldwide India and Jio Creative Labs.

Find out from Sharan Pillai about the challenges that marketers need to face to grab the attention of consumers in a short span, how to shape your path towards success and a lot more.

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?

Storytelling

Observing the world and people around you, understanding their behaviour and media consumption pattern results in the best stories. As we know, good stories have the tendency to stay with us, regardless of the subject matter.

The most challenging part for a marketer today is to grab the attention of consumers in a short span. So, its important to understand which content format will work, on which media platform.

Understanding customers through H2H mindset

Combining customer wants with design thinking, service dominant logic and data analytics for strategizing marketing activities.

Adopting innovations based on human orientation and audience experimentations.

How did you join your current organisation?

Dhoondne waala bhagwan ko bi dhoond leta hai!

I was very fortunate throughout my career to get great opportunities, backed by hard work and patience to create my luck.

Icons in this field you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work?

Nobody has ever achieved anything big, in business or in any other walk of life, without courage - Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani - I always admired him for his leadership quality and his positive approach towards observing the opportunities while disrupting the Indian market and representing our nation globally.

Also, I am influenced by my bosses, in fact, in some cases I follow their work style because they have made a great impression on me.

I will always be grateful to them and owe my success to them.

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?

Family time - I make sure everyone at home is having a great day. Work - Try to do a little extra, experiment and learn new things everyday. Media Publishers - Talk with publishers around to be updated about the current trends and recent ad campaigns. College - Evening lectures help me to learn marketing concepts, brainstorming ideas (assignments) and discussing case studies with our professors. Counselling/ Guiding - Many folks reach out to me for advice and career guidance, I feel happy to guide and mentor them so that they end up achieving something that they have never thought about.

Do you think a career in this field is a viable one in the long term?

If I answer on a broader level - Marketers are always required to sell products/ services even though there is no demand in the market.

Specific to digital media - Its just a start and there are a lot of technological advancements going to happen which will result in many job opportunities. Also, one needs to accept the fact - Change is a must for which one needs to up-skill and be ready for the future.

What does it take to succeed in a career?

I look at it in reverse - Your boss, team and organisation shape your pathway to success, followed by your passion, hard work and willpower to do something BIG!

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?

Make sure you are failing!

People fail at work when they either dont have definite knowledge or they are following the wrong path. Creativity comes when you start thinking from a blank mind and theres a possibility you will try different things. The more you explore, the stronger you become.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

Travelling Rural India to see the transformation.

I am proactively working on my dream project - The 100 Life Project (100life.in), which is setting up a community for upskilling young minds to do business online.

Is there any organisation that you would like to work with in the future?

I feel very proud to mention that I work for the leading e-commerce firm in the country and also which ranks as the best place to work.

What more can I ask for!
Prabhas' global fandom is no hidden secret. He is one of India's top actors but some of the stars he has worked with also went onto claim that Prabhas is a very grounded, down to earth person and humble personality. It's no surprise Prabhas is loved dearly by his fans and co-stars alike, these words prove it.

Kriti Sanon opened up on her shooting schedule and on working with Pan-India star Prabhas shared, After a really long time Im looking up at someone, so that is there. Hes (Prabhas) pretty tall, and I think when we both are in our respective costumes, it kind of comes out even better."

She continues, I have shot with him in the first schedule, and I am going to shoot with him in the next one. He is a very chilled out person, very humble, a big foodie, and people say that he is shy (and) he doesnt talk much, but I dont think its true at all. Hes pretty talkative, and I have really got a good equation with him."

You read what Kriti had to say about her co-star but there is another person to share their feelings on Prabhas'down to earth nature.

Shruti Hassan spoke about Prabhas and said, "He is very chill, I did not expect him to be that chill. He is very confident about things he does. You know what's lovely about him is, there is so much energy around him and excitement. He is genuinely down to earth. I have seen fake humility and fake down to earthiness, and I'm like 'it is really nice you are behaving this yourself but that isn't really you.' I think we all have seen that, especially in the work environment...but the thing is, he is really down to earth and chill, which is refreshing."

She continued, "I'm sure he is aware of this, stardom and position. But he never makes you feel so and that is really very pleasant. It is wonderful to work within that energy. The whole team of Salaar, the director and everyone on the sets has good vibe."

Prabhas' Radheshyam co-star Bhagyashree opened on working with him, My first impression of Prabhas was of amazement. He floored me with his hospitality and humbleness. He enjoys superstardom but is always polite and grounded. Most of our conversations are about food and more often than not Prabhas used to share his homemade food with us on sets.

If any further proof of Pan-India star Prabhas' flattering nature is needed then no need to look any further. Prabhas recently treated two of her co-stars with foods and sweets on the movie sets. While Shruti was treated with home made food on sets of Salaar, Bhagyashree was welcomed with sweets on the sets of Radheshyam and both the actress absolutely loved it. Shruti even went on to say, "Prabhas is the most epic human."

Prabhas has multiple Pan-India projects under his belt which include AdiPurush, Radheshyam, Salaar and Deepika Padukone starrer film named, 'K' with all films belonging to various genres.
Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has won Grand Prix of the Year for Donation Dollar, created for the Royal Australian Mint. This campaign also won three Grand Prix awards in the Brand Experience & Activation, Design and Direct categories.

Donation Dollar stood out for me personally for its simplicity of thought  the idea changes the way we know the mechanics of charity, and influences behaviour positively. Its impossible to not be affected by this campaign. The craft is also sublime, says Ali Rez, Regional Executive Creative Director at Impact BBDO MENAP and an Executive Judge at AD STARS 2021.

Gabriela Scardaccione, Global Creative Director at Mother based in London and an AD STARS 2021 Executive Judge adds: Donation Dollar is an amazing example of a brilliant creative idea with purpose and longevity. Brilliant ideas for me are the ones that are so simple and rounded that you just cant believe they havent been made yet. For me, the greatest design is the one that is at the service of the idea, almost invisible, the one that doesnt overcome the message.

Cheil Hong Kong is the winner of this years Grand Prix of the Year Award in the Public Service Advertising (PSA) category for The Cost of Bullying, created for Samsung. This campaign also won a PSA Grand Prix.

The Cost of Bullying is a masterful example of brilliant targeting and strategically going to the heart of the problem to fix it; Ive seen plenty of work around bullying, but this is one of those few cases where the solve is highly effective in the very space where the problem exists, says Rez.

Scardaccione says: I love when brands produce ideas that the world needs. Its feels like thinking with an environmental brand brain. The cost of bullying is one of those things that the world needs. I cant be objective as I am the mother of an 11 year-old boy and know how much bullying there is around gaming online. Paying the cost of bullying is the right answer to this problem.

AD STARS would also like to congratulate this years Special Award winners:

Network of the Year: dentsu

Agency of the Year: Dentsu Inc.

Advertiser of the Year: WWF

Production Company of the Year: Good Oil

Ricardo Adolfo, Executive Creative Director at TBWAMedia Arts Lab in Japan, was a Final Judge at AD STARS 2021. He says: This years AD STARS showed that the industry has been busier than ever and always swift on adjusting to unforeseeable challenges. A considerable amount of the great work awarded was born out of new problems and fuelled by the latest tech. It was great to see that AD STARS continues to grow with the best work not only from the region but also from all over the world.

The three-day AD STARS 2021 Online Festival concludes today on 27 August. Featuring an esteemed line-up of speakers inspired by the theme Shift, all sessions will now be available to watch on demand for 60 days until late October 2021.
So, what is going on in the Ahwatukee real estate market? Is the bubble going to burst?
COVID-19 surges in Alabama children, vaccination and other measures needed to prevent further spread

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Karen Landers, M.D.

(256) 383-1231



The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) reports a significant increase in pediatric cases of COVID-19 at this time of year, compared to the same time in 2020. Coupled with this increase in cases, ADPH notes that Alabama has at least 50 children hospitalized statewide and has recently had at least 9 children on ventilators in a single day.

ADPH pediatrician, Dr. Karen Landers, states, I am very concerned that the children of Alabama are experiencing more illness and hospitalizations as a result of COVID-19. Children can and do contract and spread COVID-19 disease. COVID-19 can be a very serious illness in children with at least 6 percent of children experiencing long-term consequences of this disease. Further, at least 113 children in our state have suffered from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome of Childhood (MIS-C), a severe illness that occurs after COVID disease and affects several organs, including the brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys, among other body systems.

Delta variant accounts for most of the SARS-CoV-2 cases in Alabama, based upon surveillance. Delta can replicate more quickly and infect earlier than previous SARS-CoV-2 variants. These factors are fueling the surge of COVID-19 among Alabamas children, notes Dr. Benjamin Estrada, Director, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Professor of Pediatrics, University of South Alabama College of Medicine.

To combat this surge in disease, ADPH recommends all children ages 12 and above be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the approved vaccine product. ADPH recently issued School Guidance that any child who has COVID-19 disease should remain in home isolation for 10 days in order to prevent spreading the virus to other students, staff and teachers.

ADPH further recommends, as part of its Isolation and Quarantine Guidance, that close contacts home quarantine unless they meet certain exceptions. Exceptions are having had COVID-19 disease within 90 days of exposure, fully vaccinated status, and, in the K-12 classroom, correct and appropriate mask use with 3 or more feet of distancing.

Between August 1 and August 12, 2020, Alabama had 1,356 reports of COVID-19 in the age range of 5 to 17 years. In this same date range in 2021, there were 6,181 reports among 5- to 17-year-olds.

In the past four weeks, 6.2 percent of cases of COVID-19 in Alabama have been among children 0-4 years of age while 8.1 percent have been in the 5 to 17 age range.

The current percent positive rate in persons 5-17 in Alabama is higher than the state average, with at least 27 percent of SARS-CoV-2 tests in children being positive.

These numbers are based on data reported to Alabamas electronic disease surveillance system.

While urging all parents and guardians to listen to and read factual information from their pediatrician or other healthcare provider, Landers states, All Alabamians need to take the threat of this virus more seriously than ever before and implement all preventive and mitigation measures to protect the children of Alabama.

- 30 -

08/20/2021

ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

RSA Tower 201 Monroe Street, Suite 910, Montgomery, AL 36104

Phone: (334) 206-5300 | Fax: (334) 206-5520
Is the Biden administration's messy withdrawal from Afghanistan incompetence, or is it exactly as planned? Is there a hidden globalist plan aimed at empowering Islamic governments in the Mideast? If yes, how would empowering the Taliban fit in the larger plan of globalists and believers in the New World Order?

Socialists and globalists, whose home today is in the Democrat party, have been speaking about their lofty plans for decades, constantly testing the waters of public opinion and speaking from both sides of their mouths. They insert insane ideas in the American psyche, then quickly deny they really said what they said. After speaking about her dream of an open border, Hillary Clinton denied her comments by saying she meant only to call for reforms but not open borders. But if we dare take their comments seriously, we are branded conspiracy theorists.

After decades of listening to the far left, by now we, the people of America, should more or less know where the modern-day Democrat party intends to take America and how these people envision the world. Now it's up to us to put two and two together and start uncovering what the deceptive left is really telling us. Those who reject globalism and the New World Order should start analyzing and exposing globalist policies. We should stop accusing the left of being incompetent because it is not.

All we need to do is listen to globalists  their plans, lies, hidden agendas  and expose them even when they give us double messages aimed at throwing us off if we take their words seriously. We can't be intimidated when they accuse us of being conspiracy theorists. It's time to put the socialist-globalist agenda into perspective and connect it with their policies and behavior, instead of just calling them incompetent or accuse them of not caring about the unintended consequences. This is because the consequences are actually intended.

Western globalists aim at eliminating borders between nations, and they have no problem starting themselves, in America and Western Europe. Such an agenda, if fully understood, should explain why modern-day Democrats have no fear of China while fearing and hating their own patriotic citizens who oppose globalism and love American sovereignty. It's unimaginable that Democrats defended China over their own President Trump, calling him "racist" after he referred to COVID as the "China Virus."

The four-year hysteria against Trump is not an unexplainable hate syndrome. Democrats' actions are motivated by their goals. If we understand their goals, then their actions should be clear. Trump was the first serious Republican president who rejected globalism and believes in the nation-state  America First. That's why Democrats not only hated him but felt entitled to do anything and everything, legal or illegal, to stop him. Democrats were laser-focused on removing Trump from office, by waging an unprecedented daily media campaign against him, using our Intelligence Community to spy on him, impeaching him twice, and even fraudulently winning the 2020 elections.

With Trump, globalists and socialists now fear his 75 million supporters. They have become the new obstacle. That explains the intense hate campaign to tarnish them as racists, "white supremacists," and dangerous insurrectionists against the state. Democrats and their media are not looking for the truth or to dialogue with the Trump side over the pros and cons of globalism. Democrats want to keep their goals covert because if they're open about their plan, the majority of Americans will reject it.

Trump and his supporters believe that the world is better run with independent nation-states, where every head of state's first job is achieving the best interest of his own nation. Globalists, on the other hand, believe that the world will run better, more efficiently, and more peacefully (or at least more to the advantage of their own power and wealth) when there are fewer nation-states, perhaps dividing the world into four or five regions under One World Government. Democrats are not confident they will win the argument if they engage in honest debate and would rather do propaganda. (Incidentally and from personal experience, Islamists also refuse to engage in honest debate about their faith and what's written in their books and would rather engage in propaganda and shaming the opposition.)

Western globalists decided to start applying the concept of globalism to their own nations first before demanding it from the rest of the world. That is a risky decision they've decided is worth making.

Obama convinced globalists that the reason the Mideast is in constant turmoil and disunity is that the West is supporting moderate puppet military governments, which are usually less oppressive than Islamic full sharia states. Obama believed that nothing will peacefully unite the Middle East except an Islamic caliphate. Never mind that historically, the caliphate was never truly united or peaceful.

From his first day in office, Obama was more excited about the Muslim world than lifting up Blacks in America. He went to speak in Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood and succeeded in empowering them over the more moderate alternative. Obama believed he was going to go down in history as the hero of a newly created Islamic caliphate. He started to implement his vision in Egypt by giving the Muslim Brotherhood power, but that didn't work as planned.

After Obama's caliphate project failed in Egypt, he pivoted to Syria and used the name "ISIL" instead of "ISIS" because the L, meaning Levant, was going to include Israel in the caliphate. But that also didn't work, and it was Trump who defeated ISIS, not Obama. Yes, Obama did kill bin Laden but never interpret that as Obama wanting to eliminate those who wish for an Islamic state. Obama no longer had any use for bin Laden, who was a dead man anyway.

Having failed in Egypt and Syria, Obama turned next to Iran. Democrats never treated Iran as the true enemy that it is, and their plan for an Islamic Middle East kept moving along.

But with the election of Trump in 2016, globalists' hard work for many decades ended or had to be put on hold. globalists appeared unreliable in executing their global agenda.

Democrats, together with their propaganda arm the legacy media, went insane and eventually succeeded in taking out Trump after launching the darkest and most shameful four-year period in American political history. Nothing was off the table to take out Trump, even if Democrats were caught red-handed pushing bags of fake ballots under tables.

Democrats found the perfect puppet to happily sit in the Oval Office and lie and deceive with total ease. In the first two weeks of Biden's presidency, he signed 28 executive orders to reassure international globalists and erase anything Trump had done. The goal was to bring back trust and confidence in the promises American globalists have given international fellow globalists, especially China. The message was "we're back in charge," and "never mind the four-year Trump glitch; we'll erase it from history by impeaching him twice." Now they must rush to eliminate America's borders to pave the way for accomplishing the implementation of "Region 1."

Western globalists are leading the way to eliminating Western nation borders without blinking and with no fear or distrust of China, the Middle East, or other untrustworthy regions in the world  no guarantees that other nations might not honor their promise to eliminate borders as well. The One World Government project could end up blowing up in the face of Western globalists, similar to how Afghanistan blew up at the end. This is totally blind and naive trust by Western globalists, all for the sake of achieving a fantasy of a world united in peace and harmony under one government.

How could any sane person be sure that if America's sovereignty is weakened, globalist China will not double-cross the Americans? Democrats seem to have smarts, plotting, hatred, and distrust only towards their own countrymen, Republicans, and patriots, but never against China, Iran, or any other tyrannical regime around the world.

Facilitating Middle East unity under one Islamic authority seems to be the only explanation for the abandonment of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban while leaving behind a huge American arsenal.

When Trump tried to withdraw from Afghanistan, the media, Democrats, and the Pentagon were all against him, but now they're all silent or supportive of Biden's shameful withdrawal. Why is that? Because if Trump was going to withdraw, the Taliban could have ended up weakened. Globalist Democrats wanted to hand over Afghanistan to an empowered Taliban. The Taliban, armed with American weapons, brag to the Mideast that "Islam is the solution" after all.

Today, a huge continuous section of the Middle East is in the hands of radical Islamists  from Pakistan (with nukes) to Afghanistan, then Iran all the way to Turkey. Globalist's "Region 2" is coming along well.

Which region will fall to the globalist plan next? Will it be Taiwan, given to China? After giving Russia the pipeline, what's next? Ukraine?

The actions of socialist-globalist Democrats speak for themselves, and no, they are not incompetent; rather, they are deceptive. They're hell-bent on executing their globalist dreams without debate, elections, or transparency. They are reckless with the future of America and determined to move with a historically proven failed plan with no guarantees from tyrannical nations who are happy to be given a weakened America without borders.

Globalism is not a new idea. Empires rose, expanded, and fell in pursuit of ruling the world around them. Every tyrant in history wanted to rule the world. Globalists don't see the similarities and examples in history; nations and empires do expand, but they also often disintegrate and dissolve.

The Islamic unified caliphate is a fantasy that never was and never will be. Worldwide communism always ended up in disaster, disintegration, misery, despair, and poverty. But Western globalists really believe they will get it right this time!

Nonie Darwish is the author of Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values over Islamic Values.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Pres. Joe Biden is an incompetent individual. That is apparent. And since the present endgame of our Afghan fiasco is on his watch, he gets to be and should be the whipping boy, who can be blamed for the humiliation of our country by the Taliban's return, the cruelties and murders that certainly will increase in the days and weeks ahead, and the re-establishment of a fundamentalist sharia culture in that country.

Nevertheless, we must say many presidents have failed to deal properly with the Muslim world, going back to Pres. Jimmy Carter. The Iranian hostage crisis on his watch was a humiliating and unnecessary debacle, which also was the result of a takeover by Islamic fundamentalists (led by Ayatollah Khomeini, who called the USA "the Great Satan") who had ousted a U.S. puppet and despot (Shah Reza Pahlavi), as has just occurred with the precipitous departure of Afghan Pres. Ashraf Ghani.

Later, George Bush's handling of the attacks upon Afghanistan and Iraq was filled with lies and egregious errors. Frankly, this writer considers the problems we are facing today as much his fault as Biden's. If Biden has screwed up getting us out, Bush messed up significantly when he went in. When we invaded both countries, the nation-building use of the military was a complete mistake. It also was a mistake to implement Western ideas of democracy within a modified sharia construct. We are not like God, who can turn rivers into blood or water into wine. We cannot turn tribal and authoritarian people into democratic nation-state entities populated by self-regulated, autonomous individuals who engage respectfully with others for the good of all. It also was a mistake in Iraq to allow Shi'ites to gain so much power in the post-Saddam government (which automatically extended the influence of Iran), and it was a mistake to allow the Taliban to control the mountainous and rural areas of Afghanistan and to receive almost unlimited aid from Pakistan.

Long before George Bush, it was a mistake for the Reagan administration to have taken sides against Iran in the Iraq-Iran war. While Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, was in charge of Iraq at the time, eventually, Bush would depose him, and the Shia Muslim majority in Iraq would come to power, and, because of their common religious beliefs with Iran, would have an affinity with Iran, our avowed enemy. The net effect of the removal of Saddam was that the Shia Muslims in Iraq gained more influence which reduced tensions between Iran and Iraq since Iran is a Shia Muslim country. While Reagan in siding with Iraq may have operated from the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" (although still my enemy), he should have foreseen that no good can come from taking sides in the bloodthirsty, unstable Arab-Muslim world.

When will we realize that these Middle East countries are terrorist hellholes and that our involvement is helping no one, least of all ourselves? Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia (I recall that a "little event" called 9/11 was carried out mostly by Saudis), Lebanon, Egypt, and Qatar have not advanced world peace and prosperity. They are all leeching off the wealth created by the great multinational oil companies.

The Pakistanis have aggressive terrorist sympathies, and the prime minister, Imran Khan, has expressed delight at the return of the Taliban. He has a handsome, cosmopolitan face, but he still has that obsessive authoritarian and cruel mindset so typical of Muslim leaders. Only the UAE seems to have embraced Western culture with its skyscrapers and Western clothing. New York University has a branch in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The disaster we are watching with alarm is actually part of a bigger alarming picture. Our soldiers were blown up in Lebanon at the Marine barracks in the 1980s. The Khobar Towers filled with Americans were destroyed in Saudi Arabia in 1996. The Syrian government used poison gas and crossed Pres. Obama's "red line," and instead of a violent response, it received a lollipop of forgiveness. The Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was replaced under U.S. initiatives by the horrible Muslim Brotherhood menace Mohamed Morsi, who was rewarded with fighter jets by Pres. Obama for carrying out his Muslim Brotherhood takeover. Only the third dictator, Gen. Abdul al-Sisi, who kicked out Morsi, saved America and the world from the plotting and colossal blunder of Obama, who this writer believes not only endorsed Morsi but plotted with Morsi to overthrow Mubarak. Why else would those expensive jets have been given to Egypt so soon after the Muslim Brotherhood takeover?

Under al-Sisi, Egypt returned to a dictatorship with a measure of stability. He knows how to live with the Islamic fundamentalist maniacs (they are throughout the Arab world) but at the same time to not allow them to gain political ascendancy. For example, the rabid Sharia crowd destroyed 40 Coptic (Christian) churches without significant reprisals, but some efforts have been made by the Egyptian government to help in their rebuilding. Thus, the al-Sisi government cannot be described as humanitarian, but it has not celebrated the burning of the churches, either. That is the best anyone can do in a government in a Middle Eastern country!

When in heaven's name is the USA going to learn this lesson? If one of those countries has a dictator who does not invade his neighbors, does not incentivize the terrorists, does not actively promote the drug trade, and does not persecute women (even if he is not an advocate for women's equality), we should count our blessings and not try to force our ideas. The pea-brains and morally limited people living in those countries with low literacy rates cannot do better than having dictators like al-Sisi. Even Gaddafi in Libya finally saw the light and gave up allowing terrorist camps in his country after being bombed by Reagan, and later, in 2003, he relinquished his quest for nuclear weapons. But the Obama administration was sure it could do better than Pres. George Bush and allowed (or perhaps instigated) the overthrow of Gaddafi. Five murdered Americans in Benghazi are still causing our hearts to ache because of the utter stupidity and irresponsibility of American leadership. Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton initiated that debacle as part of enacting the "Arab Spring," which name merely expressed their fantasy about what the Arab-Muslim world could or should be. When will our politicians accept the reality that the Arab-Muslim world in the Middle East is backward and authoritarian and stop trying to re-create it in our own image? Stop playing God!

Biden is destroying Afghanistan's citizenry as well as our own people and the treasure we have left there. His obvious failure is part of a larger picture of consistent American leadership failures in relation to the Muslim world of North Africa and the Middle East. Although this writer supported many of Pres. Donald Trump's initiatives, it was apparent to me that with his agreement to leave Afghanistan by May, he also had a fantasy of escape not very different from Biden's. (The hyperlinked article is highly recommended.)

These foreign policy blunders have been deadly and discouraging. But until our leaders admit that they are consistently failing, we will continue to be blown up, beheaded, and cheated.

Image via Pixabay.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
I was not, obviously, alive in 1776 when the United States was born. I couldnt be there when the 2nd Continental Congress was writing the Constitution. I wasnt part of the Union fighting to free the slaves or the troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy. Nor was I a fireman running into the towers on September 11 or a soldier in Afghanistan routing out the people responsible for it. But Im here now.

Theres no way Ill be able to accomplish in my life anything on the scale of greatness achieved by those men. But that doesnt mean I shouldnt try. Just because one cant aspire to be a saint doesnt mean that you shouldnt seek to do good works.

Were just a couple of weeks away from the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that changed the course of our history. America in 2021 is seemingly a universe away from America in 2001. In almost every way, the country is far worse off. Americans are divided like never before. The basic notion of the United States as a positive force in the world, a fundamentally good, if flawed, nation is under attack in our schools on our airwaves and, tellingly, in our military. Our borders are nonexistent  unless youre Cuban  allowing literally millions of people a year to simply walk into our country unfettered. Fundamental tenants of American life, free speech, freedom of religion, private property, and the notion of innocent until proven guilty are evaporating right in front of us.

And then of course theres Afghanistan. On the international stage, we are watching the real-time collapse of American prestige, honor, influence, and power. Joe Biden and his woke cabal have turned a debatable policy of leaving Afghanistan into a military, humanitarian and political disaster of epic proportions. Somehow, they have figured out how to not only abandon Afghanistan but do so while providing the Taliban with potentially thousands of American hostages, betraying tens of thousands of Afghans who helped us over the last two decades and provide the enemy with tens of billions of dollars of American military equipment, ammunition and buildings.

In a word, America circa 2021 is in decline. And the pace of her collapse is quickening. Things have been coming apart for a while but started in earnest when the media turned on George Bush after the war in Iraq, picked up steam with Barack Obama and the fiction that opposition equaled racism, and came to a head with the hatred of Donald Trump and reached its peak with the theft of the 2020 election.

As a result of all of this, the United States are not so united. The country is coming apart at the seams and the only way to keep it together is to once again give Americans confidence that their legal votes count, that their voices count and that the man or woman governing the country was legitimately elected. Citizens who feel like their government is corrupt look for extra-legal ways to solve problems, they evade taxes and regulations and eventually establish their own shadow forms of government and coercion. (See Mexico just across the nonexistent border) In the simplest form, a nation where the citizens feel like the government is corrupt will find that those citizens dont obey laws unless theres a gun pointed at their heads, and in the case of the United States, with a citizenry built on two centuries of freedom and liberty, that is going to take a lot of guns.

Tens of millions of Americans are asking themselves What can we do about this? or What the hell happened? or How the hell can we save this country?

According to the traditional way things have always been done, nothing. We could wait for 2022 and 2024 to go back to the polls and think Maybe well win! Dont count on it. Should we start a revolution or try to overthrow the government? Umm no. Not only would such an effort be doomed to fail, but that would open a Pandoras box of chaos from which I doubt wed emerge as One nation, under God or as one nation at all. But by the same token, by doing nothing America is rapidly becoming a fascist state run by tyrants of the far left. So can anything be done? I dont know, but Ive got a suggestion.

On the twentieth anniversary of September 11th Americans should take back the date from the terrorists who put it on our calendar. How? By making September 11 stand for something else. Make September 11 the day Americans stood up and demanded their country back, stated that they would not accept their nation being stolen under the cover of night, that they would not accept that America has become a third world dictatorship where social media robber barons and corrupt officials manipulate the voting machines and install their leader of choice. Make September 11, 2021, the modern equivalent of July 4, 1776, and declare that we will not be ruled by unjust leaders with no legitimate right to govern.

How do patriots do that? By showing up at the doorsteps of their state capitals on September 11th and demanding that their legislatures lend their voices to the fight. Those voices should demand that states with a margin of victory in the 2020 election below 3% audit those elections and decertify their electors in the event fraud is discovered. That voice is not a request. Its a demand.

Now of course the legislatures could refuse. And even if they didnt and made that demand, Congress could  and probably would  simply ignore them. And lastly, even if Congress were on board, the Supreme Court might insert itself into the mix and claim its unconstitutional. We understand all of that, but none of that obviates the necessity of making a stand in the first place. Remember, the Declaration of Independence was not the opening salvo of the conflict with England.

In 1768 there was the Massachusetts Circular Letter which declared The Townsend Act taxes were unconstitutional because Massachusetts was not represented in Parliament. In response the British sent troops to restore order and the result was the Boston Massacre in 1770. From there more taxes and more resistance, culminating in the Boston Tea Party in 1773. This defiance brought about the Coercive Acts which sought to essentially turn Massachusetts into a police state governed by the Crown. From there the table was set for Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress and, eventually, the Declaration of Independence. All along the way, the British had opportunities to avert losing what would turn out to be the golden goose, but at each step, they failed to do so. Will the states, Congress, and the Supreme Court make the same mistake?

The state legislatures, Congress, and the Supreme Court may indeed fail the American people once again, but it is up to us to make them understand that we take our Constitution and our democratic Republic very seriously and will no longer let them obscure what happened in 2020. September 11, 2021, will be the first step in taking back the narrative, from the terrorists who struck at the heart of our nation 20 years ago and the country from the conspirators who struck at the heart of our Republic on the morning of November 4th.

We may not be able to achieve the greatness of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or the soldiers of D-Day or the men of NYFD, or the men and women who fought so bravely in Afghanistan, but we can certainly plant our flag and say No more! Were taking back September 11th and taking back our Republic!

Photo credit: Alexas Fotos Pixabay License

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Talk about a target-rich environment  there is plenty to be horrified by in relation to this sordid chapter in our history. But four things might be added to the discussion, since they may affect the future and not just illuminate the past.

Our administration was starting to arrange the emptying of Gitmo last month. On the occasion of the release of the first prisoner (without obtaining anything in return), NBC reported then "[t]he Biden administration has been very quietly working to do this behind the scenes[.] ... They are slowly, quietly doing it right now." Thus, any leverage we would have in negotiating the release of our people would have been impaired. Apparently, the swiftness of the Taliban takeover has overtaken Biden's plan. But watch for Biden to dump out the remaining 39 or so prisoners as capriciously as he did the first.

We know that we are going to have a hostage scenario, perhaps with Turkey as an intermediary, once U.S. troops leave Kabul. It appears that at least one or two thousand Americans will be stranded (yes, Ms. Psaki, stranded). Because the White House has implied that it will negotiate with terrorists, the Taliban may well say, "You seem to have left some people behind. We can facilitate their exit. But this is costly to arrange. We need $200 million for each adult, $350 million for each child." Can anyone doubt that this U.S. government would print the money  and send it on pallets left over from Obama's gifts to Iran? Can anyone doubt that some within the U.S. government would see it as a legitimate redistribution of wealth? Has the State Department dragged its feet in extracting Americans because it expects to be able to "throw some money at the problem" later on? Outlandish, to be sure, but consistent with current social justice rhetoric. Congress should rein in this effort. But a new Congress is needed for that.

Expect military recruitment to go into the toilet. Among woke training and shibboleths, blanket surveillance of soldiers' social media, high rates of sexual assault within the ranks, vaccine requirements, images from the inverted Dante-esque circles of hell at Kabul's airport, and all the outrageous blunders of the last few weeks, who would sign up now?

There is a noticeable feature of the famous initial images of Afghans dangling from planes and crowded onto cargo aircraft in the initial days of the airlift (apologies to prior well-executed and noble airlifts, which, through no fault of our troops, are given a bad name by the spectacle of this fiasco). We see that virtually all are young to middle-aged men  virtually all of whom, in that culture, would be married and have a few children. (Later images and reports indicate more women and children, probably due to Marines getting better admission procedures established at the gates, but still a preponderance of males.) The women they are leaving behind will be consigned to likely rape and poverty; the youngsters will be married off to Taliban or conscripted into the jihad. Yet it is the men we see rescuing themselves. Perhaps they figure that where they are going, there are plenty of clueless Western girls available. These men may well go looking for new families; chain migration may not be an option for a change. We wish the best for all good people extracted from the hellscape that the Taliban will create, but men who are willing to leave behind the helpless in a "sauve qui peut" situation really don't deserve to come here. We have enough of them in our government.

Christina Guest is a pen name for an author and civil rights attorney in the Midwest.

Image via Pixabay.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
The perfumed princes of the Pentagon with their wokester focus, operate as if they have little to fear in making a hash of Afghanistan. After all, Joe Biden has made it clear that nobody's getting fired. And with all their consulting contracts and revolving board seats, it probably wouldn't matter if they did. Why does General Mark Milley still have a job? Biden's actually out gaslighting the public about how great he's doing.

One problem, though, is emerging from that phoniness:

Growing anger in the ranks. These cossetted leaders no longer have the respect of the troops.

Here's the first case, according to the Washington Free Beacon:

A sitting Marine battalion commander was fired Friday after he slammed the "ineptitude" of U.S. military leadership over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he was willing to risk losing his 17-year career and future retirement pension in order to "demand accountability" from top military brass. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in a Facebook post that he was relieved for cause after he posted a video Thursday saying military leadership let service members down during the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. His video post came after a terrorist attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, including someone with whom Scheller had a close relationship. "I have been relieved for caused based on a lack of trust and confidence," Scheller wrote. In his Thursday video post, Scheller said that military leadership should take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan. "The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down. That service member always rose to the occasion and done extraordinary things," Scheller said. "People are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, We messed this up.'"

It appears that Scheller, though, is not some lone nut who's been duly punished and that's that.

His boldly expressed sentiment apparently is widespread in the ranks. Here's the Daily Wire:

Top leadership at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) informed active duty and retired service members that they cannot condemn President Joe Biden amid the chaotic  and now deadly  pullout of American troops from Afghanistan. In an email from the ONIs Chief of Staff, ONI members were reminded that per a Uniform Code of Military Justice and Department of Defense Directive clause they cannot disrespect senior government leadership. This includes the President, Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, and more. The email reads: Given the heightened political and social atmosphere surrounding Afghanistan, it is important to remind our uniformed personnel (active duty and reservists on temporary active duty) and military retirees of their responsibilities and obligations under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Department of Defense Directive 1344.10. While it is vital to protect the constitutional right of freedom of expression for these groups, consistent with mission accomplishment, national security, and good order and discipline, its important to remember certain limitations. Namely, uniformed personnel and military retirees are prohibited from disrespecting senior government leadership (e.g. the President, Vice President, Congress, Secretary of Defense, Service Secretaries, etc.).

With a memo like that, you know that kind of talk is blowing around like wildfire.

It seems so much of this is going down that someone high up in the ranks felt compelled to issue this reminder, recognizing probably quite accurately that the military's decadent leadership is actually losing control.

So not only can they not win wars, but they also are losing the respect of the troops.

And if so, it's not surprising. That may just be because of double standards. A soldier on the front lines, after all, is punished for losing track of a single bullet. A general like Milley, who loses a war with huge repercussions for the nation -- goes on feeding at the trough and getting Joe's praise.

It reeks of politics, starting with senior military commanders expressing their open opposition to President Trump, as happened in the last administration. That opened the door to a lot and the leaders who crossed that line got away with it with no consequences.

It seemed to have gotten its sea legs over the course of the last few years. In a recent case, the U.S.S. Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier, who announced in en masse email sure to make its way to the press, that he was captaining a ship full of COVID cases in the Pacific, only endured mild punishment, with no loss of rank for his bad judgment, which at the time seemed to be about Getting Trump. There was an active bid to reinstate him after it happened. And his Trumpster boss got fired for ill-considered remarks. But Crozier wasn't greatly punished, keeping his rank and pension intact.

All of which contributes to a sense of double standards, deadly in an organization where men and women are asked to give their lives. What we see now in this bad combination of goodies, double standards, wokesterism, and failure is a breakdown of order in the ranks.

When there's one set of rules for one group and another set for another group, and the wokesters take everything political, pinning all the racism on you, and excusing anti-Trumpster political activists, while firing anti-Bidenites, it doesn't take long for the ranks to notice and start to say 'no.'

The wokester leftists started this, paying little attention to U.S. strategic priorities, most particularly that of the welfare of their members in uniform, and now they've made a mess.

They're not only strategic failures as the Afghanistan fiasco demonstrates, they've lost the respect of the troops. That's some leadership they've got there.

As for the troops, who, after all, follows a loser?

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
A study of 800,000 people in Israel has found that natural immunity in people who have recovered from an earlier COVID-19 infection is vastly superior to the immunity acquired by vaccination using two of the major vaccines in use. The conclusion:

This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the delta variant.

Bloomberg summarizes:

People who recovered from a bout of Covid-19 during one of the earlier waves of the pandemic appear to have a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got two doses of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. The largest real-world analysis comparing natural immunity  gained from an earlier infection  to the protection provided by one of the most potent vaccines currently in use showed that reinfections were much less common. The paper from researchers in Israel contrasts with earlier studies, which showed that immunizations offered better protection than an earlier infection, though those studies were not of the delta variant. (snip) The analysis also showed that protection from an earlier infection wanes with time. The risk of a vaccine-breakthrough delta case was 13-fold higher than the risk of developing a second infection when the original illness occurred during January or February 2021. That's significantly more than the risk for people who were ill earlier in the outbreak.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and do not offer medical advice to any reader.

Israel, with its very high vaccination rate, is currently dealing with a severe outbreak of the delta variant.



Source.

It would seem that the vaccines are no panacea when it comes to a rapidly evolving virus.

Alex Berenson goes into some detail on the body's natural immune response and cites other studies as well indicating the effectiveness of natural immunity, a position that was contradicted by some earlier studies.

Tucker Carlson discussed the findings with Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins Medical School, in which the doctor made the point that the study is not a reason to avoid vaccination. But Dr. Makary also stated that widespread distrust of medical authorities is a response to the behavior of so many over the course of the pandemic.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Whats the difference between the Washington Post and the Washington Examiner? The Post recently ran a headline reading, "Taliban takeover could drive covid crisis in Afghanistan as vaccinations plummet, U.N. warns." At the same time, the Examiner went with "Woman fleeing Taliban says militants are searching for sex slaves and having sex with dead bodies: Report."

The mainstream media, whose marching orders come directly from the DNC, are far too preoccupied with bolstering the elites' pandemic porn narrative to care much about girls as young as 12 being forced into sexual slavery or Taliban militants desecrating the dead. Or reports of people being beaten for wearing Western apparel, and women being killed for not wearing a burqa. Or women being set on fire because their cooking wasn't to the liking of Taliban fighters.

COVID crisis?! Afghan mothers are throwing their babies over walls. Christians are being murdered. The Taliban are raping girls and dead people. And our power brokers are concerned about COVID?! Ninety-nine-point-five percent of people who contract the coronavirus survive with no severe long-term effects. Ninety-nine point five percent of the women in Afghanistan will not survive the return of the Taliban so relatively unscarred. Virtually 100% of the women will be adversely affected by the regime change. But Democrats and the legacy media prioritize only what they believe will enhance their power and control. Period. Certainly not what might make them look bad.

But hey, it's not so bad...unless you happen to be a woman in Afghanistan. All cultures are equivalent, right? So what if one favors fornicating with young girls, goats, or the dead? Big whoop. Maybe they have a thriving HBN (hebephilia, bestiality, and necrophilia) community. I bet they have fun PRIDE! parades!

Truth be told, this doesn't say anything good about the Taliban or their women.

We lost to them...which doesn't say anything good about us, either.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
There were two events over the past week that highlight a growing issue in American society. Following the deaths of 13 servicemen in Afghanistan, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, Stuart Scheller, made an online video in which he criticized his military superiors. He was promptly relieved of his military duties, and observers were quick to point out that his actions violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Also this past week, the Supreme Court ruled that President Biden's attempt to extend an eviction moratorium under the guise of COVID exigency was unconstitutional. This could not have surprised the president, as he thought his actions were unconstitutional when he undertook them. The president had, upon assuming office, taken an oath to defend the Constitution, yet he presumed to violate it anyway.

These two events are simply recent examples of a broader phenomenon: the increasing disregard of previously recognized authority. The actions of Lieutenant Colonel Scheller and President Biden are part of the same spectrum of disregard as the Portland Police standing idly by while Antifa rioters disrupt a lawful gathering, Nancy Pelosi flouting mask requirements for a public fundraiser, and people increasingly refusing to comply with capricious COVID mandates.

The observation that all of the people mentioned above publicly defied established authority does not imply that any or all of such actions were either justified or improper. The broader issue for American society is not that some people are defying authority by either engaging in or tolerating such transgressions. The crucial point is that the authority of our institutions has been degraded through abuse of those institutions by those having charge of them. The established institutions of the military are undercut by the politicization of its operations and experiments in social engineering. The social contract and protection of rights affirmed in the Constitution are degraded when our head of government actively defies them. The authority of health officials to promulgate regulations for dealing with epidemics is undercut by public officials openly flouting those regulations, and the respect for the rule of law that is essential to a functioning society is corrupted when the officials charged with enforcing those laws, such as district attorneys and municipal politicians, refuse to do so for ideological reasons.

The widespread disregard of norms and authorities is an inevitable consequence of corruption. The people who have assumed control of important institutions such as the military, public health bureaucracies, educational institutions, and law enforcement have allowed insular interests, ideological fantasy, and personal ambition to weaken those institutions and destroy the associated authority. It is understandable, even if not excusable, that persons such as Lieutenant Colonel Scheller should feel compelled to defy an institution when the people who were entrusted with the care of that institution seem to have so little regard for it. It is not surprising that people should show less regard for civic responsibilities when elected officials openly infringe explicit rights. It is understandable when people refuse to subject their children to mask-wearing when the ruling elites show contempt for the same practice in their own activities.

The United States is encountering a crisis of authority for the simple reason that the people entrusted with that authority have abused it.

Graphic credit: Anti-Corruption & Governance Center, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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Christopher Rufo is back again with news about Verizon, another massive American corporation that is imposing Critical Race Theory's anti-White eugenic theories on its employees. Not only does this violate federal anti-discrimination law in the workplace, but we're also seeing the usual hypocrisy we've come to expect from these organizations. The only Black person on Verizon's executive management team has the very soft job of "Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer." We need to name and shame these companies and demand that every White person in leadership quit.

Verizon is a worldwide company that brought in $128.29 billion in revenue in 2020. It had 132,200 employees as of December 31, 2020. It's also morally corrupt, hypocritical, and engaged in unlawful conduct.

Here's Christopher Rufo's thread:

Last year, Verizon launched a "Race & Social Justice" initiative and created an extensive race reeducation program based on the core tenets of critical race theory, including "systemic racism," "white privilege," and "intersectionality." pic.twitter.com/mJXNLUuKRp  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

Verizon then instructs employees on the firms elaborate racial-etiquette system, warning them against committing "microaggressions" and "microinequities." Members of the privileged classes must engage in the "lifelong process" of "accountability with marginalized individuals." pic.twitter.com/hGz0Tqq8zd  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

As part of the company's "antiracism" education series, Verizon VP David Hubbard interviewed Khalil Muhammad, great-grandson of former Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, who denounced America and capitalism as "systems of racism." pic.twitter.com/2ZctlQ85zR  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

Next, Muhammad claimed that the police force is designed to maintain America's "two-tier society," "make sure that kids are locked up," "make sure that people stay in their communities," and "make sure that theyre criminalizing poverty""the bread and butter of systemic racism." pic.twitter.com/Q7OSPESgRw  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

Verizons corporate slogan is "Built Right." If Verizon executives want to live up to it, they should scrap their antiracism program.



Read the full story in City Journal:https://t.co/5arADDIPQ4  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

P.S. I'm working on a ten-part investigative series exposing critical race theory in America's Fortune 100 companies. If you would like to support that work, you can subscribe here:https://t.co/GpeTTG6wV4  Christopher F. Rufo  (@realchrisrufo) August 25, 2021

Aside from Rufo's information, here are two more things you need to know about Verizon. First, these attacks against Whites based solely on their race are completely illegal. The EEOC website sums it up (emphasis mine):

Race/Color Discrimination Race discrimination involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because he/she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race (such as hair texture, skin color, or certain facial features). Color discrimination involves treating someone unfavorably because of skin color complexion. [snip] Discrimination can occur when the victim and the person who inflicted the discrimination are the same race or color. Race/Color Discrimination & Work Situations The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training , fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment. [snip] Race/Color Discrimination & Employment Policies/Practices An employment policy or practice that applies to everyone, regardless of race or color, can be illegal if it has a negative impact on the employment of people of a particular race or color and is not job-related and necessary to the operation of the business. For example, a "no-beard" employment policy that applies to all workers without regard to race may still be unlawful if it is not job-related and has a negative impact on the employment of African-American men (who have a predisposition to a skin condition that causes severe shaving bumps).

Second, here is Verizon's Executive Leadership  a bunch of White men, a handful of White women, one East Asian Indian, and a Black woman:

According to Verizon's own illegal, racist indoctrination, every one of these White people holds his job by virtue of toxic racial privilege and a lifetime of racist acts. The fact that none of them has resigned in favor of a Black person, given up his home to a Black family, or ensured that his kids' place at that expensive college goes to a Black kid shows that they are cowards and hypocrites.

What we're really seeing here isn't a commitment to racial equity. It's management's payoff to Black Lives Matter. The company pays big bucks to racial hustlers to inflict illegal, discriminatory policies on White employees, and, in return, BLM leaves it alone. Employees need to complain to the EEOC, they need to sue, and these morally corrupt and cowardly hypocrites need to be called out. (And please, if you can, boycott every company that does this.)

Image: Screenshot from Verizon's anti-racism program. Twitter screen grab.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Two days ago, I received the following text from a business associate in Afghanistan:

Hello James, As you know, Afghanistan is on the brink of a drastic devastating change to its system and the fabric of its society. Taliban has taken control of the country and is targeting humanitarian and NGO in Afghanistan and they are conducting house by house search to identify NGOs, UN, and civil society activist. Currently, my wife and I are in danger, if Talib identifies our status we will not be alive anymore. We are looking to get out here to save our lives. Thus, I am contacting you to assist us to get out here and save our lives.

The administration keeps insisting that "all is under control." It is also dealing directly with the Taliban  who control security to Kabul airport  while at the same time stating that U.S. policy is still not to negotiate with terrorists. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is relying heavily on the statements and promises by Taliban leaders to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan. As we would say in the military, the administration's policy and actions are FUBAR. I will let you figure out the meaning of the acronym for yourself.

Despite a feckless attempt at spinning a positive narrative through the art of kabuki theater, texts like the one that I received tell the real story of what is taking place on the ground. It is time for the administration to come clean and tell it like it is. Once the election was called in his favor, Biden assured Americans, "I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth." He was talking about COVID, but the same promise should apply across the board. However, in the coming days, many members of his team will be standing in line to receive the Pinocchio award.

It is easy to sit back and try to remain detached while acknowledging to yourself that the emperor has no clothes, but when you receive a text like that above it jolts you quickly back into reality. This text breaks my heart and will haunt me as long as I live. What have we become as a nation where we turn our backs on those who stood by our side? We are witnessing in real time a sad chapter in our nation's history.

Upon receiving the text, I did what I could, which, in my case, as a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, meant contacting Senator Mark Warner's office. I am working to obtain the required information from my associate in country in an effort to extricate him and his family from the ongoing chaos. Please pray for him and all others who stood by our side in the fight against terrorism and whom we have abandoned. This is not the same America that I fought for while on active duty for thirty years.

Image: Afghans lining up at Kabul Airport. YouTube screen grab.

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On Thursday, suicide bombers struck at the entrance to Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, the epicenter of allied operations to evacuate tens of thousands of Western civilians and Afghan allies. Among the dead are 13 brave U.S. service members sent there only because we have a weak man in the White House.

I don't believe that those service members would be dead today had Mr. Biden continued with President Donald Trump's conditions-based transition plan to get us out of Afghanistan. But no  Mr. Biden, as with so many of his foreign policy decisions over the past forty years, was on the wrong side of the facts and the truth. He bungled another national security decision, and our warriors and innocent civilians paid the price in blood.

Evidently, we had some warning these attacks were imminent, which explains Wednesday's terror notice issued by the State Department. That, though, won't deter desperate people seeking freedom, and it certainly doesn't matter at this point to the dead (13 Americans and at least 169 Afghans) and many others wounded by bomb shrapnel. Who can blame thousands of frightened people for crowding around the airport's Abbey Gate hoping to gain a seat in a flight to freedom? That mass of humanity became the perfect target for terrorists determined to create massive chaos and fear in war-torn Kabul.

Who was behind the attacks? Reports indicate that jihadists from the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-K) claimed credit, the most extreme of all the jihadist groups in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. These Afghan-based proxies of the group the U.S. military destroyed in Syria and Iraq under the leadership of President Trump are also the Taliban's sworn enemies.

The attack's timing is key. America and its allies are literally scrambling to meet Mr. Biden's irrational deadline to evacuate all American citizens and green cardholders, those who worked with our armed forces over the past two decades and will certainly face death if left at the mercy of Taliban savages. A more thoughtful, deliberate American president would have done things quite differently and avoided the chaos and the bloody mess.

The attack's impact should be obvious. Fewer people will now leave Afghanistan before Mr. Biden's August 31 deadline because of the escalated terrorist threat. Why fewer? It's simple math and risk aversion.

The entire effort to process evacuees has slowed to a crawl. U.S. general Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, explained, "We have to check people before they get onto the airfield. We have to ensure they're not carrying a bomb or any other kind of weapon that could ultimately make its way onto an aircraft."

Inevitably, the slowed evacuee processing will result in another tragedy. Some Americans will be left behind as well as tens of thousands of Afghans who supported us over the past decades. Further, and this is a pregnant question from the warrior class in America who left blood on Afghan soil: will Mr. Biden retaliate for these attacks that claimed at least 13 American service member lives, or will the fragile man in the Oval Office insist on leaving as if defeated without a response?

Yes, a response to this savage attack is necessary and America's military is ready. And yes, that retaliatory response must kill as many IS-K jihadists as possible. No doubt, killing these jihadists will prompt further attacks and possibly endanger Mr. Biden's tenuous relationship with the savage Taliban. Folks, that's the nature of war. Get over it.

Now a warning to Washington decision-makers in air-conditioned offices, especially the cowards in three-piece suits and star-bedecked uniforms at the Pentagon, State Department, and National Security Council: You had better get this mess right, or things are about to get much worse.

IS-K is related to the broader Islamic State movement, which has tentacles across the globe, and yes, thanks to Mr. Biden, some of their jihadist partners likely already came across our porous southern border and are here in the homeland, ready to strike. They might conduct follow-on attacks using whatever weapons are available: knives, bombs, and even cars rammed into crowds.

America's best option is to kill these savages and announce no mercy for their kind elsewhere in Afghanistan or across the world, and especially here at home.

Unfortunately, I already know Mr. Biden's response to this bloody mess. On Thursday, he read empty words on his teleprompter: "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay." Don't believe him!

Mr. Biden hasn't the courage of a President Ronald Reagan, who boldly faced down our Soviet enemy in a time of crisis. Reagan understood what was at stake. Biden and his puppet masters haven't a clue!

No, Mr. Biden is weak, and, by association so are those who back up such a pitiful man. He should resign in disgrace before he kills any more good Americans and further ruins this country!

God help us!

Mr. Maginnis is a retired U.S. Army officer and the author of eight books including his most recent, Give Me Liberty, Not Marxism.

Image: Kabul airport bombing. YouTube screen grab.

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One of the Marine Corps principles of leadership is to accept responsibility for your actions. In most Western cultures, those who fail spectacularly then resign. Traditional Japanese military culture demanded that those who failed to commit suicide out of shame and honor.

In modern Democrat party political culture, there is no true individual responsibility for one's own actions, either in public or private life. Everything that goes wrong is either someone else's fault or society's fault. It's a victimology cult. A hollow, ritualistic statement of "the buck stops here" is then usually accompanied by the non sequitur of blaming someone else. This is what President Biden did yet again in recent days.

Not long ago, the U.S. military was the one branch of government that worked because of its culture of accountability. There isn't accountability in the civilian branches because of civil service rules and public employee unions. President Obama began the aggressive politicization of flag officers, dismissing those who disagreed with his policies and promoting leftists.

Now Secretary Austin and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Milley aim to purge the entire officer corps and enlisted ranks of anyone who isn't woke. The results of their policies are on parade in Afghanistan.

A new and massive failure has entered the American Pantheon of Military Fiascos: "The Biden Blunder," "The Kabul Katastrophe," or "Stan Ran '21," take your pick. It joins others in the Hall of Shame:

The Battle of Brooklyn, 1776

Custer's Last Stand, 1876

Pearl Harbor, 1941

Bataan-Corregidor, 1941-42

The Yalu River, 1950

Saigon, 1975

9-11, 2001

If you think anyone will be held to account over this utter Afghan debacle, consider this: In 1999, Amendment #388 to the Defense appropriations bill passed the U.S. Senate (described on page S5891 of the Congressional Record  Senate for May 25, 1999). The purpose of this amendment was to posthumously restore the rank and promote both Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, the top Navy and Army Commanders at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. (In 1942, Kimmel had been stripped of two of his four stars and forced into retirement for his culpability, and Short was reduced in rank from lieutenant general to major general and forced to retire.) Co-sponsor of this Roth/Biden Resolution: Senator Joe Biden (D- Del.). In the end, infamy paid no price.

Mr. Locke was a tank platoon leader in the Marines, 197074. In 1972 he donated his five M-48 tanks to the South Vietnamese Army and then served as guard officer, Marine Barracks, Pearl Harbor.

Image: newsonline via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).

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MK Stalin to restart the probe on Jayalalithaa's Death:- Tamil Nadu ex-Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was hospitalized for months before her death and there are lot of speculations about her demise. DMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin decided to restart the probe in Jayalalithaa's death. Justice Arumugasamy Commission was set up in 2017 to probe the death of Jayalalithaa. More than 100 witnesses were investigated and the list included politicians, personal staff, doctors and nurses from Chennai's Apollo Hospitals. Jayalalithaa passed away in December 2016. After her death, Jayalalithaa's close aide VK Sasikala wanted to take over the leadership but she was imprisoned in the disproportionate assets case.

The Commission too landed into controversies and Apollo Hospitals accused the commission of staying biased. The Commission was idle and tight-lipped after the controversy surrounded. Now the DMK government revived the plans and decided to re-investigate the death of Jayalalithaa. AIADMKs three-time MP V Maitreyan asked the Chief Minister to vacate the stay of the Supreme Court and he reminded about the election promise of DMK. MK Stalin decided to keep his promise and speed up the probe very soon.
(Image source from: India.com)

Digital Currency trials in India to start in December:- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced about the launch of digital currency soon and the trial program will start in December. the news is confirmed by Shaktikanta Das, the Governor of Central Bank. The Central banks in Europe, China and the United Kingdom have been in plans to launch digital currency for the commercial lenders along with the public. They are known as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) which is the legal tender in the digital form and in India it would be a digital rupee. Shaktikanta Das said that they are quite cautious as it is a new product and project for RBI.

RBI is also currently studying various aspects of digital currency including the impact on the financial sector and the security. Shaktikanta Das said that they are monitoring the impact of digital currency on the monetary policy and the current currency. The Central Bank is exploring the choice of a centralized legder for the digital currency or the distributed ledger technology. Shaktikanta Das said that the trial process of the digital currency will start in December. Central Bank is working on a phased implementable strategy for digital currency.

(Video Source: CNBC-TV18)
(Image source from: Greattelangaana.com)

Chaitanya and Samantha heading for a Divorce:- Tollywood star couple Naga Chaitanya and Samantha are happily married in 2017 and they are currently in the best phase in their careers respectively. Samantha's portrayal as Raji in The Family Man 2 received an overwhelming response and the actress is keen to pick up challenging roles in the digital space. Chaitanya has Love Story and Thank You ready. He is making his Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha. The shoot of the film is completed and it will release in December as per the update.

Going with the latest update, all is not well between the star couple and they are heading for separation. We hear that Nagarjuna tried to interfere and get the issue sorted out, but things weren't easy for the veteran actor. For now, Chaitanya and Samantha have parted ways. Samantha continues to stay in their new happy space in Gachibowli and Naga Chaitanya is back to Nag's residence. This comes as a huge shock for Telugu film lovers and the film fraternity as Chaitu and Samantha have been inspiring many with their couple goals.
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The United States military struck back at the Islamic State in Afghanistan on Saturday, acting on President Joe Biden's vow to hit the extremists in retaliation for a suicide bombing claimed by IS that killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at Kabul airport Thursday
An Afghan refugee fleeing to the UK gave birth to a baby girl at 30,000 feet while on an evacuation flight destined for Birmingham.

Soman Noori, 26, was travelling on an evacuation flight from Dubai to Birmingham, having previously left Kabul, when she went into labour in airspace over Kuwait, Turkish Airlines said.

There was no doctor on board the flight, forcing the Turkish Airlines cabin crew to deliver the baby girl, who has been named Havva by her mother and father, 30-year-old husband Taj Moh Hammat.

Her name translates to Eve in English, and she is the couples third child.

Turkish Airlines said in a statement that both mother and baby were healthy, and although the flight had landed in Kuwait as a precaution, it then carried on its route to Birmingham and landed at 11.45am.

Photographs and video footage showed Turkish Airlines crew cradling the baby and handing her to her mother.
A British doctor who has been caring for Afghan refugees arriving on flights to UK airports from war-torn Kabul has described it as a humbling experience.

Luke Tester, an A&E doctor in Brighton, said treating families who had fled the now Taliban-controlled country was unlike anything he had experienced before.

The 27-year-old, who signed up to help with St John Ambulance, told the PA news agency: Walking into a terminal and seeing hundreds upon hundreds of people who have been through absolute turmoil was very emotional.

Many have been arriving dehydrated and malnourished, as well as exhausted, after days waiting outside the airport in Kabul, where they had been exposed to the elements while they tried to secure their passage to safety.

St John Ambulance volunteers and ambulance crew at Birmingham Airport (St John Ambulance/PA)

But its the disabled and young who have been worst affected.

I treated a three-month-old baby who arrived very ill, she had been through a hell of an experience for someone so young.

I later had the pleasure of reuniting her with her worried family, which was wonderful.

Not only had this family just narrowly escaped from a deadly, war-torn city, theyd also had all their possessions stolen  clothes, jewellery, mementoes: everything gone  while queuing at Kabul Airport.

I cant imagine the suffering they must have gone through.

On stand-by: ambulance teams await the arrival of Afghan refugees (St John Ambulance/PA)

The charity has been supporting hundreds of refugees since Monday as they arrive in the UK from Afghanistan via Birmingham and Manchester airports, supplying first aid volunteers and ambulance crews.

Dr Tester said: I saw the horrendous scenes in Kabul on TV and just wanted to play a part and offer expert medical care but also simply give a warm welcome to these poor people after their tumultuous and terrifying journey.

Its been a real privilege, and its been humbling. I feel very proud and inspired by the humanity I saw there.

People exhausted and ill having gone through the unimaginable but still comforting each other. Children who realising theyre safe are beginning to play and smile again.

Theres been such amazing support for these people from the public, I just hope it continues as they settle and begin building their lives here.

Volunteers have also been on hand to deliver first aid to the weary travellers (St John Ambulance/PA)

Several charities have said they have been inundated with donations from the public in response to their Afghanistan appeals.

The British Red Cross said it had been overwhelmed by the kindness shown by citizens who have raised more than 1 million to equip refugees with essentials such as food, warm clothing, blankets, shoes and hygiene kits, including soap, nappies and toothbrushes.

The money has also been going to help staff provide emotional support to those arriving and will also support the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
A global shortage of blood tube products was warned about

A shortage of blood tubes has put doctors and patients in a terrible, unenviable position, with GPs facing difficult choices about who gets blood tests, the British Medical Association has warned.

The BMA said shortages across hospitals and GP surgeries were severe and if the NHS did not reduce usage in the coming days even the most clinically important blood tests may be at risk.

Earlier this month, NHS England issued guidance amid a global shortage of blood tube products.

It came after medical technology company Becton Dickinson reported temporary supply chain issues for tubes used to collect samples in blood tests.

All clinically necessary blood tests will go ahead but others have been scaled back.

The BMA urged doctors to follow guidance and carry out only the most critical tests for the time being.

Dr David Wrigley, BMA council deputy chair, said: This crisis has put doctors and their patients in a terrible, unenviable position.

No doctor knowingly undertakes unnecessary blood tests and to now have to ration all those we are doing, as well as cancel hundreds more, goes against everything we stand for as clinicians.

However, if we dont try to follow the NHS guidance, its clear we will get to the point where even the most clinically urgent of blood tests may not be able to be done as we simply wont have the tubes for the blood to go into.

We are at a very perilous point and its surprising that NHS England hasnt declared a critical incident given the very strong possibility that NHS organisations may temporarily lose the ability to provide lifesaving diagnostic testing.

He called on NHS England to provide information for patients about the situation.

Many GP practices  like mine  will now have to spend hours assessing which already scheduled tests can or cannot be cancelled and this takes time away from frontline patient care when it is most needed. Cancelling tests makes patients anxious and can mean a missed diagnosis, Dr Wrigley added.

On Thursday, NHS bosses wrote to Englands GPs and hospital trusts warning that supply was forecasted to become even more constrained over the coming weeks.

While it is anticipated that the position will improve from the middle of September, overall supply is likely to remain challenging for a significant period, they wrote, adding that it was important and urgent that demand is reduced as much as possible.

Alternative products are being sought but it is expected to take time for these to be imported and delivered in volume.

Health bosses said all primary care and community testing must stop until September 17, except for clinically urgent testing.

Acute and mental health trusts must reduce their demand by a minimum of 25% for the period leading up to this date.

Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said such a reduction was highly alarming and careful decisions were now needed.

He added: It is shocking that this situation has been allowed to develop  in particular, the apparent over-reliance on one manufacturer and the woeful lack of any kind of reserve supply.

The manufacturers should also have to explain how they allowed stocks to run so low that patients will now suffer as a result.

If we dont get on top of this shortage  and quickly  then we could very easily end up in a catastrophic position, particularly in hospitals where patients come to serious harm.

The NHS guidance recommends stopping vitamin D testing except in exceptional circumstances and deferring routine infertility testing unless the patient is over the age of 35.

It also says allergy testing is not a priority at this time unless there is clinical need, and that routine wellness screening is not a priority.

The guidance also advises against stockpiling tubes.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: Patient safety is a top priority and we are working closely with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and NHS Supply Chain to minimise any impact on patient care.

The health and care system continues to work flat out with the supplier and stakeholders to put mitigations in place, and restore normal supply, and there continues to be stock in place.

Becton Dickinson has been approached for comment.
The last dedicated flight purely for the evacuation effort from Afghanistan has left Kabul, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Further flights leaving from the airport would be able to carry evacuees but would also be transporting UK diplomatic staff and military personnel as the operation winds down.

It comes as British ambassador to Afghanistan Sir Laurie Bristow said it was time to close this phase of the evacuation effort.

In a video posted on Twitter, Sir Laurie  who has remained in Afghanistan processing those who needed to leave the country  said: The team here have been working until the very last moment to evacuate British nationals, Afghans and others at risk.

Since the 13th of August, weve brought nearly 15,000 people to safety, and about 1,000 military, diplomatic, civilian personnel have worked on Operation Pitting in Kabul, many, many more elsewhere.

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Thursdays terrorist attack was a reminder of the difficult and dangerous conditions in which Operation Pitting has been done. And sadly I attended here yesterday the ceremony to pay our respects to the 13 US soldiers who died.

Its time to close this phase of the operation now, but we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave. Well continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.

General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said Operation Pitting  the effort to evacuate UK nationals and eligible Afghans from Kabul airport  had gone as well as it could do in the circumstances.

On BBC Radio 4s Today programme, the head of the UK armed forces spoke of the heartbreaking judgment calls military personnel had been forced to make.

Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter (Andrew Matthews/PA)

We havent been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking, and there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground, Sir Nick said.

And I think that, you know, people like me, who have had a very, very long association with this country, we are forever receiving messages and texts from our Afghan friends that are very distressing, so were all living this in the most painful way.

As the evacuation flights to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire came to an end, Labours shadow defence secretary John Healey told Sky News: This is the brutal truth, despite getting more than 14,000 people out, there are probably 1,000 Afghans who have worked with us over two decades in Afghanistan, helped our troops, our aid workers, our diplomats, that we promised to protect, but were leaving behind.

And I know those troops in particular will feel our failure on this as a country is a betrayal of many of those who risked their own lives to work alongside us.

Tom Tugendhat, a Tory MP who fought in Afghanistan, said he was disappointed the evacuation effort was coming to an end.

The former army officer and now chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee told BBC Breakfast: Im extremely sad about this and I very much hope that it might go beyond the August deadline but we found out a few days ago that it wasnt, so I was expecting it.

It still leaves me extremely sad that so many of my friends have been left behind.

Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade at RAF Brize Norton (Alastair Grant/PA)

Questioned over whether the UK could have done better when withdrawing personnel from Afghanistan, Mr Tugendhat said: In the last week, probably not, but this has been a sprint finish after a not exactly sprint start.

There are going to be questions to be asked to the Foreign Secretary about the processing in the UK in recent weeks that were going to have to see what the answers are.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace previously admitted there were between 800 and 1,100 Afghans eligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme who would be left behind, while around 100 and 150 UK nationals will remain in Afghanistan, although Mr Wallace said some of those were staying willingly.

But a number of MPs have said that based on the correspondence they had received asking for help, they thought this was an underestimation.

In the early hours of Saturday, the US military conducted an airstrike against a member of so-called Islamic State in Afghanistan who was believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul.

The strike killed one individual, and US spokesman navy captain William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.

It comes after two British adults and the child of a British national  understood to be a teenager  were killed in a bombing on Thursday, with another adult and child injured.

The BBC reported a London taxi driver, Mohammad Niazi, had been killed in the Kabul attack after flying out to help his family return home, but it was not confirmed if he was one of the UK nationals referred to by the Foreign Office.

His friend Imran Niazi told Sky News that Mohammad had felt like one of the lucky ones after managing to get a ticket to travel.

He said: He was that excited to help bring his family home.

Meanwhile, The Times reported that the injured child, believed to be aged under 10, was related to one of the adults killed.
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is set to be wrapped in silver and blue fabric next month as part of a posthumous art installation designed by the late artists known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

The idea for the installation was formed in 1961, when the collaborating couple  known for temporary creations that involve blanketing familiar public places with fabric  lived in Paris.

Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, while Christo died in May 2020, but the project has continued.

A video outlines how the artwork will look (AP)

It was to be realised last autumn, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the installation. The late collaborating artists nephew Vladimir Yavachev said Christo made his family promise to complete the work.

A sale of drawings, models and other art is financing the 14.4 million dollar (10.4 million) piece, with the installation scheduled for September 18 to October 3.

Mr Yavachev said: Christo has wrapped museums, parliaments, as in Germany  but a monument like this? Not really.

Vladimir Yavachev, a nephew of the late artist Christo, is leading the LArc de Triomphe, Wrapped project (AP)

This is the first time. This is the first monument of this importance and scale that he has done.

Preparations have already started on the Napoleonic era arch, where workers are covering statues to protect them from the recyclable polypropylene wrapping.

A sculpture on the Arc de Triomphe is protected during preparations (AP)

He wanted to complete this project. He made us promise him that we will do it, Mr Yavachev told The Associated Press.

Visitors to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe during the LArc de Triomphe, Wrapped installation will be able to touch the fabric, and those climbing to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace, as intended by the artists.

Born in Bulgaria in 1935, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon  who was born in Morocco on the exact same day as him  in Paris in 1958.

The Paris landmark will be covered with fabric in silvery blue and red ropes (AP)

The artists were known for elaborate, temporary creations that involved blanketing familiar public places with fabric, such as Berlins Reichstag and Paris Pont Neuf bridge, and creating giant site-specific installations, such as a series of 7,503 gates in New York Citys Central Park and the 24.5-mile Running Fence in California.

Mr Yavachev plans to complete another one of his uncle and aunts unfinished projects: a 492ft pyramid-like mastaba in Abu Dhabi.

We have the blueprints, we just have to do it, he said.
The Scottish Greens will join the SNP in the Scottish Government after party members voted in favour of the historic powersharing deal.

The agreement will see the Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater become government ministers  the first time any Green representative has held political office in a government in the UK.

First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon announced the plans for the parties to work together, having agreed a transformative policy programme.

The deal was approved by Scottish Green party members at Saturdays extraordinary general meeting (EGM) following a two-hour debate, and then formally ratified as required by the partys constitution.

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With a small number of proxy votes still to be counted at 2.30pm, 1,169 members (83%) had backed the deal, 234 voted against and nine abstained.

Negotiated over the summer after the SNP fell one seat short of an overall majority in Mays election, the agreement involves a shared policy platform for the Scottish Government.

This includes an agreement to pursue another vote on Scottish independence before the end of 2023, if the threat of coronavirus has subsided, as well as a raft of environmental policies and a commitment to implement rent controls.

The deal stipulates that public disagreement between the parties would only be allowed on a set of ten agreed topics, such as aviation policy, green ports, direct financial support to businesses involved in the aerospace, defence and security sectors, field sports and the economic principles related to concepts of sustainable growth and inclusive growth.

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However, speaking during the EGM, Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer insisted that the list of subjects could be changed if further agreements or disagreements emerge.

Following the partys approval of the deal, Mr Harvie said there could not be a more important and more urgent moment for Greens to enter government and take green politics to the next level.

He told the PA news agency: This is a really extraordinary moment for the Green movement and for myself, Ive been going along to Green Party meetings since childhood, Ive been part of this movement for a very long time and it is a real moment of privilege and responsibility to be taking green politics to the next level as part of the Scottish Government.

Im very excited to be able to show what green politics will be like in practice and I think we have a transformational programme from housing, to public transport, to renewable energy and much much more.

We are going to be able to achieve great things as part of the Scottish government.

He added: One of the critical features of this agreement, unlike some of the coalitions that weve seen elsewhere, is that it marks out very clearly that there is space for both political parties to retain their distinct voices and identities.

There are many issues where the Greens and the SNP dont agree. The ability to continue to speak out on those issues is protected.

Ms Slater said: This will be the first time that we have Greens in government in the UK and it will allow us to act as never before to tackle the climate crisis, the housing crisis, and the recovery of our economy after the pandemic.

She said the the Scottish Green have always been a constructive opposition in Holyrood and added: This deal will allow more to do than weve ever done before, implement rent controls in Scotland, create a new national park and really accelerate the development of our renewable energy industry so we will make a significant change in the next five years.

The draft powersharing agreement was formally announced by Ms Sturgeon and the two Scottish Green co-leaders at her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh, on August 20.

The Scottish Greens co-leaders visit the site of a new solar farm at the University of Edinburgh Easter Bush Campus (Jane Barlow/PA)

Ms Sturgeon said: I am delighted that members of both the Scottish Green Party and the SNP have agreed that we should work together in the Scottish Government to build a greener, fairer, independent Scotland.

This historic agreement will provide a strong platform for the transformative programme we want to deliver.

We will work collaboratively to support a fair recovery from Covid, address with urgency the impacts of the climate emergency, and give the people of Scotland a vote on independence.

The agreement recognises that co-operation and consensus are essential to finding the practical solutions to the big challenges we face, and it echoes the founding principles of our Parliament.

While our parties do not agree on everything, we have much common ground. We also have a determination  and indeed a responsibility  to look beyond our differences to build a better country.

I look forward to working collaboratively with the Scottish Greens in government, and with all parties in parliament, to achieve this.

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The Scottish Conservatives called the deal a coalition of chaos focused on independence, while Scottish Labour said the coalition of cuts is a disaster for Scotland.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: This coalition of cuts is formalising a long-standing agreement where Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP hammer our public services and the Greens nod along.

This deal is all about the parties constitutional obsession and nothing to do with the climate emergency we should be focused on.

The SNP is desperate to avoid scrutiny and this coalition with their Green branch office is simply designed to make it harder for parliament to hold the First Minister to account.

Scottish Labour will focus on providing a real alternative that addresses our national recovery, protects the NHS and tackles the climate crisis.
Yes, doesn't make sense to keep them there longer.

They should have all come home long before now.

No, they should have stayed awhile longer.

Vote

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Emma Heming Willis feels very "lucky" to have husband Bruce Willis in her life.

The 43-year-old model married the Hollywood action legend in March 2009, and has described the man she shares two children with as a "terrific partner" and "family man".

In an interview with HELLO! magazine, she said: "I've always loved his sense of humour and kind spirit.

"He's a terrific partner and family man. I'm lucky to have him in my life."

After giving birth to her and 'Die Hard' star Bruce's first daughter Mabel Ray nine years ago, she then had second daughter Evelyn, seven, in 2014.

And Emma says motherhood has given her a completely different outlook on life as she now has to consider what's good "for her family as a whole".

She said: "It's definitely opened my eyes to a different universe.

"Now it's not about what's good for me, but what's good for my family as a whole. Their wellbeing is always at the forefront of my mind.

"I also realised very quickly that there is no time to burn when I became a mum, so I had to become very laser-focused and strategic to what gets and deserves my time.

"It's actually pretty liberating to have this gauge now."

But becoming a parent has also made her appreciate how important it is to make time for herself.

She said: "As for self-care and making time for myself I schedule that in my calendar like I do all my other appointments and meetings , or I just won't get it in.

"Recently since my daughters are back in school I drop them off and head to a hiking trail and do that most mornings for about 30-45 minutes.

"It's one of my favourite activities I do for myself at the moment.

"And I'm so lucky to have a very supportive family unit around me.

"I think I'd describe us as a family that, when we get together, we love to laugh, have fun and just enjoy each other's company."
What happened in Afghanistan was a process set into motion as early as the 1970s, where imperial interests were directly involved

American President Joe Bidens troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has been messy, agreed, but if it means an end to the US forever wars, isnt that to be welcomed? When Donald Trump asked Jimmy Carter What should we do, China is going ahead of us?, Jimmy Carters pithy response was: China hasnt been at war since 1978; weve never stopped being at war.

Natural calamities worldwide are increasing at the rate of knots due to global warming, which may well become irreversible. Thats where all our focus should be, jointly.

What happened in Afghanistan was a process set into motion as early as the 1970s, where imperial interests were directly involved. American imperialism had already taken a drubbing in Vietnam. Portugals pullout from Angola, and Mozambique brought the Communists to power. Then Mengistu surfaced in Ethiopia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

Such an outcome must be foreclosed in the Iran-South Asia region.

Ironically, the Saur revolution, or the April 1978 coup, brought Afghan Communists Khalq and Parcham to power. This epoch-making event was a consequence of a botched-up adventure instigated by US intelligence. The Shah of Irans notorious Savak took the operational lead. I was in Kabul for the first press conference by Noor Mohammad Taraki, the Communist PM.

Jimmy Carters national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski had embarked on securing a global order in which regional influentials would play a key role. The Shah, arch-regional power in Brzezinskis book, allowed Savak to clean up the stables in nearby Kabul where Mohammad Daud, a Marxist numa (lookalike), was leaning excessively on Moscow.

Diehard Communists around Daud had to be eliminated. As happens in many intelligence operations, the Savak plot got leaked. Mir Akbar Khyber, a Communist trade union leader, was inadvertently killed, alerting Communists across the country of the Savak plan.

In a pre-emptive move, military officers Aslam Watanjar and Abdul Qadir Dagarwal mobilised armoured carriers, drove into the presidential palace, killed Daud and his relatives, and the Communists took power.

Kabul under the Communists paved the way for the Soviet Union to enter the country. Once again, Brzezinski was in action. Peering into Afghanistan from the automatic frontline state, Pakistan, he began to think tactically towards a strategic end.

The US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan got into a huddle for their own ends. The US would provide military training and hardware to drive the USSR out of Afghanistan. The Saudis and the Pak establishment wanted this outcome too, but they had key agendas of their own. The Saudis would spend billions in the project to manufacture a kind of Arabized Islam to undermine the Shia ayatollahs in Iran who had come to power just the previous year. It suited Pakistans President Zia-ul Haq. He was able to embark on his Nizam e Mustafa, or government based on Islamic laws. This would Arabise the countrys Islam and wrench it away from the mumbo-jumbo of secularism and composite culture being promoted in India. Had he lived, Indias social evolution would have pleased him.

Hundreds of madrasas, or seminaries, came up on the Pakistan side of the border, hatcheries to breed the Mujahideen who eventually helped drive the Soviets out in 1989. True, a year later the Soviet Union fell, but the departing Americans left behind unemployed Islamic militants who farmed out for work in Kashmir, Egypt, Algeria. The spiritual heirs in the diaspora of this brand of militancy were utilised most recently in the Syrian carnage.

In 1996, the Taliban, a progeny of the Mujahideen, fired by the kind of Islam instilled into them in the madrasas, were once again boosted by the Americans. Senior hands in South Block had joined the US camp after the Soviet Unions collapse. The lemon sold to everybody was that the Taliban will control Afghanistan and the US will control the Taliban. This coordination will help Unocals TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline. After Unocal was sold to Chevron in 2005, the US found other reasons to stay on: Pakistan next door was too nuclear to be ignored; the Uyghurs in Xinxiang and Muslim populations in the Caucasus looked like low-hanging fruit, accessible from Afghan real estate. Priceless poppy in Helmand?

Al Qaedas founder Osama bin Laden made Afghanistan his base since 1980 with a singular mission: to help the Taliban see the backs of the Soviets. Their occupation of a Muslim country was an insult to Islam. Once the Soviets were driven out, Bin Laden set his sights on foreign soldiers and oil companies in his homeland. He raised the banner of revolt against Riyadh, soon after Juhayman al-Otaybi and his al-Ikhwan group (an extremist cousin of Muslim Brotherhood) shook the Kingdom by occupying the Mecca Grand Mosque for 20 days. The Saudi royal familys strong links with the Bush clan was the backdrop for the clash of civilisations as soon as George W. Bush entered the White House in January 2001. Eight months later 9/11 happened. Egged on by the neo-cons, the US occupied Afghanistan.

Its being said this is the first time that soldiers trained by the US waged no battle against the Taliban. What happened in Vietnam? Google C-Span and see Gen. Lloyd Austin, now defence secretary, being grilled by the Senate Armed Services Committee on a $500 million project to train Syrian militants. How many of our trainees are fighting? Huge pause. Then Gen. Austin: Four or five.

The media neo-cons wont give up. In a satirical piece, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times implies that the Taliban the morning after the morning after will turn up at the White House, turbans in hand. Please sir, take over our country once again!
Ensure no large gathering during coming festival season: MHA to states

Covid-appropriate behaviour should be strictly enforced at all crowded places, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said. (Representational Photo:PTI)

New Delhi: The Centre Saturday asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering during the upcoming festival season and, if necessary, impose local restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus.

Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.

The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs in his identical letters.

"The state governments and UT administrations concerned, having high positivity in their districts, should take pro-active containment measures so as to effectively arrest the spike in cases and to contain the spread of transmission.

"It is important to identify warning signs of potential surges early on and to take appropriate measures to curb the spread. This would require a localised approach, as has been mentioned in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) advisories dated April 25 and June 28," he said.

The home secretary further advised them to take suitable measures to avoid large gatherings during the coming festive season and, if required, impose local restrictions to prevent such gatherings.

Covid-appropriate behaviour should be strictly enforced at all crowded places, he said.

There is a need to continue focus on the five-fold strategy -- test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to COVID-appropriate behaviour -- for effective management of COVID-19, the secretary added.
Bernard Wayne Taylor, 81, passed away Aug. 12, 2021. He is survived by his wife, Karen Taylor; brothers, Gerald, Harold (Loretta) and Charles (Marlena); mother-in-law, Thelma Brown; and numerous nieces and nephews. He worked as an educator at TVCC in Athens, Texas for many years before retir
Originally introduced in 1977, after Alessandro de Tomaso bought the company, the V 50 was an appreciated model due to its lightweight, slim frame, and ability to run at high revs. It was Moto Guzzi 's small-block representative, with a displacement ranging from 350cc to 750cc.The donor that we're talking about here is a 1980 V 50 that kept its heart intact, as the shop managed to find a bike in pretty good condition. Its original main frame, swing arm, 18-inch wheels, and front fork configuration were also retained. Deus Ex Machina Japan' s bike builder, Tomoyuki Soeda, put his skilled hands to work in order to transform the Beretta into an American motorcycle that still kept its fine Italian style. He focused on the fuel tank, rear frame, headlight area, and tail section. Soeda swapped the original Dell'Orto carbs that made the bike's V-twin breathe better with a pair of Keihin FCR36 new ones.To nail the cafe-racer style, a slim fuel tank was designed to complement the Moto Guzzi "Small Block" V-twin, an engine that at the time delivered no more than 45 hp at 7,500 rpm. With this redesigned fuel tank, the rider has a better view of the symmetrically protruding exhaust pipes from the twin-cylinder heads.When viewed horizontally from the side, the rear end, comprising of the seat and seat cowl, pursues a sleeker and more elegant shape than the original frame line, creating two separate body lines. The seat cowl is made of steel tubes, similar to a Ducati trellis frame, and is hidden by welded aluminum panels.As for the paintwork on this piece, the dark green color on the tank contrasts beautifully with the cream leather seat, the gold pinstripe that you have to really squint your eyes to see, and the gold paint used in the Deus Ex Machina logo. The style on this thing leaves no room for arguing as the shop has managed to roll out yet another fine custom-build motorcycle.
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One team that builds adventure-ready personal subs is DeepFlight . This crew has been around since 2008 when they first appeared on the market with a no-retrofit submarine that could easily fit into most modern yachts. Today, this team is still going strong, a testament to the effectiveness of their work.One of the vehicles they have in store for purchase is known as the Super Falcon (SF). This craft has been dubbed as such for its ability to fly and soar though water. But this personal sub isnt just about cruising underwater, its also about how that cruising is done.What makes this submarine so dang special, aside from the fact that it is a submarine , is that it utilizes a completely electric propulsion system. With a brushless DC direct drive system, the engine puts out 10(13.4 hp) of power. With voltage protection and auto-balancing, the lithium iron phosphate battery is able to offer up to 8 hours of autonomy. Once drained, a full recharge is achieved in just 4 hours.Overall, the SF 5.9 meters (19.4 feet) long, 2.7 meters (8.9 meters) wide, and is only suitable for two occupants, a driver and passenger. With a weight of 1,800 kg (3,968 lbs), the SF is able to carry a load of 250 kg (551 lbs) and reach depths of 100 meters (328 feet). Only downside folks may find is the top speed, a mere 5 knots (5.8 mph/9.3 kph), but if you think about the fact that at this speed youll be able to see the local wildlife, its not so much of a downside.Something else you may see as a downside is this vehicles price . It's going to cost you $2 million (1.7 million at current exchange rates) just to own. But then again, if you already own a multi-million-dollar superyacht, whats another two million bucks.Now, if youre in the market for something like this and you do end up buying a submarine from DeepFlight, you wont have any issues controlling this delicious piece of machinery as DeepFlight will take you through all the necessary training to control the vessel effectively and safely.Speaking of safety, if you do happen to get behind the wheel and make a mistake during your voyage, dont freak out as the SF is completed with a wide array of safety features. From fixed buoyancy and auto return to surface, to emergency flotation systems and dynamic self-righting, all are in place to keep you and your asset safe and able to set sail another day.I call this puppy an asset because it really can be one, especially if you want to get an underwater tour business going . Oh, and guess what, I'm not the only person thats thought of this idea. Its one of the main reasons why DeepFlight took shape in the first place, to expand water-based eco-tourism.Wanna know a little secret? Let's say you want to ride in one of these majestic vehicles. Well, you dont even need to own one to do so. You can find several luxury-end resorts that allow you to take something like this out for a spin.If you ever end up on the manufacturers website, theres a little button that reads DeepFlight Adventures. If you click this button, youll be transported to a luxury hotel chain website, the Four Seasons in the Maldives, where a room per night costs no less than $1,500 (1,275 at current exchange rates), depending on the standards you choose.Sure, youll need to dish out a little more just to take a ride on a Super Falcon, but in the end, the whole experience, including the one-night stay, might run you upwards of $3,000 without a flight. Not bad considering you'll see the Maldives and get to explore coral reefs, while theyre still around. All the while, in a multi-million-dollar personal submarine.
Technically speaking, helmets have been around pretty much for as long as planes have been around. At first, pilots would wear the same type of helmet used in racing, but in just a few short decades, at the beginning of aviation, the hardware would evolve into pieces that could hold radio earphones and goggles.During World War II, because airplanes were capable of flying at higher altitudes, helmets, most of them still of a soft design, would become capable of supporting oxygen masks.The hard helmets we know today only came to be, mostly, after the end of the Second World War, and started being fitted with visors that would protect the eyes of the pilots from powerful sunlight.As technology progressed, these visors would grow to incorporate all sorts of visual aids for the pilots, and over time have evolved into computers in their own right, or at least very advanced interfaces that work perfectly with all the communications equipment now incorporated into the helmets.One of the most advanced such helmets today is the one used by the pilots of F-35 airplanes. Developed by Elbit Systems, it incorporates a so-called F-35 Gen III Helmet Mounted Display System (HMDS) made by Rockwell Collins (now part of Collins Aerospace).Made of carbon fiber, this $400,000 piece of equipment is an engineering masterpiece in its own right, and during a demonstration at the Hill Air Force Base, Utah in early July, USAF showed us just why this is so. During the demonstration, the people who usually work on the helmet presented some of its features, especially those of the HMDS.First, you need to know these things dont just roll out the assembly line and get distributed to pilots. Each helmet is custom made to fit the wearer, during a two-day process. For that to happen, pilots heads are of course measured and scanned at first.Once the helmet is ready, it is fitted with optics, which are then aligned with the help of a pupilometer that measures the distance between the pilots pupils within two millimeters of its center. This allows for the visuals generated by the helmet to be shown in a single image to its owner.The HMDS is of course the centerpiece of the helmet. It comprises a head-up display (HUD), helmet-mounted display, and visor-projected night vision, but can also be used to target the weapons of the airplane.The system can show a 360-degree view of the F-35s external environment, without the need for the pilot to maneuver their plane into a suitable position. This is done thanks to a multitude of cameras fitted on the outside of the jet that activate once the pilot looks in that direction, and then display the image inside the helmet, effectively removing the plane from the pilot's field of view and allowing humans to see in all directions.And pilots can do this day or night, thanks to the built-in night vision system, and can use the same technique, which would be looking, to target stuff from high up in the air.All this technology is used in such a small device as a means to allow pilots to control one of the most advanced military machines in the world. The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin has been in active service since 2015, and packs impressive performance levels.Using a single Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, the airplane can fly at speeds of Mach 1.6 and at altitudes of 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). Carrying guns, missiles and bombs, it can strike targets as far as 770 miles (1,239 km) away from its base, when using only the internal fuel supplies.Despite the rather recent introduction date, there have been quite a number of F-35s made already - close to 700 F-35s in different configurations are presently serving the needs of about ten countries around the world.
AMG

Pretty much anything that bears the name of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Porsche, Koenigsegg, Pagani, and so on is available on any given day for several million dollars. And in this story, well stop at around $4.5 million (~4 million), the price of each one of the hypercars pictured in the gallery.Well start with the LaFerrari Aperta , because its the most expensive of the three. It is listed on Mobile for 4,020,000 or $4,721,280 at todays exchange rates, and the UK used car dealer behind the ad says that it has 250 km (155 miles) on the clock.A non-smoker vehicle allegedly, finished in red, it has an electrified powertrain with a 6.3-liter V12 and an electric motor, pumping out a total output of 950 bhp. The Italian automaker, who capped the production at 210 units, lists less than 3 seconds required from 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph), and a top speed in excess of 217 mph (350 kph).Needing absolutely no introduction, the Bugatti Chiron that we found for sale on Mobile is a 110 Ans Edition model, part of a 20-unit limited-production run. It costs 3,986,500 ($4,681,940) to buy today, and sits in an Austrian used car dealers lot, alongside other fast, rare, and expensive machines.Like all such Chirons built to celebrate the brands 110th anniversary, this one features a matte Steel Blue paintwork with exposed carbon fiber elements in a similar shade, and is decorated by the French national flag. The cockpit follows a similar theme, and behind the seats lies that beast of an engine, a quad-turbo 8.0-liter W16 that produces 1,479 bhp, rocketing it to 62 mph in around 2.5 seconds.Last, but definitely not least, we found a McLaren Speedtail on Mobile too, accompanied by a 3,808,000 ($4,472,300) sticker price. It too is part of a limited edition that comprised of 106 examples in this case, and is considered to be the spiritual successor of one of the most iconic supercars ever built: the F1  hence the 106-unit production run.Unlike its fabulous ancestor , it features the latest tech gear available and is much more than a racer for the road. However, that doesnt mean that its slow, because its twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine and electric motor churn out a total output of 1,055 bhp, enabling a 0-62 mph sprint in just 3.0 seconds.Now, there are many other alternatives at this price point, as well as many others that cost a bit less. A barely-driven Porsche 918, for one, will set you back around 3.5 million (~$4.1 million), about as much as a Lamborghini Sian. The Koenigsegg Jesko is valued at a similar sum, and so is the Pagani Huayra Roadster We dont know about you, but from this side of the screen, its hard to decide on a single ride, no matter the available budget. Thus, this writer would probably say no to all of them and use the money to get a few hot rides instead that cost less.A Porsche 911 GT2 RS would sound nice, and so would a Mercedes-G 63. Heck, Id probably top them off with a Rolls-Royce Ghost and use the rest of the money for (a lot of) gas and insurance.But what would you get on a $4.5 million budget? Feel free to let your imagination run wild in the comments section down below.
The fear of being replaced by robots is already a classic, but what if there was a third option, a way to cooperate instead of competing? This is what the new cyborg concept aims to bring. Forget standard robots (if there even is such a thing)  the avatar versions are controlled by a remote human operator, to the point where they synchronize almost perfectly. As Meltin, the company that developed this technology, puts it  its like having another body in the physical world.Instead of eliminating human workers, their skills and experience would be transferred to a remote-controlled robot that could perform the exact tasks as a human operator, while also being more resistant and effective in terms of time and costs. The Tokyo-based company introduced its MELTANT- concept in 2018, as an incredible cyborg-like robot that can replicate the speed of the human hand, with the same power (it can hold heavy objects) and grace (it can pick flower petals).The beta version, MELTANT-, is even more advanced, as it integrates upgrades based on the customers feedback. This beta avatar is going to do the heavy work of field testing for various hazardous work environments, such as constructions and cargo shipping. Meltin announced that its technology would be tested on vessels and associated offshore operations, together with MOL (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines), a multimodal transport group.These avatar robots could perform tasks that are typically challenging or even dangerous, and they could reduce the crews workload by doing the time-consuming part of the work. Another advantage is that they could perform various duties in extreme temperatures - all of this while being remotely-operated, with no distance restrictions.For now, the two companies will research the best way to use avatar robots for different types of ships and routes, with the plan of implementing Proof of Concept in the following phase.
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WLTP

But, first thing first, what is Mobilize? It is a brand started under a joint venture between the Renault Group and the Jiangling Motors Group Co . The marque was established in 2018, but its first car will reach the streets in 2022. To be specific, we are talking about the second half of 2022, and the initial release is set to happen in Europe.Mobilize's Limo is a 4.67-meter (183 inches) long, 1.83-meter (72 inches) wide, and 1.47-meter-high (57 inches) vehicle. Its height makes it look like a crossover, but it has a sedan body with four doors.The wheelbase is 2.75 meters (108 inches) long, which means ample room for its back-seat passengers. The company announces 288 mm (11 inches) of knee room, which is something that one would expect from upper-class sedans. It will be available in only three shades, Metallic Black, Metallic Grey, and Glossy White.Inside, it features a 10.25-inch screen for the gauge cluster, along with a 12.3-inch touchscreen unit for the multimedia unit. Its seats are upholstered with a fabric called TEP, which is a leather substitute.The trunk has a loading capacity of 411 liters (14.51 Cu-ft), but there is still a spare tire present. The latter is a temporary spare, but it is still there.The Mobilize Limo has 17-inch smoke-finished lacquered alloy wheels for a good mix of exterior look and comfort. It has three driving modes, Eco, Normal, and Sport. The level of regenerative braking is adjustable on three levels independently of these modes if the driver wants to change that.In terms of propulsion, the Limo comes with an all-electric drivetrain composed of a 150-horsepower motor with 220 Nm of torque. That is not exactly a lot, but it is more than enough for taxi and ride-hailing duties.The acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) is achieved in 9.6 seconds, while the top speed is electronically limited to 140 km/h (86 mph). This vehicle is meant for urban use with low, so that does make a lot of sense.Its battery is a lithium-ion unit that is liquid-cooled and has a capacity of 60, which is set to achieve a maximum range of 450 km (279 miles), with pendingcertification. Most professionals in the field drive a maximum of 250 kilometers (155 miles) in a day, so this is more than enough for day-to-day use. Charging can be done from all public stations and private wall boxes and plugs. With the fastest recharging it can get 250 kilometers (155 miles) of range in 40 minutes.The Limo will be publicly revealed at the 2021 IAA in Munich, Germany, where a fleet of 40 units will be deployed to validate its services. It is important to note that these vehicles will not be sold to the public, but only offered through a rental agreement with Mobilize, which is managed by the RCI Bank and Services.According to Mobilize, the ride-hailing market in Europe is booming, and it sits at 28 billion euros ($32.9 billion) today. It is set to reach 50 billion euros ($58.8 billion) in Europe alone by 2030.France has 47,500 private hire vehicles registered, and two-thirds of those are in Paris and the greater Paris area. All those vehicles will need to be changed and Mobilize counts on its low TCO (total cost of operations) to get as many B2B customers as possible.
But first, lets talk a little bit about what exactly is JETT. A mysterious interstellar adventure game, JETT tells a layered cinematic story across five acts that promises to offer intimate and monumental moments sprinkled with on foot segments where players can admire the space and bond with the characters from the ship.While at the helm of a low-flying jett, an exploratory ship that can be upgraded as you progress, players must discover and catalog the indigenous flora and fauna of a mythic ocean planet. Using jetts scientific tools, youll have to adapt to all the unexpected perils and solve tough obstacles coming your way.In JETT: The Far Shore, you play as scout and anchorite Mei, the first to deploy to this mythic ocean planet . In between missions, youll be heading to Ground Control, a hub for all scouts where youll experience first-person sequences, as scouts are trying to meet the directives received from the communitys leadership.JETT also involves a very interesting audio aspect as players must investigate the source of the hymnwave, an interstellar invitation that that propelled people to look beyond their troubled skies and across the sea of stars for salvation.The distinct universe, narrative and tone of the mysterious interstellar action adventure is joined by a breathtaking score by Scntfc (also know for Oxenfree, Afterparty, and Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals).The best part is we wont have to wait too long to take it to the stars. JETT: The Far Shore is releasing on October 5 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC (via Epic Games Store).
I presented the dancing robot video to some people, and most thought it was just a joke. The Verge even wrote a great article asking people not to overthink it because that was what it was. It would be a joke to promise a robot when companies like Boston Dynamics are in this business for years and could not deliver anything next to that.Apart from the recent video Boston Dynamics released of its robots doing parkour, it also showed one with all the robots issues while trying to pull off a perfect execution. It is a humble demonstration of the limitations that these advanced machines have even after all those years. How Elon Musk expects to introduce something better next year is intriguing.I watched the presentation just to see how Musk reacted to the dancing robot. Apart from saying that the dancer was not a real robot, he was pretty serious watching it at the backstage and when talking about it. Perhaps the joke is that he, his followers, and even some financial analysts took it seriously.Not long ago, companies that presented only images of any new product they had no experience in manufacturing were not taken seriously. That was considered vaporware until they showed a prototype, and most failed to do so. According to Musk himself, prototypes are easy, production is hard. From his perspective, even a prototype would not be enough to prove that something is for real. Tesla had no prototype of the Tesla Bot: it had CGI and someone dressed as a robot dancing on a stage.If you think it through, we have also not seen a single one of Teslas 4680 cells . All that was presented were images which could be pictures or CGI. It should be available long ago so that the Cybertruck, the Semi, the Roadster, and the German and Texan Model Y could be produced. That battery, presented by any other company, would also be considered vaporware until it met production lines.Lets move to the only thing Musk and his team really presented at the event: the D1 chip conceived by the Project Dojo. It would be a superscalar CPU processor with 1.024 Tflop (tera floating-point operations per second). Tesla named it a training node. It will put multiple of these chips together to create a training tile.According to experts in the area, Google already has a super processor that is superior to that. Its a 4K TPU v4 pod that delivers 1.1 Tflop of computing power. Waymo vehicles already use it. TPUs would be superior to CPUs because CPUs would have a memory bottleneck: they would have to access the register/memory after each calculation.To make matters worse for Tesla, the company still did not present the working HPC in which these chips must be integrated. It is what Tesla calls its ExaPOD, the supercomputer that would finally solve the autonomous driving problem. Experts said that Tesla just presented a photoshopped image of this ExaPOD while Google already has one exapod working in the Waymo project. It would be the only one in existence.Despite all the technical terms involved, what caught our attention is that the Dojo is a broken promise. On April 22, 2019, at Tesla Autonomy Day, Elon Musk said Tesla vehicles would get the HW 3.0, with a chip developed by Tesla, which would be  all the hardware necessary, compute and otherwise, for full self-driving. All cars produced from that day on by Tesla would have this new computer.Tesla customers believed that and were disappointed to discover that their cars only had HW 2.5 . In China, some buyers sued Tesla for delivering them vehicles with the older Autopilot computer. In Canada, multiple clients discovered their cars did not have the hardware that would give them robotaxis. Musk was already charging people $10,000 for a function their vehicles did not have. With Dojo, it is clear they never will.Current Tesla cars do not have this new hardware. Their cameras would have a definition that is just too low for a system based solely on images. For the current cars to work as Tesla promised they would, it would have to replace all cameras for better ones.The let-down customers that will not have robotaxis will probably be told to buy new cars. These ones will deliver them what they were promised until the next Autonomous or AI Day reveals yet another innovative hardware a competitor already has. That Giga hardware will be put in all the new Tesla EVs, making the ones they bought before obsolete. Just buy a new one, they will hear. And they have already heard it multiple times.Any other company changing its plans that much and presenting so much CGI would have already come under heavy scrutiny for its behavior towards customers. Perhaps that is starting to happen, with the U.S. government paying more attention to general criticism. Yet, some will say that this is an attack on innovation or the mission to save Earth asking customers to buy a new car whenever something changes. The Verge called the Tesla Bot a joke. Some called it a clever distraction. Experts said nothing the company presented was as groundbreaking as Tesla said it was. On my side, I am just glad I went to bed as usual and had a perfect night of sleep. If what AI Day presented did not leave Tesla advocates awake and concerned, haunted by nightmares with a dancing robot, nothing will do the trick.
Toyota is definitely not liable for terrorists seemingly undying love for its trucks, but its far from welcoming the association either. In a way, you could almost say the Japanese carmaker was prescient about the Talibans return to power in Afghanistan, and that they did their best to remove themselves from the very charged situation.On August 15, 2021, the countrys capital Kabul fell, as Taliban forces returned after almost two decades of U.S.-allied occupation. With the Talibans return to power came back the one association Toyota would rather were not made: the fact that its trucks are not just for off-roading, but are actually used in warfare.At the end of July, reports in local media in Japan claimed that those who had placed pre-orders for the new Land Cruiser 300 series were asked to sign an agreement stating they would not resell and export the car for at least one year after delivery. Failing to do so would land them in trouble, as well as the dealership that had provided them with the vehicle.Initial reports claimed that the move had to do with the carmakers desire to avoid overpricing on new vehicles, but the reality became apparent shortly afterward. Toyota issued a statement to say that the purpose of the agreement was to keep the new off-roaders from falling into hands that might pose major threats to global security. Meaning, terrorists.Toyota didnt want terrorists to end up driving the new trucks, because Toyota knew they had never stopped using the old ones. As Quartz points out, it could very well be that Toyota knew the Taliban were coming back to power and, in the process, unearth their most unfortunate association once more.Theres a downside to making reliable, sturdy, economical cars that can be maintained easily and affordably: you cant dictate or otherwise control who will end up using them. The Taliban have been using Toyota trucks for almost two decades to wage warfare because theyre perfect for the arid environment, theyre tough and imposing, spacious to carry anything from militia to weapons, and economical. And nothing Toyota did was ever able to put an end to the unsavory association.Prior to the 9/11 attacks, which would lead to U.S. troops being rushed into Afghanistan to flush out Al-Quaeda, Toyota only exported one vehicle into Afghanistan in five years, a 1997 Land Cruiser.the company said in a statement at the time.But seemingly the entire country drove Toyotas: Corolla for the civilians, and Hilux and Land Cruiser for the militia. Only the latter troubled Toyota deeply. When the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996, they did so from Toyota trucks, which had been smuggled into the country by way of Pakistan. The NY Times described it as a billion-dollar import-export scam that involved corrupt importers in Pakistan, who ordered trucks by the hundreds from Dubai and Kuwait and, during transit through Afghanistan, lost them as they fell off the back of carriers. It was a profitable business, allowing the Taliban to purchase very cheap, good-quality trucks, so no wonder they never stopped driving them.It is not our proudest product placement, a Toyota spokesman remarked after a photo of Osama bin Laden flanked by Land Cruisers emerged in 2011. But it shows that the Taliban are looking for the same qualities as any truck buyer: durability and reliability. A disheartening statement, but an accurate one  and it stands the test of time. The Taliban remains Toyotas most regrettable client.
Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees will soon need to find new homes, and many countries are preemptively closing their doors.

Why it matters: The U.S. is leading what the White House calls one of the biggest airlifts in history as Afghans flee from Taliban rule. That exodus will quickly become a humanitarian crisis involving the U.S., Europe and parts of Asia and the Middle East.

What to watch: The U.S. is preparing to bring in 50,000 Afghan refugees in the next year, Bob Kitchen, vice president of emergencies and humanitarian action at International Rescue Committee (IRC), told Axios.

That's more than the total annual number of refugees the U.S. has resettled from all over the world over the past couple years.

IRC is one of the largest resettlement agencies in the U.S. and typically handles 25% of refugee arrivals, Kitchen said. "We're now currently staffing up and getting ready to handle the 25% of 50,000 new arrivals."

Several European countries are also flying Afghans out of the country. But there's already concern in the EU about another major wave of migration.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Europe must "protect itself" from an influx of Afghan migrants.

Greece has completed a border fence with Turkey, in an effort to deter Afghan migrants.

Turkey, which hosts millions of Syrian refugees, has also beefed up its own border security with walls, ditches and barbed wire in the wake of Kabul's fall to the Taliban.

Australia has launched a campaign urging Afghans not to attempt to make the dangerous voyage to the country by sea. The country has pledged to take in just 3,000 Afghan refugees.

What to watch: Afghans who don't make the cut to get airlifted out by the U.S. are expected to flee to neighboring countries, including Iran and Pakistan.

As of the end of 2020, Pakistan already had 1.4 million Afghan refugees living in the country, according to UN figures. As of this year, Iran had 780,000 Afghan refugees on top of 2.3 million undocumented Afghans.

The Taliban have provided conflicting messages about their willingness to allow Afghans to leave, and Pakistan is currently only allowing those with Pakistani visas to cross land borders, Kitchen said.

The big picture: Decades of war created an Afghan refugee crisis long before the U.S. began to withdraw military forces. Millions of people had already fled the country or were displaced within its borders.
For all their differences, Europe, China and the U.S. are making remarkably similar moves in tech policy.

The big picture: Nations and regions with wildly differing political systems and cultures have converged on a shared set of responses to the power of big tech firms: rein in the companies, avoid dependencies and subsidize critical networks and technologies.

China, which has long been accused of protecting domestic companies, has recently been taking action against companies, limiting their ability to raise foreign capital and collect user data.

Meanwhile, the country's government said Thursday that a six-day work week popular among tech companies violates national labor law.

The U.S. has long discounted the value of top-down industrial policy. But under the Biden Administration, it's moving to boost the U.S. semiconductor industry, among other sectors that are seen as critical to future economic and national security.

Europe, caught in the middle, has been trying to take action on the antitrust front while navigating the U.S.-China battle over 5G and networking.

Political strategist Bruce Mehlman highlighted the similar moves in a recent presentation that characterizes the common strategy as:

Tame the internet Restrain the dominant Subsidize the critical

Image: Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas

The big picture: The policy convergence comes as each region looks to deal with similar trends that challenge existing rules, including cryptocurrency and the gig economy.

The three regional powers are also eyeing the power of large tech companies and using antitrust regulation as one means to limit it.

Yes, but: Both China and the U.S. will likely want to make sure that the pressure they exert on homegrown companies doesn't inadvertently benefit the overseas competition.

That's definitely an argument that U.S. tech giants are using in their dialogues with state and federal officials.

Between the lines: One of the trickiest parts of these parallel policies is the effort to boost technological independence.
Giving up the security of Bagram Air Field  and funneling everyone to Kabul's civilian airport  fueled the chaotic and deadly departure underway in Afghanistan, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) told Axios.

Why it matters: Moulton was lambasted for his secret trip to Kabul, but he brought along a former Marine infantry officer's perspective. What would he have done differently? "There's one very simple order, which would have been to start this evacuation months ago."

"It's hard to see a disaster unfold of our own making, a disaster that we could have prevented by just starting this earlier."

"I think it was a terrible decision to give up Bagram. ... Why on earth would you give up our primary [military] airfield when you know we have to evacuate tens of thousands of people? It just blew my mind."

Moulton and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) traveled to Kabul on Tuesday. Their unsanctioned travel sparked criticism from the State and Defense departments, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She and Moulton have clashed before.

Both congressmen are veterans and tried to avoid the usual impositions of visiting lawmakers: they took their own food and water  even toilet paper.

They also traveled mostly commercial: In Moulton's case, from Boston to the United Arab Emirates; military to Kabul and back to Kuwait on a space-available basis; then commercial to Qatar, Spain and New York City.

"I understand how often they can be burdensome, or distracting," he said of congressional delegation visits. "I guarantee you this CODEL had the lightest footprint of any CODEL in history."

Moulton, 42, said he felt compelled to make the trip after failing to get clarity about the situation on the ground and failing to win safe passage for several Afghan families he knew had assisted America's war effort.

"When you can't get answers, you have to know what's going on on the ground," he said. "I'm sorry if people get upset about that, but that's the right thing to do, that's what I owe to them."

The congressman said he left believing the Aug. 31 departure deadline should be extended. He came back feeling the opposite.

"We talked to people who have literally been negotiating with the Taliban about the consequences of staying beyond the president's deadline, and we learned that, even if we stayed until Sept. 11th, we were going to leave thousands and thousands of people behind  because we started this so late.

"And, so, another cruel irony is that when we leave, we're still going to have a productive diplomatic relationship with the Taliban if we have any hope of getting more people out in the future."

He also said he came to realize the coming plight for the tens of thousands of evacuees being funneled into refugee camps in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere and will need food, housing and other support.

"Being on the ground definitely changed our minds on a few very important questions for Congress and the administration," Moulton said.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

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You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
A week into the French Fire, officials have determined the blaze that has burned more than 21,000 acres near Lake Isabella was caused by humans.
Email Dan Walters of CalMatters at dan@calmatters.org. CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining Californias policies and politics. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year.

With international travel heavily restricted, foreign tourists can't enter many countries and locals can't get out. In the metropolis of Hong Kong, glamping and staycations have replaced trips abroad for at least some of its 7.4 million residents.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, international tourist arrivals were down 95% in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period before the pandemic in 2019, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

New variants of the virus loom  a constant threat to any recovery in even domestic tourism. Warnings of a possible third wave in India worry Imraan Ali, whose houseboat on Kashmir's Dal Lake is his only source of income.

Since we are expecting a good influx of tourists, we dont want that to be affected," he said.

INDIA CAUTIOUS AS OUTBREAK RECEDES

Tourists are returning to the valleys and mountains in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as infections in the Himalayan region and nationwide come down after a deadly second wave earlier this year.

The shikaras, or traditional Kashmiri houseboats, are back on the calm waters of Dal Lake as Indians travel at home. India is reporting about 30,000 new coronavirus cases a day, down from a peak of 400,000 in May but still enough for many countries to restrict travelers from India.

Nihaarika Rishabh said she and her husband were relieved to finally get away from their home in the city of Agra for their honeymoon, after their wedding was postponed during the second wave. The vacation in Kashmir has helped calm their nerves after months of the pandemic, she said.

Ali, the houseboat owner, is happy that the number of visitors has gone up. We have been suffering from past two years," he said. Our livelihood depends on tourism.

But mountainous areas like Kashmir have seen an uptick in infections as the number of visitors rises, fueling worries about a third wave.

BANGKOK'S BUSTLE GOES QUIET

Erawan Shrine in the center of Bangkok once bustled with foreign tourists and locals making offerings day and night. Today, it is eerily quiet. Only a handful of people buy incense or flowers from the vendors who set up stalls outside.

We are still here because we dont know what else to do, said one, Ruedewan Thapjul.

As Thailand battles a punishing COVID-19 surge with nearly 20,000 new cases every day, people who depend on tourism struggle in what was one of the most-visited cities in the world, with 20 million visitors in the year before the pandemic.

Suthipong Pheunphiphop, the president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, urged the government to commit to its plan to reopen the country to foreign tourists in October.

Currently, the streets are all but empty in Bangkok's Siam Square shopping district.

Passavee Kraidejudompaisarn, the third-generation owner of a popular noodle shop, wiped away tears as she talked about her fears of losing the family business.

Previously, the 60-year-old restaurant would be filled with locals and foreign tourists, bringing in about $2,000 a day. Now, she said, she earns a little more than $2 on some days.

CHINESE STAY IN CHINA

Strict virus control measures have allowed China to return to relatively normal life. The number of tourists visiting Beijing in June and July tripled compared to the same period last year, while revenue quadrupled, according to Trip.com, Chinas largest online travel booking platform.

"I personally feel very safe, Olaya Ezuidazu, a Spanish national living in Beijing, said on a recent visit to the Great Wall.

But even China is not immune to the delta variant. Outbreaks in July and August prompted authorities to suspended flights and trains to affected cities. Parks and museums reduced the number of visitors to 60% of capacity, down from 75% previously.

Phil Ma felt the resulting dent on tourism at his cafe in a traditional hutong neighborhood, steps away from Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. It is obvious during the three or four days from the weekend to today that the number of guests has decreased a lot, he said.

The alley outside his cafe was quiet, in contrast to the line that formed for a cup of coffee during a major holiday in May.

GLAMPING IN HONG KONG

The difficulty of traveling abroad has made glamping  or glamourous camping  popular in Hong Kong.

Berina Tam and Vincy Lee went with We Camp, a campsite located in Yuen Long, a rural area in the north of Hong Kong.

Its actually a good opportunity for us to really, to try to explore Hong Kong a bit more, Tam said.

Many glamping sites provide clean beds, showering facilities and barbeque sites for campers to grill kebabs and chicken wings. The typical charge is $65 per person a night.

Bill Lau, the founder of Hong Kong travel platform Holimood, said that glamping offers an alternative for those who find camping too primitive.

Families and couples need to find somewhere to go during weekends," he said. "If we are trying to recreate the experience of traveling, it must be an overnight experience.

___

Umar Meraj in Srinagar, India, Olivia Zhang in Beijing, Pattarachai Preechapanich in Bangkok and Katie Tam and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed.
Beaumont might be one step closer to solving its brown water issues.

The city is moving forward with a proposal to bring in an outside expert to survey the water system and make recommendations for improvement.

According to Council member Mike Getz, since August 1, the city has fielded approximately 200 calls reporting discolored water. And on Tuesday, Chad Seidel, President of Corona Environmental Consulting LLC, visited the Beaumont City Council meeting to detail how his company might be able to get to the bottom of the problem.

We were asked to provide some context and perhaps oversight assessment of the water system, Seidel said. Our company is basically built to do exactly that.

The Colorado-based, water-focused consulting firm has worked in more than 30 states and was founded in 2013.

Their process starts with asking contextual questions, Seidel said.

What has been the operational practice? What have been the plans have been put in place? How have things been operating? What have been the complaints that have been received by staff, from citizens and customers? he said.

Other questions could include: How are is the system operating? What are the treatment processes? What is going on in the distribution system? What does this mean for water quality?

Then we'll come back with a recommendation report, which describes what we found and opportunities to address those going forward to give you the information you need to feel confident you're on the right path addressing the concerns that have been raised, Seidel explained. The schedule is to be pretty direct, and within a few months, we come back with that prepared System Assessment Report.

But Beaumont Director of Water and Sewer Operations Mike Harris believes the source of the brown water is simple:

We have a lot of minerals in our water that we pull out of the Neches River, he said. These minerals are iron and manganese, mainly  naturally-occurring metallic-based minerals. They're not harmful. We treat the water with chlorine that oxidizes these minerals. Thats where you get your brown water.

This diagnosis echoes contextual information Seidel presented to the council.

According to Harris, the city treats the water with polyphosphate, which coats the minerals to keep them from oxidizing. But as the water goes through the distribution system, it ages. The polyphosphate comes off and as the protective coating is lost, the oxidation happens again and the minerals settle on the bottom of the water line. Pressure fluctuations or changes in the direction of the flow of the water stir up the minerals again, resulting in brown water.

Nevertheless, he says its perfectly safe water. Beaumont Water and Sewer Operations are responsible to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and every month, they have to test their water for bacteria and prove to the state that the water is potable.

I tell a lot of people, The water is safe to drink, Harris said. It may not be desirable to drink, but its safe to drink.

Still the City Council wants to address residents aesthetic concerns. Coronas assessment would cost the city just over $70,000. Fixing the problem would be another endeavor entirely.

We are focused on assessments. We don't perform the outcoming services of what needs to be done, Seidel said. We just want to identify and point you to the folks that can really be boots on the ground, whether it's operational changes, or design and construction changes.

And city staff already is already taking the next steps needed to receive that assessment.

My staff was putting together the engineering services agreement today, said Beaumont Public Works and Technology Services Director Bart Bartkowiak. Once it is signed, then we will have to get the signatures from Corona. I would expect to have it fully executed by next week.

Seidel cautioned that there likely wont be a single solution that makes the problem go away.

It really does take a proactive layered strategy to address, he said.

rachel.kersey@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/ontheREKord
Hurricane Ida continues to intensify on its path to Louisiana.

By Saturday afternoon, the storm strengthened to category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds, according to updates from the National Weather Service.

The forecast track remains the same, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with National Weather Service Roger Erickson said. Landfall Sunday evening near Morgan City, LA as a category 4 hurricane.

Related: Ida will land as a major hurricane in Louisiana, forecast says

This storm is not expected to have a significant impact on southeast Texas, which is not under any warnings. The southeast Texas area may see some scattered showers and weak tropical storm wind gusts, according to a previous update by NWS Metereologist Donald Jones.

The American Red Cross and Southeast officials have been in the process of preparing and identifying sites that can be opened as shelters, as necessary, for evacuees. Beaumont and three locations in Orange County are possibilities, according to the officials.

There is a need for more volunteers, including health professionals. For more information visit the website and social media pages for the American Red Cross.

The NWS Lake Charles plans to provide another briefing on Facebook at 4:30 p.m. The social media page also includes a parish by parish breakdown for the expected impact.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Minnesota troopers on Friday arrested four people protesting Enbridge Energy's Line 3 replacement pipeline project at the state Capitol.

Videos posted on social media showed law enforcement officers surrounding about a dozen protesters. About 1,000 demonstrators gathered earlier in the week for a major rally calling on Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and President Joe Biden to pull permits and shut down the replacement pipeline project.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Bruce Gordon told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the arrests happened after a teepee remained on the Capitol grounds Friday after the event permit expired Thursday evening. The State Patrol, which is responsible for Capitol security, met with tribal liaisons, owners of the tepee and other group leaders to come to an agreement for the group to voluntarily take the tepee down, he said in an email.

The tepee was removed by its owners while troopers provided security today. Personal property that remained at the site was also removed by members of the group, Gordon said. Some individuals were uncooperative with creating space for the tepee to come down.

He said four people were arrested for misdemeanor trespass and two more were cited and released for obstruction.

Indigenous and environmental activists who oppose the pipeline argue the project violates Native American treaty rights and will aggravate climate change and risk spills that would contaminate areas where Indigenous people hunt, fish and gather wild rice.

Line 3 starts in Alberta and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing northern Minnesota en route to Enbridges terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The 337-mile (542.35-kilometer) segment in Minnesota is the last phase in replacing the deteriorating pipeline that was built in the 1960s. Construction began in December.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  A grand jury has charged a municipal official with embezzling more than $100,000 from the South Dakota Association of Highway Superintendents.

Brookings County States Attorney Dan Nelson announced Friday that Duane Buthe has been indicted, the Argus Leader reported. Buthe, 41, served as highway superintendent in Minnehaha County from 2010 until last year. He became the public works director in the city of Brookings this past March.
A local community group has successfully drawn an additional hearing for Sempras Port Arthur LNG project after state officials asked to learn more about their request.

Air emission permits for the first phase of the California-based energy firms proposed liquid natural gas export terminal have already been granted for its first phase, but a request for permits for possibly more liquefaction capacity came before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Wednesday.

In a decision that TCEQ Chairman Jon Niermann called a very rare split vote, commissioners voted two to one to send a request from the Port Arthur Community Action Network (PACAN) to the State Office of Administrative Hearings to review if the group has standing in the case.

In my mind, this could go either way --we are just short on facts to know one way or the other if this is personal or a cause common to the public, Niermann said.

During this phase of the states permitting process, individuals or groups have to prove they have some kind of stake in the potential addition of an air emission source in their community, a process designed to weed out obstructive requests.

The key issue at hand in this case, at least for two of the commissioners, was whether PACANs sole example of an affected community member, John Beard, can be considered an affected party.

The size of the project and the emissions it could create, seemed to help PACANs case for two of the commissioners, leading them to believe extra time and effort in considering the case couldnt hurt.

This authorization is not trivial, Niermann said. The character and quantity of these emissions could warrant consideration --probably should warrant consideration of a larger radius than we would ordinarily look at.

Commissioner Emily Lindley disagreed with the need for another hearing to find more information about Beard and PACANs case, believing there was plenty of opportunity to present the case in the groups initial request filing.

But, the group and its attorneys didnt provide enough evidence to convince her of their standing.

The hearing should begin in the next 180 days, when a panel from the states SOAH will review information from the case, and PACAN to determine whether TCEQ should consider around 10 different points raised by the group as to why the agency should adjust or reconsider the permit entirely.

As for Sempras project timeline, work is nearing completion on the relocation of Texas 87 to create a stable foundation to build on. The company recently pushed its schedule for final investment decision forward into next year.

In a statement to the Enterprise, representatives from the company said that it is confident its lengthy design and review process of the air permits in question will meet the standards of the TCEQ and community members.

As part of our commitment to Port Arthur, Port Arthur LNG is committed to ensuring compliance with all air quality requirements for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project. After a thorough eighteen-month independent review of the Phase 2 permit, the TCEQ Executive Director and staff have agreed that our application is protective of the public health and welfare of the environment in the same manner as the Phase 1 permit that was issued by TCEQ five and half years ago. We appreciate the broad support of the City of Port Arthur and Port Arthur community and look forward to the timely issuance of the permit.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
While weather experts expect southeast Texas to be spared by Idas hurricane force winds and surge, the region is preparing for evacuees traveling away from its path.

The Red Crosss Interim Communications Director for the Texas Gulf Coast Region, Jennifer Sparks, confirmed the nonprofit humanitarian organization is keeping hawk eyes on storm which is expected to hit the southcentral and southwestern areas of Louisiana on Sunday as a major category 3 or stronger hurricane.

Sparks said the team is monitoring and tracking the storms progress to determine where the need will be to move supplies.

On the Texas side, we are working with state and local officials to coordinate any needs as well as what a response is going to look like, Sparks said. We are pre-positioning our cots, our supplies. We are working to get our feeding partners up and going, and ready to provide assistance.

The organization already has over 25 volunteers assigned to hurricane response and has started sourcing shelter sites, including in southeast Texas. The American Red Cross is in need of more volunteers, Sparks said.

That way when we need to open somethingwe figure it will be a when and not an if--we are already going to have it identified, the supplies prepositioned, and partners in place to help us support, Sparks said. That is the bulk of what we are looking at right now.

We are getting our manpower ready, prepositioned in place, everything from feeding and sheltering and logistics to external relations to government affairs, she continued. So, we are really making sure we have people in place as well.

Sparks confirmed that it is likely that a shelter will be set up in the Beaumont area, depending on where the needs are.

We will be very ready to have local resources in the East Texas area, if necessary, Sparks said. We are also ready to send people into Louisiana, if necessary, as well.

Orange County Emergency Management Coordinator Joel Ardoin confirmed the county is working in conjunction with the Red Cross. He said the county has identified three locations that could serve as shelters for evacuees should the need arise. He was not able to provide further information about the locations at this time.

I certainly dont wish that storm on our neighbors in Louisiana, Ardoin said. We were quite relieved at this point that it was not coming in our direction. However, it is still hurricane season. We still have another month or so to go, so everybody needs to keep their plans in place and make sure they stay aware of what is out in the gulf.

Stay tuned to the media for updates as we go through hurricane season because the month of September is our busy month and has been for the last couple of years, he added.

Sparks was not able to identify the shelter sites as of press time as it still depends on the various factors, such as the potential for last minute shifts in the storms track. As of Friday, National Weather Service Meteorologist Donald Jones did not expect any significant shifts from the storms forecasted track.

We are not quite ready for people yet, but we would really strongly encourage people to start their preparations now, Sparks said. We ask people to have a plan, so know which direction they can evacuate to and through and which directions they need to be heading. Have an alternate route as well.

The American Red Cross asks people to build the preparedness kit now, including water, clothing, medications, important documents, prescription glasses, diapers, pet food.

Pets are usually not allowed in Red Cross shelters. The organization does work to identify partners who can assist with pet needs.

The organization strongly urges people in those areas expected to feel Idas impact to be informed, including by knowing local government resources for evacuations, watching the National Weather Service, and checking the Red Crosss emergency apps and social media pages where shelter information will be updated.

We really want people to be able to pick up and go with everything that they need already at their fingertips, Sparks said.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
WASHINGTON (AP)  Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot.

Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of the era. But frustrations have mounted for months because two expansive election bills have stalled in the U.S. Senate, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans and the measures lack the votes to overcome a GOP blockade.

The rallies, which were held in dozens of cities, were intended to increase pressure on Democrats to rewrite procedural rules that would allow Democrats to muscle the legislation through without Republican votes. But they were also aimed at coaxing President Joe Biden to become a more forceful advocate on the issue.

You said the night you won that Black America had your back, and that you were going to have Black Americans backs, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped organize the national demonstrations, said at a rally in Washington. Well, Mr. President, theyre stabbing us in the back.

More than a thousand people turned out in sweltering heat on the National Mall on Saturday, the 58th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech.

His son Martin Luther King III used the occasion to call on the Senate to scrap the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, including the voting bills, to advance.

Our country is backsliding to the unconscionable days of Jim Crow. And some of our senators are saying, Well, we cant overcome the filibuster,' King told the crowd. I say to you today: Get rid of the filibuster. That is a monument to white supremacy we must tear down."

At one point, nearly a dozen state lawmakers from Texas who had sought to block changes to their state's elections laws, strolled onto the stage at the National Mall and were hailed as patriots.

Texas is the worst state to vote in, in the entire nation, said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Houston.

Even as rally participants pushed for stronger protections, Republican lawmakers in Texas were on the brink of passing an overhaul of its voting laws, including restrictions on voting by mail, limits on when voters can cast ballots and other measures that Republicans say would improve the integrity of its elections.

Texas would be the latest state to pass new laws, following moves in other Republican-controlled states like Arizona, Florida and Georgia to put in place similar restrictions  efforts driven by former President Donald Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Congressional Democrats have responded to the Republican efforts to make it harder to vote by approving legislation earlier this week that would restore sections of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. The bill would require the Justice Department to once again police changes to voting laws in states with a history of restricting the vote, a practice that was put on hold by the Supreme Court in 2013.

But unless Democrats make changes to the Senate procedural rules, passage of the bill, as well as a separate measure that would establish national election standards, remains unlikely.

In a video posted on Twitter earlier in the day, Vice President Kamala Harris urged Congress to pass legislation that she said was needed to push back against Republicans in Texas, Florida and other states.

The country is changing. The demographics are changing. And (Republicans) think that if they dont get ahead of it and suppress the vote, they aint gonna have a say in it, said Ken Jones, 72, of Atlanta, who traveled to Washington with his wife, Paula, to attend the rally.

Angela Hill, 61, who lives in the Washington area, attended the rally with her daughter because she is "alarmed" by Republican efforts to make it harder to vote. In spite of Trump's false claims of a stolen victory, Republican and Democratic election officials across the country certified the outcome and Trumps own attorney general said he saw no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Why was it necessary for Republican states to try and make it more difficult to vote? Things went well in this election, Hill said.

Marches were also scheduled for Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and other cities under the banner of March On for Voting Rights, organized by Sharpton and King. Because of concerns over the fast-spreading delta variant of COVID-19, a march in Houston did not go on as planned.

A daughter of the late civil rights leader, Bernice King, led the march in Atlanta. In an interview with The Associated Press, she called for new levels of civil disobedience to push against voting restrictions.

We're going to have to disrupt some things. We've got to disturb this country to the point that people who are still uninvolved and on the periphery to get involved in some fashion, she said.

In Phoenix, the Rev. Terry Mackey, the pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, urged those attending an indoor rally to honor those who fought and shed blood for voting rights.

I want you to stand up and fight," he said, "until every person in this state has the same voting rights as anybody else.

___

Calvan reported from New York. Associated Press writers Alex Sanz in Atlanta and Paul Davenport in Phoenix contributed to this report.
A Texas GOP member who went to the January 6 Capitol riot in Washington, D.C. denied the day's events were an insurrection.

State Rep. Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg made the claim during a debate with Democratic Rep. Erin Zweiner on Thursday, August 26, about a controversial GOP election bill dubbed SB1.

Zweiner tabled an amendment to prevent participants who encouraged or participated in a state of federal insurrection from becoming a voter assistant, The Dallas Morning News reports.

"The Capitol Insurrection this past January was a true attack on American democracy and those involved should NOT be allowed anywhere near our elections," she tweeted.

Biedermann rose to question the proposal, saying, "The amendment is all about the insurrection that you are claiming on January 6, yet you were not there. You don't know what happened." The riot was prefaced by a rally during which President Donald Trump urged the mob to fight for his presidency. Thousands stormed the Capitol in an attack that killed five, including four police officers, and injured about 140 others.

When Zwiener ultimately asked Biedermann if he believes the events of January 6 were an insurrection. He responded, "Of course not."

A few Democrat Texas lawmakers were shocked by Biederman's denial. Rep. Vikki Goodwin tweeted the comments from the Republican member left many of them feeling like they "are on different planets."

Texas Rep. Rafael M. Anchia also tweeted "Insurrection deniers in 'da House!"

Zwiener tweeted as well, writing, "I wonder why he thinks this."

"The lack of reproach for Rep. Biedermann's (here posing in front of the storming the Capitol) presence and apparent glee at the Capitol insurrection AND his support for secession tells you all you need to know about respect for democracy in #txlege."
Houston's friends in the Big Easy are bracing for what could be a devastating storm over the weekend.

Tropical Storm Ida is predicted to become a major hurricane when it makes landfall along the Louisiana or Mississippi coast. Southeast Louisiana could bear the brunt of the storm's life-threatening winds and flash flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

There's a chance New Orleans could face winds greater than 110 mph during the most intense times of the storm, with widespread flash flooding also possible throughout the city. Meteorologists in New Orleans are urging residents throughout the southeast part of the state to start making preparations for the storm.

Here's the latest from the local weather service station:

3 1 of 3 National Weather Service Show More Show Less 2 of 3 National Weather Service Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Prior to landfall, those along the immediate coast are bracing for alarming storm surge, which could reach up to 9 feet in many places. There is also a tornado threat, according to local meteorologists.

The storm will take only days to strengthen into a major hurricane.

We're currently in the peak of the hurricane season, an eight-week period where more, stronger storms tend to develop under warmer conditions.

Chron is looking for anyone in Houston who is already organizing relief efforts to highlight their efforts. If you know of any, email jay.jordan@chron.com or let me know on Twitter: @jayrjordan.
Afroza Islam Akhi holds a photo of her son, enforced disappearance victim Sajedul Islam Sumon, during a rally in front of Bangladeshs National Press Club in Dhaka, May 28, 2021.

Updated at 5:41 a.m. ET on 2021-08-17

Seven years on, Marufa Islam is still waiting for Bangladeshs government to respond to her familys anguished pleas and be held accountable for her brothers disappearance, who, she alleges, was seized by state security personnel.

Her sibling, Sajedul Islam Sumon, was working as a ward general-secretary for the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the capital Dhaka, when members of the polices Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) allegedly picked him up outside a local construction site on the night of Dec. 4, 2013. He has not been seen or heard from since.

My mother is spending her nights without sleeping because she is waiting for my brother, who along with seven others, were taken by law enforcers more than seven years ago, she told BenarNews. We want our brother back. His disappearance was caused by law enforcement agency members. The government should be responsible.

I am requesting the international community including the United Nations take a strong step to stop enforced disappearances in Bangladesh.

Sumons photo and profile now appear in an online gallery of photos of 86 alleged victims of enforced disappearances carried out by Bangladeshs state security services that was created as part of a report published by Human Rights Watch on Monday.

More than 600 people have been forcibly disappeared in the South Asian country since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office in 2009, according to the 57-page report. It is based on 115 interviews of victims, family members and witnesses conducted between July 2020 and March 2021.

Marufa Islam welcomed word of the reports publication. The government has ignored requests from the families of her brother and other missing people about the status of their loved ones, she said.

In releasing its report, the New York-based human rights watchdog said United Nations human rights experts should lead an independent international investigation into enforced disappearances by security forces in Bangladesh.

Senior U.N. officials, donors, and trade partners should step up measures to hold senior members of Bangladesh security forces accountable, stop enforced disappearances, and prevent future abuses, HRW said.

According to the report, the ruling Awami League has ignored calls by international organizations including the United Nations to address the concerns raised by the families of the missing people.

Bangladeshs foreign minister, a member of the ruling party, rejected HRWs and Islams claims, saying there are no such disappearances in the country.

Reports about people being victims of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh are fabricated, Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said.

Some people dissociate themselves from their families and then they come back home after some days, he told BenarNews.

He said incidents of killings and disappearances happen everywhere. Momen called on HRW to investigate cases elsewhere, specifically the United States and the United Kingdom.

I am very sick and tired of this. They are talking about Bangladesh much more than other countries because Bangladesh accommodates their statements or recommendations, he said.

When people were killed in America by law enforcement agencies they called it in the line of duty, but when it happens in our country you people [journalists] call it extrajudicial killing, he said. This mentality has to be changed.

A feared police unit

Human Rights Watch published the report two weeks ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Aug. 30.

It called on the U.N. and concerned governments to stand with victims of enforced disappearances by increasing scrutiny of their relationships with Bangladesh security forces.

HRW specifically targeted RAB, Bangladeshs elite police unit.

The notoriously abusive Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is responsible for more enforced disappearances in Bangladesh than any other unit, according to Bangladeshi human rights organizations, the report said.

The United Nations office for human rights (OHCHR) cited the unit on March 1, when U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called on Bangladesh to carry out a prompt, transparent and independent probe into the in-custody death in February of writer Mushtaq Ahmed, who had been arrested and charged under the Digital Security Act.

"Allegations of torture and ill-treatment by the Rapid Action Battalion have been a long-standing concern," OHCHR said in a statement then.

"The U.N. Committee Against Torture in 2019 recommended the Government commission an independent inquiry into allegations that members of the unit have carried out torture, arbitrary arrests, unacknowledged detention, disappearances and extrajudicial killings as a matter of routine policy, and to ensure that the personnel conducting the inquiry receive effective protection from harassment or intimidation."

In a statement accompanying the report's release, HRW Asia Director Brad Adams questioned the governments support for victims families.

Awami League leadership and Bangladesh authorities mock victims and routinely obstruct investigations, making clear that the government has no intention of meaningfully addressing enforced disappearances by its security forces, Adams said.

'I am broken'

HRWs report includes quotes from families of victims.

Ayesha Ali, the mother of BNP activist Abdul Quader Bhuiyan who has been missing for seven years, said he was picked up by RAB forces.

I am broken. There is nobody here to call me mother. The only thing I want is for my son to return, she told HRW. We wont even talk about it. Well forget what happened, please just bring him back. Everything is lost from my end.

HRW said witnesses reported that police arrested Mohammad Rezoun Hossain, an activist with the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami a little more than five years ago  adding he has not been seen or heard from since he went missing.

If my son is guilty, then the police can produce him in court, his mother, Selina Begum, told HRW. Why did the police pick him up and disappear him?

The family said the officer-in-charge at the Benapole station told them to stop looking when they tried to file a complaint.

Do not search for Rezoun or we will slaughter you all, Begum said, according to HRW.

Activist Nur Khan Liton, former executive director of leading Bangladesh rights organization Ain-O-Shalish Kendra, said local groups had been speaking out about enforced-disappearance cases.

But, unfortunately, the government did not take any noticeable action which would make the victims families or rights groups hopeful, he told BenarNews.

The government should give priority to consider the international reports or findings, he said, calling for an independent commission to investigate.

He said the commission, if established, could identify those responsible for the disappearances and ensure justice for the victims.

This report has been updated to include information from the United Nations.
A police detention truck burns after being set on fire during an anti-government protest in Bangkok, August 7, 2021.

Anti-government street protests in Bangkok are no longer the same, organizers and experts say, as Thailands failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic has ignited increasingly violent demonstrations against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha.

Through largely peaceful protests that began in July 2020, the protesters have called on Prayuth to step down, for the constitution to be rewritten, and for the monarchy to be reformed. Many of the activist leaders who spearhead the demonstrations have been arrested and charged with Lese-Majeste, a royal defamation law.

But in recent weeks, pro-democracy protests have morphed into demonstrations with a more violent undercurrent, reflecting widespread anger at the governments perceived botched handling of the pandemic and slow vaccine rollout.

The rallies in August are no longer the same  Since August 7, the government has taken more drastic measures, and the protesters have responded in parallel, Piyarat Chongthep or Toto from WeVo (We Volunteer), a loosely-formed protest group, told BenarNews.

He said there will be more clashes  since many people are ready to clash. The government might take stricter measures to quash the protests, including the possible announcement of martial law and use of real ammunition, he said.

During the rallies lately, the young anti-government demonstrators have clashed frequently with riot police.

A Thai teen has been in a coma since Monday after being shot in the neck during a fracas. Bangkok Police insist that no live ammunition was fired.

The police have used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to quell recent demonstrations, while agitators have fired slingshots, and thrown glass bottles and rocks at the police. On occasion, some protesters have set fire to vehicles and public property.

The protesters have come out this time because they fear starving to death, Toto said. They were more afraid of Prayuth continuing to stay on than being infected with COVID.

Firecrackers explode as protesters gather in front of shipping containers placed by the police to impede their progress during a demonstration in Bangkok, Aug. 15, 2021. [AFP]

Earlier, Thailand was seen as an excellent example of how to handle a pandemic because, through much of 2020, Thai authorities succeeded in keeping infections relatively low compared with other countries in Southeast Asia.

But the governments failure to secure adequate vaccine supplies saw the third wave of COVID-19 sweep across Thailand since April, especially after the outbreak of the far more contagious Delta variant.

Only 8.1 percent of Thailands 66 million population are fully vaccinated so far, according to the national anti-COVID taskforce, and the number of new cases has been skyrocketing each day for the past two months. Hospitals are filling up, and authorities have been scrambling to set up temporary isolation wards in airport terminals and railway carriages.

Last month, many Thais were horrified to see images of people who had died on the streets of the capital while awaiting medical care.

On Wednesday, the death toll hit the new highest daily record with 312 fatalities, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). On the same day, as he extended pandemic-related restrictions on businesses and overnight curfews until the end of August, Prayuth said that he was sad that people were severely impacted by COVID-19.

I feel the pain of you all, those who lost their business, jobs, and loved ones because of COVID. I am saddened. It serves as a reminder to myself to do better, Prayuth, a former army and junta chief, said on his Facebook page.

Bonfire of grievances

Sombat Boonngamanong, an activist who started the car rallies  where motorists honk, chant, unfurl posters as they drive through some streets in Bangkok to avoid pandemic restrictions  said the current protests were a product of a great crisis of faith in the government.

The people in the movement now are different. Last year was purely a political issue. This year, there was a problem with COVID and the economy, along with political problems, Sombat told BenarNews.

The accumulation of issues makes the bonfire bigger, he said, adding the Thai people clearly sees that the government cannot manage the COVID situation.

This time, many frontline protesters are largely underprivileged, urban poor who have been hit hardest by the pandemic, Human Rights Watch said in a dispatch last week.

They see their suffering as caused by the authoritarian rule, cronyism, corruption, and inefficiency of the Prayuth government, the New York-based watchdog group said.

The recent protests have also changed in spirit.

The angry and largely leaderless protesters show up for anti-government demonstrations seemingly ready to fight, Human Rights Watch said.

The protesters no longer believe in having leaders, Toto said because the government has managed to suppress the leaders and their guards, who provide security to the demonstrators.

Last years protests simmered down after several top leaders such as Arnon Nampa, Parit Penguin Chiwarak, and Jatupat Pai Boonpattararaksa were arrested on suspicion of royal defamation and sedition. They were released on bail, but joined a few protests and have been sent back to custody in recent days.

A protester faces off with riot police during an anti-government demonstration near the Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Aug. 7, 2021. [Laila Tahe/BenarNews]

Sombat also said the police are more aggressive than last year, with less trust between them and the protestors. He said the leaders were not able to refrain from clashing.

As for me, my first level of demand is a call for Prayuth to resign and dissolve the parliament, he said.

Bangkoks deputy police commissioner, Maj. Gen. Piya Tawichai, agreed that restraint was needed.

I assure you that we are still using the same measures according to international standards.

These are the same standard measures [that we used] last year, Piya told BenarNews.

In the past, we discussed and coordinated [with the protesters] to some extent, even though the protestors may listen to us or not."

Anusorn Unno, an associate professor at Thammasat University, said the escalating violence was being carried out by independent groups using specific neighborhoods as battlefields.

There are independent groups, free from leaders or other groups, Anusorn told BenarNews.

They are in focus because they draw more media coverages than other forms of events such as car rallies.

He said that among the demonstrators were many who became jobless due to the pandemic and young vocational students who tend to be more aggressive.

He said, however, that the violence would not spread all over the city because the hot-headed protesters are not organized  and have no intention to go beyond a certain limit.

Pro-democracy protesters hold signs during a car mob-protest calling for the resignation of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha over the governments handling of the coronavirus crisis, in Bangkok, Aug. 10, 2021. [AFP]

According to Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, the governments more violent approach reflects that they are not confident in its stability.

At the same time, some of the demonstrators themselves are more violent. But that should not be an excuse for the government to use violence.

The government should be listening to the demands, but instead of that, they use the same approach as they did [when they were a junta], which is only to suppress the protests.

Meanwhile, retired Lt. Gen. Nanthadej Meksawat, a security expert, warned the government to restrain itself.

The situation has been escalating with vandalism, arson of police posts, a police car and clashes with riot police, he told BenarNews.

It is possible that the protesters would keep pressuring the police to cause someone to die and use the death for their political gain.

He said authorities must be careful, and the government must take a defensive approach.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Rain. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Localized flooding is expected..

Tonight

Rain. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Localized flooding is expected.
Bennington, VT (05201)

Today

Rain likely. Low 54F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Localized flooding is expected..

Tonight

Rain likely. Low 54F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Localized flooding is expected.
Business writer

Tony Dobrowolski's main focus is on business reporting. He came to The Eagle in 1992 after previously working for newspapers in Connecticut and Montreal. He can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224.
You are the owner of this article.
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education this week approved a measure giving the state's top education official authority to issue a universal mask mandate for K-12 schools. Several Berkshire County districts already had put their own mandates in place before the statewide order.
Community News Editor / Librarian

Jeannie Maschino is community news editor and librarian for The Berkshire Eagle. She has worked for the newspaper in various capacities since 1982 and joined the newsroom in 1989.
Housing activists gather in front of Gov. Charlie Baker's house in Swampscott in October, calling for support of more robust protections against evictions and foreclosures during the coronavirus pandemic. Housing advocates say the state must expand eviction protections so that rental assistance money can keep tenants housed and get landlords what they are owed.
Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield has launched a culinary institute after receiving a $400,000 grant from the state Skills Capital Grant Program, which seeks to help community members develop skills that meet employers needs.
A fire Saturday morning at 63 Scammell Ave. in Pittsfield was knocked down quickly, though severe damage was reported on a first-floor corner of the house, on side eaves and in the attic. Significant smoke and water damage was reported throughout the residence.
The author says that one of the best ways to minimize the potential for the criminal use of your identity is to obtain copies of your credit report from the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Free credit reports are available from many sources, but the best provider is annualcreditreport.com, or 877-322-8228.
James Brooke, of Lenox, has traveled to about 100 countries reporting for The New York Times, Bloomberg and Voice of America.
A view of southbound traffic in the heart of the business district on North Street from the Corner of Depot Street in Pittsfield.
Jussie Smolletts attorneys are not allowed to call Kim Foxx, the Chicago prosecutor whose office dropped the initial charges against the actor accused of staging a racist and homophobic attack against him in 2019, as a witness in his upcoming trial. Smollett is facing a six-count indictment accusing him of lying to Chicago Police.

USA Today reports that Cook County Judge James Linn made the ruling on Thursday (August 26), which also included the stipulation that Smolletts attorneys also cannot mention various lawsuits linked to the case.

In March of 2019, Foxxs office dropped 16 felony charges against Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a hate crime against himself in Chicago on January 29, 2019.

Foxx received tons of backlash for the decision.

RELATED: Jussie Smollett Pleads Not Guilty To New Charges In Hate Crime Hoax Case

Jussie Smollett was hospitalized briefly after an alleged racist and homophobic attack on January 29, 2019 near his Streeterville apartment in Chicago. Initially, authorities investigated the matter as a hate crime, but eventually their suspicions turned to Smollett, believing he staged the incident.

The former Empire star was charged with 16 felony counts, but eventually all charges were dropped by Foxxs office.

However, in February 2020, special prosecutor Dan Webb said in a statement that Smollett was charged with "making four separate false reports to Chicago Police Department officers related to his false claims that he was the victim of a hate crime, knowing that he was not the victim of a crime." As a result, the 38-year-old will face six counts of disorderly conduct.

Jussie Smollett continues to maintain his innocence.
The BBC and Netflix are announcing a new partnership to develop and fund new, ambitious dramas featuring disabled creatives both in front of and behind the camera.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the five-year collaboration is meant to increase representation of disabled talent both on-screen and off-screen, to widen the range of stories produced and give disabled writers and creatives greater choice when it comes to the sort of stories they wish to tell.

The streaming giant and U.K. public service broadcaster say they would consider projects from British producers that have been created or co-created by writers who identify as neurodivergent, deaf or disabled.

RELATED: Future 40: Showrunner Nkechi Carroll Is Telling Our Stories

Pitches can draw imaginatively on any genre, precinct or world, they said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. We are looking for ideas which feel ambitious and elevated and which challenge the limits that the industry might unconsciously put on disability. The intention of the partnership is to firmly place the shows alongside our most talked about and original dramas already being developed.

Anne Mensah, Netflixs VP, series, U.K., also added, Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creators are some of the least well-represented groups on television in the U.K. Put simply, we want to change that fact. Together with the BBC, we hope to help these creators to tell the biggest and boldest stories and speak to the broadest possible British and global audience.
While fans are still heartbroken that Rege-Jean Page will not return in the upcoming season of Bridgerton on Netflix, it appears that the actor is still the number one pick to be the next James Bond.

The current James Bond, Daniel Craig, is reportedly stepping away from the role after the next 007 movie No Time to Die releases this fall, the film has been delayed three times because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They are talking about Rege, but Bond producers are not making any decisions until after No Time to Die is released. They are focusing on Daniel Craigs big finale, a source reportedly tells Page Six.

RELATED: 10 Things To Know About Rege-Jean Page

Other actors in the running for the role are Henry Cavill and George MacKay.

In June, Page addressed the rumors of him becoming the next James Bond in a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

It gets clicks. Its got nothing to do with me  nothing to do with anything that has happened in any rooms or any meetings. Its literally just a thing for people to talk about. So its flattering, but its just a game.

No Time To Die will be released in the UK on Sept. 30 and the US on Oct. 8.
Black maestro and music director of the Oakland Symphony, Michael Morgan, who worked to bring orchestral music to people of color during his 30-year career, died on Aug. 20 in Oakland, Calif. He was 63.

The New York Times reports that Morgans cause of death was an infection. He had recently received a kidney transplant in May before returning to his conducting duties in July.

Born on Sept. 17, 1957, in Washington, Michael DeVard Morgan started taking piano lessons at 8-years-old. By 12, he was conducting his junior high school orchestra. His mother, Mabel (Dickens) Morgan, was a health researcher, and his father, Willie, was a biologist.

Morgan attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio to study composition.

RELATED: Hitmen Producer Chucky Thompson Dead At 53

By 1986, he was the assistant conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and during his seven years, Morgan directed the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Chicago Youth Symphony. It was then that he understood what his mission was for the symphony.

When I began my career, I was not involved in the idea of being a role model or increasing minority numbers in the field, he told The Chicago Tribune in 1993, according to the Times. I came to realize, however, that someone has to take responsibility.

After moving to Oakland in the 1990s, Morgans passion and interest to diversify the symphonys programming and audience strengthened. In 2001 he brought Issac Hayes to the Paramount Theater, the orchestras headquarters, and later invited Carlos Santana in 2010.

His labor of love soon initiated a program called Playlist that welcomed guests like comedian W. Kamau Bell and activist Dolores Huerta to perform.

My main goal is to show the rest of the field of orchestra music that you can make an orchestra relevant and of interest to the community, especially to Black youngsters who some may think are not interested in anything, he said in an interview with the weekly newspaper The California Voice in 1991, the Times notes.

Morgan is survived by his mother and a sister, Jacquelyn Morgan
Civil Rights activists will converge on Washington D.C.s National Mall Saturday (Aug. 28) to mark the anniversary of the historic March on Washington. But this time the focus for the groups and advocates attending will be to pressure Democrats to protect voting rights which have been under threat since the November election.



Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network,will be speaking at the event and said this is a crucial year for voting rights and to bring awareness to what can happen.



We decided to come to Washington this year to really weigh in heavily on this voting issue, because it's central to what we do and civil rights, Sharpton told BET.com in an interview. From healthcare to dealing with educational equality, dealing with economic development, everything we want is based on who is in the Senate and the Congress.



RELATED: Texas Democrats Leave The State To Stop Republican Voting Bill



A number of states where the GOP is a majority have approved or are finalizing laws that make it more difficult for citizens to access the voting booth. At the same time, Congressional Democrats have thus far been unable to get two key pieces of voting rights legislation to President Joe Biden's desk.



Former president Donald Trumps claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him despite voter fraud being repeatedly disproven. Yet that falsehood has led to a number of states restricting voting rights as Republicans say they need stricter measures to protect peoples votes.



Sharpton says this reasoning is bogus, but it has gotten support recently because as demographics shift, theres a fear among some whites that they are losing political ground. He explains, That compounded with four years of the drumbeat of racism by Donald Trump. We've always had racists, weve always had white supremacy, but never so crystallized in modern times.



All of that creates this climate that has, in many ways, given energy to the whole voter suppression movement, he continued. All of that is why we're seeing what he was seeing around the country, no fraud as I said. But the reality that if Blacks come out and vote and we cant outnumber them, what do you do? You cheat.



RELATED: Sweeping Legislation That Could Strengthen Voter Power Heads To The House

For the second year in a row, the commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington, which famously featured Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic I Have A Dream speech, will see advocates demanding Black peoples voting rights be upheld.

Among many of the groups who will be taking part in the new event, dubbed March On for Voting Rights, include Dr. Kings son and civil rights activist Martin Luther King III, and his wife Andrea Waters King. Also participating will be political advocacy group March On, racial justice group the Drum Major Institute (which was founded by Dr. King), the National Action Network and the SEIU, a labor organization representing service workers.

In addition to the march in Washington, marches are scheduled to take place in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Houston, major cities in states where new voting laws have been passed since the beginning of the year. Virtual marches nationwide are also planned.

Saturday's event comes on the heels of voting rights legislation named after former Rep. John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman and civil rights champion, passing the House on Tuesday (Aug. 24).



The bill would restore the federal preclearance put in place by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was greatly weakened by the 2013 Supreme Court Shelby v. Holder decision. In 1965, the preclearance made it so that the Jim Crow South - and other places with a history of discriminatory voting rights practices -- were required to gain approval from the Department of Justice before implementing any change to voting procedures.



The Voting Rights Act, which outlaws states and other jurisdictions from implementing voting procedures that discriminate against Americans on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group, would also be strengthened by the Lewis-named bill.



RELATED: Stacey Abrams and Michelle Obama Team Up For Voting Rights

Democrats hold a majority in the House so it was expected that H.R. 4 would pass. The real challenge before the law comes from the Senate, where 10 GOP senators will need to vote for the bill for it to overcome the filibuster.

Sharpton says this is a tall order, but its one that can be overcome with the support and activism of every citizen who cares about voting rights. He says the situation is more grave than people realize.



What I've been saying for the past weeks, reminds Sharpton, is that we've seen them remove these Confederate statues from colleges, universities, public squares, and rightfully so. Take the segregationist statues down, but theyre still using the M.O. inside those buildings. Don't take a statue down of the racists and leave the filibuster inside -- the practice that enforces racism The legislative relic of racism is the filibuster. And we need to take that down too!

More information on the March On for Voting Rights is available through the National Action Network or toll free at 1-877-626-4651.
Meet Jessica Cruel, Allure Magazines newest editor-in-chief!

On Wednesday (Aug. 25), Conde Nast announced that Cruel will replace Michelle Lee, the magazines longtime EIC that recently revealed her plans to take a position at the popular video streaming app, Netflix.

Leveling up from her previous job as the content director of The Melanin EditAllure's new platform celebrating Black beauty the Georgia-born leader it set to spearhead the famous publication's overall creativity.

As a long-time beauty editor, working at Allure is a dream. It has always served as an unparalleled source of beauty journalism, as well as my personal mood board and shopping guide, Cruel shared in a statement. I am thrilled to shepherd Allure through the next chapterone focused on making industry-wide impact, spotlighting the many communities that use beauty as a form of self-expression, and celebrating how these practices connect us all.
A man who drew worldwide sympathy and support after his wife was killed in the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart is being remembered as kind and thoughtful but haunted by the loss of the woman he loved
Call ahead to confirm events. Due to COVID-19, many events have been canceled but hosting organizations might not have updated their entries.

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The death toll from COVID-19 in Oregon is climbing so rapidly in some counties that the state has organized delivery of one refrigerated truck to hold the bodies and is sending a second one
Spearfish, SD (57783)

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Reaching any new generation comes with its learning curves and growth. However, reaching a group of young people whose last year or two of high school was hit with a pandemic is another story. Right now, my husband and I are involved in an incredible team reaching college students at the local universities. Many of us are asking, How can I reach out to the college students of today?

Generation Z is in full swing and it is important that we note a few things to understand how to connect with them on a deeper level. In terms of Christian outreach, this is the first generation that is described as post-Christian. This does not mean there are no Christians; there are many wonderful, fervent young men and women who love the Lord. However, it means that their culture and their media does not show great support of faith.

Tessa Landrum from Kentucky Today shares, They are 'the most ethnically diverse generation in American history. They are individualistic, lonely, and social justice oriented. They were raised on technology and their lives are often built around the online world. They are activists and volunteers who want to make an impact on the world. They were raised during the Great Recession and value financial stability. They are sexually fluid. And they account for 25.9% of the American population.

Landrum explains that some of the common barriers of Gen Z include questions on suffering and Gods existence, church hypocrisy, and injustices. She goes on to say, If the church desires to reclaim Gen Z and reintegrate them into the Body of Christ, then we must educate our children and youth. We must actively seek out the lost and meet them where they are with their questions and concerns.

What this tells me is that there may have never been a generation yet with such a capacity to love and create unity, but they are falling away because of misconceptions and clear answers that the Bible has to offer. How can we step into college ministry and share the truth in love to this generation and spur them on to become world changers?

It cannot be assumed that these are still the days of Billy Graham and Bill Bright. Many college students may have attended church, but they have may not had understanding of the gospel through a personal decision. It is our responsibility to tell them of salvation that only comes through Jesus.

We start with sin and Jesus because He is the Cornerstone. He is the only one who can save. We share in love and we entrust the Holy Spirit to do the rest. If we shy away because of fear of their response or try to water down the truth, we are only going to cause greater confusion and barriers for them.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 says, When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. There are pastors falling into a great trap, trying to leave out pieces of the Word of God. This is wrong. This will come with consequences. The Lord created the entire Bible as His written Word through those He chose to write it for Him. We are to teach the holiness, integrity, and historical accuracy of this book to everyone.

The Bible has the answer to all of Gen Zs questions and our own. If they doubt the power of Gods Word and never read it for themselves, they are missing out on finding the answers to all of their questions. We can help provide encouragement and seek out the Scriptures together.

May we never neglect the power of prayer. When we are given the opportunity to talk to God and cry out on behalf of a generation, lets take it. We need to stop picking fun at Generation Z and we need to pray for them instead. We need to ask for the Holy Spirits strength to rest upon them to be the light in this dark world.

Lord, we pray right now that you would be doing a new thing in Generation Z. Would you empower them with the truth of the gospel and provide confidence in you. We pray against doubts and hesitations. We pray for forgiving hearts for hypocrisy and injustices done by your people who are sinners. We pray for open hearts to following you completely and that you would show us how to best reach them. Amen.

We need to have programs and outreach for college students and young professionals, to have a place in our churches and in our lives. If we neglect them because of their differences, we miss out on a generation. Remember that the future of our country depend on them. Be creative. Ask questions. Find the faithful few who want discipleship and have them help you understand how to reach this technological group. If they were not digital enough already, the pandemic only heightened this. Many of them desire real relationships in person, but need encouragement. Help them have opportunities to spend time with older generations and cultivate healthy mentorship.

If we miss a generation, it is a big deal. The Bible teaches of sharing the truth of God from generation to generation. Psalm 145:4 says, One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. If we are not proclaiming the works of Christ to Gen Z, then who is? This is our time running the race of faith and preparing to pass the torch. How are we actively pursuing relationships with those younger and in college? Do not give up when it is hard. Cling to the cross and share truth in love. Build community with young people and point them to the truth of the Bible. Pray for them and invite them into the privilege of being a part of Gods family.

More from this author

How the Bible Encourages Us to Love Those with Disabilities

4 Valuable Reasons to Embrace Multi-Generational Community

What Does It Mean to Seek Refuge with God?

Photo credit: Getty Images/Prostock-Studio

Emma Danzeys mission in life is to inspire young women to embrace the extraordinary. One of her greatest joys is to journey with the Lord in His Scriptures. Emma is a North Carolina resident and green tea enthusiast! She is married to her husband Drew and they serve international college students. She enjoys singing, dancing, trying new recipes, and watching home makeover shows. During her ministry career, Emma recorded two worship EP albums, founded and led Polished Conference Ministries, ran the Refined Magazine, and served in music education for early childhood. Currently, she is in the editing stages of her first two writing projects: a Bible study on womanhood and a non-fiction book on singleness. You can visit her blog at emmadanzey.wordpress.com
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WINNIPEG - Fully vaccinated people will be able to return to the dance floor as Manitoba brings back COVID-19 public health orders that allow certain activities only for those who have received two shots.

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Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief public health officer, speaks during a COVID-19 update at the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Only people who are fully vaccinated will be able to go to restaurants, bars, bingo and sporting events. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG - Fully vaccinated people will be able to return to the dance floor as Manitoba brings back COVID-19 public health orders that allow certain activities only for those who have received two shots.

The province announced that restaurants, bars, bingo halls, sporting venues and movie theatres must require people to show a vaccine passport starting next Friday.

Dancing was banned at bars and weddings more than a year ago under measures put in place to try to curb devastating second and third waves of the pandemic. Even as restrictions loosened earlier this month, dancing was still not allowed.

Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, said people with proof of vaccination will finally be able to boogie, as long as they are masked.

"This is the benefit of this system," he said Friday.

"We can have the vast majority of adult Manitobans taking part in activities without restrictions, except the requirement to be vaccinated."

Health Minister Audrey Gordon said proof of vaccination is an important step to keep children safe as they head back to school next month, since those under 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated.

"We want to ensure they are protected and they are safe," Gordon said.

Children who aren't eligible to be immunized will be able to participate in activities if they are with a fully vaccinated adult.

More than 81 per cent of eligible Manitobans have had at least one dose and more than 76 per cent have had both. Gordon said that leaves about 406,000 in the province who have not been vaccinated. Of those, about 230,000 are children under 12.

The province previously announced it was bringing back a mask mandate for indoor public places, including schools, starting Saturday.

As well, all front-line provincial employees who work with vulnerable populations must be fully vaccinated or get regular testing.

Not every member of the Progressive Conservative government is supportive of public health's new direction. Tory members of the legislature James Teitsma and Josh Guenter both posted on social media that the measures go too far.

In comments about the health orders, Teitsma referenced human rights violations, including residential schools, forced sterilizations and internment camps.

"One thing these human rights violations have in common: they were popular and favoured by the public."

Guenter, in a letter to Premier Brian Pallister, wrote that the vaccine mandate "sledgehammer" won't work in his southeastern Manitoba constituency and that it is creating two classes of people.

The government's decisionwas applauded by some businesses and restaurants that have been significantly affected by public health orders throughout the pandemic.

Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said immediate and strong measures had to be taken or there would probably be another round of restrictions or closures

"Such a scenario would be absolutely devastating to business and our community," Remillard said in a news release.

A fourth wave of the pandemic has emerged in other areas of Canada. In Manitoba, there have been low daily case counts. There were 31 new infections reported Friday and the five-day test positivity rate was 2.8 per cent.

Roussin has said Manitoba will inevitably be affected by the fast-spreading Delta variant.

The province brought in a vaccine passport, or proof of immunization card, in early June. But, as restrictions were loosened, it was no longer required for many activities or to enter most businesses.

Earlier this week, Quebec and British Columbia announced they will issue a similar passport for people who want to take part in events or go to restaurants. Those provinces are facing increasing infections.

B.C.'s government said there has already been a significant increase in vaccine registrations and bookings for first doses since its announcement.

Roussin said he hopes to see a similar reaction in Manitoba.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said given the passports were distributed months ago, the renewed measure has come in late.

The report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said more than 81 per cent of people in Manitoba have had at least one dose and more than 76 per cent have had both. In fact, the percentages reflect those eligible to get the vaccine.
Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (VGS/ASX) This one buys you a slice of 1505 companies worldwide (excluding Australian companies), of which about 68 per cent are US-based, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Facebook. In technical terms, the fund seeks to emulate the returns of the MSCI World ex-Australia Index. MSCI is a US finance and analytics company (formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International), which makes indexes to track things. VGS comes with an annual management fee of 0.18 per cent, which is higher than ETFs that track the ASX 200 Index (0.07 to 0.13 per cent), but low compared to actively managed ETFs. Its a wonderful, relatively low-cost way to get access to the rest of the developed worlds stock markets, including the US, Canada, UK, Japan, France and Switzerland, says Scott Phillips, chief investment officer at The Motley Fool.

In one fell swoop, you have effective part-ownership in companies such as Tesla, Nestle, Sony, AstraZeneca and about 1500 others; high-quality businesses that are worth owning in their own right, while also providing industry, geographic and currency diversification. SPDR S&P World ex-Australia ETF (WXOZ/ASX) This provides you with exposure to more than 1500 of the biggest global companies. It is managed by State Street Global Advisors and seeks to replicate the returns of a benchmark called the S&P Developed ex-Australia Large-MidCap (AUD) Index, which represents about 85 per cent of the total market capitalisation of global developed markets. It comes with a slightly higher management fee of 0.3 per cent.

iShares Global 100 ETF (IOO/ASX) This tracks the companies in the S&P Global 100 index, which the BlackRock website describes as the 100 multinational, blue-chip companies of major importance in global equity markets. iShares is owned by BlackRock, the largest indexed fund issuer in the world. It has a higher management fee at 0.4 per cent but, despite this, is the preferred global shares ETF of Stockspot founder, Chris Brycki, who invests his clients money into it, plus an emerging markets ETF, to get full international exposure. Brycki says IOOs performance over the past five to six years has beaten that of broader indexed international shares ETFs. Why? Because larger companies (particularly in the US) have tended to outperform.

In an environment where small caps do better, then some of these more broad-based ones will do better, he says. For exposure to a wider range of emerging economies, such as China and India, Brycki says an IOO investment can be complemented with an emerging markets ETF, such as the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF and Vanguards Emerging Markets Shares Index Fund. It is worth noting that no international shares pay you franked dividends, like Aussie shares. However, that must be weighed against the benefits of diversification. Brycki also notes that dividends have become a less important source of total returns in recent years  both here and abroad. It is also worth noting that the three ETFs I have described  VGS, WXOZ and IOO  are all unhedged against currency moves. That means your investment returns will be impacted by movements in the Australian dollar relative to other currencies. However, that is not necessarily such a bad thing, explains Morningstars Matt Wilkinson.

Unhedged will likely cushion returns over the long term because the AUD/USD often move in the same direction to global growth, he says. All three ETFs are also Australian domiciled, meaning you only have to deal with the Australian tax system when investing. Loading If you dont mind some extra paperwork and exposing yourself to the US tax system, you can also invest in some ultra-low-cost, US-domiciled ETFs listed on our exchange. For example, you could buy ASX-listed iShares S&P 500 ETF AUD (IVV/ASX), which tracks the benchmark S&P 500 Index for an ultra-low management fee of just 0.04 per cent. You could add in exposure to the rest of the world by also buying the Vanguard All-World ex-US Shares Index ETF AUD (VEU/ASX), which tracks the MSCI All World ex-US Index for a management fee of just 0.09 per cent. The good news is that in 2018, IVV changed to be solely domiciled in Australia, meaning no US tax paperwork. However, buying into VEU will require you to fill in a W-8BEN tax form for the US Internal Revenue Service every three years*.
The Australian Christian Lobby has called on its supporters not to fear death and instead push state governments to end COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

In an email to members on Friday night, managing director Martyn Iles said the coronavirus was here to stay and that he was not afraid to face the inevitable.

Christians should lead the way on this because fear of deaths a condition from which Christ has freed us, Mr Iles wrote.

The truth is, we must face the virus, either sooner or later because its not going anywhere. But fear is ruling the day at great cost.
Union leader John Setka has said he will not stand down from his position despite his wife Emma Walters accusing him of assaulting her.

In a message sent to union leaders late on Friday night Mr Setka rejected Ms Walters allegations of assault and said they were used by others as part of a political attack against him.

An image of the bruise to Emma Walters head after the alleged assault.

I would never harm my wife and I have done nothing but stand by her, he said. Mr Setka accused some media and his opponents of using my personal life against him.

In a statement to police Ms Walters  a high-profile lawyer and mother of two  said Mr Setka, the Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, became violent and repeatedly hit her head against a table on Wednesday night, leaving her with a bruise.
Im writing to you from my teenage bedroom. The David Bowie and Pink Floyd posters are still on the walls. My vinyl records remain stacked under the bed  Carole King, Carly Simon, Tubular Bells, Led Zeppelin.

Ive moved back home to The Shire from London for two months to celebrate my beloved mums 90th birthday. But its a rather surreal time warp. When I glance into the mirror, I expect to see pimples, not wrinkles. My sentences have also started going up at the ends? And I have to subdue the urge to sneak out the bedroom window at night to nick off down the beach to pull a few bongs with the boys.

Back to her old stomping ground: Author Kathy Lette at Cronullas Elouera beach. Credit:Louise Kennerley

When I tell European pals that Im a Shire Girl they think Im some kind of hobbit. In 1955, my father, Mervyn (he worked in optic fibre; his four cheeky daughters nicknamed him Optic Merv) won 100 in a race to find rugby leagues fastest front-row forward. He used the prize money to buy a block of land on Oyster Bay.

Dad built a garage on the block and thats where we lived. This was not because Dad was abnormally fond of his automobile, but the post-war shortage of tradesmen, money and materials meant it was common practice for couples to live in the garage until they had enough money to expand, room by room. Sewer mains were not constructed until the 1980s. In other words, The Shire was a suburb in the bush.
Jobs will be lost, businesses will close, debt will increase and the mental health of our community  particularly among kids  will suffer. NSW Healths fortnightly internal report on mental health service demand and care, dated August 17 and obtained by The Sun-Herald, shows demand for services has risen among all age groups since the pandemic began, but the impact is most severe for children and teenagers. People aged 0 to 17 already suffered a decline in mental health in 2020 compared with 2019, and in 2021 there is a further decline. In the year to July 29, 8489 people under the age of 18 were rushed to hospital for self-harm and suicidal ideation, equating to more than 40 a day. That was a 31 per cent rise on the same time in 2020 and up 47 per cent compared with 2019. Across all age groups visits to emergency departments for self-harm and suicidal ideation were up 13 per cent compared with last year.

Emergency department mental health presentations for 0- to 17-year-olds - a separate category which can include psychotic episodes - were up 26 per cent compared with 2020, compared with a 6 per cent increase for the general population. Acute mental health admissions for children and young people for the year to July 22 were up 43 per cent on 2020, compared with a 2 per cent rise for the general population. The Australian on Saturday reported on a similar crisis in Victoria, where figures to the end of May show an average of 156 teens a week were rushed to hospital after self-harming and suffering suicidal ideation, an 88 per cent increase on last year. NSW Chief Psychiatrist Murray Wright said young people are feeling the effects of lockdown the most. Credit:Nick Moir Dr Wright said self-harm among adolescents had been increasing in the western world for the past decade, so the impact of the pandemic came on top of the long-term trend.

The NSW Ombudsman last week delivered its Biannual Report of the Deaths of Children in NSW, which found suicide was the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 17 in 2018 and 2019, and had increased significantly for all children aged 10 to 17 since 2005. Among all age groups, 444 people died by suicide in the first half of this year, compared with 428 before the pandemic, with most of the rise in regional NSW. The NSW budget in June allocated $109.5 million to enhance child and adolescent mental health services in every local health district over the next four years. On Sunday Minister for Mental Health Bronnie Taylor will also announce an additional $8 million in grants for suicide prevention targeting specific communities, including LGBTQ+ people, older people, people who have previously attempted suicide in regional communities, men and young people. A similar grant to prevent Indigenous suicide is pending. Calls to crisis lines for 0- to 18-year-olds are 13 per cent higher this year compared with before the pandemic, though down 9 per cent on 2020. Mental health services on the Medicare Benefits Schedule for 0- to 17-year-olds were up 20 per cent on 2020, while new community clients for this age group were up 24 per cent year-on-year.

Dr Wright said this showed young people and their families were accessing mental health assistance earlier, which was a good thing because weve spent decades trying to destigmatise mental health and telling people dont suffer in silence, please ask for help. Christine Morgan, National Suicide Prevention Adviser and chief executive of the National Mental Health Commission, said there were long waiting lists for mental health services across Australia and there was a need to equip parents to help because they were akin to frontline workers. Loading Theyre in the homes with the young people, they can see it, and by engaging in these conversations, they can often help to de-escalate some of the anxiety, she said. Ms Morgan was concerned about a rise in young people expressing a sense of loss of hope in the future. She acknowledged parents with children and teenagers at home during lockdown had a tough job but said they should try their best to help children maintain engagement with education and friends and stay physically active, and encourage them to think about what they had to look forward to.
Fitz: And how did you feel to see the protesters calling for an open slather end to lockdown, and making outrageous claims about the vaccines? ICU registered nurse Shaunagh Whelan cares for a COVID-19 positive patient in St Vincents Hospital ICU. Credit:Kate Geraghty Rosentreter: None of us wanted to go to work when we saw that because we knew that a flood of COVID positive people would soon arrive, and they did. Fitz: Protesters? Rosentreter: Them or the people at home who believe what they say, and so take liberties with the protocols  and get COVID. And that is what happened. Five days after the protests, the Emergency Departments went hot, as they flooded in.

Fitz: You must have patients who regret not taking the virus seriously, who now realise what they are facing? Rosentreter: All the time. And its heartbreaking. Usually, when you intubate someone and put them in an induced coma, you say were just going to put you to sleep, and wake you up in a few days. But with COVID patients we cant say that because we dont know if we can get them back. And they know that. Fitz: This week we cracked 1000 fresh infections in a day. What will happen if it goes to, say, 1500 or worse? Can you cope? Rosentreter: I can honestly say we cant. We are at breaking point right now. Fitz: So what, seriously, will happen if it does go to 1500?

Rosentreter: We will risk looking like the catastrophes from overseas. Fitz: People dying in the car park? Rosentreter: I dont have a crystal ball. But I have no confidence we are not going to see similar scenes. Fitz: So what do you need? Rosentreter: We want the Commonwealth and the state government to step up now. Fast-track recruitment. Bring back the seconded staff at the screening and vaccination hubs . . .

We need more nurses on the ground, in the wards. And the Premier and the Health Minister are going to have to work out a way to get private hospitals involved. Right now, public hospitals are taking all the load. Unless they do something, you are going to have people dying for lack of resources that the private hospitals have in abundance. They need to share the load. Fitz: Again, thank you for your precious time, and thank you for everything. Rosentreter: Fine. I have to go back to the hospital now. Me and Charlie

When an icon dies it is time for anyone with a typewriter or microphone to talk of even their most glancing acquaintance with the deceased  And how funny I should say that ... For back in April 1995 when the Rolling Stones hit Australia, my brother Jim, then a partner at the law firm Clayton Utz, was issued with a mobile phone that he had to keep on his belt 24/7. If that phone rang, one of the Stones had been arrested, and it was his job to move fast and work out which kind of legal professional to send in first. Charlie Watts was one of the biggest rock stars in the world but didnt act like one. Credit:Invision The phone never rang, but he was given four free tickets for the SCG concert, together with back-stage passes, which is why were in their dressing room about an hour before they went on. Four things stood out. Yes, of course Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, chatting amiably to someone. But there was Ronnie Wood animatedly talking to an elderly Englishwoman from Wamberal, who was, I think, his aunt. It somehow surprised me that Ronnie Wood would have an aunt from Wamberal, as I thought rock stars like him lived in the cosmos. And there, in the corner, talking to no one, but quite content was Charlie Watts, reading a book! That, too, struck me as odd. The drummer for the greatest rock band in the world, was quietly reading a book, an hour before showtime? And yet, as the many glowing obituaries of Watts this week have demonstrated, that kind of calm, non-rock-star behaviour was Watts hallmark with the Stones for 60 years!

But there was steel in the mans soul, as demonstrated by my favourite Watts anecdote of the lot, recounted by the Stones biographer, Steven Davis. Back in 1984, see, the band was in Amsterdam, and after knocking em dead in the concert and heading out on the town, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards  well-oiled  got back to their hotel at 5am. Mick decided he wanted Charlie to join them and calls his room. When the call is answered, Jagger bawls: Izzat my drummer, then? Wheres my f---ing drummer? Get yer arse down here right away!  Charlie got up, shaved, put on a fresh white shirt and a tailored Savile Row double-breasted suit, tied his tie, slipped on bench-crafted shoes from Lobb in St James. He goes to Jaggers room.

When Jagger opens the door, as Richards would recount, He grabbed Mick, went boom! Dished him a left hook that knocked him into a plate of smoked salmon and then he almost floated out the window and into a canal in Amsterdam. And now the punchline to the punch. Dont ever call me your drummer again, Charlie growled between clenched teeth. Youre my f---ing singer. Early days: the Rolling Stones arrive in Sydney in 1965. From left, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Brian Jones and Mick Jagger. Credit: Tweet of the week

Imagine having seen footage of Afghanistan in the last few days, then still deciding to go to a protest to complain about your freedoms being taken away here in Australia. - Chloe Sergeant @chlosarge Joke of the Week An old Booligals farmers dog goes missing and hes inconsolable. His wife says Why dont you put an advert in Booligal Times? He does, but two weeks later the dog is still missing. What did you put in the paper? his wife asks. Here boy, he replies.

Quotes of the Week Im not interested in having a whose-poo-it-was argument with John Barilaro. - ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr after Deputy Premier John Barilaro suggested that the virus detected in NSW sewage came from Canberra. No, seriously. It is a challenge for people in high density areas to get outside and spread their legs when they are surrounded by other people. - NZ Minister for COVID-19 Response, Chris Hipkins, at a press conference on Sunday. NZ was most amused. Hipkins meant to say stretch their legs. Good riddance ... he was actually a menace in the Parliament. - Craig Kelly, when Clive Palmer left the federal parliament. This week, Kelly announced he was to lead Palmers party in Parliament. I dont want to take away from the situation NSW is in ... dont get me wrong, every day we want to see case numbers go down. They will bounce around a little: could go up, could go down. We need people to focus on what you need to do to keep yourself and your family safe and what all of us can do to reduce spread. - Premier Gladys Berejiklian as cases numbers hit 919 on Wednesday.

I wouldnt use that term sanctions but what I would say is that Ive made it very clear that there should be no expectation on behalf of the premiers and the chief ministers that our emergency economic support will continue at the scale that it is currently when we reach the 70 to 80 per cent targets. - Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, asked what the Morrison government would do if state and territory leaders dont honour their national cabinet agreements to reopen state borders. Just cause the NSW government has made a mess of it, doesnt mean the rest of us should suffer. - WA premier Mark McGowan objecting to the idea of state borders being reopened any time soon. This groundhog day has to end. And it will end, when we start getting 70 per cent and 80 per cent [vaccination rates]. - Scott Morrison. They put photos of the whole family up at a mosque [with a message saying] if anyone saw them, they need to give us some more information. If they catch my brother they will behead him. If they catch my father they will behead him. - Ahmad Elham Shahwar, who worked as a translator with the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan and was settled in Australia in 2015, saying that his two brothers, sister and parents had been hiding in a single room at another persons home after learning that the Taliban was searching for them. We acknowledge that we are no longer operating in a business as usual environment and careful assessment and response is required to manage future demand for our services. - Jenelle Matic, Westmead hospitals acting general manager, after it had been forced into emergency operations, reducing the number of COVID-19 cases arriving by ambulance for 24 hours and transferring several critical patients to other hospitals.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Within an hour of FBI agent Fred Bradfords boots landing on the rubble of Afghanistan, a rocket strikes near his base. Its 2006 and Bradford has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan to join the US Special Forces Green Berets in their pursuit of the baddest of the bad guys. Boom. Bradford is on the phone to his wife, Dani. He tells her its just a test rocket going off. It was actually inbound, and youre under a pretty serious rocket attack  and that was within the first hour. There was something like that going on every day that I was there, he says. I had a wife at home and Im thinking, What the heck am I doing here? Im 20 years older than these guys, and last time I checked, I signed up to the FBI to chase gangsters around and bank robbers, then I end up in bloody Afghanistan. Im a navy guy  I was in the navy in my previous life  and Im in full army kit with hand grenades and a bazooka, running with these guys.

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There were many, many moments when I wasnt sure I was going to get out of there in one piece. Fred Bradford joined the FBI after leaving Australia, where he studied at the University of Queensland. For four months, Bradford rolled with the US Special Forces, kitted up and chasing terrorists. He says every day was another way to get yourself hurt. At Camp Keating, a small American military outpost in Nuristan Province, Bradford and the team sustained heavy fire for 10 days. That was overrun a few years later by the Taliban, and up there was just a nightmare, he says. We were getting shot at all the time, getting rocket attacks dumped on us all the time, trying to sniff out the bad guys while were up there and actually capture or [make] hits on people. It was really 10 days of getting shot at every day  Im not sure how I even got out of that place.

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A few years earlier, Bradford, now 58, was an FBI criminal investigator working on bank robberies, casino fraud and embezzlement. But the morning of September 11, 2001, changed the American psyche - and the nations focus on crime. Bradford, like many of his colleagues, was moved to counter-terrorism and national security. It would be the last time he covered white-collar crime. Fred Bradford working for the FBI. He was no longer sorting through sheets of numbers but combing through maddening communication between suspected terrorists overseas. Al-Qaeda, a network of Islamic extremists, was growing fast, and fear among the western powers was surging.

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Almost 20 years after the ensuing war on terror, Bradford says the American withdrawal from Afghanistan this month shows the clock turning back to a darkness seen before. It seems we had finally reached a point of relative stability over the past few years, where our presence and occasional exercise of force kept any potential mayhem in check, he says. Taliban fighters patrol Kabul this month after reclaiming control of the capital. Credit:AP The reckless failure to change course  to stay  knowing very well that we were the glue that kept Afghanistans military together, coupled with the panic and deadly suffering of this incredibly bungled evacuation, are disgraceful. I believe this still-unfolding debacle was an entirely avoidable humanitarian failure. Bradfords mission in Afghanistan was crucial. It was important that paper trails were created for all the alleged terrorists the team followed. A baby is lifted across a wall at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan by US soldiers. Credit:Omar Haidari

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Bradford was a businessman by trade. Graduating from high school in Michigan, he joined the US Navy before being deployed to Japan. From there, he jumped to the University of Queensland for his MBA, where he was the only Yank in the program. He even became president of the students association. It all seemed to have a lot of purpose at the time  20 years ago. Asia was really starting to open up with not just Japan, but China was really starting to open up, so there was a lot of new stuff to learn about how to do business in the far East, he says. A lot of what I learned in Brissie is really coming into play now, more on the business side of things. I dabbled in that stuff and used some of the stuff I learned in the FBI, but Im really leaning back on that stuff from 20, 30 years ago with this new job. After a short stint in business, Bradford moved back to the US, where he became a staffer for Dick Gephardt, a house majority leader for the Democratic Party in the 90s.

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It must be concluded and emphasised that what has been revealed is shocking and disturbing. It represents a party in decline and headed for the door. Decent people have abandoned the party leaving what is effectively a political wasteland devoid of Liberal principles and values. Bombing branches and membership oddities The review committee found that party memberships were being paid for in bulk and multiple memberships had been registered to a single address despite the people not being in the same family.

One address in Kingsley had eight people registered while another in Canning Vale had 11 people. The committee also found evidence that factions within the party were ensuring pre-selection outcomes by using a turbocharged version of branch stacking called bombing where local branches are inundated with large quantities of people who lived outside the electorate. It said the practice was corrupt should be deplored and resulted in the wrong candidates being selected. It is a corrupt practice intended to deny local branches their democratic right to choose their own candidates, it said. It sometimes means that the number of people selecting a candidate can be very small, and completely unrepresentative of the party membership of that electorate.

Another peculiarity was the use of proxy voters for disinterested members, with the committee finding that at the recent Moore division annual general meeting about 20 members told staff at registration they did not know what branch they were in but expected to be given ballot papers to vote. Some of these members even became aggressive when asked to provide information or documents before being allowed into the room, the committee said. Corrosive factions The review committee saved its harshest criticism for corrosive factionalism where senior members manipulated party rules to interfere with pre-selections, but it stopped short of naming anyone. It said the low cost of membership fees had enabled factions to exploit the recruitment of members for their own purposes but left the party worse off.

The most damaging consequence of rule by powerbrokers has been the selection of inferior quality candidates for parliament over a long period of time because as one submission observed, selection was based on fealty, rather than ability, the committee said. It is an anti-democratic practice that has not been sufficiently condemned by the party hierarchy. The complaint of many submissions is that none of the factions seem to operate in the best interests of the party, but purely from self-interest. WAtoday and Nine News Perth revealed last week a tranche of leaked WhatsApp messages before the review committee between more than a dozen senior party figures known as The Clan.

The 700-page document reveals years of messages between The Clan where they discussed strategy in relation to Liberal pre-selections and other party processes. The review committee said if authentic the messages were very damning. Perhaps the factions should reflect on what the exercise of their power over the last decade or so has had on the fortunes of the party, which has in part, but admittedly not wholly, led to its near extinction, it said. Zilch, zip, nada The review paints a bleak picture of the partys finances and, incredibly, reveals that its finance committee raised $0 in the 12 months before the March state election.

The state of the partys coffers will be concerning to its federal team, which is gearing up for a tough election next year. The committee said the financial base of corporate supporters had shrunk dramatically since 2016-17 and unless that trend was reversed the financial viability of the party was at risk. Even the wealthy 500 Club, previously the backbone of the Liberals donations, had dropped from $425,000 in 2008-09 to $50,000 in 2019-20. Staggering laziness in state election The review committee rubbished excuses that their abysmal primary vote of 21.3 per cent at the March election was due solely to the popularity Labor Premier Mark McGowan had cultivated during the pandemic.

Instead, it said the party was lazy and did not develop clear policies for voters. The staggering laziness of the opposition and lack of action by the party in creating and selling acceptable policies much earlier than the advent of the pandemic were contributing factors, it said. Loading The Parliamentary wing was not functioning effectively at all in the four years leading up to the 2021 election. It was consumed with leadership issues, which also meant there was not a consistent message or set of policies to put to the voters. The committee described the elevation of Zak Kirkup to leader after former leader Liza Harvey stepped down from the role just months out from the election as desperate and ill-advised.

Whatever the fact, Zak Kirkup was just too inexperienced and perhaps a little overwhelmed by being thrust into the leadership role, for which he was understandably unprepared, and senior members of the Parliamentary wing must take responsibility for that happening, it said. It also said Mr Kirkups decision to concede defeat before polling day took everyone by surprise and had a negative impact on most of the partys candidates. Losing by religion The Liberals were beset with issues after several candidates religious views made it to the public realm, and according to the committee, post-election polling found 9 per cent of people voted Labor because of a perception that the Liberal candidates had extreme religious views that didnt represent them. It said the party had increasingly ceased to be a broad church and had more and more become a party of apparatchiks like the ALP and called for the expulsion of candidates if they acted against the interests of the party.

Every state division of the Liberal party has seen religious conservative factions increase their influence. That is hardly surprising given their advantages. They are well-organised, turn out to vote and they are coalescing against rapid social change, it said. However, if any individuals, or groups, whatever their association, act against the interests of the Liberal Party or do not support its objectives or candidates then their behaviour should be exposed and sanctioned, if necessary by expulsion. Change and change now The committee said voters had overwhelmingly abandoned the party which itself had abandoned its principles and values, and warned that disaffected members were talking of forming a new conservative party.

It said the party must change quickly if it is to survive and presented a raft of recommendations including overhauling pre-selection processes to only allow candidates to be chosen by party members from the electorate who have been on the electoral roll for a year. It also recommended a forensic audit of membership records to uncover irregularities and branch bombing. When it came to diversity the committee recommended the party adopt a quota style system where 40 per cent of candidates should be men, 40 per cent women and the remaining 20 per cent fluctuating depending on the availability of candidates at the time. MPs could also be subject to KPIs and recommended that the state executive be abolished and mobile phones, tablets and laptops banned at state executive meetings to stop leaks.
Restorative justice is expected to form part of a key recommendation of the commissions soon-to-be-released report on the justice systems response to sexual offences. The report comes at a critical time, when a call for change in how sexual assault is viewed, treated and dealt with has come from Australian of the Year and survivor Grace Tame, within Parliament following allegations made by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, and in schools where students have been calling for better education on consent and sex. The approach has attracted support from authorities at the centre of the criminal justice system, as well as victim advocates such as Sexual Assault Support Services Victoria. Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said a criminal justice system that holds perpetrators to account was critical, but it was not the type of justice every survivor sought.

It is clear that the way sexual offending is dealt with needs to change  as we bring this heinous behaviour into the spotlight, it should follow that our justice system looks at different ways to support victim-survivors, Ms Symes said. Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes is supportive of a restorative justice approach, but said extensive consultation was needed. Credit:Eddie Jim Ms Symes said a restorative justice model with proper safeguards and guidelines could be a way forward, but extensive consultation would be needed before any model is implemented. In submissions to the law reform commission, Victoria Police was generally supportive of restorative justice for offending when it supports a victim-survivors sense of justice. Victoria Police understands that many victim-survivors report feeling disempowered by the criminal justice process. It is possible that restorative justice processes may provide particular victim-survivors with an opportunity to reduce their trauma, and an additional pathway to seek restoration and justice.

Loading The County Court said the process has the potential to play a role in sexual offences in some matters, including historical offending when a victim is primarily seeking acknowledgement of what was done to them. Such a model could be an option for survivors who were abused by a member of their family who do not want a criminal investigation. Former Victorian attorney-general Rob Hulls, who heads RMITs Centre for Innovative Justice, said for too long the one-size-fits-all adversarial system has let victims down. Theres been this general view that what all victims want and need is longer sentences imposed upon perpetrators. That ignores the holistic justice needs for many victims, which includes voice, validation, information, accountability, prevention, relationship repair and resolution, Mr Hulls said.

Restorative justice should be embedded as an option for victims right across our justice system. Rob Hulls, the director of the Centre for Innovative Justice. Credit:Josh Robenstone The centre is currently working with BHP to investigate how restorative responses to sexual harassment and assault could be introduced for company employees. The centre has also worked with RMIT University to respond to historic instances of sexual harassment of students. Victoria Legal Aid program manager of indictable crime Emily Allan said at the moment, the only pathway was the blunt instrument of the criminal justice system. This is the next sophisticated step, that weve seen work in other jurisdictions, that is missing from our landscape, Ms Allan said.

The ACT government runs restorative justice for victims of sexual assault, as does New Zealand, where a restorative process is offered to victims of all crimes unless they opt out. Law Institute of Victoria president Tania Wolff said the traditional adversarial system would never be replaced and while restorative justice was not appropriate for all matters, she backed a model for Victoria. Traditional criminal justice approaches have been found wanting in sexual assault matters, Ms Wolff said. Contrary to some impressions, it is not a soft option  the process requires accountability that is not always available in the criminal law process. Kathleen Maltzahn, the new chief executive of Sexual Assault Services Victoria, stressed the rights and interests of victim-survivors must be at the centre of any restorative justice process, it must be properly resourced, and didnt become a cheap, quick alternative to criminal proceedings.

Loading But she said she saw the power in restorative justice and believed now was a good time to seriously look at how it could be implemented in Victoria. I think in the past, some of the difficulty has been that while you had ... a culture that minimised sexual violence and blamed victims-survivors, you couldnt really have a supported restorative justice approach because you have to be genuinely recognising the impact of sexual violence before you can look at restoration, she said. Now I think culturally theres a change, weve seen governments taking sexual violence more seriously and more seriously centring the rights, recovery and restitution of victims-survivors. In that context, yes, I think it really makes sense that we can do that now. Other criticisms of restorative justice includes the risks of decriminalising sexual violence, forcing the crime back behind closed doors, and compromising the rights of offenders.
West Australian health authorities have added two new exposure sites to the list of locations visited by two truck drivers who tested positive for COVID-19 after entering the state from New South Wales.

Anyone who visited the KJI Logistics truck yard in Kenwick and Xpress Freight Managements warehouse in Kewdale in the early hours of Friday morning should quarantine immediately and get tested within 48 hours.

Premier Mark McGowan said it was unlikely the state will go into lockdown after two new cases of COVID for WA. Credit:WAtoday

It comes on top of four other locations visited by the men on their journey to Perth; a BP truckstop at Norseman, IOR Petroleum at Widgiemooltha, Mobil in Yellowdine, and Shell in Southern Cross.

The state recorded no new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
Asked earlier Friday whether Biden would order a mission to kill those responsible for the bombing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters: He does not want them to live on the Earth anymore. US and British troops evacuate Afghans amid chaotic scenes outside the airport in Kabul. Credit:Getty Images Pentagon officials said they were still piecing together the chain of events that took place at Abbey Gate on Thursday. There will be after-action reviews and storyboards with detailed lists of what led up to that moment. There will be questions: Why were so many service members grouped so close together? How did the bomber evade the Taliban checkpoints? Did someone let him through? This is close-up war  the breath of the person you are searching is upon you, General Kenneth F. McKenzie jnr, the head of US Central Command, said after the Kabul attack, describing the face-to-face contact between Marines at the airport gate and Afghans they must search before allowing them to enter. As the scope of the damage became clearer, health officials in Kabul raised the death toll, saying at least 170 people had been killed. Afghans seeking to escape Taliban rule continued to stream to the airport Friday, but the size of the crowd was estimated in the hundreds, down from the thousands who were there when the blast occurred. The airport remained largely locked down, although evacuation flights continued.

Just after 2pm Friday, as another grey-tailed US aircraft lifted into the sky from the airport, this one carrying the flag-draped coffins of the 13 Americans, the anguish from Thursdays bombing spread from Kabul to Kansas. At the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, service members were bracing for the ritual of dressing and preparing yet another group of US troops killed in Afghanistan. A person wounded in a bomb blast outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan arrives at a hospital. Credit:Victor J. Blue/The New York Times Im never been one for politics and Im not going to start now, Marilyn Soviak, the sister of Maxton Soviak, a Navy corpsman from Ohio who was among the dead, posted on Instagram. What I will say is that my beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives. Just after the bomb went off, Defence Department officials said, fighters nearby began firing weapons. The officials said that some of the Americans and Afghans at Abbey Gate might have been hit by that gunfire.

US President Joe Biden addresses the media after the suicide bombing in Kabul where he vowed to hunt down the terrorists who were responsible. Credit: Bloomberg There was so much confusion in the aftermath of the explosion that the military initially reported that a second suicide bombing had taken place at nearby Baron Hotel. That turned out to be false, according to Major General Hank Taylor, the Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations. At 11 kilograms, the vest worn by the suicide bomber did untold damage. According to Army manuals, suicide bombers typically wear either a belt containing 4.5 kilograms or less of explosives, or a vest packed with 4.5 to 9 kilograms of explosives. With an 11 kilogram vest that included pieces of metal that acted as lethal shrapnel, the bomber also wounded dozens of Afghans, as well as 14 additional US troops, who were medevaced to Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre near the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The Marines who were manning Abbey Gate on Thursday had arrived in Kabul about a week earlier. They were fresh, and linked up with their British paratrooper counterparts with one goal in mind: Get as many people through as possible. That meant using an interpreter and a loudspeaker to persuade a surging crowd to move back, a painstaking task that allowed the Marines to open two entry points.

Loading The fall of Kabul had unleashed a wave of phone calls, emails and desperate texts from the foreign organisations that had worked in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, all imploring the Pentagon for help getting their Afghan workers and allies evacuated. Other people who worked with Afghans, including teachers who visited schools in Afghanistan, joined American senators, media chiefs and the heads of global organisations in asking for help for their former partners, who are in danger of Taliban reprisals. The requests reached the US troops at Kabul airport. The Marines who died were the ones who were helping our team, said Cori Shepherd, a filmmaker who once helped Afghan girls come to school in the United States. These men were quite literally going into the masses and pulling our women to safety, while coordinating with our guy to find them. The men who worked Abbey Gate were brave beyond measure. The New York Times
Atlanta: Hurricane Ida has intensified over warm Gulf of Mexico waters, prompting tens of thousands to flee coastal areas, while President Joe Biden pledged aid to help states quickly recover once the storm has passed.

Forecasters said Ida could make a US landfall on Sunday as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, generating winds of 225 km/h, heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.

On Saturday afternoon Ida was about 386 km south-east of the mouth of the Mississippi River, packing top winds of 169 km/h and aiming for the Louisiana coast, the National Hurricane Centre said.

A man uses pieces of plastic to protect against the rain caused by Hurricane Ida. Credit:

Were concerned about explosive development shortly before it makes landfall, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, which provides weather advice to oil and transportation companies.
Local

County temporarily holds AquaBounty fund release

The Williams County Commissioners have suspended AquaBounty Technologys environmental review process and the release of funds pending receipt of permits from Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

AquaBounty is planning a $200 million investment in Pioneer to create a nearly 500,000-square-foot facility to raise and process their genetically engineered salmon.

In a press release dated Thursday and released on the commissioners Facebook page Friday, officials said the review and public comment period referenced in a legal notice previously published in The Bryan Times had been terminated.

The Notice of Finding No Significant Impact and Notice of Intent to Request Release of Funds legal notice ran in The Times on Aug. 12 and was required for the release of $1,185,317 in federal grant funding for the project, mostly through the Community Development Block Grant Funds. The notice stated the commissioners would request the funds around Aug. 30 and public comments were accepted through Friday. Both those dates were nullified with this new announcement.

According to the commissioners press release, a new notification will be considered after completion of ODNRs Division of Water groundwater withdrawal permitting process. Another 15-day public committing period will be specified in the notice.

During a special meeting of the Pioneer Village Council on Thursday evening, Williams County Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Megan Hausch indicated the project remains on track.

A portion of the environmental (work) is done; We thought we could get the rest of it done in time and we just need to take a little pause, she said. Its good, we have more time to investigate. We need to have all the environmental answers for the total project and while we have a part of them were waiting to get the rest of those back. Until then, were just pressing the pause button.

While its still going forward, she said they just needed some more time for all the due diligence aspects of the project.

Its really not a big deal, Hausch said.

Pioneer Actions

Also during the special meeting Thursday, the council moved forward with several aspects of the AquaBounty project.

Mayor Ed Kidston, who owns Artesian of Pioneer which is doing some well drilling for the company and also owns the land on which the facility will be built, had recused himself from this portion of the meeting.

After council held an approximately 40-minute closed, executive session with Hausch, she presented the same information on AquaBounty she presented at the North Central Local Schools Board of Education on Monday (see the Tuesday, Aug. 24 edition of The Times).

The council unanimously approved a 100% property tax abatement for 15 years. Over the course of those 15 years, AquaBounty will donate approximately $11 million to the school system in order to make them whole.

Council also passed an ordinance selling electric transmission assets to American Municipal Power Transmission LLC.

John Courtney, of Courtney & Associates, a public utilities consulting firm, said they were the only ones interested in purchasing the transmission facilities.

They are buying the facility at book value, which is original cost less depreciation, or about $1.7 million, though with time it would continue to depreciate.

The sale will just be for the 69,000-volt transmission facility. The village will still own distribution and the existing substation.

We recommend the sale, we think it makes sense even with or without the new load that will come to town, Courtney said. Its kind of one of the critical paths to getting a new substation built or getting service, I should say, transmission service to that substation.

When the AquaBounty deal was announced, Kidston told The Times the company is expected to purchase around $6 million worth of electricity from the village each year.

While the council was initially meant to discuss hiring Spectrum Engineering Corp. to oversee the construction of a new substation, that item was tabled until a later meeting.

Village Solicitor Tom Thompson said it would be better for the village to go through a qualification process for the project, first.

So, putting out a request for qualifications for electrical engineering services and having companies let us know whether or not theyre interested and then trying to work out an agreement with the company that you rate the highest after looking at those criteria, Thompson said. It will take some time to do that, we may be back in September. It may be longer.

The council approved allowing Village Administrator Al Fiser to work on this process.

It was the same process they did for extending Kexon Drive in order to service AquaBounty, something they also discussed Thursday.

Council had previously voted to have Fiser work out a contract with Jones & Henry Engineers out of Toledo in order to do the engineering work.

However, Fiser said their prices came back a little higher than what they usually pay Bell Engineering, out of Bryan, for services. Bell was the only other engineer to offer a proposal.

Fiser asked the council to allow him to work out a contract with Bell because of this discrepancy. He would bring both contracts to council for them to decide.

The council approved it.
Kishore Biyani-led Ltd on Saturday said it has approached the against orders passed by the to maintain the status quo in relation to its Rs 24,713 crore deal with and directing it to enforce the order of the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator.

In a regulatory filing, said, "Please be informed that the company has filed a special leave petition before Hon'ble of India against the impugned orders dated 2nd February 2021 and 18th March, 2021 passed by 'Ld. Single Judge'...The SLP will be listed for hearing in due course."



In its petition, the company stated that "here is extreme urgency to hear" and "stay the Impugned Orders" passed by the single-member bench of Delhi High Court, failing to which the company would go into liquidation.

Future Retail, in its petition, said the scheme of amalgamation, which will be listed before the NCLT, cannot go through due to the orders of the High Court.

".... and as a result of which the Scheme which benefits all the stakeholders, including the public at large and various public sector banks may fall through; If the Scheme falls through, it is inevitable that FRL will go into liquidation," it said.

Besides "approximately Rs 28,000 crore of public money in the form of bank loans and debentures issued by FRL and its group is also be at risk," said the Future group firm in its appeal.

The magnitude of damage that may be caused to the public at large is "unimaginable" as livelihoods of more than 35,575 employees of FRL and various that are part of the Scheme may be lost, it added.

"The solvency of over 8,050 SMEs (excluding SMEs of Future Enterprises Limited) and their employees is at stake.

The scheme filed before the Mumbai bench of NCLT, entails consolidation of Future Group's retail and wholesale business, and the logistics and warehousing business into one entity Future Enterprises Ltd and then transferring it to Ventures Ltd (RRVL) as per the Rs 24,731 crore deal with Reliance Industries Ltd.

The deal is contested by Amazon, an investor in Future Coupons that in turn, is a shareholder in FRL.

Amazon, had approached Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), where an Emergency Arbitrator (EA) had on October 25 last year restrained the Future group from going ahead with its Rs 24,731 crore deal with RIL.

Later, the matter was taken to the Delhi High Court, where on February 2, a single bench of Justice J R Midha had directed FRL to maintain status quo in relation to its Rs 24,713 crore deal with

Justice J R Midha said the court was satisfied that an immediate interim order was required to be passed to protect the rights of Amazon.

Later, on March 18, the court upheld the Singapore Emergency Arbitrator's (EA) order restraining Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with the Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which was objected to by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon.

Justice J R Midha directed Kishore Biyani-led FRL not to take further action on the deal with Reliance and held that the group willfully violated the EA's order. The high court rejected all the objections raised by Future Group and imposed a cost of Rs 20 lakh on it as well as its directors.

Appealing against it, FRL said it has requested the to admit its petition and "against the Impugned judgment and interim Orders dated February 2, 2021 and March 18, 2021 passed" by the single member bench of the high court".

It has also requested the apex court to "pass an ex-parte interim order/ interim order and stay the Impugned judgment and interim Orders dated 2 February 2021 and 18 March 2021 passed by the High Court of Delhi' and any "such other directions as to balance the interest of the parties, till the issues raised herein are finally decided."



Earlier this month, Future group promoters, including Kishore Biyani and several group holding companies, had approached the Supreme Court against an order passed by the directing to enforce the order of the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator.

In a regulatory filing by Future Retail Ltd on August 12, the company had stated that Kishore Biyani, Rakesh Biyani and other family members of the Biyani family along with the holding Future Coupons, Future Corporate Resources, Akar Estate and Finance had filed SLP against Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC before the Supreme Court.

Passing an interim order, the EA of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) on October 25 last year restrained the Future group from going ahead with its Rs 24,731 crore deal with Reliance Industries to sell its retail and wholesale business, and the logistics and warehousing business.

The apex court had on August 6 upheld Amazon's plea. It had ruled in favour of Amazon and held that an award of an EA of a foreign country is enforceable under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chief Minister on Saturday said that the state no longer faces vaccine shortage, and as many as 61 lakh people have been inoculated so far this month, with the figure likely to go up to 70 lakh over the next three days.

After the recent visit of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to the state, the issue of vaccine shortage has been addressed, the chief minister said, flagging off 15 ambulances donated by an automotive manufacturer here.

He urged everyone to take the second dose of vaccine as soon as they become eligible for it as vaccination was the only way to fight COVID-19.

Sarma also thanked the people of the state and the country for their contribution to Chief Minister's Relief Fund during the first and second wave of the pandemic.

Restrictions imposed to control the rise of COVID-19 cases will be relaxed from the first week of September, but people should continue to adhere to COVID-appropriate behaviour, the CM asserted.

Hailing the health department's efforts, Sarma said the timely and round-the-clock services of its employees have led to the dip in the daily caseload.

Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, as part of its corporate social responsibility, donated 15 ambulances and as many oxygen concentrators to the state.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ahead of upcoming festivals in Maharashtra, the Centre has advised the state to consider imposing local restrictions on these festivals and mass gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In a letter to the Maharashtra chief secretary, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said even though the trajectory of daily new cases has shown a decline over the last month, there are some districts in Maharashtra which are showing early signs of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases and test positivity



Bhushan said the directions were issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by the Home Ministry for focussed containment measures.

"In light of this order, and in view of mass events and public gatherings expected during celebration of upcoming festivals (including Dahi Handi and Ganpati Utsav) in Maharashtra, it is advised that the state may consider imposing and enforcing local restrictions in public observation of these festivals and mass gatherings," Bhushan said.

"This is particularly important in view of circulation of more transmissible variants of concern being reported by various states, including Maharashtra. I would like to reiterate that any laxity in ensuring strict adherence to the five-fold strategy of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate and Ensuring COVID Appropriate Behaviour may result in losing the impetus that Maharashtra and the country has gained so far in managing the pandemic," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Around 7,000 ICU beds will be added in government-run of the national capital in view of an impending third wave of COVID-19, Chief Minister said on Saturday.

This will increase the ICU bed capacity in the capital by 70 per cent, he said.

Health Minister Satyendar Jain said in a tweet in Hindi, "6,836 new beds are going to be made at a cost of Rs 1,216.72 crores by govt at Shalimar Bagh, Kirari, Sarita Vihar, Sultanpuri, Raghuveer Nagar, GTB Hospital as well as Chacha Nehru Hospital,"



"Almost 7,000 new ICU beds are being added to government This is like bringing a complete transformation into the health infrastructure of Delhi government at present have a capacity of 10,000 ICU beds, a 70 per cent increase is being made to this number.

"This is no small task, but these beds will be ready within six months. On one hand, it will help in dealing with the third COVID-19 wave, and on the other if the wave does not come, they will act like additional beds for regular treatment," Kejriwal said.

The cabinet has given its approval for increasing ICU beds.

The proposed facilities in the hospitals will be designed to function as Covid hospitals.

However, after the Covid pandemic ends, the facilities would be utilised for other specialised hospital services, an official statement said.

The facilities will consist of three sub-buildings, emergency/OPD/ward block and services building, including space for PSA / Oxygen Tanks and multi level car parking block. The provisions have also been made for the addition of one floor in future in case of requirement.

A total of 1,430 beds will be added in the Shalimar Bagh Government Hospital, 458 at the Kirari Government Hospital, 1,912 at the GTB Hospital, 1,565 beds in Raghubir Nagar, 610 beds at CNBC, Geeta Colony, 525 beds at the Sultanpuri hospital.

The statement said the government is making thorough preparations in anticipation of an impending third wave of COVID-19.

"In the same prospect the addition of these beds will not only ramp up the ICU bed facilities by 70 per cent but also be monumental in achieving the target of 37,000 beds in the national capital," it added.

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Congress general secretary Vadra on Saturday alleged that the three farm laws were framed to benefit the BJP's billionaire friends.

Citing a report on Adani reducing apple procurement rates in Himachal Pradesh by Rs 16 which has led to a distress in the markets, she alleged this would happen if the right to decide rates of farmer's produce is given to "billionaire friends" of the ruling party.

"Why are the farmers opposing the three 'black' farm laws? Because if the right to decide the price and other things for crops grown by the hard work of farmers is given to BJP's billionaire friends, then this will happen," the Congress leader said in a tweet in Hindi.

"The black agriculture laws are for the benefit of BJP's billionaire friends," she added.

The Congress has been supporting the farmers' agitation against the three new farm laws and demanding their withdrawal.

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A day after devastating bombings outside the killed over 100 people, India on Friday said its primary focus is to bring back the remaining Indians from the Afghan capital even as it indicated adopting a cautious approach in recognising any new regime in in view of "lack of clarity" on government formation.

Around 20 Indians and over 100 Afghan nationals could not reach the on Wednesday to board an evacuation flight to India reportedly because of the precarious security scenario and multiple check-posts put up by the

Bagchi said India is in touch with "various parties" to mount more evacuation flights to bring back Indians.

When specifically asked whether India will recognise a regime, Bagchi replied: "I think we are jumping the gun."



"The situation on the ground is uncertain. The prime concern at present is the security and safety of the people. Currently, there is a lack of clarity or no clarity about any entity forming a government in Kabul. So, I think we are jumping the gun here regarding the recognition," Bagchi said.

"We, of course, continue to monitor the situation very carefully. This is an evolving situation. For the moment, that's all I have to say about this element," he added.

The deadly attack outside the came as the US and a number of other countries were scrambling to evacuate their citizens and Afghan partners ahead of the August 31 deadline for withdrawal of American troops.

Asked whether India was having any back-channel negotiations with the Taliban, Bagchi said India had contacts with all the stakeholders and it remained in touch with its partner countries on the latest developments in

"Our overall assessment is that the vast majority of Indians who wished to return have been evacuated. Some more Indians are likely to be in I do not have an exact number for that," Bagchi said.

"You are aware of the very difficult situation on the ground right now; we are in touch with various parties regarding when we can mount such evacuation flights," he said.

On the terror attack, he said it is a matter of concern and India will be in close touch with all its partners.

To a question, Bagchi said there were reports that some Afghan nationals, including a number of Afghan Sikhs, could not reach Kabul airport for the Indian evacuation flight on August 25.

"Certainly some Indians, I would say around 20, but again I do not have a number, were also trying to reach. As you have seen the kind of chaos at the airport. They could not reach. So our flight had to come without these Indian nationals," he said.

He said the last evacuation flight had brought back around 40 people.

The MEA spokesperson said India's primary focus will remain on the evacuation of Indian nationals, but, at the same time, it will also stand by Afghans who stood by India.

Asked about the status of the Afghans who were evacuated by India, Bagchi referred to the rolling out of the e-Visa scheme by the Union Home Ministry and said they are currently under a six-month visa regime, adding "We will take it from there."



Making a long-term plan is not the best of ideas, he said.

When asked about the deportation of Afghan MP Rangina Kargar, Bagchi suggested that a number of issues could have led to the incident.

"Once the security situation deteriorated immediately after August 15, there were reports of groups of people who raided one of our outsourcing agencies (in Kabul) where Afghan passports with Indian visas were there," he said.

Bagchi said following the incident, Indian authorities were in a state of high alert.

"We were moving to the e-Emergency visa system. It appears that all this could have led to some confusion which in turn led to the unfortunate incident of denial of entry to a particular Afghan Since then many Afghan citizens were evacuated to India," he added.

The MEA spokesperson said India evacuated more than 550 people in separate flights, either directly from Kabul or through Dushanbe.

Of these, more than 260 were Indian nationals. However, the figure does not include Indian embassy personnel who have also been repatriated. Separately, India also facilitated the evacuation of Indian nationals through other agencies.

Bagchi said India has been pitching for a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic Afghanistan.

Asked why the name of India's evacuation mission was given "Operation Devi Shakti", he said like all other operations, a name was suitably given to it.

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In a bid to weed out fake journalists, the government should constitute within three months, a press council, the has ruled.

The Press Council of should be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or High Court, with its members being a team of experienced and reputed journalists, both working and retired, retired civil servants and police officials in the rank of IAS and IPS, the court said in its direction to the state government recently.

The Council shall comprise representatives from the industry, as well as the government and all members shall be serving journalists of standing and government servants.

The members shall be on regular payroll of media houses and organisations, evidenced by salary slips, payment of TDS and circulation or viewership details, as the case may be.

Loss of job on any account such as resignation, dismissal or death and disability shall result in their immediate exit from the board, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran (since retired) and P Velmurugan said.

The bench was disposing of two PIL petitions from S Sekaran, who claimed to be a journalist.

His first petition prayed for directions to the Home secretary and the DGP, CB-CID, to consider his September 26, 2019 representations to form a team and investigate against the report conveying fallacious investigation data in idol theft submitted by the then Idol Wing Special Officer A G Pon Manickavel, now retired.

The second prayed for another direction to the two officials to consider his one more plea to form a team and investigate the economic offence piloted by a trust.

In his first petition, Sekaran levelled various charges against Manickavel like he had not located the criminals who committed the theft and smuggling of idols and that the probe conducted by him was inefficient and the investigation reports were not true.

The second one prayed for a probe against a trust for its collection of money. He suspected that the real motive of the trust was to support Pon Manickavel or anyone.

During the course of arguments and on verification of records, the bench found that the petitioner could be the mouthpiece of Kader Basha, who was involved in idol theft cases, along with other accused.

Though it did not entirely reject his submissions in support of his stand that he was a reporter, the bench was of the view that he had filed the petitions to divert the investigation in idol theft cases and at the instance of some third parties to scuttle the cases.

The bench said it was a common sight these days to find posh SUV cars with a "PRESS" sticker on the front windshield and "Human Rights" label in the rear and being driven by unscrupulous fraudsters masquerading as journalists.

There have been quite a number of instances of such fraudsters being booked by police after being caught committing heinous crimes. Politicians, land sharks, smugglers and even murderers have been seen to be hand in glove with these "mafia journalists". These "journalists" have floated fake media associations and unions, enrolling all sorts of anti-social elements as members and issuing them with "PRESS" ID cards, which they in turn use as a money-making device.

The Directorate of Information and Public Relations is aware of this, but the officials turn a blind eye to avoid any wrath in the hands of those fake journalists. This needs to be stopped to ensure that journalism, the fourth pillar of democracy remains clean and strong.

In view of the above position, necessary directions have to be issued to clean up the media in the interest of public, the bench added and issued the directions.

The Council shall have sole authority to recognise press clubs and journalists associations or unions in the state and it shall not allow or recognise formation or continuation of clubs or unions or associations based on caste, community or state boundaries.

It shall conduct and approve elections to these clubs, unions and associations, their management and be vested with the elected team of office bearers only after such approval by the board. It should stipulate a period.

The State Government shall not allot any house or grant free bus passes directly to any applicant journalists and it should only be routed through the Council, which after due diligence can issue such benefits.

It shall prohibit conduct of State conferences or meetings by journalists associations without permission/approval of the Press Council to be constituted, which shall get details on the source of income and other relevant details before giving permission to such meetings.

To curtail the menace of fake journalists, the Council shall have power to identify such persons and lodge complaints against them to jurisdictional police.

Members of the public, as also other affected people, can send their complaints on fake journalists to the welfare board, which shall inquire and initiate criminal action against such fake journalists because they are a menace and a threat to civil society.

The State shall make necessary amendments to the Accreditation Rules within three months and not issue press stickers, ID cards and other benefits, unless the organisation or media house discloses the number of employees, salary slips, TDS details, tax paid to the Government and proof that it sells certain number of copies or has certain viewership.

The government/council shall not issue press ID cards or stickers to the print media, magazines, dailies unless there is proof of circulation of at least 10,000 copies of their daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly and ID cards shall be increased or decreased proportionate to their circulation.

After the constitution of the Council, all journalists organisations shall be kept in suspended animation so that the election could be conducted for those organizations under its supervision, within six months thereafter.

The people aggrieved by the fake news or motivated and agenda-based news could lodge complaints with the Council, which shall summon the news agency or media house or the reporter concerned and probe the veracity of the complaints.

Depending upon the finding, the Council shall have powers to order the source of the offending news item to carry a rejoinder or apology or publish the response of the de facto complainant prominently.

The news agencies or media houses or journalists operating within the jurisdiction of the Council shall be duty bound to receive and respond to the Council's summons and submit the details called for by the Council, the bench said.

The government shall comply with the above directions and file a compliance report within four weeks, failing which the Director, Information and Public Relations Department shall appear before this Court, the judges added.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday lauded his government's 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' as it completed seven years, saying the scheme, which facilitates the unbanked population to open a bank account, has forever transformed India's development trajectory.

It has ensured financial inclusion and a life of dignity as well as empowerment for countless Indians, Modi said, adding that the initiative has also boosted transparency.

"I would like to applaud the untiring efforts of all those who have worked to make PM Jan Dhan a success. Their efforts have ensured the people of India lead a better quality of life." he tweeted.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted that 36.86 crore bank accounts out of the 43.04 crore opened under the programme are operative.

The government has said that financial inclusion of such a vast number of poor population has helped a number of welfare programmes, including cash transfer, in reaching their target population.

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The government on Saturday declared that night curfew would be enforced in the state from next week to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to impose night curfew from 10 PM to 6 AM from next week.

"In areas where the weekly infection population ratio is above seven per cent, the government has decided to implement a lockdown. From next week, there will be night curfew from 10 PM to 6 AM. Night curfew has already been issued for tomorrow," Vijayan said at a press conference here.

Fresh COVID-19 cases crossed the 30,000 mark for the fourth consecutive day in the state on Saturday.

Since July 27, when restrictions were relaxed in the state for a few days on account of two festivals, the state has been logging more than or close to 20,000 case almost every day.

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did not record any new COVID-19 case in the last three days, a health official said on Saturday.

The total COVID-19 cases in the union territory remained at 7,560, he said.

One more person recuperated from COVID-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 7,428, he said.

The archipelago now has only three active COVID-19 cases and all three patients are in the South Andaman district. The other two districts - North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar - are COVID-19 free, the official said.

The COVID-19 death toll in the union territory remained at 129 as no fresh fatality due to the disease was reported in the last 24 hours.

So far 4,82,951 samples have been tested for COVID-19 and the cumulative test positivity rate is 1.57 per cent.

A total of 3,55,383 beneficiaries have been inoculated in the union territory so far, of which 2,51,181 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 1,04,202 have received both doses of the vaccine, he said.

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Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh on Saturday expressed concern over a slight rise in COVID-19 cases over the last few days and appealed to people to celebrate upcoming festivals in a low-key manner.

A slight rise in COVID-19 cases is worrisome. People should strictly follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, he told reporters.

Deshmukh said while experts have been issuing warnings of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, some districts in have indicated a rise in the daily number of infections.

He said the healthcare system should remain vigilant and measures should be taken to minimise the spread of the viral infection.

State-run hospitals should submit their demands of additional staff if they need, which will be immediately addressed by the government. These hospitals should have a sufficient number of oxygen beds to tackle the situation of a sudden rise in demand, Deshmukh said.

on Saturday reported 4,831 new cases and 126 deaths, taking the infection tally to 64,52,273 and death toll to 1,37,026, a state health department official said.

On Friday, the number of new infections was 4,654 and fatalities 170.

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India is fast progressing in discussions on different free-trade agreements (FTAs) with countries, including the and the UAE, to further enhance trade and investment ties, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

Under an FTA, two trading partners reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, they liberalise norms to enhance trade in services and boost investments.

Goyal said India is engaging for such pacts with economies having transparent rule of law and with whom India can have confidence that it will get a fair deal and reciprocal benefits.

"We are fast progressing in our discussions with the UK, with the UAE and other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. Canada and Australia are really on a fast track," Goyal said while addressing the JITO Trade Mahakumbh.

The minister also stated that recently, he had discussions with the USA's Charge'd Affairs in Delhi Atul Keshap, and both agreed to aspire for a USD 500-billion trade between the countries at the earliest possible time.

The world is looking for a trusted partner and that partner is India's business community, he added.

He added that whether it is FDI (foreign direct investment), forex reserves, foodgrain reserves, agriculture production or manufacturing; all sectors are on a growth path.

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The income tax department on Saturday released the much-awaited draft rules for the legislation pertaining to the withdrawal of retrospective amendment in taxation concerning entities including and in lieu of irrevocable withdrawal of all legal cases against the government.

The government passed the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act 2021 in Parliament earlier this month offering a settlement of the retrospective cases pertaining to the 2012 legislation on the offshore indirect transfer of Indian assets.

The draft rules released by the tax department call for a declaration by the companies to irrevocably withdraw, discontinue and not pursue any legal proceedings. These include proceedings before the appellate forum, proceedings for arbitration, conciliation, or mediation, and for enforcing or pursuing attachments in respect of any award, order, or judgement.

The has sought comments on the draft notification by September 4.

"The aim of the amendment made by the 2021 Act is to bring tax certainty and ensure that once specified conditions are fulfilled, the pending income-tax proceedings shall be withdrawn, demand, if any, raised shall be nullified, and amount, if any, collected shall be refunded to the taxpayer without any interest," the income tax department said in a press statement on Saturday.

To implement the amendment made by the 2021 Act, draft rules have been prepared to amend the income-tax Rules, 1962 which specify the conditions to be fulfilled and the process to be followed to give effect to the amendment made by the 2021 Act, it added.

The government has collected Rs 8,000 odd crore from three of the 17 companies  Rs 7,900 crore from Cairn Energy, Rs 44.7 crore from Vodafone, and Rs 48 crore to WNS Capital  which it has proposed to refund under the new legislation if these companies fulfill certain conditions.

These include withdrawal of pending litigation and furnishing of an undertaking to the effect that no claim for cost, damages, interest, etc., would be filed. The amount paid/collected in these cases shall be refunded, without any interest, on fulfillment of the said conditions. The amendment made by the 2021 Act provides that the demand raised for offshore indirect transfer of Indian assets made before 28th May 2012 (including the validation of demand provided under Section 119 of the Finance Act 2012) shall be nullified on fulfillment of the specified conditions.

Sandeep Jhunjhunwala, partner, Nangia Andersen LLP said that interestingly, any dispute with respect to any of the prescribed forms or orders under these rules would be governed by the Indian laws and Indian courts would have the exclusive jurisdiction to decide disputes.
Two Britons and a child of another UK national were killed in the twin bombings at the Kabul airport, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

"I was deeply saddened to learn that two British nationals and the child of another British national were killed by yesterday's terror attack, with two more injured," Raab said in a statement on Friday.

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 US service members, and injuring 158

The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting "translators and collaborators with the American army".

"These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists," the Foreign Secretary said.

Britain's evacuation operation at the has "a matter of hours" left and no more people will be called forward, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that around 15,000 people, the "overwhelming majority" of those eligible to come to the UK, had been evacuated by British troops.

These include Afghans who supported British troops in Afghanistan and British passport holders.

Only four days remain for US-led forces to evacuate from Afghanistan, after Johnson and leaders of other American allies failed to persuade US President Joe Biden to extend the August 31 evacuation deadline during a Group of Seven virtual summit earlier this week.

--IANS

ksk/

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The United States pressed on with the monumental airlift from on Friday amid tighter security measures and fears of more bloodshed, a day after the suicide attack at the Kabul airport that killed well over 100 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

The U.S. warned that more attacks could come ahead of President Joe Biden's fast-approaching deadline to withdraw American forces from by Tuesday.

Two officials said the Afghan death toll in Thursday's bombing rose to 169, while the U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in since August 2011. Biden blamed the attack on Afghanistan's offshoot of the Islamic State group, which is a lethal enemy of both the and the West.

The officials who gave the Afghan death toll were not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity. The number of dead was subject to change as authorities examined the dismembered remains.

The Pentagon also said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber at the airport gate not two, as U.S. officials initially said.

As the call to prayer echoed Friday through Kabul along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds thronging the airport in hope of escaping rule appeared as large as ever despite the bombing. Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners were all acutely aware the window is closing to board a flight before the airlift ends and Western troops withdraw.

The attacks led Jamshad to head there in the morning with his wife and three small children, clutching an invitation to a Western country he didn't want to name.

After the explosion I decided I would try because I am afraid now there will be more attacks, and I think now I have to leave, said Jamshad, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The names of the Afghan victims began emerging and included an news agency founder along with a number of impoverished Afghans who had gone to the airport in hopes of realizing a better life. British officials said two of the country's citizens and the child of another Briton also were among those killed when the bomb exploded in the crowd.

The 13 U.S. service members who died included 10 Marines, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier. The military has not identified them or given a service affiliation for the last victim.

By the morning after the attack, the posted a pickup full of fighters and three captured Humvees and set up a barrier 500 meters (1,600 feet) from the airport, holding the crowds farther back from the U.S. troops at the airport gates than previously.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said in the hours after the bombings that the U.S. would adjust security outside the gates as needed, including possibly asking the Taliban to change the location of their checkpoints.

He said screeners are necessary at the gates to check for weapons and other threats. Somebody has actually got to watch someone else in the eyes and decide that they're ready to come in, McKenzie said.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: "We certainly are prepared and expect future attempts at terror attacks as the evacuation winds down.

In an emotional speech Thursday night, Biden vowed to complete the evacuation and hunt down the Islamic State militants responsible for the carnage. We will rescue the Americans, we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on, Biden said.

The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate is which is far more radical than the Taliban fighters who seized power less than two weeks ago in a lightning blitz across the country.

The Taliban have wrested back control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks. Their return to power has terrified many Afghans, who have rushed to flee the country ahead of the American withdrawal.

The U.S. said more than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, but thousands more are struggling to leave in one of history's largest airlifts.

The White House said Friday morning that 8,500 evacuees had been flown out aboard U.S. military aircraft in the previous 24 hours, along with about 4,000 people on coalition flights. That was about the same total as the day before the attacks.

Outside the airport, Afghans acknowledged that going to the airport was risky but said they had few choices.

Believe me, I think that an explosion will happen any second or minute, God is my witness, but we have lots of challenges in our lives, that is why we take the risk to come here and we overcome fear, said Ahmadullah Herawi.

Many will try to escape over land borders. The U.N. refugee agency said a half-million people or more could flee in a worst-case scenario in the coming months.

But chances to help those hoping to join the evacuation are fading fast. More European allies and other nations were ending their airlifts Friday, in part to give the U.S. time to wrap up its own operations and get 5,000 of its troops out by Tuesday.

The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the U.S. withdrawal, but it is unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants.

Untold numbers of Afghans, especially ones who had worked with the U.S. and other Western countries, are now in hiding, fearing retaliation despite the group's offer of full amnesty.

The new rulers have sought to project an image of moderation in recent weeks a sharp contrast to the harsh rule they imposed from 1996 to 2001, when they required women to be accompanied by a male relative when they left home, banned television and music, and held public executions.

On Friday, the Taliban ministry of public health urged all female employees to resume their duties around the country. It promised no impediment ... to carrying out their work.

Despite the promises, Afghans in Kabul and elsewhere have reported that some Taliban members are barring girls from attending school and going door to door in search of people who worked with Western forces.

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The UK will conclude its evacuation programme of civilians from on Saturday with only troops left to be flown out after that ahead of the August 31 exit deadline, Britain's Chief of Defence Staff said.

General Sir Nick Carter said during media interviews on Saturday that the country should be "holding its breath" at the challenge ahead amid the threat posed by the local Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) terror group, which has been behind suicide bombings this week as the airlift rescue operations have been underway.

Carter said is "not out of the woods yet" as the UK's evacuation efforts following the Taliban takeover draw to a close.

"The plain fact is we have always got that in the back of our minds. For the troops on the ground, they have to be constantly alert and constantly thinking about how they can rebut the threat, he told the Sky News'.

"We should all be holding our breath and thinking of the last aeroplane and what a challenge it will be for those people trying to effect their departure," he said.

"We're reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today, and then of course it'll be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft, General Carter told the BBC.

"It's gone as well as it could do in the circumstances... but we haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking and there have been some very challenging judgements that have had to be made on the ground," he said.

The general admitted that the reality is that not everyone will get out.

"Not a day passes where I don't have a tear in my eye over that," said Carter.

"It's not how we hoped it would end, that's absolutely right I think we have done an extraordinary job to evacuate as many as we can but I'm afraid it's absolutely heart-breaking we can't get everybody out, he said. "If they are able to get out they will always be welcome but the awful fact of life is difficult decisions have to be made," he added.

On Friday, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the UK had evacuated 14,543 people from Kabul since August 13.

This includes British nationals as well as nearly 8,000 Afghans eligible under the UK's relocation scheme for those who worked for the UK government and other vulnerable individuals.

However, the government has said that between 800 and 1,100 eligible Afghans and 100 to 150 Britons have not been evacuated, with senior Cabinet ministers issuing a joint letter to fellow members of Parliament in an effort to reassure them about ongoing efforts.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, along with Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, said that attention would now turn to help those left behind to try to find a way to leave Afghanistan, which fell to the Taliban last week.

They acknowledged that "every single" MP would have been contacted with "heartbreaking stories of those left behind in unimaginable circumstances".

Let us reassure you that we will continue to use every lever at our disposal to secure the safe passage of those who wish to leave and to hold the Taliban to account, they wrote.

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China's defence ministry protested Saturday the passage of a US Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China.

A statement posted on the ministry's website called the move provocative and said it shows that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability and creator of security risks in the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Strait.

We express firm opposition and strong condemnation, the statement said.

The USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed through the strait Friday in waters, the US Navy said. Such exercises are seen as a warning to China, which recently conducted drills near and has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring the island under its control.

The ships' lawful transit through the Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, a statement from the Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said.

Taiwan, home to 23.6 million people, split from China during a civil war that led to the Communist Party taking control of the mainland in 1949. The US does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a representative office in the capital, Taipei, and is its biggest supplier of military equipment for its defense.

The US Coast Guard has been stepping up its presence in Asia, as the Chinese coast guard patrols near disputed islands that both China and other governments claim in the South and East China Seas.

The 418-foot (127-meter) long Munro, which is based in Alameda, California, arrived in the region in mid-August for what the U.S. Coast Guard said would be a monthslong deployment. It trained with a Japanese coast guard ship, the Aso, in the East China Sea for two days earlier this week.

The US and Taiwan coast guards held talks this month after the two signed a cooperation agreement in March. China has denounced the agreement.

Saturday's defence ministry statement said that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and that China would not tolerate any interference in what it called its internal affairs.

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With a US intelligence community report failing to determine the origins of the COVID-19, including whether it leaked from a lab, a relieved has said the allegation by Washington that it stalled probe and resisted in sharing information about the was aimed at politicising and stigmatising the issue of the origin of the deadly virus.

The US intelligence community in its report on Friday concluded that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was "not developed" as a biological weapon, with President Joe Biden reiterating that continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information about the origins of the virus.

Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in China, "yet from the beginning, government officials in have worked to prevent investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it," Biden said after acknowledging the receipt of the report.

The Director of the US National Intelligence in the report said that COVID-19 probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

However, there was no unanimity among the intelligence community (IC) on the origins of the and the intelligence community was split on whether it leaked from a lab in China or emerged in nature.

Despite criticism in the report of China's reluctance to provide key information and blocking a probe, the report is regarded here as a major relief for China as it has failed to pin the blame on Beijing and was much on the same lines as the first probe conducted by WHO experts.

Soon after its release in Washington, China said the "report fabricated by the US intelligence community is not scientifically credible.

The report by the US intelligence community has not produced an exact answer the US side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science, it said.

The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts. There has been no lack of 'masterpieces' by the US intelligence community, official media here quoted a Chinese Embassy statement in Washington as saying.

The assertion of lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for its politicising and stigmatising campaign. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude, it said and listed the release of genome sequencing of the virus besides Wuhan authorities releasing the first suspected cases on December 27, 2019.

The virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, has become a global pandemic claiming millions of lives all over the world and creating enormous suffering and huge economic losses as countries have to go on repeated lockdowns to curtail the fast spreading virus.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, the deadly virus has so far infected 215,290,716 people and claimed 4,483,136 lives globally.

The US is the worst-hit nation with a total of 38,682,072 infections and 636,565 deaths recorded so far.

Referring to the visit of a joint WHO-China team to Wuhan in March this year, which had spent four weeks visiting various places, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China's statement said the experts team had concluded that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal and the leak of the virus from the lab was extremely unlikely pathway.

But WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, while receiving the report, said as far as the WHO is concerned, all hypotheses remain on the table leaving the question hanging in the air again, much to the chagrin of China.

China has been stalling a 2nd WHO experts probe insisting that such an investigation should probe its allegations that the virus has emerged from different parts of the world around the same time while it only reported first.

On origin-tracing, China has followed a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach. We are the first to cooperate with the WHO on global origin-tracing, and we have invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations twice in China, the statement said.

The report by the US intelligence community shows that the US is bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation, it said, reiterating that Washington should probe the US bio-lab Fort Detrick located in Maryland.

The US has been shying away from tracing the origin in the United States and closing the door on any such possibility. If the US side is 'transparent and responsible', it should make public and examine the data of its early cases, it said.

Isn't it necessary for the US side to invite WHO experts to Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC) for investigation? the statement said, alleging that the American bio-lab has long been engaged in research and modification.

China always supports and will continue to participate in science-based origin-tracing. What we are against is political manipulation, presumption of guilt and putting blame on others, it said.

Any Phase II origins study must be a comprehensive extension of Phase I and conducted in multiple places and countries to find out the truth, it said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
hosts a regional conference Saturday aimed at easing tensions in the and emphasising the Arab country's new role as mediator.

Among the invitees are archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry has often played out in and other countries, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia has said it would be represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. It was not clear what kind of representation Iran would have at the conference.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordan's King Abdullah were expected to participate, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in Baghdad early Sunday. France is co-organising the meeting, which is expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Sunday's meeting is a chance for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to showcase his recent efforts to portray as a neutral mediator in the region's crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Earlier this year, the country hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials. The talks signaled a possible de-escalation following years of animosity that often spilled into neighbouring countries and at least one still-raging war.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen.

There has been talk, however, of the potential for Saudi Arabia to reopen its embassy in Tehran, which was ransacked and shuttered following outrage over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric in early 2016.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates have called for any nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran to also address its ballistic missile program and support for militias.

Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime US ally, will work in its favour during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

For Iraq, hosting the talks is seen as a significant step. After decades of conflict, the country is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the country's top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government has decided to accept evacuees from -- mostly transiting passengers to stay for a limited period -- only in capital Islamabad, dropping plans of using Karachi and Lahore as two other transport bases, according to a media report on Saturday.

The US embassy here had requested the government to help in the evacuation efforts ahead of the August 31 deadline to completely withdraw from to cap its longest foreign war, spanning over 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Officials said that the Embassy sought permission for landing or transiting the passengers under three categories: US diplomats/citizens, Afghan nationals and people from other countries.

About 4,000 people, including the Afghans who supported the NATO forces during the war, were expected to be brought to Karachi and Islamabad for stay before being flown to the US.

However, official sources told the Geo News that the federal government would be using Karachi and Lahore airports only as standby options, restricting the entry of the Afghan evacuees to only Islamabad.

The transit passengers would be present in Islamabad only for a few hours, before being flown to pre-decided countries.

Only emergency cases would be permitted accommodation in hotels in Islamabad, the sources told Geo News



The plan to suspend entry of evacuees to Lahore and Karachi was taken in view of security concerns.

The Sindh government has been alerted of the changed plans, the news report said.

Officials said security has been increased around the Islamabad airport and the main highway linking the airport with the capital.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Board announced a special citation Friday for people in who risked their safety to help produce news stories and images from their war-torn country.

From staff and freelance correspondents to interpreters to drivers to hosts, courageous Afghan residents helped produce Pulitzer-winning and Pulitzer-worthy images and stories that have contributed to a wider understanding of profoundly tragic and complicated circumstances, the board said.

The citation comes with a USD 100,000 emergency relief grant intended to help men and women involved in journalism in either resettle or to continue their work safely.

The Western pullout and the swift Taliban takeover of have left thousands of people, including journalists, fearing retribution under the new regime. President Joe Biden has set a Tuesday deadline to withdraw American forces.

The Pulitzer Board's citation came a day after a suicide attack at the Kabul airport killed well over 100 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

It's critical in a moment of stark threat to support those Afghans whose bravery, skill, and commitment to the ideals of a free press have helped create so much important journalism in recent decades, said board co-chairs Katherine Boo, Gail Collins and John Daniszewski.

The grant will be administered by the not-for-profit Committee to Protect Journalists.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) said that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a major contract to Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) worth Rs 1349.95 crore.

The contract is for the manufacturing integrated anti-submarine warfare defence suite (IADS) for modern warships of Indian Navy.

Competitive bids from Indian companies were invited by MoD through open tender wherein the systems fielded were put through detailed trials at sea to prove their capability.

IADS is a high-end underwater equipment that uses latest technology. It is designed to detect and protect warships from underwater threats. It is a versatile system capable of operations from all sizes of warships - small, medium, and large.

The complex array of sensors in water undertakes surveillance and provides inputs for signal processing and analysis. The warship then employs methods to neutralize the underwater threats.

SP Shukla, chairman, Mahindra Defence Systems, said, "It is the first major contract with the private sector meant for underwater detection and protection from threats. This contract once again epitomizes the success of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative."

This advanced technology system is the first of its kind being developed by an Indian company for Indian Navy. Mahindra Defence qualified by proving the capability of the system through comprehensive testing by the Indian MoD in actual operations at sea before being declared as winner on commercial bid. Mahindra Defence would be supplying 14 IADS Systems for the Indian Navy warships.

Mahindra Defence is engaged in catering to needs of all three wings of the defence forces - Army, Navy and Airforce. Its product range include armoured vehicles, underwater warfare equipment, radars and surveillance equipment, etc.

M&M's business is diversified across farm equipment, auto and automotive components, real estate, hospitality, information technology, defence and aerospace and financial services.

M&M reported a net profit of Rs 162.54 crore in Q4 FY21 as against a net loss of Rs 3255.02 crore in Q4 FY20. Net revenue from operations increased by 48.1% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 13,338.15 crore during the quarter.

The M&M scrip shed 0.80% to end at Rs 775.10 on Friday.

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Within hours of announcing his plans to float a political outfit ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls, former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur was arrested from his residence in Lucknow on Friday on serious charges, including abetment of suicide of a rape victim and her friend in Delhi recently.

The 24-year-old woman, who had accused Bahujan Samaj Party MP Atul Rai of rape in May 2019, died on August 24 after she and her friend Satyam Rai set themselves afire outside the Supreme Court complex on August 16.

Before the suicide, both had shared their pain on social media with the people.

A video showed Amitabh Thakur resisting arrest and trying to clamber on to the roof of the police vehicle outside his residence. He was heard saying, "I will not go unless I am given a copy of the FIR." He was then shoved into the vehicle.

In a tweet, the former IPS officer said, "The police have forcibly taken me to Hazratganj Kotwali without giving any reason."



After his arrest, Amitabh Thakur was taken to a hospital for medical examination and produced in the CJM court before being sent to jail, Hazratganj police said.

Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur confirmed that the former IPS officer has been arrested in a case registered after the death of the rape victim.

Director General of Police Mukul Goel in a statement on Friday said, "In connection with the self-immolation attempt by the victim and her aide before the Supreme Court on August 16, the government had constituted an inquiry committee which in its interim investigation report, found BSP MP from Ghosi, Atul Rai and Amitabh Thakur prima facie guilty of abetting the victim and her associate witness to commit suicide and of other charges and also recommended registering a case against them."



He said following this, a case has been registered against MP Atul Rai and Amitabh Thakur and the investigation has been started. Amitabh Thakur has been arrested during the course of probe, the DGP said.

It has been alleged in the report that a total of seven cases were registered by the accused, Atul Rai, against the victim and her witness. It also claimed that Amitabh Thakur took money from Atul Rai for fabricating false evidence against the rape victim for maligning her image and inciting the woman to commit suicide.

According to police sources, the case has been registered under section 120-B (conspiracy), 195-A (intimidation to produce false evidence), 218 (preparation of false record by public servant to save any person from punishment), 306 (abetment to suicide), 504 (breach of public peace) and 506 (intimidation) against MP Atul Rai and Amitabh Thakur on a complaint of Senior Sub-Inspector Dayashankar Dwivedi in Hazratganj Kotwali on the instructions of the inquiry committee.

Meanwhile, the family of the rape victim in Ballia told newspersons that they had hope of getting justice under the Yogi Adityanath government.

The brother of the victim said that the family would decide on further strategy after seeing what action is taken by the government.

"The family wants justice for her as it is for justice that she gave her life. She kept fighting for justice everywhere but to no avail," the brother said.

Earlier, her grandfather had accused the BSP MP Atul Rai of threatening the family by sending his aides to their house.

Reacting to Amitabh Thakur's arrest, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at the BJP government in the state.

"The BJP's survives only by creating rifts among people. Now due to the pressure of the BJP government, the police are compelled to work against the police. Such a treatment to a retired IPS is unforgivable," he tweeted in Hindi.

The former cadre IPS officer on Friday morning had announced that he would soon form a new political party.

Amitabh Thakur was given compulsory retirement ahead of time by the government and he had announced to contest against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the assembly elections to be held early next year.

He was given compulsory retirement on March 23 in "public interest" following a decision taken by the Union Home Ministry.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CAC said that several online platforms and social media accounts had repeatedly violated laws and regulations by publishing distorted interpretations of economic policies, spreading rumors and committing extortion. Photo: VCG

Chinas internet regulator has launched a campaign to scour financial information considered damaging to the economy from online platforms and social media accounts.

In a statement Friday (link in Chinese), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) pledged to target illegal activity on financial information platforms, financial self-media and other social media accounts, and the finance sections of commercial platforms that compile and publish information about finance and economics.

The term self-media, or zimeiti (), in China refers to citizens who independently run accounts that produce news and other content. The accounts are not officially registered with authorities.

The first phase of the campaign started Friday and will last until Oct. 26, the statement said.

The CAC will work with other departments, such as the Ministry of Finance and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, to carry out the campaign, aiming to curb the chaotic spread of financial information online and create a healthy public opinion environment on the internet, the statement said.

The CAC said that several online platforms and social media accounts had repeatedly violated laws and regulations by publishing distorted interpretations of economic policies, spreading rumors and committing extortion.

Late last month, the cyberspace authority launched a three-month campaign (link in Chinese) to make social media platforms including WeChat and Weibo correct their misconduct, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Practices like spreading false information and malicious marketing remain a problem, the report said.

According to a 2017 guideline (link in Chinese) issued by the CAC, the applicants for editorial and publishing services are limited to news outlets, as well as agencies controlled by or affiliated to official publicity departments. Except for them, other agencies can only apply for services of sharing and platform dissemination.

Private capital shall not be involved in the collecting and editing businesses of online news information, which includes reports and commentary on the economy, military, diplomacy or politics, the guideline said.

Online platforms and social media accounts that attempt to maliciously short stocks, bid up stock prices, or hype regional property market fluctuations will be banned as these kinds of activities can disrupt the market, the Friday statement said.

In addition, authorities will ban platforms and accounts that distort Chinas financial policies and economic data, or maliciously bad mouth Chinas financial market.

The CAC will shut down some platforms and accounts that share overseas reports or comments in which Chinese financial and economic hot topics are misinterpreted, the statement said. It will also shut down platforms and accounts that spread rumors using language like exclusive news and people familiar with the matter.

The authority will also punish those who take advantage of negative news to incite anxiety and panic in order to promote their own products and services, such as finance classes and insurance policies.

Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

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The China Manned Space Engineering Office released a series of photos taken by Shenzhou-12 crew members on Tuesday, attracting great interest online. The aerial photos present overhead views of different continents as seen from space, including the Ethiopian highlands and the Pacific Ocean. Crew members completed their second spacewalk on Aug. 20. The three astronauts  Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming  are set to return to Earth in mid-September

Sep 01, 2021 05:36 PM
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This letter is in response to Adam Wilsons recent article entitled City Is A Real Estate Mogul.

As real estate department manager, I take my role as steward of the citys real estate assets seriously. While I appreciate the passion articulated in Mr. Wilsons article, there are number of clarifications and additional information that the public should be aware of.

With respect to the citys portfolio of 34 residential rental properties, the majority of these sites have been pro-actively acquired by the city to facilitate future park and transportation objectives.

As such, the properties are managed by the city on a temporary basis with the complementary goals of providing residential rental opportunities for as long as possible, providing an interim financial benefit, and ensuring the lands are readily available when needed by the city.

Staff evaluate rental interest in city properties in a manner that is fair and equitable, holistically considering all components of a rental application, including price, rental history, and character references. The city has also partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association to make suitable city rental properties available for the use of CMHAs clients. Lastly, it should be noted that a significant portion of the net rental income generated by these properties is directed into funding and development of new parks within our community.

With respect to the disposition of municipal lands (such as the former Husky and McDonalds sites referenced in the article), the city aims to balance a mix of financial, social and environmental objectives. Given key site characteristics such as location, configuration, and land use designation, the Husky and McDonalds properties were specifically targeted to achieve architectural excellence, enhancement of the pedestrian interface along Hwy. 97, and the extension of Mill Creek Linear Park.

We also anticipate that bids for the properties may include components such as affordable housing, seniors housing, community space and/or child-care services - all of which will be considered in conjunction with the overall quality and content of the submissions. An example of a similar recent disposition is the long-term lease of the city-owned site at 350 Doyle Avenue.

In addition to financial compensation, the community will benefit from the addition of 6,000-square-feet of community space (valued at $1.8M) and the extension of the Artwalk (valued at $2.3M). Previous dispositions the Citys Real Estate team has been involved with were instrumental in facilitating the development of the Innovation Centre, a new home for the citys entrepreneurial technology community, and the Interior Health building at 505 Doyle Avenue, consolidating over 800 Interior Health employees and staff in one centralized downtown location.

Mr. Wilsons article also makes reference to the City of Surreys partnership with BC Housing to deliver supportive housing units within that community. Your readers should be aware of the significant resources the City of Kelowna  working directly in partnership with BC Housing  has committed to meet our communitys most urgent housing needs.

Most recently, this includes the acquisition of 1055-1063 Ellis for $1.8M to facilitate the development of 38 supportive housing units, the long-term lease of the city-owned site at 555 Fuller Avenue (assessed at $2.8M) to facilitate the development of 68 affordable housing units, and the successful proposal to develop 33 affordable housing units on the City-owned property at 155-165 Dougall Road (assessed at $1.1M).

In all, our strong partnership with BC Housing has led to the delivery of over 415 supportive housing units in our community since 2017, exceeding the 300-unit target outlined in the Journey Home strategy.

City staff realize and value the importance of working together with our provincial partners to deliver the services and resources needed within our community  and we have a long history of working together with organizations such as BC Housing directly for this purpose.

I appreciate that in todays economic climate, real estate invokes a passion and excitement that few other sectors can match. Our decisions in administering this valuable resource are guided by the citys Land Strategy, and our goal is to maximize the overall community benefit we achieve in leveraging the value  financial, social, and environmental  that real estate can unlock.

In the end, this is an asset that all of us who call Kelowna home, share.

If you have questions or comments further to this letter, or have ideas or suggestions on how to better manage this valuable resource, please dont hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 250-469-8658.

Johannes Saufferer, Real Estate Dept. Manager, City of Kelowna
I firmly feel that passports are necessary to stop the spread of the covid virus especially in locations such as restaurants, movie theatres and large sporting events that are indoors. I hope the government shuts down businesses that flagrantly defy this mandate.

People who arent able to get vaccinated and the immune-compromised also have rights. We also have to stop the drain on our emergency rooms and healthcare workers.

Gail Voykin
Photo: The Canadian Press NDP leader Jagmeet Singh respond to questions after meeting with Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, right, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, in Winnipeg, on Thursday.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pledging financial breaks for Canadian students, vowing to do away with interest on federal student loans "immediately and permanently" as well as forgive student debt.

Singh spoke Saturday at a campaign stop outside of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., ahead of the Sept. 20 federal election.

Singh says students have been among the Canadians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic and forgiving their debt would give youth a necessary leg up.

Laurentian recently had nearly 60 undergraduate programs and 11 graduate programs axed amid a restructuring plan, which Singh says "could have been avoided" with aid from the federal government under Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

Singh says Laurentian is vital to the North, calling the recent cuts "a devastating blow" to Indigenous and Francophone communities in the area.

Singh is also calling for a national vaccine passport, saying the federal government has a role to play in providing Canadians with proof of vaccination that would make international and local travel easier.
Photo: The Canadian Press Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole gives a thumbs up to supporters after a campaign rally Friday.

Erin O'Toole warned supporters Saturday that they're not welcome on the Conservative campaign if they engage in harassment and intimidation of other party leaders.

The warning came one day after several Conservative campaign workers were spotted among a crowd of raucous protesters who forced the cancellation of a Liberal event featuring Justin Trudeau in Bolton, Ont.

At least four volunteers for local Conservative MP Kyle Seeback were photographed among the angry, obscenity-spewing crowd, wearing blue "Team Seeback" t-shirts.

Seeback issued a statement late Friday saying those individuals are no longer welcome on his campaign.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also condemned the protesters, saying no one should have to cancel an event over safety concerns.

O'Toole insisted Saturday there's no room in the Conservative campaign for negativity.

"We're running on a positive campaign for the future of this country," he said during a stop in Fredericton, N.B.

"I strongly condemn any form of harassment and protest the like we've seen. We're a democracy, we should be having a healthy and respectful debate of ideas and we have no time for people who bring in negativity to campaigning."

O'Toole appealed to everyone to "put the country and our democracy first" and said that's the behaviour he expects from "every single member of our team, from the leader to the first time someone's volunteering."

Trudeau has been dogged by protesters throughout the campaign, most of them voicing angry opposition to mandatory vaccinations, masks and lock downs that have been implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

A planned event in Bolton on Friday evening was cancelled because, Trudeau said later, the RCMP determined that it could not keep attendees safe.

Questions have arisen over who is organizing and potentially funding the protesters.

One man who showed up to heckle Trudeau at an event in Ancaster, Ont. earlier in the week, turned up the next day at a Trudeau event in Surrey, B.C. He declined to give his name but when asked by reporters if someone was paying him to follow the leader around the country, he said, "Maybe."

The Liberal campaign has been avoiding making the specific location of many Trudeau events public, partly to limit the number of their own supporters who show up during the pandemic but also to curb opportunities for protesters to organize.

But protesters appear to be mobilizing through social media, using the Twitter hashtag #hateclub and Facebook groups such as "Ontario Protests and Freedom to Assemble Information Page."

The purported "administrator" of that page is a Barrie, Ont., woman named Zelda Orser. She did not return phone calls Saturday.

She posted a message Friday detailing the time and location of Trudeau's Bolton event and inquiring whether anyone was "going to heckle" him.

A person using the #hateclub hashtag wondered on Twitter whether someone was going to punch Trudeau in his "communist face."

Some Liberal supporters on Twitter drew a link Saturday between that kind of sentiment and Conservative ads on social media, which feature a boxer punching through glass with the tag line "fight back for Canada's recovery."

But O'Toole, who has rejected Trudeau's calls for mandatory vaccinations for everyone in federally regulated workplaces and for a federal fund to help provinces create vaccine passports, rejected suggestions that he shares some responsibility for inflaming protesters.

He reiterated that he encourages all Canadians to get vaccinated but respects their personal choice.

"We will always respect people making their personal health decisions," he said, adding that he will similarly honour provinces' right to decide whether to create so-called passports that would enable people to show proof of vaccination.

At least some of the protesters appear to share views with supporters of former U.S. president Donald Trump, seemingly importing many of the conspiracy theories prevalent among his followers which led to last January's violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.

In a live videostream of the Bolton event, protesters can be heard calling Trudeau a criminal, a communist, a murderer and a pedophile and berating police for being "pedophile protectors."

In the video, posted on Facebook by a self-identified American woman named Dawn M. McKinley, a woman can be heard saying that if Trudeau wins the election, it will be because it was "rigged."

Despite their professed concern about exploitation of children, some of the protesters were accompanied by their young kids and can be heard laughing when one little girl shouts "F--- Trudeau," echoing the chant of adults around her.

Earlier in the week, during Trudeau's event in Surrey, one protester yelled at Trudeau, "We will end you" while another shouted that no one wants him to breathe.

The number and vigilance of police in Trudeau's security detail have increased during this campaign. The Liberals declined to comment on security arrangements.

The RCMP, who are responsible for the prime minister's security, did not respond to a request for comment Saturday, including a question on why no one has been arrested at any of the events despite their intimidating behaviour.

Trudeau is not the only politician to be targeted.

Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel-Garner released a statement Saturday saying politicians, particularly women, are frequently on the receiving end of "violent language, threats and abuse."

In the past two weeks, Rempel Garner said she's been chased down the street by two different men with cameras demanding her response to "conspiracy theories." On Friday night, she said she and her husband were "accosted by a large man who aggressively approached us" while dining at a restaurant.

"I have also received a death threat from someone who called my office in escalating states of verbal abuse over the course of days," she said.

"This meant I can't advertise the location of my campaign office. I can't attend public events where my attendance has been advertised. I've had to enhance security measures. I'm on edge and feel fear when I'm getting in and out of my car, and out in public in general."

Rempel Garner suggested legislation may be necessary to enhance the ability to prosecute "criminal harassment."

"A line has to be drawn," she said.

Singh also spoke out against the toxicity of Friday's protests against Trudeau.

"No one should have to cancel their events where we have students, we have young people, we have volunteers, we have organizers, no one should have to cancel an event because they're worried about a danger to the safety of people coming out to a political event," he said during a campaign stop in Sudbury, Ont.

"That should never have happened. And that's wrong."

But Singh also noted that the vast majority of Canadians agree with getting vaccinated and want to "take care of one another."

He reiterated his call for a national vaccine passport.

Trudeau took a day off the campaign trail Saturday. But the Liberals unveiled two new ads, in one of which the Liberal leader doubles down on his criticism of O'Toole's stance on mandatory vaccinations.

I believe that vaccines should be mandatory for travel on planes and trains, because thats how well protect our kids and get back to normal, he says in the ad, which features a clip of Trudeau receiving his own jab.

Conservative politicians say they would scrap our plan, and wont even require their own candidates to get vaccinated. This is no time to back down from doing the right thing.

The federal election is scheduled for Sept. 20.
At least 12 US service members and 60 Afghans were killed in an attack at Kabul's airport. NOTE: Some footage has been blurred for graphic content. (Source: CNN, POOL, HAROON ZARIFY (PREFONTED), GOOGLE EARTH, DVID, CNN via CNN Wire)
'This strike was not the last,' says Biden on drone strike against ISIS-K in Afghanistan
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Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

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Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 61F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Information about "lights out" in Danville; Gov. Northam today pardoned seven Martinsville men who were executed for rape; Traffic advisories go up for events at the Blue Ridge Amphitheater; Lynn Street Market has shut down its store in Danville's River District.




Earl Freudenberg has joined the Chattanooga Funeral Home team. Mr. Freudenberg retired in 2016 after 55 years in broadcasting. He is known around town as Hey Earl. Beginning in 1962, Mr. Freudenberg worked for radio stations WAPO, WDOD and WDEF in Chattanooga. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and was stationed in Frankfurt, West Germany as an announcer at the American Forces Network Europe. Tennessee broadcasters gave Mr. Freudenberg the Associated Press Broadcaster of the Year award in 1981. He has been inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame and the Tri-State Gospel Music Hall of Fame.Mr. Freudenberg is a native Chattanoogan and knows the community well.He was educated in Hamilton County Schools and attended the University of Chattanooga. He is married to the former Julie Brown, of Red Bank. They have two children, Amy and Mark, and two granddaughters, Rachel and Juliana.Mr. Freudenberg is involved in the community, Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Vietnam Veterans Chattanooga Chapter, Chattanooga Area Veterans Council, and an active member of Calvary Bible Church in Chattanooga. He served on both the Armed Forces Week Committee and Police and Fire Departments Forgotten Child Fund for over 30 years.Mr. Freudenberg said, Since my retirement, Ive wanted to do something productive to help people. Having spent half of my career hosting a talk show, I feel Im a good listener and my broadcasting skills can be applied in this new job in a positive fashion.Vice President Stephen Pike said, We are honored that Earl is now a part of the Chattanooga Funeral Home family.President Eugene Pike stated, Earl has been heavily involved in our community and he is a legend in the Chattanooga area, serving Chattanooga for over 50 years in broadcasting.
Ryan Knauss, of Knoxville, was among the 13 U.S. military personnel killed in an attack by the Taliban at the Kabul Airport.

The 23-year-old was a graduate of Gibbs High School.

He left behind his wife, Alena.

Senator Bill Hagerty said, On behalf of all Tennesseans, Chrissy and I extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Ryan Knauss.

The Bible teaches us that greater love has no one than this, than to lay down ones life for ones friends. Thats what Ryan and 12 fellow service members did yesterday.

"Ryan will be remembered as a brave, honorable, and heroic man - a Tennessee volunteer - who, with a servants heart, gave everything of himself at just 23 years old for his state and the country that he loved dearly.

"My prayers are with the Knauss family, the community of Corryton, those across our state who knew Ryan, and everyone in our country who is grieving the loss of one of these 13 courageous members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Senator Marsha Blackburn said, "Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss of Knoxville was among those service members killed during yesterdays terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. Ryan embodies American heroism - saving people he had never met before, in the face of persistent evil.

"We will never forget his sacrifice in service to his country. While no words could ever be enough, I join Tennesseans - and all Americans - in extending my deepest condolences to Ryans family. Chuck and I are praying for them during this time of unimaginable pain and loss.
The events currently transpiring in Afghanistan have left me heartbroken. I spent several years in the Middle East, commanding U.S. soldiers in Iraq and as the senior adviser to Afghanistans Minister of the Interior. The way we left Afghanistan felt like we pulled the rug out from under a 20-year commitment paid in life, treasure, and blood.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Americans and NATO allies agreed that Taliban rule over parts of the Middle East was a national security threat to us all. Citizens from all walks joined the military, Congress voted, and the presidents office affirmed: we needed to deploy to the region. Our mission was to punish the Taliban for harboring Al-Qaeda and allowing them to plot terrorist attacks across the globe. With the support of American soldiers and allied forces, the Afghans made significant progress towards that goal and began to establish a democratic and inclusive system. That system allowed women, children, and young girls to experience new freedoms and attend school and universities.

I agree that no one desired to stay in Afghanistan forever. Not only did I serve in the region, but my son did as well. Two generations of the King family serving in one war is too much, but an organized and well-managed withdrawal was needed. Yet the actions of our current administration left not only our Afghan partners and numerous American citizens at risk, but forfeited the gains made towards a democratic nation. The result: lives are being lost, chaos has ensued, and individual liberties are being threatened. Our hasty withdrawal also eroded our trust with our NATO allies and severely damaged the relationships we need for future conflicts.

I served as a senior advisor to the Afghanistans Minister of Interior, who commanded their national police force of about 93,000 officers. I traveled the region for 13 months without American security, relying on Afghan forces to keep me safe. I will never forget the bonds I built during that time.

Since the Talibans resurgence, many of those fighters I worked with have contacted me. They have gone into hiding, expecting to face certain death, with the disturbing reality that their families will not be able to experience the freedoms and liberties they worked so hard to establish. They are pleading for help getting their wives, children, and especially their daughters out of the region. Already the Taliban is asking for all women above the age of 15 to be identified so they can be married off to Taliban fighters.

Over the last two decades, we were able to scale down our forces in the region and provide minimal non-combative support to the democratic government and maintain law and order in the country. Immediately upon hastily removing these boots on the ground, we saw horrific scenes of desperation and a humanitarian crisis unfolding in front of our eyes. The news clips from the Kabul Airport will forever replay in my mind.

I know service to this nation is indeed a privilege, and I dont take it lightly, but I cant help but worry if the sacrifices of our servicemen and their devotion to this country were made in vain. I fear that we will be forced to return to Afghanistan in the future to restore 20 years of progress that was washed away in a matter of days.

Please join me in praying for Afghanistan and our unwavering servicemen.

Commissioner John King
Today I read that we have 78 COVID patients in our ICUs and 265 patients in the hospital. The hospitals are having to curtail anything but urgent surgeries and medical procedures.

Erlangers emergency room is jampacked full of patients just waiting to get admitted. Often times, they never see a hospital bed before they are discharged. Our nurses and medical personnel are exhausted.

Against this backdrop, Memorial Hospital and Blue Cross simply have to work out their differences before the deadline next week. There is no way for Blue Cross patients to get the care that they need and pay for if Erlanger is the only in-network option. There are not enough beds, ICUs and operating rooms at Erlanger to take care of Blue Crosss insured patients in our region.

Both Memorial Hospital and Blue Cross have a moral obligation to our community to iron out their differences in this time of medical crisis.

Vincent Viscomi, MD






An employee of Murphy Express, 6398 Lee Hwy., told police that a person stole Oreos. They said the thief was a white male driving a white GMC Cobra. The vehicle was last seen driving north on Lee Highway towards Shallowford Road.

* * *

A man on Bellflower Circle reported a theft from his car. He told police he believes that his 2014 Ford Fusion was unlocked. He said everything inside was tossed about and his wallet and its contents were stolen from the center console.

* * *

An employee of the Exxon gas station, 2301 4th Ave., told police they have had problems with people loitering on their property. She mentioned a black female with short red twists in her hair. Police located and identified the woman. She told police she was not told to leave and that she would, without incident, if told to leave. Such was done and she was told to leave knowing she would be arrested if she returned, as such would be trespassing.

* * *

The boss at Mayer Electric, 799 E 11th St., told police he wishes to have the homeless population removed from his property and issued warnings for first time offenses for trespassing. If a person returns that has been already warned he/she is subject to arrest for trespassing. He did say he would press charges.

* * *

A verbal disorder was reported at a residence on Hickory Brook Road. Police spoke to a couple and a woman who said they were arguing about the care that the woman was providing and she told them that she was not taking care of them and walked out of the house to the neighbors house and called police. They were able to settle the situation and the woman left the residence for the evening.

* * *

Police were called for a disorder prevention at a residence on Central Avenue while a woman gathered her belongings. She was able to get all items without issue.

* * *

Police were called about a man causing a disorder on Fagan Street. When police arrived, the man causing the disorder was gone.

* * *

Police responded to a disorder at the Village Apartments, 701 N. Germantown Road. A man told police he did some work on a woman's car. He said she came to pick it up, but she did not have the $40 that she owed him. She told him her mom would bring it by after she got off work, so he told her that he would keep her keys until he was paid. This made her mad and before police could talk to her and get her information, she yelled that she was not going to pay him and went into an apartment and shut the door.

* * *

A woman on Shallowford Road told police that her car had been stolen. She said she drove her car home to the apartments and parked it in front of her unit around 5:30 p.m. the evening before. She said that around 7 p.m. that evening her boyfriend walked his parents outside to their car and did not see her car. She said she woke up this morning and also did not see her car in the parking spot she left it in. She said she called her insurance company and then called the police. She said that her vehicle is a silver 2016 Audi with a crack in the windshield. She said she had the keys to her vehicle and it was locked at the time of the incident. She said that where her car was parked, she found some of her property that had been inside her car. She said she wanted to press charges for the theft. Her car was entered into NCIC.

* * *

A man at Dogwood Manor, 959 Gateway Ave., called police about some property he left when he was arrested there. He said he was told it was okay if he left his property in the foyer area and he would be able to retrieve it once he was released from jail. He told police the property management had his belongings thrown out and he needed a report to take to small claims court for his property.

* * *

A manager at the CVS Pharmacy, 1301 Dorchester Road, told police they had someone conceal and take merchandise. The manager was able to get a vehicle description and tag number. The listed items in property were recovered on scene and dropped by the thieves. However, he said it is possible they still had merchandise they stole. The manager will send police videos and footage of the incident.

* * *

A woman on N. Moore Road told police that she and her neighbor were in a dispute over numerous things, including a washing machine, trash belonging to her neighbor in her trash can and loud music coming from her neighbor's side of the duplex. Police spoke with the neighbor, who said he would try and clean up the trash and keep the music at a lower level. The washing machine was no longer disputed once police arrived.
American Horror Story Season 10, Double Feature, finally debuted on Aug. 25 on FX. For the first time, the anthology series will feature two separate but connected stories in one season. The first half, called Red Tide, follows a small family moving to Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Among the American Horror Story Season 10 cast members is Lily Rabe, who plays an interior designer named Doris. However, when Doris presents her Instagram account in episode 1, many fans noticed something suspicious  and a little awkward.

[Spoiler alert: The following story contains spoilers for American Horror Story Season 10 Episodes 1 and 2.]

Lily Rabe as Doris Gardner in American Horror Story Season 10 | Frank Ockenfels/FX

American Horror Story Season 10 sees Lily Rabe as Doris Gardner

Doris, who is expecting a second child, arrives in Provincetown alongside her husband, Harry (played by Finn Wittrock), and her young daughter, Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). The three family members each have their own creative ventures: Harry writes screenplays, Alma plays the violin, and Doris has just recently taken on interior design.

The Gardners stay in a home owned by a so-called Brown family. However, they dont meet the Browns upon their arrival; rather, a representative greets them at the door. According to Doris, the Browns contacted her after seeing her Instagram account. They asked her to redecorate the home in exchange for three months of living there for free. Meanwhile, Harry plans to work on a new screenplay, and Alma practices a difficult violin piece.

As the first two episodes progress, viewers see Harry, Alma, and Doris struggle to channel their talents. Harry experiences writers block, while Alma misses some notes in her tune. Doris cant decide on colors for the home. However, the difference so far is that Harry and Alma take mysterious pills to take their talents to the next level. The trade-off? They become vampires.

Both Harry and Alma tell Doris that shes not as great at interior design as she thinks. Will she take a pill and become a master at design, or will she prove her family right?

Some fans noticed Doriss Instagram post only had one like

"Maybe you're one of the talented ones." -The Chemist pic.twitter.com/DKG2IbNmKs  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) August 26, 2021

Doris briefly gives fans a glimpse of her Instagram account in American Horror Story Season 10 Episode 1. A fan on Reddit managed to capture an image of the account and noticed something off: her post only has one like. To make things even more awkward, Doris is the one who likes it.

Not this being Doriss Instagram engagement levels, the post read.

The detail led to a discussion about Doris in the comments. If Doriss Instagram account doesnt have traction and isnt popular, how did the Browns find her and choose her? Doris later mentions that she entered a competition to win the role, but some fans think that might be fishy.

Who else thinks the competition is a load of BS that was used to get the family to that town? one fan wrote.

Something is definitely up. Plus, it was the Browns family home, but theyre only meeting with their representative? It seems odd. Plus, the representative seemed very unsettled that she was going to remodel the home. She had to be reassured the Browns gave total creative control, another user added. It was definitely an awkward conversation though, that will probably lead somewhere.

Some people pointed out, to be fair, the image showed that Doris only made the Instagram post a few seconds before showing it off. She probably wouldnt have received more than a like or two in a matter of seconds.

Many American Horror Story viewers already have theories about Doris

"Nothing feels better than that first night on The Muse." -Austin pic.twitter.com/nAtTU6jo1T  AmericanHorrorStory (@AHSFX) August 26, 2021

In any case, the small but strange Instagram detail led some fans to speculate about what will happen with Doris. In the Reddit thread, some people theorized that she might not really have the talent. If thats true and she takes a pill, she might become one of Provincetowns pale vampire residents, just like the one who chased her and Alma.

She is totally gonna take the pills and turn into the creatures cuz she has no talent and Im gonna be so sad about it, one person wrote.

I think Doris is supposed to represent those of us who have passions but not the innate skill. Lets hope she stays away from Muse, another user added. Im really rooting for her.

Why the Gardners really came to Provincetown remains to be seen, but it does seem likely at this point that something sinister could have lured them to town. To find out, tune in to American Horror Story on FX on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

RELATED: American Horror Story Season 10: Who Does Macaulay Culkin Play?
Cameron Mathison is one of the newest faces on General Hospital. He is already making a splash on the show, and it seems he is in for some big storylines in Port Charles.

When Mathison is not working, he is a family man with a wife and two kids. Some fans might be curious to know: Who is Mathison married to?

Cameron Mathison | Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Cameron Mathison recently joined General Hospital as Drew Cain

On Aug. 16, Mathison made his General Hospital debut as Drew Cain.

Drew came to Port Charles in 2014, and the role was played by actor Billy Miller. However, Miller left the show in 2019 after Cain left Port Charles to fly to Afghanistan. Unexpectedly, Drews plane went down and he was not heard from again.

Recently, Drew called Sam McCall (Kelly Monaco) on the phone, and fans soon found out Drew is currently in a foreign prison somewhere. He is trying to find a way to escape and reunite with his family.

Meanwhile, after receiving the phone call from Drew, Sam has been working to find out his whereabouts and get him home.

Who is Cameron Mathison married to?

RELATED: General Hospital: Cameron Mathison Reveals 1 Curveball He Got During the Casting Process

Mathison is married to model Vanessa Arevalo. Its not clear when they first met, but the two of them got married in 2002.

They first fell in love during a ski trip, and Mathison proposed to Arevalo in a similar setting. He told Your Tango, We went up to the top of Vail Mountain in Vail, Colorado, and I took her up to this remote summit, which was a beautiful place to take photos I pulled out the ring and turned around and proposed to her with the camera taking a ton of pictures. Then, I had a big champagne lunch waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain.

After tying the knot, Mathison and Arevalo welcomed two children together: Lucas (born 2003) and Leila (born 2006).

In 2017, Mathison shared with Soap Opera Digest that Arevalo has been a huge support to him with his busy career.

Shes such a hands-on mom and helps me out so much with my work and my travel, Mathison said. Shes kind of like my part-time assistant Shes just so there, so thoughtful and loving and supportive and able to keep us all in line. I say us all because in many ways, Im a little kid.

Additionally, in 2019, Mathison was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Arevalo, of course, was right by his side as he battled the disease. He told Us Weekly, Her first reaction was, You know, we got this. Were going to beat it.  Those are the moments you never forget your whole life.

Cameron Mathisons wife is a huge fan of General Hospital

RELATED: General Hospital: Cameron Mathison Says Other Cast Members Forced Him to Step Up My Game

Mathisons new job at General Hospital is also a huge deal with Arevalo because she has been a fan of the show for years.

My wife has actually always been a fan of General Hospital, Mathison said on the podcast Dishing With Digest. In fact, when she met mewhen we met in a gym in New Yorkshe had no idea who I was. I was a decently popular character at the time on All My Childrenno idea who I was. She only watched General Hospital.

He added, So shes very excited Im on the show.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might be stepping out into the public eye more and more in recent weeks, but when it comes to their children, things are remaining very private. The couple moved to California in early 2020, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic started ravaging the world, and quietly, they have been expanding their family. In June 2021, Prince Harry and Markle welcomed their daughter, Lilibet Diana  and while the meaning behind her name made headlines, fans have yet to see an official photo of the baby girl, and it seems as though the couple intends to keep it that way. Keep reading to see how theyre going to break royal tradition with Lilibet in the process.

Lilibet Diana was born in June 2021

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. | Chris Jackson  Pool/Getty Images New Zealand.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have always been open with their followers about their desire to have a family of their own. Considering their son Archie Harrison was born in 2019, many fans speculated that it wouldnt be long before the couple had a second baby. In early 2021, Prince Harry and Markle confirmed that they were expecting their second (and final) baby, and that the new addition was a girl.

In June 2021, a spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed that the two had welcomed their daughter, whom they named Lilibet Diana. No picture of the baby was released to accompany the announcement, but the happy couple did publish a short statement that read on June 4th, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers weve felt from across the globe.

What royal tradition could Prince Harry and Meghan Markle break with Lilibet Diana?

Although Lilibet Diana has a rich heritage, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be keeping her life as private as possible  at least, until she is old enough to choose her own path. Their desire to keep her life private extends to her christening, which is traditionally a very public affair for members of the royal family. According to BestLife, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want Lilibet Diana to be christened at a chapel in California, rather than at the private chapel near Windsor Castle that Archie Harrison was baptized at. Notably, Prince Harry and several other key members of the royal family were baptized at the same chapel, making it a tradition for the royals.

It seems certain that [Lilibets] christening will be in Meghans home state and with the secrecy but without the controversy that surrounded Archies christening, said royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams. While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle havent addressed this rumor directly, fans of the couple will undoubtedly remember the controversy that surrounded Archie Harrisons baptism.

Archie Harrisons christening was a highly-publicized affair

When Archie Harrison was born in May 2019, many fans of the royal family wanted to learn as much as they could about the baby. However, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chose to keep his early years low-key, and instead of sharing information about his baptism, they kept the event private, refusing to list the names of his godparents. This didnt stop fans from speculating, and many slammed the couple for not being more forthcoming with their sons big event.

Some sources believe that Prince Harry and Meghan Markles decision to keep Lilibet Dianas christening in California would be seen as a clear rejection of the royal family  which might serve to deepen the reported feud between Prince Harry and members of his family. At this point in time, no one can say for sure what the royal couple might do, but it certainly seems as though they are determined to continue to make their own way.

RELATED: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Reportedly Spent Up to $400,000 on Their Daughters Nursery
Janees Taylor is sworn in as the new Cherokee Nation treasurer by CN Supreme Court Justice Shawna S. Baker on Aug. 26 in Tahlequah.
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Razzouk Tattoo is so small you may miss it if you walk past too quickly. In the heart of Jerusalems Old City, it is flanked to the south by Zion Gate and to the north by Damascus Gate. For 27 centuriessince the 1300sWassims family has been tattooing the stories of pilgrims who come to the Holy Land to discover their faith roots and to find healing and hope, often after great loss.

Sit with Wassim and he will tell you stories of many sojourners who talked of family and hope and longing as they waited to be branded with imagery of a cross or other symbol that marked them forever: Gods own.

Every year, more than 3.5 million visitors descend upon the City of David. Two thousand of those come through our Passages program, which allows Christian students to discover their faith roots and encounter modern-day Israel. This past year, of course, has brought much fewer as the world has waded through the murky waters of Covid-19.

But after a year of closed borders, Jerusalem cracked its door open once againa move that would allow many to experience healing after a year of devastating loss. One of these individuals was Alexander, an Attorney Advisor through the United States Department of Justice Honors Program, who is also from the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.



Alexanders world was changed as he entered the large wooden doors of Razzouk Tattoo and asked Wassim to tattoo our dearest son (a term of endearment by his father) in his fathers handwriting. Nearly one year ago to the day, his father passed away, leaving an aching hole once filled with love and dreams. As tears flowed down his face, Alexander shared with Wassim the story of his father. He shared that Jerusalem was his fathers favorite place for Alexander to visit.



With each prick and each memory shared, he began to heal.



This, Alexander would say, was an altar moment. These are the moments that define us and shape our future. Beyond Jerusalem, the land of Israel is filled with pilgrims having altar moments as they reflect on their spiritual heritage and as they learn and experience a land central to the political and religious landscape of our world today.



Israel is brimming with opportunities to press into issues of conflict resolution and reconciliation, of persecution and interfaith dialogue, of the importance of land, and of the role of privilege and marginalization.



But Israel is also the only place in the world where followers of Jesus can walk where He walked, can touch what He touched, and can see what He saw. No distance course in the world can compare with this. It is the only place on earth where pilgrims can traverse the paths of the patriarchs, kings, prophets, and the early disciples. These lead to altar moments where we can reflect on all God has done, and gather a renewed vision for where He is leading us.



An old place for a new generation



And never in recent history have we needed Israel moreboth its past and its present. The recent State of the Bible report by American Bible Society revealed that Generation Z youth are increasingly Bible Disengaged (47 percent), with only 9 percent falling into the category of Scripture Engaged. This compares with 14 percent of Generation Z and 23 percent of Millennials. Additionally, a Barna Group/ University of North Carolina at Pembrok survey revealed that support for Israel has dropped from 75 percent to 33 percent since 2018 among evangelicals ages 18-29.



In a world clamoring for their attention and pushing many to question their beliefs, many Gen Z emerging leaders are engaging in apologetics and experience on a level others of us have only skimmed the surface of. Gen Z is marked by connectedness and factsand many are willing to go to nearly any length to discover the truth and where that truth fits in with their belief system.



In a world of so much noise, many long for altar momentsand many, like Alexanderare finding them halfway across the world in an ancient city with biblical roots. Israel is a place where history comes to life and ancient words take on new meaning. Its a place where pilgrims can dip their feet in the Sea of Galilee and people-watch at the Jaffa Gate. Its a place where miracles happened, and still happen.



And it is a place where questions of faith find their answers as God stirs in the hearts of those visiting in ways they wouldnt hear elsewhere.



A new place for an old generation

Since 2016, over 8,000 students have made a pilgrimage to Israel through Passages. Every year, 2,000 college-age students discover the roots of their faith in the birthplace of their faith. The ancient book in their hands comes to life as they experience firsthand what King David experienced. Or Solomon. Or Paul. Or Jesus.



More though, they encounter a thriving city where Israelis and Palestinians long to live together in harmony, where lives intersect and peace longs to run free. Israel is a microcosm of the worlda place where the horrors of war and violence and poverty intersect with peace and connectivity and wealth. For visiting followers of Christ, the shock of old and new, ancient and modern, lead to altar moments where Gods historic acts meet His ongoing work of peace and reconciliation.



This emerging generation may be young in years, but they are also old in wisdom. They long for truth and a deeper understanding of our world and their place in it. They are thoughtful and inquisitive. They long for equality and equity. But even as many struggle to see how the Bible speaks to these needs, those who visit Israel discover that the Bible in fact DOES speak to these needs. They see historical proof, and they see God at work in modern-day conflict. Its a powerful combination not found elsewhere.



A (re)newed emotion for a new future

Something else happens to pilgrims in Israel. They are surprised, as C.S. Lewis would say, by joy. Few walk away without a powerful story of God drawing them to His altar. Few walk away without tears that tell the story of Gods healing work, both in history, and today. This is Alexanders story. And it could be yours as well.



As a new generation matures into all God has made them to be, God is waiting for them at the altar in Israel. And perhaps that altar will even be found in an ancient tattoo parlor in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem.


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Ahhhh. Barnstable County, Massachusetts. To most Americans, it has no special meaning. But when the CDC strongly recommended everyone wear masks indoors based on what happened there this summer, shouldnt we care about what produced the federal agencys pandemic response?

The CDC report starts off: During July 2021, 469 cases of COVID-19 associated with multiple summer events and large public gatherings in a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, were identified among Massachusetts residents.

The first thing thats odd is that the CDC never mentions the town's name. Its Provincetown  considered a gay Mecca to tens of thousands of homosexual men and women. In fact, the towns Chamber of Commerce confirms such a description, stating on its website: LGBTQA+ visitors are a major component of Provincetowns tourism economy and continue to make Provincetown one of top GLBT destinations in the world.

From an epidemiological standpoint, this doesnt make that town representative of the general population at all.

Never mentioned in the CDC report is the fact that Bear Week was the summer event at the center of the spread. Bear Week is celebrated by Provincetown Tourism as the largest gathering of bears [hairy and often overweight gay men] in the world where tens of thousands come to Provincetown during this annual [July] event. The website proudly proclaims: You know what youre getting into when you attend. By getting into, they mean a weeklong orgy among thousands of strangers.

But the CDC wont tell you this. Instead, the nations Centers for Disease Control keeps it a secret by using the phrase a town in Barnstable County eight times in four pages. Mainstream media mostly refused to say it too. CBS, for instance, did a 6-minute segment and never mentions LGBT or homosexuality once.

The news piece omits the curious fact that 87% of those infected in Provincetown were men, and of course, never reports the weeklong orgy. In the segment, Washington Post reporter Hannah Knowles makes the curious and laughable statement: This is a story that needed to be taken in context, and not everybody got the context. And some people saw the headlines that were genuinely game changing. They didnt provide the context.

Isnt all of the data regarding a global pandemic relevant? If the CDC is going to issue nationwide guidance requiring masks (that even manufacturers declare on the packaging: do not protect from infection or prevent the spread of diseases) shouldnt we be given context? How do you apply behavior in a decidedly skewed demographic to the general population whose behavior is undeniably different than multiple-sex-partner-seeking partygoers (regardless of sexual orientation)? Sorry. Perhaps I should have used the CDCs description: adult male participants.

But the CDC has long held a double-standard when it comes to health, as many medical associations are proudly exhibiting today. The tragic abandonment of medical objectivity has been replaced by political subjectivity. Who benefits from the confusion of language, the denial of basic biology and the deflection of blame?



As a Christian, my heart breaks for those harmed by the worlds fake news, fake health and fake dignity. Love is Love? Its great marketing, but only God is Love. And that truth is far more enduring than a hashtag sprinkled with broken and co-opted rainbows. Love lifts people out of their circumstances. Ill-defined love keeps people where they are and pretends there are no circumstances.

Years ago, when I started researching and reporting on Americas STD epidemic, I quickly noticed the CDCs capitulation on basic medical facts. The agencys 2012 report on exponential increases in STDs among homosexual men blamed the high rates of STDs on  homophobia.

So in a society that has radically increased its acceptance of all things LGBTQ, were supposed to believe that homophobia explains the increase in infection rates? Rates increased for heterosexuals, too, albeit at far lower numbers. Is that due to heterophobia? Or, could it possibly be personal behavior? As with the evangelists of critical race theory, someone else, some structure, some nebulous systemic evil is always to blame. Personal responsibility is anathema to those pushing poisonous political ideologies.

The CDC continues to promote the homophobia narrative today as STD rates skyrocket across the country and disproportionately among homosexuals. In 2019, homosexual males, although only a reported 2% of the American male population, comprised 57% of all syphilis cases in the United States. Gonorrhea rates were 42 times higher among homosexual men than heterosexual men. But dont worry. The CDC provided cover, saying: however, increases in rates of reported gonorrhea among MSM (men who have sex with men) appear to have slowed in the past several years.



Slowed? The rates are still 42 times higher. The CDC goes on to unmedically propagandize: It is important to note that these disparities are unlikely explained by differences in sexual behavior.

Oh. So, the sexual activities we engage in have zero bearing on our health outcomes and the demographic disparities that ensue? OK. Sounds very scientific. Why, then, does it matter how we choose to behave regarding COVID? Like STDs, the (inarguably politicized) coronavirus is highly transmissible. But it couldnt possibly be our behavior that mitigates the spread. It couldnt be that taking (realistic and evidence-based) precautions might avoid infections.

Then how do you explain a Provincetown outbreak of COVID where 87% of the infected were male and 74% of the 469 reported cases were symptomatic and among the fully vaccinated?

The CDC declares on its website that when kissing or having sex  you are physically close to another person, which can put you in contact with respiratory droplets or saliva that spread the COVID-19 virus.

The real news is how the CDC missed a golden opportunity to promote its obscured online message of monogamy and abstaining from sex with multiple partners or strangers to minimize risk of infection (which is good advice in or out of a pandemic). But that would be  whats the word  factual. And we know how much fact-shaming is going around.

Obviously, they were social distancing and practicing safe pandemic protocols in a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts (Insert eye roll).

Originally published at Radiance Foundation.
Pentagon confirms 2 high profile ISIS-K militants killed in retaliation for Kabul airport attack

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Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed Saturday that two high profile ISIS-K terrorists, one "planner" and one "facilitator," were killed in a drone strike but would not release the names of the two individuals or their nationalities.

Although two men deemed integral to the terrorist group were killed, Kirby said it doesn't reduce the threat of the Islamic State's affiliate in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State Khorasan, and its ability to carry out attacks in Kabul.

In an overnight drone strike in Afghanistans Nangarhar province, which is east of Kabul and borders Pakistan, the U.S. military killed an ISIS-K planner and "facilitator" in retaliation for Thursdays suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians.

An unnamed U.S. official was quoted by Reuters as saying that the planner of the Kabul airport attack, who was from ISIS-K, was the target of the drone strike.

Earlier reports indicated that a Reaper drone took off from the United Arab Emirates and struck the target who was in a car with an ISIS-K associate, killing both, the official added. Its the first known U.S. response to the suicide bomb attack.

Kirby and Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor would not confirm Saturday whether that account was accurate and declined to provide details about the operation, aside from saying that one other ISIS-K fighter was wounded and there were no civilian casualties.

Intelligence showed that the target was planning another attack, The Wall Street Journal quoted a U.S. official as saying. We believe this terrorist was involved in planning future attacks in Kabul, the official added.

As of Saturday, 117,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan, the majority of which are Afghans, Taylor said, adding that the number includes 5,400 U.S. citizens, over 300 of whom have been evacuated since Thursdays attack.

An additional 1,400 Afghans were screened for flights to leave Kabul today, Taylor said, adding that evacuations will continue until the "very end" of the deadline on Tuesday.

In the last 24 hours, 66 flights have left Kabul  32 U.S. military and 34 coalition aircraft  carrying a combined 6,800 personnel, according to Taylor.

Six flights transporting 2,000 vulnerable Afghans and evacuees will soon be arriving in Philadelphia from Italy, he added.

As the number of evacuees increases, the U.S. will increase its efforts to provide temporary shelter for Afghans until they're resettled at various locations across the U.S.

Our total capacity across multiple U.S. installations is approximately 21,000 and growing," Taylor explained. "Were steadily working to increase the capacity to 50,000 by September 15. Right now, we are hosting approximately 8,000 Afghan applicants at Fort McCoy, Fort Bliss, Fort Lee and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

At the Pentagon press briefing on Friday, Taylor clarified that there was only one suicide bomber in the Kabul airport attack, and not two as was previously believed.

Its not any surprise that the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled, Taylor said.

Asked if its possible for the U.S. to do both executing counter-attacks and carrying out the evacuation, Taylor said, We have resources with the Centcom commander, with the commanders on the ground and the capabilities to allow us to execute any type of those operations as those are required to do.

At Friday's briefing, Kirby said there are still specific, credible threats against the airport. We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts. Were monitoring these threats, very, very specifically, virtually in real-time.

Hours after the Kabul attack, the Islamic States news agency on its Telegram channel claimed responsibility for it.

More than 12,500 people have been evacuated from Kabul since Thursdays attack. Despite the U.S. State Department's advisory that Americans should not travel to the airport and leave the gate entrances "immediately," Kirby said Saturday that U.S. passport holders, SIVs and vulnerable Afghans are still being allowed to enter the airport for evacuations.

In a nationally broadcast address after the Kabul attack, President Joe Biden said, To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will hunt you down and make you pay.

The explosions came less than a week before the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from the South Asian country. Some 3,500 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan but are expected to be withdrawn sometime on Tuesday.

The planned withdrawal marks the end of the war in Afghanistan, which spanned nearly two decades. In an appearance on Sinclair Broadcast Groups The National Desk Monday, Adam Andrzejewski, the CEO of the nonprofit transparency organization OpentheBooks.com, noted that the war effort has cost American taxpayers $83 billion.

Andrzejewski elaborated on how after the U.S. began to exit from Afghanistan, much of its military equipment has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, which has rapidly gained control of the country. He reported that the Taliban now control 75,000 military vehicles, this is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees, each Humvee on average costs about [$100,000] a piece. They control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.

Melissa Barnhart contributed to this report
Harvard chaplains elect atheist as new president: We dont look to a god for answers'

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Greg Epstein, an atheist and humanist chaplain at Harvard University who says he doesnt look to God but people for answers, has been elected by his colleagues as the newest president of the Harvard Chaplains.

Esptein, 44, was elected to the presidency of the universitys organization of chaplains by more than 40 chaplains from some 20 different faith and spiritual traditions. He shared the news in an announcement on Twitter Thursday along with a profile of his election to the position by The New York Times.

Margit Hammerstrom, the Christian Science chaplain at Harvard, told the publication that while Epsteins election to such a role may have been problematic at a more conservative institution, the decision was unanimous at Harvard.

Maybe in a more conservative university climate, there might be a question like, What the heck are they doing at Harvard, having a humanist be the president of the chaplains? But in this environment, it works. Greg is known for wanting to keep lines of communication open between different faiths, Hammerstrom said.

The new leader, who authoredGood Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, is expected to coordinate activities for the corps of chaplains. He has served as a humanist chaplain at Harvard since 2005.

Recent survey data highlighted by the Harvard Crimson shows that a growing number of students enrolled at the Ivy League campus dont identify with any particular faith.

In 2017, some 32.4% of incoming freshmen identified as either atheist or agnostic. By 2019, the share of incoming freshmen who identified as either atheist or agnostic increased to 37.9%.

There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support around what it means to be a good human and live an ethical life, Epstein, who was raised in a Jewish household, told The New York Times.

We dont look to a god for answers, he said. We are each others answers.

A study from the Pew Research Center published in late 2019 showed that only 65% of Americans identify as Christian, showing a 12% decline over a decade earlier. The number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated also increased to 26%.

The changes underway in the American religious landscape are broad-based. The Christian share of the population is down and religious nones have grown across multiple demographic groups: white people, black people and Hispanics; men and women; in all regions of the country; and among college graduates and those with lower levels of educational attainment," Pew researchers reported.

"Religious nones are growing faster among Democrats than Republicans, though their ranks are swelling in both partisan coalitions, Pew added. And although the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise among younger people and most groups of older adults, their growth is most pronounced among young adults.
How innovative ministries are bringing millennials back to church

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Despite belonging to a church-attending family, 24-year-old Danielle De Guzman is among the many American millennials who struggled throughout adolescence to find relevance and trust in the church or Christianity.

After high school, she would at times still attend her parents large church in Collin County, Texas, but admits that she would just sit in the lobby and wait for the service to end because she just didnt see the point of going into the service.

Although she spent years going to the church, she struggled to get plugged in or even develop personal relationships with others in her congregation.

Eventually, she began telling her parents that she had to work on Sundays so she could get out of going to church. Her parents respected her freedom and De Guzman stopped going to church for a period of time. Going to college locally, she spent a lot of time  like many other college students  partying.

The experience had by De Guzman is not unique among millennial adults who grew up in the church.

A LifeWay Research poll from January found that about two-thirds of young adults who attended church for at least a year as a teenager ended up dropping out of church for at least a year between the ages of 18 to 22.

But what is less common about De Guzmans story is the fact she eventually made her way back to a church and has become a regularly attending member.

After a while in the party scene, she got the feeling that there must be something more to life.

At the age of 21, after having not enjoyed her experiences at a few young adult groups she tried out in her area, she was connected with a unique community founded with the purpose of serving as the young adult ministry arm of several local churches in Collin County.

After about two years, Elevate Young Adult Ministry helped De Guzman get plugged in to what has become her home church  Chase Oaks in Plano. It was there that De Guzman was finally able to develop the much-needed relationships with fellow Christians that were hard to come by during her upbringing.

[I] struggled with trying to find a home church that I trust. I was feeling like I couldnt trust the church for a little bit, De Guzman, a gymnastics instructor, said.

There are people out there that are probably feeling the same thing. I just feel like now I have more of a responsibility because living the way that I was, I should be dead or in prison or have some sort of illness or something like that. And I am not any of those things. Just the fact that God pulled me out of that and spared me of all of those things, there has to be a reason why that happened.

LifeWay Research data suggests that fewer than one out of three young adults who left the church between the ages of 18 and 22 have returned to a church and attend at least twice per month, while 39 percent report attending church at least once per month or less.

With such a drastic percentage of millennials having dropped out of the church, ministries nationwide are asking themselves what they must do to bring young adults back to church or even attract those who never went to church in the first place.

Some have had more success than others. But largely, young adult ministry continues to be an afterthought in many church budgets, which tend to prioritize family ministries and other programs that are seen as more important because they keep the tithes rolling in.

When we look at young adult ministry, it is one of those ministries that isnt symbiotic: where we're going to provide something for young adults, and they may or may not be here, Antwuan Malone, director of Elevate Young Adult Ministry, a nonprofit that ministers to about 60 to 90 young adults in Collin County and helps connect them with churches in the area, told CP.

[Churches] may or may not be the beneficiary of the benefit of the work theyre putting in because young adults are so transient. I think that the natural way for churches to think about things outside of missions work is to see if their resources can come back to the ministry. Because there's not a lot of immediate benefit in that area, I think that makes it hard for people to put in the proper amount of resources for young adult ministry.

Even for churches that do fund young adult ministries, the funding is typically minimal, according to Scott Pontier, a Michigan pastor who also serves with the consulting firm Ministry Architects, told CP.

Nothing will succeed when it is an afterthought, he warned. We have these great expectations but our strategy for it is, We will see what happens.

What does the data say?

According to LifeWays survey of over 2,000 young adults aged 23 through 30 who attended church at least twice per month for a year as a teenager, 69 percent said they attended church at the age of 17. That number dropped to 58 percent at the age 18, 40 percent at the age of 19, and 36 percent at the age of 20.

Once the respondents reached the ages of 21 and 22, only 33 percent reported attending church regularly.

LifeWay also found that about 39 percent of young adults aged 23 through 30 consider themselves devout Christians with a strong faith in God.

According to the data, the most common reason (96 percent among those who stopped attending) for why young adults stopped attending church after high school was a change in life situation, such as teenagers going to college or moving away from where they grew up.

Honestly, these being the top reasons  moving too far away [from home church] or just beginning college life  those being the main reasons are more concerning to me, said Ben Trueblood, director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources, adding that it has less to do with atheist professors convincing students that their faith is wrong.

The reason for that is that it points to the root issue of high school students being involved and active in the church for at least a year and leaving without an understanding of what it truly means to be connected to a church and connected to the body of Christ, he added. They are in the church during their high school years but through the church and student ministry, we are not doing a good enough job of answering questions of Why the church needs me and why I need the church.'

While many might ask what it is churches can do, Trueblood said that an obvious place to start is with parents as they take their children on college visits. He stressed that churches need to do more to instill in parents the importance of making sure their child truly connects with the church during their formative years.

One example that we frequently talk about is a parent on a college visit. Many times on that college visit, that time is spent meeting with people on campus and campus tours and things like that and there isnt a thought given to being connected with a church as a part of that college visit, he said. [Churches should be] awakening parents' hearts and minds to that reality. Helping them see that they are still the No. 1 influence in their childs life.

Part of the issue, Trueblood said, lies in the fact that faith and spirituality do not play a large role in the lives of parents outside the church. Among young adults who were active in church as high school students, only 49 percent indicated to LifeWay that their parents genuinely liked church.

Additionally, only 27 percent of them said that their family regularly discussed spiritual things.

So that was a key statistic for us, Trueblood said. Man, these are teenagers who are active in the church, yet at the same time, less than a third of them have spiritual discussions in the homes as a family. It points to the need for churches to be fully engaged in helping them and training them to figure out how to parent a teenager in discipleship.

As data have shown that women attend church more than men, Trueblood added that LifeWay found a 13 percent increase in the chance a young adult stays connected with the church in their college years if their father attended church with them when they were teenagers. But only 39 percent of respondents to the survey indicated that their fathers attended church as well.

Kenda Creasy Dean, professor of youth, church, and culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, told CP that young adults leaving the church are really a reflection of a shift in the larger culture where there is a more rapid disaffiliation with religious institutions than there used to be.

Faith is not something that people consider believable or necessary [today]. Its not that it is not compelling, it just doesnt even occur to them. It is pronounced in young adults and it is accelerating, she said. It is not just them. They are reflections of the larger society and they are the fastest people to de-affiliate. What they are doing is they are simply holding a mirror up to the society that they are growing up in.

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Nearly 60% of white evangelicals have gotten COVID vaccine: poll

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A new poll suggests that nearly 60% of white evangelicals have received a coronavirus vaccine as the Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to one of the vaccines.

An NBC News poll asking Americans about their vaccination status found that 59% of white evangelicals, a group long portrayed as hesitant to take the vaccine, were fully vaccinated.

Just 13% of respondents told the news outlet that they had no plans to get the vaccine at any time.

The poll was conducted Aug. 14 through Aug. 17 and 1,000 adults were interviewed. The survey has an error margin of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

While white evangelicals were the only religious demographic highlighted in the NBC News report, other social groups in the report had lower vaccination rates.

The group with the lowest vaccination rate was Republicans who support [former President Donald] Trump more than party, with 46% fully vaccinated. Other groups with low vaccination rates include those who voted for Trump in the 2020 general election (50%), Americans who live in rural areas (52%), Republicans (55%) and Americans between the ages of 35 and 49 years old (58%.)

Meanwhile, Democrats had the highest vaccination rate of any other demographic subgroup, with 88% reporting that they have received the vaccine. Americans aged 65 and older, who find themselves particularly vulnerable to experiencing serious illnesses due to the pandemic, have a vaccination rate of 86%.

Additional groups with high vaccination rates include Biden voters in the 2020 election (91%), Democrats who supported either Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders in their partys 2020 presidential primary (88%), Democrats who supported Biden in the 2020 primary (87%) and white college graduates (80%).

The polls release comes as Trump, who won an overwhelming majority of the white evangelical vote in the 2020 presidential election, urged his supporters to get the vaccine at a rally in Alabama last weekend, a remark that elicited boos from the audience.

On Monday, the FDA gave its full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, one of several available in the U.S. The other coronavirus vaccines are available under emergency use authorization and still await full FDA approval.

White evangelicals views about the vaccine have received much attention over the past year. A poll conducted in March by the Pew Research Center revealed that white evangelicals were the least likely religious group to say that they planned on taking the vaccine.

Supposed vaccine hesitancy among white evangelicals prompted Saturday Night Live to portray the religious demographic as one of the biggest obstacles to herd immunity.

However, a subsequent survey published in May found that secular Americans were less likely than their religious counterparts to have taken the vaccine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday afternoon, more than 203 million people have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, accounting for 61.1% of the U.S. population. More than 172 million Americans, or 51.9% of the U.S. population, are fully vaccinated.

The CDC noted: Some fully vaccinated people will get sick, and some will even be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. The government agency stressed that there is evidence that vaccination may make illness less severe for those who are vaccinated and still get sick. The risk of infection, hospitalization, and death are all much lower in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated people.

Following the FDAs full approval of the Pfizer vaccine, vaccine mandates by businesses and government agencies are expected to increase. A poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group, released this week found that the American people are more likely to do business with companies that do not require their employees to take the vaccine.

A plurality of Americans (42.7%) said they were more likely to do business with companies that did not have vaccine mandates for their employees. Meanwhile, 34.3% of respondents indicated that they were less likely to do business with companies with no vaccine mandates.

Support for vaccine mandates correlated with partisan identification, with a plurality of Democrats (49%) less likely to do business with companies that do not have vaccine mandates and a majority of Republicans (55.5%) more likely to do business with such a company.

A study published in Nature Magazine in May found that those infected with coronavirus produce antibodies that will last for several months. Research has shown that the antibodies offer a similar level of protection as the vaccines. However, Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told the outlet that immunizations may still be needed to restore antibody levels with the emergence of COVID variants.

The debate about the effectiveness of the vaccines has resurfaced now that the CDC has announced plans to begin offering COVID-19 booster shots in the fall. The booster shots would be available eight months after a person received the second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Va. school district pays $1.3M to settle trans student Gavin Grimm's bathroom lawsuit

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A Virginia school district has agreed to pay over $1 million to a trans-identified former student, ending a yearslong legal battle over whether the student could use bathrooms designated for the opposite biological sex.

On Thursday, Gavin Grimm, a biological female who identifies as male, settled with Gloucester County Public Schools. The school district agreed to pay over $1.3 million in attorney fees and other costs.

The settlement comes after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in the case, allowing a decision by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of Grimm to stand.

Meredith Mason of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which helped represent Grimm, told The Christian Post via email that the case will have a broad impact.

The standing court opinion on this case is from the Fourth Circuit, which ruled that the school boards policy of forcing Gavin to use separate facilities violated Title IX and the U.S. Constitution. So even though Gavin has graduated, the school board is required by the court to change their policy, explained Mason.

This court ruling applies to the entire Fourth Circuit, which includes Virginia, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, and Maryland. Additionally, all school boards in the state are required to implement policies in line with the Virginia Department of Educations new model policies for transgender students.

A representative of the Gloucester County School Board told CP in an email that its insurance provider "has addressed the Plaintiffs request for attorney fees and costs resulting from the Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board litigation."

"The School Board has no further comment on this matter," read the email.

In 2015, Grimm filed a lawsuit against GCPS, alleging discrimination after being barred from using the boys restrooms.

As a failed compromise, Grimms high school had installed three single-use, gender-neutral restrooms that any student could use instead of gender-specific bathrooms.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert G. Doumar, a Reagan appointee, ruled against Grimm in September 2015. But his decision was overturned in April 2016 by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit.

However, the Supreme Court sent the case back to lower courts in 2017.

In August of last year, a three-judge 4th Circuit panel again ruled 2-1 in favor of Grimm. The majority contends there is a growing consensus of courts that equal protection and Title IX can protect transgender students from school bathroom policies that prohibit them from affirming their gender.

Judge Paul Niemeyer, a Reagan appointee, authored a dissent to the panel decision. He argued that the Virginia high school had "reasonably provided separate restrooms for its male and female students and accommodated trans-identified students by also providing unisex restrooms that any student could use.

In deciding not to hear the Grimm case this year, the Supreme Court court noted in its brief order that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have granted the petition to hear the case.

Earlier this week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an earlier ruling in favor of a trans-identified student in Florida who sought to use school bathrooms based on gender identity. The case will be reheard before the entire 12-member 11th Circuit.

Ed Whelan, a distinguished senior fellow with the socially conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank and a former law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, said the decision to hear the Florida case en banc "might ultimately tee the issue up for Supreme Court review."

He believes it could "enable the Court to minimize the damage from its serious error in failing to grant certiorari in the Fourth Circuit case of Gloucester County School Board v. Grimm.
Boris Johnson vows to 'shift Heaven and Earth' to get everyone out of Afghanistan in '2nd phase' Over 100 British nationals, 1,100 Afghan allies left behind

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed that the U.K. government will shift Heaven and Earth to get everyone out of Afghanistan in a second phase after acknowledging that many U.K. citizens and Afghan allies would be left behind.

On Friday, Johnson said the deaths of two U.K. nationals and the child of a U.K. national in Thursday's suicide bombing at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul "underline" the urgency of evacuating everyone out of Afghanistan who qualifies.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Saturday that the final flight of Afghan civilians had departed Kabul, and all remaining flights will be carrying British soldiers and diplomats.

"The team here have been working until the very last moment to evacuate British nationals, Afghans and others at risk," said Sir. Laurie Bristow, the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, according to The Telegraph.

U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed Friday that 150 British nationals and an estimated 1,100 Afghan interpreters and others who worked alongside British forces would be left behind. He expressed his deep regret that not everyone would get out.

In a message to those left behind, Johnson said: "What I would say to them is that we will shift Heaven and Earth to help them get out, and we will do whatever we can in the second phase.

"But the crucial thing is that the Taliban authorities, the new government, however its composed, have got to understand that if they want to have engagement with the West, if they want to have a relationship with us, then safe passage for those is absolutely paramount, he added.

"We've never seen anything like it in our lifetimes and, of course, as we come down to the final hours of the operation there will sadly be people who haven't got through, people who might qualify, the prime minister said.

Johnson also praised the bravery of the U.S. military and the colossal nature of the task on their shoulders and allied forces.

In an interview with Times Radio, Lord Hammond, the former foreign and defense secretary, said the U.K. had failed in its mission: Weve failed in our own mission which is to keep those people safe, because at short notice its become clear we can no longer do that in Afghanistan and we have to do it by extracting them from Afghanistan and we havent been able to complete that task.

As of Saturday, U.S. and coalition forces have evacuated over 117,000 people, mostly Afghans, 13,000 of which are expected to be granted entry into the U.K.

At the Pentagon press briefing on Friday, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor clarified that there was only one suicide bomber in the Kabul airport attack, not two as was previously believed.

I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber. We are not sure how that report was provided incorrectly. Its not any surprise that the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled, Taylor said.
11th Circuit vacates ruling in favor of trans student, will rehear Fla. school bathroom case

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The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated an earlier ruling favoring a trans-identified student seeking to use the bathrooms based on gender identity rather than biological sex.

The appeals court issued an order on Monday in the case of Drew Adams v. School Board of St. Johns County, Florida, granting a full en banc hearing before the 12-member court, vacating a three-judge panel's earlier decision.

Born in 2000 as a female but presently identifying as male, Adams was initially allowed to use the boys restrooms for six weeks in ninth grade. But eventually, officials barred Adams from doing so.

Although officials gave Adams the alternative of using a gender-neutral, single-stall bathroom, the student filed a lawsuit against the school district on the grounds of discrimination.

In August 2020, the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit ruled 2-1 in favor of Adams, with the majority opinion arguing that the school board violated federal civil rights law.

Circuit Judge Beverly Martin, an Obama appointee, authored the majority opinion concluding that Adams federal Title IX rights were violated by the school standard.

This case calls upon us to decide whether the St. Johns County School Districts policy barring Mr. Adams from the boys restroom squares with the Constitutions guarantee of equal protection and Title IXs prohibition of sex discrimination. We conclude it does not, wrote Martin in the 2020 decision.

Adams, for his part, does not question the ubiquitous societal practice of separate bathrooms for men and women. Instead, Mr. Adams argues the School Boards bathroom policy singles him out for differential treatment on the basis of his gender nonconformity and without furthering student privacy whatsoever. The record before us has persuaded us to his view.

Chief Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, authored a dissenting opinion. He concluded that the 2020 panel majority opinion distorts the policy, misunderstands the legal claims asserted, and rewrites well-established precedent.

By failing to address head-on the lawfulness of sex-separated bathrooms in schools, the majority recasts the school policy as classifying students on the basis of transgender status, wrote Pryor.

And based on this recasting, it reaches the remarkable conclusion that schoolchildren have no sex-specific privacy interests when using the bathroom.

Attorneys for the school board argued that the 2020 decision was based on a "hypothetical" situation, according to WWSB.

The actual policy here, while theoretically imperfect, is substantially related to student bathroom privacy, the board's motion for en banc hear reads. Indeed, the policy perfectly classifies nearly every student in the district, as at the time of the trial, the board was aware of only 16 transgender students out of approximately 40,000. There is no evidence that even those students sex as denoted in their enrollment materials did not match their biological sex, and we know that was not the case with Adams. More importantly, the policy classifies all students on the basis of biological sex, without regard to gender identity.

Ed Whelan, the distinguished senior fellow with the socially conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank and a former law clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, voiced support for the decision to review in a column for the National Review.

[T]he grant of en banc rehearing might ultimately tee the issue up for Supreme Court review and thus enable the Court to minimize the damage from its serious error in failing to grant certiorari in the Fourth Circuit case of Gloucester County School Board v. Grimm.

In the Grimm case, the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that a Virginia school district could not lawfully stop a biologically female trans-identified student from using boys' bathrooms.

In June, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in the Grimm case, allowing the circuit court decision to stand.

Both the 11th Circuit and the 4th Circuit decisions cited last June's Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, a decision finding that employers are not permitted to fire someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Although the Bostock ruling pertained to employment matters, the ruling has been cited in other legal decisions and policies enacted during the Biden administration.
With higher levels of education and declining religiosity, most Americans now accept evolution: study

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With increased exposure to college-level education and declining levels of religious belief, a majority of Americans now believe in evolution after nearly two decades of being nearly evenly split on the issue, according to a new study.

"The theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species are related and gradually change over time. Evolution relies on genetic variation in a population which affects the physical characteristics of an organism. Some of these characteristics might give the individual an advantage over other individuals which they can then pass on to their offspring," Your Genome explains.

The new study, "Public acceptance of evolution in the United States, 19852020," authored by University of Michigan researchers Jon D. Miller, Mark S. Ackerman and Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education, was published this month in the journal Public Understanding of Science.

Analyzing data from a series of national surveys, including from the National Science Board and a series focused on adult civic literacy funded by NASA published over the last 35 years, the researchers found that "increasing enrollment in baccalaureate-level programs, exposure to college-level science courses, a declining level of religious fundamentalism, and a rising level of civic scientific literacy are responsible for the increased level of public acceptance."

From 1985 to 2010, there was a statistical dead heat between acceptance and rejection of evolution, Miller, the lead researcher from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, said in a press release. But acceptance then surged, becoming the majority position in 2016.

The national samples of U.S. adults were asked to agree or disagree with the statement: Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.

Data show that Americans were evenly divided on the question of evolution from 1985 to 2007. Over the last decade, until 2019, however, the percentage of American adults who agreed with the statement increased from 40% to 54%.

Almost twice as many Americans held a college degree in 2018 as in 1988, Ackerman, a researcher at Michigan Engineering, the U-M School of Information and Michigan Medicine explained. Its hard to earn a college degree without acquiring at least a little respect for the success of science.

Religious fundamentalism was identified in the study as the strongest factor leading Americans to reject evolution. Even though the population of Americans who identify as fundamentalists declined in the last decade, some 30% of Americans remain committed to their beliefs.

According to the study even those who scored highest on the scale of religious fundamentalism shifted toward acceptance of evolution, rising from 8% in 1988 to 32% in 2019.

Such beliefs are not only tenacious but also, increasingly, politicized, Miller said in a release from the University of Michigan.

Some 34% of conservative Republicans accepted evolution compared to 83% of Democrats as of 2019, data show.

In 2019, a study from the Pew Research Center showed that only 65% of Americans now identify as Christian while those who identify as religiously unaffiliated  a group which includes atheists, agnostics and people who dont identify with any religion  swelled to 26% of the population. The drop in the number of Americans identifying as Christian reflected a 12% decline when compared to the general population 10 years earlier. The decline was visible across multiple demographics but particularly among young adults.
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Dont let American public schools copy Oregon State standards: lowering high school graduation requirements so that no student can possibly be denied a diploma. Thanks to Oregons Governor Kate Brown signing Senate Bill 744 into law, now high school students need not worry about proficiency in math, reading, or writing. Apparently, it is discriminatory to students of color to have these unfair requirements in order to graduate.

In essence, in the name of racial equity, all students will be handed a diploma regardless of effort, excellence, or cognitive ability. If we ever hope to have real equity in our communities it will not be through having the next generation of citizens unable to read, write, or comprehend basic math skills.

Low-income and indigenous students populate the rural Western Washington State schools where I live. Rather than lowering expectations, there is an effort to increase learning opportunities. Where possible, federal funding is used to provide extra tutoring, so students dont lag behind. In one remote Native American village, the graduation rate is nearly 100% and colleges are seeking these students and offering generous scholarships. This wouldnt be possible if the students had been held back with low-bar expectations.

COVID interruptions with in-person classroom time have made this a critical year for all our students. According to a recent McKinsey report, students are 4 months behind on reading and 5 months behind on mathematics, compared to where they would have been had school not shuttered. Schools that predominately serve students of color and low-income children have even greater shortfalls in academic progress. Currently, America has 12 million marginalized students  this could easily be Americas next poverty-stricken generation.

But heres something all schools can take advantage of  the $190 billion in emergency federal COVID school aid. Rather than lower expectations, lets hire tutors, have extra classroom time, and prepare students for the global economy that is increasingly becoming more literate and computer science oriented.

In the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion we are quickly abandoning the prior efforts to increase American academic prowess. Remember President Obamas Race to the Top? Lets not lower the bar at a time when we need educated and motivated citizens. When pollsters asked citizens what the purpose of K-12 education is, many responded that its to help students have the skills needed for future employment. Unfortunately, some of Oregons high school graduates  many of them students of color  will be left with few skills and be sentenced to a lifetime of low-wage jobs.

We can do better America. We are pouring our tax dollars into our public schools. Lets demand more and expect our school administrators to prioritize competency and literacy. Its the only way we will prepare our graduates to face the demands of the 21st Century.
Christian groups urge Biden to extend 'arbitrary and harmful' Afghanistan withdrawal deadline

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As President Joe Biden stands by his Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Christian groups are calling on his administration to ensure the evacuation of all American citizens and Afghan allies, even if that means extending evacuation efforts into next month.

At a press conference Tuesday, Biden indicated that the U.S. is currently on a pace to finish the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan by Aug. 31 and stressed that the completion by August 31 depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who  were transporting out. While he expressed openness to the idea of staying beyond the deadline set by the Taliban, Biden elaborated on the real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration the longer we stay.

Earlier Tuesday, Biden told leaders of the worlds other leading democracies that he had no plans to extend the Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. military presence from Afghanistan despite concerns that not all U.S. citizens seeking to leave the country will be evacuated by then. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin faced criticism for suggesting last week that the U.S. would evacuate Americans as long as we possibly can until the clock runs out or we run out of capability.

Bidens Defense Secretary says theyll only evacuate Americans until the clock runs out or we run out of capability. This is the team that told us they planned for every contingency. pic.twitter.com/EA2YHGxMym  Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) August 18, 2021

State Department Spokesman Ned Price also announced yesterday on Twitter that: "As of this morning, @statedept has called every American who has expressed interest in departing Afghanistan via the Repatriation Assistance Form on the @USEmbassyKabul website. We have made more than 4,000 personalized calls over the last four days."

Bidens insistence on abiding by the Aug. 31 deadline, at least for now, was met with blowback from Christian organizations that help resettle refugees in the U.S. Here are reactions from Christian groups to Biden's plans to not extend the deadline.

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BYNUM, Ala. (AP)  A major U.S. Army facility that builds and repairs combat vehicles and other items is releasing more than 300 employees from their jobs at its facility in Alabama due to declining projected workloads.

The Anniston Army Depot announced Thursday that it expects to release 196 term and 108 contractor personnel, beginning in about 60 days, Al.com reported. The depot is located in Bynum, Alabama, which is part of the AnnistonOxford, Alabama metro area.
TOKYO  Taro Kono, the Japanese minister in charge of the vaccine rollout, promised Sunday a timely administering of booster shots for the coronavirus, as the nation aims to fully vaccinate its population by October or November.

He said Pfizer and Moderna booster shots will arrive early next year, in time for medical workers and the elderly, who were prioritized and mostly got their second shots by July.

Japan is aiming for 80% vaccination levels, Kono said on a nationally broadcast Fuji TV show.

A digital system for proof of vaccination will be available later this year, he added.

Japan has lagged among developed nations on vaccinations, with its fully vaccinated now at about 43%. Hospitals are getting swamped, and more than 118,000 people infected with the coronavirus are waiting at home, according to the health ministry. Japan has recorded about 15,800 COVID-related deaths.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 Russias virus-related deaths hit record of 50,000 in July

 Contact tracing takes a back seat during latest COVID-19 surge

 UK prepares to vaccinate youth ages 12-15 before school starts

 How much impact could Sturgis rally have on virus caseload?

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 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BEND, Ore.  Oregons emergency management department says the states death toll from COVID-19 is climbing so rapidly that two counties have requested refrigerated trucks to hold the bodies.

Department spokeswoman Bobbi Doan said Saturday that Tillamook County, on Oregons northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, have requested the trucks.

Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw wrote in his request to the state that the countys sole funeral home is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity of nine bodies. He added that virus cases among staff have made them unable to transport bodies to other counties.

The refrigerated truck arrived in the county on Friday, loaned by Klamath County, Doan said in a telephone interview.

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners says there were six COVID-19 deaths in the county from Aug. 18 to Aug. 23, surpassing the five total COVID-19 deaths that occurred during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.  A newspaper reporter in Michigan says he was punched in the face while covering an anti-mask event.

The Grand Traverse County sheriffs office is investigating. Record-Eagle reporter Brendan Quealy went to Silver Lake Recreation Area on Thursday to check an event organized by a group called Citizens Liberating Michigan.

Heather Cerone introduced herself to the crowd and urged people to block the reporters view. Quealy says he was shoved into a fence by a man and punched in the face.

Cerone claimed the event was private because the pavilion had been rented. But prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg said the area around the pavilion is open to anyone.

Quealy says he was just doing his job: to chase the news and accurately report it.

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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Public health officials say a COVID-19 outbreak at an Oregon assisted living facility that has infected 64 people and killed five began with an unvaccinated worker.

The Register-Guard newspaper reports that Gateway Living in Springfield has 105 employees and 101 residents. Only 63% of the staff and 82% of the residents are completely vaccinated.

Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis says the outbreak began with an unvaccinated employee who worked while infectious. About 60% of the cases are breakthrough cases. Its not yet clear how many of the cases were among residents, employees or family members and others outside of the facility.

Seven of the people infected are hospitalized.

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LAS VEGAS  A Las Vegas hospital has opened a clinic to provide ongoing care to so-called long-haulers  people with long-term medical complications from COVID-19.

University Medical Center said its clinic is the first of its kind in Nevada and will also help patients enroll in clinical trials for new therapies to treat long-term symptoms, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Long-term symptoms include heart and lung conditions, pain and cognitive impairment.

In another development, the Clark County School District Board on Wednesday will consider allowing the superintendent to establish a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for district employees.

Requiring COVID-19 vaccination is the responsible, common-sense course of action, based on experiences of many government agencies, businesses and other organizations, the Clark County district said in a statement. Our top priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff.

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PHOENIX  A day after Arizona surpassed the 1 million in confirmed coronavirus cases, the state on Saturday reported nearly 3,900 new cases, the most since a surge in February.

The 3,893 cases and 55 deaths reported Saturday increased Arizonas total confirmed deaths to 18, according to the states coronavirus dashboard.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases rose over the past two weeks from 2,604 on Aug. 12 to 3,184 on Thursday. The rolling average of daily deaths rose from 13 deaths to 23 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University.

After climbing steadily since early July, the states virus-related hospitalizations in recent days ranged between 1,900 and 2,000, with 1,982 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds on Friday. Thats far below the pandemic peak of 5,082 on Jan. 11.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala.  State numbers show the overwhelming number of people hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

State Health Officer Scott Harris says Alabama had 1,230 virus deaths since April when the vaccine was widely available. About 91% of the deaths were among the unvaccinated.

There were 108 deaths, or about 9%, of deaths among people who are fully vaccinated. Harris says nearly all of those deaths were ealderly or had serious chronic health problems.

State officials provided the numbers as they try to stress that the vaccine lowers the risk of serious illness. The Alabama Hospital Association says 85% of the 2,900 people hospitalized for COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Tennessee classrooms and schools that face a surge in coronavirus cases and quarantines can request a temporary shift to remote instruction if their districts can show a need.

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Peggy Schwinn says while she remains committed to in-person instruction, schools and classrooms can seek a waiver to state Board of Education rules that prevent districts from unilaterally requiring students to implement remote learning.

The letter comes as some school districts in Tennessee were forced to close due to an increase in coronavirus cases among students, faculty and staff. Wilson County Schools says schools will close next week to help slow the current trend of positive cases and quarantines.

State Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said Wednesday that children make up 36% of Tennessees reported coronavirus cases. Tennessee ranked sixth in the country this week for new overall cases per capita, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins. The rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by about 2,200 in the past two weeks.

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PRISTINA, Kosovo  Kosovos government has postponed the start of school for two weeks and installed new restrictive measures to cope with a rise of coronavirus cases.

In August, the numbers increased significantly to about 2,000 new cases a day. On Saturday, there were 18 deaths and 1,891 confirmed cases.

The government says the pre-university school year now will start Sept. 13. Public institutions will limit the number of people in the office, and there will be no gatherings of more than 50 people.

It also reimposes the overnight curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and only the main public service employees are exempt.

Sport and culture events can use only 10% to 30% of the seats and restaurants 70% of the outside seats. Masks are obligatory in all closed spaces and outdoors.

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MOSCOW  Russias state statistics agency shows a record 50,000 deaths in July were related to the coronavirus.

The report from the Rosstat agency says 50,421 people suffering from the coronavirus died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December.

However, the agency says only 38,992 deaths were directly attributed to the disease COVID-19. In another 5,206 deaths, the coronavirus was assessed as likely the main cause but that more investigation would be need; in 1,449 other cases the virus contributed to deaths but was not the main cause.

The report says Russia has registered a total of 215,265 virus-related deaths by the end of July  more than the 180,840 cited by the national coronavirus task force.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  Health officials across five states have linked 178 virus cases to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

In the three weeks since the rally kicked off, South Dakota health officials have reported 63 cases among rallygoers so far. The epicenter of the rally, Meade County, is reaching a per capita rate similar to the hardest-hit states of the South. Health officials in North Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin all reported cases among people who attended the 10-day rally that attracted more than 500,000 people.

Health experts are worried that large gatherings across the Upper Midwest will feed a new wave of the virus.

This coronavirus forest fire will keep burning any human wood it can find, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. It will find you, and its so infectious.

The Black Hills regions largest hospital system, Monument Health, says hospitalizations from the virus rose from five to 78 this month. The hospital was bracing for more COVID-19 patients by converting rooms to intensive care units and reassigning staff.

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PARIS (AP)  The Arc de Triomphe has seen parades, protests and tourists galore, but never before has the war monument in Paris been wrapped in silver and blue recyclable polypropylene fabric. That's about to happen next month in a posthumous art installation designed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Christo has wrapped museums, parliaments as in Germany, but a monument like this? Not really. This is the first time. This is the first monument of this importance and scale that he has done, Vladimir Yavachev, the late collaborating couple's nephew, told The Associated Press.

Preparations have already started on the Napoleon-era arch, where workers are covering statues to protect them from the wrapping.

The idea for LArc de Triomphe, Wrapped, was formed in 1961, when Christo and Jeanne-Claude lived in Paris. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and in spite of Christo's death in May 2020, the project carried on.

He wanted to complete this project. He made us promise him that we will do it, Yavachev told The Associated Press.

It was to be realized last fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the installation.

The 14 million-euro ($16.4 million) project is being self-financed through the sale of Christo's preparatory studies, drawings, scale models, and other pieces of work, Yavachev said.

Visitors to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe during the installation, scheduled for Sept. 18 to Oct. 3, will be able to touch the fabric, and those climbing to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace, as intended by the artists.

Born in Bulgaria in 1935, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, born in Morocco on the exact same day as him, in Paris in 1958.

The artists were known for elaborate, temporary creations that involved blanketing familiar public places with fabric, such as Berlins Reichstag and Paris Pont Neuf bridge, and creating giant site-specific installations, such as a series of 7,503 gates in New York Citys Central Park and the 24.5-mile Running Fence in California.

Yavachev plans on completing another one of his uncle and aunts unfinished projects: a 150-meter-tall (492 feet) pyramid-like mastaba in Abu Dhabi.

We have the blueprints, we just have to do it, he said.

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Arno Pedram in Paris contributed reporting.
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President Biden warned ISIS-K members that the United States will continue to retaliate for a bombing near Kabul airport on Thursday that killed a number of people, including 13 U.S. troops. He also warned that military commanders believe another attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.

This strike was not the last, the president said in a statement Saturday afternoon, renewing a vow he made in a speech Thursday. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.

A U.S. military drone strike killed two high profile Islamic State leaders in Afghanistan on Friday night, the Pentagon said. The move was retribution for a terrorist attack carried out by ISIS-K that killed many people, including 13 U.S. troops, near the Kabul airport where evacuations are taking place. Thursdays attack marked the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2011.

According to Army Maj. Gen. William Hank Taylor, who spoke at a Pentagon press conference on Saturday, one of the Islamic State members killed by the drone strike was known as a planner, while another was a facilitator. Another person was wounded, Taylor said, but he refused to identify any of the targets or say whether they were directly connected to the Kabul attack. When reporters asked for more details, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said, They were ISIS-K planners and facilitators and thats enough reason there alone.

Pentagon officials admitted that it was possible some people killed after the bomb may have died from bullets shot by the U.S. military following the detonation. Investigators are now determining whether the gunfire came from the U.S. or from members of the Islamic State.

The Pentagon announced that more than 117,000 people  most of whom were Afghans  have been evacuated from the country by U.S. and coalition forces, including more than 5,000 American citizens. The evacuation continues but is winding down as the August 31 deadline approaches. A military official told The New York Times that approximately 4,000 U.S. troops remain on the ground in Kabul.

The Defense Department has released the names of the 13 members of the U.S. military who were killed in the terrorist attack. One was 20-year-old U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum. He was a son, a brother, a husband and a father with a baby due in just three weeks, his sister, Roice McCollum, said in a statement to CNN.

The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others, Biden said.

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There may have been a lengthy lineup at the COVID testing facility outside Port of Seattles Pier 66 over the weekend, but the sentiment was unanimous among eager cruise passengers and personnel: the wait was worth it.

This wait has been well over a year in the making. With this seven-day roundtrip sailing from Seattle to Alaska, Norwegian Encore made history as the first ship in the NCL fleet to return to cruising from a U.S. port in over 500 days.

Harry Sommer, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, is sailing  with his family  aboard Encore this week. Dr. Stephen Ostroff, formerly of the CDC and current member of Norwegians SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council, is also on the ship. Ostroff previously served as Acting Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Courtesy of CTS Photos

Also cruising this week is John Y. Mason, another SailSAFE council member, who has worked with several government agencies and throughout his career focused his work on the minimization of microbial contamination risk to both humans and non-humans.

They are among the reduced capacity cruise this week to celebrate the return of U.S. operations. And they are opting to spend their days at sea for another celebratory reason: Norwegian Cruise Line is sailing with a 100% vaccination requirement.

Every passenger, every crew member, is fully vaccinated. No exceptions.

You want to cruise. We want to keep you safe, the NCL Sail Safe website posted. All guests and crew are required to be 100% fully vaccinated so you can safely do what youve always wanted to do on a cruise  everything.

The topic of cruise health and safety in the time of COVID took center stage on August 6 when cruise line and government officials hosted a panel discussion at Port of Seattles Pier 66, one day prior to Encores sailing. Among the panelists were Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and chairman of Norwegians SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council.

Having Dr. Gottlieb to my left, Del Rio said, is just symbolic of how seriously we take health and safety. Its not a tagline. Its not a slogan for us. We mean what we say, and we say what we mean."

"We had an opportunity to create the safest possible environment to enjoy a leisure activity, said Dr. Gottlieb, referring to the layers of protection inclusive of strict vaccination requirements and pre-board testing.

Courtesy of CTS Photos

Yes, there was a lengthy line for passengers awaiting their pre-cruise test requirements on Saturday, but such firm policies have a trickle effect within the broader community.

A first-time cruise traveler on this Encore sailing, who asked the Seattle P-I to withhold her name, said cruising and vaccinations went hand in hand for her. Its the only reason I got the vaccine, she said. Ive never even had a flu shot before, but I wanted to cruise and they said we all had to be vaccinated so I did it.

On shore Ill wear a mask, she added, noting this would also be her first visit to Alaska. But on the ship, everyone is vaccinated and had to test negative to even be allowed on the ship.

While every Norwegian crew member has been fully vaccinated, they will continue to wear masks. Passengers, however, may enjoy a mask-free sailing since every person aboard has received their shot and tested negative the day of boarding.

So what about that lengthy lineup for the pre-cruise testing area? Sure, there was an occasional check of the watch as guests were eager to start their vacations. Yet each time testing center staff made an announcement to thank guests for their patience, those guests were also reminded once they stepped foot on the ship the masks could come off. And every single time, awaiting guests broke into applause and cheers.

Worth the wait? It certainly seems so for these vacationers.

Norwegian Encore is setting sail weekly from Seattle to Alaska  including Icy Strait Point, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan  now through October 23 and then again May through October 2022.




NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Forecasters warned residents along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast to rush preparations ahead of Hurricane Ida, which is expected to rapidly intensify and bring winds as high as 130 mph (209 kph), life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it slams ashore Sunday in Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center warned that super-warm Gulf waters are expected to soon rapidly magnify Ida's destructive power, boosting it from a Category 2 storm to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in just 18 hours or less. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon.

Coastal highways saw heavy traffic Saturday as people moved to escape the storm's path. Trucks pulling saltwater fishing boats and campers streamed away from the coast Interstate 65 in south Alabama. Traffic jams clogged Interstate 10 heading out of New Orleans.

Were going to catch it head-on, said Bebe McElroy as she prepared to leave home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. Im just going around praying, saying, Dear Lord, just watch over us.

Ida was poised to strike Louisiana 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths and caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, which took years to recover.

We're not the same state we were 16 years ago, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system that's seen major improvements since Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005.

This system is going to be tested, Edwards said. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged in 14 parishes for search and rescue efforts with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters. And 10,000 linemen were on standby to respond to electrical outages.

A tropical depression two days earlier, Ida was strengthening so quickly that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the citys 390,000 residents, a task that would require coordinating with the state and neighboring locales to turn highways into one-way routes away from the city.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called for a voluntary evacuation and reiterated Saturday that the time to safely leave was growing short. Collin Arnold, the citys emergency management director, said the city could be under high winds for about 10 hours. Officials warned those who stayed to be prepared for long power outages amid sweltering heat in the days ahead.

Ramsey Green, the citys top infrastructure official, stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting the city have been much improved since Katrina.

That said, if we see 10 to 20 inches of rain over an abbreviated period of time, we will see flooding, he said.

In Washington, President Joe Biden on Saturday called Ida very dangerous and urged Americans to pay attention and be prepared.

Lines at gas pumps and car rental agencies grew long as residents and tourists alike hastened to leave Saturday.

We were willing to wait it out but the hotel said we had to leave, said visitor Lays Lafaurie of Fort Worth, Texas, waiting in a rental car line at the citys airport. They said we had to leave by 7 tomorrow morning. But if wed waited that long there wouldnt have been any cars left.

Ida posed a threat far beyond New Orleans. A hurricane warning was issued for nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Louisiana's coastline, from Intracoastal City south of Lafayette to the Mississippi state line. A tropical storm warning was extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Mobile Bay in Alabama was under a storm surge watch.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency Saturday for the states coastal and western counties, warning Ida could bring flooding and tornadoes there.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves urged residents to stay off of interstate highways to make room for people evacuating from Louisiana. He said 19 shelters had opened to take in evacuees. Several casinos on the Mississippi coast had closed ahead of Ida.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground, said Ida is forecast to move through the just absolute worst place for a hurricane.

The Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a critical hub of the nations petrochemical industry, lined with oil refineries, natural gas terminals and chemical manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisianas major electricity provider, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.

A U.S. Energy Department map of oil and gas infrastructure shows scores of low-lying sites in the storms projected path that are listed as potentially vulnerable to flooding. Phillips 66 said it was shutting operations at its refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

Many gas stations in and around New Orleans were out of gas, and the few still open had lines more than a dozen cars deep.

Mike Laurent of Marrero, Louisiana, was filling up about a dozen gas canisters to fuel his generator and those of friends and family. Laurent said his family planned to weather the storm at home despite concerns about whether the nearby levee would hold.

I dont think its ever been tested like its going to be tested tomorrow or Monday, Laurent said. I bought a dozen life jackets, just in case.

Ida was a Category 2 hurricane late Saturday night with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 kph). The storm was centered about 235 miles (375 kilometers) southeast of coastal Houma, Louisiana, and traveling northwest at 16 mph (26 kph). Ida's core was also about 145 miles (235 kilometers) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Cuba started to clean up Saturday after Ida tore through Isla de la Juventud and then western parts of the mainland. The storm toppled trees and damaged crops and buildings. There were no reported deaths.

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Associated Press writers Stacey Plaisance and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Frank Bajak in Boston; Michael Biesecker in Washington and Andrea Rodriguez in Los Palacios, Cuba, contributed to this report.
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP)  Authorities in South Carolina confirm a small plane crashed Saturday, injuring three people.

Spartanburg County Sheriffs Office deputies said the plane landed in the backyard of a house in Spartanburg, multiple news agencies reported.

The sheriffs office described the passengers' injuries as minor. They were transported to an area hospital for assessment and treatment, first responders said.

It is unclear what caused the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration has investigators headed to the scene, Spartanburg fire officials said.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Just a week before she was killed in a suicide bombing with 12 other U.S. service members, Sgt. Nicole Gee was cradling a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport.

She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, I love my job.

Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California, was one of four Californians killed in the bombing at the Kabul airport where people were being evacuated amid the Taliban takeover. The blast killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, including 11 Marines.

Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio; and Lance Cpl. Kareem MaeLee Grant Nikoui, of Norco, were also killed.

Gee was a maintenance technician with 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a sister forever and very best friend, wrote a moving account about the magnitude of her loss.

I cant quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how Im never going to see her again, Harrison wrote on Facebook. How her last breath was taken doing what she loved -- helping people.  Then there was an explosion. And just like that, shes gone.

Gees Instagram page shows another photo of her in fatigues, holding a rifle next to a line of people walking into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: "escorting evacuees onto the bird.

The social media account that includes many selfies after working out at the gym lists her location as California, North Carolina and somewhere overseas.

Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek isle and holding a beer in Spain. One from earlier this month in Kuwait shows her beaming with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.

Harrison said her generation of Marines hears war stories from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts but they seem very distant amid boring deployments until the peaceful float you were on turns into  your friends never coming home.

Gees car was still parked in a lot at Camp Lejeune and Harrison mused about all the Marines who had walked past it while she was overseas, unaware of who it belonged to.

Some of them knew her. Some of them didnt, she said. They all walked past it. The war stories, the losses, the flag-draped coffins, the KIA bracelets & the heartbreak. Its not so distant anymore.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona K-12 schools have been sent nearly $4.3 billion through several federal coronavirus relief packages, with virtually every public charter school or traditional district receiving extra cash to help them endure shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and help students make up for lost classroom time.

But the money wasnt equally divided, and schools that serve a high proportion of low-income students received much more and the ability to help poor-performing students and even their families make big gains, if the money is spent correctly.

Since March 2020, the federal government has provided $190 billion in pandemic aid to schools, an amount that is more than four times what the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year. The Associated Press, relying on data published or provided by states and the federal government, tallied how much money was granted to nearly every school district in the country.

The AP tracked more than $145 billion sent to states to distribute among schools since last year, including general pandemic relief that some states shared with their schools.

Not all the money has been distributed, but The Associated Press collected data on $3.57 billion that has so far been sent to Arizona schools, and some schools got half a year's budget or more in virus relief funds. The biggest pot of money was from President Joe Bidens American Rescue Act Plan, which included $2.7 billion to Arizona schools.

Many Arizona charter and public schools that do not have many low-income students received about $500 per student. Meanwhile public schools with a high percentage of students eligible for federally funded free or reduced price lunches got much more, in some cases a massive amount.

Two prime examples are the Vail School District southeast of Tucson and the Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson.

The two districts educate similar numbers of students in more than 20 elementary, middle and high schools each, Vail 13,792 and Sunnyside about 15,600.

But Vail got just $558 per student, or $7.7 million, to help it recover from financial and education losses due to the pandemic, mainly because fewer than 30% of its students were classified as low-income. It's yearly budget is about $110 million.

Sunnyside, meanwhile, hauled in $82.5 million in federal relief funds, about two-thirds of its yearly district budget of $130 million. That worked out to $5,291 per student.

Both districts went to remote learning last year as the coronavirus hit the state. Last school year was a mix of remote, hybrid and in-person learning. This fall, most students returned to in-person education.

They both plan to add more school counselors and have spent money on cleaning and personal protective equipment.

And both took a financial hit from the pandemic, when Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature provided just 95% of regular funding for remote learning.

Despite assurances from Ducey that districts would be made whole, federal virus payments and federally funded grants the governor doled out came up short for Vail and other districts that are not classified as low-income, Vail district spokeswoman Darcy Mentone said. The district got only 2% of the 5% expected to reach full funding.

That left the district having to provide additional staffing and other resources, and we were struggling financially to provide all that, Mentone said.

Enter Ducey, who last week announced $163 million for schools that had received less than $1,800 per student, conditioned on them not requiring students to wear face masks or get vaccinated. Vail does neither, so it's in line to get an additional $12.2 million in federal money controlled by Ducey.

Mentone said her district was among those that asked the Legislature to ensure schools that didn't get so-called Title I money got more cash.

We wholeheartedly agree ... that students in poverty require additional resources, Mentone said. But that doesn't mean that students that aren't in poverty don't need anything.

Vail has not finalized plans for how to spend that extra money yet, but its principals want at least some of it to be spent on additional staffing, Mentone said.

Sunnyside's payments, by contrast, put it in a massive cash-positive position and it can do what Biden asked them to do: think of the money as a way to transform.

Superintendent Steve Holmes said he thinks that's just what the public expects and it will be a huge missed opportunity if he doesn't deliver. He knows money is needed to help students recover the learning loss from the past 18 months but also that some of it can be used to make major gains, if used right.

I worry that sometimes people see a large influx of money, and its like dig yourself out of the ditch, versus really thinking innovatively of how you can actually change things," Holmes said. "I truly believe were approaching it from a transformational standpoint.

He said the question is how to balance transformation with playing catch-up.

"If we're just about playing catch up from the past, I think its going to look bad with the general public that we didnt do anything with these dollars that were worthwhile.

The district is spending the money on new technology like updated student laptops and classroom projectors, on summer, afterschool and weekend classes, new arts and band instructors, school counselors, social workers and family resources. It also pushed money into safety, like special air filters that remove viruses.

It plans to spend the extra $82 million over three years and Holmes said he hopes to retain the extra staff.

Some schools got an even bigger windfall from the federal relief packages enacted under Biden and former President Donald Trump. Schools on the Navajo Nation generally came out way ahead.

The biggest winner of all was the Cedar Unified School District on the Navajo Nation. The district runs the Jeditto School in the community Keams Canyon about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Flagstaff.

With just 125 students and a $2 million annual budget, the district received $11 million, or more than $90,000 per student. In a brief phone interview, Superintendent Corrina Begay said the district had bought two four-wheel drive school buses but then said she was busy and set up a follow-up call for the following day. She did not respond to multiple follow-up calls, messages or an email.

Elsewhere on the sprawling reservation, the Red Mesa Unified School District, with five schools and about 430 students, received more than its annual yearly budget in federal money. The district budget is about $8.2 million and it received $12.6 million, more than $29,000 per student.

Superintendent Amy Perez Fuller, who just joined the district this summer, said some of the money has already been allocated to refurbish decades-old schools. All are getting new paint and air conditioning and repaired plumbing.

The district is also buying computers, new textbooks and Chromebooks for lower grades. But decisions on how to spend much of the cash haven't been made.

"I was happy to find out that we have all this funding, but the first thing I did is I stopped the spending," Fuller said. Because I thought, Wait a minute."

She said the district will buy things that are needed.

Otherwise, we'll let it roll over until next year until we find out where we are," Fuller said. "I'm not careless in spending public money, or my own money as a matter of fact."
LAS VEGAS (AP)  Prosecutors said Friday they plan to seek the death penalty for a 29-year-old convicted felon accused of killing three men during an apparently random string of Las Vegas-area robberies.

John Anthony Carrillo faces three murder charges in the deaths of Ruben Garcia, 36, Abraham Acosta, 32, and Miles Smith, 55, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP)  A Marine from Missouri who was among 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan was an amazing young man" who decided early in his high school years to join up.

Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz of Wentzville was 20 when he died Thursday. Funeral arrangements are still pending.
PLANT CITY, Fla. (AP)  During the last two years, Isaret Jeffers has worked more than ever around the fields of Plant City donating food to farm workers, organizing vaccination drives and giving notebooks and backpacks to low-income students.

But this week she added another commitment to the immigrant community. She opened a shelter to help rural women who are victims of domestic abuse.

The shelter is for those who suffer violence and abuse in their homes, said Jeffers, 49. It is an initiative that is going to help the peasant community a lot.

The daughter of Mexican farmworkers, Jeffers is the founder of Colectivo Arbol, a nonprofit created to help communicate reliable information to Hispanic and farmworker communities across Central Florida. Jeffers started Colectivo Arbol in Kissimmee during 2017 as Puerto Ricans fled for Central Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.

Jeffers said the shelter is in a safe and reliable area about two hours from Tampa. It has four rooms and is surrounded by three acres that victims can use in their recovery process.

The idea is that these women recover quickly and feel that they can be useful to themselves and the community, but above all by doing something that they are familiar with, which is harvesting the land, Jeffers said. Its a challenge.

Jeffers said they have a team of volunteers, spiritual counselors and an immigration attorney who will work with the project.

Their efforts will expand through counseling and workshops. Colectivo Arbol gets support from individuals, government agencies such as the Mexican Consulate in Orlando, and small businesses including dozens of Greek-owned stores and restaurants in Tarpon Springs.

There is a lot to do because many times these women do not seek help due to the language barrier, the ignorance of their rights or the fear of leaving home with their child in their arms and without financial support, said Jeffers.

According to the Florida Department of Children and Families between 22 and 25 percent of all women will experience domestic violence at some point during their lives.

In fiscal year 2019-20, authorities in Florida reported 105,298 crimes of domestic violence, resulting in 66,069 arrests. Also during this period Floridas certified domestic violence centers provided 563,721 nights of emergency shelter. More than14,800 survivors of domestic violence and their children were allocated in shelters across the state.

Kirk Ray Smith, president and chief executive officer with Hope Villages of America, a nonprofit in Pinellas that runs a domestic violence shelter for about 50 women, said that community efforts and initiatives for the immigrant community are essential.

It is a job that requires a lot of effort and dedication but is widely needed in the community, Smith said.

Amid the pandemic, domestic violence has taken a more complex turn, especially in the underprivileged community. In many cases, COVID-19 has created a scenario where friends or coworkers are not interacting with victims as often as they were before the pandemic.

There are several elements to consider when you talk about domestic abuse and the pandemic, Smith said.

Nancy Hernandez, a former victim of domestic abuse and a founder of a nonprofit in Tampa  Mujeres Restauradas por Dios, or Women Restored by God  said that the most important thing is to empower women to achieve new goals in their lives.

Hernandez organizes community events and public campaigns, like No more Silence!, to end domestic abuse and to raise awareness of the problem.

It is like being born again, at slow but steady steps, Hernandez said.

COVID-19 also has exacerbated domestic violence because some abusers have used the pandemic as a justification to isolate their victims, said Jeffers.

Within context its critical to offer a pathway to reach opportunities and an economic independence, she said,

So she called for donations and funds to ensure she can continue to help their community.

The doors are always open to get all the help you can give us, Jeffers said.

If you are interested in donating, contact Isaret Jeffers at colectivoarbol1@gmail.com or (407) 307-6090.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Forecasters warned residents along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast to rush preparations Saturday ahead of an intensifying Hurricane Ida, which is expected to bring winds as high as 130 mph (209 kph), life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it slams ashore in Louisiana on Sunday.

The National Hurricane Center warned that super-warm Gulf waters could rapidly magnify Ida's destructive power, boosting it from a Category 2 storm to an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in just 18 hours or less.

Coastal highways saw heavy traffic Saturday as people moved to escape the storm's path. Trucks pulling saltwater fishing boats and campers streamed away from the coast Interstate 65 in south Alabama. Traffic jams clogged Interstate 10 heading out of New Orleans.

Were going to catch it head-on, said Bebe McElroy as she prepared to leave her home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. Im just going around praying, saying, Dear Lord, just watch over us.

Ida was poised to strike Louisiana 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths and caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, which took years to recover.

We're not the same state we were 16 years ago, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system that's seen major improvements since Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005.

This system is going to be tested, Edwards said. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged in 14 parishes for search and rescue efforts with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters. And 10,000 linemen were on standby to respond to electrical outages.

A tropical depression two days earlier, Ida was strengthening so quickly that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the citys 390,000 residents, a task that would require coordinating with the state and neighboring locales to turn highways into one-way routes away from the city.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called for a voluntary evacuation and reiterated Saturday that the time to safely leave was growing short. Collin Arnold, the citys emergency management director, said the city could be under high winds for about 10 hours. Officials warned those who stayed to be prepared for long power outages amid sweltering heat in the days ahead.

Ramsey Green, the citys top infrastructure official, stressed that the levee and drainage systems protecting the city have been much improved since Katrina.

That said, if we see 10 to 20 inches of rain over an abbreviated period of time, we will see flooding, he said.

In Washington, President Joe Biden on Saturday called Ida very dangerous and urged Americans to pay attention and be prepared.

Lines at gas pumps and car rental agencies grew long as residents and tourists alike prepared to leave Saturday.

We were willing to wait it out but the hotel said we had to leave, said visitor Lays Lafaurie of Fort Worth, Texas, waiting in a rental car line at the citys airport. They said we had to leave by 7 tomorrow morning. But if wed waited that long there wouldnt have been any cars left.

Ida posed a threat far beyond New Orleans. A hurricane warning was issued for nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Louisiana's coastline, from Intracoastal City south of Lafayette to the Mississippi state line. A tropical storm warning was extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Mobile Bay in Alabama was under a storm surge watch.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey declared a state of emergency Saturday for the states coastal and western counties, warning Ida could bring flooding and tornadoes there.

In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves urged residents to stay off of interstate highways to make room for people fleeing Louisiana. He said 19 shelters had opened to take in evacuees. Several casinos on the Mississippi coast had closed ahead of Ida.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground, said Ida is forecast to move through the just absolute worst place for a hurricane.

The Interstate 10 corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is a critical hub of the nations petrochemical industry, lined with oil refineries, natural gas terminals and chemical manufacturing plants. Entergy, Louisianas major electricity provider, operates two nuclear power plants along the Mississippi River.

A U.S. Energy Department map of oil and gas infrastructure shows scores of low-lying sites in the storms projected path that are listed as potentially vulnerable to flooding. Phillips 66 said it was shutting operations at its refinery in Belle Chasse, Louisiana.

Many gas stations in and around New Orleans were out of gas, and the few still open had lines more than a dozen cars deep.

Mike Laurent of Marrero, Louisiana, was filling up about a dozen gas canisters to fuel his generator and those of friends and family. Laurent said his family planned to weather the storm at home despite concerns about whether the nearby levee would hold.

I dont think its ever been tested like its going to be tested tomorrow or Monday, Laurent said. I bought a dozen life jackets, just in case.

By Saturday afternoon, Ida was a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (168 kph) . The storm was centered about 325 miles (525 kilometers) southeast of coastal Houma, Louisiana, and was traveling northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).

Cuba started to clean up Saturday after Ida tore through Isla de la Juventud and then western parts of the mainland. The storm toppled trees and damaged crops and buildings. There were no reported deaths.

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Associated Press writers Stacey Plaisance and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland; Frank Bajak in Boston and Andrea Rodriguez in Los Palacios, Cuba, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The rancorous debate over whether returning students should wear masks in the classroom has moved from school boards to courtrooms.

In at least 14 states, lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. In some cases, normally rule-enforcing school administrators are finding themselves fighting state leaders.

Legal experts say that while state laws normally trump local control, legal arguments from mask proponents have a good chance of coming out on top. But amid protests and even violence over masks around the United States, the court battle is just beginning.

Mask rules in public schools vary widely. Some states require them; others ban mandates. Many more leave it up to individual districts.

Big school districts that want to require masks are in court and battling governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Worried parents are suing over similar legislative bans on mandates in Utah, Iowa and South Carolina.

Suits fighting mask requirements have popped up in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky and Montana.

At the heart of the debates are parents, scared or frustrated for their children in an unprecedented time. The early court record is mixed, with victories for mask proponents in Arkansas and Arizona followed by back-to-back decisions in two big states going opposite ways. The Texas Supreme Court blocked another school mask mandate Thursday while a Florida judge allowed the rules to go forward Friday.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending universal mask wearing in schools. Students age 12 and younger remain ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

Republican officials who restrict mask mandates argue there are downsides to kids being masked all day and that parents should decide whether to put them on children, who are generally less vulnerable to the virus than are older adults.

But public health experts say masks are a key coronavirus-prevention tool that does not pose health risks for children older than toddler age, and truly effective when worn by a large number of people.

This idea of parental freedom to decide whats best for their child is not unlimited. It has never been unlimited in our system, said Ellen Clayton, a pediatrician and law professor at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nationwide, COVID-19 deaths are running at more than 1,200 a day, the highest level since mid-March. New cases per day are averaging over 156,000, turning the clock back to the end of January.

The surge is largely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant among people who are unvaccinated. In areas where vaccination rates are particularly low, doctors have pleaded with their communities to get inoculated to spare overburdened hospitals.

They have also sounded the alarm about the growing toll of the variant on children and young adults.

In Tennessee, for example, children now make up 36% of the state's reported COVID-19 cases. Gov. Bill Lee has not banned schools from requiring masks but has ordered that any parent can opt out  and remote education options are limited this year. Few schools in the state have adopted mask mandates.

South Carolina passed anti-mask regulations and is now facing a federal lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU argues that the state is putting students with disabilities at greater risk in violation of federal law amid skyrocketing infections, particularly among younger children

Susan Mizner, director of the ACLUs Disability Rights Project, said offering students with disabilities or medical conditions a remote option is not a good alternative. Limiting medically fragile students and those with disabilities to a remote-only education denies them equal opportunity, she said.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, public schools cannot exclude students with disabilities or segregate them unnecessarily from their peers. Schools are also required to provide reasonable modifications to allow students with disabilities to participate fully. Lawyers have filed for a temporary injunction requiring masks while the court case plays out.

We understand people are tired, Mizner said. We understand people are frustrated with the pandemic, we understand there is a lot going on here. We just want them to draw on their better selves to care about the kids in their communities who are most at risk and really need their help at protecting them.

Schools already have plenty of restrictions aimed at protecting the health of kids. Rules against peanuts are a good example, said Ruth Colker, a law professor at Ohio State University and a disability-law expert.

Those rules are aimed at protecting kids with potentially fatal peanut allergies that can be triggered by particles in the air. Similarly, the argument goes, kids especially vulnerable to COVID-19 need everyone to wear masks so they dont get sick.

They need the people around them not to be spreading the particles of peanuts, Colker said. COVID is just like peanuts. In fact, is more contagious.

Because schools that accept federal money are subject to federal disability law, she sees those arguments as likely to win in court. While many court decisions generally apply to one school or state, that could change if the federal government enters the legal fray. President Joe Biden has ordered his education secretary to explore possible legal action against several states that have blocked school mask mandates and other educational public health measures.

Whatever happens in court, though, is unlikely to bridge the vast and contentious political divides over masks. A recent poll from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 6 in 10 Americans wanted students and teachers to be required to wear face masks while in school.

But that poll also found just 3 in 10 Republicans favor mask requirements, compared with about 8 in 10 Democrats.

The divide is playing out in Florida and Texas, where several big school districts are defying governors' executive orders against school mask mandates.

In Texas, dozens of school districts have defied Gov. Greg Abbotts mask mandate ban. But the state's highest court sided with the governor this past week as the Republican judges found the status quo" of authority on masks should rest with him while the case plays out.

The decision to enforce mask mandates lies with the governors legislatively-granted authority," Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday. Mask mandates across our state are illegal.

In Florida, more than half of public school students are now in mask-requiring districts, despite an executive order from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. He wants to leave such decisions up to parents, but on Friday a judge decided that schools need to be able to require masks to protect public health.

In places such as Utah and Iowa, where legislatures have passed laws restrictions or bans on mask mandates, the state could have a legal upper hand because state laws generally trumps local control. Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown and director of the World Health Organization Center on Global Health Law, said he considers restrictions on mask mandates utterly irresponsible and a breach of public trust but sees the legal landscape as hazy at best.

Theres going to be really fierce battles in the courtrooms across America, he said.

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Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP)  A COVID-19 outbreak at an Oregon assisted living facility that has infected 64 people and killed five began with an unvaccinated worker, public health officials said.

The outbreak at Gateway Living in Springfield began July 5, The Register-Guard newspaper reported. The facility has 105 employees and 101 residents; only 63% of the staff and 82% of the residents are completely vaccinated.

Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis said the outbreak began with an unvaccinated employee who worked while infectious.

The outbreak arrived as an immense surge of COVID-19 cases hit Oregon, driven by the especially contagious delta variant as well as vaccine obstinacy in some quarters.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased 990% in Oregon since July 9, according to health officials. Many hospitals have canceled elective surgeries, and some patients are housed in hallways instead of rooms. More than 90% of the states ICU and hospital beds are full, and health officials say the overwhelming majority of people hospitalized are unvaccinated.

The state is deploying crisis teams of hundreds of nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics and nursing assistants to the hardest hit regions. Officials in Tillamook County, west of Portland, said Friday they no longer have capacity to store the bodies of those who have died and are asking the state for a refrigerated morgue truck.

About 60% of the cases from the Gateway Living outbreak are so-called breakthrough cases, among people who have already been vaccinated. Its not yet clear how many of the cases were among residents, employees or family members and others outside of the facility.

Seven of the people infected are hospitalized.
LONDON  Military planes carrying British troops and diplomats from Kabul are landing at a U.K. air base after the U.K.s two-week evacuation operation ended.

The U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, was among those who arrived Sunday at RAF Brize Norton northwest of London, hours after the government announced that all British personnel had left Kabul.

Britain says it has evacuated more than 15,000 U.K. citizens and vulnerable Afghans in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind.

Vice Adm. Ben Key, who was in charge of the British operation, said: We tried our best.

In a video message, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the colossal effort, saying it was a mission unlike anything weve seen in our lifetimes.

But he is facing strong criticism over the failure to bring to safety all those Afghans who helped British forces during the 20-year deployment in Afghanistan that began in the wake of 9/11.

Johnson acknowledged that Britain would not have wished to leave in this way, but said we have to recognize that we came in with the United States, in defense and support of the U.S. and the U.S. military did the overwhelming bulk of the fighting.

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MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

 Biden: Another attack likely, pledges more strikes on IS

 Slain Marine who cradled baby at Kabul airport loved her job

 GOP rift widens amid growing hostility to Afghan refugees

 Taliban success in Afghanistan seen as boost for extremists

 Explainer: How dangerous is Afghanistans Islamic State?

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 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

TIRANA, Albania  Two more planes have brought Afghans fearing the Taliban to Albania, bringing the total number of evacuees to 457.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday the two planes landed at dawn with 154 and 28 Afghans, respectively. Most of them will be temporarily housed at a student campus in the capital Tirana, while others were sent directly to hotels.

Albania aims to shelter all the evacuees in hotels instead of camps to give them a sense of normalcy.

Albania was among the first countries to offer housing to Afghans who have worked with U.S. and NATO forces and others fearing revenge following the Taliban takeover.

The Afghans in Albania come from different backgrounds, including activists and university staff, and include children.

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MADRID  The U.S. Embassy in Spain says that a third flight sent by American forces to Spain has arrived at the Rota military base.

The flight arrived early Sunday with 220 evacuees from Afghanistan.

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KABUL, Afghanistan  The U.S. State Department is urging all Americans in the vicinity of the Afghanistans Kabul airport to leave the area immediately because of a specific, credible threat.

The warning early Sunday morning says U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time. It specifically noted the South (Airport Circle) gate, the new Ministry of the Interior, and the gate near the Panjshir Petrol station on the northwest side of the airport.

A suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
In this weeks roundup, new service could soon be coming from SFO to Australia and Vietnam; Mineta San Jose wont get Tokyo flights this fall as previously planned; American sets a fall start for Seattle-Bangalore flights; United will downgrade aircraft on its SFO-New York JFK route; low-cost Avelo Airlines drops two more Burbank routes; Delta and Air Canada set new vaccination policies for employees; Canadian carriers plan new California routes; Alitalia sets a date for its demise; South African Airways resumes flying; CDC adds more countries to its highest-risk list; Czech Republic eases entry rules but Germany tightens them; American will bring back its Flagship Lounges; San Francisco International reopens its longest runway; and Honolulus airport cuts the ribbon on a big new concourse.

San Francisco International could soon be getting trans-Pacific service to Australia and Vietnam, based on news this week from Qantas and Vietnam Airlines. Qantas, which shut down most international operations months ago, said this week that its target date of December 2021 for resuming long-haul service remains in reach based on the COVID vaccine rollout in Australia. If the country remains on target to achieve an 80% vaccination rate by that month, it would trigger the gradual reopening of international borders, Qantas said  especially from regions that have similar vaccination levels, like the U.K. and North America. If that happens, Qantas said it expects a mid-December start for the resumption of flights to the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Canada, and Singapore.

It didnt spell out specific cities or launch dates, but the carriers booking platform shows daily Los Angeles-Sydney service starting Dec. 18 with a 787-9, and connecting service to the LAX flight from SFO via Qantas partner American Airlines. Qantas also said it is making some technical changes to extend the range of its A330-200s so they can operate trans-Pacific routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-San Francisco, and that it expects to return five Airbus A380 super-jumbos to service ahead of schedule, for use between LAX-Sydney starting in July 2022 and London-Sydney (via Singapore) beginning in November 2022.

Vietnam Airways has operated some special charter flights from the U.S. in recent months to repatriate its citizens, but now the carrier says it is ready for regular scheduled service between the two countries. The airline, which is majority owned by the countrys government, is targeting a late October launch for U.S. service between San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), using a 787 or an Airbus A350 and operating via an unspecified intermediate stop. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese low-cost carrier called Bamboo Airways also has its eye on SFO for its first U.S. scheduled flights. Bamboo has applied to the Transportation Department for operating rights from Ho Chi Minh City to Los Angeles and San Francisco starting by the end of the third quarter, with possible stops in Japan or Taiwan. If its plans are realized, Bamboo said it hopes to enter into a code-sharing agreement with a U.S. airline.

But one expected trans-Pacific route from the Bay Area now looks like its not happening. Mineta San Jose Airport had been scheduled to see the return of All Nippon Airways daily flights to Tokyo Haneda on Oct. 31, but those plans have been scrapped. ANA said this week the return of SJC service has been postponed, but it didnt offer a new starting date. ANA will continue to flexibly respond to demand by reassessing our flight schedule on a monthly basis, the airline said, noting that it also plans to shift its Houston and Washington Dulles routes from Haneda to Tokyos Narita Airport to accommodate demand for connections between Asia-North America.

In other trans-Pacific news, American Airlines has set Nov. 6 for the launch of its new nonstop flights from Seattle to Bangalore, India  the so-called Silicon Valley of the subcontinent. The route was announced many months ago but has been delayed because of COVID issues. American will offer daily service on the 16-hour 40-minute route, flying it with a 787-9. Its all part of AAs grand strategy of forging a west coast partnership with Alaska Airlines, trading off passengers at the latters Seattle hub. American also plans to begin India service from New York JFK to Delhi on Nov. 1. Air India started San Francisco-Bangalore service earlier this year and United is expected to add the SFO-Bangalore route in December.

United Airlines made quite a fuss this spring about its big return to New York JFK from San Francisco and Los Angeles, supplementing its primary transcontinental schedules into its Newark hub. But now the aviation blog Onemileatatime.com is questioning whether the new JFK service is working out. United kicked off the two routes using premium 767-300s that include the carriers highly regarded Polaris business cabin, but Onemileatatime said it has learned that on Oct. 1, United will switch aircraft on the two routes from the twin-aisle 767s to single-aisle 757-200s  a change that the site called a massive downgrade to the passenger experience. The biggest change is in the business cabin, which will go from 46 Polaris lie-flat seats in a 1-by-1-by-1 configuration to just 16 much older business class seats configured 2-by-2. Moreover, the 757s will have 153 economy seats in a 3-by-3 layout, vs. the 767s 99 economy seats configured 2-by-3-by-2. Gone will be the 767s 22 premium economy seats. As Onemileatatime.coms Ben Schlappig observed, the reality is that business travel simply hasnt recovered, and thats especially true of premium demand between New York and California.  At this point Im not sure what exactly United hopes to accomplish on these JFK flights, other than maintaining slots.

The California-based start-up carrier Avelo Airlines continues to struggle with its route network just months after it began operations. ThePointsGuy.com says it has confirmed that Avelo will drop service to two more destinations from its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport  Monterey, California, which was due to start Sept. 30, and St. George, Utah, where Avelo had planned an Oct. 7 launch. Avelo told ThePointsGuy those routes will be re-evaluated next year. In addition, the airline will delay Burbank-Provo, Utah, service from Sept. 17 until Nov. 15. Last month, Avelo gave up on flights from Burbank to Bozeman, Montana, and Grand Junction, Colorado, but it still plans to begin service from Santa Rosa to Las Vegas Sept. 16 and from Burbank to Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado, Oct. 6.

More major airlines are taking steps to make sure their employees are vaccinated against the coronavirus. Air Canada said this week that all current workers must complete their shots by Oct. 30, and no new employees will be hired unless they have been vaccinated. Under the mandatory vaccination policy, testing will not be offered as an alternative, Air Canada said. Delta Air Lines is taking a different tack on the vaccination issue. The company told employees this week that they dont have to get vaccinated, but if they dont, theyll be required to pay an extra $200 a month for health insurance premiums starting in November. Effective immediately, unvaccinated Delta employees will have to wear masks indoors and starting in mid-September, theyll have to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

A couple of Canadian airlines are planning new California service. Air Canada recently announced it would start flying from Orange County Airport in Santa Ana to Vancouver on Oct. 2, and now WestJet is targeting a Nov. 4 start for new twice-weekly flights between Orange County and Calgary. WestJet will also expand its San Francisco-Calgary route from a summer seasonal service to year-round, continuing to operate after Oct. 31 with two flights a week. Meanwhile, Canadas Flair Airlines is planning to add four transborder routes from a new base it is establishing at Edmonton, Alberta. On Dec. 16, Flair plans to kick off twice-weekly service from Edmonton to Palm Springs, Hollywood Burbank and Phoenix Mesa, as well as three flights a week to Las Vegas.

The expected replacement of Alitalia Airlines by a new, smaller Italian carrier called ITA is now officially set for Oct. 15. That means all Alitalia flights after Oct. 14 are canceled. Passengers holding Alitalia tickets for travel after Oct. 14 can either rebook to an earlier date or get a full refund. The airline said it will email affected customers with details; Alitalias U.S. gateways include New York, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. The demise of the 75-year-old carrier has been years in the making as Alitalia struggled with steep financial losses and unrelenting labor problems as its unions resisted managements efforts to downsize. ITA will be a separate corporate entity, not just a new name on a different version of Alitalia. And it will be a lot smaller  with 3,000 employees vs. Alitalias 11,000 and less than half as many aircraft (mostly acquired from Alitalia, so the old carriers livery on the new ITA flights might be confusing until the planes are repainted). ITA hasnt yet announced its route network, but since it is taking on only a handful of wide-body aircraft, its long-haul intercontinental routes are likely to be severely limited.

South African Airways, which has been grounded for months amid COVID and a financial reorganization, said this week it will start flying again Sept. 23. But flights to the U.S. and other long-haul destinations arent in its plans right now. Instead, SAA said it will initially operate only intra-African routes, including flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa; Accra, Ghana; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lusaka, Zambia; and Maputo, Mozambique. More destinations will be added to the route network as it ramps up operations in response to market conditions, the airline said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its travel advisory list once again, adding six countries to its Level 4 category. That means Americans shouldnt travel there because of an increased COVID risk, based on a rising number of cases per 100,000 residents in the past month. The new Level 4 designation was applied to the Bahamas, Haiti and Sint Maarten along with Morocco, Lebanon and Kosovo. All were previously at Level 3. The CDC said anyone who must travel to any of those destinations should be fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens who want to visit Prague got some good news as the Czech Republic said it now recognizes vaccination certificates from several foreign nations including the U.S. That means fully vaccinated Americans are no longer subject to testing and self-quarantine rules when they enter the country. But Germany has tightened its rules for entry: Previously, unvaccinated travelers were allowed in if they showed a negative result on a COVID test, but now those individuals will have to quarantine for five to 10 days after arrival. Vaccinated visitors and those who can prove recovery from a COVID infection are still allowed in without a quarantine.

American Airlines said it will start to reopen premium Flagship Lounges at its hub airports next month, starting with the Flagship Lounge in New York JFKs Terminal 8 on Sept. 14 and Flagship First Dining at JFK Sept. 18. At Miami Internationals Concourse D, the Flagship Lounge will be back Sept. 28 and the Flagship First Dining service Sept. 30. Locations at Los Angeles International Terminal 4, Dallas/Fort Worth Terminal D and Chicago OHare Terminal 3 will reopen later this fall, the airline said. The lounges  separate from AAs Admirals Clubs, which require paid memberships  are open to passengers traveling in a premium cabin on a qualifying flight. That list of qualifying flights has been expanded to include passengers flying to Hawaii from DFW, Chicago and Charlotte in Flagship First or Flagship Business class. Flagship Dining, full-service restaurants with menus from James Beard Foundation chefs, are open to customers flying in Flagship First on qualifying international or transcontinental flights.

After a four-month closure for resurfacing work, San Francisco International Airport has reopened Runway 28 Right, its longest runway. All runways are once again open for operational use, the airport announced. When the project was announced in April, SFO had predicted moderate delays for travelers, especially for flights scheduled between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. But more work is coming: The airport said Runway 28 Left will be temporarily shortened by 3,500 feet from Sept. 8 through Oct. 4 to permit installation of new lighting and improvements in taxiway geometry. While that work is going on, Runway 28 Left will only handle landing aircraft. This temporary adjustment is not anticipated to cause any significant flight delays during typical weather conditions, SFO said.

All those travelers flocking back to Oahu now that vaccinated individuals can enter the state without a COVID pre-test will be getting some extra elbow room at Honolulus Daniel K. Inouye Airport. On Friday (Aug. 27), the airport cut the ribbon on its first significant expansion in 30 years. HNLs new $270 million, 230,000-square-foot Mauka Concourse gives the airport a dozen more gates and six new TSA security screening lanes. That increases the total screening capacity for Terminal 1 to 10 lanes and should relieve chronic congestion during the midday hours, airport officials said. Hawaiian Airlines will be the first to use the new space.
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There is a rising presence on Israels Hebrew-language media scene  Arabs. Arab reporters and commentators are now a more regular presence in the media here, and some of what they cover even goes beyond Arab affairs.
(CNN)  A return to in-person learning has led to thousands of students having to quarantine across the US, with COVID-19 cases among children surging to levels not seen since winter. With the increased threat, the US surgeon general is urging parents and officials to take measures that reduce the risk of a child's environment.

"If they are around people who are vaccinated, everyone in the household gets vaccinated, that significantly reduces the risk to our children," Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a conversation hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

In the classroom, there are layers of protection that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has laid out to keep children safe -- including wearing properly fitting masks, properly ventilating buildings and regular testing, Murthy said.

"Even though our kids do better, that doesn't mean that Covid is benign, it doesn't mean that it's harmless in our children," Murthy said. "In fact, we've lost hundreds of children to Covid-19."

The misperception that young people don't have to worry about Covid-19 may also be hindering their motivation to get vaccinated, Murthy said.

As of Saturday, teens ages 16 and 17 had the highest rate of infection among all age groups, according to a CNN analysis of data from the CDC. Cases overall have surged across the US, with the daily average of newly reported infections surpassing 155,000.

Vaccination is key to protecting against Covid-19 and the serious illness that could come with it. But for many children, vaccination still isn't an option.

Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine has been fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, but only for those 16 and older, and emergency use authorizations only extend to children as young as 12.

Children ages 5 to 11 are the next group in line to become eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and an updated emergency use authorization from the FDA would make at least 28 million additional children, but the process of authorizing a vaccine may not come until the end of the year, Murthy told CNN's Briana Keilar earlier this week.

In the meantime, Murthy stressed that "there are steps we can take to keep our kids safer. It's all the more important with Delta."

Students sent back into quarantine

The stress over safety precautions in schools is growing, as many students have already faced exposure to Covid-19 in the early days of their new school year.

At least 14,746 students and 2,984 employees have tested positive for Covid-19 throughout the 15 largest school districts in Florida since the start of school, according to a CNN analysis.

Several districts in the state have been at odds with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over mask mandates in the classroom after the governor banned such measures and some districts chose to implement them anyway. A judge on Friday ruled against DeSantis, saying he did not have the authority to prevent local measures.

In Georgia, six schools in Henry County are temporarily conducting remote learning through August 27 due to "a consistent increase in the number of the individuals required to quarantine."

With the start of school fast approaching for New York City, officials there announced a change to last year's quarantine policy based on vaccinations.

City Department of Education Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that only unvaccinated students will be subject to quarantine if exposed to positive cases

"This is crucial to remember -- anyone vaccinated who is not symptomatic, adult or child, even if there's been contact, they're going to stay in school," de Blasio said Thursday. "I don't want people thinking of last year's model and assuming everything's the same now. It's not the same. Why? Because of vaccination."

Hospitals stretched thin as ICU beds run out

The rise in cases has overwhelmed many health care workers trying to keep up with the more than 100,000 Americans hospitalized with Covid-19.

In Georgia, many hospitals have requested ambulance transports be sent to other facilities because they're stretched thin. The Georgia Department of Public Health on Thursday asked residents to help reduce the strain on EMS and emergency departments by getting vaccinated, wearing a mask and getting tested for Covid-19 somewhere other than the state's hospitals.

And in Illinois, ICU beds are running out, particularly in southern Illinois and parts of central Illinois, Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike said.

Nearly all of the people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, Gov. J. B. Pritzker said Thursday, and those hospitalizations have "multiplied" the state's ICU usage "by a factor of seven this summer."

Kentucky has also seen a steep increase in hospitalizations. On July 14, 239 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 -- on Wednesday that number had grown to 2,074, marking 42 straight days of increases, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.

Some states are calling for reinforcements to support staffing at overwhelmed hospitals.

The Texas Department of State Health Services will deploy 2,500 additional medical staff to support health care facilities in the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced. Medical equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators, heart monitors, IV pumps, feeding pumps, and hospital beds will also be provided.

In Nebraska, the shortage of nurses and spike in hospitalizations has prompted Gov. Pete Ricketts to declare a hospital staffing emergency. Ricketts announced two new measures to help address the personal strain: making it easier for health care professionals to defer continuing education or licensing requirements and limiting elective surgeries.

By limiting elective surgeries across the state, Ricketts hopes "to help free up hospital capacity, to take on some of the other patients that are coming into the hospital, both non-Covid and Covid patients," he added.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US Surgeon General urges parents and officials take these steps to protect children from Covid-19."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 27) The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is set to probe the recent killing of a human rights lawyer in Cebu City.

In a department directive issued on Friday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the NBI to look into the case of Atty. Rex Fernandez, who was shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-riding suspects Thursday afternoon.

The NBI was also tasked to file charges upon gathering sufficient evidence. The Justice department likewise required progress reports within 10 days.

Initial police investigation showed the assailants waited for the vehicle of Fernandez  a founding member of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL)  at the corner of Salvador and Good Shepherd streets. They fled the scene immediately after shooting at Fernandez.

Fernandez's driver also sustained injuries and was brought to the hospital.

The case once again sparked outrage among the community of lawyers, who condemned the killings of legal practitioners in recent years.

According to the NUPL, Fernandez is the 64th lawyer killed under the Duterte administration.

Cebu City Police Office director Col. Josefino Ligan said authorities are looking into all possible angles, including personal and work-related motives.

"With the magnitude of his work it is likely (work-related), but there is still a personal angle," said Ligan, who leads the newly-formed special task force for the case.

Cebu-based stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 27) - Senators on Friday grilled a former budget official due to his previous decision to award a multi-billion peso procurement contract to a company with "questionable" qualifications.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee resumed its hearing on the Health department's alleged misuse of COVID-19 response funds, during which lawmakers cornered Lloyd Christopher Lao, an ex-Budget undersecretary and former Officer-In-Charge of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM).

"This should be investigated by the Ombudsman for possible violation of the anti-graft law, for awarding contracts (that are) patently disadvantageous to the government and (for) not exercising prudence to prevent the losses of government funds," Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said.

Committee Chairman Richard Gordon agreed.

In the hearing, Lao admitted he may have been negligent when he awarded Pharmally Pharmaceuticals, Corp. an 8.68 billion deal to obtain personal protective equipment and testing kits that were later found to be overpriced.

Senators pointed out that PS-DBM bought face masks at 13 and 27 each while the Red Cross purchased them at only 5. Lao reasoned that the Red Cross may simply have had better access to suppliers.

Collusion?

However, senators were more perturbed by Lao's failure to do a background check on Pharmally after they found out that the firm was only six-months old when it bagged the contract and had a capital of only below 600,000.

Lao also revealed that during the bidding, he neither required the company's general information sheet nor did he study its articles of incorporation.

"If you look at the articles, you would notice it was only incorporated in September 2019 with the capital of less than 600,000, and it ended up with the contracts worth 8.6 billion," Drilon said.

Drilon also said when the committee tried to serve a subpoena to Pharmally's executives, the addresses provided were fake.

Senator Panfilo Lacson suspected collusion.

"You threw out of the window lahat ng [all of the] requirements so either you did it on your own or somebody ordered you to award those contracts to those suppliers," Lacson said.

Lao explained that Pharmally was the chosen bidder since it offered the "cheapest" price at the time and it was one of the firms referred to PS-DBM by some embassies.

History and ties

Lao was also questioned about his qualifications, as he claimed he became an undersecretary simply by applying for the position upon the advice of the Presidential Management Staff where he used to work.

Drilon also said Lao was accused by anti-corruption officials of extortion during his stint at the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.

Lao said he resigned as Budget undersecretary in June this year and was subsequently relieved from his OIC post in PS-DBM when he took a leave of absence.

There was also talk of Lao's alleged links to senator Christopher "Bong" Go. Lao said he had previously worked in the Office of the Special Assistant to the President, previously headed by Go.

Go denied that he was colluding with the former DBM official, but he mentioned that Lao had worked with President Rodrigo Duterte in his 2016 campaign, and that he knew he was also from Davao.

"Kailanman hindi siya directly nagrereport sa akin," Go said. "Kilala ko siya pero hindi ko siya aide."

[Translation: He never directly reported to me. I know him but he is not my aide.]

Lao earlier said his previous work in government should not be "politicized."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28)  Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific on Friday announced a number of flight cancellations after the pandemic task force retained the modified enhanced community quarantine for the capital region until September 7.

In an advisory, the airline said several local flights covering September 1 to 5 will not take off.

READ: Metro Manila stays under MECQ until September 7

"Cebu Pacific will continue to operate flights for essential travel during this time," it said.

Below is the list of canceled Cebu Pacific and Cebgo flights:

Affected passengers may opt to rebook their flights to a later date, refund their tickets, or have their tickets converted into travel vouchers.

Other air carriersPhilippine Airlines and AirAsia Philippineshave yet to issue travel advisories.

This is a developing story. Please refresh the page for updates.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28) Almost half of Metro Manila cities have reported over 70% hospital bed utilization, a Health official said Saturday as the country continues to see spikes in coronavirus infections.

"Dito po sa National Capital Region, ang utilization po ng ating mga ospital, mayroon tayo almost 50% of our cities na iyong bed utilization po nila ay nasa more than 70% na," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during the government's Laging Handa briefing.

[Translation: Here in the National Capital Region, for hospital utilization, almost 50% of our cities have more than 70% bed utilization already.]

She added that intensive care unit utilization reached over 70% capacity in all NCR areas except for six cities.

Vergeire, however, did not name the concerned localities.

In light of this, Vergeire said the government will take measures to expand bed capacity  including setting up tents and modular hospitals in areas with high-risk occupancy.

Metro Manila will remain under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until Sept. 7, the Inter-Agency Task Force announced earlier in the day, noting there will be additional restrictions on select services.

Nationwide infections jumped to 1,935,700 on Saturday when the country again broke its record for the highest daily case tally at 19,441.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28) The country's pandemic task force is encouraging offices to reduce on-site capacity and implement work-from-home arrangements amid the recent surge in coronavirus infections, a Health official said on Saturday.

[I]pinag-utos na po ng IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) na dapat bawasan ang carrying capacity ng bawat opisina o iyong mga nagtatrabaho, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in the governments 'Laging Handa' briefing.

Those who can work from home, they should stay at home at doon na lang magtrabaho muna sa bahay para kakaunti lang ang magsasama-sama sa mga opisina o sa mga workplaces at maiiwasan po natin ang impeksiyon, she added.

[Translation: The IATF has ordered that offices should reduce the carrying capacity of each office or those working in the office. Those who can work from home, they should stay at home and work from there so that there will be no large groups in the office and workplaces and we can avoid infections.]

Government offices were not spared from the scourge of COVID-19. This week, the headquarters of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) temporarily closed for disinfection.

The OCD earlier reported that 116 of the 380 workers in its central office caught the virus. The FDA said 29 employees tested positive for COVID-19 since last week.

Meanwhile, Vergeire reminded managers to make sure there is proper ventilation in the workplaces, and for safety officers to continuously monitor employees.

Nationwide infections jumped to 1,935,700 on Saturday when the country again broke its record for the highest daily case tally at 19,441.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28)  Establishments that offer personal care and dine-in services in areas under modified enhanced community quarantine should be allowed to reopen only for vaccinated customers, a Cabinet official said on Saturday.

[I] am pushing for allowing vaccinated to allow sa bawal na sectors (that are prohibited to operate in MECQ areas)  dine-in and personal care, Trade Secretary Mon Lopez said in a statement.

Lopez said his proposal could convince more people to get vaccinated and help restore jobs.

Around one million workers in the restaurant industry and over 200,000 employees in the personal care services sector have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Lopez.

"Yung mga workers...nagpabakuna talaga. Masasakripisyo sila masyado kung hindi mo bubuksan ang sektor nila, after mong sabihin na magpabakuna sila," Lopez told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Weekend on Saturday.

[Translation: The workers are already vaccinated. They will sacrifice too much if we will not open their sector, after we ordered them to get vaccinated.]

The Department of Health said while Lopezs proposal will be studied, other issues should be considered.

Marami pa sa mga kababayan natin ang hindi bakunadohindi sila bakunado not because they don't like to be vaccinated but because supplies are not there yet, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a briefing.

[Translation: Many of our fellow Filipinos are unvaccinated not because they don't like to be vaccinated but because supplies are not there yet.]

For us to impose this differentiation between the vaccinated and unvaccinated will be unfair for them, she added.

Sixteen areas, including Metro Manila, will be under MECQ on September 1 to 7. Under MECQ, people must stay at homes except when they need to do essential activities such as buying necessities and going to work.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 28)  Local officials in Zambales have agreed to impose granular lockdowns following the detection of the province's first case of the feared Delta coronavirus variant in a two-year-old, governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. said Saturday.

"Nagpa-meeting ako ng mga mayors at municipal health officers, ang napagkasunduan ay magkaroon ng granular lockdown," he said during an interview with state-run PTV.

[Translation: I had a meeting with mayors and municipal health officers and we agreed to impose granular lockdowns.]

Ebdane said granular lockdowns will be imposed beginning tomorrow, August 29, starting in the municipality of Masinloc.

Under granular lockdowns, local government units would further limit the movement of residents in a specific area. The Department of Health earlier said imposing such a lockdown rule will allow LGUs to actively do case finding.

"We will be strict sa entry sa borders. Pinapatupad ulit natin ang mahigpit na curfewbawat barangay. We have discouraged the holding of birthdays, other parties sa mga bayan bayan," the governor added.

[Translation: We will be strict on border crossings. We are once again enforcing the strict curfewevery barangay. We discourage the holding of birthdays, other parties in towns.]

Zambales reported its first case of the highly contagious Delta variant on Friday.

Ebdane said the close contacts of the childincluding the parentsare now in quarantine. Contact tracing is underway, he added.
(CNN)  The United States still plans to end its mission in Afghanistan this month, the Pentagon said Friday, as the evacuation of US citizens and allies enters its final, desperate stage after a bombing at Kabul's airport killed at least 170 people including 13 US service members.

Far fewer people were at the airport Friday, and a source directly familiar with the Kabul airport operations told CNN the remaining focus is to get people with special, last-minute access requests to the airport. But the source cautioned that officials were "unsure how many they can get in with so much Taliban coordination required."

More than 200 people were injured in Thursday's attack, an official with Afghanistan's Ministry of Health told CNN on Friday. The UK government said Friday that two British adults and the child of another British national were among those killed in the attack.

The Pentagon said Friday the US was "still planning on ending this mission at the end of the month."

"As we get closer and we are getting closer, you're going see us begin to make those muscle movements to pull out our troops and some of our equipment, as appropriate with any retrograde," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at a a briefing, adding they want to "preserve as much capability for as long as we can, both in terms of the security footprint" and ability to evacuate people.

The Pentagon clarified there was only one explosion at the Abbey gate at Hamid Karzai International airport on Thursday, after originally saying there was a second explosion outside the Baron hotel in their initial statements.

"There was a river of blood ... if you wanted to make a few steps you had to first check to see if there were any dead bodies under your feet to move," one eyewitness, Muhammad, told CNN.

Muhammad, who said he assisted US forces and worked with NATO in Afghanistan, was at the airport with his family Thursday trying to speak with American troops and find a flight out of the country. He did not provide his last name for security reasons.

"I covered my daughter's eyes so she wouldn't see the situation, because it was a very bad situation. After that, I took my family out and went on our way to go home," he said.

Few people were gathering at Kabul airport on Friday, a journalist working with CNN reported.

People were not allowed to go to the main gate of the airport, the journalist said. Almost 500 yards before the main gate, the road was blocked by the Taliban with parked cars, they added.

The rest of the city was "calm," with traffic at lower levels than on previous days. All the main commercial centers were either closed or their business was very slow, the journalist reported. This is unsurprising because Friday marks the start of Afghanistan's weekend.

A different journalist working with CNN said Afghan and foreign forces were deploying flash bangs from inside the perimeter of the airport in an attempt to prevent people from gathering outside the airport on Friday morning.

Despite the numerous attempts to disperse crowds, many people were still trying to get to the airport with the hopes of being evacuated.

Besides the 13 US service members who were killed, 18 others were injured in the attack, the Pentagon said.

Eleven Marines were among the troops killed and several more were wounded, Marine spokesman Maj. Jim Stenger said. The identities and units of those killed won't be announced until after relatives are notified, he added.

The US service members wounded in Thursday's attack in Kabul have landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and have been transferred to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for treatment, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor said Friday.

President Joe Biden plans to contact the families of the US service members who were killed in Thursday's attack, according to a senior official, who added that the White House is first working to ensure that next of kin notifications have taken place.

Race to safety

The attack came as the US and other Western countries were racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies ahead of an August 31 deadline, after the Taliban retook control of the country.

Thousands of Afghans had been gathering at the airport's gates in recent days in hopes of being evacuated. Footage posted to social media on Thursday after the explosion showed chaotic scenes of crowds trying to help the wounded amid bodies on the ground. Photos showed bloodied people being transported away from the scene in wheelbarrows.

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed responsibility for the attack but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the atrocity.

Speaking from the White House, Biden said evacuation efforts would not be stopped by the attack, and that he had ordered US military commanders to develop plans to strike "ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities."

"We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," Biden said.

About 8,500 people were evacuated by the US military, and approximately 4,000 were evacuated via coalition flights, from 3:00 a.m. eastern time Thursday to 3:00 a.m. Friday, with a total of approximately 12,500 people evacuated. It's unclear how many of those evacuations took place after the attack.

That brings the total number of people evacuated via US military and coalition flights to 105,000 since August 14, and 110,600 since late July, according to the White House.

The Pentagon announced Friday that additional military bases in the US -- Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Fort Pickett, Virginia, and Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico -- will be used to help support evacuation operations from Afghanistan.

Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said US troops were continuing the evacuation mission at "best speed," noting there were still about 1,000 American citizens in Afghanistan.

But he said the focus right now was on the "extremely active threat streams against the airfield."

McKenzie described the threats from ISIS as "imminent," raging from rocket attacks to "vehicle-borne" suicide attacks in addition to "walk-in" suicide attackers like the assault on Thursday.

He said the US military is using attack helicopters and other manned and unmanned aircraft to defend the airport in Kabul, as well as sharing some intelligence with the Taliban for security purposes.

"They don't get the full range of information we have. But we give them enough to act in time and space to try to prevent these attacks," said McKenzie.

US officials have been warning over the past week that a threat of a terror attack at the airport was becoming more acute. Earlier on Thursday local time, US diplomats in Kabul warned American citizens to "immediately" leave several gates into the airport, citing security threats.

The risk of potential suicide attacks by ISIS-K had already led the US to establish alternative routes to Kabul airport earlier on in the evacuation operation.

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, journalist and author Matthieu Aikins said he could hear "shooting and sirens" from the airport less than an hour after the attack.

"At that point, we went back to the emergency hospital, and they were bringing the casualties in there. There was just body after body. It was a really terrible sight," Aikins said. "You have tens of thousands of people cramming in from every angle at the same time, this desperate pressure to get the American citizens and others out. So it was really truly a recipe for disaster."

The evacuations

Tens of thousands of people have so far been evacuated by the US military and NATO allies from the airport in the past two weeks. These evacuations are set to start winding down in the next few days, ahead of the US' August 31 deadline for the final exit from a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The UK's evacuation operation will was going to end on Friday following the closure of the UK's main processing center, the Baron Hotel, outside Kabul airport, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Friday.

Wallace told Sky News that following the decision to close the processing center at 4.30 a.m. UK time, the country will now "process" the "1,000 people approximately in the airfield now" but the operation has a "matter of hours" left.

The "sad fact," said Wallace, is that "not every single one will get out."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson later pledged to "shift heaven and Earth" to help people who are eligible for resettlement and are stranded in Afghanistan after August 31.

"The crucial thing is the Taliban, the new Afghan government however it's composed, has got to understand -- if they want to have engagement with the West, if they want to have a relationship with us, then safe passage for those [people] is absolutely paramount," Johnson said.

Speaking to British media, the prime minister said he felt a "great sense of regret" that they were not able to get everyone out during what he described as the "first phase" of the evacuation process.

More than 18,700 evacuees from Afghanistan have come through US air base Ramstein in Germany so far, according to the airbase's Public Affairs Office, and a huge influx of more than 10,000 evacuees are expected to arrive over the coming hours.

Germany will leave its "MedEvac," a flying intensive care unit, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for 24 hours to be able to support American forces if necessary, Germany's Ministry of Defense tweeted Friday. Germany evacuated more than 5,000 people from Afghanistan over the course of its mission, according to a tweet from the German Foreign Office.

France will see its mission to evacuate people from Afghanistan "through to the end" despite Thursday's deadly attack on Kabul's airport, the Elysee said in a statement.

Australia, New Zealand and Sweden have ended their evacuation flights from Kabul. Other countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, have said their evacuation missions would end on Thursday.

Spain ended its evacuation mission with the last remaining people expected to land at the Torrejon military airbase near Madrid later on Friday, the country's presidency said in a statement, while Italy's evacuation mission in Afghanistan will end Friday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio announced.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is trying to establish an air bridge into the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan in the coming days, with the help of Pakistan authorities, it said Friday.

The Taliban have offered Turkey the option of running Kabul airport, and said they will ensure security of the premises. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had yet to make a decision.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Evacuation from Afghanistan in final phase after deadly Kabul airport attack."
Columbia, SC (29201)

Today

A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.
On Sunday, State College Area High School's Center for Equity will host a kickoff for the Osaze Osagie Scholarship Endowment Campaign, according to a release.

The event will begin at 3 p.m., and the Osaze Osagie Scholarship Committee will announce the funding goal and current funding amount, the release said. The campaign's goal is to raise $100,000 for the scholarship endowment campaign at the Centre Foundation.

Osagie was a 29-year-old Black man who was killed by a State College police officer on March 20, 2019 when three officers arrived at his apartment to serve a mental health warrant.

Osagie, who had autism and a history of schizophrenia, allegedly ran at the officers with a knife. After an unsuccessful attempt to deploy a Taser on him, he was allegedly shot by Officer M. Jordan Pieniazek.

The three officers involved in the shooting have not been charged.

Sylvester Osagie, Osaze's father, filed a lawsuit in November 2020 against the borough of State College, and Judge Matthew W. Brann of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania set a long-term trial date in 2022.

The case may be ready for trial in approximately 729 days, according to Judge Branns case management plan. This puts the suggested date for trial in November 2022, two years after the lawsuit was filed.

The Osaze Osagie Scholarship Committee aims to "help ease the sorrow" and keep Osazes spirit of volunteerism alive through the scholarships, which will be given to "underrepresented" high schoolers with records of community service, the release said.

The event will be held in the LGI Cafeteria and will host featured speakers Felisa Preciado Higgins and Rija Sabeeh. Other speakers include Ezra Nanes, Bob ODonnell and Molly Kunkle.

Additionally, the kickoff will feature a musical selection by Eric Ian Farmer and poetry reading from Anabelle Preciado Higgins, according to the release.

Sylvester Osagie will provide concluding remarks, the release said.

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Penn State reports 3rd sex offense of fall semester Penn State reported its third known forcible sex offense of the fall semester on Aug. 28, ac
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Marshall D. Pridemore, 98, of Westville, passed away on Sunday, August 29, 2021, at OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center in Danville, IL. he was born on November 23, 1922, in Danville, Illinois, the son of Joseph and Iva (Hensley) Pridemore. He was united in marriage to Caroline Lipowsky on Febru
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Britain's prime minister lives at 10 Downing Street in London. The building's famously black, much like America's White House is famously white. The White House's color goes back to the whitewash used to protect the exterior all the way back in the 18th century, while 10 Downing Street's color goes back to filthy London's air pollution.

The building's older than the Industrial Revolution, though, and originally, it was yellow. It was built in the 1680s (no one's sure exactly which year; people weren't too good at keeping records back then), and incorporated a mansion that was another 150 years older still. In the 1700s, politicians started living there, and it became the prime minister's residence from the start of the 20th century.

During World War II, it took on damage, with bombs falling practically next door. So it was time for a renovation, or even a total rebuilding. Just deciding to get around to the job took decades, which seemed appropriate for a place so old that houses people who are so slow. To start with, they estimated the project would cost 400,000. It ended up costing almost 10 times that, and it might have been cheaper to knock the place down and start from scratch.

Part of the renovation included getting a close look at the brickwork for the first time in centuries. The building had been black for as long as anyone could remember and in all the old illustrations we had of it. But now, they discovered the bricks were really yellow, beneath a thick layer of muck from hundreds of years of British smog.

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They cleaned the bricks so they appeared yellow once again. But then they painted right over the yellow again, because everyone was used to the black. London's no longer quite so disgusting as it once was, but 10 Downing Street will always remind people how the city used to be.

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On April 27, 1981, nine men were arrested in New Orleans with enough weapons to conquer a small nation, including rifles, shotguns, automatic weapons, explosives, and a black and white Nazi flag. Their plan, both appropriately and inappropriately, was to conquer a small nation and turn it into a white supremacist paradise. Their Ku Klux Kland, if you will. This is their balls-out insane story.

5 The Cast Of Characters Was Bonkers

Operation Red Dog was the codename for a filibuster invasion of Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) to restore the former Prime Minister Patrick John to power. It was orchestrated by a group of Klansmen and other white supremacists seemingly plucked straight from a rejected Tarantino screwball comedy.

The key players in Dog Dong (thats what were going to call it from now on, by the way) were the American Klansman Mike Perdue, who according to one source was also gay. Joining him was the Barbadian gunrunner Sydney Burnett-Alleyne, who used to act as the go-between for Patrick John and his apartheid business partners in South Africa. Also in play was one Mary Ann McGuire, a 26-year-old Irish-Canadian nurse connected to the IRA, as well as Don Black, who would later create Stormfront. That's the white nationalist website, not the character from The Boys, though, honestly, that still wouldnt have been the weirdest detail about this group.

Jamie Kelso "Don Black" really is an unfortunate name for a KKK grand wizard.

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Other members of Team Dog Dong were apparently recruited with the help of former KKK leader and serial Trump-endorser David Duke, with the whole thing allegedly being financed by the German-Canadian neo-Nazi Martin K. Weiche. Lets talk a bit more about him.

Though Weiche always denied financing Dog Dong, he did once say that he was "involved with the idea of Dominica since the middle of '79," probably while winking suggestively and giving an angel somewhere explosive diarrhea. So lets stick to the facts about him. One of Weiches hobbies included cross-burnings. Not even on lawns of people he hated. He used to hold these bozo bonfires on his land and invite a bunch of other racists to hang around in Klan robes like a bunch of freaking dorks that they were.

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He also had a room in his Ontario mansion built to resemble Hitlers alpine retreat, owned an autographed copy of Mein Kampf, and had a massive swastika cut into the field behind his house. Basically, the guy was the Hitler of loving Hitler. As in, he was very dedicated to what he was doing, but what he was doing was goddamn awful. (Goddamn awful was also the running theme of Dog Dong.)
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Yes, developers should be building within the boundaries of the city.

Infill is OK in the city but shouldn't creep into the suburbs.

No, the city should continue to spread out to accommodate those moving here.

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HAMDEN  Quinnipiac University public safety Lt. Don DiStefano was walking to a meeting on campus when he ran into some unexpected visitors.

Tumbling down the steps in front of him, a crowd of students on their heels, was a group of baby snapping turtles.

It was move-in day that Thursday morning, and campus was bustling.

We were walking up a pathway that leads to the front of the student affairs building, so right smack in the middle of the residential dorms, a very heavily trafficked pathway, DiStefano said. We saw a bunch of baby turtles tumbling down a set of steps  with a big crowd of students coming behind them.

To keep them from being trampled, DiStefano and his colleague Brad Bopp asked the students to be careful and began collecting the turtles, DiStefano said. They found a box to temporarily hold the hatchlings, which were one to two inches long, according to DiStefano.

The officers quickly located a nest from which more hatchlings were emerging, he said.

We waited there for about half an hour until we were sure that there were no more stragglers coming out, DiStefano said.

In all, they collected 16 turtles and released them into a local body of water.

That was the first turtle rescue of my career, DiStefano said. I couldnt have done this without my training officer Brad Bopp. ... He was right down there collecting turtles with me.

According to Mike Ravesi, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the mother snapping turtle may have laid her eggs when campus was quieter, thinking it was a good area to nest.

Snapping turtles nest between May and July. When the eggs hatch  usually between late summer and early fall  the babies head toward water, he said.

But the survival rate is really low in hatchlings, he said. Its not unheard of for 90 percent of them to not survive.

Major threats include predators such as raccoons and opossums, which eat both eggs and hatchlings, Ravesi said.

Further, hatchlings face human threats, including trampling and road mortality, according to Ravesi.

Road mortality also poses a significant risk to adult turtles, especially females who cross land to nest, according to the biologist.

Thats a problem because that also removes the reproductive capability from that population. ... It takes turtles a really long time to reach maturity. It can take them 15-plus years to be able to reproduce, he said. The removal of even a single adult can have an impact, especially for smaller, imperiled populations.

What should you do if you see baby turtles?

In most cases the turtles know what theyre doing, and its probably best to leave them be, Ravesi said.

Fortunately, the snapping turtle population in Connecticut is healthy, according to Ravesi. But other species arent faring so well.

They face threats such as illegal collection, habitat loss and disease  Ravesi advised turtle owners not to release their pets into the wild, as they can then infect native populations.

Because of a thriving illegal trade, those sharing photos of turtles should avoid sharing their location, he said.

The DEEP website has information about how to help Connecticuts turtle population and what to do if you encounter distressed wildlife. The agency advises avoiding touching wild animals when possible.

The DEEP wildlife division can be reached at 860-424-3011 and deep.wildlife@ct.gov.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Taliban forces sealed off Kabul's airport Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation, as the U.S. and its allies were ending a chaotic airlift that will end their troops' two decades in Afghanistan.

Western leaders acknowledged their withdrawal would mean leaving behind some of their citizens and many locals who helped them over the years, and they vowed to try to continue working with the Taliban to allow local allies to leave after President Joe Biden's Tuesday's deadline to withdraw from the country.

Although most of its allies had finished their evacuation flights, the U.S. planned to keep its round-the-clock flights going until the deadline, saying 113,500 people had been evacuated since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban claimed Kabul. Biden warned Saturday that commanders had told him another attack was highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," and the U.S. Embassy issued a new warning early Sunday for all Americans to avoid the airport area entirely.

Britain ended its evacuation flights Saturday, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to shift heaven and earth to get more of those at risk from the Taliban to Britain by other means.

Britains ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul airport and posted on Twitter that it was time to close this phase of the operation now.

But we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave, he said. Well continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.

As the flow of planes leaving Kabul slowed, others arrived in locales around the world carrying Afghans who managed to secure places on the last evacuation flights, including in the Washington area, Philadelphia, Madrid, and Birmingham, England. Some passengers were relieved and looking forward to starting new lives far from the Taliban, but others were bitter about having to flee.

In Spain, Shabeer Ahmadi, a journalist targeted by the Taliban, said the United States had doomed the work he and others had put into making Afghanistan a better place by allowing the insurgent group to reclaim power.

They abandoned the new generation of Afghanistan, Ahmadi said.

An evacuation flight to Britain landed with an extra passenger after the cabin crew delivered a baby girl midair, Turkish media reported. The parents named her Havva, or Eve, and she was at least the fourth baby known to have been born to Afghan mothers who went into labor on evacuation flights.

Meanwhile, families of Afghans killed in Thursday's suicide bombing at the airport by an Islamic State group affiliate continued burying their dead  at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members were killed. Among them was Belal Azfali, a 36-year-old contractor for a U.S.-funded project who had gone to the airport on his own, without his wife. His remains were so disfigured that he could only be identified when someone picked up the familys repeated calls to the cellphone he had with him, relatives said.

The U.S. on Saturday released the names of the 13 Marines, Navy and Army personnel who were killed in the bombing. One of the Marines  recently promoted Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23  was seen in a widely circulated photo cuddling an Afghan infant temporarily rescued from the crush of the crowds outside the airport gates this month.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed Saturday that the group's forces were holding some positions within the airport and were ready to peacefully take control of it as American forces flew out. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied the claim.

The Taliban did deploy extra forces outside of the airport to prevent large crowds from gathering in the wake of Thursday's bombing . New layers of checkpoints sprang up on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees and night-vision goggles captured from Afghan security forces. Areas where the crowds had gathered over the past two weeks in the hopes of fleeing the country were largely empty.

Officials said U.S. forces were taking every precaution at the airport, as there were concerns that IS, which is far more radical than the Taliban, could strike again. A new security alert from the U.S. Embassy on Sunday morning said due to a specific, credible threat all U.S. citizens should avoid certain gates at the airport and avoid traveling to the area.

In his statement earlier, Biden said a drone strike he ordered that killed what military officials described as two high-profile IS militants believed to have been involved in planning or facilitating attacks would not be his last response to Thursday's suicide attack.

An Afghan who worked as a translator for the U.S. military said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. After passing through three checkpoints they were stopped at a fourth. An argument ensued, and the Taliban said they had been told by the Americans to only let U.S. passport-holders through.

I am so hopeless for my future," the man later told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. "If the evacuation is over, what will happen to us?

Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday that Afghans who had worked with American forces still were being allowed in.

According to a State Department spokesperson, 5,400 Americans and likely more have been safely evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including nearly 300 Americans in the last day. Another 350 were still seeking to leave the country, and those were the only ones the department could confirm were still in Afghanistan.

Biden has said he will adhere to a self-imposed Tuesday deadline for withdrawing all U.S. forces, and the Taliban have rejected any extension. They have encouraged Afghans to stay, pledging amnesty even to those who fought against them, and have said commercial flights would resume after the U.S. withdrawal, but its unclear if airlines will be willing to offer service.

As the deadline neared and with the Taliban controlling nearly all of the country, hundreds of protesters, including many civil servants, gathered outside a bank while countless more lined up at cash machines. They said they hadn't been paid for three to six months and were unable to withdraw cash. ATM machines were operating, but withdrawals were limited to about $200 every 24 hours. Later Saturday, the central bank ordered commercial bank branches to open and allow customers to withdraw $200 per week, calling it a temporary measure.

The economic crisis, which predates the Taliban takeover, could give Western nations leverage as they urge Afghanistan's new rulers to form a moderate, inclusive government and allow people to leave after Tuesday.

Afghanistan is heavily dependent on international aid, which covered around 75% of the toppled Western-backed government's budget. The Taliban have said they want good relations with the international community and have promised a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last governed the country, but many Afghans are deeply skeptical.

The Taliban cannot access almost any of the central banks $9 billion in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve. The International Monetary Fund has also suspended the transfer of some $450 million. Without a regular supply of U.S. dollars, the local currency is at risk of collapse, which could send the price of basic goods soaring.

The U.S. and its allies have said they will continue providing humanitarian aid through the U.N. and other partners, but any broader engagement  including development assistance  is likely to hinge on whether the Taliban deliver on their promises of more moderate rule.

___

Faiez reported from Istanbul, Lawless reported from London and Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press writers Frances DEmilio in Rome, Joseph Krauss from Jerusalem, Robert Burns in Washington, Arritz Parra in Madrid and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed to this report.

___

An earlier version of the story contained an incorrect figure for the evacuation total since Aug. 14.

___

More of APs Afghanistan coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
National Weather Service

The heat and humidity is expected to continue for another day, prompting some Connecticut school districts to dismiss early on Friday.

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory until 8 p.m. Friday, with the highest temperatures set to occur this afternoon when the heat index will range from 95 to 100. These temperatures may result in heat illnesses, according to the weather service.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate Saturday.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that IS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation from Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as his deadline for completing the exit.

Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly announced.

The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days left in a final U.S. withdrawal after 20 years of war. U.S. Central Command provided few details; it said it believed its strike killed no civilians.

The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Central Command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangarhar province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said.

It wasnt clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The airstrike came after Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. We will hunt you down and make you pay, he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

We have options there right now, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagons Joint Staff.

The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

"They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport, Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

Late Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including the New Ministry of Interior gate.

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one  at or near the Abbey Gate  followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Based on a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, a U.S. official said Friday. A suicide bomb typically carries five to 10 pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.

Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Bidens assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistans borders. The Pentagon also insists this so-called over the horizon capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades.

The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves difficult conversations.

Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for the militant group to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all American troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all forces out by September.

Psaki said the next few days of the mission to evacuate Americans and others, including vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, will be the most dangerous period to date.

The White House said that as of Friday morning, about 12,500 people were airlifted from Kabul in the last 24 hours on U.S. and coalition aircraft; in the 12 hours that followed, another 4,200 people were evacuated. Psaki said about 300 Americans had departed and the State Department was working with about 500 more who want to leave. The administration has said it intends to push on and complete the airlift despite the terror threats.

Kirby told reporters the U.S. military is monitoring credible, specific Islamic State threats in real time.

We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts, Kirby said. He declined to describe details of any additional security measures being taken, including those implemented by the Taliban, around the airport gates and perimeter. He said there were fewer people in and around the gates Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Darlene Superville and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the drone strike took place in Nangarhar province, not Nangahar.
Tropical Storm Henri didn't turn out to be as damaging to Connecticut as predicted.

But it did create the perfect storm for social media users to disparage the forecast of Connecticut meteorologist Rachel Frank who said she got "venomous" comments about her coverage of the storm for Hartford-based FOX61 from viewers who insulted her appearance and intelligence.

Frank's "challenging" week sounded familiar to fellow meteorologists and television journalists across Connecticut. When Ashley Baylor saw Frank's tweet, she said she contacted Frank to offer support.

I reached out to Rachel right after her post, said Baylor, a meteorologist at New Haven's WTNH. I invited her out to lunch on Tuesday just to talk and get our minds off what happened...Many of us have been there  we know how it feels to receive hate messages after a forecast didn't perfectly come to fruition.

There are several forecasts available to public these days, Baylor said, which further complicates weather forecasting and its perceived accuracy by the public.

Sadly, with computer models becoming easily available, all these armchair (social) MEDIAorologists have come on to the scene in recent years with their OWN public forecasts even though they don't have a degree or certification, she said in an email. Not only do they post their own forecasts, but often, I see them go with the worst-case scenarios to get the page views. It's beyond frustrating. I don't like having to talk people off a ledge because they're scared of something they saw on so-and-so's page.

Brad Field, the former chief meteorologist for NBC Connecticut for 34 years and current chief meteorologist at New England Skywatch Weather, said its something hes encountered throughout the course of his time on TV making weather predictions.

In my career, I experienced many doubters and critics, he wrote in a Facebook message. I largely ignored [them], but tried to see the grain of truth within the criticism and grow from that.

So when he saw Franks tweet about the venomous comments she received, he offered words of encouragement to a fellow Connecticut meteorologist.

As far as Rachel is concerned, we have MANY very good, very dedicated meteorologists in Connecticut, he said via Facebook. Rachel is among our best!

Melissa Cole / Contributed Photo

Meteorologist for WFSB in Rocky Hill Melissa Cole also shared support on social media for Frank.

When it comes to Tropical Storm Henri  or any storm  Cole said that meteorologists have nothing to gain by hyping things up.

At the end of the day, were doing the best job possible to provide the most accurate and at times life-saving information to the public, she said. On Saturday morning, things looked bad for Connecticut. Our forecasts evolved as the storm track evolved throughout the next 24 hours.

Meteorologists are constant targets for criticism across the country, according to Baylor, and while she noted that shes been very lucky with the feedback shes received from viewers, shes no stranger to being on the receiving end of critical comments.

I cant even tell you the number of times someone has said [or] written, Meteorologist  the only job you get paid to be wrong, she said. After the Henri coverage, I had a lot of support, but sadly, its the troll comments that stick out. I had one guy write, Shouldve been a meteorologist. I love people who say this  it has the underlying tone that we are paid to be wrong.

Ashley Baylor / Contributed Photo

Cole said she makes a point of supporting her fellow female meteorologists, especially now that many more of them are on TV.

When I first started out at WFSB in 2003, I was the only female meteorologist in the market. Today, I love that there is at least one, if not two female meteorologists at every station, she said. I personally see it as less of competition, and more of a camaraderie  women supporting women, especially in the STEM field. I love following them all on social media and often like or comment on their posts.

Cole is also no stranger to receiving statements like the ones Frank got after Henri. In her first weekend on air in Connecticut, Cole said several people emailed her to say, No offense to you, but I just dont like it when a woman does the weather.

Knowing that there hadnt been a female forecaster in the market for quite some time before her arrival, Cole said the comments were difficult to receive.

I remember feeling crushed and even second guessed myself at times, but I just kept showing up and doing the best job I could, she said. About six months into the job, some of those emailers actually reached back out to apologize for their remarks.

FOX61 news director Richard Washington said in a statement that Frank "provided life-saving information to our viewers during our coverage of Tropical Storm Henri.

"While so many appreciated her dedication, as is typical with social media, she also received hurtful and hateful comments," he wrote. "FOX61/CW20 doesnt tolerate this type of online behavior and fully supports Rachel and all of the journalists who work to serve the greater good of our communities."

While he said he and the station "won't be making any further comment" on the matter, state meteorologists offered additional words of support for their fellow forecaster  and for those looking to get into the field.

Cole said she tries to focus on the kind comments she gets.

My skin has grown thicker over the years, despite the rise of social media and the easy ability to type a comment and click send, she said. But for every negative comment, there seems to be a hundred good ones, so I try and focus on that instead.

Field said he advises up-and-coming forecasters to pause before answering any naysayers.

Listen, but do not react immediately  once you send, it's out there for eternity, he said. I always strived to win over my critics and in many cases, I did.

Even though it's "not as easy or as glamorous as people think, Baylor said she and her fellow TV meteorologists love what they do, and she urged future meteorologists to not get caught up in criticism.

You cant go after all of them, and often, theyre looking for a fight  youll drive yourself insane, she said. True viewers and fans will be supportive and back you when someone gets out of line. Persevere, and stay excellent.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  Californias parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedys assassin after two of RFKs sons went against several of their siblings' wishes and said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if hes not a threat to others.

Im overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face, he said. Ive lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.

Six of Kennedy's nine surviving children said they were shocked by the vote and urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse the parole board's decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.

He took our father from our family and he took him from America," the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. "We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.

The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of his release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.

Sirhan, whose hair is now white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after hes served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.

The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.

Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. RFK was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Five others were wounded.

Sirhan, who insists he doesn't remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his conviction, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

At his last parole hearing in 2016, commissioners concluded after more than three hours of intense testimony that Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime.

On Friday, Sirhan again said he didn't recall the killing, but he made multiple attempts to show nonetheless he takes responsibility for the harm he caused.

Sen. Kennedy was the hope of the world ... and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that, said Sirhan, appearing on camera from a San Diego County prison at the virtual proceeding, wearing his blue prison uniform, a paper towel folded as a handkerchief peeking from his shirt pocket.

Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said Sirhan showed he was a different man from not only 1968 but 2016.

We saw the improvement that youve made, and all of the other mitigating factors, and we did not find that your lack of taking complete responsibility for the crime as proof of currently being dangerous to society, Barton said.

Barton said Sirhan had made a concerted effort to follow the board's suggestions from 2016. That included enrolling in more than 20 programs focused on self-help, controlling his anger and other emotions. Barton noted that Sirhan did so even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Because of laws passed in 2018, the board was required to take into account this time the fact that he had suffered childhood trauma from the conflict in the Middle East, committed the offense at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner.

The board found that despite the magnitude of the crime, he wasnt likely to reoffend and didnt pose an unreasonable threat to public safety.

Not withstanding its atrocity, its impact, not just on the families and the victims and the nation as a whole and perhaps the world as a whole  if you were sentenced to life without parole that would be a different matter, but you were sent to life with parole," Barton said.

Barton said the board's decision was not influenced by the fact that prosecutors did not participate or oppose Sirhans release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform. Gascon, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFKs assassination, believes the prosecutors role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners.

Obviously they opposed in the past and even if they had opposed it today, our decision would be the same," Barton said.

The Los Angeles Police Department, relatives of some of the victims and members of the public submitted letters opposing Sirhans release.

The California District Attorneys Association denounced the prosecution's absence.

This is one of the most notorious political assassinations in American history and the killer is being considered for release without benefit of a representative on behalf of the people of California. That is disgraceful," El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, the association's president said.

Sirhan's lawyer, Angela Berry, had urged the board to base its decision on who Sirhan is today and not what he did more than 50 years ago.

Sirhan said he had learned to control his anger and was committed to living peacefully.

You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence," he told the panel.

Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. When asked about how he feels about the Middle East conflict today, Sirhan broke down crying and temporarily couldnt speak.

Take a few deep breaths, said Barton, who noted the conflict had not gone away and still touched a nerve.

Sirhan said he doesn't follow what's going on in the region but thinks about the suffering of refugees.

The misery that those people are experiencing. Its painful, Sirhan said.

If released, Sirhan could be deported to Jordan, and Barton said he was concerned he might become a symbol or lightning rod to foment more violence.

Sirhan said he was too old to be involved in the Middle East conflict and would detach himself from it.

The same argument can be said or made that I can be a peacemaker and a contributor to a friendly nonviolent way of resolving the issue, said Sirhan, who told the panel that he hoped to live with his blind brother in Pasadena, California.

Paul Schrade, a union leader and aide to RFK who was among five people wounded in the 1968 shooting, also spoke Friday in favor of Sirhan's release.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

____

Corrects that decision undergoes 120 day review by staff not 90.
BANGKOK (AP)  A spokesman for Myanmars military-installed government said Friday that COVID-19 vaccines will be given to members of the countrys persecuted Rohingya ethnic group.

The Muslim minority was the target of a fierce counter-insurgency campaign in 2017 that some critics charged amounted to ethnic cleansing or genocide. The Rohingya face widespread discrimination and most are denied citizenship and other basic rights.

Government spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun made the announcement at a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw, where he also said the authorities are trying to vaccinate 50% of the countrys population this year.

Myanmar, whose poor public health system was weakened further by the political turmoil caused by the armys February takeover from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, has been facing a devastating outbreak of the coronavirus, although in the past month the daily number of reported new cases and deaths has been falling.

Health authorities on Thursday reported 2,635 more COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 383,514 since the pandemic began. Another 113 deaths brought the total to 14,850. About 8.2% of the countrys 54 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the website Our World in Data, which compiles global statistics..

More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh after security forces in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in August 2017 began their harsh crackdown following an attack by insurgents. The crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes.

An estimated 600,000 Rohingya remain in Myanmar but more than 100,000 of them live in squalid and crowded displacement camps.

Zaw Min Tun said Bengalis living in the western state of Rakhine, including the population townships of Maungdaw and Buthidaung, will be vaccinated. The government uses the term Bengali for members of the Rohingya minority, which it doesnt recognize as an official minority group native to Myanmar. Many members of other ethnic groups consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

International courts are seeking to determine whether genocide was committed by the government forces in 2017. A U.N.-established investigation has recommended the prosecution of Myanmars top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank /

A New Hartford woman was sentenced to a week in jail for walking on thermal ground in Yellowstone National Park, according to Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray.

Madeline Casey, 26, was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, $40 in fees and a $1,000 community service payment to the parks Forever Geological Resource Fund. Casey appeared in front of Magistrate Judge Mark L. Carman in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming on Aug. 18 for sentencing.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Tissue holders sit atop the conference table where the congressman's aides field frantic requests from constituents desperate for help in getting friends and loved ones out of Afghanistan before it's too late.

The stories have poured in by the thousands with heartbreaking pleas not to be left behind.

The tissues are used for crying breaks, one of the aides explained.

The hardest part is just the sense of helplessness," said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Were seeing all of this, you know, anxiety, and we cant do enough.

Across the county, the offices of members of Congress have become makeshift crisis centers, flooded with requests for help getting people onto one of the last flights leaving the Kabul airport before President Joe Bidens Tuesday deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces out of Afghanistan.

More than 109,000 people have been evacuated since the Taliban takeover Aug. 14, in one of the largest U.S. airlifts in history. The work could hardly be more urgent or dangerous, as Thursday's suicide bombing attack killing 13 U.S. service member and injuring 18 demonstrated. Some 169 Afghans were also killed and scores more wounded.

Biden said after the devastating attack that the U.S. would not be intimidated, and our mission will go on." But he also acknowledged the limits of what can be done as the U.S. focuses on safe passage for Americans, while countless others remain, many fearful for their futures.

Getting every single person out is  cant be guaranteed of anybody," Biden said.

In the race against time, the lawmakers are stepping up where the other branches of the U.S. government have maxed out. Its infuriating, emotional work, the rare undertaking that crosses party lines, Republicans and Democrats working around the clock to help the friends, families and loved ones of their constituents  and helping the U.S. keep its word.

In Northern Virginia, the office of Democratic Rep. Don Beyer reports that the number of constituent requests coming in  more than 100 a day  is what they would typically have in a full month. The area is home to many Afghans as well as military personnel and defense contractors, some with ties to the region. In the adjacent congressional district, the office of Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly reports that staff has submitted the names of nearly 10,000 Americans and Afghan interpreters and others to the State Department for consideration.

Swalwells district is home to a large Afghan diaspora community. The city of Fremont has a neighborhood called Little Kabul. But from coast to coast, and across the heartland, lawmakers around the country are also seeing huge spikes in requests for help.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon said his office is working with more than 800 people seeking to get out of Afghanistan  a workload that grew in part because of the number of veterans working for him, including two retired colonels plus a Gold Star wife whose husband was killed in Afghanistan, who still have connections overseas. They are having some success, but more often than not, they are hearing from people who can't get through Taliban-controlled checkpoints, he said.

When you're working 18 hours a day or so for a week and people are not getting through and you hear about people dying, yeah, it's emotional," said Bacon, who served in Iraq. These guys are on the edge of their nerves."

Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said many lawmakers are forwarding cases his way. I get texts every night, every hour, every half-hour, McCaul said.

The effort is personal for those members of Congress who served in the national security apparatus in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to joining Congress, Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., had provided strategic advice to Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He said his office has received more than 6,000 evacuation cases in just more than a week.

This is about the expectation of what the American handshake means to those that were willing to put their lives at risk to help us and our service members and our diplomats on the ground, Kim said.

In North Carolina, which is home to Fort Bragg, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has been working with veterans from the 82nd Airborne to help people he said they consider brothers and sisters in arms, having worked alongside the U.S. troops for years.

Theyve seen their families grow up, they spent time on the battlefield, they saw people die there, Tillis said.

Tillis pushed back against those critics, particularly in his own Republican Party, who warn against welcoming the foreigners out of fears they could be terrorists themselves. You probably ought to get to know them, maybe get to know their story and welcome them to this country, he said. We owe them a debt of gratitude for saving American lives.

On Thursday, he said his office has a list of 1,000 people in Afghanistan hes trying to help evacuate  and hes just one senator out of 100.

Focus on the math, he said. Thats one office, and its growing every single day. ... Its fairly easy to see how the number gets up in the tens of thousands.

For all the horror stories lawmakers are hearing about people being turned away or having their papers ripped, they are getting word of some successes. Bacon said his team helped arrange for the rescue of an American family by helicopter, plus the evacuation of an Afghan general and his family.

Our folks can know that, for the rest of their lives, they made a lifetime impact on a family," Bacon said. They can cherish that until the day they die."

Swalwell beamed at the photo of one little smiling Afghan girl who made it out safely. That's what keeps us going," he said.

It's like one photo of joy for hundreds of stories that are painful and may not have a happy ending."
MADISON  A $770,000 state grant, earmarked for repairs to the towns seawall, will help preserve the regions coastline, a problem that became all the more urgent during the recent tropical storm.

The funding will allow Madison to address the issue before it gets out of hand, according to Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, who gathered with state and local leaders Friday afternoon at Garvan Point Beach.

State Rep. John-Michael Parker, D-Madison, First Selectman Peggy Lyons, and other officials attended the event.

Further issues could have occurred as a result of Tropical Storm Henri, but the area was spared significant damage, she said.

I think, especially with the close call we had last weekend, its very clear our beaches are threatened, Bysewicz said.

Madison will soon receive the state money, which requires matching funds, for coastal resilience and beach restoration efforts. The project will kick off with a replacement of the seawall. Work is estimated to cost $1.5 million.

The current sea wall is insufficient, Bysewicz said. It will eventually fail.

Even before the recent threat tropical storms have posed, the project was considered to be badly needed, Lyons said. For at least the past five years, it was part of the towns capital plan, but unforeseen issues and increasing costs prevented it from happening, she said.

Its been a recognition that we need to handle these things now, Lyons said.

In fact, the town had already taken steps toward starting the project. A contractor was hired to assess options and Coastal Resiliency Commission was formed in 2019.

Graham Curtis, an engineer and vice chairman of the commission, said that so far, this is the most important issue the group has experienced. Its the first of many projects that are coming, he said.

The preliminary plan includes replacing the nearly 50-year-old steel wall that surrounds Garvan Point with a new concrete one. We figured it was the most durable, Curtis said.

The planning work is only just beginning, he added.

A section of the upcoming federal infrastructure bill will allot money to coastline resilience efforts, Bysewicz said, and Madison and other towns can apply for these funds when they are made available.

Lyons expressed excitement that work is finally underway. Were thrilled that were getting going, she said.

She emphasized the importance of preserving the environment, especially when the space is also heavily used by the community. She called Garvan Point and the surrounding area a treasure for past and, hopefully, future generations. During the height of the pandemic, it was used as a safe public gathering space, she added.

Its one of Madisons town jewels, Lyons said.

Bysewicz echoed that sentiment. It draws people from all over, the lieutenant governor said. It brings people to downtown Madison.

Afterward, Bysewicz and Lyons toured small businesses downtown, then checked out the new $15 million renovation at E.C. Scranton Public Library.
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STAMFORD  The judge overseeing OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharmas bankruptcy called Friday on Connecticut and the other states that oppose the companys settlement plan to resolve their disputes with the companys owners as he prepares to rule next week on the proposal.

Judge Robert Drain made the recommendation near the end of a confirmation hearing that started Aug. 12 to examine Stamford-based Purdues plan, a framework valued by the company at more than $10 billion that would settle several thousand lawsuits alleging the firm fueled the opioid crisis with deceptive OxyContin marketing.

Connecticut, California, Delaware, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia still oppose the proposal.

It would also be, I think, a real service to millions, if not tens of millions, of people if the objecting states or some subset of them were able to resolve their differences with the Sacklers who own Purdue, Drain said Friday during the remotely held hearing. One benefit of a lengthy hearing like this is that the evidence does come out to a great extent. There will be a ruling on this that goes through the evidence that makes it hard for either side just to take rhetorical positions in the future.

Drain said that he intends to rule Wednesday on the settlement plan. During the hearing, he heard six days of witness testimony and three days of oral arguments from parties supporting and opposing the proposal.

A ruling also makes it very hard to settle thereafter, Drain said. So the parties are basically left with a choice of resolving their differences now or taking the time primarily, but also spending the money, to fight thereafter  one way or another, either on appeal or in connection with some other form of bankruptcy process.

Arguably the most controversial component of Purdues settlement offer is a stipulation for the Sackler family members who own the company to be released from the pending lawsuits, as well as potential claims related to Purdue. The plan also seeks releases for more than 1,000 other parties associated with Purdue and its owners, including Sackler family members not directly involved with the company.

The potential releases are a condition of the Sacklers offer to contribute about $4.3 billion in cash to the settlement. The Sacklers have not personally filed for bankruptcy.

Connecticut is preparing a notice of appeal (of the ruling) in the event it is necessary, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement Friday. Whatever the decision is next week, it is clear that federal bankruptcy reforms are sorely needed to close the non-debtor release loophole and ensure wealthy bad actors like the Sacklers cannot misuse our bankruptcy courts to evade justice and accountability.

In response to an inquiry from Hearst Connecticut Media about the companys response to Drains comments, a Purdue spokesperson referred Hearst to Sackler representatives. A spokesperson for late Purdue co-founder Mortimer Sacklers side of the family declined to comment, while a message for late co-founder Raymond Sacklers side of the family was not immediately returned.

Among other key terms, Purdues settlement proposal calls for the Sacklers to relinquish control of the company and for the firm to be converted into a public benefit company focused on using its funds to tackle the opioid crisis. The Sacklers have also agreed to sell their international pharmaceutical businesses.

In December 2018, Connecticut sued Purdue and eight of the Sacklers. Among its allegations, the complaint asserts that the Sacklers were directly involved in developing and approved Purdues deceptive and illegal activities in Connecticut, and they each participated in the decisions to mislead Connecticut prescribers and patients to generate a huge financial windfall for themselves.

Despite their proposed contribution to the settlement plan, the Sacklers who own Purdue have denied any personal wrongdoing related to the company.

pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott
BRIDGEPORT  Like many other live events, the Black Rock neighborhoods annual PorchFest music festival was canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And also like many other events, PorchFest is back this year, on Saturday, even though the health crisis continues. Organizers and participants are aiming for a more modest day of bands performing in homeowners front yards than previous years and relying on the audiences to help everyone stay safe.

I just think people need to be smart and careful and wear masks and use some common sense, said Scott Burns, one of the two City Council representatives for the waterfront Black Rock section of town, who is not involved in planning PorchFest. If youre not vaccinated, dont go. If you are, be careful. We dont need huge crowds.

PorchFests organizers did not return requests for comment. But Burns credited them for not widely promoting the schedule in an effort to bring the festival back to its neighborhood roots.

There were concerns that the event was just getting too big, regardless of any pandemic, Burns said Thursday.

PorchFest was launched here around six years ago with about a dozen bands and has been credited for inspiring similar gatherings around the state. By 2019 the number of musical acts in Black Rock had quintupled and drawn large crowds of in- and out-of-towners.

As has been the situation with other large summer get-togethers in the second year of the pandemic, PorchFest is happening at a time of great uncertainty and mixed messages about exactly how people are supposed to responsibly live their lives.

There was reason for optimism that large crowds could gather outdoors safely because three different vaccines have been available since early this year.

Gov. Ned Lamont also urged residents in late May to get out of their houses after he lifted the health and safety protocols in place since around March and April of 2020.

But since then the more contagious delta variant has rapidly spread among not just the unvaccinated but those who are inoculated and health experts have been urging everyone to act more cautiously and not as if life is back to normal.

In the meantime, the general response from Lamont and many other state and local elected officials has been to let the public go about its warm-weather business and rely on personal responsibility to stop infections.

In an Aug. 10 Facebook post, Black Rock Porchfest organizers acknowledged the delta variant and wrote they would continue to monitor the changing state of the virus.

We want to encourage everyone to wear a mask where they personally see fit and try your best to social distance, the Facebook post continued, adding specifically for hosts, If you do not feel comfortable with people gathering at your house, we completely understand if you do not want to host this year.

Since the date of that Facebook message, Bridgeport, according to Connecticuts color-coded COVID-19 case tracking system, recently became one of the municipalities, including surrounding suburbs, that crossed into the red alert stage of 15 or more infections per 100,000 people.

And Mayor Joe Ganim has not only reinstated a local indoor mask mandate  Lamont recently allowed municipal leaders to make that decision  but went even further and encouraged residents mask-up outdoors if they cannot socially distance from others.

But that is not a mandate.

In a statement Thursday, Ebony Jackson-Shaheed, Bridgeports acting health director, urged PorchFest attendees to wear masks in crowded areas, keep at least six feet apart and also have and use hand sanitizer.

Residents providing access to the bands are encouraged to have additional masks available along with hand sanitizer, Jackson-Shaheed said. While there are no outdoor event restrictions currently in place, the rise of the delta variant and the current positivity rate for COVID in Bridgeport make it essential for everyone to act responsibly while enjoying Black Rock PorchFest.

John Torres family operates Harborview Market and he and some other musicians are putting on the final PorchFest performance there Saturday. He credited the vaccines  and in particular Connecticuts high inoculation rate  as a big reason to go forward.

And we are keeping it a lot smaller, Torres said. Its a more community-based event, not an all of Fairfield County event. I anticipate a much lower turnout than years past. (And) were outdoors, encouraging masking.

But, Torres noted, even were the normal crowds to turn out  I think the most theyve ever clocked was 2,000  they are a lot smaller than concerts being held at New Havens 10,000-person Westville Music Bowl and Bridgeports new 5,700-seat amphitheater. He said given the layout of those venues, PorchFest is as safe if not safer.

While it (the amphitheater) is a spacious space, it is not the size of a neighborhood and with far more people, Torres said.

And in Milford, which like Bridgeport is also bright red on the states COVID case tracker, bands are currently being recruited for that towns second porchfest planned for Oct. 2. Milford last Saturday also drew thousands to its 47th annual Oyster Festival, though anyone wishing to see the live music on the main stage had to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for coronavirus.

Black Rock resident Maureen Cook has been trying, unsuccessfully, to convince the Ganim administration to cancel PorchFest. She said she has witnessed too many examples of neighbors acting irresponsibility during the pandemic.

And now were topping it all off with this, Cook said. Why would you purposefully create an event in a small, geographic area that you know is just gonna be packed with people? I dont understand the logic in that. ... Why cant we be patient just one more year?

Councilman Matthew McCarthy in an interview earlier this month said that although he has previously hosted bands on his property, he was not personally comfortable taking that responsibility this year. He cited Ganims advice on outdoor activities.

I have a few hundred people in my front yard and theres no way to guarantee theyre all going to wear masks and social distance, he had said.

On Thursday, however, McCarthy sought to clarify that he was not opposed to PorchFest happening.

Im looking forward to it and will be around all day partaking in it, McCarthy said. Just for personal reasons I am not having a band.
As chaos unfolds in Afghanistan, American veterans are struggling with renewed post-traumatic stress, Connecticut officials say.

Thirteen U.S. service members were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing at an airport in Kabul. The next day, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill two high-profile ISIS targets, Maj. Gen. William Hank Taylor said Saturday.

Thomas Saadi, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, said the deaths of service members have heavily impacted the entire military community, and even opened some wounds for veterans.

This is a serious concern, said Saadi, a Danbury city councilman who is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

The loss has really hit home for the veteran community. It is emotional to think about, he added.

Officials have noticed a spike in veterans seeking mental health services.

Jack Mordente, coordinator of Southern Connecticut State Universitys Veterans and Military Affairs office, said he was devastated Saturday thinking of Americas latest military loss.

Im very angry, Mordente said. Most of them were just babies when 9/11 happened, he said.

Its our politicians that bring us to war, our soldiers do their job, he added.

Mordente served in the U.S. Army from 1970-74 in the Vietnam War. He doesnt want to see what happened to his generation happen to veterans who served in Afghanistan.

Our veterans were blamed and were the scapegoats for that war, Mordente said.

While being a veterans coordinator at the university, Mordente has known two U.S. Marine Corps veterans who have died by suicide in recent years.

In 2018, nearly 18 veterans died by suicide each day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said veterans rarely ask for help, especially when theyre going through a tough time emotionally.

Mordente and others are offering support to Iraq or Afghanistan veterans. Even a simple phone call can help former soldiers process their emotions, he said.

Blumenthal and state Sen. Jorge Cabrera, R-Hamden, are also concerned about veterans mental health. The humanitarian nightmare in Afghanistan is dominating news headlines, reviving memories of war and causing renewed post traumatic stress, Blumenthal said.

American troops are set to leave the war-torn country by Tuesday. With the Taliban taking control of the country so quickly, troops are feeling disappointed like the mission was a hopeless effort, Cabrera said.

They went there to do their jobs. A lot of them participating in the building of the country. ... And now it seems to be destroyed and lost, Cabrera said. Like it was worthless.

But Cabrera, Blumenthal and Mordente wanted to assure troops and veterans their work wasnt for nothing.

Even though things are messy right now and difficult, they served their country and they served the folks of Afghanistan well, Cabrera said. And their efforts were not in vain.

As of Saturday, 117,000 people have evacuated from Afghanistan, 5,400 of those being American citizens, according to Taylor.

Blumenthal said about 350 American citizens are left in the country and thousands of Afghan allies, including interpreters, guards, drivers and intelligence contractors who put their lives on the line for us.

Blumenthal said he and other members of Congress met with the administration in April and May pleading to start a mass evacuation effort.

I hope that our military will remain as long as possible to enable as many as possible Afghan allies to escape torture and murder that the Taliban may impose on them or their families, Blumenthal said Saturday.

Blumenthal, who was in the Marine Corps Reserve, has two sons who served in the military. Matthew Blumenthal, a state representative for Stamford and Darien, served in Afghanistan as a Marine combat infantry officer and managed to help an interpreter escape the country before the turmoil. Michael Blumenthal served as a Navy SEAL.

Veterans in crisis or those concerned about a veteran can call the Veterans Crisis Line at 800-273-8255, text 838255 or chat online at www.VeteransCrisisLine.net. Other resources for veterans can be found by going to the Connecticut Veterans Affairs Facebook page.
ELKHART, Ind. (AP)  A northern Indiana police officer fatally shot a man moments after the man had shot and killed a toddler during a domestic dispute Friday morning, authorities said.

The man was shot in an alley less than five minutes after he had fired a gun at a woman and the bullet struck and killed a 2-year-old, Elkhart Police Chief Kris Seymore said.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A Kansas City man admitted Friday that he shot a zTrip taxi driver 26 times at close range during a robbery.

Derron D. Nevels, 20, pleaded guilty in federal court to robbery and discharging a firearm during a violent crime that occurred after the driver picked up Nevels on Dec. 4, 2018.

Prosecutors said when the vehicle arrived at Nevels' destination, he held a rifle to her head and demanded she give him everything. A second person standing outside the vehicle hit the driver as she struggled with Nevels over the rifle. Nevels then fired about 26 shots at the driver, prosecutors said.

Nevels and another suspect returned to the scene about 10 minutes after the attack and retrieved his cell phone from the back seat.

The driver survived the attack but continues to suffer from serious injuries caused by the shooting, according to court documents.

Two co-defendants, Bailee Anna Maria Prieto, 21, of Kansas City, Kansas; and Melani Yitzel Collazo Jimenez, 23, of Kansas City, Missouri have pleaded guilty to being accessories after the robbery.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  School officials in Las Vegas have assigned assigning a task force to craft an anti-racism policy by next January, amid calls from parents to follow a new state anti-discrimination law and efforts by officials to avoid a culture wars flashpoint.

Critical race theory is not taught in the Clark County School District, Superintendent Jesus Jara told school trustees on Thursday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
WESTPORT  Both the most recent U.S. Census and a report of the U.S. Postal Service show that Westports population has been growing for years. But what impact have those new people had on the town itself?

Some town officials said the bump seems to have had an effect on school enrollments, home sales and foot traffic at area businesses.

We are thrilled with all the new residents in town, said Second Selectwoman Jen Tooker. They are shopping in our stores, dining in our restaurants and enjoying Westports amenities. We are excited of the new energy in town.

But others, including Westports first selectman, said its still not fully clear what the numbers mean.

According to the latest U.S. Census, Westports overall population went from 26,391 in 2010 to 27,141 in 2020  a population growth of about 2.8 percent. Additionally, Westport had one of the highest numbers of new residents in 2020 according to a CBRE analysis of change-of-address notifications Connecticut and New York filed with the U.S. Postal Service. CBRE is a Dallas-based commercial real estate services and investment firm.

In 2020, Westport had 2,731 incoming changes-of-address offsetting 2,059 outgoing as reported to the U.S. Postal Service, for a net gain of 672 households.

First Selectman Jim Marpe said, to his knowledge, many of the new arrivals in 2020 were young people who had left Westport, then moved back home during the COVID-19 pandemic to live with their parents.

We saw that many stayed long enough to change their address back to their parents address, he said. Whether they all remain for the long term is hard to know, but some will no doubt find that living in Westport is attractive even to a young millennial who was focused on living in an urban environment.

Some other numbers indicate that the towns growth might be more than a matter of people returning to the nest. According to the Town Clerks office, home sales have gone from 471 in fiscal year 2019, to 516 in fiscal year 2020 and to 952 in fiscal year 2021.

The towns schools also saw a higher than projected enrollment this year. The projected enrollment for the 2021-22 school year was 5,190, but the actual enrollment is 5,274, according to John Bayers, Westport Public Schools assistant superintendent for human resources and general administration.

Though the increase isnt huge, it might have some impact on staffing, as only a certain number of students are allowed in each section of a grade, said Superintendent Thomas Scarice. For instance, a section might be only a few students away from reaching its limit, so even a small increase in enrollment could lead to an extra section.

Bayers confirmed that five class sections have been added at the elementary school level due to the bump in enrollment, but its still unclear what impact this will have on the districts number of full-time employees, which was projected to be about 928 for the school year. Bayers said, right now, the number is still fluid.

In general, Scarice said, the recent increase shouldnt have a huge impact on the schools. For a while, he said, enrollment in the district had been declining. This (increase) kind of flattens that out, he said.

On a more somber note, there has also been an increased demand for social services in Westport, said Elaine Daignault, the towns director of human services.

The department has noted an increase in requests for assistance, but not necessarily from new residents, Daignault said. We are receiving more calls from seniors and families looking to downsize their homes and stay in town. Several are having trouble paying rent or mortgages and are looking for more affordable housing options.

One area where the growing population is having a positive impact is on local businesses, particularly in the downtown area. Randy Herbertson, president of the Westport Downtown Association, said the residents were early and eager patrons of local businesses, even during periods of high COVID-19 activity.

This energy definitely influenced and expanded to our existing resident base this year, resulting in an even more vibrant and busy district, he said. We believe that many of these formally urban residents were just used to seeking out a central business district, and less concerned about parking right in front of a merchant as well. Most large cities do require a bit of walking.

Matthew Mandell, executive director and president of the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce, echoed those sentiments somewhat. The changeover in population brings new vibrancy and curiosity which is good for business and the town as a whole, Mandell said.

However, he was concerned about the potential impact the population increase could have on traffic and, hence, access to local businesses. More people brings more business, but not if the people cant get to those businesses, he said. There is a fine line we will be walking and something we need to keep an eye on.
On June 22, Connecticut jointed 17 other states and District of Columbia in legalizing the use of recreational cannabis. Additionally, 36 states now allow for the medical use of cannabis products. For many entrepreneurs and investors, the new world of legal marijuana presents an attractive business opportunity. What must be kept in mind, however, is that despite the trend towards legalization at the state level, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. As a result, marijuana businesses are subject to an adverse federal tax rule which can have a significant impact on their bottom lines, and put them at a considerable disadvantage relative to other commercial enterprises.

Adverse Internal Revenue Code Section 280E

Usually, a business is permitted a tax deduction for ordinary and necessary expenses such as rent, employee salaries, insurance, and advertising. Whats different for marijuana businesses is Sec. 280E of the Internal Revenue Code, which states:
Funeral service for Mr. Terry Arthur Thornton, age 63, of Hartselle, will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, September 1, 2021 at Cullman Heritage Funeral Home; burial at Duck River Cemetery. Cullman Heritage Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Thornton passed away on Saturday, August 28
Taylor Leddin is the Life editor at the Daily Journal and is the editor of Lifestyles of Kankakee County. Her column, A Taylor Made Life, publishes every Saturday in the Life section. She can be contacted by phone 815-937-3369, email tleddin@daily-journal.com or via Twitter @leddinlife.
Mask, vaccine mandate

Illinois health care workers will also be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, according to new state mandates handed down Thursday. The mandate also calls for a fresh statewide mandate for masks to be worn indoors.

The mandates, which overlap in several places with existing rules, are a response to a spike in COVID-19 infections fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, particularly in southern and central Illinois.

The mask order, which begins Monday, applies to everyone age 2 and older, regardless of vaccination status. It's similar to an order issued in May 2020, which was later relaxed for vaccinated people.

First doses of the vaccine are required by Sept. 5 for health care workers, including nursing home employees. Those who don't comply will have to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
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United for success: Airline, ECSU celebrate partnership

cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance Elizabeth City State University and United Airlines officials cut the ribbon to celebrate their new partnership on the stage of the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Center, Friday. Pictured (l-r) are Kate Gebo, United Airlines executive vice president for human resources and labor relations; ECSU Chancellor Karrie Dixon and United Airlines pilot Capt. Theresa Claiborne. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance United Airlines Capt. Theresa Claiborne presents her COVID-19 vaccination card to Elizabeth City State University students and staff attending Fridays ceremony to celebrate ECSUs partnership with United Airlines. Claiborne encouraged the students to get vaccinated, if they havent already. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance United Airlines Capt. Theresa Claiborne addresses Elizabeth City State University students and staff attending Friday's ceremony to celebrate ECSU's partnership with United Airlines. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance United Airlines Capt. Theresa Claiborne speaks to Elizabeth City State University aviation science students before the start of Fridays ceremony. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Karrie Dixon addresses students and staff attending Fridays ceremony to celebrate ECSUs partnership with United Airlines. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Karrie Dixon addresses students and staff attending Friday's ceremony to celebrate ECSU's partnership with United Airlines. cday / Chris Day/The Daily Advance Elizabeth City State University Provost Farrah Jackson Ward addresses students and staff attending Friday's ceremony to celebrate ECSU's partnership with United Airlines.

United Airlines Capt. Theresa Claiborne was spending the night in Paris between transatlantic flights when she received a call from Orestes Gooden, chairman of Elizabeth City State Universitys Aviation and Emergency Management Department.

It was around midnight in Paris when Gooden called to ask if she would participate in Fridays ceremony celebrating ECSUs partnership with United Airlines. Claiborne, who was the U.S. Air Forces first African American female pilot, went from flying a Boeing KC-135 tanker in the 1980s to flying Boeings 787 Dreamliner today for United Airlines.

Claiborne said she told Gooden she would have to check her schedule to see if she could work it out to visit Elizabeth City. A few days later, after deciding she could attend, she returned Goodens call.

I would be delighted, she said she told him.

Claiborne was the guest speaker at Fridays ceremony to celebrate a pilot-to-pipeline partnership between ECSU and United Airlines. The United Airlines Aviate program aims to prepare ECSUs aviation science majors for careers as pilots and other career opportunities with United Airlines.

The partnership comes after an announcement by United Airlines in April that it would be hiring and training 5,000 additional pilots through the Aviate program. At least 50% of the graduates in the program will be women or persons of color.

Claiborne has been flying for United Airlines for more than 30 years, according to her LinkedIn profile. One reason she likes to stay involved in mentoring programs and encouraging women and persons of color to seek aviation careers comes from an experience she faced several years ago during the application process for United Airlines.

She said while waiting to be interviewed with several other job candidates, many of them white males, one person made the comment, Well, we know youll get hired.

She pressed the person to explain what they meant and then asked if they thought that if she got hired would it be because she had 2,500 flight hours that she had accumulated while in the Air Force. The room fell silent, she said.

That experience has kept her motivated throughout her career, Claiborne said.

I know if I dont perform well, other Black women may get the same treatment, she said.

Each time she returns from a flight she asks herself, What is it Theresa can do to be a better pilot?

Claiborne praised the Aviate program and United Airlines for its efforts to improve diversity among its ranks.

United Airlines is really leading the pack in diversity, she said.

Claiborne next spoke to the students in the audience who aspire to be pilots. If they come to work for United Airlines, they will be joining the best pilots in the industry  white or Black  she said.

Youre not going to get hired just because you went to ECSU but you will get a look, she said. So, you better bring your best.

Claiborne concluded by presenting a few items from her travel bag that she always carries with her. Among them were her FAA certification card, her passport, and a seat cushion for her pilots seat. The last item was one she highlighted the most: her COVID-19 vaccination card.

She held up the card and encouraged all students in the audience to get vaccinated. After all, earlier this month United Airlines became the first major airline to require mandatory vaccinations for its employees, she reminded students.

Please, get your COVID shots, OK, she said. Do the right thing; get your COVID shots.

Also attending Fridays ceremony were ECSU officials, including Chancellor Karrie Dixon, as well as several United Airlines corporate representatives, including Kate Gebo, the airlines executive vice president for human resources and labor relations.

Fridays hour-long ceremony was held on campus in the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Center.

Its a great day in the friendly skies, said Dixon, quoting from United Airlines popular slogan.

Dixon said she was elated and encouraged by ECSUs strategic collaboration with a major passenger airline. Aviate will lead to successful careers for ECSU students, plus provide United Airlines with a well-qualified pool of graduates to recruit from, she said.

This is a win-win situation, Dixon said.

Dixon pledged to the United Airlines guests that ECSU will offer excellence without excuse.

Together, we are going to make a difference, she said.

Gebo followed Dixon by commenting that both ECSU and United Airlines are on paths to growth. She said United Airlines will maintain a presence on campus.

You can expect to see United regularly on your campus, she said.

ECSU Provost Farrah Jackson Ward said ECSUs aviation science program was on the rise, having grown from 47 students in 2016 to 154 this semester.

We are thrilled to be entering this partnership with United Airlines, she said.

ECSU is the only four-year educational institution in North Carolina that offers a degree program in aviation science. The program includes a fleet of 12 aircraft that students learn to fly and earn their pilots licenses.
Elizabeth City, NC (27909)

Today

Mostly cloudy this evening with showers developing after midnight. Low 67F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy this evening with showers developing after midnight. Low 67F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Elizabeth City, NC (27909)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 68F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 68F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Donald Lee Brock, Sr. 83 of Tunnel Hill passed away Tuesday August 31, 2021 at Hamilton Medical Center. He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Thelma Brock; his brother Jerry Brock and brother-in-law, John Marcus. Donald is survived by his sons, Donald Lee Brock, Jr. (Jay Ann) 
Contributed photo

From left, Governor Nathan Deal Technical Education Scholarship recipient Jonathan Garcia stands with Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) President Heidi Popham; President and CEO of the Carpet and Rug Institute and Technical College System of Georgia board member Joe Yarbrough; and fellow scholarship recipient Eduardo Hernandez. Not pictured is scholarship recipient Eric Garcia. The recipients of the award were recognized for their excellence in the Industrial Systems Technology program on GNTC's Whitfield Murray Campus in Dalton.
Gregory (Greg) Boggs of Greenup, age 68, died on August, 20 2021, at Kings Daughters Memorial Center.. Gregory is survived by his wife of 43 years, Tina (Madden) Boggs; his daughter Jennifer (Boggs) Brown and son in law Bill Brown, of South Portsmouth; his daughter Anna Collister and son in 
Sunbury, PA (17801)

Today

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low around 55F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Low around 55F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Like many things that crop up online, it seems too good to be true. Shein is a Chinese fashion company that promises low prices and almost limitless choice. It even seems to know what youre thinking.

Going on holiday? Before youve even booked the flight, it is instructing workers in Shenzhen to make the top youre going to want for the beach.

As youre browsing TikTok, it knows which rival brands youre considering and getting their designs copied and available to you faster and cheaper.

No wonder its become a runaway multi-billion-pound success. Whats not to like? Well, that depends on what the real price is youre paying. And Im convinced many of customers dont have a clue what they are giving away.

When you download the companys app, you are essentially opening the door for its workers in the Pearl River Delta to know everything about your life.

Trackers on your phone and computer know what youre looking at and how long youve looked.

Tom Tugendhat (pictured) believes China's Communist Party is behind the deeply sinister 'surveillance capitalism' trend that powers billion-dollar brands like Shein

Every moment you spend online is a moment on sale. And I dont mean Sheins cheap fashion lines  I mean you.

The companys business model is a sinister cross between surveillance and capitalism.

Instead of taking goods to market and seeing what you will buy, Shein is taking you to market to see what it can sell.

We can see what the companys anonymous coders and algorithms make of the information they glean from spying on your computer browsing  the products they offer you are plain to see.

But we dont know what else they do with that information. Shein isnt open like other companies. We dont know its profits or its losses. It doesnt publish figures.

Instead of corporate information there are influencers. Shouldnt we know whos profiting from us?

This raises questions for everyone, not just those who are more comfortable sharing their every thought and dream with people on the other side of the world who dont share our ideas of privacy.

Are we happy that surveillance fashion is the way our country pays for the surveillance state weve seen emerge in Xinjiang?

Shein is a Chinese fashion company that promises low prices and almost limitless choice. Pictured: Georgia Toffolo attends the launch of the SHEIN x Georgia Toffolo collaboration in February 2020

The amazing thing behind all this is that theres no secret to whats really happening. Over the past year, Beijings rulers have made clear they dont believe in rivals to the Communist Party, either political or commercial.

Billionaire Jack Ma, whose Ant Group rivals Amazon, has been silenced. Didi, a ride-hailing service like Uber, has been ordered to hand over control of data after floating on the New York exchange, rather than in Hong Kong.

As the China Research Group I chair has shown, Chairman Xi Jinping has made it plain that the free market is not free and theres no illusion who really holds the power.

So, one thing we know for sure: Shein wouldnt be able to collect the data it does without top-level contacts in the Communist Party saying its OK.

With a data collection network to rival many of the worlds intelligence agencies, and with so many willingly handing over their every desire, why are we so many relaxed about Shein? Well, not everyone is.

British firm Gymshark, whose brilliant founder Ben Francis has made a fortune from selling gym kit around the world, is being undercut by the Chinese rival.

Shein is selling versions of items hes designed at a fraction of the price. Almost identical copies are getting to market faster and cheaper and with seemingly fewer obstacles. How can that be?

The New York Post reported almost identical leggings are 36 from the British outfitter, but 9.50 from Shein. How is that commercially possible?

As The Mail on Sunday reported last year, there are a few possible explanations. Everything from copycat designs, poor manufacturing quality and Royal Mail subsidies collude to construct an advantage others can only dream of.

Over the past year, Beijings rulers have made clear they dont believe in rivals to the Communist Party, either political or commercial

But the key to the company is not the making but the marketing  particularly how it responds to the data we give away as we browse TikTok, Instagram and other social media sites.

Every keystroke and every page we view is translated into code and sent East. Every teenage dream, every whim, is converted, packaged and sold. Thats the reality of the social contract weve signed.

No wonder the Chinese Communist Party is happy for that to continue. They may not be supplying labour from prison factories of Xinjiang to keep costs down, but the party will be essential to Sheins success as it seeks global commercial dominance.

From its Beijing headquarters, the genome-sequencing company BGI Group is working with the Chinese military and selling prenatal tests to pregnant women.

Its collecting genetic data from millions around the world, which provides them with data on countries thousands of miles away.

This gives China a huge potential advantage in creating a new generation of pharmaceuticals and more.

Other countries have already begun to address Beijing dominance. The US couldnt accept that Chinese-owned gay dating app Grindr should hold its data in a jurisdiction that practises mass incarceration and espionage on others. It forced the company to be returned to American ownership.

This isnt about competition any more. Its not capitalism the way Adam Smith understood it. Instead of the hidden hand of the market, were seeing the secret hand of the state.

This is the growth of surveillance capitalism sold to us as a convenience, but its really a cage, a worrying economic revolution every bit as seismic as Communism and just as hard to topple.

Modern, global trade is about so much more than goods. Once we protected our steel industry to ensure we could always make warships and cannons in times of crisis.

Today, economic power comes from services, everything from accounting and law to online dating and shopping.

Thats why we urgently need to update how we respond. If Apple can put conditions on the data that apps can harvest on its phones, then shouldnt our Government act to protect our people from exploitation? Its not just clothes that Shein has on sale  its us.
In the beginning, the American military campaign in Afghanistan was officially known as Operation Enduring Freedom. Lofty ideals and ambitions are inherent in such a title, but 20 years later they look hopelessly misplaced. As names go, it now reads like a tragically bad joke.

Afghanistan is today a graveyard of Western ideals that many Afghans had come to hold dear. I said sorry to a lot of those people during the 11 days since the Taliban takeover that we stayed in Kabul, a city we have now left.

One of the reasons we stayed at the Serena Hotel, in the centre of the capital, is that its also home to the Qatari Embassy. The Gulf country has played an enormous role in all of this. The Qataris were the intermediaries as the Americans and the Taliban negotiated the end. We felt that as long as we were close to the Qataris, we would be relatively safe.

It was the Qataris who got us out of there. Myself, cameraman Sean Swan and producer Lutfi Abu-Aun are also indebted to the NBC news correspondent Richard Engel, who used his contacts to make sure we were on a flight from Kabul to the Qatari capital Doha. Driving from the hotel to the airport, we almost certainly passed people who would be killed later in the day in the suicide bomb attack close to one of the entrances.

In the beginning, the American military campaign in Afghanistan was officially known as Operation Enduring Freedom. Pictured: Troops in Kabul on August 25

The dividing line between Taliban-held Kabul and the American-held part of the airport was a roll of concertina wire.

At that divide stood a line of armed Taliban now wearing Western army combat fatigues. Just feet from them were soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, one of the US Armys most storied units. The look on the Americans faces was one I hadnt seen before. It was seething humiliation. A long drive over the tarmac brought us to the apron being used by the giant C-17 Globemaster transport planes that have been the workhorses of this evacuation. Affectionately nicknamed Fat Albert by the Brits, the Hercules C-130 has been a reliable sidekick. Orderly, quiet columns of Afghans were being led to the aircraft in single file.

The world has answered the call and I lost count of the nationalities of the various planes we watched as we waited for ours. To witness the evacuation has been depressingly impressive. Nations united doing a decent thing. Its great to see, but then you remember the shame of it all.

When our time came, we shared the vast cargo bay in the Qatari C-17 with about 200 Afghans who were bound for Italy. We would get off in Doha. Because the Qataris fly over Iran, our journey was only two and a bit hours. Our hosts were brilliant.

They gave the Afghans and us food and water. Patient Qatari soldiers were kind as bored, inquisitive Afghan children pestered them throughout the flight. The landing in Doha was as gentle as that of a butterfly with sore legs.

Afghanistan is today a graveyard of Western ideals that many Afghans had come to hold dear. Pictured: Troops in Kabul on August 26

Were safe and well, but my head is still in Kabul.

Sunday, August 15 is a day that should live in infamy. The culmination of American surrender and failure saw the Taliban amble into Kabul unopposed. It was a walkover that has seen our principles trampled into the dust.

Millions of hearts sank as dread filled the air. The possibilities that are hopes and dreams vanished as helicopters dropped flares and their rotor blades beat the retreat to the capitals airport.

President Biden had persuaded himself that at some stage over the span of 20 years a just cause became a lost cause.

There was no bumper sticker to encapsulate a befuddled US endeavour that had stagnated and was seemingly goalless. Sorry Joe, but an own goal wasnt the answer.

The day after they rolled into town, some of the Taliban strolled into the restaurant at our hotel.

Unable to avoid one another, we exchanged awkward pleasantries through our translators. It dawned on me that the last time Taliban gunmen had entered this restaurant was in 2014. Then they sprayed the place with machine-gun fire and killed nine diners.

The dividing line between Taliban-held Kabul and the American-held part of the airport was a roll of concertina wire. Pictured: A US soldier at the airport on August 27

Now they were trying to work out what napkins are for.

They took over hotel security, performing all the duties and using all the detectors and X-ray machines that had originally been installed to keep them out.

As one of them held a mirror to inspect the underside of our car one day, I thought to myself: If you dont know where car bombs may have been hidden then no one does.

Thursdays bombs made it the deadliest day for the Americans in a decade. No doubt the Biden administration will use the attack to justify his original decision to order the pull-out. I disagree. I think he has instigated the biggest self-inflicted humiliation ever suffered by the Western world.

He may have brought to an end one of Americas forever wars, but in doing so he has forever put a bloody, indelible stain on his presidency. Poor Afghanistan.

'If this isn't what defeat looks like, I don't know what does': US-born Tory defence chairman TOBIAS ELLWOOD on Biden's 'geo-strategic blunder'

By Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons' Defence Select Committee

'To those that carried out the attack, know this - we will not forgive, we will not forget and we will hunt you down and make you pay.'

Resolute words from the US President in response to this week's devastating terrorist attack in Kabul.

But words alone cannot hide the uncomfortable truth: our world is now a more dangerous place than it was just a month ago.

Why?

Because President Biden's decision to follow through on Donald Trump's election promise to 'bring our troops home' was made with little thought as to what might happen next.

The carnage that now unfolds illustrates what a monumental own goal this has been leaving the US and indeed the West with diminished credibility and influence.

Afghanistan is now a more dangerous adversary than when we arrived there.

President Biden's decision to follow through on Donald Trump's election promise to 'bring our troops home' was made with little thought as to what might happen next, writes Tobias Ellwood

Biden has gifted the Taliban $85 billion worth of abandoned US military equipment, including 600,000 weapons, 75,000 vehicles and 200 aircraft.

The Taliban now have more Black Hawk attack helicopters than 85% of the world's countries.

Worse, the President claims that leaving Afghanistan enables us to focus on the bigger geo-political threats of China and Russia.

But look where Afghanistan sits - squarely between the two. China and Russia are already stepping into our shoes, ready and willing to finance and bolster the very people that allowed 9/11 to happen.

And we will know little because, most critically, we have lost complete intelligence oversight of their plans as we have lost our eyes and ears on the ground.

Now the country is in play again, we have no traction. US money, which propped up three-quarters of the Afghan Government's annual budget, is gone.

But China has already offered $60 billion for access to the country's rich mineral resources.

It was not as if Afghanistan was a terrible drain of the West's blood and treasure.

Only 2,000 troops remained. Combat operations had ended in 2014.

Yes, Afghanistan was messy, corrupt and the governance model we imposed totally inappropriate.

But things were plodding in the right direction. It was entirely the wrong moment to withdraw troops.

In short, we have cut and run. We have armed our enemy and handed them to Presidents Xi and Putin, our historic rivals.

If this isn't what defeat looks like, I don't know what does.

The magnitude of this single presidential decision is likely to be a turning point in the West's ability and desire to form alliances as a force for good.

What a complete contrast to the energy and resolve of the G7 summit where Biden declared 'America is Back.'

It has also shone a spotlight on how reactionary British foreign policy has become, lacking the bandwidth to offer our own strategic input.

The so-called 'special relationship' isn't very special at a time, post-Brexit, when we need it to be close, effective and global in reach and ambition.

I can confirm the back channels are not what they used to be.

We have been kept out of the loop on all the strategic decisions involved in the deciding to withdraw.

Our own ability to influence the Taliban is reduced to holding back aid spend if a ruthless interpretation of sharia law is pursued.

But this will hold little sway given that much of this money is directed to supporting women's education and employment projects.

So, it perfectly suits the Taliban's narrative to see the programmes fold.

This is therefore a completely empty threat. We have lost all our leverage.

And the Taliban will now turn to China for financial support who, given their own human rights track record, will place few conditions - other than securing access to Afghanistan's vast lithium deposits and other rare earth metals.

My frustration about where we are today is all the more bitter because I am a supporter of President Biden. I welcomed his election victory, ending the dangerous isolationist policies of his predecessor.

I was born in the States.

I'm a dual national and have worked hard to develop friendships with both Democrats and Republicans. Indeed ,

I worked with Joe Biden before his Presidential candidacy on veteran's mental health issues. He was my special guest at a veterans event in the House of Commons.

It's therefore with great sadness that I say his decision to withdraw now from Afghanistan is a huge geo-strategic blunder that can only benefit our enemies as well as heighten the threat of terrorism around the world.

It's now 20 years since the twin towers fell and we had to confront the threat of global terrorism  a direct assault on our values.

Similar attacks, smaller in scale, now take place on a regular drum beat, across the world.

Yet, by leaving Afghanistan we are further away than ever from overcoming the extremist ideology where a suicide bomber believes he will be fast tracked to paradise if he is willing to conduct such attacks.

We can drone strike as many as many ISIL-K as we like but the threat will persist and the attacks will continue.

To be fair. the President is nothing if not consistent.

He was a critic of the troop surge in Afghanistan under President Obama so perhaps his decision now should come as no surprise.

What is a surprise is how, like Trump, Biden makes his own key decisions rather than Obama's more consensual approach.

Thanks to a single decision the world is indeed a more dangerous place today.

With global power bases shifting, and adversaries enjoying the West in such chaos - what happens next could have serious repercussions for the next few decades.

And so much will depend upon Joe Biden.

We need to step up as the US's closest security ally to give backbone to a West now drifting and gifting global leadership to countries whose purpose is to destroy the liberal, international order we have struggled so hard to build since the end of the Cold War.

History never sleeps.

We must ensure we are not dozing our way to not just irrelevance. but also danger.
Here's an idea for all those people who like to intervene in places. Why dont we intervene in Britain?

If there was a campaign on the BBC to send British troops to the Moon, retired generals, MPs and the rest would keenly join it, maundering about our duties to Moon women etc.

Yet when it comes to intervening in our own country, you cant get anyone to do it. How come those so anxious to keep troops in Helmand, or to bomb Libya, Syria and the others, dont seem able or willing to maintain a decent police presence in (for example) London NW9?

Last week it emerged at the Old Bailey that three young men in a North London gang had decided last September to go to the next-door suburb of Colindale. Their aim was to prove their gang could turn up on enemy territory and attack who they liked.

Here's an idea for all those people who like to intervene in places. Why dont we intervene in Britain?

I agree, its not the Taliban  in fact, it makes them look quite thoughtful  but that makes little difference if you happen to be the chosen victim of such people.

The person they liked to attack was a young Marks & Spencer shop worker called Anthony Adekola, aged 22. They had never met him and did not care who he was.

He sensibly ran for his life when eight of them stopped him in the street. But he tripped over a stone bollard and fell to the ground. They then caught up. And they stabbed him nine times in the face, head, neck, back, chest, arms and leg. Ill bet that the police have not provided a regular foot patrol on the street involved for decades.

The jury was told, moronically, that Mr Adekola was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This infuriating expression really should be banned from use in such matters.

Mr Adekola, God rest his soul, was minding his own lawful business near his home on a public road in what we like to think is a civilised city. Neither the time nor the place was wrong.

Mr Adekola, God rest his soul, was minding his own lawful business near his home on a public road in what we like to think is a civilised city. Neither the time nor the place was wrong

What was wrong was that people with evil intent had no fear of the law, and so thought they could do what they liked. They might very easily have been right, as such people often are.

Id also be astonished if the merciless killers involved were not (as so many nowadays are) crazed by the illegal use of marijuana, a crime the police and courts think is unimportant, and no longer bother to pursue.

So the next time anyone suggests we send soldiers to die in the sand of some distant country, which we do not understand and cannot really help, I have another idea.

I suggest instead that we send constables on foot to Britain, which we understand all too well, but leave unguarded from evil.

XR argument is extinct!

It's a long time since I have seen a demonstration against the Vietnam War, because it is, well, over. In the same way you dont often see marches protesting against the National Front because, as far as I know, that organisation is defunct. Its even been a while since Ive seen a Britain out of the EU protest, probably because we have now left the EU.

But the London streets are full of noisy protests by people who think this country should bankrupt itself in the cause of preventing climate change, even though the Government has already decided to do exactly that.

My favourites are the women who caper about in spidery red outfits, now looking even more thrillingly exotic thanks to their facemasks. Then there are the ones who gather round hunks of broccoli, doing who knows what. And there are the people who glue their bottoms to the street.

Now that the Governments wild over-reaction to Covid has squeezed the life out of London, they all do much less serious harm than they used to.

But the problem is that they have got what they want. Both the major parties, especially the Tories, have entirely swallowed the green pill. The Prime Minister and Greta Thunberg are as one.

Last week, as if to symbolise this, the majestic coal-fired power station at Ferrybridge in Yorkshire was actually blown up so it could never be used again. This makes no practical sense, and seems to be a sort of religious sacrifice. For, as its chimneys fell, many more bigger and dirtier new coal-fired power stations rose to replace it in China and India.

My favourites are the women who caper about in spidery red outfits, now looking even more thrillingly exotic thanks to their facemasks. Then there are the ones who gather round hunks of broccoli, doing who knows what. And there are the people who glue their bottoms to the street

This fact makes the action quite meaningless  except in the amount of pain it will cause us when the National Grid goes wonky, as it will, the more it relies on wind and power sucked in from abroad.

By law, Britain is now committed to a series of similar colossal acts of economic self-harm, stretching over the next 30 years, in the confident belief that by doing so we will save the planet.

As someone who isnt wholly convinced that they have this right, or that the measures they plan will do any good, I have now reached the stage when I no longer care. Arguing with zealots is a waste of energy, so I dont bother.

By the time we are all freezing in unheated homes and stranded by power cuts and flat batteries, I shall be dead or in a care home, so I have decided to laugh at it. Because it will happen. In which case, if that is what you want, why now glue your buttocks to the road to protest, or engage in broccoli worship? Why do these things to demand what you already have?

Youd be far better off using the time and energy assembling a secret stock of firewood to see you through the chilly times to come.

A feminist commissar last week condemned Judith Kerrs lovely childrens book The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Rachel Adamson said it reinforces dangerous gender stereotypes which in turn reinforce gender inequality. This was bad because boys who conform to gender stereotypes are more likely to become perpetrators of violence against women and girls.

Many giggled. But I did not, because I predict political correctness will have its way, as it usually does. Modern childrens books are carefully monitored for offence against the new elite  see how few of them feature two-parent families, for instance, lest they upset those with one parent.

Before long the book will be corrected, to become The Tigress Who Came To Tea. Instead of drinking all the water in the tap and eating all the food, she will lecture everyone on the wickedness of the patriarchy. And the father, who in the original takes the family to a cafe, will be written out of the story because he is a masculine stereotype.

More than 20 years ago I appeared in a special edition of University Challenge, in which supposedly dim tabloid (or popular) journalists such as me were pitted against supposedly clever broadsheet (or unpopular) journalists such as a certain Boris Johnson.

The wicked tabloids won hands down (not totally thanks to me), and I suspect this is why all trace of the show disappeared.

But it has now equally mysteriously surfaced again (a link is on my blog) and you can once more watch us all make fools of ourselves, monitored by a youthful Jeremy Paxman, who was far more lah-di-dah then than he is now.

More than 20 years ago I appeared in a special edition of University Challenge, in which supposedly dim tabloid (or popular) journalists such as me were pitted against supposedly clever broadsheet (or unpopular) journalists such as a certain Boris Johnson

If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens click here
A mother-of-two who was told she would never have children because of her crippling lung condition has revealed the exhausting routine that keeps her strong enough to care for her young family.

Emmah Money, 33, is one of roughly 3,500 Australians living with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that causes cells to produce a thick mucus which damages the lungs and digestive tract so severely, the average life expectancy is just 38 years old.

The motivational speaker, who raises daughter Ayvah, eight, and son Logan, six, in Adelaide, South Australia, could be described as a walking miracle after doctors warned her parents she was unlikely to live past the age of five.

Ms Money defied the odds and then some by becoming a mother, building a loyal community on social media and receiving the SA Local Hero award in the 2020 Australian of The Year for her work in fundraising for cystic fibrosis.

But her condition means life is far from easy.

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Emmah Money was told she would never have children due her cystic fibrosis; she defied doctors' predictions to welcome daughter Ayvah (right) and son Logan (left)

Ms Money (pictured) from Adelaide, SA, could be described as a walking miracle after doctors warned her parents she was unlikely to live past the age of five

Ms Money is on a constant stream of antibiotics, has physiotherapy three times a day and takes more than 30 pancreatic enzymes with her daily meals to help digestion.

She also undergoes intravenous antibiotic therapy two to three times a year, which leaves her attached to a pump 24 hours a day for three weeks.

'Being a mum with CF is really indescribable. It's extremely hard work, it's exhausting but I wouldn't change it for the world,' Ms Money told Daily Mail Australia.

'[Treatment] is just a part of who I am and what I do.'

Despite being told it was highly improbable she would conceive, Ms Money refused to be discouraged and after 12 months of 'trying', she was overjoyed to learn she had become pregnant naturally.

Pregnancy suited her, to the point her lung function actually increased.

The good with the bad: Ms Money (left and right) is on a constant steam of antibiotics, has physiotherapy three times a day and takes more than 30 pancreatic enzymes with her daily meals to help digestion

Ms Money (pictured with daughter Ayvah and son Logan) says being a mum with CF is 'indescribable' - but wouldn't change it for the world

Ms Money (pictured) says treatment is simply 'part of who she is'

Cystic fibrosis explained Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects how cells produce mucus and sweat, causing severe damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs of the body. Jackie Fraser is one of just 3,500 Australians who live with CF, according to statistics from Victoria's Better Health database. People with CF have a defective gene that causes bodily fluids to become thick and sticky. Instead of acting as lubricants, as they should, the fluids block airways, ducts and passageways, most severely in the lungs and pancreas. CF is incurable and progressive, meaning it worsens with age. It requires daily care, but patients can still work and enjoy fulfilling lives if their condition is managed appropriately. Improvements in screening and treatment means people with CF now have a dramatically higher quality of life than they did in previous decades. Most cystic fibrosis sufferers now live into their late 30s and 40s, with some living well into their 50s. Life expectancy for cystic fibrosis patients in Australia is just 37 years, but Cystic Fibrosis Australia is working to extend this to 50 years by 2025 through clinical quality improvement programs, research and advocacy to ensure equal access to treatment. Source: Better Health Victoria Advertisement

'I was the healthiest I had been in years whilst pregnant with my daughter, I remember wearing high heel stilettos at 37 weeks!' Ms Money recalled.

After delivering daughter Ayvah safe and well, she started the Facebook community pages, CF Mummy, in a bid to show other young women with cystic fibrosis that their condition does not preclude them from having kids.

'I wanted to create something real and authentic, to share the highs and lows and be a resource for other women,' she said.

Ms Money's advocacy and leadership was evident from a young age.

As a teenager, she wrote a book to document her daily battle with cystic fibrosis.

'The Words Inside' was published by Random House and quickly propelled her into the national spot light.

Ms Money (pictured with 'miracle' daughter Ayvah) has written a book about living with cystic fibrosis and now works as a motivational speaker

After delivering daughter Ayvah safe and well, Ms Money (pictured during a lung function test) started the Facebook community pages, CF Mummy, in a bid to show other young women with cystic fibrosis that their condition does not preclude them from having kids

Fame led Ms Money to become an ambassador for cystic fibrosis in Australia, a role which has seen her travel to the US to speak at The One Young World conference in front of VIPs including Sir Bob Geldof and Jamie Oliver.

Ms Money's condition is not yet severe enough to require a lung transplant, something she counts as a blessing having witnessed many friends with CF lose their lives not long after transplant.

'It scares me deeply, I hope to never need one,' she said.

Ms Money is hopeful that while a cure for CF remains a distant dream, advancements in treatment and groundbreaking research done in recent years will help to slow the deterioration of her condition.

One thing that would drastically improve her lung function is Trikafta, a breakthrough therapy drug manufactured by Vertex that has been shown to effectively thin mucus in the lungs of 90 percent of CF patients.

Ms Money (pictured) is hopeful that while a cure for CF remains a distant dream, advancements in treatment and groundbreaking research done in recent years will help to slow the deterioration of her condition

But because it has not yet been approved for state funding in Australia, the drug currently costs patients nearly $300,000 each year - an eye-watering sum that puts the treatment out of reach for the vast majority of people.

The drug is already available and reimbursed in 17 countries including Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the UK, making its inaccessibility in Australia all the more frustrating.

Since June, four new agreements have been signed with drug administrations in France, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic.

Ms Money says she will 'fight until her last breath' to ensure Trikafta is made available to those who need it.

Ms Money (pictured) says she will 'fight until her last breath' to ensure Trikafta is made available to those who need it

She was instrumental in the campaign for the subsidisation of Orkambi, a $250,000 per year drug that was given the green light for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in August 2018.

Following a lengthy battle between advocacy groups and the federal government, the cost to patients was reduced to just over $6 a month.

A passionate campaigner for affordable access to healthcare, Ms Money is now lobbying the Australian Department of Health to do the same for Trikafta.

The drug was last assessed in March at a meeting of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), an independent body of doctors, economists and health experts who recommend new drugs for funding.

But no decision was made and negotiations are still playing out while desperately ill Australians become sicker.

Ms Money (pictured) believes immediate compassionate access should be granted to all eligible patients while discussions over pricing continue

The PBAC deferred making a recommendation about listing Trikafta on the PBS at its most recent meeting in May to allow further engagement with Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

The next update from the PBAC is due in August.

Ms Money believes immediate compassionate access should be granted to all eligible patients while discussions over pricing continue.

'I have no words for the anger I feel that there is a drug available at such a ridiculous cost, it is unreachable to many within our community,' she said.

'It's like the government and drug company are holding a gun at us, with their finger over the trigger. By saying no to access, they are pulling the trigger.'

For more information on cystic fibrosis, treatment and clinical trials, please visit Cystic Fibrosis Australia.
A young woman has told how she managed to beat the odds and recover from a rare type of cancer - despite doctors giving her a five per cent survival rate.

Zulema Rubio, a recent college graduate and legal assistant from New Jersey in the US, explained how she first experienced some unusual symptoms in April 2020 such as a swollen face - but put it down to too much salt and not enough exercise during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bu when her lymph nodes felt hard to the touch, Zulema, then aged 23, made a trip to urgent care and was quickly referred to the emergency room at Hackensack University Medical Center.

There, doctors discovered a tumour and initially thought that due to her age, Zulema, who is now cancer-free, may have had lymphoma, but in July she was diagnosed with intimal sarcoma - a rare malignant tumour.

Zulema, pictured here after recovering from a rare type of cancer, initially thought her facial swelling was due to too much salt and too little exercise. But doctors discovered a tumour

Zulema (pictured after treatment) who is now 24 and cancer-free, is sharing her story in a bid to inspire others - and also to encourage people to seek medical help if they have unusual symptoms

Zulema's condition was impacting the blood flowing from her face and brain to her heart.

Dr Andrew Pecora, who works at Hackensack University Medical Center's John Theurer Cancer Center, and is one of the world's foremost experts in blood and marrow stem cell transplantation, cellular medicine, and immunology research, treated Zulema.

Explaining that at first, the prognosis was not good, he said: 'When I met Zulema I was afraid for her. Here was this beautiful, young woman and her veins and face were swollen.

'Once I received the tissue diagnosis I knew there was a very limited chance I could help her.'

When the young woman was first diagnosed with cancer, doctors thought it was lymphoma. But it turned out to be intimal sarcoma - a rare malignant tumour

WHAT IS INTIMAL SARCOMA? 'Intimal sarcoma (ISA) is an exceedingly rare undifferentiated sarcoma that arises in the pulmonary artery and less frequently in the aorta or its branches. ISAs behave highly aggressive with a mean patients survival ranging from 5 to 18 months. Patients with ISA are mostly of middle age at diagnosis and typically present with non-specific symptoms, which sometimes masquerades as thromboembolic disease. Thus, patients are often diagnosed in an advanced disease stage. ISAs are often reported to be resistant to conventional chemotherapy.' Source: Nature.com Advertisement

It turned out the cancer was in Zulema's superior vena cava - a major vein in the upper body that carries blood from the head, neck, upper chest, and arms to the heart.

Dr Pecora, along with a team of doctors who specialised in thoracic and cardiac surgery, treated the 23-year-old, who faced a very aggressive treatment plan.

This involved chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, then daily radiation for six weeks.

Describing the intensity of the treatment, Zulema said: 'I was in the hospital receiving ongoing chemo for 24 hours straight, four days in a row, every two weeks.'

This was followed by complicated 14-hour surgery surgery, where doctors had to remove part of the superior vena cava vein and put in tubing to allow blood to flow through.

'I went in on March 24, 2021,' explained Zulema. 'The surgery took 14 hours. The first four hours were spent with doctors just trying to determine if it could be done.'

Doctors were not the only ones facing a stressful and uncertain few hours: Zulema's mother, Monique Jasso, was waiting anxiously throughout.

To make matters even worse, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, she was not able to be at the hospital with her daughter.

Monique explained: 'After four hours in surgery, doctors called me from the hospital and said they would try.'

The survivor (pictured during treatment) is calling people with illnesses to persevere, and not give up on themselves, noting that her doctors battled with her 14-hour surgery, and she herself had to fight through treatment

The next update she was given was that they had managed to remove her daughter's tumour - and that she would be okay.

'We just cried and prayed and are so thankful,' she said, attributing the success of the treatment to her daughter's fighting spirit as well as the talented doctors.

Speaking about the complexity of the treatment, Dr Pecora commented: 'This procedure was as complicated as you can get from a surgical side.

'We used all the tools in the toolbox from a cancer perspective. Without the skill of this entire team, she wouldn't be here.

'The knowledge, skill and technical prowess that these doctors brought to achieve this along with nurses and radiation therapists was truly a magical coalition that came together to provide care she would not find many places in the country to achieve an incredible outcome.'

Zulema, who is now 24 and cancer-free, is sharing her story in a bid to inspire others - and also to encourage people to seek medical help if they have unusual symptoms.

She also calls on people with illnesses to persevere, and not give up on themselves, noting that her doctors battled with her 14-hour surgery, and she herself had to fight through treatment.
Dear Bel,

I am 38, never been in a relationship and lost my beloved father a couple of months ago  it is such a difficult time. There is so much to do when someone dies and I am missing him.

I have my own home but saw him most days and we were close. My parents split when I was a child and Mam died young years ago.

I dont have any friends as I find people just dont bother to keep in touch. I dont work as I have long-term health problems that make everyday tasks a struggle.

However, I dont look unwell and can look after myself. I did a few hours a week volunteer work until some years ago when I gave up due to my health. Yes, I could do some volunteer work again or go to clubs to meet friends and at least be among people, but the other reason is fear of Covid.

I have been double jabbed but am terrified of catching it and dying. I suffer with flu-like symptoms as part of one of my illnesses, so would rather be at home. This is not depression but feeling like death.

People often dont keep in touch. So-called friends come and go and are disloyal. To me a friend isnt the same as unconditional family love. Dad had always been there for me my whole life. If I had friends, their priority would be their own families and not me. Even a romantic partner is not unconditional love.

I am fine without a partner but it would be more socially acceptable to have one. I wouldnt be able to look after kids with the health problems I have anyway, and couldnt imagine having a sexual relationship with a boyfriend.

The other problem is I have three sisters one of whom, Sarah, treats me like rubbish. The others are half-sisters and hardly bother with me or Sarah.

Who would I put down as my next of kin? Who would check up on me if I became ill or died? I left one job years ago as I was treated badly and they never even phoned to see why I hadnt come in.

I am stuck for company and have been on my own for the last few weeks since the funeral.

Im fed up with how my three sisters treat me but I feel I have to keep in with them as there is no one else. Its all such a mess.

I am on my own mostly anyway so it wouldnt make too much difference if I cut them all off. What do you think?

LAURA

This week Bel answers a question from a woman who asks how she can feel less lonely after losing her father

As is often the case, I want to let readers know that your original email was much longer, but here I print an edited version.

What is missing is an extraordinary long, angry, convoluted screed about your sisters, especially Sarah who, you say, slags off all members of our family.

Thought of the day Even in the bleakness of despair Some spring of hope still clings, As in a cleft among these barren rocks, Cyclamen still springs. Old Cretan mantinada (traditional folk poem) Advertisement

So I began reading a letter I thought would be about bereavement but turned into an unapologetic exhibition of slagging off itself.

This was disturbing, and so I believe we need to take a rather tough look at what seems to be the root of your problems. You wont like it but whats the point of just patronising you with, Oh you poor thing? I want you to take a fresh look at your life.

Believe me  I do feel genuinely sorry for anybody so obviously unhappy and incapable of dealing with body and soul, friends and family.

Your health problems I must take at face value, although your claim that everyday tasks are a struggle followed by the repeated assurance that you look fine and can look after yourself, starts a warning bell ringing  which grows much louder when you mention your terror of catching Covid.

At just 38, you seem to have embraced an invalidism which could have many causes. Have you talked seriously to a doctor about the possible mental health origins of your physical state? I think you should, because you clearly do need help.

I am sorry for your loss  but you seem to be missing your fathers unconditional love believing it to be your due. Did he spoil you?

You dont want a relationship or friendships because youve convinced yourself theyll fall short of your high expectations. Everybody disappoints you and you blame them.

When it came to the interminable, self-pitying sister-saga, your relentless negativity and (from time to time) sheer nastiness about everybody became utterly depressing. Is it any wonder people just dont bother to keep in touch?

You will think me harsh, but my intention is kind. You are too young to give up on life  to bury yourself in sick recrimination and isolation. With no self-awareness you accuse Sarah of droning on about her health and lacking empathy and compassion.

Please read your original letter twice  and try to build bridges with your sisters. It has to be the first step out of this morass.

My man faked his death to escape me

Dear Bel,

I live alone and try to be the best person I can be. But my life has been upturned, if not wrecked, by a man.

I met Jeff a couple of years ago. We became close quickly. At the start, things were a bit odd, because of my insecurity. Ive always been the ugly duckling of the family.

But we worked together and ironed out the creases. Ive worked hard to improve my confidence.

He was strong-willed and if ever he hurt me and I told him, hed blame me and ignore me for a couple of days. Overall, we were happily settled and things looked positive.

He works away and so we spent periods of time together and apart. But last year I sensed the dynamic change and thought hed met someone else. I was heartbroken but he reassured me that although he had friends, we were fine.

I said if hed met someone he was free to go. He stayed but became more critical  putting down the things I loved.

Eight weeks ago, while he was working up north, I received a phone call from his sister informing me that Jeff had died suddenly in the hotel room he was staying in.

When I asked about a funeral, she said hed paid for a cremation  and that shed call me once she had received his ashes so we could scatter them.

This is where the wickedness starts. Two weeks ago I received a visit from his friend telling me he wasnt dead at all. Hes set up a new Twitter profile (our main form of communication in absence) under a jokey name. His dedicated set of lady followers have access to the profile.

I understand that relationships break down and people fall out of love, but why do something so cruel?

Bel, I cannot tell you how humiliated and heartbroken I am  so embarrassed Ive kept up the death lie to family and friends. My bosses even gave me bereavement leave. I feel not only foolish but a fraud. How do I trust people now?

ANNA

How astonishing that a man who had shared a part of your life should choose to perpetrate such a loathsome lie and that his own sister should make that appalling phone call, willing to listen to your shock and grief and then tell that fantasy about the ashes.

I often say that nothing shocks me any more, but that isnt true.

In your longer letter you say: I didnt deserve this, and readers will certainly agree. These days there is a phenomenon known as ghosting  when people just cut off a relationship with no warning or explanation, leaving the victim reeling.

And I know of two long marriages that were actually ended by an email out of the blue, saying: I want a divorce.

Of course, this is the point when some might say: Aha, there must have been signs. And its true that sometimes we choose not to see  let alone read  the writing on the wall.

You suspected something was wrong, but Jeff denied it. Typically, he didnt have the courage to face an honest conversation about your relationship, so made things much worse for you by mockery, then evasion, then the most appalling dishonesty and cruelty.

He knows you have always suffered from low self-esteem yet still chose a course of action designed to make you feel even lower in spirits than ever before.

Why act like that? I suspect your relationship was unequal from the start, and you in fact put up with worse behaviour than you describe in your letter.

You always hated your appearance (something very hard to overcome) and the awareness that he was interacting with other women on social media must have made it worse  a drip-drip-drip of demoralisation.

None of this is your fault, and I beg you not to shoulder any blame  as you were too prone to do when he hurt you.

If I were you I would just go on keeping his shameful secret; I see no advantage in telling the people you work with, who kindly expressed compassion for you. After all, you really need it now.

You tell me you love books and music but right now those interests give you no comfort. Dont worry, that state will not last and you should start arranging trips to concerts with friends, wholl surely be glad to keep you company.

Do you know of a book club to join? Gradually, Anna, you will rebuild your life and realise that far from being awful, you are a brave, good soul far better than the cruel man who never deserved you.

And finally... A little self help can go a long way

I dont know about you, but Im finding it hard to face September when rainy August called summer into question, when the pots I planted at the end of May look as tired as I feel, and the days are growing shorter.

These days various pressures make it very hard for us to get away so we sit talking nostalgically about May 2019 and our last holiday.

Contact Bel Bel answers readers' questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Advertisement

I know that many of you will be feeling the same. Wretched Covid deprived us of the life we knew and the future doesnt look that healthy either.

As for the world . . . I love my newspaper but find it hard to stomach the TV news any more. Whats to be done?

From time to time we all need to find ways of shifting our heads and heart into another dimension  but the step that takes you from cloud-capped gloom into a patch of light is far from easy.

These are the days when I think of advice I have dished out over the years, look in the mirror and say: Pull yourself together, woman.

All the old cliches are true, too. Go out and do something! Start a project  even if its tidying! Get in touch with somebody you have not seen for ages. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and count your blessings.

So, I made a date to meet a new friend in London for a day of art, conversation and lunch  with a cheeky glass of wine or two for good measure.

I emailed another new friend and invited her to something only to receive an immediate ecstatic reply of yes, please.

I got in touch with a very old chum I tend to forget about.

I decided to forget the book idea Ive been mulling over  because who needs extra work?

I walked around the house, looked at everything anew and realised I didnt mind the stained ceiling, leaky shower, dust and spiders webs, because its home.

Consciously, I gave thanks for my family. And then felt better. Thats called self help.
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Controversial YouTuber Shane Dawson and his fiance Ryland Adams have splashed out $2.2 million on their 'dream house' in Colorado, where they hope to start a family.

The couple, who previously lived in Dawson's home in Calabasas, California, paid a full $500,000 over the $1.7 million asking price for the nearly 5,000-square-foot home, Dirt reported.

Located in Parker, about 25 miles southeast of Denver, the bucolic property boasts three bedrooms, a billiard room, a barn, a zip line, and a massive backyard pond that reminds Dawson of the teen drama Dawson's Creek.

New live: Shane Dawson and his fiance Ryland Adams moved to Parker, Colorado this month after buying a new home

Splashing out: The couple paid $2.2 million for their Colorado 'dream house,' which features a stone entryway

Perks: The stunning property has skylights and a number of windows that let in plenty of natural light

Say what? Dawson and Adams have their very own pond located on the nearly 5,000 square foot property

While the move may come as a surprise to some, Dawson, 33, and Adams, 30, have been candid about their desire to leave Los Angeles County in the videos shared on the latter's YouTube channel.

'I never thought Id want to leave California. I grew up here. But whenever I go to Colorado, Im so happy, and I just feel so much better inside,' Dawson said in a recent clip.

The couple was visiting Adams's family when he found the house on Zillow and called up his sister Morgan's realtor, who showed them the property.

The home is less than 15 minutes away from his parents, and Morgan has already offered to babysit for them when they have kids.

Dawson and Adams both fell in love with the house, which the former noted costs a lot less than what he paid for the Calabasas pad. While touring the property, Dawson noted that would be the perfect place for them to get married.

Plans: Dawson, 33, and Adams, 30, have been candid about their desire to leave California and have kids in the videos shared on the latter's YouTube channel

Bright space: The couple's new kitchen has black and white patterned tile and white cabinets

Optical illusion: The vaulted ceiling and white walls make the cozy kitchen look more spacious

Get cozy: The living room features a stone fireplace to snuggle near and built-in shelves for books

Check out the view: Large windows in the living offer a look at the sprawling yard

Place to get ready: The primary suite features a large walk-in-closet for Dawson and Adams to share

Built in 1964, the inside of the midcentury home features off-white wood paneling, oak hardwood, a stone fireplace, and skylights that let in plenty of natural light.

All three bedrooms have wall-to-wall carpeting and ensuite baths, while the primate suite has dual sinks, granite countertops, a built-in soaking tub, and a dressing room. There is also a fourth bathroom on the lower level.

The bright kitchen is a mix of white cabinets and black and white patterned tile. At the center, there is a spacious island with marble countertops.

In the basement, there is a billiard room that is separated from the main level with a deep orange barn door, and the couple imagined that this would be where they would watch TV together.

Plenty of space: The laundry room comes complete with a washer, dryer, sink, and plenty of cabinets

Closed off: In the basement, there is a billiard room that is separated from the main level with a deep orange barn door

Comfy area: The couple imagined they would watch TV in the large room in the basement, which was notably cooler than the rest of the house

Added touches: The basement also has a billiard room featuring custom woodwork throughout

Perfect place: Dawson and Adams have already talked about having kids in their new home, which they also think will make a great wedding venue

The home also has a white barn featuring a small apartment with a kitchenette  perfect for out-of-town visitors  and a two-car garage with storage space.

Dawson, who has an estimated net worth of $12 million, found fame on YouTube after launching his channel in 2018 at the age of 19.

He amassed more than 30 million subscribers, and his videos were streamed more than 45 million times per month, allowing him to make hundreds of thousands of dollars through advertising.

However, Dawson's career has been marred by scandal, including backlash for previously posting content that showed him in blackface, making racial slurs, and sexualizing a then-11-year-old Willow Smith.

In June 2020, just days after he posted a video apologizing for his actions, YouTube indefinitely suspended monetization on all three of his channels.

Happy: On Thursday, Dawson took to Instagram to post photos taken at their Colorado abode, saying they have been there for about a week

Country life: The property also features a large white barn with even more space for the couple and their future family

Come visit: The barn boasts a small kitchenette, which is perfect for out-of-town guests

Place to go: The barn also has a small bedroom with vaulted ceilings for guests to sleep if they don't want to be in the main house

Can't resist: Dawson and Adams fell in love with the property and reportedly paid a full $500,000 over the $1.7 million asking price

Time to relax: The backyard has a jacuzzi overlooking the pond and trees surrounding their gorgeous property

Sparking joy: 'I never thought Id want to leave California. I grew up here. But whenever I go to Colorado, Im so happy, and I just feel so much better inside,' Dawson said of the move in a recent video

More room: The Colorado home also has a two-car garage with storage space

Investment: Dawson and Adams own a great deal of land in Colorado now thanks to their latest real estate venture

Leaving LA: The move comes a little over a year after YouTube indefinitely suspended monetization on all three of Dawson's channels

Two homes: It's unclear what Dawson plans on doing with his home in Calabasas (pictured)

While he hasn't posted any new clips in over a year, he often makes cameos in his partner's videos about their life.

Dawson appears to have found happiness in their new home, and they didn't waste any time moving. According to county property records, the sale closed on August 13.

On Thursday, he took to Instagram to post photos taken at their Colorado abode, saying they have been there for about a week.

'My first photo dump is a collection of some of my favorite moments from moving to Colorado last week,' he wrote. 'My dream life as a kid was to one day live on a farm surrounded by animals and to be married to my best friend.

'This move has definitely gotten me closer to that.'
After 18 months of the pandemic, we could all do with a little magic in our lives. But some women believe they have already found the way to achieve this  by embracing their inner fairy.

Samantha Brick spoke to five women who insist they live enchanted lives that we should all adopt.

People see me as a magical creature

Psychic and metaphysical healer Avi Esther, 39, has a son aged 15 and a daughter aged 12, and lives in the New Forest, Hampshire. She says:

Psychic and metaphysical healer Avi Esther, 39, has a son aged 15 and a daughter aged 12, and lives in the New Forest, Hampshire

I have always had an affinity with the natural world and mystical spirits  and yes, I have always known about fairies.

I was three when I began to have a collection of friends, including fairies, who stayed with me on and off through childhood. They showed me the secrets of nature, such as watching a seed on the ground respond to the right nutrients when it sprouts.

Today, I am often seen by others as a magical creature. As a woman with fairy energy, I have a way with people which helps them feel safe and comfortable.

Im known among friends as a little fairy because Im 4 ft 11 in. While I have a sweet, happy disposition, fairies arent just sweet. They are powerful.

At university, when I was 19, I was playing card games with another student and I could just sense he had pain in his right chest. He didnt say anything and wasnt acting strangely but I couldnt ignore the intensity of what I could sense going on within him. Eventually, I asked if he was in pain. He said yes but laughed and said he doubted I could help.

I placed my hands on his shoulders and took some breaths while I tuned in. I then placed one hand on his back and dug the other hand under his ribs and did something that made him make a noise. Everyone at the table had their mouths open and were staring at the guy, who was feeling his chest and looking gobsmacked. The pain was gone but he was in shock and asked me how I did it. But I often dont know how.

I wear my outfits and my crowns typically during the summer and winter solstices that mark the longest and shortest days of the year, as well as the procession of the equinoxes, which happen twice a year in March and September.

My flower crowns usually have blossom and twigs in them, and butterflies.

My children accept that this is who I am, although one day my daughter came home from school upset. She told me Id lied to her about being a fairy queen and her being a fairy princess.

She said her friends had told her they dont exist. I reassured her that just because they dont believe in them, it doesnt mean she cant. Different perspectives on life and energy can exist together in our world.

Mystical spirits show me secrets of nature

Theatre practitioner and events co-ordinator Victoria Ruskin-Clements, 36, is married with two children and lives in Windsor, Berkshire. She says:

Theatre practitioner and events co-ordinator Victoria Ruskin-Clements, 36, is married with two children and lives in Windsor, Berkshire

I always knew about the fairy realms because, thanks to my mother, our home was full of fairy lore.

Our bookshelves groaned with the works of writers and illustrators on fairies; and I was immersed in knowledge about the magical elements of this world.

My childhood meant I felt an affinity with the Earth and all nature.

As an adult, its really important to me to give children a magical childhood. Fairy magic and folklore tales keep them innocent and they discover that fairies offer a nicer, kinder way of being to one another, nature and the planet.

The clothes and headdresses I wear as a fairy help me get into character to spread the fairy message.

I have 85 headdresses and more than 100 costumes. I have worn them so often for my work at fairy festivals, childrens parties and in touring productions that I am now comfortable wearing them in everything I do!

As for seeing a fairy, if you really want to see one then you will  I certainly have. Its incredible what you can find when you look hard enough. Faces and sometimes even bodies can be clear as day.

When I moved into my overgrown, run-down Georgian home three years ago, I witnessed a fairy fly out of the grass, up and away. It was pure light and just magical to see.

I'm drawn towards woods and water

Massage therapist and events organiser Emma Moon, 31, lives in Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire. She says:

Massage therapist and events organiser Emma Moon, 31, lives in Chiselhampton, Oxfordshire

Plenty of people will be sceptical but I have definitely experienced the presence of fairies, although I dont see them in a conventional way.

While the popular image of fairies is of little beings, for me its a feeling I get when Im in nature  a sensation of heightened awareness to the aliveness all around.

I see light and faces and figures in leaves and trees and water  often you can glimpse them for a moment before they disappear. Its why Im drawn towards woods and water.

To connect with fairies you have to almost disconnect the logical side of your brain. Thats why children find it easier to experience fairies, as they are not so inhibited.

I certainly felt drawn to fairies as a child  it was as though their spirits called to me. My grandmother is Irish and she talked to me about fairies, too.

While it isnt something my parents are into, they are supportive.

Fairies arent just pretty, ethereal beings with wings. They are the guardians of nature. Our world is full of ancient magic and wisdom, if only we could learn to listen to it.

There are fairies who want to work with us to help expand our consciousness of nature for the good of the planet  and we should be listening to them.

As well as believing in fairies, I love to dress as one. Some of my outfits I make myself, others are made by artists who specialise in fairywear. I love to pop them on if I am going to fairy events. I feel as though Im in my natural form. Its the real me.

My children help pick fairy outfits

Artist Chianna Fae, 39, has two children aged ten and seven and lives in Powys, Wales

Artist Chianna Fae, 39, has two children aged ten and seven and lives in Powys, Wales. She says:

I have been aware of the Fae, which is an older word for fairy folk, my whole life.

As a little girl, Id see fairies  or faeries as I prefer to call them  in trees and and leaves, as if they were hiding and watching whenever humans passed by.

Not all fairies look human. Some have the look of animals or plants or a mixture of these. Adults just played along but I knew I could see and feel something else there that was real to me.

Now I probably see them more in my minds eye  but, as an artist, I adore stepping into woodland to look for new hidden depths in nature and trees, and see figures and faces intertwined in trees, plants and rocks.

Its normal for me to see and feel fairy energy. It is an uplifting, light energy quite unlike anything else.

I initially embraced working dressed as a fairy five years ago. Primarily it was a way of earning an income at childrens parties after my divorce. Doing the parties allowed me to work around raising my two children. It was fun to dress up, but being seen as a more commercial-looking fairy didnt feel right as, to me, most fae are more raw and earthy.

I realised I needed to share a deeper message with children and their parents, so I created eco-awareness storytelling workshops, artwork and a nature-connection course.

My first workshop was at a fairy festival in Cornwall, where I finally felt I was around like-minded people who also wanted to put more magic into peoples lives, while looking after our planet. It really helped build my confidence in what I do, and Ive made some close female fairy friends in this wonderful community.

My children know I dress up as a fairy at festivals and environmental events and help me choose outfits. I dont hide it from anyone.

I prefer to wear nature-based outfits  my green one is a floating, tattered, tangled dress. While I like to think I blend into the scenery, it also sparkles in the light.

The best way to immerse yourself in fairy energy is to be out in nature. Doing what you can to protect the natural world around you keeps fairy energy alive.

Musician and yoga teacher India Terry, 21, is in a relationship and lives in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex

At festivals I only ever use eco-glitter

Musician and yoga teacher India Terry, 21, is in a relationship and lives in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex. She says:

Fairies live a life of joy; we dont take anything too seriously.

My curiosity about fairies began as a little girl. My cousin and I immersed ourselves in the fairy world  we even had secret names for one another. Mine was Rose Blossom Twinkle Toes and hers was Pebbles. At seven, we had our own secret fairy lives.

When I was 12 I tried to grow out of my love of the fairy world  but that didnt work. I just didnt fit in at school; I wasnt into boy bands or reality shows. Thats probably why I didnt have many friends.

So when I turned 15 I rekindled my love of fairies and discovered there were many others like me.

When I first wore a fairy outfit in public and spotted someone dressed the same way as me, I cried. It was a revelation to realise this could be my way of life.

There are many of us who not only believe in fairies but like to embody them in some way, often with clothing, wings and ears.

We go all-out when we meet up at festivals or fairy balls. We then keep in contact via social media. It is a welcoming group of all kinds of people. Fairies never judge.

At my 18th birthday, my home was full of people dressed as fairies. My parents love that I have found something which resonates with me.

There are many costumes for us fairies. I prefer long floaty dresses. The one responsibility which is important to us is looking after our Earth  thats why at festivals Ill only ever use eco-glitter. Its made out of seaweed and doesnt pollute the water system.

Ive recently moved in with my fiance. Our home is tight on space, which is why I still have two wardrobes bursting with fairy clothes at my parents home!

I do see and communicate with fairies. They dont often talk so much as leave messages through your subconscious, or through nature. You might ask the fairies a question and then see a hare jump past! Instinctively this helps me to see the answer.

I have vividly seen fairies a few times, though. On summer solstice a few years ago, I saw a procession of fairies carrying flames and a fairy carriage.

Have you got an amazing fairy story? Email femailreaders@dailymail.co.uk
She stopped looking on Twitter in a bid to avoid as much coverage as possible

spoken of 'hell of fame' - adding 'it doesn't seem to work for anyone'

Normal people author Sally Rooney has spoken of the 'hell of fame' - adding that 'it doesn't seem to work in any real way for anyone.'

The Irish author, 30, released coming-of-age tale Normal People in 2018, which won the Costa Book Award - of which she was the youngest ever winner - and Irish Novel of the Year, to name a few accolades.

Within weeks of its publication plans were announced for a BBC adaptation. Normal People starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal subsequently became the most watched show on BBC Three ever last year.

It also rocketed the book to top of the bestseller lists in both Ireland and the UK, more than two years after it was published.

However, speaking to The Guardian, Sally has described the downfalls of fame - adding it results in a person 'enduring variably serious invasions of their privacy from the media, from obsessive fans, and from people motivated by obsessive hatred'.

Normal people author Sally Rooney has spoken of the 'hell of fame' - adding that 'it doesn't seem to work in any real way for anyone.' Pictured, during the Hulu segment of the 2020 Winter TCA Press Tour at The Langham Huntington on January 17, 2020 in Pasadena, California

The millennial author, 30, released coming-of-age tale Normal People in 2018, which won the Costa Book Award - of which she was the youngest ever winner - and Irish Novel of the Year, to name a few accolades. Pictured, on 29th January at Costa Book of The Year Award in London

Sally, who eventually stopped posting and looking on Twitter, explained how she tried to avoid as much coverage as possible - and even went so far as to mute her own name.

However, the author went on to say how her attempts failed, adding that 'the world does have a way of intruding.'

But despite fans of the author approaching her and being 'almost always' friendly and pleasant, she says the experience of fame isn't a good one - and struggles to see a positive way out.

'Of course, that person could stop doing whatever it is they're good at, in order to be allowed to retire from public life, but that seems to me like a big sacrifice on their part and an exercise in cultural self-destruction for the rest of us, forcing talented people either to endure hell or keep their talents to themselves,' she explained.

Normal People starring Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal became the most watched show on BBC Three ever last year

'I don't think it is graceless for people in those positions to speak out about how poisonous this system is. It doesn't seem to work in any real way for anyone, except presumably some shareholders somewhere.'

The millennial author's follow-up to Conversations With Friends and Normal People, called Beautiful World, Where Are You, is set to be released on September 7.

The book follows novelist Alice and her best friend Eileen, who are both in their twenties.

Alice meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks to travel to Rome with her. Meanwhile Eileen, reeling from a break-up, resumes flirting with childhood friend Simon.

The publisher synopsis states: 'Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young  but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart.

Normal People, left, is the second novel by author Sally Rooney after 2017's Conversations with Friends, pictured right

'They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?'

Similar to Normal People and Conversations With Friends, Alice and Eileen's friendship plays out largely via email, with the pair exchanging messages about 'art, friendship, the world around them and the complicated love affairs unfolding in their own lives... They say they want to see each other again soon. But what will happen when they do?'

Faber will publish the book, which is available to pre-order now, in hardback and produce two special editions which will be exclusive to Waterstones and independent bookshops. The US publisher is Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Rooney penned her 2017 debut novel Conversations With Friends, which follows two college students Frances and Bobbi and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with married couple Melissa and Nick, while studying for her master's degree in American literature at Trinity College in Dublin.
They're the figures that have ruled our lives for the past 18 months; decided our freedoms; deepened our fears.

The Covid dashboard published on the UK Government website has offered the public a window into the state of the UKs epidemic, displaying daily Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths, both nationally and regionally, since April 2020.

Some people have avoided looking at the figures  published at 4pm every day, including weekends. But a surprising number of us have become secretly addicted to poring over them.

Back in January, the dashboard attracted 76 million views in a single day. In more recent months, the dashboard has offered a source of celebration, thanks to the addition of the vaccination tally.

Scientists and politicians alike agree the UKs Covid dashboard has been a resounding success, allowing the public to draw their own conclusions about the level of threat the virus poses to them.

Its also been a crucial yardstick for how stretched the NHS is, providing exact figures of how many Covid patients are in each hospital around the country.

But now, with nearly eight in ten Britons protected against getting seriously ill, thanks to the vaccine, are daily Covid figures still necessary?

The Mail on Sunday set about creating our own dashboard featuring the most up-to-date figures for some of Britains biggest killers which we compared with the current Covid stats

After all, as Health Secretary Sajid Javid said of the virus earlier this summer: We cannot eliminate it, instead we have to learn to live with it.

There is growing concern from experts that the endless figures do more harm than good. Some have declared the tally of daily infections completely meaningless.

It shouldnt really matter how many people are catching the virus  as long as they are protected, says Professor Jackie Cassell, public health expert at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Other scientists have warned of the psychological impact of constant reminders of how many people are still catching Covid.

Theres a worry, that in the scramble to get out these daily updates, were alarming people disproportionately, says Professor Robert Dingwall, sociologist at Nottingham Trent University and former Government scientific adviser.

People see spikes in the data, and this is often the cause of great anxiety, which might lead them to limit their daily activities unnecessarily.

It stops people being able to acclimatise to a post-vaccine world, which is exactly what the jabs were intended to do. And if you look more widely youll find the majority of infections are in the younger, festival-going age groups, and didnt reach the vulnerable or elderly.

Others argue that the continued obsession over Covid figures overshadows the record-high demands on the NHS.

The most striking finding is that, despite the prevailing focus on the dangers of Covid, it is killing very few people compared to other deadly conditions

IT'S A FACT In 2019, there were a total of 17,202,600 hospital admissions in England and Wales. Advertisement

Last week, experts warned that the UKs ever-growing toll of diabetes could soon bankrupt the NHS, after official data showed it spends more than 1 billion a year on treating the disease  up a quarter in five years.

Ive been concerned for some time that while much attention has been given to Covid figures, the sheer number of admissions for other serious conditions has passed people by because the figures are not readily accessible, says Dr Ron Daniels, intensive care consultant and chief executive of The UK Sepsis Trust. Its important to remind people that there are many other critical conditions out there beyond Covid.

Prof Cassell agrees: With so many vaccinated, and therefore protected against Covid, we need to start looking at the data in the wider context of diseases in general.

So how does the threat of Covid compare to that of the nations most common, and deadly, diseases? In order to answer this question, The Mail on Sunday set about creating our own dashboard featuring the most up-to-date figures for some of Britains biggest killers which wed compare with the current Covid stats.

This proved to be quite the challenge. It quickly became clear that the same level of transparency over Covid has not been afforded to other conditions. In fact, getting hold of any recent, easy-to-understand NHS data for non-Covid diseases was an exhausting wild goose chase.

Covid claimed just over 1,000 lives while dementia and Alzheimers, cancers and heart disease each killed four times as many people (file photo)

First, we had to decide which diseases to compare Covid to. Some suggested other respiratory diseases which also spread rapidly, including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, which has been rising unexpectedly.

Recently there has been a lot of noise about the number of children in hospital with Covid. But anyone who looked at the figures would see this number is nothing compared to the number admitted with RSV, Prof Cassell said.

According to Public Health England data published last week, the number of children under five in hospital with RSV is nearly ten times the number of young children admitted with Covid. Although RSV is certainly on the rise, and can be dangerous to young children, it does not lead to a widespread loss of life, as Covid does.

IT'S A FACT Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis in the UK, accounting for 15 per cent of all cancers. Advertisement

So we chose the biggest killers in the UK, according to a years worth of death data from the Office for National Statistics: dementia and Alzheimers, cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

We also included flu and pneumonia, given that, pre-pandemic, these were the respiratory viruses that claimed the most lives.

Next, we set about looking for monthly death figures for our chosen top five conditions. After consulting statisticians, we were advised to choose a month before the pandemic, to ensure the data represented an average month, in an average year.

But, shockingly, this data was never actually published pre-Covid. The Office for National Statistics set up a monthly report on the top ten leading causes of death in England and Wales only in July 2020  in an effort to provide context for the impact of Covid on the country.

With this in mind, we settled on using death data from July 2021, to present a direct, recent comparison with Covid.

Next, hospitalisations.

NHS Digital publishes the number of hospital admissions in every month, but it does not detail what patients are admitted for.

As Sajid Javid said of the virus earlier this summer: We cannot eliminate it, instead we have to learn to live with it'. Pictured: the Health Secretary speaking to staff during a visit to the Bournemouth Vaccination Centre on August 4

But health service officials directed us to another report of hospital admissions  an annual one  which did specify the reasons why patients ended up in hospital.

But, not in any great detail.

The report does not explain exactly why patients were admitted to hospital, but only highlights the department they were referred to. For example it might say cardiology, not that the patient had a heart attack

How we compiled our evidence In an attempt to compare Covid figures with other major diseases, we were hampered by the fact that the NHS does not keep up-to-date and complete data sets for non-Covid diseases. The type of data available varied between deaths, hospitalisations and diagnoses. Ideally, we would analyse the most recent monthly figures for a full month  July 2021  for Covid, and compare this against the equivalent for the other five diseases. For deaths, this data was available, so we plotted the monthly Covid death figure for July against the total monthly deaths for each other condition. But for non-Covid hospitalisations and diagnoses, monthly data was not available before 2020. In these cases, we computed our own monthly averages based on broader data from 2015 to 2020. All Covid data refers to July 2021. Advertisement

If we wanted monthly figures, NHS Digital told us, wed have to make a special request, which could take a month to complete. Instead we came across previously published figures for total hospitalisations, each month, between 2015 and 2020, for all our chosen conditions.

An average monthly figure was then computed for July, based on hospitalisations in every July since 2015. The number of Britons diagnosed with potentially life-threatening conditions proved even more difficult to discover.

There are no databases with this information clearly accessible to the public.

But some of the UKs leading charities, such as the British Heart Foundation, Alzheimers Society and Cancer Research UK, have requested this information from NHS Digital and regularly update the numbers on their own websites.

These numbers were limited to annual figures  so we computed our own rough monthly estimate by dividing by 12.

Clearly, our analysis is not perfect. Firstly, we could only analyse recent Covid figures where a full month is available, and as August is not yet over, July was the best we could do.

The August figures are likely to be higher, given that last week saw the highest number of daily hospitalisations since February, with 948 people admitted on Friday.

Taking monthly averages from annual data is not a perfect measurement either, as figures can fluctuate throughout the year. Hospitalisations due to heart disease and flu, for example, are more common in the winter months.

Nonetheless, comparing the figures we collected with last months Covid stats still makes for stark reading. The most striking finding is that, despite the prevailing focus on the dangers of Covid, it is killing very few people compared to other deadly conditions.

Covid claimed just over 1,000 lives while dementia and Alzheimers, cancers and heart disease each killed four times as many people.

Even before the rollout of the vaccine, fewer than one per cent of people who caught Covid died. Now, scientists say that figure is ten times smaller.

Now, with nearly eight in ten Britons protected against getting seriously ill, thanks to the vaccine, are daily Covid figures still necessary? (file photo)

In comparison, even cancers with good survival rates, such as breast cancer, still hold a 25 per cent chance of death.

Dementia is ultimately a death sentence, with the average patient living no longer than a decade after diagnosis.

Currently, Covid is the ninth biggest killer in the UK, but at the height of the second wave, between November 2020 and February 2021, Covid was the leading cause of death in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics.

While in July, 1002 people died with Covid, in January the UK recorded 1,820 in a single day.

IT'S A FACT Some 40,000 Britons are admitted to hospital every year following accidents around the home, according to NHS data. Advertisement

It is also thought that the total number of deaths recorded is likely to be an under-estimation, given the thousands who died at home during the first wave, when tests were not available.

Now, though, scientists argue that the success of Britains vaccine rollout has irreversibly changed this dynamic.

Professor Lawrence Young, a virus expert at the University of Warwick, said: We are now in an incredibly good place thanks to the vaccines.

Obviously they will never be 100 per cent effective, but they are currently preventing a significant amount of deaths.

But could Covid creep up the death scale?

Our analysis of hospitalisations offers valuable insight. Experts say that many of the thousands of patients hospitalised with Covid will not be as sick as those with other conditions.

Prof Young said: Hospitals are now mainly dealing with healthier younger people, who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. This means doctors are more likely to be treating minor breathing problems as opposed to sending patients to intensive care.

These patients typically get out of hospital in a matter of days, though of course some do not.

Meanwhile, those patients who suffer a stroke or heart attack can be in hospital for as long as five days, according to the British Heart Foundation and are far more likely to end up in intensive care.

But theres no denying it: hospitalisations for coronavirus are very high.

Our analysis of hospitalisations offers valuable insight. Experts say that many of the thousands of patients hospitalised with Covid will not be as sick as those with other conditions

In July, more people with Covid were admitted to hospital than those with strokes, heart disease, or flu in an average pre- Covid July.

According to hospital data since 2015, only cancer and dementia have led to more monthly admissions. In an average July, some 7,000 people tend to go into hospital with heart disease and 8,000 having suffered a stroke. Last month, twice this number were admitted to hospital with Covid.

As for diagnoses, experts say making comparisons with other conditions is, though interesting, not altogether helpful.

While more than one million people caught Covid in July, roughly 30,000 people were diagnosed with cancer last month, and around 17,500 were told they had dementia. But since Covid is contagious, keeping numbers low is key for limiting spread to others.

By the same token, cancer and dementia cannot be passed to others, and are unlikely to suddenly spike, creating an emergency situation for the NHS.

And this is why, despite the relatively low death rates, some experts are in favour of keeping the daily Covid tally.

The key difference with other conditions is the speed at which things change, says Professor Oliver Johnson, director of the Institute for Statistical Science at the University of Bristol.

In July, more people with Covid were admitted to hospital than those with strokes, heart disease, or flu in an average pre- Covid July. Pictured: a graph showing the daily coronavirus hospitalisations in the UK between April 7 and August 24 this year

Theres genuine value in daily Covid numbers, because they can and do go up or down 40 to 50 per cent in a week  whereas stroke numbers would be a lot more steady and predictable.

The general consensus is not to do away with the Covid numbers, but introduce new ones for other, equally threatening, health conditions, to demonstrate the overall strain on the NHS at any given time.

The Covid dashboard should set the standard for the future, says Professor David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge.

It is crucial that the health authorities demonstrate trustworthiness, and one of the major ways this can be done is by being transparent about the information that underlies policy decisions. Professor Jackie Cassell agrees. It has become increasingly clear that the impact of this pandemic cannot just be judged in Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths.

There has been a massive impact of mental health admissions, waiting times for life-critical heart and cancer care, as well as those waiting times for life-changing operations like a hip replacement.

As we look to recover from Covid, we should also be tracking these figures. That way people can understand what is at stake.

People want to know the NHS is getting back to good health.
But reports of so-called breakthrough infections now appear to be widespread

Her first dose of Pfizer BioNTech jab was given in May and second at end of June

Like more than three-quarters of the UK population over 16, Jo is fully vaccinated

It began, oddly enough, with a painful shoulder  a deep muscular ache right in the spot where Id been vaccinated. That might have been easy to dismiss. But then came agonising muscle pains in my legs that kept me awake, intense bouts of shivering and a yo-yoing fever.

A lateral flow test, followed by a PCR  both positive  confirmed what I feared.

After 18 months of writing about coronavirus for the Mail on Sunday, I had finally got it myself.

To an extent, it was perhaps inevitable. My husband was the first of our household to fall. He had been struggling for a few days with cold-like symptoms since we returned from a holiday on the Dorset coast. When he suddenly realised his sense of smell had vanished, the penny dropped. By then of course, it was too late for me  or our two children  to take evasive action.

Within a couple of days I was floored by my own symptoms, which were significantly worse than his. A pounding headache, fatigue so severe I could barely walk. I shook violently when I tried to stand, and was groggy and fuzzy-headed. What little appetite I had was diminished further by the fact I couldnt taste or smell anything.

Floored: Reporter Jo Macfarlane, pictured above, now recovering after catching Covid despite being double-jabbed. Her first dose was delivered in May; the second nearly seven weeks later

This was undoubtedly Covid: at this stage in the pandemic, we all know the rollercoaster roster of symptoms.

Except, at this stage in the pandemic, after one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in history, the question is whether I should have had any symptoms at all.

Like more than three-quarters of the UK population over the age of 16, I am fully vaccinated against the virus.

As a fit and healthy 42-year-old, with no known underlying health problems, my first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech jab was delivered in May; the second nearly seven weeks later, at the end of June.

My husband received both doses of his Oxford-AstraZeneca jab around the same time. For us, as for many others, it was a cause for celebration and relief. The vaccines were mooted, rightly, as our route out of the chaos and frustration of repeated lockdowns and separation from our friends and family.

As Ive reported many times, study after study has overwhelmingly found that both vaccines provide resolute protection against contracting the virus  even against the Delta variant, the dominant strain in the UK.

The Pfizer vaccine is up to 82 per cent protective against symptomatic infection; the AZ version less so, but still 67 per cent effective.

And there is no doubt that the jabs have weakened the link between infection and hospitalisations or deaths. Despite about 38,000 Covid cases a day in the UK, the number of people being taken to hospital is a fraction of the peak in January. When we had the same number of positive cases then, we recorded 1,200 deaths a day  today, its 100.

COVID FACT The last coronavirus pandemic  in 1890  killed 110,000 Britons before it mutated to become the harmless common cold we know today. Advertisement

Many might have sensibly assumed that, with two doses of the vaccine, they were immune to the virus when restrictions were lifted at the end of July.

But since then, reports of so-called breakthrough infections like mine appear to be widespread.

Everyone seems to know someone who has been double-jabbed and caught Covid anyway. And many describe those people as being surprisingly unwell, albeit not in hospital  just like me.

Nearly 5,000 of those attending the recent Boardmasters festival in Cornwall are thought to have come home with the virus, despite many being vaccinated and testing negative in order to attend.

Consequently, social media is awash with tales of the infection being seeded in families and older relatives.

One wrote on Twitter: I know several young people who became positive shortly after & have now given Covid to their whole families.

So whats going on? Does it mean the vaccines arent working as well as they should?

And is it a cause for concern?

I say this with an eye on Israel, which has seen a rise in infections and hospitalisations despite the fact that it, like us, has high levels of its population vaccinated. Are cases such as mine a warning shot that we could go the same way?

We put these questions to some leading experts on the vaccine and immune systems  and their answers were, in the main, reassuring. First, the vaccine is not 100 per cent effective  no vaccine is. Or rather, its very effective in certain ways and not so much in others.

As microbiologist Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the University of East Anglia, told The Mail on Sundays Medical Minefield podcast: Its worth thinking of Covid as two types of illness.

Members of the public in line to check in for their Covid-19 vaccination at a clinic in the SSE Arena, Belfast, on August 22 during The Big Jab Weekend, which saw walk-in vaccination centres opening again in Northern Ireland for first doses for all adults

The infection youve described [I told him about my own illness] is essentially an infection of the nose and throat  we call them mucosal infections. These can still be bad, but theyre not life-threatening and wont put you in hospital. And the vaccine isnt that good against these.

The jab still reduces the risk of getting them by 50 per cent or more, but that means there are still going to be a lot of people suffering symptoms like yours.

Those infections sometimes develop into something more serious, however  a viral pneumonia that can spread further than the lungs. This can trigger a cascade of other damaging effects on the body, such as blood clots and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

COVID FACT In Israel, the number of Covid cases doubled in the space of a fortnight  reaching a total of 7,500 daily cases last week. Advertisement

The vaccine is a lot better at preventing this severe disease, which usually requires hospitalisation, Prof Hunter said. Still not 100 per cent, but maybe 85 to 90 per cent protection.

The other issue is that the Delta variant has chipped away at some of the protection the vaccine offers.

It still works, according to Danny Altmann, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, but less well  meaning that well see yet more infections in those who have been double-jabbed.

We have amazing vaccines, which give most of us really good immunity, Prof Altmann says. But [Delta] does punch holes in that immunity, even sometimes in fit and healthy people who had a good immune response to the vaccine.

I suppose my question is, did the vaccine simply not work for me?

Prof Altmann says one of the biggest studies on infections in vaccinated people, in Israel, found those who were on average older, and had their vaccine doses spread further apart, were more likely to suffer a breakthrough infection. Other studies, however, have shown increasing the time between jabs offers better protection.

And what about antibody response? Ive never been tested, and theres no consensus on what an adequate, protective level of antibodies would be anyway. And it seems that while low levels might indicate someone is more vulnerable, this isnt always the case.

Weve looked at examples of people whove had severe Covid after vaccination  they were people who had a great immune response to the vaccine, with high levels of antibodies, says Prof Altmann. So in some ways, all bets are off.

Despite about 38,000 Covid cases a day in the UK, the number of people being taken to hospital is a fraction of the peak in January (file photo)

In other words, no one really knows why some people develop symptoms from Covid despite vaccination, and others do not.

From this week, about 8,000 people testing positive are being recruited to take antibody tests  shortly after their positive test result, and again 28 days later.

The results will work out whether there is a level of antibodies that is protective against the virus. And officials at the UK Health Security Agency, which is running the study, could use it to determine who may be most in need of a booster jab.

Recent studies have suggested that protection from the vaccine starts to wane within a matter of weeks. But the Governments experts  the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)  have so far ruled out giving a third shot to everyone. Instead, interim recommendations include giving another jab only to the most vulnerable.

Israel currently has one of the highest infection rates in the world because of the spread of Delta  but swiftly brought its R rate down thanks to a booster programme among the over-60s. Those who had a third dose of Pfizer got four times the protection against infection compared with those who had only two.

But British experts are still doubtful whether the same will happen here, due to vast differences in the type of jab (Israel used Pfizer exclusively) and the intervals between doses, which was only four weeks in Israel.

Several studies have suggested that leaving eight weeks between doses appears to be a sweet spot for maximum protection  supporting the Governments decision to change the interval from 12 to eight weeks this spring.

Some suggest this means the effect of boosters is likely to be less dramatic here.

Israel currently has one of the highest infection rates in the world because of the spread of Delta  but swiftly brought its R rate down thanks to a booster programme among the over-60s. Pictured: a nurse prepares a shot of the Covid vaccine in Jerusalem, Israel, on August 25

Prof Hunter says: We still dont know whether the booster vaccine programme will help reduce the spread of Covid in the UK. But for those who have other conditions, who are seriously ill  being treated for cancer, whove had organ transplants  absolutely they need a booster. I would add to that people over 80, who are still at risk from Covid.

And regardless, as Prof Altmann says, those who do end up with symptoms may have ended up far worse off without the vaccine. In fact, he says, he would bet his house that I would have had to go to hospital if I hadnt been double-jabbed.

Its an unnerving prospect for someone who considers themselves otherwise healthy. Yet this is precisely why the vaccine has been so necessary. Ive heard people scoff during this pandemic. Theyre fit and healthy and dont need a vaccine, or they dont need it because theyve already had Covid.

What may make a difference to symptoms, too, is the infectious dose  the amount of the virus people are exposed to, which goes on to establish an infection.

Its similar to what happens with chicken pox. The first child in a household to be affected by it may have only a mild case. But their siblings, exposed to the virus for longer and at close quarters, will tend to have a worse illness.

In my case, my husbands illness was mild. But, however he picked it up, my exposure to the virus was likely to be far more concentrated, which may partly explain why I was more badly affected.

And as Prof Altmann explains, the more virus there is, the more chance it has to overcome any antibodies from the vaccine. Even if youre double-vaccinated, the rules still apply, he says.

In other words, fully vaccinated people can still get the virus and pass it on.

This was the main message from another study released last week from Oxford University.

A festival-goer is pictured receiving an injection from a nurse at a walk-in Covid-19 vaccination clinic at Reading Festival in Berkshire on August 26

It found that some of those whod had two jabs carried as much virus around as those who were unvaccinated. And yet, new protocol introduced by the Government earlier this month meant double-jabbed people no longer have to self-isolate if they come into contact with someone who tests positive for Covid.

Another case in point: being vaccinated didnt stop us passing on Covid to our two children, a source of much guilt.

We had been in self-isolation as a family for eight days when my eight-year-old daughters temperature spiked and her five-year-old brother developed a snotty nose. Their main symptom, admittedly, is boredom. But it proves that vaccination was no barrier to onward transmission.

According to Prof Hunter, I had a mild illness, and this is typical of a breakthrough infection.

At the time I might have felt like death warmed up, but in the grand scheme of things, hes right. No major harm done.

The worst was over in a few days. While my senses of taste and smell arent back yet, at least I suffered no breathing problems.

The good news for everyone is that we will, hopefully, build up a natural resistance to Covid over time, until its effects are little more than a common cold.

There is further good news for anyone doubly vaccinated who does become infected with Covid.

The quality of the immunity and the strength of the protection that gives is quite a lot better than either vaccine or natural infection alone, says Prof Hunter.

So you can be comfortable that youve actually got some pretty strong protection going on now.

After everything, thats enormously reassuring. But without the vaccine, who knows what the outcome might have been?

ON MEDICAL MINEFIELD THIS WEEK: Two jabs and still sick? You could have 'super' protection

Listen now on apple podcasts, spotify, google podcasts and mailplus.co.uk
Mastermind

BBC2, Monday

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Britannia

Sky Atlantic, Tuesday

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Baptiste

BBC1, Sunday

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Mastermind returned on Monday for approximately its 455th series with what proved to be a fairly momentous episode. The victorious contestant, software engineer Ranvir Singh Kalare, reacted by breaking down in tears, prompting his partner to run on and hug him.

The nights other winner was Clive Myrie, making his debut as only the quiz shows fifth host since it began in 1972. He delivered his first Ive started so Ill finish with aplomb, in a moment of real resonance.

Better yet, Myrie greeted correct answers with a hearty Yesssss!  sounding pleased about it rather than moderately irked like his predecessor, John Humphrys.

The nights other winner was Clive Myrie (above), making his debut as only the quiz shows fifth host since it began in 1972

After 18 years of the Welshmans faux headmaster shtick, the arrival of the BBC newsreader, former foreign correspondent, and Bolton wanderer means the iconic show is being presented by someone human.

The questions are forbidding, the chair is forbidding, he said recently. Im there as a friend.

My only criticism was that Myrie eschewed any preliminary chat about the candidates backgrounds, jobs or specialist subjects. In the case of recruitment manager Tom Jewsbury, for example, wondering: Why the hell did you choose the geography of Switzerland?

One question concerned the meadow where the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden signed a defence pact in 1291. Tom earned a point for Rutli, but to my mind the correct answer was: Who cares?

Luckily, student Megan Sutcliffe and retired clerical officer Eleanor Launchburys topics were more educational. We learned that Sir Roger Moores nickname for Britt Ekland was Bert, and Kaiser Wilhelm signed his correspondence to Tsar Nicholas II as your affectionate Willy. (Very affectionate.)

Sadly, the general knowledge round confirmed that Mastermind really has dumbed down since the reign of its legendary Icelandic ruler, Magnus Magnusson (1972-1997).

Which chess piece can move diagonally only? Myrie enquired, somehow maintaining his dignity. Even What does RAF stand for? wasnt the easiest question.

A person in an unfamiliar or unsuitable situation is said to be like a fish out of what? Clive demanded of Megan. WATER! I yelled ecstatically, finally answering a question that wasnt just about Ellie Goulding or Yorkshire pudding (or the RAF).

The potentially habitable zone around a star where liquid water can exist on orbiting planets because the temperature is not too hot and not too cold is named after which fairytale character?

Myrie also asked, somewhat loquaciously. Some of us were still trying to understand the question, let alone expecting Ranvir to calmly answer Goldilocks. As if to say: Obviously.

There was less historical information on offer in Britannia, which now has a third season on Sky but has not ever really taken off  despite the massive dragon-shaped gap in the market for a bloody, kinky, fantasy series left by our fun-loving friends (and enemies) in Westeros.

Cait is basically an Arya Stark fan girl, and Mackenzie Crook (above) portrays Veran as if hed joined Extinction Rebellion and moved to Totnes

Without HBOs budget, Britannia just resembles a Game Of Thrones tribute act. Cait is basically an Arya Stark fan girl, and Mackenzie Crook portrays Veran as if hed joined Extinction Rebellion and moved to Totnes.

David Bradley, as Quane, recalls the wily elder in GoT played by, um, David Bradley.

After Game Of Thrones, the relentless treachery was boring. If anyone ate anything it resulted in a bad acid trip (usually a cross between a Marilyn Manson video and The Wicker Man).

Kissing someone signified he/she would be assassinating them shortly afterwards (probably in slow motion).

Britannia writer Jez Butterworth had replaced Game Of Thrones glamour with humour. But that brand of British irony left the characters sounding as if they were mocking their own show.

If its all the same to you Ill get through this next bit without the profound insights, said druid Divis (a feeling viewers knew only too well).

The Roman commander played by David Morrissey meanwhile raged: You know who this makes look like a prize t**t, dont ya? Me! The fact that Aulus Plautius had a Scouse accent didnt help.

The end of Baptiste came as a merciful release all round  for the viewers, the Hungarian Tourist Board, and Fiona Shaw in particular. The British ambassador, Emma Chambers (Shaw), certainly went through the mill.

Her husband was shot dead and two teenage sons disappeared in the first episode, and things went downhill from there.

She ended up in a wheelchair after a massacre resulting in the deaths of several innocent immigrants and a masked gunman, who was killed by Baptiste and then revealed to be Emmas son Alex. Awkward.

His younger brother Will had also been radicalised and was preparing a second terror attack to avenge their sisters murder. Thankfully, in Sundays finale this was foiled, when one of his fellow fascists beat Will to a bloody pulp with a saucepan.

As if Emma hadnt suffered enough, she had to spend most of the six episodes in the company of Julien Baptiste. Over the course of the series, the once brilliantly intelligent detective from The Missing had turned into an alcoholic, grown a bushy Santa Claus beard and become incredibly irritating.

Deborah Ross is away
Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera Caught By The Heart Out now

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For musicians, the pandemic has brought some terrible pain, from lost colleagues to wrecked livelihoods. But this vast black cloud has two silver linings. We, the audience, have seen just how much we need music.

And they, the artists, have poured their energies into writing and recording.

Tim Finn and Phil Manzanera have been friends since 1975, when Finns band (Split Enz) supported Manzaneras (Roxy Music) on an Australian tour. Living 11,500 miles apart  one in Auckland, the other in London  they havent met in person for 15 years.

But when lockdown descended in March 2020, Finn sent Manzanera an email.

Tim Finn (above) and Phil Manzanera have been friends since 1975, when Finns band (Split Enz) supported Manzaneras (Roxy Music) on an Australian tour

I asked, Finn says, if he had any slow Latin grooves I could work with. It was like asking David Hockney if he had any paintings of trees. Latin grooves have been Manzaneras forte since 1957  when, as a six-year-old living in Havana with his English father and Colombian mother, he took up the Spanish guitar.

He and Finn ended up writing 23 songs together. The first they released, Caught By The Heart, made a glorious single, capturing the giddiness of falling in love. Now here is an album of the same name, and the same artistry.

Their sound bears the hallmarks of Latin pop  instant hooks, underlying sadness  and Finns impassioned vocals slip in and out of Spanish. But this is really world music.

The lyrics are a plea for the planet, not ranting but aching. The musicians, all excellent, range from an Israeli ace of bass (Yaron Stavi) to an Anglo-Bahraini flugelhorn player (Yazz Ahmed).

The melodies speak a universal language: every few minutes you come across something beautiful. Manzaneras guitar is as elegantly lucid as ever, and one track, The Cry Of The Earth, has the sumptuous sophistication of Avalon.

He leaves you looking forward to his next album with Finn, while also wishing hed make one more with Bryan Ferry.
Our Ladies Cert: 15, 1hr 46mins

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The Nest Cert: 15, 1hr 47mins

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Candyman Cert: 15, 1hr 31mins

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The Last Bus Cert: 12A, 1hr 26mins

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Many films have had their release plans affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but few as badly as Our Ladies, a delightful Scottish coming-of-age comedy that premiered at the London Film Festival of 2019 to largely warm reviews.

A commercial release was confidently planned for March 2020

Two postponements and endless delays later, it finally arrives in cinemas, and the good news is that its still an awful lot of beautifully acted, freewheeling fun.

Set in 1996, its the story of six spirited Catholic schoolgirls (above) who travel from the Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour High School in Fort William to Edinburgh for a choir competition

Set in 1996 and adapted from Alan Warners novel The Sopranos (its also been an Olivier award-winning play), its the story of six spirited Catholic schoolgirls who travel from the Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour High School in Fort William to Edinburgh for a choir competition.

Singing, however, is far from uppermost in their adolescent minds. With most of them in Edinburgh for the first time  a beautiful city but full of sin and wantonness, warns their accompanying nun  they dream of filling the long afternoon between rehearsal and performance with shopping, drinking and meeting boys.

Well, most of them anyway.

Scottish-born Michael Caton-Jones writes and directs, with the camera following the small groups the girls break into after they nip into the ladies and swap their demure school uniforms for mini-skirts and platform shoes.

With brief flashbacks further fleshing out their characters, we begin to understand more about each of them and what makes them such a strong, almost terrifying gang when theyre together.

Amid the mounting chaos, what ensues is rude, funny and occasionally rather sweet. Our Ladies is not a film just for teenage girls but for anyone whos ever been a teenage girl or known one. And likes Scotland, of course.

Look out for Kate Dickie as the accompanying nun; a belting karaoke version of Tainted Love; and Abigail Lawrie, as the sexually confused Finnoula, and Tallulah Greive, as Orla, who both stand out from the fine ensemble cast.

Almost as badly hit by the pandemic is The Nest, which had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January last year. Now its finally here and we duly discover that its not the horror film it sounds like  an expectation that writer-director Sean Durkin clearly intended and makes use of  but a psychological drama about the get rich quick attitude of the 1980s and the damage it caused.

Jude Law is on top form as the too-good-to-be-true commodities broker who moves his family back to England from America to take full advantage of the Big Bang

Jude Law is on top form as the too-good-to-be-true commodities broker who moves his family back to England from America to take full advantage of the Big Bang. But that involves a big house, expensive schools for the children, a horse for his wife Carrie Coon impresses, too, as the wife battling both her own suspicions and the ingrained sexism of the day.

Its only real negative is that it all may be a little too unresolved for its own commercial good.

Fresh from his triumphs with Get Out and Us, Jordan Peele turns his attention to Candyman, the iconic 1992 horror picture, albeit only as producer and co-writer of a new sequel.

But with Nia DaCosta directing, they both do a hugely impressive job of breathing new life  and, of course, many nasty deaths  into the franchise based around the urban myth about a hook-handed killer.

Say his name five times into the mirror and youre in trouble.

With the Chicago ghettos of Cabrini-Green  setting of the original  now gentrified and the name Anthony ringing all sorts of bells, the pick-up, screenplay and execution are things of carefully crafted, racially recalibrated joy.

If you saw and enjoyed the original, youll definitely want to see this.

In The Last Bus, 64-year-old Timothy Spall plays Tom, a character some two decades older, a widower travelling by bus from John OGroats to Lands End to keep a promise he made to his late wife (Phyllis Logan).

In The Last Bus, 64-year-old Timothy Spall (above) plays Tom, a character some two decades older, a widower travelling by bus from John OGroats to Lands End

Spall overacts, the screenplay is underwritten, and any touching moments in Gillies MacKinnons film come way too late.

You wont want to stick out your hand for this one.
Billy Summers

Stephen King Hodder & Stoughton 20

Former army sniper Billy Summers now trades as a hitman for hire, persuading himself that he only kills bad guys. He wants to quit but takes one last, well-paying job.

Inevitably, its not what it seems. Despite his careful preparation, Billy ends up fighting for his life, all the while trying to figure out whether he is ultimately a decent person. A wonderfully tense and surprisingly romantic thriller from a true master.

John Williams

Snow Country

Sebastian Faulks Hutchinson 20

Fans of Faulks will find many of his trademark qualities in his new book: lucid prose, a keen interest in psychiatry, a sure touch in affairs of the heart. The novel is set in Austria and spans the tumultuous period between 1906 and 1933.

For Anton, an ambitious young journalist, horrors lurk around every corner; for Lena, born into poverty, a better life slowly beckons. Not absolutely vintage Faulks, but a well-crafted piece, full of shrewd insights.

Max Davidson

Magpie

Elizabeth Day Fourth Estate 14.99

Fertility, motherhood and mental illness are all tackled in Days twisty literary thriller. Marisa, abandoned by her mother as a child, wants stability; steady, older Jake wants a child.

They seem ideally suited, but then a lodger arrives. Deftly plotted and packed with wise observations about the devastating emotional impact of infertility, Magpie is sharp and sinister.

Eithne Farry

More Than I Love My Life

David Grossman Jonathan Cape 18.99

As a young anti- Nazi partisan, 90-year-old Vera was imprisoned on the island of Goli Otok. The episode has ramifications for both her daughter, Nina, and later her granddaughter, Gili, an aspiring film-maker in Israel.

When the trio visit Goli Otok, their journey serves as a moving exploration of the power of love, secrets and forgiveness. A sweeping narrative rooted in a deep faith in humanity.

Hephzibah Anderson
The world must 'wake up' to climate change, is the clarion call from the United Nations.

But as many energy giants focus more on making a profit than helping the planet, it could be time to take matters into our own hands.

The Mail on Sunday speaks to the communities generating their own clean energy  and a profit...

In at the deep end?: Reading Hydro Community Benefit Society fund-raised 1.1million to build the plant that powers the Thames Lido

Down on the River Thames near Reading, two hydro turbines have started to rotate this month.

As water surges through these giant metal corkscrews, they turn and produce electricity. They should create enough to help power the nearby Thames Lido swimming pool and restaurant  and to sell some back to the National Grid, making at least 63,000 a year.

The project is not the creation of a massive energy company, but of a 750- strong army of local investors.

Reading Hydro Community Benefit Society fund-raised 1.1million to build the plant, which they hope will generate a return for its members  as well as clean energy.

They are just one of more than 450 community co-operatives across Britain generating their own clean energy.

Groups club together to install hydro and wind turbines, solar panels and even electric car charging points.

Taking over where greedy corporate giants and councils let them down, they produce energy for their homes, funds for their community and sometimes a profit for themselves.

Emma Bridge, chief executive of the not-for-profit action group Community Energy England, says: 'Community energy projects can help make energy more affordable and clean. Those looking to support a positive social and environmental project could also find it offers a great investment opportunity.'

Teaming up to build a hydro turbine may sound revolutionary, but project director Tony Cowling believes the community is only reverting back to how things always were.

'There have been records of water mills in this area since the Domesday Book of 1086,' says retired builder Tony, 67.

'Yet the final mills shut in the last century as we turned to pollution-creating coal-fuelled energy and nuclear power stations. It seemed a terrible waste not to use the old weir water system in Reading to create eco-energy.'

Local residents were invited to invest a minimum of 75 as shareholders in a co-operative scheme. Fundraising took less than a year and by March 2021, all 1.1million had been raised.

Project director Anne Wheldon, 67, says: 'It was not just people wanting to do good, but investors looking to make better returns on their money than it just sitting in a poorly-paying savings account at a bank.'

The retired university lecturer adds: 'Many who put money in were doing it as gifts for children  supporting a sustainable future.'

Investors should receive around two per cent from next year, growing to four per cent a year over the following five years.

The group also plans to arrange school visits. Anne says: 'We want to show the next generation how we all need to embrace environmentally-friendly ideas for the future  not just leave it to big business.'

Solar is the shining light of local projects

Solar accounts for more than 80 per cent of the energy created by renewable community projects.

Local groups raise money through community share offers to put solar panels on the roofs of schools, hospitals and local businesses. For example, Bath and West Community Energy has raised 9million over a decade to build five solar farms and install solar panels on the roofs of 11 schools and four community buildings.

It now produces enough energy to power 4,000 local homes. Investors receive a target return of four per cent a year and can invest from 100. Any profit in addition to this is shared between local community groups and charities, totalling around 250,000 to date.

Going swimmingly: Tony Cowling and Anne Wheldon, project directors of the hydro scheme which powers the Thames Lido

Wind farms can power at least 1,000 homes

Around 50 community energy projects have installed wind turbines to generate clean energy.

All are in less populated areas, in northern Scotland and rural Wales.

There are strict planning conditions involved in installing them. The biggest can be 500ft tall with blades spanning 250ft and cost more than 4million each. In full swing  turning around 20 times a minute  they can spark up enough energy to power at least 1,000 homes.

The largest community-owned wind farm in Britain is Point and Sandwick Trust.

With support from local residents and businesses and a Government grant, it raised 14million to install three giant turbines in the Outer Hebrides wind farm of Beinn Ghrideag.

It generates an income of 900,000 a year, which is used to support local projects.

Car charging scheme with 2 per cent return

Charging points for electric cars is one of the biggest growth areas for community projects, with 76 started last year.

Charge My Street plans to install 200 fast chargers across England. It is asking shareholders to invest a minimum of 100 and hopes to raise 200,000 by December.

The initiative will charge motorists a fee for using its charging points. Investors should receive a return of two per cent a year from the profits, rising to five per cent if the initiative is a success.

Director Daniel Heery says: 'Four of us came up with the idea five years ago.

'We wanted electric cars, but live in terraced streets where there were no power points. Since then we have installed 50.'
When a fund manager performs well, it's not long before the money starts to pour in from investors wanting part of the action.

The fund will balloon in size  sometimes to billions of pounds  and then something strange can happen: performance turns lacklustre or even disappointing.

This may be because the fund manager struggles to adapt to the new-found pressure to keep up their reputation.

Taking off: Investors have an alternative approach to piggybacking on existing winners: backing a smaller up-and-coming fund in its early stages

Or perhaps they have to compromise their investment style now they are running a larger portfolio.

Investors have an alternative approach to piggybacking on existing winners: backing a smaller up-and-coming fund in its early stages.

This can be risky and requires a leap of faith. But it can offer investors the chance to catch the early returns, which in some cases can be stellar.

'The key is to invest when a track record is created rather than lived off,' says Rob Burdett, co-head of the multi-manager team at BMO Global Asset Management.

'The star fund manager culture means that funds can grow very fast once they are in the spotlight and I think that generally brings diminishing returns.

This is why it is worth looking at smaller funds, particularly if they are starting to perform quite well.'

Of course, not all small funds perform better than large ones, but they are often worth considering.

Mick Gilligan, a partner at wealth manager Killik & Co, agrees. He says fund managers have the most to prove during the early stages because their fund will not survive if performance disappoints. 'This adds up to a big incentive for the manager to execute well in the early days,' he adds.

THINK SMALL... AND SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES CAN BE HUGE

Managers of small funds can generally invest in companies of any size, wherever they see the best opportunities.

They can tap into smaller companies  which tend to experience faster growth  as well as larger ones, which are more established.

But managers of larger funds can find they are restricted to investing in big companies.

After all, if you have billions of pounds to invest, it can be hard to find enough good small companies to spread them between. It may also not be appropriate to make huge investments in small companies.

If you are considering investing in a fund with less than 150million in assets, find out why it is small.

Alternative: If a fund is growing fast, investors may want to consider putting their money in a smaller alternative in order to reap better returns

It may be that the manager is new to heading their own fund. If so, research their previous experience and investment process and whether they have worked alongside any well-known names.

Sometimes experienced fund managers start new funds. In this case, find out if they are sticking with the style that served them well in the past or trying out something new.

When a fund manager changes tack, there is a risk they are no longer playing to their strengths.

Hubris can kick in after a period of strong returns, leading a fund manager to believe they can reject their tried and tested strategy to perform even better with a new one.

However, just because they are sticking with what they know doesn't mean they will continue to be successful.

Research whether they have performed well in different market conditions as well. You can find answers in the fund's own literature or on fund research websites, such as Trustnet.

Another reason a fund may be small is that it is shrinking. In that case, you will probably want to avoid it at all costs.

AJ Bell's Laith Khalaf says reading a fund's annual report can help potential investors work out whether it is shrinking

Perhaps unhappy investors are withdrawing their cash following a period of disappointing performance, or a well-known manager has departed.

To find out if either is the case, Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis at wealth platform AJ Bell, suggests looking at the fund's annual report. This will disclose whether the units in the fund have increased or decreased over time.

If a fund gets too small, its future is in danger. 'Small funds must remain viable, or they risk being shut down,' says Andrew Wilson, chief investment officer at wealth manager Lockhart Capital Management.

There are fixed costs associated with running a fund, regardless of its size. Larger funds can split these costs among more investors. But for smaller ones, the charge per investor can be higher.

However, sometimes asset managers will absorb the extra costs for a new fund so that investors are not put off. Some even offer reduced fees via an 'early bird' share class.

WHO ARE TOMORROW'S STAR FUND MANAGERS?

So who are the potential stars of tomorrow? Lockhart's Wilson cites Richard Penny's Crux UK Special Situations fund as one to watch.

Penny, who previously made a name for himself at Legal & General Investment Management, has established an enviable track record since joining Crux Asset Management in October 2018.

His UK Special Situations fund, which is 103million in size and targets undervalued British companies, has turned a 1,000 investment into 1,400 over this period.

'Going through the 100million threshold shouldn't slow down performance,' Wilson says.

BMO's Burdett highlights Jeremy Hewlett as another experienced fund manager at the helm of a smaller fund.

Mirabaud UK Equity High Alpha is 68million in size and has turned a 1,000 investment into a little under 1,350 over the past three years.

For investors looking for opportunities outside the UK, Burdett says the SVS BambuBlack Asia ex-Japan All-Cap fund is one to consider.

The 48 million portfolio invests across the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) and is managed by Jane Andrews, who has more than 30 years' experience. Since August 2018, the fund has turned a 1,000 investment into 1,400.

If a sub-150million fund feels too risky, AJ Bell's Khalaf says Schroder Global Equity Income could be one to consider.

The 263million portfolio is managed by the experienced Nick Kirrage. Performance was lacklustre until last summer.

A 1,000 investment three years ago would be worth 1,100 today. However, returns have been strong since then: a 1,000 investment in the fund a year ago would be worth 1,350 today.
Some of Britain's biggest airlines are locked in pay negotiations with trade unions as they plan major cost-savings to survive the winter.

Ryanair and BA are trying to push through hefty new cuts to pilots' pay, The Mail on Sunday understands. In some cases, pilots are being asked to accept salaries almost a fifth less.

Pilots' union Balpa said Ryanair wanted pilots to work reduced hours over the winter as it closes its two airport bases in Belfast and slashes schedules elsewhere in the UK.

Up in the air: Pilots face salary cuts of up to a fifth as airlines axe schedules

A newsletter sent last week from Balpa to Ryanair pilots, seen by The Mail on Sunday, said Ryanair was looking to change shift patterns so pilots work fewer days and take more leave.

A memo will be sent to Ryanair pilots this week asking for volunteers to go part-time. Last year Ryanair pilots agreed a 20 per cent pay cut to avoid 3,000 job losses.

Meanwhile, pilots at BA's CityFlyer subsidiary, based at London City Airport, rejected a request for a further pay cut in a ballot that closed on Friday.

A newsletter, seen by The Mail on Sunday, said CityFlyer had asked pilots to take unpaid leave that meant a 17 per cent pay cut from October 1 to March 31, with pension contributions also cut. CityFlyer axed its Edinburgh base last summer putting 72 pilots' jobs at risk.

BA is in talks with unions on plans announced last week for a new short-haul airline based at Gatwick, run under a separate licence, meaning it could set new employment conditions for pilots and crew.

Industry insiders suggest BA's new airline could scale back flights in the winter months when demand for short-haul trips is lower.

Pilots could then be deployed to BA's long-haul 'winter sun' operations based at Heathrow.

In an internal letter to staff last week, BA called any rise in costs once furlough ends 'bad news'.

It said: 'We know our schedule and operating costs for the rest of this year will not add up. We're going to have to be as flexible as possible when it comes to the way we work.'

Sources said they expected travel giant Tui to start talks with unions over winter cost-saving in the coming weeks.

Pilots at Jet2 have taken a 30 per cent pay cut to April.

Gatwick made a 245million loss for the first six months of 2021 and is trying to avoid further redundancies through cost-saving measures such as extending its pay freeze, reducing pension contributions and 'banking' unworked hours to be worked back at a later date.

A spokesman said: 'With the furlough scheme finishing at the end of September we won't have enough work for our 1,800 employees based on current travel trends.'

The TUC is lobbying the Treasury for an extension to the furlough scheme for aviation to avoid 'a slew of redundancies'.

BA CityFlyer said: 'We are working with Balpa to help protect jobs, our future and remain competitive in a much changed industry.'

Ryanair did not respond to a request for comment.
Companies are going to be forced by the Treasury to report their impact on climate change, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

A plan will be published in early October revealing which businesses will be affected, the information they will need to provide and the deadline.

The initiative, led by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, will come ahead of Cop26, the UN Climate Change conference in Glasgow, in November.

Eco friendly: The move is part of a strategy to make Britain the go-to venue for 'green' finance

The move is also part of a strategy to make Britain the go-to venue globally for 'green' finance. It is understood the Treasury will bring in legislation to give regulators the power to force firms to report.

The Government said last November that it will be mandatory by 2025 for businesses to disclose the financial risks and opportunities they face from climate change.

A source close to the Treasury said: 'We are now going further. These [requirements] will cover real-economy corporates, pension schemes, financial services firms and investment products and will require disclosures about the impact they are having on the climate and sustainability.'

But the source added the plan was to have 'one streamlined regime for companies to report against' so that businesses were not having to tackle numerous different reporting requirements.

Scott Knight, head of audit at accountants BDO, said: 'Climate change is something investors are starting to take seriously and they're going to want reliable and comparable information that has been assured by a third party.'

The Investment Association, representing professional fund managers, is looking to change the investment process so that stock-pickers consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks when buying shares in a company.

One of the aims of the Government's new reporting requirements will be to stamp out 'greenwashing', which is where companies tout themselves as environmentally-friendly without having the credentials.

It emerged last week that US and German regulators were investigating fund group DWS over claims by a former employee that it misled clients about its environmental and sustainable investing.

The company said in a statement: 'We firmly reject the allegations. DWS will continue to remain a steadfast proponent of ESG investing as part of its fiduciary role on behalf of its clients.'
The blue-chip London stock market was dealt a blow last week when mining giant BHP Group declared that it would no longer hold a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

The company is one of the FTSE 100's largest constituents with an estimated market capitalisation of 47.1billion. But the change, which requires shareholder approval, would mean its shares will only be traded at its main market listing in Sydney.

So why would a major business like BHP choose to take itself off the Footsie and what motivations would a firm have to have two primary listings in the first place?

Change: BHP has said that it would no longer hold a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. The firm has two separate legal identities, but function as one economic entity.

What is a dual-listed company (DLC)?

Many publicly-traded businesses are listed on two or more stock exchanges where investors can buy their shares. But dual-listed companies have two primary listings with two separate legal identities that function as one economic entity.

Another mining giant Rio Tinto is dual-listed. So is cruise operator Carnival Corporation, financial services firm Investec, and its former subsidiary Ninety One, while formerly dual-listed groups include Unilever and Royal Dutch Shell.

Currently, BHP is divided into two branches: UK-based BHP Group Plc and Australia-based BHP Group Limited. Each division has separate shareholder bodies, annual general meetings, and abides by different reporting requirements.

The company would like to revamp that set-up. It wants a unified corporate structure, incorporated in Australia, which it said would make it 'more agile and efficient, with improved flexibility to shape our portfolio for the future'.

Why would a company decide to have a dual listing?

Access to capital is one of the main reasons, as it allows firms to potentially gain a larger base of investors, especially from financial powerhouses based in major cities like London and New York.

Big ship: Famous DLCs include cruise operator Carnival Corporation, which is incorporated in Panama, headquartered in Florida, but has primary listings in New York and London.

Because it provides access to two stock markets, a dual listing can enhance a corporation's public profile and boost its liquidity by increasing the avenues by which it can raise capital.

Furthermore, shares can be traded more frequently if exchanges are located in different time zones. Rio Tinto is listed in London and Sydney, so while the former is asleep, the latter exchange can pick up the slack.

Maike Currie, investment director at Fidelity International, also notes that firms with substantial presences in multiple markets often seek a dual-listed arrangement. One reason BHP gave for surrendering its dual listing was that its UK PLC provides less than 5 per cent of group profits.

What are the major downsides of a dual listing?

Two Cs can sum up the biggest problems affecting DLCs: costs and complexity.

It is more expensive for companies to maintain two separate legal entities, which incur significant costs from both listing in the first place and employing extra staff and offices to deal with the added bureaucracy.

Practically, confusion can arise from operating in different time zones with different share prices, shareholder voting procedures and corporate laws.

Unilever had trouble selling its spreads arm to KKR in 2017 due to complex internal structures arising from its dual domicile. It subsequently got rid of its dual-listing status

'Dual listing effectively requires everything to be done twice and the bill has to be paid in both time and money,' says Danni Hewson, a financial analyst at AJ Bell.

'A single listing is cleaner and leaner,' she adds. Such entities mean only having to abide by one set of rules, a single primary tax residency and avoiding potential conflicts of interest for board members.

Businesses have additionally cited a wish to buy and sell divisions more quickly and easily. Unilever had trouble selling its spreads arm to KKR in 2017 due to complex internal structures arising from its dual domicile.

How would UK shareholders be affected by a firm, like BHP, delisting from the LSE?

The biggest effect of BHP's decision will be experienced by investors in passive funds, such as index tracker funds or exchange traded funds, who will be forced to sell their shares.

What effect will this have on the share price? Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, thinks that as companies are removing the extra costs associated with dual listing, this should benefit the share price.

London base: The UK has a strong track record of attracting DLCs like Carnival Corporation and Rio Tinto thanks in part to its global reputation as a financial centre

BHP will still hold a standard listing on the London markets, so investors who hold BHP shares will probably witness little effect from the unified listing.

Nonetheless, the exit of BHP from the FTSE 100 is a reputational blow for the London markets. The firm has been a reliable dividend payer over the years, and declared a record final dividend on the same day it announced plans to quit the indices.

Is the London Stock Exchange a strong place to have a dual-listed company?

The UK has a strong track record of attracting DLCs thanks in part to its global reputation as a financial centre. As an example, Carnival Corporation is incorporated in Panama, headquartered in Florida, but has primary listings in New York and London.

However, Nicholas Hyett says that because of the globalised nature of capital markets, investors do not need a primary listing to grab their interest, so the exchange major firms list on 'is probably less important now than it has ever been.'

The complexity of running DLCs also puts off many companies from pursuing such a route. Research published in 2019 by Australian economist Kim Hawtrey found that modern DLCs have an average shelf life of six years.
National lockdowns during Covid were an unsettling time for all of us, but for some they also brought an end to their employment.

Around 73,000 people lost their jobs in the first few months of lockdown, while millions were put on furlough.

But many of these decided to take matters into their hands  and start a new business.

An extra 84,758 businesses were set up in 2020 compared with 2019, according to Companies House data.

'Huge step': Christian Azolan started his own business selling art online

One such business belongs to Fiona Metcalfe, 27, from London, who was due to start a new job in March last year as head of events for a group of London properties.

The offer was retracted because of the pandemic and she was left without a job.

During the six months in which she was unemployed, Fiona set up Cuisine Box with her partner Manuel Martinez Infante, 31.

They sell a range of themed food boxes, including Japanese, Thai and Indian, which are filled with all the ingredients needed to cook a range of dishes at home.

Since October, they have made 22,000, much of which has gone back into the business. This year turnover is predicted to be 65,000, of which 12 per cent will be profit.

Fiona now runs Cuisine Box alongside a part-time job, but she plans to work on it full time by the end of the year.

Starting a new business when you lose your job can be an alternative to seeking a new one.

However, Beverley Sydney, from Sydney Hudson Accountants, believes it is much easier if you have built up some savings first.

'This can help to ensure personal bills are paid while the venture is still in its infancy and also provides the necessary funds to bring in expert advice where needed,' she says.

If you go it alone, you will also have to get your head around the tax implications. As soon as you earn more than 1,000, you need to either register as a sole trader with Revenue & Customs or Companies House if you have a limited business.

You are responsible for filing your tax return, and knowing the deadlines for paying tax. It is possible to do this yourself, or you could pay an accountant to do it for you.

A business plan is also key, including research about the market you are entering.

This is what Christian Azolan, 38, discovered when he lost his job as a media lecturer at the University of Brunel due to Covid in March last year.

Christian researched the art market, consulted with artists and then launched a new business selling art online. Now he sells art all around the world and earns up to 3,000 a month, 70 per cent of which is profit.

'I never imagined I would ever start a business,' he says. 'The idea was scary, I had always worked for someone for a salary so the idea of relying purely on myself for my income was a huge step.'

Using your existing skills to start a business can give you a great head start.

Loc Bui, 46, and his fiancee Paula Cooper, 49, set up a cookery school and private dining service after Loc lost his job.

Paula says: 'Our restaurant, where Loc was head chef, had been under some sort of restriction since March 2020, apart from a few weeks. 'In January, we decided it just wasn't viable to stay open as we couldn't see an end date and had no outdoor space even if we were allowed to open again.'

The couple, who live in West Yorkshire with their two young children, set up Loc's Taste of Vietnam.

They have spent this summer giving demonstrations at UK food festivals and have recently started in-person cookery classes alongside their online offering.

They invested around 15,000 of their own money and are aiming to make the same amount in profit this year.
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A Muslim community leader says Covid has ripped through hundreds of immigrant families because they underestimated the Delta strain and didn't stop visiting relatives until the outbreak spiralled out of control.

Zia Ahmad, publisher of the Australasian Muslim Times, concedes many immigrants, including Muslims, carried on visiting their extended families during lockdown, because doing so during the first wave did not cause a huge spike in case numbers.

Sydney's Delta outbreak began in the eastern suburbs in June, but it quickly took hold in the west and south-west - and more than 80 per cent of Friday's 882 new cases were confined to those areas.

Most of the 12 local government areas 'of concern' have large immigrant populations, including Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Campbelltown, Blacktown and Liverpool.

'It is possible that some large families, who are very close and like to visit each other often, haven't taken the Delta strain seriously enough,' Mr Ahmad, 68, who lives with his four children and elderly parents, told Daily Mail Australia.

The Ahmad family at Bonnyrigg has closed its doors to the usual Sunday family gatherings of up to 40 people in order to protect the health of grandmother Jamal Ara Ahmad, 89 (pictured second from left) and Dr Qazi Ashfaq Ahmad OAM, 91 (front, centre). Also pictured ( from left) are: Mehar Ahmad, 65; Zia Ahmad, 68; Mobinah Ahmad, 32; and Rubinah Ahmad, 30

Mr Ahmad, a Muslim community leader says immigrant families were caught out by the viciousness of the Delta Covid strain and didn't change their behaviour until recently, contributing to the virus spread. He used to entertain up to 40 members of his family at his Bonnyrigg home (pictured) each Sunday until Covid struck, now the family connects on Zoom

Mr Ahmad believes Covid may have spread in Sydney's south-west through immigrant families from any culture where family sticks close and gathers regularly

'Last year they still visited their families and there was no effect, so they are used to last year's habits. That could have contributed because the Delta strain is very different.'

Mr Ahmad said spread through large extended families is a 'cultural and not religious issue'.

'For a lot of immigrant families from different backgrounds it's part of life to stay in contact with their extended family. If you look at Indian people, it wouldn't matter if it was Christians, Muslims or Hindus,' he said.

Mr Ahmad concedes many Muslims may have carried on visiting their relatives because doing so did not cause a spike in case numbers during Covid's first wave

Mr Ahmad stressed the issue applied to immigrant communities with the habit of holding large family gatherings- not any particular race or religion

He added that it was 'particularly sad' that the some of the best qualities of immigrant families - their loyalty, support and commitment to one another - had been taken away from them.

Pacific Island and Filipino communities similarly hold large family gatherings for cultural purposes - and have strong roots in south-west Sydney.

In early August, AIaneta Isaako, 30, was found dead from Covid in her home in Blacktown.

Hundreds of people wait in line for their Covid-19 vaccine at the South Western Sydney vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields

In early August AIaneta Isaako, 30, was found dead from Covid in her home in Blacktown. Her husband Sako was admitted to hospital soon after

Her husband Sako was admitted to hospital soon after.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian consistently pleaded with large migrant families to stop visiting relatives in many of her daily briefings.

Many community groups complained that NSW Health solutions did not make use of grassroots organisations to spread clear messages in recent months - such as youth groups, community centres and places of worship.

Two women walk together at Blacktown during lockdown

Mr Ahmad shut the doors of his family home at Bonnyrigg to family visits partly because he was so worried for his 91 year old father, Qazi Ashfaq OAM, and his 89-year-old mother, Jamal Ara.

Bonnyrigg is in the Fairfield local government area, one of the LGAs of concern.

Mr Ahmad's own extended family numbers 75 people across four generations in Sydney and Canberra.

Instead the family connects via Zoom each week.

'Before Covid we would have 35 to 40 family here every Sunday. We miss seeing our grandchildren terribly,' he said.

'But that is probably what saved us,' he said, pleased that nobody in his extended family had tested positive for Covid and most were vaccinated at least once.

A woman shops for fruit at Guildford during lockdown

Most of the 12 local government areas 'of concern' have large immigrant populations, including Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Campbelltown, Blacktown and Liverpool. Two men are pictured walking at Blacktown

He and his wife, Mehar, and four daughters have stayed busy exercising, bingeing on Bollywood and 'social movies' on Netflix and also reaching out in their community via social media and their news website.

Mehar admitted Zia controls the TV remote control in their home, but joked 'I am the neck, I can turn the head anytime I want.'

She said in her experience most Muslims are happy to comply with guidelines when they understand because 'they are very happy to be living in this country'.

Mr Ahmad says the worsening Sydney outbreak prompted him to run webinars and articles in his newspaper encouraging people to get vaccinated and debunking myths.

'There was a lot of misinformation out there, people saying the vaccine was non-halal or unsafe,' he said.

Hundreds of people wait in line for their Covid vaccine at the South Western Sydney vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields

'We got respected Asian doctors talking about how the vaccine is permissible under Islam, that it is a life-saver and is in fact a gift from God and they should have no hesitation in having it.'

Shady Elriche, president of Rahma Mosque at Guildford said when meeting places were shut down, the ability of leaders to pass on clear messages was impacted.

'Leaders were slower in getting the information out there, but the platforms for our leaders are things like community centres, PCYCs, youth clubs, Mosques - when those places are closed our tools were taken away and the messaging becomes more difficult,' he said.

That combined with inconsistent and rapidly-changing public health orders confused immigrant communities.

Dozens of people are seen queuing to receive the coronavirus vaccine at Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush

Mr Elriche said people 'didn't understand the severity of the virus' for a long time and people were fearful of the AstraZeneca vaccine because of official advice - and clashing statements between states.

Queensland's official health advice was for people under 40 to avoid AstraZenenca when the Prime Minister said it was a personal choice.

'It doesn't help when the government changes the narrative too, even now they have just moved away from the idea of eliminating Covid,' Mr Elriche said.

'The meaning of some of the health orders got lost when have one public health order after another overlapping, and you have set different sets of rules for different LGAs.

'We understand the health orders, and we share that information but when they change five days later, it starts to get confusing.'

Sydney's south-west and western suburbs are home to a diverse range of immigrant communities
A straight talking drag queen from locked down western Sydney has found a fun way to bring important Covid messaging to the masses.

'Carla from Bankstown' has attracted more than 100,000 views on her light-hearted videos posing as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's no-nonsense assistant.

She may struggle with her pronunciation, mixing up 'Berejiklian' with 'Butterchicken' but her message is clear: 'Stick together, and we'll get out of this mess'.

Carla is actually the alter ego of Benjahmin James, a 28-year-old retail worker who has lived in Bankstown his whole life.

'I just love Gladys,' James told Daily Mail Australia. 'I'm completely obsessed with her.'

Carla from Bankstown has attracted more than 100,000 views on her comedic videos posing as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's straight-talking assistant

In her videos, Carla poses as Ms Berejiklian's assistant and gives pesky detractors a dressing down for being too tough on the premier.

Carla flirts up a storm with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and engages in a war of words with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palazszcuk, who she refers to as 'Parmasana' or 'Parrachutebutt'.

James' aim is to bring joy to fans enduring lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne. He considers it a perk that he's able to encourage so many people to follow the health advice.

'Times are tough. But I'm a real advocate for mental health and this has been such a great outlet for me to express myself,' he said.

He shared a photo without all the glamorous hair and make up that Carla is famed for at the vaccine clinic to encourage his fans to get the jab

James is living in one of the 12 local government areas of concern that are subject to strict lockdown orders, but considers himself luckier than some.

'I live with my mum and dad, so I'm not alone, and I'm still working. But it's horrible to see businesses shut and people struggling. I'm just trying to bring them a bit of joy.'

James has been using Carla's platform - and her reach within younger people from the western suburbs - to promote the public health directives.

He shared a photo without all the glamorous hair and make up that Carla is famed for at the vaccine clinic to encourage his fans to get the jab.

But he's 'heartbroken' to see so many people out and about still flouting restrictions, despite soaring case numbers.

If he could offer one piece of advice to his fans, it's for them to know that 'we're all in this together', despite any supposed divides.

Carla has attracted legions of new fans since pivoting her focus to Ms Berejiklian and the health advice, including reality television star Abbie Chatfield

Some of Carla's videos attract upwards of 100,000 views on TikTok and Instagram.

Carla has attracted legions of new fans since taking on the role in Ms Berejiklian's office, including reality television star Abbie Chatfield, Tina Arena and Julia Morris.

But James said his alter ego is simply a homage to the women he grew up with in Sydney's southwest.

'Growing up in the area, I knew so many Carla's. Everyone knows a Carla, regardless of gender or nationality or any other factor.

'But I also wanted to give a voice to the LGBTQI community. I wanted to show them that it's okay to be who you want to be and not to worry about anything else.'
A British former NATO official has told how three Afghan ex-colleagues are trapped in Kabul under a Taliban death sentence, fearing they have been abandoned by the organisation.

The men, in their thirties with young families, have received death threats from the Taliban because they all worked at Kabul Airport's military side for NATO in the past, and are desperate to flee Afghanistan.

But as the door closes for the international evacuation effort at the airport where they used to work, none of them has yet been given a way out.

'They don't know where to turn,' said their British ex-colleague who asked not to be named to protect his friends' identities.

'All along, after they provided their details to NATO and applied to the UK's ARAP scheme for former civilians working with the military, they were assured: "Sit tight, there is a plan."

'Well now the door is closing and it's pretty clear that there is no plan, or if there was, it didn't last long.

'There are so many ways this could have been handled, but this whole operation has just turned into a clusterf***!

Three Afghan men, in their thirties with young families, have received death threats from the Taliban because they all worked at Kabul Airport's military side for NATO in the past, and are desperate to flee (Pictured: Evacuees walk to be processed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul)

One of the former NATO workers had taken his documents down to the Baron Hotel near the airport two days ago, along with his wife, but he was rifle-butted by the Taliban at the outer perimeter and not allowed further (Pictured: Taliban forces block the roads around Kabul airport Friday)

Two bodies in body bags following the double suicide attack at Kabul airport as evacuation efforts become increasingly difficult

'These guys worked for years for NATO at the airport in various jobs and after the Taliban took over, they contacted me first of all for a reference letter, but then I started helping them contact people and filling in the ARAP forms online.

'But what galls me most is that they trusted us, and when they are told that something will be done to help them, they believe it.'

He said one of the men had taken his documents down to the Baron Hotel near the airport two days ago, along with his wife, but he was rifle-butted by the Taliban at the outer perimeter and not allowed further.

His wife was knocked unconscious and trampled in the throng of people, so they turned around, and luckily for them were not at the very same location on Thursday where two horrific suicide bombs claimed more than 100 lives.

Added the former official: 'These guys have had letters from the Taliban accusing them of being foreign spies.

'Just to have worked for NATO as a baggage handler a few years ago means that they're tainted for life.

'They've all had to move away from home to stay with friends and they are terrified. I know there are still buses being assembled in Kabul for people like this, but inevitably, bribes are changing hands and people who were contractors, rather than direct NATO employees, are in the queue and being flown out.'

'I've also heard stories about Taliban coming on the buses and checking names, which is itself a terrifying thought, and buses not being allowed in.'

He said that if no help was forthcoming before the airport closed for good, the men would have to consider trying to escape via Pakistan, but he added: 'The footage from the various border checkpoints is no more encouraging  it looks horrendous and to do that with a pregnant woman and kids is unthinkable.'

A NATO spokesman told MailOnline: 'We are not in a position to comment on individual cases, but we have passed these details on to colleagues dealing with the evacuation process.'
Unvaccinated residents could be banned from pubs while jabs have been made mandatory for frontline workers in Sydney's hotspots following a record 1,035 new Covid cases in NSW announced on Saturday.

Two Sydney residents died from the virus overnight, including one woman in her 70s and another in her 80s, Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed at the state's daily press conference.

The younger woman had received both doses of the Covid vaccine and had underlying health conditions while the other was unvaccinated.

The worrying surge in cases was recorded after 156,165 people came forward to get vaccinated on Friday - the highest daily vaccination rate number the state has seen thus far.

Plans are now reportedly being considered by the NSW government to ban patrons from entering pubs and restaurants unless they've had the jab.

Businesses are expected to reopen once 70 per cent of the population has been vaccinated which could be as early as October.

It is an idea set forward as part of a new proposal by the state government, and talks with leading industry group figures are already under way.

There is a possibility all hospitality staff and patrons will need prove they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine before entering bars and restaurants.

It was announced all frontline workers in Sydney's hot spots will need to be vaccinated from next month (pictured in Bankstown)

Saturday was Australia's highest number of daily Covid cases recorded with NSW acquiring another 1,035 infections

In some positive news for residents confined to their homes, the NSW health minister announced that from midnight on Friday weddings would be allowed with five guests.

'Couples who wish to marry will be able to marry, but with minimal guests in attendance, so there will be five guests allowed in addition to those who obviously will be necessary for the actual service, so those officiating and perhaps a photographer to record the event,' he said.

'We will work through that during the course of the week but I want people to know that if you do wish to get married, you certainly can as of Friday of next week.'

Mr Hazzard said guests were not required to be vaccinated.

Since the latest outbreak began frontline workers in Sydney hotspot LGAs had the option of rapid antigen testing as opposed to getting vaccinated to continue working.

'In line with the amended public health order, if an authorised worker is not vaccinated or does not have a medical contraindication form, they will not be able to work outside their LGA,' NSW Health said in a statement late on Friday.

'Rapid antigen testing will no longer be an alternative to vaccination.'

The deadline to get the jab for frontline workers is now September 6, after unions and peak bodies reached an agreement with the government.

Originally the deadline was Monday August 30.

'The rapid antigen testing can still be accommodated through the Covid-safe plans, but the preferred alternative is to have people vaccinated,' Mr Hazzard said.

The worrying surge in cases came after 156,165 people came forward to get vaccinated on Friday - the highest daily vaccination rate number

Weddings will be back on from midnight on Friday with guests of up to five people

Sydneysiders are seen exercising in Bondi Beach on Friday as NSW continues to see record numbers of Covid cases

The eleventh-hour change will now see a number of Sydney hospitals scrambling to book vaccinations for staff living in the 12 identified hotspots.

In further announcements, care workers 16 years and over who live in the hotspot LGAs must have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine before being able to work.

This includes those employed in early education and disability support.

Another change will see authorised workers wanting to leave the area - or workers wanting to enter the area of concern - requiring a formal permit from Service NSW to do so.

The permit then needs to be renewed every two weeks.

Mr Hazzard also shut down inaccurate conspiracy theories circulating on social media that the Covid vaccine was linked to infertility.

'I just want to confirm that the most senior health advisory service in Australia has confirmed absolutely, that there is no evidence whatsoever that a woman's fertility or a man's fertility would be in any way affected by having the vaccine,' he said.

He said for young women considering having children, the risk of getting the virus without a vaccination could mean they could potentially suffer further problems trying to get pregnant.

Saturday's case numbers came from a mammoth 129,182 tests carried out within the past 24 hours to 8pm on Friday.

Of the new infections 714 cases are from Sydney's west and southwest while 78 are from the Nepean and Blue Mountains region.

Western NSW has recorded another 42 infections.

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said there are currently 778 Covid patients in hospital with 125 in intensive care.

Two Sydney residents died from the virus overnight, including one woman in her 70s and another in her 80s, Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said there are currently 778 Covid patients in hospital with 125 in intensive care (pictured healthcare workers in Sydney's east)

Of those in intensive care just one is fully vaccinated.

The woman aged in her 70s who died was at Nepean Hospital while the woman in her 80s was from western Sydney and died at Westmead Hospital.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT STUDENTS GOING BACK TO SCHOOL Students will start returning to school from October 25 with all students back by November 8 Large gathering such as assemblies, band practice and choir will be banned Year groups will be separated and breaks such as recess and lunch will be staggered between students Year 12 students studying for their delayed HSC exams will have full-time access to school campuses for study purposes from October 25 High schoolers and teachers must wear masks while primary students are 'strongly recommended' to do the same Teachers must be vaccinated by November 8 No external visitors will be allowed to attend the school Advertisement

The woman in her 70s had inquired the infection at the hospital earlier this month and brings the deaths linked to the cluster up to four.

NSW has suffered a total of 83 deaths within the recent Covid outbreak.

Dr McAnulty said authorities remained concerned about case numbers escalating in western Sydney suburbs such as Guildford, Merrylands, Auburn, Granville, Bankstown, and Greystanes.

He said Covid fragments had meanwhile been found in sewage in regional NSW areas where no known cases had been recorded including in Moree, Brewarrina, Baradine, Merimbula, and Bonnie Hills.

'Everyone in this area is urged to monitor for the onset of symptoms, and if they appear, to immediately be tested and isolate until a negative result is received,' NSW Health said.

On Friday it was announced children would be returning to school from October 25 after having spent months learning from home.

All children are expected to be back at their desks by November 8, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, after having spent months learning at home.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the return to the classroom will begin with Year 1 and kindergarten students on October 25 and Years 2, 6 and 11 students on November 1.

The remaining year groups will head back to school on November 8.

Vaccinations for all school staff will be mandatory from November 8 while large-scale gatherings such as assemblies, band practice and choir will all be banned.

Year groups will also be kept separate from each other and breaks such as recess and lunch will be staggered between the students.

High schoolers and staff will have to wear masks with Ms Mitchell adding primary students would also be 'strongly recommended' to do the same.
The Queen will attend a reception for the United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow as part of her return to work full-time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Ministers are determined to plough ahead with the Cop26 event despite growing concern over a rise in coronavirus cases.

It is expected to attract 120 heads of state, including US President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg.

Tens of thousands of delegates will also be there.

The Queen will attend a reception for the United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow as part of her return to work full-time since the coronavirus pandemic began

A tweet from the official COP26 account which announced the Queen's involvement read: 'We are pleased to announce Her Majesty The Queen will be attending #COP26.'

Government minister Alok Sharma, who is the president of Cop26, also took to Twitter to say he was 'absolutely delighted' that Her Majesty is attending.

Around 10,000 police officers from around the UK will also be deployed each day during the conference.

Police Scotland described it as 'the most complex and complicated' even which has ever been staged in the country.

The Queen has already been raising awareness of climate change, partly due to the work of naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

She is said to have decided to ban plastic bottles and straws from royal estates in response to his BBC Blue Planet series.

Ministers are determined to plough ahead with the Cop26 event despite growing concern over a rise in coronavirus cases. It is expected to attract 120 heads of state, including US President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg. Tens of thousands of delegates will also be there

And following a meeting with climate experts in Edinburgh last month, the Queen said tackling climate change would mean we have to change 'the way we do things'.

In her busy autumn calendar of events, the sovereign will also address MSPs at the opening ceremony for the new session of the Scottish parliament on October 2.

The event will celebrate the efforts of 'local heroes' during the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the past few years, the Queen  who will attend the Cop26 reception on November 1  has been outspoken about climate change.

In a 2017 speech to the Commons, the monarch - who is currently on her summer break at Balmoral - acknowledged advances such as the Paris Agreement.

A tweet from the official COP26 account which announced the Queen's involvement read: 'We are pleased to announce Her Majesty The Queen will be attending #COP26'

The Queen has already been raising awareness of climate change, partly due to the work of naturalist Sir David Attenborough. In 2018, she walked the grounds of Buckingham Palace with Sir David as part of an ITV special called The Queen's Green Planet

And in 2018, she walked the grounds of Buckingham Palace with Sir David as part of an ITV special called The Queen's Green Planet.

The programme focused on The Queen's Commonwealth Canopy, a network of forest conservation initiatives that Her Majesty started to help reduce carbon emissions and promote nature.

In October 2020, Sir David teamed up with The Queen's grandson Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, for the 50million Earthshot Prize, described as the 'most prestigious environmental project in history'.

Her eldest son, Prince Charles, was one of the earliest advocates for organic farming when, in 1985, he introduced the practice at his 900-acre Highgrove estate  and her late husband, Prince Philip, drove one of the first prototype electric vehicles in the 1970s.

The Duke of Edinburgh was a patron of the World Wide Fund for Nature and a champion of environmental issues.

He toured the world to draw attention to the plight of wildlife endangered by poaching, deforestation and pollution.

News of the Queen's appearance comes only a day after activists descended on Buckingham Palace.

They daubed paint on the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of the palace gates and dyed its fountain water red.

News of the Queen's appearance comes only a day after activists descended on Buckingham Palace

They daubed paint on the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of the palace gates and dyed its fountain water red

The protesters, from Animal Rebellion, a sister group to Extinction Rebellion, said on social media: 'Using Crown land to exploit animals and our planet is a royal blood bath.

'The more power you have, the greater responsibility you have to lead the way into a future which is just and sustainable for all life. We Are Not Amused!'

Before the Cop26 event, the Queen has a packed schedule.

On October 7, the monarch will launch The Queen's Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which are being held in Birmingham.

Five days later, she is set to be joined by her daughter Princess Anne for a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey to mark the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Royal British Legion.

Then, on October 14, Her Majesty will attend the opening ceremony of the sixth session of the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd.

Following the death of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh on April 9, the Queen withdrew from public duties for two weeks.
Bars and restaurants will be off limits for unvaccinated residents in NSW as soon as the state reaches a double dose rate of 70 per cent.

It is an idea set forward as part of a new proposal under consideration by the state government, and talks with leading industry group figures are already under way, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

There is also a possibility all hospitality staff and patrons will need proof they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine before entering hospitality establishments.

Industry sources have confirmed the proposal would include merging vaccination certificates and QR code check-ins.

Bars and restaurants will be off limits for unvaccinated residents in NSW as soon as the state reaches a double dose rate of 70 per cent (pictured, two women enjoying a drink in a Kings Cross bar in Sydney)

This would be run through the Service NSW app or a yet to be released federal government app.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday confirmed planning talks have commenced with those in the hospitality sector.

'It's no secret we have been on that journey,' she said.

'It has been a hard time, it's been a very confronting time... we have been used to having zero or a small number of cases for a long time, and now we're having to confront what living with Covid is like.

'Get fully vaccinated, then you will have options to live a freer life.'

If vaccination numbers continue at an encouraging rate, some lockdown laws could be lifted in NSW by mid-October.

The state government is also considering opening up hairdressing salons as part of a trial - provided clients and workers can both prove they have had at least one vaccination jab.

Ms Berejiklian announced a long-awaited plan to begin returning NSW students to school on Friday.

Kindergarten and year one children will return on October 25, years two, six and 11 go back from November 1, and remaining year groups a week later.

There is also a possibility all hospitality staff and patrons will need proof they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine before entering establishments (pictured, three women eating pizza in Sydney's east pre-lockdown)

NSW is currently the vaccination rollout yardstick across the nation, with 64 per cent of residents having received one dose (pictured, a woman with groceries in Sydney's east)

HSC exams for year 12 students will be pushed back to November 9, and all people working on school campuses must be vaccinated by November 8.

NSW is currently the vaccination rollout yardstick across the nation, with 64 per cent of residents having received one dose compared to the nation's lowest rate of 48 per cent in Western Australia.

On Saturday, NSW reported 1035 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and two more deaths.

'It's about opening safely. It's about opening smartly. It's about opening in a way that is phased. It all doesn't happen on one day,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
Two Indiana high school students were shot outside of school after classes ended Friday, and the suspect is believed to be the victims' classmate.

It's unclear how many suspects are involved, but police said there haven't been any arrests as of Friday night.

One victim was shot in the leg; the other was shot in the arm. Both were rushed to a hospital and are in stable condition, according to police.

The shooting was reported around 2:25pm near Hammond Central High School, which borders Chicago.

Hammond, Indiana police responded to a shooting outside of a high school where two students were found with gunshot wounds

Police believe other students were 'involved' but there haven't been any arrests as of Friday night

What sparked the shooting is unknown at this point.

Angela Herrera, a Hammond High School teacher, told ABC7 said she heard that two students were involved in some sort of altercation.

'The panic is all the students hearing it, knowing that something is happening, that someone has a gun and the stampedes that kind of run through the hallway and such,' Herrera told ABC7 Chicago.

'Trauma would be seeing blood on the floor and knowing that was from a shooting. But they're strong a persistent and want to learn.'
The personal relationship of arguably Australia's best jockey was 'on the rocks' before a 'mind boggling' Covid-19 rule breach at a luxury Airbnb earlier this week.

Leading hoop Jamie Kah, 25, who is engaged to fellow rider Clayton Douglas, was charged with breaking curfew rules in Victoria and fined $5,452.

It will prove to be an expensive mistake, with the nation's best female rider, who rode over 100 winners this season, banned from the lucrative Spring Carnival, where she could have earned up to $300,000.

Fellow jockeys Ben Melham, Ethan Brown and Celine Gaudray were also suspended by furious officials at Racing Victoria following a wild evening at the $500-a-night Airbnb on Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula on Wednesday.

Gun jockey Jamie Kah (pictured) let her hair down this week with fellow jockeys in breach of Covid rules following relationship dramas with fiance Clayton Douglas ( the couple, pictured above)

Ms Kah and Mr Douglas have reportedly been living apart recently as the couple work through 'relationship difficulties,' the Herald Sun reported.

The development comes as a cleaner has claimed the luxury Airbnb holiday house was trashed.

The cleaner found what she believed to be blood stains and wine marks smeared on the floors and even the couch at the lavish short-stay rental in Mornington, south of Melbourne, when she arrived on Friday afternoon.

Several other workers and steam cleaners were required to scrub the three-level property, which sold for $1,225,000 last year.

Jockey Jamie Kah issued an apology via Twitter on Friday writing, 'I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed with myself'

Several cleaning crew, steam cleaners and a mobile pool cleaner were required to scour an Airbnb property (pictured) on Friday that held illegal party attended by star jockey Jamie Kah

The Mornington Airbnb owners were reportedly under the impression the booking was made by essential workers according to an apology letter penned to neighbours

'The place was totally trashed, an absolute mess,' the cleaner told the Herald Sun earlier this week.

'There was blood everywhere, on the couch. The red wine looked like it had been walked through the house.'

A neighbour, who wished not be named, told the publication she knew the owners of the house, saying they were 'extremely apologetic and angry about what happened'.

She also heard the police bang on the door of the rental home just after midnight, saying: 'It got really noisy. You could literally hear everything.'

Police were called to the Tallis Drive property due to a noise complaint just before midnight, reportedly after a tip-off from an estranged partner of one of the jockeys.

'Upon arrival officers located six people inside, all allegedly outside their 5km radius and in breach of curfew,' Victoria Police said in a statement.

All six were fined $5,452 each for breaching the directions of the chief health officer.

The four riders also pleaded guilty to charges laid by racing stewards, of 'failure or refusal to comply with an order, direction, or requirement of the stewards or an official'.

Champion jockey Jamie Kah (left) and three other riders including apprentice Celine Gaudray (right) have been fined for breaking Melbourne's lockdown for an Airbnb party

Stewards suspended the racing licences of all four jockeys for three months.

Kah has apologised for her behaviour.

'I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed with myself,' she said in a statement on Twitter.

'There is no excuse for what I have done and I have let myself down, my family and friends, the racing industry and all Victorians who are doing the right thing in this lockdown.

'I deserve the penalty handed down by the stewards and will take the time to reflect on my actions and its impact on so many people.'

Cleaners described the rental as 'totally trashed' witnessing blood and wine stains on the carpet and couch

A two-day racing tribunal inquiry into the incident concluded on Friday.

The suspension expires at midnight on November 25.

The stewards said they took into account the riders' guilty pleas and expressions of remorse, but the penalties had to be sufficient to deter others from Covid breaches.

Any appeal must be lodged within three days.

Jockey Ben Melham won't be racing Group 1 Memsie Stakes favourite Beau Rossa at Melbourne's Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday

Ethan Brown was one of four jockeys stood down for 14 days after alleged Covid breach

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said he was 'bitterly disappointed' with the jockeys.

'We are always disappointed when people do not follow the rules and we understand Racing Victoria are taking immediate measures and ... will send a strong message,' he told reporters on Friday.

Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson condemned the riders' actions.

'These individuals could have put at risk the very continuance of our sport and also blatantly disregarded the broader community implications through their selfish and thoughtless actions,' he said in a statement on Thursday.

He also warned of the 'critical need' for the industry to follow Covid-19 directives ahead of the Spring Racing carnival.

The racing industry has been allowed to keep operating under Covid restrictions and Racing Victoria says more than 750 race meetings have been held safely since the pandemic began.

Last year's Melbourne Cup carnival was held without spectators at the usually packed Flemington Racecourse.
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The Pentagon has launched a drone strike in the Islamic State's stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, killing a man believed to be involved in planning Thursday's Kabul airport bombing.

The drone hit an ISIS-K member in Nangahar province, U.S. Central Command said.

U.S. official told Reuters the strike was approved by President Joe Biden.

The retaliation came less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 170 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.

The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.

US military 'conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,' Urban said.

'The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.'

An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is pictured flying over southern Afghanistan in 2015. On Friday night the Pentagon said an ISIS-K fighter had been killed by a drone

It wasn't clear if that individual was involved specifically in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation from the country after the Taliban's rapid takeover.

A reaper drone, which took off from the Middle East, struck the militant who was in a car with an Islamic State associate. Both are believed to have been killed, an official told Reuters.

A resident of the eastern city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, said he heard several explosions around midnight on Friday.

'Today we checked and heard it was an air strike that hit a civilian house,' Sayed Ekram told Reuters, adding he had no information about casualties.

It was not clear if the blasts were caused by a U.S. drone strike.

A senior Taliban commander said some ISIS-K members had been arrested in connection with the Kabul attack.

'They are being interrogated by our intelligence team,' the commander said.

Earlier on Friday evening the U.S. once again warned its citizens to get away from the vicinity of Kabul airport.

'U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately,' the State Department warned.

A similar warning was issued in the early hours of Thursday, before the suicide attack was launched.

The airstrike fulfilled a vow Biden made to the nation Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide.

'We will hunt you down and make you pay,' he said.

Pentagon leaders told reporters on Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

'We have options there right now,' said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

A U.S. Air Force plane is seen taking off from Kabul airport on Friday as evacuations continued

Victims of Thursday's attack at Kabul airport are taken to hospital after a suicide bomber struck

The chaotic scenes at Kabul airport - seen on Wednesday, with Afghans waving their papers at soldiers in a desperate bid to get out - were known to be a tempting target for ISIS-K

Thursday's bombing did not surprise analysts, who warned repeatedly about the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  Khorasan Province, known as ISIS-K.

ISIS announced its expansion to the Khorasan region in 2015, which historically encompasses parts of modern day Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

'Every day we're on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians,' said Biden on Tuesday, speaking from the White House.

'We are currently on pace to finish by August the 31st. The sooner we finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops.'

In the early hours of Thursday, before the mid afternoon blast, the American, British and Australian intelligence agencies all issued urgent warnings for their citizens to get away from the airport.

A member of the Afghan security forces is seen holding the black and white Islamic State flag in the Afghan city of Jalalabad in August 2020, after ISIS-K launched a 20-hour gun battle to attack the air field and storm a prison, releasing their fighters. On Thursday ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghans

Joe Biden is seen on Thursday evening speaking about the bombing at Kabul airport earlier in the day. He vowed to hunt down and punish those responsible

ISIS-K is not allied with the Taliban, and, not bound by its agreements with Washington, poses a fresh and deeply worrying threat.

The group first emerged in 2014 as a splinter from another terror group, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - often known simply as the Pakistani Taliban.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies say that many of ISIS-K's top leadership came from the TTP - among them spokesman Sheikh Maqbool, and their first emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan.

Khan, a Pakistani citizen, established an early stronghold in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province - on the border with Pakistan.

In 2015 ISIS-K's formation was officially announced by ISIS's leadership in Iraq and Syria, and the terror network's headquarters have funneled money into their Afghan outpost.

The State Department designated ISIS-K as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on January 14, 2016.

Khan was killed by a U.S. airstrike in July 2016, and his three successors all suffered the same fate.

ISIS-K's current leader is believed to be Shahab al-Muhajir, also known as Sanaullah.

A United Nations report, published in February this year, said that he took over in June 2020.

'The communique announcing the appointment, written in Arabic and translated into Pashto, referred to al-Muhajir as an experienced military leader and one of the 'urban lions' of ISIL-K in Kabul who had been involved in guerrilla operations and the planning of suicide and complex attacks,' the U.N. said.

Al-Muhajir reports to ISIS's leader, an Iraqi by the name of Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi - who took over when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in October 2019.

ISIS-K published this photo in an effort to project unity and strength just days before hundreds of fighters admitted defeat and surrendered

Al-Mawla is the current leader of ISIS, having taken over from Baghdadi, who died in 2019

ISIS-K has encouraged international attacks, but is not believed to be operating beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The group released congratulatory videos after the 2016 Islamic State inspired attacks in Orlando, Florida, and Magnanville, France, and subsequently released additional footage pleading for further lone-wolf attacks in the West.

ISIS-K saw its grip on northern Afghanistan loosened in 2018, and was severely challenged in its heartland in 2019.

The group lost most of the territory it controlled, in eastern Afghanistan, following offensives from the Taliban, the U.S. and Afghan forces.

In March 2020, General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, testified before Congress that the U.S. had worked with the Taliban to attack ISIS-K.

'Over the last several months in eastern Afghanistan, we've watched the Taliban compress and crush ISIS presence on the ground in southern Nangarhar province  and they've been very effective doing that,' McKenzie said.

'It was a bloody mess, but they did it. In fact, ISIS really now no longer holds ground in Nangarhar province.'

Asked directly if the Taliban had any U.S. assistance, he answered: 'There was very limited support from us  and I would characterize that as very limited support.'

CSIS published a map in 2019 showing the concentration of jihadist activity in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas, shown in yellow, where ISIS-K has its stronghold

A close-up of the area in 2019 showing ISIS-K and other jihadi activities

A Department of Defense report from December 2020 said: 'ISIS-K suffered setbacks when a combination of Taliban, Resolute Support, and ANDSF operations forced the loss of its remaining strongholds in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces in 2019.'

The authors warned that ISIS-K still had the ability to launch devastating attacks in Kabul, despite its 'operational capacity' being 'severely degraded.'

The report states that the campaigns against ISIS-K in 2019 weakened its grip on the region.

'Since mid-2019, ISIS-K has taken a less active role in the management of regional ISIS networks following the creation of ISIS-K branches in Pakistan and India,' the report says.

'Its ability to enable or inspire external attacks outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan has been limited.

'Although ISIS continues to develop connections to other networks outside of Afghanistan, it is operationally limited to South and Central Asia.

'There has been no evidence that large numbers of Taliban have defected to ISIS-K in the aftermath of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement.'

ISIS fighters are pictured training in Kunar province in Afghanistan in December 2017

The aftermath of an ISIS-K attack at the University of Kabul is seen in November 2020, with Afghan journalists documenting the scene

By 2020, however, ISIS-K had recovered sufficiently to launch a series of attacks across Afghanistan.

In May 2020, the group attacked a maternity ward in Kabul, killing more than two dozen civilians.

That same day, ISIS-K also carried out a separate attack on a funeral in Nangarhar province, killing more than 30 people.

In August 2020, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a multi-day complex attack targeting Jalalabad Airfield and a prison on the base.

ISIS-K fighters used a Kamikaze driver to blast open the prison walls, and enable fighters on foot to breach the defenses.

A 20-hour gun battle left 29 people dead and officials scrambling to recapture hundreds of prisoners, including many from the Islamic State and the Taliban.

And three months later, on November 2, 2020, two ISIS-K gunmen stormed Kabul University, killing 18 students, one administrator, and one Afghan soldier, and wounding 28 others.

In May 2021 ISIS-K bombed a girls' school in Kabul, killing 90. A car bomb was detonated in front of the school, and as students rushed out, two more bombs were set off.

The attack took place in a Hazara-dominated area, home to a mostly Shiite group that has been frequent targets of Islamic State attacks.

A burnt-out car is seen in front of Jalalabad prison in Afghanistan after ISIS-K attacked in August 2020

Injured people are put onto stretchers following an ISIS-K bombing of a funeral in Jalalabad in May 2020

The U.S. estimates that ISIS-K currently numbers around 2,000 fighters - down from its peak of 5,000.

The Taliban reportedly executed an ISIS-K leader this month.

'This is indeed part of the ebb and flow of the jihad,' said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, at the time of the U.N. report in February.

'ISKP appeals to the most radical elements of the jihadists, and its penchant for extreme violence without concern for civilian casualties attracts a significant number of followers.'

And, he told Voice of America, their number may grow if the Taliban rule disappoints hardliners.

'They are able to replenish some losses from disaffected Afghan and Pakistani Taliban members, as well as from the pool of radicals in Afghanistan and Pakistan,' he said.
Tucker Carlson criticized President Biden's evacuations in Afghanistan as he warned the refugees are not being properly vetted, which could allow in terrorist cells and Afghans who have never worked with the US.

Carlson, and his fellow Fox News host Hannity, both raised concerns after the Biden administration revealed that one refugee was discovered to be on the terror watch list.

'Who... are all of these Afghans? They just whisk on through. That means as always unnamed foreign nationals got far better treatment than you would get if you landed in Dulles Airport,' Carlson said.

Tucker Carlson questioned the U.S. evacuation effort in Afghanistan after an anonymous pilot told him that Afghan civilians are being airlifted and taken in without going through customs

Another airline employee told Carlson that her flight ferried in rowdy Afghan nationals who did not wear air masks. Pictured, one of the evacuation flights on August 23

Afghan refugees are pictured on one of the flights out of Kabul after being escorted to the airport by a group of volunteer special ops veterans

On his show on Friday, Carlson claimed an anonymous United Airlines pilot flying out of Afghanistan never received a passenger manifest, nor would the State Department tell him any passengers information with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol when arriving in the U.S.

United Airlines did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request to confirm the pilot's claim.

According to Carlson, another commercial airline employee told him she was happy to learn that her flight crew would be ferrying American civilians trying to escape Kabul.

Instead, the crew only picked up Afghan nationals who were rowdy and had no facemasks, Carlson said.

Carlson also criticized the number of people the U.S. had evacuated from Afghanistan, saying the nations number one priority should be American citizens.

'Since July, the United States has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan. All heroes? All Americans? No.'

As of tonight, about 5,000 total are American citizens. Five per cent. So you're thinking the other five per cent must be heroes? All translators? 95,000 translators? No.

'[The] military might be heroes. Maybe translators. [The rest], they're not heroes. We don't know who they are.'

Carlson ultimately said the U.S. did not have a moral obligation to help Afghan refugees, saying the cost to take care of them would outweigh the benefits they would provide the country.

He claimed that while the refugees would get free housing and healthcare, they would not contribute back to society by starting businesses.

There's 'no proof they're loyal' and 'no proof they're entrepreneurial,' Carlson said.

He also went on to criticize politicians who have pushed for the U.S. to take in those fleeing the Taliban's control in Afghanistan.

He named U.S. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barbra Lee as those pushing for more refugees to be accepted.

Fellow Fox talk show host Sean Hannity echoed Carlson's statements, criticizing President Joe Biden and his administration's work in evacuating Afghan refugees.

'How does Biden plan to vet what is now tens of thousands of Afghan refugees? As we speak, there's too many refugees flying in to Washington D.C. Apparently they're doing the vetting after people are in the air flying to this country, Hannity claimed.

Sean Hannity spoke with Afghanistan's Vice President President Amrullah Saleh, who is leading the opposition against the Taliban and has asked the U.S. not to abandon Afghans

Saleh has called on the U.S. to help fight back against the Taliban take over of the country

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, left, and U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz are urging the Biden administration to back the Afghan government against the Taliban foces

It's causing a massive bottle neck at Dulles International airport. We need to know how these individuals are being vetted. Reports that already over 100 people that have come to America from Afghanistan are also on our terrorist watch lists.'

Hannity also interviewed Afghanistan's Vice President Amrullah Saleh, the leader of the opposition party.

Saleh begged the US to 'not abandon Afghanistan' and called on America to 'use their power of convening and power of bringing nations together to create alliance for peace after they created an alliance for war against terrorism.'

Hannity then asked what kind of military assistance the US could send to help to which Saleh reiterated that he wanted US support.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Mike Waltz, of Florida, were also interviewed by Hannity and said they have been in contact with the Afghan government and are open to help Afghan forces fight back against the Taliban

'After speaking with Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh and representatives of Ahmad Massoud, we are calling on the Biden Administration to recognize these leaders as the legitimate government representatives of Afghanistan,' Graham and Waltz said in a joint statement. 'We ask the Biden Administration to recognize that the Afghan Constitution is still intact, and the Afghan Taliban takeover is illegal.'

A group of volunteer Afghanistan veterans smuggled into Kabul this week to save hundreds of Afghan Special Forces troops and their families by getting them to the airport to be put on flights out of the city. The men made their own way into Kabul after watching the bungled evacuation from afar. The ad-hoc group have been able to get more than 600 vulnerable Afghans to the airport to be put on flights

Afghan refugees arriving at the Rota Air Base in Spain on Friday. The airbase is shared by American and Spanish military forces

The government rescue mission became even more tragic on Thursday when ISIS bombers targeted the crowds at the airport, slaughtering 170 people with a suicide bomb that also killed 13 US troops.

It has since emerged that Biden's administration also gave a list of Afghan allies' names to the Taliban in the naive hope they would then help get them out. Former President Donald Trump called it a 'kill list' that all but guaranteed their deaths.

The US now one of the only nations still evacuating from Kabul amid increasing threats of another ISIS attack.

Some of the Afghans being helped by Pineapple Express were injured in yesterday's suicide bomb attack but it's unclear if any were killed. The US has just four days to get as many s 1,000 Americans out plus another 5,000 Afghans who helped in the war.

General Kenneth McKenzie, who is running the US operation on the ground in Kabul, warned on Thursday that another ISIS attack - specifically a car bomb similar to one used on Thursday - was imminent.

The death toll from the attack at the airport is now 170. Thirteen US troops were killed, the first American lives lost since the evacuation carnage began on August 14.

All evacuation flights must stop by Tuesday night and the US must start putting troops and equipment on the planes soon.

It leaves a tiny window of opportunity for thousands of people who want to flee to get out, diminishing the hope of many Afghans who have not been given special interest visas and must now make a run for the border in Pakistan or stay and live under Taliban rule.

One of the veterans who took part in the Pineapple Express mission was a retired Green Beret known as 'Lawrence of Afghanistan'.

'I have been involved in some of the most incredible missions and operations that a special forces guy could be a part of, and I have never been a part of anything more incredible than this.

'The bravery and courage and commitment of my brothers and sisters in the Pineapple community was greater than the U.S. commitment on the battlefield. I just want to get my people out,' he told ABC News.

President Joe Biden crumbled on Thursday night as he took questions from reporters about the suicide bomb attacks

Retired SEAL Commander Dan O'Shea accompanied a U.S. citizen, who served as an operative, and his Afghan father and his father on foot.

'He was not willing to let his father and his brother behind; even it meant he would die. He refused to leave his family.

'Leaving a man behind is not in our SEAL ethos. Many Afghans have a stronger vision of our democratic values than many Americans do.'

Before Thursday's attack, another 130 were smuggled to the airport to be put on flights.

'Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom,' Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret commander, told ABC.
A landlord in upstate New York has been forced to live out of her car after the tenants of her three properties refused to pay rent for almost a year - while she is unable to evict them due to the state and federal moratoriums.

Brandie LaCasse, who is owed more than $23,000 in uncollected rent from her three properties, has not received rental assistance funds from the government after at least one of her tenants were approved for rental help, CBS News reported.

LaCasse, an Air Force veteran, has been left effectively homeless without the income to support herself and her daughter. The single mother and her daughter have been living out of her car or staying with friends.

'I've cried many nights, like thinking, 'Where's my money?'' she said.

She added: 'I don't understand how they can give my private property to somebody to live for free. I bought that property. I fixed it up with my blood, sweat and tears.'

'I invested in these properties, never thinking I wouldn't have a place to live. I just want my house. That's it. I just want my house,' LaCasse said.

A landlord in upstate New York has been living out of her car while state and federal moratoriums prevent her from evicting her tenants who are unable to pay rent

Brandie LaCasse, who owns three properties, has not been paid rent for almost a year and is owed more than $23,000 in uncollected rent

LaCasse, an Air Force veteran, has been left effectively homeless without the income to support herself and her daughter

LaCasse claimed she had notified her tenants that they needed to move out so that she could move in - when they decided to stop paying her rent.

Her tenant Carla McArthur, who was approved for rental assistance, expressed her sympathies for the landlord's position - but told CBS News that she can't pay rent because of the high costs for childcare for her daughter and autistic son.

'I feel bad that I have not been able to pay her,' McArthur said. 'We've gone from two incomes. I had COVID-19 twice. My kids all have had it once. My husband's had it once. We've been affected by the virus.'

McArthur said she worries that LaCasse will kick her family to the curb when the moratorium has been lifted - leaving them homeless in the process.

'I'm not sure what she may do when the moratorium's lifted,' McArthur said. 'That's what I'm afraid of, being homeless.'

LaCasse's situation represents the current state for many landlords across the country, as the U.S. Treasury Department has noted that almost 90 percent of rental assistance funds have not been distributed.

New York has only doled out about 8 percent of the $2.6 billion federally allotted for the rental assistance to landlords, CBS News noted.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen sent a landlord to state and local government leaders addressing the eviction moratorium. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Housing Secretary Marcia L. Fudge also signed onto the letter.

'We are writing to request your urgent help preventing unnecessary evictions during the pandemic,' Yellen wrote.

'Our bottom line is this: No one should be evicted before they have the chance to apply for rental assistance, and no eviction should move forward until that application has been processed.'

LaCasse's tenant Carla McArthur, who was approved for rental assistance, expressed her sympathies for the landlord's position

McArthur said she worries that LaCasse will kick her family to the curb when the moratorium has been lifted - leaving them homeless in the process

Yellen added that the Treasury Department 'remains laser-focused' on ensuring Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds make it into the hands of renters and landlords quickly.

'It is critical that renters be given the chance to receive that aid before being subject to eviction,' Yellen wrote.

'Many state and local governments are working hard to get rental assistance to those in need as quickly as possible, and these policies will help ensure renters are not evicted before those resources reach them.'

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University has released a new report on 'How Are Landlords Faring During the COVID-19 Pandemic?'

The study surveyed more than 2,500 rental property owners in 10 cities across the United States to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on landlords' rent collection and business behavior.

'Ten percent of all landlords collected less than half of their yearly rent in 2020, with smaller landlords (1-5 units) most likely to have tenants deeply behind on rental payments,' the study concluded.

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen sent a landlord to state and local government leaders addressing the eviction moratorium

The study found that the percentage of landlords granting rental extensions to tenants increased from 15 percent in 2019 to 48 percent in 2020.

The percentage of landlords who forgave back rent owed by tenants increased from just 3 percent to 21 percent.

The study also found that landlords were more likely to take punish tenants of color with late rental fees, evictions, and the lack of rental forgiveness.

The U.S. Census Bureau released results of its periodic Household Pulse Survey on Wednesday, which painted a dire picture of eviction risk in the country. The agency used the results 68,799 responses to provide estimates for the nation at large.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Thursday that the Biden administration is 'disappointed' that the Supreme Court blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent eviction moratorium.

'As a result of this ruling, families will face the painful impact of evictions, and communities across the country will face greater risk of exposure to COVID-19,' Psaki said in the statement.

'In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission, President Biden is once again calling on all entities that can prevent evictions  from cities and states to local courts, landlords, Cabinet Agencies  to urgently act to prevent evictions.'


The Jacksonville Historical Society unearthed previously and purposely buried video of 'Ax Handle Saturday,' a white mob's brutal racist beating of black people - including children and teenagers - on August 28, 1960.

The attack received little media attention at the time, and media blackout ensured footage like this wouldn't be seen. They town mayor denied it ever happened.

The 44-second, soundless clip shows angry hoards of white men armed with ax handles and other weapons chasing down black people after a sit-in demonstration at a diner.

The video shows the attack from different angles. At the 16-second mark, the video shows an aerial view of white men swinging ax handles at a black man.

The graphic footage continues with white men ganging up on black people, punching him and knocking them to the ground while white police officers watched.

WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

A mob of white men ganged up on black people and beat them with ax handles and other weapons

Black people were punched, beaten and thrown to the ground while police watched

Mitch Hemann, a senior archivist for the Historical Society, said, 'It is very brutal footage, but it is important footage'

One of the victims was Nat Glover, who went on to serve as the Sheriff of Jacksonville from 1995-2003. He was 17 at the time.

He pleaded with a white police officer for help, and the officers only response was, 'You better get out of here before they kill you,' The Jaxson reported in 2020.

Mitch Hemann, a senior archivist for the Historical Society, told News4Jax on Friday - the 61st anniversary of the attack - that the historical society worked with Florida State College at Jacksonville to find the the footage.

'We dug a little bit on Ax Handle Saturday and we found you could find material related to this in other parts of the world,' Hemann told News4Jax.

'Here there was a media blackout, so theres very little footage or documentation of it. But even 60 years later, if you dig properly, you can still find this information.'

The video has different angles, including this aerial view. It's unclear who took the video

The attack followed a sit-in demonstration, and black people were followed by the racist mob through the streets of downtown Jacksonville

'It is very brutal footage, but it is important footage,' he said.

'With the media blackout at the time, thats a measure in terms of trying to keep these stories out of the public. Every little frame of footage you can find today is precious because of that.'

The video is a mixture of various angles, but it's unclear who took the footage.

News4Jax reported that Hemann said it has a connection to a Jacksonville journalist named Harry Reagan, a former investigative reporter for WJXT and JHS board member.
Portable morgues have been sent to 14 hospital systems in Central Florida as hospitals and crematoriums hit capacity due to a surge in Covid cases linked to the highly-contagious Delta variant.

During a Covid-19 update on Thursday Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said: 'The Florida Hospital Association is reporting over 16,700 people are currently hospitalized in the state of Florida. The Hospital Association also reports that this number is nearly two thirds higher than the previous peak of hospitalizations in July of 2020.

'Thirty six per cent of all patients and hospitals have the coronavirus. In addition, 55 per cent of those in the ICUs, or intensive care units, have the disease.'

In the past seven days there have been an average of 21,534 new cases and 212 reported deaths, compared to 15,818 infections and 58 fatalities this time last month, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

Despite the inflated number of infections and hospitalizations Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued executive orders banning mask mandates and vaccine passports for certain businesses.

Only 53.8 per cent of Florida's population is fully vaccinated.

Portable morgues (pictured in file photo) have been sent to 14 hospital systems in Central Florida as hospitals and crematoriums hit capacity due to a surge in Covid cases linked to the highly-contagious Delta variant

The Central Florida Disaster Medical Coalition said each hospital system will be sent different amounts of portable morgues depending on the size of the facility

The Central Florida Disaster Medical Coalition said each hospital system will be sent different amounts of portable morgues depending on the size of the facility.

Three will go to Advent Health and Orlando Health while only one will be sent to Orlando Health, Leesburg, HCA-East Florida, HCA-North Florida, Steward, Cleveland Clinic and Health First.

Demings also confirmed hospital morgues are at capacity and announced a seven-day extension of the state of emergency order at the 150th Covid update since March of last year:

Kimberly Mitchell, the owner of Mitchell's Funeral Home - a crematorium in Orlando - told News 6: 'Covid has never gone away. As you can see the hospitals are starting to run out of room.'

Mitchell also said that the funeral home is running out of room in the refrigerators used to store dead bodies.

'It is still important that we pull together, get vaccinated and mask up to get a handle on the surge that we're presently experiencing,' Demings said.

'There are now more than 192,000 coronavirus cases reported in Orange County... But for the first time in quite a while now, our new cases are under 1,000 in one day,' he added.

According to the mayor's Covid update more than 16,700 people are currently hospitalized in the state of Florida and 36 per cent of those patients have the virus

'Fifty five per cent of those in the ICUs, or intensive care units, have the disease,' Demings reported

'In fact, yesterday, 815 new cases were reported. That's still not a good number but it is trending in the right direction. The number of deaths in Orange County now stands at 1,482, which is eight more than we reported on Monday of this week. Sadly I have to report that two additional Orange County employees die this week of Covid-related illnesses.'

But Florida isn't the only state resorting to portable morgues. A mobile morgue was set up in Brooklyn, New York, last month and housed around 200 bodies in it to help deal with New York's Covid fatalities.

NYC officials were also preparing to bury the remains of those held in the refrigerated truck trailers being held on Hart Island, which is a public cemetery used to bury unclaimed dead or for people who can't afford burials.

On Friday the US recorded 135,245 cases of Covid-19 with a seven-day rolling average of 151,005, a 145 per cent increase from the 61,451 average reported four weeks ago

Deaths have also risen with 1,405 virus-related fatalities recorded on Friday and a seven-day rolling average of 1,043, a 320 per cent spike from the average of 248 reported 28 days ago

Horrifying aerial photos of 50 refrigerated trucks filled with 650 unclaimed bodies of people who had died from the virus surfaced in November of last year. The trucks were parked along a Brooklyn waterfront, neatly lined in the parking lot of the 39th Street Pier in Sunset Park, which was dubbed the 'disaster morgue'.

In May, NYC officials revealed 750 bodies of virus victims - 100 more than originally reported - had been in the refrigerated trucks for up to a full year, since the makeshift morgue was set up in April 2020. Some families even ignored requests to reclaim their relatives' remains.

Meanwhile, the Delta variant has been bringing on a raging fourth wave of the pandemic that's sweeping the entire country.

Some 50 freezer trucks parked on the 39th Street Pier in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn have been converted into makeshift morgues that are storing 650 unclaimed bodies of Covid-19 fatalities

In May, NYC officials revealed 750 bodies of virus victims - 100 more than originally reported - had been in the refrigerated trucks for up to a full year, since the makeshift morgue was set up in April 2020

On Tuesday, the US recorded 135,245 cases of Covid-19 with a seven-day rolling average of 151,005 - a 145 per cent increase from the 61,451 average reported four weeks ago, and the highest figure seen since January.

Last week cases had grown by 207 per cent in one month and the week prior, the increase 393 per cent.

Deaths are also on the rise with 1,405 virus-related fatalities recorded on Tuesday and a seven-day rolling average of 1,043 - the fourth day in a row the average has surpassed four figures.

This marks a 320 per cent increase from the average of 248 reported 28 days prior and the highest number reported since March 22.

Meanwhile hospitals are facing surges of patients with more than three-quarters of all intensive care unit beds (ICU) in use, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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Hurricane Ida battered Cuba on Friday before it started to make its way into the Gulf of Mexico in a beeline toward Louisiana, where it's expected to hit as a Category 4 storm on the anniversary of deadly Hurricane Katrina.

The storm hit Cuba with roof-ripping force and sustained winds of up to 80 miles per hour on Friday, prompting evacuations of flood-prone New Orleans neighborhoods and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ida first hit Cuba's small Isle of Youth, off the southwestern end of the Caribbean island nation, toppling trees and tearing roofs from buildings soon after it was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane.

The storm made its way towards the province of Pinar del Rio on mainland Cuba where more than 10,000 people had been evacuated and the electricity was cut off before it hit as a precaution.

An old American car rides under the rain in Havana on Friday as Hurricane Ida passes through eastern Cuba

A man, using a piece of plastic against protection of the rain caused by Hurricane Ida, rides his horse on a road leading to Batabano, in the Mayabeque province of Cuba on Friday

A utility pole bends from winds caused by Hurricane Ida on a road leading to Batabano, in the Mayabeque province of Cuba on Friday

The coast of Batabano in eastern Cuba is seen on Friday as Hurricane Ida passed through

Hurricane Ida battered Cuba on Friday before it started to make its way into the Gulf of Mexico in a beeline toward Louisiana, where it's expected to hit as a Category 4 storm

Shoppers at Home Depot in New Orleans are seen getting plywood, gas tanks, umbrellas and buckets ahead of Hurricane Ida on Friday

Slim pickings at the Walmart on Tchoupitolas in New Orleans, Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida. Breads, meats, snacks, canned meats, cases of water, chips and fans are in short supply

There were no deaths or major reports of damage as of Friday night.

The streets of Havana, the capital, had been emptied as residents shuttered themselves at home ahead of Ida's arrival. Public transport was suspended by midday.

The Cuban government issued a hurricane warning for its westernmost provinces, where forecasters said as much as 20 inches of rain could fall in places, possibly unleashing deadly flash floods and mudslides.

Government forecasters had also warned that the storm could bring surges to Cuba's western coastline.

Ivonne Deulofeu, who lives in the western town of Vinales, said strong winds persisted for hours on Friday.

'It shook us up hard. It was really frightening. We had to nail the doors of the rooms,' Deulofeu said. 'The plants, theyre all gone.'

Jamaica was also flooded by heavy rains, and there were landslides after the passage of the storm. Many roads were impassable, forcing some residents to abandon their homes.

The storm was 105 miles west of Havana and traveling northwest at 15 mph by late Friday night.

A man is seen loading boards on a truck to board up a home or business on Friday

Residents of New Orleans are bracing for Hurricane Ida near the anniversary of deadly Hurricane Katrina

Jennifer Tate fuels up a gas can next to bottled water an other supplies as she prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Ida in Pass Christian, Mississippi on Friday

Shelves are seen low on stack at a Walmart on Tchoupitolas in New Orleans, Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida on Friday. Breads, meats, snacks, canned meats, cases of water, chips and fans are in short supply

Shoppers at Costco in New Orleans stock up on supplies ahead of Hurricane Ida

Lines at gas stations are flowing into the streets and an Exxon in New Orleans has already closed its pumps because it is out of gas on Friday

The entrance to the Pontchartrain Causeway displays a high winds warning ahead of Hurricane Ida's landfall on Friday

The National Weather Service said it expects Hurricane Ida to intensify significantly before coming ashore as a major hurricane in southeastern Louisiana on Sunday afternoon or evening.

Louisiana declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm and officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans and flood-prone coastal towns on the state's coast such as Grand Isle.

A voluntary evacuation for residents inside the levee system. Since the storm quickly escalated in intensity, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said it wasn't possible to order a mandatory evacuation for the entire city.

Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 when it made landfall southwest of New Orleans 16 years ago on the exact date Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall.

'People are packing and leaving right now,' Scooter Resweber, police chief in Grand Isle nola.com. 'We know this is going to be a big one.'

The weather channel estimated that wind speeds will reach 130mph by early Sunday morning as it nears Louisiana

Louisiana declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm

As the storm plowed into Cuba on Friday night, the NWS issued a slurry of alarming tweets warning that Hurricane Ida shows 'no signs on weakening.'

Officials have already ordered mandatory evacuations outside the levee-protected areas of New Orleans and flood-prone coastal towns on the state's coast such as Grand Isle

As the storm plowed into Cuba on Friday night, the NWS issued a slurry of alarming tweets warning that Hurricane Ida shows 'no signs on weakening.'

'If Ida maintains a good inner core it will intensify quickly as it enters the Gulf. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THIS! If you are asked to evacuate, LEAVE or you're putting your life in danger!' the NWS asserted.

In another tweet, the NWS wrote: 'The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane. This will bring SIGNIFICANT impacts to Southern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. No major changes to the track at this time, moved just a touch to the east.'

'Along with the change to a Category 4 landfall we also now have upgraded to a Hurricane WARNING for parts of southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi. Damaging winds are expected with Ida and could reach the coast by Saturday night.'

The agency said that a storm surge warning is also now in effect for the likelihood of life-threatening storm surge in some areas of southeaster Louisiana and coastal Mississippi - while a storm surge watch is in effect for the potential of life-threatening storm surge for outer areas.

Shelves were seen low on stock at a Walmart on Tchoupitolas in New Orleans, Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida on Friday. Breads, meats, snacks, canned meats, cases of water, chips and fans are in short supply.

Shoppers at Costco in New Orleans stocked up on supplies like bottles of water and toilet paper ahead of Hurricane Ida. Lines at gas stations flowed into the streets and an Exxon in New Orleans has already closed its pumps because it is out of gas.

City officials said residents need to be prepared for prolonged power outages, and asked elderly residents to consider evacuating. Collin Arnold, the city's emergency management director, said the city could be under high winds for about ten hours.

Terrebonne Parish officials also told everyone to evacuate, WWL-TV reported.

'If you can leave on your own, please leave on your own,' Parish President Gordon Dove said. 'We are the bullseye by every indication, of everything we have found.'

Heavy rainfall and flooding have already began to affect Mississippi ahead of Ida's suspected landfall.

President Joe Biden approved a federal emergency declaration for Louisiana ahead of the storm. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said FEMA plans to send nearly 150 medical personnel and almost 50 ambulances to the Gulf Coast to assist strained hospitals.
A devoted mother has slammed Sydneysiders who refuse to follow lockdown restrictions after her sick daughter was rushed to hospital with breathing problems and she was unable to be by her bedside.

Strict Covid restrictions kept Claire Landon-Sayers from seeing her seven-year-old daughter Emily, who has severe cerebral palsy, for four days.

Emily was confined to a hospital bed having her airways 'suctioned' to remove fluid after contracting an infections earlier this month.

'The reality we live, that could be anyone's (if they get Covid) it's not fun it's not something you'd wish on anyone,' Ms Landon-Sayers told Daily Mail Australia.

'We just feel some people (not all) are not "getting it" or don't care and that's just not okay.'

Contracting rhinovirus and enterovirus, which are usually harmless infections for the common man, had Emily on the verge of a life-saving medical emergency.

A Sydney mother unable to visit her sick daughter having emergency hospital care for breathing problems has slammed people who refuse to obey Covid health guidelines

Covid restrictions kept Claire Landon-Sayers from seeing her seven-year-old Emily, who has severe Cerebral Palsy for an excruciating four days while she had her lungs suctioned

Claire Landon-Sayers and her husband Ben who cared for their daughter Emily in hospital while mum remained at home to care for her two other children

'Emily still got two viruses - rhinovirus and enterovirus - and they floored her. She was needing constant suctioning to keep her airways clear... she was struggling to breathe and it almost ended up as a transfer to Westmead,' Ms Landon-Sayers wrote on Facebook.

'But because of the great care taken of her by her amazing dad and carer Kathryn via the hospital she's come out the other side, although not 100 per cent.'

Emily suffered a severe brain injury at birth, confining her to a wheelchair and limiting communication to facial expressions and gestures.

She requires constant medical care which means the disruptions caused by a pandemic can have devastating consequences for families like hers that survive on high levels of healthcare.

Ms Landon-Sayers wrote a heart-wrenching post on her Facebook page for Emily about how angry she was that some people refuse to make any sacrifices for their own families - and indirectly put vulnerable people like Emily at risk by going on as normal.

'This is scary! This is a normal cold type virus for you and I and we are doing the right thing,' she wrote of the impact of rhinovirus and enterovirus on Emily.

'We still get viruses into our house with online shopping and absolutely minimal contact.

'For anyone flouting the rules, not adhering to the restrictions... you are basically putting my daughters life at risk. Stop it!'

She said Australians refusing to do the right thing are 'gambling' with people's health.

Emily requires constant medical help and care, which means the disruptions caused by a pandemic can have devastating consequences for families that survive on high levels of healthcare

Father Ben and seven year old Emily who has Quadriplegic Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy

'You are threatening our well-being and your own and you have no right playing Russian roulette with others' lives,' she continued.

'From a family who have to endure putting tubes down their loved one's [throat] on a regular basis, take one day in our reality and have a reality check of what you're gambling - of what you may have to go through.'

Ms Landon-Sayers wrote that both she and her husband Ben's hearts were 'full of love and fear' in recent weeks.

'We've just got our girl back from hospital. I didn't see her for the longest time in her whole life,' a relieved Ms Landon-Sayers wrote.

Dr Lucy Morgan (pictured) has described the harrowing reality of Covid, with many children being left alone in hospitals to reduce the risk of transmission

Dr Morgan urged Australians to get vaccinated as soon as possible to free up hospital beds for people sick with illnesses other than Covid-19 (stock image)

'Let's get back to being intelligent, caring, loving people and doing the due process so we can all get back to our loved ones and in the interim keep them safe.'

Ms Landon-Sayers told Daily Mail Australia Covid will make life even more difficult for her family.

'Ems is amazing and always smiles again and battles through but our reality will forever be changed post-Covid,' she said.

'We won't ever even after we "open up" be able to go "let's just book a trip here". We will worry about who is vaccinated and who isn't - not just for her but for us and her care givers with whom she would not be as well loved and cared for by anyone else.'

Cerebral palsy suffers, especially those who contract recurrent respiratory infections, are considered a high risk for severe Covid reactions - although the impact on children is thought to be less severe than on adults.

The family shared their story in support of Cerebral Palsy Alliance's STEPtember campaign, which starts next month.

It's a virtual challenge that calls on Australians to take 10,000 steps a day for 30 days to raise a target of $11 million to improve the lives of the 40,000 people in Australia with cerebral palsy.
China's defense ministry protested the 'provocative' passage of two US vessels traveling through the passage between China and Taiwan.

A US Navy warship and Coast Guard sailed through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China, on Friday.

A statement posted on the ministry's website on Saturday called the move 'provocative' and said it shows that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability and creator of security risks in the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Taiwan Strait.

'We express firm opposition and strong condemnation,' the statement said.

'Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,' Tan Kefei, a Chinese defense ministry spokesman, said in a statement according to Reuters. 'The Taiwan issue is China's internal affair and allows no external interference.

We call on the U.S. to recognize the situation, stop provocation and abide by the One China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques.'

US Coast Guard cutter Munro, bottom, and Japan Coat Guard patrol vessel Large Aso sail together in formation through the East China Sea on Aug. 25

The USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed 'through international waters in accordance with international law,' the US Navy said.

Such exercises are seen as a warning to China, which recently conducted drills near Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring the island under its control.

'The ships lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,' a statement from the Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said.

Taiwan, home to 23.6 million people, split from China during a civil war that led to the Communist Party taking control of the mainland in 1949. The US does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a representative office in the capital, Taipei, and is its biggest supplier of military equipment for its defense.

The US Coast Guard has been stepping up its presence in Asia, as the Chinese coast guard patrols near disputed islands that both China and other governments claim in the South and East China Seas.

The 418-foot (127-meter) long Munro, which is based in Alameda, California, arrived in the region in mid-August for what the US Coast Guard said would be a monthslong deployment. It trained with a Japanese coast guard ship, the Aso, in the East China Sea for two days earlier this week.

US Coast Guard National Security Cutter Munro travels through the Taiwan Strait during a routine transit with Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG 100) on Aug. 27. China's defense ministry protested the passage of the vessels on Saturday

The US and Taiwan coast guards held talks this month after the two signed a cooperation agreement in March. China has denounced the agreement.

The recent talks included the State Department's approval earlier this month of 40 self-propelled howitzers- large artillery equipment- to Taiwan.

Saturday's defense ministry statement said that 'Taiwan is an inalienable part of China,' and that China would not tolerate any interference in what it called its internal affairs.

The symbolic move by the US follows Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to Singapore and Vietnam, in part to communicate support for America's Asian allies as they deal with China's influence in the region.

During her trip she accused China of 'bullying and excessive maritime claims.'
All New York students, staff and faculty must wear masks while at school under a new mandate.

The move has been slammed by many who accused politicians of 'social conditioning' children to accept the government decisions. Others welcomed it to prevent the spread of the virus, especially as the Delta variant runs wild.

The news came just three days after newly sworn Gov. Kathy Hochul told New Yorkers to expect a school-mask mandate.

Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter welcomed back students at P.S. 5 on August 17. New York City Schools have had mask mandates in place since last year

Newly sworn in Governor Kathy Hochul said she pushed for the masking mandate at the behest of school officials. She is working to implement vaccine requirements in the near future

Hochul said she ordered the state's DOH to issue the universal masking policy for anyone entering a school building due to high demand from school district officials, NBC reported.

'They told me they want this to happen, they just want to cover. They want to be able to go back to their parents at a school board meeting and say this is a state mandate, we had to follow it,' Hochul said.

'So, because they did have that they were the ones that were that front of all the criticism and I have no trouble, problem at all, assuming that responsibly. I'm going do that.'

The reaction to the mandate was mixed, with several people praising and criticizing the governor's actions.

New York's school mask mandate received praise and criticisms on Twitter

Twitter user Alicia Ferrari praised the governor for her actions. Ferrari tweeted, 'Our family was so COVID sick last year. When you get sick, it becomes obvious that this is common sense, not politics.'

Fellow tweeter Matthew Jones, however, was much more critical of the new mandate.

'This will teach kids its normal for the government to tell you what to do. Wake the F up people,' he tweeted.

Hochul said the state is also working to implement a program to require all school personnel to be either vaccinated or get tested weekly for coronavirus.

'To accomplish this in New York, we need partnerships with all levels of government and Im working now on getting this done,' Hochul said in a Tuesday news conference.

New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta , who leads the state's largest teaching union, said he supported the mask mandate as well as regular COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated staff, but he said it was critical to keep educators in the loop whenever such mandates are passed.

New York City has already had a mask mandate in place since last year, and all NYC school employees are required to have their first vaccination shot by September 27.

There will be no testing option.

Meanwhile in Florida, a judge has blocked Governor Ron DeSantis' executive order banning mask mandates in schools, ruling that the governor overstepped his authority.

Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper agreed with a group of parents who claimed in a lawsuit that DeSantis' order is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced.

Cooper said DeSantis' order 'is without legal authority.'

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured last week) overstepped his authority by banning mask mandates in schools, a judge has ruled

His decision came after a three-day virtual hearing, and after at least 10 Florida school boards voted to defy DeSantis and impose mask requirements with no parental opt-out.

Cooper's decision will lift the ban on mask mandates imposed in 10 of the state's 67 countywide school districts, including most of the largest.

The districts represent more than half of the state's 2.8 million public school students enrolled this year.

DeSantis, a Republican who is eyeing a possible presidential run in 2024, had threatened to impose financial penalties on school boards that vote for strict mask mandates. Democratic President Joe Biden has said if that happens, federal money will be used to cover any costs.

DeSantis' office slammed the 'incoherent' decision in a statement and said they planned to appeal the ruling immediately.

'Its not surprising that Judge Cooper would rule against parents rights and their ability to make the best educational and medical decisions for their family, but instead rule in favor of elected politicians,' the statement said. 'This ruling was made with incoherent justifications, not based in science and facts  frankly not even remotely focused on the merits of the case presented.'

'We will continue to defend the law and parents rights in Florida, and will immediately appeal the ruling to the First District Court of Appeals, where we are confident we will prevail on the merits of the case,' the statement added.

The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration in cases around Florida and record high hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month. By mid-August, more than 21,000 new cases were being added per day, compared with about 8,500 a month earlier. The state said 16,820 people were hospitalized on Tuesday, down from a record of more than 17,000 last week.

About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks while in school, according to a poll conducted this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Several hundred American decisions are yet to decide whether to leave Afghanistan, the State Department said on Friday - despite the deadline for U.S. military withdrawal being only four days away.

Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, said that some people were changing their minds every time they were asked, as they agonized over their decision.

He said that since August 14  the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban  at least 5,100 American citizens have been evacuated, including 300 in the previous 24 hours.

'There are approximately 500 American citizens we are currently working with who want to leave and with whom we are communicating directly to facilitate their evacuations,' Price said.

Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, said on Friday that several hundred U.S. citizens have yet to decide whether to leave Afghanistan

A U.S. soldier holds a sign indicating a gate is closed as hundreds of people gather - some holding documents - at Kabul airport on Thursday

'We are communicating with several hundred American citizens who have not yet determined whether they want to leave for various reasons.'

Some were weighing up leaving behind homes and relatives, while others thought about the long-term implications for their safety.

U.S. officials have been telling them since March, in 19 separate messages, that the window for them to leave safely was closing in.

Price emphasized that they were speaking regularly to those still unsure whether they wanted to leave.

'When we say that we were in regular contact, we mean regular contact multiple times a day, sometimes hearing one answer, other times hearing another as the remaining Americans make these decisions,' Price said.

A Marine gives a high five to a child outside Kabul airport on Thursday

The number who don't want to leave because they may have family in the country is 'relatively small,' he added.

Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State, said on Wednesday that the department was still trying to reach 1,000 potential citizens to confirm their status.

'Some may no longer be in the country. Some may have claimed to be Americans but turn out not to be. Some may choose to stay,' Blinken said.

He said registering with the U.S. embassy and informing them of their whereabouts, arrival and departure was optional.

Blinken stressed that every effort had been made to encourage U.S. citizens to leave.

'We even made clear that we would help pay for their repatriation, and we've provided multiple communication channels for Americans to contact us if they're in Afghanistan and want help in leaving,' Blinken said.

Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of State, is seen holding a briefing on Wednesday

He said many of those who have previously chosen to stay are dual citizens, who have lived there for many years and have deep ties to the country.

Blinken said during the brief Wednesday that some had indicated they were still deciding whether to stay 'based on the situation on the ground that evolves daily  in fact, that evolves hourly.'

He added: 'Some are understandably very scared.

'Each has a set of personal priorities and considerations that they alone can weigh. They may even change their mind from one day to the next, as has happened and will likely continue to happen.'

Evacuees are escorted onto planes on Wednesday to fly out from Kabul

Sher Jan Ahmadzai, director of Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, told USA Today that some U.S. citizens of Afghan descent may stay behind because they are politically aligned with the Taliban and do not feel threatened.

Yet Mustafa Babak, a board member with the Afghan-American Foundation and a diaspora researcher, told the paper he would not recommend any U.S. citizens stay after August 31.

'The situation is so uncertain and volatile,' said Babak.

'I think anyone caught with a U.S. passport would face a lot of risks.'

Babak said the danger is not just from Taliban - which currently is believed to hold hostage Mark Frerichs, a civil engineer from Illinois - but from the rival ISIS-K extremist group.

ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the Thursday bombing of Kabul airport which killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans.

Two women are escorted by a U.S. Marine towards a U.S. Air Force plane, to depart Kabul on Tuesday

Soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division escort a group of people to the terminal at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday

A soldier stands guard on the perimeter of Kabul airport on Tuesday

Vicki Aken, an American who runs the International Rescue Committee's office in Kabul, told NPR that she is staying in Afghanistan to support the organization's staff, 99% of whom are Afghans.

The IRC began working in Kabul in 1988 and continued its work there when the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996-2001.

They work on development projects such as schools in rural areas and providing access to clean water.

'They're feeling like the world has abandoned them and that after August 31, no one will care,' she said.

'And I know that's not true. I'm an American myself. I know my people care.'

Aken told NPR she was contacted by the American embassy and offered a chance to evacuate but she declined.
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The Pentagon has said a drone strike killed two ISIS 'planners and facilitators' in Afghanistan, updating an earlier statement that said just one jihadists had been killed.

Major General William Taylor said 'two high profile ISIS targets were killed and one was wounded and we know of zero civilian casualties' in the Joe Biden-approved strike in Nangahar province.

The retaliatory strike was launched a day after an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside the walls of Kabul airport, killing more than 170 people, including 13 U.S. soldiers.

But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby refused to identify the ISIS members and would not describe their specific roles.

'They were ISIS-K planners and facilitators and that's enough reason there alone. I will not speak to the details of these individuals or what their specific roles might be but as the general said we have the means to carry out over the horizon counter-terror capabilities and we will defend ourselves,' Kirby told a reporter.

The airstrike came after Biden declared that the perpetrators of the attack would be 'hunted down and made to pay.'

The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

British top brass today warned that the threat of ISIS-K, the branch of Islamic State active in Afghanistan, now reached as far as the UK and said there could be further terror attacks before the last troops leave Kabul.

It comes as Britain's rescue operation today came to a close, with the last civilian flight taking off from Kabul and leaving up to 150 Britons and more than 1,000 Afghans under Taliban rule.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday that the final rescue flight as part of Operation Pitting left overnight. All remaining RAF jets leaving Kabul will be carrying military and diplomatic personnel.

Britain's last flight with military and official personnel is expected to land later today ahead of the Tuesday withdrawal deadline agreed by the U.S. and the Taliban.

Gen. Sir Nick Carter said: 'We should be holding our breath and thinking really hard of that last aeroplane.'

U.S. troops now face a 'very difficult' few days acting as the 'rear guard' to the withdrawal, he added.

'I think our American allies are going to be very challenged because the threat from ISIS-K has not gone away and of course there are still lots of desperate Afghans trying to get out,' Sir Nick said.

General Sir Richard Barrons warned that ISIS now posed a threat which reached beyond Afghanistan to the UK.

'What [the suicide bombing] does do is illustrate that Isis-K is a risk to the United Kingdom, here at home, and to our interests abroad,' the general said.

'We're going to find common cause with the US, and indeed I think the Taliban, in bearing down on this terrible organisation for as long as it takes to neuter them.'

The MoD said last night that 14,543 people had now been extracted from Kabul since August 13, a mix of Afghan and British nationals, and that now the focus would turn to getting diplomats and service personnel out.

Some 8,000 of those were Afghans and their families under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which applies to those who helped the UK and are at risk of persecution by the Taliban.

As Britain's 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan draws to a close:

Among the dead in Thursday's suicide blast was Muhammad Niazi, a British Afghan who had travelled from London to help get his family inside the airport, according to the BBC;

Boris Johnson appeared to take a swipe at Joe Biden, saying the timing of the pull-out was 'not the one that this country would have chosen';

The PM said the scenes in Afghanistan after the bombing were 'extremely difficult and extremely horrible';

Ex-Royal Marine turned animal rescuer Pen Farthing could be the last British civilian to leave Kabul airport;

A Pentagon spokesman admitted thousands of Islamic State terrorists had been released by the Taliban from US prisons in Afghanistan;

US officials warned they feared more attempted terror attacks before all Western troops leave ahead of Tuesday's deadline;

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace criticised Foreign Office officials who left documents identifying vulnerable Afghan workers strewn on the floor of the British Embassy;

It emerged that the Taliban now have access to biometric devices containing the names and details  including fingerprints  of Afghans who have helped US forces;

Major General William Taylor (pictured) said 'two high profile ISIS targets were killed and one was wounded and we know of zero civilian casualties' in the Joe Biden-approved strike in Nangahar province

An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is pictured flying over southern Afghanistan in 2015. On Friday night the Pentagon said an ISIS-K fighter had been killed by a drone

Pictured: Afghan collaborators, their families, Spanish soldiers and members of the embassy board a Spanish military plane as part of their evacuation, at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 27, 2021

Pictured: An Afghan man hands his child to a British Paratrooper assigned to 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment while a member of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conducts security at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug 26, 2021

It wasn't clear if the individual killed in Saturday's drone strike was involved specifically in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation from the country after the Taliban's rapid takeover.

A reaper drone, which took off from the Middle East, struck the militant who was in a car with an Islamic State associate. Both are believed to have been killed, an official said.

A resident of the eastern city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, said he heard several explosions around midnight on Friday.

'Today we checked and heard it was an air strike that hit a civilian house,' Sayed Ekram said, adding he had no information about casualties.

It was not clear if the blasts were caused by a US drone strike.

A senior Taliban commander said some ISIS-K members had been arrested in connection with the Kabul attack. He said: 'They are being interrogated by our intelligence team.'

Earlier on Friday evening the US once again warned its citizens to get away from the vicinity of Kabul airport.

'US citizens who are at the Abbey gate, East gate, North gate or the New Ministry of Interior gate now should leave immediately,' the State Department warned.

A similar warning was issued in the early hours of Thursday, before the suicide attack was launched.

British troops were seen securing the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate in Kabul on Thursday following the bombing

Pictured left: Muhammad Niazi, a British Afghan who travelled there from London to help his family. Pictured right: One of Mr Niazi's daughters. As of last night, his wife, youngest child and eldest daughter were still missing, according to the broadcaster, with his brother and survivor of the blast - Abdul Hamid - saying 'I saw some children in the river'

A U.S. Air Force plane is seen taking off from Kabul airport on Friday as evacuations continued

Victims of Thursday's attack at Kabul airport are taken to hospital after a suicide bomber struck

The chaotic scenes at Kabul airport - seen on Wednesday, with Afghans waving their papers at soldiers in a desperate bid to get out - were known to be a tempting target for ISIS-K

The airstrike fulfilled a vow Biden made to the US on Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide.

'We will hunt you down and make you pay,' he said.

Pentagon leaders told reporters on Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

'We have options there right now,' said Major General Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

Thursday's bombing did not surprise analysts, who warned repeatedly about the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  Khorasan Province, known as ISIS-K.

ISIS announced its expansion to the Khorasan region in 2015, which historically encompasses parts of modern day Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

'Every day we're on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K seeking to target the airport and attack both US and allied forces and innocent civilians,' said Biden on Tuesday, speaking from the White House.

'We are currently on pace to finish by August 31. The sooner we finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops.'

In the early hours of Thursday, before the mid afternoon blast, the American, British and Australian intelligence agencies all issued urgent warnings for their citizens to get away from the airport.

A member of the Afghan security forces is seen holding the black and white Islamic State flag in the Afghan city of Jalalabad in August 2020, after ISIS-K launched a 20-hour gun battle to attack the air field and storm a prison, releasing their fighters. On Thursday ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghans

Joe Biden is seen on Thursday evening speaking about the bombing at Kabul airport earlier in the day. He vowed to hunt down and punish those responsible

ISIS-K is not allied with the Taliban, and, not bound by its agreements with Washington, poses a fresh and deeply worrying threat.

The group first emerged in 2014 as a splinter from another terror group, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)  often known simply as the Pakistani Taliban.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies say that many of ISIS-K's top leadership came from the TTP  among them spokesman Sheikh Maqbool, and their first emir, Hafiz Saeed Khan.

Khan, a Pakistani citizen, established an early stronghold in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province  on the border with Pakistan.

In 2015 ISIS-K's formation was officially announced by ISIS's leadership in Iraq and Syria, and the terror network's headquarters have funneled money into their Afghan outpost.

The US State Department designated ISIS-K as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on January 14, 2016. Khan was killed by a US airstrike in July 2016, and his three successors all suffered the same fate.

ISIS-K's current leader is believed to be Shahab al-Muhajir, also known as Sanaullah. A United Nations report, published in February this year, said that he took over in June 2020.

'The communique announcing the appointment, written in Arabic and translated into Pashto, referred to al-Muhajir as an experienced military leader and one of the 'urban lions' of ISIL-K in Kabul who had been involved in guerrilla operations and the planning of suicide and complex attacks,' the U.N. said.

Al-Muhajir reports to ISIS's leader, an Iraqi by the name of Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi - who took over when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in October 2019.

ISIS-K published this photo in an effort to project unity and strength just days before hundreds of fighters admitted defeat and surrendered

Al-Mawla is the current leader of ISIS, having taken over from Baghdadi, who died in 2019

ISIS-K has encouraged international attacks, but is not believed to be operating beyond Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The group released congratulatory videos after the 2016 Islamic State inspired attacks in Orlando, Florida, and Magnanville, France, and subsequently released additional footage pleading for further lone-wolf attacks in the West.

ISIS-K saw its grip on northern Afghanistan loosened in 2018, and was severely challenged in its heartland in 2019.

The group lost most of the territory it controlled, in eastern Afghanistan, following offensives from the Taliban, the U.S. and Afghan forces.

In March 2020, General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, testified before Congress that the U.S. had worked with the Taliban to attack ISIS-K.

'Over the last several months in eastern Afghanistan, we've watched the Taliban compress and crush ISIS presence on the ground in southern Nangarhar province  and they've been very effective doing that,' McKenzie said.

'It was a bloody mess, but they did it. In fact, ISIS really now no longer holds ground in Nangarhar province.'

Asked directly if the Taliban had any U.S. assistance, he answered: 'There was very limited support from us  and I would characterize that as very limited support.'

CSIS published a map in 2019 showing the concentration of jihadist activity in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas, shown in yellow, where ISIS-K has its stronghold

A close-up of the area in 2019 showing ISIS-K and other jihadi activities

A Department of Defense report from December 2020 said: 'ISIS-K suffered setbacks when a combination of Taliban, Resolute Support, and ANDSF operations forced the loss of its remaining strongholds in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces in 2019.'

The authors warned that ISIS-K still had the ability to launch devastating attacks in Kabul, despite its 'operational capacity' being 'severely degraded.'

The report states that the campaigns against ISIS-K in 2019 weakened its grip on the region.

'Since mid-2019, ISIS-K has taken a less active role in the management of regional ISIS networks following the creation of ISIS-K branches in Pakistan and India,' the report says.

'Its ability to enable or inspire external attacks outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan has been limited.

'Although ISIS continues to develop connections to other networks outside of Afghanistan, it is operationally limited to South and Central Asia.

'There has been no evidence that large numbers of Taliban have defected to ISIS-K in the aftermath of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement.'

ISIS fighters are pictured training in Kunar province in Afghanistan in December 2017

The aftermath of an ISIS-K attack at the University of Kabul is seen in November 2020, with Afghan journalists documenting the scene

By 2020, however, ISIS-K had recovered sufficiently to launch a series of attacks across Afghanistan.

In May 2020, the group attacked a maternity ward in Kabul, killing more than two dozen civilians.

That same day, ISIS-K also carried out a separate attack on a funeral in Nangarhar province, killing more than 30 people.

In August 2020, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for a multi-day complex attack targeting Jalalabad Airfield and a prison on the base.

ISIS-K fighters used a Kamikaze driver to blast open the prison walls, and enable fighters on foot to breach the defenses.

A 20-hour gun battle left 29 people dead and officials scrambling to recapture hundreds of prisoners, including many from the Islamic State and the Taliban.

And three months later, on November 2, 2020, two ISIS-K gunmen stormed Kabul University, killing 18 students, one administrator, and one Afghan soldier, and wounding 28 others.

In May 2021 ISIS-K bombed a girls' school in Kabul, killing 90. A car bomb was detonated in front of the school, and as students rushed out, two more bombs were set off.

The attack took place in a Hazara-dominated area, home to a mostly Shiite group that has been frequent targets of Islamic State attacks.

A burnt-out car is seen in front of Jalalabad prison in Afghanistan after ISIS-K attacked in August 2020

Injured people are put onto stretchers following an ISIS-K bombing of a funeral in Jalalabad in May 2020

The U.S. estimates that ISIS-K currently numbers around 2,000 fighters - down from its peak of 5,000.

The Taliban reportedly executed an ISIS-K leader this month.

'This is indeed part of the ebb and flow of the jihad,' said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, at the time of the U.N. report in February.

'ISKP appeals to the most radical elements of the jihadists, and its penchant for extreme violence without concern for civilian casualties attracts a significant number of followers.'

And, he told Voice of America, their number may grow if the Taliban rule disappoints hardliners.

'They are able to replenish some losses from disaffected Afghan and Pakistani Taliban members, as well as from the pool of radicals in Afghanistan and Pakistan,' he said.
Pictures show lateral flow tests with two lines - indicating a positive result - strewn on the ground (left and right) outside Reading Festival site in Berkshire where attendees began packing up to go home on Monday. Fans had to be double vaccinated or able to produce a negative lateral flow test on entry, and were then ordered to take a lateral flow test every 72 hours. Many were young adults so had likely not received both jabs, but it is not yet known whether the positive tests were dumped by festival-goers or members of the public. Some reports on social media claimed people who had attended the festival had recently tested positive for Covid, including others who said they had also seen positive test results lying on the floor at the Leeds festival site. The discovery comes amid fears over a surge in infections connected with music events, after 4,700 cases were linked to Boardmasters festival in Newquay, Cornwall. Pictured inset: abandoned tents at Reading festival site on Monday evening.
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Eager revellers kicked off the balmy Bank Holiday weekend as they hit the town and city centres for a drink-fuelled night out on Friday evening.

Scores of boozy Britons appeared in excellent spirits as they flocked to bars and pubs across the country for a boozy start to the three-day weekend.

Large crowds of jubilant pubgoers hit the streets in London and Leeds to enjoy the nightlife, after clubs threw open their doors for the first time in 16 months on 'Freedom Day' in July.

Glamorous Britons appeared to be having the time of their lives in Leeds as they danced, laughed and posed on the streets.

But one woman seemed to have grown tired after a boozy night on the town as she was pictured taking a break and sitting on the pavement.

Groups of women were seen laughing and joking together on the streets of Leeds as they enjoyed the nightlife following the Covid-19 lockdown, which saw nightclubs closed for 16 months

Drinkers in Newcastle were photographed wearing police officer fancy dress outsides as they enjoyed an early start to the Bank Holiday weekend

Scores of boozy Britons (pictured in Leeds) appeared in excellent spirits as they flocked to bars and pubs across the country for a boozy start to the three-day weekend

Meanwhile, one bleary-eyed woman was pictured being detained by two police officers in Leeds following a night on the town

One reveller was pictured swigging wine from the Cooperative out of the bottle as she enjoyed a night out on the town in Leeds

Glamorous Britons (pictured) appeared to be having the time of their lives in Leeds as they danced, laughed and posed on the streets

In Newcastle, a group of drinkers were seen holding an inflatable penis as they enjoyed a night out in the North East party city

Meanwhile, one bleary-eyed woman was pictured being detained by two police officers in Leeds.

Someone was also pictured dressed in a giant dinosaur costume as they casually sat in the passenger seat of a convertible car in a traffic jam in Leeds city centre.

And in Newcastle, one bride-to-be appeared to be having the time of her life as she enjoyed a night out with friends, while another group were seen holding an inflatable penis.

One man was also photographed being pinned to the ground and detained by five police officers as partygoers kicked off the Bank Holiday weekend.

Elsewhere, in London, Soho was jam-packed with pubgoers who were keen to enjoy the balmy August temperatures as they took their drinks outside.

Forecasters predict that the last Bank Holiday weekend of the summer will see sizzling temperatures of 25C on their way across the three-day weekend.

The Met Office said most of the UK is set to be dry and bright for the duration of the three-day weekend after weeks of wetter than usual weather for August.

The best conditions can be expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Saturday, but there is likely to be fine, dry and settled weather in most other areas too.

One man was also photographed being pinned to the ground and detained by five police officers as partygoers kicked off the Bank Holiday weekend

But one woman (pictured) seemed to have grown tired after a boozy night on the town as she was pictured taking a break and sitting on the pavement in Leeds

And in Newcastle, one bride-to-be appeared to be having the time of her life as she enjoyed a night out with friends

Large crowds of jubilant pubgoers hit the streets in London and Leeds (pictured) to enjoy the nightlife, after clubs threw open their doors for the first time in 16 months on 'Freedom Day' in July

One woman was held upright by her friend after a fun-filled and boozy start to the Bank Holiday weekend on Friday in Newcastle

One man was also photographed being pinned to the ground and detained by five police officers as partygoers kicked off the Bank Holiday weekend

The first evening of the August Bank Holiday weekend saw Londoners head out drinking into the evening to kick start their extended weekend

As the weekend progresses, the warmest temperatures are expected to be in southern England, with highs of 22C or 23C and the potential for an isolated 25C.

Revellers at the Reading and Leeds Festivals can enjoy bright conditions over the weekend, with highs potentially reaching 21C in Reading on Sunday and 17C in Leeds.

However, those camping in Leeds should pack warm layers, with temperatures set to drop to 10C-11C overnight.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: 'It will be a largely fine and settled weekend; there's very little - if any - rain in the forecast.'

He added that conditions are expected to cool slightly going into Monday.

Many Britons are set to hit the road across the Bank Holiday weekend as the RAC estimated that 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days, with hopes of good late summer weather possibly seeing even more people jumping in their car for a day trip or last-minute break.

Meanwhile, Britons' nights on the town could be put at risk as Britain's beer shortage could continue well into September, landlords are warning.

One pub has revealed it has already been forced to close after not receiving enough barrels of Amstel, Fosters or Heineken to adequately serve punters.

Elsewhere, in London, Soho was jam-packed with pubgoers who were keen to enjoy the balmy August temperatures as they took their drinks outside

One man was photographed being pinned to the ground and detained by five police officers as partygoers kicked off the Bank Holiday weekend

Someone was also pictured dressed in a giant dinosaur costume as they casually sat in the passenger seat of a convertible car in a traffic jam in Leeds city centre

Forecasters predict that the last Bank Holiday weekend of the summer will see sizzling temperatures of 25C on their way across the three-day weekend. Pictured: Londoners take their drinks outside a pub in in Soho

The crisis has emerged as a combined result of the pingdemic limiting numbers of available lorry drivers, a much smaller pool of Eastern European workers due to Brexit, and proposed strike action from draymen responsible for around 40% of beer deliveries to British pubs.

Despite the industrial action being resolved last week, pubs across the country are already desperately low on stock, and watering holes owned by the larger chains are the worst affected due to their reliance on imported beers.

A notice at the Seven Wives pub in St Ives, Cornwall, read: 'Due to Heineken having strike issues with deliveries we (like most pubs etc ) are experiencing a shortage of our usual stock.

'We have a driver out most days collecting all over East Anglia and South London.

'Stella Artois, Estrella, Peroni: These will be replacing some of our hard-to-get stock soon like Fosters, Birra Morreti, and obviously Heineken.

'We will try to keep you up-to-date on the changing products. The Word on the Street is that it this is this could go on till mid September.'

The drivers of GXO Logistics Drinks, which has 26 delivery sites across the UK and accounts for 40 per cent of all beer delivered in the country, voted for strike action after they were offered a 'paltry' 1.4% wage increase.

As the weekend progresses, the warmest temperatures are expected to be in southern England, with highs of 22C or 23C and the potential for an isolated 25C. Pictured: Londoners enjoy outdoor drinks in Soho

The Met Office said most of the UK is set to be dry and bright for the duration of the three-day weekend after weeks of wetter than usual weather for August. Pictured: Woman wearing a raincoat on a night-out in Leeds

As the weekend progresses, the warmest temperatures are expected to be in southern England, with highs of 22C or 23C and the potential for an isolated 25C. Pictured: Soho packed with pubgoers on Friday night

Twenty-four-hour strikes were planned for August 24 and September 2, before GXO Logistics Drinks settled on a 4% pay increase with representatives of The Unite Union on Friday.

Despite this resolution, the damage has already been done for many pubs who have stated they may have close on weekends and turn off taps for many popular beers.

Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, called for more government help to mitigate the effects of the crisis.

She said: 'From large brewers and managed pub operators, to smaller breweries, leased and tenanted pubs and the independent free trade, the HGV driver shortage is affecting the entirety of our sector.

'As a sector we are working with third-party logistics partners around the clock to ensure as many deliveries as possible. Brewers are actively looking at ways they can still do deliveries as are pub operators trying to get supplies to tenants and lessees.

'It is a testament to the resilience of our sector that it is going all out to fulfil deliveries, while brands like Nando's are simply closing.

'Whilst we are grateful for Government engagement to date on the issue of the driver shortage, it is clear the immediate situation will not be rectified without their intervention.

'Adding HGV drivers to the shortage occupation list or temporary visas will be is essential to helping stabilise the current situation and help us at this critical time in our recovery.'
A Tory MP waded into the Pen Farthing on Saturday as a rescue plane landed in Kabul to evacuate the former marine and 180 cats and dogs.

Tom Tugendhat criticised the decision to use soldiers to evacuate Mr Farthing's animals while the lives of Afghans who assisted the British during the 20-year occupation of the country are under threat from the Taliban.

'The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we've just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs,' the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee said.

'Meanwhile my interpreter's family are likely to be killed,' Tugendhat - who served in Afghanistan and Iraq - added. 'As one interpreter asked me a few days ago, why is my five year-old worth less than your dog?'

When asked what his answer was to his interpreter's question, Tugendhat replied: 'I didn't have an answer, what would your answer be?'

The MP's comments came as Major General Nick Carter, the head of the British Army, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme that the army's 'priority has been to evacuate human beings,' amid anger over the decision to evacuate animals.

'We obviously worry about everything that needs to be evacuated, but of course these are very difficult times, and there are very difficult judgements to be made.'

His comments came as it was revealed former Royal Marine turned animal rescuer Paul 'Pen' Farthing could be the last British civilian to leave Kabul airport.

The 57-year-old's chartered jet from Karachi, Pakistan, landed at around 6pm local time as he prepares to fly 180 cats and dogs to safety.

The last UK flight dedicated for civilians left last night and all further flights today are for military and diplomatic personnel.

It means when Mr Farthing's plane finally takes off this evening, he could be the last British civilian to leave Afghanistan - even after the ambassador, Sir Laurie Bristow.

Tom Tugendhat (pictured August 18 in the House of Commons) today criticised the decision to use soldiers to evacuate Mr Farthing's animals while the lives of Afghans who assisted the British during the 20-year occupation of the country are under threat - including his own interpreter

Major General Nick Carter (pictured), the head of the British Army, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme that the army's 'priority has been to evacuate human beings,' amid anger that animals were being evacuated while some people - including a number of Mr Farthing's staff - are set to be left in Afghanistan

The 57-year-old told how his employees were stopped from crossing the Taliban line to the British area at Kabul airport

Mr Farthing will fly from Kabul to Tashkent in Uzbekistan before later returning to Britain, where he has won legions of fans for holding the government to account.

But in a blow to the ex-soldier, it emerged today his animals will be locked up when he arrives in the UK.

Officials said the dogs and cats face a four-month quarantine in kennels and catteries until at least Christmas.

Earlier Mr Farthing revealed how 'depressing' it was that he was forced to leave his Afghan staff behind.

He told how his employees were stopped from crossing the Taliban line to the British area at Kabul airport yesterday.

His desperate comments were in sharp contrast to his wife, who last night spoke of her joy that her husband was on his way home.

Kaisa Markhus, who fled Afghanistan last week for her native Norway, was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when she was told he was getting out.

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that Isis-K planned to strike again as the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport moves into its final days.

A devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 170 Afghans and 13 American service members at the airport on Thursday.

His desperate comments were in sharp contrast to his wife, who last night spoke of her joy that her husband and his furry friends were on their way home

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate (pictured, Kabul airport yesterday)

Mr Farthing flew out of Afghanistan for Tashkent in Uzbekistan with 94 dogs and 79 cats on a private jet and will later return to Britain.

But the day was marked with sadness as he was forced to leave behind his workforce to the Taliban.

He told the Sun: 'It is just so depressing I had to leave them behind. Some of them came with me to the airport but they weren't allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

'There were lots of tears when we said goodbye. I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them [but] I'm relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals.'

The Ministry of Defence, which assisted his evacuation, confirmed he was through the airport in a tweet on Friday night.

It said: 'Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK armed forces.

'They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation. On the direction of the Defence Secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK Government.'

Mr Farthing told how his employees at the animal sanctuary drove with him to the airport in two cattle trucks.

But he revealed they had been banned from crossing into the area controlled by British soldiers by armed Taliban fighters.

The former Royal Marine, who founded the Nowzad animal shelter in Kabul, has been engaged in a desperate attempt to board an RAF evacuation flight in recent days

Soldiers helped him unload 125kg of dry pet food, 72 tins, 270 litres of water, 12 industrial size rolls of paper towel and 20 bottles of disinfectant in a warehouse.

Despite his misery at having to leave behind his staff, Mr Farthing's wife was chuffed he was on his way out.

Kaisa was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when Pen video-called her from inside Kabul airport. 'You should have seen the smile on my face,' she said.

Following Thursday's carnage, Kaisa knew her husband was planning another attempt to reach the airport  but had no idea when.

She said yesterday: 'He's now inside the airport and we had a quick video call. The second I saw him safely inside... you can imagine.'

Her husband and his animals escaping Kabul is the dream she has clung to ever since she was flown out of the city on a near-empty flight.

She learned Pen, having made it through Taliban checkpoints, had been finally allowed to board a flight with 150 rescue cats and dogs from his Nowzad charity  but he was forced to leave his staff members behind.

'I know Pen had a very hard choice. He faced that same choice when he was inside the airport with his staff and their families on Thursday and the animals and the staff were not allowed through,' says Kaisa.

'So, he went back to the compound to ensure everyone was safe and to discuss with them what to do. They decided he should go to the airport again with the dogs.

'He was devastated to leave his staff but knew that by removing both the dogs and himself he would remove two big risk factors.'

The wife of animal charity founder and former marine Pen Farthing (pictured together) last night spoke of her joy that her husband and his four-legged friends looked to be on their way home

The founder of Kabul's Nowzad animal shelter, Paul Farthing  known as Pen  had been attempting to arrange a freedom flight in an operation dubbed 'Operation Ark'.

British soldiers helped load the animals on to a privately chartered plane last night as they prepared to return to the UK.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the group were 'assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK Armed Forces'.

Last night his supporter and animal rights campaigner Dominic Dyer told the Mail: 'Pen is OK, but he is very stressed.

'He has no choice but to leave and bring the animals with him. We are looking forward to getting them to the UK.

Kaisa Markhus, who fled Afghanistan last week for her native Norway, was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when Pen video-called her from inside Kabul airport

'We are very pleased we've got him out and are very grateful to the British Government for their help, and for the support of the Armed Forces.'

Understandably, Kaisa is wary of counting her chickens. 'I won't celebrate until he has landed,' she says. 'We're still working on solutions to evacuate the staff.

'The plane will be going to [the Uzbekistan capital] Tashkent but they don't know when.

'He only arrived outside the airport late this afternoon. It was quieter there because of Thursday's bombings.'

Kaisa was sitting at her mother's dining room table in a top borrowed from her sister and a newly bought pair of jeans.

She had fled Kabul with nothing but a toothbrush and some deodorant.

Even the book she had been reading was left behind on the table beside the double bed that, until ten days ago, she shared with Mr Farthing.

That they may soon hold each other again  and can start to plan their married life together  is enough to bring her to tears.

'I cried as I was leaving Kabul,' she says. 'I was one of the lucky ones. When I was in the Norwegian camp at the airport there were three kids  babies  I was playing with who'd been separated from their parents. We had to leave them behind.

'I thought, 'I won't see Kabul again. I might not see Pen again'. I was crying for those babies.

'What the f*** is this crisis about that we're leaving small kids behind who have no one?'

She showed a short video on her phone of the children playing at the airport. The soldiers and evacuees fussed over them.

Mr Farthing's group also narrowly avoided the airport suicide bomb blasts which rocked the area earlier this week, killing 12 US serviceman and up to 90 Afghans. Above: Wounded Afghans in hospital after the blasts

'Two days later, I heard Norway had decided to bring them [the babies] over here. I told Pen on the phone that the babies were in Norway now.

'His first reaction was 'tell them we want to adopt one'. I want kids with Pen.'

The hope in her voice could not be further removed from the distraught woman I'd spoken to earlier this week.

On Thursday she feared the worst when, having been advised by the British Government to go to Kabul's airport to board a charter plane to safety, Mr Farthing  along with his 25 staff, their immediate families and 150 crated cats and dogs  was turned away at the last moment.

'I was fearing for his life,' Kaisa said. 'I had this heavy feeling. When he was outside the airport I was afraid because I hadn't heard from him.'

His group had been caught up in the hellish scenes on Thursday as Isis-K bombs killed at least 170 people, including 13 US military personnel.

Pen and his staff were tear-gassed and shot at as they fled for their lives.

'When they got out he called me he said 'oh, Kaisa Jan [an Afghan endearment meaning 'dear'], hell just broke loose. I've had an AK gun in my chest twice now'.'

MoD sources last night made clear Mr Farthing and his convoy did not get preferential treatment and were not on board a military flight.

Two boys embrace each other as they weep in the parking lot at Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, in Kabul, after the blast

While Mr Farthing's supporters said he had been turned away by the Taliban on Thursday, sources said he may have gone to the wrong gate.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace initially dismissed Operation Ark, saying it would put 'people before pets' in the rush to flee Kabul.

He later agreed to 'seek a slot' for the plane carrying out the mercy mission, but insisted the convoy would not be able to jump the queue.

There were suggestions by Mr Farthing's supporters his change of tone was prompted by an intervention from Boris Johnson's animal-loving wife Carrie  but this was denied by Downing Street sources.

Asked if Mr Farthing had been a diversion to the overall evacuation mission, Mr Wallace yesterday told LBC: 'I think it has taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.'

But he added: 'I hope he comes back, he was advised to come back, his wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does as well.'

The only sadness for Kaisa now is that Pen has been forced to leave his beloved staff behind.

'When the Taliban took over Kabul, I thought 'if you have to put all the animals to sleep, do it'. There will be other dogs but you can't do anything if you're dead,' she says.

'But then I realised something. Pen has a mother, a brother and me. We are his three family members.

'Many of his staff have not gone home to their families during lockdown but stayed to help him.

'When there was a big kidnapping threat here a few years ago they wouldn't go home. They stayed in the office to protect him. They are his family.'

Meanwhile the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that Isis-K planned to strike again as the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport moves into its final days.

US president Joe Biden has set August 31 as his deadline for completing the exit.

Mr Biden authorised the drone strike and it was ordered by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

The air strike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days remaining in a final US withdrawal after 20 years of war.

US Central Command provided few details, though it said it believed no civilians were killed in the strike.

The speed with which the US military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and its affiliates and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world.

But it also shows the limits of US power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

US central command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangahar province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul.

The strike killed one individual, Navy Capt William Urban said.

It was not clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport on Thursday, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The air strike came after Mr Biden declared that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide.

'We will hunt you down and make you pay,' he said.

Pentagon leaders told reporters on Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

'We have options there right now,' said Maj Gen Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

The president was warned on Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic US-led evacuation.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

'They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport,' Ms Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

British troops were seen securing the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate in Kabul on Thursday following the bombing

Late on Friday, the US state department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including 'the New Ministry of Interior gate'.

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations.

It said there was just one - at or near the Abbey Gate - followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj Gen Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. He attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Mr Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer US intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the US senate intelligence committee, said she doubted Mr Biden's assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistan's borders.

The Pentagon also insists this so-called 'over the horizon' capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.
Pupils in parts of the South West will need to wear face masks in corridors and playgrounds when they return to classrooms next week.

The Department of Health announced the extra restrictions for secondary schools and colleges in the area last night to help head off a surge in Covid cases.

The measures will apply in England's Covid hotspot Cornwall, as well as Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that although vaccines have 'tipped the odds in our favour' extra measures were needed to 'control the spread of the virus'.

It came as Mr Javid told the NHS to prepare to offer vaccines to 12 to 15-year-olds to ensure they could 'hit the ground running' in early September.

The JCVI is yet to decide whether to vaccinate the youngest teenagers, but a SAGE adviser said today that jabbing them could limit Covid's spread in other age groups.

SAGE scientists warn the UK is set to face a 'large' Covid wave after schools return next week, with cases already averaging around 30,000 a day.

Teaching unions have said that schools face a 'recipe for chaos' in the autumn term, and that the predicted spike in cases is 'extremely worrying'.

Pupils in parts of the South West will be told to wear face masks in corridors, playgrounds and communal areas when they return to classrooms next week

It comes as SAGE scientists warn the UK could face another 'large' Covid wave as schools return. It is already averaging around 30,000 cases a day

Face masks will be brought back in secondary schools and colleges in Cornwall  England's Covid hotspot  alongside Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly

The Department of Health said face masks would be required in 'communal areas' in the affected areas.

The areas will also receive additional support to maximise vaccine uptake and testing for the virus. Local residents were urged to 'remain cautious', and to wear face masks in crowded areas such as public transport and ventilate their homes.

Which schools will need to wear face masks? Pupils in parts of the South West will be told to wear face masks in 'communal areas' when they return to schools next week. The Department of Health announced the extra restrictions last night to help head off a surge in Covid cases. They also said the schools and their local areas would receive support for more Covid testing and to boost vaccine uptake. Secondary schools and colleges in the following areas will be affected: Cornwall

Devon

Plymouth

Torbay

The Isles of Scilly Advertisement

Mr Javid said: 'Vaccines have built an enormous wall of defence that spans the length of the country, allowing us to regain our lost freedoms  from seeing out loved ones to going on holiday.

'(But) while vaccines have tipped the odds in our favour, we have to keep listening to the data.

'To control the spread of the virus we're working closely with local authorities... to make sure testing is widely available and as many people as possible are protected by the vaccine.'

He added: 'I would urge anyone whether they live in, work in or are just visiting these beautiful areas, to test regularly and make sure you come forward for your jab at the earliest opportunity.'

These measures could be extended to other areas should they also experience a spike in Covid cases.

Cornwall  England's Covid hotspot  saw its Covid cases double last week according to Public Health England, in the biggest surge in infections in the country.

The area  along with the Isles of Scilly  has an infection rate at 828.5 cases per 100,000 residents, or one in 120 people being infected last week.

In Devon the infection rate is 622 per 100,000, or one in 160, while in Torbay it is 621 per 100,000, or one in 161. In Plymouth it is 563 per 100,000, or one in 177.

Children and teenagers will be required to take two lateral flow tests in school when they return next week, and then test themselves for the virus twice every week.

Those who test positive will be asked to isolate for ten days. But updated guidance says their close contacts will be allowed to continue attending classes, and will not need to self-isolate.

Official figures showed more than 750,000 children had to self-isolate during the last academic year despite there being only 40,000 cases of the virus.

New guidance will also require face masks to be worn again in schools that experience a Covid 'surge', when five cases are recorded within ten days.

It will also see them receive increased support for testing for the virus, and asked to take action to control the spread of the virus such as opening windows.

It came as Mr Javid told the NHS to prepare to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds ahead of guidance from No10's top scientists.

The Health Secretary said he was putting plans in place so the country was ready to hit the ground running if the JCVI  the Governments independent advisers  gave the go-ahead to jab younger children.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the measures were needed to help 'control the spread of the virus'. He has also told the NHS to start preparing to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson (right) has said he wants to see the youngest teenagers jabbed

There are warnings the country will face a 'large' Covid wave when schools return in England and Wales. This graph shows Covid cases in Scotland, where schools returned a week ago. The country recorded a record 6,835 new cases yesterday

Health Secretary Sajid Javid tells the NHS to prepare to inoculate 12 to 15-year-olds Sajid Javid last night told the NHS to start preparing to jab children as young as 12 as Sage committee scientists warned a large Covid wave was likely to hit schools next month. The Health Secretary said he was putting plans in place so the country was ready to hit the ground running if the JCVI  the Governments independent advisers  gave the go-ahead to jab younger children. The NHS has been told to start recruiting and training staff to go into schools to give pupils Covid jabs early next term, if theyre approved. Headteachers will be told to prepare space where the vaccines can be given or be ready to allow pupils time out of lessons to get the jab elsewhere. It is the clearest signal yet that ministers expect the jab for younger children to be approved imminently. It came as experts warned the Government to plan for a surge in infections at the end of September, following the return of children from the summer holidays. Their fears were detailed in a document from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O). Its advisers said it was highly likely there would be an exponential increase in infections among school-aged children after classes returned. And they noted that measures in place before the new term, such as bubbles and stricter rules on isolating, would no longer apply. Mr Javid said it was important for the NHS and schools to be prepared. He said offering all teenagers a coronavirus jab will solidify our wall of protection against the disease in a move that will pile pressure on the JCVI to approve the move. Writing in The Times, Mr Javid said that with the rise of the Delta variant, the more the population is protected by a vaccine, the more protection society as a whole will have from Covid-19. The Department of Health stressed parental consent will be sought before vaccinating children, although it is unclear if children can overrule their parents. It also emerged last night that secondary school and college pupils will need to wear face masks in communal areas outside of their classrooms in areas of the south-west of England, as extra support was pledged in response to a rise in coronavirus cases. Advertisement

The NHS has been told to start recruiting and training staff to go into schools to give pupils Covid jabs early next term, if theyre approved. Headteachers will be told to prepare space where the vaccines can be given or be ready to allow pupils time out of lessons to get the jab elsewhere.

It is the clearest signal yet that ministers expect the jab for younger children to be approved imminently.

The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has signalled his support for vaccinating children.

He was reported in the FT to have said: 'Were seeing the rollout of the vaccine for 16 to 17-year-olds, I very much hope and want to see that offered more widely.'

SAGE adviser and Warwick University epidemiologist Dr Mike Tildesley said this morning that vaccinating younger age groups could protect older adults from the virus.

He told Times radio: 'When schools reopen that does lead to more children mixing in closed environments.

'We have to remember... when we talk about schools going back, it's not really the risk around schools, schools are no more risky than any other environment where people mix in close proximity to one another.

'But it's what happens around schools, when schools go back parents tend to return to work and people mix in other environments.

'So it's that sort of protection that if we have high levels of vaccination across younger age groups, it should provide that both direct and indirect protection in those settings.'

It came as experts warned the Government to plan for a surge in infections at the end of September, following the return of children from the summer holidays.

Their fears were detailed in a document from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O).

Its advisers said it was highly likely there would be an exponential increase in infections among school-aged children after classes returned.

And they noted that measures in place before the new term, such as bubbles and stricter rules on isolating, would no longer apply.

Mr Javid said it was important for the NHS and schools to be prepared.

Unions have warned schools face an autumn term of 'chaos' because of predicted outbreaks of the virus.

The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said yesterday it was 'extremely worrying'.

Julie McCulloch, its director of policy, told the TES: 'It is extremely worrying to see scientific advisers concluding that exponential increases in Covid infections are highly likely in school-age children and demonstrates that the situation is on a knife edge as the new term approaches.

'We simply cannot have another term of disruption and it is vital that the government is ready to respond rapidly to any upsurge in infections with more support for schools and colleges.

'The government has published a contingency framework which maps out a series of measures in response to outbreaks of Covid.

'But there is a realy danger that this will become the normal state of affairs with various measures being implemented on a local basis.'

The joint general secretary of the NEU, Kevin Courtney, said: 'The statement from SAGE is a rebuke to Gavin Williamson.

'Next to nothing has been done to prepare for the possibility of large numbers of cases, which will lead to lots of education disruption as children and staff have to isolate because they are positive  or stay off because their Covid symptoms go on longer.

'It is only right to recognise that a large percentage of the school community is unvaccinated, and that this will remain the case for a while yet.

'We cannot just assume a return to normal from the start of term. The bringing together of a school community of several million will inevitably lead to a rise in case counts.'

More than 8.9million children are set to return to school in England and Wales from next week, official figures show.

In Scotland  where schools returned last week  cases have already spiked to record highs. Yesterday the country recorded 6,835 cases, the highest number since the pandemic began and almost double those registered last Friday.

Experts have warned England and Wales should brace for a similar surge when schools return.
A father and his severely disabled son have been found dead at an Adelaide home in a suspected murder-suicide.

Police and paramedics were called to a property at West Lakes in the city's western suburbs just after 1.30pm on Saturday.

The 72-year-old man and his 46-year-old son were found unresponsive and despite paramedics attempting to resuscitate them they died at the scene.

Emergency services were called to property after the Adelaide father and son were found in the garage and have cordoned off a crime scene (pictured)

A family of three is understood to reside at the house and police suspect the 72-year-old killed his son and then himself

Detectives are investigating the 'serious incident' and door-knocking neighbours on the quiet suburban street.

A family of three is understood to reside at the house and police suspect the 72-year-old killed his son and then himself, reports the ABC.

Detective Inspector Mark Atkinson from SA Police said weapons were seized as part of the investigation.

Officers have asked members of the public to avoid the area.

Though they added there is no ongoing danger to the public.

The investigation is ongoing and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

For crises support call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
An autistic woman who went missing in dense bushland for two days has had an emotional reunion with her mother.

Yasmina Sims, 20, was found shaking and covered in mud just kilometres from her Mooroolbark home, in Melbourne's north-east, by a family driving past who happened to recognised her.

A heartwarming video shows the moment her relieved mother, Patricia Townshend, reunites with her daughter as she sits shaking and crouched by the side of the road.

Patricia Townshend was reunited with her daughter Yasmina Sims, 20, (pictured) after she went missing from their Mooroolbark home

'I'm just relieved,' Ms Townshend told 9News.

'There are caring people out there who are willing stop and get involved, I can't thank them enough.'

Her daughter, who lives with autism and requires a high-level of support, went missing from the family's home on Thursday sparking a frantic police search.

Ms Townshend feared the worst after Yasmina spent two nights lost in bushland without food or medication while cold and alone in the dark.

Victoria Police said they believe Yasmina had walked for over 15km in the rugged terrain as temperatures dropped below 10C overnight.

The Maslowski family were driving past when they saw the 20-year-old wandering around the area, wet and shaking from the cold on Saturday.

A relieved Ms Townshend was glad her daughter was found safe after being lost in dense bushland at Melbourne's east for 2 nights

Cassandra Maslowski, who works as a nurse, knew how to gently approach Yasmina without causing her distress and wrap her in a jacket.

'Obviously she wasn't talking but you could tell she need some help,' she said.

Wearing a dark mud-covered hoodie draped over her face, Yasmina was bent over by the side of the road when her mother finally reached her after two nights apart.

'I'm just glad that she's safe,' Ms Townshend told 9News.

She also added after medical checks her daughter was looking forward to a nice hot meal.

The 20-year-old has gone missing before and usually likes to hide under buildings which make it difficult to locate her.

Last October Yasmina went missing at Bushy Creek Trail near Pembroke Road with police appealing for public assistance, she had also disappeared from Bridge Avenue property in July last year for over 24 hours.
A small business owner who broke down in tears after getting a nasty email from a vegan customer complaining about getting free lollies in her order has vowed to keep handing out sugary sweets.

TLC Body founder Carissa Collins, who lives on the Gold Coast, took to TikTok earlier this week to share her disheartening experience after she included the thoughtful gift in a female customer's beauty product order.

The rude email she received in return stated the 'Karen' customer was unhappy with the 'sugary junk' and they would no longer buy anything from Ms Collins because she couldn't be trusted.

Carissa Collins (pictured) who lives on the Gold Coast thanked her supporters for their kind comments over the last two days

But in a series of follow-up videos, the young business owner revealed she was refusing to let the customer get her down and would keep including free treats.

'All I can say right now is wow these last two days have been crazy. I am so blown away by your supportive comments,' Ms Collins said.

'I wasn't expecting so many people to see me Kimmy K crying on the internet but I really want you guys to know I appreciate you so much. Thank you for your support and kind words.'

Packing new orders on Friday and Saturday, Ms Collins threw in not just one packet of Haribo Gummi Bears - the offending candy - but handfuls of them.

She grabbed them from a large cardboard box stocked with Chupa Chups, Mentos and other lollies that looked to be enough to last for weeks worth of orders.

The video received more than 300 comments which were overwhelmingly supportive.

'Yes girlfriend, you may have lost that Karen's business but you gained mine,' one person said.

'This is the comeback we wanted to see. In my town we have two sushi shops and we only go to the one that has lollies,' another said.

Shocked Gold Coast business owner Carissa Collins spoke of a negative email from a customer in a TikTok video that got over 450,000 views (left) and her response to the customer (right)

Gold Coast business owner Carissa Collins (pictured) was left in tears following an aggressive email from a 'Karen' who questioned why she was given a complimentary set of lollies with her online beauty order on Thursday

'Good on you for not letting her get you down,' added a third.

'I was actually purchasing for the candy,' a fourth joked.

In her previous video explaining about the inconsiderate email, Ms Collins said she normally wouldn't let message such as this one get to her but was having already having a bad day.

'I literally just received an email from a customer complaining about me giving them a lolly. A bloody lolly in their order. Honestly how this email was worded, it was almost as if I had stabbed them or something,' Ms Collins said through tears.

A grab of the email (pictured) where the customer questions why she was given 'sugary junk' with a beauty product she purchased online

Mrs Collins shared a screenshot of the rude email where the irate customer states she will 'no longer purchase any more products as she can't trust her word'.

She goes on to question what Mrs Collins stood to gain from 'sending someone a bit of sugary junk' before adding 'if they (lollies) were vegan I would have at least appreciated the thought'.

Most conventional lollies are produced with gelatin - which is made out of animal proteins - and isn't suitable for vegans to eat.

A shocked Mrs Collins asked her followers 'when did it become OK to speak to people like this... what the hell. I am trying to do a nice thing by giving free gifts with orders.

'If you don't like a lolly, don't eat it.'

Ms Collins packing a new order on Friday (pictured) and including more free gifts

The rogue sweets Mrs Collins included in the order were the popular gummi candy Haribo Goldbears.

The over-the-top email shocked many online with Mrs Collins humbled by the response and kind words by many of her supporters.

'I had a stressful day, so I took the email very personally,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'It is also the first negative email I have received like that.

'I really appreciated the response online, it blew me away to be honest.

'I also won't be stopping throwing in free lollies with my products, I think it is a nice touch... I guess the woman was having a bad day.'
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Festivalgoers soaked up the sun as they prepared for temperatures to reach a scorching 77F during a weekend of stellar line-ups at the Reading and Leeds Festivals - the first large-scale gigs since restrictions were eased.

The Met Office said most of the UK is set to be dry and bright for the duration of the three-day weekend after weeks of wetter than usual weather for August.

Hoards of revellers at the much-anticipated annual musical festivals have ditched their wellington boots in favour of flip-flops as temperatures across the Bank Holiday weekend are set to reach a scorching 77F (25C).

Meanwhile, thousands of people were stuck in traffic jams as they flocked to the beaches across the UK today, including Dorset and Cornwall, despite warnings to stay away as Covid-19 grips hold of the region.

Partygoers at the Reading and Leeds Festivals can enjoy bright conditions over the weekend, with highs potentially reaching 69.8F (21C) in Reading on Sunday and 62.6F (17C) in Leeds.

However, those camping in Leeds should pack warm layers, with temperatures set to drop to 50F-51.8F (10C-11C) overnight.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: 'It will be a largely fine and settled weekend; there's very little - if any - rain in the forecast.'

He added that conditions are expected to cool slightly going into Monday.

Photographs showed festivalgoers appearing to have the time of their lives as they donned brightly-coloured summery outfits and put on their shades in the glorious sunshine, as the festival kicked off on Saturday.

Britons are set to enjoy a sizzling Bank Holiday weekend as temperatures could reach a scorching 77F, while hoards of revellers enjoyed the balmy start to the much-anticipated Reading and Leeds Festival

Revellers at the Reading and Leeds Festivals can enjoy bright conditions over the weekend, with highs potentially reaching 69.8F (21C) in Reading on Sunday and 62.6F (17C) in Leeds

A festivalgoer appeared to be having an excellent time at Reading Festival on Saturday as she was bravely thrown into the air

However, those camping in Leeds should pack warm layers, with temperatures set to drop to 50F-51.8F (10C-11C) overnight. Pictured: Woman arrives at Leeds Festival Main area on Saturday

Festival goers soak up the atmosphere as Easy Life performs live on Main Stage East during Reading Festival 2021 at Richfield Avenue

Hoards of revellers at the much-anticipated annual musical festival have ditched their wellington boots in favour of flip-flops as temperatures across the Bank Holiday weekend are set to reach a scorching 77F (25C)

A festival goer crowd surfs at Main Stage East amid the scorching temperatures at Reading Festival on Saturday

A festivalgoer receives her Coronavirus vaccine at a pop up clinic during Reading Festival 2021

People out for a morning swim and exercise before the temperature hots up on the start of the bank holiday weekend at Bournemouth beach

Revellers at the Leeds and Berkshire mass gatherings are being urged to test for Covid before they flock to the festivals and when they return. Pictured: Woman arrives at Leeds Festival main area on Saturday

Photographs showed festivalgoers appearing to have the time of their lives as they donned brightly-coloured summery outfits and put on their shades in the glorious sunshine, as the festival kicked off on Saturday

Elsewhere in Newquay, Britons flocked on to the streets on mass carrying rainbow flags as the annual Pride festival got underway, despite the rising Covid-19 cases in the region

Thousands of festivalgoers arrived in mass to watch British band Easy Life perform on the main stage at Reading Festival on Saturday

Jubilant fans waved their hands in the air and sang as Alex Rice of Sports Team performed on Day 2 of Leeds Festival 2021

Nearly 90,000 people stormed the festival grounds on Saturday, where they were excitedly awaiting to see headliners Post Malone and world famous as well as hundreds of other acts.

The music extravaganza usually attended by hundreds of thousands of people had to be abandoned last year due to coronavirus - for the first time since it was founded 34 years ago.

Flocking from far and wide to enjoy the plethora of acts this scorching bank holiday weekend, teenagers were flooding into the festival grounds with enormous bags ready to camp for three nights.

Reading Festival - alongside its sister festival in Leeds - has evolved into a multi-million pound giant and grown to become one of the music calendars biggest events.

The event, which was founded in 1961, is one of the first festivals to take place without capacity restrictions after the government lifted all restrictions on July 19 this year.

At the doors of the festival site, revellers were required to provide proof of either a negative lateral flow test, full vaccination or natural immunity before they are allowed into the festival grounds.

Although some recent festivals have seen major Covid outbreaks, most do not appear to be concerned with minimal masks spotted among the crowds of young revellers.

Aerial pictures revealed that densely packed queues were snacking from the turnstiles as organisers battled to deal with the revellers and the additional Covid checks they were forced to carry out.

Thousands packed into the crowds to watch Easy Life at Reading Festival, despite concerns that large-scale festivals are causing a spike in Covid cases

Becky Hill gave a sultry stare in her glamorous all-pink ensemble as she sang at Reading Festival on Saturday on the Main Stage West

An eager festivalgoer is thrown up in the air above the crowd during Reading Festival 2021 at Richfield Avenue

Newquay Pride went ahead on Saturday, despite the region currently having the highest cases of Covid in the UK

A jubilant Murray Matravers of Easy Life performs live on Main Stage East on Saturday at Reading Festival

A festivalgoer answers questions ahead of her Coronavirus vaccine at a pop up clinic during Reading Festival

Nearly 90,000 people stormed the festival grounds on Saturday, where they were excitedly awaiting to see headliners Post Malone and world famous as well as hundreds of other acts, such as Easy Life (pictured)

Matravers of Easy Life performs live on Main Stage East during Reading Festival, as temperatures reach a scorching 77F (25C)

A woman in a bikini took photographs of the picturesque views in the scorching 77F temperatures on Bournemouth beach

Crowds flocked down to Bournemouth beach in droves for the first day of the Bank Holiday weekend

Festivalgoers ditched their wellington boots for bucket hats and flip-flops as temperatures soared to 77F (25C) on Saturday as Easy Life performs at Reading Festival

People carried placards with slogans including 'bisexual and proud' and 'you cannot erase us' during Pride in Newquay

Elsewhere, pictures showed Britons making the most of the glorious sunshine on Saturday, as people sunbathed and relaxed on Brighton beach in East Sussex

Festivalgoers arrive at Leeds Festival Main area on Saturday and have ditched their wellies for flip flops as the Bank Holiday heatwave and sun arrives at Bramham Park

On Saturday, Scotland's coal carrying championship has been held after a five-year hiatus, with former prime minister Gordon Brown on hand to present the prizes

Competitors take part in the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships through the streets of Kelty in Fife

Matravers of Easy Life performs live on Main Stage East on Saturday at Reading Festival

Alix Rice of Sports Team leapt into the air as he performed on the main stage during Leeds Festival on Saturday

A huge crowd gathered for Declan McKenna, as he put on an excellent performance at Leeds Festival 2021

Becky Hill stunned in a flirty pink two-piece, which she paired with knee-high boots during her set at Reading Festival on Saturday

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Newquay on Saturday as they took part in the annual Pride celebrations

Groups of people dressed up in drag and donned rainbow flags as they took part in the annual celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community

Two people holding cardboard placards grinned as they joined in the Pride celebrations, while hundreds of marchers walked behind them

Flocking from far and wide to enjoy the plethora of acts this scorching bank holiday weekend, teenagers were flooding into the festival grounds with enormous bags ready to camp for three nights

Elijah Hewson, Robert Keating, Josh Jenkinson and Ryan McMahon of Inhaler perform on the main stage during Leeds Festival

Reading Festival - alongside its sister festival in Leeds - has evolved into a multi-million pound giant. Pictured Elijah Hewson, Robert Keating, Josh Jenkinson and Ryan Mcahon of Inhaler perform at Leeds Festival

People out for a morning swim and exercise before the temperature hots up on the start of the bank holiday weekend at Bournemouth beach

Festivalgoers construct an item of headwear from used drinks cans while sitting at their tents at Reading Festival

Glamorous and brightly dressed festivalgoers take a picture in front of the Main Stage West as they attend the Reading Music Festival

A total of 195,000 attended the two-city festival in Reading and Leeds in 2019, making it one of the UK's biggest outdoor events. Pictured: Crowds at Reading Festival on Saturday

Inside the festival grounds, a patchwork quilt of tents had already taken up large swathes of the camping areas and worn footpaths were already turning to mud on Saturday.

A total of 195,000 attended the two-city festival in Reading and Leeds in 2019, making it one of the UK's biggest outdoor events.

The festival was set to be bigger and better than ever before which comes at the price of 205 plus a 16.40 booking fee, a stark difference to the first ever Reading Festival weekend ticket which cost just 2 for a line-up that included Genesis, Status Quo and Rory Gallagher.

Revellers at the Leeds and Berkshire mass gatherings are being urged to test for Covid before they flock to the festivals and when they return, and not to visit older or more vulnerable loved ones in the days after the events amid another surge of the virus.

There have also been concerns about summer music festivals contributing to a spike, after thousands of cases were suspected to be linked to the Boardmasters festival in Cornwall and hundreds to Latitude Festival in Suffolk.

And they are set for glorious weather, as forecasters predicted that the last Bank Holiday weekend of the summer could see sizzling temperatures of 77F (25C) on their way across the three-day weekend.

Meanwhile, people hitting the road this weekend have been warned they could find themselves stuck in long traffic jams as it is estimated that a staggering 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days.

There have been concerns about music festivals contributing to a Covid spike, after thousands of cases were suspected to be linked to the Boardmasters festival in Cornwall. Pictured: Alex Rice of Sports Team performs on Day 2 of Leeds Festival

A festival goer is thrown up in the air above the crowd during Reading Festival 2021 at Richfield Avenue

The sun was shining on Saturday as Declan McKenna graced the stage at Leeds Festival for the three-day weekend

Competitors in the Women's Race take part in the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships through the streets of Kelty in Fife.

The annual event is one of only two Coal Races in the world and the men's race requires participants to carry a 50-kilo bag of coal and the women's race requires a 25-kilo bag of coal to be carried over 1000 metres through the village

Bournemouth beach became busier into Saturday afternoon as hoards of sunseekers headed to the coast to make the most of the weather

People dressed up in rainbow costumes and vibrant outfits as they enjoyed the Pride festivities in Newquay on Saturday

One person wore an incredible black ensemble complete with feathery black wings and platform heeled boots as they attended Pride in Newquay on Saturday

Becky Hill put on the performance of a lifetime at Reading Festival on Saturday, as huge crowds gathered for her set at Main Stage West

A huge crowd threw their hands in the air as Declan McKenna appeared on stage at Leeds Festival

People enjoyed sunbathing on the sand at Bournemouth beach as they soaked up the sun in the 77F (25C) heats

Thousands headed to the seaside (pictured in Bournemouth) for the Bank Holiday weekend to make the most of the warm weather on Saturday

Visitors and locals were keen to make the most of the scorching 77F (25C) heat as they flocked to the holiday resort of West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast on Saturday

People were eager to jump in the sea for a swim and to cool off at Bournemouth beach on Saturday as they basked in 77F heat

Britons were out for a morning walk and exercise before the temperature hots up on the start of the bank holiday weekend at Bournemouth beach

Although some recent festivals have seen major Covid outbreaks, most do not appear to be concerned with minimal masks spotted among the crowds of young revellers. Pictured: Elijah Hewson of Inhaler performs on the main stage at Leeds Festival

A fearless festivalgoer is thrown up in the air above the crowd during Reading Festival 2021 at Richfield Avenue

Revellers at the Leeds and Berkshire mass gatherings are being urged to test for Covid before they flock to the festivals. Pictured: Alex Rice of Sports Team performs wearing a green mesh vest on Day 2 of Leeds Festival

Sunbathers also flocked on to Brighton beach as the temperatures soared on Saturday, with photographs showing crowds of peopledotted across the pebbled beach

The Met Office said most of the UK is set to be dry and bright for the duration of the three-day weekend after weeks of wetter than usual weather for August. Pictured: Sea swimmers at Branksome beach in Dorset

Forecasters predicted that the last Bank Holiday weekend of the summer could see sizzling temperatures of 25C on their way across the three-day weekend. Pictured: Sea swimmers at Branksome beach in Dorset

Two people relaxed on deckchairs and enjoyed the balmy weather on Brighton beach on Saturday

Visitors and locals enjoyed a boat trip out as part of a fun-filled weekend at the holiday resort of West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast

The streets of Newquay became a sea of rainbow as marchers carried a giant flag while marching for Pride

Brave festivalgoers were thrown into the air as they enjoyed the music at Reading Festival on Saturday

Crowds of sunseekers descended on Bournemouth beach on Saturday as they were keen to sunbathe in the 77F heat

A police car was seen decorated with the LGBTQ+ rainbow colours as Pride got underway in Newquay on Saturday

Competitors in the Mascot Race take part in the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships through the streets of Kelty in Fife

Scotland's coal carrying championship sees men, women and children competed in a series of races to carry coal sacks for a kilometre through the Fife village of Kelty

Visitors and locals alike take to the beach and the sea at the holiday resort of West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast to enjoy the Summer Bank Holiday weekend

Pride marchers held rainbow flags supporting the NHS as they soaked up the sunshine while the festival got underway in Newquay

Although some recent festivals have seen major Covid outbreaks, most do not appear to be concerned with minimal masks spotted among the crowds of young revellers at Reading Festival on Saturday

Pctures revealed that densely packed queues were snacking from the turnstiles as organisers battled to deal with the revellers and the additional Covid checks they were forced to carry out. Pictured: Crowds at Reading Festival

People were eager to set up camp on Bournemouth beach as they headed to the seaside for the three-day Bank Holiday weekend on Saturday

Pride marchers appeared to be in excellent spirits as they descended on the streets of Newquay in Cornwall on Saturday

Founded in 1995 by organiser Michael Boyle to honour Kelty's coal-mining heritage, the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships has attracted thousands of spectators

Elsewhere in Newquay, Britons flocked on to the streets on mass carrying rainbow flags as the annual Pride festival got underway, despite the rising Covid-19 cases in the region.

People carried placards with slogans including 'bisexual and proud' and 'you cannot erase us', while other festivalgoers dressed in drag and draped the rainbow flag around their shoulders as they enjoyed the sunshine.

Pictures showed Britons making the most of the glorious sunshine on Saturday, as eager beachgoers headed out for an early morning swim before the weather hotted up at Branksome and Bournemouth beaches in Dorset.

Sunseekers also flocked in mass on to Brighton beach as the temperatures soared on Saturday, with photographs showing hoards of Britons dotted across the pebbled beach.

The best conditions can be expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Saturday, but there is likely to be fine, dry and settled weather in most other areas too.

As the weekend progresses, the warmest temperatures are expected to be in southern England, with highs of 71.6F (22C) or 73.4F (23C) and the potential for an isolated 75.2F (24C) or 77F (25C).

On Saturday, Scotland's coal carrying championship has been held after a five-year hiatus, with former prime minister Gordon Brown on hand to present the prizes.

Men, women and children competed in a series of races to carry coal sacks for a kilometre through the Fife village of Kelty.

Founded in 1995 by organiser Michael Boyle to honour Kelty's coal-mining heritage, the annual event has attracted thousands of spectators.

Keen beachgoers headed towards the sea at Branksome beach kitted out in their wetsuits as they made the most of the cooler morning before the scorching temperatures predicted for Saturday afternoon

A woman was seen striking a pose on Bournemouth beach while another woman took photographs of her on a mobile phone

Beachgoers walked along the sand at Bournemouth beach next to a sign that said no dogs are allowed on the beach until September 30

People headed out near Bournemouth beach in Dorset early on Saturday morning as they made the most of the three-day weekend

Jubilant Pride marchers in Newquay waved a giant rainbow banner as other people ran underneath it as Saturday's celebrations got underway

But people hitting the road have been warned they could find themselves stuck in traffic jams as it is estimated 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days. Pictured: Paddleboarders at Branksome beach in Dorset

Many Britons are set to hit the road across the Bank Holiday weekend as the RAC estimated that 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days, with traffic pile-ups anticipated. Pictured: Bank Holiday traffic towards Devon and Cornwall

Two sea swimmers put their hats on as they prepared to brace the cool sea temperatures in wetsuits at Bournemouth beach in Dorset

Despite fears that summer music festivals are causing a spike in Covid-19 infections, young revellers crowded into arenas to watch musicians at Reading Festival on Saturday

Festivalgoers were graced with scorching 77F (25C) heats in Reading on Saturday, as young revellers kicked off the Bank Holiday weekend at the annual music event

Young revellers held up their phones to film as musicians played at the much-anticipated Reading Festival on Saturday

The best conditions can be expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Saturday, but there is likely to be fine, dry and settled weather in most other areas too. Pictured: Beachgoers at Branksome beach in Dorset on Saturday

People appeared to be in excellent spirits as the sun shone down on them during Newquay's Pride celebrations, with some people riding in style on a convertible car

The Pride festival in Newquay was graced with glorious 77F (25C) temperatures, as locals flocked on to the streets in summery and rainbow ensembles for the celebrations

Visitors and locals alike take to the beach and the sea at the holiday resort of West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast to enjoy the Summer Bank Holiday weekend

People out for a morning swim and exercise as the temperature hots up on the start of the bank holiday weekend at Bournemouth beach on Saturday

Bournemouth beach was quickly becoming a sea of tents and umbrellas on Saturday as people flocked to the seaside in droves

Families got the best spots on Bournemouth beach on Saturday morning as they prepared for a sizzling day in the sunshine

As the weekend progresses, the warmest temperatures are expected to be in southern England, with highs of 22C or 23C - and even the potential for an isolated 25C. Pictured: Beachgoers at Branksome beach in Dorset on Saturday

Stunning low, early morning sunshine rakes across the rooftops in Fortuneswell on the Isle of Portland as Britons prepare for a scorching Bank Holiday weekend

Traffic shows thousands flock to Devon and Cornwall for the three-day weekend despite requests to stay away as Covid takes a grip of the region

Despite Covid cases rising across the UK, Britons were still keen to head to Bournemouth beach for the Bank Holiday weekend

The best conditions are expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland on Saturday, but there is likely to be fine, dry and settled weather in most other areas too, with beachgoers on Branksome beach (pictured) making the most of the sunshine

Photographs showed Britons making the most of the glorious sunshine on Saturday, as eager beachgoers headed out for an early morning swim before the weather hotted up at Branksome and Bournemouth beaches in Dorset

However, a lack of sponsorship in past years and then the coronavirus pandemic meant this is the first championship to be held since 2016.

The races began at the RBS building on the main street, with men carrying 50kg bags of coal, women 25kg bags and children 15kg bags to the finish line at Kelty primary school.

Prizes were awarded by Gordon Brown, the former Fife MP, and a director of this year's sponsor National Pride UK, who have recently bought the former St Ninians and Loch Fitty coal mine with the intention of building a leisure and wellness park on the site.

Many Britons are set to hit the road across the Bank Holiday weekend as the RAC estimated that 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days, with hopes of good late summer weather possibly seeing even more people jumping in their car for a day trip or last-minute break.

At 4pm on Friday there was 'severe' congestion on a number of motorways in England including on the M1, M5, M6, M25 and M56, according to the National Highways website.

There was also stationary traffic on the A303 near Stonehenge, Wiltshire, which is a popular route for people travelling towards the South West.

The South West is expected to bear the brunt of the traffic over the weekend, with bottlenecks and delays likely on the M4 going west away from London, the M5 as it reaches Devon and Cornwall and the A303 around the Stonehenge area.

Officials are now braced for travel chaos on what could be the busiest period for roads and rail yet this year as the Met Office forecasts temperatures of up to 75F and dry and bright weather over the next four days.

In Scotland, the races of the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships began at the RBS building on the main street, with men carrying 50kg bags of coal, women 25kg bags and children 15kg bags to the finish line at Kelty primary school

Prizes were awarded by Gordon Brown, the former Fife MP, and a director of this year's sponsor National Pride UK, who have recently bought the former St Ninians and Loch Fitty coal mine with the intention of building a leisure and wellness park

Pride still went ahead in Newquay on Saturday, despite Covid cases rising in Cornwall and people being urged to stay away from the region

Crowds flocked on to Brighton beach on Saturday and pitched up umbrellas as they made the most of the sunny Bank Holiday weekend weather

Becky Hill stunned in an all-pink ensemble, which she stylishly paired with bright fuchsia eyeshadow as she performed at Reading Festival on Saturday

Many Britons are set to hit the road across the Bank Holiday weekend as the RAC estimated that 16.7million leisure trips are planned over the next three days. Pictured: Beachgoers at Branksome beach in Dorset on Saturday

Sunbathers kicked back and relaxed on Brighton beach as they started their three-day weekend soaking up the sun rays

One eager beachgoer was seen running into the waves at Bournemouth beach in Dorset on Saturday as he was keen to cool off amid the rising temperatures

Paddleboarders enjoyed the incredible views of Dorset's Jurassic Coast as they had a fun-filled start to the summer Bank Holiday weekend

A group of paddleboarders soaked up the sun as they basked in 77F (25C) heat at West Bay on Dorset's Jurassic Coast

Brighton beach was jam-packed with crowds of eager sun-seekers on Saturday, who wanted to make the most of the glorious weather

One woman lay and sunbathed against the Bournemouth beach wall on Saturday morning, listening to music as she enjoyed the start of the Bank Holiday weekend

People out for a exercise before the temperature hots up on the start of the bank holiday weekend at Bournemouth beach

Eager beachgoers enjoyed a swim in the sea in Bournemouth on Saturday morning, as millions are expected to hit the roads and enjoy sunny breaks this weekend

The sky above Bournemouth beach looked cloudy on Saturday morning, but temperatures are set to hit 77F (25C) across the Bank Holiday weekend

People enjoy the fine weather on the beach in Brighton, East Sussex, as temperatures are expected to soar to 77F (25C)

Eager Britons got out-and-about in Bournemouth on Saturday as they basked in the sunshine following a wet and rainy August

It comes as the rail industry said ticket sales to seaside hotspots were already more than double the number sold over last year's August bank holiday.

On some leisure routes passenger numbers are even expected to surge past pre-pandemic levels, with research by consultancy WPI Economics suggesting rail passengers alone will on average spend 116 each per trip.

AA president Edmund King described the M25 as 'full', adding that other major roads were 'very busy'.

RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said 'bumper-to-bumper bank holiday traffic' was expected, especially on the most popular holiday routes.

He urged motorists to carry out essential checks on their car, such as ensuring tyres are properly inflated and have plenty of tread, and that oil, coolant and screenwash are at the correct levels.

National Highways said about 98 per cent of England's motorways and major A roads were free of roadworks over the weekend.

Transport analytics firm Inrix had urged motorists to avoid setting off for getaway journeys on Friday afternoon due to heavy traffic.

Inrix analyst Bob Pishue said: 'Drivers hitting the road for one last getaway before the end of summer should expect long delays on key corridors.

'Knowing when and where congestion will build can help drivers avoid the stress of sitting in traffic.'

Competitors take part in the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships through the streets of Kelty in Fife

Alex Rice of Sports Team performs on Day 2 of Leeds Festival 2021 at Bramham Park

Crowds danced and sung to music at Reading Festival on Saturday, as they basked in 77F (25C) heat

Competitors in the Junior Race take part in the Scottish Coal Carrying Championships through the streets of Kelty in Fife

Families secured their spots on Bournemouth beach early on Saturday, before the sands become busier as the temperature hots up this weekend

Britons enjoyed the sizzling weather on Brighton beach on Saturday, with photographs showing people reading their books, sunbathing and going for a dip in the sea

But temperatures are expected to drop to a cooler 10C or 11C overnight, despite balmy, sun-filled days. Early morning sunshine rakes across the world-famous Chesil Beach on the Isle of Portland on Saturday morning

Eager beachgoers were keen to cool off by having a quick dip in the sea on Saturday morning, as temperatures are set to reach 77F (25C)

Eager paddleboarders on Branksome beach basked in the early morning sunshine as they kicked off their three-day weekend

Photographs showed Britons making the most of the glorious sunshine on Saturday morning, as eager beachgoers headed out for an early morning swim before the weather hotted up at Branksome beach in Dorset

RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis said 'bumper-to-bumper bank holiday traffic' was expected, especially on the most popular holiday routes. Pictured: Early morning sun over Branksome beach

A man enjoyed an early morning paddle on Branksome beach in Dorset, enjoying the scorching late summer weather after a rain-filled August

Pride marchers were keen to support the NHS on Saturday in Newquay as they held banners supporting the public health service

Sunseekers were keen to soak up the rays on Bournemouth beach at the start of the Bank Holiday weekend

Newquay streets were amazingly transformed into a sea of rainbow colours as marchers proudly held a giant multi-coloured flag during the annual Pride celebrations

People in Bournemouth made the most of their beach huts on Saturday as temperatures soared to a sizzling 77F (25C)

National Highways said about 98 per cent of England's motorways and major A roads were free of roadworks over the weekend. Pictured: People in wetsuits get ready to get in the sea on Branksome beach
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AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is best at keeping people out of hospital and preventing deaths from the virus, a study has found.

Just 1.52 per cent of people who got two doses of the Oxford-made vaccine were admitted to wards after they caught the virus, researchers said. And only 0.03 per cent, or one in 3,000, died from the disease.

But among those who got the Pfizer vaccine 1.99 per cent were hospitalised and 0.15 per cent died after they were infected with the virus.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has formed the backbone of Britain's vaccine roll out, with 25million people having already received the jab. But it was recommended that under-40s should receive an alternative jab in May amid concern over vanishingly rare blood clots.

It comes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid ordered the NHS to prepare to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds yesterday, in the clearest sign yet that jabs could be offered to the age group.

The JCVI  which directs Britain's vaccine roll out  is yet to say whether the age group should get the vaccine, but a SAGE adviser said today that inoculating teenagers could slash their risk of getting long Covid.

There is mounting concern that the return of schools next week will spark a fresh wave of Covid infections, after Scotland saw its cases spiral to record highs when schools reopened last Monday.

Britain is currently recording more than 30,000 cases a day on average, compared to almost 2,000 a day at the end of August last year. Scotland yesterday registered almost 7,000 infections, the highest number since the pandemic began.

A separate study from Public Health England and Cambridge University has today suggested people infected with the Indian 'Delta' variant are twice as likely to be hospitalised as those who catch the Kent 'Alpha' variant.

The above graph shows the risk of hospitalisation and death after catching Covid among the un-vaccinated and those who got two doses of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. The results showed the AstraZeneca jab was best at preventing hospitalisations and deaths among those who caught the virus

The AstraZeneca vaccine has formed the backbone of Britain's roll out, and been administered to almost 25million people. But in May an alternative jab was recommended for under-40s amid concern over a very rare blood clot

There are warnings the country will face a 'large' Covid wave when schools return in England and Wales. This graph shows Covid cases in Scotland, where schools returned a week ago. The country registered a record 6,835 new cases yesterday

Researchers in Bahrain and at the New York-based Columbia University carried out the study between December and July, which was published as a pre-print.

They monitored hospitalisations and deaths among people who caught the virus in Bahrain, an island nation in the Middle East, and divided them by vaccine type or those who did not get their jabs.

Scientists have always been honest and said that vaccines do not prevent every infection, but they drastically slash the risk of hospitalisation and death from the virus.

The study also included the Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik jabs, which were both worse at preventing hospitalisations than their European and American counterparts.

Delta Covid variant is twice as likely to land patients in hospital, study shows The Delta variant doubles the risk of hospital admission, a study has found. It was already known that the Covid strain first identified in India is up to 50 per cent more transmissible than the previous dominant Alpha variant, which emerged in Kent. But the largest study to date comparing the two now shows those infected with the Delta strain are 2.26 times more likely to be admitted to hospital. Delta is also 1.45 times more likely to see people entering A&E needing emergency treatment. Scientists claimed this is more proof that the same traits which make the variant spread faster also increase levels of the virus in those it infects, which results in them becoming more severely ill. The authors of the study, led by Public Health England and Cambridge University, said their results should be used by hospitals to plan  especially in areas where the Delta variant is on the rise. Dr Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the university, said: Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any Delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an Alpha epidemic. Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individuals risk of symptomatic infection with Delta in the first place and, importantly, of reducing a Delta patients risk of severe illness and hospital admission. Advertisement

For those who got the Sinopharm vaccine 6.94 per cent were hospitalised, and 0.46 per cent died  which was the worst performance out of the four vaccines.

Among Sputnik recipients 2.24 per cent were hospitalised, but only 0.09 per cent died from the virus.

The results showed those who did not get the vaccine were most likely to be hospitalised or die if they caught the virus.

Among the un-vaccinated, 13.22 per cent who caught the virus were hospitalised and 1.32 per cent died.

The Bahraini researchers said in their study: 'All four vaccines decreased the risk of coronavirus infections, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths when compared to unvaccinated individuals.'

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, told The Sun: 'This study shows people in the UK can be confident theyre getting the best vaccines available.

'AstraZeneca and Pfizer provide good protection.'

The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine has been the main jab used in Bahrain, which is home to almost 1.5million people.

More than 569,000 people have been inoculated with the jab.

For comparison, 245,000 residents got the Pfizer jab, 169,000 got AstraZeneca's vaccine and 73,000 received Sputnik.

Clinical trial results suggested the Pfizer vaccine was the most effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths from Covid.

But experts have warned these figures may not be comparable when jabs are dished out in the real world, when other factors can influence their impact.

Out of 3,000 AstraZeneca recipients included in the study who caught Covid, only 45 were hospitalised (1.52 per cent) and just one died from the virus (0.03 per cent).

Out of 2,000 Pfizer recipients who caught the virus, 40 were hospitalised (1.99 per cent) and three died from the virus (0.15 per cent).

Out of 3,000 Sputnik recipients who caught the virus, 77 were hospitalised (2.24 per cent) and three died (0.09 per cent).

For the Sinopharm vaccine there were 24,000 cases, of whom 1,683 were hospitalised (6.94 per cent) and 112 died (0.46 per cent).

And among the un-vaccinated almost 65,000 caught the virus, of whom almost 9,000 were hospitalised (13.22 per cent) and 857 died (1.32 per cent).

More than 1.5million people have got the US-made Moderna vaccine in Britain, but this was not included in the study.

Scientist says vaccinating kids will help protect them from long Covid Vaccinating younger children against coronavirus could help protect them against long Covid as well providing indirect protection for older relatives, experts have claimed. Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist from the University of Warwick, said that while the risks of severe Covid are low in young people, long Covid can be more prevalent in them and vaccines can help reduce the chances of developing it. And Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University, also leant her support to widening the rollout to schoolchildren. She said the benefits outweigh the risks with vaccination for children and insisted 'every day we delay, more children are getting infected'. It comes after Sajid Javid last night told the NHS to start preparing to jab children as young as 12 after SAGE experts warned a 'large' Covid wave was likely to hit schools next month. Dr Tildsley told Times Radio: 'A younger person, if they get Covid, most of those individuals are very unlikely to develop severe symptoms. 'But of course, we do need to remember that the younger you are, you're not just taking the vaccine for yourself, you're taking it for potentially, indirect protection for your more elderly and more vulnerable relatives. 'And then, of course, there's this issue that some commentators talk about, which is the potential for long Covid and that possibly protects younger people if they're vaccinated. 'All of these things need to be weighed up. Because it's children there are a lot of ethical concerns around that. 'So this is why it's taken a little bit of time for JCVI to make that recommendation that the Government can then make a decision on.' Advertisement

It came as pupils in parts of the South West were told they will need to wear face masks in corridors and playgrounds when they return to classrooms next week.

The Department of Health announced the extra restrictions for secondary schools and colleges in the area last night to help head off a surge in Covid cases. The measures will apply in England's Covid hotspot Cornwall, as well as Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that although vaccines have 'tipped the odds in our favour' extra measures were needed to 'control the spread of the virus'.

Mr Javid said: 'Vaccines have built an enormous wall of defence that spans the length of the country, allowing us to regain our lost freedoms  from seeing out loved ones to going on holiday.

'(But) while vaccines have tipped the odds in our favour, we have to keep listening to the data.

'To control the spread of the virus we're working closely with local authorities... to make sure testing is widely available and as many people as possible are protected by the vaccine.'

He added: 'I would urge anyone whether they live in, work in or are just visiting these beautiful areas, to test regularly and make sure you come forward for your jab at the earliest opportunity.'

These measures could be extended to other areas should they also experience a spike in Covid cases.

The Health Secretary has also ordered the NHS to prepare to administer vaccines to 12 to 15-year-olds, in the clearest sign yet that they could be rolled out to the age group.

Vaccinating younger children against coronavirus could help protect them against long Covid as well providing indirect protection for older relatives, experts have claimed.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist from the University of Warwick, said that while the risks of severe Covid are low in young people, long Covid can be more prevalent in them and vaccines can help reduce the chances of developing it.

And Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University, also leant her support to widening the rollout to schoolchildren.

She said the benefits outweigh the risks with vaccination for children and insisted 'every day we delay, more children are getting infected'.

Dr Tildsley told Times Radio: 'A younger person, if they get Covid, most of those individuals are very unlikely to develop severe symptoms.

'But of course, we do need to remember that the younger you are, you're not just taking the vaccine for yourself, you're taking it for potentially, indirect protection for your more elderly and more vulnerable relatives.

'And then, of course, there's this issue that some commentators talk about, which is the potential for long Covid and that possibly protects younger people if they're vaccinated.

'All of these things need to be weighed up. Because it's children there are a lot of ethical concerns around that.

'So this is why it's taken a little bit of time for JCVI to make that recommendation that the Government can then make a decision on.'
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Vaccinating younger children against coronavirus could help protect them against long Covid as well providing indirect protection for older relatives, experts have claimed.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist from the University of Warwick, said that while the risks of severe Covid are low in young people, long Covid can be more prevalent in them and vaccines can help reduce the chances of developing it.

And Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University, also leant her support to widening the rollout to schoolchildren.

She said the benefits outweigh the risks with vaccination for children and insisted 'every day we delay, more children are getting infected'.

It comes after Sajid Javid last night told the NHS to start preparing to jab children as young as 12 after SAGE experts warned a 'large' Covid wave was likely to hit schools next month.

The Health Secretary said he was putting plans in place so the country was 'ready to hit the ground running' if the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI)  who advise the Government on vaccine policy  gave the go-ahead to jab younger children.

The NHS has been told to start recruiting and training staff to go into schools to give pupils Covid jabs early next term, if they're approved. Headteachers will be told to prepare space where the vaccines can be given or be ready to allow pupils time out of lessons to get the jab elsewhere.

It is the clearest signal yet that ministers expect the jab for younger children to be approved imminently.

Dr Mike Tildesley (left), an epidemiologist from the University of Warwick, says vaccinating younger children against coronavirus could help protect them against long Covid as well providing indirect protection for older relatives. Right: A 16-year-old gets an injection at a walk-in Covid vaccination clinic at Reading Festival yesterday

Delta Covid variant is TWICE as likely to land patients in hospital as well as being more infectious, study shows The Delta variant doubles the risk of hospital admission, a study has found. It was already known that the Covid strain first identified in India is up to 50 per cent more transmissible than the previous dominant Alpha variant, which emerged in Kent. But the largest study to date comparing the two now shows those infected with the Delta strain are 2.26 times more likely to be admitted to hospital. Delta is also 1.45 times more likely to see people entering A&E needing emergency treatment. Scientists claimed this is more proof that the same traits which make the variant spread faster also increase levels of the virus in those it infects, which results in them becoming more severely ill. The authors of the study, led by Public Health England and Cambridge University, said their results should be used by hospitals to plan  especially in areas where the Delta variant is on the rise. Dr Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the university, said: 'Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any Delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an Alpha epidemic. 'Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individual's risk of symptomatic infection with Delta in the first place and, importantly, of reducing a Delta patient's risk of severe illness and hospital admission.' Commenting on the results, Dr Zania Stamataki, a viral immunologist at Birmingham University, said: 'Taken together with previous studies showing that Delta is 50 per cent more infectious than Alpha, evidence mounts that we are dealing with a very dangerous variant.' Some 74 per cent of the participants in the study  which was published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases  were unvaccinated. But among the vaccinated  the vast majority of whom had only had one dose  those infected with the Delta variant may have had almost twice the risk of hospitalisation compared with those who had the Alpha variant. But this figure is uncertain because there were too few vaccinated patients to provide a precise estimate. Advertisement

Dr Tildsley told Times Radio: 'A younger person, if they get Covid, most of those individuals are very unlikely to develop severe symptoms.

'But of course, we do need to remember that the younger you are, you're not just taking the vaccine for yourself, you're taking it for potentially, indirect protection for your more elderly and more vulnerable relatives.

'And then, of course, there's this issue that some commentators talk about, which is the potential for long Covid and that possibly protects younger people if they're vaccinated.

'All of these things need to be weighed up. Because it's children there are a lot of ethical concerns around that.

'So this is why it's taken a little bit of time for JCVI to make that recommendation that the Government can then make a decision on.'

It came as experts warned the Government to plan for a surge in infections at the end of September, following the return of children from the summer holidays. Their fears were detailed in a document from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O).

Its advisers said it was highly likely there would be an exponential increase in infections among school-aged children after classes returned.

And they noted that measures in place before the new term, such as bubbles and stricter rules on isolating, would no longer apply.

Mr Javid said it was important for the NHS and schools to be prepared.

He said offering all teenagers a coronavirus jab will 'solidify our wall of protection' against the disease in a move that will pile pressure on the JCVI to approve the move.

Writing in The Times, Mr Javid said that with the rise of the Delta variant, 'the more the population is protected by a vaccine, the more protection society as a whole will have from Covid-19'.

The Department of Health stressed parental consent will be sought before vaccinating children, although it is unclear if children can overrule their parents.

It also emerged last night that secondary school and college pupils will need to wear face masks in communal areas outside of their classrooms in areas of the south-west of England, as extra support was pledged in response to a rise in coronavirus cases.

The Department of Health said that from Friday, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay local authority areas will get help to increase vaccine and testing uptake, and deliver public health messaging.

The vaccine is available for those aged 16 and over or for 12 to 15-year-olds who are most at risk from Covid. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has yet to advise lowering the age due to concerns the Pfizer jab may be linked to a rare form of heart inflammation.

But other scientists have accused the panel of dithering and called for children to be jabbed immediately.

Schools and colleges in England are being encouraged to maintain increased hygiene and ventilation from September, but year group 'bubbles' and face-covering requirements have been removed.

Unions have called for more action to ensure schools are kept as safe as possible.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said current safety requirements were 'not sufficient' to prevent a rise in cases.

He added: 'To prevent a sharp rise in cases, the watchwords must be ventilation, air filtration, masks, vaccines and vigilance.'

The Health Secretary said he was putting plans in place so the country was 'ready to hit the ground running' if the JCVI  the Government's independent advisers  gave the go-ahead to jab younger children

The Government yesterday reported a further 100 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, and there have been a further 38,046 cases.

Schools and colleges in England are being encouraged to maintain increased hygiene and ventilation from September, but year group 'bubbles' and face-covering requirements have been removed.

Unions have called for more action to ensure schools are kept as safe as possible and education is not disrupted further.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said current safety requirements were 'not sufficient' to prevent a rise in cases.

He added: 'To prevent a sharp rise in cases, the watchwords must be ventilation, air filtration, masks, vaccines and vigilance.'

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF VACCINATING CHILDREN? Pros Protecting adults The main argument in favour of vaccinating children is in order to prevent them keeping the virus in circulation long enough for it to transmit back to adults. Experts fear that unvaccinated children returning to classrooms in September could lead to a boom in cases among people in the age group, just as immunity from jabs dished out to older generations earlier in the year begins to wane. This could trigger another wave of the virus if left unchecked, with infection levels triggering more hospitalisations and deaths than seen during the summer. Avoiding long Covid in children While the risk of serious infection from Covid remains low in most children, scientists are still unsure of the long-term effects the virus may have on them. Concerns have been raised in particular about the incidence of long Covid  the little understood condition when symptoms persist for many more weeks than normal  in youngsters. A study released last night by King's College London showed fewer than two per cent of children who develop Covid symptoms continue to suffer with them for more than eight weeks. Just 25 of the 1,734 children studied  0.01 per cent  suffered symptoms for longer than a year. Cons Health risks Extremely rare incidences of a rare heart condition have been linked to the Pfizer vaccine in youngsters. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) in the US  where 9million 12- to 17-year-olds have already been vaccinated  shows there is around a one in 14,500 to 18,000 chance of boys in the age group developing myocarditis after having their second vaccine dose. This is vanishingly small. For comparison, the chance of finding a four-leaf clover is one in 10,000, and the chance of a woman having triplets is one in 4,478. The risk is higher than in 18- to 24-year-olds (one in 18,000 to 22,000), 25- to 29-year-olds (one in 56,000 to 67,000) and people aged 30 and above (one in 250,000 to 333,000). But, again, this is very low. Britain's drug regulator the MHRA lists the rare heart condition as a very rare side-effect of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. They said: 'There have been very rare reports of myocarditis and pericarditis (the medical term for the condition) occurring after vaccination. These are typically mild cases and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest.' More than four times as many hospitalisations were prevented as there were cases of myocarditis caused by the vaccine in 12- to 17-year-olds, the health body's data show. Jabs should be given to other countries Experts have also claimed it would be better to donate jabs intended for teenagers in the UK to other countries where huge swathes of the vulnerable population remain unvaccinated. Not only would this be a moral move but it is in the UK's own interest because the virus will remain a threat to Britain as long as it is rampant anywhere in the world. Most countries across the globe are lagging significantly behind the UK in terms of their vaccine rollout, with countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America remaining particularly vulnerable. Jabs could be better used vaccinating older people in those countries, and thus preventing the virus from continuing to circulate globally and mutate further, than the marginal gains to transmission Britain would see if children are vaccinated, experts argue. Professor David Livermore, from the University of East Anglia, has said: 'Limited vaccine supplies would be far better used in countries and regions with large vulnerable elderly populations who presently remain unvaccinated  Australia, much of South East Asia and Latin America, as well as Africa.' Advertisement

The Government yesterday reported a further 100 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid, and there have been a further 38,046 cases.
A senior barrister who was kicked out of his chambers for calling a mixed race schoolgirl 'a stroppy teenager of colour' has been cleared of misconduct.

Jon Holbrook tweeted about the case of Ruby Williams, 19, who won an out-of-court settlement from her school for alleged discrimination after they sent her home, saying her Afro hair had breached dress policy.

She was awarded 8,500 last year after she was repeatedly sent home from Urswick School in Hackney, east London, over a period of three years, starting in 2014 when she was just 14.

Her case was brought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission under the Equality Act in 2018 and later featured in a video.

Commenting on the case, Mr Holbrook, a member of UKIP, tweeted: 'The Equality Act undermines school discipline by empowering the stroppy teenager of colour.'

Jon Holbrook (pictured), a senior barrister who was kicked out of his chambers for calling a mixed race schoolgirl 'a stroppy teenager of colour', has been cleared of misconduct

Ruby Williams (pictured) won an out-of-court settlement from her school for alleged discrimination after they sent her home, saying her Afro hair had breached dress policy

His former chambers, Cornerstone Barristers, asked him twice to remove the comments made in January and expelled him the following month when he refused.

But the Bar Standards Board has now concluded that Mr Holbrook was voicing his 'personal political opinion on a piece of legislation' and he has been cleared of misconduct.

The regulator found there was insufficient evidence to prove that 16 other tweets published between March 2019 and January this year had breached the bar handbook.

The regulator slapped him with a 500 fine and an official warning over another tweet which was said to 'promote hostility towards Muslims'.

The other tweet read: 'Free speech is dying & Islamists & other Muslims are playing a central role.

'Who will lead the struggle to reinstate free speech as the foundation of all other freedoms?'

His comments were made following the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty who showed his students Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The panel's verdict stated 'the ordinary reasonable reader would understand the tweet to mean that the Muslim community was to blame for curtailing free speech'.

She was awarded 8,500 last year after she was repeatedly sent home from Urswick School in Hackney, east London, over a period of three years, starting in 2014 when she was just 14

Commenting on the case, Mr Holbrook, a member of UKIP, took to Twitter to slam The Equality Act for 'empowering the stroppy teenager of colour'

It added: 'The Panel considered this would not only cause offence but could promote hostility towards Muslims as a group.'

Mr Holbrook has previously claimed he had resigned a few days before the decision was made to expel him following his tweet about Miss William's case.

In an article for The Critic, Mr Holbrook wrote: 'The only reason that chambers proceeded to expel me, despite my resignation, was because the salivating attack dogs wanted some red meat to chew.

'Chambers was compliant enough to jump to their barking but it made no difference to me  save to enhance my reputation as a free speech advocate.'

Speaking about his tweet, he also said that people who 'advocate a particular political view' must accept that other people are allowed to criticise it.

He previously said: 'I don't accept that a policy premised on reasonableness should be outlawed as discriminatory.

'Those, like Ruby's parents, who advocate a particular political view must accept the right of others to criticise it.

'Equality laws put considerable force on schools to accommodate cultural differences.'

Miss William's mother Kate responded to Mr Holbrook's tweet at the time, saying his comments claiming her daughter was in the wrong had highlighted the 'awful form of discrimination'.

But the Bar Standards Board has concluded that Mr Holbrook was voicing his 'personal political opinion on a piece of legislation'. Pictured: Ruby with her parents Lenny and Kate

Miss William's mother Kate responded to Mr Holbrook's tweet at the time, saying his comments had highlighted the 'awful form of discrimination'

She wrote: 'I am her mum and sent you a message a while ago. You didn't answer. Everyone else has said it all already but I wanted to say thanks.

'By trying to say she was in the wrong... you've actually highlighted this awful form of discrimination again. The world is changing!!!'

After the ruling, Mr Holbook said he planned to appeal the 500 fine, adding: 'The BSB's conduct in fining me for this tweet is deeply concerning.

'It challenges the two principles on which a free society is built.

'Firstly, that in a democracy everyone has the right to express a political point of view, save for limited exceptions with suitably high and clear thresholds.

'Secondly, the BSB has disregarded the rules of natural justice. I was originally charged but later exonerated for tweets that were 'designed to demean or insult' individual.

'I will appeal against the BSB's 'administrative sanction' and continue the fight for free speech, including for the right of barristers to play a full role in the political life of the nation.'

Derek Sweeting QC, from the Bar Council, said: 'No one doubts your right to express your opinions on social media but there is a constraint on your entitlement to do so.

The school previously said Afro hair should be of 'reasonable size and length', but following a complaint, the guidelines have been changed. Pictured: Responses to Mr Holbrook's tweet

'That is because you are a barrister and so subject to specific professional conduct rules which apply at all times.'

Miss Williams was repeatedly sent home from Urswick School in Hackney, east London, over a period of more than three years, starting in 2014 when she was just 14.

She was constantly policed by staff over her hair, according to her father Lenny.

Miss Williams, now 19 and a student at the University of Manchester, was awarded the out of court settlement back in January.

The school had previously said Afro hair, including buns, should be of 'reasonable size and length'.

But following a complaint, the guidelines now say only that hairstyles should be 'reasonable and should not impact on other students'.

After the case was settled, the school's governors said they regretted the offence caused but did not accept the school had intentionally discriminated against anyone.

Miss Williams previously said: 'Afro hair is a protected characteristic. We want the choice to wear our natural hair - like everybody else - without being judged.

'I don't know what people thought went on that makes them call me 'stroppy'.

'He [Mr Holbrook] seemed so proud to say it, showing how much privilege someone has to write whole articles on a topic they know nothing about.

'I'm just fighting for the same school rules that others have.'
General Sir Richard Barron said today that the splinter terrorist cell posed a risk to the UK

Britain will need to co-operate with the Taliban to combat ISIS-K, a former senior military commander has warned.

General Sir Richard Barrons said today that the splinter terrorist cell which orchestrated the attack outside Kabul airport posed a risk at home and abroad.

He said that Britain and America were initially working with the Afghan intelligence service and had drones in the sky to root out and 'neuter' terrorist threats.

But now amid the chaotic withdrawal the NATO powers have been left relying on drone strikes to take out the group.

Sir Richard added: 'So what this actually means is we're going to end up co-operating, not just with the US, but with the Taliban in the future, in order to deal with ISIS-K.'

It came as the ambitious leader of ISIS-K became the Taliban's most wanted enemy, with their soldiers saying they would 'annihilate' the terrorist group.

A Pentagon drone strike has today killed the 'planner' behind the bombing at Kabul airport which left 170 people dead including 13 US soldiers, two Britons and a child of a UK national.

US officials said the attack  which came just two days after the airport bombing  was approved by President Joe Biden.

It came as a US drone strike was reported to have killed the 'planner' behind the Kabul airport bombings. They had been getting out of their car when they were struck in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan

The above map shows areas where ISIS-K is thought to be active (red). They are focused in eastern Afghanistan, and are not far from the capital Kabul. They are sworn enemies of the Taliban

An MQ-9 Reaper, armed with GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided munitions and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles is pictured flying over southern Afghanistan in 2015. On Friday night the Pentagon said an ISIS-K fighter had been killed by a drone

US drone strike kills 'planner' behind Kabul airport bombing A Pentagon drone strike has killed the 'planner' behind the ISIS suicide bombing at Kabul airport that left more than 170 people dead. The missile struck an ISIS fighter while he was in his car with another Islamic state associate in Nangahar province, eastern Afghanistan. US officials said the strike was approved by President Joe Biden. The retaliation came less than 48 hours after a suicide bombing claimed by the group killed 13 U.S. soldiers, two Britons and the child of a UK national outside an entrance to the runway. U.S. Navy spokesman William Urban confirmed the military 'conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner.' 'Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,' he added. Britain's rescue operation will end today, meaning as many as 1,250 Afghans eligible to take refuge in the UK, as well as up to 150 Britons, will be left behind. Gen. Sir Nick Carter said on Saturday: 'We haven't been able to take everyone out and that is heartbreaking. We think that we've got most of the Afghans but I think there will be high hundreds who won't have come out ... and something has prevented them from coming, rather than any processing problem from our perspective.' He added that U.S. troops now faced a 'very difficult' few days acting as the 'rear guard' to the withdrawal. 'I think our American allies are going to be very challenged because the threat from ISIS-K has not gone away and of course there are still lots of desperate Afghans trying to get out,' Sir Nick said. Advertisement

Speaking to Times radio, General Barrons said: 'Before we arrived at this current catastrophic outcome, we had a diplomatic presence, we had a relationship with the Afghan intelligence organisations and we were able to work with some of the very good but now completely dissolved elements of the Afghan security architecture.

'We also had the benefit of the sort of drone eyes-in-the-sky that the US provides.

'And now, all we have left is recourse to this over the horizon, drones support.

'So what this actually means is we're going to end up co-operating, not just with the US, but with the Taliban in the future, in order to deal with ISIS-K.'

He added that the Kabul airport attacks showed the terror group was clearly a threat to the UK both at home and abroad.

'What it does do is illustrate that ISIS-K is a risk to the United Kingdom, here at home, and to our interests abroad,' he said.

'We're going to find common cause with the US, and indeed I think the Taliban, in bearing down on this terrible organisation for as long as it takes to neuter them.'

Taliban officials said yesterday they would take 'every measure' to capture the militants behind the blast outside Kabul airport, reports The Telegraph.

One senior figure told the newspaper the group was 'making our best and maximum efforts to prevent threats'.

Two bombs tore through crowds gathered outside the airport on Thursday, which the Taliban had sworn to protect.

The attack has been blamed on the local Khorasan franchise of the Islamic State, or ISIS-K, which has been at war with the Taliban for three years.

It is reportedly led by Shahab al-Muhajir, and has 4,000 fighters after 2,000 were released from prison. It takes its name from the historic region of Khorasan, which included parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Middle East expert Dr Sajjan Gohel said today that the growth of ISIS-K may lead to terrorism returning to the West.

He told LBC: 'Perhaps the only thing holding back (terrorism resurging) temporarily has been the pandemic, because trans-Atlantic logistics have been impacted.

'But once that has been resolved my great fear is that you are going to see terrorists travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan for terrorist training.

'And, just like all the cases of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan in the past, they get very ambitious and then they start thinking they can go to the West to carry out attacks.'

He added: 'A lot of it is going to come down to how the situation unfolds under the Taliban. Whatever they say, their media savvy spokespeople, it does not necessarily reflect what's happening on the ground.'

He said their return on to power was a 'very disturbing dynamic' shortly before the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.
All teaching staff in NSW will be forced to get the Covid-19 jab or face losing their jobs, under the state government's road map to get schools reopened.

The plan will enforce mandatory vaccination for all teaching staff by November 8, as schools begin a staggered return to face-to-face education from October 25.

A NSW Department of Education survey revealed almost 70 per cent of staff had received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 40 per cent double jabbed.

But one in ten workers said they were not booked in or planned to get immunised within the next month.

Vaccination will be mandatory for all NSW teaching staff from November 8 as schools begin a staged return to face-to-face learning from October 25 (pictured, stock image)

One Nation leader Mark Latham criticised the roadmap via Twitter while falsely claiming Covid is not high risk for children

In a webinar video seen by Daily Mail Australia, Secretary of the NSW Department of Education Georgina Harrison warned staff about the mandatory jab requirement.

'It will mean under the public health order that they (teachers) are lawfully unable to work for us, and we will have to look at measures such as leave without pay until someone could get vaccinated, or possibly terminating their employment because it will be a requirement of employment,' Ms Harrison said.

'This is a really significant and serious step, it has not been taken lightly. Know that it has been taken on the very best health advice about what will protect our whole school community the best as we plan for return.'

The move has outraged One Nation leader Mark Latham, who took to Twitter in a fury on Saturday to criticise the vaccination mandate.

'NSW Department of Education employs 100,000 people. Staff survey shows 10 per cent do not plan to be vaccinated,' he wrote.

'Under yesterdays mandatory vaccination announcement up to 10,000 are to be sacked by November. How can this be the policy when Covid is not a high-risk illness for children?'

Since the Delta variant outbreak, 88 schools in NSW have been transmission sites of Covid-19.

President of the NSW Teachers Federation Angelo Gavrielatos, has supported the roadmap, saying he has been lobbying for prioritised vaccination since last year.

'Since the beginning of the second wave, we have been making representations to the federal government every single day over the last two months to prioritise teachers,' he told the Australian Financial Review.

According to a survey by the NSW Department of Education 10% of teachers do not plan to get vaccinated (pictured, patient receives Covid-19 jab)

Education staff also backed the new HSC extension start date which will give teachers an extra month of preparation before the exam period.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said HSC exams for year 12 students would be pushed back to November 9 - a day after mandatory vaccination is required for all staff on campuses.

Priority vaccinations will be scheduled for school campus staff from September 6.

The government is planning a staged return to school from October 25, when kindergarten and year one children return, years two, six and 11 return from November 1, and remaining year groups by November 8.

Year 12 students studying for their HSC exams will have full-time access to school campuses for study purposes from October 25.

If stay-at-home orders are lifted in some local government areas before then, all students in those LGAs can return to school.

The plan was cautiously welcomed by the public school teachers union.

Some education staff have backed the move after 88 NSW schools were Covid-19 sites of transmissions

Gladys Berejiklian said the government was working on plans to reopen certain industries in a 'very staged and safe way' at the 70 per cent mark.

'Even if you open up with 20 cases or 30 cases or zero cases, Delta is going to creep in and out and cases will increase as the rate of freedom increases,' she said on Friday.

'It is really important for all of us to come to terms with that.'

This comes as NSW reported 1,035 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases and two deaths on Saturday.

Two women aged in their 70s and 80s died in Sydney hospitals overnight.

The younger woman, from the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District in Sydney's west, had received both doses of the vaccine but had underlying health conditions, while the other was unvaccinated.

She died at Westmead Hospital.

The worrying surge in cases in NSW came after 156,165 people came forward to get vaccinated on Friday - the highest ever daily vaccination rate number.

There are now 778 patients with Covid being treated in hospital, 125 of those are in intensive care and 52 require ventilation.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard did provide some welcome good news - given the significant numbers of people getting the jab, Covid restrictions on weddings in NSW are set to be eased from 12:01am on Friday September 3.
Jacinda Ardern's fiance has shared an adorable photo of their daughter Neve out hiking near the official New Zealand Prime Minister's residence.

Taking to Instagram on Friday, Clarke Gayford shared the snap of the three-year-old as the pair went on an adventure to set up some possum traps around Premier House in Wellington.

But one detail in the picture has New Zealanders talking and proves the youngster is a budding feminist following in the footsteps of her mother, who was a pioneer as the world's youngest female head of state.

Growing up fast: Jacinda Ardern and Clark Gayford's daughter Neve (pictured) out for a hike with her Dad amid New Zealands lockdown

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford welcomed the birth of Neve in June 2018 (The family pictured in February 2020)

Mr Gayford said Neve was helping him with some yard work at the official Prime Minister's residence in Wellington on Friday

'This afternoon's lockdown activity, setting up a possum trap in the Prem House bush with my super interested little helper,' Mr Gayford wrote.

The post generated more than 4,500 comments including from Aussie rugby star David Pocock.

But many were focused on one small detail in the photo - namely Neve's pants emblazoned with the slogan 'Girl Power'.

'Loving the girl power pants. Mum's been shopping,' one person wrote.

'Love her trackies,' another said and added the #girlpower hashtag.

'Best track pants ever,' added a third.

Ms Ardern herself has said she wants her daughter to grow up with strong views on gender equality.

'I hope that she (her daughter) doesn't have any sense of what girls can do or can't do. That it's just not a concept for her,' Ms Ardern said shortly after Neve was born.

To celebrate his daughter's third birthday Clarke Gayford took it upon himself to make a homemade cake shaped like a vintage television (pictured) which he projected her favourite films into

In a 2018 speech Ms Ardern said she would put 'all the things left to achieve gender equality at the top of my list' as the country celebrated 125 years since becoming the first in the world to give women the vote.

'I believe within the ordinary stands the extraordinary and it's thanks to these women that I am here today,' she said referring to those who pioneered the right to vote movement.

'Lifting wages, closing the gender pay gap, living free from violence, having the choice to be a carer, to have a career, be a mother - those are uppermost on my to-do list. Our extraordinary women deserve no less.'

Mr Gayford is also a strong supporter of gender equality - taking on the role of stay-at-home dad while his partner leads the nation.

The Labour leader made cakes for Neve's first and second birthdays; a coconut-coated rabbit in 2019, and a chocolate piano last year

To celebrate her daughter's second birthday last year, Jacinda Ardern made a piano cake (pictured) from the Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book

The radio and television presenter first met Ms Ardern in 2012 after being introduced by their mutual friend and television host Colin Mathura-Jeffree.

They started to spend time together after Clarke contacted Ms Ardern about a controversial Government Communications Security Bureau bill.

And from the looks of her hiking adventure Neve certainly isn't on track for a life of privilege as the child of a Prime Minister - but was learning to help her father with some manual labour.

In his post on Friday, Mr Gayford also tagged a New Zealand company that makes ethical humane possum traps.

The animals are considered ecologically damaging in large numbers as they compete with and prey on native fauna and strip forest undergrowth.
A shortage of blood tubes has put doctors and patients in a 'terrible, unenviable position', with GPs facing 'difficult choices' about who gets blood tests, the British Medical Association has warned.

The BMA said shortages across hospitals and GP surgeries were 'severe' and if the NHS did not reduce usage in the coming days 'even the most clinically important blood tests may be at risk'.

Earlier this month, NHS England issued guidance amid a global shortage of blood tube products.

It came after medical technology company Becton Dickinson reported temporary supply chain issues for tubes used to collect samples in blood tests.

Britain has been blighted with supply chain issues across multiple industries, with gaps seen on supermarket shelves and McDonald's running out of milkshakes.

Retailers called on the government to issue temporary visas for EU workers to plug a lorry driver shortage that threatens to disrupt Christmas earlier this week.

All clinically necessary blood tests will go ahead but others have been scaled back.

The BMA urged doctors to follow guidance and carry out 'only the most critical tests for the time being'.

A shortage of blood tubes has put doctors and patients in a 'terrible, unenviable position', with GPs facing 'difficult choices' about who gets blood tests, the British Medical Association has warned

Dr David Wrigley, BMA council deputy chair, said: 'This crisis has put doctors and their patients in a terrible, unenviable position.

'No doctor knowingly undertakes unnecessary blood tests and to now have to ration all those we are doing, as well as cancel hundreds more, goes against everything we stand for as clinicians.

'However, if we don't try to follow the NHS guidance, it's clear we will get to the point where even the most clinically urgent of blood tests may not be able to be done as we simply won't have the tubes for the blood to go into.

Why is there a supply-chain crisis? A lack of lorry drivers and food processors is being partly blamed on the new Brexit visa regime introduced on January 1, which penalises lower-skilled migrants in favour of those with qualifications. But global factors are relevant too, bosses say, including Chinese port closures and a lack of shipping containers. US Vice President Kamala Harris urged Americans to buy Christmas toys early due to a shortage there. Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, told MailOnline Britain has so far been unable to shake its dependency on EU workers who have been leaving due to the pandemic. The supply of new workers is also being held back by stricter visa rules introduced on January 1. The most common complaint among UK retailers and food producers is the shortage of lorry drivers, which the Road Haulage Association currently puts at 100,000. Thousands of prospective drivers are waiting for their HGV tests due to a backlog caused by lockdown, while many existing ones have left the UK after Brexit or to be back with their families during Covid. Importers are also suffering a financial hit, with dramatically rising transport costs caused by a global lack of shipping containers and a slowdown in freight movements resulting from port closures. Chinese authorities recently shut Ningbo-Zhoushan port, which is one of the world's largest container terminals, due to a Covid outbreak. Gary Grant, founder and executive chairman of toy chain the Entertainer, said the cost of shipping a container from Asia had increased from $1,700 to more than $13,000 (8,000) over the past year. Advertisement

'We are at a very perilous point and it's surprising that NHS England hasn't declared a critical incident given the very strong possibility that NHS organisations may temporarily lose the ability to provide lifesaving diagnostic testing.'

He called on NHS England to provide information for patients about the situation.

Dr Wrigley added: 'Many GP practices - like mine  will now have to spend hours assessing which already scheduled tests can or cannot be cancelled and this takes time away from frontline patient care when it is most needed.

'Cancelling tests makes patients anxious and can mean a missed diagnosis.'

On Thursday, NHS bosses wrote to England's GPs and hospital trusts warning that supply was 'forecasted to become even more constrained over the coming weeks'.

'While it is anticipated that the position will improve from the middle of September, overall supply is likely to remain challenging for a significant period,' they wrote, adding that it was 'important and urgent that demand is reduced as much as possible'.

Alternative products are being sought but it is expected to take time for these to be imported and delivered in volume.

Health bosses said all primary care and community testing must stop until September 17, except for 'clinically urgent' testing.

Acute and mental health trusts must reduce their demand by a minimum of 25% for the period leading up to this date.

Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chair, said such a reduction was 'highly alarming' and 'careful' decisions were now needed.

He added: 'It is shocking that this situation has been allowed to develop - in particular, the apparent over-reliance on one manufacturer and the woeful lack of any kind of reserve supply.

'The manufacturers should also have to explain how they allowed stocks to run so low that patients will now suffer as a result.

'If we don't get on top of this shortage - and quickly  then we could very easily end up in a catastrophic position, particularly in hospitals where patients come to serious harm.'

The NHS guidance recommends stopping vitamin D testing except in exceptional circumstances and deferring routine infertility testing unless the patient is over the age of 35.

It also says allergy testing is 'not a priority at this time' unless there is clinical need, and that routine wellness screening is 'not a priority'.

The guidance also advises against stockpiling tubes.

Becton Dickinson and the Department of Health and Social Care have been approached for comment.
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With Hurricane Ida intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico Saturday and barreling towards the Gulf Coast, thousands of fleeing residents clogged highways as they raced inland, and the New Orleans airport cancelled all of Sunday's inbound and departing flights.

As of early Sunday morning, Ida was a Category 3 storm with whipping winds of 115 mph. It was about 145 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that the storm will be 'one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s.'

Forecasters predict it could make landfall by Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening as an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with winds of 140 mph.

It's predicted to cause heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge most of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.

'Were going to catch it head-on,' Bebe McElroy told the Associated Press as she prepared to leave home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. 'Im just going around praying, saying, "Dear Lord, just watch over us."'

The eye of the storm becomes clearer Saturday night as Hurricane Ida heads towards the US Gulf Coast

This is the latest radar image - seen at 9pm East Coast time - of Hurricane Ida

Like traffic jams on highways surrounding the city, TSA security lines at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport on Saturday were massive. The New Orleans airport announced on Saturday night that all Sunday flights are cancelled

Traffic moves bumper to bumper along I-10 west as residents arrive into Texas from the Louisiana border ahead of Hurricane Ida in Orange, Texas

Heavy traffic clogs Interstate 10 Westbound through Kenner out of New Orleans Saturday as residents outside the city's protective levees are ordered to evacuate, and those within are encouraged to do so of their own volition

Ida was poised to strike Louisiana 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. A Category 3 storm, Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths and caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, which took years to recover.

'Were not the same state we were 16 years ago,' Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Saturday, pointing to a federal levee system thats seen major improvements since Katrina swamped New Orleans in 2005.

'This system is going to be tested. The people of Louisiana are going to be tested. But we are resilient and tough people. And were going to get through this.'

Edwards said 5,000 National Guard troops were being staged in 14 parishes for search and rescue efforts with high-water vehicles, boats and helicopters. And 10,000 linemen were on standby to respond to electrical outages.

Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told CNN during a TV interview at 11pm that he's most concerned about how city's infrastructure will hold up and said the city's hospitals are already filled because of the COVID-19 surge brought on by the 'Delta' variant.

A business owner on Bourbon Street boards up the windows of his restaurant

Men place plywood in front of a store in preparation for Hurricane Ida, in New Orleans

Bourbon Street is boarded-up Saturday night and the typically lively area of New Orleans looks like a ghost town

For those who will be weathering the storm were reminded by President Joe Biden not to forego COVID precautions: 'If you have to move to shelter, make sure you wear a mask and try to keep some distance  were still facing the highly contagious delta variant as well.'

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell urged residents reminded residents during mid-day Saturday press conference that he local COVID surge has city hospitals at full capacity.

She called on those planning to flee from the 'life-altering' hurricane to 'do so immediately' and for those planning to ride out the storm to finish their preparations and shelter in place as quickly as possible.

'This is our time, your time, to prepare yourselves now. This is it,' she said.

'Check on your neighbors, your friends, of course your family, assist them when needed... in Hurricane Katrina, we learned that we are all first responders.'

Members on the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Louisiana National Guard stage at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday

National Guard is ready for emergency situations at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans

Two people walk by a boarded up and sand bagged business in the French Quarter's Bourbon Street, the day before Hurricane Ida is scheduled to make landfall in New Orleans

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards had a call with Biden on Friday afternoon to synchronize federal and local storm preparation and response plans.

Also on the call was FEMA Administrator Deanna Criswell, Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Rodriguez.

FEMA is pre-positioning food, water, generators and other resources in the at-risk region, the president's office said Saturday.

'I know that tomorrow, for many people, is a very difficult anniversary. It is the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I'm also aware that it is very painful to think about another powerful storm like Hurricane Ida making landfall on that anniversary,' Edwards said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

'Every storm is different. They all bring their own challenges, but I also want you to know that were not the same state we were 16 years ago.'

The Governor said that 'many, many people are heeding the evacuation orders, both mandatory and voluntary.'

Meanwhile, the president implored local authorities to reach out for federal assistance, should they need it, before the projected hurricane makes landfall.

'I need to know everything you think we need to do,' he said at a press conference just before 2 pm. 'If you havent gotten the authority for it, tell me now, well get it done.'

'Thank you, thank you thank you, everything that youre doing to prepare for this dangerous storm is going to mitigate the impact and potential. Disastrous results that will [effect] so many people in the region.'

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards shared a call with Biden on Friday afternoon to synchronize federal and local storm preparation and response plans

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell urged residents reminded residents in an earlier press conference that, due to a local COVID surge - hospitals in the city are already at full capacity.

Terrebonne, Lafourche, Plaquemines, Orleans, St. Charles, Port Fourchon and St. Mary Parish all mandated evacuations for some or all of their residents, and New Orleans employers let their employees go home by 6pm so they have adequate time to seek shelter.

Ida was a tropical depression just two days earlier but it strengthened so quickly that New Orleans officials said there was no time to organize a mandatory evacuation of the citys 390,000 residents.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city did not have sufficient time to mandate evacuations inside the levee system, or to open up additional lanes of traffic, known as contraflow, to allow more people to evacuate.

An evacuation of that magnitude requires coordination with the state and neighboring locales so that inbound lanes on are highways can be converted to shunt traffic away from the city.

Even without the mandatory evacuation, traffic on Interstate 10 out of New Orleans was heavy or at a standstill throughout the day Saturday. Roads were congested as early as 4 am.

Boats, trailers and RVs line Louisiana Highway 46 as owners race to get them within the area of levee protection on Saturday before Hurricane Ida hits

Gas is running out at many stations throughout Louisiana and areas in the projected path of Hurricane Ida

Reports indicate many more heeded the officials' warnings and vacated the area, but those who chose to hunker down in New Orleans and the surrounding areas along the coast boarded up their homes and businesses and made preparations.

The city's emergency planners - simultaneously traumatized and prepared for the worst by Hurricane Katrina - have promised a 'very robust, very quick, post-storm evacuation.'

Inundated with surrendered pets, Louisiana's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is also at full capacity, and will similarly transition to 'post-storm operations.'

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, 70 percent of homes were damaged to some degree, and more than 1,800 people died.

Ten to 15 feet of water is expected to collect around the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center said, and lower levels of flooding could extend as far east as the coastlines of adjacent Mississippi and Alabama.

Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon West Broome signed an emergency disaster declaration, and said her city had preemptively stationed sand and sandbags at eight strategic locations as the storm approached.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that FEMA will send nearly 150 medical personnel and almost 50 ambulances to the Gulf Coast to assist strained hospitals.

A Morgan City man and his neighbors board up his window in preparation for the impending Category 4 hurricane

Businesses throughout New Orleans' French Quarter are boarded up today in preparation for the impending historically devastating storm

Crews are rushing today to cover windows with plywood to reduce the impact of menacing Hurricane Ida, which is forecasted to reach New Orleans tomorrow

A St. Charles Parish man boards up his home on Saturday as Hurricane Ida approaches New Orleans. The storm is predicted to cause 'catastrophic' damage to infrastructure and buildings

A New Orleans man checks the lock on his front gate after moving his cars off the road on Saturday in preparation for Hurricane Ida's arrival

A Walmart in New Orleans is pictured here with nearly-depleted stocks after city officials told residents to be prepared for prolonged power outages, and asked elderly residents to consider evacuating

Bars, businesses and restaurants are all boarding up in New Orleans' French Quarter in preparation for Hurricane Ida's projected Sunday landfall

'Extremely life-threatening inundation of 9 feet or greater' has been predicted from Morgan City, Louisiana to the Mississippi coast. 'Potentially catastrophic wind damage' is forecasted, too, and the NHC said today that 'actions to protect life and property should be rushed to completion today in the warning area'

Terrebonne Parish officials also told everyone to evacuate, WWL-TV reported.

'If you can leave on your own, please leave on your own,' Parish President Gordon Dove said. 'We are the bullseye by every indication, of everything we have found.'

Heavy rainfall and flooding have already began to affect Mississippi ahead of Ida's suspected landfall.

Hailey DeLaune of Gulf told Reuters today that she and her fiancee spent Friday evening amassing provisions and boarding up the windows of his house in Gulfport, Mississippi.

'Hurricanes have always been part of my life,' said Delaune, a high school theology teacher who was born during 1992's Category 5 Hurricane Andrew. 'You just run through your list and hope for the best.'

Shelves were seen low on stock at a Walmart on Tchoupitolas in New Orleans, Louisiana ahead of Hurricane Ida on Friday. Breads, meats, snacks, canned meats, cases of water, chips and fans are in short supply.

Shoppers at Costco in New Orleans stocked up on supplies like bottles of water and toilet paper ahead of Hurricane Ida. Lines at gas stations flowed into the streets and an Exxon in New Orleans has already closed its pumps because it is out of gas.

City officials said residents need to be prepared for prolonged power outages, and asked elderly residents to consider evacuating. Arnold said the city could be under high winds for about ten hours.

A mandatory evacuation for those living outside the city's protective levee system has been ordered by New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and those within the levees have been encouraged to do so voluntarily if they are able

Residents line up at the Dryades YMCA to pick up sandbags from a city-run sandbag distribution location in anticipation of Hurricane Ida's landfall in New Orleans. A state of emergency has been declared there, and residents have been urged to complete their preparations for the storm today

A New Orleans resident hefts sandbags from a city-run distribution center as residents are told to hurry their preparations for the incoming hurricane

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to begin preparation and hunker down - he was prompted by the approaching storm to declare a state of emergency on Thursday

Crews from Southeast Louisiana's Flood Protection Authority East close a flood gate at the Bonnabel Boat Launch on Saturday in preparation for Hurricane Ida's projected Sunday landfall

At Governor Edwards' request, Biden issued a pre-landfall federal emergency declaration on Friday, which authorized the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA to begin coordinating disaster relief efforts.

'Nobody was out there shrimping today, opening day of shrimp season,' said George Barisich, a shrimper, to CBS News. 'So that ought to tell you. When I got in this morning, late last night... about 75, 80 percent of the boats already left.'

Meteorologist Steve Bowen, head of global catastrophe insight at the risk and consulting firm Aon, said the area that was about to get hit is especially vulnerable, with large swaths of industries that could cause environmental damages as well as homes that still have tarps instead of roofs from multiple storms in 2020.

'Its not just the coastal impact. Its not just New Orleans,' Bowen said. 'Were certainly looking at potential losses well into the billions.'

On Friday, Ida smashed into Cuba's small Isle of Youth, off the southwestern end of the Caribbean island nation, toppling trees and tearing roofs from dwellings.

Jamaica was flooded by heavy rains, and there were landslides after the passage of the storm. Many roads were impassable, forcing some residents to abandon their homes.

Ida, the ninth named storm and fourth hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, may well exceed the strength of Hurricane Laura, the last Category 4 storm to strike Louisiana, by the time it makes landfall, forecasters said.

A man using plastic against heavy rainfall caused by Hurricane Ida in Cuba on Friday walks on a road leading to Batabano in the Mayabeque province. After battering Cuba on Friday with 80 mile per hour winds, Ida began churning northwest this morning - it is expected to reach the US this Sunday, 16 years to the date of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in 2005

A car makes its way over a road in Cuba covered with rain by Hurricane Ida on Friday. The storm shows 'no signs of weakening' before it reaches US shores, according to the National Weather Service

Cars traverse flooding roads in Cuba on Friday as Hurricane Ida passes through

The region was devastated in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people.

Many roads were impassable, forcing some residents to abandon their homes.

Hurricane Ida was 105 miles west of Havana and traveling northwest at 15MPH by late Friday night.

As the storm plowed into Cuba on Friday night, the National Weather Service issued a slurry of alarming tweets warning that Hurricane Ida shows 'no signs on weakening.'

'If Ida maintains a good inner core it will intensify quickly as it enters the Gulf. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THIS! If you are asked to evacuate, LEAVE or you're putting your life in danger!' the NWS asserted.

In another tweet, the NWS wrote: 'The time to act is NOW. Hurricane Ida is now forecast to make landfall as a category 4 hurricane. This will bring SIGNIFICANT impacts to Southern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi. No major changes to the track at this time, moved just a touch to the east.'

Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall 16 years to the day of Hurricane Katrina. Pictured here, pumps put in place by the Army Corps of Engineers divert floodwaters from New Orleans' 17th Street Canal into Lake Pontcharta after the 2005 Hurricane

'Along with the change to a Category 4 landfall we also now have upgraded to a Hurricane WARNING for parts of southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi. Damaging winds are expected with Ida and could reach the coast by Saturday night.'

The agency said that a storm surge warning is also now in effect for the likelihood of life-threatening storm surge in some areas of southeaster Louisiana and coastal Mississippi - while a storm surge watch is in effect for the potential of life-threatening storm surge for outer areas.

In its biggest weekly gain this year, oil prices shot up by two percent on Friday.

As the storm tore through the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and Friday, energy companies halted the production of 1.6 million oil barrels and airlifted workers from 90 offshore facilities on Friday and the storm ground through the site of 17 percent of the nation's oil production.

Production cutbacks have exceeded those spurred on in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, the cataclysmic storm that devastated Louisiana, killed 1,800 and destroyed more than 850,000 homes. Preceding the earlier storm, supplies were cut by 1.53 million barrels per day; Hurricane Delta reduced the supply by 1.69 million each day.
The Kennedy family were divided on Friday when a California panel recommended that Robert Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, 77, be granted parole after nearly five decades in prison.

Six of the nine surviving children of the slain New York Senator issued a statement on Friday announcing that they were 'devastated' by the San Diego panel's ruling.

Although most of the Kennedy family has avoided discussing or engaging with their father's death and Sirhan in public, the parole board's recommendation has pushed some of them to 'adamantly oppose the parole and release of Sirhan Sirhan.'

Sirhan Sirhan, 77, was recommended to be released on parole by a California panel of Friday after 53 years in prison for murder. He is pictured on Friday

FOR: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left) and Douglas Kennedy (right) have supported Sirhan's recommendation for parole

AGAINST: The statement posted Friday was signed by six of Robert Kennedy's nine surviving children announced that they were 'devastated' by the San Diego panel's ruling. L-R Joseph P. Kennedy II, Maxwell Kennedy and Rory Kennedy

AGAINST: The siblings will continue to fight to keep Sirhan behind bars for their father's murder. L-R Courtney Kennedy Hill, Kerry Kennedy and Christopher Kennedy

'We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release,' the statement from the six siblings read.

It was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy Hill, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy who write that the decision has 'inflicted enormous additional pain.'

But two of RFK's children, Douglas Kennedy, 54, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 67, have supported Sirhan's parole.

Douglas addressed the two-person panel that recommended that parole be granted during a virtual hearing, according to The Associated Press.

'I'm overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,' he said moved to tears. 'I've lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.'

RFK Jr. has spoken in favor of Sirhan's release, and wrote in a letter that he met with his father's killer in prison who 'asked for forgiveness,' the AP reported.

He has previously stated that he does not believe Sirhan killed his father.

RFK was shot in Los Angeles after giving a victory speech following his win in the South Dakota and California 1968 Democratic presidential primaries (Pictured: Ethel, left, RFK, right)

Sen. Robert Kennedy and Ambassador Hotel employee Juan Romero moments after RFK was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, June 1968

A mortally wounded Robert Kennedy on the floor of the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel, June 1968

Robert Kennedy was walking through the kitchen of the hotel stopping to speak with supporters when he was shot, June 1968

RFK was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and pronounced dead a day later, on June 6, 1968

Paul Schrade, who'd worked with RFK and was also shot that night, also believes that Sirhan was not the shooter and should be released.

'Sirhan did not shoot Robert Kennedy,' Schrade, 96, maintains. 'I got the first shot, the second shot missed Kennedy,' according to NPR.

He believes that unreliable ballistics evidence by the Los Angeles Police Department disrupted the case and advocates for Sirhan's release in order to find RFK's true assassin.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 70, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, and Ethel Kennedy, 93, RFK's widow, have not publicly announced their opinions of Sirhan's parole recommendation.

Two of Robert and Ethel's 11 children are deceased. David Kennedy died at age 28 in 1984 and Michael Kennedy died at age 39 in 1997.

This marked Sirhan's 16th attempt at parole. The panel's recommendation still awaits a review by the California Parole Board and a final decision by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The review process could take up to 120 days.

Robert Kennedy was the younger brother to former President John F. Kennedy, serving as his brother's US attorney general. He was then elected as a New York Senator.

RFK was 42 years old when he was pronounced dead on June 6, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The rising politician was shot after giving a victory speech following his win in the South Dakota and California 1968 Democratic presidential primaries.

Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1969. He is serving a life sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County, California

Sirhan has attempted to be recommended for parole 15 times before Friday's recommendation. The decision will now move to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk

Sirhan stepped towards RFK with a rolled up campaign poster, hiding his .22 revolver shooting him in the head from only a foot away

He was immediately wrestled to the ground by RFK's security team and taken into custody. He claims that he has been drinking alcohol and did not remember pulling the trigger

The shooting occurred in the kitchen area of the hotel as RFK and several of his staff made their way to the press room. He and five other people were shot as Sirhan was immediately apprehended.

Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death the next year. He eluded execution when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972 and lessened his sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The Palestinian immigrant claimed he had been drinking on the night of the assassination and doesn't remember pulling the trigger.

If Sirhan is released, he may be deported to Jordan. He never obtained US citizenship after immigrating to the country from Israel as a child.
An international manhunt is underway for a mother and father suspected of abducting their two-year-old daughter and taking her to Spain.

Lancashire Police said it was working with Spanish cops to track down Gracie-May Rogers after she was allegedly taken by Kelly Gibson, 35, and Lee Rogers, 39.

Detectives said they are growing 'increasingly concerned' for the child's welfare after her parents are believed to have flown her from Glasgow to Alicante on Tuesday.

In a CCTV image shared by police, the child, from Lancaster, is seen being pushed in her pram by her parents, who are donning protective face coverings.

Investigators believe the trio arrived at Alicante, on the Costa Blanca, at 9.35pm on August 24 - although there has been no reported sighting of the family.

Officers are treating it as a missing child case and are desperately hunting Gibson and Rogers on suspicion of abducting the young girl.

Kelly Gibson, 35, and Lee Rogers, 39, are believed to have boarded a flight from Glasgow to Alicante with their daughter, Gracie-May Rogers, on Tuesday (Pictured together at Glasgow Airport)

Investigators believe the trio arrived at Alicante, on the Costa Blanca, at 9.35pm on August 24 - although there has been no reported sighting of the family

A police spokesman said: 'We are treating Gracie-May as a missing child and both Kelly Gibson, 35, and Lee Rogers, 39, are now wanted on suspicion of child abduction.

'We are working closely with our law enforcement and child protection partners in Spain in a bid to bring Gracie-May home safely.

'We are appealing to anyone who sees the family or who has information on where they may be to get in touch as a matter of urgency.'

Gracie-May (pictured) from Lancaster, was last seen with her mother at around 10am Tuesday

Detective Inspector Andy Ellis said: 'We are growing increasingly concerned, especially for the welfare of Gracie-May and Kelly Gibson, and we would appeal to anyone who sees the three of them together or separately to get in touch urgently.

'The last information we have is that the family landed in Alicante on Tuesday evening but as there have been no confirmed sightings since then it is possible that they have moved on.

'We appreciate that this incident may cause concern for some people but we are working closely with our partners in the Spanish Police and our overriding priority is the safe return of this young child.'

Anyone with information is urged to call Lancashire Police on 101 quoting log 0621 of August 25.
Half a million Afghan refugees could flee their beleaguered homeland that has fallen under Taliban rule by the end of this year, the United Nations has warned.

The stark message was issued ahead of the August 31 deadline for all US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan - a date in which experts expect the country to fall into further tyranny.

With a potential humanitarian crisis well underway, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees explained the bloc was preparing for a worst-case scenario of approximately '500,000 new refugees in the region', the Telegraph reports.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted he felt a 'great sense of regret' about the many hundreds that UK forces had been unable to evacuate from Kabul.

The news comes as Britain's evacuation efforts have now ended after the final flight as part of Operation Pitting left Kabul overnight.

The UK's rushed withdrawal plans mean between 100 and 150 Brits and 1,000 Afghans eligible to come to the country are set to be left behind to uncertain fates.

Afghans queue at the main entrance gate of Kabul airport hoping to leave Afghanistan in Kabul on Saturday. The last UK flight carrying civilians left last night. All further British planes will be carrying military and diplomatic personnel

Taliban Badri fighters, a 'special forces' unit equipped with US gear, stand guard as Afghan wait at the main entrance gate of Kabul airport

Afghan evacuees queue before boarding one of the last Italy's military aircraft C130J during evacuation at Kabul's airport today

Watching the Afghanistan catastrophe unfold, the UN's specialised office for the resettlement of stateless people and refugees across the bloc warned hundreds of thousands of newly displaced people will soon descend on south Asia.

The UNHCR estimates that in a 'worst-case scenario' up to 500,000 new refugees will be added to the region following the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.

It comes as the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday that the final rescue flight as part of Operation Pitting left overnight.

All remaining RAF jets leaving Kabul will be carrying military and diplomatic personnel.

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, said: 'It's time to close this phase of the operation now, but we haven't forgotten the people who still need to leave. We'll continue to do everything we can to help them.

'Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.'

Thousands of refugees have been unable to get to the Taliban-guarded airport or are too fearful to do so for the constant threat of terrorism.

On Thursday, an ISIS suicide bomber killed at least 170 people, including 13 U.S. soldiers, two Britons and the child of a UK national outside the airport walls.

The MoD said last night that 14,543 people had now been extracted from Kabul since August 13, a mix of Afghan and British nationals, and that now the focus would turn to getting diplomats and service personnel out.

Some 8,000 of those were Afghans and their families under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which applies to those who helped the UK and are at risk of persecution by the Taliban.

But the announcement followed warnings that Britain risks the biggest hostage crisis in its history by leaving 1,000 Afghan allies to the mercy of the Taliban and Isis-K.

A Taliban fighter guards the airport as desperate Afghans try to escape their brutal reign

Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a RAF Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton on Saturday

One of those rescued was former Royal Marine turned animal rescuer Pen Farthing, 57, who could be the last British civilian to leave Kabul airport.

Mr Farthing and his 180 cats and dogs he housed in the Afghan capital could be left on the tarmac to wait for his charter plane to arrive from Karachi in Pakistan, Sky News said.

The Polish aircraft is expected in the Afghan capital in the next few hours but by that point all Britons - including UK ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow - may have gone.

Mr Farthing will fly from Kabul to Tashkent in Uzbekistan before later returning to Britain, where he has won legions of fans for holding the government to account.

But in a blow to the ex-soldier, it emerged today his animals will be locked up when he arrives in the UK.

British troops were seen securing the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate in Kabul on Thursday following the bombing

Officials said the dogs and cats face a four-month quarantine in kennels and catteries until at least Christmas.

The Government has faced a steady stream of criticism for its haphazard extraction plans, while Boris Johnson appeared to take a swipe at Joe Biden, saying the timing of the pull-out was 'not the one that this country would have chosen'.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said: 'This is the brutal truth, despite getting more than 14,000 people out, there are probably 1,000 Afghans who have worked with us over two decades in Afghanistan, helped our troops, our aid workers, our diplomats, that we promised to protect, but we're leaving behind.

'And I know those troops in particular will feel our failure on this as a country is a betrayal of many of those who risked their own lives to work alongside us.

'And I think what's important now is that we may be giving up the airport, but we cannot give up on the Afghan people or fighting to try and protect the gains that they and our troops and our diplomats and aid workers have worked so hard over two decades to gain in Afghanistan.'

Pen Farthing, 57, told how his employees were stopped from crossing the Taliban line to the British area at Kabul airport

His desperate comments were in sharp contrast to his wife, who last night spoke of her joy that her husband and his furry friends were on their way home

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate (pictured, Kabul airport yesterday)

International fury is mounting over U.S. president Joe Biden's decision to withdraw troops from the country, which led to the Taliban's lighting-fast takeover of Afghanistan and in-turn sparked the desperate evacuation, with foreign countries being given a August 31 deadline to get their citizens out.

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that Isis-K planned to strike again as the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport moves into its final days.

A devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 170 Afghans and 13 American service members at the airport on Thursday.

Ministers said they were prepared to 'take action' to deal with the terror threat as the death toll continued to rise following the suicide bomb blast which signalled the biggest single loss of American troops in Afghanistan for a decade.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the deaths of two British adults as well as injuries to two others. It is understood the child who died was a teenager.

Mr Raab said: 'These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists.

'Yesterday's despicable attack underlines the dangers facing those in Afghanistan and reinforces why we are doing all we can to get people out. We are offering consular support to their families.

'We will not turn our backs on those who look to us in their hour of need and we will never be cowed by terrorists.'
A Georgia woman was arrested after she was caught masturbating at a local beach, telling police she didn't think that anyone noticed her because 'it only took her 20 seconds to orgasm.'

The Smoking Gun reports Christina Revels-Glick, 34, was at a beach on Tybee Island, a barrier island and small city near Savannah, around 5:30 pm on July 1, when a fellow beachgoer 'could hear her moaning.'

That's when Glick, dressed in a 'one-piece green bikini, retrieved an unknown item from her backpack,' police say.

She then 'spread her legs apart' and putting 'both of her hands in between her legs,' according to the police report.

The 'unknown item' was a vibrator, the report reveals, which was photographed by police for evidence.

Glick 'admitted to masturbating at the beach with her vibrator,' telling responding officers 'that she had put it between her legs and it was covered with a towel' and 'believed no one saw her.'

Pictured: A Tybee Island Georgia Police vehicle seen on the beach

However, Sarah Moss did see her, having witnessed the act after hearing Glick moaning while covered in a towel in front of her family's tent.

Moss told police that Glick pleasured herself for about five minutes before packing her things and leaving for the nearby Deck Restaurant.

Moss provided police with video she took of the incident, which showed Glick as she did the deed before looking off to her right, as if she spotted someone coming from that direction, and quickly stopping what she was doing, according to the police report.

Cops found Glick at the Deck Restaurant, where she was arrested.

She admitted to masturbating on the beach, and the vibrator was located inside her backpack.

Police said Glick apologized while being booked for indecent exposure and disorderly conduct, telling officers that she didn't think anyone had seen her because 'it only took 20 seconds for her to orgasm.'

The incident occurred at Tybee Island (pictured) in Georgia

She was released shortly after her arrest on subpoena, the police report states.

According to Atlanta-based attorneys Conaway and Strickler, Glick could face a 12-month jail sentence for 20 seconds of self-gratification.

'The state of Georgia aggressively prosecutes people charged with indecent exposure,' the attorneys' website reads.

'Indecent exposure occurs when a person intentionally reveals his or her body's private parts in a setting considered indecent. This type of offense is usually a misdemeanor, but can result in up to a 12-month jail sentence if convicted.'
Injured cows in Switzerland have been airlifted to the bottom of their Alpine meadows in a bizarre spectacle.

Around a dozen animals were lifted by helicopter from the meadow to the Klausenpass mountain pass, which is around 6,400ft (1,950m) above sea level, on Friday.

The injured cows were suspended by a length of cable using a mesh harness and they were photographed dangling from a chopper as they took to the skies.

Injured cows in Switzerland have been airlifted (pictured) to the bottom of their Alpine meadows in a bizarre spectacle

Around a dozen animals were lifted by helicopter to the Klausenpass mountain pass, still around 6,400ft (1,950m) above sea level, on Friday

The injured cows were suspended by a length of cable using a mesh harness and they were photographed dangling from a chopper as they took to the skies

Farmers used guide ropes to help bring the cows to land safely, before moving them into trailers - a form of transport the beasts are more familiar with.

The healthy and fit livestock from the 1,000-strong herd walked down the mountainside themselves.

Farmer Jonas Arnold explained that reasons for transporting the cows by helicopter include some pastures being difficult to reach by car, and cows being unable to walk while injured.

Farmers used guide ropes to help bring the cows to land safely, before moving them into trailers. Pictured: A cow is transported by a helicopter

Farmer Jonas Arnold explained reasons for transporting the cows by chopper (above) include some pastures being difficult to reach by car, and cows being unable to walk while injured

A cow is transported by a helicopter from after its summer sojourn in the high Swiss Alpine meadows near the Klausenpass, Switzerland

The herd were airlifted to head towards the Urnerboden area in the central canton of Uri ready for an annual cow parade

The cows (pictured landing) had been spending their summer sojourn in the Swiss Alpine meadows, but are now being moved on from their mountainside location

He told Sky News: 'I didn't ask a cow how it feels after such a flight as it couldn't answer, but it's only a short distance and it has to keep going.

'It was only a short calm flight. I didn't notice any difference between the ones that flew and the ones that walked normally.'

The cows had been spending their summer sojourn in the Swiss Alpine meadows, but are now being moved on from their mountainside location.

The herd are heading towards the Urnerboden area in the central canton of Uri in preparation for an annual cow parade.
A frustrated politician has taken to TikTok to reveal a little-known piece of financial information that could be critically important for renters.

Labor's Rose Jackson posted the clip containing an infographic put out by the NSW state government about Covid financial support.

'Don't be put off by the graphic because hidden in here is very important information - particularly if you are a renter in Greater Sydney,' Ms Jackson said.

Rose Jackson (pictured) is a Labor politician serving in the NSW parliament and highlighted the little known support measure for renters

'If you have lost income because of the lockdown. If you're a casual worker or the shop you work at is closed something like that, you need to inform your landlord immediately if you cannot pay rent,' she explains.

'Because (landlords) cannot evict you for 60 days (if you can't pay rent) and financial support is available to your them to cover the rent that you can't pay.'

The clip has been viewed by more than 500,000 people, with many asking if the money needed to be back paid after the two month period.

'Yes. But at least if gives you some breathing space to sort something out,' Ms Jackson replied.

'This is also why you should talk to your landlord about a rent reduction or payment plan - they are required to mediate options,' she added.

Sydney is in the midst of an extended lockdown which has seen many businesses struggle with people ordered to remain at home (pictured: the Sydney CBD in August)

The eviction ban was introduced in July as a response to Sydney's extended lockdown to control the Delta outbreak of Covid that began in mid-June.

Those in the rental industry praised the measures - with the Property Council saying landlords were 'once again stepping up to play their part'.

Acting NSW Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia Lauren Conceicao called the stimulus response from the NSW government 'sensible and proportionate.

Along with the 60-day pause of rent for struggling tenants a raft of other support measures were announced.

Ms Jackson (pictured with husband) is a member of the upper house of the NSW government

Covid disaster payments of between $375 and $750 a week for those that have lost work - depending on how many hours they aren't working compared to 2019.

Landlords who offer rent reductions to tenants can get tax breaks in the form of rebates on land tax.

Businesses that turnover between $75,000 and $250million per year can also get assistance if the lockdown has reduced their business by 30 per cent.

The payments are between $1,500 and $100,000 a week depending on the payroll, while sole traders can get $1,000 a week.

Sydney is in the midst of a lockdown which will likely not be lifted until vaccination targets are hit.

There were 1035 new local infections in NSW on Saturday.

But Health Minister Brad Hazzard says a record 61,778 people also received a vaccine at state hubs and another 94,387 from GPs and chemists in the 24 hours to 8pm Friday night.

Sydneysiders struggling amid lockdown can claim payments from the government (pictured: Sydney's west in August)
A young Afghan girl was today photographed skipping across a runway after being safely evacuated from Kabul.

The girl seemed to be jumping for joy when she arrived at Melsbroek military air base outside Brussels, Belgium.

She is shown wearing yellow trousers and a yellow top while clutching a jacket, as a man, woman and little boy walk in front of her.

Eurocrat and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt tweeted the image saying 'welcome to Belgium, little girl!'.

Britain pulled the plug on its Kabul airlift last night after evacuating almost 15,000 UK citizens and Afghan nationals from the country.

But it has left behind up to 150 Britons and a further 1,000 Afghans who assisted the UK's armed forces, which are now under Taliban rule.

Belgium has evacuated 1,500 people since its airlift began this month, after also taking part in military operations in the country.

The little girl seemed to be jumping for joy after landing safely at Melsbroek military air base outside Brussels, Belgium. She is pictured with a man, woman and little boy. It is unclear whether this is her family

A laughing refugee has also been pictured at US airbase Rota, in southern Spain (see above). They were evacuated from Kabul during the airlift

Thousands crowded to Kabul airport when the Taliban took the city in a desperate attempt to flee the country. Western countries have staged an airlift to evacuate their nationals and Afghans who they fear the Taliban may try to hunt down

The heartwarming photograph was taken by Reuters photographer Johanna Geron at the base which is next to Belgium's busiest airport, Brussels Airport.

It is not clear whether the girl is with her mother, father and brother in the picture.

Mr Verhofstadt tweeted the image with the caption: 'This is what happens when you protect refugees. Welcome to Belgium, little girl!'

The tweet has already been 'liked' more than 25,000 times, and received almost 1,000 comments.

The picture was taken on Wednesday, and local media report that the plane had arrived in Belgium from Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Belgian airforce has been evacuating people from Kabul to Islamabad, before putting them on to long haul flights to Belgium.

A laughing evacuee has also been pictured at US-run Rota airbase in southern Spain, after being evacuated from Kabul.

British officials have also been pictured with Afghan refugees, who are thrilled to have made it to the UK.

Home Secretary Priti Patel was photographed talking to an Afghan mother and her children at Heathrow Airport on Thursday.

And Health Secretary Sajid Javid was pictured greeting a family that had arrived in the UK. He tweeted their meeting with a message saying 'welcome to Britain'.

Eurocrat and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt tweeted the image saying 'welcome to Belgium, little girl!' It has been 'liked' more than 25,000 times

Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel was pictured greeting Afghans who have been rescued from Kabul at Heathrow airport on Thursday

Britain's Health Secretary Sajid Javid was also pictured welcoming an Afghan family to the country. He tweeted the image saying 'welcome to Britain'.

Afghans queue at the main entrance gate of Kabul airport hoping to leave Afghanistan in Kabul on Saturday. The last UK flight carrying civilians left last night. All further British planes will be carrying military and diplomatic personnel

Britain's Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the last evacuation flight has now taken off from Kabul, bringing the UK's rescue mission to a close.

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, said: 'It's time to close this phase of the operation now, but we haven't forgotten the people who still need to leave.

'We'll continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.'

Thousands of refugees have been unable to get to the Taliban-guarded airport or are too fearful to do so for the constant threat of terrorism.

On Thursday, an ISIS suicide bomber killed at least 170 people, including 13 US soldiers, two Britons and the child of a UK national outside the airport walls.

The Pentagon announced overnight it carried out a retaliatory drone strike on the ISIS 'planner' behind the suicide attack. The ISIS chief's car was obliterated by a missile while driving through Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan.

Britain's last flight with military and official personnel is expected to land later today ahead of the Tuesday withdrawal deadline agreed by the U.S. and the Taliban.

General Sir Nick Carter said: 'We should be holding our breath and thinking really hard of that last aeroplane.'

US troops now face a 'very difficult' few days acting as the 'rear guard' to the withdrawal, he added.

'I think our American allies are going to be very challenged because the threat from ISIS-K has not gone away and of course there are still lots of desperate Afghans trying to get out,' Sir Nick said.

General Sir Richard Barrons warned that ISIS now posed a threat which reached beyond Afghanistan to the UK.

'What [the suicide bombing] does do is illustrate that Isis-K is a risk to the United Kingdom, here at home, and to our interests abroad,' the general said.

'We're going to find common cause with the US, and indeed I think the Taliban, in bearing down on this terrible organisation for as long as it takes to neuter them.'
Buckingham Palace is ignoring the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's racism allegations in the hope they 'go away', an updated biography by her friends claims.

A source told Finding Freedom the Royals 'by now should have learned that never happens' and said they were 'horrified' by the row.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry made the incendiary claim during their sit down with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year.

They said the suspect inquired into what colour skin her son Archie would have while she was pregnant with him.

The updated Finding Freedom chapter claims the Palace now think they can ignore the explosive claims and they 'will go away'.

A source claimed to authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, who are seen as being close to the couple: 'There is a feeling that if it's ignored it will go away but surely by now they should have learned that that never happens?'

The writers claimed the insider had been 'horrified' by Meghan and Harry's allegation.

A source told Finding Freedom the Royals (pictured, the Queen) 'by now should have learned that never happens' and said they were 'horrified' by the row

Meghan made the incendiary claim during her sit down with Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry earlier this year (pictured)

The updated Finding Freedom (pictured) chapter claims the Palace now think they can ignore the explosive claims and they 'will go away'

Earlier this week extracts from the revised chapter were leaked, claiming the Sussexes considered naming the royal who allegedly asked the question.

The authors reported that the couple weighed up 'sharing this detail' during Oprah sit down.

But Meghan ultimately told Oprah revealing the individual's identity would be 'very damaging to them'.

A leaked epilogue to the update of Finding Freedom makes a series of dramatic claims about the couple, the state of their relationship with the Royal Family.

It says Prince William was left 'furious' by the broadcast  but Meghan found it 'cathartic' and 'liberating'.

It also quotes a friend of the Duchess as complaining that, several months later, 'little accountability' had been taken by the monarchy over her allegations.

Harry and Meghan have repeatedly insisted Finding Freedom was unauthorised and they had not offered any co-operation.

But the authors are seen as being close to the couple. The updated edition, with a new epilogue, is due to be published next week.

The sensational claims made in leaks of the epilogue included:

Members of the Royal Family were 'quietly pleased' the Duchess of Sussex missed Prince Philip's funeral as they 'didn't want a circus' and feared she might 'create a spectacle';

While Harry and his brother have spoken on at least two occasions since Prince Philip's funeral, Harry and his father Charles were only on 'light speaking terms';

The book alleges Palace courtiers lied to the media over Meghan and Harry's wishes on the issue of Archie not being made a prince;

It criticises the monarchy after courtiers ordered an inquiry into claims of bullying against the Duchess while the couple's racism claim did not get one;

The book claims Harry was left 'deeply saddened' after he was refused permission to have a wreath laid in his name on Remembrance Sunday last year;

The authors offer a new take on Harry's financial situation in the run-up to 'Megxit', saying the couple 'wouldn't have survived' without his inheritance from Diana;

The epilogue also claims Meghan had no idea diamond earrings given to her as a wedding present were from Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi prince accused of ordering the murder of a journalist.

Meghan and Harry considered naming the royal they alleged made a racist remark before their son Archie's birth, according to the new chapter of biography Finding Freedom

The updated edition of the controversial biography is likely to trigger intense debate over the state of Harry and Meghan's relationship with senior royals.

It claims although emotions within the Royal Family are still 'raw' over the Oprah interview, it quotes a source close to the couple saying 'it will force people to talk in order for the healing to begin'.

In a sign relations remain frayed, the source tells the authors 'it will take time to get past the hurt'.

'There has to be some acknowledgement of understanding about what the Sussexes went through in order for there to be progress,' the source is quoted as saying.

The book also suggests Meghan personally contacted one of the authors to see if they were OK after they allegedly received abuse on social media.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the claims earlier this week.

The new epilogue also suggests Harry and Meghan feared courtiers were trying to damage them even though they have moved to the US.

It says more than a year after their decision to leave their royal roles, the couple felt 'courtiers inside the institution' were still 'appearing to actively undermine Harry and Meghan by deliberately leaking information to discredit them'.

On the issue of the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral, it says Meghan hoped to return with Harry but adds: 'In truth, several members of the Royal Family are understood to have been 'quietly pleased' that Meghan stayed in California because they 'didn't want a circus' or, commented a senior royal source, 'the duchess creating a spectacle'.'

Pictured: Harry and Meghan at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Wellington, New Zealand, in October 2018

On the allegations of racism in the Oprah interview, the book criticised the fact that the Buckingham Palace response to the claims contained no condemnation, and that the phrase 'recollections may vary', contained in a statement, meant 'full ownership was not taken'.

The authors claimed that William was 'furious' that family matters had been discussed publicly during the March broadcast.

Shortly after the interview went out, he was asked about the couple's allegation that a senior royal had expressed 'concern' about Archie's skin colour before he was born.

As William left a school he had visited in east London, a reporter asked: 'Is the Royal Family a racist family, sir?' He replied: 'We're very much not a racist family.'

Harry's Remembrance Day wreath was ultimately left in its box at a branch of the Royal British Legion in Kent.

A source close to the prince is quoted in Finding Freeedom saying that 'ten years of service and a lifetime of commitment to the military community and this is how it's been acknowledged by the family'.

Lawyers for Harry and Meghan have distanced themselves from Finding Freedom, describing it as unauthorised, and saying the authors 'do not speak for our clients and seem to rely on unnamed sources'.
A Chicago mother is filing an appeal after a judge stripped her custody rights of her son after finding out she was not vaccinated.

Rebecca Firlit told FOX 32 that Cook County Judge James Shapiro blindsided her when he stripped her of custody of her 11-year-old son during a child support hearing because she has not gotten her COVID-19 vaccination shot.

'I miss my son more than anything. It's been very difficult. I haven't seen him since August 10th,' Firlit said tearing up.

'I miss my son more than anything. It's been very difficult. I haven't seen him since August 10th,' Firlit (pictured) said tearing up

Firlit, who has been divorced for seven years, splits custody of her 11-year-old son (pictured together) with his father

She says he made the decision during an August 10 court hearing via Zoom along with her ex-husband who she currently splits custody of her son with after divorcing seven years ago.

Firlit told FOX 32 that judge Shapiro asked her about her vaccination status and she told him she had not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine because she has had bad reactions to vaccines in the past, which led to Shapiro's ruling that Firlit relinquish all of her parenting time with her son until she gets vaccinated.

Firlit is currently appealing the court order, saying the judge does not have the right to take away her parenting rights just because she's not vaccinated and that he is placing his beliefs on to her.

Rebecca Firlit told FOX 32 that Cook County Judge James Shapiro (pictured) stripped her of custody of her 11-year-old son because she refuses to get a vaccination shot

Firlit is currently appealing the court order, saying the judge does not have the right to take away her parenting rights just because she's not vaccinated

'It had nothing to do with what we were talking about. He was placing his views on me. And taking my son away from me,' Firlit said.

A spokesperson for Chief Judge Tim Evans and Judge Shapiro told FOX 32 they couldn't comment on the ruling because of the ongoing nature of the case and there was no set time on when the appellate court will make its decision.

In a statement, Firlit's attorney Annette Fernholz told FOX News that Shapiro's ruling caught Firlit off guard during what was supposed to be a hearing focused on child support.

'The trial court clearly exceeded its authority in sua sponte suspending the mother's parenting time when the issue before the court was child support,' Fernholz said.

'The father did not bring this issue before the court,' the statement added. 'The mother did not know her parenting time was being discussed when she went to zoom court on August [10]. The judge deprived her of notice and a full hearing on the issue. The issue is now before the Illinois appellate court.'

Since the ruling two weeks ago Firlit says she has not been in physical contact with her son.

'I think that it's wrong. I think that it's dividing families. And I think it's not in my son's best interest to be away from his mother,' Firlit said.

Jeffrey Leving, the father's attorney, said he was also surprised by the judge's decision, but that the father will support the ruling in the interest of keeping his son safe.

'There are children who have died because of COVID. I think every child should be safe. And I agree that the mother should be vaccinated,' Leving told FOX 32.

Although children can contract COVID-19 and pass the disease on to others, they tend to not get very ill.

In fact, a recent study found natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection may offer stronger protection against the Indian 'Delta' variant than immunity from full vaccination.

More than 180,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week, a 50 percent increase over the previous week, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Thousands of kids are already in quarantine due to contracting or being exposed to the virus in the school year's opening weeks, and some schools have even had to close.
A former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul cost lives as a result of his mission to evacuate 173 cats and dogs from Afghanistan, senior defence sources said last night.

Pen Farthing, who flew back to the UK last night with his menagerie of animals rescued by the Nowzad charity, has also been accused of bullying British Government officials.

A leaked voice message obtained by The Mail on Sunday has revealed the behind-the-scenes bitterness over the airlift, with Mr Farthing telling an Ministry of Defence official that he would spend the rest of my time f****** destroying him if he did not secure clearance for a flight out of the country.

The official, Peter Quentin, an adviser to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, is understood to have also received death threats from supporters of Mr Farthing as a result of his involvement in the animal rescue.

On the recording, which was shared by officials as part of an investigation into the alleged threats, Mr Farthing can be heard demanding an ISAF number  a military callsign which has not been in use since 2014  for a charter plane to take him, his animals and staff out of the Afghan capital.

Pen Farthing (pictured), who flew back to the UK last night with his menagerie of animals rescued by the Nowzad charity, has also been accused of bullying British Government officials

Mr Farthing, who served 22 years in the military, accuses Mr Quentin of blocking his efforts to leave the country, saying: Heres the deal buddy. You either get me that f****** ISAF number and you get me permission to get on that f****** airfield or tomorrow morning I am going to turn on you. The whole f****** country is going to know that it is you.

During the two-minute rant, Mr Farthing also says: I served for 22 years for the Royal Marine Commandos. I am not going to take this b******* from people like you.

Friends of Mr Quentin, who denies trying to block a flight, say he was particularly incensed by the people like you line as he has also operated in Afghanistan  learning Dari in the process  and returned several times to conduct research and write a book on the conflict.

They also maintain that Mr Quentin had been personally helping with the evacuation of Afghans and to ensure Nowzad staff were on the evacuation list.

Mr Farthings publicity campaign has angered the MoD because of the distraction it has provided from the core mission of airlifting refugees.

A defence source said: This selfish charade has cost lives. Another source said the MoDs help to evacuate animals meant this is the first British Government explicitly committed to the idea of non-white people as equivalent to animals since the abolition of slavery.

Yesterday, senior Tory MP and former soldier Tom Tugendhat issued a withering condemnation of the way MoD resources had been used for the animal evacuation.

Another source said the MoD's help to evacuate animals (pictured) meant 'this is the first British Government explicitly committed to the idea of non-white people as equivalent to animals since the abolition of slavery'

Mr Tugendhat, who served in Afghanistan, revealed how his former interpreter, who is now stuck in Kabul, asked him: Why is my five-year-old worth less than your dog?

I didnt have an answer, he says.

The MP, who is chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told LBC: People have been focusing on the aeroplanes. Its not the aeroplanes that are the problem. Theres quite a lot of space on the aeroplanes.

They are coming and going relatively easily. The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport.

And we have just used a lot of troops to bring in 200 dogs. Meanwhile, my interpreters family are likely to be killed. We run an NHS in the UK that taxes us all about one in seven pounds we spend. What would you say if I sent an ambulance to save my dog rather than to save your mother?

Mr Farthings flight left without charity staff who were prevented from entering the military-controlled area at Kabul airport, despite having been granted visas for the UK.

They had helped to bring the pets to the airport in two cattle trucks. Mr Farthing said armed Taliban militants stopped the Afghan staff from crossing into the British-controlled zone where they could board the privately chartered flight to the UK.

Speaking about his staff members, Mr Farthing, whose real name is Paul, said: It is just so depressing that I had to leave them behind. Some of them came with me to the airport but they werent allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them, Im relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals. There were lots of tears when we said goodbye.

Carrie Johnsons close friend Nimco Ali made a thinly veiled attack on Mr Farthing on Friday.

In response to a story posted on Twitter by the BBC which told how he said he went through hell to reach Kabul airport only to be turned away, the activist wrote: So have countless Afghans. But we dont know their names and they might never get out.

Reports had suggested that animal-lover Mrs Johnson had used her influence to lobby for Mr Farthings cause, but the Prime Minister firmly denied such claims.

Mr Quentin declined to comment last night and when the MoS contacted Mr Farthings wife, Kaisa, about the outburst, she also declined to comment.
The Biden administration and health officials are considering recommending booster shots as early as five months post full vaccination after data from Israel was released, officials said yesterday.

President Joe Biden, who met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House yesterday, said health officials are considering following Israel's lead on booster shots.

Officials are debating whether COVID-19 booster shots should be administered as soon as five months post full vaccination.

In conversation with Bennett, the President said: 'We're considering the advice you've given that we should start earlier.'

Booster shots could be in the arms of Americans as early as September 20.

President Joe Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday to discuss the recent COVID-19 study Israel released

The highly contagious Delta variant has been dominating the world and causing mass hospitalizations again. The Biden administration and health officials are considering recommending booster shots as early as five months post full vaccination

Booster shots are expected to be approved in the US after Labor Day to allow federal health officials to review the data provided by other countries.

Other countries, like the Dominican Republic, Hungary, and Germany, have already begun or are about to begin administrating boosters to their citizens.

On Wednesday, Pfizer announced that in an unreleased study, its booster shot provides a threefold increase of neutralizing antibodies.

The side effects are the same as those experienced from the second dose, which includes headaches, tiredness, mild pain at the injection site, and a fever.

The company is racing to get FDA approval for its third shot, according to Reuters, to distribute it soon.

Hospitalizations have reached more than 100,000 this week, the second time this has happened since the start of the pandemic

Sixty per cent of the country has been vaccinated, but the Israeli study found that vaccinated people are six to 13 per cent risk of catching the virus compared to those who are unvaccinated but had COVID-19

Israel is recommending others to start administrating booster shots earlier. In an unreleased study by Pfizer - who is taking for FDA approval of its booster - said its third shot increased neutralized antibodies by threefold

The Israeli study analyzed 2.5 million Israelis from June 1 to August 14 while the Delta variant was dominating the country. The study, published on August 19, found that those who were vaccinated in January or February were six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who already had COVID-19 in June, July, and August.

Those who were vaccinated during that time also have a higher risk of being hospitalized.

The study did not report any deaths.

The study comes just as COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US approach a peak since the Delta variant was first found in the country.

The Wall Street Journal reported COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached more than 100,000 this week, which is only the second time since the start of the pandemic.
On August 26, 2021, 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman, and one Army staff sergeant were killed in a suicide attack in Kabul that also claimed more than 160 Afghan lives. The US servicemembers were on a mission of mercy to evacuate at-risk Afghans after the disastrous US withdrawal led to a Taliban takeover. These are their stories:

Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23

Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee was was a maintenance technician with 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Roseville, California.

A week before she was killed, Gee cradled a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport. She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, 'I love my job.'

Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a 'sister forever' and best friend, wrote about the magnitude of her loss.

'I can't quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how Im never going to see her again,' Harrison wrote on Facebook. 'How her last breath was taken doing what she loved - helping people. ... Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she's gone.'

Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, is seen four days before she was killed, escorting Afghans on to a plane in Kabul

Just days before she was killed in the suicide blast, St. Nicole Gee was photographed holding an Afghan baby

Gee, 23, (left and right) of Roseville, California was among those killed in the attack on Thursday in Kabul

Nicole Gee (left middle), a maintenance technician with 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), awaits the launch of an MV-22B Osprey during an exercise in April

Gee's Instagram page shows another photo of her in fatigues, holding a rifle next to a line of people walking into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: 'escorting evacuees onto the bird.'

The social media account that includes many selfies after working out at the gym lists her location as California, North Carolina and 'somewhere overseas.'

Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek isle and holding a beer in Spain. One from this month in Kuwait shows her beaming with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.

Harrison said her generation of Marines hears war stories from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, but they seem distant amid boring deployments until 'the peaceful float you were on turns into ... your friends never coming home.'

Gees car was still parked in a lot at Camp Lejeune and Harrison mused about all the Marines who walked past it while she was overseas.

'Some of them knew her. Some of them didnt.' she said. 'They all walked past it. The war stories, the losses, the flag-draped coffins, the KIA bracelets & the heartbreak. Its not so distant anymore.'

Friends mourned Gee (right) whom they called a 'model Marine' and a 'Marine's Marine'

'She cared about people. She loved fiercely. She was a light in this dark world. She was my person,' said friend and fellow Marine Mallory Harrison in a Facebook post on Gee (center right)

'She cared about people. She loved fiercely. She was a light in this dark world. She was my person,' said Harrison in a Facebook post.

'I find peace knowing that she left this world doing what she loved. She was a Marine's Marine,' she said.

'She was doing God's work..a warrior. Searching Afghan women and children trying to get out of country,' Captain Karen Holliday said in a Facebook tribute.

Holliday called Gee a 'Model Marine. A leader on the ground in a chaotic situation.'

She said that a photo released of Gee a few days before her death, showing her escorting Afghans onto a waiting plane, had been bombarded with sexist online comments 'degrading her for being a female Marine.'

Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, 20

Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, 20

Lance Corporal Merola was a Marine from Rancho Cucamonga, California.

He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, California.

The 20-year-old was a graduate of Los Osos High School, according to KABC-TV.

Students honored him at Friday night's football game by wearing red, white and blue.

'Dylan was a beloved son, brother, grandson, great grandson, nephew, a great friend, and a brave soldier,' said family friend Joseph Matsuoka on a GoFundMe page to raise money for his funeral.

Matsuoka said that Merola 'paid the ultimate sacrifice at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation.'

Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25

Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25

Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo was a Marine sergeant from Lawrence, Massachusetts assigned to 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Naval Support Activity Bahrain.

She was a graduate of Lawrence High School and attended Bridgewater State University.

On social media, friends issued and outpouring of grief and devastation at Rosario's death.

Nastassia Hyatt, a former Marine, recalled Rosario helping her through difficult times in a Facebook post.

'You brought me back to life. Back to life back to life.' Hyatt wrote. 'I wish i could bring you back to life for just one last hug, one last smile, one last nap, one last meal one last anything.'

'She the second half of my heart next to my son. Like she's everything to me. She is the greatest love I've ever known in a human besides my son. This one hit hard,' Hyatt said.

'We are heartbroken by the death of the service men and women due to the bombing in Kabul this week. I and the City of Lawrence are particularly saddened that one of those brave souls was a daughter of our City,' said Lawrence Mayor Kendrys Vasquez in a statement to WCVB-TV.

The Dominican Republic's embassy in the United States tweeted that Rosario was originally from that Caribbean nation.

On social media, friends issued and outpouring of grief and devastation at Rosario's death

Sonia Guzman, the Dominican Republics ambassador to the United States, tweeted that the Dominican community shares in the loss.

'Peace to your soul!' she tweeted in Spanish.

Rosario served with the Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which praised her efforts as supply chief this spring and thanked her for a job well done.

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, Mayor Kendrys Vasquez said he has been in contact with the family.

'We are heartbroken by the death of the servicemen and women due to the bombing in Kabul this week,' he said. 'I and the city of Lawrence are particularly saddened that one of those brave souls was a daughter of our city.'

The family wishes for privacy 'and that their loved one be recognized as the hero that she was,' the mayor said.

Rosario (center) was a Marine sergeant from Lawrence, Massachusetts with the Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade

Melendez said people have strong feelings about the U.S. involvement that's coming to an end after two decades in Afghanistan.

'There are people on both sides of the fence. I get it,' he said. 'This is about one of our own, a daughter of Lawrence. For us it is definitely about her service and her familys sacrifice. Thats what will be focusing on.'

'I have been in touch with the family of the Lawrencian killed in action to extend mine and my family's most sincere condolences and offer all of the aid that my administration can provide as they grieve this great loss,' the mayor said.

'At this time, the family's most immediate wish is to be given privacy and that their loved one be recognized as the hero that she was.'

Hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 20

Soviak, an Ohio native, joined the Navy after high school and became a hospital corpsman

Maxton William Soviak was a Navy corpsman from New Berlin, Ohio. He was assigned to 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, California

Weeks before his death, he made a tragic Instagram post on June 10, sharing a photo posing with other service members in what is believed to be Afghanistan.

'It's kill or be killed, definitely trynna be on the kill side,' he wrote in a comment on the post. Navy corpsmen often work alongside Marines, who do not have their own medics.

Soviak's sister Marilyn said in her own Instagram post that her brother was there to 'help people'.

'My beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives. He was a f***ing medic. There to help people and now he is gone and my family will never be the same,' she wrote.

'He was just a kid. We are sending kids over there to die. Kids with families that now have holes just like ours,' she added. 'I'm not one for praying but d**n could those kids over there use some right now. My heart is in pieces and I don't think they'll ever fit back right again.'

Soviak was named as a casualty of the attack by his high school in Milan, Ohio, where he graduated in 2017.

'It is with deepest sorrow that I am sharing this news,' Edison Local School District Superintendent Thomas Roth said in a statement.

'Max was a good student who was active in sports and other activities throughout his school career. He was well respected and liked by everyone who knew him. Max was full of life in everything he did.'

Maxton William Soviak (center), a medic in his early 20s, made this tragic post on June 10, writing 'It's kill or be killed, definitely trynna be on the kill side'. Marines Hunter Lopez (left) and Daegan Page (right) were also killed in the attack

Soviak's sister Marilyn said an Instagram post that her brother was there to 'help people'

Soviak took pride in his Navy service and worked alongside Marines in Afghanistan

In high school, Soviak was on the honor roll and played football. He was named as a casualty of the attack by his high school in Milan, Ohio

Soviak's family confirmed his death to local media and have asked for privacy.

In high school, Soviak was on the honor roll and played football, according to the Sandusky Register.

Soviak was among the nearly 6,000 US troops now working frantically to evacuate Americans and Afghan refugees from Kabul, with just days remaining before President Joe Biden's August 31 deadline to withdraw.

Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza, 20

David Lee Espinoza, 20, was one of the Marines killed in the attack

David Lee Espinoza, was a 20-year-old U.S. Marine from Rio Grande, Texas.

His mother, Elizabeth Holguin, said: 'He was a very good person. He served his country. He helped in any way he could. He was there (in Afghanistan), helping innocent people.'

This was his second deployment; he first made a trip to the Middle East and arrived in Afghanistan for about a week.

Holguin said she was uneasy about him being deployed there.

'I prayed every day,' she said.

He is one of four children; he is not married and has no children.

The mom last spoke with him Tuesday.

'I just told him to be careful, that I was worried about him and I couldn't wait for him to come back,' Holguin said. 'He told me he was fine and not to worry. He was brave. If he was scared, he didn't show it.'

She said she holds no animosity toward the president, saying her son 'wanted to be there.'

Holguin learned her son was dead when she received a phone call Friday at 2.30am.

'He was just brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. Thats who he was, he was just perfect,' his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, told the Laredo Morning Times.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said Espinoza 'embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service.'

Cuellar concluded, 'The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.'

Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, 20

Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum was killed in the attack

Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum was named by his high school in Wyoming as a casualty in the attack.

He was expecting to become a father and was pictured with his pregnant wife shortly before deploying to Afghanistan in April.

Cheyenne McCollum, Rylee's sister, told DailyMail.com her brother had wanted to be a Marine since he was a toddler  and that his own baby is due in just three weeks.

'Rylee was an amazing, man with a passion for the Marines. He was a son, a brother, a husband and a father with a baby due in just 3 weeks,' she said.

'He wanted to be a marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots.

'He was determined to be in infantry and this was his first deployment. Rylee was sent to Afghanistan when the evac began. Rylee was manning the check point when he suicide bomb went off.

'Rylee wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach when he finished serving his country. He's a tough, kind, loving kid who made an impact on everyone he met. His joke and wit brought so much joy.

'To his friends and teammates and coaches, he was family. Rylee will always be a hero not just for the ultimate sacrifice he made for our country but for the way he impacted every life around him for the better. Making us stronger, kinder, teaching us to love deeper. We love you Rylee.'

Rylee McCollum graduated from Summit Innovations School in Jackson in 2019.

Wyoming Schools Superintendent Jillian Balow said in a statement: 'Saying that I am grateful for Rylee's service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American.'

'My heart and prayers are with Rylee's family, friends, and the entire Jackson community,' she added.

Rylee McCollum was named by his high school in Wyoming as a casualty in the attack

Rylee McCollum was due to become a father. He is pictured with his pregnant wife, right, shortly before deploying to Afghanistan in April

The Wyoming-born Marine's wrestling coach and close family friend, Benjamin Arlotta said 'heads should roll' over the disastrous US exit and that the young soldier's family is 'absolutely broken'.

Arlotta told DailyMail.com that even in diapers McCollum would stand watch on his porch with a toy rifle, first said he wanted to be a Marine aged eight, and signed up on his 18th birthday.

In a glowing eulogy to the young expectant father, whose new baby is due in three weeks, Arlotta described McCollum as a 'personal hero' and a 'fantastic brother, fantastic uncle, and a wonderful friend'.

'I was his wrestling coach since he was six. He was one of the best. A great kid, a great young man and an American patriot. He loved being a Marine,' Arlotta said.

'He was just a good man all around. We're all hurting pretty bad.

'It's impossible. I'm sitting here with the family right now  with his dad and two sisters, his brother-in-law and niece. They're shattered, they're absolutely broken. The entire community is.'

Arlotta, 37, said he is furious at the Biden administration and blames the White House for putting soldiers in an unnecessarily dangerous position.

'It's a junk show, an absolute junk show. Not just for Rylee but for every serviceman and woman over there. They were put in a very terrible spot. In my opinion this entire circumstance has been mismanaged from every level,' he told DailyMail.com.

'The only thing I can hope for is that accountability isn't forgotten. Because for the 13 men who were killed yesterday, heads need to roll for the way things have gone.

Benjamin Arlotta, and his wife, Talia, are long-time family friends of the McCollums. Benjamin said he is angry and devastated

'We're just seeing the beginning of it. It's not over, it's only going to get worse. Everybody in the country needs to be praying for our servicemen and women right now. They have a scrap out in front of them.

'Sadly those 13 Marines aren't going to be the last ones to perish because of these terrible decisions that were made.'

Recalling fond memories of the young Jackson Hole native, the wrestling coach told a heartwarming story of McCollum's determination.

'When he was 13 he came into the competition season 32lbs heavier than where he wanted to be,' Arlotta said.

'He told me he would lose it. We made a bet. I was going to quit chewing tobacco if he could get down there. That was September, by the time the state championship rolled around in January he had made weight.

'He entered the wrestling tournament at that weight and I quit chewing that day.

'He was first and foremost a man of his word. If he said he would do something, by goodness gracious he stood right in front of you until he did it.'

McCollum moved to California for training. His pregnant wife Jiennah 'Gigi' Crayton lives in the San Diego area.

The 20-year-old lance corporal wanted to be a soldier since childhood, first telling his parents he would join the Marines age eight.

'We were driving back from his first state wrestling tournament, I was riding with his family,' said Arlotta. 'We asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said he wanted to be in the Marines.

'He enlisted on his 18th birthday,' the coach added. 'When he actually enlisted his recruiter told him he could be anything, he could do any job. He swore up and down he wanted to be an infantryman.

'If you know Rylee, you know you can't talk him out of a damn thing, so that's what he did.'

U.S. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a fellow Wyoming resident, issued a statement when she learned of Rylee's passing.

'I want to offer my deepest condolences to Rylee McCollum's family and loved ones. His bravery and patriotism will never be forgotten. His willingness to put himself in harm's way to keep our country safe and defend our freedom represents a level of selflessness and heroism that embodies the best of America.

'We know that the McCollum family is grieving this tragic loss. I ask that people in Wyoming and across the country please keep those close to Rylee in their prayers, and remember that we are only free because of the courage and valor of service members like him.'

Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, 20

Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was a 20-year-old from Wentzville, Missouri

Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was a 20-year-old from Wentzville, Missouri.

His father Mark Schmitz told KMOX the Marines notified his family about 2.40am on Friday about his son's death.

'This was something he always wanted to do and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be,' Mark Schmitz said.

The grieving father grew emotional as he spoke about his son, welling up with tears.

'His life meant so much more. I'm so incredibly devastated that I won't be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.'

Mark Schmitz slammed Biden and blamed him for his son's death.

'Be afraid of our leadership or lack thereof. Pray every day for the soldiers that are putting their lives at risk, doing what they love which is protecting all of us,' Schmitz's father said.

He added that he was relieved when his son signed up as a Marine when Trump was in office because he 'really believed this guy didn't want to send people into harm's way.'

Jared Schmitz was killed in the attack

Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, 20

Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui was a native of Norco, California

Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui was a native of Norco, California.

Nikoui's father Steve, a carpenter, vented his frustrations at Biden in an interview with the Daily Beast.

'They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security. I blame my own military leaders Biden turned his back on him. That's it,' he said

Steve Nikoui said he knew his son was dead when he saw two Marines approaching his home on Thursday at 7.15pm PST.

He said he sat with the two emotional Marines, who cried more than he cried, and then had them leave.

Steve also appeared on Fox with Tucker Carlson on Friday to further criticize Biden in an emotional interview where he said the attack could have been avoided.

'From what I saw of the airport that they're in, looked like a Turkey shoot. It's funneled in to a single file-type entry point at which if you have in sort of chaos of any sort, they would all like gather to that one funneled area, which they would all be accessed. That's what happened. It was just basically so chaotic and not really planned out,' Steve said.

As he teared up, he also said he was upset by how long it took to learn of his son's death.

'How long does it take for the military to, you know, inform the next of kin?'

Marine Kareem Nikoui, pictured with his mother, was killed on Thursday. His father said he blames Biden for abandoning them in Kabul

'I was actually trying to console them. But at the same time, I just wanted them to get out as soon as possible so that no one from my family came back and saw them.

'I thought it appropriate that I be able to tell them,' he said.

He added that his son, who was based at Camp Pendleton in California, would often bring other Marines home on the holidays if they couldn't get back to their own families.

'My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren't around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them.

'He really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devotedhe was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go. No hesitation for him to be called to duty,' he said.

Speaking outside Kareem's home on Friday, a relative told DailyMail.com that Kareem's family were inside signing the documents required to repatriate him.

He added: 'They're totally devastated and they need some time. All the family are here and we're supporting them.'

A steady stream of people have been seen coming and going from the home all day, among them some of Kareem's colleagues from the Camp Pendleton Marine base in San Diego.

Steve Nikoui, right, father the late Kareem Nikoui, spoke with Fox's Tucker Carlson on Friday to condemn the Biden administration's efforts in Afghanistan that he said led to his son's death

An American flag flew half-mast outside Norco Intermediate School in honor of Nikoui

Kareem's mother Shana Chappell posted angrily on social media, blaming Vice-President Kamala Harris for the loss of her son.

At the social media message of condolence from the Vice-President, she wrote: 'This c u next Tuesday is a joke! They are the reason my son is dead.'

Kareem's death is also being mourned by his home city of Norco - a small community of 26,000 people nicknamed 'Horsetown' that sits 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

Confirming his death, the city released a message of condolence that read: 'The City of Norco mourns the loss of Norco resident U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Kareem Mae'Lee Grant Nikoui who was killed in action while stationed at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, August 26, 2021.

'The U.S. Marine, who graduated from Norco High School in 2019 and served in JROTC, was committed to serving his country and is survived by his mother, father and siblings.'

The city of Norco plans to honor Nikoui by placing his name on the 'Lest We Forget Wall' at the George A. Ingalls Veterans Memorial Plaza.

Lance Corporal Hunter Lopez, 22

Marine Lance Corporal Hunter Lopez

Marine Lance Corporal Hunter Lopez, a native of California's Coachella Valley and the son of two police officers, was also killed in the attack, Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed.

'I am unbelievably saddened and heartbroken for the Lopez family as they grieve over the loss of their American Hero,' Bianco wrote.

'Hunter Lopez, son of our own Captain Herman Lopez and Deputy Alicia Lopez, tragically lost his life while serving our country in the United States Marine Corp. He was killed in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, August 26th,' the sheriff added.

'Before joining the Marine Corp, Hunter proudly served in our Sheriff's Explorer Program. Our entire department is mourning this tragic loss. The Lopez family exemplifies the meaning of Service Above Self.'

City of La Quinta issued a statement: 'Our La Quinta Family is in mourning today with the tragic loss of Hunter Lopez, one of the fallen United States Service Members in the attack in Afghanistan,'

'Hunter is the son of Captain Herman and Alicia Lopez, both members of the Riverside Sheriff's Department. Captain Herman Lopez is our Police Chief and Captain over at the Thermal Station,' the statement added.

'We are all so humbled by the service and ultimate sacrifice that Hunter gave to protect our country. He was a brave and selfless soldier who answered the call to be a United States Marine. Like his parents, Hunter wanted to help serve others and protect his community.'

Marine Hunter Lopez, a native of California's Coachella Valley and the son of two police officers, was also killed, Sheriff Chad Bianco confirmed

'The Lopez family exemplifies the meaning of Service Above Self,' said the local sheriff

'I am unbelievably saddened and heartbroken for the Lopez family as they grieve over the loss of their American Hero,' Bianco wrote of Hunter Lopez (above)

Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, 31

Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Salt Lake City, Utah

Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was another of the service members killed outside the Kabul airport, his family told KSL-TV.

He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California.

Friends and family mourned his loss, including fellow students who graduated in the Class of 2008 at Hillcrest High School with him in Midvale.

'Soooooo glad I got to see him before he left. I love you son!!! You're my hero!! Please check in on us once in a while. I'll try to make you proud!!' Hoover's father, Darin Hoover, wrote on Facebook.

'My handsome nephew, Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover. Taylor spent his entire adult life as a Marine, serving. Doing the hard things that most of us can't do. He is a hero,' Jeremy Soto, an uncle, wrote.

'We are wounded. We are bruised. We are angry. We are crushed... but we remain faithful. Thank you for your courage nephew. We love you always.'

'Always a smile. Always respectful. A joy to be around. He is adored beyond measure. The world has lost a true light. Our hearts are broken. Shock, disbelief, horror, sadness, sorrow, anger and grief,' Brittany Jones Barnett, an aunt, added.

'Thank you sweet boy for the ultimate sacrifice. For giving your life for us all. Fighting for freedom and giving absolutely everything you had. You will never ever be forgotten. We love you so much,' she added.

Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, pictured holding a young family member, died in Kabul

Taylor Hoover, a Utah native, was mourned by his mother Kelly Barnett, left, and girlfriend, Nicole Weiss, right, following his death

'He is a hero. He gave his life protecting those that cant protect themselves, doing what he loved serving his country,' said father Darin Hoover, who lives in a Salt Lake City suburb, in an AP interview.

He said he had heard from Marines who said they were grateful they had his son as their sergeant.

'They look back on him and say that theyve learned so much from him,' Hoover said. 'One heck of a leader.'

Hoover said his son was also a best friend to his two sisters and loved all his extended family. He had a girlfriend in California and was the kind of guy who 'lit up a room' when he came in, his father said.

Hoover, center, was among the Marine troops in Afghanistan to helping with the evacuation

Hoover pictured in his uniforms, 'died a hero doing what he always wanted to do and was proud to do, ' a family member said

Nate Thompson of Murray, Utah, first met Hoover when they were 10 years old in Little League football. They stayed friends through high school, where Hoover played lineman. He was undersized for the position, but his heart and hard work more than made up for what he lacked in statute, Thompson said. As a friend, he was selfless and kind.

'If we had trouble with grades, trouble with family or trouble on the field, we always called Taylor. Hes always level-headed, even if hes struggling himself,' he said.

U.S. Representative Blake Moore, who represents Utah's 1st Congressional District, also mourned the loss of Hoover.

'We'll be forever grateful for his sacrifice & legacy. He spent his last moments serving our state & nation, and we'll never forget his unwavering devotion,' he wrote in a statement.

Utah Senator Mike Lee wrote in a statement, 'Burying a child is a grief no parent should bear. Sharon and I mourn with the Hoover family and with all who loved [Hoover]... who gave the last full measure of devotion in Afghanistan.

'He died completing a mission to save his countrymen and civilians from evil and oppression. He lived the Marine Corps motto by living and dying always faithful.'

Utah residents tied fellow ribbons to flags in front of Hoover's family home

Neighbor Lena McIllece helped arranged the flags to honor Hoover and the other fallen troops

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ordered that flags be flown at half-staff at all state facilities and public grounds effective immediately until sunset on August. 30 to honor Hoover and all those who died in the recent attack.

'We are devastated to hear of the passing of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover. Staff Sgt. Hoover served valiantly as a Marine and died serving his fellow countrymen as well as America's allies in Afghanistan. We honor his tremendous bravery and commitment to his country, even as we condemn the senseless violence that resulted in his death. Abby and I pray for Staff Sgt. Hoover, his family and loved ones during this most difficult time,' Cox said in a statement.

A family member told ABC 4 that Hoover, 'died a hero doing what he always wanted to do and was proud to do, serve his country.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, was a native of Tennessee

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, was a native of Corryton, Tennessee. Knauss was assigned to 9th PSYOP Battalion, 8th PSYOP Group, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.

He first was identified as one of the victims by his grandfather, Wayne Knauss.

'He grew up in a Christian home, attended Berean Christian school through 8th grade and spent, four years at Gibbs High [School],' said Wayne about his grandson. 'A motivated young man who loved his country. He was a believer so we will see him again in Gods heaven.'

Wayne told ABC 6 that Ryan had served right out of high school for five years with special training in Psychology Operations.

Ryan's stepmother, Lianne Knauss, added that Ryan told them he was looking forward to returning to the U.S. and moving to Washington D.C.

'He was a super-smart hilarious young man,' she said.

Knauss, 23, right, said he wanted to move to Washington D.C. when he returned

Members of the Knauss family mourned Ryan's death on social media

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett, a fellow Knoxville resident, also tweeted a tribute to the fallen marine.

'Ryan gave his life outside that airport helping people he didn't know get to safety. This is what true heroism looks like and Ryan's sacrifice will never be forgotten. The Knauss family is my prayers.' Burchett wrote

Diane Trulson Amundson Knauss also urged people to support Wayne and the troops in Afghanistan.

'Please pray for our military in Afghanistan and all over the world,' she wrote. 'Our hearts ache for Wayne and Neena... and all families.'

Corporal Daegan Page, 23

Marine Corp. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, was a native of Omaha, Nebraska

Marine Corp. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, was a native of Omaha, Nebraska.

In a statement, Page's family confirmed that he was one of the slain service members at Kabul airport.

'Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful for the friends and family who are surrounding us during this time,' the family said.

'Daegan's girlfriend Jessica, his mom, dad, step-mom, step-dad, 4 siblings, and grandparents are all mourning the loss of a great son, grandson, and brother.'

Page grew up in Omaha and Red Oak, Iowa. He enjoyed playing hockey for Omaha Westside in the local hockey club and was a diehard Chicago Blackhawks fan.

He also oved hunting and spending time outside with his father.

His family said he was a longtime Boy Scout who was eager to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

'Daegan joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from Millard South High School. He loved the brotherhood of the Marines and was proud to serve as a member of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California.'

Corp. Daegan William-Tyeler Page died in the Kabul airport bombing attack

Page, left, was a Marine and member of the 2nd Battalion Marine Regiment

They added that Page was looking forward to coming home to see his family and friends. He also had plans to go to trade school, contemplating a career as a lineman.

'Daegan will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the other Marine and Navy families whose loved ones died alongside Daegan,' the family said.

Shana Nicole, a friend of Page, added that 'the world lost an amazing hero.

'My heart hurts for everyone who knew Daegan. He was so so kind always,' she wrote on Facebook.

The Omaha, Nebraska, native was looking forward to returning home, his family said

Page, center, hoped to reunite with friends back home and go to trade school

Page, third from the left, rear, was drawn to the sense of brotherhood within the Marine Corps

U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, who represents Page's home district, also issued a statement mourning the loss of the young marine.

'I was just notified about the death of Marine Corporal Page. My heart was already broken over our country's loss of 13 service members in Afghanistan. Now the loss is even harder,' Fortenberry said.

'God bless Corporal Page. He saved lives and served his country honorably. His life was cut short but had ultimate meaning. By his bravery and will, many others will have a chance. I send my heartfelt condolences to his family.'

Corporal Humberto Sanchez, 22

Marine Corp. Humberto Sanchez was among those killed

Officials in Indiana confirmed that Corp. Humberto Sanchez was also among the dead.

Sanchez graduated from Logansport High School in 2017. He also attended Columbia Elementary.

'Like many, I have been heartbroken over the recent loss of the 13 U.S. service members who were murdered in the terrorist attacks against our evacuation efforts in Kabul, Afghanistan,' Logansport Mayor Chris Martin said in a statement on Facebook.

'Even more heartbreaking is learning the news today that one of those killed was from right here at home in Logansport, Indiana.

'This young man had not yet even turned 30 and still had his entire life ahead of him. Any plans he may have had for his post-military life were given in sacrifice due to the heart he exhibited in putting himself into harm's way to safeguard the lives of others.'

Adrian Gazcon, a friend, also wrote a tribute on Twitter for Sanchez, saying that 'it hurts that he's gone.' 'Thank you for your service, you're a hero bro.'

Sanchez pictured carrying friend Rhiannon Rickerd while attending Logansport High School
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Demonstrators purportedly from The Save Our Rights UK group, armed with St George's flags, placards, banners and megaphones, spent the afternoon marching through the capital.

The collective had previously promoted the 'medical freedom march', which would be 'standing against mandated vaccines and vaccine passports, as the large crowd, understood to be in the thousands, gathering in Hyde Park.

Pictures and video shared online showed the large group, understood to be in the thousands, progressing past Vauxhall Bridge.

Police are monitoring the crowd, as eyewitnesses report at least four riot vans rushed over to the scene.

The demonstrations mark part of a coordinated worldwide protest, seen also in cities in Italy and France, at governments' decisions to impose mandatory vaccinations for some members of society.

Thousands of anti-vaxxers have taken to the streets of central London to continue their campaign against the Covid jab

Demonstrators, armed with St George's flags, placards, banners and megaphones, marched past Vauxhall Bridge on their way to Westminster on Saturday afternoon

A number of parents brought their children along with them to show their support, as Union Jacks and St George's flags waved in the background

The Met police are monitoring the crowd, as eyewitnesses report at least four riot vans rushed over to the scene

The large group started amassing in central London earlier this afternoon, in what is reportedly part of an organised effort matched in other cities in Europe against vaccine passports.

The topic has caused issues in Boris Johnson's government, with him facing a Cabinet revolt and being accused of denying people their fundamental freedoms.

Pictures from the scene show crowds armed with placards bearing slogans including 'my body my choice' and 'hands off our children' as they made their way through the capital on Saturday.

A number of parents brought their children along with them to show their support, as Union Jacks and St George's flags waved in the background.

The throng of people are expected to head to Westminster to voice their concerns outside the Houses of Parliament today.

Pictures from the scene show crowds armed with placards bearing slogans including 'my body my choice' and 'hands off our children' as they made their way through the capital on Saturday

The group, none of whom appear to be wearing masks, made their way across Vauxhall Bridge and towards Westminster

Signs reading 'No to vaccine passports', 'Liberty' and others demanding freedom and unity were spotted among the crowd

Thousands of anti-vaxxers gathered in central London on Saturday to protest against vaccine passports

Pictures and video shared on Twitter showed protesters gathering at Hyde Park on Saturday.

People could be seen carrying placards and banners saying 'no medical dictatorship' and 'no vaccine passports', while smoke flares appeared to have been released in one place.

The Metropolitan Police warned of disruption to traffic and bus services as roads became blocked.

The force said crowds moved on to Victoria, on to Vauxhall Bridge Road, and through to Kennington. It is understood protesters are heading towards Clapham Common.

Police advised people to avoid the area at the junction of Brixton Road and Acre Lane in the south of the capital, before confirming it had been cleared for traffic.

Police advised people to avoid the area at the junction of Brixton Road and Acre Lane in the south of the capital

Thousands of anti-vaxxers blocked roads in central London this afternoon as part of their demonstration against Covid jabs and vaccine passports

Shocking footage shows dozens of police officers forming a barrier against the activists, amid widespread shouting and desperate cries for the group to 'calm down'

Meanwhile others were heard hurling abuse at newsreader Jon Snow as he entered the ITN building

The protests come just days after an angry mob of anti-vaxxers stormed the London headquarters of ITV News and Channel 4 News, before then trying to invade a Google office.

Up to 200 demonstrators broke into the building's lobby and demanded to speak to the broadcaster's bosses as part of a protest against vaccine passports and jabs for children on Monday.

Shocking footage showed dozens of police officers forming a barrier against the activists, amid widespread shouting and desperate cries for the group to 'calm down'.

Officers, many wearing face coverings, are seen pushing back members of the crowd as tensions clearly began to boil over.

Staff were advised to either remain in the building or stay away until the situation was dealt with just before 3.30pm, when protesters left the building.

The group, which included anti-lockdown demonstrator Piers Corbyn, then made its way to the nearby Google building in Pancras Square, where an activist was filmed standing in front of a crowd with a megaphone, declaring: 'They are not giving you the right information.'
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Britain's daily Covid cases rose just one per cent today compared to the same time last week, but deaths jumped by almost a third.

Health chiefs posted another 32,406 infections that were registered in the last 24 hours, up slightly from the 32,058 recorded last Saturday.

Hospitalisations have also risen slightly after 969 people were admitted to wards with the virus on August 24, the latest date available, up two per cent from 948 a week ago.

But another 133 Covid deaths were recorded, which was 29 more fatalities than the same time last week.

Britain is currently recording about 30,000 Covid cases a day, which SAGE scientists fear will surge when pupils go back to classrooms next week. This time last year there were nearly 2,000 cases a day.

Secondary school and college pupils in parts of the South West have already been told to wear face masks in corridors, playgrounds and 'communal areas' when they return to school to limit the spread of the virus.

It comes after a study found AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is best at keeping people out of hospital and preventing deaths from the virus.

The Bahraini researchers found just just 1.52 per cent of those who two doses of the Oxford-made vaccine were admitted to wards after catching the virus, and 0.03 per cent died from the disease. For comparison, among those who got the Pfizer vaccine 1.99 per cent were hospitalised, and 0.15 per cent died.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has formed the backbone of Britain's vaccine roll out with more than 25million people having already received the jab. But under-40s were told they should receive an alternative in May because of concerns over vanishingly rare blood clots.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid today ordered the NHS to prepare to vaccinate 12 to 15-year-olds in the clearest sign yet that jabs could be offered to the age group. They are expected to be offered the Pfizer or Moderna jabs. The JCVI  which decides Britain's vaccine roll out  is yet to say whether the age group should be jabbed.

A separate study from Public Health England and Cambridge University has today suggested people infected with the Indian 'Delta' variant are twice as likely to be hospitalised as those who catch the Kent 'Alpha' variant.

More than 47.9million Britons have received at least one dose of the vaccine  or 88 per cent of over-16s  after 128,248 second doses were dished out yesterday, and 42.5million people have got two doses  or 78.2 per cent  after another 43,160 first doses were administered.

The above graph shows the risk of hospitalisation and death after catching Covid among the un-vaccinated and those who got either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. The results showed the AstraZeneca vaccine was best at preventing hospitalisation and death from the virus

The AstraZeneca vaccine has formed the backbone of Britain's roll out, and been administered to almost 25million people. But in May an alternative jab was recommended for under-40s amid concern over a very rare blood clot

Amid concern over a wave of infections this year face masks will be brought back in secondary schools and colleges in Cornwall  England's Covid hotspot  and Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly. The above map shows the infection rates for each local authority. Purple means a higher infection rate, and blue means a lower infection rate

Department of Health figures showed Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have the highest infection rate in England at around 800 cases per 100,000 people. That is equivalent to one in 120 residents having the virus.

Experts suggest the infection rate in the area is so high because many Britons have travelled there for their summer holidays amid a staycation boom, and due to music festivals.

Almost 5,000 Covid cases have already been linked to music and surfing festival Boardmasters which was held in Cornwall this year between August 11 and 15.

Devon has the second highest infection rate in England where official figures suggest one in 160 have the virus (601 Covid cases per 100,000 people), followed by Torbay where one in 165 have the virus (581 per 100,000) and Plymouth where one in 177 have the virus (563 per 100,000).

AstraZeneca vaccine is best at keeping people out of hospital, researchers have found AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine is best at keeping people out of hospital and preventing deaths from the virus, a study has found. Just 1.52 per cent of people who got two doses of the Oxford-made vaccine were admitted to wards after they caught the virus, researchers said. And only 0.03 per cent, or one in 3,000, died from the disease. For comparison, among Pfizer recipients who were double-vaccinated 1.99 per cent were hospitalised and 0.15 per cent died after they were infected with the virus. The AstraZeneca vaccine has formed the backbone of Britain's vaccine roll out, with 25million people having already received the jab. The Pfizer vaccine has been dished out to more than 21million people, after an alternative to the Oxford-made jab was recommended for under-40s because of concern over vanishingly rare blood clots. Researchers in Bahrain and at the New York-based Columbia University carried out the study between December and July, which was published as a pre-print. They monitored hospitalisations and deaths among people who caught the virus in Bahrain, an island nation in the Middle East, among the un-vaccinated and those who got their jabs. The study also included the Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik jabs, which were both worse at preventing hospitalisations than their European and American counterparts. Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, told The Sun: 'This study shows people in the UK can be confident theyre getting the best vaccines available. 'AstraZeneca and Pfizer provide good protection.' Advertisement

It came as researchers in Bahrain and at the New York-based Columbia University carried out a study published as a pre-print on the effectiveness of vaccines against hospitalisation and death between December and July.

In the study carried out in Bahrain, an island nation in the Middle East, researchers monitored citizens of the country who had received the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik vaccines during its national roll out. They also collected data on people who had not been vaccinated.

They checked national data to establish how many people who had received two doses of any of the four vaccines had caught the virus, being admitted to hospital or died from the disease.

Scientists have always been honest and said the vaccines do not prevent every infection, but they drastically slash the risk of hospitalisation and death from the virus.

They found AstraZeneca recipients were least likely to be hospitalised or die if they caught the virus.

The study also included the Chinese Sinopharm and Russian Sputnik jabs, which were both worse at preventing hospitalisations than their European counterparts.

For those who got the Sinopharm vaccine 6.94 per cent were hospitalised, and 0.46 per cent died  which was the worst performance out of the four vaccines.

Among Sputnik recipients 2.24 per cent were hospitalised, but only 0.09 per cent died from the virus.

The results showed those who did not get the vaccine were most likely to be hospitalised or die if they caught the virus.

Among the un-vaccinated, 13.22 per cent who caught the virus were hospitalised and 1.32 per cent died.

The Bahraini researchers said in their study: 'All four vaccines decreased the risk of coronavirus infections, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths when compared to unvaccinated individuals.'

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Reading University, told The Sun: 'This study shows people in the UK can be confident theyre getting the best vaccines available.

'AstraZeneca and Pfizer provide good protection.'

The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine has been the main jab used in Bahrain, which is home to almost 1.5million people.

More than 569,000 people have been inoculated with the jab. For comparison, 245,000 residents got the Pfizer jab, 169,000 got AstraZeneca's vaccine and 73,000 received Sputnik.

Clinical trial results suggested the Pfizer vaccine was the most effective at preventing hospitalisations and deaths from Covid.

But experts have warned these figures may not be comparable when jabs are dished out in the real world, when other factors can influence their impact.

There are warnings the country will face a 'large' Covid wave when schools return in England and Wales. This graph shows Covid cases in Scotland, where schools returned a week ago. The country registered a record 6,835 new cases yesterday

Delta Covid variant is twice as likely to land patients in hospital, study shows The Delta variant doubles the risk of hospital admission, a study has found. It was already known that the Covid strain first identified in India is up to 50 per cent more transmissible than the previous dominant Alpha variant, which emerged in Kent. But the largest study to date comparing the two now shows those infected with the Delta strain are 2.26 times more likely to be admitted to hospital. Delta is also 1.45 times more likely to see people entering A&E needing emergency treatment. Scientists claimed this is more proof that the same traits which make the variant spread faster also increase levels of the virus in those it infects, which results in them becoming more severely ill. The authors of the study, led by Public Health England and Cambridge University, said their results should be used by hospitals to plan  especially in areas where the Delta variant is on the rise. Dr Anne Presanis, a senior statistician at the university, said: Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any Delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an Alpha epidemic. Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individuals risk of symptomatic infection with Delta in the first place and, importantly, of reducing a Delta patients risk of severe illness and hospital admission. Advertisement

It came as pupils in parts of the South West were told they will need to wear face masks in corridors and playgrounds when they return to classrooms next week.

The Department of Health announced the extra restrictions for secondary schools and colleges in the area last night to help head off a surge in Covid cases. The measures will apply in England's Covid hotspot Cornwall, as well as Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and the Isles of Scilly.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that although vaccines have 'tipped the odds in our favour' extra measures were needed to 'control the spread of the virus'.

Mr Javid said: 'Vaccines have built an enormous wall of defence that spans the length of the country, allowing us to regain our lost freedoms  from seeing out loved ones to going on holiday.

'(But) while vaccines have tipped the odds in our favour, we have to keep listening to the data.

'To control the spread of the virus we're working closely with local authorities... to make sure testing is widely available and as many people as possible are protected by the vaccine.'

He added: 'I would urge anyone whether they live in, work in or are just visiting these beautiful areas, to test regularly and make sure you come forward for your jab at the earliest opportunity.'

These measures could be extended to other areas should they also experience a spike in Covid cases.

The Health Secretary has also ordered the NHS to prepare to administer vaccines to 12 to 15-year-olds, in the clearest sign yet that they could be rolled out to the age group.

Vaccinating younger children against coronavirus could help protect them against long Covid as well providing indirect protection for older relatives, experts have claimed.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an epidemiologist from the University of Warwick, said that while the risks of severe Covid are low in young people, long Covid can be more prevalent in them and vaccines can help reduce the chances of developing it.

And Dr Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University, also leant her support to widening the rollout to schoolchildren.

She said the benefits outweigh the risks with vaccination for children and insisted 'every day we delay, more children are getting infected'.

Dr Tildsley told Times Radio: 'A younger person, if they get Covid, most of those individuals are very unlikely to develop severe symptoms.

'But of course, we do need to remember that the younger you are, you're not just taking the vaccine for yourself, you're taking it for potentially, indirect protection for your more elderly and more vulnerable relatives.

'And then, of course, there's this issue that some commentators talk about, which is the potential for long Covid and that possibly protects younger people if they're vaccinated.

'All of these things need to be weighed up. Because it's children there are a lot of ethical concerns around that.

'So this is why it's taken a little bit of time for JCVI to make that recommendation that the Government can then make a decision on.'
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced to cancel a campaign event due to safety concerns, after a horde of angry anti-vaxxers protested the liberal politician in an effort to prevent vaccine mandates for the third time on Friday.

'I need freedom,' one protester's sign read, as a chorus of fellow anti-vaxxers shouted 'F*** Trudeau!' during a planned campaign stop in Bolton, Ontario.

Stops in Nobleton and Mississauga earlier in the day were no different, as protesters flew flags and signs to express their anger.

The Globe and Mail reports that the Bolton event was initially delayed for only two hours, before it was cancelled entirely over security concerns, as the growing crowd continued protesting.

Trudeau was diplomatic in his response following Friday's cancellation, saying he identifies with their anger and frustration.

'Canadians have had a hard year,' Trudeau said.

'And these protesters have also had a hard year... I know and I feel the anger, the frustration, perhaps the fear.'

Anti-vaxxers gather to protest Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a campaign stop in Bolton, Ontario on Friday, causing the event to be cancelled

Trudeau pictured in Nobleton, Ontario Friday, where he was again greeted by anti-vax protesters

A protester holding a 'F*** TRUDEAU' flag speaks with a Ontario Provincial policeman in Bolton after the cancellation of a campaign event for Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

'But we must meet that anger with compassion.'

The liberal leader has been a target of anti-vaxxers ever since announcing a ban earlier this month on anyone who hasn't been vaccinated from traveling by plane, train or cruise ship in Canada.

Meanwhile, all government employees, airline, and railway workers are also now required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Trudeau further angered anti-vaxxers after pledging $1 billion to create vaccine passports throughout the country, should he be reelected in next month's federal elections.

Trudeau waves at his election campaign tour in Nobleton, Ontario on Friday. He was met with anti-vax protesters at all three stops on Friday

Protestors react after an event was cancelled during the Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign in Bolton, Ontario on Friday

Trudeau pictured in front of a 'Vaccines Save Lives' sign during a campaign stop in Mississauga on Friday, where he was also greeted by a large group of anti-vax protesters

However, Trudeau's chances at reelection could very well be in jeopardy. His planned Bolton campaign stop was the third event that day where he was greeted by large groups of angry anti-vaxxers, including an event at St. Phillips Bakery where protesters held signs stating 'Trudeau Treason.'

A recent poll by Statistique Canada showed the two biggest reasons Canadians aren't getting the shot, with safety and side effects highest among them at 54 percent and 52 percent respectively.

But as a whole, Canada's national vaccination rate sits somewhere around 68 percent, beating out the US with 54 percent, the UK with 66 percent, and France, which has a 50 percent vaccination rate, according to Fortune.

A protester reacts following the cancellation of an event during the campaign of Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in Bolton Friday

Canadians' Reasons For Getting The Covid-19 Vaccine graph showing the two biggest reasons Canadians aren't getting the shot, with safety and side effects highest among them

A map showing the percentage of people vaccinated by country per 100 people. Canada's national vaccination rate sits somewhere around 68 percent

In comparison, Russia currently has only 15 percent of its population vaccinated, Japan only 23 percent, and South Africa a mere 5 percent.

'Weve never seen anything like this,' a Trudeau election campaign volunteer told the Toronto Star.

'Were being followed around, and theyre really well-prepared  Weve been seeing protesters from Markham to B.C. that are the same people.'

When asked whether he has contributed to the politicizing of vaccinations, Trudeau instead emphasized the need for Canada to trust the science behind vaccines.

'We have to stand strong for what we know to be true: that science is going to help us, that its going to be the path forward out of this,' Trudeau said.
Diana de Vegh, now 83, (pictured) kept her illicit affair with then-Senator John F. Kennedy a secret for 63 years

An 83-year-old grandmother claims she had an affair with President John F. Kennedy when he was a senator and she was a 21-year-old college student.

Diana de Vegh, who now lives in New York City, wrote her story for Air Mail News, a digital weekly, in her own words.

She told The New York Post that despite the progression of feminism and the #MeToo Movement, she still sees too many girls devoting themselves to older, more powerful men, much like she did.

She told the Post: 'The whole idea of conferred specialness - 'You go to bed with me, I'll make you special' - we've seen a lot of that with Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, show business.'

De Vegh's account of the alleged affair was previously documented in Sally Bedell Smith's 2004 book Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House, with whom she told the New York Post she spoke with on a promise of anonymity - which was broken.

De Vegh met John F. Kennedy in a Boston ballroom in 1958 while she was a 21-year-old junior at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she told Smith.

He was on his reelection tour for senator when he gave a speech in Boston before sidling up de Vegh's table and asking to sit.

De Vegh recalled Kennedy asking her date to give up his seat, she recalled to the New York Post.

'Give me your seat, so a tired old man can sit next to a pretty girl,' Kennedy allegedly said, according to the outlet.

Her story differs slightly from what Smith had recorded in Grace and Power. In that account, de Vegh said there had been an empty place next to her when Kennedy asked to sit down.

De Vegh met John F. Kennedy in a Boston ballroom in 1958 while she was a 21-year-old junior at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts

De Vegh met Kennedy (pictured with his wife) at a political dinner where he an electrifying speech before coming to sit at her table. He would personally invite de Vegh to the next event and their affair started there and would go on for four years

'Young woman, great man,' she wrote for Air Mail News. 'Predictable outcome: heartbreak for her, no consequences for him.'

Before the relationship started, de Vegh admitted she felt like she was 'wilting.'

She wrote in Air Mail: 'But here, now, in this ballroom, adrenaline poured through me. A star galvanizing a crowd... here he was. Center dais. Easy in the spotlight.'

'Finally, a place to land. A place to belong. I just had to become part of this: glamour, drama, suspense. How would it turn out? Then, suddenly, the senator was at our table.'

She recalls wanted Kennedy to notice her: 'I wanted to be one of the favorites. Actually, I wanted to be the favorite.'

Kennedy would personally invite de Vegh to his next event outside of Boston. She and Kennedy would have an on-again-off-again affair for four years.

Diana de Vegh, right, is pictured attending the V-Day NYC 2005 annual fundraiser at Barneys flagship store in 2005 with Mellody Hobson and Eve Ensler

De Vegh (pictured with her brother) told the New York Post there was an inequal balance of power between her and Kennedy and she hopes young women stop devoting themselves to old men

His driver picked her up from her Radcliffe dorm room, according to Grace and Power, and drove her to these events and his staff would attend to her by grabbing her coffee.

De Vegh wrote for Air Mail that she later realized what they were actually doing: making sure she was inconspicuous at public events and not drawing attention to herself.

'What could I have been thinking? Obviously, I wasn't thinking,' she recalled. 'I was feeling, in full movie-star-infatuation mode.

'Only this movie star was a worldly actor who was going to make everything different. And I would be part of it, carried along in the wake of his power.'

'I didn't realize then that I'd simply been netted.'

The Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, where John F. Kennedy is said to have had relations with de Vegh, is pictured in 1961

De Vegh has reportedly called the high-carved bed in the room 'like a cathedral'

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy relaxes in his Boston apartment, where he had allegedly taken de Vegh during their affair

Then Harvard dean Mac Bundy allegedly heard about de Vegh and 'became alarmed' because Kennedy served on Harvard's Board of Overseers and De Vegh's father Imrie de Vegh sat on visiting committees at the university, according to Grace and Power.

Bundy allegedly told Kennedy he had to stop the visits and Kennedy ended the dorm pickups, but continued to see her, according to Grace and Power.

De Vegh told Smith for Grace and Power that she had seen Kennedy platonically for about 10 months to seek her views on his political performance.

'He was looking for a mirror, someone who would keep reflecting back that he was fascinating and amazing,' de Vegh told Smith. 'Eventually it became a love affair.'

De Vegh admitted that it was easy to avoid Jackie Kennedy (pictured with her husband), as she did not attend these types of events

De Vegh claimed that she enjoyed the car rides home with the senator after the events and she would think of 'smart things to say.'

Sometimes they would allegedly go back to 'the apartment,' as Kennedy called it, a place he kept in Boston. In the apartment, they were 'something different.'

One night Kennedy allegedly told her he was hungry and took her back to the apartment. She convinced herself she was in love with him that night.

She wrote in Air Mail: 'This was love, for sure. And...now, it was sex for sure.'

But she found herself wanting to flinch when he placed his hands on her and she was confused.

'This was love... love not spoken, not the explicit words, but silently conveyed in so many ways. So why the confusion?' she questioned in her editorial.

De Vegh recalled how different it was for women back then.

She wrote: 'There were consequences for young women who might stray from the accept path. Nice girls, didn't have sex. If they did, trouble started with a 'bad reputation' and rolled downhill from there.'

De Vegh remembered the lesson she learned from her mother, who married someone outside of her societal class which ended in divorce: 'Men could be trouble, tears-and-long-days-in-bed trouble.'

When de Vegh graduated from Radcliffe, Kennedy placed her on Bundy's staff as 'a way to get even,' sources for Grace and Power told Smith.

After Kennedy's inauguration as president, de Vegh started working on Capitol Hill in a job Kennedy had allegedly arranged for her, according to book.

She eventually landed a job as a member of the National Security Council staff working in the Executive Office Building of the White House.

Today, Diana de Vegh is an 83-year-old grandmother of two who is legally blind and maintains her private psychotherapy practice of 20 years out of her West Village apartment

She eventually landed a job as a member of the National Security Council staff working in the Executive Office Building of the White House before a career in foreign policy

De Vegh, left, is pictured with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

Kennedy would allegedly invite de Vegh into his private quarters when the First Lady was away and have dinner before heading for the Lincoln Bedroom. She called the high-carved bed in the room 'like a cathedral.'

Kennedy had gotten married to Jackie Kennedy five years before de Vegh's affair with him, something the young woman chose to ignore to stay 'in my bubble,' she wrote for Air Mail.

She admitted it was easy to avoid Mrs Kennedy, as she did not attend to events at 'this level of suburban campaigning.'

De Vegh was allegedly dating Texas Observer editor Bill Brammer for at least part of the affair, and he learned about it after Kennedy's inauguration.

Brammer allegedly told famed Time magazine reporter Hugh Sidey that he had asked de Vegh why she had the affair.

'Nothing will come of it but he has a hold on me,' de Vegh was reported to have replied, according to Grace and Power.

When Brammer allegedly asked de Vegh what kind of hold he had over her, she is said to have replied: 'Power.'

Kennedy would be accused of having multiple affairs, including with Marilyn Monroe (pictured), as well as White House employees

Now, de Vegh is questioning her affair with Kennedy, a man twice her age at the time.

'For a great man, he was still in the throes of the male mythology of his time: see a pretty woman, have a pretty woman,' she wrote.

De Vegh and Kennedy allegedly began to lose interest and contact and she eventually moved to Paris.

A year later, Kennedy would be assassinated and de Vegh found herself in disbelief.

'I just went completely numb,' she told The Post.

A marriage bulletin in The New York Times shows that de Vegh would later marry Nicholas Rizopoulos

A marriage bulletin in The New York Times shows that de Vegh would later marry Nicholas Rizopoulos in September 1964 and the couple had two daughters before they ultimately divorced.

Like her mother, she would eventually get divorced and find a new partner. But she kept Kennedy a secret.

Kennedy would be accused of having many affairs with many women, like White House employees and some even high-profiled actresses, like Marilyn Monroe.

Now de Vegh is 'old and blind' and works as psychotherapy for the past 20 years out of her West Village apartment and prefers it that way.

Since becoming a psychotherapist, de Vegh has penned many articles for news outlets from The New York Times to HuffPost on topics like love.

In the HuffPost article from 2016, de Vegh revealed that her aunt Ellen Jay Garrison had acted in a film for another man who has been hit by scandal in the #MeToo era.

Garrison had a role in Allen's 1983 mockumentary Zelig, who had never acted, was praised by critics with her performance as Dr. Eudora Fletcher, the psychiatrist whose younger self was played by Mia Farrow, according to her obituary.

De Vegh recounted her aunt telling her that Allen had been 'lovely' to her during filming.

In one recent article for The New York Times, she details a humorous and insightful account of trying to buy sex toys at a sophisticated SoHo sex store in Manhattan at her elderly age and the stigmas around sex shops.

'I find prudishness around sex shops baffling. I grew up in the 1950s when many of us were in thrall to Dr. Freud's pronouncements concerning simultaneous vaginal orgasm,' de Vegh wrote for the outlet.

'In the world of psychoanalytically prescribed correct sex, the use of accouterments would diminish the primacy of the almighty male organ. Out of the question back then. But surely we're no longer bound by male ego syndrome.'
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The Mayor of London was spotted wearing a pair of corporate giveaway sunglasses as he posed for selfies with admiring fans at a London music festival over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Sadiq Khan, 50, enjoyed some downtime with his wife, Saadiya, as he attended the All Point East festival in East London's Victoria Park on Friday.

Mr Khan was dressed in casual clothes, pairing a navy blue Fred Perry jacket with matching slacks and finished off his look with a pair of gifted Ray-Ban glasses.

The eco-conscious mayor wore his environmental values on his chest at the festival, donning a black limited edition 25 Choose Earth t-shirt under his jacket.

Earlier in the day, the trendy mayor was seen making the most of the perks of the job as he picked out the pair of freebie designer sunglasses from the Ray-Ban tent at the festival.

The Mayor of London was spotted wearing a pair of corporate giveaway sunglasses as he enjoyed some downtime with his wife, Saadiya, at the All Point East festival on Friday

He then wore his new gifted shades for the rest of the day out, and was seen taking several selfies with fellow revelers as well as posing for a snap with rapper Kojey Radical, who was performing at the festival.

The London rapper, 28, looked delighted to be meeting the mayor and posed with his arm draped around Sadiq as he flashed a peace sign for the camera.

Khan strolled through the crowds with his wife and was spotted along with thousands of others as he listened to music on the first day of the much-anticipated outdoor music festival.

This comes after Mr Khan announced plans earlier this week to help the city's councils and housing associations support the arrival of Afghan refugees.

The London mayor said he will expand his new Right to Buy-back fund to help councils purchase homes which could be used to resettle families arriving from Afghanistan.

Housing associations are also being encouraged to apply for funding for suitable homes that can be delivered quickly.

Sadiq Khan, 50, stopped to pose for selfies with admiring fans at the London music festival that took place over the Bank Holiday weekend in East London's Victoria Park

Mr Khan was dressed in casual clothes as he met with festivalgoers, pairing a navy blue Fred Perry jacket with matching slacks and finished off his look with a pair of Ray-Ban glasses

The eco-conscious mayor wore his environmental values on his chest at the festival, donning a black limited edition 25 Choose Earth t-shirt under his jacket

He posed for a snap with London rapper Kojey Radical, 28, (pictured right) who was performing at the festival. Kojey looked delighted to be meeting the mayor and posed with his arm draped around Sadiq as he flashed a peace sign for the camera

Khan strolled through the crowds with his wife and was seen taking several pictures with fellow revelers at the outdoor event

He looked relaxed as he listened to music along with thousands of others on the first day of the much-anticipated outdoor music festival

Earlier in the day, the trendy mayor was seen making the most of the perks of the job as he was gifted a pair of designer sunglasses from Ray-Ban

Mr Khan said in a statement he would invite London councils to submit bids to his Right to Buy-back fund, which allows them to buy former council homes back from the private sector, with the programme to have a particular focus on family-sized homes.

Mr Khan announced the Right to Buy-back fund last month in a bid to help councils and council-owned housing companies acquire homes that would be let at social rent levels or used as accommodation for homeless families.

'It has been devastating to watch the crisis unfold in Afghanistan and I'm determined to do everything in my power to support those escaping the country,' Mr Khan said.

'London has a proud history of providing sanctuary to those in need and by working together we can help these refugees find a welcoming home in our city.'

Several London boroughs have told the government they want to support those fleeing the brutal Taliban regime in Afghanistan and take in refugees.

Richmond, Camden, Ealing, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kingston, Lambeth, Islington and Lewisham are among the London boroughs to offer their support.

He was spotted picking out the pair of freebie sunglasses along with his wife at the Ray-Ban tent at the festival

Sadiq checks out his appearance in his new sunglasses as he was given multiple pairs of Ray-Bans to choose from

The stylish mayor and his wife chatted amicably to the staff in the Ray-Ban tent before walking away with their corporate freebie

Kahn joined in with the crowds as he listened to music on the first day of the much-anticipated outdoor music festival
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told firms to hire British workers to fix the lorry driver shortage after rejecting calls to loosen visa rules.

Supermarkets and suppliers are struggling to meet demand following an exodus of drivers from EU countries, who returned to the continent during the pandemic and remained there.

This is coupled with the health crisis bringing DVLA testing centres to a standstill, creating a huge backlog of drivers taking their HGV test.

A review of the Shortage Occupations list, which sets out jobs where overseas workers can apply for visas, is not due until next year.

It is understood that proposals had been floated for the Government to bring forward the review so HGV drivers could be included to ease the problems facing the supply chain.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told firms to hire British workers to fix the lorry driver shortage

Supermarkets and suppliers are struggling to meet demand following an exodus of drivers from EU countries. Picture: Stock

A review of the Shortage Occupations list, which sets out jobs where overseas workers can apply for visas, is not due until next year. Picture: Stock

But according to the Financial Times, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to business leaders on Friday saying foreign labour only offered 'a short-term, temporary solution'.

The newspaper said Mr Kwarteng urged employers to help the 'many UK-based workers (who) now face an uncertain future and need to find new employment opportunities'.

His letter comes ahead of the UK's furlough scheme ending on September 30.

According to the FT, Mr Kwarteng said in his letter to the British Retail Consortium and Logistics UK: 'I am sure you would agree on the importance of utilising the strength of our domestic workforce and how our migration policies need to be considered alongside our strategies to ensure UK-based workers are better able to secure decent employment opportunities.'

Alex Veitch, general manager of public policy at Logistics UK: 'Logistics UK is frustrated with the Government's decision to reject the logistics industry's calls for temporary visas to be made available for EU HGV drivers as a short-term solution while new domestic drivers are recruited, trained and tested.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has told firms to hire British workers to fix the lorry driver shortage after rejecting calls to loosen visa rules (file image)

Shelves have been left bare in many supermarkets across the country due to a shortfall in delivery drivers (file image)

'While these new domestic drivers are trained and qualify into the workforce, which can take up to nine months, and DVSA works through its backlog of outstanding HGV driver tests - which we estimate could take until early 2022 - temporary visas made available for European workers would help to overcome the current supply chain problems experienced across the country.

'The industry needs drivers now, and we have been urging the Government to replicate its temporary visa scheme, introduced for agricultural workers, for logistics to keep trucks and vans moving in the short term.'

A Government spokeswoman said: 'We have a highly resilient food supply chain and well-established ways of working with the food sector to address food supply chain disruptions.

'We recently announced a package of measures to help tackle the HGV driver shortage, including plans to streamline the process for new drivers to gain their HGV licence and to increase the number of driving tests able to be conducted.

'However, most of the solutions are likely to be driven by industry, with progress already being made in testing and hiring, and a big push towards improving pay, working conditions and diversity.

'We want to see employers make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce instead of relying on labour from abroad and our Plan for Jobs is helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work.'

Several Government departments are liaising over the supply chain issues, including the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy department, the Home Office, the Department for Transport, the Department for Education, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Home Office officials are said to be blocking the review being brought forward, amid concerns it could lead to other sectors demanding inclusion.

Several Government departments are liaising over the supply chain issues. Pictured: Empty trolleys of fresh milk in Sainsbury's, north London

Home Office officials are said to be blocking the review being brought forward, amid concerns it could lead to other sectors demanding inclusion. Pictured: Bare shelves at a supermarket in central London, Britain

A source told PA: 'It has been floated and seems like the obvious solution but there's been a lot of pushback from the Home Office.'

HGV drivers are currently not included on the list but there is pressure from supermarkets to include them to help ease the shortfall while more UK drivers are trained.

The current average age of a UK HGV driver is 55 and ministers are concerned an ageing workforce needs replacing.

Government officials are working closely with the DVLA to increase the number of tests taking place and have vowed to streamline the process.

They have also increased funding for apprentices to get more workers into the industry but want to ensure the UK is less reliant on overseas drivers.

The shortages have hit several retailers and restaurant chains.

Nando's saw a shortage of chickens due to a combination of not enough drivers and fewer staff working in meat factories.

Other delays have also impacted McDonald's, which said this week it had run out of milkshakes and bottled drinks as it prioritised deliveries of other products in the interim.

Organisations from the food and drink industry have recommended a 12-month Covid-19 recovery visa to help firms recruit staff such as HGV drivers, and an expanded seasonal worker scheme for the horticulture sector.

National Farmers Union vice president Tom Bradshaw said it was 'simplistic' to argue that the end of the Government's furlough scheme will lead to an increase in workers to fill the current high number of vacancies.
Sir Keir Starmer was forced to distance himself from Labours biggest union backer last night after its new Left-wing boss vowed to break the law to bring employers to heel if necessary.

The Labour leader was compelled to disown a 2019 threat by new Unite general secretary Sharon Graham to work outside the law to win industrial disputes.

Embarrassingly for Sir Keir, it came just days after he congratulated Ms Graham on her election win and stressed how much he was looking forward to working together to improve the lives of working people.

The Labour leader was compelled to disown a 2019 threat by new Unite general secretary Sharon Graham (about) to work outside the law to win industrial disputes

Last night, Sir Keir  a former Director of Public Prosecutions  was challenged to go further and pledge to take no donations from the union if Ms Graham pressed ahead with her old-style, militant tactics.

Arch Left-winger Ms Graham, 52, was elected last week to succeed veteran Unite boss Len McCluskey in a contest seen as crucial for Sir Keirs future as Labour leader.

Unite is the partys biggest financial backer, handing over millions of pounds in recent years, although under Starmer critic Mr McCluskey, it cut back on donations last year.

Although not the preferred candidate of Starmer allies, Ms Graham  the first woman to run the union and its 1.2 million members  was seen as a welcome break from Mr McCluskeys plotting within Labour against Sir Keir and on behalf of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

But Sir Keir faced an immediate problem after comments came to light of just how militant the new Unite boss could be.

Sir Keir Starmer was forced to distance himself from Labours biggest union backer last night after its new Left-wing boss vowed to break the law to bring employers to heel if necessary

Addressing a National Shop Stewards Movement Conference in 2019, Ms Graham declared that we are facing the biggest wage stagnation since Napoleon before signalling that unions should be ready to break the law.

She said: We will and we want to work within the law. But if we are forced to work outside the law, then that is what we are going to have to do if we are going to defend workers and we will be doing that.

In a TUC conference in 2020, Ms Graham talked about how the union movement needed to build strike-ready workplaces.

Labour moved to distance Sir Keir from Ms Grahams 2019 comments, saying: Like the vast majority of trade unionists, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party support the rule of law and trade unions campaigning and organising within it.

But the union boss defiantly stuck by her remarks last night.

A spokesman said: Workers across the UK are currently being attacked in an unprecedented way through the use of fire and rehire threats from a huge number of employers.

Sharon Graham makes no apology whatsoever for defending workers.

The Mail on Sunday has already revealed how Unites leverage department, which Ms Graham ran, devised a confidential plan to target the family of chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe in a bitter 2013 industrial dispute. She insisted she had not written the plan but made no apologies for targeting entrepreneurs families in some cases.

Tory party co-chairman Amanda Milling said last night: No ifs, no buts, Keir Starmer must unequivocally condemn the use of these intimidatory tactics and disassociate himself with calls to break the law from Labours top donor. And he should say whether he will continue to take Unites cash if they press ahead with these sinister plans.
Former child actor Matthew Mindler, best known for his role opposite Paul Rudd in the 2011 comedy Our Idiot Brother, has been found dead after disappearing from his college in Pennsylvania last week.

The college he attended, Millersville University, confirmed his death after releasing a statement on Saturday.

'It is with a grieving heart that I let you know of the death of 19-year-old Matthew Mindler from Hellertown, Pennsylvania, a first-year student at Millersville University,' the statement obtained by TMZ read.

Matthew Mindler (left), a freshman at Millersville University and a former child actor who starred opposite Paul Rudd (right), vanished on Tuesday after walking out of his dormitory

'A search had been underway for Matthew since Thursday, after he was reported missing. Matthew was found deceased this morning, Saturday, August 28, in Manor Township near campus.'

The cause of death has yet to be released as of Saturday afternoon, and authorities did not say whether or not foul play was involved.

According to the Millersville University police, Mindler, a 20-year-old freshman, was last seen on campus on Tuesday night after attending classes Monday and Tuesday. He was reported as missing the following night on Wednesday, after failing to return to his dormitory room and skipping classes.

Police wrote in an Instagram post that Mindler was spotted walking from the West Villages residence hall toward the Centennial Driver parking lot at around 8.11pm on Tuesday.

The Millersville University Police have released a screenshot from security footage, showing Mindler in a hallway in the West Villages residence hall on Tuesday night

Millersville University of Pennsylvania is a public university in Millersville, Pennsylvania

As seen in a screenshot from security video, the student was wearing a white Millersville University hooded sweatshirt with black stripes on the arm, a black face mask, dark-colored jeans and sneakers. He was carrying a black backpack.

Campus police filed a missing person report with the National Crime Information Center on Thursday.

Mindler's IMDB page lists eight acting credits in films and television shows, including in the 2013 short Frequency, which directed by his older brother, cinematographer Derek Mindler.

Mindler's IMDB page lists eight acting credits in films and television shows. He is pictured in 2011 attending the Los Angeles premiere of Our Idiot Brother

Mindler is pictured in a scene with Emily Mortimer, who played his mother in Our Idiot Brother

His biggest role to date was in Our Idiot Brother, which follows Rudd's character, an idealistic farmer who upends the lives of his three sisters, played by Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer.

Mindler portrayed Mortimer's son, River.

Midler has not acted since 2016, when he appeared in the TV movie Chad: An American Boy.

Millersville University President Daniel Wubah sent a letter to the students addressing Mindler's disappearance, reported WGAL.

'Matt's health and safety are paramount and I know our thoughts are with him, his family and friends,' Wubah wrote in part. 'Our police department is continuing efforts to locate Matt in conjunction with regional law enforcement agencies. They are following every lead and appreciate your attention to this effort.'
It's the Chinese ultra-fast fashion brand taking over teen wardrobes by offering the latest styles at rock-bottom prices. Millions post on social media every day about their Shein hauls  parcels bursting with dirt-cheap garments ordered from the clothing giants factory in Guangzhou.

But concerns are mounting at a senior Government level about the sinister surveillance tactics employed by Shein to get ahead of its rivals.

Industry insiders say the shadowy company  pronounced She-in  is spying on unsuspecting customers by using social media sites and apps, collecting vast amounts of data on what its customers view and like, then instructing its factories to churn out copies at a lower cost than its competitors.

Output can change almost in real time to match what the companys powerful algorithms predict will be in demand based on tracking their users online behaviour.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has accused the brand of surveillance capitalism and is demanding the secretive company come clean about its financial affairs and links to the Communist regime.

Concerns are mounting at a senior Government level about the sinister surveillance tactics employed by Shein to get ahead of its rivals. Pictured: SHEIN x GEORGIA TOFFOLO global collection launch

Writing in todays Mail on Sunday, Mr Tugendhat says Shein has a data collection network to rival many of the worlds intelligence agencies which would not be permitted without the agreement of the authoritarian regime. Im convinced many of its customers dont have a clue what they are giving away, he adds.

The scale of Sheins operation is bewildering  it is estimated to be one of the fastest-growing e-commerce outfits in the world. The company, thought to be worth 10 billion, already has a near-stranglehold on the US market, second only to Amazon, and is fast catching up in the UK.

Its popularity lies in the fact that its garments are astonishingly cheap, and reflect the latest trends. Between 700 and 1,000 new styles, many costing under 10, are uploaded every day.

Such inexpensive clothing has also been blamed for Britains waste mountain, with an estimated 10,000 items of clothing being sent to landfill every five minutes. Cheap clothes, including Sheins, are often made of polyester which, when washed, produce microfibres that end up polluting oceans.

For Shein to make so many lines effectively, it must first understand what its customers want, which it does by spying on users across the web and via its mobile phone app.

Agreeing to be tracked gives Shein almost unfettered access to your behaviour online  the other clothing brands and individual garments you look at, holidays you might search for, or your likes and interests from social media sites.

Industry insiders say the shadowy company  pronounced She-in  is spying on unsuspecting customers by using social media sites and apps, collecting vast amounts of data on what its customers view and like. Picture: File image

It also uses other search tools including Googles Trend Finder, which offers data on what people are searching for in real time, to help predict the styles customers want, and gear up its manufacturing and advertising effort accordingly.

Anyone prepared to wade through Sheins 5,800-word privacy policy will find an eye-opening list of just how much data is being collected. It tracks how you arrive at the site, including search terms that send you there, the pages you view and in which order, the time you spend on each page and which images you click. However, Shein insists it collects less data than other companies, adding that its processes are compliant with privacy laws and follow industry standards.

One person who has managed to build up a comprehensive picture of Shein is China-based analyst Matthew Brennan, who is researching the company for a new book. Each new item is a bet, he says. Even the best fashion companies have a difficult time predicting demand. If youre making 1,000 of each garment and they dont sell, youre left with markdowns which can really drag on the financials.

Zara pioneered the practice of making small quantities in the 1990s but Shein has taken it to another level. They can use the data they harvest to create a new item within a week and the data will help them accurately estimate predicted sales within minutes of it going live.

They can ramp up production fast and thats where their real-time aspect works. Shein can see how many people are looking at an item, how many people are putting it in their cart, and how many people are sharing it on social media. Once it hits a certain threshold, the factory manager receives a message on their phone telling them to make more. Theres no human interaction  its all automated, which is impressive.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has accused the brand of surveillance capitalism and is demanding the secretive company come clean about its financial affairs and links to the Communist regime

Shein doesnt always get it right. Last year, it sparked controversy by selling traditional Muslim prayer mats as rugs, and a necklace featuring a swastika. It has also regularly been accused of copying boutique designer brands, breaching copyright. An algorithm makes sure the most popular designs are advertised to customers who might be interested within moments of a garment going live, a speed which Brennan says is unrivalled.

All of this relies on having a captive audience who want to browse its website and use its app  and that is not in doubt. Hannah Thoreson, 31, a systems engineer, said she is absolutely hooked on Shein.

If you have the app it constantly spams you with notifications: 10 per cent off here, or some new collection has dropped. But its not the prices, which are the same as other fast-fashion brands, that appeal to me. Its their ability to stay five minutes ahead of the curve with the trends, and the overall style is just so much better than stuff in a similar price range and even some more expensive brands.

Customers also do Sheins advertising for them. While it uses an army of influencers including Made In Chelseas Georgia Toffolo and pop star Katy Perry on social media, it also encourages customers to post details of their Shein hauls on sites including Chinese-owed video sharing site TikTok.

With 6.2 billion views, Shein was the most talked-about subject on the platform last year.

Customers can benefit from a loyalty points system in which they can earn money off their purchases simply for logging into their account on a daily basis  another source of data, as well as encouraging repeat business.

It was rebranded Shein in 2015 and moved production to Panyu, Guangzhou, known for its garment factories. Picture: File image

But despite its success, relatively little is known about the company or its ultimate intentions. Its secretive founder, Chris Xu, also known as Yangtian Xu or Sky Xu, started Shein as SheInside in 2008. Originally buying up designs from warehouses and selling them on, the company switched to designing its own items in 2010.

It was rebranded Shein in 2015 and moved production to Panyu, Guangzhou, known for its garment factories. From here, everything is packaged and shipped across the globe. Shein clearly has ambitious expansion plans. It has branched out into goods for pets, homeware, childrenswear and make-up. In January it also made a bid for the Topshop brand, indicating it is serious about the UK market.

Today it employs about 7,600 people and is hiring thousands more. There are 314 IT vacancies alone advertised on its website. But there are no references on the site to Shein being Chinese. In fact, it originally claimed to have started in New Jersey, although this reference has since been removed.

Shein says the Chinese government does not have any stake or control in the company and that a its commitment to customers privacy is of paramount importance.

But that does not persuade Mr Tugendhat. He writes: Every keystroke and every page we view is translated into code and sent East.

No wonder the Chinese Communist Party is happy for that to continue.

TOM TUGENDHAT: China's Communist Party is behind the deeply sinister 'surveillance capitalism' trend that powers billion-dollar brands like Shein

Like many things that crop up online, it seems too good to be true. Shein is a Chinese fashion company that promises low prices and almost limitless choice. It even seems to know what youre thinking.

Going on holiday? Before youve even booked the flight, it is instructing workers in Shenzhen to make the top youre going to want for the beach.

As youre browsing TikTok, it knows which rival brands youre considering and getting their designs copied and available to you faster and cheaper.

No wonder its become a runaway multi-billion-pound success. Whats not to like? Well, that depends on what the real price is youre paying. And Im convinced many of customers dont have a clue what they are giving away.

When you download the companys app, you are essentially opening the door for its workers in the Pearl River Delta to know everything about your life.

Trackers on your phone and computer know what youre looking at and how long youve looked.

Tom Tugendhat (pictured) believes China's Communist Party is behind the deeply sinister 'surveillance capitalism' trend that powers billion-dollar brands like Shein

Every moment you spend online is a moment on sale. And I dont mean Sheins cheap fashion lines  I mean you.

The companys business model is a sinister cross between surveillance and capitalism.

Instead of taking goods to market and seeing what you will buy, Shein is taking you to market to see what it can sell.

We can see what the companys anonymous coders and algorithms make of the information they glean from spying on your computer browsing  the products they offer you are plain to see.

But we dont know what else they do with that information. Shein isnt open like other companies. We dont know its profits or its losses. It doesnt publish figures.

Instead of corporate information there are influencers. Shouldnt we know whos profiting from us?

This raises questions for everyone, not just those who are more comfortable sharing their every thought and dream with people on the other side of the world who dont share our ideas of privacy.

Are we happy that surveillance fashion is the way our country pays for the surveillance state weve seen emerge in Xinjiang?

Shein is a Chinese fashion company that promises low prices and almost limitless choice. Pictured: Georgia Toffolo attends the launch of the SHEIN x Georgia Toffolo collaboration in February 2020

The amazing thing behind all this is that theres no secret to whats really happening. Over the past year, Beijings rulers have made clear they dont believe in rivals to the Communist Party, either political or commercial.

Billionaire Jack Ma, whose Ant Group rivals Amazon, has been silenced. Didi, a ride-hailing service like Uber, has been ordered to hand over control of data after floating on the New York exchange, rather than in Hong Kong.

As the China Research Group I chair has shown, Chairman Xi Jinping has made it plain that the free market is not free and theres no illusion who really holds the power.

So, one thing we know for sure: Shein wouldnt be able to collect the data it does without top-level contacts in the Communist Party saying its OK.

With a data collection network to rival many of the worlds intelligence agencies, and with so many willingly handing over their every desire, why are we so many relaxed about Shein? Well, not everyone is.

British firm Gymshark, whose brilliant founder Ben Francis has made a fortune from selling gym kit around the world, is being undercut by the Chinese rival.

Shein is selling versions of items hes designed at a fraction of the price. Almost identical copies are getting to market faster and cheaper and with seemingly fewer obstacles. How can that be?

The New York Post reported almost identical leggings are 36 from the British outfitter, but 9.50 from Shein. How is that commercially possible?

As The Mail on Sunday reported last year, there are a few possible explanations. Everything from copycat designs, poor manufacturing quality and Royal Mail subsidies collude to construct an advantage others can only dream of.

Over the past year, Beijings rulers have made clear they dont believe in rivals to the Communist Party, either political or commercial

But the key to the company is not the making but the marketing  particularly how it responds to the data we give away as we browse TikTok, Instagram and other social media sites.

Every keystroke and every page we view is translated into code and sent East. Every teenage dream, every whim, is converted, packaged and sold. Thats the reality of the social contract weve signed.

No wonder the Chinese Communist Party is happy for that to continue. They may not be supplying labour from prison factories of Xinjiang to keep costs down, but the party will be essential to Sheins success as it seeks global commercial dominance.

From its Beijing headquarters, the genome-sequencing company BGI Group is working with the Chinese military and selling prenatal tests to pregnant women.

Its collecting genetic data from millions around the world, which provides them with data on countries thousands of miles away.

This gives China a huge potential advantage in creating a new generation of pharmaceuticals and more.

Other countries have already begun to address Beijing dominance. The US couldnt accept that Chinese-owned gay dating app Grindr should hold its data in a jurisdiction that practises mass incarceration and espionage on others. It forced the company to be returned to American ownership.

This isnt about competition any more. Its not capitalism the way Adam Smith understood it. Instead of the hidden hand of the market, were seeing the secret hand of the state.

This is the growth of surveillance capitalism sold to us as a convenience, but its really a cage, a worrying economic revolution every bit as seismic as Communism and just as hard to topple.

Modern, global trade is about so much more than goods. Once we protected our steel industry to ensure we could always make warships and cannons in times of crisis.

Today, economic power comes from services, everything from accounting and law to online dating and shopping.

Thats why we urgently need to update how we respond. If Apple can put conditions on the data that apps can harvest on its phones, then shouldnt our Government act to protect our people from exploitation? Its not just clothes that Shein has on sale  its us.
Deep in the Hertfordshire countryside, a disconcerting hum emerges from the laundry room attached to a converted barn.

The temperature inside is a balmy 34 degrees Celsius, more reminiscent of midday in Burkina Faso than Berkhamsted.

But the source of all this noise and heat is no malfunctioning tumble-dryer. Its something far more tantalising, which could net its owner a small fortune.

On a shelf stands an ordinary-looking computer the size of a small crate, which is connected to a global network of similar devices.

Every second of every day  even while its owner, retired builder Geoff Dunn, sleeps  it is, incongruously, mining for cryptocurrency, intermittently topping up an account with newly minted coins.

Cryptocurrency farmers include Dafydd and Carys Evans from North Wales. Alongside 80,000 chickens, 150 cows and 900 ewes, they have two rigs: one in the farm office and another in an office next to the chickens. Both are powered by 500 solar panels on the giant poultry shed

Its good for drying the washing at any rate, jokes Geoff, who estimates he has now spent 200,000 on 14 of these mining computers, known in the crypto world as rigs.

I didnt know if Id make any money or not when I began. It was a bit of a gamble.

But its proved to be a good decision. Ive probably made 250,000 in the past two-and-a-half years.

Of course, the children thought I was crackers. But now theyre trading coins and one son has started to buy machines too.

Geoffs first rig, which cost him 9,000, was making around 600 a month in its first year, nearly enough to recoup the investment. He now estimates that his 14 machines  he keeps two more in a home gym, and the rest in a lock-up down the road  pull in at least 280 worth of new Ethereum coins a day. And he is hoping to buy a 15th rig.

Geoff, a 69-year-old grandfather, is part of an unlikely but growing army of cryptocurrency miners across the UK.

They are not computer geeks or maths nerds, nor do most of them have any experience in the new digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that are revolutionising global finance.

GEOFF freely admits he knew nothing about computing before wandering into a cryptocurrency exhibition out of curiosity in early 2019.

But he and scores of others have chosen to take an extraordinary gamble: by investing their savings in these specialist machines, which now cost about 18,000 each. And by making use of spare bedrooms, sheds, garages and home offices, they hope to cash in on what is tipped to be a cryptocurrency gold rush.

To most people, the very idea is bewildering.

But since the launch of Bitcoin as the first digital currency in 2009  pioneering a method of sending money electronically between two people without using a bank  it has made its original investors eye-wateringly rich as its value skyrocketed. A $1,000 investment in 2009, for example, would be worth $287 million today.

Now there are more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies, with some 1,000 available to mine.

And it is this thrilling prospect of making similar gains, with smaller, up-and-coming currencies, which is convincing people such as Geoff to get involved.

Every second of every day  even while its owner, retired builder Geoff Dunn, sleeps  it is, incongruously, mining for cryptocurrency, intermittently topping up an account with newly minted coins

The downside is the running cost, and the heat and noise they generate. The units consume a staggering amount of electricity. Geoffs bill can be as much as 4,000 a month, which halves his profits.

Geoffs first machines sat on a dressing table in the spare room of a two-bedroom flat. It was unbearably hot, he recalls. You opened the door and it was like stepping off the plane in a tropical country.

It was noisy, too, from the constant whirring of fans and components. You couldnt hear each other talking in the same room with three of them going.

Analysts at Cambridge University found that the global mining of Bitcoin uses nearly as much electricity every year as the whole of Chile. Last month Malaysian authorities steamrollered more than 1,000 mining rigs after operators were blamed for power cuts.

There is, of course, a huge financial risk. Some believe the cryptocurrency bubble has already burst, and the Bitcoin gains wont be made elsewhere. Others say the market will continue to escalate overall, despite dramatic fluctuations. Whatever the truth, Karen Knightly, who spent 12,000 on a rig in May last year, warns that investors need nerves of steel.

The podiatrist, who is a partner in West Sussex firm Southward-Knightly Property, first kept the rig in her office at home in Billingshurst then moved it to the garage because it kicked out an awful lot of heat. But the 57-year-old now opts to have it hosted elsewhere, at a cost of 130 a month.

I knew nothing about cryptocurrency at all  absolutely nothing, Karen explains. Id heard of Bitcoin, but had no idea what it was. What appealed to me was the fact that it could be just plugged in and it made you money, as an alternative source of income.

Karen started mining Ravencoin, before switching to Ethereum.

After I first got the rig Id watch the value of what I was earning climb on a cryptocurrency app Id downloaded. There was about 700, which hit 1,000, then 1,500. At one point Ravencoin hit an all-time high and I suddenly had 24,000 worth.

Then it all slumped.

Karen now pays for advice from a specialist crypto investor who tracks the market for her and has invested half her profits in other currencies, to spread the risk.

I dont have the time and the inclination to learn it all, so I pay a fee to someone to help create a portfolio. It really is about having nerves of steel.

Im not known for my patience, but I know this is about long-term gain, like property.

Its difficult to say how much she is making, as Karen is leaving it all in the pot. Ive probably doubled my initial investment so far, but thats all theoretical until I take the money out, she says.

Theres a lot of ignorance around crypto and it is risky.

Karen bought her machine from Easy Crypto Hunter, a British company whose chief executive, 31-year-old Josh Riddett, estimates he has sold thousands of rigs this year. Some 95 per cent go to individuals  from police officers to pensioners and CEOs to teachers.

Ive always been interested in the idea of passive income  making money while you sleep, says Josh.

I came across cryptocurrencies and mining while I was still at university in 2014, and I realised you could have a machine that just pays you every day, I thought: Surely that cant be true? That sounds absolutely ridiculous.

Theres a lot of misconceptions. People think Bitcoin is this nefarious thing, only used for dodgy dealings, but its actually the most public transactional record theres ever been. If I was to send you a Bitcoin, anyone can check whether that transaction happened. If I send money through a bank, no one can do that externally.

Karen Knightly, who spent 12,000 on a rig in May last year, warns that investors need nerves of steel

Im not a super-nerd  just a guy who loves business  so I came up with a way in which anyone can mine for crypto, which means plugging in an internet connection, turning on a computer and off you go.

Much of the attraction of crypto mining is this simplicity. Each machine can be programmed to mine for any of the available cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin, as it requires huge banks of different machines to make a profit, ruling it out for domestic settings.

Once theyre plugged in and connected to the wi-fi, the machines need almost no oversight.

They work by keeping tabs on every crypto transaction that takes place around the world, replacing the need for a traditional bank, which would charge a fee to verify and keep ledgers of payments.

In the cryptocurrency world, however, all transactions made within a set time period are sent out in a block to every rig on the planet for checking.

Each rig must verify every one of these transactions by placing it in whats called a blockchain ledger  essentially an encrypted digital paper trail which accounts for the history of every unit of the currency. Once every rig agrees the transaction is valid, and communicates this to the network, the transaction is officially verified.

The more rigs that are mining a currency, the more secure the currency is, which can boost its value.

But for the owner of the rigs, the incentive is regular payments in the relevant cryptocurrency for the work their rigs have carried out. These go directly into an account held with a cryptocurrency exchange.

How much they receive is the million dollar question, Josh says  it can vary depending on the value of the currency being mined, the power of individual rigs and the number of other people who are mining the same currency.

But Josh claims that one of his most up-to-date rigs  costing 18,000 plus VAT and about 400 a month in electricity  will earn in the region of 1,000 a month mining a currency like Ethereum.

These payments can be held as an investment to see if their value rises. Alternatively, they can be traded for other cryptocurrencies, or cashed in for real money. As an added incentive, there is the tantalising prospect of far greater rewards to be made.

Each time a set of transactions is sent out to be verified, a complex mathematical puzzle is set  just for fun  and must be solved concurrently. The rig that solves this puzzle first wins a bonus payment  which can be substantial.

Bitcoin, for example, was paying 6.25 coins to the winner every ten minutes  at 35,400 a coin, thats equivalent of about 221,250.

Bitcoin is used by businesses such as Lush cosmetics and travel firm Expedia. Charities including the RNLI and Save The Children accept Bitcoin donations, while high street brands such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Argos and Deliveroo accept gift cards bought with cryptocurrencies

It means the more rigs you own, or the more powerful your rigs are, the greater chance you have of bagging this electronic treasure.

The craze is even filtering into the farming industry  mainly because farmers have space for solar panels, a source of cheap renewable electricity.

They include Dafydd and Carys Evans from North Wales.

Alongside 80,000 chickens, 150 cows and 900 ewes, they have two rigs: one in the farm office and another in an office next to the chickens. Both are powered by 500 solar panels on the giant poultry shed.

They do make a bit of a noise, says Dafydd. Theyre also really hot. You dont need to put the heating on, lets say that, but luckily chicks need to be kept warm. The 55-year-old admits he hasnt got a clue about computers and puts Carys in charge of dealing with the profits.

The rigs, which cost 10,000 each, have paid for themselves in a year and theyre considering buying more.

Others are more sceptical about the rise of digital currencies. Set up in the wake of the 2007/08 banking crisis as a way of removing untrustworthy banks from financial transactions, Bitcoin was associated with a shadowy counter-culture. Little is known of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, although some claim this is a pseudonym for a group of developers. They are rumoured to own one million Bitcoin, today worth $50 billion.

Investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were among the first Bitcoin billionaires. The Harvard-educated twins, who received $65 million after settling a claim against Mark Zuckerberg over the idea for Facebook, invested $11 million in Bitcoin in April 2013. Today, their investment is worth more than $1 billion.

Because transactions can be made privately, without the oversight of traditional banking, cryptocurrencies have been linked to criminality, from drug sales on the dark web to international terrorism.

More recently they have gained legitimacy, partly because of the security they offer. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), an estimated 2.3 million UK adults hold money in a computer-generated form.

Bitcoin is used by businesses such as Lush cosmetics and travel firm Expedia. Charities including the RNLI and Save The Children accept Bitcoin donations, while high street brands such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Argos and Deliveroo accept gift cards bought with cryptocurrencies.

As this newspaper reported last month, the Treasury is considering creating its own digital version, provisionally known as Britcoin.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned people should buy crypto only if youre prepared to lose all your money.

Back at Easy Crypto Hunter, Josh declines to say how much he has made personally but he is in no doubt its the future.

If the UK Government said tomorrow Right guys, Bitcoin is illegal, they literally couldnt do anything because they dont control the infrastructure this is built on.

The only way to do that is turn off the internet  and thats not going to happen.

So if you cant beat them, join them.
In an interview two weeks before the deadly suicide bombing outside the gates of Kabul airport an ISIS-K commander said the group was biding its time before an attack.

A senior ISIS-K commander whose identity was shielded told CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward that the terrorist group was 'laying low and waiting for a time to strike.'

The interview, which aired Friday, took place two weeks before Thursday's deadly ISIS-K attack that killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians after a suicide bomber slipped past a Taliban checkpoint to get close to an evacuee screening point at the Kabul airport.

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A senior ISIS-K commander, whose identity was shielded ,,(pictured) told CNN's Clarissa Ward that the terrorist group was 'laying low and waiting for a time to strike'

The commander said now that U.S. and international forces were leaving the country ISIS-K was in the process of recruiting members and 'restart operations'

Two weeks prior to the attack in Kabul, CNN's @clarissaward interviewed a senior ISIS-K commander.



At that time the commander told Ward the group was laying low and waiting for a time to strike.



As Ward notes, these were "words that turned out to be eerily prophetic." pic.twitter.com/XV7RggUEg4  Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) August 28, 2021

The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre, alleging a suicide bomber got 'within five meters' of US troops before detonating a device.

On Friday the Pentagon confirmed that the deadly attack was carried out by a single suicide bomber at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport and that there was no second explosion at the nearby Baron Hotel, Reuters reported.

The interview was conducted in Kabul days before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

The senior commander said he defected from the Taliban because they did not implement Sharia Law strictly enough and because they were under the influence of other people.

'We were operating in Taliban's ranks. However, these people were not aligned with us in terms of belief, so we went to ISIS,' he told Ward.

The interview took place two weeks before Thursday's deadly suicide bomb attack that killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians

The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the August 26 massacre, alleging one suicide bomber got 'within five meters' of US troops before detonating a device

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward (pictured) interviewed the unidentified ISIS-K commander

Ward asked the commander if he has carried out public executions or suicide bombings

'Yes I have too many memories where I was present myself at these scenes,' he said. 'One memory is that the Pakistani Taliban had come to the Nazari district and during the fighting we captured five people. Our fighters became over excited and struck them with axes.'

He said that his group has faced off with U.S special forces in the past 'on many occasions.'

'We had close combat with them, too,' he said. 'We have faced them a lot in fire fights,' he said.

When Ward asked if the group was interested in carrying out international attacks he said he only could speak of attacks in Afghanistan.

The commander told Ward now that U.S. and international forces were leaving the country and the Taliban, at that point, was poised to be in control, that ISIS-K was in the process of recruiting members and 'restart operations' which presumably resumed on August 26.

The bombing claimed the lives of Navy corpsman Max Soviak, Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, and Marines Hunter Lopez, Rylee McCollum, David Lee Espinoza, Kareem Nikoui, Jared Schmitz, Daegan Page, Taylor Hoover, Humberto Sanchez, Johanny Rosario, Dylan Merola and Nicole Gee.

The remains of the 13 US troops killed in an ISIS-K suicide blast are currently en route to Dover Air Force Base for dignified transfer, according to the Pentagon.

In a statement on Saturday, Biden said: 'The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others.'

'Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far. May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days,' the president added.

As the August 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. armed forces from Afghanistan nears, Biden warned that an imminent terrorist attack in Kabul was 'highly likely' in a statement released Saturday afternoon.

Left to right: Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo

Marines Corps Corporals left to right: Daegan W. Page, Hunter Lopez, Humberto A. Sanchez

Marine Corps Lance Corporals left to right: Kareem M. Nikoui, Dylan R. Merola, Rylee J. McCollum, Jared M. Schmitz

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza (left) and Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak (right)

The warning comes a day after the Pentagon confirmed it's first strike against ISIS-K.

'The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high,' Biden said in the statement. 'Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.

'I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection, and ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect our men and women on the ground,' Biden added. 'They assured me that they did, and that they could take these measures while completing the mission and safely retrograding our personnel.'

On Saturday the State Department said at least 5,400 Americans have been safely evacuated since August 14, including nearly 300 U.S. citizens within the last day.

Currently approximately 350 Americans who remain in Afghanistan informed the State Department they want to leave the country while the State Department has been in contact with another 280 self-identified Americans who have not shared their plans to leave the country or said they intend to stay.
One of Britains greatest painters has fallen victim to woke culture, as art-lovers are being warned not to idolise J. M. W. Turner because he once held a single share in a Jamaican business that used slave labour.

During his lifetime, the artist was a liberal and an abolitionist, and his iconic painting The Slave Ship captured the horror of the trade in human lives.

But a new exhibition of his work at Tate Britain comes with a warning that some of his pieces could be considered problematic.

The gallerys director, Alex Farquharson, even warns that Turners depictions of steam power are linked to climate change.

One of Britains greatest painters has fallen victim to woke culture, as art-lovers are being warned not to idolise J. M. W. Turner because he once held a single share in a Jamaican business that used slave labour

Mr Farquharson says: We should not idolise Turner. His investment in 1805 in a Jamaican cattle ranch worked by enslaved labour suggests he had reset his own moral compass by 1840 when he painted Slave Ship as an indictment of the slave trade.

The painting was inspired by the Zong massacre of 1781, in which a captain of a British ship ordered 133 slaves to be thrown overboard when drinking water ran low so he could claim insurance money.

Mr Farquharson describes The Slave Ship as salient today because Black Lives Matter demands we confront histories of enslavement, exploitation and genocide whose legacies live on, but says some critics see its visual splendour as mitigating the horror of its subject.

Turner, then aged 31, paid 100 in 1805 for a single share in a business called Dry Sugar Work in Jamaica. But the investment was a flop and the firm went bust. In his foreword in a guide to the Turners Modern World exhibition, Mr Farquharson also says Turners steam-era paintings were testimony to the beginnings of global warming as Britain was the leading emitter of carbon dioxide at the time.

Those emissions that he painted remain in the atmosphere today and their effect on global warming has been accumulative, he writes. But his comments have provoked a backlash. Turner expert Selby Whittingham said: This is political correctness gone mad. Slavery, thankfully, is no longer a hidden subject, but people have gone to the opposite extreme and given it an exaggerated prominence.

Michael Daley, the director of ArtWatch UK, said it was wrong to impose modern values on historical figures, adding: The trouble is that everybody in the arts wants to play politics and not talk about art.

During his lifetime, the artist was a liberal and an abolitionist, and his iconic painting The Slave Ship (pictured) captured the horror of the trade in human lives

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen described Mr Farquharsons comments as an attempt to repaint history and find fault where little fault lies. Society has been taken over by the woke, environmental and political agenda.

The episode could expose the Tate to allegations of hypocrisy  ancestors of founder Sir Henry Tate made their fortune from a sugar empire built on the slave trade.

The Tate holds 300 Turner paintings and 30,000 sketches that the artist bequeathed to the nation.

Defending his comments, Mr Farquharson, who chairs the Turner Prize jury named after the artist, told The Mail on Sunday: We relish the fact that Turner was a richly complex figure. He embodied but also redefined his era, capturing the birth of industrialisation, creating one of art historys most powerful indictments of the slave trade, and remaining as relevant and inspiring today as ever.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are seriously considering a move to Windsor, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The mooted relocation, which would bring the family closer to the Queen, is the most significant sign yet that the couple are preparing to take on a far more senior role at the heart of the Royal Family.

A source said William and Kate have been eyeing up accommodation options in the area suitable for bringing up their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Eyeing up options: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are 'seriously considering' a move to Windsor, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Pictured: The Cambridges and their children

They added that properties under consideration could include Fort Belvedere, a Grade II listed house with tower towards the southern end of Windsor Great Park, where King Edward VIII  the Queens uncle  signed his abdication papers in 1936.

The fort is owned by the Crown Estate and leased to the Weston family, close friends of the Royals. From the top of the tower, on a clear day, Edward once wrote, you could see the dome of St Pauls with a spyglass.

But the fort has been dismissed as an option by Palace aides.

Moving the family west  wherever they end up  could prove strategic as well as practical, as the monarchy prepares for major changes in the years ahead.

At the moment, the Cambridges split their time between their London base at Kensington Palace, where they also have their offices, and their country home of Anmer Hall in Norfolk.

A source said William and Kate have been 'eyeing up' accommodation options in the area suitable for bringing up their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Pictured: Windsor Castle

The move, which would bring the family closer to the Queen (pictured), is the most significant sign yet that the couple are preparing to take on a more senior role at the heart of the Royal Family

The home on the Sandringham Estate was a wedding gift from the Queen and, after carrying out refurbishment work, William and Kate made it their permanent home from 2015 to 2017.

Its rural location had several key advantages at the time: William was working as a helicopter pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, and the couple were keen to give their young children as normal an upbringing as possible, away from the public gaze.

39 monarchs, ten centuries  and one annus horribilis The oldest and largest occupied castle on the planet, Windsor Castle, right, is the place where the Queen feels most at home. Founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century, it has been home to 39 monarchs. As a young Princess Elizabeth, the Queen and her sister Margaret spent the war years at Windsor and from here made their first radio address to wish British children goodnight and good luck during the war. Last year, the Queen recorded a rousing television address to the nation during the coronavirus pandemic from the castles White Room. For once, with flights suspended during the lockdown, the message did not have to be timed to avoid the sound of aircraft taking off and landing at Heathrow Airport. The castle has also been a labour of love for the Windsors. When fire tore through it in November 1992  a year the Queen described as her annus horribilis  it damaged 115 rooms, including nine state rooms. Aides joined a human chain to pass priceless works of art out to safety. Prince Philip was instrumental in the Castles recovery, leading a restoration committee which raised funds for the costly and delicate repairs by opening up Buckingham Palace to the public. In the new chapel, he installed a stained-glass window which commemorates the events of that night and those who fought to bring the fire under control. It shows firefighters battling the blaze, one carrying a painting to safety, while St George slays the dragon with smoke billowing behind him. Until his death in April, Philip held the role of Ranger of Windsor Great Park and was often seen out carriage-driving. Visitors to the park may still catch a glimpse of the Dukes familiar green carriage  now driven by his granddaughter Lady Louise, who is an accomplished driver in her own right. Advertisement

But today, with their eldest two children at school in London, it has become rather far to travel for weekends. At Windsor, they could work in reverse  basing the family there full time and commuting in to London when required.

A source said: Anmer Hall made sense while William was a helicopter pilot in East Anglia and it was useful for Christmases at Sandringham, but it doesnt really work any more. Its a little too far away for weekends, but Windsor is a perfect compromise. They are eyeing up options in the area.

The move has other advantages. It would bring the Cambridges closer to Kates parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who live 40 miles away in Bucklebury, Berkshire, and who are known for being hands-on grandparents.

Kates sister Pippa, her husband James Matthews and their two children also have a home in the village.

Following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in April, it would also no doubt prove a boost to the Queen to have the Cambridges nearby.

The 95-year-old monarch has a close relationship with William, and during his time at Eton College  which is close to the castle  he would often have Sunday lunch with his grandparents in the castles panelled Oak Room.

For years the Queen used Windsor as a weekend residence, and a retreat from the working week at Buckingham Palace. But the monarch now plans to base herself permanently at Windsor once she returns from the annual summer break in Balmoral.

She and Prince Philip stayed at Windsor during the lockdown. It meant she was close to her youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, who live nearby at Bagshot Park, and Prince Andrew, who lives at Royal Lodge with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

Prince Harry and Meghan refurbished Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate, but the property is now used by Princess Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank and their six-month-old son, August.

Having the Cambridges nearby would mean most of the Queens immediate family  barring Prince Charles and Princess Anne  were close at hand to support her.

An insider added: I dont think well see the Sussexes coming back in any meaningful way.

In October, the Queen will embark on a series of high-profile engagements alongside different members of the family.

Highlights over the coming weeks will include appearing with the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to open the Sixth Session of the Scottish Parliament.
A senior BBC journalist has been silenced after wading into a row over bias at the top of the news department.

Lewis Goodall, policy editor of BBC2s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, was reprimanded last week after standing up for new executive news editor Jess Brammar.

Her appointment to the hugely influential role, as revealed by The Mail on Sunday last weekend, has provoked controversy as she is well known for holding anti-Brexit views and has been critical of Boris Johnson.

But following criticism of her appointment, Goodall, 32, fumed on Twitter: Not going to share it but yet more unhinged misogynistic attacks on Jess Brammar.

He described a campaign against her which he said needed to be called out.

His tetchy intervention clearly overstepped the mark with his bosses  who are acutely sensitive to any allegations of bias  and they told him to delete the tweet.

Lewis Goodall (pictured), policy editor of BBC2s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, was reprimanded last week after standing up for new executive news editor Jess Brammar

Brammar, 38, got the job despite warnings by a BBC board member that the national broadcaster had been culturally captured by the woke-dominated group-think of some of its own staff. But she has a loyal band of noisy supporters in the Left-wing media, and her partner, Jim Waterson, is media editor for The Guardian newspaper.

Initially, it was reported that Corporation board member Sir Robbie Gibb, a former BBC journalist and Theresa Mays head of communications when she was PM, tried to block her appointment because he felt it would shatter fragile relations with the Government.

Ms Brammar previously worked for the news website Huffington Post, where she promoted a series of controversial opinions including an article suggesting that black people would leave the UK if Mr Johnson was elected PM in 2019. She has also described Brexit as being like a TV comedy drama but less funny.

There have been further concerns among some BBC staff that the selection process was not open and fair and fell foul of Corporation policies  but a spokesman for the BBC denied this. Brammar herself has remained silent after deleting at least 16,000 old tweets, which included her observations about Brexit, black Brits, an under-funded NHS and claims that the term woke was a dogwhistle phrase.

Following criticism of her appointment, Goodall, 32, fumed on Twitter: Not going to share it but yet more unhinged misogynistic attacks on Jess Brammar

Corporation chiefs have been keen to ensure their news staff do not appear biased on social media

In June, Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis was reprimanded for breaching impartiality rules after sharing a tweet which criticised the Governments response to the Covid pandemic.

Despite her partisan past, Ms Brammar has plenty of media allies  described to this newspaper as a Leftie lynch mob  who have defended her.

Others giving their backing include Goodalls Newsnight predecessor Chris Cook, now a senior reporter at the Financial Times and a neighbour of Brammar in South East London; ex-Newsnight journalist Matthew Stadlen; former Labour party special adviser Ayesha Hazarika, and ex-Buzzfeed politics reporter Marie Le Conte.

The row has proved a headache for BBC director-general Tim Davie. When he took up the job last summer, he vowed to end political bias in the Corporations news coverage and banned employees from expressing partisan views

He told staff at the time: If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media, then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC.

Brammar, 38, got the job despite warnings by a BBC board member that the national broadcaster had been culturally captured by the woke-dominated group-think of some of its own staff

One of his key priorities, he said, was to prioritise impartiality as the embattled broadcaster sought to rebuild its fractured relationship with the Government and defend its licence-fee funding.

Mr Davie, who cut his political teeth as deputy chairman of the Hammersmith & Fulham Conservative Party in the 1990s, has made it clear that the status quo could not continue, saying that the BBC needed to accelerate change.

Senior BBC colleagues are worried about the Brammar controversy triggering wider criticism about BBC bias and that efforts by the news supremos friends to try to burnish her image will backfire against the Corporation.

Many fear that Ms Brammars views will be always be used against the BBC, forever raised in any cases when it is accused of political bias.
As an expensively educated man steeped in the Classics and much else besides, Boris Johnson might be expected to excel at University Challenge.

Yet when he captained a team in a long-forgotten special edition of the BBC show in 1999, the future Prime Minister was, to his obvious chagrin, soundly beaten.

Boris, then a Daily Telegraph political writer, was leading a team of broadsheet journalists against their tabloid rivals.

And his humbling was due in no small part to Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, who helped the tabloids to a 210-165 victory.

When he captained a team in a long-forgotten special edition of the BBC show in 1999, the future Prime Minister was, to his obvious chagrin, soundly beaten

Conveniently for Boris, the New Years Day episode was thought lost in a BBC vault.

But now, more than two decades later, it is receiving a long-overdue airing, having been posted on YouTube last week.

It shows our man Hitchens, who introduces himself as a full-time reactionary, on impressive form, correctly answering questions on, among other topics, US presidents, decimalisation and the American poet Ogden Nash.

He beat Boris to the buzzer when quizmaster Jeremy Paxman asked: In 1998 the publishers of the New Oxford Dictionary Of English controversially acknowledged which slang expression, which it defined as a term signifying approval of the physical appearance of a member of the opposite sex?

Boris might have been expected to know the answer: Phwoar!

Conveniently for Boris, the New Years Day episode was thought lost in a BBC vault. But now, more than two decades later, it is receiving a long-overdue airing, having been posted on YouTube last week

It is fascinating to view the future PM, then 34, from a distance. In the space of 30 minutes, he exhibits many now-familiar characteristics, such as showmanship, a strong aversion to losing and the trait that has infuriated everyone from schoolmasters to political rivals: the sense that Boris believes normal rules dont apply to him.

Eager to flaunt his knowledge of the Classics, he buzzes in to interrupt when Paxman asks a starter for ten: Astarte, the Phoenician goddess of love and fertility, is equivalent to the Babylonian Ishtar

Boris: Diana.

Paxman: Im afraid you lose five points.

It shows our man Hitchens, who introduces himself as a full-time reactionary, on impressive form, correctly answering questions on, among other topics, US presidents, decimalisation and the American poet Ogden Nash

Flinging his arms in the air, Boris cries: Oh, what!

Because its not the right answer, Boris, replies Paxman, who, continues:  and is sometimes regarded as the counterpart of which Greek goddess?

Others would have left it there, but Boris isnt done, arguing that Diana is the Roman name for Artemis, but is slapped down for impudence.

Nobody gets two bites of the cherry on University Challenge. In any case, he was wrong again.

I said Greek goddess, chides Paxman, who informs a chastened Boris that the correct answer is Aphrodite.

In fairness to Boris, he was easily his teams top performer, correctly answering questions on physics, politics and cartoon characters from The Beano. At the halfway stage, it was neck and neck but the broadsheet team  also featuring Decca Aitkenhead, Libby Purves and Richard Ingrams  missed a chance to pull ahead.

Asked the occupation of the biblical figure Rahab, whose house was built into the wall of Jericho, Boris replies: He was an innkeeper. No, replies Paxman. SHE was a prostitute.

Towards the end, the tabloid team, also comprising Ann Leslie, Jane Moore and Tony Parsons, another star player, consolidated their lead, with Paxman concluding that Boris and the broadsheet team had been soundly trounced.
Two senior ISIS-K operatives who plotted the Kabul airport carnage were killed in an American drone strike while riding a tuk-tuk, it has emerged.

The terrorists died immediately  and an associate was injured  in the revenge attack in the remote city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border, the US military said last night.

The men, who were described as planners, are understood to have been sitting at the back of the moving three-wheeler when they were hit by a missile strike from a MQ-9 Reaper drone.

Two senior ISIS-K operatives who plotted the Kabul airport carnage were killed in an American drone strike while riding a tuk-tuk

Defence chiefs at the Pentagon refused to release the names of the dead terrorists, but it is thought they were planning more attacks at the airport, where more than 170 died in a suicide bomb blast last Thursday.

The airport attack was orchestrated by the leadership of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), which is the South Asian branch of the Islamic State terror group that declared a caliphate in Syria in June 2014.

According to terrorism experts, ISIS-K is far more brutal than IS in Syria or any of its affiliates. It has targeted maternity wards, schools and vulnerable minority groups in Afghanistan, killing thousands since it was founded in 2015.

Photographs of the burnt-out tuk-tuk emerged on social media last night. It could be seen next to a crater at least 4ft deep.

It was a single mission to get these targets. They were ISIS-K planners and facilitators and thats enough reason there alone. I wont speak to the details of these individuals and what their specific roles might be, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last night.

Residents in Jalalabad said they heard at least three loud bangs at midnight on Saturday and added that others were also hit.

Major General William Taylor (pictured) said 'two high profile ISIS targets were killed and one was wounded and we know of zero civilian casualties' in the Joe Biden-approved strike in Nangahar province

The men, who were described as planners, are understood to have been sitting at the back of the moving three-wheeler when they were hit by a missile strike from a MQ-9 Reaper drone (pictured)

Women and children are among the victims, said Malik Adib, a city elder who is helping the Taliban investigate the attacks.

The drone strike was ordered after Joe Biden said there would be a swift response to the airport attack, which left 13 US soldiers among the dead. The Presidents national security advisers warned him last night that there could be further attacks at Kabul airport as the US winds down its evacuation programme ahead of Tuesdays deadline.

With thousands of Afghans still expected to flock to the airport in the coming days, it could provide perfect cover for another suicide bomber to get close to US troops manning the gates.

Mr Biden said last night said there would be further strikes against ISIS-K and warned that the situation on the ground continued to be extremely dangerous.

He added: This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.

Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24 to 36 hours. I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritise force protection.

ISIS-K had been a largely spent force until the Taliban retook most of Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters freed prisoners from the Bagram air base jail and from prisons in Kabul, unaware that dozens of dangerous ISIS-K members were being held there. Thousands of other members are thought to have been released in other parts of the country.

Abdul Sayed, a terrorism expert on Afghanistan, said: This is the most brutal terrorist group I have seen in Afghanistan, and more brutal than other IS groups.

ISIS-K launched an attack in a maternity ward in a Kabul hospital in May 2020, killing two babies and 15 mothers and nurses. Earlier this year, a car bombing outside the Sayed al-Shuhada girls school in Kabul left 90 dead, most of them girls aged between 11 and 15.

The group has routinely bombed Shia mosques as well as Hindu and Sikh minority communities in Afghanistan.

Like IS in Syria, it is infamous for making gruesome videos of enemies being killed. One video released in 2017 showed ten Taliban fighters being made to lie down on a chain of explosives and then blown to pieces.

A former ISIS-K detainee said the group left a platter of severed heads outside his prison cave and their executioner used a special 2ft-long knife to behead victims.
Pen Farthing has taken off from Kabul airport and is on his way home with his dogs and cats on a private charter plane, his spokesman has said.

The jet landed at the Afghan capital's airport earlier today and was loaded up with rescue animals, owned by the former Royal Marine, by British troops.

But Paul 'Pen' Farthing's 'Operation Ark' campaign, that petitioned the British government to get his staff and animals out of Kabul, has divided public opinion.

While gaining huge support, the campaign led by the founder of the Nowzad animal shelter was also accused of taking up resources that could have been used to evacuate more people from Kabul, that is now under Taliban control.

It was revealed yesterday that as many as 150 Britons and 1,100 Afghans that assisted British efforts in Afghanistan will be left behind in the country, while the charter plane flies 180 cats and dogs to safety.

The 57-year-old's chartered jet from Karachi, Pakistan, landed at around 6pm local time, after the last UK flight dedicated for civilians left last night and all further flights today are for military and diplomatic personnel.

A Tory MP Tom Tugendhat criticised the decision to use soldiers to evacuate Mr Farthing's animals while the lives of Afghans who assisted the British during the 20-year occupation of the country are under threat from the Taliban.

'The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport and we've just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs,' the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee said.

'Meanwhile my interpreter's family are likely to be killed,' Tugendhat - who served in Afghanistan and Iraq - added. 'As one interpreter asked me a few days ago, why is my five year-old worth less than your dog?'

When asked what his answer was to his interpreter's question, Tugendhat replied: 'I didn't have an answer, what would your answer be?'

The MP's comments came as Major General Nick Carter, the head of the British Army, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme that the army's 'priority has been to evacuate human beings,' amid anger over the decision to evacuate animals.

'We obviously worry about everything that needs to be evacuated, but of course these are very difficult times, and there are very difficult judgements to be made.'

Pen Farthing has taken off from Kabul airport and is on his way home with his dogs and cats on a private charter plane, his spokesman has said

Tom Tugendhat (pictured August 18 in the House of Commons) today criticised the decision to use soldiers to evacuate Mr Farthing's animals while the lives of Afghans who assisted the British during the 20-year occupation of the country are under threat - including his own interpreter

Major General Nick Carter (pictured), the head of the British Army, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today Programme that the army's 'priority has been to evacuate human beings,' amid anger that animals were being evacuated while some people - including a number of Mr Farthing's staff - are set to be left in Afghanistan

Mr Farthing will fly from Kabul to Tashkent in Uzbekistan before later returning to Britain, where he has won legions of fans for holding the government to account.

But in a blow to the ex-soldier, it emerged today his animals will be locked up when he arrives in the UK.

Officials said the dogs and cats face a four-month quarantine in kennels and catteries until at least Christmas.

Earlier Mr Farthing revealed how 'depressing' it was that he was forced to leave his Afghan staff behind.

He told how his employees were stopped from crossing the Taliban line to the British area at Kabul airport yesterday.

His desperate comments were in sharp contrast to his wife, who last night spoke of her joy that her husband was on his way home.

Kaisa Markhus, who fled Afghanistan last week for her native Norway, was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when she was told he was getting out.

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that Isis-K planned to strike again as the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport moves into its final days.

A devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 170 Afghans and 13 American service members at the airport on Thursday.

His desperate comments were in sharp contrast to his wife, who last night spoke of her joy that her husband and his furry friends were on their way home

It comes as the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate (pictured, Kabul airport yesterday)

Mr Farthing flew out of Afghanistan for Tashkent in Uzbekistan with 94 dogs and 79 cats on a private jet and will later return to Britain.

But the day was marked with sadness as he was forced to leave behind his workforce to the Taliban.

He told the Sun: 'It is just so depressing I had to leave them behind. Some of them came with me to the airport but they weren't allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

'There were lots of tears when we said goodbye. I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them [but] I'm relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals.'

The Ministry of Defence, which assisted his evacuation, confirmed he was through the airport in a tweet on Friday night.

It said: 'Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK armed forces.

'They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation. On the direction of the Defence Secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK Government.'

Mr Farthing told how his employees at the animal sanctuary drove with him to the airport in two cattle trucks.

But he revealed they had been banned from crossing into the area controlled by British soldiers by armed Taliban fighters.

The former Royal Marine, who founded the Nowzad animal shelter in Kabul, has been engaged in a desperate attempt to board an RAF evacuation flight in recent days

Soldiers helped him unload 125kg of dry pet food, 72 tins, 270 litres of water, 12 industrial size rolls of paper towel and 20 bottles of disinfectant in a warehouse.

Despite his misery at having to leave behind his staff, Mr Farthing's wife was chuffed he was on his way out.

Kaisa was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when Pen video-called her from inside Kabul airport. 'You should have seen the smile on my face,' she said.

Following Thursday's carnage, Kaisa knew her husband was planning another attempt to reach the airport  but had no idea when.

She said yesterday: 'He's now inside the airport and we had a quick video call. The second I saw him safely inside... you can imagine.'

Her husband and his animals escaping Kabul is the dream she has clung to ever since she was flown out of the city on a near-empty flight.

She learned Pen, having made it through Taliban checkpoints, had been finally allowed to board a flight with 150 rescue cats and dogs from his Nowzad charity  but he was forced to leave his staff members behind.

'I know Pen had a very hard choice. He faced that same choice when he was inside the airport with his staff and their families on Thursday and the animals and the staff were not allowed through,' says Kaisa.

'So, he went back to the compound to ensure everyone was safe and to discuss with them what to do. They decided he should go to the airport again with the dogs.

'He was devastated to leave his staff but knew that by removing both the dogs and himself he would remove two big risk factors.'

The wife of animal charity founder and former marine Pen Farthing (pictured together) last night spoke of her joy that her husband and his four-legged friends looked to be on their way home

The founder of Kabul's Nowzad animal shelter, Paul Farthing  known as Pen  had been attempting to arrange a freedom flight in an operation dubbed 'Operation Ark'.

British soldiers helped load the animals on to a privately chartered plane last night as they prepared to return to the UK.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed the group were 'assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK Armed Forces'.

Last night his supporter and animal rights campaigner Dominic Dyer told the Mail: 'Pen is OK, but he is very stressed.

'He has no choice but to leave and bring the animals with him. We are looking forward to getting them to the UK.

Kaisa Markhus, who fled Afghanistan last week for her native Norway, was eating dinner with her father in Oslo when Pen video-called her from inside Kabul airport

'We are very pleased we've got him out and are very grateful to the British Government for their help, and for the support of the Armed Forces.'

Understandably, Kaisa is wary of counting her chickens. 'I won't celebrate until he has landed,' she says. 'We're still working on solutions to evacuate the staff.

'The plane will be going to [the Uzbekistan capital] Tashkent but they don't know when.

'He only arrived outside the airport late this afternoon. It was quieter there because of Thursday's bombings.'

Kaisa was sitting at her mother's dining room table in a top borrowed from her sister and a newly bought pair of jeans.

She had fled Kabul with nothing but a toothbrush and some deodorant.

Even the book she had been reading was left behind on the table beside the double bed that, until ten days ago, she shared with Mr Farthing.

That they may soon hold each other again  and can start to plan their married life together  is enough to bring her to tears.

'I cried as I was leaving Kabul,' she says. 'I was one of the lucky ones. When I was in the Norwegian camp at the airport there were three kids  babies  I was playing with who'd been separated from their parents. We had to leave them behind.

'I thought, 'I won't see Kabul again. I might not see Pen again'. I was crying for those babies.

'What the f*** is this crisis about that we're leaving small kids behind who have no one?'

She showed a short video on her phone of the children playing at the airport. The soldiers and evacuees fussed over them.

Mr Farthing's group also narrowly avoided the airport suicide bomb blasts which rocked the area earlier this week, killing 12 US serviceman and up to 90 Afghans. Above: Wounded Afghans in hospital after the blasts

'Two days later, I heard Norway had decided to bring them [the babies] over here. I told Pen on the phone that the babies were in Norway now.

'His first reaction was 'tell them we want to adopt one'. I want kids with Pen.'

The hope in her voice could not be further removed from the distraught woman I'd spoken to earlier this week.

On Thursday she feared the worst when, having been advised by the British Government to go to Kabul's airport to board a charter plane to safety, Mr Farthing  along with his 25 staff, their immediate families and 150 crated cats and dogs  was turned away at the last moment.

'I was fearing for his life,' Kaisa said. 'I had this heavy feeling. When he was outside the airport I was afraid because I hadn't heard from him.'

His group had been caught up in the hellish scenes on Thursday as Isis-K bombs killed at least 170 people, including 13 US military personnel.

Pen and his staff were tear-gassed and shot at as they fled for their lives.

'When they got out he called me he said 'oh, Kaisa Jan [an Afghan endearment meaning 'dear'], hell just broke loose. I've had an AK gun in my chest twice now'.'

MoD sources last night made clear Mr Farthing and his convoy did not get preferential treatment and were not on board a military flight.

Two boys embrace each other as they weep in the parking lot at Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, in Kabul, after the blast

While Mr Farthing's supporters said he had been turned away by the Taliban on Thursday, sources said he may have gone to the wrong gate.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace initially dismissed Operation Ark, saying it would put 'people before pets' in the rush to flee Kabul.

He later agreed to 'seek a slot' for the plane carrying out the mercy mission, but insisted the convoy would not be able to jump the queue.

There were suggestions by Mr Farthing's supporters his change of tone was prompted by an intervention from Boris Johnson's animal-loving wife Carrie  but this was denied by Downing Street sources.

Asked if Mr Farthing had been a diversion to the overall evacuation mission, Mr Wallace yesterday told LBC: 'I think it has taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.'

But he added: 'I hope he comes back, he was advised to come back, his wife came back last Friday, so I hope he does as well.'

The only sadness for Kaisa now is that Pen has been forced to leave his beloved staff behind.

'When the Taliban took over Kabul, I thought 'if you have to put all the animals to sleep, do it'. There will be other dogs but you can't do anything if you're dead,' she says.

'But then I realised something. Pen has a mother, a brother and me. We are his three family members.

'Many of his staff have not gone home to their families during lockdown but stayed to help him.

'When there was a big kidnapping threat here a few years ago they wouldn't go home. They stayed in the office to protect him. They are his family.'

Meanwhile the US military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that Isis-K planned to strike again as the US-led evacuation from Kabul airport moves into its final days.

US president Joe Biden has set August 31 as his deadline for completing the exit.

Mr Biden authorised the drone strike and it was ordered by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

The air strike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days remaining in a final US withdrawal after 20 years of war.

US Central Command provided few details, though it said it believed no civilians were killed in the strike.

The speed with which the US military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and its affiliates and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world.

But it also shows the limits of US power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

US central command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangahar province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul.

The strike killed one individual, Navy Capt William Urban said.

It was not clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport on Thursday, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The air strike came after Mr Biden declared that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide.

'We will hunt you down and make you pay,' he said.

Pentagon leaders told reporters on Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

'We have options there right now,' said Maj Gen Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

The president was warned on Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic US-led evacuation.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

'They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport,' Ms Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

British troops were seen securing the perimeter outside the Baron Hotel, near the Abbey Gate in Kabul on Thursday following the bombing

Late on Friday, the US state department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including 'the New Ministry of Interior gate'.

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations.

It said there was just one - at or near the Abbey Gate - followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj Gen Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. He attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Mr Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer US intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the US senate intelligence committee, said she doubted Mr Biden's assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistan's borders.

The Pentagon also insists this so-called 'over the horizon' capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

Kabul animal rescuer Pen Farthing is accused of 'costing lives' as recording reveals his foul-mouthed rant threatening to 'f***ing destroy' an MoD official in the middle of Afghanistan airlift

By Glen Owen Political Editor For The Mail On Sunday

A former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul cost lives as a result of his mission to evacuate 173 cats and dogs from Afghanistan, senior defence sources said last night.

Pen Farthing, who flew back to the UK last night with his menagerie of animals rescued by the Nowzad charity, has also been accused of bullying British Government officials.

A leaked voice message obtained by The Mail on Sunday has revealed the behind-the-scenes bitterness over the airlift, with Mr Farthing telling an Ministry of Defence official that he would spend the rest of my time f****** destroying him if he did not secure clearance for a flight out of the country.

The official, Peter Quentin, an adviser to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, is understood to have also received death threats from supporters of Mr Farthing as a result of his involvement in the animal rescue.

On the recording, which was shared by officials as part of an investigation into the alleged threats, Mr Farthing can be heard demanding an ISAF number  a military callsign which has not been in use since 2014  for a charter plane to take him, his animals and staff out of the Afghan capital.

Pen Farthing (pictured), who flew back to the UK last night with his menagerie of animals rescued by the Nowzad charity, has also been accused of bullying British Government officials

Mr Farthing, who served 22 years in the military, accuses Mr Quentin of blocking his efforts to leave the country, saying: Heres the deal buddy. You either get me that f****** ISAF number and you get me permission to get on that f****** airfield or tomorrow morning I am going to turn on you. The whole f****** country is going to know that it is you.

During the two-minute rant, Mr Farthing also says: I served for 22 years for the Royal Marine Commandos. I am not going to take this b******* from people like you.

Friends of Mr Quentin, who denies trying to block a flight, say he was particularly incensed by the people like you line as he has also operated in Afghanistan  learning Dari in the process  and returned several times to conduct research and write a book on the conflict.

They also maintain that Mr Quentin had been personally helping with the evacuation of Afghans and to ensure Nowzad staff were on the evacuation list.

Mr Farthings publicity campaign has angered the MoD because of the distraction it has provided from the core mission of airlifting refugees.

A defence source said: This selfish charade has cost lives. Another source said the MoDs help to evacuate animals meant this is the first British Government explicitly committed to the idea of non-white people as equivalent to animals since the abolition of slavery.

Yesterday, senior Tory MP and former soldier Tom Tugendhat issued a withering condemnation of the way MoD resources had been used for the animal evacuation.

Another source said the MoD's help to evacuate animals (pictured) meant 'this is the first British Government explicitly committed to the idea of non-white people as equivalent to animals since the abolition of slavery'

Mr Tugendhat, who served in Afghanistan, revealed how his former interpreter, who is now stuck in Kabul, asked him: Why is my five-year-old worth less than your dog?

I didnt have an answer, he says.

The MP, who is chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told LBC: People have been focusing on the aeroplanes. Its not the aeroplanes that are the problem. Theres quite a lot of space on the aeroplanes.

They are coming and going relatively easily. The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport.

And we have just used a lot of troops to bring in 200 dogs. Meanwhile, my interpreters family are likely to be killed. We run an NHS in the UK that taxes us all about one in seven pounds we spend. What would you say if I sent an ambulance to save my dog rather than to save your mother?

Mr Farthings flight left without charity staff who were prevented from entering the military-controlled area at Kabul airport, despite having been granted visas for the UK.

They had helped to bring the pets to the airport in two cattle trucks. Mr Farthing said armed Taliban militants stopped the Afghan staff from crossing into the British-controlled zone where they could board the privately chartered flight to the UK.

Speaking about his staff members, Mr Farthing, whose real name is Paul, said: It is just so depressing that I had to leave them behind. Some of them came with me to the airport but they werent allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them, Im relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals. There were lots of tears when we said goodbye.

Carrie Johnsons close friend Nimco Ali made a thinly veiled attack on Mr Farthing on Friday.

In response to a story posted on Twitter by the BBC which told how he said he went through hell to reach Kabul airport only to be turned away, the activist wrote: So have countless Afghans. But we dont know their names and they might never get out.

Reports had suggested that animal-lover Mrs Johnson had used her influence to lobby for Mr Farthings cause, but the Prime Minister firmly denied such claims.

Mr Quentin declined to comment last night and when the MoS contacted Mr Farthings wife, Kaisa, about the outburst, she also declined to comment.
Cradled in a red airline blanket, this little girl was born at 33,000ft while on an evacuation flight to the UK yesterday.

Her Afghan mother, Soman Noori, was on the flight from Dubai to Birmingham  having previously left Kabul  when she went into labour.

There was no doctor on board, forcing the Turkish Airlines cabin crew to deliver the baby girl in airspace over Kuwait.

She has been named Havva, which translates to Eve in English.

The baby girl (pictured) has been named Havva, which translates to Eve in English

There was no doctor on board, forcing the Turkish Airlines cabin crew (pictured with newborn) to deliver the baby girl in airspace over Kuwait

Havva is the third child of Soman Noori, 26, and her 30-year-old husband, Taj Moh Hammat (pictured together with their other children)

Havva is the third child of Ms Noori, 26, and her 30-year-old husband, Taj Moh Hammat.

Turkish Airlines said mother and baby were healthy, and although the plane landed in Kuwait as a precaution, it continued on its route to Birmingham and landed at 11.45am.

Video footage shows Havva sleeping in her mothers arms before being cooed over by cabin crew.

Ms Noori is not the first woman to give birth while fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power.

An unnamed woman gave birth last week on a US military plane that had just landed in Germany. She named her Reach, after the aircrafts call sign.
A former Russian banker included letters detailing his donations to the Prince of Waless charitable foundation in a dossier sent to the Home Office to support his claim for UK residency.

Dmitry Leus was found guilty of fraud and jailed in Latvia in 2004. The conviction was later overturned and he insists the prosecution was politically motivated.

The Mail on Sunday has established that Mr Leus made donations in excess of 500,000 to the Princes Foundation, which is based at Dumfries House. The businessman was expecting one-to-one hospitality from Charles in recognition of his generosity.

Russian businessman Dmitry Leus (pictured) included details of donations to the Prince of Waless charitable foundation in a dossier sent to the Home Office to win UK residency

Michael Wynne-Parker, a society fixer who acts as a trustee for the Leus Family Foundation, said Mr Leus had received a warm letter from HRH looking forward to a meeting ASAP.

While sources close to the Princes Foundation last night confirmed receipt of Mr Leuss donation, they said the invitation to Dumfries House would not be forthcoming and that the money was returned earlier this year.

It is understood that questions about the donation were first raised last autumn, around the time that Mr Leus was lobbying the Home Office. In a letter last September and seen by the MoS, Mr Leuss lawyers acknowledge that he was refused a Tier 1 (Investor) visa in 2014 because he failed to inform the Home Office of his criminal conviction in Russia.

They argue that this would not constitute deliberate dishonesty or deception to conceal his conviction, but had merely been a misunderstanding over the requirement to disclose the conviction given that it had been expunged.

In another section of the letter entitled Family ties, connections and contributions to the UK, they add: Mr Leus has also contributed to The Princes Foundation in their work to support and enrich communities through sustainable approaches to living, restoration of historic sites and the teaching of traditional arts and skills.

The Mail on Sunday has established that Mr Leus made donations in excess of 500,000 to the Princes Foundation, based at Dumfries House (pictured) and was expecting one-to-one hospitality from Charles in recognition of his generosity

Please find enclosed a letter from Chris Martin, the Deputy Executive Director of The Princes Foundation, expressing his gratitude for Mr Leus support. Please also find enclosed an official letter from Clarence House, the official London residence of the Prince of Wales, thanking Mr Leus for his support and encouragement at such a critical time.

Mr Leus is understood to have been successful with his application and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing. Born in Turkmenistan, Mr Leus also has Russian and Israeli citizenship, but entered Britain on a European Union passport from Cyprus. He lives in the Knightsbridge area of London with his wife and their four sons.

He has donated millions to British charities but made headlines earlier this month when it emerged he had also made three payments totalling 25,000 to the local Conservative association of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Asked why Mr Leus had made such a generous donation to the Princes Foundation, Mr Wynne-Parker said: The aims of the Foundation [Dumfries House] coincide with his aim of assisting young people to have a fulfilling life. Mr Leus is passionate about helping young people because he experienced many challenges in his youth which shaped his character as a successful businessman.

He is an inspiration to many through his approach. Most rich people give something back part-time, whereas he gives a vast amount back.

Mr Leus was European fencing champion aged 17. My business mindset was created in the gymnasiums and competition halls of my teenage years, he said in a recent interview.

Mr Leuss lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Gove has been accused of muscling in on Home Secretary Priti Patels patch after convening meetings on the Governments response to the resettlement of Afghan refugees.

The Cabinet Office Minister  tipped for a move to either the Home Office or the Foreign Office in the next reshuffle  caused raised eyebrows in Ms Patels department last week when he convened two meetings of a new committee on Afghan resettlement, despite it being Ms Patels area of responsibility.

A Government source said last night: Michael cant help himself. He wants to be involved in absolutely everything, and cant help dabbling.

A Government source said last night: 'Michael (pictured) can't help himself. He wants to be involved in absolutely everything, and can't help dabbling.'

Priti Patel (pictured) has been put in charge of Operation Warm Welcome, the Government scheme to help the thousands of UK allies fleeing Kabul to rebuild their lives in the UK.

Ms Patel has been put in charge of Operation Warm Welcome, the Government scheme to help the thousands of UK allies fleeing Kabul to rebuild their lives in the UK.

The plans  overseen by Victoria Atkins, a new Minister for Afghan Resettlement  aim to ensure Afghans who risked their lives by working with the British military and the Government receive health, education, employment and accommodation support to integrate into society.

Ms Patel has created a central portal to re

gister offers of support on issues such as job opportunities or dealing with trauma. It can also be used to register gifts of clothes, toys and English-language courses.

The renewed tensions between Mr Gove and Ms Patel come after The Mail on Sunday reported this month that Mr Gove was being tipped to replace Ms Patel, who is blamed within No 10 for the migrant boat crisis.

One MP close to Ms Patel said: However much Gove might want the job, it just wouldnt work.

Asked whether Mr Gove was muscling in, a source in his department said: The PM asked Michael to chair a committee on Afghan resettlement to co-ordinate a cross-Government response.
Over the past few weeks, the Government has been engaged in huge efforts to help those who have worked with us in Afghanistan during the past 20 years to make the country a better place.

We have evacuated more than 14,000 people from Kabul  double the number we originally thought possible.

It has been a major cross-government operation involving the tireless work of our military, our Border Force team and civil servants on the ground in Afghanistan and in Dubai.

Aside from British nationals and vulnerable Afghans, we have provided a safe passage to the UK for 8,000 people since August 13 under our Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme.

The scheme was set up to help the brave Afghans who worked with our soldiers and diplomats, along with their immediate families. For that, we owe them an incalculable debt of gratitude.

Home Secretary Priti Patel (left) meets a refugee arriving to Heathrow Airport from Afghanistan

Last week I visited one airport where planes of evacuees have been arriving and met some of the vulnerable people and their families we are bringing to the UK to protect and resettle.

I also met the Heathrow airport staff who are working with Government teams to support these arrivals, the Border Force officials who have transformed part of Terminal 4 into a makeshift reception centre, as well as the military and law enforcement partners doing security and biometric checks.

Sadly, the appalling events at Kabul airport have proved that there are some people in Afghanistan who are a serious threat to our safety and national security.

It has been a government priority to protect this countrys security throughout the evacuation process  using thorough and rigorous checks on all evacuees.

The authorities are empowered to take immediate action if anyone is assessed to be a risk to Britain.

I also met medical staff providing care for those in need as well as Red Cross volunteers. I thanked them for their care and compassion.

But what I shall remember for a very long time are the humbling stories of some of the families who had just arrived.

They had flown here with little more than the clothes they were wearing.

Many had been in fear for their lives in Afghanistan because they or someone in their family had worked for Britain.

Priti Patel: Britain has led the world at times of humanitarian crisis and when people have fled persecution and oppression. Now, our global allies must join to support those in need.

Our staff wanted to reassure them of the Governments commitment to provide a safe haven where they can build new lives.

I longed to be able to give some of the nervous children a comforting hug.

It is vitally important to provide these families with the reassurance that, across government, we are doing everything possible to help them start a new life in safety in the UK.

The United Kingdom has a proud history of offering sanctuary to those in need, and I know that communities and charities all around the country will want to play their part in providing a warm welcome.

At such times, we see the very best of humanity on display.

In addition to those welcomed here under the ARAP scheme, a bespoke resettlement scheme will welcome an additional 5,000 vulnerable Afghan citizens in its first year, potentially rising to 20,000 over the long term.

But the sheer scale of the Afghan crisis shows how much we need other countries to do more.

Britain has led the world at times of humanitarian crisis and when people have fled persecution and oppression. Now, our global allies must join to support those in need.

At the forthcoming G7, I will reiterate this message to our partners.

Meanwhile, Britain will not be found wanting in this darkest of hours. We will continue to extend the hand of friendship to those in need and do right by those who have previously done right by us.
A bestselling author who criticised transgender rights activists has accused 'cowards' in the broadcasting and the book industries of trying to 'cancel' her.

After the publication last month of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, Helen Joyce claims she has been snubbed by the BBC and other media organisations and suspects some branches of bookseller Waterstones of trying to suppress her sales.

Among the arguments made in her book  which was serialised across two weeks in The Mail on Sunday  are that the trans lobby is trying to 'supplant biology' and the movement is the equivalent of a 'new state religion, complete with blasphemy laws'.

While Ms Joyce expected a backlash, she said she did not anticipate being frozen out by the book industry. Every publisher she approached with the manuscript, with the exception of the small publishing house Oneworld, rejected it.

She says the reluctance to talk spreads further. Approaches by her publicist to the BBC, Sky and ITV were all unsuccessful, with GB News the only TV station to interview her.

After the publication last month of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, Helen Joyce (pictured) claims she has been snubbed by the BBC and other media organisations and suspects some branches of bookseller Waterstones of trying to suppress her sales

Last night, Ms Joyce  who is a senior journalist at The Economist  said: 'I think these organisations are responding to enormous pressure from trans activists.

Anyone who gives me any kind of platform at all, even mentioning my book exists, can expect to get a torrent of people saying they are transphobic, that they are bigoted, that they are driving people to suicide, that they are racist, bizarrely.

'It's easier to ignore it. If you put your head above the parapet, you get shot at, but if everyone puts their head above the parapet, they can't fire at all of us.'

She is particularly saddened by the decision of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour not to mention the book. 'The BBC has an internal war on this topic,' she claimed.

'Presenter Jenni Murray was forced out of the show because of this issue. She wrote a newspaper column in 2017 arguing that trans women were not real women. That led to her being barred from covering this issue on the programme.

'I think the refusal to engage with me is down to a mixture of cowardice and the fact that the new presenter Emma Barnett, I think, disagrees with me. That is fine, of course  she can disagree with me. But why doesn't she invite me on the show to challenge me?'

The BBC denied there had been a boycott or attempts to 'cancel' Ms Joyce. A spokesman said: 'We know that lots of people want to appear on the BBC and the fact they haven't doesn't mean they have been boycotted or won't appear if there is an appropriate editorial opportunity.

'Our wide-ranging book coverage often includes interviews with authors, but of course, we can't feature them all.

We include a broad range of guests with decisions based purely on editorial merit.' Ms Joyce said she had also been contacted by several people who claimed that some branches of the Waterstones book chain had tried to hide the book.

'Waterstones gives its local managers a lot of discretion because these managers know what will sell in their area,' said Ms Joyce.

'I have been contacted by people on social media who went in to their store and asked for their copy and were told it was out of print, that it was a short print run, that the stock was delayed, even that it was being kept behind the counter out of respect for a trans colleague because it was a hate book.'

But a spokesman for Waterstones said: 'It is not true that Waterstones is boycotting the book.

It has been one of our bestselling non-fiction hardback books since its publication, stocked by the majority of our shops and online.

Stock was low initially as sales exceeded expectations, but this is no longer the case.

'As with every book that sells, occasionally a shop will run out of copies and it seems social media comment is picking up on these instances.'

The publishing company Oneworld declined to comment.
A father stabbed his severely disabled son to death before turning the knife on himself in a suspected murder-suicide.

Police and paramedics were called to the house in West Lakes in Adelaide's western suburbs just after 1.30pm on Saturday.

Detectives said the wife of the 72-year-old man and mother of his 46-year-old son found them unresponsive in the garage.

Emergency services were called to property after the Adelaide father and son were found in the garage and have cordoned off a crime scene (pictured)

A family of three is understood to reside at the house and police suspect the 72-year-old killed his son and then himself

Despite paramedics attempts to resuscitate them, they both died at the scene.

SA Police Detective Inspector Mark Atkinson told Adelaide Now police were treating the 'serious incident' as a murder-suicide.

'It's a very tragic set of circumstances down here and a very emotional set of circumstances,' he said.

Inspector Atkinson said police were not looking for anyone else and weapons were seized as part of the investigation.

'It came unexpectedly, there's certainly no red flags here,' he said.

'So, this is one of those tragic situations which was avoidable, which makes it even more upsetting to the neighbours and to the family.'

One neighbour said the 46-year-old son was severely disabled and wheelchair-bound, adding the incident had come as a shock to the community.

The investigation is ongoing and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

For crises support call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Octopuses in Australia have devised a useful approach for fending off sexual harassmentthrowing clumps of shells and sand at aggressors.

Researchers at the University of Sydney have been recording octopuses in Jervis Bay on the south coast of New South Wales since 2015.

Analyzing the footage, they found that female octopuses, known as hens, would intentionally throw shells and silt at other octopuses, often males making unwanted mating advances.

In a study posted to the preprint server bioRxiv, the researchers explained how the hens tucked algae, silt, small shells, and other objects under the bodies with their tentacles.

They then positioned their siphons, which funnel water to help them swim and steer, to shoot a jet of water at the detritus, turning it into projectiles that could land much farther than their reach.

'It's hard to know how best to describe it,' Peter Godfrey-Smith told New Scientist.

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A female octopus in Jervis Bay, in New South Wales, shoots a jet of water filled with shells, algae, silt and other debris to ward off a male interested in mating with her

In a 2015 presentation, Godfrey-Smith said it wasn't clear if the behavior was an attack on a rival, accidental or something else.

Octopuses also throw silt and debris to get rid of leftovers and excavate their caves.

After poring over more footage, though, the team determined this was deliberate behavior, different from den-building or eating throws.

In one incident, a hen threw silt ten times at a male from a nearby den who was attempting to mate with her, nailing him about half the time.

Female octopuses will tuck algae, silt, small shells, and other objects under the bodies with their tentacles. They then positioned their siphons to shoot a jet of water at the detritus, turning it into projectiles that land much farther than their reach

'That sequence was one of the ones that convinced me [it was intentional],' Godfrey-Smith, author of Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, told New Scientist.

The male, though, was able to dodge at least some of her attacks.

When targeting others, octopuses angle their shot between the first and second tentacles on the left or right side. Other throws tended to come from between the front two tentacles.

That suggested they were aiming at their target, said Godfrey-Smith.

When targeting others, octopuses angle their shot differentlybetween the first and second tentacles on the left or right sidesuggesting they were aiming at a target. The throws at other mollusks were more vigorous and were more likely to include silt than shells.

In addition, the throws at other mollusks were more vigorous and were more likely to include silt than shells.

In one instance, an octopus hit another with a shell by flinging it like a frisbee with its tentacle.

Interestingly, getting pelted by silt or shells didn't generate a similar response in the victim.

Females seemed to be the chief aggressors: A total of 15 out of 17 recorded hits were made by hens, according to the study, the majority from two specific octopuses.

In one case, after a female rejected one male's advances, he threw a shell in a random direction, Godfrey-Smith said, perhaps venting his frustration.

Females seemed to be the chief aggressors: A total of 15 out of 17 recorded hits were made by hens, according to the study, the majority from two specific octopuses

Not all the victims were unwanted suitors: Of the 13 where the sex could be determined five of their victims were male and eight female.

Breeding is serious business for the octopus: A female may lay up to 100,000 transparent eggs in a one-to-two-week fertile period.

When they hatch, the larvae swim for the surface, though the vast majority are killed by turbulent waters or larger sea creatures.

It's rare for animals to throw projectiles, especially at members of their own species.

However octopuses have also been known to use shells to create mobile homes: A 2009 study found them settling into coconut shells discarded into the sea by humans, in what scientists believe is the first 'intelligent' use of tools by an invertebrate.

In additional to projectiles, octopuses have been observed using shells as domiciles: Indonesian veined octopuses setted into coconut shells discarded into the sea by humans, in what scientists believe is the first 'intelligent' use of tools by an invertebrate.

The more than 20 creatures observed setting up house were doing more than simply crawl under a convenient shell: They collected coconut halves of the right size, stacked two together, and transported them under their bodies over distances of up to 70 feet.

The shell 'bowls' were then unloaded and placed with their open ends together to form a lair with its own door.

'I could tell that the octopus, busy manipulating coconut shells, was up to something, but I never expected it would pick up the stacked shells and run away,' said co-author Julia Finn, a marine researcher from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne. 'It was an extremely comical sight - I have never laughed so hard underwater.'
While Greek food is best experienced in Greece, you might well find the cream of the nations crop in Tinos  the Aegean gem where the gastronomes of Athens head in summer.

A new culinary scene has been simmering away for the past few years, with many young locals returning to bring their family wineries and traditions back to life.

Start your days at O Megalos Kafenes, the beating heart of Pyrgos village and one of the oldest kafeneions (a traditional Greek cafe) on the island. Youll spot moustached men playing backgammon at marble tables in the dappled sunlight. Try a silty Greek coffee and a creamy, semolina-rich galaktoboureko pastry.

Sunny outlook: The archway of a home in Pyrgos, which is known as the marble village' in Tinos

While sampling local delicacies in Tinos, try the 'semolina-rich' galaktoboureko pastry (stock photo)

Pyrgos is known as the marble village, a nod to Tinoss history as a centre for the material. After a morning coffee, stroll the stark white alleyways of the village to spot sculptures. Hand-crafted marble plates also sit above doorways, and the village is home to the Marble Museum.

Uncharacteristic for most Greek lunch spots, To Thalassaki requires a booking. Set on the beach at Ormos Isternion, this seafood restaurant (swisher than your standard tavern) is a Greek classic  order the smoked herring taramasalata spiked with dill and mussels cooked in ouzo.

Tinoss wild landscape demands exploration. Set out by car to visit as many of its villages as possible. On the way, its hard to miss the many pigeon houses on the island, a souvenir left from the conquering Venetians. Little huts with slate roofs that were once a symbol of wealth are decorated with folk art in the shapes of flowers, squares, triangles and diamonds. You can even stay at the tastefully renovated Tinos Pigeon House (tinospigeonhouse.gr/?en), where rooms cost from 150 a night.

Also on your hit-list should be the villages of Agapi (meaning love in Greek), with whitewashed houses dripping with bougainvillea, and Volax. The streets of Volax are impossibly romantic  admire the lines of poetry painted on the walls of houses.

Family-run taverna Sta FysAera sits beyond the wind-bashed mountain village of Aetofolia. Make the trip here for the local meze  try the courgette salad and superbly salty Tinos cured pork, swilled down with a glass of punchy retsina.

There are many decorated pigeon huts on the island of Tinos, one of which is pictured

'The streets of Volax (pictured) are impossibly romantic,' says Anastasia Miari. She recommends holidaymakers add the village to their Tinos 'hit-list'

The islands fertile ground was exploited for centuries of wine-making before locals switched to livestock instead. Now a younger generation of Tinians are restoring its wine-making traditions. Visit the Volacus vineyard  unique here because vines grow out from between granite rocks. Book a tour at volacuswine.gr.

The Agnanti taverna in Ktikados barely has room for more than three tables indoors but the place churns out some of the finest fare. Yiannis Charikiopoulos bustles between the kitchen and patio, serving up enormous portions of food.

Tripotamos village is a cleverly constructed settlement that appears from the road as only a few houses (a deterrent for pirates in the 17th Century) but then reveals itself to be a maze of homes. Stay at The Crossroads Inn for an incredible breakfast spread showcasing the islands finest produce. Studios cost from 95 a night (crossroadsinn.gr/en).
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He reportedly signed a new seven-figure contract with Channel Seven earlier this year after stepping in to replace Andrew O'Keefe as host of The Chase.

And Larry Emdur isn't afraid to splash some of that heard-earned cash, with the 56-year-old television personality recently buying a derelict block in Berowra Waters for $1million.

It's just the latest in a string of acquisitions by Larry and his wife of 26 years, Sylvie, who in recent years have been quietly assembling an impressive property portfolio across New South Wales.

Big spenders: Larry Emdur, 56, and his wife, Sylvie, have made another purchase in the Berowra Waters area. Pictured in 2019

Neverfail Bay

According to the Daily Telegraph, Larry and Sylvie recently purchased a 'derelict bushland block' in Neverfail Bay.

The reclusive property, along the banks of Berowra Creek, is only accessible by boat.

The block of land, which last sold for $575,000 in 1999, was purchased by the Emdurs for $1million.

The great escape: The block of land, which last sold for $575,000 in 1999, was purchased by the Emdurs for $1 million. Pictured: Berowra Waters

A room with a view: The high-flying couple's last purchase before Neverfail Bay was an architecturally designed weekender (pictured), also in Berowra Waters, two years ago

Berowra Waters weekender

The high-flying couple's last purchase before Neverfail Bay was an architecturally designed weekender, also in Berowra Waters, two years ago.

The riverfront property was purchased in 2019 for $1.1million, and included a home with 5m-high ceilings and an almost entirely glass wall facing the river.

'The magical bay is much quieter than Bondi,' Larry told realestate.com.au at the time.

Outlook: The riverfront property was purchased in 2019 for $1.1million, and included a home with 5m-high ceilings and an almost entirely glass wall facing the river

'Magical': 'The magical bay is much quieter than Bondi,' Larry told realestate.com.au at the time

Kangaroo Valley holiday home

At about the same time, the Emdurs spent $2.15million on a stylish shipping-container home in Kangaroo Valley.

The house, which was designed by architect Alexander Michael in 2018, blends steel, glass and polished concrete floors with eco-friendly touches, such as solar panels with a battery bank and rainwater harvesting.

They've listed the ultra-modern property as a holiday rental for approximately $1,000 per night.

Luxury getaway: At about the same time, the couple spent $2.15million on a chic shipping-container home in Kangaroo Valley

Stunning views: The second floor features four spacious bedrooms, each with their own ensuite bathrooms and views out to the 10 acres of picturesque bushland surrounding the property

Bondi Beach investment

Earlier this year, Larry sold his investment apartment in Bondi Beach for $1.055million at its scheduled auction.

The former Price is Right game show host managed to secure a buyer for the home, which had been collecting $850 a week in rent.

He first bought the Art Deco pad for $400,000 in 2001, and sold it for $65,000 above the reserve price.

Humble abode: Earlier this year, Larry sold his investment apartment in Bondi Beach for $1.055million at its scheduled auction

Nice little earner: The former Price is Right game show host managed to secure a buyer for the home, which had been collecting $850 a week in rent

Dover Heights mansion

In 2017, Larry and Sylvie sold their clifftop mansion in Dover Heights for a record $11.5million to celebrity account Anthony Bell.

The deal was easily the biggest ever for a house in the sought-after beachside suburb, which is home to many well-heeled socialites.

Mr Bell's purchase smashed the $9.5million paid in 2014 for a similar mansion by South African tech investor Kevin Bermeister and his wife, Beverley.

The Emdurs had paid $6.8million for the luxury home in 2011.

They had lived in the suburb for more than two decades, having upgraded from the house they paid $770,000 for in 1994.

Sea change: In 2017, Larry and Sylvie sold their clifftop mansion in Dover Heights for a record $11.5million to celebrity account Anthony Bell

Record breaker: The deal was easily the biggest ever for a house in the sought-after beachside suburb, which is home to many well-heeled socialites

Locals: They'd lived in the suburb for more than two decades, having upgraded from the home they paid $770,000 for in 1994

The Rocks

After selling up in Dover Heights, the couple had a change of scenery by moving into a $3million apartment in The Rocks, which had been converted from a heritage-listed Cadbury depot.

The three-bedroom property features an open plan master bedroom with its own bathtub.

Tanner Kibble Denton Architects designed the conversion of the 1924 chocolate depot into six luxury apartments.

Change: After selling up in Dover Heights, the couple had a change of scenery by moving into a $3million apartment in The Rocks, which had been converted from a heritage-listed Cadbury depot

Unique: The three-bedroom property features an open plan master bedroom with its own bathtub

Daughter Tia's Bellevue Hill apartment

In 2018, Larry and Sylvie pitched in to help their daughter, Tia, now 22, buy an apartment in Sydney's Bellevue Hill.

Together, the Emdur family spent $1.08million on the three-bedroom, one-bathroom unit that is only five minutes away from their former family home in Bondi.

Tia's new home had previously sold for $525,000 in 2007.

Daddy's girl! In 2018, Larry and Sylvie pitched in to help their daughter, Tia, buy an apartment in Sydney's Bellevue Hill
Chris Hemsworth famously led a star-studded Tourism Australia campaign a few years ago.

And on Saturday, he shared a collection of fun throwback photos and videos of a recent family trip to the Thredbo, NSW, shortly before the state-wide lockdown.

The 38-year-old posted a clip of himself snowboarding down a hill with barely any other tourists and encouraged fans to support domestic tourism when lockdown ends.

'So lucky to have these places in our backyard': Chris Hemsworth shared throwback photos from his family's recent trip to Thredbo in an Instagram post on Saturday. He shared a pictured of himself with his children - likely his twin sons Tristan and Sasha - at the top of a peak

He also shared more photos of himself with two of his children - likely his seven -year-old twin sons Tristan and Sasha - at the top of a peak.

Chris also shared a photo of himself revealing he and his children were at the top of Thredbo highest point accessible by the ski lift, at 2037 metres.

The Thor star shared more photos from the peak while snowboarding at sunset with a pal.

Thrill seeker: The 38-year-old posted a clip of himself snowboarding down a hill with barely any other tourists

Thumbs up! The Thor star shared more photos from the peak while snowboarding at sunset with a pal

In another clip, one of his family members were cheered on as they landed a jump on a slope.

Chris wrote in the caption: 'Reminiscing about good times @thredboresort, had an epic few days at the snow before lockdown.'

'So lucky to have these places in our backyard, @australia,' tagging Tourism Australia's official account.

Chris wrote in the caption: 'Reminiscing about good times @thredboresort, had an epic few days at the snow before lockdown'

Going for gold! In another clip, one of his family members were cheered on as they landed a jump on a slope

'When you can travel again, make sure you get out and support those communities who rely on tourism and are having a particularly tough time,' the Thor star added.

Holiday travel across Australia has been halted as the nation continues to battle a Covid-19 outbreak.

It's not the first time Chris has promoted Australia, after he famously fronted Tourism Australia's campaign as the official ambassador for the nation in 2018.

'When you can travel again, make sure you get out and support those communities who rely on tourism and are having a particularly tough time,' the Thor star added

Helping hand: He urged Aussies to consider domestic destinations for their next holiday when travel restrictions are eased

Remember this? Chris famously fronted Tourism Australia's campaign as the official ambassador for the nation in 2018. He starred in a Crocodile Dundee-inspired ad with American comedian Danny McBride (right) as Dundee's long lost son

He starred in a Crocodile Dundee-inspired commercial with fellow Aussies Margot Robbie, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Isla Fisher, and American comedian Danny McBride as Dundee's long lost son.

The ad was aired to 110 million U.S. Super Bowl viewers back in 2018.

As a result, there was a surge in NSW tourism with over 4.4million foreign visitors in 2019, and brought in $6billion to the Australian economy at the time.
Caroline Flack was diagnosed with bipolar just weeks before her tragic suicide, her mother Christine has revealed.

The former Love Island host was found dead aged 40 in her London flat on February 15 last year- a day after she heard the CPS would pursue a trial following a drunken row with then-boyfriend Lewis Burton.

And on Friday, her mother blasted Love Island for the 'hypocritical' treatment of her daughter following the incident, amid her 'fragile', and worsening mental health.

'She was so very fragile': Caroline Flack was diagnosed with bipolar just weeks before her tragic suicide, her mother Christine has revealed

Speaking from her Norfolk home, she told The Sun: 'Its so important to me that Carrie [Caroline] is not tainted by those last few months of her life, it's tragic, I hate the memory of my daughter to be a negative one because she wasn't negative.'

Christine - who is also the mother to Lizzie, 51, Paul, 50, and Caroline's twin sister Jody, 41 - said her daughter suffered for a 'long time' in silence as she discussed her final medical appointment to address her mental health.

Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder which causes unusual and often sudden changes in mood and energy levels.

'That was the thing; she hid it,' Christine reflected. 'The last doctor she saw thought she may have had bipolar and thats what I always thought, It was just constant highs, all of a sudden, then the lows.'

Tragedy: The former Love Island host was found dead aged 40 in her London flat, a day after she heard CPS would pursue a trial following a drunken row with then-boyfriend Lewis Burton

WHAT IS BIPOLAR? Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder which causes unusual and often sudden changes in mood and energy levels. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS? Moods of those with bipolar disorder range from periods of extreme elation and energy (known as a manic episode) to periods of extreme somberness and lack of energy (known as a depressive episode). HOW IS IT DIAGNOSED? According to the International Bipolar Foundation, sufferers are diagnosed with rapid cycling if they have four or more manic, hypomanic, or depressive episodes in any 12-month period. This severe form of the condition occurs in around 10 to 20 percent of all people with bipolar disorder. WHAT CAUSES IT? Currently it is unknown what is the cause of bipolar disorder, which affects around 5.7 million US adults aged 18 or older. Scientists say genetics could play a role or that those with a a family history of bipolar disorder are more likely to have it. Advertisement

According to the mother-of-four, Caroline didn't have a local doctor and would hop between various medical practices because she was 'so ashamed' of people reading her files to discover her ongoing mental health troubles.

Christine spoke fondly about her late daughter, remembering her for her 'happy, funny, brilliant, kind and outgoing' personality, while noting she endured some 'terrific down times' which most people weren't privy to.

She admitted her daughter was 'petrified' of people seeing her 'dark side' and thinking she was 'mental'.

The late TV presenter was facing trial accused of assaulting her former partner Lewis, 28, in December 2019.

However, Caroline strongly denied the charge and had pleaded not guilty to assault by beating at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on December 23.

She was subsequently axed from hosting Love Island and was swiftly replaced by Laura Whitmore.

Her death was the latest connected to Love Island, following the deaths of contestants Mike Thalassitis, 26, in March 2019 and Sophie Gradon, 32, in June 2018.

Christine called out the ITV dating show for their 'hypocrisy,' after firing Caroline over the alleged attack, saying they encouraged rows between couples during their episodes.

Despite her resentment towards the show for their treatment of Caroline, Christine insisted her daughter loved working on the programme at the time and adored the crew and the contestants.

Caroline's mother also confessed she hasn't been able to watch the programme since her daughter passed away, because it brings back memories and unwanted emotions.

'Now, its horrible when the advert comes up and the girl that's taken her place is all in almost the same dress, in almost the same pose,' Christine added.

In loving memory: Speaking from her Norfolk home, she said: 'Its so important to me that Carrie [Caroline] is not tainted by those last few months of her life. It's tragic'

Bad memories: Caroline's mother confessed she hasn't been able to watch the programme since her daughter passed away, 'Now, its horrible when the advert comes up and the girl that's taken her place is all in almost the same dress, in almost the same pose,'; pictured Laura Whitmore for Love Island 2021

She also said Love Island could have shown greater respect to her daughter and responded differently to her amid news of the alleged incident with Lewis.

MailOnline has contacted Love Island for comment.

After Caroline's passing, Christine blasted a senior Met Police officer for appealing against the CPS's decision to give her daughter a caution after her arrest for the alleged attack, despite officers finding her at the crime scene with an injury caused by self-harm.

She accused Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman of treating her more harshly due to her celebrity status.

Candid: Christine spoke fondly about her late daughter, remembering her for her 'happy, funny, brilliant, kind and outgoing' personality, while noting she had 'terrific down times'

DI Bateman previously denied treating the presenter more harshly because she was famous and insisted she 'wouldn't do anything differently' if confronted with the case again today.

Echoing the same sentiments in the interview with The Sun, Christine said the case was 'so badly handled' by police and claimed they locked her daughter up for 24 hours after the arrest, while aware she had previously tried to commit suicide.

She said someone else might have been able to survive the public debacle but not Caroline, because her mental health was 'so very fragile'.

MailOnline has contacted the Met Police for comment.

Before Caroline passed, the presenter endured an onslaught of trolling on social media from trolls who branded her an 'abuser' and said she deserved to be sacked from Love Island.

Following, the TV personality's death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of the former Strictly winner's social media posts from December in which she urged people to 'Be Kind'.

Incident: The late TV presenter was facing trial accused of assaulting her former partner Lewis, 28, in December 2019 - and had pleaded not guilty to the charge (pictured in October 2019)

While Christine acknowledged the 'Be Kind' movement is great in theory, she doesn't feel anyone has truly learned anything from it or behaved kinder since her daughter's death.

Instead she feels many individuals have simply 'jumped on the bandwagon' with the social cause.

To stop Caroline from seeing the hateful comments when she was alive, Christine revealed she would have to take her phone away because the presenter was 'addicted' to reading the negativity.

No holding back: Christine called out the ITV dating show for their 'hypocrisy,' after firing Caroline over the alleged attack, despite promoting rows on the show(pictured this year's contestants Faye Winter and Teddy Soares)

As a result, she accumulated approximately 20 cell devices in a bid to protect her, despite Caroline immediately going out to buy herself a new one.

Her daughter's battle with depression presented itself in adolescence when she tried to commit suicide for the first time and was subsequently hospitalised.

Christine admitted her daughter was always 'fascinated' by suicide and she feared she would take her own life.

According to the mother-of-four, Caroline experienced bouts of terrifying lows throughout her twenties and thirties and checked into rehab on multiple occasions for treatment.

Despite the attempts at taking her own life, Christine believes her daughter didn't want to die and loved her life, career and close friends.

Christine said Caroline was passionate about being a good example for younger women and she hopes she is remembered for all of her wonderful attributes.

For help call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
Yazmin Oukhellou turned heads as she showcased her ample assets while making her way to the exclusive MNKY House in Mayfair on Friday night.

The reality star flaunted her eye-popping cleavage in a black bra-and-trouser ensemble, which revealed her sun-kissed skin following a Santorini getaway.

While flicking her luscious onyx waves, the 27-year-old posed up a storm for onlookers as she strutted through the streets of London in a pair of co-ordinating Louboutin heels.

Hot stuff: Yazmin Oukhellou turned heads as she showcased her ample assets while making her way to the exclusive MNKY House in Mayfair on Friday night

Carrying a classic black handbag, Yazmin accessorised her wrists with a glimmering gold bangle and a blingy watch in the same colour.

On her way to the Latin American restaurant, the bronzed beauty sported a full-face of flawlessly applied contoured makeup, which accentuated her naturally high cheekbones.

The outing follows news that her ex James Lock, 34, had a secret fling with fellow TOWIE star Chloe Brockett, 20.

Essex veteran James started dating Chloe, who's 14 years his junior, after lockdown lifted, and the pair connected romantically during nights out.

Jaw-dropping: The reality star flaunted her eye-popping cleavage in a black bra-and-trouser ensemble, which revealed her sun-kissed skin as a result of a recent Santorini getaway

Woah! She strutted her way through the streets of London in a pair of co-ordinating Louboutin heels

Yazmin is now returning to the ITVBe reality show to confront her friend over the betrayal, after Chloe started seeing James following the couple's painful split in February.

A source told MailOnline: 'James and Chloe's romance has really shocked a lot of people.'

'No one expected them to grow close, especially given Chloe's friendship with Yazmin.

Gorgeous: While flicking her luscious onyx waves, the 27-year-old posed up a storm for onlookers

Stunning: Yazmin accessorised her wrists with a glimmering gold bangle and a blingy watch in the same colour

'Her relationship with James has been over for months now but she still feels betrayed and let down by the way Chloe's acted.

'Yazmin's return to TOWIE will see her confront Chloe over her behaviour, and indeed James' after they agreed to still treat each other with respect following their split.'

MailOnline revealed James and Yazmin finally went their separate ways in February.

The couple were spending time in Dubai amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with Yazmin staying in the UAE while James flew home to resume filming for TOWIE.

MailOnline has contacted Chloe and James' representatives, in addition to TOWIE for comment.

Shocking: Her outing comes shortly after her ex James Lock (pictured) and Chloe Brockett's fling was revealed
Dog The Bounty Hunter is not letting family drama get in the way of 'forever' with his bride-to-be Francie Frane.

On Friday the 68-year-old reality star filed for a marriage license in the state of Colorado ahead of their September 2, wedding per TMZ.

The news comes amid an onslaught of family drama involving daughter Bonnie Chapman, 22, (who he shares with late wife Beth) who had been uninvited from the impending nuptials over an ongoing rift.

Getting hitched! The 68-year-old reality star filed for a marriage license with bride-to-be Francie Frane in the state of Colorado amid ongoing family drama that has caused two of his daughters to turn on the pair

Dog  real name Duane Lee Chapman  first revealed his romance with Francie, a 52-year-old rancher from Colorado, in March 2020  just 10 months after late wife Beth passed after a battle with Stage 4 lung cancer.

On August 22, Dog's step daughter Cecily and daughter Bonnie (who he shares with late wife Beth) told TMZ that they had been uninvited to the wedding.

Both had initially theorized that it may have been because they may have 'reminded him a little bit too much of their mom,' before things turned ugly.

At the time Cecily had reached out to her stepfather Dog about not getting invited to the wedding but she alleged she never received a text back, and Bonnie had yet to confront him.

Airing it out: Bonnie had not confronted her dad about her lack of wedding invite at the time of the August 22 TMZ article but things turned ugly and she ended up blasting Dog with accusations he cheated on her mom Beth and said he used 'racial and homophobic epithets' towards cast members on her show The System

Beth's daughter: Cecily, the daughter of Dog's late wife Beth had originally theorized that she and her sister were not invited to the September 2 wedding because they bore a striking resemblance to their mother

Bonnie had later followed up with the publication about a second theory and said that her involvement with Black Lives Matter fractured she and Dog's relationship.

She also added that she believed her ongoing involvement with Unleashed TV  a network that purportedly fired her dad over his use of 'epithets'  was another point of contention.

Following her statements, Bonnie received a text message from Dog's fiancee Francie allegedly confirming she had not been invited to their wedding due to her activism work and failure to condemn the streaming platform that allegedly fired her father over the use of 'epithets'.

Bonnie still works with UTV on their own show The System, which focuses on dismantling systemic racism.



Protective: Francie confirmed that the sisters had not been invited to the wedding via text because they continued to 'align' themselves with people from the network that she says 'tried to ruin his career'

On blast: In Bonnie's facebook statement she accused her father of cheating on her late mom 'all the time' even when she was 'sick in the hospital' with Stage 4 lung cancer which ultimately took her life in June 2019; pictured June 2013

Following the message, Bonnie took to Facebook to blast her father in a lengthy statement where she accused him of racism, homophobia, and cheating on his late wife 'all the time,' even when she was 'sick in the hospital.'

Beth and Dog were married from 2006 to her passing in June 2019 at the age of 51 from lung cancer.

In the post she also brandished him as having 'racist ways,' said he sat idly by when her life was 'threatened on several occasions by QAnon wackos,' and said she felt inclined to speak out to honor her mom's legacy as she would have not 'stand for this.'

Bonnie also claimed Francie traveled on a plane 'knowing' she was infected with COVID-19 and attended events as she wrote: 'She didn't seem to care about the thousands of people she could have infected.'

Bonnie's Facebook Post 'On the morning of August 22, TMZ released the following story about my sister and me not being invited to my dad's wedding. Later in the morning, I received a text from Francie Frane, my dad's fiance. Francie's text message confirmed that the reason I wasn't invited to my dads wedding is my choice to participate in social justice and BLM protests with 'The System', and not condemn the streaming platform when they fired my father for using epithets. I'm sorry, but I can't defend my Dad's racism. 'Considering the text I received today, I have just a little bit more to say about this entire subject. 'When it comes to 'The System' on UnleashedTV, my father was fired by the platform for using racial and homophobic epithets toward my fellow cast members on the show, which is about social justice advocacy and protesting violence and racial bias by police. I have expressed time and time again my ever-growing disappointment in my father's progression into his old racist ways. 'I had forgiven my father after my mother's death for countless actions that I shouldn't have. He would cheat on my mom all the time, and I hated him every time he did it, but I forgave him for that because I wanted a relationship with my dad. I thought I had only one parent left. I was left with the racist and homophobic parents. I can't begin to fathom how some of my mother's fans may feel. I say my mother's fans because everyone watched for Beth. My mother was a shining light in the void. I can no longer watch someone diminish her light with his hatred. I can no longer sit and be quiet about these things. 'My mom was a true leader, and believe it or not; she kept my dad focused on his career. We all know of his missteps, but my mom always stood by him. She also kept him in line! My mom was loyal, and she was fiercely protective of her family. She loved my father and did her best to make him the best man he could be. All too often, that job consisted of dealing with his near-constant infidelity with her friends and strangers while trying to teach him to be a better man. I don't think that work was in vain; I think mom did change my dad. But that change vanished when my mom died. 'Since my mom died, my dad ran away from the person she inspired him to be. He began to do that when she was sick in the hospital, and he began to have an affair with a friend of my mom's. 'As a child, I was always silenced by him, threatened with physical violence, and I will no longer back down. I stand for what I believe in firmly, and I think my mother deserves the honor. My father has dishonored my mother in countless ways since her passing. He's associated himself with people like right-wing megachurch pastor Greg Locke, who mock crucified his own son for religious propaganda and spews hate toward LGBTQ people almost constantly in his social media. 'My life has been threatened on several occasions by QAnon wackos, and my father has sat and made excuses for why he won't say anything. I'm sorry to speak about the real Duane Chapman for those who loved my mother and loved the man she loved. I know this may be a shock to some of the public, but you deserve the truth. I'm sorry for those who looked up to my father growing up. I'm sorry to those who truly thought he was a good man; I thought so too at some point. Growing up, we have to take the people we idolize off a pedestal. 'I believe my father, at some point, was making his best efforts to be a good man, which is why I've publicly ALWAYS defended him. I followed my mom's lead. I followed the strongest woman I've ever known. I was scared my only parent would hate me. I was scared of not being invited to family gatherings. However, I know my mom would never stand for this, and it is in honor of her legacy that I speak out. 'He has embraced old prejudices and doubled down on racist and homophobic stereotypes. For example, my dad hates BLM and called BLM protestors who I proudly stand with each and every day 'thugs.' He has used horrific epithets against LGBTQ people, and he has further aligned himself with right-wing extremists who believe in QAnon theories. In December 2020 Francie told me she had Covid-19, but that she slept with my father because God told her too. She also told me she flew to speaking events knowing she had covid. She didn't seem to care about the thousands of people she could have infected. 'If my dad and his new wife want to travel to right-wing churches attacking gay people and advancing QAnon theories, he can certainly do that, but I'm going to stand by the memory and legacy of my mom, Beth Chapman. Her memory, and the values she stood for, are worth fighting to advance. 'That's why I joined the cast of 'The System'. We stand against police corruption every day, and every day I stand and fight against the kind of racism and bias that I saw come from my father growing up. I know I'm exactly where my mom would want me to be, fighting to protect the weak and standing up for the inherent worth of every single person. 'I said before that I really didn't know why I wasn't invited to my dads wedding. While I knew he was mad about being fired, he has only himself to blame. I thought my dad would be man enough to put family first, but it appears that man died with my mother.' Advertisement

Disagree: Dog The Bounty Hunter's daughter Bonnie claims her support of Black Lives Matter was part of what lead to her falling out with her father

'If my dad and his new wife want to travel to right-wing churches attacking gay people and advancing QAnon theories, he can certainly do that, but I'm going to stand by the memory and legacy of my mom, Beth Chapman. Her memory, and the values she stood for, are worth fighting to advance,' another excerpt read.

A representative for Dog denied Beth's allegations in a statement obtained by E!: 'Bonnie's allegations are false and a misguided attempt to derail our wedding.'

Despite the drama, Dog struck an optimistic note while speaking with Us Weekly about his upcoming nuptials on August 24.

'I have a large family and most of them are going to be here for it. I love all my kids and it's going to be great to have so many people here to celebrate,' he told the site.

'We've spent so long on this to ensure it's going to be just perfect and believe me, nothing is going to get in the way of us,' he added.

The reality star added it was sad his daughters Cecily and Bonnie were attempting to 'bring a cloud over our wedding.'

She also alleged her life had been threatened by 'QAnon wackos', but her father refused to speak out against them. Instead, he only offered 'excuses' as to why he wouldn't 'say anything'

Better times: Dog and Bonnie pictured together on the set of Unleashed in 2019

Dog - who is a father of 13 - denied his daughters claims he was fired over using racist/homophobic language, calling the accusations a 'false' attempt to mess with the wedding.

He also told TMZ his daughters are being 'groomed' by his shady former associates, pleading: 'Please pray for Bonnie and Cecily to be released from whatever hold these people have on them.'

'Despite the sadness, we feel at this rift in our family, Francie and I are looking forward to celebrating our wedding next week with the rest of our family and close friends.'

And his other daughter Lyssa also appeared to have his back as she said tearfully on social media this week: 'Bonnie and Cecily are loved by our family. We are heartbroken that bad people are using them to get revenge on Dad.'

'Everything Bonnie is alleging has been put in her head by ex-business partners of my father who are angry they couldnt ride his coattails any longer. Dad quit when he realized they were con men,

Chapman has been married five times and has 13 children. His first child is Christopher Michael Hecht, whose mother is Debbie White.

He two children with his first ex-wife, La Fonda Sue Darnell: they are sons Duane Lee Chapman, II (born in 1973) and Leland Blane Chapman (born in 1976).

The family: Duane 'Dog' Chapman (C) and family arrive at Nickelodeon's 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards at USC Galen Center in 2013 in Los Angeles, California

With second ex-wife Ann Tegnell, Dog welcomed three children: Zebadiah Chapman (born in 1980, but is deceased) Wesley Chapman (also born in 1980), and James Robert Chapman (born in 1982).

With third ex-wife, Lyssa Rae Brittain, he had daughter Barbara Katie Chapman (born 1982; she is deceased), son Tucker Dee Chapman (born 1983) and Lyssa Rae Chapman (born 1987).

Dog had two children with Beth: Bonnie (born 1998) and Garry (born 2001).

He adopted Cecily Barmore-Chapman (born 1993) who Beth had with her ex-husband.

He said this summer: 'I'm getting married. We went to the venue, picked it out yesterday, looked at it. Man, it costs a lot to get married.'
Embattled reality star Erika Jayne is being sued for $25M by the trustee handling estranged husband Tom Girardi's firm's bankruptcy case.

On Friday Page Six reported that the trustee in charge of the Girardi Keese Chapter 7 bankruptcy case has accused the reality star of 'knowingly allowing' the firm to pay for her lavish lifestyle and frivolous expenses over the course of a decade.

As the Real Housewife has continued to maintain that she was 'kept away from the books,' the trustee is mandating that even if that were to be the case 'it would be a miscarriage of justice if [she] was allowed to simply walk completely free of owing over $25,000,000 to the Estate.'

In deep! Erika Jayne is being sued for $25 Million by the trustee handling the Girardi Keese Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and has been accused of 'knowingly allowing' the firm to pay for her lavish lifestyle; Erika pictured on August 26 - one day before lawsuit news broke

On August 26  one day before the lawsuit news broke  Erika was seen looking a bit distraught in leggings and a purple shirt while taking a walk in Beverly Hills.

The now unearthed lawsuit reads that 'any payments made for her benefit are her responsibility,' after it was alleged that she had spent $25 million of the firm's money from 2008 to 2020  funds that were allegedly transferred into her personal company EJ Global LLC.

'She attempts to create a distinction between handing her money directly versus paying all of her bills directly. The distinction, like her prior motion for reconsideration is meritless. Any payments made for her benefit are her responsibility' the documents alleged.

The trustee wants the court to rule that Jayne must cough up the $25 million she was said to have spent plus interest.

And the scathing suit continued to say that she 'feigned willful blindness' as she had signed off on numerous tax returns, credit card slips and knew what she had spent on her now bankrupt estranged husband's cards.

Distraught: One day ahead of the news breaking about her $25M lawsuit, Erika was seen looking distraught as she took a walk in Beverly Hills; August 26

'Erika signed all of her tax returns, numerous credit card slips, and was well aware of the money she spent on the Debtor's credit cards and the Debtor's payment of her personal expenses,' the trustee continued to allege.

'Her feigned willful blindness and ostrich approach to these expenditures will do absolutely nothing to limit her liability.'

It was added: 'The glam cannot be supported by a sham.'

Ronald Richards, the trustee's attorney, told the publication on Friday that there is 'undeniable' evidence that she knew about the expenses.

'The evidence is undeniable. The law firm paid out over $25,000,000 in expenses which were approved and generated by one person, Erika Girardi.'

Accountable: The trustee wants the court to rule that the reality star should pay back the $25 Million she spent plus interest and the suit alleges that she 'feigned willful blindness' to the financial wrongdoing the whole time

He said the lawsuit was filed 'to provide a come to Jesus moment,' for the reality/pop star who needs to 'come down the mountain from a place of privilege.'

'We are hopeful that Ms. Girardi comes down the mountain from a place of privilege and obscene wealth and returns some of these expenses so the former clients and creditors of this law firm can mitigate the horrific and unfair losses perpetrated by her husband and others,' Richards added.

The news comes just days after it was revealed that her ex Girardi's firm owes more than $100 million to creditors, but it was added in Friday's suit that Erika is not responsible for 'the full amount' of debt Girardi Keese owes.

In legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, the total liabilities sit at $97 million more than the total assets of all property  which is roughly $4.1 million.

Where did it go? Jayne allegedly spent $14,259,012.84 on her American Express card and $1,417,587.50 on unknown purchases - as well as $1,532,774.88 on an agency for dancers and choreographers, the McDonald Selznick Associates Agency among other things from 2008 to 2020; pictured May 2021

The trustee handling the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case noted upon reviewing the firm's records that 'the debtor's accounting offices were not well maintained' and that the records were 'very dated.'

It was added that the trustee's findings might 'not have listed all of the debtor's causes of action or potential causes of action against third-parties as assets,' according to court docs, as the 'actual total may be different than the listed total.'

His firm Girardi Keese has now begun to auction off a handful of Jayne's personal memorabilia and collectibles including art and furniture to pay creditors amid the bankruptcy case.

In June, Erika was 'ordered' to turn over financial records from her accountant, lawyer and landlord as part of the embezzlement investigation and a bankruptcy trustee is documenting the couple's assets.

Claiming innocence: Erika has repeatedly claimed on this season of the hit Bravo show that she was 'kept away from the books' and said that their whole life existed on credit cards

Better times: Erika filed to divorce Girardi in November 2020 which was later

Among many findings it was revealed that she had spent $25 million of the firm's money from 2008 to 2020  funds that were transferred into her personal company EJ Global LLC.

Per Page Six, Jayne allegedly spent $14,259,012.84 on her American Express card and $1,417,587.50 on unknown purchases - as well as $1,532,774.88 on an agency for dancers and choreographers, the McDonald Selznick Associates Agency.

Among the unknown purchases, her company reportedly paid $102,596.77 to Kim Kardashian's former executive assistant Stephanie Shepherd.

Other bank statements show that $17,415 was paid to Opus Beauty - a management agency that represents make-up artists, stylists and costume designers - and $1,000 to influential makeup artist Mario Dedivanoic.

At this time nearly $1.3 million is still unaccounted for with regards to personal spending.

Opulence: Erika has been forced to downsize her very lavish lifestyle amid the divorce and bankruptcy after having previously revealed to have a personal trainer four times a week, a housekeeper seven days a week and regular glam

And despite claiming on the current season of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills that she was 'kept away from the books'  even with regards to financial dealings of her own LLC  the letter read that she 'approved the charges.'

'Mrs. Girardi signed under penalty of perjury the return and personally approved the charges allocated to the breakdown,' the letter read in excerpt.

Her attorney fired back: 'No money whatsoever went to Erika' and maintained that she never had a role in managing her now bankrupt husband's company.

Girardi was placed under the conservatorship of his brother Robert after he was diagnosed with dementia and late-onset Alzheimer's.

On August 23 the embattled former attorney was seen checking out an assisted living facility called Belmont Village Senior Living in Burbank, California.

The cost of admission is said to be between $4,545 - $4,750 a month for a private suite and the facility features round the clock care.

On August 19 Tom was federally disbarred according to documents filed under the Central District of California.

Assisted living: On August 23 Tom was pictured touring Belmont Village, an assisted living facility in Burbank, California

Downsizing: The cost of admission is said to be between $4,545 - $4,750 a month for a private suite and the facility features round the clock care

In March the State Bar of California filed discipline charges against him as they accused him of misappropriating millions in client funds and cited more than 100 lawsuits filed, alleging 'financial wrongdoing and theft,' according to the LA Times.

On May 27 legal documents showed that the Central District of California issued an order 'to show cause' why he 'should not be disbarred' which was due 30 days from the date of issue.

After failing to receive any response, Girardi was deemed 'not eligible to practice law' in a federal court but the state bar disbarment is still pending

Girardi's legal troubles first started in December 2020, when a federal judge in Chicago froze his assets, and said the famed LA based lawyer had 'misappropriated at least $2 million' meant for the families of those killed in the Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia.

One month prior Jayne, had filed to divorce him  which many took as a ploy to preserve whatever remaining assets the former multi-millionaires had.
James Corden took a hit from a blunt in the midst of a street performance with Camila Cabello and Billy Porter in Los Angeles on Friday.

The 43-year-old television presenter was cheered on by his costars as he seemingly took a puff from a stranger's blunt during their song-and-dance number.

The late night talk show host's public appearance comes just a week before the premiere of the upcoming film Cinderella, in which he is set to appear.

Smokeshow! James Corden was seen taking a hit off of a stranger's blunt while appearing alongside Camila Cabello and Billy Porter in a street performance in Los Angeles on Friday

Corden was dressed in a giant mouse costume that featured an attached tail and a hood with large earpieces on its sides, as well as a pair of white sneakers.

Cabello sported an eye-catching princess costume that featured a wide bottom portion and a corset that clung tightly to her toned tummy.

The 24-year-old songstress' typically free-flowing brunette locks were tied into a lengthy braid that fell onto her chest.

Rooting him on! The 43-year-old television presenter was cheered on by his costars as he seemingly took a puff from a stranger's blunt during their song-and-dance number

Joint effort: The television presenter was later seen posing for a photo alongside Cabello, Porter and Idina Menzel

Porter wore a patterned purple bodysuit, as well as a sizable cloak and leather heeled boots while performing with his costar.

Also present was Idina Menzel, who wore a beautiful multicolored dress that contrasted perfectly with her deep brunette locks.

All of the performers will appear in Cinderella, which is currently set to premiere on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service.

Singing out loud: Cabello was seen wearing a bright pink princess costume and belting out a few notes during the appearance

Dressing for the part: Porter sported a purple patterned bodysuit and a cloak. Menzel wore a vibrantly colored dress during the performance

The feature is based on Charles Perrault's version of the classic fairytale, which has been adapted into countless film and television productions.

Development on the upcoming Kay Cannon-directed musical was originally announced in 2019, with Corden coming up with the idea for the feature and serving as one of the project's producers.

Cabello will portray the feature's titular character, while Menzel is set to play her stepmother Vivian.

Source material: Cinderella is based on Charles Perrault's version of the classic fairytale

Solid backing: Kay Cannon directed the upcoming feature, and Corden came up with the idea for the project

Porter will fill the role of the princess' genderless fairy godparent, and Minnie Driver and Pierce Brosnan will also be seen as Queen Beatrice and King Rowan.

Corden, Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster are set to portray a trio of footmen and mice in the forthcoming feature.

Physical production initially began in February of 2020, although it was quickly shut down due to the onset of the global pandemic.

The feature's cast and crew later reconvened and resumed filming, which ultimately wrapped that September.

Playing the part: Corden, Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster will portray a trio of footmen and mice in the forthcoming feature

Taking precaution: Although production on Cinderella began last February, it was quickly shut down due to the onset of the global pandemic

Back at it: The cast and crew of the project later reconvened, and filming eventually wrapped that September

Both Cabello and Menzel will contribute original songs to the upcoming movie's soundtrack.

Tracks from artists such as Beyonce, Eurythmics and Chic will also be heard in the flick.

The feature was originally supposed to be released this past February, although it was later pushed to July.

Cinderella was eventually given a release date of September 3rd, where it currently stands.
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He recently conquered his fear of flying following a deadly plane crash in 2008 that left him traumatized and in critical condition with her help.

And Travis Barker, 44, jetted off once again with his girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian, 42, for a very loved-up adventure in Italy.

On Friday the PDA-crazed couple continued to look beyond in love as they enjoyed a very racy makeout session over aperol spritzes and a few other kissing sessions all over Portofino.

Loved up: The beyond smitten pair could not keep their hands off each other as they ramped up sweet PDA with a very racy makeout session over cocktails in Portofino, Italy

European style: Kourtney wore a vest inspired bustier that showed off her abs with black slacks

The longtime friends turned lovers who have been dating for less than a year both had smiles plastered on their faces throughout the course of the day.

The Poosh founder wore a barely-there denim bustier which barely covered her assets as she flashed a generous amount of underboob.

The newly short haired brunette paired the very tiny top with stylish black slacks that exposed her midriff and shielded her face behind sunglasses.

And the famed drummer felt no need to switch up his usually edgy style as he donned artful jeans with a graphic tee and a series of silver chains.

Hand in hand: The increasingly serious couple were seen holding hands firmly while laughing and beaming at each other

Close call: At one point the denim bustier was seen riding up a bit as she exposed underboob

Clinging on: They draped their arms around each other during one of many kissing sessions

Facing his fears: The overseas trip marked Travis' first overseas flight in 13 years following a 2008 deadly plane crash

Loving look: The drummer gazed into Kourtney's eyes as they enjoyed a trip sans kids

He was seen doing the heavy lifting as they did a little shopping while strolling hand in hand and enjoyed a classic Italian delicacy  gelato.

At while taking in the sights the two continued to hang all over each other as they kissed incessantly and held each other.

The pair were then seen deciding on a place to eat, at which point they used the time waiting for a table to pack on more PDA to pass the time.

Table for two: Their affectionate body language said everything as they leaned in and touched each other over lunch

Tender: He rested his hand underneath her chin

Smooches: At one point she kissed his palm

Her turn: Kourtney looked like a giddy teenager as she bit her lip while playing with his face

Feeling flirty: The reality star gazed at him with a come hither look on her face

Sharing a laugh: The two downed one set of aperol spritzes at lunch before giggling playfully

Talking: The pair have reportedly had discussions about marriage and the future

More touches: Travis grazed his cheek with her hand

After he cradled her into his chest and planted a series of face kisses on her they dined across from one another where the affection continued.

Over lunch they looked to be smitten teenagers as they kissed each others hands and touched each other's faces throughout the entirety.

And though they continue to be one of the most high profile couples in Hollywood the two were seen sans bodyguards as they sat and walked amongst locals and tourists.

Busty: Kourtney opted to show some serious skin for her man

Tour de love: The duo were seen scoping out a second spot

Good old fashioned straddled: She sat on his lap and faced him to be as close to him as possible

Neck kisses: He was seen planting a series of kisses on her neck

In his arms: The mother of three had never looked more content to be with someone

On their way: After hitting up stores and two different dining spots they headed to another place

True romance: The pair found yet another spot to kick back and relax

All mine: The pair left no room for confusion that they were beyond obsessed with each other

After one stop and a few cocktails they then headed to another spot where Kourtney wanted to be as close to him as possible.

She straddled him on a chair and nuzzled into his neck while he kissed hers back before they continued on with their tour de love.

At a third spot on the piazza they continued to knock back a few drinks while cuddling up to each other.

Living's easy: The pair sipped on aperol spritzes on a piazza

Spritz o clock! The usually healthy couple leaned into vacation with good food and drinks

Cuddled up: The Poosh founder draped her legs over her rocker beau with a big grin on her face

Snuggles: He was seen stroking her head and giving her a forehead kiss

Laying it on: The couple enjoyed a very steamy makeout session

Tongues out: They grinned in between french kissing

Infatuation: The couple continue to field rumors of engagement and marriage

The two continued to fawn all over each other and they affection continued to ramp up on a couch.

They passionately kissed and enjoyed a teenage style makeout while clinging on to each other.

After a heated session she appeared to need to make sure nothing had popped out as she re-adjusted her bosom.

The pair's European vacation marks the second flight the drummer has taken in 13 years and his first one overseas.

Ruffled up: Her short brown bob was extra messy after the flight

Adjustments: At one point she was seen readjusting her cleavage as he grinned back at her

Hair stroke: He ran his fingers through her choppy locks

Worked up an appetite! Kourtney was seen snacking on a chip

More nibbles: She popped an olive into her mouth before she fed him

Light snack: Kourtney then popped a nibble into his mouth

The couple had taken a trip to Mexico where he conquered his fears on half-sister Kylie Jenner's private jet after teasing 'I might fly again,' on Twitter in June.

One month prior he told Men's Health that he was determined to conquer the fear. 'I have to. I want to make the choice to try and overcome it,' he maintained.

Barker was famously in a tragic plane crash in 2008 that left him with third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body and killed four people  both pilots and his friends Charles 'Che' Still and Chris Baker.

The drummer and the late DJ AM were the only two to survive  but tragically AM passed of an overdose a year later.

Big deal: The trip to Italy is the first time Barker has been overseas since a deadly plane crash in 2008 that traumatized him from flying until last month

Exploring: The pair were not photographed with any bodyguards as they mingled with locals and tourists

Thick as thieves: Barker credited Kourtney with making him feel safe enough to fly again

Fun outdoors: Travis took in the beauty of Italy as he showed off his lock necklace. There was also an image of a rock where a religious painting was set into

Twice as sweet: Barker also shared a photo of two ice cream cones; one for him and one for his lady love Kourtney

Barker had sworn off flying after the traumatic incident which caused him to have over 26 procedures including numerous skin grafts and he spent extensive time in a burn unit.

He had publicly spoken about his fear of flying and had resisted doing any shows that were not within driving distance as he boasts a luxury RV.

He called the crash his 'rehab' as he was addicted to opioids and prescription drugs before. 'That was my wake-up call. If I wasn't in a crash, I would have probably never quit,' he said.

On August 14 Barker took his first flight alongside Kourtney and her mom Kris Jenner and partner Corey Gamble to Mexico.

'With you anything is possible he said,' in a snap of he and Kourtney kissing outside Air Kylie.

Marriage: It has been reported previously that the two have discussed marriage and they even sparked engagement rumors in Las Vegas
Whenever Vanessa Bryant watched her late husband, Kobe Bryant, showcase his high-flying talents for the LA Lakers at Staples Center, cameras were never too far away, oftentimes looking to see what fashions she was wearing.

And on Friday the former model and philanthropist, 39, was the center of attention when she was spotted during a travel day that began with a commercial flight into John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.

On this day, she decided to hit the airways decked out, nearly head to toe, in the luxury fashion house brand, Dolce & Gabbana.

Luxury brand: Vanessa Bryant, 39, was dressed in a Dolce & Gabbana ensemble when she was spotted at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York on Friday

Flanked by her entourage, Bryant was seen moments after arriving at JFK Airport dressed in a leopard and cherry print Dolce & Gabbana bomber jacket and black, skin-tight leggings.

She also donned the Italian brand's white sneakers and animal print face mask, which she kept secured over her mouth and nose amid the still dangerous COVID-19 pandemic.

The Southern California native carried some of her travel essentials in a gray-patterned D&G bag, wore stylish dark sunglasses, and had her raven tresses styled long and flowing nearly to the bottom of her back.

Luxury: Along with her D&G jacket, sneakers, bag and Sneakers, Bryant was also wearing her her massive 8-carat diamond wedding ring, which has been estimated to have cost $4 million back in 2003, according to the Los Angeles Times

It was also hard to miss her massive 8-carat diamond wedding ring, which has been estimated to have cost $4 million back in 2003, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After flying into New York, Bryant and company made their way to a car and were driven to nearby New Jersey to catch another flight.

The group of no less than six were seen strolling across the tarmac preparing to board the luxury private plane to an unknown destination.

Travel day: Not long later, Bryant and company boarding a private plane in nearby New Jersey

The travel day comes just over a week after Bryant dropped off her eldest daughter, Natalia, on the USC campus in Los Angeles for her first year of college.

The proud mother documented the moment by sharing a photo of herself, wearing a leopard print sweater, snuggled up to her three girls, including Natalia, 18, Bianka, four, and Capri, two.

'Today was rough. This was before the tears came down. Missing [peace sign] forever. I love you @NataliaBryant BE EPIC and FIGHT ON,' she gushed in the caption.

The family's home is in Newport Beach, which is in Orange County, California, while USC is located in Downtown Los Angeles, about one hour away from their spacious house.
Isla Fisher returned to her home state of Western Australia this week.

And on Friday, she stepped out for the movie premiere of Here Out West at the Orana Cinemas in Busselton, south of Perth.

The 45-year-old slipped into an elegant pastel pink dress that hugged her petite figure.

Pretty in pink! Isla Fisher stepped out in an elegant ensemble for the movie premiere of Here Out West at the Orana Cinemas in Busselton, south of Perth in her home state of Western Australia

Her demure dress featured long sleeves and a square neckline that accentuated her bust.

She teamed the look with accessories from Fendi including the signature earrings, worth AUD$740, and a AUD$5,700 white mini Peekaboo handbag.

The actress completed her stunning evening look with a AUD$2,150 pale pink sandal heels from the Italian luxury brand.

Isla opted for a glamourous make-up look with red lipstick and lashings of mascara, and styled her trademark red tresses in curls that cascaded down her shoulders.

Designer taste: The 45-year-old slipped into an elegant pastel pink dress that hugged her petite figure. She teamed the look with accessories from Fendi including the AUD$740 signature earrings, a AUD$5,700 white mini Peekaboo handbag and AUD$2,150 sandal heels

Date night out! Also on the red carpet was former talk show host Rove McManus and his wife actress Tasma Walton

She flaunted her ensemble on the red carpet alongside Rove McManus and his wife actress Tasma Walton.

The 47-year-old former talk show host, who hails from Perth, dressed for the premiere in a sharp blue blazer and black trousers.

His wife Tasma, 48, opted for a mid-length peachy pink floral dress, which she teamed with boots.

Room for another? At one point, Isla appeared to try to photo bomb the couple on the as they posed on the red carpet

Beaming: But the couple invited the actress to join in and the trio smiled for the cameras

At one point, Isla appeared to try to photo bomb the couple on the as they posed on the red carpet.

But they invited the actress to join in and the trio smiled for the cameras.

Also on the red carpet was actress Miranda Otto, 53, who opted for a smart casual look in a white blazer, a pink top and blue denim jeans.
Some of TV and film's most fabulous ladies turned out at The Little Market's Summer Event in Los Angeles on Friday Afternoon.

Lauren Conrad, Jordana Brewster, Cara Santana and Hannah Brown all showed off their summer style at a fabulous event for a good cause.

The non-profit organization  which was founded by Conrad and Hannah Skvarla  aims to create economic empowerment and opportunities for underserved communities and women.

Summer shindig: Lauren Conrad and Jordana Brewster were summer visions in floral prints at The Little Market's Summer Event in Los Angeles on Friday Afternoon

Chic: Cara Santana, 37, looked chic in a suit inspired wrap dress at the event

The female-centric event was held at a breathtaking property in the hills with sweeping views and was sponsored by Zacapa Rum No. 23.

The Hills star, 35, looked radiant in a pink floral dress with balloon sleeves that fell just above her knee and a pair of chunky woven heels.

The blonde beauty clutched a cocktail in hand as she and the other ladies cooled off with a refreshment at the market-style pop up which featured sugar scrubs, homemade baked goods, herbs and handmade ceramics among other things.

And Jordana, 41, did not disappoint with her ensemble either as she modeled an asymmetrical green dress with tropical florals and a pair of nude heels.

Founders: The organization was founded by Conrad and Skvarla to create economic empowerment and opportunities for underserved communities and women

Life of the party: Brewster was seen perched on the bar in an asymmetrical dress with a tropical cocktail in hand

Huddled up: Conrad, Santana and Skvarla posed for a photo at the stunning backyard event

The Fast & Furious vet was seen with a fruity looking libation as she playfully sat on the bar with her hair in a whimsical updo.

And Cara, 37,  an actress and activist  was seen looking very chic in a nude colored suit-inspired wrap dress with heels that tied up the leg.

The Lipshitz Saves the World star and ex of Jesse Metcalfe is a member of the organization's council alongside Brewster  one of the first members  and both ladies spoke at the event.

Others in attendance included Hannah Brown of Bachelorette fame who looked playful in a white peasant dress and actresses Maggie Lawson (Psych franchise), Sarah Rafferty (Suits) and Angelique Cabral (Life In Pieces).

Despite rising to fame on MTV's Laguna Beach and The Hills, Conrad told Entertainment Tonight on Friday that she has yet to watch an episode of the reboot  The Hills: New Beginnings.

All smiles: The former Bachelorette looked cheery in a white peasant inspired dress

Ladies in white: Rafferty (L) and Lawson (R) seemed to nail the summer uniform as they matched in white flowing dresses with brown gladiator sandals

Branded backdrop: Cabral was seen posing in a floral jumpsuit against a brand sign at the daytime event

'I honestly haven't seen it,' she confessed. 'I think it's great. I'm glad that they were able to do it again,' she added, before saying: 'I actually don't really watch any reality television.'

The Orange County native also candidly said that unscripted TV as a whole was a 'little triggering for [her],' having been embroiled in the world of reality from the time she was in high school until 2009.

The Little Market, which sells fair trade goods from around the world  namely ethically sourced, artisan-made products  focuses on conscious consumerism.

The organization  which was founded in 2012  sources a variety of items from underserved groups including: refugees, survivors of trafficking and domestic violence, and people with disabilities.

Conrad and her co-founder were inspired following a trip to Tanzania and Uganda where they met artisans who were making amazing products but lacked a platform.
August 28 marks one year since Chadwick Boseman passed away at the age of 43, four years after being diagnosed with stage III colon cancer.

Actress Lupita Nyong'o, who played Boseman's King T'Challa's love interest Nakia in the hit superhero blockbuster Black Panther, took to Instagram to share a heartbreaking tribute to her friend and colleague.

Along with her touching words of sorrow, the actress posted a heartwarming photo of the two actors bursting into laughter while standing in an empty hallway.

Heartbreaking: Lupita Nyong'o shared a touching tribute to her friend and Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman one year after his shocking death at the age of 43

'I did not know that I could miss both his laughter and his silence in equal measure. I do. I do...,' she began in the caption with obvious emotion in her words.

'One year after his passing, the memory of @chadwickboseman remains this alive in me.'

The photo shows Boseman leaning up against a wall, looking almost childlike, with a big beaming smile on his face, and his hands clenched in front of chest like he was about to let his friend in on a hilarious secret.

Nyong'o, 38, can be seen taking in the actor's energy, with her right hand on his side, and an equally infectious smile, as she gently touched his leg with her other hand.

Emotional tribute: The actress shared how she misses Boseman's laughter and silence in equal measure, and that his memory remains alive in her still to this day

Co-stars: Nyong'o played Boseman's King T'Challa's love interest Nakia in the hit superhero blockbuster Black Panther (2018), which earned $1.348 billion on a $200 million budget

Boseman was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, which eventually progressed to stage IV before 2020.

Opting to keep his diagnosis private, the South Carolina native revealed his condition to only a handful of non-family members, who knew varying degrees of knowledge about the severity of his condition.

Despite enduring multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, he would continue to work and complete a number of films after his diagnosis, including Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, 21 Bridges, Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Boseman died at his Los Angeles home as a result of complications related to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, with his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, and family by his side.

The surprising news of his death elicited widespread shock and grief from people all over the world.

Despite enduring multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, Boseman would continue to work and complete a number of films after his cancer diagnosis in 2016, including Black Panther; Boseman Danai Gurira and Florence Kasumba are pictured in a scene from Black Panther with Boseman and Nyong'o, Florence Kasumba

Tribute: Nyong'o shared a lengthy and touching tribute to Boseman on Instagram that she captioned: 'For the beloved #ChadwickBoseman #TakeYourTimeButDontWasteYourTime'

Grief stricken: The actress began by sharing how she was 'struggling to think and speak about my friend, Chadwick Boseman, in the past tense

High praise: Nyong'o complimented him as a man who 'made the most of his time'

Opting to wait 11 days after his passing, Nyong'o shared a lengthy and touching tribute to Boseman on Instagram that she captioned: 'For the beloved #ChadwickBoseman #TakeYourTimeButDontWasteYourTime.'

'I write these words from a place of hopelessness, to honor a man who had great hope. I am struggling to think and speak about my friend, Chadwick Boseman, in the past tense. It doesn't make sense. The news of his passing is a punch to my gut every morning,' she began in her first public comments.

She went on to praise the actor for always having the right energy, writing, 'I am aware that we are all mortal, but you come across some people in life that possess a immortal energy, that seem like they have existed before, that are exactly where they are supposed to always be - here! ... that seem ageless.... Chadwick was one of those people.'

Sharing that she didn't know her costar long, Nyong'o confessed that his presence will stay with her always.

'Chadwick was a man who made the most of his time, and somehow also managed to take his time. I didn't know him for long, but he had a profound effect on me in the time that I did,' she wrote.

Praise: Boseman's Black Panther co-star shared how he would always 'bring his game face'

Self-love: The actress wrote about him being able to 'love himself'

Fortress: The actress saw how Boseman 'honored respected his body'

Positive energy: She expressed how the actor 'cared so deeply about humanity'

'When we came together to make Black Panther, I remember being struck by his quiet, powerful presence. He had no airs about him, but there was a higher frequency that he seemed to operate from. You got the sense that he was fully present and also somehow fully aware of things in the distant future. As a result, I noticed that Chadwick never seemed rushed! He commanded his time with ease.'

Nyong'o described Boseman as the ultimate professional who was always prepared with his 'game face on' no matter of it was rehearsal or a shoot day.

'He was absorbent. Agile. He set the bar high by working with a generosity of spirit, creating an ego-free environment by sheer example, and he always had a warm gaze and a strong embrace to share. His large hands would descend on my shoulders and give them a squeeze that relieved me of the tensions I did not realize I was holding. Chadwick's hands were strong enough to carry the weight of the film and free enough to clasp mine when I needed it.'

In one of the more heavier statements in her assessment of Boseman's death, she wrote, 'it seems that it was life that gave up on Chadwick long before Chadwick gave up on life.'

She ended by offering her condolences to his 'family, friends and to his loving wife, Simone, from whom I heard this phrase articulated so resonantly: #TakeYourTimeButDontWasteYourTime.'

He lives on: Nyong'o wrote about how he 'used his life force to tell meaningful stories'

Hard to believe: The actress struggled to accept his passing
Christine Quinn was seen working on a forthcoming episode of the hit reality series Selling Sunset in Beverly Hills on Friday afternoon.

The 32-year-old reality television personality was seen strolling along one of the city's walkways and soaking up the shining California sun while filming a scene for the upcoming fourth season of the Netflix program.

The realtor has been featured on the series ever since its inaugural set of episodes, which originally premiered in 2019.

Making an appearance: Christine Quinn was seen dressed in an eye-catching outfit in Beverly Hills while working on the upcoming fourth season of Selling Sunset on Friday afternoon

Quinn sported a button-up white shirt and a black tie while working on the forthcoming season.

The reality television figure also sported a black pinstripe vest that showed off a slight portion of her toned tummy.

The maven paired her top with a matching miniskirt that placed much of her toned legs on full display.

She also rocked a stylish pair of heeled leather shoes and sported a fingerless glove on her left hand.

Earning her fashion stripes: The reality television personality sported a white button-up shirt and a pinstripe vest with a matching miniskirt during the outing

Extra storage: The realtor also carried a sizable Louis Vuitton bag with her as she pounded the city's pavement

Quinn kept a retro-inspired pair of sunglasses hanging from the top of her vest during the shoot.

She accessorized with numerous articles of jewelry that shone in the radiant sun.

The Bravo personality notably kept a sizable Louis Vuitton bag with her for the length of her time in the sun.

Her gorgeous blonde hair provided a welcome contrast to her neutral-toned clothing and fell onto her chest and backside.

Luscious locks: The reality television figure's gorgeous blonde hair remained free-flowing and cascaded onto her chest and backside

Quinn later shared a selfie to her Instagram Story and declared that 'this b**** is back' in a text graphic added to the post.

The reality television figure has been involved with Selling Sunset ever since its inception in 2019.

Other personalities who have been featured on the program include Chrishell Stause, brothers Brett and Jason Oppenheim and Heather Rae Young.

Shooting on the fourth season of the program initially began this past May, and a release date has not been set as of yet.

A closer look: Quinn later shared a selfie to her Instagram Story where she declared that 'this b**** is back'

Quinn spoke about her public perception resulting from the show's success during an interview with Vogue, where she noted that many of her fans admired her outspoken personality.

'I was surprised because I started to get calls from people saying, "I like the way you are, I like the way you talk to people." So it was another lesson that being yourself is always the best way,' she noted.

She also expressed that she was happy to use her platform as a way to offer her assistance to her fans.

Letting everyone know: During an interview with Vogue, Quinn offered her best advice to its readers and told the media outlet that 'being yourself is always the best way'; she is spotted in June

'I love being able to help people out, whether it's real estate or confidence tips or even relationship advice. The more I can help people, the better it makes me feel and the better it makes this world,' she said.

Quinn pointed out that her outward persona on the program is completely genuine and remarked that she had become more of a perfectionist over time.

'Confidence is something I was born with, but it's also something I've grown to embody as life has thrown obstacles my way,' she expressed.
Kit Harington starred as hero Jon Snow in the epic HBO series Game Of Thrones.

And while the hit show meant he was often filming in rough terrain and doing intense fight scenes for hours on end - he called being a parent 'the most physically draining thing' he has ever done.

The 34-year-old candidly spoke about the highs and lows of fatherhood with The Weekend Australian, on Saturday.

He's a hands on dad: Kit Harington told The Weekend Australian that being a parent is more 'physically draining' than Game Of Thrones after welcoming his son with wife Rose Leslie

He welcomed his first child, a son whose name has not been publicly revealed, with wife and fellow actor Rose Leslie in February.

As Rose, who he married in 2018, films a new project in New York, Kit has taken charge of doting on their little boy.

'Like, honestly, my back is wrecked. I go to the gym quite a bit, but there's something about having a child that is the most physically draining thing,' he said.

The actor went on to praise single parents saying: 'I don't know how you do it. Because it's more exhausting than everything I did on Thrones.'

Family: The 34-year-old welcomed his first child, a son whose name has not been publicly revealed, with wife and fellow actor Rose Leslie in February. Pictured together is the couple shortly after the birth of their son

Elsewhere the actor he is 'happy' and 'content' with his life since becoming a father.

'I have a child and my relationship is brilliant I'm a very, very happy, content, sober man,' he said, referring to his past battle with alcohol addiction.

Kit recently gave a gave a rare insight into fatherhood, admitting that although it's been 'beautiful', it hasn't been all smooth sailing.

Tough work: As she returns to work on set in New York, he has taken charge of taking care of their son. He said: 'I go to the gym quite a bit, but there's something about having a child that is the most physically draining thing... it's more exhausting than everything I did on Thrones'

New lease on life: Elsewhere the actor he is 'happy' and 'content' with his life since becoming a father. 'I have a child and my relationship is brilliant I'm a very, very happy, content, sober man,' he said, referring to his past battle with alcohol addiction

He told Access Hollywood in a candid interview earlier this month: 'What surprises you is: You go, ''Oh, this goes on forever.'' Like, you don't get a break from it.'

'I think the thing that surprises me most about fatherhood is you are now a unit, the three of you, and that's a whole new dynamic you need to find,' he said.

The actor added: 'I pretty much find every day as he grows and changes, how does that change you? It's a beautiful thing, it really is.'
Iggy Azalea has received her fair share of hate and backlash over the years.

But the Australian rapper is laughing all the way to bank after revealing that her critics have turned her into a millionaire.

On Saturday, the 31-year-old tweeted: 'Yall hated me so much all that talking made me a millionaire. Love that, keep it up.'

Superstar: Iggy Azalea has received her fair share of hate and backlash over the years. But the Australian rapper is laughing all the way to bank after revealing that her critics have turned her into a millionaire

Iggy has been expanding her empire beyond just music, having recently launched her own signature perfume and makeup collection.

This isn't the first time that Iggy has brought up her bank account while battling trolls online.

The Fancy hitmaker bragged about how her rap career has earned her millions of dollars as she took on a 'broke and jobless' troll earlier this month.

On Saturday, the 31-year-old tweeted: 'Yall hated me so much all that talking made me a millionaire. Love that, keep it up'

The drama started when the troll, who was a Billie Eilish fan, tweeted Iggy after she confirmed that her new album End of an Era would be her 'last project' ever.

'Your music is trash anyway goodbye,' the troll wrote in response.

In a follow up tweet, the troll wrote: 'Y'all kept lying to this girl Iggy for years making her believe she actually makes decent music and for what.'

Not mincing words, Iggy savagely responded: 'Weird. What I do has translated into me becoming a millionaire.'

Mogul: Iggy has been expanding her empire beyond just music, having recently launched her own signature perfume and makeup collection

She added: 'Meanwhile you at home sucking my p***y lips through your computer screen still has you broke and jobless. And for what? Funny how that works huh.'

Iggy just released End of an Era, which will be her last album before she takes a hiatus from music.

The former chart topper made the announcement back in July, much to the shock of many of her fans.

Savage: The Fancy hitmaker bragged about how her rap career has earned her millions of dollars as she took the 'broke and jobless' troll to task earlier this month

She added: 'Meanwhile you at home sucking my p***y lips through your computer screen still has you broke and jobless. And for what? Funny how that works huh'

'End of an Era is so special to me because after I drop my album next month I am going to take a few years to focus on other creative projects and things I'm feeling passionate and inspired by, beyond music,' she tweeted.

'I'm excited for you guys to see different sides to me in the future,' she continued.

'Shifting my energy and focus to what I'm most excited about is what is right for me and I hope you'll continue to support whatever creative projects I'm out here doing!'

Finale: Iggy recently released End of an Era, which will be her last album before she takes a hiatus from music

Although Iggy said she was taking 'a few years' off of music, she tweeted this week that End of an Era 'is my last project'.

The album contains the singles I Am The Strip Club and Brazil.

Iggy is best known for her hits Fancy, Black Widow, Kream, and her Ariana Grande collaboration Problem.
He was rushed to hospital in August 2020 to undergo six hours of surgery after an electric bike accident at his Malibu home.

And now a year later, Simon Cowell appears to have recovered well, as he was seen out on a bike ride in Malibu, California on Friday with girlfriend Lauren Silverman.

The X Factor boss, 61, gave a thumbs up while cruising through the beachside city.

PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Simon Cowell, 61, appeared in great spirits as he gave a thumbs up while on a bike ride in Malibu on Friday with girlfriend Lauren Silverman - a year after back surgery

Simon dressed casually in a blue Malibu-themed T-shirt, white shorts and black sneakers.

He concealed his gaze behind a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses, and ensured safety by wearing a protective face mask and wearing a helmet while riding.

The renowned record executive appeared relaxed as he gave a thumbs up to the paparazzi, while on the outing with girlfriend Lauren, 44.

Casual: The renowned record executive dressed casually in a Malibu-themed T-shirt, white shorts, black sneakers and aviator sunglasses. Pictured with his stunning girlfriend Laura, 44

Out and about: Lauren showed off her trim physique in a white sweater, teamed with pale grey leggings, aviator sunglasses and delicate jewellery. The duo made time for a quick shopping trip as they stopped by a sunglass store

Lauren showed off her trim physique in a white sweater, teamed with pale grey leggings, aviator sunglasses and delicate jewellery.

The duo made time for a quick shopping trip as they stopped by a sunglass store.

In February, Simon spoke out about breaking his back for the first time since the shock incident, revealing: 'I nearly smashed my spine to pieces!'

The TV star boss admitted that he 'couldn't have gotten through' it without girlfriend Lauren and their son Eric, seven, who sweetly branded him 'iron man' when he first saw his dad with metal rods and screws in his back following surgery.

Speaking out: In February, Simon spoke out about breaking his back for the first time since his electric bike accident last August, telling Extra: 'I nearly smashed my spine to pieces!'

Speaking to ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour on Extra, Simon said at the time: 'It could have been a lot worse. When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly could have smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldn't have been able to walk.'

He recalled: 'I knew I'd broken my back the minute I landed. It was really, really kind of sudden and it hurt.'

Simon explained, 'You're not supposed to move,' but, that wasn't his thought process at the time.

He continued: 'I was thinking, "I've got to get back into the house because I can't lie there" and made myself kind of get carried into my bedroom, which is right there at the beginning of the house... And I'm lying there and I'm kind of passing out It was surreal.'

Grateful: The X Factor boss also admitted that he 'couldn't have gotten through' it without girlfriend Lauren and their son Eric, seven. Pictured with Lauren in November 2019

Speaking about his time in hospital, the BGT judge gushed about the support he received from Lauren and their son.

Simon noted to Terri: 'In fact, you and Lauren [Silverman] were outside the hospital all night long, I remember.'

Terri told him: 'Lauren was amazing, running around after you, nursing you back to health,' to which Simon gushed: 'She was amazing.

'Both her and Eric, they were like my support. I couldn't have gotten through it without them, so we got closer.'

Traumatic: Speaking to ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour on Extra (pictured), Simon recalled: 'I knew I'd broken my back the minute I landed. It was really, really kind of sudden and it hurt'

Simon explained that his return home from the hospital wasn't easy, with the TV personality worried about his son's reaction.

He said: 'The hardest thing was, and I said this to Lauren when I came out of the hospital I was so embarrassed about coming home looking about 100 because I couldn't walk, and I have these metal rods in my back and these screws

'I said, 'Lauren, I just don't know how to explain it to [Eric].' She obviously said something to him because he came in and I was lying in bed and he said, 'Daddy, you're like Ironman,' and I thought that was the sweetest thing and it meant a lot.'

Simon confessed that the toughest part of recovery was 'the helplessness' which spurred him on to make a fitness commitment to himself.

He said: 'I've never been in this situation in my life where you literally can't move. The pain was off the charts But you've got to stay positive

'I made a promise to myself I'd be fitter than I was before I had the accident. Sure enough, that's what happened.'

Honest: Simon explained that his return home from the hospital wasn't easy, with the TV personality worried about his son's reaction

The electric bike accident in August last year occurred when the powerful machine 'flew up in the air and did an accidental wheelie' after he tried to change gears.

Following the accident, Simon tweeted: 'Some good advice... If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the first time.'

He went on: 'I have broken part of my back. Thank you to everyone for your kind messages.'

He then added in a second tweet: 'And a massive thank you to all the nurses and doctors. Some of the nicest people I have ever met. Stay safe everyone, Simon.'
She juggles a busy schedule.

But mum-of-one Ferne McCann, 31, has taken some time to unwind recently, spending some time in sunny Devon - before returning closer to home - with her daughter Sunday, three.

On Friday, the stunning television personality looked glowing in a checked shirt as she arrived at The Dorchester in London with Sunday.

Mother-and-daughter-time: Doting mum Ferne McCann looked glowing in a checked shirt and lycra shorts as she arrived at The Dorchester with daughter Sunday, 3, on Friday

Layering the shirt over a grey vest, Ferne completed her outfit with lycra shorts which showcased her bronzed legs.

Cutting a sporty style, the former TOWIE star stepped out in white trainers and accessorised with a black waist bag and chic shades.

Little Sunday looked adorable in Disney attire.

A trip to the capital: The stunning television personality looked glowing in a checked shirt as she arrived at a London hotel with Sunday

Big smiles: Cutting a sporty style, the former TOWIE star stepped out in white trainers and accessorised with a black waist bag and chic shades

The First Time Mum reality star gave her 2.6million Instagram followers a peek at their evening at The Dorchester on her story.

'And just like that, from Devon to The Dorchester! Me and my girl are having an extra few days of our holiday in London - why not?

'Holiday in one of the best cities in the world,' she gushed.

Continuing the holiday: The First Time Mum reality star gave her 2.6million Instagram followers a peek at their evening at The Dorchester on her story

Bridesmaid: Ferne's trip comes after she was overwhelmed with emotion as her best friend Danielle Armstrong asked her to be a bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding to Tommy Edney earlier this month

Ferne's trip comes after she was overwhelmed with emotion as her best friend Danielle Armstrong asked her to be a bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding to Tommy Edney earlier this month.

Ferne and Danielle, 33, who also previously starred on TOWIE, posed for several delighted snaps at an afternoon tea the bride-to-be held to formally ask her bridesmaids, ahead of the nuptials in August 2022.

Ferne wrote on Instagram: 'I cannot wait to be your bridesmaid. A million times yes to my friend that I giggle with every single day over the same s****y banter. Im going to be bridesmaid. I feel honoured and very special after a gorgeous surprise day out. Bring on the HEN. Thankyou beautiful @daniellearmstrong88'
Isla Fisher was in great spirits as she attended a wine tasting on Thursday.

The flame-haired beauty laughed as she enjoyed a tipple while visiting Forester Estate Winery in Western Australia.

The ever-youthful 45-year-old attended the event as part of the Cinefest Oz Film Festival.

Happy: Isla Fisher (pictured) was in great spirits as she attended a wine tasting on Thursday

The Wedding Crashers actress turned heads in a yellow frock with a split at the front and flowing layers.

It featured a low-cut neckline in a deep v-neck formation, which offered a glimpse of cleavage.

She covered up against the cold in a smart blazer with an angled design and a large button.

Fun in no sun: The flame-haired beauty laughed as she enjoyed a tipple while visiting Forester Estate Winery in Western Australia

In town: The youthful 45-year-old attended the event as part of the Cinefest Oz Film Festival

A look! The Wedding Crashers actress turned heads in a yellow frock with a split at the front and flowing layers

The Australian star added to the ensemble with a tiny black purse worn across her body.

Isla added a pair of statement earrings in the shape of feathers, and skipped any further accessories but for a few rings.

She completed the look with a pair of high fashion black shoes with a towering stiletto heel.

Cheeky: The pretty gown featured a low-cut neckline in a deep v-neck formation, which offered a glimpse of cleavage

Cosy: She covered up against the cold in a smart blazer with an angled design and a large button and opted for a tiny black purse

Pretty: For makeup, the Now You See Me star opted for a soft, natural palette with a rosy blush and pink lipstick in a satin finish

For makeup, the Now You See Me star opted for a soft, natural palette with a rosy blush and pink lipstick in a satin finish.

The beauty attended the event alongside Australian television star Rove McManus and laughed as she cradled a glass of white wine.

Rove, best known for hosting his own talk show, looked smart in a blue dress shirt and black jeans.
Elle Macpherson has spent the day with her younger son Cy Busson at his new college at Wellesley, Massachusetts.

The Australian supermodel and her 18-year-old son attended Babson College's orientation day and took photos as they enjoyed their time together.

Elle, 57, posted the images to her Instagram Stories for her 594,000 followers.

'So love you. Last pics together (for now)': Elle Macpherson, 57, has taken her younger son Cy Busson to Babson College in Massachusetts. Both pictured

'So love you. Last pics together (for now),' she captioned one post as her and Cy sat on beanbags.

Many of the posts feature Cy sitting in his dormitory as he begins a new chapter in his life.

One photo sees the doting mother and her son sitting outside the college together and smiling, while another has Elle taking a selfie with Cy and two friends.

New chapter: The Australian supermodel and her 18-year-old son attended Babson College's orientation day and took photos as they enjoyed their time together

Doting: 'Room done. Mother doing the sentimental school cap thing' Elle captioned one post

Strike a pose! She also posed with a statue outside the university

The Sydney-born model also snapped one selfie inside the dorm after ditching her sunglasses.

Earlier this month, Elle proved that at 57 she's still got it as she documented a motorbike ride she took across the United States.

The mother-of-two wore a chic outfit consisting of jeans, a black tee and leather boots during the ride.

Sweet: At one point, the doting mother and her son are seen sitting outside the college together and smiling

Hanging out: Many of the posts feature Cy sitting in his dormitory as he begins a new chapter in his life

Big moment: Elle took one selfie with Cy and two friends, but mostly took pictures of his new dorm

Lookalike: The Sydney-born model snapped one selfie inside the dorm with her son after ditching her sunglasses

The brunette beauty struck a trademark pose next to the bike outside a service station and posted the result online.

The mother-of-two now resides in New York City and Miami.

She has two sons, Flynn, 23, and Cy, 18, from her relationship with French financier Arpad Busson.
Caroline Flack's mother has revealed she can no longer bear to watch Love Island anymore, admitting it's 'horrible' to see her daughter's replacement Laura Whitmore in adverts in 'almost the same dress, in almost the same pose'.

The former host of the dating show was found dead aged 40 in her London flat on February 15 last year - a day after she heard the CPS would pursue a trial following a drunken row with then-boyfriend Lewis Burton.

And in a new interview, Christine hit out at Love Island's treatment of her daughter amid her assault charge, accusing them of being 'hypocritical' for sacking her when they themselves encourage arguments among contestants.

So sad: Caroline Flack's mother has revealed she can no longer bear to watch Love Island and see her daughter's replacement Laura Whitmore on the show following the star's death

The late TV presenter was facing trial accused of assaulting her former partner Lewis, 28, in December 2019.

However, Caroline strongly denied the charge and had pleaded not guilty to assault by beating at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on December 23.

And speaking to The Sun, Christine said of her daughter valued 'loyalty and friendship' above all else, and told that the show she hosted for four years failed to show the same to her when she was axed and replaced by pal Laura, 36.

Tough to see: Christine admitted it's 'horrible' to see her daughter's replacement Laura Whitmore in adverts in 'almost the same dress, in almost the same pose'

While she used to avidly watch the ITV2 programme when her daughter was at the helm, Christine admitted that she 'hasn't watched' it since Caroline died, suggesting it was too painful to see someone else host the show that her girl 'loved' so much.

She said: 'I watched Love Island because Carrie was in it. Now, it's horrible when the advert comes up and the girl that's taken her place is all in almost the same dress, in almost the same pose.'

Laura took over hosting duties shortly before Caroline was due to fly out to South Africa for Love Island's very first winter edition in January 2020.

She continued: 'I think ITV2 could have done it a little differently. They could have done it out of respect. It's all very well putting these films on saying, 'Oh, we love Carrie blah blah blah. But you know, just have a little bit of respect.'

Vent: In a new interview, Christine hit out at Love Island's treatment of her daughter amid her assault charge, accusing them of being 'hypocritical' for sacking her when they themselves promote arguments among contestants

Meanwhile, she hit out at the show's 'hypocritical' bosses for not standing by Caroline following her row with Lewis, despite them promoting rows between the couples on the show.

She explained: 'It's making them fight and argue, and they set them up for that. And yet they sacked Carrie straight away [after her row with Lewis]. I haven't watched Love Island since she died. Carrie loved that show, she loved the crew, she loved the contestants.'

MailOnline has contacted Love Island for comment.

Tragic: The former host of the dating show was found dead aged 40 in her London flat on February 15 last year - a day after she heard the CPS would pursue a trial following a drunken row with then-boyfriend Lewis Burton

After Caroline's passing, Christine blasted a senior Met Police officer for appealing against the CPS's decision to give her daughter a caution after her arrest for the alleged attack, despite officers finding her at the crime scene with an injury caused by self-harm.

She accused Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman of treating her more harshly due to her celebrity status.

DI Bateman previously denied treating the presenter more harshly because she was famous and insisted she 'wouldn't do anything differently' if confronted with the case again today.

Sad: While she used to avidly watch the ITV2 programme when her daughter was at the helm, Christine admitted that she 'hasn't watched' it since Caroline died, suggesting it was too painful to see someone else host the show that her girl 'loved' so much

Opinion: 'I watched Love Island because Carrie was in it. Now, it's horrible when the advert comes up and the girl that's taken her place is all in almost the same dress, in almost the same pose'

Echoing the same sentiments in the interview with The Sun, Christine said the case was 'so badly handled' by police and claimed they locked her daughter up for 24 hours after the arrest, while aware she had previously tried to commit suicide.

She said someone else might have been able to survive the public debacle but not Caroline, because her mental health was 'so very fragile'.

MailOnline has contacted the Met Police for comment.

Before Caroline passed, the presenter endured an onslaught of trolling on social media from trolls who branded her an 'abuser' and said she deserved to be sacked from Love Island.

No holding back: Christine called out the ITV dating show for their 'hypocrisy,' after firing Caroline over the alleged attack, despite promoting rows on the show(pictured this year's contestants Faye Winter and Teddy Soares)

Following, the TV personality's death prompted an outpouring of sorrow from celebrity friends, colleagues and fans, who referenced one of the former Strictly winner's social media posts from December in which she urged people to 'Be Kind'.

While Christine acknowledged the 'Be Kind' movement is great in theory, she doesn't feel anyone has truly learned anything from it or behaved kinder since her daughter's death.

Instead she feels many individuals have simply 'jumped on the bandwagon' with the social cause.

To stop Caroline from seeing the hateful comments when she was alive, Christine revealed she would have to take her phone away because the presenter was 'addicted' to reading the negativity.

As a result, she accumulated approximately 20 cell devices in a bid to protect her, despite Caroline immediately going out to buy herself a new one.

For help call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org
She made quite the statement at her estranged husband's Donda show by appearing on stage in a bespoke wedding gown and veil.

And Kim Kardashian, 40, gave her 248million Instagram followers a peek at behind-the-scenes snaps from Kanye West's, 44, Chicago listening event on Saturday.

Despite appearing to show support for the event by sharing photos, insiders have claimed Kim was angry Kanye chose to involve disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson.

Statement: Kim Kardashian shared behind the scenes shots from Kanyes Donda show dressed as a bride with her kids - amid claims she is angry he included Marilyn & DaBaby (pictured on Instagram)

Wearing the now famous Balenciaga Couture gown and veil, Kim showcased some of the unseen snippets to her fans on her Instagram page.

The second photo in one of Kim's slideshows saw her sporting the veil over her face as the elegant gown flowed against the floor.

The glamorous socialite switched up her outfits for one of the candid snaps, as her son Saint, five, clung onto her hand.

A tight braid in her raven tresses, Kim sported a leather black ensemble which covered her from head to toe.

Changing it up: The glamorous socialite switched up her outfits for one of the candid snaps, as her son Saint, five, clung onto her hand

Balenciaga Couture: Wearing that famous Balenciaga Couture gown and veil, Kim showcased some of the unseen snippets to her fans

In a separate post, the media personality simply penned: 'DONDA', alongside several eerie snapshots from the event, to which one fan replied: 'these made me feel uncomfortable'.

The snaps took a look at the elaborate set which included a recreation of Kanye's home affixed with a cross at the centre of the stadium.

In the final shot in the sneak peek post, Kim was again spotted in the iconic white gown - paying tribute to her seven year marriage to the rapper, despite her filing for divorce in February.

Kim's appearance sparked discussion of a possible reconciliation with Kanye - but insiders say they are not back together.

As with the last two Donda listening events at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kim brought all four of the couple's children along for the event.

Graphic: In a separate post, the media personality simply penned: 'DONDA', alongside several eerie snapshots from the event, to which one fan replied: 'these made me feel uncomfortable'

Set: The snaps took a look at the elaborate set which included a recreation of Kanye's home affixed with a cross at the centre of the stadium

Family affair: As with the last two Donda listening events at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kim brought all four of the couple's children along for the event

Iconic: In the final shot in the sneak peek post, Kim was again spotted in the iconic white gown - paying tribute to her seven year marriage to the rapper, despite her filing for divorce in February

Kim's behind the scenes glimpses follow claims that she was not pleased that Kanye chose to involve disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson in his Donda listening event.

On Friday numerous sources told PEOPLE that she was blindsided by his cameo as she 'wasn't in the loop' about the rapper's plan, and 'would have never participated if she knew Manson would be there.'

The 52-year-old embattled heavy metal artist, real name Brian Hugh Warner, is reportedly set to collaborate on Kanye's Donda album despite being in the midst of four ongoing sexual assault cases  with 16 women in total having accused him of sexual and psychological abuse.

According to one source the KUWTK star 'missed' both Manson and DaBaby's appearances as she could not see the trio from where she was seated.

'She was seated inside a suite facing the back of the house on the stage so she would not have been able to see them at all from her vantage point,' a source said.

'She wasn't in the loop at all about what was happening at the show. She was only aware of what Kanye had asked her to do, and she was willing to help him,' it was added.

Unaware: Kim's behind the scenes glimpses follow claims that she was not pleased that Kanye chose to involve disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson in his Donda listening event.

A second said that she 'wasn't clued in on everything that was going to happen,' at the event but 'a lot of it took her by surprise.'

'Kim is the first one to support his visions. He asked her to be part of the listening event and she said yes without hesitation. She didn't know that Marilyn Manson would be there too.'

After getting wind that her estranged husband brought out both Manson and DaBaby (who incurred backlash for homophobic statements), Kim reportedly began to contemplate her participation but decided to 'fulfill her promise,' explained another source.
He supported the proposed vaccine passport and implored his staff to get vaccinated.

And it was all smiles for Justin Hemmes on Friday as he finally received his jab at a medical clinic, and shared a selfie of the moment to Instagram.

The Sydney pub baron posted a vaccine emoji and wrote, 'so we can get back to,' before adding a series of emojis depicting alcoholic drinks, dancing and music.

Happy: Billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes (pictured) was all smiles as he received his Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, in a photo shared to Instagram

The 49-year-old billionaire wore his blue surgical mask as a woman at the clinic gave him his dose.

'Let's get back to it boss!! Can't wait for party time again,' commented a follower.

Journalist Melissa Hoyer added, 'Yes!'

Life as we know it: The Sydney pub baron posted a vaccine emoji and wrote, 'so we can get back to,' before adding a series of emojis depicting alcoholic drinks, dancing and music

'Do it for the Oyster festival,' joked independent men's site DMARGE, referring to the T-shirt being worn by the woman administering Justin's jab.

Justin has been a strong advocate for vaccination and made an emotional appeal in a video to his workers earlier this month to get the jab so they can reopen.

He said that if the state reaches its vaccination targets it would be 'wonderful news' as lockdowns could end and pubs could open.

Plea: Justin has been a strong advocate for vaccination and made an emotional appeal in a video to his workers earlier this month to get the jab so they can reopen

'I hope everybody is doing OK under these difficult circumstances. I'm sorry the lockdowns have gone on for so long,' he stated in a video uploaded by Merivale.

'There is a road to recovery, we all have a role to play in it. If you are willing, please get vaccinated. The AstraZeneca [vaccine] is available within three days of booking and for those who are eligible, you can get the Pfizer.'

The hospitality mogul added that his staff has a 'role to play and targets to reach' and promised employees they would be back at work soon.

Many happy returns: It comes as Justin's girlfriend, model Madeline Holtznagel (pictured) wished him a happy birthday. The pub baron turned 49 on Friday and the beauty shared black and white photos of the pair together

It comes as Justin's girlfriend, model Madeline Holtznagel, wished him a happy birthday.

The pub baron turned 49 on Friday and the beauty shared black and white photos of the pair together.

'Happy birthday' she captioned the sweet set of images, which showed the couple embracing.

While it's not known exactly how long Justin and Madeline have been dating, she has hinted their relationship has carried on longer than many people expect.

Sweet: 'Happy birthday' she captioned the sweet set of images, which showed the couple embracing

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald in October, Madeline said they'd actually met two years before reports emerged of their relationship early last year.

'We have known each other for two years and met when I was modelling in Singapore,' she said at the time.

It was also reported that Madeline was living in a penthouse apartment owned by Justin in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee.
Ulrika Jonsson has shared her heartache over her partner walking out shortly after their baby daughter Bo's life-saving heart operation.

In her latest column with The Sun, the TV personality, 54, opened up on the agonising time she split with then-partner Markus Kempen, who went to live abroad just weeks after Bo, now 21, was born.

Speaking candidly in her article, Ulrika admitted her dread at Bo and Markus potentially meeting again as they are coincidently in the same country, revealing the union could 'open a can of worms'.

That's my girl: Ulrika Jonsson has shared her heartache over her partner walking out shortly after their baby daughter Bo's life-saving heart operation (pictured with Bo in 2019)

Discussing the time before Markus left, Ulrika said there were already 'fractures' in their relationship even before their daughter was born and told how there were 'red flags' when they unsuccessfully tried living together previously.

Of him leaving, she told how he stood 'outside the labour ward' smoking cigarettes and 'plotting his escape' while she struggled to give birth.

She went on 'After her first operation at six days old, I was allowed to take her home. On the way, in the car, he announced he'd accepted a job abroad and would be leaving imminently.

Heartache: In her latest column with The Sun , the TV personality, 54, opened up on the agonising time she split with then-partner Markus Kempen, who went to live abroad just weeks after Bo, now 21, was born (pictured with Markus while pregnant with Bo in 2000)

'I sat in the back of the car, cradling my child - not ours. I knew she was chronically ill, might not survive future cardiac operations  and had just been abandoned by one half of her parents.'

Ulrika emotionally explained that the depression she soon developed was one of the 'deepest and darkest' times of her life, insisting that she fought 'relentlessly' for Markus 'to have a place in her [Bo's] life.'

The former Gladiators host went on consider Bo, who is working as a nanny in Greece, meeting her father for the first time in almost 21 years, with the Markus also in the same country currently.

Worries: Speaking candidly in her article, Ulrika admitted her dread at Bo and Markus potentially meeting again as they are coincidently in the same country, revealing the union could 'open a can of worms'

Upsetting: 'After her first operation at six days old, I was allowed to take her home. On the way, in the car, he announced he'd accepted a job abroad and would be leaving imminently'

Ulrika told of her 'anxiety' and 'concern' of them meeting without her present, fearing it could open a 'can of worms' for her daughter that she's not ready' to face.

She said: 'If she wants to meet him, I have always supported her and always will. It has been a discombobulated feeling of hope and fear these past few weeks... If he can enrich or enhance her life, who am I to stand in their way? I have never tainted her mind about her biological father.'

Ulrika is also mother to son Cameron, 26, with John Turnbull, daughter Martha, 17, with Lance Gerrard-Wright and son Malcolm, with ex Brian Monet.

Abandoned: 'I sat in the back of the car, cradling my child - not ours. I knew she was chronically ill, might not survive future cardiac operations  and had just been abandoned by one half of her parents'

Anxious: Ulrika told of her 'anxiety' and 'concern' of them meeting without her present, fearing it could open a 'can of worms' for her daughter that she's not ready' to face

Family: Ulrika is also mother to son Cameron, 26, with John Turnbull, daughter Martha, 17, with Lance Gerrard-Wright and son Malcolm, with ex Brian Monet

Ulrika has often been open about daughter Bo's heart condition and in April this year revealed that Bo - who has a congenital heart defect - was rushed to hospital.

The star nervously had to await test results for her ill daughter after she was admitted to hospital overnight, with Ulrika given hourly reports on her progress at the time.

Bo has been in and out of hospital over the years as a result of her condition - she was born with double inlet left ventricle defect, a congenital defect that affects the valves and chambers of the heart.

Tough time: Ulrika has often been open about daughter Bo's heart condition and in April this year revealed that Bo - who has a congenital heart defect - was rushed to hospital

As a baby, she had to undergo life-saving surgery on her heart - but Ulrika did not reveal what had caused Bo to be hospitalised.

The previous month Ulrika hailed Bo as a 'warrior' as she went to get a health check up.

The TV presenter shared a series of snaps to her Instagram Stories of Bo lying down at the doctor's office as she received a liver scan.

The former Celebrity Big Brother star posted a photo of the pair sat together in the waiting room as she called Bo her 'CHD Warrior'.
Sharon Stone continued to keep her chin up in Venice on Saturday, after telling fans her nephew had suffered total organ failure.

The Basic Instinct actress, 63, threw a peace sign as she stepped out in northern Italy, sporting a graphic slogan white tee and dark blue roll-up jeans.

She beamed a wide smile as she rocked a chic pair of chained shades and colour-coordinated her tee with white trainers.

Brave: Sharon Stone, 63, continued to keep her chin up in Venice on Saturday after asking fans to pray for her nephew following his organ failure

The former fashion model tied a grey jumper around her waist and threw on a black cross-body bag for the outing.

Sharon's tousled blonde tresses were swept into a chic style and she kept makeup to a minimum.

The Pennsylvania-born star was later spotted hopping into a boat in the City of Water.

Smiles: The Basic Instinct actress, 63, threw a peace sign as she stepped out in northern Italy, sporting a graphic slogan white tee and dark blue roll-up jeans

High-spirited: The star beamed a wide smile as she rocked a pair of chained shades

Chic: The former fashion model colour-coordinated her tee with white trainers

Finishing touches: Sharon threw on a black cross-body bag for the outing

Peace sign: Sharon's tousled blonde tresses were swept into a chic style and she kept makeup to a minimum

Trip: The Pennsylvania-born star was later spotted hopping into a boat in the City of Water

The outing comes after she took to her Instagram on Friday while on a photoshoot, urging her followers to pray for her nephew River, 11 months, after he was found in his crib with total organ failure.

Devastated by the news, Sharon shared a picture of River in his hospital bed and pleaded: 'We need a miracle.'

The Emmy award winner wrote: 'My nephew and godson River Stone was found in his crib [with] total organ failure today.

'We need a miracle': The outing comes after she took to her Instagram on Friday while on a photoshoot, urging her followers to pray for her nephew River, 11 months, after he was found in his crib with total organ failure

'Please pray for him. We need a miracle.'

She was inundated with messages of support from friends, fans and fellow celebrities a like, who sent the star their prayers.

Actress Kate Hudson penned: 'Sending light and healing love,' while Ruby Rose commented: 'Praying for River and your whole family.'

'Please pray for him': Sharon reached out to her followers for their prayers, with Kate Hudson and Ruby Rose sending the actress their support

Sharon Osbourne added: 'Bless him sending so much love and prayer.'

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay shared: 'Holding you and your family in prayer.'

No other details have been given regarding River's condition.

Support: Sharon Osbourne was also seen commenting on the star's post and shared, 'Bless him, sending so much love and prayer

River was born in September 2020 and is the son of Sharon's brother Patrick.

Sharon had introduced River to fans on Instagram shortly after his birth last year, as she shared a photo of the newborn to social media.

She penned at the time: 'Look whos going home: River William Stone, my brother Patrick and his wife Tashas new baby.'
Madeline Holtznagel has paid tribute to her boyfriend Justin Hemmes as he celebrates his 49th birthday.

The model shared rare images of the pair together to her Instagram on Friday as the billionaire pub baron turned 49.

'Happy birthday' the 25-year-old beauty captioned the sweet set of black and white images.

Sweet: Madeline Holtznagel has paid tribute to her boyfriend Justin Hemmes as he celebrates his 49th birthday. The model shared rare images of the pair together to her Instagram on Friday as the billionaire pub baron turned 49. Pictured together

One photo showed the couple embracing on a cliffside with an ocean view in the background.

A second photo depicted the pair linking hands as they enjoyed a drink alongside a beach.

The couple have remained quite private through the duration of their relationship.

Sweet: 'Happy birthday' the 25-year-old beauty captioned the sweet set of black and white images. One photo showed the couple embracing on a cliffside

Romantic: She also shared the photos to her Instagram Stories, writing 'Happy birthday JH' alongside a love heart emoji

While it's not known exactly how long Justin and Madeline have been dating, she hinted their relationship has carried on longer than many people expect.

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald in October, Madeline said they'd actually met two years before reports emerged of their relationship early last year.

'We have known each other for two years and met when I was modelling in Singapore,' she said at the time.

A while: While it's not known exactly how long Justin and Madeline have been dating, she hinted their relationship has carried on longer than many people expect

It was also reported that Madeline was living in a penthouse apartment owned by Justin in the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee.

She added that while the majority of her family was yet to meet her beau, her older sister, Simone, 28 - who appeared as a finalist in the 2011 season of Australia's Next Top Model - was a fan.

'My parents and my sister Anna haven't met him yet but Simone has been introduced to him and really liked him,' she added.
Sacha Baron Cohen has delighted West Australian locals during a trip to Busselton Jetty.

The Borat star visited the renowned tourist attraction during a trip across the state with his wife and Australian actress Isla Fisher on Saturday.

The 49-year-old movie star ventured on the jetty and the Underwater Observatory before leaving a special gift behind - a postcard that he signed from his most famous character, Borat.

Star power: Sacha Baron Cohen (left) has delighted West Australian locals during a trip to Busselton Jetty. The Borat star visited the renowned tourist attraction during a trip across the state with his wife and Australian actress Isla Fisher (right) on Saturday

'Busselton Jetty is very niiice (sic), Borat,' the postcard humourously read, almost straight from the lips of the iconic character.

Sacha then signed off the end of the card with 'Thanks, it's amazing, Sacha BC.'

A picture of the signed card was shared to the official Busselton Jetty Facebook page for followers to see.

Very nice! The 49-year-old movie star ventured on the jetty and the Underwater Observatory before leaving a special gift behind - a postcard that he signed from his most famous character, Borat

Both ways! Sacha then signed off the end of the card with 'Thanks, it's amazing, Sacha BC.' Pictured in character as Borat

'Thanks Sacha Baron Cohen for visiting our Underwater Observatory today. We love Borat!!' the caption for the post read.

'I got the privilege to say hi, ask where his beautiful wife was, print his tickets off and said it was a pleasure to meet you. He replied, 'it was a pleasure to meet you too,'' one follower recalled in the comment section of the post.

Another said that her husband was 'so excited' to see him at the jetty.

So fun! A picture of the signed card was shared to the official Busselton Jetty Facebook page for followers to see

A third joked he was 'disappointed' Sacha didn't have on the iconic mankini Borat sometimes wears.

But many locals who were on the jetty at the time also expressed disappointment in not seeing the actor.

Sacha is currently in Western Australia with his wife Isla Fisher for Cinefest Oz, which is located in the town of Busselton.

Too bad! One fan joked he was 'disappointed' Sacha didn't have on the iconic mankini Borat sometimes wears

Isla is set to receive a Screen Legend award at the special event.

She has most recently been busy shooting the upcoming Stan series Wolf Like Me with American actor Josh Gad in Sydney, but took time off to make the trip with her husband.

The couple arrived in Western Australia to complete their quarantine and make the festival.

Sacha and Isla moved from Los Angeles to Sydney with their three children last year.
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Sharon Stone continued to put on a brave face amid her nephew's organ failure as she posed for a sizzling Dolce and Gabbana photoshoot in Venice on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the Basic Instinct actress, 63, urged her fans to pray for her nephew River, 11 months, after he was found in his crib with total organ failure.

Proving the show must go on, Sharon wowed in a black bralette and high-waisted knickers as she posed alongside male models in a gondola amid the new campaign.

Hard at work: Sharon Stone continued to put on a brave face amid her nephew's organ failure as she posed for a sizzling Dolce and Gabbana photoshoot in Venice on Friday

Sharon looked incredible as she showed of her age-defying physique in the stylish underwear while posing on the boat.

Despite her family woes, the star managed to raise a smile as she shared a giggle with her fellow models on the gondola.

The screen siren teamed her look with a chic black handbag tucked under her arms, while at time she was seen with a black blazer draped over her shoulders.

'We need a miracle': Sharon's shoot comes the same day as she urged everyone to pray for her nephew River, 11 months, after he was found in his crib with total organ failure

The show must go on: But amid her heartache, the star powered through a glamorous photoshoot on a gondola in the Italian city

Brave face: Despite her family woes, the star managed to raise a smile as she shared a giggle with her fellow models on the gondola

Star of the show: Sharon looked incredible as she showed of her age-defying physique in the stylish underwear while posing on the boat

Location, location, location: The three models looked quite at eased as they chilled in a gondola in the floating city

Behind-the-scenes: Images show a secondary boat capturing all the action on the water

Her cropped, blonde tresses were swept into a chic, tousled style for all of her shots, while her age-defying features were highlighted with a dewy make-up palette.

Sharon, who also donned black stilettos, looked at ease as she lay draped across the guys, while the bag sat on her lap in prime position.

While at one point she found herself in an awkward position as she tried to adjust her legs in the small space.

What a view: The group made for quite the sight as they posed on the stunning black gondola

Fashion: The screen siren teamed her look with a chic black handbag tucked under her arms, while at time she was seen with a black blazer draped over her shoulders

Glam: Her cropped, blonde tresses were swept into a chic, tousled style for all of her shots, while her age-defying features were highlighted with a dewy make-up palette.

Whoops: At one point she found herself in an awkward position as she tried to adjust her legs in the small space

All good: The Casino star glowed as she giggled with her fellow models

Photoshoot: Sharon, who also donned black stilettos, looked at ease as she lay draped across the guys, while the bag sat on her lap in prime position

The star appeared in good spirits on the whole as she powered through the photoshoot on the water.

The trio all seemed to be getting along swimmingly as they shared a giggle while a gondoliers steered the vessel behind them.

Also arriving in style was Maria Bakalova, 25, who demanded attention in a pair of bright red trousers, which she paired with a zip-up hoodie in the same colour.

Beneath, the Bulgarian actress donned a white tee featuring a '90s supermodel' motif. She clutched a black leather handbag and populated her ears with a pair of white hoops.

Unmissable: Arriving in style was Maria Bakalova, 25, who demanded attention in a pair of bright red trousers, which she paired with a zip-up hoodie in the same colour

Stylish: She clutched a black leather handbag and populated her ears with a pair of white hoops

Looking good: The Bulgarian actress donned a white tee featuring a '90s supermodel' motif

Maintaining her privacy while stepping off a luxurious boat, Maria sported a black baseball cap and protected her eyes with a pair of oversized sunglasses.

The outing comes after Sharon took to her Instagram on Friday while on a photoshoot, urging her followers to pray for her nephew River, 11 months, after he was found in his crib with total organ failure.

Devastated by the news, Sharon shared a picture of River in his hospital bed and pleaded: 'We need a miracle.'

Keep going: The star appeared in good spirits on the whole as she powered through the photoshoot on the water

Water day: Sharon kept a smile fixed on her face as she posed for shot after shot

Legs for days: The Sliver actress showed off her enviably toned pins

Relax: The blonde beauty was simply stunning as she stretched out the gondola

Busy day: Passers-by went about their business as the trio shot the glamorous images

The Emmy award winner wrote: 'My nephew and godson River Stone was found in his crib [with] total organ failure today.

'Please pray for him. We need a miracle.'

She was inundated with messages of support from friends, fans and fellow celebrities a like, who sent the star their prayers.

Star on board: The trio all seemed to be getting along swimmingly as they shared a giggle while a gondoliers steered the vessel behind them

Animated: At times Sharon appeared very chilled before going on to put on an animated display

She could get used to this! Sharon looked quite at home as she reclined on the gondola

Row row row your boat: The gondolier was hard at work as the models kicked back behind him

Ahoy there! Sharon was certainly the star of the show during the sizzling Dolce and Gabbana photoshoot

Actress Kate Hudson penned: 'Sending light and healing love,' while Ruby Rose commented: 'Praying for River and your whole family.'

Sharon Osbourne added: 'Bless him sending so much love and prayer.'

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay shared: 'Holding you and your family in prayer.'

No other details have been given regarding River's condition.

Heartbreaking: It comes as the actress posted to Instagram in the early hours on Friday morning and asked for a 'miracle' as she shared the 11-month-old, named River Stone, had been hospitalised (stock image)

'Please pray for him': Sharon reached out to her followers for their prayers, with Kate Hudson and Ruby Rose sending the actress their support

River was born in September 2020 and is the son of Sharon's brother Patrick.

Sharon had introduced River to fans on Instagram shortly after his birth last year, as she shared a photo of the newborn to social media.

She penned at the time: 'Look whos going home: River William Stone, my brother Patrick and his wife Tashas new baby.'

Support: Sharon Osbourne was also seen commenting on the star's post and shared, 'Bless him, sending so much love and prayer
Kim Kardashian and estranged husband Kanye West could be rekindling their romance, sources say.

According to a report by TMZ on Saturday, insiders close to the former couple have claimed they are 'working on rebuilding the foundation of the relationship' privately.

On Thursday, Kim, 40, made a statement when she appeared on stage at the 44-year-old rapper's Donda listening event in Chicago in a wedding gown and veil.

Set to reconcile? Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are reportedly 'working on their relationship' according to TMZ on Saturday - after she made a statement by appearing on stage at his Donda show in Chicago on Thursday in a wedding gown and veil. Pictured in February 2020

While TMZ still believe the divorce is underway, other sources claim Kim and Kanye are willing to give their romance another chance, particularly with kids involved.

The former couple share four children - daughter North, eight, son Saint, five, daughter Chicago, three, and son Psalm, two.

MailOnline has reached out to Kim and Kanye's representatives for comment.

Family: While TMZ still believe the divorce is underway, other sources claim Kim and Kanye are willing to give their romance another chance, particularly with kids involved. They share four children - daughter North, eight, son Saint, five, daughter Chicago, three, and son Psalm, two

Balenciaga Couture: On Thursday, Kim, 40, made a statement when she appeared on stage at the 44-year-old rapper's Donda listening event in Chicago in a wedding gown and veil

Support: Sister Khloe Kardashian was quick to gush over the moment on social media, writing 'insanely beautiful!!!'

Kim wore a wedding dress and veil as she joined Kanye on stage at the listening party for his new album, Donda on Thursday evening.

The billionaire wore a Balenciaga couture dress while walking out onto the stage at Soldier Field in Chicago for the final song of the show, No Child Left Behind, which caused a frenzy at the stadium.

Kim stole the show as she appeared alongside Kanye and paid tribute to their seven-year marriage, despite the SKIMS founder filing for divorce in February.

Iconic: Kim paid tribute to her seven-year marriage to the rapper, despite her filing for divorce in February, by sharing a series of photos from the listening party to her Instagram

Statement: The beauty mogul was pictured in one photo in her bespoke Balenciaga wedding gown, sitting next to Kanye in a locker room

Changing it up: Kim switched up her outfits for one of the more candid photos, as their son Saint held tightly onto her hand

At one point, Kanye was seen beaming at her as he appeared to clutch onto a bible.

Kim's sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were quick to gush over the moment on social media.

'Insanely beautiful!!!' Khloe tweeted with two crown emojis, while Kylie shared close up snaps to her Instagram Story.

As with the last two Donda listening events at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kim brought all four of the couple's children along for the event.

The beauty mogul also took to Instagram on Saturday to share photos from the listening event, including ones of her in the bespoke Balenciaga wedding gown.

Family affair: As with the last two Donda listening events at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Kim brought all four of the couple's children along for the event

She simply captioned the posts 'DONDA' and 'BALENCIAGA HAUTE COUTURE', voicing her support for her estranged husband.

Kim and Kanye wed at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence in 2014, where Kim donned a fitted gown with delicate white lace, custom-made by Givenchy Haute Couture.

A source confirmed to DailyMail.com in February that Kim has filed for divorce. 'The split is amicable and there is no drama,' the insider shared at the time.

Kim is asking for joint legal and physical custody of their four young children. It was claimed that neither will contest their prenup.

Throwback: Kim and Kanye wed at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence in 2014 (pictured), where Kim donned a fitted gown with delicate white lace, custom-made by Givenchy Haute Couture

The tension reportedly started in July when Kanye decided to run for President of the United States and claimed he wanted North aborted but Kim refused. He also called Kim's mother Kris Jenner 'Kris Jong Un.'

A source previously told People that Kim and Kanye's marriage 'has been broken for a long time.'

'Kim feels like she has done everything she can to save it. Filing for divorce is something she has been thinking about for a long time. She has also been dreading it. She really, really has done everything to avoid filing.

'Last year, she hoped they could somehow work things out,' they added. 'In the past few weeks though, it has been clear that they are done. Although, there is still love, they are just too different and have different visions for the future.'
Chance, D'Lila and Jessie Combs joined a slew of A-list stars as they attended Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show in Venice, Italy on Saturday.

The daughters of American rapper Sean Combs, 51, also known as Diddy, made their presence felt in vibrant ensembles as they posed for photos in the idyllic locale.

Diddy shares twins D'Lila and Jessie, 14, with the late Kim Porter, and Chance, 15, with ex-girlfriend Sarah Chapman.

Making their presence felt: Diddy's daughters Chance, 15, D'Lila and Jessie, 14, donned vibrant ensembles as they attended the Dolce & Gabbana show in Venice, Italy on Saturday (pictured)

The twins opted for matching tribal-inspired print frocks and black Dolce & Gabbana logo sandals, accessorising with tinted black sunglasses and mini yellow handbags.

They swept their long locks into a high ponytail, and beamed for the cameras.

Meanwhile Chance wore a strapless dress with panels of mismatched fabrics and red sandals with a jewel adornment.

Putting their best foot forward: The twins opted for matching tribal-inspired print frocks and black Dolce & Gabbana logo sandals, while Chance wore a strapless dress with panels of mismatched fabrics and red sandals with a jewel adornment

She styled her tresses out and added delicate jewellery to her ensemble.

The sisters were escorted onto a luxury boat, arriving in style for the fashion show.

Diddy is a father to six children, and he welcomed his oldest son, Justin, in 1993 with his former partner, Misa Hylton.

Service: The sisters were escorted onto a luxury boat, arriving in style for the fashion show

He later began an on-again-off-again relationship with Kim Porter, which came to an end in 2007.

The former couple welcomed a son named Christian, 23, as well as Jessie and D'Lila during their time together.

Diddy also became a stepfather to Quincy Brown, 30, Kim's son with producer Al B. Sure!

A-list event: Dolce & Gabbana have pulled out all the stops for their three-day festival

Kim notably passed away in 2018 following a battle with pneumonia, and Diddy publicly mourned the loss of his former partner during an interview with Essence, where he also spoke about spending more time with his children.

During the sit-down, Diddy expressed that, although he had previously placed much of his time and energy into his career, he has found himself to be much more satisfied with being a father.

'I'm just a lot more present, and, most important, now my kids come before anything else in my life,' he noted.

The performer also told the media outlet that he was happy about his home life and grateful for the support of his loved ones.

'It really made me proud that even though I didn't get married, Kim and I, along with the other mothers of my children, raised a great family,' he said.
Cole Sprouse embraced his girlfriend Ari Fournier after the pair had dinner in Los Feliz, a Los Angeles neighborhood near Hollywood.

The actor, 29, wore a blue shirt, halfway unbuttoned, a white cap, jeans and sneakers. His better half wore a leather jacket, checkered shirt underneath and jeans.

The Riverdale star put his arm around his significant other's shoulder while the pair walked down the street.

Out on the town: Cole Sprouse embraced his girlfriend Ari Fournier after the pair had dinner in Los Feliz, a Los Angeles neighborhood near Hollywood

Their dinner may have been an early celebration for Fournier's birthday.

The model turned 23 on Saturday, August 28. The Friends alum posted a number of photos on Instagram to wish her a happy birthday.

The couple started dating earlier this year after Sprouse broke up with actress and Riverdale co-star Lili Reinhart last year.

The actors played love interests on the show which is currently in its fifth season.

Birthday hangout: Their dinner may have been an early celebration for Fournier's birthday. The model turned 23 on Saturday

Fournier and Sprouse also celebrated his birthday earlier this month with a laundry list of famous friends.

Notable stars on the guest list were director Taika Waitit, actor Darren Criss and Sprouse's Riverdale co-star KJ Apa.

Sprouse is lucky to get a respite from his busy schedule. In addition to his work on Riverdale, the actor also filmed a part for Moonshot, an upcoming science fiction film about a woman who chases after her boyfriend after he moves to Mars.

The film will also feature actors Zach Braff and Lukas Gage.

Hollywood breakup: Sprouse, seen here with ex Lili Reinhart, started dating Fournier earlier this year after he broke and his Riverdale co-star broke things off in 2020

Sprouse is also getting ready to shoot Undercover, a movie about a father who gets into a custody battle with his ex while simultaneously working in a cover band with an unprofessional musician. Sprouse will play the younger musician opposite of Zachary Levi.

This comes after KJ Apa says there's 'a lot of baggage' that comes with success.

The Riverdale star has said he's 'so grateful' for his role as Archie Andrews on the CW drama series, but also believes his fame has made it difficult to talk to others, because they often don't see him as an 'actual person'.

Star-studded birthday: The actor celebrated his birthday earlier this month with celebrity guests like director Taika Waitit, actor Darren Criss and Sprouse's Riverdale co-star KJ Apa

He said: 'There's been so much pressure in playing Archie. I'm so grateful for the show and its success, but at the same time, there's a lot of baggage that comes with that success. I feel like the only people I can talk to about my issues are my co-stars, the people who can really relate to me.'

KJ particularly praised Sprouse who plays Jughead Jones  for helping him through his newfound fame, as the 28-year-old actor has been in the spotlight since he was a child.

He continued: 'Cole is an amazing person to have on set, because he's been doing this his whole life. I try and look at it from a fan's perspective to understand the way they think. But there are times when I'm like, 'Wow, they really have no idea that we are actual people. They can't separate us from our characters.'

'You don't have that in other professions. You don't dissect the life of a builder and start judging the decisions he makes in his life with his wife and kids. As an actor, I will be judged on everything: my political opinions, my opinions on drugs, my opinions on the people I want to be with. Everything. It's something I've had to come to terms with.'
Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi looked happy as they started their weekend together.

After spending the day together grabbing lunch, they continued their Friday into the night with a friend-filled dinner at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills.

The 19-year-old model and 24-year-old actor have been going strong and are approaching their one-year anniversary.

Going strong: Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi looked happy and in love as they started their weekend together

The lovebirds looked just as stylish as they did in love, with both making bold fashion statements for their night out.

The Euphoria actor opted for wide-leg grey trousers paired with a cropped navy Ralph Lauren jacket. He topped the look off with a vintage-looking navy blue trucker hat that had a gold emblem on it.

On his feet were a pair of textured black Adidas sneakers. He added a necklace, thin bracelets, and a tiny crossbody pouch.

The American Horror Stories actress also wore wide-leg pants, but in black. She tucked a white blouse into them.

Day to night: After spending the day together grabbing lunch, they continued their Friday into the night with a friend-filled dinner at Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills

The Vogue cover star layered her top with a shrunken black vest, and finished the ensemble with black booties. She was seen wearing a black disposable face mask.

The couplet was also seen out and about earlier in the day, grabbing a to-go lunch.

It's been been almost a full year since they began dating. Reports claim they met up in September 2020 and fell for each other immediately; they were then seen dining and working out together in Manhattan.

For Halloween the photogenic couple dressed up as Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley as they went Instagram official.

Stylish pair: The lovebirds looked just as stylish as they did in love, with both making bold fashion statements for their night out

The brunette beauty has been linked to Pete Davidson while Jacob has dated both his Kissing Booth costar Joey King and Euphoria cast mate Zendaya.

Gerber has been outspoken about her love for the Australian actor.

In May Kaia spoke about her 'secure' and 'steady' relationship during a candid interview with American Vogue.

'Being able to be with someone I trust, where we don't want anything from each other, having a safe, steady relationship like that, has really opened my eyes to the possibilities of love and what it feels like to love without conditions,' she said.

As her modeling career heats up, the daughter of Cindy Crawford posted a Marc Jacobs ad on her Instagram page earlier this week.

Following mom's footsteps: As her modeling career heats up, the daughter of Cindy Crawford posted a Marc Jacobs ad on her Instagram page earlier this week

She held a bottle of the brand's Daisy fragrance and posed showing off a sheer, soft pink manicure.

'Daisy eau so intense,' she captioned the post before tagging the fashion label and hashtagging 'mj daisy.'

Following in her famous mother's footsteps, Kaia began modelling at the age of 10 and has been featured in campaigns for many high-end fashion houses including Chanel and Fendi.

The looker was also named Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2017.

In March, the starlette landed a role in the tenth season of FX's anthology series American Horror Story, after making her acting debut in the 2016 television movie Sister Cities.
It's three years since she walked away, in floods of tears, from her husband and four children.

But the smiles are back  and the champagne on ice  as former BBC arts journalist Rosie Millard is to wed the man she gave it all up for.

I can reveal Rosie, 56, and her multi-millionaire lover, Alex Graham, 67, will marry on Tuesday at Islington Town Hall, North London. The ceremony will be followed by a champagne-soaked celebration at Fredericks restaurant nearby, say insiders.

A source said: This is a no-expense-spared do. Media luvvies from North Londons champagne socialist in-crowd will be on parade, and Rosie is very excited. It is what she has wanted for some time. Expect quite the party and, of course, the dress.

Ex-BBC arts journalist Rosie Millard (pictured above), 56, and her multi-millionaire lover, Alex Graham, 67, will marry on Tuesday at Islington Town Hall, North London

Ms Millards choice of wedding outfit may well attract interest: when she covered the Oscars for BBC News in 2001 she wore a plunging Vivienne Westwood frock and after she finished her report, newsreader Michael Buerk famously told viewers: That was Rosie Millard in the Best Supporting Dress.

The wedding completes a busy few months for Ms Millard, who now chairs BBC Children In Need.

Alex Graham, above, outgoing chairman of the Scott Trust, left his wife, Maeve Haran, 70, mother to their three grown-up children

She recently posted several images of the London house she and Mr Graham moved into in February. One showing flowers on a dressing table, was captioned: Our lovely canal-side house continues to blossom.

Ms Millard and Mr Graham abandoned their partners before Christmas 2018. She ditched TV producer Philip Clothier, her husband of more than 20 years and father to their children. The youngest two, who were then aged 16 and 14, continued living with their dad at their 2 million Islington home.

Mr Graham, outgoing chairman of the Scott Trust  which owns The Guardian newspaper  left his wife, Maeve Haran, 70, mother to their three grown-up children and the author of bestselling novel Having It All. It is understood she was unaware of the affair until he left her.

Almost a year after walking out, Ms Millard wrote an at-the-time anonymous article in The Sunday Times. Describing the tearful farewell, she wrote: My now ex-husband cooked everyone a hearty meal... Then he lined up the children, our children, so I could say goodbye.

He stood there while I did this act, tears pouring down my cheeks, unable to speak.

It may only be August but my hot tip for the biggest high-society event of 2022 is the wedding of Willa Keswick and Jake Morant.

Why? Well, Willa, a scion of the Keswick dynasty, is the heir to a billion-pound fortune and Jake, head of events at luxury catering firm Bread & Honey, is a friend of Rolling Stone Ronnie Woods son Ty.

Their guest list is likely to include everyone from Georgia May Jagger to Violet von Westenholz, who is said to have set up the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs first date.

Other pals include model Adwoa Aboah, socialite and DJ Lady Mary Charteris and actress Jaime Winstone. Aristos, models, actresses and rock n roll? It should be a raucous party

Willa Keswick pictured attending the InStyle and EE Rising Star Party at The Ace Hotel in London in February 2015

Is Richard Bacon about to replace Piers Morgan as host of Good Morning Britain? Last week Piers declared on social media that he was irreplaceable  and dashing Richard was quick to comment, posting ish underneath.

Agents usually clear these things up swiftly if they arent true, but curiously Richards spokesman said, cryptically: Ive spoken to him but he doesnt wish to comment at this time.

Previously, Richard has said, modestly, that he isnt good enough to replace Piers and quipped hes too gameshow to do things like interview politicians about Afghanistan.

But perhaps the main problem with the new job would be the commute as he lives in LA!
Has Lady Amelia Windsor bagged herself a new man?

My spies saw Amelia, who turned 26 last week, cuddling up with a dashing young fellow called Sebastian Carter at the recent Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire.

Its not surprising that Sebastian has fallen for Amelia: 42nd in line to the throne, she is often described as the most beautiful Royal and models eco-friendly outfits.

The Duke of Kents granddaughter celebrated her birthday by posing with a woke vegan Virgo cake and wearing a 25 Sweetcorn Summer necklace by the zero plastic designer Florence Bridge. Perhaps it was a gift from her mystery man.

Lady Amelia Windsor, who turned 26 last week, was seen cuddling up with a dashing young fellow called Sebastian Carter (both pictured) at the recent Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire

The Duke of Kents granddaughter pictured attending Dr. Jart+ Pop up store launch on August 17 this year in London

My lips are sealed, but...

Which senior parliamentarian sent his daughter a message congratulating her on getting engaged to her boyfriend... only to discover she wasnt?

It seems the busy politician is so consumed by state affairs that hes lost track of his familys affairs...

If you want proof of how bonkers the fashion world is, look no further than Alexa Chung  she celebrated giving up smoking by posting a stylish photo of herself, er, lighting a cigarette.

But full marks to the former fag-ash fashionista, 37, who has been smoke-free for six months  even though cigarettes had given her a famously husky voice.

However, she doesnt want fans to think shes gone super-healthy, declaring: Six months smoke free. Didnt give up wine though!
Cat Deeley, 44, nailed casual chic as she exited BBC Broadcasting House in London following her Radio 2 stand-in show for Rylan Clark-Neal, 32, on Saturday.

The age-defying beauty looked stylish in a white T-shirt, which she paired with flared light-blue jeans.

The presenter was standing in for Rylan's self-titled afternoon radio show, during his seven-week absence as he takes time off work following his split from his husband in June.

Fashion forward: Cat Deeley, 44, nailed casual chic as she exited BBC Broadcasting House in London following her Radio 2 stand-in show for Rylan Clark-Neal, 32, on Saturday

Protecting others with a black face mask featuring a gold-printed moth, the blonde bombshell swept her luscious tresses over her right shoulder.

The stunning model exuded confidence while strutting her way to her car in a pair of onyx low-block heels.

Cat, who returned to live in the UK recently after years in America, accessorised her look with a giant black leather handbag, which she paired with a shoulder-bag in the same colour.

Wow! The age-defying beauty looked stylish in a white T-shirt, which she paired with flared light-blue jeans

Host: The presenter was standing in for Rylan's self-titled afternoon radio show, during his seven-week absence as he takes time off work following his split from his husband in June

Silky: The blonde bombshell swept her luscious tresses over her right shoulder

Heavy? Cat accessorised her look with a giant black leather handbag, which she paired with a shoulder-bag in the same colour

Friendly: She stopped in her tracks to greet onlookers and sign her autograph

She stopped in her tracks to greet onlookers and sign her autograph, before rushing into a blacked-out saloon car, which dashed her away.

Cat was standing in for Rylan who announced his split from Dan Neal, 42, in June, almost six years after they tied the knot, with Rylan announcing he is 'seeking help' for issues.

The former X Factor star, however, is set to return to the world of showbiz with a new podcast titled The Ry-Union, with the audio series featuring the likes of Katie Price and Cher Lloyd.

Centre of attention: She soon rushed into a blacked-out saloon car, which dashed her away

Beaming: Cat flashed a cheeky grin behind her mask for onlookers

The Essex boy is scheduled to begin recording at the end of August and is also hoping to collaborate with other big names including Nicole Scherzinger.

A source told The Sun: 'Rylan's new podcast is really exciting and is giving him a real trip down memory lane [and] he will be speaking with people who were integral parts of his journey.

'Katie Price has agreed to be one of his guests [and] Cher Lloyd, who was on The X Factor two years before Rylan in 2010, will also come on to speak to him.'

MailOnline reached out to Rylan's representatives for comment at the time.
Lady Kitty Spencer looked chic as she attended the Dolce and Gabbana launch party in Venice alongside her pal Emma Weymouth on Saturday.

The niece of Princess Diana, 30, donned a double breasted green suit and peep toe white heels and a matching bag which she held in her hands.

The newlywed was glowing as she arrived at the event, wearing an elegant make up look complete with winged black eyeliner, while her blonde locks were swept back from her face.

Looking good: Lady Kitty Spencer, 30, looked chic in a double breasted green suit as she attended the Dolce and Gabbana launch party in Venice on Saturday

Dangling from her ears were gold heart shaped earrings, which matched a pendant which hung around a chain on her neck.

Elsewhere, socialite Emma, 35, who is married to the Eight Marquess of Bath, Ceawlin Thynn, looked every inch the summer beauty as she arrived in a leopard print pyjama set.

The quirky ensemble also boasted a rose print and red piping to match, while she shaded from the sun in a straw hat which sat on top of her head.

Wow: Elsewhere, socialite Emma Weymouth, who is married to the Eight Marquess of Bath, Ceawlin Thynn looked every inch the summer beauty in a leopard print pyjama set

Radiant: The newlywed was glowing as she arrived at the event, wearing an elegant make up look complete with winged black eyeliner

Chic: Emma's quirky ensemble also boasted a rose print and red piping to match, while she shaded from the sun in a straw hat which sat on top of her head

Kitty's appearance comes after the socialite and her Foschini Group chairman husband Michael Lewis were residents of the Il San Pietro Hotel in Positano, where rooms cost up to 3,590-a-night.

The couple first checked-in to the five-star hotel three days after their lavish wedding in Rome on July 24, which was dubbed the socialite event of the year.

Emma attended the wedding ceremony wearing a stunning red ball gown and her hair tied into a low bun.

Kitty wedded her long-term boyfriend Michael at a 17th century Italian castle.

Lady Kitty's father Earl Spencer, 57, did not attend and she was walked down the aisle by her brother Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, 27, and half brother Samuel Aitken, whose father is businessman Jonathan Aitken.

Loved up: Lady Kitty tied the knot with her long time partner Michael Lewis, 62, on July 24 in Italy, during what has now been dubbed the socialite event of the year
Local

Klan first marched though Nac a century ago

Library of Congress Library of Congress Ku Klux Klan members assembles with a burning cross and the American flag as their banner in this photo from between 1920 and 1930, the height of popularity for the hate group. The second Ku Klux Klan first marched in Nacogdoches in early September 1921.

Nacogdoches residents were making preparations for the second coming of hate, bigotry and a total disregard for the Constitution a century ago this week.

The second Ku Klux Klan held its first parade in Nacogdoches at 10 p.m. Saturday Sept. 3, 1921, after announcing a visit and making their presence known across East Texas though a string of violence.

This iteration of the hate group is exactly what one typically imagines when thinking of the Klan. White robes. Pointy hoods. Burning crosses.

The first KKK disbanded around 1871, didnt have a true uniform and never burned a cross. Both groups preached message of white supremacy, but the second Klan mixed in antisemitism and anti-Catholicism while calling themselves Christians and apostles of Americanism.

That warm late summer night in 1921, the KKK brought those messages while waving an American flag and carrying a burning cross along Main Street.

The Ku Klux Klan made its first appearance in Nacogdoches Saturday night with a parade of 316 shrouded persons. The coming of the Klansmen is thought to be the forerunner of organization here and town gossip has it that the apostles of Americanism came here from Shreveport to show their strength, the Houston Post reported two days later.

Some accounts say the Klan told all loafers to get jobs or leave town, adding the group didnt want racial violence. Others reported the hooded mob also paraded though predominantly Black neighborhoods along Shawnee Street with the blazing cross in tow.

Their movements were not hindered or questioned by local authorities, The Tidings, the newspaper for the Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles, Calif., wrote in a larger story on the uptick in KKK activities in 1921 and anti-Catholic sentiment by Klansmen.

The Dallas Express, which reported Black community news from Nacogdoches, did not mention the KKK march.

How receptive the community was at the time isnt really known. City and county officials opposed the Klans efforts to expand into the Oldest Town in Texas, and the KKK typically didnt typically thrive in small towns with decent-sized Catholic populations.

Plus, one of the most popular general stores in town was owned by Joe Zeve, a well respected Jewish immigrant from what is now Poland. A customer who was close enough to Zeve to call him Uncle Joe, as most did, would be difficult to convince that their beloved shopkeep was somehow subhuman.

Before the KKK arrived that September night, District Attorney William Bill Bates and Nacogdoches Mayor V.E. Middlebrook were approached by Klansmen from Center offering to clean up undesirables, Bates recalled years later.

The Ku Klux Klan was a quite a force then, Bates told author and historian N. Don Macon. They almost ran Houston in those days. They were strong in several counties up here in East Texas, including Nacogdoches County. I was against them, fought them.

The Klansman told the two civic leaders that if someone ought to be tended to, this Center group will come and take care of him, take him out and ride him on a rail.

By all accounts, the Center-based Klan group was among the most violent in East Texas.

In July 1920, they attacked J.W. McKnight of Nacogdoches twice in three days. McKnight, who was white, was abducted from a train in Timpson where he was going to meet his son. A masked man with a pistol ordered him to throw up his hands. He was severely beaten.

The next day he went to the Shelby County Sheriffs Office to report the assault. Deputies arrested him for carrying a pistol. They were taking him to Tenaha to sit in jail when he was abducted again by masked men, whom he recognized as Klansmen.

He was tarred and feathered before being released. Some accounts say McKnight was forced to submit to a serious surgical operation.

The Center groups also behind the July 16, 1921 tar and feathering of Beulah Johnson, a white woman charged with bigamy, and it is believed to be behind the kidnapping of Sherwood Vinson of Lufkin who suffered the same fate as Johnson and McKnight.

Vinson ran into a tailor shop, which was quickly overrun with people who had never seen an individual so bedecked before. It is understood that Vinson had been warned to leave town sometime ago, The Post reported in a story detailing around 20 cases of Klan violence between January and July 1921.

Cases of Klan violence against Black people were not as widely reported in newspapers, though the Post story notes that a Black boy in Dallas was abducted and had the letters KKK branded on his forehead. More than 4,000 Black people were lynched after the first KKK dissolved and before the second one disbanded, according to The Equal Justice Initiative. A true toll of the racial violence might never be known.

After a summer filled with hate, violence and Klan recruiting efforts, the Rev. Sterling Franklin Baucom, a longtime Baptist preacher and Nacogdoches native, made an appeal to his fellow Christians.

Ku Kluxism as it exists today, eventually will lead to anarchy and Bolshevism. It is a mob rule by a few, who hide their identity and denies the citizen his right to a trial by jury. It also permits irresponsible persons to settle grudges and old scores, Baucom told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in October 1921.

Baucom, then 69, had been a teen when the Civil War ended and had expressed support for the first KKK. The second, he said, went too far.

If people who are identified with the new Klan would put as much vigor into assisting duly elected officers, and do it in the open, far better results would be obtained. Then, if the officers fail to do their duty, the voters should remove them, he said.

By 1922, Klan violence had become so much of a problem that Middlebrook, the Nacogdoches mayor, called upon all non-Ku Klux to meet in April to discuss how to keep the group away from the city. That same month a grand jury in Harris County called the KKK a serious menace and urged it and similar organizations to disband.

The second Klan more or less fell apart around World War II thanks in part to anti-KKK crusades by elected officials and Protestant pastors. At its peak around 1924 the group had as many as 6 million members.

A third iteration of the Klan formed in the 1950s to oppose the civil rights movement. It still exists today and has two chapters in Texas  one in Gladewater and the other in DeKalb  according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Klan rallies in recent years typically have fewer than 50 participants, according to the Center on Extremism. A 2016 rally in Tupelo Mississippi, drew 35 people, only nine of whom were Klansmen.
Buju Banton squared off with some of his followers again on Instagram, after he posted a statement on his Instagram page aimed at the Jamaican government, which they deemed another of his conspiracy theories.

Why are you hurting your people? Buju wrote on his IG page on Wednesday. What have they done to you? How much were you paid? Are you not awardee of the global deaths caused? Why are you holding, nurse, teachers, workers, children, parents, the nation hostage against their will? Is it only big business that are a essential? Until you people stand on your feet, you shall forever be on your knees. Peace.

He then added: u people will pay a heavy price for your ignorance.

Scores of his supporters wrote notes supporting his comments, many painting pictures of doom and gloom, that the end of humanity was near as they lauded the Til Shiloh artist for his wisdom and evoking of his third eye.

His compatriot Spragga Benz, also reshared the post and captioned it: Relevant Questions to @andrewholnessjm, while Mavado showed his support of Bujus arguments by noting: Real talk and Foota Hype added; Facts.

On the other hand, there were others who pounced on Buju, rehashing his drug conviction as a means of discrediting his arguments.

@bujubanton same way like how you pay heavy fi a sell drugs to yu own brothers and sisters weh cause countless of damages, madsquad1 wrote.

@bujubanton we cant afford to believe in alternative theories buju. only the rich can. if we dont get vaccinated we will lose our jobs, blahhooboo said.

The description of Buju as a prophet did not go down well with followers such as madsquad1.

He is no prophet  thats the problem. He is a wolf in sheep clothing hes only speaking. If he was a True leader he would have stand up in person and not behind a screen, he said of the Grammy-winning deejay.

Why him dont hold a news conference? Why him dont meet with government? Hes just winding up people and when they get lock (up) hes sitting home chilling, he added.

Other followers rebuked the Gargamel for what they described as his consistent efforts at spreading propaganda about the COVID-19 virus.

@bujubanton this right here is reckless and cost lives, I am so ashamed of the way youve handle this thing, people are dying and u think its ok to miss lead them? Come on man lives are more important than anything else. Me loose off a u, shaunwell30 declared, while raxjm added: @bujubanton you will too. Stop the propaganda, there is a pandemic!

Also expressed annoyance at Bujus pronouncements was angela404.

The people perishing are the unvaxxed. This man is leading down the wrong pathalso waiting for Buju and others to pay peoples lost wages when they catch Covid and cant work for two weeks, she said.

After getting wind that his statements were being attacked, Buju sought to put up a defence.

The trolls are very active this is a progressive page go to where you here what you want to here . Too much traitors among us, he wrote, evoking support from exqusitehairclarke who replied: @bujubanton true they are brainwash thats why they just roll over like dogs and give their hand and tek the jab God go wid dem respect boss.

There were other followers though, who decided that they would not ease up on Buju as his antecedents were not good.

This comn from same mon who got caught selln cocaine..you should b quiete u Just like Rick Ross way u sold ya people out, raswhitelion rebuked.

Another follower, sivva_tweets decided to point out that Buju was not genuine as he was being very selective in which cause to take up.

 why dont u speak on gay ppl ??? fake woke, christopher_c_hall jeered.

Buju can sign paper not to sing boom bye bye as again n take it down from all plot farm but cant do the same for the song he sing informer fi dead n other derogatory songs but him will not sing boom bye bye bcuz its too influential n it will hurt the gays, but informer fi dead songs n other songs nah hurt Jamaican people, unu a hypocrite, tel him to denounce informer fi dead n d rape song, he added.

Just over two weeks ago Buju and Spragga, who are Dancehalls staunchest critics of COVID-19 containment measures and global vaccination efforts, fell under Instagrams censorship radar, with Spragga being shadow-banned and one of Bujus posts being flagged as false information.

The two men have been highly contemptuous of the Government of Jamaicas attempts to inoculate at least 60 percent of the islands population against COVID-19 and have been consistently making posts arguing that the pandemic was planned to implement, among other things, a New World Order.
When hundreds of thousands of children went back to school last August and September, the COVID pandemic that sent them home the previous spring had reached a low point.

Daily infections were minimal, hospitalizations had ample capacity and new deaths from the virus had slowed. They had to mask up, and in some cases, alternate days in school and at home, but they were offered an opportunity to see their teachers and classmates in person  crucial, many said, to helping them properly learn and engage.

Now they head back to the classroom full-time after entering a summer break that had started with new pandemic lows before the highly infectious delta variant upended the calm. In recent weeks, infections have reached highs not seen since April and Connecticut hospitals have more COVID patients than they did in early May.

Theres the delta variant, the numbers are up and they are higher than they were this time last year, theres no question about that, said Fran Rabinowitz, head of the Connecticut Association for Public School Superintendents. But I also believe that we have many more powerful, very powerful, weapons against those numbers as well, namely vaccinations. Thats a huge difference from where we were last year.

The majority of those 12 and up will likely be vaccinated. And teachers, often in age groups more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, are being required by the state to get shots  driving up the numbers for a group that is already overwhelmingly vaccinated.

The latest state Department of Public Health data shows 62 percent of children age 12 to 15 and 74 percent of children age 16 to 17 have been vaccinated, a sizable increase from the end of June.

However, concern over the spread of the virus remains high. After weeks of watching the delta variant drive up infections in Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont said all students and school staff will be required to wear masks when they return. And officials are watching the situation closely to ensure students and school staff are safe.

Weve made some progress, but we are also dealing with this variant that we didnt have last year that we know is much more infectious. How those opposing forces play out. . what ultimately wins out, we are going to have to wait and see. I dont think anyone knows, said Dr. Gerald Rakos, department chair for pediatrics at Stamford Health.

Downturn vs. uptick

Key metrics that have informed decisions both statewide and locally have taken a different turn as students head to school this year. Entering school last fall, the numbers were at a low point from the initial surge, but now they have crept back up through the late summer.

The seven-day average positivity rate was below 1 percent in late August 2020. Hospitalizations were steadily between 45 and 60 patients. And fewer than a dozen deaths were recorded each week. At this point, the numbers had steadily dropped from the springtime highs when COVID first hit.

This year, the average positivity rate has hung near 3.5 percent in late August. Hospitalizations are among the highest since early May with more than 350 patients statewide. But deaths remain relatively similar, largely due to vaccination efforts. Those metrics, closely watched by state and local officials, have been on the rise since a low this June.

The only thing that is different, and I dont mean to minimize it, but its more dangerous because we have a more dangerous strain, said Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare.

In late August and early September of last year, little was discussed publicly about mutations in the virus that would create more infectious variants.

It would be months before concerns were raised in Connecticut over the alpha variant, which reports show was first discovered in November in the U.K. Researchers learned that it was 50 percent more infectious than the native strain of the virus that started the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By the spring of the last school year, alpha had become the dominant strain in Connecticut, reports from a cooperative research effort between Yale School of Public Health, the Department of Public Health and Jackson Laboratories shows.

It was not until spring that the delta strain, believed to be 60 percent more infectious than the alpha variant, was first discovered in India. And researchers in Connecticut did not discover it was the dominant strain until July, when students were already home for the summer.

With the delta variant, cases in general have risen, including those involving children. State statistics have shown a recent uptick in cases involving children from birth to age 19, while last year cases jumped more significantly among older age groups  many of whom are now vaccinated.

Its delta, we are seeing many more pediatric hospitalizations, cases and deaths. Connecticut is probably still doing OK, but across the country, its way up as compared to last year, Wu said.

Nationwide, Rakos said cases involving children have increased from 38,000 per week in late July to more than 140,000 cases last week.

Kids definitely dont get as sick as adults, but there have been multiple cases of kids getting very sick, needing hospitalizations and dying, he said.

Controlling the spread

When students returned to the classrooms last fall, strategies to stem the spread of the virus were untested in a school environment that previously did not lend as well to heading off respiratory diseases.

But now a year later, school administrators have weathered the bumps and the states education department has homed in on the core strategies, outlined in a nine-page document released ahead of the new school year.

I think we have a whole year and a half of experience now and I do believe we are in much better shape. We are much more experienced at it than we were at this time last year. We really know the mitigating strategies. We really know the high-leverage mitigating strategies that will make a difference, said Rabinowitz, a former longtime educator and superintendent.

Central to the strategy to limit the spread of the virus again appears to be masks, a tool endorsed by education leaders and teachers that will remain at least for the first month. Lamont, after weeks of indecision, decided this month he would keep in place two orders that require masks to be worn in schools.

We have been working hard to ensure a safe, in-person learning experience for students starting out the school year. Thats been the priority of the governor since the pandemic began, and I know the priority for a lot of families, parents and educators as well. We will keep watching the numbers and adjust the mitigation strategies as conditions merit, Dr. Deidre Gifford, the acting DPH commissioner, said last week.

But the future of masks in schools remains uncertain as Lamonts emergency powers are set to expire Sept. 30. At a forum last week in Cheshire, Gifford said they are monitoring closely what has happened in school districts around the country that have already opened classrooms.

Were seeing that in schools where masks were not required at the beginning of the school year, and there was lots of COVID in the community, weve seen very significant disruptions to in-person learning, she said.

The states priority remains to keep kids in the classroom, and Gifford said they will adjust strategies as the situation with cases in schools merit.

This school year, districts also have a robust vaccine program that has already reached a sizable majority of teachers, staff and students ages 12 and up.

While teachers were prioritized early in the vaccine program, school-aged children were among the last eligible, given that the vaccine had not been approved for their use until the end of the last school year.

It will definitely have an impact. ... We are still going to have high numbers [of cases], but they are not going to be as high as they should be  its going to take us from a potentially astronomic amount to a significant amount, Wu said.

Still, federal restrictions on the vaccine means a core group of children, those in kindergarten up to some sixth-graders, wont be vaccinated.

While trials are underway for younger age groups, including those age 5 to 11, there are no plans for if or when those children may be eligible for a vaccine. Rakos said approval may not come until the end of the year.

Wu said for these children, the risk of attending school may be no different than last year.

From a pure, I am a child in school and cant get vaccinated, its no different than last year if only more dangerous, Wu said.
Local health directors, doctors and school nurses are now, by executive order of the governor, allowed to access the vaccination records of every Connecticut resident.

Though privacy advocates warn that Gov. Ned Lamonts order should not set a precedent, it is not one they are fighting in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This should not and cannot become the norm for how we handle public health emergencies in the future, ACLU of Connecticut Executive Director David McGuire said.

The executive order, signed by Lamont on Aug. 19, does not conflict with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to as HIPAA, according to John Cogan, an assistant professor of law at the University of Connecticut.

People get all wigged out about the release of medical information, he said.

Prior to taking his post at UConns school of law, Cogan worked for the federal department of Health and Human Services, where he was involved in drafting the HIPAA privacy provisions.

He said those regulations are often misinterpreted, and assumed to cast a far wider net than they were intended to cover.

The privacy regulations were designed to limit the use and disclosure of protected health information under certain circumstances by a limited number of entities, he said.

HIPAA, Coga explained, only applies to very specific groups of people. Doctors, for example, and health insurance companies, are prohibited by law from sharing a patients personal medical information without the persons consent.

But the governors executive order specifically grants the state commissioner of public health the power to disclose information reported to the Department of Public Health regarding a COVID-19 vaccine recipients immunization information, for the purposes of reducing the spread of COVID19.

HIPAA, Cogan said, does not prevent the state Department of Public Health from sharing that data.

If Im walking down the street, and I find all your medical records in a box, I can give them to whoever I want, he said. That is not a violation of HIPPA because I am not a covered entity under HIPAA.

This information isnt barred by HIPAA, Cogan said. To my knowledge, release of this information is not barred by any other law.

The question for Cogan and McGuire, is how this order is implemented. Cogan said he does not expect this information will be used in any coercive manner. Nobodys going to appear at your door with a needle, he said.

But McGuire said the ACLU will be paying attention. Hes concerned about mission creep, he said, and how this sort of order is replicated either by Lamont or his successors.

We have to make sure this is not precedent, whether for this governor or future governors, he said. This is an order that should be used judiciously by public health officials.

Though he said there is the possibility that it will be overused or misused by a municipality, McGuire said, I dont think its intended and should not be used as an in to use pressure tactics on people.

Lisa Morrissey, who has been a public health official for nearly a decade, said the idea that local health officials will be accessing individual vaccination records and accosting unvaccinated residents is far-fetched.

We just dont have that capacity, said Morrissey, who is New Milford health director and the interim public health director for the Pomperaug health district. I dont think you would find any public health official who would even support such a measure.

The access granted by the governors executive order helps when residents have lost their vaccination cards, Morrissey said, and when a person does contract the virus, it helps local health officials make sure everyone else is safe.

Sometimes people say that they were vaccinated and they dont have to quarantine, she said. We look up in the system to see if they are vaccinated.

State law has long granted access to students immunization records, and doctors have always had access to their own patents medical data. Even Morrissey said much of the information was already obtainable by local health directors through the states CT WiZ system.

Max Reiss, a spokesperson for Lamont, said the existing statute does not address disclosure of adult COVID vaccinations which the CDC required vaccine providers to report to their home state immunization system.

The executive places the access by providers, school nurses and local health departments to COVID-19 vaccine information in the same position as childhood immunization information, Reiss said.

The executive order amends the existing statute to allow access to adults vaccination records. Usually, only the state legislature, not the governor, has the power to create or amend law, according to Cogan.

The governors order purports to modify a statute, he said. The order also states that the governor has the power to do so under the Constitution and the laws of the State of Connecticut. However, the order does not specify the exact source of that authority.

That authority is derived from the governors power under the emergency declaration. Specifically, state law stipulates that following the governors proclamation of a civil preparedness emergency  or a public health emergency  the governor may modify or suspend in whole or in part by order  any statue, regulation or requirement or part thereof whenever the governor finds such statute, regulation or requirement or part thereof is in conflict with the efficient and expeditious execution of civil preparedness functions or the protection of the public health.

Were in a unique period, McGuire said. There is a compelling interest for the governor to go further than usual.

The executive order reminded Cogan of a landmark case in public health law, Jacobson v. Massachusetts.

In that 1905 case, a resident of Cambridge, Mass., refused to be vaccinated against smallpox, and though Cogan said many people recall the details incorrectly, the case was not about holding Jacobson down and plunging the needle into his arm.

It was about whether he had to pay a fine or not, Cogan said. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state and ordered Jacobson to pay the $5 fine for not being vaccinated.

Cogan speculated the governors executive order may have the effect, intended or otherwise, of allowing vaccine mandates by municipalities and companies.

Its not a HIPAA violation for your employer to ask if youre vaccinated or not, he said. With the final approval of Pfizer, I suspect that the state is going to make it easy for people to enforce mandates.
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The governments sudden decision is pushing teachers into awkward situations. Restarting all the classes in one go will lead to difficulties in maintaining the norm of social distancing, feels a physical science teacher of government-run school. in Musheerabad.  Representational image/PTI

Hyderabad: School students will soon be sitting on class benches after a long gap of 18 months. The call from the government is to continue with 100 per cent student strength in all schools and for all classes as the doors open on September 1.

The government-run schools play an important role in educating the marginalized sections of the people. The staff of these schools have started coming in from Thursday, while the works on keeping the classes, benches and the premises clean have begun.

Deccan Chronicle made an attempt to reach out to and interact with the teachers at government schools to take their views on the governments decision to re-open the closed institutions for normal classes.

Many teachers welcomed the decision and pointed out that the children were stressed out at their homes, which could impact their mental health.

Once they are back to the routine of attending the schools, they will be meeting friends. This will relax their mind and help them concentrate in the learning process. Online classes did not help them much. Many of these students lacked the Smart phone and were not able to sit in front television screens to learn and absorb the lessons, teachers noted.

Moreover, subjects like Mathematics and Sciences are meant to be explained to the students face-to-face. This makes them understand even complex subjects.

A teacher noted that many of the government school students have illiterate parents. They fail to get proper guidance or help at home to clear the doubts about their curriculum. This makes the government teachers more relevant and responsible in building the career of students and shaping their future academic life.

Thalla Srinivas Reddy, headmaster at Andhra Vidyalaya High School, Kattalmandi, said, Students in government schools are not able to follow the classes via online. There has been so much of learning loss since early last year. At least, by opening now, we will control the damage.

Vinatha kumari, Mathematics teacher at Mahboobia High School, said, Its very difficult for teachers to make students learn mathematics at online classes. Its good that physical classes are restarting by following the Covid precautions. Physical interaction is more important especially at this adolescent age and children are faced with high psychological stress.

Gatadi Neeraja, bio-science teacher at the same school, recommended, Its better to start the higher classes. There is a lot of learning loss for the students. At the same time, health-related precautions should be maintained. The government should release proper guidelines, keeping in mind the coronavirus threat as also the future of students.

K Sunitha, Physical science teacher at the Government High School in Musheerabad, said, The governments sudden decision is pushing teachers into awkward situations. Restarting all the classes in one go will lead to difficulties in maintaining the norm of social distancing.

Her statement was supported by another teacher in the same school, Venkat Laxmi Telugu Pandit. Its better that once the children get vaccinated, the schools reopen for physical classes. She added, However, students may carry the infections. Through them we get infected, and we also carry this virus home.

Meena Kumari, government teacher: We request the government to open only the higher classes -- the 9th and the 10th. The pandemic situation is not over yet. So itll be very difficult for us to deal with children.

Karanakar Reddy, Nishulk Prabhath high school, a government aided institution at Khairtabad, said: The government should do phase-wise opening to maintain physical distance. Else, this will be difficult. There is the fear of this pandemic all around.
The virus is known to persist in the GI tract despite clearance of the virus from upper airways and lungs. (Twitter)

Patients recovering from Coronavirus infection have been reporting issues with their digestive system, including diarrhoea, cramps, nausea, and acid reflux.

In a tete-a-tete with Deccan Chronicle, Dr. Jasbir Makker, gastroenterology specialist from Bronx Care Hospital New York, informs people about the Dos & Donts for patients recovering from Covid-19.

Q. How prevalent are GI symptoms among Covid patients?

A. About 815 percent of Coronavirus patients can have GI symptoms. Diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and taste, and abdominal pain are the key symptoms. But some may even have acid reflux and GI bleeding.

Q. How long will the virus last in the GI System?

A. Faecal samples remain positive for average 12.5 days after negative testing. However, a study in China revealed viral shedding in stool of a child for more than 70 days after the onset of illness.

Q. How does GI system get affected?

A. The virus enters the host GI tract cells via interaction between spike protein and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor. Infectivity of this virus isolated from stool samples has not been conclusively established though.

Q. Would recovery from Covid-19 infection mean that GI is cured?

A. The virus is known to persist in the GI tract despite clearance of the virus from upper airways and lungs. In some cases, the virus persists in gastrointestinal tract for about two to three months after recovery.

Q. Can there be long-term effects of Coronavirus on GI system?

A. Patients experience new, returning, or ongoing GI symptoms four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus. So far, acid reflux, abdominal pain, difficulty swallowing and diarrhoea have been reported as long-term effects.

Q. Is there any difference in treatment of GI symptoms owing to Covid and other causes?

A. No difference.

Q. How to take care of Coronavirus patients with GI?

A. First, recognise GI symptoms in a patient as a sign of Covid. Send these patients for early testing. During illness, drink adequate fluids and take sufficient rest. After recovery, take frequent small energy-dense meals for initial four weeks to regain lost weight and strength.

Q. How should Covid GI be dealt with?

A. Infected patients should use a separate toilet. Family members must strictly avoid this toilet. Sanitize the toilet seat after each use.
Tirupati: After being crippled by Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, almost all airports in Andhra Pradesh are getting back on their feet, with domestic passenger footfalls significantly increasing every month.

Going by Airports Authority of Indias (AAI) traffic report, all six airports in AP  Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Cuddapah and Kurnool, have witnessed better patronage last month with nearly 2,02,717 passengers using the domestic flight services. This is against 1,21,646 and 79,000 passenger footfalls in June and May this year.

As per AAI data, 2,808 flights have been operated to and from these six airports in July, as against 1,850 and 1,667 aircrafts movements in June and May this year. In all, Vizag airport stood first in operation of flights and passenger load compared to other airports in the state, including Vijayawada and Tirupati international airports.

As many as 908 flights operated to and from Vizag airport in July, compared to Vijayawada 616, Rajamahendravaram 562, Tirupati 508, Cuddapah 104 and Kurnool 110. In June and May, 592 and 652 flights had operated to and from Vizag, followed by 394 and 323 from Vijayawada, 478 and 316 from Rajamahendravaram, 242 and 228 from Tirupati, 25 and 64 from Cuddapah, and 98 and 84 from Kurnool.

Around this time last month, 1,02,577 passengers used domestic flight services from Vizag airport, 39,901 from Vijayawada; 19,682 from Rajamahendravaram; 36,137 from Tirupati; 1,859 from Cuddapah and 2,562 from Kurnool. In June, these airports  in the same order  witnessed 63,634; 25,149; 13,226; 16,947; 627; 2,063 passenger footfalls respectively. In May, they witnessed 44,904; 16,228; 9,061; 6,698; 650 and 1,459 passenger footfalls.

According to sources, most passengers arriving at these airports had been from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Lucknow, Varanasi and Bhubaneswar.

Airports are gradually recovering with fall in Covid-19 cases. Easing of curbs by most states has led to more people taking to the skies. Among all, Tirupati airport recorded a significant growth in both passenger footfalls and aircraft movements. Compared to June, Tirupati airport registered 113.2 percent increase in passenger footfalls and 109.9 percent increase in flight movements during July.
VIJAYAWADA: As Andhra Pradesh government has been assured supply of 90 lakh doses of Coronavirus vaccine in September, health authorities are targeting to vaccinate 1.8 crore people aged between 1844 years in the state, taking ward/village secretariat as the base unit.

Authorities have been vaccinating the target group since last three days using the existing stock of 17.44 lakh doses. By 6 pm on Saturday, 8.5 lakh doses had been administered. Vaccination will continue for a few more hours on Saturday and the entire remaining stock is likely to be administered within a day or two.

Health personnel have been instructed to administer the jab to targeted people until the last dose is available. Authorities hope that even after getting fresh stocks of Covid vaccine doses in September, they will continue to get further doses till the entire targeted age group people in AP are vaccinated.

Officials said 95 percent of healthcare and frontline workers have been inoculated, while people aged above 45 years and even over 60 years are still to be given the jab. Though some of them have got both their first and second doses, a good number of them have got only the first dose and are awaiting their second dose.

A look at the Covid vaccination programme on Saturday in several parts of the state revealed that a large number of people turned up at Gollapudi secretariat in Krishna district at noon itself. Some people at Kesanapalli secretariat insisted on being given only Covishield vaccine. At Rajanagaram secretariat in East Godavari, jabs continued till late in the evening for benefit of students, who had been busy during the day with their classes.

Health director Dr T. Geetha Prasadini said, As we are going to get 90 lakh doses of Covid vaccine in September, we are planning to give the jab especially for people aged between 1844 years. We may not be able to cover them all unless we get fresh stocks subsequently. We have advised health personnel to leave the choice of vaccine type  be it Covishield or Covaxin  to the beneficiary, as both types of vaccines are available. We will continue vaccination on Sunday too throughout the state until the stock lasts, Dr Prasadini added.
Thiruvananthapuram: The opposition Congress in Kerala on Saturday urged the ruling CPI(M) to remove the photos of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin from their party offices in view of global media reports about the recent unearthing of thousands of skeletons of those who had allegedly been killed during his reign from Ukraine.

Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan alleged that the history of the Communist Party was a story of dictatorship and genocide and the news about the unearthing of skeletons had taken by surprise modern society, which is aware about the human rights and democracy.

Former Communist ruler of Cambodia, Pol Pot was the one who had killed most number of people in the world, followed by Stalin and Adolf Hitler respectively, he said in a Facebook post.

The skeletons found in Ukraine were the remnants of the terrifying face of the history of anti-democratic and dictatorial Communist ideology, he alleged.

The leaders of the Communist parties in Kerala are those who still worship Stalin, who had allegedly massacred 15 lakh people, after placing his photos in their party offices.

"If the Communist party leaderships in the state can recognise the value of democracy, they should be prepared to remove the images of a dictator like Stalin from their offices," Satheesan said.

He also wished that it inspire the next generation of party sympathisers to walk the path of democracy without double standards.
The development of grasslands and eco-systems and management of flora and fauna at Penchikalpet Forest Range is giving great field experience to the final-year students of the Forestry course at FCRI, Mulugu, Telangana. (PTI Photo)

Adilabad: Students for the B.Sc Forestry course are visualizing the creation of a green world with their field visits and coming close to the nature and learning about practical problems involved in the management of forests and wildlife.

The development of grasslands and eco-systems and management of flora and fauna at Penchikalpet Forest Range is giving great field experience to the final-year students of the Forestry course at FCRI (Forest Course and Research Institute), Mulugu, Telangana.

These students are also conducting a survey on the livestock in Gundavelli and other villages in Penchikalpet mandal and coming out with their own practical and feasible solutions to reduce livestocks dependence on the forests for grass.

These students are also burning their midnight oil to develop an alternative mechanism to resolve the man-animal conflict that is going for the last two years in the Kagaznagar forest division, following the migration of tigers in the Komaram Bheem Asifabad division from the Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve of Maharashtra.

Altogether, these students are in the midst of a new environment for the last 10 days.

Nearly 16 students including 10 girls of FCRI got rare field- level experience on forests and the flora and fauna management as part of the fieldwork as part of their course.

Under the supervision of Penchikalpet FRO Satla Venugopal, these students visited various places in the forest ranges of Kagaznagar, Sirpur (T) , Bejjur Kagaznagar and Kawal Tiger Reserve.

Satla Venugopal said the local forest staff has clarified doubts raised by the students during their visits and explained the practical problems the forest department and staff encounter in forest and wildlife management.

He said these students will emerge as protectors of the forest and wildlife in the future if they are trained properly. He added that this kind of field-level experience at a tender age will give them their own perspectives.

Student Nasreen of FCRI, who is actively participating in the field visits, said it was a rare experience for them interacting with villages and watching the conservation of forests and wildlife efforts live.

Another student, Varun, said field visits give immense practical knowledge unlike classroom experience and added that nature gives a lot of knowledge if probed.

Notably, Suharsha Bhaskarla, student of B.Sc Forestry at FCRI got admission last year for PG course at the internationally reputed School of Forestry and Wildlife Biology in Auburn University, Alabama. The university waived her annual tuition fee and offered a monthly scholarship for her two-year course.
New Delhi: India on Friday said the question of recognition of a new government in Afghanistan was tantamount to jumping the gun as there is no clarity on what sort of government will be formed there and whether it will be inclusive and comprise other elements of the Afghan polity besides the Taliban, hinting that New Delhi is in wait and watch mode.

At his weekly briefing, external affairs ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi also said the vast majority of Indians who were in Afghanistan had already been brought to India on a total of six evacuation flights but a group of 20 Indian nationals and many Afghan Sikhs and Hindus could not make it to the airport in time on Wednesday to catch an Indian evacuation flight from Kabul to Delhi. He also said some more (Indians) are likely to be in Afghanistan. New Delhi added that six-month visas were being given to Afghans reaching India, hinting it would take a call on what to do thereafter.

The MEA spokesman also described as unfortunate the deportation of Afghan woman MP Rangina Kargar from New Delhi after she had flown in from Istanbul on August 20, saying it happened due to confusion after a high alert was declared by the Indian authorities following the reported raiding of an outsourcing agency of the Indian embassy in Kabul that led to the theft of Afghan passports with Indian visas. New Delhi had recently said Afghan nationals would be able to travel to India only on e-visas now after that incident in Kabul as New Delhi obviously feared the theft of Afghan passports with Indian visas could be a security threat. After the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, India had shut down its embassy in Kabul and evacuated all Indian diplomats from there.

On whether India would recognise a new government in Kabul after the Taliban takeover and deposing of the erstwhile Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani, Mr Bagchi said: There is no clarity about any entity forming the government in Kabul. He said while the government was aware of the ground realities in Afghanistan, it remained to be seen if the new government would be inclusive and have other (non-Taliban) elements of the Afghan polity, adding that peace talks were also reportedly going on (between the Taliban and forces opposed to them from the Panjshir Valley in northern Afghanistan). He said the issue of any recognition would therefore be jumping the gun. The comments show that India has so far not rejected outright any new government in Kabul but would prefer to see whether non-Taliban forces also gain representation in the new government formed by the Taliban.

Asked about Indias evacuation efforts, the MEA spokesman said the focus was on Indian nationals but Afghan Sikhs and Hindus wishing to travel to India and other Afghans who had worked with India in development assistance programmes had also been evacuated. A vast majority of Indians who wish to return have been evacuated, Mr Bagchi said.

On the recent security scare over the theft of Afghan passports in Kabul, the MEA spokesman said: There were reports of (a) group of people who raided one of our outsourcing agencies, adding Indian authorities had put out a high alert due to the loss of Afghan passports. This, he said, had caused the confusion that led to the unfortunate incident of denial of entry into India for Afghan lady MP Rangina Kargar. According to reports, Ms Kargar, who flew in from Istanbul, was deported after a wait of several hours at Delhi airport on August 20 on a flight back to Istanbul via Dubai. Ms Kargar later told the media in Istanbul that a senior MEA official had apologised to her for the incident and had asked her to apply for an emergency e-visa.
Bengaluru: JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy on Friday appeared to suggest to deal with alleged rapists of a college student near Mysuru, on the lines of police action in Telangana nearly two years ago when perpetrators of such a crime were shot dead.

Amid outrage over the gang-rape, Karnataka Minister Anand Singh said: "Everything of the perpetrators should be chopped off."

Speaking to reporters in Chennapatna, Kumaraswamy said, "I appreciate the Hyderabad police in dealing with a rape case. What did they do finally? Unless stringent action is taken things will not improve."

The former Chief Minister was referring to the way the Hyderabad police shot dead the four alleged rapists who had burnt alive a veterinarian along with her vehicle after committing the crime at Shamshabad in the Telangana capital in 2019.

While recreating the crime scene, all the four accused were taken to the spot. When they allegedly tried to escape, Telangana police shot them.

"The government should handle it delicately and follow what was done in Hyderabad," Kumaraswamy added.

He blamed the government and police for the incident, which "did not stop people from drinking in public places". He alleged that gambling activities were rampant in villages.

Flaying "police for targeting innocent people and not the anti-social elements", he said the police department has become inept due to the "transfer for money".

He even added that the existing system encouraged the criminals.

"In our existing system, the accused are sent to jail and then they come out on bail after a few days. There is a belief that nothing will happen," the JD(S) leader said.

Karnataka Tourism, Environment and Ecology Minister Anand Singh said, "Everything of the perpetrators should be chopped off. Such incidents should not have happened."

Senior BJP leader B S Yediyurappa said the police were investigating the case sincerely and were working beyond their capacity to trace the criminals.

"I am confident that the criminals will be caught and punished accordingly," Yediyurappa said.

Reacting to the incident, Congress MLA from Belagavi Rural constituency Laxmi Hebbalkar demanded capital punishment for the criminals as they not only perpetrated the heinous crime, but also made a video and tried to extort money from the victim.

She even wondered why the police could not trace the criminals even after "so many days".

The medical student with her male friend were on their way to the Chamundi hills on the outskirts of Mysuri on Tuesday evening when at least four people waylaid them and gang-raped her after assaulting him.

The gang members also allegedly made a video and threatened to make it viral unless they paid them Rs three lakh, police sources said.

When the girl and her male friend expressed their inability, they thrashed them.

The girl was later admitted to a hospital where she narrated the trauma she underwent.
HYDERABAD: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy asked why Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was not initiating action against labour minister Ch. Malla Reddy for his alleged land grab activities.

The Chief Minister had removed deputy chief minister T. Rajaiah and health minister Etala Rajendar citing similar irregularities. Why not remove Malla Reddy from the Cabinet, he asked on Friday.

Do rules and justice apply differently to different individuals, the Congress leader asked as he spoke to the media at Gandhi Bhavan here.

The Congress leader said he has evidence of land grabbing by minister Malla Reddy. I will submit all details through media or government agencies if the state government is ready to initiate action against the minister,'' he said.

Malla Reddy has declared that he is possessing around 600 acres of land. Why not take action against him under the land ceiling norms, Revanth Reddy asked.

Giving details, Revanth Reddy said that in Gundla Pochampally municipal limits, the old records of survey number 650 showed a land size of 22 acres and 20 guntas. Now, it has increased to 33 acres and 22 guntas. In this, the ministers brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy possessed 16 acres and he gifted it to an educational society owned by minister Malla Reddy, he explained.

He added: By submitting these land details, Malla Reddy got a private university established there. How can the extent of a plot of land increase at different times? The secret behind this should be explained to the people of Telangana, he said.

Revanth Reddy said that in Jawaharnagar, minister Malla Reddy has constructed a private hospital on five acres of government land and produced forged documents to get the sanction. The National Assessment and Accreditation Committee (NAAC) has banned Malla Reddys educational institutions, citing irregularities, he said.

If the state government is fair in its dealings, it should verify the land and construction details submitted by the minister to the NAAC and check what taxes are being paid by him to the municipality, the Congress chief said.

Reacting to a poll challenge hurled at him by the minister, Revant said he had already won against Malla Reddys son in-law Marri Rajasekhar Reddy in Medchal LS poll, and there is no meaning in resigning the MP seat and contesting against the minister. If KCR resigns from Gajwel constituency, I am ready to face him there in a re-election, Revanth said.

He said the Congress is ready for midterm elections in the state if such a scenario arose any time.

The Congress president said the Chief Minister and his son K.T. Rama Rao achieved their present positions after serving the Telugu Desam president Chandrababu Naidu in the past. KTR should first change his borrowed name before blaming me as a benami of Chandrababu, he suggested.

He asked why Rama Rao went to Goa recently in secrecy. Was it an official tour or a private visit, he asked.

Revanth Reddy said the Enforcement Directorate exposed the TRS governments apathy towards drugs cases in the state.

TPCC senior vice president Mallu Ravi, general secretary Harkara Venugopal, former Union minister Balram Naik, Manavatha Roy, Medchal DCC president Nandikanti Sridhar and others were present.
Rama Rao said Sanjay's Praja Sangrama Yatra from Saturday is aimed at identifying the Central government assets in the state and report to Prime Minister Modi so that he can sell those assets under his "Becho India scheme".  Twitter

HYDERABAD: TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao has lashed out at BJP state president Bandi Sanjay and TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy over their recent words and deeds.

Addressing a press conference at Telangana Bhavan on Friday, Rama Rao said Sanjay's Praja Sangrama Yatra from Saturday is aimed at identifying the Central government assets in the state and report to Prime Minister Modi so that he can sell those assets under his Becho India scheme."

The minister said Revanth Reddy was "Chandrababus benami" in TS, referring to TD president N. Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu took the state Congress as a franchisee and is operating through Revanth since the TD is dead in Telangana.

Rama Rao said the Centre has put up the land of South Central Railway in Moula Ali for sale and Sanjay wants to identify more such assets in TS during his padayatra and report to the PM.

"The TS government has repeatedly requested the Centre to allot some portion of the railway's Moula Ali lands to build 2BHK houses for the poor. It did not grant this request. Today, it has put up those lands for sale. This shows the BJP has no concern for the poor. It is only interested in making money by selling government assets to private players," Rama Rao alleged.

The TRS working president said Sanjay must, during his padayatra, see for himself how the TRS government has developed villages and towns. "You will see clean and green cities and towns, CC roads, 24x7 power, welfare schemes etc. I am sure you will feel ashamed that no BJP-ruled state has taken up such programmes. Please tell your party high command about these programmes and ask them to implement these in all states," Rama Rao suggested.

Referring to Revanth Reddy, Rama Rao said, "Everyone knows who is behind Revanth and the abusive language he used against the CM and the TRS every day. He acts as per the directions of Chandrababu."

Rama Rao justified minister Malla Reddy's use of abusive language against Revanth and Newton's Law that, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

"TRS leaders and cadre showed patience despite the Opposition parties using derogatory language against the CM for the past seven years. But there is a limit for everything. Revanth abused Malla Reddy at a public meeting and Malla Reddy has given him back," Rao said.
The Praja Sangrama Yatra of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar began at the Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar here on Saturday. (Photo: Twitter @bandisanjay_bjp)

HYDERABAD: The Praja Sangrama Yatra of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar began at the Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar here on Saturday.

Prior to the flag-off, along with Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, OBC Morcha president Dr K. Laxman, senior leader Vijayashanthi, MPs, and MLAs, he performed special pujas at the temple.

Speaking at the launch of the yatra, Sanjay, firing the first salvo, said that the BJP would not be a silent spectator to the murky happenings in the state and would expose the cheat Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who has duped farmers, unemployed youth, BCs, tribals, Dalits and minorities.

People are vexed with the TRS administration and they are all waiting to give a fitting reply in the next Assembly elections, Sanjay, the Karimnagar MP, said.

Sanjay said that the Rs 1 lakh crop loan waiver and delay in payment after procuring paddy are demoralising farmers. Although 30 lakh unemployed youth are in a state of desperation, the state government has not taken up a recruitment drive, nor has it paid unemployment allowance to them, he said.

He sounded confident that his padayatra would herald a new political transition whereby the BJP will unseat the TRS from power, sooner than later. We will expose the inept administration and corrupt practices of the government, including of ministers, during the padayatra, he explained.

The BJP leader alleged that MIM was behaving like the Taliban and targeting Hindus. We will bring back all Hindus, who relocated from the Old City, he said while clarifying that the BJP was not against any section or religion. We will fight if the interests of Hindus are destroyed or downgraded, he said.

Kishan Reddy said that Telangana state needs democratic rule. Corruption and debts are abnormally high under TRS and this would end with the Praja Sangrama Yatra of BJP, he said.

The partys Telangana in-charge Tarun Chugh, senior leaders D.K. Aruna and Dr Laxman spoke.

Party seniors and functionaries, including Arun Singh, Arun Singh, B. Muralidhar Rao, P. Sudhakar Reddy, Soyam Bapu Rao, Dharmapuri Arvind, Muni Swamy, Raghunandan Rao, N. Indrasena Reddy, Babu Mohan, G. Vivek, Perala Sekhar Rao, Chinthala Ramchandra Reddy, Vijayarama Rao, G.Premender Reddy, Bangaru Shruthi, and Manohar Reddy were present on the occasion.
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday passed the resolution moved by CM MK Stalin, urging the Centre to withdraw the three agriculture-related legislation, through voice vote.

Tamil Nadu is the seventh Indian state to pass resolution against the farm laws, after Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal.

These three farm laws are anti-farmers, these laws should be repealed, TN CM MK Stalin said while proposing the resolution.

"All cases filed against the farmers who staged protests against the three farmer-related legislations of the Central Government, during the past one year, will be withdrawn," the chief minister added.

Apart from BJP MLAs, AIADMK MLAs also staged walkout from the assembly, stating that the resolution against 3 farmer-related laws of central government has been moved in haste and that the state government should seek views of farmers by convening an all-party meeting.

As soon as the house convened on Saturday, Chief Minister M K Stalin piloted the resolution, calling for its withdrawal and sought it to be adopted unanimously.

Speaking on the debate, BJP opposed it and walked out.

Deputy Leader of AIADMK legislature, O Panneerselvam said while the CM has listed the disadvantages of the farm laws, its advantages also need to be ascertained. He sought to know whether the state government has written to the Centre over the matter and if it has received a reply.

Leader of the House Duraimurugan said the legislations were enacted when the AIADMK was in power in the state even as Stalin wanted to know whether the main opposition party supported today's resolution or not.

Replying, Panneerselvam said petitions against the farm laws were pending before the Supreme Court and therefore no decision can be taken and also assured his party's support for the welfare of farmers.

The chief minister said some other states had also moved Assembly resolutions against farm laws earlier though the previous AIADMK government did not do so. Subsequently the AIADMK walked out.

Earlier, AIADMK's KP Anbalagan said the resolution has been tabled in a "hasty manner" and wanted evaluation of its pros and cons by holding discussions with relevant stakeholders.

Stalin said today's resolution was in lines with his party's electoral promise ahead of the April 6 assembly polls.
All states have been alerted to conduct security drills and keep anti-terror units on high alert. (Representational Image: ANI)

New Delhi: The country's intelligence agencies have warned of a possible terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir after they got inputs regarding the movement of terrorists from across the border.

A senior official said that the input was shared with the state intelligence and security agencies concerned to prepare themselves for any untoward situation.

He added that all intelligence agencies have been put on high alert after they learnt about a meeting between Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leaders and Taliban leaders in Kandahar during the third week of August.

The meeting was attended by a group of Taliban leaders where JeM sought their support in 'India-Centric' operations. Sources further reveal that the political situation in Pakistan was also discussed in the meeting.

"We have ordered intelligence agencies to keep watch on social media. On August 24, we received input regarding the movement of two terrorists from Pakistan who are planning a grenade attack in Srinagar. All agencies concerned have been alerted for coordination," said the official.

All states have been alerted to conduct security drills and keep anti-terror units on high alert.

The Taliban entered Kabul on August 15, causing the civilian government to collapse. As a result, many countries have started evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from the beleaguered nation due to the precarious security situation and some have pledged to take in a number of Afghan asylum seekers.

Thousands of Afghan nationals have camped outside the perimeter of the airport in desperate attempts to escape on the last flights out of the country after the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber and multiple ISIS-K gunmen killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians in the attack at the Kabul airport. Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) on Thursday claimed responsibility for the blast.
For the first time ever, police in Bengaluru have used the hair follicle test to establish illicit drug use.

On August 24, the Karnataka government announced the results of tests conducted on two Kannada actresses and four other celebrities in the Sandalwood drugs scandal that broke out last year. All of them were found to have consumed illicit drugs, according to the test report.

You may be wondering what the hair follicle drug test is and how accurate it is. So here's a ready reckoner on it:

What is a hair follicle drug test and why is it done?

The test screens for the use of illicit drugs such as cocaine, MDMA and heroin, or the misuse of prescription medication, says Dr Dinesh Rao, a forensic expert. The hair follicle test is used to analyse drug use in the past 90 days while recent drug consumption can be detected by blood and urine tests.

Police use the test to press charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, a stringent law that criminalises the production, possession, sale and consumption of commercial-quantity drugs.

How is the test conducted?

Small amounts of hair (20-30 strands) can be taken from any part of the body using scissors, though generally they are plucked from the scalp and the hair root. The hair samples are taken by doctors under the supervision of forensic experts.

Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry are the two techniques used to analyse the hair samples for the presence of drug residues.

What if someone unknowingly inhales an illicit drug? How does the test establish that?

The accused have admitted to attending parties but denied consuming any drugs. So even if their test report is positive, isn't it possible that they may have inadvertently inhaled illicit drugs?

Rao, the forensic expert, busts this myth: the hair follicle drug test is usually used to determine the consumption of synthetic drugs, such as PCP (phencyclidine), cocaine, MDMA and heroin, none of which can be inhaled passively, unlike ganja.

Synthetic drugs accumulate in the hair through blood circulation or metabolise after absorption through lungs, ingestion, snorting, or injection. Passive smoking of ganja could show minute levels of consumption, which the NDPS Act doesn't penalise.

Cocaine, LSD, heroin and MDMA are known narcotic and psychotropic drugs, while ganja is a deliriant or hallucinogen.

Is the test report admissible in court?

The NDPS court does admit the report of a hair follicle test but the police also need to establish the method of procurement, sale, trafficking, and place of consumption of the drug/s. Investigators also rely on witness statements, technical evidence and money transactions, if any, to build their case.

What bearing will the test report have on the Sandalwood drugs case?

One of the two Kannada actresses charged in the case has disputed the findings of the test and vowed to challenge it legally.

A senior officer in Bengaluru police refused to describe the test report as the most clinching evidence in the case. "We filed the charge sheet in the case long before the test results came. We don't see the test report as the be-all-and-end-all. We have already established how the drugs were trafficked, the contacts between peddlers and users, and how money changed hands. Last but not the least, we have witness statements," explained the officer, who would not be quoted.

He continued: "Nonetheless, the test report will be vital evidence that substantiates our investigation."

While a hair follicle drug test can determine the exact drug consumed, the officer said they had chosen not to disclose the same. "We have only stated that the report of the test taken by the accused has come back positive," he said.
Finding context to personal milestones  especially to the ones that validate the achievers longevity in his or her line of work  can, at times, get ungainly.

Take Mammoottys 50th year in cinema; his first appearance on screen came in 'Anubhavangal Paalichakal', released in August, 1971. We could see this event with a this-day-that-year throwback on what was happening around the world in 1971, in what could be a commemorative reminder on how the actor has travelled with generations.

We can, for instance, lead with the fact that Bangladesh was formed in the same year and ask ourselves, how many of these actors do we have; the ones with careers that run parallel to nations histories, careers that do the full stretch  that year to this day?

The problem is that with Mammootty, thats not the road you want to take. The actor  he turns 70 on Sept. 7  is still evolving and is not likely to let encomiums distract him into complacency. He is learnt to have refused to attach too much significance to the 50th year, since 'Vilkkaanundu Swapnangal' and 'Mela' (both 1980 releases) are widely considered his breakthrough films.

In an industry brought to halt by a pandemic, at a time when uncertainty over release dates is forcing big-ticket films to go OTT, Mammootty is prepping for characters in a backlog of films that could take, at least, another two years to screen. In the line-up is Ratheena Sharshads Puzhu which has Mammootty in whats being billed as a never-before character. Thats an unlikely hook-line  Never Before  for a film headlined by actors of his vintage but that, really, is the thing with Mammootty.

The celebratory closure of a half-century cannot capture a career that covers over 400 films in multiple languages; no chronologically arranged listicle can string together a diverse body of work shaped by perseverance and an unflagging drive to get better.

The actors career choices are influenced by the market but he also retains a streak of intern-like enthusiasm for his craft  the kind that takes him on detours, at least one of them in every two to three years, to explore the unknown as an actor. These are incentives his distinguished contemporaries, some of them bigger stars, have not allowed themselves.

Mohanlal, a particularly distinguished actor-star, is among contemporaries who have spoken highly about the discipline with which Mammootty approaches his work. The range of his most celebrated performances is expansive  from the big actorly flourishes as the wronged warrior in 'Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha' (1989) to the seething resentment of the grieving, hallucinating prisoner in 'Bhoothakkannadi' (1997) to the chilling brutality of the feudal antagonist in 'Paleri Manikyam: Oru paathirakolapathakathinte kadha (2009)'.

These transformations, physical and often supplemented with the actors mastery over dialects, are about this one facet of his method  discipline. It has also kept him in shape, with pictures posted on his official social media handles setting off fan frenzy and memes that invariably reference Benjamin Button.

Mammootty has, in a televised chat with writer-filmmaker Ranjith, talked about the shame in having to watch his performance in 'Trishna' (1981), his first in what would be a series of celebrated associations with writer M T Vasudevan Nair. Then, I only had the desire to act but I didnt have the craft, he tells Ranjith and adds, thats why I say I would like to do that film again.

This is a three-time national award-winning actor, telling you that he had to work to the top. Theres no condescension or rehearsed humility of an over-achiever; hes only wistful of a second chance, of the possibilities that another film offers. The compulsions around stardom, unlike with his generation of Indian actors, have not steered him to its spin-offs  brand-building, a production house that makes him more exclusive, television shows or political ambition.

That three of his careers finest performances came in the past seven years, and that he played them across the range  the affable, enigmatic double-homicide convict in 'Munnariyippu' (2014), the lonely, blue-collar expatriate in 'Pathemari' (2015) and the weak-kneed cop on election duty in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh in 'Unda' (2019)  tells you about this enthusiasm. Its this enthusiasm that also makes the actor accessible to young, untested talent; at least three of Malayalam cinemas most accomplished new-wave filmmakers started with Mammootty  Aashiq Abu, Anwar Rasheed and Martin Prakkat.

That in 'Unda', the male lead is stripped of all the mass-hero detailing we are conditioned to in Mammoottys iconic angry-cop blockbusters tells you that he is still having a shot at cracking the actor-star conundrum that has limited some of his gifted contemporaries. The star, meanwhile, is on his own ride on the other lane  Mammoottys 'The Priest', a horror-thriller that hit screens in March this year, is the biggest theatrical success among post-pandemic releases; 'Bheeshmaparvam', his next with director Amal Neerad, is one of the most awaited films in Malayalam.

There are calls seeking more exclusivity from the actor; the reference here is to contemporaries who have cut down on the numbers and moved on to event films and big star vehicles. For Mammootty, plateauing out doesnt seem to be an option. Those of us who are in this for the actor shouldnt complain. He still dabbles with the bafflingly ordinary but we should know that the good one is around the corner. Thats the promise, thats how this has worked.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Bengaluru).
US President Joe Biden vowed Thursday to complete the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan despite a deadly suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport.

Read more
The United Nations issued an urgent appeal Saturday for aid for some seven million Afghan farmers in the war-ravaged nation facing the threat of severe drought.

Covid-19 has further squeezed agricultural workers in the country, which is now controlled by the Taliban after they toppled the US-backed government this month.

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization said the farmers worst affected by a drought in the country are among some 14 million people -- or one in three Afghans -- who are "acutely food insecure and need urgent humanitarian assistance".

Read more: 'World has abandoned Afghanistan's new generation'

"Urgent agricultural support now is key to counter the impact of the drought and a worsening situation in Afghanistan's vast rural areas in the weeks and months ahead," FAO director Qu Dongyu said in a statement.

Afghanistan is facing its second severe drought in three years and the UN said this week it could run out of its staple wheat flour from October.

"If we fail to assist the people most affected by the acute drought, large numbers will be forced to abandon their farms and be displaced in certain areas," Qu added.

"This threatens to further deepen food insecurity and poses yet another threat to the stability of Afghanistan."

The organisation said it was facing a funding shortfall of $18 million (15 million euros) to support its drought response plan in Afghanistan.

It is hoping to help 250,000 families, or around 1.5 million people, for the upcoming winter wheat season.

But the funding shortfall means only 110,000 families can be supported.

The appeal comes as humanitarian organisations fear the Taliban's arrival could hamper access for aid deliveries and personnel.

The UN warned earlier this week that low supplies of food aid were threatening to plunge Afghanistan into a humanitarian disaster.
Hurricane Ida churned toward the US Gulf coast on Saturday, forecast to gather strength in coming hours and prompting evacuations of flood-prone New Orleans neighborhoods and oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Forecasters said it could make US landfall as a dangerous Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, generating winds nearing 140 miles per hour (225 kph), heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge much of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.

Ida battered Cuba on Friday and by early Saturday it was carrying top winds of around 80 mph (129 kph) as it headed northwest, the National Hurricane Center said. The NHC expected the storm to intensify rapidly before coming ashore by late Sunday.

Flooding from Ida's storm surge - high water driven by the hurricane's winds - could reach between 10 and 15 feet (3 to 4.5 metres) around the mouth of the Mississippi River, with lower levels extending east along the adjacent coastlines of Mississippi and Alabama, the NHC said.

Read | Hurricane Ida makes landfall in southwest Cuba

Scattered tornadoes, widespread power outages and inland flooding from torrential rain across the region were also expected.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, whose state is already reeling from a public health crisis stemming from a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, urged residents to ready themselves for the hurricane immediately.

"Now is the time to finish your preparations," he told a Friday afternoon news conference. "By nightfall tomorrow night, you need to be where you intend to ride out the storm."

New Orleans officials ordered residents to evacuate communities outside the city's levee system, and posted voluntary evacuation notices for the rest of the parish.

Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome signed an emergency disaster declaration and said the city had pre-positioned sand and sandbags at eight strategic locations as part of storm preparations.

Lifelong Gulf resident Hailey DeLaune, 29, told Reuters she and her fiance spent Friday evening boarding up the windows of his house in Gulfport, Mississippi, and gathering provisions to ride out the storm.

"Hurricanes have always been part of my life," said the high school theology teacher, who was born during 1992's Category 5 Hurricane Andrew. "You just run through your list and hope for the best."

Edwards declared a state of emergency on Thursday, and on Friday US President Joe Biden issued a pre-landfall federal emergency declaration at Edwards' request. It authorized the US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the state.

Edwards also said he had authorized activation of all 5,000 troops in the Louisiana National Guard for emergency deployments as needed.

US energy companies racing to complete evacuations of offshore platforms in the Gulf ahead of the storm had reduced petroleum production by nearly 60 per cent and gas output by almost half, federal regulators said.

Caribbean takes first hit

On Friday, Ida smashed into Cuba's small Isle of Youth, off the southwestern end of the Caribbean island nation, toppling trees and tearing roofs from dwellings.

Jamaica was flooded by heavy rains, and there were landslides after the passage of the storm. Many roads were impassable, forcing some residents to abandon their homes.

Ida, the ninth named storm and fourth hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, may well exceed the strength of Hurricane Laura, the last Category 4 storm to strike Louisiana, by the time it makes landfall, forecasters said.

The region was devastated in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people.
The US military said on Saturday that it carried out a drone strike in Afghanistan, killing two high-profile "planners and facilitators" of the Islamic State, hours after President Joe Biden promised to retaliate for the twin blasts at the Kabul airport that killed 169 Afghans and 13 American soldiers.

The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, had claimed responsibility for the attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Thursday.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, and one was wounded. And we know of zero civilian casualties," Maj Gen Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, told reporters on Saturday.

Read: Taliban largely seal off Kabul airport as airlift winds down

"Without specifying any future plans, I will say that we will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves and to leverage over the horizon capability to conduct counterterrorism operations as needed," he added.

He declined to provide any further details about the planners and facilitators of ISIS-K who were killed in the drone strike. It wasn't immediately known if the ISIS-K planners targeted in the drone strike were involved specifically in Thursday's Kabul airport attack.

The drone strike came a day after President Biden vowed to "hunt" down the terrorists and make them "pay" for the Kabul airport attack and ordered his commanders to develop plans to strike back at them.

"To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm notice, we will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command," Biden had said in his remarks at the White House on Thursday.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said all the targets were hit in a single strike, and that they were "ISIS-K planners and facilitators."

"The threats are still very real, theyre very dynamic and we are monitoring them in real time, Kirby told reporters about the possible additional attacks from the Islamic State group.

"Our mission to continue evacuating those as required and to meet the mission requirement by August 31 is what commanders are executing. We will maintain the ability to defend ourselves and our operations all the way through, Kirby said.

Earlier, Capt Bill Urban, spokesperson of US Central Command, said that the US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner. The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan."

"Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," Urban said on Friday.

Citing a defense official, CNN said the target was believed to be associated with potential future attacks at the airport."

On Friday, the White House said President Biden does not want the terrorists, who planned the attack at the Kabul airport, to live any longer.

"I think he made it clear yesterday that he does not want them to live on the Earth anymore, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference.

Meanwhile, the national security team of President Biden has told him that another terror attack is "likely" in Kabul and that the next few days of this evacuation mission will be the "most dangerous" period to date, according to a White House official.

This was shared with the President when he met in the Situation Room with his national security team, including top commanders and diplomats in the field.

Vice President Kamala Harris also joined by secure video teleconference.

"They advised the President and Vice President that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul Airport, the White House official said.

The official said the next few days of an evacuation operation, that has taken more than 100,000 people out of the country in the past two weeks, "will be the most dangerous period to date".

His national security team reported that even in the face of those threats, Americas courageous servicewomen and men are continuing to operate a historic evacuation operation. The US military is airlifting out thousands of people every few hours.

They continue to prioritise evacuating the remaining American citizens who have indicated that they wish to leave, and are engaged in a variety of means to get them to the airport safely.

"The President directed the Secretary of State to continue diplomatic efforts with international partners to secure means for third-country nationals and Afghans with visas to leave the country even after the US military presence ends, said the official.

"The next few days of this mission will be the most dangerous period to date, said the official.
An Afghan woman on board an evacuation flight to Britain gave birth to a baby girl early on Saturday with assistance from the cabin crew, Turkish Airlines said in a statement.

Soman Noori, 26, started having contractions during the Turkish Airlines flight from Dubai to Birmingham, and gave birth as the plane flew at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) in Kuwaiti airspace.

Read more: Taliban largely seal off Kabul airport as airlift winds down

Noori and her baby, who was named Havva, were both in good health, the statement said.

The plane, which was carrying Afghan citizens who had worked with Britain in Afghanistan, landed in Kuwait as a precaution but later continued on to its destination, Turkish Airlines said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party appears to be ceding popularity to its Conservative rivals, according to polls published Saturday, with early elections only weeks away.

The Conservatives of Erin O'Toole, the main opposition party, took a slim lead as support for the Liberals has eroded in recent days, according to a tracking survey by Nanos Research conducted for the CTV network and the daily Globe and Mail.

The poll shows Conservatives favored by 33.3 per cent of eligible voters, to 30.8 per cent for Trudeau's Liberals, a difference just within the poll's margin of error but reflecting a steady swing away from the Liberals in recent days.

In mid-August, when Trudeau announced plans to hold an early election on September 20 -- less than two years after the last federal ballot -- his Liberals held a small lead.

But Trudeau's hopes of regaining a majority in the House of Commons appear a bit more tenuous today, Nik Nanos, founder of the eponymous polling firm, told CTV.

"It looks like the Conservatives are now gaining the upper hand and there is definitely negative pressure on the Liberals," he said.

The CBC public network's poll tracker also showed a narrow but growing shift in favor of the Conservatives, giving them a lead of 32.5 per cent to 32.2 per cent.

The Nanos poll put the left-leaning New Democratic Party in third position, supported by 21.7 per cent of eligible voters. The CBC tracker had the New Democrats at 20.2 per cent.

Nanos showed O'Toole, who is still relatively unknown among the general public, with a rising approval rating, up 3.2 points to 27.2 per cent since August 23.

Approval for Trudeau slid by 2.8 per cent, to 29.9 per cent, over the same period.

Nanos noted that the decline in support for the Liberals came during a week when the election campaign was dominated by bleak news from Afghanistan, including the end of Canadian evacuation operations there.

Trudeau has also faced pushback over his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday, he had to cancel an election rally in the Toronto region because of angry anti-vaccination and anti-masking protests.

The rolling Nanos poll is conducted by phone, with one-third of its 1,200 respondents contacted each night. It has a 2.8-point margin of error.
China's top social media platforms, WeChat, Douyin, Sina Weibo and Kuaishou, said on Saturday they would begin to rectify irregular practices of "self-media" accounts that publish financial information, reported state media Global Times.

This follows an announcement by China's cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), that it would look into accounts that have repeatedly released financial news illegally, distorted economic policy interpretation, badmouthed financial markets, spread rumours and disrupted network communications.

The term "self-media" is mostly used on Chinese social media to describe independently operated accounts that produce original content but are not officially registered with the authorities.

WeChat said in a statement on Saturday that from now until October 26, it would investigate and shut down financial self-media accounts that "badmouth the financial market" and "blackmail and spread rumours."

Also read: China plans to ban US IPOs for tech firms with data security risks, says source

Sina Weibo, Douyin and Kuaishou also released similar statements on Saturday, reported the Global Times, with Sina Weibo and Kuaishou adding that they would severely crack down on accounts that violate the rules.

The announcements come amid a recent crackdown by Beijing on the tech sector, with the latest regulations targeting "chaotic" celebrity fan culture and algorithms that technology companies use to drive their business.

China is also framing rules to ban internet companies whose data poses potential security risks from listing outside the country, including in the United States.
US intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China's leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.

According to an unclassified summary, four members of the US intelligence community say with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human. A fifth intelligence agency believes with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab.

Analysts do not believe the virus was developed as a bioweapon and most agencies believe the virus was not genetically engineered.

Read | Why it will soon be too late to find out where the Covid-19 originated

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement on Friday that China continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States. Reaching a conclusion about what caused the virus likely requires China's cooperation, the office said.

The cause of the coronavirus remains an urgent public health and security concern worldwide. In the US, many conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing Covid-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak. State Department officials under former President Donald Trump published a fact sheet noting research into coronaviruses conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the Chinese city where the first major known outbreak occurred.

Read | Covid origins: China criticises US 'scapegoating'

The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in what's known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called spillover events occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.

In a statement, Biden said China had obstructed efforts to investigate the virus from the beginning.

The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them, he said. Responsible nations do not shirk these kinds of responsibilities to the rest of the world.

China's foreign ministry attacked the US investigation ahead of the report's release. Fu Cong, a foreign ministry director general, said at a briefing for foreign journalists that scapegoating China cannot whitewash the US.

If they want to baselessly accuse China, they better be prepared to accept the counterattack from China, he said.

Biden in May ordered a 90-day review of what the White House said was an initial finding leading to two likely scenarios: an animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak. The White House said then that two agencies in the 18-member intelligence community leaned toward the hypothesis of a transmission in nature and another agency leaned toward a lab leak.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday did not identify which agencies supported either hypothesis. But it noted some of the same hurdles facing the World Health Organization and scientists worldwide: a lack of clinical samples and data from the earliest cases of Covid-19.

In conducting the review, intelligence agencies consulted with allied nations and experts outside of government. An epidemiologist was brought into the National Intelligence Council, a group of senior experts that consults the head of the intelligence community.
By Wednesday night, US intelligence agencies were near certain that an attack was imminent outside Kabul airport, triggering a State Department warning to American citizens to leave the area immediately.

Just over 12 hours later, a suicide bomber walked through the large crowds to a gate manned by US troops and detonated explosives, killing at least 13 US service members and 79 Afghans.

It was a tragic coda to America's 20-year war in Afghanistan, the largest loss of life for the US military there in a decade, on the cusp of the full withdrawal of troops by Aug. 31 ordered by President Joe Biden.

Also Read | US forces keep up Kabul airlift under high threat warnings

Among the most pressing questions as the US military launches its investigation: How did the bomber make it through Taliban checkpoints? Why were US troops in such a concentrated space when they knew an attack was imminent?

"It was a failure somewhere," General Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, told reporters hours after the attack, which was claimed by Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K).

But at some point, McKenzie added, troops had no choice but to come in contact with people trying to board evacuation flights, screen them, pat them down for weapons, and ensure they did not make it into the airport if they posed a threat.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the conditions for the attack were set months in advance.

They told Reuters that weeks before the evacuation from Kabul airport began following the Taliban's takeover of the capital, the military had been seeking approval to get at-risk Afghans out of the country.

Also Read | Where is the Taliban's supreme leader?

But the slow tempo of processing and inability to secure housing for the evacuees in third countries slowed down the pace of departures, according to the officials, at one point halting all flights from Kabul for six hours.

That meant troops were on the frontlines at the airport gates in the face of chaos outside.

"This didn't need to happen," a US military official told Reuters.

"They didn't need to die."

Debate over Bagram

In the maelstrom of criticism aimed at Biden for the perilous evacuation of both US citizens and Afghans who worked for the Americans, some have questioned his decision to hand back Bagram airbase in July, by far the United States' largest military facility in Afghanistan.

Some Republican lawmakers have argued that if the base had been kept open, the evacuation would have been more orderly.

US officials rejected those arguments.

One US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would have taken an estimated 8,000 US troops to secure Bagram, which likely would have been attacked by the Taliban as they swept to power. Americans wanting to leave the capital then would have faced a roughly 40-minute drive through Taliban checkpoints.

In the coming hours, the United States will turn its attention to withdrawing the approximately 5,000 troops at Kabul's airport - and the White House said on Friday the next few days will likely be the most dangerous of the operation.

Also Read | Taliban fooling the West, will shut down media: Afghan photographer

Islamic State militants have shot at aircraft already during the evacuation operation, but have had little success, according to the officials, who added that rocket attacks and suicide bombings will become an even larger threat as the number of US troops dwindles.

The military is expected to continue to fly out evacuees even as they withdraw equipment and troops, though the number is expected to drop precipitously.

Officials said the withdrawal was particularly challenging because of a mixture of security threats along with a humanitarian crisis taking place outside the airport.

Unlike many previous military withdrawals, such as from Iraq in 2011, militant groups have been able to develop plans that focus on a single target, the airport, rather than on a number of US bases.

Military planners are also desperate to avoid any repeat of the situation where thousands of desperate Afghans stormed the runway, hoping to get on a plane. Several died, some falling from airborne craft.

One of the US officials said Biden's "Saigon" moment, the infamous US evacuation from Vietnam in 1975, could still be to come as Afghans outside the airport realize the final stages of Washington's military withdrawal are underway.

Symbolic Retaliation?

Biden, his voice breaking with emotion, vowed on Thursday that the United States would hunt down those responsible for the airport attack, and said he had ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans to strike at the perpetrators.

On Friday, the US military said it launched a drone strike that it believed had killed an Islamic State attack planner in eastern Afghanistan.

But officials have cautioned that beyond a symbolic act or limited operation, the United States could in fact do little to degrade ISIS-K.

"We've been trying to destroy the group in Afghanistan since 2014 and couldn't do it with thousands of troops on the ground," the defense official said.
Islamic State-Khorasan might have taken the responsibility for the suicide attacks in Kabul on Thursday that left at least 90 dead, but the Taliban faction partially in control of security in Kabul over the past several days, the Haqqani network, must also be scrutinised, writes Sajjan M Gohel in the journal Foreign Policy.

In addition to being a guest teacher at the London School of Economics, Gohel is the International Security Director for the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation.

Ultimately, the attack strategically benefits the Haqqani network as it will likely speed up foreign departures and prevent the prospect of further evacuations, he wrote.

"The murky nature of Islamic State-Khorasan's relationship with the Haqqani network as well as Pakistani terrorist groups presents a complex arrangement of tacit cooperation between several terrorist organisations," he said.

Explained | The Haqqani Network: Who are they? What's their Pakistan connection?

"So do its intricate ties to the Pakistani military and intelligence community. That has dire implications for Afghan and global security, especially as Pakistan is so keen for the international community to recognise and legitimise the Taliban," the article said.

Gohel said it's often said that there's a clear split between Islamic State-Khorasan and the Taliban, but the harsh reality of terrorism and politics in Afghanistan is the situation is never black and white.

Sworn enemies can fight each other one day and collaborate for mutual gain the next day. These groups are intertwined and interconnected. Their tribal and marriage ties ensure ideological separations do not cause permanent fault lines.

Read | No quick recognition of Taliban government in Afghanistan by US or allies: White House

The Haqqani network also established close ties with Pakistan's powerful yet notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which provided it weapons, training and financial support.

The ISI also provided shelter to much of the Taliban leadership that has now returned to Afghanistan, including the Quetta Shura faction. The primary reason the Haqqanis were able to endure for the last 20 years was because they benefited from safe havens within Pakistan that gave their fighters the ability to launch cross-border attacks and fall back when required, Gohel added.

Gohel said there has, in fact, been a tactical and strategic convergence between the Islamic State-Khorasan and the Haqqanis, if not the entirety of the Taliban.

The Haqqani network is a family-clan enterprise and consists of siblings, cousins and other members through marriages.

Gohel said whichever faction was in charge of evacuation security should be asked why the perimeter was not properly controlled and why Taliban checkpoints that had stopped many Afghans from reaching the airport nevertheless failed to stop the attackers.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the threat the Islamic State group poses ahead of an Iraqi summit Saturday overshadowed by the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and a deadly bombing in Kabul.

Organisers have been tight-lipped on the agenda of the summit in Baghdad, but the meeting also comes as Iraq, long a casualty of jihadist militancy, tries to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.

"We all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh (IS) remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government," Macron said, after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in Baghdad.

Iraq and France "are key partners in the war against terrorism," Kadhemi replied.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II are due at the summit, while the foreign ministers of regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be present.

The prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, as well as Kuwait's Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah are also expected to attend.

Iraq is seeking to play a "unifying role" to tackle crises shaking the region, sources close to Iraq's Kadhemi have said.

Oil-rich Iraq has been caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies, Iran and the United States.

Iran exerts major clout in Iraq through allied armed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful state-sponsored paramilitary network.

Baghdad has been brokering talks since April between US ally Riyadh and Tehran on mending ties severed in 2016.

Also read: Iraq hosts regional meeting aimed at easing Mideast tensions

Macron aims to highlight France's role in the region and its determination to press the fight against terrorism, his office said.

The French president considers Iraq "essential" to stability in the troubled Middle East, it added.

An IS affiliate claimed Thursday's suicide bombing in Kabul that killed scores of people, including 13 US service members.

The attack has revived global concerns that the extremist organisation, which seized swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed from both countries, is emerging anew, analysts said.

The blast came during the final days of US-led evacuations from Afghanistan after the Taliban's lightning takeover.

"These events show that it has become more urgent than ever to back the political process in Iraq and involve its neighbours," a source close to Macron said.

"A solution to security threats in the region, including Daesh, depends on a stable, sovereign and prosperous Iraq," the source added.

A decade after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, IS in June 2014 announced a "caliphate" in territory seized in Syria and Iraq, routing the badly prepared Iraqi army without a fight and seizing almost a third of the country.

Also read: US airstrikes targeting IS-K 'planner' pushes Afghanistan airlift into final stage

France was part of a US-led coalition established to battle the extremists.

Iraq declared IS territorially defeated in December 2017, but the group still retains sleeper cells and continues to claim bloody attacks.

One of the deadliest was a July bombing that ripped through a crowded Baghdad market, killing over 30 people on the eve of a key Muslim holiday.

According to Colin Clarke, senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, IS "still has access to tens of millions of dollars and will likely continue to rebuild its network throughout Iraq and Syria".

Its "primary goal at the moment is to have its affiliates maintain momentum until it can sufficiently rebuild its core in the Levant," he said.

"(IS) affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa and now Afghanistan will have the opportunity to make strides in the coming year."

In July, President Joe Biden said US combat operations in Iraq would end this year, but that US soldiers would continue to train, advise and support the country's military in the fight against IS.

Washington currently has 2,500 troops deployed to Iraq.

Rasha Al Aqeedi, senior analyst at Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said coalition forces believed Iraq's security personnel could prevent another IS advance.

"Maybe they're not ideal, but they're good enough for America to leave the country believing that Iraq is not going to live through another 2014," she said.
The Pakistan government has decided to accept evacuees from Afghanistan -- mostly transiting passengers to stay for a limited period -- only in capital Islamabad, dropping plans of using Karachi and Lahore as two other transport bases, according to a media report on Saturday.

The US embassy here had requested the Pakistan government to help in the evacuation efforts ahead of the August 31 deadline to completely withdraw from Afghanistan to cap its longest foreign war, spanning over 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Officials said that the Embassy sought permission for landing or transiting the passengers under three categories: US diplomats/citizens, Afghan nationals and people from other countries.

Read more: US troops have begun leaving Kabul airport: Pentagon

About 4,000 people, including the Afghans who supported the NATO forces during the war, were expected to be brought to Karachi and Islamabad for stay before being flown to the US.

However, official sources told Geo News that the federal government would be using Karachi and Lahore airports only as standby options, restricting the entry of the Afghan evacuees to only Islamabad.

The transit passengers would be present in Islamabad only for a few hours, before being flown to pre-decided countries.

Only emergency cases would be permitted accommodation in hotels in Islamabad, the sources told Geo News.

The plan to suspend entry of evacuees to Lahore and Karachi was taken in view of security concerns.

The Sindh government has been alerted of the changed plans, the news report said.

Officials said security has been increased around the Islamabad airport and the main highway linking the airport with the capital.
Pakistani customs officials on Saturday claimed to have foiled a bid to smuggle arms into the country from Afghanistan by recovering foreign-made weapons used by the US and NATO forces.

A Pakistan-bounded trailer truck was stopped at the Torkham border on Friday as it entered from the Afghanistan side, sources said.

Officials recovered two M4A1 carbine rifles, seven Glock 9mm pistols, eight Beretta pistol barrels and ammunition from the vehicle, they said.

An Afghan national has been arrested and the vehicle has been seized, they said.
A senior Pentagon official held talks with the Chinese military for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January to focus on managing risk between the two countries, a US official told Reuters on Friday.

The United States has put countering China at the heart of its national security policy for years and Biden's administration has described rivalry with Beijing as "the biggest geopolitical test" of this century.

Relations between China and the United States have grown increasingly tense, with the world's two largest economies clashing over everything from Taiwan and China's human rights record to its military activity in the South China Sea.

Read | US drone strike targets IS-K 'planner' in Afghanistan

Despite the tensions and heated rhetoric, US military officials have long sought to have open lines of communication with their Chinese counterparts to be able to mitigate potential flare-ups or deal with any accidents.

Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, spoke last week with Chinese Major General Huang Xueping, deputy director for the People's Liberation Army Office for International Military Cooperation.

"(They) utilized the US-PRC Defense Telephone Link to conduct a secure video conference," the US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Both sides agreed on the importance of maintaining open channels of communication between the two militaries," the official added.

Officials said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has yet to speak with his Chinese counterpart, in part because there was a debate about which Chinese official was Austin's counterpart.

Read | Uproar in Washington: Did US share evacuee names with Taliban?

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that the United States welcomes competition and does not seek conflict with Beijing, but will speak up on issues such as maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan lay claim to parts of the South China Sea, which is crossed by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing grounds.

Biden has ramped up sanctions on China over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

In a shift from his predecessor as president, Donald Trump, Biden has broadly sought to rally allies and partners to help counter what the White House says is China's increasingly coercive economic and foreign policies.
Britains Queen Elizabeth II will attend the UK-hosted United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland, it was confirmed by the organisers on Saturday.

The 95-year-old monarch will join world leaders at the event, which was to take place in November last year but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the world leaders expected to attend the COP26 summit alongside US President Joe Biden and around 120 heads of state and government.

Others expected to travel to Scotland for the event between November 1 and 12 include Pope Francis and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.

Absolutely delighted that Her Majesty the Queen will attend COP26, UK Cabinet minister and President of the COP26 summit, Alok Sharma, tweeted.

Also Read | UN climate report 'starkest warning yet,' warns COP26 chief

Sharma, the Agra-born minister who recently returned from a visit to India as part of his role for the summit, had tweeted earlier this week about his discussions during that tour.

Impressed to hear, during my visit last week, about Indias progress on renewables towards a 450GW target by 2030 Hope India will consider incorporating such ambitious policy commitments in any enhanced NDC (Nationally Determined Contributions) ahead of COP26, he said.

Following some stark warnings issued by a recent UN report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the science of climate change, the UK is calling for urgent global action in response.

The report warned that climate change is already affecting every region across the globe and that without urgent action to limit warming, heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and loss of Arctic Sea ice, snow cover and permafrost, will all increase while carbon sinks will become less effective at slowing the growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It highlighted that cutting global emissions, starting immediately, to net zero by mid-century would give a good chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the long-term and help to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had dubbed it a wake-up call for the world to take action for the critical COP26 summit.

As extreme events are felt across the globe, from wildfires in North America to floods in India, China, across Europe, and parts of Africa, and heatwaves in Siberia, the COP26 organisers said Sharma has been negotiating with governments and businesses to increase global climate ambition and take immediate action to help halve global emissions in the next decade and reach net zero emissions by mid-century in order to keep the 1.5C goal set out in the Paris Agreement within reach.
The Taliban deployed extra forces around Kabul's airport Saturday to prevent large crowds from gathering after a devastating suicide attack two days earlier, as the massive US-led airlift wound down ahead of an August 31 deadline.

New layers of checkpoints sprang up on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees and night-vision goggles captured from Afghan security forces. Areas where large crowds of people have gathered over the past two weeks in hopes of fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover were largely empty.

A suicide attack on Thursday by an Islamic State affiliate killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members, and there are concerns that the group, which is far more radical than the Taliban, could strike again. Many Western nations have completed their evacuation operations ahead of Tuesday's deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces.

Read more: Kabul attacks embarrassment for Taliban

An Afghan who had worked as a translator for the US military said he was with a group of people with permission to leave who tried to reach the airport late Friday. After passing through three checkpoints they were stopped at a fourth. An argument ensued, and the Taliban said they had been told by the Americans to only let US passport-holders through.

I am so hopeless for my future," the man told The Associated Press after returning to Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. "If the evacuation is over, what will happen to us?

On Saturday, the Taliban fired warning shots and deployed some kind of coloured smoke on a road leading to the airport, sending dozens of people scattering, according to a video circulating online that was consistent with AP reporting.

More than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, according to the US, but thousands more are struggling to leave and may not make it out by Tuesday.

In Kabul itself, hundreds of protesters, including many civil servants, gathered outside a bank while countless more lined up at cash machines. The protesters said had not been paid for the past three to six months and were unable to withdraw cash. ATM machines are still operating, but withdrawals are limited to around $200 every 24 hours.

The economic crisis, which predates the Taliban takeover earlier this month, could give Western nations leverage as they urge Afghanistan's new rulers to form a moderate, inclusive government and allow people to leave after August 31.

Afghanistan is heavily dependent on international aid, which covered around 75% of the toppled Western-backed government's budget. The Taliban have said they want good relations with the international community and have promised a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they last governed the country, but many Afghans are deeply skeptical.

The Taliban cannot access almost any of the central bank's $9 billion in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve. The International Monetary Fund has also suspended the transfer of some $450 million. Without a regular supply of US dollars, the local currency is at risk of collapse, which could send the price of basic goods soaring.

AUN agency meanwhile warned that a worsening drought threatens the livelihoods of more than 7 million people. The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said Afghans are also suffering from the coronavirus pandemic and displacement from the recent fighting.

Earlier this month, the UN World Food Program estimated that some 14 million people  roughly one out of every three Afghans  urgently need food assistance.

The FAO said that crucial help is needed ahead of the winter wheat planting season, which begins in a month in many areas. So far, funding would cover assistance to only 110,000 families of farmers, while some 1.5 million need help, the agency said, adding that the current harvest is expected to be 20% below last year's.

President Joe Biden has said he will adhere to a self-imposed August 31 deadline for withdrawing all US forces. The Taliban, who control nearly the entire country outside Kabul's airport, have rejected any extension.

Italy said its final evacuation flight had landed in Rome but that it would work with the United Nations and countries bordering Afghanistan to continue helping Afghans who had worked with its military contingent to leave the country.

Our imperative must be to not abandon the Afghan people, especially women and children, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Saturday. He said 4,890 Afghans were evacuated by Italy's air force on 87 flights, but did not say how many others were still eligible.

The Taliban have encouraged Afghans to stay in the country, pledging amnesty even to those who fought against them. They have said commercial flights will resume after the US withdrawal, but it's unclear if airlines will be willing to offer service.

The US and its allies have said they will continue providing humanitarian aid through the UN and other partners, but any broader engagement  including development assistance  is likely to hinge on whether the Taliban deliver on their promises of more moderate rule.

When the Taliban last governed Afghanistan, from 1996 until the US-led invasion in 2001, they imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. Women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and suspected criminals were maimed or executed in public.
The US military said Friday it had carried out a drone strike against a "planner" of the Islamic State-Khorasan, the group which claimed credit for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target," said Captain Bill Urban of the Central Command.

"We know of no civilian casualties," he added in a statement annoucing the first reported US strike since the attack.

Also Read | Uproar in Washington: Did US share evacuee names with Taliban?

The strike, launched from outside of Afghanistan, came as the airlift of evacuees from Kabul airport continued under much-heightened security after Thursday's attack.

At least 78 people were killed, including 13 US troops, when a suicide attacker exploded a bomb in the dense crowd in front of the aiport's Abbey Gate. Some media reported that fatalities numbered close to 200.

US officials said gunmen opened fire after the explosion, adding to the carnage.

The attack was carried out by the violent Afghan arm of the Islamic State group.

Following the attack US President Joe Biden vowed retaliation.

"To those who carried out this attack as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay," Biden said Thursday.

On Friday afternoon Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said they believe the group planned to strike the airlift again.

"We still believe there are credible threats... specific, credible threats," he said.
The US has said it expects "deeds, not words" and "follow through" on pledges by the Taliban to recognise the group diplomatically.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Taliban has made clear that they would "they would like to see an American diplomatic presence remain" in Afghanistan.

They "have been quite clear and quite open in the fact that they would like other countries to retain their diplomatic missions, he said, adding that a Taliban spokesperson had said the other day that we appreciate the embassies that remain open and didnt close. We assure them of their safety and protection.

Price said the US is yet to take a call on the issue, but "it is something we are actively discussing, both with our partners and thinking about here as well.

Read | US sticks to Aug 31 deadline to complete Afghan mission

We are not prepared to answer them today, precisely because we have heard a range of statements from the Taliban. Some of them have been positive, some of them have been constructive, but ultimately what we will be looking for, what our international partners will be looking for are deeds, not words, he said.

What we are going to be focused on in questions of any future diplomatic presence, any questions of recognition, any questions of assistance is follow-through -- again, deeds, not words, Price asserted.

He said though the Taliban have pledged publicly to provide safety and protection to the embassies, the US and its allies will look for an indication that "there is a substance, that there is merit to those statements, an indication that there will be follow-through before we make any such decisions".

Read | No quick recognition of Taliban govt by US, allies: WH

The US plans to get out of Afghanistan by August 31 and hand over the control of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul to the people of the country.

Replying to a question on if the Taliban will get the Afghanistan seat at the UN, Price said the US is not prepared to answer these questions today.

"Humanitarian assistance is a separate issue. We have proven in contexts that are varied and really encompass the world, the globe, that we can maintain a humanitarian commitment to, in this case, the Afghan people in ways that does not have any funding or assistance passed through the coffers of a central government, he said.

So that commitment will remain. I expect the US will continue to be a very generous donor to the Afghan people. Over the course of the past 20 years, its nearly $4 billion. It is a quarter a billion dollars we allocated just this summer, and the President just a few days ago allocated another $500 million to support internally displaced persons inside Afghanistan, Afghan refugees, and Afghans around the world who may be in need of assistance, Price said.
The US has said it will go ahead with its plan to conclude its Afghanistan mission by August 31, even as the evacuation effort, which is now in its "retrograde period", is facing an "ongoing and acute threat" from ISIS-K.

August 31 is the deadline set by both the US and the Taliban for America's pullout from war-torn Afghanistan.

The threat is ongoing and it is active. Our troops are still in danger. That continues to be the case every day that they are there. This is the most dangerous part of the mission," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference on Friday.

Read | Did US share evacuee names with Taliban?

"This is the retrograde period of the mission. What that means is that this is the period of time when the military commanders on the ground and forces begin to move not just troops home, but also equipment home. And that is often a very dangerous part of any mission, but in this case, they're also doing that while there is an ongoing and acute threat from ISIS-K. So that is what they are facing, she said.

Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul airport on Thursday, killing more than 100 people, including 13 US troops. The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, dubbed Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The military, Psaki said, made clear to President Joe Biden that they are committed to continuing this mission, to saving lives, to evacuating more people from the country over the coming days, and completing their mission by August 31.

Read | No quick recognition of Taliban govt by US, allies: WH

What it will also mean, as they move to this retrograde phase, is that there will be a reduction of numbers over the next couple of days...Those numbers will go down in the next couple of days...That is a result of the retrograde process that needs to take place, but also, force protection is front and centre and is vital to the mission, she said.

Responding to a question, Psaki said the president has directed the Secretary of State to continue diplomatic efforts with international partners to secure means for third-country nationals and Afghans with visas to leave the country, even after the US military presence ends.

A part of that would certainly be having a coordinated approach and engagement with the Taliban, because in order to continue to evacuate any American citizen who was not yet prepared to leave, who wants to leave, third-country nationals and Afghans with visas -- we will need to coordinate with the Taliban, she said.

That does not mean or translate into a presence on the ground. As we've noted, we are pulling our presence out by the 31st, and that has not changed, Psaki asserted.

Psaki said the US does not trust the Taliban, but it has no other option but to work with it.

The Taliban control large swaths of Afghanistan, including the area surrounding the perimeter of the airport. So, by necessity, that is our option to coordinate with them to get American citizens out; to get our Afghan partners out; to get individuals, who are eligible for the range of programmes the US has, out, she said.

The US has now evacuated more than 105,000 people as a result of those coordinated efforts, Psaki said.

The Taliban, she said, are going to want a functioning airport; so does the US.

There's an enormous amount of economic leverage that the global community has. That's something we need to work with our international partners on," Psaki said.
A case was lodged against a professor of the Calcutta University for allegedly threatening on social media to kill Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, police said on Saturday.

The case was registered against Arindam Bhattacharya, a professor of the Zoology Department, by the Hare Street police station on the basis of a complaint filed by PhD scholar Tamal Dutta, a senior police officer said.

Bhattacharya was booked under IPC sections 505 (1B) (with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public), 506 (threat be to cause death or grievous hurt) and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), said Murlidhar Sharma, the joint commissioner of police (crime).

The professor is yet to be taken into custody, police said.

When contacted, Bhattacharya said, "I didn't make any comments against the chief minister. The complainant is a Trinamool Congress supporter. I am waiting for the police to take steps and only after that I will seek legal advice on this."

The TMC-backed West Bengal College and University Professors Association condemned Bhattacharya's social media posts.

In April 2012, Chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra of Jadavpur University was arrested for allegedly forwarding a cartoon, lampooning the chief minister.
Dedicating a renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled that the people of Punjab have been the biggest victims of partition.

At the event which showcased multiple development initiatives taken by the Modi government to upgrade the complex in poll-bound Punjab, Modi said, "it is not right for any country to ignore the horrors of its past. Therefore, India has decided to observe August 14 every year as 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day'.

He said it is the responsibility of every nation to preserve its history as it teaches us and gives us the direction to move forward.

"It is not right for any country to ignore such horrors of its past," he insisted adding "we still feel the pain of what happened at the time of Partition in every corner of India and especially in the families of Punjab."

Also Read | Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accuses PM Modi of being expert at renaming, relaunching schemes

The Prime Minister also mentioned that due to Guru Kripa the government could bring swaroop of the holy Guru Granth Sahib along with people to India from conflict-ravaged Afghanistan. "Today, if Indians are in trouble, anywhere in the world, then India stands up to help them with all its might. Be it the Corona period or the crisis of Afghanistan, the world has experienced it continuously," he said.

Modi said on the 75th year of our Independence, this renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial will remind the new generation about the history of this holy place and will inspire them to learn a lot about its past. He said horrors like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the Partition speak of the sacrifices made for India's freedom and should not be forgotten as they inspire to keep the country above all.

Congress took a dig at the PM with chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala saying "Guru Modi ji inaugurated the Jallianwala Bagh light and sound show in Punjab today and disciple Khattar ji (Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar) got the General Dyer-like barbaric act live telecast by lathi-charging the farmers in Karnal."
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel on Friday met top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for the second time in four days, as his rivals mounted pressure on him to honour a contested agreement on rotating chief ministership and give way to Health Minister T S Singh Deo halfway through his tenure in the government.

Baghel indicated that his position is safe after the over three-hour-long meeting with Rahul as 55 MLAs supporting him too reached the national capital in a show of strength, saying he has invited the former Congress chief to the state as Chief Minister.

The 60-year-old leader flew down to the national capital in the afternoon for the meeting with Rahul, even as MLAs supporting him held at least two meetings with Congress' Chhattisgarh in-charge P L Punia since last night.

Also Read  Will there be a change of guard in Chhattisgarh? Congress firefights power tussle between Baghel, Deo

The MLAs also sought a meeting with Rahul and Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal during the day as well and landed at the AICC headquarters in the evening.

"I told him everything. There were discussions on political as well administrative issues. I requested him to visit Chhattisgarh. He gladly accepted the invitation and he will be there next week," Baghel told reporters after the meeting.

Asked whether there would remain the Chief Minister and about the rotation of Chief Ministers as demanded by Deo, he said Punia has already clarified the matter and there was no need to clarify it again. Punia had earlier said that there was no decision on rotating the post of Chief Minister when Congress won the polls in 2018.

Also read: Bhupesh Baghel, the man who wrested Chhattisgarh from BJP for Congress after being rocked by Naxal attack

To repeated questions about his fate, Baghel said he has invited Rahul to Chhattisgarh as the Chief Minister of the state.

Rahul was closeted with Baghel, an influential OBC leader in the state who pipped Deo in 2018 to the post of Chief Minister, for more than three hours. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who is said to be backing Baghel, was also present for most part of the meeting.

Altogether 55 of the 70 Congress MLAs said to be supporting Baghel have reached the capital -- 26 of them reached on Thursday night in a chartered plane while the rest came later.

Sources said the group of MLAs that came on Thursday night drove straight to Punia's residence in the capital and argued that Baghel should not be removed. On Friday, all 55 MLAs again met Punia.

Also Read  CM Bhupesh Baghel should clarify who is trying to destabilise Chhattisgarh government: BJP

Elaborating on the demand, Chhattisgarh Minister Amarjeet Bhagat said, "only when the team is not doing well, it is required to change the captain of the team. Baghel is doing very well in the state."

On Tuesday, Rahul had separate meetings with Baghel and Deo while both held discussions with Venugopal the next day. While Deo did not return to Raipur, Baghel returned to the capital for the Friday meeting. Deo said that he was not called for any meeting on Friday.

Baghel's camp believes that Congress central leadership will not be able to ignore the support the Chief Minister enjoys in the party. The party will also have to take into account that Baghel is an OBC leader and replacing him with an upper-caste leader could have an impact in the future.

On his part, Deo wants the central leadership to honour the agreement the leaders arrived at in 2018 to rotate the chief ministership after two-and-half years. Besides Baghel and Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu and Charandas Mahant were also contenders for the top post.

In Raipur, Jannayak Janata Congress leader Amit Jogi, son of late Ajit Jogi, also said that he was willing to return to Congress. Earlier, Baghel had stalled his return to the party.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being an expert at renaming and relaunching schemes.

His remarks came on the 7th anniversary of the Jan Dhan Yojna which, he claimed, was renaming of UPA's 'savings bank deposit' scheme.

Also Read | Jan Dhan accounts swell to 43 crore with total deposits over Rs 1.46 lakh crore

"The PM has hailed the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on its 7th anniversary. It is actually the 7th anniversary of the renaming of the UPA's Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account," he said on Twitter.

The PM has hailed the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana on its 7th anniversary. It is actually the 7th anniversary of the renaming of the UPA's Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account. What an expert in renaming, repackaging and relaunching!  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 28, 2021

"What an expert in renaming, repackaging and relaunching," he said.

The government is celebrating the 7th anniversary of the Jan Dhan scheme.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister said, "Today we mark seven years of #PMJanDhan, an initiative that has forever transformed India's development trajectory. It has ensured financial inclusion and a life of dignity as well as empowerment for countless Indians. Jan Dhan Yojana has also helped further transparency."

I would like to applaud the untiring efforts of all those who have worked to make #PMJanDhan a success. Their efforts have ensured the people of India lead a better quality of life.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 28, 2021

He also lauded the untiring efforts of all those who have worked to make the scheme a success, saying their efforts have ensured that the people of India lead a better quality of life.

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The BJP on Saturday said it has nothing to do with the ongoing probe by Enforcement Directorate into allegations of coal smuggling against some Trinamool Congress leaders but the people of the state want the investigation to be over within a time frame and the unravelling of the truth.

BJP state spokesman Samik Bhattacharya told reporters that in the past when investigations into any case against any TMC leader don't yield immediate results there was talk about "Didi-Modi (CM-PM) nexus" by the Left. "Now if there is any news related to the probe, TMC alleges vendetta politics," he said replying to a question on reports of ED issuing summons to Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC national general secretary and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with the coal smuggling probe.

"We don't have anything to do (with the probe). We only want the truth to come out. Any talk about the probe gathering pace or not can be commented on by the investigating agency which works independently and not under us a political party," he said.

Read more: Unable to defeat politically, BJP using agencies against TMC: Mamata Banerjee

Asked to comment on Abhisek Banerjee blaming Union Home Minister Amit Shah of resorting to vendetta politics after BJP lost in West Bengal assembly poll and TMC's outreach in Tripura, Bhattacharya said "He (Abhisek) has made a political point after ED summons. It is upto him to say whatever he wants to." About the claims by Mamata Banerjee that she can send documents to ED to back her claim about BJP leaders puttting up in a luxury hotel in Asansol, he retorted "Why doesn't she if she has any proof?".

The TMC supremo has alleged that the BJP is working "hand in glove" with the coal mafia and that its leaders had been put up in a luxury hotel in Asansol, which is near the coal mines of the state. Regarding Mamata Banerjee's reservations on the visit of NHRC and CBI teams to meet victims of the post poll violence, the BJP leader said that over 50 members of the party had been killed in attacks by TMC in West Bengal since the end of the assembly election on May 2 this year. The figure was around 180 in past years.

"These deaths didn't take place in Mars. The two arrests by CBI in Nadia today were in relation to the murder of a BJP worker in mid May. We are happy the NHRC and CBI are finding out the real truth of TMC attacks," he said.

Tripura BJP will react to TMC's charges of attack on its party activists by the saffron camp in the north eastern state, he added.

TMC state general secretary and spokesman Kunal Ghosh said BJP is using central agencies for its trumped up charges to harass leaders like Abhishek Banerjee.

This was due to the desperation and frustration over BJP's poll debacle in West Bengal and the increasing influence of TMC in Tripura.

"The NHRC and CBI reports on post-poll violence in Bengal is part of the same agenda of Amit Shah-led dispensation in Delhi to harass TMC, which enjoys the support of people," he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday lashed out at the BJP government at the Centre, alleging that since it was unable to counter the Trinamool Congress (TMC) politically, it is using Central agencies against her party.

Addressing a virtual rally on the occasion of the foundation day of the TMCs students wing the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, Mamata warned the BJP that if it tries to use the ED against her party, she will also submit several evidences against the saffron party to the Central agency.

Since the BJP and the Centre cannot counter us politically, they are using agencies against us. If they try to intimidate me with the ED, I will send the agency several pieces of evidence against the BJP leaders, said Mamata.

Read more: ED summons Abhishek Banerjee, wife in coal scam case

Referring to the EDs summon to her nephew and the TMCs national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira, the Chief Minister dared the BJP to fight Abhishek politically. The combative Chief Minister also warned Union Home Minister Amit Shah not to indulge in such political vendetta. Abhishek and his wife have been summoned by the ED in a money laundering case allegedly related to a coal scam.

If you (BJP) want to do politics then maintain political courtesy. Fight Abhishek politically I have never seen such political vendetta. Remember Amit Shah this cant go on, said Mamata.

She also said that it was unfair to wrongly target the TMC over coal scams when the coal was under the Centre. Mamata alleged that BJP ministers were lodged in hotels run by coal mafias in Asansol while coming to Bengal for election campaigning

She slammed the Centre over its National Monetisation Pipeline alleging that it was conspiring to sell the country.

The BJP government is a government of only bullets and abuse. It is an inhuman government. They will sell rail stations, Air India and coal of the country, said Mamata,

Taking a dig at the saffron party over its frequent corruption charges against the TMC, the Chief Minister said that the saffron party should get its own actions probed and asked where money from the PM-CARES fund went to.
Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday emphasised the need to ensure a free press to provide information in an unbiased manner.

He also said that similarly, schools and universities need to be supported to ensure that they create an atmosphere where students can learn to differentiate truth from falsehood and develop a temperament for questioning those in power.

"We must strive to ensure that we have a press that is free from influence of any kind, political or economic, which will provide us information in an unbiased manner," he said.

Justice Chandrachud was delivering a talk on the topic "Speaking Truth to Power: Citizens and the Law" as part of the 6th MC Chagla Memorial Online Lecture.

He said, to counter the spread of fake news, we need to strengthen our public institutions.

Also Read | Constitution is the North Star to judge every State action: Justice Chandrachud

"It has become exceedingly difficult for citizens to find the truth in this time and age. Second, having found the truth they do not care about the truth," Justice Chandrachud said.

He added "there is a contest between 'our truth' vs 'your truth', and there is also a tendency to ignore a 'truth', which is not aligned with one's perception or political inclination.

He pointed that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook should be held responsible for false content, but people should also be more vigilant and learn to accept different opinions.

We incline towards echo chambers and don't like opposing beliefs... we live in a world that is increasingly divided along social, economic and religious lines," he said.

Justice Chandrachud further pointed out that it is undeniable that the phenomenon of fake news is on the rise and a pertinent example of this is that the World Health Organization (WHO) recently termed the current Covid-19 pandemic as infodemic and highlighted the overabundance of misinformation online.
A Delhi government committee has shortlisted the names of doctors S K Sarin, Suresh Kumar and Sandeep Budhiraja to be recommended for Padma awards this year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

He said a total of 740 names of doctors and paramedics were recommended for the awards by 9,427 people out of which the three names were shortlisted by the committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

The committee shortlisted the names of ILBS vice chancellor Dr S K Sarin who established first plasma bank and genome sequencing facility of Delhi government, LNJP hospital's medical director Dr Suresh Kumar and group director of Max hospital Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, he said.

The Delhi government had decided to recommend the names of only doctors and paramedics for the Padma awards this year and had asked Delhiites to suggest the names, he said.
The Congress high command seems to be underestimating Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and powerful OBC leader Bhupesh Baghel, who single-handedly steered the grand old party in late 2018 to return to power in the mining state after a decade-and-half of BJP rule.

The OBC community makes up roughly half of the state's estimated 2.75 crore population and Baghel is the undisputed leader of the community.

There is a wider perception in Chhattisgarh that the top Congress leadership is underestimating a seasoned politician like Baghel based on 'misleading inputs' from a bunch of persons with vested interest and a few major mining players.

Also Read | Bhupesh Baghel, the man who wrested Chhattisgarh from BJP for Congress after being rocked by Naxal attack

It will certainly be a monumental mistake of the Congress' central leadership if it replaces Baghel as the Chief Minister. Congress workers in Chhattisgarh are hoping that better sense will prevail in Delhi and the party high-command will not hurt 'Chhattisgarhia's' pride, which Baghel symbolises.

Baghel has clear backing of at least 55 MLAs who could go to any extent if the party high-command ignores their wishes. Congress has 70 MLAs in the 90-member state Assembly.

The scion of the Surguja royal family, T.S. Singh Deo, allegedly backed by a major mining company, is pushing hard in his bid to replace Baghel, claiming that he was promised in late 2018 that he would succeed Baghel after the latter completes his two-and-half-year term.

Analysts in Chhattisgarh have been surprised at the way the Congress high-command is attempting to handle the entire episode, as Singh Deo lacks acceptability among the party cadres and appeal in masses.

Majority of the Congress MLAs say "what is the need to create a political uncertainty" in the state when Baghel is performing "exceptionally well" and the Congress high-command too has acknowledged it publicly.

Analysts also claim that the Congress high-command needs to read the writing on the wall and should not commit suicide in Chhattisgarh.

If Baghel is replaced, the dominant OBC community in Chhattisgarh will never accept the humiliation and the party might have to wait for another 15 years to explore chances of making a comeback in the mineral-rich state.


Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh on Saturday said security forces will act tough against militants and their supporters in the Kashmir Valley to maintain the prevailing peaceful atmosphere.

"We will act strictly against terrorists and their supporters, including OGWs (over ground workers of terrorist outfits). It is the OGWs who carry a pistol to do selective killing and throw grenades to target innocent civilians. We are going very tough against them," Singh told reporters in Bandipora district of north Kashmir.

He said the situation in the district has improved and was peaceful even though there were attempts recently to vitiate the atmosphere.

"A group of terrorists which had infiltrated and wanted to carry out terror activities was neutralised recently. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from them, he said, adding that security forces will not allow the prevailing peaceful situation in the valley to deteriorate.

Earlier, the Director-General of Police (DGP) addressed a meeting of officers and jawans and chaired a meeting of officers of the Army, CRPF, BSF and the police to review the security scenario in the district.

Singh directed the security forces to keep pressure on anti-national elements and identify the areas and people aiding them.

The DGP said that synergy between all forces in Jammu Kashmir has ensured peace.

The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Bandipora and other officers briefed the DGP on the security measures being taken in the district.

Referring to the recent successes on the law and order front, the DGP said the police force is known for its bravery and professionalism.
As Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and the MLAs returned to Raipur so has TS Singh Deo but suspense still looms on the issue of rotational chief minister as there is no clarity from the top leadership of the Congress party, while the only official communication after Friday's meet was from the chief minister himself.

However, sources say that the issue is not yet over and the top leadership is likely to talk to Singh Deo before arriving at any decision.

For the time being Baghel has got a reprieve from Delhi, but there is no clarity on whether it is permanent or temporary, and no official statement has been issued.

Read more: Is Congress high command underestimating Baghel?

Singh Deo who is pushing on the formula of rotational chief minister is maintaining a line that everything is in the purview of the party leadership and whatever decision will be taken by them will be accepted, but the supporters of the two leaders are confused as there is no clear signal from Delhi.

The meeting between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel lasted three hours on Friday but saw no decision being taken on a leadership change, party sources said.

After the meeting, Baghel said that he has invited Rahul Gandhi to visit the state.

"I have apprised him of everything and discussed political as well as administrative issues... have requested Rahul Gandhi to visit Chhattisgarh," he said.

The Congress high command had summoned Baghel to Delhi on Friday to take a final call on whether the powerful OBC leader should be allowed to continue as the Chief Minister or be replaced by TS Singh Deo, the scion of the Surguja royal family.

The Baghel camp claimed the support of 56 MLAs.

The Congress has 70 MLAs in the 90-member House in the mineral-rich state, but everything is still not well within the grand old party as Singh deo is pushing hard in his bid to replace Baghel, saying he was promised in late 2018 that he would succeed Baghel after the latter completes two-and-a-half-years of his term.
The Supreme Court has directed the Centre and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to allow a doctor to participate in the counselling scheduled on August 31 for admission to Post Graduate and Post-Doctoral courses published by the premier medical institute.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and R Subhash Reddy made it clear that the order has been passed in the special facts and circumstances of this case, since examinations could not be held as scheduled by reason of the overwhelming rise in Covid-19 cases, and considering that a seat is still available at AIIMS, Rishikesh.

Pursuant to a notification for admission to Post Graduate and Post-Doctoral courses published by AIIMS, New Delhi, the petitioner, a doctor and a final year student of the MD course in General Medicine at the Institute of Naval Medicine, INHS Asvini, Mumbai applied for admission to the Doctor of Medicine Course of the July 2021 session.

The petitioner, Vijaya Kumar Varada, successfully participated in the online selection process, and in the departmental clinical/practical/lab-based assessment conducted virtually through video conferencing.

He was selected for a seat in the Doctor of Medicine Course in Cardiology at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, Odisha and was offered a seat in the course in cardiology at AIIMS, and asked to join between July 1 to July 15, failing which the seat allotted to the petitioner would be forfeited.

However, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik could not conduct the final MD General examination as per schedule in view of the Covid pandemic and the examination had to be postponed on account of the exponential rise in coronavirus cases in the state.

According to the AIIMS prospectus, it requires candidates to acquire the requisite qualification for the Post-Doctoral course within July 31, failing which they would be debarred from taking admission in the institution.

When the petition was taken up for hearing on July 19, the counsel appearing on behalf of AIIMS, New Delhi and Bhubaneswar, submitted that the first round of counselling was already over but the last date of seat allocation had been extended till August 5, and the candidates who had been selected in the first round of counselling could take up admission on or before this date.

On August 4, the top court was informed that the final theoretical MS/MD examination of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences was due to be held from August 16-23 and thereafter, the practical examination was scheduled to be held on August 24 and 25.

The lawyer appearing on behalf of the university informed the court that the results of the petitioner would be published by August 27.

The top court did not pass any interim order on the earlier date having regard to the prospectus published by AIIMS which required candidates to acquire the requisite qualification for the Post-Doctoral course within July 31, failing which they would be debarred from taking admission and considering that the examination of the petitioner had not even been held.

The court merely directed that the matter be listed on August 27 observing orally that in the event the petitioner obtained the requisite qualification in the meanwhile and in the event any seats remained vacant, the petitioner might be allowed to take admission.

When the matter was taken up for hearing on Friday, a photocopy of the provisional degree certificate issued to the petitioner by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences was handed over to the apex court for perusal.

The counsel appearing on behalf of the university confirmed that the photocopy is a true photocopy of the original.

The counsel appearing on behalf of AIIMS submitted, on instructions, that two seats in the Post Doctoral Course in Cardiology are available in AIIMS, Rishikesh and there is no vacancy left in DM course in cardiology at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar.

Noting the submission, the apex court directed the respondents to permit the petitioner to participate in the counselling scheduled on August 31 and to allow the petitioner admission in the available vacancy in the DM cardiology course at AIIMS, Rishikesh, if the petitioner is interested.

"It is only fair that the petitioner should get preference over candidates who have ranked below him in the merit list," the bench said.

"This order passed by way of a one time measure for admission to the DM course in Cardiology for the July 2021-22 session, in the special facts and circumstances of this case, is not to be treated as a precedent," the bench said.
The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a plea by a Parsi woman and her seven-year-old son against social excommunication and religious ostracisation faced by them due to her marriage to a non-Parsi.

A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari sought a response from the Union government on a joint petition by the mother and son from Mumbai.

The court initially observed the questions raised in the plea were already covered in reference made to a larger bench following the Sabarimala judgement.

However, it agreed to examine the matter as the petitioners represented by senior advocate Percival Billimoria and advocate Sanjay Nuli submitted that Parsis are a race and ethnic group and ostracisation of a Parsi Zoroastrian and her offspring on the grounds of her marriage to an individual of a different lineage, race or religion is contrary to basic human rights and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

"A section of the Parsi community, believes that they are racially superior being of Aryan descent and insist that intermarriage with other races dilutes and contaminates their ethnicity," the plea claimed.

The Parsi woman and her children are discriminated and socially ostracised...but the same treatment is not meted out to Parsi males marrying a non-Parsi and their offspring from inter-marriages, it added.

The plea asked the court to declare the practice as discriminatory and unconstitutional. It also asked the top court to strike down over 100-year-old judgement of the Bombay High Court passed in 1908, which had held children of intermarried Parsi Zoroastrian men to be within the meaning of Parsis, while denying the same status to children of intermarried Parsi Zoroastrian women.
Three months after the second consecutive e-academic year commenced, 4.71 lakh schoolchildren in Kerala still do not have digital devices to access e-classes, and over 3,000 wards in the state are facing poor or no Internet connectivity.

Interestingly, Kerala was declared the first digital state in 2016 by then President Pranab Mukherjee citing 100% mobile connectivity and 75% e-literacy.

The hardships faced by students in getting access to e-learning has once again come to focus in Kerala again after Ananthu Babu, a student of a tribal hamlet in Kannur district, suffered a severe injury after falling from a treetop. He was trying to get better Internet connectivity on his mobile phone.

Similar in the plight of many students in remote locations, mainly tribal hamlets. Many students have to climb trees or go to hilltops regularly to get Internet access for e-learning as steps initiated by the government to establish connectivity were progressing at a snails pace.

An evaluation by the Kerala Education Department recently found that 4.71 lakhs of the 38 lakh students in Class 1 to 12 did not have digital devices to access e-learning.

Government sources said that 3,000 of the over 20,000 local body wards in Kerala were also facing connectivity issues. Many regions, especially around 400 odd tribal hamlets inside forest areas, had no connectivity at all.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched a crowdfunding initiative titled Vidyakiranam earlier this month seeking support from individuals and groups for purchasing laptops for students. However, government sources said that the scheme was a non-starter. The state government had formed a committee comprising government officials and representatives of the Internet and mobile service providers to establish proper connectivity across the state. But the issue remains to be solved.

Kerala general education secretary Mohammam Hanish told DH that the tendering process for the laptops was progressing. Once the rates of laptops are finalised, contributions and sponsorships from individuals, organisations and voluntary outfits were expected under the Vidyakiran scheme. A portal for the purpose was also launched. He also said that steps to ensure proper connectivity to around 3,000 wards in the state was progressing.

Sources said that establishing connectivity at around 400 tribal hamlets was quite challenging as many hamlets were situated in deep forests.
Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution against three farm laws of the Union Government, amid a walkout by AIADMK and BJP. With this, Tamil Nadu becomes the seventh state ruled by the Opposition to pass resolutions against the laws.

Moving the resolution in the Assembly, Stalin said his government was according top priority to improving the lives of farmers by presenting a separate budget for agriculture. The DMK had in its 2021 Assembly election manifesto reiterated its opposition to the three farm laws of the Centre and promised to bring a resolution in the Assembly once it comes to power.

The Assembly unanimously passes a resolution against the three farm laws as they will not bring any good to farmers or agriculture growth in the country. The Assembly resolves that the Union Government rescinds the laws, Stalin said, moving the resolution.

The Chief Minister also announced that all cases filed against farmers during their protests against the farm laws will be withdrawn. He also took a swipe at AIADMK for not supporting the resolution and punched holes in its claim that the party always stood for farmers interests.

As Stalin moved the resolution, legislators from AIADMK and BJP staged a walkout opposing the DMK governments move to bring a resolution against laws passed by Parliament. However, AIADMKs ally PMK supported the resolution.

Deputy floor leader of AIADMK, O Panneerselvam, raised questions about the Assembly passing a resolution when petitions against the farm laws were pending before the Supreme Court.

As AIADMK members walked out of the House, Water Resources Minister Durai Murugan said Panneerselvam was opposing the Bill only to avoid a headline in newspapers that father opposes a Bill supported by his son. Durai Murugan was referring to OPS son O P Ravindranath supporting the Bill in Lok Sabha.

Tamil Nadu has now joined Opposition-ruled states  Kerala, West Bengal, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Punjab  in passing resolutions against the farm laws.
Twitter is the 'porn hub' of social media, DisinfoLab said in a new report.

Shockingly, despite Indian laws and Twitter's own policies, even child porn and rape videos are freely available. Worse, Twitter's lax policy has allowed a massive psy-war targeting communal harmony, the report said.

Twitter has a full-fledged porn industry -- from live web cam to other off-line services'. Numerous NSFW content selling websites openly advertise themselves on Twitter, including those who show their registration in India, it added.

These activities are not run in hiding but in broad daylight, advertising with hashtags. Live porn is openly sold on Twitter using the #IndianCamGirl hashtag involving a nexus of service providers', it said.

The fact that the hashtag started in 2017, involves several influencers, and is used regularly is a testament to Twitter's unwillingness to address these concerns.

In the garb of such services', personal data of the users are being mined, to be used for criminal activities from 'sextortion' to rape, to sexual exploitation of minors, leading to grave consequences, including suicides.

Read | Twitter allows some users to flag 'misleading' content

"Anti-social/anti-India elements are taking advantage of this free porn' environment of Twitter, weaponising the content. An elaborate psy-war is being waged to damage India's communal harmony, particularly between Hindus and Muslims," the report said.

"Hundreds of fake handles are running coordinated campaigns, dehumanising the women of both religions. These handles pretend to be Hindus (#hstuds) when demeaning Muslim girls (#mslut); and Muslim (#mstud), while demeaning Hindu girls (#hslut)," it added.

The behavioural pattern of these handles - creation date, activity, location and hashtag - clearly establishes an organised campaign designed to harm social harmony. Surprisingly, despite obvious Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (CIB), Twitter doesn't seem to take any actions, the report said.

"Twitter, the US based for-profit company, seems obliged to follow only US laws, while showing complete dis-regard to India's IT Rules, which prohibits adult content on social media. Twitter doesn't even make any attempt to implement the laws, doable with basic location filter," the report said.

Contrast it with other social media platforms which do far better content management, and continue to strive to keep social media space clean. Shockingly, Twitter seems blind to even most obscene contents, including child porn despite a 'child sexual exploitation policy'.

"Twitter claims to have a zero tolerance' policy towards child pornography - and yet seems to make zero efforts to counter this menace. It's important to remember that this content is available to even under age users, as Twitter doesn't filter 'sensitive content' to even young users," the report said.

"Equally shocking is freely available rape videos' on Twitter, which are prohibited even under Twitter's policy of gory content'. Even those video posts, which have words that could trigger filter mechanism are freely available, including the gang-rape video of a young girl," the report said.

Twitter has also failed to filter obscene content for young users. Even a minor user on Twitter can access most obscene content if they wish to. Worth noting that Twitter could easily filter particular kind of content on age and location restriction, if it wished to, DisinfoLab said.

"To access Twitter Hub, one need not even own a Twitter account. An open Google search could land anyone, even a minor, to most gory and vulgar contents available on Twitter with just a click on view sensitive content'. Seems #Google also needs to take measures to control it," the report added.
The latest move by President Joe Bidens administration to de-link the Taliban and its long-time affiliate Haqqani Network has not gone down well with India.

The US State Departments spokesperson Ned Price told journalists in Washington D.C. on Friday that the Taliban and the Haqqani Network were two separate entities. He made the comment when a journalist asked him if the US troops coordination with the Taliban to ensure the security of the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul extended to the Haqqani Network too.

The statement by the US State Department came as a surprise for New Delhi. The Government of India has not yet officially reacted, but a source told the DH that New Delhi had taken note of it and would seek further clarity on the issue during its forthcoming engagements with the Biden Administration.

Brahma Chellaney, eminent strategic affairs analyst, slammed the statement by the US State Departments spokesperson as a shameless big lie. (The) Haqqani Network, a front for Pakistan's ISI (Inter Services Intelligence), constitutes the Pakistan-reared Taliban's special forces. Khalil Haqqani is the security chief of the new theocracy, tweeted Chellaney.

With a large number of militants of the Haqqani Network deployed on the streets of Kabul, and its leader, Anas Haqqani, representing the Taliban in negotiations for forming the next government in Afghanistan, New Delhi recently warned the international community about the outlawed terrorist organisation based in Pakistan.

Explained | The Haqqani Network: Who are they? What's their Pakistan connection?

Anas Haqqani is the son of the Haqqani Networks founder Jalaluddin Haqqani and brother of its current leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also one of the three deputy leaders of the Taliban, with the two others being Mullah Yaqoob, the son of Mullah Omar, and Mullah Baradar. Khalil Haqqani is the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani and the Taliban put him in charge of the security of Kabul after taking over the capital city of Afghanistan on August 15 last.

The issue is likely to come up when Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla will meet his counterpart and the US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, in Washington D.C. next week. They are likely to exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took over in most of the provincial capitals as well as the national capital Kabul  20 years after being ousted from power by a US-led military offensive. Shringla is likely to convey to Sherman that separating the Taliban and its long-time affiliate Haqqani Network not only goes against New Delhis position, but also contradicted the publicly articulated assessments of the top US military and intelligence officials in the past, the source said on Saturday.

The ISI of Pakistan had in the past used the Haqqani Network to carry out attacks, not only on Indias diplomatic and consular missions in Afghanistan, but also on its citizens engaged in development projects funded by New Delhi in the conflict-ravaged country.

Events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said during a UN Security Council session on threats terrorism poses to international peace and security on August 19. The heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justifies this growing anxiety.
The Shiv Sena and its youth wing Yuva Sena has requested Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to render help to an MBA student from Mumbai who was gang-raped in Mysuru.

The Yuva Sena also sent out appeals to Karnataka Director General of Police Praveen Sood and Bengaluru City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant.

Expressing deep anguish, Yuva Sena Secretary Durga Bhosle-Shinde, Core Committee members Suprada Phatarpekar, Sheetal Sheth and Subhashini Thevar said: The victim's condition is critical, as reported by media. An assault on a woman anywhere is an assault on humanity.

Meanwhile they also urged to provide her the best medicare, besides urgent and strict action against the perpetrators.

They further said that the victim's male friend was also brutally assaulted and there have been arrests in the incident which happened on Thursday and resulted in a huge political furore.

"The police must treat this incident with the utmost urgency and take all relevant steps to arrest the accused as soon as possible. Any delay will make it even more difficult to ensure justice to the survivor," the letter states.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturved condemned the statement of Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Umesh Katti.

After Karnataka Home Ministers disgusting comments now another Minister,Umesh Katti says rapes are not uncommon and cant be helped,rapes shouldnt occur but theres nothing we can do about them.shameful. Will the Chief Minister act on these ministers?, she said.
A court here on Saturday remanded television actor Gaurav Dixit, arrested in connection with a drug case, in the custody of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till August 30.

Dixit was arrested by the Mumbai zonal team of the NCB on Friday, and was produced before a magistrate court here.

The NCB, represented by special public prosecutor Advait Sethna, submitted that the case pertains to recovery of commercial quantity of contraband and hence Dixit's custodial interrogation was required.

Appearing for the accused, advocate Kushal Mor argued that the recovery was of small quantity and Dixit must be released on bail. After hearing both sides, the court remanded the accused to the custody of the NCB till August 30.

The NCB had been on the lookout for Dixit for the past few months after his name cropped up in the interrogation of actor Ajaz Khan and some other persons in April this year.

The probe agency had searched Dixits home in Lokhandwala at the time and drugs were seized.
The responsibility of the two suicide bombings at Kabul airport on August 26, which resulted in the death of 13 US marines, over 100 Afghan soldiers, several Taliban and injuries to a large number of persons, has been claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), a regional affiliate of the Islamic State (IS). That these attacks occurred despite a prior warning by the US agencies indicate diminution in the US intelligence and military capabilities and tenuous control of the Taliban fighters on the ground in Kabul, despite manning numerous checkpoints.

The US, Canada, UK, Germany, India and many other countries have condemned these terrorist acts. US President Joe Biden has vowed to hunt down the culprits and ordered drone strikes on IS's targets. There has been severe criticism of Biden's policies by both the Democrats and Republicans and by the US allies for impetuously withdrawing the US troops, closing down the Bagram airbase and reducing the US to a supplicant before the Taliban. Despite this criticism, Biden has stuck to his August 31 deadline for the US withdrawal even though the USA may not be able to evacuate everyone that it wants.

Also read: 'World has abandoned Afghanistan's new generation'

The ISK was set up in 2014 by the IS comprising Pakistani militants and fighters from the "Khorasan", a historical region comprising Central and South Asia (including Central Asian countries, parts of China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and other countries. It managed to seek the support of certain Taliban elements who were unhappy with their leadership's talks with the US or were attracted to the IS's more extreme transnational ideology, which calls for the establishment of a global caliphate through a war that would kill or enslave all those who do not adhere to its extremist interpretation of Islam. The IS is opposed to the Taliban, and other Pakistan supported terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed as the latter have an Afghanistan based agenda or regional agenda dictated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISK has accused the Taliban of abandoning jihad for a negotiated peace settlement with the US.

The ISK's strength, according to some US researchers, was about 5,000 in 2018. But many of them were killed in subsequent bombings by the US and fighting with the Taliban. Now their number is reduced to about 2,000, mainly in the provinces of Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman bordering Western Pakistan. Their ranks swelled after the Taliban broke open the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul last week releasing many IS and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)militants. The current leader of the ISK is Shahab al-Muhajir.

There are reports that the Taliban's Haqqani Network and other Pakistan based terror groups have aided some IS attacks in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region between 2019-21. Beyond numerous bombings and massacres from 2016-18, the ISK failed to hold any territory in the region and now operates through covert cells near cities and prefers to carry out high profile attacks on soft targets such as Kabul airport.

The Kabul attacks have been a major embarrassment for the Taliban though it is trying to save face by saying that these took place in the US-controlled areas. These will upset the calculations and plans of many countries supporting it, such as China, Russia and Pakistan. They demonstrate that the control of the Taliban in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan is nebulous, and despite its promises, it is yet to control the various terror groups such as the IS, TTP, Al-Qaeda, East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) proliferating on the Afghan soil.

Until it takes some firm action, China and Russia may be reluctant to recognise a Taliban government immediately. China is already unhappy with Pakistan for not being able to control the escalating attacks against its personnel in Pakistan. Given that the Taliban's priority is setting up its government, it is unlikely to immediately take effective action quickly against the IS militants.

Pakistani leaders were asking the US and European countries to engage the Taliban diplomatically and provide financial and other assistance; this is unlikely until the Taliban can show definite progress in establishing an inclusive government and respecting its people's human rights.

Many Americans, the US's allies and partners and Afghan people are angry at President Biden's botched withdrawal of the US troops. They ask why the US and its allies did not withdraw their personnel and military equipment before withdrawing troops. China and Russia are taking jibes at the US fickleness and its unreliability as a security partner.

President Biden withdrew the US troops on the premise that Afghanistan won't become a terror haven for the US. His promise carries little meaning now as jihadists in Afghanistan have already started attacking the US. Its global standing has weakened, and many people are questioning whether the USA should have left Afghanistan in this irresponsible and humiliating manner.

(Yogesh Gupta is a Former Ambassador.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
O Kabuliwala! Kabuliwala! These words of Mini, the little girl in Rabindranath Tagores short story, Kabuliwala, still chime like jingles whenever I see Afghans or read about Afghanistan, the land of remote, forbidding and mystic mountains, the land of valiant ancient warriors. Abdur Rahman, the tall, loose-robed, long-limbed, high-turbaned and bearded vendor of fruits and wares, who plied his goods in the back lanes of Calcutta, like many of his countrymen across many cities of India, and made their annual pilgrimage back to their land high in the mountains, has been made immortal in his story by Tagore.

Migrants are feared as aliens and seen with suspicion and antipathy, but Tagore etched the character of Kabuliwala as a kindred spirit with such delicacy, beauty and endearment, your heart swells as you read the story.

The friendship between little Mini, her father, who is an author, and Kabuliwala, blossoms. But Kabuliwala is imprisoned over a stabbing incident with a buyer who owed him a debt, and is put away for eight years. After release from jail, he goes to meet Mini. It happens to be her wedding day. He is dissuaded from meeting her by the father, who thinks he could be a bad omen on the auspicious day. When Kabuliwala offers some dry fruits as a present to Mini and turns away, deeply disappointed to depart, Minis father, touched to the quick, asks Mini to be brought in. Kabuliwala is flustered as Mini doesnt recognise him when he tries to speak to her as in former days. She is now a bashful bride, no longer the carefree child he once knew, and she blushes and bends her head down.

Kabuliwala, overcome with a flood of emotions, pulls up his vest and shows the ink imprint of the hand of his little daughter in Afghanistan and fondly runs his hand over it. Minis father, tears in his eyes, feels they are all universally bound by the same filial bonds, and offers the proud Kabuliwala some money and urges him to go back home to his own daughter, who has also now grown up. The ink-smeared impression of the hand of Kabuliwalas little Parvathi in her distant home reminds him of his own little Mini. Minis father forgets that Kabuliwala is a poor dry fruit seller from Kabul. Was he more than him? He was also a father.

These heartwarming thoughts from the story of Kabuliwala swept over me as I saw the disturbing imagery of the fall of Kabul to the marching gangs of Taliban fighters, rifles slung across their shoulders. Thousands of Afghan civilians, women in burkhas and hijabs, with children in arms, stricken with fear and panic, were fleeing their homes to cross the land borders to neighbouring countries. The chaotic scenes of desperate hordes of people rushing to the airport to catch American rescue flights, apprehensive of the Taliban rule in the offing that had terrorised the population for five years in the late 1990s, clinging on to the planes in despair even as they taxied toward take-off, and a few of them soon falling to their death as the planes got airborne, were horrifying and heart-breaking.

A land that has been ravaged over the centuries by many waves of occupational armies -- from the time of Alexander, the Great, to the Mauryas of Maghada, (yes, even the pacifist Emperor Ashoka), Mongols, Arab Muslims, the British, the Soviets, and finally the mighty US military in 2001, along with NATO forces -- was freed once again a few days ago by the Taliban. This is a land that is termed unconquerable and often referred to as the graveyard of empires. This land, whose soil has been fertilised with the blood of millions of its people as well as irrigated by the gore of invaders over millennia, has also been the breeding ground and source from which the Greco-Bactrians, the Kushans, the Ghaznis and Ghoris, the Khiljis and Mughals and others, invaded and marauded and went on to found new empires, including in India.

While the Taliban must be condemned and reviled for spawning terrorism, despised for their bestiality in enforcing extreme Sharia law, hated for treating women abominably and loathed for ruthlessly killing innocents, and while nothing can justify any of that, were not the war games of the superpowers turned into video games of mindless killing, inflicting collateral damage on a large number of innocent women and children and civilians, especially in the rural areas, reminding one of Shakespeares line as flies to wanton boys are we to the Gods; they kill us for their sport. But above all, we have to pay homage to the common people for braving the onslaught of terrible hardships, bereavement of loved ones, their inextinguishable spirit and their stoic courage caught perennially as they are between the cross-currents of international geopolitics and their local tribal leaders, warlords and religious fundamentalists.

Now, the US has abandoned the country shamelessly, leaving the country in total disarray and chaos, a result of a gross disconnect between inept policy, confusing diplomacy, and failure of intelligence. The Taliban, now virtually in command, is sending signals of its intention to form an inclusive government, giving a call of amnesty to everyone, and promising more freedom for women to work and to go to schools and colleges. But there are already reports of reprisals and killings. Analysts are divided about the genuineness or otherwise of the new Taliban. The people, especially women, await in fear and foreboding.

It is a cruel irony. Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a 12th century Afghan mystic, one of the most beloved Sufi poets, a precious gift to the world, whose poems of love and peace and harmony are still heard in churches, synagogues, monasteries and temples, rose like fragrant incense from the same land that now lies in tatters, riven by bigotry and sectarian violence, torn between the imperialism of the superpowers of the world. The time has come for them to exit Afghanistan. China trying to fill the void left by the Americans and wooing the Taliban is foolhardy and it may find its soldiers bones interred with the graveyards of former invaders. Fools always rush in where angels fear to tread. And Pakistan forgets that one cannot export terrorism without also importing it into its own society.

And alas, India, the land of Gandhi and Buddha, seems to be out of the picture in playing a role to rebuild and bring back peace to the country, with which we have historic connections and roots.

The Taliban, one hopes, will begin to build bridges. Who could have sung it better than Rumi: Love is the bridge between you and everything.

(The writer is a soldier, farmer and entrepreneur)
A single shot of Covaxin  the homegrown Covid-19 vaccine - in Covid exposed individuals is as good as two doses in people who didn't have the infection, the Indian Council of Medical Research said on Saturday, on the basis of a preliminary study.

The ICMR team set out to examine an idea proposed by international experts to deal with vaccine shortage - those who had the infection should be given a single shot in order to free up more doses so that others who didnt develop the infection, can take both the doses. There were supporting studies with other Covid-19 vaccines to back up such a claim.

To test the idea for the indigenous vaccine, the researchers collected blood from 114 health workers and front line staff, of whom 30 had either prior Covid-19 infection or exposure. Their blood samples were analysed before the Covaxin shot and after the first and second doses to measure the levels of neutralising antibody and other protective molecules.

"Overall, good vaccine-induced antibody responses were seen in prior SARS-CoV-2infected individuals, except in two cases, the team reported in the Indian Journal of Medical Research.

Our results in a varied group of healthcare professionals and frontline workers lend support to the previous studies (albeit mainly focused on mRNA vaccines) that increased levels of SARS-CoV-2 binding and neutralizing antibodies are present after a single vaccine dose in previously infected individuals and are comparable to the levels seen after two doses in those without prior infections.

However, both vaccine doses would be ideal even for previously infected individuals in the long run due to the occurrence of variants of concern.

The findings were released at a time when the Union Health Ministry is in the process of finding out ways to vaccinate the target population of 94.47 crore. So far 50% of that population received a single shot while less than one-fifth is fully vaccinated.

The researchers admitted that the study has several limitations including its small sample size because of which many questions could not be answered. They proposed a larger size cohort study to find out answers to such queries.
By Andrew Read, for the Conversation,

Takeaways: A 2015 paper on a chicken virus showed vaccines could enable more deadly variants to spread - in chickens.

But that outcome is rare. Only a minority of human and animal vaccines have affected the evolution of a virus. In most of those cases, evolution didnt increase the severity of the pathogen.

The hypothetical possibility that the Covid-19 vaccines could result in more harmful variants is no reason to avoid inoculation. Rather, it shows the need to continue developing vaccines.

Also Read | Impose restrictions, if needed, to tackle crowd during festival season: Centre to states

In 2015, my collaborators and I published a scientific paper about a chicken virus you have likely never heard of. At the time, it got some media attention and has been cited by other scientists in the years since.

But now, by late-August 2021, the paper has been viewed more than 350,000 times - and 70% of those views were in the past three weeks. It has even appeared on a YouTube video thats been seen by 2.8 million people, and counting.

The paper has gone viral because some people are using it to stoke paranoia that the Covid-19 vaccines will cause the virus to evolve in the direction of even more severe variants.

Doctors have told me that patients are using the paper to justify their decision to not get vaccinated. Some pundits are even using it to urge an end to vaccination campaigns in order to prevent the sort of viral evolution we were studying in chickens.

I am receiving emails daily from people worried about getting vaccinated themselves or worried about people rejecting vaccination because of misunderstandings about the paper.

Nothing in our paper remotely justifies an anti-vaccine stance. That misinterpretation - if it causes people to choose not to be vaccinated - will lead to avoidable, and tragic, loss of life. A new study estimates that as of early May 2021, vaccines had already prevented nearly 140,000 deaths in the US.

Also Read | Two die in Japan after shots from suspended Moderna vaccines

For over 20 years Ive been working with collaborators and colleagues on how vaccines might affect the evolution of disease-causing organisms like viruses and malaria parasites.

Nothing we have discovered or even hypothesized justifies avoiding or withholding vaccines. If anything, our work adds to reasons for investigating new vaccine schedules - and for developing second- and third-generation vaccines.

But in the context of the Covid-19 virus, our work does prompt a fair question: Could vaccination cause the emergence of even more harmful variants?

From chickens to Covid-19

In the 2015 paper, we reported experiments with variants of Mareks disease virus - the name of the chicken virus we were studying. It is a herpesvirus that causes cancer in domestic chickens. A first-generation vaccine against it went into widespread use in poultry in the early 1970s. Today, all commercial chickens and many backyard flocks are vaccinated against Mareks.

Also Read | Covid-19 booster shots likely to increase protection against variants: Study

Chickens with Mareks disease virus became capable of transmitting the virus about 10 days after they get infected. In our lab experiments, we worked with variants of Mareks disease virus that were so lethal they would kill all unvaccinated birds in 10 days or fewer.

So prior to the vaccine, the birds died before they could transmit the lethal variants to other birds. But we found that the first-generation vaccine protected the birds from dying. In other words, the Mareks-infected chickens lived and were thus able to spread the highly virulent strains to other birds.

In the case of Covid-19, its becoming increasingly clear that even vaccinated people can contract and transmit the highly transmissible delta variant. Since viral transmission from vaccinated chickens is what allowed more lethal variants to spread in Mareks, its reasonable to ask whether Covid-19 transmission from vaccinated people could allow more lethal variants to spread.

Evolution can go in many directions

As evolutionary ecologist David Kennedy and I have written about previously, the evolutionary path that the Mareks disease virus took is one of many that are possible - in rare cases where vaccines drive evolution.

Only a minority of human and animal vaccines have influenced pathogen evolution. In nearly all of those cases - which include the hepatitis B virus and bacteria that cause whooping cough and pneumonia - vaccine efficacy was reduced by new variants. But in contrast to Mareks, there was no clear evidence that the evolved variants made people sicker.

In nature, we know of course that not all viruses are equally lethal. Biological differences in things like the linkage between disease severity and transmission can cause lethality to increase or decrease. This means that the future of one virus cannot be predicted by simply extrapolating from the past evolution of another.

Mareks and SARS-CoV-2 are very different viruses, with very different vaccines, very different hosts and very different mechanisms by which they sicken and kill. It is impossible to know whether their differences are more important than their similarities.

Also Read | Covid-19 bigger blood clot threat than vaccines, UK study finds

Evolutionary hypotheticals are important to consider. But up against the hugely beneficial impact of Covid-19 vaccines on reducing transmission and disease severity - even against the delta variant - the possibility of silent spread of more lethal variants among the vaccinated is still no argument against vaccination.

As novel variants of the coronavirus spread in the months and years ahead, it will be vital to work out whether their evolutionary advantage is arising because of reduced disease severity among the vaccinated.

Delta, for instance, transmits more effectively from both unvaccinated and vaccinated people than did earlier variants. Extrapolating from our chicken work to argue against vaccination because of the delta variant has no scientific rationale: The delta variant would have become dominant even if everyone refused vaccination.

But what if?

If more deadly variants of the coronavirus were to arise, lower vaccination rates would make it easier to identify and contain them because unvaccinated people would suffer more severe infections and higher death rates. But that kind of solution would come at considerable cost. In effect, the variants would be found and eliminated by letting people get sick, many of whom would die.

Sacrificing chickens was not the solution the poultry industry adopted for Mareks disease virus. Instead, more potent vaccines were developed. Those newer vaccines provided excellent disease control, and no lethal breakthrough variants of Mareks have emerged in over 20 years.

There are probably ways the available Covid-19 vaccines could be improved in the future to better reduce transmission. Booster shots, larger doses or different intervals between doses might help; so too, combinations of existing vaccines. Researchers are working hard on these questions. Next-generation vaccines might be even better at blocking transmission. Nasal vaccines, for instance, might effectively curtail transmission because they more specifically target the location of transmissible virus.

As of late August 2021, more than 625,000 Americans have died from a disease that is now largely vaccine-preventable. It is sobering for me to think that some of the next to die might have avoided lifesaving vaccines because people are stoking evolutionary fears extrapolated from our research in chickens.

In the history of human and animal vaccines, there have not been many cases of vaccine-driven evolution. But in every one of them, individuals and populations have always been better off when vaccinated.

At every point in the 50-year history of vaccination against Mareks disease, an individual chicken exposed to the virus was healthier if it was vaccinated. Variants may have reduced the benefit of vaccination, but they never eliminated the benefit. Evolution is no reason to avoid vaccination.

(The author is a Professor of Biology, Entomology and Biotechnology, Penn State)
What does it take for a language to thrive? Many Kannada language enthusiasts have searched for an answer, fearing that the distance between the speakers of the language and its art, culture and literature is widening. Faced with the same fear, a few digital archivists in Karnataka are working to close this gap. Access to its art and literature, they believe, is what enables a language to thrive.

The effort to digitise Kannada books is not new. An attempt to archive literature started as early as 2006. With a background in computer science, Omshivaprakash H L was influenced by the free software movement. When he met with some other Kannada bloggers, he realised that there was barely even a record of the great books of Kannada literature. I was also a Wikipedia editor for some time and whenever I sought to link books to back up how rich Karnatakas history was, there was nothing, he said.

However, internet costs were expensive then, and not many had a connection or even devices that would enable them to read works of literature or research. The internet revolution, however, has changed how people consume content, says Kuntady Nitesh, a co-founder of Ruthumana, a digital platform that hosts ebooks. The number of mobile internet users has grown from 49.97 million in 2014 to 756.88 million in 2021. Now there is confidence among publishers that ebooks will work and that there is a market for it, he says.

In 2007, Omshivaprakashs idea that germinated to digitise Kannada literature reached fruition and Sanchaya was born. After a meeting with Carl Malamud, an American technologist who had been working on archiving work in other languages in 2018, Omshivaprakash started using an indigenous scanner that could scan 2,000 to 3,000 pages.

Under the servants of knowledge initiative, 3,000 Kannada books have been made available on archive.org. All these records are listed under creative commons licensing so that people have the opportunity to access them and use them in research or other creative projects.

We think that people just do not have the interest to read nowadays but that is an incorrect conclusion. When Kannada literature events and conferences are conducted, many rush to buy books, says Vasant Shetty, the co-founder of MyLang, an app that allows users to download Kannada e-books and also publish their own ebooks. The problem is that there are less than 100 book stores that have Kannada titles in the state he adds, attributing this to the decline in reading culture.

MyLang and Ruthumana have more than 1,000 Kannada titles - both contemporary and classic books, and endeavour to maintain industry standards that enable readers to customise fonts and backgrounds to ease the reading experience. Ruthumana and MyLang have also launched audiobooks that have allowed many speakers and learners to experience Kannada literature for the first time.

Nawaz Riyazullah, a user of these platforms, was initially hesitant to try out audiobooks thinking the experience of reading would be lost. He was surprised to discover that he enjoyed the experience, an experience that brought the book alive, he says. In particular, he enjoyed the audiobook versions of Jugari Cross by Poornachandra Tejaswi and Huli Patrike by Anush Shetty.

Riyazullah is thankful that the ebook platforms cover different genres. In the past, it was difficult to scout bookstores that carried the titles that he wanted or those that his friends recommended, most of my favourite author Poornachandra Tejaswis works are available on these platforms. Ebooks are a cost-effective option if you consume literature quickly, he says, explaining that the apps have promoted a more regular reading habit.

Culture of literature

Apart from providing new avenues for reading Kannada literature, new authors have found their place on the platforms as well. Malathi Bhat did not imagine that she would be able to publish her mothers books at the click of a button. On MyLang, she has been able to do just that. In fact, she has published two. The process was very easy once I read the manual, she said. All she had to do was ensure that the text was in Unicode font, review the manuscript and confirm the manuscript. For her, this is a method of preserving, cherishing and also monetising her mothers stories.

This way, authors can publish their stories for free and set a price. The books are reviewed by the platforms if they have content that violates the platforms guidelines. Then, in a day or two, the books are launched on the platforms. Authors are also notified when their book sells and are given a percentage of the money.

Many like Malathi Bhat have taken advantage of the self-publishing tools available on MyLang and Ruthumana. The aim is to also encourage people who do not have access to publishers to find a platform so they can continue writing, says Vasant Shetty.

Challenges

While people have been expressing their appreciation for such projects, the process itself is ridden with challenges. Sanchaya, for instance, runs with the help of volunteers and sometimes as Omshivaprakash says, some of the books were very old, we had to learn how to handle them. What temperature to keep them at and more.

For Shetty and Nitesh, the challenges came with publishers. There was a lot of hesitancy in the beginning because publishers thought that ebooks could be downloaded and shared on the internet. Even now, the first thing we do is explain how ebooks work  that they are encrypted and cannot be downloaded off the platform, says Nitesh.

Despite the many challenges, Omshivaprakash emphasises that digitising literature is the need of the hour. There are so many dialects and forms of the language, digitising this helps keep these great works from being forgotten as these rare books continue to disintegrate.
The Mangaluru City police conducted an awareness programme on women's safety and protection through the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) 112 from 8 am to 5 pm on Saturday.

Olympian M R Poovamma flagged off the initiative organised in front of City Police Commissioners office to popularise ERSS and said that the programme is aimed at instilling a feeling of confidence and safety in women.

This is also an attempt to popularise ERSS and reach out to the public, particularly women, City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said.

Nearly 100 police teams of PSI and above ranks will be available to address various issues, including student issues, eve-teasing, family issues, harassment at the workplace, and cyber threats. Every team has a woman officer or staff and the woman's confidentiality will be maintained. The city police has 19 vehicles dedicated to ERSS, with an average response time of 15 minutes on the outskirts of the city.

A mock drive on how ERSS responds was held in the presence of Poovamma and her mother Janaki under the guidance of the City Police Commissioner near Athena Hospital in Mangaluru.

Addressing the students and staff of the hospital, Shashi Kumar said that the maximum response time on receiving a call to ERSS 112 is five to 10 minutes inside the city, while it is 15 minutes on the outskirts.

Stating that the service is a dedicated centralised system, the City Police Commissioner said that the centralised number 112 stands for one country-one emergency response system. The calls made by public to 112 will get routed to Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based at Bengaluru and the information will be dispatched to the District Coordination Centre (DCC).

The ERSS vehicle nearest to the point from where the call is made, will track the location through GPRS and will rush for the assistance. In the last eight months, ERSS 112 has responded to over 4,000 calls. On an average, 30 to 40 calls are received daily through the system, explained the Commissioner.
The University of Mysore on Saturday withdrew the controversial circular issued on Friday curbing the movement of girl students at Manasa Gangotri campus after 6.30 pm.

The move came after the intervention of Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan. The university had issued the circular in the wake of gang rape of an MBA student.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday in Bengaluru, Ashwath Narayan said, I have spoken to the vice chancellor of the university and directed him to withdraw the circular.

Read | Mysuru gang-rape case: Police arrest 5 accused

I agree that the university campuses are big and huge. But that does not mean we should curb the movement of girl students in the campuses, instead we should create a safe and secure environment , said the minister.

Vice Chancellor Prof Hemanth Kumar told DH that the circular had been withdrawn. We have decided to intensify patrolling and other safety and security measures, he said.

The University has now issued a revised circular asking students to be careful while roaming on the campus as some parts of the campus were deserted.

Meanwhile, the minister has directed vice chancellors of all state-run universities to strengthen the security and safety measures on the campus. I have instructed to install more CCTV cameras and intensify patrolling on campuses, Ashwath Narayan said.
Condemning the rise in the atrocities on women and children and the rise in the prices of essential commodities, especially petrol, diesel and LPG, the members of Akhila Bharatha Kranthikari Mahila Sanghatane district unit staged a protest in Kushalnagar.

The protesters raised slogans against the Centre and state government and urged the government to take steps to check the price rise.

The protesters also condemned the gang-rape incident in Mysuru and demanded stringent action against the culprits.

Sanghatane Kodagu unit president Pavithra Shivakumar accused both the Centre and state government of following anti-people policies.

The government is playing with the lives of the people, she added.

Rajya Raitha Sangha secretary D S Nirvanappa urged the government to offer free LPG cylinders for the poor.

A memorandum was submitted to the chief minister through tahsildar T M Prakash on the occasion.
The Mysuru City Police have successfully nabbed five of six accused in connection with a case related to robbery and gang rape of a college girl near Chamundi Hill.

Police arrested the accused from Tamil Nadu. The accused also includes a 17-year-old boy.

The gang had raped the girl on August 24 after assaulting her male friend.

The police arrested them based on technical evidence.

Also Read  Mysuru gang-rape: Various organisations stage protests

Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) said that all the accused were labourers, including an electrician and a driver.

The officer said the accused had demanded Rs 3 lakh from the students before raping her.

Also Read  Congress is trying to rape me: Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra

"There is no question whether it was accidental or planned. Rape is rape," he said, adding that Mysuru is the safest city even today.

The police did not get any information from the girl as she still needs to fully recover.

As per the primary investigation, the accused have not blackmailed the victims.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai on Saturday exuded confidence that the police would crack the Mysuru gang-rape case as early as possible and apprehend the culprits. He said five police teams are investigating the case.

"Police have taken the Mysuru case very seriously", Bommai told reporters.

"I am confident that the police will succeed in cracking the case as early as possible."

Also read: Mysuru gang-rape case: 6 arrested in Tamil Nadu, Mumbai

The victim, a student in Mysuru, was gang-raped near Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24.

The culprits assaulted her male friend who was with her.

The gang members demanded from them Rs 3 lakh not to make the video of the rape public, police sources said.

DG & IGP of Karnataka Praveen Sood is overseeing the investigation into the gang-rape which has sparked massive outrage.
Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa stated that there is a need to frame stringent laws that would trigger fear in the minds of people who indulge in heinous crimes like rape.

Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, he said the gang-rape incident in Mysuru is unfortunate and the government condemns it. Recalling a past incident, he mentioned that a child was raped in the state when K J George was home minister in the Congress-led government. Since then there were attempts to amend the existing laws to ensure that rapists get severe punishment. But the attempts did not materialise.

Also Read | Mysuru gang-rape case: Police arrest 5 accused

He also claimed that the state government was seriously thinking of amending the laws to trigger fear among people about police.
Following the arrest of five people accused of gang-rape in Mysuru, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Saturday said the next challenge was to get them convicted in the court.

Jnanendra also said that the rape survivor, a student, was yet to give a statement to the police. She was allegedly gang-raped near the Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24. The police Saturday arrested five people in Tamil Nadu.

Our police have successfully conducted an operation and five people have been taken into custody, Jnanendra said, congratulating the police team that investigated the crime.

Conviction is the next important step. The woman is still not in a position to issue a statement and we can't pressurise her. Based on technical and scientific evidence, the investigation was carried out, Jnanendra said, adding that this was a challenging case for the police. He could not confirm if the rape survivor had left the state.

Also Read | Mysuru gang-rape case: Police arrest 5 accused

Even in the Nirbhaya and Manipal rape cases, the victims were not in a position to give their statement. In this case, if we had the victims statement, maybe the case could have been cracked sooner, the minister said.

He further specified that the five people arrested are labourers and not students as was initially believed.

Going forward, the minister said the government would consider measures to tighten the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border that touches Mysuru. People travel daily and new people come in. But, we cant impose curbs like its done at international borders. We will see what can be done, he said.

Following the incident, the government has directed the police to increase patrolling and checks. I have directed the police to make special bandobasts and take up regular patrolling in the [Chamundi Hills] area, which has already started, he said. As much as possible, the public will not be allowed there after sunset. Those who must go will be given protection, he added.
A sublineage of the Delta variant known as AY.4 has been found to be the dominant variant in Karnataka among Covid-19 samples sequenced in June and July, with researchers noting that the variant had mutated further and reentered the country.

Among the 523 sequences studied, AY.4 was found in 41.1% of them (215), overtaking even the baseline Delta (210 sequences 40.2%) that was responsible for the deadly second wave in the state. The next highest was the AY.12 variant (72 sequences 13.8%).

Genomic scientists said AY.4 is mostly from the UK while AY.12 is from Israel, where cases are rising despite 60% of its population being fully vaccinated.

The sequencing was done by labs part of INSACOG (Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics) and uploaded to GISAID, an open access genomic database of influenza viruses.

Associate Dean of HCG Centre for Academics and Research Dr Vishal Rao, who is also a member of the State Covid-19 Genomic Surveillance Committee, said, "GISAID data indicates Delta sublineage B.1.617.2.4 or AY.4 is on the rise and is the dominant variant in Karnataka now. It is being studied across the world. The Delta variant has 13 mutations and AY.4 is one of them."

Read | 10% of Covid samples to be taken from children

The committee has proposed studying its link to breakthrough infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

When researchers studied the changes between the last few months and now, they found that just 11% (78) of the 715 sequences in Karnataka had AY.4 in March-April.

"AY.4 is rising in the US, Israel and India, specifically in Karnataka," Rao cautioned.

"When we compared Kerala and Karnataka, it was in the latter that it had increased in the last two months. In Kerala, baseline Delta is dominant."

According to Rao, this meant that "certain states can see a rise in specific mutations".

"This has implications with regard to vaccine-escape mutations, breakthrough infections and also hospitalised patients. We're hoping to correlate this with seroprevalence and R0 (reproductive number). The UK is already undertaking research on this," Rao added.

Researchers are hoping that the genomic sequencing results of around 300 hospitalised Covid patients in the state, which could be available by Saturday, to shed light on the emerging dominant variants in them.

Amid the development, State Health Commissioner Dr Trilok Chandra said travellers coming from the US should compulsorily have a negative RT-PCR certificate done within the last 72 hours before boarding.

"All travellers shall upload the certificate in the Air Suvidha portal. Only then, the airlines will allow them to board the flight," he said.
An MLA, belonging to Janata Dal (secular), on Saturday suggested subjecting those involved in the rape of a college student here to a police enounter.

The MLA Sa Ra Mahesh said the case of gang-rape has made the cultural city of Mysuru in Karnataka hang its head in shame.

"I know there is a legal hurdle in this. In bitter incidents like these, the police-government have to take stringent action," the legislator, representing Krishnarajanagara in the city, said.

"I press the Mysuru police and the police department of the State to show boldness to subject such people to encounter and the government to issue appropriate direction," Mahesh said.

Karnataka DG & IGP Praveen Sood said five people from neighbouring Tamil Nadu were arrested while another one is absconding in connection with the rape of the student on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24.
Gaurav Dixit sent to NCB custody after MD, Charas was recovered from his house; Ajaz Khans bail plea rejected

Back in March this year, Bigg Boss 7 contestant Ajaz Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau after 8 hours of interrogation. It was reported that the actor was in contact with drug peddler Shadab Batata for the past three years and had even bought drugs from him. Well, television actor Gaurav Dixit has now been arrested in the Shadab Batata case. According to a tweet shared by ANI, drugs such as MD and Charas were recovered from his house on Friday in a raid. He has now been sent to NCB custody till 30th August

TV actor Gaurav Dixit sent to Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) custody till 30th August.



He was arrested by NCB yesterday after MD and Charas were recovered from his residence in a raid. He was arrested in connection with the interrogation of actor Ajaz Khan.



(File photo) pic.twitter.com/h9kIKaxGRr  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

The police have been on the lookout for him since April, after large quantities of banned drugs were found at his Lokhandwala house. Reports suggest that Gaurav allegedly supplied drugs to Ajaz and the two have a connection with Batata, who was arrested in March with drugs worth Rs 2 crores. In a chat with ETimes, Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede revealed, In the Shadab Batata case we have already arrested four people including Ajaz Khan and therefore Gaurav becomes very crucial as far as the network is concerned. We have also recovered drugs from his house.

Talking about Ajaz, Wankhede shared that his bail plea has been rejected by the honorary NDPS court as the charges against him are serious.
Prabhas co-stars Kriti Sanon, Shruti Hassan shower him with praises; latter calls him most epic human

Prabhas' global fandom is no hidden secret. He is one of India's top actors but some of the stars he has worked with also went onto claim that Prabhas is a very grounded, down to earth person and humble personality. It's no surprise Prabhas is loved dearly by his fans and co-stars alike, these words prove it.

Kriti Sanon opened up on her shooting schedule and on working with Pan-India star Prabhas. She shared, After a really long time Im looking up at someone, so that is there. Hes (Prabhas) pretty tall, and I think when we both are in our respective costumes, it kind of comes out even better." She continues, I have shot with him in the first schedule, and I am going to shoot with him in the next one. He is a very chilled out person, very humble, a big foodie, and people say that he is shy (and) he doesnt talk much, but I dont think its true at all. Hes pretty talkative, and I have really got a good equation with him."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prabhas (@actorprabhas)

You read what Kriti had to say about her co-star but there is another person to share their feelings on Prabhas' down to earth nature. Shruti Hassan spoke about Prabhas and said, "He is very chill, I did not expect him to be that chill. He is very confident about things he does. You know what's lovely about him is, there is so much energy around him and excitement. He is genuinely down to earth. I have seen fake humility and fake down to earthiness, and I'm like 'it is really nice you are behaving this yourself but that isn't really you.' I think we all have seen that, especially in the work environment...but the thing is, he is really down to earth and chill, which is refreshing."

She continued, "I'm sure he is aware of this, stardom and position. But he never makes you feel so and that is really very pleasant. It is wonderful to work within that energy. The whole team of Salaar, the director and everyone on the sets has good vibe."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shruti Haasan (@shrutzhaasan)

Prabhas' Radhe Shyam co-star Bhagyashree opened on working with him, My first impression of Prabhas was of amazement. He floored me with his hospitality and humbleness. He enjoys superstardom but is always polite and grounded. Most of our conversations are about food and more often than not Prabhas used to share his homemade food with us on sets.

If any further proof of Pan-India star Prabhas' flattering nature is needed then no need to look any further. Prabhas recently treated two of his co-stars with foods and sweets on the movie sets. While Shruti was treated with home made food on the sets of Salaar, Bhagyashree was welcomed with sweets on the sets of Radhe Shyam and both the actress absolutely loved it. Shruti even went on to say, "Prabhas is the most epic human."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bhagyashree (@bhagyashree.online)

Prabhas has multiple Pan-India projects under his belt which include Adipurush, Radhe Shyam, Salaar and Deepika Padukone starrer film named K with all films belonging to various genres.
Microsoft Windows 11 will officially support only PCs from the last three to four years. After receiving a lot of flak for stricter-than-usual requirements for Windows 11, Microsoft has reevaluated if Intels 7th generation and AMD Zen processors can be added to the list of supported CPUs, and it has mostly stood by its initial restrictions.

Microsoft has now added support for Intel Core X-series, Xeon W-series, and select Intel Core 7820HQ, but most of the 7th gen Intel CPUs and AMD Zen processors didnt make the cut.

Minimum requirements to run Windows 11 now include:

CPUs: Intel Core X-series, Xeon W-series, and select Intel Core 7820HQ, Eighth-gen or newer Intel Processors, Zen 2 or newer AMD processors, and Snapdragon 850 or newer Qualcomm SoCs.

GPUs: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver

RAM and Storage: 4GB RAM and 64GB storage

TPM 2.0 support (most supported CPUs have it)

UEFI, Secure Boot capability

High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9 diagonally, 8 bits per colour channel

The PC Health Check app has been updated to support the latest requirements.

PCs with older CPUs are not very stable with Windows 11

Until now, most of the stringent requirements for Windows 11 including TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and virtualization support had more to do with security than actual performance. However, it looks like including older PCs could also lead to some major stability issues

In a new blog post, Microsoft explains its system requirements in a bit more detail and made a compelling case based on stats from the insider program. Devices that didnt meet the minimum requirements had 52% more kernel mode crashes, whereas the supported devices had a 99.8% crash-free experience.

The rationale to leave these PCs behind makes sense since Windows automatic updates would then be a huge inconvenience for average consumers who just want a stable PC experience.

Also Check: Microsoft Windows 11 Public Beta is now available to install

Some unsupported PCs can still get Windows 11 using ISO

PCs with unsupported CPUs but with minimum hardware support - 64-bit 1GHz processor with two or more cores, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage - will still be able to get Windows 11 on their own risk. Users will have to go through the trouble of manually downloading the software using an ISO file. How and when you will be able to do that is still not known.
Samsung has unveiled the Samsung Galaxy M32 5G in India. The Galaxy M32 5G is an upgrade to the Galaxy M32, which was launched in June 2021. Samsung is essentially launching the first phone to feature the Dimensity 720 SoC in India. The company is claiming to provide us with 12 5G bands on this device.

Samsung Galaxy M32 5G Features and Specifications

The Samsung Galaxy M32 5G comes with a 6.5-inch TFT Infinity-V HD+ IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 720x1600 pixels. It has a 60Hz of refresh rate and has a layer of protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 5.

The phone also comes with a drop notch design featuring a 13MP selfie shooter. Samsung has bundled a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, along with a Type-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the back, we get a quad-camera setup with a flashlight and the Samsung branding at the bottom.

The Samsung Galaxy M32 5G is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 720 SoC, making it the first phone with the Dimensity 720 chipset in India. The device comes with 6GB and 8GB RAM variants along with 128GB storage, which is expandable up to 1TB using a micro-SD card. The Galaxy M32 5G comes with a mammoth 5,000mAh battery, with 15W charging. It supports 12 5G bands and comes with Knox security.

Out of the box, the phone comes packed with the OneUI 3.1 custom skin over Android 11 and will be supporting 2 years of regular software updates.

Samsung Galaxy M32 5G Camera

The Galaxy M32 5G comes with a quad-camera setup at the back. It has a 48MP (f/1.8 aperture) primary camera, an 8MP (f/2.2) Ultra Wide Angle lens (123 FOV), a 5MP (f/2.4) depth camera, and a 2MP (f/2.4) macro lens. In the front, you are getting a 13MP(f/2.2) selfie camera.

Samsung Galaxy M32 5G Pricing and Availability

Samsung Galaxy M32 5G will be coming in two storage variants. The 6GB RAM variant will be priced at 20,999, and the 8GB one will cost 22,999. Both will come with 128GB of internal storage. The phone will be available in Slate Black and Sky Blue colour variants.

The Samsung Galaxy M32 5G will be sold via Amazon and Samsungs official website. The first sale in India will be on 2 September at 12 noon.

You can get an instant discount of 2,000 through ICICI Credit Cards and EMI, bringing the effective price down to Rs 18,999.

Disclaimer- This article is written by a Digit SQUAD member.
ADA [ndash] Services for Joyce Evelyn Summers, 82, of Ada are 10 a.m. Friday at the Criswell Funeral Home Chapel, Rev. Harold Holt will officiate. Burial will follow at Rosedale Cemetery. The family will receive relatives and friends Thursday, from 5-7 p.m., at Criswell Funeral Home. Mrs. Su
Local people are continuing to raise concerns about water discolouration across Dundalk, as Irish Water undertake a two-week water main flushing programme in a bid to reduce the manganese levels.

The programme of water main flushing commenced on Monday August 23rd, due to the continued discolouration of water across Dundalk caused by high manganese levels.

Both Irish Water and Louth County Council will work on the flushing programme, which is set to go from Monday August 23rd until Friday September 3rd, to help clear out the manganese sediment from the pipes. Irish Water said that they would be undertaking the works to help reduce the amount of manganese sediment, as well as prevent future discolouration of water.

These essential flushing works are required to clear any remaining manganese sediment from the distribution network and reduce the likelihood of future discolouration issues at the customer tap, said a spokesperson for Irish Water.

These flushing activities are part of an overall action plan to address discolouration issues associated with high manganese levels found in the source water that feeds into Cavanhill water treatment plant.

According to Irish Water, additional discolouration may be faced by residents around Dundalk, due to the flushing work to remove manganese from the system.

Residents in Dundalk have been continually raising their concerns about the high manganese levels in the water, with some being forced to buy water for the last three months.

Jim Kilcoyne, of Manydown Close, says that his water has seen on-and-off discolouration for the last several months. Hes been forced to buy water due to the discolouration, saying that you wouldnt attempt to drink the tapwater.

Were buying water for the last three months like, said Mr Kilcoyne. You would not attempt to drink it now or anything, its pure brown, you wouldnt feel safe drinking it.

Mr Kilcoyne said that he has seen water being sold out in local shops due to the discolouration.

Sometimes, when you go over to Dunnes or these places, all the water is gone because everyone is buying water, stated Mr Kilcoyne.

Fine Gael Senator for Louth John McGahon has said that the problem has been widespread since May, and that it hasnt been an isolated incident.

Its been going on now since May, so theres something seriously wrong, confirmed Senator McGahon, adding that Mr Kilcoynes experience of on-and-off issues are seen across the town and into Blackrock.

People havent had this water every day for four months, it comes and goes. Its the inconsistency of it is the real trouble as well, because its very much a case where water could be fine for a few weeks and then terrible for another few weeks. Theres some days its very bad and theres some days its not too bad, said Mr Kilcoyne.

Senator McGahon says that while Irish Water have been good at updating local politicians, their communications with those who are impacted has not been. One of his main concerns is the impact the water discolouration is having on people on lower incomes, as people are forced to buy water.

People on lower incomes are being forced to shell out X amount of money every week on water, said Senator McGahon.

Sinn Fein TD for Louth, Ruairi O Murchu has called for an overall strategy to tackle the problem, beyond just a flushing programme.

He said that he and Cllr Kevin Meenan will be meeting with Irish Water in the coming weeks to deal with the problems and to examine what solutions are available.

While the mains flushing news is welcome, Irish Water has to come up with an overall, long-term strategy to deal with the recurring issues in the supply and quality of drinking water in Dundalk, said Deputy O Murchu.

There cannot be short-term fixes to what are obviously long-term problems and we will be listening to what Irish Water has to say.

There are 54 areas in Dundalk and Blackrock that are set to be impacted by the flushing campaign.

Irish Water and Louth County Council understands the inconvenience caused when flushing works occur and thanks customers for their patience while we complete these necessary works to remove any remaining sediment from the network and restore normal supply to impacted customers. Irish Water and Louth County Council regret any inconvenience caused, said Donal Heaney of Irish Water.
The Kids Are All Right! is a podcast specially for kids that is all about Health, Happiness and Wellness!

Michelle and her puppet co-presenters, Buster & Buddy are on a mission to help kids Feel Great and Live Well! Each week they feature a different topic speaking with experts who have the best advice and tons of experience to share!

This week they talk with Primary School teacher and kids author Aine Murray as she gives some advice from a teachers point of view about what kids can do to get ready for Back to School!

Weve had our much looked forward to outdoor summer. Weve been able to go places and do things that we only would have dreamed about earlier in the year. And now, the evenings have become undeniably shorter.and on kitchen tables all around the country, uniform and book lists are being ticked off, shoe shops are filled with kids who have outgrown their old school shoes. Undeniably its beginning to feel a lot like.back to school time!

So The Kids Are Alright! Podcast wanted to find out what kids should be doing to get themselves ready mentally and physically ready for the new school term after the long summer break. Well, who better to ask than a teacher who is on the front line with a classroom full of nervous and excited kids sitting in front of them, tasked with the job of getting them settled and back into the routine of learning once again!

And Aine Murray from Ashbourne Educate Together Primary School is a teacher that is even better placed to give advice on back to school nerves, as with a background in psychology, shes the author of The Pain in the Chest a book she has written to help kids understand and manage their worries.

When it comes to back to school, its really very normal for kids to have mixed emotions about going back to school. During the summer there have been so many freedoms; freedom from normal bedtimes AND getting up times, freedom from routine, from homework, so naturally its hard to get back into the structure of school again.

Some kids will be delighted to be back to the school routine, seeing their friends and their teachers, while others will struggle with separation anxiety, the loss of freedom and getting back into an academic routine within a physical school environment. So its totally normal to have mixed emotions about back to school.even teachers can feel that way about getting back to school!

Aine believes its really important that kids learn from an early age to notice their own unique signs of worry;

Lots of kids and adults experience anxiety as something very physical, so that could be pains in their tummy, headaches, not feeling like eating, or as a pain in the chest. Its important for kids to think about where they feel theirs when anxious or worried, as this will help them work out what kinds of situations or things make them feel anxious. Because they mightnt even realise that the feelings they have in their body are actually their bodys way of dealing with their worries or anxiety. They might just think they get a lot of pains in their tummy and thats just how it is. And once they know the triggers, then they can begin to make a plan as to how to fix it and feel better.

The girl who features in her book has lots of different worries as she grows up, which she keeps to herself. But by the end of the book she decides to talk to her Mom about her anxiety and suddenly she starts to feel a whole lot better.

And so we learn that when we start to talk, our worries start to walkand we feel better. When we talk about our worries, our anxiety, the anxiety loses its power. And whats really important is that at the end of the story, we see the furry creature, her anxiety that shes been carry around for years, pack its bags and leave once the girl talks to her mum about her feelings and the worries that shes been carrying alone for so many years. Because anxiety and worries grow when we leave them inside our heads. When we take them out of our head by talking to someone about them, then they cant grow or hide anymore as theyre out in the open and they dont like that.

TEACHERS TOP TIPS

Michelle, Buster and Buddy asked Aine for her top tips on getting ready for back to school

TIP 1

Be Well Rested. Go to bed early the night before. It will be strange getting up early again after a long time. Start the week before you go back, getting back into a routine of waking up at school time and going to bed at your school time bedtime, eating at school lunch times, etc. This will all hep get your body clock back into the schooltime routine.

TIP 2

Get Prepared! And as part of this getting back into a routine

The week before school make sure youve gone through your booklist with your parent and make sure that you have your pencils, rubbers and pencil case ready. Basically make sure you have all the little details checked and ready.

Have your clothes and bag ready the night before  this will mean less stress in the morning.

And maybe even consider having your packed lunch ready the night before so all you need to do is take it out of the fridge in the morning. Easy!

TIP 3

Getting to Know You! Some kids get nervous about who their new teacher is going to be, do they know them, if they dont what will they be likewill they even like them? Sometimes the big worries kids have about a new school year can be the unknown of a new teacher theyll be spending so much time with. Even just putting a face to your new teacher could be a great help for them feel more relaxed and prepared.

So if you want to know more look on the school website! Is there anything about your new teacher? Maybe something they did with their class last year, or a picture of them?

TIP 4

Reconnect with School Friends. If you havent seen many of your school friends over the summer, maybe now is the time to meet up with a friend from class for a play date a few days before going back to school or during the first week or two, to really settle back into friendships.

TIP 5

Mind your Body! Without a doubt kids will be tired after the first few weeks as they start to get their brains and body back into the school routine again. Bring a healthy energy-packed brain food! September will be hectic and tiring, and its important to keep your body well fuelled.

TIP 6  Very Important!

If theres something youre particularly worried about, talk to someone at home about it. You could even let your teacher know on the first day! Or if youre nervous to tell them, ask mum and dad to write a little note. Your teacher wants to know as much as they can about you and will always want to do anything they can to help you settle in, feel comfortable and happy so that you can enjoy your school year with them!

Its really important to talk!

Listen to the podcast with your child with this simple Easy to Listen link https://feeds.captivate.fm/ the-kids-are-all-right/

Or using this simple QR Code

HOW GET THE BOOK:

A new edition of the book is currently in print with OBrien Press. Keep an eye on the OBrien Press website for the new release date. www.obrien.ie
Submissions to amend the draft Louth County Development Plan for 2021-2027 have sought to improve railway services across Louth, with requests for a rail station in South Dundalk and the reopening of Dunleer Railway Station.

Louth County Council have released the Chief Executives report on proposed material alterations to the Development Plan, with 24 submissions by the public dealing with requests to see more action on railway transport across Louth.

There were a total of 67 submissions made by the public to Louth County Council to alter the plan, 64 of which were made online while three were posted.

Of these, 24 dealt with calls to improve public transport in Louth, particularly regarding railway infrastructure, with calls to build a second railway station in Dundalk.

Submissions say that adding a railway station in South Dundalk would help serve DKIT as well as new industries in the area.

The reopening of Dunleer railway station, as well as a second railway station for North Drogheda are also included in submissions.

Reopening of Dunleer will lead to a better commuter service within Louth, says the report.

Submissions also called for transport policies to focus more on public transportation rather than cars so as to reduce congestion and reduce the national output of carbon. In response to these calls, the Chief Executive of LCC, Joan Martin, has said that there is no funding available for rail stations outside of the scope of Dart+.

Therefore there is no funding currently available for rail stations in North Drogheda, Dunleer, or South Dundalk, said the CE in the report. Furthermore whilst Dunleer is identified as a Self-Sustaining Growth Town, based on the population levels it is not clear that the provision of an additional rail station would be warranted.

Ms Martin says that while LCC supports the improvements of rail services in Louth, improvements can only be made in line with national policy, which was set out in the National Development Plan Ireland 2040.
Claremont, NH (03743)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain, some heavy early. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.
Claremont, NH (03743)

Today

Rain, heavy at times early. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible..

Tonight

Rain, heavy at times early. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavier rainfall possible.
North Andover, MA (01845)

Today

Periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 58F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected..

Tonight

Periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 58F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected.
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The Islamic State's propaganda arm used Amazon Web Services to host content promoting extremism, according to The Washington Post. Nida-e-Haqq, the group's media arm, posted messages on the website in the Urdu language, including ones celebrating the recent suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 170 people. Since Amazon's policy bars clients from using its services to incite violence and terror, the company pulled the website after The Post alerted it to its existence.

The website Amazon disabled provided content for the Nida-e-Haqq app, which recently showed an image of the Kabul bomber wrapped in a suicide vest. It's currently password-protected and not viewable, but it's been active since at least April, based on the online domain records The Post saw. Amazon spokesperson Casey McGee told the publication in a statement: "(F)ollowing an investigation, we have disabled a website that was linked to this app as it was in violation of the AWS Acceptable Use Policy."

Taliban and extremist-related content is the latest issue social networks, and clearly, hosting services like Amazon's, have to grapple with. The organization has been using services like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and WhatsApp to spread its message, and the websites now have to decide if they need to update their policy on how to deal with Taliban content and to make sure their existing rules on violence and terror are properly enforced.

Amazon didn't say how Nida-e-Haqq managed to evade detection for at least four months when it wasn't even trying to hide what kind of content it posted, but it's very much possible that the company simply didn't know the website existed. As The Post said, Amazon may not be proactively policing its clients' content, relying instead on the complaints it gets.

Back in January, it suspended Parler's AWS hosting services after it found multiple posts on the social network "that clearly encourage and incite violence." Parler sued Amazon, claiming antitrust violations, but the company said it sent the website several warnings about violent posts on its platform before the takedown. Ultimately, a judge shot down Parler's attempt to get AWS to restore its service, citing the dangers posed by "inflammatory rhetoric" found on the social network.

Update 8/28 12PM ET: An AWS spokesperson stressed to Engadget that it was only the website running on AWS, not the app itself, and said company staff "act quickly" whenever there's a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy. You can read the full statement below.
A group of activist-hackers in Belarus has infiltrated almost every part of the the country's authoritarian government in a bid to overthrow the Lukashenko regime, according to MIT's Technology Review and Bloomberg. The hackers, known as Belarus Cyber Partisans, have been leaking information they found on sensitive police and government networks. They first started defacing government websites as an act of protest in September 2020 following the country's disputed election, in which Alexander Lukashenko's win was widely considered as fraudulent. But they also publish the information they get on Telegram, where they have 77,000 subscribers.

The group told the publications that it's made up of 15 IT and cybersecurity experts working in the country's tech sector. None of them are "professional hackers," a spokesperson told Tech Review, with only four out of 15 doing the actual "ethical hacking."

The Partisans' most recent attacks gave them access to drone footage from the government's crackdowns on protests last year and the Ministry of Interior Affairs' mobile phone surveillance database. They also apparently got access to emergency services' audio recordings, as well as video feeds from road speed and isolation cell surveillance cameras. The data the group released over the past weeks include lists of alleged police informants, personal information about top government officials and spies, police drone and detention center footage and secret recordings captured by the government's wiretapping system.

If the Cyber Partisans have been effective in their efforts to infiltrate the government's networks, it's thanks to the help they get from another group called BYPOL. They reportedly reached out to BYPOL in December 2020 for guidance  after all, the group is made up of former Lukashenko officials who defected from the government and current ones working to topple the regime from the inside.

BYPOL provides them information on how to infiltrate government organizations and on the structure of the administration's databases. In return, the Cyber Partisans provide the group with information it can use to investigate the regime's crimes. BYPOL publishes information on its own Telegram channel and creates documentaries, one of which was cited at a congressional hearing that led to the US imposing sanctions against the Lukashenko regime.

The Cyber Partisan spokesperson told Tech Review that they're using cyberattacks to "paralyze as much as possible of the regime's security forces, to sabotage the regime's weak points in the infrastructure and to provide protection for protesters." Their ultimate goal is "to stop the violence and repression from the terroristic regime in Belarus and to bring the country back to democratic principles and rule of law."
The smartwatch market doesn't appear to be cooling down any time soon  if anything, it's heating up. Strategy Analytics estimates smartwatch shipments grew by a whopping 47 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2021, with 18.1 million of the wearables shipping this spring. Demand (at least from retailers) has returned to "pre-pandemic levels," according to the analyst firm's Steven Waltzer  it hasn't been this hot since 2018.

Strategy Analytics attributed the spike to continued demand for personal health devices. It's not clear how much the pandemic recovery fuelled demand, although it wouldn't be surprising if the renewed interest in going outside prompted extra sales.

It wasn't just the usual companies that benefited from the surge, either. Apple held on to a comfortable lead with 52 percent of the market and the most popular individual smartwatch (the Apple Watch Series 6), and Samsung saw its shipments jump 54 percent. Garmin's fitness-focused watches still jumped 25 percent, though, and "others" (including Fossil and other Wear OS backers) saw their shipments climb 55 percent. This was a strong overall market, even for smaller brands.

There are signs this spike will continue. Apple Watch Series 7 could be weeks away as we write this, and Samsung's Wear OS-packing Galaxy Watch 4 might revitalize Android smartwatch sales. Low-cost LTE smartwatches from Chinese brands like Oppo and Xiaomi might also help, according to the analysts. This momentum will eventually die down, but it's unlikely to fade in the near future.
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Christy is news editor at the Enid News & Eagle. Visit his column blog at www.tinyurl.com/Column-Blog.

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The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed that Chris Wilson, a "Lone Star Law" game warden, has died this week at the age of 43.

In an exclusive statement to 25 News, the department revealed that Wilson succumbed after his recent hospitalization at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center. The once healthy game warden struggled as his health deteriorated after testing positive for COVID-19.

The department added that the sergeant suffered from complications caused by the dreaded disease, losing the battle on Thursday night.

Wilson appeared in a 2016 episode of "Lone Star Law" and worked with Captain Scott Jurk and other game wardens at that time.

As seen on the videos online, the other game wardens in Texas escorted his remains to a mortuary following the announcement of his death. They stood outside the funeral home before taking his remains to service.

Before his death, he spent 17 years of his life working at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The Sam Houston University graduate served in Bell and San Saba counties before scoring a promotion as sergeant special investigator.

Since then, he began looking into potential crimes and threats to game wardens like him and other park police officers.

Rest in Peace, Chris Wilson

Following his passing, people close to his heart honored him and asked everyone to pray for him after his heroic battle.

Wilson's long-time company paid tribute to him and remembered the nearly two decades of service of the late "Lone Star Law" star.

"Sgt. Wilson proudly served Texas as a State Game Warden with great purpose, pride and dedication," officials said, as quoted by KXXV. "His End of Watch leaves a hole in the hearts of many who knew him. The State of Texas is grateful beyond words, for the dignity, strength and sacrifice of his service."

READ ALSO: Princess Diana Commodified, Memory Insulted? 'Spencer' Film Receives Backlash Despite On-Point Trailer

The department then sent wishes to his family amid the trying times.

Meanwhile, the department's executive director, Carter Smith, also sent a heartfelt message to the "big man with a big heart." Per Smith, Wilson left good things and brought positive impacts to all the people he worked with.

Chris Wilson is survived by his wife and four children.

His death caused a massive call online, with internet users telling people to get vaccinated and take extra precautions amid the worsening pandemic.

READ MORE: Was Jimmy Hayes Cause of Death COVID-19 Vaccine Related? Conspiracy Theories Go Overboard
The union minister of labour recently held a meeting with the leaders from the central trade unions (CTUs). What was seen as a token courtesy meeting, has led to reports that the government is interested in resuming some form of dialogue with the CTUs. Reports point at the governments inclination towards holding the Indian Labour Conference (ILC). This is not surprising considering how labour-related issues have dominated the public imagination during the COVID-19 pandemic, most starkly seen in the huge migrant exodus from the cities during the first lockdown in MarchApril 2020. The National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), an initiative focused on enumerating the unorganised workforce along with the launch of the e-Shram portal are part of the governments efforts to ensure workers access to social security benefits. With the operationalisation of the much-touted labour codes still uncertainamidst unfulfilled employer concerns and CTU resistancethe government appears to be stretching its arm out, in its characteristic ad hoc style, to cover its gross misadventures with respect to labour and employment.

The ILC, first held in 1942 (as the national labour conference and the ILC from 1945), under the chairpersonship of B R Ambedkar, is the principal tripartite body, which includes representatives from central, state and union territory governments, CTUs and employers organisations. In determining broader legislative and policy matters related to labour, as well as discussions between the different parties involved, it has been the institutional bulwark of tripartism in labour politics in India. While tripartism in the Indian context has had a mixed history, with an overt presence of the statean inheritance from colonial labour administrationthere is undoubtedly an array of tripartite arrangements such as wage boards, labour boards, standing labour committees and national labour commissions that emerge from this tradition. It has, in many ways, shaped the basis of labour policy across different sectors. The ILC has also allowed for bringing together diverse traditions in the trade union movement, along with employers into a dialogue that was seen to ensure some bare minimum framework for industrial relations, in India. While its regular occurrence has consistently provided a space for dialogue, the current dispensations failure to hold the ILC for almost six years, in the midst of enacting the most drastic overhaul of the labour legislation, appears to be in line with their overall method of steamrolling through institutions for dialogue and deliberation.

Weakened by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has seen a contraction followed by a very mild recovery, with employers pushing for an overall suspension of any form of labour regulation. Some states have complied graciously, but what came as a surprise was that the labour codes, passed in a hurry last year, have not brought the expected enthusiasm on the part of the employers. They have also raised several objections regarding the code, especially provisions on allowances as a portion of the wage, which many have claimed would increase the wage bill of employers. CTUs have consistently demanded a withdrawal of the codes, citing lack of deliberation as well as a strong bias against trade union organisation and activity, most starkly available in the Industrial Relations Code. Amid the devastating impact of the pandemic, most of the states have not drafted rules for any of the codes. In this context, it does not appear that the enforcement of this game-changing transformation in labour legislation is set to take shape anytime soon.

Apart from these institutional failures, the labour ministry is overseeing the creation of a National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), which is seen to ensure that unorganised workers, including migrant workers, will gain access to social security schemes across the country. Despite pointed nudges from the Supreme Court regarding welfare benefits to migrant workers, the government has been moving at a snails pace on providing concrete lists of potential beneficiaries or, for that matter, what schemes will be included. In fact, ironically, most beneficiary data on labour is gathered within the ambit of existing labour regulations and schemes, and any shortfall is an indication of the limits of these schemes. Obviously, these figures cannot be generated easily, and so the e-Shram portal exercise seems to fit in wellto get workers to register themselves to gain a unique 12-digit number which would allow them access the benefits. While the principle of having a universal claim to social security is welcome, the scheme launched with the now almost exhausting grandeur, in its essence, seems to shift the burden of registration to the vast number of workers, including proving their identity. Alongside, there is a potential confusion with many state governments bringing out similar smart cards and e-numbers.

Notwithstanding all this, the moot point is that any exercise in registration of workers, whether construction workers or bidi workers or domestic workers or any other group of workers, rarely happens without the intervention and efforts of workers, organisations and unions. Hence, there is an urgent need to get a buy-in from the side of workers, and their organisations, and work on rebuilding trust. However, if the government does this in its usual high-handed way, with a generous measure of ad hocism, tempered with flashy events, and limited or no deliberation at all, the deepening crisis in the world of work in India will only stand to worsen, alienating both workers and their organisations further.
The current ruling regime does not feel restrained in repeating the rhetoric that it wants to build a strong India. And, to support such a slogan, it comes up with new slogans that feed into a reign of rhetoric. However, its arbitrary, yet aggressive style of imagining a strong India has led to the development of absolute intolerance to social criticismthat expects the government to accept candidlyof ideological politics that suppresses even discussion on caste as social reality. The question that one needs to ask is: Under what political conditions does the imagination of the nation allow for constructive social criticism? The emergence of a nation from the clutches of imperialism and a nation in the making, both possess moderating thrust and provide an opportunity to negotiate internal differences. This element of moderation, thus, allows for social criticism and its acceptance through an engagement with those who launch such criticism.

It is interesting to keep in mind that the proponents of reformist Hinduism such as the Arya Samajist demonstrated some degree of readiness to tolerate social criticism of the caste system by the victims of casteism. This readiness could be understood in terms of the primary need to achieve social solidarity against imperialism. Thus, the acute need for a nations independence foregrounded the urgency to tolerate some degree of social criticism which was considered as legitimate by the Arya Samajist, who, however, retained the legislative power to limit the scope of this social criticism. Such proposals, which involved acceptance of mild criticism and rejection of harsh criticism of Hinduism, are evident in B R Ambedkars encounter with Jat Pat Todak Mandal.

In 1936, the mandal invited Ambedkar to deliver a talk on annihilation of caste at Lahore. But the mandal found some of the views expressed in the address too harsh for Hinduism and hence wanted Ambedkar to drop the harsh part of his speech and downsize it to a mild version. On account of Ambedkars refusal to comply, the mandal cancelled the invited talk. What is so significant in terms of reformist Hinduism is that its proponentsfor the sake of nationalismshowed readiness to at least publicly discuss some innocuous aspects of the caste system, and to this extent, they, in the interest of the nation, were amenable to the need for social criticism. Although Ambedkars attempt at social criticism was to make the discourse of nationalism complete.

In the current political dispensation, the proponents of a majority religion have moved from reformist Hinduism to political Hindutva which does not seem to tolerate any degree of social criticism of caste. In fact, public institutionsfollowing anti-caste thrust of the Indian Constitutionare supposed to take a lead in encouraging public debate on caste. But the experience of the last few years shows that those at the top of these institutions have been active in suppressing the discussion on caste. This suppression of discussion on caste has been followed by public institutions refusing permission to host caste-related seminars or withdrawing invitations extended to speakers. It seems the ideology of Hindutva, which finds its resonance in the current public institutions, compels the latter to seek deviation from the constitutional ideals. Its complete disregard of a public discussion on caste, annihilates the possibility of even moderately discussing caste problems, as was once attempted at Lahore in 1936.

Discussing the caste problem from the platform of public educational institutions will help the younger generation to develop a mind with a capacity to reflect. However, such forms of discussions, which should otherwise be considered as constitutional responsibility, are ignored by the public institutions. And, unfortunately, the discussion on caste would be reduced to a section of social media run by anti-caste groups. Most of these groups are forced to discuss caste and its tragic manifestation, for example, atrocities against Dalits. Should we be discussing caste only in its tragic manifestation, and only within the groups that are the victims of such atrocities?

Caste faces a complete ban on its discussion through public institutions. The overlap between Hindutva and the current ruling dispensation does not want to resolve the paradox where it claims to accommodate so many Dalits in the cabinet. Like the Arya Samajist, it does not show a pragmatic readiness to engage with anti-caste efforts. Like the Arya Samajist, it does not need social solidarity to fight against imperialism. That moment has passed some 85 years back, where its own conception of nationalism need not entertain social criticism that demands a robust engagement with social issues, which in turn would build a nation with a stronger social foundation.
Unresolved amidst the Refugee Crisis Oscar-nominated documentary film Life Overtakes Me shines a light on the psychological and emotional distress suffered by refugee children.

Political unrest and violence, as well as environmental crises, have created a refugee problem of epic proportions today. The movement of refugeeswho include asylum seekers and economic migrants, in search of better economic opportunity, peace and securityhas become a reality we must actively engage with. As multiple researchers and research studies have argued, it is always

the women and children who suffer the disproportionate consequences of natural calamities, religious or political persecution, or wars.

Adu (2020), a recent Spanish film, captures the tragic journey of a young child travelling from Cameroon to Spain in search of refuge. Hollywood film The Good Lie (2014) narrates the story of four Bible-carrying siblings who travel from South Sudan to the United States with the help of a Christian charity. These films portray these odysseys as tragic events and capture human suffering, but they dont focus on the psychological issues that these refugee children carry inside them. It is clear that the camera has not been trained on mental health issues.
.

suspended in time

we wait

nerveless

witless

complicit

governmentalised

subjugated

we wait

homes our prison

herd we are

but herd we can-not

your breath my death

covid or cancer

take your pick

we wait

segmented

caged

carcerated

panopticised

for shackles to fall

locked with own hands

Note: suspended in time we wait was written in September 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdown, from end March 2020 to October 2020, I was forced to shelter-at-place in a small town in India. The measures that were deployed by the state to contain the pandemic were reminiscent of the strategy of segmentation enforced during the plague epidemic in medieval Europe. With a first-hand worms-eye view, I could observe the dispersion and working of what Foucault terms as capillary power. The anger, helplessness and frustration that I experienced as a public health physician and epidemiologist gave birth to this poem.

C Sathyamala (csathyamala@gmail.com) is currently with the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, as a postdoctoral academic researcher. Some three years ago, during a period of adversity, poetry came upon her. Since then, they walk hand in hand, delighting in each other.
From: Expert Click Radio -- Radio Interview Service For Immediate Release: Dateline: Georgetown , DC Saturday, August 28, 2021

published on 2021-08-28T21:08:56Z Kevin Schewe, Author of 'Bad Love Medicine,' Fourth in the 'Bad Love Gang' Series, Featured on the Dr. Pat Radio Show: From Russian spies to Nazi plots, to alien planets, to true love, Kevin L. Schewe has penned another action-packed romp in his critically acclaimed Bad Love series that will have you wishing for more. 'Bad Love Medicine' takes readers from the deep-space beauty of Planet Azur back to a WWII Europe riddled with danger and espionage, bringing the Bad Love Gang face-to-face with one of historys greatest villainsAdolf Hitler himself.Part history lesson, part sci-fi adventure, Schewes engaging Bad Love Gang (based on his own friends in high school) once again set out to save historythis time, by stopping the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own.In 'Bad Love Strikes,' the Gang discovered The White Hole Project, a time machine created by President Franklin Roosevelt in case the atomic bomb failed. In the exciting sequel, Bad Love Tigers, the gang used the White Hole Project to travel back to 1945 to thwart Russian spies and protect the secrets of Area 51. In Bad Love Beyond, the gang traveled not just through time but through space as well to learn the reason behind Blue Nova Ones mysterious visit to earth. Now, in Bad Love Medicine, the gang has a two-fold mission: reunite a love-struck couple (while saving one of them from a future fate of cancer) separated by time and stop the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own.Schewe continues to draw accolades for his screenplay based on the first book in the series, Bad Loves Strikes. The screenplay recently drew its 4th award, the Prix Royal Paris Silver Screenplay Award. His screenplay has also won the South Florida International Film Festival for Best Original Screenplay for Young Adults, the L.A. Film Awards Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, and a Gold Script Writing Award for Sci-Fi Adventure from the Depth of Field International Film Festival. Great writing needs to be savored and rewarded, say the Prix Royal judges. Readers of all ages will love Bad Love Medicine, which also contains a soundtrack to guide you on your journey. Schewe, a lifelong WWII aficionado, has spent years researching the topics included in his books, including the nuclear physics behind the time and space travel, which makes the story that much more immersive.These stories just come to life in such an organic way, says Schewe. They combine my childhood memories with my love of history, music, military aviation, WWII, science fiction and time travel. Genre Entertainment License: cc-by-nc-sa Listen Now! Open the Expert Radio SoundCloud Channel Here: https://soundcloud.com/expertclickradio


CONTACT: Pamela D. Wilson +1 303-810-1816

Email: Inquiry_For_Pamela@pameladwilson.com

Golden, Colorado  August 28, 2021

The Caring Generation Why Do Old People Get Mean?

Golden CO- Caregiver subject matter expert Pamela D. Wilson hosts The Caring Generation podcast show for caregivers and aging adults. This coming Wednesday, September 1, 2021, Wilson offers insights about aging to help adult children understand why elderly parents may be mean or negative. Dr. Jennifer Frontera joins Wilson to share research about hospitalized COVID patients in New York hospitals and ongoing research about the short and long-term effects of COVID.

Wilson releases new shows for The Caring Generation series each Wednesday. Featured are tips and conversations about aging, caregiving, family relationships, and health. Also shared are interviews and research from experts worldwide about health prevention and planning for the future to avoid caregiving stress and unexpected situations. The Caring Generation is available on Wilson's website, podcast, and music apps worldwide.

The Effects of Aging on the Body and Mind

Aging isn't easy. Adult children caregivers may not understand the experiences of aging parents until they age, and aches, pains, and health issues begin to complicate life.

Being empathetic to the day-to-day struggles of aging parents can result in family caregivers losing patience. Attempting to imagine the pain or struggle to get out of bed in the morning or walk a flight of stairs is difficult for anyone who has not had this experience.

The addition of memory loss or responding to mood swings of a parentwho can't remember if they ate breakfast or became agitated or verbally abusive when reminded to showermakes the caregiver's life increasingly difficult. The effects of aging on the body and mind grow subtlety over time. When children live at a distance or don't spend consistent time with aging parents, changes in physical or cognitive abilities can seem to crop up overnight.

Concerns, Worry and Change Result in Feelings of Loss or Anger

As marital relationships change and the healthy spouse becomes the caregiver, adult children may gain insights into behaviors related to the feelings of a parent who is dependent on another person for care. For example, chronic pain and attending multiple doctor appointments can be physically and emotionally draining. Being unable to manage medications may lead to decreases in self-esteem or feelings of helplessness.

If a parent lacks good problem solving or coping skills, lifelong alcohol or drug use habits may increase in frequency. The effects of losing friends or being socially isolated are confirmed to pose adverse consequences for health and well-being. Spousal and adult children caregivers can experience similar feelings related to the stress of caregiving roles and responsibilities.

Changes related to giving up an active lifestyle can result in anger or mood shifts when a parent struggles to adapt and learn new strategies to complete ongoing activities. Giving up the car keys and no longer driving is a life-changing event for many elderly who miss the ability to come and go.

Adult children new to caregiving can face hurdles when discussing these sensitive topics with parents who may be reluctant to share their feelings. Wilson supports and encourages caregiving families to discuss challenges and seek solutions.

Dr. Jennifer Frontera  NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Jennifer Frontera, MD, is a professor of neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and specializes in neurocritical care and stroke. She graduated from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and later completed neurology residency and stroke and neurocritical care fellowships at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.

Her research has centered on epidemiology and outcomes among patients with intracranial hemorrhage, with a recent focus on the neurological impact of COVID-19. She has authored over 25 articles related to SARS-CoV-2 and receives funding from NIH/NINDS, NIH/NHLBI, and NIH/NIA for her COVID-related projects. In addition, Dr. Frontera sits on the WHO Brain Health task force for neurological complications of COVID-19.

Wilson works with family caregivers, groups, and corporations worldwide to educate about the role strain that caregivers experience, managing, and planning for health and aging issues. More about Wilson's online courses for elderly care, individual elder care consultations, caregiver support, webinars, and speaking engagements are on her website www.pameladwilson.com. Pamela may also be contacted at +1 303-810-1816 or through the contact Me page on her website.

#
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Mexicos Foreign Relations Department refused to say Wednesday whether the government will allow the U.S. to reinstate the remain in Mexico policy of sending asylum seekers back across the border to wait for hearings on asylum claims.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to block a lower court ruling ordering the administration of President Joe Biden to reinstate the Trump-era policy of forcing people to wait in Mexico for hearings on asylum claims.

Roberto Velasco, Mexico's director for North American affairs, said the court ruling is not binding on Mexico. He stressed that Mexico's immigration policy is designed and executed in a sovereign manner.

The Mexican government will start technical discussions with the U.S. government to evaluate how to handle safe, orderly and regulated immigration on the border, Velasco said.

Mexico is not legally obligated to receive returning migrants who are not Mexican citizens, and most of the asylum seekers are not.

But President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado has had good relations with the U.S. government on immigration matters and has willingly cooperated in blocking migrant caravans and deporting migrants trying to reach the U.S. border. Lopez Obrador allowed the U.S. to implement the first version of the remain in Mexico policy under President Donald Trump.

Its not clear how many people will be affected by the Supreme Court ruling and how quickly. Under the lower court ruling, the administration must make a good faith effort to restart the program.

There also is nothing preventing the Biden administration from trying again to end the program, formally called Migrant Protection Protocols.

During Trumps presidency, the policy required tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to turn back to Mexico. It was meant to discourage asylum seekers, but critics said it denied people the legal right to seek protection in the U.S. and forced them to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities.

During the Trump administration, the Mexican government said it was cooperating with the program for humanitarian reasons.

Although migrants were granted humanitarian visas to stay in Mexico until they had their U.S. hearings, they often had to wait in dangerous areas controlled by cartels, leaving them vulnerable to being kidnapped, assaulted, raped or even killed. Others were transported by bus to parts of southern Mexico or invited to return to their home countries.

Mexico technically could block the program by refusing to accept migrants asked to stay in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols. But analysts like Tonatiuh Guillen, former head of Mexicos migration agency, consider that unlikely given the countrys history of cooperation with the U.S.

Guillen said Mexican officials will probably go along even though the country doesnt have sufficient resources to deal with an influx of asylum seekers at the border and nonprofit shelters south of the border are overwhelmed.
AP

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP)  A Colorado woman charged with hiding 26 children behind a false wall at her day care center was found guilty of child abuse and other charges Thursday.

Carla Faith was convicted of 26 counts of misdemeanor child abuse, a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant and a misdemeanor count of running a child care facility without a license, The Gazette reported. One of her employees also was convicted of 26 counts child abuse.
The Texas House Democrats who bolted for roughly six weeks to stop the Legislature from passing new laws would have racked up about $20,000 each in fines under a rule change proposed to stop such quorum breaks in the future.

The rule, debated Saturday in a committee meeting, would not be applied retroactively, but it would add a $500 fine in the future for each day that a member skips a session without an excuse, leaving the House without the 100 members it needs to vote on bills. The rule would also allow the House to conduct some business even in the absence of a quorum. Committees and subcommittees could still meet and receive legislation, and the chamber could still receive messages from the governor and Senate.

This rule is designed to keep members in their chairs. To stay, to talk, to debate, to not leave. But if they do leave, there are consequences associated with that, said Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who is carrying the resolution.

There have only been a handful of quorum breaks in modern Texas politics, though the Democrats used walkouts in May and July to freeze the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Fines could be paid out of personal accounts or campaign accounts, and Darby noted that members could also use the $221 per diem they can collect when the governor calls them to Austin for a legislative session.

IN-DEPTH: Heres what happens when Texas lawmakers flee the state to derail legislation

The new rules wouldnt have stopped the Democrats from breaking quorum anyway, said Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Driftwood Democrat, among those who left for Washington.

It took 57 members to break quorum, but it took every single one of us to create an environment where that seemed like the right thing to do, Zwiener said. As Im looking at this, I see a lot of stick and very little carrot.

During their quorum break, House Democrats spent thousands of dollars chartering private flights out of Austin and putting their members up in hotels in Washington. Former El Paso Congressman Beto ORourke, who is considering running for governor in 2022, alone raised more than $600,000 to help them with expenses.

The change would last until House members return to Austin in 2023, at which point the Legislature would adopt new operating rules.

Folks who left, I do not question their motive and their effort to represent the constituents they have. That is their duty and they operate under their duty as they perceive it, Darby said, adding that what they did was in line with the rules at the time. Now its time to change those rules so it wont happen again, he said.

Democrats on the committee said that rather than punishing members, more should be done to respect the rights of the minority party in the chamber and repair relationships so they dont feel like their only viable option is to skip town.

To that end, the Saturday morning hearing amounted to a group therapy session for the chamber.

Members of the Administration Committee repeatedly described the hearing as a family discussion, saying it was healthy and it offered catharsis.

Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Dallas Democrat, said the two parties in the Texas House are in a marriage, he said, not in a church, but under the dome.

Anchia said he has served nine terms and this years session has been the most extreme of any hes been a part of. And quorum breaks are rare historically, he said, only happening in Texas five times in history.

In the spring, Republicans asked for trouble by first making 20 pages of last-minute changes to a hard-fought elections bill, and were preparing to cut off debate on the matter when the Democrats walked out for the first time, Anchia said.

You know that if you abuse your partner, they are bouncing. They are out, regardless of if you think youre abusing them or not. If they feel abused, theyre going to leave, he said. And theres always that dance you have to do with your partner.

The punitive nature of the rule change would only contribute to tensions between the two parties, Anchia said.

The quorum break was a symptom of something far, far deeper in this House. And its something we should take a moment to reflect on before we try to fix this tactically. Its a fundamental problem, Anchia said. I view this as hastening the next quorum break. Not inhibiting.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
The graduates laughed, cried and counted their blessings in a courtroom ceremony that made their second chances official.

There were four of them, congratulated Friday by court staff, judges, and supporters for being the first to complete a pretrial diversion program that will keep them from carrying a criminal record for the rest of their lives.

The Bexar County Domestic Violence Program, known as the Reflejo Court, offers adults charged with Class A misdemeanors for assaulting a spouse or other family member the chance to get their cases dismissed.

They are high-risk men and women who also have a history of substance abuse. They get the chance to plead guilty and agree to a year of close supervision.

On ExpressNews.com: Federal funds sought to help implement new drug court in Bexar County

Patrick K., Christopher S., Rebecca G., and Alicia A., in face masks, purple gowns and mortar boards, became the inaugural class of what Judge Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez and her team of 17 hope will become an effective change agent for those with first-time offenses.

I stand before you a changed man, said Patrick K. I was in trouble with the law and my marriage was on the rocks.  This is the first chapter in the book of change. Today, I am sober 350 days.

Reflejo means reflection in Spanish. Fifteen others are currently going through the program, with another graduation expected in six months.

I expect nothing but great things for them, Speedlin-Gonzalez said of her first graduates.

Their records will be expunged. The Express-News agreed not to use their full names.

The supervision includes drug treatment. Championed by Speedlin-Gonzalez and several local advocates, Reflejo Court was launched in July 2020 in her County Court-at-Law No. 13.

On ExpressNews.com: 'The stick and the carrot' - a new Bexar County specialty court aims to turn around first-time domestic abuse defendants

The judge worked on the program for months and was able to secure $100,000 from Bexar County commissioners, $68,000 from the Alamo Area Council of Governments, and about $80,000 in in-kind services from the Adult Probation Department.

Other specialty courts and dockets here function as pre-trial diversion programs for particular types of offenses or offenders. They include Adult Drug Court, DWI Court, Mental Health Court and Veterans Treatment Court, both for misdemeanors and felonies.

But Reflejo Court is the first misdemeanor court in the state geared toward domestic violence offenders who also have substance abuse issues. Speedlin-Gonzalez said El Paso and Laredo have expressed interest in the model, as well as the state of New Mexico.

The graduation was the culmination of a conference-type day that included talks on adverse childhood experiences, relationships in sobriety and a luncheon.

Judge Al Alonzo, founder and president of the Therapeutic Justice Foundation, was the keynote speaker. Alonzo, a former judge of County Court-at-Law No. 1, began installing components of what would become Drug Court as early as 2001.

He spoke of his faith as a motivator to help people suffering from addiction and challenged the graduates to tell their stories of recovery to others.

I never did any more productive or gratifying work than working with people in specialty courts, he said. Your last step is giving back to the community.

Christopher S. told the crowd he spent his life blaming others and not communicating well with his family.

I looked at it as punishment, rather than seeing it as a living tool, he said of his first reaction to the program. It made me re-evaluate my life, and now I see it as a gift that allows me to rebuild my life for the better.

Rebecca G. said being told by Speedlin-Gonzalez and others in recovery to take it day by day, helped get her to where she is today  sober and in graduate school.

Depressed and hopeless, she drank to keep herself going, but learned to cope with the programs counseling and by attending Alcoholics Anonymous, and time is now precious instead of fleeting, she said.

On ExpressNews.com: Drug court grads see hope and united families

I spend at least 20 minutes a day with friends, family or myself, Rebecca said. By helping someone else out, it helps me out.

Alicia A. thanked her attorney for telling her about the program after she found herself facing two charges rooted in her alcohol abuse, and thanked numerous other supporters, including the court team.

I am an alcoholic, she told the crowd. I was in denial of having a drinking problem.

When she signed the contract to participate in Reflejo Court, the lifestyle change was sudden: I had to stop drinking, and then I had a 9 p.m. curfew, Alicia said.

She also credited her faith and AAs Big Book for changing her life, and said she met her AA sponsor through Speedlin-Gonzalez.

Thats when I knew she wanted to help me. Then she told me I needed to be the change, Alicia said. This is only the start of what greatness will come now that I am sober.

ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863


Wizz Air will introduce three new routes from Skopje and a new service from Ohrid this December as it restations a fifth aircraft in the Macedonian capital. The announcement comes just days after easyJet unveiled it would Wizz Air will introduce three new routes from Skopje and a new service from Ohrid this December as it restations a fifth aircraft in the Macedonian capital. The announcement comes just days after easyJet unveiled it would enter the Macedonian market in November . Wizz Air will introduce flights from Skopje to Turin, Bologna and Billund on December 18 and 19, while it will also launch operations from Ohrid to Friedrichshafen in southern Germany on December 18. All of the routes will be maintained twice per week. The new additions will bring Wizz Airs Skopje network to 34 destinations, while it will serve Ohrid from eight points in Europe.





Click on link for details





The low cost airline will now maintain five destinations from Skopje to Italy with Turin and Bologna complementing Rome, Venice and Milan. Based on OAG data, in the pre-pandemic 2019, some 1.888 travellers flew indirectly on a single itinerary between Skopje and Bologna, while passenger flow between the Macedonian capital and Turin was negligible. Billund will become Skopjes second destination in Denmark after Copenhagen. On the other hand, Friedrichshafen will be the carriers third point in Germany from Ohrid after Dortmund and Memmingen.





Commenting on the expansion, Wizz Air said, The new routes will add up to the existing services already operated from both Skopje and Ohrid airports and will restate the airlines commitment to offering Macedonian passengers flights to diverse destinations. The new services to Bologna, Turin, Friedrichshafen and Billund will start being operated thanks to the allocation of a fifth aircraft to the Wizz Air base in Skopje. Prior to the pandemic, Wizz had five jets stationed in the Macedonian capital, however, this was downsized last year due to Covid-19, with the airline yet to reinstate its entire Skopje network. Wizz Air is now offering even more diversity in terms of destinations to Macedonians, the airlines Corporate Communications Manager, Paulina Gosk, concluded. In the former Yugoslavia, Wizz Air has already announced the addition of new routes from Belgrade, Banja Luka, Sarajevo and Tuzla from mid-December.








Sterling, VA (20165)

Today

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 57F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Showers early, then partly cloudy overnight. Low 57F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
FAIRFIELD  Across the hall from his twin daughters sun-splashed bedroom, where Mickey Mouse and a menagerie of stuffed animals stand watch from bunk beds, Alex Plitsas typed furiously on his iPhone, relaying encrypted messages to a terrified Afghan family outside the airport at Kabul.

The Afghan father had been beaten the previous day by the Taliban, his pregnant wife whipped across the back. Plitsas sent a signal to them to flash to American personnel who would admit them to the airport gate. To the Americans at the airport gate, he relayed a photo of the family, a hollow-eyed selfie.

They were just four meters from the gate, an exit from Afghanistan.

Improbably, they had been guided there by Plitsas, an Army veteran and suburban dad standing in stocking feet in a home office in a tidy neighborhood on the other side of the world. He is one of the many players in a crowd-sourcing exercise that, at least for Plitsas, would reach a crescendo Thursday night.

An interpreter he helped already had flown to safety. The pregnant woman was under the care of American medics. And a more difficult case, coordinating the rescue of four unaccompanied minors whose plight had been the subject of a CNN story, had found a happy ending.

At 11:07 p.m., a text message arrived with a picture of four children and three words: In the wire.

The wire was the fence separating the American-controlled portion of Hamid Karzai International Airport from the chaos and carnage of Kabul. On a day when suicide bombers killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians outside the airport gate, four kids were saved.

There were others, their stories certain to unfold over time.

All were beneficiaries of a network of military veterans and others with contacts in Afghanistan. They used social media, off-the-shelf encryption communication apps and satellite maps in whats been dubbed the Digital Dunkirk, a nod to the civilian flotilla that evacuated trapped British troops after the fall of France.

As midnight approached, the end of a frenetic 36 hours, Plitsas struggled to explain what he felt. It had been a day of frustration, false starts, grievous losses and scattered gains. Finally, he said, I could throw up right now.

A sense of obligation

Plitsas, 36, served with the Army in Iraq and in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon as a civilian Department of Defense employee, the latter post during the Obama administration. On the morning of their daughters christening in 2014, his wife said, he had started the day in a meeting at the White House.

He now is an I.T. consultant for aerospace and defense clients and the Republican town chair of Fairfield. He lives in a cream-colored clapboard home around the corner from a marina and park on Long Island Sound. The only checkpoint in his world is at the park: A man in a security hut checks beach permits.

On the wall of his home office hang a Bronze Star from his service as an Army sergeant in Iraq, a Pentagon civilian commendation medal, a National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation, a folded American flag, and an autographed photo of George W. Bush, the president who first sent Americans to Afghanistan 20 years ago.

Plitsas agreed with the decision by President Joe Biden to withdraw U.S. troops, hewing to a timetable set by the Trump administration and Taliban. But to describe the execution of that withdrawal, he used the epithet that is bouncing around military chat channels, likely destined to be the title of a book about the debacle: S Show.

Twenty years of American involvement cost nearly $1 trillion and the lives of 2,300 U.S. troops, including 13 Marines and other troops killed Thursday. But it also produced a generation of veterans who left with a connection, a sense of obligation to Afghan interpreters, construction engineers and others.

When the Afghanistan government fell to the Taliban, Plitsas was vacationing on the Amalfi Coast of Italy with his wife, Lisa, who is a CPA with an international consulting firm, and their daughters, identical twins who turned 7 during the trip. On Twitter, he mentioned he might be helpful to people trying to exit Afghanistan and invited direct messages.

A CNN journalist sent him names of U.S. green-card holders stranded in Afghanistan.

From Italy, Plitsas shared details with old contacts, some no longer in government, like a woman in Maryland who played a role Wednesday in helping get aid to the pregnant woman. Others were on the ground in Afghanistan, blandly described by Plitsas as U.S. government employees.

A fortunate mistake

Plitsas heard directly from Abdul, a 42-year-old man in Kandahar, an Afghan who had been an interpreter at a U.S. special forces firebase from 2006 to 2009.

It was a mistake, actually. Abdul, who asked that his full name not be used to protect family and friends still in Afghanistan, mistook Plitsas for his former base commander, who had the same first name, a similar last name, and the same dark beard as the Alex on Twitter in Fairfield, Conn.

He sent Plitsas a picture of himself and the other Alex taken at the firebase in 2009, his only readily available credential. He asked for help, saying he had been getting anonymous calls from young men posing as relatives, asking him to explain why he had worked for the Americans. They called him an infidel and an SOB  a son of Biden.

OK, brother, came the reply from Connecticut Alex, Abdul recounted. Im not the guy that you sent me, the picture. But I can still help you.

Plitsas said he vetted the man with his sources, who confirmed Abdul had been an interpreter with American special forces  and a rock star, at that.

Abdul told his story Thursday in an interview conducted via Zoom from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The interview was arranged over WhatsApp, the encrypted group chat app Plitsas used to help Abdul, his wife and their seven children navigate from Kandahar to Kabul, then the more perilous last 5 kilometers from the citys center to its airport.

A week ago, Abdul was hiding in a hotel, uncertain how to reach the airport. Warned by a deskman that the Taliban had come looking for collaborators, he left a desperate voicemail on Plitsas phone. Two days ago, he and his family were being placed on plane for a flight south over Pakistan and the Gulf of Oman to Dubai. Now, he was smiling, telling his story to an American reporter.

It is magic, Abdul said.

Taking every opportunity

Abdul had been on Plitsass mind last Saturday, when he got to Rome for the flight home. Abduls voicemail had contradicted Pentagon officials who insisted the path was open to the airport under an agreement with the Taliban.

Everyone was masked at the terminal in Rome, a COVID precaution. But Plitsas did a double-take when he saw a woman in the distance with a streak of purple hair, a fashion favored by the senior member of Connecticuts congressional delegation, Rosa L. DeLauro, a Democrat of New Haven.

He pulled down his mask, introduced himself to DeLauro and played the voicemail from Abdul.

I wanted to make sure a Democrat who was connected to the administration could at least raise her hand and say, I heard this firsthand. I saw it myself, Plitsas said. She was genuine and authentic and caring and gracious with her time.

DeLauro, who was coming home from Italy ahead of a hurricane that had been forecast to come ashore in her district the next day, corroborated his account in an interview Thursday.

In congressional offices like hers, the typical caseworker fare of contested Social Security benefits turned to urgent matters of escape and survival. DeLauro said Thursday that 21 constituents were seeking help in evacuating relatives.

Roya Rahmani, the former Afghanistan ambassador to the U.S., called to say her brother, sister-in-law and 8-year-old niece were stranded, though they now are reported safe. Mark Shriver from Save the Children sought help on behalf of five staffers with no ready exit from Afghanistan.

Her role, DeLauro said, was ensuring that all those cases were on the radar of officials in the upper ranks of the State Department. While the State Departments official position was to keep its distance from the Digital Dunkirk, DeLauro applauded the crowdsourcing.

They are identifying people, and identifying where they are, their names. All of that is critical. So, I think every opportunity is something we have to take, DeLauro said.

Abdul said the only reason he and his family are alive is the unofficial effort. Talking about Plitsas, he smiled and displayed his knowledge of American vernacular.

Hes the man.

The American on the ground

On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m., Plitsas toggled between text threads involving a half-dozen cases listed with a red marker on a white dry-erase board in an office he wryly called his ops center.

At the top was a success, Abduls evacuation.

One of the twins peeked in the half-open door.

Hello, princess.

Hello, daddy.

Their dog, Molly, a boxer with soulful brown eyes, circled Plitsass desk, nuzzled a visitor and left. Lisa, who said they still were jet lagged, brought her husband coffee in an oversized mug with an inscription, Who needs a SUPERHERO when you have DAD.

In a voice call, Plitsas told an English-speaking relative of the group outside the airport gate  an injured husband and pregnant wife with children. They needed to stay in position, holding up the signal until Americans could find them.

The husband had just rejoined them, his leg wrapped in gauze, back from treatment for the beating from the Taliban.

Hes doing OK, the relative told Plitsas. But the wife, were worried about  to make sure she doesnt collapse.

Plitsas said he needed a picture of the familys view of the gate, something that could help the Americans locate them.

Theres medical personnel standing by to take care of her as soon as we can get there, Plitsas said. So as soon as they send the information, please relay it right away. I got guys on standby. This situation is changing from minute to minute, and the Taliban are being a pain in the ass about letting people in.

Yeah, I know, the relative said. I know. I know.

A text came. It was about a training session that night for Republicans in Fairfield. He shook his head and dictated in quick response, Sorry, Im slammed.

Then came the call Plitsas wanted. It was from an American in Afghanistan directing the attempted rescue of the four unaccompanied children, whose missing father had been an interpreter for the U.S. military. Plitsas said their mother had taken them to Pakistan, but a family member forced them back to Afghanistan.

The holder of a green card, the mother now was in Albany. Plitsas offered no details of how the children had been found and sent to an apartment to await extraction. But the word on the ground was not good. An extraction team could not reach them. The streets were blocked.

Were doing the best we can. Were trying to find if theres any, any other assets that can get there, said the American on the ground, whom Plitsas would not identify. But right now, it just doesnt seem like theres a way to get to them by ground, at least not from the safe house.

Plitsas asked if the children could be walked past the blockade.

It is not one single blockade. It is several. And I think it was still pretty far away from them. They tried from different approaches, the man said. So its just a s show. Its a complete s show.

On Thursday night, Plitsas declined to give details on how the children eventually were reached or how they accessed an airport supposedly closed tight after the suicide bombings. There were others trying to get in. Whatever path was taken must remain off the record for now.

With a CNN reporter in the chain of people involved in the rescue, he assumed it eventually would be widely told, just not now.

Plitsas was headed to bed.
WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court said late Tuesday that the Biden administration has to continue enforcing the Trump administrations so-called remain in Mexico policy for asylum seekers  for now.

The Migrant Protection Protocols, enacted in January 2019, allow border officials to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their claim to be heard, instead of letting them wait in the U.S. Administration officials said at the time that it would help end the exploitation of our generous immigration laws.

But critics said the policy exposed immigrants to crime and disease in the ramshackle border camps that sprang up to house waiting asylum seekers, and President Joe Biden reversed it shortly after taking office this year.

Texas and Missouri sued, claiming the change would lead to an influx of immigrants that would burden the states, and lower courts agreed that the Biden administration had acted improperly when it pulled the plug on the policy.

The White House on Friday asked the Supreme Court to put the lower courts order on hold while it pursued an appeal, but a divided court rejected that request in a two-paragraph order late Tuesday night.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday night that it was disappointed with the courts decision, but that it would comply in good faith while it pursues a vigorous challenge.

But experts said it is unclear what form the compliance will take, as any renewal of the policy would have to be done with cooperation of the Mexican government, which would have to handle the migrants who are turned away.

The ball is in Mexicos court and the U.S. and Mexico will be negotiating in order to decide how much MPP scales back up, said Yael Schacher, a senior U.S. advocate for Refugees International.

A call seeking comment Wednesday from the Mexican embassy in Washington was not immediately returned. But DHS said in its statement that it has begun to engage with the Government of Mexico in diplomatic discussions surrounding the Migrant Protection Protocols.

Tens of thousands of asylum seekers were turned back to Mexico in the first year of the program, where they often faced unsanitary conditions and were targets for crime. A December 2019 report by Human Rights First said it had identified more than 600 violent attacks on asylum seekers who were turned back to Mexico, including rape, robbery, assault and kidnapping.

Schacher said she visited migrants in the program waiting for asylum in the second half of 2019, until the beginning of 2020. Many struggled to find attorneys, did not have health care, shelter or schooling for their children, she said.

Jessica Bolter, an immigration policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, said the remain in Mexico policy also made it harder for migrants to get asylum by denying them access to legal representation, so they often missed updates on court dates and other important information.

There were often times when migrants would miss their cases because of some miscommunication or because they werent able to get transportation back to the port of entry or they needed to present in order to go to their immigration hearings, Bolter said.

Allen Orr Jr., president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said he was disappointed in the courts decision on a policy that he said denies migrants a lawful processing of their asylum cases.

But others welcomed the courts decision. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, called it great news out of the U.S. Supreme Court in a Tuesday night tweet.

The Biden Admin must bring back the Remain in Mexico Policy which was helping to secure our border and stop the surge of illegal immigrants across our southern border! she tweeted.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, tweeted Wednesday that the court had stepped in to restore justice under the law. But America should never have been endangered by Joe Bidens willful neglect of our immigration laws in the first place.

This is not the first time the court has had a chance to rule on the Migrant Protection Protocols. It was scheduled to hear an appeal earlier this year of a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that had overturned the policy, but that case was dismissed as moot after the Biden administration said it planned to end the program.

Orr said reinstituting the program will not be as easy as it sounds, since it will affect immigrants from African, Central and South America as well as Mexico.

Most people think that everybody is from Mexico and theyre not, said Orr, who called that a strain on the Mexican system.

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
HELENA  Shodair Childrens Hospitals low staffing numbers and failure to regularly monitor patients contributed to a patient suicide in May of this year, according to a July inspection released by investigators at the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

The patients death in the hospitals residential unit has not been previously reported.

State officials within DPHHS Quality Assurance Division described several troubling findings about the hospitals operations in the public report, obtained by Montana Free Press this week, including that the Helena hospital did not preserve all evidence related to the patients death, and that the facility destroyed the staff communication form about the incident that was completed by the overnight nurse. That form, state officials wrote, documented pertinent information into the investigation and root cause of the event.

The patient who died was 15 years old, according to a certified copy of her death certificate requested by MTFP from the Lewis and Clark County Clerk and Recorder.

MTFP is withholding the teenagers name out of respect for her familys privacy. Reached by phone Thursday, her mother said she has retained a lawyer and declined to comment further.

Lewis and Clark County District Court staff did not have any record of a lawsuit filed against Shodair Childrens Hospital by the patients mother as of Thursday.

In condolences posted to a web page announcing the young womans May funeral, friends and community members grieved the loss of a person they described as kind and beloved.

[S]he was so kind hearted and an amazing friend to everyone, wrote one person who said they were in Shodair at the same time. I hope she knows how much I care about her, she will forever be missed and remembered.



In an extensive response sent to MTFP Thursday, Shodair Childrens Hospital said the suicide had a profound impact on Shodair staff, who the hospital said were already experiencing difficult conditions due to the pandemic and related challenges to staffing.

Its a tragedy. Its hard. Nobody likes to see this, hospital CEO Craig Aasved said. Were not being cavalier about this  This is somebodys life.

To the points raised by state inspectors, the hospital defended some of its operational practices and said it would implement additional corrections, including increased training, to improve safety at the hospital going forward.

The hospital acknowledged that documents from the time of the incident, including assignment sheets, were shredded before they were requested by state officials. But the hospital disputed that the documents contained any information regarding the patient who died. Going forward, the hospital said, staff will be required to retain certain documents if a similar situation occurs.

The hospital also said it had required staff ratios in place at the time of the May incident: a total of four staff on the unit to oversee 19 patients.

After the patients death, Shodair said, it temporarily halted admissions in an effort to lower the overall census in response to limited staffing, and has since kept the patient population below regular levels.

The departments investigation into the death at the private facility, the primary inpatient psychiatric treatment facility for children and adolescents in Montana, comes roughly two years after the hospital reported that a patient died after running away from the hospital into traffic on the nearby interstate. That incident, the hospital said at the time, was traumatic for the family and staff members, leading administration at the facility to promise to improve safety protocols.

State inspectors indicated that the May incident and the hospitals response highlighted other instances of inadequate safety operations, primarily involving insufficient staffing.

Interviews with 25 staff members, the hospitals chief engineer, and a review of video footage in early June led investigators to report that the hospital is struggling with staff-to-patient ratios, extremely inconsistent orientation and training for employees, and the difficulty of routinely monitoring patients at 15-minute intervals, as outlined in the hospitals policy.

The report states that the hospital conducted a root cause analysis and submitted a plan of correction to the state health department in the months following the incident. While DPHHS said those documents were not publicly available Thursday, the states report said the hospitals analysis cited human factors contributing to the patient suicide, including staffing shortages and therapist burnout.

Shodair staff members told inspectors with the Quality Assurance Division there were not enough staff to supervise patients, maintain a safe environment and complete all required patient visual checks in real-time, the report said.

Staff expressed extreme concern for both staff and patient safety, inspectors said, adding that staff said the ratio of one staff member for eight patients during daylight hours created unsafe conditions. That ratio often decreases during nighttime shifts, the report said, sometimes reaching one staff member for 12 patients.

Staff have stated that it is impossible to safely supervise patients at this staffing level, the inspectors wrote, adding that requests to increase staff numbers were denied when brought to hospital management.

On the day of the patients death, the report said, employees on staff did not fulfill the hospitals required verbal and visual checks for residents. Inspectors documented that she was permitted to use the bathroom shower and proceeded to go 36 minutes without a verbal check from a staff member and 49 minutes without a visual check.

When staff found the patient unresponsive there, the report said, registered nurses on the unit were called for help. The patient could not be revived.

Members of Disability Rights Montana, an advocacy group that monitors Shodair and other health care facilities that work with people with disabilities, said they were gravely concerned about conditions at the hospital.

We monitor this facility and we are very troubled, said Beth Brenneman, staff attorney at DRM, pointing to the most recent report as well as previous state investigations. The primary issues in these findings were the lack of sufficient staff training and administrative follow up. In the most recent case, the insufficient staff training was about safety measures to prevent suicide. And of course, that failure had a tragic result.



Shodair, in its explanation of additional changes, said it has recently hired a new staff member to oversee orientation and on-boarding for incoming hospital staff. That person will work with another clinical educator who has been revising the processes for training new employees.

Additionally, the hospital said, each of its units will now have one mental health technician whose sole assignment will be to complete checks on all patients in their unit. Shodair said it is now also requiring staff to complete competencies on key components of its monitoring policy, including how to appropriately check on patients in bedrooms and bathrooms.

In an effort to support and retain existing staff members, Shodair said, it brought in therapeutic and spiritual services for employees to utilize as needed. The hospital also had a group available to help staff process the trauma of the suicide, in addition to a continuing employee assistance program to provide counseling resources to staff.

In recent months, behavioral health providers around the state have repeatedly told state officials that residential units and treatment programs are severely understaffed, a situation that provider advocates often attribute to low pay linked to Medicaid reimbursement rates set by the state.

Shodair currently operates residential and acute crisis units that total 74 beds. In June, the Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana told state officials that Shodair, among other facilities, was struggling to maintain its workforce and was able to staff only 30 of those beds due to worker shortages. At that time, BHAM wrote, Shodair had a waitlist of 66 children.

The hospital is currently engaged in a fundraising effort to support a $66 million expansion project to add bed capacity in an effort to tackle its waitlist, an expansion that has been planned for several years. On the web page describing its growth plan, the hospital says the additional space will include classrooms, family meeting rooms and a new pool.

The website does not say how it intends to staff the expanded facility.

As Aasved emphasized, the need to provide mental health care to children and adolescents wont go away anytime soon. Shodair, he said, will keep taking strides to meet that priority.

For 125 years, our mission has been to take care of Montana children. And weve done that quite effectively over that period of time. And we will continue to do that, Aasved said. There are barriers along the way, but thats our mission and we will stay true to our mission.
Farmers, gamekeepers and landowners are being urged to respond to a call for evidence looking at the impact of lead ammunition on the environment and wildlife.

In March, Defra announced that it had tasked the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to start a two-year review of lead ammunition.

The review is to take place under the UKs new post-Brexit chemical regulations referred to as UK REACH and will result in proposals to restrict lead ammunition for England, Wales and Scotland.

It was explained that Northern Ireland would be exempt from the review and any resulting proposals under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The government's call for evidence is the first stage in a series of reviews and consultations over the next 18 months.

Questions seek information pertaining to shooting ranges, hunting, game meat, and manufacture and supply.

It also includes home-loading, lead ammunition alternatives, the impact of the voluntary transition, the impact of lead ammunition on wildlife; and the effect of restrictions on businesses and shooters.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) said it will be closely involved with the HSEs review to ensure it 'objectively evaluates the evidence'.

The body said it was 'imperative' that restriction proposals considered the 'complex mix of socio-economics, technical factors and attitudes'.

BASCs director of England Dan Reynolds said: A key principle we must not lose sight of is that further legal restrictions must not be imposed until effective and affordable types of sustainable ammunition are available in sufficient volumes to meet demand."

The eight-week call for evidence covers England, Wales and Scotland. Farmers, landowners and gamekeepers can respond until 22 October.
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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 27, 2021) - Lendified Holdings Inc. (TSXV: LHI) (formerly, Hampton Bay Capital Inc.) (the "Company" or "Lendified") is pleased to announce its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021. The Company's interim financial statements for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 and the related management discussion and analysis can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com.

Second Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights

The Company attained positive earnings of $409,072 for the first time for the three months ended June 30, 2021 driven by reductions in operating expenses and recovery of provision for credit losses.

Operating expenses decreased by 89% to $0.35 million compared to the same quarter in the prior year; the recovery of provision for credit losses amounts to $0.47 million for the quarter.

The Company continues to streamline its operations and fund new loans with $0.62 million in loans funded in the quarter.

Appointment of CEO

Lendified is also pleased to announce the appointment of Eoghan Bergin as Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, effectively immediately. Mr. Bergin will succeed John Gillberry, who will continue as a Director and strategic consultant to the Company. Eoghan Bergin is a long-time employee of Lendified, having joined the company early in its initial growth stage nearly 5 years ago. In that time, he has served as VP of Operations, Head of Sales and Marketing and has been a key part of the development of underwriting practices and processes. With this broad and deep understanding of the company, Mr. Bergin is uniquely positioned to lead Lendified forward.

In addition, Lendified announces that John Gillberry has been appointed Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Company, succeeding Troy Wright who will continue in his role as a Director of the Company. The Board of Directors wishes to thank Mr. Gillberry for his service as Chief Executive Officer and looks forward to his continued contributions as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors.

Mr. Bergin commented, "I am excited about the opportunity that Lendified has before it. With the improved financial position, the Company is perfectly poised to take advantage of a very large and growing market, especially as the country emerges from pandemic-enforced restrictions. I'd like to thank John and the board for their support and look forward to this new chapter at Lendified."

Mr. Gillberry commented, "this has been a very successful restructuring, and now is the time to turn management over to Eoghan who has been responsible for the growth side of this business for over 5 years. Eoghan is a very strong manager with deep industry knowledge and network. I am looking forward to continuing to work and support Eoghan particularly in matters of Investor Relations and Capital Market strategies."

The Board of Directors of the Company is now comprised of Guy Charette (Chair), John Gillberry (Vice-Chair), Perry Dellelce, Peter Ostapchuk, Troy Wright and Eoghan Bergin. The Audit Committee of the Company is comprised of Peter Ostapchuk (Chair), Guy Charette and Perry Dellelce.

Option Grants

Lendified announces that it has granted an aggregate of 16,500,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company exercisable at a price of $0.05 per common share for a period of five years to certain directors, officers and consultants of the Company. This grant of options is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV").

ABOUT LENDIFIED HOLDINGS INC.

Lendified, a company located in Ontario, Canada, is a Canadian company operating a lending platform which provides working capital loans to small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.

Further Information

For further information regarding Lendified, please contact:

John Gillberry, Director and Vice-Chair

1-844-451-3594

john.gillberry@lendified.com

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan, "estimate", "expect", "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, whether the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be even more severe than it has been to date, any of which could cause results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Many risks are inherent in the industries in which the Company participates; others are more specific to the Company, there can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company's ongoing quarterly filings should be consulted for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements. Investors should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking information contained in this press release is given as of the date hereof and is based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date hereof. Management assumes no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/94725
Victoria, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 29, 2021) - Plurilock Security Inc. (TSXV: PLUR) (OTCQB: PLCKF) and related subsidiaries ("Plurilock" or the "Company"), an identity-centric cybersecurity solution provider for workforces, today announces its financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2021. All dollar figures are stated in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise indicated.

"We are very pleased to report the second quarter of 2021 saw us deliver strong year over year revenue growth, add industry leading professionals to the organization, and expand our operational presence to new markets globally," said Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. "The growth exhibited provides further validation that enterprise customers look to Plurilock for a partner that delivers simple, reliable, industry leading cybersecurity solutions to some of the world's leading organizations."

"As part of our stated strategy of acquiring assets to complement our existing authentication products, we completed our first acquisition of cybersecurity solutions provider Aurora Systems Consulting Inc.," continued Mr. Paterson. "With Aurora, we have secured a channel partner with an experienced sales force and over 140 government and commercial customers to offer our high margin software. As well, we have seen success of our sales strategy with our recent $672,000 multi-year purchase order of DEFEND continuous authentication product by a leading overseas financial institution."

Following a series of high-profile cyber attacks, discussions on cybersecurity infrastructure and investment have been top of mind for governmental and private-sector organizations. Last week, the White House administration met with leaders from several technology companies for a cybersecurity summit.1 Subsequently, big names in technology including Google and Microsoft have since announced planned multi-billion dollar investments in new industry standards, stronger security tools, and skills training to prevent and mitigate attacks.2

Second Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Highlights

Total revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, was $8,604,310 and $8,680,071 respectively ($79,512 and $182,851 over the same periods in the prior fiscal year). The increase in revenue is due to the acquisition of Aurora Systems Consulting Inc. ("Aurora") in the Solutions Division.

Hardware sales revenues accounted for 88.1% and 87.3% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively (0% for both the periods in 2020) of total revenues. Electronic software, license and maintenance sales revenues accounted for 8.6% and 9.3% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively (100% and 89.4% for the same periods in 2020) of total revenues. Professional services revenue accounted for 3.3% and 3.4% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 (0% and 10.6% for the same periods in 2020) of total revenues. Hardware sales revenue was the new revenue stream added to the Company after the acquisition of Aurora.

Hardware sales revenue was $7,581,208 for both the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively. No revenue was recorded under this category in prior year.

Electronic software license and maintenance sales revenue was $738,054 and $805,810 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to $79,512 and $163,480 over the same periods in the prior year.

Professional services sales revenue was $285,048 and $293,053 for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to nil and $19,371 over the same periods in the prior year.

Adjusted EBITDA was $(985,142) and $(2,041,539) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, compared to $(482,375) and $(1,037,749) over the same periods in the prior year.

Cash & cash equivalents on June 30, 2021, was $4,977,387 compared to $1,721,179 on December 31, 2020.

Cash used in operating activities for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 was $418,094 and $1,576,549, compared to $321,435 and $518,543 during the same periods in the prior fiscal year.

Second Quarter Fiscal 2021 Operational Highlights

On April 13, 2021, Wells Fargo Bank outstanding LOC totalling US$500,000 was repaid in full.

On April 27, 2021, Aurora's Paycheck Protection Program (" PPP ") loan obtained from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (" CARES Act ") loan including US$199,830 in principal and US$2,053.81 in interest was forgiven.

On April 27, 2021, Plurilock filed two additional U.S. provisional patent applications for new advancements in continuous authentication technology. The first application documents new techniques for utilizing behavioral biometrics in forensic analysis of insider threats, a key cyber concern for work forces. The second application covers enhancements to Plurilock's invisible authentication technology, which would broaden the situations in which it can be used while ensuring its robustness in today's multimodal and increasingly remote work environments.

On May 9, 2021, the Company filed a preliminary short form base shelf prospectus (the "Prospectus") with securities regulators in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, other than Quebec. The Prospectus, when made final and effective, will enable Plurilock to offer, issue and sell up to $50 million of common shares, warrants, subscription receipts, debt securities and units or a combination thereof from time to time, separately or together, in amounts, at prices and on terms to be determined based on market conditions at the time of the offering and as set out in an accompanying prospectus supplement, during the 25- month period that the Prospectus, when made final, remain valid.

On June 28, 2021, the Company released a new Splunk SIEM application for its DEFEND continuous authentication product.

On June 29, 2021, the Company added retired U.S. Navy vice-admiral Jan E. Tighe to its advisory board, who currently serves as an independent director on the board of Goldman Sachs.

During Q2 2021 the Company announced US$3,319,000 of new orders and contracts which included a US$1.15 million order with the U.S. Department of the Navy under National Aeronautics and Space Administration's ("NASA") Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement ("SEWP"), United States Government-Wide Acquisition Contract Vehicle ("GWAC") that was announced on May 7, 2021.

Summary of Key Financial Metrics





Table 1



To view an enhanced version of this table, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7288/94841_plurilocktable1.jpg

Non-IFRS measures

This news release presents information about EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, both of which are non-IFRS financial measures, to provide supplementary information about operating performance. Plurilock defines EBITDA as net income or loss before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Adjusted EBITDA removes non-cash share-based compensation and listing expenses from EBITDA. The Company believes that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA is a meaningful financial metric for investors as it adjusts income to reflect amounts which the Company can use to fund working capital requirements, service future interest and principal debt repayments and fund future growth initiatives. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not intended as a substitute for IFRS measures. A limitation of utilizing these non-IFRS measures is that the IFRS accounting effects of the adjustments do in fact reflect the underlying financial results of Plurilock's business and these effects should not be ignored in evaluating and analyzing Plurilock's financial results. Therefore, management believes that Plurilock's IFRS measures of net loss and the same respective non-IFRS measure should be considered together. Non-IFRS measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Readers should refer to the Company's most recently filed MD&A for a more detailed discussion of these measures and their calculation.

Quarterly Filings

Management's Discussion and Analysis and Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes thereto for the fiscal period ended June 30, 2021 can be obtained from Plurilock's corporate website at www.plurilock.com and under Plurilock's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

About Plurilock

Plurilock provides identity-centric cybersecurity for today's workforces. Plurilock offers world- class cybersecurity solutions paired with AI-driven, cloud-friendly security technologies that deliver persistent identity assurance with unmatched ease of use. The Plurilock family of companies enables organizations to operate safely and securely-while reducing cybersecurity friction.

For more information, visit https://www.plurilock.com or contact:

Ian L. Paterson

Chief Executive Officer

ian@plurilock.com

212.780.3255

Roland Sartorius

Chief Financial Officer

roland.sartorius@plurilock.com

Prit Singh

Investor Relations

prit.singh@plurilock.com

905.510.7636

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") which relate to future events or Plurilock's future business, operations, and financial performance and condition. Forward- looking statements normally contain words like "will", "intend", "anticipate", "could", "should", "may", "might", "expect", "estimate", "forecast", "plan", "potential", "project", "assume", "contemplate", "believe", "shall", "scheduled", and similar terms. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, actions, or developments and are based on expectations, assumptions and other factors that management currently believes are relevant, reasonable, and appropriate in the circumstances. Although management believes that the forward-looking statements herein are reasonable, actual results could be substantially different due to the risks and uncertainties associated with and inherent to Plurilock's business. Additional material risks and uncertainties applicable to the forward-looking statements herein include, without limitation, unforeseen events, developments, or factors causing any of the aforesaid expectations, assumptions, and other factors ultimately being inaccurate or irrelevant. Many of these factors are beyond the control of Plurilock. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as at the date hereof and Plurilock undertakes no obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/google-microsoft-plan-to-spend-billions-on-cybersecurity-after-meeting-with-biden.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/25/google-microsoft-plan-to-spend-billions-on-cybersecurity-after-meeting-with-biden.html

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/94841
Fashion remix Pan-Consumer Filed, lead you to the future lifestyle

Shanghai, China--(Newsfile Corp. - August 28, 2021) - HALO LIFE has launched their first generation of the "LIFECODEX," a fashion product with a brand-new concept. "LIFECODEX" is a large-scale product based on smart hardware that connects the consumer industry. It opens up the option of connecting future lives for fashionistas catching up with the newest trends.

Want to Learn More about LIFECODEX?

"Evolution," according to HALO LIFE, is a way to connect to the future. The DNA double helix structure inspired the design concept of LIFECODEX, which allows the exploration of the universe and biological evolutionary aesthetics, with the attitude and expectation of "no conforming to the herd, no copying, and no compromising."

Cosmic black, dimensional white, and space silver are the three basic hues of LIFECODEX. The 1 square meter display space that fills your preferred location can be turned and has a light within, allowing this new concept in fashion life to shine in high profile.

Fashion and Health, a unique crossover has never been done before. HALO LIFE and TCI Bio teamed to research and design four functional foods that can be inserted within the tube of LIFECODEX. LIFECODEXSLEEP, LIFECODEXFIT, LIFECODEXDETOX, and LIFECODEXENERGY are four separate functional foods that cover four different application scenarios. You can mix and match them as you choose, install them quickly, and enjoy them at any moment. The finished product is a spherical form with a lovely, eye-catching halo that allows you to explore the "universe" in the tube. LIFECODEX will be available for pre-order starting September 1, 2021. The pre-sale price is $499. To learn more details, you can check their official Instagram account.

About HALOLIFE: A brand with the idea of future and life. It was founded in the year 2021, with the goal of investigating a changing future lifestyle.

Contact:

Company Name: HALO LIFE

Contact Person: Tiger Wang

Email: halolife202103@163.com

Phone: 0086 13761898241

Website: https://www.halolife.art/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/94776
Data from the ETNA-AF-Europe Registry provide insights on edoxaban in clinical routine practice in subpopulations including frail patients and those with worsening renal function.

ENVISAGE-TAVI AF study results suggest that edoxaban is an appropriate treatment option for elderly AF patients with severe aortic stenosis following successful transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

Daiichi Sankyo Europe, (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo) today announced a wealth of new edoxaban data being presented at ESC Congress 2021, organised by the European Society of Cardiology. These include insights from routine clinical practice via the ETNA-AF Registry, which reaffirm the efficacy and safety profile of edoxaban seen in randomised clinical trials across a range of atrial fibrillation (AF) patient populations. In addition, results from the ENVISAGE-TAVI AF study, presented as a Hot Line session during the congress, compared the efficacy and safety of edoxaban with vitamin-K-antagonists (VKA) in patients with AF having undergone successful transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).1 Findings from the trial were simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)

The revised 2021 EHRA Practical Guide on the Use of NOACsin Patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF), which was published earlier this year (April), recommends the use of NOACs as first-line treatment of patients with AF and includes specific guidance around treating complex AF patient populations, such as those with different levels of frailty and those with renal impairment.2 The data presented today further complement the recommendations of the Practical Guide for the treatment of AF patients using NOACs.

"These new data, in addition to the recently updated EHRA Practical Guide on the use of NOACs in AF, provide long-awaited scientific evidence that the clinical community will welcome as a huge support in helping treat these complex patient populations with AF," said Prof. Hein Heidbuchel, Chair of Cardiology at Antwerp University, Belgium, and immediate Past-President of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). "It is acknowledged across the world now that NOACs are the preferred choice of treatment for patients with AF. Having additional data to help guide healthcare professionals in the specifics of anticoagulating these patient populations will bring further clarity and confidence to the clinical community."

ETNA-AF-Europe Registry: Worsening renal function (WRF) and frailty

Key ePosters presented from the ETNA-AF-Europe Registry include the evaluation of the degree of worsening renal function (WRF) in AF patients treated with edoxaban after two-years of follow-up and an investigation of clinical outcomes of patients with vs. without WRF. Results from 9,084 patients included in this subgroup analysis showed that there is a low risk of WRF in AF patients treated with edoxaban over a two-year period, with the majority of the edoxaban-treated patients not experiencing WRF (89.9%). Results also found that:3

Patients with WRF had higher mortality than those without (all-cause mortality: 3.78% vs. 1.90%; cardiovascular death: 2.06% vs. 0.92%, respectively).

Patients with WRF had numerically higher major bleeding and stroke rates vs. those without WRF.

Importantly, intracranial haemorrhage rates remained low irrespective of WRF (0.17% in those with WRF vs. 0.19% in those without).

A second key ePoster analysed effectiveness and safety outcomes in subjectively vs. objectively frail patients in the overall population. Results showed that the presence of frailty (either subjective or objective) predicts cardiovascular (CV) events in anticoagulated patients with AF and is associated with a worse prognosis of CV events.4 These results support the idea that a comprehensive assessment of frailty could improve the routine care of patients with AF and are in line with the ESC 2020 guidelines, which highlight the importance of including assessment and evaluation of frailty into the integrated management of AF.5

ENVISAGE-TAVI AF study

In addition, results from the ENVISAGE-TAVI AF study were presented as a Hot Line session during the ESC congress 2021. In this multinational, randomised, Phase 3b study, 1,426 elderly patients with multiple comorbidities were included and followed for up to three years.1,6 The study results suggest that edoxaban is an appropriate treatment option for AF patients with severe aortic stenosis following successful TAVI.1,6 To date, this is the only sufficiently large and statistically powered study that compares a non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC) with VKAs in AF patients after TAVI.1,6

"TAVI is an established treatment option for patients with severe aortic valve stenosis, including those with AF and multiple comorbidities," said George Dangas, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Director of Cardiovascular Innovation at the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "In AF patients, anticoagulation is required to prevent stroke, which can be a devastating complication following TAVI. ENVISAGE-TAVI AF shows that treatment with edoxaban can be valuable in the management of this high-risk population of AF patients after TAVI."

The study met its primary endpoint of edoxaban being noninferior to VKAs for the composite of net adverse clinical events (NACE), which included all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, ischaemic stroke, systemic thromboembolism, valve thrombosis, and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH)-defined major bleeding.1,6 NACE occurred in 170 edoxaban-treated patients (17.3% per year) and, similarly, in 157 VKA-treated patients (16.5% per year).1,6

Edoxaban also showed numerically lower rates of all-cause mortality and ischemic stroke (two of the six individual clinical events included in the composite of NACE):1,6

All-cause mortality occurred in 85 edoxaban-treated patients and 93 VKA-treated patients (7.8% versus 9.1% per year, respectively).

Ischaemic stroke occurred in 22 edoxaban-treated patients and 28 VKA-treated patients (2.1% versus 2.8% per year, respectively).

The study did not meet its primary safety endpoint of ISTH-defined major bleeding, due to more gastrointestinal (GI) bleeds in the edoxaban arm.1,6 Other major bleeding events, including intracranial haemorrhage (ICH), as well as fatal and life-threatening bleeds, were similarly rare in both the edoxaban and VKA treatment arms.1,6

Major bleeding occurred in 98 edoxaban-treated patients and 68 VKA-treated patients (9.7% vs. 7.0% per year, respectively), which included the following:1,6

Major GI bleeding occurred in 56 edoxaban-treated patients and 27 VKA-treated patients (5.4% vs. 2.7% per year, respectively).

ICH occurred in 16 edoxaban-treated patients and 21 VKA-treated patients (1.5% vs. 2.1% per year, respectively).

Fatal bleeding occurred in 11 edoxaban-treated patients and 10 VKA-treated patients (1.0% vs. 1.0% per year, respectively).

Life threatening bleeding occurred in 17 edoxaban-treated patients and 19 VKA-treated patients (1.6% vs. 1.9% per year, respectively).

"These findings present evidence that edoxaban is an appropriate treatment option in AF patients post-TAVI, who are typically elderly and frail," said Prof. Nicolas Van Mieghem, global co-lead investigator from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. "We found more major bleedings with edoxaban driven by more gastrointestinal bleedings that were well managed with no significant difference in intracranial or fatal bleedings."

ETNA-AF-Europe and the ENVISAGE TAVI-AF study are part of EDOSURE, which is an extensive clinical research programme for edoxaban consisting of more than 10 randomised controlled trials, registries and non-interventional studies in a broad range of cardiovascular conditions, patient types and clinical settings in AF and venous thromboembolism (VTE), involving over 100,000 patients worldwide.

Additional edoxaban data presented at ESC Congress 2021

ETNA-AF-Europe Age-adjusted risk factors are independently associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke, transient ischaemic stroke and systemic embolism in the ETNA-AF-Europe registry (link to data here) De Caterina R, et al. Age-adjusted risk factors are independently associated with an increased risk of major bleeding during the two-year follow-up of the ETNA-AF-Europe registry (link to data here) Kirchhof P, et al. Global ETNA-AF Temporal trend of clinical events in patients with atrial fibrillation on edoxaban therapy: Results from the noninterventional Global ETNA-AF program (link to data here) Dinshaw L, et al. Edoxaban treatment in real-world practice is highly concordant with ESC atrial fibrillation guidelines: results from the non-interventional global ETNA-AF program (link to data here) Morrone D, et al. Effectiveness and safety of edoxaban in atrial fibrillation patients from the ETNA-AF global registry (link to data here) De Caterina R, et al. ANAFIE Impact of polypharmacy on clinical outcomes in elderly patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation: sub-analysis of the ANAFIE Registry (link to data here) Yamashita T. Predictors for major bleeding in elderly (75 years and over) patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at high risk of bleeding: sub-analysis of the ANAFIE Registry (link to data here) Okumura K. Association between renal function and clinical outcomes in elderly patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation: sub-analysis of the ANAFIE Registry (link to data here) Shimizu W. Real-world clinical outcomes and anticoagulant therapy in elderly non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients with heart failure: sub-analysis of the ANAFIE Registry (link to data here) Ikeda S, Hiasa K, Tsutsui H. ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 Epistaxis in anticoagulated patients with atrial fibrillation in the ENGAGE AF-TIMI 48 trial (link to data here) Semco RS, et al.

-ENDS-

About ETNA-AF: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

About ENVISAGE-TAVI AF: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

About atrial fibrillation: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

About edoxaban: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

About the Edoxaban Clinical Research Programme, EDOSURE: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

About Daiichi Sankyo

Daiichi Sankyo is dedicated to creating new modalities and innovative medicines by leveraging our world-class science and technology for our purpose "to contribute to the enrichment of quality of life around the world." In addition to our current portfolio of medicines for cancer and cardiovascular disease, Daiichi Sankyo is primarily focused on developing novel therapies for people with cancer as well as other diseases with high unmet medical needs. With more than 100 years of scientific expertise and a presence in more than 20 countries, Daiichi Sankyo and its 16,000 employees around the world draw upon a rich legacy of innovation to realise our 2030 Vision to become an "Innovative Global Healthcare Company Contributing to the Sustainable Development of Society."

For more information, please visit www.daiichi-sankyo.eu.

Forward-looking statements: https://www.daiichi-sankyo.eu/media/edoxaban-info/

References

European Heart Rhythm Association

 Non-Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants

1 Dangas G. ENVISAGE-TAVI AF: edoxaban vs. vitamin K antagonists after TAVI in patients with atrial fibrillation. Hot Line Presentation at ESC Congress 2021, 27-30 August.

2 Steffel J, et al. 2021 European Heart Rhythm Association Practical Guide on the Use of Non-Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation. EP Europace. 2021; euab065, https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euab065

3 Gwechenberger M, et al. Low rate of worsening renal function during 2 years of treatment with edoxaban in patients from the ETNA-AF-Europe study. Poster 84715. Presented at ESC Congress 2021.

4 Diemberger I, et al. The impact of subjective vs objective frailty on the effectiveness and safety outcomes in patients from ETNA-AF-Europe registry. Poster 84668. Presented at ESC Congress 2021.

5 Hindricks G, et al. 2020 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS): The Task Force for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Developed with the special contribution of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the ESC. Eur Heart J. 2021;42:373-498.

6 Van Mieghem NM, et al. Edoxaban vs Vitamin K Antagonist for Atrial Fibrillation After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement. N Engl J Med. 2021. Available at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2111016 Last accessed August 2021.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210828005014/en/

Contacts:

Dr. Wolfgang Schiessl

Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH

Director PR and Portfolio Communications, Specialty Medicines

+49 151 1714 7317
- President of Uzbekistan attends inauguration ceremony for Nur Navoi Solar, Uzbekistan's first successfully-financed independent power producer (IPP) solar project and first utility-scale solar plant

- 100-megawatt plant has begun energization to support Uzbekistan's renewable energy targets

ABU DHABI, UAE, Aug. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company and one of the world's leading renewable energy companies, has inaugurated the Nur Navoi Solar Project - Uzbekistan's first successfully-financed independent power producer (IPP) solar project.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by His Excellency, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, HE Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade for the Republic of Uzbekistan, HE Alisher Sultanov, Minister of Energy for the Republic of Uzbekistan, and HE Saeed Matar Al-Qemzi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan. The event, held at the project site in the Navoi region, was also attended by other high-level officials from the Government of Uzbekistan and senior executives from Masdar.

His Excellency Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said, "In the next five years, we plan to increase our economy's growth rate by 1.5 times, and bring GDP to at least US $100 billion. Thousands of new industrial enterprises, both medium and large will be launched, and electricity demand is set to reach 100 billion kilowatt-hours - 30 billion more than now. Therefore, we have very big plans for new reforms and projects in the electric power industry. In the next five years, 19 projects worth US$6.5 billion will be launched to create 11,500 MW of new capacity."

HE Alisher Sultanov, Minister of Energy for the Republic of Uzbekistan, said, "Uzbekistan has been working closely with the IFC to open up the country's power sector to private investment and to help us reach our goal of 25% of energy consumption deriving from renewable sources by 2030. We have a huge variety of projects underway, and already completed. It is my great pleasure to update audiences on our progress. Uzbekistan is committed to policy goals to improve energy efficiency and increase renewable energy's share of the country's energy mix."

HE Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Chairman of Masdar, said, "Renewable energy will deliver a cleaner and more sustainable future for Uzbekistan, and enable it to contribute to global action on climate change. This project, and the other solar and wind projects Masdar is building across Uzbekistan, will also power a new phase of industrial growth, and provide rewarding careers for thousands of Uzbek people. Importantly, they demonstrate Uzbekistan's leadership in clean energy in the region. As we approach COP 26, in this crucial decade for climate, this is a vital mission, and one which the UAE is honored to support."

H.E. Suhail Al Mazrouei, the UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, said, "This event highlights the strength of the relationship between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates in the renewable energy field, along with many other sectors. This utility-scale project represents a significant step forward in Uzbekistan's energy transition, and the UAE is committed to supporting Uzbekistan on every stage of its renewable journey."

Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, said, "This is a historic occasion for Uzbekistan and a proud moment for all of us at Masdar as we take this vital step in Uzbekistan's clean-energy journey. The Nur Navoi Solar Project will play a significant role in Uzbekistan's energy transition and in achieving its climate change objectives. I look forward to continuing our highly successful collaboration with the Government of Uzbekistan, through our strong portfolio of wind and solar projects with a total capacity of around 2.5 GW in the country, a key strategic investment destination for Masdar."

The 100-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) plant, Uzbekistan's first utility-scale solar project, has begun energization, making its first contribution to Uzbekistan's renewable energy targets. Once fully operational, the plant will produce enough power for 31,000 households and displace around 150,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Masdar signed agreements in 2019 with the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) to design, finance, build, own and operate the solar plant. Masdar established Nur Navoi Solar FE LLC as the local project company to deliver the PV plant, and to operate and maintain it over a 25-year period.

Nur Navoi is the first Masdar project to begin operations in Uzbekistan, with the company having committed to a number of other solar and wind projects in the Central Asian country. In July, Masdar signed agreements to develop two PV projects in the country for a combined capacity of 440 MW. Commercial operation of the projects, which will be located in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions of Uzbekistan, is expected to start in the first quarter of 2023.

Masdar has also won the tender for another solar project in Uzbekistan, for a 457 MW photovoltaic solar power plant in the Sherabad district of the Surkhandarya province.

Masdar has also agreed to develop, build and operate a 500 MW wind farm in Zarafshan, and in April, the company signed an Implementation Agreement with the Government of Uzbekistan to extend the capacity of the project to up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW), making it the largest in Central Asia.

Under its renewable energy program, Uzbekistan aims to deploy 5 GW of solar and 3 GW of wind power capacity by 2030, as it targets meeting 25 percent of electricity needs from renewable sources by that year. This month, Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry said it was considering raising the energy targets to 7 GW for solar and 5 GW for wind power.

Hadi.hamdoun@hkstrategies.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1603836/Masdar_celebrates_landmark_project.jpg
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / August 28, 2021 / People's life and work forms have changed because of the impact of the pandemic. Long-distance office and working from home have become the trend. However, one still cannot escape the daily meeting schedules even when working from home. Office workers must attend meetings in front of their camera and make sure that their face appears in the image. In order to increase the level of participation, people are tied to the camera but once they are not paying attention, they may still get out of range from the camera. This is impolite in online meetings.

How to participate in online meetings without restraint? Prestige Patron heard the aspirations of office workers. They upgraded the first generation Webcam, added AI intelligent system to the product, and launched "AimGoalar" that can track human faces. AimGoalar has Full HD 1080p 30fps high image quality and a camera angle that can be rotated 40 degrees vertically and 120 degrees horizontally. The AI intelligent system will track and rotate with the user's face to ensure that the user is always within the camera range.

It's easy to connect the device of Prestige Patron's. Just plug one USB into the machine and the other into the computer. In addition, AimGoalar supports a variety of video conferencing software such as GoToMeeting, Line, Zoom and Teams. It also supports OBS, Facebook Live and Google Live webcasting tools. Be it helping office workers participate in online meetings, or assisting teachers to teach remotely via live lectures, it is all very convenient.

When office workers attend online meetings at home, they usually have to read materials and report at the same time. They may also need to leave their position and do some body movements to explain their report. Some teachers are used to using blackboard in class, and even use physical props to assist teaching. If Webcam does not have a face tracking system, then office workers and teachers will easily got out of the camera range during the process, causing embarrassing situations and scenes.

Aldrich, business manager of Prestige Patron, said that traditional Webcams have insufficient field of view, especially the built-in cameras of laptops. It can't track the user's scope of action. If a user wants to make sure that he appears in the image, he must not leave his position in front of the computer screen. This is a sad story of humans being limited by technological products. AimGoalar broke through the limitations of traditional cameras. We hope to use our Smart Webcam to accompany users in welcoming the new era of long-distance work.

About Prestige Patron

Prestige Patron comes from Australia. Founded in 2005, they were the first to engage in the foundry of 3C peripheral products such as mouse, keyboards and speakers. By 2005, Prestige Patron has expanded its business, having launched its own manufactured brand and is committed to extending its product line. It began to launch Webcam series products at the end of 2019.

Contacts:

Company Name: Prestige Patron

Contact person: Aldrich Johnson

Email: service@prestigepatron.com

SOURCE: Prestige Patron

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/661835/Prestige-Patron-Launched-Smart-Webcam-AimGoalar-To-help-Users-Work-From-Home
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Back in 2016, Google rolled out Play Store support for Chromebook, allowing users to install Android apps. Microsoft was one such company that offered Office Android app on Chromebooks. Now, the company is all set to end support for it next month.

Starting September 2021, Chromebook users will not able to install Microsoft Office Android app, but instead, they will be access Office on the web. On September 18, 2021, Microsoft apps that include Office and Outlook will be transitioned to web experiences, said the company.

Microsoft Office Android apps continue to exist on the Play Store, but Chromebook users will be able to use only the Web version starting September 18, 2021.

Confirming this news, a Google spokesperson said:

In an effort to provide the most optimized experience for Chrome OS/Chromebook customers, Microsoft apps (Office and Outlook) will be transitioned to web experiences (Office.com and ) on September 18, 2021. This transition brings Chrome OS/Chromebook customers access to additional and premium features. Customers will need to sign in with their personal Microsoft Account or account associated with their Microsoft 365 subscription. More information is available here.

Via
Microsoft introduced Windows 11 back in June, and also released the Insider Preview a week later. At that time, it said that Windows 11 requires your device to be running on Intel 8th generation or AMD Zen 2 processors and later. It even released a PC Health Check app, but it was removed later. Today it has officially confirmed that after testing for few months, it said that it will maintain the minimum system requirements as originally set.

Windows 11 will work only with compatible 64-bit processors selected, at least 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage, UEFI secure boot, graphics requirements and TPM 2.0. These minimum system requirements will deliver on the principles we established to the best support you, said the company.

It has expanded the list of compatible 64-bit processors to include the following:

Intel Core X-series, Xeon W-series

Intel Core 7820HQ (only select devices that shipped with modern drivers based on Declarative, Componentized, Hardware Support Apps (DCH) design principles, including Surface Studio 2)

It didnt include any new AMD processors to the supported CPU list. Microsoft will update the PC Health Check app to identify the correct systems with the newly added Intel CPUs in the coming weeks before the tool is released for general availability.

It has released an updated preview version of the PC Health Check app to Windows Insiders that now shows improved messaging on eligibility and links to relevant support articles that include potential remediation steps. This will be released to everyone in the coming weeks.

It also releases new versions that support 64-bit Windows, 32-bit Windows, Windows on Arm and Windows 10 in S mode PCs to Windows Insiders.

It once again confirmed that those who are using a PC that wont upgrade, and who arent ready to transition to a new device can use Windows 10 which will be supported through October 14, 2025.

Unsupported systems can run Windows 11 with an ISO

According to a report from The Verge, Microsoft has confirmed that it wont block people from installing Windows 11 on older PCs that doesnt meet their minimum requirements. Even though these older PCs wont support Windows 11 through official Windows Update, they can still download an ISO file of Windows 11 and install it manually. You just need a 64-bit 1GHz processor with two or more cores, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage to install Windows 11.

Microsoft said that in its testing, devices that didnt meet minimum hardware requirements had 52% more kernel mode crashes. and devices that meet the official minimum specs had a 99.8% crash free experience.

Source 1, 2
These students from Tokay Elementary School in Fontana are pictured at a Reading Rally which was held by the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools in 2019.
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA)  A federal jury Friday found a Mobile doctor guilty of writing illegal prescriptions for painkillers.

The jury found Dr. Chykeetra Che Che Maltbia guilty of 15 counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Prosecutors alleged that Dr. Maltbia wrote oxycodone prescriptions without a legitimate medical reason and outside the usual course of professional practice.

Defense attorney Dennis Knizley told FOX10 News his client would appeal.

Extremely disappointed, he said. I respect the jurys decision.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Beaverstock on Thursday threw out two of the criminal counts against Maltbia and earlier had dismissed health care fraud counts. Knizley said that would impact calculation of advisory guidelines that will play a role in sentencing. But he added that he not sure what the recommendation will be.

Some factors, we dont know yet.  I think it will probably be in the 50-to-70-month range, he said.

Maltbias father, Leroy Ray Dotson, left the courthouse on Thursday a free man after the judge ruled prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence to send any of the charges to the jury.

It was a great relief to Mr. Dotson, defense lawyer Andrew Jones told FOX10 News on Friday. Mr. Dotson was very elated, and he can move on with his life.
MOBILE, Ala. --Retired Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Muskett served 38 years in the Army. Some of that time was spent in Afghanistan, training the elite Afghan Special Forces.

He told me how tough it is to watch the events unfolding in Kabul, and the rest of the country.

Colonel Muskett believes the exit strategy and execution was very flawed. But now, with the country under Taliban control, and other terrorist groups killing U.S. forces, he believes there's more trouble ahead. That's because even though the Taliban, and Isis-K are sworn enemies, Colonel Muskett says they both have one thing in common: to get rid of Americans.

Colonel Muskett also said he was very surprised by the perceived lack of planning by military and civilian leaders as far as the "end game" in Afghanistan is concerned, calling it a "mess."

Muskett believes it was a right decision to pull out of the country after years of war with terrorists, but the United States should have left a "bigger footprint" when it comes to keeping troops in country. Colonel Muskett told me by not doing that, "..we've given up so much."
Strong International Appetite For 25th Edition of Beautyworld Middle East

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Dubai, UAE: With travel restrictions easing around the world, international beauty companies from more than 50 countries, comprising 15 national pavilions, will reconnect at the 25th Beautyworld Middle East  the regions largest international trade fair for the beauty industryseeking to strengthen their foothold in, or gain a share of, an important and growing market.

Organised by Messe Frankfurt Middle East, Beautyworld Middle East will run from 5-7 October at Dubai World Trade Centre and assumes even greater significance as the first major in-person international beauty event of 2021.

A diverse mix of industry exhibitors will use the three-day platform to demonstrate new-to-market products and solutions, reconnect with partners and explore new opportunities in an expanding regional market, with latest Goldstein Market Intelligence report forecasting a 20% growth for premium cosmetics in the UAE alone by 2030.

The landmark 25th edition will, for the first time, include participation of exhibitors from Azerbaijan, Ghana, Hungary, Philippines, Serbia, and Syria, reinforcing Beautyworld Middle Easts status as a strategic gateway for the global industry.



"It is evident that there remains strong international appetite for the UAE market and Beautyworld Middle East is the bridge that connects manufacturers and prospective buyers and brands," said Elaine OConnell, Show Director for Beautyworld Middle East.

"The three-day event will provide the perfect platform for international and regional industry players to meet, in-person, for the first time since the pandemic. We are looking forward to three days of dialogue, networking and deal making."



The show will host high-level international governmental agencies and trade delegations across 15 country pavilions. Among them is France. An event stalwart, this years French pavilion will host 71 French companies, including 55 first-time participants.



Caroline Escudier, Project Manager of Business France

Caroline Escudier, Project Manager of Business France, the official organizers of the French pavilion, said, "Why Dubai? The answer is simple: the accessibility here is like no other, we have an opportunity to meet with a global audience we cannot reach from only France.

"As a governmental agency we have been organising the French pavilion at Beautyworld Middle East for 25 years now, and while in a different region, the show has had an impact on the French market. It is essential for us to be present."



Featuring exciting perfume innovations such as Dapy Paris new automatic perfume dispenser, the French pavilion will host a number of household brands such as Parfums Plus  exhibiting a new style of fragrances in partnership with Parisian and Grassois perfumers.

Brazilian exhibitors will also be out in full force with haircare focused brands covering a selection of products such as hair treatments, oils, hair dye, and styling tools. The anticipated line-up includes Maxibrasil, Macpaul, Kur Cosmeticos, Macpaul Cosmeticos, and Agilise Cosmeticos.



Mr. Caio Lopes, Export Director at Agilise, said "Agilise has established a number of business partnerships with companies from the Middle East. The quality of our products, the appeal of Brazilian assets and our company policies  which reinforce a relationship-driven culture  resonate with customers in the Middle East and has led to success for ourselves and our partners."



Dapy Paris - automatic perfume dispanser



The international exhibitor line-up at the 25th edition of Beautyworld Middle East is spread across seven distinct product segments: Cosmetics & Skincare; Hair, Nails & Salon Supplies; Machinery, Packaging & Raw Materials; Fragrance Compounds & Finished Fragrance; Personal Care & Hygiene; Natural & Organic; and Beauty

Technology, a brand-new segment.

Beautyworld Middle East 2021 will take place amid stringent health and safety measures in accordance with official government, local authority guidelines, and the Dubai World Trade Centre venue. Visitors can also gain access to the shows new hybrid event platform where they can experience AI-powered matchmaking, connect with exhibitors in-person or virtually, discover unmissable products and content, and bookmark sessions they want to attend.

More information is available at www.beautyworldme.com

Background information on Messe Frankfurt



The Messe Frankfurt Group is the worlds largest trade fair, congress and event organiser with its own exhibition grounds. The Group employs approximately 2,450 people at its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and in 29 subsidiaries around the world. The company generated annual sales of approximately 257 million in 2020 after having recorded sales of 736 million the previous year. Even in difficult times caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we are globally networked with our industry sectors. We have close ties with our industry sectors and serve our customers business interests efficiently within the framework of our Fairs & Events, Locations and Services business fields. One of the Groups key USPs is its closely knit global sales network, which extends throughout the world. Our comprehensive range of services  both onsite and online  ensures that customers worldwide enjoy consistently high quality and flexibility when planning, organising and running their events. We are expanding our digital expertise with new business models. The wide range of services includes renting exhibition grounds, trade fair construction and marketing, personnel and food services. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, the company is owned by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and the State of Hesse (40 percent).



For more information, please visit their website at: www.messefrankfurt.com

About Messe Frankfurt Middle East



Messe Frankfurt Middle Easts portfolio of 16 exhibitions includes Automechanika Dubai, Automechanika Riyadh, Beautyworld Middle East, Beautyworld Saudi Arabia, Hardware + Tools Middle East, Hypermotion Dubai, Intersec, Intersec Saudi Arabia, Gifts & Lifestyle Middle East, Light Middle East, Materials Handling Middle East, Materials Handling Saudi Arabia, Middle East Cleaning Technology Week, Paperworld Middle East, Prolight + Sound Middle East, and SPS Automation Middle East. The subsidiary also organises a series of conferences and seminars including Digital Next, Think Light, and the International Conference on Future Mobility. For more information, please visit their website at www.messefrankfurtme.com

Source: Messe Frankfurt press release
Yes! Ive really missed regular library visits during the pandemic.

Im excited, but I dont think Im ready to make a full return to the library just yet.

Ive shifted to using the libraries virtual and curbside services, and itll probably stay that way.

I dont use the local library.

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Military personnel walk by Belgian military planes, used as part of an evacuation from Afghanistan, upon arrival at Melsbroek Military Airport in Melsbroek, Belgium, on Friday.




[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

Friday, 27th August 2021  Team17 and OverBorder Studio have today announced that punishing action-RPG Thymesia launches on PC on 7th December. Set in a once thriving kingdom now fallen to chaos, only the mysterious plague-masked Corvus  a half human, half raven hybrid  can unlock scattered memories and unravel the mysteries that lurk among the plague infected shadows. Charged with the possession of a pair of ravening weapons that can seize the plague from enemies and harness the abilities for himself, Thymesias shadowy protagonist is a ferocious adversary for the monsters that lurk in the gloom, combining acquired plague powers with perfectly timed parries and dynamic dodges to smite them.

Wield your enemies power against them later this year. Thymesia Key Features: Weaponising diseases: As Corvus, players can seize diseases from enemies and wield them as deadly weapons

Engaging combat: Players will need to use their entire arsenal to avoid death; dodging attacks and parrying at precisely the right time will be instrumental to survival

A dark and deadly world: With a sinister and gloomy backdrop, Thymesia oozes character through its environments and setting

Unforgiving enemies: Corrupted by the plague, and mutated into monsters, the enemies are twisted and incredibly hostile, challenging players at every turn

Replayability: The ability to customise Corvus and try different builds, coupled with the multiple different endings available, means no two playthroughs are ever the same. Press interviews over email and video with OverBorder Studio are available to book now; please email [email protected] to secure your slot.

Thymesia is currently available to Wishlist on Steam. To keep up to date with all the information on Thymesia please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and join us on Discord.

For more information please contact:



Jon Wilcox  Senior PR Manager  Team17

[email protected] Rebecca Nicol  Junior PR & Events Manager  Team17

[email protected]

About OverBorder Studio Made up of a group of seven gaming enthusiasts with game development experience from various studios, and located in Taiwan, OverBorder Studio is currently working on their combat-focused debut title Thymesia.

About Team17 Group plc Founded in 1990, Team17 Group plc is a leading developer, video games label, and creative partner for developers around the world. Floated on AIM in 2018, Team17, with its extensive portfolio of over 100 titles, embodies the spirit of independent games. In addition to the award-winning Overcooked!, Yokus Island Express, and the iconic Worms, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020, Team17 has helped bring critically acclaimed titles including Hell Let Loose, Moving Out, Golf With Your Friends, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, Blasphemous, and The Escapists to gamers everywhere. Visit www.team17.com for more info.
A Lebanon man has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for robbery.

Brennen Sean Scott, 28, was convicted of one count of second-degree robbery in Linn County Circuit Court Tuesday morning. Judge Brendan Kane sentenced Scott to almost six years in prison following the defendants no contest plea submitted Friday.

Scott was originally charged with first-degree robbery on July 22 following an incident on July 18 that involved trying to steal $1,000 in Magic: The Gathering cards in Albany.

The Albany Police Department investigated the case. The incident reportedly occurred in the 1700 block of Hill Street Southeast.

Another man, 28-year-old Tyler Stephen Griffin, was charged with first-degree robbery for the same incident. According to a probable cause affidavit in Griffins case, the victim said he had been messaging Griffin that day about purchasing the collectible cards. According to the seller, Griffin said he needed to ask his wife about buying the cards. The seller thought this was strange since the price had already been agreed upon.
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Joslin said his uncle was one of the four people who inspired him to become a firefighter himself.

I've learned from Chester that paid service is good, he said. You get a job. But if it were not for the volunteer firefighters, the fire service would be a bust. Chester was there every time.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald.

LFD gave Wilkerson a Portland Spirit River Cruises gift card and a plaque as a thank-you for his five decade career. Wilkerson and his wife Cheryl were surrounded by family and friends as they accepted the gifts and thank-yous.

Chief John Tacy described Wilkerson as the dictionary definition of dedication and sacrifice.

Throughout the years, you've helped me out and some other young firefighters in here hoping to become full time members, Tacy said. You kept us in check and you kept us humble.

The firefighters performed a bell ceremony for Wilkerson, the traditional way to honor a firefighter for their last shift. A firefighters life is closely associated with the ringing of a bell, as that sound starts a shift, signifies an alarm and ends a shift.

Over 30 firefighters formed two lines on either side of the bell as Wilkerson walked down the middle in silence. The bell was rang three times followed by a pause, three more times followed by a pause and three more times in tribute to his service to the district. The firefighters saluted Wilkerson as he walked back down the line and one last thank-you was announced over the intercom for all to hear.

Joanna Mann covers education for Mid-Valley Media. She can be contacted at 541-812-6076 or Joanna.Mann@lee.net. Follow her on Twitter via @joanna_mann_.

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Robyn Tanguay, a toxicologist and professor at Oregon State University, will study the biological impacts of chemicals, thanks to an eight-year $7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Most grants the institute gives out are for five years or under, but Tanguay received the longest award amount possible. Its only given to scientists who have an impressive enough track record to show their longstanding contribution to science.

The study, which Tanguay will conduct with about ten other researchers, could potentially lead to an end in chemical testing on animals. Lisa Truong, deputy director of Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory and assistant professor at OSU, has also been instrumental in getting the project operationalized.

Tanguay plans to use zebrafish as her test subjects because they are vertebrates that grow from a tiny egg to a recognizable fish in 24 hours. This speeds up the process for scientists to observe the biological effects of chemicals at various stages of development, as 84% of chemicals affect humans and zebrafish in similar ways.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassin was granted parole Friday after two of RFK's sons spoke in favor of Sirhan Sirhan's release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.

The decision was a major victory for the 77-year-old prisoner, though it does not assure his release.

The ruling by the two-person panel at Sirhan's 16th parole hearing will be reviewed over the next 90 days by the California Parole Board's staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it.

Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said he was moved to tears by Sirhan's remorse and he should be released if he's not a threat to others.

"I'm overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face," he said. "I think I've lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love."

The New York senator and brother of President John F. Kennedy was a Democratic presidential candidate when he was gunned down June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary.
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Significant Second Quarter Gains Lay Foundation for Long-term Success

BOCA RATON, Fla, Aug. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spectrum Global Solutions Inc. (the Company or Spectrum) (OTCQB: SGSI), today reported second quarter earnings. Auditors advised the Company they deemed High Wire Networks, Inc. the acquiring entity in the merger previously announced. As a result, the financial statements reflect High Wires full Q2 and SGSIs last two weeks of the quarter.

Highlights from Q2 2021:

Shareholder net equity, including Series D preferred stock, increased to $11.174M, versus $1M for the same period ending June 30, 2020

$10.8M pro forma revenue

$1.161M pro forma net income

High Wire's industry leading Overwatch Managed Cybersecurity marketplace showed tremendous growth in every key metric

Outlook:

The sales and marketing organization has been consolidated and expanded, and growth is expected to continue

Operations have been streamlined across operating units, lowering overall costs and increasing operational efficiencies

Revenue and EBITDA trends expected to continue in positive direction, building off Q2

Cost trends in historical SGSI businesses continue to trend downward

Company liquidity is expected to continue through remainder of the year and result in cash flow improvements

Previously announced Secure Voice Corp. transaction expected to close before end of Q3

"We are very excited with the improvements made during the Second Quarter. Our team continues to do the little things that build on themselves to make big things happen, said Mark Porter, High Wire President and CEO. We are laser-focused on building a foundation for long term, sequential success through lasting partners relationships, profitable recurring revenue in high growth sectors, and by putting the absolute best players on the field at all times. As we continue to get better, we will be able to accelerate our growth and go faster."

Q-2 2021 As Reported Spectrum for period prior to reverse acquisitions With effect of Spectrum for entire quarter Revenue $ 7,794,068 $ 3,029,879 $ 10,823,947 Net income (loss) $ (1,591,590 ) $ 2,752,779 $ 1,161,189 Balance Sheet Data 30-Jun-21 31-Dec-20 Cash and restricted cash (a) $ 4,195,227 $ 436,448 Total current assets 11,787,222 3,185,127 Total assets 38,295,925 8,978,444 Total liabilities 27,120,986 5,195,894 Total equity and mezzanine equity $ 11,174,939 $ 3,782,550

(a) On June 30, 2021, the Company had $2 million of restricted cash per the terms of a CARES Act Loan. On July 26, 2021, the cash was no longer restricted, and was released into the Company's operating account.

About Spectrum Global Solutions

Spectrum Global Solutions Inc. operates through its subsidiaries ADEX Corp., Tropical Communications Inc. and AW Solutions Puerto Rico LLC. The Company is a leading provider of telecommunications engineering and infrastructure services across the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Caribbean. For more information about the Company and its technologies visit the Companys public filings at www.SEC.gov or the Companys website at https://SpectrumGlobalSolutions.com

About High Wire Networks

For 20 years, High Wire Networks has been a trusted partner to VARs, MSPs, distributors, integrators, manufacturers, and telecom providers by enabling them to minimize overhead while extending delivery capabilities around the world. Our flexible workforce delivers vendor-agnostic technical field, professional and security services in more than 180 countries. Our services include design, installation, configuration, and support for unified communications, wired and wireless networks, cabling and infrastructure, and electrical systems. Our Overwatch Managed Security Platform-as-a-Service enables our partners to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity thats easy to sell and easy to buy for an affordable subscription. We also offer a variety of on-demand, rapid-response solutions with service levels ranging from two hours to the next business day for onsite break-fix and remote technical support. With High Wire Networks, partners Get Work Done. Learn more at http://www.highwirenetworks.com/

Forward-Looking Statements:

The above news release contains forward-looking statements. The statements contained in this document that are not statements of historical fact, including but not limited to, statements identified by the use of terms such as anticipate, appear, believe, could, estimate, expect, hope, indicate, intend, likely, may, might, plan, potential, project, seek, should, will, would, and other variations or negative expressions of these terms, including statements related to expected market trends and the Companys performance, are all forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on assumptions that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, and include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performances and are subject to a wide range of external factors, uncertainties, business risks, and other risks identified in filings made by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in the companys expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any statement is based except as required by applicable law and regulations.

Investor Relations

Spectrum Global Solutions

http://www.SpectrumGlobalSolutions.com/

561-672-7068

Media Relations

Susanna Song

Vice President of Communications

susanna.song@highwirenetworks.com
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ESSEX, Ontario, Aug. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Labour Congress cross-Canada tour visited Essex today, with Larry Rousseau canvassing for New Democrat candidate Tracey Ramsey.



The pandemic hit this labour market worse than anywhere in Ontario and unemployment remains very high. And to make matters worse, working families faced a double-whammy of being thrown out of work just when the cost of living and housing prices were soaring, said Rousseau, Canadian Labour Congress Executive Vice-President. Canadas unions are standing up in support of candidates like Tracey Ramsey because she is someone who always stands up for workers and their families.

Canadian Labour Congress representatives are travelling the country in support of candidates who are putting workers at the centre of their recovery plan.

People are worried about the high cost of housing and the rising costs of just about everything else. Worried about being left behind in the pandemic recovery. Women in this region saw their unemployment rate triple, and too many were forced out of the labour market altogether, added Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske. Canadas unions are demanding all parties have a plan for replacing lost jobs with better ones and investing in disaster-proofing our social safety net, so that things like housing, childcare and prescription drugs are available and affordable for all.

Over the next four weeks, Bruske and the CLC will be engaging voters and campaigning for candidates who have a recovery plan that includes creating good jobs with benefits, fair wages and a path to unionization; strengthening public health care through universal pharmacare; bolstering Canadas social safety net through investing in affordable housing and childcare; and tackling climate change in a way that leaves no workers behind.

Learn more about how Canadas union are helping to shape the recovery at canadianplan.ca.

To arrange an interview, please contact:

CLC Media Relations

media@clcctc.ca

613-355-1962
Gloucester, MA (01930)

Today

Windy with periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low around 60F. NE winds at 10 to 20 mph, increasing to 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected..

Tonight

Windy with periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low around 60F. NE winds at 10 to 20 mph, increasing to 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Localized flooding is expected.
Gloucester, MA (01930)

Today

A wind driven heavy rain. Low near 60F. Winds NE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected..

Tonight

A wind driven heavy rain. Low near 60F. Winds NE at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 3 to 5 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected.
TOPEKA [mdash] Ervin H. Fry, 82, Topeka, died at 12:10 p.m., Monday, Aug. 30, at his residence after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born on April 2, 1939, in Yoder, Kansas, to Harvey and Elizabeth (Miller) Fry. On Dec. 13, 1962, in Topeka, he married Barbara Ellen Frey. She survives
Governor Northam Congratulates Offshore Wind Conference Participants, Domestic and International Partners

Virginia positions itself to become a national leader in the offshore wind industry

RICHMONDGovernor Ralph Northam congratulates the Business Network for Offshore Wind and participants at its International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum, a three-day global conference held in Virginias capital city with more than 1,300 attendees. The conference marked the culmination of months-long efforts between the Commonwealth and many international and domestic partners across the public and private sectors to position Virginia as a national leader in the offshore wind industry. Over 620 companies from the U.S. and overseas were represented at the conference.

This was a landmark week for Virginia, and I am appreciative of the Business Network for Offshore Wind and all those who took part in the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum, said Governor Northam. Virginia is all in for offshore wind, and partners around the globe have recognized our commitment, including Avangrid Renewables, the Basque Country, and Dominion Energy. We are so excited for the future of the offshore wind industry in Virginia.

This week, Governor Northam also announced that the Port of Virginia had reached an agreement to lease a portion of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to Dominion Energy. This accelerates the largest commercial clean energy offshore wind development in the United States. Dominion Energy will use 72 acres of the deep-water, multi-use marine cargo Portsmouth Marine Terminal as a staging and pre-assembly area for the construction of a 2,600-megawatt offshore wind farm. The Virginia wind project will produce enough megawatts of clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 homes.

The Business Network for Offshore Wind hosts the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum annually. The Network is a nonprofit, educational organization. Its mission is to develop the offshore wind renewable energy industry, and its accompanying supply chain. The Network partners with industry leaders and governments at all levels to create jobs and provide benefits to local economies while ensuring a cost-effective, clean energy portfolio. The International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum early attendees also received the opportunity to tour Coastal Virginias Offshore Wind farm and see the United States largest maritime industrial base in Norfolk.

Virginias vision for offshore wind began in the early 2000s when the Commonwealth secured an offshore wind lease area. Two six-megawatt Siemens Gamesa wind turbines were installed in 2020 by Dominion Energy and rstedthe first offshore wind project located in federal waters and the first research turbines installed in the United States.

The Notice of Intent for Dominion Energys Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind commercial project and Avangrid Renewables Kitty Hawk Offshore project were issued last month, marking the first major milestone in the federal permitting process for these large-scale commercial wind projects. Kitty Hawk has the potential to provide Virginia with 2,500-megawatts of clean energy. The construction of the first 800-megawatt stage is scheduled to begin in 2024. It is expected that this will create 800 jobs regionally and have a $2 billion impact from 2021 to 2030. The power from the Kitty Hawk project will come ashore in Virginia to then be transported throughout the regional distribution network.

Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia entered into the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Transformative Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Resources in October 2020. The three states pledged their cooperation on the promotion, development, and expansion of offshore wind energy.

During the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum this year, Secretary of Commerce & Trade Brian Ball signed a memorandum of understanding with Minister of Economic Development for the Basque Country of Spain, Arantxa Tapia, which formally recognized the common interests in the development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage technologies. Iberdrola, located in Basque Country, is the majority shareholder of Avangrid Renewables, the company that has secured the lease to the Kitty Hawk Offshore wind lease area. Innovative partnerships like these demonstrate the Commonwealths commitment to collaboration with governmental and private partners in the offshore wind industry.

Virginias comprehensive infrastructure systems, forward-looking energy policies, and commitment to industry-wide collaboration have brought the Commonwealth front and center when it comes to offshore wind in this country, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. It is has been a pleasure to work with so many great partners in this space, and we look forward to continuing that work for the foreseeable future.

Virginia is a frontrunner in the development of U.S. offshore wind power, said The Business Network for Offshore Wind CEO and President Liz Burdock. The use of Portsmouth Marine Terminal demonstrates the Commonwealths ongoing commitment to developing a robust offshore wind industry and supporting local and regional business development. Offshore wind continues to prove it is a resilient, fiscally dependable, and solution-providing industry that will benefit Virginias economy, spur innovation, and provide opportunities for businesses of all sizes, particularly minority and women-owned businesses.

Virginias ports have the existing infrastructure, deep channel routes, and freedom from overhead air draft that will allow national offshore wind assembly and its manufacturing supply chain hub to flourish. With increased support from the federal level and the Virginia General Assembly, the offshore wind industry is poised to grow exponentially. The Commonwealth has, and will continue to, act decisively to take advantage of this support.

# # #
Starting with the Italian Grand Prix in two weeks Formula 1 will slowly make its exit from Europe. One last race in Russia and then all races in Europe are finished. A new challenge is coming up because there is a lot of travelling to do and the corona pandemic is still raging around. Therefore it was already known that we will not go to Australia and Japan.

The replacement for one of those races is said to be Qatar, on the MotoGP circuit. Stefano Domenicali explains that they are indeed in talks with the Middle East circuit. "Yes, that's right, there have been talks about Qatar. I can't confirm or deny anything at the moment because that wouldn't be nice from my side," said the F1 CEO according to The Independent.

23 races can be forgotten

"We have to find a solution for the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix and we will reveal the calendar soon, hopefully before the end of this weekend". Furthermore, Domenicali also revealed that the Mexican and Brazilian Grand Prix will still go ahead, despite being on the UK's red list. It is expected that they will both be moved by a week so that it forms a triple-header together with Qatar. That will then be from November 7 to November 21.

"Realistically we now have the target at 22 races and that would be a great success as we have never driven that many in a year ever and we must not forget that we are still with COVID," Domenicali concluded.
Summer may be coming to an end, but our risk for heat related illness is still very real. I 
Greene County historian Tim Massey is an award-winning writer for Civil War News with more than 40 photos featured on various magazine covers. He has served on various boards and held positions in several historic organizations. He can be reached at horses319@comcast.net.
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Cardi B is stepping back into the fashion ring with fresh clothing and footwear in collaboration with Reebok. The rappers new capsule, Let Me BeIn My World, launches August 27th and delivers street-ready sneakers and athleisure-style pieces inspired by the vibe and hustle of Cardis hometown of New York City.

With inclusive clothing sizes from 2XS to 4X and sneakers in both kids and womens sizes, the new capsule will be available for purchase on Reeboks website.

Courtesy Reebok

Buy: Reebok x Cardi B Collection at Reebok

Following the success of the Summertime Fine Collection, Cardis debut clothing line with Reebok, Let Me BeIn My World brings fans more of Cardis signature look: dramatic proportions, bold details, and flattering fits for people of all shapes and sizes. Offerings include pink and red tracksuits, leggings and Cardi B Classic Leather sneakers. The latter sees Cardi overhaul Reeboks iconic trainer with a bulkier silhouette and muted, monochromatic colorways

Reebok notes that Cardi was heavily involved in the process behind Let Me BeIn My World, bringing her love for New York City and her one-of-a-kind sense of style to the design room. I was so happy to see the love for my first Reebok apparel collection so Im really excited to introduce this one, says Cardi, in a press release. This NYC-inspired collection features some of my favorite pieces to wear  from corsets to tracksuits to fly kicks, all inspired by my time and love of New York.

Courtesy Reebok

Buy: Reebok x Cardi B Collection at Reebok

In addition to the previous apparel collection, Cardi has launched a handful of sneakers in collaboration with Reebok including three renditions of the Club C. Despite some controversy, Cardis Reebok sneakers all sold out quickly and are now available through re-seller sites like StockX here.

Although shes been spending time in the fashion world, Cardis music is still making headlines. The rapper was recently featured in labelmate Lizzos music video for Rumors  Lizzos first official single since 2019.
DHAKA,Bangladesh (AP)  At least 22 people died when a Bangladeshi passenger boat sank with more than 100 aboard, and the driver of a cargo vessel suspected of colliding with the boat was arrested, officials said Saturday.

The boat sank Friday evening in a large body of water in the eastern district of Brahmanbari, 82 kilometers (51 miles) east of the capital, Dhaka.

No passengers were believed missing after nearly 24 hours of search efforts, said Emon Sarker, a duty officer with the districts fire service and civil defense, who also provided the final death toll. That's after initial reports said around 50 passengers were missing, citing local officials and media.

Maybe many swam to safety. There was no passenger list. It happens here. Today, nobody came to us looking for any missing people, Sarker said by phone.

Bangladesh is a delta nation where water transport is heavily used to move people and goods. But deadly accidents are common due to unskilled operation and poor enforcement of safety rules. The country is crisscrossed by 230 rivers, and during the monsoon season some low-lying areas fill with water and are also used by boats.

Sarker said the sunken boat was still submerged and would be brought to shore Sunday.

The cargo boat's driver and two assistants were caught by locals in the Bijoynagar area and turned over to the authorities, said Anisur Rahman, district police superintendent.

Local police official Imranul Islam initially provided the figure of 21 dead, speaking by phone late Friday. Survivors said about 100 people were aboard. Local news reports, quoting the areas top government administrator, Hayat-Ud-Dola, said about 50 people were missing.

A witness said two cargo vessels hit the boat, which sank quickly, Dhaka-based The Daily Star newspaper reported.

I was grazing cattle on the bank. I heard a loud noise and saw the cargo vessels hitting the passenger trawler. I saw the trawler sinking quickly, witness Nurul Amin told the paper.
The three Connecticut residents had to weigh the danger of one of them  a former interpreter for Americans in Afghanistan  leaving that country with his family after the Taliban had taken control.

The former interpreter, Atifullah, had been living in Connecticut on a Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, but returned to his native Afghanistan because he wanted to bring his wife and children here, according to Matt Schmidt, associate professor at the University of New Haven and former instructor of strategic and operational planning at the Armys Command and General Staff College.

Then Atifullah needed help. Hearst Connecticut Media is using just his first name for safety reasons.

About 900 Americans were stuck in Afghanistan, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday. He said Saturday that number was about 350 Americans. An attack outside the airport in Kabul Thursday killed 13 Americans and at least 170 Afghans.

Schmidt learned of what was occurring because he and Mike Kuszpa are on the same listserv in New Haven. Atifullah is Kuszpas former interpreter in Afghanistan. The issue was whether Atifullahs papers were in order: Schmidt said that if Atifullah made it through the checkpoints at Hamid Karzai International Airport, but was then turned away, he likely would not make it back.

Schmidt, turning to a former student who now works in the State Department, said he was able to help the government link Atifullah and some of his key records  a passport and a green card. He, Kuszpa and Atifullah spoke, weighing the danger. They initially decided against it; then Atifullah ventured out for the uncertain journey.

Atifullah made into the custody of U.S. soldiers last Wednesday.

We knew he was safe at this point, said Schmidt. I was in tears.

After traveling, Atifullah is now in Washington, D.C., hoping to return to New Haven, Schmidt said.

Blumenthal said the Afghans who are trying to flee Afghanistan include special forces who raided the Taliban. The Taliban know who they are and they have targets on their backs.

My office is working night and day on behalf of Connecticut residents who came here maybe years ago and went back maybe for a wedding or a funeral or some family event.  There are Connecticut residents who have tried to escape across borders. Frankly, were unsure at this point where they are and whether theyve made it.

The crisis has called for resettlement agencies, such as Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, to find extraordinary and creative ways to try to get people out of Afghanistan.

We have 11 families, clients of ours, that are stuck in Kabul right now, said IRIS Executive Director Chris George during a webinar Friday afternoon. A number of staff members have been in touch with them, calling them on the phone  taking pictures of their green cards.

Volunteers and IRIS staff have been communicating with Afghans via WhatsApp to help them fill out repatriation assistance request forms. Its critical to have these forms filled out because that is how the State Department knows they are eligible to leave and can notify them to come to the Kabul airport, according to Ann OBrien, director of community engagement for IRIS.

Weve got English language teachers who are suddenly involved full-time trying to fill out forms and trying to coordinate with families on the ground trying to get them into the airport, George said.

In addition to 32 Afghans who have arrived in Connecticut, OBrien said, We have roughly 45 clients that we have been in contact with who are in transit back to the United States from Afghanistan, and for those clients all but seven of them  our staff helped them complete the repatriation form online.

We have at least 50 clients, likely more that are still in Afghanistan and are not close to boarding flights, she said. That number is not even close to the hundreds of applications we are trying to process.

Those with green cards, giving an immigrant permanent resident status, may have been resettled by IRIS years ago but went back to Afghanistan for personal reasons. Others have SIVs, given to Afghans who worked for the U.S. military as translators, interpreters and in other jobs.

However, SIVs only permit the visa holder and immediate family to evacuate. That leaves parents, siblings and other relatives behind, causing tremendous worry for those who leave.

During this evacuation we also realized that there are not just green card holders  or Special Immigrant Visa holders that need to get out, George said. We have an obligation to bring them and their families out. There is no way thats going to happen by the 31st (of August) and we have no idea how they will get out after that.

For those who do evacuate, the stress and trauma continue. Youre luckily escaping from Kabul but youre leaving dozens of relatives and friends behind. Youre feeling worried about them. Youre feeling guilty that you made it out, he said.

Once you get in the United States, your phone is ringing nonstop and youre getting text messages and emails from the people you left behind, pleading for help. It is just crushing, and were worried about them, George said. And indirectly, its also very difficult for my staff who are getting that next phone call from the Afghan whos made it out.  Staff are hearing these same stories about the Taliban going door to door or people hiding in safe houses.

Ive never been more proud of the people Ive worked with at IRIS but its difficult, he said.

There have been reports of Afghans trying to cross the border into Pakistan and being shot by Pakistani security forces, George said. The Taliban have closed the borders, he said.

OBrien said those who are in the process of getting SIV status will be processed by the State Department just as SIV holders are. Others who are not eligible, including women, children, journalists who are outspoken against the Taliban, will be processed in a different category and at the outset will not be eligible for the same benefits that SIV provides, she said.

Those people will have to apply for asylum, meaning they will not be able to work until their first hearing. How are they going to eat? How are they going to live? she asked. After their first hearing, asylum seekers can get limited work authorization.

These restrictions dont apply to typical refugees, who become legal permanent residents of the United States as soon as they arrive. Its easy, relatively speaking, not easy but easier to get a person like that an apartment, because they are helped to get a job within the required six months.

It also will be a challenge to resettle the largest number of refugees IRIS ever has been asked to take in. The State Department had assigned IRIS a total of 400 refugees for the upcoming year. Were being asked to resettle another 300, an almost unimaginable total of 700, George said. The highest total was 530 in 2016.

If there is no housing, if there are no apartments to put people into, then thats a major obstacle, he said. He said IRIS will be approaching universities to see whether there is extra dorm space.

OBrien said the original plan was to settle 250 people in New Haven, 100 in Hartford and 50 among the community groups that have been trained to resettle refugees just as IRIS case managers do, including assisting with getting jobs, adjusting to American culture, education, health care and legal issues.

The United States has far more rules and regulations about employment as well as societal rules about how to get the next job than they have experienced before, OBrien said. Basic things like references are unknown to most refugees.

She said this year the United States was expected to take in 125,000 of the 290,000 refugees around the globe who are designated as eligible to be resettled by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. That is just one percent of the worlds 2.9 million refugees, she said.

How eligibility is determined is super unclear, OBrien said. The thought of being an asylum officer in that system is unbearable. How do you choose?

In the normal process, each refugee is screened by the UNHCR, then they sit in a camp or in an urban situation for an undefined period of time until their case reaches a point where they are identified as eligible for resettlement [and] assigned to a U.N. member country, OBrien said. We do additional screening that often takes two years. In Afghanistan now, none of that can happen.

OBrien said the first 90 days are critical. The key is English and employment, she said. If their English is not strong enough to even get entry-level positions, then we really go hard on the English.

Safety

Blumenthal said the U.S. military is reaching out and attempting to provide a path for escaping to the airport to some of the American citizens and Afghans who can be transported.  They cant necessarily reach everyone. They want to avoid unnecessary conflict with the Taliban and they have to do it in a way that doesnt raise unacceptable risk for the people who are doing it.

Schmidt, excited that Atifullah is safer, began making plans for the families to get together for pizza in New Haven. He suggested Sallys; Atifullah countered with Modern.

He said the episode had added to the impact Afghanistan has had on his life. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. changed the course of his life as a young man; he worked for the military; hes had students who have served for four tours; he had students who died there.

Its pretty special to be able to eek out this one small victory, said Schmidt. I think its important for Americans to remember, for a small percentage of their friends and neighbors in this country, this war has been ever present for 20 years.  These people are real, and unlike in World War II in many cases, I think you dont see the scars, physical and mental ... theyre coming out in these last few days.

Those scars and difficulties were all the more present for Afghans. Atifullah worked with the U.S. for 15 years, Schmidt said  a significant chapter in his life. He and his families faced either a more limited future in Afghanistan, where, even if he was able to live safely, the abilities of women will be curtailed, or a hard adjustment to a different culture in America.

Schmidt said he was glad to have played a role in getting Atifullah out. Atifullah and his family had shown the true bravery, Schmidt said, but the episode still would be a notable marker in his own life.

This is almost certainly going to be one of the most important things Ive done in my life, the tiny, tiny thing Ive done in this, said Schmidt.

Editors Note: This story has been updated to correct that Sen. Blumenthal Friday was referring to Americans in Afghanistan, not Connecticut residents. The headline also was updated.
PHOENIX (AP)  Tenant advocates and court officials were gearing up Friday for what some fear will be a wave of evictions and others predict will be just a growing trickle after a U.S. Supreme Court action allowing lockouts to resume.

The high court's conservative majority late Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban placed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The action ends protections for about 3.5 million people in the United States who say they faced eviction in the next two months, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from early August.

We are incredibly disappointed in the Supreme Court ruling and ask Congress and Governor (Doug) Ducey to take action to prevent what will likely be tragic outcomes for thousands of Arizona families, said Cynthia Zwick, executive director of the nonprofit organization Wildfire that is helping distribute government rental assistance in Arizona.

Lives are literally at risk as the pandemic continues to surge and families lose their homes, especially during this time of extreme heat, she said, referring to Phoenix's triple-digit temperatures.

Wildfire is encouraging tenants to keep applying for rental aid and work with their landlords to develop plans for making payments until the assistance is available, she said.

Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, worries about the thousands of older people who potentially could be affected by about 9,000 pending eviction cases in the county.

Book said hes been trying to find people at risk new places to live, but many haven't taken the situation seriously because the moratorium has been extended numerous times.

But some local officials around the U.S. say the court's action is unlikely to set off the flood of evictions some advocates predict.

Scott Davis, spokesman for the Maricopa County Justice Courts that handle the bulk of Arizona's evictions, said he does not expect anything dramatic overnight. He said how things play out will depend on how landlords and their attorneys decide to handle cases.

We know that eviction case filings over the last 17 months are down about 50% from pre-pandemic, Davis said.  Some believe there will be a large flood of case activity; others believe it will be just a light sprinkle, which builds gradually over time. Again  its up to landlords.

Davis emphasized no one can be evicted immediately without due process, and the cases could take weeks to be carried out in the courts.

The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin said Friday that landlords rarely evict anyone who is only a few hundred dollars behind on rent. It said the average eviction judgment for unpaid rent in Wisconsin is more than $2,600.

Contrary to dire predictions by tenant advocates, there will NOT be a tsunami of eviction filings in Wisconsin or in most parts of the country, the landlord trade association said. There will NOT be 11 million people suddenly made homeless.

The court's action does not affect the temporary bans on evictions placed by a handful of states, including California.

The Treasury Department and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge on Friday sent a letter to all governors, mayors and county officials, urging them to implement their own eviction bans, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Seven states have taken the steps. More states can take the steps," Psaki said.

She noted that quicker disbursement of rental assistance money could also help stave off evictions.

In Detroit, Ted Phillips, executive director of the United Community Housing Coalition, said the court's action could prompt more eviction cases.

We suspect ..., theres probably a large number of cases where landlords never bothered applying for an order of eviction because, well, why bother if theres a moratorium, Phillips said.

The court's move wasn't a huge surprise. The justices had allowed an earlier pause on lockouts to continue through July, but they hinted in late June they would take this path if asked again to intervene. The moratorium had been scheduled to expire Oct. 3.

The court said in an unsigned opinion that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The three liberal justices dissented.

Congress is on recess for a few weeks and is unlikely take immediate action on legislation.

But key progressive lawmakers Friday urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both Democrats, to consider passing legislation to extend the moratorium during the pandemic.

One option would be to include an evictions measure in the upcoming budget infrastructure packages that Congress will consider when lawmakers return in September.

"The impending eviction crisis is a matter of public health and safety that demands an urgent legislative solution to prevent further harm and needless loss of human life, read the letter from Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, Cori Bush, D-Missouri, Jimmy Gomez, D-California, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York. It was signed by 60 lawmakers.

Pelosi said Friday the House is assessing possible legislative remedies.

Congress has approved more than $46.5 billion in rental assistance, but so far state and local governments have distributed 11% of that money, just over $5 billion, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

In Kansas, the states Housing Resources Corporation is pushing to process hundreds of rental relief applications after hiring and training more than 100 new employees to help. Still, most assistance money hasn't been distributed.

Landlord organizations blamed the slow rollout on requirements imposed by Congress that many applicants find cumbersome.

Courtney Gilstrap LeVinus, president and CEO of the Arizona Multihousing Association, said many mom-and-pop rental owners are teetering on bankruptcy, with about $500 million in rent unpaid statewide.

Despite such intense financial pressure, Arizona property owners have worked with residents to keep them in their homes, to keep them safe from the pandemic, and to help them qualify for eviction relief that has been slow to arrive for a year and a half, LeVinus said. We have strongly encouraged our members to keep working with residents to avoid evictions in every possible instance.

___

Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Anna Nichols in Lansing, Michigan; David Fischer in Miami and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)  Hundreds of Hamas-backed activists on Saturday launched what they said was the first in a series of nighttime protests along the Israeli border, throwing explosives toward Israeli forces who responded with live fire.

Organizers said the gatherings, which are to continue throughout the week, were meant to step up pressure on Israel to ease a crippling economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The occupation will not enjoy calm unless the siege on our beloved land is lifted, said Abu Omar, a spokesman for the protesters.

Israel and Egypt have maintained the blockade since Hamas, a group sworn to Israels destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won Palestinian elections.

The blockade, which restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, has ravaged the territorys economy. Israel has tightened the closure since an 11-day war in May, demanding the return of the remains of two dead soldiers and freedom for two Israeli civilians believed to be in Hamas captivity.

Amateur footage and photos from inside Gaza showed hundreds of Palestinians protesters engaged in Saturdays gathering. Some appeared to be throwing explosives and chanting in celebrations as blasts sounded.

The Israeli military said troops responded to the explosives by firing live rounds toward the protesters. It said there were no injuries on the Israeli side.

Gaza health officials said three protesters were wounded by Israeli fire.

Earlier Saturday, Gaza health officials said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died from head wounds after being shot during a similar demonstration a week earlier.

Another Palestinian man, identified as a member of Hamas military wing, was also killed in that protest, while an Israeli soldier was shot in the head from point-blank range by a protester. The soldier remains in critical condition.

Hamas-linked operatives also launched a number of incendiary balloons from Gaza Saturday afternoon, sparking two fires in southern Israel, according to the Israeli fire service.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought four wars and numerous skirmishes since 2007. Israel says the closure is necessary to prevent Hamas from gathering arms while critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a longer-term cease-fire that would ease the blockade and appeared to be making progress last week when it pressured Hamas to restrain a border protest on Wednesday.

The following day, Israel said it was easing some of the commercial restrictions on Gaza, allowing vehicles, goods and equipment for rebuilding projects to enter the Palestinian enclave. Israel said the easing could expand further if things remain quiet.

The Israeli government reached an agreement with Qatar on Aug. 19 allowing the Gulf country to resume aid payments to families in Gaza, a move aimed at reducing tensions with Hamas. Israel suspended aid payments in May, saying the move was necessary to ensure Hamas did not benefit from cash injections.

But Saturday nights protest indicated violence could soon escalate again.

At least 260 Palestinians were killed during Mays Gaza-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  A former government official who says she is a sexual assault survivor is demanding that the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate stop using her story as a political prop in a campaign video that bashes Gov. Phil Murphy.

Katie Brennan, who has said she was sexually assaulted by a peer while they both worked on Murphy's behalf in 2017, said Friday she wasn't consulted before Jack Ciattarelli this week launched PhilMurphyDoesNotCare.com. The site prominently features a video of Brennan publicly testifying before legislators and charges that Murphy uses women as political props."

She said in a tweet earlier she wasn't a prop or a pawn herself.

Take it down, she said Friday.

I wasnt consulted prior to the creation of the website and the ad campaign and had I been would have expressed my displeasure with it. It looks like an endorsement of the Ciattarelli campaign, which is not my intent, she said in a phone interview.

She added: There is a way to hold people accountable and talk about the mistakes of the past and what their vision and plans for betterment and equity and reform are in the future without dragging me into the fight in a way that I certainly did not ask to be.

In a statement, Ciattarelli campaign spokesperson Stami Williams praised Brennan and said she bravely came forward and publicly shared her story," but she did not directly address Brennan's request to remove the video.

It's an important message and we are committed to ensuring that voters know about Governor Murphy's abysmal record as it relates to women," she said.

A message has also been left with Murphys campaign.

The video shows testimony before lawmakers from Brennan, interspersed with text from Ciattarelli saying Murphy chose not to do anything to help her until it negatively impacted him.

This weeks development draws voters attention back to the #MeToo movement and the treatment of women in state politics, widely acknowledged to have a toxic history. Before the coronavirus pandemic ground much in state politics to a halt, New Jersey was confronting how women had historically been treated in government, with State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg heading a panel of women to investigate.

The episode also places Brennan once again under the political spotlight nearly three years after her account dominated headlines in the state, and it comes as Murphy seeks to become the first Democrat reelected governor in 44 years. Ciattarelli is running behind Murphy in recent polls.

The former chief of staff at New Jersey's Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, Brennan came forward in 2018 saying she was sexually assaulted by Albert Alvarez in 2017 while both were working to get Murphy elected.

Alvarez denied the allegations. Law enforcement officials declined to bring charges citing a lack of evidence.

Brennan's account launched a legislative inquiry and led Murphy to hire a legal team to investigate the matter as well.

The reviews found that Murphy's staff botched its response to Brennan's repeated attempts to report the alleged assault and found Murphys administration appeared more concerned with avoiding negative publicity than following procedures to investigate thoroughly.

The Murphy-backed inquiry found that Alvarez was hired for a position in state government despite Brennan's allegations and faulted Murphy's team for hiring. Murphy has said he found out about the hiring only when Brennan's account appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Brennan also sued the state and Murphy, leading to a $1 million settlement, with most of the money going to charities chosen by Brennan. She has since left state government and now works as an adviser for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Weinberg, a Democrat who was critical of how Murphy and his administration handled Brennan's allegations, stopped short Friday of calling Ciattarelli out by name and instead blasted Republicans generally. In a statement, she suggested that Republicans did not forcefully enough address harassments and assault allegations levied against former President Donald Trump.

I do not believe that those who have been silent over the four years of the prior Presidency and during the prior Governor have any standing to now try to politicize these issues, she said.

New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states with regular gubernatorial elections this year. California has a recall election for governor.

Mail-in ballots go out Sept. 18 in New Jersey, with early in-person voting set for Oct. 23-31. Election Day is Nov. 2.
The Hafa Adai spirit will extend a little further on Aug. 28 with the grand opening of the House of Chamorros as part of House of Pacific Relations International Cottages in San Diego.

The House of Chamorros will represent the CHamoru people from Guam and the Northern Marianas, as well as anyone who feels a special connection to the region, to the estimated 14 million annual visitors to Balboa Park.

The event starts at 10:30 a.m. and will feature remarks from state and city officials including San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. Eight additional cottages are opening, representing India, Palestine, Turkey, the Philippines, Korea, Peru, Panama, and Mexico.

The dance group Imahen Taotao Tano will perform, according to House of Chamorros President Jeff Macaraeg. Coffee will be served after the ceremony to celebrate the permanent home of CHamoru culture in California.{/span}

The journey toward this grand opening has been one of serendipity, hard work and quite a bit of optimism. The Chamorro Optimists, part of Optimists International, inquired into opening their own space in 2016 when they were informed that nine cottages were to be built but had already been spoken for.

As fate would have it, one country could not finance the construction of their cottage. The committee offered it instead to the Chamorro Optimists, who set to work making a miracle, raising over $500,000 over the last five years.

The financial hurdles were considerable  the group was on a tight timeline and the total amount required was twice what they expected. Undeterred, they called upon the CHamoru diaspora and community at home to support their mission.

They were met with enthusiasm from many corners of the world. Donations came from the Guam Legislature Tourist Attraction Fund through Guam Visitors Bureau, the Marianas Visitors Bureau, Saipan Legislature, Rota Legislative Delegation, GTA, Kings owner David Alcorn, the city of San Diego, the state of California, and beyond.

The cottage is now standing and work on the interior will follow. Eventually, visitors will find kiosks in each corner featuring CHamoru antiquities, as well as a functioning kitchen.

Im in talks with the Guam Museum to maybe give us some small pieces that they can loan to us ... And we have a local individual who has a big collection that hes gotten over the years, Macaraeg said.

Were going to have a childrens area, so they can learn about the CHamoru people. I think were more focused for the diaspora. And because they havent had a chance to really go to Guam, or the Marianas. And so were trying to put our focus on the kids who want to learn.

The group also envisions the cottage as a hub for diasporic CHamorus seeking to connect with their community when living in North America. The House of Chamorros will offer resources and recommendations for active groups they can join, such as the Sons and Daughters of Guam, and will host cultural events throughout the year.

Beyond the practical ways in which the team behind House of Chamorros hopes to serve the community, there is a sense that one of the most essential functions of the house is intangible. It will serve as a validation and reflection of the importance of their heritage and the continuation of CHamoru culture.

Because a lot of people here who are CHamoru, they get mixed up with Spanish, you know. And a lot of kids who are CHamoru, theyre afraid to say theyre CHamoru, because people dont know who they are. So we want to bring out the word that what CHamorus are and how were different, but were also the same in a lot of things, Macaraeg said.

But if youve never been in Guam or and Marianas, that feeling that you see when you see another CHamoru, maybe its just because I lived there for so long that, you know, just the gesture of the eyes, you know, it opens up a lot of unspoken language.
The PDNs Lend a Hand feature aims to meet the needs of Guams charitable organizations. Send all details about fundraising events, donation requests or volunteer needs to life@guampdn.com.

Conservatory of Arts to host fundraiser

Guam Conservatory of Arts will host their first glimpse fundraising event, Cocktails at the Conservatory, on Aug. 31 from 6-8 p.m. at their new location: 556 West Route 9, Barrigada (the old Hafa Books). There is a $100 suggested donation. RSVP and learn more at guamconservatory.org.

GAIN cash donations will be matched

Starting Aug. 31, your donation to Guam Animals in Need will be matched as part of the national Clear the Shelters campaign. Hills Pet Nutrition will be matching all donations up to $25,000, and will continue to do so until that total amount is used. To donate, go to www.clearthesheltersfund.org and type in Guam to find GAINs profile and donate.

Donate to VFW for wreath ceremony

Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary Outpost 1509 is seeking donations for wreaths to honor veterans on Dec. 18. The group will be laying the wreaths on that day at noon at the Guam Veterans Cemetery to remember and honor our veterans. To donate, go to https://wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/167595

Division of Senior Citizens needs volunteers

The Division of Senior Citizens is seeking volunteers for the Guam Medicare Assistance Program. Volunteers provide Medicare information and assistance to Medicare beneficiaries and their families., such as Medicare Parts A, B and D benefits and premiums; enrollment and disenrollment; coordination of benefits; billing issues; complex case scenarios; Medigap plans; appeals; and Medicare fraud, waste, abuse, and error. For more information and to volunteer, email Biba.SeniorCitizens@dphss.guam.gov or call 671-735-7421 or 671-735-7415.
A solar-powered sign, posted along the southbound lanes of Marine Corps Drive in Dededo, reminds motorists about getting vaccinated as it flashes a message as well as other safety precautions in reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Do you have a photo of village life that youd like published in Village News? Email life@guampdn.com with your photo and information.
A survey of how the COVID-19 pandemic and the governors vaccine mandate has affected businesses is being conducted by the Guam Hotel and Rest
A Marine was charged with burglary and theft of property for allegedly taking the car of a man known to her without his consent.

On Aug. 23, Liliana Bibian, 22, was at the Westin Resort Guam pool bar with a man known to her, and other people, when Bibian allegedly took the mans hotel room key card without his consent, according to a magistrates complaint filed by the Office of the Attorney General.

Bibian and a friend then went to the mans hotel room and took the keys to his rental car, the complaint said.

After, Bibian and her friend took the mans rental car, backed into a parked car and scraped a wall as she tried leaving the parking garage. They later received a text from the man saying he would call Bibians command, the complaint said.

Bibian is an active duty member of the Marine Corps, according to the complaint.

Bibian left the car in the parking lot of The Venue, the complaint stated. The next day, the man called police.

Bibian told police she took the room key, car key and the car without the mans consent, the complaint said.

Bibian was charged with:
Members of the public on Saturday voiced concerns over internet and laptop access, as well as learning methods used during the suspension of in-person classes at public schools across the island.

Face-to-face learning was suspended for public and private school students in an executive order announced by Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero Friday.

The new restrictions are a response to a 300% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the last two weeks and the growing presence of the delta variant on Guam, Leon Guerrero said.

I think the governors decision was really based on being proactive and not risking the chance of transmission in schools, said Guam Department of Education Superintendent Jon Fernandez.

Students will return to online learning, effective 8 a.m. Monday.

Input heard

A community input session to hear and respond to questions about the executive order was hosted online by the Guam Department of Education and the Department of Public Health and Social Services Saturday.

Many parents during the session were concerned about a lack of internet access and having enough laptops for each of their kids.

An example was someone with four children and only two devices in the household, with children in different classes at the same time.

Students who need laptops will have to apply to their schools. Currently, about half of the student population can get a laptop, said Joseph Sanchez, Guam DOE deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

Internet

All Wi-Fi access applications for student homes have been received and no more are available said Sanchez.

He also said that schools and community learning centers will be open during the day for students to bring their laptops and use the internet there.

We understand that transportation is going to be an issue, so you do not have to go to the school that you attend, just simply the nearest school to you, Sanchez said.

Cohorts

The idea of reducing the number of students on campus and having them attend class in different cohorts throughout the week was brought up by members of the public.

That isnt possible under the new executive order, but student cohorts is a backup plan that could happen when restrictions change, said Erika Cruz, who is Guam DOEs deputy superintendent of educational support and community learning and assessment accountability.

Two parents of students asked if truancy will be a problem for their children if they arent showing up for class in person.

The executive order states student absences due to school closure or connected to COVID-19 wont be counted toward habitual truancy.
The most recent executive order of mandatory vaccination by Guams magahaga should send chills up the spine of every person, whether vaccinat




Haiti - FLASH : Post-earthquake situation report (partial assessment)





Massive and grouped distribution operations are continuing in the affected areas. The Ministry of Public Health is continuing its interventions, in a coordinated manner, in the three departments directly affected by the earthquake (support for victims, access and continuity of institutional and outpatient services, acquisition and distribution of inputs and drugs, etc...), with the support of a growing number of partners.



STATE OF INFRASTRUCTURES (Partial assessment) :



Road infrastructure :

The bridges over Grand'Anse, Voldrogue, Guinaudee and Roseaux were all damaged in the August 14 earthquake. The passage of vehicles on the Dumarsais Estime bridge (Grand'Anse river) has been prohibited for about a week. Public Works is in the process of creating a detour via the town of Gebeau, at the southern entrance to the town of Jeremie.



In addition, blocked by a landslide, the section connecting the towns of Latiboliere and Sassier, in the 4th municipal section of Jeremie, is still cut.



Public buildings :

In GrandAnse, the administrative complexes of Jeremie, Beaumont and Corail; the police stations of Jeremie (including the prison), Pestel and Corail; Beaumont's provisional electoral office all suffered damage. A total of ten Haitian National Police stations were destroyed.



Port infrastructure :

The wharfs of Jeremie and Anse d'Hainault (Grand'Anse department) are badly damaged. The Corail wharf is damaged and the Pestel wharf destroyed. Agriculture Culture.



POPULATION ASSISTANCE :



Temporary shelters:

A total of 858 tarpaulins were distributed respectively in two communal sections of Beaumont (Chardonnette and Mouline), in Duchity, in the communal section of Tozia, and in Maniche, in the South.



Bundled distributions are continuing. Despite the constraints linked to access to certain areas affected by the earthquake, the response is also continuing in Grand'Anse. However, the shelter needs; water, sanitation, and hygiene; food and health care are still urgently needed in several communities.



Non-food products :

Between 23 and 25 August, IOM, Unicef and WFP assisted 2,200 families respectively in Melon (Maniche, South) and Camp-Perrin (South). The beneficiaries received a tarpaulin, batches of hygiene products, blanket and bucket.



Haitian Civil Protection, together with the United States Army, USAID, SouthCom and OCHA, helicopter transported tents, tarpaulins, woolen blankets, mosquito nets for 1,000 families in Maniche. The mayor of the commune, accompanied by Haitian police, Civil Protection volunteers, a team of firefighters from Gressier, seconded to the South, and a group of student volunteers, ensured the distribution.



Water, sanitation and hygiene:

The water supply is partially restored in several communities, thanks to the direct distribution of water containers, the mobilization of tankers, the installation of flexible tanks (with or without distribution ramp) or drinking water treatment units.



The regional water and sanitation office (Orepa Sud) has installed, with the support of MSF Belgium, a pumping station in the Chardonnieres river, which, after treatment, allows the population to be supplied by truck or by supplying two 5m3 tanks. All the communes of the department have drinking water distribution trucks (UNICEF)



In Nippes, water is also distributed by truck to Petit-Trou de Nippes [MSF Holland].



The South Departmental Directorate for Drinking Water and Sanitation is stepping up its interventions to make drinking water available in areas where its networks have been damaged. A mission of 40 members of the French Civil Security arrived on Tuesday at the departmental emergency operations center in the South to support actions in the area of water treatment.



Health :

On August 24, three new organizations came to support the Ministry of Public Health and Population in the South. The operating theaters at Immaculee Conception Hospital (HIC) in Cayes and Ofatma are receiving additional support from MSF France and Cadena, respectively, with 3 surgeons. 8 physiotherapists are also present in these two hospitals to help patients, whose case requires it, to restore their optimal physical functioning.



At the same time, interventions (support for victims, access and continuity of institutional and outpatient services, acquisition and distribution of inputs and drugs, etc.) are continuing in the three departments directly affected by the earthquake.



In the South, at least 340 patients have been seen in hospitals and via mobile clinic operations, 8 of which were operated on at the mobile hospital located at the American University of Les Cayes. Several people received psychosocial support, including 70 in the communal section of Marceline, in Camp-Perrin [ACF, ESPERE]. In addition, oxygen generators are being repaired and the department has received 26 oxygen concentrators [Project Hope].



In Grand'Anse, Saint-Antoine Hospital continues to strengthen several of its services, in terms of staff, equipment and drugs. The MSPP has organized mobile clinics in Pestel and Corail {MSF France].



Read also about the earthquake :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34586-haiti-earthquake-550-churches-and-more-than-400-catholic-and-protestant-schools-destroyed.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34559-haiti-flash-the-death-toll-rises-to-2-207-dead-and-12-268-injured.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-34554-icihaiti-earthquake-the-army-to-protect-humanitarian-convoys.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34551-haiti-earthquakethe-ccrif-will-pay-nearly-$40m-compensation-to-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34545-haiti-earthquake-the-private-sector-is-mobilizing-to-come-to-the-aid-of-the-victims.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34543-haiti-flash-at-least-266-national-schools-damaged-or-destroyed.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34540-haiti-earthquake-the-international-community-continues-to-mobilize.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34538-haiti-flash-at-least-3-aftershocks-between-47-and-51-in-48-hours.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34537-haiti-earthquake-more-than-half-of-churches-are-destroyed.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34525-haiti-flash-the-toll-is-growing-nearly-15-000-victims-partial-assessment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34522-haiti-humanitarian-update-on-international-aid.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34520-haiti-unicef-nearly-540-000-children-in-haiti-were-affected-by-the-earthquake.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34516-haiti-flash-nearly-2-000-dead-and-10-000-injured-partial-assessment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34512-haiti-earthquake-rain-of-messages-of-sympathy-part-2.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34509-haiti-earthquake-mexico-chile-taiwan-japan-venezuela-international-aid-is-coming.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34507-haiti-flash-1-417-dead-6-975-injured-84-225-houses-destroyed-or-damaged-partial-assessment.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-34501-icihaiti-earthquake-food-for-the-poor-in-action.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34500-haiti-usa-american-aid-arrives-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34498-haiti-flash-the-partial-death-toll-increases-nearly-1-300-dead-and-5-700-injured.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34496-haiti-flash-the-toll-is-increasing-724-dead-international-aid-is-arriving.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34493-haiti-earthquake-rain-of-messages-of-sympathy-part-1.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34492-haiti-earthquake-the-international-community-has-started-to-show-its-solidarity.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34488-haiti-flash-more-than-300-dead-nearly-2-000-injured-very-significant-material-damage-provisional-assessment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34487-haiti-flash-the-human-toll-promises-to-be-heavy-already-227-dead-and-hundreds-injured.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34486-haiti-flash-7-new-aftershocks-in-the-southern-peninsula.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34480-haiti-flash-second-earthquake-in-haiti-magnitude-52.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34479-haiti-flash-magnitude-72-earthquake-in-the-nippes-updated-10am.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - ONA : Exceptional measures to help businesses in the Great South victims of the earthquake





In a note, Jemley Mare Jean Baptiste, Director General ai of the National Insurance Office for Old Age (ONA) informs that the Office has taken exceptional measures to support businesses in the Great South (South Department, Grand'Anse and Nippes), struggling with financial difficulties related to the earthquake of August 14, 2021.



These measures, which mainly aim to support companies with a disastrous balance sheet in the aftermath of the earthquake, consist of on the one hand an exemption from employer contributions and a special credit program on the other.



Through this mechanism to reduce employer contributions, these companies will benefit from a moratorium on contributions covering 3 months : August, September and October 2021. These exemptions will be split over the next 9 months, from November 2021.



ONA will also provide term loans to qualifying businesses to enable them to meet operational cash flow needs.



However, it should be noted that to benefit from the moratorium and the loan program, companies must not only be affiliated with the ONA, but also up to date with the deposit of payment of employer and employee contributions.



The General Directorate of the ONA reiterates its firm and complete commitment to support the companies of the Great South to meet the challenges generated by this earthquake and to help promote, in the short term, a movement of economic growth in the region.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34600-haiti-flash-post-earthquake-situation-report-partial-assessment.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34559-haiti-flash-the-death-toll-rises-to-2-207-dead-and-12-268-injured.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34479-haiti-flash-magnitude-72-earthquake-in-the-nippes.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - USAID : Samantha Power on tour in the South of Haiti





On August 26, Administrator Samantha Power traveled to Haiti, where USAID is leading the United States government response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck on August 14. While in Haiti, Administrator Power met with Haitians impacted by the disaster as well as Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and other Haitian government officials. She also met with those contributing to the U.S. response on the ground, including the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), members of the US military, and USAID staff based in Haiti. During her visit Administrator Power emphasized the United States commitment to supporting the people of Haiti during their time of need and announced $32 million in new humanitarian assistance from USAID to support earthquake response efforts.



Administrator Power, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele S. Sison, USAID Mission Director Christopher Cushing, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) U.S. Navy Admiral Craig S. Faller, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Assistant to the Administrator Sarah Charles, and USAID DART Leader Tim Callaghan conducted an aerial tour of affected areas in southwestern Haiti. The group then visited the commune of Maniche, in Les Cayes Department, where they surveyed damage and discussed priority needs with community members and local first responders.



Maniche was among particularly hard-hit towns in the region. Administrator Power met with families whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake and visited their homes with them to see the damage. She had numerous conversations with impacted community members, as well as with Maniches mayor, police chief, local firefighters and Civil Protection officials. The group visited the towns school, which was destroyed, and discussed the challenges facing children who wouldnt be able to start the school year as planned. The Administrator also met with USAID Haitian surge staff who joined with the Haitian officials as part of the immediate response to the earthquake. The group also met with local Haitian partners of the UN World Food Program, which recently distributed USAID food assistance to more than 5,000 people in the town. Last week, WFP began transporting from Port-Au-Prince 830 metric tons of USAID food suppliesenough to feed more than 62,000 people for one monthand is distributing it in affected areas.



In Port-au-Prince, Administrator Power, Ambassador Sison, Admiral Faller and Rear Admiral Keith Davids, commander of Joint Task Force (JTF)-Haiti, met with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Jerry Chandler, Director General of Haitis Civil Protection Agency, to discuss the continued scaling up of U.S. assistance effort and continued collaboration with the Government of Haiti on the earthquake response and recovery. Administrator Power emphasized the importance of improved security in addressing the medium and long-term needs of the Haitian people. The Administrator and Prime Minister agreed that continuing to partner to build capacity within the Government of Haiti is a priority going forward.



Administrator Power held a press conference in Port-au-Prince where she began by expressing her profound condolences to the families of the US service members and Afghans who were killed in Kabul today. She then described how USAIDs $32 million in just-announced humanitarian assistance would support earthquake response efforts, including by supporting humanitarian partners delivering urgently needed health care services, emergency shelter and food, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation assistance, gender-based violence prevention and response, child protection, and psychosocial support services.



Later in the day, Administrator Power visited SOUTHCOMs JTF-Haiti Operations Center in Port-au-Prince, where she thanked Admiral Faller and members of JTF-Haiti for their work providing air transport for relief personnel and supplies in support of USAIDs earthquake response, and for medevacing critically injured Haitians to receive medical treatment. As of August 26, JTF-Haiti--including the U.S. Coast Guard--has conducted 413 missions, assisted or rescued 458 people, and delivered more than 205,700 pounds of vital aid, including food, water, medical supplies, and equipment.



Afterwards, Administrator Power met with USAID Haitian staff who were impacted by the earthquake. She also sat down with members of the USAID DART team to thank them for their work leading U.S. government response efforts on the ground.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Hammond, LA (70403)

Today

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.
By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/08/27

Soo-hyeon is dead. I wasn't actually sure she was dead, given that this is the fifth time a character has received a grievous, possibly mortal injury and not suffer any meaningful long-term consequences. The first was Ga-on, in that explosion I don't think was ever explained. Then Soo-hyeon, who got clocked in the head while investigating a lead. Then Yo-han got shot, but not killed. And most recently Jeong-ho. And I'm not sure it was clearly explained why he was attacked either.

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Soo-hyeon's death, that it to say the death of a cop, is treated as a monstrous red line crossed by Bamboo Spear. Never mind the fact that Bamboo Spear has, this entire time, been videotaping themselves viciously beating people. Never mind that hardly a few scenes earlier in the previous episode we had seen Choong-sik viciously beating an old man to death. This is the moment where Yo-han has finally gone too far.

Yes, you read that correctly. Yo-han is still somehow played up as the villain, despite the Social Responsibility Foundation's plans having increasingly nothing to do with him. They were beating up an entire neighborhood, with the full support of the police, under a viral outbreak excuse that had almost nothing to do with the crimes they were videotaped doing. The entire situation is just too blatantly absurd, and even insulting to the intelligence of the viewer.

How is there no evidence that Choong-sik had official support? Choong-sik was disgraced, viciously beaten by his own goons, and hardly a couple of episodes later he's back in a position of power. How did Bamboo Spear get access to an area under medical quarantine? Who's funding them? Why aren't they ever arrested for crimes they literally advertise in online videos? These aren't minor questions! They can only be explained by some sort of connection between Bamboo Spear and a higher political power!

So instead of an actual investigation, everything comes down to Choong-sik being executed for his crimes via social media. Despite how this incident is treated by other characters, this is actually one of Yo-han's more mundane punishments. Choong-sik is indisputedly a murderer. South Korea has the death penalty, and murder is a capital crime. The problems facing this dystopian vision of South Korea go far deeper than a mere lack of evidence, and I'm insulted that the script is engaging in arbitrary moral dilemmas rather than actually engaging with its own premise.

Review by William Schwartz

___________

"The Devil Judge" is directed by Choi Jeong-gyoo, written by Moon Yoo-suk, and features Ji Sung, Kim Min-jung, Jinyoung, Park Gyu-young, Ahn Nae-sang, Kim Jae-kyung. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/07/03~2021/08/22, Sat, Sun 21:00 on tvN.
By Panos Kotzathanasis | Published on 2021/08/27

Lee Joon-ik proved in the most impressive way, that he can direct biopics in black-and-white, when he released "DongJu, The Portrait of A Poet" one of the best films of the last few years. Continuing in the same visual recipe, he has now come up with one set in 1801, about the Joseon era scholar Jeong Yak-jeon.

"The Book of Fish" is screening on New York Asian Film Festival

As the story begins, the ascend of the new king on the throne terminates the protagonist's good relations with the Palace, as the Catholic Persecution under King Sunjo becomes a full blown endeavor, essentially deeming any dogma outside Confucianism "Evil Learning", with all its representatives being imprisoned, killed, or in the case of Jeong Yak-jeon and his brother, exiled. The former finds himself stranded to Heuk-san island, where the locals treat him either as a sample of exoticism (particularly the housewife who eventually takes him up on her house) or as a nuisance (the local magistrate) or as a miasma (fictional character Chang-dae). The latter, however, happens to be a young man thirsty for knowledge, but also an excellent diver and one possessing vast knowledge about the local fish. Yak-jeon is intrigued by the young man, and eventually decides to write an Encyclopedia on Korea's indigenous fish with his help, but, initially, the young man wants nothing to do with him. Eventually, he warms up and the exiled becomes his mentor. As more about the young man's past is revealed, however, the more complicated their situation becomes.

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Lee Joon-ik directs an impressive biopic which thrives on the presentation of the era, both in the remote island and in the mainland, the individual portraits of the two protagonists, and their relationship. Regarding the first aspect, the story begins with the way Catholics were persecuted relentlessly, as they were considered a danger to the Confucianism-driven status quo. The narrative eventually returns to the politics of the palace and the way the system worked in the era, in order to show how corruption ruled, and how a number of officials took advantage of Confucianism in order to fill their pockets and exploit the poor, with the latter living a life full of despair, in one of the most dramatic but also pointed comments in the film.

The difference of the two protagonists, with Yak-jeon being an educated aristocrat who has fallen completely out of grace and Chang-dae being a rather popular country bumpkin is one of the most appealing aspects of the movie, also because it shows the connection they share through their common thirst for knowledge. Lee also takes care of analyzing the characters individually before he starts focusing on their relationship, in an approach that also seems to state how the past shapes the future of people. Furthermore, the way both change through their interaction is another great aspect. On the other hand, a bit of melodrama could not be missing from here, particularly in the way the story ends, but in general, Lee manages to keep things to a measured point. The same applies to the correspondence between the two brothers, which is both narrated and presented with letters on screen, and the whole concept of poetry, both of which could end up being pretentious in a less steady directorial hand.

Apart from melodrama, however, Lee has also included much humour here, mostly deriving from the interactions between Jeong Yak-jeon and his landlady, with Lee Jung-eun giving a great performance in the latter role. The same, although in ironic/mocking fashion, also applies to the local magistrate, who is presented as an almost illiterate, money-thirsty buffoon, with his characterization adding to the critique of the system.

The acting in general is top-notch here. Sol Kyung-gu gives a magnificent performance as Yak-jeon, with the transformation he undergoes from annoyance, to despair, to eagerness, to mentorship, to sadness being excellently portrayed, and in a measured fashion that fits the general aesthetics of the movie. Byun Yo-han as Chang-dae is also convincing in his own transformation towards disillusionment, as much as his attitude towards Yak-jeon, while his relationship with his father is also among the most interestingly portrayed aspects of the movie.

Of course, this review would not be complete without mentioning the exquisite, sharp-contrasted, monochrome cinematography of Lee Eui-tae, who manages to highlight all the film's aspects in the most meaningful way. Particularly the recurring frame of who is inside the house and who outside is truly exquisite, also in the way it showcases the dynamics between the various characters each time. Lastly, the presentation of the beauties of the island, as much as the depiction of the various local dishes is also of the highest level. Kim Jeong-hoon-III's editing is of equal quality, with the pace being ideal, as much as the placement of the flashbacks and the way the flash forwards are communicated.

"The Book of Fish" is another testament that Lee Joon-ik is one of the best contemporary directors in presenting historic events, in a movie that is definitely among the best of the year.

Review by Panos Kotzathanasis

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"The Book of Fish" is directed by Lee Joon-ik, and features Sol Kyung-gu, Byun Yo-han, Lee Jung-eun, Min Dohee, Cha Soon-bae, Kang Ki-young. Release date in Korea: 2021/03/31.
Hastings, NE (68901)

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Matthew Mindler has died at the age of 19.

The former child actor - who was best known for starring opposite Paul Rudd in 'Our Idiot Brother' - has been found dead, after going missing from Millersville University in Pennsylvania, earlier this week.

A message on Millersville University's Twitter page stated: "Dear Campus Community, It is with a grieving heart that I let you know of the death of 19-year-old Matthew Mindler from Hellertown, Pennsylvania, a first-year student at Millersville University. Our thoughts of comfort and peace are with his friends and family during this difficult time.

"A search had been underway for Matthew since Thursday, after he was reported missing. Millersville University Police and law enforcement agencies from the area had been searching for him since that time. Matthew was found deceased this morning, Saturday, August 28 in Manor Township near campus. Matthew was transported to the Lancaster County Forensic Center by the coroner for further investigation.

"This is a time of grief for the family, our campus and the community. I ask that the campus community come together to support each other, and our students, during this difficult time.

"Students in need of support are encouraged to contact the Millersville Counseling Center (717) 871-7821, chaplains within Campus Ministries, Health Services (717) 871-5250 and the Center for Health Education and Promotion (717) 871-4141. Employees impacted should contact the State Employee Assistance Program at 1-800-692-7459.

"In sadness, Daniel A. Wubah, Ph.D. University President."

No cause of death has been revealed.

Matthew, who was originally from Hellertown, Pennsylvania, was a first-year student at Millersville University.
Rotarians, from left, Stockton Williams, David Rittenhouse and Nancy Muldoon prepare to give a Josh The Otter water safety demonstration at the 2019 Walk-A-Fun event.
Henderson, NC (27536)

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Henry schools superintendent announces changes to nutrition, transportation departments due to COVID

Special Photo Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis announced changes to transportation and nutrition departments due to rise in COVID-19 cases.

McDONOUGH  An increase in COVID-19 cases in the school system has forced officials to make sweeping changes in transportation and nutrition departments as part of Henry County Schools emergency management plan.

Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis said the changes are part of the districts effort to keep school buildings open and offer in-person learning to students.

She explained during a special called Board of Education meeting on Aug. 23 that while the system opened with enough staff, though not fully, in critical support areas, district leaders couldnt account for the impact of COVID on the health and wellness of our staff and our inability as an organization to absorb the disruption that additional staff absences due to sickness or quarantine would have on the effectiveness on our services.

To cope with an uptick in coronavirus cases and the bus driver shortage, felt both locally and nationally, Davis is asking parents who have the ability to drive their children to school to do so. To accommodate the change, schools will open early with supervised time before classroom instruction begins.

Elementary schools will open at 7 a.m., middle schools at 7:30 a.m. and high schools at 7:15 a.m.

Davis said the change will help provide relief to our current transportation model.

According to the HCS COVID-19 Data published on Aug. 23, there were 480 confirmed positive cases. Thats up from 245 on Aug. 16 and just 69 on Aug. 9. Information is updated weekly.

Quarantined individuals are also on the rise. On Aug. 23, 1,132 people were in quarantine up from 822 on Aug. 16 and 413 on Aug. 9.

The districts incident rate, which tells the percentage of the population newly reporting a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, is increasing, too. As of Aug. 23, the rate was 1.14, the highest number recorded since Oct. 9, 2020.

Davis warned that additional transportation changes could be on the horizon, including the need for digital days or cluster or zone bus stops.

Its my hope these additional considerations will not be necessary, but it is our responsibility to continue to monitor the effectiveness of our services, Davis said.

Nutrition Department

Students eating breakfast and lunch at school will have fewer options to choose from as menu options at all schools will be reduced. The number of locations for food pick will also be reduced from 10 to four.

Davis said additional levels are protection are being implement in areas such as cafeterias and classrooms as well as common gathering times like school pick up.

Were doing absolutely everything in our power to keep schools open for young people, she said. The rapid increase of COVID-19 in our community cannot be ignored, and its impact on sustainable operations.

Davis added that when cases begin to decrease in the county, so too will the added layers of mitigation.

To see the districts COVID-19 rates, mitigation strategies and COVID protocols, visit www.henry.k12.ga.us and select COVID-19 Data Dashboards on the left.
Elbert Coffee, Jr., 83, of Dallas, passed away Aug. 29, 2021. Visitation will be noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 2, at Cozine & Tarver Funeral Home in Greenville, Texas. His funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Sept. 3, at New Hope Baptist Church in Greenville, and burial will be in
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A subsidiary of Elon Musk's Tesla Inc., applied in mid-August to become an electricity retail provider on the Texas power market, according to filings with the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

While its application to the PUC did not include many specifics, the new subsidiary, Texas Energy Ventures, said it has about $1 million in assets as of mid-August and that it aims to sell renewable energy credits. Generators create one renewable energy credit when they put one megawatt hour of electricity onto the grid from a renewable energy source, which is enough electricity to power about 200 homes on a hot summer day.

Tesla Energy Ventures noted it already generates its own renewable energy credits in the state thanks to its existing solar infrastructure.

If approved, the new venture would expand Tesla's reach in Texas after founder Musk moved the company here in late 2020. Already, Musk's business empire has transformed Boca Chica, near South Padre Island, from a sleepy island town to a hub for launching spacecraft; is building utility-scale batteries near Katy and Austin; and broke ground on an electric vehicle factory near Austin, among other things.

Its brand recognition and existing customer base could give the company a leg up on its dozens of competitors in Texas' crowded electric retail market, which now has more than 100 companies vying to provide rate payers with power.

That market could change dramatically in the coming months. The PUC and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, announced in July that the agencies would work to overhaul Texas' power market and present a blueprint for the new model before the end of the year.

The coming changes stem from the freeze and subsequent blackouts in February, that led to the deaths of more than 100 across the state and left millions without heat or lights during sub-freezing temperatures. Gov. Greg Abbott in June ordered the PUC and ERCOT to look for ways to improve the power system.

On Thursday, the PUC held a workshop with ERCOT officials, power retailers, electricity generators, municipal power agencies and large-scale power consumers to discuss potential changes. Among the most pressing issues, PUC commissioners said, was making sure there was reliable power throughout the state.

What remains to be determined is how improvements would be funded.

"Somebodys got to pay for all of this," said PUC Chairman Peter Lake.

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said power retailers and generators will likely pass those increased costs onto rate payers.

"We can distill it all down to one thing: To get a reliable grid, were going to have to spend some money," Hirs said. "And were going to have to do it quickly."

Texas Monthly first broke the news that Tesla was seeking to enter the power market.
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Greetings everyone. Its great to be a Lion for so many reasons. Every week our motto of We Serve is in full display with some type of project to help others. Great timing this week for our guest speaker. I think everyone knows whats happening on the other side of the earth right now. We are fortunate and thankful the United States military answers the call to protect at home and abroad. George Nami, the Texas Ombudsmen Director for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) gave us a better understanding how we can support our guard and reserve members.

ESGR has a program in every state staffed by volunteers to serve employers and reserve components. Some of those issues include employment protection, employers rights and support, mediation, and make it possible for citizen response through the Guard and Reserve. Nami spoke of some great examples of employers who recognized the needs of deployed member families. Those military families without a husband or wife during the duration of the deployment face a great challenge at home. Employers and communities who go the extra mile to help, make America stronger as that warfighter knows that all is well at home. He also explained there are ESGR events at Guard and Reserve units to invite the employers of unit members to better understand the essential mission and to also see the great value they have in hiring Guard and Reserve members who come to the job with great work ethic, incomparable skills and leadership. Mr. Nami can be contacted at 713-444-9130 or gnami@sbcglobal.net for more information.
The Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce is just 15 percent away from their goal of signatures to begin applying for a Cypress Creek Parkway Management District, something they hope will help improve the area.

Spanning FM 1960 from Texas 249 to Interstate 45, the district could raise revenue from fees, assessments or taxes to be used to benefit the area through means like enhanced public safety, graffiti abatement and roadway beautification.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Empower Pharmacy opens state-of-the-art compounding pharmacy in northwest Houston

In order to apply for the parkway to become a management district, Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce President Bobby Lieb said they need signatures from more than 50 percent of the assessed value of properties in the area. Right now, they are at about $160 million in signatures or commitments.

I still continue to do outreach and follow-ups with some of the property owners weve made initial contacts with, Lieb said. Its a real job.

There is some hesitancy from some property owners, he added, as the economy is still recovering and some of them are struggling to fill vacant properties in the area.

There is a little bit of hesitancy, but nobody has been opposed to it, he said. The feedback were getting is across the board recognition that something needs to be done.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Lone Star College-CyFair president appointed CEO of system's online college

Uncertainty in the market is the hardest issue with property and business owners, he said, not knowing if there will be another COVID-19 wave, and cashflow is tight for many of them, which creates hesitancy about signing onto a district which could cause property values, and property taxes, to increase.

Most often the conversation revolves around how much is this gonna cost, and what do I get for it, and thats a very fair question to ask, Lieb said.

In some areas of the corridor, he said, there has been increased decline, with additional vandalism, graffiti and break-ins.

The word on the street is its getting worse in some of those places and visibly, you can see it, Lieb said. If ever there was a time for a management district, its now, but its a long process for us still to get this thing off the ground.

In the services and assessment plan drafted for the district, 40 percent of the districts initial budget would be put toward safety and security, he said, like hiring additional security, additional security cameras and better lighting.

The beauty of the district is essentially it hires full-time staff to manage those programs where if you look to the chamber, Ive got 100 different things Im working on, he said. The management district, you have people on the ground. Its their full-time job just working on improving the Cypress Creek corridor.

Lieb said hes hoping to finish getting signatures by the end of this year. He needs more help now getting signatures, as the other person with the chamber helping him left for a full-time position with the Houston-Galveston Area Council, and he is still looking to fill that position.

If I can get one or two people helping me with phone calls and emails, I can get it done by the end of the year, he said.

paul.wedding@hcnonline.com
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Alaska this week reported its highest daily number of resident COVID-19 cases so far this year as health officials struggle to keep pace with testing and contact tracing and hospitals juggle a surge in patients with staff shortages and admissions for other conditions.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and members of his administration on Thursday announced plans aimed at increasing staffing to help with COVID-19 cases, including speeding the licensing process for health care workers and seeking federal contracts for more workers, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The state's chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, said hospital staffing is a concern.

Alaska reported 701 resident COVID-19 cases on Thursday, one of the highest daily rates since the start of the pandemic. That number may be lower than the real number of infections, health officials said, because of testing and contact tracing backlogs.

According to the state hospital association, hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19 are nearing pandemic highs. Combined with staff shortages and busy summertime admissions, Alaska's health care system faces the threat of being overwhelmed, providers and state officials said.

Health care providers are deciding which patients get intensive care unit beds and are struggling to transfer severely ill patients to other overwhelmed facilities.

As far as were concerned, the crisis we have been warning about is here, said Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. And we need to act like that. It looks like its going to get a lot worse.

Health care officials have urged Alaskans to get vaccinated and to wear masks indoors to slow the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. Health care providers have said that most of the severely ill COVID-19 patients have been unvaccinated.

Dunleavy, a Republican, told reporters Thursday that Alaskans should talk to their doctors about getting vaccinated if thats what they want to do.

We know what we need to do. People know what they need to do, Dunleavy said. They need to have conversations with their doctor and make a decision, if thats what they want to do. If they dont, then they have to understand that they run the risk of getting infected, especially with this variant that is highly contagious.

Asked if that is an effective way to encourage vaccination, Dunleavy said, This isnt North Korea. You dont dictate to people how they live their lives.

I think its the best strategy. Its 2021. This isnt some place in Europe in 1939. You have conversations with folks. ... You have conversations with your doctors. You have conversations with your friends ... People arent stupid, he said.

Dunleavy was infected with the coronavirus in in February. His office has said that Dunleavy decided to be vaccinated in June.

State health officials have that said that 54% of Alaskans 12 or older are fully vaccinated.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  The number of new COVID-19 cases in South Carolina are reaching levels only seen in the worst days of the pandemic before vaccines were widely available, leading hospitals to warn unless the spike in cases is curbed soon there will be dire consequences.

There were 6,697 new cases of the disease reported Friday in South Carolina, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported.

The only days with more cases reported since the pandemic started 18 months ago were 7,680 cases on Jan. 6 and 7,450 on Jan. 8.

The expected surge in new cases once children returned to school across South Carolina and the proliferation of the highly transmissible delta variant has fueled a spike that requires our attention and legislative consideration of the removal of masking restrictions," the health agency wrote in a statement.

The Republican-dominated General Assembly in June passed an item in the state budget threating to take state money away from school districts that require masks. Back then, South Carolina was averaging 150 new COVID-19 cases a day. Now that average is above 4,500 new cases.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is one of the biggest defenders of the mask ban and hasn't directly addressed the pandemic since Aug. 9.

Hospitalizations and deaths are also rising. South Carolina is averaging 30 deaths a day after being at less than three deaths a day in mid-summer.

Doctors across the state have held news conferences this week with grim warnings. They have all repeatedly said this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Around 90% of the COVID-19 patients in hospitals have not been fully vaccinated.

Hospitals across the state are warning of full emergency rooms and ICUs. Prisma Health, which operates hospitals in about half the state, had 464 COVID-19 patients Friday. The hospitals in the Midlands and Upstate had 12 on July 2, officials said.

Lexington Medical Center last week had almost 70 patients on ventilators last week, the most in the 50-year history of the hospital. The only reason the hospital hasn't set another record is several patients died, said Dr. Brent Powers, chief medical officer for the hospital.

The hospital has started plans to curtail elective procedures and clear room for extra patients. But at some point, nurses, doctors and other staff can only put in so many hours, Powers said.

The fear, and you can see it in everyones eyes at these meetings  is this going to be a three-to-four-week thing or is this going to be a three-to-four-month thing? Powers said. If its three to four months, our community is going to suffer in ways that I dont think it has ever experienced before.

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.

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Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
HONOLULU (AP)  The Hawaii Senate on Friday voted to approve Gov. David Ige's nomination of Native Hawaiian attorney Sonja McCullen to serve on the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

Senators voted 24-0, with one senator excused, to confirm MuCullen, who currently serves as a deputy prosecutor in Honolulu.

Sen. Karl Rhoads, the chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his panel found McCullen to be well-qualified for the position.

All the testimony submitted was in support of Ms. McCullen's appointment to the Intermediate Court of Appeals and testifiers commended her knowledge of the law and industrious work ethic, Rhoads said before the vote.

McCullen has served as a clerk for a Hawaii Supreme Court Associate Justice Paula Nakayama and as an attorney for United Public Workers.

She taught Hawaiian studies and language for five years at Waianae High School during what she called her first career as a teacher.

McCullen emerged as Iges choice after the Senate rejected his initial appointee, Daniel Gluck, the executive director of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission and former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii.

Glucks supporters commended his keen legal mind, his dedication to social justice and his fairness. But critics complained it was inappropriate for Ige to appoint Gluck, a white man, when it has been decades since any Native Hawaiians had been appointed to either the state appeals or supreme courts.

Testifiers said lived experience matters for judges, and it was vital for the states top courts to have people with Hawaiian knowledge and background, pointing to former Chief Justice William Richardson as an example.

With Richardson at the helm from 1966 to 1982, the Hawaii Supreme Court applied Hawaiian concepts  like the idea that certain resources like water could not be privately owned  to the law. It declared that new land created by lava belongs to the state, not those who own adjacent property.

Richardson's court has also been credited with helping expand Native Hawaiian rights and giving the public more access to beaches.

Under Hawaii law, the governor selects appointees to the appeals and supreme courts from a list provided by the state Judicial Selection Commission.
A woman who cradled a baby in her arms at the airport and posted on social media that she loved her job. A young husband with a child on the way. Another man who always wanted to be in the military. A man who planned to become a sheriffs deputy when his deployment ended. Heart-wrenching details have emerged about some of the 13 U.S. troops killed in a horrific suicide bombing at Afghanistans Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 160 Afghans.

Eleven Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier were among the dead, while 18 other U.S. service members were wounded in Thursday's bombing, which was blamed on Afghanistans offshoot of the Islamic State group. The U.S. said it was the most lethal day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

Here are the stories of the victims killed and the people who are mourning them:

NICOLE GEE, 23

A week before she was killed, Sgt. Nicole Gee cradled a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport. She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, I love my job.

Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California, was a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Brig. Gen. Forrest C. Poole III, commanding general of 2nd Marine Logistics Group, said his unit mourned the immense loss of Sgt. Gee, and the others.

Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years, wrote about how hard the death hit her.

I cant quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how Im never going to see her again, Harrison wrote on Facebook. How her last breath was taken doing what she loved  helping people.  Then there was an explosion. And just like that, shes gone.

Gees Instagram page shows another photo of her in fatigues, holding a rifle next to a line of people walking into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: escorting evacuees onto the bird.

Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek isle and holding a beer in Spain. One from this month in Kuwait shows her beaming with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.

Harrison said her generation of Marines hears war stories from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, but they seem distant until the peaceful float you were on turns into  your friends never coming home.

Gees car was still parked in a lot at Camp Lejeune, and Harrison mused about all the Marines who walked past it while she was overseas.

Some of them knew her. Some of them didnt. she said. They all walked past it. The war stories, the losses, the flag-draped coffins, the KIA bracelets & the heartbreak. Its not so distant anymore.

RYLEE McCOLLUM, 20

Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, a Marine and native of Bondurant, Wyoming, was married and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, said.

He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad," McCollum said. She said her brother was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine. ... Hed carry around his toy rifle and wear his sisters pink princess snow boots and hed either be hunting or he was a Marine. Sometimes it would be with nothing on underneath, just a T-shirt.

McCollum said her brother wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach once he completed his service. Another sister, Roice McCollum, told the Casper Star Tribune that her brother was on his first deployment when the evacuation in Afghanistan began.

We want to make sure that people know that these are the kids that are sacrificing themselves, and hes got a family who loves him and a wife who loves him and a baby that hell never get to meet, Cheyenne McCollum said.

Regi Stone, the father of one of Rylee McCollums friends, described McCollum as a good kid, who was resilient, smart and courageous. Stone shared a note that his wife, Kim, sent to their son Eli Stone, who is also in the military and deployed elsewhere. Kim wrote that she remembered telling the friends to run the other way if they had to go in first and that both of them said, If we die doing this, we die doing what we love.

KAREEM MAELEE GRANT NIKOUI, 20

Lance Cpl. Kareem MaeLee Grant Nikoui, of Norco, California, sent videos to his family hours before he died, showing himself interacting with children in Afghanistan. In one clip, he asked a young boy to say hello.

Want to take a video together buddy? Nikoui said, leaning in to take a video of himself with the boy. All right, were heroes now, man.

Family friend Paul Arreola said the videos show "the heart of this young man, the love he has.

The family is just heartbroken," he said. Arreola described Nikoui as an amazing young man full of promise who always wanted to be a Marine and set out to achieve his goal. He is survived by his parents and three siblings.

He loved this country and everything we stand for. Its just so hard to know that weve lost him, he said, crying.

Nikoui was also in the JROTC, and the Norco High School Air Force JROTC posted on Facebook that he was one of our best Air Force JROTC cadets and that Kareem was set on being a Marine & always wanted to serve his country.

MAXTON SOVIAK, 22

The flag in front of the Ohio home where Navy Hospital Corpsman Maxton Max Soviaks parents live was at half-staff as a steady stream of friends, coaches, teachers and family stopped by to offer condolences.

Soviak, of Berlin Heights, was remembered as a friendly, well-liked guy who amused others and had been a member of the state champion wrestling team and made the final four football playoffs two years in a row. He had 12 brothers and sisters.

"Max was a wonderful son who loved his family, his community, and was proud to serve in the U.S. Navy," where he planned to spend his career, his family said in a statement. Words cannot express how heartbroken we are with this news and we will miss Max tremendously.

Soviak graduated from Edison High School in 2017. At Friday nights football game, fans honored him with a moment of silence.

Max always was smiling, said Vince Ragnoni, his electrical technology teacher. Max was good for pulling shenanigans and liked to get other people to laugh.

He enlisted in September 2017 and attended Hospital Corpsman School in San Antonio, Texas, before postings in Guam and at Camp Pendleton.

In his final words to his mother over FaceTime, he reassured her he would be safe, they said.

Dont worry mom, my guys got me," he said. "They wont let anything happen to me.

HUMBERTO SANCHEZ, 22

Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez was among 17 members of his Indiana high school class who joined the military after graduation.

Sanchez played on Logansport High Schools varsity soccer team and was in the homecoming court his senior year, Principal Matt Jones said. Jones called Sanchez a dedicated artist who took many art classes along with honors and dual credit college courses.

Humberto was a bright, athletic young man who was popular, well-liked by his soccer teammates, classmates, coaches and teachers, Jones said. He was honored to be putting on the Marine uniform and serving his country.

DYLAN MEROLA, 20

In his last message home, Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola told his mother he wouldn't be able to speak to her for a while because he was being moved to a new location in Afghanistan.

I love you and Ill talk to you as soon as I get home, were his final words, Cheryl Merola told KCAL-TV.

Merola, from Rancho Cucamonga, California, had only been in the country less than two weeks when he was killed, family members said.

He planned to study engineering in college after his military service.

Before the football game Friday at his alma mater, Los Osos High School, fans were told the school had received devastating news" and a moment of silence was observed in his honor.

A GoFundMe account for his funeral had far exceeded its goal of $15,000 by Saturday afternoon.

Dylan was a beloved son, brother, grandson, great grandson, nephew, a great friend, and a brave soldier who paid the ultimate sacrifice at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation," the announcement said.

His tearful mother said he was one of the best kids ever.

Kind loving, giving to every single person, she said. He would give anything for anybody.

JARED SCHMITZ, 20

Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz grew up in the St. Louis area and was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts, his father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX Radio.

This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be, Mark Schmitz said of his son. His life meant so much more. Im so incredibly devastated that I wont be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.

TAYLOR HOOVER, 31

Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Utah, had been in the Marines for 11 years and was remembered as a hero, his father, Darin Hoover, said.

He gave his life protecting those that cant protect themselves, doing what he loved serving his country, said Darin Hoover, who lives in a Salt Lake City suburb.

He said he had heard from Marines who said they were grateful they had his son as their sergeant.

They look back on him and say that theyve learned so much from him, Hoover said. One heck of a leader.

Hoover said his son was also a best friend to his two sisters and loved all his extended family. He had a girlfriend in California and was the kind of guy who lit up a room when he came in, his father said.

Nate Thompson of Murray, Utah, first met Hoover when they were 10 years old in Little League football. They stayed friends through high school, where Hoover played lineman. He was undersized for the position, but his heart and hard work more than made up for what he lacked in stature, Thompson said. As a friend, he was selfless and kind.

If we had trouble with grades, trouble with family or trouble on the field, we always called Taylor. Hes always levelheaded, even if hes struggling himself, he said.

DEAGAN WILLIAM-TYELER PAGE, 23

Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California, and planned to go to trade school and possibly become a lineman after his enlistment ended, his family said in a statement.

Page was raised in Red Oak, Iowa, and in the Omaha area and joined the Marines after graduating from Millard South High School. He is mourned by his girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents, the family statement said.

Daegan will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart, the statement said. Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful for the friends and family who are surrounding us during this time."

JOHANNY ROSARIO PICHARDO, 25

Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo was being mourned in the Massachusetts mill town of Lawrence she called home, the state's capital and her birthplace in the Dominican Republic.

We will not allow her to be forgotten, said Jaime Melendez, director of veterans services in Lawrence, where Rosario attended high school.

Rosario served with the Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which praised her work as supply chief this spring.

Sonia Guzman, the Dominican Republics ambassador to the United States, tweeted that the Caribbean nation shares in the loss.

Peace to your soul! she tweeted in Spanish.

RYAN KNAUSS, 23

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was remembered as a funny man who loved his country and was looking forward to coming home and moving to Washington, D.C., relatives told WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.

He was a super-smart hilarious young man, stepmother Linnae Knauss said.

Knauss had been stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and he was part of the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, 8th Psychological Operations Group, the Defense Department said.

A motivated young man who loved his country, his grandfather, Wayne Knauss, told the TV station. He was a believer, so we will see him again in Gods heaven.

HUNTER LOPEZ, 22

Cpl. Hunter Lopez had planned to follow in the footsteps of his parents and embark on a career in law enforcement after his military deployment.

As a teen he had been in the Explorer program at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in Southern California, where his mother and father serve, and planned to join the force there himself, Sheriff Chad Bianco said.

We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Hunter, who chose to follow a life of service, selflessness, courage and sacrifice, like his parents, Bianco said in a statement.

Lopez's mother is a sheriff's deputy, and his father is a captain.

The union representing Riverside sheriff's officers said there were no words for how deeply Lopez would be missed.

Hunter was the victim of vicious evil and was killed because he wore a United States Marine uniform with love and pride, the Riverside Sheriffs Association said. Our entire community feels the anguish, and we mourn the death of Hunter, who answered the call to serve, defend and protect our nation.

DAVID LEE ESPINOZA, 20

Lance Cpl. David Lee Espinoza, a Marine from Laredo, Texas, joined the military after high school, and was being remembered as a hero by his mother.

He was just brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. Thats who he was, he was just perfect," his mother, Elizabeth Holguin. told the Laredo Morning Times.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said Espinoza embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service.

Cuellar concluded, The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles and Hanson reported from Helena, Montana. Associated Press writers John Seewer in Berlin Heights, Ohio, Tom Davies in Indianapolis, Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, Janie Har in San Francisco, Amy Forliti in Minneapolis, Terry Wallace in Dallas, Lindsay Whitehurst and Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City, and Robert Burns and Darlene Superville in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

A 19-year-old charged in connection to a shooting that killed a New Orleans police detective and injured another person has been denied bond for one of the charges against him, court records show.

Frederick Jackson, was denied bond for the capital murder charge, while bond was set at $2 million for the attempted capital murder charge, according to court records.
Republicans in the Texas House gave initial approval to a $1.8 billion border security spending bill Friday, shooting down Democrats attempts to derail the legislation along with most of their proposed amendments to it.

The lower chamber passed the bill on an 81-38 vote that mostly followed party lines, putting one of Gov. Greg Abbott's top priorities on track to reach the Senate with nine days left in the special legislative session. The measure will likely head to the Republican-controlled upper chamber with all its central provisions intact, including a plan to spend $1 billion on barriers and fencing along parts of the Texas-Mexico border.

By the time the bill came up for a vote early Friday evening, Republicans had adopted just two of the Democrats 19 amendments, most of which sought to divert the funds to local law enforcement officials, nonprofits that assist migrants at the border and other areas that diverged sharply from Republicans vision for the bill.

Led by state Rep. Greg Bonnen, a Friendswood Republican who authored the bill, Republicans appeared determined to mostly preserve the spending package as drafted. If approved by the Senate, it would boost the Texas budget for border security to nearly $3 billion over the next two years, more than tripling the most recent two-year allotment.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

Bonnen, the Houses chief budget writer, staunchly defended Abbotts plan to spend $1 billion on a barrier that the governor hopes will eventually cover more than 700 miles of the border. Under questioning from Democrats, who framed the plan as archaic and ineffective, Bonnen noted it would not be the only tactic used to deter or prevent migrants from crossing the border.

Common sense tells you that fencing does work, Bonnen said. Theres a fence around the Capitol. People have fences around their yards. There are security fences around businesses. It is not a novel or unusual concept, and it is proven that it is actually helpful. Now, is that the only security strategy that you would ever deploy. Well, no, there are other things to consider.

Abbotts policy and budget director told a House committee earlier this week that the cost of the barrier would be higher than $1 billion, though she did not give an exact figure.

Democrats argued that the bill is too focused on using military force and detaining migrants, when they said at least a portion of the funds should be used for humanitarian efforts and other measures aimed at helping those seeking asylum.

Abbott has directed state troopers and members of the National Guard to arrest and jail migrants who cross the border on charges such as trespassing and destruction of property as U.S. Customs and Border Patrol continues to encounter record numbers of crossings  a rare effort by a state to essentially enforce immigration law, which is a responsibility of the federal government by law.

State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, accused Republicans of fueling racism against Latinos as he sought to connect the bill to the 2019 massacre at a Walmart in his hometown that left 23 dead. Authorities said the gunman, who was charged with hate crimes, admitted to targeting Mexican immigrants.

Im not here to question anyones intentions because intentions to me are secondary to results, said Moody, who is Latino. And one of the results of HB 9 and bills like it is that people looking for someone to blame will weaponize this sentiment, aim at the target it puts on the back of communities like mine, and pull the trigger.

Aside from the barrier funding, the spending package would fund the deployment of an additional 1,800 National Guard troopers  on top of the 700 troopers already funded by the budget approved during the spring  to oversee construction of the temporary fencing.

It would also devote $155 million to fund a surge in Department of Public Safety troopers and equipment sent to the border region as part of Abbotts border initiative, along with $170 million to establish and staff three new processing and intake centers for migrants apprehended near the border on state jail charges.

Amid growing concerns about capacity issues, the bill would also set aside funds to convert existing state detention centers so they can be used to house detained migrants. The state is currently sending migrants to a detention facility in Frio County with a capacity of about 1,400. There were 488 inmates at the center Wednesday, according to a TDCJ spokesman.

The bill passed with the support of state Rep. Eddie Morales Jr., a Democrat from Eagle Pass who was the only member of his party to support the bill. The House adopted an amendment from Morales to set aside $14 million from the bill for law enforcement costs in border counties, including overtime costs incurred at county jails where migrants are being detained.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
The House voted 115 to 3 to advance a bill Friday night to expand virtual learning programs for Texas schools beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill  opposed by teachers groups but supported by administrators  attempts to strike a delicate balance by opening up more virtual learning, but not too much. Teachers and administrators are facing pressure from both sides, as some parents are asking for more virtual options for their kids, while others insist that their children only receive in-person instruction.

We understand virtual learning is not for every child, but we have heard from many parents asking for the option, Rep. Keith Bell, a Forney Republican who sponsored the bill, said on the House floor.

A small number of virtual-only schools have existed in Texas for more than a decade, and schools were allowed to receive state funding for their virtual classes last year under an emergency order from Gov. Greg Abbott, but he did not extend that order to this school year.

Abbott has also refused to allow schools to enact mask mandates, though the Texas Supreme Court is allowing districts to do so, on a temporary basis. That could end anytime as the high court, whose nine justices are all Republicans, considers the matter.

COVID IN SCHOOLS: Cases reported among Texas students nearly triples in a week

The bill passed Friday creates a new pathway for schools to access state funding for online programs going forward, without touching the previous system. Schools would receive state funding for their virtual classes, although it caps such programs at 10 percent of students in a district. The state commissioner of education, Abbott appointee Mike Morath, has the ability to waive that cap. Parents who wish to send their children to school in-person are guaranteed the right to do so.

The legislation also places other guard rails on the virtual program, saying that teachers cant be forced to teach both in-person and virtual classes, and teachers who are assigned virtual classes have to agree to those assignments in writing.

The House will need to vote on the bill one more time to send it back to the Senate, where it passed earlier in this special session.

Teachers groups that oppose the bill say that since theres already a process to allow virtual learning, the state doesnt need a new law expanding it. They point to research showing that most kids do worse with virtual-only classes, but supporters of the bill argue that there is a small number who do better online, and increased flexibility will give students and their parents more options.

The COVID-19 pandemic created an enormous, unprecedented experiment for virtual learning as many teachers around the state tried to figure out on the fly how to do their jobs without holding in-person class.

TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

That caused problems: Theres a gap in standardized test performance between students who attended more school in person last year versus those who did not, particularly in math, said Monty Exter, lobbyist for the Association of Texas Professional Educators, which opposes the bill.

Theres also a concern among experts and academics that remote-only learning could have damaging social and emotional effects on kids who arent able to interact with their peers.

We recognize students are best served in brick-and-mortar facilities, period, said Colby Nichols, lobbyist for the Texas Association of School Administrators, which supports the bill. But its the 21st century. Some students do perform well in virtual environments, and public schools need to have the capabilities to serve students as parents see fit.

Frankly this is something that families in our districts are clamoring for.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
The Texas Senate is taking issue with a late-night bipartisan addition to the GOP priority elections bill that seeks to prevent cases like that of Crystal Mason, a Black woman from Fort Worth who was sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting, even though she has said she did not know she was ineligible and the ballot never counted.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said in a tweet Friday the amendment was his only objection to the bill, which would have otherwise been on its way to the governors desk.

Instead, it will now head to a committee of members from each chamber who will negotiate their differences and come up with a new, final bill. Hughes did not respond to a request for comment.

The amendment was pushed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican from Deer Park, who had been working on it for months with Rep. John Bucy III, a Democrat from Austin. The author of the bill, Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, on Thursday approved of the amendment, which passed with no debate.

While Texas law states that a voter must know when he or she is ineligible to vote, the amendment would revise that language to clarify that a person must be aware of the particular circumstances that make the person not eligible and also that those circumstances make the person not eligible in order to be criminally charged. If passed, the language would be retroactive and could affect Masons case.

Cain could not be reached Friday but said Thursday in an interview that he proposed it because its the right thing to do.

Were just clarifying things to make sure that innocent mistakes dont affect peoples ability to vote, Cain said.

HOUSE-SENATE TENSION: Texas Republicans say lowering the bar for overturning elections is bad policy. So why did they try?

Mason was on supervised release  after serving five years in federal prison for tax fraud  when she tried to vote in 2016. Texas law prohibits felons from voting while on parole, probation or under supervision.

She has said she did not know she was ineligible when she filled out and signed an affidavit to get her provisional ballot. Yet she was sentenced to five years in state prison, serving 10 months.

Mason is out on bond pending her appeal, which is currently before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the states highest criminal court.

The Fort Worth Court of Appeals affirmed the trial courts ruling against Mason by arguing that even if Mason did not know she was ineligible to vote, she knew she was on federal supervised release.

The amendment could also possibly impact the case of Hervis Rogers, a Black man from Houston who was arrested this July on charges that he illegally voted in last years Democratic primary while on parole. Rogers had made national headlines for waiting six hours in line to vote.

Democrats immediately reacted in anger to Hughes opposition to the bipartisan amendment.

The cruelty is the point, Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, tweeted.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
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It is an authentic prayer, offered with a true heart of worship and awe of what the Lord has done. How can we pray in such a way? Every Christian may know how to pray, but not everyone knows how to pray well.

Davids prayer in 2 Samuel 7 was given in response to Gods overwhelmingly gracious promises to him. If we step into the heart of this prayer, the modern-day believer can learn much from Davids words poured out in response to the Word of God declared over his life.

It is an authentic prayer, offered with a true heart of worship and awe of what the Lord has done. How can we pray in such a way? Every Christian may know how to pray, but not everyone knows how to pray well.

Thankfully, the Bible is full of examples, like David, that show us what a deep and true relationship with God looks like, and how that is expressed in prayer.

What Is David's Prayer?

Then King David went in, sat in the Lords presence, and said, Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far? (2 Samuel 7:18)

The opening line in this chapter is reminiscent of how we approach God. As we pray to Him, we enter into His presence. David may have entered into a holy temple, while we can enter a church or simply pray at home. The prayer that David speaks in this particular chapter is one of thanksgiving. He begins by asking God a question about his worth. Who is he that God would choose to bless him and his people? Based on the tone, we can glean that David is grateful for the blessings but knows he does not deserve them.

David continues, acknowledging that what God has done for him is but a fraction of Gods power. And in Gods power, the Lord has revealed to David present and future blessings for him and the people of Israel. He says, for you have also spoken about your servants house in the distant future (2 Samuel 7:19). David praises God for His glory.

To David, there is no one like God, and no people like the nation of Israel. David mentions to God, Gods promise and act of redeeming the Israelites from Egypt. God has been consistent with His people, so David requests that God fulfill another promise, one that he mentions in the prayer.

David states that God told him, I will build a house for you (2 Samuel 7:27).

The psalmist doesnt repeat the promise as though God has forgotten. Instead, him telling God about the promise He made reflects a state of dependency. We pray to God not because He doesnt know our needs, He does (Matthew 6:8). We pray as an act of faith, showing God how much we need Him. In Davids prayer, he touches on a request from God, but also a sense of gratitude.

Also apparent, Davids needs and gratitude will continue forever, which is the same reason he desires for God to bless Israel forever (2 Samuel 7:28). He knows that every promise God grants He will fulfill. This notion of forever is how he ends the prayer.

Why Does David Pray This Prayer?

The heart of this prayer rests in the idea of God making a covenant with His people. From the very beginning, God has fulfilled all of His promises beginning in Genesis. And the rest of His promises will be fulfilled through Revelations. Unlike us believers today, David was not able to read the entire Bible. He did not see Jesus and read about His miracles.

Despite what David did not witness and did not know would come, he knew a basic truth about God - He is trustworthy. Therefore, David had reason to give God praise and would always have reason. So when he prays this prayer, we understand the full scope of his gratitude.

What Can We Learn from David's Prayer?

From the way David speaks to the apparent posture of his heart, we can glean three important lessons from David.

1. Reverence for God

As David prays, he calls Lord God multiple times. He speaks as though reminding himself of Gods awesome power, lest he forget or not properly recognize God. In addition to repeating Gods name, David undeniably talks about what God has done. This acknowledgement of

God's power pays the Lord His due respect.

When we pray, we should address God similar to David. Even if we do not repeat Gods name multiple times, we should pray in a way that acknowledges Gods role in our lives. Do we value God, our time with Him, or His blessings? We should tell Him, just as David did. Not only that we should be unafraid in approaching God through prayer.

2. Dependence on God

David is unashamedly dependent on God. Not just him, but the nation of Israel. David is able to open the prayer by questioning his worth because apart from God he is nothing. Apart from God the nation of Israel would not be free from slavery in Egypt.

Much as David depends on God, we modern day believers do as well. No matter the reason we approach God through prayer, we depend on Him in the good times and the bad.

3. Gratitude for God

Just as we should pray on an ongoing basis, we are also to express gratitude for what God has done. David is grateful for Gods character, His blessings upon the nation, and His promises. Our reasons for gratitude should likewise be numerous. We should speak to God about our specific reasons for Gratitude and work to remind ourselves of those reasons.

Applying Davids Prayer to Our Present Day

With the lessons we learn from Davids prayer, we can strive to improve upon our own prayer lives. We can easily examine our own lives and find examples of broken promises. There are people who made false promises, and sometimes situations seemed promising until suddenly they were not. If there is anyone we can turn to with certainty, that would be God.

David prays confidently, approaching God knowing this reality. We can do the same. And much like David, knowing Gods faithful character we have so much reason to offer praise.

What are some Gods promises outlined for us in the Bible?

If we can be aware of these promises, we can find comfort in the good times and the bad. We can begin to see God in all circumstances.

Today, church is challenged with politics, people are challenged with fear, illness, conflict. America promotes abortion, sexual immorality. There are so many reasons to pray, and knowing that God hears us should bring us joy. As Christians lets be like David, enter in the Lords presence, and pray.

No matter how we pray, we all pray for the same purpose, reaching out to God.

Photo Credit: GettyImages

Aaron Brown is a freelance writer, dance teacher, and visual artist. He currently contributes articles to GodUpdates, GodTube, iBelieve, and Crosswalk. Aaron also supports clients through the freelance platform Upwork.
Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity volunteers this week were putting the finishing touches on a home at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street in Williamstown.

Habitat for Humanity Holds Open House Saturday, Seeks Family for New Project



The foundation is already in for a second Habitat home in Williamstown's Cole Avenue neighborhood. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity is nearly ready to move a family into one Cole Avenue neighborhood home and looking for a family to occupy a second.

On Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., Habitat for Humanity will hold an open house in a newly constructed single family home at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street.

Meanwhile, the non-profit has begun the application process to become the first family to live in a second home next door, where the foundation already is in place and construction soon will be underway.

Both homes are being built on land purchased using Community Preservation Act funds by the board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust for the purpose of subsidized housing.

On Friday morning, NBHFH Project Manager Paul Austin was on the job site of the first home helping to put the finishing touches on it.

He said that the home will be ready for a family of three probably in the middle of September.

"We won't be completely ready [for the open house]," Austin said. "We're still waiting on a few things. But, in all probability, we'll be 90 percent complete. We have a little painting to do, touch-ups and that kind of thing. The gas hasn't been installed, we're supposed to get the refrigerator today."

But with the Labor Day holiday weekend approaching and the family's move-in date close behind, Habitat thought this was the best weekend to celebrate the completion of a building process that has been more challenging than most.

"COVID has kind of thrown off the schedule," Austin said. "We lost three months in the spring [of 2020] when we kind of shut down. Then we were limited to five or six people, just the core volunteers, people who had experience and had been with us for a while.

"There's been material shortages. And because a lot of [trades] people were really busy, it was hard to get electricians or plumbers to schedule us in. Fortunately, that's kind of resolved itself now."

In general, a house this size should take the group about a year to complete, Austin said. The house at the corner of Cole and Maple will take about two years when all is said and done.

Unlike a typical Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity construction project, this one was not able to accept labor contributions from outside groups, including one that would have been a natural partner on the Williamstown project.

"College students, particularly from Williams College, always have been good to us over the years," Austin said. "I think this is the first house they haven't participated in.

"Hopefully, if we get COVID under control, the next house will be a little faster."

That house, located downhill from the nearly completed home, is slated to have a maximum sale price of $147,000. The income eligibility is on a sliding scale based on the size of the family; a family of four would need to have a minimum annual income of $26,500 and a maximum income of $50,460. Those figures are pegged to 30 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.

The application deadline is Oct. 22.

"We like to have them in place early in the process," Austin said. "Each adult [from the selected family] has to contribute 250 hours of sweat equity in the house. It helps them build pride in the house and teaches them how to take care of the house and what goes into it."
Berkshire Health Systems Employees Achieve 90 Percent COVID-19 Vaccination Rate

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  After announcing mandatory employee COVID-19 vaccination in early August, Berkshire Health Systems has seen an increase in the number of employees who have received the vaccine.

When the mandatory vaccination policy was announced, nearly 80 percent of the BHS workforce had been vaccinated. In the following weeks, that rate has risen to 90 percent.

"We're very proud of the tremendous accomplishments of our BHS team since the beginning of the pandemic 15 months ago. Our vaccination rate is just one more indication of our team's commitment to caring for our community," said David Phelps, President and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems. "With the FDA's recent full approval of the Pfizer vaccine, many employees who had been awaiting this approval have stepped forward to be vaccinated. This helps to protect their colleagues, our patients, and the community we all serve."

BHS set a deadline of Oct. 1 for all BHS community members to be vaccinated. The announcement followed an order by the state Department of Public Health that long-term care staff must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 10.

Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association issued a statewide policy statement endorsing mandatory vaccination for all Massachusetts hospitals and health system employees. As an MHA member, BHS joined other hospitals across the state in supporting the MHA's policy and affirming that mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 is the most effective way to prevent its spread and protect public health.

The FDA gave final approval to the Pfizer vaccine on Aug. 23, and BHS Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer Dr. James Lederer said this represents a pivotal moment in the pandemic.

"Full approval carries with it the confirmation that the Pfizer vaccine is safe, effective and has met the rigorous standards required by the FDA. We hope that this offers reassurance to those who are cautious about receiving the vaccine," said Lederer. "Over the past 18 months, publicly available scientific information about COVID-19 and its vaccines has changed rapidly."

Lederer said all three vaccines were given emergency use authorization after undergoing rigorous testing. Since the introduction of the vaccines, robust monitoring programs have been in place to address safety concerns. To date, there have been no reported long-term side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccines are the most effective way of preventing serious illness caused by COVID-19. In Massachusetts, over 5 million people have received at least one dose, of which 4 million are fully vaccinated.

"While cases continue to rise across the state, hospitalizations remain relatively low in comparison to earlier in the pandemic," said Lederer. "We now know that the highly contagious Delta variant can infect individuals who are vaccinated, however fully vaccinated people are much less likely to be hospitalized or die than those who are unvaccinated."

Berkshire Health Systems continues to encourage community members to continue learning about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines from trusted sources such as the CDC, FDA, and WHO. The BHS Testing Centers in Pittsfield and North Adams, and Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington provide the COVID-19 vaccine. Walk-ins are welcome.

To speak with a trained healthcare professional who can answer questions about COVID-19 vaccination or to make a vaccine appointment, call 1-855-BMC-LINK (1-855-262-5465).
Afghan journalist Ali Reza Ahmadi, who was reporting from the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, was among those killed in the deadly bombing outside the Kabul airport on August 26. Another journalist Juhad Hamidi also died the same day at the airport. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Afghanistan affiliates, the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) and the Afghanistans National Journalists Union (ANJU) continue to draw attention to the plight of the countrys media and the future for freedom of expression.

Ali Reza Ahmadi, a reporter for the Raha news agency was killed in the Kabul airport suicide bombing on August 26, which also claimed the lives 170 people, including 13 US service members.

The Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the bombing. Video shot by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies strewn around a canal on the edge of the airport.

The AIJA reported that journalist Juhad Hamidi, a presenter of the Jahan Television, was among those killed though it is not clear if he was reporting or also among those trying to evacuate.

Due to the increased panic and desperation amongst Afghanistans media community as the deadline looms for the US evacuation on August 31, thousands of Afghani media workers have plead ed for evacuation from the country, fearing the repercussions of their reporting.

The IFJ and its affiliates have logged more than 2,000 requests for assistance from media workers trying to flee the country.

IFJ general secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: The International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) expresses condolence to the family members of journalists Ali Reza Ahmadi and Zuhal Hamidi. The IFJ expresses grave concern to the security of both local and international journalists in Afghanistan at this critical juncture and is coordinating with partners and governments to do all it can to evacuate journalists most at risk.

To help IFJ support journalists in Afghanistan, donate to the IFJ safety fund.
Warren Buffett turns 91 on Monday. In honor of his birthday, I'd like to give you two things:

My free ebook, Warren Buffett Predicts the Future, which you can download here.

A compendium of some of the secrets to Buffett's success that he's shared over and over again.

Longtime readers will know that I've spent time scouring Buffett's annual Berkshire Hathaway letters and other pronouncements for useful advice. It's striking to realize how simple some of it is -- and yet the sheer number of people I'm sure we both know who so often take the opposite course.

It's all there for the learning. For the day Buffett turns 91, here's a sample.

1. Fortune favors the bold.

In 1951, when he was not even 21 years old, Buffett took a train to Washington, DC on a Saturday, and "pounded on the door" of the headquarters at the insurance company, Geico, where his mentor and investing hero, Benjamin Graham, was chairman.

His brash arrival led to a four-hour lecture on the insurance industry from a top executive who would later become CEO, and that tutorial led to Buffett's lifelong connection to Geico. Today, Berkshire owns all of Geico itself, and Berkshire's insurance interests are what Buffett calls one of the company's "crown jewels."

Had Buffett not been bold enough to show up at Geico on that day 70 years ago, it's likely none of this would have happened. Audacity pays off; early audacity can pay off most.

2. Measure things, so you can improve them.

Buffett very likely holds the record for an unusual statistic: It's that he claims to have held onto a copy of every federal tax return he's ever filed, going all the way back to 1944, when he was just 13 years old.

There probably aren't that many people still alive who first filed in 1944, never mind actually kept all of their returns all this time. As a result, he can tell you things like -- well, like the dates in 1951 on which he originally bought and sold shares of Geico.

This is an unusual example, but the lesson Buffett shares here is clear: Things that get measured can be recorded, and the successes and failures you record are the ones that you can learn from and improve.

3. Believe what you see with your own eyes.

I love this one, because when Buffett explained it in one of his Berkshire shareholder letters, he did so with a quote from Henry David Thoreau: "It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see."

What Buffett spent decades looking at, he explained, was the success of the Coca-Cola Company. Buffett's very first side hustle involved buying six-packs, dividing them up, and selling them one at a time. And while it pains me to write this, he says he's such a devoted fan of the company that he drinks five cans of their sodas each day.

Not until 1988, which was 52 years after he first started drinking and selling the stuff, did he decide to invest in the company. "If I had been thinking straight," he later wrote, "I would have persuaded my grandfather to sell the grocery store back in 1936 and put all of the proceeds into Coca-Cola stock."

4. Admit your mistakes--to yourself, and others.

Earlier this year, in the latest Berkshire shareholder letter, Buffett embraced an important mistake. It has to do with what he called an "ugly $11 billion write-down" as a result of overpaying for a company.

It's not so much that he admitted the mistake; that was obvious. It's how he worded his mea culpa: "almost entirely the quantification of a mistake I made in 2016 ... No one misled me in any way - I was simply too optimistic."

In fact, Buffett admits mistakes all the time. Perhaps my favorites are the somewhat unexpected, like when he calls buying Berkshire itself a costly mistake, or when he talks about holding on, far too long, to its original core business: textiles.

Of course, we only know the mistakes he actually admits; we don't know if the others he thinks are even bigger, but that he keeps to himself. Still, the lesson is pretty clear. It's hard to learn from your mistakes if you can't admit you've made them.

5. Don't make things harder than they have to be.

What I love about this final piece of advice is that it confirms the benefit of the one listed above. In other words, it's an important lesson Buffett says he's learned as a result of making a big mistake, over and over, for many years.

The mistake? Resisting the calls for nearly 20 years that he should close Berkshire's textile mills, until he finally gave up in the 1980s.

The lesson? I think he summed it up memorably:

"It's not like the Olympics. You don't get any extra points for the fact that something's very hard to do."

I think this is the advice I see ignored most often. People focus so much on how much work and energy it takes to create something -- a house, a business, a work of art -- that they can't focus on how much value other people put on the outputs.

In art, or when the creation is the reward you seek in and of itself, that's fine. But in business? All other things being equal, easier is probably better.
Late Thursday, Apple announced that it had settled a class-action lawsuit with developers over App Store Guidelines. The headline was dramatic: "Apple, US developers agree to App Store updates that will support businesses and maintain a great experience for users." I think that's debatable.

The lawsuit, known as Cameron versus Apple, Inc., alleged that Apple violated antitrust law because of its monopoly control over the iOS app market. As a result, Apple is able to charge unfair commissions since developers have no alternatives.

Apple's control over iOS app distribution has come under fierce scrutiny in the last few years. The company is involved in a high-profile case against Fortnite maker, Epic Games, which is seeking to force Apple to allow both third-party payment systems within the iOS App Store, as well as allowing users to install third-party apps stores.

The company is also facing regulatory pressure, including laws in the U.S. and other countries that seek to force many of the same changes. While this lawsuit involved mostly smaller developers, the same judge that is overseeing the case with Epic will have to approve this settlement. We'll get to why that's important in a minute.

First, however, if you read the press release from Apple, you might think that the company is finally serious about listening to developer concerns and changing its stance on the App Store. The release touts that Apple is giving $100 million to developers, paid out based on their total earnings on the App Store. Oh, and instead of only being able to price apps at an amount ending in .99, developers will have more options to set prices.

You might even think Apple has finally made substantial changes to the App Store rules that would make it easier for developers to use third-party payment systems--arguably the reason for the lawsuit in the first place. Except, that's not really the case.

Instead, what Apple did was change the App Store guidelines to no longer prohibit developers from telling customers about third-party payment options. Well, it won't prohibit them from telling customers about it via email. It still won't allow developers to mention anything about any kind of alternative payment within their app.

According to the proposed settlement, the parties agree that "by informing customers of alternative payment options, developers can avoid paying Apple's commissions and, moreover, exert competitive pressure on Apple to discipline its pricing." That's quite a leap.

Just to be clear, this change means a developer has to acquire a customer through the App Store, collect their contact information within the app, gain consent to contact them for promotional purposes by email, only to then finally be able to let them know there are other payment options available. For the app they already presumably purchased.

Never mind that the real issue has always been Apple's prohibition against telling customers within the actual app. That's the reason that if you download the Netflix app for the first time, it has no information at all about how to actually sign up for Netflix. In order to avoid Apple's 30 percent commission, Netflix won't allow you to sign up with the app, you have to visit the company's website, but it is still prohibited from telling you that.

As a result, the user pays the price of a terrible experience. Nothing about that has changed. That's why this settlement doesn't really settle anything.

Of course, I'm sure there's motivation on Apple's part to propose this settlement, considering that the same judge is expected to soon issue a decision in its case with Epic. The company has far more at stake in that case considering a decision to require third-party payment systems or third-party app stores could be devastating to Apple's services business. There are legitimate concerns that the latter could be a real security issue as well.

Here, Apple gets to look reasonable and show that it's willing to change--just not too much, and not where it really matters. The settlement goes to great length to explain the vigorous and hard-fought negotiations that went into its proposed result. While that's mostly pro forma, it does make the whole thing a bit laughable.

Sure, the named plaintiff in the case, which the filing says has made less than $150 for his app, walks away with $5,000 for his trouble. That's a great deal for him. And, of course, the lawyers think it's a good deal. They walk away with as much as $30 million for their trouble, according to the proposal. For context, that's 120,000 times the amount that the majority of developers are eligible to receive under the settlement.
Yemeni lumberjack Ali al-Emadi spends hours chopping down an acacia tree with an axe as his 12-year-old nephew helps out splitting logs.

In a country blighted by war, Emadi had to turn to logging in his northern al-Mahweet region to eke out a living. An economic collapse has wiped out the farming and building work he used to travel around the country for.

But with demand for firewood soaring due to fuel shortages, there are now concerns that the countrys humanitarian crisis, with millions facing starvation, has compounded the risk of deforestation  threatening both the environment of Yemen and any hope of a long-term livelihood for men like Emadi.

The owners of bakeries use wood and stone to heat their ovens. In the past, they used to use gas, but now there is only wood, Emadi says.

A nephew of lumberjack Ali al-Emadi splits a log with a sledge hammer at his village in Khamis Banisaad district of al-Mahweet province (Reuters)

Vendors load wood onto a truck at a firewood market in Sanaa (Reuters)

A girl looks on as she leads her cow across a spring lake in Khamis Banisaad district of al-Mahweet province (Reuters)

Should there be a good quantity of wood available, we make a living, thank God. But nowadays trees are scarce, the father of seven says. If I get something, we eat. At least we live or die together.

More than six years of war between the recognised government backed by a Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi movement aligned with Iran has killed tens of thousands of people and left 80 per cent of Yemens population reliant on aid.

The fuel shortages due to a coalition blockade on Houthi-held areas, including limiting access to the main port of Hodeidah, have led businesses and families to swap diesel and gas for firewood. The alliance says the blockade is needed to foil arms smuggling.

Around 886,000 trees are felled annually to feed bakeries and restaurants in the capital Sanaa alone, says Abdullah Abul-Futuh, head of biodiversity and natural reserves at Yemens Environment Protection Authority in the city, which is run by Houthi authorities along with most of northern Yemen.

A lumberjack carries a bundle of firewood in Khamis Banisaad district of al-Mahweet province (Reuters)

A boy who works as a lumberjack rides a donkey as it drags a logged tree in Bajil district of Hodeida province (Reuters)

Villagers ride on top of a vehicle loaded with fodder as they cross a spring lake in the Khamis Banisaad district (Reuters)

A vendor waits for customers at a firewood market in Sanaa (Reuters)

Some 5 million trees have been cut down over the past three years across the north, he says.

That is the equivalent of 213sq km (82 sq miles) of forests, knowing that only 3.3 per cent of Yemens total area is classified as forests, Abul-Futuh says.

The authority could not provide comparative figures, saying this was a recent phenomenon.

After gas was discovered in the Marib region in the 1980s, wood cutting became limited to remote areas but the war has choked Yemens energy output, forcing a reliance first on imports and now on wood from trees more usually used to build homes.

Yemen has few woodlands but a relatively rich variety of flora in the oil-producing Arabian Peninsula desert region. In al-Mahweet, known for its thick canopies, several types of acacia, cedar and spruce are vanishing.

Ali al-Emadi, who works as a lumberjack, eats lunch with his family at their house in a village in Khamis Banisaad district of al-Mahweet province, Yemen (Reuters)

Vendors unload firewood bundles from the back of a camel at a market in the Khamis Banisaad district (Reuters)

A girl fills jerry cans with water from a well in Bajil district of Hodeida province (Reuters)

Lumberjacks who have the means buy an acacia tree from landowners for the equivalent of around $100 (73) and then sell logs to traders who send them to the cities.

A 5-ton truck loaded with logs nets the equivalent of $300-$700 in Sanaa, depending on the wood and haulage distance.

Demand depends on the number of fuel ships that make it to Hodeidah port. These days it (demand) is very high, says logger Sulaiman Jubran, who scratches a living selling firewood to visiting traders.

We are scared the country will become a desert, it is already happening ... you no longer see the trees that once covered the mountains, he says.

Forests are largely privately owned and poor families were traditionally allowed to chop wood for free as long as they only cut branches and spared the trunks for regeneration.

Now, we uproot them with mattocks (pickaxes). Nothing is left, Emadi says.

Reuters. Photography by Khaled Abdullah
 Close Dominic Raab refuses to answer questions over his holiday while Taliban advanced on Kabul

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab was warned more than three weeks before the Taliban took control of Kabul that the groups advances would cause a collapse of local security forces and a major humanitarian crisis, according to a leaked report.

The Principal Risk Report paper, seen by The Independent, was presented to the Foreign Office in July  24 days before the Taliban entered Afghanistans capital and at least two weeks before Mr Raab set off for a holiday in Crete.

Peace talks are stalled and US/Nato withdrawal is resulting in rapid Taliban advances, the report said. This could lead to the fall of cities, collapse of security forces, Taliban return to power, mass displacement and significant humanitarian need. The embassy may need to close if security deteriorates.

A Foreign Office spokesperson insisted that it was simply wrong and misleading to suggest this document is in any way at odds with our detailed assessments of the situation in Afghanistan or our public position throughout the crisis.

Mr Raab, who faced mounting calls to resign, was confronted with the report at a Commons Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, during which he claimed intelligence failings led the UK to believe Kabul would not fall in 2021.

He also said that he not be confident at all in the number of British citizens still stranded. Pushed to specify a figure, he eventually conceded it was likely in the low hundreds.
Two decades of engagement in Afghanistan by British troops came to an end on Saturday night as the last military and diplomatic personnel left Kabul airport, ending the largest evacuation mission since the Second World War.

Operation Pitting airlifted more than 15,000 British nationals and allied personnel to safety in little under a fortnight.

But thousands more remain behind, to an uncertain future. They include dozens of Afghan interpreters who worked for the British army but have been told they will not be allowed into the UK because they are a danger to [national] security.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was a moment to reflect on everything we have sacrificed and everything we have achieved in the last two decades.

British boots first hit Afghan soil in November 2001, as part of a coalition tasked with finding the leaders of al-Qaeda in the wake of the deadly 9/11 attacks. But nearly 20 years later, after 457 British service personnel lost their lives, Afghanistan is again under the control of the militant group.

Labour has accused government ministers of being missing in action during the Afghanistan crisis as the blame game over the handling of the withdrawal after a 20-year campaign in the country.

The Sunday Times reported that fingers were being pointed at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) over a lack of escape routes from the country, with claims that up to 9,000 people who may have been eligible to escape  such as women, journalists, and aid workers  were left behind.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace previously said he believed there were between 800 and 1,100 Afghans eligible under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme who would be left behind, while around 100 and 150 UK nationals will remain in Afghanistan, although Mr Wallace said some of those were staying willingly.

But MPs have said that, judging by their correspondence, they thought the true numbers were far higher.

A whistleblower with access to the Foreign Office email accounts reportedly showed The Observer that an inbox used to receive potential Afghan evacuation cases from MPs and others regularly had a 5,000 unread email backlog, with emails from government ministers, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, and MPs going unopened.

Sir Keir said: Can the government tell us how many of the people in those emails got out, or more importantly havent who were eligible to? We need urgent answers from the prime minister on what will be done to ensure the safety of those left behind, on proper support for MPs to be able to do their job and on new leadership at the Foreign Office.

The complacency and incompetence of this government has been exposed yet again and with tragic consequences. Weve known for 18 months that this moment was coming. It is unconscionable that there was no strategy in place to get all the British nationals and Afghans we owed a debt to out.

Around 2,200 of those airlifted to safety  on more than 100 RAF flights  were children, the youngest was just one day old.

One refugee, Soman Noori, gave birth to a baby girl, Havva, on an evacuation flight on its way to Birmingham on Saturday.

And as well as taking people out, the armed forces also flew in vital supplies such as vegetarian and halal meals and 250,000 litres of bottled water, to distribute to those waiting to escape.

British capacity in Afghanistan had been diminished since October 2014, when the central hub of operations in Helmand Province, Camp Bastion, was handed over to Afghan forces and combat troops were withdrawn.

But a small number of personnel stayed behind to help train and advise the Afghan National Security Forces, alongside American forces who continued a scaled-back combat mission.

Last year, President Donald Trumps administration and the Taliban agreed on a withdrawal date for all Nato forces in what is known as the Doha agreement.

In exchange, the Taliban committed to preventing al-Qaeda from operating in areas they controlled, and to have ongoing talks with the western-backed Afghan government.

The pledge to withdraw troops was upheld by President Joe Biden, who said soldiers would be gone before the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

And without the support of the US military, British forces said they had little choice but to leave.

The British embassy and ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, will temporarily relocate to Qatar, but the intention is to reopen an embassy in Kabul as soon as possible.

And ministers have stressed that the Arap scheme is not time-limited, and others deemed vulnerable, such as women and girls, can apply for the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, which will take up to 20,000 refugees in coming years.
A former royal marine who founded an animal shelter in Kabul has been forced to leave staff behind in Afghanistan as he evacuates the crisis-hit country with 173 cats and dogs.

Staff of the animal charity Nowzad, who helped bring pets to the airport in a convoy of two cattle trucks, were prevented from entering the military-controlled area at Kabul airport despite having been granted visas for the UK.

Pen Farthing told The Sun that armed Taliban militants had prevented his Afghan staff from boarding the private charter flight to Britain.

He said staff who had driven with him to the airport were prevented from crossing a line between the Taliban-controlled area and the British-controlled area.

Follow live: UKs last Afghan evacuation flight leaves Kabul

It was surreal to see British and Taliban side by side, he said.

It took about half an hour for the Taliban to release [us] and we drove to the British side. The driver had to get out at the crossing point and a British para took over the driving.

Mr Farthing confirmed that he and his 94 dogs and 79 cats had been admitted to the airport for evacuation, and said British troops had provided assistance.

They have put me in a warehouse and they have been really helpful loading and unloading the crates, he said.

The evacuation of Farthings animals has provoked controversy after receiving a large amount of public support online.

A prominent Tory MP questioned why UK soldiers had been helping to rescue animals ahead of people, while defence secretary Ben Wallace complained that some of Mr Farthings vocal supporters had taken up too much time of senior commanders.

Weve just used a lot of troops to get in 200 dogs, meanwhile my interpreters family are likely to be killed, said Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

More than 1,000 former staff of UK agencies have been left behind in Kabul as the UK ends its evacuation mission on Saturday.

The rescue of Nowzads animals while Afghan refugees were left behind was reported to have caused anger in Whitehall.

This is the first British government explicitly committed to idea of non-white people as equivalent to animals since the abolition of slavery, one official told The Telegraph.

Alongside the animals, Mr Farthing brought 125kg of dry pet food, 72 tins, and 270 litres of water, as well as cleaning and disinfectant supplies to care for his animals and their crates during their long journey back to the UK.

Speaking about his staff members, Mr Farthing said: It is just so depressing I had to leave them behind.

Some of them came with me to the airport but they werent allowed to cross the line from Taliban to British control.

I feel so many things. I feel very sad for them, Im relieved for me and I feel happy for the animals.

There were lots of tears when we said goodbye.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed Mr Farthing and his pets were awaiting departure at Kabul airport, having been processed by the internal systems.

The ministry tweeted on Friday evening: Pen Farthing and his pets were assisted through the system at Kabul airport by the UK armed forces. They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.

On the direction of the defence secretary, clearance for their charter flight has been sponsored by the UK government.

Earlier on Friday, before he had been allowed to pass through the airport, Mr Farthing said that he and his staff had been turned away in the aftermath of the bomb explosions.

He tweeted: The whole team & dogs/cats were safely 300m inside the airport perimeter. We were turned away as Joe Biden had created paperwork rules just 2 hours earlier.

Went through hell to get there & we were turned away into the chaos of those devastating explosions.

Mr Farthing and his animals had not yet left Afghanistan as of Saturday morning, reportedly due to flight delays. The Sun reported his flight was set to fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, before carrying on to the UK.

News of the animal charitys staff being left behind comes as Britains civilian evacuation mission in Afghanistan is set to end. Speaking on the BBC on Saturday morning, General Sir Nick Carter, the head of the armed forces, said very few civilian flights were still taking place.

Were nearing the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today. And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft.

We havent been able to bring everyone out, and that has been heart-breaking. And there have been some very challenging judgements that have had to be made on the ground, he added.

Mr Farthing has been campaigning for weeks to enable Nowzad staff and their families, along with animals cared for by the charity, to be safely evacuated, in a project known as Operation Ark.

Through private donations, a private charter flight was funded to fly the group  and potentially 120 additional people  out of Afghanistan, with the animals in the planes cargo hold.

Mr Tugendhat said his contention centred not on plane capacity but on the use of allied troops and resources as the UK rushed to evacuate as many people as possible in the rapidly evolving humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

He said: As one interpreter asked me a few days ago, Why is my five-year-old worth less than your dog?

I didnt have an answer.
Does size matter? Its an age-old question, one that is typically discussed anecdotally  up until now.

A new scientific study from Kings College London has examined the significance of penis size when it comes to sexual pleasure.

Researchers recruited 12 sexually active heterosexual couples for the study, giving the male partners a series of differently sized silicon rings that could be placed around the base of the erect penis so as to artificially reduce the depth of penetration.

The rings were designed either to make no difference to penetration or to reduce it by either an inch, 1.5 inches, or two inches.

Couples were told to have sex with each ring either three, four or five times.

The female partner was not told which ring was being used and had to rate each encounter on a scale from 0 to 100 in terms of overall sexual pleasure, sexual pleasure from intercourse, and pleasure from an emotional connection to her partner.

The study found that, on average, reducing the depth of penetration led to a statistically significant 18 per cent reduction of overall sexual pleasure with an average 15 per cent reduction in length of the penis.

The studys lead author, David Veale, said: We started with the premise that depth of penetration would not matter to most women. We found that reducing the depth of penetration by an inch led to a statistically meaningful drop in the amount of pleasure experienced.

The longer the erect penis, the less likely the rings had an impact on sexual pleasure. There was, however, a range of individual responses with a minority of women reporting that reducing the depth of penetration was more pleasurable on some occasions.

Veale said that the study could provide significant insights for men experiencing penile shortening due to various health issues.

We need to establish effective interventions so that these men do not seek non-evidence-based solutions like pills and lotions, he said.

However, he noted that the findings should not be misinterpreted as meaning that increasing penile length in a normal man will increase sexual pleasure in women.

That would be a completely different study, he added.
A retired army major has vowed to row 100 miles in a home-made boat to raise money for charity.

Michael Stanley, aka Major Mick, previously completed a 100-mile rowing challenge in December 2020 while sailing twice a week around the Chichester Canal at 2mph.

The 80-year-old raised 44,000 and later sold his boat, named the Tintantic, for 480.

He gave the funds to his local hospice, St Wilfrids Hospice in Bosham in West Sussex.

Now, Stanley, who is from West Wittering, West Sussex, has bought a new boat, the Tintanic II, which he intends to row another 100 miles in around parts of Scotland in order to raise money for Alzheimers research.

Stanley started the journey in Scotland on Friday, rowing along the Kyle of Sutherland.

He previously served in The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards for 35 years.

It was a wonderful day with clean air, blue skies, deep brown peaty water and no-one to be seen, Stanley told PA.

A magical row in the most beautiful countryside one could find.

Stanley will now head towards Loch Ness, where he hopes to see Nessie.

He will then venture towards Edinburgh before returning to England to complete the final miles in the challenge.

All of the money raised this time around will go to Alzheimers Research UK.

Alzheimers disease is the most common cause of dementia in the UK.

It is a progressive condition and symptoms can include confusion, disorientation and getting lost in familiar places, difficulty planning or making decisions, and problems with speech and language.

You can find out more here.
People who contract the Delta variant of coronavirus are more than twice as likely to require hospital treatment than those infected with the previously dominant Alpha variant, a new study has suggested.

The analysis, carried out by Public Health England (PHE) and Cambridge University, looked at more than 43,000 cases confirmed by whole-genome sequencing in England between 29 March and 23 May. It is the largest study yet comparing hospitalisation rates of the two variants, its authors said.

Based on their findings, the researchers warned that outbreaks of the Delta variant in unvaccinated populations might lead to a greater burden on healthcare services than the Alpha variant.

Nearly three-quarters of the infections occurred in people who were unvaccinated, with just 1.8 per cent of those infected having received two doses of a vaccine, according to the study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Close to one in 50 patients were admitted to hospital within two weeks of their first positive test  or 2.3 per cent of Delta cases and 2.2 per cent of those with the Alpha variant.

Researchers then adjusted these figures to take into account other factors  including age, ethnicity and vaccination status  and determined that the risk of being admitted to hospital more than doubled with the Delta variant.

This study confirms previous findings that people infected with Delta are significantly more likely to require hospitalisation than those with Alpha, although most cases included in the analysis were unvaccinated, said Dr Gavin Dabrera, one of the studys lead authors and a consultant epidemiologist at PHEs National Infection Service.

We already know that vaccination offers excellent protection against Delta, and as this variant accounts for over 98 per cent of Covid-19 cases in the UK, it is vital that those who have not received two doses of vaccine do so as soon as possible.

It is still important that if you have Covid-19 symptoms, stay home and get a PCR test as soon as possible.

Previous studies have shown the Delta variant, first discovered in India, to be far more infectious than the Alpha variant, which emerged in Kent and was responsible for the UKs devastating winter wave of infections.

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But vaccines have been found to be highly effective in protecting people against both variants  with the Pfizer jab thought to reduce the risk of hospitalisation with the Delta variant by 96 per cent.

In the new study, the lower number of cases among vaccinated people meant it was not possible to conclude whether the risk of hospitalisation was higher or similar between those who went on to contract either the Alpha and Delta variants.

But the findings were consistent with previous reports suggesting that vaccination leads to a similar relative reduction in the risk of hospitalisation for patients with both variants, the authors said.

Our analysis highlights that in the absence of vaccination, any Delta outbreaks will impose a greater burden on healthcare than an Alpha epidemic, said Dr Anne Presanis, one of the studys lead authors and a senior statistician at the University of Cambridges MRC Biostatistics Unit.

Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individual's risk of symptomatic infection with Delta in the first place, and, importantly, of reducing a Delta patient's risk of severe illness and hospital admission.

More than 88 per cent of people aged 16 and over have had at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the latest government figures  with 90.2 million doses administered so far.

Additional reporting by PA
Secondary school and college pupils will be required to wear face masks in communal areas outside of their classrooms in areas of the south west of England in response to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Starting Friday, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay local authority areas - which have seen an uptick in cases - will get help to increase vaccine and testing and deliver more public health messaging, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Although schools will resume from next week as planned, students in secondary schools and colleges will need to wear face masks in communal areas after the guidance was scrapped on July 19.

The new measures are expected to be in place for five weeks, with the impact monitored.

The new guidance comes after new figures showed growing numbers of local areas - including in the South West - were recording their highest rates of new cases of coronavirus since comparable records began.

The return of schools, a bank holiday weekend about to begin in all nations except Scotland, and a busy calendar of sport and music events likely to attract large crowds are all feared to be events that could push rates higher.

Professor Mike Wade, deputy regional director and NHS regional director of public health for Public Health England South West, said: The announcement that parts of the South West are entering an Enhanced Response Area (ERA) is a reminder that Covid has not gone away.

There are no additional restrictions on the areas receiving additional support or for residents or visitors, Prof. Wade said.

We are working with partners and our Local Authority Directors of Public Health to deliver some additional support to these areas which we hope will amplify the excellent work that is already taking place and allow them more flexibility to introduce additional public health measures if necessary. 

Prof. Wade urged people to exercise more caution and protect themselves and others.
A Spanish judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit against the leader of a movement seeking independence for Western Sahara from Morocco that had accused him of torture, genocide and other crimes.

Judge Santiago Pedraz said the 20-year statute of limitations had expired for the alleged crimes that Brahim Ghali had presumably committed between 1975 and 1990. The judge added that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation of genocide, which was only incorporated in Spains law code in 1995.

Ghali heads the Polisario Front and the self-declared Sahrawi Democratic Arab Republic, based in refugee camps in western Algeria. Morocco annexed Western Sahara in the 1970s and the Polisario Front has long wanted to end Moroccan rule over Western Sahara.

Ghali was at the heart of a recent diplomatic spa t between Spain and Morocco that sparked a migration crisis in Spain's northern African enclave of Ceuta.

In response to Spain allowing the 71-year-old Ghali come to Spain to receive medical treatment for COVID-19 in May, Morocco let down its border guard on the frontier with Ceuta and let thousands of people eager to reach Europe to cross over.

Judge Pedraz questioned Ghali by video conference from the hospital where he was being treated in early June before he was allowed to leave for Algeria last month.
A two-year-old girl has been abducted and taken to Spain, police have said.

Lancashire Police launched an urgent appeal for missing Gracie-May Rogers and said her parents, Kelly Gibson and Lee Rogers, were wanted on suspicion of child abduction.

The toddler, from Lancaster, was last seen with Ms Gibson, 35, at about 10am on Tuesday, but it is believed they and Mr Rogers, 39, boarded a plane at Glasgow airport at 5.30pm on Wednesday and arrived in Alicante at 9.35pm.

Police said there have been no confirmed sightings of them in Spain.

Detective Inspector Andy Ellis said: We are growing increasingly concerned, especially for the welfare of Gracie-May and Kelly Gibson, and we would appeal to anyone who sees the three of them together or separately to get in touch urgently.

The police said said her parents, Kelly Gibson and Lee Rogers, were wanted on suspicion of child abduction (Lancashire Police)

He said the family may have moved on since landing in Alicante.

He added: We appreciate that this incident may cause concern for some people but we are working closely with our partners in the Spanish Police and our overriding priority is the safe return of this young child.

The force appealed to anyone who sees the family or has information on where they are to get in touch as a matter of urgency.

Lancashire Police are urging the public to contact them on 101 quoting log 0621 of August 25.
Police have arrested a 49-year-old man on suspicion in connection with two murders in Westminster.

The suspect is understood to be Lee Peacock, who was found on a canal barge in Ealing, west London, on Wednesday evening suffering serious injuries and taken to hospital.

Police said they believed his injuries to be self-inflicted and he has since been discharged from hospital, and taken into custody at a London police station.

Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley, from the Metropolitan Polices Specialist Crime Command, investigating, said: This is a significant development in our investigation which I hope takes us a step closer to getting justice for the families of Sharon and Clinton.

I am aware that as a result of appeals for information issued by the police, there is more information in the public domain about this case than there might ordinarily be.

On 19 August at 9.30pm, police were called to an address in Ashbridge Street, Westminster, where Sharon Pickles, 45, was pronounced dead.

At 2.15am on Friday, Clinton Ashmore, 59, was pronounced dead at an address in nearby Jerome Crescent.

The Metropolitan Police said both had died from a stab wound to the neck and the two incidents were being treated as linked.
A British taxi driver, his wife, and two of their four children, and a shop owner from London, were among those killed in the Kabul airport attack.

Mohammad Niazi, a 29-year-old from Aldershot, Hampshire, travelled to Afghanistan on Tuesday in the hope of bringing his family to the UK.

His wife and their two daughters  both aged under 10  were also killed in the attack on Thursday by Isis militants that killed more than 180 people.

Their two-year-old son and another daughter are being treated in hospital for their injuries.

Mr Niazis brother Abdul Hamid said the family had been killed during the gunfire in the aftermath of a suicide bombing, according to the BBC.

Mr Niazis friend and housemate, Imran, said Mr Niazi was very, very desperate to bring his family to the UK and that he had travelled to Afghanistan via Azerbaijan to save them after the Talibans return to power.

Mr Niazis wife had been in the process of completing her UK visa application.

My heart is in pieces, theres no words, Imran has said.

His car is parked outside my door, his bedroom is opposite the living room, we see his things everyday, everything reminds us of him. We dont know how to get over it.

He worked 16 or 17 hours a day as a taxi driver to give them a better life. He was so happy whenever he saved up to buy new clothes and toys. Everything was for the benefit of his kids to give them the best life ever.

Weve known each other for 14 years. He was like my brother rather than my friend.

Imrans family, who were also in Afghanistan, managed to get on to an evacuation flight on Friday.

Meanwhile, another British man who was killed in the airport attack has been named as 60-year-old Musa Popal.

He had left his home in north London at the end of May to fly to Afghanistan to visit family, and had planned to return home this month.

He was the owner of a shop in Edgware, north London, called Madeena Supermarket, which he ran with his children. His son Hidayat told Sky News his father moved to the UK in 1999 and was a British passport holder.

Mr Popals grandson, an Afghan national, is still missing after the suicide bomb blast by Isis-K militants.

Mr Popals wife and other children are still in Afghanistan and have been unable to leave, Hidayat said.

The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, tweeted that nearly 15,000 people had been evacuated but it was time to close this phase of the operation now.

He added: But we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave. Well continue to do everything we can to help them.

Recommended Final UK troops pulled out of Kabul

It comes as western countries are in the process of wrapping up, or having already finished, evacuations ahead of the deadline on Tuesday.

US troops have begun their withdrawal from Kabul airport, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby has said.
Britain's civilian evacuation mission in Afghanistan will end later on Saturday, the head of the armed forces has said.

Speaking in the morning ahead of the final day of airlifts General Sir Nick Carter said "very few" civilian evacuation flights were still taking place.

"We're reaching the end of the evacuation, which will take place during the course of today. And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft," he told the BBC.

Follow Afghanistan news - live: US drone strike kills Isis planner after Kabul attack

"We haven't been able to bring everyone out, and that has been heart-breaking. And there have been some very challenging judgements that have had to be made on the ground."

But the armed forces head insisted that the final stages were "going according to plan", as opposition parties warned Britain's "failure" in Afghanistan would be seen as a "betrayal".

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said he expected all remaining British troops, who are facilitating the evacuation, to be withdrawn from the country within 24 hours.

The Labour MP said the operation had been "very dangerous and desperate" as he praised the troops involved.

But he told Sky News: "This is the brutal truth, despite getting more than 14,000 people out, there are probably 1,000 Afghans who have worked with us over two decades in Afghanistan, helped our troops, our aid workers, our diplomats, that we promised to protect, but we're leaving behind.

"And I know those troops in particular will feel our failure on this as a country is a betrayal of many of those who risked their own lives to work alongside us.

"And I think what's important now is that we may be giving up the airport, but we cannot give up on the Afghan people or fighting to try and protect the gains that they and our troops and our diplomats and aid workers have worked so hard over two decades to gain in Afghanistan."

Boris Johnson on Friday night spoke of his great sense of regret at those left behind. He said: Of course, as we come down to the final hours of the operation there will sadly be people who havent got through, people who might qualify.

The prime minister added he would shift heaven and earth and use all the leverage we have with the Taliban to secure safe passage for Afghans whose service makes them the target for reprisals. But there was no indication of any further UK efforts to remove people from the country itself after the last British troops leave this weekend.

It came as Conservative chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, former soldier Tom Tugendhat, warned of the risk of the biggest hostage crisis the UK has ever seen if interpreters and other staff, as well as remaining British citizens, are held by the Taliban, telling Sky News: This is what defeat looks like.

Speaking on Saturday Mr Tugendhat has described the UK's efforts to withdraw people from Afghanistan as a "sprint finish after a not exactly sprint start".

Asked whether he could have done better, he told BBC Breakfast: "In the last week, probably not, but this has been a sprint finish after a not exactly sprint start.

"There's been many of us giving pressure to improve the processing of people who we think we have a duty of care to over the months and years.

"There are going to be questions to be asked to the Foreign Secretary about the processing in the UK in recent weeks that we're going to have to see what the answers are.

"I'm sure that the Foreign Secretary, Defence Secretary and the Home Secretary are all looking at this very carefully. I know, because I spoke to all three in the last 12 hours, that they are really doing their best to get this last level of processing done."

He added: "For those of us who have been working 24/7 for the best part of the last several weeks trying to get as many people who stood by us out, this has been a very difficult time.

"We'll certainly be looking backwards, as well as forwards, because if this were ever to happen again we need to make sure that we do not find ourselves leaving hundreds, possibly even thousands, of people behind."

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 August 2021 Taliban fighters investigate a damaged car after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul AFP/Getty World news in pictures 29 August 2021 A Taliban fighter stands guard as Talibans acting Higher Education Minister Abdul Baqi Haqqani (not pictured) addresses a gathering during a consultative meeting on Taliban's general higher education policies at the Loya Jirga Hall in Kabu AFP/Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2021 A child that was evacuated from Afghanistan looks on at the U.S. airbase in Ramstein, Germany Reuters World news in pictures 27 August 2021 Soldiers take a selfie before a military parade in Chisinau, Moldova EPA World news in pictures 26 August 2021 Smoke rises from the site of a suspected suicide bombing outside Kabul airport in Afghanistan AP World news in pictures 25 August 2021 Egypts Ibrahim Elhusseiny Hamadtou in action during his Mens Singles Class 6 Group E Table Tennis match at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA World news in pictures 24 August 2021 People take pictures of fireworks outside the stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 23 August 2021 Staff members spraying disinfectant at a school ahead of the new semester in Bozhou, Chinas eastern Anhui province AFP/Getty World news in pictures 22 August 2021 A Taliban fighter stands guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan area in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan AP World news in pictures 21 August 2021 Mexican firefighters known as "Topos" work in the early morning hours in a search and rescue mission, amid the rubble from last week's 7.2 magnitude earthquake, in Les Cayes, Haiti AP World news in pictures 20 August 2021 Bangladeshi vendor sells a religious item during a Muharram event at the premises of Hussaini Dalan in Dhaka, Bangladesh EPA World news in pictures 19 August 2021 Law enforcement officers with rifles take position near the US Capitol building in Washington DC as police investigate a possible explosive device in a truck near the heart of American government AP World news in pictures 18 August 2021 A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan AP World news in pictures 17 August 2021 Art students paint messages of solidarity with people at risk in Afghanistans crisis outside an art school in Mumbai AFP/Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2021 Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport AFP via Getty World news in pictures 15 August 2021 Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Kandahar province in southwest Afghanistan AP World news in pictures 14 August 2021 A collapsed building is seen in Les Cayes, Haiti following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake which left at least 29 people dead Reuters World news in pictures 13 August 2021 Perseids are seen next to Milky Way during the annual Perseid meteor shower at Tres Mares peak, in Cantabria, northern Spain EPA World news in pictures 12 August 2021 A woman sits along the broken steps of a partially-collapsed building destroyed by bombardment during the May 2021 conflict between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City AFP via Getty World news in pictures 11 August 2021 People stranded at the Pakistani-Afghan border wait for its reopening after it was closed by the Talibans, who have taken over the control of the Afghan side of the border at Chaman, Pakistan EPA World news in pictures 10 August 2021 Supporters cheer outside French football club Paris Saint-Germains Parc des Princes stadium in Paris after Argentinian football player Lionel Messi landed in Le Bourget airport to sign for the club AFP/Getty World news in pictures 9 August 2021 People perform a folk dance to traditional music as they celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples in Mumbai, India EPA World news in pictures 8 August 2021 Thank you messages is displayed inside the stadium during the Olympic closing ceremony in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 7 August 2021 Pro-democracy protesters clash with police during a demonstration demanding Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-Ochas and King Maha Vajiralongkorn be held accountable for the governments failure to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, in Bangkok AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 August 2021 Members of local NPO release paper lanterns on Motoyasu River in front of beside the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, as it was known before 1945, and now called the Atomic Bomb Dome, as the city marks the 76th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack AFP/Getty World news in pictures 5 August 2021 The Men's Decathletes pose for a photo following their competition on day thirteen of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan Getty World news in pictures 4 August 2021 Maronite clergymen pray near damaged grain silos at the port of Lebanons capital on the first anniversary of the blast that ravaged the port and the city AFP/Getty World news in pictures 3 August 2021 An underwater view shows Frances Charlotte and Laura Tremble during the womens duet technical routine artistic swimming event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games AFP/Getty World news in pictures 2 August 2021 Germany compete in the women's team pursuit qualifying event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Izu Velodrome AFP/Getty World news in pictures 1 August 2021 enezuela's Yulimar Rojas competes in the women's triple jump final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Rojas took gold and broke the Olympic and World Record in the process AFP/Getty World news in pictures 31 July 2021 Elaine Thompson-Herah celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win the gold medal ahead of Jamaican teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the women's 100m final at the Tokyo Olympic Games Reuters World news in pictures 30 July 2021 Athletes compete during the mens 3000m Steeplechase at the Tokyo Olympics Reuters World news in pictures 29 July 2021 Athletes compete in the BMX mens Olympic quarter-finals run at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo AFP/Getty World news in pictures 28 July 2021 A picture taken with a drone shows researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University investigating a dead fin whale found in the harbor of Terneuzen, The Netherlands EPA World news in pictures 27 July 2021 People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk past extra papers reporting on Japanese gold medalists at Tokyo Olympics AP World news in pictures 26 July 2021 The ball hits Thailand's Orawan Paranang's face as she competes against Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa during her women's singles round 3 table tennis match at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games AFP via Getty Images World news in pictures 25 July 2021 A woman walks in the rubble after flooding due to heavy rains in Dinant, Belgium, a week after more than 30 people were killed in floods in the country EPA World news in pictures 24 July 2021 A firefighter uses a drip torch to light a backfire in an effort to stop the spread of the Dixie fire in Prattville, California AFP/Getty World news in pictures 23 July 2021 An overview shows Japan's tennis player Naomi Osaka lighting the flame of hope in the Olympic Cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, at the Olympic Stadium, in Tokyo AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 July 2021 People wade through a flooded street following a heavy rain in Zhengzhou, in Chinas Henan province AFP/Getty World news in pictures 21 July 2021 People celebrate in Brisbane, Australia, following an announcement by the International Olympic Committee that the city was picked to host the 2032 Olympics AAP Image via AP World news in pictures 20 July 2021 Muslims attending the Eid Al-Adha prayer at Skenderbej Square in Tirana AFP/Getty World news in pictures 19 July 2021 Muslim pilgrims gather on Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat during the annual Haj pilgrimage outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia Reuters World news in pictures 18 July 2021 People protest against the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan Reuters World news in pictures 17 July 2021 A long exposure photograph shows Muslim pilgrims circumambulating around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand mosque in the holy Saudi city of Mecca during the annual hajj pilgrimage AFP/Getty World news in pictures 16 July 2021 A van crushed by the torrents is pressed against a tree after the floods caused major damage in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, western Germany AFP/Getty World news in pictures 15 July 2021 A staff member sits at an interactive digital installation "Fire / Forest and Spiral of Resonating Lamps in the Forest" during a media preview of "teamLab: A Forest Where Gods Live" at the lobby of Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, Takeo Hot Springs in Saga prefecture AFP/Getty World news in pictures 14 July 2021 Pupils of the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr march during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris AFP/Getty World news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rescuers look for bodies after a catastrophic blaze erupted Monday at a coronavirus hospital ward in the al-Hussein Teaching Hospital, in Nasiriyah, Iraq AP World news in pictures 12 July 2021 People try to recover a car damaged during flash floods after heavy monsoon rains in Bhagsunag, a popular tourist town in Himachal Pradesh, India AP

Three British nationals were reportedly among more than 180 victims killed in Thursdays terror attack on Kabul airport.

Recommended Final UK troops pulled out of Kabul

The deaths of two adults and the child of a third Briton were announced by foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Friday evening as the RAF completed its evacuation of 13,708 people from Afghanistan ahead of the 31 August deadline for foreign forces to leave the country.

The three UK fatalities are believed to have been among crowds of thousands queuing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the desperate hope of securing a place on one of the last evacuation flights. A further two British nationals, including a child of under 10, were being evacuated after being injured in the blast, claimed by Islamic State.
The governments international trade department is to recruit 100 people at a new site in Darlington, in the latest cash injection for a Tory marginal seat.

The vacancies at the so-called UK Trade and Investment North campus are to be advertised in the coming weeks.

And one of the departments five directors-general will be based permanently in the city, with the final headcount expected to rise to 500 by 2030.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who is feted in the Conservative Party for his role in turning large areas of Labour territory blue, described the investment as a huge coup for our region.

But the decision to move the jobs comes as the government faces a legal battle over startling claims it is directing state investments to favour marginal constituencies.

Boris Johnson is facing a legal battle over whether his party has been funnelling taxpayer cash into Tory areas in an effort to accrue political advantage.

The High Court will decide whether the prime ministers separate 4.8bn Levelling Up Fund unlawfully and systematically sent cash to areas considered to be of political benefit to the Conservative Party.

Judges agreed to hear a legal challenge brought by the Good Law Project, stating: The grounds are arguable.

The House of Commons cross-party Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office have each cast doubt on the selection process for that fund.

Forty out of the first 45 schemes to be approved for it had at least one Conservative MP. One study by Royal Holloway University found that there is robust evidence that ministers chose towns so as to benefit the Conservatives in marginal Westminster seats.

In that context, the decision to move jobs to Mr Houchens back yard may be viewed with suspicion  with the Conservatives keen to shore up support in their new heartland.

International trade secretary Liz Truss said the latest recruitment drive was part of the governments aim to create an export-led economy [by which] we can address geographic inequality and boost growth across the nations and regions".

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty UK news in pictures 16 July 2021 The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 15 July 2021 Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a 7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport's Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe PA UK news in pictures 14 July 2021 Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the worlds first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the Mary Shelleys House of Frankenstein experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July PA UK news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford PA UK news in pictures 12 July 2021 A local resident puts love hearts and slogans on the plastic that covers offensive graffiti on the vandalised mural of Manchester United striker and England player Marcus Rashford on the wall of a cafe on Copson Street, Withington in Manchester Getty Images

But far from being export-led or private-sector led, the announcement shows that so far the government is relying on state investment to bring benefits to areas like Darlington.

In fact, UK exports to Europe saw a post-Brexit slump from which they are only in recent months starting to recover. Despite government rhetoric, exports to other parts of the world have failed to show significant growth.

The government ultimately intends that 50 per cent of senior civil service jobs will be based outside London, and has already announced relocations to Belfast, Stoke and Edinburgh.

The latest UK Trade and Investment North jobs will be based at a new economic campus alongside civil servants working for the Treasury, business department, communities ministry, and the Office for National Statistics.
A Wisconsin man who previously performed as Silly the Clown has been charged in the killing of his newborn daughter 30 years ago.

Ronald Schroeder, 52, has been apprehended and indicted on one count of first-degree reckless homicide and two counts of physical abuse of a child in connection to the August 1991 death of his daughter Catherine Schroeder, who was born in July of that year. Mr Schroeder remains in police custody.

Catherine, nicknamed Catie, was admitted to hospital with what doctors initially diagnosed as Shaken Baby Syndrome. According to news reports at the time, she experienced multiple injuries, including fractured ribs, brain and eye injuries, resulting in blood behind the eyes. She later died in hospital.

According to a Milwaukee magazine article from 2008, the medical examiner ruled Catherines death as a homicide from Shaken Baby Syndrome in 1991. According to the New York Daily News, a new autopsy led to Catherines cause of death being changed to homicide by blunt force trauma to the head in June 2021.

Catherine Schroeder died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, read the criminal complaint against Mr Schroeder. Court documents outline a pattern of abuse committed by Mr Schroeder to his family and various other women and children. It is not yet known what exact development enabled prosecutors to charge Mr Schroeder.

An arrest warrant was issued on 25 August and his first court appearance took place on 26 August, according to Milwaukee County court documents. The presiding judge rejected a plea for dismissal from Mr Schroeders lawyers on the grounds of statute of limitations. Bond was posted at $350,000. His next court date is scheduled for 2 September for a preliminary hearing.

The Independent approached Mr Schroeders legal representative for comment.
The US military has said it believes it killed an Isis-K planner in its first reprisal strike in Afghanistan after the Kabul attack that left at least 170 people dead, including 13 US military personnel.

Approximately 36 hours after the suicide bombing that also wounded hundreds, quickly followed by president Joe Bidens vow to hunt down those responsible, the US said an unmanned drone had been dispatched to attack a suspected member of Isis Afghanistan branch.

It did not say whether the individual was believed to be linked specifically to the attack on Thursday at Hamid Karzai international airport.

However, the US military said it believed the mission to kill the militant had been successful.

US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counter-terrorism operation today against an Isis-K planner, Capt Bill Urban, a spokesperson for the US Central Command, said in a statement, referring to the Afghanistan-based Isis franchise that claimed responsibility for Thursdays attack.

The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

 Afghans gather near Kabul airport to flee Taliban

He added: Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties.

On Thursday, Mr Biden insisted the US would continue its evacuation mission, even as the nation mourned the service members killed, along with the Afghans who were killed and wounded. More than 110,000 people have been flown out since the Taliban seized control of the country on August 15.

We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place of our choosing, said Mr Biden. These Isis terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans, we will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated.

He said military commanders in Afghanistan had told him it was important to complete the evacuation mission. And we will, he said. We will not be deterred by terrorists.

There had been questions about how the US would manage to launch such a strike, given it was ending its military presence in the country. The answer appears to have come quickly, in what was termed an over-the-horizon operation, potentially launched from outside of Afghanistan itself.

While former president Barack Obama used hundreds of unmanned drones to target suspected militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, critics say the USs claims that civilians are rarely killed is untrue.

Indeed, verifying not only correct targets, but also the outcome of such strikes is notoriously difficult in hard-to-reach regions.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
The US and its allies are engaging in broad talks with the Taliban about issues like migration and what the future of Western presence in Afghanistan will look like, according to government officials, a sign that the US will accept the Taliban as the ruling power in the country.

The US, along with much of the world, has not deemed the Taliban as the countrys internationally recognised government, but it has been actively coordinating with the militant group over security issues at the Kabul airport.

Now, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal , US and EU diplomats have taken things one step further, hashing out what their diplomatic relations inside the nation might look like after 31 August, the agreed-upon date for American forces to withdraw from the country.

Among the main issues on the table, unnamed officials told the Journal, are immediate needs such as getting remaining foreign citizens and Afghans with visas out of the country, as well as longer-term questions. Those include what kind of diplomatic presence these nations will retain in Afghanistan and how the region will handle a likely surge in refugees and displaced people.

There are still decisions to be made in Washington about the future shape of our presence and activities here, acting US ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson told CBS earlier this week.

One idea up for discussion is the possibility of US consular activities being handled remotely in Afghanistan, rather than with a full physical embassy.

President Biden says the US remains committed to leaving Afghanistan by the end of the month, even though an attack by an Isis affiliate on the Kabul airport killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 US service members on Thursday, and another strike is  likely , according to the White House.

I have never been of the view that we should be sacrificing American lives to try to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, Mr Biden said earlier this week, after the airport attacks. Our interest in going was to prevent al Qaida from re-emerging, to get [Osama] bin Laden and prevent [the Sept. 11 attacks] from happening again, adding, It was time to end the 20-year war there.

US officials have assured those still in Afghanistan that the country will continue trying to support those who want to leave even after 31 August.

Let me be crystal clear about this: There is no deadline on our work, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said this week . The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk going forward past August 31.

There have also been active efforts by other, unnamed countries in the region to work to keep the Kabul airport open after the US cedes control, Mr Blinken added.

In Europe, meanwhile, EU leaders will vote Tuesday on a plan backed by German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron, which would sent billions of euros to Afghanistan and its neighbours, with a focus on assisting refugees and internally displaced people while keeping them in the region.

Resettlement commitments in the region so far have been small and voluntary. The UK has said it will take 10,000 Afghan refugees this year.

EU diplomats have also been negotiating with Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Qatar and Turkey about ways to limit the number of refugees who spill into Europe.

The EU and its member states stand determined to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled large-scale migration movements faced in the past, a draft statement seen by the Journal reads. We should avoid creating pull factors and do our utmost to ensure that migrants receive protection primarily in the region itself.
SAT PMS

As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next years midterm elections.

Little more than a week ago, as the Talibans stunning takeover of Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge. But in more recent days, he has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.

How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America? he asked.

As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It's causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.

I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are just  theyre completely baseless in reality, said Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as director of the Republican Accountability Project. Theres no basis for this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world.

Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects a general, overall increase in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistans fall to the Taliban  not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.

Theres just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of this," he said.

The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock. But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one of the worlds largest-ever civilian airlift operations.

That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over 150 Afghans.

How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees? tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. Get American citizens out and bring our troops home.

Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas, on Friday toured the Dona Ana Range complex at Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. should rescue Afghans whove assisted the US military, but they should go to a neutral & safe third country.

They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting, he said.

That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees and prevent terrorists from entering the country.

In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in Afghanistan, he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.

Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.

The U.S. has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While the administrations explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans, the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.

U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay. And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban once the U.S. leaves.

But that hasnt stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration of failing to put Americans first.

Were actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than were prioritizing our own citizens, said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administrations approach.

On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has no knowledge of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.

They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it all, echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to prominence with incendiary statements.

Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump's 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didnt allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights," Trump said. Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world.

Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.

The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies and invaded Afghanistan  followed by Iraq  nearly 20 years ago.

But not Republicans all are on board.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock to rescue the countless Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised those in his party invoking terrorist rhetoric.

I would say that they need to do their homework," he said. When you talk to the people that weve spoken with, when you look at their service record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they carry arms together, theyve been in live firefights, how dare anyone question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe third country?

Were not talking about just walking down the street and picking and choosing people, Tillis added. We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters."

Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to the program  and are again extensively vetted by a wide array of federal agencies" before the visas are granted.

Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom they served.

These people became like family to many of us," she said. Its really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our allies on the ground."

___

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has praised the Biden administrations evacuation of US citizens and Afghan allies from Kabul, as the deadline for Americas full withdrawal fast approaches.

On Saturday, MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asked Ms Omar if the president surprised her with his commitment to ending the 20-year war.

He certainly has, the congresswoman responded . The level of evacuation that his administration has been able to undertake is really inspiring and theres important work thats getting done.

The White House said on Saturday that it had evacuated 111,900 people from Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of Kabul in mid-August. On Friday alone, 6,800 people were airlifted out  in spite of an ISIS-K attack on the citys airport that killed over 180 people.

Ms Omar, a progressive Democrat who often criticises President Biden, believes in this case he deserves more credit.

Even after the terrorist attack at Kabul Airport, we continue to airlift and evacuate people, Ms Omar said. That is commendable work.

The Minnesota representative also urged Americans to welcome in as many Afghan refugees as possible in the wake of the crisis, especially those who risked their lives to assist the US military.

Weve made promises obviously that we couldnt keep, Ms Omar said, but the one promise we can keep is making sure that we protect everyone that has been made vulnerable because of our mission.

For Ms Omar, who came to the US as a refugee after fleeing the Somali Civil War , the issue is personal.

Its really hard to watch any of these images that we continue to see on our screens without being taken back, she said. I was a child in a family that was scattering and searching for refuge.

The congresswoman credited her survival to her familys faith in humanity and the welcoming spirit of the American people.
A Forbes reporter has claimed to have been banned from a hotel owned by former President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.

Zach Everson, a journalist covering politics and money, wrote an article for the magazine entitled Heres Why Trumps Hotel Just Banned Me for Life.

Everson wrote that he was removed from the premises of the Trump International Hotel in DC for taking pictures and informed he was not permitted to return.

He added that he was escorted out by a security guard and told by Ernest Wojciech, the hotels director of security, he was not welcome anymore due to taking photos without permission.

This reason was not convincing to Everson, who attributes his alleged banishment from the hotel to the extensive reporting he has done while at and involving the hotel.

The real reason they kicked me out probably wasnt the photos though. For nearly five years, Ive been reporting on the hotel, largely using social media to do things like track who was hanging out in the lobby (unsurprisingly, a lot of lobbyists) and who was using the hotel as an office (just Rudy Giuliani), Everson wrote. I even started a newsletter, named 1100 Pennsylvania after the hotels address, to document the goings-on inside the building.

In the concluding paragraph, Everson said he believes his work might be embarrassing to the hotel, Donald Trump and his wider business dealings.

Everson noted that when he has had positive interaction from the hotel before, such as when he was assigned with a profile for Conde Nast Traveler, it began with champagne.

That might explain why the hotels director of marketing was standing by as the security guard escorted me out the front door, he remarked of his exit.

The Independent reached out to the hotels parent company The Trump Organization for comment on Eversons allegations.
The White House has said that 117,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since July.

The Biden administration said on Saturday that 6,800 people were airlifted from Kabul to the US over the previous two days. Some 4,000 of them were evacuated by the US. The additional 2,800 people were along with military partners.

Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 111,900 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 117,500 people, The White House added on its Twitter feed.

Evacuations of US citizens and their local allies rose dramatically following the capture of Kabul by the Taliban on 15 August. Among those being evacuated from the country are Afghan interpreters and support staff who worked with the US during the 20-year conflict, and who may now be at risk of being targeted by the Taliban.

Joe Biden has remained committed to a full withdrawal from the country by 31 August. The evacuations were thrown into further chaos by a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport on 26 August. At least 170 Afghans and 13 US military personnel were killed in the attack.

We will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuation.We will rescue Americans, we will get our Afghan allies, and the mission will go on. America will not be intimidated, Mr Biden said in an address to the nation.

On Friday, White House Press Secretary, said in a statement that due to the ISIS-K attack and the likely threat of another one, the rescue mission has become the most dangerous period to date.

The US military is airlifting out thousands of people every few hours. They continue to prioritise evacuating the remaining American citizens who have indicated that they wish to leave and are engaged in a variety of means to get them to the airport safely, she continued.
The Virginia school board that lost a years-long court battle with a transgender student must now pay that students legal bills  which total over a million dollars.

Gavin Grimm , who transitioned from female to male as a teenager, sued the Gloucester County School Board in 2015 after his high school barred him from using the boys bathrooms. The legal saga that followed ended in June this year, after Grimm won in federal court and the Supreme Court declined to hear the school boards appeal.

He was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union , for the cost of $1.3 million. The Gloucester County School Board has now agreed to pay that bill.

We are glad that this long litigation is finally over and that Gavin has been fully vindicated by the courts, but it should not have taken over six years of expensive litigation to get to this point, Grimms lawyer, Josh Block, said in a statement .

Grimm, now 22, also praised the decision.

This outcome sends a strong message to other school systems that discrimination is an expensive, losing battle, the former student said.

So far, the Gloucester County School Board has made no comment except to say that the bills will be paid.

The insurance provider for the Gloucester County School Board has addressed the Plaintiffs request for attorney fees and costs resulting from the Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board litigation, the board told the Associated Press . The School Board has no further comment on this matter.

Mr Grimms long journey began in his sophomore year at Gloucester High School, when his mother informed the administration that he was undergoing a gender transition. At first, the school allowed him to use the boys restrooms.

Then other students parents complained. Changing its policy, the school declared that bathrooms and locker rooms shall be limited to the corresponding biological genders.

As a result, Grimm has said, he suffered urinary tract infections from avoiding the bathrooms entirely and grappled with severe emotional stress, including suicidal thoughts. In 2015, he sued the school board.

Four years later, a federal judge ruled in his favor .

There is no question that the boards policy discriminates against transgender students on the basis of their gender nonconformity, wrote Judge Arenda Wright Allen of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

After the ruling, Grimm said it showed that discrimination is not legal in America.
Protesters filled the German capital again on Saturday to demonstrate against the governments coronavirus measures, despite bans against several gatherings.

Police had banned nine planned demonstrations for Saturday, including one from the Stuttgart-based Querdenker movement, the most visible anti-lockdown movement in Germany, which united a disparate mix of those opposing vaccinations, coronavirus deniers and right-wing extremists. A court ruled in favor of allowing one event, planned for 500 people, on Saturday and Sunday.

Still, like the last round of protests in early August, thousands ignored the bans and turned out to voice their opposition to government measures. With chants of We are the people! the protesters made their way through Berlin s Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte neighborhoods.

More than 2,000 police officers were stationed around the city to respond to those who showed up despite the bans. At one protest Saturday evening in Mitte, German media reported that police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd unwilling to leave once the protest had ended. The crowd eventually thinned as it began to rain.

Meanwhile, a counter-protest complete with techno music drew a crowd of several thousand as well. Those demonstrators back government restrictions to slow the spread of virus and oppose the Querdenker movement, stressing Berlins diversity and advocating for more social cohesion.

Berlin police said they dispersed the counter-protesters when the crowd became too big to allow for social distancing.

The Saturday protests came amid a debate in Germany about whether to impose restrictions on unvaccinated people, a question taking on more urgency as daily infections rise. Germany reported 10,303 new daily infections on Saturday, up more than 2,000 since last week.

Similar protests took place in Berlin in early August, which ended in clashes with police and hundreds of people detained.

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Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
Swaddled in straw on the dirt floor of a stable, the once omnipotent dictator lies helpless on his back. His face specked with bird droppings, he stares blankly at the sagging roof, a final indignity for a leader whose all-seeing eyes held millions in terrified thrall for four decades.

Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985, was Europes most enduring and feared communist tyrant, creating a cult of personality that left the impoverished Balkan nation of Albania awash with grandiose statues, marble busts and giant portraits in his honour.

Now, 30 years after the brutal system he left behind imploded, the cult has shrunk to a single tribute in bronze, toppled from its stone pedestal in a remote mountain village and dumped in a stable  but still watched over day and night by an elderly Albanian woman and her daughter.

In his time, he was a good man, but nobody wants him anymore, says Sabire Plaku, 80. I have protected him with all my strength.

Although now nearly deaf and partially sighted, she still hobbles daily from her home in Labinot-Mal in the mountains of central Albania to the nearby stable to make sure that the widely loathed former dictator is safe.

While not particularly enamoured of Hoxhas policies  a toxic mix of Stalinist paranoia and repression, with North Korean-style isolation and economic misery  Plaku still feels a duty to watch over what is almost certainly Albanias last intact statue of a man who put her remote and now neglected mountain village on the map.

It was here in Labinot-Mal that Hoxha (pronounced Hoe-zha) first took charge of Albanias Communist Party during the Second World War and presided over the founding of the National Liberation Army on 10 July 1943. That guerrilla force, aided by Britain and communist partisans from neighbouring Yugoslavia, helped defeat invading Italian fascists and then the Nazis.

The only visitors today are a few fanatics who arrive once a year to lay a wreath at the base of the toppled statues pedestal

After the war ended, Hoxha, a French-educated botanist, took control of Albania and began executing his wartime comrades. Labinot-Mal became a place of pilgrimage, which ensured that it avoided at least the worst of the deprivation visited on the country by his 41-year rule. The village got a clinic, electricity and a museum. It also got a 10-foot-tall bronze statue of the supreme comrade.

The museum, housed in a grand villa built before the war as a summer retreat and then confiscated by Hoxhas communists, closed decades ago, along with the clinic and the collective farm. Part of its roof has collapsed, and the current government has shown no interest in saving it from ruin.

Agim Qoku, a local historian, says he rejoiced at Albanias retreat from policies that, in Hoxhas time, made the country Europes most oppressed and backward. But he still thinks the museum should be revived, as a tribute not to the dictator but to Albanias wartime struggle against foreign fascists.

Sabire Plaku covers the statue with straw (AFP/Getty)

The stable where Hoxha lies on his back is at the side of the defunct museum. It is the only part of the villa that, thanks to Plaku and her daughter, has not been plundered.

For all of the agonies of Hoxhas rule  when Albania broke with not only the west but also Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and eventually even China, all of which the Balkan dictator came to view as too liberal  some villagers still remember his reign with nostalgia. He did improve the countrys healthcare and schools.

Still one of Europes poorest countries, Albania has haemorrhaged people since student protesters tore down a 30-foot statue of Hoxha in the centre of Tirana, the capital, in February 1991. It was an example quickly followed in towns across the country.

In the following decade, Hoxhas acolytes, including his widow, were put on trial and a capitalist free-for-all replaced dogmatic communism. And nearly a quarter of the population emigrated, not because people pined for the old order but mostly because they could for the first time leave to find work. Before, trying to leave Albania was a serious crime punishable by death.

Enver Hoxha during a political meeting (AFP/Getty)

Ruzhdi Balla, the 42-year-old owner of a tiny cafe  Labinot-Mals only business  recalls watching in 1991, when the authorities in the nearest town sent a crane, escorted by police cars, to lift a statue of Hoxha from its pedestal in front of the museum. Workers hoisted the statue into the air and then recoiled in horror as a big black snake appeared under its feet.

Since then, four of Ballas eight siblings have moved to Greece to find work, while two others have left the shrinking village, which now has a few hundred people at most, for other parts of Albania.

Residents disagree on whether Hoxha got what he deserved when he was pulled down, but there is broad agreement that the removal of his statue was the last time government officials paid much attention to their village.

Lets put him back, says the cafe owners 72-year-old older brother, Islam Balla. TV crews will come and film us. Maybe then the world will remember that we still exist.

Whatever his many faults, according to the older brother, the dictator at least cared about Labinot-Mal, trekking there in 1968 for the unveiling of his bronze likeness. It was a really spectacular day, the elder Balla says, recalling the festivities. We have seen nothing like it since.

The only visitors today, he adds, are a few fanatics who arrive once a year to lay a wreath at the base of the toppled statues pedestal.

Sabire Plaku closes the door of the basement housing the statue (AFP/Getty)

To prepare for the dictators 1968 visit, the government resurfaced the only road connecting the village to the outside world. A half-century later, the road has crumbled into a treacherous pitted track.

Qoku, who is also a schoolteacher, says the area has always been a world apart, submitting to the Ottoman Empire long after the rest of Albania had succumbed, and resisting the Nazis with such zeal that the area lost more fighters per capita than anywhere else in the country.

But these ornery habits, he says, have today put Labinot-Mal at odds with the spirit of the times, which are dominated by a rejection of Hoxha and everything he stood for.

In Tirana, the only Hoxha statuary still on public display is a battered marble bust, its nose smashed and face disfigured. It stands at the back of the national art gallery, near an underground museum detailing the horrors of Hoxhas secret police, the Sigurimi.

Construction work started this year in Tirana to transform a pharaonic tribute to Hoxha  a huge pyramid built in 1988 to house a memorial museum  into a complex of cafes, classrooms and studios. Defaced by graffiti and falling apart, the pyramid had previously been used as a horror movie set, a temporary Nato base during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and a nightclub.

Enver Hoxha votes in November 1978 (AFP/Getty)

Plaku says she has no desire to see another leader like him. But she still feels a sense of responsibility to the past.

Worried that thieves want to steal the bronze statue and melt it for scrap, she laments that only bad people want Hoxha today. With her health failing, she says her daughter, Fatush Balla, 66, would soon have to protect him on her own.

I have done my duty, Plaku tells her daughter as they sit together on the edge of their garden, next to a plum tree. Now it is your turn to guard him.

The daughter, who returned from Greece seven years ago to take care of her mother, has already taken over much of the work.

She visits the stable regularly to make sure nobody has disturbed his straw covering and chases away any prying visitors she suspects of ill intent, threatening to shoot anyone who enters the stable without her approval.

Weve protected him for 30 years, but nobody has given us anything, the daughter says. I dont really care about politics and just want a decent living for myself and my mother.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times
I have no memories from Afghanistan, all of my life has been in exile. Bahars lively eyes become darker as she narrates her refugee journey, which started 15 years ago.

Despite being an exceptionally bright student, fluent in English and Greek with a passion for maths, its unlikely Bahar (not her real name) will be allowed to attend a Greek university next year. She and her family have been stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos for three years, waiting for a positive asylum decision inside a refugee camp.

The Talibans takeover of Afghanistan aggravates the uncertainty that many Afghan asylum seekers in Europe face. Families like Bahars live with the fear of return to Afghanistan while waiting for their cases to be decided.

Bahar was just three years old when her parents left Herat, northern Afghanistan. Like the majority of Afghans fleeing their country, her family first settled in a neighbouring country  Iran. After years of exile and precarity without receiving refugee status, they made the long and perilous journey to Europe; a place where the fundamental right to asylum seems only to be protected on paper.

Despite the risks that Bahar and her family face in their home country, the Greek asylum service has twice rejected their application for refugee status. Instead, they have been ordered to return to Turkey as a safe third country with risk of onward deportation to Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans in other European countries live in a similar limbo: as of May 2021, 32,250 cases of Afghan asylum applicants were pending in Germany alone. In France, 18,515 people were waiting on a decision, while in Greece the numbers were 15,675. Such numbers should be manageable given the size of European states and their functioning asylum systems but, in total, Europe hosts less than 10 per cent of the 2.5 million UN-registered, displaced Afghans globally.

Neighbouring countries carry the burden of Afghan displacement, with Iran hosting almost 1 million Afghan refugees and Pakistan taking in 1.5 million. These numbers double when adding undocumented or Afghan passport holders.

While 56 per cent of Afghans in Europe receive protection status, a large proportion remains in limbo in various European asylum systems. Authorities often leave people waiting for months or years to receive an asylum decision, and governments can insist on deporting unsuccessful applicants back to Afghanistan.

Only after the Talibans takeover of Kabul, did some governments halt deportations. Others still maintain deportation policies at the time of writing  such as Austria, which has even suggested setting up deportation centres in countries neighbouring Afghanistan.

While European countries joined the international community in pledging support for the departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who want to leave, their unwillingness to provide refuge to Afghans residing in their territory shows that European governments fall far short of their promises.

In practice, the opposite seems to be the case as European countries securitise their responses and shut external borders  Greeces metal wall at its border with Turkey clearly shows this hardline stance.

Following the Taliban takeover, French president Emmanuel Macron called for Europe to protect itself from irregular migratory flows from Afghanistan. Similarly, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, and EU home affairs chief Ylva Johansson confirmed securing European borders was a priority. Preventing people from reaching Europe seems to trump humanitarianism and the right to asylum.

This disconnect is not new. Reports of illegal pushbacks on European land and sea borders alarmingly intensified in 2020, as authorities sent migrants back to neighbouring countries without assessing asylum claims.

At the EU level, aid to countries such as Afghanistan has been dependent on their governments adherence to the blocs migration objectives: preventing asylum seekers from reaching European borders and facilitating the repatriation of people refused asylum in Europe.

Right now, European authorities need to act fast to improve the treatment of Afghans in limbo. I feel hopeless waiting in this camp for almost three years now. I want to get out, go to university, and start a normal life, said Bahar, stranded on Lesvos, waiting for her future to start.

European governments should cease all deportations of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or to third countries considered safe now. They should expedite pending Afghan asylum and family reunification cases, while re-examining rejected asylum applications, given whats happened in Afghanistan. Appropriate funding also needs to be put in place to support integration.

Now more than ever, amid the chaotic US and Nato military retreat from Afghanistan, European countries must do more to ensure Afghan asylum seekers are not left in limbo.

Anna Iasmi Vallianatou is a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Academy Fellow and Emily Venturi is a Schwarzman Academy Fellow, both at Chatham House
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Priyanka Chopra is busy shooting for Citadel, a series produced by Russo Brothers -- which also stars Game of Thrones and Eternals actor Richard Madden.

On the sets, PC got injured while shooting for an action sequence. She posted a photo of herself in bloodied face and asked her followers "what's real and what's not?".



Instagram

In another Instagram story, she revealed that the cut on her forehead wasn't real but the cut on her cheek was.

Instagram

Another photo from the sets of the multi-series has been doing the rounds. She has been shooting for the series in London.

Chopra-Jonas can be seen in black and khaki outfit. She was apparently filming a scene along with Pedro Leandro.



Priyanka Chopra essays the role of a spy in the series. Citadel is a global franchise that will have interconnected local language productions from India, Italy and Mexico. PC is shooting for the US addition. The India addition will be created by Family Man fame Raj and DK.



Apart from this, Priyanka will also be seen in Keanu Reeves starrer Matrix 4.
The ISIS unit believed to be behind Thursday's deadly Kabul bombings have India in their crosshairs with establishing the rule of their caliphate are among lofty ideological goals, sources in the Indian intelligence community have told NDTV.

What is the the threat to India?

According to the government sources who requested not to be named, having secured a solid foothold in Afghanistan, the Islamic State Khorasan, also known as IS-K or ISIS-K, hopes to "export jihad to Central Asia and later in India".

Carrying out terror attacks and recruiting young people are on top of their agenda for this, govt sources said, adding, "Ideologically, they want to establish the rule of the caliphate and India is included in that."

Reuters

They said young people from Kerala and Mumbai have joined ISIS and the violent group finds significant traction among radicalised individuals. "If reverse osmosis starts, many cells can be activated in India," said an official, expressing concern about the group's recruitment plans.



The Islamic State or ISIS links have been earlier found in states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

A UN report on terrorism had in July 2020 warned that there are significant numbers" of Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Kerala and Karnataka, noting that the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terror group is planning attacks in the region.

In May 2019, the terror group (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) had claimed to have established a new province in India. The dreaded outfit, through its Amaq News Agency, had said that the Arabic name of the new branch is Wilayah of Hind (India Province).

AFP/ FILE

What is ISIS-K or ISIS-Khorasan?

Months after the Islamic State declared a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014, breakaway fighters from the Pakistani Taliban joined militants in Afghanistan to form a regional chapter, pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.



Set up in 2015, the ISISKhorasan is the offshoot of the terror group ISIS and mainly has Afghan and Pakistani recruits along with some from countries from the Indian sub-continent. Latest estimates of its strength vary from several thousand active fighters to as low as 500, according to a UN Security Council report released last month.

IS Khorasan Release

Khorasan is a large historical region mainly comprising areas lying in northeastern Iran, northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan.

Thursday's bombings

As desperate people at Kabul airport in Afghanistan were waiting to get on any evacuation flights to flee the Taliban, twin suicide bombs on Thursday ripped through crowds, killing at least 170 people, including 13 US troops.

The Islamic State group or ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, which added more urgency and heartbreak to the frantic US-led campaign to airlift people out of the war-torn country now that the hardline Islamist group has seized power.

AFP

The airport blasts came as the August 31 deadline looms for the United States to withdraw its troops, and for it and other Western countries to end a massive airlift that has already evacuated nearly 100,000 people.


India on Saturday reported 46,759 new COVID-19 cases and 509 deaths in the past 24 hours. This is a rise of 4.7% than the day before.

Kerala Logs 32,801 New COVID-19 Cases, 179 Deaths

Kerala on Friday reporting 32,801 new cases over the last 24 hours with test positivity rate surging to 19.22 per cent.

BCCL

The upward spiral of infections has been climbing for the past three days where the state has been consistently logging over 30,000 cases.

Kerala To Conduct Sero Survey To Assess Herd Immunity Level

Kerala government has decided to conduct a seroprevalence study in the state to estimate the population-level immunity.

BCCL

This is aimed to get insights into the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic and suggest various strategies for prevention and control of the disease.

'Third Wave' May Be A Tsunami Of 60 Lakh Cases, Warns Maharashtra

With the possibility of India hurtling towards a Covid-19 "third wave", the Maharashtra government on Friday cautioned that the state could witness around 60 lakh cases in such a situation.

Reuters

Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that while around 20 lakh were affected in the first wave followed by 40 lakh in the second, the dreaded next wave may lead to over 60 lakh cases.

India Administers Over 1 Crore Vaccines In A Day For The First Time

India on Friday, for the first time, administered more than one crore vaccine does in a single day under its nationwide mass vaccination drive against Covid-19.

BCCL

This is the highest-ever vaccination achieved in a single day since the start of the vaccination drive.

Mahabodhi Temple In Gaya Reopens For Public

The world heritage Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar's Gaya reopened for the general public after nearly five months on Friday.

BCCL

The shrine had been closed since April this year due to the Covid-induced lockdown in the state.

Delhi Records Zero Death, 46 New Cases Of COVID-19

No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in Delhi on Friday, the second consecutive day when the daily fatality count stood nil, while 46 fresh cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.06 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.

AFP

This is the 17th time, since the starting of the second wave of the pandemic in the national capital, that zero fatality has been logged in a day.
The all-girls Afghan robotics team that last week fled the country following the Taliban takeover has said that they want to help others who remain in their country after the Taliban takeover.

The girls who, in 2017 created history when they won a medal at an international robotics competition held in the US was evacuated to Qatar and from there some of them have reached Mexico.

Reuters

Four members of the team, accompanied by a sister and another man, arrived Tuesday after travelling through six countries to reach Mexico.

"The reason that we left was that we didn't want our history to be ended by Taliban,'' one of them, identified only as Saghar, said.

"We wanted to continue the path that we started to continue to go for our achievements and to go for having our dreams through reality. So that's why we decided to leave Afghanistan and go for somewhere safe,'' she added.

AP

"The situation outside of our homes were really high, risky, and even especially for our team who have been, you know, has a high profile, status and achievement and which is not something that is in favor of the Taliban regime,'' said Saghar.

The young women had decided to flee a month or two before their western city of Herat fell to the Taliban in early August; the tension had become unbearable.

Reuters

"We were so stressed out we couldn't eat and sleep well for many days,'' said Saghar. "And we were like, even crying many times and sitting together and crying and thinking about what a solution can we have.''

Olga Sanchez Cordero, Mexicos interior secretary, said Wednesday that Mexico would grant asylum to those Afghan citizens who require it. In addition to the Afghan Dreamers, 124 Afghan media workers and their families found sanctuary there this week.

Reuters

For now, the robotics team members are thinking about the other Afghans they left behind: It was really quite hard when we decided to leave Afghanistan because we left our beloved ones over there, our home, our memories, Saghar said. We had calls from the children and our families saying that please save us the same as you did for yourself. We hope that we find a way to help them as well.
Last month, most journalists, activists and smartphone users, in general, got the shock of their life when they found out what Pegasus spyware was capable of.

Representational Image: Getty Images

However, soon after, we got to check out a toolkit developed by Amnesty dubbed the Mobile Verification Toolkit that allows users to see if their device was infected with the Pegasus spyware. But this toolkit required some technical know-how and it wasnt really easy to use.



However, now, a Geneva, Switzerland based developer DigiDNA has tweaked its iOS device manager dubbed iMazing with the spyware detection tool using Amnestys Mobile Verification Toolkit. This also includes the same list of indicators of compromise (IOCs) as the ones shared by Amnesty International's Security Lab, but in a more user-friendly manner.

iMazing is offering the Pegasus detection feature only on iOS since its built into its iOS device manager. The software is also limited in terms of being unable to analyse file system dumps from jailbroken iPhones.

It is also important to note that it is a freemium app however, the Pegasus detection feature is available even in the trial period. For unlocking other features, youll have to purchase the app.

How to detect Pegasus spyware on an iPhone?

Firstly, download and install the latest version of iMazing on a Mac or a Windows PC and upon first boot, click on Continue Trial.

Now, connect your iPhone to the PC or Mac that you fear Pegasus Spyware is on.

Next, scroll down from the free trial options on the right and look for Detect Spyware. Clicking on it will open a new window to take you through the entire process. When ready, hit Next to begin with the spyware detection tool.

iMazing will then ask you to download the latest available version of STIX or Structured Threat Information Expression from the servers.

iMazing

After completion of the download, it will ask you to create a local backup of the iPhone thats going to be scanned for spyware. You will also get an option to encrypt your backup by setting a password. Moments later, the backup process should commence and should take at least half-hour to complete.



After the backup is complete, iMazing will decrypt and look for device files for traces of the Pegasus spyware and in moments (around like 10 minutes) itll highlight the results. In case your device was infected, itll show you a number of warnings and a total number of logs. You can export this log data to Excel for perusal in future.

Are you going to check your iPhone for Pegasus spyware? Let us know in the comments below and for more stories surrounding tech and cybersecurity, visit Indiatimes.com.
In a terrifying incident, a 64-year-old man allegedly stitched the private parts of his 55-year-old wife using a needle and thread at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Singrauli district.

According to reports, the man suspected his wife of having an extramarital affair.

Twitter

After the horrifying ordeal, the woman approached a female police officer and lodged a complaint against her husband. She was then referred to a state-run medical facility where her stitches were removed.

"He [accused] had used a local thread and needle. She has suffered minor injuries. We have confiscated the needle and the thread, a report by The Times of India quoted a police officer as saying.



A case has been registered against the man under relevant sections. The complainant has, however, has asked the police to not take harsh action against her husband, an officer said.

Twitter

According to the report, the accused often had arguments with his wife and suspected that his wife was having an affair with a man from their village.
BAPS Charities organized In the Joy of Other Walk/Run in June to raise funds to support the Susan G. Komens Mission to eradicate breast cancer. The event was held across 70 communities with many Indian Americans participating. Above was the only in-person walk held in Los Angeles, Calif. (Lenin Joshi photo/BAPS)
One of three billboards commissioned in Pune, India announcing the 125th anniversary celebrations at the local ISKCON temple. Devotees around the world, including in the Indian American community will be planning various programs to mark the occasion. (ISKCON Pune photo provided)
California denies 42 new fracking permits, but approves 1,019 oil and gas permits by Dan Bacher

Saturday Aug 28th, 2021 11:00 AM

Its encouraging to see CalGEM denying more fracking permits, particularly as California weathers a devastating drought and wildfire season induced by climate change, said Food & Water Watchs California Director Alexandra Nagy. This is progress. But make no mistake, it is not enough.



SACRAMENTO  Less than a month after denying all of Aera Energys 21 applications for fracking permits, the Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) denied 42 of California Resources Production Corporations applications for fracking operations that the company submitted for review in 2019 and 2020.



These wells are located in the Elk Hills, Jerry Slough, Kettleman North Dome, and North Shafter fields in Kern County, the center of oil production in California.



The corporation, the largest oil-producing company in California, was formed in April 2014 as a corporate spin-off of Occidental Petroleum. In July 2020, the company filed bankruptcy with $5 billion in debt. It emerged from bankruptcy in October 2020.



Food and Water Watch and other advocates noted that the agency cited missing application materials for the denial, making no mention of risks to public health and safety, environmental quality and climate change cited in the previous fracking permit denials for Aera Energy.



In a letter to Faisal Latif, Regulatory Affairs Manager of the California Resources Production Corporation, Uduak-Joe Ntukm, the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, wrote.



In December 2019, in accordance with a recommendation from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CalGEM began requiring operators to submit, for CalGEM to review as part of its permit application process, a written narrative of the Axial Dimensional Stimulation Area (ADSA) model and methodology used to evaluate each field and stimulated zone. All operators with WST permit applications were notified of this requirement in December 2019, and CalGEM has made several follow up requests to CRPC



To date, CRPC has failed to submit the requisite ADSA narratives and supporting data for these applications. Therefore, this correspondence serves as notice that the 42 WST permit applications are denied.



As you can see, there was no mention of risks to public health and safety, environmental quality and climate change by Uduak-Joe Ntukm in this permit denial as there was in the denial of the Aera Energy permits.



In May, Governor Gavin Newsom directed CalGEM to develop a plan to accept no new fracking permits by 2024. Despite pressure from environmental groups to speed up the process, he has to date maintained the 2024 timeline.



In addition, Newsoms regulators have set a target date of 2045 to phase out all oil and gas drilling in California, 24 years into the future when climate-induced wildfires and drought are devastating the state right now.



Environmentalists and public advocates were encouraged by the denial of the permits, but said it is not enough.



Its encouraging to see CalGEM denying more fracking permits, particularly as California weathers a devastating drought and wildfire season induced by climate change, said Food & Water Watchs California Director Alexandra Nagy. This is progress. But make no mistake, it is not enough.



Governor Newsom must direct CalGEM to end fracking and all well stimulation now, not in two and a half years. Fracking and well stimulation permits are just a subset of oil drilling permits approved by the Newsom administration. Our climate cannot wait and neither can the communities across California sickened by air and water pollution. Its time for Governor Newsom to take up the mantle of climate leadership that would make California an example for other states. Its time to end fracking now and stop all new permits for oil and gas drilling, stated Nagy.



It is also important to note that fracking and well stimulation permits amount to only 2 percent of the total oil produced in California, according to CalGEM.



1,019 oil and gas permits approved in first 6 months of 2021



The overall number of oil and gas permits approved under Newsom now totals 9,014 since he took office in January 2019, according to NewsomWellWatch.com, a website run by Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance that maps all California oil wells. CalGEM approved 1,019 oil and gas permits in the first six months of 2021.



Total permit approvals to drill or rework new oil wells fell by 64% in the first six months of 2021 over the same period last year, giving Governor Newsom an excellent opening to more decisively transition off of fossil fuels, according to the two groups. The number of permit applications filed by oil and gas companies also fell by 52%.



Overall, rates of both permit approvals and counts of permit applications to drill new wells have dropped in 2021, said Kyle Ferrar, Western Program Coordinator at FracTracker Alliance. While the market traditionally drives permit application counts, Governor Newsom now has the opportunity to reduce the expansion of oil extraction. Starting with a responsible setback for Frontline Communities of at least 2,500 feet from drilling operations, Newsom can limit new drilling and begin Californias transition away from the stranglehold of big oil.



The market is the single most important factor suppressing permit applications, but Governor Newsom is also sending the oil industry the right signals by rejecting fracking permit applications and announcing an end to fracking by 2024, said Consumer Advocate Liza Tucker. Governor Newsom now has a golden opportunity to seize the moment and come forward with a decisive transition plan off of fossil fuels that includes switching oil workers away from production toward desperately needed well remediation.



The groups said the biggest drop in approvals was for new oil and gas production wells and for new wells using more dangerous enhanced oil recovery techniques such as cyclic steaming and steam flooding. Those combined approvals fell 83%.



Permit approvals to rework wells, including re-drilling, unclogging, and deepening, fell 36%, according to the groups. Combined that meant CalGEM approved 64% fewer permits across the board in the first six months of 2021 than last year, Tucker revealed.



Approvals of fracking applications dropped by three quarters, while the plugging of wells rose 31% over last year.



The number of approvals to plug wells exceeded the number of approvals to drill them and that is a positive sign that the era of oil in California could be starting to come to an end, said Tucker.



She said the biggest decrease in permit applications was for drilling new oil and gas wells. Such applications dropped by 70%, while all applications fell 52%



According to a chart of weekly permit application submissions for the first six months, permit applications plunged in mid-March when Newsom issued a Covid stay-at-home order and never recovered, with an uptick visible only in the last two weeks of June, according to Tucker.



The pandemic and increasing pressure from environmental and corporate governance advocates, as well as shareholders and investors, has created wind shear on rising permit applications, said Tucker. Last month, Reuters reported that Shell plans to exit Aera Energyits California joint venture with Exxon Mobil. Aera produces about 25% of the states oil and gas. Shell has already sold off all of its California oil refining operations, some of which were connected by pipelines to fields. As oil prices have gradually risen this year, increasing numbers of oil producers are putting assets up for sale as investors pressure them to cut fossil fuel investments in favor of renewables.



CalGEM approved 127 new and rework permits for neighborhood oil drilling



Since the California Department of Conservation missed their December 31 deadline to protect frontline communities from the harmful impacts of oil and gas, they have issued 42 new and 85 rework permits, a combined total of 127 new and rework permits, within 2500 feet of a home, school, healthcare facility, daycare, or prison, according to the Fractracker Alliance.



While CalGEM has missed deadline after deadline to issue a draft public health regulation on neighborhood oil and gas drilling, the VISION coalition and frontline communities have taken the fight into their own hands. The coalition is demanding CalGEM suspend new permit approvals for oil and gas sites within 2,500 ft of sensitive receptors.



Currently, 2.17 million residents live within 2500 feet of an oil and gas well: thats more than 5% of Californians, or roughly 1 in 20.



Unlike in other oil and gas producing states like Texas, North Dakota, Colorado and Pennsylvania that have mandated health and safety setbacks around oil and gas wells, California has none.



In a tweet on July 9, the Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment described the denial of 21 fracking permits in the Belridge Oil Field as good but not enough. We need an immediate moratorium on all permits within 2500 feet of our homes, schools, hospitals, prisons and other sensitive receptors.



If CalGEM is denying fracking permits to protect the safety and health of Californians, we need to address the needs of frontline communities and no longer issue ANY permits within at least 2500 feet of sensitive receptors. We can't pick and choose when to listen to science, tweeted VISION, a coalition of environmental justice groups, also on July 9.



Culver City votes to phase out oil and gas drilling.



Tucker noted that California jurisdictions are not waiting for action from Governor Newsom, but are taking action themselves.



The Culver City Council recently voted 4-1 to end oil drilling and remove all the gas wells in the city's 78-acre portion of the Inglewood Oil Field (OIF) by July 2026. The Inglewood Oil Field is 18th largest oil field in the state and the second-most productive in the Los Angeles Basin.



In addition, she said the City of Los Angeles is currently considering zoning regulations to phase out oil drilling in the face of a five-year grassroots campaign led by communities affected by oil drilling and environmental advocates.



The City Council is also pressuring CalGEM to close the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility in Porter Ranch that caused the biggest methane well blowout in U.S. history in 2015.



A recent court decision also bodes well for environmental justice advocates opposing neighborhood oil and gas drilling.



This month, an LA County Superior Court judge ordered the oil industry to pay more than $1.2 million in legal fees to three environmental groupsYouth for Environmental Justice, the South Central Youth Leadership Coalition and the Center for Biological Diversityand to pay over $1 million to the City of Los Angeles for bringing a retaliatory suit against the groups after they won protection from the city against neighborhood drilling, stated Tucker In 2019, a California appeals court dismissed the suit as a baseless attack on the groups.



Finally, the LA County Board of Supervisors is also considering addressing the glut of marginally producing and idle wells in unincorporated areas of the county.



These developments are putting the oil industry on notice that they no longer have carte blanche to pollute as they please and that policymakers and communities are going to rightly limit their extraction activities to protect public health and the environment, Tucker concluded.



Photo: Youth protesters ask Governor Gavin Newsom to stand up to Big Oil at at a rally by the Last Chance Alliance in February 2020. Photo by Dan Bacher.
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Woodbridge, VA (22192)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 60F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
It's a lovely morning on Dublins Bull Wall and Joe Duffy is recalling the career advice given to him years ago by his friend and mentor Gay Byrne.

Duffy had been offered Spirit Level, a live, one-hour Sunday TV show  and with Saturday rehearsals, and his weekday radio show Liveline, he was looking at working seven days.

I called into Gay one morning for a coffee, and I said it to him, and he looked at me, and he had a withering look, I can tell you, he said, Are you for real? Its what you do. Now just do it. It wont last forever; I can guarantee that.

Its advice Duffy, who turned 65 in January, has taken to heart. As a contractor, he is not covered by RTEs mandatory retirement rule, but he acknowledges that his future as a public service broadcaster ultimately depends upon RTE and the public.

I dont want to [retire]. Now, remember, its outside my control. One: RTE could get rid of me, two: the public, three: I could make an awful mistake. I could come out with a formula of words, intentionally or unintentionally, that would get me [fired].

But as long as Im able to do it, Ill do it. The Liveline presenter, inviting listeners to Talk to Joe for 22 years now, says he doesnt know what he would have done without the phone-in show during Covid. I loved the privilege of being there.

He says the most heart-breaking stories have stayed with him, and he singles out one which was captured in a haunting image. That day, one of the very early ones, the day of the window, the man looking in at his dead brother, and the photograph? Standing on a chair looking in? He shakes his head.

Liveline's listenership soared during the pandemic.

Livelines listenership soared during the pandemic, crossing the 400,000 mark, and while the show gave voice to those suffering unbearable loss, it also lifted the nations spirits during dark times. He smiles at the mention of the day scandalised listeners rang in to criticise the TV drama Normal People.

Duffy became something of a lockdown meme when Normal People director Lenny Abrahamson tweeted a screen-grab of the presenter apparently holding his head in his hand as he listened to complaints about pure filth and the like. He chuckles as he recalls one woman likening scenes to something youd see in a porno, and his own faux-innocent question And what would you see in a porno?

When it comes to public controversies, RTE presenters salaries are a hardy perennial, and Duffy, who last year earned 392,494, is currently the third-highest paid employee at the State broadcaster  behind Ryan Tubridy and Ray DArcy. Im a contractor, he says. I negotiated with RTE fair and square, and it is what it is. People have a right to talk about it if they wish.

Public service

Five years ago, Duffy says, he received a very significant offer from rival independent station Newstalk. Much greater than my current pay, and my current contract in RTE, much greater, and I turned it down and stayed in RTE because I believe in public service.

He says he and his wife had several meetings with senior Newstalk staff, including the stations then-owner, Denis OBrien. The deal was incredible. Absolutely incredible. But I said no because Im happy in RTE, I believe in RTE.

He adds that he never encounters begrudgery himself: In fact, people say Fair play to you, why shouldnt you? If other people are getting it at that level, why shouldnt you? It is what it is. Its out there, its in the public eye. If Id gone to Newstalk, it wouldnt be in the public eye. Nobody knows what Pat Kenny is getting, because its a private company and they wouldnt publish.

Duffy is publicising the 15th season of RTE Ones The Meaning of Life, his second year at the helm since replacing the original host, Gay Byrne, who died in 2019. (Its his wedding anniversary today, he says. Him and Kathleen.) He says hes enjoyed getting out of the studio to record the new series, and hes enthusiastic about his guests, among them Jane Seymour, Mary Coughlan, Michael Harding, Rupert Everett, and Eamonn Holmes.

He describes Eamon McCanns appearance on the programme as a tour de force, with the Derry journalist telling his own story and the history of the Troubles. Jesus, the stuff he says about the after-effects of the Troubles is just shocking to the core.

To ask The Meaning of Life Stephen Fry question, what would Joe Duffy say to God at the Pearly Gates? He laughs: Id say Is this the right house? I think Id say thanks. Thanks for letting me live, thanks for my good health, thanks for my friends and my family.

He smiles when reminded that he was one of Pope John Paul IIs warm-up acts in Galway in 1979, alongside Bishop Eamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary. He says he got the gig because he was president of the students union at Trinity, a Protestant university, and had been involved in the Catholic Youth Council.

I had a beard, much to my mothers dismay, I had an awful donkey jacket on, even to her greater dismay, and I had a Dublin working-class accent. So, I fitted a lot of different bills.

Myself and the Pope had one thing in common. Of the four of us on the altar, me and him were the only ones who didnt have children

'I was like the son he never wanted'

A former probation officer, Duffy cut his journalistic teeth as a reporter on the Gay Byrne Show, for 15 years travelling around the country. Theres not a day that went to waste. You always met someone, you always saw somewhere, you always noticed something. Byrne, two years gone in November, seems seldom far from his thoughts.

I think I was like the son he never wanted. I used to call him dad. He was great company. We had great laughs. And great scandal and gossip. And very funny. And a very good storyteller, obviously. And extraordinarily modest.

Duffy is very proud of the work Liveline does. In the wake of the publication of the mother and baby homes report, Liveline gave over a fortnight to survivors, acting almost as a redress to the controversial report.

The mother and baby homes, we were doing that a long, long time ago. We did the industrial schools when the solicitors were ripping them off, which was shocking. Remember, they were double-charging them. The redress was paying them and they were giving bills. And the Law Society was a disgrace during that. An absolute disgrace.

He is scathing of the Law Society Justice Awards (an oxymoron): The Law Society shouldnt be giving out justice awards and people shouldnt be accepting them, and I notice they try to give one to every paper. (This newspaper received a Law Society Justice Award this year for its coverage of mother and baby homes.)

Atonement

Duffy says his book, Children of the Troubles, was the most important thing he's ever done.

He turns the conversation to the Troubles, and the book he wrote with Freya McClements, Children of the Troubles, which he says is probably the most important thing hes ever done in his career. He says he is utterly opposed to violence, and cannot tolerate anyone who justifies violence in any shape or form. He believes the question of the justification of violence has yet to be answered in this country.

An awful lot of ambiguity there still, among certain political parties, and it needs to be interrogated. I think there needs to be a period of atonement. Im not in the majority at the minute, obviously, [but] theres no spin on the Troubles that can tell you violence was justified.

Duffy covered the Good Friday Agreement, and he claims the heavy lifting was done by the SDLPs Mark Durkan, John Hume, and Seamus Mallon, by Tony Blair, and Bertie Ahern (in fairness to him), by Liz ODonnell, and Mo Mowlam.

Thats the thing that struck me that week up in Stormont, for the whole week, there was always someone from Sinn Fein out on their press stand, be it Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness, always somebody giving interviews, and  Mark Durkan I freely admit is a personal friend of mine  Id be ringing Mark: Mark, would you come out and talk, he said I cant, Im too busy. They were drafting the fecking thing. That was the reality of it.

Sinn Fein, Duffy claims, has a PR machine which far surpasses that of any company, any corporation, any political party, and fair play to them.

He is annoyed that the Glasnevin Wall, unveiled in 2016 to commemorate all who died in Irelands revolution, is currently covered in black plastic, following repeated vandalism, and he notes with bitter irony that one of the names obliterated was that of Padraig Pearse.

I want to liberate that wall and take down that black plastic over it. I just think its shameful that its covered. Wasnt commemoration of all combatants always likely to be controversial, given our divided history?

The most common argument against it is Nobody else does it, and I say thats exactly why we should do it. Duffy says that brother fought brother during the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence: Some of them were in the British Army because it was the only army at the time. A lot of Dubliners joined after the Lockout because they had no choice.

I think that is the argument. No-one else has done it, well, why cant we?

He says its a question of leadership.

If Sinn Fein turned around tomorrow and said Let that wall exist in Glasnevin, and let everyones name be on it, nobody deserved to die, the same with the Troubles, nobody deserved to die, no matter what side you were on, I think that would be the end of that debate.

Pride

For much of our conversation, Duffy poses obligingly as the photographer takes hundreds of pictures, and one passer-by shouts Yer lookin great Joe! He replies dryly: Im sendin you to Specsavers.

He says he is proud that he and his wife June have instilled a strong work ethic in their children, triplets Sean, Ellen and Ronan, 26-years-old now, recalling bringing them to tour the Arigna Mines in Leitrim with ex-miners, and saying to them Were not digging coal in Arigna, lads whenever they give out about work.

My father worked five-and-a-half days a week. He took a drink, but he was never late for work. He was up at six every morning. He recalls being asked to MC a charity gig when he was starting out and feeling unable for the task. His great friend Sil Fox advised him to do it anyway.

He said, Theres probably a hundred Joe Duffys in Ireland, right? Ninety-nine of them are better looking than you, we can say that, ninety-eight are probably funnier than you, ninety-seven are probably more intelligent than you, but youre the one theyre asking to do the gig, right? Theyre asking that Joe Duffy.

"If youre healthy and you can get up on the stage, do it because theyre asking you for a reason. You dont lose the run of yourself. People ask you for a reason, and if you can, do it. He ties that back to Gay Byrnes mantra: You work. It wont last forever. Youre not digging coal in Arigna.

And with that, hes into his car and off to RTE, where the Liveline is now open.

Liveline airs weekdays 1.45pm on RTE Radio 1.

The Meaning of Life returns to RTE One on September 12
The Defence Forces have released a series of behind-the-scenes images from the Irish evacuation mission that successfully evacuated 26 Irish citizens and residents from the besieged city of Kabul.

The Emergency Civil Assistance Team (ECAT), which included members of the Defence Forces Special Operations Forces unit, the Army Ranger Wing (ARW), was deployed alongside diplomats from the Department of Foreign Affairs to Hamid Karzai International Airport on Tuesday.

On deployment the team secured the DFA personnel on the ground, liaised with key actors in the airport and assisted DFA in the processing and evacuation of identified Irish citizens/dependents, a spokesperson for the Defence Forces said.

The team were also on standby to provide medical assistance if required," they added.

The teams deployment and recovery were supported by both the Irish Air Corps and Partner Nation aircraft.

A spokesperson for the Defence Forces said the team are now safely home on Irish soil.

Speaking to RTE Drivetime on Thursday, Minister Simon Coveney said the Irish mission was split in two with most of the evacuees leaving on a French plane at 11:30am that morning. The remainder left on a Finnish flight at 3:30pm - the first flight to leave after an explosion outside the airport which left at least 79 dead and wounded 143 more.

Picture: Oglaigh na hEireann

In total, 36 Irish citizens or residents have been safely evacuated since the Taliban took hold of the city but at least 60 Irish citizens, and 15 Afghan citizens who are normally resident in Ireland, remain stuck in the country.
WHEN people think about refugees coming to their country, they may fear that already limited resources will have to be divided among even more people.

This scarcity thinking closes our borders to those in need. This scarcity thinking shuts down our minds to solutions. And this scarcity thinking locks other human beings into their dire straits.

This ill-informed, fear-based thinking is a myth. The pie is not finite.

The truth about welcoming refugees to your country was captured in a now-viral photo taken at the Melsbroek airfield in Belgium on Wednesday.

This is what happens when you protect refugees...



Welcome to Belgium, little girl !



Wonderful @Reuters picture via @POLITICOEurope pic.twitter.com/v1127frvf9  Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) August 26, 2021

An Afghan girl, dressed in yellow, hair caught in the wind, skips along the tarmac, so filled with joy that neither of her feet touch the ground. Ahead of her are her family, walking into safety. Imagine her potential, the life in front of her, the things she will go on to achieve.

She is the opposite of our burden.

This is what happens when you protect refugees. Welcome to Belgium, little girl, wrote former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, MEP.

You know those scenes of homecoming beamed to us on RTE news from Cork and Dublin airport at Christmas, especially around the time of the recession? Imagine if we greeted  with that level of warmth, welcome, and positive anticipation  the 250 Afghan people we have promised to resettle.

Evacuees from Kabul disembarking from an Air Belgium chartered plane at Melsbroek military airport in Belgium this week. Picture: Olivier Matthys/AP

This week, US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with 70 other members of the US Congress, called on the Biden administration to increase the cap on refugees to 200,000. Under former US president Donald Trump, the cap stood at 15,000 annually. Under George W Bush it was 70,000 a year. Under Barack Obama it was 85,000. And with Ronald Reagan it was 231,700.

US migration policy aside, the congresswoman made a point that relates not to numbers or strategy, but to our thinking about refugees.

To those questioning if it really is our responsibility to provide refuge for those fleeing conflict, persecution, or dire living conditions, yes, it is, said Ms Ocasio-Cortez. In fact, it is not only our responsibility, but it is our greatest strength.

It is a strength, yes, but its also loaded with opportunity.

Welcoming refugees is a win-win situation and when we look at it like that we can free ourselves up to do everything to make sure our country and government play their part in rolling out the red carpet.

We dont need to change our migration policy: We need to change our mindset.

Some people say they would like to welcome refugees, but that we cannot afford it, said Hippolyte dAlbis, an economist at the Paris School of Economics, last year.

He was highlighting scarcity thinking.

Just supposing it were just about money... In the US, a study from the University of Notre Dame found that, between 1990 and 2014, each refugee resettled cost the government $15,000. Their needs included housing, healthcare, and language learning. But this is only half the story. The study found that within eight years of their arrival, adult refugees begin paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits. And if youre only in it for the money, it gets better. By the time adult refugees have lived in the US for 20 years, they will have paid an average of $21,000 more in taxes than the benefits they received at their arrival. Whos benefiting now? And where exactly is the burden? You might say, Well, thats great, theyre benefiting the economy, but theyre taking my job. Research from the World Bank dispels that scarcity myth, too. A 2015 working paper from the bank found that Syrian refugees to Turkey generated more formal non-agricultural jobs and helped to increase average wages for Turkish workers. The win-win situation of welcoming refugees has quite the ripple effect. Refugees are extremely entrepreneurial, creating jobs for others. So, instead of saying: Theyre taking my jobs, the truth is that they create jobs. In the US, 13% of refugees are entrepreneurs, compared to just 9% of the native-born population, according to the 2015 New American Economy report. This study used the five-year American Community Survey (ACS) to provide a picture of the 3.4m refugees who arrived in the US since 1975. Hippolyte dAlbis, who called out peoples scarcity thinking for believing they could not afford refugees, frames it differently. He said that welcoming refugees has not been a cost, and that if you do not welcome immigrants, the economy might be worse off.

So where will the initial money come from?

Professor Mariana Mazzucato, an economist at University College London, spoke to The Irish Times last year.

Money is not scarce, as society has been led to believe, she said. Instead, its a technology, a lubricant to be used.

Money is a social technology and not an inherently scarce resource, as the public has been led to believe, Prof Mazzucato said.

The wealth of our nations comes from our ability to activate our resources to solve our problems and improve the way we use them through innovation and more mutualistic relationships between the public and private sector.

Money is a crucial instrument to mobilise our common potential, Prof Mazzucato added.

She cited the example of former US president Franklin D Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, which revitalised the US economy following the Great Depression.

He did not wait to find the money, Ms Mazzucato said.

The core point of macroeconomics is that spending equals income  and, indeed, creates the income. Instead of asking where the money is going to come from, we should ask: Where are the physical and intellectual resources going to come from?

The argument not to welcome refugees on economic grounds holds no weight. Its just racism and xenophobia dressed up as bogus economics. And these people are far more than economic actors or refugees: They are human beings with flesh and bones and families and lives and hobbies and friends, just like you and me.

Any one of us could one day need to flee

As terrorist attacks killed and injured dozens in Kabul this week, a day after that little girl skipped into Belgium, the fragility of all of our humanity was laid bare, not just the refugees fragility.

Refugees from Belgium who had fled after the German invasion in August, arriving by ship in the Port of Cork in September, 1914. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive

Any one of us could need refuge because of circumstances beyond our control. Afghan refugees are people; their circumstances are that they are fleeing. Lets not define people by their circumstances. When we do, we see burden and scarcity where there is none.

Welcoming new people to our country is a win-win. We receive new intellect, new experience, new perspective, new skills, new cultures, new entrepreneurship, new language, and those coming in, hopefully, get a safe place to rebuild their life.

That the social and economic process of resettling and integration is complex is undeniable, but complexity is not a reason to close doors.

With facts on our side, humanity as our ideology, and pragmatism as our politics, lets roll out the red carpet to people seeking refuge.
Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely have been through an experience that few will ever have to endure.

In March 2019, they were told that the unborn child Rebecca was carrying had a fatal foetal abnormality and would not survive the pregnancy or would die within a day of delivery.

The advice was that it would be best to proceed with a termination.

Two weeks after the procedure, a final result came through from the tests that had shown up the abnormality. Instead of confirming the result, which they had been told was definitive, this showed that a catastrophic error had been made. Their unborn baby, a boy, was healthy.

Life-altering event

In the two years since the life-altering event, the couple hasnt got closure. The pregnancy had been much longed for, the loss leaving a sense of bereavement and shock.

Their trauma has, they believe, been compounded by how the whole matter was dealt with by the maternity hospital in question and a State that appears unable to take control of the situation.

We are different people than we were before this, Pat says.

Part of that is down to the tragedy, but the other thing is closure.

There is still the ongoing risk as far as we are concerned. The risk to other couples has not been addressed

On December 20, 2018, President Michael D Higgins signed into law the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.

The legislation was in response to the passing of the referendum the previous May to repeal the eighth amendment, which had banned abortion. The referendum was passed by a two-to-one majority.

Fatal foetal abnormalities

One of the key areas of the referendum campaign was that of fatal foetal abnormalities.

A series of personal stories before and during the campaign had highlighted the emotional trauma of parents who had to go to the UK or Europe for a termination when told their expected child would not survive for long outside the womb.

Section 11 of the new act stated: A termination of pregnancy may be carried out in accordance with this section where 2 medical practitioners, having examined the pregnant woman, are of the reasonable opinion, formed in good faith, that there is present a condition affecting the foetus that is likely to lead to the death of the foetus either before, or within 28 days, of birth.

Four days after the president signed the act into law, Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely received the news for which they had been longing. Rebecca was pregnant. It was to be a Christmas like no other, full of the expectation of what the coming year would bring.

Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely on Christmas Eve 2018, the day they found out they were expecting a baby.

Pat is from Oysterhaven in Co. Cork. He is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, who is well known for his work with children who have scoliosis, the painful spinal condition. Rebecca is from Wales and works in the medical devices sector.

The couple met in Dublin and live on the northside of the city.

The new health act came into force on January 1, 2019. Over the following days, Rebecca got in touch with her local maternity hospital, the Rotunda, but was told that she would have to wait until March 20 for her first pregnancy scan.

Read More Michael Clifford: Delayed justice for baby Christopher shows a dark side of the business of law

I would have been 17 or so weeks then, which is late for a first scan, Rebecca says. So we went private to the Merrion Fetal Health Clinic for a scan.

The clinic is owned by five consultants attached to the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) in Holles St.

On February 21, Rebecca and Pat attended the scan. The news was good, all was perfect. As Rebecca was getting dressed, the nurse asked would she be interested in doing the test to check whether there was any sign of Down Syndrome or two other possible serious conditions.

Harmony test

This is the non-invasive prenatal test, known as the Harmony test. It is designed to detect the risk of trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) or trisomy 13. The test is taken by many pregnant women, particularly those of an older age.

According to Rebecca, the nurse said that if she took the Harmony test that day, she would get it at a reduced rate.

We went across the road and had a coffee and thought about it, Rebecca says.

I was 35, an older mother, and there would be no harm in getting any information we could. If there was something then we could be in a position to prepare for it

So we rang back and said, yes, wed do it.

That afternoon she took the test. Had the test not been offered, or had the couple opted not to take it, their lives would have taken a very different course.

Seven days later, Rebecca got a call from consultant obstetrician Fionnuala McAuliffe at the NMH. The bad news was the test had detected trisomy 18, Edwards Syndrome. The prognosis was that if the child survived birth, he wouldnt live for long.

However, the test, while marketed at providing 99% accuracy, is only designed to identify a high risk of the presence of the trisomys. A follow-up invasive test is required for confirmation.

The devastated couple were asked to come in the following Monday for a chorionic villus sampling (CVS) test, which would provide a definitive diagnosis.

The CVS is one of two tests designed for this purpose. The other is amniocentesis, which is considered to be more accurate.

Amniocentesis directly reflects the foetal DNA structure, CVS is for the placenta and is generally used in the earlier stages of pregnancy, under 15 weeks. The foetal and placenta DNAs are usually similar, but not necessarily so.

When the couple arrived at the NMH on the Monday, Rebecca first underwent another ultrasound scan. Again, this showed everything normal.

An image of Baby Christopher, from Rebecca Price's second scan

I asked didnt that raise a question about the Harmony test but I was told no, because the Harmony was a DNA test and it had to be the more accurate one, Rebecca says.

She then had the CVS test. She was around 15 weeks pregnant at the time.

Four days later, on Friday, March 8, the couple got a phone call from a nurse in the hospital. The initial CVS result confirmed that there was a fatal foetal abnormality in the form of trisomy 18. They were asked to come in the following Monday for a consultation on how to proceed.

When we went in, we talked it through with Prof. McAuliffe, Rebecca says.

I had been in touch with Soft, the charity for parents of children with Edwards syndrome and I had got a fair bit of information on it.

We wanted to see if there was any way that there could be a chance that he might survive and live for a while at least

But in the end we were told that the results were definitive, that this was full-blown trisomy 18 and the final result would only show if there was something else wrong as well.

"I asked were we being told there was no hope and she said yes."

Termination

Arrangements were made for the termination. Rebecca was not examined by a second physician, as required by Section 11 of the act under which the procedure was to take place.

Later, the hospital would say that another doctor examined Rebeccas file and notes to fulfill the requirements of the law, but the legislation explicitly refers to the second physician having examined the pregnant woman.

The termination took place on March 14. The couple named the baby Christopher. Rebecca retained the umbilical chord for sentimental reasons. They had Christopher cremated and brought the ashes to west Kerry, where the couple have a holiday home. The ashes were scattered in the shadow of Mount Brandon.

On March 26, the obstetrician in the NMH received a phone call from the laboratory in University Hospital Glasgow where the CVS test was being processed.

Final result

The final result was completely unexpected. There was no sign of trisomy 18. The termination of Rebeccas pregnancy had been based on erroneous and incomplete results.

Some days later, the couple were asked to come into the hospital one more time.

On April 4, they met Prof McAuliffe again and a midwife. They were told that the final results were not as expected, but had shown there were some normal cells.

We were told that, theoretically, there was a tiny chance that these cells may represent he was a normal child, Pat remembers.

I asked had this kind of thing been seen before and was told it had

"We were left confused. I felt dumb because I couldnt figure it out. We were both at a loss and then the meeting segued into whether we should be tested for trisomy 18.

Rebecca was given an envelope with her file in it and the full results of the tests. They were both asked to give blood samples to check whether either was a carrier of trisomy 18.

Unsatisfactory

The meeting was unsatisfactory from their point of view, as if everybody had been talking around something.

Afterwards, Pat had to rush off to a surgery in Crumlin Childrens Hospital. Rebecca walked towards the city centre and stopped in a coffee shop. She opened the envelope which held her file.

The first line of the final report from the lab in Scotland read: Chromosome analysis of cells cultured from chonionic villus biopsy indicates an apparently normal male chromosome complement with no evidence of mosaicism involving chromosome 18, in any of the thirty cells examined.

She didnt have to go any further. She knew the enormity of what the report stated. Their unborn baby had been perfectly healthy. There was no reason to believe that he had, as the couple had been assured, a fatal abnormality.

Rebecca Price.

In Crumlin, Pat was unsettled as a result of the meeting that morning. He got through his work and, when he had a minute to spare, he phoned Rebecca to see how she was.

She was very distressed and said get home as soon as you can. I legged it home and I found her upstairs in the dark and she was crying and she handed me the report and it confirmed that Christopher was probably not fatally affected by anything.

Medical negligence

A recurring theme of medical negligence cases down through recent decades has been the conduct and legal approach of the State or hospital towards the victim in the aftermath of an incident.

In the three weeks between the termination on March 14, 2019, and the final consultation with the obstetrician on April 4, a bereavement nurse had been in contact with Rebecca. (The couple are highly complementary of the nursing staff they encountered in the NMH).

After April 4, there was no further contact. Neither was there any follow-on call from any of the senior staff at the hospital. On April 12, Pat rang the master of NMH, Shane Higgins, and expressed the devastation he and Rebecca were experiencing.

I met him in his office and gave him our experience word for word and how we had to make the discovery ourselves of what happened, Pat says.

I told him my belief that this must have happened to other people and we wanted it investigated and a way to ensure that it would never happen again

An incident form is required to be submitted within 72 hours when something of this magnitude occurs. The form wasnt completed until April 18. It records the date of the incident as March 27, the date that the final result was received, rather than March 14, the date of the termination.

Sympathy

There was further communication with the hospital. The obstetrician replied, expressing sympathy and offering to meet again. Despite that, the couple felt they were getting the runaround and asked solicitor Caoimhe Haughey to communicate on their behalf.

ON May 13, Ms Haughey wrote to the hospital pointing out a number of issues that had arisen in her clients case, including the failure to certify the termination.

According to Section 20 of the 2018 Act, all terminations carried out must be notified to the health minister within 28 days of the procedure.

On the same day that Ms Haugheys letter was delivered, the hospital notified the minister of the termination that had taken place 60 days previously.

With the assistance of a geneticist, the couple organised for DNA to be extracted from the umbilical chord to be sent to Centogene, a laboratory based in Germany that specialises in genetic analysis.

The resultant report stated: We did not detect any clinically relevant copy number variation (CNV). We detected a normal male chromosomal constitution.

This was further confirmation that trisomy 18 had not been present.

Medical file

Rebecca sought her medical file from the NMH through a data request. When she received the file, the pathology report was missing. She wrote and got more documents and still the file wasnt complete.

She wrote again and again. In total, the couple had to make seven separate requests for the file because it kept coming back incomplete.

An image of Baby Christopher, from Rebecca Price's first scan

The experience prompted them to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner, which, the Irish Examiner understands, engaged with the hospital on their behalf.

The hospital didnt communicate with Rebeccas GP, as might be expected under the circumstances. The impression the couple got was that the hospital just wanted them to go away and let bygones be bygones.

Investigation

Later in May, the hospital announced that the London-based Royal College of Obstetricians was going to conduct an investigation. This did not proceed, ostensibly because the college said it didnt have the expertise required. A major issue throughout was that neither the HSE nor the minister could order an independent inquiry as the NMH is a voluntary, or non-profit privately owned, hospital.

The State funds and indemnifies the hospital but does not have the power to order an inquiry. As such, the hospital would be funding the inquiry, calling into question its independence.

Over the last two years, the couple have had meetings with two ministers for health, HSE chief medical officer Tony Holohan and numerous officials. They have written to the Attorney General and Dublin City coroner about what they believe to be a breach of the law.

Legal action

In 2020, having failed to get any kind of a response they considered appropriate, they launched a legal action against the hospital and the private health clinic where Rebecca had the initial scan.

Last December, there was an attempt at mediation between the parties. A report on the matter compiled by Peter McKenna, HSE clinical director for the national women and infants programme.

The aim was that the family could obtain an acknowledgment of the significance of the event that occurred, an apology for that event, and an explanation as to how the hospital had ensured a similar event could not happen again, the report states.

The process broke down, despite a series of meetings over three months into March this year. Mr McKenna points out that, in recent years, there have been two cases at the NMH in which the department felt that an independent inquiry would be appropriate.

The first case was a maternal death and this current case involving a termination is the second. In both cases, the personnel suggested by the Institution [the NMH], to do the review, were appropriate and their integrity beyond reproach.

What can be said is that the independence of the review could be called into question if it was organised by the Institution in which the adverse event took place. That the funder of the service (Department/Minister) cannot mandate an independent review seems inappropriate, indefensible and ultimately unsustainable.

Grief

It has now been over two years since the couple experienced trauma and tragedy on a scale few will ever encounter. In that time, the nature of the fallout has ensured that they are still having difficulty getting through the first stage of grief.

The risk to other couples has not been addressed, Pat says. They brought this legislation in very quickly and chose 1 January [2019] to start it for political reasons. Then six weeks later, all of this happened. Within another six weeks, we had flagged it and we havent even had a response from the current minister about our concerns.

Their ordeal has been life-changing, but they are both individually equipped to research and process all that is involved in their case. They are acutely aware that others may not be so fortunate.

What about the couples who dont have access to the kind of people I was able to call up

What about those who are not in a position to take on board all the different aspects in terms of the science or medicine? We were fortunate in that regard, but has it happened to others who havent been able to deal with the enormity of it or pursue it to the extent that we have?

Nobody should be put through this, Pat says.

Rebecca says she is acutely aware of the wider issues around abortion that arose in their ordeal.

It was never our intention to polarise people, she says. The issue here is pro-choice should be exactly that, informed choice made on correct information. If the legislation and the guidelines were followed, we would not be in this situation.

If Christophers life and legacy is that other failures and future children can be better protected, that would be something real.
Manchester United players past and present hailed the return of Cristiano Ronaldo to the club as the Portuguese star agreed a deal to go back to Old Trafford.

United players took to social media to welcoming Ronaldo back to the club he joined in 2003 and where he spent six successful seasons.

Bruno Fernandes, who reportedly spoke to his Portugal team-mate about returning to United, tweeted: Agent Bruno? alongside emojis of a briefcase and a face with tears of joy. He added: Welcome back home Cristiano.

Uniteds summer signing Jadon Sancho simply tweeted: SCARY HOURS!.

Marcus Rashford said: Wow wow wow, hes home, Jesse Lingard added: VIVA RONALDOOO!!!! while Raphael Varane and David De Gea also posted messages.

Roy Keane, who was United captain when the club first signed Ronaldo, wrote on Instagram: Welcome back Cristiano, while Edwin van der Sar wrote on his social media account: How are you feeling @manchesterunited fans? Always dreamt but never expected that it would happen! Welcome back in Manchester @cristiano.

Gary Neville, another former team-mate, called it fantastic news and admitted that it would have been torture for United fans to see him join neighbours Manchester City, who were initially front-runners to sign the five-time world player of the year.

Neville said: Its fantastic news. A little bit nostalgic and nostalgia doesnt always work in football, it kicks you sometimes when you dont expect it. The idea of him going to City was torture for United fans. If there is a big player available United have to be in the market for that player.

What theyve done is bolster the squad with a proven goalscorer, a club legend. He will score goals and give them brilliant moments.

It will give the club an incredible 12 months and United fans are going to be absolutely rocking to see one of their own come back and play.

Neville, who made fun of fellow Sky pundit Jamie Carragher in an Instagram post welcoming back Ronaldo, believes the acquisition could transform Uniteds season after Ole Gunnar Solskjaers side slipped up in a 1-1 draw at Southampton last weekend.

This could give them a temporary shot in the arm that would potentially get them right up there this year, Neville said.

This news gives me more hope that United could have a great season because this is one of the most special players who has ever played the game of football.

Hell play regularly as a number nine and Im sure theyll put legs around him.

Cristiano will be coming to win trophies, personal accolades, and set the Premier League on fire.

It is a different Cristiano Ronaldo but hes someone who still has those bursts of speed over short spaces that will cause problems.

He makes great runs inside the box and has the anticipation where the ball is going to drop, so he will give Manchester United something that they need.
The Taliban has deployed extra forces around Kabuls airport to prevent large crowds from gathering after a devastating suicide attack two days earlier, as the massive US-led airlift winds down ahead of its August 31 deadline.

New checkpoints have appeared on roads leading to the airport, some manned by uniformed Taliban fighters with Humvees and night-vision goggles captured from Afghan security forces.

Areas where large crowds of people had gathered over the past two weeks in the hope of fleeing the country following the Taliban takeover are now largely empty.

A suicide attack on Thursday by an affiliate of so-called Islamic State (Isis-K) killed 169 Afghans and 13 US service members, and there are concerns that the group, which is far more radical than the Taliban, could strike again.

Many western nations have completed their evacuation operations ahead of Tuesdays deadline for the withdrawal of all US forces.

Afghan evacuees from Afghanistan sit in a bus after the arrival of the second flight with 95 passengers at the International Airport in Tirana, Albania (AP)

Sources in Kabul said Taliban personnel claimed to have been told by the Americans to only let US passport-holders through a final checkpoint close to the airport.

On Saturday, the Taliban fired warning shots and deployed some coloured smoke on a road leading to the airport, sending dozens of people scattering, according to a video circulating online.

Earlier on Saturday, the US military struck back at IS, bombing one member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the Kabul suicide bombing.

Afghans living in Delhi participate in a protest outside the UNHCR office in New Delhi (AP)

US central command said it carried out a drone strike against an IS member in Nangarhar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Capt William Urban said there were no known civilian casualties.

It is not clear if the individual killed in the strike was involved specifically in Thursdays attack.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghans protested outside a bank in Kabul and others formed long queues at cash machines, as a UN agency warned a worsening drought could leave millions of people in need of humanitarian aid.

The economic crisis, which predates the Taliban takeover earlier this month, could give western nations leverage as they urge Afghanistans new rulers to form a moderate, inclusive government and allow people to leave after the planned withdrawal of US forces on August 31.

Afghanistan is heavily dependent on international aid, which covered around 75% of the western-backed governments budget.

A policeman directs the evacuees from Afghanistan after the arrival of the second flight with 95 passengers at the International Airport in Tirana (AP)

The Taliban has said it wants good relations with the international community and has promised a more moderate form of Islamic rule than when it last governed the country, but many Afghans are deeply sceptical.

The protesters at New Kabul Bank included many civil servants demanding their salaries, which they said had not been paid for the past three to six months.

They said even though banks reopened three days ago, no-one has been able to withdraw cash. ATM machines are still operating, but withdrawals are limited to around 200 dollars (145) every 24 hours, contributing to the formation of long queues.

 #Afghanistan: drought threatens the livelihoods of 7 million farmers.@FAO calls for urgent humanitarian assistance as it aims to assist 250 000 vulnerable farming families - some 1.5 million people - for the upcoming winter wheat season.



 https://t.co/Y6479KsuS2 pic.twitter.com/OIW55RtB2Q  FAO Newsroom (@FAOnews) August 28, 2021

The Taliban cannot access any of the central banks nine billion dollars (6.5 billion) in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve.

The International Monetary Fund has also suspended the transfer of some 450 million dollars (327 million). Without a regular supply of US dollars, the local currency is at risk of collapse, which could send the price of basic goods soaring.

Meanwhile, a UN agency has warned that a worsening drought threatens the livelihoods of more than seven million people.

Afghans wait for hours to try to withdraw money (AP)

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Afghans are also suffering from the coronavirus pandemic and displacement from the recent fighting.

Earlier this month, the United Nations World Food Programme estimated that some 14 million people  roughly one out of every three Afghans  urgently need food assistance.

The FAO said crucial help is needed ahead of the winter wheat planting season, which begins in a month in many areas.

It is feared that a worsening drought will heap more pressure on Afghanistans economy (AP)

So far, funding would cover assistance to only 110,000 families of farmers, while some 1.5 million need help, the agency said, adding that the current harvest is expected to be 20% below last years.

US president Joe Biden has said he will adhere to a self-imposed August 31 deadline for withdrawing all American forces.

The Taliban, which controls nearly the entire country outside Kabuls airport, has rejected any extension.

Italy said its final evacuation flight had landed in Rome but that it would work with the UN and countries bordering Afghanistan to continue helping Afghans who had worked with its military contingent to leave the country.

Our imperative must be to not abandon the Afghan people, especially women and children, Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said.

He added that 4,890 Afghans were evacuated by Italys air force on 87 flights, but did not say how many others were still eligible.

More than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, according to the US.

The Taliban has encouraged Afghans to stay in the country, pledging amnesty even to those who fought against them. The militants have said commercial flights will resume after the US withdrawal, but it is unclear if airlines will be willing to offer service.

The US and its allies have said they will continue providing humanitarian aid through the UN and other partners, but any broader engagement  including development assistance  is likely to hinge on whether the Taliban delivers on its promises of more moderate rule.

Evacuees disembark at the Torrejon military base (AP)

When the Taliban last governed Afghanistan, from 1996 until the US-led invasion in 2001, it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and suspected criminals were maimed or executed in public.

This time, the Taliban says women will be allowed to attend school and work outside the home. It has been negotiating with senior Afghan officials from previous governments and says it wants an inclusive, Islamic government.

But even as the groups top leadership struck a more moderate tone, there have been reports of human rights abuses in areas under Taliban control. It is unclear whether fighters are acting under orders or on their own.
Burma Atrocious Myanmar Military at Risk of Splitting: Army Defectors

Myanmar military personnel are seen during an Armed Forces Day commemoration. / Military website

With a record-breaking number of defections unmatched in nearly six decades and brewing discontent among the ranks against their superiors, Myanmars more than 300,000-strong military is now at risk of splitting, according to some ex-army officers who have deserted their units recently.

Currently, around 2,000 soldiers and police have joined the countrys Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), a nationwide boycott by Myanmar civil servants against the regime following their takeover in February. Many more are in the pipeline and out of the current 2,000 defectors, one-third are military personnel, said the officers who have joined the CDM as they are not pleased with the countrys military regime.

Though the number of defections is small for now, it is unprecedented in Myanmars military history going back to 1962 when the then dictator Ne Win staged a coup and consolidated the countrys armed forces. Some soldiers protested against the army during pro-democracy uprisings in 1988 but the number at the time was far less significant.

So, its worth asking why so many are doing so now.

[Under the regime] people are ashamed to be soldiers, to attend the Defense Services Academy or to join the military. This is a very sad thing for the future of the military said one of the officers, Captain Nyi Thuta.

After graduating in 2010 from the 52th Intake of the Defence Services Academy, he served at his base in Naypyitaw until the coup. When he learned about the takeover, he felt Myanmar was heading into a dark age. When the junta escalated its nationwide deadly crackdowns on peaceful protesters who were against their rule in March, the captain left his unit. He said You cant kill people who express their views.

The regimes brutality has shocked the world. They shot dead more than 100 people in a single day in March. They have sprayed bullets in residential areas. During raids, they have indiscriminately killed people, including children as young as 6. Arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings by the soldiers persist. As of Thursday, the junta had killed 1,019 people during their crackdowns, raids, arrests, interrogations, arbitrary killings and random shootings, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which is compiling the deaths and arrests since Feb. 1 coup.

Another defector, Captain Lin Htet Aung, said what his fellow soldiers did during the crackdowns were totally contradictory to the codes of conduct they were supposed to follow.

They have changed into thugs with guns, he said.

As a result, people detested the military so much that it demoralized the men in uniform like never before. The regimes atrocities against protesters became an immediate push factor for some military personnel to join the CDM as they have become more aware of the true colors of the military junta, which has been committing atrocities and murdering its own people.

Sergeant Yin Lei Lei Tun used to be proud of being a soldier. But her faith in the armed forces she joined in 2016 was lost with the coup when she saw the juntas atrocities against peaceful anti-regime protesters. So she joined the CDM in April after defecting from her military base in Yangon Region.

After the coup, I feel insecure about being a soldier, as people hate the military. Our military is also doing the wrong thing said the sergeant.

Currently, about 5 to 10 junta soldiers have been defecting from the military daily, according to the Peoples Soldier group, a Facebook page co-founded by Captain Nyi Thuta to provide assistance to striking soldiers and to persuade more military personnel to leave their barracks to join the CDM.

Most of the soldiers who have joined the CDM are privates and sergeants. Officers ranking from lieutenants to majors account for around 100.

The Myanmar military has been notorious for attacking its own people rather than protecting them. Its atrocities like arbitrary killings, arrests and looting in ethnic areas are internationally well known. The coup in 2021 and follow-up atrocities have worsened its already tarnished reputation while pushing its leadership into a corner, as they are facing growing armed resistance in both urban and rural areas, forcing coup leader Min Aung Hlaing to admit he couldnt fully control the country yet. Then they face another big blow: defections by their subordinates who detest their bosses actions.

Captain Nyi Thuta said the image of the military is now the worst in history, as more military personnel are realizing that the reputation of the military and soldiers have been totally shattered.

So, this momentum [of defections] is going to grow. The sure thing is that the time has come for the people and peoples soldiers to unite, he said.

Cracks in the military

Everyone familiar with Myanmar politics knows it is hard to imagine that change in Myanmar can come about without the involvement of some men within the military, which has remained the countrys most powerful institution since 1962.

Now with defections growing like never before, Captian Nyit Thuta said the military has potential to split into two groups: those who want to inherit the bad legacy of the military and others who dont want to do so.

Anyone defecting said they want to be peoples soldiersprofessionals who protect the people. They dont want to hand over the institutions bad legacy to their juniors, he said.

Another defecting military official, Captain Lin Htet Aung, also realized they were working for the coup leaders who put their personal benefits before the country or the military institution itself.

The captain, who graduated from the 54th Intake of the Defense Services Academy, left the military barracks in Shan State a few months after the February coup after seeing the regimes atrocities against unarmed peaceful anti-coup demonstrators and civilians. Later he formed the Peoples Embrace group to help military personnel who want to defect.

We are seeing cracks in the military. There are many injustices in posting and other human rights violations that create discontent among the ranks against their superiors. So, the military could face a split, said Captain Lin Htet Aung.

For examples, he explained, some military troops have been unfairly posted on the frontline for years while others who have good connections with people upstairs are being posted in safe areas like Naypyitaw, he added.

International and local observers are convinced that the military institution must split up in order to restore the path to democracy in Myanmar, as there is a lack of effective actions by the UN and international organizations and neither the armed resistance of the people nor the ethnic armed groups can defeat the junta.

Captian Lin Htet Aung also agreed with the point that without the split within the military, its unlikely democracy will be restored.

Years-long bad habits [like corruption] and systems [like oppression] are deeply rooted in the military. We also need to fight to force those ingrained bad habits out in order to restore democracy. So, the institution needs to split up he added.

In an attempt to encourage more defections, Myanmars parallel National Unity Government (NUG) on Monday issued a statement urging military personnel to join the CDM by promising to keep not only their original positions and pension allowances, but also their safety.

It also said that security forces personnel who left the military barracks can join the federal union army and police forces reformed by the NUG.

Meanwhile, peoples reception of defecting soldiers has been quite encouraging, Captain Nyi Thuta said. Both the Peoples Soldiers and Peoples Embrace groups are now able to support the striking soldiers due to donations made by the public.

They now realize that people just hate soldiers who support the institution that oppresses them with guns. They know now that you will be showered with love once you are no longer affiliated with them, he said.

For most defectors from the military, they believe that only a split within the military itself will bring about a radical change for the armed forces to become the peoples military.

Captain Lin Htet Aung said the armed forces cant be changed even with the death of coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, as another would take his place.

To wipe out the deeply rooted bad habits and systems of the military, reform is the only way. It can only happen when it splits, he said.

It could happen if we are more united.

You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Migrant Workers in Mae Sot Get Free COVID-19 Jabs

Myanmars Shadow Govt Reports Juntas Massacres of Civilians to UN Security Council

US-Thai Cobra Gold Drills Wither at 40
The percentage of Texas Covid-19 tests coming back positive is now at levels considered red flags by Gov. Greg Abbott and the Trump administration during the height of the pandemic. State officials and virologists say the highly contagious delta variant is fueling the rise in new cases and hospitalizations, especially among the unvaccinated. The delta variant also is capable of infecting the vaccinated, considered breakthrough infections, although the vaccinated experience only mild cases. Should the public return to pandemic safety measures such as mask wearing in public places?

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Services for Robert Kesinger, 67, of Alto Will be Thursday August 26th at 10am at the O.T. Allen and Son Chapel. Visitation will be one hour prior to services at the funeral home. Interment will follow services at Old Palestine Cemetery in Alto. Robert Kesinger was born May 18th, 1954 in Rus
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Sign up for myFT Daily Digest and be the first to learn about British trade news.

The Secretary of International Trade stated that Britains goal is to conclude negotiations on joining the Trans-Pacific Trade Group by the end of 2022 and hopes to persuade the United States to rejoin the group.

In an interview with the Financial Times Paynes politics Podcast, Liz Truss says negotiation Cooperation with the G11 is the direct focus of the governments Global Britain trade agenda after Brexit.

The Comprehensive Progress Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership includes several fast-growing economies such as Mexico, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as mature regional players Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Truss stated that she hopes that we can complete negotiations before the end of next year to join the European Union, and believes that this will enable the UK to benefit from huge economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

By 2030, two-thirds of the worlds middle class will live in Asia, and the types of products they need are those produced in the UKwhether they are high-value manufactured products, quality food and beverages, digital and data products, financial Service, she said.

The European Union will have a smaller share of the world economy in 20 or 30 years, while countries that have joined the CPTPP, such as Vietnam or Malaysia, will occupy a larger share.

Despite the challenge of differences in agricultural standards, reaching a trade agreement with the United States is the Johnson administrations biggest trade trophy. But Truss expressed the hope that if the United States rejoins the CPTPP, Anglo-American trade can be liberalized. remain In 2017.

The United States is one of the original parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the new government has not yet indicated that they want to join. But who knows what will happen in the future.

Although farmers are worried that the standards for reaching a US trade agreement may be compromised, Truss said, For me, the important principle is that in any negotiations I conduct, we will not harm British farmers with high standards. She added that she was very confident of reaching an agreement with the United States.

She also defended the trade agreement reached by the United Kingdom since its formal departure from the EU, although the governments internal economic analysis shows that the direct benefits they will receive are minimal and will not make up for the advantages lost by leaving the EU.

The key to our analysis is that it is a static comparative analysis, so it cannot predict the future. It just says how do we expect the situation in the entire economic field to change in the state we are in now. This is not about the future. predict.

Terrass also announced that her International Trade Department will expedite the relocation of approximately one-fifth of its 2,455 employees. staff As part of an upgrade plan to address regional inequality, from Whitehall.

The Ministrys goal is to have 500 staff on the Darlington Treasury North Campus by 2030. The location will also include officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government, and the National Bureau of Statistics.

The department has already recruited one hundred positions for the British Trade and Investment North department. DIT will also have one of the departments five director-generals based in Darlington. Truss also hopes to expand its offices in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff beyond Whitehall by 2030, with a total of 750 officials.

Truss, who often Rated As the most popular government member of the Conservative Party, the ConservativeHome website does not deny her ambition to one day lead her party.

As Minister of Trade, I am very happy. I think I have got the best job in the government department. This is the first time these new trade agreements have been reached in 50 years, she said. The Prime Minister has done a great job. And I believe he will serve for many years to come.




The Warren Clinic is a modular clinic prototype designed for San Francis Health System Used in different locations in the Tulsa area of ??Oklahoma. The solution can be adjusted in various configurations according to the specific needs of the location, taking advantage of the on-stage/under-stage organization and sufficient lighting and vision. In addition, the design makes maximum use of the existing pink brand color of the health system, creating a branded glass wall on the exterior of the building to establish an iconic architectural element.Merit Award winning projects are by Calison RTKLHere, Eurico Francisco, the project leader of CallisonRTKL (Dallas), and Dana Brandle, the vice principal, shared some insights on some of the most famous design solutions of the jury.

Healthcare design: The customer asks you to establish a clinical model suitable for various places. How did you determine this particular method as a solution?

Eurico Francisco: We tested and developed a modular approach that can be compressed, expanded, and deformed according to each location and need, while always maintaining key common elements such as workflow, protocols, access to views and daylight, and branding. Our interdisciplinary internal team includes architects, interior designers and brand experts, and working towards a common goal has proven to be the key to achieving project goals. Before and during the design, key stakeholders including managers, department managers, and providers/clinicians are also involved. By combining a compact and flexible footprint with an endless exterior landscape, the module aims to blend efficiency and pleasure, which is not always the case in similar buildings. It meets the needs of nursing staff and patients without affecting performance or environmental quality.

Tell us how your team must predict the various applications of the module and how it is designed.

Francisco: In the programming phase, we analyzed the ratio of the examination room to the doctor to determine the ideal future state. The A Day in Life exercise was used to simulate the typical doctor process and how support and other employees affect the overall experience. In conjunction with the patient journey, a model was developed to replicate the ideal clinical scenario and determine the number of examination rooms required and the location of key support areas.

Through extensive research, our team determined that the modular pod concept around four doctors and 12 examination rooms is the best operationally effective. When multiple pods are connected together, certain auxiliary support spaces can be shared, such as supply storage and staff lounges. Modular pod links allow each given clinic site to be flexibly adjusted programmatically to meet the needs of each community it serves.

Our jurors expressed their appreciation for the large amount of daylight provided. How does the design process help you achieve this goal?

Francisco: In a rigorous vision meeting involving leadership and end users (such as administrators, department managers, doctors, and clinicians), our team applied our understanding of the positive results of integrating natural light into the medical space and took advantage of our unique The benefits of the modular design method are based on Light from Above as the design theme. This design approach combines the evidence-based benefits of daylight with the spiritual environment that the St. Francis Health System and Warren Clinic strive to emulate in all of its facilities. Our main design goal for this project has always been to create an extraordinary experience for patients, families and employees. We really believe that injecting natural light into the entire space is the key to improving the happiness of all visitors and creating a positive experience.

In operation, these modules are very effective. How do you handle the flow of patient journeys and clinical functions?

Dana Brandel: [The client] Want a new clinical model to improve patient treatment and improve employee performance. To achieve this goal, our team handles the patient experience by integrating the following key principles:

 Separation of staff and visitors-the separation of these two streams is the core of the clinic model. The Warren Clinic has completely changed the traditional clinic and created an onstage/offstage method. In this way, patients enter the examination room through a separate cycle from the staff, providing patients with a quieter and more private experience.

 Minimal/decentralized waiting area-when entering, visitors are escorted or directed to a dedicated, decentralized waiting area. These waiting areas are located outside each examination room, allowing patients to enter the examination room directly. In this way, patient flow is greatly improved while eliminating unnecessary interaction between patients.

 Separate employee work areaThe employee work area and the flow of people are separated from the flow of patients and visitors in the entire clinic environment. This maximizes privacy/confidentiality and minimizes interference, thereby maximizing each providers time in the examination room and focusing on patient care.

The result of these key operational elements is increased staff efficiency, allowing more patients to be seen on specific dates, and a collaborative staff environment that optimizes patient care. From the patients point of view, they enter an environment with the shortest waiting time. If they happen to be waiting, it will be in the designated area, close to their examination room, and can be seen outside.

The brand played a leading role in this project, especially the pink feature wall on the outside. How did you make this bold choice?

Brandel: The legacy of the St. Francis Health System is embodied in its main campus on Yale Avenue, which locals in Tulsa often call the pink hospital on the hill. The iconic Saint Francis pink inspired us to develop the concept of the branded glass wall, using different pink tones as the front element of the prototype design. Bold, bright and unique Saint Francis, our proposed design will serve as a visual brand icon and an element that people can recognize and participate in when they approach the website. As a beacon that glows at night, the wall will also strengthen the connection between the clinic and the communities it serves.

The prototype has been delivered several times near Tulsa. How does it evolve with continuous iteration?

Brandel: Our team understands that each new site is unique and requires customized solutions while still adhering to prototyping and standards. We recognize that no design is a one size fits all solution. As we continue to implement modular prototyping in new locations, we are also constantly evolving and changing certain aspects, not only to meet the parameters of each site, but also to meet the needs of each specific community.

After living in the first-generation clinic for about a year, the owner invited our team to conduct a post-occupancy assessment to find out any lessons that could be incorporated into future sites. We have developed a list of most of the small design changes, but perhaps the most important changes are related to patient intake. The first generation clinics included a reception/welcoming desk, but the staff at the station did not always have volunteers. There is an empty table and frosted glass between the reception desk and the adjacent registration booth, making it difficult for patient service representatives to welcome arriving patients. In subsequent clinics, the reception desk and the frosting on the glass were removed so that the patient service representative could make eye contact and greet the arriving patients. In addition, after the first-generation clinic was put into operation, it was clear that the throughput of the examination room was operating as planned, and we eliminated the overflow waiting area from the prototype.

Jennifer Kovacs Silvis is the editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design.Her contact information is [email protected].





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Colorado recently dismissed a lawsuit against a Dutch cannabis company because the company lacked personal jurisdiction. The case highlighted two common issues International litigation. Growcentia, Inc. is in. Jamie BV, Case No. 20-cv-2619-WJM-NYW (Colorado, August 10, 2021). The first involves the provision of procedures (complaints and subpoenas) services to foreign companies in accordance with the Hague Convention. The second question concerns whether it is possible to require foreign cannabis companies to defend themselves in the jurisdiction in which the plaintiff filed a lawsuit.

The lawsuit itself involved trademark infringement. The plaintiff produced a science-based solution for cannabis and cannabis growers under the MAMMOTH product line, and recently launched CANNCONTROL, a fungicide and insecticide. The plaintiff sold CANNCONTROL with the MAMMOTH logo. The defendant is a Dutch limited liability company whose principal place of business is in the Netherlands. (For background on Dutch cannabis, see here, here, with here).

According to the defendant, it will not manufacture, sell, advertise, distribute or market products to anyone in the United States. But the defendant claimed to own several Canna and Canna-formative trademarks for goods and services in the cannabis industry. In July 2020, the defendant sent a letter to the plaintiff requesting the plaintiff to abandon its CANNCONTROL trademark application, and may not seek to register or use the name or trademark of CANN or CANNA or any other trademark or domain name for related goods or services. See or plant cultivation, nutrition, growth or care. After receiving the letter, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit requesting a declaratory judgment of non-infringement of trademark rights.

With its letter, the defendant clearly did not want the plaintiff to sell the product under the name of CANNCONTROL. However, the defendant did not file a lawsuit against this issue, but dismissed the case on the grounds of improper service and lack of personal jurisdiction.

The defendant first argued that the plaintiff did not properly serve the lawsuit in accordance with the requirements of the Hague Convention on the Overseas Service of Judicial and Non-Judicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Affairs (The Hague Convention). Lawyers involved in international disputes often use the Hague Convention. (See here with here Some of our articles on the Hague Convention). For non-litigation readers, the Hague Convention is a treaty implemented by many (but not all) countries/regions. It explains the rules and procedures of how to deal with foreign litigation within that country. It is important to know that every country has different rules. Some countries have fully adopted the Hague Convention, while others have only adopted certain parts or imposed different or additional procedures and restrictions. Some countries have not yet adopted all of them.

The courts dealt with challenges to services under the Hague Convention by basically avoiding analysis. The court explained that even if it was served improperly, its ruling would only tell the plaintiff to serve the subpoena and complaint againand do it correctly. Once this happens, the court infers that it will have to fight another reason for dismissal (lack of personal jurisdiction). Therefore, judicial efficiency is conducive to solving the personal jurisdiction issue first: if the court does not have jurisdiction over the defendant, the issue of service is irrelevant.

When it comes to personal jurisdiction, the standard test used in almost every specific jurisdiction issue uses vague language. First, the court asked whether the defendant had minimal contact with the court (in this case, Colorado), so that the defendant should reasonably expect to be arrested there. Next, if there is enough minimal contact, the court will consider whether the exercise of jurisdiction will offend the traditional concept of fair competition and substantive justice. This language is derived from the long history of judgments by the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the language does not provide clear rules, judicial decisions that have applied these principles over the years have provided guidance in most cases.

The analysis of personal jurisdiction depends to a large extent on facts.The court first pointed out that the only direct The defendants contact with Colorado was the suspension and termination letter it sent to the plaintiff. Is this enough? No, the court stated that based on the Tenth Circuits case, the court found that a cessation and termination letter alone was not sufficient to allow the court to exercise jurisdiction and force the Dutch company to defend the lawsuit brought by it in the Federal Court of Colorado. .

The court next considers whether the defendant has other indirect The contact with Coloradotogether with this lettermay make it fair to ask the defendant to appear in court and defend against the plaintiffs claim. The plaintiff pointed to the defendants trademark licensee, Hortisol USA, and argued that the defendant might have been taken to Colorado because Hortisol advertises, markets, and sells products throughout the United States. The court stated that this was not enough because the previous records did not reflect any corporate relationship between the two companies. Instead, there are only fair licensing and sales agreements for confidential and proprietary trademarks governed by Dutch law. And these companies maintain independent corporate identities and independent business operations. Based on these facts, the court could not determine that Hortisol was the defendants domestic counterparty or the defendants US branch.

The plaintiff further argued that Hortisols advertising and sales linked the defendant to Colorado. The court disagreed, because this type of advertisement was aimed at the entire United States, not the state of Colorado. The plaintiff also proposed a commercial flow theory in which it is appropriate to exercise jurisdiction because the defendant placed its Canna products in the commercial flow and expected that they would be sold in Colorado. (Side note: The theory of business flow originated from decades of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court). The court disagreed and quoted the opinion of the recent Tenth Circuit, stating that the defendant must specially pay attention to the status of the court in order to meet the purposeful provision requirements of the commercial flow theory. It is not enough that the defendant may have predicted that the benefits will eventually appear in Colorado.

Finally, the plaintiff argued that the defendant had initiated enforcement actions in jurisdictions other than Colorado.However, the problem is that none of these actions established the defendants this Controversy or Colorado.

Therefore, the court rejected the lawsuit on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction. Although it may be too bad for the plaintiff, let us remember that it filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration of non-infringement. Therefore, if the defendant seriously protects its so-called intellectual property rights, it will file a lawsuit for this.

For more reports on cannabis trademark and other intellectual property lawsuits, check out some recent posts:
TILLER, Ore. -- The Devil's Knob Complex is a group of lightning-caused fires on the Tiller Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest and private lands protected by Douglas Forest Protective Association and the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians.

The complex has burned a total of 31,224 acres and is 25% contained overall. It is made up of Smith Fire (16,158 acres), Big Hamlin Fire (13,587 acres), Dismal Creek, Little Applegate, Mule Creek, Section 30 (Railroad, and Wild Cat fires (1,489 total acres).

Temperatures are anticipated to rise into the upper 80s, with hot and dry conditions contributing to the potential for increased fire activity. However, fire behavior might be moderated depending on amount of smoke cover. Winds shifted to a light north-easterly flow yesterday but have not significantly impacted fire activity and are expected to shift back to a northwesterly flow today.

Air Quality conditions can be found on the Oregon Smoke Information Blog : http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com.

The Incident Management Team has established a helibase near Days Creek to better support firefighting efforts. For the safety of firefighters and aircraft fighting the Devils Knob Complex, a temporary flight restriction remains in place over the fire area. Wildfires are also a No Drone Zone.

Visit the Douglas County Sheriff Offices interactive evacuation map at www.dcso.com/evacuations for the latest information. Residents can opt in to receive emergency alerts by registering at www.dcso.com/alerts.

The Forest Service has an Emergency Fire Closure restricting public access to most of Steamboat, North Umpqua, and South Umpqua. To view the Closure, go to https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/umpqua/alerts-notices.
MEDFORD, Ore.  Jackson County Public Health's coronavirus update on Thursday continued a refrain that's become unfortunately common in the last few weeks  high COVID-19 case counts, overwhelmingly elevated hospitalizations among COVID-19 patients, and a list of new deaths attributed to the virus.

JCPH reported 313 new cases of COVID-19 as of Friday morning, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to 17,742.

Across Oregon's Region 5, which includes hospitals across Jackson and Josephine counties, JCPH reported 214 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. There were 61 patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) and 29 COVID-19 patients on ventilators.

The agency reported six more deaths attributed to the coronavirus, bringing Jackson County's death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 199:

Jackson Countys 194th COVID-19 death is a 42-year-old woman who died on August 5 at their residence. The death certificate listed COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death. No underlying health conditions were listed.

Jackson Countys 195th COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old man who tested positive on July 27 and died on August 25 at Rogue Regional Medical Center. They had underlying health conditions.

Jackson Countys 196th COVID-19 death is a 45-year-old man who tested positive on July 27 and died on August 25 at Rogue Regional Medical Center. They had underlying health conditions.

Jackson Countys 197th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man who tested positive on August 7 and died on August 25 at Rogue Regional Medical Center. They had underlying health conditions.

Jackson Countys 198th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman who tested positive on August 11 and died on August 19 at their residence. They had underlying health conditions.

Jackson Countys 199th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman who tested positive on August 19 and died on August 25 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. They had underlying health conditions.

JCPH reiterated the beginning of Oregon's expanded maks mandate, which now applies to most public outdoor settings where physical distancing is not possible, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are strongly recommended for crowded private gatherings as well.

"Jackson County Public Health and the hospital systems continue to stress the importance that the community needs to do their part to stop the spread of COVID-19 and provide relief to the hospital system," the agency said. "The best way to stop the spread of the Delta variant is to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks."

The Jackson County Expo is currently host to a dual COVID-19 testing and vaccination site. While not a mass site like previous iterations at the Expo, it does serve as a standalone location to access both services. The Oregon Health Authority has backed both options at the request of JCPH.

The available tests are PCR tests, which typically return results within three days. Registration is required before accessing the test site, which can be completed here.

Testing and vaccinations are available on Thursdays and Fridays from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Enter Expo Gate 5 for testing and Gate 3 for vaccination. There are multiple other locations available in Jackson County for vaccines or for testing.
CENTRAL POINT, Ore.  A truck driver with Rogue Disposal will not face any criminal charges in connection with a collision near Central Point in April of this year that injured a bicyclist, the Jackson County District Attorney's Office said Friday.

The incident happened on the afternoon of April 7, when officers responded to a report that a bicyclist had been struck by a Rogue Disposal truck near the intersection of West Vilas and Table Rock Road. Police identified the driver as Troy Ireland, while the victim was 31-year-old Kayla Jones.

When officers arrived at the scene, Jones was laying face down against the curb, the DA's office said. She was treated at the scene by medical staff before being brought to Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. She was later transferred to Legacy Emanuel in Portland.

In interviews with officers, Ireland said that he did not know he had struck anyone until he felt a bump while pulling out of a driveway. Once he felt the bump, he got out and realized that he'd hit someone.

"Deputies did not observe any signs of intoxication," the DA's office said. "Mr. Ireland denied consuming intoxicants. Pursuant to his employer's policy, Mr. Ireland completed a toxicology test and breath test to determine if he was under the influence of controlled substances or alcohol. Both of these tests returned negative."

The DA's office said that there was one juvenile eyewitness to the incident. She told investigators that she saw Jones stop, waiting for the Rogue Disposal truck to turn out of the driveway. As the driver turned, the bike's front tire was caught in the truck's back wheels and "pulled her in." The witness next reported seeing Jones on the ground.

Deputies later reviewed surveillance footage from a nearby business, which showed the Rogue Disposal truck pulling up to the exit of the business and toward West Vilas Road.

"The Rogue Disposal truck is seen waiting for a time as traffic flows in both directions. Ms. Jones is then seen entering the screen, riding her bicycle eastbound on what appears to be either the sidewalk or in the bike lane on the north side of the roadway," the DA's office said. "In this area of West Vilas Road, there are marked bicycle lanes indicating that bicycle traffic should ride with traffic, not against traffic. Therefore, Ms. Jones should have been riding in the bike lane on the south side of West Vilas Road."

In the video, as the eastbound traffic begins to clear, the Rogue Disposal truck begins to exit the driveway. The DA's office said that Jones can be seen nearing the truck before slowing abruptly. She's able to stop before hitting the truck, putting her feet on the ground. But as the truck turns, Jones' front tire is caught in the rear tires of the truck, and the truck runs over Jones. The Rogue Disposal truck immediately slows and stops against the curb, the DA's office said.

A reconstructionist determined that Ireland had come to a complete stop before crossing the sidewalk area, and there were no visual obstructions to his view. As a result, the reconstructionist concluded that Ireland "did not exercise due care," a primary factor in the incident.

Nonetheless, the DA's office found that Jones was in violation of two state statutes: failure to ride in the bike lane, and unsafe operation of a bicycle on a sidewalk  which the DA's office said arose from Jones' speed when nearing the driveway.

"Ms. Jones had a clear view of the Rogue Disposal truck and was required to slow to an ordinary walking speed, or approximately 3 miles per hour, as she approached the driveway. In fact, Ms. Jones was traveling at approximately 10.8 miles per hour, likely causing her abrupt stop too close to the Rogue Disposal Truck," the DA's office said.

The reconstructionist concluded that Jones' actions were also a contributing factor to the collision.

Ultimately, the DA's office determined that there was not enough evidence to support the allegation that Ireland acted in a reckless or criminally negligent manner, and no charges will be filed.

"The events of that day were unfortunate," the DA's office said in closing. "However, they do not rise to the level of criminal conduct."
I hope youve been reading our One Year Later stories this week, as the community reflects on the summer of 2020.

We remember what happened: On Aug. 23, 2020, Jacob Blake was shot seven times by a Kenosha Police officer, who was responding to a domestic incident call. A bystander captured the shooting on video. After it was seen around the world, protests and then rioting broke out.

To say we were shocked would be a huge understatement.

So, where do we go from here? Thats the focus of our stories, which continue through Monday.

Its a complex subject, touching on everything from systemic racism and transparency in policing to education and economic opportunity.

Our city was in the national  and even international  spotlight for all the wrong reasons, as images of the destruction and violence in Kenosha flashed on our screens and on the pages of our newspaper.

Looking back is important, but looking forward is the only way we can learn from what happened and make necessary changes.

Weve heard from local officials and other community leaders and from us regular folks, too.
Ketchikan, AK (99901)

Today

Cloudy with light rain developing after midnight. Low 51F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy with light rain developing after midnight. Low 51F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Ketchikan, AK (99901)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of light rain late. Low near 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of light rain late. Low near 50F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
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I recently unearthed all my pay stubs from residency, including the first one  all $89.14 of it.

When I received that check, I had just moved across the country after a grueling internship in Philadelphia, which left me physically and emotionally exhausted.

I was staying in a motel, which I paid for with a credit card because I used my last paycheck from internship to pay for moving across the country. My landlord in Philadelphia hadnt yet refunded my security deposit, so I couldnt put down a deposit on a new apartment.

I had no money and no place to live. Not because Id done something extravagant or reckless with my money, but because thats the way medical training is structured. Financial insecurity is part of the process.

I was a gainfully employed physician, but I was dead broke.

It wasnt until toward the end of my first month of residency that I finally got a real paycheck. It just barely covered my first months rent. I know this because I also unearthed my rental agreement. As a resident, I spent 50 percent of my income on rent. Even though I rented an apartment in a University-owned complex specifically designated for residents, it wasnt actually affordable for residents, at least according to prudent financial standards.

On top of all of that, there were my student loans. Yes, I deferred them. But I was acutely aware that each month I didnt make a loan payment. In effect, I was borrowing more money.

Under any other circumstance, I would have gotten an extra job. Id been working in one capacity or another since I was 14  babysitting, filing, answering phones, stocking shelves, running inventory at a warehouse, camp counselor. Id even spent three summers doing maintenance at my high school. I didnt have some egotistic notion that I was too good for work since I was a doctor.

I was literally forbidden from finding additional work to support myself. And even if it had been allowed, I wouldnt have had any time. My work was medicine, and medicine is all-encompassing. I had no choice but to peg my financial future on the medical establishment, even if I was going broke in the process, and even though it was abundantly obvious that the medical establishment didnt actually care about my wellbeing.

Medical training is not merely an education  its an indoctrination. Future doctors hand over their financial future to the system. A system that first encourages us to take out mortgage-sized loans then requires us to spend a minimum of three years on the job for most of our waking hours while being dramatically under-compensated compared with the actual value of our work.

Even after finishing training, the legacy of this financial catch-22 lingers in a physicians psyche. Ask a practicing doctor who or what has the greatest influence over his financial health, and the answer is likely to be some form of large, faceless entity  hospitals, medical groups, insurance companies  the same way that requirements set by schools, the ACGME and specialty boards controlled our wherewithal during training.

We dont feel we have any influence over our financial state other than by working harder, faster, or smarter (as if doctors arent smart enough to start with), the same formula for success we were taught by osmosis during training.

For years, I worked diligently to meet the moving target of corporate-mandated productivity, ignoring the ramifications to the care I was delivering and to my own wellbeing. I dreamed of finding some other way to practice medicine but resisted making any change because I equated change with fiscal suicide.

The ugly truth is that medical school taught me financial dependence, not independence. I never developed a sense of my inherent value as a physician. Instead, I learned to accept being undervalued. Ceding the power to determine the value of my work to a faceless entity, even when I sensed there was something inequitable about the contract, was a habit ingrained in me from training. This is how medicine works, I told myself.

It took me more than a decade after I finished residency to recover financially  to pay off my student loans and repair my credit rating. But it took me even longer to undo the emotional backlash caused by years of financial insecurity and to gain a sense of fiscal sovereignty over my professional life. Sadly, many wonderful, skilled physicians never get to that point but instead remain, like indentured servants, working from a place of financial obligation.

We physicians must come to terms with the trauma caused by the financial insecurity built into our training and the ripple effect it has even after we finish training, both as a way to repair ourselves individually and as a way to assure that our profession survives.

The cost of medical education is high, but the cost of the financial lessons learned in the course of obtaining that education is even higher. It may be a price too high for future doctors to bear.

Elizabeth Hughes is a dermatologist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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I went to replace four hanging plants at a nursery this past weekend because they all died once the Texas heat made its appearance, despite being watered, placed in the shade, and talked to by my daughter and me.

While I was looking for plants that will hopefully survive the Texas summer, I was chatting with my husband, who cheekily said, Those plants werent resilient.

He, of course, knows my disdain for the word resilient. I have shared quite a few times this year why it makes me cringe so much. The term resilient has been thrown around so flippantly since COVID that it is a real buzzword now.

As I have told my husband before, I do not want to be resilient. Being resilient to me means youve survived a dumpster fire white-knuckling the whole way through at the brink of death but then manage to come out on the other side, traumatized, but still alive. Some might describe their experiences with COVID this way.

I believe there are ways we can be more proactive to fend off having to be too resilient too often.

I challenged him and said, I do not want resilient flowers; I want hearty flowers. In fact, I want to be hearty.

A quick Google search provided me the Webster Dictionary definition of the two:

Hearty means vigorous and cheerful; strong and healthy; wholesome and substantial.

Resilient means able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

Looking at the image search is even more telling  hearty images show wholesome stews and soups, while resilient images show a human figure pushing a boulder up a hill.

I would much rather have a solid, hearty foundation than a resilient one marred with cracks, chips, and unevenness.

I worry that many organizations think resilience training is the answer, that if we all had a little more training in resilience, we would all be better for it. Honestly, I think resilience training is counterintuitive, exhausting, and a slap in the face to the person having to complete it. Retroactive resilience training when staff is already burned out just contributes further to their burnout and feelings of failure.

The need to provide resilience training suggests that our perceived lack of resilience is the core problem, that if only you were more resilient, youd be happier/less burnout/etc. Perhaps we and our lack of resilience really isnt the problem?

We all know watching a module on resilience, sitting in a lecture about mindfulness, being told to practice more yoga and breathing techniques does not make you feel less burnout. Its having the support and buy-in from your workplace, to actually have the time to do the things that feed your soul and fill your cup. Adding more onto an already overflowing plate of lifes stressors only makes it heavier and more overwhelming.

I want support. I want authentic connection and compassion. I want someone invested in my well-being who prioritizes my self-care to prevent me from having to be perpetually resilient. I want someone who values my heartiness and helps to cultivate an environment that fosters continued growth for myself and others.

Michelle Owens is a palliative care physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
As the next wave of the pandemic unfolds, the rise in cases is once again straining health care systems. But thats not the only reason hospitals and health systems could experience an influx of emergency or critical care visits. Findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging based at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation revealed that nearly one in three Americans between the ages of 50 and 80 put off an in-person appointment for medical care in 2020 because they were worried about potential COVID-19 exposure, and with the emergence of new variants, that trend could continue.

There is a growing concern that patients will either see a relapse in their illness or will experience new complications as a result of waiting too long to visit the doctor. Put simply, there could essentially be two health crises crowding the system: those who have tested positive for the coronavirus, and those who delayed routine preventative and ongoing care for ailments such as chronic disease or mental health.

As we look to the cooler months ahead and this next cycle of the pandemic, heres how hospitals and health systems should encourage patients to resume or maintain routine care. Returning to care could catch a potentially dangerous and life-threatening health care complication that would otherwise go undiagnosed if someone delayed or avoided the doctors office.

Encourage patients to schedule their annual visits

While in lockdown, communities were encouraged to stay home and only venture out for the essentials. The emphasis on limited, nonessential outings could have deterred patients from seeking routine care, and therefore canceling, but not rescheduling, their doctors visit. Its important for hospitals and health systems to encourage their patients to return to care and emphasize that they can do so safely. With many patients overdue for their annual wellness visits, practices should be actively reaching out to patients in their health systems to encourage them to schedule annual exams that have been previously missed or delayed. The patient may require a few reminders to schedule their appointment as well as messaging that emphasizes the safety measures that are in place at the practice. Once the appointment is scheduled, a confirmation notice, sent to the channel that induces patient action, will help to decrease a possible no-show, and increase patient engagement.

Furthermore, with the start of a new school year, health care organizations should consider creating a targeted outreach campaign to help parents coordinate their childs COVID-19 vaccination, if eligible. Additionally, they should connect with parents in their system who have children who need their yearly physicals. By including a scheduling link within the message, parents can easily see the providers availability and will conveniently and seamlessly schedule an appointmentwhether the appointment is virtual or in person.

Utilize a hybrid care model

While virtual visits arent suited for all appointment types, they remain a convenient and efficient way for patients to engage with their providers. Hybrid care, a combination of in-person and virtual visits, can provide patients with the convenience of virtual sessions but can also offer in-person appointments when appropriateespecially if a patient only wants to enter a health care facility when absolutely necessary. Offering a hybrid care model will help to attract and retain patients to ensure they are staying up to date on their health.

Telehealth can be beneficial for mental health concerns, minor medical issues, or prescription renewal discussions, as well as for delivering post-visit and post-operative care. It can be particularly helpful to patients in situations where, for example, transportation may be an issue, and they have a health care concern theyd like to discuss. To ensure all patients receive quality care, health systems should be supportive of those who lack the technology or bandwidth to participate in video visits. This includes offering a telephone visit instead. Additionally, providers can monitor patients remotely by asking them to self-report basic information such as blood sugar levels, weight, and medication compliance via cell phone short message service (SMS). This gives providers the ability to continuously monitor their patients while enhancing patient safety, avoiding potentially life-threatening health complications as a result of delayed care, and enabling real-time escalation whenever clinical intervention is needed.

Prioritize personalized, patient-centric communication

Patients should not feel that just because they may be out of sight, they are out of mind. Frequent, tailored, patient engagement is vital and ensures they dont seek care elsewhere, or seek no care at all. Patients want to feel that their providers are invested in their health and well-being. As a trusted resource, providers should encourage their patients to return to care immediately.

As COVID cases continue to rise, establishing dedicated COVID-19 multilingual hotlines to answer patient questions is one of the most effective ways to keep patients informed without burdening your staff with increased call volumes. Agents can answer questions related to the new variants, the vaccine and its efficacy, reports of breakthrough cases, as well as questions on vaccinating children, while also reiterating safety protocols that are implemented within the practice. Given the latest recommendation about obtaining a third booster shot eight months after receiving the second COVID-19 vaccine dose, there will likely be an influx of inquiries, questions, and updates surrounding the topic. The current climate has made transparency and accuracy in patient education and communication more important than ever.

There are multiple touchpoints along the patient journey that determine how likely a patient is to continue receiving care from your practice. For example, consider utilizing a message broadcast solution to let patients know that you offer online scheduling or virtual visits, and provide a link for them to schedule an appointment. By educating patients on convenient care options, you will likely increase patient satisfaction and induce patient action.

Staying up to date on annual exams, wellness visits, and routine care will benefit your health in the long run. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, anyone experiencing a medical emergency should seek and be provided care without delay.

Matt Dickson is a health care executive.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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Old shipwreck off Key West garners renewed interest

Photo provided The steamship Valbanera ran aground in September 1919 trying to outrun one of the Florida Keys most intense hurricanes. Its remains lie in an area off Key West in waters too murky to attract divers, but researchers recently documented whats left of the 400-foot ship. Photo provided by NOAA and UM-RSMAS Quicksands Archaeological Survey of the Vabanera Researchers at the Valbanera site found three distinct areas still relatively intact. Photos provided by NOAA and UM-RSMAS Quicksands Archaeological Survey of the Vabanera The wreck of the Valbanera has laid on the ocean floor 30 miles off Key West, becoming a habitat for many sea creatures. Photo provided by NOAA and UM-RSMAS Quicksands Archaeological Survey of the Vabanera The Valbanera was en route from Spain to Cuba, carrying 488 people, in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 1919. With a hurricane bearing down, the steamship could only turn and run. It slammed into a shallow, sandy bank known as Halfmoon Shoal in area of the Marquesas called the Quicksands, a literal shifting sea floor. Photo provided by NOAA and UM-RSMAS Quicksands Archaeological Survey of the Vabanera A century after the Valbanera sank, the ship has gained the recent interest of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary maritime archaeologist Matthew Lawrence, who led a team of underwater explorers this summer to document what is left of the 400-foot ship.

Lying beneath the sea 30 miles off Key West is the watery grave of 488 passengers and crew of a steamship that ran up on the shallows trying to out run one of the Florida Keys most intense hurricanes.

The Valbanera, which ran aground in September 1919, is one of the most deadly shipwrecks recorded off the Keys, but it also is one of the least well-known. The steamship lies in an area far enough off Key West and in waters too murky to attract divers.

However, the ships story is as tragic as any, and in the weeks and months following the tragedy, it still garnered news coverage as debris from the ship was discovered as far north as Louisiana. The wreck was also mentioned in an Ernest Hemingway short story written at that time.

The 1919 hurricane inundated Key West and Stock Island with saltwater, and tropical-force winds could be felt in the Lower Keys for 38 hours. The steamship and its passengers and crew did not stand at chance.

Years later, the ship has not been forgotten, and it gained the recent interest of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary maritime archaeologist Matthew Lawrence, who led a team of underwater explorers this summer to document what is left of the 400-foot ship.

The mission was funded by NOAAs Office of Exploration and Research and conducted in collaboration with the University of Miamis Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The research team included archeologists, geologists and ecologists. The team used numerous exploration techniques, including photometrics to capture imagery of the wreck with its starboard side exposed in three distinct areas and still relatively intact.

The Valbanera was in route from Spain to Cuba, carrying nearly 500 people, in the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 1919. With a hurricane bearing down on the island of Cuba, Havana Harbor closed entry to its port.

The Valbanera could only turn and run. The steamer headed north toward the Florida Keys to ride out the storm in deeper water, but fatefully missed a deep channel by only 100 yards. The ship slammed into a shallow, sandy bank known as Halfmoon Shoal in area of the Marquesas called the Quicksands, a literal shifting sea floor that swallowed up the Valbanera.

There were no survivors. The wreck is the watery, sandy grave of the majority of the dead, as no one ever penetrated the remains of the wreck and brought out bodies, even though salvers did descend on the wreck in the days and weeks following.

Valbanera was a steamship operated by the Pinillos Line of Spain from 1905 until 1919. The vessel was capable of carrying close to 1,200 passengers and sailed a regular route between Spain and Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Gulf Coast of the United States.

The ship has remained entombed by the sand and the mud for more than 100 years.

The tale of the Valbanera shows the hazards of ship travel in the Caribbean during the time before advances were made in radar and other meteorological technology, especially during hurricane season.

You were taking your life in your hands traveling during that time of year, Lawrence said.

In the weeks and years following the hurricane, strange and interesting news reports began coming out about the ship and its artifacts. Those news clippings have been collected by underwater archaeologist Corey Malcolm, director of archeology at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West.

The Miami Herald reported in September 1919 that members of the Dr. Antonio Valetti Society in Cuba, a group of spiritualists, were convinced the ship had not sunk but was drifting at sea. The group planned to charter a tugboat to search for the vessel.

The spiritualists claim to have received a communication at a recent seance from the spirit of Dr. Valetti that Valbanera was still afloat near Cape Sal, the newspaper reported.

In December 1919, the New Orleans Times Picayune reported that bits of Valbanera wreckage washed ashore on Grand Isle in Louisiana.

A small board bearing the inscription Vapor Valbanera was brought to shore Monday by Lieutenant J.J. Wilkinson of the United States Navy upon his return from a salvage expedition along the Gulf Coast, the newspaper reported.

In 1921, the Miami Herald reported that a man had found a message in the bottle from one of the passengers or crew of the Valbanera some 40 miles off the coast of Havana.

The last farewell of John Lopez on board the Valbanera, September 1919, the message stated.

What is believed to be a reference to the Valbanera later showed up in Ernest Hemingways short story After the Storm.

But it was quicksand shed hit and when they opened the tank she went in stern first and then over on her beam ends. There were four hundred and fifty passengers and the crew on board of her and they must all have been aboard of her when I found her. They must have opened the tanks as soon as she struck and the minute she settled on it the quicksands took her down. Then her boilers must have burst and that must have been what made those pieces that came out. It was funny there werent any sharks though. There wasnt a fish. I could have seen them on that clear white sand.

Despite the loss of the ship more than a century ago, its story continues to be told.

tohara@keysnews.com
SUTHERLIN, Ore. -- Oregon is undergoing a historic drought with more than three quarters of the state under extreme or exceptional conditions. That includes a significant portion of Western Oregon.

Experts say parts of Lane and Douglas counties have been moving into the exceptional category over the past few weeks.

Oregon State University climatologist Larry O'Neill said this drought is the culmination of several years of below-average precipitation. He says this has been the second driest spring and summer in recorded history.

It's even forced communities like Sutherlin to put restrictions in place to conserve water throughout the summer, according to Robert Rippy, district manager for the Sutherlin Water Control District.

"This is the first time that I know of that the city of Sutherlin has had to go on water restrictions, which means they can't water their lawn, they can't wash their cars," Rippy said.

Those restrictions are now lifted, but people should still do their best to conserve water, Rippy said.

These extreme conditions have also impacted farmers across the state with experts saying yields in some areas are more than 30% lower than on an average year.

That's partly because the irrigation season in many places began much earlier than usual and is expected to end earlier as well, according to experts.

The lack of precipitation has also caused the moisture in the soil to dry up, creating even more difficult conditions for crops to grow.

The Watermaster for both Douglas and Coos counties, Susan Douthit, says this is an issue that affects all of us, not just those working on the farms.

When the agricultural community is struggling that means that their products are in higher demand which means we could see high prices for some of those kind of things that we use on a daily basis," Douthit said.
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Students on the Oregon State University campus are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but they can also apply for an exemption for religious or medical reasons.

But first, they have to complete an educational module that could change their mind. The module is listed under "Claiming Exemption from Vaccination" for OSU students and faculty on the student health website.

Executive Director of Student Health Services Jenny Haubenreiser said the university doesn't want to make students or staff feel forced to get the vaccine but instead be informed about it.

"What we want to be sure is anyone who's choosing to not to be vaccinated that they are getting the most accurate information, up to date information, not only about the impacts of COVID on health, but the impacts on the community and to get information from credible sources," said Haubenreiser.

The module, created by the Oregon Health Authority, takes about 20 minutes to complete. It has seven sections that cover not only the vaccine, but also the COVID-19 virus itself. After students complete it, they can apply for an exemption if they still want to.

About 94% of OSU students are fully vaccinated. And over at the University of Oregon, about 96% of Ducks are fully vaccinated. UO is also requiring its students to take an educational module.

Back in Corvallis, OSU freshman Annika Rogers is among the 94%.

"I think it might convince some students, but I think that most people already have their mind made up whether they're going to get the vaccine or not," said Rogers.

She isn't the only student who isn't entirely convinced. One OSU student, who is unvaccinated for medical reasons, took the course. But she said it didn't change her mind.

"I'm going to be involved with as many activities as I can with the choice that I made, and I don't think anybody shouldn't be able to attend those events just because of those choices they made," said the student.

Haubenreiser said the university has received positive feedback so far on the module.
In the last year we've lost thousands of family members, friends and co-workers to COVID-19. We'd like to give you a chance to honor their memory.

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It was a day to remember for Kilkenny camogie as two county teams powered their way into All-Ireland finals.

The intermediates booked a place in their first All-Ireland final since 2016 when they beat Meath by 0-13 to 0-9 at UPMC Nowlan Park.

John Scott's side roared into action and, backed by scores from Ciara O'Keeffe and Sophie O'Dwyer they led the Royals by four points at half-time (0-9 to 0-5).

Kilkenny maintained that advantage in the second half, with both sides battling the sweltering conditions. Jane Dolan led Meath's comeback charge, but with Sophie O'Dwyer in solid free-taking form Kilkenny wouldn't be denied their victory.

The Cats will play either Galway or Antrim in the final on September 12.

Elsewhere the Kilkenny minors made sure of their place in the final when they beat Galway.

Mike Wall's side made the trip to Abbotstown for their final four clash and came home victorious after extra-time on a 3-21 to 1-25 scoreline. They will face Cork in the All-Ireland final.

The Cats will be hoping to have three teams in finals when the seniors take on Cork in their All-Ireland semi-final tomorrow (Sunday) in Croke Park. Throw-in is at 4pm.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - 47 victims have been saved, and 102 suspects arrested after authorities across 12 states joined forces in a major human trafficking investigation.

While authorities in Minnesota and Iowa say related investigations are ongoing, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety says at least one sex trafficking suspect was arrested in Anoka County, where eight victims were recovered. The Des Moines Police Department tells KIMT their Vice / Narcotics unit made three arrests, two for prostitution, and evidence recovered in the operation may lead to future rescues.

Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem has played a significant role in addressing human trafficking in Minnesota throughout his career, and says children are among the most susceptible to becoming victims.

"The vast majority of people, when they begin being trafficked, are about 12-years-old. Now, I'm convinced there is no 12-year-old girl or boy who says to his or her mother, 'I want to grow up and be a prostitute.' That doesn't happen. And so there is a level of coercion or force that brings these folks into this system." Ostrem continued, "it's not like Pretty Woman, the movie, where you see people out in the street. That's not what it's like."

One of Ostrem's chief actions related to human trafficking was helping craft Minnesota's Safe Harbor legislation, which increased penalties against commercial sex abusers and purchasers, while shifting how lawmakers view sexually exploited youth.

"We called the persons engaged in trafficking 'victims.' We didn't look at them as criminals, we didn't look at them as defendants - they're victims. And when we changed that dynamic, everything changed," Ostrem said.

Today, Olmsted County's human trafficking initiatives center around education and training, according to Ostrem, to prevent children from becoming involved. But when local investigations take place, the results are eye-opening.

"When law enforcement sets up some kind of a sting operation, the phone rings off the hook. There's that much out there that the investigations are just overwhelming." Ostrem continued, "this operation that just occurred is a great example of very significant efforts, and how the collaboration of many jurisdictions - it takes that to really try and uncover and undo some of this."

Ostrem adds often times human trafficking is right in front of us, and if you're not looking for it, you won't see it. He also credits the Sisters of Saint Francis at Assisi Heights for opening his eyes to the truth behind human trafficking.
A lot of people confuse progress with change, but not all change is for the better. Nostalgia can be a hell of a drug, but so can denial. That is one of the reasons cinema is such an important art form. The intangible nature of writing and music and the eternal changeability of theater allows those works to be reinterpreted and reimagined to match any agenda or passing fancy. I mean, there are people today who try and pretend gay and transgender themes are present in The Lord of the Rings, which a devout Christian started writing before World War II.

But motion pictures, both by their visual and collaborative nature, take cultural, economic, and spiritual matters and set them in amber. It may not always be the way things are but it is the way the filmmakers wanted you to think they are. This edition of KIMTs Weekend Throwdown takes a look at two films separated by decades of change and a mountain of denial about progress. Its Candyman (1992) vs. Candyman (2021) in a battle between the way things were and delusions about how things are.

Based on a story by Clive Barker, Candyman (1992) is about a graduate student named Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) doing her thesis on urban legends in then present-day Chicago. With the help of her thesis partner Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons), Helen ventures into the drug and gang-infested housing project of Cabrini Green to investigate the modern myth of Candyman, a figure blamed by the downtrodden residents of the project for all the violence and horror in their lives.

But when Helen starts looking into the unexplained murder of a young woman, she discovers that Candyman is more than a myth. Hes the brutal spirit of Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd), a black man tortured and killed in post-Civil War Chicago for the crime of falling in love with the daughter of a rich white man. Daniel now haunts the graffiti-covered halls of Cabrini Green, surviving on the belief of its residents and needing Helen to help perpetuate his legend and his existence. That plunges Helen into a nightmare where her sanity and innocence are questioned and the life of a baby is held in the balance.

Candyman (1992) is a neat little slice of horror highlighted by Tony Todds magnetic performance as one of the gruntiest movie monsters in genre history. Virginia Madsen is strong as probably one of the earliest big twists on the final girl trope in horror movies. She also provides the audience one of the unsexiest moments of side boob in movie history. Ohwho am I kidding? Its Virginia Madsen so its still at least a 6 on a scale of 10.

There are two other things quite striking about the film when viewed decades later that would have been largely overlooked in the early 1990s. One is how Candyman (1992) is telling a legitimate story where the details of the plot are important and the viewer is supposed to care about them and about the characters buffeted by them. It has a distinct beginning, middle, and end and things that happen in one part of the story affect the rest of what happens. The characters, even the monster, all have clearly defined and understandable motivations. And while there is no overriding message the film is trying to get across, there are a lot of well-formed notions circulating through the story and giving it greater intellectual depth.

In that way, Candyman (1992) has more in common with a motion picture made in 1962 than it does with films made in 2021. The criticism Martin Scorsese made of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that they are amusement parks instead of films, actually applies to modern movies in general. Theyre not stories. Theyre experiences engineered to manipulate the viewer narratively, visually, and audially. At their worst, modern cinema can feel like it is beating you into submission so you dont notice things make no sense or have no meaning. I sometimes wonder if young people raised on these cinematic assaults will look back on great films of the past and just not be able to process them.

The other notable thing to modern eyes is the racial assumptions upon which Candyman (1992) is built. The story acknowledges that racism exists and is bad but does not presume that black people are eternally victimized by it or that white people are perpetually guilty of it. When confronted by racial injustices, white people are not expected to simply curl up into the fetal position and babble endless apologies. Helen doesnt feel responsible for the tragedy of Daniel Robitaille or the miserable state of the Cabrini Green projects and the movie doesnt expect her to. Candyman, himself, is a creation of murderous bigotry but directs his violence largely at other African-Americans in order to sustain his own existence, which is a pretty profound sociological point if you think about it.

A horror flick where the supernatural killer is a black dude was something new in 1992 but that was just one aspect of the original movie and it existed alongside other dramatic and thematic elements. I wish I could say the same about Candyman (2021). This three-decades-later sequel, and yes.SPOILER ALERT it is a sequel, is a better commentary on the degenerating state of both filmmaking and race relations than it is a motion picture.

The sequel is set in present day Chicago where Cabrini Green has been gentrified into condos for the young and upwardly mobile and the remnants of its poverty stricken past have been fenced off and mostly forgotten. The movie starts out focusing on artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a ridiculously buff young man in a hipster doofus knitted cap who is being supported by his art gallery girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), while seeking his next inspiration. And Im serious about the ridiculously buff description. American films have a long tradition of presenting idealized images to the audience but Anthony McCoy is supposed to be a struggling painter and he has the physique of a super-hero. If hes having trouble coming up with his next art project its likely because hes spending four hours a day at the gym. One of the things about a horror flick is youre supposed to be worried about what might happen to the characters. Its hard to feel any concern for Anthony when it looks like he could beat the ass off a bull moose.

After Briannas gay brother tells him the story of Helen Lyle, Anthony decides to look into Cabrini Greens past for inspiration and meets local laundromat owner William Burke (Coleman Domingo). Burke introduces Anthony to the legend of Candyman, which grows to consume the young artist in both mind and body. And thenwellstuff just kind of happens.

Before I get into the criticism, let me state for the record that Candyman (2021) is exquisitely made. The technology and level of visual craftsmanship in 21st century cinema is truly astonishing and this film is great proof of that. Candyman (2021) looks amazing and the only reason a viewer wouldnt be blown away by it is because EVERYTHING looks amazing now. There are 2021 TV commercials that have higher production values than you used to see with Hollywood blockbusters. When director Nia DaCosta only has to focus on presenting a striking image to the audience, she knocks it out of the park.

And the level of excellence extends to the cast. Every character is well performed even when the character itself is flatter than a pancake and shallower than a desert puddle. There have always been great actors but never as many as there are today. And again, we have such an abundance of thespian riches now that Im not sure we appreciate it.

But to use the word story in the context of Candyman (2021) is almost fraudulent. This isnt a Michael Bay Transformers movie where you have no idea whats going on or how people even got from one place to another, but every bit of filmmaking magic in Candyman (2021) is undermined by the fact that it is not a story. Its just a bunch of stuff that happens. For petes sake, the film literally changes main characters for the last half-hour or so of screen time. The movie throws out a twist that isnt actually a twist because it doesnt change anything. There is absolutely no tension for long stretches of this gorgeous horror film because not only have no clear stakes been established for the viewer but it is never defined how what is happening on screen now is going to affect what comes next. This movie doesnt have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. It starts, some stuff occurs, and then the credits roll.

But if Candyman (2021) is a shining example of the narrative collapse of modern filmmaking, its an even better example of how our public discourse on race and racism has crawled so far up its own butt that its about to fold space/time and disappear into a singularity. The film opens and closes with the 100% unprovoked and unjustified police killing of a black man but in between, there isnt one single example of racism or prejudice affecting any of the black characters. There arent even any actually racist white characters in the film. Theres a bunch of pretentious art world douches and then police whose racism is assumed but never really demonstrated. The script complains about gentrification while all of its main characters are benefiting from it. It reimagines Candyman as some super-hero fighting white supremacy with the goal ofwhat? Returning Cabrini Green to the days when you had to walk around people smoking crack in the hallways and worry if youd make it home at night without getting caught in gang crossfire?

Candyman (1992) had themes of race underlying its horror movie conventions. Candyman (2021) throws ill thought out racial blathering in the audiences face because it cant be bothered to have any conventions. The sequel presents us with black characters who are not only all relatively successful and prosperous but who show no signs of prejudice significantly impacting their livesand THEN it tries to lecture viewers on the omnipresent danger of white supremacy? It deals with racism in only the most amorphous and superficial way because it, I think, the filmmakers wanted to present the audience with black characters and black lives who are successful and educated and confident but they want to deny the racial progress such portrayals suggest. Candyman (1992) could talk about race honestly, if somewhat obliquely. Candyman (2021) wraps up issues of race in so many layers of pretense and gaslighting that it ultimately cant say anything at all.

You could make a really good movie about how bigotry remains a burden for African-Americans no matter how seemingly enlightened America has become. Candyman (2021) isnt that movie and since that is the only thing its trying to be, this Throwdown goes to Candyman (1992). The original isnt necessarily a better made motion picture but it is a much better told story. And both films demonstrate how much things have changed over time, but how not all change is progress.

Candyman (1992)

Written and directed by Bernard Rose.

Starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams, DuJuan Guy, Mariana Elliott, Ted Raimi, Ria Pavia, Lisa Ann Poggi, and Michael Culkin.

Candyman (2021)

Written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and Nia DaCosta.

Directed by Nia DaCosta.

Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Coleman Domingo, Kyle Kaminsky, Vanessa Williams, Brian King, Miriam Moss, Rebecca Spence, and Michael Hargrove.
Flash Flood Watch

Areas Affected: Allamakee; Chickasaw; Clayton; Fayette; Floyd; Howard; Mitchell; Winneshiek

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CDT THIS EVENING... The Flash Flood Watch continues for

* Portions of Iowa and southwest Wisconsin, including the following areas, in Iowa, Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell and Winneshiek. In southwest Wisconsin, Crawford and Richland.

* Until 6 PM CDT this evening.

* Another area of showers and storms is moving into northeast Iowa that could make flooding problems worse.

* Water will remain high that could lead to major river flooding and road closures.

You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Black Hawk; Bremer; Butler

NWS DesMoines (Central Iowa)

...The National Weather Service in Des Moines IA has issued a Flood Warning for the following rivers in Iowa... Cedar River at Janesville affecting Butler, Bremer and Black Hawk Counties. Cedar River at Cedar Falls affecting Black Hawk County. The National Weather Service in Des Moines has issued a

* Flood Warning for the Cedar River at Janesville.

* From Sunday evening to early Tuesday afternoon.

* At 9:45 AM CDT Saturday the stage was 3.0 feet and rising.

* Flood stage is 13.0 feet.

* Minor flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage late tomorrow evening to a crest of 13.5 feet Monday morning. It will then fall below flood stage early Monday afternoon.

* Impact...At 13.0 feet, Evacuation of a trailer court in Janesville may be needed...due to flooding on West 3rd Street. Much of the Janesville city park floods. Nearby gravel roads are affected. &&

Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov. The next statement will be issued this evening at 1015 PM CDT.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Chickasaw

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Numerous roads are damaged or have high water over them across parts of northeast Iowa. Water is very high in all waterways so flooding could become even more widespread today. ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 930 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR FLOYD, MITCHELL, CHICKASAW, FAYETTE, HOWARD AND WINNESHIEK COUNTIES... At 1126 AM CDT, local law enforcement reported ongoing flooding across the warned area. Between 3 and 8 inches of rain has fallen. Some locations that will experience flooding include... Decorah, Charles City, Oelwein, Cresco, Osage, New Hampton, West Union, Nashua, Fayette, St. Ansgar, Calmar, Fredericksburg, Rockford, Ossian, Riceville, Elgin, Clermont, Lyle, Elma and Maynard. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible in the warned area.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.

Special Weather Statement

Areas Affected: Dodge; Fillmore; Houston; Mower; Olmsted; Wabasha; Winona

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

...Gusty winds possible with weakening storms... An area of weakening thunderstorms is actually producing wind gusts above 50 mph at times across parts of southeast Minnesota. Be careful with these quick wind increases early this afternoon. HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph. SOURCE...Weather Observations. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Locations impacted include... Rochester, La Crosse, Winona, Austin, La Crescent, Caledonia, Dodge Center, Wabasha, Preston, Mantorville, Alma, Kasson, Stewartville, Byron, Goodview, St. Charles, Plainview, Chatfield, Spring Valley and Eyota. People attending Gladiolus Days should be alert for high winds! This includes Interstate 90 in Minnesota between mile markers 175 and 276. MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH

If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Fayette; Floyd

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Numerous roads are damaged or have high water over them across parts of northeast Iowa. Water is very high in all waterways so flooding could become even more widespread today. ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 930 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR FLOYD, MITCHELL, CHICKASAW, FAYETTE, HOWARD AND WINNESHIEK COUNTIES... At 1126 AM CDT, local law enforcement reported ongoing flooding across the warned area. Between 3 and 8 inches of rain has fallen. Some locations that will experience flooding include... Decorah, Charles City, Oelwein, Cresco, Osage, New Hampton, West Union, Nashua, Fayette, St. Ansgar, Calmar, Fredericksburg, Rockford, Ossian, Riceville, Elgin, Clermont, Lyle, Elma and Maynard. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible in the warned area.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Floyd

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

...Forecast flooding changed from Minor to Moderate severity and increased in duration for the following rivers in Iowa... Cedar River at Charles City affecting Floyd County. For the Cedar River...including Lansing, Austin, Charles City... Moderate flooding is forecast. ...Forecast flooding increased from Minor to Moderate severity and increased in duration until early Tuesday morning... The Flood Warning continues for the Cedar River at Charles City.

* Until early Tuesday morning.

* At 9:30 AM CDT Saturday the stage was 10.8 feet.

* Flood stage is 12.0 feet.

* Moderate flooding is forecast.

* Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage this afternoon to a crest of 16.5 feet early tomorrow afternoon. It will then fall below flood stage Monday morning.

* Impact...At 15.0 feet, Leland Avenue floods, and flooding on Park Drive and 19th Avenue is likely. &&

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional river and weather information is available at www.weather.gov/lacrosse.

Flood Warning

Areas Affected: Howard; Mitchell; Winneshiek

NWS LaCrosse (Southwestern Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and Northeast Iowa)

.Numerous roads are damaged or have high water over them across parts of northeast Iowa. Water is very high in all waterways so flooding could become even more widespread today. ...FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 930 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR FLOYD, MITCHELL, CHICKASAW, FAYETTE, HOWARD AND WINNESHIEK COUNTIES... At 1126 AM CDT, local law enforcement reported ongoing flooding across the warned area. Between 3 and 8 inches of rain has fallen. Some locations that will experience flooding include... Decorah, Charles City, Oelwein, Cresco, Osage, New Hampton, West Union, Nashua, Fayette, St. Ansgar, Calmar, Fredericksburg, Rockford, Ossian, Riceville, Elgin, Clermont, Lyle, Elma and Maynard. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are possible in the warned area.

Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.
AUSTIN, Minn.  Over four years after crashing a car in Mower County, a Minneapolis man is pleading guilty.

Jude Thomas Mary ONeill, 24, was arrested on April 27, 2017, and charged with theft, DWI, possession of short-barreled shotguns, possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, and being a violent felon in possession of a firearm.

Authorities say ONeill was seen driving 94 miles per hour on Interstate 90 in the Austin area before he crashed after passing the W. Oakland bridge. Court documents state the car ONeill was driving had been stolen and two sawed-off shotguns were found in the trunk.

After court proceedings were delayed for almost 18 months due to issues of mental competency, ONeill finally entered guilty pleas Friday to theft and DWI. Sentencing is scheduled for December 17 in Mower County District Court.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa  A Butler County man is going to prison for a child sex crime in Floyd County.

Michael Douglas Ahrenholz, 43 of Greene, has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars and given a $1,370 fine. He must also sign up with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry after being released from prison.

Ahrenholz pleaded guilty to one count of lascivious acts with a child. He was accused of sexually touching a child in 2019 and exposing his genitals to a child in 2020.

Charges of second-degree sex abuse and indecent exposure were dropped as part of a plea deal.
OXFORD, Ms. (KMOV.com)  Brandon Theesfeld has pleaded guilty in the death of Ole Miss student and St. Louis County resident Ally Kostial.

Theesfeld is accused of killing Kostial in northern Mississippi on July 20, 2019. The Lindbergh High School graduate was found shot multiple times. In September 2019, Theesfeld entered a not guilty plea.

According to local reporters in the courtroom Friday morning, Theesfeld replied yes, sir when he was asked if he killed Kostial.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Mickey Mallette said Kostial told Theesfeld she was afraid she was pregnant and wanted to meet him in person, but he declined. After tweeting a photo with a gun and the caption finally bringing my baby back home following a trip home to Dallas, Theesfeld agreed to meet with Kostial after she left the bar on July 20. Later that day, Kostial was found dead at a picnic table along with several empty cans and 11 shell casings at Sardis Lake, about 30 miles from the Ole Miss campus.

Man, 22, charged in death of Ole Miss student Ally Kostial Lafayette County Sheriff's Major Alan Wilburn says Brandon A. Theesfeld, 22, is charged with murder in the death of Alexandria "Ally" Kostial.

Investigators disclosed that Kostial and Theesfelds phones both pinged in the location where she was later found. The shell casings found at the scene matched Theesfelds gun. In a letter to his parents, Theesfeld wrote he was not a good person and was either going to be caught or killed. He was arrested on July 23 in Memphis.

Statements from the Kostial family were read in court Friday that detailed her life and accomplishments. Theesfeld then apologized to the family and said he asked to God and the family to forgive him.

Judge Kelly Luther accepted Theesfelds first-degree murder plea and sentenced him to life in prison.
President Joe Biden plans to contact the families of the 13 US service members who were killed in Thursday's suicide attacks outside of Kabul's international airport.




North Korea's official newspaper on Wednesday called for the military's absolute obedience to the ruling Workers' Party as the country marked the 61st anniversary of its Army-First Day.







North Korea celebrates the Day of Songun, or Army-First Day, on Aug. 25 to mark late leader Kim Jong-il's visit to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Armored Division in 1960. The unit is known to have entered Seoul for the first time among North Korean troops during the 1950-53 Korean War.







"For a military to demonstrate strength as an invincible combat force that can defeat any powerful enemy, it should be well-prepared not only in its ideology but also in terms of military technology," the paper said in an editorial.







The paper, however, made no mention of any specific military achievements, including nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles or submarine-launched ballistic missiles.







It called on the military's "absolute loyalty" and "absolute obedience" to the ruling party, saying no other organization has remained as loyal to the party than the military.







Songun means putting priority on the military. It was a trademark policy of the late leader Kim Jong-il, under which he put much of the country's scarce resources into weapons development and other efforts to build stronger armed forces, even though ordinary North Koreans struggled with hunger.







After taking office in late 2011, the current leader Kim Jong-un pushed to strengthen functions of the ruling party in an apparent shift from his late father's emphasis on the military-first policy. (Yonhap)


Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi / AP-Yonhap




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PORTLAND, OR (KPTV)  COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are continuing to spike in Oregon, especially in smaller counties and rural areas. Some funeral homes in these places have reached their limit and are now asking for help from the state to help store bodies. Both Tillamook and Joseph
POCATELLO, Idaho (KPVI) - "As we saw the last four years, we had low gas prices, a stable Afghanistan and other things," said Bannock County Commissioner Terrel Tovey, who believes the new presidency has gone off the path. Read more
In the first day since the public learned about the death of a Wyoming Marine in Afghanistan, more than $403,000 was raised online to benefit his pregnant wife and the couples unborn child.

Rylee McCollum died Thursday in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. He and 12 other service members were providing security at the airport as it was being overwhelmed with evacuees trying to leave the county after the Talibans takeover.

McCollum, who was from Bondurant, was expecting his first child in three weeks, his family says.

In the aftermath of his death, two verified GoFundMe fundraisers have been started to benefit his wife, Jiennah Crayton, and the couples unborn child.

The fundraisers collected more than a quarter million dollars in the first 18 hours they were created, according to a GoFundMe spokeswoman.

As of early Saturday afternoon, a fund dedicated to the education and upbringing of McCollums child had alone raised $215,000. The child is due in September.

A second fund, set up by McCollums mother in law, will benefit his wife.

My heart is incredibly heavy today, in the wee hours of the morning my beautiful daughter got that knock on her door that no military spouse wants to get, Jill Crayton wrote. Her strong, handsome, incredibly brave husband of less than a year was one of the 13 Marines that gave his life yesterday in Kabul.

+5 Wyoming Marine among those killed in Afghanistan airport bombing Rylee McCollum had been sent to Afghanistan on his first deployment when the American evacuation began, his sister said, and was reportedly manning a checkpoint at the airport when the bomb went off.

McCollum had been sent to Afghanistan on his first deployment, his sister said. He was apparently manning a checkpoint at the airport in Kabul when the bomb went off.

The Marine attended Jackson Hole High School and competed as a wrestler. He graduated in 2019 from Summit Innovations School in Jackson.

McCollums death touched off an outpouring of support in Wyoming and elsewhere. In a statement, Wyoming Speaker of the House Eric Barlow said hed spoken to McCollums father, who had noted how much the family had appreciated that support.

I am a Marine too, and I weep for the loss of my brother, Barlow said in a statement. God bless and keep the McCollum family, now and beyond, for the sacrifice Rylee has made on all our behalf. Semper Fi.
Tonight will be the first ever, regular Monday night draw for Idahos favorite game, Powerball. The estimated jackpot for this historic draw for the most popular game in America is $293 million. Read more
'There is no room to put these bodies,' Alabama health official says as Covid-19 deaths climb
MONTANA - On Thursday, Aug. 26, watercraft inspectors at the Nashua station intercepted the 50th mussel-bound boat this year, surpassing 2020's total of 35.

The motorboat had mussels on the transducer, gimbal and other areas of the transom. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, it was traveling from Lake Erie to Kalispell.

Statewide, 94,800 watercraft inspections have been conducted this year, slightly down from the 112,300 number of inspections conducted at this time last year.

FWP reminds anyone transporting motorized or nonmotorized boats into Montana that an inspection is required before launching, and stopping at ALL open watercraft inspection stations is required.

Failing to stop at an inspection station can result in a fine of up to $500.

Boaters should ensure their watercraft, trailer and all equipment that is in contact with water (anchor, lines, swim ladder, etc.) is clean, drained of water and dry.

You can learn more at CleanDrainDryMT.com or call the FWP Aquatic Invasive Species Bureau at 406-444-2440.
EUREKA, Mont. - A roundtable was hosted in Eureka to discuss the impact of the closure of the U.S-Canadian border.

According to the Office of the Governor, Business owners and public officials spoke about the loss of business Eureka has seen due to the closure.

Community members also voiced concerns, saying that many Canadians are an integral part of the community, and their absence is strongly felt in the local economy and community.

Multiple families were also present who have family living or working on both sides of the border who they have not seen for over 18 months.
By the time he goes to trial for the second time next spring, more than 20 years will have passed since Mark Jensen was charged with the death of his wife Julie.

For most of those two decades, Jensen, 61, has been behind bars. Charged in 2002 for his wife Julie Jensens death in 1998, Jensen was jailed while awaiting trial in 2007 and was first convicted in 2008.

In the 23 years since her death  and throughout a circuitous legal process that has included multiple appeals and orders for a new trial  Jensen has maintained he is innocent.

Prosecutors have argued Jensen poisoned Julie, 40, with antifreeze, then smothered her in the couples Pleasant Prairie garage. At the original trial, the defense suggested that Julie, who had sought treatment for depression, had committed suicide.

On Friday Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Milisauskas  the third Kenosha County judge to hear the Jensen case  set a new trial date of May 23, 2022.

Both the prosecution, which includes former Kenosha District Attorney Robert Jambois, the original prosecutor on the case, and Jensens three defense attorneys appointed by the Wisconsin Public Defender, asked Milisauskas for additional time to continue to study the voluminous transcripts and evidence from the case.
This community waited patiently for the vaccine all the while tirelessly using preventative measures so some semblance of normalcy could be achieved while limiting the harm the virus could inflict. Over the last 9 months, three vaccines were approved by EUA and vaccination opportunities made available to as many that were able and willing. The Pfizer Vaccine has received full FDA approval and as such, should be utilized. Vaccinations, while free and widely available, have seen marginal increases since Deltas arrival within the US and Wisconsin. At a vaccination rate of 40.6%, additional precautions must be employed to slow the spread of this virus and ensure the health and welfare of everyone.
The immigrant invasion continues, getting worse everyday. No end or slowing in sight. And, Joe is "threatening" mandating masking again. Do they really think we are that stupid? Apparently so. The Governor of Texas, (where many of them are landing) and Florida, are not obeying Joe's orders. So, of course, they call the Governors names, Neanderthals, etc. They don't like you to not follow their rules.,

Things we can be sure of : Biden's government hasn't got a clue as to what to do about it, how to stop it, or how it is transmitted. Rules change everyday; mask or don't mask, get the shot, two shots, you may need a booster, or not, don't party, stay away from crowds, Unless you are a democrat and then you can FORGET all the rules.

They still want to defund the police while cities continue to burn and crime increases. Cori Bush, a Congresswoman, defund proponent, brags that she is much more important than the common folk she represents. Pays $70,000 or more for private security. I'm sure many defunders have private security. Good for me but not for thee.

Still hung up on Jan. 6 and the small group of insurgents at the capital - lasted about 4 hours! "Domestic terrorists". Riots and destruction going on in democrat run cities for over a year, but that's OK. No one cares.
Washington, Aug 26 (AP) The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1, according to the nation's most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.

In other words, what the coronavirus has in store this fall depends on human behavior.

Also Read | Multiple Blasts Rock Kabul, Second Explosion Reported Near Hotel Where Americans Gathered for Evacuation.

Behavior is really going to determine if, when and how sustainably the current wave subsides, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. We cannot stop delta in its tracks, but we can change our behavior overnight.

That means doubling down again on masks, limiting social gatherings, staying home when sick and getting vaccinated. Those things are within our control, Meyers said.

Also Read | Taliban Leader Responds to PM Narendra Modis Statement, Says India Will Soon Know Taliban Can Run Afghanistan Affairs Smoothly.

The U.S. is in the grip of a fourth wave of infection this summer, powered by the highly contagious delta variant, which has sent cases, hospitalizations and deaths soaring again, swamped medical centers, burned out nurses and erased months of progress against the virus.

Deaths are running at over 1,100 a day on average, turning the clock back to mid-March. One influential model, from the University of Washington, projects an additional 98,000 Americans will die by the start of December, for an overall death toll of nearly 730,000.

The projection says deaths will rise to nearly 1,400 a day by mid-September, then decline slowly.

But the model also says many of those deaths can be averted if Americans change their ways.

We can save 50,000 lives simply by wearing masks. That's how important behaviors are, said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle who is involved in the making of the projections.

Already there are signs that Americans are taking the threat more seriously.

Amid the alarm over the delta variant in the past several weeks, the slump in demand for COVID-19 shots reversed course. The number of vaccinations dispensed per day has climbed around 80% over the past month to an average of about 900,000.

White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday that in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, more people got their first shots in the past month than in the prior two months combined.

Also, millions of students are being required to wear masks. A growing number of employers are demanding their workers get the vaccine after the federal government gave Pfizer's shot full approval earlier this week. And cities like New York and New Orleans are insisting people get vaccinated if they want to eat at a restaurant.

Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Early signs suggest behavior changes may already be flattening the curve in a few places where the virus raged this summer.

An Associated Press analysis shows the rate of new cases is slowing in Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas, some of the same states where first shots are on the rise. In Florida, pleas from hospitals and a furor over masks in schools may have nudged some to take more precautions.

However, the troubling trends persist in Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming, where new infections continue to rise steadily.

Mokdad said he is frustrated that Americans "aren't doing what it takes to control this virus.

I don't get it, he said. We have a fire and nobody wants to deploy a firetruck.

One explanation: The good news in the spring  vaccinations rising, cases declining  gave people a glimpse of the way things used to be, said Elizabeth Stuart of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and that made it tough for them to resume the precautions they thought they left behind.

We don't need to fully hunker down, she said, but we can make some choices that reduce risk.

Even vaccinated people should stay vigilant, said Dr. Gaby Sauza, 30, of Seattle, who was inoculated over the winter but tested positive for COVID-19 along with other guests days after an Aug. 14 Vermont wedding, even though the festivities were mostly outdoors and those attending had to submit photos of their vaccination cards.

In retrospect, absolutely, I do wish I had worn a mask, she said.

Sauza, a resident in pediatrics, will miss two weeks of hospital work and has wrestled with guilt over burdening her colleagues. She credits the vaccine with keeping her infection manageable, though she suffered several days of body aches, fevers, night sweats, fatigue, coughing and chest pain.

If we behave, we can contain this virus. If we don't behave, this virus is waiting for us, Mokdad said. It's going to find the weak among us. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
The lockdown enforced by the pandemic has resulted in a massive growth of online trading and a media focus on its practices and regulation. The combination of severe market volatility, people being deprived of regular income and confined to their homes has tempted millions of amateur traders to try their hand at the markets.

This trend reached a peak in January of this year when thousands of amateurs conspired on Reddit to send GameStop share prices through the roof, and many hedge funds into the ground in the process. As such the industrys hot topic of recent months has been the proper regulation of amateur day trading.

Meanwhile, an important precedent has been set in the sphere of the proper regulation of professional day trading. For the last five years Daniel Schlaepfer, the founder and CEO of Select Vantage Inc (SVI), a Cayman Islands-based day trading firm and one of the largest liquidity providers in the world (engaging over 2,000 traders in 264 offices in 39 countries around the world) has been suing the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and its head of market supervision, Greg Yanco, for defamation. He has finally been declared the moral victor.

There is something of a personal backstory to this, more than the normal operations of markets and regulators. Schlaepfers prior job was at a company called Swift Trading. Founded in 1997, in 2010 the Financial Conduct Authority fined it $100,000 following allegations between 2007-8 of layering, a process in the stock market of placing orders for stock that are never intended to be fulfilled, fraudulently creating an impression of demand. Swifts owner Peter Beck was subsequently barred from membership of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) indefinitely. Schlaepfer took what had been Swift and re-founded it as Select Vantage Inc, aggressively restricting the company and its practices to avoid the same fate as Swift.

Therefore, when in 2016 Mr. Yanco called brokers around Australia to imply SVI was layering, it struck a deep blow beyond the cost to business, and stiffened Schlaepfers resolve to fight. Yanco claimed he had not named Schlaepfer but the courts have finally decided that he did enough to make it clear who was being attacked.

There are very few traders who have been prepared to challenge national regulators head on. In 2014, Stewart Ford, founder of failed investment firm Keydata, unsuccessfully attempted to sue the UKs Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for 371m, claiming a politically motivated abuse of power led to his firm being investigated and subsequently placed under administration. The case against the regulator was dismissed in 2016 at Londons High Court, with the claims described as deficient and embarrassing. In the same year, Hinton Associates tried to sue the FCA for libel. But the regulators immunity was deemed sacrosanct and the claimants had to abandon their case.

Schlaepfer was also defeated after a 3-week trial in 2019. Three years and many millions of dollars later, he might have decided to give up. Instead, he chose to appeal. Schlaepfers lawyers argued that Justice Fagan had failed to engage with their case on truth, making little to no reference to their expert witness evidence surrounding the question of layering and arguing that the judge had thereby worked a miscarriage of justice and produced a mistrial. Core to Schlaepfers case for slander was that he had been personally identified, though not specifically named, in Yancos communications, and thereby implicated in criminal activity which had a material impact on his business. Fagan had found that Yancos wording was not sufficient to identify Schlaepfer, a claim the plaintiffs lawyers stated demonstrates a disregard for natural human curiosity. In his communications, Mr. Yanco had referred to a firm run by a trader formerly of Swift Trade. There was only one individual that could possibly have been.

From Schlaepfers perspective, what was most egregious was that he had not been told of ASICs concerns. His firm had been found guilty without the opportunity to prove its innocence. Simply put, ASIC might have asked SVI to explain its traders behaviour before invoking its legal duty to inform major market players that it suspected illegal conduct. Ironically, at the time of the trial, ASICs then chair James Shipton had been on the conference circuit to promote the regulators newly established Fairness Imperative, espousing the precept that a regulator should only take action if certain that the law had been broken.

The judgment returned on the appeal last month found that ASIC had not followed its own code on this occasion. The judge highlighted the fact that Mr. Yancos communications were made without any opportunity for Mr. Schlaepfer to respond was fatal to the element of reasonableness required to be established in order to make out the statutory defence. In a statement issued after the verdict, Schlaepfer said he was glad the issue was resolved. However, he added that the fact that ASICs defence of qualified privilege was upheld is worrying and could set a dangerous precedent for financial regulation, allowing ASIC to act with impunity. It may not have been an absolute victory, but it had been a clear strike back for Schlaepfer against a regulator overstepping its boundaries.
The Local Committee for Monitoring the Transition in #Mali (CLST) welcomed the transitional government's decision to lift restrictive measures on former Malian transitional president #BahNDaw and his Prime Minister #MoctarOuane. pic.twitter.com/DLLs8WuWvM IANS Tweets (@ians_india) August 28, 2021

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Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan, American eyes silently tracked two SUVs and a pickup truck as they snaked down a dirt road in the pre-dawn darkness.

The vehicles, packed with people, were 3 1/2 miles from a dozen U.S. special operations soldiers, who had been dropped into the area hours earlier to root out insurgents. The convoy was closing in on them.

At 6:15 a.m., just before the sun crested the mountains, the convoy halted.

We have 18 pax [passengers] dismounted and spreading out at this time, an Air Force pilot said from a cramped control room at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, 7,000 miles away. He was flying a Predator drone remotely using a joystick, watching its live video transmissions from the Afghan sky and radioing his crew and the unit on the ground.

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The Afghans unfolded what looked like blankets and kneeled. Theyre praying. They are praying, said the Predators camera operator, seated near the pilot.

By now, the Predator crew was sure that the men were Taliban. This is definitely it, this is their force, the cameraman said. Praying? I mean, seriously, thats what they do.

Theyre gonna do something nefarious, the crews intelligence coordinator chimed in.

At 6:22 a.m., the drone pilot radioed an update: All  are finishing up praying and rallying up near all three vehicles at this time.

The camera operator watched the men climb back into the vehicles.

Oh, sweet target, he said.

---

None of those Afghans was an insurgent. They were men, women and children going about their business, unaware that a unit of U.S. soldiers was just a few miles away, and that teams of U.S. military pilots, camera operators and video screeners had taken them for a group of Taliban fighters.

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The Americans were using some of the most sophisticated tools in the history of war, technological marvels of surveillance and intelligence gathering that allowed them to see into once-inaccessible corners of the battlefield. But the high-tech wizardry would fail in its most elemental purpose: to tell the difference between friend and foe.

This is the story of that episode. It is based on hundreds of pages of previously unreleased military documents, including transcripts of cockpit and radio conversations obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the results of two Pentagon investigations and interviews with the officers involved as well as Afghans who were on the ground that day.

The Afghan travelers had set out early on the cold morning of Feb. 21, 2010, from three mountain villages in southern Daikundi province, a remote central region 200 miles southwest of Kabul.

More than two dozen people were wedged into the three vehicles. Many were Hazaras, an ethnic minority that for years has been treated harshly by the Taliban. They included shopkeepers going for supplies, students returning to school, people seeking medical treatment and families with children off to visit relatives. There were several women and as many as four children younger than 6.

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They had agreed to meet before dawn for the long drive to Highway 1, the countrys main paved road. From there, some planned to go north to Kabul while others were headed south. To reach the highway, they had to drive through Oruzgan province, an insurgent stronghold.

We traveled together, so that if one vehicle broke down the others would help, said Sayed Qudratullah, 30, who was bound for Kabul in hope of obtaining a license to open a pharmacy.

Another passenger, Nasim, an auto mechanic who like many Afghans uses one name, said that he was going to buy tools and parts.

We werent worried when we set out. We were a little scared of the Taliban, but not of government forces, he said referring to the Afghan national army and its U.S. allies. Why would they attack us?

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---

American aircraft began tracking the vehicles at 5 a.m.

The crew of an AC-130, a U.S. ground attack plane flying in the area, spotted a pickup and a sport utility vehicle with a roof rack converge from different directions.

At 5:08 a.m., they saw one of the drivers flash his headlights in the darkness.

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The AC-130 radioed the Predator crew in Nevada: It appears the two vehicles are flashing lights, signaling.

With that, the travelers became targets of suspicion.

At Creech Air Force Base, 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas, it was 4:30 p.m., nearly dinner time.

A few hours earlier, a dozen U.S. special operations soldiers, known as an A-Team, had been dropped off by helicopter near Khod, five miles south of the convoy. The elite unit was moving on foot toward the village, with orders to search for insurgents and weapons.

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Another U.S. special operations unit had been attacked in the district a year earlier, and a soldier had been killed. This time the AC-130, the Predator drone and two Kiowa attack helicopters were in the area to protect the A-Team.

The Predators two-man team  a pilot and a camera operator  was one of the Air Forces most-experienced. The pilot, who had flown C-130 cargo planes, switched to drones after 2001 and had spent more than 1,000 hours training other Predator pilots. (The Air Force declined to name the crew or make them available for interviews.)

Also stationed at Creech were the Predators mission intelligence coordinator and a safety observer.

In addition, a team of screeners  enlisted personnel trained in video analysis  was on duty at Air Force special operations headquarters in Okaloosa, Fla. They sat in a large room with high-definition televisions showing live feeds from drones flying over Afghanistan. The screeners were sending instant messages to the drone crew, observations that were then relayed by radio to the A-Team.

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On the ground, the A-Team was led by an Army captain, a veteran of multiple tours in Afghanistan. Under U.S. military rules, the captain, as the ground force commander, was responsible for deciding whether to order an airstrike.

At 5:14 a.m., six minutes after the two Afghan vehicles flashed their lights, the AC-130 crew asked the A-team what it wanted to do about the suspicious vehicles.

Roger, ground force commanders intent is to destroy the vehicles and the personnel, came the units reply.

To use deadly force, the commander would first have to make a positive identification that the adversary was carrying weapons and posed an imminent threat.

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For the next 4 1/2 hours, the Predator crew and the screeners scrutinized the convoys every move, looking for evidence to support such a decision.

We all had it in our head, Hey, why do you have 20 military age males at 5 a.m. collecting each other?  an Army officer involved in the incident would say later. There can be only one reason, and thats because weve put [U.S. troops] in the area.

---

The Afghans greeted each other and climbed back into the two vehicles, heading south, in the general direction of Khod.

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At 5:15 a.m., the Predator pilot thought he saw a rifle inside one of the vehicles.

See if you can zoom in on that guy, he told the camera operator. Is that a rifle?

Maybe just a warm spot from where he was sitting, the camera operator replied, referring to an image picked up by the infrared camera. Cant really tell right now, but it does look like an object.

I was hoping we could make a rifle out, the pilot said. Never mind.

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Soon, a third vehicle, waiting in a walled compound, joined the convoy.

At 5:30 a.m., when the convoy halted briefly, the drones camera focused on a man emerging from one of the vehicles. He appeared to be carrying something.

What do these dudes got? the camera operator said. Yeah, I think that dude had a rifle.

I do, too, the pilot replied.

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But the ground forces unit said the commander needed more information from the drone crew and screeners to establish a positive identification.

Sounds like they need more than a possible, the camera operator told the pilot. Seeing the Afghan men jammed into the flat bed of the pickup, he added, That truck would make a beautiful target.

At 5:37 a.m., the pilot reported that one of the screeners in Florida had spotted one or more children in the group.

Bull. Where!? the camera operator said. I dont think they have kids out at this hour. He demanded that the screeners freeze the video image of the purported child and email it to him.

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Why didnt he say possible child? the pilot said. Why are they so quick to call kids but not to call a rifle.

The camera operator was dubious too. I really doubt that children call. Man, I really  hate that, he said. Well, maybe a teenager. But I havent seen anything that looked that short.

A few minutes later, the pilot appeared to downplay the screeners observation, alerting the special operations unit to a possible rifle and two possible children near the SUV.

The special operations unit wanted the drone crew and screeners to keep tracking the vehicles. Bring them in as close as we can until we also have [attack aircraft] up, the units radio operator said. We want to take out the whole lot of them.

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---

The Predator video was not the only intelligence that morning suggesting that U.S. forces were in danger.

Teams of U.S. military linguists and intelligence personnel with sophisticated eavesdropping equipment were vacuuming up cellphone calls in the area and translating the conversations in real time. For several hours, they had been listening to cellphone chatter in the area that suggested a Taliban unit was assembling for an attack.

Were receiving ICOM traffic, or intercepted communications, the A-Team radioed the Predator crew. We believe we may have a high-level Taliban commander.

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Neither the identities of those talking nor their precise location was known. But the A-Team and the drone crew took the intercepted conversations as confirmation that there were insurgents in the convoy.

At 6:54 a.m., the camera operator noted that the drone crew and screeners had counted at least 24 men in the three vehicles, maybe more. So, yeah, I guess that ICOM chatter is great info, he said.

The screeners continued to look for evidence that the convoy was a hostile force. Even with the advanced cameras on the Predator, the images were fuzzy and small objects were difficult to identify. Sometimes the video feed was interrupted briefly.

The Predator crew and video analysts in Nevada remained uncertain how many children were in the group and how old they were.

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Our screeners are currently calling 21 MAMs [military age males], no females, and two possible children. How copy? the Predator pilot radioed the A-Team at 7:38 a.m.

Roger, replied the A-Team, which was unable to see the convoy. And when we say children, are we talking teenagers or toddlers?

The camera operator responded: Not toddlers. Something more towards adolescents or teens.

Yeah, adolescents, the pilot added. Were thinking early teens.

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At 7:40 a.m., the A-Team radioed that its captain had concluded that he had established positive identification based on the weapons weve identified and the demographics of the individuals plus the ICOM.

Although no weapons had been clearly identified, the pilot replied: We are with you.

The pilot added that one screener had amended his report and was now saying hed seen only one teenager. Our screener updated only one adolescent, so thats one double-digit age range.

Well pass that along to the ground force commander, the

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A-Team radio operator said. Twelve or 13 years old with a weapon is just as dangerous.

---

At 8:43 a.m., Army commanders ordered two Kiowa helicopters to get into position to attack.

By then, though, the convoy was no longer heading toward Khod. The three vehicles, which at one point were within three miles of the A-Team, had changed direction and were now 12 miles away. The drone crew didnt dwell on that news, thinking the convoy probably was trying to flank the A-Teams position.

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The Predator crew began discussing its role in the coming attack. The drone was armed with one missile, not enough to take out a three-vehicle convoy. The more heavily-armed Kiowa helicopters, using the call sign BAM BAM41, would fire on the vehicles; the Predator would target any survivors who tried to flee.

Were probably going to be chasing dudes, scrambling in the open, uh, when it goes down, the pilot told his camera operator, whose job was to place the camera cross hairs on insurgents, so the pilot could fire the missile. Stay with whoever you think gives us the best chance to shoot, um, at them.

Roger, came the reply.

A little before 9 a.m., the vehicles reached an open, treeless stretch of road. The A-Team commander called in the airstrike.

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Understand we are clear to engage, one of the helicopter pilots declared over the radio.

Hellfire missiles struck the first and third vehicles; they burst into flames.

Qudratullah, one of the Afghan travelers, recalled, The helicopters were suddenly on top of us, bombarding us.

Dead and wounded were everywhere. Nasim, the 23-year-old mechanic, was knocked unconscious.

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When I came to, I could see that our vehicles were wrecked and the injured were everywhere, he said. I saw someone who was headless and someone else cut in half.

The Predator crew in Nevada was exultant, watching men they assumed were enemy fighters trying to help the injured.  Self-Aid Buddy Care to the rescue, one of the drones crew members said.

I forget, how do you treat a sucking chest wound? said another.

Soon, however, the crew in Nevada and the screeners in Florida realized something was wrong.

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The thing is, nobody ran, one crew member said.

Yeah, that was weird, another replied.

At 9:15 a.m., the Predator crew noticed three survivors in brightly colored clothing waving at the helicopters. They were trying to surrender.

What are those? asked the camera operator.

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Women and children, the Predators mission intelligence coordinator answered.

That lady is carrying a kid, huh? Maybe, the pilot said.

The baby, I think, on the right. Yeah, the intelligence coordinator said.

The Predators safety coordinator, cursing in frustration, urged the pilot to alert the helicopters and the A-Team that there were children present. Let them know, dude, he said.

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Younger than an adolescent to me, the camera operator said.

As they surveyed the carnage, seeing other children, the Predator crew tried to reassure themselves that they could not have known.

No way to tell, man, the safety observer said.

No way to tell from here, the camera operator added.

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At 9:30 a.m., the pilot came back on the radio.

Since the engagement, he said, we have not been able to PID [positively identify] any weapons.

---

U.S. and Afghan forces reached the scene 2 1/2 hours after the attack to provide medical assistance. After 20 minutes more, medevac helicopters began taking the wounded to a hospital in Tarin Kowt, in Oruzgan. More serious cases were later transferred to Kabul.

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They asked us who we were, and we told them we were civilians from Kijran district, said Qudratullah, who lost a leg.

By the U.S. count, 15 or 16 men were killed and 12 people were wounded, including a woman and three children. Elders from the Afghans home villages said in interviews that 23 had been killed, including two boys, Daoud, 3, and Murtaza, 4.

That evening, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, then the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, went to the presidential palace in Kabul to apologize to President Hamid Karzai. Two days later, he went on Afghan television and promised a thorough investigation to prevent this from happening again.

The Army and the Air Force conducted their own investigations, reaching similar conclusions.

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The Army said evidence that the convoy was not a hostile force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew, and the A-Team captains decision to authorize an airstrike was based on a misreading of the threat when, in fact, there was no urgent need to engage the vehicles.

The Air Force concluded that confusion over whether children were present was a causal factor in the decision to attack and, in an internal document last year, said drone crews had not been trained to notice the subtle differences between combatants and suspicious persons who may appear to be combatants.

The military has taken some steps to address these problems. Screeners now have access to radio traffic, so if a drone pilot makes a mistake, the screeners can correct it. Drone crews and screeners are now trained to use more precise descriptions in radio transmissions. And, shortly after the incident, McChrystal banned the use of the term military age male, saying it implied that every adult man was a combatant.

Some officers in the Pentagon drew another lesson from the incident: An abundance of surveillance information can lead to misplaced confidence in the ability to tell friend from foe.

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Technology can occasionally give you a false sense of security that you can see everything, that you can hear everything, that you know everything, said Air Force Major Gen. James O. Poss, who oversaw the Air Force investigation. I really do think we have learned from this.

McChrystal issued letters of reprimand to four senior and two junior officers in Afghanistan. The Air Force said the Predator crew was also disciplined, but it did not specify the punishment. No one faced court-martial, the Pentagon said.

Several weeks after the attack, American officers travelled to the villages to apologize to survivors and the victims families.

They gave each survivor 140,000 afghanis, or about $2,900.

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Families of the dead received $4,800.

MORE: Read the official U.S. military transcript of communications that day

david.cloud@latimes.com

Times Staff Writer Laura King and special correspondent Aimal Yaqoubi in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
Federal officials are issuing another warning to President Joe Biden regarding another possible attack at Kabul in the final days of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Pentagon officials and members of the president's national security team on Friday, a day after the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, The Hill reported.

The incident has claimed the lives of 11 U.S. Marines, a Navy hospital corpsman, and an Army soldier. At least 169 Afghan citizens were killed, while 18 U.S. service members were injured.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president and the vice president were advised that another terror attack in Kabul is possible. She noted that they are adding maximum force protection measures at the capital.

READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Admits Donald Trump's Deal With Taliban Resulted in a Year Without Combat Death in Afghanistan

Another Terrorist Attack in Kabul

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said they believe there are credible threats, adding that they want to ensure that they are prepared for those. Kirby vowed that the U.S. military would fly out evacuees until the last day of the Kabul operation, The Guardian reported.

The White House has denied that the Taliban has taken over parts of the Kabul airport, with Kirby saying that the militant group is not in charge of any of the gates.

Pentagon officials told the president that the next few days of the mission would be the most dangerous period to date.

Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said ISIS is likely to try to continue the attacks before the end of the evacuation period.

McKenzie noted that very real threat streams could occur at any moment.

According to the White House, Joe Biden affirmed his approval of all authorities they need to conduct the operation and protect the U.S. troops.

Terrorist Attack at Kabul's Airport

Joe Biden has denounced the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport, saying that the evacuation of U.S. citizens and allies will resume. He also vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attacks.

Biden said they would not forget the terror attack and make those responsible pay, The New York Times reported.

Before the attack, there have been warnings of specific and credible threats at the airport by an Islamic State affiliate. The attack was brought by the two suicide bombers outside the airport.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin released a statement regarding the attacks, saying they will not be dissuaded from the task, adding that to do less would dishonor the purpose of those who died in the incident.

Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, has also condemned the attack. The U.S. Marines manning Abbey Gate had been briefed on the possibility of a suicide bomber lurking near their position. However, they continued to process those trying to be admitted.

One Afghani who witnessed the incident said the crowd was packed, and people were pushing. The witness added that he tripped, and that was when the explosion had happened.

READ MORE: Taliban Got Hold of a U.S.-Made Super-Surveillance System

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Biden officials Warn Another Terror Attack in Kabul is Likely - From CBS Evening News






Assassin Sirhan B. Sirhan, who killed Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was recommended for parole on Friday after Kennedy's two sons said they favored the suspect's release.

Although the assassin was recommended to be freed from prison, it would not assure his release because the California Governor can still overturn the decision by the two-person panel, NBC News reported.

The assassin was convicted for murder in 1969, and Sirhan was sentenced to death. But in 1972, the California Supreme Court found capital punishment "unconstitutional," resentencing the assassin with life imprisonment with a chance of parole.

READ NEXT: Supreme Court Ends Biden Administration's Eviction Moratorium; White House 'Disappointed'

Robert F. Kennedy Assassin's Freedom Could Take Months Before the Final Decision

Sirhan's recommendation was made possible when two Commissioners from the California Board of Parole reviewed the assassin's record while in prison and heard the side of Kennedy's sons.

Now, the California Parole Board staff will be given at least 90 days to review the decision. The state governor would also be given another 30 days to approve, deny, or modify the decision.

If the governor denies the parole, Sirhan will be given another chance as the assassin can apply for parole once again in three years. If the decision of the panel would be approved, then Sirhan will be freed from jail.

One of Robert F. Kennedy's sons, Douglas Kennedy, said that Sirhan should be released if the assassin is not a threat to others.

"I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love," Douglas Kennedy said, adding that he was "overjoyed" just by seeing the assassin face to face.

Meanwhile, Paul Schrade, a labor leader who worked with Kennedy, said Sirhan should be released even though the assassin also shot him on the same night. He argued that Sirhan did not shoot Robert Kennedy. Schrade noted that he was shot first by the assassin, and the second shot missed Kennedy.

"Getting him [Sirhan] out of the picture means that we have a better chance of making the case," said Schrade, adding that this would allow the second gunman, whom he claimed killed Kennedy, to be identified and convicted.

Concerns About Robert F. Kennedy's Assassin Being Freed

If the governor would approve the parole, Kennedy's assassin could be deported to Jordan, as Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian, was from the said country.

Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton expressed his worries on the assassin's release, contending that Sirhan might become a "symbol or lightning rod" to uproar violence.

Some family members of the Kennedys, law enforcement officers from Los Angeles, and the public submitted letters to oppose the release of Kennedy's assassin. The lack of District Attorney's Office presence during Sirhan's hearing was also criticized by some prosecutors.

"That is disgraceful and it's an abrogation of the responsibilities of the elected District Attorney of Los Angeles," California District Attorney's Association president Vern Pierson said.

However, in the hearing with the California Parole Board, Robert F. Kennedy's assassin promised that he would never put himself in jeopardy once again and announced his commitment to peace. The recent recommendation for parole marked Sirhan's 16th application for parole.

READ MORE: As Joe Biden Admits He Bears Responsibility for Kabul Attacks, Rep. Cawthorn Calls on Kamala Harris to Remove the President

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: RFK Assassin Recommended for Parole - From CBS Evening News
Teachers in the state of Chiapas in Mexico had blocked Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from entering a venue for his televised press conference.

Mexican newspapers reported that the latest protest was related to the most recent teaching reforms in Mexico. According to a Reuters report, the protest blocking Lopez Obrador from holding his press conference on Friday lasted two hours.

Instead, the Mexican president did a video message from inside his vehicle, noting that the protesters were refusing him to pass to pressure him into answering their demands.

Lopez Obrador said he cannot allow this because he cannot be held hostage by anyone, DW reported. But he noted that the protesters have a right to protest, and he will respect that. The Mexican president said they would be offering the protesters a dialogue.

READ NEXT: New Heavily Armed Militia Group Forms in Mexico To Protect Their Communities From Drug Cartels

Protests Blocking Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Protesting teachers in Mexico had demanded to speak to the president regarding employment issues, such as remuneration, working conditions, and recruitment.

They also rejected the government's claim that the protested 2013 education reform had been fully removed, Mexico News Daily reported.

Students, healthcare workers, and family members of victims of crime were also among the group of protesters that had blocked the president's vehicle.

One protester, Adriana Gomez Martinez, said they are protesting because they want their cases to be resolved. She noted that they are the mothers of victims of femicide.

Gomez Martinez said she believes the Mexican president is doing the wrong thing by staying in his car as he should be attending to them.

The protester noted that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador should know their requests, adding that that was the reason why they are in the area. Lopez Obrador noted that the incident was an example of his non-violence policy and avoiding the use of force.

The Mexican president said that this is what leaders like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi did, ABC News reported. However, he also admitted that the union leadership in some states in Mexico had gone out of control. The Mexican president said he cannot surrender to any special interest group.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had instructed police, soldiers, and the National Guard to avoid confrontations whenever possible. The same instruction has also given drug cartels, vigilantes, and other groups more freedom to reign in some areas they want to become turfs.

Protests in Mexico Turned Violent

In March, women, who were demonstrating in light of International Women's Day, have clashed with the police at the National Palace in Mexico. The Guardian reported that the officers had fired pepper spray after the protesters had tried to breach a metal wall.

Lopez Obrador's spokesperson said the president had installed the metal barricade and dubbed it a "peace wall." It was installed before the protests as he wanted to protect government property from vandalism.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had a tense relationship with the feminist movement. He was accused of being manipulated by conservative opponents and influenced by foreign ideas.

One protester at the time, Vania Palacios, said they wanted the president to protect women the same way he's protecting the buildings.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Continues to Thrive Despite the Drug Lord's Absence: Report

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Obrador Moves to Scrap Mexico's Controversial Education Reforms - From Al Jazeera English






Hurricane Ida is seen to hit the northern U.S. Gulf Coast as a major hurricane this weekend, bringing life-threatening storm surge and dangerous rainfall flooding.

There could also be likely catastrophic winds and tornadoes, according to a Weather report. Ida has made landfall in Cuba on Friday, August 27. It has made landfall in western Cuba in Pinar Del Rio province with winds of 80 mph.

The National Hurricane Center said Ida is expected to slam the southern coast of the U.S. as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph on Sunday, August 29, putting states from Louisiana to Florida on alert for severe destruction.

The NOAA reported that once the storm moves past western Cuba and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, it would move through a very favorable oceanic and atmospheric environment, resulting in a period of rapid strengthening in the next 24 to 36 hours.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said Friday that wind damage and storm surge will be life-threatening from Louisiana to the Florida Gulf Coast. Ida was formed as a tropical storm in the Caribbean on Thursday, August 26.

READ NEXT: Tropical Storm Fred Makes Landfall in Florida; Two More Tropical Disturbances Being Watched

Strength of Hurricane Ida

The state of Louisiana prepares for a direct hit from the storm as it intensifies into a hurricane on Friday. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Friday evening that there are no indications that Ida will weaken at all, adding that time is not on their side.

Cantrell noted that the city could not issue a mandatory evacuation as they do not have the time to do so, USA Today reported.

The mayor said mandatory evacuation could pose more risk than safety as people could be in their vehicles once the storm hits the state. Cantrell noted that residents should be in a safe space by Saturday midnight.

During a Friday weather forecast, National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Schott said that Ida would be a life-threatening storm for those who are not prepared.

Associated Press reported that President Joe Biden has already approved a federal emergency declaration for Louisiana ahead of the storm.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government intends to deploy around 150 medical personnel to help strained hospitals, with 50 ambulances. There will also be around 50 ambulances to the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said all residents should be in the area where they plan to ride out the storm by Saturday evening. Ida would hit 16 years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall as Category 3 storm with 125 mph.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the southeastern U.S. in August 2005, claiming more than 1,800 lives. It was ranked as the costliest natural disaster in the history of the U.S., according to Britannica.

Katrina became one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on the record. On August 29, 2005, it made landfall as a category 4 hurricane in Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of around 145 mph.

It produced 10 to 20 inches of rain, flooding, tornadoes, and injuries across far southern Florida. An estimate of $108 billion in property damage was reported when Katrina struck the United States.

Former President Barack Obama commented on Katrina 10 years after the disaster. Obama said the natural disaster had become a man-made disaster when the government has failed to look out for its own citizens.

READ MORE: Tornado Warning Issued in Chicago, With the Tornado Reportedly Touching Down in Dekalb County

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Hurricane Ida Could Make Landfall in Louisiana as a Category 4 Storm - From WFAA






The U.S. military has conducted an airstrike against members of the Islamic State in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Pentagon said.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban provided the details of the airstrike in a statement.

"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," Urban said.

Urban noted that the "unmanned airstrike" occurred in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan. He said the initial indications showed that they killed the target.

Urban added that they were no civilian casualties. A defense official told the Associated Press that President Joe Biden authorized the drone strike, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered it.

READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Admits Donald Trump's Deal With Taliban Resulted in a Year Without Combat Death in Afghanistan

U.S. Military Airstrike in Afghanistan

The airstrike happened after President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he instructed the Pentagon to create a plan to strike the assets, leadership, and facilities of the ISIS-K, Axios reported.

It also came amid what the White House called indications that Islamic State planned to strike again as the U.S. continues evacuations before the August 31 deadline.

The president has vowed to locate the group responsible for the two attacks outside the Kabul airport on Thursday, which killed 170 people, including 13 U.S. service personnel.

Joe Biden said the U.S. would not be intimidated by the attacks and would continue the process of withdrawing from the capital.

Reports said the president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the final days of U.S. evacuation in Afghanistan. White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted that the president's national security team had offered a grim outlook.

Joe Biden Identifies ISIS-K

The airstrike happened 48 hours after the Kabul airport explosions. The Pentagon earlier said that a suicide bomber detonated an explosion in a crowd waiting near the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Since Kabul fell to the Taliban, thousands of people have gathered daily at the airport's gates, desperate to board flights out of Afghanistan. The Pentagon said the second explosion struck the nearby Baron Hotel.

Joe Biden earlier named the fighters from the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, known as ISIS Khorasan or ISIS-K, as the ones responsible for the attacks outside Kabul airport.

READ MORE: As Joe Biden Admits He Bears Responsibility for Kabul Attacks, Rep. Cawthorn Calls on Kamala Harris to Remove the President

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Written: By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: U.S. Airstrike Targets Islamic State Member in Afghanistan - From FOX 11 Los Angeles
Matthew Mindler, a former child actor, best known for his role opposite Paul Rudd in the 2011 movie "Our Idiot Brother," was reported missing after he disappeared from his college campus in Pennsylvania this week.

Mindler, now a 19-year-old freshman at Millersville University, was last seen in the campus on Tuesday night, according to the university police report.

Former Child Actor in Pennsylvania Missing

Daily Mail noted that Matthew Mindler was reported missing the next day after he didn't return to his dormitory room, failed to return phone calls from his family, and skipped classes.

In a post on social media account, the University Police said the former child actor was spotted walking from the West Villages residence hall toward the Centennial Driver parking lot at around 8:11 p.m. on Tuesday.

Based on a security footage screenshot, Matthew Mindler was wearing a white Millersville University hooded sweatshirt with black stripes on the arm. The former actor was also wearing a black face mask, dark-colored jeans, and sneakers while carrying his black backpack.

The university police said they have already notified local police departments of Mindler's disappearance.

READ NEXT: Kanye West Faces Backlash After Inviting Marilyn Manson, DaBaby to 'Donda' Listening Party; Kim Kardashian Joins in a Wedding Dress

Matthew Mindler's Last Appearance on Film and Security Camera

According to the former child actor's IMDB page, at least eight acting credits in films and television shows were listed under his name. It included the 2013 short "Frequency" directed by his older brother and cinematographer, Derek Mindler.

So far, Mindler's biggest role to date was in the comedy-drama "Our Idiot Brother." The movie follows Paul Rudd's character, an idealistic farmer who upends the lives of his three sisters, played by Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer.

Matthew Mindler portrayed the son of Emily Mortimer and Steve Coogan named River.

Since 2016, the former child actor has not acted. He last appeared in the TV movie "Chad: An American Boy." His acting credits also include "As the World Turns, Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver.

Millersville University President Daniel Wubah sent a letter to the students addressing the disappearance of the 19-year-old freshman, WGAL reported.

The university president noted that the health and safety of Matthew Mindler were "paramount," and their thoughts were with the former child actor, his family, and friends.

A portion of his letter also mentioned that the police department continues to locate Matthew Mindler with the help of the regional law enforcement agencies. Police said they are getting many tips and leads, and they are following up on all of them.

Authorities and the university asked anyone with information on Matthew Mindler's whereabouts to contact the Millersville University Police at 717-871-4357 or Chief Pete Anders at peter.anders@millersville.edu, 717-871-5972, or through the Millersville LiveSafe Safety App.

READ MORE: Lil Nas X, Maker of Satan Shoes, Asks Why Critics Not Targeting Tony Hawk's Skate Board Painted With His Blood

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Millersville University Student Reported Missing -From WGALTV
Students from across the county are invited to turn their creative ideas into project entries for the 2022 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE). Renowned nationally and internationally as a brilliant platform for young people to showcase their STEM ideas, the exhibition is open for project entries until September 27, 2021.

Entries can be made in any one of four categories: technology; social and behavioural science; biological and ecological science; and chemical, physical and mathematical science. An individual or group must submit a simple, one-page proposal outlining their project idea.

Very Interesting Info @BTinIreland is committed to further education in the areas of STEM & senior category winners of #BTYSTE receive a bursary for entry into one of seven 3rd-level institutions in the Rep of Ireland in partnership with the Irish Universities Association WOW! pic.twitter.com/XeOhianTvr August 25, 2021

BT Ireland, organiser of the BTYSTE, has waived the project entry fees for the second year running, with the exhibition being delivered in a virtual format in 2022 due to Covid-19. This builds on the success of the 2021 virtual exhibition, which attracted over 105,000 visitors from 77 countries.

The exhibition, now in its 58th year, opens up huge opportunities with many young people who take part going on to have successful careers in STEM. In addition to over 200 prizes, worth more than 35,000 in total, up for grabs, the BTYSTE offers young minds a fun and exciting way to share their ideas with an international audience, with the winner going on to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.

BT Ireland is committed to further education in the areas of STEM and senior category winners of the BTYSTE receive a bursary for entry into one of seven third-level institutions in the Republic of Ireland in partnership with the Irish Universities Association. Additionally, each year more than 30 students are chosen to take part in the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp, a commercialisation course that can help convert ideas into enterprise.

Speaking on his BTYSTE experience, Abdul Abubakar, former participant and overall winner in 2007 said: "Entering the BTYSTE was a once in a lifetime opportunity and a proud moment for me, my school and my local community. Presenting my project to the judges and then being chosen as the winner was a really exciting time. Entering the exhibition solidified my passion and interest in STEM, which lead me to pursue a career within STEM."

Abdul went on to represent Ireland and won top prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists following his win at the BTYSTE and has since forged a successful career in software engineering.

Abdul said: "Representing Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists made my whole BTYSTE experience even more special. The opportunities are endless when you take part in an event like this."

Head of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, Mari Cahalane, BT Ireland said: Every young person has an idea. Were providing them with a brilliant way of sharing those ideas with a huge audience, of being part of a community which is passionate about STEM, and of securing some of the amazing awards and prizes available. The exhibition can be life-changing. We want students to seize that opportunity.

Interested students can visit www.BTyoungscientist.com for more information on how to enter. Qualifying students will have the opportunity to present their projects to the judges remotely during the virtual exhibition between January 12  14, 2022.
WATER Heritage Day was marked in style in Castleconnell on the last day of National Heritage Week 2021.

It is a chance to celebrate the heritage and history of Limericks magnificent rivers, lakes, wetlands, and coastal waters. Or as our forefathers said, "uisce beatha", which literally means "water of life".

Commenting on the importance of water as part of our heritage, Ruairi O Conchuir, community water officer for County Limerick, said: "The heritage and history of County Limerick has been shaped by the sea and our magnificent rivers, lakes, and wetlands. Local communities really value places with good water quality and want to enhance them and ensure they can be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike."

Mr O Conchuir said we all know the health benefits we get from spending time at a river, lake, or beach.

"These local water bodies are part of our heritage, but they must also be part of our future. The Local Authority Waters Programme is committed to supporting local communities and ensuring issues affecting water quality can be addressed and resolved. Because we all benefit from having good quality water," he said.

This year, local heritage groups and organisers, families, communities, and individuals created well over 1,000 projects, many of which are still free to explore on the National Heritage Week website. Many different in person events took place in County Limerick as part of Heritage Week with events in Lough Gur, Annacotty on the Mulkear River, Bruff on the Morning Star River run by Bruff Tidy Towns and Local Authority Waters Programme.

"The week ended off with an amazing event on Sunday, August 22, which is Water Heritage Day in Castleconnell. The event saw up to 50 people gather for a walk and talk on the mighty River Shannon from the Ferry cark park in Castleconnell heading downstream.

"New nature trial signage for a river walk on this beautiful section of the River Shannon was unveiled by John Hardiman of Castleconnell Tidy Towns. The work was supported by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) and the local community. LAWPRO also financially supported the event and the related refreshments in the Castle Oaks Hotel. The event was a wonderful expression of community engagement with the own local water bodies and highlighted the importance of the Lower River Shannon and local small nursery streams, in terms of biodiversity and habitat type," said Mr O Conchuir.

This special themed day was organised as a collaboration between the Local Authority Waters Programme and The Heritage Council and Community Water Officers supported by local communities and groups throughout Ireland to organise events and projects that highlighted the importance of water for its recreational, cultural, environmental, health, and economic benefits.
India, the US, and other countries have ramped up the evacuation process of their citizens, as well as Afghani nationals from Afghanistan amid deteriorating security.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), India has evacuated more than 550 people from Afghanistan on six separate flights. Of these, more than 260 were Indian nationals.

Besides, India has opened the window of E-visas for the tenure of six months for Afghan nationals.

However, hundreds of Sikhs and Hindus are still stranded in the crisis-hit Afghanistan.

The US has evacuated around 1,10,000 people and is racing to complete evacuations of its citizens and vulnerable Afghans by the August 31 deadline.

Here are some more details of the evacuation effort by country:

INDIA

The Ministry of External Affairs said India has over 550 people on six separate flights, either from Kabul or Dushanbe.

UNITED STATES

The US has evacuated 5,100 US citizens since August 14. However, there were still about 1,500 US citizens in Afghanistan and the US government was working to either contact them or had already given them instructions on how to get to Kabul airport.

CANADA

Canadian forces in Kabul ended evacuation efforts for their citizens and Afghans on Thursday, August 26.

The country had evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of about 3,700 Canadian and Afghan citizens.

UNITED KINGDOM

Britain has evacuated more than 13,700 British nationals and Afghans, representing the second biggest airlift by the country's air force after the Berlin Airlift in 1949

GERMANY

Germany also ended evacuation flights on August 26. The German military has evacuated 5,347 people, including more than 4,100 Afghans.

Germany previously said it had identified 10,000 people who needed to be evacuated, including Afghan local staff, journalists, and human rights activists. About 300 German citizens remain in Afghanistan.

FRANCE

The French Defence Ministry said more than 100 French nationals and more than 2,500 Afghans had reached French soil after being evacuated from Kabul.

ITALY

Italy had evacuated 4,832 Afghan citizens until August 26.

SWEDEN

Sweden has ended its evacuation mission in Kabul. A total of 1,100 people had been evacuated, including all locally employed embassy staff and their families.

BELGIUM

Belgium had ended its evacuation operations on August 26. Just over 1,400 people were evacuated, with the last flight arriving in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad on Wednesday night.

IRELAND

Ireland evacuated 36 Irish citizens after the completion of an emergency consular mission on Thursday.

And, around 60 Irish citizens and family members plus15 Afghan citizens with Irish residency are still stranded.

POLAND

Poland has evacuated about 900 people from Afghanistan, including about 300 women and 300 children.

HUNGARY

Hungary has ended evacuations in Afghanistan after airlifting 540 people, including Hungarian citizens and Afghans and their families who worked for Hungarian forces previously.

DENMARK

Denmark has airlifted about 1,000 people from Afghanistan since August 14, including diplomatic staff, their families, former interpreters, Danish citizens as well as people from allied countries.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, which is relying on Germany and the United States to help with its evacuation efforts via Tashkent, has got 292 people out of Afghanistan.

TURKEY

Turkey has evacuated at least 1,400 people from Afghanistan, including about 1,000 Turkish citizens.

QATAR

Qatar said it had helped evacuate more than 40,000 people to Doha.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The UAE said it had helped evacuate 36,500 people to date, including 8,500 coming to the UAE via its national carriers or airports.

AUSTRALIA

Australia had evacuated 4,100 people, including over 3,200 citizens and Afghans with Australian visas, over nine days, with the last planned flight leaving before the airport attack.

NEW ZEALAND

According to preliminary numbers, at least 276 New Zealand nationals and permanent residents, their families, and other visa holders were evacuated.

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All international passengers landing in Maharashtra are required to mandatorily carry a negative RT-PCR report even if they are fully vaccinated, the state government has said.

"All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra, including those from the European countries, Middle Eastern countries and South Africa, will be in line with the above-mentioned guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare," read an order issued by Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte.

The state has said that the rules are in line with the central government mandate, requiring a Covid negative report before arriving in India.

"Same rule is applicable for international passengers arriving in Maharashtra. Although the passenger has taken two doses of vaccine against Covid-19, the negative report of RT-PCR is mandatory," the statement said.

The order also comes as a relief as earlier, people coming from these nations were required to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Covid situation in state

Maharashtra reported 4,654 new coronavirus infections and 170 fresh deaths on Friday, taking the infection tally to 64,47,442 and the toll to 1,36,900.

The official said 3,301 patients were discharged from hospitals across the state in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of recovered cases to 62,55,451.

Maharashtra now has 51,574 active cases. The state has 2,92,733 people in home quarantine and another 2,337 in institutional quarantine.

The state's Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 97.02%, while the fatality rate is 2.12%.

Centre's advice to Maharashtra

Ahead of upcoming festivals in Maharashtra, the Centre has advised the state to consider imposing local restrictions on these festivals and mass gatherings to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

In a letter to the Maharashtra chief secretary, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said even though the trajectory of daily new cases has shown a decline over the last month, there are some districts in Maharashtra which are showing early signs of an upsurge in Covid-19 cases and test positivity

Bhushan said the directions were issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by the Home Ministry for focussed containment measures.

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In the days since taking power in Afghanistan, a wide range of Taliban figures have entered Kabul -- hardened commandos, armed madrassa students and greying leaders back from years of exile.

There has been one major exception -- the group's supreme leader.

Hibatullah Akhundzada -- the so-called commander of the faithful -- has shepherded the Taliban as its chief since 2016 when snatched from relative obscurity to oversee a movement in crisis.

After taking the insurgency's reins, the cleric was tasked with the mammoth challenge of unifying a jihadist movement that briefly fractured during a bitter power struggle.

The infighting came as the group was hit with successive blows -- the assassination of Akhundzada's predecessor and the revelation that its leaders had hidden the death of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.

Little is still known about Akhundzada's day-to-day role, with his public profile largely limited to the release of annual messages during Islamic holidays.

Apart from a single photograph released by the Taliban, the leader has never made a public appearance and his whereabouts remain largely unknown.

Since taking control of Kabul in mid-August, the group has remained tight-lipped about Akhundzada's movements.

"You will see him soon, God willing," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters this week when asked about Akhundzada's whereabouts.

The ongoing silence comes as the heads of various Taliban factions have openly preached in Kabul's mosques, met with opposition figures, and even chatted with Afghan cricket officials in recent days.

- The secret history -

The Taliban have a long history of keeping their top leader in the shadows.

The group's enigmatic founder Mullah Mohammad Omar was notorious for his hermit ways and rarely travelled to Kabul when the group was in power in the 1990s.

Instead, Omar stayed largely out of sight in his compound in Kandahar, reluctant even to meet visiting delegations.

Still, his word was rule and no singular figure has emerged to command the movement with the same respect.

Laurel Miller -- the head of the Asia programme at the International Crisis Group -- said Akhundzada "appears to have adopted a reclusive style similar" to that of Omar.

The secrecy might also be fuelled by security reasons, Miller added, citing the assassination of his predecessor Mullah Akhtar Mansour by a US drone strike.

"A Taliban spokesman has indicated their leader will emerge soon, and he might have reasons to do that to quash suspicions of his demise," Miller told AFP.

"But it's also possible that after showing himself he would withdraw and exercise his authority in a remote fashion, as Mullah Omar did."

Akhundzada's absence follows years of rumours about his health, with chatter in Pakistan and Afghanistan suggesting he had contracted Covid or had been killed in a bombing.

There has never been much in the way to prove these rumours, but Akhundzada's secrecy comes at a sensitive time for the erstwhile insurgency.

There are myriad Taliban factions comprising groups from across Afghanistan, representing a vast array of constituents.

The revelation in 2015 that the Taliban leadership had for years hidden the death of Mullah Omar sparked a brief but bloody power struggle, with at least one major faction splitting from the group.

As the Taliban transition from fighting to governance, balancing the interests of their numerous factions will be crucial to consolidating power.

Any power vacuum would risk destabilising a movement that has managed to stay cohesive following decades of conflict, tens of thousands of foot soldiers killed, and top leaders assassinated or shipped off to the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Others suggest the group may just be biding its time until US-led forces make their final exit from Afghanistan in the coming days.

"The Taliban consider themselves in a state of jihad" as long as foreign troops are on Afghan soil and will likely keep their leader hidden until they leave, said Pakistan-based security analyst Imtiaz Gul.

"That's why the supreme leader is not surfacing."

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Hurricane Ida is already lashing the coast of southeastern Louisiana with winds reaching 150 mph (240 km/h) and life-threatening storm surge, as the Category 4 storm gets closer to landfall.

The hurricane is expected to slam into southeastern Louisiana in the next few hours, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said .

The storm would be the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2021 season to make landfall on U.S. soil, Accuweather reported . And if Ida strengthens even a little, its maximum sustained winds could reach Category 5 status, which is 156 mph (251 km/h) on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

"Some additional strengthening is forecast, and Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it makes landfall along the Louisiana coast," the NHC said in its morning statement.

As of 7 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. EDT), Ida was about 50 miles (85 kilometers) southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River and 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Houma, Louisiana. The massive storm is moving in the northwest direction at about 15 mph (24 km/h).

Related: The 20 costliest, most destructive hurricanes to hit the US

The center of Ida is expected to make landfall late this morning or early this afternoon, before moving well inland over parts of Louisiana and western Mississippi on Monday (Aug. 30), the NHC said.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion today in the warning area along the northern Gulf Coast," the National Hurricane Center said in a statement on Saturday (Aug. 28).

The NHC put out a hurricane warning for areas from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to the Mouth of the Pearl River, also in Louisiana, as well as around Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Maurepas and Metropolitan New Orleans.

Though New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell had called for mandatory evacuations around the levee system there, the state governor, John Bel Edwards, along with the National Weather Service, said there was no time to organize such an evacuation, Accuweather reported. Instead, Cantrell is now advising residents to voluntarily evacuate or "hunker down," according to Accuweather.

Though high winds and heavy rainfall can wreak havoc on storm-hit areas, storm surge is often the most dangerous part of a hurricane, forecasters have said. If the peak storm surge coincides with high tide, the water in some places could reach dramatic heights. If that does occur, expect a surge of 12 to 16 feet (3.7 to 4.9 meters) from Port Fourchon, Louisiana, to the mouth of the Mississippi River. From Morgan City, Louisiana, a Port Fourchon, surges could reach 8 to 12 feet (2.4 to 3.7 m) in height, the NHC said.

Read here to learn more about how to prepare for potential hurricane conditions.

Originally published on Live Science.
Ask anyone what the fastest animal on Earth is, and they'll probably say the cheetah . But the focus on the speedy feline has stolen attention from other species that go much faster  some three or more times faster than the cheetah. Who are the overlooked speedsters of the animal kingdom?

To be clear, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is undeniably fast. And it is true that it's the quickest animal on land. With documented top speeds of 64 mph (103 km/h), the cheetah easily surpasses other swift animals, like racehorses, to take the title of world's fastest land animal. And some estimates of their top speed are closer to 70 mph (113 km/h), according to the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute .

A combination of leg length, muscle size and a long stride gives the cheetah the ideal body for running across land, said John Hutchinson, a professor of evolutionary biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College in London. Plus, a 2017 model based on 474 land and marine species, ranging from whales to flies, demonstrated that speed is closely tied to size. Speed increases with size until you reach an optimum. Beyond that optimum, larger animals are slower because they require more energy to accelerate. A cheetah has the optimal medium size for speed, Hutchinson said.

Related: Why don't tigers live in Africa?

However, cheetahs are only the fastest animals on land over short distances. That's because they don't pursue prey at high speeds for long distances. Their hunting strategy is more about accelerating and maneuvering very quickly, according to a 2013 study in the journal Nature . In essence, their endurance is limited. "Cheetahs, like most cats, aren't pursuit animals," Hutchinson said. No other land species can get to 70 mph, or even 64 mph, but the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) is estimated to reach 60 mph (97 km/h) and can sustain a speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) for miles, according to the book " Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn (Harvard University Press, 2003).

Once you include marine and avian animals, the competition really heats up. The dive speed of peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) has been recorded at over 200 mph (322 km/h), according to Guinness World Records . In fact, they may dive at speeds of 350 mph (563 km/h) , though scientists haven't officially documented a speed that high.

A peregrine falcon on the Cantabrian coast of Spain hunts for prey. (Image credit: Javier Fernandez Sanchez via Getty Images)

"Quite a few flying birds can go faster than a cheetah," Hutchinson said. The common swift (Apus apus) has been measured to fly 69 mph (111 km/h), and the white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus) is estimated to reach speeds of 105 mph (169 km/h), according to the National Audubon Society.

The ocean, too, holds an elite list of speedsters. Black marlins (Istiompax indica) have been clocked at 80 mph (129 km/h), according to Britannica , and the swordfish (Xiphias gladius) and sailfish (Istiophorus) can reach speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h) and 68 mph (109 km/h), respectively, according to data from the ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research .

So, while the cheetah deserves its place among the fastest animals on the planet, it gets an undue share of the limelight. One reason for that, Hutchinson said, is that most animals' speeds haven't been studied thoroughly. The speeds of racehorses, cheetahs, greyhounds and camels have been measured carefully and repeatedly; researchers even verified that the animals were fully exerting themselves, he said.

But most other animals' speeds are just observations and estimates, Hutchinson said. They give us an idea of how quickly these animals move, but the estimates are "not good [enough] data for a nitpicky scientist," he said.

Originally published on Live Science.
Click here to read the full article.

From RZA to Jon Favreau, artists, filmmakers, journalists and activists gathered on Aug. 26 for Varietys inaugural Truth Seekers Summit, in partnership with Rolling Stone and presented by Showtime Documentary Films.

The summit explored the art of documentary and investigative storytelling. Here are 10 takeaways from the two-day event.

More from Variety Truth Seekers Honoree Stanley Nelson on the Need to Expand Opportunities for All Documentary Filmmakers

RZA Was Inspired By Robert De Niro In Making His Series Wu-Tang: An American Saga

Speaking about the difficulties of writing about his own life and career in the format of a TV series, RZA said Robert De Niro helped him understand how to separate himself from the art.

When I saw Cape Fear, my brain clicked, because Im such a fan of his, RZA said. I knew him from The Godfather and Goodfellas, and then here he was playing this psychopath. And he played it so brilliantly. Its actually an artistic thing to separate yourself from art. I met Mr. DeNiro, and hes not [Max] Cady.

Conspiracy Theories Have Infiltrated Mainstream Social Media

In the Weapons of Mass Disinformation panel, writers, filmmakers and journalists gathered virtually to discuss how social media has amplified and accelerated the age of disinformation.

Cullen Hoback, producer, writer and director of HBOSs Q: Into the Storm, said that while dangerous ideologies used to remain on the fringes of the internet, conspiracy theories now fester in mainstream social media, like Facebook and Twitter.

If you look at the 2000s versus after 2010, you had a lot of these lo-fi forums like 8chan or 4chan, but the conspiracy theories and ideas that existed on those platforms remained on the fringe, Hoback said. In the last four to five years, what we saw is that they were escaping the chan. They were finding their way onto YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and the algorithms were like gasoline on top of these.

The Velvet Underground Were Not Always Considered Widely Influential

In his documentary The Velvet Underground, which tracks the legacy of Lou Reeds band, Todd Haynes makes the case that The Velvet Underground were one of the most influential bands of their time, inspiring genres and generations to come. But the band saw very little success or impact during their career.

[The Velet Underground] had no real commercial impact at the time, Haynes said. Its taken decades for this band to gain its rightful place as a precursor to punk rock and new wave music and indie rock and glam rock.

Zackary Drucker Believes Trans Identity Has Been Commonly Linked To Criminality

When speaking to Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, Zackary Drucker spoke about The Lady and the Dale and how Liz Carmichaels transition linked her to crime, along with the stereotypes that are within society today.

She was a transgender woman who was also a felon on the run from the FBI and transitioned while she was evading law enforcement. When she was discovered, her gender identity was conflated with her identity as a criminal, which is totally textbook. Trans identity has always been linked to criminality  the perception that a man might masquerade as a woman to commit a crime.

Delores Huerta Said People Cant Wait For Others To Keep Them Safe Within The Pandemic

While spreading the word about vaccinations and social distancing through Democracy 101, President and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, Dolores Huerta told Clayton Davis, Varietys film awards editor that its remarkable to see individuals realizing that their one voice creates change.

Its kind of miraculous that once people find that they can influence, get people elected, take them out if theyre not doing their job and get the improvements they need in their communities, that they have that power, and we have a lot of leadership development that comes out of that and it can spread, and spread and spread.

Errol Morris Became A Private Investigator After Making Two Acclaimed Films

After creating two acclaimed films, Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida, Errol Morris told Janelle Riley, Varietys deputy awards and features editor, that back in the day successful films werent enough to achieve high status in the documentary filmmaker industry  as one still needed financing and distribution. So he took a break to work in private investigation.

At heart Im an investigator. I was an out-of-work filmmaker after my second film, and I needed to earn a living, and I had the opportunity to work for a private investigator  actually one of the best private investigators in America, and I did it for three years. It saved my life really, because it provided an income and a job when there were really no jobs available to me in the film business.

Jon Favreau Believes Traditional Progressive News Doesnt Give Action To Listeners

Crooked Media co-founders and Pod Save America hosts, Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor spoke to Varietys editor-at-large Kate Aurthur, about why they created a progressive media outlet  with Favreau saying its partly due to the lack of activism from traditional outlets.

A lot of the news, and even some progressive news, can leave you feeling a little helpless because it doesnt give you the tools and information to do something about the problems that we see on the nightly news every single day. We wanted to fuse together progressive news and journalism with activism so we could actually give people the tools and information to change the world around them.

Stanley Nelson Wants Us to Remember How Many People Are In Prison Every Day

Stanley Nelson, director of Attica, hopes that his documentary reminds viewers that incarcerated people are human, too. The documentary focuses on the 1971 prison rebellion that remains the deadliest in American history.

As were talking, theres 2 million people in prison in the United States. Theyre going to go to bed in prison tonight. Theyre going to wake up in prison tomorrow morning, you know? [I want viewers to] think about those people. What prisons are meant to do in so many ways, in the United States and in the world, they accomplish. They want to lock people up and have us forget about them. And we do that to a large extent. So I hope that at the very least, [the film] makes people think about the fact that people are in prison right now.

Diversifying the Film Industry Requires Giving Marginalized Communities A Leg Up

Nelson also spoke about the importance of mentorship, especially when it comes to portraying the truth on screen through documentary filmmaking. 12 years ago, he launched a documentary lab for emerging documentarians of color attached to his production company Firelight Films.

We wanted to think about was, how do we give people a leg up? How do we give people a start? Not only myself but so many filmmakers were serving as mentors  informal mentors to other filmmakers and especially filmmakers of color. People would call me up, literally out of the blue, just saying, I saw a film that you made and, uh, you know, youre a Black filmmaker, Im a Black guy, could you be my mentor? And it was not only me, it was other filmmakers, too. And so we wanted to try to think about institutionalizing this and making it something that was more of a program instead of just ad-hoc or catch as catch-can. And that became the idea for the lab.

Sam Pollard Said Its Impossible To Not Have Personal Feelings Involved in Documentaries

When speaking with Clayton Davis, Varietys film awards editor, documentarians RJ Cutler from Billie Eilish: The Worlds A Little Blurry, Sacha Jenkins from Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, Sam Pollard from MLK/FBI, Liz Garbus from Ill Be Gone In The Dark and Dawn Porter from Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer, discussed the emotional truths behind documentary filmmaking.

Pollard said that when making such documentaries, its impossible to not get emotionally invested.

You cant help but bring your own personal feelings in when making a film. Youve got to bring your personal feelings  thats what makes these films different and unique. If you dont bring your own personal perspective to the material, than youre just a journeyman filmmaker who does what theyre told.

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The upcoming Venice Film Festival is set to become a focal point for discussion on the crisis underway in Afghanistan and how it is impacting filmmakers and Afghan artists in general as the Taliban take power.

As previously reported by Variety, Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi, who is the first woman president of the countrys national film entity Afghan Film  and made a recent appeal as she escaped from Kabul about the return of Taliban rule and the potential death knell for the countrys fledgeling but vibrant film community  is headed to the Lido. Venice has now announced an official panel to be held on Sept. 4 on the need to create humanitarian corridors and guarantee that [Afghan] filmmakers and other artists will be granted the status of political refugees, allowing [them] to leave the country in addition to concerns about their future and the need to help them get settled once they reach Europe, the fest said in a statement.

The Venice panel marks the first initiative taken by the fests parent organization, the Venice Biennale, dedicated to the Afghan crisis. Karimi will be joined on the Venice panel by Afghan documentary filmmaker Sahra Mani, who will also be on the Lido to present the project Kabul Melody at the Venice market.

The panel, to be moderated by Italian journalist Giuliano Battiston, who is an Afghanistan specialist, will also comprise Rotterdam International Film Festival artistic director Vanja Kaludjercic; Orwa Nyrabia, who is the artistic director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam; European Film Academy (EFA) president Mike Downey; and Matthijs Wouter Knol, who is the EFAs executive director. They are all board members of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), which was launched in Venice last year.

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French sales agent Wild Bunch TV has acquired The Rope, a new fantasy drama series produced by Les Films de lInstant and co-produced by Arte France and Versus Production which is premiering at this years Series Mania festival in Lille.

In the fantasy thriller, co-written and directed by Dominique Rocher (The Night Eats the World, A Breath Away), a small group of scientists working at a remote Norwegian base discover a seemingly endless piece of rope just outside their observatory which runs into the vast surrounding forest. Intrigued by the discovery, several members of the team group up and begin to follow the rope into the wilderness, while others stay behind to man the station.

Curiosity transforms into compulsion as the mystery deepens, forcing each character to face the life-changing consequences of choices theyve made.

The Rope is adapted from novel Das Seil by Stefan aus dem Siepen, and boasts an impressive international cast including Suzanne Clement (Mommy), Jakob Cedregren (The Guilty), Richard Sammel (The Strain), Jean-Marc Barr (The Big Blue), Jeanne Balibar (Barbara) and up-and-coming young talents Christa Theret, Tom Mercier and Planitia Kenese.

According to the team at Series Mania, A complete mini-series in three episodes, this very unusual production  adapted from a German novel  approaches an unlikely issue with a mix of suspense, fantasy and metaphysics. Supported by an incredible cast, director Dominique Rocher confirms that he is one of the most intriguing figures of the fantasy genre in France.

The Rope will world premiere at Series Mania and on seriesmaniadigital.com on Tuesday, Aug. 31 and will be available to accredited guests for 24 hours. It is also participating at Coming Next From France, TV France Internationals selection of new drama series which demonstrate strong potential for international remakes. No broadcast date has yet been announced, but Arte will air the show sometime in the first half of 2022.

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Officials from the City of Laredo and Webb County reported on Friday an additional 245 positive cases of COVID-19 and six related deaths from the past two days, capping off the most deadly week for the virus in months.

The additions bring Laredo to 49,699 positives and 900 deaths historically dating back to the beginning of the pandemic locally in March of 2020.

With seven deaths announced Monday and one more Wednesday, the 14 deaths reported this week are the most since Feb. 13-19 featured 51.

It took 172 days to get from the 800- to 900-fatality milestones, a significant increase from the 25 days it took to get from 700 to 800 deaths locally. That was the longest stretch between century marks, besting the 135 days it took to get to the first 100 deaths as the pandemic began. As the 800th death was recorded in early March  not long after the vaccine started to be more widely available to locals  its hopeful that the road to 1,000 deaths will be held off as long as possible thanks to the areas high vaccination rates.

The individuals that died in the most recent report included five men  two in their 60s, one in their 40s, 50s and 80s  and a woman in her 50s. The woman died this past Saturday while all the others died either Wednesday or Thursday.

Meanwhile, cases did see a small drop to end the week as the nearly 250 positives brought the weeks total to 1,030. After 439 were announced Monday  the most ever in a non-daily report and the highest in any report since Jan. 28  and another 346 Wednesday, the area was on pace for its most cases recently once again but instead fell just behind the 1,081 from Aug. 7-13. It was still the second-most cases since Feb. 6-12 had 1,047.

Monthly figures are much harder to compare clearly as the city no longer updates figures relating to specific days, only ranges from past days in the past reports. However, 4,042 positive cases and 35 deaths have been announced in August reports  well above the 935 positives and 13 deaths from July and 298 positives and five deaths from June.

Laredos rolling seven-day positivity rate is currently 11.8%. Texas rolling positivity rate is 18.4% while the United States is at 11.1%.

Active cases fell to end the week at 759, down from 856 Wednesday. They include 249 below the age of 19, 355 between the ages of 20-49 and 155 older than 50.

The city also stated that of just the currently investigated active cases, 61.8% are non-vaccinated individuals. Serious COVID cases still overwhelmingly belong to the unvaccinated population, as only 52 fully-vaccinated persons this year have been hospitalized with a breakthrough case.

COVID-19 Metrics in Laredo Positives: 49,699 Deaths: 900 Hospitalizations: 83 ICU: 36 Fully Vaccinated: 81.7% Recoveries: 48,040 Total Tested: 395,836 7-Day Positive Rate: 12.5% Source: City of Laredo Health Department See More Collapse

Hospitalizations made a big jump Wednesday up to 86  its highest total since Feb. 18  but fell off a few to 83 on Friday. ICU cases also fell from 37 to 36. However, considering the five deaths that occurred between reports, that small progress statistically may not be progress at all.

Laredo did finish the week with some improvement in its COVID-19 hospitalization rate. After reaching 26.4% the day prior  the highest total since Feb. 16 at 30.4%  Laredo dropped to 20.6%, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services most recent data from Thursday.

This was due to a major fluctuation of total hospital capacity reported by the DSHS, up from 367 to 465. Still, Laredos beds remain scarce with only 11 total beds available and zero ICU beds for the 25th straight day.

As Laredo is medically underserved and with facilities understaffed, its hospital capacity has been diminished despite being nowhere near its previous high in hospitalizations of 249 in January when it was receiving help from the state, something that has been denied this time around. This is why local experts continue to tout being vaccinated as vital, even despite the areas success in that regard, as its current lack of resources has curtailed that success.

The City of Laredo announced that it had broken 100% of its eligible population above 12 years of age being partially vaccinated Wednesday, with officials elaborating later that the census undercounts are the cause for the area eclipsing triple digits.

As of Friday, Laredo reports that 81.7% of its eligible population is fully vaccinated, or 176,288 people, while 100.8% has received at least one dose, or 217,620 people.

Around a third of Laredos total population is below the age of 18. That means that a significant segment of the citys actual population may not be vaccinated, as those under 12 are unable to do so.

As for its elderly, the city reports that 96.3% of those age 65 and up have been at least partially vaccinated.

Over the course of the pandemic, 395,836 tests have been administered. An estimated 48,040 people have recovered from a previous infection.

zdavis@lmtonline.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next years midterm elections.

Little more than a week ago, as the Talibans stunning takeover of Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge. But in more recent days, he has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.

How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America? he asked.

As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It's causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.

I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are just  theyre completely baseless in reality, said Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as director of the Republican Accountability Project. Theres no basis for this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world.

Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects a general, overall increase in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistans fall to the Taliban  not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.

Theres just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of this," he said.

The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock. But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one of the worlds largest-ever civilian airlift operations.

That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over 150 Afghans.

How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees? tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. Get American citizens out and bring our troops home.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday toured the Dona Ana Range complex at Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. should rescue Afghans whove assisted the US military, but they should go to a neutral & safe third country.

They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting, he said.

That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees and prevent terrorists from entering the country.

In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in Afghanistan, he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.

Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.

The United States and its coalition partners have evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While the administrations explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans, the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.

U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay. And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban once the U.S. leaves.

But that hasnt stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration of failing to put Americans first.

Were actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than were prioritizing our own citizens, said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administrations approach.

On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has no knowledge of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.

They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it all, echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to prominence with incendiary statements.

Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump's 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didnt allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights," Trump said. Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world.

Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.

The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies and invaded Afghanistan  followed by Iraq  nearly 20 years ago.

But not Republicans all are on board.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock to rescue the countless Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised those in his party invoking terrorist rhetoric.

I would say that they need to do their homework," he said. When you talk to the people that weve spoken with, when you look at their service record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they carry arms together, theyve been in live firefights, how dare anyone question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe third country?

Were not talking about just walking down the street and picking and choosing people, Tillis added. We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters."

Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to the program  and are again extensively vetted by a wide array of federal agencies" before the visas are granted.

Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom they served.

These people became like family to many of us," she said. Its really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our allies on the ground."

___

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP)  Holloman Air Force Base is among several military installations that will take in Afghan refugees, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Friday.

The base near Alamogordo joins others in Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin and New Jersey that temporarily will provide housing, along with medical and other support for up to 50,000 refugees, their families and other vulnerable Afghans, said Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  A Maine man who was falsely accused of reckless conduct and criminal threatening five years ago has been awarded $90,000 in damages from the lawsuit filed against his accusers.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock ruled John Charron was a victim of classic malicious prosecution.

Two men, identified as Christopher Moss and Eric Pilvelait, submitted false statements that led to Charrons arrest, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Deputies investigated the scene and determined Charron drove his tow truck at the Pontiac Sunfire the two men were in after an altercation.

Judge Woodcocks decision cleared the deputies of any wrongdoing while acknowledging the failures in the investigation.

The utter falsity and extreme seriousness of these allegations establish Mr. Moss and Mr. Pilvelait acted with malice and without probable cause, Woodcock wrote. Mr. Moss and Mr. Pilvelaits intent to shift criminal responsibility for the Sunfires demise onto Mr. Charron and away from their own acts, which they may have committed while under the influence of alcohol, further supports the Courts finding that they acted with malice.

Woodcock found that the men weaponized the legal process to deprive Charron of his right to due process.

Charron said Thursday that he's pleased with the judgment even though there is no guarantee he will see any of the money if the men cannot pay.

Charrons attorney, Greg McCullough, is appealing the part of the decision that granted the sheriffs deputies qualified immunity.

The police were supposed to be the check here and they failed miserably, he said.

John Wall, an attorney for the York County deputies who were named in the lawsuit, declined to comment.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Hurricane Nora formed off Mexico's Pacific coast Saturday and swept past the Puerto Vallarta area, following a path that could take it for possible close encounters with other resorts farther north.

Nora had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) late Saturday, with tropical storm force winds extending out 105 miles (165 kilometers). It was centered about 50 miles (85 kilometers) north-northwest of Puerto Vallarta, and heading to the north at 16 mph (26 kph).
Beth D. Ramage, formerly of Lockport, NY, passed away August 21, 2021 in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Beth was born May 17, 1931, daughter of Howard H. Dobbins and Almeda T. Dobbins. Beth was a graduate of Lockport High School and Queens College in Charlotte, NC. Predeceased by her husband of 6
Longford is known for its creative talent and what better way to put that on the map than to head to Hollywood and show it off?

Lanesboro based Director and Producer at Shuttermaniac Productions, Lee Williamson is prepared to do just that after his short film, Snamh (Swim), starring his friend Colin Daly placed first at a UK Online Film Festival, earning itself physical screenings in 2022 in both Pinewood Studios UK and the Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival in Hollywood.

The film went down a treat in the UK Online Film Festival with locals and internationals alike purchasing tickets.

Lough Ree Distillery/ Distillery Yard, a local business, recently committed to reimbursing the ticket price in coffee to encourage support for the film.

The two guys have produced something brilliant here which has serious international potential, said Peter Clancy, CEO, Lough Ree Distillery/ Distillery Yard. This is where Oscar journeys start, seriously.

The film itself stars Colin Daly, a close personal friend of Director/Producer, Lee Williamson, who talks about is passion for swimming.

With a year (or fifty) and 1500 in the making, Snamh (Swim) has been an emotional journey on a tight budget, said Lee.

Getting a hardy Irish open-water swimming veteran to open up about his life experience and passion for the water wasnt easy, yet it was truly rewarding for myself and hopefully for the audience too.

To cram fifty years worth of experience and wisdom into just short of three minutes was a challenge; something that we shot in an aim of harmonising all of those people and landscapes to make this heartfelt message possible.

An intensely personal piece for me, but packaged for the viewer in a way that is both accessible and; more importantly, frank and honest.

Founded in early 2020 shortly before the Covid lockdown, Shuttermaniac Productions is a video production business serving small and medium enterprises from the midlands and Dublin. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to promote local trade.

The film should be on general release after Christmas.
Weather Alert

...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 5 PM CDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Heat index values up to 107 expected. * WHERE...Portions of southeast and southern Mississippi and southeast Louisiana. * WHEN...From 10 AM to 5 PM CDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
There is enough water in reserve for the rest of this year, but no one knows how long the drought will last.
Max Verstappen took his sixth pole position of the 2021 Formula 1 season on Saturday, posting the fastest time of 1:59.765 at a very rainy Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. His pole position was the big story of qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, but so too was the fact that George Russell posted the second fastest time and that Q3 was red-flagged after a major crash for Lando Norris.

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix in third, although he almost went out in Q2 when some poor strategy from Mercedes left the defending world champion needing a perfect last lap to make it through. Hamilton pulled it off and sat on provisional pole in Q3, but then a superb lap from Russell and an even better one from Verstappen bumped his Mercedes down to third.

"It was tough out there for everyone and the conditions tested us to the limit," Hamilton said afterwards, as he reflected on the result.

Verstappen and Russell, meanwhile, were far more excited with their extended afternoon's work.

"I'm super happy to have a qualifying like this and to take the first pole after the summer break," Verstappen said after the session, cheering on by the Dutch fans who'd made the short trip to neighbouring Belgium.

As for Russell, he explained that he was "absolutely buzzing", while he also produced an emotional team radio message after learning of his P2.

"Tomorrow's the important one, but it's been mega today," he said, remaining as calm as possible.

"I'm delighted for everyone. If the weather is the same and it's there for the taking tomorrow, we'll go for it."
The 27-year-old Mendy was suspended by City pending an investigation.

"The charges relate to three complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August 2021", Cheshire Police said in a statement.

Mendy was to remain in police custody overnight and is due to appear in court on Friday, police said.

Mendy's agent did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Mendy joined City from Monaco in 2017 and has won the Premier League three times and the English League Cup twice.

He played against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the Premier League season but didn't feature against Norwich on Saturday.
Allen Dean Semeski, Sr., 50, of Norman, formerly of Hartshorne, passed away Wednesday, Aug. 25, at his home in Norman. The family will welcome friends for visitation on Thursday, Sept. 2, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Brumley-Mills Funeral Home in Hartshorne. Graveside funeral services will be F
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When it comes to having lookalikes and doppelgangers, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find them, especially if you are a physical rarity like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who is not only tall and big, but is also spends hours in the gym every day with the motivation of looking like a specimen.

Even then, nature found a way to copy-paste the template she used to design the former WWE star and Hollywood actor, on a police officer with arguably a fraction of a change in his facial features to differentiate him from the celebrity.

Patrol Lt. Eric Fields of the Morgan County Sheriffs Dept has gone viral for his similar looks to actor Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Hes so popular with residents that they always ask to meet him, and some people have even made TikTok videos comparing him with The Rock. pic.twitter.com/LxUOKuwd3S  NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 26, 2021

Meet Alabamas Morgan County Sheriffs Office Patrol Lieutenant Eric Fields, who is growing more and more popular for how much he resembles Johnson over the years. Now used to being called The Rock anywhere and everywhere he goes, Fields has taken such comments in good stride.



"Ive been called The Rock and Vin Diesels love child," the 37-year old Fields had told his local news outlet AL.com. "I go along with it. Its humorous. Its flattering. It could be worse people, I guess."

Alabama cop Eric Fields gets mistaken for Dwayne Johnson every day. Motorists constantly ask to pose with him. He says, Its humorous, its flattering, but its also nerve racking as far as what others expect. Im just glad I can be part of someones happiness and laughter. pic.twitter.com/uXQ77EcsFw  Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 24, 2021

More often than not, Fields would also have to repeat Johnsons iconic catchphrase "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?" under immense pressure from friends and family and the good sport would do it with a smile on his face because "I dont want to disappoint anybody. Its all part of getting involved with the community."

Recently, the Morgan County Sheriffs Department even shared a post from their official Facebook account about a fan who found his way to the department only to meet Fields just because of this very reason.

"This gentlemen recently ran into Sgt. Mason and informed him he wanted to meet our Deputy that people say looks like The Rock. Sgt. Mason passed that along and Lieutenant Fields was happy to swing by the Hartselle Walmart to see him. Tyler is one of their many hard workers and it was great to meet him and some of his coworkers," they wrote on the social media platform.

"The blessing was really for me because he had a spirit that was just such a great person to meet," Fields said after meeting the fan. "Hes the real celebrity. Everybody knew him and loved him. It was a blessing to me. I go trying to bless someone else, and I come out with the blessing of meeting him. I wish the actual Rock could meet this kid. Hes the hometown hero."
The president of the United States of America, Joe Biden recently gave a speech against the infamous and deadly terror attack which took place near the Kabul Airport and killed 13 US service members and 60 Afghan citizens.

While the POTUS condemned the attack and assured that the people behind the bombings, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  Khorasan Province or ISIS-K wil pay for their sins. Biden also clarified that the counter attack against the terrorist forces will not be rushed. Instead, the US Army will respond on their own terms and conditions.

Ive also ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leaderships and facilities. We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and at the moment of our choosing, said the US president.

A strong message was sent across and world leaders from all over acknowledged Bidens courage in making such a statement. However, some couldnt help but notice certain similarities between Bidens speech and the dialogues of a Bollywood film from over three decades ago.

(1991) Saudagar



dialogue by Kamlesh Pandey pic.twitter.com/izGvCJtkIT  Film History Pics (@FilmHistoryPic) August 27, 2021

In the 1991 released film Saudagar, actor Raaj Kumar could be heard saying:

Hum tumhe maarenge, aur zaroor maarenge lekin woh bandook bhi hamari hogi, goli bhi hamari hogi aur waqt bhi hamara hoga (I will kill you, and will kill you for sure but that gun will be mine, the bullet will be mine and the time will be mine).

Ever since, people on social media have been asking whether the White House had hired Bollywood script writers to prepare Joe Bidens speeches:

Looks like Bollywood movie writers are writing speeches of US President  Prasad P. Meharunkar (@pmeharunkar) August 27, 2021

Raaj Kumar did it better ..that dialogue is also delivered to a Pashtoon. ...  rajeev.t (@rajt2510) August 27, 2021

Hollywood is imitating Bollywood  Amit (@cool_only) August 28, 2021

Raaj Kumar looks & sounds a better President than the real one does.  Kr1shna (@krishna_Ind1an) August 27, 2021

Raj kumar was waaaaaaay ahead of hia times.... https://t.co/9uFHln8wSr  Rajesh Parasuram (@rajesh09092001) August 28, 2021

Heres what you need to know: These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans in there. We will get our Afghan allies out, and our mission will go on. America will not be intimidated, and I have the utmost confidence in our brave service members who continue to execute this mission with courage and honor to save lives, and get Americans, our partners, our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan, Biden went on to say in his speech.

We will complete our mission, and we will continue after our troops are withdrawn to find means by which we can find any American who wishes to get out of Afghanistan. We will find them and we will get them out, he concluded.
If youve been wanting to speed up your old iPhones performance, there is a trick you can use. In the past, Apple has got into trouble for throttling older iPhones in some countries. Now, a report from GizChina shows that you can indeed increase the performance of your old iPhone. To get a smoother experience, you can switch the region of your iPhone to France.

 Unsplash/goran-ivos

In our testing, we found that older iPhones indeed perform better when switching the region to France. The reason why this happens is because Apple has been fined by France for reducing the frequency of the chipset. Due to the fine, Apple can no longer limit the performance of older iPhones in France.



Apple was fined by Frances competition watchdog and several states in the United States of America. Due to the controversial feature, Apple paid $113 million in a settlement.

Apple throttles older iPhones in order to conserve battery life especially if the battery has aged considerably. This reduction in performance in turn makes older iPhones even slower which was met with criticism from customers and even governments around the world.

 Unsplash/serwin365

It was found that older iPhones running in the France region scored better in benchmark apps such as AnTuTu and Geekbench. It was also found that performance on iPads was also improved when you change the region to France.



However, it is worth pointing out that this method is only applicable on older iPhones. When switching the region on an iPhone 12, the benchmark scores remained the same and did not see any significant performance improvement.

How to change the region on an iPhone:

1. Head to Settings and tap on your name/account.

2. Head to the Media and Purchase Section.

3. Click 'View Account '

4. Tap in Change Country or Region

5. Select France

Once youve selected France, its worth pointing out that you will not be able to receive the latest updates that are meant for the country you are residing in.

Source: GizChina
Wet and windy conditions are in store for early next week as Hurricane Ida makes landfall.

Joanne Culin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said Friday Ida was strengthening and on track to make landfall Sunday.

Right now, Ida has strengthened into a hurricane, she said. It is still expected to track into the Gulf of Mexico and make landfall Sunday evening and track inland.

While the storm looks to land on the western edge of the state, Culin said folks in the Meridian area could still see some bad weather.

We are looking at 30-35mph winds, which could down some trees and cause damage, she said. Were also looking at 5-8 inches of rain, with higher amounts in some areas, which have the potential to cause flash flooding.

+17 Ida aims to hit Louisiana on Hurricane Katrina anniversary NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Hurricane Ida struck Cuba on Friday and threatened to slam into Louisiana

Culin said the possibility of tornadoes could not be ruled out.

The main threat of severe weather for Lauderdale County runs from Sunday night to Tuesday, Culin said. Residents should keep an eye on the forecast heading into the weekend and plan accordingly.

In a statement, Mississippi Power Public Relations officer Jeff Shepard said the company was monitoring the storm and preparing to send personnel out when needed.

The company has reserved approximately 1,000 linemen and vegetation management personnel to assist Mississippi Power employees and contractors,Shepard said. Crews from the companys Northern Division will also travel to assist in any restoration efforts in Coastal Mississippi when it is safe to do so.

Mississippi Health Department officials encouraged residents to make preparations in advance of the storm.

+4 Cardinals-Saints canceled as Ida threatens Louisiana NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The New Orleans Saints canceled their home preseason game set for Saturda

In a press release Friday, MSDH said residents should make sure they have emergency supplies on hand, including food, a first-aid kit, prescriptions, water purifying supplies and a battery-powered radio. More information about recommended disaster supply kits can be found at HealthyMS.com/kit.
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In summer 2020, The New York Times coordinated a nationwide project to document the lives of Americans out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved collaborating with 11 other local newsrooms around the U.S. The Messenger-Inquirer was the only newspaper from Kentucky in the collaboration. The resulting collection of stories was published Oct. 23, 2020, in the New York Times print edition and at nytimes.com/outofwork. The following list is the Messenger-Inquirer's local unemployment coverage from that time period; read more by clicking the "New York Times Project" header. Click on "Out Of Work In America" to go to the full
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Governor Whitmer declares August as Home Visiting Month

Governor Whitmer declares August as Home Visiting Month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aug. 27, 2021

Contact: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112

LANSING, Mich. - As part of Michigan's long-standing commitment to Home Visiting, a voluntary, evidence-based support for pregnant people and families with young children, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared August 2021 as Home Visiting Month in Michigan.

Home visiting is part of Michigan's larger Early Childhood system, and partners with families to support healthy pregnancies, healthy moms and healthy babies, improved school readiness, positive parenting, reduced child abuse and neglect, and commitment to supporting fathers and other caregivers.

The Michigan Home Visiting Initiative consists of eight, evidence-based models implemented in different parts of the state. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), the Michigan Department of Education, the Children's Trust Fund, the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan and the Michigan Public Health Institute work collaboratively to grow and improve home visiting services, supporting families from prenatal through school entry.

"Home visiting is a critical component to supporting healthy moms, babies and families," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at the MDHHS). "Michigan is fortunate to have eight quality models that ensure a family is able to find a program that works for them. The partnership between state departments ensures a coordinated approach to building this valuable system that works for families."

Michigan's home-visiting models include Early Head Start, Family Spirit, Healthy Families America, Infant Mental Health, Maternal Infant Health Program, Nurse-Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers, and Play and Learning Strategies-Infant.

More than 195,000 home visits were completed through these models in fiscal year 2020, serving more than 23,000 families. Home visiting has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, directly supporting families by virtual visits, dropping off needed supplies, helping families navigate application processes to access assistance, and linking families with resources and other families for additional support.

The Home Visiting Initiative is committed to learning from families to further build and improve the system, encouraging parent leaders to be involved at the local and state level through the state of Michigan Home Visiting Advisory, Great Start Collaboratives and Parent Coalitions, Local Home Visiting Leadership Groups and Regional Perinatal Quality Collaboratives and others. Home Visiting is also a key strategy of the Mother Infant Health and Equity Improvement Plan aimed at improving maternal, infant and family outcomes with the vision of zero preventable deaths and zero health disparities.

More information about home visiting is available at Michigan.gov/homevisiting.

# # #
September 2021: Deaf Awareness Month

September 2021: Deaf Awareness Month

WHEREAS, the deaf population includes a wide range of individuals, from those who were born profoundly deaf and use American Sign Language (ASL) as a primary means of communication, to those with a degree of hearing loss who use hearing aids or other forms of amplifications and communication modes; and,

WHEREAS, according to the Michigan Division on Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing, at least 7.4%of the Michigan population identify as Deaf, DeafBlind or Hard of Hearing; and,

WHEREAS, the state of Michigan benefits from the many contributions of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing residents throughout the state; and,

WHEREAS, all of Michigan is enriched by the diverse and unique heritage, language and culture of the Deaf community; and,

WHEREAS, people who identify as Deaf belong to a cultural and linguistic community with shared language, social norms, rules of behavior, and history; and

WHEREAS, it is important to ensure that Michigan's Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing individuals have equal access to the many benefits and opportunities available to hearing individuals to live, work, play and communicate in Michigan; and,

WHEREAS, to commemorate the first Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, which was held in September of 1951, the state of Michigan recognizes the entire month of September as Deaf Awareness Month; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of Deaf Awareness Month is to increase public awareness of the issues and the culture of people who are Deaf; this is an opportunity to promote equal access to information and services for Deaf individuals and to educate the public about the misconceptions of being Deaf; it is also an opportunity to learn about the types of educational programs, support services, and resources available to Deaf people as well as to individuals who are DeafBlind or Hard of Hearing; and

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, do hereby proclaim September 2021 as Deaf Awareness Month in Michigan and commend its observance to all citizens.
I've had a lot of opportunities to meet some pretty cool people in my lifetime.

The first "celebrity" that I ever met was a guy who had a spring loaded raccoon who had performed on the television show "America's Funniest People." I was about 8 years old and my family was eating dinner at a restaurant in Bay City called "Captain Jakes," and he was there as well. I thought that was pretty amazing, meeting someone I had seen on television.

Since then, I've met a number of other celebrities. I was called on stage with The Amazing Kreskin once to help him perform a trick. I got to meet David Copperfield when one of my friends was asked to assist him. I met Kid Rock during a past very short career in radio. I shook hands with Jimmy Fallon during the taping of one of his shows.

And as a journalist I've had the chance to meet a lot of people I admire as well.

But last weekend I had a new experience, a very uncomfortable one, and one I never would have imagined I would have in a million years.

My friend and I started a NASCAR podcast back in 2017. I've been a NASCAR fan my entire life, as has he, and I had been wanting to start a podcast of some sort. This seemed like a logical choice.

What started out as just a fun thing suddenly took a new turn when I decided to apply for press credentials to the Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway that year. I figured there wasn't a chance of getting them, but why not try? To my surprise, my request was granted, and suddenly I was a member of the NASCAR media.

That first experience was crazy. I got to ask the winner that weekend, Matt Crafton, a question. It was so surreal.

On a whim, I also applied for credentials to the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway later that year, and again my request was granted. I was there in victory lane when Kyle Larson celebrated his victory, and I got to ask him a couple questions in the post-race media session.

Since that time, I've covered several races, including ones at Michigan, Kentucky Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway. I've had the opportunity to talk to so many drivers who I have watched over the years  Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and even seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who I was able to talk to for about five minutes one time.

Talking with these celebrity drivers as no longer so unbelievable and weird. It had become comfortable. Or so I thought.

One of the podcasts I listen to frequently is called "Door Bumper Clear," and it features three NASCAR spotters  Brett Griffin, TJ Majors and Freddie Kraft. I've wanted to meet these guys since I started listening.

This past weekend I covered the race at Michigan International Speedway. During the race, I sat in the press box high above the grandstands. Just above the press box is where the spotters stand to get a birds-eye view and tell the drivers what is going on.

Before the Cup race on Sunday, I made a quick trip to the bathroom at the top of the tower, something apparently many of the spotters were doing as well. As I stepped into the bathroom, immediately behind me came Freddie Kraft.

Seriously?

Do you know how awkward it is to go to the bathroom with a celebrity you admire standing behind you waiting? Let me tell you, it's very, very awkward.

Needless to say, I did not meet Freddie Kraft last weekend. I saw him, but I didn't think the best place to introduce myself was the bathroom of the Michigan International Speedway press box.

After attending several races, I thought I'd experienced most of the surprises I was going to experience, but thanks to MIS and Freddie Kraft, I got to enjoy a new one this weekend.

Eric Young is the editor of the Huron Daily Tribune. He can be reached at 989-623-3187 or eric.young@hearstnp.com.
Ferris HVACR Students Take Top Honor in American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers System Selection International Competition

The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) earlier this month announced a first-place result for Ferris State University Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR) students in their International HVAC System Selection Competition.

The purpose of the competition is to recognize outstanding student design projects, to encourage undergraduate students to become involved in the profession while applying their knowledge of practical design and to promote teamwork.

Teams compete in one of the three categories: HVAC Design Calculations, Integrated Sustainable Building Design (ISBD) and HVAC System Selection.

The Ferris HVACR team will receive the HVAC System Selection award at the 2022 ASHRAE Winter meeting to be held January 29 through February 2, 2022, in Las Vegas.

Nicholas Schramski, of Kinde, Michigan was one of the members on the team.

This 2021 Student Design Competition focused on a new fictitious 50,000 square foot building located on a higher education campus in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. The building included a two-story cafeteria, associated offices, and a commercial kitchen with storage space. The teams were tasked with providing safe and healthy storage of food materials on the lower level in a manner that prevents spoiling and the growth of bacteria, while providing enough kitchen/server space and permanent seating to serve a peak occupancy of 720 students at any time with 3,000 students using the facility per day.

Joseph Pacella, the Ferris ASHRAE teams lead advisor comments, Since 1997, the projects the Ferris HVACR students work on continually become more challenging in the ASHRAE equipment selection competition. The HVACR team did an amazing job and should be commended for the considerable work and out of the box solutions for the competition. He added, It was quite the journey leading up to our first-place result, which has not occurred for the Ferris State University HVACR program in nearly fourteen years. The team members graduated in May 2021 and all are gainfully employed. This first place award is a significant achievement as they begin their professional careers and speaks to the tremendous amount of effort exerted by this outstanding group of students.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of 55,000 persons. Its sole objective is to advance through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education the science of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration serving the evolving needs of the public.
Torrington educator Sandy Mangan has been busy preparing her classroom for a new group of kindergarteners. In Winsted, Justina McGuire was doing the same thing, preparing to welcome a class of first-graders.

Both women are excited to start a new year. The classrooms have bright, new rugs on the floor by the writing boards and calendars in front, ready for story time and visits from special guests. The teachers have set up libraries, filled with colorful new books to read. Number and letter charts hang on the walls.

In McGuires classroom at Batcheller Elementary School, laptops are stacked on a counter: one for class and one to take home. Small tables with three or four chairs each are ready for the children. The rooms are bright and inviting.

But theres a difference for Mangan and McGuire, as they start their school year: Mangan is starting her 33rd year as an educator, and has taught kindergarten through third grade over the years. Its her sixth year teaching kindergarten, this time around.

For McGuire, its her very first first-grade class. She started with the Winchester School District as a paraeducator three years ago. Under her protective mask, her eyes were dancing with excitement.

I worked my way up, guided by the administration, she said. I moved to Winsted from Nevada and started as a para in the classroom, and then I worked as an interventionist (a person who takes children aside to give them one-on-one attention for a variety of reasons).

We help people in our schools who want to set goals, said Batcheller Principal Roseanne Rose Field. When we see someone whos eager, we help them achieve those goals.

I knew where I wanted to be, McGuire said. I cant say enough about the support Ive received here.

Mangan had the same mood of excitement as she spoke with Torringford School Principal Kelly Galullo. Kindergarten is the most rewarding, as far as seeing the kids grow and change, she said. You see them evolve, from start to finish, over the year. Its just amazing.

Torringford has eight kindergarten classes this year, each with about 20 students. Yes, theres eight classes, Galullo said. Were at the forefront of their social growth as they start school.

In Torrington, the school district was proactive all summer, holding school bus training sessions, making orientation videos for families to watch at home, and offering lots of play dates, giving parents a chance to meet, as well as the kids. Its so good for the parents to meet other people, to make those connections, Gallulo said. It makes a difference when school starts to have these activities, so people have an idea of what to expect.

Mangan hasnt lost the first day feeling in all her teaching years, she said, because each class of children has its own unique personality. Theyre learning everything, often for the first time, she said, noting that some kids have been to preschool while others have not.

This year, the age range is huge. Well have children from age 4 up to age 6 or 7, Galullo said. Thats going to be a challenge, and its because of the pandemic  we are having children start who didnt go to the school building at all last year. Some of our first-graders hadnt been inside the school until this summer. Theyd never seen their classroom.

Those challenges, as well as wearing masks, hand-washing and distancing when its possible, are handled well by the students, according to Mangan. The kids just take it as part of their day, she said.

McGuire agreed. The are used to wearing them now, she said. They know its an expectation, that its something they have to do.

Masks are a small price to pay to be back in school, Field said. Were just glad to be here in person and have all the kids back, she said.

McGuire and Field said first-graders experience many of the same changes over the school year, as their learning skills improve.

Its a big year, Field said. They make leaps and bounds. We had a summer reading challenge and lists of books to read. We had information on the librarys website. Theres evidence that kids are still logging in and reading. We also had our summer learning program, and more than 80 kids were enrolled in that.

They were sad to leave the summer program at the end, McGuire said. The summer school stigma is going away.

Kindergarteners use iPads instead of laptops, which are easier to use with a touch screen. Many already know how, and they help their classmates, Mangan said. It makes them feel good to be able to do something to help somebody else, she said.

In both McGuires and Mangans classes, children will learn reading and writing, math, science and social studies. Each school has developed a curriculum to accompany those requirements. In addition to those programs, social and emotional learning programs are more of a focus than ever and are part of a childs day at school, Mangan said.

Its a loaded day, with a lot of things to learn, Mangan said. In grades K-5, we have time to talk to them about their feelings and teach strategies to help them with problem solving, how to calm down if they get too excited, things like that.

The thing that takes the most time is developing that community, to help children realize theyre part of something, that its not just them, she said. Its difficult sometimes, but when a class succeeds, it makes the whole year better.
Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday's deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino.

Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New York City, previously best-known for his liberal memes and his jokes about opponents of COVID-19 vaccinations. Along with his followers, Quarantino raised $7 million within days on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions into Afghanistan to evacuate as many people as possible, many of whom said they had been threatened by the Taliban.

On Wednesday, their mission Operation Flyaway helped ferry 51 people from Afghanistan to Uganda on a privately chartered plane financed by the GoFundMe campaign.

More than 121,000 people had donated to the campaign after Marcus made an appeal to his 832,000 followers, making it one of the largest humanitarian fundraisers in GoFundMes history.

Its beyond humbling that they have that faith in me, that theyre willing to put significant amounts of money into hands that I trust, Marcus told The Associated Press.

Saraya International, a global development firm, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which both provided organizational support for the flight to Uganda, as well as another company involved with the evacuation, confirmed to the AP that the flight was chartered by the emergency collaboration financed through Marcus' Go FundMe campaign.

I dont know what word to use besides miraculous, because its restored a faith in humanity, Marcus said. Weve shed the political divisions in this situation and really come together from all walks of life to rally together and save these people because .. they dont deserve what their future holds if they stay in Afghanistan right now.

Those who were evacuated, Marcus said, were women, children, humanitarians and others whove been fighting for the greater good in Afghanistan for a long time, as well as their families. The organizers had said they were seeking to rescue 300 people who, along with their families, were at imminent risk of being executed by the Taliban."

The team had been met with skepticism from experts who questioned whether they had the capability to pull of such a mission at a time when governments, corporations and charity groups were rushing to get their citizens and employees out of Afghanistan on whatever aircraft they could.

Marcus' group said more than 350 people have been rescued, with nearly 300 leaving Kabul on other chartered flights that Operation Flyaway reimbursed for providing safe passage from the country. A spokesperson for the State Department wrote in an emailed statement that the department appreciates community-led efforts to support the Afghan relocation and resettlement process, which reflects the generosity of the American people and the international community.

However, we are unable to verify the authenticity or effectiveness of these efforts, the statement said.

Officials from several nonprofit groups describe a chaotic and perilous scene at the Kabul airport as they rushed to fill private chartered flights with people who have the necessary paperwork in the limited time that they can keep their planes on the tarmac.

"Im so proud of our extraordinary team and what we were able to accomplish in such a short time, said Sayara CEO Scott Shadian. I just wish we couldve done more. Simply put, the institutions failed, and it breaks my heart how much more we could have accomplished. We are grateful we got out as many people as we did against the greatest odds weve ever faced.

At the request of the U.S. government, Uganda received the evacuees, who will stay at hotels in a city outside the country's capital, Kampala. Ugandan officials said the nation would shelter up to 2,000 people who are expected to be relocated elsewhere after a temporary stay in the country.

The chartered flight that left Kabul early Wednesday morning is one of several private rescue efforts being organized by various groups, separately and through collaborations, to help Afghans flee. The flight from Kabul to Entebbe, Uganda, was organized by Sayara, which advised a company working with Marcus that it knew of a plane available for Operation Flyaway.

Representatives from that North Carolina-based company, Raven Advisory, said they were able to pay for the mission using money raised through Marcus' GoFundMe campaign. The company, which says it performs subcontract work for the U.S. military, said "an all-volunteer team consisting of former Special Forces soldiers and other veterans with expertise in Afghanistan were working with the military to coordinate their rescue efforts.

Sayara's Shadian said he had met Operation Flyaway members on Zoom only earlier in the week and in the chaos of the Kabul evacuations was thrilled they agreed to fund the flight.

They were one of many miracles we experienced in this time, Shadian said. Their last-minute funding, along with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Schmidt Futures and other donors, was critical. Without Operation Flyaway's quick funding, that flight wouldnt have gotten off the ground.

Raven Advisory CEO Sheffield Ford told the AP that in order to transport the people into the airport, the U.S. government has to be comfortable with our organization saying these people are OK, and that they have actually done things to help their country, to help our country.

Though the deadly suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday complicated their efforts, Ford says those they are helping must have passports, a relative his group can communicate with and someone vouching for them who has passed a background check. The goal, Ford noted, is to ferry Afghan citizens that have been targeted by the Taliban out of the country.

Our focus was the people who wanted to build their country into something great, he said. They thought they were going to stay there, with us backing them, for the long haul. Its going be women that work in journalism and teachers. It could be the young people and older people who have been very outspoken against the different atrocities of committed by the Taliban in the past.

Though crowdfunding has been a welcome tool to mobilize donations during crisis situations, Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Washington-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy, stresses that donors should be cautious when donating to private efforts through these sites.

Theres not necessarily going to be a public report on where these funds went and how they were used, in the way that a nonprofit  or a 501(c)(3)  is required to by law, she said.

Though rescue flights are now winding down with the pending deadline of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the GoFundMe campaign said it will donate whatever money remains to the Washington-based organization International Womens Media Foundation. According to organizers, the foundation, which supports female journalists, will use the money to partner with experienced organizations and experts to support people once they are on safe ground.

Ford was impressed by how quickly millions were raised on GoFundMe for these missions.

Its about people coming together to help others," he said. "And it was awesome to see that happen.

_____

The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP)  Dale Livgren and Ruth VonSpreckelsen entered this world three days apart in 1926. They grew up on family farms just seven miles from one another in central Clay County.

Even so, they had never met until they ended up in eighth grade together in Clay Center in September 1939. And what little they knew of each other at that point, they didnt like one bit.

We didnt get along at all the first year, Dale said Thursday, turning to his wife seated next to him in their apartment at Heritage at College View in Hastings. We just kind of hated each other, didnt we?

Ruth Livgren, once known as young Ruth VonSpreckelsen, agreed.

He thought I was a brat, and I thought he was a brat, she told the Hastings Tribune. Thats just the way it was.

But that all changed, Dale said, a twinkle in his eye.

Dale Livgren celebrated his 95th birthday on Tuesday. Ruth followed suit on Friday. And on Sunday the couple will celebrate the 75th anniversary of their marriage, which was solemnized just days after they both had turned 20 years old.

God willing, and as long as public health restrictions dont prevent it, they will gather to celebrate those milestones at the end of this month with many members of their large family, which includes four children, 13 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.

The Livgren family footprint is large, with grandchildren and great-grandkids living in Utah, North Carolina and several states in between. They will gather from far and wide to rejoice that a couple of long-ago classmates set their initial antagonism aside, fell in love, joined their lives on Aug. 22, 1946, and have been working together ever since to make life better for others.

Judith Woods of rural Fairfield, the third of the Livgrens four children, said her parents are willing to endure quarantine afterward or whatever is required so they can celebrate with their loved ones and yet keep their assisted-living community safe from the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

We dont want to wear them out, Woods said of Dale and Ruth with a laugh. Itll be about 70 of us getting together. Thats pretty much immediate family.

Dale grew up on a farm 3  miles north and 1  miles east of Clay Center. His parents were Albert and Judith Livgren, and he had three older siblings: brother Arnold, who was 16 years his senior; and sisters Thelma and Eunice. All are deceased now.

Ruths family lived two miles south of Clay Center. Her parents were Ernest and Betty VonSpreckelsen, and she had twin brothers, Robert and Elbert, who were born just 11 months after she was. Elbert now lives in Kearney, and Robert is deceased.

While Ruth attended town school in Clay Center from the beginning, Dale didnt come into town for class until the old Price country school in his neighborhood closed its doors.

Thats when sparks of contempt first flew between Dale and Ruth, who was one of just three girls in their class.

Eventually, hearts and minds changed to the point where Ruth allowed Dale to drive her home after a meeting of the Girl Reserves, a youth organization affiliated with the YWCA that later became known as Y Teens.

Thereafter, the old sparks of disdain burst into the flame of romance  and by their junior and senior years in high school they were a serious item. Dates usually consisted of Dale picking Ruth up in his 1936 two-door Ford for a trip into Clay Center or a neighboring town  perhaps Harvard or Sutton  to see a movie.

We went to an awful lot of movies, Ruth said.

The 1930s had been lean years in Clay County, with the Great Depression, drought and dust storms affecting everyone. And Dale and Ruths high school years took place under the cloud of World War II, with rationing of gasoline and other supplies a part of everyday life.

Dale and Ruth graduated from high school in 1944, and Dale went into farming with his dad and brother. He went through intake for military service but was turned away because of high blood pressure readings.

Meanwhile, Dale and Ruth continued their courtship  not without hitting a few bumps in the road, but never encountering a conflict they couldnt overcome.

Woods said family members have asked her mother if she and Dale ever broke up during their years of dating, and the answer is a definite yes.

Mom said, Oh, yeah, lots of times  usually right before our birthdays,  Woods said with a chuckle.

Ironically, then, Dale and Ruth chose their birthday week for their wedding in 1946. After the nuptials, they headed off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for their honeymoon in the same 1936 Ford they had driven to the movies so many times. (The brakes didnt work too well on that car, but they obviously survived.)

One of their most memorable wedding presents was the kind of gift that keeps on giving  especially for a young farm couple.

We got a milk cow for a wedding present from my dad, Ruth said.

Dale and Ruth lived, farmed and raised children on the Livgren home place northeast of Clay Center. The shorthorn cow from Mr. VonSpreckelsen was their entry into the milking business, and they went on to operate a Grade A dairy on the farm for several years.

Eventually, their family came to include son Doug, who still lives on the home place today; daughter Karin, now Karin VanderHamm of Edmond, Oklahoma; Judith; and daughter Kristin, now Kristin Dittmer of West Lafayette, Indiana.

Some of Dale and Ruths happiest memories surround their camping and fishing excursions with the children, first with tents and later with a small pickup camper.

The Livgrens also enjoyed innumerable family day trips to Lovewell Reservoir in Jewell County, Kansas, to spend time around the water.

Starting in the 1960s, we went to the lake almost every Sunday in the summertime, Woods said.

Through the years, Dale and Ruth got better and better camping equipment and eventually ended up with a 26-foot trailer. They traveled to gatherings of the Good Sams, a club for camper and recreational vehicle owners.

The couple also was able to make several big trips through the years, with destinations including Europe, Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. Northeast.

We really liked Switzerland, Ruth said.

Other special memories involve visiting with neighbors; square dancing; and Dales music, which has been with him since boyhood (he grew up in a musical family) and still is an important part of his life.

Dad sings and plays with his guitar, still to this day, Woods said. It was common when Mom was finishing up supper that hed sing to her.

Dale served on the Clay Center Board of Education, worked some as an auctioneer, and enjoyed rodeos and participating in draft horse pulls.

We like draft horses and raised them, Ruth said.

Ruth was a founding member of the Happy Homemakers Extension Club, which was established in 1954 and continued into the 1990s.

Both Dale and Ruth have been active members of the Clay Center Christian Church.

We cant be thankful enough

In 1986, Dale and Ruth swapped homes with son Doug and his family, who had been living on a farm near Spring Ranch west of Fairfield. There, they watched over the familys cattle on pasture while Doug took the lead in the farming operation.

Years later, they moved into Clay Center. They relocated to Heritage at College View in January 2021.

Asked about the secret of living a long life, Dale had to admit he didnt always take the best care of himself.

Once a pack-a-day smoker, Dale kicked the habit many years ago.

I decided if I was going to live to be an old man Id better quit those doggone cigarettes, he said.

Ruth said longevity runs on her side of the family, but added that being able to eat well through the years  even when times were tough has been an advantage for her and her husband.

While their marriage has been a long and happy one, she and Dale said, they trusted their children to make their own life choices and are proud of the families they have raised.

We never tried to steer any of our kids to a particular mate, Dale said. They were good at it.

The years have brought a few challenges and near misses the Livgrens way. Even so, Dale and Ruth marvel at their blessings and the long lives they have been privileged to lead.

Its a lot of love, Ruth said of what their diamond anniversary represents.

To be married for 75 years  its a long road, Dale said. We just cant be thankful enough to the good Lord to keep us alive for that long.

And together, his wife added.
Norwalk Police Department / Contributed photo

NORWALK  Police say they seized more than 4.4 pounds of fentanyl during the arrest of a New York man suspected of a large-scale drug trafficking operation.

The arrest of Orlando Jimenez, of Yonkers, N.Y., is the result of a long-term operation by Norwalk Police Special Services Division and New York and Connecticut divisions of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as the Danbury Police Department Narcotics Unit. Their investigation, following several fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the Norwalk area, targeted Fentanyl suppliers, police said.
Greenwich Police / Contributed Photo

GREENWICH  A Windsor man was arrested on charges of stealing up to $5,000 worth of merchandise from a local store, the Greenwich Police Department said Friday.

Jahliil Michael Parrott, 24, was allegedly part of an organized theft ring, according to police. Parrott, and two other participants, stole between $4,000 and $5,000 in items from a store on Greenwich Avenue in July, according to police.
Venice, FL (34285)

Today

Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 78F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 78F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
BEIJING (AP)  China's defense ministry protested Saturday the passage of a U.S. Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China.

A statement posted on the ministry's website called the move provocative and said it shows that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability and creator of security risks in the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait.

We express firm opposition and strong condemnation, the statement said.

The USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed through the strait Friday in international waters, the U.S. Navy said. Such exercises are seen as a warning to China, which recently conducted drills near Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring the island under its control.

The ships lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, a statement from the Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said.

Taiwan, home to 23.6 million people, split from China during a civil war that led to the Communist Party taking control of the mainland in 1949. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a representative office in the capital, Taipei, and is its biggest supplier of military equipment for its defense.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been stepping up its presence in Asia, as the Chinese coast guard patrols near disputed islands that both China and other governments claim in the South and East China Seas.

The 418-foot-long Munro, which is based in Alameda, California, arrived in the region in mid-August for what the U.S. Coast Guard said would be a monthslong deployment. It trained with a Japanese coast guard ship, the Also, in the East China Sea for two days earlier this week.

The U.S. and Taiwan coast guards held talks this month after the two signed a cooperation agreement in March. China has denounced the agreement.

Saturday's defense ministry statement said that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and that China would not tolerate any interference in what it called its internal affairs.
Future Retail, on Saturday, has filed a new case against Amazon.com Inc at the Supreme Court. This is the Kishore Biyani-led companys latest attempt to seek clearance for its $3.4 billion retail assets sale, which Amazon has challenged.

Supreme Court had ruled that the emergency award passed under the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) rules can be enforced in India under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. With this ruling from the SC, the transaction between Future Retail and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd will remain on hold. Earlier this month, theunder the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996. With this ruling from the SC, the transaction between Future Retail and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd will remain on hold.

The apex court had also said Future Retail could not appeal a lower court's decision against it. Future Retail is now asking the top court to hear the challenge.

In its over 6,000-page filing, the Kishore Biyani group company has contended that if the deal with Reliance Retail fails to go through, it would cause "unimaginable" damage to Future group, including possible job losses for 35,575 employees, and put at risk roughly Rs280 billion (about $ 3.81 billion) in bank loans and debentures.

"There is extreme urgency to hear this petition," Future Retails counsel Yugandhara Pawar Jha said in the Supreme Court filing.

Amazon had earlier taken its partner Future Group to court, saying it violated contracts by agreeing to sell retail assets to Reliance Industries Ltd group company last year for over Rs27,000 crore. However, Future Retail has denied any wrongdoing.

In February this year, Amazon had reached the apex court after the Delhi High Court stayed implementation of status quo ordered by a single-judge bench on the Rs 24,713-crore deal between Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. A week before, the HC had turned down a request from Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings to suspend the order for a week.

A division bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh observed that Future Retail was not a party to an arbitration agreement with Amazon. The bench prima facie opined that 'group of companies' doctrine could not be invoked in this matter.

"...there was no reason to seek a status quo order from the single judge... Statutory authorities like Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Competition Commission of India (CCI) could not be restrained from 'proceeding in accordance with law'," the bench had stated in its order.

After this, Amazon approached the Supreme Court, contending that the division bench at Delhi HC should have waited for a detailed single-judge order, while urging the apex court to stay this order.

Amazon and Future Retail have been involved in a bitter dispute for several months. Amazon accused Future Retail of violating contracts when it sold its retail assets to RIL unit last year.

The legal fight over Futures assets has embroiled two of the worlds richest men  Amazons Jeff Bezos and Reliances Mukesh Ambani. The final outcome will be seen shaping Indias pandemic-hit shopping sector and determining if Amazon can dent the dominance of Reliance.

Amazon had argued that a 2019 deal it had with a Future unit included clauses saying the Indian group could not sell its retail assets to anyone on a restricted persons list, including Reliance.

The US company had invested in Future Group in 2019, acquiring a 49% stake in Future Coupons Ltd, which holds 9.82 per cent in Future Retail.

The dispute started after Future, India's second-largest retailer, with more than 1,700 stores, including popular BigBazaar supermarkets, entered a deal last year to sell its retail businesses to Reliance after COVID-19 hit its operations hard.
To my mind, these are the three steps in a successful project.

In many countries like India, we have excellent planning. Average implementation. And a poor follow-up. The poor follow-up reflects on the poor implementation. The result is below-average performance in many of the projects one looks at.

When I see the roads in Germany and Sri Lanka, the buildings in Hong Kong, the cityscape in Singapore, the town plan in London or on the Greek islands, I wonder why we cannot imitate them in managing our environment in India. This is not because of a lack of knowledge.

It is because of a lack of willthe inborn desire or drive for perfection- to be the best or as best as can be!

When you drive in Germany or in the US, or even Sri Lanka  you just drive. The roads invite you with an absence of potholes or poorly built speed-breakers.

I remember, over 40 years ago, Mauritius was planning to redo the whole road system for the country. They were keen on selecting a contractor from India. The minister and two others came to Mumbai to look around. But when they went around Mumbai in a car, they realised that India did not have the capability to do their project because the roads in the city were so bad!

They finally selected a company from East Europe. India lost a great opportunity because the sample of the product offered was below par!

When you go into a building in Hong Kong, residential or commercial, or a hotel, you admire the quality of construction. It is so neat. The tiles on the floors are fitted so tight that there are no spaces in between where dirt can fill over timeand, over time, these appear as black lines!

It is the same with buildings in Dubai. The result of a combination of Chinese workers with British supervision in Hong Kong; and Indian labour and British supervision in Dubai. Yet, the same is not replicated in India.

Why? Because there is no frequent, detailed supervisionso necessary to maintain high standards!

New colonies are coming up in cities like Mumbai. Is there an approved plan that allows the construction and the style and architecture to see whether it fits with the environment?

Generally, NO.

There will be a 14-storey building with two- and three-floor slum buildings around like in Mumbai, which seems incongruous.

This would be unthinkable in London. Or even an Asian city like Singaporewhere the high rises have a plan in a defined area- and the old city with the low houses is maintained in its original form, but clean and freshly painted.

Why does this dissonance happen? Because there is no plan. Or there is one, but it is bribe-infested, and there is no follow up!

The pavements are meant for pedestrians. They have to be maintained so that even the elderly can walk on them safely. But, does that happen in India?

Often, NO.

The pavements have vendors of clothing and other consumer items, selling to hordes of passers-by, from bedspreads spread on the pavement. After a period of testing for a response from the municipal authorities, they graduate to a wooden structure that is easy to dismantle and semi-permanent.

After another testing period, they graduate to a brick-and-mortar structure, which becomes a 'shop.'

With such cabins every 200 yards, pedestrians are then forced to use the road, so a two-lane road (each way) gets demoted to a one-lane road each waythe reasonno follow-up.

The commercial activity was not controlled when it was easily controllable.

Some years ago, three people died when there was a fire in a building in a suburb of Mumbai.

Why?

Because the fire brigade, which came promptly, could not access the too narrow compound. But the building plans had been passed by the building contractor and the municipal corporation, who had then issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the occupation of the apartments to potential residents.

There was no oversight to granting licences or any follow-up when the building construction was completed to see that all regulations were met. It was just three lives this time.

Wait until this kind of accident occurs in a 35-storey skyscraper, where similar carelessness has been at work!

The list of situations where lack of proper follow-up can cause loss of lives, and much of the other concurrent damage is so large that it cannot be covered in a short article.

Water supply and road flooding during monsoons, quality of construction (the roof of a hostel area of one of Mumbais premier technical schools fell, just 10 years after construction), food hygiene, and are the many areas where damage can so easily be controlled with efficient and honest follow-up.

We eagerly wait for that time to come. It will be the dawn of a new era! Or an old era, in my childhood in Bombay (then) I would see roads being washed every week!

Seems, indeed, like a distant dream now.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)s expert committee on primary (urban) co-operative banks (UCBs) has recommended a regulatory nudge for weak UCBs to explore voluntary merger or conversion into a non-banking society at an early stage.

The committee has submitted its report, which, among others, lays down a roadmap for the growth and development of the sector. The report was compiled by the expert committee formed earlier this year, under the chairmanship of NS Vishwanathan, former deputy governor.

The committee also emphasised that all-inclusive directions (AID) should be treated on par with moratorium under Section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act.

If AID is imposed, a bank should not continue beyond the time permitted to keep a bank under moratorium  three months extendable by a maximum of another three months. About 50 UCBs are under AID currently.

This is especially significant since many UCBs have been under AID for many years, causing a lot of hardship to depositors as deposit withdrawals are capped.

In 2021, RBI has issued 101 directives imposing various regulatory measures on poorly run urban co-operative banks.

The RBI has so far cancelled the licence of seven co-operative banks in 2021-- Madgaum Urban Cooperative Bank, Dr Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar Urban Co-operative Bank, United Cooperative Bank, Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank, Shivajirao Bhosale Sahakari Bank, Bhagyodaya Friends Urban Co-operative Bank Limited, Vasantdada Nagari Sahakari Bank.

Given the powers derived from the recent amendment to the Banking Regulation Act, the committee observed that the RBI might strive to begin the mandatory resolution process, including reconstruction or compulsory merger, as soon as a UCB reaches Stage III under the Supervisory Action Framework (SAF).

The RBI may also consider superseding the board if the bank fails to submit a merger or conversion proposal within the prescribed time frame and take steps to avoid undue flight of deposits once the news becomes public. A Stage III UCB is one where its capital to risk-weighted assets ratio (CRAR) is less than 4.5% and net non-performing assets (NNPAs) is greater than 12%.

The committee said that the RBI could prepare a scheme of compulsory amalgamation or reconstruction of UCBs, like banking companies.

The action may include compulsory amalgamation with another banking institution or transferring assets and liabilities to another financial institution. In such cases, the existing members of the transferor UCB may be disenfranchised for five years.

The amalgamation or reconstruction scheme may include a reduction in the rights of creditors, including depositors and members of the bank, or payment in cash or in any other manner to depositors or creditors regarding their entire claims or reduced claims the case may be.

The relevant section of the Banking Regulation Act also offers flexibility to allot the transferee bank's shares, long-term debt instruments (acquiring bank) to the depositors, creditors and members without reducing their claims.

It may be recalled that, earlier this month, the RBI refused to sanction the merger of the Rupee Cooperative Bank with the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), the apex cooperative bank. The rejection of the proposal, which was submitted in 2020, will extend the woes of the Pune headquartered cooperative bank, which is under restrictions since 2013.

Given the growing bad loans, the RBI had superseded the board of directors of the Rupee cooperative bank and put severe restrictions on it. Since then, a board of administrators headed by Sudhir Pandit has been managing the bank, trying to either revive or merge the bank.

The committee recommended that large urban cooperative banks (UCBs) function along the lines of small finance banks (SFBs) and universal banks.

The exhaustive report has about 10 chapters and a vision document which says the primary UCBs play an essential role in furthering financial inclusion by generally providing traditional, if not the more modern, banking services to persons in the less included segments of the economic strata.

The expert committee says there is a need to understand the heterogeneity of the sector and frame regulations to harness the USP of each sub-segment. The UCB sector displays extreme heterogeneity.

There are many small UCBs which embrace cooperative principles and these banks may be allowed some operational freedom, but they should not be left to drift away from the inclusive finance model.

At the other end of the spectrum are very large UCBs, a few of which are larger than some of the smaller commercial banks permitted to function as universal banks. The legislative changes, which provide greater powers to the RBI and additional capital raising opportunities for UCBs, should be used to allow such banks to grow within the cooperative structure.

The EC also felt that umbrella organisation (UO) should be expedited and empowered as it can and should be seen as a game-changer for the sector and (NAFCUB) should accelerate setting it up.

The UO should be financially strong and be well governed by a professional board. The UO should provide cross liquidity and capital support to the UCBs when needed and cloud services for facilitating IT-enabled operations by the member banks.

The UO should be the branding partner for the member UCBs and both because of this and the business model itself, and the UO has a significant systemic role. It should therefore be regulated and supervised closely. Recognising the vital part of the UO in providing operational and financial strength to the smaller UCBs, the differentiated regulation should have a built-in incentive for the smaller UCBs to join in.

EC noted with satisfaction that the number of borrowers of UCBs is 67 lakh. This is not a small number by itself and there are many cases of transformational changes that UCBs have brought to its customers.

While NAFCUB President Jyotindra Mehta is the lone member from the UCB sector, the expert committee has a chairman, six members and a convenor. Besides Vishwanathan, Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, the former chairman of NABARD, Mukund M Chitale Chartered Accountant, retired IAS officers NC Muniyappa and RN Joshi IAS (Retired), Prof MS Sriram, IIM Bangalore, Jyotindra M. Mehta- President of NAFCUB (National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies) are the members.

Neeraj Nigam- Chief General Manager-in-Charge of RBIs Department of Regulation is the convenor. The committees report has been placed on the RBI portal for comments of stakeholders and members of the public.

Comments on the report may be submitted by 30 September 2021 through email. RBI will examine the comments and suggestions before taking a final view on the recommendations made by the committee.
Rivian is currently awaiting various governing agency approvals to begin U.S. deliveries of its R1T electric truck. (Rivian)
August 28, 2021

The Never Ending Lies About The War On Afghanistan

The U.S. military has lied for 20 years about the war in Afghanistan. Do not expect it to suddenly tell the truth.

Thursday's suicide bombing in Kabul and the following panic killed more than 150 civilians (some 30 of whom were British-Afghan), 28 Taliban fighters and 13 U.S. troops.

Before the attack happened a Taliban spokesperson had told RT that they had warned the U.S. of an imminent ISPK attack.

Repeating Pentagon claims the New York Times describes the attack:

At 5:48 p.m., the bomber, wearing a 25-pound explosive vest under clothing, walked up to the group of Americans who were frisking people hoping to enter the complex. He waited, officials said, until just before he was about to be searched by the American troops. And then he detonated the bomb, which was unusually large for a suicide vest, killing himself and igniting an attack that would leave dozens of people dead, including 13 American service members.

If the suicide bomber was so close to the inner perimeter checkpoint manned by U.S. forces why were so many Taliban, who manned checkpoints at the outer perimeter, killed in the incident?

The Times writes:

Just after the bomb went off, Defense Department officials said, fighters nearby began firing weapons. The officials said that some of the Americans and Afghans at Abbey Gate might have been hit by that gunfire.

What fighters nearby?

The BBC correspondent in Kabul has asked people who where there:

Secunder Kermani @SecKermani - 7:21 UTC  Aug 28, 2021 Our report from last night on the awful ISIS attack outside Kabul airport as families still search Kabul's morgues for their loved ones..

Many we spoke to, including eyewitnesses, said significant numbers of those killed were shot dead by US forces in the panic after the blast

Embedded video

The correspondent talks to the brother a London taxi driver who was in Kabul to fetch his family:

A: "Somehow I saw American soldiers, Turkish soldiers and the fire was coming from the bridges, from the towers."

Q: "From the soldiers?"

A: "Yeah, from the soldiers."

(Side note: Some of the towers around the airport were reportedly manned by members of the CIA's Afghan death squads.)

Another witness:

Narrator: "Noor Mohamed had been deployed alongside American forces."

A man holding up an identity card of a friend talks about his death in English.

A: "The guy has served U.S. army for years. And the reason he lost his life - he wasn't killed by Taliban, he wasn't killed by ISIS, he was (unintelligible)."

Q: "How can you be sure?"

A: "Because of the bullet. The bullet went inside of his head. Right here." (Points to the back of his head.) "He doesn't have any (other) injury."

The Pentagon did not respond to the BBC's request for comments.

Posted by b on August 28, 2021 at 8:59 UTC | Permalink

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The average price of gas in Midland dropped 6 cents this week.

It was not the largest decline of the 27 largest metropolitan areas AAA Texas surveys, but it was greater than the 5-cent drop in the state average and it was 5 cents more than the weekly decline in Odessa.

AAA Texas reported that the $2.94 average in Midland is now 6 cents behind the average in Odessa, where the average is $3.00  the lone $3 average in the state. El Paso, where the price dropped 9 cents, has the second highest average ($2.98), and Midlands average is the third highest. Odessa, El Paso and Midland are the lone metropolitan statistical areas with averages higher than $2.89.

The average price in Midland is up 91 cents compared to the same time last year. The state average during the same time is up 88 cents. AAA Texas also reported that the average in Midland is 87 cents higher since Jan. 1, while the state average is up 85 cents.

AAA Texas, in its weekly report, stated, Drivers are likely seeing cheaper gas prices as crude oil prices have dropped below $70 per barrel. Crude oil prices have fluctuated recently due to concerns over increased COVID-19 cases. Currently, all eyes are on the Caribbean where a tropical disturbance is likely to form into a named storm. While the disturbances path remains uncertain at this time, forecasters say its possible it could impact the U.S. Gulf Coast next week where numerous refineries are located.

AAA Texas reported the following averages across the region -- $2.71 in Amarillo (a drop of 6 cents week over week), $2.73 in Abilene (a drop of 11 cents, $2.77 in Lubbock (a 2-cent decline) and $2.77 in San Angelo (a 3-cent drop).

Drivers in San Antonio are paying the least at $2.64 per gallon, according to AAA Texas.

Highest prices

This week

Odessa $3.00

El Paso $2.98

Midland $2.94

Texarkana $2.89

Longview $2.87

State average $2.79

National average $3.15

Last week

El Paso $3.07

Odessa $3.01

Midland $3.00

Texarkana $2.94

Tyler $2.90

State $2.84

Nation $3.18

Source: AAA Texas
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Midland ISD and Ector County ISD are the recipients of up to $200,000 each from the Scharbauer Foundation to support vaccination efforts for staff.

The funds will be distributed to teachers, staff and substitute teachers of these institutions and IDEA Permian Basin schools, who receive the vaccine in order to stay healthy and continue educating Midland and Odessa students.
Earlier this week, Midland ISD reported that it was seeing an average of 300 to 400 absent staff members a day.

That was making face-to-face learning challenging for a school district looking to improve its academic performance. Superintendent Angelica Ramsey said as much during the Unified Command Team call. She said it wasnt just teachers but bus drivers, janitors and other support staff that make district operations happen.

The Scharbauer Foundation wanted to do something about that. On Friday, it was announced the foundation will donate up to $400,000 to Midland ISD and Ector County ISD to distribute to teachers, staff and substitute teachers of these institutions -- and IDEA Permian Basin schools -- that receive the vaccine in order to stay healthy and continue educating Midland and Odessa students.

Midland ISD and Ector County ISD will each receive up to $200,000 each.

"This donation is literally and figuratively life-saving," Ramsey said in a press release. "On behalf of the entire school board and administration, I cannot thank the Scharbauer Foundation enough for their generosity.

Midland ISD reported on its website Friday that there were 1,081 students and staff members that have tested positive for COVID since the Aug. 2 start of school. More than 500 of those are active cases, according to Midland ISDs website Friday.

After a year of interrupted learning, keeping our children in class is more important than ever. We hope this effort saves lives, promotes health and helps educate our students, said Grant Billingsley, executive director of Scharbauer Foundation, stated in a press release.

The donation is another show of support by the Scharbauer Foundation when it comes to education in the community. In 2016, the foundation gave $10 million to the district to help overcome a deficit created by the districts school finance payment that year.

In 2019, the Scharbauer Foundation provided $21 million of the $55 million in commitments by the business and philanthropic communities in Midland and Odessa to bring IDEA Public Schools to Midland.

We believe deeply that students deserve excellent in-person instruction every day, said Bethany Solis, executive director of IDEA Permian Basin, in a press release. This is an important way to keep our staff safe, healthy, and on campus every day possible. We are grateful to be a part of this initiative.
HOUSTON (AP)  Two men have been arrested in the fatal shooting of an off-duty New Orleans police officer during a holdup while he was dining at a Houston restaurant, police said Friday.

Frederick D. Jackson, 19, and Anthony Rayshard Jenkins, 21, each have been charged with capital murder and attempted capital murder, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. Jail records do not list attorneys for them.

New Orleans police Detective Everett Briscoe, 41, was killed in the Saturday shooting and his friend, Dyrin DJ Riculfy, 43, was shot and wounded. Houston police said Friday that Riculfy remained hospitalized in critical condition.

We are very pleased and thankful for the quick arrests made by the Houston Police Department in connection with the murder of Everett Briscoe," New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said in a statement. "I want to thank Chief Troy Finner and this team for keeping us informed the whole way. As a man who dedicated his life to justice, Everett Briscoe will hopefully rest easier knowing individuals involved in his death will face theirs.

Briscoe and Riculfy were dining on the patio of the Grotto Ristorante when two men wearing hoodies approached them and tried to rob them, police said. One or more of the suspects then fired at the victims, striking them both.

Patrons were cooperating with the gunmen, witnesses told police, until one of the suspects fired shots before they fled in a nearby vehicle. Police later identified Jackson and Jenkins as suspects. Jenkins was taken into custody on Wednesday and Jackson was arrested Thursday, police said.

Ogg said prosecutors were seeking no bond for Jackson and Jenkins. She said both men were free on bonds when the shooting happened.

At the time of the shootings, Jenkins was out on a bond for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, while Jackson was out on bond for an aggravated robbery, Ogg said.

Police said they are also looking for a third man who is considered a person of interest and is being sought for questioning.

Briscoe, a 13-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, was in Houston while vacationing with friends. Both Briscoe and Riculfy were members of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club and were taking the trip with club members, The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate reported.

Friends and family gathered at the Mahalia Jackson Theater on Friday for a public viewing of Briscoe, whose uniformed body lay in a casket surrounded by floral arrangements and wreaths in his memory with two officers standing guard. A funeral is scheduled Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Xavier University Convocation Center.

Briscoes death has led to an outpouring of sorrow among those who knew him. During a news conference earlier this week to discuss the case, a visibly distraught Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson spoke about how Briscoe was planning to get a criminal justice degree at Southern University of New Orleans, in part to set an example for his eldest son about the value of education.

Briscoe leaves behind a wife and two children.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Ohio's correctional agency terminated seven employees Friday after officials say prison guards used excessive and unjustified force against a Black inmate before he died in custody in February.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction sent a notice of removal to five corrections officers, a supervisor and a licensed nurse following an investigation into the in-custody death of 55-year-old Michael McDaniel.

Security footage released by the agency in July showed McDaniel collapsing on his own and being taken down to the floor by prison guards at least 16 times before he died at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient, a Columbus suburb, on Feb. 6.

Were responsible for what happened in that video, director Annette Chambers-Smith told reporters in July, after releasing surveillance footage of the incident. There is no question about that.

One of the officers involved, Heath Causey, is accused in the records released Friday of performing a take-down of McDaniel while the inmate was being escorted outside without shoes and a coat and while wearing a ripped white t-shirt, causing his body to veer off the walking path and land face-down in a snow-covered area.

The disciplinary records also state Lt. Bruce Brown took no steps to stop McDaniel from falling to the ground and failed to call for assistance to safely transport him to the medical facility after correction officers used excessive force.

The majority of the encounters appear to happen as more than half a dozen officers looked on. The department concluded the 16 times McDaniel hit the ground were avoidable and due to neglect of care by the staff handling him.

Once McDaniel arrived at the medical center, the report says his medical examination took less than a minute and the unidentified nurse who treated him did not do a standard exam or check his vital signs.

The guards then escorted McDaniel back outside the facility where he collapsed for the last time before CPR was initiated and an ambulance was called. He died shortly after.

Four hours later, the agency says Jamie Dukes, a licensed nurse, signed a medical document that McDaniels refused care. However, Ms. Dukes was not in the room to actually hear Inmate McDaniel refuse treatment, the records state. The agency said McDaniel never refused treatment and Dukes was also terminated Friday. There is no surveillance footage in the exam rooms.

Chris Mabe, the president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing correctional officers, said the union could not comment on the removals as it remains under investigation through their administrative grievance process.

Its certainly a tragedy anytime someone dies, but everyone involved in this incident is entitled to their due process rights, Mabe said in a statement. Additionally, we do not, nor does the agency, know all the facts of this case yet, despite what the Director said.

He added, "We shouldnt get ahead of the facts.

The Franklin County Coroners office had declared McDaniels death a homicide and ruled the cause as a stress-induced sudden cardiac death. The autopsy detailed injuries to his head, face, shoulders, wrists, hands, knees, feet, toes and abdomen. McDaniel also had multiple rib fractures, and the coroner found evidence of heart disease.

Prison officials say three other staff involved in the incident previously resigned, some before the investigation was even completed.

This is not what we trained people to do, Chambers-Smith said last month. Not everyone is suited to correctional work and those who are not suited should be removed.

A county prosecutor will make a decision on any criminal charges against the prison employees.

___

Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia held a rare meeting Saturday at a conference hosted by Iraq. The meeting is aimed at easing Mideast tensions and underscored the Arab countrys new role as mediator.

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the Baghdad meeting, hailing it as a major boost for Iraq and its leadership. The country had been largely shunned by Arab leaders for the past few decades because of security concerns amid back-to-back wars and internal unrest, its airport frequently attacked with rockets by insurgents.

On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordans King Abdullah and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose countrys ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.

Among the participants were also the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry over regional supremacy has often played out to deadly consequences in Iraq and other countries across the region, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia was represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iran with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

It was not immediately clear if the two ministers held a meeting on the sidelines. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hassan avoided a question as to whether they did, saying only: These meetings in fact began in Iraq, and in Baghdad, and these meetings are continuing, and will continue."

"What we understood from the two sides, or the parties, is a great and wide desire to reach positive results to solve the outstanding problems between the two countries, he added.

The high-level meeting in Baghdad sent a message of Arab solidarity with Iraq, which has increasingly been pulled into Irans orbit in recent years.

This summit marks the return of Iraq as a pivotal player in the region, said political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, who heads the Iraqi Political Thinking Center in Baghdad. Having rival parties be seated at the same table is a significant step in that direction.

Iraqi special forces deployed in Baghdad, particularly around the Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, where the meeting was held. Participants were expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Lebanon, which has been without a functional government for the past year, and Syria, which has been suspended from the Arab League since 2011, were not represented at the meeting.

Macron, whose country is co-organizing the meeting, described Saturdays meeting as historic, showcasing Iraqs return to stability following the ruinous war against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in 2017.

Sundays meeting was a chance for Iraqi leaders to underscore their recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the regions crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Iraq, which for years has been a headline for war and conflicts, is hosting leaders and representatives of the region today to affirm their support for Iraqi sovereignty and prosperity, said President Barham Salih.

Earlier this year, Iraq hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

An Iraqi government official had told The Associated Press he anticipated Saudi and Iranian officials would hold talks on the sidelines of Saturdays meetings. He said the aim was to create a political atmosphere for resolving outstanding problems.

Iraqs message at the summit is that it stands at the same distance from all sides, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

After decades of conflict, Iraq is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the countrys top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.
Will the mayor speak up this time?

Last year when Greg Abbott unilaterally enacted measures in an attempt to protect our population, our mayor went on Fox News and decried the executive overreach of Abbott.

Recently Abbott has again been unilaterally enacting measures related to COVID, this time stopping school districts, cities and municipalities from enacting COVID prevention measures. Curiously, Mayor Payton has remained silent on this executive fiat and overreach.

So, was Mayor Payton actually concerned about executive overreach, in which case we should see him mounting an effort against such executive fiat like he did last time, or was he just trying to score cheap political points by telling his base what they want to hear? Maybe we just have a mayor who is only capable of telling people what they want to hear and not what they need to hear? That would be unfortunate.

Nicholas Keller

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Letters policy

There is a 350-word limit; candidate letters have a 200-word limit.

Letters must be submitted to letters@mrt.com. Deadline is noon Thursdays for the following Sunday. Reporter-Telegram policy limits individuals to one letter in a 30-day period.

Letter-writers should include phone number and address. Failure to do so could delay letters publication.
In a Facebook post just before 8 a.m. Thursday, Manker said he was tired and tried.

Why these people are obsessed with hurting me I do not know, but I dont want to do this anymore. So many lies, so much hate.. Im sorry. I tried. -Tyson, his page read.

That evening, he submitted a letter of resignation from his position as South Jacksonville village mayor, which was announced by Village Attorney Rob Cross during a Committee of the Whole meeting.

The resignation followed a series of turbulent days that included Illinois State Police being asked to investigate whether his posting of audio from a closed-door trustees meeting violated the law and a former trustee filing an ethics complaint against him.

Manker, who has been on a leave of absence since Aug. 9, did not return calls for comment Thursday.

In his letter, he simply said he was resigning without elaboration.

However, on his personal Facebook page, Manker has made several posts indicating he no longer enjoyed the job because of the atmosphere, environment and personal attacks.

The job that I was elected to do is no longer enjoyable due to constant harassment and vicious disgusting personal attacks from my political opponentsThese are not reasonable working conditions, as an elected official. After just over 100 days in office, my desire to serve has evaporated like a fog at high noon, and the hope that I once had for South Jacksonville has all but disappeared, Manker wrote in a Monday post.

In a post to supporters, Manker said he has faced harassment and slander for months.

From the moment I announced my candidacy to run for this office, my opponents including trustees waged an all-out smear-campaign complete with anonymous letters to smear my character to anyone who would listen, and my military discharge after serving on the front lines of war was often used as a weapon to defame my characterI know that my many supporters are thankful for the work I have done in my first 100 days in office, but until now they have not been aware of the constant smears, attacks and harassment that I have endured since January.

Manker said changes need to be made in the village.

Until the Board of Trustees is staffed with honest, competent people who truly want to do the work of the Village, growth prosperity will remain out of reach and our community will continue to be the circus that it has been allowed to be for so long, Manker said in his post.

During the past week, Illinois State Police has been asked to look into allegations of misconduct by Manker after he released a portion of audio from an Aug. 17 closed session and an ethics complaint filed by former trustee Todd Warrick asserting Manker has been involved in improper contractual violations, Freedom of Information Act and Local Records Act violations, First Amendment violations and sexual and verbal harassment.

Warrick since has withdrawn the complaint.

He immediately and voluntarily resigned, Warrick said. That was the point of the ethics complaint  for him resign immediately.

Though he withdrew his complaint, others still can act on the allegations that were presented to the board, Warrick said.

The board will appoint an interim president.

Trustee Mike Broaddus said the board has not discussed who the interim president will be, though a decision will be made quickly.

We will most likely have a special meeting before the next board meeting to pick an interim president, Broaddus said, noting that another trustee then will have to be appointed following the appointment of the interim president.

I hope someone will step up and want to be interim, Broaddus said. I hope the people in the community will step up and take on the challenge.

An appointee by the board will fill the role until the next general municipal election, Cross said. The person elected then will fill the remainder of Mankers term, which expires in 2025.

The board has not made any decision on the next steps following the audios release or the complaint, Broaddus said.

We will still have to look into both matters, he said.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Thursday at Village Hall, 301 Dewey Drive.
GRAFTON  It was a good day for a riverboat ride, and for some a better day to talk about how to encourage more people to visit the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway.

Sponsored by the Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau, the River Connections Mississippi River Cruise on the Spirit of Peoria paddlewheeler was touted as a way to unveil the public part of a plan and process to promote tourism within the area defined by the confluence of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers.

We need to take regional, cooperative approaches to building the destination we need and not just for tourism but also for remote workers, young families, retires and business and service providers in the outdoor industries, said Cory Jobe, president and CEO of the tourism bureau.

Its really regionally working together collaboratively along the byway, to use the byway as an activator for economic development, he said.

Tourism is a big business for the Riverbend and surrounding regions. In February 2020, the bureau estimated the economic impact of tourism on the region at about $695.5 million.

Jobe said that dropped by about 50% during the pandemic.

I think during the pandemic people could get outside and experience the great outdoors and still socially distance themselves in our region, he said, adding that the main impact was the lack of travelers coming into the region.

But we are seeing a strong comeback, he said.

Others echoed that.

The start of this season has been the best weve ever probably had, said Grafton Mayor Mike Morrow, one of the cruise participants.

He noted one local gift store has had to restock five times.

Thats a good problem to have, he added.

We have seen a comeback to almost 2019 pre-pandemic levels, Jobe said. However, with this (COVID-19) variant, weve already seen a couple of big fall tour groups cancel. We are seeing some concern, but overall, some families are getting in the car and taking that road trip.

Karla Flannery, deputy director of the Illinois Office of Tourism, was among the officials at the event.

I love this area, she said. I think it has so much potential.

She said one concern is that the Alton/Grafton area doesnt get all the attention it should get.

Its absolutely beautiful, she added.

The state can help, she said, by developing marketing programs.

Illinois is so much more than Chicago and Galena, she said. I want to bring that level of awareness to the public.

One of her concerns is that marketing programs and initiatives have to begin when the time is right. Part of the reason is the uncertainty over coronavirus.

People want to travel, in a safe way, she added. Theres obviously a lot of programs and initiatives that we are pursuing, adding there a number of local initiatives are also in the works.

As people start to travel again, now is the time to put plans in motion to make the area more attractive to visitors. Jobe said the efforts also create more sustainable and attractive communities, which bring residents and small businesses, and, eventually larger businesses.

Much of Wednesdays discussion focused on increasing and improving the attractions, infrastructure and amenities that bring visitors. While day-trippers from throughout the St. Louis area are welcomed, Jobe said they really want to focus on overnight stays.

Supporters of the initiative are working on several fronts, including the creation of an Illinois Office of Outdoor Recreation. The office would promote an active lifestyle as well as conservation and stewardship of public lands and waters.

The group is also supporting an activation strategy that includes partnering with state and federal agencies, nonprofits and conservation groups to promote activities on the river and in surrounding areas. They want to update the existing Federal Scenic Byway Plan completed in 2007 and find resources to create the infrastructure needed to encourage and improve recreational opportunities.

Organizers said most of the work so far has been behind the scenes, in part because the pandemic has curtailed public events and public participation.

During 2020 a number of one-on-one interviews were held with public land and attraction managers to assess needs and opportunities. This year an initial outdoor recreation and liveability working group was formed to create a regional focus and shared collective effort. Specific plans are being developed.

Jobe said the group is in the organizational stage of putting together a public effort and plan.

We want to get our message out, because people have been wondering what weve been doing with our meetings, he said. Now its time to really activate what weve been talking about, to collaboratively work together.

He said AltonWorks has been very active in the project. Pat McGinnis, a senior advisor for AltonWorks, said the real endgame is to bring back the vibrancy of the community.

We thought we could do that. So there was an early commitment to social impact, positive social change, he said. One of the things were saying is the region can be a hub for outdoor recreation and active living.

He also echoed the idea that development of tourist attractions helps other aspects of the economy.

One of the things Ive learned in other areas weve worked in is the idea of traditional economic development, he said. It chases revenue. It chases jobs. In todays world in todays market, a lot of places are chasing livability.

What theyre saying is, for us to bring the companies, we have to win the people, he added. If we can create a livable place, we can attract the business.

Both McGinnis and Jobe said that while the area has a lot to offer there is also a great deal of untapped potential.

We cant plan custodially; we have to plan transformationally, McGinnis said. We have to plan for a different outcome that were used to.

We need to do more, Jobe said. As we continue to market ourselves as an outdoor recreation area, we are still not the destination we want.

We have to build the destination we need, he said,
A decade after a Vermont teenager disappeared as Tropical Storm Irene was bearing down on the state, his mother is still hoping someone will be able to answer the question about what happened to him.

Marble Arvidson was 17 when he left his Brattleboro foster home with a man who appeared to be in his 20s on the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2011, saying he'd be home in half an hour. That was hours before the rains started. He has never been seen again.

By the time Marble was reported missing the next day, regular communications were down and emergency responders overwhelmed by the scope of the natural disaster.

At first, everyone held out the possibility the lanky teenager with a volatile temper and a fondness for black clothing might have run away  Marble did have a history of staying out overnight  but over the years his mother, Sigrid Arvidson, has all but discarded that possibility.

As a mother, I can't stop looking for his physical body, whether he is in it or his body is the husk he used to live in, Arvidson, who now lives in Abiquiu, New Mexico, told The Associated Press on Friday.

She'll be back in Vermont on Saturday for a public gathering in Brattleboro near where her son was last seen. She's going to place a marker and make a statement that will be in part a plea for more information.

The reward for information about what happened to Marble is now $10,000, she said.

Arvidson said there were probably 10 possibilities of what happened to her son, from the relatively benign like falling and hitting his head before tumbling down a slope into the water, to murder.

Brattleboro Police Lt. Jeremy Evans said they reopened the investigation into what happened to Marble earlier this year, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of his disappearance.

They are in the process of reinterviewing about 100 possible witnesses and following up on the scores of tips they received a decade ago and more recently through the department's tip line.

Evans said they are getting help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the New England State Police Intelligence Network. The case is listed on the Vermont State Police missing persons page.

Evans doesn't know what happened to Marble, either.

The only thing we can be comfortable saying is hes deceased, Evans said.

When Irene roared up the coast in August 2011, it killed at least 46 people in 13 states and a handful of others in the Caribbean. Many in the Northeast breathed a sigh of relief when the New York City area largely was spared. Then the storm settled over Vermont.

Parts of Vermont got 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain in 24 hours. The storm killed six in the state, washed homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles (805 kilometers) of highway.

A number of events are being planned to mark the 10 years since Irene's fury on Aug. 28, 2011, the date of the state's biggest natural disaster since a 1927 flood.

For much of Vermont, Irene is now history, the rebuilding complete. But not for Arvidson or the Brattleboro police.

It very much is part of Irene because it hampered every aspect of trying to search for him," Arvidson said.

Arvidson said she believes there are people out there who know something about what happened to her son. She hopes those people have matured and are ready to do the right thing to help find Marble.

Maybe theyve been holding onto something and they assume somebody knows," she said. But now is a good time to get that off your chest.
VIENNA (AP)  A Vienna court has convicted former Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of corruption for trying to change laws to favor a private hospital in exchange for donations to his political party.

Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported Friday that the ex-leader of the far-right Freedom Party received a 15-month suspended prison sentence for accepting two bribes totaling 12,000 euros ($14,100).
New Orleans finds itself in the path of Hurricane Ida 16 years to the day after floodwalls collapsed and levees were overtopped by a storm surge driven by Hurricane Katrina. That flooding killed more than 1,000 people and caused billions in damage. But Ida arrives at the doorstep of a region transformed since 2005 by a giant civil works project and closer attention to flood control.

The system already has been tested by multiple storms, including 2012's Isaac, with little damage to the areas it protects. Every storm raises questions about New Orleans' defenses, though, and as Ida approaches, here are some answers:

WHAT'S CHANGED SINCE KATRINA?

The federal government spent $14.5 billion on levees, pumps, seawalls, floodgates and drainage that provides enhanced protection from storm surge and flooding in New Orleans and surrounding suburbs south of Lake Pontchartrain. With the exception of three drainage projects, that work is complete.

The post-Katrina system is so different than what was in place before," said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Matt Roe.

Starting with a giant surge barrier east of the city, the system is a 130-mile (210-kilometer) ring built to hold out storm surge of about 30 feet (9 meters). The National Hurricane Center on Friday projected Ida would bring a surge of 10 feet to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 meters) on the west bank.

At that level, it could come over the levees in some areas, said emergency manager Heath Jones of the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District.

Theyre designed to overtop in places with protections against worse damage, including armoring, splash pads and pumps with backup generators, he said.

Weve built all that since Katrina, and theyre designed for a worse storm than the Ida is expected to be, he said.

Jones said there does not appear to be any danger of storm surge coming over the levees on the east bank, which makes up most of the city. It was the east bank levees that broke after Katrina.

Governments as of Friday were not ordering people protected by the levees to evacuate, showing their confidence in the system.

A number of floodgates are being closed as the storm approaches. That includes massive gates that ships can normally sail through, such as ones that close off the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal near the Lower 9th Ward. That has reduced the risk of flooding in an area long viewed as among the city's most exposed. At least one smaller floodgate on land has been removed for maintenance, though, with officials planning to close the gap with sandbags.

WHAT ABOUT RAINFALL FLOODING?

Inside the ring of levees, rainfall must be pumped out. The New Orleans area has an elaborate system of canals and pumps to remove water, but it can be overwhelmed by persistent heavy rainfall, like in 2017 and 2019, when two storms each dumped more than 9 inches (23 centimeters) of rain in some areas. Heavy downpours have been a constant on the soggy Gulf Coast, but some exceptional rainstorms have been observed in recent years, with experts saying such torrents are becoming more common as a warming atmosphere carries more water vapor.

Capacity in some areas has been improved since 2005 through more than $2 billion in drainage work, allowing parts of the system to remove as much as 4.7 inches (120 millimeters) of rain in three hours  what designers accounted as a rainstorm that would come only once every 10 years.

The city of New Orleans drainage system has 24 pumping stations with a combined capacity of over 50,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is nearly 400,000 gallons (1.5 million liters) per second. That doesn't include pumps in neighboring suburbs.

But some of the pumps as well as the power system supplying them in the city are antiques plagued with reliability problems. On Friday, officials were trying to bring an electrical turbine back online to provide reserve power for the system. Three of 99 pumps were also out of commission, but New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board Executive Director Ghassan Korban said there's enough redundancy to back them up.

One of the lessons of the 2017 and 2019 storms has been that maintenance of drains, pipes and canals has been neglected. Officials urged residents Friday to sweep up around storm drains, underlining a concern that even the best pumps won't work if drains are clogged.

Our mission is obviously to stay ahead of the storm, stay ahead of the rain and keep the city dry, Korban told reporters Friday. But at one point, once our system is overrun, our mission shifts from keeping the city dry to just pumping the city as fast as we can.

WILL THE LEVEES HOLD UP OVER THE LONG RUN?

Experts note that the levee system was built to protect against a 100-year level of storm surge  a surge that has a 1% chance of happening any given year. With rising seas from climate change and the sinking of Louisiana's spongy coast, theres concern that simply isnt enough.

Reports issued in 2021 recommend spending a projected $1.7 billion to raise levees and floodwalls to keep providing the 100-year protection through 2078. That includes raising the height of 99 miles (159 kilometers) of levees, replacing more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of floodwall and building 3.2 miles (5.15 kilometers) of new floodwall.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS IN OUTLYING AREAS?

Areas outside the urban core that the levee system protects may have little or no protection against storm surge. Hurricane Isaac in 2012 flooded about 7,000 homes in LaPlace and other areas upriver from New Orleans after 8 feet (2.5 meters) of storm surge entered Lake Pontchartrain. The Corps of Engineers has started construction on a levee to protect that area, but Corps of Engineers spokesperson Rene Poche said it's not projected to be completed until 2024.

A number of local governments have ordered people to evacuate from low-lying and exposed areas outside of protective levees, including parts of New Orleans.

Suburbs north of Lake Pontchartrain are also not protected by levees or floodgates, although improvements for St. Tammany Parish are being studied. Areas close to the shore, as well as the rivers that feed into the lake and the Mississippi Sound, are vulnerable to storm surge.
This weeks wanted

The following are being sought on arrest warrants, according to various sheriffs departments. The addresses listed are the last known addresses provided by the warrants and may be outdated.

 Charles L. Story, 39, of 602 E. Second St., Beardstown, is being sought on a warrant accusing him of violating an order of protection.

He is a white male standing 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.

 Micheal A. Atwood, 30, of 905 Alsey Smith Road, Alsey, is being sought on a warrant accusing him of violating a no-contact/stalking order in Christian County and being a non-compliant sexual offender.

He is a white male standing 5 foot 9 and weighing 150 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes.

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Submit tips anonymously at tipsubmit.com, by calling 217-243-7300 or by text messaging CRIMES (274637) with payout as the first word of the tip.



Jacksonville Police

ACCIDENTS

 Michael F. Roberts, 60, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident after the vehicle he was driving struck a vehicle being driven by Talisa R. Bowen, 30, of Jacksonville at 4:54 p.m. Friday in the 1000 block of West Morton Avenue.

 Aleigha S.A. Merritt, 18, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of operating an uninsured motor vehicle after the car she was driving struck one being driven by Jill A. Keeton, 47, of Waverly at 1:09 p.m. Friday in the 1900 block of West Morton Avenue.

 Donna J. Holmes, 59, of Winchester was cited on a charge of failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident after the car she was driving and one being driven by Janice E. Northcutt, 54, of White Hall collided at 11:10 a.m. Friday at West Morton Avenue and Illinois Route 104.

THEFTS, BURGLARIES

 A bicycle was stolen Thursday night from the 700 block of South Clay Avenue, according to a report filed at 10:11 a.m. Friday.

 Documents and sunglasses were taken Tuesday from an unlocked car while it was in the 300 block of East Douglas Avenue, according to a report filed at 8:56 a.m. Friday.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the personal savings and spending habits of millions of Americans. A survey by Charles Schwab found that 53% of Americans were financially impacted by the pandemic.

Now, as Americas economy recovers from lockdowns, its time for Americans of all ages to find their financial footing again. But for the young people heading back to college, sound strategies for money management still may be an enigma.

Jamie Gayton is executive vice president of member operations and global fixed assets at PenFed Credit Union. Hes also a teacher and mentor in personal finances for families and young people. He wants everyone to know that building for their financial future has to start early, and its easy to begin.

Ive spent thirty years teaching high school graduates, West Point Cadets and military families how to take control of their finances, Gayton said. That means Ive seen first-hand just how many young college kids arent equipped with the education they need to build their financial future. But there are easy ways to get started  even during a pandemic.

Making the right financial decisions at a young age can forever change your future. With that in mind, here are Gaytons four finance tips to help college students and young adults stand out from the pack and get on the right track financially.

1. Choose the financial institution that makes the most sense long-term, not for just right now.

All college students should have their own checking and savings account in their own name  especially if theyre living at home. But with so many financial institutions to choose from, how can you know youre making the right choice when selecting your financial service provider?

You may be inclined to choose the financial institution closest to you. But while that may make things easier in the short-term, proximity is not the most important factor in the long run.

Most financial institutions today offer digital services, including fully remote banking, Gayton said. What you should really be looking for are great rates, low fees and superior service.

If youre like most Americans, you probably assume that means going with one of the big name banks. Youd be mistaken.

Remember: You are looking for a financial institution that can support all your financial needs for years to come and not just provide immediate convenience. Even if youre traveling far away from home for college, dont feel like you have to use a big bank just because theyll have a branch near you. Hunt for the financial institution that will serve you best.

2. Start building credit early.

Your credit score is your financial report card for life. Many college students make the mistake of waiting too long to get started on building their credit. If you start early, you can enter adulthood with a credit score that helps, rather than hinders, you.

Im a big proponent of the power and value of credit and debit cards, Gayton said. If you can be responsible with a credit card, you can minimize the need for cash, earn rewards, consolidate payments on a single card and build your credit score all at once.

That said, its crucially important to avoid the most common pitfalls: spending more than you can pay off each month, paying back interest charges and hurting your credit score by missing payments.

3. Create a budget.

Most people  even adults whove been working for years  tend to overestimate their income and underestimate how much theyre going to spend. Theres no better way to combat that natural tendency than to make a budget.

The budgeting process can be a powerful tool to help you understand that every expense is a choice, and every choice adds up, Gayton said. When I was teaching at West Point, I would show the cadets the tradeoff between buying one pizza a week for four years at West Point versus the compounded returns of the pizzas if they had invested that money into a mutual fund. The result was over $100,000 in missed income!

4. Be open about your own finances.

Its often difficult for young people and parents to be open with each other about their finances. But if you set aside some time to discuss your financial worries and hopes with your family or trusted adults, you can better identify your needs, learn valuable advice and carve out a path toward your best financial future.
A collection of random thoughts and comments from the Journal-Couriers afternoon subscriber newsletter.

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We put so much into neat little bundles of statistics.

38,680. Thats how many people died in traffic accidents last year.

690,882. Thats the number of lives cut short by heart disease in 2020.

34 million. Thats how many people in the U.S. live in poverty.

Theres a comfort in numbers because we can detach ourselves from them more easily than having to think about the real people behind them. Statistics dont force us to come face to face with the individual lives lost and the multitude more devastated by that loss.

Heres one more number: 92,452. Thats how many Americans died last year from drug overdoses. It was the deadliest year on record. In Illinois, overdoses rose by 27.3% last year.

Ive had the unfortunate experience of knowing several people over the years who have been addicted to drugs. I watched as family and friends turned their backs on most of them, or simply ignored the problem.

Three of the four died at the hands of the disease of addiction, one intentionally.

The people at Gateway Foundation call these deaths of despair. They, and others, will be raising awareness in the days ahead about the challenges of addiction and the importance of community support and intervention.

When you hear or read some of these stories, open your mind and heart.

Look beyond the numbers.

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I always considered myself German. After all, I was a Bauer, a German word meaning farmer. Half of my family were Bauers. We were from Cincinnati. We feasted on bratwurst, beer and goetta  often at the same time.

I didnt think I could get much more German, short of my name being umlauted.

DNA changed my mind. A healthy collection of spittle in a lab vial and a few weeks wait told me my familys story actually originates in Stratford-upon-Avon, a medieval market town in Englands West Midlands. It was not until centuries later  following migrations westward through England and a jump across the waters into County Cork, Ireland  that the German part of my expanding heritage would be forged into an expanding patchwork.

Like most, I am a mosaic of cultures and customs. Ancestor names like Callahan, Medlock, Green and Koch all blended into the homogeneity of a singular representative identification.

Interestingly enough, the rise in popularity of DNA testing is part of the reason U.S. Census Bureau number crunchers saw such a rise last year in people who consider themselves multiracial. The number of Americans limiting themselves to standard categories  white, Black, Hispanic  is dropping. As we explore more in-depth in the story below  a story youll get to see first by being a subscriber  west-central Illinois is seeing that trend take hold across the Jacksonville area.

To this English-Irish-Scottish-German American, thats a welcome recognition of what has gone into making us, well  us.

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Anyone who spends eight hours a day in a cubicle farm has experienced an Angela Martin Moment.

Shes the judgmental character from the cult classic show The Office whose lack of a social filter results in plenty of snarky, downright rude comments.

Dunder-Mifflin is an imaginary company, but the mockumentary sitcom about its staff has become a pandemic must-binge because it reminds us what we love and despise about office life.

As more businesses return to in-person work, it just might be a cautionary note, too. It seems a lot of people are channeling their inner Angela Martin. A study by Portland State University says workplace incivility is rising, likely because of the lack of interpersonal communication during months of working from home.

Transitioning back to the office may be difficult for a lot of people. Were changing the paradigm and that compounds the stress. We have to learn how to read body language and real-time reactions again. Be as patient with your co-workers as you would want them to be with you.

Remember, theres no mute button anymore.

David C.L. Bauer is editor and publisher of the Journal-Courier.
Manuel Schmerber of Crystal City went to the Jefferson County Job Fair looking for an IT position. Alexis Endsley, marketing coordinator for Express Employment Professionals, explains the process to him.
Polish art show defies cancel culture but some see racism View Photo

WARSAW, Poland (AP)  An exhibition at a Polish state museum that opened Friday features the works of provocative artists in what organizers describe as a celebration of free speech, and a challenge to political correctness and cancel culture on the political left.

Some critics, however, accuse organizers of giving a platform to antisemitic and racist messages under the pretense of defending freedom of expression.

Political Art, which features the works of nearly 30 artists, is the second exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art under director Piotr Bernatowicz, who was appointed by Polands populist conservative ruling party in 2019.

Since it came to power in 2015, the Law and Justice party has harnessed the countrys cultural institutions in a mission to promote conservative and patriotic values  including the art center housed in a reconstructed castle that has showcased experimental and avant-garde art in Warsaw for 30 years.

The museum says the Political Art show provides a space for rebellious artists sometimes shunned elsewhere. The exhibition includes works critical of the authoritarian regimes in Russia and Belarus, works by women from Iran and Yemen critical of oppression in the Muslim world, and others that use swastikas or symbols rooted in the Holocaust in an apparently ironic way.

The most controversial person included is Dan Park, a Swedish provocateur who has been jailed on hate crimes in Sweden. In 2009, Park placed swastikas and boxes labeled Zyklon B  the gas used in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust  in front of a Jewish community center in Malmo.

A demonstration took place outside the museum as visitors arrived for the opening, with protesters confronting Park and one large banner saying: State promotion of fascism.

The Jewish community in Poland strongly protested the inclusion of Park. In an open letter to the museum director, rabbis and other Jewish representatives argued that promoting such artists offends all people in a country where 6 million Polish citizens  half of whom were Jews  were murdered during World War II.

Free expression is essential to a democratic society, but free expression still has limits, Polands chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said.

At a news conference on Friday, the director, Bernatowicz, said he could understand the position of the Jewish organizations, acknowledging that some of the work is provocative and controversial. But he said the Jewish representatives should see the exhibition before criticizing it.

I am not creating a platform propagating any types of Nazi or neo-Nazi views, Bernatowicz said. I am creating a platform for art to be expressed.

Several artists at the news conference said they received emails from antifascists the day before, warning them that works were being shown by far-right artists.

Some said they were unsettled by that message, including Emma Elliott, an antifascist artist whose works explore how women are usually the first targets of fascist regimes. But she and the others present  including two Jewish artists  defended the exhibit as an important platform for different voices.

Yes, I find some of the images here not only disturbing but offensive, said Marc Provisor, an Israeli artist. But I think its important for the writers of those letters to come (and) face what disturbs you.

Separately, an anti-fascist network in Poland also condemned the attempts to use Polish art institutions to platform artists infamous for their neo-Nazi sympathies.

Among the works by Park being shown in Warsaw is a poster that presents Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in twin attacks in Norway, as a supposed model for the clothing brand Lacoste.

Another provocateur is Uwe Max Jensen, a Danish artist who did a performance at Fridays opening in which he waved a Confederate flag, stripped naked, painted his body black with the help of another artist, and dragged himself on the floor as he repeated the words I cant breathe! Those were the last words spoken by George Floyd, the Black man whose murder by a police officer triggered a racial reckoning in the United States.

Protesters surrounding him shouting fascist!

The exhibit also features works by Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who lives under police protection for making a drawing of a dog with the head of the Prophet Muhammed. The drawing upset many Muslims in 2007 and brought Vilks death threats from extremists.

Ahead of the opening, a Yemeni-British artist who has also received death threats for works critical of Islam, Tasleem Mulhall, met Vilks for the first time. When she learned of his background, she hugged him and told him she admired him.

Also included in Political Art is a wall of photos of Ugandans holding up IDs. It is part of a project by Danish conceptual artist Kristian von Hornsleth, who persuaded 340 Ugandan villagers in 2006 to legally change their names to Hornsleth in exchange for pigs and goats.

Hornsleth  the artist who helped apply black pain to Jensens body  said the work was a critical commentary on the inability of Western development aid to help people in Africa, but some saw his work as racist.

Co-curator Jon Eirik Lundberg, a Norwegian who runs the Laesoe Kunsthal gallery in Denmark, denied that the show promotes racism, and said its aim is to fight for freedom of speech in defense of democracy.

The best way to protect any minority is to make sure there is freedom of speech, he said.

Hornsleth, the artist who photographed Ugandan villagers, said: Even if this show was right-wing and crazy, it should be allowed because its art. But its not  its really about creating a space in which anybody can disagree about anything.

Political Art runs through January 16.

By VANESSA GERA

Associated Press
The Latest: Last UK troops begin arriving from Afghanistan View Photo

LONDON  Military planes carrying British troops and diplomats from Kabul are landing at a U.K. air base after the U.K.s two-week evacuation operation ended.

The U.K. ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, was among those who arrived Sunday at RAF Brize Norton northwest of London, hours after the government announced that all British personnel had left Kabul.

Britain says it has evacuated more than 15,000 U.K. citizens and vulnerable Afghans in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind.

Vice Adm. Ben Key, who was in charge of the British operation, said: We tried our best.

In a video message, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the colossal effort, saying it was a mission unlike anything weve seen in our lifetimes.

But he is facing strong criticism over the failure to bring to safety all those Afghans who helped British forces during the 20-year deployment in Afghanistan that began in the wake of 9/11.

Johnson acknowledged that Britain would not have wished to leave in this way, but said we have to recognize that we came in with the United States, in defense and support of the U.S. and the U.S. military did the overwhelming bulk of the fighting.

___

MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

 Biden: Another attack likely, pledges more strikes on IS

 Slain Marine who cradled baby at Kabul airport loved her job

 GOP rift widens amid growing hostility to Afghan refugees

 Taliban success in Afghanistan seen as boost for extremists

 Explainer: How dangerous is Afghanistans Islamic State?

___

 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

___

HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

TIRANA, Albania  Two more planes have brought Afghans fearing the Taliban to Albania, bringing the total number of evacuees to 457.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday the two planes landed at dawn with 154 and 28 Afghans, respectively. Most of them will be temporarily housed at a student campus in the capital Tirana, while others were sent directly to hotels.

Albania aims to shelter all the evacuees in hotels instead of camps to give them a sense of normalcy.

Albania was among the first countries to offer housing to Afghans who have worked with U.S. and NATO forces and others fearing revenge following the Taliban takeover.

The Afghans in Albania come from different backgrounds, including activists and university staff, and include children.

___

MADRID  The U.S. Embassy in Spain says that a third flight sent by American forces to Spain has arrived at the Rota military base.

The flight arrived early Sunday with 220 evacuees from Afghanistan.

___

KABUL, Afghanistan  The U.S. State Department is urging all Americans in the vicinity of the Afghanistans Kabul airport to leave the area immediately because of a specific, credible threat.

The warning early Sunday morning says U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time. It specifically noted the South (Airport Circle) gate, the new Ministry of the Interior, and the gate near the Panjshir Petrol station on the northwest side of the airport.

A suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday killed at least 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.

By The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A man from the Las Vegas area won the $1 million grand prize Thursday to cap an eight-week coronavirus vaccination jackpot program that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak created for successfully promoting coronavirus inoculations.

The prize winners were introduced by their first name and last initial at a live event hosted by the governor at the Las Vegas Convention Center, by aides at a satellite gathering at the Sierra Arts Foundations Riverside Gallery in Reno, and streamed to the internet.

Sisolak, a Democrat, urged people to still get shots even though the promotional program called Vax Nevada Days was over.

State health data showed the percentage of vaccinated state residents increased about 10% between the time the prize pool was announced in mid-June and it ended on Thursday.

Nearly 100% of people being hospitalized with COVID-19 in Nevada are unvaccinated, Sisolak said, calling those severe illnesses preventable.

As the scientists say, and health experts keep telling us, vaccines are the only way we will end this pandemic once and for all, he said.

The prize program launched June 17 with $5 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to induce unvaccinated people to get shots.

It put Nevada on a list of states offering unconventional incentives to revive sluggish vaccination programs amid rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitalization and deaths attributed to the more contagious delta variant.

Nevada has about 3.1 million residents. About half the population age 12 or older, or 1.4 million, had received at least one shot by June 17, and almost 43% of eligible people were fully inoculated.

By Thursday, the population that received at least one shot had grown to more than 61% and the fully vaccinated percentage was almost 51%.

The number of vaccinations administered statewide  after peaking at more than 25,000 in mid-April  went down from about 7,000 per day in mid-June to fewer than 5,000 a day in mid-July before returning to around 7,000 daily in recent weeks.

The prize program made state residents who received at least one vaccination since December, along with vaccinated military members in Nevada and their dependents, automatically eligible to receive prizes ranging from fishing licenses to college tuition and cash prizes from $1,000 to $250,000.

The program had almost 2,000 winners, but just one grand prize winner of $1 million.
Jury convicts Colorado deputies in detox van death View Photo

BOULDER, Colo. (AP)  Jurors convicted Friday two former Colorado sheriffs deputies accused of causing the death of an intoxicated man by placing him on his stomach and squeezing him into a van to take him to a detox center.

Former Boulder County sheriffs deputies James OBrien, 52, and Adam Lunn, 39, were found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Demetrius Shankling, 23, in 2018, the Longmont Times-Call reported.

According to an arrest affidavit, they put the 6-foot (1.8-meter) tall man, with his hands behind his back, in a compartment that was less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) long.

OBrien and Lunn had to press on the compartment door to close it, causing Shanklings leg to get wedged against the inside of the door, the affidavit said.

When they reached the detox center the early hours of Sept. 9, 2018, Shankling was unresponsive and not breathing.

He died after spending 27 days in a coma, Senior Deputy District Attorney Christian Gardner-Wood said. An autopsy found that Shankling died of suffocation because of his positioning, with alcohol and amphetamine as contributing factors.

In closing arguments, the prosecution told jurors that OBrien and Lunn acted recklessly and disregarded their training on positional asphyxia. The mens lawyer, Carrie Slinkard, argued that the former deputies, who were working an extra shift at the time, were not very familiar with the van.

The sheriffs office was in charge of taking people to detox that weekend because students had just returned to the University of Colorado and city and university police wanted to keep their officers on patrol instead, she told jurors during opening statements.

Slinkard replayed audio from when Shankling was found unconscious by the deputies.

Based on the audio we heard, no one would disagree that they were concerned. It was a tragedy, but a genuine accident, she said.
The second annual Caprock Beef Cattle Conference is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Ollie Liner Center.

The conference will be hosted by Hale and Floyd County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agents Andy Hart (Hale County) and Mark Carroll (Floyd County). The event will include several of the top beef cattle experts providing information related to forage management and beef health.
GLOCESTER, R.I. (AP)  The Rhode Island school committee that earlier this week voted to allow parents to request conscientious objections to the state's universal school face mask policy is now backing off that decision, while still looking into the legality of the mandate.

Parents received automated phone calls and emails on Thursday saying that the district intends to comply with the state Department of Healths school masking protocols, which do not allow conscientious objection exemptions, The Providence Journal reported.
LONDON (AP)  British troops left Kabul on Saturday, ending the U.K.'s evacuation operation and its 20-year military involvement in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the heroic evacuation effort, even as the government acknowledged some eligible Afghan civilians had been left behind. The U.K.s top military officer conceded that we havent been able to bring everybody out."

The U.K. government said late Saturday that about 1,000 troops who ran an airlift of British nationals and Afghan civilians had departed from Kabul airport, hours after the final evacuation flight for civilians. Most countries apart from the United States had already left.

Before departing, Britains ambassador to Afghanistan, Laurie Bristow, said from Kabul airport that it was time to close this phase of the operation now.

But we havent forgotten the people who still need to leave, Bristow said in a video posted on Twitter. Well continue to do everything we can to help them. Nor have we forgotten the brave, decent people of Afghanistan. They deserve to live in peace and security.

Britain says it has evacuated more than 15,000 people from Kabul in the past two weeks but that as many as 1,100 Afghans who were entitled to come to the U.K. have been left behind. Some British lawmakers who have been trying to help stranded constituents and their families believe the true total is higher.

We havent been able to bring everybody out, and that has been heartbreaking, and there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground, the head of British armed forces, Gen. Nick Carter, told the BBC.

Foreign citizens from around the world and the Afghans who worked with them have sought to leave the country since the Talibans swift takeover this month after most U.S. forces departed. About 117,000 people have been evacuated through Kabul airport, according to American officials.

The desperate, chaotic exodus turned deadly on Thursday, when a suicide bomber struck crowds gathered near the Kabul airport. The attack killed at last 169 Afghans and 13 American troops. Two British citizens and the child of another Briton also were among the dead.

In London, Afghans came to the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association advice center, desperate for news of friends and relatives.

Saraj Deen Safi said he had been unable to make contact with relatives who were near Kabul airport since Thursdays bomb attack. He said he hoped they would be able to reach a safe European country, but he felt despaired at the lack of news.

While the U.K. has evacuated thousands of former interpreters and others who worked with British forces, the advice program coordinator for the London association, Shabnam Nasimi, said she was devastated for many others who had been abandoned.

And these include journalists and judges, for instance, who are directly going to be targeted by the Taliban, she said. The future of these individuals is very bleak."

The British prime minister promised Friday to shift heaven and earth to get more people from Afghanistan to Britain by other means, though no concrete details have been offered.

U.K. officials hope some people may be able to leave Afghanistan overland for neighboring countries, where their claims to come to the U.K. could be processed. That will depend on diplomatic coordination and cooperation  not least from the Taliban.

Some 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the 2001 invasion that set out to remove al-Qaida from the country, and 457 U.K. personnel died there.

Johnson said Saturday that the two-decade Afghan deployment was worthwhile despite its chaotic denouement.

He said this was a moment to reflect on everything we have sacrificed and everything we have achieved in the last two decades.

Our purpose in Afghanistan was simple  to protect the United Kingdom from harm  and you succeeded in that central mission, Johnson said in a letter to Britain's armed forces.

___

Associated Press video journalist Jo Kearney contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's coverage of Afghanistan at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  A New Hampshire woman who contends she was forced to behead her lovers corpse after her husband killed the man has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, officials said.

The woman is set to enter a plea on Monday in Superior Court, where she was charged with falsifying evidence, including allegedly decapitating the victim.
Click here to read the full article.

Matthew Mindler, a child actor known for his role in the 2011 film Our Idiot Brother, was found dead on Saturday after being reported missing from his university. He was 19.

His college, Millersville University in Pennsylvania, announced the news in an email to its student body on Saturday.

It is with a grieving heart that I let you know of the death of 19-year-old Matthew Mindler from Hellertown, Pennsylvania, a first-year student at Millersville University. Our thoughts of comfort and peace are with his friends and family during this difficult time, the email reads.

Mindler was reported missing by the university on Aug. 26., and law enforcement agencies as well as the university police had been searching for him ever since. Mindler was found deceased in Manor Township on Saturday and was then transported to the Lancaster County Forensic Center for further investigation. A cause of death has not been disclosed.
H-E-B is giving shelf space to a San Antonio brand at the "forefront" of regenerative beef products. Wholesome Meats, a San Antonio sustainable beef startup, is now available at 14 H-E-B locations in the San Antonio area and Austin.

So what is regenerative beef ?

Marc Trevino, Wholesome Meats' marketing director, expanded on the agricultural practice. The company works with a small group of farmers to take a "ground up approach" focusing on soil health.

"The land management is a way in which ranchers prioritize to help with their soils," Trevino says. "They have more biodiverse plants and the quality of their cattle is really important as well. They rotate the cows on a pasture divided into a paddock where the cows are rotated every few hours, so they don't eat the grass all the way down to the root. So they only eat the top of the grass, which makes it grow stronger.""

3 1 of 3 Courtesy, Wholesome Meats Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy, Wholesome Meats Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Rotating cows every two hours promotes stronger soil and grass, Trevino says.

"We let the cows graze the way nature intended," he adds.

And though it might seem more labor intensive, and thus costly, the price point for a pound of the regeneratively raised, grass-fed beef is $7.99. By comparison, H-E-B's brand of grass-fed beef is $7.20 a pound. `

Customers might also notice the Wholesome Meat flavor at local restaurants such as Milpa, Ocho, Sangria on the Burg, and The Cove, which all use the beefy brand.

Lew Moorman and Ed Byrne, of local tech company Scaleworks founded the meat company in 2020 as one of their initiatives to promote soil health. Getting into H-E-B is Wholesome Meat's first mainstream retail avenue. Previously, the meat was only sold online.
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP)  The Navajo Nation reported 38 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Friday and no new deaths.

Tribal President Jonathan Nez said the daily increase in cases is in line with other places around the country. He urged residents of the vast reservation that extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona to limit travel, wear a mask and social distance.
Local Journalism Sustainability Act introduced in U.S. Senate; Help is needed to ensure passage of the legislation
Yves here. The few people in California to whom I have spoken about the prospect of Larry Elder becoming governor dont seem very worried. His term would go only to the start of 2023, key positions in the administration, like attorney general and secretary of state, are elected and the legislature is solidly Democratic. He could try rule by executive order, but as we explained with Trump, about 80% of his executive orders had all of the legal impact of press releases. Theyd require enabling legislation to have any effect.

By Sonali Kolhatkar, the founder, host and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. Produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute

Californias Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election that, up until recently, the Democratic Party had brushed off as a frivolous inconvenience. Now, just days before the election, vote-by-mail ballots have been sent to Californias 22 million active registered voters in a statewide off-year election that offers a bewildering array of nearly four dozen alternate choices to Newsom if he were to lose. Polls show that even in a state with a clear majority of voters identifying as Democratic, Newsom is in trouble.

It shouldnt have turned out this way. Just a few years ago, Newsom was seen as a progressive superstar, elected in 2018 to lead the worlds fifth-largest economy after serving as mayor of San Francisco. These were the same midterm elections that saw progressive newcomers like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and others elected to federal congressional seats in what was seen as a game-changing year for liberal politics and a worthy consolation prize to Bernie Sanders 2016 Democratic nomination loss.

Newsoms campaign slogan, Courage for a Change, led political pundits to dub him the next head of the California resistance. He campaigned on ushering in a statewide Medicare for All or single-payer system and won the endorsement of the National Nurses United (NNU) as a result. A year before his win, Newsom addressed NNU members on the issue of health care, saying, If we cant get it done next year, you have my firm and absolute commitment as your next governor that I will lead the effort to get it done. We will have universal health care in the state of California.

Nearly three years since Newsom took office, there is no whiff of Medicare for All in sight aside from a tabled bill, and a commission that Newsom appointed nearly two years ago. It seemed as though the fervent backer of single payer was no longer as enthusiastic about health care as he had appeared to be. As John Marty, writing for Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said, Newsoms shifting position on single payer shows why voters become cynical. Is it any wonder then that Californias Democratic voters are not as enthused to show up to the polls on September 14 even though most voters oppose the recall? One Republican analyst said, Newsom doesnt have to worry about the Democratic base voting for the recall. Instead, He has to worry about them not voting at all.

True, the timing of the recall does not benefit the governor. Newsoms unpopular positions on COVID-19 restrictions and perceived hypocrisy on safety measures are among the reasons why voters might want to punish him. Frankly, he hasnt inspired voters enough to reward him with a No vote on the recall.

But, Californias liberal voters also likely do not want to see him replaced by a Republican, let alone a right-wing extremist. The GOPs front-runner in the crowded field of alternates to replace Newsom is conservative celebrity talk radio host Larry Elder. Polls show roughly 18 percent of voters would choose Elder to replace Newsom. As with the 2020 presidential election, California progressives may once again find themselves in a position of having to choose a milquetoast Democrat in order to stave off an extremist Republican takeover.

Although 18 percent of the vote is not remotely close to democratically representative, by the bizarre rules of California recalls, Elder could still assume the governors seat if Newsom garners less than 50 percent support. In other words, even if Newsom wins 49.9 percent support and the Yes on Recall wins 50.1 percent, Newsom has lost. At that point, the alternate candidate with a plurality of votes will walk off with the prize. And that could be Elder with a mere 18 percent of the votes compared to Newsoms 49.9 percent. If that sounds unconstitutional, as per numerous legal experts, it absolutely is.

Elder is the author of The Ten Things You Cant Say in America, a book that inspired none other than Donald Trumps former immigration adviser Stephen Miller, the director of Trumps family separation horror show.

Indeed, the arguments published by recall supporters in the state voter guide use standard dog-whistle anti-immigrant arguments such as claiming that Newsom, endorsed [laws that] favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our own citizens, and that he, imposed sanctuary state status. The recall elections lead proponent Orrin Heatlie is a retired sheriffs sergeant who in 2019 wrote a Facebook post saying, Microchip all illegal immigrants. It works! Just ask Animal control.

Given the racist forces behind the recall and the front-runner Elders political leanings, the California recall has become a microcosm of what many feared the 2020 presidential race would turn into: a Trumpian conservative hoping to govern the state by minority rule and prevailing over an uninspiring Biden-like moderate.

A recall effort to oust the governor has only ever succeeded once in Californias history. That was in 2003 when Republican challenger Arnold Schwarzenegger beat the Democratic incumbent Gray Davis. It seems as though the GOP must resort to undemocratic means to gain political power in the staunchly liberal statesimilar to the federal-level modus operandi for the conservative party.

There is no doubt that a second term for Trump would have been an utter tragedy for the United States. The January 6 coup attempt was evidence enough of that. Similarly, there is no question that sticking it to the disappointing governor of California by not showing up to the polls would be a self-destructive move for liberals and progressives alike.

Whether it is anger at Newsoms capitulation on progressive campaign promises or sheer voter ignorance and apathy matters little. A Democratic California state senator who is advocating against the recall worried that folks seem distracted or unaware about an election that could yield a Trump-like leader in California.

In spite of the deep disappointment over Newsoms failures, there are many reasons to oppose a recall. At stake are some of Newsoms executive actions on climate change that a Republican governor would surely overturn. Some worry that a Republican governor might get the chance to appoint a replacement for California Senator Dianne Feinstein if she retires or passes away in the next two years, which in turn would flip the U.S. Senate to GOP control. Feinstein is the nations oldest sitting senator.

Additionally, many fear Republican leadership in California would mean a rollback of voting rights as seen in states like Texas and Florida. And of course, given Elders anti-immigrant tendencies, a Newsom loss could spell doom for the states undocumented population.

Those who want to teach Newsom a lessonand he surely deserves to be punished for his failure to live up to his progressive pledgeshave a chance at judging him in next years gubernatorial race. If he wins the recall, he has one more year to make good on promises like Medicare for All. Then, come 2022, there will be an election based on direct democracy, rather than the whims of right-wing extremists hoping to game a flawed system.
These female hummingbirds don flashy male feathers to avoid unwanted harassment Popular Science (resilc)

Massive nest containing 1,500 murder hornets discovered in US The Hill

Common pesticide may contribute to global obesity crisis MedicalXPress (Robert M)

How a Volcanic Surge 56 Million Years Ago Cut Off The Arctic Ocean From The Atlantic ScienceAlert (Kevin W)

Tepco to build undersea tunnel to release Fukushima water offshore Japan Times

Greenhouse Gas Concentrations In 2020 Highest Ever Recorded NPR (David L)

Single-use plastic plates and cutlery to be banned in England Guardian (Kevin W)

What will our eco-friendly homes of the future look like? Guardian (David L)

Pupil Size Is a Marker of Intelligence Scientific American (Dr. Kevin)

What To Say When Someone Asks Why You Dont Have Kids The Onion. My favorite: I lost them in poker.

#COVID-19

Science/Medicine

Mutation rate of COVID-19 virus is at least 50 percent higher than previously thought PhysOrg (Robert M) I recall that up to December 2020, the science press remarked from time to time about how little Covid mutated. Funny how that changed.

Delta variant doubles risk of hospitalisation, new study finds Guardian (Kevin W). Counters the repeatedly made assertion that viruses evolve to be less deadly, which weve said is not a given, citing studies, as well as earlier claims that Delta might be milder than wild type.

Does Delta Variant Pose Less Risk With 6 Feet Of Distance? NPR

Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccinebut no infection parties, please Science (Li). Lambert featured this article and the link to the paper proper (Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections MedRxIV (preprint)). From GM via e-mail:

This doesnt make much sense. When Novavax was doing trials in South Africa, the placebo arm had both seropositive and seronegative individuals in it, and they compared those groups. And they saw no difference between them at all, i.e. with B.1.351 prior infection provided zero protection (and it was about 6 months from the first wave). That was an actual RCT, even if the numbers were not huge. It might be a little bit better with B.1.617.2, but I doubt it will by all that much. That Science is highlighting such a preprint is quite notable though. This week they could have highlighted the Moderna preprint that showed third doses waning as fast as the second, but they did not, and I dont remember them highlighting the Moderna papers and preprints from March and April that clearly predicted what is happening now when those came out either. Now we are in the infections is good for you phase. Where some people wanted us to be from the beginning

Covid infection protection waning in double jabbed BBC. Sorry to be rely on GM so much today, but the propaganda is coming in awfully thick:

This is quite incredible to read and I am left speechless. Quotes: ================ Protection after two shots of Pfizer decreased from 88% at one month to 74% at five to six months. For AstraZeneca, the fall was from 77% to 67% at four to five months. Waning protection is to be expected, say experts. [] Prof Spector said: Waning protection is to be expected and is not a reason to not get vaccinated. [] He estimates that protection against infection could drop to 50% by the winter and boosters will be needed, but other experts urge caution about making predictions for the months ahead. [] Prof Spector said: Many people may not need them. Many people may have had a natural booster because theyve already had a natural Covid infection, so will effectively have had three vaccines. So I think the whole thing needs to be much more carefully managed than just giving it to everybody which would be a huge waste and ethically dubious given the resources we have. I think we need a more targeted approach than last time. This study once again illustrates why we need to get used to Covid circulating  this is not a virus thats going to go away. The vaccines do not work like they do for measles which provide life-long immunity. Immunity against Covid was always expected to wane. [] Whatever the cause though, experts have been clear we should expect to be repeatedly infected over our lifetimes. The important thing is that each re-infection should be milder as the vaccines remain highly effective at preventing serious illness. What the vaccines have effectively done is taken the edge off the virus  given our immune system a head-start so those early infections are milder than they would have been for most. [] ================ So it was always expected after many months of touting the extremely high efficiency and talking about lifetime protection. And it was also always expected that everyone will get COVID multiple times

Contrast with:

Attempts to reach herd immunity through exposing people to a virus are scientifically problematic & unethical. Letting #COVID19 spread through populations, of any age or health status will lead to unnecessary infections, suffering & death -WHOhttps://t.co/XcKBLXZRhH  Orla Hegarty (@Orla_Hegarty) August 28, 2021

Tired of worrying: As some parents press for vaccines off-label, pediatricians call for patience STAT

Covid-19 origins still murky after Biden administrations 90-day investigation Politico
(Natural News) An unlikely source of air pollution has been blamed from almost 1 million deaths every year. Up to 900,000 premature deaths have been attributed to anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols (ASOAs). While majority of ASOAs come from fossil fuel combustion, some of them can be found in everyday products such as household paint, cleaning items and pesticides.

Researcher Benjamin Nault says: All those different smells youre getting from paint are different [volatile organic compounds] that are being emitted [into the air.] These compounds, commonly called VOCs, can become chemicals that clump together to form ASOAs in the long run. Majority of VOCs are produced indoors, but they eventually escape through open windows or tiny cracks in the foundation of homes.

Nault added that higher populations in urban areas contribute to increased ASOA production. Theres more people living in urban areas. [You] need more of these everyday use products to paint all the apartments and townhouses, to put the asphalt down [and] to clean everything up, he said. True enough, ASOAs often made up a significant portion of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)  another common pollutant  in urban areas.

Thus, Nault and other scientists looked at the role of ASOAs in increasing mortality rates. They indicated their findings in a July 2021 study published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The researchers observed ASOA production in 11 countries across three continents, and projected 340,000 premature deaths per year attributed to the pollutant. Upon using a more recently proposed model, the researchers found that ASOAs can cause up to 900,000 fatalities.

The July 2021 study concluded that ASOAs contribute to a substantial fraction of the premature mortality associated with PM2.5. It also noted that reducing the pollutants that give rise to ASOAs from both traditional and emerging, non-traditional sources will also help reduce premature deaths. (Related: Petroleum-based chemicals in cleaning products, perfumes and pesticides now cause as much air pollution as vehicles.)

Emissions from household products often overlooked

The study by Nault and his colleagues pointed out that in the developing world, ASOAs were usually emitted by transportation sources such as combustion engines in vehicles. Thus, many countries implemented rules to curb VOC emissions from vehicles  with great success.

However, emissions from everyday items proved to be more difficult to address due to their ubiquity. According to Nault, emissions produced by volatile chemical products (VCPs) had remained relatively flat or going up due to more relaxed regulations and their direct ties to everyday use. [This] makes it really hard to say, these are the emissions that need to be regulated,' he added.

Meanwhile, Kihong Park of South Koreas Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology said different particles have different toxicity levels. Typically, chemical components such [as] salt species, sulfates and nitrates have less toxicity than [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons], heavy metals and organic compounds  which are abundant in combustion-generated particles, he said.

Park nevertheless emphasized that environmental authorities must focus on the toxicity of PM2.5 coming from different sources. He said: In the future, we have to consider the differential toxicity of PM2.5, in addition to [its] amount, to better understand [its] effects  on human health. If the specific source for PM2.5 is more dangerous than others, we have to put more priority on the control of that source.

The study by Nault and his colleagues is not the first research that focused on the role of household products as contributors to air pollution. Back in April 2021, a British study found that household aerosols release more VOCs than all vehicles in the United Kingdom. The study published in Elementa named certain products that potentially emit the highest amount of VOCs such as carpet cleaners, windshield de-icers and oven cleaners. (Related: UK scientists warn that household aerosols are worse pollutants than vehicles.)

Alistair Lewis and Amber Yeoman, the authors of the April 2021 study, noted a number of long-term chronic health effects caused by VOCs. They noted that VOCs used as propellants can cause nausea, vomiting, rapid breathing and in severe cases, comas and death when inhaled. Furthermore, they noted that possible long term toxic health effects could be caused by propellants making their way into the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Lewis and Yeoman wrote in their study that a number of products have non-aerosol alternatives that can be used in either liquid or solid form. Roll-on deodorant, hair gel, solid furniture polish, tanning spray and air fresheners were examples of these non-aerosol products. Virtually all aerosol-based consumer products can be delivered in non-aerosol form, Lewis said.

Chemicals.news has more articles about ASOAs and VOCs, and their negative effects on human health.

Sources include:

EcoWatch.com

EHN.org

ACP.Copernicus.org

DailyMail.co.uk

Online.UCPress.edu
(Natural News) The rapid development of artificial intelligence can pose some risks, which is why it should be strictly and ethically controlled. AI developers are now discussing how to place limits on technology to ensure that robots will always act in the interest of humanity because giving them their own independent personalities could be dangerous.

AI consultant Matthew Kershaw said that it may even be possible for technology to reach worrying heights within this lifetime if youre young enough.

Professor Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and cosmologist said before his death in 2018, The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. (Related: EU proposing legislation to restrict facial recognition tech and high-risk artificial intelligence applications.)

SpaceX founder Elon Musk agreed with Hawkings statement. He said, I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, its probably that. So we need to be very careful.

What is artificial general intelligence?

AI in itself can be dangerous, but what can we expect from AGI? Put simply, artificial general intelligence can be defined as the ability of a machine to perform any task that a human can. While this highlights the ability of machines to perform tasks with greater efficacy than humans, they are, as of this moment, not generally intelligent. For instance, they are very good at a single function while they have no capabilities in anything else not programmed into them. Thus, while they are effective as a hundred trained humans in performing one task, it can lose to children over literally anything else.

However, Kershaw believes that true AGI will require the use of computers that are powerful enough to hold a comprehensive model of the world, and this wont be anytime soon. Given that we dont really understand what it means to be conscious ourselves, I think its unlikely that AGI will be a reality anytime soon. We just dont know what it actually means to be conscious.'

Further, AI has to be trained in any function using massive volumes of data, while humans can learn with significantly less. A human child doesnt need to see more than five cars to learn how to recognize a car. A computer would need to see thousands, Kershaw said.

In 1950, computing pioneer Alan Turing proposed that a computer can be said to possess artificial intelligence if it can mimic human responses under specific conditions. Turing devised a test to determine whether or not an AI could pass for a human, and as of yet, there has been no system that passed it, although few have come close. The closest was in 2018, when Googles duplex AI telephoned a hairdresser salon and successfully made an appointment.

However, Duplex was working on a very specific task, and a true AGI would have been able to chat with the hairdresser.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere today, but while those systems are good at their dedicated missions, none of them so far were able to learn to do something without the help of humans.

What scientists call artificial general intelligence remains theoretical for now. To enable these artificial systems, machines must learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks.

Experts are developing new technologies that can be close to the inflection point where they can develop general intelligence. However, most AI experts still believe that we will be able to see AGI by the end of the century, with the most optimistic estimates being around 2040 to 2080. Others also believe that artificial consciousness will never be achieved because we, as humans dont understand our own.

Risks of artificial intelligence

There are drawbacks to artificial intelligence as well, some of which include the following:

Job loss. Automation of jobs can spur massive job loss. Job automation is an immediate concern. It is no longer a matter of if AI can replace certain job types, its a matter of the degree that they can. Many industries are already becoming automated today, especially in areas where tasks are repetitive. Before long, tasks from retail sales to market analysis to labor can be done using AI.

Privacy concerns. Malicious use of AI could also threaten digital security by way of hacking, physical security by weaponizing consumer drones and even political security through surveillance and profiling. AI can affect privacy and security similar to Chinas Orwellian use of facial technology in offices, schools, and venues.

Stock market instability. Due to algorithmic, high-frequency trading, entire financial systems could be brought down. Algorithmic trading occurs when a computer could execute trades based on pre-programmed instructions, and they can make high-volume, high-frequency and high-value trades that can lead to extreme market volatility.

Read more about artificial intelligence and the wonders of technology at Computing.news.

Sources include:

DailyStar.co.uk

Forbes.com

BuiltIn.com
(Natural News) Arizona state representative Mark Finchem is exposing the National Association of Secretaries of State for plotting in a cabal to prevent future forensic audits from taking place throughout the country.

(Article by Shane Trejo republished from BigLeaguePolitics.com)

The group of secretaries of state recently convened during their annual summer meeting in Des Moines, Iowa to create guidelines that would prevent a Maricopa-style forensic audit from ever happening again.

The only individual who voted against these sinister recommendations was West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft abstained. Every other active secretary of state present at the meeting voted in favor of the recommendations.

According to Finchem, this shows the depth of the levels of corruption within the electoral system and demonstrate the need for individuals who fully understand the issue of systemic voter fraud to take the reins of power.

Never in the history of the several States, or even in the history of the United States, have the People surrendered their right to fully scrutinize any election. Such scrutiny goes beyond recounts. It is the Legislature, that is the duly elected representatives of the people, who control this aspect of our consent to be governed, not Secretaries of State, who are executive branch office holders, or appointed, unelected bureaucrats. To prevent any form of audit is not the proper role of the Secretary of State, instead their role is to faithfully execute the laws that Legislature has adopted, Finchem said in a press release.

Because of the underlying political questions involving elections, there will always be disagreement on how to handle discrepancies. But nobody can, with a straight face, say that every election is fraud-free. It is the prerogative of a free people to hold their elected representatives accountable for the examination of election results to prove or disprove alleged discrepancies in any electoral contest. How a Legislature chooses to address those discrepancies is its prerogative, attempting to change the perception the polity is little more than manipulation, he added.

Big League Politics interviewed Finchem about his current run for secretary of state in Arizona, and he underscored the necessity of the forensic audit:

Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem recently appeared on Big League Politics Live where the constitutionally-minded state representative explained the problems with the lack of transparency in the voting process of his home state.

If the citizens are denied the opportunity to scrutinize an election that they believe may be, shall we say, questionable, I think that thats where we lose a certain power by the people in the democratic process of selecting our elected officials, Finchem said.

I mean, after all, we were built on the consent of the governed, that whole idea, and theres a lot of people who have given up a lot of blood, a lot of treasure, a lot of lives to see to it that that single changein the way people are government has endured for over 250 years. I dont want to see an end to it, he added.

Finchem believes that the American dream is still worth fighting for, and that is why he has refused to budge an inch in the crusade for electoral transparency. He is running for secretary of state on a platform of stopping voter fraud.

As flawed as it might be, I think that we still are the freest form of government and we need to return back to that freedom, and the only way we can do that is to ensure that our elections are transparent, to ensure that our vote that is cast is not somehow nullified by illegal voteand the only way we can do that is through scrutiny, he said.

It seems very odd to me that the Democrats dont want to embrace the idea of scrutiny and embrace the idea of an audit because that would be their grand opportunity for them to say, on Joe Bidens part, Hey Donald, I beat you fair and square. Get over it. But thats not whats happening here. Theyre doing everything they can to obfuscate, to put up roadblocks, to put up nail strips to slow the process down, to make the process go away, Finchem added.

If Finchem becomes the next Arizona secretary of state, he will help unearth the corruption that threatens the very essence of American democracy.

Read more at: BigLeaguePolitics.com and Corruption.news.
(Natural News) The chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, Haruo Ozaki, held a press conference this week announcing that the anti-parasite medicine Ivermectin seems to be effective at stopping COVID-19 and publicly recommending that all doctors in Japan immediately begin using Ivermectin to treat COVID.

(Article by Kennedy Hall republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

Ivermectin has been a source of controversy amongst medical professionals regarding the possibility of therapeutic treatments for those diagnosed with COVID-19.

In an article about the suppression of Ivermectin by health authorities, Dr. Joseph Mercola wrote: While the list of crimes committed by authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic is a long one, perhaps the biggest crime of all is the purposeful suppression of safe and effective treatments.

Multiple reports and studies have shown evidence that Ivermectin is effective in combatting illness associated with COVID-19, and in some countries, like India, it is recommended for use even though the World Health Organization does not recommend it.

Dr. Ozaki cited evidence from African nations that have utilized Ivermectin during the pandemic. He stated: In Africa, if we compare countries distributing Ivermectin once a year with countries who do not give Ivermectin they dont give Ivermectin to prevent COVID but to prevent parasitic disease if we look at COVID numbers in countries that give Ivermectin, the number of cases is 134.4/100,000 and the number of deaths is 2.2/100,000.

In 2019, Japans death rate from influenza amounted to 2.9 death cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Tokyo Medical Association chairman compared statistics from African countries that did use Ivermectin yearly with those that did not: Now African countries which do not distribute Ivermectin: 950.6 cases per 100,000 and 29.3 deaths per 100,000.

In his opinion, he believes that this shows a clear difference between the illness and fatality rates amongst nations that use Ivermectin and those that do not: I believe the difference is clear. Of course one cannot conclude that Ivermectin is effective only on the basis of these figures, but when we have all of these elements, we cannot say that Ivermectin is absolutely not effective, at least not me.

He added that, given the situation, other studies can be done to confirm its efficacy, insinuating that it is worth using as a treatment, given that in his estimation, Japan is in a crisis situation.

He said, I think we are in a situation where we can afford to give [patients] this treatment.

Another prominent Japanese physician, Dr. Kazuhiro Nagao, appeared on Japanese television proposing that COVID-19 should be treated as a Class 5 illness as opposed to its current classification as a Class 2. In Japan, illnesses are categorized by a classification system; approaching COVID as a Class 5 illness would mean that it could be treated like a seasonal flu.

Dr. Nagao said he has used Ivermectin as an early treatment for over 500 COVID patients with practically a 100% success rate, and that it should be used nationwide.

Nagao was asked by the TV anchor when patients should take Ivermectin if diagnosed with COVID-19. He replied: The same day, I mean if you are infected today, you take it today It is a medication that should be given for mildly ill patients. If you give it to hospital patients, its too late. This is also the case for the majority of drugs So you have to give Ivermectin. I am asking our Prime Minister Suga to distribute this drug made in Japan on a large scale in the country.

He added that four pills should be distributed to everyone in the country, so that people can take them as soon as you are infected.

Ivermectin originates from a single microbe unearthed from soil in Japan, and in recent years has been called a wonder drug that continues to surprise and exceed expectations. It has shown unexpected potential as an antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer agent, according to a 2017 article from The Journal of Antibiotics.

The same article stated: Ivermectin has also been demonstrated to be a potent broad-spectrum specific inhibitor of importin ?/?-mediated nuclear transport and demonstrates antiviral activity against several RNA viruses by blocking the nuclear trafficking of viral proteins.

Recently, pro-life activist Abby Johnson wrote about her experience with a COVID and her use of Ivermectin as an early treatment. She wrote that under the guidance of Americas Frontline Doctors, she took a combination of Ivermectin, Prednisone and Zithromax, and that she noticed results straight away, and by the fifth day felt fully cured.

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com and Medicine.news.
Authorities in Spain are extending the ban of hazardous fertilizers in a saltwater lagoon on the country's Mediterranean coast. Tons of dead fish have washed up on the shores of Madrid for the last ten days.

Government of Murcia's Strategy

Inorganic nitrogen fertilizers would be forbidden on farms within 1,500 meters (1,640 yards) of the Mar Menor lagoon, according to the regional administration of Murcia, located 400 kilometers (240 miles) southeast of Madrid.

Algae blooms, which deplete oxygen in surface water and kill fish, can be caused by some of these fertilizers.

Murcia is one of Spain's most important fruit and vegetable growers, with much of its production going to northern Europe.

According to the government of Murcia, about 5 metric tons (5.5 tons) of fertilizer runoff from nearby farms is washed into the lagoon every day.

Teresa Ribera, Spain's Environment Minister, paid a visit to the lagoon on Wednesday and praised the regional government's strategy, which includes increased and expedited financial penalties for violators. She claims that out of the more than 400 penalties presently in place by authorities, 200 are pending in court and anotsher 200 are still unresolved.

Also read: Fighting Climate Change: Planting a Tree Every Year for the Next 20 Years Could Change the World

Harmful Fertilizers

Since the 1930s, chemical fertilizers, which have proven to be harmful, have assisted farmers in improving agricultural yield. Chemical fertilizers boost plant nutrients under severe weather conditions, but they also have several negative side effects. Waterway pollution, chemical burn to crops, increased air pollution, soil acidification, and mineral depletion are just a few of the problems that chemical fertilizers may create.

Chemical fertilizers used on crops can have negative consequences for rivers, due to chemical runoff from excess fertilizer. The quantity of oxygen in the water is reduced due to an excess of nutrients. The oxygen that is left is used up by the existing organisms in the water. As a result of oxygen deprivation, the fish perish.

Chemical fertilizers are rich in nitrogen and other nutrients. Excessive chemical fertilizer application to plants can cause the leaves to become yellow or brown, also causing the plant to suffer, resulting to lower crop output. Chemical leaf scorch is the name for this ailment. Leaf scorch can cause the plant's leaves to wither and eventually die.

Because of a reduction in organic matter in the soil, overuse of chemical fertilizers can contribute to soil acidity. Nitrogen sprayed in high quantities to fields over time destroys the topsoil, resulting in lower agricultural yields. Soil acidity is significantly more common in sandy soils than in clay soils. Excess chemical fertilization has the capacity to be buffered by clay soils.

Excess nitrogen used in crop fertilization can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide into the environment. The application of a higher amount of chemical fertilizer than the plants can readily absorb causes this result. According to the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), extra greenhouse gases trapped in the atmosphere may be contributing to rising land and ocean surface temperatures.

Also read: A Number of Invasive Plants Still Being Sold on the Market Despite Being Banned in US
Streetlights may make moth caterpillars grow faster, this doesn't mean it's a good thing.

All around the world, insect populations are declining rapidly. The number of those declines is different, depending on the region. Some European monitoring stations are seeing 70 percent drops and other places are discovering small increases.

But due to the fact that insects are keystones of most ecosystems, their loss threatens to disrupt everything from the population of birds to crop pollination.

New research released Wednesday in the journal Science Advances discovers that there are fewer moth caterpillars under LED streetlights at British roadside habitat and those that are still there display signs of stress.

Also Read: Light Pollution: LED Streetlights Contribute to Moth Decline in England

Causes of Insect Decline

A PhD student in ecology affiliated with the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and also the lead author of the paper, Douglas Boyes, said:

"We found that many of these white LEDs are more harmful at a local level for insect populations. That probably hints that the classic mechanism that people think about-the insect flying up to the light-is maybe not the main mechanism causing these striking population declines."

There's no single cause to the worldwide decline in insect populations. A 2021 review of the subject, named "Death by a thousand cuts," mentioned the entire deck of anthropogenic changes as causes: urbanization, pesticides, climate change, introduced species, and other pollution.

But former research proposes that light during the night which has just existed for around the past 100 years contributes to this.

Moths have been discovered to travel for miles in the wild, making them difficult study subjects; it's not easy to know whether any effects on the insects are linked to light, or to other environmental factors. So specifically, this study was about moth caterpillars, which only fly a few feet as they develop.

LED Light Vs. High-pressure Sodium

The research made good use of a type of natural experiment along rural English roads. The researchers put together lit shoulders with dim sites just 60 to 100 meters down the highway. The sites that were paired would have similar grasses and hawthorne hedgerows and similar land-use closeby. They usually surround the same fields, giving the entomologists trust that the dissimilarities they saw were mostly from the light.

The effects were more powerful under LED lights, and this is surprising. Former research from Boyes had discovered that some other light source, high-pressure sodium - the type of bulb that is the older, yellower - brought more moths, and therefore was believed to be more disturbing.

Boyes says that's proof and also there's something more serious going on than just mature moths flying into lights.

The caterpillars that moved under streetlights were also weighty, but it is not enough to be seen while taking a walk, but enough to be apparent on a laboratory scale.

Related Article: Tiny Fake Caterpillars Uncover Strange Global Predation Pattern

For more news, updates about moth caterpillars and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Tropical Storm Ida is moving very quickly toward the Gulf Coast, and before it gets to the region, it could possibly bring hurricane force along with it.

Currently, Ida is churning in the Caribbean with about 40 mph winds and there is a possibility of it reaching the US by Sunday, as per an update on Thursday evening from the National Hurricane Center. Some places could witness up to a foot of rain, and 11 feet of storm surge.

Residents in Louisiana are already bracing for the possible fallout. On Thursday, John Bel Edwards, the Governor, issued a state of emergency because of the possible impacts of the storm. He also mentioned that hurricane force winds of 110 mph were predicted.

Edwards said: "Unfortunately, all of Louisiana's coastline is currently in the forecast cone for Tropical Storm Ida. Now is the time for people to finalize their emergency game plan, which should take into account the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."

Also Read: Meteorologists Monitor 3 Potential Atlantic Tropical Systems that Could Develop in Coming Days

Potential Flooding

Governor John Bel Edwards said everybody should be in the area they plan to ride the storm out by Saturday evening.

The governor added that while it is his hope and prayer that the storm will not lead to destruction in the state, residents should be ready to take the chief impact of the severe weather.

As per the NHC, a hurricane watch has been issued from Cameron, Louisiana, eastward to the border of Mississippi and Alabama, including New Orleans. But for now, a tropical storm watch is in effect in some portions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

When Ida reaches its destination, usually, rising waters propelling inland from the shoreline could flood dry regions close to the coast, the NHC said. That rise could attain up to 11 ft from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Places under Tropical Storm Warnings

As early as Saturday, the Gulf Coast could witness hurricane-level winds and through Monday the region could witness 8 to12 inches of rain, the NHC said. But before the US gets to handle Ida, the Caribbean will have to encounter the storm.

First, tropical storm Ida is anticipated to move over the Cayman Islands, then have an effect on the Isle of Youth and western Cuba Friday.

Places under tropical storm warnings are the Cuban provinces of Matanzas, Mayabeque, Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Havana, and the Isle of Youth, as well as the Cayman Islands. There, the storm finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico.

The NHC said: "Once the system moves into the Gulf of Mexico, conditions are expected to be conducive for additional strengthening, and rapid intensification is explicitly shown in the NHC forecast between 48 and 72 hours."

The intensity forecast of NHC takes the system close to the main hurricane strength when it gets nearer to the northern Gulf Coast on Sunday, the NHC added.

Related Article: Tropical Storm Fred Hits Florida While Grace Continues to Pour Over Haiti

For more news, updates about Tropical Storm Ida and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Animals are more resilient than we give them credit for. Domestic animals, particularly cats, may seem delicate because pet owners tend to pamper them.

But these modern-day felines are a product of millions of years of evolution that made them surprisingly resilient and adaptable to their surroundings. One great example is the astonishing survival story of this cat.

Way back in January 2019, a cat named Fluffy from Kalispell, Montana, made headlines all around the globe. After being 'frozen alive' in snow, this cat recovered with no lasting injuries.





Cat 'frozen alive' in snow

In January, the temperature in Montana was recorded between -1 (30F) and -8 degrees (17F). During that time, they received about 16 inches of snow.

Fluffy's pet owners came home early to find their cat 'frozen alive' in the snowbank outside of their home on January 31. By the time Fluffy was found, she was unrecognizable after being covered in snow from head to foot. The cat was also unresponsive after being exposed to the extreme temperature outside.

The pet owners, whose identities were not revealed, rushed Fluffy to the nearest veterinary clinic. According to USA Today, Dr. Jevon Clark of the Animal Clinic of Kalispell remarked that it was almost impossible to tell if Fluffy was alive or dead due to the ice and snow covering her entire body.

Upon closer inspection, Dr. Clark was relieved to discover that Fluffy was still breathing faintly.

"You could tell it was a cat when she came in, but really she was just so packed in ice and snow, you couldn't really tell she was alive until you looked at her and started listening to her and realized that she's still alive. Just absolutely frozen."

Read More: Heroic Cat Meows Nonstop Until Rescuers Found 83-Year-Old Owner Stuck in Ravine

Fluffy was nursed back to health

When she was rushed to the hospital, Fluffy's temperature was under 90 degrees, which is way lower than a cat's average temperature of 99.5-102.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dr. Clark and his team immediately sprung to action to nurse Fluffy back to health. They spent two hours warming her to raise her body temperature slowly, as reported by Deseret News.

When that didn't work, she was taken to the emergency room. They used towels, cage warmers, blow dryers, and even intravenous fluids to save Fluffy. One indication that she would eventually pull through is when Fluffy acted 'crabby' towards the vet.

"She wasn't really responding for about the first half-hour, but then she started at least, acting like she was going to be alive. She's a little bit crabby, and so that's how we knew things were probably gonna be okay, when she started getting crabby with us," says Dr. Clark.

Read More: Grizzly Bear Stalks Man for Days, Until He Was Rescued by Coast Guard After Spotting SOS Sign

Preventive measures

Eventually, Fluffy made a full recovery with no lasting injuries. She was also discharged that same night, and a week later, her pet owners reported that she's back to her usual self.

The owners also clarified that Fluffy has always lived outdoors. They suspect that she suffered from an injury that day, which resulted in her getting stuck in the snowbank.

To prevent this incident in the future, the owners also decided to keep Fluffy inside their residence at all times.

Read Also: 6 Animals That Can Freeze Themselves and Come Back to Life!

For more animal news, don't forget to follow Nature World News!

For more tips in protecting your pets against the cold weather, check out this video below:
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)  Bulgaria's president on Friday handed a mandate to the third-largest political party in parliament to form a government following the failure of two previous attempts.

Despite the vague chances of the Socialist Party's success, leader Kornelia Ninova, said her party would invite three groups that emerged from anti-corruption protests last year to discuss creating a viable coalition government.
HELSINKI (AP)  Estonia is gearing up for an unusual presidential election in parliament. There will be only one candidate in Monday's vote, a situation unprecedented since the Baltic nation regained its independence 30 years ago.

President Kersti Kaljulaid's five-year term expires on Oct. 10, and lawmakers in the 101-seat Riigikogu parliament must elect a new head of state to replace her in the largely ceremonial post.

As no further candidates registered by the late Saturday deadline, the director of the Estonian National Museum, Alar Karis, will be the sole contender. Karis, a former state auditor, is the only one who has managed to get support from the required minimum of 21 lawmakers.

Holding a vote with only one candidate has flummoxed the country, and several politicians have called for a complete overhaul of Estonia's complex presidential election system. Some Estonians have even suggested that the small European nation, where the prime minister holds most political power, should abolish the head of state post altogether.

Jaak Joeruut, a former defense minister and diplomat, said in a recent opinion piece that elections with one candidate belong to the Soviet era. It is unethical, but, strangely enough, legal.

Once a Soviet republic, Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million, regained its independence in 1991 and is now a member of both the European Union and NATO.

Had the president been directly elected by the people, the liberal Kaljulaid would be seeking a second term. Estonias first female president is reasonably popular among the public. But she enjoys little support from lawmakers, reportedly due to her outspokenness about fellow politicians and government policies.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas' Reform Party and the Center Party  which make up Estonias center-right coalition government  have endorsed Karis, 63.

Both parties have praised him for his understanding of Estonias society and see his academic background  he headed the University of Tartu, Estonia's main academic institution  and work as an auditor as substantial strengths.

Tonis Sarts, an associate professor in comparative politics at Tallinn University, agrees with the assessment but noted that Karis is a novice in foreign policy.

He is probably one of the most well-prepared candidates considering the domestic policy dimension but he hasn't had any practical experience in foreign policy-making and diplomacy, Sarts told The Associated Press.

Karis needs a two-thirds majority, or 68 votes, in parliament to be elected in the secret ballot. The governing coalition has 59 votes, and he is seen as likely to gather the support of at least another nine lawmakers from three opposition parties.

The populist right-wing EKRE party has proposed a candidate of its own, but didn't have enough lawmakers to register him. The conservative Fatherland  a small opposition party  said it agrees with Karis on several issues but gave its lawmakers a free hand in the vote.

Meanwhile, the Social Democrats are divided between Kaljulaid and Karis but the party has too few lawmakers and allies to propose the sitting president run for reelection.

Should lawmakers reject Karis on Monday, another two voting rounds are scheduled for Tuesday. If that fails, the election will be transferred to a special 208-member electoral college who would vote on a new head of state in September.

Under Estonias constitution, the president's role is mostly representing the nation abroad and acting as a domestic opinion leader. However, the president is also the supreme commander of Estonias armed forces, formally appoints government members, signs laws to make them valid and has the power to veto law proposals.
NEW YORK (AP)  The second week of the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial in New York City proved to be an exercise by prosecutors to paint the I Believe I Can Fly R&B star as a man-child control freak and a compulsive sex offender who exploited vulnerable victims way less than half his age while ordering them to call him Daddy.

Defense attorneys for the now 54-year-old entertainer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, countered by seeking to portray the accusers as lying opportunists trying to leverage Kellys fame.

Here are snapshots from week two of the case:

LIAR, LIAR

Two Kelly accusers, both testifying without revealing their true identities, said that at age 17 they sought his help launching their music careers, or those of others. But Kelly, they said, only feigned interest.

One told the jury Kelly invited her and a friend to his studio to hear the friend sing. But he quickly lost patience because he wasnt thrilled about my mom being with us, she said.

Another witness who said she had formal training as a performer got a little further with Kelly  or so it seemed. Her edge was a professionally made music video for a single she wrote, titled Liar Liar.

Asked for input, Kelly said that he did like it and that it was cute and that it wasnt too grown or too sexy, she said.

But prosecutors say Kelly was the liar. They allege his tutelage was merely a ploy to take advantage of the girls, leading them down a path of sexual degradation.

A prosecutor asked the woman what steps Kelly took to back up promises to help launch her career.

None, she responded.

THE NOT-SO-MAGIC KINGDOM

Many of Kellys draconian tendencies in running an empire headquartered in custom mansions and music studios were detailed by a former employee named Tom Arnold. One example was a failed attempt to organize a 2011 trip to Disney World for Kellys entourage that included, as always, female guests.

Arnold was ordered to pull the trip off on short notice, booking hotel rooms, arranging transportation and hiring a VIP tour guide for the theme park. He succeeded at the first two tasks. He ran into a glitch on the third.

Any time Kelly visited the Magic Kingdom, there was an edict that he needed a woman to be the guide, Arnold told the jury. However this time, the only person available was a man. The witness said when his boss arrived, he abruptly canceled the outing and sent everyone home.

Arnold said his wife noticed his next paycheck was docked a weeks pay  $1,500  as an apparent fine for the transgression. Quitting his job with Kelly was the only option, he said.

At that point, I wasnt happy, my wife wasnt happy and Rob wasnt happy, he said.

TUG OF WAR

Much of the testimony of a key accuser focused on a tug of war between her parents and R. Kelly.

The woman testified that her parents had at first encouraged her relationship with Kelly and even pitched ideas for their own business ventures with him. She conceded on cross-examination that one idea was to market an R. Kelly-themed sex toy. Even for him, that went too far, she said.

Kelly confided in me later it was not something he could ever do, she said.

A complication for the woman was that, well before the trial, she had done an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning where she expressed her devotion to Kelly and disavowed her parents. She called her father a manipulative liar for suggesting shed been brainwashed.

But on the witness stand, the woman claimed her statements were orchestrated by Kelly to give him cover.

She said behind the scenes, he once pulled out an iPad and he told me to make a video saying that my father had molested me."

PROSECUTOR'S RETORT

In one of week's more dramatic moments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes attacked the defense tactic of asking the witness about all sorts of things that your parents did." The retort took the form of a relentless series of questions of her own  made over a defense objection  aimed at refocusing jurors on the most disturbing allegations against Kelly.

Among them: Who exposed you to a sexually transmitted disease without your consent, your parents or the defendant? Who had sexual contact with you, including sexual intercourse with you, when you were 17 years old, your parents or the defendant? and Who made you film videos of you engaging in degrading conduct, including smearing and eating feces, your parents or the defendant?

In a soft voice, she responded each time: The defendant.

___

For more coverage of the R. Kelly trial in New York, visit our hub: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly
FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2021, file photo, hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at the perimeter of the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. A school district in a San Diego suburb that is home to a large refugee population says many of its families who had taken summer trips to Afghanistan to see their relatives have gotten stuck there with the chaos following the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
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LANSING, Mich. (AP)  At least half of Michigan's public K-12 students must wear a mask in school, a figure that has grown as local health or education officials order requirements that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer supports but is hesitant to reinstitute statewide.

Several counties, including six of the 10 most populated ones, now mandate face coverings for students, teachers and staff indoors regardless of vaccination status. Their health officers pointed to a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases due to the more contagious delta variant and, noting that kids under 12 cannot be vaccinated, said masks have reduced spread in classrooms.

Five counties' directives apply to kindergarten through sixth grade, though a number of affected districts also require face coverings in grades 7 to 12. Measures in Wayne and Oakland, the state's largest counties, cover all grades. Policies vary at schools in 76 counties where health departments have recommended, but not required, masking.

Whitmer has faced criticism for leaving the decision to local leaders being confronted with angry parents pushing to undo the mandates amid an increasingly volatile situation nationwide.

Her office said about 54% of students in traditional public schools are subject to face covering requirements, a number the governor expects to climb as the first day nears in places that have not yet started classes.

It's not comfortable to make these hard decisions. If anyone knows that, it's me," the Democrat said this past week. But the fact of the matter is a mask requirement is an important tool.

Michigan's indoor mask mandate, first implemented by Whitmer early in the coronavirus pandemic, was kept in place by the state health department after the Michigan Supreme Court struck down a law that gave the governor broad emergency powers. Her administration lifted the requirement in June amid vaccination gains and low infection rates but strongly recommends face coverings inside schools, where outbreaks can interrupt face-to-face instruction.

Classes are starting amid a two-month rise in test positivity and case rates. Hospitalizations have been increasing for five weeks in a state where  for now  the 14-day infection rate remains lower than in all but four states.

The state Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Public Health, has used outside research to estimate how long it would take for there to be a greater than 50% chance of transmission if one infectious child attends a class of 25 elementary students.

With complete masking, it is 120 hours. It drops to 24 hours with imperfect masking and to three hours with no masking. The time until transmission is less for high school students.

Dr. Sarah Lyon-Callo, the state's top epidemiologist, said masking reduces the chance of being infected in school by 40% to 75%.

The public at large backs masking in schools.

About 58% of Americans favor requiring it for students, including 52% of parents, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly 25% of adults and 28% of parents are opposed, while 17 % to 18% are neither for nor against.

But opinions differ by community, and anti-mask demonstrators have voiced objections to county commissions, health departments and school boards.

In Kent County on Thursday, commissioners heard hours of comments against the administrative health officer's rule requiring face coverings in preK-6 educational settings. Parents said it should be a choice, expressing concerns about masks' effects on physical and mental health. Some vowed to homeschool their kids. Others cited religious objections.

Some decried the plandemic, a term used to suggest the virus was manufactured and its severity exaggerated. Others urged the firing of Dr. Adam London and recalls of elected officials who allow his order to stand.

I as a parent know what's best for my child and that's for her to be at school with no mask, said Nick Prill, of Kentwood, who said his daughter suffered headaches from wearing one.

We are facing a full-on assault against our children, said Aimee Sutherland of Caledonia, who has a 9-year-old son.

It is unclear how long the local regulations will last.

Some will extend 60 days beyond when vaccines are authorized for children under 12 or until a county's infection rate is low or moderate for a certain number of days or until further notice from the health officer.

In Wayne County, where school begins Sept. 7, education leaders welcomed masking requirements that were announced Friday.

Our goal is for in-person learning to be a viable option, with minimal interruptions due to outbreaks or the need for quarantines, throughout the entire 2021-22 school year, said Daveda Colbert, superintendent of the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency. With the latest guidance, it is my hope that together as administrators, teachers, students, parents and community members, we can now shift our focus to engaging each and every learner at the highest level.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
While Gov. Ned Lamont awaits word from federal authorities on the expected flow of Afghan refugees into Connecticut, his administration is negotiating with resettlement agencies on housing, the most expensive need for families who are expected to arrive at the rate of 100 people per month starting in September.

Chris George, executive director of the New Haven-based Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, said Friday he thinks the state will help in finding places for Afghan families. That will happen after an extensive vetting process that starts at the Kabul airport, continues at air bases in Europe and the Middle East and is completed at U.S. military bases, where resettlement agencies are finally contacted.

Nineteen volunteers from the Connecticut Air National Guards 103rd Airlift Wing will journey to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington, N.J. to help with logistics and medical support for refugees being evaluated and housed there temporarily, Major Gen. Francis Evon, adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard, said Friday.

Our people are trained professionals who understand the urgency, complexity and importance of this mission, Evon said in a statement.

State government has a limited role, though it will include several departments, including social services. Federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services are the major liaisons between families evacuated by the military and resettlement agencies including IRIS, the Bridgeport-based Connecticut Institute for Refuges and Immigrants and others.

Were certainly in contact with the immigration authorities down in Washington, D.C., Lamont said after an unrelated event in Danbury on Friday. They contract with IRIS and a couple of our other immigration groups in the state and well be prepared to do what they ask us to do.

George singled out U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4, for helping hundreds of people try to navigate the evacuation process.

Himes, whose district covers Fairfield County, said Friday that his Washington office has responded to 400 cases involving 700 people, ranging from U.S. citizens to people who might have been civilian employees of the military but do not have proper paperwork beyond a photo of a family member with military personnel.

College friends have reached out on Facebook, Himes said, noting that while ethics rules limit his work on Social Security issues to residents of the congressional district, there are no such restrictions for the evacuation of Kabul. Weve gotten cold calls out of nowhere. Its comes from every which way.

Himes recalled that the last time he visited Kabul was in early 2020, when he was in a group including House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California. He drew parallels between the defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

There is a lot of soul searching to be done here, Himes said, recalling the rosy assessments of generals and admirals in January 2020. The culture of the military is such that a colonel cannot become a general if youre telling the truth. Its not part of their culture.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2, said that a large number of the Afghan refugees, many of whom have applied for the Special Immigrant Visa program, are at U.S. military facilities in Qatar and Kuwait awaiting further vetting. Courtney said his office has fielded about 120 calls, mostly from Afghans with family connections in the United States.

President Bidens budget included $3 billion for security forces in Afghanistan which obviously has become completely moot, he said, adding that he could see Congress reallocating some of that funding to Special Immigrant Visa program to expedite processing.

The Connecticut Department of Social Services will develop case files on refugee families as they arrive and along with the private resettlers, will try to help them succeed in their new homes.

Historically, states have not put up much of their own money from their own state budget to refugee resettlement, George told an online audience of more than 200 supporters, advocates, potential volunteers and media Friday afternoon.

Of course, they do something in some ways thats just as important. Governors have been very welcoming and supportive of refugee resettlement, so thats a positive thing, George added. But in terms of financial or in-kind assistance, we are having conversations with state government now about how they can help financially with housing and its looking very positive, so Im optimistic about that.

Its too early in the evacuation process to detemine the states full role, Lamont said Thursday.

There has been no outreach yet to Connecticut on how we can support those refugees, Lamont said. Generally Ill be there listening and responsive...I havent gotten any asks from the White House yet, but again provided the vetting is serious, well be supportive. Were getting more and more people out every day.

While IRIS has already helped resettle some Afghani people arriving since the surprise fall of the Asian nation to Taliban troops earlier this month, other groups are waiting.

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Hartford is not involved in the resettlement of Afghan families at this time but we are eager to participate in the effort when we are presented with the opprounity to do so, John Noonan, director of development and communications for that agency, said Friday. Catholic Charities has been involved in resettlement operations since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

The U.S. Department of Defense on Friday authorized military bases in Virginia, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Texas and New Mexico to provide temporary housing for thousands of Afghans whose escapes from the embattled region have been aided by the military. The Connecticut Air National Guard group is joining that mission.

CT Insider staff writers Julia Bergman and Peter Yankowski contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China's leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.

According to an unclassified summary, four members of the U.S. intelligence community say with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human. A fifth intelligence agency believes with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab. Analysts do not believe the virus was developed as a bioweapon and most agencies believe the virus was not genetically engineered.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement Friday that China continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States. Reaching a conclusion about what caused the virus likely requires China's cooperation, the office said.

The cause of the coronavirus remains an urgent public health and security concern worldwide. In the U.S., many conservatives have accused Chinese scientists of developing COVID-19 in a lab and allowing it to leak. State Department officials under former President Donald Trump published a fact sheet noting research into coronaviruses conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the Chinese city where the first major known outbreak occurred.

The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in whats known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called spillover events occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.

In a statement, Biden said China had obstructed efforts to investigate the virus from the beginning.

The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them, he said. Responsible nations do not shirk these kinds of responsibilities to the rest of the world.

China's embassy in Washington hit back with a lengthy statement saying the U.S. had fabricated the report and invoking mistaken American intelligence about weapons of mass destruction prior to the Iraq War.

The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China, the embassy said. Such a practice will only disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origin-tracing and on fighting the pandemic, and has been widely opposed by the international community.

Biden in May ordered a 90-day review of what the White House said was an initial finding leading to two likely scenarios: an animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak. The White House said then that two agencies in the 18-member intelligence community leaned toward the hypothesis of a transmission in nature and another agency leaned toward a lab leak.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday did not identify which agencies supported either hypothesis. But it noted some of the same hurdles facing the World Health Organization and scientists worldwide: a lack of clinical samples and data from the earliest cases of COVID-19.

In conducting the review, intelligence agencies consulted with allied nations and experts outside of government. An epidemiologist was brought into the National Intelligence Council, a group of senior experts that consults the head of the intelligence community.
An unvaccinated elementary school teacher who took off their mask to read to students ended up infecting more than half of them last May -- and they went on to infect other students, family members and community members, California public health officials reported Friday.

It's a prime example of how easy it is to undermine efforts to protect children too young to be vaccinated, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

The teacher came to work even though they had Covid-19 symptoms and then took off their mask to read to the young students, a team at Marin County Public Health reported in the CDC's weekly report on death and disease. The teacher assumed the symptoms indicated allergies, not infection, the investigators found.

In the classroom of 22 students, 12 became infected -- including eight out of 10 students in the two front rows.

And that's despite layers of measures intended to prevent transmission of the virus.

"The school required teachers and students to mask while indoors; interviews with parents of infected students suggested that students' adherence to masking and distancing guidelines in line with CDC recommendations was high in class. However, the teacher was reportedly unmasked on occasions when reading aloud in class," the report read.

"Throughout this period, all desks were separated by six feet," it added. "All classrooms had portable high-efficiency particulate air filters and doors and windows were left open."

It wasn't enough to protect the kids.

Eventually, 27 people, including the teacher, were infected. None were seriously ill and all recovered. Those cases that were analyzed involved the Delta variant of coronavirus, although the researchers said they were not necessarily able to test everyone who may have been infected in the outbreak.

The CDC highlighted the case as an example of how schools need to follow all recommendations if they want to protect students and staff.

"The introduction of the virus into the classroom by a teacher who worked in school, while she was both symptomatic and unvaccinated and who was unmasked when reading aloud to a class, resulted in cases within the classroom, across the school and among families of students and staff in the community," Walensky told a White House Covid-19 briefing Friday.

"We know how to protect our kids in school. We have the tools."

The CDC's guidance for schools lists vaccination as the No. 1 way to protect everyone. "Vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports," it says.

Kids under 12 are not eligible for vaccination, and the CDC says it's important for the adults around them to get vaccinated to protect them.

Dr. Lisa Santora, deputy health officer for the county, said officials there had been urging teachers to be vaccinated since January, but many had not done it. "We saw firsthand that it wasn't kids who were going to get teachers sick. It was going to be the reverse," Santora told CNN.

Santora said Marin County had organized "Super Saturday" events to encourage teachers and staff to get vaccinated, but some teachers still remain unvaccinated. "Adults are underestimating their risk of hospitalization when they are choosing not to get vaccinated," she told CNN.

She said 90% of people in hospitals with Covid-19 in the county right now are unvaccinated -- and many are between the ages of 30 and 50.

The outbreak at the elementary school was a heads up to the county that the Delta variant was going to make it harder to prevent outbreaks, she said.

"We had a few of the adults who were part of the outbreak -- they were parents of children in school -- they were vaccinated. That was another indication to us that Delta was different," she said.

"Among the five infected adults, one parent and the teacher were unvaccinated; the others were fully vaccinated," the report reads. "The vaccinated adults and one unvaccinated adult were symptomatic with fever, chills, cough, headache, and loss of smell. No other school staff members reported becoming ill."

The county was able to conduct an intensive contact tracing operation that painted a good picture of what happened. Several children appeared to have been infected during a sleepover, and some from the infected teacher's class appear to have infected siblings.

Testing of most of the children who were exposed was key, because many of the children never developed symptoms.

"The school was on point with all of their mitigation strategies," Santora said. "I think if it wasn't Delta, I don't think we would have seen this."

Nonetheless, the CDC concluded, schools can safely open for in person classes if they take care.

Los Angeles County officials studied cases in their schools from September to March. They counted 463 cases among students in that time that could be linked back to a school exposure, and 3,927 among staff who were back in person. This was a far lower case rate than in the community at large during the same period, they reported.

"In schools with safety protocols in place for prevention and containment, case rates in children and adolescents were 3.4 times lower during the winter peak compared with rates in the community," they wrote.

"This analysis reflects transmission patterns before the more transmissible SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant became predominant in the United States. A multipronged prevention strategy, including masking, physical distancing, testing, and most recently vaccination of children and adolescents aged 12 years and above, will remain critical to reducing transmission as more students return to the classroom," they added.

"These findings from a large and diverse county present preliminary evidence that schools provided a relatively safe environment during the 2020-21 school year."

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Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was recommended for parole on Friday. After 53 years in prison, the 77-year-old inmate's fate is now in the hands of California's governor.

Two of Kennedy's surviving sons, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, supported the release during Sirhan's 16th appearance before the parole board, yet several of Kennedy's other children have strongly opposed the move.

Sirhan arrived at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in May 1969 after being convicted of first-degree murder and assault with intent to murder.

"I'm overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face," Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said during the virtual hearing. "I think I've lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love."

Sirhan, wearing a blue uniform with a paper towel folded like a handkerchief into his pocket, smiled.

"I do have some love for you," Douglas Kennedy told the inmate, who nodded and lowered his head.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has favored Sirhan's release in the past, wrote in support of parole. He said he was moved when he first met Sirhan -- "who wept, clinching my hands and asked for forgiveness" -- and offered to be "a guiding friend for him."

The two-person panel recommended parole, but said the decision is not yet final. Despite the recommendation for release, the board's decision could be reversed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will determine if the grant is consistent with public safety, a process that could take a few months.

Newsom is in the midst of a campaign battle, facing a recall election on September 14.

Sirhan has 'no intention whatsoever' of being a repeat offender

Though it was Sirhan's 16th parole hearing, it was the first time state prosecutors did not oppose his release.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon did not make his prosecutors available to speak during Sirhan's parole hearing, affirming his stance that the role of a prosecutor ends at sentencing.

Los Angeles law enforcement submitted a letter in opposition to Sirhan's release, according to Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton, who said there were also letters from the public and members of the Kennedy family.

Barton said the panel considers all submissions but also attempts to determine whether Sirhan poses a danger to society.

"I have no such intention whatsoever," Sirhan said at one point about being a repeat offender.

Barton said Sirhan qualified as a youth offender and was youth parole-eligible, and the board is required to give that "great weight" under law. He also qualified for elderly parole at age 77 after serving more than 20 years.

Gascon adviser Alex Bastian, in a statement this week, noted that the parole board has all the pertinent facts and evaluations, along with behavior during incarceration.

"If someone is the same person that committed an atrocious crime, that person will correctly not be found suitable for release. However, if someone is no longer a threat to public safety after having served more than 50 years in prison, then the parole board may recommend release based on an objective determination," Bastian said.

"Our office policies take these principles into account and as such, our prosecutors stay out of the parole board hearing process," Bastian added.

Gascon's office said the previous practice, typical of many district attorneys across the country, involved almost always objecting to inmate releases, based solely on the circumstances of the crime and not on the actions of the inmate in the years following. The new directive aims to leave the decision up to the parole board.

Barton said the DA's absence made no difference in the decision because prosecutors had opposed parole in the past.

Gascon was elected DA late last year on a promise of sweeping criminal justice reforms, including ending cash bail for certain minor offenses, the death penalty and the practice of charging juveniles as adults.

In response to Sirhan's parole recommendation, six of Kennedy's children issued a statement excoriating the decision.

"As children of Robert F. Kennedy, we are devastated that the man who murdered our father has been recommended for parole. Our father's death is a very difficult matter for us to discuss publicly and for the past many decades we have declined to engage directly in the parole process," said the statement from Kennedy's children Joseph P., Courtney, Kerry, Christopher, Maxwell and Rory.

"Given today's unexpected recommendation by the California parole board after 15 previous decisions to deny release, we feel compelled to make our position clear. We adamantly oppose the parole and release of Sirhan Sirhan and are shocked by a ruling that we believe ignores the standards for parole of a confessed, first-degree murderer in the state of California," the statement said.

"We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release. We urge the Parole Board staff, the full Board, and ultimately, Governor Newsom, to reverse this initial recommendation. It is a recommendation we intend to challenge every step of the way, and we hope that those who also hold the memory of our father in their hearts will stand with us."

Sirhan shot Kennedy in kitchen of Los Angeles hotel

Sirhan shot Kennedy to death in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following a campaign event in which Kennedy celebrated primary victories in his run for the Democratic nomination for president in 1968.

Initially sentenced to death for the murder, Sirhan's punishment was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after the California State Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.

Angela Berry, Sirhan's attorney, provided sentencing memorandums focusing on her client's youth at the time of the murder -- he was 24 -- and his childhood. Describing Sirhan as a Palestinian who became a refugee at age four, he "witnessed atrocities most of us only see in movies or in our worst nightmares" before emigrating to the US as a teenager.

Berry praised the panel for "keeping the politics out and following the law." She said she and Sirhan congratulated one another and that she was concerned about other inmates trying to "jeopardize" his eventual release date.

Barton asked Sirhan what his life intention was at 24.

The inmate said he wanted a career, to marry and settle down as a "good solid member of the community" and that's what he hoped to do now if released.

Barton asked Sirhan if he follows the Middle East conflict and his feelings about it.

Sirhan said he did not follow the situation but thinks about refugees and their suffering. He broke down.

"Take a few deep breaths," Barton said.

Barton reminded him the conflict has not gone away.

Sirhan said he felt "the misery that those people are experiencing. It's painful." He called them "kindred," and said he wouldn't be human if their plight didn't move him.

"Although whatever I would want to do in the future, it would be towards resolving that peacefully," Sirhan added.

"I think peaceful means are the best way to resolve that conflict in the Middle East."

Barton said the panel had no control over whether Sirhan is deported to Jordan.

"To me, the concern would be that you would become some type of, you know, symbol or lightning rod to foment more violence," Barton said.

If released on parole, Sirhan plans to live with his only surviving brother in Los Angeles, according to the filing.

Barton said, if released, Sirhan would likely be placed in a transitional home at first and transferred to his brother's home six months later.

"I want to be there for him," Sirhan said of his brother during the hearing.

Sirhan said he was not a heavy drinker and that he had hard liquor the night of the shooting. He vowed to remain "alcohol-free" and said he was learning to manage his anger. "It's a process," Sirhan said.

He said he is Christian and meditates regularly. Sirhan said he took responsibility for taking the gun into the hotel and firing the shots.

Barton pressed Sirhan about the Middle East conflict, and his bouts of impulsivity and poor judgment clouded by alcohol at the time.

"I've been trying to establish by asking you questions if you're still that person," Barton said.

"No I'm not." Sirhan said.

An attorney for the Kennedy family did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

Sirhan was convicted of killing Kennedy and wounding five other people during the June 5, 1968, shooting inside the kitchen service pantry of the former Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Three bullets struck Kennedy's body while a fourth bullet passed harmlessly through the shoulder of his suit coat. Kennedy, the most seriously wounded of the six victims, died the next day. The other five people survived their wounds.

In 1968, the 42-year-old Kennedy, younger brother of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, was a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination against Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

On the night of his assassination, Kennedy had just appeared on live television in an Ambassador Hotel ballroom, where he had claimed victory over McCarthy in the California primary election. Moments later, he was fatally wounded in the hotel service pantry while on his way to a news conference set for a small banquet room just beyond the pantry. The shooting in the pantry was not captured by any cameras.

At Friday's hearing, Sirhan was asked what he would say about people who believe he's angry after decades behind bars.

"I disagree with them outright," he said. "I'm grateful for having my life spared from the gas chamber. I value my life so much ... I would never put myself in jeopardy again."

He added, "You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and nonviolence."

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The school board in Gloucester County, Virginia, has agreed to pay the American Civil Liberties Union $1.3 million in legal fees for representing Gavin Grimm during a legal battle over transgender bathroom rights at school, the ACLU said in a news release.

The six-year lawsuit was the result of a "discriminatory restroom policy for transgender students" that "violates Title IX and the Constitution," the release said.

"Gavin simply wanted the same rights, dignity and respect as his classmates, yet the school board fought against him every step of the way," Eden Heilman, legal director of the Virginia ACLU, told CNN.

"This should serve as a warning to other schools in Virginia and across the nation: There is a high cost for discrimination against transgender students. There's a cost to the safety and well-being of our kids, and there's a cost to taxpayers when school boards break the law."

The school board issued this statement on Thursday: "The insurance provider for the Gloucester County School Board has addressed the Plaintiff's request for attorney fees and costs resulting from the Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board litigation. The School Board has no further comment on this matter."

US Supreme Court ruled in June

Grimm filed suit against the school board in 2015, when he was a high school sophomore, arguing that the school's policy violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.

Grimm, a transgender male, said the school system denied him access to the boys bathroom.

In August 2020, a federal appeals court ruled in Grimm's favor. Last June, the US Supreme Court left in place the lower court's decision that allowed Grimm to use the bathroom that corresponded to his gender identity.

The decision was a victory for the LGBTQ community that has been fearful the high court would take up the case and reverse a lower court opinion.

Grimm says he won't get any of the money

Grimm, now 22, told CNN that the money is exclusively for the ACLU's legal fees.

"I was never going to receive this money, nor did I give it to them: It was only ever going to them," he said.

"Financial difficulties can be the largest deterrent," he continued. "It sends the message that transphobia is not OK and is an expensive thing."

Grimm says the legal fees' resolution marks the end of the lawsuit.

He said "business as normal is next. Back to the same old, same old."

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The US military carried out a drone strike against what it said was an ISIS-K planner in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province, amid warnings of possible further terror attacks targeting the last-ditch US evacuation effort from Kabul.

The desperate mission to airlift US citizens and Afghans who assisted US forces and officials from the country by the end of the month is now in its final phase.

According to locals in the area where the strike was carried out Friday night, at least three people were killed -- a man, a woman and a child -- and several people were injured.

However, the US Defense Department said in a briefing Saturday that two "high-profile" ISIS-K (Islamic State- Khorasan) targets were killed in the strike, and one other was injured.

The US knew of zero civilian casualties, said Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, on Friday.

Exclusive video and interviews, obtained by CNN directly from Afghan reporters at the scene, show a small point of impact as well as heavy shrapnel damage on surrounding walls of a compound that was hit.

A rickshaw in the courtyard was severely damaged, and there was also some damage to rooms inside the house.

"We saw that rickshaws were burning," one man said. "Children and women were wounded and one man, one boy and one woman had been killed on the spot. We tried to find people to bring something so that we can carry or transport the wounded."

Eventually, he said, "Two rickshaws came, and we transported the wounded in that. And then beyond the police headquarters an ambulance arrived, and the Taliban arrived, and then we carried the dead."

The drone strike in Nangarhar came a day after US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate for a terrorist attack Thursday that killed 13 US service members and at least 170 others outside Kabul's international airport.

The remains of those service members are en route to the States, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.

Twenty US Marines who were injured in the attack are being treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Ramstein Air Base commander Brig. Gen. Joshua M. Olson said at a press conference Saturday.

The man targeted in the drone strike was believed to be "associated with potential future attacks at the airport," a US defense official told CNN Saturday.

The US located him and "had sufficient eyes on and sufficient knowledge" to strike, the official said, adding that he "was a known entity" but that the US is not calling him a "senior" ISIS-K operative.

US and other Western countries have been racing to evacuate their citizens and Afghan allies ahead of an August 31 deadline, after the Taliban retook control of the country -- prompting fears of deadly reprisals against anyone linked to international forces.

Those efforts, hampered by fears of further security threats at the airport, now appear to be in their closing stages.

The last UK military flight dedicated to civilian evacuees has now left Kabul airport, a UK defense source told CNN. A small number of civilians may make it on to remaining UK flights, the source added.

Earlier Saturday the head of the UK's armed forces, Gen. Nick Carter, told BBC Radio 4 that the UK's effort to evacuate Afghan civilians would end "during the course" of Saturday. "And then it will be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft," he said.

UK Ambassador to Afghanistan Laurie Bristow, said in a video from Kabul posted to Twitter that Britain "hasn't forgotten the people who still need to leave" Afghanistan and would "continue to do everything we can to help them."

Carter said the number left behind who were eligible to be brought to the UK was in the "high hundreds."

"It's gone as well as it could do in the circumstances... but we haven't been able to bring everybody out and that has been heartbreaking and there have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground," he said.

Several other allied nations concluded their evacuation operations on Friday, among them France and Italy.

Minimal US diplomatic crew left

Meanwhile, it's unclear how many Afghans remain at the airport desperate to find a flight out.

An eyewitness told CNN he saw Taliban members fire shots in the air outside the main Kabul airport entrance gate on Saturday morning to disperse crowds that had gathered again in attempts to flee Afghanistan.

A source directly familiar with the situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport told CNN that only a skeletal US diplomatic crew of staff to process evacuees would remain after the bulk expected to be departed in the next 24 hours.

The source said that some individuals or small families were still "being pulled through the gates somehow" as of Saturday. The gates have been closed for days. The numbers getting on were thought to be "a very tiny subset, consisting of single people or families." The US has said they had alternate routes to the airport.

The source added that US airport staff were "still getting hit up by tons of people trying to get in. All Afghans, either SIV or no credentials. They feel bad but there is literally nothing they can do."

SIV refers to the Special Immigrant Visa program established more than a decade ago to provide a pathway to the United States for Afghans who were employed by or worked on behalf of the US government.

The source added it was unclear if the evacuation of local embassy employees had finished, but that hundreds more had been reported as having got to the airport and that "hundreds more have departed for interim locations."

The US Embassy in Kabul on Friday again warned US citizens at a number of gates at the city's airport to "leave immediately," citing security threats. The alert advised US citizens "to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates."

The Pentagon said the US was "still planning on ending this mission at the end of the month," representing a final exit from a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

ISIS in Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed that an ISIS militant carried out Thursday's suicide attack at an airport gate, but provided no evidence to support the claim. US officials have said the group was likely behind the bombing.

Evacuee numbers slowing

The US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 111,900 people from Afghanistan since August 14, according to the White House.

Approximately 6,800 people were evacuated from 3 a.m. ET Friday to 3 a.m. ET Saturday, a White House official said.

Those evacuations were carried out by both US military and coalition flights, with 32 US military flights taking approximately 4,000 people and 34 coalition flights carrying 2,800 people, the White House said.

The latest numbers are noticeably smaller than those from recent days, something White House press secretary Jen Psaki said should be expected in the final days of the mission.

"That is a result of the retrograde process that needs to take place, but also, I will note that, of course, force protection is front and center and is vital to the mission," Psaki said at Friday's White House press briefing.

Approximately 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan during the same time period on the previous day.

Italy's Defense Ministry also said Friday that it had concluded its military evacuations of Afghan nationals out of Kabul. Since June, 5,011 people have been evacuated in total, of whom 4,980 are Afghan citizens, it said.

Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and Spain have all said their evacuation missions ended or were scheduled to end on Friday.

France announced the end of its evacuation effort Friday but vowed to "stand by the Afghan people" after August 31, in a statement released by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly.

The country had evacuated nearly 3,000 people since August 15, the statement said. An extra 1,500 Afghans who had worked for France were evacuated before August 15 in anticipation of the current crisis, it added.

France says it's staying in Iraq

French President Emmanuel Macron has been in Iraq, at the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, along with Middle Eastern leaders.

At a press conference, Macron said France will keep troops in Iraq "to fight against terrorism" regardless of whether the Americans withdraw.

He also said France "will stay engaged in the international coalition as long as the Iraqi government wishes so, and the security of Iraq depends on it."

Macron was referring to "The Global Coalition Against Daesh [ISIS]" formed by the United States in 2014.

Later on Saturday, he is set to travel to Erbil to meet with the President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani.

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A pooled analysis of two randomized trials has demonstrated the beneficial effects of empagliflozin in patients with heart failure with a reduced and preserved ejection fraction. The late breaking study is presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2021 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The EMPEROR-Reduced trial previously showed that the sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor empagliflozin reduced the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure in patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction. Results of the EMPEROR-Preserved trial, presented at ESC Congress 2021, demonstrated that the drug also reduced this composite cardiovascular endpoint in patients with heart failure and a preserved ejection fraction.

The current analysis pooled the results of these two trials on an individual patient level. This was possible because of the similarities between both studies. The trials were carried out in parallel with nearly identical protocols, case report forms, investigative sites, and administrative committees. Both trials evaluated the effects of empagliflozin versus placebo in a randomized and double-blind fashion in patients with established heart failure receiving all appropriate treatments. Empagliflozin or placebo was given for an average of 24 months. The major difference was the enrollment of patients with heart failure and an ejection fraction of 40% or less in EMPEROR-Reduced and patients with heart failure and an ejection fraction of more than 40% in EMPEROR-Preserved.

This analysis was prospectively designed and we developed a statistical plan before any patient was recruited in either trial. The evaluation was alpha-protected, meaning that the endpoints were statistically powerful and unbiased because by specifying the pooled analysis in the individual trials it was protected from an inflated false positive error rate." Dr. Milton Packer, Principal Investigator, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, US

A total of 9,718 patients were included in the analysis. The evaluation demonstrated that empagliflozin reduced the risk of heart failure hospitalization to a similar degree (about 30% risk reduction) in EMPEROR-Preserved and in EMPEROR-Reduced.

The magnitude of the effect on heart failure hospitalizations was similar across a broad range of ejection fractions below 65%, with attenuation of the drug effect at higher ejection fractions (65% or greater). At ejection fractions of 40-60%, the effect size appeared to be greater with empagliflozin than in the PARAGON-HF trial where sacubitril/valsartan was compared to valsartan.

The analysis also found that empagliflozin reduced the risk of major renal outcomes in EMPEROR-Reduced, but not in EMPEROR-Preserved. However, in EMPEROR-Preserved, when renal outcomes were defined using more stringent criteria, pretreatment ejection fraction influenced the effect of empagliflozin on renal outcomes in a manner that paralleled the drug's effect on heart failure hospitalizations.

Dr. Packer said: "Taken together, these findings demonstrate the benefits of empagliflozin across a broad range of patients with heart failure with a reduced and preserved ejection fraction, including many not effectively treated with currently available agents."
Aston University researchers based in the College of Health and Life Sciences have been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project by Innovate UK, to bring its academic and scientific expertise to assist Catalent in the development of its Zydis technology, the leading orally disintegrating tablet (ODT).

The Zydis ODT fast-dissolve formulation is a unique, freeze-dried oral solid dosage form that disperses almost instantly in the mouth with no water required. It helps delivering treatments to patients and consumers who have difficulty swallowing conventional pills, or where rapid onset of action is desirable.

The aim of the KTP partnership is to develop and prove an accurate predictive decision-making tool to pre-determine accurate levels of absorption enhancer for each Zydis product, potentially facilitating faster pharmaceutical development, improving efficiency, and reducing time to market.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a three-way collaboration between a business, an academic partner and a KTP Associate. The UK-wide programme helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills. Aston University is the leading KTP provider within the Midlands.

Academic lead on the project is Professor Afzal Mohammed, who is also chair in Pharmacy in the College of Health & Life Sciences (HLS) and a member of the Aston Pharmaceutics Group (APG) at Aston University.

This is a great opportunity for us to share and translate our academic experience in cell based models, excipient and formulation characterisation to develop an evidence based predictive tool that has the potential to expedite product development at Catalent. Professor Afzal Mohammed

Ralph Gosden, head of Zydis product development at Catalan, added:

"We are excited to be working with Aston University on this project. Their expertise in drug transportation, cell biology, data analysis and model cell line design, coupled with its world-class facilities means that together, we will be able to achieve significant improvements in efficiency, and accelerate new product development.

Professor Mohammed will be supported by other colleagues from the Aston Pharmaceutics Group, including, Dr Dan Kirby, who has experience in drug delivery and improving patient acceptability of dosage forms gained through original research; Dr Affiong Iyire who has research expertise in the formulation of drugs for pre-gastric absorption and innovative cell models; and Dr Raj Badhan, who is a pharmacokinetics expert with vast knowledge of in silico methods.

The outcomes of the project will be integrated into Aston Universitys curriculum through teaching case studies, thereby developing well equipped graduates.
Bhutan is following up on its success in vaccinating 90 per cent of its adult population against COVID-19 by embarking on a plan to immunize children in the 12 to 19 age group.

Immunization of children started in the high-risk southern areas of Bhutan that border India  a country now battling a devastating second wave of the pandemic.

So far, 58,000 children in 13 districts have received at least one dose of vaccine. Children in lower risk areas are expected to receive their first doses in September, according to health officials. Around 30 per cent of Bhutan's population of 770,000 people is below 18 years of age, according to the National Housing and Population survey 2017.

Yeshey Pelden, programme officer with Bhutan's public health department, tells SciDev.Net that children in this age group "are being immunized with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines". Both vaccines were released under emergency use, she says.

Yeshey says the decision to approve the Moderna vaccine was based on that of the European Medicines Agency while in the case of Pfizer the authorization accorded by the US Food and Drug Administration was followed.

Bhutan's health secretary declined to comment on Bhutan's decision to vaccinate children or share details of the vaccination coverage plan.

However, Prime Minister Lotay Tshering had stated earlier that Bhutan planned to achieve herd immunity. "We require vaccinating more than 70 per cent of the total population considering the infection rate of the virus," Tshering, a medical doctor, said in a televised public statement last month.

Bhutan started off the first phase of the mass vaccination drive with around 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccines donated by India. The first dose campaign took off on 27 March and within two weeks 93 per cent of the adult population or 480,181 people were immunized. But when India was hit by a devastating wave of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in March, it suspended supplies to other countries.

After a gap of almost four months, Bhutan secured vaccines from the US and EU and the nationwide vaccination programme resumed on 27 July. Within a week, 90 per cent of the eligible adult population were fully immunized.

Apart from India's contribution for the first phase, Bhutan has received 500,000 Moderna vaccine doses from the US through the global COVAX Facility's vaccine-sharing programme, 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from Denmark,100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from EU countries like Croatia and Bulgaria, and 50,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China.

The country has also passed on 230,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to neighboring Nepal following a request made in the first week of August.

Bhutan's success stands out in the rest of South Asia which is struggling to cope with a second wave of the pandemic. UNICEF has described the feat as a "success story" and the country as a "beacon of hope" for other countries in the region.

While Bhutan's population is small compared to that of its South Asian neighbors it has limited resources and health workers needed to negotiate long-distances over rough, mountainous terrain to reach remote populations for the vaccination drive.
Cutting 20% of sugar from packaged foods and 40% from beverages could prevent 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events (such as strokes, heart attacks, cardiac arrests), 490,000 cardiovascular deaths, and 750,000 diabetes cases in the U.S. over the lifetime of the adult population, reports a study published in Circulation.

A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOH) created a model to simulate and quantify the health, economic, and equity impacts of a pragmatic sugar-reduction policy proposed by the U.S. National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative (NSSRI). A partnership of more than 100 local, state and national health organizations convened by the NYC DOH, the NSSRI released draft sugar-reduction targets for packaged foods and beverages in 15 categories in 2018. This February, NSSRI finalized the policy with the goal of industry voluntarily committing to gradually reformulate their sugary products.

Implementing a national policy, however, will require government support to monitor companies as they work toward the targets and to publicly report on their progress. The researchers hope their model will build consensus on the need for a national-sugar reformulation policy in the US.

We hope that this study will help push the reformulation initiative forward in the next few years. Reducing the sugar content of commercially prepared foods and beverages will have a larger impact on the health of Americans than other initiatives to cut sugar, such as imposing a sugar tax, labeling added sugar content, or banning sugary drinks in schools." Siyi Shangguan, MD, MPH, lead author and attending physician at MGH

Ten years after the NSSRI policy goes into effect, the U.S. could expect to save $4.28 billion in total net healthcare costs, and $118.04 billion over the lifetime of the current adult population (ages 35 to 79), according to the model. Adding the societal costs of lost productivity of Americans developing diseases from excessive sugar consumption, the total cost savings of the NSSRI policy rises to $160.88 billion over the adult population's lifetime. These benefits are likely to be an underestimation since the calculations were conservative. The study also demonstrated that even partial industry compliance with the policy could generate significant health and economic gains.

The researchers found that the NSSRI policy became cost-effective at six years and cost-saving at nine years. The policy could also reduce disparities, with the greatest estimated health gains among Black and Hispanic adults, and Americans with lower income and less education-;populations that consume the most sugar as a historical consequence of inequitable systems.

Product reformulation efforts have been shown to be successful in reducing other harmful nutrients, such as trans fats and sodium. The U.S., however, lags other countries in implementing strong sugar-reduction policies, with countries such as the UK, Norway, and Singapore taking the lead on sugar-reformulation efforts. The US may yet become a leader in protecting its people from the dangers of excessive sugar consumption if the NSSRI's proposed sugar-reduction targets are achieved.

"The NSSRI policy is by far the most carefully designed and comprehensive, yet achievable, sugar-reformulation initiative in the world," says Shangguan.

Consuming sugary foods and beverages is strongly linked to obesity and diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. More than two in five American adults are obese, one in two have diabetes or prediabetes, and nearly one in two have cardiovascular disease, with those from lower-income groups being disproportionately burdened.

"Sugar is one of the most obvious additives in the food supply to reduce to reasonable amounts," says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, co-senior author and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. "Our findings suggest it's time to implement a national program with voluntary sugar reduction targets, which can generate major improvements in health, health disparities, and healthcare spending in less than a decade."
Exoskeleton-assisted rehabilitation can be beneficial in treating stroke survivors, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The study was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the United States and is a major cause of serious, long-term disability worldwide. Post-stroke survivors suffer from neurological deficits and impairments that may cause several disabilities, like diminished mobility and basic activities of daily living." Fangshi Zhu, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, McGovern Medical School, UTHealth

A critical step in post-stroke rehabilitation is the recovery of the gait-related motor functions caused by hemiparesis  mild or partial weakness on one side of the body  or hemiplegia  severe or complete loss of strength of paralysis. The conditions can include asymmetric step times and step length, slowed gait velocity, impaired joint and posture control, muscle weakness, abnormal muscle tone, and abnormal muscle activation patterns.

The current accepted methods of therapy can be taxing on both the patient and the therapists. According to Zhu, conventional gait rehabilitation therapies can be very labor intensive, and involve two to three therapists to guide affected limbs.

Researchers found the Ekso 1.1TM exoskeleton showed the potential to correct impaired walking patterns on a weak or paralyzed leg, and increase its motor coordination.

"We found that assistance from direct robot usage had a significant immediate impact on the stroke subjects' lower-limb muscle synergy pattern. This demonstrated the possibility of using a powered exoskeleton to augment impaired gait and the potential for helping stroke survivors regain their normal walking ability in a long-term exoskeleton-assisted rehabilitation program," Zhu said. "Recent advances in robot-assisted rehabilitation allow precise and automated training. Compared to conventional therapy, the use of a robot enables longer training time, more precisely controlled forces delivery in repetitive exercises, and kinematics and kinetics monitoring during training."

Zhu and his team collected data from 11 able-bodied subjects and 10 individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiplegia or hemiparesis.

In the first phase of the study, each subject walked continuously for 3-5 minutes on a treadmill at a self-selected, comfortable speed determined in a practice walk prior to data collection. During the walk, subjects wore gravity-compensating harnesses connected to an over-head body weight suspension frame to ensure safety and eliminate a potential loss of balance.

The second stage of the study consisted of 10 to 15 sessions of exoskeleton-assisted walk training over a course of three to four weeks. In each session, patients walked over-ground with an Ekso 1.1TM exoskeleton for up to 50 minutes while guided by a physical therapist. The subjects were encouraged to walk continuously as much as possible, but short breaks were allowed.

"This study gave us some critical insight into how a powered exoskeleton affects the stroke subjects' neuromuscular coordination during gait and demonstrated the potential to use muscle synergy as a method to evaluate the effect of the exoskeleton training," Zhu said. "Acute and chronic hemiplegic and hemiparesis patients who suffer from severe asymmetric gait coordination, serious foot drop, and reduced joint range of movement could benefit from the Ekso assistance."
UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher Diana Miglioretti is co-senior author of a new study that shows women 75 and older who have dense breasts are at higher risk of breast cancer.

UC Davis breast cancer researcher Diana Miglioretti helped lead study showing breast density is a cancer risk in older women

The research fills an information gap and could affect whether older women receive breast cancer screening mammography.

The study was published August 26, 2021 in JAMA Network Open, an online open access journal published by the American Medical Association. Researchers examined data from more than 193,000 women age 65 and older, including more than 70,000 who were at least 75. They found a positive association between breast density and breast cancer risk.

"This study provides evidence that breast density remains an important risk factor in older women and should be included in risk prediction models that also consider life expectancy to help identify women who may benefit most from continued screening," Miglioretti said.

Miglioretti teamed up with co-senior author, Dejana Braithwaite, associate director of population sciences at the University of Florida (UF) Health Cancer Center and a professor in the UF Institute on Aging.

"Our goal is to develop the evidence that helps personalize breast cancer screening for older women," said Braithwaite. "Older women who are in good health and have dense breasts may consider a screening mammogram even as they age beyond the screening recommendations for average-risk women."

Physicians have long recognized that women with denser breasts are at increased risk of invasive breast cancer, but until now, virtually no data existed for women age 75 and older.

Right now, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, or USPSTF, an independent panel of national experts on disease prevention and evidence-based medicine, does not recommend for or against mammography screening after age 74. The task force says evidence to weigh risk versus benefit has been insufficient for a definitive recommendation.

Breast density is a measure of the amount of fibrous or glandular tissue compared with fatty tissue, with less dense breasts containing more fat. Roughly half of women ages 40 to 74 have dense breasts. The breasts of aging women become less dense over time, although nearly a third of all women age 65 and older still have dense breasts, Braithwaite said.

The USPSTF recommends a mammogram every two years for women in the 50 to 74 age group. American Cancer Society recommendations are slightly different, with annual mammograms suggested for women 45 and older, and then biennially after age 55 for women who are in good health.

Physicians note that not all older women would benefit from screening mammography, especially those with serious medical conditions.

The study analyzed data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium and specifically examined breast density as a breast cancer risk factor in two groups of women -; those ages 65 to 74 and those who are 75 and older. Data were collected from women in New Hampshire, Vermont, North Carolina, the San Francisco area, Washington, New Mexico and Colorado.

While researchers found that age is the strongest risk factor for breast cancer, women with dense breasts have a higher risk of breast cancer than women with fatty breasts. And the risk increases with increasing breast density. For example, in women 65 to 74 years old, the team found an increased five-year risk of breast cancer that ranged from 11.3 per 1,000 women in groups with fatty breasts to 23.7 per 1,000 women in groups with dense breasts.

The 30% to 32% of older women with high breast density should discuss with their health care provider whether having high breast density sufficiently increases their risk to warrant ongoing screening mammography." Karla Kerlikowske, co-author and member, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
A new invention may be on the verge of replacing a costly cranial surgical procedure currently being performed on some traffic accident victims and other patient groups. The ultrasound-based technology has now been granted CE approval for the European market.

"We're through the eye of the needle on this one", says Tormod Selbekk. Selbekk is Head of Technology at the spin-off company Nisonic AS. He is also co-inventor of the new device, and was previously a research scientist in medical technology and ultrasound at SINTEF, where the idea was born.

"Increased intracranial pressure (ICP) or brain pressure, can result in brain damage and can be caused by either accidents or illness", he says.

It is important in all cases to detect brain pressure increases as soon as possible, in order to make treatment easier and more effective. One treatment option may be as straightforward as the timely administration of diuretic drugs.

Ultrasound may replace surgery

Brain pressure is currently measured directly using a sensor or via a drain that is inserted into the patient's brain tissue through a hole the cranium. The procedure must be carried out in an operating theatre. It is expensive, onerous and, not least has a small risk of side-effect for the patient.

The new ultrasound scanner, called Nisonic P-100, can relieve the burden on hospitals and offer patients more sensitive treatment. It is equipped with built-in software that automatically processes the ultrasound images. The device makes it possible for doctors rapidly to determine whether a patient may be developing dangerous increases in brain pressure. The technology is based on an algorithm that interprets ultrasound images of the patient's optic nerve sheath, which changes its dimensions in response to increases in intracranial pressure.

A demanding approval process

Achieving CE marking approval for the Nisonic P-100 technology has been a demanding process, but the technology has recently been passed by the various control agencies and was given the green light.

We're all very pleased about this. This last year has been particularly challenging because the EU has recently amended its CE marking approval legislation for medical equipment. On top of this, we've had to deal with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In spite of these issues, we've succeeded in the space of just over two years in advancing our prototype and achieving approval as medical equipment." Tormod Selbekk, Head of Technology, Nisonic AS

This means that not only can the technology now be used in hospitals throughout the EU, but it will also be easier for us to gain access to large and growing U.S. markets in the future. The market for ICP detection and monitoring equipment is expected to increase significantly in the years ahead. Several reports have estimated a market valued at USD 270 million, with the biggest levels of annual growth in the field of ultrasound detection.Nisonic is thus ideally positioned to take advantage of a future growth area.

Possible game changer

Eirik Helseth is a Professor and Head of Neurosurgery at Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval. He is principal investigator in a clinical research study, in which ultrasound images of the optic nerve are recorded in patients suffering from severe head injuries. The collaboration in the research project makes it possible for Nisonic to receive anonymized ultrasound images and ICP measurements for the further development of the methods.

As part of a standard procedure, these patients have had a sensor surgically inserted into their brains in order to monitor intracranial pressure. The aim of the research project is to assess whether processed ultrasound images of the optic nerve captured by Nisonic's technology can provide a reliable measure of brain pressure.

Helseth calls the method a potential game changer:

"Current technology only enables us to make reliable measurements of intracranial pressure with the help of a sensor, or via a drain, that is inserted into the patient's cerebroventricular (brain cavity) system", says Helseth. "Both methods require admission to a hospital's neurological department and a surgical procedure in order to insert the pressure sensor or drain. If ultrasound images of the optic nerve prove to be a reliable method of measuring ICP, this will open opportunities for the method to be applied not only in all other hospital departments, but also in GP surgeries and ambulances. This will be fantastic - and a global sensation", he says.

The more data, the better the result

However, Helseth is keen to point out that the equipment can never be better than the data provided to the algorithm.

"It is essential that the equipment is used in many hospitals so that we can obtain even more patient data to work with", he says. All medical professionals know that such equipment has to be tested on a large number of patients before reliable measurement data can be obtained. For example, there may be differences in optic nerve sheath structure between men and women, and among different age groups.

"This is why the Neurological Department at Ulleval is assisting Nisonic with its research and data gathering. We have great faith in the approach and the technology", says Helseth.

Looking for financial partners

Nisonic is now on the lookout for more capital investment and business partners who can help the company realise its overseas growth plans.

"If we succeed in establishing our method for the non-invasive monitoring of ICP, market assessments have indicated that there is significant interest among clinicians in hospitals in Europe and the USA, and a high economic potential for the technology", says Selbekk.

The company has succeeded with the development of Nisonic P-100, by collaborating with several Norwegian contributors. These include ultrasound companyVitacon AS, which has provided key assistance in connection with the CE marking approval process; Medistim ASA, which specialises in ultrasound imaging linked to cardiac surgery; and Aurotech AS, based in Tydal, which has provided hardware. The Nisonic P-100 is at large an entirely Norwegian product.

In use in Stockholm

The first Nisonic system is already on its way to the Bragee clinic in Stockholm, which is collaborating with the Karolinska institute in clinical research. Here, the equipment will be used for research into patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (ME).

Swedish researchers are working with a theory that ME patients also exhibit elevated intracranial pressure. Nisonic's equipment will be used to measure the diameters of ME patients' optic nerve sheaths, as well as those of a control group. Selbekk says that these measurements will then be compared with diameters measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) .

This research will provide Nisonic with even more patient data, which will further improve the system's algorithms.

"The more patient data we have, the better the equipment will be. This is because the method is based on deep learning and neural networks, which are branches of the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence", he says, adding;

"Our job will be much easier now that the equipment is CE approved. CE marking enables us to capture anonymous data much more rapidly than in the past. We expect to achieve even better results by means of systematic data analysis and training of the neural networks.
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(Newser)  The weirdness began in Circleville, Ohio, in 1977. And, spoiler alert, though CBS News' 48 Hours digs way deep into the decades-old mystery, it remains one with plenty of theories and no certainty. In March of that year, anonymous letters started appearing in mailboxes accusing residents of everything from embezzlement to murder. Most were sent from Columbus, about 30 miles away. Some, sent to bus driver Mary Gillispie, warned her to stop having an affair with school superintendent Gordon Massie. She says there was no such affair, but letters alleging that were also sent to her husband, Ron Gillispie, among others. He got a call five months later and told his daughter he was going to confront the letter writer; he died in a car accident on the way, in what some still claim was murder. And that's just the start of the story.

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Mary Gillispie says that in the wake of her husband's death she did begin an affair with Massie. Fast-forward to 1983: Gillispie was on her bus route when she saw a sign on a fence that had a vulgar statement about her teen daughter. When she tried to take it down, she realized it was booby-trapped with twine, a box, and a gun. The gun was traced to Paul Freshour, who was in the middle of divorcing wife Karen Suethe late Ron Gillispie's sister. From there, it just gets weirder. Karen Sue claimed her husband was the letter writer; he was found guilty of the attempted murder of Mary Gillispie and served 10 years in prisonduring which time hundreds were sent by the Circleville letter writer. Freshour had no access to pens or paper. Could he somehow be behind them? Was he framed by his soon-to-be ex? What do handwriting experts say? Read the full story to find out. (Read more Longform stories.)
(Newser)  A judge has ordered a western Michigan couple to pay $30,441 to their son for getting rid of his pornography collection, per the AP. US District Judge Paul Maloney's decision this week came eight months after David Werking, 43, won a lawsuit against his parents. He said they had no right to throw out his collection of films, magazines and other items. Werking had lived at their Grand Haven home for 10 months after a divorce before moving to Muncie, Indiana.

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The judge followed the value set by an expert, MLive.com reported. Werking's parents also must pay $14,500 to their son's attorney. After moving to Indiana, Werking learned that his possessions were missing. Frankly, David, I did you a big favor getting rid of all this stuff," his dad said in an email. Per NBC News, the email went on to say "Ditto for your sex toys and smutty magazines." In his original report to police, Werking alleged the collection to be worth anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 and that he had an "emotional attachment" to the items. The report says the parents kicked out their son after a domestic incident.

(Read more strange stuff stories.)
(Newser)  A young husband with a child on the way. Another man who always wanted to be in the military. A man who planned to become a sheriffs deputy when his deployment ended. Heartwrenching details began emerging Friday about some of the 13 US troops killed in a suicide bombing at Afghanistans Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 160 Afghans. Here are details about some of the victims, per the AP:



Rylee McCollum, 20: The Marine and native of Bondurant, Wyoming, was married, and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, said. He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad," McCollum said. She said her brother was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine."

The Marine and native of Bondurant, Wyoming, was married, and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, said. He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad," McCollum said. She said her brother was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine." Kareem Mae'Lee Grant Nikoui, 20: The Norco, California man sent videos to his family hours before he died, in which he spoke with children in Afghanistan. In one clip, he asked a young boy Want to take a video together buddy? Close family friend Paul Arreola said the videos show "the heart of this young man, the love he has."

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Jared Schmitz, 20: The Marine from near St. Louis was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts. His father Mark Schmitz said his son always wanted to be a Marine. This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be, Schmitz said.

The Marine from near St. Louis was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts. His father Mark Schmitz said his son always wanted to be a Marine. This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be, Schmitz said. Taylor Hoover, 31: The Utah man had been in the Marines for 11 years and was remembered as a hero who died serving others, his father Darin Hoover said. He is a hero. He gave his life protecting those that cant protect themselves, doing what he loved serving his country, said Hoover.

Deagan William-Tyeler Page, 23: The corporal served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California, and planned to go to trade school and possibly become a lineman after his enlistment ended, his family said. He is mourned by his girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents.

The corporal served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California, and planned to go to trade school and possibly become a lineman after his enlistment ended, his family said. He is mourned by his girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents. Ryan Knauss, 23: An Army Staff Sgt., the Tennessee native's grandfather told WATE-TV Ryan was a "motivated young man who loved his country...He was a believer, so we will see him again in Gods heaven.

Hunter Lopez, 22: Hunter Lopez, whose parents work at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in California, joined the Marine Corps in 2017. Bianco said Lopez planned to follow in his parents' footsteps and become a Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy after his deployment.

Hunter Lopez, whose parents work at the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in California, joined the Marine Corps in 2017. Bianco said Lopez planned to follow in his parents' footsteps and become a Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy after his deployment. David Lee Espinoza, 20: The Marine from Laredo, Texas joined the military after high school. He was just brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. Thats who he was, he was just perfect," his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, told the Laredo Morning Times.

(Read more Kabul stories.)
(Newser) 

The US military struck back at the Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an IS member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport. Per the AP , US Central Command said the US conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, and spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said they knew of no civilian casualties.

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The airstrike fulfilled a vow President Joe Biden made to the nation Thursday when he said the perpetrators of the attack, now one of the deadliest in the 20-year war, would not be able to hide. We will hunt you down and make you pay, he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered. We have options there right now, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagons Joint Staff. Per CNN, the airstrike is not likely to end the violence. In a statement Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the national security team has warned President Biden that another attack in Kabul remains likely. (Read more Kabul stories.)
(Newser)  Two years after Ally Kostial's body was found near a Mississippi lake, Brandon Theesfeld pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder. He received a life sentence under his plea agreement, which lets Theesfeld avoid any possibility of receiving the death penalty, the Daily Journal reports. He'll have a chance to be conditionally released when he's 65. He apologized to Kostial's family and his own in court, per CNN. "I wish I could take it all back but I can't," Theesfeld told the victim's family in a prepared statement, per the Oxford Eagle. His father had maintained his son was innocent shortly after his arrest.

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Kostial, who was from St. Louis, and Theesfeld attended the University of Mississippi's business school, where she was pursuing a degree in marketing. In April 2019, Kostial told Theesfeld she might be pregnant and asked to talk with him in person, a prosecutor said. For months, he'd agree to meet but not show up, until he texted her in July that he didn't want to meet and that she should just make an appointment to have an abortion. Sheriff's deputies found her body on a routine patrol on July 20, about 30 miles from campus. The 21-year-old had been shot to death.

Theesfeld was found mentally competent to stand trial and had pleaded not guilty to capital murder before reaching the plea agreement. He told Kostial's family members in court that he hopes they can forgive him someday. "I wish I could have kept her away from this evil, callous, scheming, ungrateful, sinister and violent and corrupt monster," Kostial's mother said in a statement. She told Theesfeld he deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars. "Every time your cell door slams shut may it be a reminder for what you did and the life you took from us." (Read more first-degree murder stories.)
(Newser)  Two Japanese men died days after getting the Moderna vaccine against COVID. Their doses came from a lot that was pulled from use. Three lots were pulled because contaminants were found in one of them, but the men who died got their doses from a different lot in which no contaminants were found, the Wall Street Journal reports. The other two lots were pulled because they were manufactured at the same time and at the same facility as the lot in which contamination was found.

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Shots from those three lots were distributed by Takeda Pharmaceutical, Bloomberg reports. Takeda is calling for Moderna to investigate what the contaminants are and how they got there. The Japanese health ministry has said its not clear whether theres any connection between the vaccination and the deaths. "There may only be a temporal relationship between vaccination and death," Fumie Sakamoto, an official at a Tokyo hospital, told Reuters. (Read more coronavirus vaccine stories.)
(Newser)  Two years ago, a police officer in Colorado shot a puppy. The dogs owners are suing the police department. On June 29, 2019, Wendy Love and her husband, Jay Hamm, pulled over into a parking lot to repair a box they were using in their firewood delivery business. They let their three dogs out while they worked. They thought they were parked at a vacant buildingthere were no cars and no signs prohibiting trespassersbut the owner of the building was inside watching them over a camera, and had called police, Denver 7 reports. Loveland police officer Mat Grashorn showed up and two of the dogs were curious and jogged over. The couple called the dogs back, but Herkimer loped up for a closer look. Without warning, Grashorn shot the 14-month-old puppy twice. The dog survived, and Love begged to be allowed to take him to a vet, but Grashorn refused.

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More officers showed up and then a sergeant who finally let the couple take the dog to a vet. Herkimer made it four days before being euthanized. Body cam video shows Hamm asking why Grashorn shot the dog, to which Grashorn says he had no interest in waiting to find out if the dog was friendly, the Denver Post reports. The couples lawsuit says Love filed a complaint but Loveland police found that they had done nothing wrong. But the department policy includes a Dog Protection Act that calls for other avenues to be tried before shooting a dog. Grashorn was just steps from his vehicle and tried no other method of avoiding Herkimer before shooting him. If you see what this officer saw in this video and think you need to shoot that dog twice, you shouldnt be a police officer," Sarah Schielke, the lawyer who filed the suit, said. The Loveland Police Department is also being sued for breaking the arm of a 73-year-old woman they were arresting while she was picking flowers on the side of the road. (Read more police shooting stories.)
(Newser)  Weather forecasters warned residents along Louisianas coast to rush preparations Saturday in anticipation of an intensifying Hurricane Ida, which is expected to bring winds as high as 140 mph when it slams ashore Sunday, per the AP. Authorities called a combination of voluntary and mandatory evacuations for cities and communities across the region. In New Orleans the mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation for areas outside the citys levee system and a voluntary evacuation for residents inside the levee system. But since the storm quickly escalated in intensity, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said it was not possible to order a mandatory evacuation for the entire city, which would require using all lanes of some highways to leave the city.

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If you plan to evacuate, do so now, said a mid-morning advisory from the city. Traffic was heavy on westbound routes out of town early Saturday and gas stations were busy. The storm is expected to make landfall on the exact date Hurricane Katrina devastated a large swath of the Gulf Coast 16 years earlier. But whereas Katrina was a Category 3 when it made landfall southwest of New Orleans, Ida is expected to reach an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, with top winds of 140 mph before making landfall likely west of New Orleans late Sunday.

Today is it, Jamie Rhome, acting deputy director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Saturday. If you're in coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, you really, really have to get going because today is it in terms of protecting life and property. Ida intensified rapidly Friday from a tropical storm to a hurricane with top winds of 80 mph as it crossed western Cuba. Late Saturday morning, Ida was centered 435 miles southeast of Houma, a city on Louisiana's coast. It was traveling northwest at 16 mph, forecasters said. Its maximum sustained winds were 85 mph. The wind speed in the late morning forecast had not picked up from an earlier advisory from the National Hurricane Center, but forecasters still expected it to reach Category 4 strength before making landfall on the central Louisiana coast. (Read more Hurricane Ida stories.)
(Newser)  Thousands of people rallied across the US on Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws to wipe out election legislation advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot. Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of the era. But frustrations have mounted for months because two expansive election bills have stalled in the US Senate, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The rallies Saturday were intended to increase pressure on Democrats to rewrite procedural rules that would let them muscle the legislation through without Republican votes, the AP reports.

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But they were also aimed at coaxing President Biden to do more on the issue. "You said the night you won that Black America had your back, and that you were going to have Black Americans' backs, the Rev. Al Sharpton said at a rally in Washington. "Well, Mr. President, they're stabbing us in the back." More than a thousand people turned out in sweltering heat on the National Mall on Saturday, the 58th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Martin Luther King III called on the Senate to scrap the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, including the voting bills, to advance. "Our country is backsliding to the unconscionable days of Jim Crow," King told the crowd.

Marches were also scheduled for dozens of other cities under the banner of "March On for Voting Rights," organized by Sharpton and King.

In Washington: Nearly a dozen state lawmakers who had tried to block changes to Texas' elections laws strolled onto the stage at the National Mall and were hailed as patriots. "The country is changing," said Ken Jones, 72, of Atlanta, who traveled to Washington with his wife, Paula. "The demographics are changing. And (Republicans) think that if they dont get ahead of it and suppress the vote, they aint gonna have a say in it."

Nearly a dozen state lawmakers who had tried to block changes to Texas' elections laws strolled onto the stage at the National Mall and were hailed as patriots. "The country is changing," said Ken Jones, 72, of Atlanta, who traveled to Washington with his wife, Paula. "The demographics are changing. And (Republicans) think that if they dont get ahead of it and suppress the vote, they aint gonna have a say in it." In Atlanta: Bernice King, a daughter of the late civil rights leader, led the march. In an interview, she called for "new levels of civil disobedience" to fight voting restrictions. "We're going to have to disrupt some things. We've got to disturb this country to the point that people who are still uninvolved and on the periphery to get involved in some fashion," King said.

Bernice King, a daughter of the late civil rights leader, led the march. In an interview, she called for "new levels of civil disobedience" to fight voting restrictions. "We're going to have to disrupt some things. We've got to disturb this country to the point that people who are still uninvolved and on the periphery to get involved in some fashion," King said. In Phoenix: The Rev. Terry Mackey, pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, urged those attending a rally to honor the people who shed blood for voting rights. "I want you to stand up and fight," he said, "until every person in this state has the same voting rights as anybody else."

(Read more voting rights stories.)
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Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low near 50F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low near 50F. Winds light and variable.
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Hear all about it, Locally Atchison Main Street is new in town
BEIJING (AP)  China's defense ministry protested Saturday the passage of a U.S. Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China.

A statement posted on the ministry's website called the move provocative and said it shows that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability and creator of security risks in the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Taiwan Strait.

We express firm opposition and strong condemnation, the statement said.

The USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed through the strait Friday in international waters, the U.S. Navy said. Such exercises are seen as a warning to China, which recently conducted drills near Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring the island under its control.

The ships lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, a statement from the Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said.

Taiwan, home to 23.6 million people, split from China during a civil war that led to the Communist Party taking control of the mainland in 1949. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a representative office in the capital, Taipei, and is its biggest supplier of military equipment for its defense.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been stepping up its presence in Asia, as the Chinese coast guard patrols near disputed islands that both China and other governments claim in the South and East China Seas.

The 418-foot (127-meter) long Munro, which is based in Alameda, California, arrived in the region in mid-August for what the U.S. Coast Guard said would be a monthslong deployment. It trained with a Japanese coast guard ship, the Aso, in the East China Sea for two days earlier this week.

The U.S. and Taiwan coast guards held talks this month after the two signed a cooperation agreement in March. China has denounced the agreement.

Saturday's defense ministry statement said that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and that China would not tolerate any interference in what it called its internal affairs.
Despite a sluggish progress so far, Connecticut officials say theyre on track to meet a looming deadline to dole out tens of millions of dollars in federal aid to help renters who are struggling financially due to the pandemic make payments.

Tens of thousands of Connecticut renters are behind on payments. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday night ended a moratorium on many evictions for nonpayment of rent. The court said evictions can resume.

We arent worried about meeting that number, said Dawn Parker, director of Connecticuts emergency rental assistance program, of a September deadline. As long as we meet our obligations, Im happy. We want to work as efficiently and quickly as we can while preventing fraud and abuse.

Only about 29%, or $68.8 million, of the states $235.9 million in federal rental assistance had been spent as of Friday, even though the federal government distributed the money months ago. But officials say recent adjustments to the distribution mean theyre on track to meet a deadline to obligate 65% of the funds by the end of September. States that dont meet that deadline may risk losing the money.

The aid can be a lifeline for renters like Roxane Balderacchi.

After working for more than 20 years as a server in the restaurant business, the 67-year-old Middletown resident lost her job when the restaurant she was working at opted for delivery-only service during the first months of the pandemic. She was able to make ends meet for several months, but in August 2020, she started to fall behind.

But Balderacchi was able to catch up thanks to money she received through a government rental aid program. She first received $4,000 through a different program, called the State of Connecticut Temporary Rental Housing Assistance Program last fall.

And about two weeks ago, she got another $9,317 to pay rent owed as well as $3,339 to cover the next three months.

It makes me feel a lot better. I dont like to owe anybody, she said.

Over the next few months, instead of worrying about rent, Balderacchi plans to keep applying for jobs.

Applications are flowing, and I take a lot of tests every week, thats for sure, she said. I will get back in the workforce and be myself again.

Balderacchi is one of 8,828 renters in Connecticut to get emergency rental assistance through UniteCT, the state program providing rent assistance to tenants affected by COVID-19.

It covers up to $15,000 in rent and up to $1,500 in electricity payments for households that earn up to 80% of area median income and were financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.



But the program has reached only a small share of those struggling to pay rent.

In Connecticut, 63,450 were behind on rent as of early August, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureaus Pulse Household Survey. They were among nearly 8 million people behind on rent nationwide.

The money has been slow to get out across the country. Nationally, about 89% of the $46.5 billion set aside for the federal program remains unspent.

Housing experts have blamed the slow rollout on understaffed programs, burdensome documentation requirements, and landlords who dont want to participate, among other problems.

While aid has started to go out quicker recently, there are still problems that need to be addressed in many states and municipalities, including Connecticut, advocates said.

Weve seen over the past few months that states really are beginning to ramp up, but theres definitely still work to be done on the programs, said Sarah Gallagher, project director for the National Low Income Housing Coalitions End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions initiative.

Thursdays Supreme Court ruling that ended a temporary ban on many evictions has heightened the urgency around getting the money to renters.

The ban was set to expire in October. It had been in place since September 2020 when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted it to slow the spread of COVID-19 by preventing people from having to enter homeless shelters or move in with friends and family.

Landlord and real estate groups challenged the moratorium in court, and in a 6-3 ruling, the nations top court said Thursday evictions can begin again unless Congress authorizes another eviction ban.

Creating the machine

Housing attorneys said the early rendition of the application process was challenging for many tenants.

One of the initial issues, for example, was once you uploaded documents, you couldnt go back and redo them or re-submit, said Pamela Heller, a staff attorney with the Connecticut Fair Housing Center. If something was wrong, you were stuck with it.  The actual online platform has improved.

The federal dollars went out at the start of the year, but Connecticuts program didnt launch until March. The first couple of months were spent reviewing software programs, and immediately after the start, officials had to troubleshoot problems and eliminate barriers, Parker said.

We were building the plane while we were flying it, Parker said. The first three months really were creating the machine. It wasnt expected that you could really get too much out the door at that time.

The past few months, however, have seen consistent, steady growth, Parker said.

Federal and state data show that spending has grown from less than 10% of total funds by the end of July to about 29% toward the end of August.

It has gotten better, theres no question, Heller said. Ive been seeing people actually get money, which I hadnt seen for months.

Since the programs launch, UniteCT has also allowed tenants to self-attest to facts such as income, and tenants in qualified census tracts can use their addresses as their income attestations, Parker said. Thats helped speed up the process.

Initially, landlords were asked to reduce debt by 15%, but that policy was reversed during the summer, Parker added.

Still barriers

Heller said some tenants are still encountering delays in accessing the money, often caused by an online-only application system and landlords who dont want to participate.

There are still barriers, pretty significant ones, she said.

Heller recounted one instance in which she talked a client through how to upload a document, but he didnt understand what that meant.

We have found that programs that have online-only applications are creating a barrier for some of the lowest income and marginalized populations who might not have internet access or access to a computer, Gallagher said.

UniteCT only offers online applications because it makes the review process more efficient and is more secure, Parker said.

The program has resource centers across the state where residents can go to fill out their application. Staff are also available to answer questions over the phone at 1-844-864-8328, and the UniteCT Mobile Bus travels around Connecticut so people can use computers its to fill out applications.

For Balderacchi, the online application wasnt a problem, even back in March, but she did encounter other issues.

Despite keeping in communication with the company she rents from about the process, Balderacchi said when it came time for the company to fulfill its part of the application process, there was a hitch. The company didnt want to participate in the program, she said.

The company couldnt be reached for comment Friday.

Eventually, she was given an eviction notice and was told she had just a few days to leave her apartment in late June or early July 2021. The federal ban on many evictions for nonpayment of rent didnt prevent them from being filed, and in some cases, judges would rule that the order didnt apply.

Heller helped her handle the notice, and she was able to stay in her apartment. Balderacchi has since gotten the money paid against her owed rent and has three extra months of rent paid.

In Connecticut, landlords must have a case number with UniteCT in order to deliver an eviction notice, called a notice to quit, according to a June 30 executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont.

While this helps most of the time because it forces landlords and tenants to interact with the rental assistance program before an eviction can occur, some landlords are still reluctant to participate, Heller said.

In those instances, UniteCT employees will typically call the landlords to see if they can resolve any concerns, Parker said.

While some programs across the country have allowed money to go directly to tenants if the landlords dont want to participate, in

Connecticut landlords have to agree to participate for tenants to receive money.

However, if landlords refuse and efforts to convince them to participate dont work, UniteCT will pay for the deposit and three months rent at a new apartment for the tenant, Parker said.

The money is only meant to pay for rent and electricity, not late fees, pet fees or other costs. But in Balderacchis case, her landlord applied some of the money to fees.

So attorneys again had to work it out so that she got her rent fully covered. Heller said she and the other attorneys involved have agreed that the application of money to the fees was in error, but it hadnt yet been corrected as of Friday.

I just hope they get the rest of it straightened out, she said.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb issued a statement Friday on the deaths of U.S. military members killed in a terror attack in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Indiana grieves alongside the world on the loss of the 13 U.S. service members who put their lives on the line to protect our country," the statement said. I would ask that every Hoosier keep their families and loved ones in their thoughts and prayers. As a country and as a state we need to be unified in honoring and paying our respects to the ones who paid the ultimate price."
BREMEN, Germany (AP)  The two men risked their lives together nearly a decade ago trying to eliminate the Taliban, dodging bullets and forever bonding in a way that can only be forged in war.

Now the American soldier and his Afghan translator were together again in Germany shopping for a suit. Abdulhaq Sodais's future hinges on an asylum hearing in a German court after he was denied a U.S. visa, and U.S. Army Veteran Spencer Sullivan was there to help him prepare.

Together, they watched videos from Sodais' hometown: The crackle of gunfire, dead bodies being carted off as black smoke billowed. Once U.S. troops withdrew, the fragile government built over years by people like Sodais and Sullivan collapsed in just days.

I couldnt stop crying, Sodais said. My father said the Taliban were knocking on every single door in Herat looking for guys who worked for the coalition forces.

Sullivan already lost another translator, Sayed Masoud, who was killed by the Taliban while waiting for a U.S. visa. It's a scar Sullivan carries deeply, the realization that the U.S. government is capable of the one thing he never believed: betrayal.

Sullivan was determined not to let Sodais, who used smugglers to get to Europe, suffer the same fate.

So he flew from Virginia to Germany to help Sodais pick out something to wear for his Sept. 6 asylum hearing.

In a world of hurt and uncertainty, buying a suit was the one thing Sullivan could control. It offered a small hope of making a difference.

A professional appearance just might convince a judge to help keep Sodais safe and uphold the sacred vow that America was unable to keep.

I made a promise to him just as America made a promise to him to protect him and save his life, Sullivan said. I mean how can you turn your back on that promise? I dont think the answer is more complicated than that. I think its actually very simple.

_____

Sullivan is among scores of U.S. combat veterans working on their own to rescue the Afghans who served alongside them.

Their efforts started long before this months chaotic rush to evacuate Afghans after the Talibans swift takeover of Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdraw from Americas forever war.

Thousands of Afghans who aided US troops have spent years stuck in a backlogged and beleaguered U.S. Special Immigrant Visa program, while frantic messages of the Taliban hunting them down have been pinging the phones of the American soldiers they helped on the battlefield.

The program was meant to award Afghans for their support by giving them and their families a pathway to the United States. But it has fallen far short, with Congress failing to approve enough visas each year, while the former Trump administration added new security requirements and bureaucratic hurdles that turned the average wait time from a few months into nearly three years.

Others have been denied over what immigration attorneys say were minor or unjust discrepancies in their performance records. Many now fear that the time they were marked as late to work, unfairly or accidentally even, may cost them their escape, and possibly their life.

____

Sodais and Masoud stood out among the dozen interpreters who worked with the platoon Sullivan led in Afghanistan from 2012 to 2013.

Both interpreters went with his platoon on dozens of missions into villages controlled by the Taliban, taking on fire while unarmed.

In 2013, Masoud applied for a special immigrant visa after receiving death threats for his work. His application included a letter of recommendation from Sullivan who described him as punctual and professional, an exemplary linguist and trustworthy friend.

Granting him a special immigration visa is the least that can be done in order to express Americas gratitude for his services, Sullivan wrote.

Two years later, Masouds application was denied. The U.S. embassy said he had not worked for the U.S. government or its military. In fact, Masoud was hired by a U.S. firm that had a contract with the Department of Defense to provide linguistic services to troops in Afghanistan.

Masoud appealed and Sullivan wrote another letter to the Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Kabul, providing more details of his work, but he got no response.

Sullivan reached out to other veterans to see what he could do. He learned he could pay $20,000 to get Masoud smuggled out, but he didnt want to support a criminal network. Instead, he hoped the U.S. government would come through on its end.

Meanwhile, Masouds texts to Sullivan became more sporadic as the threats escalated, forcing him to move from house to house.

He was becoming increasingly frantic and afraid," Sullivan said.

Sullivan got the last one in the summer of 2017.

Hello sir. I am so sorry to reply you late. I got a problem, Masoud wrote, apologizing for not keeping in better touch with his friend.

Hey Sayed its OK! Sullivan texted back. Are you safe?

Sullivan never got a reply.

Weeks later, Masouds brother answered an email Sullivan sent to Masouds account: Masoud had been shot by the Taliban after returning home for a relatives funeral and was dead.

Sullivan was consumed by sadness and guilt. He felt partly responsible since he had posted Facebook pictures of them and wondered if he had put his friend at risk. He wondered, too, if he could have done more to protect him.

I felt helpless, he said. I didnt know what else I could have done. Maybe I should have spent the $20,000 to pay seedy smugglers.

A year and 1/2 after his death, Sullivan got an email from the U.S. embassy in Kabul informing him that the Afghanistan Special Immigrant Visa Unit had received his recommendation letter for Masoud.

The official wanted to know if the letter was legitimate and if Sullivan would still recommend the applicant so they could begin the process. It included a photo of Masoud with his thick red hair and thin moustache.

Sullivan wrote back to the embassy to inform them that Masoud had been killed while waiting more than four years for his application to be processed.

_____

After Masouds death, Sullivan texted Sodais to tell him what had happened to his fellow translator. But he got no reply.

Like Masoud, Sodais also had applied for a special immigrant visa in 2013 and was denied. He applied again in 2015 and 2016. Sullivan sent the U.S. embassy in Kabul letters to support his case.

His last rejection came in 2017. After Sodais uncle was beheaded, and his neighbor, who worked as a fuel truck driver for coalition forces, was gunned down by the Taliban while standing in his front doorway, Sodais, who taught himself English using library books because he admired America and believed in its mission, decided he had to find another way out.

His plan would be to go to Europe by land. His brother, who knew someone in a travel agency, helped him get a tourist visa to Iran, and his family knew an Afghan man living there who would end up connecting Sodais to the first of a long line of smugglers.

Sodais left with a backpack full of clothes, and $100 worth of Iranian rials.

Along the way, he met other Afghans who worked for coalition forces also now turning to smugglers to find safe refuge.

Sodais was crammed into cars with refugees stacked on top of each on the floors. They hiked through the mountains in a snowstorm at night and dodged gunfire from Turkish border guards. He was beaten and abandoned by smugglers and jailed and beaten by police.

Meanwhile, his family back in Afghanistan was forced to move because of the Talibans growing presence in the area, and urged him to get to safety. He decided to head to Germany since Turkey and Greece were deporting Afghans at the time. His family sold their small general store in Afghanistan to fund his journey.

In the end, it took him seven months and would cost his family $15,000 to get to Germany. Once there, he applied for asylum but was lacking sufficient photos or documentation to support his claims and was immediately denied.

He called Sullivan, who he had not spoken to in more than a year.

I was like oh my God, hes alive! Sullivan recounted, feeling overjoyed.

Four months later, Sullivan went to see him in Germany and offered to help his case.

Sullivan wrote a transcript for the German court. He sent him photos of his time with his platoon and wrote to the U.S. government to get his record, which showed his contract was terminated in 2013 due to job abandonment.

Sodais says he overextended his 30-day leave after going home to deal with a back injury from the blast of an improvised explosive device during a mission.

He was rehired in 2014 by the U.S. military but his contract was administered by a civilian contractor who terminated it in 2016 due to poor job performance.

Sullivan contacted the civilian defense contractor who fired Sodais in 2016 to ask what happened since he had found his work exemplary, but she refused to help him or provide an explanation. The paperwork she signed stated only that he was being released due to incompatible skill set with the units mission.

She also would not answer questions about whether she remembered Sodais or had a security concern when contacted by The Associated Press.

Sodais said she falsely accused him of checking his personal Facebook page on the job.

Sodais fell into a deep depression after two years of waiting for a decision by the German courts. The fear of being deported was overwhelming, and he suffered headaches, back aches and other ailments from injuries from the IED blast.

In March of 2020, he tried to end his life, overdosing on pain medication. He spent nearly two months in a psychiatric ward after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

When he got out, he messaged Sullivan.

Im alive right now because of Spencer, because of him, Sodais said later.

Sullivan said hes just keeping the promise he made on the battlefield. He is helping Sodais write a book to shed light on the experience of Afghan refugees.

For now, Sodais is safe. On Aug. 11, Germany temporarily halted the deportation of all Afghans due to the upheaval but did not specify how long the order would last.

Germany is filling our moral void," Sullivan said of the U.S. government's failure to help.

But Sodais worries his luck will run out once deportations resume.

Really sometimes, its really hard for me to fight against this life, he said on a Zoom call with Sullivan as he rattled off his fears over whats happening in Afghanistan, his guilt over not being able to save his family there, and his anxiety over whether he will ever have a future.

And how will he ever get to the United States, where he wants to live? he asks.

Sullivan interrupts, stopping his downward spiral, and reminds him to stay focused on the Sept. 6 asylum hearing.

Step one is we keep you alive, he said. We get you asylum in Germany and everything else will follow.

Sullivan had to stay focused, too. Sodais was the one U.S. ally he felt he could possibly save. Days later, he would get an email from Masoud's brother, who worked for a U.S. military base, pleading for help. He included photos of his mother and uncle who were recently killed.

Sullivan knew there was little he could do since they had never worked together.

At the suit store in Bremen, on Sullivan's second visit, Sodais exited the dressing room in a black suit.

Nice! Do a spin, Sullivan joked, twirling his finger and patting his friend on back as they look in mirror. Youre looking sharp.

Sodais chuckled.

It is a moment of lightness after talking about what theyve been through and whats to come.

Before Sullivan leaves, Sodais breaks down, and Sullivan embraces him as he sobs.

Its OK, Sullivan says. Youre going to make it.

_____

Watson reported from San Diego.

_____

This story corrects that he flew from Virginia not California to Germany.
Commitment builds on established momentum in delivering market-based solutions to clients to accelerate the transition to a low carbon future

TORONTO, Aug. 26, 2021 /CNW/ - CIBC (TSX: CM) (NYSE: CM) today announced its ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions associated with operational and financing activities by 2050, and a significant increase in its commitment to mobilizing sustainable finance to a target of $300 billion by 2030, driven by a strong positive response from clients and a growing opportunity in the market to further invest in their sustainability initiatives.

To help achieve its net zero ambition CIBC is establishing key areas of focus, including leading our clients through the transition to a lower carbon economy; refining our operations; encouraging consumer behaviours that reduce climate impact; and sharing our progress with stakeholders.

Aligned to these areas of focus, CIBC will be setting interim targets for financed emission reduction, with reporting on key sectors beginning in fiscal 2022. In addition, CIBC will achieve carbon neutrality in its operations as of the end of 2024, including sourcing 100% of electricity for operations from renewable sources. CIBC will also encourage consumer behaviour through a Climate Ambition Hub coming soon to our website that will provide education, resources and advice to help clients reduce their environmental impact.

"Combatting climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing society. Achieving a successful transition to a low carbon future means taking action now to drive change, and establishing clear and measurable targets to drive progress over time," said Victor Dodig, President and CEO of CIBC. "Increasing our sustainable financing commitment empowers our clients to take decisive action towards achieving their sustainability goals through effective, market-based solutions, and we're encouraged by the strong response from clients as we approach this issue with a shared purpose."

Today's commitment builds on CIBC's leadership in helping clients to move the needle on sustainability:

CIBC recently announced Project Carbon, a voluntary carbon offset marketplace to bring efficiency, liquidity, and global standards to the carbon offset ecosystem, which is a key element in achieving net zero targets.

The increase in CIBC's target to mobilize sustainable finance is based on strong demand from clients to date. CIBC currently ranks #3 in financing for the renewable energy sector across North America , a clear indication of the progress being made in helping clients achieve their sustainability ambitions.

, a clear indication of the progress being made in helping clients achieve their sustainability ambitions. In addition, CIBC was the first Canadian bank to join the Center for Climate Aligned Finance, focused on helping corporate clients identify practical solutions to achieve climate goals through partnerships with industry and policymakers.

CIBC is also a member of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), an initiative led by the financial industry to develop a harmonized global standard to measure and disclose greenhouse gas emissions on loans and investments.

In 2020, CIBC issued a US$500 million , five-year green bond to help finance new and existing green projects, assets, and businesses that mitigate the risks and effects of climate change. These include renewable energy, green buildings, clean transportation, natural resource conservation, biodiversity conservation, energy efficiency, and pollution prevention and control.

, five-year green bond to help finance new and existing green projects, assets, and businesses that mitigate the risks and effects of climate change. These include renewable energy, green buildings, clean transportation, natural resource conservation, biodiversity conservation, energy efficiency, and pollution prevention and control. CIBC ranked among the top-tier of global banks for climate change action by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

Earlier this year, CIBC launched new Sustainable Investment Solutions focused on responsible investing, where a portion of CIBC's revenues from managing these solutions will be donated to organizations supporting climate transition activities.

"Today's announcement is an extension of what we're already doing every day across our bank  applying our innovative, client-focused lens to the challenge posed by climate change and working with our clients towards a low carbon future," added Mr. Dodig.

About CIBC

CIBC is a leading North American financial institution with 10 million personal banking, business, public sector and institutional clients. Across Personal and Business Banking, Commercial Banking and Wealth Management, and Capital Markets businesses, CIBC offers a full range of advice, solutions and services through its leading digital banking network, and locations across Canada with offices in the United States and around the world. Ongoing news releases and more information about CIBC can be found at www.cibc.com/en/about-cibc/media-centre.html.

SOURCE CIBC

For further information: Deborah Rowe, [email protected] or 416-586-7019

Related Links

www.cibc.com


"It is terrific to be back in Montreal! I love this city; love the people and love raising money for The Children's Foundation," said P.K. Subban, spokesperson for The Children's Foundation . "I'm in awe of the folks at The Children's. They are committed to advancing pediatric medicine through innovative care, programs and research projects. They stop at nothing to help and heal the young children in their care. Quite frankly, The Children's is the best place to be when your child is unwell. It is an honour for me to be doing my small part to help the next generation achieve their personal best."

Earlier in the day, P.K. visited The Children's, bringing a little joy to the sick babies, children and teens spending the summer confined to hospital beds. "I always look forward to spending time with the patients at the hospital; it is the highlight of my visit to Montreal. Throughout the pandemic, I was able to connect with many of the children through virtual hangouts, but nothing replaces being able to meet with my friends in person."

Zoom Zoom

Drivers and their navigators cruised around the greater Montreal area following clues from Andre-Philippe Gagnon that led them to six different stops where they enjoyed tasty gourmet experiences and interactive games, all from the comfort and safety of their car. There was also an online auction.

"A huge thank you to our participants, sponsors, Andre and our beloved P.K.," said Renee Vezina, President of The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation. "I am so grateful for everyone's support. As you know, the last 18-months have been very challenging. COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives, and it continues to affect us in so many ways. For us at the Children's Foundation, the impact of the pandemic is significant  we cancelled many of our in-person fundraising activities. So, it is a relief to be able to hold this charitable event and to provide the hospital with as much support as possible."

Three cheers for our sponsors: Pfizer, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, RBC Banque Royale, Plan A and Desjardins.

ABOUT THE MONTREAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

The mission of The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation is to inspire and mobilize the community to support innovation in clinical care, research and teaching at The Montreal Children's Hospital, the pediatric teaching hospital for McGill University's Faculty of Medicine, and pediatric research at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The Children's Foundation has launched its major campaign with a goal of $200 million, the most ambitious fundraising objective for a pediatric hospital in Quebec's history, to advance innovative projects that will push the envelope in pediatrics on an international scale and help The Children's Find Unexpected Ways to Heal. Since its inception in 1973, the Foundation has raised just under $500-million, which has transformed the lives of sick children through innovative research and teaching projects, and cutting-edge care.

SOURCE The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation

For further information: For more information, please visit childrenfoundation.com or contact: Lisa Dutton, Director of Media and Public Relations, The Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation, [email protected], 514-264-6514

Related Links

http://www.childrenfoundation.com/


TORONTO, Aug. 26, 2021 /CNW/ - Dye & Durham Limited ("Dye & Durham" or the "Company") (TSX: DND), a leading provider of cloud-based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals, announced today that the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") has advised Dye & Durham (UK) Limited ("D&D UK"), a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of the Company, that the CMA will issue an initial enforcement order against it in respect of its recent acquisition of TM Group (UK) Limited ("TMG") (the "Transaction"). Specifically, the CMA will be assessing whether the Transaction gives rise to a relevant merger situation for the purposes of Part 3 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (the "Act") and, if so, whether its statutory duty to refer the Transaction to a Phase 2 assessment set out in section 22 of the Act is triggered. The CMA has 4 months from the July 8, 2021, closing of the Transaction, to make such determination, unless such deadline it extended.

The CMA has advised that it will be issuing an Initial Enforcement Order prohibiting certain steps from being taken by D&D (UK) and/or TMG pending such preliminary assessment.

The Company and D&D UK intend to fully cooperate with this CMA assessment.

About Dye & Durham

Dye & Durham Limited is a leading provider of cloud-based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals. Dye & Durham provides critical information services and workflows, which clients use to manage their process, information and regulatory requirements. The Company has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia and has a strong blue-chip customer base that includes law firms, financial service institutions, and government organizations.

Additional information can be found at www.dyedurham.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events, including with respect to the CMA review of the Transaction. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, nor guarantees or assurances of future performance but instead represent management's current beliefs, expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events and operating performance.

Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the prospectus supplement of the Company dated November 18, 2020 to the short-form base shelf prospectus (including the documents incorporate therein) of the Company dated November 18, 2020. Dye & Durham does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.

SOURCE Dye & Durham Limited

For further information: For inquiries, please contact: Ross Marshall, LodeRock Advisors Inc., [email protected], 416.526.1563

Related Links

https://dyedurham.com/


NEW HAVEN  Residents looking up in the sky this morning might have noticed a plane flying overhead with a banner promoting climate action.

The banner, reading Connecticut Must Lead on Climate, comes from the Connecticut Citizen Research Group, an affiliate of Connecticut Citizen Action Group.

With the state having just endured a sweltering week, activists are calling for Gov. Ned Lamont to take swift and bold administrative climate action to stop all fossil fuel expansion, ramp up energy efficiency and renewable energy for all, and push to end the financing of fossil fuels through community and online engagement, the group said in a press release.

Ann Pratt, the executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Research Group, said state leaders need to stop kidding themselves, and us, that we are doing enough to address climate justice.

We are at a point where real steps need to be taken on climate, and our leaders need to stop dragging their feet, Pratt added.

The banner was scheduled to fly over Lighthouse Point in New Haven and Hammonasset Beach in Madison from about 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and Seaside Park in Bridgeport around 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

At the same time, activists will be canvassing these beaches. There will be a mobile billboard with the same slogan, Connecticut Must Lead On Climate, traveling through the state, including past Lamonts residence in Hartford, the group said in a press release.

The group purchased carbon offsets, which reduce carbon emissions to compensate for emissions from another source, to counteract any emission impacts from the banner, according to a statement.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  American forces working under heightened security and threats of another attack pressed ahead in the closing days of the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan after a devastating suicide bombing, and U.S. officials said they had killed a member of the extremist group that the United States believes responsible for it.

A U.S. drone strike early Saturday in eastern Afghanistan killed a member of the country's Islamic State affiliate, U.S. Central Command said. President Joe Biden has laid responsibility for Thursday's suicide bombing on that offshoot extremist group which is an enemy both to the West and to Afghanistan's Taliban and is known for especially lethal attacks.

The death toll in Thursday's suicide bombing rose to 169 Afghans, a number that could increase as authorities examine fragmented remains, and 13 U.S. service members.

U.S. Central Command said American officials believed the militant killed in Saturday's drone strike had been involved in planning strikes against the United States in Kabul, and that there were no other known casualties.

The U.S. retaliation comes amid a steady flow of grim warnings from the White House and the Pentagon that there could be more extremist attacks targeting U.S. forces ahead of President Joe Biden's fast-approaching deadline Tuesday to end the airlift and withdraw American personnel.

The next few days will be our most dangerous period to date" in the evacuation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, hours before the U.S. issued a security alert for four of the airport gates.

Thursday's bombing marked one of the most lethal attacks the country has seen. The U.S. said it was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011.

As the call to prayer echoed Friday through Kabul along with the roar of departing planes, the anxious crowds thronging the airport in hope of escaping Taliban rule appeared as large as ever, despite the scenes of victims lying closely packed together in the aftermath of the bombing.

Around the world, newly arriving Afghan evacuees, many clutching babies and bare handfuls of belongings in plastic bags, stepped off evacuation flights in the United States, in Albania, in Belgium and beyond. In Kabul on Friday, Afghan families looked for loved ones among bodies, placed along a hospital sidewalk for identification, of bombing victims who died pleading for a seat on the U.S.-run airlifts.

Afghans, American citizens and other foreigners were all acutely aware the window was closing to get out via the airlift.

Jamshad went to the airport Friday with his wife and three small children. He clutched an invitation to a Western country he didnt want to identify.

After the explosion I decided I would try. Because I am afraid now there will be more attacks, and I think now I have to leave, said Jamshad, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

The Pentagon said Friday that there was just one suicide bomber  at the airport gate  not two, as U.S. officials initially said. A U.S. official said that the bomber carried a heavier-than-usual load of about 25 pounds of explosives, loaded with shrapnel.

The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the attack. The officials who gave the Afghan death toll also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The Afghan victims ranged from a hard-working young journalist to an impoverished father, driven to to the airport by hopes of a better life.

The American dead were 11 Marines, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier. Many had been tiny children when U.S. forces first entered Afghanistan in 2001.

One, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Mae'lee Grant Nikoui, sent a video to a family friend in the United States just hours before he was killed, showing himself smiling and greeting Afghan children.

Want to take a video together, buddy?" Nikoui asked young boy, leaning in to be in the picture with him. All right, we're heroes now, man.

British officials said two of the country's citizens and the child of another Briton were among those killed.

On the morning after the attack, the Taliban used a pickup truck full of fighters and three captured Humvees to set up a barrier 500 meters (1,600 feet) from the airport, holding the crowds farther back from the U.S. troops than before.

U.S. military officials said that some gates were closed and other security measures put in place. They said there were tighter restrictions at Taliban checkpoints and fewer people around the gates.

U.S. officials said evacuees with proper credentials still were being allowed through the gates. Inside, about 5,400 evacuees awaited flights.

U.S. commanders had briefed Biden Friday on developing plans to strike back at the Islamic State and make good on the president's vow to the attackers to hunt you down and make you pay.

Biden pronounced the U.S. effort to evacuate Americans, Afghan allies and others most at risk from the Taliban a worthy mission.

"And we will complete the mission, he said.

The Taliban have wrested back control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks. Their return to power has terrified many Afghans, who have rushed to flee the country ahead of the American withdrawal.

More than 100,000 people have been safely evacuated through the Kabul airport, according to the U.S., but thousands more are struggling to leave.

The White House said Friday afternoon that U.S. military aircraft had flown out 2,100 evacuees in the previous 24 hours. Another 2,100 people left on other coalition flights.

The number was a fraction of the 12,700 people carried out by U.S. military aircraft during a brief period when the airlift reached maximum capacity.

France ended its own evacuation effort and pulled up stakes on a temporary French embassy at the airport, leaving Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. U.S. allies and others have ended or are ending their airlifts, in part to give the U.S. time to wrap up its own operations.

The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the U.S. withdrawal, but it is unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants.

___

Gannon reported from Islamabad and Anna from Nairobi, Kenya. Darlene Superville in Washington and Rahim Faiez in Turkey and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed along with other Associated Press writers around the world.

___

More of AP's Afghanistan coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan
MILWAUKEE (AP)  Prosecutors in southeastern Wisconsin have charged a former professional clown with killing his newborn daughter 30 years ago.

Court records show 51-year-old Ronald Schroeder of Milwaukee was charged Wednesday with first-degree reckless homicide and child abuse, 30 years to the day of his 7-week-old daughter Catherines death.

WITI-TV reported that Schroeder, who was once known as Silly the Clown, was an initial suspect after doctors ruled the newborn died of what they said was shaken baby syndrome.

But the Milwaukee County medical examiner reviewed the newborns autopsy in June and determined she actually died of blunt force trauma to the head and ruled her death a homicide.

Schroeder made his initial court appearance in Milwaukee Thursday. Court Commissioner Katryna Childs Rhodes remarked that it took time to piece together the case against him and set cash bail at $350,000. He's due back in court on Sept. 2 for a preliminary hearing.

His defense attorney, listed in court records as Meera Al-Henaey, declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday.

Schroeder also was charged in Waukesha County on Wednesday with child abuse in connection with a 2005 case involving a 5-week-old child, WITI-TV reported.
LAS VEGAS (AP)  A former state court judge who was reprimanded for cursing and throwing a pocket U.S. Constitution against a courtroom wall in an outburst over a jurors apparent attempt to avoid jury service said he will seek the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state.

Richard Scotti told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday he'll run on his experience as a business lawyer, business owner and judge.
SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP)  Cemeteries hold a treasured place in our hearts.

The final resting spot of loved ones, community leaders, heroes. A place of reunion for generations of families -- those who have died and the living who come to visit their graves.

But what if theres no longer room, or a visit to relatives grave is physically a challenge?

Its a conundrum facing the Woodbury Township Cemetery in Sergeant Bluff.

Located on a tree-lined site above the Sioux City Brick plant, the cemetery is landlocked, surrounded by the brickmakers industrial complex east of South Lewis Boulevard on the north side of town in a spot where bricks have been made since the 1880s. Established in 1854, the cemetery has reached its capacity of 1,200 graves, and theres nowhere to expand, forcing Sergeant Bluff residents to be buried elsewhere if they dont already have a plot there.

Making matters more challenging, visitors must drive through the industrial site, where heavy machinery crosses the only street leading to the cemetery. The cemeterys steep slope makes it a maintenance nightmare thats hard to mow and trim, said Jerry Logemann, a Sergeant Bluff resident and trustee of the Woodbury Township Cemetery Board, which owns and maintains the cemetery with volunteer labor.

Its also a challenge, Logemann said, for visitors, notably those who need assistance to walk or are elderly, to climb the cemetery hill, especially when the ground is soft after a rain.

To give honor to the people who are buried up there, you need to give easy access to this site, Logemann told the Sioux City Journal.

There is a solution.

Brickworks North America, the Australian holding company that owns the Sioux City Brick and Glen-Gery brands, has offered the Woodbury Township board a 10-acre site it owns for a new cemetery. Located a few hundred yards to the north at the intersection of South Lewis Boulevard and South Ridge Road, the site is level and would provide easy access to visitors and groundskeepers. It would contain more than 5,500 burial sites, a vast expansion for the cemetery.

Graves at the current cemetery would be relocated to the new one, and Brickworks would pay all the costs: development of the new site, relocation expenses and legal fees -- a total estimated at more than $2 million, Brickworks general counsel Joe Hanson said.

The Mahoney Legacy Fund -- named for the family that once owned Sioux City Brick and made community contributions for decades -- has been established as part of a non-profit created to cover future maintenance at the new cemetery, which would include a section for military veterans and their spouses and a columbarium for cremated remains.

Once vacated, Hanson said, Brickworks would incorporate the current cemetery site into its operations and mine it for clay needed to make the thousands of bricks that are produced and shipped from the plant daily.

Bonnie Stevenson, a Sergeant Bluff resident whose great grandparents and other relatives are buried in the cemetery, said that after hearing of the proposal, she didnt need long to make up her mind. She thinks of the cemeterys steep terrain and the difficulty reaching graves at the top of the hill. A new, level cemetery would solve that problem.

There was no difficulty to understand the benefit of what moving the cemetery would be, said Stevenson, one of five members of the Woodbury Township Cemetery Expansion Committee formed to explore its expansion and relocation.

For others, the thought of relocating a family members remains isnt as easy.

This is kind of a historical area, and were disturbing the area of those buried there. But to honor them is to allow people to visit them, Logemann said. The end result here is anyone, whether theyre in a wheelchair or a walker, can reach up and touch the gravestone of their loved one.

As might be expected, records for a cemetery dating back to the mid 1800s arent complete. Some graves are unmarked or markers are missing. There are potters fields in which unknown or indigent people were buried. Through the research needed prior to a relocation, Logemann said, the township will get a better handle on whos buried here likely identify some of the unknowns.

In coming weeks, the expansion committee will be contacting relatives of those buried in the cemetery, asking them to fill out an online survey. The committee will compile the responses and provide them to the township board, which will review the results and decide whether to accept Brickworks offer.

We dont know what the response of the next of kin is going to be, said Hanson, whos also on the expansion committee. If we get a bunch of data back that says, we dont want to do this, the committee, I think, has to say no.

If the township accepts the offer, the board would seek a judges order approving the relocation. Hanson said its possible that, if approved, relocation could begin next spring and take about eight months.

Logemann said most feedback hes heard about the proposed relocation has been positive, and its a case in which both the township and Brickworks would get something they need in the land swap.

I feel like this is going to be a huge win for both of us, he said of the project, if approved.

At first glance, it appears to respect everyone involved, living and dead.
Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

NEW HAVEN  The citys fire department is responding to a house fire in New Haven Saturday morning.

Units were headed to the 300 block of Goffe Street around 8:44 a.m., according to the New Haven Fire Departments Twitter page.
NEW HAVEN  The number of complaints from residents regarding New Haven police officers has stayed roughly level so far in 2021 compared to last year, as has officers pattern of using force, according to statistics recently released by the department.

The data is collected by the Police Departments Internal Affairs Division; the most current iteration of data runs through Aug. 13.

Capt. David Zannelli, who heads internal affairs, said the data is available as part of a general effort to make the system open and transparent to residents.

Theres always room for improvement. Id like to think were one of the most transparent police departments in the state, however, if theres community feedback on how we can do better, theres always room for improvement, said Zannelli.

So far in 2021, 59 complaints have been filed regarding officers  27 of which remain open and 30 of which led to the officer in question being cleared, according to the department.

The most common allegations have been of neglect of duty, with 12 complaints, followed by excessive force and rudeness, with 11 and nine, respectively.

New Haven Police Department

In all of 2020, there were 88 complaints, four of which remain open and nine of which were sustained.

Fifty-five of those 88 complaints had been filed through Aug. 13, 2020. In 2019, there were 92 complaints, 10 of which were sustained; 54 had been filed as of Aug. 13, 2019.

Transparency

Zannelli said the department tries to go out of its way to allow residents to share their concerns about incidents with officers, accepting complaints in person at the Union Avenue station, online, via email to him at dzannelli@newhavenct.gov and over the phone at 203-946-6249.

Because of the stigma attached to visiting the department, coronavirus and for general ease, the department has diversified the options available, he said. The process is governed by the departments general order 2.08, which also is available for public consideration.

Theres really no way that we dont accept a complaint, said Zannelli. We do ask (that) the complaint form be completed, because that way we know who to correspond with, we have some basic facts to look into. ... But that doesnt prohibit us from taking the complaint.

Zannelli said he is willing to share information on closed cases, including with members of the police commission and civilian review board, who are advised of all them during their meetings. Closed case files are available by request under the Freedom of Information Act.

The department limits sharing information about ongoing internal affairs investigations, although it is available to police commissioners, in order to preserve the sanctity and quality of the inquiry, Zannelli said.

Moderate to serious complaints  Zannelli noted former officer Gary Gamarra  are assigned to internal affairs investigators. Gamarra resigned following internal affairs investigations that determined he violated department regulations in sexual interactions with two women, police documents show. Less pressing matters, such as not wearing a mask when getting coffee, are referred to supervisors, Zannelli said.

Use of force

The use of force trends are roughly level from 2020, police said. Officers used some sort of force, as deemed by the department, 200 times from Jan. 1 through July 2021. Last year, they did so 186 times during the same period; in 2019, 153; in 2018, 246.

New Haven Police Department

The most notable increase was the display of firearms by officers. So far in 2021, officers have displayed their weapons 70 times, up from 68 in all of 2020. In 2019, they did so 62 times for the full year; in 2018, 119 times for the full year.

Zannelli said that statistic was prone to variation, particularly as officers are responding to violent incidents. Shootings and homicides are up so far in 2021, with 72 and 18, respectively, as of Aug. 15.

If officers are called on to conduct a high risk stop of a car that may have been involved, they may draw their weapons in teams of three or more, Zannelli said.

The rules say that anytime we point a firearm at a person, we are required to (log) a use of force. Theres a misconception this use of force is actually us shooting people, which is not true, said Zannelli.

New Haven Police Department

Finding facts

Zannelli said his goal in heading the internal affairs division is to fairly investigate complaints and be transparent with the public.

Body cameras, he said, had proven to be a boon  he was leery of the change as first, as it came after he had spent more than a decade in the profession, but it allowed a complete record of interactions.

People often find that, after the heat of the moment has passed, the video footage does not match their recollection of events, he said. The film also allows the department to reasonably correct other officers who fail to live up to orders, even if they were not the specific subject of the complaint.

Its not the cops word, its not the complainants word  its just the accurate truth, said Zannelli. The only thing I try to remind the community is we have hindsight, (which is) 20/20. ... We have to afford the opportunity for the officer to not know what the situation is when they first initiate an investigation. They dont have that luxury.

Zannelli said theres some challenge that comes with being a watchdog for ones fellow officers.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

When he was district manager in Fair Haven, he was able to work with residents; people felt like they were heard and participating in an openly constructive process  theres a lot of happiness, he said.

In Internal Affairs, the work is more likely to engender harsh feelings, both among officers and in the community  sometimes its just hard to make everybody happy, because the facts vary.

Its tough, said Zannelli. Im an investigator at heart  at least thats what I fancy myself. I spent a lot of time in narcotics, the (shooting) task force, homicide  I look for the facts. Im not looking for emotional pieces, although I understand both sides can get emotional at times. I keep it to the facts  either the officer did something wrong, seriously, or they didnt.

In the face of that, he said he strives to do the job in a forthright and professional manner.

We try to show (those watching) theres accountability, theres follow-up, theres transparency, said Zannelli. And I think that value, in todays law enforcement, is invaluable.

Zannelli said hes thankful former Police Chiefs Otoniel Reyes and Anthony Campbell, as well as former Assistant Chief Racheal Cain, considered and tapped him for the role.

Balance

Keith Taylor, adjunct assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, former head of the New York City Correction Departments Intelligence Bureau and former New York City Police Department Internal Affairs Bureau supervisor, said internal investigations require an attention to balance  you have to inform the public, maintain a quality investigation, and respect officers rights.

He also said the position carried some particular stress.

Its often not a treasured role for police, Taylor said  he was diverted into it when he tried to get into the computer crimes division. It was a two-year commitment, he said, and he figured his career could absorb the impact and continue on course.

In his experience, Taylor said, officers regularly resent internal affairs oversight. He likened it to the relationship between residents and officers.

People dont like being bossed by police, said Taylor. That same human feeling is generally what officers will feel when dealing with internal affairs.

But the job has to be done well to allow a department to function, he said. One wants levelheaded, fair-minded, skilled people; they face the temptation of helping friends, colleagues, people who have had their back in times of stress, involved in an inquiry; an erroneous investigation can harm the officer, the victim and the public.

In a perfect world, thered be no need for internal affairs, Taylor said. Its like a necessary evil.

Officers in the role, despite its complications, are striving to do their job well, Taylor said. There are also further level of oversight when it comes to police corruption, he noted, from federal and state investigators to district attorneys.

Its important for the general public to understand, just like the vast majority of police officers take their job seriously, so do internal affairs (staffers), said Taylor.

After reviewing the data from New Haven police, Taylor said he was struck by the departments decision to track when Tasers are armed, but not used.

That shows forethought, he said, allowing the department to track potentially concerning trends even if no specific incident has prompted further review.

With that sort of knowledge, he said, the department can craft quality policies and procedures that seriously consider the demands placed on officers.

Zannelli said residents should be aware there is a system in place that can be utilized.

The department doesnt have every tool available to prevent issues, he noted  it makes hiring recommendations, which are then vetted and voted on by the police commission  but the practices of officers are reviewed seriously.

Residents concerned about whether the department is doing the right thing can obtain body camera footage through the Freedom of Information Act, he noted; closed cases are available.

Every time a complaint is lodged, it is investigated. It just doesnt go into oblivion. There is a process; its logged, its categorized. You can make a complaint any which way, and the dispositions and stats are there, said Zannelli. I can assure the public, by and large, the officers are doing the right things, and if they make a mistake, there is accountability here.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
Six wrapped kilograms of cocaine were seized Aug. 24, 2017 in the Falls. Police also seized a money counting machine, a food saver with shrink wrap (used to wrap large quantities of drugs and about $5,000 in cash. Dante Dolson is going to jail for 8 years in the case.
In this file photo from 2015, Andre Jenkins walks out of a Niagara County Court room in Lockport after being sentenced to life in prison. The Kingsmen Motorcycle Club member was previously convicted of shooting two fellow members of the club's North Tonawanda chapter.
TRAGEDY: Gasport lost two of its stalwarts in one day this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the threat the Islamic State group poses ahead of an Iraqi summit Saturday overshadowed by the Ta...





French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the threat the Islamic State group poses ahead of an Iraqi summit Saturday overshadowed by the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan and a deadly bombing in Kabul.

Organisers have been tight-lipped on the agenda of the summit in Baghdad, but the meeting also comes as Iraq, long a casualty of jihadist militancy, tries to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.

We all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government, Macron said, after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in Baghdad.

Iraq and France are key partners in the war against terrorism, Kadhemi replied.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordans King Abdullah II are due at the summit, while the foreign ministers of regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be present.

The prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, as well as Kuwaits Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, are also expected to attend.

Iraq is seeking to play a unifying role to tackle crises shaking the region, sources close to Iraqs Kadhemi have said.

Oil-rich Iraq has been caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies, Iran and the United States.

Iran exerts major clout in Iraq through allied armed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful state-sponsored paramilitary network.

Baghdad has been brokering talks since April between US ally Riyadh and Tehran on mending ties severed in 2016.

Macron aims to highlight Frances role in the region and its determination to press the fight against terrorism, his office said.

The French president considers Iraq essential to stability in the troubled Middle East, it added.

An IS affiliate claimed Thursdays suicide bombing in Kabul that killed scores of people, including 13 US service members.

The attack has revived global concerns that the extremist organisation, which seized swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed from both countries, is emerging anew, analysts said.

The blast came during the final days of US-led evacuations from Afghanistan after the Talibans lightning takeover.

These events show that it has become more urgent than ever to back the political process in Iraq and involve its neighbours, a source close to Macron said.

A solution to security threats in the region, including Daesh, depends on a stable, sovereign and prosperous Iraq, the source added.

A decade after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, IS in June 2014 announced a caliphate in territory seized in Syria and Iraq, routing the badly prepared Iraqi army without a fight and seizing almost a third of the country.

France was part of a US-led coalition established to battle the extremists.

Iraq declared IS territorially defeated in December 2017, but the group still retains sleeper cells and continues to claim bloody attacks.

One of the deadliest was a July bombing that ripped through a crowded Baghdad market, killing over 30 people on the eve of a key Muslim holiday.

According to Colin Clarke, senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, IS still has access to tens of millions of dollars and will likely continue to rebuild its network throughout Iraq and Syria.

Its primary goal at the moment is to have its affiliates maintain momentum until it can sufficiently rebuild its core in the Levant, he said.

(IS) affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa and now Afghanistan will have the opportunity to make strides in the coming year.

In July, President Joe Biden said US combat operations in Iraq would end this year, but that US soldiers would continue to train, advise and support the countrys military in the fight against IS.

Washington currently has 2,500 troops deployed to Iraq.

Rasha Al Aqeedi, senior analyst at Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said coalition forces believed Iraqs security personnel could prevent another IS advance.

Maybe theyre not ideal, but theyre good enough for America to leave the country believing that Iraq is not going to live through another 2014, she said.
The Federal Government has declared a former Navy Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, wanted over his revelations on Channels Televisions Sunrise...

The Federal Government has declared a former Navy Commodore, Kunle Olawunmi, wanted over his revelations on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily breakfast programme last Wednesday.

He had claimed Boko Haram terrorists mentioned names of current governors, senators and Aso Rock officials as sponsors during interrogation but the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has demonstrated an unwillingness to go after the high-profile politicians for reasons best known to him.

Olawunmi, a Professor of Global Security Studies, had said, You remember this Boko Haram issue started in 2012 and I was in the military intelligence at that time. We arrested those people. My organisation actually conducted interrogation and they (suspects) mentioned names. I cant come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned. Some of them are governors now, some of them are in the Senate, some of them are in Aso Rock.

Why should a government decide to cause this kind of embarrassment and insecurity to the sense of what happened yesterday (Tuesday attack on Nigerian Defence Academy)? he queried, adding that terrorist financiers want to turn Nigeria to a Taliban type of country.

It was gathered from competent sources that the intelligence agencies including the Department of State Services and the Defence Intelligence Agency have since launched a manhunt for Olawunmi.

When contacted, DIA spokesperson, Major Afolashade Ojolowo, said he has been on leave and could not confirm the development.





Recall that the National Broadcasting Commission summoned Channels Television anchors including Chamberlain Usoh and Kayode Okikiolu over alleged anti-Buhari comments made by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on the programme on Tuesday.

Ortom had said he was disappointed with the way the Presidency is handling the nations security challenges.

Recall that NBC queried Channels Television over the inciting, divisive and unfair comments made by Ortom on the programme on Tuesday and moved to sanction the television station.

The NBC had in May slammed a fine of N5million each on Channels TV and Inspiration FM Lagos for alleged infractions of the broadcasting code.

Channels TV had featured the spokesperson for the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Emma Powerful, on its Politics Today programme.
Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara, has ordered that transportation of livestock beyond the states borders be suspended. The susp...

Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara, has ordered that transportation of livestock beyond the states borders be suspended.

The suspension was announced in a statement issued on Friday by Zailani Bappa, media aide to the governor.

The development comes hours after students abducted from the College of Agriculture in Bakura, Zamfara, regained their freedom  11 days after they were abducted.

According to the statement, Matawalle also ordered the closure of weekly markets across the state, while transportation of food items will be subject to verification.

The state government noted that the development is part of efforts to address insecurity.

Governor Bello Mohammed (Matawallen Maradun, Shattiman Sakkwato) has announced a set of new measures aimed at curtailing the growing activities of bandits in the state, the statement reads.

Henceforth, all filling stations in the state are banned from selling fuel except in Gusau and the 14 local government headquarters. In addition, no eligible filling station is allowed to sell fuel of more that N10,000 to a single customer.

Similarly, the sale of fuel in jerry cans is disallowed in all filling stations while roadside purchase (popularly known as black market) are entirely banned.

Governor Matawalle further announced that all weekly markets across the state are suspended, but normal market activities of buying and selling for local consumptions are exempted from the ban.

The Government further ordered that the transportation of livestock to and from the State is henceforth suspended while the transportation of food across the state and outside the state must be verified to authenticate its destination, otherwise [it] will be seized and taken to the orphanage.

The new rules further include the banning of riding on motorcycles and tricycles from 6pm to 6am in the state except the state capital which starts by 8pm to 6am everyday. Furthermore, any tricycle that is covered will be stopped to verify its passengers, otherwise will be apprehended.

Governor Matawalle reiterated the ban on more than two persons riding a motorcycle and warned that those who break the law stand the risk of being shot at by security operatives.

The statement noted that security operatives will ensure that the new directives are enforced, and urged citizens to cooperate with the government.

Bappa also added that a committee will be constituted to ensure compliance to ensure added sanity in our communities.
This general view shows the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China on Feb. 3, as members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, visit. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images/TNS
The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped across Louisiana last week, but the "fourth wave" of the virus, the delta variant, continues to strain a variety of resources and affect everyday life across the state.

As of noon on Aug. 26, 255 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 at five area hospitals, including Slidell Memorial, Ochsner Northshore, St. Tammany Health System, Northlake Regional and North Oaks. That number was down from 333 people being treated for COVID-19 on Aug. 19.

A total of 91% of those people had not been vaccinated, the same percentage reported on both dates. The median age of the hospitalized rose from 59 to 60 during that seven-day span.

Doctors and local leaders continue to stress the importance of vaccination in fighting the virus, which has killed more than 11,000 in the state and 573 in St. Tammany Parish as of Aug. 26. An estimated 49% of Louisiana residents have taken at least the initial dose of a COVID-19 vaccine., while only 41% of people have been fully vaccinated against the virus, totals that lag behind most of the U.S.

St. Tammany Parish schools, meanwhile, saw a significant increase in COVID-19 infection between Aug. 19 and 26. There were 604 new positive cases among students (1,404 total) and 70 among employees (329 total) since July 1. During the same period, the number of quarantined climbed by 1,730 students (4,223 total) and 43 employees (231 total).

The continued uncertainty has forced cancellation of at least two more significant annual events, including the Slidell Food & Fun Fest and the Wild Things festival. Both were not canceled in 2020, as well.

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The Slidell Food & Fun Fest, called the "St. Margaret Mary Fair" by locals, has been a late-October tradition for more than a half-century. Midway rides, game booths, live music and more draw tens of thousands to the school grounds to raise money for the SMM church and school.

It saddens all of us to have to make this decision, fair director Robert Bywater said in a statement. Out of respect for public health, we need to respect the current situation, and do our part to ensure that we are able to return normal as soon as possible. We will miss seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter of children at our fair this year, but we will be back, bigger and better than ever next year.

Rebecca Larkins, a refuge ranger with the U.S. and Wildlife Service, has similar feelings about the annual Wild Things festival, which is celebrated during the second full week of October and commemorates National Wildlife Refuges Week.

Its so sad not being able to have Wild Things again this year, Larkins said. But were looking into having another event that same week, something smaller. It wont be Wild Things, but hopefully its something. I hope to have information soon.

The USFWS will have its annual Wild Things Art Contest for persons 5-18. For more information, go online to www.fws.gov/refuge/Big_Branch_Marsh/COSA/WT_Youth_Art.html.

Organizers of the St. Tammany Parish Fair were to meet Monday (Aug. 30) and decide whether the parishs oldest festival will go forward in 2021.
When Houston Police Chief Troy Finner arrived at the scene of a daytime shooting last weekend that left an off-duty New Orleans cop dead, he hugged the slain officers distraught fellow members of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club. He also told his city's mayor that he had a working theory about who committed the crime.

Finners detectives quickly zeroed in on robbers targeting people with pricey jewelry. On Friday, officials said that Finner's suspicions had proved correct and announced they were charging two men with capital murder and seeking a third for questioning in the Aug. 21 shooting that killed Det. Everett Briscoe and critically wounded his Zulu compatriot Dyrin DJ Riculfy.

Accused gang members Anthony Jenkins, 21, and Frederick Jackson, 19, had been stalking people they wanted to rob for high-end jewelry when Briscoe and Riculfy  the latter known to wear expensive watches and chains  were shot while outside a restaurant near the Space Citys famed Galleria mall, said Lt. John McGalin, of the Houston Police Department homicide squad.

Surveillance video and tips from community members implicate Jenkins and Jackson in the deadly double shooting that apparently resulted from a random robbery gone bad, McGalin said.

Both face charges of capital murder and attempted capital murder, Harris County, Texas, District Attorney Kim Ogg said at a news conference. Prosecutors could pursue the death penalty against Jenkins and Jackson, who had each been out on bond in connection with prior charges of assault and robbery with a deadly weapon, Ogg added.

A third person of interest to the investigation into Briscoes slaying may face charges as well, McGalin said. But that person wasnt under arrest by Friday.

Houston police announced the arrests hours before a viewing honoring Briscoe at the Mahalia Jackson Theater in New Orleans.

On Friday afternoon, visitors filed in and stood silently as they paused over Briscoe's coffin, which was flanked by police officers in full dress uniform. In the backdrop were floral arrangements and other regalia nodding at his ties to the NOPD and Zulu, and the sound of jazz music filtering in from outside the auditorium.

According to initial accounts from police and friends, Briscoe, Riculfy and other members of New Orleans legendary Zulu club who were on a guys trip to Houston were gathered on the patio of the Grotto Ristorante to smoke cigars when two hooded men with guns demanded that they put their hands up. The victims were complying when at least one of the robbers began firing, police said.

Briscoe was struck and died at the scene, leaving behind his wife and two sons. Riculfy, a husband and father himself, was hit as well and taken to a hospital where he has been in a medically-induced coma fighting for his life since, according to relatives.

Almost immediately, investigators suspected Briscoe and Riculfy had fallen prey to robbers targeting people with expensive jewelry outside upscale retailers, especially near the Galleria.

At least one such robbery attempt culminated in a killing earlier this year, and Finner has been urging residents to be vigilant against this trend dubbed jugging.

The Grotto shares a strip mall with a boutique jeweler, and a friend of Riculfy said he was wearing an expensive watch when he and Briscoe were attacked.

The pair of suspects Houston police linked to the double shooting both have prior arrest records for violent crimes.

And the high-profile slaying of Briscoe seems destined to play a role in an ongoing debate over releases on bail in Houston.

Jackson and Jenkins were each free despite earlier felony arrests, Ogg said.

Police arrested Jackson on allegations that he followed a person home from the Galleria in September 2020 and robbed the victim at gunpoint, criminal court records in Houston show.

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He had also allegedly broken into a closed building with the intention of stealing things a couple of weeks earlier, the documents add.

Jackson posted bail of $180,000. He was supposed to wear an ankle monitor and be under house arrest 24 hours a day. But records allege he came and went as he pleased, and Ogg accused him of removing the ankle monitor.

Jackson, described as a member of an unspecified gang, was detained without incident Thursday after being pulled over in a car by SWAT officers who had tailed him.

Jenkins is a known and documented member of the Young Scott Block gang in Houstons southeast area, Ogg said. That crew was a major player in a gang war that claimed dozens of lives in recent years, police have said.

Police said they arrested Jenkins on Wednesday at an apartment complex where they found a Nissan Altima that fits the description of the vehicle used to escape the scene of the Grotto shooting.

The day after his arrest, Jenkins was charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in a separate stickup that happened the same day as Briscoe's death. In that case, court records say, he confessed to acting as the driver when he and two others robbed a man of a watch and a bag.

The victim of that robbery described a chilling sequence of events in a telephone interview. He said he and a companion had just parked their vehicle when the robbers appeared out of nowhere. He ran, but stumbled and fell. One of the robbers ordered him to take off his watch and wallet and he complied.

"Man, youre lucky I didnt shoot your ass," were the robber's parting words to the victim, he said. "If I didnt fall, I probably would have run longer and he probably would have shot me."

The robbers made off in a Nissan Altima with paper plates  the same description as the getaway vehicle in the Grotto shooting.

Court records indicating whether Jenkins and Jackson have lawyers weren't immediately available.

+8 Zulu members were on a guys' trip to Houston when NOPD officer was killed, member was shot Detective Everett Briscoe had been in Houston just a couple of hours Saturday when he and his buddy Dyrin DJ Riculfy decided to walk to a ne

Police didnt say whether anyone would collect the $100,000 reward being offered for information leading to criminal charges in Briscoes death.

Finner said hed spoken to Briscoe and Riculfys wives, including an in-person meeting with Riculfys wife at a Houston hotel Thursday.

Shes hurting and her familys hurting. Pray for her husband. Hes still fighting. But more importantly, pray for everybody, everybody involved, Finner said.

New Orleans City Council member Jay H. Banks, a member of Zulu and close friend of Briscoe, said he greeted word of the arrests with mixed emotions.

There is some relief that these people have been apprehended, Banks said. But it will not bring Everett back. The nightmare these families are going through is unbelievable.
Just before New Orleans police detective Everett Briscoe left for the fateful trip to Houston where he was killed last weekend, he had finished up his class schedule for the fall semester at Southern University at New Orleans. Briscoe had hoped his pursuit of a degree in criminal justice would inspire his two sons to strive for academic excellence, according to NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson.

Now, friends and supporters of Briscoe have started a scholarship fund to benefit the late detectives sons, ages 10 and 16.

The Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, of which Briscoe was a member, have created the Briscoe Sons Scholarship Fund at Metairie Bank, in conjunction with the clubs Province Prince Krewe and Briscoes family and friends.

Donations can be made to the Briscoe Childrens Scholarship Fund and sent to Metairie Bank 3344 Metairie Road, Metairie, La., 70001. For online donations, a GoFundMe account also has been created in the name of the Briscoe Sons Scholarship Fund.

+8 Zulu members were on a guys' trip to Houston when NOPD officer was killed, member was shot Detective Everett Briscoe had been in Houston just a couple of hours Saturday when he and his buddy Dyrin DJ Riculfy decided to walk to a ne

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Briscoe, 41, was shot and killed in an apparent botched robbery attempt outside an upscale restaurant in Houston, where he and a group of fellow Zulu members were on a weekend getaway. Another Zulu member, 43-year-old Dyrin Riculfy, was also shot and seriously wounded.

Houston police have arrested two suspects in the case.

Briscoe joined the NOPD in 2008. During his 13-year career, he investigated crimes reported in the NOPDs 1st District, which includes Mid-City and Treme.

+8 Gang members on prowl for jewelry killed off-duty NOPD cop in 'robbery gone bad': Houston PD When Houston Police Chief Troy Finner arrived at the scene of a daytime shooting last weekend that left an off-duty New Orleans cop dead, he h
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams last week asked the public for tips about a Lakeview womans mysterious death at a press conference where her mother called into question the Police Departments handling of the case.

Two years after Jessica Easterly Durnings body was found in an overgrown area near railroad tracks and the intersection of Kenilworth Street and Orleans Avenue, Williams said Wednesday that anyone with information about her final days should come forward.

Williams said the case highlighted the need for his recently launched cold case unit, which is tasked with re-examining evidence in some of the citys thousands of unsolved homicides.

Yet the 43-year-olds death has never been classified as a homicide by either the New Orleans Police Department or the Orleans Parish Coroners Office. Instead, the coroner is still treating the cause and manner of Durning's death as undetermined. A spokesman said Thursday that could change if new information comes to light.

Durnings relatives found her decomposing body at the site on Aug. 22, 2019, eight days after her husband reported her missing from her nearby home in the 6000 block of Gen. Haig Street.

Cause of death undetermined for Lakeview woman whose body was found in August The Orleans Parish Coroners Office said Tuesday it is not able to determine the cause or manner of death for a woman whose decomposed body wa

Due to the bodys advanced state of decomposition, an autopsy wasnt able to determine a cause or manner of death, Coroner Dwight McKennas office has said. However, the office noted that methamphetamine and bupropion, an antidepressant, were found in her liver tissue.

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Two days before she was reported missing, the NBC show Dateline reported last year, Durning told a friend in Alabama that she needed to leave the house she shared with her husband.

Durnings mother suspects foul play. I do not believe and I will never believe my daughter died at this scene. My daughter was dumped, Donna Schmitt said at the press conference.

Yet so far, the NOPD investigation hasnt led to any charges. Schmitt alleged that the probe was handled poorly. The family filed a complaint with the Public Integrity Bureau.

Body found near City Park this summer was woman who had been reported missing, NOPD says Authorities have identified a woman found dead near the edge of City Park this summer as a 43-year-old who had been reported missing days befo

Internal investigators concluded that the complaint was unfounded, and the probe into Durnings unclassified death remains open and active, NOPD spokesperson Gary Scheets said. He urged the public to call Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans at (504) 822-1111 or Third District detectives at (504) 658-6030.

Williams added another phone number to that list: the District Attorneys Office at (504) 822-2414. He didnt answer directly when asked whether the NOPD botched the case.

You know, I dont think anyone is ever going to be satisfied with any investigation unless its solved, he said. My office is going to keep turning over every rock until we find out what happened here.

Attempts to contact Justin Durning were unsuccessful.
In life, New Orleans Detective Everett Briscoe was a member of many families: his own, the Masons, the Police Department and the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club.

In death, those families came together -- wearing black mourning clothes and Mason jackets, police blues and Zulu gold -- to honor Briscoe at his Saturday funeral on Xavier Universitys campus.

The Zulu ensemble sang a soaring hymn, and his fellow officers carried his casket out of Xaviers convocation center in full dress uniform.

Briscoe, a 13-year veteran whod investigated shootings and homicides on the streets of his own city, was killed during an apparent robbery on what was supposed to be a brief getaway to Houston last weekend.

Houston police announced two arrests in the case Friday, but that news barely figured into the ceremony in New Orleans, which Zulu President Elroy James called an occasion to reflect on the splendor of life despite Briscoes sudden passing.

From a stage decorated with wreaths displaying the symbols of his many organizations, speakers praised Briscoes service to New Orleans.

+8 Gang members on prowl for jewelry killed off-duty NOPD cop in 'robbery gone bad': Houston PD When Houston Police Chief Troy Finner arrived at the scene of a daytime shooting last weekend that left an off-duty New Orleans cop dead, he h

Were still hurt. Some of us are still trying to wrap our heads around whats happened. Some are still angry, confused, but God, I need you to speak to us this morning, said Rev. Alvin Mulder, of the Cathedral of Faith Baptist Church. Ease the pain.

Born in California in 1980, Briscoe graduated from John McDonogh Senior High School in 1998 and attended Southern University in Baton Rouge. He had just finished scheduling classes at Southern University at New Orleans in pursuit of a criminal justice degree at the time of his death.

After Hurricane Katrina, Briscoe joined the Police Department, where he worked his way up from patrolman to detective. He also married his high school sweetheart, Terrell Schexnayder Briscoe, with whom he had two sons.

Can't see the video below? Click here.

Speakers at the funeral recalled a gentle giant, and a joiner. He was a member of John McDonoghs Trojan marching band, Southerns famous Human Jukebox and the fraternal organizations whose members filled the rows. In 2019, Briscoe was Zulu's Province Prince.

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On the police force, Briscoe, 41, was a diligent cop with a big smile who never raised his voice, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said.

He was also a grill master with a taste for salmon, a tech junkie and a cigar lover, said Mulder, who knew Briscoe for 23 years.

But he was much, much, more than this. To know him is to love him," Mulder said. "He never had a cross word to say about anyone.

Several speakers acknowledged the pain that Briscoes wife, mother and two sons are going through right now. Ferguson implored them to lean on the organizations that populated his life.

To you, Terrell, Miss Myrtle, Nick, Chris -- you need to know that you are not alone, he said.

Ferguson was one of a series of public officials to speak at the funeral service. The condolences came from far and wide: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and special advisor to the president Cedric Richmond. President Joe Biden also sent several notes -- one to be read aloud in public, and others sealed for Briscoes family.

Cantrell and others were slated to attend before being diverted by Hurricane Ida, New Orleans City Councilman Jay Banks said. Being at the funeral was surreal, he added.

I am saying goodbye to one of the best people I have ever known, who was senselessly slaughtered, while we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, while we are hours away from a Category 4 hurricane coming right here, Banks said.

Houston officials were on the highway Friday night before Ferguson pleaded with them to turn around because of the deteriorating forecast, the chief said. In Texas, officials said Friday they were searching for a third "person of interest" in addition to two suspects who have been charged in the Aug. 21 shooting of Briscoe and another Zulu member who joined the trip to Houston, Dyrin "D.J." Riculfy, a 43-year-old business owner who's in intensive care at a Houston hospital.

Ferguson also repeated a story hes told this week, about how years ago he casually remarked to Briscoe that he needed a generator when he lost power after a hurricane. Briscoe swooped in to help him buy one. Ferguson said he hoped he wouldnt have to use it this time around, but it was ready.

He was an absolute great one, Ferguson said. That good old generators still ticking.
About two thirds of Louisiana industrial sites with toxic chemicals lie in the path of Hurricane Ida, a storm with the potential to batter or flood refineries, storage tanks and other infrastructure that can release oil and other harmful liquids and gases into communities and the environment.

A Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate analysis of industrial data and Idas predicted route through the state indicates 590 sites that produce or store toxic chemicals are in harms way. Almost 380 of them are within 50 miles of the coast, putting them at particular risk from storm surge, strong winds and heavy rain, according to the analysis of sites listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Toxics Release Inventory.

That number of facilities at risk is something communities need to be aware of and make personal decisions about getting out of the area in case those facilities accidentally release or have incidents, said Wilma Subra, a scientist with Louisiana Environmental Action Network, on Saturday.

We always have incidents during hurricanes, she added. And this one is of more concern [than last years storms] because it has such a big area of impact.

Ida is expected to strengthen into an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm and strike Louisiana on Sunday with gusts of up to 160 mph, according to weather forecasters. Storm surge warnings cover much of the Louisiana coast, from the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge near Lake Arthur to the Mississippi-Alabama line.

Hanadi Rifai, a hurricane resilience researcher at the University of Houston, said federal and state regulations do little to address the growing risk that storms and floods pose for industrial sites.

Every chemical plant has to submit to the EPA a big risk document, but they don't yet consider a severe storm or hurricane, she said.

That's particularly concerning because climate change has been ramping up rainfall and hurricane intensity, and the trend is likely to increase well into the century, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists.

To prepare for storms, industrial plants often burn off chemicals or fill huge storage tanks to make them heavier and less likely to float away in a flood.

But thats the extent of it, Rifai said. Essentially, the response is to evacuate except for leaving essential personnel to deal with whatever it is theyre making.

Several companies expressed confidence that their sites in south Louisiana would hold up well during a hurricane or flood. Spokesman Jim Harris said Denka Performance Elastomer's large plant in Reserve "operates safely and within regulatory guidelines both during regular operations and when planning for emergency situations."

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+8 Chemical fire near Lake Charles finally out after 3 days; investigation into cause begins It took three days to extinguish the fire that released chemical-laced smoke over Lake Charles shortly after the area was hit by Hurricane Laura.

Denka says in its risk management plan that it could release large amounts of harmful chlorine gas during an accident or disaster. But Harris said, "The site is at no greater risk than the surrounding area," which he said is on relatively high ground.

"In the memory of longterm employees, the site has never flooded, including during hurricanes Katrina and Isaac," he said.

Recent storms have triggered large chemical releases at plants along the Gulf Coast. Last year, Hurricane Laura caused a chemical fire at the BioLab chlorine plant near Lake Charles. The widespread release of toxic chlorine gas and other harmful emissions prompted a shelter-in-place alert for the area. No injuries were reported, due in part to large-scale evacuations before the hurricane.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, several toxic releases were reported in the Houston area. One of more serious incidents was the explosion and fire that erupted at the Arkema Inc. chemical plant in Crosby. About 300 homes were evacuated, and several emergency responders suffered a range of symptoms, from choking and hacking to collapsing at the scene.

Hurricane Katrina caused at least 540 oil spills into Louisiana waters in 2005. The combined 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled equals the amount released during the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

Katrina also caused more than 1 million gallons of oil to leak from a storage tank at the Murphy Oil Corp. refinery in Meraux, just east of Chalmette. About 1,700 homes were affected by the spill.

Subra advises residents who live near sites with toxic chemicals to stay vigilant for fires and chemical odors during and after a storm. Sirens and other emergency alert systems cant always be counted on after hurricanes, she said.

Things are damaged, and everything is happening in a hurry, she said. Sometimes the info people need does not go out in a timely manner.
Hurricane Ida was forecast Saturday to push water as high as 15 feet into almost the entire Louisiana coast between Cameron Parish and the mouth of the Mississippi River, and as high as 11 feet on the river's eastern side.

The threat is clearly outlined in visual storm surge model estimates provided by the National Hurricane Center and presented here.

First, a reminder that the estimates are designed to be used only as a general guideline for understanding where storm surge flooding could occur given the Saturday 10 a.m. forecast of Ida's path and intensity. That means this information and the maps on which they're based are likely to change with every six-hour forecast. Landfall is expected Sunday night.

Regardless of what this batch of maps shows, always follow evacuation and other instructions from your local emergency management officials.

The maps show the estimated water heights in ranges of feet above ground level, and do not give exact heights expected in any specific area. The modeling does not include the effect of high tides, and waves occurring atop the surge could be half as high as the surge height.

Coastwide

The surge modeling indicates water levels greater than 9 feet extending well inland of Houma along the central Louisiana coastline, with Houma itself experiencing mostly levels of greater than 3 feet. Water levels outside the levees that protect much of Morgan City are forecast to be mostly greater than 6 feet, with a mix of greater than 3 feet and greater than 6 feet water levels north of Morgan City.

Much of Grand Isle is forecast to see a mix of greater than 3 feet and greater than 6 feet of surge, while Port Fourchon will see a mix of greater than 3 feet, greater than 6 feet and greater than 9 feet.

Slidell area

The map indicates areas along the Lake Pontchartrain shore west and east of Slidell could see a mix of surge levels, with some areas right on the water only seeing greater than 3 feet above ground, increasing in wetland areas a bit farther back to greater than 6 feet above ground. An area with greater than 3 feet extends well north into Slidell. For the Eden Isles subdivision, there's a mix of greater than 1 foot and greater than 3 feet areas along water courses. Small parts of the area could see water levels greater than 6, with much smaller areas seeing levels greater than 9.

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Mandeville, Lacombe, Ponchatoula

Areas along the north and northwest shore of Lake Pontchartrain are likely to see surge levels greater than 9 feet above ground, with water that high stretching north along bayous into Covington, with greater than 6 feet possible in bayous leading to Lacombe. Surge levels close to the shore in Mandeville are a mix of greater than 6 feet and greater than 3 feet, dropping to greater than 1 foot a bit further inland.

St. John, St. James, Tangipahoa parishes

On the west shore of Lakes Pontchartrain and the south and west shores of Lake Maurepas, the surge maps indicate water levels of greater than 9 feet in French Settlement and Maurepas, greater than 6 feet in Livingston, St. James and Sorrento. Water levels above 3 feet, dropping off to above 1 foot stretch into areas just north of Convent, Gramercy and Lutcher. For LaPlace and Reserve, water levels could be greater than 6 feet closer to the lake, dropping to greater than 3 feet just north of Interstate 10, then a mix of greater than 1 foot and no water for areas closer to the Mississippi River.

West Bank along levees and Lafitte:

The surge maps indicate that water levels of greater than 9 feet are possible along much of the West Bank hurricane levee system, with mostly greater than 9 feet levels around Jean Lafitte, Barataria, lower Lafitte and Des Allemands. The official surge forecast calls for surge heights as great as 15 feet along the Louisiana southern coast, and the surge maps' highest water level is greater than 9 feet.

East bank of Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard

The maps indicate that most of the New Orleans land bridge will be covered with water greater than 9 feet, while water heights will be greater than 9 feet in the northwest corner of Lake Borgne at the intersection of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. Water heights farther south along the north side of the MR-GO will be mostly above 9 feet above the closure dam and 6 feet below it. In areas along the hurricane levees on the south side of St. Bernard Parish and all along the east side of Plaquemines Parish, water heights will be mostly greater than 9 feet.
Decision time arrived on the 1200 block of Carondelet Street about 11 a.m. Saturday, as Hurricane Ida spun violently toward the Louisiana coast.

Visual artist Kai Barrow, 62, was packing up her Subaru, headed for Houston.

Im mostly concerned about the power outages. Like, whats the point? she said. It doesnt make sense to me to sit in heat and darkness.

Richard and Aurora Knox wished her well as they secured plants on their porch next door. Aurora Knox, a tailor for the film industry, said it took 29 days to get back after Hurricane Katrina, 16 years ago on Sunday.

I dont know whats coming, but this house has been here more than 100 years, and its still here. We have food, we have water. So we decided to ride it out, she said. Im gonna cook a pot of beans. The highways just not my best friend.

For many thousands across the region, Saturday was for difficult choices, as state and parish officials painted a grim picture of what's to come while turning their focus to post-storm recovery. Ida is expected to leave catastrophic damage and widespread power outages in its path.

Gov. John Bel Edwards and other state and parish officials warned that getting out Sunday would be too late. At a news conference Saturday afternoon, Edwards said to expect tropical force winds inland by 8 a.m.

Weather will start to deteriorate very quickly tomorrow, he said.

Many heeded the warnings early Saturday, making haste out of the path of whats expected to be a Category 4 storm when it makes its projected landfall Sunday night south of Morgan City.

Vehicles were backed up for miles before noon on the northbound Causeway approaching Mandeville. Causeway General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said the bridge would likely close when winds pick up Sunday.

It was a two-hour drive from downtown New Orleans to Slidell by midday Saturday, with Interstate 10 also jammed up across Mississippi.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that state and parish officials never had the time to engage the contraflow traffic management system for a mandatory city evacuation.

Time isnt on our side, Cantrell said at noon Saturday. The best thing our people can do is evacuate and be in the place theyre evacuating to by midnight tonight.

She added: "If you stay, you need to be prepared for damaging winds, power outages, heavy rain, and tornadoes. This storm in no way will be weakening."

As Ida began to churn 100 mph winds early Saturday afternoon as a Category 2 hurricane, Cantrell expressed confidence in the post-Katrina levee protection system.

But a National Weather Service official pointed to another potentially fatal peril, warning that the heat index in Idas wake would reach well into triple digits.

Entergy spokesman Lee Sabatini said customers in the hurricanes direct path could be out of power for more than three weeks. He said Entergy has activated mutual assistance protocols to mobilize a storm team of some 16,000.

Extended power loss is almost certain," said Collin Arnold, New Orleans director of emergency preparedness.

Cantrell said the city was preparing to move people out if needed after the storm, with the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to be used as a staging area. She stressed that it wasnt a prestorm shelter.

I dont want people to think they can show up at the convention center right now. But that is a place we will be able to accept our people, Cantrell said.

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A Louisiana National Guard official said 260 guardsmen would be on the ground in New Orleans by Saturday night, with air assets ready for search and rescue. Edwards said that 5,000 guardsmen would be available to respond.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said they have pre-staged numerous MH-65 Dolphin helicopters and shallow-water response boats in Louisiana, Houston, Corpus Christi and Mobile.

On the north shore, where 10 inches of rain and storm surge are forecast, St. Tammany Parish officials were preparing two shelters of last resort to open Saturday: One at Creekside Junior High in Pearl River for people dependent on electricity for survival; the other at Lee Road Junior High in Covington.

Officials said nearly 49,000 sandbags were filled Friday at self-serve locations across the parish.

There were no mandatory evacuations ordered in the parish, however, though Mandeville Mayor Clay Madden on Saturday asked residents living south of Monroe Street to leave on their own. Storm surge from Ida is expected to affect areas several blocks into Old Mandeville. Madden also called for a midnight curfew Saturday.

He and other north shore officials had stern words for storm gawkers, threatening criminal penalties.

"Please do not go to the Mandeville lakefront," he said. "We are not tolerating storm tourism  violators will experience Hurricane Ida from the clink."

Clarence Powe, director of emergency preparedness for St. Tammany, said that while rivers were at normal levels, most are expected to enter flood stage at some point during or after Ida.

Toward the coast, mandatory evacuation orders took effect on Saturday for all of St. Charles, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, much of Plaquemines Parish and low-lying areas of Jefferson Parish such as Jean Lafitte, where Mayor Tim Kerner Jr. saw remarkable compliance despite some holdouts.

I havent seen this many people leave since Katrina, he said.

Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng urged residents to evacuate quickly  even those inside the levee protection system.

"If you have the ability to leave, you should leave," she said.

Lee Sheng said she expected a curfew might be needed after the storm to allow crews to clear roads for emergency personnel.

She also said the parish would open a shelter at PARD Playground in Marrero and could open others as conditions warrant.

Heavy downpours hit Lafourche Parish on Saturday, sparking some vehicle crashes as residents streamed out under the first mandatory evacuation order across the parish since Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

Lafourche Parish Sheriffs Capt. Brennan Matherne said most who wanted to leave had done so by noon Saturday. Parish officials estimated that more than half of Lafourche residents had complied. Matherne called it certainly not the number we would like, but its still significant.

A 6 p.m. curfew awaited those in the parish who stayed.

We are cautioning people who decide to stay that they need to be very much self-sufficient, certainly for the next 48 hours, Matherne said. There will be a period of time where emergency services will not be able to respond if needed.

For information on available shelters, residents can text 'LASHELTER' to 898-211 or call 211.

Staff writers Ben Myers, Anthony McAuley, Sara Pagones, Halle Parker and Faimon Roberts contributed to this story.
Hurricane Ida is forecast to charge into Louisiana near Morgan City on Sunday at 7 p.m. as a Category 4 storm with top winds of 140 mph just before landfall, life-threatening storm surge of 15 feet above ground level and almost two feet of rain.

UPDATE: Hurricane Ida poised for catastrophic collision with Louisiana Sunday afternoon; see path

National Hurricane Center forecasters expect Ida's top winds to drop a bit to 130 mph by the time its eye reaches the coast on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But gusts might reach 160 mph.

On Saturday at 1 p.m., Ida's eye was about 290 miles south southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 380 miles southeast of Houma. The storm had top winds of 100 mph, Category 2 strength, and was moving northwest towards the Louisiana coast at 16 mph.

"Additional rapid strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours, and Ida is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane when it approaches the northern Gulf Coast on Sunday," senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown said at 1 p.m.

"Hurricane-force winds are expected Sunday in portions of the hurricane warning area along the Louisiana coast, including metropolitan New Orleans, with potentially catastrophic wind damage possible where the core of Ida moves onshore," he said at 10 a.m.

"The wind threat is going to be pretty catastrophic over towards Houma and Thibodaux and stretching up into portions of the River Parishes, and there will even be some pretty damaging winds in Baton Rouge," said Phil Grigsby, a meteorologist with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service. "It will still be a Category 2 when it's near Baton Rouge."

The wind threat also will be significant in the New Orleans area, though not quite as severe: a mix of tropical storm and hurricane force winds with higher gusts, Grigsby said.

In a 1:30 p.m. briefing on Facebook, National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned that there's still a chance of significant hurricane-force winds in New Orleans and Baton Rouge on Ida's present course that is likely to result in power outages and downed trees.

"And when you look at this track, remember little wiggles matter," said Graham, who spent 15 years with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service before being named center director two years ago. "A little wiggle off to the right side makes the city of New Orleans more in the core winds for the hurricane, which means more destructive."

Ida's threat already has triggered a mix of evacuation orders and recommendations in parishes, cities and smaller communities along the Louisiana coast.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered evacuation of areas outside hurricane levees on Friday. But for fear of highway gridlock, she said it was too late to mandate that everyone else leave, and instead counseled that residents evacuate on their own or seek shelter.

Interstate highways and other roads leading out of Louisiana were jammed Saturday morning, with traffic on Interstate 10 crawling at times in New Orleans East and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

After landfall, Ida will be moving forward at a slower 12 or 13 mph, Grigsby said, which means a large segment of central and southeastern Louisiana will see at least wind and rainfall threats for 12 to 18 hours Sunday night and Monday morning.

The biggest threat continues to be Ida's potential for storm surge, water pushed inland by its high winds, with the highest levels occurring east of its landfall. That the storm is now expected to be at Category 4 strength, with winds of 130 mph or greater, for 12 hours before and during landfall, increases that potential.

"Extremely life-threatening inundation of 9 feet or greater above ground level is possible somewhere within the area from Morgan City ... to the coast of Mississippi," forecasters warned. "Overtopping of local levees outside the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System [the New Orleans area hurricane levee system] is possible where local inundation values may be higher."

Chip Kline, chairman of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said Friday that said Ida's surge is likely to be the first significant test of the New Orleans area hurricane levee system. It's designed to protect the area from surge with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year, a so-called 100-year storm.

Almost all segments of the system are built to heights higher than the 15-foot estimates for Ida at the coast, though some West Bank earthen levee segments might be lower; in those areas, the National Hurricane Center's forecast indicates water more than 9 feet above ground level but not exact height.

Surge modeling conducted by LSU for the state's emergency managers on Saturday morning indicated water heights along the levees would not exceed 5 feet above ground, which is well below the levee tops.

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The threat of water higher than local levees could include West Bank communities such as Jean Lafitte, where levees are lower than the 100-year standard.

Surge levels of 4 to 7 feet are likely throughout the Lake Pontchartrain basin, and National Hurricane Center surge modeling maps indicate water could extend well inland in St. John the Baptist, St. James and Tangipahoa parishes.

North shore communities such as Mandeville and Slidell also could see significant water heights during and after Ida's move past the area.

The storm also could dump 8 to 16 inches of rain across much of south Louisiana on Sunday and Monday. Some locations might see 20 inches, forecasters said. As Ida moves into northeast Louisiana and west central Mississippi, those areas areas could see as much as 8 inches of rain on Monday.

Grigsby warned that both flash flooding and river and bayou flooding are likely.

He said there's also a chance of tornados east of Ida's eye as it makes landfall and moves inland.

After landfall, Ida was forecast to move slowly northwest on a path from Morgan City to just west of Baton Rouge and to curve gradually to the north and northeast. That would put the storm almost directly over the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, near the Mississippi state line, on Monday at 7 a.m. with top winds still at 70 mph, just below hurricane strength. The storm is then predicted to move up the state line to Tallulah by Monday at 7 p.m., falling to a tropical depression with top winds of 30 mph. After that, Ida's remnants head to the the East Coast.

40 miles southeast of New Orleans and 430 miles southeast of Houma, with sustained winds of 85 mph. It was moving northwest at 16 mph, on a path to move over deep warm water in the Gulf of Mexico that was expected to allow it to rapidly intensify to Category 3 strength.

Ida is being steered towards the Louisiana coast by winds circling around a ridge of high pressure near the southeast U.S. coast. The ridge is forecast to shift west over the next day or two.

Satellite views of the hurricane on Saturday morning indicated its center was covered with a central dense overcast, with an eye present in both visible and infrared imagery.

Brown, the hurricane specialist, said both a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research plane and an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter plane hadn't found the storm to have "deepened" or intensified significantly Saturday morning, "but given the very recent increase in organization and structure, the winds are likely to catch up to the satellite appearance very soon."

The storm's wind field has expanded, however, and Ida "appears poised to rapidly intensify during the next 12 to 24 hours as it remains within a favorable environment of low vertical wind shear and over warm water," he said.

Watches and warnings have been issued related to Hurricane Ida. A watch means storm conditions are possible within 48 hours. A warning means storm conditions are expected within 36 hours. A storm surge warning means there is a danger of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, during the next 36 hours.

Storm surge warnings in effect

East of Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana to the Mississippi-Alabama border

Vermilion Bay and lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain and Maurepas

Hurricane warnings in effect

Intracoastal City to the mouth of the Pearl River

Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and metro New Orleans

Storm surge watch in effect

Sabine Pass to Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge

Mobile Bay, Alabama

Hurricane watch in effect

Cameron to west of Intracoastal City

Mouth of the Pearl River to Mississippi-Alabama border

Tropical storm warning in effect
As Hurricane Ida approaches Louisiana, several area parishes are opening shelters.

For information on available shelters, residents can text 'LASHELTER' to 898-211 or call 211.

Here's what we know of so far:

Jefferson

PARD Playground, Marrero. This will be opened as conditions warrant, officials said. Others could also be opened if needed. COVID protocols, including masks and temperature checks, will be used, Jefferson officials said.

St. Tammany

Lee Road Jr. High, 79131 Louisiana 40, Covington, designated as being for the general population. Opens at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Creekside Jr. High, 65343 Louisiana 41, Pearl River, for people who are dependent on electricity to stay alive. Opens at 4 p.m. Saturday. Both are "shelters of last resort," St. Tammany officials said. People must bring water, food, medication, bedding and any other supplies they need.

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St. Charles

Edward Dufresne Community Center, 274 Judge Edward Dufresne Parkway, Luling. Residents must bring their own food, medications, water and clothing.

Harry Hurst Middle School, 170 Road Runner Lane, Destrehan. Residents must bring their own food, water, medications and clothing.

St. John the Baptist

Emily C. Watkins School, 938 Louisiana 628, LaPlace. Opens at 6 p.m. Saturday. Residents must provide transportation, and should bring food, clothing, bedding, and medicine. The shelter will remain open for the duration of the storm. Call 985-652-2222 for info.

Statewide shelters open to anyone

Jewella Shelter, 8810 Jewella Ave., Shreveport. Opened at 6 a.m. Saturday. Pets can be accommodated.

Bastrop Shelter, 2030 East Madison St., Bastrop. Opened at 6 a.m. Saturday. Pets can be accommodated.

Lincoln Parish - Trinity Methodist Church, 1000 Woodward Ave., Ruston. Must be COVID negative. No pets.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.
Southern Louisiana braced for massive damage and flooding as Hurricane Ida strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, forecast to make landfall late Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane packing 140 mph winds and torrential rain.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered for all or parts of several coastal parishes. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal response help with Ida poised to unleash another late-August battering on the region.

Friday marked a year since Hurricane Laura -- one of the fiercest storms in state history -- tore through southeast Louisiana. Sunday is the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall.

Its important that everybody take advantage of every minute that you have, Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a news conference Friday afternoon. By nightfall tomorrow, you need to be where you intend to ride out the storm.

Ida was clocking 80 mph winds over the Gulf on Friday afternoon, powering up faster than expected, while state and parish officials issued increasingly dire warnings and evacuation orders in a scramble to prepare.

Benjamin Schott, the meteorologist in charge of the New Orleans and Baton Rouge office of the National Weather Service, put the threat from wind, rain and storm surge in stark terms.

This is stronger than Laura from last year, Schott said. This will be a life-altering storm for those who arent prepared and ready to take what Idas going to throw at us later this weekend.

In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell called for a mandatory evacuation outside of the levee protection system, saying Friday morning that for those looking to leave the city, now is the time to start.

By Friday afternoon, Cantrell said the situation had grown "much more serious than it was six hours ago," and there wasn't enough time to set up the contraflow procedures needed to move all of the city's residents out in time. She said people within the levee protection system should get ready to ride it out.

The Saints, after moving up the start time of the teams final pre-season game Saturday at the Caesars Superdome, cancelled it later Friday.

Cantrell said local hospitals, bloated from the fourth wave of the pandemic, would keep patients sheltered in place, while Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusmans office was moving inmates out of the jail.

Three major New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board pumps were down ahead of Ida, officials said, including two in Lakeview and one in New Orleans East. Meanwhile, officials worked Friday to bring another power turbine online for backup. Ida is expected to dump as much as 15 to 20 inches of rain on southeast Louisiana through Monday.

Jefferson Parish officials called for a mandatory evacuation of areas outside the levee system, while urging everyone else who can leave to do so as well.

This is a major storm coming our way, parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said. If you can get out, get out.

Parish-wide evacuations were ordered in Lafourche and St. Charles parishes. In St. Charles, where residents were told to be out by 5 p.m. Saturday, President Matthew Jewell predicted a week or more of power outages.

Mandatory evacuations were also called for on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish, as well as on the west bank, from the Alliance Refinery in Belle Chasse south to Venice.

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St. Tammany Parish President Mike Cooper said 10 inches of rain are expected to dump on the parish beginning Saturday, and officials said winds on the north shore could reach 100 mph, with 4-6 feet of storm surge expected along Lake Pontchartrain. Still, St. Tammany did not order evacuations.

Across the region, lines were jammed at gas pumps and grocery check-out lines, though many residents said they were still debating whether to hunker down or leave ahead of Ida.

My prayer is always the same  that it bypasses, said Brenda Lee as she hoisted two flats of bottled water and other supplies into her backseat in a crowded Costco parking lot. Some of the newly bought supplies were for an elderly lady I know that cant get out, Lee said, adding that her own plans will depend on evacuation orders.

When they say that, Ill be leaving, she said.

Costco, Lowes and other retailers reported a fast run on generators. In October, Hurricane Zeta left more than 530,000 Orleans and Jefferson Parish customers without power at the peak of the outages. Thousands waited more than a week for power to be restored.

Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, urged the elderly and those dependent on electricity to begin evacuating if they can.

Most public schools in the region, including those in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, as well as the region's Catholic schools, announced closures at least through Monday. Loyola, Tulane and Xavier universities, the University of New Orleans and Delgado Community College all did the same.

Ochsner Health, Louisiana's largest hospital system, expects a delivery of 10 days of food, medications and supplies on Saturday, CEO Warner Thomas said. The hospital system has transferred a few patients from their facilities in Morgan City and St. Charles Parish, but otherwise is not moving medically fragile patients.

Staff at Childrens Hospital New Orleans were topping off diesel tanks for generators to keep the lights, air and machines going if the electricity goes out, said Jonathan Brouk, the chief operating officer.

Four national Disaster Medical Teams are in place across the state to handle an overflow of coronavirus patients, and could be redeployed depending on where Ida lands, said Dawn OConnell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Should that hurricane come, I expect some will be moved around a little bit to support whatever hurricane response is necessary, she said at a news conference at Childrens.

An emergency responder, Heather Freiheit, said that a team at North Oaks Hospital in Hammond plans to shelter in place at the hospital for the duration of the storm. She noted that an evacuation of patients, if needed, would be strained by a lack of capacity elsewhere, as hospitals deal with a fourth wave of COVID patients.

Theres not a lot of open hospitals anywhere in the country, she said.

Tulane Medical Center and Lakeside Hospitals were preparing to go into lockdown mode, with a medical team designated to stay inside the hospital from Sunday through Wednesday morning. After seven false alarms last year, CEO Tom Patrias said they feel prepared, though he also noted a dearth of free beds outside of Idas path.

Local hospitals have a little more breathing room of late. Hospital admissions from COVID have slid by about 330 patients from the peak of 3,000-plus last week. State health officer Dr. Joe Kanter said no hospitals yet have made the call to evacuate.

Staff writers Jeff Adelson, Michelle Hunter, Anthony McAuley, Faimon Roberts, Sara Pagones, Carlie Kollath Wells and Emily Woodruff contributed to this story.
The New Orleans metro area's two electricity utilities, Entergy and Cleco, said Friday they are bringing in thousands of extra linemen and making other preparations ahead of Hurricane Ida as public officials warned of widespread outages.

Ida is forecast to make landfall on the central Louisiana coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday. The last big storm to hit the area  Hurricane Zeta, which rolled through the greater New Orleans area in October  left more than 530,000 Orleans and Jefferson Parish customers without power at the peak of the outages. Thousands of those customers did not have power restored for more than a week after the storm.

S&WB trying to get additional turbine online ahead of Hurricane Ida The Sewerage & Water Board is attempting to bring another power turbine online before Hurricane Ida hits the coast on Sunday, a move that 

During a news conference Friday with Mayor LaToya Cantrell to discuss the city's preparations for the storm, emergency response officials emphasized the potential for major power outages and the dangers that can result, including excessive heat because of idled air conditioning units.

Collin Arnold, Director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, warned the most vulnerable to consider leaving the area if they can.

"As we saw from Zeta last year, we will have significant power outages," he said. "If you are elderly, if you are dependent on power, if you have medical conditions that dictate it, if evacuating is your best choice, you need to take that responsibility seriously and start now.

Entergy officials said Friday that the company had started to stage equipment and arrange for additional manpower.

+3 Mayor LaToya Cantrell calls for voluntary evacuations inside levee system as Ida threatens Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday told New Orleans residents to prepare now for the potentially catastrophic landfall of Hurricane Ida along the

"Friday's preparation focus is for crews to wrap up their pre-storm checklists and making sure that additional supplies, including poles, transformers and other pole-top equipment, are on hand," said Lee Sabatini, an Entergy spokesperson.

"Staging areas are still being identified based on the track of the storm as crew safety is a priority to be sure they remain as close to the path, but out of harms way," said Sabitini, adding that Entergy expects to have a better idea on Saturday how many additional crew will be brought in from neighboring states to support local linemen in restoration operations.

Entergy New Orleans has faced criticism from the New Orleans City Council, which is the utility's regulator, for the way it has dealt with outages in the past. The criticism has included a lack of investment in infrastructure that can withstand storm conditions and the speed with which the utility has reconnected customers after storm damage.

The utility on Friday reiterated its policy of sending in technicians as soon as it is safe to do so to reconnect customers as quickly as possible.

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Cleco, whose customers are mainly located on the North Shore, also said Friday that it is lining up additional manpower to deal with fallen debris and to restore downed lines.

Cleco Power said it has secured 1,100 workers, including damage assessors, power line technicians and vegetation specialists to help repair any damage to our transmission and distribution systems.

"If the projected intensity holds, customers should expect high winds, flooding, tree damage and power outages," said Clint Robichaux, manager of distribution operations support, in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, stores in the area reported a surge in demand for power generators, which already have been in short supply because of distribution issues caused by the pandemic.

Chad Burdetz, one of the owners of Bo's Power Generators and Equipment Repair in Terrytown, said he had taken dozens of calls on Friday from customers trying to source power generators.

"We haven't had generators for a year now because of COVID," Burdetz said. He said the store has been told to expect a delivery of 15 Oregon branded portable generators out of the 40 they ordered, but not until next week after the storm has passed through.

The Lowe's home improvement store on Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie had run out of generators but took delivery Friday morning of a truckload of Briggs and Stratton portable power sources, which retail at $899 each.

Gyra Linder, a customer service manager at Lowe's, said they were nearly sold out by midafternoon.

"We got two left, we've been rolling all day, baby," said Linder.
Hurricane Ida advanced Saturday toward a catastrophic collision with the Louisiana coast just south of Houma as a Category 4 storm with top winds of 130 mph just before landfall, life-threatening storm surge of at least 9 feet above ground level and almost two feet of rain.

UPDATE: See 10 p.m. path, forecast here

National Hurricane Center forecasters expected Ida's top winds to be about 130 mph when its center approaches Terrebonne Bay on Sunday at 1 p.m., accompanied by gusts as high as 160 mph. It was expected to move onshore during the evening of the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The eye is likely to cut directly across Houma and continue northwest to Baton Rouge on Monday at about 1 a.m., still packing sustained winds of 75 mph and gusts to 90 mph.

On Saturday at 7 p.m., Ida's eye was about 200 miles south southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 285 miles southeast of Houma. The storm had top winds of 105 mph, Category 2 strength, and was moving northwest towards the Louisiana coast at 16 mph.

"The hurricane appears to have begun its anticipated rapid intensification phase," senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown said. "A favorable upper-level wind pattern, warm waters along the track and a moist atmosphere are expected to allow for additional rapid strengthening overnight and early Sunday."

He said that while Ida's track moved slightly east during the day, its long-term motion still was northwestward towards the central Louisiana coast.

Hurricane conditions were expected in the hurricane warning area along the Louisiana coast on Sunday, with tropical storm conditions expected late Saturday or early Sunday morning.

"The wind threat is going to be pretty catastrophic over towards Houma and Thibodaux and stretching up into portions of the River Parishes, and there will even be some pretty damaging winds in Baton Rouge," said Phil Grigsby, a meteorologist with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service. "It will still be a Category 2 when it's near Baton Rouge."

The wind threat also will be significant in the New Orleans area, though not quite as severe: a mix of tropical storm and hurricane force winds with higher gusts, Grigsby said.

In a 1:30 p.m. briefing, National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned there was still a chance of significant hurricane-force winds in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, likely downing trees and knocking out power.

"And when you look at this track, remember little wiggles matter," said Graham, who spent 15 years with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service before being named Hurricane Center director two years ago. "A little wiggle off to the right side makes the city of New Orleans more in the core winds for the hurricane, which means more destructive."

Ida's threat already triggered a mix of evacuation orders and recommendations in parishes, cities and smaller communities along the Louisiana coast.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered evacuation of areas outside hurricane levees on Friday. But for fear of highway gridlock, she said it was too late to mandate that everyone else leave, and instead counseled that residents evacuate on their own or seek shelter.

On Saturday afternoon, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng again urged residents to leave, if possible. As conditions deteriorate, she cautioned, public services might not be available. Don't go sightseeing during or after the storm, she added.

Interstate highways and other roads leading out of Louisiana were jammed Saturday morning, with traffic on Interstate 10 crawling at times in New Orleans East and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Entergy Corp. said as many as 3,000 employees were poised to respond to power outages but warned that its customers in Louisiana and Mississippi could be without electricity for weeks.

"Every storm is unique, but based on historical restoration times, customers in the direct path of a Category 3 hurricane can experience outages up to two weeks and up to three weeks for a Category 4," the company. "Once the storm passes, we will keep customers informed regarding restoration efforts."

After landfall, Ida will be moving forward at a slower 12 or 13 mph, Grigsby said, which means a large segment of central and southeastern Louisiana will see at least wind and rainfall threats for 12 to 18 hours Sunday night and Monday morning.

The biggest threat continued to be Ida's potential for storm surge, water pushed inland by its high winds, with the highest levels occurring east of its landfall, accompanied by dangerous waves. That the storm is now expected to be at Category 4 strength, with winds of 130 mph or greater, for 12 hours before and during landfall, increases that potential.

"Extremely life-threatening inundation of 9 feet or greater above ground level is possible somewhere within the area from Morgan City ... to the coast of Mississippi," forecasters warned. "Overtopping of local levees outside the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System [the New Orleans area hurricane levee system] is possible where local inundation values may be higher."

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Chip Kline, chairman of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said Friday that said Ida's surge is likely to be the first significant test of the New Orleans area hurricane levee system. It's designed to protect the area from surge with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year, a so-called 100-year storm, but worst-case surge created by a Category 4 hurricane would be greater than that.

A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said that if surge levels of 15 feet are seen along some West Bank levees, it's likely they will be topped, resulting in some water entering protected areas. But Corps spokesman Ricky Boyett said there was little chance the topping would cause any failure of the levees.

Almost all segments of the levee system are built to heights higher than the 15-foot estimates for Ida at the coast, though some West Bank earthen levee segments might be lower; in those areas, the National Hurricane Center's forecast indicates water more than 9 feet above ground level but not exact height.

Surge modeling conducted by LSU for the state's emergency managers on Saturday morning indicated water heights along the levees would not exceed 5 feet above ground, which is well below the levee tops.

The threat of water higher than local levees could include West Bank communities such as Jean Lafitte, where levees are lower than the 100-year standard.

Surge levels of 4 to 7 feet are likely throughout the Lake Pontchartrain basin, and National Hurricane Center surge modeling maps indicate water could extend well inland in St. John the Baptist, St. James and Tangipahoa parishes.

North shore communities such as Mandeville and Slidell also could see significant water heights during and after Ida's move past the area.

The storm also could dump 8 to 16 inches of rain across much of south Louisiana on Sunday and Monday. Some locations might see 20 inches, forecasters said. As Ida moves into northeast Louisiana and west central Mississippi, those areas areas could see as much as 8 inches of rain on Monday.

Grigsby warned that both flash flooding and river and bayou flooding are likely.

He said there's also a chance of tornados east of Ida's eye as it makes landfall and moves inland.

After landfall, Ida was forecast to move slowly northwest on a path from Morgan City to just west of Baton Rouge and to curve gradually to the north and northeast. That would put the storm almost directly over the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, near the Mississippi state line, on Monday at 7 a.m. with top winds still at 70 mph, just below hurricane strength. The storm is then predicted to move up the state line to Tallulah by Monday at 7 p.m., falling to a tropical depression with top winds of 30 mph. After that, Ida's remnants head to the the East Coast.

Ida is being steered towards the Louisiana coast by winds circling around a ridge of high pressure near the southeast U.S. coast. The ridge is forecast to shift west over the next day or two.

Satellite views of the hurricane on Saturday afternoon clearly showed a 30-mile-radius eye in both visible and infrared imagery.

Brown, the hurricane specialist, said hurricane models continue to indicate rapid strengthening, which would bring Ida to Category 4 status within 12 to 18 hours.

"An eyewall replacement cycle could occur as Ida nears the northern Gulf Coast, so some fluctuations in intensity are possible during that time," he said. "After landfall, rapid weakening is expected, and Ida is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone by day 4, and it is likely to be absorbed along a frontal zone by day 5."

The storm's wind field has expanded, and hurricane-force winds extend out up to 30 miles from the center, with tropical-storm-force winds extending as far as 90 miles east of the eye. There's a chance those wind fields will expand as Ida approaches the coast.

Watches and warnings have been issued related to Hurricane Ida. A watch means storm conditions are possible within 48 hours. A warning means storm conditions are expected within 36 hours. A storm surge warning means there is a danger of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, during the next 36 hours.

Storm surge warnings in effect

East of Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana to the Alabama/Florida border, including Mobile Bay

Vermilion Bay and lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain and Maurepas

Hurricane warnings in effect

Intracoastal City to the mouth of the Pearl River

Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and metro New Orleans

Hurricane watch in effect

Cameron to west of Intracoastal City

Mouth of the Pearl River to Alabama-Florida border

Tropical storm warning in effect
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and most of south Louisiana were warned Friday of possibly catastrophic effects from winds as high as 140 mph, storm surge as high as 15 feet above ground and almost 2 feet of rain accompanying a Category 4 Hurricane Ida as it headed toward a landfall south of Morgan City on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

And it could intensify further while crossing deep loops of warm water in the Gulf of Mexico on its way to the predicted Sunday arrival, according to the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service.

UPDATE: Hurricane Ida enters Gulf of Mexico, expected to 'rapidly strengthen'; see new track

"Residents in southern Mississippi and especially southeast Louisiana: Please take this storm seriously!" the Slidell office of the National Weather Service said. "Listen to local officials, and follow evacuation orders. All preparations should be completed Saturday before conditions deteriorate rapidly late Saturday night into Sunday."

Existing storm surge and hurricane watches along the Gulf Coast from east of Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including Louisiana coastal lakes and the New Orleans area, were upgraded Friday afternoon to warnings, prompting wireless phone warnings to residents across the state just after 4 p.m. The upgrade means there's a danger of life-threatening surge inundation or hurricane-force winds in the warning area. The warnings are usually issued 36 hours before the dangerous conditions.

At 7 p.m., Category 1 Ida was blowing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph as it crossed the Cuban province of Pinar Del Rio. The forecast called for Ida to be just off the central Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm, with 140 mph winds, on Sunday at 1 p.m. and over Morgan City on Monday at about 1 a.m.

Sunday is the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina striking the New Orleans area and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It remains the costliest storm in U.S. history.

President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for Ida in Louisiana, ordering federal assistance to supplement whatever is provided by the state and local officials as Ida moves ashore and in its aftermath. The declaration follows a similar one by Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday.

The timing of the dire warnings prompted a mix of mandatory evacuation orders and lesser evacuation recommendations from cities, towns and parishes all along the coast, including from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. At mid-day on Friday, she ordered evacuation of areas outside levee protection in New Orleans East and advised the bulk of the population inside the post-Katrina levee system to leave, too.

At a 5:30 p.m. news conference after the forecast update, Cantrell said there wasn't enough time before landfall to establish highway contraflow procedures to move all residents out of New Orleans. More than 100,000 residents don't own vehicles. Instead, she urged residents to shelter in place.

The New Orleans Saints first moved their Saturday preseason home game in the Caesars Superdome from 7 p.m. to noon then cancelled it altogether as the forecast worsened. The team planned to flee to Texas.

Edwards said evacuations orders or advisories were in place for portions of five coastal parishes. But, as with Cantrell, the updated forecast at 4 p.m. had federal, state and local officials scrambling to determine if stronger measures need to be taken. In late afternoon, St. Charles Parish President Matt Jewell ordered his constituents to leave.

+6 Thousands of southeast Louisiana coastal residents ordered to leave before Hurricane Ida 'We know this is going to be a big one,' Grand Isle police chief says

Ida's rapid formation and intensification left far less time than local officials usually count on to issue such orders and to make other preparations ahead of a hurricane, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said. That's created challenges in recent storms.

"It's tough when these storms are forming so quickly and tough decisions have to be made and you have limited time to do it," she said. "We dont know what the impacts are going to be yet, obviously, but it's forming rapidly, it keeps increasing in intensity."

Criswell urged residents to follow the heed of their local officials and to evacuate ahead of the storm if ordered. Residents should check with their local governments for advice on when and where to evacuate, and should ensure that relatives and neighbors also are making preparations, officials said.

Criswell said FEMA has staged food, water and generators to be ready for the storm's aftermath, as well as seven Swiftwater search and rescue teams, incident management teams and staff from other federal agencies. Those teams and equipment are positioned to be able to reach whichever part of the coast the storm strikes.

New Orleans area hurricane levees, and those in other locations across the coast, are built by federal government contractors to withstand topping by storm surge created by an event with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any year, a so-called 100-year storm. But parish-built levees are not as high, and the forecast warns that 15-foot surge heights from Morgan City to the mouth of the Mississippi River could top them.

For the New Orleans area levees, the 15-foot surge predicted by the National Hurricane Center is likely to be below the top of earthen levees and structures on the West Bank. On the east side of the river, surge heights are predicted to reach only 11 feet.

But the Army Corps of Engineers and local levee officials have been clear that the improved levee system is designed to reduce the risk of the property inside - not to protect human life.

"The biggest thing we're concerned about is storm surge risk," said Phil Grigsby, warning coordination meteorologist for the Slidell office of the National Weather Service.

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He said the surge threat will be significant for communities outside those levees on the West Bank in Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes, in portions of St. John the Baptist Parish near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 55 at LaPlace and in areas that have less levee protection around Houma and Morgan City.

Surge heights of 15 feet are likely as far north in Barataria Bay as the West Bank levee system, while water heights of more than 8 feet above sea level are possible in western Lake Pontchartrain, which could result in 3 feet of water in LaPlace. Flooding also is possible in Mandeville and Slidell's Palm Lake subdivision in St. Tammany Parish, with higher surge levels possible if the storm either strengthens or its path takes it closer to the New Orleans area.

"You know how these storms are," Grigsby said. "They always wobble left or right as they approach, and that means greater or less risk in New Orleans."

That's especially important for the wind risk for all of south Louisiana, he said, where much of the region from Lafayette to Baton Rouge to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain could see highest winds of 74 mph to 110 mph, he said.

The entire region also is at risk from significant rain as the storm moves ashore, with 15 to 20 inches expected to fall to the east of the present forecast path, including in the New Orleans area. Areas to the west and north and in Mississippi could see totals between 10 and 15 inches.

National Weather Service public messages describing the risk accompanying Ida are downright scary.

Forecasters said life-threatening winds will rake much of southeast Louisiana from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and along the coast, with a long list of devastating effects:

Structural damage to sturdy buildings, some with complete roof and wall failures, and complete destruction of mobile homes. The damage could be made worse by large airborne projectiles. Locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months, forecasters warned.

The wind also will down large trees and uproot fences and road signs, Many roads might be impassible because of debris.

Widespread power and communications outages also are likely.

Flooding rain of as much as 20 inches is likely in the area where Ida goes onshore and well inland, the forecast warned, with many emergency evacuations and rescues likely.

Rivers and tributaries may rapidly overflow their banks in multiple places, forecasters warned. Some structures will become uninhabitable or even washed away, and floodwaters may block escape routes, with streets and parking lots turned into rivers of moving water.

Ida is expected to deliver life threatening hurricane storm surge of as much as 15 feet above ground level, greatly accentuated by powerful battering waves, to areas not protected by hurricane levees, said the Slidell office of the National Weather Service. The surge and waves will damage or wash away buildings, with the damage compounded by floating debris, leaving some locations uninhabitable for extended periods.

Forecasters urged the public to follow preparedness instructions, including evacuation recommendations, from public officials.

If evacuating, leave with a destination in mind and allow extra time to get there, the forecast said.

Ida's rapid strengthening on Friday seemed a sign of things to come as it reaches the warm waters of the Gulf, forecasters said. On Friday afternoon, an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter plane found a well-defined, 24-nautical-mile wide eye in the storm as it approached the Isle of Youth in Cuba.

"Once Ida moves past western Cuba and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, it will be moving through a very favorable oceanic and atmospheric environment consisting of high ocean heat content waters, low vertical wind shear, and a moist low- to mid-level atmosphere," senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown said.

"These conditions are likely to result in a period of rapid strengthening during the next 24 to 36 hours," he said, adding that those conditions were part of the reason why the storm's intensity was increased for Sunday.

There's a chance that the storm might weaken a bit as it approaches the Louisiana coast, if it goes through an eyewall replacement cycle, where the existing eyewall is replaced by a new ring of thunderstorms a bit farther out.

But he said models also are indicating that the storm's wind fields will also expand as it moves over the Gulf.

"As a result, there is higher-than-normal confidence that a large and powerful hurricane will impact portions of the northern Gulf coast by late this weekend and early next week," Brown said.
It's official: Meteorologist Jim Cantore is on his way to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Cantore confirmed he is en route to New Orleans via a post on social media.

"See you soon NOLA," he wrote in a comment on the @NOLANews Instagram account. "I promise you I wish it was for fun and food and not the damn Cane!"

Since 1992, when Cantore covered Hurricane Andrew in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has had a love-hate relationship with the Weather Channel personality.

On one hand, he's a Gore Tex-clad harbinger of destruction. On the other, he loves to give hugs.

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"It's been tough this year because of COVID. I can't wrap my arms around somebody and take a picture and goof off, and sometimes obviously the weather doesn't warrant that either, but it's been tough at the Coast," Cantore told The Pensacola News Journal last year. "We have to keep our distance and people are so sweet."

Cantore arrived to monitor Hurricane Ida, which could be at Category 4 hurricane strength when it makes landfall Sunday on Louisiana's coast, hurricane forecasters said Friday afternoon.

The storm is strengthening on its way toward the Gulf of Mexico, and forecasters increased their intensity estimates at landfall. It's too soon to say whether Cantore will frolick in the storm or knee a college student in the groin.

Hurricane watches have been issued for Louisiana, including metro New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, where a Cantore watch is (presumably) in effect as well.

Carlie Kollath Wells contributed to this report.
As Hurricane Ida approached the Louisiana coast, Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Saturday urged New Orleans residents to make final preparations to leave the city or shelter in place, and provided new details on post-storm evacuation and shelter plans.

City officials said during a press conference that residents should expect widespread power outages that could last for days and that anyone staying in the city should be prepared with three days of food and water.

"If you want to leave, you need to do that now," Cantrell said. "If you stay, you need to be prepared for damaging winds, power outages, heavy rain, and tornadoes. This storm in no way will be weakening."

With a rapidly intensifying storm moving quickly across the Gulf of Mexico, Cantrell said that there wasn't enough time to call for a mandatory evacuation. But she said officials were readying to move people out of the city, if necessary, after the storm had passed.

New Orleans was preparing the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as a staging point for mass evacuations once Ida passes through the area, but she urged residents to evacuate independently and stressed that it was not a place people should head before the storm.

The center, which was used in a similar fashion after Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, could be the point from which buses would transport people who need to leave their storm-damaged homes, Cantrell said. The facility would likely have food and other provisions for residents who are awaiting their rides.

The storm is expected to make landfall Sunday or early Monday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 130 mph. As of Saturday morning, it had strengthened to a Category 1 and was churning across the Gulf of Mexico at about 12 miles per hour.

The city ordered a voluntary exodus for residents inside of the levee system, which is most of the city. Areas outside of the system, such as Lake Catherine and Venetian Isles, were required to leave.

The coronavirus pandemic also complicated the city's ability to open a mass shelter before the storm, Cantrell said.

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Ida is expected to make landfall west of New Orleans on the anniversary of Katrina. Many residents have already begun to heed the mayor's warning to leave, as lines for gas stretched down public streets and traffic was sluggish on Interstate 10 heading west toward Baton Rouge and east toward Mississippi.

Sixteen years ago, the Convention Center was used as a staging point for post-storm evacuations after Katrina ravaged the city and its levee system failed. But it took days for buses and provisions to get to the center, despite the thousands of residents who had been instructed to gather there.

That won't be the case this time, Cantrell said, as the state has already begun to stage buses in the New Orleans area to get people out, should it be needed. The mayor said she placed an order for 50 additional buses on Saturday.

Public transit could also be used to bring people to the Convention Center, where they will then be bused to another, safer location, said Collin Arnold, who manages the city's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

Jeff Duncan: It's hard not to think of Katrina as Ida takes aim With Hurricane Ida bearing down on us, its impossible not to think about 16 years ago and the eerie parallels to Hurricane Katrina.

"We will have food and water and those things" at the center, Arnold said. "This is all heavily dependent on what happens with the storm."

Cantrell and Arnold also sought to shore up public confidence in the city's levee system, which has been fortified since Katrina.

Even though a coastal surge of 10 to 15 feet is expected to top levees on the West Bank, the levees are designed to withstand such overtopping, Arnold said. The levees in that part of the region are between 10 and 12 feet high.

"This is a different city than it was in 2005 when it comes to levees and safety," Arnold said.
New Orleans area residents fled to the safety of surrounding states Saturday as Hurricane Ida approached the coast. And as they packed their belongings and headed for Houston, Mississippi or other destinations ahead of the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, they ran into a slog of gridlock and gas lines that for many was all too familiar.

Before dawn on Saturday, Tisha Seghers finished her on-call shift as a midwife and pulled out of the driveway of her Metairie home. Shed spent the previous hours moving wedding albums and family photos to the highest points in the house, hoping theyd be safe from flooding.

+21 New Orleans-area residents await Hurricane Ida as officials shift to post-storm response Decision time arrived on the 1200 block of Carondelet Street about 11 a.m. Saturday, as Hurricane Ida spun violently toward the Louisiana coast.

In 2005, as Katrina bore down, she and her husband went west, making a 13-hour drive to Lafayette, La. This time they chose Pensacola. By 9 a.m. they were at a Buc-ees gas station in Alabama after a derailed boat caused standstill traffic in Mississippi.

Last night was terrifying trying to go to sleep, said Seghers. Just thinking about all the what ifs and all the things we were getting ready to leave behind  which is kind of breaking my heart right now.

Ida intensified Saturday as it made its way toward the Louisiana coast. By midafternoon, the hurricane was a Category 2 with sustained winds over 100 miles per hour. The storm is expected to make landfall as a Category 4 colossus with winds at over 130 miles per hour.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said that residents should be wherever they plan to ride out the storm by nightfall on Saturday. While many planned to ride it out inside the protection of the New Orleans-area levee system, tens of thousands of others, fearing the storm's wrath or the thought of days without power, hit the road. And for residents who remember the devastation of Katrina, on that storm's anniversary the evacuation carried with it a knowing anxiety.

I did Katrina once, said Heather Zeller, a 44-year-old Uptown resident. I cant do this again.

Zeller packed up her dog and daughter on Saturday after driving to Kenner in search of gas. She finally secured a hotel in Tallahassee, Fla. after four other hotels on a booking site filled up faster than she could type in her credit card information. She had planned to leave at noon, but after seeing gridlocked traffic in her pursuit for fuel, she did her best to bump it up a few hours.

I have a 7-year-old, said Zeller. Shes already anxious-ridden because of COVID. If I stay, I really think this is just gonna throw her over the edge.

As Louisiana residents fled out of Ida's way, traffic clogged roads east and west of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, though northern routes remained relatively clear, said Department of Transportation and Development spokesperson Rodney Mallett.

"It's like going to an LSU game," said Mallett. "Once the game is over and everybody leaves at the same time, there's going to be traffic."

Unlike Katrina, which triggered a mandatory evacuation, many Louisiana residents in Idas path are not ordered to leave. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said there was not enough time to order a mandatory evacuation given how quickly the hurricane was approaching. An evacuation has been ordered for areas outside the levee systems in Jefferson and Orleans parishes. Evacuations were also ordered in Terrebonne, St. Charles, Lafourche and Plaquemines parishes.

Still, some residents with young children or medical concerns didn't feel like they had much of a choice.

Joan Archer, 76, packed up last-minute items including vital paperwork late Saturday morning for a trip with her three dogs and handicapped husband to Pratville, Ala. She found a hotel after spending three hours on the phone Friday looking for a place that had handicapped accommodations and would take animals.

I almost stayed, Archer said. But then I thought, no, thats not a good idea.

Archers home just outside Slidell had significant damage from falling trees in Katrina and also took on about 18 inches of water. She said that experience prompted her decision to evacuate for Ida, even though she is taking immunosuppressant drugs as a cancer survivor and is worried about COVID-19.

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She got her COVID-19 booster shot this week, which she said made her feel better about evacuating.

She was up until 2:30 a.m. Saturday after spending the previous day cooking meals and freezing them and securing their property, where they had been having some construction work done.

You do what you have to do when theres nobody to help you, she said.

While New Orleans didn't put in place its mandatory evacuation plan ahead of the storm, Cantrell said that the city would be prepared to evacuate the city after the storm passes through, likely from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. But in the mean time, residents who stay should plan to have enough food and water for the next three days.

Seven-month-old twins were a deciding factor when Ashley Nunez, 32, left her home in St. Bernard Parish at 6:15 a.m. Saturday, along with her husband and a 10-year-old cat. By 9:30, the family had made it as far as Meridian, Miss. Birmingham is their final destination.

During Katrina, her mom and sister, then two, escaped through the roof of their house. The last time she evacuated was 13 years ago, for Hurricane Gustav.

This one just feels a little bit more worrisome than all the rest have been, said Nunez.

But not everyone is leaving.

Donald Law, a Lakeview resident, filled up his car and several containers with gas for his generator on Saturday morning. He had decided to hunker down in his raised home on French Street with his son. I dont really know where I would go, he said. Im not going to stress out. Whatever happens, happens.

Law said he planned to put up a few shutters and move his cars to neutral ground.

At the Rouses Market on North Carrollton Avenue, there were long queues at the registers and the store had run out of water. But otherwise it was orderly and customers just seemed to be making the usual purchases ahead of a hurricane, according to store director Robert Vanvranken. He added, however, that the store was short-handed because a dozen check out operators had phoned in to say they were evacuating and wouldn't be coming into work.

"That's why I'm bagging," he said.

Inside Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter, 60 rooms were filled with guests who planned to stay for the storm, said Steve Caputo, general manager.

"All of our hurricane prep is now complete and we are ready to ride out the storm, said Caputo.

With the window to leave town closing, the city got quiet on Saturday afternoon as streets in danger of flooding emptied, shutters were bolted and clouds began to arrive.

Staff writers Sara Pagones, Marie Fazio and Anthony McAuley contributed to this report.
Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng urged residents to clean catch basins and then clear out ahead of the landfall of Hurricane Ida later this weekend.

Speaking at a Friday afternoon news conference, Lee Sheng said the parish is well prepared: all but one of the parish's 195 permanent pumps is operational; temporary pumps are headed to low-lying areas; and crews are switching to 12-hour shifts ahead of the storm.

Jefferson Parish officials have called for a mandatory evacuation of areas outside the levee system. But they are urging everyone else who has the means to leave town.

"This is a major storm coming our way," Lee Sheng said. "If you can get out, get out."

Hurricane Ida is expected to make landfall Sunday somewhere along the Louisiana coast. Forecasters have said it could be near Category 4 strength.

Lee Sheng and other parish leaders also urged residents to clean out catch basins and secure any outside items. Parish crews are out clearing drains, basins and canals, they said.

Jefferson Parish schools Superintendent James Gray said the parish's schools will be closed Monday and all extracurricular activities after school Friday have been canceled. Students will bring their laptops home and if longer closures are required, system administrators will ensure that students can continue to work as long as they have internet, he said.

Patrick Hamby of Entergy said the company had staged crews but warned that a Category 3 or 4 storm could result in power outages of two weeks or more.
The New Orleans Saints plan to evacuate to the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of Hurricane Ida, according to sources.

The team plans to leave Saturday afternoon ahead of the storm, which is projected to make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along the Louisiana coast Sunday afternoon.

If Ida forces the club to stay for an extended period of time, plans are in place for the Saints to practice at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas.

The Saints' original practice plan called for workouts Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The team's tentative plan is to stay in the area until Wednesday.

Team officials spent much of Friday trying to hastily arrange travel plans and secure hotel rooms in the area.

This isn't the first time the Saints have evacuated ahead of a storm.

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Hurricane Katrina forced the Saints to relocate their home base to San Antonio for the entire 2005 season. In 2004, the Saints practiced for three days during the preseason in San Antonio to get out of Hurricane Ivan's way. They migrated to Indianapolis for a few days in 2008 ahead of Hurricane Gustav, and then they followed suit a few years later in 2012 to Cincinnati because of Hurricane Isaac.

The Saints had a contingency in the works last year ahead of Hurricane Delta, but the track shifted west and the Saints stayed put. Had conditions worsened in New Orleans, the team would have evacuated to Indianapolis and played their Monday night game against the Los Angeles Chargers in Lucas Oil Stadium.

Ida is expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon.

For Ida to become a Category 2 hurricane, its sustained winds must reach a minimum of of 96 mph. Category 3 status begins at 111 mph. Category 4 status begins at 130 mph.

A hurricane warning is in effect for all of the Louisiana coastal parishes, including Orleans Parish, where the Superdome is located, and Jefferson Parish, where the team's training facility is.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
Earl Smith, 83, former resident of Moore, OK passed away peacefully at his home in Longmont, CO. Earl was born in Depew, OK to John and Ethel Smith. He retired in 2000 from Rose State University as an accounting Professor. Graveside service will be held at Oakdale Cemetery, Depew, OK on Sept
Matthew Mindler, a first-year student at Millersville University, was found dead on Saturday after been declared missing earlier in the week.

Mindler, most famous role was in the Paul Rudd movie, My Idiot Brother, but had also been in an episode of As the World Turns, and also made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

The cause of death is unknown.

Mindler, 19, was from Hellertown, Pennsylvania.
Herndon, Pa.  A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a Florida man who allegedly posed as an Amazon representative and scammed a victim in Northumberland County out of $2,000.

Jun Wang, 58, of Orlando, called the 67-year-old woman in Jackson Township the evening of May 14 and pretended to be from Amazon. Wang told the woman that she had received a refund in error, and that it needed to be reimbursed by purchasing gift cards, according to the arrest affidavit written by Corporal Daniel Woody of Pennsylvania State Police at Stonington.

The woman traveled to Elizabethville and purchased five eBay gift cards at CVS, each worth $200 for a total of $1,000. She then went to Walmart and purchased four Walmart gift cards for $250 each, for a total of $1,000, Woody wrote.

Wang then directed the woman to provide the gift card numbers and PINs over the phone. After she read the numbers to him, Wang told her to cut up the physical gift cards and dispose of them. He also told her not to contact law enforcement.

The woman eventually did contact police, who took the gift card fragments she had saved and were able to piece together some information. Police found that the Walmart gift cards had zero balances. The eBay gift cards were too badly damaged to glean information from, according to the affidavit.

Police were able to trace the Walmart gift cards to a Walmart store in Haines, Fla. The store provided surveillance photos that showed Wang allegedly using the Walmart gift card information to purchase other gift cards for Apple, Steam, Google brands, and phone cards, Woody wrote. Wangs purchases totaled $1,000.

State police filed charges against Wang on Monday at the office of District Judge Michael Toomey. Charges include: first-degree felony of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity; first-degree felony of knowledge that property is proceeds of illegal act, misdemeanors of theft by deception, and receiving stolen property.

Docket Sheet
Williamsport -- On August 26 in 2021, Francis "Franco" Alfredo Daniele passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family. Born on Oct. 29, 1930, he was the only child of Leonardo Alfredo Daniele and Mary Pasnello Daniele.

He was preceded in death by his beloved wife Joanna Testa Daniele, his parents, and his brothers-in-law: Angelo (Mary Margaret) Testa and Enrico Testa. He is survived by his four children: Alfredo, Maria (Luke Aderhold), Francis, and Roseanne Daniele-Reed (Bob)  and his granddaughters: Giavana, Olivia, Janaya, and Francesca. In addition are numerous relatives, a sister-in-law (Martha Testa), and friends whom he loved deeply.

In 1927, Francos father opened The New York Barbershop in downtown Williamsport. He began apprenticing as a barber at the age of thirteen, eventually taking over the business. He was a longtime member of The Sons of Italy Lodge 138. In 1948, Franco joined the U.S. Marine Corps. He transferred to the U.S. Airforce where he served from 1950-1954.

Upon return, he married Joanna Testa in 1959. He continued his profession as a barber until 1984, when he decided to sell the barbershop and take a risk investing in a small bar on Fourth Street. That bar became Francos Lounge. The whole family embarked into the hospitality industry together, opening Joannas Italian Bakery (1989) and later Cloud 9 Airport Restaurant (2012). From the mid-1970s into the 1990s, Franco and Joanna would organize and lead group tours to Disney World, New York City (to the San Gennaro Festival), and throughout Italy. In February of 2021, Franco celebrated his 30th year of sobriety. For a time, he was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Disabled American Veterans (Korean War).

The family will receive friends at Crouse Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 133 E. 3rd St., Williamsport on Sunday, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Ann Roman Catholic Church, 1220 Northway Rd, Williamsport, at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 with the Rev. John J. Chmil and Rev. Michael J. McCormick concelebrating. Burial will follow in Wildwood Cemetery.

We encourage you to celebrate Francos life in your own way, whether it be by making someone laugh or eating a sweet. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Gatehouse Hospice, American Rescue Workers, or The Daniele Family Culinary Scholarship at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Please visit www.crousefuneralhome.com to sign a register book or share a memory.




Local

Armuchee Middle School shifts to virtual classes next week as some city, county schools continue with COVID-19 protocols

Armuchee Middle School will shift to virtual classes for next week after the percentage of students surpassed a 5% mark set by the Floyd County Board of Education last week.

Three other schools in the county school system will continue to wear masks and take other precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19  Armuchee High, Coosa High and Coosa Middle.

In the city school system five of the six elementary schools  West End, West Central, East Central, Elm Street and Main  have all shifted to what the Rome City Schools refer to as Phase Two.

That means students will wear masks to school and take their lunches in their classrooms, rather than in a cafeteria.

Once the number of students and staff moves above a 1% margin of population for COVID-19 infections, the individual school moves into Phase Two of their three-phase plan. Phase Three means the school will shift to virtual classes.

In the county the decision is made on a weekly basis, with an announcement on Friday concerning how the next week will be conducted.

In the past seven days there have been 137 COVID-19 infections reported at Floyd County Schools and 72 new infections reports in Rome City Schools.

COVID-19 cases in Georgia nearing last winters peak

Cases of COVID-19 in Georgia have surged to levels not seen since the virus peaked last January, a public health expert warned this week.

New cases statewide are nearing 8,000 a day, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Of Georgians being tested for COVID-19, 17.2% are turning up positive, Dr. Janet Memark, district health director for Cobb & Douglas Public Health, said Thursday during an online forum sponsored by the Georgia House Democratic Caucus. The community is considered safe when fewer than 5% of test results are positive, she said.

Memark blamed the delta variant, which is much more contagious than the original strain of coronavirus that first struck Georgia in March of last year.

It is just really rampant now throughout our communities, she said.

Memark said many hospitals are being strained, with unvaccinated Georgians making up the vast majority of rising patient loads.

We are seeing some breakthrough cases, she said. But theyre not being hospitalized or dying. The vaccine is working.

Dr. Carlos del Rio, a leading epidemiologist at Emory University, said a person who contracts the delta variant of COVID-19 can infect up to eight others, making it much more dangerous than the original strain, which typically can infect two to three people exposed to someone with the virus.

The virus were facing today is very different from the original virus, he said. This is so highly transmissible, its not the COVID we knew a year ago.

Memark said another disturbing aspect of the current stage of COVID-19 is that its hitting children. In Georgia, cases involving children between the ages of 11 and 17 have doubled in the last week, she said.

The COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer won formal approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week. However, that approval did not extend to children.

Del Rio said he expects researchers will have a vaccine available for kids by November or December.

COVID fatigue

Meanwhile, he said hes concerned that COVID fatigue is causing Georgians to let down their guard at a dangerous time.

We are in a major surge right now, yet the restaurants are full, he said. Everybody is acting as if nothing is going on.

Hospitals in Floyd County and across the state have been flooded with a mass of unvaccinated patients.

Floyd Medical Center CEO Kurt Stuenkel has urged people to get vaccinated.

If folks have questions or deeply held beliefs, they need to go talk to a physician, Stuenkel said. Our team is doing a really great job dealing with this surge but we need people to step up as numbers continue to surge.

Del Rio said while vaccines are the best defense against COVID-19, including the delta variant, people still need to wear masks, practice social distancing and wash their hands frequently.

People are very tired. I understand that, he said. We all want this to be over. [But] its not going to be over when we want.

Georgia passed the 1 million mark in cases of coronavirus last week and was up to 1,056,788 cases as of Thursday afternoon. The virus has hospitalized 71,862 Georgians and resulted in 22,492 confirmed or probable deaths.
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Deck Cheatham has been a golf professional for more than 40 years. He lives with his family in Dalton. Contact him at pgadeacon@gmail.com.
Andy Schmookler is a prize-winning author. Many of his works can be found at www.ABetterHumanStory.org.
CROWN POINT  After a man claiming to be a "sovereign citizen" repeatedly said Friday he would not accept being held to the same standard as a licensed attorney if permitted to represent himself at his upcoming murder trial, a judge re-appointed a public defender to represent him.

Joe C. Pittman Jr., 28, of Chicago, has pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of Portage High School student Alayna Ortiz, 18, on Jan. 9, 2019, in a parking lot at the Park West Apartments complex in Griffith.

Pittman is scheduled to stand trial starting Sept. 27 on murder, attempted robbery and burglary charges.

Pittman told Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota, who previously granted him permission to represent himself, he would be ready for trial.

When Bokota asked if he accepted he would be held to the same standards as an attorney, Pittman said, "No, ma'am."

"There is not law requiring me to hire an attorney," he said.

Bokota said she wasn't asking him to hire an attorney and again asked if he would accept he'd be held to the same legal standards as an attorney.

Pittman said he was a sovereign citizen and talked about "the very system dedicated to making me pay."
Lake County Supervisory Deputy Prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz said Wilbourn, if convicted at trial, could face up to 40 years on each rape count.

Wilbourn said he understood.

"I've been studying law," he said. "I feel like I have a fighting chance."

Jatkiewicz said the then-14-year-old girl and the then-25-year-old woman Wilbourn was accused of raping July 16, 2017, and Aug. 8, 2017, did not know him, but his DNA was found in their sexual assault kits.

Wilbourn was 15 years old that summer.

One of the women told police Wilbourn took her ball cap, which had a distinctive symbol on it, and shoes. Investigators found the cap and shoes at the home where Wilbourn was living. The woman identified the shoes as hers, based on wear marks and a material on them that would have come from her place of employment, Jatkiewicz said.

Wilbourn was given an opportunity to consult with his biological father in a jury room the day he took the plea agreement, she said.

Boswell said she would not allow Wilbourn to withdraw his guilty pleas.

"It seems like you knew what you were doing," she said. "You thought about it for a long time, and made the decision at the last minute."
HAMMOND  One juvenile has been taken into custody after two students were shot at Hammond Central High School, prompting police to swarm the school Friday.

The suspect is a juvenile and cannot be identified at this time, said Hammond Police Department Lt. Steve Kellogg.

"Thank you to everyone for the calls and tips," he said.

The suspect was captured on video camera, wearing distinctive clothing, extending his arm and firing a weapon, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said. Members of the Hammond police gang unit recognized the suspect and police were able to make an arrest, he said.

It was unknown if there were additional suspects being sought by authorities at this time.

At 2:25 p.m. officers responded to a report of shots fired near the high school in the 5900 block of Calumet Avenue, Kellogg said.

Two students were found outside the school with gunshot wounds and were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.

McDermott said he witnessed the aftermath of the incident, which he said occurred outside the south end of the school along Highland Street.
It's time to hike, paddle and celebrate the great outdoors in Northwest Indiana.

The Indiana Dunes Outdoor Adventure Festival returns next month.

The Indiana Dunes National Park will host the three-day festival from Sept. 10-12 in conjunction with the Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes Tourism.

More than 50 outdoor activities will take place across the Indiana Dunes region.

"The festival will showcase the regions outdoor activities such as hiking, paddling, biking, geo-caching, photography, birding, and so many others," the National Park Service said in a press release. "The festival has events for everyone including families, beginners, experts, and those with limited mobility. The festival has been modified to ensure that social distancing and small group sizes can be maintained to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Masks are required inside national park buildings but are optional outdoors."

The festival is free and open to the public. No registration is required.
WASHINGTON  President Bidens carefully worded statement on Monday supporting a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians came amid growing pressure within his own party for the United States to take a more skeptical stance toward one of its closest allies.

Mr. Bidens urging of a halt to the fighting  tucked at the end of a summary of a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel  followed a drumbeat of calls from Democratic lawmakers across the ideological spectrum for his administration to speak out firmly against the escalation of violence. It reflected a different tone than the one members of Congress have sounded during past clashes in the region, when most Democrats have repeated their strong backing for Israels right to defend itself and called for peace, without openly criticizing its actions.

The push is strongest from the energized progressive wing of the party, whose representatives in the House, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have drawn attention in recent days for accusing Israel of gross human rights violations against Palestinians and of operating an apartheid state. But their intensity has obscured a quieter, concerted shift among more mainstream Democrats that could ultimately be more consequential.

Though they have no intention of ending the United States close alliance with Israel, a growing number of Democrats in Washington say they are no longer willing to give the country a pass for its harsh treatment of the Palestinians and the spasms of violence that have defined the conflict for years.
The Talibans top leaders have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. They are now emerging from obscurity after a 20-year battle, but little is known about them or how they plan to govern.

As they take charge of Afghanistans government and a nation of 38 million people, the Talibans leaders have tried to signal that they are more worldly and tolerant than their predecessors in the 1990s, willing to work with women and urging people to get back to their jobs without fear of reprisals.

But the question remains: Have they really cast off an extremist ideology that carried them through two decades of war, or is this all a ruse designed to win global approval? What is known about the movements leaders yields some clues.
And so we are introduced to a multigenerational saga fraught with geopolitical brutality and familial trauma, featuring a vivid and formidable 90-year-old matriarch named Vera, with a Ben-Gurion-like domineering tone and a bladder like the late president Hafez Assads. This little woman with the sharp green eyes presides over the novel, indelibly imprinting herself on all its characters. Yet the more we feel we have come to know Vera, whether through her narcissistic investment in her appearance  she is always reapplying red lipstick or wetting down the stray curl on her forehead  or through her portrayal of herself as having sacrificed her freedom and potentially her very life for her first husband, Milosz, a war hero and her great love, the more questionable the reality she puts forward becomes.

At the heart of More Than I Love My Life, translated by Jessica Cohen, is Veras imprisonment for almost three years on the remote Yugoslavian island of Goli Otok, one of Titos gulags, also known as the Adriatic Alcatraz, sometime during the early to mid-1950s (the time period is unclear). She has been sent to the island because of a drastic, life-altering choice she felt compelled to make when being interrogated by Titos security agents. Officially set up as a re-education camp, Goli Otok is a merciless prison, run by vicious wardens who berate, beat and rape the inmates who have been condemned to meaningless hard labor. Among the most riveting scenes of the novel are the ones in which Vera is made to stand for days on end  57 in all  on a mountain cliff in the blazing sun so as to provide shade for a sapling one of the commandants has brought to the island.

Grossmans evocative gifts are in full force: An hour, another hour. The sun moves across her body like a slow flamethrower. Head, shoulders, neck. Everything is burning. The sweat drips. Her lips are cracked and bleeding. A cloud of flies buzzes above her. The bedbugs are nicely fattened up on her blood. She doesnt scratch. No longer brushes them off. Lets them drink it all. This body is not hers. Neither it nor its pains. She is no longer human or animal or anything. Since yesterday, since she understood what she was doing here, her limbs and joints have been rigid. Her legs wooden. She walks as if shes on stilts.

More Than I Love My Life is about the burden of history as it impinges on individual lives and the family ghosts that wreak havoc in its wake. As a result of Veras decision, her young daughter, Nina, the child she had with Milosz, is taken from her. Although mother and daughter are eventually reunited, Nina never overcomes her sense of having been betrayed by Vera. Nina, in turn, will go on to abandon her daughter, Gili, who rejects her mother with a virulence born of equal parts bewilderment and self-hatred.
Stephen B. Oates, a Civil War historian and the biographer of several prominent Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and William Faulkner, died on Aug. 20 at his home in Amherst, Mass. He was 85.

His son, Greg, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

In his best-known works, Dr. Oates explored the lives of four prominent figures  John Brown, Nat Turner, Lincoln and Dr. King  in what he called his Civil War quartet.

These men, he wrote in Biography as High Adventure, an essay published in 1986, humanize the monstrous moral paradox of slavery and racial oppression in a land based on the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

He added: All four were driven, visionary men, all were caught up in the issues of slavery and race, and all devised their own solutions to those inflammable problems. And all perished, too, in the conflicts and hostilities that surrounded the quest for equality in their country.
A police officer in Austin, Texas, who was charged with murdering a man in April 2020 has been charged with murdering another man about nine months earlier, prosecutors said on Friday.

The latest indictments charge the officer, Christopher Taylor, 29, and another officer, Karl Krycia, 28, with murder and deadly conduct in the fatal shooting of Mauris DeSilva, 46, who had been holding a knife in the hallway of his condominium complex on July 31, 2019.

The charges came five months after Officer Taylor had been charged with fatally shooting Michael Ramos, 42, outside an Austin apartment complex on April 24, 2020.

The killing of Mr. Ramos, who was Black and Hispanic, set off protests against police violence in Austin about a month before the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis catalyzed global demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.
This is close-up war  the breath of the person you are searching is upon you, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of United States Central Command, said on Thursday after the attack, describing the face-to-face contact between Marines at the airport gate and Afghans they must search before allowing them to enter.

Pentagon officials said they were still piecing together the chain of events that took place at Abbey Gate on Thursday. There will be after-action reviews and storyboards with detailed lists of what led up to that moment. There will be questions: Why were so many service members grouped so close together? How did the bomber evade the Taliban checkpoints? Did someone let him through?

U.S. military forces conducted their first reprisal strike in Afghanistan since the attack on Friday, an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation in the Nangarhar Province against an ISIS-K planner, said Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, referring to the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State that claimed responsibility for Thursdays attack.

Initial indications are that we killed the target, he said. We know of no civilian casualties.

As the scope of the damage from Thursdays bombing became clearer, health officials in Kabul raised the death toll, saying at least 170 people had been killed. Afghans seeking to escape Taliban rule continued to stream to the airport on Friday, but the size of the crowd was estimated in the hundreds, down from the thousands who were there when the blast occurred. The airport remained largely locked down, although evacuation flights continued.

Just after 2 p.m. Friday, as another gray-tailed U.S. aircraft lifted into the sky from the airport, this one carrying the flag-draped coffins of the 13 Americans, the anguish from Thursdays bombing spread from Kabul to Kansas. At the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, service members were bracing for the ritual of dressing and preparing yet another group of American troops killed in Afghanistan.
When the first of the almost 6,000 troops that Mr. Biden authorized started arriving in Kabul this month, military commanders believed they would be working with the Afghan governments security forces to help ferry Americans and others to safety. But by Aug. 15, when the Taliban swept into Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani fled the city, his security forces ceased to function.

That day, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a Marine who leads U.S. Central Command, met with Taliban leaders, telling them not to interfere with the evacuation. Taliban officials told General McKenzie that security was deteriorating in Kabul, and that they had to act swiftly to secure the city.

At that meeting, the Taliban offered to set up a liaison system to discuss security matters, according to a U.S. official briefed on the meeting.

During the last two weeks, there have been periodic conversations between the Taliban official in charge of security in Kabul and American military commanders, including Rear Adm. Peter G. Vasely. Those conversations reflect a pragmatic relationship of necessity, the U.S. official said. The military conversations were tactical conversations and are not expected to continue past the end of the evacuation mission on Aug. 31, the official added.

Thomas Joscelyn, who has tracked the details of the Afghanistan war at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Long War Journal, said such tactical discussions were probably necessary.

Theres a certain amount of tactical talking that needs to be done here because theyre face to face, and there needs to be some tactical deconfliction, he said.

After the bombing on Thursday, General McKenzie said the U.S. military had asked the Taliban to make adjustments to their security cordon and to close specific roads that the United States had identified as sources of threats.
Administration officials argue that they need to prepare the public for what lies ahead, even as the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. review the data that will guide whatever course is ultimately taken. At a news briefing this week, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general, said the administration was striving to preserve integrity of process, while still being transparent with the public, while still planning ahead and giving people a sense of what may come.

If the F.D.A. decides that booster shots are safe and effective, the agency could recommend a minimum waiting period before vaccinated people can get one. The C.D.C.s advisory board of experts would then meet to consider the F.D.A.s decision and could advise the C.D.C. that booster shots be given within a period of several months after the second shot. An agency recommendation would follow.

Regardless of the time frame, officials said, the administration will strive to offer booster shots first to those who were inoculated earliest in the vaccination campaign because they are considered the most vulnerable. That would include nursing home residents and health care workers, followed by other older people.

Some health experts have criticized the booster plans as premature, saying the data shows that the vaccines still provide robust protection against severe Covid-19 disease and hospitalization. But administration officials have said that because they see the potency of the vaccines waning against infection, they fear that the bulwark they provide against severe disease may soon weaken.

Federal officials have been closely watching Israel, whose vaccination campaign initially moved more quickly than the American one, and because  unlike the United States  it has a robust national surveillance program that tracks infections. Both countries are now awash in infections from the Delta variant.

The Israeli government relied heavily on the Pfizer vaccine for immunizations, and began offering booster shots on Aug. 1. On Tuesday, it expanded the booster campaign to people over the age of 30.

Some data from Israels Ministry of Health indicates a slow but steady rise in the rate of severe disease among vaccinated people 55 years or older from roughly late June to early August. That was followed by a tapering off of such cases  a trend that some analysts suggest shows the impact of booster shots.
A Connecticut woman was sentenced to seven days in jail for walking on the thermal grounds at Yellowstone National Park, an act the authorities described as extremely dangerous.

The woman, Madeline Casey, 26, was sentenced on Aug. 18, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Wyoming. She was charged with traveling in the thermal areas and disorderly conduct, according to court records.

Ms. Casey and two others with her, who were not identified in the statement, made their way to a thermal pool and geyser at Norris Geyser Basin, one of the largest thermal areas at Yellowstone, after they left the marked boardwalk during a visit last month, the authorities said.

Worried onlookers took photos and videos of the three people as they walked over the thermal ground, the statement said.
While Dr. Offit understands that parents are frustrated with the delay in approving a Covid vaccine for young children, it also should be reassuring that the F.D.A. is taking the time necessary to review the vaccine data, he said. The agency doesnt just rely on the companys summary of the data. Agency officials look at individual reports from every single child, reviewing the most mundane details of any side effects, blood tests and other data collected during the trial. The data on children are complicated by the fact that different doses are being studied.

They dont want to miss anything, because the No. 1 thing is safety, Dr. Offit said. Youre giving a vaccine or placebo to thousands of children as a predictor of whats about to be given to millions of children. I know it seems like it should be faster, but its a long process.

While parents will have to wait a little longer before young children can be vaccinated, studies show that schools have not been a major cause of Covid spreading events, particularly when a number of prevention measures are in place. A combination of precautions  masking indoors, keeping students at least three feet apart in classrooms, keeping students in separate cohorts or pods, encouraging hand washing and regular testing, and quarantining  have been effective. While many of those studies occurred before the Delta variant became dominant, they also happened when most teachers, staff and parents were unvaccinated, so public health experts are hopeful that the same precautions will work well this fall.

The overall news is reassuring when it comes to children and the risks of serious complications from Covid-19. Compared to adults, children diagnosed with Covid-19 are more likely to have mild symptoms or none at all. Children are also far less likely to develop severe illness, be hospitalized or die from the disease. In rare cases, some children infected with Covid may develop a serious inflammatory syndrome, but that has been documented in only about 0.1 percent of pediatric cases. While the loss of even one child is devastating, deaths among children from Covid-19 are rare. Since the start of the pandemic, the C.D.C. has documented 454 deaths in the 18 or younger age group, accounting for 0.07 percent of the total 623,984 deaths in all age groups.

Parents can minimize a childs risk by getting all eligible family members vaccinated. Take precautions daily to avoid crowds, wear a mask and encourage your child to wear a mask at school. Read more about how to keep kids safe in schools.

And to learn more about coping with kids, Covid and back-to-school, join me on Sept. 1 at 2 p.m. Eastern time for a New York Times Instagram live conversation with Lisa Damour, an adolescent therapist and Times columnist. Well be taking your questions, sharing the latest science and offering guidance for parents and families navigating the uncertainty of pandemic back-to-school.

Join the conversation:

Follow The New York Times on Instagram and join our live event!
Denmark, whose health minister said on Thursday that the country had fully vaccinated 80 percent of residents over age 12, will no longer consider Covid-19 a socially critical disease. It will drop all Covid restrictions as of Sept. 10.

The heath minister, Magnus Heunicke, made the announcement on Twitter on Friday. The socially critical designation is a political one, which allowed officials to implement measures such as national closures and requirements for coronavirus passes.

Denmark has reported a total of 342,866 virus cases and 2,575 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The country has been averaging just under 1,000 new cases a day in recent weeks.

Mr. Heunicke said that as of Sept. 10, the country would phase out the last of its important restrictions, including having to show coronavirus passes at nightclubs and sporting events, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper.
Just days after the Taliban took Kabul, their flag was flying high above a central mosque in Pakistans capital. It was an in-your-face gesture intended to spite the defeated Americans  and a sign of the real victors in the 20-year Afghan war.

Pakistan was ostensibly Americas partner in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But it was a relationship rived by duplicity and divided interests from its very start after 9/11. Pakistans intelligence service nurtured and protected Taliban assets inside Pakistan through the course of the war.

Already Pakistan, along with Russia and China, is helping fill the space the Americans have vacated. The embassies of the three nations have remained open since the Taliban seized Kabul.

But Robert L. Grenier, a former C.I.A. station chief in Pakistan, said that Pakistan should be careful what it wished for.
With her closest friends, shell exchange ideas about climate change, economic inequality and who broke up with whom, all in the same breath. It would be artificial to try and reproduce some kind of compartmentalization that I dont feel in my real life, she said.

For Rooney, the intimate and the ideological go hand in hand. That is, you cant fully understand Felix and Alices relationship, or Eileen and Simons, without understanding their relative positions within the social order around them.

So, yes, she does have opinions on Dublins housing crisis, but even if she didnt, as a novelist, she said, I simply have to engage with the reality of the housing market, because the characters have to live somewhere. They have to go home, put a key in the door and live.

Rooney thinks its a cop-out to say she writes simply because shes not good at anything else. (She did say this, to the Irish Independent, in 2018.) You dont have to be really good at trying to make a difference in the world, she said. You could just be mediocre at it and still try, and Im not.

Instead, shes written a novel that attempts to justify not just itself, but novel writing, period.

What it comes down to, for her  and for Henry James and the Victorians, and even Felix  is some inherent, transformative value in aesthetic experience. I want to live in a culture where people are making art, even as everything else falls apart, Rooney said. It gives my life meaning.

In Beautiful World, one evening, Eileen narrates an arousing scene to Simon over the phone in which an imaginary wife takes off all his clothes, and he has sex with her. I live for detail, Eileen tells him. You paint a compelling picture, Simon says, moments before he orgasms.

Both characters, on either end of the line, are left flushed, breathing hard; perhaps the reader even feels something too. Because at the end of the world, when theres nothing left but one another, well still be moved, in spite of everything, by story.
After the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine this week, such mandates are expected to become more common. That creates uncharted territory for both employers and job seekers, with privacy, politics and health intruding into the already intense process of filling  or landing  a new job.

The share of job ads that require new hires to be vaccinated have nearly doubled in the past month, according to the job-search site Indeed. (These remain a small fraction of overall listings, however.) LinkedIn is exploring new ways for job seekers to learn more about companies vaccine requirements, said Suzi Owens, a spokeswoman for the site.

Companies are devising vaccination policies for new hires along with rules for their existing employees, and those arent always the same. Many employers are willing to impose stricter guidelines for applicants  Leslies requires vaccinations for all new hires but not all existing employees. Making vaccination a requirement for getting a job could encourage those who are reluctant, or it could further solidify the class divide, as vaccination rates fall largely along socioeconomic lines. (Or both.)

Corporate vaccine mandates have divided the country. In a recent Gallup poll, 52 percent of workers said they were in favor of mandates (36 percent strongly), versus 38 percent who were opposed (29 percent strongly). Even companies that dont require inoculations are making it increasingly difficult to remain unvaccinated: Delta Air Lines said this week that unvaccinated employees would be required to pay a $200-a-month surcharge to stay on the company health plan, starting in November. These shifting, and increasingly stringent, policies will inevitably become a more routine feature in job interviews.

Verifying the vaccine status of job applicants is taking a lot of time and resources for employers, unfortunately, said Dr. Neal Mills, the chief medical officer at the professional services firm Aon, who is already advising companies on their options. There is a continuum of ways to check someones status, he said, from a simple attestation to proof of vaccination on an app that syncs with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention databases.
Rebecca Wasserman-Hone, an American-born wine exporter who championed the wines and the small artisanal producers of Burgundy, her adopted home, died on Aug. 20 in Beaune, France. She was 84.

The cause was heart failure, her son Peter Wasserman said

Ms. Wasserman-Hone, known as Becky, and her husband at the time, Bart Wasserman, an artist, moved to Burgundy with their two young sons in 1968. The light was splendid, Ms. Wasserman-Hone often explained, and her husband liked wine. They bought a farm that dated to the 14th century in the tiny town of Bouilland, population about 150.

When the marriage faltered, Ms. Wasserman-Hone needed work, fast. A neighbor owned a renowned cooperage firm and asked her to help him sell his oak barrels in the United States. She had never sold anything in her life, but she hit the road alone, hawking barrels from a rental car through California wine country.

Because of where she lived, as she traveled she was often asked her advice about the lesser-known Burgundy wine producers, the small-batch vignerons  the people who grow and make wine on their ancient family farms. Soon she was out of the cooperage business, working first as a wine agent for the Berkeley-based importer Kermit Lynch and then on her own.
Mr. Forman, 40, said he had been surprised when he visited Grand Central in early July and saw how many people were passing through. We thought Grand Central would continue to be vacant, with minimal foot traffic, for longer than this, he said. Though, he added, It is not at all what it was.

At the L.I.R.R. station in Oceanside, a surge in train ridership was going to be critical for Urvish Singh. Mr. Singh, 25, took over a shuttered coffee shop there and reopened it in April as Wired Coffee House.

Commuters have always been the backbone of this business, Mr. Singh said. There were days when the shop took in almost nothing during the pandemic, he said.

The shops previous owner, Ubaid Bandukra, 32, said that before the pandemic, the shop served coffee, bagels and pastries to a steady clientele of about 125 customers each weekday morning.

Then, when the pandemic triggered a lockdown, Mr. Bandukra shuttered Caffeine and laid off his employees. He reopened Caffeine last summer and kept it going until the end of the year, sometimes working the counter alone. But at the end of the day, I wasnt making money, he said.

He approved of Mr. Singhs plan to rely less on commuters and try to draw more local traffic, given that there is so much available parking. In order to build a sustainable business, a profitable business, he said, you cannot be commuter focused with so many fewer people taking the train.

Kevin Armstrong, Sean Piccoli and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
The time was set. At noon Thursday, Marines would swoop in and usher a group of 29 Afghans through Abbey Gate into Kabul Airport for evacuation. With minutes to spare, Ahmad  the leader of the group  was still looking for N., an Afghan man hed never met. N. had tried, unsuccessfully, to enter through another gate earlier in the day, and he was now hoping to make it in with Ahmads group. The Marines would open the gate only once, but luckily they were running behind  potentially giving N. the extra minutes hed need to find Ahmad in the heaving crowd outside it. I was on the phone with Ahmad. A colleague in another country was texting with N., and we were trying to connect them. Time was running out at the airport gates.

For the past two weeks, Ive worked alongside an ad hoc group of veterans, journalists and activists with connections to Afghanistan who are trying to coordinate the evacuation of not just our Afghan friends but also strangers, like Ahmad and N., whose lives are under imminent threat. Days and nights full of creating elaborate text chains, building rosters of evacuees and sharing satellite imagery of routes to the airport.

As a Marine, I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. As a journalist, I covered the war in Syria. Never have I witnessed a greater, swifter collapse of competence than what I have seen with the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.

Central to President Bidens campaign was a promise that the candidate understood, deeply and personally, two essential things: empathy and service. Events in Afghanistan this week indicate this promise was, at worst, false and, at best, limited. Events in Afghanistan illustrate what happens when there is a breakdown in empathy. Events at the airport  desperation, death  indicate the extreme chaos that ensues when the commander in chief doesnt actually understand the value of service.
As regular readers know, I am a little (OK, more than a little) obsessed with the Early Republic period of American history and spend a lot of my time reading about the Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, the Philadelphia constitutional convention, and the Washington and Adams administrations. One of my takeaways from all of this reading is that for all of our modern-day worship of the founding fathers, we lack of a sense of how foreign their world was as compared to ours.

I was reminded of this by Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at Georgetowns Government Affairs Institute, who made a similar point on Twitter, apropos of a political advertisement in which the candidate, a conservative Republican, extols the founders for getting it right the first time.

Heres Glassman:

People really dont get how many (understandable) errors the Founders made, even on their own terms and, more importantly, how different the early Republic was from the antebellum mass republic most people (mis)associate with the Founding.

There are the obvious differences. The United States of 1790  the year of the first census  was a predominantly rural country with an extensive system of slave labor. Its largest city, New York, was home to 33,131 people. To a visitor from Paris (population: 524,186), the busiest metropolis of the young Republic would have looked like a provincial capital. The borders of the new nation were in flux and under threat from foreign powers and domestic adversaries, from the British in Canada and the Spanish in Florida to those Native Americans in western territories who fought to keep settlers and speculators off their land.

The politics were vastly different too. Its not just that there werent parties, but that there was no concept of the loyal opposition. When, in 1791, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson began to inch their way into conflict with Alexander Hamilton over the latters financial policies and broad influence within the Washington administration, they had to more or less develop a theory of partisan opposition. And even then, as the historians Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick note in The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800:

The key fact may well be that at this indistinct stage of party formation there were as yet no rules at all, and no sense of limits within which suspicion and even hate were to be graded and controlled. Parties could not yet be conceived as other than alliances for warfare in which the stakes were no less than survival or extinction  and certainly not as alternating associative structures through which to manage the affairs of government.

For the most part, in the present, Americans of different perspectives and beliefs see each other as legitimate political actors. Or at least, they know they are supposed to view each other that way. But this is not a natural idea. It had to be developed. And in the meantime, political conflict between Americans could take on existential stakes.
To the Editor:

Re Adults Are Failing Us on Climate, by Greta Thunberg, Adriana Calderon, Farzana Faruk Jhumu and Eric Njuguna (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, Aug. 22):

Im upset. Im worried. I am angry because the adults have ruined Earth for my generation! You have trashed this world; you have polluted it. The fact that I, a 10-year-old, have to write this letter is proving your failure.

But if you believe that we can save the planet, then you can embrace change. You can vote for world leaders who will stop climate change! There are billions of children around the world, and all of us deserve to live in a world with clean oceans, clean air and a healthy planet.

Our lives are already being affected by climate change. Think about how horrible life could be for the next generation if we dont act now. Heat waves would be so terrible they could actually make parts of the planet unsafe for us. And rising sea levels would be so serious that some coastal areas could become uninhabitable. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction; its been estimated that up to 200 species of plants and animals go extinct every single day, and that isnt acceptable.

We must push world leaders to act on climate change so that life can continue. Change is coming, and only we can fix the future.
I first met Kathy Ryan a few years ago when I needed a new picture of myself for The Times. We met on an autumn afternoon in the New York office thats been headquarters since 2007.

To be honest, I wasnt that fond of our new building. It was too sunny, too many windows. It took the metaphor of transparency too literally.

I joked that Kathy couldnt make my photo look film noirish in this light-drenched skyscraper. I prefer shadows, not least for getting work done.
Mr. Trump wasnt unique among American presidents in the grandiose belief that he alone could somehow change behaviors of our enemies and adversaries. Ever since Theodore Roosevelt brought an end to the Russo-Japanese war and won the Nobel Peace Prize, most American presidents have found irresistible the siren call of personal diplomacy.

Instead of banking on other countries being charmed or persuaded that American leaders know their interests better than they do, presidents should return to the practice of persuading their fellow Americans of the merits of agreements with foreign powers. Congress can begin by reasserting its role in diplomacy and requiring specific authorizations for the use of military force rather than continuing to acquiesce to claims that existing executive authorizations can be endlessly expanded. It should refuse the shifting of funds previously authorized and appropriated for other purposes (Mr. Trump made such shifts to construct the border wall). It should reject foreign policy changes enacted by executive order rather than congressional approval, and it should force the Supreme Court to clarify the extent of the presidents war powers.

Agreements with foreign powers, whether states, international institutions or organizations like the Taliban, should be submitted to Congress for a vote. The best way to prevent catastrophic foreign policy mistakes is to require the 535 representatives of the American people to put their jobs on the line, become informed, and support, reject or modify a presidents program. Congress tried to slow or block Mr. Trumps planned drawdown of U.S. forces. Members who supported the Taliban deal should be explaining why they thought the outcome would be different than the tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan now. Apathy and unaccountability are the real enemies of good foreign policy. Presidents get around oversight by offering unilateral policy actions or claiming international agreements arent formal treaties. Congress shouldnt let a president from either party get away with that.

Addressing foreign agreements as stand-alone votes would raise the profile and stakes even more. Supporting Mr. Trumps Taliban agreement would have been  and should have been  a tough vote. There are reasonable arguments on the side of continuing the war and on the side of concluding it. America would be more secure today if Congress exerted its prerogatives more forcefully  both when Mr. Trump agreed to the Taliban deal, and when Mr. Biden continued it.

These are not partisan issues. They get at the heart of the constitutional separation of powers, a division that makes America strong and resilient. Restraining presidential fiat may mean that some foreign policy opportunities are missed, that some deals will remain out of reach. But it also insulates the president, and the American public, against bad deals by allowing for greater public scrutiny and oversight. As the debacle in Afghanistan shows, closer evaluation of Mr. Trumps Taliban deal and of Mr. Bidens withdrawal plans would have been preferable to the tragedy now unfolding.
Stephanie Hintz, who has served as 4-H program coordinator in Dunn County, Wis., called state fairs a time where the stars all align.

These fairs are small but really meaningful, she said. If youre in 4-H and youre a kid showing an animal, you think about it for months. Some participants can earn enough money selling the cow or hog theyve raised to pay for college.

Its a lot of hard work, late nights and early mornings, caring for that animal, said Kristin Hanson, an agricultural science teacher at Barron High School and a fair superintendent at the Barron County Fair, which is held in Rice Lake, Wis. Then when you get to the fair, its the fun of seeing your friends.
But Mr. Yousafzai and his wife, Bibi, worried for the fate of several brothers, nephews and cousins, who also had worked for the Americans. The attack on Thursday at the Kabul airport and the fast-approaching U.S. withdrawal made it less likely that they would get out any time soon.

Despite all the trauma, they said, their only daughter now has a future very different from the one she would have had in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. I can study in school and become somebody, Brishna said.

And for Huzzaif, who was kidnapped four years ago and held for ransom, there would no longer be any fear. I can walk comfortably to places, he said. My mother doesnt have to worry about me being stolen anymore.

The Yousafzai familys saga with the Americans started in 2007, when Zar Mohammad, the youngest and most educated of six brothers, applied for a job with the U.S. military. The money was good, and the family believed in the American mission to root out extremists and develop their homeland.
But unlike most local officials who received bad news, Mr. Duggan reacted by engaging in a public fight with the Census Bureau and suggesting he might sue. He said the bureau, under former President Donald J. Trump, did not give on-the-ground canvassers enough time to do their work last year. The change to an online questionnaire also disadvantaged the city, he said. The pandemic did not help.

The census is just factually inaccurate, Mr. Duggan said in an interview, noting that he raised concerns about the process last fall, long before the numbers were published. It was census malpractice and were going to get it reversed.

Census officials declined to discuss the mayors specific claims, but defended their work in an unsigned statement and said local officials who thought there were errors could appeal. Any corrections would not affect the data used for political redistricting, the bureau said.

There is precedent in Detroit for census disputes paying off. After the 1990 count, Coleman A. Young, the mayor at the time, challenged the tally in court and got the bureau to acknowledge that it missed tens of thousands of residents.

Still, the latest drop in the population provided a political opening for Anthony Adams, who finished a distant second to Mr. Duggan in the low-turnout mayoral primary and who will face his fellow Democrat again in the November general election.

Were starting to lose our Black population in the city, and were losing it because the policies of this administration are harmful to the people who have been here through thick and thin, said Mr. Adams, a lawyer who has focused his campaign on crime reduction, police reform and keeping longtime residents in the city.

Even some of Mr. Duggans allies were unconvinced by his census rhetoric.

Paul A. Garrison II, an urban planner and economic developer who leads the Osborn Business Association, credited Mr. Duggan with nurturing new businesses, addressing problems in neighborhoods and attracting educated newcomers to Detroit. He said he even had a Duggan campaign sign in his yard. But Mr. Garrison was not buying the claims of a massive population undercount.
In Central Florida, Chris Cordero was driving his tan Saturn through his neighborhood in Lake Wales early this year when, he said, he noticed a police cruiser following him. Mr. Cordero, 37, grew nervous, and then the officer pulled him over. What could have been a routine traffic stop ended with Mr. Cordero on the ground, in handcuffs. He would face several years in prison, accused of assaulting a police officer.

In his report, the officer, David Colt Black, said he had pulled Mr. Cordero over because he was not wearing a seatbelt and had ignored a stop sign. The officer said Mr. Cordero got out of his car and immediately charged at him.

Cordero continued approaching me with closed fists, yelling, You cant stop me, you dont have the right, the officer wrote, adding: Cordero continued to charge towards me with closed fists.

He said Mr. Cordero kept resisting arrest and seemed to be reaching for a weapon in his waistband, and so he used his elbow to deliver a swift strike to the side of Mr. Corderos head. Mr. Cordero was arrested and taken into custody.

But Mr. Cordero said he never charged the officer and was certain that the strike to his head was unprovoked. He decided to conduct his own investigation.

I had to go door-to-door, because they were trying to give me from four to seven years in prison, he said. The officer said I charged his vehicle and I tried to attack him. I know I didnt. I got out of the car and remained there.

Mr. Corderos door-knocking produced quick results. He obtained a doorbell security video from the house across the street. The footage was from a bit of a distance, and it was hardly clear what was happening, but it was obvious that Mr. Cordero had not done what he had been accused of.
We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we dont have permanent military presence, Mr. Biden said this month. If necessary, well do the same in Afghanistan. Weve developed counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the direct threats to the United States in the region, and act quickly and decisively if needed.

Their original plan for Afghanistan, however, was premised on a scenario in which the United States would conduct airstrikes with the consent of President Ashraf Ghani, supporting his governments efforts to resist any transnational terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that sought to use the country as a base of operations. The Taliban, while separately vying for control of the country, would be neutral in that category of conflict, at least on the surface.

But instead, Mr. Ghani fled, the Afghan army abruptly abdicated and the Taliban swept into power as the de facto government. As a result, a playbook for any future counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan now needs to be redeveloped against the awkward backdrop of uncertainty about the Talibans intentions, including whether they will return to hosting terrorist camps as they did in the 1990s, the officials said.

The current and former officials briefed on the deliberations over the drone strike policy spoke about the delicate internal discussions only on the condition of anonymity. Asked for comment, the National Security Councils press office re-sent The New York Times a statement it had provided in March for an article about the legal policy review, which was then in an early stage.

The Biden plans make sense both to raise standards for protecting civilians but also to maintain greater flexibility for different settings across the world, said Luke Hartig, who worked on drone strike policy for the Obama administration as a senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

But, he added: Afghanistan is going to have to be very fluid. I would hate to have to write guidance for Afghanistan right now.
They were an exceptional unit, said Mick Mulroy, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Afghanistan. They were one of the primary means the Afghan government has used to keep the Taliban at bay over the last 20 years. They were the last ones fighting, and they took heavy casualties.

Local Afghans knew little about the base. The compound was extremely secure and designed to be all but impossible to penetrate. Walls reaching 10 feet high surrounded the site, and a thick metal gate slid open and shut quickly to allow cars inside.

Once inside, cars still had to clear three outer security checkpoints where the vehicles would be searched and documents would be screened before being allowed inside the base.

In the early years of the war, a junior C.I.A. officer was put in charge of the Salt Pit, a detention site near Eagle Base. There the officer ordered a prisoner, Gul Rahman, stripped of his clothing and shackled to a wall. He died of hypothermia. A C.I.A. board recommended disciplinary action but was overruled.

A former C.I.A. contractor said that leveling the base would have been no easy task. In addition to burning documents and crushing hard drives, sensitive equipment needed to be destroyed so it did not fall into the hands of the Taliban. Eagle Base, the former contractor said, was not like an embassy where documents could be quickly burned.
With the Afghans doing the fighting on the front lines and the U.S. providing assistance from the air, he added, such a force posture would have been quite sustainable in terms of the expenditure of blood and treasure.

But the White House rejected such a middle ground, contending that it amounted to more war. At her briefing on Friday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the only real choice was sending tens of thousands more Americans to potentially lose their lives or getting out.

There are of course other options, but there are consequences to every option, she said. That is my point. As for the critics, she said, I think its easy to play back seat driver.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut who supports Mr. Bidens withdrawal, said those arguing to keep troops in Afghanistan were the ones who failed to win the war for two decades and perpetually pushed to stay even though we have been losing for six to eight years.

To me, its the same game, he said in an interview. Everybodys got a plan. But Ive been working on this long enough to know everybodys plans are awful, he added, using an expletive. The reality is inescapable.

Mr. Biden was the third president in a row determined to finally end the war in Afghanistan, which has cost the lives of more than 2,400 American troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans, and as much as $2 trillion. In recent years, though, the conflict had evolved into an uneasy status quo with a far smaller American footprint. After drawdowns beginning under Mr. Obama, just a fraction of the troops there at the peak were left, yet military strategists said they had an outsize impact in keeping Afghan security forces in the fight without engaging in as much combat themselves.

Fewer than 100 American troops died in combat in Afghanistan over the past five years, roughly the equivalent of the number of Americans currently dying from Covid-19 every two hours. Until the devastating attack this week by ISIS-K at the Kabul airport killed 13 American service members, the military had suffered no combat deaths since the Trump agreement was signed.
The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high, Mr. Biden said in a statement on Saturday. Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours.

The Pentagon on Saturday gave its fullest account yet of Fridays strike in response to the bombing outside the airport. It said that the military had used a drone to kill two high-profile targets for the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K or the Islamic State Khorasan, a group that is a rival of the Taliban and that claimed responsibility for Thursdays attack. Military officials said one other target was injured.

Defense Department officials said one drone target was an ISIS-K planner, and the other was a facilitator.

The strike was carried out by a single MQ-9 Reaper drone flying from a base in the United Arab Emirates, according to a senior U.S. military official. The targets were struck in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar Province, roughly 90 miles east of Kabul.

The planner who was killed was believed to be involved in future plots against targets in Kabul, including the airport, but there was no evidence so far that he was involved in the suicide bombing near the airport on Thursday, the official said.

I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have, Mr. Biden said in his statement. This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, condemned the drone strike, telling Reuters it was a clear attack on Afghan territory.
Day after day, despite a raging pandemic and the threat of snipers bullets, a small band of Buddhist monks in burgundy robes gathers in the city of Mandalay in Myanmar. Their acts of dissent last only a few minutes, hasty candlelight vigils or flash-mob protests in the shadow of a monastery with gilded eaves.

The clerics demand is lofty: men in uniform, men who protest a bit too loudly that they are pious Buddhists, must exit politics. The military has dominated Myanmar for the better part of 60 years, most recently by staging a coup against an elected government and killing more than a thousand people for daring to oppose its power grab.

In the future, there should be no dictatorship at all, read one sign held aloft by a monk on Monday.

In an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation where monks are seen as the supreme moral authority, the political chaos since the Feb. 1 coup has laid bare deep divisions within Myanmars clergy. While a minority of monks have openly joined the protest movement, and hundreds have been imprisoned for it, clerics have not taken the leadership role that they were known for in past bouts of resistance to the military. Some prominent monks have even given the generals their blessing.
Britain is ending its civilian evacuations from Afghanistan on Saturday, the head of the British armed forces said, telling the BBC that the operation had gone as well as it could do in the circumstances.

The military chief, Gen. Nick Carter, told BBC Radio 4s Today program that Britain would stop flying civilians out of Kabuls airport from Saturday as the evacuations wind down before a withdrawal deadline Tuesday.

Then, of course, itll be necessary to bring our troops out on the remaining aircraft, he said, acknowledging that many people who want to leave Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover have been unable to do so.

We havent been able to bring everybody out, and that has been heartbreaking, General Carter said. There have been some very challenging judgments that have had to be made on the ground.
U.S. officials again warned Americans to leave the Kabul airport area immediately because of a security threat, hours after President Biden said that another terrorist attack there was highly likely in the coming days.

Early Sunday morning in Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned Americans of a specific, credible threat. State Department officials have issued several similar warnings in recent days.

On Saturday, President Biden promised that Fridays U.S. retaliatory strike for Thursdays suicide attack would not be the last.

The warnings were yet another sign of the chaotic and dangerous situation as the U.S. tried to pull the last remaining Americans and Afghans out of a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan before the Tuesday deadline.
MANAWAN, Quebec  As Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Indigenous mother of seven, moaned in pain at a hospital in Quebec, in the final hours of her life, the torrent of insults began.

Youre stupid as hell, good only at having sex, and better off dead, a nurse at Joliette Hospital in Quebec berated Ms. Echaquan, who only minutes earlier had begun recording a Facebook Live video, asking her husband to come get her because, she said, the hospital was overmedicating her.

By the time Ms. Echaquan, who suffered from heart problems, died  about two hours later on a Monday in late September 2020  the video was beginning to incite indignation across Canada. It eventually reverberated around the world, becoming a potent symbol of how differently Canadas vaunted universal health care system treats Indigenous people.

Indigenous leaders and health experts say Canadas 1.7 million Indigenous citizens are being buffeted by a health care crisis, fueled in part by racial bias, that is shortening life spans, exacerbating chronic diseases and undermining their quality of life.
The Pentagon said that two Islamic State militants were killed and one was wounded in Friday nights drone strike in Nangarhar Province as part of the American retaliation for the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed scores of people, including 13 American service members.

Defense Department officials said one of the Islamic State drone targets was a planner, and one was a facilitator. Both, they said, were involved in planning attacks against Americans, although officials at a news conference on Saturday declined to say whether they were involved specifically in the Kabul airport attack.

There remains a threat to American troops and civilians at the Kabul airport, officials said, making the ongoing evacuation effort perilous.

For the first time, Pentagon officials publicly acknowledged the possibility that some of the people killed in the aftermath of the suicide bombing at Kabul airport may have died in gunfire coming from American service members after the suicide bomber detonated himself.
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BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP)  A Vermont man has been indicted on federal charges that he stole five Tesla vehicles, including one that burned on the ice of Lake Champlain, prosecutors say.

Michael A. Gonzalez, 32, of Colchester, appeared in court Friday after being indicted Thursday on five counts of possessing and selling stolen motor vehicles, prosecutors say.

The indictment said that between September 2018 and January of this year, Gonzalez obtained four Teslas, made initial payments of $2,500 and then moved to pay the balance with wire transfers from accounts that did not have enough money in them or from fictitious accounts. Gonzalez then allegedly sold the vehicles.

In the fifth case, Gonzalez bought a Tesla in the same manner, but could not get the paperwork to sell the car. He then allegedly drove the vehicle onto the ice of Lake Champlain's Shelburne Bay on Feb. 24, 2019, and it caught fire. He then filed an insurance claim, which was rejected.

The vehicles were worth a total of approximately $607,000. They came from car dealerships in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Florida, prosecutors say.

In some cases Gonzalez allegedly made the purchases in the names of friends.

Gonzalezs attorney did not immediately return an email Friday seeking comment.

If convicted, Gonzalez could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Gonzalez was ordered held pending another hearing next week.
Kerala BJP spokesperson Adv B Gopalakrishnan has demanded an excavation at the Thuvoor well where Hindus were slaughtered and thrown by the Moplah rioters. Gopalakrishnan also demanded converting the well into a historical monument. He also asked the Muslim league to publically apologise to the Hindus for trying to whitewash the cruelty done by the Moplah rioters including Variyamkunnathu Kunjahammed Haji in 1921. He added that it was Madhavan Nair, the first president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, who counted and recorded the number of dead bodies that he saw inside the Thuvoor well.

This year marks the centenary of the Malabar Hindu genocide that happened in 1921. Hindus were targeted and brutally attacked by the Muslim rioters during the Moplah genocide. Mass religious conversion, rape and cruel torture of Hindus were reported during the massacre.

National leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Annie Besant and Dr B R Ambedkar had condemned the Moplah rebellion.

In order to fetch the Muslim vote bank, both the Congress and CPIM have been trying to project the Malabar Hindu genocide as freedom movement.


For the first time, over one crore doses of Covid vaccines were administered on Friday (August 27). 62,20,92,063: Number of doses that have been administered in the country.



In a milestone on Friday (August 27), more than one crore doses (1,00,64,032) of Covid vaccines were administered in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated all the people involved in making Indias vaccination drive a huge success. He also appealed to the people to get vaccinated.

Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat. Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success, PM Modi posted on Twitter.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya for the countrys vaccination drive.

Under the guidance of Adarniya PM Shri @narendramodi ji & Hon Union Health Minister @mansukhmandviya ji, India crossed another milestone in its fight against #COVID when 1 cr people were vaccinated on a single day today. I commend all healthcare workers who made this possible, he posted on Twitter.

Many union cabinet ministers also congratulated PM Modi and Union Health Minister Mandaviya for ensuring the success of Indias vaccination drive.

The Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, posted on Twitter, In a new record, than one crore vaccine doses administered in a single day today. 62 crore doses administered so far. More than 50% adults have received at least one dose. Vaccine hesitancy laid to rest.

#IndiaFightsCovid.






The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that containment measures for COVID-19 will remain in force up to the end of the next month. In a letter written to States and Union Territories today, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has urged to issue strict directions to the districts and local authorities to take necessary measures for management and containment of COVID-19.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said, the overall pandemic situation at the national level now appears to be largely stable except the localized spread of the virus in few states. However, the total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continues to remain a matter of concern.

The Ministry said, States and Union Territories having high positivity in their districts should take proactive containment measures to effectively contain the spread of transmission of virus. It emphasized on identification of warning signs of potential surges at an early stage to take appropriate measures to curb the spread.

States and Union Territories administrations are advised to take measures to avoid large gatherings during the coming festive season. It has also been advised to impose local restrictions to curb large gatherings. Emphasizing the need to continue focus on the five fold strategy-Test-Track-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to Covid Appropriate Behaviour, the Ministry advised the States and Union Territories to inoculate maximum number of eligible persons with COVID vaccine doses.
Manipur Police arrested two people with contraband from the Karimganj district of Assam and the estimated market price of the seized contrabands would be 25 crores.

Aizawl: In a major blow to the drug racket active in the Northeastern states, a Joint Narcotics Operation conducted by Mizoram Police and its sister agency had recovered and seized five lakhs tablets of Methamphetamine from a truck bearing registration number NL-01A E-0243 near Buichali Bridge, Sairang.

Two people from the Karimganj district of Assam were arrested with contrabands. Police sources said that the estimated market price of the seized contrabands would be 25 crores.

Police said Mantu Kumar Deb (45) and Subash Das (33), both residents of Assams Karimganj district, were arrested near Sairang village, around 20 km from Aizawl. Their truck was intercepted during a random checking of vehicles, and 50 kg of Methamphetamine tablets were found inside it.

A case has been filed under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs, and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and investigation is underway in the Narcotics police station; Police are interrogating the two accused and finding the sources of the contrabands, said the police.


Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday commissioned indigenous patrol vessel Vigraha and lauded the growth trajectory of Indias naval sector, highlighting the improvements and advancements in the maritime sector over the past few years.

Friends, the journey that started from Vikram between the Ministry of Defence, Coast Guard and L&T has reached Vigraha today through Vijay, Veer, Varaha, Varad and Vajra, the Raksha Mantri said at the commissioning the Indian Coast Guards offshore patrol vessel Vigraha in Chennai today..

"This applies all the more to a country like ours, being a country whose interests are directly linked to the Indian Ocean. Changes happening around the world often become a matter of concern for us. We, as a nation, must keep our guards high during these times of uncertainties and upheavals around the world, the Defence Minister said.

Singh noted that the Coast Guard has always been ready to extend help our neighbouring countries in line with its spirit of inclusiveness. During the fire on the tanker New Diamond last year, and the cargo ship Express Pearl this year, you have provided active and timely assistance to Sri Lanka, he said.
ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport blast, which killed over 170 people.



The Indian intelligence agencies have warned that Caliphate in India is one of the goals of the ISIS-K, the terror group which claimed responsibility for the Kabul airport blast.

Two suicide bombers had attacked the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday (August 26) night, killing over 170 people.

ISIS-Khorasan, aka ISIS-K, is an affiliate of the Islamic State, or ISIS, which established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria that was later destroyed by American forces. ISIS has geographical branches in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia and ISIS-K is its affiliate based in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, reported ABC News.

The intelligence sources said the ISIS-K might try to activate the sleeper cells in India, as some ISIS recruits have returned to India. With the Taliban taking control of Kabul, fear is high that Afghanistan will once again emerge as a breeding ground for terrorists. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it had become a hub of Al Qaedas activity.




Guwahati: Government employees will do 5 minutes of Yoga at the office from 30th September, Union Minister for AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal informed this launching the "Azadi Ki Amrit Mahotsav '' mission of the Ayush ministry in Guwahati. Sonowal said government employees will do 'Asana, Pranayama and Dhyana' for 5 minutes at the office for their physical-mental health from 30th September through an application to be launched soon. He further said that the Ayush ministry will distribute Ayush medicines to 60 years old and above citizens in the entire country. The ministry will plant medicinal saplings in 75 thousand acres of land commemorating the 75th independence year of India. Attending a day long Ayush conference Sonowal said,

1000 new Ayush health and wellness centres will be set up in the coming days by the central government in the Northeastern region. The Ayush conference was held in Guwahati attended by all health ministers of North East states. Sonowal said prime minister Narendra Modi always termed North East as Asta Lakshmi of the nation, and the ayurvedic product of the NE states have already been well received by the world market. Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised the Ayush ministry to maintain the trend in future also, he said.

Sonowal told at the conference of the NE health ministers that from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Gujarat to Arunachal, we all need to work unitedly to make Indian Ayurved a global brand. He further informed that the central government will establish 100 Ayurvedic dispensaries in the region. The Guwahati Ayurvedic college, established in 1948, will be upgraded to a centre of excellence by the union government. Sonowal said, One more Ayurvedic college in Goalpara district of Assam will be set up by the central government at a cost of 70 crores.

Speaking at the conference Assam chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma said North East is the hub of biodiversity. So it has a big potential in the Ayush sector. People of the region need to utilise this opportunity. The chief minister further stated that A-symptomatic covid patients of the region are taking Ayurvedic medicines, which is a matter of hope for the sector. Dr. Sarma also said that the construction of Majuli ayurvedic hospital will be completed very soon.
Earlier, when illegalities in her donation drives were exposed, Rana Ayyub had said she would return the foreign donations. But, Ketto says no donation has been refunded.

Fundraising platform Keto informed donors through the mail that funds raised by Islamist propagandist Rana Ayyub are under investigation by the Indian authorities for possible flouting of norms and regulations.

Using Ketto, Ayyub had raised funds on Ketto in three campaigns: Funds for slum dwellers and farmers; Relief work for Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra; and Help for Covid-19 impacted people in India.

Ketto also informed that total INR 2.69 crores were raised in the campaigns, which included INR 1.90 crore from Indian donors and the rest from foreign donors. Ayyub has not registered with the Union government for accepting foreign donations. The FCRA regulations maintain that registration with the Government of India is mandatory to receive foreign funding.

When this issue had come to light earlier, Ayyub had said she would return the foreign donations. But, Ketto informed the donors that no such step has been taken so far.

Rather than answering the genuine questions raised, Rana Ayyub resorted to playing the victim card. In a Twitter post she said, In the last 3 months, I have seen the worst kind of intimidation and harassment by agencies. I had stayed quiet because I respect the law of the land. But now I will have to speak up. A detailed statement will be put out tomorrow. Calculated misinformation will be taken to court.
According to the sources, banned Islamist terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar has met with Taliban leadership in Afghanistan and sought their support in spreading terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

He met with senior Taliban leaders including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Kandahar last week.

Masood Azhar had earlier shown his delight over the "collapse" of the "US-backed government" in Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country on August 15.

In his write-up titled "Manzil Ki Taraf" (towards the destination) on August 16, the JeM chief applauded the success of mujahideen" in Afghanistan.

A message was being circulated among JeM functionaries at its markaz (headquarters) at Bahawalpur in Pakistan greeting each other on the victory of the Taliban.

The Taliban and the Jaish-e-Mohammed are considered ideological comrades in interpreting sharia, the Islamic law, following the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak to the nation today evening at 6:25 PM through video conferencing. He will also inaugurate museum galleries developed at the Smarak.

The event will also showcase the multiple development initiatives taken by the government to upgrade the complex.

Union Minister of Culture, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministers of State for Culture, Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab, Chief Ministers of Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, all Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab, members of Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, among others, will be present on the occasion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India will never forget the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh.

In a tweet today, Mr. Modi said, at 6:25 P.M. this evening, a programme will be held that will interest the people. He said, the renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak will be dedicated to the nation.

(AIR)
The researchers have concluded that the Roman Catholics of Goa, Kumta, and Mangalore regions are the remnants of very early lineages of a Brahmin community of India, majorly with Indo-European-specific genetic composition.

New Delhi: The west coast of India harbours a rich diversity of various ethnolinguistic human population groups. The Roman Catholic is one such distinct group whose origin is much debated. Some historians and anthropologists relate them to the ancient group of Gaud Saraswat. Others believe they are members of the Jewish Lost Tribes during first-century migration to India.

A recent study conducted by CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), and DST-Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), Lucknow, in collaboration with Mangalore University, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, and Institute of Advanced Materials, Sweden, has come out with some new insights on the debate.

Researchers analysed the DNA of 110 individuals from the Roman Catholic community of Goa, Kumta, and Mangalore. They compared the genetic information of the Roman Catholic group with previously published DNA data from India and West Eurasia. They correlated the information with archaeological, linguistic and historical records. The exercise has helped fill in many of the key details about the demographic changes and history of the Roman Catholic population of South West of India since the Iron Age (until around 2,500 years ago) and how they relate to the contemporary Indian population.

The researchers have concluded that the Roman Catholics of Goa, Kumta, and Mangalore regions are the remnants of very early lineages of a Brahmin community of India, majorly with Indo-European-specific genetic composition. This study also found the consequences of the Portuguese inquisition in Goa on the population history of Roman Catholics and some indication of the Jewish component. The findings have been published as a research paper in the scientific journal Human Genetics.

Our genetic study revealed that majority of the Roman Catholics are genetically close to an early lineage of Gaud Saraswat community, said Dr. Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Chief Scientist, CSIR-CCMB, & Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, and senior author of the study.

He further added, More than 40 percent of their paternally inherited Y chromosomes can be grouped under R1a haplogroup. Such a genetic signal is prevalent among populations of north India, the Middle East and Europe, and unique to this population in Konkan region.

Dr Niraj Rai, Senior Scientist, DST-BSIP, Lucknow, the co-corresponding author of the paper, said, This study strongly suggests profound cultural transformations in ancient South West of India. This has mostly happened due to continuous migration and mixing events since last 2500 years.

The origins of many population groups in India like the Jews and Parsis are not well- understood. These are gradually unfolding with advances in modern and ancient population genetics. Roman Catholics are one of them with much-debated history of origin based on inferences of anthropologists and historians, said Lomous Kumar, first author of the paper.

This multi-disciplinary study using history, anthropology, and genetics information has helped us understand the population history of Roman Catholics from one of the most diverse and multi-cultural regions of our country, said Dr Vinay K Nandikoori, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.

Courtesy: India Science Wire
Ludhiana: Afghan Sikhs who reached Ludhiana in Punjab thanked the Government of India for their safe evacuation from war-torn Afghanistan.

One of them, Gurdit Singh, used to run a grocery shop in Kabul. His family has been living in Afghanistan for sixty years. They are among the Sikh families that have been brought to India from Afghanistan.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "The situation is very critical after the Taliban occupation of Afghanistan. There is open firing in every street and lane. There is a panic among the people. Be it Hindu, Sikh or Muslim, everyone wants to leave Afghanistan. People are waiting with their children outside the airport to leave Afghanistan."

"People were in distress even 21 years ago during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. But this time, people want to leave the country. There is so much rush to the airport that half an hour drive is taking 18 hours. We decided to leave everything and come to India. There is no better country in the world than India where people of all religions live in peace and harmony. We are grateful to the Government of India," he explained.

He said that over 100 Sikhs and Hindus are still stranded in a gurdwara in Kabul.

"We request the Government to bring them to India as soon as possible so that their lives can be saved," he urged.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday (August 27) informed that India has evacuated more than 550 people from Afghanistan on six separate flights. Of these, more than 260 were Indian nationals.

"We were able to bring out some Afghan nationals as well as nationals from other countries. Of these, many of them were Sikhs and Hindus. Primarily, our focus will be on Indian nationals, but we'll also stand by Afghans who stood by us," MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said during the press conference in New Delhi.

India has opened the window of E-visas for the tenure of six months for Afghan nationals. India is also holding discussions on the position of Afghans who are already here for health checkups and studies, etc, before the Taliban seized power in Kabul.

Courtesy: ANI
Mass graves found in Ukraine date back to the 1930s, known as Stalin's Great Terror.

The bones of around 8000 people were found in over two dozen graves in Ukraine, believed to be the victims of Joseph Stalin. They were found in graves close to Odessa's airport, making it one of the largest mass graves unearthed in Ukraine so far.

The head of the regional branch of National Memory Institute, Sergiy Gutsalyuk, believes they were executed in the 1930s by Stalin's notorious NKVD secret police unit, a precursor to the late Soviet-era KGB. Their crimes and nationalities remain unknown.

He told AFP that the execution dates back to 1937-39, known as Stalin's Great Terror. Victims numbers may increase as the excavations would continue and were discovered after the exploratory works started as part of plans to expand the airport's territory.

The historian said it would be impossible to identify the victims, as the documents of that era are classified and kept in Russia. He said they would never get them as the ties between the two countries deteriorated since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind the armed separatists in Ukraine.
The United States has spent around $88 billion on Afghan security forces since 2001, still, theyout to be a huge disappointment. This astonishing military victory of the Taliban is more because of the weakness of Afghan forces rather than its strengths

The Taliban now control almost the whole of Afghanistan, including the capital city, Kabul, almost two decades since the United States (US) troops drove them out. It was widely expected that the Taliban will make significant territorial gains after the US complete withdrawal. But no one expected that it would happen at that fast pace, and 3,00,000 plus Afghan forces will melt so quickly in front of advancing Taliban forces. Taliban followed a well-calibrated military strategy. They started off an offensive by seizing large tracts of rural territory and then capturing key border crossings; at last, they started to besiege provincial capitals. But in this process, the Taliban didnt encounter any stiff resistance from the Afghan government forces. The Taliban is much stronger now than at any point since it was ousted in 2001. Currently, Taliban forces number up to eighty-five thousand full-time fighters. But a valid question arises as to why numerically superior and more resourceful Afghan forces were not able to hold the Taliban. At many places, Afghan Army commanders contacted the Taliban and negotiated a safe passage for them and handed over their equipment and armaments to the Taliban. The US has spent around $88 billion on Afghan security forces since 2001, still, they turned out to be a huge disappointment. This astonishing military victory of the Taliban is more because of the weakness of Afghan forces rather than its strengths. Lets have a look at some factors responsible for this outcome.

Highly Demoralised: Afghan military that was heavily dependent on US support for airpower, intelligence, logistics, planning, and other vital enablers over the past two decades was fatally demoralised by the US decision to abandon it. In recent months, the Afghan military was finding it very hard to provide vital supplies such as food and ammunition to outposts scattered around the country. Some Afghan units, particularly the elite special forces commandos, fought hard nearly to the end. But getting ominous indication, most troops chose to cut deals with the Taliban, surrender, or melt away rather than risk their lives for a hopeless cause.

Corruption: Some analysts blame the military apparatuss impotence on the institutions established corruption. Public opinion and observers recognise the Army as a deeply corrupt and inept organisation, even lacking to provide enough food, ammunition, and proper clothing to its servicemen. Such ineptitude is the main reason for emboldening the Taliban to make advances against the government forces across the country and carry out fatal assaults against them and the public.

Sectarian composition of Armed Forces: The Tajiks occupy more top posts than their population against other ethnic groups. For example, the presence of the Hazaras and other ethnic groups are smaller in size compared to their population. Pashtuns are also included, but many Pashtun personnel are from the eastern areas of the country. Only a small number of the southern Pashtuns who make up an ideological and ethnic base of Taliban are included in the armed forces. Such an imbalance created mistrust and misunderstanding among different sectarian groups towards the army, making it look like a foreign force.

Some analysts blame the military apparatuss impotence on the institutions established corruption. Public opinion and observers recognise the Army as a deeply corrupt and inept organisation, even lacking to provide enough food, ammunition, and proper clothing to its servicemen

No clear military Strategy: The countrys security apparatus as a complex lacked security and strategic analysts to lay the foundation of a combat policy ahead of the Afghan policymakers. To press forward against the militants using a well-studied defence programme. Rather than just focusing on responding to insurgents attacks, Afghan military strategists could have chalked out a proactive strategy that engages the enemy in their stronghold.

Weak Intelligence: Afghan forces required a robust intelligence collection and targeting capability to counter the reinvigorated Taliban insurgency. Afghanistan intelligence agency, i.e. National Directorate of Security (NDS), not only suffered from an inability to share and disseminate actionable intelligence. But also is plagued by the controversy of favoritism and nepotism and its ethnic composition dominated by Panjshiris Tajiks from Panjshir a group affiliated with the former Northern Alliance. The NDS ethnic composition posed challenges to the intelligence agencys ability to infiltrate the Pashtun groups most likely affiliated with the continued insurgency in Afghanistan. Also, no attention was paid to increase more advanced voice intercept capabilities and cross-communication between the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and security forces in the field.

Even the fate of the previous Afghan Army under former President Mohammed Najibullah was better than the current one. Najibullahs forces disintegrated due to deep ethnic and factional divisions, the absence of good leadership, and declining financial and technical support from the Soviet Union. But that downfall of forces took years, but the current disaster even didnt take months to happen. Certainly, the US pullout brutally exposed the shortcomings of the Afghan troops and precipitated the militarys collapse. But also timely corrective steps were not taken by the Afghan military leadership; hence government forces met with such a disgraceful end.
Muslim leaders dream is Ghazwa-e-Hind, i.e., the Islamisation of India by becoming the majority, changing demography and their population of India is projected to grow to 311 million by 2050 and surpass Indonesia to become the world's largest Muslim population.

Muslims are the fastest-growing community in the world. The growth rate of the Muslim community has been consistently higher than that of Hindus and other non-Muslims in India. It is gradually changing the religious demography of the nation. A family planning act is immediately required to restrain the unconstrained population growth, retain demography, and protect the culture of India. In this article, a formula is suggested to enhance the quality of population, essential for the rapid growth on the health, academic and economic front.

Global Population Scenario

Based on the recent data of the UN, the estimated population of India in 2019 was 1.37 billion. It is estimated that the population density has reached 417 persons per sq. km as compared to 382 persons per sq. Km in 2011. China has a population density of around 145 per sq. Km and the USA has just 34 persons per sq. Km. The overall population growth rate in India is 1.1% per year. In contrast, the population growth rate for China and the USA is 0.6 and 0.7, respectively. The Chinese government has effectively used several methods to control the population explosion. On the other hand, the population of India has doubled in just 40 years, and it is expected to upset China as the world's most populated country by 2050.

Effect of population growth

A large population puts pressure on the existing resources and becomes a liability rather than an asset. It also results in the growth of a physically and mentally weak section of society. Such population growth usually contributes uneducated, unhealthy, and financially weak people to society. The lack of education and poverty are closely linked to the size of the family.

The uncontrolled population growth also engulfs most of the national development projects and poverty eradication schemes. Such population growth is responsible for overexploitation of natural resources and causing pollution at all levels. It is also responsible for shrinking land for cultivation and forest. It is worth mentioning that the country is facing changing religious demography. It is a serious national concern and should not be ignored to maintain harmony and protect the culture of the land.

World Muslim Population

Globally, 2.4 billion (29% of the world population) people follow Christianity, 1.9 billion (24%) are Muslims, and 1.2 billion (15.4%) are Hindus. The religious profile of the world is changing rapidly. The total world population is expected to rise to 9.3 billion by 2050, a 35% increase between 2010- 2050. Over the same period, Muslims are projected to increase by 73%. It is because Muslims have the highest fertility rate, 3.1 children per woman. It is also predicted that by 2050, Christians and Muslims will make up a nearly equal share of the world population. Globally, the Hindu population is projected to increase from a little over 1 billion to 1.4 billion, a growth rate of 34%, and roughly keeping pace with the global population rate.

Muslim Population in India

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in India too. The growth rate of Muslims has been consistently higher than the growth rate of Hindus and other non-Muslims. Muslims in India are much more resistant to modern contraceptive measures compared to other Indians. As a result, the fertility rate among Muslim women is much higher than that of non-Muslims. The religious population distribution of India is presented in Table 1, and the Muslim population growth per census from 1951 to 2011 is given in Table 2.

Table 1 Population trends for major religious groups in India (19512011)

Population% 

Religious group 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011 Hinduism 84.1 83.45 82.73 82.30 81.53 80.46 79.80 Islam 9.8 10.69 11.21 11.75 12.61 13.43 14.23 Christianity 2.30 2.44 2.60 2.44 2.32 2.34 2.30 Sikhism 1.79 1.79 1.89 1.92 1.94 1.87 1.72 Buddhism 0.74 0.74 0.70 0.70 0.77 0.77 0.70 Jainism 0.46 0.46 0.48 0.47 0.40 0.41 0.37 Zoroastrianism 0.13 0.09 0.09 0.09 0.08 0.06 not

counted Others/ Religion not

specified 0.43 0.43 0.41 0.42 0.44 0.72 0.9

Table 2 Muslim population growth per census

Year Total

population Muslim

population Percentage

1951 361,088,090 35,856,047 9.9 1961 439,234,771 46,998,120 10.7 1971 548,159,652 61,448,696 11.2 1981* 683,329,097 77,557,852 11.4 1991* 846,427,039 102,586,957 12.1 2001 1,028,737,436 138,159,437 13.4 2011 1,210,726,932 172,245,158 14.2

1981 Census: * Parts of Assam were not included. 1991 Census: ** J&K was not included

The Hindu population to the total population proportion (PP) in 2011 has declined by 0.7 percentage points (Table 3). In Table 4 growth rate of different communities in the decade 2001-2011 is cited.

Table 3. The proportion of population to population (PP) in 2011 (India), in Percentage Point

Hindu Muslim Sikh Buddhist Christians and Janis -0.7 0.8 -0.2 -0.1 0.0

Table 4. The population growth rate in the decade 2001-2011 (India)

Total Hindu Muslim Christians Sikhs Buddhist Jain 17.7 16.8 24.6 15.5 8.4 6.1 5.4

The Muslim population of India is projected to grow to 311 million by 2050 and surpass Indonesia to become the world's largest Muslim population. However, India will remain as a Hindu (about 77%) majority country.

As mentioned, the PP of Muslims is the highest in the nation, and it is nearly 1.6 times higher than Hindus. The Muslim community is a closed society, and they prefer to settle in segregated quarters of cities and towns. The population growth of a specific community will widen such pockets in towns, cities, and rural areas, causing more conflicts. It is also important to mention that such conflicts are already occurring in certain provinces, cities, and localities of the nation.

Spread of Islamism

Though many theories exist on the spread of Islam, it is well established that the main factors are military action and invasions. In Islam, religion is practised for all components of life and society.

Dr Peter Hammond says Islamisation occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called religious rights. He has systematically explained the changes in the approach and behaviour of the community with the population rise. According to Nicolette Incze, an Islamic expert, the Islamisation of the country cannot be stopped once the Muslim population reaches 16% of the total population. Incze, in her study, pointed out that Muslim countries are relatively more prone to conflicts. In recent years, almost all civil wars have taken place in Muslim countries, and most civil wars involve Islamist insurgencies.

The presence of some 4.9% Muslims in the 28 countries of the European Union is currently sparking debate, controversy, fear, and hatred. It is predicted that even if all migration into Europe is stopped immediately and permanently, the Muslim population of Europe will still rise from the current level of 4.9% to 7.4% by 2050. This is because the Muslim population is 13 years younger and has a higher fertility rate. In the West, the growing population of Muslims and radical groups causes more concern than any other international issue, viz., climate change and the global economy.

In India, the situation is even worse. It is unfortunate that a group of religious and political leaders openly plead the Sharia law over national law and interests. The only dream of Indian Muslim leaders is Ghazwa-e-Hind, i.e., the Islamisation of India. They dream of becoming the majority, changing demography, and their obvious means is population explosion. It is also true that several foreign agencies, especially from the Muslim world and some of the forces within the nation, are actively involved in their mission. It is generally believed that Muslims deliberately deliver more children to outnumber Hindus. It is also believed that the population growth of the country, especially the Muslim population, is a threat to the social fabric, social harmony, and development of the country.

Introduce population control policy

It is necessary to adopt a population control policy similar to China. In 1979, China started the one child per family policy. The citizens were offered special benefits for adhering to this policy. Citizens who did have more than one child were either taxed heavily or punished by loss of employment or other benefits.

Hon'ble Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi, in the 73rd Independence Day speech (15th Aug. 2019), referred to the need for the implementation of family planning [11]. It is high time to introduce an act to restrain the unconstrained population growth. My views on this issue are briefly mentioned as follows:

i. I propose to implement "A family two children" policy in the whole country for all the communities. The families who do not adhere to this policy may be taxed heavily, penalised with the loss of employment, no benefit of government subsidies, as well as no voting rights for the entire family, including offspring. The government may coin impressive slogans such as, "A family two children key to happiness, prosperity, and pride". In Hindi,     ,   .

ii. A section of society is mainly responsible for the population explosion in India. As discussed, Muslims are the fastest-growing community in the world, and the scenario is not different in India. It is also observed that low-income and uneducated families are responsible for uncontrolled population growth. Therefore, any corrective measure should start from them. Parents (father, mother/s) from families of more than four siblings should limit their families to a child. Giving birth to more than a child should be considered an offence for those families. Such a measure will curb the population of uneducated, unhealthy, and financially weak people in society. On the other hand, defence personals may be permitted even for the third child.

iii. Taxpayers' money is used to run the nation and offer subsidies. Unfortunately, their consents and views are ignored by policymakers. It is also true that they (taxpayers) believe in small family size. Their views on family size and different welfare schemes must be honoured.

Implementation of the proposed measures will increase the percentage of healthy, wealthy, cultured, and educated people in the country. It is of utmost necessity for the nation's rapid development on the educational, economic and cultural fronts.

(The writer is a Retired Professor of NIT Rourkela, and his field of interest is in sustainable rural development.)
Elizabeth (Liz) Marie Dean died peacefully surrounded by family at the age of 88 on July 13, 2021 at the family farm near Knoxville, Iowa, where she had been receiving home hospice care. Liz was born on October 16, 1932 to Alvin and Frances Sheldon Johnson of Kanona, Kansas. She was preceded
A man who drew worldwide sympathy and support after his wife was killed in the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart is being remembered as kind and thoughtful but unable to get over the loss of the woman he loved
Terrie Woods (center), of Sherwood, Arkansas, drops in for a May 19, 2021, visit to Linda Dawson's (left) Snips of Thread Quilt Shop in Humeston, Iowa. Also there is Jill Tueth, Snyder's of Humeston owner. Woods said she and her husband, Tom, like stopping at small towns for unique shops.
This photo provided by @JujuShotMe shows Tommy Marcus, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As governments, corporations and charity groups rush to get their citizens and employees out of Afghanistan, dozens of Afghan people got help to flee their country from Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino. The alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus has helped raise $7 million on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions to evacuate people whose lives may be in danger from the Taliban.
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After his proposed apartment concept was shot down, developer Rod Barriger returned with a single-family housing proposal that he hopes to begin soon.

Were going to start on one or two single-family homes this year, said Barriger, who owns BCG Construction, Inc. in Midland, with his brother.

Barriger bought property at Smith and West Irish in the village, hoping to offer 14 housing units. He said it would help replace housing of which 25 Sanford housing units were lost in the flooding last year. He hoped increased accommodations would offer some displaced residents a way back home while also taking on people who wanted to move to the area. Yet residents in the proposed multi-family housing rallied against the concept, causing Barriger to withdraw the plan, citing he didnt want to cause unrest with the neighbors.

Its sad that a few people can dictate and halt progress for a community, said Midland County resident Pia Lewis.

Barriger then suggested building six houses on his property, but that was nixed when discovering the division act law only allowed for four property divisions. Now Barriger is aiming to build four houses on the three-and-a-half-acre parcel.

Im disappointed, said Barriger who hoped to offer more housing. This is less than what we hoped.

After the first defeat, he considered purchasing another parcel in addition to the current one. One where he could offer multi-family housing. Yet, right now, he said hes unsure of future plans.

The developer mostly works in commercial construction. He said an apartment complex undertaking was a first for he and his brother. He said they werent even doing it to make money, they were just hoping to break even while offering much-needed homes. Barriger said the main goal was to aid in the housing shortage.

Sanford Village President Dolores Porte said the extra housing would have been a blessing for the area and would have further ushered in more rebuilding. She is thankful for Barrigers gesture and desire to help the communitys housing strife.

Earlier in the month, Barriger hoped to start a Sanford project soon. But a recent drop in lumber prices has busied his construction business even more, making for possible delays with side projects. When construction materials were at peak prices just recently, there was a building lull. Now Barriger said some clients want their projects done more quickly.

Our plate is getting busy, extremely busy, Barriger said. Now everybody wants to build.

We are still planning on building, just not as fast and not at the scale as we planned, he added.

Barriger chose the Smith and Irish streets location because it was within walking distance to the beach, although without water temporarily, and to the downtown area. He said it served as a great perk.
A great deal of planning goes into field trips with each school year. If other teachers are like me, add stress to that planning. Will I lose a child? Will a child get hurt? Will we have enough chaperones? And finally, will the children learn and enjoy? I loved field trips. We went to amazing places during my teaching career. We visited planetariums, nature centers, city halls, farms, petting zoos, farmers markets, fire stations, post offices and even the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. I cant remember a single one of them that the children didnt enjoy, as did I. Who knew that a favorite field trip, however, happened in our own backyard? I thank the children for teaching me once again that simple is more.

During our unit in science, we were studying simple and compound tools. Wanting to make our study more exciting, (I personally wasnt enjoying it) I found myself brainstorming. Then it hit me: ask our custodian if he would be our instructor a field trip in the making! I started to get excited. The children knew him as a wonderful person who provided us with tadpoles in the spring. He treated them kindly and cleaned the glitter we left at the end of the day without a single complaint. However, they did not know him as a master carpenter. A field trip with one of our own! He agreed and our excitement grew.

Little did I know he would spend many days in preparation. He began the field trip in his workshop on the school grounds. We had never been inside. We walked in with quiet reverence. He had prepared his work area with many tools which were on display. He explained each. He gave the children lessons on the types of wood with which he works, having them on the workbench, also. He made an old hammer with a rock and tree branch, giving the children an idea of how simple tools have progressed over the years. The children asked many questions with enthusiasm. He had the patience and time for each.

Our next stop was the church. We strolled over to see some of the wood projects he made through the years for our parish to enjoy. The children sat on the floor and listened with wide eyes and appreciation. They had never before heard the stories of how these items they looked at each week came to be. He was humble as he showed them the work of his hands.

Our last stop on the tour was a classroom in our school with pieces of oak wood, glue and vises. Our field trip leader helped each child to make their own wooden cross. All of this was prepared in the previous weeks by our custodian/carpenter. Each child had their own time to create their own crosstime with our carpenter.

Back in the classroom the following day, our lessons in the religion book happened to land right on the pages where we were discussing the Holy Family. We studied the pictures in the book of Joseph doing wood work with Jesus as a little boy. Just the day before, there stood 30 children around a workbench with our own carpenter. I couldnt help but look around and know that nothing happens by chance!

That very afternoon, our carpenter came to the classroom to talk with the children about the meaning of the cross that they had all finished making. He explained that the cross was a symbol of love. While he spoke of the love, the children nodded, reassured in an insecure world, that there are three things that lastfaith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love.

That evening I got a call from my paraprofessional. Kathy wanted to tell me that this was one of the very best days she had spent while teaching at our school. I couldnt have agreed more. I have been forever grateful for the lesson learned from the children and from one of our own.

No buses or cars were needed for this field trip. I didnt stay awake for nights worrying about safety. I rested in the knowledge that all would be wellin the loving hands of our carpenter, Gene.

A Bag of Tools

Isnt it strange that princes and kings,

And clowns that caper in sawdust rings,

And common people like you and me

Are builders for eternity.

Each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass, a book of rules;

And each must makeere life is flown

A stumbling block or a stepping stone.

 R. L. Stone

Sharon Capriccioso taught school at Blessed Sacrament School for more than 20 years. Here, she writes about the lessons learned from her students. Her lessons will appear on the fourth weekend of each month in the Accent section.
STRONACH TWP.  A group of Stronach residents have made strides in improving an access point at the Little Manistee River.

The Little River Improvement Committee was formed in 2019 to plan and oversee improvements to a small parcel owned by the township, that is located adjacent to the Stronach Road bridge.

The property slopes gradually to the river where a small area is used for river egress by watercraft, according to a statement by Dorothy Batzer, a Stronach resident who assists the committee.

The site was in need of restoration, according to Batzer, due to overgrown brush and eroding sand at the rivers edge.

The sandy roadway from Water Street to the river had been used to park vehicles to remove watercraft which caused further damage to the site, part of Batzers statement read.

The project, which will be done in stages, is meant to improve safe egress from the river in support of expanding access to recreational opportunities at the site.

Thus far, volunteer committee members and local businesses have completed the initial phases earlier than expected.

Brush was removed from the site; the area was smoothed and graded from the Water Street entrance to the river; and a barrier was installed along the boundary to prevent construction runoff, according to the statement.

The area was also recontoured with trap rock installed at the site and large boulders placed around the perimeter of the roadway.

A handicap-accessible port-a-potty has been placed on the site for use during months of increased activity and signage was installed to acknowledge individuals and businesses that contributed to the project.

Still there is more work to be done, said Batzer.

Their plan is bigger than that, she told the News Advocate.

The next phase of the project will explore construction of a new parking area on an adjacent parcel owned by the township, as well as a landing at the river egress or removable dock. The committee will also explore the feasibility of developing a universally accessible site following recommendations from the Michigan Great Lakes Water Trails working group in 2021 and 2022.

The committee is following an improvement plan for the site and will act in an advisory role as public input is sought at each phase of the project, according to the statement.
MANISTEE COUNTY  The following includes reports made to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office from Aug. 4-10.

All calls may not be reported. This is part of a lengthy report and is compiled by assistant editor Arielle Breen.

Aug. 4

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 10:05 a.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Breaking and entering and found property were reported at 10 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 Deputies recovered a stolen firearm in Kaleva at 2 p.m.

 A dog bite was reported at 4:56 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 A dog was reported to have been running at large at 7:37 p.m. in Eastlake.

 Deputies conducted a well-being check at 10:06 p.m. in Pleasanton Township.

Aug. 5

 A 911 call was reported as abandoned at 1:08 a.m. in Brown Township.

 A person was reported as driving without insurance at 11:25 a.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 A person was reported to have been attempting insurance fraud at 11:30 a.m. in the county.

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6:10 a.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Deputies conducted a liquor inspection at 1:30 p.m. in Dickson Township.

 Animal control was called to Pleasanton Township at 10:42 a.m.

 A person was reported as being suicidal at 4:50 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 Threats were reported at 2:29 p.m. in Norman Township.

 A wallet was found at 5:47 p.m. on Pleasanton Highway.

Aug. 6

 Deputies assisted with a fire response incident at 9:32 a.m. in Manistee Township.

 A person was reported as being suicidal at 12:42 p.m. in Manistee Township.

 Deputies assisted a citizen at 2:05 p.m. in Maple Grove Township.

 Animal control was called to Maple Grove Township at 3:29 p.m.

 Larceny was reported at 8:18 p.m. in Stronach Township.

 Deputies assisted child protective services at 7:24 p.m. in Cleon Township.

Aug. 7

 A person was reported as a runaway and abuse was reported at 6:16 a.m. in Dickson Township.

 Deputies dispatched a deer at 7:48 a.m. in Brown Township.

 Animal control was called to Copemish.

 A verbal domestic incident was reported at 4:11 p.m. in Springdale Township.

 A person was reported as being suicidal at 4:40 p.m. in Arcadia Township.

 Deputies assisted EMS at 11:25 p.m. in Springdale Township.

 A person was reported as being incorrigible and volatile and a mental evaluation was conducted at 5:23 p.m. in Springdale Township.

Aug. 8

 A property damage crash was reported at 4:34 a.m. in Bear lake Township.

 A property damage crash was reported at 12:42 p.m. in Filer Township.

 Harassment was reported at 3:19 p.m. in Springdale Township.

 Larceny of a catalytic converter was reported at 4:16 p.m. in Marilla Township.

 Deputies assisted a citizen at 7:09 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

Aug. 9

 A mental evaluation was reported at 10 a.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Larceny of scrap metal was reported at noon in Stronach Township.

 Malicious destruction of property was reported at 6 p.m. in Marilla Township.

 A child custody incident and warrant arrest was reported at 6:58 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Deputies conducted a civil standby at 11:35 a.m. in Marilla Township.

 The sheriffs office K-9 assisted Manistee City Police with an incident at 1:35 p.m.

Aug. 10

 A vehicle-deer accident was reported at 6 a.m. in Brown Township.

 A dog was found at 12:29 p.m. in Springdale Township.

 Deputies conducted traffic policing at 6:05 p.m. in Bear Lake Township.

 Deputies conducted traffic policing at 10:38 p.m. in the county.

 A civil issue was reported at 1:36 a.m. in Eastlake.

 A warrant arrest was conducted at 3:20 a.m. in Eastlake.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. government has opened a mass COVID-19 vaccination site for arriving Afghans near Dulles International Airport, where some of the thousands fleeing the Taliban are now arriving daily.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday confirmed that the site  which was set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency  has begun administering vaccinations to the Afghan evacuees. A second mass vaccination site is expected open in the coming days for evacuees who will be arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport, according to a senior administration official who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The White House announced earlier this week that it was working to provide vaccinations to medically eligible evacuees upon arrival in the U.S.

Biden administration officials were intent on making sure that evacuees are vaccinated as soon as possible after arriving in the country and decided that the most efficient way to do so was to set up a vaccination site at Dulles Expo Center, where many of the arriving evacuees are receiving medical screenings and being temporarily housed before being transferred to military bases in New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Texas.

The shots  the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine  are being administered by the National Disaster Medical System team, and State Department translators are on hand at the site to answer questions about the shots.

The Pentagon said the only transit point until Friday has been Dulles. Civilian flights with refugees are expected to begin going into Philadelphia on Friday as well. White House officials noted that refugees are required to get vaccinated as a condition of their entry.

Evacuees are also tested for the virus upon arrival and quarantined if they test positive. Data was not available on how many of the evacuees, many who were tested prior to leaving Kabul, have tested positive for the virus since arriving in the U.S.

The U.S. government also on Thursday opened a mobile vaccination unit at Dulles airport to provide COVID-19 shots to evacuating American citizens and green card holders who fled Afghanistan.

A tiny percentage of Afghanistan's 40 million people have been vaccinated for the virus. As of Aug. 20, about 1.2 million doses had been administered in Afghanistan, according to the World Health Organization.
The North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has received a grant of $10,000 from the Midland Area Foundation to help provide Camp Noah for Midland and Gladwin counties. Two areas ravaged by floods in May 2020 that are still recovering.

Camp Noah is a disaster recovery program for elementary aged children. It is created and supported by Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota. This camp was held July 26-30. And was open and free to children in Midland and Gladwin counties. The camp provided support and coping skills for recovery from a disaster. It uses music, art, play and drama therapy to assist in recovery. Children also received a backpack with items to assist in developing coping behaviors and to build resilience.
Andrew Mullin

City of Midland property owners are reminded that Summer 2021 tax payments are due and payable without penalty or interest through Sept. 15 to the City of Midland Treasurers Office, 333 W. Ellsworth St.

Property owners may pay summer tax bills by check or cash at the City Treasurers Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. After-hours payments may be placed in the depository located in the main entrance of Midland City Hall. Credit cards are not accepted for property tax payments. Residents who have signed up for the Citys autopay service will see their taxes automatically withdrawn from their chosen bank account on Sept. 15.
Midland County added 40 new COVID-19 cases between Thursday, Aug. 26, and Friday, Aug. 27.

COVID-19 numbers reported from Aug. 26-27

Midland County: 40 cases were added; pandemic total is 7,236 cases, 724 probable, 97 deaths and three probable deaths.

Bay County: 47 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 11,037 cases, 703 probable, 348 deaths and 15 probable deaths.

Gladwin County: 10 cases and one death were added; pandemic total stands at 2,003 cases, 394 probable, 58 deaths and four probable deaths.

Isabella County: 26 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 5,615 cases, 982 probable, 97 deaths and five probable deaths.

Saginaw County: 110 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 21,177 cases, 1,449 probable, 616 deaths and 21 probable deaths.

The state added 3,958 cases and 69 deaths between Thursday and Friday. Overall, Michigan is at 941,678 cases and 20,230 deaths.

Recovered

According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Aug. 23, 7,047 Midland County individuals have recovered from COVID. The state reported that as of Aug. 20, a total of 878,031 persons have recovered.

Testing

Midland Countys seven-day rolling positivity rate on Aug. 25 was listed at 8.4%, and Gladwin County's was listed at 14.5%. Our 12-county region is listed at 10.9% and Michigan is at 8.6%.

MidMichigan Health statistics

As of Aug. 23, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having a 80% bed occupancy, with 18 COVID patients and four in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 39% bed occupancy, with one COVID patient.

Both medical centers reported having at least 15-30 days worth of personal protection equipment (N95, surgical masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection) on hand.

School

Below is a report provided by Midland Public Schools on the presence of COVID-19 in local schools. The Daily News doesn't have readily available access to reports from Bullock Creek, Meridian or Freeland school systems.

As of Friday, Aug. 27, MPS reported 37 staff/students are in quarantine, 38 staff/students are close contacts to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive and 12 staff/students are currently tested positive for the virus. Schools with one or more staff/student confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Friday include Dow High, Midland High, Jefferson Middle, Adams Elementary, Central Park Elementary, Plymouth Elementary and Siebert Elementary.

Midland County vaccinations

The Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard lists Midland's completed vaccine rate is 59.5%, while CDC data and the New York Times vaccine tracker show Midland is closer to 50%. The Midland County Health Department refers to the Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard data. Currently, the vaccines are not authorized to be given to those under age 12.

Midland County Health Department is hosting a weekly walk-in vaccination clinic from10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday on the second floor of the Midland County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland.

The health department will also host a clinic from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8 at Dow High School.

Future COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Midland County are listed at www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment/COVIDVaccineInformation.aspx. Those with questions may call 989-832-6380 or email MCDPH@co.midland.mi.us.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy established a task force Friday to aid Afghan refugees coming into the state.

Murphy, a Democrat, signed an executive order creating the Task Force on Afghan Refugee Assistance with the aim of ensuring New Jersey is prepared to receive and assist those coming into the state.

New Jersey's Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is currently receiving Afghans, with military officials proposing taking up to 9,500 people for up to a year.

Murphy had earlier said the state would assist with refugees. Friday's order is the first public action taken to address the influx of people. It's unclear how many so far have come into the state.

The state's adjutant general and commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Brig. Gen. Dr. Lisa Hou will head the task force. Hou is an Afghanistan veteran and served as a field surgeon and the sole medical provider on an Afghanistan National Army base, according to Murphy.

She was responsible for providing advanced medical care for more than 600 coalition soldiers, contractors and foreign nationals in the combat zone, the administration said in a statement.

Among the responsibilities of the task force will be: managing internal efforts among state departments to welcome and support refugees and special immigrant visa holders; coordinating communications with the federal government; and overseeing emergency health care services among other things.

Refugee support groups welcomed the news.

Avigail Ziv, the executive director for New York and New Jersey of the International Rescue Committee, said she looks forward to working with the task force.

Alain Mentha, the executive director of Welcome Home Jersey City, called it excellent news" and said there is a lot of good will in New Jersey that the task force could help refugee groups capitalize on.
Sammy Wade Ball Jr. was born May 16, 1966 in Bakersfield, CA. He died August 18, 2021 in Shreveport, LA. at age 55 from Covid-19. He was preceded in death by his father, Sammy Wade Ball Sr. He is survived by his wife of 27 years Angela Ball and his 3 children, Bernard, Christian, and Melissa
Photo: (Photo : Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

A school district in Wisconsin has earned the ire of many parents after its board members decided to drop a federally-funded free meals program for the students.

As with all schools in Wisconsin, board members of the Waukesha School District signed up for the free meals program in 2020, during a challenging pandemic. This year, however, every public school student in the state will get to eat for free except for those attending Waukesha Public School.

According to the school board president, Joseph Como, the move was made as "part of normalization" since they wanted to return to a pre-pandemic lunch program. Karin Rajnicek, a school board member, said that the federally-funded free meals program made it easier for many families to feel spoiled. Assistant Superintendent Darren Clark also noted that there were concerns that the program promoted a "slow addiction" to the free service.

Read Also: How To Use the IRS Child Tax Credit Portal

Preventing Students' Hunger

In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced extending the federally-funded free meal program to cover 12 million students experiencing food insecurity. Lawmakers who supported this move said that this was a way for the government to ensure that students will not go hungry amid a trying public health crisis.

However, the school board believes that their students' families can afford to buy a meal since providing food is a parent's responsibility. Rajnicek reasoned during the board meeting that it's easy to get sucked into the system that may allow parents to feel that it's now "everyone else's problem" to provide food for their children.

Thus, the Waukesha School District said it would be reinstating the National School Lunch Program, where families should apply to qualify for a free or discounted meal pricing for their kids.

However, Debra Wollin of Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction has asked the school district to reconsider their decision, noting that child hunger in the county has increased from 9 to 13 percent between 2019 to 2020. Based on their records, some 4,249 students (36 percent) were eligible for the National School Lunch Program during the 2018-2019 school year. Wollin said that families who may not qualify for this old plan are still hard-up on resources this year.

Kids Aren't Eating

A school assistant revealed to The Washington Post that she witnessed children not eating in school since they were not eligible for the National School Lunch Program or their parents didn't apply to be qualified.

Studies from various pediatric medical journals have documented how hunger affects children's performance and behavior in school. Kids who do not get proper nourishment have lower academic scores, frequent absences, and likely repeat a grade level.

Parent Heidi Chada is also hoping the board will reconsider because they are the only school in the state to opt-out of the program. The mom said that it sends out a message to families that the health of the kids is not important to the board.

Related Article: Hope & Comfort Founder Jeff Feingold Becomes CNN Hero for Working to End Hygiene Insecurity
Photo: (Photo : EMILY KASK/AFP via Getty Images)

American families may face a "twindemic" this year with the rising cases of COVID-19 during flu season. Doctors say that it would be prudent for parents to facilitate their family's flu shots earlier and prevent a surge of cases in hospitals currently overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it logged about 1,675 influenza cases from Sept. 28, 2020, to May 22, 2021, which was one of the mildest flu cases in the country's record. However, doctors said it's not easy to predict the outcome this year, with most schools resuming in-person learning.

"We are heading into the flu season with more relaxed restrictions," Dr. TingTing Wong of the New York-Presbyterian Medical Group Brooklyn told Fox News. "The situation will allow for increased chances of respiratory illness transmissions."

Wong added cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinoviruses had an uptick last summer due to the relaxed restrictions; hence there are legitimate concerns that hospitals will have more flu cases by fall or winter when flu season peaks.

Read Also: Breakthrough COVID Infections Impact Vaccinated Parents; What To Do, According to Experts

The Strain on Health Care

Dr. Daniel Solomon of the Brigham and Women's Hospital acknowledged that doctors were also worried about the "twindemic" in 2020. As COVID-19 remains a public health problem, the possibility of a strain on the country's health care system remains high this fall.

Currently, the national seven-day average of hospitalization due to COVID-19 is at 11,000 cases per day. In recent weeks, virus cases have surged from 12 percent to 23 percent.

According to NPR, some hospitals are forced to send other COVID-19 patients to far-flung areas via ambulance or helicopters because there are no more hospital beds. Other facilities have postponed other procedures, like hip replacement surgeries or cancer biopsies, as more medical workers have to treat patients with COVID-19.

But sending patients away if their cases are not coronavirus-related can bring serious consequences, especially for those who come to the hospitals to see a specialist. An elderly experiencing a heart attack or stroke may risk death because emergency rooms can't accept more patients.

Some hospitals also lack healthcare workers who have walked away from their duties due to pandemic fatigue. Suffice it to say, going to the hospital for flu could bring another unnecessary strain, but if people get their flu shots as soon as possible, we could prevent this.

Is it COVID or Flu?

Meanwhile, according to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu may have some similarities, such as cough, muscle aches, sore throat, runny nose, fever, and tiredness. But COVID-19 patients also develop a loss of smell or taste, which rarely happens for flu patients.

COVID-19 can also develop serious complications in some patients, who may need to receive a supply of oxygen. While various antiviral drugs can cure the flu, there is only one type of antiviral medication for COVID-19.

Vaccination remains the best way to prevent contracting either COVID-19 or flu viruses. To reduce the risk of infection for any of these illnesses, following standard safety procedures, such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and frequent handwashing and disinfection, continue to be highly recommended.

Related Article: Spike in COVID-19 Cases in Kids Attributed to Schools With No Face Mask Policy
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While Microsoft may allow you to run Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, a previously undisclosed Microsoft limitation means that theres a new, big gotcha waiting in the wings, too.

Microsoft lifted enthusiast hopes on Friday when it told some publications that it would allow users to run Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, or one that apps like Microsofts own PC Health Check would report as incompatible with the hardware requirements of Windows 11. In response to a PCWorld request for clarification, however, Microsoft added that there was more to it than that.

First, Microsoft clarified that what it said earlier still holds true. If you own a Windows 10 PC, and wish to upgrade it to Windows 11 via either the Windows Media Creation Tool or else by downloading an .ISO file, youll be allowed to.

Microsoft also clarified what hardware Windows 11 will require. As Microsofts Windows team blogged Friday, Windows 11 will require compatible 64-bit processors, 4GB of memory, 64GB of storage, UEFI secure boot, graphics requirements and TPM 2.0. If your PC only supports a TPM 1.2, however, the PC will be officially considered unsupported.

According to Microsoft, running Windows 11 in an unsupported state is not recommended, and Microsoft says it will be appropriate only in certain temporary scenarios. But Microsoft said Friday evening that unsupported PCs running Windows 11 wont be entitled to receive updates via Windows Update. That means, Microsoft added, that unsupported Windows PCs might not include security and driver updates, either.

Eliminating access to Windows Update essentially curtails upgrading an unsupported PC in many scenarios. Without updates, users wont have access to the latest code, as well as new features and potentially security updates, too. Microsoft warned that unsupported, unpatched PCs may have compatibility issues, may become unusable, and may not be covered by warranty. Even if a user is willing to leave their PC in a fixed, unpatched state, Microsoft will likely end support for that version in a year or two. According to Microsofts Windows 10 support dates, for example, the current Windows 10 version, Windows 10 21H1, expires on Dec. 13, 2022.

All this means is that, for Windows 11s hardware requirements, your PC essentially must contain TPM 2.0 hardware, whether integrated or as a standalone chip. (Heres how to tell whether your PC does.) If it doesnt, the door has essentially closed on your ability to safely upgrade to Windows 11.
The Ministry of Information will on Monday, August 30, 2021, hold a conference with Development Partners and other Stakeholders to rally support for the ministrys

media support programmes.



The government, through the ministry, has introduced two media support programmes aimed at creating a conducive and safe environment for media practitioners and enhance their capacity to effectively play their role in consolidating the countrys democratic gains.



The conference seeks to rally the support of Development Partners and Stakeholders to compliment the efforts of the government in executing these media support initiatives.



The programme comes off at the Alisa Swiss Spirit Hotel, North Ridge, on Monday, August 30, 2021, at 11:00 am.



This conference will be telecast live on GTV and also streamed live on the Ministry of Information Facebook page.



Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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In a move to support the ramp up of operations after boosting its passenger services to South Africa, Emirates has signed an interline agreement with Cemair that opens up connections to six more destinations in South Africa through the airlines gateways of Johannesburg and Cape Town. The partnership also includes a couple of leisure points exclusively served by Cemair.



This marks the first partnership between both airlines, and Emirates fourth airline partnership in South Africa. The arrangement between Emirates and Cemair includes the convenience of single ticket itineraries with onwards booking and baggage transfers from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Margate, Durban, Hoedspruit, Plettenberg Bay, George and Sishen.



Adnan Kazim, Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates Airline said: We are proud to partner with Cemair and commence our interline agreement. The new Cemair links provide our customers with even more possibilities to travel smoothly across many of South Africas most popular leisure points, in addition to the added benefit of connectivity to Cemairs exclusively served points Margate and Plettenberg Bay.



Connecting our networks solidifies our commitment to offering our customers even more travel opportunities, especially for those wanting to experience South Africas existing favourites, as well as travellers plotting new itineraries. We look forward to working together and strengthening our relationship."



Miles van der Molen, Chief Executive Officer of CemAir said: We are delighted to partner with Emirates Airline, a name synonymous with quality and elegance. Our interline agreement provides our customers with convenience and savings as they can now seamlessly connect from our flights to the vast global network of this iconic airline.



As we continue our expansion during the post Covid recovery period we realise that now more than ever partnerships are key to our success. Working with market leaders like Emirates Airline is a further demonstration of our commitment to our customers to provide the best service and value.



Customers can book their travel on emirates.com, Emirates sales offices and travel agencies.



Emirates boosted its operations to/from South Africa earlier this month and is presently operating 14 flights a week into South Africa via its gateways Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The airline continues to safely rebuild its global network, connecting customers to and through Dubai to over 120 destinations.



The airline has been expanding its footprint across South and Southern Africa through enriching its interline and codeshare partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Cemair, and Flysafair, driving more connectivity options that that provide greater benefits for its customers, whilst supporting the recovery of the travel and tourism industry.

























Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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STC Managing Director, Nana Akomea, has urged the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey to empower Municipal Chief Executives (MCEs) or District Chief Executives (DCE) to enforce the law in their various communities for the right to be done even in his absence.



"With that when they're not enforcing the law, they can be held responsible," he said.



Nana Akomea who was contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo' said if Henry Quartey doesn't take such steps, things will go back to the way they were.



Recalling a conversation he had with the Regional Minister, he said: "I commended him (Henry Quartey) for the work hes doing but told him that if he doesnt take care he will become like a blowman; where theres action only when he's around. If for instance a structure is placed at a wrong location, the one in charge of the area like the MCE needs to be penalized and that will serve as a deterrent for others, and with that even if youre not around the right thing will be done".



"If theres punishment, people will start doing the right thing," he added.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Volta Region branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on its supporters to join Fridays demonstration planned to impress upon government to open the countrys land borders.



The demonstration, to be led by Ketu South Member of Parliament Abla Dzifa Gomashie, will be staged in Aflao.



But before then, the MP for Jomoro Constituency, Dorcas Affo-Toffey, will lead her constituents on Thursday, August 26 to stage a similar demonstration at Elubo in the Western Region.



The NDC in the Volta Region wishes to inform the general public that it has thrown its weight behind the noble cause of the organizers of the OPEN OUR BORDERS DEMONSTRATION and calls on our teeming supporters to join the demonstration intended to let the Nana Addo government know that his decision to close the land borders is bringing untold hardship on the people of the Volta Region and other border towns in the country, a statement issued by the Volta Region branch of the NDC on Thursday announced.



As we call on our supporters to join the demonstration, we also call on the organizers to ensure that participants strictly observe all the Covid-19 Protocols.



Fridays demonstration will start at Denu and end at Aflao.



Ghanas land borders together with the sea and air borders were closed by an Executive Instrument on Sunday, March 22, 2020.



But goods were allowed to pass to and fro trading countries.



The countrys major international airport was, however, opened to passengers on September 1, 2020 after strict Covid-19 testing measures were put in place.



Though the land borders are yet to open, rendering border towns out of business, incidents of migrants using illegal routes to enter the country have been recorded.

Source: 3news.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The current state of veteran Ghanaian actor, Mr Kofi Laing, popularly known as Kowh3 is sad. A photo of the actor circulating on social media has brought tears to many as hes seen in a very poor state.



Kohw3 is seen sitting on a gentleman in a place that seems like a health facility. He looks feeble, ailing and it looks like hes in a medical facility for help.



Though Kowh3 has aged, it is obvious that he needs help to make things easier for him. A few years ago, the veteran actor publicly announced that he needs financial support in his old age as things were difficult for him.



Kowh3 recounted in an interview that many of his colleagues had died out of poverty because theyre neglected in old age. He revealed that their time in acting was not as profitable as today, and the sad part is producers neglect them and use young people to play roles that they could play better.



Kowh3 pleaded for support from Ghanaians to help him whilst hes alive because whatever they will do or say after hes dead wont bring him back to life.



Dont wait for me to die, before you pay glowing tribute to me for my wonderful contribution, your tribute will be meaningless because it will not bring me back to life, he said.



But it appears hes still suffering and hasnt really gotten a helper to go to his aid.



Check out his photo below;















View this post on Instagram



A post shared by Zionfelix.com (@zionfelixdotcom)





Source: instagram/GC









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The run for who rules rap in Ghana has come to an end with Seki Music 'murdering' the other contenders, to be crowned 'King of Rapture'.



His thrilling performance left all in awe, he impressed the audience and judges from start to finish.



The four-part competition started off with the 1st round consisting of introductory performances from all seven contestants.



The 6 contestants who proceeded to the 2nd round freestyled for 60 secs after which they held one on one battles to climax the 3rd round.



With Konfidential and Kofi Kunta eliminated at the 3rd round, the remaining 4 proceeded to the Rhyme with the word round, which saw Seki Music and Amino Cortez proceed to the finals.



Although both artistes displayed their prowess at the mic, Seki Music trashed Amino Cortez to take to Takoradi the GHc60,000 prize package, which includes a digital distribution deal from Crux Global and the bragging right of Rapture God.



Black Avenue Musik boss, D-Black, who was a judge at Rapture pulled a surprise prize package for the final 4. He awarded them with a collaboration deal worth 5,000 cedis each.



The other contestants went home with some consolation prizes.



Seki Music attributed his win to the finesse of the other contestants. He noted that the other contestants sharpened his rap talent and pushed him to do more so he could emerge winner of the competition. According to him, the competition was not just a contest but an avenue from which he met with and learnt some of Ghanas finest rap talents.



I am glad I partook in Rapture and it has given me the opportunity to learn more from the YFM brand, resources and colleagues I contested with. Being crowned Rapture god will not only break me into the limelight but it will also help me share my gift with the rest of the world.



Coordinator for the Rapture Competition, Ato Kwamina Essuman, described the contests as a major success and appreciated sponsors for helping revive the rap culture. To him the rap culture has been Ghanas banner and with competitions like Rapture seeking to return the limelight of the genre, then the competition has been successful.



The term Rapture which was beautifully coined from source words Rap + Culture and Future will not only unearth talent and revive the rap culture but it will also reward rappers who prove themselves top dogs, and capable of carrying the banner of the rap culture through the sands of time.



Judges for the night were Black Avenue boss D-Black, Kwaku T, a leading Ghanaian Hip-Hop artiste and ace broadcaster, talent manager, Kwame Faakye and Ike Gome from Crux Global. the MCs for the night were Kula and Brownberry.



Rapture is sponsored by Rich Energy Drink and Crux Global

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A worker cleans near an exhibit by Danish conceptual artist Kristian von Hornsleth at the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday Aug. 25, 2021. The exhibition which opens Friday at the Polish state museum features the works of provocative artists in what organizers describe as a celebration of free speech, and a challenge to political correctness and "cancel culture" on the political left. Some critics, however, accuse the organizers of the show titled "Political Art" of giving a platform to anti-Semitic, racist and Islamophobic messages. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Bryson DeChambeau missed a birdie from 6 feet, 3 inches on the 18th hole that would have made him the 12th player to break 60 and given him the 13th sub-60 round in PGA TOUR history.

After tapping in his eagle putt from just inside three feet at the par-5 16th hole, DeChambeau spun back a wedge to close range on 18 to leave himself a putt at history. Alas, he aimed too far left, and the ball never had a chance of going in.

I hit it on the line, just misread it. We played it two and a half, three inches out, and it clearly didn't break that much, but I had good speed on it and I'll go look afterwards and see if I pulled it or not and work on ways to mitigate that, DeChambeau said post round before heading directly to the practice putting green.

DeChambeau also eagled the par-5 fourth hole after his 273-yard second shot wound up just over 11 feet from the pin. He opened with a 7-under 29 on the front side and added birdies on 11, 12 and 14 before his incredible second eagle that came via an iron shot from the right rough.

It was one of the better ones of my career. We judged the flier lie perfectly, DeChambeau said of his approach shot. I hit an 8-iron from 250, maybe it was more than that, I don't know, but it was downwind, and we just wanted to get to that back little knob where maybe it could feed off and where if it goes over, I'm still OK.

It fed off I think perfectly. Again, a little bit of luck. You have to have a little bit to luck to be playing that well out there.

It was the second round of 60 in the last two weeks, as Cameron Smith also flirted with 59 at THE NORTHERN TRUST at Liberty National last week.

Scottie Scheffler shot the last 59 on TOUR at THE NORTHERN TRUST at TPC Boston last year.

DeChambeau beat his previous career low, a 62 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, by two shots. He came into the week 9th in the FedExCup, first in driving distance. At 16 under par, he took a one-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay (63) and Jon Rahm, who has a 15-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole to join the lead when play resumes Saturday morning.

Playing partner Jordan Spieth believed it must have been similar to what Tiger Woods was doing to his opponents in the early stages of his career when he was by far the longest player on TOUR.

I played with Bryson the first two rounds when he won at Bay Hill, and when he's driving it that straight, it's got to be what it was like in the early 2000s with Tiger just hitting it the furthest and the straightest, Spieth, who also played with Justin Thomas when he shot 59 in Hawaii, said.

It's a little easier from there, but you've still got to get it in the hole, and he just drove the ball well, made a few longer putts today, and had it going.

The Californian also missed a birdie try from 15-feet on the 17th hole in his chase for history.

It was an awesome opportunity. I had a couple birdie opportunities at 17 and 18, and it didn't happen but Im still really proud of the way I handled myself, and it's great to feel some pressure again which is awesome, DeChambeau added.

A lot of putts went in. A lot of things went right. We got a lot of great numbers out of the rough today, and I played my butt off and never thought too much about anything until the last few holes.

I striped a 9-iron on 17, striped a drive, striped a wedge on 18 and just wasn't able to clutch those putts up. But I stroked it pretty well today and Im going to go work on that a little bit and make sure I'm hitting it down my lines for this weekend, so I have myself a chance to win.
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Michael Coard, Esq. can be followed on Twitter, Instagram, and his YouTube channel as well as at AvengingTheAncestors.com. His Radio Courtroom show can be heard on WURD 96.1 FM or 900 AM. And his TV Courtroom show can be seen on PhillyCAM/Verizon Fios/Comcast.

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Pavel "silentm0de" Plesuv raised to 2,400,000, and it would set off some fireworks, as short stack "TonyGPT" moved all in for 4,546,693. In the small blind, Luis "luisnrd" Dorneles would move all in for over 60 milion, and in the big blind, "horvYptr" would call all in for 22,349,897.

Luis "luisnrd" Dorneles:

"horvYptr":

"TonyGPT":

Dorneles was in great shape to score a double knockout, but the flop was an absolute disaster for the Brazilian, coming down . The case ten meant that "horvYptr" now held a massive lead in the hand, and while the turn gave Dorneles some more outs, the would come on the river.

"TonyGPT" bows out in seventh even after flopping top two pair, while "horvYptr" is now up to over 50 million after that lucky flop.
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The city of Aiken intends to keep and eventually spend money reaped by its road maintenance fee prior to July 1, the day after the S.C. Supreme Court ruled such charges violate state law.

While City Council members on Monday voted to repeal the fee and refund payments made in recent weeks, money collected in years and months past is fair game, officials argued.

The citys road maintenance fee, instituted in January 2017, was transparently passed and collected with the intention of improving roads and infrastructure, Mayor Rick Osbon said Thursday. It would be our intention to use it for that.

The city has about $835,000 in its road maintenance pot, which is tapped for road work and other upkeep: patching, paving, sidewalk construction and land acquisition.

That money was specifically collected to meet road needs, Osbon said. Its not a question of if our roads need rehabilitation.

The mayor in a July interview said city officials never assumed the fee was not legal, because it was such a common practice throughout the state and country. But, he noted, the South Carolina Supreme Court has deemed otherwise, and the bottom line is that we are going to comply with the Supreme Court.

The high court on June 30 found two fees enacted by the Greenville County Council  one for road maintenance, one for telecommunications upgrades  were illegal, as they were de facto taxes and were not authorized by the Legislature. Aikens road fee closely resembled the Upstate measure.

Until the court said it was illegal, Bedenbaugh said Monday, we were doing it in good faith, I think.

The citys road maintenance fund remains frozen as of Thursday, as refund logistics are ironed out.

Were working with the county treasurer, for him to do the refunding, the city manager said. The citys goal is to have anyone that has paid since July 1 to have their money refunded, not credited.

When the state Supreme Court issued its opinion June 30, Aiken suspended any spending from the fund. The city attorney, Gary Smith, was contacted for a legal review, as well. Council members were briefed behind closed doors earlier this month and preliminarily approved a repeal afterward.
COLUMBIA  Lexington County's population grew more quickly than other areas of the Midlands during the past decade with new residents drawn by Lake Murray, a rural feel and lower taxes.

Four Lexington County towns ranked among the state's top 55 leaders in growth over the past decade, according an analysis of 2020 U.S. census data.

Richland County added more residents since 2010 but at a bit lower pace than its neighboring county. Meanwhile, the city of Columbia, which accounts for a third of Richland's population, grew at the slowest pace among South Carolina's 10 largest cities.

Lexington County's 12 percent growth since 2010 was the 11th most in the state. The county's 30,600 additional residents kept it as the state's sixth-largest county with a population of 293,991.

Richland/Lexington census numbers The 2020 populations of Richland and Lexington counties and their largest cities: Richland County  416,147; up 8% Lexington County  293,991; 12% Columbia  136,632, up 6% Lexington (town)  23,568; up 32% West Columbia  17,416; up 16% Cayce  13,781; up 10% Irmo  11,569; up 4% Forest Acres  10,617; up 2.5%

Lexington County growth is buoyed in part by the town of Lexingtons population growing by almost a third. The county seat's growth ranked 21st in the state.

The primary drivers behind Lexington's rise in residents are urban dwellers from other states seeking out Lake Murray and more open space in rural areas, said Taylor Oxendine, co-executive officer at the Central Carolina Realtors Association.

Also helping are Columbia-area residents jumping across the Congaree River to Cayce and West Columbia for the lower property taxes, proximity to work and new restaurants and businesses.

Chapin, which is on the lake, grew by 25 percent, while West Columbia and Cayce added 16 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

"There's been a lot of commercial development there, too, because commercial taxes are higher in city of Columbia; We've seen companies move right out of city of Columbia into Cayce," Oxendine said. "Cayce and West Columbia have been doing a good job of promoting (tax differences) for businesses moving into that area."

Richland County grew by 8.2 percent to 416,147 residents, while the city of Columbias population grew more slowly during the past decade.

Columbia's population rose by 5.7 percent since 2010, far short of other large cities like Charleston (25 percent) and Greenville (21 percent) and ranked 70th statewide.

Columbia was the state's largest city in the 2010 census, but now with a population of 136,632, it lags Charleston by 13,595 residents.

Richland County remains the second-largest county in the state behind Greenville, though it is poised to be overtaken by Charleston County after its margin shrank from 34,295 more residents a decade ago to 7,912 in 2020.

Columbias relatively stagnant numbers come amid a wide-open race for mayor and multiple City Council seats as candidates pitch ways they feel the capital city could become a better place to live, work and play.

A city-commissioned study that found growth in the city was being stymied by a variety of factors, led by a high combined tax rate from the city, county and schools districts in the area.

A city committee that includes mayoral candidates and council members Tameika Isaac Devine and Daniel Rickenmann has begun dissecting the issues raised by the study, while outgoing Mayor Steve Benjamin has defended the citys growth during the past decade, touting a revitalized Main Street, the BullStreet redevelopment and some of the area's large economic development projects.

Joe Taylor, a developer and former state commerce chief who backed the tax study, said people are moving to Northeast Columbia and Lexington County for the perception of better schools and safer neighborhoods. He noted the closing of multiple public housing developments in the city during the census period and that some of the hundreds of displaced residents were families who used housing vouchers to move outside the city.

"These folks aren't leaving us for Charleston, Greenville and Florida, they're moving to the suburbs," said Taylor, who is running unopposed for Columbia City Council's District 4 seat.

Census data will be used to determine new jurisdictional lines that will affect voting districts in the Columbia area, though not before the Nov. 2 election. The redistricting goes for local offices through U.S. Congressional districts.

Census numbers are also important in determining how federal funds are distributed throughout the Midlands.
COLUMBIA  The state's highest court will hear two cases Aug. 31 that could decide the future of mask requirements in South Carolina's schools as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson will argue before the S.C. Supreme Court that a city of Columbia school mask mandate violates state law and should be struck down in a hearing at 10 a.m.

Richland County and the Charleston County School District also passed school mask requirements, though Charleston will not penalize students for refusing to wear one.

After Wilson's case, justices will then hear immediately from Richland School District Two and an Orangeburg family in their request to strike down the state provision that blocks school mask mandates, or to allow current mask requirements to continue until a decision on the legality of the state law.

Wilson's lawsuit against Columbia asks the justices to find that any such mask requirements passed or considered by local governments and school districts throughout the state be determined unlawful based on provisions lawmakers included in the state budget that took effect July 1.

The one-year ban prevents school districts from using state and federal funds authorized by the Legislature to impose or enforce masks. Districts have been warned that defying the law puts their funds at risk.

"Conflicting local and state mask requirements place Richland Two in an untenable position," Richland Two Superintendent Baron Davis wrote to the court. "As an instructional leader, and role model for young women and men who are encouraged to both care for each other and obey the law, I am in need of guidance on Richland Two's options and obligations regarding face coverings and virtual teaching."

In Richland Two's case, the state's fifth-largest school district, along with an Orangeburg mother and her children, asks the court to find that the state's ban on school mask mandates violates students' right in the state constitution to a free education. State public health leaders and S.C. Education Superintendent Molly Spearman have backed letting districts choose to impose mask rules.

The Richland Two case filing also asks the Supreme Court to strike down a state budget measure that caps the number of students in a district that can attend virtual classes at 5 percent. Exceeding the cap would result in districts losing state funding.

The city of Columbia has maintained that its school mask requirement doesn't run afoul of state law and was necessary because of state officials' failure to act as the pandemic rages on in the state.

State health officials announced 6,697 new COVID-19 cases, 39 deaths and a 14.3 percent percent positive rate Aug. 27.

The Municipal Association of South Carolina, S.C. Education Association and city of Charleston each filed briefs with the Supreme Court largely supporting Columbia's position and local authority to impose such a requirement.

The Municipal Association, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for cities and towns throughout the state, said in its court filing that local mask mandates don't conflict with any state emergency orders.

Charleston attorneys argued Wilson's request to nullify school mask mandates would keep cities from being able to protect children not yet eligible for the vaccine as the delta variant drives new cases. The decision would also affect operations of the Medical University of South Carolina and other hospitals and negatively impact the city's tourism industry, the brief argued.

"If granted, the States request has a far-reaching and dangerous effect on cities like Charleston," the city's attorneys wrote.

The Charleston County School District on Aug. 16  two days before the start of the school year  voted to direct district staff to require masks for students, employees and visitors while they are inside schools until Oct. 15.

Charleston City Council considered a mask mandate on Aug. 17 for all adults and children over 2 years old in all public facilities, including public schools, private schools and daycares. But after attempts to include exceptions for Berkeley County schools and private schools, the measure fell short of the required two-thirds vote.

Wilson's lawsuit said he doesn't question the effectiveness or wisdom of masks but that the issue is a strict matter of law. Wilson also argued that Columbia exceeded city authority in imposing rules on schools.

State public health officials have said all schools should require face coverings indoors and implored lawmakers to return to the Legislature for a special session to overturn the mask- requirement ban.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.
GREENVILLE  The price tag for the conference center Greenville city officials may choose to build along the Reedy River downtown could soar to $150 million, about $50 million more than previously thought, if City Council chooses to pursue a larger venue.

A consultant team reported that adding a 35,000- to 40,000-square-foot ballroom would capture a larger share of the regional event market, while not cannibalizing events from existing venues like the Hyatt Regency on Main Street.

Obviously, if you go larger youre able to capture a larger market share, said John Kaatz, a consultant with CSL who performed the market and feasibility report. Greenville is a very strong destination and there are opportunities to capture a larger share of the market. The trade off is youre spending a lot more money to go after it.

Its a "go big or go home" philosophy, but in this case the city has multiple options.

It could build a slightly smaller venue that would fit its initial cost constraints of $100 to $110 million. That would still allow the city to bring medium-sized conferences and events downtown where its hotels, restaurants and retailers would benefit from added traffic.

That smaller venue, with a 25,000-square-foot main ballroom and 43,000 square feet of rental space, would be able to hold about 67 percent of all events. But it would also likely poach some events held at the Hyatt, which has a 14,400-square-foot ballroom and 32,000 square feet of rental space.

I wouldnt say its the best, said Brian Tennyson, architect with LMN, the main consultants on the master plan. Its where we landed based on the conditions we were operating within  site constraints, budget.

But that size center would be feasible and could generate $30 million in direct spending at the center, and indirect spending or induced spending at other downtown restaurants, hotels and retailers in its first five years, according to the consultants. More than $9 million of that revenue would shift partially or fully from existing event spaces.

City Councilman Russell Stall said the most feedback he received from a series of conversational meetings held about the center was from businesses downtown. They all wanted the city to build it bigger, he said.

A facility with a 40,000-square-foot ballroom would be able to host about 85 percent of events. Even larger, a 60,000-square-foot ballroom could host 96 percent of all potential events. The consultant team didnt study how much revenue those larger spaces could generate.

The city is in a unique situation. For years it has known that the current Greenville Convention Centers location and lack of easy access to downtown hotels doesnt work. An agreement with downtown developers Bo Aughtry and Phil Hughes to donate 7 acres along the Reedy River next to the Embassy Suites and the Academy Street overpass for use as a conference center tipped the scales.

The city and county quickly agreed to commit $26 million each to the center, and the state added $26 million of its own as long as the center include spaces for the sacred art of the Museum and Gallery that has been in storage since it lost its home at Bob Jones University. The Greenville County Museum of Art would also have space at the center.

Now the city and its partners must decide if the conference center is worth building. And if so, at what size.

Complicating the matter: If the city builds a larger ballroom to capture more market share and differentiate from existing venues, it would need to enlarge other spaces at the center, too. It would need larger meeting rooms, more space in the back of house, and possibly a larger hotel attached to the center, Tennyson said.

And it would all have to fit within the space already designated, he said.

You open up a can of worms if you go much bigger, Kaatz said.

The consultant team estimated a conference center with a 25,000-square-foot main ballroom and 80,000 square feet of art museum space would cost $111 million.

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A larger facility would likely push the cost to between $130 and $150 million, Tennyson said.

What would be included

A downtown conference center with a 25,000-square-foot main hall would be about 183,000 square feet in total, including 80,000 feet of museum space.

It would include 43,000 square feet of rentable ballrooms, flexible halls and meeting rooms, as well as a kitchen, storage and preparation spaces, administrative offices and a large 24,000-square-foot pre-function hall.

The pre-function space would be designed to offer unique food and beverage options and a lounge, and would also be able to host dinners and buffets, open meeting rooms and other passive activities.

Outdoor spaces would be included in the design to give space for events like markets to be held and to be able to take advantage of the locations proximity to the riverwalk.

The planners presented two options for location of the center on the downtown site. One would be on the side of the property farther from the river. The other would border the Swamp Rabbit Trail closer to the river and River Street bridge.

This has to be on the river, said Councilman Russell Stall.

What works in Greenvilles favor

Greenville already has about 2,200 hotel rooms within a half-mile of the proposed conference center site, more than most regional competitors. It has a desirable, walkable downtown that planners said is very attractive to event organizers. Not enough people know about the city and what it offers though, the planners said.

The inclusion of the art museums would also generate revenue that could help support the center.

While many conference centers lose operating money each year, including the citys existing convention center, there is a possibility Greenville could break even or turn a profit with a downtown center because of the citys draw as a destination, Tennyson said.

Councilwoman Dorothy Dowe, who sits on the tourism board of Visit Greenville, said she is consistently hearing that the city needs group travel to return. Groups would visit during the week, then families or individuals fall in love with the city and return to visit or live, she said.

Group travel is the target, she said. The size has to be right to attract that. It just has to be. Otherwise all of this is for naught.

The 43,000 square feet of rental conference space is a project, she said. But that might not be the right project.

I think it could be a great project, Dowe said. I just want to make sure its the right project and not something too small just because thats all we could get.

The consultants are set to wrap up and present a final version of their feasibility and market study in September. Once City Council decides on a path forward, a design team would be the next step, Tennyson said.

There is not a firm deadline for the project, or on the money designated for the project, other than the citys own self-imposed deadline of June 2024.
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If you think about it, Charleston is one giant civil rights landmark. Turn down most any street on the peninsula and you will traverse an historic zone  maybe not one recorded in textbooks, but likely a place that enslaved people built, or a place where African Americans once found a way to forge a community and a self-sufficient economy despite endemic racism.

The monuments to Black life, and to the struggle for civil rights, are everywhere in the city. Some are utilitarian, such as church buildings and small businesses. Others are symbolic, such as historic markers and statues.

Many are overlooked today because they have been stripped by time of their historical context. Consider the Cigar Factory, for example. Today the building houses offices, shops and restaurants. But it once drew hundreds of poor people, Black and White, to jobs that demanded long hours, physical stamina and psychological endurance.

Black workers were relegated to the basement where they stemmed the big tobacco leaves. They were paid less than their White counterparts upstairs who rolled the cigars. In 1945, the workers went on strike, demanding better treatment. The Black employees mustered moral strength by singing a song from Johns Island, I Will Overcome. A couple decades later, the song was modified by Pete Seeger and became an anthem of the civil rights movement.

Or consider the Medical University of South Carolina. Today, its a sprawling hospital and training center with nothing but a marker to indicate the intense battle Black nurses waged in 1968-69 to improve their working conditions at what was then called the Medical College Hospital.

Their strike, which was joined by nurses at the nearby Charleston County Hospital, lasted months and drew national attention. Coretta Scott King and colleagues from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young, joined local leaders such as Mary Moultrie to march in the streets and push for a negotiated settlement.

The strike included the last big protest march of the 1960s.

One of the staging grounds for the hospital strike was Emanuel AME Church, a few blocks down Calhoun Street from the medical campus. Mother Emanuel had been founded in 1817 as Hampstead Church, located on the corner of Reid and Hanover streets. The congregation was comprised of Black worshippers who had abandoned Charlestons Methodist churches because of discrimination.

In 1822, one of the founders of Emanuel AME Church, Denmark Vesey, was executed after a failed slave revolt he allegedly organized. That year, a White mob burned the church building.

In 1831, Nat Turners revolt heightened fears among Whites. In 1834, the city of Charleston banned all Black churches; their worshippers met in secret until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

A new church building was finished in 1872, then destroyed by the earthquake of 1886. The current building was constructed in 1891 on the north side of what was then Boundary Street. African Americans were not welcomed south of Boundary, and certainly not their institutions.

In 2015, Emanuel AME Church was the site of a mass shooting that killed nine members attending a Bible study session in the basement.

In Hampton Park, youll find a statue of Vesey not far from the gazebo. This park once was the Washington Race Course, which became a prison camp during the Civil War. Hundreds of Union soldiers died there. On May 1, 1865, huge numbers of formerly enslaved people buried the dead then honored them with a procession. They called it Decoration Day.

Today we call it Memorial Day.

During the period of legalized segregation, a robust African American community formed and flourished in the area that encompasses Spring, Cannon and Morris streets. Here, the social safety net was strong, held up by key institutional pillars, such as schools, churches, and businesses, as well as a small but significant professional class that included doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, restaurateurs, pharmacists and others.

Little remains of that time, but stop by Daves Seafood on the corner of Morris and Coming streets, order the fried whiting, and imagine this area bustling with Black people.

Visit an old Black burial ground. There are many of them scattered throughout the Charleston peninsula. One that is largely forgotten  it is located in an empty field  is the Heriot Street Cemetery, where the African American chef Nat Fuller, who celebrated the end of the Civil War with an historical feast, is buried in an unmarked grave.

These are just some of many sites with links to Black history. The stately homes south of Broad Street were mostly built by enslaved people. The food served in restaurants featuring New Southern Cuisine mostly comes from old African American recipes (which are informed by African practices and ingredients). The live jazz one can hear in the bars along King Street originated with the musicians of the Jenkins Orphanage.

Nearly everywhere you turn in Charleston, you encounter a monument to the contributions of African Americans. All of them are clear examples of how Black people have asserted their history and identity, even as they have confronted dangers and discrimination.

Next time you eat shrimp and red rice, think about the how this dish once sustained poor Gullah communities. Next time you stroll down the East Battery, consider the Black hands that built those houses. Next time you send your child off to school, recall the Black kids who, in the 1960s, integrated the Charleston County School District.

In this town, such history is inescapable.
MYRTLE BEACH  Horry County was the fastest-growing county in South Carolina in the past decade, adding nearly 82,000 people, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

Growth along highway lifelines to and from the beach  including U.S. 501, S.C. 544 and S.C. 707  saw the most new residents, said a local economist. One local mayor pointed to lower taxes and an affordable cost of living as reasons why many of the more than 154,400 new residents in the last 20 years have made Horry County their new home.

With Horry County rising by 30 percent to hit the 351,029 population mark in 2020, it has zoomed past Spartanburg County to become the state's fourth-largest county. Horry added as many people as 38 other S.C. counties combined in the past decade.

"Horry Countys population has grown farther away from the beach, along major highway corridors," said Sourav Batabyal, an economics professor at Coastal Carolina University. "Carolina Forest, Conway, Forestbrook, North Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, and Little River have seen the most growth."

Even a small town like Aynor, located 30 miles from the beach along U.S. 501, boomed in the past decade. The town on the western edge of the county was the ninth fastest-growing municipality in the state, increasing by 74 percent.

Three other Horry County cities  Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and the county seat of Conway  all ranked among the 22 fastest growing cities in the state.

In neighboring Georgetown County, population growth was slower. The county rose by 5.4 percent in the past decade to 63,404 residents. South Carolina grew by 11 percent since 2010.

Adding so many residents in Horry County hasn't come without some growing pains.

Newly built areas like Carolina Forest and a revitalized Forestbrook and history-rich towns like Conway have stretched an antiquated road system to capacity for some time. County leaders continuously scramble to find solutions, leaving residents re-calculating drive times if they dare hop on U.S. 501 or S.C. 544.

Growth in new construction has led to flooding in areas that have not experienced standing water of the magnitude it has seen in recent years.

More Information The following is the growth Horry County's biggest towns and cities experienced between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Census. Town 2010 2020 Rank of growth in SC Aynor 560 974 9 Conway 17,103 24,849 13 North Myrtle Beach 13,752 18,790 16 Myrtle Beach 27,109 35,682 22 Surfside Beach 3,837 4,155 63 Briarcliffe Acres 457 479 79 Loris 2,396 2,449 100 Atlantic Beach 334 195 267

Batabyal said population growth from early last decade was mainly being driven by people relocating to Horry County mostly from neighboring southern states followed by other counties in South Carolina and from the Northeast and Midwest.

And that growth is not slowing down, creating a need for more housing with a strong effort for more affordable housing for workers employed in the area's tourism industry.

Batabyal said housing isn't the only need. The area is going to need commercial real estate investors to add additional square footage in shopping centers, grocery stores, restaurants, senior housing, healthcare facilities, and warehouses.

Renny Diedrich, broker in charge at Re/Max Southern Shores, said agents with her office have heard that affordability, getting a greater value for their real estate investment and even politics play roles in people choosing to live in Horry County.

"The Carolinas have historically been retirement meccas and this still holds true for many folks that are moving here for the obvious reasons, low taxes, affordability, beaches and weather," Diedrich said. "Younger buyers are moving for some of the same reasons, the ability to work remotely and greater purchase power for the money."

She said many have been vacationing here for years and just love the area.

"Honestly, majority of (one real estate agent's) buyers have said that they no longer agree with the political views of their governing states," Diedrich said. South Carolina has had one Democratic governor since 1987.

There will be a need for more workers county-wide as the entire area experienced pockets of growth.

"We need to develop a sizable workforce comprised of teachers, medical professionals, finance professionals, lawyers, cleaning professionals, hotels, restaurants and service industry workers," Batabyal said.

Some towns are growing faster than the county average.

Conway grew by 45 percent to 24,849 residents, while rapidly developed North Myrtle Beach rose by 37 percent to 18,790 and Myrtle Beach increase by 32 percent to 35,682 people.

Myrtle Beach Mayor Brenda Bethune said there are several factors that contribute to the growth that continually pushes the city to provide more public safety, and increases the need for parks, recreation centers and to revitalize potential business hubs.

"When you consider where the majority of people are moving from, we have lower taxes, a low cost of living, we are business-friendly and we have beautiful weather year-round," Bethune said referring to those who relocate to the area coming from the Northeast and Midwest. "This growth was not unexpected. We see it year after year."
Colleton County schools and Aynor Middle School in Horry County will transition to temporary online learning starting Aug. 30.

A rising number of COVID-19 cases and quarantines as a result of those cases are pushing some schools into online learning. Colleton County students will be participating in classes from home through Sept. 10.

In-person school is scheduled to resume Sept. 13 if conditions allow for it. District officials will be looking at transmission rates and case numbers to assess if the district should reopen at that time.

On Aug. 27, Aynor Middle School announced it will be moving online for two weeks starting Aug. 30. The school cited rising case numbers and quarantines that impact its ability to operate.

In Colleton County's first week of school, which started Aug. 16, some 386 students and 12 staff members tested positive. Colleton County serves around 5,000 students in the entire district. After that first week, the district quarantined 36 students and six staff members.

Since that first week, the number of positive cases and quarantines among students and staff have increased, affecting the district's ability to operate schools. There has also been an increase in cases among the district's pool of bus drivers and substitute teachers, according to the release.

On Aug. 17, the district's school board voted to implement a mask requirement for all students, staff and visitors through Oct. 19.

Students will be able to use district-issued Chromebooks to participate in virtual learning during the two weeks. Any student who does not have a Chromebook should contact their school, the release said.

The district is also offering meal pick-up and delivery throughout the two weeks. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 30 and Aug. 31, families can pick up meals at their students' school. Starting on Sept. 1, the district will start delivering meals to students via their bus routes.

Meals will also be available for pick up at the district's schools form 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 1 and Sept. 3, according to the release.

All extra-curricular events and practices will be canceled over the course of the two weeks.

The closures are not the first of the 2021-22 school year. In early August, Pickens County School District transitioned to virtual learning after just nine days of opening.

Three Lexington District 2 schools closed this week as well. Cayce Elementary School in Columbia will be all online from Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, and Northside and Pine Ridge middle schools in West Columbia will be online until Sept. 10.

Centerville Elementary school in Gilbert will also be online until Sept. 7.

Adam Benson contributed to this report from Columbia.
Almost daily in the United States, someone goes missing from the confines of their everyday life, leaving a dark void of worry and uncertainty for those they left behind.

Many turn up in a matter of hours, days or weeks. Some just needed a break from their families or the pressures bearing down on them. Others met unfortunate ends, by accident or design.

Then there are people like Eloise Way. People who seemingly vanish into the ether, never to be heard from again.

This month marked the 59th anniversary of Ways disappearance in Charleston, a case that captivated the city for decades and became one of its most enduring mysteries.

On a steamy August morning in 1962, the middle-aged bookkeeper left her office around 10 to take a short stroll along one of Charlestons bustling downtown thoroughfares.

Way had made the trip dozens of times before, ferrying deposits from the Wentworth Street insurance office where she worked to a bank just a few minutes away. Only this time, she didnt come back.

Somewhere along the four-block journey, the 48-year-old mother of two just  vanished.

Her disappearance gripped the city in the days that followed, sparking a massive search and a sprawling investigation that eventually sent police across the country in search of clues. Many theories emerged, but not a trace of her could be found.

She didnt take her lunch with her. Or her glasses. Her clothes and luggage were still at home. The money she had on hand that day was less than she had in her savings account, which remained untouched. She had been a steady presence at the insurance agency for 10 years. She gave no hint of leaving and no one could think of where else she might have gone.

Every avenue which had any correlation to the disappearance has been pursued, the Charleston Evening Post reported a year after Way went missing. All have ended in blind alleys. Rumors which flitted about the city by the dozens faded into nothingness when traced to their source.

Some of those rumors suggested that Way had met a sinister fate and, over time, her family began to suspect she was no longer among the living. Her disappearance had shaken them to the core, and left them just wishing for some resolution to the case.

People would ask what they could do for the family, her former daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen Way, recalled recently in an interview with The Post and Courier. The family just wanted answers, and there were no answers to be found.

In the end, they were left with the same question that has haunted the city for years: Whatever happened to Eloise Way?

Thousands go missing

More than 600,000 people are reported missing in this country annually. Though many are quickly located, tens of thousands remain missing for more than a year, becoming what many law enforcement agencies consider to be cold cases, according to the U.S. Justice Department's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

NamUs, as the system is known, is a national repository of information and DNA evidence used to help solve vexing missing and unidentified persons cases. The system has had success stories, including the recent identification of three homicide victims in Knoxville, Tenn., who had been dead for decades. But many more mysteries remain.

The database includes 232 people who went missing in South Carolina, including 19 who disappeared from Charleston County. Among the missing are Brandy Hanna, last seen at her North Charleston home in May 2005; Tina Snipes, who disappeared from Edisto Island in August 2018; and Gary Locklear, a 15-year-old who vanished from North Charleston in September 1974.

Kelly Freshman knows better than most the frustrations faced by families of the missing. A Charleston police lieutenant, Freshman investigated more than 100 missing persons cases during her time with the departments special victims unit. Some 75 to 100 people are reported missing in the city each year, she said.

The vast majority of cases she worked on involved people who just needed to get away for a while from troubling issues in their lives, Freshman said. But some cases ended tragically, with findings of suicide or murder. Even then, it was better to be able to bring definitive answers to the families left behind, she said.

There is no such thing as closure. I dont believe in that, she said. But it does bring some resolution to the case and to the families to know what happened. It is very painful to think of the people who never get to know that.

These days, investigators have an arsenal of technology at their disposal to help find those answers. They can track cellphones and computers, monitor activity on bank accounts, review video footage for sightings, and check social media for posts and photos of the missing.

Back in 1962, these cases came down to shoe-leather police work, with investigators interviewing witnesses and sifting through the detritus of peoples lives in hope of finding some clues to chase.

In the case of Eloise Way, that trail was thin from the start.

Gone in broad daylight

Way, a widowed mother of two, had worked as a secretary and bookkeeper at Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Co. for a decade. The company had its offices in a stately 19th-century building that's now home to the Wentworth Mansion hotel, at the corner of Smith and Wentworth streets.

One of Ways routines was to walk company deposits to a bank on bustling King Street, in the heart of the citys downtown commercial district.

On the morning of Aug. 15, 1962, she set out to do just that, leaving her bifocals behind on her desk and her lunch stowed in a drawer.

Wearing sunglasses and a yellow shirtwaist dress with white stripes, Way left the office carrying a bundle of $1,000 in cash and an equal amount in checks. The cash  about $9,000 in todays money  was considerably less than the usual deposits she handled. Her co-workers expected her back right away.

When she failed to return, her colleagues called the bank and learned she never made it there. After four hours of fretting, they called Charleston police and filed a missing persons report.

Ways daughter checked her mothers apartment on Thomas Street, about a half-mile away. She found nothing missing aside from the outfit Way had worn to work. Her suitcases sat in a closet, along with her entire wardrobe, including several freshly purchased items.

Detectives interviewed friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances. They described her as pretty, soft-spoken and quite Southern. She didn't have a driver's license, and she didn't like to venture out after dark.

Police canvassed the neighborhood along the route to the bank. They came up with nothing aside from one report from a passerby on the day Way disappeared.

A man told police he had seen a woman talking with someone in a car, about 25 yards from the insurance company. She walked away, but the car pulled in front of her again. After a brief conversation, the woman got in the car and it drove off, he told officers.

The witness said the driver appeared to be a man in his 40s, possibly in a car with out-of-state plates.

Investigators were intrigued, but they didn't know whether the woman involved had been Way. The witness didn't know her.

Charleston police called on the State Law Enforcement Division to issue a be-on-the-lookout alert for Way in South Carolina and neighboring states. Agents from the FBI soon arrived to assist with the case. They stood ready to investigate any leads that came in.

But clues, they would find, remained strangely hard to come by.

Foul play is feared

Eight days after Way disappeared, her daughter revealed that Way had been planning to be married in the coming weeks. Her fiance, a man from Brunswick, Ga., expressed fears that she had met a violent end.

On Oct. 6 of that year, Ways children offered a $500 reward for information leading to their mothers whereabouts. There were no takers.

Her daughter would later advance a theory that Way had been killed and buried in a trash-filled Calhoun Street dump site where a nursing home was later erected. Nearby residents and nursing workers had reported hearing screams on the morning Way disappeared. And one man claimed to have seen a long, dark car prowling the area around that time.

Police were reportedly notified but nothing came of the tips. Investigators at the time assured the public that every lead was being looked at, but that many were erroneous.

I just know my mother is dead, her daughter, identified as Mrs. L.J. Kaylor Jr., told The News and Courier in 1965. Only God knows what became of her. But Im certain shes dead, probably the victim of foul play.

Four years later, on the seventh anniversary of her disappearance, Ways son and daughter held a memorial service for their mother. A monument with Ways name, birthdate and place of birth was erected. Insurance money was collected.

Charleston police kept the case open, but held out little hope of it being solved. In March 1970, Detective Capt. Walter A. Edwards said he must have traveled 10,000 miles working on the case, but he had not turned up anything.

In a 1975 interview, Edwards, then retired, told The News and Courier he believed Way was very much alive. He also let on that he had a suspect in the case who could likely shed light on what happened if the man was ever located and questioned.

Edwards apparently took his suspicions to the grave. He died a year after giving that interview.

Dead ends

To better understand the avenues police pursued, The Post and Courier last year submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the investigative file in Ways disappearance.

Police were unable to locate the documents. Officials said they suspect it was lost, along with many other records from that period, in the massive floods that accompanied Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

The newspaper also sought access to the FBIs file on the case through a separate open-records request. The agency denied that request, saying it could only release the file if Way had been declared dead or had given her consent to sharing the documents. As she remained missing, the newspaper was unable to meet those conditions.

SLED released its file from the case, but it contained only three pages, all related to the missing persons alert immediately issued after her disappearance.

Attempts to reach investigators who worked on the case also met with dead ends, as all had either passed away or were long since retired. Many in the department are now unfamiliar with the case.

Her family never forgot, though. Her son, Ronnie Way, told The Post and Courier in 1997 that, despite a bad heart, he still buried himself in work to keep himself from obsessing over his mother's disappearance. "You never get over it," he said.

He'd spent years trying to figure out her fate and had settled on a theory that his mother had been abducted by a man suspected of robbing the Coburg Dairy in 1957. The safe-cracking caper, known as the "Keep Smiling case" because of a sign left behind by the bandits, was remarkable in its own right. The thieves had masked their illicit actions by placing a picture of the safe in the dairy's window to portray a false scene of normalcy.

Way told a reporter that his mother had unwittingly befriended the robbery suspect at a party. He wondered if that man was the driver seen coaxing a woman into his car on Wentworth Street the day Way disappeared. Could it have been his mother? he wondered.

"We'd like to just find something. I'd give everything I own just to know," he said at the time. "The part that really sticks at you is, how did she die? Did they strangle her? Murder her? Molest her? I could accept her dying with cancer. That's God's will. This was man's will."

Ronnie Way died in 2009 without ever getting the answers to those questions.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a princeling of progressivism who has ascended to the summit of political power in one of the bluest states in the country, and yet is in real danger of suffering a humiliating defeat.

In a few weeks, he could be recalled and, after a lifetime of political striving, replaced by a conservative talk-radio host who has thought about holding elected office for about five minutes.

Recall is a blunt instrument. Theres no denying that it is bizarre that Larry Elder, the leading alternative candidate, could replace Newsom after getting less than 20% of the vote. The way the recall works is that voters are first asked whether or not to recall Newsom. If a majority says yes, he is gone. Then, whichever candidate gets the most votes on the replacement ballot, even if its a small plurality, becomes governor.

Recall is a well-established feature of the California system. It has been in the states constitution since 1911, and, of course, was used most recently when Gray Davis was recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.

The recall is decided by the thoroughly democratic method of seeing what and who get the most votes. Newsom supporters have the power to stop his ouster simply by outvoting, even by one ballot, the recall supporters.

If there is no credible Democrat among the replacement candidates, that was a deliberate strategic choice of the party to make the recall a contest between an impeccably progressive governor and a motley group of Republicans. The calculation may pay off, but it is a risk that makes the Elder scenario plausible.

The bottom line is that recall is an escape valve in a state with an entrenched political monoculture. It is the only plausible tool available to deliver a well-deserved personal rebuke to Newsom and an unmistakable message to the states political establishment that it is failing.

Newsom inherited a state in decline. Once a mecca for the middle class and strivers of all kinds, California has become an economic inequality machine with an outrageously high cost of living and a steady exodus of residents and companies.

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Newsom is the governor by and for all the forces that created this debacle. His Democratic predecessor, Jerry Brown, was a substantial figure with an independent streak. Newsom has, in contrast, risen without a trace. From San Francisco mayor to lieutenant governor, to governor, hes wedded his ambition to a progressive elitism that can seem out of touch even in liberal California.

He wouldnt face a recall if it werent for his instantly notorious dinner at French Laundry. This isnt the most significant of his lapses, but breaking his own coronavirus rules at one of the finest restaurants in the country was going to engender a fierce reaction. Especially after Newsom ordered far-reaching and extensive lockdowns that were arbitrary and economically damaging.

Meanwhile, schools in the state were often closed, a significant blow to learning and a particular burden to parents without the means to find alternatives.

He has effectively done nothing to fight the twin crises of wildfire and drought, and theres a pervasive sense that disorder and homelessness in the states big cities are intolerably degrading the quality of life.

Newsoms strategy is an unimaginative blunderbuss approach: raising ungodly amounts of cash from billionaires and special interests, and bludgeoning recall proponents as dangerous insurrectionist tools of former President Donald Trump.

This may well work. Still, the polls have had the recall shockingly close, evidence that even in California theres such a thing as a progressive being too off-putting and going too far.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.
In order to attend school in South Carolina, public or private, children have to provide proof of vaccination against polio, chickenpox, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and hepatitis A and B. Our exemptions are too easily abused, but state law is clear, and has been for decades: no immunization, no school.

State law doesnt require students to provide proof of vaccination to attend college, but most colleges do, and in any event most of the students already had to be up to date on vaccinations to attend high school.

Federal law requires members of the military and immigrants to be vaccinated against pretty much the same list of diseases. And all 49 other states require roughly the same childhood immunizations for school admission  all of which means that nearly everyone in the country has been immunized against all the major communicable diseases and at some point has had to provide someone with a vaccine passport.

The exceptions are influenza and, of course, COVID-19.

We dont expect that to change in South Carolina anytime soon; the Legislature barred colleges from requiring COVID vaccinations, and DHEC Director Dr. Edward Simmer said Monday his agency had no plans to add them to the list of required K-12 vaccinations this year. Nor do we expect state government to follow New York and California and require state employees to get vaccinated, although local governments have  at least for the moment  the legal right to do so.

But the FDAs decision Monday to grant full authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine should remove the last remaining obstacle for businesses, nonprofits and others to require or much more strongly encourage COVID-19 vaccinations.

Some employers already had implemented vaccine requirements for employees and customers prior to Mondays approval  primarily but not entirely in the health field. In South Carolina, a notable leader has been Nephron Pharmaceuticals, which has 2,000 employees on its West Columbia campus.

Whats important about Nephron is that it's not one of those do-gooder companies run by a crazy social engineer. CEO Lou Kennedy is a prominent Republican donor whom Gov. Henry McMaster tapped to serve on both his original and trimmed-down accelerateSC task forces to help our state recover from the financial shock of COVID-19 and recommend spending priorities for billions of dollars in federal aid.

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When Ms. Kennedy told the governor about her plans to start requiring vaccinations earlier this month, a spokesman confirmed, he expressed his support.

That makes all the sense in the world, because unlike the governors in some states  and even some lawmakers here in South Carolina  Mr. McMaster understands that supporting the free-market system means supporting the right of businesses to make their own decisions about what works best for them, even if you don't like those decisions.

It means that even if you somehow believe its OK to tell schools they cant require students to wear masks, you would never, ever in a million years tell employers that they cant require masks. Or vaccinations. Or pretty much anything else that isnt dangerous or discriminatory.

Ms. Kennedy said her decision came down to the importance of ensuring that she could continue to provide hospitals with respiratory medications and other in-demand drugs. But whether the motivation is to keep vital supply chains open or simply to keep the business operating or the nonprofit providing services, the job can't be done unless you're able to keep enough employees healthy and out of quarantine. And requiring employees to be vaccinated is increasingly the best way to do that  and, in some cases, to prevent crippling spikes in medical insurance costs that result from COVID hospitalizations. Likewise, requiring customers to be vaccinated is increasingly the best way for event venues, restaurants and bars to stay open, and attract enough customers to stay in business.

To see the public-health payoff of vaccine requirements, look no further than Furman University, which as a private college is able to require vaccinations. As of Aug. 18, 88% of its students were vaccinated, about double the percentage of vaccinated college-age students nationally and almost 30 percentage points above the figure at USC. The school also reported that 95% of faculty and 75% of staff are vaccinated, compared to less than half of S.C. adults.

If we could get that sort of numbers across our population, we could stop fighting over mask mandates, because COVID's spread would be low enough that we wouldnt need to worry with masks, even in our schools.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson went to extraordinary lengths to distance himself from the lawsuit he filed last week seeking to enforce the Legislatures prohibition on mask requirements in public schools.

In a brief news release announcing that he had asked the S.C. Supreme Court to stop school districts from requiring masks, Mr. Wilsons office pointed out that the lawsuit does not question whether masks are effective or a good idea but is based on the importance of following state law and noted that Attorney General Wilson encourages everyone to wear masks when appropriate and encourages anyone who can to get the COVID vaccination.

However, the news release continued, "The rule of law must prevail.

It wasnt just news-release spin. Mr. Wilson even extended his Dont blame the messenger argument into the lawsuit itself, which opens with what sounds almost like an apology: We understand and respect the concerns that citizens and governments have about the spread of COVID 19 and its variants. This case is not about what policies are best for dealing with the virus. We bring this Petition not to choose sides in debates over health precautions. Instead, we ask this Court to resolve a dispute over the controlling effect of a legislative proviso regarding mask requirements so that all jurisdictions will be informed about what law governs. He added that the legislative power is sacrosanct and must be preserved.

Its a little difficult to square Mr. Wilson's "just doing my job" argument with his tortured reading of another law that prohibits colleges from having separate mask requirements for vaccinated and unvaccinated students. As evidenced by the recent Supreme Court order in that case, its simply not possible for anyone who isnt trying to find a mask prohibition to read one into that law; for that matter, that's a stretch for most people who are trying to find such a prohibition.

Clearly, Mr. Wilson could have used his discretion to leave this issue alone  just as prosecutors routinely use their discretion not to prosecute certain cases or sorts of crimes. But if he really does now see his job as making sure state and local governments obey the law, whether he likes the law or not, then were pretty excited about that, because frankly theres a lot of lawlessness out there. And yes, although we are pointing out inconsistency here, we're also serious about this point.

Just to pick an example out of the air, he could start by filing a lawsuit to challenge North Charlestons 2017 annexation of a historically sensitive West Ashley property, which preservationists fear will lead to much more intense development than would have been allowed before the annexation.

Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith Jr. ruled in 2019 that the annexation violated state law, but let it stand because he said only the attorney general had standing to file a lawsuit. In the two years since, Mr. Wilsons office has declined to respond to multiple attempts from our staff seeking comment on what he plans to do to force North Charleston to obey the rule of law.

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Thats certainly not the only case where a local government has violated annexation law or all sorts of other laws but got away with it because only the state has standing to sue.

For that matter, Mr. Wilson could start filing lawsuits over what likely is the most violated law by S.C. state and local governments: the Freedom of Information Act.

And just to pick one of those violations out of the air, he could file suit challenging the Charleston County School Boards decision earlier this month to kick the public out of its meeting while medical experts briefed it on the spread of COVID-19 infections and how masks can slow that spread. As we noted last week, as much as we agree that we need mask requirements in school, that doesnt make it OK to violate the law  either the no-mandates law or the Freedom of Information Act.

And yes, we agree with Mr. Wilson that state law prohibits all the efforts weve seen so far to require masks in school. The legal questions are whether those laws violate the state constitution and whether it would be legal for a school district to develop and enforce a ban using entirely local or federal funds (which would mean, for instance, that teachers and anyone else whose salary comes in whole or in part from state funds couldnt be involved)  which no one has tried so far.

The good thing about filing a few FOI lawsuits is that the payoff could be immense. As we noted Sunday, our courts nearly always rule against governments in these cases. The problem is that too often no one files lawsuits challenging governments illegal closed-door meetings or their refusal to turn over records as required by law, because there are rarely enough monetary damages (if any) to cover the cost of filing and fighting an FOI lawsuit.

Mr. Wilson could probably find at least one action a week by a school board, city council, county council or state board or commission to challenge in court. Spend a month or two doing that, and other governments would get the message.
For more than 20 years, Richard Habersham, president of the Phillips community, has fought to protect and honor the land bequeathed by freed slaves to their descendants in this 422-acre black settlement.

Securing public support and non-profit champions has been slow and methodical.

This is a man who may laugh easily, but do not be fooled: He does not give up.

Habershams tenacity and respect for everyone whom he has engaged in this process, as well as for those who have resisted him, are praiseworthy.

It is a tribute to him that the Charleston County Council finally voted to declare Phillips a historic district with the attendant higher scrutiny of future development plans.

Habershams integrity and conduct throughout this more than 20-year struggle should be the gold standard for how politics and policy are conducted. The fight is not over.

Achieving inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places is his ultimate goal. If ever there were a man for the job, its Habersham.

Its encouraging to see that the nice guy can still win.

TISH LYNN

Ashley Avenue

Charleston

What will it take?

Its enraging to learn Gov. Henry McMaster and Attorney General Alan Wilson were busy stumping at a barbecue joint in Anderson at a time when three Dorchester County School District 2 staffers died from COVID-19 and 277 students and staff tested positive.

Pickens County had to revert to virtual learning after 600 students had to quarantine.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control reported more than 13,000 new COVID cases Aug. 21-23.

And that was just Tuesdays news.

Wilson promised to fight cities that impose mask mandates, and McMaster mentioned the southern border, as if to place blame elsewhere.

The politicians whooped it up, tone deaf to our health crisis.

What they need to consider, secondary to aiding and abetting COVIDs takeover in the state, is the number of voters theyll lose if they continue on this path.

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CATHERINE YOUNG

Tides End Road

Charleston

Deja vu on ethics

On my very first day of living in South Carolina, I read the headline in The Post and Courier, SC politicians blow off ethics fines with few consequences.

I had to pinch myself to be sure that I was, in fact, physically here on Daniel Island.

I also had to look twice to be sure I was, in fact, reading The Post and Courier, and not the usual ethics issues that are almost daily events in the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal.

Being new here, and despite the newspapers excellent article on the ethics issues, I am hoping with my move here I am not in for a repeat of what I left behind.

I am a former Rhode Island resident and elected school board member.

Rogues Island has the reputation of being the sixth most corrupt state in the country.

TOM LETOURNEAU

Robert Daniel Pointe

Daniel Island

Book on charter schools

There have been several recent articles in The Post and Courier concerning Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mount Pleasant.

For a better understanding of what is going on with charter schools throughout most of the country, I recommend reading Thomas Sowells recent book, Charter Schools and their Enemies.

Its 276 pages are very readable and can be obtained from local libraries.

Some of the topics include the lengths parents go to in order to get their child into a charter school, the selection of students by lottery and union vs. nonunion teacher participation.

JOHN BROWER

Eastern Isle Avenue

Summerville
In this Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, file photo, travelers move through Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City. A COVID-19 resurgence this summer has caused consumers to turn cautious, while investors trim their investments in a travel sector still struggling to recover.
@PottstownNews on Twitter

Evan Brandt has been a staff reporter for The Mercury for more than 20 years. He covers municipal, school district, political, state government, federal government and environmental news.
Last week, Michael Byrd, the Capitol police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt on January 6, was exonerated following an internal investigation. Previously, the Justice Department had decided not to bring charges against Byrd.

Now that he has been cleared, Byrd, whose identity had been protected (albeit ineffectively), has come forward to defend his shooting of Babbitt. According to Byrd, he shot Babbitt as a last resort when she attempted to crawl through the glass window of the doors to the Speakers Lobby, a hallway outside the House chamber where some representatives and staff members had sought refuge from the angry crowd and were trapped.

Byrd says he issued warnings not to enter the Speakers Lobby, but Babbitt ignored them. He contends that had he not shot her, she would have led the mob into this area and that the lives of those sheltering there, as well as officers protecting them, would have been in danger.

Byrd states:

I tried to wait as long as I could. I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors. But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.

What did Byrd know about Babbitt and her intentions? He says I could not fully see her hands or what was in the backpack or what the intentions are, but they [the mob] had shown violence leading up to that point. Byrd adds that he was a aware of reports (erroneous as it turned out) of gunfire by protesters.

If Byrds rendition of the facts is true, it seems to me that he was justified in shooting Babbitt. In police shootings of lawbreakers who threaten officer safety or the safety of others, it is always my position that the officer has the right to shoot. He need not wait to be certain that lives are in danger. Its enough that the victim breaks the law, ignores police warnings, and surges forward towards the officer or those hes charged with protecting.

In Byrds account, all of these conditions are met.

If a BLM mob storms a courthouse or a police station and, ignoring an officers command, surges towards the occupants, I will defend that officer if he or she stops the mob by shooting the person leading the charge. I see no reason to analyze Byrds conduct differently. (The left, by contrast, would condemn the officer in the BLM case while having no problem with the shooting of Babbitt.)

Is Byrds account true? I dont know for sure.

I wish I could rely with full confidence on the findings of the capitol police and the Justice Department. However, with the way things are these days, in particular, with Democrats bent on portraying the January 6 events as an insurrection and one of the darkest days in American history, I cant.

On the other hand, Im aware of no facts that contradict what Byrd says and what the investigators found. Absent such evidence, I cant disagree with the conclusion that Byrd shot Babbitt with justification and that his exoneration is the correct outcome.
President Biden bears responsibility for the epic humiliation of the United States in Afghanistan. He proclaims it a great success consistent with his strategic genius. He nevertheless seeks to turn our attention elsewhere on a daily basis.

Yesterday Biden remarked on the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by our so-called Intelligence Community. The Key Takeaways have been posted in unclassified form. I found this paragraph in Bidens statement more illuminating than the Key Takeaways document:

Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the Peoples Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it. To this day, the PRC continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continue to rise. We needed this information rapidly, from the PRC, while the pandemic was still new. Since taking office, my administration has renewed U.S. leadership in the World Health Organization and rallied allies and partners to renew focus on this critical question. The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them. Responsible nations do not shirk these kinds of responsibilities to the rest of the world. Pandemics do not respect international borders, and we all must better understand how COVID-19 came to be in order to prevent further pandemics.

Add to these observations this undisputed fact adduced by Senator Tom Cotton:

This virus didnt emerge in some rural village next to a mountain cave full of bats. It emerged in a city larger than New York a few blocks down the road from labs where they just happened to research dangerous coronaviruses.

Using the IC jargon, the Key Takeaways document refers throughout to IC elements, yet the element of common sense is lacking.

The Key Takeaways document also states as a fact that Chinas obstruction of any investigation reflects its own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China. That is stupid.

Contrast the Key Takeaways with Senator Cottons April 2020 Wall Street Journal column on the origins of COVID-19 (posted here by Senator Cotton):

The U.S. government is investigating whether the Covid-19 virus came from a government laboratory in Wuhan, China. The Chinese Communist Party denies the possibility. There is no way this virus came from us, claimed Yuan Zhiming over the weekend. Mr. Yuan is a top researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which studies some of the worlds deadliest pathogens. He is also secretary of the labs Communist Party committee. He accuses me of deliberately trying to mislead people for suggesting his laboratory as a possible origin for the pandemic. Beijing has claimed that the virus originated in a Wuhan wet market, where wild animals were sold. But evidence to counter this theory emerged in January. Chinese researchers reported in the Lancet Jan. 24 that the first known cases had no contact with the market, and Chinese state media acknowledged the finding. Theres no evidence the market sold bats or pangolins, the animals from which the virus is thought to have jumped to humans. And the bat species that carries it isnt found within 100 miles of Wuhan. Wuhan has two labs where we know bats and humans interacted. One is the Institute of Virology, eight miles from the wet market; the other is the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, barely 300 yards from the market. Both labs collect live animals to study viruses. Their researchers travel to caves across China to capture bats for this purpose. Chinese state media released a minidocumentary in mid-December following a team of Wuhan CDC researchers collecting viruses from bats in caves. The researchers fretted openly about the risk of infection. These risks were not limited to the field. The Washington Post reported last week that in 2018 U.S. diplomats in China warned of a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate the Institute of Virology. The Wuhan CDC operates at even lower biosafety standards. While the Chinese government denies the possibility of a lab leak, its actions tell a different story. The Chinese military posted its top epidemiologist to the Institute of Virology in January. In February Chairman Xi Jinping urged swift implementation of new biosafety rules to govern pathogens in laboratory settings. Academic papers about the viruss origins are now subject to prior restraint by the government. In early January, enforcers threatened doctors who warned their colleagues about the virus. Among them was Li Wenliang, who died of Covid-19 in February. Laboratories working to sequence the viruss genetic code were ordered to destroy their samples. The laboratory that first published the viruss genome was shut down, Hong Kongs South China Morning Post reported in February. This evidence is circumstantial, to be sure, but it all points toward the Wuhan labs. Thanks to the Chinese coverup, we may never have direct, conclusive evidence-intelligence rarely works that way-but Americans justifiably can use common sense to follow the inherent logic of events to their likely conclusion.

Circumstantial evidence and common sense are powerful tools. The apparent failure of the IC to apply them to the case is lacking in intelligence.
As the Afghanistan debacle has unfolded, I have been following the coverage in various foreign newspapers. The coverage I have seen has been harshly critical of the Biden administration, to a degree that more or less equals what we see in the conservative press here in the U.S.

Take, for example, a news story and two commentary pieces in todays Telegraph. First, the news story by U.S. correspondent Jamie Johnson. At the top of the page is the now-famous photo of Joe Biden on the verge of bursting into tears during his press appearance last night. The story begins:

US President Joe Biden crumbled under questioning by a Fox News reporter on Thursday night, as Donald Trump said his handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was embarrassing. In what was labelled a moment of weakness the president looked resigned as he tried to explain that it was Mr Trump who ordered troops to be withdrawn and that his only alternative was to send more US soldiers to the country.

***

Faced with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy, Mr Biden struggled to accept the blame for the chaotic US withdrawal.

That is brutal, but the opinion pieces, not surprisingly, are worse. The headline on Douglas Murrays piece is, Can the world afford another three and a half years of President Biden? The subhead is Britain has grown used to a strong America. Now, it must contend with a weak leadership in retreat. It gets worse from there.

In another opinion piece, Iain Duncan Smith writes, Bidens colossal mess is even worse than we thought.

This tragic mess comes back to President Biden. He owns every decision  and the consequences are also his.

***

In reality, of course, there was nothing inevitable about the violence and chaos of the withdrawal. Meanwhile, officials have been letting it be known that Biden was indeed warned that the Afghan security services were likely to crumble in the face of the Taliban. He was even warned that if he shut Bagram airbase, he would cut off Afghan forces from their vital air support (a significant factor in their collapse) and lose the best place to evacuate from. He seems to have ignored that advice as well. Thats why, nearly eight hours after yesterdays attack, when Biden ghosted into the White House East Room he looked shell shocked. After all, in the last eighteen months, there have been no US or allied casualties in Afghanistan, no terrorist attacks from Afghanistan, and the Taliban were being held at bay by the Afghan forces, supported by Nato. In a matter of a few weeks, all of that has been thrown away, leaving the whole of Nato having to rely on the factional Taliban for their security.

Sadly, our allies are asking serious questions about whether the United States can any longer be trusted. A partial answer is, certainly not as long as Joe Biden is president.
On Thursday morning, my friend who follows the New York Times coverage of the Afghanistan debacle told me that the Times was backing off somewhat from its criticism of Joe Bidens handling of the pullout. The paper probably saw some hope that the U.S. could pull off a fairly effective evacuation with no loss of American lives.

We all hoped for this. However, the Times presumably intended to declare it a victory for which Biden could claim credit. It would not have been.

But now that our hopes for a peaceful exit have been dashed, Biden seems to be losing the Times again. My friend reports:

The Times isnt covering for Biden today, although they had moved a bit in that direction yesterday. A news analysis by Michael Shear offers little comfort for Biden, despite indulging in a bit of Republicans pounced style rhetoric. Harsh Republican criticisms are quoted, and its noted that even some Democrats are unhappy with Bidens handling of the withdrawal. An article analyzing ISIS K and the general status of terror groups and their rivalries suggests that Afghanistan may soon become an important base for international terrorism.

The Times willingness to criticize Biden may be tentative, but its making the left unhappy nonetheless. Thats clear from this editorial in the New York Post. The Post cites an article in New York Magazine called The Media Manufactured Bidens Political Fiasco in Afghanistan. Straight news has chosen sanctimony over circumspection.

As the Posts editorial suggests, the second sentence fits the contemporary mainstream media to a T. Straight news at the New York Times and the Washington Post has been sanctimoniously leftist for decades now.

My friend says of the New York Magazine piece:

It seems mostly to be referring to tweets and pieces from NYT reporters that never make it into the print edition, but the point applies to the print stuff Ive been reading as well. This is what the NYT shift weve been noticing has done to the left.

The New York Magazine article is dated August 25. Does the author still think the media has manufactured the fiasco? Probably. If not, give him and his fellow apologists a day or two.

I hope the New York Times takes longer than that before its usual pro-Biden service is resumed.
Yes, no matter what

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The Kaduna State Government says three persons have been killed while many sustained injuries in an attack in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of the state.

Samuel Aruwan, Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, confirmed the attack in a statement issued on Friday in Kaduna.

Security agencies have reported to the Kaduna State Government that Machun and Manuka villages in Zangon Kataf LGA were attacked by unidentified persons, leaving three residents dead and several others injured.

According to the report, police personnel responded to a distress call from Machun village, and mobilised there.

On arrival, they were also alerted by gunshots from neighbouring Manuka.

As the assailants fled the area, the operatives found the corpses of three victims, he said.

He said an unspecified number of victims were injured and were now receiving treatment in hospital.

The Commissioner said, Governor Nasir El-Rufai received the report with sadness, and prayed for the repose of the residents killed, while sending condolences to their families.

He also wished the injured persons a quick recovery, while urging security agencies working in the area to ensure thorough investigations of the matter.

Me Aruwan said the governor equally urged intensification of efforts towards apprehending the perpetrators of the attacks.

Mr Aruwan said security agencies are sustaining operations in the area.

(NAN)
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Another batch of 32 abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, Maraban Damishi, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state, have regained their freedom, bringing the total of those released to 90.

The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State, John Hayab, confirmed the release of the students to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, in Kaduna.

Me Hayab said: Yes, 32 of our students were freed on Friday evening. We still have 31 with the captors and we are praying that they too will be released soon, he said.

The bandits in the early hour of July 5, invaded the school and kidnapped 121 students of the school, but released a first batch of 58 students before the latest development.

When contacted, the Kaduna state Police Command Public Relations Officer, Muhammad Jalige confirmed the release of the 32 students.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported the abduction of the students by armed groups.

The abduction as of then was the fourth mass abduction in Kaduna schools in the last six months of deteriorating insecurity in North-west and North-central states

Me Jalige, in a statement then to reporters, said the incident occurred on Monday morning and 26 students of the school were rescued.

In the early hours of today Monday 5th July, 2021 at about 0143hrs the Command received a report that armed bandits in large number had gained access into Bethel Baptist Secondary School Kujuma in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State.

They shot berserkly, overpowered the schools security guards and made their way into the students hostel where they abducted an unspecified number of students into the forest.

On the receipt of the unfortunate incident, a joint team of the Nigeria Police, Army and Navy operatives were immediately mobilised to the area with a mission to rescue the abducted students unhurt.

Reports say the parents of the abducted children have had to pay humongous amounts of ransom for their release though no one has confirmed this.
The Plateau State House of Assembly has given Governor Simon Lalong two weeks to address the security challenges bedviling the state.

It also asked communities to defend themselves from attackers due to the failure of the government to protect them.

Philip Dasun, Chairman, House Committee on Information conveyed the position of the legislators when he briefed reporters in Jos.

Me Dasun said that the assembly would know the next line of action after the two-week ultimatum.

As an assembly with people at heart, we call on Plateau citizens to have confidence in us with renewed commitment.

We have given two weeks to the governor to take action on the resolutions the House has forwarded on security matters and how to restore peace.

We call on the Gov. Simon Bako Lalong to come up with a statement defending us as a people and to bring back renewed commitment to the cause of Plateau.

We strongly call on Plateau people to practically stand up and defend themselves and their communities, as the conventional security design is no longer guaranteeing our safety as a people, he said.

The committee chairman also called on traditional rulers to look inward and release the local security design to protect Plateau people as well as reinforce the vigilance, hunters and local wise men to defend the people.

He said that as a sign of commitment to the urgent need for the people to protect themselves, the Plateau State House of Assembly had directed all local government Chairmen to suspend their planned recruitment of Adhoc teachers, and instead, recruit 200 vigilante personnel in each local government area to boost and augment local intelligence gathering.

The legislator called on security operatives to fish out the perpetrators of the mayhem and punish them according to the law.

On behalf of the assembly, I wish to sympathize with the government and Plateau people on the barbaric and dastardly killings that have been taking place in different communities in the state.

I sympathize with communities in Bassa, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Jos North, Jos South, Mangu, Riyom, University of Jos community and recently that of Yelwa Zangam.

The House condemns all these killings in totality, all these killings are unacceptable and condemnable.

We commiserate with the families of all those who lost their loved ones during these attacks, he said.

Nanbol Daniel, Chairman, House Committee on Health in his contribution urged the people to protect themselves but should not go against the law.

Mr Daniel said that the assembly had resolved that Plateau Government should compensate victims of the attacks.

The health committee chairman said that legislators would continue to update the people on their efforts to restore peace in the state.

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The state has experienced armed attacks, killings and violence in the past few weeks after some unharmed travellers were killed by hoodlums.

(NAN)
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Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has announced the closure of all weekly markets in the state as part of measures to address worsening security situation in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Matawalle announced this after receiving 18 kidnapped students of the States College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Bakura.

The governor also said the state government banned the selling of petrol in jerrycans as part of the measures to stop supplying fuel to the bandits.

Filling stations in the state should also sell only N10,000 fuel to each vehicle and should be vigilant of vehicles or motorcycles coming for repeat purchases immediately.

No commercial motorcycle riders are allowed to carry three persons at a time.

We also reduced the operations of commercial motorcycle and tricycles between 6:00am and 8:00pm in the state capital, while outside the state capital is between 6:00am and 6:00pm.

But essential services to include health personnel, security men and journalist who identified himself were allowed to ride motorcycle or tricycle beyond the stated time.

The governor also banned the transportation of cows, and firewood through out the state, while movement of food items must be thoroughly investigated to ensure it does not get to bandits.

While saying that all citizens must comply with the new directives or face the full wrath of the law, the governor also called on the public to report any person found breaching the directives.
The 9th Edition of the Norbert Zongo Award for exceptional photojournalists and cartoonists was on Saturday announced by its organisers, The National Press Centre- Norbert Zongo (CNP-NZ).

The prize is an award of excellence to reward the best works in that category of artistry and others. As usual, it would also be awarded alongside other ones for exceptional investigative investigative journalistic pieces.

The prize is open to all the professionals in Africa or those collaborating with the African press.

The works in French or English can be sent by e-mail to: cnpress@cnpress-zongo.org or cnpnzongo@gmail.com and originals by regular post.

The investigative journalism competition will be in three categories: Newspapers, Radio and Television and Online press.

The organisers have fixed the deadline for submission via its portal as Saturday, October 16, 2021.

The prize will be awarded during the 9th edition of the International Festival of Freedom of Expression and Press  FILEP 2019, scheduled November 10 to 13, 2021 in Ouagadougou.

The prize was initiated in honour of a journalist, Norbert Zongo, who was killed while conducting an investigation into the unresolved death of David Ouedraogo, driver of Francois Compaore, the younger brother of President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.

Despite death threats, the late Zongo reportedly continued his investigation until he was murdered.

Full text of press release below:

The Centre National de Presse Norbert Zongo (CNP-NZ) is pleased to bring to the attention of all professional photographers, and cartoonists (working in a press organ or Freelance) that it organizes as part of the 9th edition of the International Festival of Freedom of Expression and Press (FILEP) which will be held from November 10 to 13, 2021 in Ouagadougou, a competition to reward the best works in press photo and cartoon.

The competition has two (02) categories: the press photos category and the press cartoons category.

Cartoonists, and photojournalists employed in a press organ in Africa or Freelancers regularly collaborating with press organs in Africa can take part in the competition.

To this end, the CNP-NZ invites photographers, and cartoonists to submit works on the theme At the crossroads of health, security, political and technological change crises, lets build resilient media at the service of African citizens.

For the press photos category, each photojournalist is invited to submit a maximum of three (03) works, in jpg files of 24cmx30cm and in 300dpi weighing at least 3 MB. Regarding the press cartoons category, each cartoonist is invited to submit a maximum of three (03) works, in jpg files of 24cmx30cm and in 300dpi.

Applications must reach the Centre National de Presse Norbert Zongo, only electronically at the email address cnpress@cnpress-zongo.org or cnpnzongo@gmail.com no later than Saturday, October 16, 2021.

The rules of procedure available on the CNP-NZ website (www.cnpress-zongo.org) detail the conditions of participation.

For any information, please contact the Centre National de Presse Norbert Zongo at (+226) 25 34 41 89 or (+226) 25 34 37 45 or cnpress@cnpress-zongo.org / cnpnzongo@gmail.com.

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Ouagadougou, August 13, 2021

For the CNP-NZ,

The President,

Siriki DRAME
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The Committee on Prison Reforms and Decongestion has freed Rahma Hussein, a young woman accused of killing her husband to protest her forced marriage.

Ms Hussein allegedly committed the said offence in 2014. She stabbed her newlywed husband, Tijjani Basiru, to death at Darmanawa quarters, in Tarauni local government area of Kano.

She was 16 when she committed the offence. She was charged for culpable homicide and pleaded not guilty.

READ ALSO:

In 2018, Justice R. A. Sadik ordered her detained at the pleasure of the governor of the state because she was forcefully married and committed the offence at the age of 16.

The prison reform committee, led by Justice Ishaq Bello, also facilitated the release of 30 other inmates from various custodial centres in the state.

The spokesperson, Kano correctional centre, Musbahu Kofar-Nasarawa, in a statement on Saturday, said Ms Husseins release on Friday was based on the recommendation from the officials of the correctional centre who attested to her sound character.

The committee also advised Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who holds the power of prerogative of mercy on her judgement, to consider the circumstances that led her to commit the offence and grant her pardon.
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A newborn baby boy was on Saturday found dead at the dump site in front of a primary school in Okaka community, Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

According to residents of the area, the baby must have been abandoned by the mother in the night.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered from residents of the area who went early in the morning to dump refuse at the site saw the little baby wrapped in an Ankara clothing, crying helplessly.

A resident, who preferred anonymity, said the first person that saw the child raised alarm which attracted a crowd from the neighborhood but no help could come as the innocent child was already dying from the cold and the rain of the previous night.

She also said that the child was confirmed dead later as he stopped crying.

Men of the Bayelsa Environmental Sanitation Authority (BESA), who were monitoring the monthly sanitation exercise in Bayelsa, visited the scene of the incident and condemned the action.

Director of Waste Management, BESA, Ebitto Alazigha, who led the monitoring team, enjoined residents to always monitor their neighbours on what they took to dump sites.

He said that the authority would put measures in place to check such menace in future.

Chairperson of Gender Response Team (GRT), and founder of Do-Foundation, Dise Ogbise, blamed the ugly development on poverty and promiscuity amongst young girls.

She urged young women with difficulties in taking care of their babies to contact her office rather than destroy innocent lives.

Describing the act as illegal, she warned that if the perpetrators were caught, they would be arrested for murder, prosecuted and jailed.

Another resident, Ebimoere Matthew, also criticised such act.

ALSO READ: Police uncover baby factory in Lagos

Its unfortunate that innocent children are being wasted in Bayelsa because most of the parents of these unfortunate children are not ready for child bearing but go into relationships to get immediate material needs.

This development is highly commendable.

Children are blessings to every family, they should not be killed because of poverty mentality.

Government should take action to forestall future occurrence, she said.

Police spokesman in Bayelsa, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the incident, saying the command has already contacted the sanitation authority to evacuate the corpse of the baby, while investigation was ongoing. (NAN)
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The Ogun Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said two people lost their lives on Saturday in a three-vehicle pile-up around AP Petrol Station on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The State Sector Commander of FRSC, Ahmed Umar, who confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun, said that one other person sustained injuries in the accident.

Mr Umar explained that the accident, which involved five people and three vehicles, happened at about 6.40 a.m.

He said one of the vehicles got trapped in a heap of granite spilled on a section of the road by a truck, and that the two other vehicles ran into the trapped vehicle, resulting in multiple collisions.

He said the vehicles involved in the accident were a grey Volkswagen car with registration number GWA 114 BC, a silver Hyundai Sonata car, marked RBC 108 AE, and a grey Mercedes Benz car, marked BDG 757 GF.

The corpses of the victims had been deposited at Idera Hospital, Sagamu, while the survivor is also receiving treatment in same hospital,  he said.

Mr Umar, who blamed the accident on over-speeding, advised motorists to refrain from the act and always exercise patience to avert road mishaps. (NAN)
Foremost election monitoring group, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has elected Auwal Rafsanjani as the new Chairman of its Board.

He replaces Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, who stepped down having served the required maximum four years single-term in office.

Mr Rafsanjani alongside other members of the board were elected at the groups Annual General meeting (AGM) that took place in Abuja on Thursday.

Other members elected by the group included 10 new board members and the state coordinators who were pooled from different demographics to reflect the diversity of the country.

Those elected are Mirian Menkiti, Vice Chair; Tijani Abdulkareem, Treasurer; Ekaete Judith Umoh, representing persons with disabilities; Tayo Akinpelu, representing the youth; and Abdu-Azis Bako, North Central Coordinator.

Sylvester Okoduwa, South-south Coordinator; Joseph Gimba, North-east Coordinator; Adesina Adefolahan, South-west; Gabriel Odom, South-east; and Fatima Mohammed Umar, North-west were also elected.

Mr Rafsanjani, who is also the Head of Transparency International-Nigeria and the chairman Board of Trustee, Amnesty International-Nigeria will now steer the affairs of the flagship election observation coalition in the country for the next four years.

He is known for his consistent engagement of the polity in the last two decades pushing for sustainable reforms that will bring lasting solutions to Nigerians many crises.

While delivering his acceptance speech, Mr Rafsanjani thanked the outgoing board and promised to add to some of the achievements made by his predecessor.

He promised to carry along members by running an all inclusive organisation, rebuilding partnership with stakeholders especially with the donor community as well as other relevant agencies in the development sector.

He noted that the new leadership will make all necessary efforts to bring together all members in order to work as a team toward moving the organisation forward and mobilise citizens to demand for accountability in order to choose the right leaders as we match toward the 2023 General Election.

The new board pledged to uphold an already established goodwill and sustained relationship the group presently enjoys with the media.

Mr Rafsanjani thanked the members of the coalition for their steadfastness and noted that in the spirit of accountability, the new board will resuscitate the TMG Newsletter, Democracy Watch so as to maintain constant communication with the members on the activities of the group.

He praised the effort of the outgoing leadership for the good work they did to keep the organisation relevant.

The AGM kick started with an Electoral Summit with the theme: The Future of Nigeria Election; The Way Forward.

The summit looked at various issues that could improve or impede elections in Nigeria with focus on electoral security, internal party democracy, electronic voting and the impact of election litigation on the integrity of our electoral process.

As the flagship of election observation in Nigeria, TMG played a pivotal role in ensuring civic participation by mobilising citizens during the Nigerias transition program conducted by the then military regime of Abdusalami Abubakar between 1998 and 1999.

Since then, TMG has consistently engaged the electoral process in ensuring transparency, accountability and credibility of the process by sensitizing and observing every strand of election in Nigeria.

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The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has denied stepping down from his position.

A statement by his media aide, Ike Abonyi, on Saturday, said Mr Secondus was absent from the partys National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in obedience to the interim order by the Cross River State High Court, Calabar, restraining him from functioning in that position.

The court issued the order on Friday.

It would be the third time in one week that courts in the country would issue orders on Mr Secondus.

A Rivers High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had on Monday restrained Mr Secondus from parading himself himself as the PDP national chairman.

Four days later, a Kebbi State High Court sitting in Birnin-Kebbi reinstated him.

As a result of the latest order by the Cross River High Court, Mr Secondus had earlier on Saturday asked his deputy (South), Yemi Akinwonmi, to preside over the NEC meeting held at the partys national secretariat in Abuja.

In the statement, Mr Secondus said his four- year mandate would expire in December having been elected on December 10, 2017.

Meanwhile, the NEC, at its meeting on Saturday, confirmed that the national convention would hold in Abuja on October 30 and 31 to elect new members of the national Working committee.

Read the full statement below.

Secondus has not stepped down.

..just obeying Calabar Court interim order.

The media office of Prince Uche Secondus wishes to correct erroneous news circulating that he has stepped down as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Prince Secondus by his unavoidable absence at the partys National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting on Saturday was merely obeying an interim order from Cross River state High Court.

As a law abiding citizen who has been an adherent of rule of law as a basis for democracy stayed away in respect for the courts.

Prince Secondus four year mandate to lead the party given on December 10, 2017 ends by December, 2021.

By this release, media office wishes to urge media houses and members of the public particularly beloved members of PDP to disregard any news suggesting that he has stepped down.

Signed.

Ike Abonyi

SA Media
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President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with family, friends and associates of legendary musician and multi-talented artiste, Victor Uwaifo, who passed on Saturday.

The president in a condolence message by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, on Saturday in Abuja, noted that the deceased left a legacy of successes in many areas of life, including academia and administration.

Mr Buhari joined the Nigerian music industry and performing artistes, home and abroad, in mourning the former first Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism (Edo), who was also the first musician and instrumentalist to be given National Honours Merit, Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) in 1983.

The president believed the renowned musician, with global appeal and recognitions, lived for many firsts, which include invitation to the State House by four presidents and Heads of State, and winner of a gold disc in Africa for his song, Joromi, released in 1965 at the age of 24.

He noted the glory that Mr Uwaifo brought to Nigeria through his international tours and the active role he played in national development, returning to school to get a first degree at age 54 with first class honours, masters degree at 56, and a doctorate at 77.

Mr Buhari prayed for the soul of the departed musician, writer, sculptor, musical instrument inventor and university lecturer, knowing the entire country, particularly the music industry, would sorely miss him.

(NAN)
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The Zamfara State Government has secured the release of 18 students of the state College of Agricultural and Animal Sciences Bakura, abducted by unknown gunmen recently.

The gunmen had in August 16, abducted students and staff of the College in Bakura Local Government Area of the state.

Presenting the released abductees to Governor Bello Matawalle, at the Government House, Gusau, on Friday, the State Commissioner of Police, Ayuba Elkana, said the victims were rescued through dialogue initiated by the state government.

We may recall that the students were abducted and kept with the bandits 12 days ago.

They were rescued through the peace dialogue initiated by Governor Bello Matawalle, without paying any kobo as ransom.

I am happy to hand over the released students and staff to his Excellency, the governor, today, the Commissioner said.

Me Elkana commended all stakeholders who assisted in the rescue of the students.

Responding, Mr Matawalle commended the state peace and reconciliation committee for achieving the success.

We thank Allah the almighty, for having this staff and students back.

As we all know, my administration initiated peace and reconciliation with the bandits as part of the measures to address security challenges facing the state.

We used the dialogue through the repentant bandits and rescued this staff and students, he explained.

He said the released abductees will undergo medical checkup before they are handed over to their families.

(NAN)
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations have condemned the continued harassment of appointed public servants, especially women committed to public accountability.

This groups latest reaction was fuelled from series of harassment of Yewande Sadiku, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) including several women who have honoured the call to serve in the last few years.

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported the unending battles of Sadiku during her tenure.

In a press statement on Friday, the CSOs listed female public servants who have equally been persecuted due to their transparent work ethic.

The group noted that Arunma Otehs challenges during her tenure as the Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began for daring to change the status quo in her bid to sanitise the market.

While the House of Representatives passed a resolution directing the then President Goodluck Jonathan to remove her from office, the SEC Board asked her to go on compulsory leave and started an investigation conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).

She was later reinstated within a month at the conclusion of the investigation when she was cleared of any wrongdoing.

The Boards decision to ask her to go on compulsory leave was later declared illegal. She finished her term in 2015 having led the development of a 10-year plan for the capital market that is still being used as a road map, the group said.

Similarly, Marilyn Amobi of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) was relieved of her duties in 2019 following her demands for public accountability in the organization, the group said.

She was accused of myriad corruption and violating the Public Procurement Act by senior management, board members and the House of Representatives but the allegations were never proven before her eventual dismissal.

Hadiza Bala-Usman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was also mentioned.

She was accused of some infractions such as awarding contracts without the approval of the supervisory Ministry of Transportation and refusal to remit VAT deductions.

She was first suspended, then her appointment was terminated. However, Rotimi Amaechi who had accused her of the infractions did not respond when she made the facts of the matter public, Feminist Womanifesto Group said.

Lastly, in August 2021, Sadiku was questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in response to a petition on the alleged abuse of power.

This, they noted, was asides similar questioning by the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC).

The group believes that although her five year tenure at NIPC ends in September 2021, the ongoing campaign of calumny will taint her record of public accountability.

Listing her achievements, the group said Sadiku moved NIPC from 90th to 2nd in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Rankings for compliance and transparency, grew the agencys Internally Generated Revenue from N296 million in 2016 to N3.06 billion in 2020 and from 2016-2020, over 50% of this revenue was remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

They acknowledged her as one appointed to be a member of the Board of Trustees of the Investors Protection Fund of the Nigerian Exchange Limited on the basis of personal recognition as a person of integrity.

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The group indicated that the work place harassment is viewed as a gender-based violence adding that if the pattern is not curbed, there will be a fallout of competent women refusing to take high office.

They called on the government and persons of goodwill to stand with Ms Sadiku and end this campaign of calumny against her by some unscrupulous members of staff of NIPC and board members fueled by misogyny and an evident capacity deficit.
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The National Executive Committee (NEC) of Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, has unanimously confirmed 30 to 31 October as dates for its elective national convention.

At its 92nd meeting held in Abuja on Saturday, the NEC, which is the highest decision making organ of the party after the National Convention, announced Abuja as the venue for the convention after days of leadership tussle.

Against the expectation of many, the NEC meeting was presided over by the partys Deputy National Chairman (South), Yemi Akinwonmi, who acted on behalf of the recently restored embattled National Chairman, Uche Secondus.

In a letter released prior to the commencement of the meeting, Mr Secondus, had asked Mr Akinwonmi to play his role at the event, possibly in obedience to a more recent court order.

The convention is holding two months earlier than the expected time, December.

Mr Secondus-led National Working (NWC) was elected in December 2017 and ought to have completed its tenure in December this year but for the leadership crisis rocking the party in the last one month.

Crisis not over

Meanwhile, against the earlier announcement by the PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbodinyan, who said the crisis in the party had gone to rest on Thursday, a new court has barred Mr Secondus from his office.

Making it the third injunction in the week, a high court sitting in Cross River State on Friday granted an interim order restraining embattled chairman from resuming office.

Amidst the growing call for his removal by some aggrieved members and governors, PDP crisis took an intense turn on Monday as Rivers State High Court issued an order of interim injunction restraining Mr Secondus from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

Until Thursday when the Kebbi State High Court in Birnin-Kebbi restored him, Nigerians witnessed both Mr Akinwonmi and the party National Chairman (North), Suleiman Nazif, laying claims to Mr Secondus position.

While Mr Akinwonmi rightly quoted Section 45 (2) of the PDP Constitution (as amended) which says in the absence of the national chairman, the deputy national chairman from the region as the national chairman will act in that position, Mr Nazif, until the PDP unanimously selected the former on Thursday, had declared himself the interim chairman.

However, with the new restraining order from the Cross River High Court, Mr Secondus re-election chances at the forthcoming convention may have been further weakened.
The United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF), on Saturday, said it was relieved that the 91 abducted students of Salihu Tanko Islamiya School Tegina, in Niger, have regained their freedom.

This was announced in a statement by Samuel Kaalu, the Communications Specialist, UNICEF Kano Field Office, made available to reporters in Dutse, Jigawa.

It, however, condemned the death of one child while in captivity.

Children who went in search of knowledge were abducted at their school which is supposed to be a safe place for them while exercising their fundamental right to education, the statement quoted Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria as saying.

They spent 88 days in the hands of their abductors before being freed yesterday.

It is a tragedy and utterly unacceptable that one of these children died in captivity.

Hayatu Hashimu was just six years old at the time of his death.

We rejoice with the families whose children have been freed  and express our deepest condolences to little Hayatus family, who have just suffered the worst loss on top of the tragedy they have gone through for the last 88 days, it added.

No family should lose a child just because it took the right decision to send that child to school.

Schools should not be a target. Children should not be a target. Education is a fundamental right of every child and any attack on an educational institution is a violation of that right.

We reiterate our call to authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure schools are safe for all children.

UNICEF will work with partners to provide mental health, psychosocial support and counselling services to both the freed learners and their parents, the statement said.

According to the statement, an estimated 200 Nigerian students were still believed to be held after school abductions that have plagued the country since December, 2020.

It added that more than 1,000 have been abducted in these attacks from December, 2020 to date.

The UNICEF noted that the release of the Tegina students came in the run-up to the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, on 9 September.

Nigeria is set to host the Fourth International Conference on the Safe Schools Declaration on 25-27 October, 2021.

The theme of the Conference is Ensuring Safe Education for All: From Commitment to Practice.

The Safe Schools Declaration, a political commitment to protect education during armed conflict, has been endorsed by 108 states  including Nigeria.

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The October Conference will be the first to be held in Africa and provide an opportunity to galvanise support for, and accelerate implementation of the Declaration by bringing together governments, practitioners, and civil society to share good practice and strengthen cooperation to save lives.

It will also safeguard the right to education for all.

UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children across more than 190 countries and territories.

We work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone, it added. (NAN)
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The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Friday issued a fresh ultimatum to the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The students body in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by its chairman, Samuel Olalere, said the initial ultimatum was extended till Monday due to interventions from eminent personalities.

This newspaper had reported how NANS had issued a three-day ultimatum to Mr Sanwo-Olu to meet a five-point demand which includes setting up a panel of inquiry to probe the death of a Nurudeen Alowonle, popularly known as Omomeewa, a former student activist of the Lagos State University (LASU) who was shot close to the school gate.

Mr Alowonle, a former students union presidential aspirant and Lagos coordinator of the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), was shot dead in a robbery attack last week. The incident happened a few hours after he appeared before a disciplinary panel set up to probe his alleged involvement in admission racketeering.

The 2019 graduate of Educational Management was shot alongside a school staff, Waheed Majekodunmi, also known as Majek.

Final deadline

Mr Olalere said it is on this lasting note that we sternly promise that if at the close of Monday 30th of August 2021, no public statement is made by His Excellency and no tangibly real evidence visible to the general student public of this state that these demands are being met, we will do what we deem needful.

We promise to keep the student public abreast of the progress made as they unfold but if the demands are not met within the above set timeframes, heaven will kiss the earth in Lagos State without falling.

Mr Olalere said they received an avalanche of deeply remorseful appeals from numerous public office holders in the state pleading for more patience with the governor.

We got a lot of calls and intermediary roles of intervention played by some eminent personalities both in the government and educational sphere, people of influence and affluence, to see how our demands can be met and actualized on the petra of negotiations which was one of the tenets of our slain comrade.

Mr Olalere expressed gratitude to Mr Sanwo-Olu for initiating the process to ensure that the killers of Mr Alonwonles are apprehended and made to face the law.

The group, however, said they are not entirely swayed by these seemingly positive and promising indicators towards engendering our earnest demands.

We are realists who believe in words backed up by real purposeful and decisive a ions because we have been conned, manipulated, cajole, deceived, swindled, robbed, raped, and left stupefied in very similar stratagems in time past by the same government, he said.

We hence refuse to accept any of these acts and news of mere preparations as conclusive evidence that our demands will be met.
The founder of Citadel Global Community Church (formerly Latter Rain Assembly), Tunde Bakare, has said he is no enemy of David Oyedepo, the founder of Winners Chapel, although they share different doctrines and beliefs.

Mr Bakare said this on Saturday during a TVC programme with Sam Omatseye tagged The Big Talk.

A former vice presidential candidate, Mr Bakara spoke about his relationship with fellow Pentecostal pastors in the country.

Oyedepo and I are contemporaries. We were born in the same year, he said.

Oyedepo was born in August, 1954, and I was born in September. We are contemporaries, God has really blessed him and used him.

We have differences in doctrines, what we believe, but that does not make us enemies, he said.

Mr Bakare said he and Mr Oyedepo were on a plane one time and another brother was coming over to greet him, but on seeing them together, he froze.

There is (a) difference between issues and persons. We can defend the gospel but those who do not and destroy it will die before their time. I have nothing personal against any man of God but I will always defend the truth that I know and I will always make it plain.

When asked whether the incident was before Mr Oyedepo acquired his private jet, Mr Bakare said he doesnt know why the clergyman makes so much noise about his private jet.

By the way, when he makes noise about his private jet of a thing, do you know that I once acquired a 1707 with the logo of our church on it? Are you aware of that? But we use it for business. I dont buy a plane to be spending money on it, that I can jump quickly on another and pay little money to where Im going.

We can afford it; we are not envious of them at all, he added.

The clergyman cum politician said Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Church of Christ, signed his wedding certificate as his father and he built his first house on the camp ground being a favoured son.

It is only bastards that use (the) left hand to point to the house of his father, he said.

Mr Bakare also said he was at Deeper Life Church for about five years before he went to the Redeemed Church.

I dont call those men my colleagues. They are my fathers, he said, speaking of Mr Adeboye and William Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Bible Church.

Clash with Oyedepo

Speaking on his differences with Mr Oyedepo, Mr Bakare said the gospel and truth is one but when someone begins to twist the truth to make it funny, he will speak out.

It is a true friend that speaks true to his friend. Mantras will die before their time.

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When you speak truth, eventually when the truth begins to rule, there will be no element of falsehood, he said.

Mr Bakare also referenced an incident where he tore a book written by Mr Oyedepo in the open and when he was confronted, he said the book was full of errors.

How can someone say the anointing oil is not a symbol of the Holy Spirit? It is the release of God in the bottle. If it is told to few people so, it is okay. If anointing oil is the Holy Spirit, then Jesus is a lamb walking on four legs. They are symbols, and symbols are not as important, he said.

Mr Bakare also talked about politics in Nigeria, corruption and other national matters.

He said Nigeria cannot stem the tide of corruption until the sons emerge and to tell churches not to do what they are doing, is calling for a blackout.

The clergyman said there are different types of churches including the compromising church, the corrupt church and the lukewarm church, but it is important not to confuse the crowd with the church.

He added that he is not a controversial pastor and the controversies are not by him but engineered by God.
LEWIS [mdash] Richard A. "Corky" Griffin, 71, of Lewis, passed away unexpectedly, Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, at his home. He was born in Lewis on Oct. 7, 1949, son of the late Benjamin Hastings and Evalina Griffin. Corky worked for Cornwright's Lumber Mill for many years. He is survived by his c
The inauguration ceremony was attended by His Excellency, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, HE Sardor Umurzakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade for the Republic of Uzbekistan, HE Alisher Sultanov, Minister of Energy for the Republic of Uzbekistan, and HE Saeed Matar Al-Qemzi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan. The event, held at the project site in the Navoi region, was also attended by other high-level officials from the Government of Uzbekistan and senior executives from Masdar.

His Excellency Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, said, "In the next five years, we plan to increase our economy's growth rate by 1.5 times, and bring GDP to at least US $100 billion. Thousands of new industrial enterprises, both medium and large will be launched, and electricity demand is set to reach 100 billion kilowatt-hours - 30 billion more than now. Therefore, we have very big plans for new reforms and projects in the electric power industry. In the next five years, 19 projects worth US$6.5 billion will be launched to create 11,500 MW of new capacity."

HE Alisher Sultanov, Minister of Energy for the Republic of Uzbekistan, said, "Uzbekistan has been working closely with the IFC to open up the country's power sector to private investment and to help us reach our goal of 25% of energy consumption deriving from renewable sources by 2030. We have a huge variety of projects underway, and already completed. It is my great pleasure to update audiences on our progress. Uzbekistan is committed to policy goals to improve energy efficiency and increase renewable energy's share of the country's energy mix."

HE Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, and Chairman of Masdar, said, "Renewable energy will deliver a cleaner and more sustainable future for Uzbekistan, and enable it to contribute to global action on climate change. This project, and the other solar and wind projects Masdar is building across Uzbekistan, will also power a new phase of industrial growth, and provide rewarding careers for thousands of Uzbek people. Importantly, they demonstrate Uzbekistan's leadership in clean energy in the region. As we approach COP 26, in this crucial decade for climate, this is a vital mission, and one which the UAE is honored to support."

H.E. Suhail Al Mazrouei, the UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, said, "This event highlights the strength of the relationship between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates in the renewable energy field, along with many other sectors. This utility-scale project represents a significant step forward in Uzbekistan's energy transition, and the UAE is committed to supporting Uzbekistan on every stage of its renewable journey."

Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, said, "This is a historic occasion for Uzbekistan and a proud moment for all of us at Masdar as we take this vital step in Uzbekistan's clean-energy journey. The Nur Navoi Solar Project will play a significant role in Uzbekistan's energy transition and in achieving its climate change objectives. I look forward to continuing our highly successful collaboration with the Government of Uzbekistan, through our strong portfolio of wind and solar projects with a total capacity of around 2.5 GW in the country, a key strategic investment destination for Masdar."

The 100-megawatt photovoltaic (PV) plant, Uzbekistan's first utility-scale solar project, has begun energization, making its first contribution to Uzbekistan's renewable energy targets. Once fully operational, the plant will produce enough power for 31,000 households and displace around 150,000 tonnes of CO 2 each year.

Masdar signed agreements in 2019 with the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) to design, finance, build, own and operate the solar plant. Masdar established Nur Navoi Solar FE LLC as the local project company to deliver the PV plant, and to operate and maintain it over a 25-year period.

Nur Navoi is the first Masdar project to begin operations in Uzbekistan, with the company having committed to a number of other solar and wind projects in the Central Asian country. In July, Masdar signed agreements to develop two PV projects in the country for a combined capacity of 440 MW. Commercial operation of the projects, which will be located in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions of Uzbekistan, is expected to start in the first quarter of 2023.

Masdar has also won the tender for another solar project in Uzbekistan, for a 457 MW photovoltaic solar power plant in the Sherabad district of the Surkhandarya province.

Masdar has also agreed to develop, build and operate a 500 MW wind farm in Zarafshan, and in April, the company signed an Implementation Agreement with the Government of Uzbekistan to extend the capacity of the project to up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW), making it the largest in Central Asia.

Under its renewable energy program, Uzbekistan aims to deploy 5 GW of solar and 3 GW of wind power capacity by 2030, as it targets meeting 25 percent of electricity needs from renewable sources by that year. This month, Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry said it was considering raising the energy targets to 7 GW for solar and 5 GW for wind power.

Hadi.hamdoun@hkstrategies.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1603836/Masdar_celebrates_landmark_project.jpg

SOURCE Masdar
DUBLIN, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Europe Biosimilars Market, Dosage, Price, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

"Europe Biosimilars Market, Dosage, Price, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" report findings, the Europe biosimilar market opportunity is expected to surpass US$ 10.10 Billion by 2026.

The high rate in the market is mainly due to the rising demand for biosimilars due to their cost saving potential. In addition, the rising geriatric population in the region is also boosting the growth of the European Biosimilar market. Moreover, an increase in the burden on lifestyle diseases and the proliferation of chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer, asthma, arthritis and others, influence the biosimilar market during the forecast period.

Furthermore, in the coming years the patent of several drugs including Cimzia, Yervoy, Lemtrada, Lucentis and others are expected to expire during the forecast period, which will further propel the development of biosimilars in Europe.

Biopharmaceutical drugs have become an important part of modern pharmacotherapy. In recent times, biological drugs have comprised about 50% of the overall therapeutic market owing to their high efficacy and specificity in the management of wide range of diseases. However, the high cost of treatment associated with them possesses a significant burden on the healthcare systems. The patent expiration of the biologic drugs has led to the development of biosimilar which aim to reduce the cost of treatment thus increasing the accessibility of the medications to the patients.

Presently, there are 69 biosimilars in Europe that have been approved in clinics for a wide range of diseases including arthritis, cancer, inflammatory and auto-immune disorders. The European biosimilar market was the first to be established and still represents the most mature and advancing market at a global scale owing to a large number of approved and commercially available biosimilars.

Adalimumab (Humira) is currently dominating the market which is due to high adoption rates of this drug associated with large number of biosimilar approval. Apart from this, several biosimilars for one reference product has been approved which increases the competition in the market. Adalimumab faces majority of competition with 6 biosimilars approved followed by Trastuzumab and Mabthera with five biosimilars competing with the reference product in the market.

Since the launch of first biosimilar in Europe, the biosimilar market is continuously evolving and showing high adoption rates. The region represents an excellent market for the growth of biosimilars due to the presence of large pharmaceutical sector which actively indulge in research and development activities. The biosimilar market in Europe is highly competitive, with many key players dominating the market landscape including Novartis, Celltrion, Accord Healthcare, Pfizer and Mylan. Most of the key players are adopting various growth strategies, such as acquisitions, partnerships and new product launches to increase their revenue.

Currently, the market is mainly dominated by UK which is mainly due to technological advancements in the healthcare care and healthcare spending. Regions including Denmark, Italy, France, and Germany are other lucrative markets and are expected high growth rates during the forecast period. Among the European countries, Denmark has been outstanding for its biosimilar consumption. Moreover, Denmark has also implemented one of the most radical biosimilar programs and produced a considerable amount of share in the overall biosimilar volume.

"Europe Biosimilars Market, Dosage, Price, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" Report highlights:

Europe Biosimilars Market Opportunity: > USD 10 Billion

Dosage & Pricing insight On Approved Biosimilars

Biosimilars for Cancers Accounts for > 20% Market

Biosimilars for Diabetes Accounts for > 5% Market

Biosimilars Approval & Commercialization by Country

Insight On Biosimilar Clinical Trials By Company, Indication & Phase: > 100 Biosimilars

Insight On Commercially available Biosimilars in Market: > 25 Biosimilars

Biosimilar Market Trends by Country

Development of Biosimilars in Europe

Development of First Biosimilar Omnitrope: Genotropin

Second Wave of Biosimilars Development in Europe

EMA Approved & Marketed Cancer Biosimilars: Dosage & Price Analysis

Biosimilars of Bevacizumab

Biosimilar to MabThera

Biosimilar of Trastuzumab

EMA Approved & Marketed Biosimilars in Blood Disorders: Dosage & Price Analysis

Biosimilar of Filgrastim

Biosimilar of Pegfilgrastim

Biosimilar of Enoxaparin Sodium

EMA Approved & Marketed Biosimilars in Diabetes: Dosage & Price Analysis

Biosimilar of Insulin Glargine

Biosimilar of Insulin Aspartate

Biosimilar of Insulin Lispro

EMA Approved & Marketed Biosimilars in Chronic Autoimmune Diseases: Dosage & Price Analysis

Biosimilar of Adalimumab

Biosimilar of Etanercept

Biosimilar of Infliximab

EMA Approved & Marketed Biosimilars in Other Therapeutic Indications: Dosage & Price Analysis

Biosimilar of Teriparatide

Biosimilar of Somatropin

Biosimilar of Follitropin Alfa

Biosimilar of Epoetin Alfa

Companies Mentioned

Accord Healthcare

Amgen

AstraZeneca

Boehringer Ingelheim

Eli Lilly & Company

Merck

Mylan Pharmaceuticals

Novartis

Pfizer

Sanofi

Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Teva Pharmaceutical

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/otlgdn

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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NEW ORLEANS, La., Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF continues its investigation into Guess?, Inc. (NYSE: GES).

In July 2021, media outlets reported that the Company had sent letters to an unknown number of individuals regarding its investigation into a "cybersecurity incident" that was discovered on February 19, 2021, involving "unauthorized access to certain Guess systems between February 2 and February 23, 2021." Further, the Company had determined on May 26, 2021, that "personal information related to certain individuals may have been accessed or acquired by an unauthorized actorthat Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, passport numbers and/or financial account numbers may have been accessed or acquired."

KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Guess?'s officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to Guess?'s shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Guess? shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ges/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients  including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors  in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Contact:

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner

[email protected]

1-877-515-1850

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

Related Links

http://www.ksfcounsel.com


SUGAR LAND, Texas, Aug. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation (NYSE: NE, "Noble" or the "Company") today announced that subsidiaries of the Company have reached a definitive agreement to sell four jackups to ADES International Holding Ltd., through its subsidiary, ("ADES") for $292 million. The Company expects to generate approximately $285 million in cash from the transaction net of fees, expenses, and the settlement of working capital. The Noble Roger Lewis, Noble Scott Marks, Noble Joe Knight, and Noble Johnny Whitstine will be sold and the current drilling contracts novated to ADES. Closing is expected before the end of October 2021 and is subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions, including novation of the drilling contracts and regulatory approvals.

Given the impact of the transaction, the Company also provided the following updated 2021 guidance, and preliminary 2022 guidance, which is pro forma for the divestiture:

($ in millions) Updated 2021 Guidance (1,2) Preliminary 2022 Guidance (1) Adjusted Revenue (3) $870 - $890 $975 - $1,050 (5) Adjusted EBITDA (3,4) $110 - $120 $265 - $300 (5) Capital Expenditures $175 - $195 $105 - $120





(1) Noble provides guidance based on guidance basis, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Management evaluates Noble's financial performance in part based on guidance basis, which management believes enhances investors' understanding of Noble's overall financial performance by providing them with an additional meaningful and relevant comparison of current and anticipated future results across periods. The adjustments to arrive at guidance basis are described below. Due to the forward-looking nature of Adjusted EBITDA, management cannot reliably predict certain of the necessary components of the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP measure. Accordingly, the company is unable to present a quantitative reconciliation of such forward-looking non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measure without unreasonable effort. (2) The Company has combined the 2021 results for the Predecessor and Successor periods as non-GAAP measures when giving full-year 2021 guidance since we believe it provides the most meaningful basis to analyze our 2021 results. (3) Adjusted to exclude recognition of the non-cash intangible contract asset amortization of ~$51 million and ~$44 million in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Without these adjustments, Revenue guidance ranges for 2021 and 2022 would be $819 million - $839 million and $931 million - $1,006 million, respectively. (4) The Company discloses Adjusted EBITDA (Operating Profit/loss excluding Depreciation and Amortization and, when applicable, Other Items). Other Items include amortization of intangible contract assets, restructuring related items, merger and integration costs, and non-cash stock-based compensation expense related to the Company's management incentive plan. (5) Of the total calendar days available for our fleet in 2022, Noble assumes 86% of the days are operating days (excluding cold stacked rigs). Of the operating days, 61% are currently under firm contract, and 22% are assumed exercised options. 22% of the available days are under the CEA agreement where the market rate has yet to be determined.

"We are very pleased to have reached this mutually beneficial deal with ADES, which is accretive to our shareholders. The sale of these four jackups further bolsters our already strong balance sheet and improves Noble's financial flexibility. As we look to 2022, our anticipated net cash position coupled with our expected free cash flow generation better positions the company to execute on our financial priorities to repay debt and return cash to shareholders," said Robert Eifler, President and CEO of Noble Corporation. Mr. Eifler continued, "Our crews in the Kingdom have executed at the highest level for many years, and Noble and ADES are fully aligned to ensure this level of operational excellence is maintained. I would personally like to thank the Noble employees who will be hired by ADES for their dedicated service and wish them continued success."

DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA, and Ducera Partners LLC are acting as financial advisors, and Baker Botts L.L.P. is acting as legal advisor to Noble. Clarksons Platou is acting as broker.

About Noble Corporation

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble and its predecessors have been engaged in the contract drilling of oil and gas wells since 1921. Currently, Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 24 offshore drilling units, consisting of 12 drillships and semisubmersibles and 12 jackups (including the four that are subject to the agreement with ADES), focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability with registered office at P.O. BOX 309, Ugland House, S. Church Street, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com .

Forward-looking Disclosure Statement

This communication includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this communication, including those regarding the transaction closing, including the impact and timing, accretion to our shareholders, 2021 and 2022 guidance including revenue, EBITDA and capital expenditures, free cash flow, net cash position, financial flexibility, use of proceeds, repayment of debt and return of cash to shareholders, dividends, and share repurchases, are forward-looking statements. When used in this report, or in the documents incorporated by reference, the words "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "project," "should," "shall" and "will" and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that such expectations will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this communication and we undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law. We have identified factors, including, but not limited to, uncertainties regarding determination of consideration for the transaction, regulatory approvals, client consents, and satisfaction of other conditions to closing the transaction, uncertainties relating to our emergence from bankruptcy, the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the Pacific Drilling acquisition, the effects of public health threats, pandemics and epidemics, such as the recent and ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, and the adverse impact thereof on our business, financial condition and results of operations (including but not limited to our growth, operating costs, supply chain, availability of labor, logistical capabilities, customer demand for our services and industry demand generally, our liquidity, the price of our securities and trading markets with respect thereto, our ability to access capital markets, and the global economy and financial markets generally), the effects of actions by, or disputes among OPEC+ members with respect to production levels or other matters related to the price of oil, market conditions, factors affecting the level of activity in the oil and gas industry, supply and demand of drilling rigs, factors affecting the duration of contracts, the actual amount of downtime, factors that reduce applicable dayrates, reset of dayrates under the commercial enabling agreement with our client for rigs operating in Guyana, operating hazards and delays, risks associated with operations outside the US, actions by regulatory authorities, credit rating agencies, customers, joint venture partners, contractors, lenders and other third parties, legislation and regulations affecting drilling operations, compliance with regulatory requirements, violations of anti-corruption laws, shipyard risk and timing, delays in mobilization of rigs, hurricanes and other weather conditions, and the future price of oil and gas, that could cause actual plans or results to differ materially from those included in any forward-looking statements. These factors include those "Risk Factors" referenced or described in the Company's most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q's, and other filings with the Commission. We cannot control such risk factors and other uncertainties, and in many cases, we cannot predict the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. You should consider these risks and uncertainties when you are evaluating us.

SOURCE Noble Corporation

Related Links

www.noblecorp.com


OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, SVA Architects and The Unity Council joined BRIDGE Housing to celebrate the Groundbreaking of Casa Suenos, the third stage of the award-winning Fruitvale Transit Village in Oakland, CA. Located at 3511 East 12th Street in Oakland, CA, the Groundbreaking ceremony brought together state-wide and regional elected officials, project partners, stakeholders, and service providers. A transit-oriented development (TOD), Casa Suenos is less than a five-minute walk from the Fruitvale BART station. As a continuation of the original Fruitvale Transit Village redevelopment, the project demonstrates how community-based development can serve and honor societal needs.

Chris Iglesias, Chief Executive Officer of The Unity Council, states, "Originally conceived as market-rate housing, Casa Suenos was wisely transformed to essential worker housing, critical to regional housing health. Our development feels that we are awakening the land and returning it to how it was supposed to be used: from the people to the people."

Casa Suenos Groundbreaking Speakers

The Casa Suenos Groundbreaking included speakers:

Secretary Lourdes M. Castro Ramirez, Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, State of California

Michelle Starratt , Housing Director, Alameda County Housing & Community Development Department

, Housing Director, Alameda County Housing & Community Development Department Mayor Libby Schaaf , City of Oakland

, Councilmember Noel Gallo, City of Oakland , District 5

, District 5 Patricia Wells , Executive Director, Oakland Housing Authority

, Executive Director, Oakland Housing Authority Smitha Seshadri , Executive Vice & President, BRIDGE Housing

, Executive Vice & President, BRIDGE Housing Chris Iglesias , Chief Executive Officer, The Unity Council

, Chief Executive Officer, The Unity Council Colleen Chawla , Director, Alameda County Health Care Services Agency

, Director, Alameda County Health Care Services Agency Jessica Buendia , Acting Executive Director, Strategic Growth Council

, Acting Executive Director, Strategic Growth Council Cecile Chalifour, Managing Director, Community Development Banking, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

George Galvis , Executive Director, CURYJ (Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice)

About Casa Suenos: Fruitvale Transit Village Phase IIB

Fruitvale Transit Village Phase IIB, Casa Suenos, is the third stage of the award-winning mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented development of the Fruitvale Transit Village. Casa Suenos will provide 181 affordable homes, designed to serve essential workers. Homes range from studios to 3-bedroom apartments, for households earning 20  80 percent of area median income (AMI). Additionally, 46 of the units will be set aside for the region's chronically homeless, with permanent supportive services provided by Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. The project will also include 7,500 square feet of affordable commercial retail space for a local nonprofit organization, and will be only steps away from the Fruitvale BART station and the planned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line.

"In this third phase of transformative transit-oriented development that began with the Fruitvale Village, we're excited to bring 181 affordable homes for families to the heart of the neighborhood, including 46 apartments reserved for people who have experienced homelessness," said Smitha Seshadri, Executive Vice President of BRIDGE Housing. "With SVA Architects' thoughtful design, Casa Suenos will be a welcoming, beautiful place for future residents to call home."

About the Fruitvale Transit Village

Completed in 2004, the Fruitvale Transit Village is widely recognized as one of the nation's first transit-oriented developments and a national model for development without gentrification. Replacing a surface parking lot, Phase I of the Fruitvale Transit Village was a catalyst in the development of multiple community services around a mass transit hub. The Fruitvale Transit Village includes more than 115,000 square feet of space for community services, as well as 40,000 square feet of space for retail, including multiple restaurants, financial services, and health services. It also houses a commuter bicycle parking center, as well as a large public gathering area called the Pedestrian Plaza. The mixed-use buildings also include 47 units of mixed-income rental housing. The site is located less than 100 feet away from one of the busiest BART stations in the region and a station for eleven bus lines. The second stage of development, Phase IIA or Casa Arabella, was completed in 2019 and added 94 units of affordable housing to the community.

Ernesto M. Vasquez, FAIA, CEO of SVA Architects, says, "We're excited to continue our work on the Fruitvale Transit Village that we began nearly 20 years ago with The Unity Council. Working with BRIDGE Housing and this exceptional development team, it's been rewarding to see how the Fruitvale Transit Village's new retail, community services, and affordable housing has helped support the residents, and enrich the community. Casa Suenos will also honor the Fruitvale neighborhood's diverse culture, sustain a community service provider, and address Oakland's essential worker housing needs."

About The Unity Council

The Unity Council is a non-profit Social Equity Development Corporation with a 55-year history in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. Our mission is to promote social equity and improve quality of life by building vibrant communities where everyone can work, learn, and thrive. Learn more at www.unitycouncil.org.

About SVA Architects, Inc.

Founded in 2003, SVA Architects has become one of the Country's most innovative and respected design and planning organizations. The award-winning firm specializes in urban planning, architecture, and interior design of public, private, and mixed-use projects. SVA Architects values institutional and public environments as the foundation of a community and the backdrop against which we live, learn, work, worship, and play. The company is headquartered in Santa Ana with offices in Oakland, San Diego, and Honolulu. For more information, visit www.sva-architects.com.

Media Contact: Itzel Diaz-Romo Media Contact: Beth Binger The Unity Council BCI Cell: (510) 302-7646 Mobile: (619) 987-6658 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE SVA Architects, Inc.

Related Links

https://sva-architects.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services personnel are preparing resources to meet the immediate needs of survivors and first responders in communities across the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Ida, the first major hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in 2021, is expected to make landfall along the northern U.S. Gulf Coast on Sunday, August 29.

"We are no stranger to hurricanes like Ida," said Emergency Disaster Services Director of The Salvation Army's Southern Territory, Jeff Jellets. "Preparations for this storm come in the middle of ongoing long-term relief efforts for the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida after recent storms. The immediate impacts could be devastating, but the long-term impacts could be tragic."

Ida is forecasted to bring hurricane-force winds capable of downing trees, widespread power outages, structural damage, and a storm surge of 7-11 feet. Heavy rain is also expected to reach 8-16 inches, with isolated 20-inch totals Sunday into Monday, which could trigger flash flooding and river flooding that could linger for several days after the storm. "The continued generosity of the public is essential in allowing our organization to serve those affected for as long as we are needed," Jellets said.

With a presence in nearly every ZIP code in the country, The Salvation Army is uniquely positioned to respond with services tailored to local community needs. In preparation for response efforts, several steps have been taken to serve those impacted:

Locations for Incident Command centers are being identified across the potential impact zone.

Mobile feeding units are being prepared for deployment to serve food, drinks, and emotional and spiritual care to survivors and first responders.

o Each mobile feeding unit can serve 500 to 1,500 meals per day.

o Each mobile feeding unit can serve 500 to 1,500 meals per day. Fixed corps locations are being prepared to provide feeding and other needed support to those affected.

In addition, Salvation Army disaster personnel are collaborating with federal, state, and local emergency management agencies and other partners to respond to and monitor ongoing impacts and evolve response efforts as needed. In light of the pandemic, The Salvation Army has evolved service delivery with extra precautions such as social distancing at food distribution sites, adapted feeding models, and updated personal protective equipment requirements.

A digital media kit with current and historical Emergency Disaster Services assets can be found here.

For more information on The Salvation Army's continued response, visit salvationarmyusa.org or disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.

To make a financial gift to support ongoing disaster relief efforts:

Donate online: give.helpsalvationarmy.org

Donate by phone: 1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769)

Media Contact

Bishop Wash | [email protected] | (972) 854-1586

About The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army annually helps 30 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships through a range of social services. By providing food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need, The Salvation Army is doing the most good at 7,600 centers of operation around the country. During times of disaster, 100 percent of designated donations to The Salvation Army are used for immediate response and long-term efforts. In the first-ever listing of "America's Favorite Charities" by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Salvation Army ranked as the country's largest privately funded, direct-service nonprofit. For more information, visit SalvationArmyUSA.org. Follow us on Twitter @SalvationArmyUS and #DoingTheMostGood.

SOURCE The Salvation Army

Related Links

http://SalvationArmyUSA.org


DENVER, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Todd Burnham, founder of Colorado's Burnham Law Firm, is scheduled for a keynote presentation at MENSA's World Gathering on August 28 in Houston, Texas.

MENSA World Gathering attendees, all members of the exclusive ultra-high IQ global community, will consider Burnham's presentation: Comeback - Epic Rebound Strategies Post Divorce, Injury or Business Trauma based on his upcoming eponymously titled book wherein he shares:

His discovery that among thousands of clients his firm had represented, some surprisingly quickly recovered from the trauma of divorce, accident injury, or business failure, whereas;

Others remained in a Purgatorial limbo for years focused on trying to get back what they lost.

His observations of process commonalities among the successful comebacks from marital splits, physical injuries from auto and other accidents, and the psychological trauma of a business collapse or painful litigation, and;

His distillation of the tools, tactics, and strategies used by the uber resilient to properly Comeback following a new path to reach surprising life and career heights.

"This audience is ideal to consider and opine on strategies proven to get quickly past life's bad breaks and on to a new and better pathway to success and happiness," said Burnham.

The MENSA world conference marks the start of author Burnham's speaking tour.

Media Contact

Mr. Burnham is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for remarkable American attorneys.

Media inquiries: [email protected]

MENSA: An international society with the membership qualification standardized testing results in the population's top 2%. The nonprofit's purpose is to conduct research in psychology and social science, identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity and serve as a means for stimulating intellectual and social contacts among its membership.

Todd Burnham: Founded Burnham Law, a fast growing multi-office Colorado-based divorce, custody, injury, business litigation, and criminal law firm. A veteran podcaster and media commentator on legal and social issues, Burnham's upcoming book: Comeback  Epic Rebound Strategies, is set for release through Sutton Hart Press.

Sutton Hart Press: An award-winning non-fiction publisher of thought provoking information from high authority leaders. Upcoming and recent titles include Gregory Glover's Immortality, Inc., Steven Hochfelsen's Profits of Denial, and celebrity divorce lawyer Dror Bikel's bestseller The 1% Divorce  When Titans Clash.

SOURCE Elite Lawyer Management

Related Links

https://www.elitelawyermanagement.com


ATLANTA and NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to documented reports of exponential spikes in new COVID-19 cases across Louisiana, including the spread of the highly infectious Delta Variant, the 2021 Bronner Bros. Int'l Beauty Show, scheduled to take place in New Orleans (NOLA) August 28-30, 2021, has been postponed. The new date is to be determined and will be announced on the Bronner Bros. website soon. The decision was made to postpone due to the gravity of this ongoing public health emergency, particularly its negative impact on professionals in the beauty and barber industry.

The Bronner Bros team outlined initial plans in partnership with NOLA convention officials, including necessary precautions to host a safe show. However, given the current circumstances, Show management has decided to place the health and safety of all Show attendees first. Since there is no guarantee that everyone entering the venue will be fully vaccinated, free of the virus, or willing to take a COVID-19 test on site, the most effective way to keep everyone safe is to wait until the pandemic has ended or at least subsided to a better, new normal.

As recently announced New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, the city has issued a mandate that ALL visitors to hotels, restaurants and bars are required to either show proof of being fully vaccinated or proof of a negative COVID-19 test. Rapid tests are not accepted and PCR tests must be within 72 hours, which would not cover the full length of their time in New Orleans for our event.

"This was a very hard decision, as we were excited about celebrating Bronner Bros. 75th Anniversary and welcoming the world's most diverse group of beauty professionals to New Orleans," said James Bronner, Senior Vice President and Show Director. "At this difficult time, I can only think of my father, Nathaniel H. Bronner, and how relevant his wise words are today: 'Health is Wealth.' Without our ability to ensure your SAFE participation in all three days, unfortunately the Show cannot go on. Our industry has lost a number of greats to this terrible disease. Our hearts go out to everyone negatively impacted by this pandemic."

The REFUND PROCESS FOR SHOW ATTENDEES AND EXHIBITORS BEGAN WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18th. Attendees who purchased online automatically received a refund. To process refunds for purchases done through a distributor, please visit www.BronnerBros.com to complete an online form.

Bronner added, "We encourage everyone to do their part to keep our communities safe  mask up, practice social distancing and get vaccinated. Looking ahead, we are excited about celebrating with the entire beauty community in a safe environment at a later date."

For questions, concerns and the latest Show information please visit, BronnerBros.com.

About Bronner Bros., Inc.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Bronner Bros., Inc. (BB) is a family-owned and operated company founded in 1947 by Dr. Nathaniel H. Bronner, Sr. and his brother Arthur E. Bronner, Sr. Today, the BB Enterprise consists of multicultural beauty products, UPSCALE Magazine, and professional trade shows, which attract more than 60,000 beauty professionals annually. For more info, visit bronnerbros.com.

Press Contact: Per Se Media Group, 404-666-1231

SOURCE Bronner Bros., Inc.
"The Delta variant is highly contagious and is gaining ground in Quebec and Canada. With the fall season almost upon us, a high-quality surgical mask is an indispensable tool for protection. Whether it is during family, social or professional activities, or in the daily life of each individual, a reliable mask is a proven safeguard against the spread of COVID-19. For the first time ever, Medicom will make our SafeMask Architect ASTM Level 3 masks available to all Canadians," said John Tourlas, Medicom President, North America.

Medicom is one of the world's leading manufacturers of surgical procedure and respiratory masks. SafeMask Architect ASTM Level 3 masks, which are manufactured in Quebec, are typically reserved for healthcare professionals, but will now be available to consumers. Wearing a high-quality surgical mask is an effective barrier against the Delta variant of COVID-19, even for fully vaccinated individuals. These masks offer the highest level of protection in their class. SafeMask Architect ASTM Level 3 masks, which are certified by Health Canada, are especially recommended in environments with a high risk of splashes or air-borne aerosols.

Protecting children without compromise

With back-to-school time around the corner, children will also need optimal protection when they're at school, out with friends or participating in after-school activities. Now, parents of children aged 4 to 12 will have access to a high-quality surgical mask made in Quebec, the SafeMask Architect JR. This mask was designed specifically for the morphology of small faces and will offer both unparalleled protection and greater comfort for this young population.

"For 33 years, healthcare professionals around the world have turned to Medicom products to protect themselves and their patients. We are proud to be able to make these high-quality products available to all consumers so that they too can count on reliable protection. With the start of the new school year, Quebecers and Canadians can finally benefit from masks that are reliable and made right here in Quebec," added Guillaume Laverdure, Chief Operating Officer.

SafeMask Architect Level 3 ASTM adult surgical masks SafeMask Architect JR pediatric surgical masks are available online here: shop.medicom.com

About the Medicom Group

The Medicom Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of high-quality, single-use, preventive and infection control products for the medical, dental, industrial, animal health, laboratory, retail and health and wellness markets. Medicom was named one of Canada's Best Managed Companies for 2021 and received a Mercure Award at the Mercuriades 2021.



Medicom distributes infection control products under the Medicom, Ritmed, Kolmi, Hopen, Ocean Pacific and Hedy brands. Medicom subsidiaries include Kolmi-Hopen in France, Medicom Asia in Hong Kong, United Medical Enterprise in the U.S.A., KHM Engineering in Singapore and Medicom HealthPro Limited in the U.K.

Medicom has extensive experience in responding to the demand for personal protective equipment in the event of a pandemic. Medicom was founded in 1988 in response to the urgent need for medical gloves for healthcare professionals during the global HIV crisis. Since then, the company has been a reliable supplier of infection control solutions during multiple epidemics, including avian flu, SARS, H1N1 and Ebola, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information about Medicom and their comprehensive portfolio of infection control solutions, including an extensive range of medical face masks, please visit Medicom.com , follow us on Twitter @MedicomNA or visit pages on Facebook or LinkedIn.

SOURCE AMD Medicom Inc.

Related Links

www.medicom.ca


NEW YORK, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of DiDi Global Inc. (NYSE: DIDI): (1) pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and related prospectus (collectively, the "Registration Statement") issued in connection with DiDi's June 30, 2021 initial public offering (the "IPO" or "Offering"); and/or (2) between June 30, 2021 and July 21, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important September 7, 2021 lead plaintiff deadline.

SO WHAT: If you purchased DiDi securities during the expanded Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the DiDi class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2113.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 7, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, the Registration Statement featured and defendants throughout the expanded Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Cyberspace Administration of China ("CAC") urged DiDi to delay its IPO; (2) DiDi "had the problem of collecting personal information in violation of relevant PRC laws and regulations"; (3) DiDi could not guarantee data security; (4) due to the foregoing, DiDi would face "serious, perhaps unprecedented, penalties" from relevant authorities; (5) DiDi and its many apps would face an imminent cybersecurity review by the CAC, which could lead to removal of Didi's apps from app stores; and (6) as a result, defendants' statements about DiDi's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the DiDi class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2113.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

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SAN DIEGO, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin that killed Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, has been recommended to be released by a California parole board. He now undergoes a 90-day review period to determine if he will be released. Under California state law, the governor may override such a release, and Dr. Brandon Ross says that he will block such a release if he is voted in as governor.

Democrat Dr. Brandon Ross is a leading candidate for governor in California recall election

"There is no way in the world that I would allow Bobby Kennedy's killer to be on the loose. If I become governor, I will absolutely block his release. Violent criminals need to serve their full term in prison, and this guy got life. That means he should stay in prison for life. Furthermore, Sirhan Sirhan killed RFK and set the country's civil rights movement back immeasurably. He should stay in prison."

Ross, the only medical doctor running in the California recall campaign for governor, is also an attorney. He knows the law and knows how the legal system works. He says he will do what it takes to keep the assassin behind bars as punishment for the damage he did to the country and the Kennedy family some 50 plus years ago.

Find out more about the Dr. Brandon Ross for governor campaign at www.ross4gov.com

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Dr. Brandon Ross

Democrat Dr. Brandon Ross is a leading candidate for governor in California recall election

SOURCE Ross For Governor
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The GT Foundation has joined the VaxAll Initiative in a drive to increase the availability of and access to COVID-19 vaccinations in India. The VaxAll program was founded in April 2021 by a group of volunteers in the city of Pune and operates independently of any political or corporate ties. It is a citizen-driven fundraising vehicle in partnership with local hospitals to purchase, distribute, and facilitate the administration of vaccines to as many of the country's 1.4 billion people as possible.

VaxAll is partnering with the GT Foundation to extend the program's reach beyond Pune, with the Foundation providing help in collecting donations that hospitals will then use to purchase and administer the vaccines. "The most critical need is among the poorest populations, especially those living in rural areas where access to medical facilities is scarce," said Vidya Ravichandran, the Foundation's President. "Many people simply do not know what to do or where to go. The initiative defrays the cost and provides easy access so that the populations in greatest need can get vaccinated, while easing fears and vaccine hesitancy."

This initiative also includes the development of a database that will prioritize distribution based on need and keep track of recipients by age, vaccine stage and type, virus exposure, and region of the country. Thus far, three constituencies have been identified:

the underprivileged who will get help in signing up and then receive free vaccines

people who can afford the cost but need help with access

organizations that want to participate as a means of helping their employees

The founders of VaxAll became convinced that something had to be done after speaking with a tech-savvy, bilingual man who had tried to register for the vaccine on India's CoWin web portal but became frustrated and abandoned the process. They reasoned that if an urban resident with ready access to information found the procedure cumbersome, then the millions of less-connected citizens in the country's rural areas would have an even more difficult time participating. "Rapid vaccination is the only hope to control COVID-19. And as citizens, we want to actively support the work being done by our local and national governments," said VaxAll Initiative Founder Raj Hajela. "Our mission is to do all we can to ensure vaccinations for all."

All funds that are donated will be used to pay for the purchase and administration of vaccinations. Interested parties can either work through the GT Foundation at gtfoundation.net/vaxall/ or the VaxAll Initiative website at thevaxallinitiative.org.

About The GT Foundation

The GT Foundation was established in 2004 and is commissioned to provide philanthropic aid and community involvement throughout the GlowTouch global footprint. This aid is distributed in part by creating and executing long-term projects that increase employment opportunities for deserving people. In association with other charitable institutions, the Foundation consistently provides both economic and cultural opportunities that make a difference in the lives of many. To learn more about the GT Foundation, visit www.gtfoundation.net .

About GlowTouch

GlowTouch is a privately held and WBENC-certified, woman-owned enterprise, founded in 2002. We provide personalized, omnichannel contact center, business processing, and technology outsourcing solutions to clients around the world. Our 2,300+ employees deliver operational excellence with high-touch engagement garnering recognition by independent bodies such as Everest Group, International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), and a six-time honoree on the Inc. 5000. GlowTouch is headquartered in Louisville, KY, with onshore contact centers in Louisville, KY, and Miami, FL; a nearshore presence in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and offshore locations in Mangalore, Bangalore, and Mysore India. To learn more about GlowTouch, visit www.GlowTouch.com , or email Tammy Weinstein at [email protected] .

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SOURCE GlowTouch and GT Foundation
DALLAS, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MB2 Dental, the Dental Partnership Organization, based out of Dallas, Texas, has expanded its territory into Alabama. MB2 Dental partnered with Dr. Meghan Darby, owner of Flint River Dental in Huntsville, Alabama. According to the 2020 Census, Huntsville is the largest city in Alabama, with a population of 215,006.

This brings MB2's acquisition total in 2021 to 59 new partnerships.

"The solo practice dental business model is a hot mess," said Dr. Darby, "You work building a bigger and bigger office until the administration takes over every inch of your after-hours and weekend. It turns out there is a better way [to practice]. MB2 has fantastic business, administrative, and compliance support while allowing dentists to retain practice culture and clinical autonomy."

"I'm very excited about being part of a dentist collective with similar goals and aspirations. We have been open for ten years and have struggled to break through a plateau in the last three. MB2 has business support that will help tremendously with that endeavor. I am very excited about the next phase of my practice as an MB2 partner," said Dr. Darby.

MB2 Dental, founded and led by CEO and dentist Chris Steven Villanueva, is a co-op model that grows through acquisitions and de novos, which gives dentists the ability to leverage the company's scale and infrastructure to further increase their equity values while remaining in control of their practice as clinicians, business owners and entrepreneurs. Rather than the traditional "Dental Support Organization" or "DSO," MB2 Dental identifies as a "Dental Partnership Organization" or "DPO," a concept the company created and released in 2017.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Darby to our group," said Dr. Villanueva. She is like-minded in all the qualities we seek in a doctor owner. Her passion for charitable dental work and serving her community is inspiring. We are excited that she is our first partner in the state of Alabama and look forward to the opportunity to connect with other doctors in the state."

About MB2 Dental

Dallas, Texas-based MB2 Dental is a first-of-its-kind Dental Partnership Organization (DPO) founded and led by dentist and entrepreneur CEO Dr. Chris Steven Villanueva, with a mission to empower dentists to preserve their profession. Since its founding in 2007, MB2 has partnered with hundreds of dentists to help them stay in the driver's seat as they maximize their talents, connect as part of a community and build exceptional wealth. MB2 currently partners with dentists and specialists in over 30 states and counting. For more information, visit https://mb2dental.com.

Press Contact

Lindsey Byrnes

9728693789

https://mb2dental.com/

SOURCE MB2 Dental
NEW YORK, Aug. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP is investigating possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law by the board of directors of Diversicare Healthcare Services, Inc. ("Diversicare" or the "Company") (OTC: DVCR) in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Company by DAC Acquisition LLC. Under the terms of the merger agreement, the Company's shareholders will receive $10.10 per share in cash for each share of Diversicare common stock that they hold.

If you own Diversicare shares and wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, visit our website:

https://www.weisslaw.co/news-and-cases/dvcr

Or please contact:

Joshua Rubin, Esq.

WeissLaw LLP

1500 Broadway, 16th Floor

New York, NY 10036

(212) 682-3025

(888) 593-4771

[email protected]

WeissLaw LLP is investigating whether (i) Diversicare's board of directors acted in the best interests of Company shareholders in agreeing to the proposed transaction, (ii) the $10.10 per-share merger consideration adequately compensates Diversicare's shareholders, and (iii) all information regarding the sales process and valuation of the transaction will be fully and fairly disclosed.

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected]

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP

Related Links

http://weisslawllp.com


Focused on treating rare epilepsies and neuropsychiatric disorders

Lead candidate Zygel targeted at multiple conditions

RECONNECT trial with Zygel for Fragile X syndrome in 3Q 2021

What Zynerba does:

Inc ( ) is doing trailblazing work pushing clinical trials for cannabis-derived treatments. The specialty pharma company is developing novel transdermal CBD treatments for patients suffering rare epilepsies and neurological disorders.

The Devon, Pennsylvania-based companys main product candidate is Zygel, a patent-protected CBD skin gel, which was earlier known as ZYNOO2.

Recent studies have suggested that neuropsychiatric conditions like Fragile X syndrome (FXS)  the most common form of inherited learning disability and attention deficit disorder  are associated with a disruption in the endocannabinoid system, and CBD may improve certain core social and behavioral symptoms by modulating the biological system.

Zygel also offers a potential goldmine of therapies for other conditions. In addition to FXS, the gel is in clinical development in patients with refractory epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome, a disorder caused by a small missing piece of the 22nd chromosome. This tiny missing portion can affect every system in the body.

Zygel is also being tested for a heterogeneous group of rare and ultra-rare epilepsies known as developmental and epileptic encephalopathies (DEE).

How is it doing:

In August, Zynerba reported second-quarter results with ample cash on hand, which gives the company a long runway to run pivotal trials of its flagship product Zygel (ZYN002) in Fragile X syndrome and DEE programs. The clinical-stage pharma company had $85.8 million in cash and equivalents as of June 30, 2021, compared to $59.2 million at the end of December 2020.

The company believes it has enough capital to fund its operations well into the first half of 2024.

Zynerba has said it will initiate RECONNECT, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, efficacy and safety study of Zygel in children and adolescents with Fragile X syndrome in a Phase 3, 18-week trial in the third quarter of 2021. The trial is aimed at confirming the positive results observed in the population of responders in the previous CONNECT-FX trial. RECONNECT will enroll 200 children and adolescents, roughly 160 of whom, will have complete methylation of their FMR1 gene and 40 of whom will have partial methylation.

The company said it believes that positive results from this confirmatory pivotal trial will be sufficient to support the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) for Zygel in Fragile X syndrome.

In the first half of 2021, Zynerba discussed data supporting the potential effectiveness of Zygel in Autism Spectrum Disorder, including the results of the Phase 2 BRIGHT trial, with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine the regulatory path forward. The guidance from the FDA included agreement on utilizing the irritability subscale of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist  Community (ABC-C) as the primary endpoint to support an indication for the treatment of irritability in ASD, said the company. This is the same primary endpoint utilized in the previously completed BRIGHT open label Phase 2 trial.

Zynerba recently presented data at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) annual meeting demonstrating that Zygel may provide clinical promise across a spectrum of endpoints, including behavior, seizure reduction and sleep in children with ASD, children with developmental epileptic encephalopathies with comorbid ASD, and children with FXS with comorbid ASD. The data is from two open-label Phase 2 trials and one double-blind placebo-controlled trial when added to standard of care in children and adolescents.

In addition, despite coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions in Australia, Zynerba has resumed screening of patients for the 14-week open label Phase 2 INSPIRE trial in children and adolescents with genetically confirmed 22q, a disorder caused by a missing piece of the 22nd chromosome. Once enrollment is complete, a timeframe for disclosing topline results of the trial will be provided, said the company.

Also this year, Zynerba is conducting an observational trial that will help finalize target syndrome selection in one or more DEE syndromes in 2021. DEE is a heterogeneous group of epilepsy syndromes that may be associated with severe cognitive impairment and behavioral disturbances, the company said, and as a result, it will pursue individual syndromes rather than considering DEE as a single disorder or condition.

In June, Zynerba presented data at SLEEP 2021, showing that in an open-label Phase 2 trial with patients with DEE, treatment with Zygel was associated with improved sleep in children with clinically significant sleep disorders at baseline. Zynerba believes that because epilepsy and sleep disorders co-occur in individuals with ASD, improvements in sleep may result in better seizure control and behavior in these medically fragile children with DEE.

What the broker says:

In a note to clients on August 20, ( , ) analysts reiterated their Buy rating and $9 target price on shares of ( ) Inc, saying ZYNE stock presents a potentially significant opportunity for patient and risk-tolerant investors.

Zynerba announced recently that it reached agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a path forward for Zygel (synthetic transdermal cannabidiol gel) in Fragile X syndrome (FXS).

We continue to believe ZYNE presents significant scarcity value if it is able to successfully execute on its plans for Zygel, the analysts wrote.

This is especially because Jazz Pharmaceuticals bought (cannabinoid-drug maker) GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) for about $7 billion and GWPH's Epidiloex (CBD solution) is approved for some pediatric epilepsies, they added.

The Canaccord analysts noted that although ZYNE's initial CONNECT-FX trial did not hit statistical significance for the full patient set, data on its Phase 3 RECONNECT trial will be key. The company said initiating RECONNECT in 3Q 2021 is a top priority.

RECONNECT is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, efficacy and safety study of Zygel in children and adolescents with Fragile X syndrome aimed at confirming the positive results observed in the population of responders in the previous CONNECT-FX trial.

The analysts added they are also awaiting updates on the companys other indications.

Inflection points:

If RECONNECT trial is successful, Zygel has the potential to become the first product for the treatment of Fragile X behavioral symptoms

Positive news on Phase 2 INSPIRE trial in children and adolescents with genetically confirmed 22q

Finalizing target syndrome selection in one or more developmental and epileptic encephalopathies

What the boss says:

Zynerba CEO Armando Anido laid out the company's path forward in 2021 when it reported second-quarter results in August.

We continue to make progress across our portfolio, particularly in FXS in which our confirmatory pivotal Phase 3 trial, RECONNECT, is expected to start in the third quarter of 2021, Anido said in the results statement.

Following a positive meeting with the FDA on our development program in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we are evaluating and prioritizing our development options for ASD, 22q and developmental and epileptic encephalopathies and we expect to provide guidance on the path forward in each of these indications by the end of 2021, he added.

Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com
Moscow, Aug 28 : Russia registered 19,509 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 6,844,049, the official monitoring and response centre said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the nationwide death toll grew by 798 to 180,041, and the number of recoveries increased by 19,217 to 6,112,035, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the same period, Moscow reported 1,509 new cases, taking the city's total to 1,562,010.

According to media reports, more than 35.8 million Russians have been fully vaccinated so far.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Patna, Aug 28 : The liquor ban law of Bihar is often said to be misused by the police officials for their own personal interest. One such incident has happened in Gopalganj district where a sub-inspector rank officer threatened a man and his father of framing them in a liquor smuggling case.

A video of the police officer named Lalan Singh and a tout went viral on social media on Friday.

"A video went viral on social media against an officer of the district. The matter is under investigation. We have constituted a team headed by DSP rank officer Naresh Paswan to probe this matter. If the alleged officer is found guilty following the investigation, strict action will be taken against him," Gopalganj SP Anand Kumar said.

Lalan Singh is posted at Jadhopur police station in Gopalganj.

In the viral video, he is allegedly talking to a tout named Raju Babu. The latter is saying that he will manage to present Rana Singh and his father before Lalan Singh at Jadhopur police station for the negotiation.

Singh in reply said "don't take them to police station otherwise he would put them behind the bars".

"I went at the house of father-son duo at Hariharpur village but they did not open the door. My uniform has been torn apart. I will seize liquor in day or two and then frame them in liquor smuggling case. He have not seen the power of sub-inspector (Daroga)," Singh said while interacting with Raju Babu in viral audio.

A few days ago, Singh went to Hariharpur village to resolve land dispute wherein Rana Singh is the complainant.

He was reportedly involved in verbal dual with Rana Singh, and since then, Lalan is upset with Rana.

"Lanan Singh is demanding Rs 2 lakh as bribe as I denied to pay him. He has threatened me of dire consequences and also said that he would frame me and my father in liquor smuggling case," Rana Singh said.

When contacted, Lalan Singh denied the charges. "The voice in viral video is not mine. I was present in Hariharpur to resolve land dispute case but I never threatened anyone. The allegation levelled against me was completely false," Lalan said.
Mathura, Aug 28 : Amid the continuing internal tussle within one of Bihar's leading political parties -- Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Lalu Prasad's eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav has headed to Mathura in 'search of peace'.

Sources said that he has discussed the family discord with his Guru and has decided to embrace spirituality for the time being. These days he is on a religious tour to the pilgrimage city of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

However, he has maintained a distance from the media this time.

Tej Pratap has been putting up at his religious guru's residence in Mathura for the past two days.

A video of Tej Pratap Yadav taking blessings from a religious guru has also gone viral on social media.

The infighting in the RJD is making news these days. Tej Pratap Yadav has been demanding the removal of state president Jagdanand Singh, while his brother and former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav is not supporting it.

Earlier also Tej Pratap had gone to Mathura 'in search of peace' when he had a dispute with his wife.

It is being said "there is every possibility of him going from Mathura to Delhi".
Sofia, Aug 28 : Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has asked the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the third largest party in the country's newly elected Parliament, to form a new government after previous attempts have failed.

The socialist party has maintained openness and dialogue in its efforts to form a government, Radev said on Friday while giving the mandate to Korneliya Ninova, leader of the party.

"We understand the responsibility we are taking on," said Ninova, whose party has 36 seats in the 240-member Parliament, reports Xinhua news agency.

Ninova's party has seven days to form a government, which needs to be approved by Parliament in a simple majority vote, according to the country's Constitution.

Should no agreement on the formation of a government be reached, Radev must dissolve Parliament and schedule new elections.

Both the There Is Such a People party and the GERB-UDF coalition, the largest and second-largest parties respectively in Bulgaria, have given up efforts to form a government.

Radev first entrusted the task of forming a new government to the largest There Is Such a People party, which has 65 seats, on July 30.

However, it abandoned the task after nearly two weeks of fruitless negotiations with potential partners in the parliament including Bulgarian Socialist Party, Democratic Bulgaria, and "Rise up BG! We are Coming".
Kadapa : , Aug 28 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh Police stepped in to reunite an Ethiopian woman with her family, after her visa had expired, and she was fending for herself here.

She has reached Addis Ababa, and was reunited with her family, the Andhra Pradesh Police said on Friday.

According to the police officials, the Ethiopian woman had fallen in love with an Indian man, while in Kuwait. She came with him to Kadapa in 2015 and was living in a rented house organised by her partner who promised to marry her.

However, due to financial problems, the man decided to go back to Kuwait to earn a living. He used to send her living expenses, but after the man died of a heart attack in Kuwait in March 2020, the Ethiopian woman was left destitute.

With her visa expiring and having no money for survival, the woman was directed to the Foreign Registration Office in the Special Branch where Kadapa district superintendent of police stepped in to send her back to Ethiopia safely, officials said on Friday.

Apart from arranging an Emergency Travel Document for her, the police sent the woman to Mumbai by train with an escort, to ensure she safely boards a flight back to her home country.
San Francisco, Aug 28 : As various social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit face waves of misinformation about the use of anti-parasite drug ivermectin to treat Covid-19, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a fresh advisory to consumers, explaining why people shouldn't take it to treat or prevent the deadly respiratory disease.

The FDA said that it is perhaps not surprising that some consumers are looking at unconventional treatments, not approved or authorised by it.

"There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with Covid-19. FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing Covid-19 in humans," the US agency said in its latest consumer update.

Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses).

"Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm," the FDA warned.

People in Facebook groups have also been sharing misinformation and making sponsored posts that promote and advertise ivermectin for treating or preventing Covid-19, reports The Verge.

According to a company spokesperson, Facebook removes content "that attempts to buy, sell, donate or ask for ivermectin".

Still, people are dodging Facebook moderation by using euphemisms like "ivm" or "moo juice" for ivermectin.

On Reddit, moderators of several subreddits called on the platform to take action against Covid-19 misinformation.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the company will take action when people promote fraud or encourage harm.

On TikTok, Rolling Stone found videos, some of which had more than a million views, promoting ivermectin as a Covid-19 treatment under tags like #ivermectin4covid and #ivermectinworks.

TikTok has since removed the videos for violating community guidelines and blocked the tags.

The FDA said that it has not reviewed data to support use of ivermectin in patients to treat or to prevent Covid-19.

"However, some initial research is underway. Taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous. This is true of ivermectin, too. There's a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it's okay to take large doses of ivermectin. That is wrong," the FDA noted.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Washington, Aug 28 : After 53 years in prison, Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, has been recommended for parole, according to the media.

The recommendation on Friday came after the late Senator's sons, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Douglas Kennedy, supported the 77-year-old Palestinian convict's release during his 16th appearance before the parole board, a CNN report said.

Sirhan has been incarcerated at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation since May 1969 after being convicted of first-degree murder and assault with intent to murder.

During Friday's virtual hearing, Douglas Kennedy said that he was "overwhelmed" to see the person who gunned down his father when he was just two years old.

"I think I've lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love," the CNN report quoted Douglas Kennedy as further saying.

While the board has recommended parole, Sirhan's fate now lies in the hands of California Gavin Newsom.

Despite the recommendation, Newsom can still reverse the decision.

On June 6, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, who had also served as the 64th Attorney General of the US, was shot dead by Sirhan, then 24 years old, in the kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
August 28 : Deepika Padukone, who rarely shares posts on social media, has shared one today. The actress shared a monochrome picture of herself and received a whole lot of compliments from her fans. Her husband, Ranveer Singh, also gave her the best compliment she must be hearing often.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Deepika posted a monochrome picture on Friday evening, which has a blur effect. In the picture, the Chhapaak actress can be seen sitting on a couch. She is wearing a white T-shirt layered with a denim jacket, which she teamed with a pair of jeans. The actress kept her hair loose as she posed with her fingers lightly touching her head, while she is looking away from the camera. Sharing the post, Deepika captioned it as, "Pauseand then Pose!" She followed it by a face with sunglasses emoji. Reacting to her picture, Ranveer Singh wrote in the comments section, "Hottie."

Image Source: Instagram/deepikapadukone Deepika Padukone pauses and poses as Ranveer Singh calls her hottie

Recently, several videos surfaced online, wherein Ranveer was seen making a dance performance for Deepika at his mother Anju Bhavani's birthday party. The Gully Boy actor was seen performing to Nashe Si Chadh Gayi for Deepika. Ranveer also grooved to Khalibali from his film Padmaavat and Dil Chori from Kartik Aaryan's Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.

Recently, Deepika also shared with her fan on Instagram some of her memories captured in a video clip. The actress shared a 30 second clip in which she put her childhood candid photos and some from her photoshoots, and accompanied it by Bo Burnham's viral song 'Bezos I'.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Deepika has a series of films lined up. While she is currently shooting for Pathan along with Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham, she is awaiting the release of her film '83, co-starring Ranveer Singh. The actress will reunite with her Piku co-star Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi remake of The Intern. She will also be seen in Fighter co-starring Hrithik Roshan. The actor will also be seen with Prabhas in a project, shooting for which has already started.
Baghdad, Aug 28 : Prominent Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr has reversed his earlier decision to boycott the parliamentary elections slated for October 10.

In a televised speech on Friday, al-Sadr said that he had received a paper on reforms in the country pledged by the political parties, calling him to return to the elections, reports Xinhua news agency.

"We received the reform paper from politicians we trust, and we found it to be in accordance with our aspirations," al-Sadr said.

"We will participate in the elections with determination to save and reform Iraq from corruption," he added On July 15, the cleric announced his withdrawal from the parliamentary elections due to "rampant corruption and unfair competition between political parties".

The Al-Sadr-backed Sairoon Coalition, which includes hiss loyalists allied with some other political parties, became the largest group in the Iraqi Parliament after the 2018 elections.

Iraq is scheduled to hold the early parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, in response to the anti-government protests against corruption and lack of public services.

The previous parliamentary elections in Iraq were held on May 12, 2018, and the next polls were originally scheduled to take place in 2022.
London, Aug 28 : Two Britons and a child of another UK national were killed in the twin bombings at the Kabul airport, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

"I was deeply saddened to learn that two British nationals and the child of another British national were killed by yesterday's terror attack, with two more injured," Raab said in a statement on Friday.

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 US service members, and injuring 158 others.

The Islamic State (IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting "translators and collaborators with the American army".

"These were innocent people and it is a tragedy that as they sought to bring their loved ones to safety in the UK they were murdered by cowardly terrorists," the Foreign Secretary said.

Britain's evacuation operation at the Kabul airport has "a matter of hours" left and no more people will be called forward, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that around 15,000 people, the "overwhelming majority" of those eligible to come to the UK, had been evacuated by British troops.

These include Afghans who supported British troops in Afghanistan and British passport holders.

Only four days remain for US-led forces to evacuate from Afghanistan, after Johnson and leaders of other American allies failed to persuade US President Joe Biden to extend the August 31 evacuation deadline during a Group of Seven virtual summit earlier this week.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : As lockdowns and restrictions across the globe slowly lift and international borders start to reopen, you can finally start planning that holiday. From France to South Africa there are plenty of options to pick from.

Additionally students and those looking to travel for work under various visa categories have largely been confused as to where they can travel to and if restrictions have been lifted.

We got in touch with VFS Global to get an update regarding where and what you need to be able to travel. VFS Global has resumed services in a phased manner for its client governments, and has reopened Visa Application Centres in keeping with health and safety guidelines, local government directives and mission requirements. Check out this list for all the details: Air travel on all routes is subject to government advisories and permissions for air travel may be independent of the visa process. VFS Global also manages the online booking of Covid-19 RT-PCR tests at government-approved medical laboratories or at home as well. This service has been rolled out in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Chennai, Pune and Kochi.

As an optional service to customers wanting to complete their entire visa application submission process from the comfort of their home or office, VFS Global continues to provide the "Visa At Your Doorstep" service whereby a customer can submit the application, enroll biometrics, and get the passport couriered back to his/her location of choice.

As a precautionary measure, travellers may also opt for our courier services to get their passports delivered to their preferred address, after adjudication by the concerned diplomatic mission. This service may also be made mandatory by certain countries.

Information about Visa Application Centres offering visa services listed in the above table is as of August 17, 2021. As this information is fluid and being updated regularly, please visit the country-specific websites on www.vfsglobal.com or Embassy/Consulate websites for the most updated information. Real-time updates are also posted on our social media channels and the Covid-19 Customer Advisories page.

(IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in)
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Prominent leader of the G-23 group in the Congress, Manish Tewari is upset over the party's silence on Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has used threatening language against the party.

Sources close to Tewari said that last year in August when the group of leaders wrote a letter for the betterment of the party, they were called traitors, but now no action was being taken against Sidhu.

Tewari tweeted the video of Sidhu on Saturday, who is saying that if not allowed he will destroy it "eent se eent baja denge".

Tewari, a former Union minister, says that if they utter a word they are being named. He used a Urdu couplet to describe the situation, "hum aah bhi bharte hai tau, ho jaate ha badnaam, wo qatal bhi karte hain tau charcha nahi hote." Last year on August 23, leaders including Tewari wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi for a 'visible and effective leadership and elections for th block to CWC level which were still pending.

Sidhu speaking at a party function in Amritsar city on Friday, said, "If he is allowed to work according to his own policy of hope and faith, he will ensure the Congress rule in the state for 20 years".

"But if you don't allow me to make decisions, then I can't help anything," Sidhu said without mincing words.

Speaking about the Punjab model, Sidhu said, "Punjab model means people make policies for trade, industry and power. Giving power of people back to the people." The power struggle between Sidhu and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh continues.

Meanwhile, even Amarinder Singh's confidante and Cabinet minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi hosted a dinner at his residence on Thursday.

A total of 58 MLAs and eight MPs attended the dinner and expressed their confidence that the party would win the 2022 polls under the leadership of Amarinder Singh.

"The journey has started today," Sodhi informed in a tweet.

After Sidhu's threat, Harish Rawat General Secretary in-charge of Punjab met Sonia Gandhi on Friday and apprised her of the issues.
New Delhi/Washington, Aug 28 : The US military said it believes it has killed a planner for the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in a drone strike in the east of the country, the media reported.

"The US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an IS-K planner," US Central Command spokesman Bill Urban said in a statement on Friday night.

"The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties," the statement added.

Urban described the drone attack as an "over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation", the BBC reported.

Most of IS-K's several thousand extremists are believed to be in hiding in Nangarhar province.

The IS-K claimed responsibility for the deadly attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday that may have killed as many as 170 people, including 13 US service members.

Officials in Washington have warned of heightened terror threats to American troops in the aftermath of what was one of the deadliest attacks in the 20-year US-led invasion in Afghanistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told a news conference Friday that "specific credible threats" are believed to exist, "and we want to make sure we're prepared for those" threats.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki echoed the concern over those security threats, saying in a press briefing that American officials believe "another terror attack in Kabul is likely".

Also on Friday, Major General Hank Taylor, deputy director of the Joint Staff For Regional Operations, clarified to reporters that the blast at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport involving a sole suicide bomber was the only attack that happened Thursday, correcting earlier reports that a second attack was launched at the adjacent Baron Hotel.

"I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel; that it was one suicide bomber," Taylor said.

It was not clear the individual killed in the US airstrike was specifically involved in Thursday's bombing.

The US reprisal came after President Joe Biden promised to strike those responsible for the suicide bombing.
Mysuru : , Aug 28 (IANS) Karnataka Police have cracked the sensational shoot out and dacoity case that took place in Mysuru on August 23 and arrested six persons, the police said on Saturday.

The miscreants, who entered the Amruth Gold and Silver Palace in the pretext of customers, had closed the rolling shutter and robbed gold jewels. While escaping they shot a passerby youth Chandru in the head and killed him.

The incident had taken place in broad daylight in a crowded place on the main road and had shocked the city and the state. The police department came under fire from all directions in the backdrop of the case.

The police have obtained CCTV footage of the crime and formed five special squads to nab the culprits. The special teams travelled across various states of north India and tracked the dacoits.

The investigations revealed that two persons known to the victim, one residing in Mysuru and another in Bengaluru had given 'supari' to rob the jewel store in the backdrop of a business rivalry. The supari was given to the accused from north India.

Director General and IGP Praveen Sood stated that the special teams have travelled round the clock across various states of north India. The teams nabbed the accused from West Bengal, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra. The two persons were secured in Mysuru and Bengaluru on Friday.

The local businessmen who conspired the crime had criminal antecedents. They had served jail sentences and given 'supari' to loot the jewel store. The police department had announced Rs 5 lakh reward for the investigating team.

The accused arrested in various states will be produced before the local courts and then will be brought to Mysuru for further investigations, the police said.
Athens, Aug 28 : Greece will not become a gateway to Europe for irregular migration flows, like it happened in the 2015-2019 period,the country's Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi told Parliament, pointing to recent developments in Afghanistan.

Mitarachi's remarks on Friday come as the Taliban takeover of most of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US forces has sparked deep concerns in Greece, as well as across Europe, over a possible replay of mass migration flows and the humanitarian crisis of recent years, reports Xinhua news agency.

Since 2015, over one million people have reached Greece fleeing warzones and extreme poverty, and most continued their journey to other European countries until the borders along the Balkan route to Central Europe were sealed off.

Currently, Greece is on alert and bolstering security along the borders with Turkey, officials in Athens have said.

The erection of a fence along the Turkish border in the north was completed a few days ago, the government said.

The 27-km-long and five-meter-high steel fence was added to an existing 12.5-km-long wall, which was reinforced.

A new electronic border surveillance system had also been installed.

The project that cost nearly 63 million euros ($74 million), started last year following the increased pressure on this part of the borders by thousands of asylum seekers in March 2020.

"The Afghan crisis is creating new data in the geopolitical sphere and at the same time is creating possibilities for migration flows. We have to prepare ourselves for the possible consequences," Minister of Civil Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis told Greek national broadcaster ERT during a recent visit to the area.

The Greek government is in talks with the European Union (EU) for financing the extension of the border fence, local news site "in.gr" has reported.

The country has also called for prompt and close cooperation between EU member states and with third countries to cope with the arising new challenges.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jointly urged the international community last week to provide more support to countries closer to Afghanistan to handle the crisis.
Bamako, Aug 28 : The Local Committee for Monitoring the Transition in Mali (CLST) welcomed the transitional government's decision to lift restrictive measures on former Malian transitional president Bah N'Daw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane.

In a statement released on Friday, it also welcomed the measures taken by the government to ensure them the benefit of the rights attached to their status as former head of state and former Prime Minister, reports Xinhua news agency.

For the CLST, this decision is a "positive development" which falls within the framework of the commitments made by the transitional authorities.

It urged all the parties concerned to show a spirit of responsibility and attachment to the national interest, to show respect for the law, and also to refrain from any action that could impact the proper conduct of the transition.

In May, N'Daw and Ouane, as well as some of their relatives, were deprived of their liberty after being forced to give up their prerogatives by the military junta which overthrew then President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18, 2020.
August 28 : Priyanka Chopra Jonas, whose hands are full with several projects, do take out time to have some fun with her fans. The actress keeps taking up social media fun challenges, and this time she tried It's Tricky challenge on Instagram. The challenge proved really tricky for her as she had to quit it as she was asked a really tricky question.

Priyanka chose to quit It's Tricky challenge on Instagram when she asked to choose between Bollywood and Hollywood. Taking to Instagram Reels, the Sky is Pink actress took up the challenge, where people answer questions while the Run-DMCs song Its Tricky goes on.

In the video, Priyanka can be seen wearing a white crop top paired with blue denim shorts. She answered most of the questions with ease but said I quit, when she was asked to choose between Bollywood and Hollywood. Sharing the reel, she wrote, "Some questions are just better left unanswered (winking face emoji) #ThisorThat @anomalyhaircare."

In other questions, Priyanka chose 'regular trim' over 'annual chop', 'quality' over 'quantity', 'scrunchies' over 'hair ties', 'metal straw' over 'paper straw', and 'warm hair rinse' over 'cold hair rinse'. She picked 'iced coffee' over 'hot coffee', 'hair conditioner' over 'hair masks', 'blow dry' over 'air dry', 'brush' over 'comb', and 'AM shower' over 'PM shower'.

Earlier, Priyanka shared a picture on Instagram, where she showed her fans how she got injured during the shooting of the Amazon Prime Video series Citadel. In the picture, the actress was seen with a bloodied face and asked fans what's real and what's not? Injuries were seen on her cheek and forehead.

A little later, the actress shared a fan's reply who believed that the wound on her cheek was real while the cut on her forehead was not. Priyanka gave the response a thumbs down and revealed that the bruise on her eyebrow is real. The actor showed her injury in closeup, revealing the real cut in the middle of her right eyebrow.

Priyanka is currently stationed in London and shooting of her series Citadel. Yesterday, she shared a picture on Instagram from the shooting, where her face was smeared with mud. She also revealed that it was a messy day at work. The actress is shooting with Richard Madden and Pedro Leandro for Citadel. It has been executive produced by the Russo Brothers.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Half-way through its target period, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is inching towards its goals with certain steps taken by several states, while some others were still lagging behind with non-tracking of its air pollution related data.

Nivedita Khandekar New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) Half-way through its target period, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is inching towards its goals with certain steps taken by several states, while some others were still lagging behind with non-tracking of its air pollution related data.

Even as air pollution remains mostly urban centric, studies have well established the regional scale pollution is more concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic plains because of the peculiar meteorology and also in more industrialised states.

Apart from Delhi-NCR, there are scores of other polluted cities across India that too need attention and the NCAP by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) does that.

It works to address air pollution problem in 132 cities, called non-attainment cities as they did not meet the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP).

Launched in January 2019, the NCAP has set a target of reducing key air pollutants PM10 and PM2.5 (ultra-fine particulate matter) by 20-30 per cent by 2024 taking the pollution levels in 2017 as the base year to improve upon.

There is an umbrella alliance, National Knowledge Network (NKN) of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)/Labs/Universities from across 18 states that acts as a knowledge partner to the NCAP with the IIT-Kanpur designated as the national nodal institution and Professor S. N. Tripathi from IIT-K appointed as the national nodal faculty for the network.

Preparing city-specific 'Action Plans' was one of the initial steps supposed to be taken by the city/state administrations.

"Most cities have submitted their 'Action Plans'," confirmed Professor Tripathi.

The Action Plan forms the basis of the action by various agencies involved.

In reply to a Parliament question in July 2020, the government had claimed that the analysis of air quality data of 132 cities indicated that "majority of cities are showing improvement in air quality as compared to 2019-20".

"Ambient air quality data of PM10 of 36 cities showed an increase of PM10 concentration in 2020-2021 as compared to 2019-2020 whereas 96 cities have a decreasing trend (i.e. improvement in air quality). However, number of cities within the prescribed National Ambient Air Quality increased from 18 in 2019-20 to 27 in 2020-21," the MoEF&CC had said.

The strict lockdown in 2020 had raised hopes for several cities, especially the Northwest India, wherein the pristine Himalayan peaks visible from some cities in the foothills after almost three decades.

But by 2021, it was soon realized that those were short-term changes and the situation when it came to air pollution is not yet up to the mark.

Delhi-based 'NCAP Tracker' platform - a project jointly undertaken by CarbonCopy and Respirer Living Sciences - comprehensively reviews the implementation and impact of the NCAP.

Sourcing data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), it has created a Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Dashboard.

It too has disturbing findings for the year 2021, again, especially for the Northwest India and the Indo-Gangetic plains.

"Eight out of the 10 cities, which feature in the top 10 most polluted from January 2021 until July, are from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. All the cities have an average PM2.5 concentration above the CPCB's permissible limit of 40 ug/m3," its analysis till July 2021 said.

In most years, for Punjab it is the agro-waste burning ahead of winters that is talked about.

However, NCAP Tracker analysis has found that between January and June 2021, all monitored cities, except Bhatinda and Rupnagar, reported a PM2.5 concentration above the CPCB permissible limits.

"This indicates that pollution isn't just a problem of the months, when stubble burning happens in the state," it said.

The most troublesome finding from the analysis is that Jharkhand, which is home to the coal capital of the country, has only one Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) and three manual monitoring stations.

"The CAAQMS hasn't recorded PM2.5 data since July 2020," noted the analysis.

Similar data gaps were found by a Pune-based NGO Parisar in its report, 'Clearing the Haze: An analysis of air quality management in six smart cities in Maharashtra'.

The report released in 2020, was based on a study conducted in the six smart cities, which are also non-attainment cities.

Pointing out at the data gaps and lack of transparency, the report had said: "While smart cities were supposed to bring data and transparency to urban development projects, however, there is no clarity of what data is being collected, where it resides or how citizens can access it to help improve the functionality of the city. This lack of transparency about data and project implementation has been a problem in the mission." Explaining that data gaps exists at two levels, spatial and temporal, founder and director of Urban Emissions, a think tank that works in the field of air pollution, Sarath Guttikunda said: "In case of spatial gaps, there are not enough air quality monitoring stations for a given city/area. While, in case of temporal, there may be such monitors but instrument may not be working. Either which way, availability of data is not continuous, there are several gaps.

"One needs to address both the gaps with institutional and financial capacity building." According to him, cities such as Delhi will need 77 monitoring stations while smaller cities may do with 15 stations.

Guttikunda was part of a study, 'National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for Indian cities: Review and outlook of clean air action plans', with Tanushree Ganguly of the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) as the lead author.

The study observed that only 25 per cent of the plans integrated information on the relative source contributions to formulate control strategies.

But the information does not translate into prioritising actions listed in the plan, it noted.

"The absence of source information has resulted in plans being replicated for the cities within a state. Nine states with multiple non-attainment cities have used the same set of action plans and timelines across all cities." As pointed out, source apportionment studies are vital as the source contributions play a major role in deciding what action needs to be taken.

In studies, done initially for six major metros, the major causes of pollution were identified as vehicle, dust and construction, biomass, industry and others.

"Source apportionment studies for at least 40 cities have already commenced and are at advance level," Professor Tripathi told IANS.

While, rest of the cities have initiated the procedure, he added.

The CEEW study had also stated that the estimates suggest that 30 per cent of the PM2.5 concentrations comes outside the boundary and highlighted the need for more regional collaboration for cleaner air.

"While most city plans include the recommended measures, there are no clear guidelines on establishing regional coordination," it had said.

"Move from city-centric to air shed-centric air quality management. This approach requires an inter-state coordination mechanism, which can be facilitated by setting up regional air shed management authorities that enjoy cross-state jurisdiction," recommended the study.

Guttikunda said, the NKN has taken cognizance of the issue and exploring how to build air sheds.

"Overall, there is so much more to be done ahead of the 2024 target. We need to do more," agreed Professor Tripathi.
Rome, Aug 28 : Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the G20, is still pushing for a special meeting on Afghanistan as its last evacuation flight has left Kabul.

Italy's last airlift flight, carried out by a military C-130 plane, is expected to land in Rome on Saturday, bringing back "all the Italians who asked to be repatriated", Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.

He confirmed that some 4,900 Afghan nationals who wanted to leave following the Taliban takeover of the war-ton nation have been evacuated by Italian forces during the operation, reports Xinhua news agency.

At a joint press conference held here on Friday after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Di Maio reiterated the country's plan to hold an extraordinary G20 summit on Afghanistan in September to outline a global strategy.

"Afghanistan has been at the core of our talks today... in this context, we see the dialogue with Russia as essential," he explained.

He added that Italy's push to organise a special G20 meeting on Afghanistan stemmed from the belief that only "a comprehensive, coherent and shared action can be effective with the new authorities in Kabul".

"We believe Moscow is a key player in dealing with the current crisis and, in a longer perspective, in achieving a unified international approach.

"We deem that the G20 could be the right platform for a common management of the crisis, which has to be shared with the countries that will bear the largest migrant influx, that is the neighbouring countries," Di Maio added.

Lavrov, who paid a two-day visit in Italy, said that the security of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries should be a key priority after all evacuation operations are completed.

He also urged for speeding up support for the Afghan people in order to facilitate the formation of an inclusive executive as soon as possible.

"Common solutions are never easy and, in our opinion, the most important thing in the current situation is the security of our borders," said the top Russian diplomat, who also discussed the issue with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi earlier in the day.

Russia is ready to discuss the proposal of the G20 special summit, but "we want to better understand what role our Western partners would see for Russia in the G20 context", Lavrov said.
Hyderabad, Aug 28 : Actor Sundeep Kishan will soon be seen working with actor Vijay Sethupathi in their recently announced Telugu film "Michael".

Sundeep said it was a matter of great honour for him to work with Vijay.

Directed by Ranjit Jeyakod, "Michael" will see Sundeep play the titular role in the film.

Talking about working with Vijay, Sundeep told IANS: "I am thrilled to be a part of an ambitious project like 'Michael'. I am sure that it will be a cinematic experience like no other with the first of its kind presentation of an action love story. More than anything, it will be an honour to share the screen space with Vijay Sethupathi. I am really looking forward to it." The film is backed by Sree Venkateswara Cinemas LLP and Karan C Productions LLP. Jointly produced by Bharath Chowdary and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao, the action-drama will have a grand scale release in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Mumbai, Aug 28 : The Yuva Sena, youth wing of the ruling Shiv Sena, on Saturday appealed to Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Director-General of Police Praveen Sood to render help to an MBA student who was gang-raped in Mysuru.

In letters to the CM and DGP of the neighbouring state, the Yuva Sena Secretary Durga Bhosle-Shinde, Core Committee members Suprada Phatarpekar, Sheetal Sheth and Subhashini Thevar expressed "deep anguish" over the incident on the 23-year-old MBA student of Mumbai.

"The victim's condition is critical, as reported by media. An assault on a woman anywhere is an assault on humanity," said the Yuva Sena team, urging to provide her the best medicare, besides urgent and strict action against the perpetrators.

Bhosle-Shinde further said that the victim's male friend was also brutally assaulted and there have been arrests in the incident which happened on Thursday and resulted in a huge political furore.

"The police must treat this incident with the utmost urgency and take all relevant steps to arrest the accused as soon as possible. Any delay will make it even more difficult to ensure justice to the survivor," she added.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hopped from 10 Janpath, residence of party president Sonia Gandhi to 12 Tughlak Road, residence of Rahul Gandhi on Friday during the meeting with Bhupesh Baghel. At the end of the three-hour meet, it's status quo in Chhattisgarh and there is no word on leadership change in the state.

Priyanka was seen exiting from 10 Janpath and entering and exiting from Rahul Gandhi's residence to formalize middle path in the state but there is no official announcement of any formula, also the Chhattisgarh CM did not answer on the rotational chief ministership.

It's being said in political circles that Priyanka Gandhi's intervention and Bhupesh Baghel's involvement in Uttar Pradesh saved the day. Baghel maintains good relations with the Congress General Secretary in-charge of UP as about 50 people from the state are being put in UP to train the cadre by Bhupesh Baghel's team and recently about 100 workers from UP were trained in Raipur.

The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister has put in all the resources in UP before that he was campaign in charge of Assam.

It is not the first time Priyanka Gandhi has intervened in crucial decision making process, she was instrumental in the appointment of Navjot Singh Sidhu as Punjab Congress President when he was sulking and was about to jump the ship. Before that when Sachin Pilot led a revolt in July 2020 it was Priyanka Gandhi who pacified Pilot and saved the government last year in Rajasthan, however, she was unable to stop the revolt of Jyotiraditya Scindia which led to the collapse of the government in Madhya Pradesh while Jitin Prasada who worked closely with her also left and joined the BJP.

While Scindia is a Union Minister, Jitin Prasada is expected to get reward soon.

Last year when G-23 leaders wrote a letter and after passing away of Ahmed Patel, she defused the tension by arranging a meeting with the group and Sonia Gandhi, since then there have been individual statements like from Kapil Sibal and some others but no collective movement has started.

For the party it was AP as Ahmed Patel was popularly called, was the chief trouble shooter but after his untimely demise due to Covid, the party was feeling the gap but PG (Priyanka Gandhi) has stepped in his shoes and along with Kamal Nath has been talking to leaders and working behind to solve problems, a close aide points out.

Coming back to Chhattisgarh, she in her intervention has asked the Chief Minister to placate sulking T.S. Singhdeo and it's expected that final decision may be taken after Rahul Gandhi visits the state next month while the Chief Minister has showed his strength by rallying support of more than 50 MLAs which has not gone down well in the party.

On Friday, Bhupesh Baghel had three-hour meeting with Rahul Gandhi, after which, Baghel said that he has invited Gandhi to visit the state.

"I have apprised him of everything and discussed political as well as administrative issues... have requested Rahul Gandhi to visit Chhattisgarh," he said. After the meeting Baghel went to Akbar Road, the party headquarters to meet the MLAs camping in support of him.

The Congress high command had summoned Baghel to Delhi on Friday to take a final call whether the powerful OBC leader should be allowed to continue as the Chief Minister or be replaced by T.S. Singh Deo, scion of the Surguja royal family.

Political temperature within the Congress in Chhattisgarh has all of a sudden soared as 56 party MLAs are openly backing Baghel and paraded before the party high command in New Delhi.

The issue in the state boiled after the two leaders were called to Delhi on Tuesday and both Singhdeo and Baghel met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and was summoned again on Friday.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
News Delhi, Aug 28 : The Taliban in a shockingly rapid move took over Afghanistan after capturing Kabul on August 15. The world's best intelligence and security establishments were in awe with the quick takeover by the banned Islamist terror group, which was ousted in 2001 following the US invasion.

The US invasion came in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden, were responsible for the massacre and they were under the protection of the Taliban, who had been in power since 1996.

The world has not yet recognised the Taliban with many announcing no diplomatic ties, some running away in haste shutting down their missions in Afghan and others vowing to support the anti-Taliban resistance launched by former Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, in Panjshir Valley.

Prominent Taliban members, who are against women rights and are extremists, were hunted down for 20 years by world best intelligence agencies but they still managed to regroup and forced the US to engage with them leading to the complete takeover of Afghanistan.

But who are these prominent Taliban members of 2021? IANS profiles some top Taliban members.

Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada The Supreme Commander of Taliban is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is also known as "Emir" of the organisation. He became Supreme Commander of the Islamist group in May 2016 when his predecessor Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike. The drone targeted Mansour's vehicle in a remote area of south-west Pakistan near the Afghan border. Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar.

When Akhundzada was appointed as Supreme Commander, Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced his support and hailed him as "emir of the believers".

Akhundzada was born in 1961 in Kandahar province and is as a religious leader. He hails from the powerful Nurzai clan of the ethnic Pashtuns. He had overseen legal and Islamic law and jurisprudence (Sharia) related matters as head of the judiciary during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar The founding member of the Taliban movement in 1990s, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Baradar is deputy commander of the Taliban and also heads the group's political office in Doha. He was born into the Pashtun tribe in southern Afghanistan in 1968 and when he was young he fought with mujahideen guerrillas against Soviet troops. After the war, he helped Mullah Muhammad Omar, his former commander (and, some say, brother-in-law) and formed the Taliban. He had served as the provincial governor and deputy defence minister during the Taliban's rule. After the US invasion in 2001, Mullah Baradar drove his commander on the back of a motorcycle to hide in the hills.

He was arrested in Karachi in 2010 and released in October 2018 at the request of the US.

He was in charge of the Doha Peace Office. At the helm of the group's political office in Doha, its de facto embassy, Mullah Baradar led talks with the US that culminated in a deal to end Washington's engagement in the 20-year war.

Sirajuddin Haqqani Sirajuddin is the Taliban's deputy leader and head of the semi-independent Haqqani Network, a designated terror group in Afghanistan. He was on the US' Most Wanted list and and had a $5 million reward. He is a Pashtun from Paktia and a member of the Zadran clan.

Sirajuddin is the head of the Taliban's military strategy and was placed in charge of Kabul's security after the August 15 takeover. He is is believed to have been born in either Afghanistan or Pakistan between 1973 and 1980. He oversees the Taliban's operations in the eastern regions, including Paktia, Paktika, Khost, and Ningarhar provinces, as well as in and around Kabul.

He has close ties to the Al Qaeda.

His father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, founded their namesake jihadi group and handed over leadership before his death in 2018. In the 1980s, Jalaluddin Haqqani was among the US-backed mujahideen warlords battling a Soviet Union invasion and was a close friend and mentor of bin Laden.

Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob is the son of the Taliban's founding leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. The 31-year-old Yaqoob is a Pashtun from the Hotak clan and has been the group's military chief since 2020, overseeing all ground engagements in Afghanistan. He is a deputy commander of the group.

Yaqoob was trained in guerrilla warfare by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e Mohammad.

It is believed that being Mullah Omar's eldest son got Yaqoob elevated among the Taliban's field commanders and its rank and file. Before 2015, he did not even have an official position in the Taliban. Under Yaqoob's leadership, the Taliban appears to have been upholding its commitment not to attack departing US forces. He is part of a moderate camp that favoured negotiations to end the war.

Yaqoob's predecessor, Ibrahim Sadr, a powerful field commander, opposed peace efforts.

Yaqoob is a graduate of several hard-line Islamic seminaries in Karachi, where his family had resided since the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Qari Din Mohammad Hanif Qari Din Mohammad Hanif is a senior Taliban leader based in Qatar who had served as the group's former Minister of Higher Education and the Master of Planning. Hanif was also a member of the Taliban Supreme Council responsible for Takhar province and his home province of Badakhshan. He is an ethnic Tajik.

The 66-year-old was also a key member of the Taliban peace negotiation team in Doha. When in early 2015 the Taliban announced that it was willing to enter into peace talks geared toward ending the conflict in Afghanistan, Hanif had led a delegation of the Taliban's political office in Qatar.

Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi is an ethnic Uzbek from the northern Faryab province and has long been affiliated with the Taliban. The 54-year-old had served as governor as well as deputy minister of education during the Taliban rule. He is currently serving as a deputy head of the political office in Doha. Hanafi has also studied at various religious seminaries including in Karachi and has taught at the Kabul University.

Mullah Abdul Hakeem Mullah Abdul Hakeem is a close aide to Taliban chief Hibatullah, and is the shadow chief justice in the country. He comes from the Ishaqzai clan of the Pashtuns. The 54-year-old Hakeem is considered as a hardline cleric.

He spent years lying low in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been based since the US invasion in 2001. Until recently, he ran an Islamic madrassa in the Ishaqabad area of Quetta, from where he led the Taliban's judiciary and headed a powerful council of Taliban clerics that issued religious edicts to justify the group's brutal insurgency in Afghanistan.

The ultra-conservative Hakeem replaces Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, who along with Baradar spearheaded negotiations with the US over the landmark agreement signed last year .

He graduated from and taught at the Darul Uloom Haqqania Islamic seminary in northwest Pakistan, which is known for preaching a fundamentalist brand of Islam and schooling a generation of fighters for the Afghan Taliban.

The so-called 'university of jihad' counts some of the world's most notorious terrorists among its alumni, including Mullah Mohammad Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Hakeem has earned a reputation as a hard-liner and has been dedicated to restoring the group's Islamic emirate, the official name of the erstwhile Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai Born in 1963 in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai is ethnically a Pashtun. He received military training in the Indian Military Academy in 1982, rose to the ranks of deputy health minister during the Taliban regime and later served as a chief peace negotiator in Doha before Mullah Hakeem.

He was also a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban regime. The 58-year-old Pashtun comes from the Stanekzai clan. He can speak five languages and had served as the Taliban's political office chief between 2015-2019. He is also known as 'Sheru'.

Qari Fasihuddin As a young ethnic Tajik from the northern Badakhshan province, Qari Fasihuddin serves as the military chief for the group in the north of the country. In September 2019, the then Afghan government claimed that he was killed in a military operation in Jurm district in Badakhshan province. Back then, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the government claim, saying that fighting was still raging in the district and rejected the allegation as "enemy propaganda". His whereabouts are still unknown.

Muhammad Fazal Akhund Muhammad Fazal Akhund is regarded as one of the Taliban's most ferocious frontline commanders. He was released from Guantanamo Bay after 12 years of detention in exchange for a captured US soldier Bowe Bergdahl. Fazel is a Pashtun from the Durrani tribe and a native of Uruzgan province.

After joining the Soviet-Afghan war, he served as defence minister and chief of staff during the former Taliban regime. It is claimed that he is an active person in Taliban-Al Qaeda relation. He was appointed a member of the Taliban's political team.

Mali Khan Mali Khan is a relative of Sirajuddin Haqqani and is believed to be the main leader in organising funds and operations in Afghanistan. He is a Pashtun from the Zadran tribe.

Khan is a senior commander of the Haqqani Network of militants that operates from North Waziristan Agency in Pakistan. The Haqqani Network has been at the forefront of insurgent activity in Afghanistan, responsible for many high-profile attacks.

In June 2011, Khan's deputy provided support to the suicide bombers responsible for the attacks on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He was was captured in September 2011 during a joint NATO-Afghan forces operation in Afghanistan's Paktia Province.

He was released in 2019 along with two others to free three captured Australian and American professors.

Ibrahim Sadr Ibrahim Sadr earned a reputation as a long-serving Taliban military commander before handing over the reins to Omar's son. Sadr is a battle-hardened Pashtun commander from the Alakozai tribe. He had effectively built his own forces ('mahaz'), that traditionally operate across several provinces. While these forces have, in some cases, served to bolster larger Taliban operations, they have also on occasion failed to send forces in operations deemed likely to incur high casualties.

Sadar's rise to the top of the insurgency has been decades in the making. He was born in the village of Jogharan, in the southern province of Helmand, some time around the late 1960s. His home district, Sangin, is a verdant area of pomegranate trees and poppy fields that has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the US-led occupation.

The middle son of a well-respected Pashtun from the Alakozai tribe, Sadar spent his youth known by his birth name, Khodaidad, rather than the nom du guerre with which he would make history.

After Afghan communists seized power in a coup in Kabul in 1978 and Soviet forces invaded the country a year later, he and his family were drawn into the Islamist resistance.

Together with his father, Sadar joined Jamiat-e-Islami, one of the largest Afghan mujahideen parties and when the Afghan communist regime was toppled in 1992, he refused to get involved in the civil war that erupted between the victorious mujahideen factions. Instead, he went to Peshawar in Pakistan to study in a madrasa. There he changed his first name to Ibrahim, after one of Islam's prophets.

His whereabouts were unknown till the time negotiation was not completed.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
London, Aug 28 : Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy has been remanded in custody after appearing in court to face four changes of rape and one of sexual assault against three women -- one of whom is aged under-18.

Two of the rapes are alleged to have taken place in October 2020 with the other alleged to have happened earlier this week, when Mendy was already on bail for the previous offenses, while the sexual assault is alleged to have happened in January, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Mendy will be in custody until at least Tuesday (August 31) after the judge turned down his application for bail and he could remain behind bars until his next court appearance on September 10th.

Prosecutor, Debbie Byrne explained that one of the conditions of Mendy's original bail was that he should not hold house parties, but that police had been called to his home after another party earlier this week.

"The defendant has shown total disregard and, the crown will say, an arrogance in ignoring the bail conditions and continuing to conduct his social life as he chooses," she said.

The left back had been a substitute for Manchester City's 5-0 win at home to Norwich City last weekend.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Taliban members, who were once designated as wanted terrorists for 9/11 attacks in the US, are now in charge of the war-torn Afghanistan.

Some of these prominent members were earlier incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and some in Pakistan and Afghanistan jails. They were released in the last six years once the US started back-channel talks with them for their exit from Afghanistan.

The US' plan to hand over Afghanistan was made way back in 2012 and eventually it started taking shape and they started regrouping and taking control over Afghan territory.

A sudden pullout of the US forces gave the Taliban enough time to completely take over Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, Taliban captured Kabul marking the end of US intervention in Afghanistan since in the 1970s.

The security establishments are fully aware that the terror group Al Qaeda has a clear link to the Taliban and however the US decided to leave the country as quickly as it can, ultimately triggering a huge humanitarian crisis.

But who are these prominent Taliban members of 2021? Most of them are the same old Taliban members which ruled from 1996 to 2001. IANS profiles some of these Taliban members.

Shahabuddin Dilawar Shahabuddin Dilawar is an ethnic Pashtun from Logar province, and his father, Syed Akbar, was a member of the Wolesi Jirga during King Zahir Shah's reign. During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, he held positions, including Ambassador to Pakistan, a representative in the Peshawar Consulate, Charge d'Affaires in Saudi Arabia, and Deputy Chief Justice of the Kandahar Appeal Court.

He also fought in the 1980s anti-Soviet jihad.

Until September 1998, Dilawar was the Taliban's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He has since led or participated in several Taliban delegations in other countries. He was the Taliban's chief delegate during talks in Chantilly, France, in December 2012. He has continued to act as a Taliban envoy since moving to Qatar, helping to set up the Taliban's office in Doha. In April 2016, Dilawar took part in a three-person Taliban delegation in Islamabad for "exploratory" meetings with Pakistani government authorities.

Dilawar is currently based in Doha and is a member of the peace negotiating team. He is fluent in Arabic, English, Dari, and Pashto and has completed his higher education.

Abdul Latif Mansoor Abdul Latif Mansoor is a Pashtun from the Paktia province and had served as Agriculture Minister during the previous Taliban regime. He spent the majority of his life in Pakistan, where he completed his Islamic studies at the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He is the nephew of Mewlavi Nasrullah Mansoor, a former jihadi commander.

He was also a member of the Taliban Supreme Council and Head of the Council's Political Commission in 2009. He was the Taliban shadow governor of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, in 2009 and the head of the group's political commission as at mid-2009.

In May 2010, he served as a senior Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan.

He is a member of the Taliban's peace negotiation team.

Abdul Kabeer Abdul Kabeer is of Pashtun ethnicity and hails from Paktia province, which borders Pakistan, but has spent time in Baghlan province as well.

During the Taliban regime, he was governor of Kandahar and deputy director of Kabul's ministerial council on economic affairs.

He was a member of the Taliban's high leadership council in October 2006, and was appointed military commander of the eastern zone in October 2007. He was a member of the Taliban Supreme Council as at 2009. He used to collect money from drug traffickers on behalf of the Taliban. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009, but he was later released.

He was part of the negotiating team.

Khairullah Khairkhwa Khairullah Khairkhwa is an ethnic Pashtun and belongs to the Kandahar province. During the former Taliban regime, he had served as a military commander, Interior Minister and Governor of Herat province.

When the September 11, 2001, attacks took place, Khairkhwa was posted as governor of the Taliban-run Herat Province, where former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ran a training camp.

He was directly associated with bin Laden and former Taliban leader Omar. He is closely acquainted with current Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Khairkhwa was arrested by Pakistani border patrol officials in February 2002 and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay from May 2002 to May 2014. He was one of five Taliban senior leaders transferred to Qatar as part of the Doha-mediated exchange for captive US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

He was part of negotiating team.

Mohammad Fazel Mazlum Mohammad Fazel Mazlum belongs to Uruzgan province and had studied in Pakistani seminaries. The 53-year-old is a Pashtun from Kandahar province. He was a military commander during the fight against the US, and he previously served as interior minister and governor of Herat province during Taliban rule.

He stands accused of administering a series of massacres targeting Shia and Tajik Sunnis Muslims in central and northern Afghanistan.

He was taken into custody in 2002 near the Afghan border in Pakistan and held in the Guantanamo Bay prison for nearly 12 years. He is currently residing in Doha and is a member of the Taliban peace negotiation team.

Noorullah Noori Born in 1967 in Zabul province, Noorullah Noori is a senior Taliban military commander in the northern Mazar-e Sharif province.

During the Taliban's rule, he was the governor of Balkh and Laghman, as well as the military commander of the northern zone. He was implicated for the execution of ethnic Uzbeks in May 2001 and of at least 31 ethnic Hazara civilians and Shia Muslim detainees at Robatak Pass, in north central Afghanistan, in May 2000.

He was arrested by the Panjshir-based Northern Alliance in November 2001 and detained in Guantanamo Bay from January 2002 to May 2014. He was an associate of former Taliban commander Omar, and was at one point one of 25 Taliban officials who met him most frequently.

He was part of negotiation team.

Amir Khan Muttaqi Amir Khan Muttaqi is ethnically Pashtun from Paktia but has lived in Zabul, Kandahar, and Helmand provinces. During the Taliban regime, he was the minister of culture, information, and education. He had also served as a Taliban representative in UN-led talks during the Taliban regime.

He was also a member of a regional Taliban Council in June 2007.

Muttaqi is close to Taliban chief Haibatullah, having served as his personnel secretary before being appointed to the Doha negotiating team.

Currently, Muttaqi is the head of a Taliban commission that oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents.

Abdul Haq Waseeq Abdul Haq Waseeq, a resident of Khogyano district in Ghazni province, is 49 years old and had completed his religious studies from Zia-ul-Madares in Pakistan's Quetta City.

He was assistant officer of intelligence during the Taliban regime. Waseeq was arrested in the Muqar district of Ghazni province in 2001 and was sent to Guantanamo Bay. He was released in a prisoners swap deal after spending 12-years in the US military detention centre.

He was present in the US-Taliban talks that lasted for 11 months and currently is a member of the Taliban negotiating team. He lives in Qatar with his family.

Matiulhaq Khales Matiulhaq Khales is a Pashtun from the province of Nangarhar. He is the son of Maulvi Younas Khales, a former jihadi commander who founded the Hizb-e-Islami (Khales group), the same as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party. The two are commonly differentiated as Hizb-e Islami (Khales) and Hizb-e-Islami (Gulbuddin). After the overthrow of Mohammad Zahir Shah by Mohammad Daoud in 1973, Khales fled to Pakistan and joined Hekmatyar's Islamic Party (Hezb-e Islami). After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Khales broke with Hekmatyar and established his own party (Hizb-e-Islami Khales).

His son Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales completed his bachelor's degree from the Madina Monawwara in Saudi Arabia. He had created an armed group called Torabora Mahaz for some time. In 2016, he pledged allegiance to the Taliban. Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales is currently a member of the Taliban negotiating team.

Mohammad Naeem Mohammad Naeem is from Maidan Wardak province. He studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqani seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. He received his doctorate in Arabic Literature from Islamabad's Islamic University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha.

Suhail Shaheen Suhail Shaheen is from Paktia, a Pashtun-majority province in Afghanistan. He attended the Islamic University in Islamabad, and Kabul University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha. He was the editor-in-chief of the Kabul Times during the Taliban regime. He has also served as the second secretary in Afghanistan's embassy in Islamabad and as the spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

Shaheen is a fluent English speaker and prolific writer.

Anas Haqqani Anas Haqqani is son of renowned jihadi leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani Network. Sirajuddin Haqqani, his brother, is the network's commander.

From Paktia province, Anas Haqqani is the youngest member of the Taliban's Doha negotiating team. He was arrested in 2014 and transferred to Qatar after serving six years in Bagram prison.

The Haqqani Network is directly associated links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has carried out a series of high-profile attacks against foreign and Afghan troops since the US invasion.

Mohammad Shirin Akhund Mohammad Shirin Akhund was close to the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar. A member of the Alizai tribe from Kandahar province, he and was in charge of Omar's security. He was also the commander of military intelligence and the governor of Kandahar province.

Akhund is a long-time member of the Taliban and its leadership council the Rahbari Shura, better known as the Quetta Shura. During the US invasion, Akhund was one of the close associates of Omar who helped him escape from the province and evade coalition forces. After fleeing from coalition forces, Akhund became head of Omar's personal security for the next several years, becoming the latter's close confidant.

In 2016, he was placed in charge of overseeing the Taliban war efforts in 19 provinces in the country's east and north as part of the organisation's military committee. By 2018, a UN Security Council report described Akhund as the group's head of intelligence for the southern region, before he was moved to the shadow governorship of Kandahar in the same year during a political reshuffling of Taliban leadership by Haibatullah Akhundzada.

After the fall of Kabul on August 15, he has been appointed as the Governor of Kabul. He was a member of the negotiating team in the Taliban's office in Doha, Qatar.

(Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in)
Agra, Aug 28 : River activists of Agra, Mathura, and Vrindavan have protested against the proposed dam on Yamuna river, close to Hathni Kund, in Yamuna Nagar district by the Haryana government.

River Connect Campaign member Devashish Bhattacharya said, "Already the Yamuna in Agra is in a dying state due to heavy pollution and lack of freshwater. Another dam on it would only compound the problem, posing a great risk to the historical monuments, including the Taj Mahal." The Haryana government has proposed a new dam to control floods. An official said a meeting of four states would discuss the modalities soon. On the instructions of the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, who had visited Yamuna Nagar sometime back, the officials of the Haryana state irrigation department and local administration visited the site for the dam, a few kilometres upstream of the Hathni Kund barrage, two days ago.

The land has been identified for the Rs 4,000 crore project, it was claimed. The acquisition process has already begun.

The protesters in Agra said the real purpose was to divert water for irrigation in Haryana. "After 1978, there has been no major flood in the Yamuna, though the water level has crossed the danger mark several times," said Goswami Nandan Shrotriya, of the Sri Mathuradheesh temple on the riverbank in Agra. If ever there was a need for a barrage on the Yamuna, it was here in Agra downstream of the Taj Mahal, but successive state governments have been dragging their feet and delaying the project for no specific reason, he added.

Pandit Jugal Kishore said, "Already there are four dams or barrages: Tajewala, Wazirabad, Hathni Kund, Okhla and Gokul barrage in Mathura in a stretch of around 400 km. To keep the river alive and save aqua life, there should be an uninterrupted minimum flow in the river. But upstream barrages have held back all the water in the river. What downstream cities like Agra get is only sewage, industrial effluents, and all the domestic waste...Agra's own contribution to increasing the pollution load in the Yamuna is substantial through over a hundred drains.

Jagan Nath Poddar of Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance warns that any effort to reduce the flow of water in the river will prove an eco-disaster. Haryana has not heeded the directives of the NGT. The Delhi government too has failed to check Yamuna pollution.

The dry Yamuna has failed to meet the water needs of Agra city. The city is now dependent on the 165 kilometres long Ganga Jal pipeline from Bulandshahr district.

"But you need water to keep the river alive and provide support to the historical buildings that are sited on its banks. The Yamuna is not just a water body but also a religious entity for the Hindus. You just can not kill a river like this," said angry river activists Rahul Raj, Deepak Rajput, Chaturbhuj Tiwari and others.

The campaigners said they would mobilise the whole city and raise public awareness in the coming days. They have plans to meet the elected representatives to sensitise them and seek their support to stall the proposed dam in Haryana.
Mumbai, Aug 28 : Rohan Shankar, writer of the upcoming comedy film 'Helmet', shares how the story has effortless comedy and why it is the right time to release such films for the family audience.

Talking about how the story of the film materialised, Rohan said, "Helmet's concept came to me via Satramm (Ramani, the director). We were working as assistant directors together before. Then I wrote my first film 'Lal Baugh Chi Rani' and after that Satramm told me about this idea which he developed with a few of his friends. When I heard it, I felt it was super interesting. I loved the concept and I immediately started thinking about the substance, subject, and depth I could add to such a fun film." "I was never hesitant about working on this film but always felt the responsibility to tell this story, since the time I heard the concept. Condom is such a word in this country that whenever someone says 'condom' people laugh so I really didn't have to make an effort in making people laugh," he added.

"But apart from that we also had to research on different aspects on why do people react like this and the way people buy the product. I had to be aware of these things before writing the story so that the film connects with the audience. Now that the conversation is changing, I feel this is the correct time for the film's release," he signed off.

The film 'Helmet' featuring Aparshakti Khurrana, Abhishek Banerjee, Pranutan Bahl, Anurita Jha, Ashish Verma is releasing on September 3, on Zee5.
Hyderabad, Aug 28 : Actress Rakul Preet Singh is gearing up for the release of her upcoming Telugu film 'Konda Polam' alongside Panja Vaisshnav Tej.

The actress, who has worked with both senior and young actors, feels that the stereotypes of onscreen pairings are broken now.

Rakul, who has worked with senior actors like Ravi Teja and Mahesh Babu, has also featured alongside younger stars like Sundeep Kishan.

"I think the industry has completely changed today. Gone are the days when people used to think that if you work with senior actors, you can't work with junior actors, and vice versa. I think it's way past that... Now it's about the roles, it's about how you look and how you carry those," Rakul tells IANS.

"Times have changed now. Films are changing and evolving and I really hope that the filmmakers see that and more opportunities and scripts come like that," she adds.

Rakul plays the role of a shephard girl in 'Konda Polam' and her simple, village girl look has received positive response from her fans.

"I always believe that you exude your vibe and I think if you are happy within, you look happy outside. If you are happy doing what you do, it will always reflect on screen," she says.

The young actress, whose last Bollywood movie was 'Sardar Ka Grandson', believes in taking care of one-self.

"I just feel that the body that you live in is something that you need to take care of. From what I eat to how well I maintain my body or how young I feel in my head. Everything else is just a byproduct. I am glad that people like the pairing and I hope I keep getting more opportunities like that," she says.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, Aug 28 : The ruling BJP in Karnataka is divided over the former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa's plan for state-wide tour to strengthen the party. Yediyurappa had announced the tour plan while submitting his resignation. Now, he is all set to take up the tour after Ganesh Chaturthi and the leaders in the party think that the tour by the veteran leader will create unnecessary confusion.

Sources in the BJP say that at a time when Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's government is taking off to a good start, the tour by Yediyurappa will send out a different kind of message. The high command after failing to convince Yediyurappa with the governor's post, has given the responsibility to Bommai to broker peace in this regard and convince Yediyurappa to take up a state-wide tour in accordance with the party's plan.

The family of Yediyurappa has gifted him Rs 1.3 crore worth Toyota Vellfire for touring the state. The fully automatic luxury vehicle was chosen to make the 78-year-old travel more comfortably. The vehicle also has an outlet on the top to help him wave at the crowd, without meeting the people.

Sensing the discontent within the party, Yediyurappa stated that there is no question of taking up the tour all by himself. "We will all go together for a state tour after Ganesh Chaturthi. Collective decision will be taken in this regard," Yediyurappa stated to assuage detractors.

Yediyurappa reached his hometown Shivamogga on Friday for a four day visit. The people gave him a warm welcome. He said he is there for anyone in the party and his doors are open for all party men.

The detractors however want him to discuss travel plans and issues he is going to raise during the tour. They fear that Yediyurappa might use the opportunity to launch his son, BJP Vice President B.Y. Vijayendra. They also think that the tour will enhance the charisma of Yediyurappa and make the party more dependent on him in the next assembly elections.

Yediyurappa supporters say that he wouldn't care for anyone and won't wait for any orders. If at all the party wants to control him by putting roadblocks to his state wide tour plan, the party will be the loser. The detractors want Yediyurappa's name for everything and they don't like to give him any credit.
Bengaluru, Aug 28 : The University of Mysuru on Saturday rolled back its circular restricting the movement of girl students in the premises of the campus. The development comes in the wake of the diktat issued by state's Higher Education Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan.

"The Vice Chancellor of the University of Mysuru has withdrawn the circular issued prohibiting the entry of any person into the Kukkarahalli lake area after 6.30 p.m. and movement of girl students alone in the campus. Had spoken to him regarding this," he stated.

It is the responsibility of the Vice Chancellors to ensure safety within the campuses. They should best make use of available technology to step up surveillance within the university campuses, C.N. Ashwath Narayan said.

Vice Chancellors should take measures to tighten the patrolling within the campuses. The use of drones could also be considered to beef up vigilance, he added.

Narayan also said he would discuss with all the concerned about stepping up patrolling within the campuses of universities.

In a bizarre development, historical Mysuru University banned the movement of girl students in the campus after 6.30 p.m. in the campus from Friday (August 27). The order issued by the registrar of the university in the backdrop of gang rape incident in the city had evoked outrage. The Vice Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar had assured to rectify the order by Saturday.

The order stated that the movement of girl students in the premises of the Mysuru university campus has been banned after 6.30 p.m. The girl students are also banned from sitting anywhere in the campus after the stipulated time, the order said.

The direction had been issued after oral instructions of the police department in the backdrop of the incident of gang rape in the Mysuru. The order also stated that the entry of public to famous Kukkarahalli lake premises after 6.30 p.m is stopped. Kukkarahalli lake is located adjacent to the Mysuru university campus and loved by nature lovers.

The university has also given directions to enhance patrolling and security systems in the university campus.

The Vice Chancellor stated that he would get the order modified by Saturday. "The order has been issued after the police department raised concern over the safety of girl students in the campus which has lonely spaces. The guideline has been issued in the interests of the security of girl students," he explained.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 28 : Senior Congress Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, saying that he is having no concern for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and his claims to be the leader of renaissance is humbug and if he was genuine he should have married his daughter to someone from the SC community.

Suresh made this tongue-in-cheek remark while taking part in a meeting here on Saturday which is the 158th birth anniversary of hugely popular social reformer Ayyankali, who worked for the advancement of deprived and untouchable people in the princely state of Travancore.

Suresh, a seven time Lok Sabha member, took on Vijayan and said if Vijayan was a true champion of the SC community, what he should have done was he should have got her daughter married to some CPI-M leader from that community, who are there in large numbers.

"Ever since the Sabarimala issue surfaced a few years back (opening up of the temple to women of all groups), Vijayan suddenly tried to take up the leadership of the renaissance movement. This is nothing but a fake position that he has taken as he has no love for that community. He now has a member from the SC community as a Minister (K. Radhakrishnan -- Minister of SC, ST and Devasoms) and see which portfolio has he given to him. And moreover there has been someone posted at his office also to oversee his functioning. The love that Vijayan claims to have for the SC is nothing but humbug," said Suresh in his speech.

After the meeting got over, when the media got around him, Suresh reiterated what he said and stood by his remark and what he actually meant was if Vijayan was really serious the renaissance should have started from his family.

Reacting angrily to Suresh's statement was the top youth wing leader of the CPI-M -- A.A. Rahim who said this was an unwarranted remark which will only take the state backwards and it is in no way acceptable.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan when asked about Suresh's remark, said he has no knowledge about it and added the party does not have such a view.

Incidentally Vijayan's daughter Veena Vijayan after divorcing her first husband had married P.A. Mohammed Riyaz at the official residence of Vijayan, here, last year.

Riyaz, later was given an assembly seat to contest, which he won and eyebrows was raised when he was made the State PWD and Tourism Minister.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bengaluru, Aug 28 : The results of Karnataka CET-2021 state level entrance exams will be announced by September 20, C.N. Ashwath Narayan, the Higher Education minister, stated on Saturday.

Speaking to the media after visiting Sheshadripuram college CET centre to examine the arrangements made, he said, the examination is being held smoothly at all the 530 locations across the state.

Of the 12 students who had been informed that they are Covid-19 positive, 4 students have been tested negative. The Covid-19 positive students have also attended the examination by making use of the separate arrangements facilitated for them, he informed.

There are no reports of any inconvenience from any location including the border area districts despite lockdown and weekend curfew being in effect. The examination is being run smoothly in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Chamarajanagar, Mysuru, Kodagu and Udupi which are adjacent or near the state of Kerala, he said.

Responding to a query he said that the process of counseling would commence in the first week of October.

The CET exams are being held on August 28 and 29 and as many as 2,01,816 have enrolled for it.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : India is fast progressing in discussions with several countries for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Union Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

Currently, India is in discussions on FTAs with several countries including the UK, UAE and GCC countries, Australia and European Union.

The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles cited that India and US have agreed to aspire for $500 billion trade in near future.

Furthermore, while addressing the business and trade fraternity through the platform of Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO), he noted that recently India emerged as the world's second most desirable manufacturing destination overtaking the US.

The minister pointed out that the trend showed the potential and promise of India to become the "manufacturing hub" of the world.

He asserted that along with becoming the "manufacturing hub", India should also become a "trading hub".

According to Goyal, every growth parameter is showing an extremely "exciting future for all of us".

"Whether it is FDI, forex reserves, foodgrain reserves, agriculture production, manufacturing, all sectors are on a growth path. We now need to sprint ahead," the minister was quoted as saying in an official statement.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kolkata, Aug 28 : In a major development, the Enforcement Directorate has summoned Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the national General Secretary of Trinamool Congress, and his wife Rujira Banerjee in connection with an alleged money laundering case involving coal smuggling.

Banerjee, an MP from Diamond Harbour, has been asked to appear before the financial probe agency in New Delhi on September 6, while his wife has been summoned on September 1.

Sanjay Basu, the lawyer for the Banerjees, has been told to appear before the agency on September 3.

Two senior IPS officers of West Bengal Police -- Shyam Singh and Gyanwant Singh -- have also been summoned by the ED in the same case on September 8 and 9, respectively.

The CBI had questioned Rujira Banerjee in connection with the case on February 23, days ahead of the Assembly elections in Bengal. Her sister and family members have also been questioned in the case.

The case was filed under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED after studying a November 2020 FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.

Local state operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.

The ED had earlier claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from this illegal trade. The Trinamool leader had denied all the charges.

Hours after the ED summon, Abhishek Banerjee said at the Trinamool student wing's foundation day programme on Saturday, "The BJP thinks it can put pressure on us by using ED against us, but we will only emerge stronger." Terming the ED summons as "political vendetta", Banerjee said that the central agencies cannot deter his resolve.

"When we fight, we have just two things in mind - either hoist the flag for which we are fighting or come back wrapped in the same. I challenge (Home Minister) Amit Shah to stop the Trinamool if he has the courage; we will snatch away from you all those states where we enter," he said.

"Trinamool will go to all the states where the BJP has killed democracy and snatched away people's rights. We will fight them till the last drop of our blood. They think we will sit down if they scare us. But this is the land of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekanand and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa," he added.
Chandigarh, Aug 28 : Violence between police and protesting farmers in Haryana broke out on Saturday with the former trying to reach Karnal city to protest against a state-level BJP meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on holding local bodies elections.

At least 10 protesters were injured when they were canecharged by the police to stop and disperse as they were forcing their way towards Karnal.

BJP state president O.P. Dhankhar was also present at the meeting in Khattar's hometown.

Reacting to the situation, Bharatiya Kisan Union's (Haryana unit) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni called for blocking all highways in the state to protest the use of force against the farmers.

"We slammed the state BJP government for using police force on farmers. I request all farmers to come out and block all highways in the state," Charuni said.

Reports of traffic disruption were received from Hisar, Jind, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Dadri, Fatehabad and Ambala.

The traffic bound for New Delhi from Amritsar was disrupted on the Shambu border in Punjab. Also the traffic bound for Uttar Pradesh via Ambala and Yamunanagar towns was impacted.

Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body under which farmer groups have been staging protests against the farm laws, leader Darshan Pal urged farmers to carry out a road blockade at 5 p.m. and called for the release of those who were arrested during the clash.

Congress leader and two-time Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda condemned the lathicharge.

"The action on farmers at Karnal is undemocratic and inhuman. Everyone has the right to protest in a democracy. Governments are not run with fear of the bullet but by winning hearts," Hooda said in a tweet.

The BJP government and its leaders, mainly in Punjab and Haryana, have been facing farmers' ire against the three contentious agriculture laws that have triggered widespread protests, particularly on the borders of the national capital, where farmers have been protesting since November-end.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Mumbai, Aug 28 : Ahead of Janmashtami, television actor Shagun Pandey has shared his experience of celebrating the festival during his childhood.

Recalling childhood memories, Shagun said, "I love celebrating Janmashtami as its one of my favourite festivals. When I was young, I used to dress up as Krishna and play around the house every year on Janmashtami. Eating sweets and going around to watch people celebrate 'Dahi Handi' is one of my favourite childhood memories." Coming to the present time, the actor added, "Even now there is a celebration in our society every year, and I love watching all the kids make a pyramid and try to break the 'handi'. I love how this festival is celebrated by everyone, be it a child or an adult. Here's wishing everyone a very happy and safe Janmashtami!" On the work front, Shagun plays the role of 'Meet Alhawat' in the latest TV soap 'Meet'.

Talking about the show, the actor said, "This show highlights the journey of a young girl, who is breaking all stereotypes associated with gender roles showing that a woman is capable of doing everything that a man does. I feel honoured to be a part of such a show that celebrates the concept of gender neutrality. I personally believe my character will serve as a trigger to all those who still believe that women have some set and defined roles in society." Also starring actress Ashi Singh in the lead, 'Meet' airs on Zee TV.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered 11 separate cases in connection with the post-poll violence in West Bengal, the probe agency filed another 10 cases on Saturday, taking the tally of total cases to 21.

The agency has also detained two accused in connection with one of the cases filed on Friday, sources said.

To probe the cases, the Centre has provided CRPF security cover to the CBI teams amid apprehension of locals and the state administration disrupting the investigation.

The agency said that so far it has registered eleven separate cases after being handed over the probe by the Calcutta High Court.

The Calcutta High Court had recently handed over the investigation of serious crimes such as rape and murder during the post-poll violence in West Bengal to the CBI. Similarly, the division bench of the high court also formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the lesser crimes that occured after the declaration of Assembly election results in Bengal on May 2.
Patna, Aug 28 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to quiz the top officials of various departments in Bihar in connection with the Srijan scam.

Sources said the central investigating agency has recovered some critical documents during raids at the secret hideouts of the main accused, Jayshri Thakur.

Thakur was the then Bhagalpur Deputy Collector (Land Reforms) when the Srijan scam surfaced. The sources said that Thakur's close aide Anish was also involved in the scam, who is absconding now.

Anish had earned money worth crores through the scam with which he purchased a huge property in the adjoining Banka district.

After the recovery of the documents, some prominent names in the state, including some of the state's top bureaucrats, have now appeared on the CBI radar.

On Tuesday, the CBI had registered a fourth FIR in the Srijan scam case wherein it has been alleged that officials of the district welfare office had illegally withdrawn Rs 998.869 crore between 2007 and 2017.

The amount was withdrawn from the Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and the Indian Bank in Bhagalpur. The alleged officials of Bank of Baroda's RP Road branch, Indian Bank's Patal Road branch, Bank of India's Triveni Apartment branch, Srijan Women Development Cooperative Committee (SWDCC) and Bhagalpur District Welfare Association are facing charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery.

Earlier, the CBI had registered three FIRs in the Srijan scam, claiming that the alleged officials had withdrawn Rs 221.60 crore and transferred the amount from the Bhagalpur district welfare office to Srijan accounts. Similarly, another FIR was registered for the withdrawal of an amount of Rs 121.71 crore.

After the third FIR, the Bihar government had recommended the case to the CBI for thorough investigation.
Tumakuru : , Aug 28 (IANS) An incident of inter-caste married couple being boycotted by the upper caste community has been reported from Tumkur district of Karnataka from Koragere village, Chikkanayakanahalli taluk. The couple have been married for 14 years.

A complaint has been submitted to Superintendent of Police of Tumkur district, Rahul Kumar Shahapurwad, on Saturday in this regard by the harassed couple -- Nagaraju and Shashikala. "He has assured us that he would visit the village and address the problem in two days," Shashikala said.

Koragere village residents Nagaraju and Shashikala, the persecuted couple, got married in 2007 after falling in love, against the wishes of their families. Nagaraju belonged to a lower caste.

After marriage, the couple lived in the same village. Both husband and wife worked as labourers and grew crops in their small patch of agricultural land. After years of toil, they built a home and managed to develop their agricultural land.

Few people from the upper caste community who could not bear to see that the woman belonging to their community is living with a backward caste husband, started troubling them. The group picked up a fight with Nagaraju and assaulted him for no reason. The villagers have also boycotted the couple for a week.

Shashikala, the victim explained that, though she had tried to approach Huliyar, Chikkanayakanahalli and Tiptur police stations in this regard, there was no result. "Ours is inter-caste marriage. We have two sons and are leading our lives without troubling others. If we are boycotted, how can we live? District administration should come to our help," she said.

Nagaraju said that he lived in the village peacefully for 14 years. The villagers have suddenly started troubling and harassing him for no reason, he added.
Amaravati, Aug 28 : Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supporters and cadres demonstrated against the Andhra Pradesh government over rising fuel prices on Saturday.

Hundreds of supporters responded to a call given by TDP national president and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to stage mass protests against rising prices of fuel and essential commodities.

The demonstrators protested by pulling a four-wheeler with ropes and moving two-wheelers on rickshaws and bullock carts.

The TDP supporters also raised slogans against the Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy-led state government and alleged that it is not taking any measures to help the poor families suffering from 'unbearable' prices.

The protests were held in all the 175 Assembly constituencies in the state.

In Srikakulam, police denied permission for a bike rally at Kotabommali, after which the TDP state president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu and MP Rammohan Naidu took out a padyatra (walkathon) till Kotabommali Ryot Bazaar.

At Denduluru in West Godavari district, former MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar took a bullock cart ride to symbolically show that people are 'unable' to bear 'exorbitant' fuel prices.
Mumbai, Aug 28 : Actress Kangana Ranuat, who will soon be seen playing the role of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in her biopic 'Thallaivi', will release a new track 'Teri Ankhon Mein' from the film on Monday.

The song pays tribute to the iconic politician and former film star.

The makers of 'Thalaivii' have recreated four iconic original songs of Jayalalithaa and MGR; and brought them together in this one track.

The tracks, which have been recreated are- 'Kannae kaniyae' and 'Enna porutham' from 'Rasiya Police 115' (1968), 'Ninathathai nadathiyae' from 'Nam Naadu' (1969) and 'Ninathen vanthai' from 'Kaavalkaaran' (1967).

Talking about the songs, Kangana says: "Jaya Amma's songs are significant because they are part of pop culture. This song is an amalgamation of those tracks. Jaya Amma and MGR gave 60 to 70 songs together. They worked together for decades, but we had to crack it in the span of four days. In a day, I would go through several looks and hairstyles. I wanted that magic to be authentic." Revealing the experience of shooting the song, while also gearing up for the latter part of the film, Kangana said, "In her younger days, Jaya Amma had an hourglass body. But we were on the brink of shooting the second hour of the film. My director took it upon himself to make sure I was well-fed. His mother's handmade meals are brought in three tiffins." Directed by Vijay, 'Thalaivii', is set to release in theatres worldwide in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu by Zee Studios on September 10.
Kohima, Aug 28 : The influential Naga Mothers' Association (NMA) on Saturday condemned the move of some women tying 'rakhis' on Indian armed forces personnel and demanded immediate withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Nagaland.

The NMA said in a statement that the organisation is shocked and strongly condemns the "questionable act of few Naga women tying rakhis on Indian armed forces personnel in Dimapur and Tamenglong during the recent Raksha Bandhan celebrations.

"For us Naga women, traumatised by a genocidal history of rapes, molestation, killings, and inhumane atrocities at the hands of Indian armed forces under the impunity of the AFSPA, it is a shame and a black day to witness our women tying rakhis and felicitating these very armed forces, when we are yet to see justice for war crimes and human rights violations committed against our own women, children and men," the NMA said.

It said that whether it be an activity initiated by the BJP in Dimapur or student bosies' obligations to the Assam Rifles in Tamenglong, the act of tying rakhis is unacceptable and questionable, as long as Nagas are forced to live under AFSPA in these areas and without justice for the past history of human rights violations.

"The haunting cries of the victims for justice in numerous incidents over the decades are yet to be heard," it said.

The NMA statement, issued by its president Abei-U Meru and joint secretary Malsawmthangi Leyri, claimed that the "horrifying massacre of Nagas at Matikhru on September 6, 1960 by the 16th Punjab Regiment remains a Black Day till today, which is a record of extreme violation of human rights, whereby the army committed the barbaric beheading of our innocent villagers".

The powerful civil society alleged that the "killings, tortures and rapes at Oinam and surrounding villages under Operation Bluebird, the Mokokchung arson, Pangsha fake encounter etc. are all still fresh in the memory of the people".

It also said the recent press statement of Assam Rifles is unacceptable to Naga women, because "they are not in a position to sermonise in the face of such atrocities, nor is the objection to the Raksha Bhandan an issue about cultural practices or religious differences".

"It is about the denial of justice on war crimes against Nagas, including women and children, under the imposition of AFSPA," the statement said.

The NMA also urged the leaders of the BJP Mahila Morcha (women's body) that instead of carrying out such objectionable programmes, they must join the Naga women if they are true Nagas who love their people, and raise their voices for the repeal of AFSPA.
Mumbai, Aug 28 : Making a macabre prediction, the BMC chief I.S. Chahal has warned that by 2050, nearly 80 per cent of south Mumbai's A, B, C and D Wards will sink under the Arabian Sea owing to the rising ocean levels triggered by global warming.

The areas Chahal referred to comprise the cream of residential and commercial districts of south Mumbai like Cuffe Parade, Nariman Point, Fort and Colaba in the country's financial capital.

Besides, 70 per cent of the neighbourhood like Umarkhadi, Mohammed Ali Road, Marine Drive, Girgaum, Breach Candy and surroundings could also be swallowed underwater owing to the climatic change fury.

Some of the areas that fall in these Wards and are likely to be affected include the state government headquarters of Mantralaya, the country's top central business district of Nariman Point, several leading five-star hotels, major heritage structures, important residences or commercial buildings like the BSE, University of Mumbai, Bombay High Court and other courts, civil and defence related institutions, religious places, etc.

Chahal's grim forecast came at the launch of Mumbai Climate Action Plan website on Friday in the presence of Environment & Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray and other dignitaries.

Citing recent developments, Chahal said we are getting weather warnings like extreme conditions or very heavy rains, and if we do not heed them now, it could be a dangerous scenario over the next 25 years.

"Earlier, climate change events we heard were about melting glaciers which did not directly affect us, but now, climate change is at our doorstep the current and next generations will suffer," Chahal said.

In February, the McKinsey India had said in a report that by 2050, Mumbai will witness a 25 per cent increase in the intensity of flash floods accompanied by a half-metre rise in the sea-level, which could hit around two-three million people living within a one-km radius of the city coastline.

Chahal pointed out that in the past 15 months or so, Mumbai and surroundings were lashed by three cyclones, leading to waterlogging in many areas like Marine Drive, Girgaum, etc.

On August 5, 2020, many areas in south Mumbai were submerged in around 5 feet of waters due to the torrential downpour, and though there was no cyclone warning, the situation was similar to a cyclone, said the BMC chief.

Citing another concern, Chahal said that Mumbai has been witnessing extreme weather conditions like heavy rains falling in a very less period of time.

For instance, this year 70 per cent of the July average rain fell in just four days from July 17-20, while in May when the average rainfall is nil, 200 mm was recorded due to the Cyclone Tauktae, he explained.

In fact, the city has been notching at least two-three days of extreme rains during monsoons each year, like on July 16 and 18 this year, Mumbai recorded over 235 and 253 mm rainfall, respectively, within a very short span of just a few hours, leading to massive flooding in different areas.
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 28 : Finally, after 36 days of silence, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday returned to address the media, but there was no respite in the surge of Covid as 31,265 new cases were reported in the state in 24 hours.

He said 1,67,497 samples were tested in the past 24 hours and the day's test positivity rate was 18.67 per cent.

Across the state there were 2,04,896 active cases after 21,468 people turned negative. The state recorded 153 Covid deaths, taking the death toll to 20,466 so far.

Vijayan began his press meet by saying that he is returning after a while and it was because of the recently concluded assembly session and also because of Onam.

But the agile opposition leaders who were baying for his blood, for being in hiding, as Kerala accounted for as much as 60 per cent of the daily cases in recent days, said this was nothing but a bluff as in the past 18 months on numerous occasions he made it a point to address the media during all festivals and he then even concluded his press meetings by wishing the people of Kerala, depending on which festival was being celebrated.

Vijayan then took cover of statements made by leading epidemiologists to the media of how Kerala was the best state in managing Covid and the numbers were because of higher testing and also due to correct statistics that the state was putting out.

"There has been a surge in the past few days because of the Onam festivities. The state is fully geared to face the expected third wave which has been predicted," said Vijayan.

Vijayan then turned towards the importance of all in the state to get vaccinated.

"Figures now show that many who passed away due to Covid had not taken vaccines. The need of the hour is if there is any reluctance on the part of any person not to take vaccine, then there should be a concerted effort to tell such people the importance of it," said Vijayan.

He said so far the state has administered 2.77 crore vaccine doses which include two crores who have got only one dose.

The vaccination ratio is the highest in the country.

"From next week onwards there will be night curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. as announced, while Sunday will be observed as total lockdown. A high level online meeting of leading experts from across the country will be held on September 1 to discuss the way forward in tackling Covid," added Vijayan and concluded by saying that he is not interested to counter a negative campaign against the state about Covid spread.

"We did not have to face the scenario where dead bodies were seen floating around," said Vijayan taking a potshot at the BJP leaders who in recent times had slammed him for remaining in hiding.

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New Delhi, Aug 28 : Ladakh's Chushul Councillor Konchok Stanzin on Saturday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for better infrastructure, mobile network, for the villages located in the areas bordering with China.

Handing over a memorandum to the LS Speaker on Saturday, Stanzin raised the issue of hardships of the people residing at the border areas in extreme hostile conditions. Stanzin said that these people need education, employment opportunities and better health infrastructure.

Birla was on the tour of the Union Territory of Ladakh in connection with the inauguration of the Parliamentary Outreach Programme for the empowerment of Panchayati Raj Institutions on Friday at the Sindhu Sanskritik Kendra in Leh and during his visit to the famous Pangong Tso lake the local councillor appraised him of these hardships.

Stanzin told the LS Speaker that without a strong border infrastructure and modern amenities, one can never feel confident as far as security was concerned. "Mobile connectivity and universal internet coverage of all border villages is the skeleton of a smart security policy of any country. Sadly, India, our country, is yet to realise this basic principle of border security. Cities have multiple internet service providers, whereas the people of border areas remain cut off, needing to travel hundreds of Kilometers towards Leh to get mobile and internet networks", the councillor said in his memorandum.

Urging him to intervene in getting 4G mobile towers sanctioned by the government for border villages like Lukung, Phobrang, Maan, Merak, Chushul, Satoo and Bharma in Kargyam, the local public representative also drew his attention towards power connection of Durbuk Block and other border areas in Changthang to be connected to the Northern grid for uninterrupted power supply.

Referring to the recently laid optical fibre cable to the Merak and Khakted villages by the Indian Army, he also requested the visiting dignitary to get it extended to other villages for smooth internet coverage.

Besides these, Stanzin also urged the establishment of medical centres, schools and college in the Chushul constituency and also requested a special quota for youth of the border villages in Defence and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) recruitment.

Raising another demand to carve out Changthang as a separate district, the Chushul Councillor said, "In order to fast-track and streamline the development process in border areas, a separate district status will go a long way in fulfilling the aspirations of the people." Chushul is a village in the Leh district of Ladakh and it is located in the Durbuk tehsil, in the area known as "Chushul Valley", south of the Pangong Lake and west of the Spanggur Lake. The Line of Actual Control with China runs about five miles east of Chushul, across the Chushul Valley. India and China share boundary in the Ladakh region wherein the two nations have been in strained relationship over the border disputes, however, they disengaged from Pangong Tso areas in February this year.
Chandigarh, Aug 28 : Describing the newly renovated Jallianwala Bagh Smarak as a tribute to the great martyrs and a symbol of inspiration for the youth, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday said the monument must serve as a reminder to the future generations about the right of the people to peaceful democratic protest.

In what was apparently an oblique reference to the ongoing agitation of the peacefully protesting farmers, the Chief Minister said the Smarak, along with the Jallianwala Bagh centenary memorial recently dedicated to the people by the state government, should serve to remind the leaders of the inalienable right of Indians to conduct peaceful democratic protests, which could not be stifled, as the British also learnt from the Jallianwala Bagh incident.

The Smarak and the Centenary Memorial established by the state "seek to pay tribute to the great martyrs so that history may always remember their sacrifice and our present and future generations can draw inspiration from their patriotism," said the Chief Minister, in his brief remarks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually dedicated the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Smarak) in Amritsar city to the nation.

Amarinder Singh also requested the Prime Minister that the government of India should use its good offices to bring back the personal effects, i.e. pistol and personal diary of Shaheed Udham Singh who avenged the injustice of this massacre, from the UK to India. He said he had already written to External Affairs Minister Jaishankar in this regard.

The event was also attended, among others, by several union ministers, Punjab Governor, the Leader of the Opposition and the Jallianwala Bagh trustees, along with several MPs and MLAs. Families of the Jallianwala massacre martyrs were also present.

The occasion was marked by a two-minute silence in the memory of the martyrs, following the sounding of the bugle.

Describing the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial as "an everlasting symbol of non-violent and peaceful struggle for the freedom of India", the Chief Minister said that "at another level, it also stands testimony to one of the most barbaric acts of violence and state oppression perpetrated on a group of peacefully assembled people." The killing of hundreds of innocent people on the fateful day of Baisakhi on April 13, 1919, shook the conscience of not only the entire nation but the whole world, he said, adding that the "Khooni Vasakhi", as the Punjabi poet Nanak Singh who was himself a survivor called it, sounded the death knell of British rule in India.

He pointed out that incensed by the inhuman act, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had renounced his knighthood in protest.

The Jallianwala Bagh is one of the historic landmarks of Amritsar for the lakhs of tourists and pilgrims who visit the holy city, said the Chief Minister, expressing happiness that as the nation observes the centenary of the tragedy the Ministry of Culture had taken up major upgradation of this memorial and given it more technology-oriented displays, including a sound and light show which will draw more people.

Recalling that the story of this sacred monument started in the aftermath of the tragedy, when a resolution was passed in 1920 to build a memorial at the site and subsequently land was purchased by the trustees, the Chief Minister said that in 1951, soon after India gained independence, the government declared it as a "memorial of national importance." Captain Amarinder Singh observed that the state government had also recently, on 14 August 2021, dedicated a Jallianwala Bagh Centenary Memorial, at a separate location in Amritsar, as a tribute to the great martyrs to commemorate the centenary.

The memorial bears the names of 488 martyrs available as per records, he said, adding that his government had also constituted a Special Research Team from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, to identify any missing names of martyrs that need to be inscribed on this memorial, for which sufficient space has been left.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Supreme Court has issued notice to Centre on plea by a Mumbai-based seven-year-old boy and his Parsi mother challenging the social and religious ostracization owing solely to factors of lineage, ethnicity and race consequential to the fact that woman married a non-Parsi.

A bench comprising justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari sought a response from the Centre on a joint petition by the mother and son.

The plea argued that Parsis are a race and ethnic group and ostracization of a Parsi Zoroastrian and her offspring on the grounds of her marriage to an individual of a different lineage, race or religion is contrary to basic human rights and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

During the arguments on the matter, the bench observed that contentions raised in the plea were already covered in a reference made to a larger bench following the Sabarimala judgement.

The plea said women should be free to exercise the personal choice without having to face the consequence of being ostracized from the society, community and religion she was born into. "This Petition pertains to the latter issue and asserts the right of a woman to belong to the community and religion into which she was born irrespective of who she marries", added the plea.

After hearing arguments in the matter, the top court agreed to examine the plea.

The plea claimed that a section of the Parsi community believes that they are racially superior being of Aryan descent and insists that intermarriage with other races "dilutes" and "contaminates" their ethnicity.

The plea contended that petitioner's vital rights under Article 14, 15, 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution are threatened and her rights to practice and profess the religion of her birth, faith and choice after marriage with a non-Parsi even under the Special Marriage Act 1954 as a consequence of marriage of a Parsi Zoroastrian woman with a man of any other community or religion stand vitally affected.

"Thus, ex-communication of women is considered to be the price to be paid for intermarriage", it added.

However, the same treatment is not meted out to Parsi males marrying a non-Parsi and their offspring from inter-marriages, the plea added.

The petitioners urged the top court to issue direction to declaring the practice of excommunicating Parsi Zoroastrian women for marrying non-Parsi men as being discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The plea also asked the apex court to strike down judgement of the Bombay High Court passed in 1908, which had held children of intermarried Parsi Zoroastrian men to be within the meaning of Parsis, while denying the same 'status' to the children of intermarried Parsi Zoroastrian women.
Farmers injured during a clash with the police while they were staging a demonstration at a toll plaza near Karnal in Haryana on Saturday Image Source: IANS News

Farmers injured during a clash with the police while they were staging a demonstration at a toll plaza near Karnal in Haryana on Saturday Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Congress has condemned use of force against the farmers in Karnal, Haryana. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have slammed the Haryana government over the police action on protesting farmers.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "again blood of farmers has been spilled, India's head bows in shame," using the hashtag anti-farmer BJP. He also shared a picture of injured farmers on his Twitter handle.

So did Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. "Farmers with their hard work grow crops and the BJP government bleeds them by wielding batons. Each baton used on farmers will be a nail in the coffin of the BJP government," she wrote on the social media.

Randeep Surjewala compared the Khattar government with General Dyer and said that farmers are treated like Dyer had treated the people in Jallianwala Bagh.

Violence between police and protesting farmers in Haryana broke out on Saturday with the former trying to reach Karnal city to protest against a state-level BJP meeting chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on holding local bodies elections.

At least 10 protesters were injured when they were canecharged by the police to stop and disperse as they were forcing their way towards Karnal.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Supreme Court judge justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Saturday said courts can play the role of "Truth Commissions", as they have the ability to document information from all the parties involved, after due process. He emphasized on significance of truth in a democracy, in the backdrop of manifold increase in falsehood and fake news circulation through various social media platforms.

Justice Chandrachud was delivering a talk on the topic "Speaking Truth to Power: Citizens and the Law" as part of the 6th MC Chagla memorial online lecture. He said truth also plays an important role in creating a shared "public memory" upon which the foundations of a nation can be built in the future.

"It is because of this reason that many countries opt to establish Truth Commissions immediately upon gaining independence from a totalitarian regime or after coming out of a period fraught with human rights violations", he said.

He added, these Commissions function to document, record and acknowledge the "truth" of earlier regimes and violations for future generations, so as to not only provide catharsis to the survivors but also prevent any possibility of denial in the future.

"In a different context, this role can also be played by courts which have the ability to document information from all the parties involved, after due process has been followed. In the suo motu cognizance of the Covid-19 pandemic taken by our Supreme Court, we have acknowledged this very role in the context of the pandemic", said justice Chandrachud.

He added, however, the relationship that truth shares with democracy is that of both a sword and a shield. He stressed that the scope for extensive deliberation, particularly in the age of social media, exposes multiple "truths" so much so that it seems like we live in an "age of lies", and that shakes the very foundation of a democracy. "The citizens should arrive at a consensus on at least the basic facts that are backed by both science and society to form collective decisions", he added.

Justice Chandrachud cited attitude of democracies on legalising gay sex and abortion. He said while India is currently transitioning towards normalising same-sex relationships, more than ten countries around the world still prescribe the capital punishment for homosexuality. "In considering another example, we can note that forty years after India legalised abortion in the year 1971, most of the Latin American Countries are yet to legalise it. Hence, while for one part of the world, the 'truth' would be that a foetus is regarded to possess a right to life, yet for another, this would be a 'false' assertion", he added.
Mumbai, Aug 28 : Former 'Bigg Boss 11' contestant and actress Arshi Khan says that Divya Agarwal doesnt know how to respect someone, and Karan Johar is a perfect host for 'Bigg Boss OTT'.

"I feel Karan is fair enough as a host. Divya doesn't know how to respect someone. She thinks of herself as a queen of reality television shows. But that bubble thought of her will burst soon. If she goes ahead with the same attitude, she will be another Priyanka Jagga. No production or channel will work with her," Ashi says.

She goes on saying: "Divya will degrade herself. She is just taking Karan as Vikas Gupta who was the host of her last show, 'Ace of Space'. And this is her biggest mistake ever. The most irritating thing is that Divya brings in Salman Khan... She thinks Salman is asking Karan to troll her? She is such an irritating girl." Arshi also shares her perspective about another contestant from the 'Bigg Boss OTT' house, Zeeshan Khan.

"Zeeshan was so loud and illiterate. Just speaking fluent English doesn't make you literate. He had a physical fight with another contestant and now he wants to come out as a victim. Really, it is sad for him and those who are supporting him," Arshi says.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Delhi Government has decided to recommend three doctors' names this year for Padma Award. In a digital press conference, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "As per the suggestion of the public, the Delhi Government recommends the names of Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, Dr Suresh Kumar and Dr Sandeep Budhiraja for the Padma Awards".

He said that the Centre seeks recommendations from the state governments for the Padma Awards and the Delhi government had decided that this time only the names of doctors and paramedical staff would be recommended for Padma Awards.

The names have been decided by a committee headed by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia who has examined all the recommendations of a total of 740 medical professionals by 9,427 people in response to Delhi government's appeal for seeking suggestions for the same.

Kejriwal said, "A High-Powered Committee was convened for this matter. This committee was headed by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the members of this committee were Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), and Divisional Commissioner. They scrutinised the suggestions given by the public and selected three names for the Padma Awards on behalf of the Government of Delhi. These three names include Prof (Dr) Shiv Kumar Sarin from the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, Dr Suresh Kumar from Lok Nayak Hospital, and Dr Sandeep Budhiraja from Max Healthcare." Kejriwal said that ILBS Vice-Chancellor Dr S.K. Sarin commissioned the world's first Plasma Bank and Delhi government's first RT-PCR testing facility and genome sequencing lab. He further said that under the supervision of Medical Director Dr Suresh Kumar, LNJP, treated the highest number of Covid patients across the country, set up the country's second plasma bank, and launched a video conference facility to enable Covid patients to talk to their families.

He continued saying that Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, Group Medical Director, Max Hospital, is the country's first physician to use plasma treatment.

"All doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff in Delhi are recommending these three names for the Padma Awards; they should be given the Padma Awards to fulfil the wishes of the people of the country", said Kejriwal.
Patna, Aug 28 : The political tussle between Tej Pratap Yadav and Jagadanand Singh started again on Saturday when the former reached the party's head office in Patna and asked the latter to appear before him.

Sources said that Tej Pratap wanted to sack newly appointed Gagan Yadav from the post of RJD youth president but Jagadanand Singh did not go there.

Tej Pratap Yadav after meeting his father Lalu Prasad in Delhi returned to Patna on Friday night and went to the party's office on Saturday afternoon.

The information was leaked to the media by aides of Tej Pratap Yadav and a large number of reporters reached the party office in the expectation of a political drama. Such a development probably reached younger brother Tejashwi and Lalu Prasad as well and soon RJD MLC Sunil Singh reached the party office and straightaway went to Tej Pratap Yadav's chamber.

After reaching the party office, Tej Pratap had gone to the chamber of Lalu Prasad. He called one of the national spokesperson Mritunjay Tiwari to appear before him. Tiwari was sitting in the chamber of Jagadanand Singh.

After the message was sent to Tiwari, he went to Tej Pratap Yadav who asked him to convey the message to Jagadanand Singh to appear before him. He wanted to discuss some important issues. Tiwari, after taking the message, returned to the chamber of Jagadanand Singh and conveyed the message. Jagadanand Singh refused to go there. He stayed in the party office and then went home at 6 p.m.

As Jagadanand Singh did not meet Tej Pratap Yadav, the latter's supporters circulated the message that Tej Pratap had called him to his chamber.

The look on Jagadanand Singh's face was one of anger. When reporters asked about his meeting with Tej Pratap, he said: "I will not allow any reporter to enter the party head office in Patna." After his departure, Tej Pratap Yadav along with Sunil Singh also left the office.

When asked about Jagadanand Singh looking furious over the development. Sunil Singh, before Tej Pratap could react, said that he is always serious. You never see him laughing. Then how could you say that he is angry with anyone.
San Francisco, Aug 28 : Electric vehicle maker Tesla is now allowing Powerwall owners to go off-grid with just a simple press on its new mobile app.

Earlier this week, Tesla started pushing a new version of its mobile app, which is extremely important to its vehicle ownership experience, reports Electrek.

The auto-tech website earlier reported that Tesla is looking to use its app more in the future for non-Tesla owners to onboard them into the Tesla ecosystem.

Opening the Supercharger network to electric vehicles from other manufacturers will be a big part of that, and in the new update, Tesla has better integrated the Supercharger experience.

In the new update, Tesla has also updated the energy section of the app for Powerwall and Tesla solar owners, the report said.

Tesla has added a "go off-grid" button that allows owners to island their system and go completely off-grid preemptively, it added.

While the grid will remain an important part, Tesla is looking to add value with its solar and energy storage products.

Tesla has also updated the way users can look at the data from their power generation with solar panels or solar roof tiles.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Improved economic activity is expected to raise FY22 power demand by 12 per cent on a year-on-year basis, HDFC Securities said in a report.

According to the report, revival in economic activity and low YoY base triggered an increase in power generation by 10 per cent YoY in July 2021.

"Power generation also increased in most of the states, mirroring the growth in demand. However, power generation declined in Delhi, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Gujarat. Fall in generation in Gujarat is largely due to a fall in the Mundra plant generation, which is attributable to a steep rise in imported coal prices, making the plant unviable to operate at the current level," it said.

The report also said that the power generation increase was led by strong growth across the coal and renewables (RES) segments.

The plant load factor (PLF) improved for the coal, hydro, nuclear and RES segments, while it fell for the gas segment.

Besides, the month of August witnessed 15 per cent YoY growth in demand and generation until August 15.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Delhi Police on Saturday filed a 400-page chargesheet in the court against four persons accused in a case of raping and killing a minor Dalit girl in the Delhi Cantt area.

The 400-page chargesheet, which was submitted by the Crime Branch in the Patiala House Court, will come up for consideration on August 31. The case will be tried by a fast-track court.

The Union Home Ministry had directed the police to conduct a speedy investigation and file the chargesheet within 30 days of registering the case.

The FIR was registered on August 3, a day after the nine-year-old Dalit victim was allegedly raped, killed and forcibly cremated in Nangal village in the Delhi Cantonment area.

"The instant case was transferred from Delhi Cantt police station to the Crime Branch on August 5, following which a Special Investigation Team was (SIT) was constituted for speedy investigation," said a statement issued by the Delhi Police.

It added: "Keeping in view the sensitivity of the case, the chargesheet has been submitted within 30 days against the four accused persons who are currently in judicial custody." The charges have been levelled under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The chargesheet claims that Delhi Police gathered scientific, technical and other evidences, besides recording testimonies of the relevant witnesses.
New Delhi, Aug 28 : With the Haqqani commanders in Afghanistan being assigned important responsibilities in the last few days ever since the Taliban takeover of the war-torn nation on August 15, experts feel that Pakistan wants to run the Taliban government and will have a major say in the important decisions taken by the Afghan militia in the days to come.

Leaders such as Khalil-ul-Rehman Haqqani has been appointed as the new security chief of Kabul, while the son of Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Abbasin, has been given the charge of managing the supplies of arms and ammunition to Taliban troopers who have been trying to get control of the Panjshir valley.

Referring to the series of new responsibilities given to important commanders of the Haqqani network, experts said that Pakistan would try to dominate the important decisions in the war-torn nation.

They also admitted that the Taliban at this juncture will not open a channel of confrontation with any of the other militant groups operating in the region, including the Al Qaeda.

Noting that the Haqqani network and the Taliban in general have been the domain of the Pakistani military and its Intelligence wing ISI since the late 1980s, former diplomat Anil Trigunayat said that they fought with the US, Saudi Arabia and Soviet Union in the past and since then, they have been closely connected with the Pakistani design.

"The Haqqani network is actually a key of Pakistan to hold the Taliban. It is also one of the groups which is against India and has been trained totally by Pakistan. It takes most of the decisions on the behest of Pakistan," Trigunayat said.

The Haqqani network is a powerful group which is part of the Taliban, but takes instructions from Islamabad, and the Taliban are not in a position to stop them, he added.

Similar views were expressed by defence expert Major General G.D. Bakshi (Retd), who said that Pakistan has been using the Haqqani group, Taliban and other terror outfits to destroy Afghanistan. Now that the new Taliban have seized power there, Pakistan wants to play a pivotal role in Afghanistan, he said.

"Pakistan is trying play smartly and it will pressurise the new administrative set up through the Haqqani network to have an important say in the governance of Afghanistan indirectly," Bakshi said.

Another West Asia expert, Nishikant Dubey, said that within the Taliban, there are two groups -- Pak Taliban and Afghan Taliban.

Pak Taliban comprises Al Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which are in direct control of Pakistan and the ISI has been providing them all aid such as weapons, medical assistance and free access to the country for long. Therefore, they will be working on the instructions of Pakistan, Dubey said.

"ISI is also pushing its trained terrorists to join the Taliban forces which is evident from the rising number of Taliban militia, which rose from 70,000 to around 1,10,000 in the last six or seven days," Dubey said.

The Haqqani network is based out of North Waziristan in Pakistan and has been operating along the Afghan border since the 1980s.
Washington, Aug 29 : The Pentagon said on Saturday that two high-profile targets of ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, were killed in a US drone strike on Friday.

"Two high-profile ISIS targets were killed, one was wounded, and we know of zero civilian casualties," US Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters in a Pentagon briefing, the Xinhua news agency reported.

US Central Command initially assessed on Friday that the drone strike, which occurred in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan, killed one ISIS-K planner.

The strike came after a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on Thursday which killed 13 US service members and some 170 Afghans. ISIS-K had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in the briefing that the US military supporting evacuation had begun its withdrawal from Kabul airport.

President Joe Biden set August 31 as the deadline to end US military mission in Afghanistan.

The US has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban entered Kabul on August 15. The White House said on Saturday that around 111,900 people had left Afghanistan since August 14.
London, Aug 29 : The final evacuation flight purely for civilians under Britain's Operation Pitting has left the Kabul airport, the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

Any further flights leaving Kabul under Britain's evacuation operation "will have UK diplomatic and military personnel on board," the ministry added.

General Nick Carter, Britain's chief of defense staff, said: "(The withdrawal) is not how we hoped it would end", the Xinhua news agency reported.

"I think we have done an extraordinary job to evacuate as many as we can, but I'm afraid it's absolutely heart-breaking we can't get everybody out," Carter said.

He warned that Britain is "not out of the woods yet" as this final phase gets under way.

"The operation will carry on for a little bit longer. But it's been a huge enterprise," he said, noting that troops are working in the face of a "very demanding threat" in Afghanistan.

Two suicide bomb attacks rocked the Kabul airport in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least 103 people, including 13 US service members, two British nationals and a child of another British national.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, saying it was targeting "translators and collaborators with the American army." Britain had airlifted 14,543 Afghans and British nationals from Kabul since its Operation Pitting began on August 13, the ministry of defense said on Friday night.

Only three days remain for US-led forces to evacuate from the Taliban-held Afghanistan, after US allies failed to persuade US President Joe Biden to extend the August 31 evacuation deadline during a Group of Seven virtual summit earlier this week.
Identifying and addressing healthcare disparities across communities are critical to enhancing patient care. Seeking to better understand potential outcomes disparities related to treatment of underserved patients with hernia and abdominal wall disease, through a license with the bipartisan public policy organization Economic Innovation Group (EIG), the Abdominal Core Quality Collaborative recently integrated the Distressed Communities Index (DCI) with its robust real world ACHQC Registry.

The DCI provides a detailed view of prosperity across the USA at the zip code level. The Index is utilized by leading publications, state and local governments, healthcare and non-profits organizations.

Merging our rich ACHQC clinical data set with the Distressed Communities Index will allow us to perform in-depth outcomes analyses based on many metrics sensitive to socioeconomic status and health care availability, shared Benjamin Poulose, MD, ACHQC Director of Quality and Outcomes. Identifying potential outcomes disparities across underserved populations is critical to our mission of enhancing patient care.

Founded in 2013, the ACHQC is a non-profit collaborative focused on maximizing quality and value of care delivered to patients with hernias and other abdominal core diseases. The ACHQC has developed and manages a robust real world data registry for capturing clinically relevant information pertaining to abdominal core surgeries. Currently the ACHQC registry includes data on over 84,000 patients collected by over 470 surgeons across the country. Through continuous quality improvement and rigorous data analyses, the Collaborate leverages real world experiences across interrelated stakeholders to improve the continuum of patient care.

With the addition of the DCI data, we can now identify gaps and understand where there may be opportunities for improvement in how we provide care at the community level, shared Michael Rosen, ACHQC Medical Director. This enhanced analytic granularity will deliver further value to all our stakeholders  patients, surgeons, hospitals, and industry partners.

For more information about the ACHQC Foundation visit http://www.achqc.org.

Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative programs are supported by Foundation Partners Medtronic, Allergan Aesthetics, BD-Bard, Ethicon, Inc., TELABio, and W.L. Gore.

About the ACHQC: Through continuous quality improvement, real world data collection, rigorous analysis and collaborative learning, the ACHQC identifies areas where abdominal core health may be enhanced and shares this information in meaningful ways that have direct impact on patient care. The ACHQC is a CMS Qualified Clinical Data Registry and is an authoritative resource for organizations to assess quality metrics and demonstrate a commitment to efficient, value-based patient centered care. Participation in the ACHQC is free to surgeons and fulfills Part 4 of the American Board of Surgery Maintenance of Certification Program.

About EIG: Economic Innovation Group (http://www.eig.org) is a bipartisan public policy organization that combines innovative research and data-driven advocacy to address Americas most pressing economic challenges.

About DCI: The Distressed Communities Index (DCI) sorts U.S. zip codes based on seven complementary economic indicators into five even quintiles of well-being: prosperous, comfortable, mid-tier, at risk, and distressed. For more information visit https://eig.org/dci/report.
We are launching a fight against FASD, starting with a day of awareness, Munns said

Orange County FL has proclaimed September 9th officially FASD Awareness Day, thanks to coordinated efforts with attorneys at the Central Florida law firm Bogin, Munns & Munns, and the Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings.

I am pleased to raise awareness of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Shining a light on these disorders can potentially prevent physical, behavioral and learning disabilities for our youth. I urge residents to practice safe measures during a pregnancy to reduce the risk of passing on FASD to their children. Alcohol and pregnancy do not mix and I applaud the efforts the Munns family has devoted to champion such a cause, Demings said.

By choosing to wear red shoes on September 9th, in coordination with the National Red Shoes Rocks Awareness effort, you can show your support of FASD Awareness locally throughout Orange County on this day. Additionally, the Mayors office is lighting all of the local government buildings red on September 9th to support this awareness effort.

Firm Partner Spencer Munns and his wife Lindsey adopted two children who suffered the effects of FASD. Now, they make it their mission to raise awareness of the disorder and facilitate its prevention in any way they can. We are launching a fight against FASD, starting with a day of awareness, Munns said. Its an important step, given the fact that 80 percent of individuals on the FASD spectrum go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed".

In Chasing Hope, a video that Munns created to speak about FASD, the attorney calls the disorder a hidden epidemica disability that is hidden in plain sight.

You cant see inside the brain and see where one in a billion connections didnt develop, Munns explains in the video. And its hard to fight an invisible enemy. We want to give those who are suffering a chance to identify the cause of their suffering and the tools to combat it, so they can lead full, rewarding lives.

What is FASD?

FASD comprises more than 420 conditions that can result from a fetus exposure to alcohol. The effects of these conditions can begin at the earliest point of a persons life, with low birth weight, and continue to challenge the individual throughout their lives, with behavioral issues, learning disabilities, and poor executive functioning.

A 2017 study published in JAMA Pediatrics reports that each day, 1,700 infants are born with FASD. Amongst pregnant women who drank alcohol during their pregnancies, one out of every 13 delivered an FASD-affected child, according to the study.

Bogin, Munns & Munns FASD Scholarship

One of the many ways that Bogin, Munns & Munns has already started building awareness of FASD is through the firms $2,500 FASD Scholarship.

The opportunity to apply for this annual scholarship is open to students who have been affected by FASD or who can show a personal or professional interest in the condition.

For Munns, the scholarship provides the perfect vehicle to increase FASD awareness, help the community, and nurture the future of a like-minded student who is equally moved by this largely undetected disability.

Anyone with questions about the disorder or the firms efforts to raise awareness can email FASD@boginmunns.com. For information regarding the Proclamation or media, please email dnelson@boginmunns.com.
Erdrichs The Sentence (Harper, Nov.) centers on the haunting of a Minneapolis bookstore by the ghost of a well-meaning white woman who fabricated an Indigenous identity.

What inspired you to write the book?

I had always wanted to write a ghost story. Theres this anomaly, I dont really believe in ghosts, but I knew people who had inexplicable experiences and would not admitas I would notto believing in ghosts. I sometimes would take a poll when I was doing a reading and I would ask everyone in the audience if they believed in ghosts. Very few hands would come up. And then I would ask, Have you had an experience or know someone who has an experience with a ghost? and almost every hand would go up. We do have some residual sense of the energy of people who are no longer living. They are living in some way.

I decided in November 2019 I would write it, and then 2020 happened and I thought maybe I would stop, but then I realized this was a haunted time.

Could you talk about the theme of haunting in The Sentence?

The world collectively understood that the virus was something we needed to take action against. It was like a physical menace. Then the George Floyd murder happened. There was a heartsickness experienced here in Minneapolis. So, I thought about the haunting of Minnesota. Minnesota also had officers in the military who were fighting at Fort Snelling. They were enslaving other people and decimating Dakota people. So, this is our history. It became more than a ghost story; it became a story of our collective haunting.

The issue of identity and the conflict over appropriating Native culture appear in the story via the ghost character of Flora. How important is this issue to Native experiences?

Partly, I think appropriation happens to people on all sorts of levels and of all sorts of ethnicities. But it happens a lot to Native people. Its so common that theres an accepted part of being Native that there are outsiders who really want to be Native. It seems to be a romantic trope in peoples lives. The person of Flora was very complicated, though. There were very good aspects of her. She wasnt only being appropriative. She was also trying to contribute and thats often also the case, too. Her identity became very mixed-up, but it also became invasive. It becomes increasingly invasive as she becomes a physically invasive presence in the store.

Did any experiences or relations with customers at your own bookstore inspire the story?

Yes, the bookstore I describe is uncannily like Birchbark Books. The only supernatural thing about the store is were still open. Maybe someone on staff sold our soul to the devil, or maybe we just have good customers.
In this edition of Indie Spotlight, our monthly roundup of BookLife titles, we feature sci-fi, fantasy, and adventure stories.

Adventure

Azimuth (Rahki Chronicles 1)

Rennie St. James

ISBN 978-1-386-21668-1

About the book: Azimuth is a contemporary fantasy road trip adventure with a little magic, some romance, and a lot of chocolate.

Author statement: I had the idea of Mias character in college, but I lacked the knowledge and discipline to do more than a few frustrating writing sprints over the next few years. Discovering fanfiction in 2013 gave me courage to try again. Unfortunately, my epic writing journey also began with a stumble. I published too soon in 2014 and ended up pulling the books. After diving into developing my writing craft with conferences and online courses, I rereleased Azimuth in 2018. If you look closely at the cover, youll see the street name is Second Street. That was a small nod to my second attempt at publishing.

Daughter of Aithne

Karin Rita Gastreich

ISBN 978-0-9972320-2-8

About the book: Eolyn and Akmaels magical love restored a nation. Now, after a decade of peace, crisis ensues. Eolyns students in magic have rebelled against Mage King Akmael. Accused of treason, Eolyn is arrested and imprisoned. Abandoned by those dearest to her heart, Eolyn considers a desperate alliance with the ruthless and cunning Mage Corey. A new war is unfolding, and she has little choice. To reclaim her freedom and defend her legacy, Eolyn must place her trust in the most untrustworthy man she knows.

Author statement: I hope my readers sympathize with all sides in Daughter of Aithne. Both Eolyn and Taesara are formidable women with much to admire. Each has made her share of mistakes and suffered sorrow and loss. Each is capable of great compassion. I wrote this story not as a conflict between right and wrong, but as a tale of good people dragged into a violent dispute. The true enemy of Daughter of Aithne is war itself. Neither Eolyn nor Taesara want further bloodshed, but, given the society they live in, is that even possible?

Random Walk

Rachel Lulich

ISBN 978-1-73423-790-0

About the book: Random Walk is a near-future space adventure about three Air Force astronauts who become stranded outside our solar systemwith no faster-than-light technology to get them home.

Author statement: I started out with a goal and an idea. My goal, as the recent recipient of an MA in book publishing, was to try my hand at independent publishing. As a sci-fi nerd, my choice of genre was obvious, and my initial story idea was a crew getting stranded in deep space. This idea morphed through research and conversations with my brother, who is a scientist, into the near-future, realistic sci-fi adventure it now is. Random Walk was a challenge to write, as I was dedicated to keeping the fictionalized aspects of the science plausible. But that ended up introducing problems for my characters, as well as creative solutions, I never would have thought of if I hadn't done all that research.

Sage, Smoke & Fire

Ryan Kurr

ISBN 978-1-73472-450-9

About the book: At the peak of summer, Nina is living a fast-paced life in New York City. But, when Earths gravitational pull activates a genemaking her and a few others capable of magicshe is called to duty in southern Louisiana to lead a coven of witches and restore balance to the world through magic.

Author statement: I am a witch and mystic practitioner, and one thing I always say when I finish a fantasy novel about witches is that I wish there had been more of a blend of real witchcraft and fictional witchcraft. One day in 2015, I thought long and hard about what a book about witches for witches would look like. I knew I would want to read a book like that. I ended up with 13 pages of notes and an outline for three novels. I wanted to tell a specific story in a very specific kind of way, one that included material that actual practitioners would respond to and pick up on, while casual fantasy readers would find fascinating or enjoyable.

Dystopian/Postapocalyptic

Drained

Marc Daniel Acriche

ISBN 978-1-73581-610-4

About the book: New York City, 2048. High school senior Casey Parkers life is stuck. When her best friends boyfriend, Martin, goes missing, Casey vows to help her find out why. To help save Martin, Casey takes a dangerous gamble. Failure could mean the lives of her family; success could mean the lives of her friends.

Author statement: Drained started as a three-point-of-view story, with Casey Parker being one of the three. Then, after about 20,000 words, Casey started taking over the storyshe would not be deniedand I went back and started over with her as the single-point-of-view character and the book really took off from there. The last thing I expected was to write a book with a teen protagonist, but here we are. She took over, we never looked back, and Im so excited for readers to get to know her.

Ridge: Day One

Shawn P.B. Robinson

ISBN 978-1-989296-42-4

About the book: The darkest hour is just before dawn. But, with bloodthirsty beasts cutting brief lives shorter, can one man beat the ticking clock? Rezin Hamel will protect his people until his dying breath. Resolving to carry on past every dearly departed loved one, the 44-year-old general has no idea how hes lived over a decade beyond the average life expectancy. But, when hes shamed and cast out for an out-of-character act, he sets out to end the constant attacks from creatures who are staining the walls with death.

Author statement: The idea for Ridge: Day One hit me about four years ago. It didn't start out as much, but I began to chat through the idea with my teenage son, and the story began to come together in my mind. We chatted back and forth and worked through various problems and issues with it for about a year and a half before I finally sat down to write it.

War Bunny

Christopher St. John

ISBN 978-1-73472-450-9

About the book: A rebel rabbit defies the natural order and leads a rebellion against the predators in this postapocalyptic fantasy.

Author statement: This is a tale about an individual pushing back on an establishment that assigns her the role of victim. In this story, its a rabbit. In the next story, it could be you.

Water Must Fall

Nick Wood

ISBN 978-1-73367-337-2

About the book: In a world heating up and drying out, who gets to drink? Set in 2048 in California and Southern Africa, Water Must Fall follows three main characters as they attempt to reclaim control of their lives and access to water in the face of water corporations, which hold the fate of millions in their coffers.

Author statement: I am a disabled South African clinical psychologist who writes as and when I can. Water Must Fall is my third sci-fi book.

Romance

The Coincidence Makers

Meradeth Houston

ISBN 978-1-948583-02-2

About the book: For Ami and her partner, Luke, becoming invisible is part of their job. Their mysterious employer assigns them to make coincidences happen, from reuniting long lost lovers to toppling empires. For their next job, they must stop a bioterrorism attack on San Francisco. To pull it off, theyll have to break into illegal labs and federal buildings that make bank vaults seem easy.

Author statement: I've always had a thing for coincidences: those random events all coming together in ways that one least expects. Good or bad, these kinds of events are fun and fascinating. For some, they suggest a higher power ordering things, but, for me, they're the chaos of the universe sometimes aligning into a wonderful and wondrous pattern. Anyhow, no matter what you think is behind them, they're all kinds of fun to think about. The Coincidence Makers talks about the possibility of there being people who make these seemingly impossible things happen.

Dragon Prince

Michelle M. Pillow

ISBN 978-1625012647

About the book: Griers fiery passion for Salena might be everything his dragon ever wanted, but loving her might just lead to the destruction of everything hes trying to save.

Author statement: Ive been a published author for nearly 20 years now, and during that time Ive had the opportunity to write in many different genres: dark fantasy, historical, paranormal, contemporary, sci-fi, futuristic. One thing became obvious very quickly in my career. For better or worse, I wasnt a one-genre writer. My muse likes to explore and research, so I let her.

Woman King

Evette Davis

ASIN B00MF7FOWK

About the book: Meet intrepid political consultant Olivia Shepherd. Born an empath, she inherited the ability to read people's emotions. Since her youth, however, she has rejected her giftthat is until an ancient time walker helps her reclaim her skill.

Author statement: This book would never have been written if I had been better at playwriting. I was trying to write a play about a female political consultant who is failing spectacularly in her career and is suddenly visited by an ancient warrior someone only she can seewho helps her regain her confidence and learn how to be the leader she was meant to be. After weeks of trying, I switched over to trying to write a novel and suddenly the characters and the words were there.

A Whole New World

The Space Between: The Prophecy of Faeries

Susan Rooke

ISBN 978-1-73367-337-2

About the book: A young woman. A kidnapping. And a journey to a magical world. Mellis has been taken by the Penitents, a tribe of faeries who believe that she is the key to an ancient prophecy. But, to fulfill this prophecy, Mellis will have to make a great sacrifice. Will she accept her new life with her Penitent captors? Or will the most ancient of evils lay waste to their desperate hopes of reunion with the Maker?

Author statement: The Space Between began soon after Id learned of a folkloric belief that faeries are descended from fallen angels. I heard my own voice say in my head, A young woman is taken by faeries. A few days later, I was reading a book about the physical abnormalities that have been documented in human beings. I knew at once that the faeries who kidnap the young woman have imposed such challenges on themselves because of guilt over their fallen angel ancestors. I named them the Penitents, and, armed with that knowledge, I began writing the book.

The Wild Court

E.G. Radcliff

ISBN 978-1-73367-337-2

About the book: What perils await on the other side of the veil? In the seventh year of Aed's reign, night descends on the autumn festival. But a time of revelry turns into one of fiery destruction as fae pour across the veil and the Gut becomes a battlefield in an otherworldly war.

Author statement: My first book, The Hidden King, originated in a dream and grew as I began writing. I knew from the beginning how I wanted the entire series to unfold, culminating with the final book in the trilogy, The Wild Court. I write because it makes me feel whole, it makes me feel like all me. Its grounding. Its my center.
Sales Snapshot

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have the #2 book in the country with their 20th Pendergast novel, Bloodless. The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Ariz., hosted an August 17 discussion with the writing duo, sending the title to the top of the Mountain census division. Another new title, the series opener A Terrible Fall of Angels, is #10 on our hardcover fiction list and #1 in the West North Central division, which includes Missouri, where author Laurell K. Hamilton lives. Books released in recent weeks divvied up the rest of the country.

Drawing Connections

On August 15, Target debuted its collaboration with author-illustrator Christian Robinson, bringing the Caldecott Honorees appealing, inclusive design and illustration to childrens home goods and apparel, including a line of adaptive clothing. The exposure sent sales of his recent title You Matter soaring, with print units up 750% compared with last week; the book appears at #11 on our picture book list. When it first pubbed in 2020, our starred review said, Robinson represents life as both interconnected and precious. Its a profound thought expressed with singular focus and eloquence.

NEW & NOTABLE

SENSOR

Junji Ito, trans. from the Japanese by Jocelyne Allen

#6 Hardcover Fiction

Ito retains his crown as manga king of body horror in this time-twisting thriller that expertly blends science fiction and religious occultism, our starred review said. This is a must-read for Itos fans, who will be reminded by this truly unpredictable offering that when hes good, hes gut-wrenchingly good.
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Among last years other lessons, none may be more important than this: Our taxpayer-funded education establishment cares more about adults than children.

Consider the evidence: public school union bosses pressured officials to close schools and keep them shuttered beyond what medical authorities recommended. In spite of the obvious harm to children of school closures, unions throughout the country lobbed threats and issued demands. In Chicago, the union went so far as to sue the Mayor to keep schools closed; in San Francisco, the city had to sue its school board.

A public education system that failed to do right by our children has kept union bosses empowered and politicians cowed. Thankfully, our country offers an alternativeone that proved its mettle this past year. In a recent survey of public school and Christian school parents, the Herzog Foundation found that parents of children who attended a Christian school were vastly more satisfied with their school experience.

Christian parents reported their schools were open even as nearby public options closed. While only 8 percent of public school parents could report that their schools never closed, a quarter of Christian school parents did.

The survey found that during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their childs time, communicate with teachers, manage their childs assignments, and were better able to keep up their childs morale than the parents of children in public schools. As a result, while just over half of public school parents reported being satisfied with their childs education in 2020, fully 80 percent of Christian school parents were.

As the country gears up for another possible series of lockdowns in response to the delta variant, it is worthwhile for parents on the fence about Christian education to give it a second look. The data is unmistakable: In a panicked, trying year, Christian school parents and their children fared far better than their public school counterparts.

The data offers us hope on several fronts. Parents across the country are expressing growing anxiety about the teaching of critical race theory in classrooms. In this survey, 70 percent of all parents do not believe their school should teach that white people are inherently privileged and Black people and others are oppressed.

Moreover, 80 percent of all parents do not think that their school should teach that achieving racial justice requires discriminating against white people. In other words, while Americas parents may disagree on a great deal, they are united in the belief that many of the central tenets of critical race theory should not be in the classroomwhether that classroom is funded privately or publicly.

These findings are powerful for those who oversee Christian schools and for those parents making tough decisions about their childrens education. In public schools, too many parents see a system that seems more eager to cater to adults than children. This past year, those tendencies were set on overdrive, as public school unions fought both science and reason to keep schools closed. In the face of that, parents ought to consider a broader set of optionsincluding Christian schools whose parents report more satisfaction and more attention to students than their public counterparts.
What should the Afghan refugees on our shores look for in America? Did they escape a failed state and come to the United States only to find the promise of the American Dream to be nonexistent?

The reality is, the American Dream is at a crossroads. We have come to a point where it is fashionable to dunk on that promise, so much so that were even reinventing classic American stories to undermine the American Dream. Based on todays headlines, the dream appears to be in decline.

However, the numbers tell a different story. Most people, nearly 80% of Americans, say that they have either achieved the American Dream or they are on their way to achieving it. Only 20% claim the dream is out of reach, a finding which holds true across age, education, income, and race.

What does the American Dream mean? Is it the caricature of becoming wealthy or buying a fancy car? Not even close. Only 10% of people rate becoming wealthy as essential. Rather, the top factor that people rate (85%) as being essential to the American Dream is freedom of choice in how to live, which should hearten the refugees and other immigrants coming to the United States. Afghan refugees, for instance, can still find solace in American freedom. They can find similar solace in family: 80% of Americans believe that having a good family life is essential to the American Dream.

Money matters, but it is not the be-all and end-all. The American Dream is alive and well when freedom and family are valued above wealth. Moreover, the American Dream is underpinned by a sense of individual agencythe ability to control ones destinya crucial ethos that continues to prosper in the imaginations of people across the globe and serve as a national vision here at home. When the American Dream is alive and well, there remains hope that we can tackle our own individual challenges and larger, societal dilemmas together.

Exemplifying the American Dream, people have addressed issues like the current COVID-19 pandemic head on, which led American visionaries to produce three highly effective vaccines. Similarly, we can deal with climate change and think about strategies for adaptation instead of just mitigation, tackle important conversations on issues of race, or confront an outdated entrepreneurial ecosystem that has been declining over the last 40 years.

Conversely, if Americans fail to maintain that forward-looking, hopeful vision of the dream, our collective mindset becomes increasingly nihilistic and we doom ourselves as a nation. Freedom of choice, in addition to family, is inextricably linked to self-fulfillment and meaning. It allows us to find ourselves and reach our full potential. The ideal of the American Dream empowers us to move forward and tackle the major challenges of today.

Policymakers can ensure that the American Dream stays alive and well by addressing overly burdensome occupational licensure, which has increased barriers to entrepreneurship and business creation that in turn affect the opportunities for upward economic mobility. Promoting entrepreneurship and understanding that job creation more broadly represents the main vehicle to climb the income ladder is desperately needed. Policymakers, primarily at the state and local levels, can also defend the dream if they address the exorbitant rise of housing costs by reforming zoning and housing restrictions that increase living costs and affect school selection. Similarly, they can support healthier families, which represent the key ingredient to indispensable early childhood education that promotes skills and human development. Programs like universal child care simply cannot substitute for stable families.

The American Dream still matters because Americans old and new, such as the soon-to-arrive Afghan members of our nation, can and should expect to live better, richer, and fuller lives. Embracing that vision continues to make America the gold standard of the entire world.

We are only strong when the American Dream is alive and well. Thankfully, it is nowhere near dead yet.
The UGA Aviation Club provides unique opportunities for students to reach for their piloting dreams and acquire piloting licenses, no matter what their background may look like.
Jason Cantarella, a professor in the mathematics department at the University of Georgia, protests the university's COVID-19 policies in Athens, Georgia on Aug. 27, 2021. The United Campus Workers of Georgia held a protest where they dressed in black for a "funeral" for common sense to display their dissatisfaction with UGA's lack of a mask and vaccine mandate. (Photo/Julia Walkup, jwalkup@randb.com)
Greenville, NC (27833)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Greenville, NC (27833)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 67F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 67F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Rain, heavy at times early. Low 58F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected..

Tonight

Rain, heavy at times early. Low 58F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected.
Beckley, WV (25801)

Today

A few showers this evening with mostly cloudy conditions overnight. Low 54F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

A few showers this evening with mostly cloudy conditions overnight. Low 54F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
In a light-hearted frame of mind, I thought Id entertain you with the Chambers horoscope. Please note that we are keeping a close eye on COVID and will adjust calendar of events when necessary.

Aries (March 21 - April 19): You must make it a priority to support retailers located in our region. After all, they contribute to so many non-profits and do pay taxes within our Northwest corner. Join us for the for the next Restaurant & Retail Coalition meeting on Sept. 10. The opportunity to improve local business is critical.

Taurus (April 20 - May 20): If you are born during these days, you will surely want to join the Chamber during our Membership Drive this fall. There are so many benefits to belonging to this organization that promotes economic growth while enhancing the quality of life in NW CT. This is a bargain you cant pass up.

Gemini (May 21 - June 20): Join the Chamber for its September 16th webinar at 9:00am presented by Carmody Torrance Sandek & Hennessey LLP. You will hear an update on the legal aspects surrounding COVID. This is a must attend!

Cancer (June 21 - July 22): Since one of the major costs faced by employers is the cost of health care, you will benefit from the Chambers Executive Breakfast Aug. 31, to explore the wealth of options available to you whether you are a Chamber member or not. A change in your life style may be in the offing.

Leo (July 23 - Aug. 22): There are job openings throughout the area so attend the Manufacturing Hiring Event on Sept. 15, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. at American Mural Project at 90 Whiting Street, Winsted.

Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22): Read all about the Chambers activities on the web site: www.nwctchamberofcommerce.org. Activities, meetings, key players, seminars, committees, initiatives and all members are listed. You will definitely want to support the members listed and become of part of the organization yourself.

Libra (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): WOW! Theres no time like the present to sign up for WOW! Women of the World on Oct. 1. This years theme: Mindfulness Matters is sure to engage you. Join keynote speakers for a day of motivation, education, fun, food and laughter at The Warner Theatre. Go on line at www.WOWforum.org.

Scorpio (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21): You should be very serious about the opportunity to vote in the upcoming elections. The Chamber is making it easy to hear from all of the candidates. More to follow. This is a privilege and deserves your attendance.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21): This is a very busy and sometimes emotional time of the year so get with the Chambers Health Care Council that is developing an agenda for the year that encourages a pro-active approach to life through wellness. Trust your judgment and commit to becoming a part of this council.

Capricorn (Dec. 22 - Jan. 19): Plans are underway for the year-end celebration that will include the 25 Days of Hope for the Holidays in collaboration with FM 97.3 WZBG. The signs are pointing to a way for you to make new friends, increase your business contacts and enhance your business.

Aquarius (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18): Try something new and attend the exciting Business After Hours scheduled monthly. Chamber members are the hosts who want to meet you to showcase their business and broaden your horizons. Go to website for dates and locations.

Pisces (Feb. 19 - March 20): This is the time to align yourself with other business people. On the 4th Tuesday of every month, you will open your eyes to new and perhaps unfamiliar business when you attend the Chamber Coffee & Chat. Its at 8 a.m., lasts only an hour and you will be the one to advance your business.

The stars show that youll be enjoying a terrific kind of day, regardless of your sign, as long as you adhere to the information outlined above. The Chambers horoscope is looking good!

JoAnn Ryan is President of the NW CT Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached by email: joann@nwctchamberofcommerce.org or phone: 860-482-6586.
WATERBURY, Vt. (AP)  The Vermont Department of Corrections has reinstated it mandatory mask directive for staff and inmates at all facilities.

On Friday, the department reported that three inmates at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport had tested positive for COVID-19, meaning there are now four cases among inmates and six in prison staff.

The four infected inmates have been in isolation since Wednesday, and the rest of the unit is in quarantine, the department said. The entire facility, which is in full lockdown, was being tested Friday, the department said.

There are also two infected inmates and one infected employee at Northwest State Correctional Facilility in St. Albans, the department said.

A staff member at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland also tested positive this week.

The department said it stopped outside visitation at facilities with positive cases.

The department provides updates on the status in the state's correctional facilities on a COVID-19 information page its website.

___

In other pandemic related news:

HEALTH DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEES

Gov. Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine have been transparent about the states response to the coronavirus, the data and analysis that goes into those decisions and when adjustments are needed, Jason Malucci, the governors press secretary said, in response to the urging from more than 90 Vermont Health Department employees that the state do more to fight the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant.

The Health Department employees signed an emailed letter sent to Levine, Deputy Health Commissioner Kelly Dougherty, state Epidemiologist Patsy Kelso and others Thursday saying the current guidance is not doing all that it should to protect Vermonters and save lives.

Vermonts current public guidance encourages unvaccinated individuals to wear a mask in public spaces and does not mention the risk of COVID-19 to unmasked individuals, the letter said.

Maulucci said in a written statement that the governor values the input of the states public health professionals and other Health Department employees and his decision-making process does  and will always  include the input and perspectives of the employees in the letter.

Levine thanked the employees for sharing their thoughts.

As a department, we have to recognize that in a pandemic, public health recommendations are a significant factor, but not the sole factor in the states policy decisions. Our recommendations are weighed alongside many other aspects that have statewide implications, including areas such as mental health, substance misuse, economic security, overall public confidence, and commitment to mitigation measures and more, Levine said in message to department staff.

He said the decisions often arent easy and there will be areas of disagreement.

___

THE NUMBERS

Vermont reported 144 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to more than 27,640 cases.

A total of 30 people were hospitalized with the virus with four in intensive care.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont has risen over the past two weeks from 94.86 new cases a day on Aug. 11 to 120.14 new cases a day on Wednesday.

The Associated Press is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.

___

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.


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In a recent development, the Bangladesh airplane that made an emergency landing at Maharashtra's Nagpur airport left for the destination after 11 long hours. The Bangladeshi airplane was heading to Dhaka from Muscat, carrying 126 passengers, when suddenly Biman Bangladesh Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after the pilot suffered a severe cardiac arrest and collapsed. The pilot is undergoing medical treatment at Kingsway Hospital and is still critical. The plane landed at Nagpur airport at around 11.44 am on Friday.

Biman Bangladesh Flight leaves for Dhaka after 11 hours, pilot still critical

A senior official of the Nagpur airport, while speaking to PTI, said, "Biman Bangladesh arranged an alternative crew who flew to Nagpur. After that, the stranded flight departed for the destination along with the passengers at 10.37 pm on Friday. The condition of the pilot is still critical and he is undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Nagpur, "he said.

According to media reports, the pilot who suffered a heart attack was immediately wheeled to Kingsway Hospital, which is situated around 10 km from the Nagpur airport. The incident happened near Raipur when the flight was a few hours away from reaching its destination. The co-pilot immediately contacted Kolkata ATC for an emergency landing, and the Kolkata airport officials suggested the co-pilot land the airplane at the nearest airport, which was Nagpur. The co-pilot landed the airplane safely and no casualties were reported.

After the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh and India had restricted air travel. Recently, the Government of India lifted the restriction on air travel, after which Biman Bangladesh resumed flight services with India. Meanwhile, a couple of days ago, an Indian Air Force helicopter made an emergency landing in Bihar's Manikupr village in Buxar district after the helicopter suffered a technical issue while it was on a training sortie. No casualties were reported, the aircraft carried 15 people.

IMAGE: REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE/PTI

(With PTI Inputs)
At a time when terrorist groups operating in India are likely to get weapons left behind by the American troops in Afghanistan, the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Saturday signed a deal to acquire 70,000 AK-103 assault rifles from Russia under emergency provisions to replace its existing inventory of INSAS rifles.

New AK-103 assault rifles to come within next few months

Noting that IAF has a requirement of over 1.5 lakh new assault rifles, the new AK-103 rifles are expected to arrive into the service within the next few months. This would help India strengthen its capability to tackle terrorist attacks in a much better way.

Government sources told ANI, "The contract worth around Rs 300 crore was signed last week under emergency provisions to buy 70,000 AK-103 assault rifles from Russia. The weapons would be first provided to troops in field areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar along with sensitive air bases."

While stating that the remaining part of the requirement would be met after India and Russia sign a deal to produce the more advanced AK-203 together, sources said that the contract for the AK-203 assault rifles is being processed under the Indian Army, which requires around 6.5 lakh of these to strengthen its troops' firepower. A small portion of the IAF requirement was met by the acquisition of around 4,000 Sig Sauer assault rifles that have been procured as part of a larger contract by the Indian Army.

In recent years, especially after the Chinese aggression on the Eastern Ladak front, India's defence forces have hastened their modernisation of basic weapon systems. Troops on the front have already been provided with 1.5 lakh American Sig Sauers along with 16,000 Negev Machine Guns.

The AK-103 assault rifles are already in the existing inventory of the Marine Commandos of the Indian Navy, which uses them in operations in the Kashmir valley, where they have been deployed in the Wular lake. The emergency procurements of the Indian armed forces have allowed them to fill the critical gaps in their preparedness in war-fighting.

The forces have been given the freedom to choose the weapons they want to buy. The AK-103 is an upgraded version of the legendary and deadly AK-47. The rifles would also be provided to the Garud special forces, who are deployed across the country at airbases.

(Image: ANI-Representative, PTI)
External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar spoke with US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Saturday to discuss a 'broad range of shared priorities,' including continued co-ordination on the Afghanistan crisis, and in the United Nations.

Secretary Blinken and Minister Jaishankar agreed to remain closely coordinated on shared goals and priorities to deepen the US-India partnership. This marks the third conversation held in August between the two leaders on the situation in Afghanistan.

Spoke to US Secretary of State @Secblinken.



Continued our discussions on Afghanistan. Also exchanged views on the agenda of UNSC.  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) August 28, 2021

Earlier on August 20, Blinken and Jaishankar held 'productive' talks on the deteriorating situation in the war-torn country, following the Taliban takeover. Both leaders agreed to maintain 'close coordination' in their diplomatic actions towards the crisis.

Jaishankar on Wednesday spoke to British counterpart Dominic Raab and discussed developments in Kabul. This was the second phone call between the two leaders in the last 10 days. Meanwhile, EAM Jaishankar also held discussions with Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir over various regional and multilateral issues.

The frequent diplomatic talks and meetings between the world leaders come amid rampant evacuation operations by India and several other countries as the United States nears its deadline to pull back troops from Afghanistan. The August 31 deadline has been agreed upon by the USA and the Taliban for America's pullout from the conflict-ridden country.

India evacuates 550 people from Kabul

Under "Operation Devi Shakti," India has safely evacuated more than 550 people from Kabul, of which over 260 are Indians, said MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Friday. The ministry said that the vast majority of Indians who wanted to return from Afghanistan have been evacuated from the country.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom concluded its evacuation operation at the Kabul airport and closed processing centres near the airport for further clearance. A few other European nations such as Spain, Italy, and France had also announced the end of their operations on Friday while the US has said that it will not extend its presence on Afghan soil after August 31.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder SIngh on Saturday said that Jallianwala Bagh Smarak must serve as a reminder for the future generations about the right of the people to peaceful democratic protests. Earlier, during the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had virtually inaugurated the renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh Smarak.

Punjab CM on Jallianwala Bagh Smarak

In an oblique reference to the ongoing agitation of peacefully protesting farmers, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh in an official statement said that the Smarak, along with the Jallianwala Bagh centenary memorial recently dedicated to the people by the state government, should serve to remind our leaders of the inalienable right of Indians to conduct peaceful democratic protests, which could not be stifled, as the British also learnt from the Jallianwala Bagh incident.

The Punjab Chief Minister in his brief remarks before PM Modi said that the Smarak and the Centenary Memorial established by the state government "seek to pay tribute to the great martyrs so that history may always remember their sacrifice and our present and future generations can draw inspiration from their patriotism."

Amarinder Singh also requested the Prime Minister that the central government should use its good offices to bring back the personal effects, i.e. pistol and personal diary of Shaheed Udham Singh Ji, who avenged the injustice of this massacre, from the United Kingdom to India. He also said that he had already written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in this regard.

As the Jallianwala Bagh massacre marked 102 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dedicated a renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak to the nation through video conferencing. Besides this, the Prime Minister also inaugurated museum galleries developed at the Smarak. This virtual event was also attended by Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak being dedicated to the nation. https://t.co/qvgSvFD422  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 28, 2021

Jallianwala Bagh massacre

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on April 13, 1919. A large but peaceful crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, to protest against the arrest of pro-Indian Independence leaders Dr Saifuddin Kitchlu and Dr Satya Pal.

Hundreds of people were killed by British troops on this day in 1919 as they fired indiscriminately on an unarmed gathering of thousands who had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh amid nationwide protests against the Rowlatt Act which had extended wartime repressive measures. According to British government records, 379 people including men, women, and children were killed while 1,200 were wounded in the firing. Other sources place the number of dead at well over 1,000.

Image Credit: @DRRUTVIJ/@CAPT_AMARINDER-TWITTER
As India ramps up its COVID-19 vaccination drive, Another Indian Coronavirus vaccine gets approval for clinical trials. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Friday, August 27, recommended Phase 1 clinical trials of Reliances recombinant COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

Earlier, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Life Sciences had sought approval for the Phase I trial of its proposed two-dose COVID-19 vaccine. The company can begin Phase 1 trials of the COVID-19 vaccine after receiving approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Maharashtra, and Delhi, are some of the states where trials will be conducted as per the company's proposal.

Reliance Life Sciences COVID-19 vaccine will be a recombinant protein vaccine, similar to the Corbevax vaccine developed by Hyderabad-based Biological E.

So far, six vaccines including Zydus Cadilas vaccine, Serum Institute of Indias Covishield, Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, Russias Sputnik V, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, have received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in India.

India's COVID vaccination drive

In a major milestone achievement, 50 percent of the eligible population has been administered with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in India. So far, Indias cumulative vaccination coverage has crossed the 61 Crore landmark. As per provisional reports, with the administration of 79,48,439 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, Indias COVID-19 vaccination coverage has surpassed the cumulative figure of 61,22,08,542. This has been achieved through 66,60,983 sessions.

According to the report, about 1.03 crore health care workers (HCW) have received the first dose of vaccine, which is more than the ones who have gotten their second dose, 82,94,906. On the other hand, the front-line workers have received more first and second doses of vaccine as 1.83 Crore and 1.28 Crore, respectively, than the HCWs.

COVID-19 vaccine trials participation certificate

On August 23, The Ministry of Health had informed that volunteers who participated in COVID vaccine trials will be issued digital vaccination certificates through the Co-WIN portal. In a statement, the ministry stated it had received numerous requests from trial associates for distributing digital vaccination certificates through the Co-WIN portal.

The Minister thanked all the volunteers who contributed to the COVID research and treatment. And further declared that digital COVID vaccination certificates will now be issued to the clinical trial participants of Covishield & Covaxin through the Co-WIN portal.

(With ANI input)

(Image credit: PTI/UNSPLASH)
A rare bird group known as the Great Eared Nightjar was discovered in Kakopather, Assam's Tinsukia district last week. The bird was rescued by the locals, who then alerted the forest service. Forest Officer Pirasudan B posted the video to his official Twitter account with a caption, "GREAT EARED NIGHTJAR was spotted last week in Upper Assam in Kakopathar. A VERY RARE SIGHTING IN ASSAM. Kudos to Villagers for rescuing the bird and promptly informing @assamforest"

GREAT EARED NIGHTJAR was spotted last week in Upper Assam in Kakopathar.

A VERY RARE SIGHTING IN ASSAM. Kudos to Villagers for rescuing the bird and promptly informing @assamforest. @alka_b87 @kaziranga_ @mkyadava pic.twitter.com/gadGxFUWbu  Piraisoodan B, IFS (@iam_Pirai) August 27, 2021

The Great Eared Nightjar belongs to the Caprimulgidae family of nightjars. It is the largest of the bird family's species. The bird can be found throughout Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Subtropical or moist lowland tropical woods are its natural habitat.

The bird flew away at night, came back the next day

The Sentinel reported that Deepak Mahanta, a local resident, had seen the bird there a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, the bird flew away at night, presumably in search of food, but returned to the same spot the next morning. When Deepak informed his neighbours about the bird, they came in droves. When a team of forest department personnel inspected the spot, the bird was identified as a Great Eared Nightjar. These birds are usually found in South India and despite the fact that Assam was also its natural habitat, the forest personnel predicted that it would become extinct.

According to The Sentinel, locals couldn't ascertain when the bird arrived in their village and settled in a tree. One man who saw and rescued the bird said that when he first saw the bird, he mistook it for a cat. But as soon as he got close to it and realised that it was a bird.

Other new species recently found in Assam

Recently a Himalayan mandarin duck was also spotted near the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, Assam. According to a recent study, a new snake species variant has been discovered in Assam for the first time in over 100 years. A team of scientists from India, the United Kingdom, and the United States made the momentous finding that identified the new snake species. This incredible new snake species discovered in Assam is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement for both biologists and the people of the state.

Image- @iam_Pirai/Twitter
New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday said that to counter fake news and lies, citizens must strive to ensure the press is free from any influence -- political or economic -- and would provide information in an unbiased manner.

One cannot only rely on the state to determine the truth, he said addressing students and faculty members of law colleges and universities, and judges at the sixth M C Chagla Memorial lecture.

Even opinions by experts such as scientists, statisticians, researchers and economists may not always be true because they may not have political affiliation but their claims are also subject to manipulation due to ideological affinity, receipt of financial aids or personal malice, Justice Chandrachud said.

"As such, all policies of the state can be assumed to have been formed on their basis of what the truth of our society is. However, this by no means leads to the conclusion that the states cannot indulge in falsehood for political reasons, even in democracies," he said, adding the "role of the US in the Vietnam War did not see the daylight until the Pentagon Papers were published".

In the context of the pandemic, "we see that there is an increasing trend of countries across the world who are trying to manipulate data on the COVID-19 infection rate and deaths", he said.

"The first thing to do is to strengthen our public institutions. As citizens, we must strive to ensure that we have a press that is free from influence of any kind, political or economic, which will provide us information in an unbiased manner," the Supreme Court judge said.

He added that experts are also often employed by think tanks who conduct research to support specific opinions, but the truth of marginalised communities does not often see the light of the day due to their position in society.

"Similarly, these communities are often never designated as experts due to being prevented from accessing these positions through systemic oppression. As such, that takes away their opportunity to contribute to the determination of truth.

"Since their perspective is never taken into account, the claims of experts also suffer from the problem of their inherent biases," he said.

Justice Chandrachud said that as responsible citizens, "we should put these 'truth providers' through intense scrutiny and questioning to convince ourselves of the veracity of the claims made by them. For this, it is also equally important for those making truth claims to be transparent and conspicuous".

He said citizens must together endeavour to create and encourage a culture that is conducive for deliberation of truth, particularly because truth dances on a fine balance between facts and opinions".

He pointed out that in India opinions of women, Dalits and others belonging to marginalised communities were not conferred the status of 'truth' since they did not traditionally enjoy power.

This is because since they did not enjoy the freedom to express their opinions, their thoughts were confined, crippled and caged. Even after these marginalized groups received the right to vote, their opinions were reckoned to be "untrustworthy" because they were considered to be "treacherous by nature", Justice Chandrachud said.

Justice Chandrachud said during the British Raj in India, when power was absolutely in the hands of a few influential members of the Raj, the truth, and by necessary inference, the fact, was the opinion of the King or the Queen and members of the Raj.

"After the abolition of the Raj, the truth then became the belief and opinion of upper-caste men. With progress in society and annihilation of the notions of patriarchy and caste supremacy, the opinions of women, Dalits and other marginalised communities are slowly but gradually starting to be regarded as 'truths' in India," he said.

The Supreme Court judge said it is important to remember that every person -- rich or poor; male or female, or belonging to a third gender; Dalit or Brahmin or otherwise; Hindu, Muslim or Christian or belonging to any other religion -- has the inherent capacity to identify the truth and differentiate it from falsehood.

"This capacity to identify the truth stems from common knowledge, experiences in life, their individual struggles, and much more. However, many of them are unable to participate in this process because of systemic oppression which either does not provide a platform for their voices or works to minimise their actual impact," he said.

Justice Chandrachud added that while considering the role of citizens in determining the "truth", everyone must keep in mind that this does not refer only to the elite, privileged class of intellectuals, but everyone.

"Therefore, it is imperative upon us to create an environment where this becomes possible," he said, adding everyone must test the veracity of this claim in present time, in what is now being called the 'post-truth world'.

"To test this claim, we must therefore first define what does a 'post-truth world' even mean. It could have two possible meanings: first, that it has become exceedingly difficult for citizens to find the truth in this time and age; and second, which is the more disturbing possibility, is that having found the 'truth', they just do not care about it," he added. PTI MNL MNL NSD NSD

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Slamming the ruling CPI (M) in Kerala, the Congress condemned the communist party for using pictures of Joseph Stalin in their party offices, even as recent reports reveal the evidence of the death of those who were purportedly slaughtered during his reign in Ukraine.

Kerala Congress urges CPI(M) to remove photos of Joseph Stalin from party offices

VD Satheesan, the state Assembly's Leader of the Opposition, claimed that the communist party's past was one of dictatorship and genocide, and that the news of the discovery of bones had shocked everyone, In a Facebook post, he claimed that Pol Pot, the former Communist ruler of Cambodia, was the person who killed the most people in the world, followed by Stalin and Adolf Hitler. He condemned the communist party for glorifying the image of a person who is accused of killing thousands of people.

He claimed that the skeletons discovered in Ukraine were the frightening face of anti-democratic and tyrannical communist ideology's past. After displaying Stalin portraits in CPI(M) party offices, he said that the leaders of Kerala's Communist parties continue to idolise Stalin, who is accused of massacring 15 lakh people.

If the Communist party leaderships in the state can recognise the value of democracy, they should be prepared to remove the images of a dictator like Stalin from their offices, Satheesan said.

Kerala Congress chief slams CM Pinarayi Vijayan on surging COVID cases

Amidst surging cases of COVID-19 in Kerala, concerns over the spread of the virus are growing louder. Slamming the Kerala government for its inability to mitigate the surging COVID-19 cases, Kerala Congress Chief, PT Thomas recently claimed that the state administration has failed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Day by day, Covid cases are increasing in Kerala. Yesterday, more than 31,000 cases were reported and India reports about 50,000 if we look at stats, that's more than 50 per cent of Covid cases coming from Kerala. Earlier the government claimed that it was doing well and taking action. But now, the real picture is out and it shows that it is an utter failure of the state government in tackling COVID 19," Thomas said on Thursday.
On 11 August, 2021, Samsung hosted the Galaxy Unpacked Event, launching its product lineup for this year. The South Korean tech giant revealed two smartphones in the Z series: Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3. Both of them come with revolutionary foldable displays. Besides smartphones, Samsung also released a pair of wireless earphones called Galaxy Buds 2 and two smartwatch iterations under the Galaxy Watch 4 series. While the smartphones were previously available in India, Samsung announced the price and shipment details smartwatch on 27 August.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 models and price in India

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 runs on the new One UI Watch 3, which has been developed by both Samsung and Google and inherits a lot of features from the Wear OS. The smartwatch uses the new Exynos W920 chipset, which comes with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.

The Bluetooth-only version of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is priced at Rs. 23,999 (40mm) and Rs. 26,999 (44mm). The LTE version is priced at Rs. 28,999 (40mm) and Rs. 31,999(44mm). The smaller variant, with a dial size of 40mm, will be available in Black, Pink Gold and Silver colours. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm) will be available in Black, Green and Silver colours. The smartwatch will be available in Amazon and Samsung stores.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic models and price in India

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic comes with similar specifications. It houses the Exynos W920 chipset and has 1.5GB of RAM of 64GB GB of storage as well. What's different from the Watch 4 is the presence of an analogue crown around the dial that rotates and can be used to interact with the UI on the smartwatch. Additionally, the screen size of the Galaxy Watch 4 classic is larger.

The Bluetooth-only version of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic is priced at Rs. 31,999 (42mm) and Rs. 34,999(46mm). The LTE version is priced at Rs. 36,999 (42mm) and Rs. 39,999 (46mm). However, the Galaxy Watch 4 classic will be available in only two colours: Black and silver. Prebooking of both Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic is starting on 30 August and sale will begin on September 10.
Some 90 young schoolchildren in Nigeria, who had been abducted three months ago, were reunited with their families on Friday, following their release by gunmen.

Families, teachers and some residents of the town of Tegina in the state of Niger gathered outside Salihu Tanko Islamic School to reunite with their children.

Girls and boys, some as young as 5 years old, were carried in the arms of their parents as soon as they arrived at the school.

"Today is the greatest day to me, today is the greatest day. It's an honour to (for) the people of Tegina community" said Abubakar Garba Alhassan, head teacher of the school and father of one of the released students.

Gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state in late May.

Authorities initially said that 136 students had been taken but revised that figure to 91, including one pupil who died in captivity.

The abductions stepped up pressure on the Nigerian government to do more to secure educational facilities in remote areas.

But questions remained about whether ransoms had been paid to secure the children's release, and if so whether that could fuel further abductions by the unknown armed groups referred to locally as bandits.

In Zamfara state the police confirmed that 15 other students had been handed over to officials on Friday, 11 days after they were abducted from the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Nigeria's troubled northwest.

It was not immediately clear how they were rescued.

In Kaduna state, 32 students that were kidnapped in July from the Bethel Baptist High School in Damishi, were released Friday night.

Still 31 others remain in captivity

More than 1,000 students have been forcibly taken from their schools in a series of school abductions this year, according to an AP tally of figures previously confirmed by the police.

Although most of those kidnapped have been released, hundreds are still held by their abductors.

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After Tokyo snubbed warnings against holding groundbreaking online "2+2" meeting with Taiwan, China on Friday, 27 August 2021, reacted harshly, warning Tokyo to stop interfering in China's internal affairs. Tokyo held a dialogue with Taipei citing an impact on its own economy as the two nations sought to strengthen bilateral ties to counter Chinas belligerence. A foreign affairs parliamentarian Masahisa Sato for Japans ruling Liberal Democratic party told FT newspaper that dialogue with Taiwan was mandatory as it would have a serious impact on Japans economy and national security.

Tokyo, although, in the recent months had also hinted that it would make investments to ramp up Taiwanese defences against Beijing, should the island resort to defending its sovereignty. Think tanks believe that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would imply a threat to Tokyos outlying islands under Japanese control.

Lodging a strong protest against Tokyos latest move, China on Friday lambasted Japanese officials for holding talks related to regional security in the Indo-Pacific. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a presser Friday, adding that China opposes any attempts of foreign intervention or official exchange with China's diplomatic partners, including the island of Taiwan.

[US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet takes off from the flight deck of the USS George Washington during 'Keen Sword' US-Japan joint military exercise over the Pacific Ocean. Credit: AP]

Ruling parties of Taiwan and Japan in their first diplomatic dialogue held discussions about the defence policy, and felicitating investments into the Japanese chip industry by the Taiwanese semiconductor industriesparticularly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pledged support for Taiwan's bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Chinas state-run Global Times reported. Meanwhile, the Japanese representatives condemned Beijing in Taiwan for "unilaterally changing the regional status quo," which not only "affects the security of the Taiwan Straits, but also Japan's security," flaring the anti-China sentiments in the island nation.

DPP representative engaged in the bilateral dialogue told Japan Times that the two nations held talks about the Coast Guard cooperation and other defence areas which cannot be disclosed owing to the sensitivity of the subjects. Japanese Ministry of Defense also recently released a white paper on defence for elementary and junior high school students, that severely criticized China with regard to the military buildup, Diaoyu Dao, and the South China Sea as relations between the two nations soured.

[File photo of a Chinese coastguard boat near the Diaoyu Islands. Credit: AP]

[US Navy, the US Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) conducts routine operations in the Taiwan Strait. Credit: AP]

Japanese hyping 'China threat,' says Chinese FM spokesperson

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Aug. 27 said that Beijing condemns Japan's unreasonable accusations against PRCs normal defence building, irresponsible remarks on China's legitimate maritime activities, and the hype-up of the so-called "China threat. He said, that Tokyo was on a rhetoric spree to smear China.

The Taiwan question concerns the political foundation of China-Japan relations. On the Taiwan question, the Japanese side bears historical responsibilities to the Chinese people for its past crimes and should especially be prudent with its words and actions. We seriously ask Japan to stop interfering in China's domestic affairs, and refrain from sending wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces, Zhao Lijian told reporters.

In his comments against Japans announcements that it would tighten economic espionage laws in order to protect trade secrets from being leaked to Chinese companies, Zhao said, that this is not a diplomatic issue that concerned China. And that Tokyo must question its own competent authorities. Japan and Taiwans diplomatic discourse was held in the backdrop of the US vice-president Kamala Harris rebuke of China during her visit to south-east Asia, as she accused the PRC of threatening its neighbours with its behaviour.
Albania on Friday housed its first group of Afghan evacuees who made it out of their country despite days of chaos near the Kabul airport, including an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Prime Minister Edi Rama visited some of the evacuees at the Golem coastal resort, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital Tirana.

A handout video from his office showed an unnamed Afghan woman telling him that "it still feels like a nightmare that we would wake up from, adding she was grateful to have made it to safety.

A government statement said an Egyptian Almasria Universal Airlines plane landed at the Tirana international airport at 3:20 a.m. (01:20 GMT) carrying 121 people, including 11 children.

A government source said the flight from Kabul was organized by a U.S. non-governmental association and there was a stopover in Tbilisi, Georgia before landing in Tirana.

The government plans to allow the evacuees to stay in Albania for at least a year before they move to the United States for final settlement.

Albania may temporarily house up to 4,000 Afghans, people who would be at risk in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

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Until last week Shabeer Ahmadi had been busy covering the fast evolving news agenda in Afghanistan.

Now, after a hasty and excruciating decision to leave for an uncertain future in Spain, he is helplessly glued to news feeds on his phone, following every twist in the dramatic end of the evacuation of Afghans from Kabul.

The 29-year-old journalist and nine close relatives were able to board a plane and are now going through the lengthy asylum process while starting a new life in a northern Spanish city.

But the future of thousands of Afghans who have not been able to escape, including members of his own family, is now the focus of his fears.

"There is a feeling of desperation in Afghanistan," he said. "Imagine if you had made a building for 20 years now, that building is getting destroyed and you cannot go out from that building. It feels very bad."

Ahmadi spoke of the despair for what had been achieved and lost, "our education, our hopes for ourselves, for our children, for our future, for our country is all destroyed."

Tolo News, the private Afghan outlet where Ahmadi worked as deputy head of news, has been a target of the Taliban.

But it was not only him who felt under threat in his immediate circle: Ahmadi's mother is an attorney. His father, a former journalist. And his brother, an engineer, who worked on hydropower generation, a crucial infrastructure for the operation of the conflict-torn country.

Earlier this month, as the Taliban's siege closed on Kabul, the family started applying for emergency visas to several countries.

Spain was the first to react, thanks to the mediation of a Spanish journalist whom Ahmadi had befriended in Kabul.

It took the ten of them a long and challenging day amid the crowds outside the airport and within its perimeter, sleeping among hundreds on the ground, before they were cleared to go, despite some of them lacking passports.

"I cannot not think about Afghanistan, so it hurts you every moment, and you have to think about your friends, your relatives and your hopes and your future in Afghanistan, that you could not save," he said, speaking via video conference from Huesca, where the group was relocated on Thursday, one day after landing in Madrid.

The former correspondent thinks that the future of Afghanistan is bleak.

He blames, largely, the U.S. administration of Joe Biden for pressing ahead with the decision to pull out.

"The U.S. couldn't negotiate a good deal with the Taliban. The U.S. handed over us and Afghanistan to the Taliban, to a group that has ties with so many terrorist groups around the world," he said.

He fears that war will break out between the Taliban and Afghanistans offshoot of the Islamic State group in the coming months and years, drawing foreign extremist fighters and leaving millions of innocent lives caught in the conflict.

But Ahmadi also still maintains some positive outlook, suggesting that "any strong country is strong because of the people who work for it, so we cannot leave our country forever."

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Italy's final evacuation flight of refugees from Afghanistan landed at an airport in Rome on Saturday.

The Italian Air Force C-130J with 58 Afghan citizens aboard arrived some 17 hours after it departed from Kabul airport and after a programmed stopover.

Also aboard were Italy's consul and a NATO diplomat who had coordinated evacuations at the Kabul airport.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy would work with the United Nations and with countries bordering Afghanistan on what he described as a "very difficult" next phase.

He said that consisted of efforts to evacuate other Afghan citizens who worked with Italy's military contingent during its 20-year-presence in Afghanistan but weren't able to get into Kabul airport in time for the airlifts.

He didn't say how many still were eligible for evacuation to Italy.

Rescuing those citizens would give them "the same chance" of starting a new life outside their homeland as those already evacuated, Di Maio said in a brief statement.

He noted that the 4,890 Afghans evacuated by Italy's air force thanks to 87 flights was the highest number of any European Union nation.

Italys remaining soldiers left on a separate flight from Kabul on Friday night.

That air force flight went to Kuwait and the troops are due back in Italy early next week.

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After four years in Turkey, Nazar Nafasi says his work as a farmhand has allowed him to build a life far from the turmoil of his native Afghanistan.

The 23-year-old spends his days caring for cattle in Edirne, close to Turkey's border with Greece.

"If you ask why I came, there is a lot of war (in Afghanistan)," said Nazar, who traveled across Iran on foot with his brother to reach Turkey.

"We don't want anyone to die," he said. "I hope that one day Afghanistan will be in a good situation and we can return."

Nazar is an ethnic Turkmen  a group related to the Turks of Turkey  from the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Despite his rudimentary life on the farm, he is grateful to his employers for giving him a livelihood and money to send back to his family in Afghanistan.

"They take care of me like their own children, they look at me like their own siblings," he said.

"They give me my bread, my water, everything I need. They give me my money (that) I send to my family every month."

Notwithstanding Nazar's satisfaction with his situation, many of the 4 million migrants in Turkey  the vast majority of them Syrians  face exploitation by unscrupulous employers who pay low wages for long hours to unregistered migrants with no chance to complain to the authorities.

They typically work in low-paid jobs in the agriculture and textile sectors and have very limited, if any, access to health and social services.

In recent weeks, anti-migrant feelings in Turkey have erupted into violence following reports of groups of Afghans crossing the eastern border and growing economic hardships in Turkey, including high unemployment.

"Individuals employed in such jobs are paid far below the normal minimum wage," said Tacettin Sivrikaya, president of the Edirne Bar Association.

"These people do not have social security. I think it is a crime against humanity to employ these people from five or six o'clock in the morning to seven or eight o'clock at night, every day for six to seven months without a vacation."

There are an estimated 300,000 Afghans in Turkey and the government, which has been reinforcing security along the Iranian border in recent years, fears more following the Taliban takeover.

Edirne lawmaker Orhan Cakirlar, from the right-wing Iyi Party, said it was difficult to check the living and working conditions of unregistered migrants.

"If the state has not legally given work permits to these people, if these people have not entered this country legally, neither the humane aspects nor their working conditions can be checked," he said.

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Palestinian protesters were wounded on August 27 in clashes with Israeli soldiers in multiple West bank cities and villages, reported ANI quoting Palestinian medics and eyewitnesses. Hundreds of Palestinians on Wednesday demonstrated near the Israeli border in the southern Gaza Strip urging the Israeli authorities to ease a crippling blockade. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that its medical professional treated at least 33 Palestinians who were injured in clashes with the Israeli soldiers in the village of Beita, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The statement also noted that two of the demonstrators carried wounds of rubber-coated metal gunshots while 31 others suffered suffocation after inhaling tear gas fired by the soldiers. It also said that Israeli soldiers opened fire at one of the ambulances in the same area. In the last three months, reportedly, the village of Beita has witnessed daily clashes between the Palestinian protesters and the Israeli troops as they raise voice against the establishment of a settlement outpost close to the village and confiscating parts of its land.

Eight Palestinians wounded in Qalqilya

Apart from Beita, Murad Ishteiwi, the coordinator for the Palestinian popular protests, as per ANI said that eight other Palestinian demonstrators were wounded by Israels law enforcement officers while dozens suffered suffocation due to tear gas near the town of Qalqilya in the West Bank. Ishteiwi also said that the clashes broke out during the rallies that the Palestinians organize every Friday afternoon against the Israeli settlement and confiscation of its land.

Meanwhile, Egypt has been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire deal between both opposing sides and even appealed to the Islamic militant group to move towards peace. Shortly after the Wednesday demonstrations had ended, Hamas officials announced that the territorys key border crossing with Egypt was partially reopening on Thursday. The Israeli military said earlier this week, as per AP, that it used tear gas and limited live fire to disperse the crowd of Palestinian protesters. Soheil al-Hendi, a Hamas official, reportedly said the group made a great effort to avoid bloodshed.

The enemy must understand this message that we do not want to repeat what happened last Saturday when blood was spilled, he said, as per AP.

IMAGE: AP

(With ANI & AP inputs)
Any further increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan due to the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan further poses serious national security challenges, reported news agency ANI, citing a Pakistan dailys editorial. The report also said that the increased terror attacks in Pakistan would solidly topple the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The editorial also noted that Islamabad must continue to remain a peaceful nation where foreign citizens feel safe.

"Otherwise, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain healthy strategic ties with useful allies, not to mention the economic impact if countries such as China start pulling out their investments," the editorial read, as per ANI.

The article was published after two children lost their lives last week along with three others including a Chinese national, in a suicide attack targeting the vehicle carrying the foreign citizens near the East Bay Expressway in Gwadar, Balochistan. The Chinese embassy in Pakistan had said,

The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan strongly condemns this act of terrorism, extends its sincere sympathies to the injured of both countries, and expresses its deep condolences to the innocent victims in Pakistan.

The blast, which was the second attack on Chinese nationals, occurred near the construction site that's a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Last month, the Dasu dam site incident in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa claimed the lives of 13 people including nine Chinese nationals. The China-based company, which was constructing the dam in KP, later announced that it suspended the work after the blast killed several engineers.

"An uptick in terrorism in the country owning to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan that has escalated the threat level posed by groups such as the TTP coupled with elements such as the Baloch Liberation Army poses serious national security challenges," the editorial read.

CPEC and opposition in Balochistan

Meanwhile, Balochistan, as per the report, is considered to be a resource-rich region but also the least developed province in the country. For several decades, a movement of freedom has been prevailing in Balochistan as many residents believe that the region was independent before 1947 and was forcibly occupied by Pakistan. Further, CPEC is regarded as one of the most significant components of China's $60 billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, it has also triggered criticism from various political parties in Pakistan and locals from Balochistan.

IMAGE: AP
Pakistans civil society organisation has raised concerns over the escalating crimes against women and also called out the inaction of the Imran Khan-led government, the judiciary of the country. As per ANI, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) Vice Chairperson Justice (R) Nasirah Iqbal has also noted that Pakistans founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah had hopes that both men and women would work in synergy but the authorities failed to work on the decades-old vision. She stressed that for women in Pakistan to feel safe, the perpetrators of crimes against them must be brought to justice.

Citing the Minar-e-Pakistan incident, TIP Chairperson Yasmin Larry, said that is a test case of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans government as well as the criminal justice system. As per ANI, Larry also called on the government to act on the guidelines given by the United Nations (UN) for ending the discriminatory behaviour against women and noted that it is the only way to tackle violence against women in the country.

HRCP report raised alarm on the situation

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) annual report released in June, this year raised alarm over the situation of women in the country. Earlier on August 26, TIP also said that the Board of Trustees Transparency International Pakistan held a Board meeting on Tuesday, and expressed grave concern over the alarming increase in violence against women, due to the inept response from the state.

The Board expressed its deepest shock and condemned the reprehensible attack on woman at Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore on 14th August 2021 and similar such attacks on women occurred in last one month, it added. Meanwhile, the HRCP report included a range of issues that adversely impacted the women in Pakistans communities. The annual report also laid extra emphasis on the plight of women, heightened with gender discrimination that is witnessed across the nation.

Minar-e-Pakistan incident

The concerns were raised after earlier this week a heart-wrenching incident was reported in Pakistans Lahore on August 14 when a female TikToker was assaulted by hundreds of people. Reportedly, the case was also registered against the people captured in a viral video assaulting and stealing from the TikToker along with her companions. The incident reportedly took place at the Greater Iqbal Park area of Lahore in Pakistan on its Independence Day on August 14. In the FIR, the complainant has said that she and people with her were filming a video near Minar-e-Pakistan when around 300 to 400 attacked us.

IMAGE: AP
In a breaking development, Pakistan has urged the international community to 'learn from past mistakes' and engage with the hardline terror outfit, Taliban, which is now in absolute control of Afghanistan. PM Imran Khan-led government advocated the notion stating that it will avoid the humanitarian and refugee crisis generated in the war-ravaged State.

In the wake of the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and its re-emergence after twenty years, Pakistan National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf remarked that the international community should refrain from infusing a security vacuum by 'abandoning' ordinary Afghans.

'We must keep Taliban honest to promises' : Pakistan National Security Advisor

Pakistan's NSA said that the on-ground reality is that the Taliban are in control but he said, "We must keep them honest to their promises, but engage for the sake of the average Afghans. Otherwise, we will end up in the same place. It wasn't well last time."

"Another humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan was not inevitable, but only if the international community learn from the mistakes of the past and do not create a security vacuum by abandoning ordinary Afghans," Yusuf was cited as saying.

Pakistan-Taliban nexus

Notably, Pakistan has been outrightly blamed for extending support to Taliban terrorists and even nurtured a safe haven for the insurgent groups and their factions. While the Taliban, with the aid of the Pakistani Army, intensified attacks in Afghanistan before the incessant, hostile and violent territorial gains, PM Imran Khan-led regime has not shied away from acknowledging the terror organisation as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

In July 2021, demonstrators raised voices worldwide against Islamabad's role in the Afghanistan debacle and inculpated the country for helping the Taliban. Voices from across the world have been increasingly urging hard-hitting economic sanctions on Pakistan for its 'proxy war' in Afghanistan to an extent where experts and Afghans claimed that Islamabad has had the Taliban's back. Pakistani terror outfits, as well as the government, conduced not one but over 50 attacks amongst many of the Taliban's aggressive and unlawful advances against Afghan forces.

Reports and dialogue exchanges between world leaders suggest that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is Pakistan's top intelligence agency, has 'close contacts' to the Taliban leadership. In fact, Pakistan can be traced back to the early 1970s for supporting different factions of Afghanistan mujahideen fighting against the Soviet occupation. More pertinently, Islamabad allegedly continued to offer logistical support and backing to insurgents.

Afghanistan 'caretaker' Saleh exposes Pakistan on Republic TV

In an exclusive interview with Republic TV on August 26, Afghanistan 'caretaker' president Amrullah Saleh exposed Pakistan's role in the Taliban takeover of his country. Taliban is not alone in this. They are backed by Pakistan. They are backed by Pakistan's military, intelligence and diplomatic service. As long as America is unwilling to publicly acknowledge the malign role of Pakistan and just say that they are dealing with the Taliban, this problem won't be fixed, Saleh said.

Furthermore, he had said that Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is Pakistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, has been acting as one of the delegates of the Taliban. He accused Qureshi of attempting to reform not the Taliban but its impression on the world. He has been advocating that the terror organisation has 'changed'.

"The Taliban is the hand, the brain is the Pakistani establishment and the Army. Qureshi these days is acting as the Foreign Minister of the Taliban trying to charm the world that they have changed. They have not changed. I am very sure that the West will regret it big time," Amrullah Saleh had said.

In fact, after twin blasts at Kabul airport on August 26, the Taliban shirked the onus and had placed it on ISIS-K, to which Saleh remarked that the Taliban denying links with ISIS was equivalent to Pakistan's denial on Quetta Shura and said that they had 'learned well' from their masters.

Every evidence we have in hand shows that IS-K cells have their roots in Talibs & Haqqani network particularly the ones operating in Kabul. Talibs denying links with ISIS is identical/similar to denial of Pak on Quetta Shura. Talibs hv leanred vry well from the master. #Kabul  Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 27, 2021

Pakistan has become the focus of ascending international anger over the Taliban conquest of Afghanistan, with rapidly increasing calls for sanctions or punitive or coercive measures to be imposed on Islamabad. There are plenty who have interpreted the hand of Pakistan behind the Taliban's resurgence, which has led to recriminations levelled at the PM Imran Khan-led State, which is greylisted under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to check its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regime.
In a major confession made by the Imran Khan government on Saturday, PTI Spokesperson Abdul Samad Yacoob admitted on live television that Taliban militants operate from Pakistan soil.

Participating in a primetime debate with Republic Media Network's Niranjan Narayanaswamy, Yacoob, the founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf revealed that militants from Afghanistan often enter cross borders and operate from Waziristan.

"The Afghan-Pakistan border is always vulnerable whenever it comes to terrorism. Militants from Afghanistan sometimes cross the Pakistan border and operate from our Waziristan province," said Yacoob.

The PTI leader was responding to the recent drone attacks carried out by the US military against ISIS-K targets in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, near the Pak border. The airstrike was in retaliation to the twin blasts that took place at the Kabul airport killing 13 US service members and over 160 Afghans.

When asked what he thought of the US attacks being carried out so close to home, Yacoob replied saying it was due to the 'complexity' of border areas. "It is a reality that Talibani militants enter Pakistan. The Taliban chief was killed in Pakistan too. All this is a result of complex border areas," he reasoned.

Notably, Pakistan has been outrightly blamed for extending support to Taliban terrorists and even nurtured a safe haven for the insurgent groups and their factions. While the Taliban, with the aid of the Pakistani Army, intensified attacks in Afghanistan before gaining control of the country, PM Imran Khan-led regime has not shied away from acknowledging the terror organization as Afghanistan's legitimate government. In addition to this, Afghanistan's new rulers - the Taliban on Thursday, asserted that Pakistan is like their 'second home'.

ISIS-K & Taliban

It is pertinent to mention that ISIS, which took the responsibility for the Kabul airport bombings, majorly recruits from Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which are all sheltered by Pakistan. However, Pakistan has time and again tried to wash its hands off culpability for the terrorist groups while allowing them to operate freely from its soil.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that leaders of Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad held a meeting with Taliban leaders in Kandahar in the third week of August, seeking their support for 'India-centric operations'. Indian security and intelligence agencies, after learning of the meeting between JeM-Taliban, have been put on high alert, as the movement of the terrorists across the border areas is being anticipated.

IMAGE CREDITS: REPUBLIC/AP
The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan which is at the helm of the anti-Taliban resistance has once again handed a thrashing to the Taliban fighters and prevented them from entering the Panjshir valley. The members of the terrorist group attempted to enter Panjshir through the Sanjan area of Kapisa province, however, the fierce retaliation by the resistance forces resulted in heavy casualties of the Taliban. The Taliban, as per sources, thereafter sent its units from several near and far locations to the valley to hold up and reinforce the siege in the region, which is Afghanistan's last remaining holdout against the Taliban.

Northern alliance recruitment, and training

In order to bolster its fight against the Taliban, the resistance forces are recruiting young fighters from Kapisa, Parwan, and other provinces who are being trained by commanders of the Afghan Army in the Saricha area of Panjshir where the Republic Media Network crew got access on Saturday.

The resistance force in a conversation with our crew made it clear that they were against Pakistan's invasion of Afghanistan," We must get ready to defend our country." They added, "We are now under the invasion of fascist forces. We must find ways to fight them."

As talks between Resistance Forces and Taliban are underway, commanders of Massoud's Army are preparing for a military response in case the negotiations fail. Officials of the Resistance Force say that if the talks fail then they will fight the Taliban."We are forming new brigades and the training will start soon. Since in the past Taliban used to say that we used to work for the Americans, now we are standing for our own nation. We are now defending our own motherland. We are trying our best to provide you all (new recruits) with the necessary equipment. We need to be a disciplined force," the officials said.

This is in line with 'caretaker' President Amrullah Saleh's statement to Republic Media Network that the resistance force is ready to take on the Taliban militarily. " If they don't agree to our conditions and choose to take the military path, then we too are prepared," Saleh had said on Thursday.
The Pentagon says refugees from Afghanistan who are now in the U.S. will remain at military bases until their relocation is determined by authorities.

"We'll have the International Migration Organization come in towards the end of the process and work with them on where they need to be relocated," said Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command:

The Pentagon has said it has evacuated more than 110,000 people.

It takes evacuees several days to arrive in America, because evacuees are first taken to other nations, including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Spain, Germany and Bulgaria, so many thousands more are still on their way to the U.S.

The Pentagon said the only transit point until Friday has been Dulles International Airport in Virgina.

Non-citizens arriving from Afghanistan are taken to the Dulles Expo Center after being processed at the airport and then to one of several military bases.

Three of those bases are in Virginia - Quantico Marine Corps Base, Fort Pickett and Fort Lee and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

Civilian flights with refugees are expected to begin going into Philadelphia on Friday as well.

The Taliban have wrested back control of Afghanistan two decades after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks.

Their return to power has terrified many Afghans, who have rushed to flee the country ahead of the American withdrawal.

The White House said Friday morning that 8,500 evacuees had been flown out aboard U.S. military aircraft in the previous 24 hours, along with about 4,000 people on coalition flights.

But the chances of helping those hoping to join the evacuation are fading fast.

More European allies and other nations were set to end their airlifts Friday, in part to give the U.S. time to wrap up its own operations.

The Taliban have said they will allow Afghans to leave via commercial flights after the U.S. withdrawal, but it is unclear which airlines would return to an airport controlled by the militants.

Untold numbers of Afghans, especially ones who had worked with the U.S. and other Western countries, are now in hiding, fearing retaliation despite the groups offer of full amnesty.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Saturday, informed that he has discussed the evacuation process in Afghanistan with Qatar's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Blinken thanked Al Thani "for Qatar's continued support to transit US citizens." Blinken said that Qatar has gone above and beyond to help the USA in evacuating its citizens from Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanks Qatar officials.

The US Secretary of State informed that during his call with the Qatari deputy prime minister, he had thanked him for the country's continued support to transit US citizens.

During my call with Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Foreign Affairs @MBA_AlThani_, I thanked him again for Qatars continued support to transit U.S. citizens, @USEmbassyKabul personnel, & foreign nationals from Afghanistan. Qatar has gone above & beyond with its help.  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 28, 2021

Earlier, on Friday, US Secretary of State Blinken held discussions with Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Eriksen Sreide regarding the "security situation in Kabul."

Following yesterdays horrific attack, I discussed the security situation in Kabul with @NorwayMFA Eriksen Sreide and expressed our gratitude for the Norwegian-staffed field hospitals heroic efforts.  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 28, 2021

USA's Afghan evacuation

The White House, on Friday, tweeted the updated figure of what it called one of the "most difficult and largest airlifts ever conducted in history." The White House informed about the evacuation of approximately 12,500 people from Afghanistan despite a terrorist attack near the Kabul airport, on Thursday.

Update: From 3 AM ET on 8/26 to 3 AM ET on 8/27 a total of approximately 12,500 people were evacuated from Kabul. 35 US military flights carried approximately 8,500 evacuees, and 54 coalition flights carried approximately 4,000 people.  The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2021

Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 105,000 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 110,600 people.  The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2021

The US also said it will go ahead with its plan to conclude its Afghanistan mission by 31 August, even as the evacuation effort, which is now in its "retrograde period", is facing an "ongoing and acute threat" from ISIS-K. The 31 August deadline has been agreed upon by the USA and the Taliban for America's pullout from the war-torn country. The threat is ongoing and it is active. Our troops are still in danger. That continues to be the case every day that they are there. This is the most dangerous part of the mission," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily press briefing, on Friday.

US to handover Kabul Airport to 'Afghan people'

The USA also plans to hand over the Kabul airport to the "Afghan people," after their exit. In a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that "upon our departure, we will transfer the Kabul airport back to the Afghan people." Earlier, a Taliban spokesperson had said that the group continue to control parts of Kabul airport.
Canada on August 27 approved Modernas COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 years of age and older. The government said in a statement on Friday, Following Health Canada's authorization of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 years of age and older, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) released updated recommendations on the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents 12 to 17 years of age.

It also noted that in May 2021, NACI had recommended vaccination of adolescents with Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after regulatory approval and from Friday, it would also include the Moderna jabs mRNA-based jabs. The official statement added, Clinical trial findings suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines provide very good protection against symptomatic COVID-19 infection and have a favourable benefit versus risk profile in adolescents 12 years of age and older.

Although, a higher rate of myocarditis and/or pericarditis adverse events were recently reported after administration of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, these events are still considered rare and verification of this potential difference is ongoing, it said.

Moderna Signs MoU With Canadian Govt

Meanwhile, just earlier this month, US biotech company Moderna Inc and the Canadian government on August 10, announced that the firm will build a plant in Canada to produce vaccines for COVID-19 along with other respiratory infections. Canadian Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne made the announcement with the head of Moderna and said that the plant would meet the orders for its mRNA-based vaccines with manufacturers tackling to fulfil the soaring demands for Coronavirus jabs across the globe.

Moderna said in a statement on Tuesday that the goals for the agreement are to build the foundation to support Canada with direct access to rapid pandemic response capabilities and to provide access to Modernas vaccines in development for respiratory viruses. Modernas Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel also expressed gratitude to the Canadian government for the partnership between the two and for their faith in our data, science and early confidence in our mRNA platform in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bancel said, As Moderna expands internationally, we are delighted to bring mRNA manufacturing to Canada. We believe that this innovative business model will have global impact and implications.

This partnership with @Moderna_tx will help grow a strong, competitive domestic life sciences sector with cutting-edge biomanufacturing capabilities. This will create good jobs and drive investments in domestic R&D.https://t.co/HJDZyp98iy pic.twitter.com/qqHdEoZDly  Francois-Philippe Champagne (FPC)  (@FP_Champagne) August 10, 2021

Image Credit: AP
In another intrusion by Chinas authoritarian government, its two patrol ships entered Japans territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on August 28. As per ANI, initially, four ships in total were spotted in the area bordering waters claimed by Japan. Reportedly, then two of the ships entered the waters and even attempted to approach a Japanese fishing vessel. As per the report, the Saturday intrusion was also the 32nd time that Chinese vessels entered Japans territorial waters in 2021.

Even though Japan controls the Senkaku Islands, China and Taiwan continue to claim them. Senkaku Islands in Japan are termed Diaoyu Islands in China. As per international law and Japans history, it maintains the islands which are also an inherent part of its territory. However, facing harsh criticism, China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea. Chinas claims have increased tensions in the region as the territorial disputes overlap with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

The Chinese government has also ramped up its maritime activities in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea especially in the last few months in response to Beijing's concerns over the increasing presence of the US military in the region amid escalating Sino-US tensions. Earlier, China raised concerns over the passage of a United States Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan.

Notably, Taiwan is a self-governing island claimed by Beijing. On Friday, USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed through the Taiwan strait as the country moves to increase its presence in Asia. Chinese Defence Ministry protested against the move and strongly condemned the exercise.

Beijing reacts to Japan-Taiwan security dialogue

Further impacting China-Japan relations, Beijing reacted harshly to Tokyo snubbing the warnings against holding the 2+2 meeting with Taiwan. On August 27, China warned Japan to cease interfering in what it calls its internal affairs. Japan held a dialogue with Taiwan citing an impact on its economy as both countries moved ahead with enhancing the bilateral ties to tackle Chinas aggression.

Home to at least 23.6 million people, Taiwan split from China during a civil war that drove the Communist Party in Beijing to take control of the mainland in 1949. However, China continues to claim Taiwan as its own breakaway province and has criticised any independent diplomatic relations that the island develops with other nations.

IMAGE: AP


French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said that the country was holding preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, as per reports. The French President also said that the country will discuss the possible evacuation of more people from the war-torn Nation.

French President: 'France was holding discussions with the Taliban'

Emmanuel Macron, who spoke in Baghdad while he was attending a summit with several Middle Eastern leaders, said France was also discussing with Qatar on how it might re-establish a pathway for Afghan evacuations, though nothing was yet certain.

"We have begun having discussions, which are very fragile and preliminary, with the Taliban on the issue of humanitarian operations and the ability to protect and repatriate Afghans who are at risk," Macron told a news conference.

Earlier on Friday, the French government had finished its evacuation operation from Kabul in line with that timetable. However, it had also said that it would continue to help those, who needed protection to leave Afghanistan. Macron had also said France would keep troops in Iraq as part of anti-terrorism operations for as long as the Iraqi government needed them to stay, regardless of whether or not the United States decides to withdraw.

"Whatever the Americans decide, we will maintain our presence to fight against terrorism in Iraq," he said. U.S. military forces, which have guarded the airport in Kabul, are due to withdraw by a Tuesday deadline set by President Joe Biden.

Bombings kill at least 95 Afghans, 13 US troops

Thursdays bombings near the international airport in Kabul reportedly killed at least 95 Afghans along with 13 US troops, as stated by American and Afghan officials. August 26 also marked the deadliest day for the United States soldiers since August 2011. Officials have also noted on Friday that the actual toll of the incidents could be much higher.

In an emotionally overwhelming speech, Joe Biden blamed the Islamic State groups Afghanistan affiliate, which is considered prominently more radical than the Taliban terrorists. He pledged to ensure the safety of Afghans even as the pressure to extend the Tuesday deadline continues to intensify. The US President also cited the threat of terrorist attacks as one of the reasons for him to stick to the plan of completing evacuation by August 31.

(Image: AP)
In a first-ever decision, Nepal has allowed Phase 3 clinical trials of the Chinese messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine candidate. On Thursday, the Nepali government gave a positive nod to the proposal presented a month ago by Chinese developer Walvax Biotechnology and its local partner Deurali-Janta Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. As per reports, the proposal had sought permission to conduct final clinical trials of the Chinese-manufactured COVID vaccine in the Southasian Himalayan nation.

The decision came after a cabinet meeting on Thursday sanctioned the proposal presented by the Chinese company and its Nepali partner, Executive Chief of Nepal Health Research Council, Dr Pradip Gyanwali briefed during an interview with Xinhua agency. The permission was granted by the Health cabinet after the research council analysed the "terms is safety and efficacy" of the vaccine candidate, Dr Gyanwali added. The Chinese company is permitted to set the course for the third phase trials after it receives a Department of Drug and Administration (DDA) license, a member of the Ethical Review Board, Namita Ghimire told Xinhua agency.

Clinical trials to be conducted on 3000 people at a government-run facility

As per reports, the phase 3 trials would be conducted on 3,000 odd participants in a government-run facility in the city of Dharan, Nepal. Vaccines, if manufactured in Nepal "will be easier to access," as Nepal depends on externally sourced Covid vaccines and medicines for its 30 million population, Dr. Gyanwali told Xinhua.

India gifts oxygen plant to Nepal

Meanwhile, in order to support the Himalayan nation to tackle the rising COVID-19 delta variant infections, India on Thursday gifted a medical oxygen plant to Nepal. As per an ANI report, the medical oxygen plant is installed at B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, an official statement by Nepal Embassy in India stated. The plant is designed to provide five litres per minute (LPM) oxygen per person, amounting to a total capacity of 960 LPM. The donated oxygen plant would reinforce Nepal's effort in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, said Umesh Sreshtha, Nepal Minister of State for Health. The help comes as a result of the "deep-rooted bilateral ties" between the Indian government and Nepal, Sreshtha added.

On the vaccination front, Nepal has completely inoculated about 3.9 million of its population. Meanwhile, in a bid to accelerate the vaccination rollout, the government has declared a number of incentives for domestic and foreign companies to construct vaccination plants in the Himalayan country.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image: AP/representative)
As the USA's August 31 evacuation deadline approaches, the Taliban has started to unfurl its oppressive and terroristic means of ruling the war-torn nation of Afghanistan. Ever since the fall of the Ashraf Ghani government and the return of the Taliban, the terrorist groups have been busy trying to convince the international community that they would not rule the country with tyranny. However, from time to time, Taliban's own atrocities expose themselves. Now, a video of a Taliban group has gone viral in which the terrorist organisation can be seen threatening Afghanistan's minority Hazara community with massacre.

As per the video shared on Twitter, a group of Taliban leaders can be seen threatening Afghanistan's Hazara community. In the video shared, the Taliban group is on stand-by waiting for its leaders to massacre the Hazara community. "I swear to God that we will not let any Hazara live or remain alive in Afghanistan. I will not let any Shia Muslim alive," says the terrorist.

Public genocide



Taliban group says that we are just waiting for the order of our leaders emirate, when the emirate allows, I swear to God that we will not let any #Hazara live/alive in Afghanistan!

I will not let any Shia Muslim alive #Afghanistan #Shiagenocide pic.twitter.com/0woSp9aZbR  Panjshir_Province (@PanjshirProvin1) August 28, 2021

In 1998 when the Taliban last took over Afghanistan, its Governor Mulla Manon Nazi conducted a massive killing of Hazaras after capturing Mazar-i-Sharif. The UN also declared the barbaric incident as genocide, and no element of the human rights watch or journalist was allowed to enter the region.

Hazara leader calls on Taliban to set up an inclusive government

Notably, Afghanistans Hazaras, a Shiite minority, are calling on the Taliban to set up an inclusive government in which all ethnic groups would have a voice.

As per AP, Shiite leader Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi said the countrys Shiite clerics have issued a declaration stating that a future parliament in Afghanistan should include members of different sects of Islam. He asked for freedom of religion under an Islamic government and asked that there be separate courts for Shiites that follow Jafari jurisprudence, in accordance with the provisions of law.

The Shiite concerns come as the Taliban negotiating team in Qatar has been was insisting on implementation of Islamic law, and specifically Hanafi laws which are a major school of Sunni jurisprudence, in the laws and the constitution of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a Sunni militant group.

Who are Hazaras?

The Hazaras are believed to be descendants of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol empire. This ethnic group is mainly concentrated in the mountainous central region of Afghanistan known as Hazarajat. The Taliban is opposed to this community as it comprises mostly Shia Muslims whereas the Taliban is a group of Sunni Muslims. It has been found that the Taliban frequently attacks Shia minorities in Afghanistan.

(Image Credits: @PanjshirProvin1/Twitter/AP)
The United States recently attempted to dissociate the Taliban and the Haqqani network and called them two separate entities despite both terror groups sharing close links. When US State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked about sharing information regarding the security of Kabul airport with the Taliban and if it was shared with Haqqani Network, he replied saying, The Taliban and Haqqani Network are two separate entities."

Even though the US denies the association of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, it has been reported that both continue to share close links. Talibans deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani also heads the Haqqani Network, which has been designated as a terrorist organisation in the United States since 2012. Meanwhile, the Haqqanis, according to National Counter Terrorism Center is considered the most lethal and sophisticated terror group targeting US, Coalition, and Afghan forces.

It has also been said that Haqqani Network is considered as a terrorist group "because of its involvement in the Afghan insurgency, attacks on US military and civilian personnel and Western interests in Afghanistan, and because of its ties to the Taliban and Al Qaeda." In the past two decades, the network was also viewed as one of the most dangerous factions combatting the Afghan and US-led NATO troops in the war-torn country. The group is also known for using suicide bombers.

What is Haqqani Network? What is its connection with Taliban?

The Haqqani Network is a Sunni Islamist organisation that was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani. He had emerged as the top Afghan warlord and an extremist commander back in the anti-Soviet war. Before founding the deadly organisation, he was a member of the Hezb-e Islami faction led by mujahideen commander Younis Khalis.

The connection between the Taliban and Haqqani Network dates back to its roots when Jalaluddin reportedly allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan as the groups Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs when the extremists held power in the war-torn nation in the 1990s.

As per the Counter Terrorism Guide of the National Counterterrorism Center, Jalaluddin was a known associate of Osama bin Laden and was even recognised as one of the latters closest mentors during the Al-Qaeda founders prominent years in the 1980s Afghan war.

Jalaluddins son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, currently presides over the groups day-to-day activities along with the familys close relatives. In August 2015, Sirajuddin was named as a deputy to newly appointed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansur. This further cemented the strong alliance between the Taliban and the Haqqanis.

Where does Haqqani operate?

As per the guide, Haqqanis are primarily based in North Waziristan, Pakistan. It conducts cross-border operations into eastern Afghanistan and Kabul. The Haqqani Network is mainly made of members of the Zadran tribe. The Counter Terrorism Guide explained the network as the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group targeting US, Coalition, and Afghan forces in Afghanistan; they typically conduct coordinated small-arms assaults coupled with rocket attacks, IEDs, suicide attacks, and attacks using bomb-laden vehicles.

Terror attacks blamed on Haqqani Network?

According to National Counter-terrorism Center, the Haqqanis are responsible for "some of the highest-profile attacks of the Afghan war" that included the June 2011 assault on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel. The Haqqanis jointly conducted the attacks with the Afghan Taliban, and two major suicide bombingsin 2008 and 2009against the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

In September 2011, the Haqqani Network, as per the Center, participated in a day-long assault against major targets in Kabul, including the US Embassy, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters, the Afghan Presidential Palace, and the Afghan National Directorate of Security headquarters.

More recently, in October 2013, Afghan security forces intercepted a truck bomb deployed by the Haqqanis against Forward Operating Base Goode in Paktia Province. The device, which did not detonate, contained some 61,500 pounds of explosives and was the largest truck bomb ever built. The group is also involved in a number of criminal activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including extortion, kidnapping for ransom, and smuggling, it added.

IMAGE: AP
In the wake of the hostile takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, massive numbers of Afghan demonstrators in the United Kingdom took to the streets to stage a protest against the self-imposed regime in the war-ravaged country. Afghan nationals and their allies have protested in countries around the world, in solidarity with Afghans while marking an anti-Taliban unison.

After the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, Afghan citizens were left with the option to either escape the extremist regime and flee their homes or stay and risk deaths at the hands of the Taliban.

'We Deserve Peace': Afghans in UK protest against Taliban

In visuals accessed by Republic Media Network, anti-Taliban demonstrators are seen sloganeering phrases- 'No-No Taliban', 'Free Free Afghanistan', 'No Justice No Peace', while hundreds held placards indicating- 'Free Afghanistan From Taliban' 'We Deserve Peace' 'We Are Anti-Taliban Movement'. One of them read '5000 Is Not Good Enough' with relations to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claim on August 18 that British government would welcome and accept this figure of Afghan refugees in 2021.

Women and children were amongst hundreds of protestors as they fear the future of their country and the safety of fellow Afghans back home. Since the extremist and hardline terror outfit assumed reign in Afghanistan, thousands of desperate Afghan nationals were seen marching on the streets and delivering anti-Taliban phrases. They demand the restoration of Afghanistan's legitimate sovereignty.

Anti-Taliban movement

On August 28, a worldwide anti-Taliban movement involving 30 countries was announced. The recent collapse of Afghanistan's legitimate government and the absolute hostile takeover by the Taliban has infused a sense of solidarity, towards the Afghan land, amongst people around the globe. While most demand restoration of rights and basic freedom of Afghans, others have explicitly urged the 'international community to 'sanction Pakistan' for sponsoring 'logistical support' to the Taliban and bolstering a 'proxy war' in Afghanistan through the years.

The anti-Taliban movement has been initiated by the United Afghan Association, a joint project of human rights activists in 30 different countries. Reports suggest that a protest is set to be held at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco, California to take and voice action against the current sovereign government of Afghanistan led by the extremist Islamic militant group, Taliban.
With above 1 lakh cases every day, United States hospitals are running out of ward space to provide adequate care to infected patients. Alarmingly, pediatric hospitals have also reached their highest levels of in-patients since the country, a year ago, started tracking COVID cases amidst children. An average of 303 children admissions per day was recorded for over a week until August 22, informed a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bulletin.

ICU and emergency wards in hospitals are jam-packed with severely ill patients

Meanwhile, Kentucky and Texas on August 27 joined the growing list of states that are witnessing a record number of COVID-related hospitalisation, AP reported. The states have reported the maximum number of cases since the inception of the pandemic in the nation.

ICU units at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Georgia have somehow managed to fit 50 patients in a room of 38, all breathing with the help of ventilation, informed Dr. Jyotir Mehta, Medical Director in the hospital. Meanwhile in New Mexico, the number of COVID-19 patients needing medical attention abruptly jumped up by 20%.

On Friday, six other states - Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii Mississippi and Oregon broke the previous COVID-related hospitalisation records. As per a statement by experts, the surge has been fuelled by the highly transmissible COVID-19 delta variant, leading to vulnerable cases mostly among unvaccinated people.

Alarmingly upward graph for kids as well

On August 27, approximately 36% of the in-patients in Tennessee included children below 12 years of age, CDC data reported. According to Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey, the state had 14,000 pediatric cases in the last seven days, a 57% increase over the previous week. Similarly, South Carolina reported a 13% increase, since 2020, in the admission of patients below the age of 20. On August 25, Wolfson's Children Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida admitted 15 children with COVID.

The current developments have led the US State officials to strengthen masking mandates in school premises. On August 18, US President Joe Biden ordered the State Education Department to take legal actions against Governors opposing mask mandates in schools.

"Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning," Biden said in a statement.

Some schools have also refrained from opting for safety measures by barring face masks for authorities too, AP quoted Biden as saying. Biden directed State Education Department secretary Miguel Cardona to "access all available tools" to be used against all states aiming to flout mandatory rules and risk students amidst surging Coronavirus cases.

Following the announcement, the State Education Department took to Twitter to draft a "Return to School Roadmap" that enlisted all the rules deemed mandatory for the state public schools. "As communities prepare for safe in-person learning and welcome students back to physical classrooms for the 2021-2022 academic year, there are key steps that all school leaders can take to help school communities remain safe and healthy," it mentioned.

US Covid map

As per CDC data, the US is recording an average of 1,100 Covid-related deaths per day. The new infections rates are averaging around 1,52,000 cases. As of August 27, the nation reported 1,92,720 cases, taking the overall tally to 3.87 crores. It is noteworthy that among the 6 lakh COVID-related deaths in the country, fewer than 500 were kids under 18.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP/PIXABAY/representative
In a world-exclusive interview with Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, John Bolton, the former US National Security Advisor (NSA) in Donald Trump Administration, criticised US President Joe Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also said that Pentagon is in a difficult position due to the Taliban's rapid takeover of the war-torn country. He also spoke on Pakistan's role in spreading terrorism, making deeply telling observations on India's neighbour.

'Wouldn't trust Taliban in any matter'

When asked about the present approach of the US government to deal with the Afghanistan situation, John Bolton told Arnab Goswami, "I wouldn't trust Taliban in any matter, great or small or I would give them any assistance. What Biden is worried about is the Taliban will not comply with the commitment that was made in a poorly negotiated peace agreement, that they will not give sanctuary to ISIS or anybody else... If there is another terror attack in the US that comes out of Afghanistan his (Biden) political future is over and his party will suffer greatly and should suffer due to the danger they have presented it to the United States."

#USActNow | The truth of Pakistan laid bare on The Debate with Arnab by John Bolton, former US NSA in the Trump administration https://t.co/3AdouRdizw pic.twitter.com/70BeaTRMQD  Republic (@republic) August 27, 2021

He said that the execution of the withdrawal of the US troops has been "badly bungled" by the Joe Biden administration. "The inability to see Taliban coming to power very quickly has left the Pentagon in a very difficult position," Bolton said.

The former US NSA said that terror organisations all around the world have taken heart from America's departure from Afghanistan. "Whether Pakistan or Iran, America and allies need to take great precautions against further terror threats," he said.

Bolton, who held the NSA office till September 2019, further stated that the US government has made a mistake by sharing intelligence and a list of those associated with the US forces with the Taliban, "which can be quite dangerous for us and our friends."

'Should have acted against Pakistan'

On Pakistan's role, the former US NSA said, "For many years after 9/11, notwithstanding our understanding of Pakistan developing nukes, or our fear that Pakistan terrorists would come to control them, we've gritted our teeth and tried to deal with Pakistan on an equal footing."

#USActNow | Watch Arnab Goswami's full interview with the former US NSA in the Donald Trump administration, John Bolton, here - https://t.co/AiGNyHfYYT pic.twitter.com/d4Ft3xNBUT  Republic (@republic) August 27, 2021

He further said that his administration should have acted against Pakistan for nurturing terrorism. "An expert on Pakistan once said that they were the only government he knew that consisted simultaneously of arsonists and firefighters and I think now the US has to put it to Pakistan very directly- either we see an end to this terrorism or we are gonna have a very different relationship," John Bolton said.
The Pentagon informed, on Friday, that around 5,400 people were at the Hamiz Karzai International Airport in Kabul awaiting planes out of Afghanistan, a day after an explosion rocked Kabul.

"There are still approx 5,400 individuals at the airport awaiting flights out of Afghanistan. We have the ability to include evacuees on the US military airlift out of Afghanistan... ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing this mission," US Army Major General William 'Hank' Taylor said at a press briefing.

From 3 AM ET to 3 PM ET on August 27, a total of approximately 4,200 people were evacuated from Kabul. 12 US military flights carried approximately 2,100 evacuees, and 29 coalition flights carried approximately 2,100 people.  The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2021

5,400 People Still Inside Kabul Airport Awaiting Evacuation

According to the latest White House numbers, at least 4,200 people were evacuated from Kabul in a 12-hour period on Friday (local time). The US has assisted in the evacuation of about 109,200 civilians from Afghanistan since August 14, according to the White House.

The US claimed it has evacuated at least 7,500 people from Afghanistan in the 12 hours after gunmen and two suicide bombers targeted throngs of Afghans swarming to Kabul's airport on Thursday. The White House announcement came just hours after the attackers killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US soldiers. "From August 26 at 3:00 AM EDT to August 26 at 3:00 PM EDT, a total of nearly 7,500 people were evacuated from the war-torn country. This is the result of 14 US army flights (13 C-17s and 1 C-130) which carried approximately 5,100 evacuees and 39 coalition flights which carried 2,400 people," stated a White House official.

Bombings kill at least 95 Afghans, 13 US troops

According to American and Afghan officials, blasts near Kabul's international airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 US servicemen on Thursday. August 26 was also the hardest day for US troops since August 2011. On Friday, officials also stated that the expense of the incidents could be far greater. Joe Biden blamed the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, which is often thought to be more extremist than Taliban fighters, in an emotionally charged speech. Despite mounting pressure to extend the deadline until Tuesday, he committed to ensuring Afghans' safety.

(with inputs from AP)

Picture Credit: AP/ANI
COVID-19 has been spread by an elementary school teacher to at least 26 people. According to the News & Observer, in May, an unvaccinated elementary school teacher in Marin County, California returned to work despite nasal congestion and exhaustion, assuming the symptoms were due to allergies. Despite a school-wide mandate to wear a mask indoors, the teacher continued to work for two days, occasionally reading aloud to their 24 children without a mask.

18 students, 4 parents and 4 student's siblings were infected

A test revealed that the teacher was infected with COVID-19. Only two days later, allegations of more cases involving other school employees, children, parents, and siblings began to circulate. According to research released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 26 persons were sick, including 12 of the teacher's students, six more children in a different grade, four parents, and four siblings of affected students.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the concerned teacher was both symptomatic and unvaccinated and was unmasked when reading aloud to the class. She also said that kids were all too young to be vaccinated. According to The Business Insider, the CDC relied on viral genome sequencing to determine that the instances were most likely connected. The Delta variant was found in all COVID-19 patients during the outbreak.

The Business Insider revealed that the CDC created a classroom map that depicted the preventative steps that had been implemented. Students' desks were set 6 feet apart, windows and doors were left open to allow for sufficient circulation, and an air filter was placed at the front of the class. The study also suggests that students who sat closest to the infected teacher's desk were more likely to contract the virus.

"Masking is critical for ensuring a safe classroom instruction"

According to the CDC, the outbreak emphasises the need for vaccination among school staff members who work closely with younger students who have not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as other preventive measures such as proper masking, routine testing, adequate ventilation, and staying home when sick. The findings also show how transmissible the delta variant is. According to News & Observer, the CDC stated that the vaccines are effective against the delta variant, but transmission risk among unvaccinated persons in schools remains increased. Along with vaccination, strict actions such as masking is critical for ensuring safe classroom instruction.

Image- @Taylor Wilcox/ Unsplash
Two more persons have been arrested for crime related to 6 January US Capitol riot, United States Department of Justice (DOJ) informed on 27 August, on Friday. The arrested men are said to be natives of Maryland and Florida. The men were charged with "assault, civil disorder, and disorderly conduct," the Justice Department said in a statement.

"A Maryland man was arrested yesterday and the Florida man was arrested today for crimes related to breach of the US Capitol on 6 January," the US Justice Department

Uliyahu Hayah from Maryland was arrested for "assault and civil disorder." As reported by ANI, Hayah had pushed an officer into a crowd of people. On the other hand, a Florida resident Robert Fairchild Jr. was detained for assaulting an officer and "disorderly conduct," the DOJ statement added. The accused men participated in the US Capitol breach that "disrupted a joint session of the US Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential elections."

Hayah heckled the on-duty police officer shortly after another US Capitol cop shot dead unarmed protestor, Ashli Babbitt. On the other hand, Fairchild manhandled the security gate and attempted to push through the barriers with a mob. Both the men were presented before the court on Friday afternoon, ANI reported.

A total of 588 people present at the US Capitol on 6 January have been booked for "unlawful authority" in the Capitol building, "disruptive conduct, parade, and demonstrations" in federal property. Additionally, few protestors like Benjamen Scott Burlew from Oklahoma were charged with "assault in maritime and territorial jurisdiction and an act of physical violence on restricted grounds."

The US Capitol breach

On 6 January, 2021, over 500 sympathisers of Republican President Donald Trump attacked the United States Capitol in Washington DC. They sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020 Presidential elections by disrupting the joint session of the Congress assembled to determine the electoral votes. The said vote count officially formalised incumbent President Joe Biden's win. The rioters infringed the federal complex and vandalised the building for several hours. Since the attack, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a probe into the matter. As many as 588 people have been booked and 570 have been arrested so far.

(With inputs from AP and ANI)

(Image: AP)
In a significant development, the US Intelligence community has revealed the latest finding on the origin of COVID. The American Intelligence community has said that they did not find any concrete information that supports the exact origin of COVID from China, and the IC also revealed that they were not certain about whether the virus emerged in nature. The intelligence community of the US has also discarded the theory of COVID as a biological weapon, said US President Joe Biden after reviewing the results.

The US Intelligence agencies failed to find COVID origins

It is pertinent to mention here that the Director of National Intelligence handed over the research report to Biden, in which they mentioned that COVID probably emerged on a small scale during November 2019, and the first case was reported in Wuhan in December 2019. However, the intelligence community did not come to any conclusion on the origin of the deadly coronavirus, but it was certain that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon, whereas many other entities felt otherwise. Meanwhile, some agencies said that there was not enough evidence to assess the origin of the virus. The names of the intelligence agencies were not mentioned in the report.

Moreover, the report also said that China had no prior knowledge of the outbreak of COVID. On the other hand, after examining the report, the US President said, his administration will do everything under their power to find out about this outbreak that has wreaked havoc upon the whole world. Biden said his administration will continue the investigation so that every necessary precaution can be taken to prevent it from affecting more people. Moreover, the Chinese government has also worked to prevent international investigations and members of the health community from accessing it, he added. Even after 18 months of the pandemic, China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, Biden alleged.

Earlier, the WHO team, which visited China, concluded their results by saying the deadly disease began in the animal market of Wuhan. The conclusion was rejected by many researchers. The research led by the Intelligence community of the US was initiated by Biden. In May, this year, he had asked the community to assess the data and produce a report that could bring any definitive conclusion regarding COVID origins.

What did the US intelligence agencies observe?

After the investigation, the National Intelligence Council said the SARS-CoV-2 virus was probably caused by a natural exposer to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus-a virus that would be 99 per cent similar to SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, one IC element noted that the first cases of COVID in humans were likely associated with the Wuhan lab incident, which probably emerged either during experimentation, animal handling, or sampling at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The intelligence community did not reach any definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the virus. While three IC elements said the virus originated naturally, some favored the Wuhan lab theory and some supported both the hypotheses. Meanwhile, China reacted to the report and said the US intelligence community's report was not scientific and the US was showing a lack of transparency, as the Biden-led government only wanted to politicize and stigmatize the issue.



IMAGE: AP/PIXABAY

(With PTI Inputs)
Following a step taken as a parental measure, a Michigan couple was ordered to pay their son a hefty sum. A surprising decision taken by US District Court Judge Paul Maloney required David Werking's parents to pay a cumulative sum of $30,441, including attorney's fees, as compensation for throwing away their son's pornography collection.

Parents fined for throwing away son's porn collection

About eight months ago, Werking (45) filed a lawsuit against his parents claiming that they had no right to throw away his collection that included "films, magazines, and other items." The incident took place when Werking lived with his parents for 10 months in Grand Haven before moving out to Muncie, Indiana. As per a report by AP, David's father "got rid of" the "stuff" after he moved out of his parent's home. According to emails between Werking and his father, the collection included 1,605 individuals titles of DVDs and VHS tapes, AP reported citing a Holland Sentinel report. The disposed of belongings were worth $29,000, David claimed.

Frankly, David, I did you a big favor getting rid of all this stuff," David's dad said in an email.

As per reports, Werking's parents trashed his pornographic belongings since they were uncomfortable with transporting them or having those in their home. David realised his property was missing after he moved to Indiana.

Werking's parents should pay $14,500 to their son's attorney

"Defendants repeatedly admitted that they destroyed the property," Judge Maloney

As per a report by MLive.com, Judge Maloney decided the fine based on the estimations filed in the lawsuit. He also informed that the defendants "repeatedly" pleaded guilty to destroying the plaintiff's property during the trial. The parents had no legal right to "destroy property that they dislike," Judge Maloney said in this statement. Lastly, Judge Maloney also asked the defendants to bear the cost of their son's attorney.

With inputs from AP

Image: Unsplash/representative
At least three people have died since last week, including a elderly man who described being tortured.

More than three dozen civilians have died after being interrogated by the junta since Myanmars military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup detat, including an elderly man who told fellow villagers about how he was brutally tortured before succumbing to his injuries last week.

According to reporting by RFAs Myanmar Service, at least 41 people who have been questioned as suspects by the authorities have died in detention centers, police prisons, and jails within a few days of their arrest.

At least two people died last week following interrogations, sources told RFA, including a 72-year-old man named Kan Htauk from Hnan Khar village in Magwe regions Gangaw township and a 30-year-old man named Thet Naing Oo from Kyauk Kan village in Mandalay regions Myingyan district. A third, 27-year-old Thet Naing Soe of Sagaing regions Monywa township, died sometime after his arrest on Tuesday.

The military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, claiming that a landslide victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the countrys November 2020 general election was the result of voter fraud.

It has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed widespread protests, killing 1,023 people and arresting 5,975 since the coup, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmars periphery.

On Aug. 18, a military convoy of 40 vehicles was ambushed with mines planted by members of a branch of the PDF in Gangaw township. That evening, soldiers entered nearby Hnan Khar village and set up a temporary camp. As troops arrived, every able-bodied adult in the village fled their home, leaving only Kan Htauk behind due to his old age and poor health, residents told RFA.

Kan Htauk was taken into custody and severely tortured by the soldiers, he told his fellow villagers after escaping from detention on Aug. 21 and rejoining them, mere hours before his death.

They asked me if I knew any members of [the PDF], he said in a testimony that was recorded on video.

I said I didnt know, so they kicked me repeatedly. They also pulled my hair and punched my face. I covered my eyes with hands to protect myself.

Kan Htauk passed away from his injuries the same evening.

Htet Ko Oo seen at a protest in a photo posted to his Facebook page and in his arrest photo (inset), published by the official Myawaddy newspaper. Htet Ko Oo's Facebook page and Myawaddy newspaper Mandalay death

Thet Naing Oo was arrested by junta forces on Aug. 18 in front of the school in his village of Kyauk Kan, where junta troops and paramilitary forces had been stationed, a resident told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing a fear of reprisal.

His body was sent to the village cemetery less than 24 hours later, the resident said, noting that friends and family discovered severe injuries to his face and head when they went to collect it.

He had several injuries from torture in detention, the resident said.

He is a father of three. He was arrested for riding a motorbike too fast. There was no other reason for his arrest.

Other residents of the village told RFA they could not understand why the military would have arrested and tortured a regular civilian like Thet Naing Oo.

Told to retrieve body

Thet Naing Soe, an air conditioner repairman in Monywa township, was arrested by the military on Aug. 24, reportedly in Yadanarbon ward, although his family was never informed why or where he was taken.

His mother, who he lived with, along with his two elder sisters, told RFA that his family was notified about his death at 2:00 a.m. the following day and told to retrieve his body.

There were brown spots on his cheeks that looked like cigarette burns, she said.

There were also bruises on his neck. It seemed he was beaten on the back of his neck. There was a bit of blood in his ears and there were bruises on his hands that indicated they had been tied with a rope.

Thet Naing Soes mother said the family buried him shortly afterwards at Myoma Cemetery in Monywa.

A member of Thukahita Funeral Services and Blood Donors Association, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had sent Thet Naing Soes body to Monywa General Hospital, wrapped up on the pretext that he had died of COVID-19a common claim made by authorities after someone dies in custody.

The body of Kan Htauk lies at his home after he death from injuries he received during an interrogation by military authorities, Aug. 21, 2021. Citizen journalist Seeking accountability

Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister for Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG), said the truth must be uncovered about what happened to the 41 people who have died after being interrogated by the military.

We are going to set up a mechanism to investigate and prosecute the crimes from the past, he said.

We have been submitting the cases of the deaths from military torture and arrest of children to the U.N. Human Rights Council. We will have to work together to bring down the junta to stop these crimes.

Aung Myo Min said the NUG hopes that evidence of the abuses will lead to serious repercussions for the military during the upcoming 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.

According to RFAs reporting, civilians who have died in a matter of days or hours after detention include members of the NLD party from Shwe Pyi Thar and Pabaedan townships and the capital Naypyidaw, poet Khet Thi from Sagaing region, and others from Yangon region, Bago region, Mandalay region, Sagaing region and Magwe region.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that the United States is putting diplomacy first in efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, but if that fails Washington is ready to turn to other options.



Biden made the comments as the two sat down at the White House on August 27 for their first face-to-face meeting since Bennett was sworn in as prime minister in June.



The meeting, originally scheduled for August 26, was postponed by one day as Biden focused his attention on the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 100 Afghans.



Asked what other options Biden might be mulling if diplomacy to revive the nuclear deal fails, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment.



Bennett arrived at the White House aiming to dissuade Biden from returning the United States to the deal between Iran and world powers that was brokered in 2015 and scrapped in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump.



Bennett, the right-wing leader of a highly fragmented coalition government, expressed satisfaction that he and Biden are in agreement that Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.



I was happy to hear your clear words, that Iran will never be able to have a nuclear weapon, and you emphasized that we will try the diplomatic way but that theres other options that will work out, Bennett said.



But the two leaders political positions on whether to rejuvenate the nuclear agreement likely will remain at odds.



Biden has made clear that he wants to find a way to salvage the 2015 landmark pact, but indirect talks between the United States and Iran have stalled, and Washington continues to maintain crippling sanctions on the country.



Bennett said granting Iran sanctions relief would give Iran more resources to support Israels enemies in the region.



Since the U.S. withdrawal from the accord, Tehran has abandoned several limitations on its nuclear enrichment.



Iran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.



Bennett's Washington visit comes weeks after Ebrahim Raisi was sworn in as Irans new president.



Raisi, 60, a conservative cleric with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has suggested he'll engage with the United States. But he has ruled out negotiations aimed at limiting Iranian missile development and support for regional militias -- matters that the Biden administration wants to address in a new accord.



Biden and Bennett also differ over the creation of a Palestinian state, but played down the differences. Bennett opposes it and supports expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Biden supports a two-state solution and opposes expansion of settlements.

With reporting by AFP and dpa
The situation in Afghanistan overshadowed a summit in Baghdad of key regional leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron, who vowed his country would stand firm in Iraq.



"Given the geopolitical events, this conference has taken a special turn," Macron said at the summit on August 28.



The summit came two days after the Islamic State-Khorasan claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a gate to Kabuls airport that killed scores of people, including 13 members of the U.S. military.



Macron said Islamic State (IS) remains a threat and, "We all know that we must not lower our guard.



He said France would continue to deploy troops in Iraq to battle terrorism even if the United States were to withdraw.



"No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism," Macron told a news conference in Baghdad.



Macron met earlier with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who described Iraq and France as "key partners in the war against terrorism."



Macron and al-Kadhemi want to reduce regional tension by fostering dialogue, including on security, a French presidential source was quoted as saying by Reuters. "The aim is to initiate something here and to continue [it] after this conference," the source said.



Iraq has been seeking to play a "unifying role" to tackle crises shaking the region, sources close to al-Kadhemi have said.



Earlier this year, the country hosted several rounds of direct talks between archenemies Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials.

Iran and Saudi Arabia were represented at the Baghdad summit by their foreign ministers. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordans King Abdullah II also attended the summit along with the rulers of Qatar, Dubai, and Kuwait.



Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian met his counterparts from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, officials from the two Gulf Arab states said but provided no further details.



There was no indication of any direct meetings between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but Iraq said the talks between the two countries, which began in April, were continuing.



The Kabul suicide blast came during the final days of US-led evacuations from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country earlier this month.



France has held preliminary discussions with the Taliban about the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and the possible evacuation of more people from the country, Macron said.



He said France was also discussing with Qatar how it might reestablish a pathway for Afghan evacuations.



U.S. militarys evacuation due to conclude by August 31, a deadline set by President Joe Biden.



The French government has finished its evacuation operation but will continue to help those who needed protection to leave Afghanistan.



Macron also met separately with Qatar's emir on a possible role for Doha, which has good contacts with Taliban, in organizing further evacuations beyond an August 31 deadline set by Washington.



France was part of a U.S.-led coalition established to battle IS after it announced a "caliphate" in territory seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014. It has around 800 troops deployed in Iraq.



Baghdad declared IS territorially defeated in December 2017, but the group still retains sleeper cells and continues to claim responsibility for attacks.



Washington currently has 2,500 troops deployed in Iraq.



President Joe Biden said in July that U.S. combat operations in Iraq would end this year, but said soldiers would continue to train, advise, and support Iraq's military in the fight against IS.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, and IRNA
Latvian President Egils Levits says the international community is doing all it can to support the Belarusian people and punish the regime in Minsk following a presidential election in August 2020 that is widely considered to have been fraudulent. But Levits says changing the regime of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka is ultimately up to Belarusians. Levits spoke to RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on August 23 on the sidelines of an International Crimean Platform Summit.
Moldovas pro-Western president led the country in celebrating three decades of independence from Soviet rule, vowing to build a prosperous and free Moldova.



Moldova is Europe's poorest state and has struggled with rampant corruption and a mass exodus of workers since gaining independence from the Soviet Union on August 27, 1991.



"The main goal now is to bring home Moldovan citizens who were forced to leave in search of a better life," Sandu said at a ceremony in the capital, Chisinau.



About 1 million of a total of 3.5 million Moldovans live abroad, mainly in the European Union.



Sandu, a Harvard-educated economist, has promised to tackle corruption, boost the economy, and chart a pro-European course.



She defeated her Moscow-backed predecessor, Igor Dodon, in a presidential election in November and called a snap election in July to consolidate power in parliament to pursue a reformist agenda.



The 49-year-old told RFE/RL earlier this month that Moldova wants its relations with Russia to be based on pragmatism, but called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the breakaway Transdniester region.



Some 1,400 Russian troops are still stationed in Transdniester, which declared independence from Moldova in 1990, ostensibly to protect Soviet-era arms depots.



The anniversary event was attended by her presidential counterparts from the region: Romanias Klaus Iohannis, Polands Andrzej Duda, and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy.



Iohannis said he supports Moldovas process of reform and European integration.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa
Andrei Pivovarov is perhaps the most atypical candidate in Russias already atypical election.

Since his arrest on a Warsaw-bound plane preparing for takeoff on the tarmac of the St. Petersburg airport in May, the opposition activist has been campaigning for Septembers parliamentary elections from his cell in a Moscow remand prison as he awaits trial on charges of involvement with an undesirable organization.

Many government critics across Russia have been excluded from participating in the upcoming vote -- scheduled for September 17-19 -- because of their affiliation with groups the government has declared enemies of the state. Only Pivovarov is still seeking a seat in the State Duma -- the lower chamber of Russia's parliament -- despite being behind bars.

The time has come for people and ideas, and not flags, he told Current Time in an interview just days before his arrest on May 31, referring to the many political groups with recognizable symbols -- including the Open Russia organization that he ran -- forced to close in recent weeks. But the flags will return when the situation improves.

Few Russian activists downplay the severity of the current political crackdown, which most experts connect to the elections and the low rating of ruling party United Russia. Many are under house arrest or have fled the country fearing politically motivated prosecution. Putins most prominent opponent, Aleksei Navalny, is in prison, and charismatic politicians like former State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov are in exile.

But for Pivovarov and the few genuine opposition activists who have made it onto the ballot despite the states repression, the challenges involved in garnering exposure and public support often appear insurmountable.

On August 25, Pivovarovs team opened a campaign office in central Moscow and now plans another in the southern city of Krasnodar, where Pivovarov is on the list of the liberal Yabloko party. But his campaign managers say it took a long time to find a landlord willing to host an opposition campaign office and that every Moscow printer they have approached for help producing promotional materials has declined.

This is all self-censorship, the team said in a post on the messaging app Telegram. The authorities have spooked entrepreneurs to such an extent that theyre afraid theyll lose their businesses just for printing the election materials of an independent candidate.

Some candidates have faced an ingenious, but familiar, tactic used to siphon votes away from their campaigns: rival candidates boasting exactly the same first and last names, who sometimes changed their official documents specifically to run in the election as spoiler candidates.

"This is the only way these crooks can fight against me," Boris Vishnevsky, a popular opposition candidate, said in reaction to the news that he was facing two namesakes in his St Petersburg district.

Limited funds are another problem.

In the capital, feminist activist Alyona Popova is hoping to continue the campaign began by outgoing lawmaker Oksana Pushkina to introduce Russias first law on domestic violence, relying on a large social-media following and her record of aiding female victims to boost her chances.

But she says her inability to raise sufficient funds to counter her pro-Kremlin opponent -- bearded, potbellied television pundit Anatoly Vasserman -- is the biggest thing standing in the way of expanding her reach. Still, she remains optimistic.

I think that our general agenda of fighting obscurantism is working well, she told RFE/RLs Russian Service.

Lev Shlosberg, an opposition candidate in Pskov who was barred from the elections and from seeking reelection to his seat in the Pskov regional legislature, told RFE/RLs Russian Service in an interview that a vote for United Russia -- the pro-Putin ruling party that has slumped in polls -- is a "vote for wars."

The elections on September 19, 2021, are a referendum on war and peace. If you want war, vote for the party of war, he said, citing United Russias support for Moscows interventions in international conflicts like the one in parts of eastern Ukraine or in Syria.

The tools wielded against individual candidates have coincided with a broader legislative push aimed at restricting the ability of activists and journalists to shed light on corruption and election fraud. The authorities have revised the country's election laws at least 19 times since the previous parliamentary vote in 2016, according to election monitor Golos, which was declared a foreign agent last week.

Political analyst Maria Snegovaya called the figure mind-blowing.

"We have never seen anything like it before, even taking into account that our previous elections could hardly be called free and honest, she told RFE/RLs Russian Service.

Besides the sticks wielded by the state, theyre also battling to win over public opinion with populist incentives. On August 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for one-off cash payments to Russian pensioners and military personnel, in a move that was quickly slammed by critics as a preelection ploy to secure more votes for the deeply unpopular United Russia party.

And yet, despite the cards stacked against them in a way more debilitating than in perhaps any other election in modern Russia, the candidates challenging the states monopoly on power are forging ahead with their political fight.

In a recent open letter to Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova, published on a website dedicated to his case, Pivovarov called himself an "unusual" candidate and asked that Pamfilova back his request to be released on bail.

As a person who has long defended human rights, he wrote to Pamfilova, a former liberal activist in her own right, "you know that persecuting someone for their views is unacceptable. But they want to convict me precisely for that -- and for the desire to participate in the elections.

Pivovarov, whose now defunct Open Russia group was financed by tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, noted that numerous public figures had spoken out in his defense, and that many have demanded his release.

But perhaps its your voice that the court will deem decisive, he wrote to Pamfilova. Lets at least in part give people back their trust in justice.

Tatiana Usmanova, his campaign manager, says he has received no official response.
MOUNT GILEAD -- A Bellville woman died Wednesday after last week's truck-buggy crash, according to the Mount Gilead Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

In a press release issued Friday night, the Patrol reported Esther R. Wengerd, 52, succumbed to her injuries after the incident which took place on Thursday, Aug. 19 at 8:20 a.m. The crash occurred on State Route 314 at County Road 14 in Franklin Township.

According to the Patrol, Gary L. Pettet, 55, of Newark, was operating a 1996 Mack CH Semi-tractor southbound on State Route 314. Enos A. Wengerd, 54, of Bellville, was operating a horse-drawn buggy southbound on State Route 314. Mr. Wengerd was turning left onto County Road 14 as Pettet was passing in the intersection. The buggy was struck and both vehicles continued off the east side of the roadway.

Along with the Wengerds, the buggy was also occupied by two juveniles. All occupants of the buggy were transported to Ohio Health Mansfield. Mr. Wengerd and the juveniles sustained minor injuries, the Patrol stated. Pettet was not injured.

Alcohol and drugs are not suspected factors in this crash.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted on scene by Morrow County EMS, Johnsville Fire Department, and the Morrow County Sheriff's Office.

The traffic crash remains under investigation by the Mount Gilead Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
COLUMBUS  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) issued separate statements on the death of an Ohioan as part of the situation in Afghanistan.

Navy Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak was killed in Afghanistan earlier this week.

Jane and I are heartbroken by the death of Max Soviak, a Navy Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman from Berlin Heights, who lost his life in the service of his country," Portman said. "He was a hero who died serving with his Marine brothers helping to save fellow countrymen and our Afghan allies. We mourn his loss and are praying for his family and friends.

In accordance with the order issued by the President of the United States of America and in honoring the lives of the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, DeWine issued a flag lowering order directing all U.S. and Ohio flags be flown at half-staff upon all public buildings and grounds throughout the state until sunset on Aug. 30, 2021.

I have heard the very sad news coming out of Afghanistan today and want to express on behalf of all Ohioans our deepest sympathy to the service men and women and the families of the injured and those who have lost their lives," DeWine stated. "This is a terrible tragedy.

I was in the U.S. Senate when the Afghan War began. I sadly attended a number of funerals and calling hours for service men and women who were killed there and in Iraq. Over the last few days, as we have watched the very sad and disturbing news out of Afghanistan, I have been thinking about the mothers and fathers and spouses of those who lost their lives and how those families must feel. I have also thought about and talked to several of those who served and those who were wounded. To those families and to the veterans, I want to say thank you. We owe you a lot," the governor said.

At a time when we first went into Afghanistan, it was used as the place in the world where terrorists could gather and find safe harbor. We made the decision to go in there right after 9-11. The fact that we are safe in the U.S. is direct result of what they did. I want those families to understand that. We thank them and we thank the men and women who came home. What you did made a difference.

Mansfield native Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) also offered his condolences.

Max Soviak, a Navy Fleet Marine Force Hospital Corpsman from Berlin Heights, died a hero serving his country and working to save the lives of those fleeing imminent danger," Brown said. "My thoughts are with his family, who received the hardest news any parent can hear.

"May the lives he worked to save be a comfort to all who knew and loved him. His selflessness and heroism will be his legacy.
ONTARIO  The Ohio State Highway Patrol, in conjunction with Ontario Police Department, announced Saturday morning that an OVI checkpoint will be conducted starting at 8 p.m. on Aug. 28 at 4th Street, in Ontario.

The OVI checkpoint, funded by federal grant funds, is planned to deter and intercept impaired drivers.

"Based on provisional data, there were 637 OVI-related fatal crashes in which 685 people were killed last year in Ohio," S/Lt. Michael Vinson, Assistant Commander of the Bucyrus District, said. State troopers make on average 25,000 OVI arrests each year in an attempt to combat these dangerous drivers. OVI checkpoints are designed to not only deter impaired driving but to proactively remove these dangerous drivers from our roadways.

The checkpoint will also be held in conjunction with nearby saturation patrols to aggressively combat impaired driver-related injury and fatal crashes.

If you plan to consume alcohol, designate a driver or make other travel arrangements before you drink. Dont let another life be lost for the senseless and selfish act of getting behind the wheel impaired.
Written By

Joe Schulz served as the reporter of the Green Laker in 2019 and 2020, before being hired as a reporter for the Commonwealth in October 2020. He is from Oshkosh and graduated from UW-Oshkosh in December with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

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Rocky Mount, NC (27804)

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Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 66F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Low 66F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
Roanoke Rapids, NC (27870)

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Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Low 62F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

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Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Low 62F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
Rutland, VT (05701)

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Rain likely. Low 54F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

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Danvers, MA (01923)

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Windy with periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 59F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected..

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Windy with periods of rain. The rain will be heavy at times. Low 59F. Winds NE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. was the anchor tenant at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon when it opened in 1969. Its presence there helped the shopping mall to become the citys largest retail center.

But after a half-century at the corner of Fletcher Parkway and Johnson Avenue, Sears will be shutting its doors for good this summer. It is one of hundreds of Sears stores facing closure nationwide as the company struggles with declining revenues, unable to compete with online sales and a growing list of competitors.

The 250,000-square-foot department store chain will shutter in July, putting 104 employees out of work. Some of them have asked to be transferred to other Sears stores; others are retiring. The automotive center closes this Saturday.

Some locals are already rueing the day Sears shutters its doors.

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Oh no! Alpine resident Kathy Downs wrote on Facebook when she heard the news. I also remember when it opened. Largest Sears store west of the Mississippi. I still have the sewing machine I bought there. And now where will we get our Diehard batteries?

La Mesa resident Charlie Wells wrote on Facebook: I remember when it opened! The only building on that whole property, I think. A great store.

Sears closures around the country show some of the changes in peoples shopping habits over the decades.

San Diegan John Gastaldo said he went to Sears a few months ago for a part and found few folks inside.

Can you say Ghost Town? he said.

El Cajon resident Yvonne Hernandez said she has had work on her car done at the auto center, but never shopped inside the store.

Lake Morena resident Bob Scheid said his grandfather worked for Sears Corp. in Illinois and his sister still has his toolbox with the Sears Roebuck & Co. logo stamped on it.

So sad, he said. (Sears) was once a great American brand.

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Longtime Sears employee and store manager Gary Nordstrom, now retired, stands at one of the doors of the El Cajon Sears, which will close in July. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Closing day tugs at the heart of Gary Nordstrom, who worked at the Sears in El Cajon at two different points before he retired in 2002. Nordstrom also managed several other Sears stores during a 35-year career with the company.

He said one of the things that stands out for him about the El Cajon store is that employees there were always encouraged to be part of the community. Several volunteered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of East County; others were part of the local Big Brothers program.

He said one of his more memorable moments at the store happened on a busy Sunday afternoon in 1982.

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I was up on the sales floor when all of a sudden, the El Cajon Fire Department came rushing in all the doors in full regalia, Nordstrom said. It turned out that some young child had pulled the fire alarm. Every fire truck it seemed pulled up. All the customers bailed out they got so scared. And the rest of the day, we had no one in the store. I think they were all scared off.

Nordstrom, who grew up in Mission Hills and still lives there, finished his career as a manager of the Chula Vista Sears. The Chula Vista store, along with the Sears stores in Carlsbad and Escondido, appear to be remaining open. Sears closed its doors last year at Westfield University Towne Centre. Before then, the last Sears to close in San Diego County was the Hillcrest store at Cleveland and University avenues in 1986.

The El Cajon Sears opened as a free-standing store on the western side of the property along Fletcher Parkway. The rest of the shopping center opened in 1972 as the first enclosed and air-conditioned shopping complex in San Diego County. Parkway Plaza is the largest center for retail sales in El Cajon.

The property Sears and its parking lot sit on and some points beyond once was home to a large vineyard belonging to Josephus Asher. According to El Cajon historian Eldonna Lay, Ashers raisins won first prize in Chicagos 1892 Worlds Columbian Exposition.

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Sears owns the building and parking lot in front of the store, and is a separate retail entity than Parkway Plaza. In 2013, Westfield Properties, Parkway Plazas longtime owners, sold it to Chicago-based Starwood Retail Partners.

El Cajon City Manager Doug Williford said that most Sears stores, including the Parkway Plaza store, were acquired by Seritage, a property development corporation and real estate investment trust. The trust was started in 2015 by Sears CEO Eddie Lampert as a way to execute sale and lease-back agreements for Sears and Kmart stores nationwide. Kmart bought Sears in 2005.

Gary Nordstrom recalls some stories about his co-workers when he worked at Sears in El Cajon. The store is closing in July. (Karen Pearlman/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Williford said the city has known for some time that Sears was planning to reduce the size of the store, and had been discussing new tenants moving in. A few months ago, Seritage gave the city a tentative proposal to change the Parkway Plaza specific plan, looking to add four retail/restaurant areas in the parking lots along North Johnson Avenue.

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The proposal did not include project elevations nor possible tenants. City staff said it appeared as though the plan was for drive-thru businesses at Fletcher Parkway and Johnson Avenue, the busiest intersection in El Cajon. City planners have not been on board with that Seritage idea.

They have suggested an alternative design focusing on new retail space at the corner of Fletcher Parkway and Johnson Avenue with a connecting pathway to the building. El Cajon staff is working to see that whatever stores move in are integrated with the mall in style and architecture. Seritage is expected to submit an application for new retail buildings at the corner in the next few months.

In the not-too-distant future, well be going to the City Council with a master plan for the work, Williford said.

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karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.com
Hundreds of thousands of Washington workers will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18. If theyre not, they could be fired.



Thats because of two mandates Gov. Jay Inslee issued in response to surging cases and hospitalizations across Washington, fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.



The first mandate, issued on Aug. 9, applies to most state employees and thousands of health care workers in the private sector. The second mandate, issued on Aug. 18, applies to thousands of employees in the states K-12 schools, universities and colleges, and childcare centers.



Washington is currently averaging more than 3,000 new cases a day and health officials say hospitalizations have reached an all-time high. The Delta variant is particularly dangerous to the unvaccinated. At a Wednesday news briefing, state Secretary of Health Umair Shah said 95% of those now in Washington hospitals with COVID were not vaccinated when they were admitted.



The only way workers can avoid being vaccinated without being fired is to receive a medical or religious exemption. Personal or philosophical exemptions are not permitted under the mandates



Heres what we know about the medical and religious exemptions to Washingtons new COVID vaccine mandates.

Start by talking with your employer. The process for acquiring an exemption varies depending on where you work. It also depends on what type of exemption youre applying for.



For example, applicants seeking a religious exemption may be asked to fill out a form or answer a series of questions from a human resources representative. They may need to do both in some instances.



In an email, governor spokesperson Mike Faulk said the state will not back-check exemption applications, saying, we assume employers will do this correctly.

Do I qualify for a medical exemption?

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, people have a right to seek a medical exemption from a mandatory vaccine. However, there are no known medical conditions that absolutely prevent a person from getting a COVID-19 vaccine. What medical conditions do qualify vary by institution, and the decision will ultimately be left to your employer.



Below are a few conditions for which an employer may grant a medical exemption:



Vaccine allergies: A common ingredient in pharmaceutical products, Polyethylene glycols (PEG) are used as a stabilizing agent in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The substance comes in many forms, and a person may be allergic to one or multiple.

Someone who is allergic may experience anaphylaxis after receiving their shot, which can be fatal in a small percent of cases. This is why youre asked to wait 15 minutes before leaving a clinic after receiving a vaccine  youre being monitored for anaphylaxis. People have also been known to be allergic to polysorbate, which is a substance used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Health experts say such allergies are rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two to five people in 1 million have experienced anaphylaxis after receiving a COVID vaccine. That means youre only slightly more likely to experience anaphylaxis after getting a COVID shot than you are to be struck by lightning.



Cancer: Most people with cancer dont mount an immune response to vaccines. However, that does not mean vaccines are dangerous for them  there is no indication that theyre unsafe  it simply means the vaccines dont work well for them. This is why some health care providers have delayed administering COVID shots to cancer patients to a time when the vaccines may show more efficacy, such as between rounds of chemotherapy.



Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS): Some institutions provide exemptions for MIS, a rare but severe side effect of COVID more often found in children. The condition can inflame internal organs such as the heart and lungs.



Pregnancy: People who are pregnant have also been known to receive exemptions for mandatory vaccines in rare cases. However, current evidence suggests that COVID vaccines do not increase the risk of miscarriage or other complications.



Heres the takeaway: You may be able to have your doctor document that you should receive a medical exemption for whatever reason, but that in no way guarantees that your employer will grant it.

Do I qualify for a religious exemption?

People have a right to seek a religious exemption under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Washington Law Against Discrimination, which forbid prejudice against people based on their religious beliefs.



But this is a thorny issue. Advocates for the mandates have voiced concerns that people without strong religious convictions will seek a religious exemption to avoid getting a vaccine.



Not every employer will have the exact same approach, but its important that what they do stays in line with the law, said Faulk, the governors office spokesperson. An employee would be asked questions and the assumption is they are answering honestly.



Again, whether you qualify for a religious exemption depends on your employer. Different institutions have different methods for assessing the validity of your request.



For example, the state Department of Transportations religious exemption form asks two questions, which require a person to mark either yes or no. The first: You assert that you have a sincerely held religious belief or religious conviction that prevents you from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The second: You affirm/agree that you have never received a vaccine or medicine from a health care provider as an adult.



Theres a disclaimer below the questions that reads, In some circumstances, WSDOT will need to obtain additional follow-up information about your strongly held religious belief(s). WSDOT will reach out to you if additional information is needed to process this request.



Faulk told Q13 Fox that a persons answer to the second question would likely require follow-up, saying that if a person answered no, their employer might ask more questions to get a better understanding of that persons history and how their religious beliefs influence their choices. He said the state recognizes that religious beliefs change over time.



There is widespread agreement that most religions dont explicitly oppose vaccination  the Church of Christ, Scientist and the Dutch Reformed Church are the exceptions  but individual beliefs vary from person to person regardless of what religion they practice.

Many have said they object to getting vaccinated because cells derived from the tissue of aborted fetuses were used to test the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and such cells were used to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But many religious groups  most notably, the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention  have said that getting the vaccine is morally acceptable.

Why arent personal or philosophical exemptions allowed?

Such exemptions have historically been allowed for other mandatory vaccines, which are typically required for students entering school at the daycare, K-12 and university levels in Washington.



For example, personal and philosophical objections were allowed for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine until the state Legislature axed them amid a measles outbreak in Washington in 2019.



Faulk said that personal or philosophical exemptions are not protected by law, which is why they're not allowed under the mandate.



The governor did not want any additional exemptions beyond whats required under law, he said. Its important as many people as possible get vaccinated to keep their communities safe.
KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  Authorities arrested Congo's former public health minister, Dr. Eteni Longondo, late Friday following allegations he misappropriated more than $1 million in funds allocated by the World Bank to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Longondo, who has maintained his innocence, was taken to the central prison of Makala following an hours-long court proceeding in Kinshasa, according to Inspector General of Finance Jules Alingeti.

It was not immediately known what specific charges Longondo faced or whether he had retained a lawyer.

The alleged acts of mismanagement came to light during investigations carried out at the Ministry of Health and the Central Bank of Congo, Alingeti said.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Longondo had sharply denied the allegations, stating that there has never been any misappropriation of funds from Covid-19 at the Ministry of Health.

Longondo had been appointed as health minister in 2019 and managed the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Congo prior to being replaced in April.

Congo has seen more than 54,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 1,053 deaths, though those figures are widely considered to be a vast underestimate because testing remains limited.

Vaccination efforts also faltered when the country decided not to use donated AstraZenica vaccines because of concerns about whether it was linked to fatal blood clots. The campaign has since resumed, though misinformation and apprehension about COVID-19 vaccines remains high.

Health officials also have had to grapple with other serious health crises including a measles epidemic that killed more than 7,000 people between 2019 and August 2020, and an Ebola outbreak earlier this year in Butembo.

In 2019, police arrested another former public health minister accused of misappropriating funds. Oly Ilunga denied embezzling any funds during a previous Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo, but was sentenced to five years in prison and has vowed to appeal the verdict.

___

Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Florida school districts can legally require their students to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a judge ruled Friday, saying Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his authority when he issued an executive order banning such mandates.

Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper agreed with a group of parents who claimed in a lawsuit that DeSantis' order is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced. The governor's order gave parents the sole right to decide if their child wears a mask at school.

Cooper said DeSantis order is without legal authority.

His decision came after a four-day virtual hearing, and after 10 Florida school boards voted to defy DeSantis and impose mask requirements with no parental opt-out. Districts that have done so include Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach and others. Cooper's ruling will not go into effect until it is put into writing, which the judge asked the parents' lawyers to complete by Monday.

Cooper said that while the governor and others have argued that a new Florida law gives parents the ultimate authority to oversee health issues for their children, it also exempts government actions that are needed to protect public health and are reasonable and limited in scope. He said a school districts decision to require student masking to prevent the spread of the virus falls within that exemption.

The law doesn't ban mask mandates at all, Cooper said during a two-hour hearing that was conducted online because of the resurgent pandemic. It doesn't require that a mask mandate must include a parental opt-out at all.

The judge also noted that two Florida Supreme Court decisions from 1914 and 1939 found that individual rights are limited by their impact on the rights of others. For example, he said, adults have the right to drink alcohol but not to drive drunk, because that endangers others. There is a right to free speech, but not to harass or threaten others or yell fire in a crowded theater, he said.

In that same vein, he said, school boards can reasonably argue that maskless students endanger the health of other students and teachers.

DeSantis has dismissed the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people wear masks, questioning its legitimacy and saying it is not applicable to Florida. But Cooper said the state's medical experts who testified during the trial that masking is ineffective in preventing COVID-19's spread are in a distinct minority among doctors and scientists. He also said that while DeSantis frequently states that a Brown University study concluded masks are ineffective, the study's authors wrote that no such conclusion should be drawn.

I don't say that the governor has time enough to read a report that thick, but his advisers do ... and that statement is incorrect, Cooper said.

The governor's office said Friday that Cooper's decision wasn't based on the law and the state will appeal it.

Its not surprising that Judge Cooper would rule against parents' rights and their ability to make the best educational and medical decisions for their family, but instead rule in favor of elected politicians, spokeswoman Taryn Fenske said in a statement. This ruling was made with incoherent justifications, not based in science and facts  frankly not even remotely focused on the merits of the case presented.

Craig Whisenhunt, one of the attorneys representing the parents, called DeSantis' actions in the case atrocious" and called him a bully in the room that is beating up children.

The path that he took showed evidence of some cowardice," he said. If DeSantis really believed the parental rights law barred districts from imposing mask mandates, he wouldn't have issued an executive order  he would have taken the districts to court and gotten a judge to block them, Whisenhunt said.

One of the parents who sued the state, Amy Nell of the Tampa area, said that when Cooper ruled, I really felt heard for the first time in a while."

Since the beginning of the school year it has felt like bizarro world. We are being told that science  what we think it is and everything we know about viruses  may be not true, said Nell, whose son is in elementary school.

The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration in cases around Florida and record high hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month. By mid-August, more than 21,000 new cases were being added per day, compared with about 8,500 a month earlier. Over the past week, new cases and hospitalizations have leveled off. There were 16,550 people hospitalized on Thursday, down from a record of above 17,000 last week  but still almost nine times the 1,800 who were hospitalized in June.

The 10 districts that have defied DeSantis order represent slightly more than half of the 2.8 million Florida public school students enrolled this year. The governor, a Republican who is eyeing a possible presidential run in 2024, had threatened to impose financial penalties on school boards, specifically threatening two districts in Democratic strongholds that voted for strict mask mandates. Democratic President Joe Biden said if that happened, federal money would be used to cover any costs.

The superintendent of one of the targeted districts, Carlee Simon of Alachua, said in a written statement that Cooper's ruling is a validation of the right of locally-elected school boards to protect their students and communities during this crisis without fear of political or financial retribution.

About 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks while in school, according to a poll conducted this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

___

Anderson reported from Tampa, Florida.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) 

A North Carolina couple split a nearly $1 million lottery jackpot thanks to two identical tickets, a sudden windfall the pair say they will put to good use.

The North Carolina Education Lottery says Luther Cannon bought two tickets for Sunday's Cash 5 jackpot at a convenience store in Rocky Mount. He punched in his numbers and gave one of the tickets to his wife, Constance.

When they saw his numbers won a $997,400 jackpot, Constance Cannon said she started crying.

Its just amazing that we won this amount of money, she said in a statement issued by the NC Education Lottery. We can pay off our house and pay off our cars and be able to do something for our family.

The odds of winning a Cash 5 jackpot are 1 in 962,598, according to the NC Education Lottery, which is run by the states government.

The Nash County couple went to Raleigh earlier this week to claim their prize. After taxes, the Cannons each got $352,830.
Evelene Miller Greene, age 87, of London, Kentucky passed away on Sunday, August 29, 2021. She leaves behind three children, Perry Michael Greene of Yukon, OK, Patrick Mitchell Greene & wife Mary of Midway, KY, Paul Malcom Greene of London, KY; five grandchildren, Laura Greene Jordan, Ta
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When Jann Ton and Martin Wong began house-hunting in the Bay Area, it wasnt size or location that was at the top of their worries.

Can we afford this? Wong asked himself. I dont even care what the house looks like.

Even before getting engaged last year, the East Bay couple had been anxiously budgeting, unsure if buying a house in one of the priciest regions in the nation was feasible. In August, the median house price for a home in the Bay Area was $1.3 million, according to the California Association of Realtors  with mortgage payments that are more expensive than renting and a stretch for two young professionals. In the end, it was possible, but not without some number crunching and serious doubt.

Those concerns are particularly pronounced for Millennials like Ton and Wong, with claims by some economists that theyve fallen behind other generations in financial standing. But while previous research indicated that Millennials may be too poor to own homes, more adults in their 20s and 30s are beginning to dip their toes in the housing market. And, for many, its coming after moving back in with their parents.

The National Association of Realtors also reported this year that 28% of younger Millennials lived with parents, other family members or friends right before purchasing a home.

This is higher than any other generation, a briefing of the report said, attributing it to young adults trying to save for a down payment as they were looking for a home.

Ton and Wong are among them, having just closed on a property this summer.

We were not planning on moving back home initially, Ton said. But when COVID-19 hit, the couples housing plans with friends fell through. Moving back in with each of their parents in the East Bay seemed like a good, temporary plan  a rare opportunity for family time in the midst of pandemic uncertainty.

And while it meant being separated from each other, there were some financial perks to make up for it: No commuting costs, thanks to remote work. No work lunches. And no more Bay Area rental rates, which is annually ranked as one of the highest in the country.

Being able to stay at home really helped us out, Ton said, noting that they were able to buy a home three to four years earlier than they had budgeted. I think it put us in a really strong purchasing position.

The couple isnt alone, joined by a generation of other young adults who were forced into the same situation over the course of the pandemic. In July 2020, Pew Research reported that 52% of young adults were living at home with their parents, a jump from the 46% reported in January earlier that year. It was the first time that census data recorded more adults ages 18-29 living with their parents instead of with roommates, partners or on their own, the study said.

And similar to Ton and Wong, the path back to childhood homes has allowed many Millennials to gain better financial footing. A 2020 study by Bank of America found that Millennials were saving more than ever before  73% of respondents said they were able to add to their savings during the pandemic, up 10% from two years ago. Nearly 40% said that they were able to boost their credit score, and 27% said they were able to reduce their spending during the pandemic.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

I think its also because we couldnt do anything (during the pandemic), Ton said. She also attributes their increased savings to social distancing measures, which led to a dramatic drop in consumer spending. Expenses that went away with lockdown really put us in a better financial position.

Its a stark turnaround from previously recorded data, which suggested Millennials had some of the poorest spending habits and credit scores compared to previous generations. Despite making up 22% of the population, the Federal Reserve reported that Millennials owned a little over 5% of all U.S. wealth last year. A 2016 report by TransUnion also found that 43% of Millennials said they had subprime credit, and a 2019 study by Bankrate found 58% of Millennials were turned down for a loan  although that number was cut nearly in half in 2020.

Those numbers are part of the reason Millennials have had the lowest homeownership rates relative to other generations, although they now make up the largest share of the housing market, representing 37% of homebuyers.

I think it was the case that the Millennial generation was hit rather hard and for a long time by the financial crisis (in 2008) and the Great Recession that came afterwards, said James Wilcox, a professor of economic analysis and policy at UC Berkeley. He points out that many Millennials graduated in one of the poorest job markets of the decade, peaking at 16.2% unemployment for young workers in 2010.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

But despite the recession that slugged them in the prior decade, Wilcox thinks that COVID-19  and the exodus that resulted from it  was a game changer for some, particularly Millennials who had a stable income. With scant opportunity to spend their paychecks in a remote world and some of the lowest mortgage rates in the past 50 years, it was a sign for many to head home and begin moving into the housing market themselves, as Wong and Ton did.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

I think many (Millennials) may have been putting home ownership off, Wilcox said. And when all of a sudden mortgage rates went under 3% and they still had jobs and were saving more, I think we saw  some catch-up from the past and some telescoping of future demand. Adults who said, Well, were going to buy a house sometime in the next few years, but a 3% mortgage rate and a job that doesnt require me to be close to downtown? Makes it time to move to the burbs.

The improved homeownership rates are a sign that Millennials are beginning to settle into adulthood, although Ton admits that the process of saving up at her parents home hasnt come without its struggles.

I respect that it is their home and I do follow their rules, but I have to answer the five Ws every time I go out, Ton said, referring to who, what, when, where, why.

Despite some of its challenges, Ton and Wong have called the past year and half a valuable experience  more home-cooked meals, more time with the family, as well as the family dogs. And most important, its led to the couple settling into their own space in the East Bay. Under a fixed mortgage, they say its a relief to no longer have to worry about San Franciscos rising rent prices.

It feels surreal, Ton said. Overall, we have no regrets with how things turned out.

Jennifer Sor is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jenn.sor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jennifer_sor
To have character, a city has to have characters  citizens who go beyond the ordinary and bring a special flavor to the place. San Francisco lost three such people within a few days in August. One was an impresario, another was a poet, and the third had spent the past 25 years writing an encyclopedic history of the citys drinking establishments.

Each of them, in his own way, brought something to San Francisco that helped make the city unique. To say these three will be missed is the understatement of the month. Heres a bit about the three of them.

First up is Harry Denton, whose ambition it was to be larger than life. He came to San Francisco on a Greyhound bus in 1977 from a small town in Idaho and soon drifted into the hospitality business. He learned bartending from the best: Norman Hobday at Henry Africas and from Ed Moose at the Washington Square Bar & Grill.

Next thing you know Denton owned four bars, all named for him. He reached the top, literally, at Harry Dentons Starlight Room, on the 21st floor of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, which opened with great fanfare in 1996.

There he presided, the king of San Francisco nightlife. He turned the Starlight Room into a kind of throwback to the glory days of San Francisco hotels. There were dozens of roses at the entrance, and beyond that the Starlight Room glittered: It was glitz and glam, as one critic called it.

And there was Harry Denton himself, wearing a tuxedo  he owned 13 tuxes  presiding over it all. He knew everyone, it seemed, and if he called you by name it was proof you were on San Franciscos A-list. There was a big dance floor and the customers dressed to the nines, hard to believe in these T-shirt-at-the-opera days.

It was a gay scene in the best sense: Harry was a big supporter of the LGBTQ community, and the Starlight Rooms Sunday Drag brunches were famous.

But Harry Denton had a stroke in 2013 and lived out the rest of his days in Seattle. He died in a nursing home there on Aug. 21.

That was the same day Jack Hirschman left us.

Hirschman was a poet, and hed given a reading at the Foreign Cinema in the Mission District only three days before he died. Hed caught a cold.

He was a poet in the old San Francisco tradition: he lived in North Beach, for some years in a single room he called the Shoebox. For years, he presided over a gathering of poets at the North Beach Public Library. Anyone was welcome to read, and afterward, Hirschman would lead the poets in a kind of scraggly parade down Columbus Avenue to Specs Twelve Adler Museum Cafe, where they would talk and argue and recite poetry until all hours.

If Harry Denton welcomed the rich and famous to the Starlight Room, Jack Hirschman was the exact opposite: He was a noted lefty in another San Francisco tradition. He was a Marxist, a college teacher who got fired from UCLA for his views. He once gave a reading for an audience of homeless people on the theme of home. Many wept, it was said.

Hirschman had a voice like a load of crushed gravel and until recently could be found most any day at Caffe Trieste, talking poetry.

Its a city where he flourished, David Bonanno, editor of the American Poetry Review, said of Hirschman and San Francisco. I dont know where else in America he could be as comfortable. Hirschman wrote all the time. Three years ago he wrote If death is peace, when can I truly die? You will never know and yet you do 

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I saved Jim Jarvis for last. He was neither a poet nor a celebrity. He was a historian instead, a researcher into the world of San Francisco saloons, bars and dens of iniquity. His research was all original, all primary sources: maps, directories, newspaper files, old stories. He knew more about the subject than anyone else.

He knew, for example that the Saloon, on upper Grant Avenue, was the oldest continually operating bar on the same site in the city. It dates from 1860 and has that worn look of hard use, a mahogany bar and a faded gilt sign. It nearly burned down in the 1906 fire but survived, and Jarvis could prove it. It was all in his book, which was a marvel of research. Hed been working on it for 25 years, and the book is now 2,000 pages, 18 inches thick. His brother, Bob Jarvis, says it must weigh 50 pounds. Not counting three hard drives packed with notes. Its that big, Bob Jarvis said, because his brother liked accuracy and left nothing out.

Jim Jarvis real job was working at Safeway, but he liked San Francisco, history, and bars in equal measure. It wasnt so much that he liked drinking, said Larry Burdick, who was his best friend. He was a great lover of the warmth and fellowship that comes when people get together over food and drink. Thats what drew him.

There is one more thing that unites these three  all of them are transplants who came to San Francisco from somewhere else. Denton was from Idaho, Hirschman was a New Yorker, and Jarvis was born in Vermont. Denton was a star here, Hirschman flourished in San Francisco, and Jarvis burrowed into its past. Which goes to show you dont have to be a native to be a San Franciscan.

Carl Noltes column runs on Sundays. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Carlnoltesf
A Northern California police officer who was traveling to assist with the Caldor Fire in El Dorado County has died days after the patrol car he and his partner were riding in was struck head-on by another vehicle on Highway 99 in Elk Grove, authorities said.

Harminder Singh Grewal, 27, who worked for the Galt Police Department for 2  years, died on Thursday from injuries sustained in the crash, Galt police said on Friday. His partner, Officer Kapri Herrera, was recovering from major injuries, officials said. Galt police said on Monday that Herrera was in the intensive care unit in critical but stable condition. Galt police could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Shortly after 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Grewal and Herrera were driving northbound on Highway 99 to help out with response efforts for the Caldor Fire  which is nearing the Tahoe Basin  when a Dodge Ram pickup traveling southbound crashed through the center median, entered into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on into the officers patrol vehicle just north of Dillard Road, California Highway Patrol officials said.

The driver of the Dodge died at the scene, and two passengers in the Dodge were sent to a local hospital with moderate injuries, CHP officials said. First responders had to extricate Grewal and Herrera from the patrol vehicle, CHP officials said. CHP said witnesses reported the patrol vehicle was traveling at about 70 mph at the time of the crash. The speed at which the Dodge was traveling was unknown, CHP officials said.

Both officers were taken to UC Davis Medical Center with major injuries, CHP officials said. Grewal died after being in the intensive care unit, police said.

Officer Grewal took pride in serving his community and his work ethic was contagious to all who worked with him, Galt police said in a statement on Friday. His service to our community will never be forgotten.

Grewal had been honored by Californias Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization in July for his work to keep roadways safe from motorists driving while under the influence, Galt police said. He was named Officer of the Year by Galt police in 2020, was a member of the honor guard and was recently selected to be a motorcycle officer, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Friday.

Galt police said he made the ultimate sacrifice while performing his duties as a public servant, responding to danger. Galt police officers had been assisting with patrols near the area of Sly Park as part of their mutual aid assistance for the Caldor Fire, Galt police said, and had earlier assisted on-the-ground mutual aid efforts for the River and Dixie fires.

Newsom described Grewal in a statement Friday as a a devoted public servant who worked selflessly to protect his community. Newsom said the state Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff in honor of Grewal.

Our thoughts are also with the fellow officer who was seriously injured and is recovering, Newsom said.

The Galt Police Officers Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California have created a fundraiser to support Herrera with expenses related to the tragic incident, Galt police said.

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Officials with the Peace Officers Research Association described Herrera as a light to our association and said the fundraiser aims to ensure that her sole focus is on healing and not on any financial burden she may face.

Grewal is survived by his mother, father, brother and a countless number of family, friends, and loved ones, Galt police said.

Condolences for Grewals colleagues and loved ones poured in on Friday from law enforcement agencies across the state, such as San Francisco police, Rancho Cordova police, Lake County Sheriffs Office, Placerville police, Stockton police, among others.

The fatal crash is being investigated by CHPs South Sacramento office and the Valley Division Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter:

@ByLHernandez
STRAWBERRY, El Dorado County  Hoping to take advantage of calm weather, crews worked to slow the Caldor Fires spread on its east and west fronts Saturday and protect communities on the approach to Lake Tahoe.

The huge Sierra wildfire east of Placerville remained just 19% contained as of Saturday evening. The 2-week-old blaze has consumed 152,545 acres of El Dorado County, destroyed 652 structures and injured four people.

The Caldor Fire continues to burn in a wide swath between Highways 50 and 88, west of the South Lake Tahoe area. Highway 50, the main route between the Bay Area and South Lake Tahoe, remains closed between Sly Park Road and Meyers.

Officials poured a ton of resources into structure protection on the west side of the fire, said Jason Hunter, a spokesperson for the effort to contain the blaze. On Saturday afternoon, a crew from Cal Fire and the U.S. Forest Service lit a controlled backfire near Pleasant Valley, south of Pollock Pines, hoping to prevent the fire from advancing toward Somerset.

On the east side of the fire, closest to Lake Tahoes south shore, flames burned on both sides of Highway 50 in the Strawberry area. When a spot fire flared up on the slope behind Strawberry Station General Store, crews intentionally set a backfire to protect the structure. Though it led to several large flames, with burning trees towering over the stores red roof, the intentional blaze appeared to have done its job by nighttime.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

As dusk faded to dark, flames could also be seen on the forested hillside opposite the general store, on the south side of Highway 50. As of 7:45 p.m., the flames were burning uphill from Strawberry Lane, where firefighters were stationed to protect structures and, hopefully, prevent the fire from reaching the historic Strawberry Lodge.

But both Hunter and South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace think the Tahoe Basin will probably be spared from the Caldor Fire.

Theres a lot of granite between where the fire is and where we are, Wallace said. Its not impossible that the fire could get to us, but it is unlikely.

Still, Wallace said local officials were preparing in case the Caldor Fire makes a run toward the city of about 22,000 people. If need be, South Lake Tahoe was ready to issue emergency alerts to get residents out of harms way.

We may not be able to save our community, but we will be able to save our people, Wallace said. Im certain of that.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

On the west side, south of Pollock Pines, bright pink retardant blanketed many homes on the east side of Sly Park Road. In Pleasant Valley, firefighting helicopters routinely passed overhead.

Even for those not in evacuation zones, the environmental situation was dire  air quality readings were off the charts in downwind communities Saturday morning. In El Dorado Hills and Placerville, the Air Quality Index score  a basic yardstick for determining the level of air pollution  exceeded 500. Any score over 100 is considered unhealthy for all groups.

At the tiny Lake Tahoe Airport, which also serves as the City Hall for South Lake Tahoe, the smoke was so thick late Friday afternoon that the shapes of the trees across from the airports single runway were barely visible from the main building on the other side.

Fred Page, a software company employee, spent 10 days at a vacation rental in South Lake Tahoe with his husband and their three dogs after evacuating their home in Kyburz, southwest of the lake along Highway 50.

By Friday, the smoke-filled skies had become too much for them to bear. The couple evacuated again, to a hotel in the East Bay.

It was more than unhealthy, Page said in a phone interview. We couldnt really be outside, and with the dogs, they always want to be outside. On Saturday, a reporter went to Kyburz and found that Pages house is still standing.

At the Sierra at Tahoe ski resort, about 3 miles east of the fires edge, general manager John Rice said the choking, polluted air had cleared somewhat on Saturday morning but that smoke was still thick.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

It was raining ash all night, almost like it was snowing, he said. The air quality was horrific. You couldnt breathe.

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Rice said four of the resorts artificial snow guns had been aimed at resort buildings in the event the flames drew closer.

Back in South Lake Tahoe, Wallace said that any local resident with the means and desire to leave the area should do so. To those who dont live in the scenic town, the mayors message was far more blunt.

That is a very difficult thing for me to say, said Wallace, a former leader of the Chamber of Commerce. But this is not the time to come to Lake Tahoe.

In Pollock Pines, the Burger Barn was gearing up to serve free burgers and fries to first responders.

Its a blessing to help out, said restaurant manager Breanna Aho. She added that the free burgers would be singles, not doubles, because the firefighters have to go back out and we dont want them to get too full.

Tracy Barbutes/Special to The Chronicle

To the north, the Dixie Fire in Butte, Plumas and Shasta counties consumed 6,000 more acres for a total of 759,218 acres, with 48% containment. It has now been burning 44 days.

Humidity recovery was poor, allowing the fire to continue to burn actively throughout the night, the Cal Fire statement said. Isolated torching was observed with some spotting ahead of the fire.

J.D. Morris, Steve Rubenstein and Danielle Echeverria are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris, @SteveRubeSF, @DanielleEchev
Nicole Gee loved being a Marine.

That love was in every social media post. There was the Aug. 2 photo at an air base in Kuwait, where she greeted her promotion to sergeant with a proud smile. There was the Aug. 21 photo from Kabul, her dust-flecked face gazing tranquilly at the baby cradled in her gloved hands. Then there was the photo she posted on Aug. 22.

Shoulders back and her rifle pointed down, Gee stood on the tarmac of the Kabul airport and stared, with a contented expression, into the camera. Behind her, a long line of people clutching bags and backpacks waited to enter the belly of a giant cargo plane and go someplace safer.

The military called it Operation Freedoms Sentinel, and nobody looked the part of a sentinel more than Sgt. Nicole L. Gee.

Escorting evacuees onto the bird, she wrote with a heart emoji.

Four days later, Gee, 23, of Sacramento, was among 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 civilians killed by a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport. She was one of four Marines from California who died in the bombing.

The attack, which ISIS-K of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for, punctuated the tragedy and chaos unfolding at the tail end of a 20-year war, as the Biden administration races toward an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. forces as well as thousands of desperate allies from a country rapidly falling under Taliban rule.

U.S. Marine Corps

In a news conference at the Pentagon on Saturday, Army Maj. Gen. William D. Hank Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director of regional operations, said those Gee was protecting were among more than 117,000 people who have been flown in great haste out of the country. Sixty-six flights carrying 6,800 evacuees departed Kabul on Friday alone, the general said. An additional 1,400 people were screened to fly out Saturday.

We have the ability to include evacuees on military airlift out of Afghanistan until the very end, Taylor told reporters. This is a massive military, diplomatic, security and humanitarian undertaking for the United States and our allies.

Taylor made his remarks shortly before the Department of Defense released the names of the slain American soldiers. Among the Californians were four Marines  Gee; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio (Riverside County); Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County); and Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco (Riverside County).

The Defense Department said Gee was assigned to a combat logistics battalion and expeditionary force out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. She was one of two female Marines killed in the bombing, which the U.S. military responded to with a Friday drone strike that killed two high-profile Islamic State targets and wounded another in Afghanistans Nangarhar province, Taylor said.

The New York Times reported that Gee was married to another Marine and hailed from Roseville, a suburb northeast of Sacramento.

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags at state buildings to be flown at half-staff, while Rep. Doris Matsui, whose district includes Sacramento, released a statement commending Gee for her service.

Just days before the senseless attack that claimed her life, she was photographed holding an Afghan baby, an image of compassion and selflessness during a time of immense pain, Matsuis statement read. Sgt. Gee chose a path of valor and service to others  making the ultimate sacrifice.

Gees friend and fellow Marine Mallory Harrison said in a public Facebook post that Gees car was still parked in her lot near the base Friday night.

I cant quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how Im never going to see her again, Harrison wrote. How her last breath was taken doing what she loved  helping people  at HKIA in Afghanistan. Then there was an explosion. And just like that, shes gone.

Raheem Hosseini and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @raheemfh, @SteveRubeSF
ATLANTA (AP)  Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections.

Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections  from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results  were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year's election.

Its a game-changer in that the environment we have talked about existing now is a reality, said Matt Masterson, a former top election security official in the Trump administration. We told election officials, essentially, that you should assume this information is already out there. Now we know it is, and we dont know what they are going to do with it.

The software copies came from voting equipment in Mesa County, Colorado, and Antrim County, Michigan, where Trump allies had sue unsuccessfully challenging the results from last fall.

The Dominion software is used in some 30 states, including counties in California, Georgia and Michigan.

Election security pioneer Harri Hursti was at the South Dakota event and said he and other researchers in attendance were provided three separate copies of election management systems that run on the Dominion software. The data indicated they were from Antrim and Mesa counties. While it's not clear how the copies came to be released at the event, they were posted online and made available for public download.

The release gives hackers a practice environment to probe for vulnerabilities they could exploit and a road map to avoid defenses, Hursti said. All the hackers would need is physical access to the systems because they are not supposed to be connected to the internet.

The door is now wide open, Hursti said. The only question is, how do you sneak in the door?

A Dominion representative declined comment, citing an investigation.

U.S. election technology is dominated by just three vendors comprising 90% of the market, meaning election officials cannot easily swap out their existing technology. Release of the software copies essentially provides a blueprint for those trying to interfere with how elections are run. They could sabotage the system, alter the ballot design or even try to change results, said election technology expert Kevin Skoglund.

This disclosure increases both the likelihood that something happens and the impact of what would happen if it does, he said.

The effort by Republicans to examine voting equipment began soon after the November presidential election as Trump challenged the results and blamed his loss on widespread fraud, even though there has been no evidence of it.

Judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, election officials of both parties and Trumps own attorney general have dismissed the claims. A coalition of federal and state election officials called the 2020 election the most secure in U.S. history, and post-election audits across the country found no significant anomalies.

In Antrim County, a judge had allowed a forensic exam of voting equipment after a brief mix-up of election results led to a suit alleging fraud. It was dismissed in May. Hursti said the date on the software release matches the date of the forensic exam.

Calls seeking information from Antrim County's clerk and the local prosecutor's office were not immediately returned; a call to the judge's office was referred to the county clerk. The Michigan secretary of state's office declined comment.

In Colorado, federal, state and local authorities are investigating whether Mesa County elections staff might have provided unauthorized individuals access to their systems. The county elections clerk, Tina Peters, appeared onstage with Lindell in South Dakota and told the crowd her office was being targeted by Democrats in the state.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she alerted federal election security officials of the breach and was told it was not viewed as a significant heightening of the election risk landscape at this point. This past week, Mesa County commissioners voted to replace voting equipment that Griswold had ordered could no longer be used.

Geoff Hale, who leads the election security effort at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said his agency has always operated on the assumption that system vulnerabilities are known by malicious actors. Election officials are focused instead on ways they can reduce risk, such as using ballots with a paper record that can be verified by the voter and rigorous post-election audits, Hale said.

He said having Dominion's software exposed publicly doesn't change the agency's guidance.

Security researcher Jack Cable said he assumes U.S. adversaries already had access to the software. He said he is more concerned the release would fan distrust among the growing number of people not inclined to believe in the security of U.S elections.

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It is a concern that people, in the pursuit of trying to show the system is insecure, are actually making it more insecure, said Cable, who recently joined a cybersecurity firm run by former CISA Director Christopher Krebs and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos.

Concerns over access to voting machines and software first surfaced this year in Arizona, where the Republican-controlled state Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no previous election experience, to audit the Maricopa County election. The firm's chief executive also had tweeted support of conspiracy theories surrounding last year's election.

After the county's Dominion voting systems were turned over to the firm, Arizonas top election official said they could not be used again. The GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted in July to replace them.

Dominion has filed suits contesting various unfounded claims about its systems. In May, it called giving Cyber Ninjas access to its code reckless, given the firms bias, and said it would cause irreparable damage to election security.

Election technology and security expert Ryan Macias, in Arizona earlier this year to observe that review, was alarmed by a lack of cybersecurity protocols. There was no information about who was given access, whether those people had passed background checks or were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Cyber Ninjas did not respond to an email with questions about the review and their security protocols.

Macias was not surprised to hear that copies of Antrim Countys election management system had surfaced online given the questionable motives of the various groups conducting the reviews and the central role that voting systems have played in conspiracy theories.

This is what I anticipated would happen, and I anticipate it will happen yet again coming out of Arizona, Macias said. These actors have no liability and no rules of engagement.
BAGHDAD (AP)  Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia held a rare meeting Saturday at a conference hosted by Iraq. The meeting is aimed at easing Mideast tensions and underscored the Arab countrys new role as mediator.

French President Emmanuel Macron also attended the Baghdad meeting, hailing it as a major boost for Iraq and its leadership. The country had been largely shunned by Arab leaders for the past few decades because of security concerns amid back-to-back wars and internal unrest, its airport frequently attacked with rockets by insurgents.

On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordans King Abdullah and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose countrys ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.

Among the participants were also the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry over regional supremacy has often played out to deadly consequences in Iraq and other countries across the region, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia was represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Iran with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

It was not immediately clear if the two ministers held a meeting on the sidelines. Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hassan avoided a question as to whether they did, saying only: These meetings in fact began in Iraq, and in Baghdad, and these meetings are continuing, and will continue."

"What we understood from the two sides, or the parties, is a great and wide desire to reach positive results to solve the outstanding problems between the two countries, he added.

The high-level meeting in Baghdad sent a message of Arab solidarity with Iraq, which has increasingly been pulled into Irans orbit in recent years.

This summit marks the return of Iraq as a pivotal player in the region, said political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari, who heads the Iraqi Political Thinking Center in Baghdad. Having rival parties be seated at the same table is a significant step in that direction.

Iraqi special forces deployed in Baghdad, particularly around the Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, where the meeting was held. Participants were expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Lebanon, which has been without a functional government for the past year, and Syria, which has been suspended from the Arab League since 2011, were not represented at the meeting.

Macron, whose country is co-organizing the meeting, described Saturdays meeting as historic, showcasing Iraqs return to stability following the ruinous war against the Islamic State group, which was defeated in 2017.

Sundays meeting was a chance for Iraqi leaders to underscore their recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the regions crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Iraq, which for years has been a headline for war and conflicts, is hosting leaders and representatives of the region today to affirm their support for Iraqi sovereignty and prosperity, said President Barham Salih.

Earlier this year, Iraq hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen.

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Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

An Iraqi government official had told The Associated Press he anticipated Saudi and Iranian officials would hold talks on the sidelines of Saturdays meetings. He said the aim was to create a political atmosphere for resolving outstanding problems.

Iraqs message at the summit is that it stands at the same distance from all sides, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

After decades of conflict, Iraq is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the countrys top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.

___

Karam reported from Beirut.
A pivotal issue in the recall campaign against Gov. Gavin Newsom is the charge that he should have done more to reopen schools for in-person instruction during the pandemic. What makes this accusation potentially perilous for Newsom is that at least some of those espousing it are Democrats or independents who voted for him when he ran for governor in 2018. If enough of them vote for recall next month, it could make the difference as to whether Newsom remains in office.

Yet blaming the governor for not opening schools shows a basic misunderstanding of how things operate in California. Local control is a principle entrenched in Californias history and law. And thats especially true of our schools.

Decision-making over schools isnt the purview of a legislative body or single official like the governor. Rather, it is a shared responsibility (at times frustratingly so) of the governor, the Legislature, the State Board of Education, the elected state superintendent of public instruction, locally elected school boards, and school superintendents. While many exhausted parents may have wished Newsom had used his emergency powers to decree that children go back to school earlier, it is not clear that he had the authority to do so. And even if he had, it would have been an extremely difficult order to carry out.

Newsom would have had to override local school boards and school administrators, nullify collective bargaining agreements, and run up against opposition from many teachers and the unions representing them. Perhaps most critically, he would have had to elevate the wishes of parents who wanted their kids back in class over the large numbers of parents opposed to doing so, including a disproportionately high proportion of low-income, Black and Latino parents.

Another favorite target of criticism during the pandemic was the now-discarded color-coded system that set standards for when schools and other institutions could reopen. Under this system, schools in counties in the dreaded purple tier  where community spread of COVID-19 was high  were not permitted to reopen (although some could and did get waivers from these standards).

While school administrators may have been constrained by the color codes, Newsom did not invent these on his own. They were based on the recommendations of senior health officials. And regardless of unhappiness with the color codes, they at least set statewide standards that took into account the vast differences in the spread of the virus among the states more than 1,000 school districts. Accounting for these differences allowed some districts, especially in the states more rural areas where infection rates were low, to safely reopen early in the pandemic.

Conversely, while some school administrators complained about the codes, others wanted Newsom to impose even stricter statewide standards.

It is also easy to forget that at crucial points during the pandemic, when Newsom did move assertively to prod schools to reopen, he encountered resistance  and not just from teachers unions. A prime example was last December, when Newsom devised a

$2 billion plan offering substantial financial incentives to school districts if they reopened before mid-February  at least at the elementary school level.

But the plan triggered huge pushback in the Legislature and vehement opposition from the superintendents of seven of Californias largest districts. Extended negotiations in Sacramento delayed implementation of Newsoms plan until it was finally approved two months later in a watered-down form.

Polls should provide Newsom with some solace. An April Public Policy Institute of California poll, so far the only one that has looked at school reopening in any detail, showed that 80% of Democrats approved of the way Newsom handled K-12 education during the pandemic. The majority of Democrats and independents felt that schools were reopening either at the right pace or too quickly.

However, danger signs still abound. The PPIC poll showed that 42% of independent voters, along with 19% of Democrats, disapproved of his handling of education during the pandemic.

Of course, in recent months and weeks, as the delta variant has raised new anxieties and obstacles on the school reopening front, voter attitudes may very well have changed. Political attacks against Newsom on this issue may have trouble sticking, as parents and the public become more aware of the dangers that reopening schools present.

Regardless, the central task now is to get students up to speed educationally after two painful academic years of interrupted education, and to build on the multiple reforms introduced over the past decade in California, and new ones championed by Newsom.

Since Newsom became governor, the state has made major progress toward fulfilling a major campaign pledge of his to create a cradle to career system of education in the state. These include plans for a massive expansion of high-quality preschool for all 4-year-olds, increasing financial aid for older college students, and initiating a range of programs to address mental health needs of young people until the age of 25.

Yet these wins have hardly been mentioned on the campaign trail.

Instead, the most prominent recall candidates are promising to drag California back to tired debates about charter schools and school vouchers, not to mention new ones involving the GOPs obsession with critical race theory.

That is just the opposite of what California students need right now.

Louis Freedberg was until recently executive director of EdSource.
SACRAMENTO  Larry Elder, the radio host and Republican front-runner in Californias recall election, once wrote that states should be allowed to deny public benefits, including emergency medical care and education, to undocumented immigrants.

Elders views are another example of how the most popular Republican vying to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom in the Sept. 14 special election holds many views that buck political norms in a deep-blue state. The conservative commentator outlined his opinions about immigration in a 2010 column he wrote for Creators Syndicate, a national news and features service.

In the piece, he suggested several ways to reduce the federal deficit and the size of government, including by denying citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and denying their families public benefits.

Amend the Constitution to deny citizenship to children of illegal aliens, Elder wrote in the piece, which was published by several news websites, including Real Clear Politics. Illegal immigration is unfair to those lawfully trying to gain entry, costs taxpayers money and affects the countrys culture.

There is nothing to suggest Elder has since disavowed his views on the issue, and a link to the column is still posted on his website. His campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Elders support for repealing birthright citizenship  established constitutional law for more than 150 years  isnt entirely surprising, given that he was a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. The ex-president also threatened to abolish it, but didnt succeed and probably couldnt have because the Supreme Court has held that the right is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

In his 2010 column, Elder even went a step further than Trump, suggesting the Constitution should be amended so states can refuse to provide undocumented immigrants with basic public benefits, such as emergency health care or access to public schools for their children.

Amend the Constitution to overturn Supreme Court decisions that prohibit states from denying free public education and medical benefits, including emergency benefits, to illegal aliens, Elder wrote.

While immigration hasnt been at the forefront of the recall campaign in recent months  taking a backseat to issues such as homelessness, crime and the pandemic  rhetoric about unlawful immigration was crucial to the origins of the recall effort against Newsom.

Conservative activists who filed the original recall petition on Feb. 21, 2020, weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic swept into California, cited immigration as a major reason for their effort.

Laws he endorsed favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our citizens, the notice of intent to recall Newsom stated. He has imposed sanctuary state status and fails to enforce immigration laws.

Elders comments are also reminiscent of the polarizing debate over Californias Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure that sought to exclude immigrants from receiving public social services if they couldnt prove they were in the country legally. Voters approved the measure, but the bulk of Prop. 187 was struck down by a federal court and never took effect.

The fight over Prop. 187 galvanized a generation of Latinos  many of whom called the measure racist  into becoming a political force that helped Democrats gain control of the state.

David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University, said thats why Elders comments could be particularly damaging to the recall effort. He said the rhetoric could hamper Republicans aim to court older, independent-leaning Latino voters who are lukewarm on Newsom.

This presents a toxic mix of loaded language and views that many voters will find troubling, McCuan said. Revisiting the days of 187 ... is not a winning component of a Republican strategy.

Elder, in his column, also advocated for going further than Prop. 187 in a big way: The ballot measure did not seek to deny access to publicly funded emergency health care because federal law prohibits doing so. But, as he suggested, amending the Constitution would negate that requirement.

In the piece, Elder suggested the United States should increase the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country legally, provided that entry was tailored to high-end, well-educated foreigners who would add to the industrial capital of the nation.

He also argued that temporary guest workers allowed to enter the country should have a portion of their wages held in a government account and given back only when the alien leaves.

Polls show Elder is the undisputed front-runner to replace Newsom if the governor is recalled. On the campaign trail, Elder has criticized Newsom for allowing undocumented people to receive state tax rebates, drivers licenses and publicly funded health care.

The pandemic has served as a reminder of our states limited resources, such as ICU capacity and hospital beds (just to name two), Elder told the San Diego Union-Tribune this month. We cannot prioritize illegal immigrants over California taxpayers.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
All Tin Dinh was looking for was a nice meal out in San Francisco with his sister, who was visiting from out of town, and his boyfriend.

Dinh, 25, was curious about Swan Oyster Depot, a restaurant in his neighborhood that hed heard all sorts of good things about on travel shows like Anthony Bourdains Parts Unknown as well as countless other articles that extolled the seafood markets offerings.

What unfolded since Dinhs visit is a larger conversation about racism, intent and a term that invokes a wide range of responses: microaggressions.

On Aug. 20, Dinh, who is a Vietnamese immigrant, and his group visited Swan Oyster Depot. They waited an hour and a half in line to place their orders. According to Dinh, when they reached the front of the line, he started to place his order with Jimmy Sancimino, one of the four owners of Swan Oyster Depot. Sancimino walked away from the group before they placed the entirety of the order, Dinh said, so they placed the rest of the order with another server. When Sancimino came back with the first half of their order, Dinhs sister informed him that the group had placed an order for other items with a different employee, which annoyed Sancimino, Dinh said.

He yelled out across the restaurant, Who took this kids order? Dinh recalled, before walking away and pointing towards the group, yelling, dim sum twice.

We were really thrown off by that, I remember kind of looking at my sister and my boyfriend for a hot second to see if what I heard was accurate, Dinh told SFGATE. Because if in fact it was true, thats pretty crazy.

Dinh informed another employee about it, taking the term dim sum to be a racial slur. The term dim sum in itself is not a slur, but instead is part of Cantonese cuisine made up of small dishes and bites; but Dinh later wrote on social media that he felt that directing this term at him and his sister reinforces the stereotype that all Asian people look the same and erases the distinction between Asian cultures.

But rather than addressing it as a slight, the employee informed Dinh that the term has nothing to do with race; instead, the phrase was shorthand for when a customer places an order with multiple servers, likening it to a dim sum restaurant.

When this happened, we just felt kind of  myself, especially, because I was the one who said everything to the staff member  I was pretty angry and upset, Dinh said. And obviously I also want to be respectful, I don't want to make a scene at the restaurant, but at the same time, this treatment and how we were pointed out was not cool.

Having already addressed the incident with the restaurant, only to be rebuffed, Dinh went on social media to talk about what happened.

And then the post went viral.

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Dinhs social media post has launched a larger conversation about intent. The staff at Swan Oyster Depot have not denied Dinhs account, and Kevin Sancimino, whose father, Steve Sancimino, is co-owners with Jimmy Sancimino and two other brothers, affirmed to SFGATE Tuesday that dim sum is a term they use to signify when a customer has placed orders with more than one server.

Since the incident hit social media, posts on Swan Oyster Depots Yelp page have been paused because of a flood of negative reviews, and Kevin Sancimino told Eater SF that their restaurant has gotten angry calls. As Dinhs post got more views, media outlets such as The Bold Italic began looking into the restaurants history, and outlined Yelp reviews dating back to 2014 that also called the restaurant out for racist behavior.

Although Kevin Sancimino wasnt there at the time, he stated that Swan Oyster Depot and his uncle, Jimmy Sancimino, are not racist. Pointing to visitors from around the world who have visited the restaurant, Kevin Sancimino said everyone who comes in receives the best service they can possibly give.

I wasn't here, he didn't say it to me, but when he put it online that we're all racist then it becomes me too, because I work here, Kevin said. This is my business. This is my family. This is our love. This is our passion. We serve everyone. We love our customers, all of them, all races, all countries, all origins, all colors, all religions, everything. And for him to just blast us like that, when clearly he doesn't know us.

Dr. Kevin Nadal is a psychology professor at City University of New York, and author of the book, Microaggressions and Traumatic Stress. Nadal says microaggressions are subtle forms of discrimination that people may experience in their everyday lives, committed by people who are well-intentioned but may not recognize how their words or their behaviors may have biased implications.

These microaggressions can happen anywhere; at work, in ones home life, or, in this case, at a restaurant. The problem with microaggressions, Nadal said, is that the person may not understand what they said was hurtful. And without that intent to hurt another person, its not considered serious to those who dont experience it.

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Blair Heagerty / SFGATE

For his part, Dinh isnt accepting of the reasoning behind Swan Oyster Depots usage of dim sum. I call complete bullst on that, he told SFGATE.

I want to believe in the good in people and part of me for a second when they said that, I wanted to believe it, Dinh said. And maybe the reason why they use it was it was busy like a dim sum restaurant. But at the same time, we also live in a city, let alone in a country, where racism and racist remarks is a repeating pattern and they happen both in a macro and micro level.

That's why it's much more important to become intentional with your language and vocabulary you're using, he continued. So to be pointing at an Asian customer, or customers, calling us dim sum, no matter the intent, the impact is so detrimental.

Nadal agreed.

Language in itself can be microaggressive, Nadal said. So the types of terminology that people use, for example when men call women sweetie or honey, that already connotes a very dehumanizing, patronizing kind of tone that a man wouldn't necessarily use towards another man. And you know, microaggressive biases are so embedded in our everyday American vernacular that people aren't even aware of it.

Nadal says that acknowledging microaggressions is not truly about policing people and their language, but instead creating an awareness of how language and behavior affects others. If you have the knowledge that your behaviors, your choice of words, may result in somebody being depressed or anxious or traumatized, why would we choose that? Nadal asked. Why can't we change the types of language and the types of behaviors we engage in, to ensure that people feel included, that people are able to live their best lives without worrying about bias and discrimination?

Preeti Mistry, chef, activist and host of the podcast Loading Dock Talks, has encountered microaggressions and racism in their time as both restaurateur and as a guest at other restaurants. As the owner of the former Oakland restaurant Juhu Beach Club, Mistry has been committed to creating a welcoming environment for both guests and staff.

In discussing the situation at Swan Oyster Depot, Mistry pointed out that there are kitchen terms in existence, such as the chinois, that are problematic. The chinois refers to the conical, fine mesh strainer used in all kitchens, but it is also the French word for Chinese people; it was named so by the French due to its resemblance in shape to a Chinese laborers hat. But as Mistry pointed out, using that term  or other terms like it  isnt necessary for any kitchen.

I remember when I sort of had the light bulb of like, huh, that's really not okay, Mistry said of the term. And like, OK, we're going to refer to that as a conical strainer, a fine mesh strainer, whatever you want to call it. It's not going to be a chinois or a China cap [as its called in England] in my kitchen. And so I think that, whether these terms are industry terms that are common or not, it doesn't take away the fact that they clearly come from an offensive place.

Dinh has received backlash since his post, especially as to whether the incident should be considered racist and whether Dinh is being too sensitive. Nadal, however, pushed back against that narrative.

In fact, experiencing microaggressions is so common and recurring to marginalized groups that a New York Times article (and psychologists) referred to it as death by a thousand cuts.

One thing that I always point out to people is that in the past 20 years there has been research that demonstrates that people who experienced more microaggressions are more likely to also experience things like depression, low self esteem, anxiety, and even trauma symptoms, Nadal said.

People need to recognize that if you get accused of a microaggression, one, that demonstrates that you're human, everyone has the capacity to commit microaggressions in some way, shape or form, Nadal said. And two, even if you didn't intend something, to at least acknowledge and empathize with the impact that you may have had on others.  Apologizing is something that can just be simple, and saying, OK, look, maybe we didnt realize that people would have such a reaction to this, were sorry, and were going to choose a different term to describe this service.

Another way to think about this, Nadal said, is to consider how we changed our language from what was considered normal 20 years ago in regards to sexism. What was acceptable previously is no longer appropriate, and its just part of the culture shift.

At Mistrys former restaurant Juhu Beach Club, Mistry said they often spoke with staff about going out of their way to welcome marginalized groups.

I mean, how many times have I stood at a bar, trying to get the bartender's attention and some tall white guy walks up and they immediately take his order? [While] I'm like, I've been standing here for like 10 minutes, Mistry recalled. That kind of thing happens to us all the time, so that I would tell my staff, We have to go above and beyond because here's the deal: If you're a big, tall white guy and you walk into a restaurant and nobody greets you immediately and everybody's busy, you might just be like, 'Oh, they're busy, I'll wait.' But if you're someone who looks like me and you know, five minutes goes by and nobody acknowledges you, you're like, 'Oh, this st again.'

---

When asked whether Swan Oyster Depot would apologize to Dinh, Kevin Sancimino wouldnt commit to it, but seemed open to starting a conversation.

He's free to say what he wants, but [calling us racist is] an insult that I can't forgive yet, unless he wants to come in and talk, Sancimino said.

Nadal understands the difficulty of being called a racist, but thinks it can be a learning point for others.

Being called racist is something that nobody wants, Nadal said. But, you know, its something that maybe sometimes we need to hear, so we can really reflect on maybe the biases that we might not even be aware of.

Dinh agrees: "Instead of blaming the customer, they need to take a look in the mirror and live up to the legacy people rave about, because right now, I'm not seeing [it].
BRISTOL, Va. (AP)  More southwest Virginia residents who prosecutors say conspired with dozens of others to file fraudulent claims for pandemic unemployment benefits have pleaded guilty.

Patrick Payne, 43, Randall Johnson, 42, Steven Mullins Jr., 33, Curtis Mullins, 25, and Melinda Davis, 58, appeared in U.S. District Court in Abingdon over the last two weeks to enter their pleas, the Bristol Herald Courier reported.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Bernalillo County and the city of Albuquerque have long shared a large government building in downtown Albuquerque but no more.

The city is about to finalize its purchase of the Albuquerque Government Center and the county has moved out to a new facility, enabling the city to consolidate departments in the building that the two governments formerly shared, city officials announced Friday.
BREWER, Maine (AP)  An armed man who caused a standoff outside a Walmart, forcing customers to shelter in place, ended with an arrest early Saturday, officials said.

The man was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, violation of bail conditions and creating a police standoff.
ATLANTA (AP)  Atlanta Black Pride organizers say the annual celebration will happen Labor Day weekend as planned with some precautions to protect against the spread of COVID-19.

The larger Atlanta Pride festival and parade planned for October were canceled Wednesday because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. But leaders of Atlanta Black Pride, which celebrates the city's African American LGBTQ community, say they plan to go forward while encouraging people to wear masks and maintain social distance and having fewer indoor gatherings.

Amber Moore, COO and vice president of Atlanta Black Pride, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be followed.

For indoor activities, you must wear a mask at all of our events, she said. For outdoors, we encourage everyone to wear a mask. Fulton County will be out doing vaccinations and COVID testing.

The celebration, which is marking its 25th anniversary this year, is to feature events around the city, including some at Piedmont Park and celebrations on Sept. 4 and 5 in Central Park. In addition to parties, other events include a fashion show, a session on empowering women, an awards ceremony for the transgender community, a virtual film festival and a health expo.

Vaughn Alvarez, who is helping to promote some of the events held at Piedmont Park, told the newspaper that Atlanta rapper and radio host Da Brat and fiancee Jesseca Judy Dupart, CEO of Kaleidoscope Hair Products, will be honored for bravery and courage with their love story. The two star in Brat loves Judy on WE-TV.

Cant wait to celebrate this with everyone. Thanks for sprinkling a dose of glitter on my life Atlanta, Dupart said in a news release.

Alvarez and Moore said they feel it's vital to hold the even despite the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

LGBTQ people of color are often subject to rejection, abuse and even daily persecution, Alvarez said. Pride is a time where all can lay their burdens down for a few days and not worry about the pressures of life."

Moore said it's also important to acknowledge the work and vision of the Black LGBTQ+ leaders who started the event.

It is me thanking our founders, she told the newspaper. I thank those people who said in 1996, Lets do this. Because of them I can walk anywhere I want to and hold my head up high and not be ashamed to be a Black gay female.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Its called the loneliest job in the world for a reason.

Surrounded by everything a superpower can offer and watched by all, President Joe Biden wore the weight of a lonely man as he came to grips in recent days with the deadly end of the American effort in Afghanistan and tried to keep the focus on what, to him, is the bottom line.

Ladies and gentlemen," he said as the death toll mounted in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, "it was time to end a 20-year war.

The need for crisis-driven leadership comes to all presidents. Now, on several fronts at once, it has come to him, and fast.

In the aftermath of the Kabul suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 Afghans, U.S. military forces are racing to get fellow citizens, aligned Afghans and themselves out of the country by Biden's stated deadline of Tuesday.

Biden found himself in a real-time crisis that overrides the platitudes he offered when running for the office and in the early months of his presidency. America is back," he likes to say. But in Afghanistan, after the longest war in U.S. history, America is conspicuously leaving.

The U.S. is leaving with the Taliban forces it long fought against back in control and with an affiliate of the Islamic State group  an organization declared vanquished by the last U.S. president  reasserting its virulence in the devastation at Kabul's airport.

Goodwill washed over Biden through his first six months or so, when he scored points with the public and much of the world simply by not being Donald Trump. The United States appeared on the verge of victory over the pandemic, too. Vaccine supplies surged, cases plunged in response and even Republicans gave Biden a measure of the credit.

Those days now seem like a distant memory. Criticism is raining down on him, with Republicans blaming him for the calamity in Kabul and even Democrats breaking from him for the first time on a major issue.

Asked whether Biden is feeling frustrated or a sense of resignation from the turmoil of the moment, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said theres just not a lot of time for self-reflection right now.

To Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis, the bloody, harried scenes the world is witnessing from Kabul are not the fruit of poor evacuation planning or incompetence by the United States, but, simply, of defeat.

It seems to me that were watching something occur that was inevitable once we stepped in, he said. There's no memory here. This is what happens when you lose a war."

Presidents are defined by how they handle crises, and Biden now confronts more than one, each requiring urgent attention.

While the drama in Kabul unfolds, the delta variant of the coronavirus threatens to undo much of the progress his administration had achieved in the first six months. On top of that, he has had to address deadly flooding in Tennessee, devastating wildfires in the West, a hurricane that grazed the East Coast and relief efforts for earthquake-stricken Haiti.

This past week, he was also dealt setbacks by the Supreme Court. First, justices ordered the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy that forced migrants seeking U.S. asylum to wait in Mexico, often in dire conditions.

Then, as pandemic-era housing aid sits bottlenecked in state and local governments, the court's conservative majority blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban on evictions, leaving perhaps 3.5 million people at risk of losing their homes.

For now, Afghanistan overshadows everything. Biden declared the buck stops with me yet has alternately blamed Afghan forces and their government for caving to the Taliban, and Trump for negotiating a bad agreement for the U.S. exit.

It was Biden's choice, though, to execute the U.S. withdrawal called for in that agreement, even if a few months later, and he will be measured by the consequences of having done so. One of his central rationales for the presidency is being tested: that four decades of experience at the highest levels of government prepared him to handle the pressures of the office with seasoned competence .

Cal Jillson, a presidential historian at Southern Methodist University, said there was no good way to leave Afghanistan.

You cannot stick the dismount," he said. Unless you win, it is bound to be ugly. And we did not win."

He said that while Trump actually arrived at a deeply flawed agreement with the Taliban, it was Biden who undertook to execute that plan, with minor revisions. Biden, he said, " along with the public, wanted out of Afghanistan, the sooner the better. Nobody likes the exit.

Crises can forever stain the legacies of presidents, or they can pass.

President Bill Clinton in his first year endured the bloody tragedy of the battle of Mogadishu, Somalia, while President George W. Bush had the false predicate of weapons of mass destruction for starting a war with Iraq. President John F. Kennedy survived the embarrassment of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Trump survived himself.

At least one of those presidents was enough of a student of history to know that the loneliness of the office, spoken of by William Howard Taft as he left that office in 1913, would come with the territory.

He is alone  at the top  in the loneliest job in the world," Kennedy told a 1960 Democratic dinner before his election that fall.

He cannot share this power, he cannot delegate it, he cannot adjourn. ... He alone must decide what areas we defend  not the Congress or the military or the CIA. And certainly not some beleaguered generalissimo on an island.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
PHOENIX (AP)  Part of a major highway between metro Phoenix and eastern Arizona's high country will be closed in mid-September for roughly five days for a bridge project, forcing drivers to use a lengthy detour.

The Arizona Department of Transportation said U.S. 60 will be closed between Superior and Miami from 10 p.m. on Sept. 12 to noon on Sept. 17, subject to change due to weather conditions.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A Southern California police officer is charged with using excessive force against a man during a 2018 shooting, prosecutors said Friday.

David Chandler Jr., 33, of the Torrance police department is charged with assault by an officer. His arraignment has not yet been scheduled. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP)  With muddy shoes and rain falling, a group of Orange Mound historians and community members unveiled a marker engraved with the names of 30 enslaved Africans on the site of the plantation where they toiled.

For every raindrop, those were tears of joy of our ancestors  just crying in ecstasy because they knew this day was coming, said Orange Mound historian Mary Mitchell as she stood on the land where enslaved people are thought to be buried.

The group of about 40 gathered the morning of Aug. 20 at the Deaderick Family Cemetery, off Park Avenue near Grand Street, for the Naming the Enslaved event to unveil a historic marker dedicated to those enslaved by John Deaderick in the 1800s.

Project 1890, a new collaboration between the Orange Mound Heritage and Preservation Society and the Orange Mound Arts Council, held the event to help preserve and interpret the neighborhoods history.

The crowd, along with Michael Deaderick, a descendant of the plantation owner, stood on what once was Deaderick Plantation, 5,000 acres of land which is now a part of Orange Mound.

As a Deaderick descendant, it is really an honor to be here, Michael Deaderick said. This is a sign of the great progress weve made but weve got a long way to go.

He said the monument could be a step toward reconciliation and that the city, and the country, could use more gestures of the type.

Michael Deaderick said no direct descendants of John Deaderick are left in Memphis.

John Deaderick bought the plantation in the early 1800s and the names of 30 enslaved individuals  which are now engraved on the marker  were listed in the inventory of the familys 1832 estate, according to research by genealogist Teresa Mays and historian Cynthia Sadler.

Though we do not know exactly where they are buried on the plantation, this marker erected within this white space is a symbol of the Black lives who created an enslaved community and representing African American placement in Shelby County, Sadler said.

Sadler said those enslaved ranged from 0 to 60 years old.

A group dressed in colorful African clothing played native music on flutes and shekeres, a hand percussion instrument, as the community members remembered the plantations history.

Our ancestors did not die in vain, Mitchell said.

Mitchell, 84, remembers the cemetery stretching down Park Avenue and as a child hesitantly passed by it with friends pretending we saw ghosts right in there.

As I learned the history, the cemetery meant so much more to me because I knew what it represented, Mitchell said. As a child it was just a scary, spooky thing.

Graham Perry, a Tennessee Historical Commission preservation specialist, attended as part of the Cemetery Preservation Program which identifies and protects historic cemeteries.

This marker is a symbol of reconciliation, Perry said. Reconciliation is something that is going to take hundreds of years but we must try, we must find ways to educate people and this is one way.
Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar of the nation's pandemic response.

States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases.

Some states trimmed their contact tracing teams this spring and summer when virus numbers were dropping and are now scrambling to train new investigators. Others have triaged their teams to focus on the most vulnerable, such as cases involving schools or children too young to be vaccinated.

Texas got out of the business entirely, with the new two-year state budget that takes effect Sept. 1 explicitly prohibiting funds being used for contact tracing. That left it up to local health officials, but they can't keep up at a time when Texas is averaging more than 16,000 new cases a day.

Mississippi has 150 staff working full time to identify people who have had close contact with an infected person, but they are swamped, too.

A lot of times by the time of cases are reported, transmission has already occurred by the time we reach that person, state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.

Since the pandemic began, states have been relying on the practice of contact tracing to track down, notify and monitor those who were exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that while contact tracing can be time-intensive, especially if one person potentially exposed a lot of people, it does in the end prevent additional cases.

Maldonado said its a staple of public health and can be the only way someone can find out a stranger may have potentially exposed them to the disease.

The contact tracing response has varied from state to state throughout the pandemic.

New York, which has had a robust team, has adjusted its contract tracing staff with the pandemics waves. The state had more than 8,000 contract tracers in February and March of this year but now has 3,860 staff working on contract tracing. That does not include New York City, which has its own $600 million tracing initiative with thousands of staff.

Arkansas has hired two outside firms, General Dynamics Information Technology and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, to handle the investigations for the state. The firms have about 257 people working right now and are each trying to add about 100 more.

In Louisiana, another virus hotspot, state officials have added 130 people in recent weeks to their staff working on contact tracing. They now have more than 560 people working on tracing efforts.

In Idaho, a new public health website, VolunteerIdaho.com, encourages people with health care skills or a simple willingness to volunteer for Idahos Medical Reserve Corps. Among the volunteers they are seeking are people who can with contact tracing and data entry

Health officials say with the overwhelming number of new cases, theyre not able to track every case and instead try to focus on infections that could have exposed large numbers of people or vulnerable groups.

That's the case in Alabama. Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Health said her agency encourages anyone who tests positive or is exposed to follow isolation and quarantine guidelines and notify anyone they had close contact with, but the health department is focusing its resources on bigger outbreaks, clusters and group settings.

In Nevada, the investigators are prioritizing their efforts around cases involving children or schools, according to Julia Peek, Deputy Administrator of Community Health Services at Nevadas health department.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott last year approved a $295 million contract with a firm to run contact tracing for the state, but the deal drew conservative backlash and a lawsuit from lawmakers who said the governor overstepped his authority by approving the deal with the Legislature was not in session.

Abbott eventually won the lawsuit, but contact tracing funds were stripped from the new budget.

Local governments say they're continuing the effort and trying to ramp up staffing as cases climb. In Austin, for example, the local health department had about 50 investigators working on contact tracing at the peak of the pandemic. But when cases dropped, they reduced their staff to 12, according to Austin Public Health spokesman to Matt Lara.

In California, state workers have been dispatched to help county health department teams working on contract tracing. At the peak of the pandemic, Los Angeles County had about 2,800 people working on the effort until this spring, when cases began falling, said True Beck, a public health worker who manages a team of contract tracers for the county.

Beck said some staff in the spring were reassigned to make calls encouraging people to get vaccines and others were sent back to their regular jobs at other county departments, but lately they've been bringing people back and have about 1,000 working.

She said the work is relentless and the calls, which can last an hour, can be emotional. Workers making contract tracing calls not only help people learn about what they should do to keep themselves and others safe, but they can hear from people who are scared, lonely or grieving or in need of assistance, such as with paying rent or getting food. Beck said the staff on her team try to help and connect people with other resources.

Its hard to do this day in and day out calling perfect strangers, she said.

She said people are not as eager to talk or do interviews as they were earlier in the pandemic, when there was a lot more fear and unknowns about the virus.

Now I think people are a little tired of COVID. I think we all are, frankly."

___

Follow Price on Twitter at twitter.com/michellelprice. Associated Press writers Leah Willingham in Jackson, Mississippi, Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Michelle Liu in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
LYONS, Ill. (AP)  Police discovered two containers Saturday in a backyard in suburban Chicago, a few days after a man told investigators that the bodies of his mother and sister were buried there years ago.

The man and a brother were also arrested, though no charges were filed while police try to confirm the identities of the remains, said Lyons Police Chief Tom Herion.
ROME (AP)  Italian military vessels on Saturday aided a decrepit fishing boat crammed with 539 migrants that was approaching the tiny southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Alida Serrachieri, a nurse who runs the Doctors Without Borders operation on Lampedusa, said the passengers included three women and several unaccompanied minors.

Two coast guard vessels and a customs boat ferried them ashore in small groups.

Serrachieri said she didnt know how long the fishing boat had been at sea after being launched from Libyan shores. But she said the migrants had spent weeks or even months in Libya awaiting passage in traffickers boats in hopes of reaching Europe.

At least 20 of the migrants who were examined by medical personnel had scars from torture, she said.

They had burn wounds, firearms wounds,'' Serrachieri told the AP. (They) were very worn down, some were dehydrated."

Many of the migrants were from North Africa or West Africa but some were from Bangladesh, she said.

In addition two small boats with about 15 migrants each reached Lampedusa's waters unaided from Tunisia earlier Saturday, she said. A third such boat with about 20 aboard was spotted approaching Lampedusa Saturday afternoon.

The island's housing complex, where migrants stay while the initial paperwork is done for asylum applications, can hold about 250 people but Saturday's arrivals swelled the number of occupants to about 1,200. Many migrants were awaiting transfer by boat to Sicily or the Italian mainland.

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Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
DENVER (AP)  After years of homelessness and scraping by for six children, Sheneen McClains life has condensed down to an almost singular mission: defending her late sons name while quietly fighting to reform the police.

Its been two years since McClains son, Elijah, went out for iced tea on Aug. 24, 2019, and didnt come home.

Aurora police officers received a call that night about a suspicious person walking down the street, waving his arms and wearing a ski mask. When they tried to stop him, he questioned them.

Even though McClain wasnt suspected of a crime and didnt appear to be armed, officers tackled him to the ground and placed him in two carotid chokeholds. When paramedics arrived, they injected him with the anesthetic ketamine at a much higher dose than appropriate for his size.

McClain had a heart attack on the way to the hospital and never recovered. He was declared brain dead and died a few days later.

At the time, his mother was homeless and living in a hotel with some of her other children. Sheneen McClain first heard from the police over a messenger app. She gave them her phone number. They insisted on coming to pick her up but wouldnt tell her why. Three police cars showed up at the hotel, her children got in one, she got in another. There was also a victims advocate there.

They went to the hospital.

It took about an hour before she saw her son; she said the police had a conference first. When she finally got into the room, where officers were guarding the door, her son was puffy and almost unrecognizable on life support. He had bubble wrap around his torso and gauze around his head. Tubes and devices were coming out of his mouth and nose. His eyes were half open but he wasnt alert.

A treble clef tattoo, representing his love of music, poked out above the bandages on his shoulder.

They kept saying it was his fault. The first thing I heard was Elijah was running through the parking lot, beating on cars recklessly and he was making a lot of noise running up and down the street. And the first thing Im thinking, of course, is, thats not who my son is, Sheneen McClain said. I know how he walks out of the house  he wears headphones and doesnt want to be distracted. But I did my best to keep quiet. I let them ask their questions.

She and her children only got a few days with McClain in the hospital before his death. He was 23.

 How could the world be so evil?

After her sons death, Sheneen McClain began to hold vigils near the spot where the officers stopped him. The actual location was on private property, so she had to cross the street to a weedy swatch of dirt alongside the highway. It was dusty and loud, with traffic roaring ahead. She called the city of Aurora and asked whether it was OK to be there. They said yes, so she went to Dollar Tree and bought solar lights and plastic flowers.

Soon, people she didnt know started showing up, filming her on Facebook Live. Someone mowed the patch of weeds so there were fewer bugs. She started a GoFundMe and she hired a lawyer to sue the city.

Sheneen McClain was achingly lonely even though she was increasingly surrounded by people who said they wanted to help. Weeks after Elijahs death, she spent hours a day crying in her car, so her kids wouldnt see it.

Im trying to figure out how God allowed this to happen. You know, how could the world be so evil? How could people that are supposed to be hired to save lives do this? she said. It was lonely. There were people that wanted to stand beside me, but I couldnt trust it.

Through all of this, her personal situation remained tenuous. She had been driving for Lyft, but had gotten in a car accident just a few weeks before Elijah was arrested and had lost the car and her job. One of Elijahs co-workers gave her an old car. She continued to live in a hotel with her other kids, heartbroken.

For a long time, there was no movement on her lawsuit and no one in Colorado seemed to care that Aurora police had killed a peaceful massage therapist.

Within three months, the then Adams County District Attorney Dave Young, cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing.

You know, Colorado was quiet. The politicians in Colorado were quiet, she said. To have politicians out here saying that it was a justified murder, you know, was, was, was very hard to deal with. There wasnt anybody I could talk to. I ended up trying to talk to a few people and it wasnt comforting because they, at some point in time, would end up leaving the scene.

Elijah had dropped out of high school at 17, but his mother said right when he turned 18, he took the GED test and passed without studying.

He enrolled in a massage therapy school and worked at a Little Caesars Pizza. He started reading more. He loved music and had taught himself the violin. At the time of the arrest, he was a massage therapist at Massage Envy and worked at a chiropractors office. His ultimate dream was to live on a cruise ship and work in massage therapy  seeing the world while healing people at the same time.

I thought maybe he could go work for the Broncos as a physical therapist and things like that, Sheneen said, But hes like, no, mom, I want to travel the world. And I want to do it with massage therapy.

 A national movement turns its attention to McClain

For much of that first year after her sons death, Sheenen McClain felt like her entire life had been rejected.

As a single mom, raising kids by myself, doing everything I could to make sure Elijah had a future so he didnt become a statistic, and then him being a statistic anyway, she said. It felt like the world had rejected us  And then to have the police officers kill my son. Spiritually, I thought that was a rejection too.

Then on May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered in Minnesota. And as protests grew around the country, Elijah McClains death joined the many viral stories in Americas ongoing reckoning with police brutality against unarmed Black people.

For weeks across the metro area, protesters chanted his name, on the steps of the state capitol, in front of the Aurora Municipal Building and up and down Colfax Avenue. Vigils in his honor attracted hundreds and thousands of people. One march ended with demonstrators blockading an Aurora police station for hours.

Federal, state and municipal leaders launched a total of five investigations into McClains death.

Sheneen didnt attend most of the protests, but she was busy online  Facebook, YouTube, Instagram  talking about Elijahs death. At some point last summer, Sheneen McClain said an activist told her to look at her GoFundMe page, which she had nearly forgotten.

Apparently they were watching the GoFundMe more than I was, she said. And when I checked it out, it had $2.5 million in there.

The donations so long after his death confused her. Where were all the people before? Why didnt anyone help when she could have used the money to bury Elijah? Shed had to cremate him instead. A burial would have made it possible to exhume his body for further investigations, but now it was too late.

I appreciate it. You know, I definitely appreciate it, but I still didnt understand it, she said. He was already gone.

The money did allow her family a new level of stability; she was able to buy a car and a house  she decided to move outside of Aurora.

The national attention continued through the summer; at the US Open, tennis player Naomi Osaka wore an Elijah McClain mask. The Denver Nuggets head coach wore a Justice For Elijah McClain T-shirt at a game.

That was awesome, Sheneen said.

She was also invited to help with a police reform bill in the works at the state capitol. Last summer, lawmakers passed it with bipartisan support  its political momentum came largely from the protests over her sons death. That new law includes a ban on chokeholds.

It was a bittersweet moment for Sheneen McClain.

I was told that they werent able to pass that bill before Elijahs death, she said. And I think to myself, if that bill had passed before Elijahs murder, Elijah would still be here. So it just makes me think of all the bad people that are in very powerful, very powerful, seats that do nothing.

 Progress comes with a dark side

With so much happening at once, Sheneen felt increasingly uncomfortable in the spotlight. Word had spread about all the donations, which she called blood money; she started receiving cold calls from people, including members of her own family, asking for money. People wanted her to contribute to organizations that had nothing to do with Elijah. They wanted her to form a foundation. She was getting unsolicited advice from everywhere.

The protesters, too, she felt, were using his name for their own purposes. During one protest downtown, she said people linked his death to the fight over bathroom access for trans people.

They said, Justice for Elijah is justice for this group of people, justice for Elijah is justice for that group of people, she said.  I said they definitely need to stop saying it ... because theyre not just out here for Elijah, right?

She also discovered people profiting from his death. Someone was selling clothing on Amazon with her sons last words. She found images of him that people had created  badly, she said  and were selling online.

Sheneen closed ranks even more. She was frustrated that there wasnt any movement in her lawsuit against the city of Aurora and didnt know who to trust.

Earlier this year, she switched lawyers. She donated money to homeless organizations that had helped her family throughout the many years they didnt have a stable place to stay. She also donated to some after-school programs that Elijah had enjoyed  including the Boys and Girls Club.

Progress comes with the good and the bad, you know, the pros and the cons, she said. I dont have any friends, you know, a lot of the people that were attaching themselves to me the first year, I dont even communicate with anymore because it ends up being theyre only there for the spotlight or the payout. My kids are my best friends. Theyve always been there.

 Continuing the fight

Sheneen McClains civil rights lawsuit is now making progress towards resolution. Investigations probing his death are ongoing  they include a statewide grand jury looking into whether the officers did anything illegal.

One report, commissioned by the city of Aurora, found that officers had no reason to lay hands on McClain the night he was walking back from the convenience store.

Sheneen McClains new lawyer, Qusair Mohamedbhai, believes her sons death has the power to move so many people, and inspire such a major culture shift, because of his innocence.

In my entire career doing this for almost 20 years, I have never seen such an innocent young man murdered, Mohamedbhai said. Its really hard to understand. And (the familys) fear and outrage and sadness has taken over our community and our country.

Sheneen said she wants to continue to work on policy and has ideas to improve policing and police oversight, including conflicts of interest with coroners and police officers. McClains autopsy not only failed to determine what specifically caused his death, the pathologist also declined to determine whether his death was caused by another human or the result of natural causes.

CPR News reported last year that the coroner met with police before McClains autopsy and that police investigators were present during the examination.

Sheneen is also in contact with both Congressmen Joe Neguse and Jason Crow about bills they have pending in Congress. One would ban the use of ketamine during arrests. Colorado lawmakers put new controls on the use of ketamine and the state has a temporary moratorium on its use in law enforcement situations.

Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson has also invited Sheneen McClain to talk to a graduating class of cadets. She hasnt decided yet whether to say yes.

Im thinking about it, she said. I would have an opportunity to impact future police officers  it would be nice if they did the right thing but as a whole they havent been.

She continues to defend her sons name from misuse, while also planning to steer clear of protests from here on.

Im not that kind of person, you know, to get on the bullhorn and lead a bunch of people down the street, trying to fight for rights that we shouldnt have to fight for, she said. I know my life matters, but it doesnt matter because Im Black  I dont think going down the street talking about Black Lives Matter is a way to get things accomplished.

Sheneen still talks to Elijah. She said sometimes when shes talking to him, the TV will switch on. She knows hes around and watching what happens. She said she has two goals moving forward.

For me, it comes down to the policies and the laws, she said. And Ill fight for the rest of my life to make sure people dont use his name in the wrong way.
ST. LOUIS (AP)  Evictions are resuming in St. Louis now that the U.S. Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing the latest eviction moratorium.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Mayor Tishaura Jones and other St. Louis leaders are urging tenants with financial hardship to take advantage of federal help to pay their rent.
GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP)  A former nurse at a Delaware correctional facility has been found guilty of two misdemeanor charges in connection with an investigation into the death of an inmate.

Erin Clark-Penland, who worked at the Sussex Correctional Institution, was convicted this week of falsifying business records and providing a false statement to law enforcement after a one-day trial, the News Journal reported.
ATLANTA (AP)  Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections.

Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections  from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results  were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year's election.

Its a game-changer in that the environment we have talked about existing now is a reality, said Matt Masterson, a former top election security official in the Trump administration. We told election officials, essentially, that you should assume this information is already out there. Now we know it is, and we dont know what they are going to do with it.

The software copies came from voting equipment in Mesa County, Colorado, and Antrim County, Michigan, where Trump allies had sue unsuccessfully challenging the results from last fall.

The Dominion software is used in some 30 states, including counties in California, Georgia and Michigan.

Election security pioneer Harri Hursti was at the South Dakota event and said he and other researchers in attendance were provided three separate copies of election management systems that run on the Dominion software. The data indicated they were from Antrim and Mesa counties. While it's not clear how the copies came to be released at the event, they were posted online and made available for public download.

The release gives hackers a practice environment to probe for vulnerabilities they could exploit and a road map to avoid defenses, Hursti said. All the hackers would need is physical access to the systems because they are not supposed to be connected to the internet.

The door is now wide open, Hursti said. The only question is, how do you sneak in the door?

A Dominion representative declined comment, citing an investigation.

U.S. election technology is dominated by just three vendors comprising 90% of the market, meaning election officials cannot easily swap out their existing technology. Release of the software copies essentially provides a blueprint for those trying to interfere with how elections are run. They could sabotage the system, alter the ballot design or even try to change results, said election technology expert Kevin Skoglund.

This disclosure increases both the likelihood that something happens and the impact of what would happen if it does, he said.

The effort by Republicans to examine voting equipment began soon after the November presidential election as Trump challenged the results and blamed his loss on widespread fraud, even though there has been no evidence of it.

Judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, election officials of both parties and Trumps own attorney general have dismissed the claims. A coalition of federal and state election officials called the 2020 election the most secure in U.S. history, and post-election audits across the country found no significant anomalies.

In Antrim County, a judge had allowed a forensic exam of voting equipment after a brief mix-up of election results led to a suit alleging fraud. It was dismissed in May. Hursti said the date on the software release matches the date of the forensic exam.

Calls seeking information from Antrim County's clerk and the local prosecutor's office were not immediately returned; a call to the judge's office was referred to the county clerk. The Michigan secretary of state's office declined comment.

In Colorado, federal, state and local authorities are investigating whether Mesa County elections staff might have provided unauthorized individuals access to their systems. The county elections clerk, Tina Peters, appeared onstage with Lindell in South Dakota and told the crowd her office was being targeted by Democrats in the state.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said she alerted federal election security officials of the breach and was told it was not viewed as a significant heightening of the election risk landscape at this point. This past week, Mesa County commissioners voted to replace voting equipment that Griswold had ordered could no longer be used.

Geoff Hale, who leads the election security effort at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said his agency has always operated on the assumption that system vulnerabilities are known by malicious actors. Election officials are focused instead on ways they can reduce risk, such as using ballots with a paper record that can be verified by the voter and rigorous post-election audits, Hale said.

He said having Dominion's software exposed publicly doesn't change the agency's guidance.

Security researcher Jack Cable said he assumes U.S. adversaries already had access to the software. He said he is more concerned the release would fan distrust among the growing number of people not inclined to believe in the security of U.S elections.

It is a concern that people, in the pursuit of trying to show the system is insecure, are actually making it more insecure, said Cable, who recently joined a cybersecurity firm run by former CISA Director Christopher Krebs and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos.

Concerns over access to voting machines and software first surfaced this year in Arizona, where the Republican-controlled state Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no previous election experience, to audit the Maricopa County election. The firm's chief executive also had tweeted support of conspiracy theories surrounding last year's election.

After the county's Dominion voting systems were turned over to the firm, Arizonas top election official said they could not be used again. The GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted in July to replace them.

Dominion has filed suits contesting various unfounded claims about its systems. In May, it called giving Cyber Ninjas access to its code reckless, given the firms bias, and said it would cause irreparable damage to election security.

Election technology and security expert Ryan Macias, in Arizona earlier this year to observe that review, was alarmed by a lack of cybersecurity protocols. There was no information about who was given access, whether those people had passed background checks or were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Cyber Ninjas did not respond to an email with questions about the review and their security protocols.

Macias was not surprised to hear that copies of Antrim Countys election management system had surfaced online given the questionable motives of the various groups conducting the reviews and the central role that voting systems have played in conspiracy theories.

This is what I anticipated would happen, and I anticipate it will happen yet again coming out of Arizona, Macias said. These actors have no liability and no rules of engagement.
Hurricane Ida is looking eerily like a dangerous and perhaps scarier sequel to 2005s Hurricane Katrina, the costliest storm in American history. But there's a few still-to-come twists that could make Ida nastier in some ways, but not quite as horrific in others.

The main story with Katrina was storm surge damage, and over a vast area. The main story with Ida will be a combination of wind, storm surge, and fresh water flooding damage, said meteorologist Jeff Masters, who flew hurricane missions for the government and founded Weather Underground.

Ida made landfall on the same calendar date, Aug. 29, as Katrina did 16 years ago, striking the same general part of Louisiana with about the same wind speed, after rapidly strengthening by going over a similar patch of deep warm water that supercharges hurricanes.

What could be different is crucial though: direction, size and strength.

Ida will most definitely be stronger than Katrina, and by a pretty big margin, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. And, the worst of the storm will pass over New Orleans and Baton Rouge, which got the weaker side of Katrina.

Ida was a strong Category 4 storm with 150 mph (241 kph) winds when it made landfall, a sneeze away from becoming the fifth Category 5 landfall on the continental U.S., McNoldy said.

Katrina weakened quite a bit before landfall, striking Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with 127 mph (204 kph) winds.

Katrina hit Louisiana from due south, while Ida is coming to the same part of the state from southeast. On Sunday, Idas hurricane-force winds extended 37 miles (about 60 kilometers) from the center, compared to Katrinas hurricane-force winds that spread 98 miles (158 kilometers) from the center when it made landfall, McNoldy said.

This has the potential to be more of a natural disaster whereas the big issue in Katrina was more of a man-made one because of levee failures, said McNoldy. Levee failures pushed Katrinas death toll to 1,833 and its overall damage to about $176 billion in current dollars, and experts dont expect Ida to come near those totals.

DIFFERENT DIRECTION

Ida came to the same general place from a slightly different direction. Several hurricane experts fear that difference in angle may put New Orleans more in the dangerous storm quadrant  the right front part of a hurricane  than it was in Katrina, when the city was more devastated by levee failure than storm surge. Katrinas northeast quadrant pushed 28-foot (8.5-meter) storm surges in Mississippi not New Orleans.

Idas angle is potentially even worse, McNoldy said. Because it is smaller "it's not going to as easily create a huge storm surge ... but the angle that this is coming in, I think is more conducive to pushing water into the lake (Pontchartrain).

That northwestern path of Ida not only puts New Orleans more in the bullseye than it did in Katrina, but it also more targets Baton Rouge and crucial industrial areas, Masters said. He said Ida is forecast to move through the just absolute worst place for a hurricane.

It is forecast to track over the industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which is one of the key infrastructure regions of the U.S., critical to the economy, Masters said. Youre probably going to shut down the Mississippi River for barge traffic for multiple weeks."

Meteorologist Steve Bowen, head of global catastrophe insight at the risk and consulting firm Aon, said the impact will be felt beyond coastal areas.

Were certainly looking at potential losses well into the billions, Bowen said.

SIZE MATTERS

The difference is size is not just physically huge, but it matters for damages. Storms that are bigger in width have larger storm surge because of the broader push of the water.

Ida is not going to generate the huge storm surge like Katrina did, itll have more focused storm surge like (1969s) Camille, Masters said.

But larger in size storms are often weaker, Bowen said. Theres a trade off of intense damage in a smaller area versus less damage, but still bad, in a wider area. Bowen and Princeton Universitys Gabriel Vecchi said they don't know which scenario would be worse in this case.

RAPID INTENSIFICATION

Ida late Saturday and early Sunday feasted on an eddy of whats called the Loop Current, going from 105 mph winds to 150 mph winds (169 kph winds to 241 kph winds) in just eight hours. The Loop Current is this deep patch of incredibly warm water. It takes warm water off the Yucatan Peninsula does a loop in the Gulf of Mexico and spins up the eastern edge of Florida into the Gulf Stream. Water above 79 degrees (26 degrees Celsius) is hurricane fuel.

Normally when a storm intensifies or stalls it takes up all of the regions warm water and then hits colder water that starts to weaken the storm or at least keeps it from further strengthening. But these warm water spots keep fueling a storm. Katrina powered up this way and so did Ida, gaining power over an area with hurricane fuel more than 500 feet (150 meters) deep, just a hot tub, McNoldy said.

Running over these Loop Current (eddys) is a very big deal. Its really dangerous, said climate and hurricane scientist Kossin of The Climate Service.

In the past 40 years more hurricanes are rapidly intensifying more often and climate change seems to be at least partly to be blame, Kossin and Vecchi said. Hurricane Grace already rapidly intensified this year and last year Hanna, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma and Delta all rapidly intensified.

It has a human fingerprint on it, said Kossin, who with Vecchi was part of a 2019 study on recent rapid intensifications.

NEW EYEWALL

After a hurricane rapidly intensifies it becomes so strong and its eye so small that it often can't quite keep going that way, so it forms an outer eyewall and the inside eyewall collapses, Kossin said. That's called eyewall replacement.

When a new eyewall forms, often a storm becomes larger in size but a bit weaker, Kossin said. So key for Ida is when and if that happens. It happened for Katrina, which steadily weakened in the 12 hours before it made landfall.

Ida has started the process of eyewall replacement, but McNoldy said he doesn't think it matters.

It has run out of time to do anything that would make a difference.

HISTORY

Meteorologists have improved forecasts and they hope that Louisiana is better prepared than in 2005 with a stronger levee system. However, Bowen said Ida is coming a year after Hurricane Laura smacked Louisiana in 2020 with 150 mph winds.

"No U.S. state since 1851 has ever recorded back-to-back years of 150+ mph hurricanes making landfall," Bowen said. Following Lauras landfall in 2020, Louisiana is about to make unfortunate history.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Nearly 10 months after last year's election, Pennsylvania's state lawmakers can seemingly no longer avoid pressure to mount an Arizona-style audit of the 2020 election, stoked by former President Donald Trump's persistent and baseless claims that the election was rigged against him.

The Senate's top Republican, President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, came out in recent days and threw his support behind a full forensic investigation, after weeks of silence about it and discord among Senate Republicans over efforts by one senator to drag the state into one.

At the same time, Corman and that senator, Doug Mastriano, a Trump loyalist, took to the livestreams of right-wing broadcasters to accuse each other of being the true obstacle to an audit, and claim the mantle of being the true champion for an audit.

Corman had previously been dismissive of it, saying in June that we dont need to relitigate 2020, even as Trump bashed Corman as fighting an audit as though he were a Radical Left Democrat.

Corman and many other Republican state lawmakers had avoided the subject by pointing to hearings they held, reports they produced and legislation they drafted to, in their view, fix Pennsylvanias election law.

But it had not satisfied enough Republican voters, apparently.

In any case, Arizona's audit does not even remotely resemble any kind of audit that is accepted by the election administration community.

The Associated Press takes a closer look at what is going on:

WHY DO REPUBLICANS WANT AN AUDIT?

The driving force behind the movement is to investigate claims by Trump and others that the election was stolen, with backers saying many people don't trust that the election was fair. Indeed, polls have shown a majority of Republicans don't trust the election result.

Democrats say an audit is simply a stunt to erode the legitimacy of President Joe Biden's victory  he won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, according to certified results  and they blame Trump and Republicans for spreading lies about the election that have sown distrust among voters.

The states attorney general, Democrat Josh Shapiro, called it a partisan fishing expedition" and has vowed to fight it, while Democratic Gov. Tom Wolfs top elections official threatened to decertify any state-certified election equipment that gets examined by third parties.

The state Republican Party is trying to fundraise off an audit  questioning what Democrats have to hide  while the state Democratic Party accuses Republicans of wasting time and money appeasing far-right insurrectionists.

Most Republican senators generally avoid repeating Trumps baseless election claims.

But they nevertheless perpetuate the idea that Democrats cheated by distorting the actions of Democratic state judges and officials leading up to last years election as unconstitutional or illegal."

Still, critics inside the Senate Republican caucus suggest that people who want the audit are only interested in seeing Trump reinstated. Election administrators say an audit is duplicative, given the required audits already carried out by county and the state.

Meanwhile, Trumps false claims of a stolen election have been debunked by the courts, his own Justice Department and numerous recounts, and no prosecutor, judge or election official in Pennsylvania has raised a concern about widespread fraud.

___

WHAT WILL AN AUDIT LOOK LIKE?

The blueprint for Trump allies is the widely discredited and partisan audit mounted by the Senate Republicans in Arizona, where they subpoenaed voting machines and ballots in heavily populated Maricopa County.

On July 7, Mastriano threatened to subpoena Philadelphia  a Democratic bastion that has been the target of Republican claims about voting fraud  and York and Tioga counties for similar access to voting machines, ballots, computers, documents and more.

However, Corman said Mastriano issued those demands without approval from the Senate Republican caucus and, in recent days, stripped Mastriano of his authority and handed it off to a different caucus member.

On Monday, Corman told a pro-Trump show host that the Senate can bring people in, we can put them under oath, right? We can subpoena records and thats what we need to do, and thats what were going to do.

He also has said Senate Republicans want access to voting machines, and they will go to court to help secure that access.

Corman also suggested that ballots would be compared to lists of who voted, while seemingly giving credence to right-wing conspiracy theories that dead people voted.

We need to get the voter rolls, we need to get the ballots, things of that nature, so we can match them up to see who voted, where were they living, were they alive, all those sort of things," Corman said on the pro-Trump Wendy Bell Radio program.

___

WHEN WILL IT START?

Corman had said hearings would begin this past week.

That didn't happen. Meanwhile, many questions remain unanswered about who will do the work, how will it be funded and where such a vast amount of documents and equipment would be stored.

Corman seems determined to avoid the pitfalls of Arizonas Senate Republicans, namely funding it with more than $5.7 million in private donations raised by Trump allies and hiring a cybersecurity firm with no election experience and led by a Trump supporter who has questioned the legitimacy of Biden's victory.

Senate Republican officials say they want credible auditors  such as an international firm with experience in elections  and believe funding it with private money is legally questionable.

The only money they may be able to find is cash from a massive reserve Pennsylvanias Legislature has maintained for years, managed in secret, with no rules over how it can be used.

The Senate alone last year reported $66 million in its reserve account.

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HOW IS THIS BEING RECEIVED?

Some hard-core supporters of an audit are unhappy over Mastrianos ouster and remain unconvinced by Corman's conversion, labeling him Jake the Snake while rooting for a primary challenger to beat him next May.

Others seem comfortable with the anointing of a new leader of the effort, Sen. Cris Dush, who has said he has doubts about the election result and embraced Arizona's audit in June when he visited to see it up close.

Corman said he has been in touch with Trump and that Trump seems to be comfortable with where were heading."

Perhaps the most important audience is Trump himself, and he has been officially silent about it.

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COULD THE ELECTION IN PENNSYLVANIA BE OVERTURNED?

Corman maintains that the aim of the audit is to find out the truth about last year's election and use it to ensure future elections are fair.

The Senate, he said, has no authority to overturn an election, but if our work leads to someone else taking that work into a court of law, and changing those results, then so be it.

Even if Pennsylvania's electors were somehow switched to Trump, Biden would still have enough electoral votes from other states to have prevailed in last year's election.

In any case, numerous federal and state courts have already thrown out lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and his allies, while most people are not aware of the safety procedures around casting a ballot in Pennsylvania, said Larry Otter, a lawyer who specializes in election law.

The possibility of finding a mammoth fraud on a statewide basis is zero, Otter said. This is a colossal waste of taxpayer money.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/timelywriter.
NACO, Ariz. (AP)  Cochise County sheriffs Deputy Bobby Zavala is surrounded by a group of fifth-graders who are about to raise the American and Arizona flags on a metal pole in a tiny yard in front of Naco Elementary School.

Before the flags are hoisted, however, Zavala runs over to another group of 10-year-olds standing behind them in a perfect queue and turns on the cell phone one of the youngsters is holding. The national anthem blares from the device and now the flag-raising can begin.

Zavala, 53, in full sheriffs deputy uniform, is the Naco schools first school resource officer and the second Cochise County sheriffs deputy to work as a school resource officer, the Herald-Review reported.

Raising the American flag and teaching children about its importance and how it should be respected is just one of the many duties he performs throughout the day at this unique place of learning about 700 yards (640 meters) from the U.S.-Mexico border.

This is truly a blessing, Zavala says about the experience hes had so far at the elementary school. I absolutely love it.

School Superintendent Tim Mayclin said he tried for two years to get someone like Zavala to become the schools first SRO. But there was never grant money available make it happen.

That changed about a year and a half ago when state Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman visited the K-8 school and was struck by a poster created by first-graders during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Mayclin said.

Our first-graders had put up something that they had a dream that we could get rid of all the guns and drugs and that really touched her, Mayclin said. When she went back (to Phoenix) after making a lot of rural visits, she saw there was a need for way more school resource officers out in the country. She went back and took some of their federal money and sent me an email telling me we could get one (an SRO).

Mayclin began searching for an SRO, but was rebuffed at almost every turn because, a lot of people werent interested.

Then he heard about Zavala.

The veteran deputy said he received a call about the job at the Naco school while he was living in Phoenix with his family. Zavala said he had been a full-time deputy with Cochise County since 2010, but became a reserve in 2019 because he wanted to pursue a graduate degree. He and his wife and their 9-year-old son  the Zavalas have four grown children  had been in Phoenix for almost two years when the call came about the SRO position.

After discussing it with his spouse, Zavala, a Bisbee native, decided that returning to Cochise County was the best thing and what his family really wanted.

He became a full-time sheriffs deputy again  a requirement to be an SRO  and started his new gig at the Naco school in mid-July.

The need for an SRO at the Naco school has a lot to do with its location and the areas demographics, Mayclin said.

Being on the border adds a different dimension to things, he said. Were high poverty, were extremely rural. There are just a lot of intangible things, but being close to the border, I mean when I moved here it was just after a bunch of people had just gotten killed by the cartel. When we needed somebody to come here (a police officer) it was usually a couple of hours before we could get anybody if we had an incident.

Anything I can do to to make our school better, to make our school safer and better for our kids and our staff thats my emphasis.

The fact that Zavala is a Bisbee native who is also bilingual improved the situation, Mayclin said.

Someone coming here from Phoenix or Tucson just wouldnt have the same understanding, Mayclin said.

In his school office Zavala, with a ready grin, expanded on Mayclins comments regarding the need for a law enforcement officer at the elementary school level.

Aside from what Zavala called the exterior benefits of being at the Naco school, such as teaching the students civic responsibility and engagement through the flag-raising ceremony, there are underlying factors that are crucial, Zavala said.

What is even more important is to teach these young children that law enforcement here in the United States is here to help, were here to protect, were here to serve, he said. Were here to provide peace to these children who come from another country or another set of variables. They can come here, they can study at peace and be comfortable.

The staff also needs to know that they can come and be comfortable that they can teach with ease and they dont have to worry about violence.

Before stepping into his office and after the flag-raising ceremony, Zavala stood in the breezeway at the school greeting numerous children with a good morning or the Spanish counterpart, buenos dias. He asked a few of the older youngsters if they were OK in both languages.

Most of the students have responded favorably to Zavalas presence, as have many nearby Naco residents who have told Zavala that they feel safe that hes at the school. Some of the older students though, have looked at Zavala askance, he said.

I think its just the age groups, Zavala says in a matter-of-fact tone. Theyre going from pre-teen to teen and they  especially the boys  like to think that theyre tough. We have some young ladies that are the same way.

The issue presented by some of the older students  mainly some of the eighth-graders  has been the bullying of some of the younger children, Zavala said.

His day at the school normally begins at about 6:30 a.m. Thats when Zavala and Mayclin meet to discuss any expected issues. Then the SRO reaches for a cup of coffee  which he calls paramount  before he heads out and greets arriving teachers and some of the early-bird students. He also teaches a class in Arizona law to the upper grades that deals with drugs, bullying and weapons in order to prepare the youngsters once they get to high school.

By the time they get to high school, theyll be aware that they cant be bringing drugs to school, they cant bring weapons to school and they cant be bullying, Zavala says.

He says teaching the courses helps break the barriers with some of the less-trusting students.

Its a great time to bond with the children, Zavala says. Our classes are interactive. Its not just a lecture. I want to learn from them because these young kids see more and know more than we think they do.

A great majority of the youngsters who attend Naco school cross the border daily from Naco, Sonora, Zavala said.

On this particular Thursday morning, large groups of children  some with their parents, some without  are making their trek along Towner Avenue in Naco, Arizona, after theyve walked through U.S. Customs and Border Protections port of entry.

Although the children are attending school in the U.S., the parents of some of these youngsters are not allowed to enter the country for whatever reason, Zavala said.

In the afternoon, after school lets out, Zavala sees to it that the same youngsters who crossed the border without an adult get accompanied by him to the port of entry.

Most days he must make the same trip five and six times, until all the children have gone home to Sonora.

Hopefully their parents are waiting on the other side, he says. These are kids who are 5 and 6 years old. There are about 600 to 700 yards of street that they have to navigate before they get to the international border.

The hope is that if anyone wants to harm one of the youngsters, theyll think twice once they see that theyre accompanied by a cop, Zavala said.

Weve had no problems, but I would rather err on the side of caution, he said.

The daily walks to the border, like teaching the classes on Arizona law, have created a bond between Zavala and some of the children he escorts.

The kids are winding down at the end of the day, he said. Ive learned a lot of names, Ive learned about the families, I know where theyre coming from. They are sweet children. Its nice to have that walk with them at the end of the day.

For Mayclin, the addition of Zavala to the staff has been nothing but a win-win.

Its been really positive, Mayclin said. Weve been able to use Officer Zavala to start some really positive relationships with the kids.

The only time many of these kids see a law enforcement officer is when somebody has done something wrong or if something has happened to someone. Our goal is to change that a little bit. Zavala also makes teachers and community members feel safer because we have someone here. Its really been a nice thing to add.

Sheriffs officials said Zavalas position is being funded by a two-year grant.

Sheriff Mark Dannels said Zavala is a great fit for the position and represents the agency with professionalism and pride.

Deputy Zavala has proven that he has the passion to wear the badge and will undoubtedly make a difference in our future generations through daily examples to the kids he has taken under his wing, Dannels said.
LOS ANGELES  In the giddy early hours of his landslide victory, California's governor-elect struck a tone that signaled the grandiosity of his ambitions. "The sun is rising in the west, and the arc of history is bending in our direction," Gavin Newsom told jubilant supporters on election night in November 2018.

There was some basis for a progressive Democrat's fizzy confidence. Newsom had trounced his Republican rival with 62% of the vote. He would enter office with a massive budget surplus in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1, with supermajorities in both legislative houses.

He had survived a sex scandal as mayor of San Francisco, served eight years in the unglamorous job of lieutenant governor, and weathered claims that he was too ambitious, too slickly handsome, and too patrician-seeming  a supposed son of privilege whose bid for power was greased by his father's big-money connections.

He had campaigned as a leader of resistance to the Republican White House, and promised that America's most populous state would serve as an anti-Trump bulwark, as well as a continued engine of industry and innovation. "The future," he told the election-night crowd, "belongs to California."

Whether the future belongs to Gavin Newsom, 53, is now an open question. Voters on Sept. 14 will decide whether to cashier the governor before he has even completed his first term, in the second gubernatorial recall election in the state's history.

Among likely voters, 47% favor recall, while 50% want to keep him, according to a recent poll by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. To hold onto his job, Newsom needs one vote more than 50%.

The story of a Democratic governor who finds himself fighting for political survival in a deep-blue state is hard to imagine without COVID-19, which has unleashed fury at leaders around the country.

"This is truly the pandemic recall  there's no other way to describe it," said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California. He said how governors have responded to the pandemic will define their legacies: "For governors elected in 2018, it's not what they signed up for, but it's what they're going to be known for in history."

Newsom's early response to the pandemic, including the nation's first statewide stay-at-home order, did not tank his approval rating among registered voters, and in September 2020 an IGS poll put it at 64%.

But by last month it had dropped to 50%. COVID fatigue was pervasive, the Delta variant was spreading, and Newsom  with regular, sometimes confusingly jargon-laden briefings  had made himself the public face of the state's inconsistent pandemic response.

Apart from high taxes, homelessness and crime spikes, recall ads cite the pandemic-related shutdown of public schools, and billions of tax dollars lost under Newsom to unemployment fraud.

"The person in charge always gets too much credit when things are good, and too much blame when things are bad," said Dan Schnur, a professor at UC Berkeley and USC and former Republican political consultant. "Most Californians know that Newsom didn't cause the coronavirus, but he's taking the lion's share of the blame for how they feel it's been handled."

Newsom's plight also owes in part to a Sacramento Superior Court Judge's decision in November. Recall organizers claimed that Newsom's pandemic shutdowns were hampering their effort to gather the necessary 1.5 million signatures, and the judge gave them four extra months to do so, a ruling Newsom did not challenge.

The same month, Newsom blundered into the French Laundry, a three-star Michelin restaurant in California's wine country. Photos showed the governor celebrating a lobbyist friend's birthday at the temple of haute cuisine, unmasked, at a time when he had been urging 40 million fellow Californians to avoid multifamily gatherings.

Caught, Newsom expressed contrition, but the struggling recall effort gained impetus, allowing free-floating misgivings about Newsom to find a focus. An out-of-touch elitist, a hypocrite, a multimillionaire who mingled with lobbyists when he thought people weren't looking  it seemed an amalgam of his enemies' caricatures of him.

The incident made "Saturday Night Live," where an actor playing Newsom was introduced like this: "He's hated by every single person in California except those 10 people he had dinner with in Napa that one time."

Newsom had always struggled to combat perceptions that he was born into privilege. His late father, William Newsom, was a state appellate court justice who after retiring became a legal fixer to his friend Gordon Getty, scion of the Getty oil fortune. Getty invested in Newsom's first business, the PlumpJack Wine and Spirits store, which opened in San Francisco in 1992, and Newsom's businesses have since blossomed into a hospitality powerhouse of restaurants, hotels and bars.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown appointed Newsom to the Parking and Traffic Commission in 1996, and gave him a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors a year later.

Newsom later ran for mayor and won. Soon after taking office in 2004, the 36-year-old Newsom became a national figure by ordering the city clerk to issue same-sex wedding licenses, long before it was legal.

Thousands of people married before the state Supreme Court blocked it. Newsom suffered political blowback for years  including from Democrats who claimed he had handed Republicans a culture-war wedge issue  though his supporters portrayed his gesture as one of prescient moral boldness.

"Newsom is clearly somebody who wants to make history," said Garry South, a longtime political consultant who advised Newsom on his brief 2010 campaign for governor. "This is not somebody who is going to nibble around the edges, and do something 3% better than his predecessor did."

The telegenic mayor, with the bearing of an ex-jock and hair gelled straight back from a high forehead, provided gossip-page fodder after the collapse of his marriage to his first wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle. He appeared at a gala with a 19-year-old date, a model, who was seen holding a glass of wine. But San Franciscans did not seem especially troubled by headlines like "Mayor McHottie's New Girlfriend  Half His Age."

His reputation suffered, however, when he acknowledged that he had had an affair with his appointments secretary, who was married to his deputy chief of staff. He apologized and said he would get counseling for alcohol abuse.

When he ran for governor, his rivals derided him as a "Davos Democrat" and "Prince Gavin," and Republican opponent John Cox's campaign put up a website called "Fortunate $on."

His supporters pushed an alternative narrative  the underdog story of a man with severe dyslexia whose parents split up when he was young, and who was raised by a mother who worked multiple jobs and took in foster kids to pay the bills.

His persona makes him "come off as somebody who is upper crust," but "he earned the money," South said. "He gets hit with all of this criticism about high-society, hoity-toity wine bars and all that stuff. But here's somebody who came from a broken home, lived in basically a roadside motel in Marin County, and through hard work became a multimillionaire. This is not someone who's inherited his wealth, and that's one of the misconceptions about him."

Still, for voters who don't know much else about Newsom, the French Laundry incident seems to have special staying power.

"The average voter is not going to remember hospitalization rates and viral caseloads, but the impression of their governor going to a fancy restaurant with lobbyists during a shutdown is much easier to process, and much more likely to linger," Schnur said.

"The most damaging gaffes in politics don't create new impressions, they reinforce existing ones," Schnur added. "A lot of voters already felt that he was someone of great privilege who didn't understand what their daily lives were like. Going to the restaurant reinforced the idea that he could play by a different set of rules than they were permitted."

As governor, Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions. As a leader of the anti-Trump resistance, he supported a measure requiring Donald Trump to release his tax returns and pulled California National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Newsom lost a useful political foil when voters turned Donald Trump out of the White House, but has worked to frame the recall as the work of Trump-friendly Republicans. His opposition gained a targetable face with the emergence of Larry Elder, a conservative talk-show host, as a front-runner.

"Newsom was having trouble running against Trump because Trump was no longer in office," Schnur said. "He was having trouble running against the multi-candidate amorphous Republican blob. But Larry Elder is a living, breathing human being who says very controversial things. Newsom couldn't have asked for anything more."

If voters choose to recall Newsom, they will pick among 46 candidates. Voters will find no prominent Democrats on the list, because Newsom urged them not to run. It is a risky all-or-nothing strategy.

The last time California held a gubernatorial recall, in 2003, it cost Democratic Gov. Gray Davis his job. Voters were fueled by anger over a car tax and power outages. His replacement, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was the last Republican governor to hold office in the state.

"When you run for office, you ought to be aware that the recall law and initiatives have been law for 111 years," Davis said in a recent interview. "I don't join the whiners and the moaners and the complainers. That's just the way California is. That being said, Gavin Newsom had nothing to do with the arrival of the pandemic."

He added, "I think he's done a very good job given the hand he's been dealt."



Los Angeles Times staff writers Taryn Luna and Phil Willon, in Sacramento, contributed to this report.


MAHOMET. Ill. (AP)  After almost 11 months in their brand-new Mahomet home, Ben and Nicole Thomann are still tweaking their decor.

But one item has found a long-term place of honor on the family-room wall, and if it could talk, oh, the stories it might tell.

On my first deployment to Afghanistan in 2003, I asked my parents to send me the flag and they sent me the flag we used to fly at the house, and from that point on, I carried it with me wherever I went, said Ben Thomann.

The 39-year-old Thomann is about to officially retire from the Army, which he has served honorably for almost 22 years, The News-Gazette of Champaign reports.

He recently had his Stars and Stripes framed at a local crafts store.

Its seen better days, he said. Its worn. The edges are frayed and coming apart.

Although faded, its mostly intact and still striking in its beauty.

Thomann and his family are grateful that the flag has been retired from its original intended purpose.

I started to carry it for kind of a morbid reason, he said. If you get killed, they drape your remains in a flag. I wanted it to be a special flag.

Ive flown it off the back of Humvees, armored vehicles in firefights in Iraq, at half mast over various camps for fallen service members on numerous occasions, he added. Its been with me, either in my bag or on the back of my body armor, since 2003.

Thomann estimates the flag has been to 25 countries, starting at its first home in Custer Park in Will County, and ending in his new home in Mahomet in Champaign County, where he plans for it to remain for the foreseeable future.

In between, its been to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, to name a few.

My area of specialty kept me primarily in Asia, he said. Im a Green Beret, Army Special Forces. I ran my own teams where I was able to lead them through several operations in different countries  including a few he cannot name because its not publicly known that the U.S. has a presence in those places.

Suffice it to say, Thomann has been to many places far, far away from his childhood home near the Kankakee River, where he grew up with an older brother, Matt, and a younger sister, Emily.

His folks, Terry and Jane Thomann, who now live in Virginia, moved the family to Morton when he was in high school. There, Thomann met his wife, Nicole, who dated him for a while but wasnt interested in following him when he joined the military right out of high school.

I wanted to go to college, she said, simply.

Her choice paid off, as shes now a board-certified behavior analyst working on her doctoral degree while teaching college courses.

After she got out of college, she and Ben reunited in 2006 and married in 2011. She was with him while he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, for several years and was able to finish her masters degree online. Otherwise, shes been mostly stateside in Fort Bragg, N.C., or Fort Lewis, Wash., as he served. They have an 8-year-old daughter, Adalyn. Ben has an older daughter, Skyler, 16, who lives in New York.

The son of a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy and the grandson of World War II vets who served in the Army and Navy, Thomann said he felt destined to be in the military. His father and grandfathers did not choose, however, to make a career of their service.

I didnt expect to go the full 20 years, he said. I originally enlisted in the infantry. During my first deployment in 2003, I worked with a Special Forces team over there and I was just star-struck at how professional and amazing they were at their jobs. I decided right then, I have to do that.

The selection process is grueling. I could talk for days about what they look for, the psychological process, added Thomann, who is clearly passionate about his service with the elite group of soldiers. Once you are selected, its two years of training. Its not just physical. Its the mental aptitude that plays a huge part.

The motto of the Green Beret is to free the oppressed. We seek out hot spots in the world where the government is doing bad things to good people and we try to put a stop to it.

The elite groups nontraditional aspect appealed to Thomann.

One thing the Green Berets are kind of famous for is thinking outside the box, he said. We dont typically fall into a typical military mindset.

We talk through problems and come up with solutions together. My team members dont address me by rank. Its by first names, very collaborative, he added. I sit with my team and have a roundtable discussion. Everyone has a chance to come up with options. We talk it out, but when the bullets are flying, you have to trust me to make the right decision.

Trained in counter-terrorism techniques, Thomann has a raft of skills, including how to scale mountains. He has a tool used for that encased in another frame that hangs next to his flag.

Those treasured military mementos include pictures of a team he led for three years in Afghanistan and a placard with a Ben Thomann quote: Im going to go find something over here to blow up.

He also has a letter personally signed by former President Donald Trump thanking him for his service.

Thomann said he ran security for the president when Trump visited troops in the Mideast on Thanksgiving 2019. Trump met many of Thomanns friends and handed out valor awards and special coins, but Thomann missed out on those. Hearing that, his dad wrote the White House about the omission and Trump responded with the thank-you letter, also now part of the family-room decor.

Still to be added to the walls are photographs of Afghan soldiers and civilians who worked with the U.S. troops.

So far, Ive helped four Afghan nationals move here to the U.S. and am now working to get a few more here, he said. The special immigration visa program is so bogged down, its ridiculous.

In the past six months, two of my guys who worked for me have been murdered while waiting to come here, he added. The Taliban and ISIS are working double-time to murder these people who helped us. Ive emailed senators and congressmen doing everything I can to help these guys get here. Some of these guys have saved dozens of U.S. members lives.

As for his flag, Thomann said he appreciates the attention its getting and hopes its stay in Mahomet will be long-term as he recently began a new career at electric-car manufacturer Rivian in Normal.

His folks didnt even know what I was doing with it over the last 20 years, he said. It wasnt until I got it framed and I showed it to them. It was kind of emotional for both my parents. Theyre obviously very proud.

His daughter, Adalyn, is also in that camp. Shes been to the Special Forces memorial at his groups headquarters at Fort Lewis, where they have talked about the sacrifices of soldiers.

She is proud of it and has brought friends to our house, he said. She says, This is my dads flag. This is where it has been. I think its good for her and I hope its instilling values in her that I dont know all the kids get these days.

I believe a lot in what this country stands for, he added. Were a symbol around the world, and its something people who are born in this country and lived in this country all their lives forget sometimes.

Its easy to become kind of complacent here. Through my travels, meeting people and working with foreign people is a great reminder of how good we have it here. I often thought it was funny that the only people who dont want to be in America are the Americans.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP)  Indiana State University is continuing to see sharp declines in student enrollment even as other universities in the state have more students arriving on campus.

Indiana State officials announced this past week a fall semester enrollment of 9,459 at the Terre Haute campus  down almost 1,400 students, or 13%, from last year.

University officials blame the COVID-19 pandemic as a big reason for the decline, the (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star reported.

Indiana State draws many students who are the first in their families to attend college or come from low-income families and are the most likely nationally to delay going to college, school President Deborah Curtis said.

This fall semesters drop follows a recent trend that has seen Indiana States enrollment fall by about 27% since it had some 13,000 students in 2017.

University officials announced earlier in August a program aimed at new fall 2022 students that will include a grant of up to $3,000 for an out-of-classroom educational experience such as an internship or study abroad and a guarantee of being able to graduate within four years or the remainder of tuition is free.

Were going to own this, Curtis said. Weve got work to do.

Meanwhile, Purdue University said it was breaking an enrollment record with more than 45,000 students at its West Lafayette campus, including a largest-ever freshman class topping 10,000. Indiana University hasnt announced a total enrollment yet but officials have projected a record-sized freshman class of some 9,300 students.

Curtis said the recent enrollment declines have hurt Indiana States budget.

Weve been very fortunate to minimally impact anyone currently working in a job, she said.

Staff reductions are never off the table, Curtis said, but the universitys goal is to keep people employed. However, Weve got to turn those enrollment numbers around.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  An order issued by the Iowa Supreme Court will require everyone entering any Iowa courthouse to wear a face covering, regardless of whether they are vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that in the order issued Friday, Chief Judge Susan Larson Christensen said the court is balancing the need to take measures to reduce the spread of the virus with its commitment to conduct the important work of the courts.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  A judge ruled in favor of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the legal dispute over the sale of an Alabama nuclear plant, but said the utility must refund millions over the aborted deal.

The ruling issued Thursday is a victory to the utility and could end the winding saga over the sale of the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Scottsboro. U.S. District Judge Liles Burke ruled TVA did not violate its sales contract and had no obligation to extend the closing deadline for a company called Nuclear Development to buy the facility.

Nuclear Development LLC in 2016 had agreed to buy the site for $111 million. However, the company in 2018 filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the Tennessee Valley Authority of illegally pulling out of the sale a day before closing.

The utility has argued Nuclear Development failed to get the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions approval for transfer of the construction permits in time for the closing deadline. The company had argued that TVA pulled out of the sale because of concerns that it would lose customers to Nuclear Development.

Burke wrote that the motives of TVA officials ultimately did not matter because the company failed to meet the requirement of the deal. The utility had no obligation to extend the deadline.

Burke did rule that TVA must return the $22 million down payment for the property, plus interest.

We are extremely pleased with this outcome. The court clearly validated our longstanding position that TVA did not breach its contractual duty to cooperate and use best efforts to complete the sale of Bellefonte to Nuclear Development, the company said in a statement.

TVA retains full possession and control of the Bellefonte site. We continue to evaluate the courts order and look forward to moving toward returning the Bellefonte property to productive use.

TVA began work at the Bellefonte site in the mid-1970s, but it never finished the two-reactor plant as growth in the demand for electricity waned.

TVA is the nations largest public utility and provides electricity to millions of people in parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  The number of patients in intensive care units in Maine hospitals has tied the pandemics previous high as the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to surge.

The number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU hit 71 on Friday, tying the previous high on Jan. 20 in Maine after a holiday surge in infections.

The delta variant, which accounts for virtually all coronavirus infections in Maine, is more contagious than earlier strains of the virus and it's also more likely to cause serious illness in unvaccinated individuals, health officials say.

Statewide, 143 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Friday and 31 of the 71 people in the ICU required ventilators, the Maine Center for Disease Control reported.

In other pandemic-related news in the region:

MASSACHUSETTS

Face coverings may soon be required for children as young as 5 and for staff members working in early education.

Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy is asking the Early Education and Care Board to grant her authority to implement the indoor mask mandate at state-licensed day care centers in Massachusetts.

Mask mandates are already in place for students in public schools for the start of the school this fall.

RHODE ISLAND

Housing advocates want state leaders in Rhode Island to enact a ban on residential evictions following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal moratorium.

The governor and the General Assembly have the authority to protect the publics health with a moratorium, said Jennifer L. Wood, executive director of the Rhode Island Center for Justice, which has been helping struggling tenants in securing federal rent assistance.

The office of Gov. Dan McKee expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court ruling on Thursday.

As we explore all available options to keep Rhode Islanders in their homes, we urge those at risk of eviction to apply for assistance through RentReliefRI," said Alana OHare, a spokesperson for the governor.

VERMONT

A small number of bars and clubs requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination say the response is largely positive in Vermont's biggest city.

The Vermont Comedy Club opened Wednesday for the first time since the start of the pandemic with a vaccine requirement. Owner Natalie Miller said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

We want to keep our staff safe and the best way to do that is make sure the people coming in here are vaccinated," she told WCAX-TV.

At Three Needs, there's also been no negative feedback, said Thomas Fitzgerald, head of security.

People seem OK showing their vaccination cards and really happy were doing it and keeping the community safe," he said.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP)  Maine's largest utility will have a new president starting next month.

Central Maine Power said it has appointed company veteran Joseph Purington as president and chief executive officer. Purington started his career with CMP in 1987 and is expected to start his new role at the end of September.

CMP executive chairman David Flanagan said he will move into a senior advisory role once Purington takes over. Flanagan helped lead the search for the new president.

Purington worked for CMP for almost 30 years before joining Eversource New Hampshire in 2014. He became president of New Hampshire operations for Eversource in January 2020.

CMP faces "new challenges in helping Maine realize its clean energy future, and I cant wait to get started, Purington said.
PITTSBURGH (AP) 

Famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle once wrote that All Marines are souvenir hunters.

So it may have been with Sgt. Harry Dininger of the 22nd Marine Regiment.

Among his correspondence from the Pacific to his parents in Freeport in 1944, he included five photos hed likely acquired from a dead Japanese soldier in the Marshall Islands.

He sent them home to show his family what the Japanese were like. A year later he was dead, too, cut down by a bullet on Okinawa at age 25.

The photos are portraits of a Japanese family of five, with three children and their parents; a man and a boy; a shirtless young man wielding a bokken, or wooden training sword; a woman in a kimono; and a man, also in a kimono.

Seventy-seven years later and half a world away, Harrys great-nephew is trying to find out who those people were and return the photos to their relatives.

David Wassel, 59, of White Oak, discovered them in the home of Harrys brother Bob, also a World War II combat veteran, when he was cleaning out the house after Bob died.

With the help of a Japanese journalist and producer, hes contacted Japanese authorities and given interviews to Japanese media in an effort to provide a sense of peace for a distant family.

The reason is simple: Empathy for a former enemy.

Harry Diningers remains came home in 1949.

But many families of Japanese soldiers killed in the Pacific received little more than a wooden box with a piece of paper containing the mans name and a pebble signifying his remains, or perhaps a piece of coral or some sand to represent where he died.

With no bones, no artifacts, no dog tags, it was almost like these men never existed.

You cant have closure, but you can have some closure. Harrys family at least had a body. These people got nothing except maybe a pebble, said Mr. Wassel, an attorney.

Mariko Fukuyama, an independent producer for Japanese media based in New York, has helped Mr. Wassel get the story out across Japan during the past year.

In May she visited White Oak and Freeport to help Huffington Post Japan and Mainichi, the national newspaper, interview Mr. Wassel and shoot video, and she was back last month to do the same for a TV Asahi segment that was set to air Friday night to coincide with the anniversary of the Japanese surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.

For her, the photos feel almost personal.

They really speak to my heart  how close they look like my own family, she said last week. Many Japanese families would probably feel the way I felt when I saw them.

Long-ago photos often resonate with families on both sides of historys most catastrophic war.

Pictures tend to humanize an enemy. Soldiers saw that the people they were fighting were not faceless warriors but young men like them, with parents, siblings and sweethearts.

The U.S. Marines were not the only souvenir collectors; a picture of Harry was also recovered from a dead Japanese soldier, likely taken from Harrys pack after hed been wounded on Guam.

I have to find the family

Like millions of young Americans, Harry and Bob Dininger did their duty during Americas darkest hour.

Harry, a three-sport letterman at Freeport High School and president of the class of 1938, had joined the Marines before the war began and shipped off for the Pacific, seeing action in several island battles. Bob, older by eight years, became a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne and landed at Normandy on D-Day, later fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

After Bob died in 1999 and his wife, Mary (Curl) Dininger, died in 2002, Mr. Wassel found a box of 170 letters in the basement. Bob and Harry had written to each other and to their parents throughout the war. Mr. Wassel pored over the correspondence and felt transported to another time.

I went through those things and read the letters and it was other-worldly, he recalled. These people didnt know how this (war) was going to turn out.

Typical of the time and that generation, Bob and Harry tended to understate the hardships and danger. Wartime censorship also curtailed any detailed description of action or location. Harry often just said that everything was swell. The sentiment was not to worry the home folks.

Mr. Wassel, whose Marine father fought in Vietnam, had heard stories of World War II from Bob over the years. He wanted his own great-nephew, 9-year-old Chase Wassel, and Chases 2-year-old brother, Ezra, to someday understand their connection to the war years.

Id like this to mean something to them, as well as other young people, in both the United States and Japan, and for them all to take from this a genuine appreciation of history in general and the roles that their own families played in particular, Mr. Wassel said in an email. Thats another reason that finding out who was this young Japanese soldier is so important. It gives young people in both countries the stories of their own countrymen and that of the other country.

Harry never said where he got the photos. Based on the date of the letter, he likely obtained them after fighting on Engebi and Parry islands in February 1944. Some 2,000 Japanese soldiers died on those islands.

The U.S. Marines in the Pacific, as Ernie Pyle wrote, routinely took items from corpses and sent them home. Especially prized were samurai swords and comfort flags carried by Japanese soldiers as good-luck tokens in combat. The Marines also searched bodies for intelligence to help the campaign.

However Harry came by the photos, he wrote home: I sort of thought you would like to see what the people we are fighting look like.

Freeport was a small town then as it is today, and these are probably the first Asian people Harry had ever seen, Mr. Wassel said. I think he was curious.

Mr. Wassel said he felt sympathy for Harry and for the dead Japanese soldier, both young men killed in their prime in a war that left millions dead.

He had long felt the photos should be returned to their owners, but he wasnt sure where to turn.

Ms. Fukuyama became his conduit. In 2018 she spent a few weeks in Uniontown covering the mid-term elections and met Mr. Wassel, who was doing legal work for the Democratic Party. She later returned to Pittsburgh to cover the Tree of Life shootings.

Mr. Wassel stayed in touch with her by email and in 2020 mentioned the photos to her. She was busy at the time and didnt respond, she said. In March he sent her the photos.

Thats when I realized these are family photos, she said. I said, I have to find the family.

The family portrait in particular made an impression, especially the clothing; her own grandmothers had worn similar kimonos.

She got in touch with the Marshall Islands War-Bereaved Families Association, made contacts with her media colleagues and contributed to several stories. The exposure generated a buzz but no leads. At one point the Marshall Islands group reached out to the daughter of an actor, thinking he might be the young man with the sword. But the daughter said it was not him.

A mystery man

After the Marshall Islands fell, the U.S. took Guam in July and August 1944. Harry fought there and was shot in the arm. He spent several months in a hospital on New Caledonia.

My arm is coming along swell and is healing up remarkable, be good as new in a short while, he wrote to his parents. I sure would like to hear from you soon, so I could find out how things are going with Bob over on the other side. Right now things as a whole are going mighty good.

Earlier that August, as the Allies pushed across France after D-Day, Bob sent a hopeful letter to his brother  he addressed him as kid  saying the European war might be over soon. After that, he said, the full force of our men can be turned in your direction. Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to insinuate that you need help but it sure would speed things up. After all, thats of utmost importance, the day when you and I can get back to the village.

It wasnt to be.

The Germans were far from finished and counter-attacked at the Battle of the Bulge that winter.

In the Pacific, Harry recovered from his wound and returned to action for the invasion of Okinawa, the last major campaign of the war, in the spring and summer of 1945.

The war in Europe finally ended that May with the German surrender, but the Japanese gave no sign of giving up as the Allies pushed toward the home islands.

Harry remained optimistic in his letters and even took a dig at his Army brethren. He said the Marines had taken their part of the island but the Army was fouled up and might need the Marines to help.

The dogfaces might be good over in Europe, but they arent any good out here, but if I go down there, there isnt nothing to worry about, he wrote.

He closed that letter with a P.S.: Please dont worry Mom, as the way I see it I dont think of anything happening to me.

Harry met his end at a place called Charlie Hill near Naha City, where the Marines struggled to take and re-take a high ridge from determined Japanese defenders. On May 10, 1945, a machine-gun slug hit him in the chest. He died instantly.

Robert OBrien, a sergeant major from Freeport who had grown up with Harry and served in the Pacific, sent a letter to Harrys parents.

I wont attempt to say that he died for the American way of life, freedom, etc.. ... What I will say is that he died bravely, and quickly, which is the best way for a soldier to die, if he has to die at all.

The Battle of Okinawa cost 12,520 American lives  including Ernie Pyle  and left more than 36,000 wounded. About 110,000 Japanese soldiers died, along with as many as 150,000 civilians. The tenacity with which the Japanese fought proved to be a deciding factor in the U.S. decision to drop the atom bomb in August.

Harry was buried on Okinawa. His hometown newspaper announced his death on the front page, including a picture of him. His body was shipped home in 1949 and buried in Lower Burrell. His tombstone is there today, next to his mothers. Mr. Wassel and Ms. Fukuyama have visited the grave site in recent months and left flowers.

But the Japanese soldier whose pictures Harry took?

He remains a mystery man.

Part of the problem in finding him has been COVID-19. The National Institute for Defense Studies archives in Japan and other libraries list the names of those Japanese soldiers who died in the Marshall Islands, but they have been closed. The names arent online because of privacy concerns, Ms. Fukuyama said. Whats more, she hasnt been able to go home since December 2019.

The Huffington Post story that ran in the spring drew some 350 comments online. Mr. Wassel and Ms. Fukuyama are hoping the TV program that ran on Friday, with its national audience, will prompt someone in Japan to come forward. Ms. Fukuyama said the Marshall Islands group also recently began circulating copies of the photos by mail among its dwindling members.

Someone out there, Mr. Wassel said, must know who those people were.

Weve narrowed it down. We know where Harry was, we have a timeline, and we know some of the Japanese units, he said. But nobodys come forward yet to say, This is my family.

___

Online:

https://bit.ly/2UIAc1S
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A man is hospitalized after shooting himself following a police chase in Kansas City, Missouri.

Police were called Friday afternoon to a report of a domestic disturbance. Police say the man fled as officers spoke with the alleged victim.

The suspect sped south on U.S. 71, prompting a chase that ended when the suspect jumped out of the vehicle near Interstate 435. Police say the man then shot himself. He is hospitalized with police call life-threatening injuries.

Two other people who were in the car with the suspect are being questioned. Police say no officers discharged their weapons.
Nearly two dozen clean energy companies and researchers around Massachusetts are sharing more than $2.6 million in grants to support clean energy innovation and technology development, according to the governor's office.

The funding is provided through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Centers Catalyst Program.
CAMBRIDGE, Wis. (AP)  CAMBRIDGE  When Carissa and Nathan Lyle were expecting their first child in 2017, they bought an old farmhouse on about three acres just west of Rockdale.

Nathan, a builder, gutted and remodeled the house and added a garage and pole shed. Surrounded by farm fields, but still close to Madison and Janesville, Carissa said it was an ideal spot  within their budget  to raise a family.

We just wanted to be in the country, to have that environment for our kids to grow up in, Carissa said.

She was stunned last winter when she saw engineering plans for a proposed 2,400-acre solar farm that wrapped around three sides of their home.

Its kind of a punch in the gut, she said. It might not look the same way we thought it would.

For Dennis Lund, a fourth-generation farmer who lives about 3 miles from the Lyles, the project is a lifeline.

Lund, who grew up on a 140-acre farm that supported a family of 10, now farms with three of his brothers, growing corn and soybeans  along with wheat, tobacco and cattle  on about 5,000 acres west of Cambridge.

Today Lund gets little more for corn than his father did in the early 1970s, while new tractors and combines can cost more than $500,000, making it hard for a family to earn a living.

Lund, 51, has agreed to lease about 500 acres of his land for the project, which will generate far more income than his crops without selling off his most valuable asset.

We dont have 401(k)s, Lund said. Our 401(k) is our land.

Known as the Koshkonong Solar Center, the project would entail a 300-megawatt solar farm, which could power nearly 80,000 homes, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

It would be the largest renewable energy facility in the state and the first of its kind in Dane County, where seven out of 10 residents worry about climate change but only four in 10 think it will affect them personally, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

The tenth such solar facility considered by Wisconsin regulators, the project highlights the tensions brewing as Wisconsin utilities seek to replace coal-fired power with clean energy.

Supporters say swift and massive renewable energy development is critical to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in time to stave off the worst impacts of climate change and will provide needed income to local landowners and communities.

Opponents say it will forever change the rural landscape around Cambridge and landlock the bedroom community, which has little other land available for new housing. They also worry about falling property values and the hazards of living near a large electric generating facility, which will include a 165-megawatt lithium-ion battery array.

Invenergy, a Chicago-based developer, is seeking a Public Service Commission permit to build the plant for WEC Energy Group and Madison Gas and Electric, which have proposed to purchase it for $649 million.

The utilities say the plant is needed to transition away from coal, which last year generated 39% of Wisconsins electricity, and will be cheaper in the long run for ratepayers than continuing to run coal-fired plants in Portage and Oak Creek. The investment will also generate 10% annual profits for utility shareholders.

The project has generated strong opposition from residents of Cambridge and the surrounding countryside, such as Tara Vasby, who doesnt like the way developers secured leases before publicly announcing the project, which she said will primarily benefit a handful of large landowners.

Vasby grew up on whats left of her familys farm about a mile and a half west of Cambridge  just a few minutes from town but far enough away so we can have peace and quiet.

Under the proposal before the PSC, there would be solar panels on three sides of the roughly 5-acre plot where she lives with her two children. But Vasby, who describes herself as a stubborn Norwegian with no intention of moving, says her concerns are for the community.

Its really about saving Cambridge, Vasby said. People like Cambridge for a reason, and its not so you can drive into a solar field.

Others have echoed those sentiments.

These are people who intentionally purchased or built a home out in the country so that they could get away from all the man-made structures surrounding cities, wrote resident Joe Schulz. Now, instead of looking out over the beautiful land surrounding their home, they will see acres and acres of blue/black panels.

Lund, who will have solar panels 100 feet from his lawn on two sides, has little patience for concerns about views and farmland preservation.

We feel like were in a zoo for the glorification of those who like to look at what we do, he said. Theyre not concerned if we can survive or not.

Earlier this month an international panel of scientists issued a code red warning that changes not seen for hundreds of thousands of years  including rising sea levels and increasingly severe droughts, floods and fires  are already happening, almost all attributed to human activity.

This spring, the International Energy Agency said the world will need to quadruple the current pace of wind and solar development while phasing out all fossil fuels. That amounts to the equivalent of creating about four Koshkonong-sized projects per day over the next decade.

Vasby said she recognizes the threat of climate change as she watches news reports of wildfires out west.

You dont want to be part of the problem, she said. But this is not the right place for this size facility. ... My community is not going to be a sacrificial lamb for this.

While she understands those concerns, Elizabeth Ward, executive director of the Sierra Clubs Wisconsin chapter, said theres no time to delay clean energy development.

Change is hard, but its the direction we need to go, Ward said. The impacts of climate change are going to be a lot harder.

While some utility-scale solar opponents simply dont see the need, others say the loss of farmland and the disruption is too large a burden for local communities and argue small-scale approaches like rooftop solar are actually more cost-effective and dont just benefit utility shareholders.

But industry experts say it will take both to meet the timelines.

Those who would say we can completely power our system by small-scale and rooftop  maybe in a generation or two, said Tim Baye, a professor of business development and energy specialist at UW-Madison. Right now its all hands on deck.

The Sustainable Madison Committee has endorsed the project, which it says will help the city meet its carbon reduction goals while also improving air quality and reducing agricultural runoff  all without the need for additional transmission lines.

Kathy Kuntz, director of Dane Countys Office of Energy and Climate Change, said people dont typically see the air and water pollution coming from coal-fired plants like South Oak Creek or the Columbia Energy Center near Portage.

That plant creates emissions that float over our community, Kuntz said. We dont see those. Certainly they have an impact on lives.

While other large-scale solar projects have stirred concerns about the loss of prime farmland, this is the first in Wisconsin to also compete with urban development.

According to the project application, solar panels would cover much of a 417-acre area to the west that the village has designated for residential development in its comprehensive plan.

We expect our community to grow, said Wyatt Rose, a village trustee who chairs an energy subcommittee. But with Lake Ripley to the east and the 422-acre CamRock County Park to the south, Cambridge has limited opportunities to expand.

The village opposes the project as proposed and has asked Invenergy to avoid a roughly 2,600-acre area to the west of its borders that includes about 30% of the primary arrays in the proposal.

Project developer Aidan OConnor said that is inconsistent with village, town and county land use plans, which recognize the benefits of keeping open space and not allowing for unchecked suburban sprawl.

State demographers project the village will gain about 300 residents over the next two decades, translating into a need for nearly 160 more homes.

In comments to the PSC, one Cambridge resident called the project a taking.

Not so, said Matt Johnson, field director of the Land and Liberty Coalition, a spinoff of the Conservative Energy Network that promotes landowner rights and renewable energy.

It is a little concerning where some community members are laying claim to other peoples land, saying they need that land for development, Johnson said. Hey, this isnt your land.

Cities and villages have extraterritorial authority over the subdivision of land and layout of streets within a mile and a half of their boundaries, but those issues dont come into play with something like a solar plant.

State law gives the Public Service Commission regulatory authority over electricity plants larger than 100 megawatts, leaving communities with very little say in what gets built and where, said Brian Ohm, a professor of planning and landscape architecture at UW-Madison.

Cities and villages do have limited extraterritorial authority, but in this case thats not going to come into play, Ohm said. The villages future plans can be a consideration, something that could be a consideration by the PSC, but again theres nothing thats going to lock the PSC into the villages plans for growth.

Jerry Deschane, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, said the project could be precedent setting and it may be time to update state law.

Its the first time weve seen what is basically an industrial-scale solar farm that proposes to sit right where a community proposes to grow, Deschane said. I would hope you wont see a lot of this in the future.

The Cambridge school district also opposes the project, which could result in lost revenues when land holding solar panels is taken off the tax rolls.

Under the states utility revenue sharing formula, the owners of Koshkonong would pay at least $1.2 million a year to the county and town governments, but theres no provision for school districts. Invenergy has offered to replace any lost tax revenue, which the company estimates would be about $10,000 a year.

The district has also expressed concerns about placing solar panels within a quarter mile of the elementary school and a lithium-ion battery just over a mile away.

OConnor said Invenergy is committed to developing a safely engineered, manufactured, and operated battery system in accordance with electrical and fire codes and has begun engaging local emergency responders about providing special training.

He dismissed comparisons to a massive fire earlier this summer in Morris, Illinois, where nearly 100 tons of lithium-ion batteries burned for days, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

This was not a thoughtfully considered and engineered (storage system), but rather a collection of unknown battery types in a warehouse, OConnor said.

Koshkonong is not the first energy project to roil the community, which is home to a 460-megawatt natural gas plant and was considered in the 1970s as a potential site for a nuclear power plant.

Both projects sparked intense local opposition.

Lund was a supervisor for the town of Christiana in the late 1990s and remembers the debate over the natural gas plant, RockGen Energy Center, which critics said would create pollution and lower property values. But he notes revenue from the plant funded a new town hall and garages.

Those that were against RockGen now get to enjoy the fruits, he said.

The Lyles can see the RockGen plant from their living room windows, a situation they hoped to remedy by planting some trees. That was a tradeoff they were willing to make in order to live in the country.

We werent going to find this much for that price anywhere else in Dane County, Carissa said. We can live with that.

They werent counting on also being surrounded by solar panels.

Now its more than we bargained for, she said.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Democrat Terry McAuliffe asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Virginia Republicans that seeks to remove him from the ballot in this year's closely watched race for governor over an alleged paperwork error.

In a filing Friday evening, attorneys for the former governor now running for a second term against GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin said the suit was based on a legal lie" and would effectively invalidate hundreds of thousands of votes cast in the Democratic primary.

The complaint filed earlier this week by the Republican Party of Virginia against state election officials argued that McAuliffe should be disqualified from running in the November general election because of the omission of his signature on an official form declaring his candidacy.

McAuliffe argued in his filing that nothing in Virginia code requires a candidate to sign the declaration of candidacy.

Further, the filing said: Even if there were a technical defect with the declaration of candidacy  and there is not  it would provide no basis for removing McAuliffes name from the general election ballot and preventing Virginias voters from choosing him as their next Governor. The declaration of candidacy is a prerequisite for placement on the ballot in the primary election, not the general election, and the primary election has already concluded.

McAuliffe handily defeated four challenges in the June Democratic primary. He captured about 62% of the vote and was the top vote-getter in every city and county in the commonwealth.

There is no basis for the Republican Party to now  almost three months later  contest the results of another partys primary, his filing said.

Several state election law experts told The Associated Press on Thursday, when the suit was filed in Richmond Circuit Court, that they would be surprised if it succeeds. Online court records do not show that a hearing has been set.

McAuliffe, a longtime fixture of Democratic politics, previously served as governor from 2014 to 2018 but was prohibited by state law from seeking a consecutive term. He announced his candidacy in December after deciding in 2019 to forego a run for president.

Youngkin is a former co-CEO of a private equity firm and a political newcomer seeking to end Virginia Republicans' more than decade-long losing streak in statewide races.

Christina Freundlich, a spokesperson for McAuliffes campaign, called the lawsuit a Trumpian effort to distort the law and the will of the voters.

We havent even made it to Election Day and Virginia Republicans are already trying to undermine the election results in court using Donald Trump and Rudy Giulianis playbook, she said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Republican Party of Virginia did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Virginia, the only state in the nation that does not allow its chief executive to serve consecutive terms, is also the only state with an open race for governor this year. The commonwealths unusual off-year elections routinely draw outsized national attention as a possible test of both parties strengths ahead of the midterms.

Third-party gubernatorial candidate Princess Blanding will also be on the ballot. Election Day is Nov. 2 and early voting begins Sept. 17.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  All Minnesota counties and school districts as well as most cities grew more diverse over the past decade, recent data from the 2020 U.S. Census show.

People of color now make up nearly 24 percent of Minnesotas 5.7 million residents, up from about 15 percent of the state population a decade ago. The demographic changes were driven by growing populations of Black, Asian, Hispanic and multiracial residents, while the number of white Minnesotans declined for the first time in state history, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

On Aug. 12, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest trove of data from the 2020 population count  giving Minnesota its most detailed image of itself to date. The most recent numbers focused on broad racial groups; more nuanced data is expected to be released in September.

A Pioneer Press analysis of the latest data found:

- Minnesota grew by about 7.6 percent, or about 402,000 residents, and that growth was concentrated in the Twin Cities and its suburbs.

- The states growth was spurred by racial and ethnic minorities, with St. Paul and its more than 311,000 residents becoming the states largest city where people or color are the majority.

- Ramsey County grew to 552,352 people and its overall diversity now mirrors the rest of the nation more so than most of Minnesota.

- Minnesotas changing demographics are expected to continue with 36 percent of its school-age children people of color.

Statewide, Blacks were the fastest growing individual group, increasing by about 46 percent, followed by Asians and Hispanics, which grew at 40 percent and 38 percent, respectively, since the last decennial count of residents in 2010. Minnesotans identifying as multiracial jumped 128 percent while those who chose some other race climbed by more than 250 percent.

The states American Indian population grew more slowly, adding about 1,600 residents. The states white population was the only one of the racial and ethnic groups measured to drop, losing about 51,000 people since 2010.

The 10-year count of residents has been conducted nationally since 1790 and was first done here in 1850 when Minnesota was still a territory. The results are used to ensure legislative districts are drawn fairly and government funding is distributed equitably.

Minnesotas population growth and its changing racial and ethnic demographics reflect larger trends happening across the U.S. And like much of the nation, Minnesotas growth is uneven.

While every Minnesota county grew more diverse between 2010 and 2020, only 50 counties saw their total populations increase. In general, urban and suburban communities saw population gains and rural areas saw fewer residents, although the declines were often small.

For instance, Koochiching County on the Canadian border lost 9 percent of its population over the last decade, but that translates to only about 1,250 fewer people in a county of about 12,000 residents. In contrast, Hennepin County added nearly 130,000 residents, an 11 percent growth in population, and is now home to more than 1.2 million, or about 21 percent of the entire state population.

Ramsey County added nearly 44,000 residents, or 8.6 percent, the slowest of the metro counties, and is the Twin Cities most diverse.

Forty-two percent of Ramsey County residents are people of color, with Asians and Blacks the two largest racial groups after whites.

Ramsey County also is home to some of the states more diverse cities, including St. Paul, which now has more residents of color than whites.

Yet, Ramsey County and St. Paul are outliers compared with much of the state.

There are 73 Minnesota counties where residents of color make up less than 20 percent of the overall population. Mahnomen County, home of the White Earth Indian Reservation, is the only county in the state where residents of color are a majority.

Minnesota cities are similar. St. Paul is one of just a handful where residents of color are the majority  others include Brooklyn Center, Worthington and Brooklyn Park. Of the more than 900 cities and towns in the state, 747 of them have populations that are 80 percent or more white.

Finally, Minnesota remains considerably less diverse than much of the U.S.

The 2020 U.S. Census shows the nation is about 58 percent white with Latinos the second-largest demographic group at 19 percent of the population.

Black and Asian residents make up 12 percent and 6 percent, respectively, of U.S. residents while 4 percent are multiracial.

Minnesota, like much of the U.S., is almost guaranteed to continue to diversify, but that demographic change will continue to be largely isolated to urban and suburban areas.

The population of the state under the age of 18 is about 64 percent white, significantly less than Minnesota as a whole. More than a third of Minnesota school-age children are people of color.

Yet, that diversity is largely concentrated in the Twin Cities and other pockets of the state. For instance, the under-18 population of St. Paul schools is 28 percent Asian, 26 percent white, 23 percent Black and 13 percent Hispanic.

Yet, there are only 20 Minnesota school districts where the white student-age population is less than 50 percent. In 212 of the states more than 300 districts, white residents make up at least 80 percent of the school-age population.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by the state of Missouri seeking to stop a project that would supply Missouri River water to central North Dakota.

The Bismarck Tribune reports the ruling will enable the federal Bureau of Reclamation to move ahead with a water service contract for the Central North Dakota Water Supply Project. The project will receive water from the McClusky Canal for systems in Burleigh, Sheridan, Wells, Foster, Kidder, McLean and Stutsman counties.
COOKE CITY, Mont. (AP)  When Mark Polakoff pulls human body parts from an old ammo can, its just a regular working weekend.

Polakoff is a seasoned search-and-rescue dog handler. With nearly 40 years experience, hes one of Absaroka Search Dogs best handlers. Hes also one of the best to talk to about a common issue faced by search dog training around the country  access to human remains.

At Absaroka Search Dogs, which operates from Billings, the dogs are trained not only to seek out live people, but also those who have died. When the recent search for missing hiker Tatum Morell pivoted from a live search to a recovery, Absarokas handlers needed only to give their dogs a different command.

In a state like Montana, where dog handlers number in the mere dozens, having highly flexible dogs is critical. When a sheriff calls for a dog team, they might be the only team available, so the dogs need as many skills as possible.

The dogs are trained to follow given scents along the ground, to sniff out human scents in the air, and to know the difference between the smell of a live person and one who has died.

To train dogs in those various odors, trainers need access to materials with the right smells. The live scents are easy  one of the trainers heads out into the woods and gets lost, and the dogs sniff them out. For variety, volunteers may be the ones getting lost, so that the dogs learn to search for different people.

However, to train dogs for the smell of dead bodies, trainers need dead bodies. Until May of this year, trainers operated in a legal gray zone  the law would neither allow, nor prohibit, possessing human remains. In order to get the needed smells, search teams relied on scarce leftover tissues from surgeries, donated teeth or small body parts from industrial accidents, and bloodied clothes provided by coroners.

A new law passed in late May makes it easier for Montana search dog handlers to train, The Billings Gazette reported.

House Bill 641 authorized search and rescue units to possess human remains for the purposes of training dogs. The new law also provides a framework for the teams to receive anatomical gifts from donors. This allows the handlers not just to possess human remains, but also to receive a variety of donated parts from hospitals, clinics, and private donors.

Oftentimes, knees are replaced, all the joint surgeries  all that stuff is just thrown away, said Chris Dover, another one of Absarokas seasoned handlers. The value of the legislation right now  allows us to get donations.

For Dover, its important to train dogs on a variety of scents. Its extremely valuable for us to be able to use it, she said. If our dogs cant train on human tissue, theyre not going to be as effective.

According to Dover, other states had legislation like HB 641 long before Montana. Wyomings had this legislation for probably 10 years, she said. In Wyoming, some search teams have had entire bodies willed to them, allowing the dogs to train in the most realistic manner possible.

For us to be able to train on those things is extremely important, said Dover, because every human in decomposition smells different.

To dogs, every new body is a brand new smell, and that requires the dog to process and determine if that smell is what theyre looking for. An unprepared canine might not recognize that the new smell is indeed a cadaver  and when they find the body, the dog could be overwhelmed or frightened.

Its a bit of a long drive to where Absaroka trains their dogs. The first turn comes after the Beartooth Pass on the Wyoming side of the border, about halfway to Cooke City. The next turn heads onto a gravel road just barely wide enough to fit two vehicles, and then onto a two-track dirt trail.

Over a ridge and past a copse of trees is a clearing where Polakoff, Dover, and the other members of Absaroka Search Dogs set up. Their camp is a motley collection of campers, tents, and canopied trucks. The site overlooks a landscape of forest, boulders,

Training starts early, usually around 7 or 8 a.m. Dover, as the most experienced of the group, leads the exercises.

The handlers often start with basic obedience training, walking their dogs in circles and issuing commands. This not only helps get the dogs in the mindset to work, but also gets them comfortable around each other. While the dogs may frequently work alone, they could also be working with other search teams, so they cant afford to be distracted by each other while lives are on the line.

Any dog can be trained to search, but not all dogs are suited to the task. Some simply dont have the drive to work, becoming easily bored or distracted. Others may not be physically capable of doing the job  if theyre too small, they could be lost between boulders or unable to mount obstacles. Large, hardy dogs with thick coats are ideal for searching in cold, rugged mountain conditions.

After the obedience exercises come the drills. In live training exercises, the trainers will send someone out of sight, while the dog is unable to see where they go. Then, the dogs handler brings them out and sets them to work.

Theres a routine to how the searches operate. The handler sets the general area of search, reads their animals signals, and manages the dogs direction. Their canine partner deals with tracking the scents in the air, reporting back if they find someone.

Once I give him the find command, hes going to go out and look for odor, and hes going to do that on his own, said Dover. Once he hits odor, hes going to go to where the odors coming from, the subject.

Then hes going to come back to me and tell me that hes found someone, and go back to the subject, she said. The cycle repeats, with the dog navigating back and forth between the searcher and the lost, until contact is made.

When searching for cadavers, the routine is the same. However, the handlers use different commands than when searching for the living. Usually, each dog will have a unique command to start them searching for a body, to prevent false starts.

To prepare for a cadaver training drill, the team distributes some of the death-scented apparel and body parts. A shoe from a car crash might be hung in a tree, a small container of fingertips placed in a hollow log, or bloodied shirts hidden behind a boulder. One particularly effective piece of material is a small block of concrete, made by mixing Quikrete with human blood and discarded placenta.

The team has at least enough material to fill a five gallon bucket and a surplus Army ammo can, but theres a problem  thats not enough. It doesnt do much good to train the dogs on the same smells over and over, as the dogs need variety and challenge to improve their skills. Worse yet, the materials lose their smell over time, rendering them less effective across multiple uses.

While the new legislation will make it easier for the handlers to train their dogs, there may still be a long way to go until they have the support that they need.

The search teams are entirely volunteer. The handlers cover the costs of purchasing the dogs, the costs of commuting to and staying at search locations, and put in countless hours every year living with and training their animals.

Really, it depends on the county thats asking us to go search, and whether they can afford to reimburse us, said Polakoff. If a county is able to, they may cover some of the search teams meals, lodging, or travel costs, but payment is never guaranteed. A state fund exists to which handlers can apply for reimbursement, but the fund is low-priority in the state budget, and isnt always available.

In some cases, the cost of the initial training for the dogs may be upwards of $20,000, not accounting for the ongoing costs of training over the course of the dogs life or the costs of food and medical care, which could be upwards of $10,000 per year.

Additionally, because search dogs tend to have highly driven personalities, they cant just be left home alone like a normal pet  they need constant attention and frequent training to remain satisfied. The dogs are a full-time commitment, and plans are made around their needs.

Despite the cost, time commitment, and difficulties of searching, those who stick with the search team are a dedicated bunch. They dont do it for the money  rather, they do it for the love of their partners, and for the opportunity to help others.

Its an opportunity to help people that get into situations that prove to be too much for them, said Polakoff. Its a way of helping people, combining my love of the outdoors, and my love of working with dogs.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP)  Nevada's K-12 schools have long sat near the bottom of national rankings in terms of per-pupil spending, class size and student achievement.

Now, they've hit the jackpot.

An enormous infusion of federal pandemic aid earmarked for education presents schools with a rare opportunity to address shortcomings that teachers, parents and lawmakers have lamented for years.

Since March 2020, the federal government has provided $190 billion in pandemic aid to schools, four times more than what the U.S. Department of Education spends on K-12 schools annually. The Associated Press, relying on data published or provided by states and the federal government, tallied how much money was granted to nearly every school district in the country.

The AP tracked about $155 billion sent to states to distribute among schools since last year, including general pandemic relief that some states shared with their schools. The latest and largest round of funding, totaling $123 billion, is still being distributed and gives schools enormous flexibility in how to spend it.

In Nevada and throughout the nation, the amount that school districts received per student varies drastically, with districts that serve students from low-income households receiving the lions share. While 20% must be used to address learning setbacks, the rest can be used on nearly any cost school officials deem reasonable and necessary. Schools have three years to spend the latest round, a window that many district officials say is short for such a large amount of money.

Nevada will receive $1.58 billion in total  a massive windfall considering it spends roughly $3.3 billion in state and local funds annually on K-12 education. The funds dwarf the additional $85 million that the state expects to collect annually from a mining tax hike passed in May after years of debate. And they come amid a sea change in education funding, two years after the state changed the complex formula for how it distributes funds to schools.

Unlike states that have funneled dollars to upgrade their air quality systems, bolster charter schools or fix crumbling ceilings, Nevada has spent months collecting input on how to spend the money. School districts must submit spending plans to the state by Sept. 10.

The Nevada Department of Education outlined priorities it hopes districts address as they design plans in a document it submitted to the federal education department last month. It directs officials to use the funds toward efforts including to close opportunity gaps for underserved students, expand access to technology, and enable distance learning.

Nationwide, some districts will receive sums amounting to 50% or more of the cost to operate their schools for a year. The median aid allocated to districts was about $2,800 per student, but it varies widely by district and state, according to the APs analysis.

In Nevada, the amount ranged from $3,796 per student in the Las Vegas area to $172 per student enrolled in schools in Eureka County. No schools in the rural district are eligible for the Title I funding sent to schools serving low-income students. The Title I formula was used to divvy up parts of the pandemic aid.

The vast majority of the funds will go to Clark County School District, which is the states largest and historically most cash-strapped district. It will receive $1.26 billion, or 85% of the funds. The Las Vegas area district is the nation's fifth largest. It will receive the sixth most total funds in the nation, but the least per student among the 10 largest districts.

The district spends about $9,300 per pupil annually, below the national average of $12,624 per student.

The state's public charter school authority will receive $85 million. In the Reno-Sparks area, the Washoe County School District will receive $137 million. And $273,000 will go to the rural Esmeralda County School District, where 81 students were enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year.

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Sam Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
BEULAH, Mich. (AP)  Money is turning out to be ruff business at an animal control agency in northern Michigan.

Officials missed a deadline to put a property tax renewal on the fall ballot, which means the animal control department in Benzie County will have a $124,000 budget shortfall over 18 months, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.
BEND, Ore. (AP)  The death toll from COVID-19 in Oregon is climbing so rapidly in some counties that the state has organized delivery of one refrigerated truck to hold the bodies and is sending a second one, the state emergency management department said Saturday.

So far, Tillamook County, on Oregon's northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, requested the trucks, said Bobbi Doan, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw wrote in his request to the state that the county's sole funeral home is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity of nine bodies.

"Due to COVID cases of staff, they are unable to transport for storage to adjacent counties," he wrote, adding that suicides are also up in the county.

The refrigerated truck arrived in the county on Friday, loaned by Klamath County, Doan said in a telephone interview.

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners said Friday the spread of COVID-19 "has reached a critical phase.

In a statement published online in the Tillamook County Pioneer, they said that from Aug. 18 to Aug. 23, there were six new COVID-19 deaths in the county, surpassing the five total COVID-19 deaths that occurred during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

In the past week, we more than doubled the number of COVID deaths in Tillamook County, from five to eleven, Commissioners Mary Faith Bell, David Yamamoto and Erin Skaar wrote. They begged residents: Please get vaccinated.

The request come as the coronavirus delta variant tears through Oregon's unvaccinated population.

The county vaccination rate is 70%, either in progress or fully vaccinated.

But in Josephine County, where hospitals are overwhelmed and its morgues are also reaching capacity, the vaccination rate is only 53%, according to Oregon Health Authority data. The vast majority of COVID-19 patients clogging the state's hospitals and intensive care units are unvaccinated.

Unlike their counterparts in Tillamook County, Josephine County commissioners are not promoting the vaccine.

Jefferson Public Radio reported that in a meeting earlier this month with local health officials, Josephine County Commissioner Herman Baertschiger Jr., a former leader of the minority Republicans in the Oregon Senate, said: Im not going to hog-tie anybody and give them a vaccination."

Hospital workers in Grants Pass, the county seat, said their morgue was full as a result of a surge in coronavirus cases.

CEO Win Howard of Asante Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass told commissioners: "We are in a full-blown health care crisis in our community. Ive never seen anything like this before.

During the public meeting, the commissioners repeatedly questioned the efficacy of the vaccines, suggested the surge was caused by Mexican immigrants, and instead promoted unproven medicines, Jefferson Public Radio reported.

Josephine County Emergency Manager Emily Ring asked the state on Tuesday for a refrigerated trailer that could hold 20-48 cadavers.

She wrote that the county hospital is daily exceeding its body storage capacity and that the five funeral homes and three crematoriums are at the edge of crisis capacity daily.

Trailer must have hoists for body lifts and shelves, she said in her urgent request form.

Morgues are allowed to legally have only a certain number of bodies at the same time, and that creates the capacity issue, Doan said. Her office is facilitating the transfer of a refrigerated morgue truck from Yamhill County to Josephine County.

"Right now, OEMs role is really in that air traffic control, Doan said. Its like, heres a need, heres a resource to help them to connect the dots through mutual aid.

The Oregon Health Authority on Friday reported 20 new deaths, raising the states death toll to 3,115.

Since the start of the pandemic there have been 268,401 reported coronavirus cases in this state of 4.2 million.

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This story has been updated to correct commissioners in Josephine County are not promoting the vaccine.

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Andrew Selsky is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
PHOENIX (AP)  Police arrested six members of a Phoenix-area family they say targeted a 20-year-old relative and tried to kidnap her because they disapprove of her boyfriend, who doesn't share their Muslim faith.

The woman, who is 20 weeks pregnant, told police she was afraid her relatives will kill her because they believe she has brought dishonor to the family, detectives wrote in a probable cause statement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court following the arrests on Th ursday. Police believe the family wanted to send the victim back to Iraq, authorities wrote.

Police in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria said Friday the victim, her boyfriend and his family have filed more than 20 police reports from the West Valley to Yuma alleging crimes including disorderly conduct, harassment, aggravated assault and kidnapping. Police did not identify the victim or the boyfriend.

Those arrested include the victim's parents, ages 63 and 59, and four siblings, who range in age from 31 to 36.

In court records, detectives describe accusations of threats and assaults, most recently at a medical building in Avondale last week. Police said the relatives took the woman's cell phone and purse, along with her boyfriend's gun, during a violent assault. The woman grabbed onto a responding officer, pleading please, don't let them take me," according to court records.

One of the woman's brothers is accused of leaving a voicemail in May threatening to kidnap the boyfriend's 15-year-old sister if the victim was not returned to her family, police said.

And earlier this year, the victim fled to Yuma with her boyfriend and his family in an attempt to escape her relatives, but they showed up at their hotel and attempted to kidnap her, according to police.

The victim told officers she was afraid of dying in an honor killing, referencing Noor Almaleki, who was 20 when her father ran over and killed her in a West Valley parking lot. The father, an Iraqi immigrant, was convicted of murder after prosecutors said he killed his daughter because he believed she had become too westernized.
BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP)  Police were searching for an assailant after a Cape Cod woman was stabbed so badly that she was transferred by MedFlight to a hospital in Boston, police said Saturday.

An officer found the victim with stab wounds screaming for help on the front steps of a home early Saturday in Barnstable, police said.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)  Protests continue at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln following a sexual assault allegation at a fraternity house, and the latest demonstration resulted in a clash with police.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the protests Friday night were again outside of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, where a sexual assault was reported earlier in the week. Just before midnight, hundreds of people spilled into downtown streets.
BERLIN (AP)  Protesters filled the German capital again on Saturday to demonstrate against the governments coronavirus measures, despite bans against several gatherings.

Police had banned nine planned demonstrations for Saturday, including one from the Stuttgart-based Querdenker movement, the most visible anti-lockdown movement in Germany, which united a disparate mix of those opposing vaccinations, coronavirus deniers and right-wing extremists. A court ruled in favor of allowing one event, planned for 500 people, on Saturday and Sunday.

Still, like the last round of protests in early August, thousands ignored the bans and turned out to voice their opposition to government measures. With chants of We are the people! the protesters made their way through Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte neighborhoods.

More than 2,000 police officers were stationed around the city to respond to those who showed up despite the bans. At one protest Saturday evening in Mitte, German media reported that police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd unwilling to leave once the protest had ended. The crowd eventually thinned as it began to rain.

Meanwhile, a counter-protest complete with techno music drew a crowd of several thousand as well. Those demonstrators back government restrictions to slow the spread of virus and oppose the Querdenker movement, stressing Berlins diversity and advocating for more social cohesion.

Berlin police said they dispersed the counter-protesters when the crowd became too big to allow for social distancing.

The Saturday protests came amid a debate in Germany about whether to impose restrictions on unvaccinated people, a question taking on more urgency as daily infections rise. Germany reported 10,303 new daily infections on Saturday, up more than 2,000 since last week.

Similar protests took place in Berlin in early August, which ended in clashes with police and hundreds of people detained.

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Follow all AP stories on the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  Record low numbers of steelhead are returning to the Columbia River this year, prompting conservationists and anglers alike to call for a halt to recreational fishing for the sea-run fish.

As of this week, just 29,000 steelhead passed the Bonneville Dam since July 1  the fewest ever recorded, less than half the average of the past five years, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

A coalition of conservation and fishing groups sent a letter to the Oregon, Washington and Idaho agencies that manage fish and wildlife requesting an immediate closure of recreational steelhead fisheries on the Columbia River, the Lower Snake River and their tributaries.

This is a really, really dire year for steelhead  especially wild steelhead  in the Columbia River Basin, said Rob Kirschner, legal and policy director for The Conservation Angler, which advocates for protection and restoration of wild fish in the Pacific Northwest and Kamchatka, Russia.

We are trying to protect every eligible spawner," he added. "Every one of these fish counts.

Steelhead on the Columbia and Snake rivers are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. After hatching in freshwater rivers and streams, the steelhead  sea-run rainbow trout  migrate to the ocean and return to freshwater to spawn.

Their population has been devastated by habitat destruction, including construction of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, as well as overfishing and climate change. High water temperatures on the Columbia and Snake rivers have also been detrimental as much of the Northwest has faced excessive heat and relentless drought.

Commissioners and staff with the Oregon and Washington departments of fish and wildlife met virtually Friday to discuss options for limiting damage. Most fisheries on the Columbia require fishermen to release any steelhead they catch this fall.

There just arent many more places to get significant savings, said Ryan Lothrop, Washingtons Columbia River fishery manager.

The groups that wrote the letter to commissioners say thats not true. They say closing recreational steelhead fisheries altogether for the fall could prevent unnecessary fish deaths  and that fishermen stand to benefit.

(W)e simply do not believe that fishing for ESA-listed steelhead during their worst return on record is appropriate for these fish or future generations of fishermen, the letter reads. For a species that has provided generations with memorable fishing experiences, asking fishermen to sit a season out is reasonable and necessary considering the circumstances.

Among those who signed the letter were representatives from the Native Fish Society, Friends of the Clearwater, Wild Fish Conservancy, North Umpqua Foundation and Fly Fishers International, in addition to The Conservation Angler.

Commissioners with the Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments have not yet made any decisions or recommendations for recreational steelhead fisheries, OPB reported.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. intelligence community has ruled out the possibility that the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 4 million people globally was developed as a bioweapon by China, but the agencies failed to reach consensus on the virus origin, according to key takeaways from a classified report delivered to President Joe Biden this week.

The report, the result of a 90-day sprint ordered by Biden, also found that the agencies are unlikely to reach a conclusion about the virus's origins without cooperation from the Chinese government, which is unlikely, according to a summary of the takeaways released Friday.

"Beijing . . . continues to hinder the global investigation, resist information sharing and blame other countries, including the United States" for the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed nearly 635,000 American lives, said the summary prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"These actions reflect in part China's government's own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead, as well as its frustration that the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China," the ODNI said.

The two main hypotheses - that the virus jumped from animals to humans in a natural process, or that it escaped from a research laboratory in China - remain on the table, ODNI said. Both theories are plausible, the agencies concluded.

The Washington Post previously reported that the intelligence community had not reached definitive agreement on the virus's origin.

The report reflects how the government's top spies are at a loss to solve the mystery, and their inability to do so raises the prospect that it will remain unsolved for years to come.

Without virus samples from China, said Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University epidemiologist, "it's highly unlikely that we're going to get any closer to knowing how this thing originally emerged."

Biden on Friday vowed to press on, as elusive as determining the origin seems.

"The world deserves answers," the president said in a statement, "and I will not rest until we get them."

Former Trump administration officials credited the Biden administration with undertaking the effort but were disappointed with the limited conclusions.

"If the report reveals anything, it is more evidence of how China's non-transparency and noncooperation have prevented the world from understanding the origin of the deadliest pandemic in modern history, and how to prevent the next one," said David Feith, former deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

"Now, the administration and the Congress need to decide whether China will face sanctions for this," said Feith, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. "Or will international science and technology exchange with China just continue unimpeded?"

The intelligence community plans to review the report with an eye to releasing a declassified version at some future date, Assistant Director of National Intelligence Timothy Barrett said Friday.

The agencies that analyzed the issue determined the virus "probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019, with the first known cluster of covid-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019," the summary said, recapping what has largely been publicly reported.

The city in central China is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has conducted extensive research into coronaviruses.

The intelligence agencies concluded that the Chinese government "did not have foreknowledge" of the virus before the initial outbreak, the summary said. Most agencies that examined the evidence assessed with "low confidence" that the virus "probably was not genetically engineered."

The report reflects that intelligence agencies do not always agree with each other, and sometimes reach conclusions with different degrees of confidence. It is the job of the National Intelligence Council, the body that coordinates intelligence from the 19 spy agencies, to marshal a community view.

Four agencies and the intelligence council assessed with "low confidence" that the virus was "most likely caused by natural exposure" to an infected animal or a close progenitor virus. They gave weight to the Chinese government's lack of advance knowledge about the virus, the "numerous vectors of natural exposure" and other factors, the summary said.

One agency, on the other hand, assessed with "moderate confidence" that the first human infection "most likely was the result of a lab-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology," the summary said. That agency gave weight to "the inherently risky nature of work on coronaviruses," the summary said.

The lab leak theory consists of different scenarios. For example, the virus could have been brought to the lab unknowingly as part of a collection of virus samples and then infected a lab worker, who then spread it in Wuhan. Or it could have involved an experiment that was covered up. Chinese officials have steadfastly denied they had the coronavirus in their laboratories ahead of the outbreak.

The agencies, which include the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, are unlikely to achieve clarity unless new information emerges about the "specific pathway" for initial contact with an animal or to determine that a Wuhan lab was handling the virus, it said.

The origins debate largely has been stalled for months, and the report given to Biden on Tuesday apparently does not contain information that would dramatically change anyone's position.

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The Washington Post's Yasmeen Abutaleb contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Force fields protecting us from drones and missiles.

Guns that shoot lasers instead of firing bullets.

Rock em Sock em Robots zapping at each other on the battlefield.

A new report by the Air Force Research Laboratory titled Directed Energy Futures 2060 describes the sorts of directed energy weapons that may come to exist in the next 40 years. And the expected technology  much of which may be researched and developed in Albuquerque  is like something out of a science fiction movie.

Officials from multiple Department of Defense entities, partners with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other experts came together to write the report, which says the world is at a tipping point, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Soon, the report says, harnessing directed energy power will be critical for military success. The reports authors make the case that in order for America to stay competitive in the field with rival nations such as China and Russia, more investment in the research and development of directed energy and educating a future directed energy workforce is needed.

Were seeing a lot more directed energy capabilities in the military space. People are using them for weapons worldwide, said Jeremy Murray-Krezan, the assistant chief scientist of AFRLs Directed Energy Directorate and one of the reports authors. The directorate is based at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Directed energy weapons convert different frequencies of electromagnetic waves and light into a high-power pulse to shoot at a target. And such weapons already exist.

AFRL, for instance, is currently in late-stage testing of the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR, which can shoot microwaves to destroy drones. The idea is that the weapon can protect military bases.

Murray-Krezan said the Air Force has also developed mounted guns that shoot laser beams instead of bullets.

Similar weapons are being created in other countries. Murray-Krezan noted that all of the top 10 militaries in the world have some sort of directed energy program.

It may not be at the scale of the Cold War, he said, but I think we might already be seeing something of an arms race.

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Center of research

If the arms race for directed energy indeed takes off, much of the action could take place in Albuquerque.

Both on and off Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque in the past 40 years has become a mecca of sorts for that type of science, said Edl Schamiloglu, a distinguished professor in the University of New Mexicos School of Engineering, who specializes in directed energy.

UNM is preparing to launch a Directed Energy Center, which will make the university one of a handful in the country with a center dedicated to that type of research and the only one that has expertise in both lasers and microwaves, he said.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the epicenter of directed energy research in the United States, Schamiloglu said. In addition to the activity that goes on at AFRL internally, AFRL supports research at Sandia National Labs and Los Alamos (National Laboratory). And there are dozens of companies that support directed energy  in town. So I think directed energy research and development will be an important component in economic development in the city and the state for decades, for sure.

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Future technologies

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed a Strategic Defense Initiative, which came to be known as Star Wars. It was the height of the Cold War, and the conservative icon imagined an array of satellites that could shoot X-rays to stop nuclear weapons from reaching the countrys borders.

Despite billions of spending on the effort, the project remained science fiction until it was significantly narrowed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, according to Politico.

The recent directed energy report revisits the idea.

Murray-Krezan said technology used in the THOR project could be applied to a fleet of satellites that could, in theory, bring the Star Wars defense shield into reality.

Today we could say that we could make a force field to protect against (drones), he said in an interview. The fact that were seeing these things fielded, these arent just laboratory experiments anymore. They are making their way out to the military.  In the next 10 years, we might see a huge proliferation of those. Eventually  you might want to get to a whole missile shield, in a sense.

Directed energy also could be used to make a weapon that shoots laser beams. The technology already exists. Schamiloglu said the Navy ship USS Ponce has had a mounted laser weapon for several years.

The advantage of a laser over a missile or other kinetic weapon, such as a traditional gun, is not having to reload as often, Murray-Krezan said.

Imagine youre a group whos charged to defend a military base, and you have a battery of Patriot missiles, he said. Instead of having to rearm your battery of 12 Patriot missiles with more missiles, if you had a directed energy weapon you could just keep firing as long as you have power.

Theres also a possibility that in the coming decades the military will combine artificial intelligence and directed energy weapons, creating fast-paced battlefields that Murray-Krezan compared to Rock em Sock em Robots, the classic toy that has players manipulating simple robots to fight one another.

He envisioned some type of mobile robot  perhaps a drone  that is armed with a directed energy weapon that could shoot microwaves at first, which could destroy electronics. But it also has a laser, which could shoot a more lethal pulse if the situation escalates.

So you might imagine an artificial intelligence behind the robots battling each other  and this isnt such a far-fetched concept. We use electronic warfare in the military today, Murray-Krezan said. Its definitely taking it a step farther.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)  A federal judge has scheduled the retrial of a former Arkansas state senator on bribery and fraud charges for the first week of October.

Court records, first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, show U.S. District Judge Judge Price Marshall on Friday scheduled the trial for Gilbert Baker, a Republican former senator and one-time state GOP chairman, to begin Oct. 4.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  When the COVID-19 pandemic hit their rural community, Weldon City Schools raced to give its pupils the tools they needed to quickly transition to virtual learning.

The district set up internet hotspots for those without connectivity at home and had staff deliver meals to students. It also drew on some of the funds to improve air quality in three schools, install touchless bathroom faucets and buy lots of cleaning supplies and protective equipment.

The public school system of less than 800 students is among North Carolina's largest recipients of federal COVID-19 assistance since the start of the pandemic, securing nearly $11,000 per pupil, a total of more than $8.7 million.

Since March 2020, the federal government has provided $190 billion in pandemic aid to schools, an amount that is more than four times what the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year. The Associated Press, relying on data published or provided by states and the federal government, tallied how much money was granted to nearly every school district in the country.

The AP tracked about $155 billion sent to states to distribute among schools since last year, including general pandemic relief that some states shared with their schools.

The aid averages nearly $2,800 per student, but it varies widely by district and state, according to the APs analysis. The latest and largest round of funding, totaling $123 billion, is still being distributed and gives schools enormous flexibility in how to spend it over three years, a window that many district officials say is short for such a large amount of money.

In North Carolina, rural communities received substantially more money per student than heavily populated districts. Weldon was among three public school districts in the state that received more than $10,000 per student, second only to Warren County, which took in more than $33 million, or almost $18,000 for every student.

While Warren County Schools Superintendent Keith Sutton believes there's a discrepancy in the amount the state has told the federal government it has distributed to the system, data his office shared with the AP shows it spent nearly $475,000 on computers and software. More than $684,000 went to workers who assisted with a summer extension program to address pandemic-fueled learning loss.

North Carolina's largest district, Wake County Public Schools, got about $2,100 per student for a total of $347 million. Nationwide, high-poverty areas received much more under the funding formula.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, which is similarly sized, got $488 million, or roughly $3,300 per child.

In Wake County, 28% of enrolled students qualified for free and reduced lunch last year.

The state's third-largest district, Guilford County Schools, has less than half as many students as Wake but got nearly as much money, securing more than $306 million, or about $4,200 per pupil. More than 66% of students qualified for free and reduced lunch, as of April 2020, according to the district.

The largest share of its planned spending through fiscal year 2025 will go toward recruiting, retaining and rewarding staff. More than $50 million will be spent for those purposes, while another $46 million will go to accelerate learning, particularly through summer school and a longer school year to address learning loss. It also expects to spend $39 million on instruction materials and resources, $37 million to close the digital divide, $35 million to build out capacity at a professional development center and $26 million on ventilation and improved air quality.

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Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson.

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Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP)  As happened to many whose jobs involved a lot of travel, Kenneth L. Johnson Jr. of Augusta went from criss-crossing Georgia most weeks for his state government job to staying home during the pandemic. It gave the career educator time to reassess his skills and wonder if he might be able to use them in a different way for himself and his family.

Thats when the lightbulb kind of went off for me, said Johnson, co-director of the statewide Governors School Leadership Academy in the Office of Student Achievement.

He and his newborn company are part of the first class in the Clubhou.ses Make Startups program, which is helping participants learn the ropes of entrepreneurship and establish their new companies. The program is funded by a $250,000 Partnership for Inclusive Innovation grant from Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and is part of his public-private initiative to support small business.

The Clubhou.se, a business and technology incubator in the Georgia Cyber Center, is actually leading the effort that includes other incubators in Georgia: Creative Coast in Savannah, Zane Access in Atlanta, Spark Macon and Startup Columbus.

Johnson wasnt alone in reassessing what he wants to do with his career. Nearly 4 million people quit their jobs in June, a 46% increase over the 2.64 million who quit jobs in June 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate is highest in the South, which had a 48% increase over the previous year and has more resignations and a higher rate than other areas of the country, the agency noted.

It makes sense that some of these workers would want to start their own businesses and might be interested in the next class for entrepreneurs this Fall, said Grace Belangia, executive director and cofounder of the Clubhou.se.

Statistically, people are changing a lot of things about their lives and one of them is, if they are stuck in a job that is unfulfilling, and they have always wanted to work for themselves, and they have the talent and the grit and a little bit of luck, we provide the foundation to take that risk, she said. If you want to try something new and you can, I can see how those statistics would play well into our program.

The level of inquiries is about the same as any other year at the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center in Augusta, where people often turn seeking help to put together a business plan or financial projections, said Area Director Rick McMurtrey. What might be different this year than last is it is easier to make projections than when a lot of businesses were closed and people were staying home, he said.

What got Johnson moving was that time to reflect and to think how often in education he and others train to fill a position rather than thinking about the skills they were acquiring or using in that job, he said. But he saw he was always able to connect with a person regardless of who they are, where they come from, what they look like, Johnson said. And he was good at distilling information and content to manageable, easier to understand forms.

From that came Nalejbank.com, an idea that started with appealing to parents and branched out to businesses. Johnson sees it as a way for parents to help educate their children through incentivized learning by assigning particular books or modules and providing rewards when the children complete them. But for businesses, it is a way to create assessments for employees. For instance, a business may want to ensure someone understands a particular training or a policy but doesnt have someone in-house who could put together a module and test, Johnson said.

This particular solution adds a layer of due diligence on the part of the business to take an additional step to make sure that their people actually know what it is they are supposed to do, he said. What were finding is this is really turning into a risk management solution for our business partners and our government partners. Its an interesting pivot we didnt see when we first started but were noticing a market for this particular service.

Going into the Make Startups program helped force Johnson to take some of his ideas and plans and put them into concrete action.

The supreme value for me as an entrepreneur was the accountability of being able to show someone what my progress was outside of just what I was thinking, he said. There was good pressure from week to week for me to turn my thoughts into some type of action that would then be manifested in something, like a business plan or now an app for the business.

Having created other startup programs over the years, that has been a consistent lesson the Clubhou.se has learned, Belangia said.

One of the things we have found time and time again is our programs provide the discipline and the boundaries in which somebody can take their idea and say, Okay, Im ready to go to the next level,  she said. So it is intended for startups, intended for people who want to be their own bosses, who want to create generational wealth for themselves and their families. The idea that we provide a curriculum, and an office space, as well as mentors, is the formula for success. Thats what makes our program unique.

In addition to the 12-week curriculum that Johnson and others just finished, there is six months of mentoring and nine months of membership in the Clubhou.se, Belangia said. That is important as a potential conduit to early capital, she said.

Were actively pursuing no-interest financing for entrepreneurs who complete our certification program, Belangia said. In addition, the group can point startups to low-interest loans or grants that can help them with much-needed capital, she said.

Theres a wide landscape of access to capital that all of our members get access to once theyve completed our program at the Clubhou.se, Belangia said.

The program includes economically and historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs and that is important, particularly now, she said.

Especially in the last two years what weve seen so much, like the rest of the country, is communities that have been left behind economically, Belangia said. The program works with entrepreneurs, particularly in areas they may not know much about, so that they and their ideas can be presented as well-rounded to potential funders to level the playing field for them, she said. Its one way entrepreneurs give back to the community and to the economy overall, Belangia said.

Entrepreneurship is important to the bigger ecosystem, she said.

TAKING APPLICATIONS

The Make Startups program of the Clubhou.se in Augusta is taking applications from people interested in joining its program this fall. It is a 12-week curriculum that meets in the evening twice a week and it includes six months of mentoring and a nine month membership in the Clubhou.se. The program has scholarships for veterans and the spouses of veterans, as well as access to Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act funding for those that qualify. For more information, go to: https://www.makestartups.com/

If you are interested in Kenneth L. Johnson Jr.s company, go to: http://nalejbank.com/
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP)  A monument dedicated to Tuskegee Airmen who died in Michigan during World War II training was unveiled Saturday near the international Blue Water Bridge.

Michigan served as an advanced training ground for many graduates of the Tuskegee University pilot training program.

Surviving Tuskegee airmen and their descendants attended the event in Port Huron, part of a three-day celebration that recognized the accomplishments of Americas first Black military pilots.

Fifteen Tuskegee airmen were killed while training in Michigan, including five pilots lost in Lake Huron and one in the St. Clair River, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Wreckages from two planes have been found in the river and the lake. In 2014, the remains of a P-39 aircraft were found in Lake Huron, 70 years after it crashed. The body of 2nd Lt. Frank Moody washed ashore a few months after the April 1944 crash.

A dive team spent a week in Lake Huron in 2015 surveying the wreckage.

He was my buddy. I knew him personally, Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, who attended the event in Port Huron, said of Moody.

The planes wing, landing gear, engine block, tail, propeller, cockpit door, instrument panel, 50-caliber machine guns and ammunition are being restored and will become an exhibit sponsored by the National Tuskegee Airmen Museum in Detroit.

At least three other planes flown by Tuskegee Airmen remain in Lake Huron, according to Diving With a Purpose, a Tennessee-based group that focuses on the maritime history of Black Americans.
Kelly Wilkinson /AP

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A coalition of voting-rights groups is sponsoring a contest for Indiana residents to draw new maps for congressional and legislative election districts across the state.

The group All IN For Democracy said the contest is aimed at finding fair proposed election maps to present to state legislators before they vote in late September on the once-a-decade redistricting based on population shifts from the U.S. census.
ASHLAND, Wis. (AP)  Native American distrust of police is the legacy of more than a century of colonialism that amounts to historical trauma, Bad River tribal member Dylan Bhizikins Jennings said.

Jennings has served as a tribal council member, a Northland College lecturer in Ojibwe, and is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin. He spoke earlier this month at the first of four public forums the city is holding to discuss how police services are delivered to the community  and what the community expects of its police.

The forums  the second is scheduled for Wednesday at Ashlands band shell  were developed as the nation was grappling with its relationship with police following the murder last summer by members of the Minneapolis Police Department, and subsequent demonstrations across the country, the Ashland Daily Press reported.

Most of those demonstrations focused on minority mistrust of police  mistrust borne of the disproportionate arrests and violence that minorities historically have suffered at the hands of authorities.

Jennings said he wants local police to understand that the same dynamics are in play in the Bay Area, where tribal communities have gone through generational trauma because of efforts to force Native Americans to assimilate into the non-native community.

Government-led assimilatory practices have contributed to some of what we might see as fear or distrust of police officers or other authority figures, he said.

Jennings also spoke about discrimination against Native Americans, and police bigotry that often resulted in violence against Indians.

He said helping the majority community understand historical practices like removing Indian children from their families and sending them to boarding schools where both the use of their native language and the practice of their traditional religion were both forbidden was an important first step.

Having community members have a stronger understanding of this history would be a good way to start these dialogues, so that we understand that in order to create equitable solutions, we have to understand everybodys shared history, and where people are coming from, especially our tribal communities, he said.

Ashland Mayor Debra Lewis, who organized the Ashland Policing Task Force that is hosting the forums, said her goal is to create a method for hearing and understanding local concerns on the issues of racial justice and law enforcement.

Obviously we are not going to solve historical events, but we are trying to work on building bridges for the future, build the relationships between tribal and municipal governments, minorities and municipal government and influence attitudes of local law enforcement, she said.

Lewis said the process included an educational component as well as bringing together people who ordinarily dont talk to each other.

Really the point is to listen to each other, to challenge our biases, learn from each other in a way that will help our community to grow and adapt, she said.

Lewis believes Floyds murder inspired efforts to establish a dialogue with the Ashland areas largest group of minorities, Native Americans. She said Indian participants in the policing task force told the group that non-Indians didnt understand their history.

They said its not taught in our schools, and that we dont have any context for why Native people are mistrustful of the police, Lewis said.

That led to Jenningss presentation, first before the task force, and then at the first forum, which was held online in a virtual setting.

Lewis hopes the forums are the beginning of a process of one side listening to the other and vice versa, with all sides listening to different voices.

One of the other voices comes from the Ashland Police Department where Chief Bill Hagstrom has been involved in the task force since its beginning. Hagstrom said he didnt attend the first forum because he didnt want his presence to discourage an open discussion.

People might want to come and say their piece, but they might not want to say it if I am sitting there, he said. What we did is to have another member of the department, Lt. Brandon Marten, there.

Hagstrom said the presentation made by Marten at the first forum was intended to show that the department is making important strides towards building better understandings between the two communities.

A lot of it is getting police to understand why people might have a reaction to them  that they may have preconceived notions of what police did 30 or 40 years ago. A lot of it is just building trust, he said.

Hagstrom said in addition to an opportunity to listen to the concerns of the Native American community, the forum gave police the chance to talk about the strides they were making to make the department more responsive.

Some of it is to reassure the public that Wisconsin has rules to prevent chokeholds and strangleholds. There are things like that that we just dont do here, period, he said. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers for example, has just signed a duty to intervene law that requires police officers to step in if another officer is acting inappropriately in an arrest or other action.

Hagstrom said that the department also has placed strong emphasis on providing training for matters like de-escalation of crisis situations  an effort that will continue as the department gets more training and builds closer relationships with the people it is intended to serve.

A lot of it is just the willingness to listen and talk, Hagstrom said.

Jennings said despite the difficult history between the two communities, he remains optimistic that the gulf between Native Americans and the non-native community can be bridged.

I think there are always opportunities to reconcile and try to move forward in a good way, to work toward healing, but I think that part of that journey lies in acknowledging the past so that we dont repeat of it, he said.

Meanwhile, Lewis gave a cautiously hopeful assessment about what she wanted from the public forums.

I dont have any illusions that I am going to fix all of the historical trauma, but as one of our members said, We may not change this generation, but hopefully we can help the next generation to be able to find a way to be more open to partnerships, she said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  One officer was accused by a supervisor of snoozing in his squad car while on duty. Another had multiple drunken run-ins with police, including after bar fights. A third repeatedly sent lewd photos to a female officer.

All of them were fired or forced out. And all of them are back working in law enforcement in Wisconsin.

___

The nonprofit news outlet Wisconsin Watch provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News.

___

Nearly 200 law enforcement officers currently employed in the state were fired from previous jobs in law enforcement, resigned before completion of an internal investigation or in lieu of termination, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Justice obtained through an open records request.

And more than 1,000 Wisconsin officers have been fired or resigned before termination since 2017, when the state DOJ started tracking that statistic.

Some of the most serious offenses include Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Janelle Gericke, who in January was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary. Milwaukee County Sheriffs Deputy Joel Streicher ran a red light in his police SUV and hit a vehicle, killing a man and injuring a woman. He was sentenced in April to six months in jail.

But the state revoked the law enforcement certification of both officers, meaning they can no longer work as police. As of July, Gericke and Streicher were the only Wisconsin officers decertified since January 2020, said Steven Wagner, director of the DOJs Training and Standards Bureau.

Usually only severe misconduct, such as criminal activity, results in a decertification, according to the state Law Enforcement Standards Board, which regulates police officers, sheriffs deputies and prison guards.

Some fired officers were simply novices who didnt perform at an acceptable level during their initial probationary period, when the bar to fire them is very low, experts say. Or they couldnt handle the high pressure of working in a busy urban area. But for others, misconduct including lying, public intoxication and sexual harassment triggered their termination.

Rehiring fired law enforcement officers can be a problem for good policing, said Meghan Stroshine, a social and cultural sciences associate professor at Marquette University who has studied policing, because a lot of the folks who have been fired and rehired end up getting in trouble again.

Jacob Ungerer was no stranger to the Waukesha Police Department when the neighboring New Berlin Police Department hired him in 2018. In 2016, Waukesha officers responded to a drunken fight that prompted a local bar to permanently ban Ungerer and a friend, according to a police report.

In 2018, Waukesha Police got called to a fight at another tavern. Ungerer, by then beginning his stint with New Berlin Police and out for a night of drinking, appeared to be heavily intoxicated, according to a police report. Video from the bar showed Ungerer swinging at a man, pursuing a man and getting punched in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Six weeks later, Ungerer was riding in the passenger seat with another off-duty New Berlin police officer when Waukesha Police pulled them over under suspicion of drunk driving.

A visibly intoxicated Ungerer held his police ID in his lap so it was visible to the on-duty officers, according to a police report. Still in his probationary period, he was fired a few days later for excessive use of alcohol and unbecoming conduct, according to documents from the New Berlin Police Department. About 18 months later, the Middleton Police Department hired him.

Ungerer was asked for comment but did not offer any; his chief answered questions on his behalf.

Middleton Police Chief Troy Hellendbrand said in an email his agency conducted a thorough background check before hiring Ungerer, and it was aware of the circumstances surrounding the ending of his employment.

Hellenbrand said Ungerer made some changes in his personal life all in hopes of preventing making further mistakes like he had in 2018. He added that the officer recently completed his 18-month probationary period without incident.

A huge study in The Yale Law Journal titled The Wandering Officer found that Florida cops who had been fired from a previous law enforcement job were more likely to be fired from their next job or to receive a complaint for a moral character violation, compared to rookies and officers who have never been fired.

The study analyzed nearly 100,000 full-time law-enforcement officers from almost 500 agencies in Florida over a 30-year period. The study concluded that wandering officers may pose serious risks, particularly given how difficult it is to fire a police officer.

Union contracts can give police officers strong job security, sometimes even when misconduct is committed. The controversial Act 10 legislation passed by Republicans in 2011 crippled organized public-sector labor in Wisconsin, but largely left police and fire unions, groups that lean to the political right, untouched.

So departments must choose carefully.

David Bauer, chief of the Dodgeville Police Department, said job candidates he determined had lied is a bright line rule for me. Because police officers are often required to testify in criminal trials, those officers reputations are incredibly important, Bauer said.

I cant put someone on the stand that had issues with honesty, he said.

Patrick Solar, a criminal justice associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Platteville and a former police chief, takes an even harder stance: A termination for a cop should be a death sentence on his or her law enforcement career.

Police officers hold positions of public trust, they are oath takers, he said. Once they have been proven to have violated that oath, I believe the possibility of re-employment in the craft should be forfeited, Solar said in an email.

Solar makes a distinction, however, between officers fired because of misconduct and probationary officers who commit minor infractions during their probation, when the bar to fire them is much lower.

A tactic of some wandering officers is to agree to leave a police department without a fight if the agency seals their file. Solar acknowledged he used to do that as small-town police chief in Illinois to avoid confrontation with powerful police unions.

A bill that would require law enforcement agencies to maintain a personnel file for each employee and disclose that file to any agency that may want to hire them has bipartisan support. If enacted, the measure would bar future nondisclosure agreements that shield police personnel files from prospective employers.

The head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association supports the bill.

No one wants a bad cop out of the profession more than a good one, WPPA Executive Director James Palmer said.

For police chiefs trying to fill out their staff, times are tough. The number of law enforcement officers in Wisconsin as well as the number of state police academy graduates hit at least a 10-year low in 2020.

Law enforcement officers in Wisconsin must complete a 720-hour law enforcement academy program. Fired officers already have that certification, so police departments can put them to work immediately, providing an incentive, particularly for smaller departments, to hire fired officers, Solar said.

The Lauderdale Lakes Law Enforcement Patrol near Elkhorn has five wandering officers on staff, the highest number of any police department in the state.

Lauderdale Lakes Chief Christopher St. Clair said via email his department runs a detailed background check before hiring officers and was aware of the job histories of all five officers. Those officers have performed more than satisfactorily and have not committed any misconduct, he added.

The Town of Madison Police Department has three wandering officers on staff, as do the police departments at UW-Oshkosh and the Wisconsin State Fair Park Police Department.

Town of Madison Police Chief Scott Gregory said via email that psychological assessments and extensive background checks were completed on all the officers, and that the officers disclosed their terminations during the hiring process.

Needless to say, mistakes were made by the officers at their previous employment and additional training occurred here to ensure those mistakes would not occur again, Gregory wrote, adding all three were doing an excellent job.

UW-Oshkosh Police Chief Kurt Leibold said two of the three officers had previously and successfully worked for his department, and all three were terminated during their probationary period, when an agency can let an officer go for any number of reasons, including that the officer simply was not a good fit. Leibold added that they were not fired for misconduct.

Wisconsin State Fair Park Police Chief James Bruno did not respond to questions about the wandering officers on his staff.

DOJs publicly available database of wandering officers puts Wisconsin ahead of some states which dont disclose police misconduct at all. Police disciplinary records in Wisconsin are public unless they are related to an active investigation; the database is available by public records request.

Law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin must report the firings or resignations under pressure of officers to the DOJ, according to state rules, but agencies are not required to check the registry before hiring an officer, said the DOJs Wagner.

Departments are required to report the hiring of an officer, and the DOJ will alert them of officers flagged for being fired or resigning before a termination, according to the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board Policy and Procedures Manual.

At the national level, activists have pushed for a national bad cop registry. House Democrats passed the sprawling George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 that would enact one.

A National Decertification Database of police officers already exists, used by Wisconsin and 43 other states, yet it does not include officers who committed misconduct but kept their certification, said Michael Becar, executive director of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, which manages the database.

In the meantime, experts have advice for police departments who need to fill positions.

Be extremely careful about who you hire and what their backgrounds are, Stroshine said. We know from a lot of research that there tend to be a small group of officers who cause departments the bulk of their problems.
In this weeks roundup, new service could soon be coming from SFO to Australia and Vietnam; Mineta San Jose wont get Tokyo flights this fall as previously planned; American sets a fall start for Seattle-Bangalore flights; United will downgrade aircraft on its SFO-New York JFK route; low-cost Avelo Airlines drops two more Burbank routes; Delta and Air Canada set new vaccination policies for employees; Canadian carriers plan new California routes; Alitalia sets a date for its demise; South African Airways resumes flying; CDC adds more countries to its highest-risk list; Czech Republic eases entry rules but Germany tightens them; American will bring back its Flagship Lounges; San Francisco International reopens its longest runway; and Honolulus airport cuts the ribbon on a big new concourse.

San Francisco International could soon be getting trans-Pacific service to Australia and Vietnam, based on news this week from Qantas and Vietnam Airlines. Qantas, which shut down most international operations months ago, said this week that its target date of December 2021 for resuming long-haul service remains in reach based on the COVID vaccine rollout in Australia. If the country remains on target to achieve an 80% vaccination rate by that month, it would trigger the gradual reopening of international borders, Qantas said  especially from regions that have similar vaccination levels, like the U.K. and North America. If that happens, Qantas said it expects a mid-December start for the resumption of flights to the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Canada, and Singapore.

It didnt spell out specific cities or launch dates, but the carriers booking platform shows daily Los Angeles-Sydney service starting Dec. 18 with a 787-9, and connecting service to the LAX flight from SFO via Qantas partner American Airlines. Qantas also said it is making some technical changes to extend the range of its A330-200s so they can operate trans-Pacific routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-San Francisco, and that it expects to return five Airbus A380 super-jumbos to service ahead of schedule, for use between LAX-Sydney starting in July 2022 and London-Sydney (via Singapore) beginning in November 2022.

Vietnam Airways has operated some special charter flights from the U.S. in recent months to repatriate its citizens, but now the carrier says it is ready for regular scheduled service between the two countries. The airline, which is majority owned by the countrys government, is targeting a late October launch for U.S. service between San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), using a 787 or an Airbus A350 and operating via an unspecified intermediate stop. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese low-cost carrier called Bamboo Airways also has its eye on SFO for its first U.S. scheduled flights. Bamboo has applied to the Transportation Department for operating rights from Ho Chi Minh City to Los Angeles and San Francisco starting by the end of the third quarter, with possible stops in Japan or Taiwan. If its plans are realized, Bamboo said it hopes to enter into a code-sharing agreement with a U.S. airline.

But one expected trans-Pacific route from the Bay Area now looks like its not happening. Mineta San Jose Airport had been scheduled to see the return of All Nippon Airways daily flights to Tokyo Haneda on Oct. 31, but those plans have been scrapped. ANA said this week the return of SJC service has been postponed, but it didnt offer a new starting date. ANA will continue to flexibly respond to demand by reassessing our flight schedule on a monthly basis, the airline said, noting that it also plans to shift its Houston and Washington Dulles routes from Haneda to Tokyos Narita Airport to accommodate demand for connections between Asia-North America.

In other trans-Pacific news, American Airlines has set Nov. 6 for the launch of its new nonstop flights from Seattle to Bangalore, India  the so-called Silicon Valley of the subcontinent. The route was announced many months ago but has been delayed because of COVID issues. American will offer daily service on the 16-hour 40-minute route, flying it with a 787-9. Its all part of AAs grand strategy of forging a west coast partnership with Alaska Airlines, trading off passengers at the latters Seattle hub. American also plans to begin India service from New York JFK to Delhi on Nov. 1. Air India started San Francisco-Bangalore service earlier this year and United is expected to add the SFO-Bangalore route in December.

United Airlines made quite a fuss this spring about its big return to New York JFK from San Francisco and Los Angeles, supplementing its primary transcontinental schedules into its Newark hub. But now the aviation blog Onemileatatime.com is questioning whether the new JFK service is working out. United kicked off the two routes using premium 767-300s that include the carriers highly regarded Polaris business cabin, but Onemileatatime said it has learned that on Oct. 1, United will switch aircraft on the two routes from the twin-aisle 767s to single-aisle 757-200s  a change that the site called a massive downgrade to the passenger experience. The biggest change is in the business cabin, which will go from 46 Polaris lie-flat seats in a 1-by-1-by-1 configuration to just 16 much older business class seats configured 2-by-2. Moreover, the 757s will have 153 economy seats in a 3-by-3 layout, vs. the 767s 99 economy seats configured 2-by-3-by-2. Gone will be the 767s 22 premium economy seats. As Onemileatatime.coms Ben Schlappig observed, the reality is that business travel simply hasnt recovered, and thats especially true of premium demand between New York and California.  At this point Im not sure what exactly United hopes to accomplish on these JFK flights, other than maintaining slots.

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Avelo Air

The California-based start-up carrier Avelo Airlines continues to struggle with its route network just months after it began operations. ThePointsGuy.com says it has confirmed that Avelo will drop service to two more destinations from its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport  Monterey, California, which was due to start Sept. 30, and St. George, Utah, where Avelo had planned an Oct. 7 launch. Avelo told ThePointsGuy those routes will be re-evaluated next year. In addition, the airline will delay Burbank-Provo, Utah, service from Sept. 17 until Nov. 15. Last month, Avelo gave up on flights from Burbank to Bozeman, Montana, and Grand Junction, Colorado, but it still plans to begin service from Santa Rosa to Las Vegas Sept. 16 and from Burbank to Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado, Oct. 6.

More major airlines are taking steps to make sure their employees are vaccinated against the coronavirus. Air Canada said this week that all current workers must complete their shots by Oct. 30, and no new employees will be hired unless they have been vaccinated. Under the mandatory vaccination policy, testing will not be offered as an alternative, Air Canada said. Delta Air Lines is taking a different tack on the vaccination issue. The company told employees this week that they dont have to get vaccinated, but if they dont, theyll be required to pay an extra $200 a month for health insurance premiums starting in November. Effective immediately, unvaccinated Delta employees will have to wear masks indoors and starting in mid-September, theyll have to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

A couple of Canadian airlines are planning new California service. Air Canada recently announced it would start flying from Orange County Airport in Santa Ana to Vancouver on Oct. 2, and now WestJet is targeting a Nov. 4 start for new twice-weekly flights between Orange County and Calgary. WestJet will also expand its San Francisco-Calgary route from a summer seasonal service to year-round, continuing to operate after Oct. 31 with two flights a week. Meanwhile, Canadas Flair Airlines is planning to add four transborder routes from a new base it is establishing at Edmonton, Alberta. On Dec. 16, Flair plans to kick off twice-weekly service from Edmonton to Palm Springs, Hollywood Burbank and Phoenix Mesa, as well as three flights a week to Las Vegas.

The expected replacement of Alitalia Airlines by a new, smaller Italian carrier called ITA is now officially set for Oct. 15. That means all Alitalia flights after Oct. 14 are canceled. Passengers holding Alitalia tickets for travel after Oct. 14 can either rebook to an earlier date or get a full refund. The airline said it will email affected customers with details; Alitalias U.S. gateways include New York, Miami, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. The demise of the 75-year-old carrier has been years in the making as Alitalia struggled with steep financial losses and unrelenting labor problems as its unions resisted managements efforts to downsize. ITA will be a separate corporate entity, not just a new name on a different version of Alitalia. And it will be a lot smaller  with 3,000 employees vs. Alitalias 11,000 and less than half as many aircraft (mostly acquired from Alitalia, so the old carriers livery on the new ITA flights might be confusing until the planes are repainted). ITA hasnt yet announced its route network, but since it is taking on only a handful of wide-body aircraft, its long-haul intercontinental routes are likely to be severely limited.

South African Airways, which has been grounded for months amid COVID and a financial reorganization, said this week it will start flying again Sept. 23. But flights to the U.S. and other long-haul destinations arent in its plans right now. Instead, SAA said it will initially operate only intra-African routes, including flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town, South Africa; Accra, Ghana; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Lusaka, Zambia; and Maputo, Mozambique. More destinations will be added to the route network as it ramps up operations in response to market conditions, the airline said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its travel advisory list once again, adding six countries to its Level 4 category. That means Americans shouldnt travel there because of an increased COVID risk, based on a rising number of cases per 100,000 residents in the past month. The new Level 4 designation was applied to the Bahamas, Haiti and Sint Maarten along with Morocco, Lebanon and Kosovo. All were previously at Level 3. The CDC said anyone who must travel to any of those destinations should be fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens who want to visit Prague got some good news as the Czech Republic said it now recognizes vaccination certificates from several foreign nations including the U.S. That means fully vaccinated Americans are no longer subject to testing and self-quarantine rules when they enter the country. But Germany has tightened its rules for entry: Previously, unvaccinated travelers were allowed in if they showed a negative result on a COVID test, but now those individuals will have to quarantine for five to 10 days after arrival. Vaccinated visitors and those who can prove recovery from a COVID infection are still allowed in without a quarantine.

Tim Jue

American Airlines said it will start to reopen premium Flagship Lounges at its hub airports next month, starting with the Flagship Lounge in New York JFKs Terminal 8 on Sept. 14 and Flagship First Dining at JFK Sept. 18. At Miami Internationals Concourse D, the Flagship Lounge will be back Sept. 28 and the Flagship First Dining service Sept. 30. Locations at Los Angeles International Terminal 4, Dallas/Fort Worth Terminal D and Chicago OHare Terminal 3 will reopen later this fall, the airline said. The lounges  separate from AAs Admirals Clubs, which require paid memberships  are open to passengers traveling in a premium cabin on a qualifying flight. That list of qualifying flights has been expanded to include passengers flying to Hawaii from DFW, Chicago and Charlotte in Flagship First or Flagship Business class. Flagship Dining, full-service restaurants with menus from James Beard Foundation chefs, are open to customers flying in Flagship First on qualifying international or transcontinental flights.

Michael H/Getty Images

After a four-month closure for resurfacing work, San Francisco International Airport has reopened Runway 28 Right, its longest runway. All runways are once again open for operational use, the airport announced. When the project was announced in April, SFO had predicted moderate delays for travelers, especially for flights scheduled between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. But more work is coming: The airport said Runway 28 Left will be temporarily shortened by 3,500 feet from Sept. 8 through Oct. 4 to permit installation of new lighting and improvements in taxiway geometry. While that work is going on, Runway 28 Left will only handle landing aircraft. This temporary adjustment is not anticipated to cause any significant flight delays during typical weather conditions, SFO said.

All those travelers flocking back to Oahu now that vaccinated individuals can enter the state without a COVID pre-test will be getting some extra elbow room at Honolulus Daniel K. Inouye Airport. On Friday (Aug. 27), the airport cut the ribbon on its first significant expansion in 30 years. HNLs new $270 million, 230,000-square-foot Mauka Concourse gives the airport a dozen more gates and six new TSA security screening lanes. That increases the total screening capacity for Terminal 1 to 10 lanes and should relieve chronic congestion during the midday hours, airport officials said. Hawaiian Airlines will be the first to use the new space.
A Graff

If you stepped outside today and thought it feels a little hotter than usual, thats because it is. With the temperature reaching 84 degrees early in the afternoon, today officially marks the hottest day so far this year in San Francisco, according to ABC 7s meteorologist, Drew Tuma. Prior to this week, San Francisco hadnt seen temperatures top 70 degrees in over two months.

Things are even hotter across the Bay Area, with Fremont and Redwood City seeing temperatures in the low-90s, and San Jose and Palo Alto both reaching the mid-90s.
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During his visit to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan's capital, on Thursday, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi sought revival of the dormant project. Qureshi said that TAPI was beneficial for the entire region and Afghanistan alone would get $1 billion in transit fee and royalty after completion of the project, Paksitani daily Dawn reported.

Talking to the media following his meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the foreign minister said the project was expected to create 2,000 jobs.

With a total length of approximately 1814 km - 214 km of which falls in Turkmenistan, 774 km through Afghanistan, and 826 km in the territory of Pakistan before reaching Fazilka in India's Punjab - the mega gas pipeline project would connect Turkmenistan, one of the largest energy suppliers in the world, with the South Asian countries.

Active since the TAPI Summit was held in the Turkmenistan capital in December 2010, the project has already seen more lows than highs with an uncertain future in store now after the removal of Ashraf Ghani government. A desperate Pakistan is also worried about the future of the construction of a high-voltage power transmission line along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) route.

Long before it took control of Kabul, the Taliban had assured that it will not harm projects like TAPI which would contribute to the development of the Afghan economy.

On February 6 this year, during talks held with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov in Ashgabat, a Taliban delegation had acknowledged that Turkmenistan had been providing significant support to the Afghan people for many years, primarily in areas like energy, transport and communications.

The delegation of the 'political office of the Taliban movement' was led by a certain Abdul Ghani Baradar, the outfit's de facto leader right now who held a secret meeting with the CIA Director William Burns in Kabul, earlier this week.

After the "constructive negotiations" with Baradar, the Turkmenistan foreign ministry had said that the Taliban delegation had expressed "full support" for the implementation of the infrastructure projects aimed at ensuring the well-being and prosperity of the Afghan people.

Besides the TAPI pipeline and power transmission lines along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route, it also included the railways project connecting Turkmenistan with Afghanistan.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesperson and member of the Taliban negotiation team, had declared "full support" for the implementation and security of the TAPI project and other infrastructure projects.

"There is no doubt that the early start of construction of projects such as TAPI, TAP and railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan will contribute to the achievement of peace and economic development in Afghanistan. At a time when, on the one hand, there is a struggle for the independence of our country, we, in turn, ensuring the protection of all national projects implemented in our country, are trying to make the necessary contribution to the well-being of our people and the development of the state," Shaheen had said then.

Playing a crucial role in Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the Imran Khan government is making all efforts - including Qureshi's 'billion dollar' statement - to ensure that the new regime sticks to the promise made in Ashgabat.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
Mitarachi's remarks on Friday come as the Taliban takeover of most of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US forces has sparked deep concerns in Greece, as well as across Europe, over a possible replay of mass migration flows and the humanitarian crisis of recent years, reports Xinhua news agency.

Athens, Aug 28 (IANS) Greece will not become a gateway to Europe for irregular migration flows, like it happened in the 2015-2019 period,the country's Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi told Parliament, pointing to recent developments in Afghanistan.

Since 2015, over one million people have reached Greece fleeing warzones and extreme poverty, and most continued their journey to other European countries until the borders along the Balkan route to Central Europe were sealed off.

Currently, Greece is on alert and bolstering security along the borders with Turkey, officials in Athens have said.

The erection of a fence along the Turkish border in the north was completed a few days ago, the government said.

The 27-km-long and five-meter-high steel fence was added to an existing 12.5-km-long wall, which was reinforced.

A new electronic border surveillance system had also been installed.

The project that cost nearly 63 million euros ($74 million), started last year following the increased pressure on this part of the borders by thousands of asylum seekers in March 2020.

"The Afghan crisis is creating new data in the geopolitical sphere and at the same time is creating possibilities for migration flows. We have to prepare ourselves for the possible consequences," Minister of Civil Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis told Greek national broadcaster ERT during a recent visit to the area.

The Greek government is in talks with the European Union (EU) for financing the extension of the border fence, local news site "in.gr" has reported.

The country has also called for prompt and close cooperation between EU member states and with third countries to cope with the arising new challenges.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jointly urged the international community last week to provide more support to countries closer to Afghanistan to handle the crisis.

--IANS

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In a statement released on Friday, it also welcomed the measures taken by the government to ensure them the benefit of the rights attached to their status as former head of state and former Prime Minister, reports Xinhua news agency.

Bamako, Aug 28 (IANS) The Local Committee for Monitoring the Transition in Mali (CLST) welcomed the transitional government's decision to lift restrictive measures on former Malian transitional president Bah N'Daw and his Prime Minister Moctar Ouane.

For the CLST, this decision is a "positive development" which falls within the framework of the commitments made by the transitional authorities.

It urged all the parties concerned to show a spirit of responsibility and attachment to the national interest, to show respect for the law, and also to refrain from any action that could impact the proper conduct of the transition.

In May, N'Daw and Ouane, as well as some of their relatives, were deprived of their liberty after being forced to give up their prerogatives by the military junta which overthrew then President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18, 2020.

--IANS

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The US' plan to hand over Afghanistan was made way back in 2012 and eventually it started taking shape and they started regrouping and taking control over Afghan territory.

Some of these prominent members were earlier incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and some in Pakistan and Afghanistan jails. They were released in the last six years once the US started back-channel talks with them for their exit from Afghanistan.

A sudden pullout of the US forces gave the Taliban enough time to completely take over Afghanistan. On August 15, 2021, Taliban captured Kabul marking the end of US intervention in Afghanistan since in the 1970s.

The security establishments are fully aware that the terror group Al Qaeda has a clear link to the Taliban and however the US decided to leave the country as quickly as it can, ultimately triggering a huge humanitarian crisis.

But who are these prominent Taliban members of 2021? Most of them are the same old Taliban members which ruled from 1996 to 2001. IANS profiles some of these Taliban members.



Shahabuddin Dilawar

Shahabuddin Dilawar is an ethnic Pashtun from Logar province, and his father, Syed Akbar, was a member of the Wolesi Jirga during King Zahir Shah's reign. During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, he held positions, including Ambassador to Pakistan, a representative in the Peshawar Consulate, Charge d'Affaires in Saudi Arabia, and Deputy Chief Justice of the Kandahar Appeal Court.

He also fought in the 1980s anti-Soviet jihad.

Until September 1998, Dilawar was the Taliban's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He has since led or participated in several Taliban delegations in other countries. He was the Taliban's chief delegate during talks in Chantilly, France, in December 2012. He has continued to act as a Taliban envoy since moving to Qatar, helping to set up the Taliban's office in Doha. In April 2016, Dilawar took part in a three-person Taliban delegation in Islamabad for "exploratory" meetings with Pakistani government authorities.

Dilawar is currently based in Doha and is a member of the peace negotiating team. He is fluent in Arabic, English, Dari, and Pashto and has completed his higher education.



Abdul Latif Mansoor

Abdul Latif Mansoor is a Pashtun from the Paktia province and had served as Agriculture Minister during the previous Taliban regime. He spent the majority of his life in Pakistan, where he completed his Islamic studies at the Haqqania seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

He is the nephew of Mewlavi Nasrullah Mansoor, a former jihadi commander.

He was also a member of the Taliban Supreme Council and Head of the Council's Political Commission in 2009. He was the Taliban shadow governor of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, in 2009 and the head of the group's political commission as at mid-2009.

In May 2010, he served as a senior Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan.

He is a member of the Taliban's peace negotiation team.



Abdul Kabeer

Abdul Kabeer is of Pashtun ethnicity and hails from Paktia province, which borders Pakistan, but has spent time in Baghlan province as well.

During the Taliban regime, he was governor of Kandahar and deputy director of Kabul's ministerial council on economic affairs.

He was a member of the Taliban's high leadership council in October 2006, and was appointed military commander of the eastern zone in October 2007. He was a member of the Taliban Supreme Council as at 2009. He used to collect money from drug traffickers on behalf of the Taliban. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009, but he was later released.

He was part of the negotiating team.



Khairullah Khairkhwa

Khairullah Khairkhwa is an ethnic Pashtun and belongs to the Kandahar province. During the former Taliban regime, he had served as a military commander, Interior Minister and Governor of Herat province.

When the September 11, 2001, attacks took place, Khairkhwa was posted as governor of the Taliban-run Herat Province, where former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ran a training camp.

He was directly associated with bin Laden and former Taliban leader Omar. He is closely acquainted with current Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Khairkhwa was arrested by Pakistani border patrol officials in February 2002 and incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay from May 2002 to May 2014. He was one of five Taliban senior leaders transferred to Qatar as part of the Doha-mediated exchange for captive US Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

He was part of negotiating team.



Mohammad Fazel Mazlum

Mohammad Fazel Mazlum belongs to Uruzgan province and had studied in Pakistani seminaries. The 53-year-old is a Pashtun from Kandahar province. He was a military commander during the fight against the US, and he previously served as interior minister and governor of Herat province during Taliban rule.

He stands accused of administering a series of massacres targeting Shia and Tajik Sunnis Muslims in central and northern Afghanistan.

He was taken into custody in 2002 near the Afghan border in Pakistan and held in the Guantanamo Bay prison for nearly 12 years. He is currently residing in Doha and is a member of the Taliban peace negotiation team.



Noorullah Noori

Born in 1967 in Zabul province, Noorullah Noori is a senior Taliban military commander in the northern Mazar-e Sharif province.

During the Taliban's rule, he was the governor of Balkh and Laghman, as well as the military commander of the northern zone. He was implicated for the execution of ethnic Uzbeks in May 2001 and of at least 31 ethnic Hazara civilians and Shia Muslim detainees at Robatak Pass, in north central Afghanistan, in May 2000.

He was arrested by the Panjshir-based Northern Alliance in November 2001 and detained in Guantanamo Bay from January 2002 to May 2014. He was an associate of former Taliban commander Omar, and was at one point one of 25 Taliban officials who met him most frequently.

He was part of negotiation team.



Amir Khan Muttaqi

Amir Khan Muttaqi is ethnically Pashtun from Paktia but has lived in Zabul, Kandahar, and Helmand provinces. During the Taliban regime, he was the minister of culture, information, and education. He had also served as a Taliban representative in UN-led talks during the Taliban regime.

He was also a member of a regional Taliban Council in June 2007.

Muttaqi is close to Taliban chief Haibatullah, having served as his personnel secretary before being appointed to the Doha negotiating team.

Currently, Muttaqi is the head of a Taliban commission that oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents.



Abdul Haq Waseeq

Abdul Haq Waseeq, a resident of Khogyano district in Ghazni province, is 49 years old and had completed his religious studies from Zia-ul-Madares in Pakistan's Quetta City.

He was assistant officer of intelligence during the Taliban regime. Waseeq was arrested in the Muqar district of Ghazni province in 2001 and was sent to Guantanamo Bay. He was released in a prisoners swap deal after spending 12-years in the US military detention centre.

He was present in the US-Taliban talks that lasted for 11 months and currently is a member of the Taliban negotiating team. He lives in Qatar with his family.



Matiulhaq Khales

Matiulhaq Khales is a Pashtun from the province of Nangarhar. He is the son of Maulvi Younas Khales, a former jihadi commander who founded the Hizb-e-Islami (Khales group), the same as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party. The two are commonly differentiated as Hizb-e Islami (Khales) and Hizb-e-Islami (Gulbuddin). After the overthrow of Mohammad Zahir Shah by Mohammad Daoud in 1973, Khales fled to Pakistan and joined Hekmatyar's Islamic Party (Hezb-e Islami). After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Khales broke with Hekmatyar and established his own party (Hizb-e-Islami Khales).

His son Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales completed his bachelor's degree from the Madina Monawwara in Saudi Arabia. He had created an armed group called Torabora Mahaz for some time. In 2016, he pledged allegiance to the Taliban. Maulvi Matiulhaq Khales is currently a member of the Taliban negotiating team.



Mohammad Naeem

Mohammad Naeem is from Maidan Wardak province. He studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqani seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. He received his doctorate in Arabic Literature from Islamabad's Islamic University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha.



Suhail Shaheen

Suhail Shaheen is from Paktia, a Pashtun-majority province in Afghanistan. He attended the Islamic University in Islamabad, and Kabul University. He is currently the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Doha. He was the editor-in-chief of the Kabul Times during the Taliban regime. He has also served as the second secretary in Afghanistan's embassy in Islamabad and as the spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

Shaheen is a fluent English speaker and prolific writer.



Anas Haqqani

Anas Haqqani is son of renowned jihadi leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani Network. Sirajuddin Haqqani, his brother, is the network's commander.

From Paktia province, Anas Haqqani is the youngest member of the Taliban's Doha negotiating team. He was arrested in 2014 and transferred to Qatar after serving six years in Bagram prison.

The Haqqani Network is directly associated links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has carried out a series of high-profile attacks against foreign and Afghan troops since the US invasion.



Mohammad Shirin Akhund

Mohammad Shirin Akhund was close to the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar. A member of the Alizai tribe from Kandahar province, he and was in charge of Omar's security. He was also the commander of military intelligence and the governor of Kandahar province.

Akhund is a long-time member of the Taliban and its leadership council the Rahbari Shura, better known as the Quetta Shura. During the US invasion, Akhund was one of the close associates of Omar who helped him escape from the province and evade coalition forces. After fleeing from coalition forces, Akhund became head of Omar's personal security for the next several years, becoming the latter's close confidant.

In 2016, he was placed in charge of overseeing the Taliban war efforts in 19 provinces in the country's east and north as part of the organisation's military committee. By 2018, a UN Security Council report described Akhund as the group's head of intelligence for the southern region, before he was moved to the shadow governorship of Kandahar in the same year during a political reshuffling of Taliban leadership by Haibatullah Akhundzada.

After the fall of Kabul on August 15, he has been appointed as the Governor of Kabul. He was a member of the negotiating team in the Taliban's office in Doha, Qatar.

(Sumit Kumar Singh can be reached at sumit.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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The world has not yet recognised the Taliban with many announcing no diplomatic ties, some running away in haste shutting down their missions in Afghan and others vowing to support the anti-Taliban resistance launched by former Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, in Panjshir Valley.

The US invasion came in response to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden, were responsible for the massacre and they were under the protection of the Taliban, who had been in power since 1996.

Prominent Taliban members, who are against women rights and are extremists, were hunted down for 20 years by world best intelligence agencies but they still managed to regroup and forced the US to engage with them leading to the complete takeover of Afghanistan.

But who are these prominent Taliban members of 2021? IANS profiles some top Taliban members.

Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada

The Supreme Commander of Taliban is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is also known as "Emir" of the organisation. He became Supreme Commander of the Islamist group in May 2016 when his predecessor Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike. The drone targeted Mansour's vehicle in a remote area of south-west Pakistan near the Afghan border. Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar.

When Akhundzada was appointed as Supreme Commander, Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced his support and hailed him as "emir of the believers".

Akhundzada was born in 1961 in Kandahar province and is as a religious leader. He hails from the powerful Nurzai clan of the ethnic Pashtuns. He had overseen legal and Islamic law and jurisprudence (Sharia) related matters as head of the judiciary during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001.



Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar

The founding member of the Taliban movement in 1990s, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Baradar is deputy commander of the Taliban and also heads the group's political office in Doha. He was born into the Pashtun tribe in southern Afghanistan in 1968 and when he was young he fought with mujahideen guerrillas against Soviet troops. After the war, he helped Mullah Muhammad Omar, his former commander (and, some say, brother-in-law) and formed the Taliban. He had served as the provincial governor and deputy defence minister during the Taliban's rule. After the US invasion in 2001, Mullah Baradar drove his commander on the back of a motorcycle to hide in the hills.

He was arrested in Karachi in 2010 and released in October 2018 at the request of the US.

He was in charge of the Doha Peace Office. At the helm of the group's political office in Doha, its de facto embassy, Mullah Baradar led talks with the US that culminated in a deal to end Washington's engagement in the 20-year war.



Sirajuddin Haqqani

Sirajuddin is the Taliban's deputy leader and head of the semi-independent Haqqani Network, a designated terror group in Afghanistan. He was on the US' Most Wanted list and and had a $5 million reward. He is a Pashtun from Paktia and a member of the Zadran clan.

Sirajuddin is the head of the Taliban's military strategy and was placed in charge of Kabul's security after the August 15 takeover. He is is believed to have been born in either Afghanistan or Pakistan between 1973 and 1980. He oversees the Taliban's operations in the eastern regions, including Paktia, Paktika, Khost, and Ningarhar provinces, as well as in and around Kabul.

He has close ties to the Al Qaeda.

His father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, founded their namesake jihadi group and handed over leadership before his death in 2018. In the 1980s, Jalaluddin Haqqani was among the US-backed mujahideen warlords battling a Soviet Union invasion and was a close friend and mentor of bin Laden.



Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob

Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob is the son of the Taliban's founding leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. The 31-year-old Yaqoob is a Pashtun from the Hotak clan and has been the group's military chief since 2020, overseeing all ground engagements in Afghanistan. He is a deputy commander of the group.

Yaqoob was trained in guerrilla warfare by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e Mohammad.

It is believed that being Mullah Omar's eldest son got Yaqoob elevated among the Taliban's field commanders and its rank and file. Before 2015, he did not even have an official position in the Taliban. Under Yaqoob's leadership, the Taliban appears to have been upholding its commitment not to attack departing US forces. He is part of a moderate camp that favoured negotiations to end the war.

Yaqoob's predecessor, Ibrahim Sadr, a powerful field commander, opposed peace efforts.

Yaqoob is a graduate of several hard-line Islamic seminaries in Karachi, where his family had resided since the US invasion of Afghanistan.



Qari Din Mohammad Hanif

Qari Din Mohammad Hanif is a senior Taliban leader based in Qatar who had served as the group's former Minister of Higher Education and the Master of Planning. Hanif was also a member of the Taliban Supreme Council responsible for Takhar province and his home province of Badakhshan. He is an ethnic Tajik.

The 66-year-old was also a key member of the Taliban peace negotiation team in Doha. When in early 2015 the Taliban announced that it was willing to enter into peace talks geared toward ending the conflict in Afghanistan, Hanif had led a delegation of the Taliban's political office in Qatar.



Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi

Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi is an ethnic Uzbek from the northern Faryab province and has long been affiliated with the Taliban. The 54-year-old had served as governor as well as deputy minister of education during the Taliban rule. He is currently serving as a deputy head of the political office in Doha. Hanafi has also studied at various religious seminaries including in Karachi and has taught at the Kabul University.



Mullah Abdul Hakeem

Mullah Abdul Hakeem is a close aide to Taliban chief Hibatullah, and is the shadow chief justice in the country. He comes from the Ishaqzai clan of the Pashtuns. The 54-year-old Hakeem is considered as a hardline cleric.

He spent years lying low in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban leadership has been based since the US invasion in 2001. Until recently, he ran an Islamic madrassa in the Ishaqabad area of Quetta, from where he led the Taliban's judiciary and headed a powerful council of Taliban clerics that issued religious edicts to justify the group's brutal insurgency in Afghanistan.

The ultra-conservative Hakeem replaces Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, who along with Baradar spearheaded negotiations with the US over the landmark agreement signed last year .

He graduated from and taught at the Darul Uloom Haqqania Islamic seminary in northwest Pakistan, which is known for preaching a fundamentalist brand of Islam and schooling a generation of fighters for the Afghan Taliban.

The so-called 'university of jihad' counts some of the world's most notorious terrorists among its alumni, including Mullah Mohammad Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Hakeem has earned a reputation as a hard-liner and has been dedicated to restoring the group's Islamic emirate, the official name of the erstwhile Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.



Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai

Born in 1963 in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai is ethnically a Pashtun. He received military training in the Indian Military Academy in 1982, rose to the ranks of deputy health minister during the Taliban regime and later served as a chief peace negotiator in Doha before Mullah Hakeem.

He was also a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban regime. The 58-year-old Pashtun comes from the Stanekzai clan. He can speak five languages and had served as the Taliban's political office chief between 2015-2019. He is also known as 'Sheru'.



Qari Fasihuddin

As a young ethnic Tajik from the northern Badakhshan province, Qari Fasihuddin serves as the military chief for the group in the north of the country. In September 2019, the then Afghan government claimed that he was killed in a military operation in Jurm district in Badakhshan province. Back then, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the government claim, saying that fighting was still raging in the district and rejected the allegation as "enemy propaganda". His whereabouts are still unknown.



Muhammad Fazal Akhund

Muhammad Fazal Akhund is regarded as one of the Taliban's most ferocious frontline commanders. He was released from Guantanamo Bay after 12 years of detention in exchange for a captured US soldier Bowe Bergdahl. Fazel is a Pashtun from the Durrani tribe and a native of Uruzgan province.

After joining the Soviet-Afghan war, he served as defence minister and chief of staff during the former Taliban regime. It is claimed that he is an active person in Taliban-Al Qaeda relation. He was appointed a member of the Taliban's political team.



Mali Khan

Mali Khan is a relative of Sirajuddin Haqqani and is believed to be the main leader in organising funds and operations in Afghanistan. He is a Pashtun from the Zadran tribe.

Khan is a senior commander of the Haqqani Network of militants that operates from North Waziristan Agency in Pakistan. The Haqqani Network has been at the forefront of insurgent activity in Afghanistan, responsible for many high-profile attacks.

In June 2011, Khan's deputy provided support to the suicide bombers responsible for the attacks on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan.

He was was captured in September 2011 during a joint NATO-Afghan forces operation in Afghanistan's Paktia Province.

He was released in 2019 along with two others to free three captured Australian and American professors.



Ibrahim Sadr

Ibrahim Sadr earned a reputation as a long-serving Taliban military commander before handing over the reins to Omar's son. Sadr is a battle-hardened Pashtun commander from the Alakozai tribe. He had effectively built his own forces ('mahaz'), that traditionally operate across several provinces. While these forces have, in some cases, served to bolster larger Taliban operations, they have also on occasion failed to send forces in operations deemed likely to incur high casualties.

Sadar's rise to the top of the insurgency has been decades in the making. He was born in the village of Jogharan, in the southern province of Helmand, some time around the late 1960s. His home district, Sangin, is a verdant area of pomegranate trees and poppy fields that has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the US-led occupation.

The middle son of a well-respected Pashtun from the Alakozai tribe, Sadar spent his youth known by his birth name, Khodaidad, rather than the nom du guerre with which he would make history.

After Afghan communists seized power in a coup in Kabul in 1978 and Soviet forces invaded the country a year later, he and his family were drawn into the Islamist resistance.

Together with his father, Sadar joined Jamiat-e-Islami, one of the largest Afghan mujahideen parties and when the Afghan communist regime was toppled in 1992, he refused to get involved in the civil war that erupted between the victorious mujahideen factions. Instead, he went to Peshawar in Pakistan to study in a madrasa. There he changed his first name to Ibrahim, after one of Islam's prophets.

His whereabouts were unknown till the time negotiation was not completed.

--IANS

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High-profile supporters have publicly defended one of Australias best-known brain surgeons, Dr Charlie Teo, as he faces an uncertain future.

Last week the NSW Medical Council ruled that the controversial 63-year-old doctor must seek written approval from a fellow neurosurgeon before performing certain operations, following a series of complaints.

Cheyenne Tozzi stands in support of Dr Charlie Teo. Credit:Instagram

Cronulla-raised model Cheyenne Tozzi sang Dr Teos praises on Instagram. Tozzi revealed the high-profile doctor performed life-saving surgery on her mother Yvonne after she was diagnosed with multiple brain tumours in 2013.

A lot is being said of Dr Charlie Teo, Tozzi, 32, posted alongside photos from her mothers hospital bedside.
With Beyonces Halo, Leona Lewis Bleeding Love, Adeles Rumour Has It and his own band OneRepublics Apologise among his hit credits, few songwriters have  for better or worse, depending on your taste for dramatic ballads  dominated modern pop music as Ryan Tedder.

The OneRepublic frontman has an eye-opening pay cheque to prove it. In January, in a decision echoing recent moves from the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Paul Simon, Tedder sold his songwriting catalogue to US private equity firm KKR for $US200 million ($276 million).

OneRepublic frontman and Grammy-winning songwriter Ryan Tedder. Credit:Universal Music

For me, it was just a perfect storm, explains Tedder from his studio in Los Angeles, citing his decision on an historic high in the market value of music publishing and a favourable-yet-expiring long-term capital gains tax rate in California. If Id done it four years ago it probably wouldve sold for half that, so I got really lucky. My business team was like, Ryan, if youre ever going to do it, its now or never.

While hes quick to add that he reinvested in the catalogue so he retains some control over how his songs are used and licensed, Tedder, 42, is well aware that talk about capital gains tax rates is decidedly un-rock n roll.
Most tourists ended up at the concreted, rebuilt sections of the wall. Visiting Chinas famous architectural feat had become a feat of endurance as they fought their way through the crowd. Noisy buses blowing out dirty exhaust would disgorge visitors from early in the morning. An hour later theyd clamber back on, laden with gaudy souvenirs that would end up gathering dust back home, or would be gifted to a young relative who wouldnt question the trinkets authenticity. ABC journalists Leigh Sales, left, and Lisa Millar have been best friends for over 20 years. The wild wall, we were told, was untouched and mostly out of reach for time-constrained tourists. This adventure of ours was going to be an all-day affair and Gustav the Swedish count had promised it was worth the effort. We would make our lunch booking for 1pm but deliberately arrive far too early. Wed then suggest to hotel staff that wed take a look at the wall while we waited for our table. We made the lunch booking for later that week and, on the day, our driver arrived as planned outside our friends apartment. He had no English and we had no Mandarin but hed been given a rough outline of the scheme and we joined the traffic jam getting out of Beijing. Every now and then hed turn and speak, gesticulating with rapid hand movements while keeping his knees attached to the wheel. We assumed he knew where we were going. We certainly didnt. An hour later we hurtled past the tourist buses at Badaling, a drop-off place for regular Great Wall visitors, and 20 minutes later slowed down in front of a private gate guarded by armed security officers. There was nothing to indicate what was beyond it. Our driver turned to us and shrugged his shoulders, his face questioning if this was our destination. We shrugged back.

Whatever he said to the guards encouraged them to open the gate and we entered a vast expanse of summer greenery, driving past secluded villas built in earthy colours, poking out from behind pockets of trees. He deposited us at the hotel reception and these two Aussie tourists, dressed in shorts and covered in sunscreen, walked into an almost-empty lobby. A lone staff member peered at us from the front desk. We have a reservation for lunch, we told her. She glanced at her watch with a look that told us we were far too early for the reservation. But before lunch wed like to climb the wall, Leigh added, her voice echoing off the cool tiles on the floor. In broken English, the woman responded with words that crushed us.

Oh, we are very busy today and the wall is not open. Our mouths dropped open and we turned our heads slowly to remind ourselves the lobby was completely empty. Not open? The walls not open? we asked, bewildered. Our carefully constructed ploy was already starting to fall apart. But we want to climb the wall, Leigh added firmly. Which wall? the receptionist asked, delivering the words in English slowly. Um, the Great one? we tentatively suggested, wondering if wed missed something. There was a small sign of acknowledgement on her face. Go straight and security will tell you. We were so relieved we almost skipped out of there, but as we wandered outside and looked for signs or the promised security officers, we found neither. We strolled along a track that wouldnt have been out of place on a hike through the bush in Australia. There was no sign of any wall, let alone a Great one, and we wondered if our excitement had been misplaced.

We finally spotted a small weathered wooden sign stuck into the ground. It was about 10 centimetres tall, with faded painted letters. To Great Wall, it read with an arrow. We followed the grassy path for another 20 minutes, veering up a steep climb past scattered rocks. We wondered out loud if we were already on the wild wall. Was the wild wall so overgrown that we were walking along the broken remains of it and didnt know? For years after, if either of us felt our spirits sagging, we would remind each other of the awesomeness of that day and the tantalising prospect that another magical moment could be waiting just around the curve of an overgrown path. LISA MILLAR, ABC JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR OF DARING TO FLY And then, as the trail curved, the bushes opened up and we lifted ourselves into a vista that took our breath away. For as far as we could see, the Great Wall of China stretched out in front of us, up and over mountains and beyond. And for the next hour it was ours. We scrambled up ramparts, the steps forcing us onto our hands and knees. We posed for photos in the rectangular openings at the top of watch towers, laughing as we mimicked the hotel receptionist asking us: Which wall? What if wed said to her, Um, the not-so-great-wall? The one built in 1956?  Our giggles could be heard by no one. We were entirely alone. In some places the wall was in such disrepair, with trees growing up through the crumbling rocks, that wed have to leap down into the long grass and find a way to climb back up onto it.

Ants stung our legs, and wed been warned about virus-carrying mosquitoes, but nothing could take away our exhilaration. Each turn and bend in the wall opened up another sweeping view. We walked until we reached a fence and, far beyond it, we saw the tiny dots of human tourists who were crowding into the restored and concreted part of the monument. If only they knew what was on the other side. If only they could see what wed seen. We reluctantly turned back. When we reached the spot where wed first glimpsed the wall, when wed wondered if we were even on the right track, we hesitated. Stepping off the bricks would signal the end of this adventure and neither of us felt able to do it. We may never, ever have an experience like this again, we said with a tinge of sadness. On our return we were ushered into the almost-empty restaurant as if wed been simply strolling around the grounds for the past two hours. We took a stab at the menu and ended up with tasteless chicken gristle but washed it down with a glass of wine each. The lunch had been a means to an end and we werent bothered. We felt wed been granted a remarkable wish, something so rare and magnificent, so uplifting, we glowed with pleasure. For years after, if either of us felt our spirits sagging, we would remind each other of the awesomeness of that day and the tantalising prospect that another magical moment could be waiting just around the curve of an overgrown path.
More than $4 million has been raised in a week for the people of Afghanistan after tech billionaires Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes each pledged to match funds raised by artist Ben Quilty.

Quiltys For Afghanistan campaign initially aimed to raise $30,000 for UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, but Mr Cannon-Brookes promised $1 million if the artist raised $1 million from the public.

Artist Ben Quilty, pictured in 2018, is leading a campaign to raise money for the people of Afghanistan. Credit:Wolter Peeters

That target was achieved on Saturday, with Quilty announcing: We just smashed one million dollars.

Similar pledges from Mr Farquhar and the Wilson Foundation, a philanthropic organisation headed by Karen Wilson, wife of financier Geoff Wilson, bolstered the campaign spearheaded by Quilty and supported by the arts community.
Their lives are being impacted without being consulted. They are tired and empty, and by pushing the exam date back by a month from its original date, they will have lost momentum, she said. The full HSC timetable - containing details of whether students will sit all exams, a reduced list, or just English - will be released in early September. NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive Paul Martin acknowledged at a parliamentary hearing on Friday that the uncertainty was exacerbating stress for year 12 students. We think the best interest of the students to keep engaged in school is focusing on exams, to be preparing, using this time productively, Mr Martin said. So rather than speculate ... were concentrating on having the exams and making sure we follow the health advice as we get as close to them as possible. But many students said they did not have two more months of motivation left in them. I am a high achiever and was looking forward to doing well, however, I would rather the HSC be cancelled this year or an alternative than what is happening. We simply cannot stand it anymore. I am exhausted. I am depleted and broken down, said Bronte Guggisberg from Kiama.

In the Blue Mountains, Madeleine Lucas said she thought it was safe to say that majority of year 12 students are feeling unmotivated, exhausted, and over it. Emily Grant, from Putney, said she has never felt so low. Hearing that HSC is in November, that is the tipping point. I just wanted to get it over and done with. I think at this point they are just prolonging our suffering. Emily Grant: Me and all my friends have constant breakdowns because of it. We just want to finish. And pushing it back, rather than giving us an alternative, keeping the date or cancelling it is not going to help. Credit:Rhett Wyman A handful of students told The Sun-Herald they were relieved. Emily Wood in Griffith said she was glad all her study wouldnt go to waste; Gisele Murdoch saw the extra time as an opportunity. So did Lily Carmon: This will at least allow for a few weeks out of lockdown in which we can regain energy in preparation for the final exams. However, the year group is divided. [Were] arguing with each other on what actually benefits us the most, instead of coming together and helping each other to work out how to support each other, said Helaena Sison from Campbelltown.

Rowan Gray from Ku-ring-gai said there could be no middle ground: Students who believe the HSC should be cancelled on mental health grounds are those who most likely suffered from the worst conditions of the pandemic. Students who believe the HSC should continue are most likely to be those who have been better able to resolve such concerns. It is thus a matter of priorities. Loading Gabe Dillon, who goes to school in the city, said either way he was baffled. Regardless of whether we are on the side of wanting the HSC cancelled or not, we generally agree that if exams are to go ahead, getting it over with as soon as possible is paramount, he said. Unsurprisingly, the things that actually would benefit our mental health - graduation, formal, even schoolies - have been taken from us. The timing has been the kicker for most students. Those November milestones are now on ice, while many schoolies plans will need to be re-organised. Students in the regions pointed out the HSC now overlaps with the harvest season, when they would usually start work.

The delayed release of ATARs - currently slated for mid-January - mean the nerves will now linger over Christmas and New Year. It also shortens the time between receiving university offers and semester start date. A combination of all the above is a recipe for the majority students to worsen their mental state, Jacob Briers from Newcastle said. Do [they] think it is a wise move extending Years 12s schooling in exchange for a more depressed, anxious-ridden and drained cohort? In Fairfield, Lemina Dawood said she appreciated the education sectors efforts to find a solution for year 12s issues. However the plans which are being implemented are doing little to address [our] growing concerns... We arent being heard, she said. Merrylands student Dominic Hak felt similarly: I get theyre trying to be accommodating and find a way for us to successfully complete our final exams, but honestly most of us are just so burnt out. NESA should seriously read the room and get the students involved in the decision-making process. Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the delay was necessary to ensure COVID-safe exam settings. We have had conversations with our teachers and school communities about this, she said.
After six years in Berejiklians office, Veiszadeh left to become deputy chief executive of the Committee for Sydney, a think tank focused on urban life, growth and, more recently, freedom. Its a job that keeps the 37-year-old close to the wheels of power while giving him more time with his wife, the lawyer and human rights advocate Mariam Veiszadeh, and their two young children.

One might say, crudely, that it has all been downhill since he left.

Indeed, when Veiszadeh resigned as the Premiers director of strategy, he told the Heralds CBD column : All global cities are envious of Sydneys ability to keep COVID-19 under control while keeping the economy open.

When Ehssan Veiszadeh departed Premier Gladys Berejiklians office in May, the state was winning. The pubs were full, COVID was confined to hotel quarantine and the government was preparing a celebratory budget the Treasurer would use to proudly proclaim: NSW is back.

It also means he can speak publicly. In his new role, Veiszadeh has been critical of several aspects of state and federal governments responses to COVID-19, especially the continued closure of schools, a reliance on police enforcement and the reluctance (at least until recent weeks) to prepare the community for the virus inevitable spread.

We [the Committee] were quite frustrated at first that government was really stuck in 2020 settings when clearly Delta had shown that we are now in a different game, he says. We are now hearing our leaders having the conversations they maybe should have been having months ago about the pathway out of this and the unsustainability of going into two or three years of lockdowns.

Gladys Berejiklian and Ehssan Veiszadeh on the day she was sworn in as Premier. Credit:Teny Aghamalian

Veiszadeh is pleased NSW will soon allow groups of five fully vaccinated adults to gather outdoors, and that there is now a plan for schools. But he also thinks the return to school is too slow and the freedoms for double dosed adults too little. [Its] a good start but we need to do far more on both fronts, he says. Why not have outdoor dining for fully vaccinated customers and staff?

From the outside looking in, Veiszadeh thinks the government just needs to trust the public and present a plan. Eighteen months into the pandemic, knowing much more about the virus than we did in March 2020 and armed with vaccines, he argues voters are much less forgiving of indecision and uncertainty.
Spikes in cases and deaths are largely the result of COVID-19 meeting naive immune systems in the millions who remain unvaccinated. The danger has also been spelled out by the Doherty Institute, which estimated the substantial gap between beginning to open up at 70 per cent of the population fully vaccinated with partial versus optimal public health measures. The partial scenario could see close to 400,000 symptomatic cases and 1457 deaths over six months, versus a few thousand symptomatic cases and 13 deaths in the optimal scenario. But should contact-tracing systems become strained due to an outbreak of more than 1000 cases each day, and if fewer restrictions are in place, the situation could be worse.

On Friday, children aged between 12 and 15 were added to Australias COVID-19 vaccine rollout, after the governments expert vaccine panel recommended they be given the Pfizer shot. So what would Australia look like once we learn to live with COVID-19? You have been identified as a close contact Continued contact tracing is one of the key measures that will allow Australians to live more freely once vaccination rates reach 70 per cent and beyond, at least for the foreseeable future. Anyone visiting shops, restaurants and other public places will still have to check in using QR codes, meaning thousands of people will likely be receiving texts declaring you have been identified as a close contact of a person with coronavirus.

But mandatory home quarantine may no longer be a requirement for vaccinated Australians exposed to the virus fleetingly or in low-risk settings such as grocery shopping. Instead, outbreaks at hairdressers, warehouses, abattoirs, offices and restaurants, where people spend extended periods of time indoors and which are known to seed super-spreading, will require those exposed and fully vaccinated to be tested and perhaps to spend a few days in home quarantine. Professor Sharon Lewin. Credit:Simon Schluter Doherty Institute director Professor Sharon Lewin said the goal of contact tracing would change once Australia was living with COVID-19 rather than trying to eliminate it. In Victoria, more than half of the 32,000 people currently in isolation are secondary close contacts of cases, and Professor Lewin said this group would no longer need to isolate, nor would contact tracers be chasing the source of every case. Professor Collignon said contact tracing would shift focus to concentrate on close contacts who offer the most probable routes of transmission: family units, households and work colleagues.

If there is a one in 1000 chance somebody in a supermarket gave it to somebody else, youre not going to use contact-tracing resources to chase every single one of those people, he says. It becomes a race to catch who is most likely to be infected. As contact tracing changes, so will international quarantine rules, with people likely to face different restrictions depending on the risk posed by the country from which they are coming. Home quarantine could be an option for fully vaccinated Australians coming from places with low amounts of COVID-19, said Professor Lewin. But while changes in quarantine are on the horizon our face mask will remain a part of the Australian look. Experts are unified on the continuing importance of masks, with many, including NSWs Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant, saying its likely they will become part of life for the foreseeable future and potentially forever.

It may be that we actually have indoor mask-wearing for years in certain settings, Chant said on Tuesday. The world is grappling with how we co-exist with COVID and the virus may throw us curveballs. A sudden easing of restrictions in June, including lifting a mandate on face masks in public spaces, led to Israel going from single-digit infections to one of the worlds highest daily infection rates  to thousands of cases a day. A health worker prepares a swab for rapid antigen testing at a drive-through facility in Tel Aviv in Israel. Credit:Bloomberg Professor Nadav Davidovitch, who works at Israels Ben-Gurion University and is a member of the national expert committee on COVID-19, said: Israel wanted this to be over but it wasnt, and this should act as a warning to Australia. Professor Davidovitch predicts booster shots may be needed worldwide, including in Australia, to protect against Delta and other variants, as Pfizer shows waning efficacy in the elderly.

Britain is also now averaging 100 deaths a day, but scientists warn that infections will jump again when millions of pupils return to school next week. There is also a growing acknowledgement of the importance of ventilation in buildings to prevent COVID-19s spread. Burnet Institute director Brendan Crabb hopes that in a year, carbon-dioxide monitors, which can be used to measure poor ventilation, will be widely used in shared spaces such as schools and restaurants, and the issue rigorously monitored by workplace health and safety teams. Air quality will have the same level of regulation as water quality, he predicted. But while the importance of public health measures in our reopening strategy has been broadly recognised, many of the details about exactly what Australians, governments and businesses will be doing to stem the spread of COVID-19 beyond vaccination remain speculative. For example, will school students have to have a rapid test before they go to school, or if they have a sniffle? Whats the policy there?  Where is the taskforce? What are these sensible measures? asks Mr Crabb. Because everything about our opening is going to depend on how good all that is.

In Britain and the US, residents frequently use rapid tests to keep workplaces and schools open. They can be purchased at corner shops and pharmacies. In Israel, the government launched a plan for the 1.6 million children in kindergarten and grades 1 to 6 to undergo regular serology tests to check if they have COVID-19 antibodies, to ensure large outbreaks dont leak out into the community. Professor Lewin said while antigen tests might be too risky in the current environment of lower vaccine coverage (they arent quite as accurate as PCR tests), Australia was likely to follow other countries in adopting rapid tests once the COVID-zero strategy was abandoned. People might have to take a test for entry to large sporting events, for example. Different rules for the vaccinated

Like countries across the world, Australians who are vaccinated will have far more freedoms than others and infectious diseases expert Robert Booy says some businesses may even ban those who are unvaccinated. France has mandated health passes for entry to museums, cinemas and swimming pools, with those who cannot produce proof of vaccination denied entry. Thousands of people protested against the move this week. Businesses will make their own decision and say, we dont want you in here spreading infection. We dont want our staff getting sick, Professor Booy said. The times have changed. People dont want to deal with having people who are coughing and spluttering. Businesses will make their own choices about how they operate and the government will back them up. But there is an ethical dilemma about when to decide that everyone has had equal opportunity to access a vaccine and to let the virus wash in.

Professor Booy suggests an appropriate milestone would be when we reach 80 per cent vaccination because people would have had months and months to secure a vaccine. But other experts worry that even at that 80 per cent threshold, at-risk Australians who face barriers to healthcare might fall through the cracks. Deaths and lockdowns There remains significant uncertainty about how many deaths Australia might have once the vaccine milestones are reached, reflected in the scenarios presented in the Doherty modelling. Although a 70 per cent rate of vaccination for the adult population has been estimated to make lockdowns less likely, there is no guarantee that well see the end of them in 2021.

The modelling actually predicts that we could be still spending 20 per cent of time in lockdown at 70 per cent [vaccination]. So that tool is still in the toolbox, said Professor Lewin. While pubs may be able to fill up again and you can resume hugging your friends without that pang of anxiety at 80 per cent vaccination levels, epidemiologist Tony Blakely says the prospect of a short, sharp lockdown can never be ruled out. He warns that if the virus crept into an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community, a pocket of society where thousands of essential workers lived, or a suburb full of unvaccinated families, it could still take off like wildfire. ICU staff at St Vincents Hospital, Sydney. Credit:Kate Geraghty There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, he said.

The divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated will widen. Outbreaks in suburbs of low vaccination could result in geographical lockdowns to stop local health services being overwhelmed. In those pockets of society, restaurants and bars might still be closed without notice when outbreaks emerged or limits on numbers re-imposed. Rather than a blanket lockdown, health authorities might choose to ban residents from having visitors to their home and order those in hotspots with low vaccination levels to work from home. While countries have experienced waves of the virus in the young and unvaccinated, Nancy Baxter of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health is less concerned about young people being infected and more worried about those who are unable to be vaccinated because they are immuno-compromised. Young people in Australia had shown a lot of enthusiasm to be vaccinated, Professor Baxter said. But people with medical reasons for not being able to be vaccinated have been completely left out of the decisions about when we open up.

Delta will seek out and find the unvaccinated. It will find that 20 per cent. While hospitalisation in unvaccinated people still occurred, death remained exceedingly rare in people who had been fully immunised, Professor Baxter said. Its been really phenomenal the success that vaccines have had in preventing death, but we know that the vaccinated can still transmit. Professor Blakely says the Australian government could go one of three ways. It could take the New Zealand approach to eliminate every outbreak. Or it could bite the bullet, let the virus run through society and infect people as fast as the health services will tolerate. The third and most likely scenario would be to enforce enough restrictions to limit cases to something like 1000 infections per day and keep hospitalisations low. But the amount of suppression that you have in your society to keep the cases at about 1000 per day is probably not much different than 100 per day, Professor Blakely said, adding such a scenario would mean herd immunity could still be years away.
How can we encourage the unvaccinated when neither the carrot nor the stick works?

Getting back to school or work depends upon offering hope and reassurance, neither of which has been in plentiful supply.

People line up outside the Melbourne Exhibition Centre vaccine hub. Credit:Getty Images

Maybe we can try some friendly interstate rivalry, state against state, mate against mate. Victorians  get injected or NSW will get their cafes and pubs open first! Unimaginable. Queensland  COVID-19 is like cane toads, by the time you notice, its too late. Get the jab now.

Given we are assured the efficacy of the two vaccines is almost identical and any lasting side effects from either are vanishingly rare, we ought to emphasise that the walk, drive or bicycle ride to the doctor to get vaccinated carries greater risks than the injection itself.
The last thing the federal government wants as it heads into an election year is a recession, but that is looking increasingly likely as lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT roll on with no end in sight.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg expects Australias economy to contract by 2 per cent this quarter, but some senior economists predict almost double that contraction.

Josh Frydenberg addresses Parliament earlier this month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

After all, NSW and Victoria are the engine rooms of the economy, contributing more than 50 per cent of the nations gross domestic product, and theyve been out of action for months.

The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. This means that whether the economy falls into recession depends on what happens on either side of the doomed September quarter. The nation finds out the June quarter results on Wednesday. Mr Frydenberg will be holding his breath.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned state premiers the economy will suffer if they dont stick to the national plan to reopen once adult vaccination rates reach 70 and 80 per cent.

In a coded message to the resources states of Queensland and Western Australia - both of which have doggedly pursued zero-COVID policies, kept their borders closed and are lagging the rest of the country in vaccination rates - Mr Frydenberg also warned of a ridiculous scenario under which it might be possible for many Australians to fly to Singapore or Canada, but not Perth or Cairns.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Amid ongoing lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, Mr Frydenberg said economic growth would be almost certainly negative in the September quarter, with a contraction of at least 2 per cent, [but] I am hopeful and confident the economy can come back in the December quarter if, as expected, restrictions ease.

Economists are divided as to whether Wednesdays national accounts figures will show the economy shrank in the June quarter. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth will signify the country is once again in a technical recession.
NSW will allow weddings with up to five guests from Friday in a surprise easing of restrictions that came as the state reported a record 1035 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, in addition to two more deaths.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the details would be finalised in coming days, but at this stage there would be no requirement for wedding guests to be vaccinated. He said the resumption was necessary to give balance to couples unable to marry since a ban was imposed across Greater Sydney on June 27.

NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard on Saturday. Credit:Rhett Wyman

All wedding guests and attendees must comply with current health orders restricting travel within a local government area or, if leaving the LGA, no more than five kilometres from home.

NSW also set a new vaccination record on Friday with more than 156,000 jabs, and the mass vaccine hub at Qudos Bank Arena was expected to have delivered its 125,000th dose on Saturday.
Schools will only reopen in communities with fewer than 50 cases of community transmission per 100,000 people over a fortnight, which would currently rule out many hotspot areas. Schools can reopen earlier in any communities that come out of stay-at-home orders before then. Education Minister Sarah Mitchell described it on Friday as a safe and sensible approach. We know that the best teaching and learning happens in the classroom, but we also know its really important for the social and emotional wellbeing of our students to be with their friends and back with their teachers, Mitchell says. Federal Education and Youth Minister Alan Tudge also emphasises the wellbeing benefits of school, saying the mental health consequences of school closures has been devastating. While not solely the result of school closures, the evidence shows 2020 and 2021 have been rough for the mental wellbeing of young people, with a rise in self harm, suicidal ideation and other mental health presentations to emergency departments.

Loading On Friday the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommended Pfizer vaccine eligibility be expanded from everyone aged over 16 to include children aged 12-15, with the medical regulator also considering Moderna for children over 12. NSW Health has said it would open bookings next month. Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist at the University of NSW, describes the ATAGI decision as a welcome strategy that will improve the control of spread as well as protect our precious asset [children. She says adolescents in NSW should aim for vaccination in mid-September to allow time for both doses to fully take effect before they return to school. Meanwhile, there is nowhere in the world vaccinating children under the age of 12 and the government is banking on the vaccination of teenagers and adults to protect younger children. After not offering teachers priority in the early rollout of the vaccination, the NSW government has now made it compulsory for teachers and other school staff to be vaccinated. While there are workplace issues to manage, Mitchell says a survey of 50,000 Department of Education staff found 70 per cent had received their first dose of the vaccination and 40 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Parental vaccination is also a frontline defence for children. As federal Health Minister Greg Hunt put it on Friday: We know that most children who do develop COVID, catch it within the household environment from an adult and so the best way to protect your child is to be vaccinated yourself. Australias chief medical officer Paul Kelly added that older siblings who get vaccinated would also be part of a cocooning effect for younger children. This is not enough for Glenda Pontes from Dulwich Hill. She is reluctant to send her children, aged 6, 9 and 14, back to school while the pandemic is raging. While she will get the teenager vaccinated as soon as she can, she says his peers also need to be vaccinated before she would consider it safe. Im not keen to send them back until every child in Australia is vaccinated, Pontes says. Amina Youssef-Shalala with her daughters, from left, Antoinette, Celine and Lucia in their Sydney backyard. Credit:Janie Barrett

Amina Youssef-Shalala from Denistone East and her husband are feeling similarly anxious, though they plan to make their decision closer to the time. Their eldest daughter Antoinette, 7, is at school, and Lucia, 5, is at preschool, but all are currently home while Youssef-Shalala is on maternity leave for baby Celine. Loading We dont want our children contracting the coronavirus and then giving it to other family members and we dont want our own kids to contract it from school, whether it be from teachers or other children, she says. Youssef-Shalala would get her children vaccinated if they became available for younger children because she trusts the approval would be based on evidence, but she knows some parents would be reluctant. Several parents spoke on condition of anonymity about how they dont want to send their children back to school with case numbers so high but are also not comfortable to get them vaccinated. They do not consider themselves anti-vaxxers but cite the known risks of the vaccines, publicised vaccine injuries in children overseas and the lack of long-term research given the vaccines are still officially in population-level trials.

Of course, COVID-safety in schools is not only about vaccination. The NSW governments announcement on schools included a range of measures to reduce mingling among students of different ages, including no assemblies, separate entry and exit points, different start and finish times and staggered recess and lunch breaks. Face masks will also be compulsory for school staff and high school students and strongly recommended but not mandatory for primary school students. Loading Associate Professor Donna Green, an environmental scientist in the UNSW Digital Grid Futures Institute, last week wrote to Education Minister Sarah Mitchell offering assistance with the procurement of air filters for school classrooms. The NSW Department of Education said in a statement it was working closely with NSW Health and will continue to follow their advice in relation to school ventilation. Green says schools urgently need to buy HEPA air purifiers, which are proven to filter out most particles with COVID-19, because the go-to strategies of opening doors and windows for natural ventilation wont work heading into bushfire season. She says the stand-alone domestic-grade purifiers would cost $600-800 in a medium-size room and would later need replacement by retrofitting airconditioning systems. School networks would get economies of scale by organising a bulk purchase and manufacturers would need advance warning in order to ensure shipments arrived in time. She also warned against HEPA-like filters that are cheaper but dont offer the same protection.

To me it seems like an absolute no-brainer for a relatively small amount of money upfront to start putting these into shared places in schools - classrooms - to offset what inevitably will be huge costs if anything went wrong, Green says. McLaws says HEPA filters are used in hospital wards to filter dangerous particles out of the air but they are used in combination with other air flow systems and would only really work if children wore their masks correctly the entire time during class. McLaws says another option is to use self-administered rapid antigen testing at the school entrance for unvaccinated children. The science on COVID-19 and children should be largely reassuring for parents. As the Herald and The Age reported in a comprehensive explainer, children are contracting the Delta variant in greater numbers because the virus is much more infectious than previous strains, but it is still a short-lived, mild illness for most children. Royal Australasian College of Physicians president-elect and paediatrician Dr Jacqueline Small says: The evidence shows, to the best of our knowledge to date, COVID-19  even with Delta  remains a mild illness for children.

About 13.3 per cent of adults who catch COVID-19 have symptoms for at least four weeks, and 4.5 per cent have symptoms for at least eight weeks. But a large Lancet study by found only 4.4 per cent of children have symptoms past four weeks and just 1.8 per cent past eight weeks. The Murdoch Childrens Research Institute concluded that children over 10 transmit the virus at similar rates to adults, with younger children likely transmitting it less and transmission at schools is very low. This evidence has convinced Ben and Katrina from Randwick, who requested their last name withheld. They are parents to Maddie, 5, who is in kindergarten and learning from home and Charlie, 3, who is still attending childcare. Ben and Katrina from Randwick have Maddie, 5, at home while schools are closed but would happily send her back when they reopen. Credit:Wolter Peeters Ben says they would send Maddie back tomorrow if schools were to reopen because they assess the risks to be low given it is usually a mild disease for children and he and his wife are fully vaccinated, which protects against serious disease and hospitalisation.
WA Liberal party president Fay Duda has announced she will not seek re-election for the role ahead of the public release of a review into the partys humiliating state election loss.

In an email to members on Friday Ms Duda said she intended to support all the recommendations of the review but warned the party would not be saved unless it developed respect.

I do know that above all  if party members, Members of Parliament, and others do not rapidly develop a culture of respect, no reform will save us, she said.

Last week WAtoday and Nine News Perth revealed that Ms Duda has been a part of a Whatsapp message group known as The Clan where Liberal powerbrokers, including Nick Goiran, Peter Collier and Mathias Cormann, discussed preselections to gain control over branches.
President Biden may well condemn the bombers who wreaked havoc at Kabul airport and claim the US will not forgive. We will not forget. But much of the blame is sheeted home to Biden himself. Why did he leave Afghanistan now?

Many who have committed to the US effort in Afghanistan are justified to ask this question with a deep sense of angst, and none more so than the brave and admirable souls who have sacrificed in its name. Yet, this tragedy was long in the making, and the long-term repercussions might prove more of a problem for Xi Jinping than Joe Biden.

Chinas Xi Jinping might be the leader with the biggest headache following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Credit:AP

There will be no victory in this war, illusory or otherwise. These prescient words foretold the future of the US effort in Afghanistan. They were written by the former head of station for the CIA in Islamabad, Robert L. Grenier in his 2015 book 88 Days to Kandahar.

Grenier was the architect of the initial and successful US invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001.
San Diego: The man who assassinated US senator Robert F. Kennedy has been granted parole after two of RFKs sons spoke in favour of his release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.

The decision was a major victory for the 77-year-old Sirhan Sirhan, though it does not assure his freedom.

The ruling by the two-person panel at Sirhans 16th parole hearing will be reviewed over the next 90 days by the California Parole Boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it.

Sirhan Sirhan at his parole hearing on Friday. Credit:AP

Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and he should be released if he was not a threat to others.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, August 25, 2021, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs held an introductory meeting with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ballast Nedam International Projects B.V., Mr. Roy van Eijsden. Ballast Nedam International Projects B.V. (BNIP) was chosen as the General Contractor for the Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project and officially signed the agreement with PJIAE N.V. on Tuesday, August 24. Also present at this meeting were Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PJIAE N.V., Mr. Brian Mingo, Director of National Recovery Program Bureau, Mr. Claret Connor, and Deputy Director of National Recovery Program Bureau, Mr. Abel Knottnerus.

Prime Minister Jacobs stated, Construction of the Airport Terminal is scheduled to begin by October 2021, and will last just over a two-year period. I am elated to learn that the chosen company will be employing local contractors and workers to complete the reconstruction of our International Airport. After some delays and challenges, we have finally made it to this point whereby we are now able to begin the process that will get our International Airport back online at full capacity.

The Airport Terminal Reconstruction Project is jointly funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and via a loan from the Government of St. Maartens Trust Fund. The Sint Maarten Trust Fund is financed by the Government of the Netherlands, managed by the World Bank and implemented by the National Recovery Program Bureau.
FILE - In this April 7, 2021, file photo, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks to reporters at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. The Kentucky governor's efforts to aggressively combat COVID-19 suffered a landmark legal defeat Saturday, Aug. 21, as the state's high court cleared the way for new laws to rein in his emergency powers. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Diane Logsdon, 66, of Science Hill, passed away Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at her residence. Arrangements are pending and will be announced later by Morris & Hislope Funeral Home. Condolences may be expressed to the family at: www.morrisandhislope.com.
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Anisha Zak leaves SteeleCoWorks after 4 years for Waseca-based nonprofit

Julian Hast / By JULIAN HAST julian.hast@apgsomn.com Anisha Zak started work last week as Lead for Minnesotas new director of partnerships, ending nearly four years as SteeleCoWorks workforce coordinator. (Julian Hast/southernminn.com) Kraus

Anisha Zak never planned on leaving SteeleCoWorks. That all changed when she met Lead for Minnesotas founder and executive director, Benya Kraus.

Zak had never heard of Lead for Minnesota until Kraus reached out to her to learn more about SteeleCoWorks. The missions of Lead for Minnesota, a nonprofit based in Waseca, and SteeleCoWorks, it turned out, were similar  both are engaged in retaining and attracting young talent to rural areas like Waseca and Owatonna. Over coffee, Kraus mentioned that Lead for Minnesota was hiring a new director of partnerships, and wondered if Zak knew anybody who might be a good fit. She described the position to Zak.

Thinking it over, Zak realized she was interested in the position herself. She applied, and was offered the job. Her first day was Aug. 25.

I was really impressed by the way that she could scale education and industry partnership in just three years in her previous role, Kraus said. Im thrilled to welcome her to the team and see how Lead for Minnesota grows with all the skills and experiences and authenticity that she holds.

Taking over her role as workforce coordinator for SteeleCoWorks is Megan Horton, who has spent the last seven years working with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota.

Zak never had any plans to leave SteeleCoWorks  she said she loved the work, after all. But the more she learned about Lead for Minnesota, the more she wanted to be a part of that organization as well.

So I made the hard decision to switch, Zak said. Its that next step up, serving the entire state of Minnesota.

At Lead for Minnesota, Zak is charged with creating new Minnesota host sites, or potential partners interested in hosting Lead for Minnesotas fellows. Those taking part in the two-year fellowship return to their hometowns to tackle those areas biggest problems, ranging from healthcare and child care to housing and rural broadband.

We are trying to bring dynamic, diverse leaders that want to tackle our communities biggest challenges, where the narrative of success means, Im leaving my town and never coming back, Zak said.

Of course, much of the data on rural areas does not support this narrative. The rural population has gone up by 11% since 1970, after all  not down. The rural economy has diversified beyond just agriculture and manufacturing, protecting it from market fluctuations and lending it opportunities to grow. The median income of Waseca County residents is $55,000 compared to $54,000 in Hennepin County, even as Hennepin residents pay double in rent.

But, as Kraus has noted, the perception that rural areas are dying disincentivizes young leaders from returning to their hometown and contributing to its success. Kraus herself admitted that, growing up in Waseca, she didnt quite see what the opportunity was for her there.

Lead for Minnesotas fellowships are a way to show young leaders the opportunities for growth and improvement that can be found in rural areas. The program does this by giving hometown fellows a project scope of one challenges and two years to work on it.

Its a place theyre connected to, said Kraus. They want to serve their community because thats where theyre from.

As great as the opportunities are, though, Zak knows that recruitment efforts at universities during this stage of the pandemic will not be easy, especially as the delta variant muddles communities understanding of what should be done in person versus virtually on any given week.

Students are sick of virtual  It serves you so much better when you can get in front of a classroom and converse with them, Zak said.

The fact that members of the Owatonna community dont recognize Lead for Minnesota when Zak tells them about her new role signals to her the work needs to be done to get the organization more exposure.

Beyond getting its name out there, Lead for Minnesota will also be competing with every other employment opportunity, as demand for young talent surges along with a national workforce shortage that shows little sign of abating.

Weve got to be creative in our marketing strategy, Zak said.

Days at SteeleCoWorks

Zak came on as workforce coordinator for SteeleCoWorks during its inception. A program finishing out its fourth year, SteeleCoWorks was designed as a partnership between the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce, Owatonna Public Schools and United Way of Steele County, which came together to create a more robust pipeline between the five Steele County high schools and local businesses.

Originally created to serve 16-to-24-year-olds in Steele County, Zak spent part of her time as workforce coordinator meeting with students who didnt have a plan when they graduated from high school.

(We) try to retain our talent here in Steele County, and try to find them a self-sustaining, livable wage at one of our local employers, Zak said.

Part of Zaks work involved one-on-one career counseling, in which students referred to her could discuss the kinds of work they would be interested in pursuing. She helped them narrow down their interests and think about tangible paths toward making their dreams a reality.

Zak also exposed students to local career opportunities by having students tour local businesses, participate in job shadows and internships, and having local employers come to the schools to present before the student body.

A graduate of Triton High School in Dodge Center, Zak relates to young students without a plan because she was one of them herself. She picked child development as her major when she was an undergraduate at Minnesota State University, Mankato, she said, because it was easy and I didnt care.

I wish I had one of me growing up, Zak said, referring to her role as workforce coordinator in schools.

Over time, SteeleCoWorks expanded its outreach to ninth and 10th graders as well, to give them career exposure that might guide them earlier on. They also expanded the other direction in age, toward college students.

As we evolved, we decided, hey, we also want the students who did have a plan, who did go to a four-year college, and have them come back to Owatonna and place them in a job that lines up with their major, Zak said.

When Zak wasnt working with students, she worked with an advisory board of local employers, including human resource representatives, CEOs and others. She acted as the liaison between them and the schools, learning about their needs and what they could offer students, and also communicating what students were interested in.

When Zak started at SteeleCoWorks, she said, the program had five participating businesses. By the time she left, it had over 100. She estimates that served about 400 students.

I felt like I could walk away in a way that it would continue to grow and be successful, Zak said about the program. Its doing great things.
STAMFORD  For some Connecticut school districts, the expected COVID-19 staffing crisis hit hard. But for others, the predicted mass exodus of teachers didnt pan out.

In Bridgeport, for example, staffing shortages have been a chronic problem, tied to the citys financial situation. In wealthier cities and towns such as Greenwich, Stamford and New Canaan, the situation is not nearly as worrisome.

But that doesnt mean those districts didnt face challenges of their own.

Bryan Luizzi, the superintendent of New Canaan schools, said some specific content areas and positions, such as special education and world languages, remain difficult to fill.

With COVID-19 still affecting daily life, the prospect of being in a classroom all day is a tough sell for some prospective teachers and educators. Luizzi said thats reduced the number of applicants, which all school districts are competing for.

The pool of candidates was never deep, but in this environment, its no more than a puddle, he said.

For districts like Bridgeport, competing for applicants is especially difficult, as other school districts in the state offer greater compensation.

Superintendent Michael Testani said this week that the district was still losing educators: more affluent communities are poaching teachers from low-paying and rural districts.

Were getting people resigning today, and its all because of salaries, he said Wednesday. As much as you love it here, how are you going to support your family?

The think tank Rand Corporation recently put out a report indicating that an expected pandemic staffing crisis didnt happen across the country. The level of resignations and retirements was actually similar to pre-pandemic numbers, according to the report.

But the report also found that large attrition rates that were expected this year could still happen, particularly at the top positions across school districts. One in 10 superintendents nationwide is expected to leave their position in spring 2022, according to the report.

And some school districts are funding some new positions with federal COVID-19 relief funds, which run for only a few years. Many districts are anticipating a fiscal cliff once that money runs out, their administrations have said.

Other districts are changing their hiring protocols in hopes of getting in front of the trend.

Chris Soules, the human resources director for Stamford schools, said the district implemented an early-hire initiative this year. Typically, officials wait until internal transfers are completed before putting out job listings for open positions. But that means the hiring season gets delayed, and potential new hires get snatched up before listings are posted online, he said.

This year, the district identified some positions they typically need to fill and started conducting interviews with applicants much earlier in the process.

Soules said the plan worked.

I think thats an example of we were kind of thinking this could be a difficult hiring season, so lets start this process a little earlier, he said.

He said the district had nearly 70 openings more than a week ago. He said compared with last year, the district was significantly ahead in terms of hiring.

By this week, about 160 new employees had been hired. The previous year, the district had 34 new hires at the same time.

In Stamford, one of the main challenges has been filling special education para-educator, or para, positions. Up until recently, the district had about 20 openings. That was straining para-educator positions elsewhere, as the district will enter the new school year with a much-reduced kindergarten para-educator staff, as the special-education para hires were prioritized.

Soules said the district is making a special effort to fill those roles, but is encountering challenges.

We have situations where we have offers out to people and theyre declining, he said. We dont know why.

Jonathan Supranowitz, spokesperson for Greenwich schools, said the district has done well with hiring and filling empty spots.

One of our priorities during the summer is to fill openings created at the end of each school year, he wrote in an email. We have found that Greenwich Public Schools continue to be an attractive destination for educators. We are proud of the fact that our doors safely remained open for in-person learning all of last year.

Luizzi, who heads the Southern Fairfield County Superintendents Association, said New Canaan schools didnt experience a huge loss in teachers due to retirements, but there was more turnover than expected. And filling the roles that were left vacant has been more challenging than in years past.

About 33 new teachers have been hired for the roughly 425-teacher school district, he said. Educators are not just coming from Connecticut, but from as far away as Texas and Tennessee, he said.

The pool is broader than it has been, he said.

Finding substitute teachers has also been a challenge, which school districts across the state have also faced. In New Canaan, there may have been 100 substitutes in years past, but today, that number is closer to 30, he said.

Its just challenging to find people who are ready, willing and qualified to come into the district, Luizzi said.

For Luizzi, getting more applicants involves pitching people on the idea of teaching as a profession, especially since some are being dissuaded from going into it.

We think that teaching is the most important job on the planet, he said, later adding, If people are thinking of going into teaching, Id love to get a few more people to consider it.

Reporter Cayla Bamberger contributed to this report

ignacio.laguarda@hearstmediact.com
MIAMI (AP)  Mounting deaths from the latest surge in COVID-19 have strained capacity at hospital morgues and funeral homes across central Florida.

While Florida's record levels of new cases and hospitalizations for the disease have leveled off over the past week, averages of daily reported deaths have continued to climb. Hospitals in Florida have reported to the federal government that roughly 279 patients have died every day for the past week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, though that figure includes deaths suspected, but not yet confirmed to have been, from COVID-19. The figure just a month ago was 52 deaths per day.

AdventHealth's hospitals in central Florida are scrambling to secure additional resources to deal with the surge in deaths, the hospital group's spokesperson, Jeff Granger, told The Associated Press. The Orlando Sentinel reported the health system had reached morgue capacity at 10 of its hospitals in five counties: Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia.

We have begun utilizing rented, refrigerated coolers at 10 of our campuses, the hospital group said in an email obtained by the newspaper. These coolers are quickly becoming filled also.

Maria Rosales, who runs an Orlando-area company that picks up bodies from hospitals and delivers them to funeral homes or crematoriums, says she has seen an increase in deaths in the past two weeks.

They have to rent out big trucks for extra storage spaces, she said of the hospitals.

Recently her drivers have been stuck waiting at the funeral homes and crematoriums because several other companies are also trying to deliver bodies at the same time, she said.

Funeral directors also warned that their facilities are being overwhelmed, according to numerous news outlets.

The Florida Department of Health did not respond to an email requesting comment.

One sign of relief is that hospitalizations have decreased in recent days. The Florida Hospital Association said there has been a 4% decline over the past week, but warned people not to let their guard down and to get the vaccine.

"Fingers crossed, we may be seeing the beginning of a downward trend in COVID-19 hospitalizations, but new cases remain near all-time highs, so it is much too early to declare victory, said President Mary Mayhew.

The state's health department has reported nearly 44,000 deaths in the pandemic, including 1,727 new deaths included in its weekly report published Friday. The latest deaths brought the seven-day daily average for the past week from 212 to 247.

The report also tallied 151,760 new cases in the week. While all age groups 20 and above reported drops in new cases, infections among children and teenagers increased by 28% over the week before, causing a slight spike in the state's case rate.

As of Friday, there were 211 children with COVID-19 in Florida hospitals. Although the number of pediatric cases have increased, such cases still only represent 1.3% of the total patient load.

In Columbia County, which now has the state's highest cases of COVID-19 per capita, 17-year-old JoKeria Graham died just days before she started her senior year of high school.

The teen, who loved taking care of kids and called her grandparents daily to check on them or help at their office, was in quarantine at her Lake City home after testing positive for the virus shortly before school started, her grandmother Tina Graham said. She seemed to be on the mend and asked her grandparents to come to her house and bring her breakfast. They were still on the phone with her when she collapsed in the bathroom.

She was saying, I cant breathe, I cant breathe,' Graham said.

JoKeria, who died earlier this month, was buried in her cap and gown, her grandmother said.

Brothers Aaron, 35, and Free Jaggi, 41, died of COVID-19 within 12 hours of each other at different hospitals in Jacksonville. The men, who had moved back in with their mother to help after their brother died five years ago, were not vaccinated but worked from home and rarely left the house, said Brittany Pequignot, who said she has lived with the family at various times and is like an adopted daughter.

They were her whole life and now theyre gone, Pequignot said through tears Friday.

The mother, 62-year-old Lisa Brandon, who had already received one vaccine shot, also contracted the virus but her symptoms were mild, Pequignot said.

Brandon is convinced that if her sons had also gotten vaccinated, "they would have survived, Pequignot said.

___

Kennedy reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Earlier this summer, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to have turned a corner in Connecticut schools.

Vaccines were on the rise, while transmission was falling. Vaccinated adults could unmask indoors, and parents called on school boards to end the mask mandate in several towns, including Fairfield, Trumbull and New Canaan.

In Fairfield, the board responded by unanimously approving a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont asking him to get rid of the requirement and give local health departments clear guidance on when masking is necessary.

Then the delta variant, and federal and state guidelines, changed the calculus. As COVID-19 cases surged, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late July called for universal masking in K-12 schools regardless of vaccination status. Last week, Lamont, whose executive order required face coverings in school through at least Sept. 30, confirmed he would not drop the mandate before back-to-school.

Just days later, on Wednesday, Lamonts annual back-to-school roundtable at a Cheshire elementary school came to an abrupt close when anti-mask protesters yelled angrily at the meeting of state officials, which included the commissioners of the public health and education departments.

Lamont was escorted out of the building by his state security detail. At least one protester heckled the governor right to his car.

Christine Vitale, chair of the Fairfield school board, noted that the state mask requirements are out of our control.

We really do look to our medical and public health officials for guidance on this, appreciating that that is really somewhat out of our purview, Vitale said.

But parents continued to speak up during public comment, rejecting the mask requirement that they say infringes on individual choice. And as the school year approaches, these debates have landed board members in hot political waters.

Recently, the Fairfield school board held a special meeting to discuss mask breaks for the upcoming school year, which starts on Aug. 30. But unmasked attendees allegedly got so unruly that school officials had to call law enforcement for assistance, according to the Fairfield Police Department.

Vitale said the meeting was not the norm, though overall public comment has gotten more passionate and longer over the last year. And that trend is not limited to Fairfield.

We suggest that board members actively listen to what members of the public are saying, said Robert Rader, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, and take that into account as they discuss other mitigation strategies.

But theres no question that boards, as agents of the state, have got to enforce the governors executive order, he said.

The association has tried to respond with workshops on divisive issues, which alongside mask mandates may also include vaccine requirements and critical race theory.

Ive never seen boards under as much stress as they have been, said Rader, who added that school board members in Connecticut are unpaid volunteers, working in the best interests of students.

It is just a very politically charged time, he added. That makes it hard because we encourage boards to act in the best interests of their children, no matter what their political ideology or party is.

In some conservative states, politicians have gone so far as to ban mask mandates in local districts. Subsequent litigation has gotten so fraught that the Texas education department decided to suspend enforcement last Thursday while legal challenges go through the courts.

Meanwhile, parents of school-age children nationwide are largely supportive of school mask requirements. According to a survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation this month, nearly two-thirds want schools to require masks for students, teachers and staff members who are not yet vaccinated. And larger shares of Black and Hispanic compared to white parents, and Democrat compared to Republican parents, support mask mandates in schools.

But opponents have been vocal.

In Trumbull, parents packed a school board meeting with signs opposing mask mandates and critical race theory.

During public comment, several impassioned speakers rebuffed the requirement. One parent said he would flout the rules and send his child to school this fall without a mask anyway.

School board chair Lucinda Timpanelli told Hearst Connecticut Media that the board is following the governors executive order, and monitoring decisions from the state and the situation. On the whole, the board has taken a back seat to evolving state guidance.

We have not discussed the issue as a board yet, said Timpanelli.

In New Canaan, six parents pressured the school board to forego the school mask mandate. Some said it was difficult for children to wear masks throughout the school day, while other speakers called the practice virtue signaling.

We have to move on, said one of the parents, and we have to accept living with (COVID-19) just as another risk.

We are under a mask mandate, Katrina Parkhill, the chair of the school board, told Hearst Connecticut. So theres not a lot we can discuss at this point.

Parkhill said her personal hope is that improved local metrics and increased vaccination rates will allow students to unmask soon.

Our priority will always be to keep our classrooms open, she said, and our students in school.
KENA BETANCUR / AFP via Getty Images

A Waterbury man was found guilty Thursday of possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Luis Castro, 33, was identified in a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation as trafficking cocaine, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Leonard Boyles office said.
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP)  City officials overseeing Georgias largest public beach have ordered a three-month pause on homeowners registering their properties as vacation rentals.

The Tybee Island city council on Thursday approved a 90-day moratorium on permitting new short-term vacation rentals. The island east of Savannah has about 3,000 residents.

The decision came amid complaints from some full-time residents who say vacation rentals in their neighborhoods are being packed with too many people and have caused an excess of garbage to accumulate.

We have people renting properties that dont live in the state, not taking care of them, Tybee Island resident Mack Kitchens told WTOC-TV.

Some real estate agents pushed back, saying the moratorium isn't necessary and worrying that it could jeopardize pending home sales.

Real estate broker Jenny Rutherford said her firm has 34 Tybee Island properties under contract, and she's concerned a rental moratorium could derail some from closing.

"A lot of these buyers are planning to use their property as a vacation rental, Rutherford said.

City officials decided to exempt vacation rentals sold to new owners. Those owners will be allowed to apply for permits to rent the properties during the 90-day moratorium.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  The chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday signed an order making masks mandatory in areas controlled by the courts, a contrast to a state law that bans similar mandates in public schools where children have resumed classes amid rising numbers of coronavirus cases.

The order signed by Chief Justice Susan Christensen said all people entering court-controlled areas must wear a face covering regardless of the persons vaccination status. This requirement applies statewide and does not depend on a particular countys or areas positivity rate or transmission status, Christensen wrote.

She said the court reviewed recent revisions to the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding mask wearing in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission.

On Friday, all but one of Iowas 99 counties were in the those categories as the state experiences a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to a level not seen since January.

The order requiring masks contradicts Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds' long-term policy against mask mandates. In May, she signed a law that bans cities, counties and school districts from requiring masks.

Reynolds has been put on notice by U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who said in a letter last week that the Iowa law is against science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19" and is contrary to CDC guidance for preventing the spread of the virus."

Reynold lashed out at President Joe Biden after receiving the letter and suggested the CDC has no scientific proof that masks work to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Asked Friday why judges, juries and lawyers need such protection but not children and teachers, Reynolds' spokesman Pat Garrett responded: The state Supreme Courts decision doesnt change the legislation the governor signed into law. She believes wearing a mask should be a choice not a mandate.

The courts have been asked to weigh in on the issue. On Thursday, Reynolds and other state officials were sued by a Council Bluffs woman with small children seeking an order requiring the state to issue a universal mask mandate for all students and school personnel until a voluntary plan can be implemented that segregates mask-wearing students and staff from those who opt not to wear masks.

Iowa is among nine states that have banned schools from implementing universal mask mandates.

The seven-day moving average of cases in Iowa has surpassed 1,000 a day and has been increasing since late June. An update Wednesday from the Iowa Department of Public Health indicated that more young people are becoming infected. In the past seven days, 17% of the states positive tests were among those under age 17, up from 13%. Hospitalizations increased nearly 23% in the past week with 498 people hospitalized.

Some businesses, including hospitals, also have been mandating vaccines. The CDC reported Friday that Iowa had 51.4% of the population fully vaccinated, which ranked 23rd in the nation.

About 200 people protested vaccine mandates Friday outside MercyOne Medical Center in Des Moines, the Des Moines Register reported.
Gov. Ned Lamont on Friday said Connecticuts COVID-19 metrics have stayed relatively flat, and appeared hopeful about the states progress as students return to schools.

I see the incredibly high infections and hospitalizations in those southern states and Im pleased that Connecticut, because were 84 percent vaccinated, is relatively flat, Lamont said, speaking to reporters after a news conference in Danbury. Doesnt mean were out of the woods but we are what they used to say  remember in the early days of COVID  flattening the curve.

He said the next three weeks would be important as college students return and schools welcome back students. I think well have a really better idea by the end of September, he said. I think its gonna be positive  I think the vaccinations well be able to show are working.

The governors optimistic outlook came as all but two of Connecticuts eight counties  Windham and Tolland  remained marked as areas of high community transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The states daily summary showed 788 new infections reported  coincidentally the same exact number for two straight days  with a positivity rate of 3.44 percent out of 22,892 tests. Hospitalizations fell by two, bringing the state census to 378 patients.

A close look at case numbers, positive test rates and hospital patient numbers shows that its premature to declare a peak of coronavirus in the summertime delta infections, but there are signs of slowing. Positive test rates, for example, have remained mostly in the 3.4 percent range for a couple of weeks.

The number of new daily cases has inched up, looking at 7-day averages, but not nearly as fast as the climb from mid-July to the second week of August.

But the infection rate in Connecticut is still far lower than in other states, particularly in the South.

A Florida judge ruled Friday that school districts can require students to wear masks, overruling a ban on mask mandates put in place by the states governor.

Lamont signaled Friday he would not pursue reviving the statewide indoor mask mandate, noting Connecticut still has a mask mandate in place for unvaccinated people. He said cities like Danbury which have instituted local mask orders are pretty strict about it.

I think its working pretty well right now, but well have a better idea how well its working by the end of next month, Lamont added.

The governor faced sharp criticism over the last three days from groups calling for a renewed state mask mandate, and from anti-mask protesters. On Thursday, the Connecticut Cross Disability Lifespan Alliance demanded Lamont reinstate an indoor statewide mask policy, saying he was not doing so in defiance of science.

One day earlier, anti-mask protesters shut down a back-to-school roundtable discussion the governor was a part of in Cheshire. The event saw the governor escorted to his vehicle as protesters shouted and cursed at him from close range.

At Fridays event, a news conference around getting undocumented state residents vaccinated, Lamont and a host of state and federal lawmakers sounded off on a familiar message: get vaccinated.

Its how were going to protect our children who cannot get vaccinated, said U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5. So as the adults in these communities, it is our job to protect them and make sure they can go back to school and have safe and health environments, she added.

State Rep. Ken Gucker, D-Danbury, stressed the point by revealing he had fallen ill with what he said was the delta variant of the coronavirus. The only reason why I am not in the ICU fighting for my life is because I got the vaccine the moment that it was available, the Democrat, whose district includes parts of Danbury, New Fairfield and Ridgefield, said. Because of having that vaccine, Im not in Danbury Hospital right now, Im at home recovering with my family.

He encouraged anyone who is vaccinated and starts to feel unwell to get tested. Thats what this thing hides as, he said it makes you think that you are dealing with a bad cold, but meanwhile youre out spreading this to people who are vulnerable.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP)  Microsoft says it has fixed a flaw in its cloud computing platform that cybersecurity researchers warned could have enabled hackers to take over a cloud-based database product used by many big companies.

The company said Friday there's no evidence the potential opening was exploited by malicious actors or that any customer data was exposed.

The cybersecurity firm Wiz, led by former Microsoft employees, said it discovered what it called an unprecedented critical vulnerability" in Microsoft's Azure cloud platform and notified the tech giant earlier in August. Microsoft paid the firm a bounty for the discovery and said it immediately fixed the problem.

If exploited, the flaw could have affected thousands of organizations, including numerous Fortune 500 companies," according to a blog post from Wiz, which is based in Israel and California. Microsoft said Friday it affected only a subset of customers using the product.

Microsoft has already been in the hot seat over the hack of its Exchange email servers disclosed in March and blamed on Chinese spies. Its code was also abused to rifle through the emails of U.S. officials in an earlier hack pinned on Russian intelligence agents and more commonly associated with the software company SolarWinds.

The cloud platform vulnerability disclosed this week, while apparently causing no harm, raised concerns about the security of cloud services provided by the tech industry, which businesses and governments increasingly rely on.

After a White House cybersecurity summit Thursday, Microsoft pledged it would invest $20 billion in cybersecurity over the next five years and make available $150 million in technical services to help local governments upgrade their defenses.

Federal lawmakers earlier in the year insisted that Microsoft swiftly upgrade security to what they say it should have provided in the first place, and without fleecing taxpayers.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Officials offered new hope for the safety of U.S. schoolchildren threatened by COVID-19 on Friday as Gulf Coast hospitals already full of unvaccinated patients braced for the nightmare scenario of a major hurricane causing a wave of fractures, cuts and heart attacks without enough staff to treat the injured.

The Biden administration said half of U.S. adolescents ages 12-17 had gotten at least their first COVID-19 vaccine, and the inoculation rate among teens is growing faster than any other age group.

We have now hit a major milestone, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters at a briefing. This is critical progress as millions of kids head back to school.

Meanwhile, new studies from California both provided more evidence that schools can open safely if they do the right things and highlighted the danger of failing to follow proper precautions.

A study of COVID-19 cases from the winter pandemic peak in Los Angeles County found that case rates among children and adolescents were about 3 times lower than in the general community when schools followed federal guidance on mask wearing, physical distancing, testing and other virus measures, officials said.

Another study from Marin County, north of San Francisco, found that a single unvaccinated teacher who came back to school two days after showing symptoms and read to her class without wearing a mask led to 26 other infections in May, before the highly contagious delta variant ran wild.

Most of the places where we are seeing surges and outbreaks are in places that are not implementing our current guidance, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who discussed the studies at a briefing.

More than 3,100 active coronavirus cases have been reported in Arkansas public schools among students and employees, according to newly released numbers, and most youths are enrolled in districts that require masks. The mandates emerged after a judge temporarily blocked a state law that banned mask mandates in Arkansas, which ranks fifth nationally for new virus cases per capita, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

On the northern Gulf Coast, where Ida was forecast to become a dangerous hurricane before it hits on Sunday, workers at Singing River Gulfport in Mississippi expect to have to raise flood gates to keep rising water out of the hospital that is full of COVID-19 patients, the vast majority of whom aren't vaccinated, said facilities director Randall Cobb.

Complicating matters, he said, was that the hospital is short-staffed because of the pandemic and also expects to get a flood of patients suffering from ailments that typically follow any hurricane: broken bones, heart attacks, breathing problems and lacerations.

It's going to be bad. It's going to be really bad, Cobb said.

Located a few miles from the coast, the hospital has enough generator fuel, food and other supplies to operate on its own for at least 96 hours, he said, and it will help anyone who has a serious, life-threatening condition. But officials were trying to get the word out that people with less severe medical problems should go to special-needs storm shelters or contact emergency management.

Its very stressful because its too late if we have not thought of everything. Patients are counting on the medical care but also on the facility to be available, Cobb said.

In Louisiana, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said evacuation of hospitals in threatened areas  something that would normally be considered  is impractical with COVID-19 patients.

That isnt possible. We dont have any place to bring those patients. Not in state, not out of state, Edwards said.

So, he said, state officials have worked with health systems to ensure that they are prepared.

About 1,100 people are dying daily of COVID-19 in the United States, the most since mid-March, according to Johns Hopkins University data. About 85,000 people were hospitalized with the illness nationwide early this week, CDC data shows, the highest total since the post-holiday surge in early February.

The surge is largely fueled by the highly contagious delta variant among people who are not vaccinated. In areas where vaccination rates are particularly low, doctors have pleaded with their communities to get inoculated to spare overburdened hospitals. In places including Alabama, federal teams have been brought into to assist exhausted workers and fill staffing gaps caused by COVID-19 infections and exposure.

In Idaho, one of the least vaccinated states, intensive care units are running out of space and one 330-bed hospital, Kootenai Health, converted classrooms into patient care space.

The largest classroom became a treatment room for as many as 21 coronavirus patients who dont need the kind of specialized monitoring provided by intensive care units. Other classrooms were turned into treatment areas where hospitalized COVID-19 patients can receive monoclonal antibody therapy in hopes of keeping them from needing a hospital bed.

Idaho also is calling on people with health care skills or a simple willingness to help to sign up for the states Medical Reserve Corps. Retired health care workers can get temporary license renewals, and others can help with tasks such as contact tracing and data entry.

___

Reeves reported from Newnan, Georgia. AP medical writer Mike Stobbe in New York and AP journalist Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  The head of the South Dakota National Guard said Wednesday that Gov. Kristi Noem didnt tell him she would use a private donation for the deployment to the U.S. border with Mexico until after the mission was already planned.

Noem's decision to accept a $1 million donation from a Tennessee billionaire last month was met with hefty criticism from those who said it allowed a private donor to commandeer a military force. But Maj. Gen. Jeffery Marlette told a legislative budgeting committee Wednesday that the donation was not a factor in planning the deployment.

Our National Guard is not for hire, he told lawmakers. Nowhere in this planning process was there a discussion of, Ill go send the Guard if I can find somebody to pay for it.

The Republican governor last month described the $1 million donation offer from billionaire Republican donor Willis Johnson as a surprise that came as she was deciding whether to send police officers or National Guard troops, as well as how to fund the deployment. The state was responding to a request from Texas and Arizona to send law enforcement officers under an agreement between states to assist during emergencies

The costs for the two-month deployment will likely run over Johnson's $1 million. Marlette said the Guard expects to spend over $1.3 million by the middle of September. That will be paid from the state emergency and disaster fund, which is overseen by an agency tasked with preparing the state for natural disasters or other emergencies. Johnson's donation will flow through the fund, but lawmakers questioned how much money the fund already has and whether they will be asked to fund it during next year's legislative session.

Marlette defended the deployment of 48 soldiers as helping halt the flow of drugs, calling the border a doorway for meth and other dangerous drugs in South Dakota. He said Guard members have seen evidence of Mexican cartels fighting over control of the border crossings.

Our governor said this is a national security, this is a drug issue, this is important to South Dakota, Marlette told the lawmakers.

National Guard members have also assisted families who are crossing to claim asylum, including at one point helping deliver a baby and performing CPR on a dying 2-year-old child, Marlette said.

The governor said she was considering extending the National Guard's deployment after visiting the National Guard members last month, but Marlette said he did not have any updates on whether the deployment would last beyond another month. Guard members are paid a daily rate ranging from $200 to $248, plus a daily food allowance of $55. Those salaries, plus the costs of transporting equipment, paying for hotels and transportation, make up the bulk of the expense for the deployment, according to Marlette.

Several lawmakers questioned how the deployment would be funded if the governor decides to extend it. Democratic Sen. Reynold Nesiba said the state funding issue was complicated by the private donation.

The governor's spokesman Ian Fury said her office has requested reimbursement from Texas, but does not anticipate them paying anything. He added that she plans to continue using the emergency and disaster fund for the deployment.

Gov. Noem has extended the deployment for an additional 30 days. They will continue to deliver on the mission objectives of protecting the border, intercepting illegal immigrants, and providing drug interdiction against the cartels, Fury said.

South Dakota is also expected to send 125 soldiers for a yearlong deployment as part of a separate federal mission later this year. That deployment will be funded by the federal government.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the donation to the emergency and disaster fund came from Willis Johnson, not Maj. Gen. Jeffery Marlette.
Connecticut is the latest state to pass legislation authorizing adult recreational use of marijuana (about time!) and this should be cause to celebrate for our fellow Nutmeggers. In fact, according to the latest surveys, nearly two-thirds of Connecticut residents agree with this sentiment.

The milestone vote by our lawmakers earlier this summer came amid a wave of recent Northeast state legalizations, including our neighbors in New Jersey and New York. Massachusetts has been ahead of the pack, legalizing cannabis in 2016 while Rhode Island, where pot is currently decriminalized, is expected to follow the path to legalization later this year. Legalization is a game of dominoes, where states cannot fall behind their neighbors or suffer the consequences.

Many people, myself included, think it is high time (pun very much intended) we recognize the wisdom of legalizing the adult use of cannabis, not only from an economic standpoint but a social justice perspective. Following the bills passage, Gov. Ned Lamont directly addressed the inequities faced by minority communities, while also pointing out that criminalization did little to protect public health and safety.

In terms of the economy, almost every expert believes that legal marijuana will provide a much-needed business boost. In February, Lamont published revenue projections estimating that sales from an adult-use cannabis program starting in May 2022 would generate tax revenues of approximately $33.6 million by fiscal year 2023. The number would jump to $97 million by 2026. This doesnt even include the jump in employment and investment in new retail facilities. If the program is implemented correctly, alongside a crackdown of illegal cannabis sales, I think these numbers could be larger still.

No matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, I think we would find consensus around the view that Connecticut taxpayers are overburdened and property taxes too high. The COVID pandemic has only made the situation worse. With that as a backdrop, what better time for new revenue streams?

The best part of these economic benefits is that they will be shared with those who need it most. Connecticuts bill provides for a Social Equity Council and Social Equity and Innovation Fund to appropriate marijuana sales tax revenues and award marijuana business licenses to lower-income applicants who have lived in geographic areas disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. Our cities win as a significant portion of revenue generated should be dedicated towards community reinvestment. They will win further if the programs put in place avoid some of the pitfalls seen in other social equity programs, and not only help with licensing, but also help with business operations  something that has been missed in many cases.

Possession of certain amounts for personal usage is now legal  if youre 21, of course  but recreational retail sales will have to wait until next May at the earliest. People looking to grow marijuana plants for their own recreational use will have to wait to do so until 2023, but home cultivation for authorized medical patients can begin as soon as October this year  and getting a medical card is not difficult.

Connecticut now becomes the 19th state to legalize recreational use of marijuana, but it remains an illegal drug under federal law (and under those federal laws is somehow classified as more dangerous than heroin, cocaine or any opioid). And while legalization makes good economic sense all around, we cant forget the impact on the criminal justice system, both here in our own state and on the national level, where in parts of the country simply possessing weed can still land you in prison.

It may surprise you to know that if you ask most people in law enforcement, they also agree that recreational cannabis should be legal. So, in the words of legendary reggae artist Peter Tosh, youve got to legalize it. I believe this holds true not only in Connecticut, but hopefully everywhere in the not-so-distant future. I commend our state lawmakers for helping to lead the way.

Harry DeMott, of New Canaan, is the founder and CEO of A Proper High, an e-commerce website.
Milton, PA (17847)

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Mostly cloudy early, then clearing overnight. Low near 55F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

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Mostly cloudy early, then clearing overnight. Low near 55F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
DAVIDSON [emdash] With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Edwin Sarbiewski (Davidson, North Carolina), born in Ashtabula, Ohio, who passed away on August 30, 2021 at the age of 85. He was loved and cherished by many people including : his parents, Bruno Sarbiewski and Blanche Sarbiewski;
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The restaurant chain Chipotle uses Stint to recruit workers at short notice to cover peak times in our restaurants, said Jacob Sumner, its director of European operations. Chilango, another food chain, said its stores use the app when they need extra pairs of hands during busy times.

The use of apps to connect businesses and workers for short-term gig work appears to be a growing trend in the United States as well.

The biggest change we see is this desire for flexible staffing on both sides, said Sumir Meghani, CEO and co-founder of Instawork, which connects businesses with temporary or short-term hourly workers.

During the pandemic, Meghani said, businesses discovered that the rise and fall of viral cases  and the resulting disruptions to their operations  sometimes require them to scale up or down at any given notice.

Greater flexibility in the worker-employer relationship during the pandemic period is also what Gigpros founder, Ben Ellsworth, has observed. His app, which operates in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, is expanding, to try to address staffing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.
Joining Days in voting for the resolution were fellow Democrats Shalonda Webb, 4th District, and sponsors Lisa Clancy, 5th District, and Kelli Dunaway, 2nd District.

The vote represented a shift by Days and Webb, who joined the three Republicans on July 27 to rescind the health order issued the previous day by Page and his acting health director, Dr. Faisal Khan.

After that vote, Schmitt, who had sued to block the order, asked for a restraining order to stop the county from enforcing the mask mandate.

Ribaudo issued a temporary restraining order against the county order on Aug. 3, imploring attorneys on both sides to reach a compromise for the sake of public health. After they failed to do so, Ribaudo granted a preliminary injunction on Aug. 19.

At the time, Ribaudo said St. Louis County residents were caught between the July 26 order and the councils vote to rescind it. And because the county had acknowledged it would not seek to enforce the order except in extreme cases, Ribaudo said the countys insistence on a mandate was a hollow threat which is unlikely to garner compliance if they have no intention to enforce.
ST. LOUIS  A day after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the latest federal eviction moratorium, St. Louis Circuit Court lifted its ban on evictions and Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and other local leaders urged tenants facing financial hardship to take advantage of federal help to make their rent payments.

The high courts ruling, ending nearly 18 months of laws and public health orders suspending evictions, was not unexpected. But it came as state and local officials were still struggling to roll out rental relief programs that have received some $46 billion in federal funding, spending just $5.1 billion of the money through July. The Biden administration initially said its hands were tied, but under pressure from progressive Democrats, it opted to extend the moratorium at the beginning of the month, hoping to buy a few more weeks of time until the court weighed in.

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, who camped out on the steps of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month to pressure her partys leaders on the issue, sharply criticized the ruling, a 6-3 decision split along ideological lines, and called on Congress to pass its own moratorium.
A Wentzville man was among 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing this week at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

Two members of Missouris congressional delegation confirmed Friday afternoon that Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, was among the dead.

His father, Mark Schmitz, told the Post-Dispatch his son was a St. Louisan, a patriot and a dedicated Marine.

Amazing kid, amazing young man, with a big future thats now been cut short, he said.

Schmitz decided on the Marines around his freshman and sophomore years in high school, his dad said. Once he made up his mind, he made himself a regular at the Marine office in St. Peters and began training religiously with recruits even though he wasnt yet enlisted.

We used to give him trouble about it, Mark Schmitz said, but of course, now we look back on it with admiration.

He said he didnt know exactly what drew his son to the Marines, especially because the rest of the veterans in the family were in the Navy. But Schmitz said Jared liked to chart his own path and relished joking with his relatives that his branch was better than theirs.
Sean Brooks introduced himself at the Talawanda School District meeting on Aug. 16 as a doctor who has a Ph.D. According to his website, it is in education rather than science. No evidence can be found to back up several of the claims Brooks makes in the clip, including his prophecy that people who have been vaccinated will die within months or years due to the shot.

Data from millions of people who have been vaccinated shows COVID-19 vaccines prevent deaths. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to Pfizer for its vaccine on Monday after reviewing six months of safety data. The FDA had previously granted Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccines based on safety data that tracked more than 70,000 people through clinical trials up to two months after they received shots. "The safety data now exists for a full year and in some cases 18 months," said Dr. Matthew Woodruff, an immunologist at Emory University. "We have seen over and over again no indications that the immune responses to these vaccines are functionally different to immune responses from other vaccines."
Page's initial mask mandate was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt. A judge last week enjoined the county from enforcing the order since it hadn't received council approval.

With vaccination rates still lagging in St. Louis, the city is offering an event Friday and Saturday with two purposes: Forgiveness for outstanding warrants, and a chance to get vaccinated. Even more incentive: Those who show proof of full vaccination can get $100 off their fines and court fees.

City leaders say the warrant forgiveness program allows anyone with outstanding warrants to resolve the charges without fear of arrest on city charges, and without the expense of posting cash bond. A vaccination clinic will also be on-site.

Only 46.2% of St. Louisans have initiated vaccination, about 5 percentage points lower than the state as a whole. Nationally, 61.1% of Americans have initiated vaccination, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The original conception of the event was to make vaccination clinics available at the same time as the amnesty to give people the opportunity to get vaccinated, Municipal Judge Newton McCoy told St. Louis Public Radio. That idea was later expanded to give an incentive to those who have already been vaccinated.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP)  A man accused of capital murder in the 2019 death of a college student he occasionally dated pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge that took the death penalty off the table.

Brandon Theesfeld, 24, of Fort Worth, Texas, entered the plea to first-degree murder before Lafayette County Circuit Judge Kelly Luther, multiple news outlets reported.

We were facing the death penalty, defense attorney Tony Farese said. Based on the facts of this case, we were able to obtain the best result possible, which was reduction of a charge to first-degree murder.

Under the plea agreement, Theesfeld has a chance of freedom when he turns 65 under a conditional release provision, Farese said.

Theesfeld was arrested July 24, 2019, for the slaying of Ally Kostial, 21, of St. Louis. Both were students at the University of Mississippi and had dated occasionally, authorities have said.

News outlets report Kostial believed she was pregnant before her death and Theesfeld's text messages suggested he wanted her to have an abortion and met her four days before her body was found during a routine patrol by Lafayette County Sheriff's Department deputies. A preliminary autopsy report said she died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Bill McClellan Bill McClellan is a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Bill McClellan Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

As my wife and I began a recent trip to Michigan, Mary received a phone call from the office of my oncologist. The doctor had left a message on our home phone, but he wanted to make sure we got the results of the scans that had been taken the night before.

The scans were clean. For the first time in almost six years, I seem to be cancer-free.

I was first diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma  bile-duct cancer  in the fall of 2015. The cancer manifested itself with a tumor in my liver. The only sure treatment was to remove the tumor, but mine was inoperable because it had encased the hepatic artery. The doctor who gave me the news was very professional. How long do I have? I asked. He said there was no way to give an accurate dateline for an individual. What if I were 100 people? I asked. He considered it for a moment. Eleven months, he said. That seemed awfully precise and begged for a snappy rejoinder, but I merely nodded. My wits werent all together at the time.
In mid-2021 Russia launched another nuclear sub, the Krasnoyarsk. This was the fourth Yasen (Graney) class SSGN (nuclear-powered cruise missile sub) and was being prepared for sea trials. Krasnoyarsk is considered the production (serial) model of the class and the remaining five will be identical, and are referred to as Yasen-M.

The Yasen design took three decades to perfect. The second Yasen, the Kazan, entered service in May 2021 and was the first Yasen-M. The third Yasen, the Novosibirsk is expected to enter service by the end of 2021. It is normal for the first ship of a new class to reveal a lot of potential upgrades that will be added to the second ship of the class which will be the production model for the next four or more ships. The U.S. and China, the only other navies that build large classes of new ships, use a similar technique.

The Yasens were different because they were the first new class of nuclear subs to enter production, in 1993, after the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Soon after that the Russian armed forces quickly shrank to 20 percent of its pre-Soviet personnel strength. Procurement budgets shrank even more for the navy because the post-Soviet Union admirals tried to keep more ships in service than the budget and available personnel could support. By the end of the 1990s most of the Soviet era nuclear subs were out of service and were soon dismantled with the assistance of NATO nations who provided billions of dollars in aid and expertise to safely dismantle these potential nuclear disasters. Early on Russia had just scuttled some older nuclear subs off its northern coast, which put a lot of nuclear fuel underwater where it will remain a danger to aquatic life for centuries.

There were other problems with the sharp reduction in nuclear sub construction, mainly that the Soviet era shipyards could no longer get enough qualified workers and managers to build nuclear subs on time and budget, or maintain quality standards. Post-Soviet Russia meant skilled workers and managers could no longer be compelled to work where the government wanted them. Shipyard personnel now could seek better paying jobs elsewhere in Russia or, as many did, migrate to the West for better opportunities. For two decades warship construction efforts were a mess and it was only in the last decade that substantial progress was made in fixing these problems.

All nuclear subs are built in one facility on the north coast (the White Sea); the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk. This operation now employs 30,000 people with fifteen nuclear subs under construction in mid-2021. While the quality problems have been largely solved, it still takes too long to build each submarine and the current goal is to reduce construction time by at least a year. That means new classes of nuclear subs that are smaller and less expensive to build. The successor to the Yasen class is already being developed and will be closer in size to the American Virginia class SSNs, which are currently being produced at the rate of two a year and are still the world-standard for other nations to strive for. Yasen-M has closed the quality gap with the Virginias. Oddly enough, the latest version of the Virginia, the Block 5 is larger than the twenty already in service and similar to what Russia would call an SSGN, like the Yasen. If these Block 5s work well the U.S. plans to eventually build 70 Virginias, most of them Block 5s which are larger (at 10,200 tons) than the 8,600-ton Yasen M.

Russia developed SSGNs during the Cold War as carrier killers but the new Yasen-Ms are built to carry a lot of cruise missiles, like American SSNs have been doing since the 1990s. The Russian SSGNs carried fewer but larger anti-ship missiles. The U.S. believes that SSGNs are more effective firepower ships than anything on the surface, which are vulnerable to a growing number of surface and air based anti-ship missiles. Russia needs more SSNs to protect its SSBN (nuclear powered ballistic missile) subs and provide an effective defense against foreign SSNs carrying out covert peacetime missions to keep an eye on Russian naval bases and naval exercises.

The frequency and effectiveness of these American SSN espionage missions was kept secret throughout the Cold War because the American SSNs were so much quieter than Russian subs and able to evade detection. Russia heard the rumors of such missions before the Cold War ended in 1991 and since then has been making a serious effort to improve submarine detection methods and build quieter nuclear subs so they can snoop on the Americans for a change. The Yasens are quieter and have much better sensors but they are too large and expensive for this espionage work. The first Yasen replacement is supposed to be in service by the late 2020s and proposed designs are all smaller and similar to Block 1-4 Virginias.

Russia plans to build nine Yasens and in mid-2021 five were still being built. Once the Kazen was launched and out of its construction shed for fitting out and sea trials it was noted that it appeared quite different from the Severodvinsk, the first Yassen. Kazen is nine meters (27 feet) shorter than the 139.2-meter (457 foot) Severodvinsk. The bow is a different shape (sharper) and there are eight torpedo tubes instead of ten. The size and shape of the propeller/rudder system have increased. About half the length reduction is at the expense of crew quarters. That is not a major problem because the crew is smaller, at 63 men, than the Severodvinsk. The length and crew reduction were accomplished with the use of more automation and improved electronics that take up less space and require less maintenance. The revisions were not expensive to implement and were apparently planned before the Severodvinsk was completed. While the Severodvinsk cost $1.6 billion the Kazan cost half that and subsequent boats are expected to cost closer to $700 million each. The navy is confident that the changes in the Yasen design will solve a lot more problems than they cause.

Russia knew it had some serious problems with the Yasens as the lead boat ran into a seemingly endless series of problems. In mid-2014, after two decades of construction effort and nearly six months of acceptance trials, the Russian Navy finally declared the Severodvinsk into service. This boat set some of the wrong kind of records on its way to the fleet. For one thing, the construction of the Severodvinsk began in 1993, based on a Cold War design and a lot of Cold War technology. Then there were the sea trials, which took two years during which the Severodvinsk was at sea 30 percent of the time (222 days) and submerged over a hundred times. There were at least five live firings of its cruise missiles. Sea trials are not supposed to last that long, but the Yasen SSGNs were special in so many ways.

Putting the Severodvinsk into service was delayed twice in 2013. Early on the sea trials revealed that the nuclear reactor did not produce the required power and that the ability of the boat to remain quiet while underwater was not what it should be. An underpowered and noisy sub was not combat ready and the navy demanded that the builder make it all better before 2014. This proved hard to do because in the 1990s lack of work and money meant that most of the best people left the companies that produced the nuclear subs and their complex components were gone. Those left behind produced a growing list of embarrassing failures. Earlier, undisclosed problems with the first Yasen postponed it from entering service for years. These problems are not restricted to the Yasens, as other new subs are also encountering numerous construction and design problems.

In early 2011, the crew of the Severodvinsk took their boat to sea, or at least around the harbor, for the first time. Sea trials were to begin three months later but first, the sub took baby steps to ensure that everything worked. These harbor trials were seen as major progress. Things went downhill again after that; with a growing number of delays as more and more problems were encountered.

The second Yasen, the Kazan was different. Construction of the Kazan began in 2009 and was not completed until 2017. This was two years longer than expected and apparently the result of implementing the design changes. The third Yasen did not begin construction until 2013 and was launched in 2019. That was two years less than Kazan and the fourth Yasen was expected to take the same amount of time and launch during 2021, which it did. The fifth Yasen began construction a year after the fourth boat and is expected to be launched at about the same time.

The Russians appear pretty confident about the redesigned Yasen M, in part because once the Severodvinsk was in service it proved as quiet and capable as expected. The Americans admitted as much when they revealed that, during the first long range cruise of the Severodvinsk in 2018 the U.S. Navy had a very difficult time locating and tracking it. That was unusual for Russian subs, which had previously been noisy enough for U.S. submarine detection systems to keep track of. The Kazan will have its chance to prove it is as quiet and hard to track as the Severodvinsk when, by 2022, it takes a long-range cruise in waters patrolled by American ASW (Anti-submarine warfare) aircraft, surface ships, subs and other submarine detection systems.

In the end, the Yasen class boats were a major advance in Russian submarine technology. That was remarkable because Russian submarine building has been on life support since 1991. Many subs under construction at the end of the Cold War were canceled, and the few that avoided spending a decade or more waiting for enough money to resume construction. The first Yasen crew was put together in 2007 and then spent years training, and waiting. The crew got their new boat in 2013, but only after record delays and time spent in the shipyard getting tweaked.

The Yasens all have eight VLS (vertical launch system) tubes that can carry 32 Oniks anti-ship missiles or forty slower Kalibr (similar to the U.S. Tomahawk) missiles or the more capable Kn-101 cruise missile, as well as the torpedo tubes. The Oniks missiles are designed as "carrier killers" because their final approach is at high speed and difficult to intercept. The torpedo tubes were originally supposed to be larger so they could use some new torpedo designs. Those designs did not work out as planned so the standard 533mm torpedo tubes were used with older but proven torpedo designs.

The Yasens crew is less than half the 134 needed to run the new U.S. Virginia class boats. The Yasen design is based on the earlier Akula and Alfa class SSNs. Russia had originally planned to build 30 Yasens, but now only nine are being built and the smaller and cheaper successor is supposed to be produced in large numbers if the procurement budget can handle that.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A-Gas, a leading provider of environmental solutions for the refrigerants and fire protection industries, announced today the expansion of its business operations in Seattle.

Weve seen a growing need for a fast and easy refrigerant cylinder exchange service in Seattle, comments A-Gass Vice President of Refrigerants, Taylor Ferranti. As regulations continue to change our industry, we are constantly looking for ways to help our customers safely reclaim their refrigerant gases.

With more than 30 locations across the United States, A-Gas is a market leader in the safe management of a wide range of refrigerants and other specialty products, all of which have the potential to contribute to global warming if not handled with the highest level of care.

Our global focus is to eliminate the emission risk of potent greenhouse gases to the environment, noted Louise McCann, Managing Director-Commercial at A-Gas in the Americas. A-Gas continues to deliver valuable, industry-leading solutions for our partners in the northwest, and our expansion in Seattle demonstrates our dedication to providing sustainable refrigerant management that helps protect our environment.

A-Gas manages the full life cycle of refrigerants for its partners around the world and safely recycles millions of pounds of material each year.

About A-Gas:

A-Gas (U.S.), headquartered in Bowling Green, Ohio, is a trading subsidiary of A-Gas International (headquartered in Bristol, UK) and is the Worlds largest refrigerant recovery and reclamation company. The companys core business offers environmental solutions and lifecycle management services for ozone depleting substances and global warming agents including CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs and Halons in the HVAC/Refrigeration and Fire Suppression Industries. For more information about A-Gas, please visit www.agas.com/us

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DARMSTADT, Germany, Aug. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Two physicists, Professor Markus Roth from the Technical University of Darmstadt and Professor Todd Ditmire from the University of Texas-Austin, along with co-founders Dr. Anika Stein, former head of Defense Systems at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, and Thomas Forner, an experienced entrepreneur and founder of multiple companies, are partnering to launch a new fusion energy startup called Focused Energy. The company will work to commercialize inertial fusion energy (IFE), which involves the use of high-power laser beams to spark a fusion reaction.

"The controlled production of fusion energy is an invaluable breakthrough in science. In the face of climate change and an increasing global energy demand, we will soon have an instrument at our disposal to produce an almost unlimited amount of reliable and clean energy," Roth said. "Recent technological advances will enable us to develop commercial fusion power plants for energy production, which will generate several gigawatts of power."

Fusion energy is proving to be a promising avenue for clean energy production. Advances at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility, where they are using the world's largest laser composed of 192 high energy laser beams to compress hydrogen atoms and release a burst of energy, indicate that fusion energy may play a critical role in the world's energy portfolio.

"There is an unprecedented opportunity to transition to more affordable, safe, environmentally friendly, and efficient energy sources," Prime Movers Lab Founder and General Partner Dakin Sloss said. "The Focused Energy team is trailblazing the way to make inertial fusion energy a safe and scalable technology that could ensure a green energy supply with resources that are globally available for millennia to come."

In addition, the high-powered laser technology developed by Focused Energy for the IFE approach could revolutionize the way materials are analyzed in areas such as construction and infrastructure. For example, laser technology could detect deficiencies in bridges, significantly reducing the difficult and time-consuming task of conducting such inspections manually.

The company is incorporated in the US. Presently, its operations are based in Darmstadt, Germany, and it plans to open operations in Austin, TX.

About Focused Energy

Focused Energy is a startup dedicated to developing fusion as a means of generating clean alternative energy for the growing needs of society. The company is supported by the TU Darmstadt and was founded in July 2021 after years of extensive research. The founding and management team encompasses entrepreneur Thomas Forner (CEO Focused Energy), engineer Dr. Anika Stein (COO Focused Energy) as well as the two laser and fusion experts Prof. Dr. Markus Roth (TU Darmstadt, CSO Focused Energy) and Prof. Dr. Todd Ditmire (UT Austin/Texas, CTO Focused Energy). Further information can be found at www.focused-energy.world

Company contact: info@focused-energy.world

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/physicists-launch-fusion-energy-startup-called-focused-energy-to-revolutionize-energy-production-301363245.html

SOURCE Focused Energy
TICKERS: AZZ; AZZUF

Source: Streetwise Reports (8/28/21)

The contents of the preliminary economic assessment on Azarga Uranium's Gas Hills asset and uranium prices are discussed in a Fundamental Research Corp. report.



In an Aug. 24 research note, analyst Sid Rajeev reported that Fundamental Research Corp. increased its fair target price on Azarga Uranium Corp. (AZZ:TSX; AZZUF:OTCQB) to CA$1.11 per share from CA$1.03 after the uranium firm released a "robust" preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its Gas Hills project in Wyoming.

"The PEA confirmed our assumption that Gas Hills can be a satellite project of the company's flagship Dewey Burdock project in South Dakota," Rajeev wrote.

The analyst reviewed the PEA. It outlined a satellite-model operation producing 1 million pounds of uranium per year over a seven-year mine life. Processing will take place at a facility on the Dewey Burdock property.

As for Gas Hills costs, initial capex required is an estimated US$26 million ($26M), a low amount according to Rajeev. Cash operating costs are forecasted to be US$11.52 per pound and sustaining costs, US$9.07 per pound. All PEA figures are based on a $55 per pound U3O8 price.

The PEA reflects a US$102.6M after-tax net present value discounted at 8% and a 101% after-tax internal rate of return.

Now, Rajeev noted, Azarga will start the process of obtaining the necessary permits to proceed at Gas Hills while continuing to expand its overall uranium resources.

Rajeev also commented on uranium prices, noting they are up since the start of 2020, as much as 62% year over year, according to the Global X Uranium Exchange-Traded Fund, which tracks the share prices of uranium and nuclear-related companies. Rajeev did point out that uranium prices must be at least US$50 per pound over the long term for existing and new uranium projects to be economically viable.

Fundamental Research's outlook on uranium prices is positive for the long term, Rajeev affirmed, because of several factors. Among them are a projected supply deficit over time, the current global push toward clean energy, and the inclusion of initiatives to revive U.S. uranium production in President Joe Biden's US$2-trillion plan.

As for Azarga's market valuation, Rajeev wrote, it is lower than it should be. The after-tax NPV8% of Dewey Burdock and Gas Hills combined is US$250M, implying that Azarga's stock is trading at 26% of that amount. Compared to Fundamental's CA$1.11 fair share price on Azarga, its actual share price is about one-third of that, at CA$0.35.

Disclosures:

1) Doresa Banning compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Azarga Uranium Corp. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Comments and opinions expressed are those of the specific experts and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

4) The article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Azarga Uranium Corp., a company mentioned in this article.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monro and U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd transit the Taiwan Strait, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (U.S. Navy)

A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter steamed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, continuing monthly transits of warships through sensitive waters off Chinas mainland, the Navy said in a news release.

The transit by the USS Kidd marks the eighth time this year the Navy has sent a warship through those waters.

The Coast Guards Legend-class cutter Munro also made the transit, the Navy said. The ship, also called a national security cutter, is the Coast Guards largest type of patrol cutter.

The news release described the transit as routine and through international waters.

The ships' lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, the release said.

The passage follows a series of assault drills conducted last week by China in waters to the southeast and southwest of Taiwan.

Beijing held the drills in response to what it described as provocations by the United States and Taiwan, according to an Associated Press report last week.

Earlier this month, coast guard officers from the U.S. and Taiwan met to discuss increasing cooperation, the AP reported. The U.S. State Department also early this month approved the sale of 40 self-propelled howitzers to Taiwan.

The Communist Party of China considers Taiwan a renegade province that must ultimately be unified politically with the mainland.

Taiwan, a functioning democracy, has garnered greater international attention in the past year as Beijing has squelched Hong Kongs semi-autonomy by imposing a national security law last summer that has been used to silence and imprison dissenters.

Beijing had maintained for years that unification with Taiwan would be peaceful and mutual, but the turnabout in Hong Kong has led many international observers to ponder whether China is preparing for forcible reunification.

During a virtual appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Aug. 5, Indo-Pacific Command leader Adm. John Aquilino said the U.S. was capable of defending Taiwan.

We are here to continue to operate to ensure peace and prosperity through the region, and we have to be in a position to ensure that status quo remains as it applies to Taiwan, he said.
A Canadian coalition forces member walks through an evacuation control checkpoint during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, on August 24, 2021. (Victor A. Mancill/U.S. Marine Corps)

Gul Manalai had been stuck in the same loop for days: She came home from a night shift at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, where she works as a pediatrician, and turned on the television. Slept in fits. Woke up and turned on the television again.

CNN had become the soundtrack of her apartment, its chyrons bearing perpetual news of the evacuation in Afghanistan that Manalai had steadily come to realize might not include her family.

At first, two of her siblings - who worked for an American nonprofit organization and State Department contractor - told her they could be called to the Kabul airport at any moment to be flown out of the country. But any moment turned into any day, and now the days were running out.

She woke up on Wednesday and thought of calling her senators. She already had called the chief executive of her hospital. She even called her old English teacher: Did he know anybody? She was running out of ideas.

"As soon as [Biden] said they were going to pull out on the 31st, I knew it's over," Manalai said from her apartment in Towson, Md., CNN rolling in the background. "I so very hope somebody can help us, but even if I call a senator, I know so many people have been calling them. What will be one doctor's voice?"

The problem, she said, is the timing. "It's five days left," she said Wednesday. "Nobody can do anything in five days."

As the chaotic and deadly evacuation mission winds down in Kabul, Manalai is one of countless Afghans living in the United States who are left to come to terms with the reality that their family members are unlikely to see relief, at least not now.

They are among the thousands of Afghans hired by American-based employers but who did not work directly for the Afghanistan war effort and therefore do not hold Special Immigrant Visas. Instead, they are "Priority 2" applicants, a class created by the State Department this month for employees of U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations or other U.S.-funded programs who do not otherwise meet the criteria for SIVs.

The State Department said those Afghans would be welcome in the United States but would have to get out of Afghanistan on their own. Only once they were in a third country could they complete the application process.

But organizations helping Afghans file Priority 2 applications said that crossing the Afghanistan border was a largely impossible mission for those applicants. James Miervaldis, an Afghanistan war veteran and chairman of the Virginia-based nonprofit No One Left Behind, said the State Department did not fully think through the immense challenges that applicants would encounter.

"The program was announced three weeks ago. But it didn't have any structure to it. It was a policy with no implementation," said Miervaldis, who has been trying to help his own former interpreter's family and others flee the country under Priority 1 and 2 visas.

Jenny Marron, director of public policy and governmental affairs at InterAction, a U.S.-based coalition of international NGOs, said many NGOs initially hoped that Priority 2 referrals would be enough to help people enter the Kabul airport, at least before the terrorist attack Thursday. She said she does not doubt it may have worked for some - but not for the vast majority.

"And so now the question is, how do they get out of the country?" Marron said. "A lot of them don't have passports, don't have visas. And there is no answer."

For many, she said, "the only option is to figure out your own way out."

The State Department did not respond to questions from The Washington Post about the process or Manalai's sister's case, but an official said in a statement: "We've been working day in and day out to get as many P2 applicants to safety as we can, and we will continue to do so for as long as we can."

Dr. Gul Manalai, a pediatrician in Maryland, (University of Maryland Medical System)

Manalai, one of 12 siblings, said her family had been through this before.

She was 16 when her family fled the mujahideen for Pakistan in 1992, traveling for 16 hours in the bed of a truck to cross the border as refugees. At a mujahideen checkpoint, she and her sister stood on the bank of a river, and considered jumping in if the mujahideen tried to take them - more fearful, she said, of forced marriage than of death.

She was 20 when she returned to Afghanistan in 1996 - three months before the Taliban took over, and she had to flee the country again.

And she was 25 when, in 2001 - just months before 9/11 - her father returned to Kabul to visit her brothers who had remained there, and three days later he was arrested by the Taliban and imprisoned for three months. A religious scholar and former family law judge, her father was accused of preaching Christianity, because he possessed a Bible, she said.

"I'm kind of used to this whole craziness, ever since I'm born," she said. "We were born in war. We grew up in war. We ran into basements for the majority of our lives."

Now, she said, while she missed her father deeply sincehis death last year, she was happy he was not alive to witness the Taliban's return to power.

She came to the United States on a student visa in 2009 to further her education as a doctor.Three brothers came, too: one on a student visa and later asylum after the Taliban threatened his family in Afghanistan; one for his master's degree; and another on a Special Immigrant Visa in 2015, having worked as an engineer for a company contracted with the U.S. military.

But most of her other siblings couldn't bring themselves to leave Afghanistan - including those who ultimately found work with the Americans, the two for whom she was most worried. She said her sister worked as an auditor for a contractor with the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, in addition to running her own private gynaecology clinic in the evening. Her brother, an epidemiologist and physician, had worked for years until recently with a Maryland-based nonprofit specializing in women's health.

"He did not want to get out of the country all these years," Manalai said of her brother. "He was like, 'If we do not rebuild the country, who will?' "

The Post is not disclosing Manalai's siblings names at her request and is not naming her brother's employer at the employer's request. The employer cited a risk to the safety of Manalai's brother and other employees while the organization is still working to get them out of the country. A spokeswoman for Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said that the Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees is "providing whatever assistance and resources we can" for the nonprofit.

While Manalai said she appreciated all the efforts, by Wednesday afternoon, hope had fizzled, she said.

In the days after the fall of Kabul, her sister had been so certain that she and her family would be evacuated that she had started giving away her belongings. Now, the assurances from her employer turned to doubts, and in an email just before 1 p.m., her sister told her that after being "so sure we will be evacuated ... at the end they said they can't do anything."

Just two hours later came another email from her brother, this one more succinct. "It's over," he wrote.

On Thursday came the terrorist attack, killing 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans. The images Manalai watched on CNN would later haunt her as she tried and failed to sleep.

She decided to call her senators' offices that day. And on Friday, she filled out a form provided to her by her congressman, Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., even as she told herself that now there were just three days left.
A U.S. drone strike hit back against the Islamic State group in Afghanistan Saturday, less than 48 hours after a deadly terrorist bombing killed 13 American service members and dozens of civilians at the Kabul airport.

The over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation in eastern Nangarhar province targeted a planner with the regional offshoot known as ISIS-Khorasan province, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said.

The terrorist group claimed responsibility for the complex attack at the airport Thursday that left some 170 civilians dead and scores more wounded.

Eleven Marines, a Navy corpsman and a soldier with the Armys 1st Special Forces Command were also killed, and at least 18 U.S. troops were wounded.

The bombing, which targeted crowds hopeful for evacuation as part of a U.S.-led airlift, was among the deadliest single events for U.S. forces in the 20-year war.

Saturdays strike was conducted using an unmanned aerial vehicle in Nangarhar province, according to Urban.

Initial indications are that we killed the target, he said. We know of no civilian casualties.

It was unclear whether the individual killed was directly involved with the airport bombing.

The strike appeared to fulfill a pledge President Joe Biden made to go after those responsible for the attack.

We will not forgive, we will not forget, the president said in an address from the East Room of the White House Thursday. We will hunt you down and make you pay.

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor, Joint Staff Operations, speaks about the situation in Afghanistan during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Paratroopers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division conduct security operations as they continue to help facilitate the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Aug 25, 2021. (Jillian G. Hix/U.S. Army )

The State Department has told Americans at the Kabul airport gates to leave the area immediately, citing an unspecified security threat there early Saturday.

U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid all airport gates at this time, the State Department said in a security alert email.

The warning comes a little over a day after a bombing at the airports Abbey Gate claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans. The Islamic State groups local affiliate, known as ISIS-Khorasan province, claimed responsibility for that attack.

U.S. officials had cited potential ISIS-K threats against the airport and Americans earlier in the week.

More attacks were expected, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said in the wake of Thursdays bloody bomb blast at the airport.

We expect those attacks to continue  and were doing everything we can to be prepared for this attack, he said.
Protesters take cover next to tires on fire near the fence of Gaza Strip border with Israel during a protest east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Aug. 25, 2021. (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Hundreds of Hamas-backed activists on Saturday launched what they said was the first in a series of nighttime protests along the Israeli border, throwing explosives toward Israeli forces who responded with live fire.

Organizers said the gatherings, which are to continue throughout the week, were meant to step up pressure on Israel to ease a crippling economic blockade on the Gaza Strip.

"The occupation will not enjoy calm unless the siege on our beloved land is lifted," said Abu Omar, a spokesman for the protesters.

Israel and Egypt have maintained the blockade since Hamas, a group sworn to Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won Palestinian elections.

The blockade, which restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, has ravaged the territory's economy. Israel has tightened the closure since an 11-day war in May, demanding the return of the remains of two dead soldiers and freedom for two Israeli civilians believed to be in Hamas captivity.

Amateur footage and photos from inside Gaza showed hundreds of Palestinians protesters engaged in Saturday's gathering. Some appeared to be throwing explosives and chanting in celebrations as blasts sounded.

The Israeli military said troops responded to the explosives by firing live rounds toward the protesters. It said there were no injuries on the Israeli side.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that five protesters were injured by Israeli fire.

Earlier Saturday, Gaza health officials said a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died from head wounds after being shot during a similar demonstration a week earlier.

Another Palestinian man, identified as a member of Hamas' military wing, was also killed in that protest, while an Israeli soldier was shot in the head from point-blank range by a protester. The soldier remains in critical condition.

Hamas-linked operatives also launched a number of incendiary balloons from Gaza Saturday afternoon, sparking two fires in southern Israel, according to the Israeli fire service.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought four wars and numerous skirmishes since 2007. Israel says the closure is necessary to prevent Hamas from gathering arms while critics say the blockade amounts to collective punishment.

Egypt has been trying to mediate a longer-term cease-fire that would ease the blockade and appeared to be making progress last week when it pressured Hamas to restrain a border protest on Wednesday.

The following day, Israel said it was easing some of the commercial restrictions on Gaza, allowing vehicles, goods and equipment for rebuilding projects to enter the Palestinian enclave. Israel said the easing could expand further if things remain quiet.

The Israeli government reached an agreement with Qatar on Aug. 19 allowing the Gulf country to resume aid payments to families in Gaza, a move aimed at reducing tensions with Hamas. Israel suspended aid payments in May, saying the move was necessary to ensure Hamas did not benefit from cash injections.

But Saturday night's protest indicated violence could soon escalate again.

At least 260 Palestinians were killed during May's Gaza-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.
U.S. Marines patrol through a poppy field on their way to Patrol Base Mohmon in the Lui Tal district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, on April 17, 2012. (Ismael E. Ortega/U.S. Marine Corps)

The last time the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the poppy fields flourished. In 1999, three years after the group established its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the country's total production of raw opium was estimated to have hit nearly 4,600 metric tons - more than double the amount for the year before.

Almost a quarter century later, Afghanistan continues to be the world's top opium producer. But since the Taliban assumed power in Kabul earlier this month, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has repeatedly told international media the Taliban would not allow the production of opium or other narcotics within its state.

"Afghanistan will not be a country of cultivation of opium anymore," Mujahid said during a news conference on Aug. 17, two days after the group seized the Afghan capital.

That may not be an easy task. Afghanistan accounted for 85% of the opium produced worldwide last year, far outdoing rival producers such as Myanmar and Mexico, according to United Nations data. The country has also been accused of playing a major role in the global supply of cannabis and methamphetamines.

Despite its austere version of Islamic theology and strict enforcement of religious rules, the Taliban has long had a symbiotic relationship with the trade in opium, which can be processed chemically to produce narcotics such as heroin. In the 1990s, the group allowed the opium trade even as it banned hashish and cigarettes as haram (forbidden) for Muslims.

The group's religious justification? Heroin largely effected non-Muslims outside of Afghanistan.

It was a "gymnastic" interpretation of Islamic law, said Haroun Rahimi, a legal scholar at the American University of Afghanistan. But the group needed the support of smugglers and farmers, as well as funding, which it could get by taxing opium production.

The Taliban banned opium production in 2000 under Western pressure. However, after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, production flourished again in Taliban-held areas. Despite U.S.-backed eradication efforts estimated to cost $9 billion, production peaked at an estimated 9,000 tons in 2017.

Today, the Taliban is facing a new landscape. It is no longer the isolated, inward-looking government that ruled between 1996 and 2001, nor the mostly rural insurgency that fought against the U.S.-backed Afghan government until its victory this month. It is now the de facto leader of a desperately poor nation recovering from decades of war, with significant levels of opioid addiction among its own citizens.

Robert Crews, an expert on Afghanistan at Stanford University, said the Taliban proclamation on opium was probably a "diplomatic overture."

"It is aimed at demonstrating they will form a 'responsible' government, one that adheres to international legal norms," Crews said.

- - -

The opium poppy - Papaver somniferum - is hardy. It can grow in warm and dry climates, requiring only a little irrigation. Resin from the plant can be refined into morphine, which can then be processed further into heroin; both are easily transportable, making opium an attractive crop in a country with weak infrastructure.

There is evidence of opium production in Afghanistan since at least the 18th century, scholars have said. But the industry only began to thrive after 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded, setting off a protracted period of conflict in the country that has lasted almost unbroken until the present.

Before the Taliban effectively seized power in 1996, around 59% of global opium production was estimated by the United Nations to be from the country. But production rose quickly under the Taliban's auspices, drawing international criticism.

Taliban founder Mohammad Omar banned the cultivation and trade of opium in July 2000 and received a $43 million grant in U.S. counternarcotics funding. A U.N. report released the following year suggested the policy was showing signs of success.

But the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan a year later upended that. As more rural areas of Afghanistan fell out of government control, poppy cultivation soared. By 2004, it had surpassed the peak of the first Taliban era and would soon go on to double it. Efforts to end the industry, backed by the United States, faltered.

In classified interviews published by The Washington Post as the Afghanistan Papers, officials admitted it wasn't just the Taliban enabling the trade.

"The biggest problem was corruption in Afghanistan, and drugs was part of it. You couldn't deal with one without dealing with the other," Douglas Wankel, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who led a federal counternarcotics task force in Kabul, told government interviewers.

- - -

It's difficult to say to what extent the opium trade has contributed to the Taliban's victory. Some experts argue that the funds produced by the trade, as well as Taliban control over it, are overstated. As the drugs have been largely exported abroad, the greatest profits have been made by criminal cartels outside of Afghanistan.

One study released earlier this year that estimated Taliban revenue in the opium-producing province of Nimruz found the group raised far more money there by taxing legal sectors such as transit goods and fuel than drugs - with $40.9 million in taxes levied on the former and $5.1 million on the latter in 2020.

In a sign of the shifting international drug market, the majority of revenue from the drug industry in the province was estimated to come from the production of methamphetamines, rather than opium, according to the Overseas Development Institute, the British think tank that produced the study.

David Mansfield, a British expert on Afghanistan's informal economy and one of the authors of the report, said his research showed the limits of "control" in Afghanistan. "Everything is negotiated in Afghanistan because political and military power is diffuse, even with the Taliban," he said.

Ibraheem Bahiss, an expert on Afghanistan with the International Crisis Group, said the Taliban's recent statements showed it was effectively "using narcotic eradication as a bargaining chip in return for international aid."

While the group was estimated to have made $39.9 million in revenue from taxes on the opium trade in 2018, the U.S. government has previously supplied the Afghan government with around $500 million in civilian aid each year.

Already blocked by the U.S. treasury from accessing some Afghan government funds, the Taliban is likely to need all the money it can get. So far, there has been no financial backing from the United States or other world powers. But cracking down on the opium trade would probably give the Taliban leverage with its neighbors such as Iran and Russia, the next stops on the drug route, or Europe and Canada, where it often ends up in its final form as heroin. (Most heroin in the United States comes from Mexico.)

For a group that has based much of its political legitimacy on the strict enforcement of religious law, it would also be more consistent. "Fundamentally, anything that harms the human body is haram [in Islamic law]. If something is prohibited, its consumption, dealing and trade are always prohibited," Rahimi said.

Opioid addiction has taken a toll on Afghan society. One 2015 survey concluded that there were between 2.9 million and 3.6 million drug users in Afghanistan, with opioids being the drug of choice - an exceptionally high level of per capita drug usage.

Just as the Afghan government struggled with these problems, the Taliban may now too. "In many communities, opium cultivation is crucial to survival," Crews said, adding that there could be confrontations with Afghan growers across the country who are facing economic problems because of drought and the coronavirus.

"They are harsh. They can use force," Rahimi said, of the Taliban. "But there is a limit to how much force they can use. . . . It'd be like using force against their major base of support."
Security forces are deployed in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. (Khalid Mohammed/AP)

Iraq hosts regional meeting aimed at easing Mideast tensions

BAGHDAD  Iraq hosts a regional conference Saturday aimed at easing tensions in the Middle East and emphasizing the Arab country's new role as mediator.

Among the invitees are archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry has often played out in Iraq and other countries, including Yemen and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia has said it would be represented by its foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan. It was not clear what kind of representation Iran would have at the conference.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordan's King Abdullah were expected to participate, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in Baghdad early Sunday. France is co-organizing the meeting, which is expected to discuss a regional water crisis, the war in Yemen and a severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon that has brought the country to the point of collapse.

Sunday's meeting is a chance for Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to showcase his recent efforts to portray Iraq as a neutral mediator in the region's crises and re-engage with the world after decades of conflict.

Earlier this year, the country hosted several rounds of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, with mid-level officials discussing issues related to Yemen and Lebanon, according to Iraqi officials. The talks signaled a possible de-escalation following years of animosity that often spilled into neighboring countries and at least one still-raging war.

The talks, while significant, fell short of a breakthrough in relations given the deep strains, historic rivalry and continued sporadic attacks on Saudi oil targets by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen. There has been talk, however, of the potential for Saudi Arabia to reopen its embassy in Tehran, which was ransacked and shuttered following outrage over the execution of a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric in early 2016.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates have called for any nuclear agreement between world powers and Iran to also address its ballistic missile program and support for militias.

Saudi Arabia has sought talks with Iran as the kingdom tries to end its years-long war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Tehran, meanwhile, appears to have calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.

For Iraq, hosting the talks is seen as a significant step. After decades of conflict, the country is seeking to reclaim a leadership role and status in the Arab world with a centrist policy and a determination among the country's top leaders to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States and its regional allies.

The Shiite-majority country lies on the fault line between Shiite Iran and the mostly Sunni Arab world, led by powerhouse Saudi Arabia, and has long been a theater in which Saudi-Iran rivalry for regional supremacy played out.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, right, and Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor, left, during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP)

WASHINGTON  A U.S. drone killed two Islamic State terrorists and injured a third in an airstrike less than two days after an attack at the Kabul airport killed 13 American troops, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, the Joint Staffs deputy director for regional operations, said Saturday.

The drone strike in the Nangarhar province hit high-profile ISIS targets that worked as planners and facilitators for the terrorist groups Afghanistan branch known as ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, Taylor said. A sole suicide bomber and an unknown number of gunmen on Thursday attacked a gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport killing the U.S. troops and wounding 20 other service members.

The ISIS-K attack killed 11 Marines, a sailor, a soldier and a large number of Afghan civilians when a terrorist detonated an explosive vest near the airports Abbey Gate followed by direct [gun]fire from an enemy position, Taylor had said. The gate is one of three entrances to the airport where large crowds of people had been gathered to vie for evacuation flights.

The strike was an example of over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities that Pentagon officials for months have said the U.S. will maintain in the region after the military drawdown from Afghanistan ends Tuesday, according to Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

The airstrike was conducted in response to the airport attack, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed Saturday.

We have the ability to conduct over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities  we've talked about that  this certainly fits in that mold, he said. But it's not a coincidence that it happened just a couple of days after we lost 13 brave service members.

In the hours after the bombing Thursday, President Joe Biden pledged vengeance against the perpetrators of the attack.

To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay, he said. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.

The troops killed and injured were conducting security checks on Afghan evacuees attempting to enter the airport when the attack happened. U.S. and coalition forces have been evacuating tens of thousands of Americans and Afghans since the Taliban took control of the country two weeks ago.

Those evacuations continued despite the deadly attack, with the U.S. evacuating about 4,000 people on 27 C-17 and five C-130 transport aircraft on Friday, Taylor said. Additionally, 34 coalition aircraft carried 2,800 evacuees out of Kabul.

In total, U.S. and coalition forces as of Saturday had evacuated more than 117,000 people, about 5,400 of whom are Americans, Taylor said.

Though the U.S. militarys withdrawal from the airport has begun, Taylor said the evacuations will carry on until Tuesday.

We continue to evacuate American citizens and vulnerable Afghans out of Kabul, he said. In fact, there are approximately 1,400 individuals at the Kabul airport who have been screened and [readied] for flights (Saturday).

Taylor also said the U.S. could conduct more airstrikes as the threat in the region remains in the final days of the withdrawal and evacuation missions there. U.S. forces began moving out more equipment Saturday, Kirby said.

Without specifying any future plans, I will say that we will continue to have the ability to defend ourselves and to leverage over-the-horizon capability to conduct counterterrorism operations as needed, Taylor said.
Family members visit wounded patients who have been admitted into Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, following explosions at the airport in Kabul. (Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

KABUL, Afghanistan (Tribune News Service)  The organization believed to be responsible for Thursdays deadly bombing outside the airport in Kabul is a longtime sworn enemy of the United States and the Taliban.

Known as ISIS-K or IS-K, it is the local affiliate of Islamic State, the jihadist group that once ruled large swaths of northern Syria and Iraq.

The K stands for Khorasan, a historic region in current-day Iran, Afghanistan and neighboring parts of southwest Asia that figures prominently in some jihadist doctrine.

The group  which emerged around 2014, as Islamic State was becoming a brand name in terror  never controlled much territory in Afghanistan, specializing instead in suicide bombings, ambushes and other guerrilla-style assaults.

Even after losing significant battles against U.S. forces and the Taliban, the group maintained enough of a network to stage heinous, high-profile attacks.

Thursdays twin bombings, in which dozens of people were killed, including 13 U.S. service members, was its first major strike since the Taliban seized control of Kabul this month.

The attacks outside the airport  where crowds of Afghans and foreign nationals hoped to board evacuation flights before next Tuesdays deadline for the U.S. military withdrawal  undermined the Talibans attempts to consolidate its newfound power and portray itself as a force of stability after decades of war.

This is an embarrassment for the Taliban, said Seth Jones, a terrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. ISIS-K managed to thumb its nose at the Taliban, getting suicide bombers through its lines, and target both the United States and its Afghan supporters at the airport.

The think tank has documented scores of attacks against civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan and at least 250 clashes with Afghan, Pakistani and U.S. security forces. ISIS-K has also regularly battled with Taliban forces.

In a country where militant factions routinely used roadside bombings and shooting rampages against civilians, ISIS-K emerged as the harshest of them all.

It is thought to be behind an attack last year on a maternity ward, where gunmen in suicide vests mowed down pregnant women before blowing themselves up. That same day, the group claimed an attack on a funeral procession that killed 32 people.

The extremists seemed to revel in complex operations designed to sow maximum fear. This year, on May 8, as students at a girls school were leaving the building for the day, a car bomb detonated. That was followed by two more blasts. The attack killed at least 90 people and injured an additional 240, most of the victims girls between 11 and 15 years old.

Experts said such terror is likely to continue long after the United States completes its military withdrawal.

I expect a bloodletting, said Jason Blazakis, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank. I expect that ISIS will continue to ramp up pressure against the Taliban to embarrass it, to show that it is not effective in governing the people of Afghanistan.  ISIS is going to try to sow chaos and cause instability with an eye to uprooting the Taliban over time. What happened Thursday is the first strike in this effort.

Thomas Joscelyn, a terrorism expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank in Washington, said that in recent weeks prison breaks orchestrated by the Taliban as it seized control of the country have freed hundreds of ISIS-K members, likely bolstering its ranks.

It is not surprising they have the network in place to do this, he said of Thursdays attacks.

The Taliban and ISIS-K are hardline Sunni Muslim groups. But ISIS-K has portrayed itself as the true standard-bearer of jihad, denouncing the Taliban for negotiating with Washington.

Unlike the Taliban, which has focused on a parochial jihad  expelling foreign invaders from the Islamic Emirate, as it calls Afghanistan  ISIS-K maintains a dedication to global jihad and international attacks, including on western and other infidels.

Experts said the first members of ISIS-K were defectors from al-Qaida and the Afghan and Pakistani incarnations of the Taliban. Personal, factional and ideological differences figured in the defections, along with the lure of then-ascendant Islamic State and objections to the Talibans cooperation with al- Qaida.

Individuals wanted to be part of the ISIS brand, said Blazakis, who previously worked on counterterrorism issues at the State Department. The objective was a global caliphate.

Islamic State has been driven out of it once enormous caliphate in Syria and Iraq. But there are remnants of the group in both countries, and the Islamic State brand, although diminished, still has a considerable following among radical jihadists.

Its global agenda makes it especially problematic for Western security officials.

Though IS-K has yet to conduct attacks against the U.S. homeland, the group represents an enduring threat to U.S. and allied interest in South and Central Asia, according to a 2018 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies report stated.

The attack Thursday was one of the worst single-day losses for the U.S. military since it launched the war in Afghanistan almost 20 years ago and ended the Talibans first stint in power.

Dead civilians are still being counted. Outside the airport Thursday, bodies were strewn on a carpet of crumpled plastic bottles, discarded food wrappers and clothes from backpacks and suitcases, many of them streaked with blood, like the gray water in an adjacent sewage canal.

Yards away, at the entrance to the processing area near the airports Abbey gate, a British paratrooper stared at a group of Afghan families crouched nearby.

Other paratroopers were arrayed behind him, their silence punctuated by the occasional burst of gunfire and the brilliant red of tracer rounds.

___

Bulos reported from Kabul and McDonnell from Mexico City. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this report.

2021 Los Angeles Times.

Visit at latimes.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A Marine assigned to the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response- Central Command carries a child during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 25, 2021. (Isaiah Campbell/U.S. Marine Corps)

(Tribune News Service)  Several hundred American citizens in Afghanistan still havent decided whether they want to leave despite an ongoing aggressive outreach campaign and the fast-approaching withdrawal deadline for US forces of August 31, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Friday.

Price told reporters that since August 14  the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban  at least 5,100 American citizens have been evacuated, including 300 in the previous 24 hours.

There are approximately 500 American citizens we are currently working with who want to leave and with whom we are communicating directly to facilitate their evacuations, Price said. We are communicating with several hundred American citizens who have not yet determined whether they want to leave for various reasons.

Sher Jan Ahmadzai, director of Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, said some U.S. citizens of Afghan descent may stay behind because they are politically aligned with the Taliban and do not feel threatened.

For others, he said, family ties cant be broken. Ahmadzai said an acquaintance with legal U.S. status, but not citizenship, had to make a horrific choice  returning to Afghanistan just days before the governments collapse so he could be with his wife, children and parents.

Following the bomb attack Thursday that killed 13 US service members and as many as 170 Afghans outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, State Department personnel reached out once more to Americans who US officials believe may want to leave, Price said.

Among those who are undecided, many are changing their minds multiple times a day.

When we say that we were in regular contact, we mean regular contact multiple times a day, sometimes hearing one answer, other times hearing another as the remaining Americans make these decisions, Price said.

The number who dont want to leave because they may have family in the country is relatively small, he added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday that the department was still trying to reach 1,000 potential citizens to ascertain their status. Some may no longer be in the country. Some may have claimed to be Americans but turn out not to be. Some may choose to stay, Blinken said.

He said Americans arent required to tell the US Embassy they are there  or that they are leaving. Its also up to them if they want to stay. Blinken said that given the security situation, the State Department has cautioned against traveling to Afghanistan for many years. And since March, the department has sent Americans in Afghanistan 19 separate messages encouraging and then urging them to leave the country.

We even made clear that we would help pay for their repatriation, and weve provided multiple communication channels for Americans to contact us if theyre in Afghanistan and want help in leaving, Blinken said.

He said many of those who have previously chosen to stay are dual citizens who consider Afghanistan their home, who have lived there for an extended period of time or who want to stay with extended family there. Blinken said during the brief Wednesday that some had indicated they were still deciding whether to stay based on the situation on the ground that evolves daily  in fact, that evolves hourly.

Some are understandably very scared, he said. Each has a set of personal priorities and considerations that they alone can weigh. They may even change their mind from one day to the next, as has happened and will likely continue to happen.

Mustafa Babak, a board member with the Afghan-American Foundation and a diaspora researcher, said his homeland is extremely dangerous for any U.S. citizens who remain.

The situation is so uncertain and volatile, said Babak, adding that his brother escaped on an evacuation flight just an hour before Thursdays bomb attack. I think anyone caught with a U.S. passport would face a lot of risks.

Babak said the danger is not just from Taliban, but from the rival ISIS-K extremist group. Americans of Afghani lineage might be able to go undetected, he noted, but for others there is almost no way for them to blend in.

Haroon Azar, a senior fellow at UCLAs Burkle Center for International Relations, agreed. If it were my friends or family, I wouldnt recommend it, he said. There are too many unknown variables.

Azar said those deciding to stay may feel they have little choice, compelled by dedication to family or duty to a profession such as journalism or missionary work.

After the bombing Thursday, CNBC reported that many, if not most of about 660 US citizens contacted in recent days were nearly or already out of the country but dozens more didnt want to leave for a range of reasons.

Vicki Aken, an American who runs the International Rescue Committees office in Kabul, told NPR that she is staying in Afghanistan to support the organizations staff, 99% of whom are Afghans.

Theyre feeling like the world has abandoned them and that after August 31, no one will care, she said. And I know thats not true. Im an American myself. I know my people care.

The IRC began working in Kabul in 1988 and continued its work there when the Taliban governed Afghanistan before the US invasion in 2001. The organization works with villages across the country on development projects, providing safe places to learn in rural areas and helping displaced families find clean water, and other necessities.

On Thursday, the organization said it feared an increase of violence against women and girls, who comprised 46% of civilian casualties in the past year.

IRC did not immediately return a message Friday inquiring about American staff like Aken staying in Afghanistan. Aken told NPR she was contacted by the American embassy and offered a chance to evacuate but she declined.

Price, the State Department spokesman, said US officials havent made any decisions yet about retaining a diplomatic presence in the country after the withdrawal deadline Tuesday but said it is something we are actively discussing.

___

(c)2021 USA Today

Visit USA Today at www.usatoday.com

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President Biden bows his head as a question is asked in the East Room at the White House on Aug. 26, 2021. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post )

"We went there for two reasons, George. Two reasons. One, to get Bin Laden, and two, to wipe out as best we could, and we did, the al-Qaida in Afghanistan. We did it. Then what happened? Began to morph into the notion that, instead of having a counterterrorism capability to have small forces there in - or in the region to be able to take on al-Qaida if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation-building. In nation-building. That never made any sense to me."

- President Joe Biden, interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Aug. 18

- - -

There's a lot to unpack in this comment by Biden during his ABC News interview about the crisis in Afghanistan (some of which we have fact-checked previously). The president is summarizing two decades of U.S. policy in a few sentences, and it's unclear exactly what time period he is referring to when he says the policy "began to morph."

But the phrase that really jumped out at us is Biden's assertion that nation-building "never made any sense to me."

The Fact Checker was The Post's diplomatic correspondent for almost a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks. Our recollection was that the Bush administration initially wanted to have only a light footprint in Afghanistan after the Taliban was toppled and that members of Congress, including Biden, pushed officials to invest more in reconstruction and democracy-building. So is Biden reinventing history?

With the passage of time, memories fade and become distorted. So we've reviewed news clips and congressional debates and spoken to former Bush administration officials and other experts in an effort to get the history correct.

- - -

It's certainly easy to find statements made by Biden after the invasion of Afghanistan in which he seemed to extol the virtues of nation-building. Here's a sampling.

Oct. 8, 2001, interview on CBS News. Bryant Gumbel asked Biden: "Should we be in the business of nation-building?" Biden responded: "Absolutely, along with the rest of the world." He argued that the world made a mistake when it ignored the country after the Russian withdrawal, giving the Taliban an opportunity to take power.

June 26, 2002, describing a conversation he had with a White House aide after meeting with President George W. Bush: "[The aide asked] 'You are not going to mention nation-building, are you?' I said, 'You mean what the President has spoken to me about for the last hour and 45 minutes?' I said, 'No, I won't mention that.' There is an incredible hang-up on this notion about 'nation-building,' just the use of the phrase, in my experience."

Feb. 12, 2003, at a Senate hearing: "In some parts of this administration, 'nation-building' is a dirty phrase. But the alternative to nation-building is chaos - a chaos that churns out bloodthirsty warlords, drug-traffickers and terrorists. We've seen it happen in Afghanistan before - and we're watching it happen in Afghanistan today."

Oct. 16, 2003, at a Senate hearing: "The fact of the matter is, we've missed an opportunity to do what many of us on this committee, including the senator about to sit down, have been pleading be done from the beginning. But because there has been this overwhelming reluctance on the part of some in the administration to get involved in genuine, quote, 'nation-building,' we essentially elected a mayor of Kabul and turned the rest over to the warlords, and we're paying a price for it now."

Oct, 4, 2004, in a Wall Street Journal editorial: "We also have to take seriously nation-building. This administration came to office disdaining the concept, only to be confronted with the two biggest nation-building challenges since World War II. Thus far, it merits a failing grade in both Afghanistan and Iraq."

But Carter Malkasian, who served for two years in Afghanistan and who just published the excellent "The American War in Afghanistan: A History," says that part of the problem in evaluating this statement is that "it comes down to what you define as nation-building." Is it reconstruction and building of state institutions by diplomats - or when the military gets involved?

"I don't think Biden is really reinventing history," he said. "I think the history can be interpreted in different ways depending on how we look at what the Bush administration said."

Even then, Malkasian said the historical record is still pretty murky about the Bush administration's policy after the invasion, as top officials never appeared to settle on a strategy.

"If there is a single document in which they say 'these are our goals,' I have not found it," he said. "Maybe it is still classified."

In theory, the administration's policy was that because failed states harbored terrorists, the United States needed to strengthen state capacity (and put them in the fight) to keep terrorists at bay. But it was not clearly articulated and not, at first, backed by substantial aid.

In his book, Malkasian shows the push and pull of the administration's policies. In April 2002, Bush appeared to call for a "Marshall Plan" for Afghanistan, but then never followed through. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld forbade commanders from pursuing nation-building and American diplomats were thwarted in pursuing policies to build up Afghan institutions.

In August 2002, in a front-page article in The Washington Post, this reporter wrote: "Outside experts say, and some administration officials conceded privately, that U.S. policy is hamstrung by President Bush's aversion to broad-based 'nation-building' and his refusal to expand the role of the international peacekeeping force outside Kabul. The resulting policy - high on the rhetoric of commitment and low on the level of engagement - amounts to a calculated gamble that things will work out."

Members of Congress, led by then-Reps. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and then-Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Biden, tried to fill the void by pressing the Bush administration to think bigger and to bolster the funds earmarked for reconstruction and security. They pushed through Congress the Afghanistan Freedom Support Act of 2002, which called for funding to address the humanitarian crisis, limit the production of narcotics, spur the creation of a "broad-based, multiethnic, gender-sensitive, and fully representative government," and foster the participation of civil society.

After the invasion of Iraq, amid criticism that Afghanistan had been forgotten by the administration, Bush shifted course in July 2003 and embraced a plan for a $1 billion aid package for Afghanistan, tripling the previous commitment. The $1 billion number was a figure Biden had proposed a year earlier.

"Reconstruction efforts were important to achieving our ultimate goal, which was to empower Afghans and assist them in acquiring the capability to help themselves," wrote then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in her 2011 memoir, "No Higher Honor." "But the truth is, it was often more construction than reconstruction in Afghanistan," as the country had been poorly developed before the U.S. invasion.

As part of Bush's "light footprint," the administration tried to subcontract state-building and peacekeeping to European allies and United Nations, while the United States focused on counterterrorism. That shifted after 2006, when the Taliban insurgency required the United States to add even more troops as part of a counterinsurgency strategy that included building up a central government that was still not capable of providing basic services.

Up until 2008, Biden kept complaining Bush was not taking reconstruction seriously enough. "The president promised a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan. It has been nothing remotely approaching that," he said at a 2008 Senate hearing. "Building clinics and hospitals and roads on both sides of that border is relatively cheap, in light of what we're spending in other areas now, particularly Iraq, and has a gigantic potential payoff." Similarly, at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in 2008, Biden complained: "We have spent on Afghanistan's reconstruction in six years what we spend every three weeks - every three weeks - on our military operations in Iraq."

But Biden became a more vocal skeptic when President Barack Obama doubled down on Bush's counterinsurgency policy at the beginning of his term. Obama was determined to win the "good war" of Afghanistan, in contrast to the "bad war" of Iraq he had opposed. By that point, Biden, then the vice president, famously became the in-house skeptic.

"I argued strenuously against sending tens of thousands of troops to Afghanistan," Biden recalled in a 2020 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "I went there, I went all over the country. I concluded you could never unify that country. Nation building was never our responsibility there. Dealing with a small footprint of Special Forces to make sure we did not allow another al-Qaida operation to rise up and attack America again was what we should be doing."

Complicating matters, even though Bush had campaigned in 2000 as opposing nation-building by the military and that initially appeared to be his policy as president, he later indicated the Sept. 11 attacks had led him to shift course.

"After 9/11, I changed my mind: Afghanistan was the ultimate nation building mission," he wrote in his 2010 memoir, "Decision Points." "We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better. We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society," because "a democratic Afghanistan would be a hopeful alternative to the vision of the extremists."

It's not clear when Bush embraced nation-building. Two weeks after the attacks, he had insisted: "We're not into nation-building. We're into justice." His spokespeople repeatedly reiterated that message. But perhaps Bush is referring to the counterinsurgency strategy in the later years of his presidency.

Richard Haass was head of policy planning at the State Department at the start of the Bush administration and is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The U.S. did very little of anything in Afghanistan during the first Bush term once the Taliban were ousted and the shura convened" that led to creation of the Afghan government, he said. "The problem is we did too little nation-building when we had a window early on (say 2002-3) and then switched to too much war-fighting in late Bush and then Obama."

This brings us back to Biden's comment. After the toppling of the Taliban, he certainly advocated reconstruction aid and funds to help promote democracy, often referring to that as "nation-building." But Jonah Blank, Biden's chief aide on Afghanistan at the time, argues that Biden always viewed that aid through a narrow prism.

"He was never in the mode of 'We can't do any reconstruction, or help the Afghans rebuild,' " Blank said. "His position was always: 'Yes, we've got to help them rebuild - it's both a moral and strategic need. But that's not our primary mission, and shouldn't become our primary mission.' "

Blank recalls that Biden used this line in a speech in January 2002: "We're not talking about turning Kandahar into Paris."

The White House declined to comment.

- - -

Biden's language is sloppy here. Is he referring to nation-building as Bush once did, meaning it was being done by the military? Or is he referring to simply reconstruction and development aid - evoking the phrase when he would knock Bush for not embracing a big aid package?

If Biden was referring to a military role, he's correct that the policy did shift in 2006 - and it was policy that he was deeply skeptical of as Obama's vice president.

But the problem is that he routinely used the phrase "nation-building" to mean something else - and it was something he advocated. So it's disconcerting to hear him claim that nation-building "never made any sense to me." At the very least, there is a period of overlap, between 2006 and 2008, when Biden continued to criticize Bush for not spending enough on reconstruction even as a counterinsurgency strategy was embraced.

It's almost as if Biden and Bush traded positions, with Bush embracing the nation-building he once scorned and Biden rejecting a concept he once touted. It's certainly a muddle. But the distinction in Biden's positions over the years are not clear, so he earns Two Pinocchios.
In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, Finnish coalition forces assist evacuees for onward processing during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. (Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps)

WASHINGTON  As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year's midterm elections.

Little more than a week ago, as the Taliban's stunning takeover of Afghanistan still was snapping into focus, former President Donald Trump issued a statement saying "civilians and others who have been good to our Country ... should be allowed to seek refuge." But in more recent days, he has turned to warning of the alleged dangers posed by those desperately trying to flee their country before an end-of-month deadline.

"How many terrorists will Joe Biden bring to America?" he asked.

As Republicans level blistering criticism at Biden during his first major foreign policy crisis, some are turning to the nativist, anti-immigrant rhetoric perfected by Trump during his four years in office. It's causing dismay among others in the party who think the U.S. should look out for those who helped the Americans over the last two decades.

"I think these false narratives that these are a bunch of terrorists are just  they're completely baseless in reality," said Olivia Troye, a former White House homeland security adviser who currently serves as director of the Republican Accountability Project. "There's no basis for this at all in terms of the intelligence and national security world."

Neil Newhouse, a veteran Republican pollster, said the rhetoric reflects "a general, overall increase" in concern in the country over the risk of terrorist threats after Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban  not just in the short term from those who may not have been properly vetted, but a year or two down the road.

"There's just a sense that we are less safe as a country as a result of this," he said.

The Biden administration has stressed that every person cleared to come to the U.S. is being thoroughly vetted by officials working around the clock. But the refugees have become an emerging flash point, with Trump and his followers loudly demanding that Americans be prioritized for evacuation and warning of the potential dangers posed by Afghans being rescued in one of the world's largest-ever civilian airlift operations.

That talk intensified Thursday after a suicide bombing ripped through the crowd at the Kabul airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and well over 150 Afghans.

"How many American military personnel have to die to evacuate unvetted refugees?" tweeted Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont. "Get American citizens out and bring our troops home."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday toured the Dona Ana Range complex at Fort Bliss, where many refugees will be housed, and later tweeted the U.S. "should rescue Afghans who've assisted the US military, but they should go to a neutral & safe third country."

"They should NOT come to US w/o a FULL security vetting," he said.

That followed a call Wednesday by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee, for the administration to brief lawmakers on their efforts to vet Afghan refugees and prevent terrorists from entering the country.

"In the chaotic situation left in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, we are particularly concerned that terrorists and others who wish to harm the United States may seek to infiltrate the country disguised as those who provided assistance to coalition forces in Afghanistan," he wrote in letters to the secretaries of state and homeland security.

Still others, including Republican governors and members of Congress, have taken a different stance, welcoming refugees to their states and working furiously to help those trying to flee. On Capitol Hill, the effort to help Afghan friends and family of constituents is the rare undertaking that is consuming legislative offices of members of both parties.

The U.S. has evacuated more than 100,000 people from Afghanistan since the airlift began Aug. 14, including more than 5,100 American citizens. While the administration's explicitly stated priority is to evacuate Americans, the numbers reflect the demographics of those trying to flee.

U.S. officials believe about 500 American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan remain in the country; others are believed to want to stay. And many of the Afghans, including those who served as American interpreters and fixers and in other support capacities, are desperate to escape, fearing they will be prime targets for retribution by the Taliban once the U.S. leaves.

But that hasn't stopped Republicans from accusing the Biden administration of failing to put Americans first.

"We're actually prioritizing Afghan refugees more than we're prioritizing our own citizens," said Republican J.D. Vance, who is running for Senate in Ohio and has made repeat television appearances blasting the administration's approach.

On Fox Business Network, he claimed, without evidence, that the U.S. has "no knowledge" of 90% of the people being evacuated and said some have shown up on wide-ranging terror databases.

"They put Americans last in every single way, but Americans pay for it all," echoed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has shot to prominence with incendiary statements.

Trump and his former policy adviser Stephen Miller, along with conservative commentators like Tucker Carlson, have taken things even further, using the same anti-immigrant language that was the hallmark of Trump's 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination.

"You can be sure the Taliban, who are now in complete control, didn't allow the best and brightest to board these evacuation flights," Trump said. "Instead, we can only imagine how many thousands of terrorists have been airlifted out of Afghanistan and into neighborhoods around the world."

Carlson has warned about Afghans invading America.

The rhetoric underscores the transformation of a party once led by neoconservatives who championed interventionist nation-building policies and invaded Afghanistan  followed by Iraq  nearly 20 years ago.

But not Republicans all are on board.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whose office has been working around the clock to rescue the "countless" Afghans he says deserve evacuation, chastised those in his party invoking "terrorist" rhetoric.

"I would say that they need to do their homework," he said. "When you talk to the people that we've spoken with, when you look at their service record ... when you recognize that they sleep in the same tents, they carry arms together, they've been in live firefights, how dare anyone question whether or not they deserve to come to this country or to a safe third country?"

"We're not talking about just walking down the street and picking and choosing people," Tillis added. "We know these people. We know who their children are. We know what their service record was. And quite honestly, somebody taking that position, each and every time they do, is insulting a service member who considers these people like brothers and sisters."

Many of the Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. are doing so under the Special Immigrant Visa program designed specifically for individuals who worked with U.S. forces. Adam Bates, policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said that, due to their work, those individuals were extensively vetted by U.S. authorities before applying to the program  and are again extensively vetted "by a wide array of federal agencies" before the visas are granted.

Troye, who has spent significant time on the ground in Afghanistan over the years, said Americans became extremely close to the Afghans with whom they served.

"These people became like family to many of us," she said. "It's really shameful to see some of these Republicans speaking in this way about people who really risked their lives to help us, who were really our allies on the ground."

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected

Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. Another terror attack, he said, is "highly likely" this weekend as the U.S. winds down its evacuation.

The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden's deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.

After getting briefed on a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday, Biden said the extremists can expect more.

"This strike was not the last," Biden said in a statement. "We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay." He paid tribute to the "bravery and selflessness" of the American troops executing the hurried airlift of tens of thousands from Kabul airport, including the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Thursday's suicide bombing at an airport gate.

The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack.

"Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours," Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule.

The remains of the 13 American troops were on their way to the United States, the Pentagon said. Their voyage marked a painful moment in a nearly 20-year American war that cost more than 2,400 U.S. military lives and is ending with the return to power of a Taliban movement that was ousted when U.S. forces invaded in October 2001.

The remains of troops killed in action overseas are usually flown back to the U.S. via Dover Air Base in Delaware, where fallen troops' return to U.S. soil is marked by a solemn movement known as the "dignified transfer."

The White House on Saturday did not say if Biden would travel to Dover for the troops' return. Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, said shortly after the attack that the president "would do everything he can to honor the sacrifice and the service" of those killed.

The Pentagon released the names of those killed  11 Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier. Twelve of them were in the 20s; some were born in 2001, the year America's longest war began. The oldest was 31.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban in which the militant group halted attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that the 2,500 to 3,000 troops who remained would be out by September, ending what he has called America's forever war.

With Biden's approval, the Pentagon this month sent thousands of additional troops to the Kabul airport to provide security and to facilitate the State Department's chaotic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the United States during the war. The evacuation was marred by confusion and chaos as the U.S. government was caught by surprise when the Afghan army collapsed and the Taliban swept to power Aug. 15.

About 5,400 Americans have been evacuated from the country so far, including 300 in the last day. The State Department believes about 350 more want out; it said there are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country, or who have said they plan to remain.

Untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. Biden and the leaders of other Western countries have said they would try to work with the Taliban to allow Afghans who had worked with them to leave after the U.S.-led evacuation ends.

The Pentagon said that about 6,800 people, mostly Afghans, were flown out in the 24 hours that ended Saturday morning, bringing to 113,500 the total number of people of all nationalities evacuated since the hurried exit was begun Aug. 14.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. military force at the Kabul airport, which peaked at about 5,800, had begun its final withdrawal. The number had dropped below 4,000 on Saturday, according to a U.S. official who discussed details not yet publicly released on condition of anonymity. Kirby said that for security reasons the Pentagon will not provide a day-by-day description of the final stages of the military's withdrawal, which includes flying home troops as well as equipment.

The Pentagon said an airstrike early Saturday local time in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, killed two IS "planners and facilitators."

"They have lost some capability to plan and to conduct missions, but make no mistake, nobody's writing this off and saying, 'Well, we got them. We don't have to worry about ISIS-K anymore.' Not the case," Kirby told a news conference, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan.

Biden also faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation. Critics say Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves the door open for al-Qaida, the Islamic State and other extremist groups to grow and potentially threaten the United States. It was al-Qaida's use of Afghanistan as a base, with the Taliban's acquiescence, that prompted the United States to invade the country in October 2001, beginning the longest war in U.S. history.

Saturday's drone mission came less than two days after the Kabul attack and a public pledge by Biden that he would make IS "pay" for their suicide bomb attack. Officials made no claim that the two individuals killed played a direct role in Thursday's Kabul airport attack.

Kirby declined to release the names and nationalities of the two killed. He said one other person was wounded in the strike. The speed with which the U.S. retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate the threat from extremists, who some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Kirby said the U.S. had "the ability and the means to carry over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities and we're going to defend ourselves," referring to the military's use of aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere to carry out strikes in Afghanistan.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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(Tribune News Service)  The Butler County Veterans Service Board is reaching out to clients to make sure they are faring alright in the wake of the devastating suicide bombing that killed 13 service members and wounded another 18 on Thursday. The boards members themselves are struggling.

The incident has caused a general sense of anger, and frustration, resentment, theres a lot of emotions going on, Vet Board member and Afghanistan War veteran Jim Eriksen told the Journal-News.

Eriksen served in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008 training Afghani soldiers. Eriksen said he doesnt blame their Army for fleeing after President Joe Biden set his Aug. 31 evacuation deadline. He said he and thousands of others promised tribal leaders the Americans wouldnt abandon them, now were all bold-faced liars.

My personal experience was if the Americans werent around they were a whole lot more reluctant, they need that sense of somebody having their back to go out and commit themselves to the fight, Eriksen said. When we left in the middle of the night and took all our aircraft, took all of their maintenance people, so they couldnt even fly their aircraft, they knew their goose was cooked. I cant really blame them for dropping their stuff and slinking into the night.

Eriksen served as a colonel in the U.S. Army and in the Ohio National Guard. He is the newest member of the vet board appointed in January. Vet Board Executive Director Mike Farmer said it is not just veterans who served in Afghanistan who are devastated by the recent attacks. Even in the short period of time the events have been unfolding theyve seen an uptick of calls from veterans who just want to talk to someone.

We have posted to all our social media platforms number they can text, or hotlines they can call 24/7, the Butler County board of mental health if theyre not comfortable going to the VA, Farmer said. If they call our office during the day the front desk is filtering those directly to me because a lot of times they just want a lended ear.

He said vets who struggling with their emotions can call the Veterans Crisis Line at 800-273-8522 or text the six-digit code: 838-255 to reach someone who can help.

The situation is likely to escalate. The White House released a statement Friday that another terrorist attack in Kabul is likely. Eriksen acknowledged most of the country has wanted to exit the 20-year war, but he believes a small arsenal of American troops was necessary to keep the terrorists at bay.

It didnt take a lot to keep the barbarians outside the gates, he said. I was always of the opinion a small number of forces and some Air Force would keep our sacrifice worthwhile right, its not going to become the training ground central for terrorists, which is exactly whats going to happen, everyone can see it.

Eriksen said he and his fellow Afghan vets resent the fact that weve become the new Vietnam generation and it literally happened almost overnight.

This is Vietnam all over again, former vet board member and Vietnam veteran Dave Smith said. What was it all for.

Vet Board President Chuck Weber is also a Vietnam War vet and he said he is furious about what has unfolded. Its deja vu all over again and I cant believe our leaders dont learn the lessons of the past. Most Americans were against that war and Weber said he is reliving those feelings.

We went in to rid ourselves of the Al Qaeda folks and once that was accomplished I think we should have come home and just said mission accomplished, Weber said. Instead we stayed 20 years and decided we wanted to build nations. It didnt work in Vietnam and its not going to work anywhere else where the culture is so radically different from ours. You dont change the minds of people by opening an Arbys, Wendys or McDonalds on their main street.

___

(c)2021 the Journal-News (Hamilton, Ohio)

Visit the Journal-News at www.journal-news.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Bobbie Gene Silvers, 92, died August 25, 2021. His graveside service will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 2, 2021 at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Stillwater, OK. Strode Funeral Home and Cremation is in charge of arrangements.
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council are running a fun lockdown challenge, with the winner receiving a GoPro Hero8.

"We know it's lockdown and you may not be able to get to your favourite swim spot right now but if you could where would it be?" asks a staff member on the councils' Facebook page.

"Simply let us know what freshwater spots are important to you and youll go in the draw."

Readers are encouraged to send in their comments and feedback to the council to let them know which rivers, wetlands and lakes are important to them and why.

"The government is making big changes to the way freshwater is managed. Some of these changes are already in place but most will be included in our new regional rules in 2024 after extensive tangata whenua and community consultation," says a Bay of Plenty Regional Council spokesperson.

"Our regular monitoring means we already have a pretty good understanding of the health of this regions waterways. We have reviewed existing documents and have good knowledge of which waterbodies are important to tangata whenua and the wider community.

"But, before we embark on this significant journey, we want to ensure were on the right track and havent missed anything. Understanding your freshwater values and aspirations will help us get the rules right for our region."

A marker can be added to a map provided on line with a comment added. So far 75 comments have been added.

"The lower Kaituna is in close proximity to the ocean and should happily home a range of native fish species," says Jessica Sommerville, on her marker. "While I'm not [certain] of its health, visually its an embarrassment and it sometimes stinks of dairy discharge. Through this rule drafting process more needs to be done to improve this special awa."

The map shows markers across the Bay of Plenty.

At a mark at the Wairoa River is a comment about the clubs in the area.

"At this great spot there is a rowing club, a slalom club and a canoe sprint club!" writes Jimmy.

To enter the draw for a GoPro Hero8 from Bay of Plenty Regional Council, click here and leave your own comment about which rivers, wetlands and lakes in the Bay of Plenty region are important to you.
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TAHLEQUAH [mdash] Glen R. Haddock, born March 14, 1938 in Bakersfield, California to Johnny Aaron and Beulah Bea (Fredrick) Haddock passed away in his home August 24, 2021, at the age of 83 years 5 months and 10 days with his family holding his hands. Glen was the youngest of his twin sister
A panel discusses the link between childhood trauma and incarceration at the She Brews Coffee House in Tulsa on Saturday, Aug. 21. Liz Kollaja, volunteer with Poetic Justice; Gina Richie, a formerly incarcerated mother who now works with the state Department of Mental Health; Lee Roland, a motivational speaker and former principal of Tulakes Elementary School in Oklahoma City; Carly Dunn, a research assistant at Oklahoma State University who focuses on health outcomes in rural communities.
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Florida Department of Health reported another increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases for the week of Aug. 20-26 with 151,749, or 21,678 a day, to bring the cumulative total since March 2020 to 3,179,714.
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Tesla Mobile App Version 4 received a new advanced feature from the giant EV maker that would allow the company's Solar and Powerwall users to have more control over their products.

Thanks to the new "Go Off-Grid" button of the popular application, consumers can now press one button to turn off all their appliances relying on their Tesla Powerwall and Solar items.

Aside from them, Elon Musk also explained that this update is one of their efforts to encourage non-Tesla owners to get engaged in the company's rising ecosystem.

The automaker's interest to expand its service to more people can also be seen in its giant Supercharger Network, which would allow other EV models to use its stations before 2021 ends.

Tesla Mobile App's New Off-Grid Feature

According to Electrek's latest report, the new "Go Off-Grid" button of Tesla's latest Version 4 mobile app allows consumers to completely rely on their stored clean energy instead of using electricity.

Also Read: Tesla FSD Vs. Ford BlueCruise: Is Elon Musk's Competitor Catching Up or Still Way Behind When It Comes To EV Autonomy?

The company explained that this would be helpful since many countries now have their planned brownouts to save more electric energy supplies.

On the other hand, the latest Tesla Mobile App update is also a part of the company's goal to achieve global decentralized electric utility.

On the other hand, it could also add more value to Elon Musk's Powerwall and Solar products. Aside from this, the automaker's innovations for its mobile application also offer a new way to view the data from your own power generation with solar tiles or panels.

Aside from this, consumers could also download their data, which they can integrate into a spreadsheet. The new Tesla Mobile App Version 4 update could also put their data into another system.

In other news, Elon Musk announced that his new Tesla Bot could arrive by 2022. On the other hand, the new FSD Beta 10 is expected to be launched by September.

Tesla Mobile App Version 4's Other Enhancements

Tech Crunch reported that there are also other enhancements released by Tesla aside from the new "Go Off-Grid" function. These include the latest car commands, which allow you to start your EV without actually riding it.

On the other hand, it also received a new feature that enables users to unluck their Tesla mobiles using their phone keys. Aside from these, you can also get a more detailed representation of your electric car, thanks to the enhanced 3D transitions of the mobile app.

For more news updates about Tesla and other giant EV makers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Tesla Files Application to be an Electricity Provider in Texas

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Written by: Griffin Davis

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named Tess has been helping college students with anxiety and depression, according to a study.

The study involved 75 participants split into three groups. Two of these groups were given access to the AI chatbot Tess. The researchers of the study saw that students using Tess exhibited a reduction in anxiety symptoms.

The third group in the study, which is known as the control group, exhibited an increase in anxiety as well as in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score at the end of the study.

AI Chatbot Tess Helps Students with Anxiety, Depression

An AI chatbot named Tess has been helping college students who use it manage their anxiety and depression, according to a study. The study has been published in JMIR.

According to the researchers, as quoted in a report by MobiHealthNews, "This study offers evidence that AI can serve as a cost-effective and accessible therapeutic agent. Although not designed to appropriate the role of a trained therapist, integrative psychological AI emerges as a feasible option for delivering support."

Related Article: Can Artificial Intelligence Treat Mental Health Issues?

How the Study was Conducted

The study involved a total of 75 participants who were then split up into three groups. The first group, the control group, was made up of participants who "had a higher mean PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) score, which is used to assess depression, than their peers in the intervention groups," according to MobiHealthNews.

The two other groups, the intervention groups, had PHQ-9 scores of 6.67 and 7.04, while the control group had a PHQ-9 score of 8.17.

The first intervention group was given access to daily check-ins and was able to use Tess every day for two weeks. The second intervention group, on the other hand, had access to bi-weekly check-ins and Tess access for four weeks.

Based on the results of the study, both intervention groups had lowered their PHQ-9 score after using the AI chatbot Tess. The control group's PHQ-9 score increased in the same timeframe.

The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) score was also used in the research. At baseline, the control group had a higher GAD score, which saw a slight increase at the end of the study. The two intervention groups, on the other hand, exhibited a decrease in anxiety.

AI Mental Health Tools and Support

There has been an increase in the use of digital mental health tools and support as of late, especially as the whole world continues dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The AI chatbot Tess is just one of the many ways that AI has been used to deal with mental health issues.

In March, a Google-partnered AI tool called Riley was launched to help in crisis counselor training. Riley, which was launched by The Trevor Project, simulates a teen experiencing mental health issues.

AI is also being used to treat sleep disorders by increasing the efficacy rates of its treatments.

Also Read: Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Online Therapy

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Written by Isabella James

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon have been captured by a satellite from orbit on Aug. 27. It comes ahead of the cargo resupply launch of the former from the NASA Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station, or shortly known as ISS, nears.

The ISS cargo resupply mission of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is expected to launch at 3:37 am on Aug. 28, Saturday. That is if the weather permits.

However, it is to note that there is a least 40% chance that the weather might not be in favor of the launch.

The resupply mission of SpaceX Falcon 9 ended the two-month drought that the space company of Elon Musk has faced after installing laser terminals to its satellites.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Spotted by Orbit Satellite

To be exact, the WorldView-2 satellite from Maxar Technologies has been able to take a photo of the two SpaceX vehicles, namely the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon cargo spacecraft far away from orbit.

The space tech firm further flaunted the photo on their Twitter account, saying that it was able to spot the Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX from the Kennedy Space Center of National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Florida (NASA).

We got a nice look through the clouds at LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida of @SpaceXs #Falcon9 rocket that will launch a Dragon 2 spacecraft on its third cargo resupply mission to the @Space_Station. Launch is scheduled for August 28 at 3:37 am EDT. pic.twitter.com/Y2OJDV7LQ6  Maxar Technologies (@Maxar) August 27, 2021

According to Space.com, the WorldView-2 launched 12 years ago as a commercial observation satellite for the Earth.

Maxar, a sub-brand of DigitalGlobe, another commercial space company, has been operating the satellite since it debuted in 2008.

Read Also: Elon Musk Offers Services to Make SpaceX Spacesuits for NASA Artemis, More Expensive than Falcon, Dragon

SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket: How to Watch Live

As per Newsweek, NASA is hosting the live telecast of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch on Aug. 28, 15 minutes before the actual liftoff on its Twitter page as well as its website.

Not to mention that NASA TV via its website will also stream coverage of the resupply mission launch from 3:15 am on Saturday, Aug. 28.

What's more, people could also follow the coverage of NASA on the arrival and docking of the Falcon 9 when it lands at the Internation Space Station, which is expected at about 11 am on Aug. 29.

However, the NASA TV coverage for the arrival and docking will start its broadcast at 9:30 am.

The ISS resupply flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 marks the 23rd Commerical Resupply Services mission or CRS of the Musk space innovation firm.

Elsewhere, the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell revealed during the 36th annual Space Symposium that the liquid oxygen shortage is likely to affect future launches of the company.

The supply of liquid oxygen that have been facing shortages is mainly due to the COVID-19 surge brought by the more transmissible Delta variant in the United States.

Related Article: Elon Musk vs. Jeff Bezos Lawsuit: Billionaire Says Bezos' New Full Time Job is to File Lawsuits Against SpaceX

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Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Updated Microsoft Windows 11 CPU Requirements | Learn More

Microsoft has just updated its Windows 11 CPU requirements.

For those that are already sold out and want to update their operating systems from Windows 10 to Windows 11, check out what the current requirements are.

Microsoft Windows 11 Minimum Requirements

According to an article by Apple Insider, Microsoft announced on Friday, Aug. 27, the new changes to its Windows 11 minimum operating requirements.

The loosened restrictions, however, are not likely to impact the compatibility, or lack of compatibility, with Mac.

As announced, Windows 11 requires a full 1GHz or at least faster 64-bit CPU, at least 4GB of RAM, and at least 64 GB of storage. The machines should also support UEFI secure boot, which is the version 2.0 of the Trusted Platform Module or TPM as well as include a GPU which is compatible with the DirectX 12.

Windows 11 New Requirements

Microsoft has just added the Intel Core X as well as Xeon W CPUs including the Surface Studio 2's Intel Core i7-7820HQ, to the longer list of Windows 11-compatible processors.

The new addition is a nod to users who, despite already owning fairly modern hardware like the Core X and the Xeon W that are 7th gen Intel designs, were quite seemingly left out in the cold when the whole operating system was officially announced.

Microsoft Windows Update Mechanism

Microsoft had also clarified the situation to The Verge, noting that it will only enforce installation restrictions when the users would attempt to make the jump from Windows 10 to Windows 11 through the whole Windows Update mechanism.

Users that have older PCs that don't actually meet the company's very own recommendations can download an ISO of the whole operating system and manually install it.

With that being said, Windows 11 is very unlikely to work efficiently on Intel Macs due to Microsoft's very own TPM 2.0 requirements.

Some Macs that were previously produced between 2016 and 2019 boast CPUs that are capable of supporting the needed security protocol, which the current Apple logic boards do not support.

Users can also test the Windows 11 software even without installing the beta or upgrading, here's how.

Read Also: Microsoft Windows 11 To Remove Essential Features-Goodbye Taskbar Functions and More; Should You Still Upgrade?

Windows 11 Support for Mac?

As of the moment, there is currently a new workaround that involves editing the names of particular system files before installation in order to bypass the Microsoft Windows 11's checks.

However, the process does not guarantee its success.

Another new route is PC visualization through software just like Parallels.

Earlier in August, Microsoft promised to deliver full Windows 11 support for Mac when the final operating system would launch. Windows 11 can support both Intel Kaby Lake as well as the Ryzen 1000 in its requirements for the operating system.

With the mixed response when the new Windows 11 launched, those used to the Windows 10 operating systems are still contemplating on whether or not to make the switch.

Although the Windows 11 could contain more update features compared to the Windows 10, the newer operating system has received mixed reviews due to the almost complete shift in appearance.

Related Article: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.100 Now Available: How to Get this Beta

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Written by Urian B.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
YouTube Music's Wear OS app was finally released on Aug. 26, but Google noted that it will only be available on Wear OS 3, and it does not have plans to release its predecessor.

However, YouTube Music was only available to the Samsung Galaxy 4 Watch series, and Google has yet to reveal details about its wider release to Wear OS 3.

As per 9to5Google, the YouTube Music app strictly only works for Wear OS 3 wearables. Sideloading the app, or unofficially uninstalling it via APK, still will not make it work for older smartwatches.

YouTube Music Wear OS 3 App and Older Smartwatches

The said outlet confirmed that it does not work even when sideloaded after attempting to do it on an older smartwatch.

9to5Google narrated in the same report that they tried to sideload the APK file from a Galaxy Watch 4 into a Moto 360, which still runs a Wear OS 2. And it still failed to run.

Meanwhile, according to Android Headlines, having YouTube Music unavailable for Wear OS 2 leaves users to choose other competing music apps. It is to note that Google has previously killed the Google Play Music app on smartwatches.

Alternatively, users of the older Google wearable software could instead opt for Spotify, which recently introduced its offline playback feature for Wear OS.

Users could opt to upgrade their smartwatch. Although it is worth noting that TicWatch wearables are getting the Wear OS 3 later on.

Read Also: YouTube Music Adds New Feature Called 'Replay Mix' Designed for Your Most Played Songs

YouTube Music Wear OS 3 Unsuccessful Sideload: Here's Why

It turned out that the YouTube Music app fails to work on older smartwatches as it requires a device to run at least Level 30 API to run.

To compare, the Wear OS 2 only features a level 28 API, running the Android 9.

As such, the sideloading test ends up useless--except for informing us that YouTube Music really needs Wear OS 3 to run.

That said, Android Central reported that some users attempted to modify the APK that was ripped of from Samsung by altering its minimum API level.

It sounds like the perfect thing to do as it is the issue that hinders YouTube Music from running on older smartwatches.

Even so, this time around, the Google login support did not work, making it impossible to use the YouTube Music app.

Unless someone out there finds a way to make YouTube Music work on Wear OS 2, it is safe to conclude for now that the two are not meant to be.

Hence, users of older smartwatches could only choose other music streaming platforms in the meantime.

Related Article: Spotify vs. Apple Music vs. YouTube Music: Which Is the Best Music Streaming Service For You?

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Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A woman posted a negative online review after she was unsatisfied with her breast implant, but the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that she violated defamation laws and had to pay a hefty $30,000 to the surgeon.

As per CBC News, the ruling of the B.C. Supreme Court serves as a warning to those who post negative reviews online.

The judge of the case, Justice Gordon Weatherhill, wrote that even personal reviews are still subject to defamation laws, and the recent judgment is here to prove it.

Aside from the $30,000 payment for the damages, the customer also had to take down the reviews online.

Negative Online Review by an Unsatisfied Female Customer

According to the court documents of the case filed last March 19, 2019, Rosa Campagna Deck was a customer of a plastic surgeon named Brian Peterson as she was seeking a breast augmentation last Nov. 3, 2015.

However, Deck ended up being disappointed with the result of the procedure, which made the two breasts different from one another, with the other one hanging lower.

But the female customer only posted her reviews about the surgery three years after it was done.

The negative review further questions both the reputation and the competency of Peterson, adding that the surgeon made a mistake with her procedure.

The online review of Deck wrote that: "Fast forward to three months post-op - low and behold the itty bitty boob I traded in, for a deformed downward breast that was well over an inch higher than the other."

The surgeon went on to contact her patient, asking her to remove the reviews online. But Desk refused to do so.

As such, it is why the lawsuit was only filed three years after the breast augmentation.

However, it is worth noting that the court dismissed the claims that the customer posted online and ruled them out as misrepresentations of facts.

Unimpressed with Breast Implant Results

Peterson claimed during the trial that he notified Deck about a chest wall deformity that the latter was experiencing.

So, the surgeon further recalled that he suggested the customer choose two different-sized implants. However, he also claimed that Deck refused to do so and opted to go for similar sizes.

The surgeon has his patient notes to back his claims.

Read Also: How to Deal With Negative Competitor Reviews With Services Like Guaranteed Removals

Negative Online Review Court Ruling

Meanwhile, Justice Weatherhill concluded the case on Aug. 25, ruling that the review was not based on facts, but relied on an opinion instead.

Although reviews are opinions, the judge noted that they should be based on facts.

The judge further wrote that: "Defamatory comments dressed up as reviews that are not factual or do not qualify as fair comment are subject to the laws of defamation."

Elsewhere, Google and Amazon are facing fake reviews probe in the United Kingdom.

In another related story, Amazon removed a company from its platform after being caught for paying five star reviews.

Related Article: Amazon Fake Review 'Spotter' App Removed from iOS App Store as the eCommerce Giant Convinces Apple

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Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Japan ascends as a powerhouse in video conferencing after transforming the smoking rooms from the bullet trains into Zoom rooms.

The latest development that the Central Japan Railway Company launched was the Zoom-on-a-train experience that passengers can enjoy during the trip.

Japan's S-Work Vehicle Introduces Zooming Rooms

According to a report by TechSpot on Friday, Aug. 27, the passengers who used to ride bullet trains in Japan can now use the on-train internet.

The Chubu-based company is now allowing people to experience a special Zoom interaction on-board.

Since the video-calling app Zoom became more popular amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many users prefer to use it to call their friends and loved ones.

Japan has devised a plan for the S-Work vehicle, which will house the changed smoking room in bullet trains.

Passenger Benefits In a Zoom Room

There is an extraordinary take on this implementation. Japan is making sure that the passengers will feel comfortable while keeping in touch with other people online.

If you have gone to Japan before, you will know that its internet speed is impressive.

Zoom room users will also indulge in the same perk.

Inside the bullet train, the speed of the wi-fi will be much faster compared to the connection in a common transport system. Whenever a person thinks of charging a smartphone because it's already low in battery, there is a charging port that he/she can use.

There's nothing to worry about your phone's battery anymore while traveling. This is also the same feature that was already implemented in income countries.

There are times that a passenger might prefer a mouse over a touchpad despite using a laptop. In this case, the user can borrow a mouse from the railway station.

Additionally, Central Japan Railway Company can lend the users a laptop tray that features a resting pad for the wrist.

Japan has innovated its once-banned smoking room into a space-wise room. Last year, the country imposed a ban on indoor smoking, which also covers the rooms for smokers.

If you want to try riding the Zoom-centered trains, you can ride the bullet train called Shinkansen. It can reach a top speed of 300 km per hour starting from Tokaido/Sanyo, according to The Register.

For regular Zoom users, be aware that Zoom fatigue is a real health condition that people feel after a long hour of virtual meetings.

Read Also: Japanese Train Station Installs Cameras That Can Detect Drunks

Optical Fiber Breaks Internet Speed Record in Japan

The internet connection around the world can vary depending on the country. For the most-developed nations including Japan, a fast internet speed might be an understatement.

In July, Japanese researchers were able to break the previous record of the internet speed using optical fiber. The updated record was regarded to be ahead of the United States' record.

The National Institute of Information Communication Technology (NICT) engineers have managed to reach a staggering speed of 319 Tbps. It was too far from the previous holder, University College London which only achieved 172 Tbps.

Related Article: Zoom Meetings With $952 Million Revenue for Zoom in the First Quarter of 2021

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Written by Joseph Henry

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) crawls along on concrete. Note the head capsule of the caterpillar showing a light-colored inverted "Y" on front of head. These caterpillars can vary in appearance and coloring, however, but will always have the inverted Y.
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Employees with Armentor Painting and Specialties board up the windows of The Gleen Armentor Law Corporation on the corner of Stewart and Gordon Streets Friday, August 27, 2021 in Lafayette, La.. The were covering all the windows with plywood against high winds from Ida.
More schoolchildren in Louisiana are coming down with coronavirus than ever before, but local K-12 leaders say they are still managing to quarantine fewer students than before.

They credit a change in state rules that allow exposed students to stay in class as long as they faithfully wore masks and showed no signs of sickness.

Last year we had fewer positive cases, but more quarantined kids, but this year we have more positive kids with less quarantined kids, Zachary schools superintendent Scott Devillier said.

From our standpoint, the mask mandate has kept the quarantines much lower than it was, Jason Fountain, superintendent of Central schools, said.

Its an irony not lost on these leaders that mandatory mask-wearing helps make the new school year a reality. Their districts had been intent on making masks optional this year. They held firm to that position until Gov. John Bel Edwards, on the eve of the new school year, reinstated a statewide masking mandate. On Friday, Edwards extended the mandate by four weeks.

Gov. John Bel Edwards' new COVID order upends schools' plans to go mask-optional The plans of many Louisiana schools to make masking optional for the about-to-start 2021-22 school year were upended Monday when Gov. John Bel

Adherence to compulsory masking, while unpopular among many, has made it much easier for Louisiana schools to take advantage of the states latest and less restrictive guidelines for schools.

Those guidelines, first issued in June and updated several times since, call for quarantines ranging from eight to 14 days for close contacts. A close contact is someone who within 24 hours stands for more than 15 minutes within 6 feet of a person who has the virus.

Not all close contacts, though, have to quarantine anymore.

If both the person who is positive and the close contact were engaged in consistent and correct use of a well-fitting face mask and at least 3 feet apart from each other then those close contacts do not need to quarantine. The new exemption, however, applies only to students; adults in this same situation still have to quarantine.

The new state rules also allow close contacts to stay in school if theyve had COVID-19 within the previous 90 days or if theyve been fully vaccinated.

None of the exemptions apply if the close contact shows symptoms.

Wes Watts, superintendent of West Baton Rouge schools, said the new guidelines, particularly the exemption for students who mask up, have been a huge help in allowing his district to continue full in-person instruction while the state struggles through a fourth wave of the pandemic.

We have more student positive cases this year, fewer adult positives, but overall a lot fewer quarantines due to the masks, he said.

How close is close contact? Louisiana schools try to figure out who is exposed A key strategy in containing coronavirus is accurately identifying those individuals who have had significant exposure to the virus and sendin

The school leaders say they say their schools are adhering closely to the masking rules. Consequently, their students are presumed to be compliant and eligible for the exemption, but they rely on teachers to let them know when thats not the case. And in complicated situations they say they seek out advice from state health officials.

Watts said he has quarantined a few kids when their teachers flagged them as inconsistent mask-wearers. But he said hes not quarantining students who slip up from time to time, saying kids are not robots.

We do it if its blatant, Watts said.

Hollis Milton, superintendent for West Feliciana Parish schools, said he and other educational leaders were in unfamiliar territory last year.

Last year it just felt like the rules were pretty restrictive, Milton said. You just did it and followed it as closely as you could.

But this years rules combined with more experience has led to better judgment calls on quarantines in schools. He said it can go either way depending on the situation.

You may use it to quarantine more students, he said.

Fountain in Central said after disappointing results last year from virtual instruction, he and other school leaders now want as much face-to-face instruction as possible. And mandatory masking combined with the new quarantine rules help that effort.

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The masks, as challenging as that has been, is the best opportunity to be able to do that, Fountain said.

Theres limited data to evaluate how Louisiana schools are handling quarantines this year compared to last.

Some school districts release data on quarantines, but many dont.

Vaccine verification, COVID tests and 1,000 quarantines mark new school year in East Baton Rouge Less than two weeks into the new school year, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has instituted far-reaching changes aimed at curbing t

New Orleans public schools release perhaps the most extensive public data on quarantines in the state. In its most recent weekly report, 9.1% of its 45,000 students were being quarantined.

In the Baton Rouge region, among districts that do release student quarantine data, weekly rates of students having to quarantine range from 1 to 6%. But districts dont count their numbers the same way. For instance, East Baton Rouge Parishs current 2.8% rate excludes students quarantined thanks to cases that occurred outside of school.

While it publishes a weekly report on case counts in schools among students and staff, the Louisiana Department of Health does not ask schools to report if any are quarantined.

Their neighbors with the Mississippi Department of Health do and they show quarantines are higher than at any time last school year. Its most recent weekly report showed that nearly 29,000 students, or about 5.9% of all schoolchildren in the state, were under quarantine. Thats more than double the number of quarantines during the worst week last school year.

Like Louisiana, Mississippi schools dont have to quarantine students who are exposed but wear masks correctly. Unlike Louisiana, Mississippi is not requiring masks, so far fewer students wear them.

As school starts, more students have COVID in Louisiana schools than last year, new data shows More Louisiana schoolchildren reported testing positive for the deadly coronavirus last week than during any week last school year, which ende

Louisiana schools have a lot to fight off. Schoolchildren in the state are contracting the virus at record rates.

In the third week of August, the most recent available, 6,909 school-aged children in the state were infected, nearly three times the number infected during the worst week last year. Around that same time, K-12 schools across the state reported a total of 4,009 cases on their campuses, more than double any week last school year.

When they do happen, quarantines can be very disruptive.

On her sons second day of school at Denham Springs Elementary, Monica DeLaune got a call in the evening telling her the third-grader had been exposed to COVID and needed to quarantine.

Hours later, her left side went completely numb, her chest tightened and she passed out. She was rushed to the hospital.

Two weeks before, DeLaune, 35, had tested positive for the virus and later was diagnosed with a hemiplegic migraine post-COVID that caused stroke-like symptoms.

Her son quarantining at home was another worry in an exhausting and stressful month.

Im not able to care for my own kids right now, said DeLaune, a mother of two. Im not allowed to be left alone with my kids. Its scary. Its rough.

Her son, who has trouble concentrating and focusing, missed his first week of school due to quarantine, she said. Thats an important week, when students review what they learned the previous year, a year he missed a lot of.

I dont want him to fall behind, she said. Hes ADD, ADHD. I have a hard enough time keeping him in a mask. Schools difficult enough right now.

DeLaune said the previous year her son was out at least twice after potential exposure to the virus  a pattern she hopes will not be repeated.

He needs to be present, she said. He missed enough last year because of COVID exposures. I dont want to deal with that again.
East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is having a press conference this morning to discuss preparations for Hurricane Ida.

The storm is expected to make landfall Sunday night or early Monday morning as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm. Its current path would take it directly over the Baton Rouge area; the region will likely experience tropical weather starting Sunday morning.

Coastal parishes in southeast Louisiana have issued evacuation orders. Traffic in Baton Rouge is jammed as people to the south leave town.

My parish is under a hurricane warning. What should I expect from Ida? The National Weather Service has issued a hurricane warning for the Baton Rouge metro area as Ida heads toward south Louisiana. Here is a summ

Follow live coverage of the 11 a.m. press conference below. Can't see the module? Click here.
Like the dog that finally caught the car, Louisiana officials are faced with the now what? question.

Administration and education officials, as well as the vaccination-hesitant, had all banked on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration giving full approval of a COVID-19 vaccine to allow government more pandemic response flexibility and boost Louisianas inoculation rates higher than 40%.

And true, public colleges and universities jumped to lay out plans that require their 213,000 students get vaccinated or opt out and submit to regular testing.

Gov. John Bel Edwards and his top aides are saying that the 40,000-some state workers will soon have to do something similar. But that plan hasnt been officially announced yet and probably wont be until Hurricane Ida has passed.

What happens to the roughly 700,000 public kindergarten through 12th grade students also is up in the air.

Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley has refused comment. The stance of the state Department of Education is that the next step for mandating the vaccine is up to the Louisiana Department of Health to add COVID-19 to the list of required vaccinations, which includes measles and other diseases, for students to attend public school.

Thatll take some time. The health department hasnt drafted the rules yet. When it does, the rulemaking process allows time for public comment before the Legislature weighs in. (Parents and guardians can get a written statement from a doctor or sign a written dissent and be exempted from the required inoculations.)

At least part of the reason for the slow walk is the raucous opposition to Edwards order to mask indoors, including most students. The governor wants to mitigate a surge of COVID-19 infections that has led to hospitalizations that have filled beds and to deaths that have hit the highest levels ever.

+7 After maskless protesters derail meeting on masks in schools, mandate will remain in Louisiana A rowdy, chaotic meeting of Louisiana's top school board ended abruptly Wednesday when opponents of face masks for public school students refu

One example of the messy politics is the recent Board of Elementary and Secondary Education hearing that got so out of control, the members that set state school policy abruptly adjourned and left the building.

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, on Monday asked legislators to press BESE to reconvene the hearing. This is an issue that is very important to a large number of parents and needs to be discussed, he said.

BESE refused.

+3 After ending meeting due to protests, Louisiana board won't reconsider school mask mandate Despite pressure from House Speaker Clay Schexnayder and others, leaders of Louisiana's top school board defended their handling of last week'

Louisiana is not the only place facing intense opposition. GOP-dominated Texas and Florida, for instance, have ordered locals not to impose mask and vaccination mandates. Republican lawmakers in Ohio and Pennsylvania have passed legislation that curtails their governors power to react to the pandemic.

Who are the opponents?

Polling in June by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a San Francisco-based health care policy research group, shows that 49% of the nations unvaccinated would get the shot once the vaccines got full authorization, as happened Monday for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 for those 16 years and older. Black and Hispanic people who havent been inoculated voiced concern about missing work and didnt really know where or how to get the shot, which could be easily addressed.

A recently released Public Religion Research Institute survey found 64% of Republican respondents would get vaccinated. About 79% of the GOP most likely to get vaccinated reject QAnon conspiracy theories  such as, that politicians and finance officials are rings of pedophiles  and get their news from mainstream media rather than social media.

The largest subset of the no way, no how crowd is White evangelical Protestants, according to the PRRI survey. Four out of five white evangelicals self-identify as Republicans.

Evangelicals, or at least 84% of them, believe that God controls whatever happens and that God punishes nations for the sins of some of its citizens. About 44% of White evangelicals believe God would protect them.

+3 Mark Ballard: Anti-mask debate just the latest in school-related protests They cant arrest all of us, the Rev. Tony Spell, of Central, shouted last week spurring an angry crowd of people who refused to don masks a

Central pastor Tony Spell was a leader in disrupting the meeting that led BESE to quit before considering whether Gov. Edwards or local school districts had the power to order students to wear masks in the classroom.

In an April sermon, Spell told his Life Tabernacle Church congregants: I'll just tell you today, if being anti-mask and anti-vaccine is anti-government, then I'm proud to be anti-government. He argued, incorrectly, that COVID-19 victims have a 99.6% survival rate. Why do you want somebody to contaminate your bloodstream with something that may or may not hurt you?" he added.

This is the dynamic slowing the governors pandemic response even after a COVID-19 vaccine has been fully approved.
Thanks so much for joining us today on the COVID-19 live blog.

We will be back tomorrow with our Australian news blog from early in the morning.

Thanks again for all the comments and interactions today, please have a lovely evening and we will hope to see you all back here tomorrow morning.

Bye for now.
Part of the confusion was caused by a social media post that said Royal Prince Alfred Hospital had 100,000 Pfizer vaccines that were about to expire. That was absolutely categorically not the case, she said. Ms Pearce said bookings for eligible 12- to 15-year-old children, including children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent and those with underlying health conditions, would be honoured, and urged them to come forward. Johanne Musgrave of Stanmore said she spent 24 hours on the telephone before finally making an appointment for her 12-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy. But on Friday night, the appointment was cancelled. She was told to call Bankstown Hospital, but when she finally spoke to someone she was told the hospital was not authorised to administer the vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds, she said.

Other parents of children with disabilities also told the Herald their appointments had been cancelled, one writing that the situation was totally unacceptable. Ms Pearce asked parents of all other children to be patient. Sydney mother Kate was one of many angry parents who contacted the Herald after receiving a text message on Friday night to say the appointment for her nearly 13-year-old child at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital had been cancelled. Parents received text messages like this one saying due to a technical error appointments had been made available ahead of schedule. Credit:

Gladys Berejiklian clearly stated in her press conference shortly after that these bookings would be honoured, she said. On Friday night I received a text cancelling my booking. The rollout is a mess ... a major stuff-up. Weeks ago, Brad Hazzard said that the rollout was like The Hunger Games, and he was right. On Friday night, parent groups and text lines lit up again when parents received a series of text messages that effectively cancelled their appointments unless their children were of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. Many parents whose appointments had been cancelled said they were even more confused when they received subsequent notifications reminding them of their appointments times and dates. Loading

Killara mother Rani, a pseudonym, was also disappointed and concerned after the booking she had made for her son Finn at Olympic Park was cancelled. When Gladys said appointments would be honoured, I felt a sense of relief. When they werent, I was left feeling uncertain, up in the air and not knowing if my children would be safe. Xavier Gray, a 12-year-old from North Bondi, was disappointed to find that the appointment his mother Laura Norrie had booked was cancelled. I wanted the vaccine, he said. I want things to go back to normal. And I want to be able to go on holidays. Not being able to see my friends has been hard. Ms Norrie said she had spent most of Friday morning making the appointment, juggling work and homeschooling. She said it was a disgraceful experience as a parent having spent the morning waiting for slots to come up. Like most parents, she had received the link to book an appointment from friends of friends, who were circulating the message like crazy.

I am desperate to get my child vaccinated before the return to school, she said. On Friday, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that children aged between 12 and 15 years will be able to book a COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine from September 13 following advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). As a result, the government expects around 1.2 million children aged 12 to 15 will be vaccinated by the end of this year. Annandale mother Suzy Lewis also booked her 14-year-old son in for his first dose on Friday. Loading

She said the link to book had been shared by parents on a WhatsApp group and high school community Facebook pages. I didnt realise it was an error when we booked: there was just suddenly a pull-down option for 12-15 [members of the public], she said. All the parents I have spoken to in this situation were just incredibly excited to be able to get their kids vaccinated and hopefully on the path to a more normal life. Ms Lewis said it seemed wrong for the Premier to publicly say the appointments would be honoured when they were actually being cancelled. Sonja Gibbs of Drummoyne contacted the Herald to say she was furious.
The difficulty in obtaining a conviction for a sexual crime is self-evident in the data. There were 26,892 victim-survivors of sexual assault in Australia in 2019 who reported to police, according to the ABS. But criminal court data shows there were 10,132 defendants against sexual assault charges who had their case finalised in 2018-19. Of those defendants, only 4436 were found guilty. And for such a common crime - its believed more than 180,000 people experience sexual assault each year - even those whose cases meet the standard of being able to be prosecuted are often left feeling like their trauma is not addressed. Thats where advocates say restorative justice can step in. State Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes is set to receive a crucial report next month recommending the state embrace restorative justice for victim-survivors of sexual assault. Options available to Victoria include a model already in place in the ACT, where Hannah previously lived, since late 2018. In Hannahs case, the year-long process of meeting with conveners  qualified support staff who assist the victim in deciding how they want to confront the perpetrator  ended in a three-hour meeting in a conference room with her ex-partner. We could have done it via video, we could have corresponded via letters. I didnt have to face him if I didnt want to, she says.

The restorative justice model, which is widely used in New Zealand and occurs in Victoria already in domestic violence cases, does not leave a perpetrator with a criminal record and hence gives them an incentive to co-operate. Credit:Illustration: Jo Gay During the three hours in that room, flanked by a close friend as a support person and overseen by the two conveners running the session, Hannah says she got to ask questions that had plagued her and prevented her recovery from the trauma of having her trust breached. One of the conveners had asked me, what do you want out of this day?, and I said, I wanted to leave the room with nothing left to say on the matter, Hannah recalls. Because it had consumed my life. I had dropped out a semester of uni, my anxiety was so bad.

Hannah asked him how he could have done this to someone he purported to care about. I was completely shocked [when the incident happened], she says. It seemed out of character. He was a boy who went to church on Sundays with his mother. Hannah said that during the conference, her emotions swayed between feeling furious, emboldened and sad. [But] I didnt cry that whole time. There were multiple times where I made him cry, which felt a little cathartic. But I felt in control and empowered. And when he was saying things that didnt answer a question or werent true, I felt comfortable to call him out. Lewers says there are multiple scenarios where restorative justice can fill the gaps left by the criminal justice system  either because an incident is historical, the victim-survivor doesnt want to go through the ordeal of a trial, or there is not enough evidence to press charges.

She says restorative justice is also useful to victim-survivors who have seen the perpetrator jailed but still require closure to move on with their lives, or for businesses dealing with a workplace harassment issue. A conference could either be between a victim-survivor and the perpetrator, involve an employer, or a victim-survivor and their family  which is common. If theyve disclosed the harm and perhaps havent been supported by their family members or havent been believed, we can facilitate processes where we assist them to have those conversations with the family members so that they can have a chance to feel heard, she says. Advocates for the use of restorative justice say the methods should not be seen as an alternative to the criminal justice system, but should be provided within and alongside existing frameworks. They say it could go a long way to addressing the trauma of thousands of victim-survivors every year, whether they have access to the criminal legal system or not.

Not everybody wants or wishes to have this type of opportunity, and not all matters will be suitable, says the co-founder of Transforming Justice Australia, solicitor Thea Deakin-Greenwood. But we believe in choice and that we should have restorative choices there for people harmed by sexual violence and for their families and communities. Loading With Wellington academic Jane Bolitho, Deakin-Greenwood started Transforming Justice, an initiative to bring together legal practitioners and researchers to create restorative justice frameworks for sexual assault survivors. She says Australia is far behind the rest of the world in terms of this kind of practice, but there is growing recognition that restorative justice should be available as an option.

I think one of the difficult conversations we are hoping to contribute to is what does justice mean when prison isnt part of the story?. Because the vast majority of people who are responsible [for sexual crimes] will never be charged. They will never be convicted, and like survivors, people responsible for harm live and work in our communities, she says. What do survivors really want from the person who has harmed them? And what does justice mean for them? When we actually ask people, they want it not to happen again. They want the person to get help, they might need certain things like counselling, they might want some undertakings from the person who harmed them, they might have specific questions that they need to ask them, to explain things for themselves. Those things are what restorative practices do - they give you that opportunity for voice and to really listen to what the survivor wants. Carolyn Worth, a veteran advocate for sexual assault survivors and the former manager of the South Eastern Centre Against Sexual Assault in Melbourne, ran informal restorative justice sessions for clients herself for two decades before leaving the organisation. While shes seen the benefits up close, she warned about any pushes to tie restorative justice too closely with the existing criminal justice system. She believes it should be offered after criminal proceedings are complete.

Veteran sexual assault survivor advocate Carolyn Worth. Credit:Wayne Hawkins Because basically, people need to voluntarily engage in this process and I dont know how voluntary you are if youre about to be sentenced, she says. Deakin-Greenwood says concerns from some in legal circles that restorative justice could be used by perpetrators to further traumatise or manipulate victim-survivors are valid, but are surmountable. Frameworks used overseas and in emerging and established practices in Australia have been carefully designed, with cautious implementation, rigorous training and attention to safety and doing no further harm, she adds. Restorative justice for sexual assault is slow and careful work and its not mandated and shouldnt be  its participatory and consent-driven for anyone involved, she says. She also says the response to sexual violence must include support and treatment for those who are responsible and genuinely seeking help: If we want to ensure harm does not recur, we need to support those who are responsible to change their behaviours.

Hannah concedes that restorative justice wouldnt be suitable for many but says for her, the overall experience was positive. She left the meeting with her ex-partner having said all she needed to, and with an agreement that he would reimburse her $5500 to compensate for the fees of the university semester she had missed and the costs of her related psychology and psychiatry sessions. She also gained an agreement from him that he would undertake consent education, and asked him that if they were to ever cross paths again in their home town he would remove himself. I think coming out of that room, I felt lighter, she says. Having been able to air it all out and let that person know how much I had been hurt and how much it had affected me made me feel like I was heard, but also validated the experience for me. I dont think about it that much any more and my life is a lot better. But its still trauma that I have to live with.
At the same time, Weimar and several others were headhunted to help turn things around. With an initial goal of improving testing rates and engaging across communities, Weimar worked with Euan Wallace, who had been seconded as deputy secretary to the Department of Health (he has since been promoted to department secretary). Sandy Pitcher stepped in to help rebuild Victoria's contact management capacity at the height of the second wave. Credit:Simon Schluter Another central figure was Sandy Pitcher, who was brought over to be deputy secretary for case, contact and outbreak management (she has now been promoted to secretary of the new Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Management). The system changes they and their teams introduced are credited with transforming Victorias efforts into a new gold standard of contact tracing. They got rid of the old manual data-entry systems and reliance on case interviewing, and the highly centralised public health response that sat within the Department of Health and Human Services.

In their place they introduced an end-to-end contact tracing system provided by cloud computing company Salesforce, operational performance targets and new rapid-response testing units that can be deployed at short notice around the state. Another important improvement was capturing basic biographical data at the time people present for a COVID-19 test, to better track the trends of who is getting tested and in what parts of the state, and who needs to be targeted and encouraged to get tested. Weimar has worked hard to overcome social roadblocks to our COVID-19 response, making unpublicised visits to locked-down towers and apartment blocks and attending regular online meetings with diverse communities (including a panel discussion hosted by the Islamic Museum of Australia this week, and al-Taqwa College last week). His decisiveness was on display last week when he found himself in what threatened to erupt into a major media storm. Attempting to describe the diversity of cases in St Kilda and surrounding suburbs, Weimar had said during a lengthy press conference: We have accountants, we have architects, we have a sex worker, we have members of the Orthodox Jewish community, and we have a pizza guy who worked in a pizza shop in Glen Eira.

Some community leaders accused Weimar of inviting criticism of the Orthodox Jewish community, while several opposition politicians said he should never have mentioned peoples faith. Weimar swiftly apologised to Melbournes Jewish community, denounced the twisted dark knot of anti-semitism and held a lengthy conversation with Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, who said he fully accepted Weimars apology and considered the matter closed. Weimar is clearly an effective communicator, but broadcaster and Sunday Age columnist Jon Faine  who regularly brought Weimar onto his ABC morning show to discuss public transport for Melburnians until he retired in 2019, and counts himself a fan  says it wasnt always this way. When he started out, he was a bit of a trainspotter, Faine recalls. You know, he was a bit nerdy. They call them anoraks in England. Jeroen when he started was nothing like what he eventually learned to become. He acquired the skills pretty much by doing it.

As Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton could attest, Melburnians come to form strong attachments to the public servants tasked with getting our society out of crisis. Loading As Weimar made more and more appearances at the daily press conferences held during outbreaks, more and more people took note of this bearded numbers man. Artist Ashley Ellis, who designed Brett Sutton paraphernalia that was wildly successful in niche Melbourne circles during last years second wave, this year added Weimars image to her online collection because competent public servants were still thirst traps [eye candy] in the eyes of many. Why are we like this?

Denis Muller, a retired journalist and senior research fellow at the University of Melbournes Centre for Advancing Journalism, says amid our isolation people seek human connection. I think we do it because were living in an age where people are making human connections through technology, he says. Technologys great, but just on its own its not enough, so people I think are trying to  especially through the pandemic  are trying to humanise their connections as much as they can. Muller says there is another reason Weimar and Sutton have cut through the noise of the daily press conferences. I think people want to believe in these two men in particular, who have very high credibility, because they tell it straight. They dont use weasel words, they dont muck around. They answer yes or no, as the first word of their answers to questions, which is quite unusual for officials, and then they go on to qualify them or expand on them. But I think that cut-through comes from their candour. And Weimar is all over his brief.

Not everyone is a fan. Opposition transport spokesman David Davis has been an outspoken critic, saying Weimar failed at PTV and he failed at V/Line. Weimar couldnt get the trains to run on time, so they put him in charge of the pandemic  God help us! he said. Weimar is a spin merchant for the Andrews Labor government rather than a credible public servant. However Rail Projects Victoria chief executive Evan Tattersall, who worked closely with Weimar during his time at PTV, says he is very disciplined. He doesnt muck around, Tattersall says. Hes a very clear thinker, and quite decisive ... He wont sit around and wait for others to tell him what to do, hell get on the front foot and make a call, which are probably attributes that have served him well in this current role. Loading

The team around Weimar reflects his approach, which is based on logistics and execution. When he moved from transport into health, Weimar brought 10 people with him. One deputy secretary of the COVID-19 response, Kate Matson, was director of regional rail and Southern Cross Station at the Department of Transport until July 2020 (the same month Weimar moved across to Health). Another deputy secretary, Naomi Bromley, worked as an associate director of accounting giant KPMG for almost four years before joining the COVID-19 response team, although she also has extensive experience in health planning and strategy and as a paramedic. Weimar is a private person, sharing little on social media (he declined requests to be interviewed for this article). But those who know him personally hold him in high regard. A keen road cyclist, until July he was vice-president of the Sandringham Life Saving Club, where his family are also active members.
Cricketer Donald Bradman gave them hope. As did Phar Lap. And a bold black gelding from the regions also won plenty of hearts and minds on his way to a rare double, winning punters plenty of money in the process. Loading Sir Alogys parents had, between them, won just the one race. He was by the imported English stallion Analogy, winner of the coveted 1916 Greenham Stakes (1 mile) at Newbury, and was from the maiden mare Dainty Step, who had been unplaced in her only two runs, at Bendigo and Hanging Rock. Sir Alogy was the first of Dainty Steps nine foals and was bred by Frederick Comb, who managed Tupra Station north-west of Hay in New South Wales for wealthy pastoralist Alexander Creswick. Comb raced Sir Alogy in his first preparation.

The sweeping plains of the 365,000-acre (147,710-hectare) Tupra property had a 50-stand woolshed beside the Lachlan River with 135,000 Merinos being shorn annually. Comb played a big part in Tupras fortunes and, like Creswick, had an eventful life. He lost the eldest of his four children, John, who was known by one of his middle names, Keith, killed in World War I action at Wytschaete, south of Ypres on March 1, 1918. A machine gunner in the famed 53rd Battalion, Lance Corporal Comb was only 24 when killed by an exploding shell whilst out barb wiring in no mans land in front of Messines and was buried where he fell. Keiths first cousin, Percy Richards, had also lost his life at Messines, on December 6, 1917.

Only days earlier, Private Richards, from Rokewood Junction just south of Ballarat, had earned a Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. The Great War took a dreadful toll on communities across the nation and nowhere was this more keenly felt than in rural and remote areas where sometimes almost all the young men of a district or small town either made the supreme sacrifice or returned home nothing like they once were: straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. Lance Corporal John Keith Comb and Private Percy Richards Racing in the 1920s helped Australian society recover from the horrors of the war and the subsequent Spanish Flu pandemic that claimed 15,000 Australian lives. As a three-year-old, Sir Alogy attended just four meetings, racing 10 times for three wins (including a dead-heat first) and was out of a place only once at local tracks Balranald and Hay.

Remarkably, Sir Alogys first wins were in hack races on bush tracks  a far cry from the excitement and glamour awaiting him at Caulfield and Flemington where he would soon be the toast of the town while trained by the astute Joseph Cripps. At Tupra Station it was noticed Sir Alogy was a natural jumper and that he could get over logs, three rail fences or wire fences equally as well. This was a useful trait for a stock horse but Comb felt Sir Alogy was capable of much more. His ownership transferred to Creswick, Sir Alogy had two Victorian starts, at Mornington and then Moonee Valley, before embarking on a 13-start jumping career that abruptly finished when it seemed nothing and no horse could stop him. Ken Scott was engaged to ride Sir Alogy and whilst not quite up there with the partnership Jim Pike and Phar Lap would soon enjoy or in more recent times the associations between Luke Nolen on Black Caviar and Hugh Bowman aboard Winx, it was a special bond nonetheless. Scott donned the renowned Creswick silks of black with a blue sash, black cap and rode Sir Alogy in each of his 13 jumps races despite a disastrous first pairing.

Establishing a massive 12-length lead at Mentone on January 3, 1928, Sir Alogy blundered at the fence near the seven-furlong (1400-metre) post the second time around in the Brush Steeplechase event, which was 200m further than the Melbourne Cup. Rider unseated, down they came, unscathed but pride hurt. Then it was off to Aspendale (another racecourse which, as with Mentone, is now a residential subdivision) where Sir Alogy won a 150 hurdle race by three lengths to underline his potential. Three city placings in his next seven runs had Sir Alogy primed for what would be the biggest 15 days of his career, starting with winning the two-mile 250 Gellibrand Hurdle at Moonee Valley on July 28, 1928, on what was his owners 75th birthday. The following Saturday, Sir Alogy faced his toughest test when he opposed 10 others in the time-honoured Australian Hurdle over 3 miles and 20 yards at Caulfield. The headline in The Age said it all: Sir Alogys Australian Hurdle victory. Runaway win in record time.

Indeed it was, with Sir Alogy clocking 6 minutes 5 seconds, clipping a whole seven seconds off the time record for the race, the longest hurdle event in Australia, which had been set the previous year by Seafit. Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack is a racing tragic. As soon as it was seen that Sir Alogy had the race in hand the great crowd cheered as though a well-backed favourite instead of a comparative outsider was coming up the straight, trumpeted The Age. Sir Alogy, at the juicy odds of 14-1, won the race by five lengths from Rumford (6-1) with another seven lengths to the 4-1 favourite, Longlands, third. A week later, at the same course, Sir Alogy, installed a 3-1 equal favourite, accomplished a famous Victorian Amateur Turf Club jumps double, taking out the Australian Steeplechase (3 miles).

Only three others had achieved the dual feat since the races were instituted in 1882: Colonel Shilinski (1902), Les Paddington (1923) and the legendary Roisel (1924). The Age takes up the story: Keeping a tighter rein on Sir Alogy than he did in the Australian Hurdle Race, and wisely refraining, with solid fences in the way, from attempting to again set up that memorable half a furlong lead, K Scott allowed his mount to take the lead from the start." Sir Alogy came home well, without the application of whip or spur, to win by two lengths and a half in record-equalling time from Nyangay  a tired but gallant opponent. The two VATC jumping wins were collectively worth 3000 whilst Scott pocketed 296 as a percentage share of the stakes. Scott did it tough in later life after sustaining critical head injuries in a race fall at the 1930 reopening of the Emu Plains course at Bittern.
NSW residents will have to wait until 80 per cent of all Australians are vaccinated before they can travel overseas, despite a push by some Sydney Liberal MPs to open the gates as soon as the state reaches its target.

Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan stressed all states must stick to the plan agreed by national cabinet as he confirmed a travel bubble with Singapore will commence as soon as 80 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated.

Qantas announced plans last week to restart international flights out of Sydney by Christmas.

At a meeting on Friday, trade ministers agreed to finalise rules for the bubble by the end of the year so that when Australia hits its target, Singapore will be ready to go, Mr Tehan said.

The bubble is expected to operate similarly to Australias arrangements with New Zealand - which are currently suspended - and allow for quarantine-free travel between both countries.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin spoke to the media after the game...

Q: Congratulations. Through to a prelim you must be satisfied for the way it panned out tonight?

Yeah, thanks. I was. In terms of how we played, we speak about that a lot but I thought defensively after quarter-time we really were sound, playing the best offensive team in the competition. To keep them to five goals post-quarter-time was an outstanding defensive performance. Everything we have been building in terms of how we wanted to play was on display. Full credit to the players. They prepared well from last week and knew it was a new season and thats the way they wanted to treat it.

Q: What was the message at quarter-time because its not too many times this season where youve been in a five-goal-to-four quarter and its been a bit of a shoot-out. Was it just getting back to what you know?

There was a lot going right in terms of the game when we went inside 50 we were scoring, the problem is when they were going inside 50 they were scoring as well. We tidied up some things behind the ball. Our defenders stood up and won contest and ability to do that went a long way to changing the momentum of the game and getting the game on our terms so I thought our defenders really stood up in that quarter.

Q: Going forward - sorry to take it forward straight away but obviously after a win like that how hard will it be not to go in unchanged? Would you really want to change much of your line-up after tonight?

Well assess that depending on who were playing against but the guys that played tonight I thought majority of them were outstanding. If you go through that, but well get all the information, get the medicos to look at everyone, make sure were all clear, see how the boys pull up but at this stage the 22 who played tonight were pretty solid but we dont know who were playing. Well wait until we get that and make decisions.

Q: Simon, does it feel different to 2018?

Were a completely different side than we were in 2018. Weve really established ourselves and the way we defend. We are more consistent in the way we play and put ourselves in a better position and in better form so it is a different experience but we sit here and weve still got work to do. As coaches and as the leadership group, well go away and find areas of our game we want to continue improving and thats been a great thing about our teams development throughout the whole year is that they are never satisfied and they want to find ways to get belter and we have to keep looking for ways to get better.

Q: Simon, was there any concern about Lachie Neale getting off the chain like he did today? Something you need to work on a bit?

We spoke about him a lot throughout the game. There were little patches in the game where we certainly sent some guys to him to try and stem the influence, no question hes an outstanding player and was having influence but a lot of these things come around with scoreboard as well, momentum in the game, scoreboard, the function of your whole group is what we look at and there was certainly periods we thought it would need to take some influence away. Majority of the night I thought our mids worked hard and got themselves into the game and got on top by the end.

Q: You mentioned it is a very different team to 2018 I think you had nine finals debutants tonight. Does it say a bit about the growth and maturity of those youngsters that they put their foot down early and when Brisbane came late in the third quarter they were able to keep their composure and see it out?
Mexico City: An all-woman Afghan robotics team known as the Afghan Dreamers are now safe in Mexico, and say they want to help others who remain in their country after the Taliban takeover.

We are concerned with what will happen to our home, said Saghar, who asked that her last name not be used to avoid endangering her family members who remain in Afghanistan.

Many people are leaving, but there are still girls who have dreams, there are also people who have dreams, and we want countries around the world to help Afghanistan to have peace over there so that the girls over there can have the opportunities to continue their path as well.

Kawsar, left, a member of the Afghan all-girls robotics team, speaks during an interview in Mexico City. Credit:AP

The four women, accompanied by a sister and another man, arrived this week after travelling through six countries to reach Mexico. They fled Afghanistan after the takeover of the country earlier this month by the Taliban, who forbade women working or going to school after a certain age when it last ran the country.
The first Arkansas Supreme Court oral argument of the term will take place virtually, in light of public health concerns amid a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. The Sept. 9 oral argument was originally scheduled to take place in person at the Arkansas Capitol. It is tradition fo
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Oneonta, NY (13820)

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Cloudy with showers. Low around 50F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Localized flooding is expected..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

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47 Victims Rescued, 102 Arrested in Multi-State Human Trafficking Operation

A human trafficking operation joined by 12 states has rescued 47 victims and arrested 102 people, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced on Aug. 27.

Using both buyer-centric and victim-centric sting human trafficking operations, Missouri and participating states were able to rescue 47 victims and sex workers and provide needed medical services to 41, and arrested 102 across the country in connection with human trafficking, the Missouri Attorney Generals Office said in a statement.

According to the information provided by the Missouri Attorney Generals Office, the operation rescued victims and made arrests in 12 states.

Missouri: four victims rescued, two arrests made.

Illinois: one victim rescued, three arrests made.

Iowa: 11 arrests made, a large amount of currency has been seized.

Kentucky: 21 adult victims rescued, two minor victims rescued, 46 arrests made.

Minnesota: eight victims rescued, three arrests made.

Nebraska: seven arrests made.

North Dakota: six victims rescued, three arrests made.

Oklahoma: one victim rescued, seven arrests made.

Tennessee: four arrests made.

Texas: four victims rescued, two arrests made.

Wisconsin: five arrests made.

South Dakota: nine arrests made.

The operation, Operation United Front, was led by the Missouri Attorney Generals Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol and joined by various law enforcement departments from Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas. Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI also joined the efforts.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Missouri Attorney Generals Office served as the main communications hub to coordinate other states operations, while each state conducted its own operation simultaneously.

Missouri also offered training and information about how to best conduct the operations to participating states.

Operation United Front was an unprecedented human trafficking operation that brought together law enforcement agencies from different jurisdictionssomething that rarely happens. When we all come together, we can affect change and more effectively fight human trafficking, a crime that is often multi-jurisdictional in nature, Schmitt said.

According to data collected by the FBI, there were 1,883 human trafficking offenses reported in 2019, with 875 of the offenses cleared or closed, including 18 offenses that involved minor victims under the age of 18.

The terms cleared or closed usually mean that law enforcement departments have made arrests, the suspects have been charged, cases have been turned over to the court for prosecution, or the offender has been identified.
Canadians Are Appalled by the Afghan Crisis, and Party Leaders Better Take Note

Commentary

Even the most carefully crafted of election campaigns can become derailed by unanticipated events. The Trudeau Liberals campaign plan didnt appear to be carefully crafted in the first place and now it is at risk of being completely derailed by the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.

In times of crisis, a political party can actually shine if it demonstrates strong, confident leadership. The Liberals had better demonstrate some of that sort of leadership in the Afghanistan situation because they are quickly losing control of the election narrative.

Canadians pride themselves on being empathetic peacekeepers on the world stage. We have sent our military members into many foreign nations with the best of intentions. We put our soldiers at risk with the hope that we can establish order in war-torn zones long enough for peace to be established. We hope to leave these zones better than we found them.

Canadian forces were engaged in combat roles in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011, and then shifted their focus to training local forces until 2014. In the period of Canadas military engagement in the country, 158 Canadian soldiers lost their lives while thousands of others were wounded.

Today we are watching in horror as it appears that all of our efforts were for naught. The Taliban took over Afghanistan within a week of the withdrawal of coalition forces and the attempted evacuation of Kabul has been a catastrophe. Afghanistan looks no better today than it did in 2001, and we now have the fate of Afghan supporters of Canadian forces who have been left behind on our conscience.

To be fair, every NATO ally was caught flat-footed when the Taliban swept Afghanistan so quickly. Whether it was a case of overconfidence or naivete that led to this rout will be discussed for years. No nation with forces in Afghanistan seemed to see this coming, although the withdrawal had been planned for months. Justin Trudeau doesnt directly control military actions, but he is the man in charge of our nation at this time. Canadians could very well take out their ire over the crisis in Afghanistan at the polls and the Liberals could pay a heavy price for it, whether thats fair or not.

While nobody foresaw such a quick collapse of order in Afghanistan, some did see trouble coming and tried to sound a warning. Conservative Leader Erin OToole sent a letter to Trudeau on June 22 pleading for him to expedite the evacuation of Afghan interpreters and allies as threats from the Taliban mounted. While it certainly wasnt intentional, the Conservative Party under OToole is well placed to electorally benefit from the Afghan crisis. As a veteran of the Canadian Forces, OToole can speak with experience and authority on these matters.

The Liberal campaign team and candidates appear to be floundering on the Afghan issue. Minister for Women and Gender Equality Maryam Monsef mortified Canadians when she referred to Taliban members as our brothers when making a plea for Taliban restraint. While diplomatic restraint in a volatile situation is understandable, nobody in Canada wants to consider brotherhood with an organization as violent and extreme as the Taliban. When asked if she wanted to walk the comment back, Monsef refused.

Minister for Women and Gender Equality Maryam Monsef listens to a question during a news conference in Ottawa on Oct. 19, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Trudeau is faring no better in fielding questions on the Afghanistan crisis. When asked at a recent press conference about the fate of Canadians stranded in Kabul, he pivoted to a critique of Stephen Harper and his governments actions in Syria in 2015. Firing shots at a past prime minister is unlikely to be an effective diversionary tactic on a situation that is unfolding right now.

Nobody expected the Afghanistan crisis to be an election issue, and surely nobody wanted it to be one. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is now front and centre in the campaign. How leaders and candidates respond and act in the face of this crisis is going to directly impact their electoral chances.

Canadians are appalled and even a bit ashamed of the situation in Afghanistan. They want to see action, strength, and a sense of direction from party leaders. They never want to see a situation like this again. The response from party leaders on this crisis will make or break their electoral chances in the coming days.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Afghanistan: Reporters Daring Escape; Resistance Offers Glimmer of Hope

Veteran war correspondent Hollie McKay made it out of Afghanistanunder Taliban escort. She joins us from Uzbekistan to share her incredible story and some unique insights on what the future holds.

In America Q&A, we ask: Given what we know now, do you think America was right to leave Afghanistan?

Finally, in our second America Q&A, we ask people across the country if they believe the government can monitor everything they do on their smartphones.

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Condemning Beijings Latest Assault on Freedom of the Press

In an escalating campaign to suppress freedom of speech, Chinas communist authorities have arrested and charged 11 Chinese citizens for allegedly providing The Epoch Times with information documenting draconian virus lockdown measures.

The 11 citizens face up to life in prison if convicted, according to the Chinese Communist Partys Supreme Peoples Procuratorate.

The Epoch Times editorial board condemns this suppression of the press and basic human rights in the strongest terms possible and calls on Beijing to immediately release the 11 detainees.

These latest arrests were condemned by the U.S. State Department, which is urging Beijing to cease its efforts to silence those who seek to report the truth.

The Committee to Protect Journalists also condemned the arrests, urging communist authorities to immediately release and drop charges against the 11 detainees.

For more than 20 years, Chinese citizens have seen The Epoch Times as a trusted voice and have provided us with story leads, images, video, documents, and other kinds of information. This includes insider information from disillusioned CCP officials themselves.

This vital source of information has allowed us to inform the world of whats really happening in China.

But for the CCP, absolute control over the flow of information has been critical to maintaining its rule for the past seven decades.

The Epoch Times was founded in the year 2000 to break through this censorship and propaganda, by Chinese-Americans who saw a need for an independent press that would provide truthful and uncensored news. This same commitment to independent journalism forms the DNA of the English edition of The Epoch Times, which was launched four years later.

But while The Epoch Times has provided tens of millions of Chinese citizens with uncensored news, the CCP has always sought to obstruct this free flow of information.

Our first group of reporters and editors inside China were arrested and some were jailed for up to 10 yearswith most of them torturedfor working for The Epoch Times.

Outside of mainland China, we have faced regular harassment and interference from the CCP.

In Hong Kong, our printing press has been attacked several times. It was set on fire in November 2019, and in April 2021, press equipment was smashed by intruders with sledgehammers.

Andrew Hamilton in his 1735 speech defending press freedom said: Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds, it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it. And brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes.

In the free world, we understand that freedom of the press helps to keep society open and healthy. In our current greatly connected world, news in one place can be vital for the rest of the world.

What happens in China not only affects China, but also has the potential to affect the entire world, as weve seen with the pandemic.

If the world had known how fast the virus was spreading in Wuhan from the beginning, if we had known how many people died at an early stage (the real number of deaths in China is still covered up), the world would have taken different measures to protect people.

Its no secret that many media organizations in the West have been bought off and infiltrated by the CCP. Its our duty, however, to stand tall in the face of the CCPs repression and speak the truth. We hope more media organizations can have the courage to report honestly on the CCPand with that, in fact, save livesboth inside and outside of China.

We are not just defending these courageous Chinese citizens who risked their own safety in letting the world know the truth. We are not here just to defend press freedom. We are here to defend our basic dignity as human beings.

Were grateful for the trust and support from Chinese citizens. Throughout our entire history, they have had the courage to take great risks to pass news to us. We appreciate the support from the State Department and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Do National COVID Mandates Fulfill the Public Good?

Science without conscience is the souls perdition.  Rabelais

Commentary

A crisis has now darkened Western democracies just as surely as long-benighted dictatorships. Wherein does it lie? In the disdain with which its proud technocrats dismiss conscience. Conscience is no quantifiable thing; it has no weight or measure, and it cannot be listed among a nations assets. Science cant prove it exists.

Yet conscience is no mere trifle. Conscience distinguishes humanity from the brutes of creation. It is the little spark of celestial fire that motivated the obedience of our nations greatest heroes in their darkest hour. It is the voice of God in the soul.

Over the past 18 months, our fundamental freedoms have all been assaulted by a virus. The public incursions against freedom have been protested, but the small private matter of conscience has received scant attention.

Why? Because it is the casualty of friendly fireby friends who never acknowledged it.

Conscience was caught in the politicians war on COVID-19 and its variants. They confessed their faith in science to defeat it. Progress demanded it. Computer models predicted the threat to the control of the system of public health to be so terrible that to defend their Technopoly, as coined by Neil Postman in his book of the same name, politicians seized extraordinary emergency powers to aid science in its certain victory.

This unwavering faith in science was completely irrational, if not unscientific. Science itself tells us that viruses are not living organisms. They cannot be killed. They also mutate. All the gains from rushing the slow safety protocols of science to contain last years virus were swiftly lost in subsequent variants.

As the unflagging determination to win the war continues, the illogic of the position grows. That is because it never was a fight about scienceit was a fight to defend the pride of the idol of technocracy and extend its dominance. That means more control for the technocrats.

The Pfizer vaccine now fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is a marvel of speed and deployment. But its success rate of 39 percent against the dominant Delta variant would have never got it to trial a year ago. The FDAs Aug. 23 approval seems more a participation trophy for speed and application than for actual success.

But my concern is not to observe this evident absurdity. It is to note the moral consequence of fighting an extended, vain war against an immortal and invisible enemy, with no defined exit strategy.

For it is now abundantly clear. Approving a failed vaccine while mandating passports allows for a permanent group of second-class citizens even after a state of emergency has ended. And it normalizes mandatory vaccinations for everyone, even when they are not useful.

This month, Quebec, B.C., and Ontario will require vaccination passports for non-essential activities, while the federal government is planning to mandate vaccinations for commercial air, train, and cruise ship passengers as well as for all federal employees. Wed be naive to think itll stop there.

Consciences are being crushed in the mission creep. Why do I cite conscience as a problem?

When politicians waived the legal liability of the vaccine manufacturers, they also demanded the medical community set aside its ethics, first through a sustained campaign of pressure to take the shot and now through mandates. If the campaign of pressure defied the bedrock ethical principle of informed consent established in the Nuremberg Code, then the mobs call for mandates on doctors and patients to defend our idol of technocracy is in defiance of our very essence as human beings.

Martin Luther once noted that to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. The great civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. echoed his words. In his autobiography, he writes:

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expedience asks the question, Is it politic? And Vanity comes along and asks the question Is it popular? But Conscience asks the question, Is it right?  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis and controversy.

The worth of individual conscience is the great legacy of the West, and its blessings have spread with the Nuremberg Code, and in political defences of conscience.

But we are on the eve of its eclipse.

We are rejecting the lesson of history. Individuals ignore their conscience at the peril of their own souls, and when technocratic science is given the lead over the conscience of the nation, so much greater is the ruin. This can however be avoided.

English playwright George Bernard Shaw described a Native American elders account of his own struggles with conscience: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, the one I feed the most.

The moral goodness of the freedom of association, the freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of thought and expression, and the freedom of conscience and religion are enshrined as fundamental rights in Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They have been set aside these last 18 months under the auspices of an emergency. The good dog has been deprived of his food.

The question I would ask Canadians and our politicians is: What sort of nation is being preserved when fundamental civil liberties have been cast aside and the inviolability of conscience has been despoiled as a medical necessity, a casualty of war? What sort of country will we return to, and what will our children inherit when the freedoms our Charter calls fundamental give way to appeals to what is safe, or politic, or popular, rather than what is right?

It is indeed a time of crisis.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
EXCLUSIVE: Former US Marine Captain Evacuating as Many as Possible as Aug. 31 Deadline Looms

Elliot Ackerman has served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine Corps officer and CIA officer. Over the past 10 days, he and his cohorts have unofficially evacuated around 200 people from Kabul airport.

We gave these people our word, that if they worked with us, we would stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

Any decent human being would have a hard time turning their back on these pleas for help.

Ackerman describes his and his operatives timely evacuation of 29 Afghans Thursday. They were able to get the group into the airport just 20 minutes before the ISIS suicide bomb went off.

With the Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan looming, Ackerman gives his battle-honed perspective on the best course to take, both diplomatically and on the ground, going forward.

Hosted by NTD journalist Brendon Fallon, Wide Angle is following the latest political developments in the United States and abroad, and finding the connection between these and the larger global trends of our times.

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The crater of Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island in Hawaii National Park, Hawaii, Aug. 13, 2021. (Drew Downs/U.S. Geological Survey via AP)

Explainer: Is Hawaiis Kilauea Volcano Going to Erupt Again?

HONOLULUScientists say the immediate potential for an eruption at Hawaiis Kilauea volcano has declined after earthquakes and ground swelling subsided in the 24 hours leading up to Thursday morning. Earlier in the week, the quakes and changes to the ground surface prompted scientists to say the mountain could once again disgorge lava.

Heres an overview of the latest developments at Kilauea:

What Activity Did Scientists See?

Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Monday noticed a surge of earthquakes and the ground swelling at the southern part of the crater at Kilaueas summit. There are indications magma is shifting about a half-mile to a mile below the surface.

Its not uncommon for Kilauea to have earthquakes, which could indicate rocks are moving. Its also not unusual for the ground to swell as the heat from the sun and saturation from rain can cause the ground to expand and contract.

However, earthquakes and ground swelling at the same time indicated magma was on the move.

We get a lot of earthquakes here, and we get a lot of deformation here. But the combination of the two makes us much more aware, said Jefferson Chang, a geophysicist at the observatory, which is part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Instruments detected hundreds of earthquakes from Monday through Wednesday, some striking as often as 25 times an hour. The strongest measured magnitude 3, with most coming in between magnitude 1 and 2 At these levels, the quakes are generally too small for people to notice. Chang said there havent been any reports of people feeling them.

Where Did the Activity Happen?

It occurred at the summit of Kilauea volcano, an uninhabited area within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. This is about 200 miles southeast of Honolulu, which is on a different island called Oahu.

The site is miles from the nearest town. The park has closed off this part of the summit to the public since 2008.

Ben Hayes, the parks interpretation and education program manager, said the park was preparing for a potential eruption, but he said theres nothing to be alarmed about. Its a natural process at one of the worlds most active volcanoes, he said.

Has This Happened Before?

Chang said scientists observed activity in the same part of the summit in 2015. That episode lasted three days, and the volcano didnt erupt. Just like this time, the ground swelled. One difference is that there were more earthquakes then.

The last time Kilauea erupted at the southern part of its caldera or crater was in 1974.

Whats the Current Situation?

The earthquake swarm stopped about 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The ground swelling has also subsided.

What Does It Mean to Change the Alert Level?

The observatory lowered Kilaueas volcano alert level back down to advisory from watch on Thursday, after the earthquakes and ground swelling had subsided for 24 hours.

The new alert level means volcanic activity has decreased significantly, but scientists will continue to monitor Kilauea for more increases.

On Tuesday, the observatory had raised the alert level to watch, meaning Kilauea was showing heightened unrest with increased potential to erupt.

How Often Has Kilauea Erupted Before?

Hawaiian chants and stories tell the stories of countless eruptions. In Hawaiian tradition, Kilauea is home to the volcano goddess Pele.

Kilauea has erupted 34 times since 1952. From 1983 to 2018, it erupted almost continuously, in some cases sending streams of lava that covered farms and homes. At the end of this decades-long eruption, Kilauea spewed lava from vents in a residential neighborhood on its eastern flank and destroyed more than 700 homes.

In December, Kilauea erupted at the crater, creating a lake with enough lava to fill 10 Hoover dams. That eruption ended in May.

By Audrey Mcavoy
FDA Bans Sale of 55,000 Flavored E-Cigarette Products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned sales of about 55,000 flavored e-cigarette products on Thursday because of the health threat they pose to American youth.

The applications for about 55,000 flavored ENDS products from three applicants lacked sufficient evidence that [e-cigarettes] have a benefit to adult smokers sufficient to overcome the public health threat posed by the well-documented, alarming levels of youth use of such products, the federal agency wrote in an Aug. 26 statement.

It is the first time the FDA has issued a ban on an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) since they began requiring vape companies to apply for premarket review last year.

The three companies that have their marketing orders denied are JD Nova Group LLC, Great American Vapes, and Vapor Salon. The flavors of the non-tobacco e-cigarette products that are impacted by the ban include Apple Crumble, Dr. Cola, and Cinnamon Toast Cereal.

Congress gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products to protect the public from the harmful effects of tobacco use through science-based regulation, said acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock.

Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, arrives during the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 20, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Ensuring new tobacco products undergo an evaluation by the FDA is a critical part of our aim to reduce tobacco-related disease and death, she continued. We know that flavored tobacco products are very appealing to young people, therefore assessing the impact of potential or actual youth use is a critical factor in our decision-making about which products may be marketed.

Tobacco companies must submit premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) to the FDA, proving that their products provide an overall benefit to public health. If a company fails to make its case, the FDA has the power to order its products off the market.

The FDA said its reviewed products for more than 500 companies and more than 6.5 million products, and it has taken other negative actions against those applications.

The electronic nicotine product was often marketed as a tool to help adults quit smoking cigarettes, but the product became extremely enticing to youth, with health experts sounding an alarm over a massive uptick in use among children and teens.

Flavored ENDS products are extremely popular among youth, with over 80 percent of e-cigarette users between ages 12 through 17 using one of these products, said Mitch Zeller, J.D., head of the FDAs Center for Tobacco Products. Companies who want to continue to market their flavored ENDS products must have robust and reliable evidence showing that their products potential benefit for adult smokers outweighs the significant known risk to youth.

A young man smokes an electronic cigarette in this picture illustration taken on Sept. 14, 2018. (Mike Blake/Illustration/Reuters)

Millions of Americans are vaping, and some are getting sick. Since June 2019, 2,711 have been hospitalized and 60 have died due to EVALI (e-cigarette-associated lung injury), the devastating lung disease linked to e-cigarettes.

According to research published by JAMA Network Open, about 27 percent of high school students and 10.5 percent of middle schoolers said they have used vape products in 2019. Some users are as young as 11, although its illegal to sell vaping products to anyone under 21.

Weihong Lin contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Full Retirement Age: Whats the Big Deal?

I am always getting emails from readers who are so hung up on making sure they start their Social Security benefits at their full retirement age. They dont want them a month before. They dont want them a month after. They want to make darn sure that their benefits start at their full retirement age. And they almost seem to be losing sleep making sure this is going to happen.

They send me emails asking me, almost begging me, to help them make sure they select the right date.

I always want to tell these guys (and it seems to be always guys) to chill out. Dont worry. Be happy! You will probably pick the right date. But even if you dont, guess what? The earth will keep spinning, and the sun will come up tomorrow. And you will not be making a huge mistake that will affect your benefits for the rest of your life. I will explain what I am talking about in a minute.

But first, let me go over the ground rules. They are really simple. (By the way, Im going to use the word simple several times in this paragraph. Thats because Im trying to emphasize how simple it is.) If you want benefits to begin at your full retirement age, then you simply indicate the month you reach your FRA as your starting month on your Social Security retirement application. So if your full retirement age is age 66 and two months, and you will be age 66 and two months in September 2021, then you simply indicate September as your starting month. Its so simple!

Some people over think this. For example, they know that Social Security checks come one month behind. In other words, the September 2021 Social Security check is paid in October. So if a guy turns FRA in September, he thinks too hard, and he puts October as his starting month. But the Social Security application question isnt asking you which month you want your check to show up in your bank account. Its asking you which is the first month you want to be eligible for a Social Security check.

One little bit of clarification. Social Security eligibility always goes by month, not by days. For example, if you were born on Sept. 21, 1955, meaning your full retirement age is 66 and two months, and thats when you want your benefits to begin, you dont indicate Nov. 21, 2021 as your eligibility date. You simply indicate November 2021.

So to repeat once again. If you want benefits to start in the month you reach full retirement age, then SIMPLY indicate that month as your starting month on the application form.

Some guys have told me that they are afraid to file for benefits early because they are worried sick that they will get benefits before their full retirement age. For example, Bob and I recently had a back and forth email exchange. He was born Aug. 14, 1955. His full retirement age is 66 and two months. And he wants to make sure his benefits begin at his FRA, which would be October 2021. He asked me when he could file for benefits. I told him he could start the ball rolling now already. But then he said he doesnt want to do that because he is worried they will use August as his starting date. I told him that he will indicate October as his starting date on the application, and that is when his benefits will start. But he wrote back to say he was just so concerned about getting benefits on the wrong date, so he was going to wait until October to apply.

I then sent him a return email with my the sun will come out tomorrow message. In other words, even in the EXTREMELY unlikely event that his benefit start date ends up being August, the world wont end, and his benefits arent affected all that much. And let me explain that to you.

Lets say Bobs October full retirement age benefit rate is $3,200. If through some fluke his benefits started two months earlier in August, hed get a slightly reduced benefit. Benefits are reduced about one-half of 1 percent for each month they are started early. That comes out to a 1 percent reduction for Bob. So instead of $3,200 per month, hed get $32 less per month, or $3,168. Thats the downside. Hed get $32 less each month. But on the upside, he ends up getting two extra Social Security checks at $3,168 each, or $6,336. Bob would have to live 198 months, or more than 16 years, before he comes out on the losing end of the Social Security stick with that slightly earlier starting date.

Bob was a bit relieved by that point I made. But then he told me he had another concern: his wife. She has a lower Social Security benefit on her own record, and assuming Bob dies first, she will get widows benefits on his record. And he said he wants her to get the most money he can on his record. So if Bob ends up with $32 less per month in retirement benefits, then his wifes widows benefit would be $32 less per month, too.

I then told Bob that if making sure his wife gets the highest widows benefit possible was his primary concern, he should consider waiting until 70 to file for Social Security. He would get four years worth of delayed retirement credits added to his benefit rate, and his wife would also get that extra money in the form of widows benefits. Bob told me he considered that, but he and his wife decided he should not give up all the benefits hed get between now and age 70.

So now, back to Bobs worries that if he files now (in August), there is a chance that he will end up with August as his starting month. What can he do? I once again reiterated to Bob that as long as he indicates October as his starting month, that just wasnt going to happen. But absolute worst-case scenario, lets say it did. If he didnt want those two extra checks with a $32 monthly reduction, his only recourse would be to call the Social Security Administration at 800-772-1213 and withdraw that claim with the August starting month and file a new claim with an October start date.
The Google logo adorns the outside of their NYC office Google Building 8510 at 85 10th Ave on June 3, 2019 in New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Google Tells Australian Government of $1 Billion Global Campaign to Censor COVID-19 Misinformation

Google reported to the Australian federal government that it has removed around 800,000 YouTube videos concerning COVID-19, and 275 million COVID-19 apps from across its platform as part of its $1 billion (US $726 million) global campaign to counter COVID-19 misinformation.

It has also launched a US $3 million fund to wipe out alleged vaccine misinformation.

Google regards official government information from national health departments or the World Health Organization as reliable sources. Meanwhile, the WHO has noted that information changes over time as the world learns more about the virus.

Lucinda Longcroft, Googles director of government affairs and public policy for Australia and New Zealand, told a Senate committee on foreign interference through social media in July that Google has extensive automated systems and a global network of staff to remove false or misleading COVID-19 content as rapidly as possible.

This is combined with algorithmic tools to help promote government-approved COVID-19 information and bury borderline content, which was defined in a January blog post by Youtube as content that comes close tobut doesnt quite cross the line ofviolating our Community Guidelines.

This has been a broad campaign and activity across our organisation, Longcroft said. We have deployed significant resources and developed innovative tools, both human-based and machine-based, to curb harmful information and promote authoritative information.

During the Senate meeting, Longcroft also confirmed that Google had engaged very closely with the Australian government, giving it AU $3.6 million worth of free advertising, resulting in 20.6 million impressions of government-approved COVID-19 information for Australian users.

Silhouettes of mobile device users are seen next to a screen projection of YouTubes logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Big Tech Censorship Concerns

Big techs efforts to remove public discourse around COVID-19 from online platforms has raised the ire of some researchers working on understanding the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, who have voiced concerns that big tech is stifling scientific debate around the pandemic, calling it censorship.

For example, in June, YouTube removed a video in which Stanford professor of medicine John Ioannidis discussed data related to COVID-19 and the negative impacts of the ongoing lockdown. Despite numerous challenges to the censorship, YouTube did not reveal which part of Ioannidiss interview it construed as misinformation.

In May, Facebook deleted a post linking to a peer-reviewed Lancet article, which reported that SARS-CoV-2 spreads by airborne transmission. The article had criticised a claim made by a review funded by World Health Organization (WHO) that there were no firm conclusions to be drawn about airborne transmission.

Authors of the Lancet article included world-renowned experts on aerosols, including American scientist Kimberly Prather and the highly cited aerosol researcher Jose-Luis Jimenez from the University of Colorado.

We absolutely recognise that measuring misinformation is a real challenge, Facebooks head of policy in Australia Josh Machin told the Senate last month.

First, because peoples views on whether a post on Facebook is misinformation or not can vary, and also because, particularly since the pandemic began last year, weve had to really rapidly scale up our policies and continue to consult with experts, and they have been shifting.

Machin disclosed that Facebook had removed 18 million posts containing harmful misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, attached false labels to 167 million posts on these topics, and collaborated with 80 fact-checkers around the world.

Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared for packaging at the companys facility in Puurs, Belgium, in March 2021. (Pfizer via AP)

But while social media companies usually turn to the WHO, local health officials, and governments for authoritative information, this does not imply that they are unerring, wrote Swedish bioethics researcher Emilia Niemiec in a scientific report last year.

Niemiec argued that because knowledge about COVID-19 is currently limited and unsettled, the medical community is still debating various topics, such as the lockdown policies and vaccines.

She also noted that while the censorship on social media might seem like an effective and immediate solution to the problem of misinformation, it can also limit the sharing of constructive critique of the current evidence and opinions.

These types of information, the medical researcher pointed out, is necessary to identify and correct potential errors, as well as further the understanding of complex issues surrounding the pandemic.

A major question regarding the policies of the communication platforms is who exactly defines  which information is deemed to be false or harmful? And can we rely on these judgements? Niemiec asked.

She added that if the exclusive authority to define what is scientifically proven or medically substantiated is left to social media providers or certain institutions, there is potential for errors and miscalculation, or even the potential abuse of this power to foster political, commercial, or other interests.

The censorship is not based solely on science, the researcher added. An analysis of content banned on social networks suggests that the moderation is often politically biased.

If we add to this the fact that Google is the most popular search engine, it becomes clear that a few tech companies have huge power over what information Internet users can see and how their views are shaped.

Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts asked in the Senate on Aug. 11 whether there was a potential conflict of interest giving Google the final say in how COVID-19 vaccine information is screened and approved.

Roberts noted that Google and YouTubes parent company, Alphabet, owns 12 percent of Vaccitech Ltd. through a venture capital fund GV (formerly Google Ventures). Vaccitech is a UK-based biotechnology company that co-invented the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Epoch Times has contacted Alphabet, Vaccitech, and Google for comments but did not receive a response.
An illustration of COVID-19 vaccine vials with a flag of the United States. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Green Card Applicants Will Soon Need COVID-19 Vaccine to Be Eligible: CDC

Requirement takes effect Oct. 1

Most green card applicants will need to get vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and have proof of the vaccination to be eligible for permanent residency in the United States effective Oct. 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new CDC guidance would apply to immigrants living in the United States seeking to apply for a green card.

COVID-19 vaccination now meets the criteria for required vaccinations and is a requirement for applicants eligible for the vaccine, the CDC stated on its website.

The agency said that a negative screening for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, doesnt guarantee they wont have the disease when they become a permanent resident.

A combination of vaccination and routine infection control practices will provide the best protection from COVID-19 for applicants and U.S. communities, the CDC stated.

As such, a green card applicant must complete the COVID-19 vaccine series and provide documentation of vaccination to the civil surgeon in person as part of their medical examination. The CDC emphasized that self-reported vaccine doses without written documentation are not acceptable.

The CDC also noted that applicants are required to receive the vaccine regardless of evidence of immunity or prior COVID-19 infection.

Laboratory tests for COVID-19 immunity must not be used for the civil surgeon exam.  The duration of immunity due to natural infection is still being investigated and might not protect the applicant throughout the immigration process, the agency stated on its website.

Some Exemptions

According to the CDC, COVID-19 meets the definition of a quarantinable communicable disease and specifically the definition of severe acute respiratory syndromes under Presidential Executive Order 13674, thus making it a Class A Inadmissible Condition. Vaccine refusal without an adequate reason would render a green card applicant inadmissible.

If an applicant refuses one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine series that is medically appropriate for the applicant, it should be documented that the vaccine requirements are not complete and that the applicant refuses vaccination, the CDC stated. This applicant is Class A and is inadmissible to the United States.

People can apply for exemptions, including seeking a waiver on religious or moral grounds or a temporary waiver if the COVID-19 vaccine isnt available in the persons area. In the latter case, the examining Civil Surgeon has to document the matter and the person needs to arrange to get a vaccine soon after.

Other reasons allowed for green card applicants to bypass COVID-19 vaccination include being under 12 years old, since the vaccine is only authorized for those 12 and older, and having a medical condition or allergy that prevents them from taking the vaccine.

Currently, CCP virus vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States are the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Under the emergency use authorizations, those 12 and above are authorized to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and those 18 and above are authorized to receive the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave full approval on Aug. 23 to future doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech for those aged 16 and older, making it the first vaccine to receive full approval in the United States. The existing supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will continue to be administered under an updated emergency use authorization.

According to U.S. federal law, foreigners who apply for a green card are required to be vaccinated against other diseases, including, mumps, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, polio, and pertussis.
Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Investigation Into COVID-19 Origin Should Continue After Inconclusive US Intelligence Report: Expert

The investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic should continue, said Thomas Wright, a senior fellow of foreign policy at Washington-based think tank Brookings Institution, after U.S. intelligence agencies earlier this week delivered an inconclusive assessment on the issue to President Joe Biden.

Its important to get to the bottom of it, Wright told The Epoch Times. To find out what actually happened.

Wright, co-author of the new book Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order, which he wrote with now-U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, said that he is not surprised that the most recent report of the pandemics origins is inconclusive, given the Chinese regimes obstructionism and refusal to cooperate.

To have the proper investigation, you need Chinese cooperation, and obviously theyve been withholding that, so that just makes it very difficult, he said, adding that while there are still questions about whether the pandemic began with a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or via a Wuhan wet market, Chinas status as the source of the pandemic is clear.

The evidence is overwhelming that [the pandemic] originated in China. I think very few people other than the Chinese government  would dispute that in any way.

CCPs Actions Backfired on Them

In Aftershocks, Wright and Kahl detail the cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of the COVID-19 outbreak following its emergence in Wuhan, as well as its efforts to utilize the pandemic as a way to boost its international standing and power vis-a-vis other nations.

Wright and Kahl note that the CCPs first reaction to COVID-19 was fear and suppression of related information, writing that one US embassy official told us they had never seen Chinese officials as unconfident, terrified, and nervous as they were [early on in the pandemic]  Beijing realized if news of its botched initial response leaked out, it could damage the Chinese Communist Party. So Xi [Jinping] was determined to act quickly against any dissenting voices inside China that questioned the official narrative.

Theres no question [Chinese officials] were  deeply worried back in January 2020, Wright said. That concern led the regime to be more repressive and secretive about it.

Despite the CCPs suppressive actionswhich enabled the spread of COVID-19 around the world and hindered effective defense against the pandemicother nations, particularly in Europe, initially showed goodwill through the provision of significant aid to China. Months later when the pandemic was ravaging Europe, the CCP returned the favor with its own transactional approach to aid that was also leveraged as a propaganda event for the regime.

Wright and Kahl note in their book that the European Union discreetly sent humanitarian assistance to China at the beginning of the pandemic, with special attention given to avoiding any embarrassment for the CCP. They write that French President Emmanuel Macron told an aide that the Chinese government would remember this gesture of goodwill.

However, by the time Europe itself was battling the pandemic, China appeared to reciprocate and began to send aidyet Chinese authorities insisted that its arrival be met with some fanfare and public declarations of support from recipient countries, making the whole thing appear explicitly transactional, the book states.

In one case, Italy donated thirty tons of equipment to China, which the Chinese later returnedand then charged the Italian government for it.

Wright, who was born and grew up in Dublin, Ireland, said that the CCPs cynical actions with respect to pandemic-related aid were sort of shocking for European nations.

It backfired for them, he said, referring to the Chinese regime. That bred resentment, and other countries saw what they were doing.

Especially in Europe, it resulted in a big change of attitude and even in policy toward China.

European policy changes cited by Wright and Kahl include measures to prevent Chinese companies or state-backed actors from exploiting European markets and purchasing European assets at low prices, pushing the Chinese telecom company Huawei out of Europes 5G infrastructure, and diversifying relationships internationally to reduce the EUs economic dependence on China.

[Europeans] began to speak up more confidently about Chinas assertiveness, particularly its crackdown on student protesters in Hong Kong and its mass repression of the Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang, the authors write.

Spotlight on Taiwans Success

While generally critical of former President Donald Trump in Aftershocks, Wright and Kahl give credit to the administrations Operation Warp Speed, launched in May 2020, which resulted in the production of COVID-19 vaccines in less than one year. They also note, Contrary to the account that is most often given, some senior Trump administration officials, already suspicious of China, realized the magnitude of what was happening in Wuhan faster than any other government except Taiwan.

Wright, who was present in Taiwan during its January 2020 presidential election, points to the democratic island, which has had fewer than 900 COVID-19 deaths to date, as a model of successful pandemic management, saying that it utilized lessons learned from its experience with the 2003 SARS epidemic, which also originated from China.

Its just extraordinary what Taiwan did early on, Wright said.

The authors noted that Taiwan was the first body to alert the World Health Organization (WHO) of an atypical pneumonia from Wuhan on Dec. 31, 2019. Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to Taipeis warning, the book states.

They also called on Taiwan to be admitted as an observer to the WHO, a status that it had from 2009 to 2016 until being blocked by Beijing in 2017 following the election of President Tsai Ing-wen, known for her tough-on-China stance.

Wright considers it crucial that Taiwan is allowed to participate in the WHO as an observer because, obviously, pandemics dont respect borders.

Taiwan is part of the world  and its affected by these transnational threats, but also it has a lot to offer, he added.

Free Societies Inherently Threatening to the CCP

Wright further discussed the continuing comprehensive struggle between the United States and communist China.

Theres two very different ideas of the way the world should be organized, he said. China, the Chinese government basically wants the world safe for the CCP and for their regime.

In contrast, the United States and its allies want a world that is safe for democracy and free societies, Wright said, describing this vision as inherently threatening to the Chinese regime.

While the world has become increasingly nationalistic, with less agreement on how to tackle transnational trends, Wright said, America can make efforts to work with like-minded countries and democracies.

Within the United States, confronting the threats posed by a totalitarian China is one of the few bipartisan issues in politics, Wright noted.

I do think there is significant common ground on a number of things, particularly long-term relations with China, he said. Weve had successes in a number of areas around China policy.

Wright believes that the United States will only continue to strengthen its measures countering the Chinese regime.

I think that any country, particularly China, that thinks the U.S. is in decline is making a mistake, he said, adding that the United States has abiding strength. I dont think the Chinese government will succeed in its objectives.
A large group of protesters stand on the East steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Jan. 6 Committee Seeks Records From 15 Tech Platforms

The Democrat-majority committee probing the events that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has issued letters to 15 telecommunications and social media companies, including giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google, asking them to provide a series of documents related to the day.

The other platforms being targeted in the records demand are 4chan, 8kun (formerly known as 8chan), Gab, Parler, Reddit, Snapchat, Telegram, theDonald.win, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and Zello.

According to a statement from the select committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), its chairman, is giving the companies two weeks to provide information including records related to the spread of misinformation, efforts to overturn the 2020 election or prevent the certification of the results, domestic violent extremism, and foreign influence in the 2020 election.

Specifically, the committee is seeking a range of records, including data, reports, analyses, and communications stretching back to spring of 2020. It is also seeking information on policy changes social media companies adoptedor failed to adoptto address the spread of false information, violent extremism, and foreign malign influence, including decisions on banning material from platforms and contacts with law enforcement and other government entities.

Facebook in a statement to multiple outlets confirmed it had received the documents request, adding that it looks forward to working with the committee. Snapchat and Reddit issued similar comments.

Google, which owns YouTube, also confirmed receipt of the letter and said it would cooperate with the request. It called the events of Jan. 6 unprecedented and tragic, adding that Google and YouTube strongly condemn them.

Were committed to protecting our platforms from abuse, including by rigorously enforcing our policies for content related to the events of January 6, Google said.

Twitter declined to comment.

In a statement, Gab CEO Andrew Torba confirmed receipt of the letter from the committee and said the company has a zero-tolerance policy towards threats of violence and unlawful speech.

Separately, 8kun owner Jim Watkins confirmed the receipt of the committees letter in a post on Telegram, sharing a screenshot of the first page of the letter.

Lawmakers on Jan. 6 gathered at the U.S. Capitol for a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election. It was interrupted when a small group of rioters led a breach of the Capitol building as thousands of protesters, mostly peaceful, remained outside. It remains unclear who instigated the incident.

Read More Timeline of Events in DC on Jan. 6

A photo shows the logos of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and Snapchat. (Denis Charlet/Getty Images)

Thompson said in the statement that the select committee is examining the facts, circumstances, and causes of the attack and relating to the peaceful transfer of power, in order to identify and evaluate lessons learned and to recommend corrective laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations.

The latest records request was announced two days after the committee announced that its seeking records from eight executive branch agencies, including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

That sweeping request included seeking archived communications from the Trump White House. The former president in a statement accused the committee of carrying out a partisan exercise  at the expense of long-standing legal principles of privilege.

Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my Administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our Nation, former President Donald Trump said.

The events of Jan. 6 culminated in a Democrat-pushed second impeachment trial of Trump, who was ultimately acquitted of an insurrection incitement charge in February by the Senate.

More than 500 people have been arrested and charged in cases related to the events on Jan. 6 at the Capitol. Among them, more than 50 are being held pretrial in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, in conditions that are unconstitutional and violate every single basic human right, lawyers representing several of the defendants previously told EpochTV.

Four police officers on July 27 recounted to a House of Representatives special committee that they were beaten and threatened amid clashes with the protesters on Jan. 6. More than 100 police officers were reportedly injured in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 incident.

A total of five deaths were recorded in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 incident. Of the deaths, Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was determined to have died from homicide. The officer who killed her, Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd, defended his actions in an interview with NBC that was aired on Aug. 26.

Another Capitol officer, Brian Sicknick, was determined to have died of natural causes. Another three people died outside the Capitol building, with two of the deaths due to natural causes, and the remaining death ruled as an accident.

The Democrat-majority House voted in late June to form the select committee, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had proposed in mid-February.

The committee consists of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

Pelosi previously rejected two of five Republican lawmakers that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) nominated for the commission. In response, McCarthy said her rejection represented an egregious abuse of power and that Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Kashs Corner: We Knew This Would Happen in Afghanistan, and We Had a Strategy to Prevent It

Its not like we deleted all that intelligence when we transitioned, says Kash Patel, who previously served as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

Our assessment was that if we surrendered in Afghanistanthat is, if we just up and leftthe Taliban would take over almost immediately, Patel says.

In the premiere of Season 2 of Kashs Corner, Patel unveils, in detail, the original conditions-based withdrawal strategy that he was tasked with implementing.

The fact that we have [10,000] to 15,000 American citizens still scattered throughout the country, leaves open the fact that Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS are going to kidnap American citizens and hold them hostage, Patel says.

Kash Patel: Hey everybody and welcome back to season two of Kashs Corner.

Jan Jekielek: So Kash, were gonna have to talk about Afghanistan. Frankly, I think every media in the world right now is talking about Afghanistan. You actually played a really important role in the original withdrawal plan under the Trump administration. You were actually tasked with implementing it among other things.

Before we go there, this wasnt your first rodeo in dealing with Afghanistan actually. You did quite a bit of work with respect to Afghanistan previously under the Obama administration.

Mr. Patel: Yeah, unfortunately we are here talking about Afghanistan cause its not going well. But at my time at the Department of Justice, I was a terrorism prosecutor working a lot of prosecutions both in Afghanistan, related to Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and then during the Obama administration, as a career official.

I went to the military to a place called Joint Special Operations Command, where we worked with our special forces elements heavily in Afghanistan to find targets or what we would call high-value targets, HVTs. They would need to meet a certain legal threshold based on intelligence before we can make a decision as to what we called end-state.

End-state being a kinetic strike via drone, a capture operation by our partner forces or our special forces and or prosecution in America or abroad in some other country where we knew they would sufficiently face justice. So we did a lot of work in what we call the general targeting space and to find an end-state that we did. We spent a lot of time with a lot of Army Special Forces, Navy special forces and a number of other folks who assisted in that mission.

Mr. Jekielek: So, this is at least one of these high-value targets as youre describing that was actually There were five of them that were released, I think in 2014, as part of this hostage swap.

Mr. Patel: If you recall Bowe Bergdahl, a former Army soldier serving in Afghanistan, deserted his platoon and after desertion, was captured by the enemythe Taliban and others. He was in custody for some time. I was still at DOJ in the National Security Division when that case came up and any hostage situation of an American automatically goes to the military and the Department of Justice, if theres an available prosecution.

And during the Obama administration, the president then made the determination to release five terrorists from Guantanamo Bay in return or exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army soldier who had deserted.

For a lot of us back then, [we] didnt agree with that because that was essentially negotiating with Taliban and probably Al-Qaeda at that point, but mostly because we were letting five known terrorists who were sitting in Guantanamo Bay back out, even though there were assurances that they would never fight again. Fast forward and now you have one of those individuals who is leading the Taliban effort against the American interest today.

Mr. Jekielek: Thats interesting. Youre talking about taking issue with negotiating with terroristsnegotiating with Taliban. The Trump administration has been getting a bit of flack for actually doing that as part of this withdrawal plan that you played a role in crafting.

Mr. Patel: No, and I think its a good distinction to play. Look, Afghanistan and the Taliban are not mutually exclusive. The Taliban has been in Afghanistan for decades. Theyre not going anywhere. So when I say we should not negotiate with the Taliban, I dont mean writ large. I mean, certain elements of the Taliban cannot be negotiated with and certain exchanges cannot occurlike five terrorists from Guantanamo Bay.

But in reality, a president has to deal with and negotiate with certain elements in the Taliban if you want to negotiate a peace in Afghanistan that doesnt involve a permanent U.S. troop presence. President Trump and President Obama took different approaches on how to do that and I think thats what youre getting at.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, sure. So you played a pretty central role in crafting the Trump administration plan. You were actually tasked with implementing it when you were part of DOD.

Mr. Patel: Yeah.

Mr. Jekielek: So, theres been a lot of information or varied information and messaging around what that was; whether it was a problem. Why dont we actually get it from the horses mouth? What is it that you created? When did it start and was any of it implemented before January 20th?

Mr. Patel: No, great question. So, as the Chief of Staff for the Department of Defense, I report directly to the Secretary of Defense and the president of the United States. Our main mission for the president at that time and its no surprise to anybody, he campaigned upon it five, six years ago, was to end the forever wars. One of those wars was Afghanistan. So we were charged with the task of withdrawing from Afghanistan safely and securely and that became known as a conditions-based withdrawal.

So we had to implement a plan where the Taliban and the Afghan government met conditions along the way to receive benefits from America and secure the peaceful withdrawal of our forces from Afghanistan. So, first and foremost, if youre in Afghanistan, the thing you have to do right off the bat is reject Al-Qaeda, full stop.

President Trump minced no words when he said there has to be a full and complete repudiation of Al-Qaeda by the Taliban. They cant affiliate with them. That was a big condition of our plan. Another big condition of our plan was in order to have peace in Afghanistan, you have to have the Afghan government and the Taliban come together because those two parties have been in control of Afghanistan for the last three decades.

So we wanted to negotiate a peaceful interim government with both of those parties sitting at the table and President Trump had that occurring with the Taliban and the Afghans meeting in places like Doha repeatedly to work towards a negotiated peace settlement.

Three, we told them we would assist with counter-terrorism operations in-country with our special forces operators to combat terrorist threats that we knew would arise during this process cause it wasnt gonna go from zero to 100 overnight. We had to leave a special mission force in-country to take care of that problem set.

And four, I think one of the biggest conditions or security threats that we had to instill in the Afghan and Taliban was that if an American interest was harmed or an American person was killed, President Trump himself told the leader of the Taliban that he would unleash the full fury of the Department of Defense in Afghanistan. When he said that, they knew it had meaning.

They knew he couldnt be crossed on that one specific condition because then everything else would go by the wayside. So that was the basic structure of the plan and then of course we have nodes in places like Bagram Airfield and things like that that were critical to executing that plan. And we did, as you mentioned, we actually implemented that plan.

Come January 20th, we had successfully drawn down to 2,500 troops in-country and under that plan, not one American casualty occurred during that time period. So we were securely and safely withdrawing from Afghanistan and I would highlight for our viewers, 2,500 troops in-country in Afghanistan is the lowest since the war and terror began.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, and then what happened? So you were also a big part heading up the transition, right?

Mr. Patel: Yeah.

Mr. Jekielek: With the DOD, especially. So, presumably you are sharing all this information. I think youve been on other shows. Youve talked a little bit about the fact that you were doing this. Youre at least attempting to share this information and the details of what your plan was.

Mr. Patel: Sure. So, I appreciate you bringing that up because transition is a huge part of this. The election had occurred and President Biden had won. So a transition of power was what we were instructed to do by the White House, full stop. Not partial, a total and complete transition of power because we are talking about transitioning the Department of Defense.

Our head of national security apparatus must seamlessly transition from one administration to the next. It cant be political. So the regulations at DOD placed the Chief of Staff in charge of that. But who actually runs it day-to-day are entire career officers. About 50 of them that work for me ran the day-to-day operations to successfully transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration and if I could break it down for you.

So what does that entail? How do you get the incoming administration ready to continue some important mission like Afghanistans withdrawal? You have to provide them with documentation and not just any documentation. Very classified elements and materials, our planning, our strategy, what we were doing day in and day out to successfully and conditionally withdraw from Afghanistan.

So how do you do that? You collect all the materials from the Department of Defense. And let me just remind our viewers, youre talking about three some million people here who one way or another could have touched Afghanistan, writ large, and you document it. You take all the materials, all the writings, all the memos, all the recommendations and all the intelligence and you make it available to them.

And we prided ourselves in the transition. If you look at it, and I wrote an op-ed on this some time ago, we provided the Biden transition team with the largest quantitative transition in U.S. presidential history. That is, we gave them more documents from the Department of Defense than had ever been turned over in the history of the U.S. presidential transition.

Another key component to transitioning is not just documentation, but people and personnel. So the Department of Defense, as you know is almost entirely career professionals as it should becivilian and military. We gave access to Bidens incoming national security team from the Department of Defense and the White House to myself, to the Secretary of Defense, to all of our undersecretaries.

We didnt preclude them from having access to anyone because there are so many moving pieces to a conditions-based withdrawal in Afghanistan. Were just using this one example. We could flip to anything else and its the same, but in order to successfully execute that plan, you have to give them, the incoming administration, access to the careers and the political officers in that administration.

We did that more so than any other time in presidential history transition. So we did the documentation and we did the personnel. And then Afghan was a specific plan that we tried to get over to them, but unfortunately, this incoming administration refused to meet with us or talk with us on that. Id like to remind your viewers, we did all of this during the height of COVID. So it was just twice as hard to normally do it in this environment than it was to normally do it.

Mr. Jekielek: So wait, so youre saying that you didnt have the opportunity to meet with anybody about this transition plan that was already being enacted?

Mr. Patel: When I say me, I mean myself, the Secretary of Defense and the other few political officers who are appointed to run the Defense Department. We engage with our counterparts directly, that is, the Secretary of Defense engage with the incoming Secretary of Defense, myself as Chief of Staff engaged with both.

The incoming Chief of Staff and the incoming Deputy Secretary of Defense and President Biden had named someone to be the head of their transition for DOD. So we engaged with them directly and this was early on. As soon as the election was over and we were instructed to transition, we did that.

Those individuals refused to meet with us. Those individuals barely engaged with us and we said, Okay, the mission matters more to us. So if you dont wanna come in and engage with us, we made sure our career officers underneath us had our plans, had our procedures, had our strategies in placewhat had worked and what we were doing in the lead up to January 20th and what we thought should happen throughout.

Because if you remember, the conditions-based withdrawal plan that President Trump had executed and put in place through the Department of Defense was that by 1-May of 2021, we were going to be near zero, depending on if all the conditions had been met. That was our recommendation to the incoming administration

But unfortunately, I believe they let politics interfere with the most important missionthat is the national security of the United States. Afghanistan is just unfortunately one example. Now, you see that failure every day on TV, on social media and in reporting by journalists.

Mr. Jekielek: So, youve said that one of the challenges this administration has was kind of a mistaken focus, at least I believe thats what you said. Instead of focusing on things like Afghanistan, it was focused on things like white supremacy.

Mr. Patel: Yeah. Thats one of the starkest examples I can give in terms of when we relinquished power on January 20th and handed it over to President Biden. So if I can just review a little bit before we get to your direct question, Jan.

So under President Trump, we continuously briefed the president. We being the Secretary of Defense, myself, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These werent one-off briefings with President Trump. These were weekly daily briefings, but they were buttressed by the intelligence that we had on the ground and the intelligence we had coming in from our Intelligence Community, our allies and our Department of Defense.

Now, President Trump had made it his priority to securely withdraw from Afghanistan. So our Intelligence Community through the Director of National Intelligence was able to focus the intelligence collection on that mission on securely doing so because the Intelligence Community, like anything else, has only so much bandwidth. Same with the DOD.

If your focus is on Afghanistan and your intelligence collection is on Afghanistan, then you can brief the commander in chief on that mission set successfully. If you change that focus, the collection posture as we call it and that can only happen from the president and the Director of National Intelligence, then everyone that was collecting on Afghanistan is no longer the priority. Its something else.

So what the Biden administration did is they came in and if you recall, the Secretary of Defense, Austin, issued a 90-day standout order at the Department of Defense because they publicly said the biggest national security threat to the Department of Defense was white supremacy.

Now, whether you agree with that statement or not, I hope our viewers realized the drastic change in national security posture that caused. One, I dont believe it at all. Having served in multiple administrations at the operations policy and then ultimately running the Department of Defense, I dont believe that white supremacy is rampant throughout DOD and I do think that anyone who takes on those views is tracked down and removed appropriately. It is a very, very, very small number.

What happens is when under the Biden administration, they come in and say, Okay, DOD, okay, Intelligence Community, focus on that. Focus on rooting out white supremacy. They shift their attention. Its a tectonic shift. An Intelligence Community that was focused on the security situation in Afghanistan and our collection on the ground and from our allies and from the air and from basic social media feed shifts.

And you say, Okay, were not collecting here anymore. Thats not our focus. Our focus is white supremacy. So what happens is you have an intelligence gap. The priority is rooting out this white supremacy.

Ill give you an example of its failure. When they issued this 90-day standout order, they being Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, they said we would receive a report shortly thereafter showing the results of this investigation. Well, that report was never issued because white supremacy is not the rampant problem and the number one national security threat.

But this is another example of the politicization of the national security apparatus of the United States and when you have, for the most part, a willing mainstream media to help run those narratives and those headlines, and you have a White House willing to take national security apparatus direction from the mainstream media, you hurt the American people.

When you dont collect on Afghanistan for eight months, of course, theyre gonna say, We were surprised that it fell, but we had a different understanding and Im happy to get into that about our meetings with the president and how and why we briefed him on the security situation.

Mr. Jekielek: So, Kash, so insofar as you can talk about the intelligence you were looking at, weve been hearing that there was basically no way that the IC could have known that the Afghan military will dissolve so quickly and that Kabul could fall so quickly.

Mr. Patel: Yeah, I could not disagree more with what Chairman Milley is currently putting out there with Secretary Austin, the Head of DOD, that they could not have known that the Taliban would take over in such a quick manner.

Rewinding the calendar back to when we were running President Trumps withdrawal plan, as I said, it was a conditions-based withdrawal plan. Those conditions were based on the intelligence we were collecting on the ground in Afghanistan, day in and day out for a long period of time. Because Afghanistan had been a priority national security interest, thus a priority collection interest for the U.S. government writ large under President Trump.

So we, and this will be a combination of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of State, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff and myself would go in and brief President Trump and his national security team on the situationwe didnt just do it one-off. We did it constantly to bring him the latest intelligence, not just through the presidential daily briefing, but operationally as well from the DOD perspective, so he as the commander in chief could make an intelligence-based decision on our withdrawal process.

And we told him based on the intelligence without getting into the details of it, that our assessment was that if we surrendered in Afghanistan, that is if we just up and left, the Taliban would take over almost immediately. He came to his own assessment that it would likely happen in a couple of days. That was the commander in chiefs assessment based on information intelligence. He was being briefed by his national security team and he was correct.

We agreed with that, which is why we said we could not just up and leave. It would implode catastrophically if we just surrendered our position in Afghanistan, which is what you see now. But President Trump knew that and thats why he issued his conditions-based withdrawal. And thats why I disagree wholeheartedly with people like Milley, who was the chairman then and is still the chairman. And I also disagree with Secretary Lloyd Austin for taking the same position because he has access to that intelligence.

Its not like we deleted all that intelligence when we transitioned. We provided them with all those briefings, all that material. Its still there. They just didnt bother to look at it and what they wanted to do when they came in, as President Biden immediately came in and said, I am not going to abide by the 1-May withdrawal date that President Trump had put in.

And what did that do? That caused the Taliban to immediately say, Weve been negotiating in good faith with the Afghan government and the U.S. and you, the new commander in chief are saying, Im breaking those good faith negotiations.' So the Taliban said, Were done negotiating and were not gonna abide by anything we agree to as well.

And unfortunately, the Taliban, once we surrendered under Biden in Afghanistan, immediately came to power in days. So, this was one of those situations where I wish President Trump was wrong because if President Biden was right and it would have taken the Taliban years to retake Afghanistan, we would not be in this tragic situation with thousands of Americans stranded in Afghanistan. We can get to that.

But President Trump was right and Afghanistan imploded. It only took a matter of days. This national security team under President Biden knew that and is not being honest with the American people when they say they have no idea that it could have happened so quickly.

Mr. Jekielek: So you said something earlier that I just wanna touch on briefly and it sounds like you said that you feel like the administration may be taking policy points from the media. Did I understand that correctly? What do you mean by that?

Mr. Patel: Well, its no surprise that the mainstream media would attack President Trump for any national security action he took. I remember when I was running counter-terrorism forum and we eliminated Baghdadi and later Soleimani. There were actually headlines in the mainstream media that criticized us for doing it. President Biden came out publicly and said he was against the Baghdadi raid that killed the number one terrorist on planet earth.

So, no matter what President Trump did, bringing home the highest number of hostages and detainees in U.S. history, 50 some, it didnt matter what we did from a national security perspective. The media was always taking the opposite position and I think that carried over into this administration, the Biden administration.

They convinced President Biden and his national security team that the right move was to do the opposite of whatever President Trump did because they didnt want any affiliation with it because the mainstream media was taking that position day in and day out for four plus years.

So Afghanistan is a prime example. You have a successful conditions-based withdrawal plan from Afghanistan thats working under President Trump. President Biden rejected it in its entirety. His incoming transition team refused to meet with us and review that plan that was working. Now you have a media who agreed with them and told them and ran headlines repeatedly to say President Trumps plan in Afghanistan was failing when that was a false headline.

The combination of those two things, the national security leadership of this country and a mainstream media willing to ignore the facts, leads to deadly situations like we have in Afghanistan today. So I do believe that they had a piece to play in this and theres still individuals in the mainstream media that are praising Joe Bidens leadership in Afghanistan to this day. I dont know how they can do that when 10,000 Americans are stranded in Afghanistan.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, me looking at the media right now is actually I follow a cross section of media regularly cause I wanna see what theyre saying. Theres many media that I gave up on because I could predict what the coverage would be. I could predict what their narrative interests were.

But when it comes to this withdrawal from Afghanistan, a number of these media to my eye at least, started doing what kind of looked to me like what I would call normal reporting. Like something that I would hope and expect and frankly, I appreciated it. But I found myself also scratching my head a little bit because it seemed to be Are you saying this? You were just saying something a bit different from what Im saying here.

Mr. Patel: I think were saying somewhat the same thing. Im saying, for the last eight months, cause thats how long theyve been in power, this was not the medias positionthat Afghanistan was going disastrously. They kept lopping praise on President Biden and his team for their handling of Afghanistan, but there was no plan. There was nothing in place. There were no negotiations.

And Ill give you some unfortunate, tragic examples. So the National Security Advisor for President Biden admitted last week that there was no plan to rescue American citizens in Afghanistan. The Secretary of Defense said the same thing just this week. They also together said they dont know how many American citizens are in Afghanistan. It could be 10,000. It could be 15,000.

Whats worse or at least as worse is that President Biden comes to the podium just this past week and says, Al-Qaeda is not a problem in Afghanistan. Within an hour of that statement, his Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, goes to Capitol Hill and briefs the Senate and says, Al-Qaeda is a problem in Afghanistan.

So you have two completely contradictory statements, one from the president and one from the Secretary of Defense. Why is this problematic? Because the law, the national command authority, goes from the president to the Secretary of Defense. If they are not on the same page in implementing a policy to withdraw, then we cannot expect them to successfully do so.

And what Im saying is this is an example of the media, the mainstream media, not calling them out on their in opposite positions when it comes to Afghanistan and the fact that we, America, do not know the number of American citizens in Afghanistan and dont have a plan for getting them is one of the most offensive things Ive heard in my 16 years of service.

The fact that you have a National Security Advisor, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and the president who arent on the same page of a playbook for withdrawal is shocking. The National Security Advisor literally went out on stage and said, Not only do we not have a plan to rescue the 10 to 15,000 American citizens in Afghanistan. We have sent them a phone number to call and hopefully, they can make it to Kabul.

You know, Im sorry Jan, but hope in a war-torn nation in a theater of war is not a strategy that we implemented under President Trump. We, as the Department of Defense under President Trump, had plans to go get our American citizens in Afghanistan or elsewhere. We did not ask them to call a telephone number and hope that they could make it through a war-torn nation and maybe get on a flight. And the other problem with all of that is Bagram but we can get to that later.

Mr. Jekielek: There was a plan that was being effected prior to January 20th. Is any of this plan at this point as you described, the Taliban having basically left the discussion and now basically having taken power, is there any element of this plan that would remain useful to this administration?

Mr. Patel: Well, sure. If they were willing to reimplement positions of that plan, that is to focus the national security apparatus of this country back on Afghanistan. One, to say, this is the national security priority of America because it harms our national security interests and our allies.

We can talk about how our European allies have been criticizing this leadership. Of all people, folks like Angela Merkel and others in Europe who propped up President Biden have even called out his failure here.

But its not a complicated plan that President Trump came up with based on the intelligence. But you have to instill fear in the Taliban that any loss of life for an American citizen or loss of interest for allies or partners will result in a reprisal that is enormous. That threat is just not being received by the Taliban because its not being conveyed by this administration.

They keep coming to the podiums at the White House day in and day out and say, We hope we can get all our people out. Hope is not a strategy in a theater of war. The American people deserve better from their commander in chief. We dont have a plan and we could take that piece of the plan and put it back in.

He could call the Taliban leadership or send his emissaries over to speak to the Taliban and say, At least allow the safe passage of Americans throughout Afghanistan to the airports so they can be withdrawn safely. He could do that. He has chosen not to do that. And so his Secretary of Defense and his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of State go to the podium and give mixed messages.

Thats also not helpful. They should be on the same page assuring America and our partners that we are not just going to up and leave Afghanistan. But their approach was to completely surrender, which is not a conditions-based approach. Their complete and unconditional surrender of places like Bagram Airfield and other keynotes throughout Afghanistan is causing their Well, they never had a plan, but it is causing the implosion of Afghanistan and thats the opposite of what we did under Trump.

Mr. Jekielek: Explain the issue with Bagram cause I understand it was completely closed basically and withdrawn from.

Mr. Patel: Yeah, and so one of the things I didnt cover was what we call overhead support. That is support from the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community in the skies of Afghanistan. Its no secret that we have a drone, a predator program, that was very expansive and very integral to our national security interests, especially in a place like Afghanistan as were talking about today.

President Trump placed a heavy priority on the continued use of that program because what that program allows you to do without putting U.S. manning in positions of danger is to surveil the scene, look at different situations in Afghanistan as they fold, take kinetic action if necessary and also safeguard the interests of our allies without jeopardizing more U.S. military people on the ground. That priority was always in place during President Trumps conditions-based withdrawal plan.

A large portion of that priority ran out of a place called Bagram Airfield. So Bagram Airfield is 20, 30 minute helicopter ride from Kabul in Eastern Afghanistan and it was to juxtaposition two different things. Everyones talking about HKIA, Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul versus Bagram. That HKIA in Kabul has one runway and its the civilian entry point for all of Afghanistan. So you have an entire civilian airport there.

The U.S. military over time built up a structure on the opposite side of the airport that Ive been to a few times where we would allow our partners and allies to use that when the security situation permitted, but it wasnt our main ingress and egress point.

Bagram Airfield, just north of there or west of there, was our brain. Its what we would call a command and control element, a C2 node. It had multiple runways. No one else owned it but America and the only people allowed on that base were Americans and American allies. When you have two runways that you can continuously operate flights from, be it for overhead purposes or just be military transport planes, the big ones that you see on TV now, the C-17s as we call them, the C-130s, the Hercules and even the C-5s. These are planes that literally hold the equivalent of four Greyhound buses in their underbellies and that is how we move manning and equipment out securely.

President Trumps plan was not surrender Bagram Airfield upfront. It was one of the last places we would give back because one of the things we havent talked about, Jan is not just a successful withdrawal of American citizens, but you need a place like Bagram, the brain of our Afghan operation, to remove 20 years worth of machinery and weaponry that we have in-country in Afghanistan.

The third component of Bagram is also its detention capability. We had a detention center set up at Bagram for suspected terrorists that were captured by allies ourselves and we were working through a process to prosecute those individuals or hand them over to our allies for prosecution because they had likely committed acts of terrorism or acts of violence or murder.

When President Biden surrendered Bagram, he gave up those three capabilities immediately. He literally turn-keyed the jail and allowed these criminals, these terrorists, to go back into the community. He also allowed an airfield that we had had for years and our brain center to be overtaken by militants and the Taliban.

So what does that do? That stops American citizens from being rescued safely. It removes a secure location where the United States military, our conventional forces and special forces could operate from and get airlift out by rotary wing or fixed wing aircraft. People who are in outlying regions of Afghanistan that are American citizens, they need to be securely withdrawn. Thats the most important thing always. President Trump always put that up frontthe safety of Americans.

But now unfortunately, you also have the third component of the surrender of Bagram Airfield, which is weapons and machinery. You see on video every day Taliban and terrorists taking American weapons, American rifles, American tanks, American helicopters and they are using it against Americans.

We were going to remove that machinery methodically through Bagram Airfield. That was another component of this conditions-based plan and unfortunately, right now they gave it up under President Biden. Its basically overrun. We do not have a brain center for operations in Afghanistan and the enemy, for lack of a better word, has taken over 20 years worth of machinery and weapons in-country.

Mr. Jekielek: This plan, is it like a manual?

Mr. Patel: Well, these plans are I would say when you get the inner agency together because any plan to withdraw from a war requires not just DOD, it requires a state department, it requires the Intelligence Community. There is the CIA and the NSA and there are so many other components. It requires the White House, obviously leading that plan.

So there are teams of people putting together memorandums. There are teams of people putting together intelligence reporting and all of that gets fed into the Office of Director of National Intelligence for IC purposes, to the Office of Secretary of Defense for military purposes and to the White House under the National Security Advisor for White House purposes. Those three apparatus have come together to lay out a plan thats continuously changing.

And Id like to add the one thing that under my service to President Trump was that if the information changed, if the intelligence changed, President Trump was always willing to change course. He knew that just because we had decided on one avenue, we would try to stick to that avenue successfully, like Afghan withdrawal.

But if the conditions changed, if someone was harmed or if Al-Qaeda re-emerged as a big threat, then we would change. That was the kind of daily reporting that was going into this planning. So all these different agencies have different memorandum that come together at the White House and that was presented to President Trump and all of those memos were handed over during the transition process be it for DOD, be it for CIA, be it for NSA. So they exist and a lot of them are classified, but that doesnt mean the incoming administration didnt have access to them.

Mr. Jekielek: So why do you think the media coverage here has been basically kind of straight uplets say in comparison to the coverage of the riots in the summertime of 2020?

Mr. Patel: Sure, its a good question, but I think the answer is pretty simple. A situation like a catastrophic implosion of Afghanistan by a total surrender under the Biden administration is something that is being shown and read across the world. That is, every piece of social media is covering it. Every piece of print media is covering it. Every piece of the TV media is covering it and the images speak for themselves.

You have people, literally Afghan citizens falling from U.S. military transport planes, plunging to their deaths from 1,000 feet in the air. You have constant reporting about American citizens who cannot get through to Kabul to securely get out of Afghanistan. You have more reporting that our allies, the UK and others are doing more to regain their citizens safe retrieval out of Afghanistan than America is. You have constant reporting that American aircraft that are trying to leave Afghanistan with American citizens are being told they cannot do so.

So the media has to cover it in the only way possible and that is a total and utter failure of this administration of how they have handled Afghanistan. But Ill juxtapose that with something else that they failed to do in Afghanistan.

If you recall the Russia bounty scandal from Afghanistan, also took place in Afghanistan. During President Trumps tenure about a year, a year and a half ago, there was classified leaks of information in these same components of the media who reported that the United States under President Trump had knowingly paid Putin and his emissaries to then in turn would pay the Taliban to kill American soldiers, which is outrageous on its face.

And at the time, I was the Deputy Director of National Intelligence under Rick Grenell and we were briefing the president constantly on that and other things. Now, we didnt respond by leaking classified information ourselves. We responded by putting the mission first and making sure we knew the reality of what the intelligence said. We knew what they were putting out in the media was false and the media probably knew it too, but it was another dark stain that they could put on President Trumps administration.

Fast forward a year and what happens now? President Biden comes to office and they say, Oh, actually the reporting about Russia bounties in Afghanistan was false. So thats an anecdotal example of where the media chose intentionally to misreport information that hurt the United States and Afghanistan and with our allies and then this situation, which is so much bigger in Afghanistan, is something they cant get away from. They cant have selective leaks of classified information to fit their political narratives and thats why even most of them are correctly reporting it.

Mr. Jekielek: So, another big topic thats been on a lot of peoples minds is how to work with the Afghans who are directly helping the U.S. and because they may have something like a bounty on their heads and so forth, right? So what was the plan?

Mr. Patel: So, in a place like Afghanistan, you cant operate a military operation. You cant operate an intelligence operation because of first of all, a linguistic barrier, but also just the cultural and geographic barrier. So we relied on vetted Afghan allies to be our interpreters, to be our assistants in day-to-day operations. We relied on our relationship with the Afghan security forces that we had built up over time.

Afghanistan is not the only place that we have these types of relationships, but everywhere that we have them, our Intelligence Community or Department of Defense has them identified and is always constantly looking at threat analysis to see if those individuals who were helping us are in danger or if their family is threatened and if so, there are, without getting into specifics, always plans in place to locate and remove those that have assisted us if they are facing imminent death.

Ive been a part of those plans. Ive been a part of those operations in the past and we knew how to do that and as long as you had an administration and the commander in chief willing to make that a piece of a greater plan, which President Trump always did, then we had a way to find those individuals and securely remove them. It was a part of the bigger conditions-based withdrawal plan which we knew would take time.

So we, under President Trump, knew we had time to progress through these conditions and safeguard not just us Americans, but those that had helped us. We were working towards that, but when you surrender your position in a country, then unfortunately, you have the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and ISIS placing targets on people who they know helped us: our interpreters, our assistants in the field and our employees that had a contract with us and helped run our day-to-day operations. Its tragic that that has happened and we cant identify, find and plan to remove all those individuals.

Mr. Jekielek: So, what can be done for them now?

Mr. Patel: Well, its very hard now because this administration spent eight months not having a plan. Zero, and now theyre playing catch up in the last week to try to get Americans out. We havent even talked about hostages. We still have an American hostage in the region and were unfortunately likely going to have more hostages taken if this situation continues to deteriorate.

But the same goes for, as you were talking about Afghan nationals who were assisting us. They could have been repatriated to third countries. We could have pulled them out to our partners and allies. We could have placed them in different bases, but there was no plan in place by this administration to do that. You cant remove tens of thousands of people overnight. It takes time. It takes a plan and this administration is shooting from the hip and there is no plan.

So they dont even have a plan to locate Americans, let alone Afghans who helped us. So I dont have any faith that this will be a successful venture, but maybe Ill be proven wrong.

Mr. Jekielek: So, as I understand it, this conditions-based withdrawal was based on the Afghan government and the Taliban coming together and making some kind of a cooperative government structure. So, how realistic was this in your mind?

Mr. Patel: Sure. Thats probably the best question for the entire Afghan debate because as President Trump had said, were not staying there forever. So if the U.S. military isnt going to be in-country forever in a large format, how do we secure Afghanistan? Well, the people that live there, the Afghans and the Taliban who number tens of thousands, live there and control large regions of the country have to come together and negotiate a peace settlement, an interim government and then a structure for the government to continue.

So we based our belief in the success of that plan in our conditions-based approach and we thought it had a good chance. Thats why it was a stepped approach, not one that was zero to 100 right away. It was a slow stepped approach. And of course we knew who we were dealing with. We were dealing with the Taliban who have not always been our allies in the past. But if you want to negotiate a peace, you have to be willing to engage with them because they are not going anywhere in Afghanistan.

So that was a path that President Trump selected and as long as you instill enough, and fear is not the right word, but strength that if the two sides dont negotiate successfully, then America is going to intervene and its going to cost them dearly. Thats what allows a plan like that to take hold and take place.

Look, I was on the ground in Afghanistan with the Secretary of Defense this past December meeting President Ghani, meeting our commanding generals on the ground, talking about this plans implementation with the Taliban while our state department officials met with Taliban leadership in Doha to secure this plan; to secure this peace settlement and it was working. It was working slowly and we were getting there and we were trying to do everything we could to ensure that it would not fail. We always knew that it could fail cause it was Afghanistan, but we had enough belief in it that it was going to work had we stayed the course.

Mr. Jekielek: So you were saying that May 1st was your originally planned time for complete withdrawal, right?

Mr. Patel: That was part of the agreement that the United States had made with the Afghan government and the Taliban, because from their perspective, what the Afghans and the Taliban want, a removal of U. S. forces from within their country so they could govern.

So that was one of the negotiating points that President Trump came up with to say, Okay, well agree if all the It wasnt just a hard date. President Trump said, If the conditions have been met, 1-May is an appropriate trait to remove our forces from Afghanistan with the caveat that they would know that wed always leave in a special forces operation to counter terrorist threats throughout the country.

And so that was what we were working towards and thats what the Taliban had agreed to in negotiations as well. Thats why I think they were so ticked off when the Biden administration said, Oh, 1-May? Were not abiding by any of that. So they broke one of the fundamental precepts of our negotiations with the Afghans and the Taliban under Trump. Thats why that led to a precipitous fall in the Talibans belief that we could actually continue a conditions-based withdrawal that would leave a government in place between the Taliban and the Afghan nationals.

Mr. Jekielek: In your mind, what do you think could happen now to make the best of the existing very difficult situation?

Mr. Patel: Well, having served in the Defense Department as a civilian and in the Intelligence Community and in the executive branch and then ultimately being privileged to lead some of these departments, our ethos has always been you plan for the worst and prepare for the best.

So that mindset, unfortunately, doesnt lead to an optimistic outlook for Afghanistan, if youre asking me. I think with the fact that we have 10 to 15,000 American citizens still scattered throughout the country leaves open the fact that Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS are going to kidnap American citizens and hold them hostage; we may see a rise in hostage takings like never before. That is problematic.

The fact that we no longer have a presence and not just Bagram Airfield but our massive embassy, which we spent a billion dollars building in Kabul in which Ive been to is no longer occupied. So we have no more diplomatic hub in-country in Afghanistan. No more diplomatic hub, no more military hub leaves no one for our Afghan national partners. The Afghans that helped us along the way over the last 20 years and American citizens to reach out to make sure theyre okay, make sure they get out of the country.

And so when you have a vacuum of leadership in diplomacy and military and in security in the region in a war-torn nation, then Im just not optimistic that this situation is going to end well anytime soon. My biggest fear outside of the hostages that could be taken is the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in-country, which President Trump had made a priority of eliminating. But when you dont have a presence or a plan with your allies in-country, then they are going to quickly, I think, retake territory and reestablish themselves in-country against the interests of Americans and I believe our allies in Europe are saying the same thing.

Mr. Jekielek: Kash, this is a pretty somber place to end, but I think this is where we have to finish up.

Mr. Patel: Yeah, for now and I think you and I will find ourselves talking about Afghanistan for some time to come, but for now, yeah, well end here and well look to our shout out of the week. I think as we talk about all things of Afghanistan, I think the shout out and the dedication has to be to all the men and women that have served in Afghanistan that Ive been fortunate to serve with and continue to serve and especially those folks that have left government service after putting so much blood and treasure into Afghanistan. I know that your service was the ultimate and we thank you for it and we thank those currently serving.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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A Heinz Ketchup bottle sits between a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese and a bottle of Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce on a grocery store shelf in New York, on March 25, 2015. (Brendan McDermid/File Photo/Reuters)

Kraft Heinz to Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines for Office Employees

Kraft Heinz Co. said on Friday all U.S. employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to offices in January.

The packaged-food makers announcement comes days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine, a certification that public health officials hope will convince unvaccinated Americans that the shot is safe and effective.

The resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States and new regulatory guidance has led companies to change their plans on vaccinations and masking.

For now, Krafts decision to mandate vaccination applies only to its office population, unless they have obtained a health-related or religious accommodation, the company said.

Kraft also said its offices, including the Aon headquarters in Chicago, would open in September on a voluntary basis to vaccinated employees.

By Sahil Shaw
Marriage Certificate From 1875 Discovered in Thrift Shop Given to Couples Great-Granddaughter

A 146-year-old marriage certificate that was discovered in a thrift store has found its home with the help of a plea on Facebook.

On July 26, Pam Phelps, an assistant manager at Hope Chest Thrift Store in Bolivia, North Carolina, took to cleaning an old picture of a little girl putting flowers in a black dogs collar, which had been donated by someone.

When she took to the back of the frame, she discovered a hidden marriage certificate of a New Jersey couple with the date of the vows as April 11, 1875. She kept it aside to show it to Karmen Smith, the executive director of Hope Harbor Home, Brunswick Countys Domestic Violence Program and Shelter, which operates three thrift stores.

The picture that was donated to Hope Chest Store in Bolivia, North Carolina. (Courtesy of Karmen Smith)

The marriage certificate that was discovered at the back of the painting. (Courtesy of Karmen Smith)

The next day, as Smith visited the store, she became aware of the find.

My brain immediately went into overdrive thinking of all the many reasons that this document would have been hidden, Smith told The Epoch Times. My curious mind had to know the answers!

She then began her deep dive into research and posted a Facebook plea with the picture of the painting and the marriage certificate, writing: Alright Facebook world, I need a miracle  How cool would it be if we could find the family of this couple?!?! Lets see what we can do! Please share share share!!

Not long after the plea went up, people began guessing on the names and trying to piece everything together.

It was then that I got a message from Connie Knox, a local genealogist with a YouTube channel focused on things such as this, Smith told The Epoch Times. After a weekend of research and some Ancestry.com posts, the great-granddaughter, Irene Cornish from New York Mills, NY, was found.

Irene Cornish, 65, outside the Bristol Center at Hamilton College. (Courtesy of Nancy L. Ford via Irene Cornish)

Cornish, 65, who grew up in Maryland, had logged into Ancestry.com to find information about another family member when she was notified of three messages from different people telling her to check out Smiths Facebook post. Meanwhile, the staff at Ancestry.com had enhanced the image and found the names of the couple: William T. DeWorth and Katey Havey.

They searched for those names in Ancestry and found me through my family tree, Cornish said. I immediately went to Facebook to see the post.

At that moment, Cornish couldnt believe that she was looking at her great-grandparents marriage certificate.

I was so excited that I was shaking, said Cornish, who shares the same middle name as her great-grandmother in memory of her. It felt like my family was reaching out to me in some way.

It is wonderful to be reconnected with my great grandparents and my heritage in this way.

Irene Cornishs great-grandmother Katey (Katharine) Havey DeWorth on the far right. (Courtesy of Irene Cornish)

The idea of giving someone something as special as this is an incredible feeling, said Smith, for whom family has always been important.

Cornish was marveled by the unique circumstances that made this happen and believes that if she hadnt visited Ancestry at the right time, she wouldnt have known of it.

However, Cornish, who was born after her great-grandparents died, is unaware of how exactly they met. She just knows about them from the stories that were passed down to her by her mother.

According to Cornish, her great-grandmother Katey, and Kateys sister, Annie, had come to Bordentown, New Jersey, from Ireland, and they worked as domestic servants to pay back the cost of their passage to America.

Meanwhile, her great-grandfather William Tindall DeWorth was working as a mechanist in the same place. Apart from working at the American Bridge Company for 30 years, DeWorth had side jobs and interests, such as a ventriloquist act and a fire-eating act, and a Ferris wheel that he had built and would take to carnivals.

Irene Cornishs great-grandfather William Tindall DeWorth, on the right. (Courtesy of Irene Cornish)

I think they must have made an amazing couple, Cornish said.

Insistent on retrieving the document and meeting the people who helped connect her to this treasure, Cornish flew down to North Carolina on Aug. 22.

She plans to make copies of the marriage certificate and share them with her relatives. As for the original marriage certificate, Cornish plans to display it in her house for a while and then donate it to Bordentown Historical Society if they show interest.

I would like to see it preserved in some way. It is a unique piece of New Jersey history, Cornish said.

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(LR) French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Nayef al-Hajraf pose for a group picture after the meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 28, 2021. (Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Mideast Leaders Plus France Meet in Baghdad to Talk Security, Diplomacy

BAGHDADSeveral Middle Eastern leaders and French President Emmanuel Macron met in Baghdad on Saturday at a summit hosted by Iraq, which wants its neighbors to talk to each other instead of settling scores on its territory.

Relationships within the region are strained chiefly by hostility between Iran on one side and the United States and its Arab Gulf allies on the other.

Organizers said they did not expect any diplomatic breakthroughs at the summit. Getting these countries to sit around the tablethat will be achievement enough, said one Iraqi government official.

Iraqs President Barham Salih meets Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during the welcome ceremony ahead of the Baghdad summit at the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 28, 2021. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Heads of state attending included President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, King Abdullah of Jordan, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Macron. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates sent their heads of government, and Turkey its foreign minister.

Macrons trip to Iraq over two days aimed to support the regional dialogue, meet Iraqi political leaders and visit French special forces involved in the ongoing fight against ISIS terrorist group.

Frances President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a news conference with Iraqs President Barham Salih (not seen) ahead of the Baghdad summit at the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 28, 2021. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Shiite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, longtime rivals for regional dominance, did not send their heads of state or government. Iran said it was sending Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, while Saudi Arabia had not yet announced its representative.

The two countries resumed direct talks in Iraq in April this year, but there has been no significant outcome so far.

Iranian officials have said they are focused more on the outcome of talks in Vienna with Western powers over Irans nuclear program and international sanctions.

The meeting in Iraq  is only focused on Iraq and how the regional countries can cooperate to help Iraq, an Iranian official told Reuters ahead of the Baghdad summit.

The U.S.-Iran rivalry brought the Middle East to the brink of war after the United States under former U.S. President Donald Trump killed Irans military mastermind Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport in 2020.

Iran-backed terrorists have launched increasingly sophisticated drone and rocket attacks against U.S. forces stationed in Iraq, and also fired drones at Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has blamed attacks on its oil installations on Irana charge Tehran denies.

By Baghdad newsroom and John Davison
A view of people waiting in line to board the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 27, 2021. (Technologies/Handout via Reuters)

NATO Allies Struggle to Keep Kabul Airport Open for Aid After Withdrawal

Geneva/AnkaraNATO allies are struggling to ensure that Afghanistans main gateway, Kabul airport, remains open for urgently needed humanitarian aid flights next week when they end their evacuation airlifts and turn it over to the Taliban.

The airport, a lifeline for tens of thousands of evacuees fleeing Taliban terrorists in the past two weeks and for aid arriving to relieve the impact of drought and conflict, was hit by a deadly suicide bombing outside its gates on Thursday.

Turkey said it was still talking to the Taliban about providing technical help to operate the airport after the Aug. 31 deadline for troops to leave Afghanistan but said the bombing underlined the need for a Turkish force to protect any experts deployed there.

Turkey has not said whether the Taliban would accept such a condition, and President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday his country was not in a rush to start flights again to Kabul.

But aid groups said there is an urgent need to maintain humanitarian deliveries to a country suffering its second drought in four years and where 18 million people, nearly half the population, depend on life-saving assistance.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday that U.S. and allied air traffic experts had assessed Kabul airport for capabilities that would support the resumption of commercial operations once we depart and that the United States was working with all parties to facilitate a smooth transfer.

However, he noted: With the U.S. military set to depart by Aug. 31, I think that it is probably unreasonable to expect that there will be normal airport operations on Sept. 1.

Price said the Taliban also wanted a functioning airport and stressed that the operation of the airport after Aug. 31 was not up to us. The Pentagon said several nations are willing to work with the Taliban to keep the airport operating.

UN Air Bridge

The World Food Programme, which runs the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service, is planning to start flights over the weekend to create a humanitarian air bridge into Afghanistan, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

That will involve flights from Pakistan into various airports, outside of Kabul, into Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif, Dujarric said. WFP is appealing for about $18 million for the passenger service and $12 million for the cargo air bridge.

Dujarric said it is unclear what would happen at Kabul airport after Aug. 31. He described the airport as critical to the work of the United Nations, which has stressed that it plans to stay in Afghanistan to help those in need.

It will be incumbent on  the Taliban to ensure that there is a system in place, security in place, for Kabul to have a functioning airport, Dujarric said.

The World Food Programme said this week that millions of people in Afghanistan were marching towards starvation as the COVID-19 pandemic and this months upheaval, on top of the existing hardships, drive the country to catastrophe.

The World Health Organization said on Friday that medical supplies in Afghanistan would run out in days, with little chance of re-stocking them.

Right now because of security concerns and several other operational considerations, Kabul airport is not going to be an option for the next week at least, WHO regional emergency director Rick Brennan said.

As aid groups struggle to keep supply routes into the country open after the Aug. 31 departure of foreign troops, Afghans trying to leave the country are finding the few remaining exits slamming shut.

Several European Union countries have said they have ended evacuation operations from Kabul, and the United States has said that by Monday it will prioritize the removal of its last troops and military equipment.

Afghans with valid documents will be able to travel in the future at any time, a senior Taliban official said on Friday.

By Stephanie Nebehay and Orhan Coskun
Police officers are seen at Strathfield shopping village in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 12, 2021. (Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

New South Wales Records 1035 New Virus Cases

The New South Wales (NSW) government has reported 1,035 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and two deaths as the Delta strain continues to spread through the locked down state.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says 61,778 people received a vaccine in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. on Friday night.

As we have said many times, vaccination is a critical path out of our current situation, he told reporters on Saturday.

The two people who died were a western Sydney woman in her 80s in Westmead Hospital and another in her 70s from the Blue Mountains who died at Nepean Hospital after acquiring her infection there earlier this month.

Its the fourth death linked to an outbreak at the hospital.

The fatalities take the states death toll for the current outbreak to 83.

There are currently 778 COVID-19 cases in NSW hospitals, with 125 in intensive care, and 52 on ventilators.

Hazzard said there was a lot of misinformation on social media about the vaccine, particularly targeting women who want to have children.

It suggested there were some negative aspects of being vaccinated in terms of fertility, he said.

I just want to confirm that the most senior health advisory service in Australia has confirmed absolutely, that there is no evidence whatsoever that a womans fertility or a mans fertility would be in any way affected by having the vaccine, Hazzard said, referring to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

Young women and girls who are contemplating having a child should understand that if they dont have the vaccine, and they do get the virus, they may suffer from long COVID or from symptoms that would actually make it more difficult to be able to have children, and to have as many children as they would like.

Meanwhile, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the state government is against moving the Queensland border checkpoint south to the Tweed River.

The Queensland border remains closed to people from NSW and Victoria who do not have exemptions.

Barilaro said in a statement released on Saturday that border communities such as Mungindi need to be able to access healthcare and medical supplies.

I want this resolved as soon as possible. Im prepared to roll up my sleeves and get this sorted this weekend, he said.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday unveiled a plan to get kids back to school for term four.

HSC exams for NSW Year 12 students in 2021 will be pushed back to November 9, and all people working on school campuses must be vaccinated by November 8.

It comes as the Pfizer jab is officially approved for use by Australian health authorities in children aged 12 to 15.

NSW Health also on Friday announced that workers living in areas of concern need to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by September 6 in order to be authorised to work outside their area of concern.

Care workers who live or work in areas of concern must also have had at least one dose of a vaccine by September 6 in order to attend work.

Workers aged under 16 will be exempt from the vaccine requirement.

By Gina Rushton
Pro-Life Minnesota State Senator Who Refused to Abort One Twin Says, Have Faith, Choose Life

Minnesota State Senator Julia Coleman, 29, a proud mom of three sons, had to navigate complications during her second pregnancy with identical twin boys.

Doctors advised she abort one baby to better the survival odds of the other. But Coleman and her husband, Jacob, leaned on their faith and refuseda decision Coleman says made her family stronger.

We had to fight for each day they were allowed to continue to grow, leading up to their birth, Coleman told The Epoch Times in an email interview. We got through and have nerves of steel as a result.

Minnesota State Senator Julia E. Coleman with baby Charles. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

Coleman and her husband found out they were expecting shortly before her election to the state senate. At 16 weeks, they learned they were having identical twin boys.

However, their joy was chased by heartache when doctors diagnosed Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS); baby Charles was also facing Selective Intrauterine Growth Restriction (SIUGR). Both conditions occur when the placenta is shared between the twins: the TTTS results in an imbalance in the net flow of blood between the twins, while SIUGR results in suboptimal growth in one of the twins due to the unequally shared placenta.

The couple was suggested selective reduction, the termination of one baby, as a solution.

Without even having to consult the other, we both instantly shook our heads, No, and said that wasnt an option for us, Coleman said. We werent going to choose between our sons.

We are pro-life Catholics, so abortion is never an option for us. Even if we werent Catholic, we could never choose to end the life of another human.

The identical twins, Charles Norman and James Brad Coleman. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

Coleman and her husband placed their faith in God, wishing to set an example for their toddler son, Adam.

This, more than any other experience in my life, required me to understand I had zero control over the situation and had to give everything to God, she said. When you give everything over to God, its easier to keep going and remain strong. When we would feel desperate, down, or diminished, we would first turn to prayer.

The Colemans measured their babies progress day by day. Miraculously, the twins TTTS resolved without surgery, but they were still worried for baby Charles. Starting at 24 weeks, Coleman went into on-off preterm labor. She said she needed two rounds of steroid shots to prepare her babies lungs for birth, and a round of magnesium to prevent their brains from bleeding.

Coleman had been hoping to reach the mark of 33 weeks in order to better her babies chances of survival. On May 17, at 33 weeks pregnant, Coleman ended a legislative session at midnight and delivered her babies by C-section at midday on May 18.

Coleman with her twin sons. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

We didnt know if theyd make it; we were especially concerned for Charles, Coleman said. Jacob was armed with a bottle of holy water, prepared to baptize them if need be.

Charles Norman, born first, took a big breath and immediately cried out as if to say, Im here, Mommy! I made it!' Coleman said. James Brad followed two minutes later and did the same.

She said the twins weighed much more than their doctors had expected; Charles weighed 4 pounds 4 ounces (1.9 kg) at birth, and James at 5 pounds 10 ounces (2.5 kg).

Yet their struggle persisted for 27 days at the NICU of Childrens Minnesota Hospital.

LR: Julia Colemans sister-in-law Sarah Coleman with her husband; Minnesota State Senator Julia Coleman with one of her twins; Julias mother-in-law, Laurie Coleman, carrying her grandson Adam; Julias husband, Jacob; and Julias father-in-law, Norm Coleman, a former U.S. senator, with a twin grandson. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

The NICU experience isnt one Id wish upon my worst enemy, Coleman said. There were times where Id be holding the babies, and due to their prematurity, they would stop breathing in my arms. You have to ask permission to hold your babies. They are constantly being poked and prodded.

Going home at the end of the day without your babies is probably the most gut-wrenching thing any parent has to do. But we got through and have nerves of steel as a result.

Coleman recalled that bringing James home was hard, as Charles was still left behind. But the feisty newborn made giant leaps in progression and followed his twin home just days later to meet proud big brother, Adam.

The first night at home with my entire family together was one of the happiest days of my life, she said.

Three months on, Coleman says the twins are doing fantastic. While Charles is still smaller, he is quickly catching up.

Our oldest son, Adam, absolutely loves being a big brother and tries his best to help out as much as a 22-month-old can, she said.

Adam with his twin baby brothers. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

We refer to James as Pooh Bear because thats exactly how he acts. Hes a big, soft, sleepy teddy bear, Coleman said. Charles is our feisty one, probably because he has had to fight for his life since conception.

As her babies grow, Coleman balances life as a mom and as an active state senator serving Minnesotas District 47.

Coleman explained to The Epoch Times that the more she meets mothers pregnant with multiples, the more she has learned that selective reduction is being frequently pushed on mothers, especially mothers of triplets.

Advising other struggling couples to hold firm to their faith, she said she cant imagine one of her twins without the other.

They are so connected, she said. Life is beautiful, God will have your back. Please have faith and choose life.

Julia Coleman and Jacob with their three sons. (Courtesy of Julia Coleman)

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Renmin University professor Wang Yiwei called the Taliban Afghanistans Peoples Liberation Army days before the Taliban took over Kabul in his Aug. 3 video. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Prominent Chinese Scholar Describes the Taliban as Afghanistans Peoples Liberation Army

A professor with close ties to the Chinese regime has recently drawn controversy after describing the Taliban as Afghanistans own Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), the official name of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) military forces.

In a video on Aug. 3, Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Beijings Renmin University of China, calls for people to cast off negative perceptions they may have about the militant group. Wang is also a special fellow at the Center for Contemporary World Studies, a think tank run by a high-ranking Party body, the International Department of the CCPs Central Committee.

The Taliban has been demonized by the United States, but is Chinas good buddy, Wang wrote in a social media post attaching the video.

His comments came weeks before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan ahead of a planned U.S. departure from the country, and days after the Chinese regime hosted a delegation of Taliban representatives in Tianjin City in a show of support for the militant group.

In the video, Wang said that just as the PLA defeated Chinas Nationalist government, which had years of American support, during the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, the Taliban might decimate the American-backed Afghanistan government.

His 4-minute video on Xigua Video, a YouTube-like platform in China, has since been deleted, though a copy with English subtitles is available on YouTube. The professors channel has 710,000 followers.

Wangs remarks sparked heated discussion on the Chinese internet. Some netizens were indignant that Wang would liken the militant group to the PLA, a large modernized military that surpasses the Talibans forces. Others thought that the professors remarks aptly, although perhaps inadvertently, reflected the shared violent nature of the PLA and the Taliban.

Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of Chinese studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, also noted the similarities between the PLA and the Taliban, saying that both are ideological and both are militarized.

Both groups subscribe to the idea that political power grows out of a barrel of a gun, a phrase coined by the CCPs first leader Mao Zedong, Kondapalli told The Epoch Times. Meanwhile, both have an ideological agenda: the PLAs goal is to prop up communism, while the Taliban seeks an Islamic emirate.

In his video, Wang also called on his audience to abandon the so-called violence, terrorism, and other judgments associated with the Taliban, and understand the group from its Islamic doctrines and tribal traditions. We need to abandon the demonization by some novels, American movies, or public opinion, Wang added.

He concluded his video with: They [The Taliban] know very well that China is a mighty country. Therefore, if they want to control the situation, they must cooperate with China.

Wangs remarks are in line with the Chinese regimes propaganda narrative since the Talibans takeover, which has focused on praising the militant group, while castigating the United States over how it handled its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The CCPs propaganda campaigns, however, have met with some resistance domestically. Last week, the CCPs official mouthpiece Peoples Daily retracted a video explaining the militant groups history after drawing a backlash from netizens complaining that it whitewashed the Talibans violent history. The video omitted any reference to the groups links to terrorism, violent past, or repression of women.

Wang is known domestically as a staunch supporter of the CCP. Wang has given many interviews to Chinese state-owned media outlets and conducted speeches at state-sponsored forums promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijings massive infrastructure investment project aimed at expanding its global influence. He has also published nearly ten books on BRI, including three English ones.

The CCPs positive portrayal of the Taliban is linked to its economic interests in Afghanistan, Michael Yon, a war correspondent who lived in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2011, told The Epoch Times.

The Chinese regime wants the BRI and minerals, such as lithium, in Afghanistan, therefore it needs to whitewash the Taliban to justify its foreign policies, said Yon.

The CCP comes in and only deals with a few power brokers. They [the CCP] pay them off, and then they get all of our resources and our land. So the local people are shut out, Yon said. Thats the only way theyre going to be able to deal in Afghanistan as well.
In this image provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Sirhan Sirhan arrives for a parole hearing Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in San Diego. Sirhan faces his 16th parole hearing Friday for fatally shooting U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)

Robert F. Kennedys Assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, Granted Parole

SAN DIEGOFor 15 years, Robert F. Kennedys assassin was denied parole by a California parole board that maintained Sirhan Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime that rocked the nation and the world in 1968.

But on Friday, the two-person panel said he appeared to be a different man, even from his last hearing in 2016, and granted the 77-year-old prisoner parole. Two of RFKs sons, going against several of their siblings wishes, said they also supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if he leaves prison.

The board found Sirhan no longer poses a threat to society, noting that he had enrolled in more than 20 programs including anger management classes, Tai Chi and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

We think that you have grown, Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and that Sirhan should be released if hes not a threat to others.

Im overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face, he said. Ive lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.

Six of Kennedys nine surviving children, however, said they were shocked by the vote. They urged Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall election in California, to reverse the parole boards decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.

He took our father from our family and he took him from America, the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.

The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of his release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.

Sirhan, whose hair is white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after hes served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.

The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.

Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. RFK was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Five others were wounded.

In this file photo, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy speaks to the delegates of the United Auto Workers at a convention hall in Atlantic City, N.J., on May 9, 1968. (AP Photo, File)

Sirhan, who insists he doesnt remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his conviction, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

Some of Kennedys children and others have called for a reinvestigation of the killing, believing there was a second shooter who got away.

While on Friday, Sirhan again said he didnt recall the killing, he made multiple attempts to show nonetheless he takes responsibility for the harm he caused.

Sen. Kennedy was the hope of the world  and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that, said Sirhan, appearing on camera from a San Diego County prison at the virtual proceeding, wearing his blue prison uniform, a paper towel folded as a handkerchief peeking from his shirt pocket.

Barton said that was progress.

We saw the improvement that youve made, and all of the other mitigating factors, and we did not find that your lack of taking complete responsibility for the crime as proof of currently being dangerous to society, Barton said.

Because of laws passed in 2018, the board was required to take into account this time the fact that he had suffered childhood trauma from the conflict in the Middle East, committed the offense at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner.

The board found that despite the magnitude of the crime, he wasnt likely to reoffend and didnt pose an unreasonable threat to public safety.

Not withstanding its atrocity, its impact, not just on the families and the victims and the nation as a whole and perhaps the world as a whole  if you were sentenced to life without parole that would be a different matter, but you were sent to life with parole, Barton said.

Barton said the boards decision was not influenced by the fact that prosecutors did not participate or oppose Sirhans release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform. Gascon, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFKs assassination, believes the prosecutors role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners.

Obviously they opposed in the past and even if they had opposed it today, our decision would be the same, Barton said.

The Los Angeles Police Department, relatives of some of the victims and members of the public submitted letters opposing Sirhans release.

The California District Attorneys Association denounced the prosecutions absence.

This is one of the most notorious political assassinations in American history and the killer is being considered for release without benefit of a representative on behalf of the people of California. That is disgraceful, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, the associations president, said.

Sirhans lawyer, Angela Berry, had urged the board to base its decision on who Sirhan is today and not what he did more than 50 years ago.

Sirhan said he had learned to control his anger and was committed to living peacefully.

You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence, he told the panel.

Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. When asked about how he feels about the Middle East conflict today, Sirhan broke down crying and temporarily couldnt speak.

Take a few deep breaths, said Barton, who noted the conflict had not gone away and still touched a nerve.

Sirhan said he doesnt follow whats going on in the region but thinks about the suffering of refugees.

The misery that those people are experiencing. Its painful, Sirhan said.

If released, Sirhan could be deported to Jordan, and Barton said he was concerned he might become a symbol or lightning rod to foment more violence.

Sirhan said he was too old to be involved in the Middle East conflict and would detach himself from it.

The same argument can be said or made that I can be a peacemaker and a contributor to a friendly nonviolent way of resolving the issue, said Sirhan, who told the panel that he hoped to live with his blind brother in Pasadena, California.

Paul Schrade, a union leader and aide to RFK who was among five people wounded in the 1968 shooting, also spoke Friday in favor of Sirhans release.

By Julie Watson and Brian Melley
Businesses that are still closed after riots and looting followed by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., on July 27, 2020. (Meiling Lee/The Epoch Times)

Rioters Who Cause Property Damage or Harm Could Face Harsher Sentencing in North Carolina

The North Carolina Senate approved a bill this week that would raise the stakes for those who engage in a riot that results in damage or injury.

A person could face criminal charges and jail time if the rioter causes damage to property, or assaults a citizen or emergency personnel, during a protest or a state of emergency.

The bill has been returned to the House where, if concurred, it will then go to the office of Gov. Roy Cooper to be signed, or vetoed.

Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, one of the sponsors of the bill, said in a press release that he had witnessed the violence and destruction caused by rioters right here in downtown Raleigh in 2020.

What this bill does is enforce harsher penalties for the perpetrators of violence and looting, while preserving every North Carolinians right to protest peacefully, Moore said. Our rights to free speech and assembly are precious and must be preserved, but never at the expense of harm to others. House Bill 805 simply ensures the safety of our citizens while upholding their rights to free speech and assembly.

House Bill 805 defines a riot as a public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons, which by disorderly and violent conduct, or the imminent threat of disorderly and violent conduct, which results in injury or damage to persons or property or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage to persons or property.

A person can be charged with a misdemeanor, or a felony, depending on if weapons are used, and the severity of damage and harm.

Felony charges can be handed down if damages in excess of $1,500, serious bodily harm, or death, have resulted from the actions of the rioter.

During the floor debate, state Senator Danny Britt said the bill is written to keep cities and properties safe while protecting the First Amendment freedom to protest peacefully.

The bill passed the Senate with a 25-19 vote, split along party lines.

ACLU Response

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called House Bill 805 harmful, adding that it would dissuade many people from engaging in peaceful and constitutionally protected acts of protests.

If passed, law enforcement could use this legislation to punish people for exercising their right to protest by stacking charges against peaceful protesters, the ACLU stated.

The bill is retaliation, the ACLU alleged, against the uprising for racial justice that happened in 2020 when an outbreak of violence started in May at the time of the killing of George Floyd, a black man who had been arrested.

The May 25 arrest was filmed, and in the video, Floyd, 46, said he couldnt breathe as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was witnessed kneeling on Floyds neck as he pleaded for air.

Floyd was pronounced dead an hour after the incident.

It was later reported that both Floyd and Chauvin worked security at a Minneapolis nightclub called El Nuevo Rodeo, where David Pinney, a former employee, said that Floyd and Chauvin knew each other and had bumped heads.

Pinney later recanted this statement, however, former club owner Maya Santamaria, said Floyd and Chauvin would have likely come in contact with each other while working.

Chauvin was convicted of state murder charges in April 2021.

Cost to the Communities

According to a September 2020 report (pdf) from the Raleigh Police Department, May 30 through June 7 became a week of peaceful protest that devolved into acts of violence and destroyed property.

The September 2020 After Action Report from the Raleigh Police Chief stated that the subsequent mobilization and response of the Raleigh Police Departments Mobile Field Force was unlike any in Raleighs history.

According to data gathered by The North State Journal, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP) reported that protests in nine locations around the state cost taxpayers $304,695.

By June 1, 2020, a price tag on manpower and gas, with 581.5 hours worked, was estimated at $19,925 in Buncombe County in Asheville, the Journal reported.

The riots corresponded with the Defund the Police movement, which, according to Brandon McGaha with the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, was supported by the Asheville City Council. The situation has left the Asheville Police Departmentas well as many other departments in the countrystruggling with recruitment and dealing with officers who are leaving in droves, McGaha told The Epoch Times.

In July 2020, the Triangle Business Journal reported that statewide insurance claims were over $10 million.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
A passer-by looks at a statue of Egerton Ryerson outside Toronto's Ryerson University on July 6, 2017. The statue has since been toppled and will not be replaced, and Ryersons board of governors has now approved a name change for the university. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)

Ryerson University to Be Renamed

Following the recommendations of a special task force, Ryerson University is looking for a new name.

Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi created the task force in November 2020 with a mandate to review the legacy of the universitys namesake, Egerton Ryerson, in the history of Canadas colonization. The task force released its final report on August 26.

Lachemi said in a news release that Ryersons board of governors has approved all 22 recommendations the task force made, including one to rename the university.

Egerton Ryerson was a Methodist church minister and a prominent 19th-century educator who was instrumental in establishing a public education system when he served as the chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada.

In recent times he has been criticized for his role in the creation of the residential school system for indigenous children.

In an 1847 report, Ryerson recommended establishing industrial schools aimed at educating indigenous children. According to the task force, this contributed to the establishment of two residential schools in Ontario.

Originally scheduled for September, the report release date was accelerated when an announcement was made in Kamloops on May 27 that the remains of 215 children were found near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. This was scaled back in a later announcement issued on July 15, saying the ground-penetrating radar had located approximately 200 targets of interest and that the exact number of remains and final results can only be confirmed via forensic investigation with excavation

On June 6, after a gathering was held in honour of children who died at residential schools, an angry crowd toppled and vandalized a statue of Ryerson located at the centre of the universitys campus. Immediately afterward, Lachemi issued a statement saying that the statue will not be restored or replaced.
A vehicle stops at a checkpoint on the Pacific Highway on the Queensland - New South Wales border in Brisbane on April 15, 2020. (Patrick Hamilton/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)

State Leaders in Australia Clash Over Hard Border Stoush

Hopes of ending weeks of heartache for communities on the Queensland-NSW border have been dashed once more, with the states leaders again strongly disagreeing over a proposal to move the hard border checkpoints south.

Queensland in late July reintroduced a hard border with its southern neighbours in response to the spiralling outbreak of COVID-19 in NSW, progressively tightening exemptions for cross border travel.

Currently, only a small class of essential workers from NSW can enter Queensland, creating chaos for the southern Gold Coast and Tweed regions.

But the Queensland government announced NSW had finally come to the table on moving the hard border.

An earlier offer to move checkpoints south to temporarily include the border town of Tweed Heads within Queensland was declined by NSW.

Queensland Police stop cars in Griffith street Coolangatta at the Queensland border in Coolangatta, Australia, on Aug. 25, 2021. (Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

We are very pleased that finally, after so many months, NSW has now said they are open to talking with us on moving checkpoints, Queensland Attorney-general Shannon Fentiman told reporters on Saturday.

As someone that grew up on the Gold Coast, that border community really is one community and trying to make things easier for people to take their kids to school, to get medical appointments absolutely makes sense.

Were just really pleased that NSW has finally realised how tough it is for that border community, she said.

She said its very early days, with issues like policing of the border to be worked out.

However, NSW leaders have hit back at Queenslands frustrating approach, saying their leaders were lying.

Let me make this clear, despite noise from the Queensland Government yesterday, the NSW government vehemently opposes moving the border check point south to the Tweed River, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said in a statement on Saturday.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro speaks to the media during a NRL media opportunity at Rugby League Central in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 10, 2020. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

What we want is a genuine border bubble so that workers can get to work and people can access vital health care.

Barilaro again wrote to Queensland Health Minister Yvette DAth in the past week to advocate for that solution instead.

A border bubble would still require travel permits, while moving the border south would not, but would create a challenge for Queensland to police an area outside its own jurisdiction.

There is no neat geographical feature that can be used to support enforcement and compliance operations, NSW authorities say, and the regions access to health care would be diminished if the Tweed Hospital was temporarily absorbed into Queensland.

NSW officials were trying to develop a workable solution for the border community, but their attempts have fallen on deaf ears, Barilaro said.

NSW correspondence goes unanswered, even my own letter to the Queensland Health Minister has gone unanswered.

It is becoming clear Queensland is not serious about finding a solution for our border communities.

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard speaks at a press conference before receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine at at St George Hospital in Kogarah on March 10, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard also expressed his view.

Its very frustrating for residents in the northern part of NSW to be effectively locked out by Queensland, and its presenting some real challenges, he told reporters on Saturday.

There are medical staff who are on the side of the border who work at the Gold Coast hospital and vice-versa.

Its certainly problematic.

Moving checkpoints had been looked at and deemed unviable, but discussions continue, he said.

As NSW continues to reach grim milestones, with over a thousand new cases again reported on Saturday, restrictions in Queensland were eased on Friday afternoon after the state notched up its 20th day without a community-acquired case.

Up to 100 people are now allowed at home gatherings and 200 people are allowed at weddings and funerals, or one person per two square metres.

The same social-distancing limits are allowed in cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs, while stadiums and venues with ticketed seats can operate at 100 percent capacity.

Face masks are still mandatory indoors and outdoors where people are unable to socially-distance.

Four new, overseas-acquired cases were diagnosed in the states hotel quarantine on Friday.

By Tiffanie Turnbull
SupportAbility Offers Scholarships to Students Who Overcome the Odds

When she was 15 years old, Julie Inman collapsed on a Colorado ski slope.

A hemorrhage in her brain resulting from arteriovenous malformationan abnormal clump of blood vesselshad nearly killed her.

She woke up after life-saving surgery, only retaining the ability to hear and blink. Everything else, including swallowing, talking, and reading, would have to be relearned.

Despite it all, Inman returned to school at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, a year later and graduated in 1984. She went on to get her English degree at the University of Southern California and find a full-time job writing press releases for Grubb & Ellis, a real estate firm.

Now 56, Inman is still unable to walk and her fine motor function is affected, but shes been on a 21-year mission through her organization, SupportAbility, to help high school students with similar hardshipswhether they be physical, environmental, or mentalto attend a four-year university or junior college.

Since Inman founded the organization in 2000, SupportAbility has awarded $1 million in scholarships to more than 1,000 students at 15 Orange County high schools and seven in Los Angeles County.

To a lot of the kids, it makes a huge difference, Inman told The Epoch Times from her home in Irvine, California. The award really helped them feel like they could continue with college and be successful, and someone recognized them.

Julie Inman at her apartment complex in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Counselors at those schools encourage students to apply for the organizations primary scholarship, the Julie Inman Courage Award, which was originally created by Inmans parents in honor of her high school graduation. The scholarship was first offered at Mater Dei and then at other Orange County schools after Inman started her own organization. It rewards people who have overcome the most difficult obstacles against all odds.

SupportAbility maintains eight memorial awards in specific fields, including theater, law, and medicine, and those who have overcome particular challenges, such as cancer. The organization also awards a SupportAbility Scholarship for students hoping to attend college every four years through an anonymous donor.

Typically, funds awarded range from $500 to $1,500. Every year, Inman and SupportAbilitys 13-member board read roughly 100 short essays that outline the difficulties that applicants have had to face.

Eunice Lee, now 35, who was awarded one of the early Courage Awards in 2004, also experienced a brain injury before her freshman year of high school and has now become a close friend of Inman.

She took a nap one day before her freshman year at University High School and didnt wake up again until 10 weeks later. Doctors finally diagnosed her with moyamoya disease, an extremely rare condition that causes the narrowing of blood vessels in the brain. While in her coma, she would overhear doctors treating her like a test subject, often commenting that she would probably die.

Once out of the coma, Lee had to relearn how to function and even crawl. She dealt with 10 brain surgeries, which forced her to constantly shave her head, as well as experience intense migraines. Even though Lee missed her entire freshman year, a combination of summer school and old-fashioned hard work allowed her to graduate on time.

Receiving the $1,000 award to attend the University of California Irvine was life-changing for her, and Inman continued to support Lees studies by buying her books and being a mentor.

When I got the award, it was the first time where I thought, Huh, you did this, said Lee, who currently works as a caregiver for a senior citizen. It was someone acknowledging that what you went through was very singular, and you should be proud of what you did.

SupportAbility truly is the only scholarship foundation out there where it only asks the students one thing. How did you show courage?

Artwork painted by Julie Inman at her apartment complex in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Fundraising for SupportAbility is largely grassroots. The expenses Inman incurs are low and nearly every dollar raised is put into scholarships.

Individual donors make up the largest share of the money raised. A group of anonymous individuals, who Inman calls Angels in the Wings, each gave $10,000 when SupportAbility was first getting started, which contributed to its current success and impact.

One of SupportAbilitys most successful fundraising methods is an appeals letter sent out to the organizations 350-person mailing list. Recipients typically send in a total of around $25,000; however, this last year, SupportAbility was able to raise $40,000 through this method.

The fundraising strategy for SupportAbility is also very event-focused and includes a wine-tasting dinner, where gift baskets and vacations to Hawaii are raffled off. Theres also an annual end-of-the-year reception at the Santa Ana country club, where donors have a chance to meet the students that theyve sponsored and find out what theyre doing firsthand.

They know exactly where their money is going, Inman said. They know how that person is benefitting from their help.

Inman is personally invested in fundraising as well. She covered 1,000 miles on a stationary bicycle at her local LA Fitness between October and January for two consecutive years before the pandemic to raise more than $10,000.

And in recent months, Inman has been using her newfound love of painting to help generate funds. She sells greeting cards printed with her paintings, which focus on the natural environment she experiences on her wheelchair rides along the small creek behind her accessible apartment complex. Inmans artistic cards have so far raised more than $6,500 for the cause.

Artwork painted by Julie Inman at her apartment complex in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

After Inmans brain hemorrhage occurred more than 40 years ago and completely changed her life, a lot of her life goals, such as walking unassisted, have had to be adjusted and rethought. However, Inman has kept her head above water, using her time and energy to help others.

When a goal didnt happen, she would just reset them, which was a wonderful attribute, said Patricia Inman, Julies mother and SupportAbility board member.

She may never totally change, but she was really able to pull herself up and forge ahead.

And forge ahead she has.
An overview of crowds at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 24, 2021, in this satellite image obtained by Reuters on Aug. 26, 2021. (Satellite image 2021 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters)

Taliban: Ready to Take Full Control of Kabul Airport After US Departs

The Taliban terrorist group has taken full control of almost every area near the airport in the capital of Afghanistan and is ready to take over as soon as U.S. troops depart, two senior officials from the group claimed on Friday.

One of the seniors said their forces have taken over the area with the exception of a small part near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, as well as the area where the Americans are stationed.

As soon as the Americans leave, they just have to give us the signal and we will then take over, he said. This can be done as early as this weekend, he added.

However, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that running the airport is not an uncomplicated piece of business and he doesnt expect Taliban forces will be able to normally operate it starting on Sept. 1, the day after U.S. troops officially withdraw.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing on Afghanistan at the State Department in Washington, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

I think that it is probably unreasonable to expect that there will be normal airport operations on Sept. 1, Price said Friday, adding that if U.S. departures from the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation do complete on Aug. 31, the airport will essentially be given back to the Afghan people.

An official Taliban spokesperson wasnt immediately available to provide a statement on the matter.

With the deadline for full withdrawal of all international forces rapidly approaching, it was believed Turkey would continue to provide technical support with operations at the airport in Kabul.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at a press conference that the Taliban had asked Turkey to help run operations at the airportwhere a deadly terror attack on Aug. 26 killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan gives a statement after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, Turkey, on May 17, 2021. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/PPO/Handout via Reuters)

The Taliban have made a request regarding the operation of Kabul airport. They say, Well ensure security and you can operate it. But we have not made a decision yet because there is always a possibility of death and such things there, Erdogan said, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

We must first see the picture in Afghanistan. There is a serious power vacuum in the country now. We will make our decision after the emergence of the new administration, he added.

Turkey, which is part of the NATO mission, has been responsible for security at the Kabul airport for the last six years.

The United States assumed control of the airport around the time the Taliban took over the country. Its the only ground U.S. troops control ahead of their planned withdrawal on Aug. 31, a deadline President Joe Biden remains committed to and the Taliban continue to insist on.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Bank account holders gather outside a closed bank building in Kabul on Aug. 28, 2021. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)

The Latest: Afghans Protest at Kabul Bank, Long ATM Lines

Hundreds of Afghans have protested outside a bank in Kabul as others form long lines at cash machines.

The protesters Saturday at New Kabul Bank included many civil servants demanding their salaries, which they said had not been paid for the past three to six months.

They said even though banks reopened three days ago no one has been able to withdraw cash. ATM machines are still operating, but withdrawals are limited to around $200 every 24 hours, contributing to the formation of long lines.

Bank account holders gather outside a closed bank building in Kabul, on Aug. 28, 2021. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, a U.N. agency warned that a worsening drought could leave millions in need of humanitarian aid.

The economic crisis could give Western nations leverage as they urge Afghanistans new rulers to form an inclusive government and allow people to leave after the planned withdrawal of all U.S. forces on Aug. 31.
2 Men Die After Getting Moderna Vaccine From Contaminated Batch in Japan

Two people have died in Japan after receiving Modernas COVID-19 vaccine amid an ongoing investigation into reports of contamination related to three batches of vaccines that amount to 1.63 million doses, the countrys health ministry said on Aug. 28.

Both men, in their 30s, died in August within days of receiving their second dose of the Moderna shot, Japans Ministry of Health said in a statement. The men each received a shot from one of three manufacturing lots suspended earlier this week.

Moderna previously described the contamination reports as a particulate matter that didnt pose a safety or efficacy issue.

The U.S.-based drugmaker and Takeda Pharmaceutical said in an Aug. 28 joint statement that theyve been notified of the deaths in Japan, calling it a tragic event, noting that theres currently no evidence that the Moderna vaccine caused those deaths.

At this time, we do not have any evidence that these deaths are caused by the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and it is important to conduct a formal investigation to determine whether there is any connection, the companies stated.

Moderna and Takeda, a drugmaker distributing the Moderna vaccines in Japan, launched an investigation into the deaths together with the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW).

The logo of Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical at the companys Tokyo office on April 25, 2018. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)

The investigation is being conducted with the greatest sense of urgency, transparency and integrity and is of the highest priority, according to the joint statement. Takeda and Moderna will keep the public informed as we learn more.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, citing health officials, foreign materials were found in at least 390 dosesor 39 vialsof the Moderna vaccine, coming from eight vaccination sites. Takeda has since requested Moderna to urgently conduct a thorough investigation to determine the nature of the foreign substance.

At first, one batch with a total of 565,400 doses was discovered and put on hold over contamination concerns. Two more batches were found later and also put under investigation. The countrys health ministry has requested distribution centers to not use the 1.63 million vaccine doses. The vaccines had been shipped to more than 800 centers nationwide.

Moderna said the contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue on one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain, operated by Madrid-based Rovi.

The headquarters of Moderna Therapeutics in Cambridge, Mass., on May 18, 2020. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

The European Medicine Agency (EMA) instructed the Spanish plant on Aug. 27 to continue producing the Moderna vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccine production in Rovi is able to continue, following a preliminary risk assessment of the information received so far, EMA told Reuters in a statement on Aug. 27, noting that it didnt find a reason to seek a temporary suspension of production after an initial assessment. Its unclear whether this instruction will change following the deaths in Japan.

Japan has administered more than 124 million COVID-19 vaccine shots, with about 44 percent of its population being fully inoculated.

As of Aug. 8, 991 people had died in Japan after receiving shots of Pfizers vaccine and 11 after receiving Modernas, but no causality between the injections and the deaths has been established, according to the health ministry.

In the fatalities reported on Aug. 28, each man had a fever the day after his second dose and died two days after the fever.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 14, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Unbelievable, Says Tory Candidate of China Ship Deal While 2 Michaels Remain Imprisoned

The fact that a federal shipbuilding contract ended up going to a Chinese state-owned conglomerate is unbelievable, especially when Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor continue to be arbitrarily imprisoned in China, says Conservative candidate Pierre Paul-Hus.

Paul-Hus, a Conservative MP and his partys shadow minister for public safety before the election was called, was responding to the news that a Crown corporation awarded a $100 million ferry contract to a Swedish company, which in turn subcontracted the construction of the 200-metre vessel to a Chinese state-owned company.

The Conservative Party are very upset with this, Paul-Hus told The Epoch Times. Especially with the all the trouble [Canada has] with the Chinese government, with the two Michaels, all the issues with the Uyghurs. It is unbelievable for us.

The Globe and Mail reported that Marine Atlantic Inc., a Crown corporation, awarded a $100 million, five-year contract for a 200-metre passenger ferry to Swedens Stena North Sea Ltd., which subcontracted the construction of the vessel to China Merchants Industrys Jinling Shipyard, a huge state-owned operation based in Nanjing.

We cannot support this because we have shipyards in Canada that can build that kind of vessel, Paul-Hus said. So the first question is, why do we give some contracts over there, to the Chinese government?

According to a Marine Atlantic press release, the deal with Stena was made following a competitive procurement process that was open to domestic and international bidders and overseen by an independent fairness monitor.

Marine Atlantic has the option to purchase the ferry from Stena at the end of the five-year charter agreement, the release said. The 1,000-passenger ferry is due for delivery in 2024-25 and will operate between the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

A Marine Atlantic spokesperson told the Globe that the ownership of the shipyard selected by Stena was not considered within the procurement process, referring to China Merchants Industry.

Paul-Hus says that while its fine for the federal government to sign deals with Stena, they should have checked who Stenas subcontractors are first. In addition, Chinese state-owned companies are heavily subsidized and it makes no sense to have them compete with Canadian companies.

At the moment, were funding a Chinese company. We have to understand that [Jinling Shipyard] is subsidized by the Chinese government. Companies in Canada [are having] very huge difficulties to have the same pricethey cannot bid on the same level, he said.

He added that the awarding of the contract will send a negative message to Canadians.

When you see that our own government gives some contracts in China, especially to Chinese [state-owned] companies, people cannot understand that. They say come on, we need to have jobs here in Canada first.

This isnt the first time the procurement process at the federal level has come into question. Last July, Chinese company Nuctech was awarded a $6.8 million contract with the federal government to install X-ray security equipment in 170 Canadian embassies, consulates, and high commissions around the world.

The deal raised immediate security concerns given Nuctechs connection to the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party, having been founded by the son of former CCP leader Hu Jintao, as well as its links to the Chinese military.

In testimony before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates on Nov. 17, 2020, Lorenzo Ieraci, acting assistant deputy minister for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said procurement processes are based on the security threats and risks identified by our client, which in this case was Global Affairs.

Our procurement approach currently does not exclude companies or businesses from specific countries. At the time of the procurement process, there were no identified security risks, and thats why the process went ahead as it did. Ieraci said.

In June, the committee tabled its report to Parliament on its study of the competitive procurement process at the federal level, with nine recommendations.

The report, which focuses on the Nuctech deal, cautions against awarding contracts based primarily on price. It recommends placing greater emphasis on best value for Canadians, by including value propositions that give greater weight to qualifications and quality rather than primarily focusing on price.

Paul-Hus said if the Conservatives are elected, they will cancel the Stena contract and ensure the ferry is built in Canada.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Liberal Party for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. While campaigning in Surrey, B.C., on Aug. 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his party is concerned with this situation and will continue to make improvements to the procurement process to align with our values.
U.S. service members assist at an Evacuation Control Check Point (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps/Handout via Reuters)

US Drone Strike Kills ISIS-K Planner in Afghanistan: CENTCOM

The U.S. military carried out a counterterrorism drone strike against a member of the ISIS-K terrorist group in Afghanistan early on Aug. 28 local time, according to U.S. Central Command.

In a statement, CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said that the U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner.

Initial indications are that we killed the target, he said. We know of no civilian casualties.

The strike involved an unmanned aerial vehicle in Afghanistans Nangarhar Province, he added.

ISIS-K is an affiliate of the ISIS terrorist group. It claimed responsibility for an attack that took place on Aug. 26 outside the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, bragging that a suicide bomber had managed to penetrate all the security fortifications put in place by U.S. forces and the Taliban.

The attack killed 13 U.S. service members and also injured 18 other U.S. service members who were flown to Germany for medical care. Another 169 Afghans have been confirmed dead, reported The Associated Press.

It wasnt clear whether the now-deceased ISIS-K planner was involved specifically in the Aug. 26 attack, which took place at or near the Abbey Gate on the eastern side of the airport. According to initial reports, one bomb went off at the gate before at least one other exploded near the Baron Hotel, situated a short distance from the gate.

The Pentagon confirmed on Aug. 27 that a suicide bomber carried out the attack and denied reports of a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel.

We are not sure how that report was provided incorrectly, but we know its not any surprise that in the confusion of a very dynamic event, it can cause information to sometimes be misreported or garbled, U.S. Army Major General Hank Taylor told reporters. We felt it was important to correct the record with you all here.

Founded in 2015, ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban and the United States. Until the airport attack, ISIS-K had been quiet since Kabul was taken over by the Taliban on Aug. 15.

Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the CENTCOM commander, said on Aug. 26 shortly after the attack that he expected further ISIS-K attacks targeting the airport, which may include rockets or car bombs.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said that it was conducting a Taliban investigation into the ISIS-K attack.

Since Aug. 15, crowds have flooded to the gates of Kabul airport, desperate for help from U.S. allies to leave the country.

Mujahid told reporters in Kabul on Aug. 24 that they want all foreign evacuations to be completed by Aug. 31 and will accept no extensions to the deadline.

Isabel van Brugen contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 27, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney-Pool/Getty Images)

US Has Other Options If Diplomacy With Iran Fails, Biden Tells Israeli PM in Bilateral Meeting

President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Aug. 27 that the United States has other options if using diplomacy fails in efforts to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.

The bilateral meeting at the White House between the two leaders was delayed by one day after a deadly explosion at Kabul airport in Afghanistan caused the deaths of at least 92 people, among whom were 13 U.S. service members. Both Biden and Bennett expressed their condolences for the loss of American lives in Kabul.

The two leaders used their meeting to reaffirm U.S.Israeli relations and discuss how to approach a nuclear threat from Iran.

Biden told reporters at the Oval Office that he and Bennett speak about the commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon.

Were putting diplomacy first and see where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, were ready to turn to other options, Biden said.

The president didnt provide specifics regarding those other options.

Iran is the worlds number one exporter of terror, instability, and human rights violations, and as we sit here right now, the Iranians are spinning their centrifuges in the plants in Fordow and weve got to stop them and we both agree, Bennett told reporters.

He noted that Israel has developed a comprehensive strategy that involves two goals.

The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling them back into the box. And the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to breakout a nuclear weapon, Bennett said.

A White House readout of the meeting said that the two leaders reviewed steps to deter and contain Irans dangerous regional behavior. Both Biden and Bennett reaffirmed their commitment to address all aspects of Israels security against Iran and other threats.

I was happy to hear your clear words that Iran will never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon, Bennett told Biden. You emphasized that youll try the diplomatic route but theres other options if that doesnt work out.

Bennett also expressed gratitude for the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid Israel receives.

Its our responsibility to take care of our fate, but we do thank you for the tools  youve been giving us, he said.

Biden had expressed ironclad support for Israels security to self-defense and underscored his administrations full support for replenishing Israels Iron Dome system, according to the White House.

IsraeliPalestinian Conflict

The two leaders briefly touched upon the conflict between Israel and Palestine. According to the White House readout, Biden said that a negotiated two-state solution is the only viable path to achieving a lasting resolution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict.

Biden also underscored the importance of steps to improve the lives of Palestinians and support greater economic opportunities for them.

Bennett didnt mention the Palestinians in his remarks.

Prior to the meeting, Bennett told The New York Times on Aug. 24 that his government will neither annex [territory in the West Bank] nor form a Palestinian state.

Separately, both leaders acknowledged that Israels relationship with countries Egypt and Jordan remain crucial to regional stability, and discussed ways to deepen Israels ties with nearby countries, including Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Biden also said that his administration would work to include Israel in the Visa Waiver Program, which would allow Israeli nationals to travel to the United States for 90 days or less without obtaining a visa, provided certain requirements are met.

Reuters contributed to this report.
US Reports Worlds 1st Deer With COVID-19

CHICAGOThe U.S. government said on Aug. 27 that it had confirmed the worlds first cases of COVID-19 in deer, expanding the list of animals known to have tested positive for the disease.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported infections of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in wild white-tailed deer in the state of Ohio, according to a statement. There were no reports of deer showing symptoms of the infection, the USDA said.

We do not know how the deer were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, USDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole wrote in an email to Reuters. Its possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.

The USDA has previously reported COVID-19 in animals, including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas, and minks.

Worldwide, most animal infections were reported in species that had close contact with a person infected with COVID-19, according to the agency.

The USDA reported in July that white-tailed deer populations in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, based on a study that analyzed serum samples from free-ranging deer for antibodies to the disease.

The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine collected samples from the infected deer in Ohio from January to March as part of ongoing studies, the USDA stated. The samples were presumed to be positive for COVID-19 in university tests, and the cases were confirmed at USDAs National Veterinary Services Laboratories, according to the statement.
The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Kidd transits alongside the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt while participating in Exercise Northern Edge 2019 in the Gulf of Alaska, on May 16, 2019. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Sean Lynch/File Photo/Handout via Reuters)

US Warship Transits Taiwan Strait After Chinese Assault Drills

WASHINGTONA U.S. warship and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, Aug. 27, the latest in what Washington calls routine operations through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, which claims the self-ruled island.

The passage comes amid a spike in military tensions in the past two years between Taiwan and China, and follows Chinese assault drills last week, with warships and fighter jets exercising off the islands southwest and southeast coasts.

The Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, accompanied by the Coast Guard cutter Munro, transited through international waters in accordance with international law, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

The ships lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows, it said.

The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations every month or so, angering China, which sees Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.

China on Aug.28 called the move provocative, saying the Eastern Theater Command of the Peoples Liberation Army organized troops to follow, monitor, and guard the course of the U.S. ships operations.

The United States has frequently carried out similar provocative acts, which are of a very bad nature, fully showing that it is the biggest destroyer of peace and stability and the biggest cause of security risks in the Taiwan Strait. We firmly oppose and strongly condemn this, Chinas defense ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei said in a statement.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd in the Pacific Ocean in a photo made available by the U.S. Navy on May 18, 2011. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Carla Ocampo/U.S. Navy via AP)

Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. The Taiwan issue is Chinas internal affair and allows no external interference. We call on the U.S. to recognize the situation, stop provocation and abide by the One China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques.

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is its most important international backer and a major seller of arms to the island.

Taiwan and the United States in March signed an agreement establishing a Coast Guard Working Group to coordinate policy, following Chinas passing of a law that allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels.

Friday was not the first time a U.S. Coast Guard cutter has sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

But it was a reminder that it is now keeping vessels in the region and engaging in more joint training and law enforcement diplomacy to help strengthen partner nation capacity vis-a-vis Chinese encroachments, said Greg Poling, a maritime security expert at Washingtons Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Chinas state-controlled media have seized on the United States hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks to portray U.S. support for Taiwan and regional allies as fickle.

But U.S. President Joe Bidens administration has been quick to dismiss any comparison between Afghanistan and the U.S. commitment to the Indo-Pacific.

Vice President Kamala Harris accused China of bullying and excessive maritime claims during trips to Vietnam and Singapore this week, the latest in a string of visits by top U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific aimed at cementing U.S. commitment to the region.

By Michael Martina and Idrees Ali
Vaccination Deadline Approaches for Orange County Health Care Workers

As the deadline for all health care workers to get fully vaccinated draws near, many opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate could face termination from their jobs.

Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the countys health care agency (HCA), said that while over two-thirds of the staff he oversees are fully vaccinated, his employees Sept. 30 deadline to send in verification of vaccination quickly approaches.

Would there be an exodus of health care providers because they refuse to get vaccinated? Thats my fear as well, and the fear that I have voiced to [California Department of Public Health], Chau told The Epoch Times.

We have enough evidence now that comparing those who are unvaccinated with vaccinated, the consequences of COVID and the effect that it has on our health system is very apparent, and that they would have second thoughts.

Unvaccinated individuals are mandated by the state to wear masks indoors in public settings.

Theres also a mandate (regardless of vaccination status) for masks in indoor health care settings, K12 schools, and on public transportation.

The states top health official, Dr. Tomas Aragon, sent a letter to schools on Aug. 23, warning that they face significant legal and financial risks for failing to adhere to the states mask mandate.

For the vast majority of school officials who are implementing the universal mask requirement, this letter serves only to confirm they have taken some of the appropriate measures to mitigate health, legal, and financial risks, Aragon wrote.

Aragon said that if a student or staff member contracts COVID-19 in the absence of indoor universal masking, schools could face significant financial liability.

During a weekly COVID-19 update, Chau said theres a downward trend in CCP virus cases and hospitalizations.

Cases in Orange County have been rising for the past two months, but are beginning to slow down, Chau said.

Orange Countys seven-day average case rate dropped from 22.5 to 18.2 per 100,000 people on Aug. 27, while the average number of daily cases went down significantly from 700 to about low 500, 400 for the last few days, Chau said.

It looks like our COVID numbers are finally starting to have a slight drop across the board, with the exception of the hospitalization number.

The countys positivity rate declined from 8 percent to 7.5 percent. Hospitalizations increased to 592 cases, 27 more than yesterday, Chau said. There are currently 127 individuals in the ICU.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory on Aug. 26, warning against using Ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by [the U.S. Food and Drug Administration] for prevention or treatment of COVID-19, according to the CDCs website.

Adverse effects associated with ivermectin misuse and overdose are increasing, as shown by a rise in calls to poison control centers reporting overdoses and more people experiencing adverse effects.

Chau said: Vaccinations still continue to be our most effective way of fighting COVID-19, however, it is strongly recommended that fully vaccinated individuals mask up indoors.
Spending all day, every day, with your partner or being their only support system can be a recipe for getting on each others nervesor it could make you even closer. (Becca Tapert/Unsplash)

What Helps Couples Get Through the Pandemic?

Research is uncovering how the pandemic affected our romantic relationships and tips for staying close

Amid stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures, the COVID-19 pandemic has separated us from friends and far-flung family. But how has it affected relationships at home?

Research is only beginning to tell the story of how couples fared during the pandemic, and thats a story still in progress now16 months in, as case counts continue to rise worldwide.

For example, divorces rose in parts of China in March 2020. But thats just one side of the story: In fact, marriage applications also increased in Wuhan last spring, and 53 percent of Chinese people surveyed in 2020 said their romantic relationships improved since the pandemic. Meanwhile, findings are mixed on whether married people are happier or worse off than singles during COVID.

Spending all day, every day, with your partner or being their only support system can be a recipe for getting on each others nervesor it could make you even closer. We dont yet know which scenario has been most common.

Crises either bring people together or drive them apart, Yachao Li and Jennifer A. Samp wrote in a 2021 paper. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on relationships is still unclear.

Whats more, the best ways for couples to cope and stay connected in these conditions are still unclear. How can we hope to support a partner over so many months, when were facing the same existential stress ourselves? How can we cultivate joy and intimacy when we seem to have both too much and too little time together?

Studies from earlier in the pandemic in the U.S., Europe, China, and beyond offer some clues about whats been going on behind closed doors across the worldand what we can do to hold onto love and connection amid a crisis.

Couples Life During COVID

When the pandemic hit, everyones life was upendedincluding the rhythms of our closest relationships. Couples had to deal with the sudden need for child care and their jobs going online, disappearing, or becoming way more dangerous, all while navigating different levels of risk. They needed to support each other through stress and fear.

During the first three weeks of lockdown in Spain, researchers surveyed more than 400 adults about how their relationships had changed during that time. A team led by Cristina Gunther-Bel pored over more than 13,000 words that participants wrote, searching for themes. They found that 62 percent of participants identified some kind of improvement in their relationship since lockdown.

Most commonly, people talked about reconnecting with their partners by spending more time together, slowing down, and appreciating each other. They mentioned being able to communicate more, express their needs and feelings, and work through conflicts that they used to sweep under the rug. With everyone in the COVID-19 boat, the pandemic also created a spirit of teamwork to work out schedules, balance everyones needs, and support each other through difficulty.

According to their analysis, couples struggled more in their relationships when they had kids to look after, although things improved for parents as the lockdown went on. And younger couples seemed to be getting along better than older couples. A different study of Germans ages 14 to 95 came to a similar conclusion: As younger peoples relationships improved between February and April 2020, the relationships of older people tended to get worse.

Of course, the pandemic wasnt all good for romance. In addition to togetherness and appreciation, Spanish couples also wrote about feeling lonely and distant from each other, and being more tense and argumentative. Young couples in the United States said they experienced more fear, anger, and sadness during their interactions, compared to pre-pandemic. When conflict arose, it tended to spill over into couples physical connection and affection, so they were less likely to hug, kiss, and be intimate.

Relationships were even more strained for people who had partners with an insecure attachment style, who have trouble forming secure, stable bonds. People with distant, avoidant partners felt less supported, less able to solve problems, and lacking in a sense of togetherness. People with clingy, anxiously attached partners also felt less support and togetherness at home, as well as more chaos and problems (like poor communication and a lack of affection).

Depending on their attachment style, partners may be in need of more personal space in the confines of lockdown, or seeking support and reassurance but not getting it, says University of Auckland professor Nickola Overall.

In short, the pandemic was worse for relationships that were already struggling.

The [positive aspects of the pandemic] are disproportionately available to people that had resources and strengths going into the pandemic and are not facing major health-related and employment-related stressors arising from the pandemic, Overall says.

Meanwhile, inequalities affecting womenwho were were hit harder by pandemic unemployment and have taken on much of the increased child care and houseworkseemed to affect their relationships, too. According to a study in New Zealand that Overall co-authored, women who felt the pandemic division of labor in their household was unfair had more problems in their relationships and were less satisfied with them, too.

How to Be Resilient, Together

If the tension has increased between you and your partner, you might be tempted to ignore it. After all, things are hard enough right now, and the last thing you need is to start up another yelling match. According to one study in April 2020, avoiding confrontation is exactly what people did when they felt COVID was interfering more in their daily life. The bad news is that these people were also less satisfied together, as issues festered below the surface.

Dealing with conflict is crucial, Li and Samp argue. And a 2021 paper suggests an activity that might help: reappraisal. In this study, over 700 people living in the U.S. with their partners tried different writing activities, including one where they wrote about conflicts with their partner from the perspective of a neutral third party, trying to get outside their own head and see the situation with more perspective.

In the next two weeks, people who practiced this technique experienced fewer disagreements, less yelling, and fewer threats and insults in their relationship than those who simply wrote about their feelings about the conflict, or did other writing activities. All of this translated into being more satisfied as a couple.

Theres another easy technique you can try: Blame the pandemic.

One U.S. study surveyed people living with their partners in spring 2020 and again toward the end of the year. When women were stressed, those who blamed the pandemic (instead of themselves or their partners) were more satisfied with their relationships and engaged in fewer relationship-harming behaviors, like criticizing, insulting, and being impatient or withdrawn. This effect didnt hold for men, though, maybe because women are experiencing the worst of pandemic stress, the University of Texas at Austins Lisa A. Neff and her co-authors speculated.

Besides finding ways to cope with the extra stress and conflict, couples can also make a deliberate effort to connect and communicate.

In 2020, researchers designed a two-hour Awareness, Courage, and Love activity. U.S. couples who did it felt closer afterward and at least a week later, compared to couples who just watched a movie together. The activity included eye contact, a guided meditation, journaling about the relationship and sharing what they wrote, offering words of appreciation, and a weekly conversation activity with questions like these:

What has been hard for you this week that youd like me to understand?

When did you feel closest/most distant to me this past week?

Is there anything youre avoiding saying or communicating to me?

What have you appreciated about me this past week?

How can you take better care of yourself?

How can I be a better partner to you?

Is there anything else you want to tell me?

It should go without saying, but another way to shore up your relationship is to go out of your way to support your partner. During COVID, researchers have found that people who feel more supported by their partners are more grateful and less stressed, feel more committed and confident about achieving their goals, and make more progress toward them.

How to Be a Good Pandemic Partner

What does a supportive partner look like, in this context?

For a 2020 study, relationship therapist Laura Vowels and her team interviewed 48 people and asked them, How have you supported each other during the pandemic in achieving tasks and goals? How has the way in which you support each other changed as a result of the pandemic?

According to their answers, supportive partners made themselves available and had a spirit of flexibility and teamwork. When the pandemic hit, they found ways to share office space and divide up chores, so everyone could do what they needed to do. They encouraged their partners to get outside support from others, like family and friends. They provided inspiration, reassurance, comfort, and validation (and they tried to not get in their partners way).

Reframing support as we are in it together and we are working together to solve these shared problems ensures that people dont feel burdened by the other persons needs but also that when youre receiving support, you dont feel like you arent capable, says Overall.

Some other strategies that couples tried during the pandemic included:

Making time for each other: Planning date nights, and working on communication.

Setting boundaries: Carving out alone time, and making sure each person has privacy and space.

Practicing mindfulness: Being kind and patient in their interactions with each other, and checking in on the other persons mental health.

Going forward into post-pandemic life, or at least coming out of lockdown, Vowels expects to see another round of transition and negotiation among couples. Partners will have to again balance different levels of risk and figure out how their priorities may have shifted during the pandemic.

If couples can actually openly talk about it, thats much better than just assuming that were returning to normal, because that may not be what the other persons thinking, says Vowels, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne and principal researcher for Blueheart.io.

Facing a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, our relationships are bound to shift and change. Thats normal and to be expected, researchers say. We may find ourselves feeling adoring and grateful one day, and unable to stand the sound of their voice the next.

While some people are deciding to break up and others are getting engaged, for many couples, the reality may be somewhere in between: some renewed closeness, some new stress and tension. Even if yours isnt a story of cosy quarantine romance, you can still celebrate muddling through it together.
Why Beijings Moves on India Are Critical for the US

To corner the United States, the Chinese Communist Party is pulling out a variety of different tactics. One of them involves making advances on major U.S. allies and partners.

In Asia, one of Beijings biggest targets is India. The Chinese regime has been edging toward India using one of its playbook strategies, but wrestling over land in the Himalayas poses its own unique challenges.

What is Beijings strategy toward India, and what challenges lie before it?

In this special report, we take a look at a border contest on the regions high plateaus.

If you are interested in learning about nuclear threats against the United States from the South China Sea, click here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/nuclear-threat-from-the-south-china-sea_3937299.html

Correction: This episode incorrectly stated which country has sovereignty over certain areas. India and China both claim certain lands, including Aksai Chin and parts of Pakistani-administered Kashmir. NTD regrets the error.

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Woman Sues Cedars-Sinai Demanding Mother Be Given Ivermectin

LOS ANGELESA Hollywood woman is suing Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, alleging hospital doctors have wrongfully rejected her requests that her 75-year-old mother be given the drug ivermectin as her health continues to deteriorate due to the coronavirus.

My mother is on deaths doorstep, she has no other options, Sylvia Bagdassarian states in an affidavit in support of her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Aug. 27, asking for a court order that the drug be given to her mother, Maria Rosa Bagdassarian.

She said she has researched cases around the country where hospitals refused to give patients ivermectin, only to be ordered to do so by the courts.

She cites two such cases in which the sick patients recovered and eventually were released from the hospital.

My research indicates that the risks are infinitesimally small, especially when balanced against her chance of survival without further medical treatment, Bagdassarian said.

A Cedars-Sinai representative didnt immediately reply to a request for comment.

While ivermectin is often given to livestock as an antiparasitic, it is also used for some human conditions and is currently in use for the treatment of the novel coronavirus in different countries around the world. The drug is not recommended by the FDA.

In May, the Chicago Tribune reported that the family of a woman named Nurije Fype, 68, who had been in intensive care for about a month and was on a ventilator, secured a court order for Elmhurst Hospital to allow an outside doctor to administer ivermectin. Fypes daughter later wrote on Twitter that her mother gradually improved and was sent home from the hospital in late June.

Bagdassarians mother tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 1 and was admitted that day to Cedars-Sinai, the suit states. She was placed in the intensive care unit and given high-flow oxygen along with steroids, antibiotics, and the drug Remdesivir for five days, the suit states.

No improvement was seen in the woman and her condition deteriorated to the point where she is now sedated, intubated, and on a ventilator, as her blood oxygen levels have decreased, the suit states. The hospitals position is that there is nothing further that can be done and that they can only hope for the best, the suit states.

Bagdassarian, as her mothers guardian, has presented a prescription and requested many times that Cedars-Sinai give ivermectin to her mother, but a hospital doctor responded that the drug was not within the hospital protocols and would not help her mother, the suit states.

On Aug. 18, the doctor suggested that Bagdassarian come in and say goodbye to her mother, the suit states.

Based upon my mothers current condition, there is no rational basis for [Cedars-Sinai] to refuse to administer ivermectin, Bagdassarian states in her affidavit. For all intents and purposes, it represents her last chance to survive. If she is going to die anyway, then what is the risk in giving her the chance to try ivermectin?

Bagdassarian offered to sign a waiver absolving the hospital of liability if it administered ivermectin to her mother, but the doctors and administration still refused, the suit states.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP)  Firefighters battling a stubborn California wildfire Friday near the Lake Tahoe resort region faced gusty winds and dry conditions that made vegetation ready to burn.

The Caldor Fire has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers this week pushed back the projected date for full containment from early next week to Sept. 8. But even that estimate was tenuous.

I think thats going to be assessed on a day-by-day basis, said Keith Wade, a spokesman for the incident management team.

A Northern California police officer who had been on his way to help with the fire died Thursday of his injuries, officials said Friday.

Galt Police Officer Harminder Grewal was gravely injured in a head-on traffic collision that sent him and his partner to the hospital on Sunday.

He made the ultimate sacrifice while ... responding to danger. Officer Grewal took pride in serving his community and his work ethic was contagious to all who worked with him, the department said in a statement.

Grewal, 27, was a 2 1/2-year veteran who was the department's officer of the year in 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement honoring him and ordering Capitol flags to half-staff.

Grewal was a member of the honor guard and had recently been selected to be a motorcycle officer, Newsom said. He said Grewal's partner is recovering from her serious injuries. The driver who crossed into their lane also died.

Burning since Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada, the Caldor Fire has scorched nearly 144,000 acres, or 225 square miles (583 square kilometers), and remained only 12% contained Friday.

Flames churned through mountains just southwest of the Tahoe Basin, home to thousands and a playground for millions of tourists who visit the alpine lake in warmer months, ski at the many resorts in winter, and gamble at its casinos year-round. The area is blanketed in smoke at a time when summer vacations should be in full swing.

The fire's eastern edge was about 7 or 8 miles (11 or 13 kilometers) from the city of South Lake Tahoe, said Robert Baird, a U.S. Forest Service director of fire and aviation management.

That area has been a focus of intense resource and concern for all of us, he said.

Primary and secondary fire lines cut by bulldozers, hand crews and burnout operations were in place to try to catch the fire before it reaches South Lake Tahoe, he said.

Evacuation planning was being done as a precaution, but there were no evacuations there as of Friday afternoon, he said.

There was equal concern for communities along the western side of the fire.

When you look at the Caldor Fire, obviously theres many reasons that its the highest priority fire in the country and in California. It has community and infrastructure in pretty much every direction," said Anthony Scardina, the U.S. Forest Service deputy regional forester for the Pacific Southwest region.

That's why that fire is so complex, because in every direction there are significant risks, he said, adding that it's right in the back door of communities on the west side.

The Caldor Fire is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. Many are in the West, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

In California, 14 active, large fires are being fought by more than 15,200 firefighters. Fires have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate in the state this year while blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

The Caldor Fire has continued to grow, but not as explosively as its early days when it ravaged the community of Grizzly Flat. Ongoing tallies have counted 469 homes and 11 commercial properties destroyed, along with many smaller structures.

In the Lake Tahoe area, visitation began to drop when Highway 50, the major route to the south end, closed and again when a Dierks Bentley concert was canceled, according to Carol Chaplin, president and CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, which promotes tourism to the south side.

Obviously, the air quality began having a significant negative impact at that same time, she wrote in an email to The Associated Press. At our visitor center, many of our calls were around concern for future reservations, but as the fire has grown, lodging has experienced a significant drop.

Chaplin said she suspects occupancy is currently below 30%, and businesses are reducing hours and or days or temporarily closing.

Our summer season was incredibly strong, and we were looking forward to continuing that trend through the holiday and into the fall, she said.

South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin issued an emergency proclamation Thursday so the city thats home to Heavenly Ski Resort can be better prepared if evacuation orders come and be reimbursed for related expenses.

The last time the city declared a wildfire emergency was during the 2007 Angora Fire, which destroyed nearly 250 homes in neighboring Meyers and was the last major fire in the basin.
TIRANA, Abania (AP)  Albania on Friday housed its first group of Afghan evacuees who made it out of their country despite days of chaos near the Kabul airport, including an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

A government statement said an Egyptian Almasria Universal Airlines plane landed at the Tirana international airport at 3:20 a.m. (01:20 GMT) carrying 121 people, including 11 children. It was not clear whether this was the first flight after the two suicide bombings in Kabul that killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 American troops.

It was the fear from such attacks which pushed us our utmost that these citizens come soonest to Albania, where they are away from danger and fear for their lives, Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka said. She and U.S. Ambassador Yuri Kim were at the airport to greet the evacuees.

A government source said the flight from Kabul was organized by a U.S. non-governmental association and there was a stopover in Tbilisi, Georgia before landing in Tirana.

After the plane landed in Tirana, the passengers were supplied with facemasks and had their information processed in a military tent before they were taken on buses to hotels in the nearby western port city of Durres. The Albanian government will supply them with food, transportation, security and other necessities, according to the foreign minister.

Prime Minister Edi Rama visited some of the evacuees at the Golem coastal resort, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital Tirana. A handout video from his office showed an unnamed Afghan woman telling him that she felt as if she had come from hell to paradise.

The government plans to allow the evacuees to stay in Albania for at least a year before they move to the United States for final settlement.

Albania may temporarily house up to 4,000 Afghans, people who would be at risk in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Xhacka said they include pedagogues, artists, intellectuals, activists of the civil society, human rights organizations or those of women.

Kim praised the Albanian government for agreeing to host evacuees.

As they have always done, the people of Albania are once again providing hospitality & protection to those in greatest need, the U.S. ambassador tweeted. We are proud to call you a friend & ally. Thank you.

Albania's foreign ministry said that two more planes bringing evacuated Afghans are expected in Albania late Friday.

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Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
On this weeks episode of Segue, Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles weekly radio program exploring the lives and work of the people on campus and beyond, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Dean Kevin Leonard, PhD, interviews Ekaterina Gorislavsky, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Studies.

This episode of Segue airs at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29. Listeners can tune into WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound or siue.edu/wsie.

Before joining the SIUE faculty in fall 2016, Gorislavsky earned a master of public policy administration (MPPA) in 2007 and a PhD in criminology and criminal justice in 2014 from the University of MissouriSt. Louis (UMSL). Her teaching interests include, but are not limited to, research methods in criminology and criminal justice, quantitative data analysis, victimization rates and trends, victim participation in the criminal justice system, services for victims of crime, and capital punishment.

Welcome to Segue, Dr. Gorislavsky, begins Leonard. How did you become interested in criminology and criminal justice?

To be honest, it has always been an interest of mine in the form of detective stories and shows, true crime stories and shows, says Gorislavsky. But it took a while for it to become my formal education and career choice.

I have always had quite diverse academic interests and in middle and high school, it was very hard for me to pick one thing to focus on. When it came to college, it was challenging to choose a major.

Gorislavsky earned a bachelors in linguistics and American studies and completed her thesis on the concept of mystery in detective genre. After receiving her MPPA with UMSL, she knew she wanted to continue her education and had to choose between law school and a PhD. Ultimately her acceptance into the highly competitive criminal justice and criminology PhD program at UMSL sealed her choice for her career path.

Was there a pivotal moment in which you realized that you wanted to devote your career to criminology and criminal justice? asks Leonard.

When I was accepted into the PhD program, I stopped looking at it as a side interest, but as an attractive career choice, Gorislavsky explains. For a while, I was simply enjoying being a student and

learning new things, but then at a certain point I needed to stop and start thinking about what I wanted to do as a working professional.

Gorislasky goes on to discuss how during her assistantship with Janet Lauritsen, PhD, Curators Distinguished professor of criminology and criminal justice at UMSL, she became even more interest in the field of victimization and the magnitude of aspects that are involved.

How have your personal experiences influenced your career? Leonard inquires.

As a woman, knowing other woman who have been affected by sexual victimization in a variety of ways, Gorislavsky replies, brought more determination and passion towards what Im doing in terms of my research activity, trying to find the answers that eventually would help prevent or minimize the rates of sexual victimization.

What are the questions that have guided your research? Leonard asks.

In terms of victimization, primarily sexual victimization, one of the biggest aspects that requires a lot of study and answers is reporting, because this is the most underreported crime.

She estimates the most optimistic estimate would be around 30 percent of sexual victimization cases are reported to the police, and therefore, the biggest question is why so many victims would not report.

Another aspect she and her colleagues have been researching is looking at the link between legal consciousness, or the ability of a person to understand what behaviors are actually illegal, and legal mobilization, or what actions someone is willing to take upon understanding the illegal behavior.

Tune in at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, to WSIE 88.7 The Sound to hear the entire conversation.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. He warned another attack was highly likely and the State Department called the threat specific and credible.

The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden's deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.

After getting briefed on a U.S. drone mission in eastern Afghanistan that the Pentagon said killed two members of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate early Saturday, Biden said the extremists can expect more.

This strike was not the last, Biden said in a statement. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay. He paid tribute to the bravery and selflessness of the American troops executing the hurried airlift of tens of thousands from Kabul airport, including the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Thursday's suicide bombing at an airport gate.

The evacuation proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack. The State Department issued a new security alert early Sunday morning Kabul time instructing people to leave the airport area immediately due to a specific, credible threat.

Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours, Biden said, adding that he has instructed them to take all possible measures to protect their troops, who are securing the airport and helping bring onto the airfield Americans and others desperate to escape Taliban rule.

The remains of the 13 American troops were on their way to the United States, the Pentagon said. Their voyage marked a painful moment in a nearly 20-year American war that cost more than 2,400 U.S. military lives and is ending with the return to power of a Taliban movement that was ousted when U.S. forces invaded in October 2001.

The remains of troops killed in action overseas are usually flown back to the U.S. via Dover Air Base in Delaware, where fallen troops' return to U.S. soil is marked by a solemn movement known as the dignified transfer.

The White House on Saturday did not say if Biden would travel to Dover for the troops' return. Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, said shortly after the attack that the president would do everything he can to honor the sacrifice and the service of those killed.

The Pentagon released the names of those killed  11 Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier. Twelve of them were in the 20s; some were born in 2001, the year America's longest war began. The oldest was 31.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban in which the militant group halted attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that the 2,500 to 3,000 troops who remained would be out by September, ending what he has called America's forever war.

With Biden's approval, the Pentagon this month sent thousands of additional troops to the Kabul airport to provide security and to facilitate the State Department's chaotic effort to evacuate thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the United States during the war. The evacuation was marred by confusion and chaos as the U.S. government was caught by surprise when the Afghan army collapsed and the Taliban swept to power Aug. 15.

About 5,400 Americans have been evacuated from the country so far, including 300 in the last day. The State Department believes about 350 more want out; it said there are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have not told the State Department of their plans to leave the country, or who have said they plan to remain.

Untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind. Biden and the leaders of other Western countries have said they would try to work with the Taliban to allow Afghans who had worked with them to leave after the U.S.-led evacuation ends.

The Pentagon said that about 6,800 people, mostly Afghans, were flown out in the 24 hours that ended Saturday morning, bringing to 113,500 the total number of people of all nationalities evacuated since the hurried exit was begun Aug. 14.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. military force at the Kabul airport, which peaked at about 5,800, had begun its final withdrawal. The number had dropped below 4,000 on Saturday, according to a U.S. official who discussed details not yet publicly released on condition of anonymity. Kirby said that for security reasons the Pentagon will not provide a day-by-day description of the final stages of the military's withdrawal, which includes flying home troops as well as equipment.

The Pentagon said an airstrike early Saturday local time in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan, killed two IS planners and facilitators.

They have lost some capability to plan and to conduct missions, but make no mistake, nobody's writing this off and saying, Well, we got them. We dont have to worry about ISIS-K anymore.' Not the case, Kirby told a news conference, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan.

Biden also faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation. Critics say Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan leaves the door open for al-Qaida, the Islamic State and other extremist groups to grow and potentially threaten the United States. It was al-Qaida's use of Afghanistan as a base, with the Taliban's acquiescence, that prompted the United States to invade the country in October 2001, beginning the longest war in U.S. history.

Saturday's drone mission came less than two days after the Kabul attack and a public pledge by Biden that he would make IS pay for their suicide bomb attack. Officials made no claim that the two individuals killed played a direct role in Thursday's Kabul airport attack.

Kirby declined to release the names and nationalities of the two killed. He said one other person was wounded in the strike. The speed with which the U.S. retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate the threat from extremists, who some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Kirby said the U.S. had "the ability and the means to carry over-the-horizon counterterrorism capabilities and were going to defend ourselves, referring to the military's use of aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere to carry out strikes in Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the total number of those evacuated is 113,500 since Aug. 14. The previously cited figure, 117,000, was for all of August.
Hilda Legg served as U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Kentucky state director under the Trump Administration and has had leadership roles with the USDA Rural Utilities Service and the Center for Rural Development.
Fears mount cops will shield Joe Ferrari

BANGKOK: Concerns have been raised that Pol Col Thitisan Utthanaphon, the prime suspect in the case involving the alleged fatal torture of a drug suspect at Nakhon Sawans Muang police station, could be let off the hook after he surrendered to police on Thursday (Aug 26).

corruptioncrimedeathpolice

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 28 August 2021, 09:23AM

Thitisan Utthanaphon is taken from the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok to Nakhon Sawan on Thursday night (Aug 26). Photo: Arnun Chonmahatrakool

Senior police officers were accused of using a press conference on Thursday night to shield Pol Col Thitisan, triggering public suspicion, particularly on social media, that he might eventually be spared punishment.

Stop lying Joe trended on Thai Twitter yesterday, referring to Thitisans nickname of Joe Ferrari.

The former Nakhon Sawan Muang police station chief surrendered to police at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok on Thursday evening.

Thitisan admitted ordering the partial suffocation of Chiraphong Thanapat, a 24-year-old drug suspect with plastic bags but said the motive was not to extort money from him.

Having seen photos of around one kilogramme of crystal methamphetamine and 20,000 speed pills on Chiraphongs mobile phone, he said he had been trying to extract more information from him.

I covered the suspects head with plastic bags to prevent him from seeing officers faces, but he kept trying to remove them, so I had to have his hands tied too, he claimed.

My intention was to get the information so I could destroy a drug business and protect the people of Nakhon Sawan. I made a mistake. My subordinates were just following my orders and I take sole responsibility, he said.

The 39-year-old policeman insisted it was the first time he had treated a suspect that way and denied a separate slew of accusations of corruption.

As for [the alleged attempt to extort B1 million], I swear by the amulet around my neck that I have never been involved in corruption, he said.

Vicha Mahakun, a member of the House committee scrutinising a bill on the Royal Thai Police, said yesterday that the public is concerned that efforts may be made to let the suspects in the case off scot-free.

Dont try to cover the entire sky with the palm of your hand, said Mr Vicha, a former commissioner of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Mr Vicha also cited a Supreme Court ruling in 2017 on a case in which police officers used a bag to cover the head of a suspect during questioning. The court ruled that the officers must have known that this would suffocate the suspect and that equated to attempted murder.

Chuvit Kamolvisit, a former MP, posted on Facebook that Joe says he wanted to extract information for the sake of the people. Yet he made no mention of why the suspects wife, who was arrested at the same time, was released? Something is fishy. The drug buster says he wanted to do good deeds, but used the wrong approach. If the case is left in the hands of Nakhon Sawan police, harsh [punishment] is unlikely, Chuvit posted.

National police chief Suwat Jangyodsuk said that the CSD would be handling the investigation and any officers found to be involved will face action.

Pol Gen Suwat said that police examined the video clip and found no evidence of an attempt to extort B1mn as alleged.

However, the investigation will delve further into the issue as it has received public attention, he said.

The Nakhon Sawan Court refused to grant the temporary release on bail of the seven suspects in the case, arguing as the crime is potentially murder, which carries a severe penalty, the officers pose a flight risk.
Man arrested with 480k ya bah pills valued at B24mn

NAKHON SRI THAMMARAT: Police arrested a man with 480,000 pills of methamphetamine (ya bah) valued at about B24mn on a side of Thungmai-Khuan Krod Rd in Thung Song District of Nakhon Sri Thammarat on Wednesday (Aug 25).

crimedrugspolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Saturday 28 August 2021, 03:12PM

Police seized B24mn in drugs during a raid in Nakhon Sri Thammarat. Photo: Krabi Police

The arrest  conducted at about 2am on that day  followed an investigation by Lt Col Sanya Thammarat and other fellow officers, Krabi City Police Chief Kriangsak Noonkliang announced.

Police officers first arrested a suspect at a residence in Krabi City who was found in possession of narcotics. The man named his supplier Sarawut Bom Chuengpon, 34, leading officers to contact Sarawut and make an appointment to buy drugs in the area of Moo 2, Nong Hong Sub-district in Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

At about 2am, officers saw Sarawut driving his white car and parking on a side of the road where they made the appointment to meet and receive drugs. Officers revealed themselves and arrested Sarawut with 480,000 pills of ya bah which were divided into 240 packages. During the arrest police officers also seized Sarawuts car, mobile phone, notebook with records about his customers, and a set of drug-taking equipment.

Sarawut confessed that he received drugs from a network in Tha Sara District and was paid B150,000 for delivery. He also said that he had been imprisoned at Phang Nga Provincial Prison for six years for a drug related case and was just released six months ago.

He told police that he joined the drug network when he was in the prison, and after being released started working with them.

Sarawut was taken to Thung Song Police Station and charged with possession of a Category 1 drug with intent to sell.
Man United agree deal with Juventus for Ronaldo return

FOOTBALL: Cristiano Ronaldo said he achieved great things at Juventus after Manchester United announced yesterday (Aug 27) they have reached a deal to re-sign the Portuguese star.

FootballPremier-League

By AFP

Saturday 28 August 2021, 09:37AM

Manchester United have announced a deal to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Photo: AFP

The 36-year-old made his name on the world stage in six years at United between 2003 and 2009 before moving to Real Madrid for a then world record transfer fee.

He became a legend at Madrid, scoring a remarkable 450 goals in 438 matches in a glittering nine-year spell that included four Champions League triumphs and winning the Ballon dOr for the worlds best player four times.

Ronaldo joined Juventus in 2018 and won two Serie A titles, but his time in Turin has not lived up to expectations.

Hopes he would end the Italian giants 25-year wait to become champions of Europe have been thwarted.

Juve failed to get beyond the Champions League quarter-finals in the past three years and last season were deposed as Italian champions by fierce rivals Inter Milan.

Today I depart from an amazing club, the biggest in Italy and surely one of the biggest in all of Europe, Ronaldo posted alongside a compilation of best moments at Juventus on Instagram.

The tifosi bianconeri always respected me and I tried to thank that respect by fighting for them in every game, every season, every competition.

In the end, we can all look back and realise that we achieved great things, not all that we wanted, but still, we wrote a pretty beautiful story together.

Legend returns

Uniteds swoop capped a tumultuous 24 hours during which Ronaldo initially seemed poised to join rivals Manchester City.

Premier League champions City had been widely linked with a move for the forward after missing out on England captain Harry Kane.

However, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hinted a deal was in the offing during his pre-match press conference yesterday ahead of tomorrows Premier League trip to Wolves.

Cristiano is a legend of this club, hes the greatest player of all time, if you ask me, said Solskjaer, who played alongside Ronaldo.

Weve always had a good communication. I know Bruno (Fernandes) has been talking to him as well. He knows what we feel about him. If he was ever going to move from Juventus, he knows that were here.

United announced a deal with Juventus has been agreed with the transfer subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical.

Everyone at the club looks forward to welcoming Cristiano back to Manchester, the Red Devils added in a statement.

Sky Sport Italia reported that the English giants have offered Juve 28 million (B1 billion), agreeing a two-year deal with the superstar attacker worth 25mn per season.

Ronaldo won the first of his five Champions League titles and was first crowned the worlds best player during his first spell at United.

In total he scored 118 goals in 292 games, also winning three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups.

The idea of him going to Manchester City was torture. If there is a big player available Manchester United have to be in the market for that player, former United captain Gary Neville told Sky Sports.

Theyve bolstered the squad with a proven goalscorer, a club legend, and what it is going to do is give the club an incredible 12 months.

Despite missing out on the title to Inter, Ronaldo still topped the Serie A goal charts last season, edging out Romelu Lukaku, who joined Chelsea this month.

And he also rolled back the years at Euro 2020 to win the Golden Boot despite playing just four games as Portugal bowed out at the last 16.

United have already significantly strengthened their squad with the signings of Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane during the transfer window as they aim to win the Premier League for the first time since 2013.

Ronaldo joins already loaded group of attacking options for Solskjaer featuring Sancho, Bruno Fernandes, Edinson Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood and Paul Pogba.

He is expected to make his second United debut at home to Newcastle on Sept 11.
PM admits we may have to learn to live with COVID

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has set a new target to prepare the country for a future with COVID-19, according to sources at Government House.

CoronavirusCOVID-19healthVaccinetourism

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 28 August 2021, 09:08AM

Photo: Bangkok Post

Chairing a meeting of the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) yesterday (Aug 27), Gen Prayut proposed a shift in the countrys COVID-19 management strategy so people can learn to live safely with COVID-19, in recognition of the ever-changing nature of the virus which may never be fully eliminated from society, the sources said.

In light of this, the CCSA is targeting to strike a balance between COVID-19 control measures and allowing people to go about their normal lives and economic activities, according to the sources.

The prime example of this approach is the Phuket Sandbox scheme which started on July 1, followed by the Samui Plus model on July 15.

They form the backbone of plans to restart the battered tourism industry and reopen the country under DMHTT guidelines, referring to social distancing, mask-wearing, hand-washing, temperature-checking and using the Thai Chana app.

Gen Prayut also reaffirmed the governments commitment to promoting research and development of domestic vaccines under the governments public health development strategy so that Thailand can be self-sufficient in terms of vaccine production, the sources said.

The development of a local mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, known as ChulaCOV-19, by a research team at Chulalongkorn Universitys Faculty of Medicine, meanwhile, holds some hope for Thailand.

The team recently announced the vaccines success in its first phase of human trials and expects to seek registration for emergency use in April next year, the sources said, quoting Gen Prayut as saying that the government will expedite disbursement of funding to support such projects.
Registration opens for expats in Phuket to receive Pfizer

PHUKET: Expats in Phuket who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccination have been invited to register to be vaccinated by either AstraZeneca, Sinovac or Pfizer.

COVID-19CoronavirusVaccinehealth

By The Phuket News

Saturday 28 August 2021, 09:30AM

The announcement issued yesterday (Aug 27).

The announcement came yesterday (Aug 27), not by Phuket officials, but instead via Bangkok Hospital Phuket.

The hospital announcement explained that the vaccinations were to be provided in association with the Thai Department of Disease Control, and that the vaccinations would be free of charge.

A critical condition, however, is that registrants had never received any COVID-19 vaccine before, said the announcement.

The vaccine options registrants could choose from were given as:

AstraZeneca (1st dose) + AstraZeneca (2nd dose)

Sinovac (1st dose + Sinovac (2nd dose)

Pfizer (1st dose) + Pfizer (2nd dose)

Those eligible to register were foreign residents aged 40 years or older, or foreign residents (aged from 12) who have at least one of eight medical conditions, given as:

Weight > 100kg or BMI > 35kg/m3 / or obesity in children

Severe chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs)

Coronary artery diseases (CAD)

Chronic kidney disease (CKD, 5th stage)

Cerebrovascular diseases

Cancer and immunocompromised conditions

Diabetes

Genetic disease: Downs syndrome, problems with the brain or nerves, delayed development in children

Foreign pregnant women with gestational age at least 12 weeks were also invited to register.

Youths aged 12-18 years will be allowed to receive Pfizer only, the announcement said.

Registrations will remain open until next Friday (Sept 3).

However, the vaccination dates have yet to be confirmed. Registrants will be notified by SMS.

The vaccinations will be administered at Bangkok Hospital Phuket, the notice confirmed.

Of importance, the announcement also noted, This survey is only to ascertain the number of vaccines needed. The hospital cannot specify the number and vaccine type including the date and time of vaccination.

The hospital will contact you via the provided mobile number once the vaccine is available and will allocate vaccines in accordance to the conditions in numerical order.

To register or for more information about the vaccination registration, foreigners were asked to call the hospital at 076-254425 or 076-655000, or the hotline 1719.

Alternatively people may contact the hospital via:

Facebook Messenger: m.me/BangkokHospitalPhuketLine Official Account: https://lin.ee/7ADQ6OI

Email: info@phukethospital.com
Restrictions to be eased in dark red zones

BANGKOK: Restaurants, malls, outdoor sport centers to re-open in COVID dark red zones from Sept 1, while the curfew remains at 9pm to 4am, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA)

COVID-19Coronavirushealth

By National News Bureau of Thailand

Saturday 28 August 2021, 10:30AM

Photo: NNT

The CCSA announced, during its press conference on Friday (Aug 27), that restrictions are to be eased in 29 COVID dark red zones, including Bangkok, reports state news agency NNT.

Restaurants will be allowed to open, using a maximum of 50% of their capacity in air-conditioned premises, and 75% with outdoor seating. Hair salons can provide haircuts only. Only foot massage can be provided in massage salons and aesthetic clinics are only allowed to sell their products in the clinics, not provide treatments. All businesses can be open only until 8pm.

Businesses which will remain closed include tutoring schools, cinemas, spas, theme and water parks, fitness centers, swimming pools and meeting and banquet venues. The curfew remains from 9pm to 4am.

As for interprovincial travel, the CCSA asks the general public to refrain from doing so if not necessary. Public transport will be operating with 75% of its capacity and drivers must be fully vaccinated. Domestic airlines will be operating as well.

All measures are to come into effect on Wednesday (Sept 1).






Thammasat University authorised to import vaccines

BANGKOK Thammasat University has officially become the latest government entity authorised to import medicines related to COVID-19 prevention and treatment, including vaccines, as announced in the Government Gazette. The announcement effectively provides a new official channel to import COVID-19 vaccines into Thailand to manufacturers that are currently dealing with government entities only.

COVID-19CoronavirusVaccine

By National News Bureau of Thailand

Saturday 28 August 2021, 11:30AM

Photo: NNT

The Royal Thai Government Gazette on Thursday (Aug 26) published Thammasat Universitys regulations on medical services and public health management during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which the university is officially an authorised government entity permitted to import medicines and vaccines, reports state news agency NNT.

The regulation, signed by President of the Thammasat University Council Noranit Setabutr, means the university now has the right to procure, produce, sell, import, seek authorisation, and approve drugs, vaccines, and medical equipment related to COVID-19 treatment and prevention.

As part of this new mission, the universitys rector shall serve as the official representative in any businesses related to medical services and public health management during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is authorised to establish agreements with government agencies and private firms, both in Thailand and internationally.

The rector also has the authority to delegate or authorise any person or agency, either in the government or private sector within Thailand and internationally, or any university staff member to represent the university on related tasks.

The authorisation effectively gives Thammasat University the ability to deal with vaccine manufacturers, who currently only sell to government entities due to the emergency use authorizations of the vaccines.

The university has previously stated it is looking to import the protein subunit vaccine from Novavax, as well as second-generation mRNA vaccines, both of which are expected to be available next year.

Government agencies and entities authorised to import COVID-19 vaccine in Thailand now comprise the Department of Disease Control; the National Vaccine Institute; the Government Pharmaceutical Organization; Thai Red Cross Society; Chulabhorn Royal Academy, and Thammasat University.Thammasat University is a public university in Thailand governed under its own Act. The university has its own medical school within the Faculty of Medicine, which operates Thammasat University Hospital.
Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
OLD LYME  Dave Berggrens battle with the beavers of Black Hall Pond has gone on for more than three years and he says its time for reinforcements to arrive.

The 83-year-old says the critters are to blame for the rising water in the pond, which has slowly flooded portions of his yard and is threatening the foundation of his home. For years, he said, he regularly trekked onto the nearby Jericho Preserve to tear away at the beavers dams, only to watch them built back in a matter of days.

Finally last year, Berggren said the beavers appeared to give up, retreating farther into the swamp that drains the pond. But without additional help from town officials and the preserves owners to rout the beavers once and for all, Berggren says he fears the victory may be short lived.

Were just kind of waiting for something to boil up, Berggren said from his home this week. Ive paid and worked on this property all my life, and theyre destroying it for some rodent.

The years-long effort to eradicate the beavers has also escalated tensions between Berggren and local officials, he and a former neighbor said.

As a result of his long-running and well-publicized effort to eradicate the beavers, Berggren said rumors have swirled that he is behind the destruction of a beaver dam that was recently blown up, downstream from his house, near Interstate 95. Berggren said he was not involved, and does not know who is responsible.

His former neighbor, Lee Detwiler, said she heard after the dam was destroyed there were seven dead beavers lined up along the roadway. Detwiler, who lives in Philadelphia but returns monthly to help Berggren around the house, also said she did not know who destroyed the dam.

Its now become this fight, she said. Its been ugly.

Officials in Old Lyme, however, questioned the veracity of the reports of someone blowing up a dam. The towns animal control officer, Lynn Philemon, said she had not received reports about beavers being killed or a dam being blown up, though she said she would check with other officials.

I think I heard about some dead beavers, but I didnt hear about any explosives, First Selectman Tim Griswold said.

Will Healey, a spokesperson for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said in an email that the agency has not received reports of an explosion or illegal killing of beavers, the trapping of which is regulated along with other furbearers.

He said the agencys Wildlife Division is aware of the area, and that it has routinely had problems with beavers.

Representatives of the town and the Old Lyme Land Trust, which owns the preserve, said theyve taken steps to mitigate any potential damage to property caused by beavers, including removing dams and trapping the animals.

In a statement sent Thursday to Hearst Connecticut Media, Land Trust Secretary Lea Harty said the organizations recent efforts included obtaining a permit from the Inland Wetlands Commission last summer to breach one of the dams on its property, but discovered it had already been taken out by an unknown trespasser.

Harty said the dam has since not been re-built and the land trust has hired a trapper to remove several of the animals. Other methods of controlling dam-building, such as building structures known as beaver deceivers were determined to be ill-suited for the area, she said.

That said, we have not had any recent contacts from property owners on [Black Hall] Pond about concerns relating to beavers, which may be on the Jericho Preserve, Harty said.

Berggren conceded Thursday that water levels in the pond have stopped rising since last year, though he said the water is still high enough to soak the ground and alter the foundation of his home. He said this has caused cracks in the roof that leak and lead to black mold.

Getting the water back down to normal levels would require dredging the muddy area left behind after the beavers dam was breached, Berggren said. He also accused the land trust of not going into the swamp to search for the beavers and stopping them from building new dams. In her statement, Harty said portions of the property are nearly impenetrable.

The muds got to be dredged out of there, to put the stream back to where it was in the beginning, Berggren said.

Berggren said he is considering a lawsuit to force the town and the land trust into action, despite officials insistence that theyve already taken the appropriate steps.

Ultimately, trapping was performed and that solved the problem for now, but for how long, its hard to say, Griswold said. He expressed frustration with Berggrens insistence that town officials are neglecting the issue.

In addition to approving the land trusts permit to breach the dam, the Inland Wetlands Commission has also approved placing a beaver deceiver and two pipes that allow water to flow through beaver dams in other areas of town downstream from Black Hall Pond, according to Old Lyme Land Use Coordinator Dan Bourret.

Its a little bit annoying that hes characterizing it as the town didnt do nothing, Griswold said.
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ALTON  Alton Main Street and Jacoby Arts Center are partnering to present First Fridays, a late night art and shopping experience at 13 locations the first Friday of each month September through December.

Participants will offer discounts, refreshments and giveaways. Everyone who has their passport stamped at each location will receive a $10 gift certificate to any participating business.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  For 15 years, Robert F. Kennedys assassin was denied parole by a California parole board that maintained Sirhan Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime that rocked the nation and the world in 1968.

But on Friday, the two-person panel said he appeared to be a different man, even from his last hearing in 2016, and granted the 77-year-old prisoner parole. Two of RFKs sons, going against several of their siblings' wishes, said they also supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if he leaves prison.

The board found Sirhan no longer poses a threat to society, noting that he had enrolled in more than 20 programs including anger management classes, Tai Chi and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, even during the coronavirus pandemic.

We think that you have grown, Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and that Sirhan should be released if hes not a threat to others.

Im overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face, he said. Ive lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.

Six of Kennedys nine surviving children, however, said they were shocked by the vote. They urged Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall election in California, to reverse the parole boards decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.

He took our father from our family and he took him from America, the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.

The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of his release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.

Sirhan, whose hair is white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after he's served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.

The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.

Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. RFK was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Five others were wounded.

Sirhan, who insists he doesnt remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his conviction, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

Some of Kennedy's children and others have called for a reinvestigation of the killing, believing there was a second shooter who got away.

While on Friday, Sirhan again said he didnt recall the killing, he made multiple attempts to show nonetheless he takes responsibility for the harm he caused.

Sen. Kennedy was the hope of the world ... and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that, said Sirhan, appearing on camera from a San Diego County prison at the virtual proceeding, wearing his blue prison uniform, a paper towel folded as a handkerchief peeking from his shirt pocket.

Barton said that was progress.

We saw the improvement that youve made, and all of the other mitigating factors, and we did not find that your lack of taking complete responsibility for the crime as proof of currently being dangerous to society, Barton said.

Because of laws passed in 2018, the board was required to take into account this time the fact that he had suffered childhood trauma from the conflict in the Middle East, committed the offense at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner.

The board found that despite the magnitude of the crime, he wasnt likely to reoffend and didnt pose an unreasonable threat to public safety.

Not withstanding its atrocity, its impact, not just on the families and the victims and the nation as a whole and perhaps the world as a whole  if you were sentenced to life without parole that would be a different matter, but you were sent to life with parole, Barton said.

Barton said the boards decision was not influenced by the fact that prosecutors did not participate or oppose Sirhans release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform. Gascon, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFKs assassination, believes the prosecutors role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners.

Obviously they opposed in the past and even if they had opposed it today, our decision would be the same, Barton said.

The Los Angeles Police Department, relatives of some of the victims and members of the public submitted letters opposing Sirhans release.

The California District Attorneys Association denounced the prosecutions absence.

This is one of the most notorious political assassinations in American history and the killer is being considered for release without benefit of a representative on behalf of the people of California. That is disgraceful, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, the associations president, said.

Sirhans lawyer, Angela Berry, had urged the board to base its decision on who Sirhan is today and not what he did more than 50 years ago.

Sirhan said he had learned to control his anger and was committed to living peacefully.

You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence, he told the panel.

Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. When asked about how he feels about the Middle East conflict today, Sirhan broke down crying and temporarily couldnt speak.

Take a few deep breaths, said Barton, who noted the conflict had not gone away and still touched a nerve.

Sirhan said he doesnt follow whats going on in the region but thinks about the suffering of refugees.

The misery that those people are experiencing. Its painful, Sirhan said.

If released, Sirhan could be deported to Jordan, and Barton said he was concerned he might become a symbol or lightning rod to foment more violence.

Sirhan said he was too old to be involved in the Middle East conflict and would detach himself from it.

The same argument can be said or made that I can be a peacemaker and a contributor to a friendly nonviolent way of resolving the issue, said Sirhan, who told the panel that he hoped to live with his blind brother in Pasadena, California.

Paul Schrade, a union leader and aide to RFK who was among five people wounded in the 1968 shooting, also spoke Friday in favor of Sirhans release.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles.
GODFREY  Lewis and Clark Community College will hold a hybrid community forum Tuesday, Aug. 31, to discuss Gov. J.B. Pritzkers recent mask and vaccine mandate for higher education to mitigate spread of COVID-19 in Illinois.

On Thursday, LCCC announced that vaccinations are required for all college employee team members and students. The first shots are required by Sept. 5.

Tuesdays forum is planned 5-6 p.m. in the Hatheway Cultural Centers Ann Whitney Olin Theater and will be accessible by Zoom. The Zoom link can be found at www.lc.edu/coronavirus.

People wishing to submit questions should email Executive Secretary Sue Keener at skeener@lc.edu by 11 a.m. Monday, Aug. 30.

LCCC President Ken Trzaska said the college is focused on the success of every student, adding the school is striving to create welcoming teaching and learning spaces that are safe and healthy.

COVID-19 continues to complicate our daily lives and we know that you have questions and concerns about the governors recent announcement and how it directly impacts Lewis and Clark, he said. We are holding a forum because we want to hear from you and reaffirm our commitment to our students and community.

Trzaska said that, per the state mandate, people unable or unwilling to receive the vaccine must get tested for COVID-19 at least once per week. The college will offer free testing on campus for students and team members starting Sept. 7 when they return after the Labor Day weekend.

The college also plans to hold multiple vaccination clinics in conjunction with the Madison County Health Department and the Illinois Department of Public Health over the course of the semester to help protect students and team members.

Clinics already are planned for Sept. 8 and Sept. 29. Both first and second doses are free and available at either clinic, but registration is required. On- and off-campus community members are invited to register for an appointment at http://events.juvare.com/IL-IDPH/rstlj. The link is also posted at www.lc.edu/coronavirus.

Pritzkers new mandate requires masks indoors in all public indoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status. LCCCs own indoor mask mandate for all began Aug. 6. Faculty returned to campus Aug. 16, followed by students on Aug. 23.

We strive to provide an environment that is conducive to student learning, said Vice President of Academic Affairs Jill Lane. Providing a safe environment for our team members and students is an extremely important part of that goal.

The in-person community forum will be limited to 250 people to allow for social distancing. Masks will be required.
ALTON  An Alton food truck will be part of the third annual Taste of Black St. Louis.

The event runs noon to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, through Sunday, Sept. 12, at City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way.

C-Rations Grub Hub owned by Christina Christy Harvey of Alton will be participating for the first time. She started with Harveys Heavenly Hands Catering and, when everyone loved her cuisine  including her husband who encouraged her to start a food truck  she finally did it.

Harvey said her best friend, Janell Campbell, helped get the C-Rations Grub Hub truck ready for business.

Shes the one that helped my business behind the scenes for paperwork, licensing, and anything else I may not have been very good at, Harvey said. I couldnt share the food truck until she helped me, even though I had it all ready to go.

A second career gave as much as the first when Harvey went to culinary school. The Marine and retired Army staff sergeant worked for 21 years in the military with the Judge Advocate Generals Corp. She chose to follow her instinct and go to culinary school.

She enrolled in 2011 and completed one year before being deployed to Fort Stewart, Georgia, for 2012-2013. She then graduated in 2014, the same year she retired from the military and had her youngest child.

Im standing by the grace of God because Hes the only one who gives me the energy to do it all, said Harvey,

More Information Taste of Black St. Louis schedule of events:  Connect and Sip Kickoff, 6-11 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 9, at Convene Event Space, 3333 Washington Ave., St. Louis  Back | Bigger | Better, noon-9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 10, City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way, St. Louis  Chef Battle Part I at noon, Saturday, Saturday, Sept. 11, all day noon-9 p.m., City Foundry  Chef Battle Part II at noon, Sunday, Sept. 12, all day noon-9 p.m., City Foundry See More Collapse

Thereafter she started her own Alton-based catering business, and eventually added her food truck. Harveys Heavenly Hands Catering  its cuisine and reputation  and Harveys ingenuity saved both businesses during the pandemic, she said.

Without her husbands insistence, she said, she would not have launched the food truck. He found the fully equipped food truck in Oklahoma and they brought it to Alton in December 2019. But by the time they were ready to open, the pandemic hit.

In January 2020, C-Rations was hired for small private events. Then the pandemic idled it for eight months until last October when a St. Louis music event organizer asked C-Rations to be a vendor.

She said she believes in God and divine intervention. She said she dreamed about going to culinary school before making the leap from criminal law.

I dont think that anything happens by accident, Harvey said.

C-Rations Grub Hub uses its Facebook page to announce its dates, locations and menus.

In two years the Taste of Black St. Louis has attracted 23,000 attendees; showcased more than 100 vendors in food, retail, and information; and garnered thousands of dollars in gross sales.

We believe in keeping our marketplaces affordable allowing for micro-businesses to re-invest in themselves and support their families, said the Taste of Black St. Louis founder Aisha James. Its our mission to provide festival opportunities through accessibility, affordability, and sustainability.

We offer small businesses the perfect portal right into the hearts and tummies of local audiences year after year.

Visit www.tasteofblackstl.com for more details and a full schedule.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP)  Firefighters faced a critical day in efforts to prevent a massive California wildfire from reaching the Lake Tahoe resort region Saturday, hoping to take advantage of calmer winds before hot, heavy gusts return.

The Caldor Fire churned through mountains just southwest of the Tahoe Basin, cloaking much of the area in toxic smoke and sending tourists packing at a time when summer vacations would be in full swing ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

A favorable turn in weather Saturday afternoon allowed firefighters to make progress and increase containment of the Caldor Fire to 19%, up from 12% the day before, said Capt. Stephen Horner, a Cal Fire spokesman for the Caldor Fire. The fire so far has burned about 149,000 acres, or 233 square miles (603 square kilometers).

Its going to be a very pivotal day for us, Horner said.

The fires eastern edge was about 7 or 8 miles (11 or 13 kilometers) from the city of South Lake Tahoe and did not advance much overnight thanks to operations known as backfiring, where firefighters get ahead of the blaze and burn up fuel so the fire has nothing to ignite, Horner said.

They did backfiring operations that were nothing short of amazing last night in that area, Horner said.

Wind gusts were forecast for early Saturday up to 35 mph, but they tapered off with slower, weaker winds expected through the rest of the weekend, Cal Fire incident spokesman Henry Herrera said.

We anticipate being able to make more progress over the weekend because of favorable wind conditions, Herrera said. But the slower winds were only expected to last two days.

A Fire Weather Watch was issued for Monday and Tuesday that will lead to elevated fire weather concerns in higher elevations of the Northern Sierra, Cal Fire said.

The Caldor fire has destroyed more than 600 structures since it started on Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada. It has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers this week pushed back the projected date for full containment from early next week to Sept. 8. But even that estimate was tenuous.

It is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. Many are in the West, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

The Department of Defense is sending 200 U.S. Army soldiers from Washington state and equipment including eight U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to help firefighters in Northern California, the U.S. Army North said in a statement Saturday. The soldiers are expected to arrive in California in early September after a week-long training. The C-130s have been converted into airtankers that can dump thousands of gallons of water on the flames.

In California, 14 large fires are being fought by more than 15,200 firefighters. Fires have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate this year while blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin issued an emergency proclamation Thursday so the city thats home to Heavenly Ski Resort can be better prepared if evacuation orders come and be reimbursed for related expenses.

The last time the city declared a wildfire emergency was during the 2007 Angora Fire, which destroyed nearly 250 homes in neighboring Meyers and was the last major fire in the basin.
Delta Airlines made the news this week by announcing it would require employees who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine to pay $200 more per month for their health care insurance.

"Its the first headline Ive seen where a major company has gone so far to implement charging a higher premium if you dont get vaccinated," said Norbert Kuegle, who is a partner of Warner's Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation Practice Group. "And the dollar amount is pretty significant, too. $200 dollars a month is an eyebrow raiser.

Can other employers across the nation do this?

The answer is yes.

If the program is structured to comply with wellness program rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Affordable Care Act, employers can require employees who are covered by their health plan to pay a higher premium if they are unvaccinated.

Although we typically think of HIPAA as a privacy law, it also includes health nondiscrimination rules that prohibit an employer from charging employees higher health insurance premiums based on health factors. However, under HIPAA regulations and the Affordable Care Act, an employer can offer financial incentives under its health plan to individuals who participate in its wellness programs.

And, a wellness program can include incentives for getting the COVID-19 vaccine, such as a premium surcharge for those people who are unvaccinated.

If a company enacts these policies, they can get an unvaccinated person to pay more per month because they're at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, according to Kugele.

Around 49% of the countrys total population receive employer-sponsored health insurance (also called group health insurance), according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

When an employer sponsors a health plan for its employees, it typically does not charge the full cost of the coverage to employees," Kugele said. "Typically, it asks employees to contribute part of the cost, and the employer pays the rest.

Employees typically pay a small percentage of the actual cost of the health plan," Kugele continued. "There are laws like the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA, which are medical nondiscrimination laws, that say that an employer cannot charge an employee more based on how healthy they are. Theres certain exceptions for smoking or things like that, but its a very narrow list of exceptions. And, typically you cant discriminate against your workforce in premiums based on their health.

Employers can get around these medical nondiscrimination laws by using wellness programs that are reasonably designed to improve health or prevent disease.

"A lot of programs try to put incentives in place so that people stay healthy and arent subject to chronic diseases and such. You can have incentives that take the form of premium surcharges or premium discounts. So, if you participate in the wellness program and do the things that it asks you to do, youll pay less in your healthcare coverage. These same rules can be used with respect to COVID-19 vaccinations. You can offer an incentive for people to get vaccinated as part of your wellness program. So, those who are vaccinated would pay less for their health coverage and those who arent vaccinated would pay more. Thats what Delta Airlines has done. Theyve basically used their wellness program to try and incentivize people who arent vaccinated to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

There are limits to wellness programs under the law. Under the regulations around this, the incentives, or surcharges, typically cannot be more than 30% of the full cost of coverage.

This news crosses over the exact same way to different states. Every company does have these federal laws that apply to them, so technically, any company could enact a program like this. It is an alternative to a vaccination mandate for employers to consider, according to Kugele.

It wouldnt surprise me to see other companies in the nation doing this. I know some of the clients that we work with really dont want to go down the mandating the vaccine road" Kugele said. "I know some of them will look at this.

Certainly, anybody who gets COVID-19 and ends up in the hospital can incur some substantial medical costs," he continued. "So, I think it is fair for employers to try and incentivize people to get that vaccine because its likely to save the plan some money.

According to corporate law firm Warner Norcross & Judd, a premium surcharge for unvaccinated individuals will have to comply with the following HIPAA/ACA rules:

 A participant must be given the opportunity each year to qualify for the reward (i.e., avoid the surcharge).

 The maximum reward for all health-contingent wellness programs (including the vaccine incentive) cannot be more than 30% of the total cost of the employees health coverage (both employee and employer contributions), though incentives tied to smoking can go up to 50% of the cost.

 The program must be reasonably designed to improve health or prevent disease.

 The program must meet uniform availability and reasonable alternative standards. A COVID-19 vaccination incentive program must include both of the following features:

 The program must provide a reasonable alternative activity (or waiver of the activity) for any individual for whom it is unreasonably difficult due to a medical condition or medically inadvisable to perform the activity (which can be verified with the individuals personal physician when it is reasonable to do so). Coming up with an alternative may not be easy, so a waiver may be the most practical solution.

 The full reward must be available to someone who completes the program or satisfies the reasonable alternative standard (or waiver of the standard). Depending on how the program is structured, if an employee who is paying the surcharge becomes vaccinated, the employee may be entitled to a refund (or credit) of the surcharges the employee has paid up to that point in the plan year.

 All materials that describe the wellness program must also describe the availability of a reasonable alternative activity/standard (or, if applicable, the availability of a waiver of the activity/standard).
EDWARDSVILLE  A Granite City man faces a multitude of felony charges from two separate incidents in July and August, according to charges filed Thursday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

John M. Shea, 31, of Granite City, was charged Aug. 26 with two counts of offenses relating to motor vehicles and unlawful use of vehicle identification, all Class 3 felonies; three counts of aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, and aggravated assault, all Class 4 felonies.

Both cases were presented by the Granite City Police Department.

According to court documents, on July 24 Shea allegedly was found to be in possession of a stolen 2019 Dodge Ram. He also is accused of attempting to flee from a Granite City police officer, disobeying several traffic control devices and reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles per hour above the posted speed limit.

Court documents also show that on Aug. 19 Shea allegedly was found to be in possession of a stolen 1999 Hartland flatbed trailer, and license plates that had been removed from the vehicle they were registered to. He also allegedly tried to strike a Granite City Police officer  the same officer as the July 24 incident  with a motor vehicle and tried to flee in a Chevrolet Silverado, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles above the posted speed limit.

Bail was set at $80,000 for each set of charges.

Other felony charges filed Aug. 26 include:

 Kristopher A. Blassingame Sr., 22, of Belleville, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On April 16 Blassingame allegedly struck a household or family member with his fists and feet, causing her to suffer a fractured wrist. Bail was set at $75,000.

 Thomas D. Proffer, 31, of Wood River, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On Aug. 25 Proffer strangled a household or family member. Bail was set at $60,000.

 Charles L. Robinson Jr., 27, of Granite City, was charged with domestic battery (three prior convictions for domestic battery), a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Aug. 23 Robinson allegedly threw a household or family member to the ground and kicked her, causing bruising. It was noted he has convictions for domestic battery out of Fayette County in 2013, St. Clair County in 2015 and Madison County in 2018. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Alfred K. Nolan, 56, of Granite City, was charged with offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 2 felony, and unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Metro East Auto Theft Task Force. On Aug. 25 Nolan allegedly was found to be in possession of a stolen 1997 Dodge Ram, and less than 15 grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Keisha D. Anderson, 32, of Madison, was charged with theft over $500, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Pontoon Beach Police Department. On July 21 Anderson allegedly took $1,067 in currency from another person. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Aquette K. Jackson, 27, of St. Louis, was charged with theft over $500, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Pontoon Beach Police Department. On July 31 Jackson allegedly took $2,122.83 in cash from the Pontoon Beach McDonalds. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Samuel O. Megbolugbe, 21, of Pontoon Beach, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Pontoon Beach Police Department. On June 25 Megbolugbe allegedly did more than $500 damage to a glass door belonging to another person. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Barry G. Mazzarella, 40, of Wood River, was charged Aug. 24 with aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. On Aug. 4 Mazzarella allegedly was driving a 2002 Toyota Tacoma when he fled from an Alton police officer, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles over the posted speed limit. Bail was set at $25,000.
EDWARDSVILLE  Gov. J.B. Pritzkers new executive orders are not criminally enforceable, according to a statement released Friday by Madison County States Attorney Tom Haine.

However, Haine also said businesses have rights and said trespass and disturbing the peace will be enforced.

The statement comes after Pritzker announced a statewide indoor mask mandate starting Aug. 30, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status. The order also requires state college students, school workers, healthcare workers and others to be vaccinated by Sept. 5.

This new executive order relies on the same legal foundation as the Governors previous executive orders relating to COVID-19, Haine said in a prepared statement. It remains my legal opinion that such orders are not criminally enforceable. My office is neither able nor willing to file criminal charges against anyone suspected of violating these orders.

He referred to his legal opinion issued in December 2020; it appears with this story online at www.thetelegraph.com.

Haine also reiterated his previous guidance to businesses and individuals regarding a businesss right to require COVID-19 precautions.

While my office cannot charge any individual with a crime for not following these COVID-19-related state directives, we can prosecute individuals for trespass or disorderly conduct if someone refuses to leave an establishment after being asked by the business owner, Haine said. Just as individual citizens have rights, businesses also have rights which will be protected. Businesses must be given discretion on how and when to operate in accordance with applicable guidelines and subject to their own risk management.

Below is the text of Haine's opinion issued on Dec. 17, 2020:

Legal Opinion regarding criminal enforcement of COVID-19 mandates in Madison County.

Since taking office as Madison County State's Attorney, I have directed a close legal review of all the various legal issues regarding COVID-19 that possibly concern this office. I am now making these legal opinions public to provide a clear reference point for both public officials and private citizens relating to COVID-19 enforcement in Madison County, and to alleviate the concerns of many individuals who rightly feel an obligation to follow the law but are confused as to what the law actually is regarding the many COVID-19 mitigation protocols issued over the past months. That question ultimately comes down to which of the various rules and proclamations issued by Governmental authorities provide for criminal enforcement, which in Madison County, is the responsibility of the State's Attorney's Office.

Executive Summary

It is the legal opinion of the Madison County State's Attorney's Office that an individual would not be committing a crime if he or she were to violate the Emergency Rule issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health or any of the Governor's COVID-19 Executive Orders, as these mandates do not contain a legal basis for prosecution against an individual citizen. Accordingly, my office is neither able nor willing to file criminal charges against anyone suspected of violating these directives from the State of Illinois. However, other statutes do authorize criminal prosecutions against an individual for certain conduct related to the pandemic. Of course, the duty of a public prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely convict. Therefore, the State's Attorney is granted absolute discretion regarding whether or not to prosecute a particular case. In exercising that discretion, my office is cognizant that citizens' Constitutional rights are not suspended during this pandemic and must not be violated.

Further Analysis

l . There is no legal basis to criminally prosecute any individual, business, church, or any other entity for only a violation of any of the Governor's Executive Orders relating to COVID- 19. These Executive Orders contain no criminal enforcement mechanisms. Even if they are amended to contain such a

provision, the statute upon which these Executive Orders are based (the Emergency Management Agency Act) specifically places the responsibility for enforcement solely upon the Emergency Agencies established by that Actnot State's Attorneys.

2. There may be a legal basis to criminally prosecute persons for actions peripherally related to the COVID- 19 pandemic but that also violate existing criminal statutes. For example, a business is within its rights to request an individual leave the premises if they refuse to wear a mask or comply with other COVID- 19-related rules. Failure to leave after this request may result in a criminal trespass charge. Other criminal statutes may be violated by acting recklessly or without regard for the health and safety of others. These include, but may not be limited to, disorderly conduct and/or reckless conduct. Finally, law enforcement officers can, subject to the discretion of each individual law enforcement agency and within their community caretaking role, issue lawful dispersal orders. Violating such orders could provide the legal basis for criminal prosecution.

3. There may be a legal basis to criminally prosecute businesses or other similar entities who violate the Emergency Rule issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health relating to COVID (synopsis available at: https://www.iml.org/file.cfm?key=19624). However, this Emergency Rule, which has not changed since August, cannot be the basis of the arrest or citation of any individual (the rule can only be enforced against businesses and similar entities) and has no bearing on whether any business establishment may provide indoor dining. Further, my office's enforcement of this Emergency Rule will be on a case by case basis and will not be prioritized over more serious offenses.

4. The Madison County Health Department may seek a court order requiring a person to isolate or quarantine, or a business to close, based on a known or suspected COVID- 19 infection or outbreak. If this occurs, the State's Attorney's Office will abide by the dictates of the Illinois Department of Public Health Act, which prescribes a detailed process through which such orders are obtained and by which criminal liability may attach.

5. My office will continue to enforce the Madison County Code and violations of that Code, such as operating a business without a business license. However, in the unlikely event that a business license is revoked due only to an alleged failure to abide by the aforementioned COVID- 19 mandates and that business nonetheless continues to operate in a manner otherwise in compliance with applicable rules and regulations, my office will strictly scrutinize any request for prosecution against an individual license holder. After all, those same COVID- 1 9 mandates specifically exclude the criminal prosecution of individuals for their violation.

6. My office is not involved in the prosecution of the Edwardsville mask mandate, which is a city ordinance and not a criminal matter.

7. Local governmental authorities are reminded that they could incur serious civil liability if they take actions that burden Constitutional rights - such as the freedom to worship - without a compelling and legally justified need to act in each specific circumstance.

Finally, it is imperative to note that these are legal opinions only with regard to the criminal enforceability by the State's Attorney's Office of the aforementioned COVID- 1 9 mandates. Operating in a manner that is inconsistent with these COVID-19 mandates may contain other risks, such as civil liability, loss of insurance coverage, and/or business licensure penalties, all of which are unrelated to the actions and discretion of the State's Attorney's Office. As such, any business or other organization should seek legal counsel prior to taking any actions related to these issues.
CHAMPAIGN  Scientists have developed and deployed a series of new imaging and machine-learning tools to discover attributes that contribute to water-use efficiency in crop plants during photosynthesis and to reveal the genetic basis of variation in those traits.

The findings are described in a series of four research papers led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate students Jiayang (Kevin) Xie and Parthiban Prakash, and postdoctoral researchers John Ferguson, Samuel Fernandes and Charles Pignon.

The goal is to breed or engineer crops that are better at conserving water without sacrificing yield, said Andrew Leakey, a professor of plant biology and of crop sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who directed the research.

Drought stress limits agricultural production more than anything else, Leakey said. And scientists are working to find ways to minimize water loss from plant leaves without decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide the leaves take in.

Plants breathe in carbon dioxide through tiny pores in their leaves called stomata. That carbon dioxide drives photosynthesis and contributes to plant growth. But the stomata also allow moisture to escape in the form of water vapor.

Microscopic view of the epidermis of a plant leaf with stomata and other cells visible.

A new approach to analyzing the epidermis layer of plant leaves revealed that the size and shape of the stomata (lighter green pores) in corn leaves strongly influence the crops water-use efficiency.

Micrograph by Jiayang (Kevin) Xie

The amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide exchanged between the leaf and atmosphere depends on the number of stomata, their size and how quickly they open or close in response to environmental signals, Leakey said. If rainfall is low or the air is too hot and dry, there can be insufficient water to meet demand, leading to reduced photosynthesis, productivity and survival.

To better understand this process in plants like corn, sorghum and grasses of the genus Setaria, the team analyzed how the stomata on their leaves influenced plants water-use efficiency.

We investigated the number, size and speed of closing movements of stomata in these closely related species, Leakey said. This is very challenging because the traditional methods for measuring these traits are very slow and laborious.

For example, determining stomatal density previously involved manually counting the pores under a microscope. The slowness of this method means scientists are unable to analyze large datasets, Leakey said.

There are a lot of features of the leaf epidermis that normally dont get measured because it takes too much time, he said. Or, if they get measured, its in really small experiments. And you cant discover the genetic basis for a trait with a really small experiment.

To speed the work, Xie took a machine-learning tool originally developed to help self-driving cars navigate complex environments and converted it into an application that could quickly identify, count and measure thousands of cells and cell features in each leaf sample.

The researcher looks at a computer monitor with a microscopic image of a plant epidermis.

Jiayang (Kevin) Xie converted a machine-learning tool originally designed to help self-driving cars navigate complex environments into an application that can quickly analyze features on the surface of plant leaves.

Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

To do this manually, it would take you several weeks of labor just to count the stomata on a seasons worth of leaf samples, Leakey said. And it would take you months more to manually measure the sizes of the stomata or the sizes of any of the other cells.

The team used sophisticated statistical approaches to identify regions of the genome and lists of genes that likely control variation in the patterning of stomata on the leaf surface. They also used thermal cameras in field and laboratory experiments to quickly assess the temperature of leaves  as a proxy for how much water loss was cooling the leaves.

This revealed key links between changes in microscopic anatomy and the physiological or functional performance of the plants, Leakey said.

By comparing leaf characteristics with the plants water-use efficiency in field experiments, the researchers found that the size and shape of the stomata in corn appeared to be more important than had previously been recognized, Leakey said.

Along with the identification of genes that likely contribute to those features, the discovery will inform future efforts to breed or genetically engineer crop plants that use water more efficiently, the researchers said.

The new approach provides an unprecedented view of the structure and function of the outermost layer of plant leaves, Xie said.

There are so many things we dont know about the characteristics of the epidermis, and this machine-learning algorithm is giving us a much more comprehensive picture, he said. We can extract a lot more potential data on traits from the images weve taken. This is something people could not have done before.

Leakey is an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I. He and his colleagues report their findings in a study published in The Journal of Experimental Botany and in three papers in the journal Plant Physiology (see below).

The National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Department of Energy Biosystems Design Program, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research Graduate Student Fellows Program, The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the U. of I. Center for Digital Agriculture supported this research.
LYONS, Ill. (AP)  Police said Friday that they plan to excavate a suburban Chicago backyard this weekend after one of two adult brothers found living in deplorable conditions in a home told officers he had buried their mother and sister's bodies there years ago.

Lyons Police Chief Thomas Herion said survey work was expected to begin Friday afternoon in the backyard, including taking photos and using a drone to obtain overhead footage, followed on Saturday morning by excavation work.

The investigation that now also involves the Cook County's medical examiners office and states attorney's office began after officers were called to conduct a wellness check Thursday at the two-story home in Lyons, 12 miles (19 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Officers found the home without running water and filthy, filled with debris and feces, Herion said.

He said one brother told officers that their mother, who was in her 70s, had died in 2015, weeks or more after their sister had pushed her down a stairwell. The chief said the man claimed that sister then died in 2019 after an illness.

Herion said the state has no record of the women's deaths.

He was very detailed in how he packaged the bodies and dug the ground and where he put the bodies at, so were hoping to find physical evidence of the fact that these bodies are in fact there," he said during a Friday news conference.

If bodies are found, the homicide investigation will seek to determine whether the deaths were from natural causes or from foul play, Herion said.

Although it is a felony in Illinois to either conceal any death, he said, the brothers  who are in their late 40s and early 50s  remained free Friday because authorities have so far found no evidence of bodies.

Right now we don't know whether there are bodies buried in the backyard or not. This is just their statements, Herion said.

The chief said the brother who claimed to have conducted the burial said he chose to do so on the property for financial reasons.

Herion said the brothers' father is deceased and his death was recorded with the state, but he had apparently lived elsewhere.

Officers were called to the home after a utility reported that water service wasnt being used at the home. Gas and electric use was also minimal.

Police found that the home was without running water or working toilets, and its back door was barricaded. The home was filled with items and waste from floor to ceiling, including feces and bottles filled with urine. Multiple cats and dogs have been removed from the home, Herion said.

This is a heavy hoarding situation in this house. Ive never seen anything this bad, he said.

The men, one of whom has health issues, were evaluated at a hospital and are now staying at a hotel, Herion said.
WENTZVILLE, Missouri (AP)  A young Marine from Missouri was among the 13 U.S. troops killed in a horrific suicide bombing at Afghanistans Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 100 Afghans.

As military personnel were going through the grim task of notifying the troops next of kin, some of their names emerged Friday before the government formally announced them.

Eleven Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier were among the dead, while 18 other U.S. service members were wounded in Thursdays bombing, which was blamed on Afghanistans offshoot of the Islamic State group.

Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, died in the attack. His father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX Radio that the Marines came to his home in Wentzville  about 45 miles west of Alton  at 2:40 a.m. Friday to give him the grim news.

Schmitz said his son, who grew up in the St. Louis area, was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts.

This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be, Schmitz said of his son.

His life meant so much more, he said. Im so incredibly devastated that I wont be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.

The U.S. said it was the most lethal day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011. The White House said President Joe Biden will look for opportunities to honor the servicemembers who lost their lives.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her briefing Friday that Biden would look for any opportunity to honor those who died in service to their country. She did not rule out a possible visit by Biden to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of servicemembers killed in action are returned.

Psaki said Biden would not reach out to any of the families until the Pentagon finishes notifying next of kin. She said it then is up to the families to decide whether they want to take the presidents call.

Its important to note that this may be the worst day of their lives, she said.

Ron DeBrock of The Telegraph contributed to this story.
WOOD RIVER  Groundwork at a Wood River convenience store caused a natural gas line leak that tied up Friday morning traffic.

At about 7:45 a.m. Friday, construction workers leveling ground for an extension of the parking lot of the adjacent Petro Mart store at 980 E. Ferguson Ave. in Wood River accidentally struck the gas line, causing the leak.

Numerous officers from the Roxana and Wood River police departments assisted the Wood River Fire Department in closing the major intersection of Illinois 111 and 143 during the morning rush hour. The intersection, and roads for a block in each direction, were closed for about 20 minutes as workers from the Ameren Gas Division marked the spot of the gas leak and repaired the line.

No injuries were reported in the incident. The corner lot formerly had a small wood frame house on it, but the structure was razed several months ago.

The Petro Marts current parking lot is small; the parking lot expansion is designed to make it easier for vehicles to get in and out of the combination gas station/convience store.
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Low near 60F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected..

Tonight

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Low near 60F. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected. Significant flooding is expected.
Investment experts always talk about the importance of having a globally-diversified portfolio, but there are some parts of the world that often fall off the radar.

One is Latin America, a vast area spanning 33 countries that has had more than its share of difficulties, but may offer brave investors great opportunities.

Ed Kuczma, co-manager of BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust, believes the region 'may be one of the most important beneficiaries of recovery as the world rebuilds after the pandemic'.

Carnival time: Investment experts always talk about the importance of having a globally-diversified portfolio

Latin America is one of the most abundant regions in the world for commodities such as iron ore and copper. As the world recovers, demand for these materials is escalating and benefiting producers in the region.

'Vast stimulus in the US and economic recovery across the world has pushed up demand for commodities after a period of tight supply,' says Kuczma.

'Governments around the world have ambitious, commodity-heavy infrastructure plans, particularly for green energy development.'

Domestic spending in many Latin American countries is also rising, which Kuczma says should benefit companies in the region.

'Across Latin America, a growing middle class is fuelling domestic consumption and after a brief hiatus from the pandemic, this spending appears to be resuming,' he adds.

Countries across Latin America have had a tough time in recent years with political strife and a terrible response to Covid-19. Poor environmental track records are also a key issue.

As a result, company values are depressed, and some experts believe undervalued.

Dzmitry Lipski, head of funds research at wealth platform Interactive Investor, says: 'Valuations are still relatively attractive when compared with broader emerging and developed markets.'

He adds that in June, ratings agency S&P increased its forecast for economic growth in Latin America's major economies from 4.9 per cent to 5.9 per cent over the next year.

Where opportunities lie for investors

Latin America is a huge region, representing 13 per cent of the world's land surface area and nine per cent of the world's population.

Not all of it will present opportunities for investors.

Jason Hollands is managing director of wealth platform Tilney Bestinvest. He says: 'Although there are more than 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, most are completely uninvestable from a public markets perspective.'

Mexico City: Mexico is one of six investable markets in Latin America, along with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru

Hollands says there are six investable markets: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru.

'Even here it really is a two-horse race, with Brazilian companies representing 65 per cent of Latin American equities and Mexico just shy of 24 per cent,' he adds.

Eduardo Figueiredo, Latin American investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments, believes these countries in particular show potential.

'Brazil is benefiting from quickening economic activity, a healthy current account and a favourable outlook for commodities,' he says. 'Mexico is enjoying robust support from the rebound in manufacturing activity in the US.'

Beware volatility in the region's markets

However, investing in Latin America is not for the faint hearted.

Figueiredo admits the region has a 'notorious reputation for political instability, endemic corruption and periodic crisis, which manifests itself in very high levels of stock market and currency volatility'.

Brazil, in particular, has struggled in recent years. Juliet Schooling Latter, head of research at fund scrutineer Chelsea Financial, says that although the country's shares had a strong second quarter, 'this comes after a prolonged period of underperformance compared with other emerging markets'.

'Brazil's poor handling of Covid has been exacerbated by the worst drought it has had in almost 100 years, so the current government is very unpopular,' she adds.

Finding the right companies is key in a region with such difficulties, adds Figueiredo, and there may be more political instability on the horizon.

However, he believes that by focusing on quality stocks and investing in well-managed businesses with sound financials, investors can benefit from a Latin American upturn while avoiding some of the risk.

Why emerging market fund may be answer

Because of the volatility in the region, an investment should only form a small element of a well-diversified global portfolio.

Investors in global passive funds will already have a small exposure to Latin America. For many, this will be enough.

However, for those with confidence in the region and who feel it may be undervalued, an active global fund or emerging market fund with a higher weighting towards Latin America may be a good option, or else a fund dedicated to investments in the 33 countries.

Schooling Latter says ASI Latin American Equity is her preferred fund in the region. The shares are up 18 per cent in a year, reflecting the recent Latin America bounce, but down four per cent over three years.

Over half the fund's investment is in Brazil, with Mexico the next largest component and nearly six per cent in Chile. Only a small percentage is invested in Peru.

The fund's largest holding is Vale, a mining company that produces the largest amount of nickel and iron ore in the world.

It also invests in the Mexican subsidiary of grocery giant Walmart, which should benefit from the country's emerging middle class.

Lipski prefers investing in Latin America through emerging market funds, which allow managers to adjust their exposure in response to political volatility in the region.

He likes JPMorgan Emerging Markets Trust and Utilico Emerging Markets Trust, which have returned 47 and 17 per cent over the past three years respectively.

He also rates Mobius Investment Trust, which was launched just under three years ago.

The JPMorgan trust has Argentine-headquartered ecommerce giant Mercado Libre among its top holdings, while Utilico holds Brazilian power generator Alupar and Brazilian logistics conglomerate Simpar in its top ten.

Hollands likes Aubrey Global Emerging Market Opportunities fund, of which 7.9 per cent is invested in Brazilian companies.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International considered selling its Marlboro business to exit the cigarette industry, its chief executive has revealed.

But Jacek Olczak said although he had held discussions about offloading Marlboro, he decided to keep the business to help finance its growth in 'wellness' products.

His comments come as Philip Morris faces a growing backlash from health campaigners over its controversial plans to buy British inhaler company Vectura.

Philip Morris has said the move is part of its shift from cigarettes to a 'smoke-free' future, where it sells less harmful e-cigarettes and 'wellness' products.

Life's a drag: Philip Morris said the move is part of shift from cigarettes to a 'smoke-free' future

Olczak told The Mail on Sunday: 'Yes, we had this discussion [about selling Marlboro]. Our conclusion was, if we retained cigarettes, actually it would accelerate our journey [from traditional tobacco revenues] because I can allocate resources.

'I am in a position to take resources from cigarettes and move them to the reduced-risk products or move them to Vectura, which I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't have access to the resources.'

Philip Morris has trumped private equity firm Carlyle's offer for Vectura with a 1.1billion bid for the FTSE 250 pharmaceutical business. Vectura's investors are in the process of voting on the deal.

Philip Morris needs more than 50 per cent of shareholders to support its bid by September 15. The battle intensified on Friday after Carlyle announced it had extended its offer timeline, reminding shareholders it was still in the fight.

Philip Morris, which is based in Switzerland but traces its roots back to London in 1847, owns a range of cigarette brands including Marlboro, Chesterfield and Red & White.

The company is aiming to become a 'wellness' business that generates 50 per cent of its income from 'smoke-free' products by 2025. The company still sells more than 700 billion cigarettes a year.

In an escalation of his war with critics, Olczak said Philip Morris needed to buy Vectura to make this vital move, or it would have to continue to sell cigarettes indefinitely.

'Technically [by selling the Marlboro business] we could dispose of the problem, but it doesn't mean the problem is solved,' he said.

'This is a short cut, which, speaking from a societal perspective, doesn't address that problem.

Philip Morris has trumped private equity firm Carlyle's offer for Vectura, with a 1.1billion bid for the FTSE 250 pharmaceutical business

'And, because we are a large part of the cigarette and tobacco market, we are better equipped in the proper allocation of resources: three quarters of my resources go to finding alternatives.

'I've seen a number of markets where, if everything is aligned, we can stop selling cigarettes in ten years' from now. If I were only a cigarette company, I would have no alternative.'

But medics and health experts have warned that the deal could scupper Vectura's key contracts and Government grants.

A group of 35 health experts wrote an open letter earlier this month saying a takeover by the tobacco company would 'significantly hamper' Vectura's strategy of operating as a research-focused pharmaceutical company.

Dr Nick Hopkinson, one of the signatories, claimed Philip Morris was inextricably linked to a vast number of smoking-related deaths. He said it was 'inevitable' medical experts would boycott Vectura if it were bought by the tobacco giant.

'As there are alternatives, not using those inhalers is straightforward,' he said. 'For most people, switching is easy  there's no practical difference  though some need these inhalers because they're the only thing that works for them.
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Barre, VT (05641)

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Thomasville, GA (31792)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

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Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 72F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
Thomasville, GA (31792)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
COLONIE  Ken Daly, the man in charge of National Grid's New York operations, was in Albany on Tuesday to survey the damage from Tropical Storm Irene.

And although National Grid had successfully restored power to more than 100,000 customers by Tuesday morning, Daly said the damage to the company's infrastructure, especially from the massive flooding, is unimaginable.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," Daly said Tuesday after meeting with officials from the state Public Service Commission and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office. "The main issue is the amount of damage and flooding and its impact on the electrical system. It's rather unprecedented."

Daly said he believes service should be restored to all Capital Region customers by Thursday -- except those who cannot be reached because of flooding. Thousands were brought online Tuesday, with thousands more expected to have full power by Wednesday.

National Grid has 3,000 employees working on the effort, with line crews working 17-hour shifts. Some crews were forced to use boats to get to damaged equipment.

"We're doing everything imaginable to make sure we can get power back on," Daly said.

National Grid officials couldn't estimate how much the storm damage would cost the utility, especially because they have been unable to get to facilities in flooded areas and in many cases were told by emergency management officials to cut the power.

Daly said restoration efforts have been relatively smooth because of the clear weather Monday and Tuesday and because the utility had time to plan and place hundreds of crews in strategic staging areas before the storm hit Sunday. In contrast, that's rarely possible when a sudden ice storm hits.

"The level of preparation was unprecedented," Daly said. "And this region was hit as hard as the forecast said it would be. We had our crews where they needed to be. The challenge will be to see what's left after the flooding."

On Tuesday afternoon, Daly toured storm damage and restoration efforts, and visited crews that had uncovered power lines knocked down by fallen trees along a thickly wooded right-of-way behind Albany International Airport in Latham. The line serves Shaker Ridge Country Club and would take hours to fix once tree crews had gone in to cut the fallen trees.

Daly told officials from the club that the utility would do its best to restore power, but customers such as hospitals or large groups of residences in the area took priority.

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Daly also visited the company's downstate operations Monday and planned to travel to Long Island on Wednesday. He thanked the linemen at the Latham site for their effort.

"We all worked the whole weekend, but they're doing the hard work," Daly said.

The PSC usually assesses how utilities perform in a major storm. The commission is now monitoring National Grid, as well as New York State Electric & Gas and Central Hudson Gas & Electric locally.

"Given the extreme amount of damage and the scope of the work that needs to be done, it is too soon to give an assessment about how the utilities are doing," PSC spokesman James Denn said. "Our focus is monitoring the activities, not assessing performance. We will be doing a full assessment when the event is over."

Reach Larry Rulison at 454-5504 or at lrulison@timesunion.com.
There were warnings Tropical Storm Irene was going to be bad.

The forecast showed the Catskill Mountains would be hit, Greg Cross, former supervisor of the Greene County town of Lexington, remembered but no one was prepared for the devastation.

I believe locals were more reluctant to believe rather than not informed.  You hear on the news all the time youre going to get 12 inches of rain in seven hours, and youre like  aint no way thats going to happen, he said. Next thing you know, they had airboats right on Main Street, dragging people out of houses.

 Ten years ago, Tropical Storm Irene pummeled the Capital Region

The damage was immense, and rebuilding took years. Though residents were aided by the county, state and federal governments during the recovery, the marquee state program meant to mitigate the next flood was given the thumbs-down by local officials, who said it was byzantine, slow, and accomplished little in the decade since Irene.

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

The storm

Hurricane Irene made landfall twice in late August 2011, striking the North Carolina coast before hitting again near Atlantic City, N.J., on Aug. 28. It devastated New Jersey and pushed north, causing minimal damage in New York City but hammering the Catskill Mountains as it moved north. It dumped up to 13 inches of rain on the Catskills within 24 hours.

In Prattsville, about 45 minutes west of the village of Catskill, the Schoharie Creek rose to 24 feet above normal, overrunning its banks and coursing down Main Street. A tributary of the Schoharie, the Huntersville Creek, surged from its usual trickle to a deluge carrying trees and beaver dams, debris that wedged under a bridge on Main Street, stoppering the creek and diverting even more water through town.

Jim Eisel drove to the supermarket hed founded in Prattsville to check on things when he heard of flooding in other areas. The water under the bridge was high when he crossed it into town, but hed seen it higher.



Not an hour later, he looked out the stores front window and the waters coming down Main Street.



It was scary quick, he said.

Peggy Young, a proprietor of Youngs Ace Hardware, spent four hours on a barn roof on the stores property before being able to slosh her way to the stores second floor.

She lay there, hearing the stores inventory smash to the floor as the mighty current heaving down Main Street started to push the large building off its foundation.

Rescue was just not possible, Young said. Sheriffs deputies kept trying to launch boats onto Main Street, but the current would quickly capsize them.

She estimated it was up to 12 hours before the water receded enough for her to walk out of the store.

Eight miles up the Schoharie Creek in Lexington, both the Schoharie and West Kill creeks flooded, taking out bridges on either side of Route 42, trapping residents, according to Cross, the former supervisor. Those who wanted to evacuate had to be taken away by helicopter.

In Margaretville in Delaware County, the east branch of the Delaware River exploded from its banks, sending 4-1/2 feet of water raging through the middle of town, according to Margaretville Mayor John C. Hubbell, also a volunteer firefighter.

Hubbell and other firefighters managed to get a ladder truck onto Main Street, rescuing residents trapped on the second floors of their homes. Firefighters launched rafts onto Main Street, and more than a dozen residents, some with medical issues, were eventually rescued, Hubbell said.

Bonita Chase, the current town clerk in Prattsville, was in Saratoga as the storm approached, but left at about 4:30 a.m. when she became worried. She thought her parents, who lived on a floodplain across Route 23 from her own home, would have moved to her house as the waters rose, but when she arrived, her parents were not there.

She was able to reach them at their house by phone.

The water came up very quickly, and when I was on the phone with them, I actually heard their basement windows break in and their basement automatically filled, and thats when I said, get what you have to get and get up to the second floor, Chase recalled.

It was very scary, because you were seeing trees, and boulders, and other very large things coming through that rushing water, she said. The water they said at the time had the force of Niagara Falls  so you worry about the house being washed away.

Chases parents were eventually rescued by a tractor as the waters receded.

The Catskills become an island

Paul Buckowski/Times Union

Hurricane Irene cut the already-remote central Catskills off from the rest of the world. Dozens of bridges were destroyed and roads were washed out. The region lost power, cutting television and internet. Already-sparse cellphone service was further compromised as cell towers lost power. Many people couldnt get through with landlines.

One thing that continued to operate normally was battery-powered radios.

Throughout the storm and the aftermath, local radio DJs Joe Loverro and Jay Fink broadcast from WRIP-97.9 FM in Windham, switching from their normal musical schedule to fielding calls from panicked residents, connecting displaced loved ones, and broadcasting every available piece of information.

The broadcast was available online, and the two DJs got calls from former residents asking about friends and relatives they could not contact.

Some people from Florida called here  and said, our parents live in Prattsville, and we havent heard from them and were worried, Loverro said. We put them on the air, and a few minutes later, someone from Prattsville called and said, we just saw them. Theyre fine.

The station became a source for information as to who needed services, or who needed food, because everything got scarce, Loverro added.

Prattsville had been cut off from the outside world, Chase, the town clerk, remembers.

There was no way in, no way out, we had no phone service, no cell service, she said.

Chase remembers when outside help came.

I was in the [command trailer] at 3 in the morning when the National Guard came pounding on the door  We couldnt get to you, were here to get communications to you, she recalls them saying.

The National Guard brought portable cell towers, called COWs, into several towns, allowing residents to make calls locally, according to Margaretville Telephone Company President Glen Faulkner.

[Irene] actually helped facilitate expanded cell service in the area because of all of the press, and the demonstration of need, and how critical having the cell service is in a time of disaster, Faulkner said.

When the National Guard arrived, the extent of the damage became clear: Prattsville was almost completely destroyed, with Margaretville, Schoharie, Middleburgh and Fleischmanns sustaining heavy damage. Every community in the Catskills was impacted in some way.

FBI investigates

The disaster opened a spigot of government money. The use of federal funds by the town of Prattsville drew the attention of the FBI.

Prattsville town Supervisor Kory O'Hara, who runs an auto service shop on Main Street, and Stephen Baker, the owner of a manufactured home business, mobile home park and small motel, were indicted on federal charges in 2019.

The indictment indicates that between 2013 and 2015, Baker provided OHara with false invoices from his modular home business, Moores Homes, which indicated he had done construction work on OHaras automotive garage. OHara issued checks to Moores Homes for the work, which was never done, and Baker returned the money to O'Hara.

The two men maintain their innocence and the case is headed for trial Oct. 18 in U.S. District Court in Syracuse.

NY Rising

In the immediate aftermath of Irene, aid came pouring in. The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave nearly $103 million directly to impacted residents, fulfilling about 22,900 individual applications, according to the agency. More than a half-billion dollars was given to New York state to distribute to affected communities.

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However, sometimes it was not enough.

Peggy Young said her house was destroyed and her hardware store was badly damaged. The family did not have flood insurance, and the FEMA payments maxed out at about $30,000.

When people say  you got the full allotment from FEMA  oh my goodness, folks, thats not much, she said.

The family was able to get a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan for the hardware store, which well be paying back for the rest of our lives, she added.

Another stream of funding was far more problematic.

In the summer of 2013, then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the creation of the New York Rising Community Reconstruction program, also called NY Rising, part of the Governors Office of Storm Recovery, created in the wake of Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, which hit a few days after Irene, and Superstorm Sandy, which devastated New York City the following year.

NYCRC was intended to help communities affected by the storms create and implement plans to make them resilient to flooding by setting up committees of local stakeholders to create proposals the state would then fund.

However, stakeholders in Margaretville and Prattsville described the process as neurotic, confusing and immensely bureaucratic.

Margaretville Fire Department President Don Bromley served on his towns committee, helping put together an extensive report on what the town needed. The state approved $6 million for the projects.

We worked very hard at it, and we were excited with the projects we put forward.  The problem was it was a very bureaucratic process, he said. Were honestly just seeing the completion of the first project or two, and those were ones that were way down on the list  we havent really seen much come out of the whole thing.

One of the requests was for a bigger generator for Margaretvilles fire station, which served as an evacuation center during Irene. The firehouse recently got its generator  nearly a decade after Irene struck, Bromley said.

Another project was to repair the bulkhead and levees holding in Binnekill Creek, which were damaged by flooding during Irene and other storms.

Construction on that project didnt start until June 2021, according to the Governors Office of Storm Recovery.

Hubbell, the Margaretville mayor, said many other projects the town hoped to accomplish didnt qualify for certain reasons, numerous [reasons], some of which we didnt really understand, and they couldnt really give you a reason why it didnt qualify, he said.

Prattsville wanted to construct a health care center with their money. There are no medical facilities in the community, and the nearest doctors office is two towns away in Windham.

However, the idea never came to fruition.

Chase, who was a member of the Prattsville Development Corp., which served as the towns committee for NY Rising, said the project got dragged on and on and on by the state.

Every time we made two steps forward, the state would come back and say, we need you to do something else, and it got to the point  that we found it very difficult to work with New York state on the project, because we had done so much of the preliminary work only to get it thrown back at us multiple times, she said.

Chase also complained about the nature of the planning process, saying the town had worked with FEMA over the course of a year to create a long-term plan it used to apply for grants, but with NY Rising, it was like starting from scratch  they made us come in and redo the whole long-term plan.

Prattsville drew down $1.1 million of its $2.9 million grant for land acquisition, planning and design for the project, but the Governors Office of Storm Recovery broke off the funding in September 2019 for deficient compliance and for not following procurement standards, according to the state agency.

However, Prattsville has largely been rebuilt thanks in part to the efforts of the PDC, which was formed by local businessmen in the days after the storm and was eventually able to acquire more than $50 million in grants and other funding, according to PDC member Kevin Piccolli.

Among other projects, the PDC was able to acquire state funding to build two new bridges in the town, both higher and sturdier than the bridges existing during Irene.

PDC was all-volunteer, and those interviewed for this article said neighborly altruism was a big driver of the recovery. Everyone in the community pitched in for others, and thousands of volunteers from elsewhere poured in to help.

Though NY Rising has only made limited improvements in the Catskills thus far, Hubbell said Margaretville is never going to be flood-proof.

Most communities in the Catskills are constructed along streams, established there when they relied on the waterways for transportation and to run mills, Hubbell said.

[Margaretville] is in a great spot because it was kind of where everything met, he said. But thats also the bad part of it  it's where all the streams meet.
ALBANY  As a state moratorium on evictions ticks closer to its end date, a proposed county law would guarantee residents the right to an attorney in housing courts.

Legislator Sam Fein, who represents the citys South End, said the right to an attorney would strengthen protections for renters and reduce evictions in the county.

Access to safe and stable housing is a necessity for a decent life and should be treated as a human right," Fein said. "Just like any (criminal) defendant is afforded an attorney if they require it, anyone going into housing court deserves the representation of legal counsel."

The states eviction moratorium is set to expire on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal eviction ban that would have extended protections to renters until Oct. 3. The court had previously struck down a major portion of the states eviction moratorium.

Sheriff Craig Apple, whose office handles all evictions in the county, said he expects major changes if the moratorium ends Tuesday.

Weve had a lot holding, he said.

Its unclear what the exact backlog is in the citys housing court. But according to Apple, in Albany County there are 123 evictions already pending, with another 10 waiting to be executed.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday said she was in talks with state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on a possible special session to craft a legislative fix to head off a flood of eviction filings.

"Our teams will be working through the weekend to address how best to deliver relief to renters and homeowners in need as quickly as possible, Hochul said in a statement.

The state does have at least two options for renters who cant make their payments. The first is the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, which bans courts from evicting tenants who could not afford to pay rent during the pandemic. But the tenants must prove that claim in court.

The second option is applying for part of the states $2.7 billion rent relief program. Under the federal program, which the state administers, courts cant approve evictions against tenants that have pending relief applications.

The states rollout of the funding has been repeatedly criticized for delays. The New York Times reported that officials told state senators at a hearing last week that the program has doled out just under 6 percent of its available to funding so far.

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Hochul has made pushing that funding out a priority early in her administration. I want the money out now, she said Tuesday. I want it out with no more excuses or delays.

Fein said the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated existing problems around housing, and an imbalance already exists when it comes to representation in housing court. In 2018, 86 percent of plaintiffs in landlord-tenant disputes in Albany city court had attorneys, while just 2.4 percent of the defendants did, according to Fein.

Feins proposal did not include information on how the program would be paid for. But Fein believes it would pay for itself by reducing the burden on emergency shelters and other social services.

Several large cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Newark have passed similar legislation. Washington state, Connecticut and Maryland also have right-to-counsel laws for housing courts.

Its unclear whether Feins proposal will pass the county legislature, but it has already gained support from several legislators who represent parts of the city, including William Clay, Wanda Willingham, Carolyn McLaughlin, Beroro Efekoro and Merton Simpson.
ALBANY  Mohammad remembers standing right by the U.S. checkpoint at the Hamid Karzai Airports Abbey Gate, desperately seeking a way out of the fallen city for him and his family, when the first of two deadly blasts erupted.

The first explosion was bad, but the second was worse, he recalled. It killed dozens of people.

Thats when everyone lost their mind and left the airport, he said through his brother-in-law, who was translating his native tongue, dari. Mohammad and his family ran, fearing for their lives.

They tracked down the first car they could and fled from the area, away from hordes of injured people and dead bodies, retreating into hiding. He sent the Times Union photos of what he saw that day, gruesome images enlarging their need to evacuate.

Mohammad is stuck in Kabul with his family and some of his fiances family, about 27 people, most of whom are young or infant children. His fiance lives in Albany with her mother and two of her four siblings.

Even after surviving the attack at Abbey Gate, a main entrance to the airport, Mohammad said they will continue going back until they can get out.

His family is just one of many pursuing every available option  traveling for hours, navigating crowds of desperate people, reaching out to authorities and avoiding potential death by the Taliban  to find safety at the Kabul airport.

Mohammad thinks he and his family can still get out, but they need help from the U.S. government  specifically a letter that will tell the U.S. forces to let them into Hamid Karzai.

As U.S. troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Taliban seized Kabul in a matter of days earlier this month. The airport became an evacuation point and thousands are continuing to attempt to flee the country. The area has become even more chaotic after ISIS-K, an Afghan terrorist branch associated with the Islamic State, bombed the Abbey Gate Thursday, killing dozens of Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemen.

After the explosions, the U.S. Department of State advised people to avoid the airport and urged those still there to leave.

New York officials and organizations rally for continued evacuations

New York Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy has been working to try and get families out of Kabul. She held a press conference Friday morning with local refugee and immigration organizations and said getting Afghans and U.S. citizens out of the country is her top priority.

Its imperative that the Biden administration not desert these families that have been allies for 20 years, she told the Times Union.

Fahy said she has worked with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko and the offices of U.S. Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as non-profits and local advocates, to get people on flight manifests that could help get them out of the country.Theyve since championed a successful evacuation story getting four children out.

Mohammad's group was on a flight manifest list that would help them leave, but because they havent been able to get into the airport they may not make it out. Fahy said theyre not giving up, though the attack at the airport has made their mission much harder.

Obstacles hindering the evacuations

Meghan Maloney de Zaldivar, director of Advocacy Upstate, said theres been an incredible level of bureaucracy standing in the way of evacuations.

Were calling on the federal government to put humanity before bureaucracy and to get resources to airlift people out because they are hiding and in imminent danger, she said. We are ready and willing. But, if status barriers continue, the government will need to step up to make sure they can enter the community.

She said President Joe Bidens administration needs to bolster the structure for refugee settlement and characterized what has unfolded in Afghanistan as a preventable crisis.

Several federal agencies are bringing Afghans in as humanitarian parolees. That means they are granted temporary access into the country for about two years while they try to formalize their immigration status. Refugees and parolees coming in are being sent to a military fort for medical screenings and immigrant processing. From there they are sent to resettlement services.

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Karen Andolina Scott, executive director of Journeys End Refugee Services, said it is estimated about 80 percent of evacuees from Afghanistan will come to the U.S. as parolees. At the news conference Friday with Fahy, she explained that a federal program is being shaped to provide the evacuees limited services, but they are short of the benefits provided to refugees and asylum seekers  or those who hold special immigrant visas.

Granting them access across our border isnt enough. We have to be sure they have access to citizenship down the road, access to benefits, access to healthcare, she added. We have to make sure we dont leave them behind.

Hiding from the Taliban with targets on their backs

Mohammad's family has been in hiding ever since their hometown, Mazar e Sharif, was taken over by the Taliban.

He worked there for a couple of years as an engineer in the military corps electricity department. He stayed in the role after the U.S. left the area, his sister-in-law explained.

When the Taliban took their town, he knew he and those he loved were in danger. He said the Taliban locked him in a room for several hours. When he was able to get out he went straight home to tell his family he had to leave.

About two days later the Taliban started hunting him. His work in a military department apparently made him a target. Taliban soldiers went to his home, asked his family where he was and told them that if he was not back when they returned, they would kill them.

Without hesitation, Mohammads family quickly ran away and hid.

Now, Mohammad and his relatives are holed up several hours away from the Kabul airport looking for any way out of the country. When asked what would happen if the families are unable to get out, Mohammad said the only choices left are to escape or die.

The Taliban is looking for him and is trying to kill him, his fiancee's sister translated. Every minute they are not safe at all. If they cant get out, they are all dead.

Michelle Del Rey contributed reporting for this story.

Note: Though Mohammad and his family were initially comfortable using their full names, they became concerned after the initial web publication of this story. It has been edited to conceal their identities.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP)  Bernie Sanders has long argued  but not proved  that his big government populism can win over voters in the largely white, rural communities that flocked to Republican Donald Trump in recent elections.

Now, as the chief Senate shepherd of a $3.5 trillion budget proposal, Sanders believes he has another chance to test the theory.

The Vermont senator is in Trump country this weekend, promoting a budget plan packed with progressive initiatives and financed by higher taxes on top earners. He's targeting two congressional districts where Trumps vote totals increased between 2016 and 2020.

My Republican colleagues are telling everybody that Bernie Sanders and the Democrats are going to raise taxes. You're right, were gonna raise them on the richest people in this country, Sanders said to the cheers of more than 2,000 who braved sweltering heat and humidity at an outdoor amphitheater in West Lafayette, Indiana on Friday evening.

Sanders has a similar event set for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Sunday. He's noting the difference between the two parties since congressional Republicans in years past approved tax cuts for wealthy Americans but are expected to universally oppose a plan Sanders calls the most consequential piece of legislation since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s.

It could be a tough sell for the face of the progressive movement. Republicans have already begun using Sanders  along with fellow democratic socialist and New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez  in ads warning voters that the country is edging toward socialism.

Sanders saw his political star first rise to national prominence by nearly winning the 2016 Democratic Iowa caucus, and he won that year's Indiana Democratic primary over Hillary Clinton. As he pushed his party to the left and drew in voters frustrated by mainstream Democrats, Sanders and his supporters advocated for reaching beyond the traditional base by making appeals to the white, working class that can attract Republicans or nonvoters.

He has a lot of credibility with a lot of audiences that arent just progressive, said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the progressive advocacy group the Working Families Party. He an outsider. Hes a populist. And, in fact, the thing that weve always said works best against rightwing populism is progressive populism.

But evidence that Sanders has particular sway with Trump voters is limited. According to data from the Pew Research Center, only about 3% percent of people who consistently supported Sanders during 2016 the primary season, and were confirmed to have voted in the general election, said they ultimately supported Trump, compared to 81% who reported voting for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in February 2020 found that 17% of Republicans had a favorable view of Sanders, roughly the same share of Republicans who had a favorable view of Biden.

Sanders is making his case anew based on a budget proposal that promises universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college, while increasing federal funding for child care, paid family leave and combating climate change. It also expands health care coverage through Medicare, creates pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally and encourages states to adopt labor-friendly laws.

Republicans say the plan is loaded with unnecessary spending and tax increases. But Democrats, as long as they stay united, can use their narrow advantage in each congressional chamber to muscle it through anyway.

This is the peoples budget. This is the budget that will impact tens of millions of lives in this country: the elderly, the children, the working families, the middle class, Sanders said in an interview before Friday's rally. So it is appropriate to me that the chairman of the budget committee get out and around the country, hear what people have to say. Explain what were trying to do.

Although Sanders is heading to red states, his trip isn't exactly into hostile territory. His 2016 and 2020 presidential bids were popular with college students and West Lafayette is home to Purdue University. Many of Friday's attendees were college-aged and wore Sanders shirts from his past campaigns. Some of the loudest cheers came when the senator said he supports canceling all student debt  even though the budget proposal doesn't go nearly that far.

Sanders similarly remains popular in Iowa, which means Sunday's event there may attract far more of his longstanding supporters than potentially persuadable Republicans.

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Still Sanders scoffed at suggestions that his presidential campaigns were more successful at energizing wealthy liberals than at growing his party's appeal with crossover voters.

Poll after poll shows that the American people want the wealthiest people, large corporations, to pay their fair share. This is not wealthy liberals, this is working class Americans, Sanders said.

There is some bipartisan support for key parts of the budget proposal. A July AP-NORC poll found that at least 4 in 10 Republicans said they supported funding for free preschool, affordable housing, broadband internet, and local transit, and close to 3 in 10 reported supporting funding for free community college.

Sanders trip follows President Joe Biden and his allies traveling the country to promote the administrations efforts to strengthen the post-coronavirus pandemic economy. There are no plans for Sanders and Biden, two former presidential campaign rivals, to travel together to promote the proposed budget, though Sanders said he wouldn't oppose doing so.

The administration's economic agenda has been overshadowed in recent days by violence and chaos in Afghanistan. But Sanders says Americans from across the political spectrum understand that what's occurring there and with their pocketbooks back home "are separate issues.

Republicans believe Sanders hitting the road could ultimately hurt his party during next year's midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

Democrats embrace of socialism helped us pick up seats in 2020, said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Berg "and will continue to help us in the midterms.

___

AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson contributed to this report.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  The board governing Mississippi's public universities voted Friday not to require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 despite the objections of the two medical doctors who are part of the board.

During a special meeting, nine members of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees said the vaccine should not be mandated. Many said they support students getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but that shots should be voluntary.

Dr. Alfred McNair Jr. and Dr. Steven Cunningham were the only two board members who voted to mandate vaccinations.

This volunteer thing is ridiculous," said McNair, who is chief of medical staff at Biloxi Regional Medical Center. "If they had polio, it wouldnt be a volunteer thing.

Mississippi's public universities already mandate that students be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, according to Institutions of Higher Learning bylaws. Students studying in a health-related field must be vaccinated against hepatitis B.

McNair said cases among young people are rising in the state and that he's seeing children hospitalized with more severe symptoms than ever before. He said people who recover from the virus can have long-term side effects.

My point of view, taking care of these patients every day, what Im seeing is younger patients running into trouble," McNair said. These young people think theyre immune, but actually, thats where the virus is hitting and the college is just wide open for it.

Cunningham, a radiologist from Hattiesburg, said the board already tried letting students volunteer for the shots, and it hasn't been very effective.

I really think mandating is only going to be the only way to help save some of these kids, he said.

Board member Bruce Martin, an insurance agent, voted not to mandate vaccinations. He said he was vaccinated and fully supports as many students being vaccinated as is possible. But he said some people will never agree to be vaccinated, even if it's mandated.

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It just boggles my mind, but they will just not do it and us mandating it is not going to make those people do it," he said. Weve taken their money, they enrolled in the school, and I dont know how in the world, youre gonna get people to be vaccinated by demanding they be vaccinated.

Member Teresa Hubbard also voted against mandating the shots. She said people enrolled in school with the expectation they wouldn't be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine. However, she said the schools need to come up with a more aggressive plan for getting students to get vaccinated.

We've got to get those numbers up in some way, she said.

___

Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
HONOLULU (AP)  Kuulei Perreira-Keawekane could barely breathe when she went to a Hawaii emergency room. Nausea made it difficult for her to stand and her body throbbed with pain.

Like many Native Hawaiians, she was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Perreira-Keawekane's situation highlights the COVID-19 crisis that is gripping Hawaii as hospitals are overflowing with a record number of patients, vaccinations are stagnating and Hawaiians are experiencing a disproportionate share of the suffering.

Hawaii was once seen as a beacon of safety during the pandemic because of stringent travel and quarantine restrictions and overall vaccine acceptance that made it one of the most inoculated states in the country. But the highly contagious delta variant exploited weaknesses as residents let down their guard and attended family gatherings after months of restrictions and vaccine hesitancy lingered in some Hawaiian communities.

On Friday, the state reported a record high 1,035 newly confirmed cases. There was a higher amount reported earlier this month, but it included cases from multiple days because of lab reporting delays.

Now, the governor is urging tourists to stay away and residents to limit travel, and leaders are re-imposing caps on sizes of social gatherings. And in an effort to address vaccine hesitancy, a group of businesses and nonprofits launched a public service campaign Thursday aimed at Native Hawaiians, many of whom harbor a deep distrust of the government dating back to the U.S.-supported overthrow of the monarchy in 1893.

The campaign reminds Hawaiians that they were nearly wiped out by disease in the 1800s and that the kingdoms rulers at the time pushed people to get vaccinated against smallpox.

About 20 Hawaiian leaders stood in rows 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart Thursday at a statue of Queen Liliuokalani, the kingdom's last monarch, imploring people to wear masks and get vaccinated to ensure the survival of the Indigenous people of Hawaii.

Not only was I afraid of the needles and just putting it off, putting it off, but I didnt have enough information about the vaccine and that distrust was just very real, said Perreira-Keawekane.

She now plans to get vaccinated. Still, she doesnt consider herself pro-vaccine, or anti-vaccine.

Having to choose one or the other is the root of trauma for native people, she said. You can shout data at the top of your lungs, but if it has nothing to do with people we know, its not real.

Overall, 62.1% of Hawaii is fully vaccinated. But Hawaiians have among the lowest rates; estimates show its at about 40%.

Native Hawaiians make up about 21% of the state's population, and from the start of the pandemic until July 10, 2021, they accounted for 21% of cases as well. But from July 11, 2021, to Aug. 16, 2021, that figured increased to 28%, according to state data.

Honolulu Emergency Services Department Director Jim Ireland said that on a recent morning, there were four COVID-19 patient 911 calls in a row for Nanakuli, a community thats home to many Native Hawaiians. He noted that vaccination rates are lower on the west side of Oahu.

The thought behind the campaign focusing on increasing Hawaiian vaccination rates is that messages to the public so far haven't been adequate, said Naalehu Anthony, director of COVID Pau, a collaborative of businesses and nonprofit organizations delivering public health messages during the pandemic.

Were telling people to get the vaccine 'til were blue in the face," Anthony said. "But thats not necessarily all of the story as to why its important to get a vaccine. And part of that is the relationship to whos asking you to do it.

At a Monday news conference, Gov. David Ige, who is not Hawaiian, acknowledged he's not the ideal messenger: We do know that sometimes my making statements are not the most motivational for many others.

Earlier in the pandemic, Native Hawaiians had among the lowest rates of infection and embraced safety measures such as trading honi, a traditional forehead-to-forehead greeting, for elbow bumps or shakas from a distance.

That changed around May during the time of year when people celebrate graduations and weddings.

The irony is not lost on some that a popular reason for Hawaii family parties today originated during a time when Hawaiians would hold big celebrations for a baby's first birthday, which was a real feat in the face of measles until a vaccine was available.

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I do think that its sad and kind of a little bit ironic that luau, in a lot of cases, have become places where people get sick, said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole.

Andria Tupola, a Hawaiian city councilwoman who represents west Oahu, said one way government leaders are out of touch with her constituents is not respecting people who want to make their own decisions.

She recently disclosed that she wasnt vaccinated because she had tested positive while visiting Utah, but felt healthy enough to go running every day. She has also been instrumental in organizing vaccination clinics.

The backlash she faced over her vaccination status isnt helping convince people in her community to get vaccinated, she said.

If you have to crucify me and make an example out of me in front of my community  if you think somehow thats going to make people want to do it, its like thats the opposite because people trust others and they respect others in our community, she said.

Keaweaimoku Kaholokula, chair of the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the University of Hawaiis medical school, said he didn't expect some Hawaiians to shun the vaccine. It's very American, which is ironic  very individualistic  to behave this way, he said.

I think our people need to remember that a part of our culture is protecting each other over our own self-interest," he said.

Keoni Payton, a clothing designer on the Big Island, is not vaccinated, but supports those who choose to get vaccinated. I'm pro-choice on what you put in your body and body autonomy, he said.

The messages about how kingdom rulers mandated the smallpox vaccine in the 1850s don't resonate with him.

As Hawaiians, we haven't been treated fairly with the U.S. government, he said. They stole our land and now they're stealing our bodies.

___

AP reporters Audrey McAvoy and Caleb Jones contributed to this report.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP)  Firefighters faced a critical day in efforts to prevent a massive California wildfire from reaching the Lake Tahoe resort region Saturday, hoping to take advantage of calmer winds before hot, heavy gusts return.

The Caldor Fire churned through mountains just southwest of the Tahoe Basin, cloaking much of the area in toxic smoke and sending tourists packing at a time when summer vacations would be in full swing ahead of the Labor Day weekend.

A favorable turn in weather Saturday afternoon allowed firefighters to make progress and increase containment of the Caldor Fire to 19%, up from 12% the day before, said Capt. Stephen Horner, a Cal Fire spokesman for the Caldor Fire. The fire so far has burned about 149,000 acres, or 233 square miles (603 square kilometers).

Its going to be a very pivotal day for us, Horner said.

The fires eastern edge was about 7 or 8 miles (11 or 13 kilometers) from the city of South Lake Tahoe and did not advance much overnight thanks to operations known as backfiring, where firefighters get ahead of the blaze and burn up fuel so the fire has nothing to ignite, Horner said.

They did backfiring operations that were nothing short of amazing last night in that area, Horner said.

Wind gusts were forecast for early Saturday up to 35 mph, but they tapered off with slower, weaker winds expected through the rest of the weekend, Cal Fire incident spokesman Henry Herrera said.

We anticipate being able to make more progress over the weekend because of favorable wind conditions, Herrera said. But the slower winds were only expected to last two days.

A Fire Weather Watch was issued for Monday and Tuesday that will lead to elevated fire weather concerns in higher elevations of the Northern Sierra, Cal Fire said.

The Caldor fire has destroyed more than 600 structures since it started on Aug. 14 in the Sierra Nevada. It has proved so difficult to fight that fire managers this week pushed back the projected date for full containment from early next week to Sept. 8. But even that estimate was tenuous.

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It is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. Many are in the West, burning trees and brush desiccated by drought. Climate change has made the region warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

The Department of Defense is sending 200 U.S. Army soldiers from Washington state and equipment including eight U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to help firefighters in Northern California, the U.S. Army North said in a statement Saturday. The soldiers are expected to arrive in California in early September after a week-long training. The C-130s have been converted into airtankers that can dump thousands of gallons of water on the flames.

In California, 14 large fires are being fought by more than 15,200 firefighters. Fires have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate this year while blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.

South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin issued an emergency proclamation Thursday so the city thats home to Heavenly Ski Resort can be better prepared if evacuation orders come and be reimbursed for related expenses.

The last time the city declared a wildfire emergency was during the 2007 Angora Fire, which destroyed nearly 250 homes in neighboring Meyers and was the last major fire in the basin.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabamas top health official said Friday that he and his colleagues are intensely frustrated as COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise, a surge he partly attributed to people who have refused to get vaccinated or change their behavior.

The state is grappling with an intensive care unit bed shortage, and federal medical teams and mobile morgue units have been sent to hospitals in the south.

We are really in a crisis," Health Officer Scott Harris said during his Friday briefing. Weve said that over and over for several weeks. We need people to understand that you, yourself  if youre hearing these words  youre the person whos going to make a difference. You need to be responsible for your behavior. You need to do what it takes to not continue this situation. I dont know how much longer were going to be able to do this.

Alabama ranks fourth for new cases per capita  behind Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi  and continues to have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

So much of what were seeing is preventable, Harris said when asked about what was causing his frustration. Were seeing this because people dont want to get vaccinated, and they dont want to change their behavior. They would rather have an argument about masks than have an argument about how we keep our children safe or how do we protect Alabama hospitals. It is very frustrating for all of us.

Scott said the state again, had a very difficult week. Hospitalizations were at 2,887 Friday, right under the record 3,087 set in January. He said the state is also seeing a surge in virus cases among school-age children.

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A state dashboard reporting virus cases in schools was reactivated Friday, showing more than 4,000 cases reported this week. The number is low, state officials said, because only 52 of 143 school districts have reported.

The Alabama Department of Public Health said Thursday that 5,571 children ages 5 to 17 were reported to have contracted COVID-19 last week. That compares to 702 cases in school-age children during the same week last year, when more than half of students were studying remotely, and the delta variant was not yet circulating.

Don Williamson, the former state health officer who now heads the Alabama Hospital Association, said intensive care units typically have about 25% of beds free, but the state now has a net negative of beds because many hospitals are over their capacity.
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP)  A county affordable housing committee voted to recommend approval of a rental project on Lanai, where no new affordable homes have been built in 30 years.

The Hokuao 201H Housing Project, which was proposed by billionaire Larry Ellisons company Pulama Lanai, includes the development of 150 two-bedroom rental homes on former pineapple fields. About half of the units will be market-rate priced. The project will be developed under the states fast-track approval process for affordable housing.
CDPHP raises over $20,000

Thursday night's CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge at the Altamont Fairgrounds featured 135 teams and about 1,100 in-person runners after being canceled for the first time in history last year due to the pandemic. More than 700 participants also completed a 3.5 mile course of their choosing virtually.

Charles Ragone of Regeneron took home the win on the mens side with a time of 17.51. The top female runner, Catherine Meyer of Albany Medical Center, finished the race in 21.45.

In addition, the event raised more than $20,000 for IPH, The RED Bookshelf, and Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region. The amount donated per registered runner nearly doubled this year, and will go to help the charities overcome the financial harm of the pandemic.

Brunswick plans "Drive a Bus" Day

TROY  Brunswick school district hosts a "Drive a Bus" day in an effort to recruit bus drivers in the district. It seeks community members, retired family members and others to come on a test drive in the school parking lot from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31.

Drivers/trainers will be on site to provide assistance and answer any questions, as well as provide information and study material for those interested to obtain a CDL Class B license.

Guilderland seeks school board candidates

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GUILDERLAND  The Guilderland Board of Education seeks to fill a vacancy on the board for the seat previously held by Benjamin Goes. The appointment will be from Oct. 5 to May 17, 2022.

Community members can submit a letter of interest and resume, as well as any other documentation that may be helpful in the selection process for review no later than Sept 13. Letters and documentation should be mailed to: District Clerk Linda Livingston, Guilderland Central School District, P.O. Box 18, 8 School Road, Guilderland Center, NY 12085. Candidates may also submit materials to livingstonl@guilderlandschools.net.

The interview process will take place Sept. 21 as part of a special meeting of the Board of Education. This meeting will be open to the

public. (Location to be determined.) The successful candidate is expected to be named at the Oct. 5 meeting.

For more information, call (518) 456-6200, ext. 3125.
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (AP)  A judge has ordered a western Michigan couple to pay $30,441 to their son for getting rid of his pornography collection.

U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney's decision this week came eight months after David Werking, 43, won a lawsuit against his parents.
Assault alleged

State Police in Queensbury said they charged a 28-year-old Schenectady man with felony assault and criminal weapon possession after a 3 a.m. Friday altercation at DJs Nite Club in Lake George. A man was found with a small cut after he was slashed. Troopers located the suspect in the area and chased him by foot, but were able to take him into custody. The victim was hospitalized, troopers said.The suspect was jailed on $5,000 bail.

Robbery, assault charged

A Delmar man, 23, was arrested for attacking a 74-year-old Delmar man Aug. 22 in the rear of Delaware Plaza, Bethlehem police said Friday. The suspect and victim had a verbal exchange and the suspect threatened to steal the victims bicycle, police said. The victim refused to give up the bike and the suspect pushed him to the ground. The victim continued to Delaware Plaza and as he was walking through the plaza he encountered the suspect again. The suspect pushed the victim to the ground and stole his water bottle. This time the victim was seriously injured and had to be taken to a hospital, officers said. The suspect was charged with robbery and assault, arraigned and jailed on $1,000 bail, due back in court Sept. 21.

Child porn sentence

Jonathan L. Morgan, 32, of Gloversville was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for distributing and possessing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's office and FBI. Morgan had admitted he distributed videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children via a phone-based application connected to the Internet, from March 11 to March 12, 2020 and to having child pornography on two phones, federal officials said. He also sought out videos of parents abusing their children, and provided instructions to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a parent as to how to abuse her daughter while filming it and admitted to inappropriately touching a child on several occasions, authorities said.

Slashing admitted

Albany County District Attorney David Soares office said last week that Arnique Rowlett, 33, of Albany, pleaded guilty to felony assault for stabbing a man in May 2019 on Central Avenue, Albany. Rowlett slashed the man on the wrist with a knife and the victim suffered wounds requiring medical treatment, prosecutors said. Sentencing will be Oct. 28.

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Gun seized

An 18-year-old Kingston man was jailed on $20,000 bail after a traffic stop on Flatbush Avenue in the city and a search yielded a .380 caliber Bersa Thunder handgun he owned, State Police in Middletown said Saturday. He was charged with criminal weapon possession and stolen property possession because the gun was reported stolen to the Myrsa Police Department in Georgia, troopers said.




PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  For nearly 30 minutes, armed protesters from opposing groups  the far-right Proud Boys and far-left antifascists  clashed last weekend in the streets, business parking lots and school grounds of a diverse neighborhood in northeast Portland, Oregon.

Cars attempted to drive by Sunday as fireworks exploded in the road and there were confrontations between people in helmets and gas masks and armed with baseball bats, paintball guns and chemical spray.

Noticeably missing was the Portland Police Bureau.

Before the skirmish, the latest in a saga of political conflict that has plagued the city for years, officials said people shouldn't expect to see officers trying to intervene or keep the sides apart.

But the lack of intervention by law enforcement has left residents feeling terrorized and abandoned" and local and state leaders frustrated, in addition to further hurting the image of the Police Bureau that has struggled to find its footing in the city.

As soon as the fighting began and spilled out into the neighborhood, the police should have come in and stopped it, said state Sen. Michael Dembrow, a Democrat who represents a large swath of the Parkrose community where the confrontation took place. Ive heard from a number of Parkrose residents who felt exposed and betrayed by the lack of police presence. They have every reason to feel that way.

Portland is no stranger to differing political groups fighting in the streets. Nearly a year ago, a caravan of Donald Trump supporters drove through the city and were met with counterprotesters. Altercations broke out between the groups and a right-wing protester was fatally shot.

Ahead of last week's demonstrations, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said he took into account legal restrictions when responding to protests, the history of officers' presence increasing tensions and the department's staffing shortage.

Police have 145 less officers than they did a year ago. In June, a team of 50 police officers, who served on a specialized crowd-control unit in Portland, Oregon, and respond to ongoing, often violent protests, resigned en masse after a team member was indicted on criminal charges.

Based on these factors, Lovell said he made the decision not to place officers in an extraordinarily unsafe position between groups of people who are highly motivated to confront one another.

Far-left antifascists gathered at Portland's Tom McCall Waterfront park early Sunday afternoon waving Black Lives Matter flags. About 8 miles (13 kilometers) away at an abandoned parking lot in the diverse Parkrose community, Proud Boys gathered and listened to speeches decrying the antifascist movement and calling for the release of those arrested during the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6.

I will say that the decision by the Proud Boys to rally in Parkrose was reprehensible on a number of levels. They chose to take their hate-filled rally outside of downtown, the usual site of protests and demonstrations, and move it to one of Portlands most racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Dembrow said.

The clash between subsets of the two groups interrupted traffic around 4 p.m. on a busy thoroughfare in the Parkrose neighborhood, and crept into business parking lots  forcing at least one gas station to close early  and onto Parkrose High School property. At least one video, shared online by a Portland Tribune reporter, showed a family with young children running to their car to escape the clash.

After 30 minutes of fighting, the two sides separated on their own.

The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that Portland police were monitoring the fight from an airplane. In addition, as of Wednesday police had made only one arrest related to the clashes and demonstrations.

But, even as group members  many of whom officials said were from out of town or out of state  left the area, residents were left reeling by the violent events.

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Michael Lopes Serrao, superintendent of the Parkrose School District, said he felt heartbroken for the community knowing some of his students and their families watched the violence from their homes. Community members were left picking up trash and remnants of paint, glass and bear mace the following days, he said.

Its confusing at best, and frustrating for many who live here. East Portlanders traditionally have felt more ignored by the city in general, so I believe this only exacerbates that concern, Lopes Serrao said. Why would you ignore one of the areas of the city that has been historically underserved. If Portland is about equity, then we should be elevating this community and protecting its vulnerability."

The idea that the lack of police presence hurt the department's already negative image was reiterated by Michael Dreiling, a professor of sociology for the University of Oregon.

If the police department is trying to manage their image, refusing to show up and enforce the law, when far-right extremists show up and instigate violence, is not a good way to do it, Dreiling said.

However, in the days following the clash, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Lovell said they stood by the police bureau's approach and said it "contained violence between the groups.

With strategic planning and oversight, the Portland Police Bureau and I mitigated confrontation between the two events," Wheeler said. And minimized the impact of the weekend's events to Portlanders.

___

Sara Cline is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
ALBANY  Local residents called for peace in Afghanistan at a rally Saturday, but their anger boiled over at times as they described friends dying and family in hiding.

A Niskayuna man whose parents are in hiding wrote a sign fueled by his outrage over the United States leaving his former country so quickly.

You ever feel useless ... Just remember it took the US 4 presidents. Thousands of lives. Trillions of $$$ and 20 years to replace Taliban with Taliban, he wrote.

His parents are in hiding in Afghanistan because they expect the Taliban to commit atrocities as they did when they last ran they country.

I always say, if a dog bites you, you never trust it again. Theyll never, ever change, he said. All the lives we lost. All of a sudden you give up. Thats the outrage. Why would you do that?

Speakers at the rally said they want the United States to rescue more people. One described two friends dying in the recent terror attack at the Kabul airport.

But residents at the rally had other proposals as well, such as declaring the Taliban a terrorist organization and refuse to work with them, or for the U.S. to negotiate a cease fire.

One speaker also criticized Muslim nations near Afghanistan for not helping the country.

This message is not directly exclusively at the West, but to self -proclaimed pseudo-Muslim nations that havent lost a minute of sleep over the atrocities and humanitarian calamities of their neighbor, Afghanistan, said Mohammed Hassan Alsheraa, who came from Michigan to speak at the rally.

In 2015, Charlie Hebdo, the famous magazine company  pathetic organization  published an issue mocking the holy prophet Mohammed, he said. There was not a single Muslim nation that didnt both condemn and protest a drawing of the holy prophet. Today their neighbor is bleeding and no one is batting an eye.

He said they were not truly Muslims.

It was the same holy prophet Mohammed that said famously, whoever hears a person  let alone a Muslim  a person screaming for help, All Muslims come and help me, and doesnt help them, is not a Muslim, he said. The mother of all ironies is these same pseudo-Muslim nations -among others, of course - are complacent. Why? Is it because the blood of an Afghan is cheap to you?

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He also compared the disaster in Afghanistan to 9/11.

The following is in no way to undermine the calamity that was Sept. 11, 2001. But if 9/11 deserves a moment of silence, and rightfully so, then over 70,000 innocent lives killed and more than 2.5 million displaced deserves us to never speak again, he said.

Some residents at the rally said they were heartened by the fact that about 70 people showed up in the rain to march for peace.

We are out here today to let people know our people are dying. I hope people show up, said Marwa Ahmad of Clifton Park. She was one of the first to arrive. But later more people trickled in, giving her hope.

That just makes us as a community feel we have people behind us, she said.
Back-to-school planning this year presents a new puzzle for school officials, who aim to bring nearly all of their students back into the classroom full-time while still accommodating students and teachers with legitimate medical concerns.

With the threat of the delta and other COVID-19 variants still looming and children under the age of 12 ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, many parents don't want their children learning in a crowded classroom setting this fall.

To meet the need, BOCES organizations statewide are working with districts to set up fully virtual schools, but the eligibility criteria can vary from district to district and parents say they have received little information about what to expect.

One of the largest programs is the Capital Region BOCES' Cooperative Virtual Learning Academy, an online elementary school serving 136 districts in the greater Capital Region.

For the school to work, districts must supply a teacher for every 24 or 25 students they refer to the program. Families must make a commitment for their students to attend for the entire school year.

BOCES has hired a principal, counselor and a clerical worker and has developed a curriculum.

But officials have yet to finalize enrollment and staffing numbers, layout schedules, or figure out how to ensure a seamless data flow between the organization and districts, according to Mike Doughty, assistant superintendent for the Northeastern Regional Information Center, a division of Capital Region BOCES.

"That's the beauty of having so many districts involved," Doughty said. "When we put all of it together, it's eventually going to shake out to work. There's a little bit of faith, trust in pixie dust going on here."

So far, at least 40 districts have expressed interest in the program, and BOCES officials hope to enroll at least 400 student for the 2021-22 school year.

The per-pupil cost to districts is scalable, depending on how many students participate. If 400 students enroll, the cost per pupil will be $1,300, Doughty said.

In addition to supplying teachers, school districts must provide necessary technologies and special education and English Language Learners services, but some districts hadn't planned on making these services available virtually.

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This has created last-minute stress for parents like Noelle Gentile, whose 9-year-old daughter Isla has severe epilepsy and autism and attends Albany city schools. Her 6-year-old Lucia does not have special needs but her parents are worried she could pick up the virus if she's sent to school. Lucia is also ineligible for the virtual program, based on eligibility requirements set by the district.

Gentile and her husband, both teachers, have given up their jobs to avoid exposing the family to COVID-19. Without a remote option, they will be forced to home-school their daughters, she said.

"When this virus is going around, to give people no option is just unacceptable to me," Gentile said.

An Albany school district spokesman did not immediately respond to a media inquiry about Isla's case.

A school board member emailed the family expressing sympathy, but did not offer any assurances that Isla's needs would be accommodated.

Other BOCES organizations have established virtual schools on a smaller scale for their component districts. Questar III, which provides services to 23 districts in Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene counties, offered a virtual summer school for its component districts and plans to extend the program into the fall.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  One officer was accused by a supervisor of snoozing in his squad car while on duty. Another had multiple drunken run-ins with police, including after bar fights. A third repeatedly sent lewd photos to a female officer.

All of them were fired or forced out. And all of them are back working in law enforcement in Wisconsin.

___

The nonprofit news outlet Wisconsin Watch provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News.

___

Nearly 200 law enforcement officers currently employed in the state were fired from previous jobs in law enforcement, resigned before completion of an internal investigation or in lieu of termination, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Justice obtained through an open records request.

And more than 1,000 Wisconsin officers have been fired or resigned before termination since 2017, when the state DOJ started tracking that statistic.

Some of the most serious offenses include Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Janelle Gericke, who in January was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary. Milwaukee County Sheriffs Deputy Joel Streicher ran a red light in his police SUV and hit a vehicle, killing a man and injuring a woman. He was sentenced in April to six months in jail.

But the state revoked the law enforcement certification of both officers, meaning they can no longer work as police. As of July, Gericke and Streicher were the only Wisconsin officers decertified since January 2020, said Steven Wagner, director of the DOJs Training and Standards Bureau.

Usually only severe misconduct, such as criminal activity, results in a decertification, according to the state Law Enforcement Standards Board, which regulates police officers, sheriffs deputies and prison guards.

Some fired officers were simply novices who didnt perform at an acceptable level during their initial probationary period, when the bar to fire them is very low, experts say. Or they couldnt handle the high pressure of working in a busy urban area. But for others, misconduct including lying, public intoxication and sexual harassment triggered their termination.

Rehiring fired law enforcement officers can be a problem for good policing, said Meghan Stroshine, a social and cultural sciences associate professor at Marquette University who has studied policing, because a lot of the folks who have been fired and rehired end up getting in trouble again.

Jacob Ungerer was no stranger to the Waukesha Police Department when the neighboring New Berlin Police Department hired him in 2018. In 2016, Waukesha officers responded to a drunken fight that prompted a local bar to permanently ban Ungerer and a friend, according to a police report.

In 2018, Waukesha Police got called to a fight at another tavern. Ungerer, by then beginning his stint with New Berlin Police and out for a night of drinking, appeared to be heavily intoxicated, according to a police report. Video from the bar showed Ungerer swinging at a man, pursuing a man and getting punched in the head, knocking him to the ground.

Six weeks later, Ungerer was riding in the passenger seat with another off-duty New Berlin police officer when Waukesha Police pulled them over under suspicion of drunk driving.

A visibly intoxicated Ungerer held his police ID in his lap so it was visible to the on-duty officers, according to a police report. Still in his probationary period, he was fired a few days later for excessive use of alcohol and unbecoming conduct, according to documents from the New Berlin Police Department. About 18 months later, the Middleton Police Department hired him.

Ungerer was asked for comment but did not offer any; his chief answered questions on his behalf.

Middleton Police Chief Troy Hellendbrand said in an email his agency conducted a thorough background check before hiring Ungerer, and it was aware of the circumstances surrounding the ending of his employment.

Hellenbrand said Ungerer made some changes in his personal life all in hopes of preventing making further mistakes like he had in 2018. He added that the officer recently completed his 18-month probationary period without incident.

A huge study in The Yale Law Journal titled The Wandering Officer found that Florida cops who had been fired from a previous law enforcement job were more likely to be fired from their next job or to receive a complaint for a moral character violation, compared to rookies and officers who have never been fired.

The study analyzed nearly 100,000 full-time law-enforcement officers from almost 500 agencies in Florida over a 30-year period. The study concluded that wandering officers may pose serious risks, particularly given how difficult it is to fire a police officer.

Union contracts can give police officers strong job security, sometimes even when misconduct is committed. The controversial Act 10 legislation passed by Republicans in 2011 crippled organized public-sector labor in Wisconsin, but largely left police and fire unions, groups that lean to the political right, untouched.

So departments must choose carefully.

David Bauer, chief of the Dodgeville Police Department, said job candidates he determined had lied is a bright line rule for me. Because police officers are often required to testify in criminal trials, those officers reputations are incredibly important, Bauer said.

I cant put someone on the stand that had issues with honesty, he said.

Patrick Solar, a criminal justice associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Platteville and a former police chief, takes an even harder stance: A termination for a cop should be a death sentence on his or her law enforcement career.

Police officers hold positions of public trust, they are oath takers, he said. Once they have been proven to have violated that oath, I believe the possibility of re-employment in the craft should be forfeited, Solar said in an email.

Solar makes a distinction, however, between officers fired because of misconduct and probationary officers who commit minor infractions during their probation, when the bar to fire them is much lower.

A tactic of some wandering officers is to agree to leave a police department without a fight if the agency seals their file. Solar acknowledged he used to do that as small-town police chief in Illinois to avoid confrontation with powerful police unions.

A bill that would require law enforcement agencies to maintain a personnel file for each employee and disclose that file to any agency that may want to hire them has bipartisan support. If enacted, the measure would bar future nondisclosure agreements that shield police personnel files from prospective employers.

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The head of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association supports the bill.

No one wants a bad cop out of the profession more than a good one, WPPA Executive Director James Palmer said.

For police chiefs trying to fill out their staff, times are tough. The number of law enforcement officers in Wisconsin as well as the number of state police academy graduates hit at least a 10-year low in 2020.

Law enforcement officers in Wisconsin must complete a 720-hour law enforcement academy program. Fired officers already have that certification, so police departments can put them to work immediately, providing an incentive, particularly for smaller departments, to hire fired officers, Solar said.

The Lauderdale Lakes Law Enforcement Patrol near Elkhorn has five wandering officers on staff, the highest number of any police department in the state.

Lauderdale Lakes Chief Christopher St. Clair said via email his department runs a detailed background check before hiring officers and was aware of the job histories of all five officers. Those officers have performed more than satisfactorily and have not committed any misconduct, he added.

The Town of Madison Police Department has three wandering officers on staff, as do the police departments at UW-Oshkosh and the Wisconsin State Fair Park Police Department.

Town of Madison Police Chief Scott Gregory said via email that psychological assessments and extensive background checks were completed on all the officers, and that the officers disclosed their terminations during the hiring process.

Needless to say, mistakes were made by the officers at their previous employment and additional training occurred here to ensure those mistakes would not occur again, Gregory wrote, adding all three were doing an excellent job.

UW-Oshkosh Police Chief Kurt Leibold said two of the three officers had previously and successfully worked for his department, and all three were terminated during their probationary period, when an agency can let an officer go for any number of reasons, including that the officer simply was not a good fit. Leibold added that they were not fired for misconduct.

Wisconsin State Fair Park Police Chief James Bruno did not respond to questions about the wandering officers on his staff.

DOJs publicly available database of wandering officers puts Wisconsin ahead of some states which dont disclose police misconduct at all. Police disciplinary records in Wisconsin are public unless they are related to an active investigation; the database is available by public records request.

Law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin must report the firings or resignations under pressure of officers to the DOJ, according to state rules, but agencies are not required to check the registry before hiring an officer, said the DOJs Wagner.

Departments are required to report the hiring of an officer, and the DOJ will alert them of officers flagged for being fired or resigning before a termination, according to the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board Policy and Procedures Manual.

At the national level, activists have pushed for a national bad cop registry. House Democrats passed the sprawling George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 that would enact one.

A National Decertification Database of police officers already exists, used by Wisconsin and 43 other states, yet it does not include officers who committed misconduct but kept their certification, said Michael Becar, executive director of the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, which manages the database.

In the meantime, experts have advice for police departments who need to fill positions.

Be extremely careful about who you hire and what their backgrounds are, Stroshine said. We know from a lot of research that there tend to be a small group of officers who cause departments the bulk of their problems.
In October 1963, the Albany Committee on the Observation of the 100th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation announced that Joyce Ford, an Albany High School graduate, had won its essay contest.

The Knickerbocker News published Fords essay, I Am Proud I am an American Negro. The essay is important to me because Ford wrote about the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and U.N. diplomat Ralph Bunche, the first African-American to receive the award. I am a former U.S. diplomat raised in Alabamas segregated schools. I am of European ancestry.

Ford wrote of how Bunches grandfather had been born into slavery. Bunche was raised by his grandparents.

Bunche, representing one hundred years of progress from a slave grandfather has climbed to a great height, Ford wrote. The challenges that awaited him await every Negro youth of today; we, the present-day members of the Negro race, are proud of our heritage and give thanks to those who went before us, paving the way... I pledge to do my best to bring honor to my country, and my people, (as Bunche has done) all the days of my life.

Her powerful words had an impact on me when I first read them on a New York historical newspaper website.

Bunches wife, Ruth Bunche, was from Montgomery, Ala. In 1965, Bunche courageously marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others for the third Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights.

My father, a Korean War vet, served with Alabamas Army National Guard from 1962-67, a period that included the integration of the University of Alabama in June 1963 and Selma to Montgomery March, which began March 21, 1965.

For the third march attempt, President Lyndon Johnson federalized Alabamas Guard for as long as necessary for King and the marchers to make the 50-mile trek. It was necessary to prevent Alabamas vicious Ku Klux Klan from acts of violence against the peaceful marchers.

Bunche, then 61 and in poor health, demonstrated courage by coming to Alabama in that dangerous time. Fords essay was written two years before Bunches brave decision to march at Selma. She wrote of her admiration for Bunches educational and diplomatic accomplishments. Fords words of pride, heritage and rising to challenges still hold an important message today.

As a U.S. diplomat, I admired Bunche for these accomplishments as well. I also admired his courage to join King at Selma.

Based on his diplomatic experience, Bunche advised: You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hard-working. Never be faint-hearted. Be resolute, but never bitter. Perhaps it was those words that inspired Ford 60 years ago. Her words of pride, heritage, and rising to challenges still hold an important message today.

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Bunche died in 1971. President Richard Nixon said of him: America is deeply proud of this distinguished son and profoundly saddened by his death. America, he said, was strengthened by the inexhaustible measure of dedication and creative action that spanned his splendid career.

In early 2018, I visited the resting places of Ralph and Ruth Bunche at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. It was a cold day. I was warmed, though, by Bunches inspiring words and Fords winning and inspiring essay, which I had in my coat pocket.

My father died in 2003. In 2014, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley honored him for his service to Alabama, America and the world. Im proud he had, in his own way, a role in a movement that changed our nation for the better.

Today, America continues to be challenged by race. As the 160th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation approaches, I am optimistic we will overcome todays challenges by recalling the wisdom of Ford and Ralph Bunche.

James E. Patterson of Washington, D.C., is a former U.S. diplomat. He appears as a reporter in the 2015 movie Selma.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  It was Wednesday, and Brad Cox hoped it was Saturday.

"I'd like to run the race right now," Cox, chomping at the bit, was saying at the draw for the 152nd running of the Grade I $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Wednesday.

He was brimming with confidence three days before the Midsummer Derby was to be run. He may be ready to bust early Saturday evening when he watches his talented 3-year-old Essential Quality enter the starting gate for the 1 1/4-mile race. Essential Quality is supposed to win the Travers.

He is the 4-5 morning-line favorite. He is the 2-year-old champion of 2020. He has won seven of eight career starts.

Here's the advice to the other six horses lining up against him: roll the dice and take your chances.

Cox is confident in his horse because he sees him train every day. Everything he has asked the horse to do, he has done. He needs for the Travers to be here and now it is.

"I can't do anything more with him," Cox, the 41-year-old native of Louisville, Ky., said. "I don't know how he can be any better, I really don't."

The Travers is the centerpiece of a blockbuster 13-race card. There are seven stakes races, six of them Grade Is. Plenty of familiar names will be part of the card, including Gamine, Letruska, Swiss Skydiver, Life Is Good and Whitmore.

The Travers, though, is the race people always want to see.

This will only be the second horse Cox has started in the Travers. His first, the late Owendale, was fifth in 2019.

Essential Quality, whose only loss came when he was fourth in the Kentucky Derby, is the clear leader of the 3-year-old division.

Essential Quality will be ridden by Luis Saez, the leading rider at the meet. Saez, like his trainer, has nothing but confidence heading into the Travers. The 29-year-old Saez has won the Travers once, that coming in 2013 aboard Will Take Charge. Essential Quality will be his sixth Midsummer Derby mount since then.

They both know that the pressure is squarely on them. That's what happens when a horse is 4-5.

"The plan is just to try and break running and find a spot and then be clear into the stretch," Saez said. "I know the rest will be all right."

"Absolutely, there is no doubt about that," Cox said when asked about pressure on his horse and himself. "When you are the heavy favorite, you just kind of want it to be over with."

Cox respects the other six horses in the field, but he also knows what he has in the gray son of Tapit.

"If we run our race, we are going to be tough," he said. "We still have to get around there and there are six good colts in there. We still have to show up and play our game. If we play our game, we are going to be a big factor."

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The second choice in the morning line is the Steve Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon (9-2), who was second in the Preakness and then nearly fell after an incident in the Haskell that led to the disqualification of the winner, Hot Rod Charlie.

In the Jim Dandy, Essential Quality raced wide around the first turn and then was wide into the stretch, much wider than second-place finisher Keepmeinmind, who he beat by a length.

"He is a beast," Keepmeinmind's trainer Robertino Diodoro said about Essential Quality. "He is a very versatile horse. I have a lot of respect for Brad Cox. There is no weakness over there. From the trainer to the horse to the jockey. Tough connections to outrun."

Keepmeinmind, like Curlin winner Dynamic One, is the co-third choice on the morning line at 6-1. Diodoro likes his chance to turn the tables on Essential Quality because his rider, Joel Rosario, will be on board for the second time after riding Keepmeinmind in the Jim Dandy.

"Now, he knows the horse," he said. "In talking with Rosario, he said he would have done some things differently (in the Jim Dandy) if he had known the horse. Now he does."

Dynamic One will be attempting to be just the second Curlin winner to take the Travers. The only one in the first 10 editions of the race to come back and win the Travers was V.E. Day in 2014.

Trainer Al Stall Jr. will be making his first appearance in the Travers with Masqueparade, who is 8-1 on the morning line. He was third in the Jim Dandy after winning the Ohio Derby.

He won't be intimidated going up against Essential Quality.

"I have been around too long," he said. "We weren't afraid to run against Zenyatta (when his Blame won the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic). We have all the respect in the world for Essential Quality, but this is horse racing. Anything can happen."
Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.
The Moyne Road/ Bellevue Residents Association are working with Fr. Martin Mareja (Thurles Pallottine Priest) to collect face masks that will be sent to Tanzania to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.



Fr. Martin will return home to Mbugwe, Tanzania on September 2 to visit his family. He has been informed that there is a worrying shortage of face masks in his local area as the country struggles during this ongoing pandemic.



We are asking that people donate a face mask to this worthy cause and help us collect as many masks as possible for Fr. Martin to bring home in September, Chairperson of the Moyne Road/Bellevue Residents Association, Tommy Barrett told The Tipperary Star this week.



He added: Masks can be dropped into Thurles Parish Centre and Stakelums Office Supplies, where boxes have been provided. We ask that only new masks in sealed packaging be donated. The organising committee can be contacted by calling 089-4487657 for any further details regarding this project.



We appeal to the readers of the Tipperary Star to support this project and all support will be greatly welcomed, Tommy Barrett said.



Please do your best to support this great initiative.
Ohios correctional agency has terminated seven employees after officials say prison guards used excessive and unjustified force against a Black inmate before he died in custody in February
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Bus driver killed in parking lot accident at Georgia school

A 66-year-old bus driver for a private school in Georgia died Friday in whats being described as a freak accident
Delaware officials are now asking residents of the states northernmost county to squish on sight if they see an invasive spotted lanternfly
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[August 27, 2021] Corum Client S-FRAME, AEC Structural Simulation Innovator, Acquired by Altair

SEATTLE, Aug. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corum announces today that their client, British Columbia, Canada-based S-FRAME Software, has been acquired by Altair, the global leader converging simulation, HPC, and AI. S-FRAMEs structural analysis software platform is used by engineers to evaluate a structures ability to withstand external loads (like wind, water, and snow) and meet design code requirements around the world. Altair will offer S-FRAME software through its Altair Units platform, expanding its product offering for architects and civil engineers.

Congratulations to the S-FRAME team. S-FRAME software is used to design some of the worlds iconic structures by leading design and engineering firms. Were excited for them to now be part of the Altair family, said David Levine, Executive Vice President  Director and transaction lead for Corum Group. Joining the Altair team is a strategic way to accelerate our growth and become part of a full solutions suite with their advanced structural design offerigs," said Marinos Stylianou, former Chief Executive Officer, S-FRAME Software. "We are confident our combined offerings will be able to empower engineers, designers, and builders to reach new heights. Many thanks to David Levine of the Corum Group for bringing S-FRAME and ALTAIR together and guiding us through the acquisition process.



Corum is the worlds leading educator on tech trends, valuations, growth strategies and Tech M&A. David Levine will hosting a half-day online workshop, Selling Up Selling Out, on August 31st, 9:00AM to 11:00AM PDT. Tech CEOs and founders will learn to prepare, position, research, value, negotiate and execute due diligence for maximum price and optimal structure in an M&A transaction. About Corum Group

Corum Group is the global leader in merger and acquisition services, specializing in serving sellers of software and related technology companies worldwide. With offices globally, Corum has completed over $10B in software M&A transactions over the last 36 years. Corum's M&A advisors are highly experienced former tech CEOs, supported by industry-leading researchers, writers and valuators. Corum is the leading tech M&A educator worldwide with its popular conferences and publishes the most widely distributed software M&A research. For more information, visit www.corumgroup.com.

Contact:

Heidi Owen

+1 425-526-3107

heidio@corumgroup.com



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[August 27, 2021] Hurricane Ida Threatens 941,392 Homes with Storm Surge Damage According to CoreLogic Risk Analysis

CoreLogic a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released data analysis for single-family and multifamily homes at risk of storm surge damage from Hurricane Ida, which is expected to be a major landfalling hurricane on Sunday evening, August 29, with a projected Category 4 status. The central Louisiana coast is at risk of bearing the brunt of Hurricane Ida's extreme storm surge potential, with a total of 941,392 homes in the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi coastal areas exposed to storm surge damage. These homes have a combined reconstruction cost value (RCV) of approximately $220.37 billion. These estimates are based on the August 27 National Hurricane Center 5 p.m. EDT forecast. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210827005416/en/ Total Number and RCV ($ in Billions) of Single-Family Residential Properties at Risk of Storm Surge Damage from Hurricane Ida (Graphic: Business Wire) Due to the intensity and size of Hurricane Ida's wind field, a trifecta of impacts is expected: damaging winds between 130-156 mph, life-threatening storm surge of up to 15 feet, and extremely heavy, widespread rainfall between 10-15 inches. "Atmospheric conditions are highly favorable for rapid intensification after Ida emerges from Cuba on Saturday into Sunday," said Dr. Daniel Betten, meteorologist and senior leader for Weather Science at CoreLogic. "Ida will also be passing over an extremely warm loop current, which is known to contribute to the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the central Gulf of Mexico, most famously seen with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005." Hurricane Ida is the fourth named hurricane of the 2021 season and the first projected major hurricane at Category 4. As Ida approaches the Gulf coastline, its path will become more certain and the below metropolitan areas at risk will narrow. For the most up-to-date storm surge exposure estimates, visit the CoreLogic natural hazard risk information center, Hazard HQ, at www.hazardhq.com.



The tables indicate the total number of homes with exposure to storm surge damage given the current path of the storm. The RCV figures assume 100 percent destruction of all at-risk homes - and represents the worst-case scenario. Hurricane-driven storm surge can cause significant property damage when high winds and low pressure cause water to amass inside the storm, releasing a powerful rush over land when the hurricane moves onshore. For a complete view of total storm surge and hurricane wind risk for all Atlantic and Gulf Coast states metropolitan areas, download the full CoreLogic 2021 Hurricane Report.

Methodology CoreLogic offers high-resolution location information solutions with a view of hazard and vulnerability consistent with the latest science for more realistic risk differentiation. The high-resolution storm surge modeling using 10m digital elevation model (DEM) and parcel-based geocoding precision from PxPoint facilitates this realistic view of risk. Single-family residential structures less than four stories, including mobile homes, duplexes, manufactured homes and cabins (among other non-traditional home types) are included in this analysis. Multifamily residences are also included. This is not an indication that there will be no damage to other types of structures, as there may be associated wind or debris damage and are not tabulated in this release. Source (News - Alert) : CoreLogic The data provided are for use only by the primary recipient or the primary recipient's The data provided are for use only by the primary recipient or the primary recipient's publication or broadcast. This data may not be resold, republished or licensed to any other source, including publications and sources owned by the primary recipient's parent company without prior written permission from CoreLogic. Any CoreLogic data used for publication or broadcast, in whole or in part, must be sourced as coming from CoreLogic, a data and analytics company. For use with broadcast or web content, the citation must directly accompany first reference of the data. If the data is illustrated with maps, charts, graphs or other visual elements, the CoreLogic logo must be included on screen or website. For questions, analysis or interpretation of the data, contact newsmedia@corelogic.com. Data provided may not be modified without the prior written permission of CoreLogic. Do not use the data in any unlawful manner. This data is compiled from public records, contributory databases and proprietary analytics, and its accuracy is dependent upon these sources. About CoreLogic CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com. CORELOGIC and the CoreLogic logo are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210827005416/en/

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[August 27, 2021] Align Financial Holdings acquires NationsBuilders Insurance Services

Align Financial Holdings, LLC ("Align"), a leading general agency and specialist program underwriting manager, today announced that it has acquired NationsBuilders Insurance Services, Inc. ("NBIS"), an underwriting manager specializing in providing risk management, underwriting and claims handling expertise to the crane & rigging, specialized transportation, concrete pump and equipment rental, and dealer industries. The acquisition of NBIS fits well with Align's strategy of building a high quality and increasingly diversified underwriting business offering a broad portfolio of specialty P&C programs to an expanding base of customers, brokers and agents. Kieran Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Align, stated, "I am really delighted to welcome all the employees of NBIS to the Align family. NBIS has a strong reputation as the leading specialty underwriting manager in the crane & rigging, specialized transportation and concrete pumping industries. Bill Tepe and his management team have over twenty years' experience developing the products and risk solutions needed to best support the specialist producers and industry associations that serve these industries. We look forward to working with the entire NBIS team and their excellent carrier partners to grow and be successful well into the future." Bill Tepe, President of NBIS, commented, "Align is the right company to lead NBIS into its next chapter. Their focus on uality underwriting and service, strong carrier and producer relationships, and people-first approach complements the NBIS culture very well. We appreciate the leadership of our Board of Directors led by SunTx Capital Partners over the years, and are excited about the opportunities to further grow and expand our products and services in partnership with Kieran and the team at Align."



Evercore Group LLC served as financial advisor, and Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar P.C. served as legal counsel to Align. Piper Sandler &. Co. served as financial advisor and Reed Smith LLP served as legal advisor to NBIS. About Align Financial Holdings

Founded by Kieran Sweeney in 2003 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Align is an insurance holding company that owns and invests in best-in-class specialist general agencies and underwriting management businesses. Align operates four agency businesses: Align General Insurance Agency, LLC, Catalytic Risk Managers & Insurance Agency, LLC, Deposit Choice, LLC and NALICO General Agency, LLC. Since inception, Align has consistently delivered exceptional underwriting solutions to a growing number of quality carrier partners by taking a more sophisticated approach to pricing and underwriting specialty insurance risks. On August 12, 2021, Align announced an agreement to be acquired by DUAL North America, Inc., the underwriting arm of Howden Group Holdings, which transaction remains subject to completion and regulatory approval. About NBIS NBIS is the premiere provider of Insurance & Risk Management Solutions for Crane, Rigging, Specialized Transportation, Concrete Pumping and Equipment Dealer/Rental operations in the United States. Risk Solutions include, contract management review, complimentary online driver training courses, complimentary access to over 150+ online & industry specific training classes, safety & regulatory manuals and guides ready to implement as well as partner discounts for Dash Cameras, Telematics and much more. For more information about NBIS, please visit www.NBIS.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210827005425/en/

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[August 27, 2021] ROCKET COMPANIES 72 HOUR DEADLINE ALERT: Former Louisiana Attorney General and Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Remind Investors With Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Rocket Companies, Inc. - RKT

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have only until August 30, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE: RKT), if they purchased the Company's shares between February 25, 2021 and May 5, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. What You May Do If you purchased shares of Rocket Companies and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-rkt/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action by overseeing lead counsel with the goal of obtaining a fair and just resolution, you must request this position by application to the Court by August 30, 2021.



About the Lawsuit Rocket Companies and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On May 5, 2021, the Company disclosed disappointing financial news, including closed loan volume within a range of only $82.5 to $87.5 billion and gain on sale margins within a range of only 2.65% to 2.95% for the second quarter of 2021, due to certain market trends that began in part "at the end of Q1." On this news, shares of Rocket Companies plummeted nearly 17% to close at $19.01 per share. The case is Qaiyum v. Rocket Companies, Inc., No. 21-cv-11528. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210827005379/en/

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This cavalcade of human misery, police action and legal reports serve to remind readers that the metro remains a dangerous place for reasons beyond the current plague.



Check the www.TonysKansasCity.com compilation . . .

The top story offers a tragic look at danger for the NEXTGEN . . .

KCMO woman pleads guilty to murder, assault of sons KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City woman accused of killing one child and attempting to kill another has pleaded guilty, according to the Platte County prosecutor's office. Aushena Warren, 33, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree assault on Friday. Warren admitted to drowning her 8-year-old son in a bathtub and attempting to smother her 6-year-old son.

Man charged in kidnapping that prompted Amber Alert last week in Kansas City CHARGES FILED AFTER A YOUNG GIRL WAS KIDNAPPED IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI PROSECUTORS HAVE CHARGED TRUMAN BROWN WITH CHILD KIDNAPPING AND TAMPERING WITH A MOTOR VEHICLE. POLICE. SAY HE LEFT A GAS STATION LTAS WEEK NEAR LINWOOD AND INDIANA WITH THE TWO YEAR OLD CHILD.

Aftermath of today's traffic tragedy . . .

Westbound lanes of I-435 reopen near Holmes Road after police pursuit, shooting Westbound Interstate 435 near Holmes Road reopened late Friday afternoon after a police pursuit and a shooting.Kansas City police said that at about 1:20 p.m., officers were called to the area of Sixth Street and Hardesty Avenue on a reported domestic disturbance involving an assault with a weapon.When officers arrived, police said they talked to the victim.

'You are responsible for every bullet': Johnson County approves new gun safety measure OLATHE, Kan. - On Thursday, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution they hope will address reckless shooting across property lines. The resolution now makes it a code violation for a person to shoot a gun and have the bullet enter a neighboring property without the property owners' permission.

Johnson County DA says Olathe police shooting in May justified CALL THE TIPS HOTLINE IF YOU CAN HELP. 8-1-6 4-7-4 TIPS. NEW TONIGHT THE JOHNSON COTYUN DA'S OFFICE SAYS AN OLATHE POLICE OFFICER WAS JUSTIFIEDN I SHOOTING A MAN IN S CAR.HI THIS HAPPENED IN A RESTAURANT PARKING LOT OFF SANTA FE STRTEE IN M.AY STAFF CALLED POLICE SAYING A MAN WAS PASSED OUT IN HIS R.CA POLICE ARRIVED AND ASKED HIM TO GET OUT OF THE CAR.

Political pushback against tragic trend . . .

Missouri AG leads multi-state human trafficking operation that yields 102 arrests, 47 rescues KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMOV.com) - Over 100 arrests were made, and 47 victims and sex workers were rescued following a 12-state human trafficking operation. The Missouri Attorney General's Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol served as the main communications hub to coordinate other states' operations in "Operation United Front."

Developing . . .
Right now hottie Lindsey and her provocative social media marketing goodness inspire this peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines.



Check the www.TonysKansasCity.com news collection . . .



Will Kansas City Finally Flatten The Curve?!?

'We need your help': Kansas City hospitals ask people to take precautions amid COVID-19 spike KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Leaders at hospitals across Kansas City say they are maxed out and need help to manage the surge of COVID-19 patients. They say hospitals across the metro are experiencing an unprecedented demand for ICU and critical care services. Patients with severe COVID-19 cases are adding stress to an already overwhelmed system.

12th & Oak Rent Agenda Debuts

Kansas City Council directs city manager to develop housing needs plan within 6 months The Kansas City Council is directing City Manager Brian Platt to develop a strategic plan and a community needs assessment over the coming months to address housing insecurity and homelessness. In a pair of resolutions passed Thursday, Platt is tasked with finishing an assessment of the ways taxpayer dollars are currently being spent on service providers within 120 days.

Tragedy Hits Heartland

US Marine from Missouri among service members killed in Afghanistan KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 20-year-old Marine from suburban St. Louis has been identified among 13 U.S. service members killed in Thursday's suicide bombing near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. Sen. Josh Hawley , a Missouri Republican, and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson are among those who have identified the Marine as Lance Cpl.

Rock Chalk Power Play Payback

Evergy's Kansas customers with solar panels will get refund for unconstitutional fees | Kansas Reflector KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Evergy customers with solar panels on their homes will get refunds in the coming weeks for the unconstitutional charges the electric utility required them to pay. The Kansas Corporation Commission earlier this week approved an order modifying rates for Evergy's customers on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro, meant to bring solar panel owners there into alignment with the rest of Evergy's Kansas customers.

American Push Back



500 soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, deployed to help Afghan evacuees in US KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Around 500 troops from Fort Riley, Kansas, will be deployed around the United States to help incoming Afghan evacuees. The 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley service members will be sent to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Fort Lee in Virginia to support the efforts of task forces located there.

Hottie Tells All

Dan Bilzerian's Ex Lindsey Pelas Shares Truth About His Actual Lifestyle Dan Bilzerian is known for his pretty wild lifestyle, travelling the world on private jets, drinking the most expensive champagne and partying with a bunch of beautiful women. But is it really as incredible as it looks on social media?

Terror Warning Tonight

Afghanistan live news: US warns citizens at Kabul airport gates to 'leave immediately' due to security threats British Ministry of Defence warns UK's ability to process any more evacuations now 'extremely reduced'; White House says the next few days of evacuation operation likely to be the most dangerous

Housing Hot Mess Starts Now

Liberal pundits lose it over SCOTUS decision overturning Biden eviction moratorium: 'Cruel, conscienceless' Liberal media members and pundits reacted angrily to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the federal moratorium on evictions, despite the Biden administration's admitting weeks ago it had no legal standing to extend the moratorium. The nation's highest court voted Thursday in a 6-3 majority to overturn the moratorium, with the court's three liberal-leaning justices dissenting.

Old School Shooter Freedom

RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan gets parole on 16th attempt Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, was granted parole Friday. State prosecutors did not object to his release. The 77-year-old spent 53 years in prison.

Party

Probs Confront Prez

House Dem calls Biden's handling of Afghanistan 'f---g disaster' The Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a "f---g disaster" of "epic proportions," according to Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. "The thing that everybody needs to understand, even if you completely agree with the Biden administration's decision to withdraw, the way they have handled this has been a total f---g disaster," he said, as reported Thursday by New York Magazine.

MUST READ REALITY CHECK!!!

These are the US service members killed in the Kabul airport attack The identities of the 13 US service members who were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport while helping to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies have begun to emerge.

Not So Free Press?!?

Reporters blocked from Kamala Harris's remarks to troops at Pearl Harbor without explanation Media access to Vice President Kamala Harris's address to U.S. troops at Pearl Harbor was suddenly blocked on Thursday. No explanation was given, according to the White House press pool, but the move came hours after two explosions outside the airport in Kabul killed 13 U.S. service members and 60 Afghans during evacuations.

Science Debates Plague Source

One U.S. intel agency believes Covid probably emerged from lab accident in China WASHINGTON - At least one U.S. intelligence agency believes the Covid-19 virus could have emerged from a lab accident in Wuhan, China, but the U.S. intelligence community remains divided on the origins of the virus, according to a report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday.

Soldier Shut Down

US Marines officer relieved of duties after video demanding accountability over Afghanistan A US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who posted a video demanding accountability from military leaders over the evacuation of Afghanistan has been relieved of his duties and will leave US service, the Marines and the officer involved said on Friday.

End Game Winning

Monica Lewinsky Explains Why She Kept the Thong Flashing Scene in 'Impeachment: American Crime Story' Monica Lewinsky served as a producer on Ryan Murphy's upcoming FX series Impeachment: American Crime Story, and says she asked writers to keep a scene in which she (played by Beanie Feldstein) showed former President Bill Clinton (played by Clive Owen) her thong.

Locals Rolling Again

Kansas City CDL school sees increase in women truck drivers KANSAS CITY, Mo. - According to the American Trucking Associations, the trucking industry saw a shortage of roughly 61,000 drivers in 2019. In an email to KSHB 41 News, ATA stated that shortage is due to a number of reasons: "The first is, because of the pandemic, we had fewer drivers trained.

Local News Casting Success

Anchor goes Hollywood: FOX4 lands role in new Kristen Bell movie 'Queenpins' KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When the new Kristen Bell movie, "Queenpins," hits theaters on Sept. 10, some sharp-eyed FOX4 viewers might notice some familiar scenery - and a familiar face. The movie, based on a true story, features Bell as a listless housewife who decides to mastermind a counterfeit coupon ring to the tune of millions.

Show-Me Booze To Go Future

New Missouri laws taking effect: To-go cocktails, COVID liability and police funding COLUMBIA, Mo. - New Missouri laws including to-go cocktails, coronavirus liability protections for businesses, and penalties for cities that cut police funding go into effect Saturday. Here's an overview of some of the new state laws: Vandalizing "any public monument or structure on public property" will be a felony.

Kansas City Sweet Life Success

Midtown ice cream shop for pups churns out treats, therapeutic 'doggo date' spot for pets, people Bad days especially call for ice cream, Sherri Corwin said, recalling one of her favorite self-care rituals and the way it became her freshly creamed, 39th Street-scooped startup - a venture that's left tails across the metro wagging for waffle cones.

Sticky Weekend Indeed

Heat, humidity stick around for first part of the weekend Hide Transcript Show Transcript HAVING VERY LITTLE IMPACT THIS FAR EAST HEAT INDEX CLOSE TO 100 NEAR 90 FOR THE TAILGATING 88 FOR THE KICKOFF AND STILL TROPICAL 81 HEADING HOME SPKIEANG OF THE TROPICS. LOOK AT THIS.

And this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
A historic wave of refugees are soon to arrive in Kansas City with a welcome from Mayor Q but not much money or support.

Question . . .

WILL CITY HALL BE OBLIGATED TO SPEND FEDERAL STIMMY ON AFGHAN REFUGEES GIVEN THE RECENT WELCOME?!?!

At the risk of seeming selfish, there are many neighborhoods begging for services which might object to that course of action that hasn't earned much attention from our MSM leaders.



Here's more about crisis in the making . . .

The work of resettling Afghans in the Kansas City area mostly falls on the shoulders of nonprofit, faith-based organizations designated by the State Department  200 such groups are scattered across the U.S., and most face an urgency not felt in many years.

We are seeing that agencies are receiving notices and resettling people within 48 hours," says Ryan Hudnall, the executive director of Della Lamb Community Center. So that puts a whole new level of pressure on the local affiliate.

Hudnall says not since 1975, with the airlift out of South Vietnam, has the U.S. seen the potentially large numbers of refugee resettlement it may face now.

Theres going to be a gap of servicing and care, Hudnall says. So, itll be on the local community to navigate these issues and determine how to best respond to all the different issues that are going to emerge.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .
On his first visit to Flight 93 National Memorial on Saturday, Frank Siller saw the parallels between the actions of the passengers and crew on Sept. 11, 2001, and the actions of his firefighter brother on that same day, nearly 300 miles away.
CLINTON - Vernon Lee Kispert, 84, of Clinton passed away August 30, 2021. He was born on April 27, 1937, to Bernice and Elwood Kispert. Vernon is survived by his loving wife Ginny and daughter Shawna Kispert; stepchildren: Wayne (Nancy) McClara of Blanford, Bob (Judy) McClara of Mena, AR, Ma
Mark Bennett has reported and analyzed news from the Wabash Valley and beyond since Larry Bird wore Sycamore blue. That role with the Tribune-Star has taken him from Rome to Alaska and many points in between, but Terre Haute suits him best.

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When you check in for your ferry to Dunkirk, the ferry company will need to see you have all the necessary paperwork to travel to France both in terms of valid passport but also Covid requirements.

Which passport do you have? Are you and any other passengers, including children, fully vaccinated?

The requirements to enter France currently are seeming different for UK passport holders and EU country passport holders, as the UK is currently on France's Amber list. As you don't say when you travel, and as the regs for France change may change, I'll leave it to you to check the French government website for the rules in play on date of Channel crossing.

Also, as your drive presumably includes travel through Belgium and Germany at a minimum, before reaching Denmark, you need up to date info for making those land border crossings - although from purely hearsay, those borders are not checked as carefully as travel in either direction between UK and France.

For your return to the UK, then you will need neagive Covid tests within 72 hours and other requirements, including (I think) completion of a PLF online (although a paper copy can be useful) with a receipt of your day 2 test booking included.

This links is from the UK government's website. It's full of disclaimers because whoever wrote it is aware that France can change their rules and then tell those affected after the fact. It onlyclaims to offer help for UK passport holders, but it does tell you what you currently need to do if you are travelling from the UK, and it also does have some links to the official French government website and where to look for help if you don't have UK passport, for the onward EU travel.

Denmark is currently green from the UK's POV, but as your travel is not direct, there or back, that really is not relevant for your trip, as all the other countries you pass through, however briefly and even with not stops, have different regs that may matter.

SWT
I've got three kids of my own, similar in age to yours and have taken them on safari a few times. Understanding that the question is mostly driven by budget, I think it's also important to consider the experiences different areas and lodges/camps can provide. It's also great to note that you are planning so well in advance! You will certainly get your pick of dates and properties.

It doesn't seem like you are driven by finding an area that is Malaria free. The greater Kruger ecosystem is undoubtedly the premiere wildlife viewing destination in the whole of South Africa in terms of wildlife density and variety. I agree with the previous posters that the private reserves bordering the western boundary of Kruger National Park would be your best option. Less commercial, controlled access, able to off-road for high profile animals and ability to get out of the vehicle. The kids will also appreciate the opportunities to get out of the car and stretch their legs. If the lodge/camp is truly family friendly, they will have some fun activities for your children that won't involve sitting in a vehicle for hours a day - it will help keep them engaged.

Someone mentioned Kamkaku Safari Lodge - that's a stellar option. It's owner operated and managed. Bryce and Nicola, the owners, have raised their kids here so they know how to cater to families very well. Tintswalo in the Manyaleti may also work. They have the large Manor House that can accommodate up to 10 and the 2 bedroom Grant Suite which should make an exception for a young family of 5. I also really love Lion Sands River Lodge's inter-leading family suites. Lion Sands has the lovely Tree House experience - Kingston Treehouse can take 4 for sure and if you ask, they may accommodate a 3rd on a roll-away bed. It'll make for a really special experience. Lion Sands is definitely the splurge option, but well under $10k/night.

Kota Tabuchi - Managing Director: Africa - Travel Beyond
also posting this update from MaxT1980 on Ukraine forum I found useful. Also personally I could not book online, but it does look like its running

Re: Odessa - Chisinau - Odessa train restarted

31 Aug 2021, 17:38

Yes, this train was re-activated when nobody expected. Announce about re-activation appeared in 2 days, tickets commenced for sale in 1 day before departure.

My friend traveled in 1st day of operation, 3 days ago.

Despite this section traditionally was always served by CFM (railways of Moldova), But now

train run by rolling stock of Ukrainian railways (UZ), because CFM don't have available serviceable trainsets, all their trainsets are either busy on domestic lines or require repair.

Carriages 1,2,3 are newer (taken from daytime expresses Khmenlytsky - Kyiv), car 4 is older one from Odessa depot.

All cars are in fact the 2nd class, but entered to ticket system as 3rd class to make ticket price lower.

So don't afraid, it's not benches, it's proper 2nd class armchairs.
Description: Minori, named after one of the most beautiful towns on Italys Southern Amalfi Coast, is Hatch Ends most eco-friendly pizzeria. Aiming to be plastic free, zero waste, and contributing minimal carbon emissions, it heralds a green revolution in Italian dining. Serving several types of authentic Italian dough, with an exclusive oven for gluten free diners, all topped with freshly imported ingredients direct from Southern Italy, Vincenzo Gian Petro leads the kitchen as one of the top pizza chefs in the UK. Alongside this, Minori proudly bakes its own artisanal breads and fresh pasta. Minori is all about innovation and inspiration. Healthy, authentic Italian food of a high quality at a reasonable price, all whilst paying great respect to the environment.

Restaurant details Description: Minori, named after one of the most beautiful towns on Italys Southern Amalfi Coast, is Hatch Ends most eco-friendly pizzeria. Aiming to be plastic free, zero waste, and contributing minimal carbon emissions, it heralds a green revolution in Italian dining. Serving several types of authentic Italian dough, with an exclusive oven for gluten free diners, all topped with freshly imported ingredients direct from Southern Italy, Vincenzo Gian Petro leads the kitchen as one of the top pizza chefs in the UK. Alongside this, Minori proudly bakes its own artisanal breads and fresh pasta. Minori is all about innovation and inspiration. Healthy, authentic Italian food of a high quality at a reasonable price, all whilst paying great respect to the environment.
Good for: Bar Scene, Child-friendly, Romantic, Special Occasion Dining, Local cuisine

Dining options: Dinner, After-hours, Breakfast, Lunch, Delivery, Reservations

Description: This gastronomic journey began in 1953 in the picturesque amphitheatrical village of Glossa, on Skopelos. That year, grandmother Aglaia Stamataki and her son Nikos (grandfather of the present owner) set up a tavern that they named "Gallia" (France), to appeal to the few French tourists who visited the island at that time. In 1985, the little taverna changed its name and was rebaptized "Agnanti" (meaning "view"), to reflect its beautiful aspect over the Aegean. It was around that time that Agnanti passed into the hands of the children of grandfather Nikos: Stamatis and Mahoula Stamatakis. With their wonderful, well-prepared recipes, Agnanti immediately made an impression and gained a great reputation on the island. Their son, Nikos, knew no other life when growing up, other than Agnanti. He helped out doing little chores and entered at a very young age into the world of the magical flavors his parents created. From an early age Nikos decided that he, too, wanted to devote himself to Agnanti. The dream became a reality and Nikos has now taken on the running of Agnanti. Handed from generation to generation, Nikos feels that Agnanti is a wonderful inheritance. Honoring family tradition, he has further developed Agnanti, putting his own gastronomical stamp on today's restaurant. And so it is that little tavern that opened in 1953 has today become a great modern restaurant without losing any of its atmosphere and originality. Everyone who visits Agnanti today becomes a faithful friend. And it is these friends who, with their love and patronage, continue to write Agnanti's history.
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I don't have much insight to offer, other than to say you may also try posting in the air travel forum on TripAdvisor. You might try using one of the internet sites that shows seat availability to check which flights have more business seats open, which would give you a better chance. (ExpertFlyer is one site that works for this purpose, but you might be able to see it on Qatar's site as well.)

I understand that business travel is still pretty slow right now, so maybe it will give you an opening to get the upgrade.

Best of luck!
The Aknc unmanned aerial vehicle, equipped with a Ukrainian-made engine, is undergoing final tests before being handed over to the security forces August 29.

Thats according to a tweet by UAV manufacturer Baykar Makina, Ukrinform reports.

Bayraktar #AKINCI yuvadan ucmaya hazrlanyor...



 Semalarmzn ylmaz bekcisi olacak Bayraktar #AKINCI TIHA'nn guvenlik guclerimize teslim edilmesine SON 3 GUN!



 29.08.2021#MilliTeknolojiHamlesi  pic.twitter.com/Klfq4GB86A  BAYKAR (@Baykar_Savunma) August 26, 2021

"We are preparing Bayraktar Aknc for leaving the nest ... The last three days before the transfer of the UAV Bayraktar Aknc, which will be the indomitable guardian of our sky, to the security forces," the statement reads.

The tweet contains a video of the long process of testing and preparations.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Turkey-based arms producer Bayrak Makina currently uses Ukrainian engines for the new generation of Aknc drones, planning to install them on all company products in the future.

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U.S. President Joe Biden has instructed the State Department to allocate up to $60 million from the Pentagon to Ukraine.

Thats according to a memorandum released on the White House website August 27, Ukrinform reports.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America <> I hereby delegate to the Secretary of State the authority <> to direct the drawdown of up to $60 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine and to make the determinations required under such section to direct such a drawdown.

The move comes ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys visit to the United States at Bidens invitation.

The visit will kick off on August 30 and include events scheduled in Washington D.C. and California.

The summit of the two presidents will be held August 31.

The parties are expected to sign three bilateral agreements on defense partnership, projects in the field of research, development, testing, evaluation and cooperation in space.

Photo: White House

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Over the past day, August 27, seven ceasefire violations by the armed formations of the Russian Federation were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation area in eastern Ukraine.

The enemy opened fire from automatic easel grenade launchers and small arms near Novomykhailivka (28km south-west of Donetsk); easel antitank grenade launchers  outside Pivdenne (40km north-east of Donetsk); hand-held antitank grenade launchers  near Novoluhanske (53km north-east of Donetsk) and Katerynivka (64km west of Luhansk); hand-held antitank grenade launchers and small arms  in the area of Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk)," the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports.

In the area of Zaitseve (62km north-east of Donetsk), the armed formations of the Russian Federation opened fire from hand-held antitank grenade launchers. As a result of the enemy shelling, one member of the Joint Forces received a fatal gunshot wound. The JF Command expresses its sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

Ukrainian soldiers opened fire in response to the enemy shelling.

As of 07:00 on August 28, two ceasefire violations were recorded. In particular, the enemy opened fire from 82mm mortars, automatic easel grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms near Troitske (69km west of Luhansk); and easel antitank grenade launchers  outside Svitlodarsk (57km north-east of Donetsk).

Ukrainian military returned fire.

The Ukrainian side of the Joint Control and Coordination Center (JCCC) informed the OSCE SMM about all violations by the Russian-occupation troops, using the established coordination mechanism.

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Seven high-ranking officials of the Republic of Latvia, headed by Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Baiba Blodniece, visited the Shchastia entry-exit checkpoint in Luhansk region.

The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the infrastructure of the checkpoint and the situation on the contact line, Ukrinform reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.

"The delegation visited a new service area of the checkpoint, where all citizens of Ukraine on both sides of the contact line can receive a wide range of administrative, social and other services. In particular, they visited a pharmacy, the central administrative office, a legal reception and other facilities for serving citizens," the report reads.

The head of the Luhansk unit, Colonel Yuri Petrov, briefed the guests on the current security situation and informed that for 10 months of work, the occupation administration of the Russian Federation did not allow a single person to pass through the Shchastia checkpoint, while there were no restrictions on the Ukrainian side.

As reported, on August 22, President of the Republic of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Radek Vondracek visited the Chonhar checkpoint in preparation for the Crimea Platform summit.

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As part of the development of the aviation security system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 28 more French helicopters from Airbus Helicopters are expected to be delivered to Ukraine by the end of this year.

Head of the Aviation Coordination Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Oleksandr Kashuba said this on August 28, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports.

"As part of the formation and development of the Aviation Security System, we plan to receive a total of 28 helicopters for the needs of all services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by the end of 2021," Kashuba said.

On August 29, 2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine signed a contract with the French company Airbus Helicopters SAS, which laid the foundation for a new progressive project - the Unified Aviation Security and Civil Protection System of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The contract with Airbus Helicopters for the supply of 55 helicopters is being successfully implemented.

As Ukrinform reported, on the last Saturday of August, Ukraine celebrates Aviation Day - a joint holiday of military and civil aviators and workers of the aviation industry and transport.

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Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gavrilita signed a Protocol between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Republic of Moldova on amendments to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

They signed the document during a meeting in Chisinau on August 28, the Government portal reports.

According to PM Shmyhal, the amendments to the FTA stipulate that pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin will be applied in trade between Ukraine and Moldova.

"This is a drastic change in trade relations. The transition to these rules of origin unites the Ukrainian and Moldovan Association Agreements with the EU into one system. A year ago, we took such a step with Georgia. Now, we are combining the trade regimes of all the countries of the Associated Trio with each other and with the EU," he stressed.

Shmyhal noted that the system of pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation allows trading in goods that are made from components that can originate from all countries in this system.

"This protocol is another step towards the withdrawal of the Associated Trio from the CIS trade relations and the transition to an EU-centric economy," he said.

For her part, PM Gavrilita noted that the Protocol reaffirms its readiness to promote trade relations between the two countries, in particular on the path to European integration.

As reported, on Friday, August 27, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal took part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Moldova's independence.

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Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gavrilita discussed a wide range of issues related to the development of bilateral relations.

Shmyhal said this after a meeting with Gavrilita in Chisinau on August 28, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

We agreed with PM Gavrilita to resume the work of bilateral cooperation mechanisms of the joint intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation and its working group, the Dniester Commission, as well as to intensify the negotiation processes on legal and contractual regulation of the operating conditions of the Dniester Hydropower Complex and the demarcation of the state border, Shmyhal noted.

The parties signed a protocol between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Moldova on amendments to the free trade agreement.

In addition, they discussed the prospects for further cooperation in economy, energy, transport, gas transportation and border spheres. We fully support Moldova in the process of the Transnistrian settlement and are grateful for the unchanging policy of Chisinau to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. We have significant support from Moldova in adopting within the framework of the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE and other international organizations and other documents related to territorial integrity and condemnation of military aggression by Russia, Shmyhal added.

As reported, on August 27, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal took part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Moldova's independence.

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During a Chisinau meeting with President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the prospects of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, including on the implementation of infrastructure projects.

Thats according to the presidents website, Ukrinform reports.

Relations between Ukraine and Moldova have a huge potential, and today we need to concentrate our efforts to use it, the Ukrainian president stressed.

The presidents praised the work carried out by the parties in the framework of the project to build a border bridge over the Dniester on the Ukrainian-Moldovan state border.

In addition, the heads of state discussed the return of Ukrainian energy companies to the Moldovan electricity supply market.

The leaders stressed the need for further close cooperation in the Associated Trio format to deepen political association and economic integration with the EU, as provided for in the relevant association agreements, as well as to promote new opportunities within the Eastern Partnership.

"It is a great honor to be here today. Warm, historical, friendly, neighborly relations with Moldova are very important for us," the Ukrainian head of state said.

Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Ukraine considers Moldova an important partner.

"We believe that we cannot have any questions about our friendly relations," he said.

The president of Ukraine also noted that his country is open to deepening relations with Moldova.

"We are glad to be present at the festivities on the 30th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Moldova," said Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president thanked Maia Sandu for participating in the Crimea Platform summit and joining its declaration.

"As before, Ukraine and Moldova mutually support each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. Your personal participation in the Crimea Platform summit reaffirmed this position and demonstrated our common desire to resist external pressure," the President of Ukraine said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was on a visit to Chisinau on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of Moldova's independence.

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More than 230 Ukrainian nationals and their family members remain in Afghanistan amid rising tensions.

Thats according to Ukraines Ambassador to Tajikistan and Afghanistan (part-time) Vasyl Servatiuk who spoke with LB.ua, Ukrinform reports.

"Our latest data says there are just over 230 people left in Afghanistan who are citizens of Ukraine or their relatives," Servatiuk said.

Asked how many of them are ethnic Afghans, he said: Of these people, only two are ethnic Ukrainian women who are married and who permanently live in Afghanistan, while the rest are ethnic Afghans who have relatives in Ukraine and by virtue of for various reasons are now on Afghan territory.

According to the ambassador, more than 250 Ukrainian citizens, family members, and foreign nationals have already been evacuated from Afghanistan to Ukraine. Most of them were transported on three Ukrainian evacuation flights, while 20 citizens plus two relatives of one of them were extracted by the country's international partners.

The ambassador also answered the question of whether the fourth Ukrainian emergency flight will depart on schedule: At the moment, I cant disclose all the details of the operation. However, Ill say this: we continue to move on schedule with the fourth and the following stages of evacuation, we continue to collect our people."

Read also: Ukraine has evacuated more than 250 Ukrainians and foreigners from Afghanistan

As Ukrinform reported, on August 23, a third plane carrying more than 100 Ukrainian citizens took off from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

Since the dramatic power takeover by the Taliban, Afghanistan has been seeing crowds desperately trying to flee the country, including through the Kabul Airport.

Governments, including that of Ukraine, have been sending planes to evacuate citizens from the conflict-struck country.

Over 170 people were killed and at least 200 were wounded in the suicide attack on August 26. The ISIS in Khorasan (ISIS-K) terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

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Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, left, talks with a student as teacher Alyson Lykken, center, looks on on Feb. 2 during a visit to a low-incidence disability classroom at Elk Ridge Elementary School in Buckley, Wash.
A fire extinguisher is sprayed on a burning pickup truck from inside the Tri-Cities Regional SWAT vehicle Wednesday morning at the entry to the The Wash Stop coin-operated car wash at 4024 W. Van Giesen St. in West Richland. The scene is apparently connected to a violent, fiery rampage that stretched from Finley to West Richland ended with an officer-involved shooting.
An Afghan lies on beds at a hospital after he was wounded in the deadly attacks outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover.
Ayden White, 5, works with Amanda Lacass on his "hero shield" during an exercise designed to boost self-esteem in a class earlier this year at St. Vincent Family Services. The pandemic has increased stress and created a surge in mental health issues among children already growing up in poverty and/or crime-ridden areas. (Courtney Hergesheimer/Columbus Dispatch/TNS)
Hugh Oscar Walton, 71, of Gray, and formerly of Sparta, passed away Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. Graveside services for Hugh Walton will be conducted on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021, at 11 a.m. in the Sparta City Cemetery. Hugh was born on Jan. 20, 1950, in Greensboro, Ga. to the late James Thomas "Sl
As many as 14 Ph.D graduates and 115 gold medalists were conferred degrees during the 15th Convocation of Riphah International University held here in Hybrid mode on Saturday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Aug, 2021 ) :As many as 14 Ph.D graduates and 115 gold medalists were conferred degrees during the 15th Convocation of Riphah International University held here in Hybrid mode on Saturday.

The convocation was also attended online by the other 1600 plus graduating students.

The President Dr. Arif Alvi is the Patron of Riphah International University.

He was invited to chair the convocation as a chief guest but due to Covid-19 restrictions the proposal could not be materialized, therefore, he gave his video message.

During his speech, he appreciated Riphah's vision and mission to inculcate Islamic ethical values in its academic programmes and to excel in the fields of research and education. He also appreciated the efforts of Riphah for the separate education for females.

He extended his greeting to Riphah for organizing high values conferences in Medical Education, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Rehabilitation Sciences, Lifestyle medicine, and other conferences.

He congratulates graduating students, their parents, and teachers as well as the university authorities on their achievements.

The chief guest for today's convocation was Hassan Muhammad Khan, Chancellor Riphah International University.

Speaking on the occasion, he congratulated all the graduates and wished them a bright and successful future. He said that Riphah provides education, which is beyond academic knowledge but also focus on character building.

He further said that Riphah groomed its students to improve the intellectual and personal growth, preparing them to become informed leaders and valuable citizens of Pakistan with focus on Islamic ethical codes.

He said that this year Islamic International Medical College has completed a journey of 25 years which is now recognized as a premier medical institution. He spoke that the university has progressed exponentially in terms of the number and quality of programmes, faculty, and students.

The ethos of the University are based on the emphasis on high quality in academics and research horizons. He extended his felicitations to the Vice-chancellor, graduating students, faculty members, and parents on this joyous occasion.

Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmed said that with Allah SWT's blessing and support, coincides with our completion of 25 years of an educational struggle to introduce a value-based program of learning.

The creation of the Islamic International Medical College Trust in 1995 by the Founding Managing Trustee Late Major General Zulfiqar Ali Khan was a landmark of a meaningful and objective-based educational movement.

He mentioned that Riphah is not only a quality educational institution, it is a movement for Islamic beliefs and social change.

He mentioned that Riphah is a state-of-the-art educational institute which is offering 146 academic programs, 22000 Plus enrolled students, and 908 Faculty Members.

Brig (R) Salim Ahmed Khan, Registrar Riphah International University conducted the proceedings of the 15th convocation in befitting manners and thanked all the committee members for organizing the successful ceremony.
Singapore recorded 120 cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection and two imported cases Friday, bringing the total tally to 67,050, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release

SINGAPORE, Aug. 28 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Aug, 2021 ) --:Singapore recorded 120 cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 infection and two imported cases Friday, bringing the total tally to 67,050, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release.

There are three cases who have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection, all of whom were unvaccinated against COVID-19.

They were an 80-years-old man, and two women who were 70-years-old and 90-years-old respectively. In total, 55 have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

Of the locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, 47 are linked to the Bugis Junction cluster. Of the remaining 73 cases, 31 are linked to previous cases, and have already been placed on quarantine, 16 are linked to previous cases and were detected through surveillance. The other 26 are currently unlinked.
Bissau, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Aug, 2021 ) :Guinea-Bissau's government said Friday it would reinstate a curfew and other coronavirus infection control restrictions for two weeks to bring an outbreak of the more transmissible Delta variant under control.

Ministers agreed a ban on going out between 8:00 pm and 5:00 am to last until September 10, the government said in a statement.

The west African country last imposed a coronavirus curfew for around a month in March 2020.

Other new restrictions include bans on mass gatherings like religious services, weddings and funerals, also for two weeks, while clubs, restaurants and other leisure venues will also be closed.

One of the lowest-ranked countries on the UN Human Development Index, Portuguese-speaking Guinea-Bissau was already under stress before coronavirus hit.

It has reported more than 5,600 cases and 110 deaths from Covid-19, while only 31,000 of its more than two million people are vaccinated.
(@FahadShabbir)

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Aug, 2021 ) :Pakistan is supporting efforts to fly humanitarian supplies into Afghanistan where medical stocks are dwindling and the airport in Kabul crippled by a terrorist attack, a senior Wold Health Organization (WHO) said in Geneva Friday.

"We have only a few days of supplies left and we're exploring all options to bring more medicines into the country," Dr. Rick Brennan, Regional Emergency Director with the WHO Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), speaking during the bi-weekly briefing by UN agencies.

He told reporters the first Pakistani flight carrying humanitarian supplies will hopefully leave in the coming days to Mazar-i-Sharif.

The UN World food Programme (WFP) is also establishing a "humanitarian airbridge", with flights also expected to take off soon.

Meanwhile, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujrarric told APP that during Secretary-General Antonio Guterres phone conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday, he thanked for Pakistan's support for UN operations in Afghanistan and their generosity towards Afghan refugees.

Prior to Thursday's attack, WHO had planned three airlifts of trauma kits, emergency health kits, essential medicines and supplies for hospitals and health centres in Afghanistan, but the items remained grounded due to security and operational issues at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, kit was pointed out.

The blasts on Thursday targeted Afghans fleeing the country and military personnel securing the facility. More than 170 people were killed, according to media reports. The ISIS- K has claimed responsibility.

The UN condemned the attack, and has stressed the critical importance of the airport for facilitating the entry of aid workers and humanitarian relief. Although around 97 per cent of the roughly 2,200 health facilities in Afghanistan are functioning, they are running short of supplies to treat people affected by conflict, displacement, drought, malnutrition, and the coronavirus pandemic.

"Because of security concerns and several other operational considerations, Kabul airport is not going to be an option for the next week at least," Dr. Brennan said.

"One of the challenges we have in Afghanistan right now is there's no Civil Aviation Authority functioning. But we are working with the Pakistanis, particularly in the context of Mazar-i-Sharif Airport, because they can work with contacts on the ground to ensure that all the necessary steps to land an aircraft, to land a cargo aircraft, can be put in place".

He added that insurance costs for bringing an aircraft into Afghanistan have "skyrocketed" overnight, reaching prices never seen before.

"We're trying to jump through that hoop at the moment," said Dr. Brennan. "Once we can address that, we will hopefully be airborne in the next 48 to 72 hours".

The terrorist attack has accelerated tensions and volatility in a country where nearly half the population, or 18 million people, were already dependent on humanitarian relief even before the Taliban seized power.

An ongoing UN appeal for $1.3 billion is less than 40 per cent funded.

Asked about the impact the attack had on hospitals in Kabul, Dr. Brennan reported that a WHO partner, the Italian NGO Emergency, which runs a trauma hospital in the city, has been "overwhelmed" in treating victims, who reportedly number more than 200.

"Of course, getting access to supplies is urgent, and we understand that they've got great pressure on their supplies right now. So our proposed air shipment in the next couple of days will be bringing in more trauma kits," he said.

The UN continues to underline its commitment to stay in Afghanistan. More than 100 international staff, and around 3,000 national colleagues, remain in the country.

WHO, which has some 700 personnel located in all 34 provinces nationwide, said it is especially concerned about the health needs of women and children.

The agency said it fears a rollback in progress made over the past two decades, which saw maternal mortality rates drop by roughly 60 per cent and child mortality by around 50 per cent.

Even though Afghanistan falls short of international standards in availability of doctors and nurses for its population, thousands of health professionals were also trained during this period, including women doctors, nurses and midwives.

"Already we're hearing that some female health workers are not attending work, and that there has been a decline in the attendance of women and children at some facilities," Dr. Brennan said.

"This again highlights the need to ensure the availability of medical supplies to support female health workers in their work, and to encourage families to bring their mothers, females, girls, and children, to seek health care when they need it".

Asked why women health workers were reluctant to go to work, Dr. Brennan said WHO assumed they were being cautious as the agency had not received any reports about physical or other restrictions blocking women from their jobs.

Thousands of Afghans have been fleeing abroad since the Taliban took over, and Dr. Brennan noted that health workers are also part of this "enormous brain drain".

Looking ahead, WHO will be working with donors, partners and the Afghan health authorities in the coming weeks to ensure continued support for the country's health system.

"For the past week or so, the eyes of the world have been focused on that major air operation at Kabul airport. But once that evacuation mission ends the enormous humanitarian needs will continue and our work will then enter a new phase which will bring complexities on a scale that we have not seen before," Dr. Brennan said.

"In spite of these challenges, WHO and the UN will be there for the people of Afghanistan."
(@FahadShabbir)

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on President Ebrahim Raisi to "repair" the public's damaged trust in government, during a meeting on Saturday with his newly formed cabinet

Tehran, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Aug, 2021 ) :Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on President Ebrahim Raisi to "repair" the public's damaged trust in government, during a meeting on Saturday with his newly formed cabinet.

"It's a great asset for a government to be able to attract the people's trust, which has unfortunately been slightly damaged. You must repair this," Khamenei said, quoted by his official website.
KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2021) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid's statement about Ukraine being decades away from becoming a full-fledged EU member was "inappropriate."

Earlier this week, Kaljulaid said that it would probably take Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia 20 years to meet the EU's criteria for accession.

"It was very strange for me to hear such words from the president of Estonia. These statements do not correspond to the friendly nature of our relations. I do not know what influenced her, but we are disappointed with such statements and consider them inappropriate, especially after she was received [in Ukraine] in the best possible way," Kuleba told the Ukraine 24 broadcaster.

Kiev voiced its discontent to the Estonian Foreign Ministry and Kaimo Kuusk, Estonian Ambassador to Ukraine, Kuleba added.

In late 2014, the Ukrainian parliament canceled the non-aligned status of the country and four years later adopted an amendment to enshrine the EU and NATO membership policy course in the country's constitution.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2021) One US intelligence agency assess the first novel coronavirus infection may have as a result of a leak at the Wuhan virology lab, but four other agencies believe the disease may have emerged through natural exposure to an infected animal, the US intelligence community (IC) said on Friday in a declassified report about its probe into the origins of COVID-19.

"Four IC elements and the National Intelligence Council assess with low confidence that the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virusa virus that probably would be more than 99 percent similar to SARS-CoV-2," the report said.

"One IC element assesses with moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

The US intelligence community also assesses that COVID-19 was not developed as a biological weapon and not genetically engineered, the report said.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2021) The United States has conducted an airstrike against the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K) terrorist group (banned in Russia) in eastern Afghanistan, leaving one militant killed, spokesman for the US Central Command Capt. Bill Urban said.

"US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism today against an ISIS-K planner.

The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target," Urban said in a statement on late Friday.

He added that the US army was unaware of any civilian casualties caused by the airstrike.

The ISIS-K group drew the attention of the international community on Thursday when it staged a series of terrorist attacks in Kabul that left more than 100 people - including 13 US service members - dead, as well as 1,300 more injured.
MIKEY FORNELLI is a Sports Reporter for The Vidette. He can be contacted at mlforn1@ilstu.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @Mfojr

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As the United States nears the end of its military presence in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is being criticized for leaving high-tech military equipment behind, besides the American citizens and Afghan allies. These military assets have now been taken over by the Taliban who have, in turn, been flaunting the spoils on social media.

While some are worried that Washington might have indirectly militarily boosted the terror groups strike and defensive capabilities, many others are questioning whether the Taliban has the expertise to actually use some of the higher-end military techs.

Between 2003 and 2016, Washington gifted Kabul with 599,690 weapons, 75,898 vehicles, 208 aircraft, 162,643 communication equipment, as well as 16,191 pieces of equipment used for intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance. Between 2017 and 2019, the United States transferred 7,035 machine guns, 20,040 hand grenades, 1,394 grenade launchers, 4,702 Humvees, 2,520 bombs, and other equipment. As of June 30, 2021, America had given 211 aircraft to Afghanistan.

In total, the U.S. spent close to $83 billion training and equipping Afghan security forces over the past 20 years. How much of this equipment has been taken over by the Taliban is something thats causing worry for security experts.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan defended the Biden administrations decision to leave all the equipment. He admitted to not having exact data of assets left behind and taken over by the Taliban.

We dont have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban And obviously, we dont have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport, Sullivan said to reporters.

Images from Afghanistan show the Taliban driving Humvees and carrying U.S. weapons like M4 rifles. Four Black Hawk helicopters, each costing $10 million, are also now in the possession of the insurgent group.

How much of the looted American equipment the Taliban will be able to use, might depend on the level of technology. In an interview with NPR, Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, said that the Taliban could easily put into using small arms and tools like night-vision equipment since such items dont need a lot of skill or training to use.

However, high-end equipment, like a Black Hawk helicopter and advanced weaponry might be challenging. Bradley Bowman, a former Black Hawk pilot, told the media outlet that flying the helicopter is not something anyone can do in a short period of time.

Someone could get in there, maybe find some operating manuals and figure out how to get the engine started, the rotors turning and get it up in the air But theyd probably be more of a danger to themselves than to anyone else at that point, Bowman says. However, he admitted that this wouldnt be an insurmountable problem for the Taliban.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Joseph Dempsey, a research analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, stated that the Taliban would find it difficult to operate most U.S. aircraft due to the complexity involved in the technology.

Another issue the Taliban will face when trying to use high-end U.S. military equipment would be regarding its maintenance and securing of spare parts. According to Schroden, the Taliban is likely to break such tools and would not be able to fix them. Black Hawk helicopters have fairly sophisticated maintenance requirements.

The Taliban might also decide to sell off the equipment they are unable to use. For example, the avionics and communication equipment on the Black Hawks would be saleable. Bowman believes that countries like Iran, Russia, and China might show interest in such a trade.

Meanwhile, a group of Republican Senators has written a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stating that they were horrified to see American equipment in the hands of the Taliban.

The letter asks Austin for a full account of (a) the military equipment supplied to Afghan security forces, (b) the number of equipment destroyed or removed prior to U.S. withdrawal, (c) the number of equipment that remains operational in Afghanistan, (d) what equipment has been seized by Taliban, and so on.

It is unconscionable that high-tech military equipment paid for by U.S. taxpayers has fallen into the hands of the Taliban and their terrorist allies. Securing U.S. assets should have been among the top priorities for the U.S. Department of Defense prior to announcing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the letter said.
U.N. and private aid agencies say human rights violations have been surging in Afghanistan since Taliban militants seized control of the country.

Aid agencies say Afghanistan is at a very dangerous point. They say an increasingly brutal conflict is worsening the already serious human rights violations in the country.

CEO of the Asia Pacific Refugee Network Najeeba Wazedafost says many people feared the resurgence of the Taliban, as the U.S. and NATO withdrew troops from Afghanistan. But she says few people thought the Taliban would gain control over the country so quickly.

She says it is horrifying to see the rapid escalation of human suffering and displacement under Taliban rule.

It has been quite heartbreaking, especially in the past week, receiving a vast amount of calls to our ASPRN crisis helpline, where people have been reporting executions and beatings, and clampdown on media and radio stations. They have been reporting to us about Taliban door-to-door searches, targeted killings and looting in the capital. And again, we have been hearing about schools, and hospitals, and thousands of homes being attacked, she said.

Wazedafost says she is most concerned about the voices of fear she is hearing from women. She says they talk about their fear of being killed simply because they are female. She says she also fears border closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic will prevent women and girls fleeing violence and persecution from finding safety.

Wazedafost is appealing to western countries that are leaving Afghanistan to not abandon the women and girls left behind and leave them without hope and the support they need to survive their changed circumstances.

The United Nations says decades of conflict, compounded by a second drought in four years and the devastating socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, have wiped out Afghanistans ability to survive without international support.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says nearly half of Afghanistans population, about 18 million people, need humanitarian assistance. The head of OCHAs coordination division, Wafaa Saeed Abdelatef, says at least a third of the population does not have enough to eat and is suffering from acute hunger.

We also estimate that half the children under five are acutely malnourished. And when a child is malnourished, this means also no access to enough food, to health, to water, to hygiene, to sanitation. And, also, malnutrition has a severe and irreversible impact on children. So, this is something that we cannot let continue, she said.

This years United Nations humanitarian appeal for $1.3 billion has received just $500 million, leaving a funding gap of $800 million.
Japan's health ministry said Saturday that two people in their 30s have died days after receiving their second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shot.



Officials say the shots used came from supplies that were suspended Thursday following the discovery of contaminants. The ministry said the cause of the deaths, which occurred earlier this month, is under investigation.



The Japanese government and Moderna had said earlier that no issues had been identified with the suspended vaccine and the suspension was a precautionary measure.



In India, authorities reported more than 46,700 new coronavirus infections, the highest number of cases in nearly two months, a surge that occurred after a festival in the southern state of Kerala.



Total COVID-19 cases in the country rose to nearly 32.7 million and deaths increased by 500 in the 24-hour period prior to Saturday afternoon to 437,370, according to Indian government data.



India has the worlds second largest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths after the U.S.



More than 10 million vaccine doses were administered in 24 hours prior to Saturday afternoon, a record that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a "momentous feat."



In the United State, officials in charge of handling the COVID-19 pandemic say that half of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received at least their first dose of a vaccine.



Speaking to reporters at a Friday briefing, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said, We have now hit a major milestone. This is critical progress as millions of kids head back to school.



Zients said that teenagers are being vaccinated at a faster pace than other age groups.



Among the larger American population, 61%, or nearly 203 million people, have received at least one shot of coronavirus vaccine. Vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12.

Speaking Friday at a Senate hearing on the 2022 budget, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said hospitalizations have increased, with a rising toll of COVID-19 among children.



She said that in order to protect children until they meet eligibility criteria to be vaccinated, adults around them should be vaccinated, to effectively shield them.

Walensky said surges and outbreaks have occurred in places that are not implementing CDC guidelines for schools to protect children from the transmission of the coronavirus.



Meanwhile, a new report published in the medical journal The Lancet says the symptoms that linger after a person has survived the coronavirus are little understood by the medical community.



The report says the syndrome, known as long haul COVID-19, must be studied and understood in order to launch an appropriate response for what the journal calls a modern medical challenge of the first order.



The Lancet article said recovery can take more than a year. The lingering symptoms include persistent fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and depression.



The report says finding answers to the mystery of long haul COVID-19 while providing compassionate and multidisciplinary care, will require the full breadth of scientific and medical ingenuity.



Elsewhere in the world, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday the government will ease its nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, while the nations largest city, Auckland, the epicenter of the latest outbreak, will remain closed for two more weeks.

At a news briefing, Ardern said that beginning August 31 most of the country will move to a level-three shut down, which allows businesses to fill online orders and do takeout services. Bars and restaurants remain closed, except for takeaways.



Ardern said Auckland will remain under alert level 4, which requires all schools, offices and all businesses to be closed, with only essential services operational. Before this latest lockdown, the nations last stay-at-home orders were lifted in March.



The government took the measures to stop the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. New Zealands health service reported 70 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections during this outbreak, which began this month, to 347.



New Zealand has been a global leader in effectively controlling the spread of COVID-19.



Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
Funeral Announcements A daily list of current funeral annoucements as heard on KXRA 1490 AM/100.3 FM

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Sports Update This current sports headlines delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.

Upcoming Events This email is the events of the area delivered daily from Voice of Alexandria.

Breaking News The big news. Sent only as it happens.
(The Center Square)  Among the 13 U.S. service members killed on Thursday at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan was 20-year-old Marine from Laredo, Texas, David Lee Espinoza.

Espinoza was born in Laredo but grew up in Rio Bravo and attended Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Laredo.

On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered flags in the state to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Monday in honor of Espinoza and other members of the military killed on Thursday.

I ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor the U.S. service members killed in yesterdays horrific attack in Kabul," Abbott said. "U.S. Marine David Lee Espinoza, a Laredo native, was one of the 13 service members killed. He was 20 years old. These heroes should never be forgotten."

In a separate statement, the governor said, What were witnessing in Kabul right now is an absolute tragedy. Brave U.S. Marines and soldiers sacrificed everything to protect innocent lives and defend our nations principles of freedom and liberty for all. Their families are left grieving the heartbreaking loss of a loved one. He also asked Texans to pray for those who fought through to the end, for their loved ones, and for all U.S. military members who continue to serve courageously and honorably for our country around the world.

The city of Laredo thanked Espinoza for his service, saying his acts of courage and bravery will always be remembered in our community."

The Laredo Police Department posted a statement on its Facebook page saying, Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the family of United States Fallen Marine, David L. Espinoza, as well as to his friends and fellow Marines. Semper Fi. Thank you for your service.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose hometown is Laredo, said in a statement that Espinoza embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service.

When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service. I mourn him and all the fallen heroes in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the Espinoza family in this extremely difficult time. The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.

Cuellar said hes been talking to veterans' groups and will do everything he can to help the family.

Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz told local mediathat there might be a second Laredoan who also was killed, however, he said, that is not yet confirmed.

As of Friday night, 11 U.S. Marines, one Navy hospital corpsman, and one Army soldier were confirmed dead, and at least 18 service members reported initially injured.

It was the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan since August 2011.

On Friday, a U.S. national security team had been warned that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, CBS News reported.
ST. PAUL, MN  Governor Mark Dayton will continue the Dayton-Smith Administrations 87 Counties in 86 Days statewide tour this week, visiting Clay, Mahnomen, Otter Tail, and Wadena counties. On Tuesday, September 6, 2016, Governor Dayton will greet students at Probstfield Elementary on the first day of school. This event is open to the press.

Later in the day, Governor Dayton will meet with White Earth Nation tribal leaders. This event is closed to the press. In the afternoon, the Governor will meet with Mahnomen county commissioners. This event is open to the press.

On Wednesday, September 7, 2016, Governor Dayton will meet with Otter Tail County officials to discuss the countys leadership on water quality issues. This event is open to the press.

In the afternoon, the Governor will meet with Wadena Community and Technical College administrators and local business leaders to discuss workforce development. This event is open to the press.

More details on these events are below. Next week, Lt. Governor Tina Smith is also traveling as part of the 87 Counties in 86 Days tour. Details on those events can be found here.

Governor Daytons 87 Counties in 86 Days Travel

Below is a list of counties Governor Dayton is scheduled to visit next week. Additional details for upcoming visits and events will be announced in the Governors nightly schedules. Click here to see a list and map of all the counties visited so far on the 87 Counties in 86 Days tour.

Stop No. County Location Date

25 Clay Governor Dayton will greet students at Probstfield Elementary on the first day of school. This event will be open to the press. Sept. 6

26 Mahnomen Governor Dayton will meet with White Earth Nation tribal leaders. This meeting will be closed to the press. Governor Dayton will also meet with Mahnomen county commissioners. This event will be open to the press. Sept. 6

28 Otter Tail Governor Dayton will meet with Otter Tail County officials to discuss water quality issues and highlight the countys leadership on the issue. This event will be open to the press. Sept. 7

30 Wadena Governor Dayton will meet with Wadena Community and Technical College administrators and local business leaders to workforce development. This event will be open to the press. Sept. 7

Additional Details for This Weeks Visits

County: Clay County

City: Moorhead

Location: Probstfield Elementary, 2410 14th Street South, Moorhead

Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Time: 11:00am

Description: Governor Dayton will greet students at Probstfield Elementary on the first day of school. This event will be open to the press.

County: Mahnomen County

Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Description: Governor Dayton will meet with White Earth Nation tribal leaders. This meeting will be closed to the press.

County: Mahnomen County

City: Mahnomen

Location: County Courthouse, Commissioners Meeting Room, 311 North Main Street, Mahnomen

Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Time: 3:00pm

Description: Governor Dayton will meet with Mahnomen county commissioners. This event will be open to the press.

County: Otter Tail County

City: Fergus Falls

Location: Otter Tail County Administration Building, County Board Room, 520 First Avenue West, Fergus Falls

Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Time: 11:00am

Description: Governor Dayton will meet with Otter Tail County officials to discuss water quality issues and highlight the countys leadership on the issue. This event will be open to the press.

County: Wadena County

City: Wadena

Location: Minnesota State  Wadena, 405 Colfax Avenue Southwest, Room M-33, Wadena

Date: Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Time: 1:00pm

Description: Governor Dayton will meet with Wadena Community and Technical College administrators and local business leaders to workforce development. This event will be open to the press.

About 87 Counties in 86 Days Tour

The Dayton-Smith 87 Counties in 86 Days tour began on August 1, 2016, at the expansion groundbreaking of Bell Laboratories, Inc. in Eagan, Minnesota (Dakota County). Governor Dayton and Lt. Governor Smith are scheduled to conclude their travels on or before October 25, 2016. To learn more about where Governor Dayton and Lt. Governor Smith have traveled thus far, click here.

One of the best parts of my job as Governor is meeting with Minnesotans where they live and work, discussing their hopes and dreams, and listening to their ideas and concerns," said Governor Dayton. "I look forward to taking the good ideas of Minnesotans back to the Capitol as I travel the state."

During their travels, the Governor and Lt. Governor are listening to Minnesotans ideas and concerns, discussing their priorities for a better Minnesota, and celebrating the achievements and aspirations of Minnesota families, businesses, schools, and communities.

As I travel around Minnesota, I have learned that educators, small business owners and entrepreneurs, and other local leaders are coming up with some of the best ideas and new inventions in our state, said Lt. Governor Smith. As we work to build a state that works better for everyone, everywhere, we can learn a lot outside the Capitol. Governor Dayton and I look forward to meeting with people across the state, and putting their ideas to work at the State Capitol. Working together, we can and will build an even better Minnesota.
User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale

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Pardis / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s : It didn't last long at all. First it was a really little shake, after 0.5 seconds a light shake came in and it was very scary. The house definitely shaked. | 4 users found this interesting.

Tehran- Tehranpars / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : I`m 7`th floor, very weak | 4 users found this interesting.

Tehran (31.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : It was a very quick shake! | 3 users found this interesting.

Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s : A short duration of shake | One user found this interesting.

Bumehen / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 10-15 s : Shivers 15 seconds | One user found this interesting.

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / complex motion difficult to describe :     | One user found this interesting.

near Damavand, Tehran (8.5 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Hfhdj

29 km of Damavand, Tehran (8.1 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran (34.5 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Tehran (39.3 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s

near Tehran (36.9 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / very short

Tehran (41.8 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt

near Tehran (27.7 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

near Damavand, Tehran (8.5 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Hfhdj

Tehran (40.7 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

near Tehran (33.1 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Tehran (40.3 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short

near Tehran (42.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

near Damavand, Tehran (9.7 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s

Tehran (46.5 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short

Tehran (32.3 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s

Tehranpars (12.5 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

near Damavand, Tehran (22.6 km SSE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)

near Damavand, Tehran (9.7 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s

near Tehran (39.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt

near Damavand, Tehran (9.2 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s

Tehran (38.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran (48.9 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / very short

near Tehran (36.9 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / very short

Tehran / not felt : I dont feel it but it was 3.9 , under 4 is hard to feel

Teheran (35.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Tehran (38.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Sohanak (30.6 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s

Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran (34.6 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s

Karaj (79.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt

Tehran (31.6 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Pardis (9.4 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 1-2 s

Tehran (38.2 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / complex motion difficult to describe / 2-5 s

Saadat Abad, Teheran (44.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt : Nothing

Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s

lavasan / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s : a few seconds after daily electricity shutdown was over I heard a sound like a heavy object falling on the roof and a small shake in the building. The hanging mirrors started oscillating left and right. All was over in seconds

Fasham / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / very short

Tehran / not felt : At Hakimieh region but haven't felt anything.

Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s

Tehran (35.8 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran Pardis / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s

Tehran, Piruzi / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s

tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s

Pakdasht (42.2 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt

narmak / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s

tehran,narmak / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / very short

Demavand / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran (34.4 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / very short

Paadaran (32.7 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s

At home / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s : H

Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

tehran, home (33.3 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / very short

Vanaq Sq, Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s

Lavasan / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s

Twhran / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

Pardis / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 1-2 s

tehran (43 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 5-10 s

tehran / not felt

tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / very short

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Pardis / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / 1-2 s

In damavand / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s

tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 5-10 s

Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Tehran / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 5-10 s

tehran / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s

At home, Tehranpars, Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s

Tehran / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tehran (27.2 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III)
User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale

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Flag as inappropriate.

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Send your own user report!

Bni ensar (67.9 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s : We were shaking from left to right. I was just sitting on the floor and stearing at the window. Than I felt everything was shaking. It was so weard and scary at the moment. We live in a appartement on the first floor. Hopefully everyone is ok. | 4 users found this interesting.

El hoceima (35.9 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s : Very weak shaking felt by neighbors and persons on the street no panic | 4 users found this interesting.

Caleta de Velez (148.4 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Movimiento continuo de la mesa | 4 users found this interesting.

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s : I was lying on the bed and felt myself move slightly sideways for several seconds. After a few seconds I have felt the same again but for less time. | 3 users found this interesting.

Nador (68 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / very short : Lhz9a | 3 users found this interesting.

Imzouren Marokko (40.9 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Shaking | 3 users found this interesting.

Malaga, Andalusia (155.1 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s : Esta tumbada en el sofa y se movia de un lado a otro. De manera fuerte durante 5-10 segundos, parandose y empezando de nuevo el mismo movimiento. Vivo en una ultima planta (6)z | One user found this interesting.

al hoceima city / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 2-5 s : I shivered like I was in the sea. I didn't hear any sound. At first I thought I was feeling dizzy. The closet shook as well. It was scary. | 3 users found this interesting.

Alhoceima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 2-5 s : My cats and i are teriffied from earthquake.. | 3 users found this interesting.

lhuceima / Strong shaking (MMI VI) : Lo he sentido e incluso algunas cosas se me han caido pero Dios nos protege | 3 users found this interesting.

Nador (72.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : I live in the upper floor of a 5 floors building. I was lying down on the couch when I felt a weak horizontal shake ( East - West). It's only when I saw my wind chimes ( hung on the entry door and away from any wind) move that I realized it was an earthquake. | 3 users found this interesting.

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : The Quake was long and all was moving at home.... | 3 users found this interesting.

Malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging : Very soft.. but lasted a lot | 3 users found this interesting.

Al Hoceima (35.7 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s : Its scaring | 2 users found this interesting.

Velez-Malaga, Andalusia (152 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s : Temblor y vibracion intercalada durante unos 20 segundos, mi mascota tambien se levanto | 2 users found this interesting.

Velez Malaga (152.9 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s : I was sitting on a sofa and suddenly I felt like shaking side to side | 2 users found this interesting.

Valleniza (148.5 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Small amount of shaking for a few seconds | 2 users found this interesting.

Fuengirola (148.7 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s : Bed moving , vibrating | 2 users found this interesting.

Pedregalejo / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging : In my flat sitting on sofa. Sofa shook side to side...... | 2 users found this interesting.

Al hoceima / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / complex motion difficult to describe / 2-5 s : I feel it | 2 users found this interesting.

Alhaurin el grande / Weak shaking (MMI III) / very short : Slight shake | 2 users found this interesting.

En el sofa del bloque plasmar,3 / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Se movia el sofa, como la otra noche. | 2 users found this interesting.

AL HOCEIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Window frame started shaking and chandeliers were visibly swinging. Last for about 5 to 10 seconds | 2 users found this interesting.

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s : A litle shake | 2 users found this interesting.

Malaga, Andalusia (156.3 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s : Sideways | One user found this interesting.

Malaga, Andalusia (156.3 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s : Sideways | One user found this interesting.

Taza-Bas Maroc (126.2 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) : J'ai senti des vibrations alors que j'etais allongee sur mon lit. | One user found this interesting.

Melilla / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 minutes : Panic | One user found this interesting.

Takseft ndha / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Very scarying and strong sound and objects mooving | One user found this interesting.

Oujda / Weak shaking (MMI III) : I was at work on the 8th floor I felt that and even my colleagues | One user found this interesting.

Ben taieb / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s : Une secousse longue denviron 7 seconde qui a fait bouger les murs et les meubles. | One user found this interesting.

Alhoceima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : Normal | One user found this interesting.

Bouyafer / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 5-10 s :          | One user found this interesting.

Rincon de la victoria / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : Qe | One user found this interesting.

Bni bouayach / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s : Vvvvvvv | One user found this interesting.

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s : Very little, only a few seconds | One user found this interesting.

Benalmadena (149.3 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s : . | One user found this interesting.

Malaga / Light shaking (MMI IV) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 5-10 s : Only feel me because i was sleeping when happed. My parents was weak up and dont feel nothing | One user found this interesting.

Torre del Mar, Malaga / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 5-10 s : 5 segundos balanceandose sofa y mesa de centro y estructura un poco | One user found this interesting.

Almeria, Spain / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : My office chair started to vibrate on the seventh floor. | One user found this interesting.

En casa / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 30-60 s : Senti el sofa moverse | One user found this interesting.

Nador / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : It was strong | One user found this interesting.

Mdiq / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s : I feel it | One user found this interesting.

Ajdir / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 10-15 s : Tres fort | One user found this interesting.

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s : Felt it | One user found this interesting.

26 km of Midar, Nador, Oriental (46.4 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt / 2-5 s (reported through our app / not felt / 2-5 s

Oudja, Oriental (180.5 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s

Alhaurin el Grande, Malaga, Andalusia (164.2 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt (reported through our app / not felt

near Al Aaroui, Oriental (80 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single vertical bump / 5-10 s

Alcantarilla, Murcia, Murcia (352.3 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt (reported through our app / not felt

Imzouren, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (40.8 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 5-10 s

Melilla (67.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

near Zaio, Nador, Oriental (91.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Imzouren, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (40.3 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s

Al Aaroui, Oriental (77.9 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s

Malaga, Andalusia (156.1 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s

Tirhanimine, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (38.6 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV)

34 km of Al Hoceima (2 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

near Targuist, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (72 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s

near Bni Bouayach, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (36.6 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 2-5 s

Al Hoceima (36.1 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

near Bni Bouayach, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (34.8 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 20-30 s

Torrox Costa (145.1 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Yawmzir (27.9 km S of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s

Malaga, Andalusia (156.5 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Malaga (163.5 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s

Torrox, Malaga, Andalusia (144.6 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Taza (142.1 km SSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating

Tirhanimine, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (36.6 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short

Torre del mar (149.5 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Torremolinos (150.8 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s

Malaga (157.7 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Al Aaroui, Oriental (76.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s

Alhaurin de la Torre, Malaga, Andalusia (155.4 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Torre del Mar, Malaga, Andalusia (148.6 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s

Torrox Costa (144 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Torrox Costa (144.1 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 1-2 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 1-2 s

Tirhanimine, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (37.2 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s

Imzouren, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (36.4 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s

Nador (84.5 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s

Nador, Oriental (71.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s

Torremolinos, Malaga, Andalusia (152.2 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s

Malaga, Andalusia (156.4 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Melilla (67.7 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Al Hoceima (35.1 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s

Melilla (67.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

Melilla (67.6 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

Tirhanimine, Al-Hoceima, Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (38.6 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

VELEZ MALAGA (151.7 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

29006 (156.7 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II)

Melilla (67.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s (reported through our app / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Castillo de Banos, granada / not felt : Didnt feel the quake

Dar el kebdani / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s

Al hoceima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 minutes

29612 Ojen - Marbella (Prov. Malaga), Calle Salv (155.7 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 5-10 s : Gerauschlose Vibration .

Ben Tieb / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

29612 Ojen - Marbella (Prov. Malaga), Calle Salv (155.7 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 5-10 s : Gerauschlose Vibration .

El hoceima (35.9 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s : Very weak shaking felt by neighbors and persons on the street no panic

Sidi hsain / Moderate shaking (MMI V)

Beni bouayach / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s : I was sitting on the sofa and i actually ran to the door cuz it was so strong compared to the other earthquakes through the year.

Ana, Malaga / not felt

Hoceima / not felt

Al hoceima / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / complex motion difficult to describe / 2-5 s : I feel it

Dar el kebdani / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s

Nador, bouyafar (71.5 km WSW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 10-15 s

hucemas / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s : Afraid

Benalmadena, malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III)

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s

Torrox Costa / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / complex motion difficult to describe / 15-20 s : Slight swaying movement with a bit of vibration

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Rincon De La Victoria (152 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 s

Melilla / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vibration and rolling / 20-30 s

TORREMOLINOS / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Denia (Alicante) (496.4 km NE of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt Nothing (reported through (reported through our app / not felt

AL HOCEIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Al Hoceima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s

Nador (72.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Tafersit / Strong shaking (MMI VI)

Fes / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 30-60 s

Dar el kebdani / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s

Nador / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Marokko Nador (74.3 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging

nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Melilla (65.7 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 15-20 s

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Mezquitilla (147.5 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

MALAGA (155 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 1-2 s

al hoceima (39.7 km SW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s

SELOUANE nador / Light shaking (MMI IV)

Imzouren / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 5-10 s

Nador (74.8 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / very short

Trougout / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 1-2 s

29750- Algarrobo Costa / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Al Hoceima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s

Benalmadena / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s

Torre del Mar (147.7 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s

Velez-Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / very short

Torremolinos / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s

Plaza baleares, Fuengirola, malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Velez-malaga / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Velez-Malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Beni ansar / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s

Nador / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 30-60 s

calle frigiliana / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 5-10 s

AL HOCEIMA / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 1-2 s

Beni chiker / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Saidia / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single vertical bump / 2-5 s

Rincon de la Victoria, malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s

imzouren / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

ALHOCEIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 2-5 s

Oujda / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 1-2 s

Al Arouit / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s

Torremolinos / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s

La Cala del Moral / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 5-10 s

torre del mar / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 5-10 s

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 2-5 s

Velez-malaga / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 5-10 s

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s

Malaga / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Imzouren / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating

Fuengirola / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short

alhoceima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 15-20 s

La Cala del Moral / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Nador / Weak shaking (MMI III)

al hoceima / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 5-10 s

Farkhana / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 5-10 s

Nador / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s

Melilla / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s
The devastating bomb attack outside Kabul airport on Thursday is a brutal reminder that Afghanistan remains fertile territory for jihadi terrorism and that ISIS remains a resilient presence far beyond its birthplace.

The attack was claimed -- remarkably quickly -- by ISIS-Khorasan, the ISIS "province" active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

As the Biden administration recognized even before the attack, ISIS-K had both the capability and motivation to target the airport -- and it fitted a modus operandi which the group's Kabul cells have perfected over the past five years: complex suicide attacks against static, poorly defended civilian gatherings.

In the next few days US forces will pack up at the airport and the curtain will fall on a 20-year mission in Afghanistan. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the US led a coalition into Afghanistan to decapitate al Qaeda and drive the Taliban from power. As it leaves, al Qaeda in Afghanistan is much diminished but not eradicated, the Taliban are back in power and other jihadi groups -- ISIS included -- have a foothold.

Colin Clarke, author of "After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future of the Terrorist Diaspora," told CNN before the attack took place that the Taliban's victory "will be a boon for extremists of all stripes. It's like a rising tide lifts all boats situation, where an influx of foreign fighters, not only from Pakistan and the surrounding region, but from further afield, could really reinforce the ranks" of ISIS-K.

In the February 2020 agreement reached with the US in Doha, the Taliban pledged to prevent al Qaeda and other terror groups from using Afghan soil to launch attacks abroad. Last week, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid repeated the promise. "No death will be caused to anyone outside of Afghanistan ... we will not allow anyone to use Afghanistan against them."

Edmund Fitton-Brown, who leads the United Nations Monitoring Team on Afghanistan, noted in 2019 that the Taliban had "shown an iron self-discipline" in preventing threats to be projected outside Afghanistan by their own members or groups in areas they control."

Control is the critical word. Afghanistan is a large mountainous country where communications and travel are difficult, where factions and warlords hold sway. It's an immense task to extend the writ of government to far-flung provinces.

ISIS and the Taliban: Mutual loathing

While the Taliban's connections with al Qaeda endure, both groups loathe ISIS, and the feeling is mutual. While al Qaeda sees Afghanistan as its historical hub and has fought alongside the Taliban, ISIS-Khorasan is the more violent interloper. Al Qaeda probably has several hundred fighters in Afghanistan, according to estimates by counter-terrorism experts, while ISIS-Khorasan may have between 1,500 and 2,000.

Ideologically and strategically, they are worlds apart.

"ISIS doesn't believe in a political agenda," said Clarke. "ISIS believes that only God can rule. And even though the Taliban is attempting to establish an Islamic emirate, that's not enough for ISIS."

ISIS is also viscerally sectarian, attacking minority communities such as the Shia and Sikhs. The Taliban have also been guilty of victimizing Afghanistan's Shia minority, though are now trying to project a more tolerant image.

As Clarke puts it, in any place they control ISIS-K "are going to implement extremely harsh Sharia law. And they're going to rule with an iron fist. They want to attract and recruit the most ardent sociopaths in the country and wanton violence helps them bring other fighters into the organization that have a similar mindset."

ISIS-K leader Shahab al-Muhajir may hope to attract disenchanted jihadis from other groups if the Taliban is seen to "deal" with the West. ISIS scoffed at the Taliban victory, saying in its weekly online publication al Naba that "The victory of Islam will not come via hotels in Qatar nor the embassies in Iran and China."

ISIS-K emerged in 2015 -- at first in Baluchistan in Pakistan, before establishing itself in mountainous Afghan provinces such as Nangahar and Kunar. Some fighters came overland through Iran as ISIS came under pressure in Iraq and Syria.

Very soon it came to the cities, especially Jalalabad and Kabul, with its trademark mass casualty bomb attacks. According to UN figures, it launched 77 attacks in the first four months of this year.

Abdul Syed, a researcher and author on militant movements in Afghanistan and Pakistan, says that through devastating attacks in Kabul and Jalalabad, ISIS-K "has transformed to a new shape for a long battle in Afghanistan." He told CNN that it enjoys support from radical Salafists in several provinces.

Its current strength may be reinforced by defectors and escapees from detention. Some captured ISIS-K fighters were being held in prisons near Kabul, which the Taliban overran as their offensive accelerated.

According to one regional counter-terrorism source, upwards of 100 and perhaps many more ISIS prisoners escaped - and have avoided re-arrest.

ISIS-K has proved resilient despite intense efforts by the Taliban, forces of the previous Afghan government and the US-led coalition to destroy it. The Taliban even claimed in 2019 to have wiped out the group in Kunar and Nangahar -- but a year later ISIS-K freed hundreds of its fighters from the main jail in Nangahar.

Al Qaeda's 'force multipliers'

ISIS aren't the only ones capitalizing on jailbreaks. As the Taliban emptied out prisons across Afghanistan in recent weeks, they set free hundreds of al Qaeda operatives, and there is continuing evidence of close ties between the Taliban and al Qaeda affiliates. The Haqqani Network, which straddles both groups, is now highly influential in Kabul.

As former CIA counter-terrorism officer Douglas London told CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, "Those folks are force multipliers for the Taliban, and they are likely to regroup [with] what is left of al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

US President Joe Biden has argued that the threat from al Qaeda has metastasized to places like Africa and Yemen. "There's a greater danger from ISIS and al Qaeda and all these affiliates in other countries by far than there is from Afghanistan," he said last week.

But the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, acknowledged in a recent briefing that groups like al Qaeda could reconstitute in Afghanistan in less than the two years previously estimated by the defense officials.

Al Qaeda's leadership and ideological core remains in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The US Defense Department said last year that al Qaeda's affiliate in the region, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), "maintains close ties to the Taliban in Afghanistan, likely for protection and training."

That analysis was supported by the UN Monitoring Team on Afghanistan, who reported in June that "large numbers of Al-Qaida fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan," estimating that the terror group has a presence in 15 of the country's 34 provinces.

Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says: "The idea that the Taliban would simply jettison such supporters after a glorious victory handed to them by God seems to miss a pretty fundamental point about the organization."

The same applies to the Haqqani Network, which has several high-profile positions among the Taliban leadership. The UN report said that "contacts between al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network -- including the Taliban's deputy leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani -- remain particularly close. They share long-standing personal relationships, intermarriage, a shared history of struggle and sympathetic ideologies."

It is difficult to see these being shredded now that the Haqqanis are so influential in Kabul.

Prominent among them is Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, seen last weekend meeting elders from across Afghanistan. The US Rewards for Justice program has a $5 million reward for his apprehension, saying he "has also acted on behalf of al-Qaida and has been linked to al-Qaida terrorist operations."

'Over-the-horizon capability'

One question is to what extent US intelligence gathering in Afghanistan will be impaired now that it has no presence on the ground.

Biden has downplayed the risk, saying on August 16: "We've developed counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the direct threats to the United States in the region."

In the wake of Thursday's airport attack, Biden vowed retaliation. But there's no substitute for eyes and ears on the ground, whatever satellite and surveillance technology offers.

US Defense Department spokesman Admiral John Kirby said last week the US did not think the number of al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan was exorbitantly high but cautioned that "our intelligence-gathering ability in Afghanistan isn't what it used to be because we aren't there in the same numbers that we used to be."

CIA Director William Burns had testified before Congress earlier this year that neither ISIS nor al Qaeda in Afghanistan had the capability to launch attacks inside the United States but said "when the time comes for the US military to withdraw, the US government's ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That's simply a fact."

Clarke concurs and adds that the primary threat from ISIS-K "would be to American interests in the region and potentially to Europe. It's not impossible that ISIS-K could strike the US homeland, but I think the odds are quite minimal."

Even if the Taliban were prepared to rein in al Qaeda and other groups, their ability to do so is far from certain. Last month Ken McCallum, director of the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5, spoke of the risk of "ungoverned spaces" emerging in Afghanistan.

There are other groups that see Afghanistan as a haven and pose a more regional threat.

Parts of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which have carried out dozens of attacks in their home country, have deep connections with their brethren in Kabul. Abdul Syed, who has studied the Pakistani Taliban in depth, notes that the fall of Kabul resulted in around 800 TTP prisoners being freed, including the group's deputy emir. The TTP renewed their oath of allegiance to the Taliban and exhorted their members to follow in the footsteps of their Afghan counterparts.

"The ascendance of Afghan Islamists next door will only embolden radicals at home," writes Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, in Foreign Affairs.

"Efforts [by Pakistan] to force the Taliban's hand might result in violent blowback, with Pakistani Taliban attacking targets inside Pakistan."

China is anxious about Uighur jihadis using eastern Afghanistan as a launching pad for attacks inside the restive Muslim province of Xinjiang.

In recent months, according to intelligence sources and former Afghan officials, Uighurs belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) have been in evidence in the province of Badakhshan, which shares a mountainous border with China.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last month that ETIM was an "international terrorist organization," and said the Taliban should "completely sever all ties" with the group.

Pantucci says that China's pre-eminent concern is that Afghanistan will become a base for such groups. So far, he says, the Taliban have largely provided "rhetorical assurances" about Uighurs who might try to use Afghan territory to plot against Beijing.

Morale booster

At the very least, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has boosted morale among al Qaeda sympathizers. One message widely distributed on jihadi forums hailed August 15 as a monumental day that had shown "what was taken by force can only be recovered by force."

Likewise, al Qaeda's most influential affiliate -- al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) -- celebrated the Taliban's victory as the beginning of the Muslim nation's advance towards "sovereignty, breaking the shackles of dependence and slavery, getting rid of tyrants and expelling the invaders from Muslim lands."

The ISIS-K attack has had a similarly electrifying attack on ISIS supporters, with one supporter commenting "The head of America was rubbed in the dirt."

The UN Monitoring Team's report in June concluded that it was "impossible to assess with confidence that the Taliban will live up to its commitment to suppress any future international threat emanating from Al-Qaida in Afghanistan."

The Taliban "will do what is required to be politic and try to establish their state, but fundamentally they believe the victory was given to them by Allah," said Pantucci. "Why should they turn on their allies who fought with them?"

The-CNN-Wire

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SAN DIEGO (AP) - U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedys assassin has been granted parole after two of RFKs sons spoke in favor of Sirhan Sirhan's release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.

The decision Friday by a panel of the California Parole Board was a major victory for the 77-year-old prisoner, though it does not assure his release.

Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and he should be released if hes found to not be a threat to others.

Sirhan was up for parole for the 16th time in the 1968 killing.
Some parents are not happy with how one local system is handling COVID precautions, and one mom has since, pulled her child out of the district altogether.

"These kids, their lives, they're in danger at school and we don't feel like the school is taking that to heart," said Brandi Taylor.

Taylor told us at Brindlee Mountain Primary School, there are several things she and her daughter noticed that made her very uncomfortable.

WAAY-31 took those concerns to school officials in Marshall County.

We spoke with the deputy and assistant superintendent and they told us their main priority is to keep kids and staff safe.

But, the mother and student we spoke with are skeptical of that safety plan.

"Can you show me how close you guys sit...kind of like this," said Lyvvi.

Second grader Lyvvi Taylor says she and her classmates sit closely to each other at Brindlee Mountain Primary School.

"Alabama has the lowest rate for vaccines and it's important for them to practice the temperature checking, the asking questions before the kids even attempt to go inside the building. That needs to be done and it's not being done at all," she said.

Taylor told us she learned of 7 kids in her daughter's class possibly having COVID, and no one from the school has yet to contact her about it.

We spoke with the deputy and assistant superintendent and they both assured us if there's a positive case in her daughter's class, she will be notified.

The assistant superintendent did tell us there are positive cases at the primary school, but couldn't tell us how many.

This has Taylor very concerned.

She has now withdrawn her daughter from school.

Her daughter had COVID before and Lyvvie told us being in school made her nervous and didn't want to get the virus again.

"Whenever I had COVID before, when I was sick I was sick really bad," she said.

The Taylor's are working to find a virtual school option for her child since there's no local option available.

The state is offering one called Alabama Virtual Academy that says they're still open for enrollment.

As far as COVID numbers go across the Marshall County School System there's currently 186 positive cases with students and staff.

Brindlee Mountain High School and the primary school share a campus after the tornado destroyed the building.

The high school has 46 of those positive cases and they are currently closed and moving to virtual for 10 days starting Monday.

The primary school will stay open for now because the district says they only share the cafeteria and they're not facing staffing issues.
A chance for pop up hit or miss showers this afternoon. Most of us will remain dry with temperatures feeling like a hot summer's day with highs back in the 90's with mostly sunny skies.

Better chance for showers and storms Sunday as our attention closely focuses on Hurricane Ida. In the latest track, the Ida is expected to make landfall in southern Louisiana as a category 3 hurricane late Sunday into early Monday morning. What this means for us is we'll begin to see impacts late Monday from Ida as it moves into Mississippi with mainly heavy rainfall expected. Tuesday is the day we're watching very closely. During this window, the chance for heavier rain and tropical tornadoes will be possible beginning Tuesday morning into the evening.

We'll continue to monitor Ida's track this weekend as any shift can bring a significant change to the forecast and what our impacts will look like come next week. Biggest takeaway is to be ready for the chance for severe weather to start off the work week.
Decatur, IL (62521)

Today

Clear skies. Low near 55F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 55F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
The failure to control migration has brought down empires before. Only in art and lore was Rome suddenly sacked by barbarians who appeared out of nowhere. In reality, climate change and turmoil in central Asia  sound familiar?  caused wave after wave of mass migration, of Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Alans and others. These were people who wanted to settle peacefully inside the Empire. Unable either to keep them out or to integrate them, the Western Roman Empire as an entity gradually atrophied and eventually collapsed.
According to the UN, aquaculture could be the most sustainable method of protein production on earth if done right. Farmed salmon is the most environmentally intensive form of aquaculture  more resource-intensive than farmed tilapia, catfish and cod, for example  but salmon are frugal eaters compared to land animals. Fish generally need fewer calories because theyre cold-blooded and dont have to heat their bodies or build layers of fat and fur for warmth. Nor do they need energy to resist gravity or walk upright on four legs. While it takes almost two pounds of feed to produce a pound of chicken, three for a pound of pork, and about seven for a pound of beef, it takes roughly one pound of feed to produce a pound of farmed salmon.
What happened 20 years ago was vastly more shocking than the bombing in Kabul, of course. But one might nevertheless have expected that the cruelty of this attack  on people trying to flee, and U.S. soldiers ordered to stand down  would have rallied opinion. Instead, it was just more fodder for the countrys endless and exhausting divisions. Republicans: This is the Biden we told you to expect. Democrats: Withdrawal was never going to be easy (and anyway Trump saddled us with the policy). For Americans invested in politics, it appears, the main question is what effect, if any, this slaughter will have on the midterm elections. In short, barely a moments deviation from business as usual.
While we are certainly aware that Vice President John Calhouns policies and proslavery viewpoints are reprehensible, the context of this quote relates exclusively to mail (and the press). As such, we will honor our founding historians research and conclusions in selecting quotes that relate directly to the historic value of mail in binding the nation, Gruber wrote to Rich on Nov. 25, 2019. Should the National Postal Museum redesign its lower-level spaces in the future, we will look for opportunities to replace the quote.
At the end of his tour with Silver, Maupin decided to give Morgan a call on a whim. While talking with him, Morgan told him that George Coleman was getting ready to leave the band and asked Maupin to replace him. That kind of worked out really great for me because when youre not working in a band, and you come back to New York, then you kind of have to start all over again in a sense. There was no lag time with that. I was able to start working with Lee [right away] and rehearse with him. He was very open to me bringing my music. I brought something to rehearsal one day, and he liked it. He asked me if I had some more. In all, I ended up recording five of my original pieces [for] The Lighthouse. 
There is a kind of fairy-tale aspect to Scotts giving. Its full of mystery. Other than her three blog posts on Medium, she has made no other statements and did not respond to Washington Post requests for an interview. Those around her are similarly quiet. Her advisers include the Bridgespan Group, a national nonprofit (to which she has also donated) that advises charities and philanthropists, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Beyond confirming the relationship, a Bridgespan spokeswoman wrote in an email, We do not discuss our clients or their processes.
For a while, Alcindor says, she felt torn between her artistic interests and her work. She questioned how much she could be herself in jobs where not many co-workers were young, Black or women. During her time with NASA, she says, people in her dance classes didnt know she spent her days talking about rockets and the people at her work had no idea she had dance shoes in her car.
Bibi is now living in Manassas and attempting to get a visa that would allow her to stay in the country as a victim of human trafficking, saying she is afraid to return to Pakistan after suing a prominent family. One of the Pakistani relatives named in the lawsuit is the founder of a major media conglomerate. He and his wife have not yet responded to the complaint.
In the days after the fall of Kabul, her sister had been so certain that she and her family would be evacuated that she had started giving away her belongings. Now, the assurances from her employer turned to doubts, and in an email just before 1 p.m., her sister told her that after being so sure we will be evacuated . . . at the end they said they cant do anything.
Scholars joined the fray, with some accusing Dr. Oates of outright plagiarism, others arguing that he had been unfairly maligned. Two researchers at the National Institutes of Health who studied fraud in scientific papers took up the case, using computers to determine whether Dr. Oatess books borrowed wording from other sources. They claimed to find hundreds of examples before they were reassigned by NIH and locked out of their office, leading one of them to go on a hunger strike.
The bombing rattled the Pentagon and White House, as it became clear it was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan in years and the first combat fatalities in Afghanistan for the U.S. military since February 2020. Defense officials have said little about the suicide bomb itself, and corrected themselves on Friday to say that there had been only one explosion in the attack, rather than two.
At least 21 people die after boat capsizes in Bangladesh: A passenger boat carrying more than 100 people sank Friday after colliding with another small boat, leaving at least 21 people dead and scores missing in eastern Bangladesh, officials said. The accident took place in the Bijoynagar area in Brahmanbaria district in the evening, local police official Imranul Islam said by phone. Rescuers recovered at least 21 bodies by late Friday, while survivors said about 100 people were on board during the accident, he said. Local news reports, quoting the area's top government administrator, Hayat-Ud-Dola, said that about 50 people were missing. A witness said two cargo vessels hit the boat that sank very quickly after it collided with another small boat, the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper reported.
But for all its military success, the Taliban has no blueprint for a post-victory state. The groups public statements suggest that it didnt expect the Afghan government to fall this quickly and have been caught unprepared. Taliban leaders have made only vague allusions to the kind of state they plan to build, and some have assumed that this is a ruse to hide their true intentions. While many in the Taliban probably envision a return to an emirate of some sort, there is little consensus among the leadership about what that would look like, or about other key governance issues (which helps explain why it has taken them so long to form a government). In the meantime, the Talibans leaders have sought to calm the international communitys fears and buy themselves time by insisting that they are talking with other parties to form an inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans.
The scenes  you know, the videos and stuff  thats just not stuff that we see here, said a man from nearby Sparta who did not want his name used for fear of being ostracized by his neighbors. Its sad to see, you know, the people so desperately trying to get out of there. I mean, its, you relate to that. But we absolutely have to consider our own safety. I just want to know what the plan is.
Democrats are defending a narrow majority in the House and the Senate. The presidents party historically tends to struggle in its first midterms, spurring nervousness that escalated sharply this month. A Democratic member of the House, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said many in the caucus believe the lower chamber of Congress is already lost in the midterms. Other Democrats said they are bracing for the prospect of Republicans making double-digit seat gains.
Naftali Bennett represents a very small number of people in the Knesset, said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), referring to Israels legislature. He is, if anything, to the right of Netanyahu policy-wise on the Palestinian state, on the Iran nuclear deal, on important policy matters. But he is coming and saying we need a different relationship with the United States  we need to get back our warm friendship.
If the book could be summed up in a paragraph, it would be this one: My experience from more than thirty years as a judge has shown me that anyone taking the judicial oath takes it very much to heart. A judges loyalty is to the rule of law, not the political party that helped to secure his or her appointment.
The debate now, however, should not be over whether Biden was correct back in 2009. It should be whether the decision to complete the withdrawal now was the right one and, if so, was it inevitable that the final days would be so chaotic, with the prospect that some Americans and many Afghans who have been helpful to the United States will not be evacuated by the deadline.
By limiting themselves only to things that can win the support of all 50 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, aggressive proposals such as providing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants may never get to the starting line. Senate budget rules could knock that provision out because it is a policy item and not primarily a tax or spending issue, meaning it may not be eligible for the reconciliation process that allows bills to avoid the threat of a filibuster.
On Saturday, Iraqi leaders were on hand at Baghdad International Airport to receive the red carpet arrivals. They included Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordans King Abdullah and Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It was the first official visit to Iraq by the Qatari emir, whose countrys ties with Saudi Arabia are also fraught with tensions. Relations have improved recently since a declaration was signed with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift.
Marilyn Sue Lents, 84, of Washington, passed away at 10:58 a.m. Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 at Ketcham Memorial Center. She was born Sept. 1, 1936, in Washington, Indiana, to the late Icel and Mary Kirk. Marilyn married Carol "Chick" Lents on Aug. 4, 1995, and he survives. She enjoyed tending to h
Whatever the case, overhauling our competition policy is long overdue. As former competition tsar Allan Fels says, merger law is the most important instrument in competition law and the current law is not strong enough. The courts, the regulator and community need strong merger laws, he says. Former competition tsar Allan Fels says competition law needs beefing up. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The reason is simple. Competition underpins a healthy economy. It ensures prices stay in check, it stimulates innovation, provides more choice to consumers and better quality products and services. When an economy is dominated by a few players it has a profound impact on productivity, wages and diversity.

Australia is dominated by too few players in most industries, including banking, supermarkets, media, telecommunications, domestic air travel and energy to name a few. Or as Sims puts it, small businesses generally are becoming increasingly reliant on a few buyers to access markets for their products and a few sellers for their key inputs. This can damage their innovation and their productivity. Many small businesses and farmers are largely reliant on Coles and Woolworths to access grocery shoppers. As recent history has shown us, this power imbalance places small businesses and farmers in particularly precarious positions with consequent damage to our economy. It is why Sims is calling for change - before things get too out of hand, particularly with the rising power of the digital giants. Under the current system, companies have no legal requirement to give the ACCC the heads-up about a potential merger or acquisition. Nor do they need the ACCCs blessing for it to go ahead. In other words, the ACCC does not have the power to approve mergers.

Instead, corporate takeovers are based on an honour system, where companies in M&A discussions seek the ACCCs views about whether the acquisition can proceed. But that honour system is eroding as more companies threaten to push ahead with a deal regardless of the ACCCs view, leaving the ACCC to force a showdown in the federal court if it opposes the deal. Failing to stop the TPG-Vodafone merger was a notable loss for the competition regulator. And therein lies the rub. The standard of proof in the courts is high in terms of proving a lessening of competition, particularly as it involves trying to predict what is going to happen in the future. Executives, desperate for their deal to go ahead, make proclamations to the court that the merger wont lessen competition. Statements that often turn out to be the opposite a year or two down the track. Some of the more high-profile court losses include Tabcorp and Tatts, TPG and Vodafone merger, AGLs acquisition of Macquarie Generation and Pacific Nationals acquisition of the Acacia Ridge terminal from Aurizon, which it fought and applied to the High Court for special leave but was knocked back.

Sims wants all this to end with a call to strengthen the ACCCs position as an effective competition regulator. To this end, he wants Australia to fall into line with other countries and have a single new formal merger regime where all acquisitions need ACCC clearance over a certain threshold. He also wants call in powers for those potentially problematic acquisitions that come in below the threshold. Loading Thirdly he wants the competition act updated to clarify how the ACCC can prove that a merger is anti- competitive in the courts. Finally, he wants a specially tailored law to cover acquisitions by large digital platforms including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple, which he described as serial acquirers and with the benefit of hindsight, they should not have been allowed to proceed.
Ali Haidari hasnt heard from his wife or child in two days.

The pair were in Kabul when a suicide bomber killed scores of civilians and 13 US soldiers outside the airport gates on Friday.

Ali Haidari hasnt heard from his wife and child since the explosion in Kabul. Credit:Joe Armao

Registered with Australian authorities, the mother and her four-year-old son had made the dangerous road journey from Iran to Kabul in the hope they could get help.

Mr Haidari is an Australian permanent resident. He married his wife - who The Age has chosen not to name - in 2013 and has visited every year while attempting to get her a partner visa. He has only seen his son twice since his birth.
YouGov is a polling company which seems to specialise in asking questions normally reserved for a drunken dinner party. Recently, it asked Americans and Britons the toughest question of our age: How do we solve the climate crisis and wean ourselves off fossil fuels before its too late for us all?

Just kidding! The question was: Which of the following animals, if any, do you think you could beat in a fight if you were unarmed? This head-scratcher was posed to random groups of respondents on both sides of the Atlantic, with a list of 34 animals.

Sixty-one per cent of Americans thought they could win against a goose, should its temper flare. But a Britons best bet, statistically, was to run. Credit:Getty Images

Results varied according to country. Two-thirds of British respondents were pretty certain they could best a rat, and a similar percentage also felt good about their odds against a house cat. But those were the only two animals a majority were sure about conquering.

Americans, meanwhile, were more confident in their ability to handle rats and house cats, and also geese. It was this bird on which attitudes diverged most starkly. Sixty-one per cent of Americans thought they could win against a goose, should its temper flare. But a Britons best bet, statistically, was to run, since only 45 per cent of his countrymen decided theyd emerge from the bout intact.
Every one of them is frustrated with the slowness and clumsiness of the federal governments vaccine strollout. But they have other resentments, too, including hotel quarantine. Beneath the surface, relations with most of the premiers have become very unhappy. But what about the NSW Premier and fellow Liberal, Gladys Berejiklian? Morrison has made an effort to appear supportive. In the view of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Morrison is too supportive. His job is not to be the Prime Minister of NSW, a Victorian government spokesperson said last month. Loading The Victorian complaint was that Morrison was giving NSW more generous financial support, a double standard. The PM rejected this  Victoria received the same support for its two-week circuit-breaker lockdown as NSW has for its first two weeks of lockdown  but the perception of favouritism stuck. Yet even between the two Sydneysiders, relations are strained. Berejiklian is a Liberal team player who keeps her grievances about Morrison private. But, in private, she is scathing. The NSW Premier has told Liberal colleagues shed have preferred that Peter Dutton had won the last federal leadership ballot  shed rather be dealing with Dutton because Morrison is so unpleasant, shes said. Shes described the PM as a bully.

Berejiklian went so far as to tell a colleague that Morrisons behaviour was evil. She and many of her colleagues are still angry at the fact that Morrisons press office phoned political reporters in a background effort to discredit her, so-called briefing against her, over the vaccine rollout a few weeks ago. They accuse Morrisons staff of doing the same during the bushfires of two years ago: Usually he briefs against her for doing her job with some measure of competence, said one of the Premiers loyalists. He doesnt like the contrast  he makes himself look big by trying to make others look small. Among Berejiklians inner circle, its considered a joke to call Morrison the Prime Minister for NSW. They consider Morrison to be the Prime Minister for Morrison and no one else. Ironically, the source of Victorias gripe of favouritism, federal funding of NSW during its current lockdown, was actually the subject of a major argument between Canberra and Sydney. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet wanted JobKeeper back. The Morrison government refused. Canberra was prepared to make disaster payments, as it had to Victoria. But it wouldnt contemplate a return to JobKeeper. Perrottet considered JobKeeper so much better that he wrote an opinion column in The Daily Telegraph last month explaining three reasons why. The main one was that Disaster Payment and JobSaver dont appear to be maintaining the relationship between workers and employers as firmly as JobKeeper did.

JobKeeper was paid from the federal government to employers, who then paid their workers, so it maintained the connection between businesses and their staff. Loading Perrottet was so determined that he decided NSW would pay the full cost of JobKeeper Mark II  all he needed from Canberra was the enabling data that only the Australian Tax Office possessed. The NSW Treasury was in discussions with its federal counterpart to set this up. But when Perrottet went on TV and announced that NSW was prepared to create its own wage subsidy, Morrison reacted furiously. Testy phone calls followed; Morrison refused to supply the essential information even though the program would not cost Canberra a cent. The politics seemed pretty plain  Morrison didnt want to be seen to be abandoning the states. The two governments reverted to a fall-back plan, sharing the cost of increased supplementary payments instead. This confirmed the suspicion in the Berejiklian government that Morrison was more interested in the politics of appearance than the substance of outcomes. Some of the premiers gave up on the hotel quarantine system months ago. To state the obvious, hotels were built for tourists, not for containing plagues.

One type of quarantine accommodation that has proved virus-proof is the cabin-style camp at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, formerly a mining camp. With no connecting hallways or air-conditioning ducts, the virus has been unable to waft from room to room. Loading This effectiveness of cabins should not be news  the old Quarantine Station on Sydneys North Head was built with cabins. In 1832. Theyre still there, now preserved as a heritage site, hotel and conference venue. But, as often happens, Australia failed to learn from its own experience. For such a young country, we have a terrible memory. Nor would Scott Morrison learn from the contemporary experience of Howard Springs, which was operated by his own government. Rather than embrace the Howard Springs model and extend it nationally, Morrison walked away from it. The Commonwealth this year handed responsibility for running Howard Springs to the Northern Territory government.

And when Palaszczuk pitched a plan for a co-operative cabin-style quarantine camp for Queensland, the Morrison government agreed in principle but came up with a list of national criteria which excluded the Palaszczuk plan. The Morrison government pitched its own alternative quarantine station for Queensland. In Pinkenba, on Brisbanes outskirts, instead of the Palaszczuk proposal for Toowoomba. After months of fruitless negotiations, Palaszczuk simply lost patience. Loading Morrison, affecting equanimity in the face of this unilateral walkout, told reporters on Thursday that he wished Queensland well. The Commonwealth was still planning to go forward together with Queensland in building the Pinkenba facility. In truth, Palaszczuk had stung the Prime Minister. Morrisons government announced on Friday  the very next day - that it had awarded a contract to build the quarantine station at Pinkenba. Palaszczuk learned about it from the press release. Once again, Morrison didnt want to give the impression he was abandoning the states. At the same time, Morrison has decided to become the cheerleader for states to drop COVID restrictions as the national vaccination effort progresses. This is consistent with the scenarios sketched out by the Doherty Institute.

We cant stay in the cave forever, the PM urges. As 70 and then 80 per cent of the eligible adult population is fully vaccinated, he says, state governments must progressively surrender controls. The federal government is even threatening to withhold future disaster support payments from states that defy him. Loading This will make for some fine speeches in the months to come. Morrison seeks to be the champion of Liberal values of individual rights and economic liberty, casting Labor as the party of stifling regulation and economic misery. But Palaszczuk and her WA counterpart, Mark McGowan, have reserved their right to maintain restrictions as they see fit. These two, both Labor leaders, enjoy astronomical approval levels in their respective states. Does Morrison propose to campaign against them in the forthcoming federal election, where he cannot afford to lose any seats? Nothing would make Palaszczuk and McGowan happier than for Morrison to campaign against the safety of their people in two of Australias more parochial states.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Michelle Smiths specialists were baffled when they reviewed her MRI scans from brain surgery shed undergone more than a decade ago. A craniotomy had been performed on the left side of her head when her tumour was on the right. Their puzzlement soon turned to horror when they suspected her neurosurgeon Charlie Teo had not only failed to remove her tumour, he had operated on the wrong side of her brain. Ms Smith, from Bradbury in Sydneys west, left school in Year 10 because of her epileptic seizures. The seizures would occur without warning and she was aware of nothing until she woke up with people around her or she would find herself in an Emergency Department. After seeing Dr Teo on television, Ms Smith, then 19, was convinced the celebrity neurosurgeon could remove the tumour that was causing her epileptic seizures. Her mother Anica Bolic recalls their consultation with Dr Teo in 2003. Her daughter thought he was cool. Her mother did not.

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He had a jelly snake hanging out of his mouth and his feet on the desk, Ms Bolic said. He explained the operation would be expensive but that he was the best person to do it. He then posed the question to her: So you need to decide how much is your daughters life worth? As it turned out it was $46,000. After her brain surgery, Ms Smith was in hospital overnight and then sent home. Although Dr Teo proclaimed the surgery a success, the seizures were still occurring and within three years Ms Smith was suffering multiple seizures every day. If he [Dr Teo] had done it correctly the first time, he would not have literally destroyed my life. Michelle Smith Because of the seizures, full-time employment was impossible. After she had a car accident due to a seizure, Ms Smith went to see other specialists. Studying Dr Teos MRI scans 12 years later, her new specialists informed her that the MRI scans showed no evidence of any surgery on the tumour. Instead, scar tissue indicated that Dr Teo may have removed healthy brain tissue from the other side of her brain.

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Dr Teo later indicated that he was justified in conducting the operation in the manner he did, describing the procedure as: Dura [outer layer of tissue] opened and reflected. Right mesial posterior parietal [position in brain] tumour approached from left-sided craniotomy. Falxciotomy performed for access to right side of brain. Neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo in September 2011. Credit:Quentin Jones In 2016 another neurosurgeon successfully removed the tumour. The operation was done in a public hospital and cost Ms Smith nothing. Ms Smith is thrilled with what she has accomplished in the five years since her second surgery. If he [Dr Teo] had done it correctly the first time, he would not have literally destroyed my life, she said of what she sees as more than a decade of lost time and opportunities. In 2019 she sued Dr Teo for professional negligence and the case was later settled. While the terms remain confidential, Ms Smith was very happy with the outcome. Dr Teo told the Herald that after treating 11,000 patients over his 35-year career he has been sued only twice. One was settled out of court while the other was thrown out of court, he said in a statement.

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Dr Teos insurers paid out one claim on the basis that they did not want to incur the expense of a court case, against Dr Teos view that he could mount a successful defence, his statement said. Not the first time This was not the first time Dr Teo had operated on the wrong side of the brain. Charlie Teo pictured in Rosebery this week. Credit:Nick Moir A medical malpractice suit was filed against him in America after he performed a biopsy on the wrong side of a military servicemans brain when he was working in Arkansas. In 1997, the US District Court found there was a jurisdictional problem with the case as Dr Teo and the assisting doctor were civilian doctors contracted by the hospital. Therefore, the US government should have been sued, not the doctors.

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Due to American privacy laws Charlie cannot comment on whether the named individual was a patient or not. Additionally, Charlie values the privacy of his patients and will not discuss their medical history or details about their care, Dr Teo has previously said via his lawyers. Earlier this week the Medical Council slapped conditions on Dr Teos registration because of concerns of risks to the public. They will remain in force until the Health Care Complaints Commission finalises its investigations. So you need to decide how much is your daughters life worth? Charlie Teo to the mother of patient Michelle Smith It is understood that the councils immediate action panel was convened following complaints from several interstate neurosurgeons alleging that Dr Teo performed operations that left financially stressed interstate patients stranded in the NSW public hospital system or that they were sent back home without adequate care arrangements in place. One interstate doctor told the Herald that when the patient arrives home, sometimes in a terrible state, the first discussion with the family always shocks them. Often they have been told that the patient would make a full recovery after a couple more weeks in ICU [Intensive Care Unit]. The doctor said that when families realise that the patient is not going to recover, significant embarrassment and shame often overwhelms them when they realise that they have spent so much money of their own and of others - for this outcome.

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For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.

Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size On Thursday morning Gladys Berejiklian unveiled her big surprise, the one thing shed promised the states citizens as a measure of relief from nine weeks of progressive screw-tightening. It amounted, as NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant conceded, to baby steps. Those in the 12 most tightly locked down areas of south and south-west Sydney could, in a fortnights time, picnic for an hour in a park with their household if vaccinated. Elsewhere, people could meet outside in groups of five  again, only if fully jabbed. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday. Credit:Janie Barrett Behind the scenes, senior ministers were relieved the Premier had steered away from the rumoured green light for one-on-one appointments with hairdressers and other beauty service providers (outside the hotspot areas). Throughout the prolonged discussions in crisis cabinet on Wednesday, one question kept bobbing up: how could the government justify singling out one industry over others? Whats safer? one reported later. Sitting at a table at an outdoor dining area or getting a haircut? The reward announcement was overshadowed by bad news: the breaching for the first time of the psychologically significant threshold of 1000 new cases in 24 hours. Two days earlier, on Tuesday, the state had reached the Premiers much-touted milestone of 6 million jabs by the end of August (a goal reached a week early). But that announcement, too, was clouded by widespread media reports that western Sydneys hospitals were starting to buckle under the strain.

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Winters last icy blast seemed a fitting metaphor for the pervasive sense of unease, though Friday at least delivered certainty for parents of most schoolchildren, with dates fixed for a staggered return to classrooms. In recent weeks Berejiklian has abandoned her quest to drive transmission numbers as close to zero as possible. Her recent rhetoric urges citizens not to fixate on case numbers but to focus on vaccination numbers, to keep sprinting towards a new goal of 70 per cent coverage. Indeed, she now opens every 11am media briefing with the vaccination statistics, not fresh infection numbers, as used to be the case. The state has, on Fridays figures, now reached close to 6.4 million jabs  undoubtedly an enormous achievement. But as Greater Sydney prepares to enter its tenth week of lockdown misery (recently joined by the regions), questions are mounting about whether Berejiklian and her crisis cabinet adopted the right strategy against Delta at the start. The last two-and-a-half months have been an unrelenting saga of abrupt twists, turns and outright backflips as the outbreak resists every attempt to bring it to heel. Some of her senior ministers recall being uneasy about the vagueness of the government strategy initially, unsure whether the initial goal was elimination or suppression. On the backbench rising frustration is palpable. The strategy has been changing, and it really feels like policy on the run, says one Liberal MP. Health orders are so confusing, and they keep changing every week. We keep getting told that all decisions are made on health advice but none of us have seen it. Then we are told to go out and sell a message, to sell a lemon. This MP says backbenchers feel like theyre kept in the dark. We get information at 11am everyday like everyone else. Then we get sent a social media tile from the Premiers office to use on our own social media but have no understanding of what we are selling.

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A Liberal MP in one of the hotspots says their electoral office is being smashed with constituents calling for clarification of the public health orders. Away from the glare of the daily media briefings there have been other tensions at senior levels of government. Maizen takes his grandmother for a walk around the block in Lakemba, during Sydneys lockdown. They are part of the Bankstown- Canterbury LGA, one of Sydneys hotspots where residents are only allowed to leave their home for an hour of exercise a day. Credit:Janie Barrett Berejiklians crisis cabinet, which is driving the pandemic response, has until last week consisted of herself, Deputy Premier John Barilaro, deputy Nationals leader Paul Toole, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Investment and Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres and Customer Services Minister Victor Dominello. Some other senior ministers keenly felt their exclusion from key decisions affecting their portfolios. Neither Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance nor Planning Minister Rob Stokes, for instance, knew about the July 17 snap announcement to shut down all construction for two weeks until it was announced. In recent days, Constance and Stokes have been added to the crisis cabinet lineup, along with Education Minister Sarah Mitchell and Attorney-General Mark Speakman. In the citys hard-pressed south-west and west, 12 local government areas of concern carry the highest case load. Yet, they have to function under restrictions harsher than anywhere else in the metropolitan area, all while carrying out the essential low-paid work that keeps the city fed, and its sick, disabled and aged cared for. Thats led to growing resentment of the two-speed approach to the lockdown. Canterbury-Bankstown councillor Bilal El-Hayek tells the Herald: The community feels this is a tale of two cities  There should be one rule across the board, then its harder to argue against, and its much better for the harmony of the community as well.

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Others ask why recognised community leaders from those migrant-heavy areas havent been invited to stand alongside the Premier, police, senior bureaucrats and ministers at the daily media briefings to help supercharge the health messaging into south-west and western Sydney, where around 80 per cent of new infections arise each day. I doubt anyone on that crisis committee [of cabinet] has the lived experience of thinking how will I feed my children next week, how will I pay the rent, how will I ensure my grandparents are fed? says one consultant seasoned in migrant community engagement. It wasnt until July 23 that the government arranged for SBS to start transmitting the 11am media conferences in Arabic, followed soon after by Vietnamese, Assyrian, Cantonese, Mandarin and Khmer. SydPath nurse Petra Vieco gives Chhorng Nty (centre) a COVID-19 test, watched on by his sister Sivmey Nty at the Fairfield Showgrounds. Credit:Kate Geraghty Liberal MP for Mulgoa Tanya Davies has led a charge to try and block the mandatory vaccination of construction workers from the 12 hotspots, with backing from colleague Wendy Lindsay and other right-wing MPs. Davies has signalled that she intends to introduce a bill to the NSW Parliament to block the requirement. Her stance has angered some of her colleagues, but Davies insists shes simply concerned about the inequity of an arrangement where construction workers from hotspots must have the jab while those they work right alongside, from other zones of the city, do not. This sense of a divided city has been exacerbated by the recent application of a curfew solely to the 12 LGAs of concern  a measure Berejiklian and Chant publicly rejected on several previous occasions. NSW Police Chief Commissioner Mick Fuller later admitted, in hindsight, do I wish that I had raised curfews on day one? Yes, probably, but you would have laughed me out.

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At least one senior government figure contacted by the Herald believes last weekends decision to screw down the lockdown to its tightest level yet  to throw everything at this in Berejiklians words  should have occurred weeks ago. Asked by A Current Affairs Tracy Grimshaw this week whether shed underestimated the coronavirus Delta strain, Berejiklian replied: I think all of us have ... there are so many things we could have done differently, so many things that we didnt understand that we understand now. Loading Her chief excuse for the constantly shifting tactics has been that Delta is different. However, that difference, its extraordinary contagiousness, was well-known long before it first gained a foothold in Sydneys east in mid-June. This idea that Delta caught us by surprise is rubbish, says one leading expert, who asked for anonymity to preserve working links with government. In April we banned flights from India, super controversially because we were so stressed about Delta. Every other state and territory undertook the accepted strategy, which was go hardest immediately and then ease off, the expert added. NSW went the exact opposite. Several weeks ago University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely warned that what he called Sydneys whack-a-mole approach wasnt working against Delta, and that NSW needed to roll up its sleeves and [get] the job done as quickly as possible with a really hard lockdown.

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Employers and medical professionals who vaccinate Australians will be protected by a new compensation scheme for anyone who suffers from the exceptionally rare but sometimes serious side effects of coronavirus jabs.

Services Australia will take claims for the no-fault scheme from September 6 but anyone with side effects from either the Pfizer or the AstraZeneca jabs since February will be able to apply, giving Australians a faster and cheaper alternative to going to court.

Anyone who has a serious adverse reaction to a coronavirus vaccine will be able to claim compensation. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced on Saturday that the long-promised scheme would apply to people who got their jab anywhere, including at work, giving confidence to employers who are eager to begin voluntary jab programs.

It could also remove a hurdle for employers considering making jabs mandatory following plans announced by food manufacturer SPC, Qantas and taxi company 13Cabs because costly claims from workers with side effects will be less likely. The same is true of states that have mandated jabs for some workers, such as teachers and health workers in NSW.
A confidential plan to force tens of thousands of university staff to reveal a decade of foreign political and financial interests has met with such fierce backlash that the federal government is now reviewing the proposal.

New draft foreign interference guidelines for universities are proposing to demand academics disclose their membership of overseas political parties and any financial support they have received from foreign entities for their research over the past 10 years.

Universities are pushing back against demands to force staff to reveal a decades worth of foreign political links. Credit:Steven Siewert

Multiple university sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was widespread concern about the requirements, with one university executive describing it as a sledgehammer, blanket approach to the issue.

The proposed guidelines, which have been drafted by the University Foreign Interference Taskforce (UFIT), represent a major ramping up of scrutiny of academics backgrounds in response to concerns within the federal government about research theft by the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign actors.
While Apples iPhones and Samsungs Androids are relatively evenly matched, theres one area Apple has been winning for far too long: wearables. The Apple Watch has been hands-down been the best smartwatch on the market since it was released; effortlessly balancing ease of use, simple notifications, and advanced fitness features. Samsung has out-innovated Apple on new smartphone features for years, but for some reason watches are an area it cant compete on.

Dont get me wrong, previous Samsung watches were among the best available for Android phones, and the physical rotating bezel on some models is wonderful. But the Tizen operating system lacked sparkle, elegance and simplicity. For a while, my theory was that it was being held back by its compatibility with all phones; it couldnt specialise in bringing out what made Samsung smartphones great, because Samsung wanted to sell it to iPhone and Android users alike.

Samsungs Galaxy Watch4 is powered by Googles WearOS.

The brand-new Samsung Galaxy Watch4 keeps the same look as the recent Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2, but runs on Googles Wear OS with a custom skin, giving it access to the (admittedly, still limited) apps in the Google Play Store for Wear OS. It also does away with trying to be all things to all people, no longer compatible with iPhone and reserving its best features for Samsung owners only, such as Body Composition, Blood Oxygen and Blood Pressure. Incidentally, two of those are features that the Apple Watch doesnt have.

But, after a week of use, my experiences have been mixed. Receiving notifications has been better a lot of the time, though I still have multiple instances each day where the watch vibrates and makes a sound, but then displays no notification. At those times I feel like one of the characters in Lassie, trying to guess whether Timmys fallen down the well again.


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Local nurses protested the vaccine mandate at Wesselmen Woods Friday morning.

"I'm going to stand and fight," said nurse Kisha Byers.

"Everybody has the right to choose what they put in their own body," said nurse Christine Ulrich.

Hospital officials at both Deaconess and Ascension St. Vincent are requiring their employees get vaccinated this fall.

Deaconess employees must roll up their sleeves by Oct. 1st. At Ascension St. Vincent, it's Nov. 12th. If not, they'll face termination.

"It's kind of scary to think about a career change," said Nurse Cindy Betz. "But if I have too - I will."

"I shouldn't be forced to loose my job because I don't choose to put something in my body," Ulrich said.

"I'm told if I don't take this vaccination - they consider me as resigning my position," Byers said. "And I have five kids at home and I was here before the vaccine was even available taking care of everyone's loved ones and family members."

Both hospitals are promoting the vaccine and say it's important for health care workers to get it to protect vulnerable patients.

But with the nurses with the Christian Nurse Against Vax Mandate holding up signs of Lady Liberty in handcuffs, they say their message is clear: they support medical freedom.

"I've been an RN for 14 years and I believe in freedom of choice," Byers said.

Hospitals continue to urge people to get vaccinated saying the majority of patients in the ICU are not.
NWS Weather Alert NOTE: This information is provided by the National Weather Service. Forecast may differ from local information provided by our own 69News Meteorologists

...The Flood Warning is extended for the following rivers in Pennsylvania... Little Lehigh At Allentown 10th St Bridge affecting Lehigh County. For the Little Lehigh...including Allentown 10th St Bridge...Minor flooding is forecast. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Motorists should not attempt to drive around barricades or drive cars through flooded areas. Turn around...don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov/phi. ...The Flood Warning is now in effect until tomorrow morning... The Flood Warning continues for the Little Lehigh At Allentown 10th St Bridge. * Until Thursday morning. * At 10:45 PM EDT Wednesday the stage was 9.2 feet. * Flood stage is 8.0 feet. * Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast. * Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours ending at 10:45 PM EDT Wednesday was 9.2 feet. * Forecast...The river will fall below flood stage just after midnight tonight to 3.1 feet and then begin rising early Friday morning. It will then rise again to 3.2 feet Friday morning. It will fall to 3.0 feet and then begin rising late Friday morning then rise again. * Impact...At 6.0 feet, Fountain Park begins to flood. * Impact...At 7.0 feet, The Fountain Park pathway floods. * Impact...At 8.0 feet, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive begins to flood near Lehigh Street. * Impact...At 9.0 feet, Fish Hatchery Road is flooded. * Impact...At 10.0 feet, Water is several feet deep on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Lehigh Street. Businesses are flooded. * Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of 9.9 feet on 08/28/2011. && Fld Observed Forecasts (11 pm EDT) Location Stg Stg Day/Time Thu Fri Sat Little Lehigh Allentown 10th St Bridg 8.0 9.2 Wed 10 pm ED 3.1 MSG MSG &&
Allentown, PA (18103)

Today

Cloudy and cooler with periods of rain, some heavy at times. Watching moisture associated with Ida which could lead to flash flooding..

Tonight

Overcast with occasional rain, heavy at times, which will likely lead to flash flooding. Also stay alert for a strong or severe storm tonight and overnight.
Iconic London eatery Joe Allen will open its doors for the first time in 18 months on 17 September, it has been revealed.

Located just off the Strand in London, the restaurant has been a West End presence for over four decades, and is a go-to location for theatre folk in need of a top-notch time surrounded by theatre history.

The now-refurbished space has advised that patrons book in advance, saying that is very much essential!

Joe Allen has a counterpart sharing its namesake in New York, which began welcoming audiences back earlier this year.
Education Cluster Coordinator, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Childrens Fund

Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

City: Kinshasa

Office: UNICEF Kinshasa

Grade: P-3

Closing date: Thursday, 9 September 2021

Education Cluster Coordinator, P-3, Kinshasa, DRC

Job no: 544144

Position type: Fixed Term Appointment

Location: Democratic Republic of Congo Division/Equivalent: Dakar (WCAR), Senegal

School/Unit: Democratic Republic of Congo

Department/Office: Kinshasa, Dem. Rep. of Congo

Categories: Education

UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.

For every child, a champion

UNICEF has been achieving important progress on education, child rights, nutrition, and WASH in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Challenges remain, though, and in spite of its vast physical size and limitless natural resources, the DRC poses a complex operational environment in terms of infrastructure challenges. Child poverty is widespread, and according to a recent UNICEF study, 80 percent of children aged zero to 15 years old face at least two major deprivations. Join our team and help tackle these issues, making sure every child has a champion.

The cluster approach ensures clear leadership, predictability and accountability in international responses to humanitarian emergencies by clarifying the division of labour among organizations and better defining their roles and responsibilities within the different sectors of the response. It aims to make the international humanitarian community better organised and more accountable and professional, so that it can be a better partner for the affected people, host governments, local authorities, local civil society and resourcing partners.

How can you make a difference?

Job organizational context : The Education Cluster Coordinator based in Kinshasa, DRC with missions to sub-cluster field offices reports to the L5 Chief of Emergency.

Purpose for the job: On behalf of UNICEF, the Country Lead Agency for the Education Cluster, and in support of the Government, the purpose of this post is to provide leadership and facilitate the processes that will ensure a well-coordinated, strategic, adequate, coherent, and effective response by participants in the DRC Education Cluster.

Under the guidance and general supervision of the Emergency section chief (Level 5) and zwith technical linkages with the Education section, the Education Cluster Coordinator ensures the management of the DRC national education cluster.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Coordination of humanitarian education actors in DRC

2. Needs analysis, planning and strategy development

3. Application of standards, monitoring and reporting

4. Advocacy and resource mobilization

5. Networking and partnership building

6. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

7. Technical and operational support to programme implementation

1. Coordination of humanitarian education actors in DRC

Ensure appropriate coordination between all Education humanitarian partners (national and international NGOs, the ICRC/International Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, etc ...), through establishment/maintenance of appropriate coordination mechanisms at the national and local level; Ensure that education coordination mechanisms are adapted over time

Strengthen pre-existing sectoral coordination through increased predictability and accountability; Ensure effective links between Education cluster at national level and eduation cluster in the hubs; Support Education clusters in Hubs in coordination of Education partners, including by building capacities/mentoring designated hub cluster coordinators

Ensure effective links with other Cluster/sector groups

Build complementarity of partner actions: avoiding duplication and gaps;

Ensure adequate resources are mobilized and are equitably allocated for the effective functioning of the cluster and its response;

Maintain flexibility within the cluster to respond to changes in the operating environment, evolving requirements, capacities and participation;

Effectively use and transfer information to, from and between cluster participants and other stakeholders; Maintain information on all current and potential education partners, their capacities and areas of work (including Who, What, Where and by When).

Be accountable to the affected population through effective and inclusive consultative and feedback mechanisms;

Ensure effective communication, reporting, engagement and coordination between the national and sub-national levels.

Support the preparation, design and updating of the situation analysis to ensure that evidence guides UNICEF DRCs education in development and emergencies programmes/projects.

2. Needs analysis, planning and strategy development

Ensure predictable Education in Emergency action by:

Developing agreed Education needs and gaps analysis involving all relevant partners and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in the overall country strategies including the Humanitarian Needs Overview and Hubs Operational Plans

Developing agreed Education response strategies and action plan that directly support realization of the HC/HCT strategic priorities and ensuring that these are adequately reflected in the overall country strategies including the Humanitarian Response Plans and the Hubs Operational Plans

Supporting and building capacities of Education clusters in Hubs to improve their contribution to the inter-sectoral operational plans and ad-hoc response plan while ensuring alignment with national Education strategy

Drawing lessons learned from past Education in Emergency activities and revising strategies and action plans accordingly;

Providing strategic guidance in the planning and implementation of the education cluster response and its technical components in line with the DRC humanitarian response plan, common standards and guidelines.

Clarifying funding requirements, prioritization, and cluster contributions to HCs overall humanitarian funding considerations (Flash Appeal, CAP, HF, CERF)

Ensuring adequate Education in Emergency related contingency planning and preparedness for potential significant changes in the nature of the emergency;

Ensuring effective and comprehensive integration of relevant cross-cutting issues, including age, gender, environment and HIV/AIDS;

3.

Application of standards, monitoring and reporting

Ensure that Eduation cluster participants are aware of relevant policy guidelines, technical standards and relevant commitments including those that the Government concerned authorities have undertaken;

Ensure that Education responses are in line with existing policy guidance, technical standards, and relevant Government policies;

Monitor and report on activities and needs and measure performance against the cluster strategy and agreed results, recommending corrective action where necessary (including monitoring of HF funded project)

Tags central africa child poverty child rights cluster coordination division of labour education in emergencies good practices humanitarian emergencies humanitarian reform humanitarian response knowledge management monitoring and reporting natural disasters natural resources programme implementation programme planning resource mobilization risk analysis risk management social sciences

Ensure adequate monitoring mechanisms are in place (with OCHA support) to review impact of Education interventions and progress against response plans. This specifically needs to include an analytical interpretation of best available information in order to benchmark progress of the emergency response over time

Ensure adequate Education impact reporting and effective information sharing (with OCHA support) to demonstrate the closing of gaps.

4.

Advocacy and resource mobilization

Identify key Education in Emergency advocacy issues, including resource requirements, and develop advocacy note/presentation

Contribute to key messages to broader advocacy initiatives of the HC, HCT, ICN, UNICEF and other actors;

Advocate for donors to fund priority Education activities (including Education cluster coordination) while at the same time encouraging Eduation actors to mobilize resources for their activities through their usual channels.

5.

Networking and partnership building

Participate in inter-agency discussions on education, representing the interest of the Education Cluster in discussions with the Humanitarian Coordinator as well as donors on prioritization, resource mobilization and advocacy.

Interact with other clusters humanitarian actors, government counterparts, and relevant authorities for operational planning, engagement, and active contribution of operational partners.

6.

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

Apply and introduce innovative approaches and good practices to build the capacity of education cluster members and to support delivery of coherent education response.

Keep abreast, research, benchmark, and implement best practices in education coordination. Assess, institutionalize, and share best practices and knowledge learned.

Organize and implement capacity building initiatives for partners at national and sub-national level to enhance the competencies of partners to deliver education in emergencies response.

Mentor and reinforce capacities of Education cluster coordinators in the hubs to enhance quality of Education cluster coordination at sub-country level

7.

Technical and operational support to programme implementation

20% of the Education Cluster Coordinators time will be allocated towards supporting the education section.

Provide technical support to the education section on emergency programs, including providing inputs to proposals, donor reports, evaluations and studies.

Participate in strategic programme discussions on education program. Formulate, design and prepare programme proposals for education, including in emergencies preparedness and response ensuring alignment with the DRC country program document, Humanitarian Action for Children and Humanitarian Response Plan.

Draft policy papers, briefs and other strategic programme materials for management use.

Qualification of Successful Candidate

Education:

An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: education, economics, or Social Sciences fields relevant to international development.

Experience:

A minimum of five years of professional experience in education programme planning and/or education coordination emergency contexts.

Strong analytical, organizational and writing skills required. Experience in cluster coordination required

Experience working in complex crises and fragile states desirable.

Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in French and English is required. Knowledge of local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEFs core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

Technical competencies must be demonstrated in the following areas:

Understands the rationale behind Humanitarian Reform, its main components and recent developments including the Transformative Agenda.

Understands, uses and adapts the tools, mechanisms and processes developed as part of Humanitarian Reform

Demonstrates commitment to Humanitarian Principles

Demonstrates commitment to Principles of Partnership

Communicates, works and networks effectively with a wide range of people to reach broad consensus on a well-coordinated response, and demonstrates leadership where required

Thinks and acts strategically and ensures that cluster activities are prioritized and aligned within an agreed strategy

Demonstrates commitment to the cluster and independence from employing organization

Builds, motivates and leads the cluster coordination team

Understands key technical issues for the cluster sufficiently well enough to be able to: engage with cluster participants; make full use of their experience and knowledge; guide strategy and plans; communicate and advocate on important issues

Understands policies and strategies to address issues related to resilience: risk analysis and risk management, education in conflict situations, natural disasters, and recovery for CO and RO based post and where relevant,

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Remarks:

* Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

* Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

* The successful candidate for this emergency recruitment MUST be available to commence work within 31 days of receiving an offer.

* Employment is conditional upon receipt of medical clearance, any clearance required, the grant of a visa, and completion of any other pre-employment criteria that UNICEF may establish. Candidates may not be further considered or offers of employment may be withdrawn if these conditions are unlikely to be met before the date for commencement of service.

Advertised: Aug 26 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time Application close: Sep 09 2021 W. Central Africa Standard Time

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1630011183935
Records Management Assistant, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Country: Saudi Arabia

City: Riyadh

Office: FAO Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Closing date: Monday, 20 September 2021

CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT : 2102364

Records Management Assistant

Job Posting: 23/Aug/2021

Closure Date: 20/Sep/2021, 9:59:00 PM

Organizational Unit : RNE

Job Type: Staff position

Type of Requisition : General Service

Grade Level : G-4

Primary Location: Saudi Arabia-Riyadh

Duration : one year with possibility of extension

Post Number : 2007565

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are bas ed on date and time settings of your personal device

Staff in the General Service category are recruited locally from the Primary Location area, which is where the office is located

FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture

Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply

Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks

All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization.

Organizational Setting

This position is located in the Programme Management Unit (PMU) of the FAO UTF Technical Cooperation Programme in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Main Purpose

The Records Management Assistant performs a large variety of routine functions to support the operational and administrative activities of the knowledge management system. He/ she contributes the knowledge-capturing and -sharing needs of the Organization and to the smooth running of the work unit.

Supervision Received/Exercised

The Records Management Assistant reports to the Knowledge Management Officer under the general supervision of the FAO Programme Director. The incumbent operates independently and takes decisions on work priorities. Supervision received is focused on the quality of work outputs, in particular the meeting of timelines and quality of advice and support given to clients. He/She provides guidance and advice to other office support staff.

Working Relationships

The Records Management Assistant interacts with staff at all levels within the Organization to exchange routine information concerning the entire scope of records management center support. He/ she consults the Records and Archives Unit on structural and procedural issues.

Key Functions/Results

Coordinate the divisional records management center work to meet the operational and administrative activities of records management needs of the Division.

Process incoming and outgoing correspondence and documentation both electronic and paper based: send, receive, analyze, classify, route, distribute and file correspondence; check the quality of the processes and ensure that all formal requirements are met in compliance with standard procedures.

Retrieve records; respond to special requests by undertaking in-depth research of records;

Guide and support divisional staff at all levels in the use of the records management system;

Assist the KMO Coordinator in monitoring records management and in providing capacity development;

Assess and execute the transfer of semi-active records to central archives according to agreed retention schedules and procedures;

Administer the operation and maintenance of systems and equipment relevant to the work of the KMO, including facsimile services, scanning service, and others;

Ensure the timely dispatch of correspondence, pouch services, parcels, express mail, etc. and monitor its status and disposition.

Perform other related functions as required to support the work of the office.

Impact Of Work

The incumbents work impacts on the timely and efficient delivery of records management support services. Actions reflect on the transparency and accountability of the work unit and on the effectiveness and efficiency of programme delivery.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements

Education: Secondary School Education Experience: Three years of relevant experience in Records Management support work Languages: Working knowledge (Level C) of English and limited knowledge Arabic (Level B). IT Skills: Good knowledge of the MS Office applications, Internet and office technology equipment

Competencies

Results Focus

Team Work

Communication

Building effective relationships

Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical Skills

Good knowledge of classification and records management system

Good knowledge and understanding of the guidelines and policies related to records and archives

Good knowledge of communication and documentation standards

Desirable Qualifications And Skills

Working knowledge of Arabic is considered a strong asset

Assessment

Evaluation of qualified applicants may include an assessment exercise and a technical / competency-based interview.

FAO staff are expected to adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO,

Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

FAO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing)

Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

The length of the appointment for internal FAO candidates will be established in accordance with applicable policies pertaining to extension of appointments

General Service Staff are recruited locally. To be eligible for this position, candidates must be nationals of the country of the duty station or possess an existing visa/work permit, and reside within commuting distance of the duty station at the time of the application."Commuting distance" means the distance within which staff members can travel daily between their place of work and their residence.

No international benefits will be payable as selected candidates are recruited locally and paid in the local currency of the office location

Other similar positions may be filled from this vacancy notice

For additional information visit the FAO employment website: http://www.fao.org/employment/home/en/

REMUNERATION A competitive compensation and benefits package is offered. For information on UN salaries, allowances and benefits, click on the following link: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries allowances/salary.htm

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. Once completed, please apply and submit your application, with language certificates as attachments. Only language proficiency certificates from UN accredited external providers and/or FAO language official examinations (LPE, ILE, LRT) will be accepted as proof of the level of knowledge of languages indicated in the online applications. FAO reserves the right to request candidates to undertake a language test in the future, as appropriate

Incomplete applications will not be considered

Only applications received through the recruitment portal will be considered

If you need assistance please contact: Careers@fao.org

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1629740756306
Willmar, MN (56201)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Winchester, VA (22601)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 54F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low 54F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Winchester, VA (22601)

Today

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 54F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 54F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
The Liberal campaign cancelled an early evening rally Friday after an unruly group of demonstrators denouncing Justin Trudeau and pandemic policies set off security concerns, with Trudeau himself saying that going ahead with the event would have put people at risk.

Protesters wait for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau to arrive at a campaign event in Bolton, Ont. on Friday, August 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The Liberal campaign cancelled an early evening rally Friday after an unruly group of demonstrators denouncing Justin Trudeau and pandemic policies set off security concerns, with Trudeau himself saying that going ahead with the event would have put people at risk.

Dozens of local Liberal supporters, some with young children and dogs, gathered in a hotel parking lot in Bolton, Ont., northwest of Toronto, to hear Trudeau speak.

Dozens of protesters followed the Liberal campaign to the rally. They used expletives in chants, waved their middle fingers, and made references to the Nazis over megaphones as a line of police stood in front of them.

Speaking in neighbouring Brampton on Friday night, Trudeau said the campaign couldn't guarantee the safety of the people in attendance, and would have put at risk volunteers and others.

"That was not something I was willing to do," he said.

It was the third such incident Friday where Trudeau was confronted by angry demonstrators upset with his government's push on vaccine passports and vaccine mandates for travellers.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a whistle-stop at Fisherman's Wharf in Steveston, Richmond, B.C., on Wednesday, Aug 25, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Protesters who oppose masks, vaccines and lockdown measures to fight COVID-19 have dogged the Liberal leader on the campaign trail, but he has usually politely waved back and often yelled through his mask, "get vaccinated."

Some have brought their children to yell at Trudeau, with one on Friday night holding an orange sign that read "I need freedom." The crowd cheered when officials announced that Friday's event was cancelled.

Trudeau remarked that he had never seen such anger and intensity on the campaign trail, even recalling going with his father out West where former prime minister Pierre Trudeau was vilified.

He said the current unrest and anger among parts of the population needed to be met with compassion, but added that science has pointed to vaccinations as the best way out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have to stand strong for what we know to be true. Science is going to help us through this, it is going to be the path forward out of this," Trudeau said. "But we have to make sure we are hearing those real concerns and responding to them as best we can."

Conservatives Leader Erin O'Toole said Canada is a country where people can express their views, but must do so peacefully.

"No one deserves to be subjected to harassment and obscenities," he said Friday in a tweet.

More than 45 Liberal staff, restaurant staff, media, restaurant owners and technicians crowd into a small restaurant as Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Mississauga, Ont., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh tweeted out that everyone deserves to be safe on the campaign trail.

"I am very sorry to hear this happened tonight to Mr. Trudeau and the Liberal team and I hope that everyone is OK," he wrote.

It was an uncomfortable end to the second week of the campaign where health issues dominated the day's debate. The Liberals stressed the importance of vaccination against COVID-19, the Conservatives pledged to enhance benefits for seriously ill workers and the NDP outlined a prescription for universal pharmacare.

During a stop in Mississauga, Ont., Trudeau said a re-elected Liberal government would procure enough vaccines to ensure all Canadians have access to free COVID-19 booster shots and any needed second-generation vaccines.

Trudeau also promised a $1-billion fund to assist provinces and territories that usher in a requirement for proof-of-vaccine credentials for non-essential businesses, such as restaurants and gyms, as well as public spaces.

"A vaccine mandate for non-essential businesses is a good idea," Trudeau said during his appearance at a restaurant.

However, Trudeau did not provide a direct answer when asked if he had special permission for more than the provincial limit of 25 people to crowd into the restaurant for his announcement.

British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec are moving ahead with so-called vaccine passports, and Trudeau said he hoped Doug Ford would follow, saying it was time for Ontario's Progressive Conservative premier to listen to public health officials.

The Canadian Press learned later Friday that Ontario has plans to introduce a vaccine certificate system next week, a reversal from Ford's early claims that such a system would "split society."

Visiting Thunder Bay, Ont., Singh called on the federal government to issue a national vaccine credential.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just have one central document that we get from the federal government and we can use in any province we travel to?" Singh said. "It would just make life easier."

In Corner Brook, N.L., on Friday, O'Toole said he would increase employment insurance benefits for ailing workers to 52 weeks from 26, a move that could help people fight life-threatening diseases like cancer.

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"Canadian workers should know we have their backs if they become seriously ill," O'Toole said.

"I'm sure that we have all known someone, a friend, a relative who has battled cancer. We all know how devastating it is. So, we can all imagine if, on top of all that, you also had to worry that your EI benefits were running out, and that you might not be able to put food on the table for your family."

Singh pledged Friday to begin working with provinces immediately to deliver a single-payer, public pharmacare program for all Canadians.

The New Democrats say millions can't afford to take the medications they need and must skip doses, cut their pills in half, or even go without them.

"We know it doesn't have to be this way," Singh said. "We know that we can actually work together to solve this problem."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2021.
Until recently, Monique Doyle had been colouring her hair for so long, she couldnt remember what her natural shade was.

Until recently, Monique Doyle had been colouring her hair for so long, she couldnt remember what her natural shade was.

Doyle, 50, started going grey in her 30s. For decades, she went to the salon every six weeks to have her mane transformed into a rich auburn. A couple years ago, she had made the decision to stop colouring over her silver strands, and her hairdresser was easing her into the transition.

But then the pandemic hit, shuttering salons and leaving her with more regrowth than shed seen in years.

"The first few months were tough," Doyle says. "I hated seeing my roots. It was always something that used to stress me out. I couldnt stand seeing the line where you could see it growing out. It bothered me."

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A couple years ago, Monique Doyle made the decision to stop colouring her silver strands. As the pandemic stretched into months, she says she didnt just feel good about her silver hair  she felt free.

She had other concerns about going grey, too. "I did worry in the beginning that (growing it out) did look sloppy. Ive got two teenage boys, and I dont want people to think Im their grandmother."

Something shifted as the pandemics weeks stretched into months. Doyle didnt just feel good about her silver hair. She felt free.

Doyle is one of many women who decided to go grey  and stay that way  amid the pandemic. With salons closed on and off during wave-related lockdowns, many women were forced to reckon with their natural hair; others felt like they finally had room to embrace it (everyone I spoke to for this story said that if it wasnt for the pandemic, they probably would have put off going grey for a few more years). Grombre, a portmanteau of grey and ombre, became the signature look of 2020.

Kelly OLeary, a stylist and co-owner of Sapphire Hair Lounge in Winnipeg, confirmed it is a trend. In normal times, OLeary has women booked in every four weeks to cover the tiny strips of grey that form at the root. But lockdowns are no friends of standing appointments and, the thing about hair is, it grows. "I think that a lot of them, for the first time, were able to see what it might actually look like," OLeary says. And many of them liked  or at least accepted  what they saw.

"I can think of a bunch of women who are making that change  like, were losing a bunch of money," OLeary adds with a laugh.

I can think of a bunch of women who are making that change  like, were losing a bunch of money.  Kelly OLeary, stylist and coowner of Sapphire Hair Lounge

In some ways, this trend feels more like a movement. In our youth-obsessed, 30-under-30 culture that tends to view women who are "over a certain age" as obsolete and invisible, embracing ones silver strands feels rebellious  subversive, even.

Doyle agrees. "I had people tell me they were not on board," she says. "I did it for me. I didnt do it for anyone else but me. And it does feel rebellious."

Mpho Begin, 44, started going grey in her 20s. Her hair had become increasingly heat-damaged over the decades, to the point she worried about it falling out completely.

"Black hair is very hard to take care of," she says, adding that it can also be time consuming. "I just relied on going to the salon every six weeks."

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Mpho Begin used to rely on going to the salon every six weeks.

Begin doesnt like wigs or weaves, so she wore braids for a long time. "I think the last time was January 2020, and the braids were literally falling off my head," she says with a laugh. "Thats when I was like, OK, I need to do something about my hair."

The pandemic offered the push she needed. With salons closed, Begin started poking around online. "I saw this young generation with beautiful Black hair and, thought, how do they do that?" she says. She learned some tips and tricks and has been documenting her own hair journey on Instagram since last July, as motivation and inspiration for other Black women.

"I saw a lot of women are going silver, but I didnt see a lot of Black women," Begin says. "I wanted to show that yeah, its OK to have Black grey hair and theres nothing wrong with that." A little over a year later, her hair is feeling healthier and stronger.

Supplied After going grey in her 20s, Corie Ives has committed to growing out her coloured hair.

Corie Ives, 43, has always loved her hair. "Ive been lucky," she says. "Ive been blessed to have tons of it. Its thick. I can go curly, I can go straight."

Ives is the daughter of a hair stylist, so caring for her hair has always been a huge part of her life. Having regular standing salon appointments was never a burden; that was her self-care time. "Hair always just made me feel pretty or feminine and sexy or whatever. When my hair is not done, I dont feel those things."

Ives, who started going grey in her early 20s, has now committed to growing out her coloured hair. The pandemic, she says, didnt just shift how she thought about her hair. "I think even just throughout COVID, thinking about loving yourself more, or how you talk to yourself, and all that kind of stuff, you come into a different perception of yourself and embracing that fullness of who you authentically are."

While Ives is excited about the end result, shes hated the transition to grey. Ives is a flight attendant who has been able to fly for the whole pandemic so, unlike the work from home set, shes also had to live out the awkward grow-out stage in a public forum. At the beginning, she was using headbands and spray colour to cover up her regrowth, and then finally just pulled the plug.

OLeary affirms that the grow-out stage can be hard for people to muscle through. "Its not cute," she says. "This past year and a half has really stopped them from being able to cave, where most women would, after two months, say forget it, nevermind, but theyre not really able to (during the pandemic), so thats been kind of lucky for them." (Stylists can help ease the process with creative colour placement via highlights and toner can help break up that harsh demarcation  when salons are open, that is.)

Toni Hanson, 50, probably would have been one of those women. Her transition to grey was "not fun"  it came in unevenly. The hair around her face was white and silvery; the back of her head was still quite dark. If not for the pandemic, she probably wouldnt have stuck with it.

"I think I would have been a lot more self-conscious," she says. "When it started coming in and not being consistent, I probably would have given up and coloured it."

I feel my hair is so much healthier, I feel good about not putting chemicals and stuff in my hair. And Ive accepted the fact that, hey, Im not gonna look 30 anymore. And thats OK."  Toni Hanson

And now? "Now, I kind of like it," she says. "I feel my hair is so much healthier, I feel good about not putting chemicals and stuff in my hair. And Ive accepted the fact that, hey, Im not gonna look 30 anymore. And thats OK. I dont necessarily want to.

"So, its taken a year and a half, but Im comfortable with it now. Hey, if somebody could say, I can magically make your hair dark again and youll look youthful again forever, I would take that opportunity without a doubt. But I have accepted it now."

Indeed, this conversation isnt just about hair, but about cultural and personal attitudes toward aging.

Begin grew up in Botswana and immediately noticed a cultural difference when she came to Canada in her early 20s.

"Back home, aging is embraced," she says. "I grew up in a culture where every government document you had to put your age, so age wasnt a big deal. Then I came here, and theres more pressure to look young. You cant even ask anybody what their age is. Back home, its nothing, right? Here, people are more afraid to tell their age than their bank account.

"Aging is a natural process, but I do understand that in this culture here, women were made to feel that once you get older youre kind of useless, youre done," she says.

Aging is a natural process, but I do understand that in this culture here, women were made to feel that once you get older youre kind of useless, youre done.  Mpho Begin

She rejects that idea. "Theres nothing we can do about aging, so we might as well embrace it."

Ives, meanwhile, started thinking about double standards. On men, a salt n pepper mane is often seen as attractive, a hallmark of gravitas and aging gracefully. (George Clooney, its worth noting, went visibly grey in his 30s.)

"I could see that in women too  but I couldnt see it in me," she says. "So it was part of that transition too. Im seeing these powerful, strong, beautiful women embrace natural aging, and it is attractive. Its that shift in mindset: what do you decide is attractive? Or makes you feel good or confident?"

OLeary has seen a shift from rigid, narrow beauty standards to anything-goes acceptance, pointing to the body positivity movement as another example. "Its a different time, and its amazing," she says. "Embrace who you are. Theres no need to cover it up. And if you want to, were here for that, too."

For Doyles part, shes appreciated seeing other women who are going through their own transformations to silver, grey and white  so personal, yet, so public. "I feel solidarity with women when I see them, and I can tell that theyve grown it out over the pandemic as well," she says. "I feel like, good for us."

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti

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From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year.

Flower vendors sit outside Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug. 3, 2021. As Thailand battles a punishing COVID-19 surge with nearly 20,000 new cases every day, people who depend on tourism struggle in what was one of the most-visited cities in the world, with 20 million visitors in the year before the pandemic. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year.

With international travel heavily restricted, foreign tourists can't enter many countries and locals can't get out. In the metropolis of Hong Kong, glamping and staycations have replaced trips abroad for at least some of its 7.4 million residents.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, international tourist arrivals were down 95% in the first five months of the year, compared to the same period before the pandemic in 2019, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

New variants of the virus loom  a constant threat to any recovery in even domestic tourism. Warnings of a possible third wave in India worry Imraan Ali, whose houseboat on Kashmir's Dal Lake is his only source of income.

Since we are expecting a good influx of tourists, we dont want that to be affected," he said.

INDIA CAUTIOUS AS OUTBREAK RECEDES

Tourists are returning to the valleys and mountains in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as infections in the Himalayan region and nationwide come down after a deadly second wave earlier this year.

The shikaras, or traditional Kashmiri houseboats, are back on the calm waters of Dal Lake as Indians travel at home. India is reporting about 30,000 new coronavirus cases a day, down from a peak of 400,000 in May but still enough for many countries to restrict travelers from India.

Nihaarika Rishabh said she and her husband were relieved to finally get away from their home in the city of Agra for their honeymoon, after their wedding was postponed during the second wave. The vacation in Kashmir has helped calm their nerves after months of the pandemic, she said.

Ali, the houseboat owner, is happy that the number of visitors has gone up. We have been suffering from past two years," he said. Our livelihood depends on tourism.

A worker checks the health code of tourists visiting the Summer Palace in Beijing on Aug. 3, 2021. Strict virus control measures have allowed China to return to relatively normal life. The number of tourists visiting Beijing in June and July tripled compared to the same period last year, while revenue quadrupled, according to Trip.com, China's largest online travel booking platform. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

But mountainous areas like Kashmir have seen an uptick in infections as the number of visitors rises, fueling worries about a third wave.

BANGKOK'S BUSTLE GOES QUIET

Erawan Shrine in the center of Bangkok once bustled with foreign tourists and locals making offerings day and night. Today, it is eerily quiet. Only a handful of people buy incense or flowers from the vendors who set up stalls outside.

We are still here because we dont know what else to do, said one, Ruedewan Thapjul.

As Thailand battles a punishing COVID-19 surge with nearly 20,000 new cases every day, people who depend on tourism struggle in what was one of the most-visited cities in the world, with 20 million visitors in the year before the pandemic.

Suthipong Pheunphiphop, the president of the Thai Travel Agents Association, urged the government to commit to its plan to reopen the country to foreign tourists in October.

Currently, the streets are all but empty in Bangkok's Siam Square shopping district.

Passavee Kraidejudompaisarn, the third-generation owner of a popular noodle shop, wiped away tears as she talked about her fears of losing the family business.

Previously, the 60-year-old restaurant would be filled with locals and foreign tourists, bringing in about $2,000 a day. Now, she said, she earns a little more than $2 on some days.

CHINESE STAY IN CHINA

Strict virus control measures have allowed China to return to relatively normal life. The number of tourists visiting Beijing in June and July tripled compared to the same period last year, while revenue quadrupled, according to Trip.com, Chinas largest online travel booking platform.

"I personally feel very safe, Olaya Ezuidazu, a Spanish national living in Beijing, said on a recent visit to the Great Wall.

But even China is not immune to the delta variant. Outbreaks in July and August prompted authorities to suspended flights and trains to affected cities. Parks and museums reduced the number of visitors to 60% of capacity, down from 75% previously.

Phil Ma felt the resulting dent on tourism at his cafe in a traditional hutong neighborhood, steps away from Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. It is obvious during the three or four days from the weekend to today that the number of guests has decreased a lot, he said.

The alley outside his cafe was quiet, in contrast to the line that formed for a cup of coffee during a major holiday in May.

GLAMPING IN HONG KONG

The difficulty of traveling abroad has made glamping  or glamourous camping  popular in Hong Kong.

Berina Tam and Vincy Lee went with We Camp, a campsite located in Yuen Long, a rural area in the north of Hong Kong.

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Its actually a good opportunity for us to really, to try to explore Hong Kong a bit more, Tam said.

Many glamping sites provide clean beds, showering facilities and barbeque sites for campers to grill kebabs and chicken wings. The typical charge is $65 per person a night.

Bill Lau, the founder of Hong Kong travel platform Holimood, said that glamping offers an alternative for those who find camping too primitive.

Families and couples need to find somewhere to go during weekends," he said. "If we are trying to recreate the experience of traveling, it must be an overnight experience.

___

Umar Meraj in Srinagar, India, Olivia Zhang in Beijing, Pattarachai Preechapanich in Bangkok and Katie Tam and Zen Soo in Hong Kong contributed.
A competitive market is brewing in Winnipeg, with several coffee chains bidding over one another to acquire previously shuttered cafes in the city.

A competitive market is brewing in Winnipeg, with several coffee chains bidding over one another to acquire previously shuttered cafes in the city.

Its the kind of trend food and supply-chain economists suggest is happening in municipalities from coast to coast, as vaccine uptake increases and COVID-19 restrictions are beginning to loosen.

Back in Spring, Calgary-based Good Earth Cafes Ltd. said it planned on nearly doubling its 45 locations across the country, just as Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Company said it would close 300 Canadian sites before the beginning of summer.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The former Starbucks location on Academy Road.

One of those locations Good Earth was seriously eyeing included the former, incredibly popular Starbucks on Academy Road in Winnipeg, which saw lots of foot traffic prior to its closure.

Good Earth CEO Michael Going called it part of a "forward-looking" business strategy, that is striving for a future beyond the pandemic.

But another Winnipeg-based coffee chain which just launched this year, Empty Cup Collective, recently outbid Good Earth for that Academy Road shop.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Marc Tallman, owner of the Empty Cup Collective near Kildonan Crossing.

"We saw an opening and we just absolutely went for it," said Marc Tallman, owner of the Empty Cup Collective, in an interview this week.

"I grew up in that area, and that Starbucks was my own personal place to go get coffee. In fact, its the same for pretty much everyone I know. So, of course, we jumped at the chance. Why wouldnt we want to bank on this great location?"

Since opening its first site on Panet Road near Kildonan Crossing in April, Empty Cup has been on a hiring and acquisition spree.

Empty Cup has a new location opening in Sage Creek by early winter  bringing its Winnipeg-based cafes to three so far. Its even expanding direct-to-retail sales of canned, nitro-cold brews that it currently serves on tap at its store.

'I grew up in that area, and that Starbucks was my own personal place to go get coffee. In fact, it's the same for pretty much everyone I know. So, of course, we jumped at the chance. Why wouldn't we want to bank on this great location?'  Marc Tallman, owner of Empty Cup Collective

Tallman said this is because he believes in "the power of the coffee experience, which doesnt need to rely on just drive-thrus to thrive." Its why his emphasis has been on making his stores unique in their design and aesthetic, while also focusing on a larger menu.

Empty Cups Panet Road location is easily distinguishable for its modern layout and flooring, employing a chic monochrome colour palette for furniture and decor. Customers can sit on tall bar stools at the front-facing counter, watching their coffee being made, then enjoying their food and drinks with a view through the large windows in the back.

"Of course, we have had delays because of the pandemic and just otherwise with construction," said Tallman. "Our Sage Creek location was supposed to be done much earlier. But all in all, Im really looking forward to whats in the future for our in-store experience, and were just excited to keep growing out of this all."

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Empty Cups Panet Road location is easily distinguishable for its modern layout and flooring, employing a chic monochrome colour palette for furniture and decor.

Good Earth feels the same. CEO Going told the Free Press on Friday that he still plans on opening at least up to four other stores in Winnipeg, despite losing the battle for the former Starbucks on Academy Road.

"You win some, you lose some," said Going. "We have three other locations in the city already. Were certainly not stopping from scaling up. And to be honest, if anything, the pandemic is delaying our plans because of real estate concerns."

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Bags of coffee for sale at Empty Cup Collective.

Sylvain Charlebois, Canadas leading food consumption and management expert, said both Good Earth and Empty Cups business acumen is "completely bang-on." He said its a great strategy to take over former Starbucks sites "while the market is still getting ready to be fully ripe."

"Im not surprised about there being a heated cafe war of sorts," Charlebois said Friday. "The thing with the coffee businesses is that we all know Canadians wont be stopping the culture of drinking their cups of joe outside their homes.

"What that now means is you have the biggest player in the market closing hundreds of their stores and an appetite that wont go away. So, obviously, there will be a recalibration that will happen to fill that empty space. Its a shifting thing that Im seeing everywhere in different shapes  in Halifax, Winnipeg, Toronto and elsewhere."

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Starbucks did not respond by press time for comment. The company closed hundreds of its Canadian coffee shops by March, which it called part of a "transformation strategy to respond to changes in consumer habits during the pandemic, in an earnings call.

Since then, however, most of the stores Starbucks has chosen to close are ones that do not have a drive-thru, including those in Winnipeg. Charlebois said this makes sense "because it is quite challenging to operate a cafe without a drive-thru these days."

"But the real problem, drive-thru or not, will be to distinguish yourself from the legacy of Starbucks  which has a massive and loyal base of customers," he said.

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur
Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar of the nation's pandemic response.

FILE - In this June 25, 2020 file photo, contact tracers work at Harris County Public Health contact tracing facility in Houston. Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nations pandemic response.States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been completely overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar of the nation's pandemic response.

States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases.

Some states trimmed their contact tracing teams this spring and summer when virus numbers were dropping and are now scrambling to train new investigators. Others have triaged their teams to focus on the most vulnerable, such as cases involving schools or children too young to be vaccinated.

Texas got out of the business entirely, with the new two-year state budget that takes effect Sept. 1 explicitly prohibiting funds being used for contact tracing. That left it up to local health officials, but they can't keep up at a time when Texas is averaging more than 16,000 new cases a day.

Mississippi has 150 staff working full time to identify people who have had close contact with an infected person, but they are swamped, too.

A lot of times by the time of cases are reported, transmission has already occurred by the time we reach that person, state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.

Since the pandemic began, states have been relying on the practice of contact tracing to track down, notify and monitor those who were exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said that while contact tracing can be time-intensive, especially if one person potentially exposed a lot of people, it does in the end prevent additional cases.

Maldonado said its a staple of public health and can be the only way someone can find out a stranger may have potentially exposed them to the disease.

The contact tracing response has varied from state to state throughout the pandemic.

New York, which has had a robust team, has adjusted its contract tracing staff with the pandemics waves. The state had more than 8,000 contract tracers in February and March of this year but now has 3,860 staff working on contract tracing. That does not include New York City, which has its own $600 million tracing initiative with thousands of staff.

Arkansas has hired two outside firms, General Dynamics Information Technology and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, to handle the investigations for the state. The firms have about 257 people working right now and are each trying to add about 100 more.

In Louisiana, another virus hotspot, state officials have added 130 people in recent weeks to their staff working on contact tracing. They now have more than 560 people working on tracing efforts.

In Idaho, a new public health website, VolunteerIdaho.com, encourages people with health care skills or a simple willingness to volunteer for Idahos Medical Reserve Corps. Among the volunteers they are seeking are people who can with contact tracing and data entry

Health officials say with the overwhelming number of new cases, theyre not able to track every case and instead try to focus on infections that could have exposed large numbers of people or vulnerable groups.

That's the case in Alabama. Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Health said her agency encourages anyone who tests positive or is exposed to follow isolation and quarantine guidelines and notify anyone they had close contact with, but the health department is focusing its resources on bigger outbreaks, clusters and group settings.

In Nevada, the investigators are prioritizing their efforts around cases involving children or schools, according to Julia Peek, Deputy Administrator of Community Health Services at Nevadas health department.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott last year approved a $295 million contract with a firm to run contact tracing for the state, but the deal drew conservative backlash and a lawsuit from lawmakers who said the governor overstepped his authority by approving the deal with the Legislature was not in session.

Abbott eventually won the lawsuit, but contact tracing funds were stripped from the new budget.

Local governments say they're continuing the effort and trying to ramp up staffing as cases climb. In Austin, for example, the local health department had about 50 investigators working on contact tracing at the peak of the pandemic. But when cases dropped, they reduced their staff to 12, according to Austin Public Health spokesman to Matt Lara.

In California, state workers have been dispatched to help county health department teams working on contract tracing. At the peak of the pandemic, Los Angeles County had about 2,800 people working on the effort until this spring, when cases began falling, said True Beck, a public health worker who manages a team of contract tracers for the county.

Beck said some staff in the spring were reassigned to make calls encouraging people to get vaccines and others were sent back to their regular jobs at other county departments, but lately they've been bringing people back and have about 1,000 working.

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She said the work is relentless and the calls, which can last an hour, can be emotional. Workers making contract tracing calls not only help people learn about what they should do to keep themselves and others safe, but they can hear from people who are scared, lonely or grieving or in need of assistance, such as with paying rent or getting food. Beck said the staff on her team try to help and connect people with other resources.

Its hard to do this day in and day out calling perfect strangers, she said.

She said people are not as eager to talk or do interviews as they were earlier in the pandemic, when there was a lot more fear and unknowns about the virus.

Now I think people are a little tired of COVID. I think we all are, frankly."

___

Follow Price on Twitter at twitter.com/michellelprice. Associated Press writers Leah Willingham in Jackson, Mississippi, Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Michelle Liu in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday's deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino.

Dozens of desperate Afghans who had been trying to flee the Taliban before Tuesday's deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul made it to safety with help from an unexpected place: Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino.

Quarantino is the alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus of New York City, previously best-known for his liberal memes and his jokes about opponents of COVID-19 vaccinations. Along with his followers, Quarantino raised $7 million within days on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions into Afghanistan to evacuate as many people as possible, many of whom said they had been threatened by the Taliban.

This photo provided by @JujuShotMe shows Tommy Marcus, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. As governments, corporations and charity groups rush to get their citizens and employees out of Afghanistan, dozens of Afghan people got help to flee their country from Instagram influencer Quentin Quarantino. The alter ego of 25-year-old Tommy Marcus has helped raise $7 million on GoFundMe to launch rescue missions to evacuate people whose lives may be in danger from the Taliban. (@JujuShotMe via AP)

On Wednesday, their mission Operation Flyaway helped ferry 51 people from Afghanistan to Uganda on a privately chartered plane financed by the GoFundMe campaign.

More than 121,000 people had donated to the campaign after Marcus made an appeal to his 832,000 followers, making it one of the largest humanitarian fundraisers in GoFundMes history.

Its beyond humbling that they have that faith in me, that theyre willing to put significant amounts of money into hands that I trust, Marcus told The Associated Press.

Saraya International, a global development firm, and the Rockefeller Foundation, which both provided organizational support for the flight to Uganda, as well as another company involved with the evacuation, confirmed to the AP that the flight was chartered by the emergency collaboration financed through Marcus' Go FundMe campaign.

I dont know what word to use besides miraculous, because its restored a faith in humanity, Marcus said. Weve shed the political divisions in this situation and really come together from all walks of life to rally together and save these people because .. they dont deserve what their future holds if they stay in Afghanistan right now.

Those who were evacuated, Marcus said, were women, children, humanitarians and others whove been fighting for the greater good in Afghanistan for a long time, as well as their families. The organizers had said they were seeking to rescue 300 people who, along with their families, were at imminent risk of being executed by the Taliban."

The team had been met with skepticism from experts who questioned whether they had the capability to pull of such a mission at a time when governments, corporations and charity groups were rushing to get their citizens and employees out of Afghanistan on whatever aircraft they could.

Marcus' group said more than 350 people have been rescued, with nearly 300 leaving Kabul on other chartered flights that Operation Flyaway reimbursed for providing safe passage from the country. A spokesperson for the State Department wrote in an emailed statement that the department appreciates community-led efforts to support the Afghan relocation and resettlement process, which reflects the generosity of the American people and the international community.

However, we are unable to verify the authenticity or effectiveness of these efforts, the statement said.

Officials from several nonprofit groups describe a chaotic and perilous scene at the Kabul airport as they rushed to fill private chartered flights with people who have the necessary paperwork in the limited time that they can keep their planes on the tarmac.

"Im so proud of our extraordinary team and what we were able to accomplish in such a short time, said Sayara CEO Scott Shadian. I just wish we couldve done more. Simply put, the institutions failed, and it breaks my heart how much more we could have accomplished. We are grateful we got out as many people as we did against the greatest odds weve ever faced.

At the request of the U.S. government, Uganda received the evacuees, who will stay at hotels in a city outside the country's capital, Kampala. Ugandan officials said the nation would shelter up to 2,000 people who are expected to be relocated elsewhere after a temporary stay in the country.

The chartered flight that left Kabul early Wednesday morning is one of several private rescue efforts being organized by various groups, separately and through collaborations, to help Afghans flee. The flight from Kabul to Entebbe, Uganda, was organized by Sayara, which advised a company working with Marcus that it knew of a plane available for Operation Flyaway.

Representatives from that North Carolina-based company, Raven Advisory, said they were able to pay for the mission using money raised through Marcus' GoFundMe campaign. The company, which says it performs subcontract work for the U.S. military, said "an all-volunteer team consisting of former Special Forces soldiers and other veterans with expertise in Afghanistan were working with the military to coordinate their rescue efforts.

Sayara's Shadian said he had met Operation Flyaway members on Zoom only earlier in the week and in the chaos of the Kabul evacuations was thrilled they agreed to fund the flight.

They were one of many miracles we experienced in this time, Shadian said. Their last-minute funding, along with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Schmidt Futures and other donors, was critical. Without Operation Flyaway's quick funding, that flight wouldnt have gotten off the ground.

Raven Advisory CEO Sheffield Ford told the AP that in order to transport the people into the airport, the U.S. government has to be comfortable with our organization saying these people are OK, and that they have actually done things to help their country, to help our country.

Though the deadly suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday complicated their efforts, Ford says those they are helping must have passports, a relative his group can communicate with and someone vouching for them who has passed a background check. The goal, Ford noted, is to ferry Afghan citizens that have been targeted by the Taliban out of the country.

Our focus was the people who wanted to build their country into something great, he said. They thought they were going to stay there, with us backing them, for the long haul. Its going be women that work in journalism and teachers. It could be the young people and older people who have been very outspoken against the different atrocities of committed by the Taliban in the past.

Though crowdfunding has been a welcome tool to mobilize donations during crisis situations, Patricia McIlreavy, president of the Washington-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy, stresses that donors should be cautious when donating to private efforts through these sites.

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Theres not necessarily going to be a public report on where these funds went and how they were used, in the way that a nonprofit  or a 501(c)(3)  is required to by law, she said.

Though rescue flights are now winding down with the pending deadline of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the GoFundMe campaign said it will donate whatever money remains to the Washington-based organization International Womens Media Foundation. According to organizers, the foundation, which supports female journalists, will use the money to partner with experienced organizations and experts to support people once they are on safe ground.

Ford was impressed by how quickly millions were raised on GoFundMe for these missions.

Its about people coming together to help others," he said. "And it was awesome to see that happen.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis on Saturday replaced an Australian bishop who stepped down amid a Vatican investigation into what Australian media have described as allegations of sexual misconduct.

FILE - In this April 17, 2008 file photo, Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome tries to play a digeridoo during a World Youth day 2008 media event in Sydney, Australia. Pope Francis has replaced Bishop Christopher Saunders, who stepped down amid a Vatican investigation into what Australian media have described as allegations of sexual misconduct. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis on Saturday replaced an Australian bishop who stepped down amid a Vatican investigation into what Australian media have described as allegations of sexual misconduct.

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The Vatican said Francis accepted Bishop Christopher Alan Saunders resignation as head of the Broome diocese in Western Australia state. Francis appointed another prelate, Bishop Michael Henry Morrissey of the Geraldton diocese, to temporarily administer the sprawling Catholic diocese in Broome.

The Vatican, in keeping with its custom for announcing bishop resignations, did not cite a reason for replacing Saunders. At 71, he is four years younger than the age when the Vatican requires bishops to offer their resignations to the pontiff.

Australian media have quoted Saunders as strongly denying any wrongdoing and voluntarily offering to step aside. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported earlier this year that police and prosecutors decided against filing criminal charges.

Parishioners in the diocese were informed in May that the Vatican investigation was ongoing, according to Australian media reports.

Details of the case weren't immediately available. Saunders has reportedly been on sabbatical.

After decades of sexual abuse scandals in many nations, Pope Francis has vowed to root out predator clergy. Cases involving bishops who systematically covered up for such priests also led Francis to try to rebuild the collapsed trust of many faithful by pledging to bring accountability to the church hierarchy.
TOKYO  Taro Kono, the Japanese minister in charge of the vaccine rollout, promised Sunday a timely administering of booster shots for the coronavirus, as the nation aims to fully vaccinate its population by October or November.

People wait in line to get lottery tickets for the coronavirus vaccine at the Shibuya district in Tokyo Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. Japans Tokyo city hall has apologized for "confusion" amid its vaccination rollout targeting young people, after crowds looking to get the shot were turned away from a facility in the district. (Kyodo News via AP)

TOKYO  Taro Kono, the Japanese minister in charge of the vaccine rollout, promised Sunday a timely administering of booster shots for the coronavirus, as the nation aims to fully vaccinate its population by October or November.

He said Pfizer and Moderna booster shots will arrive early next year, in time for medical workers and the elderly, who were prioritized and mostly got their second shots by July.

Japan is aiming for 80% vaccination levels, Kono said on a nationally broadcast Fuji TV show.

A digital system for proof of vaccination will be available later this year, he added.

Japan has lagged among developed nations on vaccinations, with its fully vaccinated now at about 43%. Hospitals are getting swamped, and more than 118,000 people infected with the coronavirus are waiting at home, according to the health ministry. Japan has recorded about 15,800 COVID-related deaths.

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A health worker administers the vaccine for COVID-19 at District Govt Women's Hospital in Varanasi, India, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 Russias virus-related deaths hit record of 50,000 in July

 Contact tracing takes a back seat during latest COVID-19 surge

 UK prepares to vaccinate youth ages 12-15 before school starts

 How much impact could Sturgis rally have on virus caseload?

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 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

People wait to register themselves to receive the vaccine for COVID-19 District Govt Women's Hospital in Varanasi, India, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BEND, Ore.  Oregons emergency management department says the states death toll from COVID-19 is climbing so rapidly that two counties have requested refrigerated trucks to hold the bodies.

Department spokeswoman Bobbi Doan said Saturday that Tillamook County, on Oregons northwest coast, and Josephine County, in the southwest, have requested the trucks.

Tillamook County Emergency Director Gordon McCraw wrote in his request to the state that the countys sole funeral home is now consistently at or exceeding their capacity of nine bodies. He added that virus cases among staff have made them unable to transport bodies to other counties.

The refrigerated truck arrived in the county on Friday, loaned by Klamath County, Doan said in a telephone interview.

The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners says there were six COVID-19 deaths in the county from Aug. 18 to Aug. 23, surpassing the five total COVID-19 deaths that occurred during the first 18 months of the pandemic.

This undated photo provided by Latasha Graham shows JoKeria Graham in Lake City, Fla.. In Columbia County, Florida which now has the state's highest cases of COVID-19 per capita, 17-year-old JoKeria Graham died just days before she started her senior year of high school. (Latasha Graham via AP)

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.  A newspaper reporter in Michigan says he was punched in the face while covering an anti-mask event.

The Grand Traverse County sheriffs office is investigating. Record-Eagle reporter Brendan Quealy went to Silver Lake Recreation Area on Thursday to check an event organized by a group called Citizens Liberating Michigan.

Heather Cerone introduced herself to the crowd and urged people to block the reporters view. Quealy says he was shoved into a fence by a man and punched in the face.

Cerone claimed the event was private because the pavilion had been rented. But prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg said the area around the pavilion is open to anyone.

Quealy says he was just doing his job: to chase the news and accurately report it.

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FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020 file photo, Bikers ride down Main Street during the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, S.D. Health officials across five states have linked 178 virus cases to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. In the three weeks since the rally kicked off, coronavirus cases in South Dakota have shot up at a startling pace. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Public health officials say a COVID-19 outbreak at an Oregon assisted living facility that has infected 64 people and killed five began with an unvaccinated worker.

The Register-Guard newspaper reports that Gateway Living in Springfield has 105 employees and 101 residents. Only 63% of the staff and 82% of the residents are completely vaccinated.

Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis says the outbreak began with an unvaccinated employee who worked while infectious. About 60% of the cases are breakthrough cases. Its not yet clear how many of the cases were among residents, employees or family members and others outside of the facility.

Seven of the people infected are hospitalized.

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LAS VEGAS  A Las Vegas hospital has opened a clinic to provide ongoing care to so-called long-haulers  people with long-term medical complications from COVID-19.

University Medical Center said its clinic is the first of its kind in Nevada and will also help patients enroll in clinical trials for new therapies to treat long-term symptoms, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

A couple cleans up the table outside the signature stargazing caravan of Park Nature, a glamping site that offers luxury caravans packages in Hong Kong on Aug. 14, 2021, while their granddaughter plays with a cat in Hong Kong. From the Great Wall to the picturesque Kashmir valley, Asia's tourist destinations are looking to domestic visitors to get them through the COVID-19 pandemic's second year. With international travel heavily restricted, foreign tourists can't enter many countries and locals can't get out. The difficulty of traveling abroad has made glamping, or glamourous camping, popular in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Matthew Cheng)

Long-term symptoms include heart and lung conditions, pain and cognitive impairment.

In another development, the Clark County School District Board on Wednesday will consider allowing the superintendent to establish a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for district employees.

Requiring COVID-19 vaccination is the responsible, common-sense course of action, based on experiences of many government agencies, businesses and other organizations, the Clark County district said in a statement. Our top priority remains the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff.

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PHOENIX  A day after Arizona surpassed the 1 million in confirmed coronavirus cases, the state on Saturday reported nearly 3,900 new cases, the most since a surge in February.

The 3,893 cases and 55 deaths reported Saturday increased Arizonas total confirmed deaths to 18, according to the states coronavirus dashboard.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases rose over the past two weeks from 2,604 on Aug. 12 to 3,184 on Thursday. The rolling average of daily deaths rose from 13 deaths to 23 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Stanislav, a homeless man gets a shot of the one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine at a mobile vaccination station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Russia has faced a surge in new infections blamed on the growing prevalence of the more contagious delta variant and low vaccine uptake. (AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva)

After climbing steadily since early July, the states virus-related hospitalizations in recent days ranged between 1,900 and 2,000, with 1,982 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds on Friday. Thats far below the pandemic peak of 5,082 on Jan. 11.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala.  State numbers show the overwhelming number of people hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

State Health Officer Scott Harris says Alabama had 1,230 virus deaths since April when the vaccine was widely available. About 91% of the deaths were among the unvaccinated.

There were 108 deaths, or about 9%, of deaths among people who are fully vaccinated. Harris says nearly all of those deaths were ealderly or had serious chronic health problems.

State officials provided the numbers as they try to stress that the vaccine lowers the risk of serious illness. The Alabama Hospital Association says 85% of the 2,900 people hospitalized for COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

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FILE - In this June 25, 2020 file photo, contact tracers work at Harris County Public Health contact tracing facility in Houston. Health investigators across the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts that were once seen as a pillar in the nations pandemic response.States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers that have been completely overwhelmed by surging coronavirus cases. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Tennessee classrooms and schools that face a surge in coronavirus cases and quarantines can request a temporary shift to remote instruction if their districts can show a need.

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Peggy Schwinn says while she remains committed to in-person instruction, schools and classrooms can seek a waiver to state Board of Education rules that prevent districts from unilaterally requiring students to implement remote learning.

The letter comes as some school districts in Tennessee were forced to close due to an increase in coronavirus cases among students, faculty and staff. Wilson County Schools says schools will close next week to help slow the current trend of positive cases and quarantines.

State Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said Wednesday that children make up 36% of Tennessees reported coronavirus cases. Tennessee ranked sixth in the country this week for new overall cases per capita, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins. The rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by about 2,200 in the past two weeks.

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PRISTINA, Kosovo  Kosovos government has postponed the start of school for two weeks and installed new restrictive measures to cope with a rise of coronavirus cases.

In August, the numbers increased significantly to about 2,000 new cases a day. On Saturday, there were 18 deaths and 1,891 confirmed cases.

FILE - In this July 28, 2021, file photo, Taro Kono, Japan's minister in charge of a huge vaccination campaign, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at his office in Tokyo. Kono promised Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021 a timely administering of booster shots for the coronavirus, as the nation aims to fully vaccinate its population by October or November. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

The government says the pre-university school year now will start Sept. 13. Public institutions will limit the number of people in the office, and there will be no gatherings of more than 50 people.

It also reimposes the overnight curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and only the main public service employees are exempt.

Sport and culture events can use only 10% to 30% of the seats and restaurants 70% of the outside seats. Masks are obligatory in all closed spaces and outdoors.

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MOSCOW  Russias state statistics agency shows a record 50,000 deaths in July were related to the coronavirus.

The report from the Rosstat agency says 50,421 people suffering from the coronavirus died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December.

However, the agency says only 38,992 deaths were directly attributed to the disease COVID-19. In another 5,206 deaths, the coronavirus was assessed as likely the main cause but that more investigation would be need; in 1,449 other cases the virus contributed to deaths but was not the main cause.

The report says Russia has registered a total of 215,265 virus-related deaths by the end of July  more than the 180,840 cited by the national coronavirus task force.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D.  Health officials across five states have linked 178 virus cases to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

In the three weeks since the rally kicked off, South Dakota health officials have reported 63 cases among rallygoers so far. The epicenter of the rally, Meade County, is reaching a per capita rate similar to the hardest-hit states of the South. Health officials in North Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota and Wisconsin all reported cases among people who attended the 10-day rally that attracted more than 500,000 people.

Health experts are worried that large gatherings across the Upper Midwest will feed a new wave of the virus.

This coronavirus forest fire will keep burning any human wood it can find, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. It will find you, and its so infectious.

The Black Hills regions largest hospital system, Monument Health, says hospitalizations from the virus rose from five to 78 this month. The hospital was bracing for more COVID-19 patients by converting rooms to intensive care units and reassigning staff.

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A new financial product aims to fill void for many Canadian workers retirement finances. That gap being having no workplace pension plan.

Opinion

A new financial product aims to fill void for many Canadian workers retirement finances. That gap being having no workplace pension plan.

Pensions are considered a pillar of retirement finances, particularly defined benefit pensions (DBs)  mostly offered in public sector jobs.

The golden goose of workplace pension, DBs offer steady, guaranteed payments of monthly income for life.

Thats in contrast to most private sector pension plans, typically defined contribution (DC) pensions where the employee and employer contribute over time, and whats left at retirement is a pool of investments from which to build an income.

Defined contribution plans are generally less desirable. Yet only about 30 per cent of Canadian workers have a DB, Statistics Canada data show. (Even fewer have a DC plan.)

That leaves more than six in 10 workers without a workplace pension  a figure growing with each passing decade.

In turn the financial industry has concocted many products to do what pensions do: provide guaranteed income. Most notably annuities fill this need. These are insurance products in which you turn over a sum of cash to an insurer who then provides a set payment for life.

Variations have evolved over the years, including guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits (GMWBs). These annuities come with additional benefits from an ability to provide income for a surviving spouse to the opportunity to increase the monthly benefit over time. These riders, as theyre called, dont come cheap.

In turn the knock against GMWBs are high fees.

Enter Purpose Investments Inc.s Longevity Pension Fund, marketed at "the Worlds First Income-for-Life Mutual Fund".

Its low-fee, and "effectively lets people insure against a very long life," says Fraser Stark, president of the Longevity Retirement Platform at Purpose Investments Inc, which offers this mutual fund product.

At first glance, the fund seems to offer a lot of upside to individuals retiring without a pension. Most notably it offers a potential 6.15 per cent distribution payment, about 1.5 to 2 percentage points more than most GMWBs. As an example, a retiree at age 65 investing $200,000 in the fund would receive about $12,500 per year until death, Stark says.

As mentioned fees are as low, starting at 0.6 per cent per year, a fraction of GMWB product fees (i.e. 2.75 per cent). Whats more, any remaining invested capital is returned to the estate upon death. Investors also can get back their remaining capital if they leave the fund. "Unlike almost any other lifetime income product, there is no difference in treatment between someone choosing to redeem and someone passing away," Stark says.

So if that individual investing $200,000 dies at age 70, the estate would likely receive $140,000 in remaining capital. Or if that same individual lives, but decides to cash out at 70, the amount of capital returned would also be $140,000.

How Purpose provides this flexibility is what makes the fund unique.

Investors are placed into age cohorts where investment returns  on a balanced portfolio of exchange-traded funds (ETFs)  are locked in as "longevity credits," Stark says.

So although those who die early or leave the fund get their remaining capital back, the returns on investment remain in the fund, benefiting remaining investors. The upside is these investors could see their monthly guaranteed payment increase. As well, if the funds underlying investments do better than the projected (exceeding returns of about 3.5 per cent annually after fees), the monthly benefit could also increase.

Yet the opposite applies should poorer than expected performance occur: the benefit could decrease.

Thats important to understand, say retirement planning experts.

For the pension-less worker, the fund is innovative and potentially useful, says Daryl Diamond, a Winnipeg retirement income planner, and author of Retirement for the Record: Planning Reliable Income for Your Lifetime ... to the Soundtrack of Your Life.

"It is encouraging Purpose is looking for unique and different solutions to address this issue of a lack of defined benefit pension," says the certified financial planner with Diamond Retirement Planning.

Yet he does have a bone to pick with how it is being marketed.

"If you see pension and income for life, you assume two things," he says. "One is it provides income for life, and second, with a pension, the value of monthly payments generally doesnt have the potential to decrease, but those two features are not truly present in this offering."

Getting past Purposes initial pitch, its marketing documents do make clear the distribution amount is not guaranteed. Other key nuances involve the return of capital for investors who leave or die. Diamond points out this amount too could be less than assumed if market returns are less than expected.

Winnipeg portfolio manager Grant White also has similar concerns.

"Another is you dont have control over your income." Often retired clients want more income paid from savings earlier in retirement when they are more active, says White, president of Endeavour Wealth Management.

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"This program works the opposite where the income seems like it will shoot up toward the end of life."

That may be attractive for individuals worried about running out of savings. As well, the Purpose fund may appeal to do-it-yourself investors, looking for steady, foundational income to add to guaranteed sources from Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security, he says.

"Its an interesting solution, but its not a silver bullet by any stretch," White adds.

As Diamond further notes, investors should consider alternatives before jumping aboard.

"Anyone looking at this needs to be familiar with its limitations," he adds.

"The bottom line is buyers need to be aware."
WASHINGTON (AP)  Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate Saturday.

President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it used a drone strike to kill a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate Saturday.

The strike came amid what the White House called indications that IS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation from Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as his deadline for completing the exit.

Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly announced.

The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days left in a final U.S. withdrawal after 20 years of war. U.S. Central Command provided few details; it said it believed its strike killed no civilians.

The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Central Command said the drone strike was conducted in Nangahar province against an IS member believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said.

It wasnt clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The airstrike came after Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. We will hunt you down and make you pay, he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

We have options there right now, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagons Joint Staff.

The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

"They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport, Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

Late Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including the New Ministry of Interior gate.

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one  at or near the Abbey Gate  followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Based on a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, a U.S. official said Friday. A suicide bomb typically carries five to 10 pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.

Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Bidens assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistans borders. The Pentagon also insists this so-called over the horizon capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades.

The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves difficult conversations.

Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for the militant group to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all American troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all forces out by September.

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Psaki said the next few days of the mission to evacuate Americans and others, including vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, will be the most dangerous period to date.

The White House said that as of Friday morning, about 12,500 people were airlifted from Kabul in the last 24 hours on U.S. and coalition aircraft; in the 12 hours that followed, another 4,200 people were evacuated. Psaki said about 300 Americans had departed and the State Department was working with about 500 more who want to leave. The administration has said it intends to push on and complete the airlift despite the terror threats.

Kirby told reporters the U.S. military is monitoring credible, specific Islamic State threats in real time.

We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts, Kirby said. He declined to describe details of any additional security measures being taken, including those implemented by the Taliban, around the airport gates and perimeter. He said there were fewer people in and around the gates Friday.

-

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Darlene Superville and Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it killed a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate with a drone strike in the group's eastern stronghold.

President Joe Biden pauses as he listens to a question about the bombings at the Kabul airport that killed at least 12 U.S. service members, from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP)  Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden's promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it killed a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate with a drone strike in the group's eastern stronghold.

The strike Saturday local time came amid what the White House called indications that IS planned to strike again as the U.S.-led evacuation from Kabul airport moved into its final days. Biden has set Tuesday as his deadline for completing the exit.

Biden authorized the drone strike and it was ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly announced. It was not immediately clear whether the targeted IS member was directly involved in Thursday's airport attack.

U.S. Central Command said the targeted individual, whose name and nationality were not released, was an IS planner" and that he was hit in Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan in eastern Afghanistan and was an early IS stronghold.

A U.S. official said Saturday that the targeted individual appeared to survive an initial drone strike aimed at the vehicle in which he was riding. A second strike killed him, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet publicly released.

The airstrike was launched from beyond Afghanistan less than 48 hours after the devastating Kabul attack that killed 13 Americans and scores of Afghans with just days left in a final U.S. withdrawal after 20 years of war. U.S. Central Command said it believed its strike killed no civilians.

The speed with which the U.S. military retaliated reflected its close monitoring of IS and years of experience in targeting extremists in remote parts of the world. But it also shows the limits of U.S. power to eliminate extremist threats, which some believe will have more freedom of movement in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in power.

Central Command said the targeted IS member was believed to be involved in planning attacks against the United States in Kabul. The strike killed one individual, spokesman Navy Capt. William Urban said.

It wasnt clear if the targeted individual was involved directly in the Thursday suicide blast outside the gates of the Kabul airport, where crowds of Afghans were desperately trying to get in as part of the ongoing evacuation.

The airstrike came after Biden declared Thursday that perpetrators of the attack would not be able to hide. We will hunt you down and make you pay, he said. Pentagon leaders told reporters Friday that they were prepared for whatever retaliatory action the president ordered.

We have options there right now, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagons Joint Staff.

The president was warned Friday to expect another lethal attack in the closing days of a frantic U.S.-led evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden's national security team offered a grim outlook.

"They advised the president and vice president that another terror attack in Kabul is likely, but that they are taking maximum force protection measures at the Kabul airport, Psaki said, echoing what the Pentagon has been saying since the bombing Thursday at Kabul airport.

Late Friday, the State Department again urged Americans to stay away from airport gates, including the New Ministry of Interior gate.

Few new details about the airport attack emerged a day later, but the Pentagon corrected its initial report that there had been suicide bombings at two locations. It said there was just one  at or near the Abbey Gate  followed by gunfire. The initial report of a second bombing at the nearby Baron Hotel proved to be false, said Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor of the Pentagon's Joint Staff; he attributed the mistake to initial confusion.

Based on a preliminary assessment, U.S. officials believe the suicide vest used in the attack, which killed at least 169 Afghans in addition to the 13 Americans, carried about 25 pounds of explosives and was loaded with shrapnel, a U.S. official said Friday. A suicide bomb typically carries five to 10 pounds of explosives, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary assessments of the bombing.

Biden still faces the problem over the longer term of containing an array of potential extremist threats based in Afghanistan, which will be harder with fewer U.S. intelligence assets and no military presence in the nation.

Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst and deputy staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she doubted Bidens assurances that the United States will be able to monitor and strike terror threats from beyond Afghanistans borders. The Pentagon also insists this so-called over the horizon capability, which includes surveillance and strike aircraft based in the Persian Gulf area, will be effective.

In an Oval Office appearance Friday, Biden again expressed his condolences to victims of the attack. The return home of U.S. military members' remains in coming days will provide painful and poignant reminders not just of the devastation at the Kabul airport but also of the costly way the war is ending. More than 2,400 U.S. service members died in the war and tens of thousands were injured over the past two decades.

The Marine Corps said 11 of the 13 Americans killed were Marines. One was a Navy sailor and one an Army soldier. Their names have not been released pending notification of their families, a sometimes-lengthy process that Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said involves difficult conversations.

Still, sorrowful details of those killed were starting to emerge. One Marine from Wyoming was on his first tour in Afghanistan and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks; another was a 20-year-old man from Missouri whose father was devastated by the loss. A third, a 20-year-old from Texas, had joined the armed services out of high school.

Biden ordered U.S. flags to half-staff across the country in honor of the 13.

They were the first U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan since February 2020, the month the Trump administration struck an agreement with the Taliban that called for the militant group to halt attacks on Americans in exchange for a U.S. agreement to remove all American troops and contractors by May 2021. Biden announced in April that he would have all forces out by September.

Psaki said the next few days of the mission to evacuate Americans and others, including vulnerable Afghans fleeing Taliban rule, will be the most dangerous period to date.

The White House said that as of Saturday morning, about 6,800 people were airlifted from Kabul in the past 24 hours on U.S. and coalition aircraft. Nearly 112,000 people have been airlifted over the last two weeks, according to the White House. The administration has said it intends to push on and complete the airlift despite the terrorist threats.

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Kirby told reporters the U.S. military is monitoring credible, specific Islamic State threats in real time.

We certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts, Kirby said. He declined to describe details of any additional security measures being taken, including those implemented by the Taliban, around the airport gates and perimeter. He said there were fewer people in and around the gates Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Darlene Superville and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the province where the drone strike took place is Nangarhar, not Nangahar
NEARLY two weeks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, hope is fading that the Mennonite Central Committees partners can resume programs there.

NEARLY two weeks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, hope is fading that the Mennonite Central Committees partners can resume programs there.

"There is a lot of fear, a greatly increased sense of desperation," Rebecca Burkholder said. Burkholder  with her husband, Blaine Derstine  directs MCCs programs in Afghanistan from their home base in Thailand.

The situation is different from more than a week ago, when the couple reported their partners had a sense of optimism for their future work. All of MCCs literacy, health, education and peace programs were put on pause in the hope of resuming in a couple of weeks. Now, that hope is diminished.

"People are feeling afraid and powerless," Burkholder said. "We sincerely hope we can once again serve with the people of Afghanistan, but there are no guarantees at this point."

"Things seemed more positive than what we are seeing now," Derstine said of the situation more than a week ago. "Back then, partners were really hopeful things would come around."

Now, he said, "theres panic in the air" and a decreased sense of security.

Partner staff members are still safe and staying home, they said.

"Our hearts break for them," said Burkholder. "What we can do for them is so limited."

MCC continues to monitor and assess the situation, Burkholder and Derstine said, adding they invite Canadians to pray for people in that country. "Remember them in your hearts," she said.

MCCs office in Winnipeg "has been inundated with phone calls and emails from concerned Manitobans who urgently want to help" people in Afghanistan, MCC Manitoba spokeswoman Allison Zacharias said.

"Many people who have contacted our office are devastated by the crisis in Afghanistan and want to know what they can do," she said.

It is unclear how MCC and other organizations will be included in the governments plan in terms of sponsoring Afghan refugees to come to Canada, MCC Canada spokeswoman Laura Kalmar said.

"We are inviting MCC supporters to contact their provincial MCC offices if theyre interested in sponsoring Afghan refugees," she said, adding the organization is "heartened" by the "many compassionate Canadians who want to reach out to welcome Afghan families."

Kaylee Perez is chairwoman of the Sponsorship Agreement Holders Council, which represents 130 groups that have agreements with the government to bring refugees to Canada, including MCC.

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Speaking from her office in Kitchener, Perez said they are still awaiting details from Ottawa about its special initiative.

While the council commends the government for the initiative, it is asking it to add people from Afghanistan to the 22,500 refugees Canada plans to allow into the country this year instead of subtracting from the existing number of people awaiting entry.

"There is a historic backlog in the system now," Perez said, noting there are 65,000 people waiting for decisions about their applications.

"We dont want people from Afghanistan to come at the cost of these vulnerable people."

Eight other groups in Manitoba hold sponsorship agreements with the Canadian government. Most of them are faith-based.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
Winnipeg is one of the top spenders on policing in the country  earmarking 27 per cent of its annual budget for law enforcement costs  yet clearance rates in the Manitoba capital trail behind those seen in many other Canadian cities.

Winnipeg is one of the top spenders on policing in the country  earmarking 27 per cent of its annual budget for law enforcement costs  yet clearance rates in the Manitoba capital trail behind those seen in many other Canadian cities.

Among the cases reported to police, people who commit violent crimes in Winnipeg have roughly 50-50 odds on finding themselves in handcuffs.

Over the past five years, the police clearance rate for violent crime in the city is 51 per cent, according to data recently released by Statistics Canada. For non-violent crimes, the five-year clearance rate is 24 per cent.

Winnipegs weighted clearance rate for all crimes  a datapoint calculated by Statistics Canada by factoring in a jurisdictions crime-severity index  is 34 per cent, which comes in four percentage points lower than the national average.

Among all 10 major cities the Free Press analyzed clearance rates for, Winnipeg tied for third-last, trailing behind only Vancouver and Calgary at 22 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively.

A spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Police Service referred the Free Press to the agencys 2020 annual report for additional information about clearance rates.

According to the report, 15 per cent of violent crimes in Winnipeg "cannot be solved because the victim will not identify the suspect," while 55 per cent of property crimes "do not have enough evidence to solve the event."

But such police-reported data provides only a snapshot into the rate of social transgression and criminality happening in any given community.

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada released its latest report on criminal victimization in Canada, which found that only 29 per cent of "incidents of victimization" were reported to the police in 2019.

Source: Statistics Canada

That means less than a third of crimes are being reported to police, and even when they are, only about one-third of them in Winnipeg lead to criminal charges  with only a subset of those cases later leading to convictions.

Among all crimes, sexual assault is the least likely to be reported to police, with only six per cent of incidents in 2019 leading to police reports.

Irvin Waller, a criminologist, victims advocate and professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa, said those numbers should be concerning for law enforcement and public policy-makers.

Police, fire and paramedic services swallow nearly half of Winnipeg's operating budget, leaving little for other civic departments Click to Expand JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Aggressive campaigning for more police funding fails to take into consideration the impact on taxpayers and the community at large, academics warn. Posted: 7:00 PM Aug. 20, 2021 Its there in the orange dots of death that spot the bark of trees. In the cratered back alleys and side streets. In the homeless encampments lining the banks of the rivers. Its there in the trash and used needles scattered in city parks. In the signs of decay and distress everywhere you look. And in the sounds of emergency sirens ripping through the air day and night. Read Full Story

"That is not a very good indicator of public confidence in policing," Waller said.

Data culled from successive WPS annual reports shows the number of sworn police officers in the city has been declining over the past five years while department funding increased.

There was a four per cent decline in sworn police officers in Winnipeg during the past five years  falling from 1,421 in 2016 to 1,356 in 2020.

At the same time, efforts to diversify the department appear to have hit a roadblock. The percentage of the overall police force that is female, Indigenous or a visible minority has remained stagnant during that period.

Meanwhile, the per capita costs of policing in Winnipeg have risen, consistently ranking higher than the national average. In 2019, per capita costs were $394 in Winnipeg and $317 nationally.

The percentage of policing costs that go towards salaries and benefits are also higher here. Across Canada, 81 per cent of policing costs go towards paycheques, compared to 85 per cent in Winnipeg.

The figure was even lower  77 per cent  among Ontario police departments.

Funding increases to the WPS in recent years have largely been eaten up by labour costs. The number of WPS employees making between $100,000 and $150,000 rose by 16 per cent during the past five years, jumping from 724 to 843.

During the same period, the number of police department staff making more than $150,000 rose from 14 to 52.

As of last year, 895 WPS employees were making $100,000 or more annually. An additional 486 employees earned between $75,000 and $99,999, making them eligible for inclusion on the City of Winnipegs annual salary disclosure.

The average salary for a Winnipeg police officer now sits at $122,000.

Defunding police uphill battle Efforts to reduce funding to the Edmonton Police Service illustrate the uphill battle defund activists and advocates face in other Canadian cities. In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd  a Black man murdered by ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020  efforts to defund or abolish the police picked up steam across the world. In Edmonton, city council voted that summer to reduce the budget of the EPS by $11 million over the course of two years  instead reallocating that money to supportive housing and other community services. It was one of many progressive changes approved by city council that summer. All told, Edmonton city council approved 20 initiatives aimed at reforming policing in the community. click to read more Efforts to reduce funding to the Edmonton Police Service illustrate the uphill battle defund activists and advocates face in other Canadian cities. In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd  a Black man murdered by ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020  efforts to defund or abolish the police picked up steam across the world. In Edmonton, city council voted that summer to reduce the budget of the EPS by $11 million over the course of two years  instead reallocating that money to supportive housing and other community services. It was one of many progressive changes approved by city council that summer. All told, Edmonton city council approved 20 initiatives aimed at reforming policing in the community. City council also expressed support for the idea that all public complaints about police should be handled by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, their provincial counterpart to the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba. The Edmonton Public School Division also suspended its school resource officer program  in which police officers are assigned to various schools  for the upcoming academic year, saying the future of the program was under review. Combined funding for police, community services, attractions, public transit and the fire department account for 51.8 per cent of Edmontons municipal budget. Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, funding for emergency services alone (police, fire and paramedic services) accounts for 45 per cent of the citys budget. But those efforts to reduce funding to the EPS came under threat in September, when Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu warned the municipality that if it gave into activist demands to defund the police, the province would respond. Madu told Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson in an open letter that if funding to the EPS was reduced, the province would look for ways to bypass the municipality and allocate fund directly to the police. In a subsequent interview with the National Post, Madu also hinted that if Edmonton moved to reduce police funding, the province would consider it a sign that the municipality did not need grant funding specifically designated for policing costs. In a past interview with the Free Press, Brian Kelcey, who served as a special adviser to former mayor Sam Katz, said circumstances such as Edmonton's and a similar one in British Columbia point to the important role provincial legislation plays with police funding. Any conversation about reallocating funding from municipal police services must also take the provincial government into account, Kelcey said, because the province has powers to override funding decisions that come from city councils, in certain cases.  Ryan Thorpe Close

While reforms to law enforcement could help lower criminality in limited ways, Waller said public policy-makers need to focus on tackling the things that lead to crime in the first place, since policing is a reactive strategy downstream of root causes.

"There are some things you can do with policing, but these are quite limited and expensive  particularly in Canada, where salaries have gone up so quickly. If you dont tackle the causes, youre going to end up spending on reactive responses," Waller said.

"The first thing we actually need is a plan. Thats what a city, which actually wants to reduce violence, starts with."

A proactive approach to reducing crime in Winnipeg would require funding from all three levels of government, Waller said, as well as an ability to move beyond disproven notions that simply increasing the number of police officers on the street will lower crime rates.

"Too many cities do not have any strategic plan for how they are going to reduce street violence and violence against women. If they did, they would be looking at what are the cost-effective ways and sustainable ways to reduce these things," he said.

"We actually know a lot  and its very solid  about how to reduce street violence. Its very clear to anyone who takes a few minutes to look into the research what a city like Winnipeg should be doing."

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe

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Its difficult for Drew McGillawee to pinpoint just one favourite part of his 18 summers at Camp Massad, but his biggest takeaway is that attending camp shaped him into the person he is today.

Its difficult for Drew McGillawee to pinpoint just one favourite part of his 18 summers at Camp Massad, but his biggest takeaway is that attending camp shaped him into the person he is today.

"Camp is the place that allowed me to be myself and allowed me to come out of my shell," the 25-year-old Winnipegger said.

supplied Camp Massad in Winnipeg Beach.

"Any job that Ive had outside of camp is because of all the skills that I gained at camp, and all of my best friends are from my experiences at camp."

This summer, McGillawee acted as director of planning and programming at the Jewish summer camp in Winnipeg Beach. The job allowed him to help attendees have the same formative experiences that he did.

"I wouldnt be anywhere without my experiences at camp," he said.

This year, however, was "definitely different than normal."

Though not every session ran this summer, the camp was able to rent out cabins out to families, and run leadership training for the two oldest age groups. That will prepare the campers for potential roles on staff next summer when the rest of the overnight sessions run again.

McGillawee said summer camp is a "vital experience" to help young people grow by fostering creativity, teamwork and problem-solving help them become future leaders. Many of Camp Massads campers rely on the Sunshine Fund.

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This summer, the Sunshine Fund received $30,000 and was able to send 140 kids to camp.

Though attendance is significantly lower than in past years  in which the fund would typically send 600 kids to one of the 36 Manitoba camps  program manager Dana Moroz said she hopes theyll surpass that number next year when overnight camps should be allowed to reopen.

While day camps created the opportunity for many kids to continue to go to camp, it also meant families who lived farther away were excluded because they couldnt pick up and drop off children each day.

Moroz is thankful donors have continued to be generous even camps adjusted to restrictions.

"We are super grateful for them seeing us through, and we hope that in 2022 things will resume, and well be back to our normal numbers."

gillian.brown@freepress.mb.ca
Former Tory health minister Heather Stefanson told Manitobans on May 18 the provinces hospital system had enough intensive-care unit capacity to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients during the third wave.

Former Tory health minister Heather Stefanson told Manitobans on May 18 the provinces hospital system had enough intensive-care unit capacity to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients during the third wave.

The next day, Shared Health announced three ICU patients had to be airlifted to a Thunder Bay hospital because they could not be treated here.

It was the start of one of the worst health-care crises in Manitoba history. Shared Health flew 57 ICU patients to other provinces in the following weeks. Manitoba was the only province in Canada to do so.

Three days later, Stefanson went on medical leave.

She was appointed health minister in January. Under her watch, the province had more than four months to prepare for the third wave, which would have included ensuring there was adequate hospital capacity to handle a surge in patients. She failed.

Under her watch, the province had more than four months to prepare for the third wave, which would have included ensuring there was adequate hospital capacity to handle a surge in patients. She failed.

In the weeks leading up to the third wave, multiple infectious-disease and medical experts strongly and repeatedly urged Stefanson to impose strict public-health measures to avoid a spike in cases and hospitalizations (which were occurring in neighbouring provinces). Stefanson refused. The expert advice was ignored until it was too late. Many Manitobans died unnecessarily as a result.

Stefanson made few public appearances in the weeks leading up to the third wave. She was largely invisible. As the minister of health, she was supposed to be the lead member of cabinet fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, yet she was nowhere to be seen most days. She regularly turned down interview requests and had little, if anything, to say publicly. Thats not leadership.

Stefanson now wants to be the premier of Manitoba and the vast majority of the Progressive Conservative caucus is behind her. Meanwhile, the partys executive council has crafted leadership election rules that favour Stefanson and crowd out most other interested and qualified people from running.

MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES As the minister of health, Heather Stefanson was supposed to be the lead member of cabinet fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, yet she was nowhere to be seen most days.

The former health minister and many of her caucus colleagues have been organizing for weeks, if not months, in preparation for the leadership contest, including during the third wave. Having the support of at least 70 per cent of caucus (who have the ability to sell thousands of memberships on behalf of Stefanson) almost a week before the rules were announced doesnt materialize overnight. This was in the works for months.

The leadership rules give prospective candidates only three weeks to sign up the required 1,000 new party members (or renew existing memberships) and raise the $25,000 fee to enter the race something the Stefanson team began working on long before the rules were announced. There are only two more weeks after that to sign up new members to vote in the leadership race; all this during a pandemic and on the eve of a fourth wave. Party members deserved more time and opportunity to pick a new leader.

The party elite decided long ago that Stefanson, a blue-blood Tory from one of the richest parts of Winnipeg, would be crowned to replace outgoing leader Brian Pallister. The plan offered them a smooth leadership transition that benefits party insiders, while forgoing the critical need to renew the party.

Tories must decide whether they want a failed health minister and a former deputy premier with close ties to Pallister as their leader going into the 2023 general election.

This is a party in desperate need of renewal. Even Families Minister Rochelle Squires, who was considering a run for leadership but bowed out this week, wrote in her statement that "collectively, I feel weve lost our way."

Fortunately for party members, the plan has been thwarted to some degree (two other candidates have since unofficially entered the race: former Conservative MP Shelly Glover and Tory MLA Shannon Martin). In a one-member, one-vote contest, members elect the next leader, not caucus.

Tories must decide whether they want a failed health minister and a former deputy premier with close ties to Pallister as their leader going into the 2023 general election. They have to figure out if a leader anointed by the party elite, who has achieved very little during her five years in cabinet, is their best strategy to beat the NDP (who have a staggering 33-point lead over the Tories in Winnipeg, where elections are won and lost).

It sounds like a losing strategy.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
Measures to exclude unvaccinated Manitobans from activities such as sporting events and dining at restaurants will only make that group more defiant and entrenched in their opposition to getting the shot, Winkler Mayor Martin Harder predicts.

Measures to exclude unvaccinated Manitobans from activities such as sporting events and dining at restaurants will only make that group more defiant and entrenched in their opposition to getting the shot, Winkler Mayor Martin Harder predicts.

Winkler and nearby areas hold the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the province.

"The heavy-handedness is the problem," Harder said. "In the eyes of the people who are not vaccinated, this has stepped over the line."

On Friday, Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, and Health Minister Audrey Gordon announced masks would be mandated in all indoor public places starting Saturday.

Furthermore, restaurants, movie theatres, gyms, sporting events, concerts, casinos and other recreational facilities will require attendees to be double-vaccinated. Attendees will have to flash QR codes, or vaccine passports, to enter such spaces as of Sept. 3.

"It is a human right to decide what to put into your body and what you don't," Harder said. "To some, it is a very serious issue; to others, it is not."

He encouraged his community to be respectful and kind.

"We urge people to comply with mask use so that we can avoid the new spread that may be coming," he said.

Harder added he hopes the community will remember employers and their staff don't make the rules; they're enforcing provincially mandated orders in local businesses.

"There's definitely going to be a lot of controversy between customers and our staff," said Vanessa Petkau, the supervisor of Mulligans Restaurant and Lounge in Winkler.

Petkau and her co-workers have been yelled at and subjected to rude comments while trying to enforce public health measures.

"We don't want to go through it again, but what can you do?" she said. "We're just trying to do our job by making it safe for everyone."

It's hard to tell how much business will drop off, but it could be marginal, Petkau said.

Dino Camire, the owner of One Family Fitness Centre in Winnipeg, was prepared for the measures, including the reinstatement of the mask mandate.

"We knew this was coming. We've seen it in other jurisdictions," he said.

He chose to keep a mask-wearing requirement in his gym throughout the summer, even when the province rolled back restrictions on mask use.

"Many of our members are health-conscious," Camire said. "It wouldn't make any sense to take it off just to exercise if they're wearing it everywhere else, because they're looking out for their fellow Manitobans."

Loren Remillard, the president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the changes with open arms.

"The quicker we can get to herd immunity, the sooner we can eliminate the need for vaccine passports, but we're not there yet," he said.

The chamber was involved in discussions about the new public health measures.

"We believe that this will be a strong measure to  especially for those that are vaccine hesitant  to say, 'Look, there's fewer places I can go, fewer things I can do as an unvaccinated person... I better get my vaccination,'" Remillard said.

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Additionally, reinstating the mask mandate makes running a business easier because customers understand the provincial government enacted the rule, Remillard said.

The Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association had input into public health orders, said CEO Shaun Jeffrey.

"We're not blind to the fact that this is going to cause a little more strain on our industry, but it's going to cause far less strain... than a full lockdown," he said.

It's better to take a proactive approach than be devastated by a fourth wave of COVID-19 driven by the delta variant, Jeffrey said.

"We need Manitobans' help more than ever," he said about the restaurant industry, adding he hopes people who are eligible to be vaccinated but haven't yet will get their jabs.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca
The amount of precipitation in Manitoba skyrocketed this month compared to last, leaving some farmers with brighter pastures and renewed hope, while others say the moisture is too late.

The amount of precipitation in Manitoba skyrocketed this month compared to last, leaving some farmers with brighter pastures and renewed hope, while others say the moisture is too late.

"Everything was brown, brown, brown, but now it's like a different world out here," said Tom Johnson, a cattle farmer in the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent. "Everything's green. The grass is growing a little bit... We can hang on a little longer."

Winnipeg alone received 128.4 mm of rain in August as of Saturday morning, according to Environment Canada data. Already, the province's capital has seen over 15 times the amount of rain it did in July. Last month, just 8.5 mm fell.

Johnson had considered selling some of his 120 cows  as many producers already have amid the summer's drought  but newly green pastures have left his cattle fed and his worries momentarily eased.

"I was calling it a million dollar rain the other day because it saves a lot of people," Johnson said.

However, the farmer's two wells are still dry. His field doesn't have any sitting water; everything has soaked into the ground. Johnson is hoping for a "good old-fashioned winter" with average snowfall and spring runoff.

"If we don't get it next year, it could be worse than this year," he said. "You might see the rest of the (cattle farmers) that are hanging on selling off everything."

Bill Campbell, the president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, is now looking for clearer weather to continue harvest. The rain was good for forages and replenishing moisture in the soil, but it was needed much earlier for cereal and forage crops, he said.

"For the most part, the rain has come too late," Campbell said. "There may be limited benefits for some of the later season crops... but some of them have even suffered damage that they will not recover from."

So far, the rain this August has not been the most recorded for the month in Manitoba. In August of 1985, Winnipeg saw 218 mm, according to data from Environment Canada.

"For most of the farming community, I don't think they would consider it a wet August yet," Campbell said. "It was a significant amount of rain, (but) because we were so dry, it disappeared fairly easily."

He said the wet weather has been good for people's spirits  after a parched July, it's nice to know rain will fall.

Campbell's family has farmed in Minto, Man. for a collective 140 years. He said 2021s extremes have been difficult to navigate.

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"It's not unique, but it is one of the most challenging years that I've encountered," he said.

The drought this summer led to wildfires blazing throughout Manitoba. In July, over 150 burned at the same time.

Russell Loewen, a livestock and vegetable farmer in Howden, Man., said Friday's rain left puddles on his land  the first in a while.

"Most of my crops now probably have enough (rain) to finish off their lifecycle," he said.

Loewen added the groundwater could still use a top up, and more moisture will be necessary for next year.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca
Only two customers had stopped by the knock em off game in the two hours the fairgrounds had been open.

Only two customers had stopped by the "knock em off" game in the two hours the fairgrounds had been open.

So 15-year-old Eric Bonas, who was working at one of his first jobs, beckoned passersby to try their luck  $5 for two shots.

"Two people played so fair, and none won, so maybe you could be the first one," he says.

Neither of the players was successful at knocking over the three stacked plastic cups. They failed to win one of dozens of identical stuffed animals in the carnival barkers stand, but Bonas earned a tip for his trouble.

On the opening night of the Fall Fair, the Red River Exhibition Associations first carnival in two years, it poured rain after a summer of drought. Despite the poor weather, chief executive officer Garth Rogerson, is upbeat about the pandemic-tweaked event, where only those whove been twice-vaccinated against COVID-19, along with children under 12 accompanied by an immunized adult, are allowed in.

MIKE SUDOMA / Winnipeg Free Press Attendees needed umbrellas to enjoy the Red River Exhibitions Autumn Fair, Friday night.

"For the last couple of weeks, people have been saying the droughts over, the Ex is in town," Rogerson says with a chuckle. "We dont like to joke about that, but it certainly is disheartening... but thats why we go 11 days."

There are always rainy days at the regular Red River Ex every June. Two years without an event have been tough on the associations coffers, as well as all the businesses that normally work the summer fair.

"Were looking forward to 10 good days," Rogerson says, noting the plan is to run a fall carnival next year, too. "Were here, and were going to hope for the best."

Rogerson says there was a lineup outside the gate just before the grounds opened at 5 p.m., amid heavy rain.

On Friday, there was a steady stream of families, teens and couples who braved the rain as they waited in line for Starship Invaders, a spinning ride in which thrill-seekers are peeled to the outside wall while music blares. Fair-goers who have missed the corn dog, pizza and candy stands wont be disappointed. The event will go on rain or shine: horse shows are prepared, the bands are booked.

A cover band plays The Devil Went Down to Georgia to a small crowd, most in disposable rain ponchos, holding umbrellas. At the entrance to the stage, one of four, theres a hand sanitizer station  dozens dot the grounds, and each riders hands are sprayed down before riding the Zipper, the ferris wheel and the big swinging boat.

MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS CEO of the Red River Ex, Garth Rogerson: Were here, and were going to hope for the best.

It almost feels normal, apart from the glaring differences: the hand sanitizer stations, the masks on the faces of gate attendants who check vaccination status and sell tickets to rides. No one pats down attendees at the security gate, but they do wave metal-detecting wands over each person. There wont be any indoor events this year, and attendees are asked to wear masks in the washrooms. This year, the big American carnival ride operator couldnt get across the border. Instead, two local shops are running the show.

Ken Fransoo, 64, took his teenage daughter and her friend out on opening night. He figures shes been cooped up too long  getting tired of sitting in the boat, fishing with her dad.

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"This is fantastic, out, being able to see other people," he says. "Its been a long time, a long year-and-a-half. Its really nice to be able to do something."

Fransoo says hes concerned about the virus, of course. But everyone at the fair is double-vaccinated.

"Im fairly comfortable... (as safe) as you can be."

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
People fear for their lives every time theres a knock at the door, loved ones are here one day and dead the next, the constant threat of violence.

People fear for their lives every time theres a knock at the door, loved ones are here one day and dead the next, the constant threat of violence.

These themes have become a part of Winnipegger Mushtaqu Rahmans day since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

"Honestly, every day I get 100 calls coming from back home. Please help us, theyre going to kill my son. Please help us, theyre going to do this," said Rahman, who arrived in Winnipeg as a government-assisted refugee in 2004.

"Im depressed, stressed out because of these (calls). I cant work. All of my thinking goes to them, how I can help out?"

Rahman is one of many Winnipeggers who watch and worry as their loved ones in Afghanistan try to survive the Taliban takeover. Many are trying to escape the country. On Thursday, Canada halted its evacuation flights out of the country after rescuing 3,700 Canadian nationals and refugees in the past few weeks. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to forge ahead with his governments goal to resettle 20,000 Afghans in Canada.

Rahmans siblings, cousins and 92-year-old father remain in the country.

"Im not thinking only about my family, I think about all my community in Winnipeg. Everybody has family, cousins, theyre all in a very bad situation right now," he said.

Earlier this week, Rahman spoke during a news conference organized by the provincial NDP. The party called on the Progressive Conservative government to advocate for fast-tracking evacuations from Afghanistan.

"This is the time to be a good human," he said. "We are human. We need to help each other."

The process of resettling Afghans in Canada is complicated, but possible, said Ariana Yaftali, co-founder of the non-profit Afghan-Canadian Womens Organization. Groups in Winnipeg and beyond are willing to sponsor Afghans, but it is the federal governments responsibility to implement emergency immigration policies to make it happen.

"What we are trying to do is, with various settlement agencies, we are partnering to let the government know that we are available here, we can do this," she said.

The rapid Taliban takeover has left thousands without any option to get out of the country and the Taliban controls the borders, Yaftali said.

"We feel very devastated, betrayed, and I think abandoned would be the right thing to say because thats what happened. And right now, thats my concern and the communitys concern," she said.

"I dont care about the leaders. I dont care about the Taliban. I sincerely care for women and children and men that are going to be targeted."

She has daily conversations with people in Winnipeg seeking advice on how to get their loved ones to safety.

"We are waiting for the government to give us our green light. And we will raise our voice," she said. "The difference between me and those women who are stuck in Afghanistan is that I can raise my voice. They cant."

Bashir Faqiri has planned a rally at the Manitoba legislature today at 2 p.m. He hopes it will be a peaceful way for Winnipeggers  with or without a connection to Afghanistan  to raise their voice.

"People that I run into every single day at work, friends, have no idea whats going on," said Faqiri, who immigrated to Winnipeg with his family as an infant in 2001.

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"My main idea behind this rally is to raise awareness to let people know that just because we have it good here in Canada, doesnt mean somewhere else is going to be just as good."

The Afghan community in Winnipeg is trying to figure out how to support those trapped in Afghanistan, but news is changing so rapidly its been impossible to put together a concrete plan, he said.

"Its definitely a scramble, thats the best way to explain it, because were just trying to figure out whats the best ideal way to approach this right now," he said.

He said hes reached out to every MLA in the province requesting they pressure the federal government to provide more support in Afghanistan.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
Police took into custody the man suspected of sexually assaulting a teenage girl on the Red River trail near Churchill High School hours after asking for the public's help to find him.

Police took into custody the man suspected of sexually assaulting a teenage girl on the Red River trail near Churchill High School hours after asking for the public's help to find him.

Jordan Andrew Bruyere, 29 of Winnipeg, has been charged with sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference  a charge laid when the victim is under age 16.

Jordan Andrew Bruyere, 29 of Winnipeg, has been charged with sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference  a charge laid when the victim is under age 16. (Police handout)

The police service released surveillance video of the suspect on Tuesday, and received a flood of responses from the public, Const. Rob Carver told reporters Friday.

Police said earlier this month that the girl was walking on the river trail around 3:45 a.m. on Aug. 8, when a man grabbed her and seriously sexually assaulted her. The teen was able to free herself and ran for help.

Later that day, a woman in her 20s was jogging on the trail near Harkness Avenue at around 6 p.m., when a man came up from the riverbank and assaulted her. The woman screamed for help and escaped.

Investigators have probed five sex attacks in the area this year, Carver told the Free Press.

There have been other assaults and attempted robberies on the trail this year. At this point, it remains unclear whether those incidents are connected to the sex assaults.

Police said differences in the details of the attacks were such that investigators didn't initially look for a single suspect.

Carver was asked whether Bruyere is a suspect in the other sex assaults.

"At the moment, weve only laid charges regarding the incident at Churchill High School. We are certainly looking at the fact that he would fit profiles and likely, possibly be linked to the other river trail assaults. We do not have enough evidence at this point to lay those charges," he said. "We had previously released that we were investigating a series of assaults... I can say that with help from the public weve been able to make some... headway."

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Police have not received other reports of sex crimes on the trail since their public announcement in early August.

In 2017, Bruyere was sentenced to just under two years in jail after pleading guilty to robbing a Cavalier Drive convenience store while he was armed with an imitation handgun.

Court heard Bruyere, who is Indigenous, had a "chaotic" and nomadic upbringing marked by struggles with alcohol and drug addictions. Bruyere owed a drug debt to a street gang and robbed the store in an act of desperation, his lawyer told court.

 with files from Dean Pritchard

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
If Manitoba's political and public health leaders have shown us anything through the interminable pandemic, it has been a chronic failure to respond urgently and effectively to new threats. Friday served as the most recent case in point.

If Manitoba's political and public health leaders have shown us anything through the interminable pandemic, it has been a chronic failure to respond urgently and effectively to new threats. Friday served as the most recent case in point.

Just three weeks after removing the indoor mask mandate and ending restrictions on unvaccinated Manitobans, Health Minister Audrey Gordon and Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, confirmed Friday that both measures are back.

The mask mandate for indoor public places goes into effect Saturday at 12 a.m. Restrictions on unvaccinated Manitobans  who will be prohibited from attending indoor and outdoor concerts and sporting events, restaurants and bars, casinos and bingo halls, fitness centres and indoor recreational facilities  take effect at the stroke of midnight Sept. 3.

Manitoba is justified in applying more pressure on the unvaccinated. Similar restrictions are being implemented rapidly throughout the world to underline the threat posed by those people who, for whatever weak reason, continue to resist COVID-19 vaccines.

And, along with requirements that all public-facing provincial civil servants  including health-care workers, teachers and support staff in both health and education  be fully vaccinated, the new restrictions on what the unvaccinated can do and where they can go should help to prompt some of them to get with the program.

Manitoba is justified in applying more pressure on the unvaccinated.

However, to see the folly in the Pallister government's approach, you need to take stock of what was missing from the new orders.

Although bar and restaurant patrons do need to be fully vaccinated, the people who work there do not.

You also do not have to be fully vaccinated to shop in non-essential businesses, attend faith-based services and  most importantly  there are no restrictions of any kind on social gatherings. As was the case in previous pandemic waves, the unmasked mingling in basements, great rooms and backyards presents an enormous potential for outbreaks. Particularly if you throw a few unvaccinated people into the mix.

In keeping with a tried, true and muddled communications strategy, neither Roussin nor Gordon could explain why exceptions were being made in the most recent public health orders. The best Roussin could muster was a repeated reference to these being "the rules that we'll bring in for now."

The uneven and untimely application of restrictions, along with an insistence on using half-measures when more forceful restrictions are justified, are now the unmistakable hallmarks of Manitoba's pandemic response. It's a strategy that has not only been repeatedly decried by scientists and public health experts outside government, it has also produced two of North America's deadliest outbreaks of COVID-19.

ALEX LUPUL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Just three weeks after removing the indoor mask mandate and ending restrictions on unvaccinated Manitobans, Health Minister Audrey Gordon and Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, confirmed Friday that both measures are back.

To describe the Manitoba approach as incorrigible doesn't capture the magnitude of willfully blind obstinance at work. The first time you make a mistake, that signifies a deeply flawed approach. When you keep making the same mistakes, you get increasingly closer to incompetence.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is extremely contagious, airborne and primarily, although not exclusively, transmitted between people in indoor locations. Any indoor location. Despite this irrefutable scientific reality, the Pallister government has consistently allowed some indoor locations greater liberties than others based on who uses them and what they are doing.

Church-goers will make a strong argument that gathering with like-minded community members for a celebration of faith is different and possibly even more essential than visiting a movie theatre, casino or attending a Jets game. And they're right.

But in epidemiological terms, all these places present the same risk of transmission. Allowing some of these places to welcome unvaccinated people, but not others, is inconsistent and risky. Worse, it's confusing and unfair to the gross majority of people who have been courageously compliant with previous public health orders.

The story of this pandemic has always been about the struggle between people who willingly did the right thing  wore masks, resisted risky social interactions, accepted vaccinations  and those who are either too defiant or too lazy to do their part.

The story of this pandemic has always been about the struggle between people who willingly did the right thing  wore masks, resisted risky social interactions, accepted vaccinations  and those who are either too defiant or too lazy to do their part.

The social and economic restrictions we have been forced to employ to control COVID-19 may have started as the front line of defence against the virus. But now, on the precipice of a fourth wave, these restrictions are the price we all pay for the stubborn constituency who continue to throw caution to the wind.

As of Friday, there were still 172,000 eligible but unvaccinated Manitobans (12 and over) who have not had their first vaccine dose. If five per cent of those people (about 8,000) were to get moderately or severely sick, and require hospital admission, our health-care system would collapse into a cloud of dust.

You would think that given the number of unvaccinated Manitobans, and the threat posed by the more highly contagious delta variant, anyone and everyone involved in the provincial government's pandemic response knows that making non-sensical, anti-scientific exceptions for certain groups or types of indoor facilities no longer works.

You would think that, but you'd be wrong. In the face of a new threat from delta, Manitoba is once again applying a strategy that has repeatedly failed, in the hope that this time, things are going to work out.

This is clearly a government that would rather be lucky than good. And right now, it's neither.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

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Manitobans who are not immunized against COVID-19 will be prohibited from dining out and attending many public activities under new health orders designed to boost the province's vaccination rate and prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.

Manitobans who are not immunized against COVID-19 will be prohibited from dining out and attending many public activities under new health orders designed to boost the province's vaccination rate and prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.

Starting Saturday, Manitobans will be required to wear masks in indoor public places, and as of Sept. 3, only fully immunized Manitobans will be able to take part in certain events and activities.

"We are introducing these measures to help protect people across the province and to ensure the health care system is not overwhelmed by a fourth wave of COVID-19," Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Friday.

"The emergence of the delta variant has changed things significantly," Gordon said at a news conference with chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin. "Now public health officials tell us the pandemic is one of the unvaccinated," she said.

The provincial government wants to ensure the health-care system isnt overwhelmed by a fourth wave, says Health Minister Audrey Gordon (Alex Lupul / Winnipeg Free Press)

In Manitoba, 406,926 people are not vaccinated  including 229,024 who are under 12 and are too young to be immunized, Gordon said.

"We need to do everything we can to protect them from COVID-19, especially as they return to school," Gordon said.

The mask mandate kicks in Saturday but the province decided to hold off imposing the vaccine requirement for events and services until Sept. 3 to give businesses time to have protocols for checking vaccine passports.

"These orders are here to try to reduce the transmission of the virus and the need for further lockdowns," Roussin said.

"Ensuring only fully vaccinated people take part in some of these higher-risk activities is one such method of doing that." Dancing in nightclubs will be allowed again, for instance, but only the fully vaccinated will be allowed in and they'll have to wear masks when they're on the dance floor.

Places of worship, however, will not require attendees to be fully vaccinated.

Roussin said public health knows they're at risk for transmission of the virus but places of worship have always been treated differently under the orders.

"There is some difference," he said, noting places of worship have constitutional protections that need to be considered and have capacity restrictions and other protocols in place.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin encouraged private businesses to consider mandating vaccines. (Alex Lupul / Winnipeg Free Press)

While those who attend many other activities and facilities do need to be fully vaccinated, the orders don't require businesses to make sure workers are vaccinated, Roussin said.

He encouraged private businesses to consider mandating vaccines. More than 177,000 unvaccinated Manitobans are eligible to be immunized, he said

"We need as many Manitobans as soon as possible to do so in order to reduce the impact of this coming fourth wave," he said. The vaccination requirement includes those attending indoor recreational activities including pools and ice rinks, with the exception of youth sports.

"We know the impact of these restrictions, especially on their mental health, especially for youth," Roussin said. "For now, we want to be able to offer these activities to all youth," he said. "If we see a lot of transmission in these settings, we may have to change that."

Click to Expand Membership has its privileges As of Sept. 3, there will be new requirements for Manitobans to be fully immunized to participate in certain events and activities, including:  indoor and outdoor ticketed sporting events and concerts  indoor theatre/dance/symphony events  restaurants (indoor and patio dining)  nightclubs and all other licensed premises  casinos, bingo halls and VLT lounges  movie theatres  fitness centres, gyms and indoor sporting and recreational facilities (excluding youth recreational sport)  organized indoor group recreational classes and activities, and indoor recreational businesses Children 11 and under who are not eligible to be immunized will be able to attend events and activities with a fully immunized adult.

Earlier this week, the province announced that all designated provincial public service workers who have contact with vulnerable populations, especially children, must be fully immunized by Oct. 31. Those who are not will have to produce proof of a negative test result up to three times a week, Roussin said. Undergoing the invasive nostril swab test several times a week may persuade the unvaccinated to get immunized.

"We're confident this is going to encourage vaccine uptake," Roussin said. Details about who will pay for mandated COVID-19 testing for holdouts are still being worked out, he said.

"The great majority of our newly identified cases are unvaccinated," Roussin said. On Friday, 26 of the 31 people who tested positive for the virus had not been fully vaccinated, he said.

"In Southern Health region today, 13 of 14 cases were not immunized. These numbers are even higher for ICU admissions. Very few who are immunized require ICU admission," Roussin said.

"We're concerned," Manitoba's top doctor said of the Southern Health region, which has the lowest vaccination rates in the province. "We're going to take the steps necessary," he said.

The province is looking at "regional measures" to address the low vaccination rate. "There's nothing confirmed," said Roussin, who indicated public health officials will visit the region Monday. He didn't specify what they will do there.

Last summer, before there were vaccines, the province introduced its colour-coded pandemic response system. It was supposed to allow the province to manage the virus by imposing restrictions on regions that were hot spots and avoiding the need for provincewide shutdowns. That regional approach was tried in Prairie Mountain and the Northern health regions when outbreaks occurred but was thwarted by the ability of Manitobans to travel from region to region spreading the virus.

NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara questioned the province's efforts to encourage vaccine uptake in Southern Health.

Masks will be mandatory in all indoor public spaces as of Saturday at 12:01 a.m. (Alex Lupul / Winnipeg Free Press files)

"I do think that there needs to be a stronger emphasis placed on actively engaging and creatively engaging with the communities, and take additional steps to protect folks from this deadly virus," Asagwara said. "Maybe conversations are being had that we're not aware of, but certainly, to date, there is no indication there's been an aggressive, serious effort to engage folks in a way that is spent meeting their needs," the MLA said.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the province didn't do a great job of promoting vaccine uptake.

"They've kept saying, 'well, you have a right to refuse' instead of emphasizing how incredible the vaccines are," he said Friday.

"The other thing that they have not explained well enough is that when you are running a hospital or a school, you cannot have people in that hospital or school unvaccinated. It's not safe. It's not safe for them. It's not safe for the kids and it's not safe for patients. And you know, people are saying 'I have a right. I have a right,'" Lamont said. "Yeah, but it's not just about them."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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As far as one local student leader is concerned, Ottawas decision not to host polling stations on post-secondary campuses during the federal election is a disservice to Canadas democratic process.

As far as one local student leader is concerned, Ottawas decision not to host polling stations on post-secondary campuses during the federal election is "a disservice to Canadas democratic process."

Alexandra Koslock, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students chapter in Manitoba, said she was disheartened to learn this week that Elections Canada will not run ballot boxes at colleges or universities.

It was during fall 2019 that Koslock, a recent graduate of the University of Winnipeg, cast her first federal vote. She did so at a poll on campus, after running into peers who were promoting the option and encouraging turnout.

"Its very sad for students. We know that having polling stations on campus increases accessibility for voter turnout," she said Friday. "We see this as a disservice to Canadas democratic process, especially in a year where millennials make up the largest voting block across the country."

The University of Manitoba, U of W and Red River College all ran polls during the 43rd general election. The stations, which are part of the Vote on Campus program, the product of a successful 2015 pilot to increase youth participation, attracted 977, 819 and 465 voters, respectively, in 2019.

On Wednesday, Elections Canada posted on Twitter the program is being suspended "due to the challenges brought on by the pandemic and the minority government situation." In response to follow-up queries, the agency said it could not give school administrators firm dates to help them plan because of the snap election.

(A U of M spokesperson said the school was notified about Elections Canadas stance last October.)

Political scientist Felix Mathieu called the snap election excuse "shady," given a fall general election was widely predicted.

"The decision of not having polling stations on campuses, the impact of this, is huge. It really concerns me," said the assistant professor of politics at U of W.

Mathieu is worried that cancelling polls designed to make voting convenient for students will affect turnout  but also, about how the absence of a regular campaign on campuses could shape future habits and turnout, given students construct their worldview and political identity at university.

He added the New Democrats, who rely on the youth vote more than other parties, will likely lose votes because the polls are closed.

In 2019, 54 per cent of eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 cast ballots; by comparison, 79 per cent of the 65- to 74-year-old population voted.

The biggest barrier to improving turnout next month is that COVID-19 has heightened apathy, said Brendan Scott, president of Manitobas largest students union. The 2021 U of M students union election, during which Scott was elected, had historically low turnout.

Scott is not that concerned about the loss of campus polls, noting an estimated 70 per cent of U of M students will be studying at home this fall.

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"Students are very much less engaged in general because there havent been any in-person events or any real events within the past year and a half," he said, adding the union will encourage students to vote via social media.

The Canadian Federation of Students has launched its Generation Vote campaign to outline party policies and promote ballot logistics.

Koslock said students are waiting to be shown that they are, in fact, a priority, adding she hopes Elections Canada will confirm details on how it will make voting accessible to youth in the coming days.

Among the key issues for young voters are affordable post-secondary education, pandemic relief policies and climate change.

Options for casting a ballot this year include voting early at an assigned polling station or by special ballot, either via mail or at an Elections Canada office, or on Sept. 20 at ones designated polling station.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
The health district with the lowest vaccine uptake rate in Manitoba has decided to cancel its block party program because COVID-19 cases are expected to rise.

The health district with the lowest vaccine uptake rate in Manitoba has decided to cancel its block party program because COVID-19 cases are expected to rise.

The Rural Municipality of Stanley, near Winkler, launched a program to encourage residents to hold block parties; it provided hosts with free party packages including invitations, outdoor games kits and coupons for food.

Block parties that have been scheduled will be allowed, but the municipality has stopped taking new applications.

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"With Manitoba public health's prediction of increased COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks, council has decided to postpone the block party program at this time," reads a statement on the council website.

In the municipality, 22.1 per cent of eligible residents have received at least their first dose, making it the district with the lowest vaccination rate in the province.

Some residents were shocked to hear the municipality had encouraged gatherings, including Ashley Hoitink, a teacher who said she was relieved by the decision to halt the parties.

"Im glad they decided to postpone the block (parties)," she said. "It's unfortunate they still went ahead with some gatherings for over two weeks, knowing that a fourth wave is coming."

Stanley reeve Morris Olafson did not respond to the Free Press, but told PembinaValleyonline the program was well-received.

"We're talking about small groups, we're talking about neighbours on a street, their kids play together all the time, and they work together," said Olafson. "We're not mixing a whole waft of people from all over the province, and all over Canada, into this big perceived big turkey. We were very well-meaning when we started this one, and I'm sticking to my guns on that one."
Two Tory backbenchers accuse their own government of infringing on Manitobans' rights, including one who has seemingly compared the incoming vaccination mandate to residential schools and the forced sterilization of Indigenous people.

Two Tory backbenchers accuse their own government of infringing on Manitobans' rights, including one who has seemingly compared the incoming vaccination mandate to residential schools and the forced sterilization of Indigenous people.

Radisson MLA James Teitsma's comments on Facebook were the most provocative.

"Forcing Indigenous children to attend residential schools, sterilizing intellectually disabled and Indigenous women without consent (including the creation of eugenics boards), and sending Ukrainian- and Japanese-Canadians to interment (sic) camps, come to mind as some of the worst stains in our countrys brief history," Teitsma wrote.

"One thing these human rights violations have in common: they were popular and favoured by the public."

Health Minister Audrey Gordon would not address Teitsmas comments when asked if he had undermined the government.

"I have open and honest dialogue with all individuals about the importance of vaccination and keeping Manitobans safe," she said, in response to questions from the Free Press.

Borderland MLA Josh Guenter also posted a letter saying his own government is "using a sledgehammer" that will send Mennonites "to the breadline," as they will quit front-line jobs that will soon be limited to vaccinated people.

"The more the government thrashes about trying to get people to take the vaccine, the less inclined my constituents are to listen," wrote Guenter, whose constituency has some of the lowest COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Canada.

Guenter argued the government is going back on its reopening plan, which was designed before the highly contagious delta variant took hold in Canada.

NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara said Teitsmas comments amount to misinformation.

"What boggles my mind is that he thought that that was an appropriate or smart thing to do. And it is really and truly, unfortunately, a reflection of this government continuing to just show Manitobans that they don't want to lead during this pandemic," Asagwara said.

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said Teitsma should be ejected from the PC party for his "dangerous" comments.

"Nobody in government, no MLA, should be spreading misinformation like that," he said.

"He's actually putting people's lives at risk and I'll be blunt, he's making people stupider, because who believes that?"

Manitobas three grand chiefs did not respond to a request for comment. Chiefs said this week they are still grieving over the mounting evidence of residential school graves.

Teitsma argued that forcing people to leave their jobs for being vaccine-hesitant will hurt economically marginalized groups and won't convince people to get vaccinated.

"Canada cannot claim to be a tolerant and free society if it runs roughshod over the rights of a minority for the sake of the majority," he wrote.

Teitsma argued his governments vaccination push has achieved its goal of containing COVID-19 deaths from hundreds or thousands per year to a manageable death count.

"Just as dozens of Manitobans die each year from the flu, so dozens of Manitobans will die each year from COVID-19 for decades to come. I wish it were possible to prevent all these deaths, but it simply isnt. Zero deaths is not an option."

He raised the spectre of his government "telling churches to disallow certain individuals from attending worship," though the province did not include religious gatherings in the list of public venues restricted to fully vaccinated people.

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Both Teitsma and Guenter say they are fully vaccinated.

Teitsma claimed the government has relied too much on vaccinations to limit the risk of gatherings. Both opposition parties said that undercuts the public support needed to ensure a safe return to school.

"We're talking about sharing misinformation that people will take at face value from an elected representative and that is incredibly harmful," said Asagwara of the NDP.

"What he's advocating is anarchy and lawlessness and a libertarian position on vaccines," Lamont said, for the Liberals.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
THE provincial government should concede what is obvious about its legislation to revamp the education system.

Opinion

THE provincial government should concede what is obvious about its legislation to revamp the education system.

Like the parrot in the famous Monty Python skit: Bill 64 is no more. It may be perched among other pending government legislation, but it will never fly.

That became clear when Heather Stefanson declared her candidacy for Progressive Conservative party leadership and announced that if elected, she will kill the bill. Supporting her candidacy are more than half the Tory caucus, including the minister of education.

It is likely other leadership candidates will express similar regrets about the legislation. Few will want to drag that anchor through a leadership campaign and then into a provincial election. It leaves the government to ponder at least a couple of questions:

What happened? And what now?

What happened is that the government took the whole show sideways to enact what it wanted rather than what research showed what was needed.

The whole process started out on a positive note. The government announced years ago it would undertake a major study of the education system. Its partners, from unions to management, were in support. A commission was appointed. It heard thousands of submissions and wrote a report with 75 recommendations aimed at improving the education of Manitoba students.

Unlike the most frequent way provinces handle such reports, the Pallister government decided to do things differently. It wrote its own report, ignoring many of the commissions recommendations. Indeed, the commission report was pushed to the background by the governments report, with the now-ironic title BEST (Better Education Starts Today). Education Minister Cliff Cullen signed that report and has defended it, right up until his appearance at Stefansons side.

That interpretation of the commission report then became the massive Bill 64, which Cullen also defended. All that was too late. The government had already made its critical mistake.

Unlike the most frequent way provinces handle such reports, the Pallister government decided to do things differently.

Normally, when governments appoint commissions, they act on the recommendations of those commissions. They dont write their own reports and then release them at the same time. Imagine the outrage had the federal government written its own report in advance of the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. And what if that report deviated substantially from the findings of the commission? (Rhetorical question.)

The BEST report did deviate substantially from the commission report on the most publicly controversial decisions.

The commission did not recommend an educational system devoid of elected trustees. The province decided, however, to begin implementing a system that would put all decision-making powers in the hands of the provincial government, either directly or through appointments. No more elected trustees.

This and many other aspects of Bill 64 were roundly opposed. But more than the opposition, it was the total lack of support the bill had in the education community that was stunning and critical. There was nobody lined up to support the bill except for politicians such as Cullen, whose commitment can be questioned now. Tellingly, not a single K-12 commissioner stood up for what the government was doing.

Not even the commission chairs showed up when their report and the BEST report were released. Either the government couldnt find or didnt look for allies. Hubris was its guiding light.

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And so, now what?

The government no doubt knows it cant keep trying to sell a dead parrot and that it needs a replacement. It has to fulfill a debt to the thousands of Manitobans who made presentations, filled out questionnaires and wrote to the K-12 commission. This was the biggest review of the education system in decades, and its necessity doesnt end because the government decided to step off a cliff.

A massive amount of work has gone into the commission, the BEST report and Bill 64. The government could do what counterparts elsewhere have done, and simply say yes or no to each of the 75 recommendations of the K-12 commission.

Not everybody will like everything. That was to be expected. What wasnt expected was the government would ignore the commission when doing so suited its ideology and instead just do what it wanted.

None of the presenters to the commission asked for that, as those in government now realize.

George Stephenson is a Winnipeg writer.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pledged financial breaks for Canadian students on Saturday, vowing to do away with interest on federal student loans "immediately and permanently" as well as forgive student debt.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh respond to questions after meeting with Grand Chief Arlen Dumas, right, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, in Winnipeg, on Thursday, August 26, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pledged financial breaks for Canadian students on Saturday, vowing to do away with interest on federal student loans "immediately and permanently" as well as forgive student debt.

Singh unveiled his latest campaign promise outside of the University of Sudbury ahead of the Sept. 20 federal election.

Singh said students have been among the Canadians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding forgiving their debt would give youth a necessary leg up.

"Students are struggling when they graduate, so we want to go beyond just eliminating entirely interest," Singh said.

"We want to also forgive student debt to make sure that they're not being crushed under the weight of that debt."

Sudbury's troubled Laurentian University recently saw nearly 60 undergraduate programs and 11 graduate programs axed amid an insolvency restructuring plan, an action Singh said "could have been avoided" with help from the federal government under Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

The University of Sudbury was affiliated with Laurentian until May, when Laurentian terminated its relationship with its three federated universities. Laurentian declared insolvency in February.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh records a video for social media surrounded by students, professors and candidates at the University of Sudbury, in Sudbury, Ont., Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

Singh called Laurentian vital to the North, labelling the recent cuts "a devastating blow" to Indigenous and Francophone communities in the area.

Singh's media appearance Saturday began with an introduction from Sudbury NDP candidate Nadia Verrelli, who said she was "full of emotions" over the cuts at Laurentian.

The NDP lost the Sudbury riding in the 2019 election, falling to the Liberals' Paul Lefebvre by 5,718 votes.

The NDP won 24 seats in total in 2019, earning 15.9 per cent of the overall vote. The Liberals are in search of a majority government in this election, and would need 170 seats to reach that threshold. They won 157 seats in 2019.

The major political parties' campaigns this year are focused on Canada's post-pandemic recovery plan.

Singh called Saturday for a national vaccine passport, saying the federal government has a role to play in providing Canadians with proof of immunization that would make international and local travel easier.

Provinces including Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba have already stated that proof of vaccination will soon be required for people to take part in certain non-essential services. And senior government sources in Ontario said Friday the province plans to follow suit by unveiling a vaccine certificate system of its own early next week.

The introduction of such a system would represent a significant reversal for Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has publicly rejected the idea and said it would create a "split society."

More than 75 per cent of eligible Canadians were fully vaccinated as of Friday, while nearly 84 per cent have received at least one dose.

Singh said a vaccination certificate system reflects the desires of the majority of Canadians.

"Doug Ford is finally seeing the light and making that decision," he said.

While Singh said provincial governments are "absolutely entitled to and in fact should" set up a vaccine requirement system, he added the federal government can implement a national document to streamline the process for travel.

"Why wouldn't we have an easy document provided at the federal level so we can travel within our own country?" Singh said. "And that's why we think, just to make life easier, just to make it simple, why not have a federal document? That's our plan."

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The Liberals pledged funding for provinces to implement vaccine certificates on Friday while Trudeau took aim at Conservative leader Erin O'Toole for not requiring all Conservative candidates to be vaccinated.

The issue of a vaccine certificate has been contentious on the campaign trail. Trudeau's Friday stops in southern Ontario were met with raucous protesters and the Liberal leader cancelled his evening rally over a security threat.

Singh condemned the protesters, adding that a vaccine document is supported by "the vast majority" of Canadians.

"No one should have to cancel an event because they're worried about a danger to the safety of people coming out to a political event," he said. "That should not happen."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Sudbury was in the Nickel Belt riding when it is in fact its own riding.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  Californias parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedys assassin after two of RFKs sons went against several of their siblings' wishes and said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.

FILE - In this June 5, 1968, file photo, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy addresses campaign workers moments before being shot in Los Angeles. At his side are his wife, Ethel, and his California campaign manager, Jesse Unruh, speaker of the California Assembly. Prosecutors for the first time are not opposing the release of Sirhan Sirhan. The 77-year-old prisoner on Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, faces his 16th parole hearing for fatally shooting Kennedy in 1968. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel, File)

SAN DIEGO (AP)  Californias parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedys assassin after two of RFKs sons went against several of their siblings' wishes and said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison.

Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968. He told a two-person board panel that he was moved to tears by Sirhans remorse and that the 77-year-old should be released if hes not a threat to others.

Im overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face, he said. Ive lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.

Six of Kennedy's nine surviving children said they were shocked by the vote and urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse the parole board's decision and keep Sirhan behind bars.

He took our father from our family and he took him from America," the six siblings wrote in a statement late Friday. "We are in disbelief that this man would be recommended for release.

The statement was signed by Joseph P. Kennedy II, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Christopher G. Kennedy, Maxwell T. Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

But another sibling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has spoken in favor of his release in the past and wrote in favor of paroling Sirhan. He said in the letter that he met him in prison and was moved by Sirhan, who wept, clinching my hands, and asked for forgiveness.

While nobody can speak definitively on behalf of my father, I firmly believe that based on his own consuming commitment to fairness and justice, that he would strongly encourage this board to release Mr. Sirhan because of Sirhans impressive record of rehabilitation, he said in a letter submitted during the hearing to the board.

Sirhan, whose hair is now white, smiled, thanked the board and gave a thumbs-up after the decision to grant parole was announced. It was a major victory in his 16th attempt at parole after hes served 53 years. But it does not assure his release.

The ruling will be reviewed over the next 120 days by the boards staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. If Sirhan is freed, he must live in a transitional home for six months, enroll in an alcohol abuse program and get therapy.

Robert F. Kennedy was a U.S. senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. RFK was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Five others were wounded.

Sirhan, who insists he doesn't remember the shooting and had been drinking alcohol just beforehand, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death after his conviction, but that sentence was commuted to life when the California Supreme Court briefly outlawed capital punishment in 1972.

In this image provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Sirhan Sirhan arrives for a parole hearing Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, in San Diego. Sirhan faces his 16th parole hearing Friday for fatally shooting U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)

At his last parole hearing in 2016, commissioners concluded after more than three hours of intense testimony that Sirhan did not show adequate remorse or understand the enormity of his crime.

On Friday, Sirhan again said he didn't recall the killing, but he made multiple attempts to show nonetheless he takes responsibility for the harm he caused.

Sen. Kennedy was the hope of the world ... and I harmed all of them and it pains me to experience that, the knowledge for such a horrible deed, if I did in fact do that, said Sirhan, appearing on camera from a San Diego County prison at the virtual proceeding, wearing his blue prison uniform, a paper towel folded as a handkerchief peeking from his shirt pocket.

Parole Board Commissioner Robert Barton said Sirhan showed he was a different man from not only 1968 but 2016.

We saw the improvement that youve made, and all of the other mitigating factors, and we did not find that your lack of taking complete responsibility for the crime as proof of currently being dangerous to society, Barton said.

Barton said Sirhan had made a concerted effort to follow the board's suggestions from 2016. That included enrolling in more than 20 programs focused on self-help, controlling his anger and other emotions. Barton noted that Sirhan did so even during the coronavirus pandemic.

Because of laws passed in 2018, the board was required to take into account this time the fact that he had suffered childhood trauma from the conflict in the Middle East, committed the offense at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner.

The board found that despite the magnitude of the crime, he wasnt likely to reoffend and didnt pose an unreasonable threat to public safety.

Not withstanding its atrocity, its impact, not just on the families and the victims and the nation as a whole and perhaps the world as a whole  if you were sentenced to life without parole that would be a different matter, but you were sent to life with parole," Barton said.

Barton said the board's decision was not influenced by the fact that prosecutors did not participate or oppose Sirhans release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform. Gascon, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFKs assassination, believes the prosecutors role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners.

Obviously they opposed in the past and even if they had opposed it today, our decision would be the same," Barton said.

The Los Angeles Police Department, relatives of some of the victims and members of the public submitted letters opposing Sirhans release.

The California District Attorneys Association denounced the prosecution's absence.

This is one of the most notorious political assassinations in American history and the killer is being considered for release without benefit of a representative on behalf of the people of California. That is disgraceful," El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, the association's president said.

Sirhan's lawyer, Angela Berry, had urged the board to base its decision on who Sirhan is today and not what he did more than 50 years ago.

Sirhan said he had learned to control his anger and was committed to living peacefully.

You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence," he told the panel.

Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian from Jordan, has acknowledged he was angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel. When asked about how he feels about the Middle East conflict today, Sirhan broke down crying and temporarily couldnt speak.

Take a few deep breaths, said Barton, who noted the conflict had not gone away and still touched a nerve.

Sirhan said he doesn't follow what's going on in the region but thinks about the suffering of refugees.

The misery that those people are experiencing. Its painful, Sirhan said.

If released, Sirhan could be deported to Jordan, and Barton said he was concerned he might become a symbol or lightning rod to foment more violence.

Sirhan said he was too old to be involved in the Middle East conflict and would detach himself from it.

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The same argument can be said or made that I can be a peacemaker and a contributor to a friendly nonviolent way of resolving the issue, said Sirhan, who told the panel that he hoped to live with his blind brother in Pasadena, California.

Paul Schrade, a union leader and aide to RFK who was among five people wounded in the 1968 shooting, also spoke Friday in favor of Sirhan's release.

___

Melley reported from Los Angeles.

____

Corrects that decision undergoes 120 day review by staff not 90.
ISABELLA, Minn. (AP)  Officials in the Superior National Forest said Thursday that the ongoing drought has created tinderbox conditions in northeastern Minnesota as firefighters continue to battle an uncontained wildfire, while rain that's expected to fall in coming days is unlikely to provide much help to crews who are growing tired.

Crews have been working on fighting and suppressing wildfires since the spring, and Minnesota's wildfire season is not likely to end until snowfall.

These are just tinderbox conditions, Superior National Forest Supervisor Connie Cummins said during a situation update for Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and Gov. Tim Walz.

The Greenwood Lake fire has already burned 25,991 acres (40.61 square miles) in Minnesota's Arrowhead region. Incident Commander Brian Pisarek said 12 seasonal homes or cabins are among the more than 50 structures that have been lost. Pisarek said about 300 people are currently evacuated.

We got a little bit of rain today so we dont expect much fire growth today, he said Thursday, adding that firefighters are using the day to prepare for winds that are expected to come on Monday. So far, more than 400 firefighters are working to contain the fires, and more help has been requested.
Stewart said the health department worked to inform vulnerable populations when vaccines became available to the public and successfully vaccinated individuals, but officials now dont know exactly what is causing the stagnation of vaccination rates or what might trigger people to take the step to get vaccinated.

I cant say what really is driving people to either get the vaccination or what is their true barrier or feelings against it, Stewart said. All I can say is were trying every avenue and hoping we can just get shots in arms. We havent quite figured out what that magic bullet is thats going to get people in that seat.

It is possible FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine Monday could encourage those hesitant to get a vaccine during a period of emergency approval, Stewart said. Its also possible that an increase in case numbers might encourage some yet unvaccinated individuals to seek out protection, but they cant foresee what will happen, Rego said.

Amid the encouragement to take steps to prevent infection, Stewart said it is understandable that people might feel some exhaustion after 18 months of taking precautionary measures as well as the stressful toll of seeing death and hospitalization numbers rise.
Biden next chose to lay responsibility on the Afghani military forces, accusing it of throwing down their arms and fleeing in the face of Taliban forces, in effect blaming the victim.

Spokespersons for both the Department of Defense and Department of State were embarrassingly inept as they bumbled their way through news conferences while attempting to convince millions of television-watching Americans the situation was under control.

In one of the more bizarre performances, a Department of State spokesperson insisted the effort was not an evacuation, but a reduction of the U.S. footprint. While he doggedly forged ahead, he was flanked by the split screen coverage of the lowering of the American flag over the embassy in Kabul while diplomatic personnel scrambled for transportation to the airport and a flight to safety.

The administration response to the rapidly changing events on the ground was a mishmash of conflicting reports, dubious explanations and confusing rationalizations which melted quickly upon harsh examination.

Biden continued to insist the decision to withdraw the military from Afghanistan was his and his alone.
A global rating agency has increased Wisconsins underlying bond rating to AAA, marking the first time the state has achieved such a rating from any agency in almost 40 years.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency upgraded the states long-term rating for general obligation bonds from AA+ to AAA, citing Wisconsins substantial liquidity, evidenced by a near tripling of budget reserves over the past three years; continuing, healthy revenue growth, despite substantial tax cuts; and an ongoing, post-COVID-19 recovery, fueled by a mature and expanding economy and favorable business climate, according to information provided by Gov. Tony Evers administration Friday.

In addition, S&P Global Ratings increased the states long-term rating from AA to AA+. The state also maintains an Aa1 rating from Moodys Investors Service and an AA+ rating from Fitch Ratings.

The new bond ratings resulted in, unsurprisingly, a partisan rift over whether the Democratic governor or the Republican-controlled Legislature deserve credit for the states economic well-being.
Dodd explained to the meeting crowd that if an item is not on the meeting agenda the council cannot discuss the topic. He said the city of Portage releases the agenda the Friday prior to the meeting and after that items cannot be added.

This discussion is about the construction. If you do not have any comments on construction we will not be discussing it, Dodd said.

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Alderperson Eric Shimpach attempted to yield his time to Craig to discuss the issue. Shimpach did not respond to phone or emailed questions or request for comment on the topic.

The personnel issue will be discussed at the next human resources meeting later this month, Dodd said.

When Dodd asked if he could discuss the matter without going into the personnel issue, Craig said he couldnt separate the two because they are intertwined.

Craig then said his voice was being suppressed.

Your voice is not being suppressed. We are not discussing any topic other than the construction project at this point, Dodd said. It is not on the agenda and we cannot discuss anything not on the agenda.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)- Over 2,300 people packed the Tippecanoe County amphitheater to listen to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders discuss the 3.5 trillion dollar human infrastructure plan. It's part of a multi-state tour in majority red and swing states. Senator Sanders says the legislation will be paid for by raising taxes on America's most wealthy.

"What we are trying to do now is pass legislation which says A. that the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations are going to finally have to pay their fair share of taxes," said Senator Sanders in a one-on-one interview. "And B we are going to address many of the long-standing and long-neglected issues facing working families."

The legislation would continue the 300 dollars a month child tax credit. It will also expand Medicare to include vision, dental and hearing aids for seniors. Along with that, it will invest in transforming our energy system to greener options among other things.

"Now is the time for the United States to lead the world against the existential threat of climate change," said Senator Sanders.

We talked with multiple people who attended the event. They felt it was important that Sanders spoke to people who may not have voted for Democrats in the last election cycle.

"You need to reach out to the people in the states that didn't vote for you," said Mark Pritt, a Cincinnati Ohio native who made the trip to West Lafayette for the town hall. "I know he is specifically coming here and to Iowa because he wanted to go to the states and counties where they increased their proportion of Trump voters."

They also felt it would help inform people about the controversial legislation.

"We hear sound bites and we hear slogans but to really understand his plan and his platform it takes a little bit of time, you kind of have to listen for a while and I think this is an excellent opportunity for people to hear and even ask questions," said Paul Haynes, who is a Tippecanoe County native.

Several people who live in the area were on stage with Sanders and shared how the American Rescue Plan benefitted them. From farmers to construction workers and even single parents, each of them praised the legislation for helping them get through the loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for the future of legislation, Senator Sanders feels even his most moderate colleagues will come around.

"I think at the end of the day, we have 50 democrats and I think they are all going to come on board," said Senator Sanders.

There were protesters at the event chanting things like "This is our state," and "Stop the spending". Republican Senator Mike Braun as well as Attorney General Todd Rokita held a counter rally ahead of Senator Sanders Town Hall. You can read why they are opposed to the legislation by clicking here. Senator Bernie Sanders heads to Cedar Rapids Iowa next.
According to US law enforcement, US Marshals preparing to arrest a fugitive allegedly involved in drug trafficking in Missouri faced last-minute hurdles because of a controversial new state law, signed by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson aimed at protecting gun rights.
Student thankful that clearing led the way to Wrexham Glyndwr University

University clearing can be a stressful experience for a prospective student of any age.

If you do not achieve the grades you were hoping for, or do not receive the offer that you wanted, it can initially seem like the end of the world.

Suddenly having to look at other options, and potentially different locations you might need to relocate to which had never previously crossed your mind, can be incredibly daunting.

Current Wrexham Glyndwr University Student Ambassador Lucy Duncan, studying History, found herself in exactly that situation two years ago.

On A Level results day, Lucy, now 20, experienced disappointment when she missed out on her original choices until, wanting to continue her studies relatively close to her home in Cheshire, she was presented with Wrexham Glyndwr as an alternative.

Lucy says what started as a very difficult day, turned out to be the foundation for a brilliant experience as she continues on her journey through education at Glyndwr.

I was originally going to go to Chester to take History and Archaeology, with History at LJMU as my back-up, she said.

On results day I was up from 6am checking the UCAS website but found out I didnt get either of those options.

Glyndwr first came to mind due to my sister. We had family camping trips to Chirk, which is close by, and she had known about Glyndwr for years and it turned out that was on the list of alternatives that UCAS had provided me with  so I decided to explore that option.

By about 10am I was speaking to Student Ambassadors at Glyndwr, asking them how many days a week they attended, and whether there was free parking  as at some Universitys there isnt, you have to pay for a permit or park in front of peoples houses  these sort of things can make a difference when making a big decision.

By 11am the University was looking at my application and by 12pm Id received an offer and accepted it. It all happened that quickly.

My advice to other students is that yes, it is very stressful, but no-one should be afraid to put calls in to places themselves. Patience is key, and try not to put too much pressure on yourself about your first choices.

After the whirlwind experience of clearing, and being thrilled to have secured a University place, Lucy said she then had to adjust to

the unexpected change of direction.

She said: At first I was just very happy to get in to a University. It was a very stressful day, and it took me about a week to process everything, that I was now going to Glyndwr instead.

I watched a couple of videos on the website, spoke to Student Enquiries, but it was on my first day that I knew Id made the right choice.

There were quite a few mature students who were very talkative, I made friends immediately and I was really lucky in that instance.

After our first talk in the Humanities block we all went down to the seating area downstairs, introduced ourselves to each other and talked about ourselves.

Its so welcoming, there is such a relaxed feel on campus and its so inclusive. Even during the pandemic the support we have had from home has been amazing.

At other Universitys you can be left feeling like just a number, that youre just another student, but at Glyndwr, the smaller teaching sizes mean lecturers and personal tutors can build a closer relationship with students.

For example, after my first assignment I had a one-to-one with my tutor, and it was so in-depth. She wasnt afraid to say we need to fix this, or you need to think about that, and I dont think you get that depth at other places, it is such a supportive Uni. I would recommend Glyndwr to anyone.

For more information about clearing and Wrexham Glyndwr University, visit https://www.glyndwr.ac.uk/en/wgu-clearing/
Wrexham-based WeMindTheGap launches virtual programme to support isolated young people

A Wrexham-based social mobility charity has extended its programmes to support under-served young people across North Wales and the North West.

WeMindTheGap aims to address and challenge social mobility through running holistic programmes for young people, delivered with unashamed love and care. Over the summer the charity has also recruited additional staff and secured vital funding.

After the launch of the WeDiscover virtual pilot programme across Wrexham and Flintshire in 2020 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic WeMindTheGap embark on their fourth WeDiscover programme in Cheshire West and Chester in October 2021.

A 10 week virtual programme designed to assist isolated young people, disproportionately affected by the pandemic, and at risk of not engaging with education or training.

A spokesperson for WeMindTheGap said: The programme helps with essential skills such as maths and English. It covers various other topics including world of work, global culture and health and well-being.

The programme gives the participants a structure to their day, a dedicated mentor for encouragement and support and they can take away skills and lessons to help them on their journey.

To support the running of the WeDiscover programme additional roles have been created which are currently being recruited for.

As a charity none of this would have been possible without funding. The initial WeDiscover programmes were funded by The Moondance Foundation and the Community Foundation in Wales, the Westminster Foundation and the Cheshire Community Foundation.

Recently WeMindTheGap has been awarded a 50,000 Grant from the Lloyds Bank Foundation.

This funding is to assist the core funding of the charity and the other programmes running  WeGrow and WeBelong supporting under-served youth across North Wales and the North West.

The strong network of dedicated funders, sponsors, employer partners and supporters are a reminder that together, working simultaneously, WeMindTheGap can continue to change futures for the better.
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - With children now making up 36% of Tennessee's COVID-19 cases, some parents are on edge.

"We are really hoping the governor changes his mind and allows for remote school to be implemented, if necessary," parent Allison Maltby said.

In June, Maltby spoke to News 4, and at that time, she said she was ready for her son to return to in-person learning after homeschooling him last year. These days, her feelings are different.

"We are nervous sending him to school. We are excited to see the smile on his face," Maltby said. "But, it's overwhelming sometimes to think about how dangerous it could be."

Households turn to homeschooling during and after pandemic The number of households turning to independent homeschooling jumped significantly during the pandemic.

At Vanderbilt Medical Center, Dr. April Kapu said they'd seen a 15.8% increase in admissions and COVID positivity of children coming in. She added this increase is much higher than previous surges.

"I did not anticipate that we would have another surge. That really came because we did not get enough people vaccinated in the early part of this year. So, we've seen the emergence of the mutation and now the Delta variant that transmits at a much higher rate," Kapu, who is president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, said.

Kapu said she encourages people to understand how important prevention is when it comes to the little ones.

"If we have everyone around those children, that is interacting with those children throughout the day...If they are all vaccinated, than those children are really much more protected," Kapu said.

"I am hoping that when this is all overthese kids can just go back to being kids," Maltby said.
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Inside Saturday's TEMA Flash report sits a startling warning for residents already trying to recover from last week's devastating flooding. They warn the fallout from Hurricane Ida could hit the same areas already impacted when the system reaches Tennessee.

The report sites predictions made by the National Weather Service. Saturday, the system reached western Cuba causing flash flooding and mudslides. They warn heavy rainfall from that system could reach lower Mississippi and the Tennessee valleys.

FEMA officials talked about preparations and dealing with storm PTSD.

"It absolutely is a big blip on our radar. we're watching it, we're preparing for it. It's not going to change our plans here for middle Tennessee, but we want everyone to be prepared," FEMA Spokesperson Darrell Habisch said. "Listen to you local emergency managers, listen to your mayors and the county and find out exactly what's coming."

In response, Tennessee Task Force II left Nashville today to go to Louisiana to help where needed. The task force "Includes personnel from The Nashville Fire Department, Nashville Office of Emergency Management, Metro Nashville Police Department, Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT) formerly known as Public Works, Williamson County Emergency Management Agency, and Franklin Fire Department."
On August 25, Mississippi Democrat and Chairman of the Select Committee charged with investigating Donald Trumps attempted coup on January 6, Representative Bennie Thompson, announced that the committee issued sweeping demands for telephone and electronic records to the National Archives and Records Administration, along with seven other federal agencies. The National Archives is the custodian of all the Trump administration White House records.

Chairman of the Select Committee Bennie G. Thompson

The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is examining the facts, circumstances, and causes of the January 6th attack. Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future, wrote Thompson.

In making the broad demands, Thompson wrote that the committee was simply reiterating several requests that were previously made by other House committees investigating the insurrection earlier this year that have yet to be responded to. The lack of cooperation by government agencies complicit in Trumps attempted coup underscores the significant support Trumps insurrection had within the capitalist state and the financial oligarchy as a whole.

Backing Thompson and the committees requests was Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the Select Committee and the chairperson of the House Administration Committee. On Wednesday, Lofgren told CNNs Kate Bolduan that these requests were just the beginning, and that there are many other requests for documents that we will be making.

Some of these requests were made to these agencies by other committees in Congress earlier and they have not been responded to. So, we need information now and weve made that clear to the various federal agencies, added Lofgren.

In the August 25 letter to David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, the Select Committee demanded records pertaining to all documents and communications relating in any way to remarks made by Donald Trump or any other person on January 6 including calendars, schedules and movement logs attended by Trump and all documents and communications regarding the movements and protection of Vice President [Mike] Pence on January 6, 2021.

The letter also demanded all communications on January 6 from virtually all of Trumps inner White House circle, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, fascist adviser Stephen Miller, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump children: Ivanka, Eric, Donald Jr. as well as Jared Kushner and Lara Trump, Erics wife, and former first lady Melania Trump.

Also included in the request for records were leading Trump co-conspirators such as former White House adviser and Breitbart editor Steve Bannon, former Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, Trump political crony Roger Stone, and retired former general and former national security advisor Michael Flynn, now a propagator of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

While not singling out any Republican congressmen by name, the letter also requested the communications of any Member of Congress or congressional staff and anyone at the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the Department of homeland Security, the Department of the Interior, or any element of the National Guard that had any communications with the White House on January 6.

In addition to the above, the committee also requested any records concerning: Planning by the White House and Others for Legal or Other Strategies to Delay, Halt, or Otherwise Impede the Electoral Count from April 1, 2020 through January 20, 2021. Former top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials under Trump such as Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, and Jeffrey Clark were among those whose communications with Trump were specifically requested, along with the former US Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, Byung J Bjay Pak, who resigned over demands by the White House that he intervene into vote counting in Georgia.

Specific Department of Defense officials named include former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, General Mark Milley and four Trump loyalists installed following the firing of Esper. These include former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, his chief of staff, Kash Patel; Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Anthony Tata. The last-named is a former brigadier general who once described Barack Obama as a Muslim and a terrorist leader.

The requests also demanded any communications dealing with the invocation of the 25th Amendment between November 3, 2020 and January 20, 2021. This includes all documents dealing with the mental stability of Trump or his fitness for office in the 14 days between the coup and the inauguration of Biden.

Noting the symbiotic relationship between the Republican Party and fascist militia groups, the committee requested all documents and communications referring or relating to QAnon, the Proud boys, Stop the Steal, Oath Keepers, or Three Percenters concerning the 2020 election results, or the counting of the electoral college vote on January 6, 2021. Named individuals include, Stop the Steal lead organizer and Republican operative Ali Alexander; conspiracy theorist/right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec; founder of Women for Trump, Amy Kremer; Proud Boys chairman turned FBI informant, Henry Enrique Tarrio; and InfoWars producer and host Owen Shroyer, recently indicted for his actions on January 6.

Significantly, the committee demanded records from Republican governors, state lawmakers and election officials whom Trump had either pressured to propagate his election lies or enlist to partake in the rejection of the Electoral College count on January 6. These include Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (who continues to be the subject of fascist death threats for refusing to help Trump find 11,780 votes last December), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, former Michigan Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, and Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chairwoman Monica Palmer.

In a statement responding to the requests, Trump threatened to invoke Executive privilege and refuse to cooperate. Executive privilege will be defended, not just on behalf of my Administration and the Patriots who worked beside me, but on behalf of the Office of the President of the United States and the future of our Nation.

The legal basis for a former president to assert executive privilege is murky, and in any case would only apply to his own communications and papers, not to those of congressmen or federal agencies. Trump could go to court to try to prevent the release of records, or at least delay the release interminably.

But he may not have to if it is left up to President Joe Biden to decide. While Biden has yet to say anything, he could block the committee from receiving the documents by invoking executive privilege himself. If he did, it would not be the first time the Biden administration has sided with the former president.

Earlier this year, Biden lawyers with the Justice Department argued against lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Black Lives Matter movement and other plaintiffs that Trump, Attorney General William Barr and others in police and federal agencies violated the First Amendment rights of protesters who were violently attacked in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020.
In memory of Danny Walters, July 15, 1960 to June 2, 2021.

On June 1-June 2, 2021, on a warm night after a week of extreme heat, Danny Walters was working a long shift at Danas Dry Ridge, Kentucky plant when he suffered a grand-mal seizure. Amid the deafening noise of the machines and workers music, Danny, an epileptic, staggered off the line, lost his balance, and began shaking on the floor. It is likely that he fell backwards and hit his head as he began to convulse.

According to witnesses who later spoke to the family, Dannys coworkers rushed to try to help him. An immigrant worker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo tried to prop up Dannys head, knowing his skull had to be protected. The worker tried to communicate to management that the line should be stopped. The company told the worker to get back to his station and refused to stop the line. The UAW took no action and production continued.

To the UAW and Dana, all that mattered was meeting the contract for axles that night. Ford and Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat-Chrysler, needed the parts to build their highly profitable trucks at plants across the country. Dana posted $2 billion in sales for the first quarter of 2021 and paid out millions in dividends to wealthy stockholders.

Danny Walters, 1960-2021

To meet demand, Dana is forcing workers to labor under conditions worse than the 19th century. At Dry Ridge and other plants, workers work 12-hour days with only one unpaid day off per quarter. Even that day off can be taken away by the company for any reason. At one point, while working for Dana, Danny had worked sixty days in a row, 12 hours per shift, even though he is an epileptic. These conditions are enforced by the UAW, whose former top leadership, including two of its last four presidents, is in federal prison for accepting bribes from the Big Three. The corporate media is totally silent that such conditions exist in the United States in the year 2021.

On the night of June 1-2, Dannys wife, Marcia Walters, was visiting their daughter at college in Louisville. Nobody from the company or the UAW called to tell her what had happened.

Marcia noticed a missed call from someone on Facebook who appeared to be Dannys coworker. She thought: Oh no, something has happened at Dana. She called her husbands phone and it went to voicemail. She began calling the nearby hospital and nobody picked up.

Danny had been transported to St. Elizabeths Hospital. Eventually, an EMS worker picked up Dannys phone and Marcia learned what happened. She told the hospital not to release Danny for fear he would have a second seizure. She was not home and could not take care of him.

Nevertheless, he was discharged that night. A relative arrived at the hospital to bring Danny home and says he found Danny sitting unattended in a wheelchair in the hospital lobby.

Later that night, Danny had another seizure at home, fell between the mattress and a dresser, and died of positional asphyxiation. Marcia discovered his body when she arrived home in the morning. She looked at his phone and saw a message from the company: Danny Walters had been mandated for work the following day.

Marcia called the company and said Danny would not show up at work the next day. There was no need to penalize him with attendance points because Danny was dead. He was 60 years old. The company immediately cut off health care for Dannys daughter, forcing her to postpone necessary medical visits.

Marcia, a retired school teacher, is a widow now. She hasnt had much time to grieve; with the loss of Dannys job, shes been forced to go back to work. She currently has three jobs, one as a substitute teacher, one as a pre-school teacher, and one as a worship leader in a local church.

She is not the type of person who seeks out controversy, but she contacted the World Socialist Web Site because she hopes her story helps others fight for better conditions.

There can be no more Danny Walters

Although it is painful to talk about her husband so soon after his death, she says she felt an obligation to speak up.

This has to stop, she said. There can be no more Danny Walters. I want to use my voice for the people that work there.

She asks that Dana workers share this story widely and that they remember Danny Walters name when they vote on the contract this Sunday and in the struggle ahead.

Get up. Rise up. If workers all stand up together across every Dana plant in the nation, then they can stand up against this absolute absurdity that makes these people so rich. Danny lost his voice, so I want to use mine.

We publish below an interview which Marcia gave to the World Socialist Web Site, lightly edited.

* * *

I was married to Danny for 24 years. We would have celebrated our 25-year anniversary in July. Theres no doubt in my mind that working at Dana brought him to an early grave. I was pleased when I saw in your articles [in the World Socialist Web Site] and to read that other people were joining together trying to stand up for the workers at Dana.

Marcia Walters, widow of Danny Walters

Danny Walters was my husband and he would have been turning 61 this year.

Danny is from the Hebron, Kentucky area originally, and moved to Dry Ridge in 1996 when we were married. He was the son of a pastor. Danny was a good man, he was doing this job to help us with benefits because I am a retired teacher and under the Kentucky teacher retirement system, the state had jacked up the insurance cost for teachers. Our insurance for all of us through my retirement had gone up so much that we thought he had to get this job. Danny had prostate cancer earlier in the year and we had to have it removed.

If you were a loner, Danny was the kind of guy who would go over and sit down and talk to you. One of his friends was just bawling during the funeral. He told me that one of the workers from the Congo who did not speak good English was coming over and trying to help Danny, trying to put something under Dannys head. The workers from the Congo tried to get them to stop the line. Maybe someones arm could be in a machine. But they didnt stop. The company and union told them to go back to their post and left him there banging his head. As an epileptic youre supposed to turn them on their side and place something under their head.

He was mandated to work the next day

My daughter is student at U of L [University of Louisville]. I went up to see her that night, and Danny was on the night shift. I did not get a call from Dana saying he had a seizure. If Id have known sooner I would have come home from Louisville immediately. Somebody who worked there had tried to call me, and I tried to call back but they didnt pick up. Then I got really worried, it was about an hour or two into his shift. I thought, Something has happened at Dana.

I kept calling St. Elizabeth Hospital close by and nobody would pick up. Eventually someone picked up and it was an EMS person saying they had transported him to the hospital. A relative went to pick him up and saw Danny sitting out in the lobby at the hospital with nobody watching him. Both of those places failed my husband that night. He actually died at home later that night. He had a second seizure because I wasnt home. If Dana or the UAW had called me, I could have come home in time to take care of him.

Danny in the garden

I did not get a communication from anybody until the next morning. That was the message saying he was mandated to work the next day. By that time he was dead but I was still getting these messages. That was distasteful.

Danny said, I prayed I would die in my sleep rather than work there one more day

Im not sure exactly what happened to him at the plant because the company refuses to tell me. I called OSHA but I felt like they were protecting the company as well. I didnt understand why the company did not call me and let me know. OSHA told me the plant had no obligation to call me, and that does not seem right to me. They said there wasnt anybody in the office to call me. I know there were people there who knew who I was. This is a small town, theres people who knew him.

Working at Dana ruined his life. He had no time for anything else. His life revolved around work. If we got to see each other, it was to have a meal on his way to work. He was an epileptic, he required a lot of sleep. His seizures were stable before all of the work.

He worked at Walmart previously, which was easier on him, but they were cutting their hours and we were getting distraught about money. We heard Dana was a place where you could make a little more money. It needed to be close to home because driving was dangerous for him. I would take him to work. My husband was not a dumb man, but they treated their workers as if they didnt have any common sense. What they were doing to them was probably illegal.

This area is not big on a lot of jobs. Dry Ridge is a small town, we are next door to Williamstown next to The Ark Encounter [a park with a zoo and a life-sized model of Noahs Ark from the Old Testament]. Its just a small town, so when people were telling me things that they heard happened to Danny that night, Dana told me, You cant believe everything you hear. Thats what the HR person said. I wanted footage of what happened. I never got anywhere with that. I just got pushed off. After a while I thought, Im getting nowhere.

Danny was depressed from this job. I saw his personality change. He said it was constantly loud, very loud all night long. I was worried about getting bills met. And my children are in college. This shouldnt have happened. He should have lived through this. Too much work and not enough rest just did it to him.

The money means nothing at Dana if you cant even spend one day with your family. What royally ticked me off about Dana was how much he hated his job. He would speak for 7 or 8 minutes nonstop about hating the job and what happened at work. It affects your family.

They would give them a number of parts that was their quota, and then theyd get to that number and theyd dangle a carrot over the workers, saying if you get this number of parts made, youll get a day off. Then at the last minute, theyd add more to the quota. It was cruel. Theyd get the workers hopes up like they were going to get a weekend off or a holiday off or they were going to shut down for a week after Christmas and theyd call people in anyway. There was never any truth about what they did.

Dana changes the lives of every individual who walks through that door. I know married couples who ended up splitting up because of work. Its a common saying here: Dana ruined our lives.

Danny told me that he wishedthis is sad, this is how much he hated ithe wished he could die rather than go back another night. He said, I prayed I would die in my sleep rather than work there one more day. We said, hold out 2 or 3 more years until we get our son started in college, then you can go in and quit and we will live with as little means as we can.

Dana delayed benefits amid pandemic

My daughter and I both tried to reach out to HR several times and they would say they didnt get my emails. And everything was done super, super slow, as if there was no concern that maybe we needed to get groceries.

Danas benefits department held onto his death certificate for several weeks before they even sent it to the life insurance place. I dont blame anyone in particular but there were too many hoops to jump through at an already difficult time. As a result, I went two-and-a-half months before I got any help through his life insurance. That was difficult. I was blessed that my church helped me out, and other Dana workers helped me out. After his celebration of life service, I went to pick up the death certificates and when I got there, I found out his coworkers had donated their own money to help us. This was an unexpected show of love towards Danny. His coworkers knew he worked hard to provide under the hard conditions at the plant. They cared about us because Danny spoke of missing his family quite a bit.

I am retired but I have a job as a substitute teacher, as a worship leader in a church, and as a preschool teacher. I taught fifth grade. Teachers banded together too and we made some headway on our retirement that was going to be taken away [In 2018 there was a wildcat strike of Kentucky teachers to protect their pensions and Marcia made calls to the legislature] but now things arent looking good for new teachers. Its sad. If the union didnt help us as teachers we got together and did it ourselves. We just did. Because they tried to take away our legit money.

Right now I substitute K-12. With my three jobs right now I work well over 40 hours a week. Apparently I will also not get any of my husbands social security, ever. I cannot get it. If I was not a teacher Id be in a worse place. And Im in a pretty bad place. He just gave away tons of social security money that the government will take. It was up to $65,000 or $70,000. He worked all his life for that.

The UAW did nothing for me

The union doesnt do anything to help the workers. The UAW didnt do anything for me. They dont help at all. Danny said that, too. He would say, Its just they get people in those positions who dont speak up. They dont do anything.

He said people would talk to the union reps but they do nothing. The unions a joke was his way of putting it. Theyre not going to do anything for us, they dont do anything for us, and nothing ever changes. I would say, do they think the workers have no brains? They dont think workers knew their rights.

You say some UAW leaders make over $100,000 a year? Oh my gosh, I was probably making $52,000 after 30 years of teaching. Thats unbelievable and theyre sitting in an office and theyve got people on their feet 12 hours a day.

When I saw your article it set a fire in me. I said I need to do something to help these other workers. A relative of mine said, this is going to happen to someone else if you dont speak up on behalf of those employees. We had no family. Thats the way it was for everybody. Danny would tell me that mothers would talk to him about not seeing their children. They would say I need to work 8 hours because I need to get my kids to schoolthey didnt care. They would say, I wish I could just have one day off!

He had to go get an FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act] to keep from getting fired. When he had his seizure, I was worried he would get fired. What would I do if I couldnt pay my sons college tuition? Could I re-file FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid]?

Marcia Walters message to Dana workers

If I can leave something to help these workers at Dana, then maybe they wont end up in the same situation. Danny was tied to the job for the money. He didnt have options. He didnt have a college degree. When he worked at Dana there was no family life. The only benefit was when COVID cameand thats not a benefitbut they were laid off for a while and my son said, That was the best time Id ever had with dad since he started at Dana. At least I had those moments with him before he died.

Danny and Marcia on their wedding day, 1996

I hope they strike. I hope they can get some intelligent people that know the law and can rise up against whats happening to them.

If they can strike, then strike. Find somebody in that plant that is vocal and strong and to support you and stand up for your rights. Its not going to work if they dont all band together. The company tries to tie their hands. If workers all stand up together across every Dana plant in the nation, then they can stand up against this absolute absurdity that makes these people so rich.

Its like a third world country in there. Danny called it a sweatshop. It sounds like what you read about in your history book. I feel for the people because its not easy. But if you can get support for the whole community of Dana employees, then do it.

When I would show students photos of working conditions in the old days or showing textbook examples of workers being mistreated in other countries, it reminds me of what is happening today. It cant be happening today, but it is. Forgetting about the working class is sad. It compares greatly to hundreds of years ago.

To Dana workers, I say: Get up, rise up.

I think the community would support them. What you hear people say is I hear thats a horrible place to work. Ive heard a lot of bad things about Dana. Even at church thats what people say.

This has to stop or there will be more Danny Walters. I want to use my voice for the people that work there.

Im not full of hate, Im full of desire to make things better. I dont want to stir up hate. I just want Dana workers to know they deserve more for their families and nothing will change if they dont say enough is enough. Im a strong woman. Dana workers can count me in on anything.

Join the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee and fight by our side. Email us at danawrfc@gmail.com and text us at (248)-602-0936.
Asia

Korean longshore workers vote to strike

Around 450 longshore workers from HMM, South Koreas largest shipping company, have voted to strike after three rounds of failed wage negotiations. The longshore workers want a pay rise to compensate for an eight-year pay freeze imposed by management and the union. The strike will be the first since the shipper was established in 1976.

The union has demanded a 25 percent wage rise and a bonus worth 1,500 percent of the monthly wage. The company has only offered an 8 percent wage increase, plus bonuses equal to 500 percent of the monthly wage.

According to media reports, a work stoppage at HMM could trigger a major supply chain crisis because many Korean companies struggle to secure space on large-freight ships like those provided by HMM amid an all-time high in exports. HMM, which operates 48 vessels, became Koreas only large container shipper following the collapse of Hanjin Shipping in 2017.

Union members threatened to resign and switch over to MSC, a Swiss shipping company that had begun hiring workers. This week the union put the strike on hold after HMM agreed to restart negotiations on September 1.

Korean subway workers issue strike notice

Subway workers in Seoul, and four other major Korean cities, have voted overwhelmingly to strike, starting on September 14, in opposition to Seoul Metros restructure plan.

Workers are demanding Metro drop its plan, which would eliminate 10 percent of its 16,700 employees and reduce accumulated losses of more than 1 trillion won ($US875.81 million). The plan would also cut benefits, freeze wages, and outsource work to the private sector.

Subway workers in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon and Incheon are also demanding that the government treat the metropolitan transit authority the same as the Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail). The government currently covers 60 percent of Korails annual financial losses.

The unions planned to hold one-person protests at 650 subway stations around the country Thursday and other various campaigns to raise public awareness of their demands.

Health workers in the Philippines win promised COVID-19 entitlements

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on August 21 ordered the state departments of health and budget to pay long-promised COVID-19 payments, including risk and hazard money, to nurses, doctors and other health workers within 10 days. The decision followed mass resignations and protests by frontline health workers treating COVID-19 patients.

Nurses told the media they are exhausted and suffer burnout as COVID-19 beds reach full capacity. The Private Hospitals Association reported that 40 percent of nurses in private hospitals had resigned in the past year. The Alliance of Health Workers has set a pay deadline of August 31 or it will begin more widespread protests.

A day before Dutertes intervention, COVID-19 infections soared to 17,231 and 317 deaths. COVID-19 tests are returning 26 percent positive results. As of mid-July, 21,245 health workers had been infected and at least 101 had died. Total infections stand at 1.8 million and deaths at 31,000.

India: Utter Pradesh childcare workers hold two-day strike

Around 150,000 anganwadi (childcare) workers across Uttar Pradesh stopped work on August 17 and 18 over a charter of eight demands including a 100-percent pay rise. There are more than 350,000 anganwadi workers and helpers employed in 189,000 childcare centres across the state.

Other demands include improved working conditions, retirement benefits and better working conditions. They called off the strike after being given an assurance by the state government that it would increase the monthly honorarium.

Workers at main anganwadi centres are only paid 4,500 rupees ($US60) per month, while workers at small centres receive 3,500-rupees and helpers 2,250-rupees. Anganwadi workers have been demanding eight to ten thousand rupees a month promised four years ago in 2017 by the state government.

Faridabad municipal workers stage hunger protest

Faridabad Municipal Corporation workers in Haryana state held a two-day hunger protest on Tuesday over several demands, including some issues they claim the state government agreed to settle last year.

Protesters main demand is for compensation of 5 million rupees ($67,367) for the family of workers who have died from COVID-19. They also want payment of the Dearness Allowance, which has not been paid for 18 months, recruitment of 10,000 employees to fill vacant positions, a monthly risk allowance of 4,000 rupees and an end to contract employment with all part-time and contract civic workers made permanent.

Andhra Pradesh social health workers protest in Chittoor

Around 1,000 Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers from the Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh demonstrated outside the District Medical and Health office on August 23 over several demands. These included a five million-rupee compensation payment to families of ASHA workers who died from COVID-19, inclusion in the state welfare scheme and a 300,000-rupee retirement benefit payment.

Workers alleged that the government says workers earning over 12,000 rupees ($US161) a month in urban areas are not eligible for the state welfare scheme. ASHA workers, however, are denied these benefits even though they receive less than the said amount.

BMW locks out assembly plant workers in Tamil Nadu

About 300 workers at the BMW auto plant in Mahindra City, near Chennai, demonstrated at the plant on Wednesday after being locked out for refusing to sign a company document enforcing workplace restrictions. These included not taking mobile phones onto the premises or holding discussions with union representatives inside the plant.

The companys provocative action occurred during negotiations for a wage rise. Nine office bearers of the BMW India Staff and Employees Union were forced to take leave on Monday for allegedly holding discussions with workers during working hours. The three-year revision of wages covering 400 workers at the plant has been outstanding for over a year.

Ashok metal-casting plant workers strike in Tamil Nadu

Ashok Leyland Foundry Division-Ennore workers in Chennai have been on strike since last week to demand a wage increase. They alleged that the revision has been outstanding for over three years. Ashok management forced the dispute into the Joint Commissioner of Labour for a three-party meeting on August 23, with no resolution.

Workers accused management of discrimination and not paying Ennore unit employees bonuses given at all other Ashok units. They said two of their striking committee members were dismissed. Last month, Ashok Leyland bus assembly line workers in Hosur demonstrated and demanded equal wages for equal work and a yearly bonus based on the companys profit.

Rajasthan state roadway workers protest

Members of the United Front of Rajasthan Roadways Labour Unions demonstrated in Jaipur on August 17 and 18 as part of an ongoing campaign for payment of overdue wages and other outstanding demands. Workers alleged that salaries and pensions are always late and only paid after employees protest.

Australia

Nurses at Tasmanian private hospital walk out again over unsafe staffing

About 20 nurses employed by Healthscope at the Hobart Private Hospital walked off the job for 30 minutes on Thursday morning and demonstrated outside the hospital against unsafe staffing levels. They held placards saying Patient safety before profit and Were standing up for quality care.

The action followed a two-hour walkout in May over the same issue. Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) members rejected Healthscopes proposed enterprise agreement (EA) in July, saying management had failed to address any of their concerns. The latest walkout occurred after Healthscope refused to restart negotiations.

Nurses have been campaigning since February against excessive workloads and for safe nurse-to-patient ratios to be written into their EA. They complained of having to care for 10 patients per nurse on night shifts, excessive overtime and being pressured to work double shifts. One traumatised nurse who resigned because of the workload said the hospitals nurse/patient ratio failed to provide safe patient care.

Ambulance paramedics in New South Wales threaten bans if not provided with increased COVID-19 testing

New South Wales ambulance paramedics are currently voting on whether to take industrial action in support of their demand for rapid COVID-19 tests at the start of each 12-hour shift. Ambulance Division of the Health Services Union (ADHSU) members held an online meeting with NSW Ambulance Service on Tuesday. Management, however, rejected paramedics demands that ambulance crew in COVID hot spots be given priority over office staff in the deployment of rapid antigen test kits.

An ADHSU email to members said management rejected paramedics demand, claiming it would delay the deployment of ambulances on every shift. The tests are self-administered and only take about 15 minutes.

If paramedics vote for action, ADHSU members working in defined local government area of concern [COVID hot spots] will not respond to any patient until they have been rapid antigen or PCR tested. The bans will begin at the first shift on August 30.
On top of more than 300 job losses at Sydneys Macquarie University in 2020, the management has used a brutal Hunger Games-style operation to cut several dozen more positions this year, forcing educators to compete against each other for survival.

An NTEU rally at Macquarie University in 2020 (WSWS Media)

The precise number of positions eliminated remains deliberately clouded. Individuals are being encouraged to take voluntary redundancies, which reduces the number of officially reported forced redundancies.

This operation has been allowed to occur by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). It has opposed any unified struggle against the cuts at Macquarie and the deepening destruction of jobs, conditions and courses across the country as the federal government and the university managements exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the corporate reinvention of universities.

A recent letter from the NTEUs Macquarie branch to Bruce Dowton, the universitys president and vice chancellor, typifies the unions role.

In response to the massive job cutsapproximately 10 percent of staff and risingand the increased workloads, tension and anxiety among the remaining staff, the unions appeals to management can be explained only by an underlying agreement with the plans being implemented at the behest of the Morrison government and big business.

There is no demand that the redundancies be reversed. Rather, it is requested that redundant staff have access to the information leading to the decision to cut their position, so that the process can be transparent.

Given that the entire spill and fill operation was conducted within the framework of the change process set out in the NTEUs enterprise agreement with management, this plea amounts to a virtual guarantee that no positions, or only a tiny number, will be reinstated.

The request to Dowton for information about decision-making process serves another purpose, namely to atomise workers, and cut off a broader demand for the protection of all jobs.

Universities are being restructured. The pandemic is being used to implement long-standing plans, further aligning education with the interests of the corporate ruling class, as revealed in a recent report on Australian universities by the EY global consulting firm, proclaiming the death of higher education.

This framework accepts the many billions of dollars that have been cut in university funding by both Labor and Coalition governments since the last Labor governments education revolution was imposed with the NTEUs blessing a decade ago. The NTEU agrees that universities need to be internationally competitive, so costs must be lowered and courses transformed to satisfy the needs of employers and potential corporate research funders. The unions only objection is that it needs access to the books to confirm the budget crisis and propose more sustainable ways to slash spending.

Likewise, the NTEUs letter asks Dowton what market research has been conducted among school students relating to the curriculum changes. The union suggests there has been inadequate business planning. In other words, the university must satisfy the demands of business.

At the same time, the NTEU cannot remain completely silent in the face of this onslaught, for fear of being entirely discredited even among the staff who are still members of the union. Some pretence of concern must be maintained.

Hence the unions letter to Dowton asked what child care services are being provided to staff with children engaged in online schooling during the current lockdowns, what leave arrangements are being made for vaccinations, and what financial support is being offered to staff working from home.

Such concerns, while legitimate, avoid the elephant in the room: the massive job cuts. An NTEU media release following the announcement of the spill and fill redundancies said the university was playing musical chairs with jobs. That seeks to cover over the actual job destruction.

The media statement concluded with Macquarie NTEU president Nikki Balnave stating: It is a sin that they [staff and students] should pay for the mistakes of management and the ignorance of the Federal Government.

The restructuring at universities is not the result of mistakes or ignorance of the government, but rather a highly conscious operation. The governments job ready graduates funding legislation and virtual doubling of student fees in the humanities was in line with the relentless aligning of universities with business interests. In the governments own words, the intent is to incentivise students to make more job-relevant choices.

The unions complicity stands in stark contrast to the determined fight and petition taken up by a student-led organisation, the Macquarie University Mathematics Society, to demand the reinstatement of mathematics educator Frank Valckenborgh, and the way in which that stand was backed and broadened by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) and the Committee for Public Education (CFPE).

The IYSSE and CFPE, both sponsored by the Socialist Equality Party, successfully fought for support at other universities, and linked the campaign to similar student-initiated struggles, such as at La Trobe, Monash, Adelaide and the University of Western Australia, which signalled a striving by students to mount a counter-offensive.

The fact that the Macquarie management offered a new post to Valckenborgh revealed its fear of a united movement of staff and students. This experience shows that in order to fight the assault on public education, new organisations are neededa network of rank-and-file committees, independent of the trade unions.

Rank-and-file committees would reject the entire framework of enterprise agreements, and establish a common cause among university workers, students and all those in schools and childcare. They would insist on safe working environments, and demand full funding to provide a first-class education to all. Such a perspective would win the support of wide sections of workers.

Rank-and-file committees would link up with students, educators and all workers internationally who are facing similar critical struggles against the impact of the worsening global crisis, and discuss the necessity for an opposed socialist perspective.

To discuss the formation of rank-and-file committees, we urge educators and students to contact the CFPE.

Facebook: facebook.com/commforpubliceducation/

Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com

Twitter: twitter.com/CFPE_Australia
The historic debacle of the US and its allies in Afghanistan has sharply exposed the predatory nature of the imperialist war, and demolished the fabrications used by all the political parties and individuals that promoted it.

New Zealand soldiers patrol a street in North East Bamyian, Afghanistan, 2011. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The invasion was a criminal action, a war of conquest aimed at securing US domination over a strategically important area in Central Asia. The US imposed a regime in Kabul through a 20-year military occupation, initiated on the basis of lies about fighting terrorism and maintained through endless war crimes, including the use of assassination and torture. The human and social costs were catastrophic. It was followed by the invasion of Iraq, which killed over a million more people and fuelled the rise of Islamic State.

The New Zealand ruling elite was among the first to respond to Washingtons demand for international support. The Labour Party-Alliance government seized the opportunity to strengthen relations with the US, which had frayed in the 1980s due to Labours anti-nuclear posturing. Support for the US invasion and occupation was a quid pro quo for Washingtons endorsement of its own neo-colonial operations in the Pacific.

On October 3, 2001, the pseudo-left Alliance supported a motion in parliament, presented by Prime Minister Helen Clark, to endorse the governments decision to send SAS troops to Afghanistan and to totally support the approach taken by the United States of America. The vote was intended to ensure the political establishment was solidly lined up behind the operation in order to derail the development of an anti-war movement in the working class and broader population.

There were 112 votes cast in favour; Labour 49; Alliance 10; National 38; ACT 9; NZ First 5; United NZ 1. The Greens, with 7 votes, opposed the resolution. The Greens and the Alliance at first unsuccessfully moved an amendment calling for the SAS operation to be carried out in accordance with international law, with the objective of apprehending terrorists and bringing them to trial, not for revenge or retaliation.

Once the amendment failed, the Alliance voted for the main resolution. Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton told parliament the war was necessary to bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers, and sponsors of [the September 11] terrorist attacks. In fact, it had nothing to do with stopping Al Qaeda, which was funded from Saudi Arabia and had previously been supported and armed by the US in its proxy war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

The role of the Alliance and Greens was to provide the right-wing Labour-led government with a progressive veneer. A key role was played by a number of ex-radicals, including former leaders of the Pabloite Socialist Action League (SAL): Keith Locke in the Greens, Alliance member Matt Robson, who held the dubious post of Minister for Disarmament, and Mike Treen, who worked in Robsons parliamentary office.

Pabloism developed as a faction within the Trotskyist movement in response to the restabilisation of capitalism after World War II. Its founder Michel Pablo asserted that social reality consisted of the capitalist regime versus the Stalinist world, thereby repudiating the fight for the political independence of the working class from both Stalinism and imperialism, and the perspective of socialist revolution. Trotskyists were directed to liquidate their organizations and to join Stalinist, social democratic and bourgeois nationalist parties, with the false claim that they could be pressured to move to the left.

The International Committee of the Fourth International, which today publishes the World Socialist Web Site, was established in 1953 to fight against the Pabloites betrayal and preserve the Trotskyist movement as the world party of socialist revolution.

In New Zealand, after the Pabloite SAL all but collapsed in the late 1980s, several ex-members joined the Alliance. This party was formed in 1991 to block the leftward movement of the working class following the pro-market onslaught by David Langes 19841990 Labour government. It was an amalgam of four capitalist parties, including the dominant party NewLabour, established in 1989 as a breakaway from Labour, and the Greens.

By 1993, the Alliance had built a following among sections of the middle class and workers bitterly opposed to Labour, which peaked at 18 percent. At the 1999 election, the Alliance gained 8 percent of the vote and 10 seats and joined Labour in government. The Greens, which had split from the Alliance in 1997, also backed the government.

As part of the Labour-led coalition, the Alliance played a similar role to the Greens in Germany, which voted for the war in Afghanistan. It anticipated the embrace of imperialism by leftist parties such as Rifondazione Comunista in Italy, Frances New Anti-Capitalist Party, the Syriza government in Greece and Podemos in Spain.

The Afghanistan debacle has now seen the ex-radicals scrambling to wash their hands of any culpability, using blatant lies and historical falsification. Former Alliance minister Laila Harre tweeted on February 17, after the announcement that New Zealands six remaining troops would be withdrawn: 20 years since the Alliance stood against this predictably destructive deployment. 20 years wasted on war. Harre voted in favour of joining the war in 2001.

Treen recently posted on Facebook: We can collectively be proud that ultimately we stood up against war and empire and were proved right. Saying nothing about the Alliances support for war in parliament, Treen sought to cover his tracks by reposting a December 2001 letter he wrote to the Labour Party on behalf of the so-called Antiwar coalition, unsuccessfully appealing to it to reverse course.

In November 2001, columnist and Alliance insider Chris Trotter reported in the New Plymouth Daily News from the partys annual conference, saying it had been bombarded with strongly-worded resolutions from almost every one of the partys regional bodies opposing the caucuss pro-war position.

A principled fight to oppose the war would have required the condemnation of both the war and the Labour-led government, and a campaign to expel the right-wing Alliance leadership. According to Trotter, however, Treen, the leader of the anti-war faction, colluded with president Matt McCarten to present a toothless amendment calling for the party to withdraw support for the war. The motion failed, with the conference instead voting 85 to 61 for a meaningless review of its position on Afghanistan.

Writing on the Daily Blog on August 16, 2021, former Alliance MP Liz Gordon noted that the internal arguments in favour of the war centred on the need to eliminate the Taliban and end its oppression of women and children. Trotter used the same fraudulent humanitarian justification in an August 17 article, denouncing the allied troop withdrawal as an historic betrayal and abandonment of Afghanistans women and girls who were, he absurdly claimed, emancipated under the brutal occupation.

In April 2002, its usefulness to the ruling elite exhausted, the Alliance split apart following six months of internecine warfare exacerbated by the rightward, anti-working class movement of the ruling coalition and its craven support for the US-led war.

The Green Party, despite voting against sending troops, continued to act as the key prop of the Labour government. The Greens statements never challenged the imperialist aims and character of the Afghan war. Rather, to provide itself with a fig leaf, the party said military interventions should first be approved by the United Nations and according to international law.

The key player in this two-handed policy was foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke, a leader of the SAL in the 1970s. In parliament, Locke highlighted the Greens support for military involvement in East Timor, where New Zealands strategic interests were directly at stake, and endorsed imperialist operations against Libya, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Rwanda on the basis that those charged with crimes against humanity were being brought to justice.

After the Labour government in 2003 dispatched about 100 soldiers to join Operation Enduring Freedom as an occupying unit labelled a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), the Greens adjusted their position and endorsed the war. Following the death of soldier Tim ODonnell in 2010, Locke told parliament that the Greens were proud of the good peace-keeping and reconstruction work that our Provincial Reconstruction Team has done in Bamiyan province and we mourn the loss of one of its members.

Despite its name, the PRT carried out very limited aid or reconstruction work. Its main job was to patrol the province and gather information, and to protect US intelligence officials who shared the NZ base in Bamiyan. In retaliation for ODonnells killing, New Zealands SAS commandos attacked two villages, killing several civilians including children.

Prime Minister elect Helen Clark and Alliance Party leader Jim Anderton with the newly signed coalition agreement after the 1999 general election - Photograph taken by Maarten Holl. Dominion Post (Source: Alexander Turnbull Library)

In April this year, Locke was rewarded for his lifelong services to capitalism when he was formally invested as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, one of the establishments highest honours. The citation recognised his services to human rights advocacy.

Whatever claims the ex-Pabloites and others from the Greens and Alliance milieu make about their anti-war stance, these parties are condemned by their support for imperialism. The pseudo-lefts all continue to support Laboura party that has continually deployed troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, and strengthened the alliance with the USas a lesser evil to the National Party. Many former Greens and Alliance members moved into other pro-capitalist organisations, including the Maori nationalist Mana Party, founded in 2011, and the trade union bureaucracy.

In opposition to the pseudo-lefts and their foul record on Afghanistan, the World Socialist Web Site from the very beginning unequivocally condemned the US-led invasion. In a statement on October 9, 2001 titled; Why we oppose the war in Afghanistan, the WSWS explained that Washingtons objective was to establish a client regime and move vast military forces into the resource-rich and strategically significant region. We do not need to withdraw or amend a single statement on the war over the past 20 years.

The Socialist Equality Group (NZ) insists that there can be no serious struggle against war outside of the fight to end the economic system which is its source: capitalism. The pseudo-lefts, including those who joined the Alliance and the Greens, bitterly oppose this perspective, because they represent sections of the upper middle class which have thoroughly integrated themselves into the capitalist establishment.

We urge workers and young people to draw fundamental political lessons from the betrayals of these parties and the embrace of imperialism by the pseudo-left in every country.

A genuine anti-war movement must be based on a socialist and internationalist program, capable of unifying working people in every country. It must be based on the working class, the vast majority of the population, which has no material interest in imperialist war. Of necessity, it must be completely hostile to, and independent of every capitalist party.

The building of such a movement is increasingly urgent. After the debacle in Afghanistan, the US is ramping up its threats and preparations for war against China, which Washington views as the main obstacle to its global hegemony. The fight to stop the drive towards a catastrophic world war requires a new political leadership. We urge readers to study the record of the WSWS and our elaboration of the socialist strategy to fight against war, and to join the Socialist Equality Group and build it as the New Zealand section of the ICFI.
The official death toll from the terrorist attack outside Kabul international airport on Thursday was increased significantly on Friday to over 160. The number of Afghan victims almost tripled and the US Defense Department confirmed the death of one additional service member, bringing the total of American military fatalities to 13.

Wounded Afghans lie on a bed at a hospital after a deadly explosions outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)

At a Defense Department press briefing Friday morning, Major General Hank Taylor stated that only one suicide bomber was involved in the assault. Originally, reports indicated that a second blast occurred at a nearby hotel. After the bomb exploded amid a large crowd waiting to be processed for travel at the airports Abbey Gate, other Islamic State-Khorazan (ISIS-K) attackers opened fire. American troops also fired into the crowd to clear the area. It remains unclear how many lives were lost as a result of the gunfire.

Taylor also stated that the evacuation of US and allied officials, operatives and citizens, as well as Afghan collaborators with the two-decade-long neocolonial occupation, was continuing. He said that 89 flights had left Kabul in the previous 24 hours carrying a total of some 12,500 people. Among them were 300 Americans, taking the total of Americans who have left since the Taliban came to power to over 5,100. Two flights carrying 18 wounded American soldiers left for the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Since evacuations began on August 14, some 111,000 people have been flown out. Taylor confirmed that another 5,400 people are inside the airport waiting to leave.

At a White House briefing later in the day, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the Biden administrations national security team believed that a further terrorist attack prior to the August 31 deadline for the end of the evacuation and withdrawal of US troops was likely. She added that maximum force protection measures were being taken at the airport.

It was made clear at both briefings that the numbers being evacuated over the coming days will drop sharply as US troops begin the process of withdrawal. Taylor declared, however, that it will be possible to evacuate people until the very end.

That remains to be seen, with a Taliban spokesman claiming late Friday that the organization had taken over control of parts of the airport. Although the Pentagon promptly denied the report, BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet, who is currently in Kabul, was informed by sources that American and British troops would hand over control of the airport to the Taliban in a matter of hours.

The extent to which Washington is dependent on coordinating and cooperating with the Taliban in the final stages of its withdrawal underscores the scale of the debacle suffered by US imperialism with the collapse of its puppet regime in Kabul. Even Biden administration officials were forced to acknowledge that the outcome of the remainder of the mission is to a considerable degree dependent on the Talibans support.

Asked whether coordination with the Taliban was the best of many bad options, or the only option, Psaki frankly responded, Maybe both. She added that by necessity, that is our option, because the Taliban controls wide swathes of Afghanistan and the area surrounding the airport. The coming days would be the most dangerous period to date in US military operation, she added in a prepared statement.

For its part, the Taliban appears to be offering an olive branch to Washington with its appeal, reported by the State Department yesterday, for the US to retain a diplomatic presence in Kabul after August 31. A Taliban spokesman also told al-Jazeera that the movement planned to announce an inclusive caretaker government, including members from the Uzbek and Tajik minorities.

Under questioning, Defense Department and State Department officials went out of their way to reject accusations of Taliban complicity in, or responsibility for, Thursdays attack, the background to which remains murky.

ISIS-K claims to be a regional affiliate of Islamic State, and perpetrated a series of attacks that strengthened the US-backed puppet regime. Whatever the current affiliation of this organization, which reportedly has less than 2,000 followers in Afghanistan, it remains a fact that all of the Islamist militias, including Islamic State and the Taliban, are the product of the tragic encounter experienced by Afghanistan and the broader region with over four decades of US imperialist intrigue and brutal neocolonial war.

Underscoring the disastrous outcome of these policies for the imperialist strategists in Washington, even some of Bidens fiercest critics have tacitly accepted that the US has no alternative but to withdraw. In a press conference convened Friday in response to the previous days terrorist attack, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy denounced Biden for weakness and incompetence, and for accepting a Taliban-dictated deadline. But when it came to explaining his alternative course of action, all he could offer was a call for the reconvening of the House to receive a confidential intelligence briefing and adopt a bill that would prohibit US troops from withdrawing until every single American has been evacuated.

Retaining an American military presence in the war-ravaged country would require the deployment of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of troops. Biden and his foreign policy and national security advisers have ruled this out because they view such an expenditure of military and financial resources as a diversion from the main conflicts they confront, against Russia and above all China.

These geostrategic considerations are buried in the media coverage, which portrays the American and allied soldiers as saviors rushing to the rescue of the Afghan people to protect them from barbarism and death. American soldiers are saving as many people as they can, Taylor proclaimed at Fridays Pentagon press briefing, and are engaged in a noble mission.

This militarist claptrap has been repeated ad nauseam by the media and political establishment in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. As Germany concluded its evacuation mission yesterday with the arrival of around 300 soldiers in the country, media outlets reported breathlessly about the returning heroes. The soldiers brought thousands of people out of Afghanistan to safety, wrote German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Our country is proud of you.

In reality, the American soldiers and their European allies are leaving behind a war-ravaged country in which hundreds of thousands of Afghans were slaughtered and maimed by air strikes, night raids, torture and abuse carried out by the imperialist powers and their local collaborators.

The Cost of War Project estimates that 700 civilians were killed by allied air strikes during 2019 alone, the highest figure since the war began. Although US air strikes declined in 2020 after the Trump administration signed a ceasefire with the Taliban, those conducted by the Afghan Air Force, which was entirely dependent on the US for ammunition and maintenance, increased. Some 3,000 civilians were estimated to have lost their lives in the conflict during 2020.

The pro-imperialist stooge regime that presided over these horrendous conditions was up to its eyeballs in graft and corruption. While former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly fled the country with over $150 million in cash, 90 percent of the Afghan population was living on less than $2 a day after two decades of US-led military occupation.

In a briefing released Friday that received far less attention than the fate of the comparative handful of people crowded around Kabul airport, the UN reported that up to half a million people could flee the country by the end of 2021 due to a looming food crisis. The UN reported that prior to the Taliban coming to power, half of the population required some form of humanitarian aid and half of all children under five years of age were acutely malnourished.

Since the beginning of 2021, 560,000 people have been registered as internally displaced, adding to the 2.9 million internally displaced persons at the end of 2020. Over 80 percent of those displaced since the beginning of the year are women and children.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The UAW and USW are trying to pass a five-year contract only days after they have released any information about what is in it. They are trying to pull a fast one on us because they know we would reject it overwhelmingly if we had time to study it.

We have the right to adequately study the full global and local contracts, which are only just now being released less than 48 hours before voting begins at some plants. But based on the details that have been presented in piecemeal fashion at various plants, we know enough to call for a resounding and united No! with the highest possible turnout.

Dana plant at Ft. Wayne

We will not be swindled into voting for a contract that was written by corporate management and rubber-stamped by the corrupt cronies in the UAW and USW. The union executives have shown which side they are on in this fight with Dana, and its not ours. Their decision to conceal the contract, which they agreed to months ago, proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The UAW and USW treat us like slaves who have no rights. In St. Clair, Michigan, the UAW stuck up a flyer Wednesday promising that a highlights package will probably be released on Monday right before the plant votes Wednesday. The plant chairman at the Fort Wayne, Indiana plant arrogantly told workers, Im not going to waste my Saturday having a meeting to discuss this, when we are having one Sunday after voting starts. A USW official claimed the full contract could not be released because of a printing problem.

As for the vote, we know how these things go if the UAW and USW are in charge of the process. We werent born yesterday. They dont want us to see their backroom ballot stuffing. The UAW got caught red handed stuffing ballots to pass the 2015 Ford contract. Volvo workers in Virginia dont believe that a contract that had been voted down three times passed the fourth time by a 17-vote margin.

The unions are pulling out every dirty trick in the book in order to get this deal passed. They are trying to divide us up by plant, telling workers in one location that workers at another are sure to vote yes and vice versa.

To add insult to injury, were being told it will take two-thirds of the plants to vote no to reject the contract.

If thats the case, who made that decision, which is completely undemocratic? Even if we pass this hurdle, they wont go back and get a better deal but will just tell us to vote againtill we get it right!

In fact, the USW is even telling people that it has the so-called right to unilaterally impose the contract even if workers reject it, similar to what the Workers United union did earlier this year to Amcor workers in Terre Haute, Indiana. Do they think we live in a dictatorship where workers have no rights?

So frightened are the union bureaucrats that we will vote this down that they are holding the votes on days that we are working to minimize turnout and are conspiring to keep us from learning about the no votes at other plants.

Dana workers are fed up. As the saying goes, We wont be fooled again! We are workers, who produce this companys profits, and we will not let Dana and its union stooges dictate the conditions we will work under for the next five years.

To the UAW and USW, we demand the following:

The immediate scheduling of informational meetings at plants where none have yet been announced, in order to give workers a forum to discuss what WE NEED, not what the company demands. Rank-and-file oversight of the voting process to prevent fraud in all locals. The UAW and USW must allow delegations of rank-and-file workers who do not and have not held union office to count the ballots and protect against fraud.

If these demands are not met, we the rank-and-file workers of Dana, will not accept that the agreement was legitimately ratified, no matter what the UAW and USW say. If a contract can be passed under such conditions, then democracy means nothing at all.

As for the content of the contract, we know, based on what has been presented so far, that it does not meet any of our needs. The UAW and USW are engaged in the long-standing process of accepting what the company demands and telling us that we must accept it.

Well, we say: This ends now! The following is the minimal basis of an agreement that all rank-and-file workers, of all ages and tiers, are prepared to accept:

A guaranteed 8-hour day and 40-hour week. A 75 percent wage increase for all workers, which is required to make a livable income. The abolition of the multitier system, with all workers brought up to top tier: Equal pay for equal work! Workers control of line speed with no speedups. New, clean machines, safety training and air quality checks. No points system. Bonuses for those with good past attendance. Adequate air conditioning in all plants. If temperature reaches a certain point, work stops. Workers oversight of safety protocols to stop the spread of COVID-19. The right to halt production and close the plant for full cleaning, with guaranteed pay to workers for all missed time, if there are outbreaks.

We are telling the UAW and USW that we will not live the next five years of our lives according to what the company says it needs from us to make a profit. Sweat shop conditions must end! We have a right to spend time with our families and friends!

To all workers at Dana: we call on you to join and build the Dana Workers Rank-and-File Committee. We need every honest and self-respecting man and woman to unite and stand up for the working class. Email us at danawrfc@gmail.com and text us at (248) 6020936.
The fire near Greenwood Lake, about 15 miles southwest of Isabella, in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota on August 15, 2021. (Nick Petrack/Forest Service-Superior National Forest via AP)

The Greenwood Fire raging in Superior National Forest is a rapidly growing wildfire in northeastern Minnesota that has burned at least 25,991 acres as of Friday. It is still zero percent contained after burning for several days. There are now 476 firefighters assigned to the Greenwood Fire, one of two large wildfires in the state.

The wildfire, which was first detected on August 15, has drawn hundreds of firefighters and prompted evacuations. On Monday alone, the fire doubled in size, after it produced pyrocumulus clouds that generated lightning and even raindrops, fire officials told NBC News. Across the country, a total of 321,818 acres are currently burning in Washington, 181,907 acres in Oregon, 1,389,391 acres in California, and 314,881 acres in Montana, according to a report Friday from the National Interagency Fire Center.

In a press conference Monday night, Brian Pisarek, one of the officials leading the firefighters, compared the Greenwood Fire to a freight train. He continued, Once it starts rolling, it starts to build up steam and feed off itself. Pisarek then noted that at least 300 people had to be evacuated from Superior National Forest, which is a checkerboard of federal, state, county and private land dotted with many seasonal cabins and retreats.

The Red Cross opened up two evacuation centers to assist those forced to flee. One was set up at the Finland Community Center in Finland, Minnesota, open 24 hours a day, and another was set up at the ice arena in Babbitt, Minnesota, well west of the fire.

Pisarek has also expressed concern that the firefighters are growing increasingly tired. Crews have been working on fighting and suppressing wildfires since the spring, and he estimated that Minnesotas wildfire season is not likely to end until snowfall.

The fire has so far destroyed 12 seasonal homes or cabins, 57 outbuildings, and damaged three more properties in the McDougal Lake area this week, according to the local sheriffs office. Duluth photographer and writer Michael Furtman told msn.com the situation was similar to throwing a match on acres of dried-out Christmas trees. Furtman, who owns a cabin on Middle McDougal Lake, said he and his wife spent an estimated $2,000 to hire workers to cut down dead trees and remove potential tinder.

The fires growth on Monday forced firefighters to abandon McDougal Lake, about 200 miles northeast of Minneapolis. Much of the damage was caused after the retreat, with firefighters no longer able to protect buildings in that area. We had crews embedded, and as this fire took off, it was quite an effort to communicate with forces on the ground so they could get out, said Clark McCreedy, a spokesman for fires on federal lands. Officials have also stated that while firefighters are doing their best to protect the remaining structures, it is still very unsafe for people to return.

McCreedy continued that the area has suffered through prolonged, severe drought, making parts of Minnesota look like the fire-prone West this summer. He expressed optimism, however, noting that rainfall is expected in the region in the coming days. Were probably going to get more of that moderating weather for the rest of the week.  That opens the door for fire crews to make progress on the ground. Agency officials have set a goal of September 1 for full containment.

Whether progress will be made remains to be seen. As noted above, firefighters have not had the resources to gain any containment, and areas including McDougal Lake, Sand Lake and the Highway 2 corridor have been under mandatory evacuation orders. The federal Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness was closed Saturday due to active and increasing fire activity, extreme drought, limited resources, the US Forest Service said in a press release.

So far, the fire has been driven by the weather, particularly from high temperatures and winds, dry fuel on the ground and multiple lightning strikes. Fire behavior analyst, Michael Locke, pointed out in a video update on Tuesday, The winds were drawn into the fire from all directions.  It created what we call pyrocumulus clouds [that] went high enough to produce a few sprinkles of rain and even some lightning.

Pyrocumulus clouds are formed by an intense heating of the air from the surface, either from wildfires or volcanic eruptions. In some cases, the clouds can actually hinder a fire because the moisture that forms the clouds condenses enough to rain. It has become more common, however, that these clouds help spread the fires through increased gusts of wind on the surface and numerous lightning strikes that can start new fires.

Climate experts have been warning that climate change has prepared the ground for extreme weather, including an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere. This includes the formation of larger and larger pyrocumulus clouds, which more often fan the flames rather than put them out.

Smoke has been another concern for those near the Greenwood Fire, some of which has been caused by controlled fires set in an attempt to contain the blaze. Layers of particulates in the atmosphere pushed air quality to very unhealthy levels in northeastern Minnesota on Thursday, with local officials telling residents to keep windows shut and stay indoors whenever possible.

In addition, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an air quality alert for St. Louis, Carlton, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake and Cook counties that is valid through 8:00 p.m. Friday. Parts of the region will see thicker smoke than others as winds shift. Fine particle levels are expected to reach  a level that is considered unhealthy for everyone, the agency said in a press release. The MPCA said that forecast rain on Friday should temporarily improve air quality.
As the pandemic continues to rage across the US, there has been a more than ten percent rise in new cases in the past week. Deaths are also up by a staggering 41 percent. Thursdays death toll reached 1,289 while the seven-day moving average has surpassed 1,000 for the first time since mid-March.

Students sit in an Algebra class at Barbara Coleman Senior High School on the first day of school, in Miami Lakes, Florida on August 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

The US is now fast approaching 40 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 while the death toll has exceeded 650,000 according to the Worldometer coronavirus tracker. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has projected that based on current projections, the US can expect to see close to 740,000 COVID-19 reported deaths by December 1, 2021. There are currently more than 100,000 people hospitalized across the country with nearly 25,000 in an intensive care unit (ICU).

These statistics are unprecedented and will continue to grow worse without immediate intervention to implement basic public health measures that will eradicate the virus and stop unnecessary deathsthe closure of schools and non-essential businesses, lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing combined with a ramped-up vaccination initiative. Scientists estimate that it would only take a few weeks to finally end the pandemic.

With every means and resource at their disposal, not one finger is being lifted by the Biden administration or by state governments to bring this pandemic to a rapid end. There is now, among every capitalist politician along the political spectrum, an open and complete disregard for the life and livelihood of the population. Death has assumed such a state of normalcy that the reporting of such statistics produces little more than a noticeable irritation on their countenance.

Such a mood is best exemplified by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida whose state is in a calamitous predicament.

Florida is registering cases at twice the rate of the entire nation with 105 cases per 100,000 people this week. This translates to more than 21,600 new cases per day. The seven-day moving average for deaths has reached 242 with 901 deaths registered just on August 26, 2021. With such massive and rapid numbers of cases, the states health care system and health care workers have been placed under extreme pressure.

For instance, Palm Beach County (population 1.5 million) reported on Thursday that they only had a four percent ICU capacity across its 17 hospitals. In Broward County (population 2 million), there is only three percent ICU capacity at its 16 hospitals. The patients being admitted are getting sicker in part due to the more virulent nature of the Delta variant which means many have to be placed on ventilators. Currently, 55 percent of Floridas ICUs are occupied by COVID-19 patients, a doubling of the figure from last month. By comparison, nearly one-third of the nations ICU beds are presently filled with COVID-19 patients, which by itself represents a complete failure by the ruling establishment to contain the pandemic.

The tragic situation has been made more complex by the fact that the number of patients requiring ventilator support is climbing while there is a shortage of critical care staff to manage and treat these patients. Those that are in the hospitals are in full regalia of personal protective equipment working overtime to care for these incredibly ill patients. This week 75 doctors and hospital employees in South Florida held a news conference outside of their hospital urging people to get vaccinated and raised concern over the strains being placed on their hospital.

Dr. Scott Ross, chief medical officer at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, a suburban city in Broward County, told the Sun Sentinel, The numbers of COVID patients in the ICU is increasing because patients are younger, which translates into a longer ICU stay when compared to the surge last year. We are seeing patients as young as 18 needing mechanical ventilation and patients in their 20s and 30s not surviving this virus.

Such a massive strain on hospitals also means the overutilization of these health systems oxygen delivery capacity. According to a Florida Hospital Association (FHA) survey released on Wednesday, they found that 68 hospitals in the state had less than 48 hours of oxygen supplies on hand. Half of these had less than 36 hours, meaning that by the end of this weekend reports of asphyxiation deaths, as have been reported in India, could surface.

Medicinal oxygen is perhaps the singularly most important treatment for those suffering from a debilitating respiratory condition that prevents their lungs from delivering the vital oxygen needed for their organs to survive. That conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that this may even be a possibility in the wealthiest country in the world exposes more than just neglect: It is cold blooded social murder.

Speaking with WFME, an NPR affiliate in Central Florida, Mary Mayhew, the president of FHA, said, This is not like running out of masks, right? And right now, were focused on how to make sure that does not happen. And, so, hospitals have been raising these concerns, with the state, with the division of emergency management, with the governors office, and have raised these concerns federally.

And, yet, Governor DeSantis, rather than taking the decision to lockdown the state and ensure these healthcare systems are provided breathing space, took to Fox News this week to tout and defend his response calling his opening of treatment facilities providing COVID-19 patients with monoclonal antibodies a great success while resisting all efforts to close schools or institute mask mandates.

Little has been mentioned of the incestuous relationship between Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund which has invested in the monoclonal antibody treatment sold by Regeneron and donated more than $10 million to DeSantis political committee, and DeSantis promotion of Regeneron as a preventive measure against severe COVID-19.

DeSantis has banned schools from implementing mask mandatesa minimal measure in the toolkit for fighting the pandemicand has threatened to cut off funding from those that have chosen to do so in defiance of the law and at the behest of concerned parents and students. A possible Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, following President Trumps fascistic playbook, DeSantis, speaking at a news conference, said, Those school districts are violating state law and they are overriding parents judgment on this. If these entities are going to violate state law and take away parents rights, obviously the way it works, there are consequences for that and there will continue to be more.

Several hospitals in Central Florida belonging to AdventHealth are turning to renting mobile morgues to keep bodies of the deceased in coolers as they have surpassed their hospitals capacity. Hospital health officials have called the governors office asking for assistance through a disaster declaration. No word has come back, according to Newsweek. WTFV-9, a local news station, released an email from AdventHealth which noted, We have begun utilizing rented, refrigerated coolers at ten of our campuses throughout Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Volusia counties. These coolers are quickly becoming filled.

The response by DeSantis to the pandemic is not new nor even the most exaggerated expression of the psychopathic behavior that has marked the ruling elites response to the global pandemic. He is in essence repeating Prime Minister Boris Johnsons profanity, No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Schools will remain open regardless of how many students, teachers and staff are sickened and die or if children pass the virus to their parents who may perish leaving them orphans so that businesses can remain open to generate record profits at the expense of the working class.

DeSantis murderous stand in defense of corporate profit should be a warning to Floridas population that the health care system is most likely in dire straits without intervention by the working class. Needless deaths will mount as emergencies completely unrelated to COVID-19 will occur simply due to lack of healthcare capacity, whether it be a stroke, heart attack, or motor vehicle accident.

Educators, parents, autoworkers, logistics workers, health care workers and the entire working class internationally must take action to stop the pandemic and save lives and take up the fight for the eradication of COVID-19. This will require the immediate closure of schools and non-essential businesses, with full compensation for workers and small businesses owners, until transmission of the virus is halted and COVID-19 is eliminated as a threat to humanity.
A federal judge sentenced a Harland, Michigan man to over six years in prison on Wednesday for taking part in an extremist right-wing groups plot to kidnap Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer during state-mandated COVID-19 shutdowns last year. Ty Gerard Garbin, 25, is the first of those accused in the conspiracy to be sentenced.

In a photo provided by the Kent County Sheriff, Ty Garbin is shown in a booking photo. (Kent County Sheriff via AP File)

Last fall, state and federal officials released details from a sweeping investigation into the plot against Whitmer. The men made plans to take the governor hostage and put her on trial for treason in Wisconsin, before potentially executing her.

Garbin is the only person to have pleaded guilty out of the more than a dozen men facing state and federal charges related to the plot. He pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to kidnap charge and admitted to staking out Whitmers vacation home and training for the planned kidnapping and assassination.

During the sentencing hearing, Garbin apologized to Whitmer and her family.

First, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her family, he told the court. Ive had a lot of time to reflect on my actions, and I never realized what my actions would have caused to her, but also her family.

I cant even begin to imagine the amount of stress and fear her family members felt because of my actions, and for that Im truly sorry, he said.

Four other Michigan residentsAdam Fox (Potterville), Daniel Joseph Harris (Lake Orion), Kaleb Franks (Waterford Township) and Brandon Caserta (Canton Township)and Delaware resident Barry Croft have also been charged in federal court in connection with the kidnapping plot and will go to trial in October. They have pled not guilty, sticking to their unsubstantiated claim they were victims of entrapment by federal agents.

Another seven men, belonging to a group calling itself the Wolverine Watchmen, were linked to the plot and have been arrested on state charges, rather than federal.

Prosecutors said the men rehearsed the kidnapping plot in what they called field training exercises, which included weapons training and practicing how to breach a building. The men conducted daytime and nighttime surveillance of Whitmers summer house and discussed planting explosives under a bridge to slow any responding police officers, court documents stated.

Prosecutors said Garbin cooperated extensively with the investigation and provided a wide-ranging insiders view of the conspiracy, which they said evolved from an initial plan to storm the State Capitol with a group of about 200 militia men, take hostages and execute tyrants. Garbins attorneys and federal prosecutors asked US District Judge Robert Jonker to take his cooperation into account in his sentencing.

Federal sentencing guidelines for kidnapping conspiracy call for a sentence of up to 17.5 years, but prosecutors suggested Garbin serve nine. His attorneys called for a sentence well below the guidelines.

Jonker acknowledged Garbins cooperation with law enforcement and claimed he had a genuine interest in self-reform. In explaining why he was issuing Garbin a 75-month sentence, much shorter than federal guidelines called for, Jonker cited Garbins concrete actions that showed he was taking responsibility for his actions.

In a victim impact statement, Whitmer wrote she would never be the same.

I have looked out my windows and seen large groups of heavily armed people within 30 yards of my home. I have seen myself hung in effigy. Days ago at a demonstration there was a sign that called for burning the witch, she said.

I am not the only one who has been impacted by this kidnapping plot. It is like throwing a pebble into a pond. The ripples expand to include my family and loved ones, the state I love, the citizens I serve, the country I have always believed in and the idea of democracy itself. We have all been impacted by this, Whitmer said.

While there is no doubt that Whitmer was deeply affected by the threats of violence, the same cannot be said of the national Democratic leadership, who chose not to make an issue of the conspiracy to kidnap and murder a prominent official of their own party.

In particular, the partys presidential candidate Joe Biden, who had publicly considered Whitmer as one of his top potential choices for the vice presidency, never raised the subject in his debates with Trump, and barely discussed it during the last month of the fall campaign, when there were almost daily exposures of the details of the plot.

Nor did the Democratic National Committee or Democratic candidates for Congress undertake any defense of Whitmer, or seek to tie their Republican opponents to the conspiracy to kill her. This was under conditions that reports were emerging of definite connections between the Michigan fascists and sections of the Republican Party around Trump.

Whitmer was publicly denounced by Donald Trump when she enacted very limited coronavirus restrictions in the spring of 2020. Trump called on his supporters to liberate Michigan, and the State Capitol in Lansing was filled by gun-toting protesters calling for the governors removal. Many of the men charged in the plot attended the event.

Both the armed demonstration in Lansing and the subsequent kidnap plot served as dress rehearsals for the January 6, 2021 coup attempt in Washington, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol and detachments of Proud Boys and other fascist groups sought to hunt down prominent Democratic members of Congress (and some Republicans), in the hopes of taking prisoners who could serve as bargaining chips to keep Trump in office beyond the scheduled January 20 inauguration of Biden.
In an article published Wednesday, the Brazil-based journalist Glenn Greenwald advocates COVID-19 policies that he acknowledges will kill people, claiming that the public is putting insufficient emphasis on the costs of saving lives.

The article appears against the backdrop of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the United States and Europe. Governments around the world have made clear that they will take no measures to stop the spread of the disease, and that schools and businesses will remain open. Greenwalds article provides a political rationalization for this policy.

In his article, The Bizarre Refusal to Apply Cost-Benefit Analysis to COVID Debates, Greenwald states:

In virtually every realm of public policy, Americans embrace policies which they know will kill people, sometimes large numbers of people. They do so not because they are psychopaths but because they are rational: they assess that those deaths that will inevitably result from the policies they support are worth it in exchange for the benefits those policies provide. This rational cost-benefit analysis, even when not expressed in such explicit or crude terms, is foundational to public policy debatesexcept when it comes to COVID, where it has been bizarrely declared off-limits.

The approach advocated by Greenwald has indeed been declared off-limits by doctors and scientists, who see the preservation of human life as the bedrock of their moral obligation to society.

In a powerful editorial published in February 2021, the BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) condemned calls for balancing the preservation of human life with economic interests.

When politicians and experts say that they are willing to allow tens of thousands of premature deaths for the sake of population immunity or in the hope of propping up the economy, is that not premeditated and reckless indifference to human life?

The scientists and doctors who wrote the editorial correctly called such a calculus on the value of human life social murder. Greenwald, by contrast, identifies precisely this central element of government policy, not to condemn it, but to demand that it be carried out more ruthlessly and aggressively.

What are the costs that Greenwald identifies that have to be balanced against the massive loss of life caused by the pandemic? He writes:

Thus, this mentality insists, we must keep schools closed to avoid the contracting by children of COVID regardless of the horrific costs which eighteen months or two years of school closures impose on all children.

No doubt, closing schools has an impact on the education and socialization of children. With the allocation of the necessary resources, this impact can be minimized by ensuring that all children have access to high-quality remote learning and their parents are given the resources necessary to stay at home while non-essential production is shut down. The impact on childrenin terms of their illness and death, as well as the illness and death of their friends, parents, teachers and the population as a wholemakes the closure of schools a social and political imperative.

In warning of the horrific costs of closing schools, Greenwald never quotes those he argues against and thus feels free to put words in the mouth of his imaginary interlocuter. As a matter of fact, however, scientists have made clear that aggressive action, if implemented systematically, could stamp out the pandemic not in two years, but in two months.

In a presentation to the WSWS online event,  For a global strategy to stop the pandemic and save lives!  Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz presented a model showing that COVID-19 could be eliminated in just two months through the combination of mass vaccination, the shutdown of public schools and non-essential businesses and universal testing, contact tracing and isolation of infected individuals.

To support his demand for sacrificing human lives for economic reasons, Greenwald re-hashes an argument made over and over again by right-wing pundits. If we really wanted to save lives, he says, we should ban or severely restrict the use of automobiles.

Even with seat belts and airbags, a tragic number of life-years are lost given how many young people die or are left permanently and severely disabled by car accidents. Studies over the course of decades have demonstrated that even small reductions in speed limits save many lives, while radical reductionssupported by almost nobodywould eliminate most if not all deaths from car crashes.

Very few people call for a prohibition on the use of automobiles or radical reductions in speed limits, Greenwald argues, even though car crashes kill large numbers of people. In the same way, he implies, people should stop advocating for aggressive public health measures to stop the pandemic, even though it is killing large numbers of people.

First, in terms of numbers, the pandemic is actually killing far more people. More than 100 people die in automobile accidents every day in the US. By comparison, 1,290 people died from COVID-19 on Thursday, and over 1,000 people have died every day this week.

But it is not just a matter of scale. Every person who becomes sick with COVID-19 becomes a human Petri dish, giving the virus a new chance to mutate into an even more deadly variation. There have already been four major new strains, including the current Delta variantwith scientists warning that even more dangerous variants are likely if it keeps spreading. In other words, beyond the toll of death and injury, the costs of not containing the pandemic constantly grow like a snowball.

Greenwald himself noted the difference on Twitter in 2020, writing, 'Unlike car accidents or heart attacks, where the death rate is stable, the number of deaths increases virtually every day, sometimes exponentially, with no end in sight.' This is exactly right. Preventing infections from COVID-19 not only keeps those infected safe but also keeps the disease from spreading, infecting others and mutating.

As for Greenwalds example, actions certainly are required and have been taken to reduce traffic fatalities.

In 1965, Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed, documenting efforts by US automakers, including General Motors, to fight critical safety features such as the introduction of seatbelts. The publication of the book led to the passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, and a range of standard safety features for automobiles, including safety glass, emergency flashers and padded steering wheels.

Just one of these measures, the requirement to install and use seatbelts, has saved an estimated 374,196 lives from 1975 through 2017, and traffic fatalities per mile traveled have been reduced more than five-fold. Moreover, laws have been passed imposing severe fines and even criminal sanctions for driving under the influence of alcohol, a major contributor to traffic accidents. Other laws prohibit the use of phones while driving.

The type of cost-benefit analysis invoked by Greenwald has been used for decades to stonewall crucial safety regulations by major corporations. Lawmakers who oppose regulations for ideological (or financial) reasons have long used cost-benefit analysis to obstruct vigorous public health and safety protections, Public Citizen, the group founded by Nader, noted in 2013.

Earlier this month, Public Citizen responded to the right-wing arguments against public health measures to stop the pandemic by noting that the biggest weakness of cost-benefit analysis is that it cannot meaningfully account for priceless values: human life, health, nature, freedom, justice, fairness, equality, or even peace of mind In the eyes of cost-benefit analysis, if you cant assign a dollar value to it, it doesnt exist.

Cost-benefit analysis may be appropriate in determining certain business decisionshow will resources be distributed most effectively in constructing a building, for example, or how will the construction of a factory in different locations impact transportation and resource costs.

It is entirely inappropriate in determining policy in response to the pandemic, because human life cannot be given a numerical value. The call for a cost-benefit analysis of public policy measures incorporates a whole series of assumptions: that nothing can be done to mitigate the impact of these measures, that the existing structure of class society will remain untouched, and, ultimately, that a price tag can be put on human life.

While covering themselves with references to the costs to children due to temporary school closures, the real concerns of those within the ruling class promoting a cost-benefit analysis is the cost to the profits of the corporations and the wealth of the ruling class.

A significant element about Greenwalds article is the fact that just two days after it appeared, two UK government officials told i news that the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson will consider a cost-benefit analysis on both saving lives and effect of deaths on the UK economy.

The newspaper wrote:

A cost-benefit analysis will have set the acceptable level of Covid-19 deaths before restrictions are reintroduced at around 1,000 deaths a week, two Government advisers have told i.  The Governments cost-benefit analysis on Covid measures is believed to set not only the acceptable level of cost to save the life of a Covid patient at up to 30,000, but also how much each life lost costs the UK economy.

One of the officials even referred to speed limits as an example of measures that have to be weighed against the costs of implementing them.

This timing raises a question: Is Greenwald serving as a conduit for legitimizing the UK governments policies? If not, it only goes to show how directly his political orientation tracks with the most ruthless sections of the political establishment. The implementation of a cost-benefit approach is entirely in keeping with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnsons earlier proclamation: no more fucking lockdownslet the bodies pile high in their thousands.

There are disturbing historical issues that are raised by the type of argument Greenwald is advancing. He claims that rational cost-benefit analysis  is foundational to public policy debates. As a matter of fact, it is not. The application of such an analysis to medicine and public health is informed by the legacy of eugenics and the German Nazi Partys murder of tens of thousands of people with chronic illnesses whom the Nazis branded unfit to live.

In the bioethics textbook From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice, professors Allen Buchman, Dan Brock, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler note the legacy of cost-benefit analysis in the American eugenics movement.

It cites the Eugenics Catechism of the American Eugenics Society of 1926, which argues, It has been estimated that the State of New York, up to 1916, spent over $2,000,000 on the descendants of one familythe Jukesclaimed to be genetically deficient. How much would it have cost to sterilize the original Jukes pair? asked the society: Less than $150.

The book continues, Similar examples abounded in the arithmetic books of German schoolchildren in the 1930s, extending to the cost of keeping institutionalized, handicapped people alive; not long afterward, tens of thousands lost their lives.

You carry the burden, blared one Nazi propaganda poster showing a worker hauling two disabled people on his shoulders. A person with a hereditary disease costs an average of 50,000 reichsmarks until they reach the age of 60.

A Nazi eugenics propaganda poster declares, "you bear the burden" for caring for the chronically ill

Under Nazi rule, tens of thousands of disabled people were murdered in secret, in a program whose horror and corrupting influence was depicted in the German television series Charite at War .

How does the Hippocratic Oath square with an oath to the Fuhrer? asks one of the characters upon learning of his colleagues involvement in the murder of disabled children, referring to the oath taken by doctors and nurses to abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm?

Where do Greenwalds arguments lead? Why stop with rejecting measures to save lives in the COVID-19 pandemic? Why not apply this cost-benefit analysis to medical care and social welfare in general? Why should working people receive medical care past the age of retirement? Would society not benefit if they were allowed to die a natural death?

Why spend so much money on cancer and heart disease research? After all, these are diseases that predominantly affect the elderly. Why even perform life-prolonging operations on people over 65? And what of children with developmental disorders? If the inherent value of human life is ignored, care for the disabled will cost society more than it will benefit.

In the midst of a deepening crisis produced by the pandemic, society has become deeply polarized. Greenwald speaks for a section of the affluent upper-middle class that is throwing in its lot with the financial oligarchy, embracing its homicidal policies and making lawyers briefs for the far right.

But there is another, more powerful pole in society. All over the world, the working class is entering into struggle in defense of its own social interests, crucial among which is the eradication of COVID-19. Broad sections of doctors, scientists and other professionals will be profoundly influenced and strengthened by this renewed movement of the working class.
The spread of the delta variant in India is sickening ever-larger numbers of adolescents and children who had been less affected in the previous wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds are being hospitalized with serious illness in cities across India.

Children attend online classes in a slum on the outskirts of Jammu, India on June 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

In Bangalore, corona infections were confirmed in 543 children between the 1st and 10th of this month, according to the Karnataka Health Department. In the Union Territory of Pondicherry, 20 children were confirmed to have a COVID-19 infection. In Kanchipuram, in the state of Tamil Nadu, 33 children testing positive with COVID-19 infection have been admitted to hospital. Health officials in the state of Telangana said 37,332 children aged 0-19 were confirmed infected with the coronavirus between March and May this year.

Doctors are stressing the danger to children from the more virulent variant. Dr. Anjan Bhattacharya said: The double mutant variant has immune escape phenomena. It masquerades as our own body system and then escapes our immunity protection. This is why more children are contracting COVID-19. He pointed to a large rise in reported cases: If COVID-19 affected 1 percent of children last year, it is about 1.2 percent now. But it is a huge increase in terms of numbers in India.

Not only are more children contracting the virus, but the resulting illness is often more severe. Dr. Jaydeb Ray in Kolkata explained that before the emergence of the Delta variant, most COVID-19 cases were asymptomatic: But now, we are seeing kids coming to hospitals with MIS-C (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children). This time it is showing parallel to an active infection.

Such diseases are now leading to severe illness and deaths in children across India. Eighteen children have died in the Indian state of Rajasthan of a rare inflammatory disease amid the second wave of COVID-19. Similarly, 155 children have been admitted in the Jaipur hospital. Four children have been admitted to a hospital in Maharashtra with shortness of breath and low blood pressure.

Dr. Thiren Gupta, an intensive care pediatrician at Kangaram Hospital in Delhi, has treated more than 75 patients between the ages of 4 and 15 for MIS-C. He estimates that there are more than 500 such cases in Delhi and its suburbs. Gupta told the press that 90 percent of the children treated at the hospital were suffering from COVID-19 without showing any symptoms. There were 30 such cases in Pune and 20 in Solapur in children between the ages of 10 and 15.

The danger of serious illness comes atop the other burdens the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed on Indias children. Many are orphaned. A study in The Lancet found that 119,000 children and adolescents in India lost their primary or secondary caregivers to COVID-19 in the first 14 months of the pandemic. Currently, this number has increased further, leaving 43,139 children orphaned. In Tamil Nadu alone, more than 3,600 children have lost a parent to COVID-19.

Chronic poverty in India further exacerbates these intolerable conditions. A 2016 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) report, prior to the pandemic, found that a staggering 38.4 percent of Indian children suffer from stunting due to malnutrition. This has been exacerbated during the pandemic, together with child labor, which affected 11 million children in India before the pandemic. The proportion of children aged 6 to 10 out of school rose by 1.5 percent in 2017 to 5.3 percent in 2020.

These reports expose as politically criminal the attempts by governments in India and around the world to force children back to school for in-person learning, so their parents can be kept at work generating profits for the banks and major corporations. Hundreds of children are dying or becoming seriously ill in Indonesia and in the United States, as well as in India. Yet capitalist governments are responding only by escalating their war on children.

Given the massive under-reporting of COVID-19 cases in India, any increase in the rate of serious illness could have devastating consequences for Indias 1.37 billion population.

The COVID-19 pandemic utterly swamped Indias poor health care infrastructure. Officially, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India is 32.6 million and the death toll is 437,400. However, a July 2021 study by the US-based Center for Global Development estimated that the true COVID-19 death toll in India is between 2.9 and 5.8 million. Of these deaths, half had come just in the period since March 2021 and the emergence of the Delta variant.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Gularia said 50 percent of Indian children had been exposed to COVID-19 and would test positive in antibody tests. Nonetheless, he said, they are still vulnerable to the more virulent Delta variant: The general feeling is that adults are getting vaccinated, children are not being vaccinated and therefore if there is a new wave it will affect those who are more susceptible. Children will be more susceptible.

These reports underscore the necessity, as the World Socialist Web Site has explained, of imposing strict social distancing and lockdown measures to halt the contagion, end the spread of COVID-19, and fight for the global eradication of the coronavirus.

In India, there currently is no vaccination program for children and adolescents. While the vaccine is free for those over 45 years of age, others must spend money out-of-pocket to get vaccinated. This is only possible for those who are rich.

In fact, only 10 percent of Indias population is fully vaccinated, and only 34 percent have had any vaccine doses at all. This means that broad layers of workers as well as school-aged youth are desperately vulnerable to contracting the disease.

Moreover, when the second wave of COVID-19 peaked in the state of Maharashtra in May and June, it was revealed that nearly 2,500 people in several places, including Mumbai, had been injected with ordinary salt water. This led to charges that officials, including doctors, had embezzled a total of $28,000. Similar fake vaccination scams have been reported elsewhere in India over the last two months.

Indian scientists are warning of a new catastrophe, particularly if the vaccination campaign is not accelerated. A study by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Energy University and Nirma University has found that India could see as many as 600,000 new COVID-19 infections a day. Other studies have projected a third wave that is expected to increase to 100,000 to 150,000 recorded infections per day by October with a peak of cases expected in November.

Despite warnings from leading epidemiologists, microbiologists and other scientists, several state governments, including the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, have decided to open all business premises, including schools and cinema, from early September. They are pursuing a ruthless policy of sacrificing human lives to protect the financial, commercial, and geopolitical interests of the ruling elites. This will lead to further spread of the pandemic and to millions of deaths.

The critical question is the political mobilization of the working class to prevent such a disaster and to fight for the eradication of the virus. As the WSWS has written, The implementation of the eradication strategy requires the development of a powerful international and unified mass movement of the working class. Only a mass movement that is not driven by the profit motive and fettered to the obsessive pursuit of personal wealth can generate the social force required to compel a change in policy.
iPrep Academy on the first day of school, August 23, 2021, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

As of August 16, there were total of 37,234 positive cases among students and more than 13,000 among teachers and staff reported to the Indiana Department of Health. After the sharp drop of the positivity rate due to vaccination and brief mitigation, rates have increased again since June 21, reaching 10.2 percent. On April 6, Republican Governor Eric Holcomb joined Republican and Democratic governors nationwide in loosening restrictions. Despite the increase in cases, the demand has been to get schools and workplaces reopened.

Reporters from the World Socialist Web Site spoke to a northern Indiana nurse protesting against the removal of mask mandates in schools on Facebook groups with fellow parents. Mary described the conditions of the pandemic and her opposition to the removal of mask mandates. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

In Marys town of Michigan City, schools opened on August 18, and LaPorte, Indiana, 10 miles away, has a no mask mandate. LaPorte went against the states recommendation of mandating masks.

We shall see in the next week, hopefully our numbers stay great for children, she said. But by what we are seeing in the South and what were seeing in the schools that have masks on everyone will do much better than the ones that dont.

COVID-19 cases are rising sharply with the reopening of schools across the US underway.

Mary described the effects on her hospital of children going back to school: We went from dismantling the COVID unit and only having a few positive cases to reopening COVID units. Here in northern Indiana, the schools are just opening so were not seeing kids yet in the hospital. Im really, really hopeful that we dont, but with them going back into school starting tomorrow in this area, and the numbers increasing, Im sure we will.

In Los Angeles, 600,000 public school students and 24,000 teachers have been brought back to in-person classes. Mary stated that major pediatric hospitals in Texas and Louisiana are filled to capacity. The New Orleans Public School Districts 3,000 students and employees have been quarantined this week due to outbreaks. About 577 students and 352 employees tested positive just this month.

Already, almost 20 percent of ICU beds in Indiana are filled by COVID patients, while 27 percent of all ICU beds are available. Even though the state has not yet reached the reported peak of 3,381 hospitalizations last year, cases have continued to rise since July. Regardless of the risks, schools are reopening and workplaces are keeping workers on the job.

Mary related the broader conditions to what she has seen in Indiana:

Riley Childrens Hospital in Indianapolis just last week alone treated 36 children in their ICU unit. Here in Indiana, the school system just put out that even if we go into the red [high positivity and community spread], they will remain open and will be treated case by case. I think when it comes to children if you have a huge number of them affected you have to shut it down. Unfortunately, children are like petri dishes to begin with and will spread it like wildfire. We cant take risks with childrens lives; we just cannot. We havent even entered the time period of childrens normal viruses, like RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] and flu.

Health care workers have noted surges among children diagnosed with COVID-19 and RSV. Dr. Pannaraj, an infectious diseases specialist at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, noted that this phenomenon puts babies up until about a year and a half or two years of life at risk. Even before the pandemic, hospital workers faced a crisis with the epidemic of nurse burnout. Like all sections of the working class, hospital workers have felt the brunt of the rising cases.

In 2019, nurses conducted a strike at St. Vincent hospital in Toledo, Ohio over pay, staffing and forced overtime that undermined patient care. With the pandemic escalating hospitalizations, hospital workers who are already understaffed are spread thin.

At St. Vincent hospital in Massachusetts, nurses are continuing their three-month-long struggle against the Tenet Healthcare operator. Without answering the demand for better staffing ratio, the hospital proposed increased wages and bonuses to end the strike. The hospital hired replacement nurses in May and has posted additional job openings to break the strike.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) has minimized the strike-breaking effort. In May, the MNA presented a contract proposal that was thoroughly denounced by rank-and-file nurses. While the Tenet company has profited over $414 million throughout the pandemic, the MNA and AFL-CIO have isolated these nurses and provided no strike pay. Rather, the MNA has promoted illusions in the Democratic Party and has no intention of mobilizing wider working class support for the striking nurses.

Five hundred nurses from McLaren Macomb Hospital near Detroit have voted 90 percent for strike action. Nurses have been handling patient loads of six patients at a time.

In New Zealand, 1,500 public hospital midwives joined by parents and students held an eight-hour strike in the second week of August for increase in staffing and funding for health care. The new Delta variant sweeping internationally puts more pressure on hospital workers and an already precarious health care system.

A nurse in Sri Lanka described COVID-19 wards not being properly cleaned and nurses become infected. Like in the US, Sri Lanka also faces a shortage of hospital workers, mainly due to the vast amount of infections and lack of investment in health care infrastructure.

Moved by Massachusetts nurses on strike, Mary spoke of conditions of nurses in Portage, Indiana. In a hospital in Portage, Indiana theyve now decided that they can have eight patients. What hospitals are doing to the nurses is absolutely insane and I support nurses going on strike 100 percent. They are being used and abused, bringing in traveling nurses paying them $150 to $200 an hour. Meanwhile, their staff nurses are being mistreated and dumped; nursing is not good right now. What people dont understand is nurses could up and walk out and cripple our hospital system.

Hospitals and other businessesalong with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Biden administration and the corporate-controlled unions--instead of following the science, are telling people in the midst of a new surge of the pandemic that that they have earned the right to take their masks off and have opposed shutdowns of schools and businesses. In a May speech, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten declared, There is no doubt: Schools must be open. In person. Five days a week. Later, she added, Given current circumstances, nothing should stand in the way of fully reopening our public schools this fall and keeping them open.

Even before school reopenings, the American Academy of Pediatrics noted over 121,000 new cases during the second week of August. The safeguarding of children and the livelihoods of workers through the eradication of COVID-19 can be achieved with an allocation of needed social resources. The Democrats and Republicans have centered the discussion as one of pro- or against mask mandates, as they defend the insatiable drive for profit of the financial oligarchy.

However, numerous epidemiologists have demonstrated and argued that a total shutdown is required to eradicate the pandemic. The Socialist Equality Party calls on all parents, workers and students to form rank-and-file committees as part of a national and international campaign to stop the murderous school reopening drive and to fight for the shutdown of nonessential production, with compensation for all workers.
Alert Level 4 highway sign from 2020: "Stay home, save lives", near Porirua. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Yesterday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealands strict level 4 lockdown will continue nationwide until Wednesday, September 1. After that, the biggest city, Auckland and the Northland region will likely remain in level 4 for another two weeks, while restrictions in the rest of the country will be reduced to level 3.

The Labour Party-led government says it is seeking to eliminate community transmission of the highly-infectious Delta variant of COVID-19. On Friday there were 347 active cases, the vast majority in Auckland, except for 14 in Wellington. In addition, there are 37 positive cases among travellers recently returned from overseas. The outbreak has more than doubled in size in just a few days, from 148 known cases on Tuesday. Seventeen people are in hospital with the virus, one in intensive care.

When the country went into lockdown on August 18 only one community case had been identified. The outbreak is thought to have originated with a person who returned from Australia on August 7.

Under level 4, schools and almost all businesses are closed, including cafes, restaurants and other retail outlets except supermarkets, pharmacies and corner stores. At level 3, many restrictions will remain in force: schools and universities will be mostly shut, but exemptions will be made for children whose parents are unable to work from home. Cafes and restaurants will be reopened only for take-aways.

In an article for the Conversation on Thursday, scientists Rachelle Binny, Siouxsie Wiles, Shaun Hendy and Michael Plank estimated that upwards of 200 people had been infected before the lockdown in several superspreading events, including a church service on August 14. They said its likely that at least Auckland will need several more weeks at alert level 4 to stamp out community transmission. Hendy has estimated the outbreak could be as large as 1,000 cases.

The four scientists said the elimination strategy, squashing outbreaks by means of lockdowns, was the best option to deal with the virus, simply because the alternatives are grim. The US, UK, Brazil, India and many other countries are seeing a major resurgence of cases and deaths due to governments reopening schools and workplaces and asserting that the population must live with the virus so that businesses can avoid disruptions. These homicidal policies are being enforced by the corporatised trade unions.

Despite New Zealands relatively stringent measures, some workers remain at risk. Although the government says most of the new Delta cases since the lockdown have been due to transmission within households, some frontline workers have been infected, including nurses, at least one supermarket employee and food production workers. Stuff reported that a worker at a Tegel chicken factory in West Auckland has tested positive. As a precaution, 50 workers have been sent home and will be tested. Meat-processing factories are still operating, despite the industry being a major source of infections internationally.

New Zealands vaccination program is only now starting to ramp up, and just 25 percent of the population is fully inoculated, making the country highly vulnerable. Moreover, vaccines, while essential, are no panacea. Epidemiologist Michael Baker warned during the World Socialist Web Site s recent panel discussion on how to eradicate COVID-19: Even if we had global vaccine access and high coverage, we would still have circulating virus. So, we need to combine vaccine with public health measures.

Since the beginning of the pandemic last year, the New Zealand governments main priority, like governments throughout the world, has been to protect corporate profits at the expense of the working class. Businesses that expect to experience a decline in revenue of 40 percent due to the level four lockdown can apply for government subsidies of $600 a week per full time employee.

The Spinoff economics commentator Bernard Hickey wrote that by September last year $13.8 billion in wage subsidies had been distributed to 900,000 businesses. While this included 240,000 sole traders and many small businesses, several large corporations received tens of millions from the scheme. Fletcher Building, which sacked 1,000 staff last year, received $67.7 million in public money. The construction giant posted a $305 million profit for the year ended June 2021.

The corporate handouts and the Reserve Banks quantitative easing program, which printed $53 billion to buy bonds from the commercial banks, helped to inflate asset values by $400 billion. House prices increased by nearly 30 percent in a single year. The governments policies, Hickey said, dramatically widened inequality and sent tens of thousands more children into poverty and homelessness.

The Labour government now claims it cannot afford to fix a crisis of understaffing, under-capacity and low pay in the countrys public hospitals, which are completely unprepared for an uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19. Shortly before the latest outbreak, tens of thousands of nurses, and thousands of midwives held nationwide strikes to oppose the austerity measures.

The governments elimination strategy for COVID-19 has overwhelming support. According to a poll of 629 people published by the Spinoff this week, 69 percent agreed with the strategy, only 10 percent opposed it and 21 percent were unsure.

Business representatives, however, have criticised the strategy. Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson told the New Zealand Herald the extension of level 4 until Wednesday for the South Island was disappointing and said ongoing lockdowns cannot be part of our long-term future.

Right-wing columnist Matthew Hooton lashed out at what he called a handful of loons [who] argue that New Zealand should maintain the current elimination strategy whatever happens. He hoped that the government would move away from this policy in the new year once everyone has had a chance to be vaccinated.

Speaking to Nine News on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denounced New Zealands elimination strategy as absurd. He advocated reopening once vaccination rates have reached 70 to 80 percent and then treating coronavirus like the flu. The policy of living with the virus has already produced a worsening disaster in the state of New South Wales, where around 900 cases are being detected every day.

Prime Minister Arderns response to Morrisons provocative comment was muted. She told Coast FM she was not fussed about it and that New Zealand did not intend to lock down forever. Finance Minister Grant Robertson diplomatically told Newstalk ZB, All of the experts continue to tell us the best strategy that we can take at the moment is elimination.

On Friday, Ardern stated that our number one strategy right now is elimination and vaccination, but again left the door open for a change of direction, stating that over the coming months the government would consider its strategy for 2022. The government has already indicated that it wants to loosen border quarantine requirements for some people entering the country from next year, to accommodate the demands of big business.
Britains i newspaper has revealed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has conducted a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether saving lives through further lockdowns can be justified based on the effect of deaths on the UK economy.

Two government advisors told the i that closed-door discussion had established an acceptable level of Covid-19 deaths at around 1,000 deaths a week.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson pauses during a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street, in London, Monday April 5, 2021. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool via AP)

According to one adviser, Johnson had privately accepted that there would be at least a further 30,000 deaths in the UK over the next year, and that he would only consider imposing further [COVID-19 safety] restrictions if that figure looked like it could rise above 50,000.

Johnson, who has the social conscience of a Heinrich Himmler, put the acceptable cost of saving the life of a COVID-19 patient at 30,000. However, this proposed upper limit for treating a patient was then combined with a calculation of how much each life lost costs the UK economy.

According to the two sources, the analysis shows that the cost of keeping the annual death rate below 50,000 would outweigh the cost to the UK economy of allowing it to rise above this level. This translates to deaths from Covid of 137 a day, or just under 1,000 a week.

Professor Graham Medley, chair of the Governments pandemic modelling group Spi-m and member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told the i by way of justification, Measures such as vaccinating children against meningitis or imposing speed limits on roads reduce death and disease, but also cost money and limit freedoms.

The i s sources stressed that it wont be an immediate reaction and that only a sustained rate of death of around a 1,000 a week for two or three weeks would lead to discussion on restrictions being reimposed. Not even a discussion on lockdowns will take place. The proposed trigger for such a possible reconsideration was meant solely to legitimise the ending of lockdown and the removal of all measures of mitigation on July 19. It was never intended to be implemented.

Sympathising with Johnsons supposed dilemma, the i s source states, Unfortunately, prime ministers have to weigh up the cost of saving lives to the impact on the economy. No one wants to talk about thats how it works.

But Johnson has previously made clear exactly how it works. His embittered former adviser Dominic Cummings revealed WhatsApp messages sent by Johnson to his advisers last October, declaring of COVID fatalities, The median age is 8281 for men 85 for women There are max 3m [million] in this country aged over 80. It shows we dont go for nationwide lockdown.

Events have moved on since these criminal calculations were made. Based on data over the past seven days in the UK, deaths from COVID-19 have already reached just under 800 a week or 110 every day. For three of those days the death toll exceeded the 137 figure. By next week, the death toll will almost certainly exceed 1,000 over seven days, an annual equivalent exceeding 50,000.

A month from now, predictions of 50,000 deaths a year will look wildly optimistic.

Next week will see all primary and secondary schools reopen in England and Wales, a super-spreader event of massive proportions. Since schools reopened in Scotland from August 16, daily cases have risen from 1,567 to 6,835, well over 300 percent. In the past week alone, they have risen by 114 percent.

Yesterday, the modelling group of SAGE warned that ministers must plan for a huge rise in COVID-19 cases as schools return by the end of September 2021.

That is why the governments response to the leaks to the i newspaper was to state, There is no set number of acceptable deaths from Covid. This was not to deny the 50,000 figure being cited, but to make clear that no number of deaths will prompt a change in the governments murderous policy of letting the virus rip through the population.

The citing of costs versus benefits is merely an alternative version of Trumps insistence that the cure must not be worse than the disease. What cost benefit analysis means in the discussion on the pandemic is that working people will pay with their lives and health to preserve capitalist profitability.

The policy of the ruling class in Britain and internationally remains that which was so bluntly stated by Johnson after being forced to agree to a second truncated lockdown late last year: No more fucking lockdownslet the bodies pile high in their thousands.

Ending this catastrophic situation demands the independent political intervention of the working class.

The pandemic has claimed over 155,000 lives in Britain and officially over 4.5 million worldwide. The true figure is more than 10 million. None of this needed to happen. A properly conducted policy of lockdowns, involving the closure of schools and the maintenance of only socially necessary production, combined with the use of track and trace technology and scientifically approved personal protective equipment, could have successfully eliminated the virus before its spread worldwide and before the emergence of more deadly strains, especially with the development of vaccines.

Instead, apart from occasional and limited lockdowns, the virus was given almost free rein as the capitalist class prioritised private profit over public health.

The political allies of the banks and corporations stretched across the official political spectrum, with Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and their counterparts internationally all united in opposition to the fundamental interests of working people and their families.

On August 20, the World Socialist Web Site issued a call for workers in every country to mount a strategic, life and death struggle for the eradication of COVID-19. We not only called for the rejection of the herd immunity agenda advanced by Johnson and his ilk, but also of policies limited to mitigation seeking only to limit the pandemics impact through vaccination, masking, social distancing and similar measures.

The rapid escalation and global spread of the highly infectious Delta variant have confirmed that herd immunity cannot be realised and that mitigation alone only allows the virus to spread, mutate and claim millions more lives. The WSWS concluded, Therefore, the only viable strategy is eradication, based on the policies advanced by the foremost epidemiologists, virologists and other scientists throughout the pandemic. Eradication entails the universal deployment of every weapon in the arsenal of measures to combat COVID-19, coordinated on a global scale, to stamp out the virus once and for all.

Eliminating COVID-19 demands a unified struggle by educators, parents, autoworkers, transport workers, logistics workers, health care workers and the entire working class internationally.

To this end, on August 22, the WSWS organised an online discussion,  For a Global Strategy to Stop the Pandemic and Save Lives!  The event brought together eminent scientists, Professor Michael Baker of the University of Otago, New Zealand; Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz of the University of Calgary, Canada; and Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam from the New England Complex Systems Institute in the US, to explain the necessity of an elimination strategy, with teachers in the US, Brazil and Australia on the frontline of the fight against the criminal policies of the ruling elite. Also participating was Lisa Diaz, a parent opposed to sending her children into an unsafe school environment, whose description of the situation in the UK prompted Professor Baker to describe Johnsons policies as a barbaric experiment on the British people.

The meeting provided workers and young people with a scientific approach to combating the pandemic. It advanced the necessary political perspective on which such a fight must be based, insisting that no limits must be placed on what is spent to eradicate COVID-19. The necessary resources must be taken from the fabulous wealth hoarded by the banks, major corporations and the super-rich and put to the service of humanity. This is the perspective that must now be taken up by millions the world over.
The official number of COVID-19 deaths in Russia on Thursday was 820, more than at any other point in the pandemic. While daily new infections are slowly declining, the country is still recording over 19,000 new cases a day, almost all of them driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

A gets a shot of the one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine at a mobile vaccination station in St. Petersburg, Russia on August 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva)

Cases have declined mostly in Moscow, long the center of the pandemic, where a spike in vaccination and more stringent public health measures at the beginning of the third wave helped curtail the spread.

The grim record comes as schools across the country are set to reopen on September 1, herding 17 million school children and thousands of teachers into what are largely dilapidated buildings that serve as vectors for the Delta variant. The Russian education minister Sergei Kravtsov announced that no social distancing measures or masks will be required on a federal level. There will also be no federal vaccine mandate for teachers. Regions have the authority to impose public health measures on their own and in some cases schools can issue their own mandates.

While some schools and regions are seeking to mandate vaccines to their staff, the trade unions, which fully support the reopening, are campaigning against any vaccine mandates. Many regions, including Moscow, have issued a requirement for at least 60 percent of the school staff to be vaccinated. The Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, is expected to be approved for children on September 15.

The criminal reopening of the schools in Russia mirrors reopenings across Europe, Latin America and the United States. It will inevitably lead to a renewed spike in cases and deaths, including among children who have suffered record rates of hospitalization and deaths from the Delta variant.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, the Russian government is refusing to enforce even the most minimal public health measures, leaving it to regional jurisdictions to impose limited, if any, measures on an ad hoc basis. Major production facilities in the country have remained open for almost the entirety of the pandemic.

These policies have led, officially, to 179,000 deaths, but studies indicate that the real death toll may be higher by a factor of five. Dozens of patients have died because ventilators have gone up in flames and oxygen pipes have exploded in hospital buildings that run on decades-old equipment and have been systematically starved of funds. Almost 7 million people out of a population of 142 million have officially contracted the virus, no doubt an underestimate.

In a stark example of the open criminality of how businesses and the government handle the pandemic, the Russian airline Rossiya, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aeroflot, forced its flight attendants to report for work, even if they are sick, for the past month. This was under conditions where about a third of all flight attendants in Russia reported sick this summer, many of them because of COVID-19.

These criminal policies have had global implications. The recent Delta outbreak in China was triggered by a flight that came from Russia, which carried at least one infected passenger who infected the cleaning crew.

Russia is also about to hold parliamentary elections on September 19. Several parties, including the ruling United Russia party, have signed a memorandum according to which their candidates are not allowed to speak about COVID-19 or vaccinations, under the pretext that only medical experts could speak about these issues.

Vaccination rates in Russia remain extremely low, even though five Russian vaccines have now been approved. Only 29 percent of the population have received at least one jab, mostly of Sputnik V, and only 24.5 percent are fully vaccinated. This is well below the 60 percent vaccination rate that the government aimed to reach by the fall, much less than in countries like China, the US or Western Europe, and even below the worldwide average of 25.1 percent. Over half the population have indicated in polls that they do not intend to get vaccinated.

Vaccine hesitancy is driven by great popular distrust in the Russian government and state. Both are associated with the rule of the criminal oligarchy that has emerged from the Stalinist-led destruction of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has engaged in major assaults on the living standards of the working class and endless lies.

For decades, particularly since 1991, there have also been state-backed, systematic attacks on science and a promotion of religion, various forms of pseudo-medicine and irrationalism. At the beginning of the pandemic, much as in countries like the US or Brazil, Russian government officials routinely ridiculed the virus, comparing it to the flu, and crazed representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church who declared the pandemic a hoax were paraded on the media.

While there have been fewer studies of Sputnik V than of other vaccines, all indicate a high efficiency of the drug. Several studies suggest that the vaccine was 91 to 97.6 percent effective in preventing severe illness and death in earlier variants of the virus. A new pre-print study, that has yet to be peer-reviewed, found that full vaccination with Sputnik V is also very effective against severe disease resulting from the Delta variant.

The study analyzed the outcomes for almost 14,000 COVID-19 patients in St. Petersburg during the third wave of the pandemic, when over 90 percent of cases were Delta cases. According to the study, adjusting for age and sex, the vaccines effectiveness at preventing hospitalizations among those infected with COVID-19 was 81 percent. However, it was only 35 percent among those who had received just one jab of the vaccine 14 days prior. The Russian Health Ministry had previously indicated that Sputnik V is 83 percent effective against contracting the Delta variant.

Reports indicate that the WHO is planning to grant emergency use approval to Sputnik V this fall. While it is not clear what has caused the delay in the granting of the authorization, according to Nature magazine, experts assume that concerns about possible side effects and the state of Russias manufacturing sites play a role. For reasons that remain unclear, the documentation submitted by the Russian side is still incomplete, about one year after the Kremlin itself authorized the use of the vaccine ahead of the completion of the third phase of the trial.

Russia also struggles with the production of the vaccine. Like the Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, Sputnik V uses an engineered adenovirus (a family of viruses that cause only mild illness) as a mechanism for inserting the genetic code for the SARS-CoV2-spike protein into human cells. However, unlike the Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the two Sputnik V jabs are based on two different adenoviruses to increase the vaccines efficacy. This means that two effectively different drugs have to be produced for one full vaccination, often in two different facilities.

After decades in which the Soviet industrial and scientific infrastructure was systematically destroyed, Russia had only few pharmaceutical plants when the pandemic began and desperately scrambled to turn Soviet-era auto plants into vaccine manufacturing sites, with limited success. There is also an acute shortage of highly trained workers in biotechnology.

As a result, Russia has fallen significantly behind the production of the 1.6 billion doses that are so far contracted. Sputnik V has been approved in 69 countries and especially poorer countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia have bought the vaccine as an alternative to the Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna vaccines. However, according to a recent report by the Council of the Americas, by August 12, Russia had exported just under 20 million doses of Sputnik V to Latin America, out of at least 95 million doses that had been ordered by Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela.
The following report was delivered at the Socialist Equality Party (US) 2021 summer school, held August 1 through August 6, by Johannes Stern, the deputy editor of the German-language edition of the World Socialist Web Site and a leading member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) in Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Macron at the EU Summit in Brussels on 17 July [Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via AP]

Over the last year, the initial propaganda of the European governments that they had responded more responsibly to the pandemic than the US governmentfirst under Trump and now under Bidenhas been exposed as a murderous fraud. As in the US, the European population faces a ruling class that puts profits before lives and effectively pursues a policy of social murder.

There are officially over 1.1 million dead on the continent. This includes more than 150,000 in Britain, more than 160,000 in Russia, about 130,000 in Italy, 110,000 in France, 92,000 in Germany, 82,000 in Spain, 75,000 in Poland and 53,000 in Ukraine. Such numbers are unprecedented outside times of war. And as in the US and India, the real numbers are certainly much higher. And they continue to rise.

As we hold this school, a deadly fourth wave of the pandemic is developing, exacerbated by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. In the UK, Spain and France, 20,000 to 30,000 new infections are reported every day. In Germany, the numbers are rising rapidly and, as a result of the governments reckless reopening policy, it is only a matter of a few weeks before daily infection figures reach new records.

Earlier this week, Chancellery chief Helge Braun of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) even warned of 100,000 new daily infections in Germany in September. Incidence rates of over 800 infected with COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants are unfortunately not unrealistic, she said.

What such an incidence rate means is clear: the complete overload of the health system and a renewed wave of mass death. A recent study published by the RKI calculated that intensive care capacities would be overwhelmed at an incidence rate of 400. Already in the second and third waves of the pandemic, the health care system was at its limit, and tens of thousands of people succumbed to the virus in Germany alone.

As in the first waves of the pandemic, the mass suffering is a direct result of the aggressive opening policies pursued by the European ruling class. Governments of all stripes are pursuing a deliberate policy of herd immunity, putting profits before lives.

In order not to jeopardize the orgy of enrichment on the stock exchanges, governments across Europe insist that there must be no more lockdowns and that one must live with the virusor, rather, die with the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson summed up the ruling classs policy in his infamous statement, No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands!

With this the governing parties in Europewhether conservative, social democratic or pseudo-leftare in essence implementing the program of the extreme right, which has long called for an end to all pandemic containment measures. In Germany, just a few weeks ago, the CDU leader and likely next chancellor, Armin Laschet, openly declared his solidarity with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a diatribe against new lockdown measures.

The WSWS has described the pandemic as a trigger event that enormously accelerates the already advanced economic, social and political crisis of the capitalist world system. This is especially visible in Europe. The ruling class has used the pandemic to further advance its policies of social austerity and rearmament, which it had already steadily intensified after the 2008-09 financial crisis.

As in the US, trillions were handed over to banks and large corporations last March. As a result, the fortunes of the super-rich have continued to explode in the year of the pandemic. According to this years Forbes list, Europes billionaires have grown richer by a total of $1 trillion over the past year. These 628 people now have a total wealth of over three trillion dollars, an increase of around 50 percent in just one year.

These gigantic sums are now to be squeezed out of the working class again. Hence the aggressive back to work and back to school policies supported by all capitalist parties and organized in close cooperation with the trade unions.

The herd immunity policy and social attacks go hand in hand with calls for a more aggressive imperialist policy. Like the US government, the European powers are taking advantage of the crisis to intensify their rearmament policy. All the central European powers have massively increased their defence budgets in the year of the pandemic. Germany is leading the way. Next year, for example, the defence budget is set to rise by another five percent, to well over 50 billion.

We have written about the aggressive NATO manoeuvres in the Black Sea, which heighten the danger of a direct military confrontation with the nuclear power Russia. And the European powers are also becoming increasingly aggressive toward China, despite close economic ties.

In a fit of megalomania, Berlin sent a frigate towards the Indo-Pacificon the pretext of securing freedom of navigation there. Aggressive anti-Chinese comments in the press bring back dark memories of Kaiser Wilhelms infamous Hun speech almost 121 years ago to the day.

We have discussed in detail the January 6 coup and the danger of fascism in the US in this school. In Europe, too, the turn of the ruling class toward dictatorship and fascism is well advanced and has been further exacerbated by the pandemic.

I have already mentioned that fact the ruling class in Germany is adopting the program of the far-right AfD. In France and Spain, there are far advanced coup plots in the army. The Macron government in France and the PSOE-Podemos government in Spain are downplaying the danger and are themselves responding to the far-right threat with a sharp shift to the right.

Their stance expresses the same class interests that we have analysed with respect to the Democrats in the United States. The nominally democratic parties in Europe reject any serious struggle against the far-right danger because they defend the interests of finance capital and, above all, fear the growing militancy and resistance of the working class. To suppress the class struggle, they themselves increasingly adopt the program of the extreme right.

At the same time, the pandemic has aggravated the deep crisis of the European Union and the tensions between the imperialist powers on the continent.

While the European powers in general agree on issues of social cuts, militarism, and war, they have been utterly unable to organize a common approach to contain the pandemic. When the virus spread dramatically last spring, for example, the German and French governments imposed export bans on medical protective equipment. Since then, tensions have continued to grow, especially between France and Germany. In mid-July, French neo-fascist and possible next president Marine Le Pen threatened to break the alliance with Germany and develop a close military cooperation with Britain and the United States.

The spectre of catastrophe returns. Germany and France have fought three bloody wars against each other in the last 150 years. Now the escalating economic, social and political crisis is reviving all the unresolved problems of European capitalism in the 20th century.

The entire history and development of the European Union confirms the Marxist analysis summarized by Leon Trotsky in 1917: A halfway complete and consistent economic union of Europe coming from the top by means of an agreement of the capitalist governments is sheer utopia.

And further: The economic union of Europe, which offers colossal advantages to producer and consumer alike, and in general to the whole cultural development, becomes the revolutionary task of the European proletariat in its fight against imperialist protectionism and its instrumentmilitarism.

This is the perspective that the Trotskyist movement has defended against Social Democracy and Stalinism, and which now takes on immediate significance. Among workers and youth, resistance is developing across Europe.

First, there was a wave of spontaneous strikes in key auto, manufacturing and food factories in Italy and across Europe that forced European governments to implement the initial lockdowns last spring. Then in the fall of 2020, there were renewed strikes and protests against the opening policy, including school strikes in Greece, France and Germany.

Now strikes and protests are developing across the continent against attacks on workers jobs and wages. As in the US, corporations, with the help of the unions, are using the COVID-19 pandemic to push through historic attacks on wages and working conditions.

These are only some examples we have been covering extensively on the WSWS: the struggle of the Banbury300 at JDE in Britain, the strikes and protests of the Gorillas delivery workers in Berlin, the struggle of the WISAG airport workers in Frankfurt and the spontaneous strikes of electricity workers in Turkey.

In all these struggles, we have not only commented on events, but intervened as active participants in the class struggle. We fought to organize workers independently of the unions and clarified central questions of political orientation and perspective. On this basis, we have been able to set up rank-and-file committees among teachers and students and make similar developments in other workplaces and industries.

We are in a situation where our partys intervention is becoming the most decisive factor in determining how political developments play out.

The example of our intervention among Volvo workers in the Belgian city of Ghent is worth considering again. Our intervention there and the support we won for the strike of the Volvo workers in Dublin, Virginia directly strengthened the struggle of the rank-and-file there. At the same time, the strike in Dublin, which we told Volvo workers in Ghent about, spurred their fight against the 40-hour week. Just one day after our first intervention, there was a spontaneous walkout at Volvo Cars in Ghent.

We cannot underestimate the influence we have. Similar to the response of the WSWS to the 1619 Project, we have understood that the rewriting of history in Germanythe trivialization of Nazi crimes by far-right professors such as Jorg Baberowskihas far-reaching consequences. We have not only noted this, but we have mobilized a powerful intellectual and political offensive against it, which has found such a great response because it articulates the enormous opposition among workers and youth to fascism and war.

There is one other more recent experience that I want to share with you. We are currently in the midst of a federal election campaign. We decided to intervene strongly after the recent flood disaster, in which more than 200 people died because they were not warned and no safety measures were organized. Like the pandemic, this disaster is again exposing the criminality of the ruling class and the bankruptcy of capitalism. Our latest video report, with interviews of those affected, was viewed over 200,000 times within only five days. This underscores the impact we have when we respond aggressively to political events.

In his report to the summer school two years ago, Comrade North explained, The attack on our German section by the Verfassungsschutz is a clear political statement that the ruling elite recognizes that the program and ideas of our movement have the potential to gain a mass following in the working class.

He added: This acknowledgment of the political stature of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei is, in one sense, a compliment. But it is also a threat, and it must be taken seriously... To meet the demands of this global development of the class struggle it is necessary for the cadre of the International Committee to draw upon the entire theoretical and political capital of our world party.

This is the orientation of this school and the basis on which we must now continue to develop the work of the SEP and the entire International Committee of the Fourth International.
As the United Mine Workers of America (UNWA) continues to isolate the strike by 1,100 Warrior Met coal miners in Alabama, it is focusing attention on two recent rulings by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in relation to the strike.

While an August 13 ruling by NLRB was hailed by the UMWA as a step forward in the ongoing Warrior Met Coal strike, which is now approaching its sixth month, another ruling on August 25 led UMWA President Cecil Roberts to charge the NLRB had declared open season on striking miners.

Warrior Met miners picket (Source UMWA)

Around 1,100 miners at Warrior Met have been on strike since April 1, when the miners overwhelmingly rejected the first tentative agreement between the company and the UMWA. Rather than seek to break the isolation of the strike, the UMWA has filed numerous toothless unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB over Warrior Mets provocative tactics.

On August 23, the UMWA proudly posted on its website that the NLRB had found merit in one of the charges. The NLRB notified Warrior Met on August 13, 2021 that it was prepared to issue a complaint if Warrior Met would not enter into a settlement agreement in which it agreed to cease and desist from this unlawful conduct.

Seeking to bolster its badly tarnished credibility, the UMWA issued a press release to call attention to the ruling. This is welcome news, but is no great surprise, Cecil Roberts said of the NLRBs decision. We have seen this company act in ways contrary to American labor law from the outset of this strike.

Warrior Met has capitalized on the abject prostration by the UMWA before its strikebreaking tactics. It has even met with some success in attempting to woo miners to cross the picket line by bargaining with individual miners and promising increases in production bonuses. This, coupled with the companys refusal to negotiate with the UMWA, constitutes bad faith bargaining under US labor law.

If there were any illusions that the NLRB would come down decisively on the side of workers they were soon put to rest, however.

Despite several instances of well-documented vehicular assault on the striking miners by Warrior Met employees, including management personnel, on August 25 the NLRB dismissed all charges related to vehicular assault, claiming that there was insufficient evidence that any pickets were struck. Yet, in at least two cases, these assaults have been captured on video. One miner was hospitalized after being struck.

It took Roberts nearly two weeks to announce the NLRBs first ruling. When the NLRB dismissed the vehicular assault charges, though, he made a statement on the same day, vowing on the UMWA website that the union would appeal the decision.

Engaging in his trademark bluster Roberts declared, The NLRB is asking us to disbelieve our own eyes, he said, pointing out that there had been several eyewitness accounts as well as video evidence of Warrior Met employees hitting pickets. This is an outrageous decision...and we will fight it every step of the way.

To date, there has been no action taken by the Alabama State Police, the Tuscaloosa or Jefferson County Sherriffs Departments or the city of Brookwood, all of who have some varying level of jurisdiction regarding these assaults, Roberts went on. Now the federal agency charged with ensuring the right to peacefully strike has refused to act as well. It appears that it is now open season on strikers walking the picket lines anywhere in NLRB Region 10.

Roberts concluded his statement with a rhetorical flourish; We are forced to ask if there is no justice for workers in Alabama.

If Roberts fights the NLRB the way he has fought the coal companies, Warrior Met need have no fears. The charges against Warrior Met are legitimate; miners reported that human resources representatives attempted to bargain with workers individually before the strike even began. This isolation of workers is, indeed, bad faith bargaining.

However, there is nothing surprising in this. Bad faith is the hallmark of the coal industry for over 100 years from the days of Matewan and Bloody Harlan to Pittston Coal. Yet knowing that Warrior Met enjoys the support of the state and the police, Roberts continues to isolate the strike, upholding the ruinous selective strike policy instituted by his predecessor, former UMWA President Richard Trumka.

The UMWA once operated by the motto, an injury to one is an injury to all. Yet Trumka and Roberts showed their colors as the toadies of industry by limiting strikes to individual mines, where the whole forces of reaction can concentrate to crush workers resistance. This has allowed the coal industry to extract greater and greater cuts from miners pay, health benefits, and pensions.

The Warrior Met strike has continued for nearly six months, with miners making just over $300 a week in strike pay. Miners have conjectured that the company is trying to wear them down until the strike reaches the one-year markby which time the company will be free to end bargaining with the UMWA and operate as a non-union mine.

Roberts has knownfrom the outset, as he saidthat Warrior Met would leverage both legal and illegal means to break the strike. The company attacked the strike immediately, winning an injunction that only allowed ten pickets at a time on any one line.

For months, state and local law enforcement officers have refused to acknowledge the assaults on pickets, even when officers see them. Roberts was present on one such occasion, witnessing both the assault and the officers disregard. Still, with full knowledge of the states disregard for the miners, the UMWA has steadfastly refused to call out miners at other union mines.

The promotion of illusions in the graces of the NLRB is a long-discredited tactic that has time and time again led to defeat. Only the independent mobilization of the power of the working class can win back what Warrior Met took from its miners. Like the Wall Street marches and the sit-ins, the filing of NLRB charges is completely unserious and a mere distraction on the part of the union that commands $163 million in assets.

For all of these reasons, the World Socialist Web Site continues to encourage Warrior Met miners to form their own rank-and-file committees. It is time to revive the long and proud militant traditions of the miners. The entire working class should take up the miners demandsincluding restoration of their pre-bankruptcy wages, full medical coverage, and safe work conditions with reasonable hoursand stand in solidarity with them.

Warrior Met miners are not alone. Regardless of what the UMWA would have them believe, they are part of an increasingly militant American and international working class. The past several months have seen an upsurge in struggles, including by Volvo workers in Virginia, Frito Lay workers and Nabisco workers as well as nurses in Massachusetts.

Miners worldwide face decreasing wages, low pay, and poor health and have launched struggles, including Vale nickel miners in Canada. These are real allies of Warrior Met miners, not Cecil Roberts and the UMWA. It is to the broader working class that Warrior Met miners must turn, not to the UMWA or to the pro-company NLRB.
Donald Trump called into conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt's show on Thursday, spending almost 45 minutes doling out his usual mix of braggadocio, blame-gaming and just plain old riffing.

One answer -- one very loooooong answer -- stood out to me. It came after Hewitt asked Trump to describe his conversation with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a Taliban co-founder and deputy leader, during his 2020 negotiations with the group to remove American troops from Afghanistan. (Trump talked to Hewitt before the explosions at the Kabul airport on Thursday morning.)

Here's the full back-and-forth (and you can listen to it here):

Hewitt: What did you communicate to Baradar, Mullah Baradar, Abdul Baradar who you talked to when you spoke to him? What did you tell him?

Trump: So I set up a conversation with him, and people said oh, you shouldn't be talking. Well, I set up a conversation with Kim Jong Un of North Korea. We didn't have a nuclear war. Had I not, then Obama would have been right. We would have had a nuclear war. President Obama said to me we're going to have a nuclear war with North Korea. I said have you ever spoken to him. He said no. And I said don't you think that might be a good idea. But anyway, I know he wanted to speak to him, but he never got to speak to him, and I think the other side didn't want to talk to Obama. So what happened is I spoke to the head of the, the known head, because it's...

Hewitt: Yeah, Baradar, right? Baradar.

Trump: Yeah, but I spoke to, and sort of the known head, but nobody was sure, but now I'm sure, and I was sure then when I was speaking to him. And I knew as soon as I spoke to him. And even the introduction, I say hello, and he screamed something very tough. And I then started with him. I said, listen, before we start the longtime conversation and conversations that we're going to have, I have to say one thing, and I'll never have to say it again to you. And here's what I say. If you do anything bad to the United States of America, if you do anything bad to any of our civilians, to any American citizen, or if you do anything out of the normal, you know, they've been fighting for a thousand years, but out of the normal, because you've had your wars, and if you do anything out of the normal, but anything bad to America or any American citizens, I will hit you harder than anybody has ever been hit in world history. You will be hit harder than any country and any person has ever been hit in world history. And we will start with the exact location and the exact town, and it's right here. And I believe I repeated the name of his town. That will be the first place that we start. And I won't be able to speak to you anymore after that, and isn't that a very sad thing? But that is the story. And then he asked me one question, and I'd rather not repeat that question, because it's a very scary question. But he asked me one question, and I gave him the answer yes. And then after it was all done, I said OK, now I've said what I'm going to say. Let's have a conversation. And I said we're going to be leaving after 21 years. And when we leave, you're going to leave us alone, and we're going to leave with great dignity and great honor. And we are going to take care of this situation. We're going to take our time. We had a date of May 1, but they missed a couple of conditions. We had some very strong conditions, Hugh. But they missed a couple of conditions. I wanted to be out by May 1. I had spoken to him quite a bit before May 1, but we had a condition of May 1. But they missed conditions, and so therefore, I bombed and we hit them very hard. And then we said we will agree to those conditions. I said no, you've already agreed to them. Don't play games. We had them so good. They weren't in Kabul. You take a look at when they started taking over Afghanistan. It's when I left. When I left, that's when it started, they started going wild, because they were dealing with another president. And I never realized, and of course I realized the importance and power of the presidency, but I never realized how important the office of the president is until this happened, because when I watched what happened over the last week and a half with some horrible, stupid decisions that were made, number one being allowing our military to leave before the civilians and before we get all of our equipment back, $83 billion dollars. And not, nobody can even comprehend that much equipment. Thousands of vehicles, thousands, you saw the list of vehicles.

Let's leave aside the fact that it appears as though Trump simply doesn't know Baradar's name -- even with prompting from Hewitt. And that Trump claimed that he single-handedly averted nuclear war because he sat down with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Instead, focus on Trump's description of his conversation with Baradar. And start here: The answer runs 588 words. That's roughly three and a half minutes of speaking -- uninterrupted. Which, well, wow.

Now to what Trump actually said:

* "I spoke to, and sort of the known head, but nobody was sure, but now I'm sure, and I was sure then when I was speaking to him. And I knew as soon as I spoke to him. And even the introduction, I say hello, and he screamed something very tough." If I am reading this right, Trump wasn't sure that Baradar was the head of the Taliban when the conversation first started but he figured it out once Baradar "screamed something very tough."

* "If you do anything bad to the United States of America, if you do anything bad to any of our civilians, to any American citizen, or if you do anything out of the normal, you know, they've been fighting for a 1,000 years, but out of the normal, because you've had your wars, and if you do anything out of the normal, but anything bad to America or any American citizens, I will hit you harder than anybody has ever been hit in world history." This sentence is 85 words long. And it ends with Trump recounting that he told Baradar that if the Taliban hurt any Americans that Trump would "hit you harder than anybody has ever been hit in world history." Which, well, would be pretty hard. Also, Trump's description of Afghanistan's history -- "you've had your wars" -- is truly remarkable.

* "And then he asked me one question, and I'd rather not repeat that question, because it's a very scary question. But he asked me one question, and I gave him the answer yes." I truly have no idea what that one question could have possibly been. And why would Trump not want to tell it to Hewitt?

* "I wanted to be out by May 1. I had spoken to him quite a bit before May 1, but we had a condition of May 1. But they missed conditions, and so therefore, I bombed and we hit them very hard."

Trump using the word "I" to describe a bombing campaign is not surprising, given what we know about him. But it is still a little surreal.

* "And I never realized, and of course I realized the importance and power of the presidency, but I never realized how important the office of the president is until this happened, because when I watched what happened over the last week and a half with some horrible, stupid decisions that were made, number one being allowing our military to leave before the civilians and before we get all of our equipment back, $83 billion dollars." So, Trump never realized the power of the presidency until after he had left office and was watching the Afghanistan situation from afar? Really? Of course, he also contradicts himself in the same answer when he says "of course I realized the importance and power of the presidency" right before he says "I never realized how important the office of the president is." So....

The back-and-forth is, well, something else.

That it lands on the same day that so many Republicans have been so quick to bash President Joe Biden for his handling of the drawdown of the US presence in Afghanistan should serve as a reminder that Trump's foreign policy knowledge and bona fides were absolutely paper thin.

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The tent will return outside of Union Hospital in Terre Haute.

On Friday, Union Health officials said the current surge of COVID-19 shows no indications of slowing down in the Wabash Valley or across the nation.

Because of the surge, the Incident Command Center said they would set the portable medical tent back up outside of the main entrance of the emergency room at Union Hospital.

Officials said this is being done as a precautionary measure.

You might remember the tent was in use last year as COVID-19 first started to become an issue in the Wabash Valley.

At that time, among other things, the tent was used for COVID-19 testing.

On Thursday, Union Health released information about COVID-19 based hospitalizations for its Terre Haute and Clinton locations.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHI) - State leaders are paying tribute to eight fallen heroes, including one from Terre Haute.

John Schoffstall served as a Terre Haute firefighter for more than a decade. He was also a loving son, father, and husband.

"He taught me everything in life that I know today, and I owe everything to him," Jake Schoffstall, his son, said. "I wouldn't be the man I am without him in my life. I don't know where I would be without him. He's taught me so much in life."

In April 2020, he passed away due to complications from COVID-19.

Now leaders from across the state are paying tribute to him along with seven other fallen heroes.

"It's a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay, but we will spend every day trying," Governor Eric Holcomb said.

On Friday, Indiana state leaders, firefighters, and loved ones came together for the Indiana Fallen Firefighters Annual Remembrance Ceremony.

"This is what it is all about, family remembering John. His true family and his fire department family," Chief Bill Berry from the Terre Haute Fire Department said.

It's a day the family says they will never forget.

"To be honored like this, there is no greater thing as a fireman," Jake Schoffstall said.

Schoffstall's name will now forever be engraved in the Law Enforcement and Firefighters Memorial at the Statehouse. His son says this is memorial will always hold a special place in his heart.

"It's definitely a place I will bring my kids, that would be his grandkids." he said. "I will definitely bring them here."

If you would like to visit the memorial, you can see it on North side of the Indianapolis Statehouse.
(CNN) -- The United States is shipping more than 2.2 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa that are set to arrive on Saturday, according to a White House official.

The 2,217,150 doses are being donated through the global vaccination program Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, the official said. Cumulatively, the US will have donated nearly 8 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to South Africa.

These latest doses are part of President Joe Biden's pledge to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to countries around the world. Biden has said he wants America to be an "arsenal of vaccines" in the fight against Covid-19 and has repeatedly stressed there are no strings attached with accepting the vaccines.

Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the US would donate one million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam. The vice president made the announcement during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday.

The latest donation to South Africa comes about a month after the US sent 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine there, which was its largest bilateral donation to date.

Biden pledged at the Group of Seven summit earlier this year to purchase and donate 500 million Pfizer doses to countries around the world. The first of those doses were shipped out to Rwanda earlier this month.

The move to donate hundreds of millions of vaccines around the world will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence. The White House has said it is concerned by efforts by Russia and China to use vaccines to make geopolitical gains.

Officials have said that 200 million of the 500 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year, and the remaining 300 million doses will be delivered in the first half of 2022. About 75% of these vaccines will be shared with COVAX and about 25% will be shared directly with countries in need.

The Biden administration has also already distributed the 80 million doses the President initially pledged to donate from surplus US supply.

The President has also said $2 billion in US contributions would go toward a global coronavirus vaccine initiative and would provide support to COVAX. He also pledged an additional $2 billion in funding contingent on contributions from other nations and dose delivery targets being met.

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Morgantown, WV (26505)

Today

A few showers early, then clear overnight. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

A few showers early, then clear overnight. Low 52F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
7 airlines, including Southwest and Delta, are trying to dismiss a man's anti-mask lawsuit, saying he has no authority to sue them in federal court

The lawsuit alleged that multiple airlines had violated the Air Carrier Access Act. David McNew/Getty Images

Airlines responded to a mask-mandate suit, saying the claim should be filed with the government.

Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit responded in federal court.

There is "no private right of action," lawyers for Frontier and Allegiant wrote.

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Seven airlines sought to dismiss a lawsuit over mask requirements for passengers, arguing the plaintiff should have filed an administrative complaint with the government.

Lucas Wall, of Washington DC, in June filed the lawsuit, alleging that the airlines had violated the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). He said he has a medical condition that means he can't wear a mask and should be exempt from the federal mandates and airline requirements.

"The ACAA confers no private right to sue an air carrier," lawyers for Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways wrote in a joint motion to dismiss filed on Monday.

Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air also filed a joint motion in US District Court in Orlando. Spirit Airlines filed separately.

Although they arrived in three filings, the arguments from each of the seven airlines overlapped. They were in agreement that Wall didn't have legal standing to sue them in federal court. As the lawyers for Frontier and Allegiant wrote: "Plaintiff's claims fail as a matter of law because there is no private right of action"

They said Wall should have first filed a complaint with the Dept. of Transportation (DOT). If the DOT hadn't acted on an administrative complaint, then he might have had grounds to sue the airlines, the motion said.

"Yet Plaintiff chose not to pursue that path to judicial review," the airlines said.

In response, Wall claimed the airlines were sidestepping the issue at hand, relying instead on technical arguments to try to dismiss his lawsuit.

"My rebuttal to that is that the DOT is not enforcing the law as it's required to do," he said in a phone interview.

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He pointed to an update published by the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection, a unit within the DOT's Office of the General Counsel, on February 5. That Notice of Enforcement Policy gave the airlines 45 days to bring their mask requirements into compliance with the ACAA.

That notice said the government would "exercise its prosecutorial discretion" in cases involving ACAA compliance. Wall claimed that showed the government wasn't enforcing the law.

A Southwest spokesperson on Friday said the airline is enforcing the federal mask mandate. The airline said it's telling passengers about the pandemic safety requirements several times before they head to the airport. They included notices during the booking process and in pre-trip emails.

"While we regret any customer inconvenience, federal law requires each person, 2 years of age and older, to wear a mask at all times throughout the air travel journey," a spokesperson said via email.

The airline also said it has posted details on its website for applications for exemptions from mask requirements.

Wall said he plans in September to file an amended complaint against the airlines, which he said will include at least one new charge.

Frontier and Allegiant declined to comment. A lawyer for Delta referred questions to the airline, which also declined to comment. Insider has reached out to the remaining airlines for comment.

In a separate complaint, Wall's also suing the CDC, President Joe Biden, and other federal agencies. The Dept. of Justice said mask mandates weren't unconstitutional.

Wall said the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday to strike down the administration's eviction moratorium gave him hope for his lawsuit.

The decision "is really exciting for my case because the eviction ban is based on the same part of the public health service law that the mask mandate and testing requirement are based on," he said.

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What-Is-Executive-Dysfunction-GettyImages-1286140934

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Do you ever feel like your brain just isn't doing what it's, err, supposed to? Maybe you stare at your calendar for minutes only to still struggle with planning your day. Or perhaps you have difficulty regulating your behavior; some days you blurt things out during Zoom meetings, while at other times, you're quiet to the point that your boss might think your head is in the clouds.

These scenarios are examples of a real phenomenon known as executive dysfunction, and it can happen to anyone. Individuals experiencing executive dysfunction often struggle with planning, problem-solving, organization, and time management  and it's typically a clue that something larger is going on (anything from depression, ADHD, and other mental health challenges to COVID-19). Ahead, everything you need to know (and then some) about executive dysfunction, what it is, how it works, who it affects, and what to do about it, according to mental health experts.

What Is Executive Function?

In order to understand executive dysfunction, you must first understand executive function. "Generally, [executive function] is a term that refers to a global set of skills related to how people operate in day-to-day life," explains clinical psychologist Alfiee Breland-Noble, Ph.D., founder of AAKOMA Project, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health care and research. "The American Psychological Association describes executive functions as 'higher-level cognitive processes,'" which include planning, decision making, and goal pursuit, among others.

"Overall, healthy executive function helps us independently manage daily life and maintain relationships," adds board-certified neurologist Paul Wright, M.D., senior vice president and system chair of the Neuroscience Institute at Nuvance Health, a not-for-profit health system. "[It] involves behavioral, cognitive, and emotional skills that help us focus, plan, organize, and remember to manage time and practice self-control."

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Say a deadline is unexpectedly moved up at work. Ideally, you find yourself easily able to adapt to the circumstances and brainstorm ways to reprioritize tasks to get the project done ASAP. Such flexible thinking and adaptability are just two of many healthy executive functions.

That being said, this optimal, healthy functioning can ebb and flow throughout your day. "Executive functioning is 'online' throughout a person's waking hours," explains clinical psychologist Forrest Talley, Ph.D. As a result, sometimes you  and these cognitive processes  might be on autopilot. "Because each of us has spent a lifetime with the type of executive functioning that is 'normal' for each of us, it feels just thatnormal," says Talley. However, at other times, you might not excel at, for example, focus or time management. Some of that is just a result of being human. "We can all occasionally be forgetful, have trouble concentrating, and regulating our emotions for various reasons including dehydration, hunger, and sleep deprivation," says Dr. Wright. But (!) if you find yourself struggling with organizing, planning, problem-solving, and regulating your behavior on the regular, you might be experiencing executive dysfunction.

What Is Executive Dysfunction?

It's simply the opposite of executive function: Executive dysfunction is when one or more of the aforementioned skills is not working as efficiently as possible, according to communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist Caroline Leaf, Ph.D. More specifically, the APA defines executive dysfunction as "impairment in the ability to think abstractly; plan; solve problems; synthesize information; or start, continue, and stop complex behavior."

Sound familiar? Nearly everyone experiences some level of executive dysfunction from time to time, particularly while emotionally or physically compromised, according to the experts. (To quote Hannah Montana, "everyone makes mistakes, everyone has those days.")

"Maybe you didn't get enough sleep, have a hangover, are distracted by financial distress, the illness of a loved one...On these days, we have a hard time concentrating, motivation is harder to find than Sasquatch, planning takes more effort, and emotions get the best of us," explains Talley. "Don't jump to conclusions and assume that you are suffering from this malady. Odds are you're just having a bad day or a tough week."

That being said, if executive dysfunction seems to happen a lot, then then it may be time to check in with a mental health professional, as a larger issue might be causing these problems, he says.

So, What Causes Executive Dysfunction?

"The list of potential sources of diminished executive function is very long, but common culprits include ADHD, depression, anxiety disorders, severe grief, traumatic brain injury, alcohol, and drug addiction," says Talley. Leaf echoes this list, adding "learning disabilities to dementia, autism, brain tumors, and extreme unmanaged thoughts and toxic stress" can all cause you to develop executive dysfunction as well.

And while you can technically suffer solely from executive dysfunction (think: those first few overwhelming weeks of the pandemic), it's more likely to be associated with neurologic disorders (e.g. traumatic brain injury) as well as mood disorders or psychiatric conditions (e.g. ADHD), according to a review article in Continuum. Meaning, executive dysfunction is often considered a symptom of what is usually a larger issue.

Case in point? COVID-19, which is believed to cause some executive dysfunction. A small study from February 2021 found that 81 percent of patients experienced cognitive impairment while recovering from prolonged COVID-19 hospitalization. Those who haven't had severe coronavirus are also at risk for dysfunction. "We've noticed more people experienced problems with executive function skills during the COVID-19 pandemic because they felt anxious, nervous, and frustrated," says Dr. Wright. (See also: The Potential Mental Health Effects of COVID-19 You Need to Know About)

So, how can you determine if you're experiencing executive dysfunction? Here are a few telltale signs, according to Dr. Wright:

Regularly getting distracted during meetings and conversations

Struggling to manage emotions or deal with frustrations

Forgeting to do things that have been near-automatic (paying bills, performing basic work tasks without a great deal of effort, etc.)

Experiencing general memory loss; poorer than normal levels of forgetfulness

Feeling easily overwhelmed by tasks (especially if you've been doing those tasks successfully over the past year)

Experiencing decreased ability to plan and organize your day-to-day life

Struggling to follow step-by-step instructions, or feeling you can't problem solve

Wasting time; generally struggling with time management

Overindulging on dessert or junk food due to less self-restraint

How Is Executive Dysfunction Diagnosed and Treated?

Executive dysfunction is not an official medical diagnosis recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, the catalog of psychological conditions widely used by clinicians to diagnose patients. It does, however, have "a shared meaning and standard of recognition among mental health professionals and educators," says Breland-Noble. Meaning, if things have been "not quite right" for a while, seeking out a practitioner (e.g. psychiatrist, psychologist) is a good idea, as they can help you get to the root of any executive dysfunction and then, hopefully, address the problem.

Once executive dysfunction is diagnosed by a qualified professional, there are plenty of treatment options available. The key, however, is identification and proactive treatment. If it goes unchecked for a long time, such extended dysfunction "could lead to depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as low self-esteem over time," according to board-certified psychiatrist Leela Magavi, M.D. So, yes, anxiety can cause executive dysfunction but executive dysfunction can also cause anxiety  an unfortunate cycle. (Related: What Is High-Functioning Anxiety?)

The good news? "Executive functions can return and improve on different levels, which I found clinically with my patients and in my research, whether the person was battling with a TBI, learning disability, autism, severe trauma, or early-stage dementia," says Dr. Leaf. "With appropriate mind-management practices, my patients, as well as the subjects in my research, were able to significantly improve their executive functioning over time, regardless of [their] past." (Related: Simple Strategies to Improve Brain Health)

Tools for Managing Executive Dysfunction

Limit screen time. "Limiting screen time and maintaining familiar routines inclusive of mindfulness activities and exercise  as much as possible  could improve focus and motivation," says Dr. Magavi.

Try therapy. Breland-Noble and Dr. Magavi both cite cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychotherapy, as an excellent method for treating executive dysfunction. CBT typically focuses on changing particularly unhelpful or faulty thought and behavioral patterns so that you can "learn better ways of coping" with your psychological challenges and become "more efficient" in everyday life, according to the APA. In other words, CBT directly targets executive functions (e.g. organizing and planning, coping with distractions, adapting thoughts to circumstances, etc.) "to help someone adjust their behaviors around an accepted set of circumstances," explains Breland-Noble.

Exercise sleep hygiene. As sleep plays a huge role in executive function for everyone, it's imperative to have proactive sleep hygiene, says Dr. Magavi. That includes things such as not working from your bedroom (since doing so can affect sleep quality), and getting into a routine of going to bed and waking up at the same times daily. (BTW, did you know that sleeping with socks might also help you catch those Z's?)

Set up a focused workspace. Keep your workspace cool, bright, clean, and organized  all of which helps improve focus, says Dr. Magavi. "Writing down top goals for the day and then crossing these out could also help individuals keep track of tasks." Sounds simple enough, but for those struggling with executive dysfunction, just remembering to make a to-do list can be challenging. (Related: I've Worked from Home for 5 Years  Here's How I Stay Productive and Curb Anxiety)

Build on your success. Even small successes release dopamine, which can positively reinforce healthy behavior and focus, says Dr. Magavi. On the flip side, low levels of dopamine and norepinephrine can lead to attention deficits. "So any activity that increases these levels could boost focus." For example, when you're feeling overwhelmed, give yourself a 30-second task, be it folding one pair of jeans, washing a dish, or writing just one sentence. Celebrate achieving that small assignment, and see if you feel motivated to continue.
Fatimah Hossaini (left) with her friend Roya Heydari. Fatimah Hossaini

Fatimah Hossaini is a photographer, teacher, and artist.

She left Kabul, her beloved city, within days of the Taliban taking control of Afghanistan.

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The night before the Taliban took Kabul, I was out at a restaurant with my friends. I'd gone shopping, and I met them at Le Bistro, a French cafe, for dinner.

We already knew these normal, carefree days were numbered; the Taliban had control of almost the entire country. Just a few days before, they'd taken our most important provinces. But Kabul? They need at least a month to defeat our beloved city, we thought.

We meant that word, beloved. I was born a refugee in Iran, in 1993; my parents had fled Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation - that first thunderclap of war in the violent storm that has consumed my country since before I was born. After the Soviets came the Taliban; my parents and grandparents watched with worry and horror as extremists tore our land and people apart.

I was just a toddler then, and I grew up in the shadow of two Afghanistans. One of them looked, back then, the way it looks in the news today: a dangerous country of violent leaders and desperate people where hope dwindles every day. The other is an Afghanistan rarely seen - a gorgeous land, rich in culture, with music and cuisine and colorful, patterned textiles that change as you move from region to region, people to people. It's a diverse, vibrant place, and I fell in love with it before I ever set foot there.

When I visited for the first time in 2013, I didn't feel like it was my first time. I felt like I was returning home. So that's what I did: In 2018, I moved to Kabul to take a job as a photography professor - one of only three visual arts professors at Kabul University.

My mother thought I was crazy - "Why would you go back to that place that we sacrificed so much to leave?" she would ask - but I loved this country, my country. I filled my apartment with the handiwork of our different tribes; I learned to cook Afghan foods my parents themselves didn't know; and I traveled all over, making photographs for a host of clients. I started an organization, Mastoorat, as a hub for artists and performers in Kabul. I also began my first book, portraits of women - of feminine beauty and power - that go unseen in Afghanistan. I had such big plans.

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Fatimah Hossaini teaching her university students in Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

Sunday morning, Aug. 8 - the day the Taliban took Kabul - was supposed to be my last day in the city. Even though I didn't want to leave, I had booked a seat on one of the last passenger planes. My mother was calling every day, crying with worry. I just needed my COVID test results, and I would leave the next day.

I had seen a video of Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, telling us not to worry, that everything would get back to normal soon, that nothing could happen to Kabul. I believed him: Everything around me looked normal, too. But when I tried to take a taxi to the clinic to get my PCR test for Monday's flight to Istanbul, the driver refused. He told me there were Taliban at the gates of Kabul, and I needed to go home.

I did as he said, but I thought the driver must be confused. I came back home and made myself some green tea and sat on my balcony, overlooking my beautiful city. Suddenly I saw him: A Taliban fighter, wearing a gun and waving a flag, riding a motorcycle - right there, below me, in downtown Kabul. In the Green Zone, where our government officials and foreign diplomats live, or used to.

A view of Kabul from Fatimah's terrace. Fatimah Hossaini

I turned on the news, and I saw Taliban all over my city. I watched them take the Presidential palace, then parliament, then the national TV channel. I felt as if a part of my body was dying.

I called my mother, who was as scared as I was. "I told you more than 100 times," she cried, "not to go back to that place. Please, just get out of there, please." I cried, too.

Three friends of mine, also female journalists, and I hid for two days in a different apartment. We only went out to get food, and when we did we wore full hijab. We didn't want to attract attention, but we also didn't want to be recognized. I won't say we were celebrities, but our work had made our faces familiar to most Afghans. I had done an interview with the BBC just a few days earlier, and I had gotten some threatening messages from Taliban fighters who had started following me on Twitter. If the Taliban saw us, they would know us. And I wouldn't be alive now.

Inside the apartment, we worked like crazy, scrubbing our avatars, deactivating our social media accounts, requesting that interviews be taken down, dumping whole websites. We tried to become as invisible on the Internet as the Taliban want women to be in real life. But we could never really know if it worked.

Fatimah peers out the window as she gathers with several close friends. Fatimah Hossaini

Fatimah, left, with two of her friends, after the Taliban captured Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

XX Fatimah Hossaini

We felt stronger together, the four of us, than we would have felt staying alone, and we were happier. We cooked together and cared for each other. We needed each other.

On Thursday, we went together to the airport, our first attempt to evacuate. We arrived to find chaos. People surrounded the airport, and the Taliban were pushing them back. They beat people, even children, and tried to keep those who had reached the airport gates from getting inside. I had grown up with these stories, and I had heard so many stories from the women I had photographed - but still, I couldn't believe my eyes.

We left the airport, heartbroken. Later, two of us decided to try again. We stood with all those people outside the airport for hours. It was hot, under the sun, and then it was cold, when the sun set, and we waited, in total uncertainty, which has its own feeling, its own temperature, that I cannot describe.

Fatimah's packed suitcase as she prepares to leave Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

Fatimah is seen on her terrace as she prepares to leave Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

A view from the airport in Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

Finally, an American journalist I had worked with was able to help us get into the airport through a back gate. We were relieved, but a new kind of heartbreak set in: We left the apartment so quickly, almost like we were going to run an errand. "I'll be back later when I can't get in," I'd told our friend who decided to stay. "See you!"

I slept in the airport all Thursday night, and finally I got a seat on a French evacuation plane. I had exhibited photographs at so many European embassies, and those connections helped me. One of my friends also made it to Europe; another got out with the Americans.

Landing in Paris, I couldn't believe where I was. It is almost like I couldn't feel it, and then I was overwhelmed. I had to cry in the bathroom, away from others. And then I took a selfie - me and my two small bags, all I had been able to carry, all I had left of my life and my country.

Fatimah's selfie after arriving in Paris. Fatimah Hossaini

I'm finishing my COVID quarantine soon, and then I have to figure out my life in France - where I'll live, what I'll do, how daily life will look. The kinds of things you can think about, you can plan for, when you are safe.

My body is safe in Paris, but my mind and heart are in Afghanistan. Yesterday, my friend sent me a picture from the balcony in the apartment the three of us shared, "Fatimah, I miss you," she wrote. "The apartment is so empty without you." I don't know what will happen to her.

I don't know what will happen to any of us. I still have relatives in Afghanistan, family who are now seeing the Taliban take over for a second time, who have lived whole lives of violence. What will become of them?

And what will become of us, the new generation, and everything we have built? Everything we have fought for? We were not just an empty country. We had everything; we were building a future.

A portrait of Fatimah Hossaini. Fatimah Hossaini

A portrait of Fatimah Hossaini. Fatimah Hossaini

After the Taliban rolled in with their motorcycles and their weapons, they held a press conference. They promised the world that everything will be normal; that women can go out and be active; that everybody can go back to work. How is that possible? In the past 20 years, they killed my journalist colleagues. They killed my students at Kabul University. They killed my friends. And now we are supposed to trust that things are changed?

The Taliban say, We are all Muslims. They publish all these statements, they go on the radio and television, that we have to follow Shari'a law, that after all, as Muslims, we know this, we must believe it. What part of Shari'a law says you should kill people? Innocent people? Children and mothers and activists?

It breaks me, what is happening. It literally breaks my heart. I could never have imagined I would ever be a refugee again.

Now, I understand my parents and grandparents much better. I know what they went through when they left with their small bags. I feel their pain when I remember their stories about leaving their farms, their families, leaving everything. My mother always told me, "Why are you making such pain for yourself?" For her, to live in and love Afghanistan could never be anything but heartbreak. Now, I understand how bitter this is.

Fatimah at work in Kabul. Fatimah Hossaini

But I refuse to give up on Afghanistan. When things are safe, however and whenever that is, I will go back. This, my mother cannot understand. "Look what they are doing," she says. "What you saw them do. How can you possibly think about going back to Afghanistan?"

"How can you just say that like it's just a name? Just a word? I ask her. "It's my country. It's my Afghanistan. And one day, yes, I will definitely go back. I have to."

(As told to Jina Moore)

Read the original article on Business Insider
Trawling through Skilak Lake, off the Kenai River

You might expect that an earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale could put a damper on your fishing. But apparently not if it is Alaska, and the salmon are running.

Late on July 28, 2021, I awoke in my cabin at the Kenai Riverside Lodge to the swaying of the wooden house frame and the clank-clank-clank of hangers in the closet. All pretty restful until two minutes later, when the cell phone screeched out a code-red warning for tsunamis. The mind turns to the question, How far inland are we, anyway?

Turns out this 8.2-scale Alaska quake was the seventh largest earthquake in U.S. history, and the largest in North America since 1964. It was shallow however, with little harm done.

At first, the Lodge staff rushed to pull out rowboats that could float us all to safety if the tsunami waters came. But I rolled back to sleep. And by 2 a.m. that same morning, four tough-as-nails grey-haired ladies who had returned to the camp each year for 20 years had rustled up their guide, filled their thermos and were heading out again to claim their spot on the river for the day ahead.

If you havent been to Alaska and the Kenai, just dream of your perfect wilderness and add five percent. There is something about the out of doors here that is just bigger . like the New York City of nature.

We had flown into Anchorage, nonstop on Delta from JFK. A surprisingly easy seven hours or so. Anchorage itself feels in a bit of a funk from an oil boom that has ended. But Highway 1 leads south out of town, down the Kenai Peninsula and along the Turnagain Arm, the bay-like waters that Captain James Cook thought could lead to the Northwest Passage until he hit a dead end and was forced to  turn again.

The smooth two-lane Highway 1 led us down to the Seward Highway and the coastal town of Seward. Seward is mile 0 on the railroad builders path as they unloaded their equipment waterside and began their conquest of the interior. Today, its a sunny town of coffeehouses, art galleries and public parks just a two-and-a-half hour drive from Anchorage all in. A beautiful place, chronically short of help in COVID summer and with its own seaquarium. From there, we drove back up the Seward Highway, through suburban Moose Pass (a seemingly idyllic one-room-schoolhouse-type town), back to Highway 1 and west to the Kenai River. Old handbills pasted to the walls of a general store proclaimed, I came to Alaska for the men but stayed for the halibut, and The odds were good. But the goods were odd!

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The Kenai Riverside Lodge, in the Chugach National Forest, is nestled off the side of the road, directly on the Kenai River. It would have been less than a three-hour drive from Anchorage had we skipped the Seward side trip.

The destination of our off-piste hike near the Kenai Riverside Lodge KS Bruce

The camp was laid out as a series of comfortable two-bed cabins, each named after a type of salmon, across from a central log lodge that serves first-rate food and wines.

The main salmon runs, it seems, come in June and then in late July/early August, as we were there. The most serious fish catchers were on the river by 5 a.m or earlier to stake out a bankside on the lower part of the Kenai where the fish run thickest. (The grey haired ladies, of course, beat them all.)

We took a different option, leaving at a luxurious 7 a.m. to fish the less populous upper part of the river, where salmon were sparser, but where we could go for both trout and salmon, and float along more beautiful, untouched waters.

Our guide rowed a white, two-oared drift boat, as if straight from a Winslow Homer painting, traveling with the current. There were no people to be seen, but there was a brown bear just 50 yards or so across the water, surrounded by seagulls and enjoying a feast of salmon in his own personal eddy. Bald eagle were numerous, the younger ones still brown. Golden eagles reportedly pursued dall sheep in the mountains beyond.

First, we cast for trout, with some success. Then our guide spotted salmon at the confluence of two branches of the river, and we stopped and waded in.

Salmon are born in these fresh waters, but go out to salt waters for the greatest part of their lives. As they turn about age five and are nearing their end, nature and instinct compel them to return to the same freshwaters of their births, and they travel up the rivers against the current to spawn, and then die. The freshwater itself is a poison to them, and the sockeye who run in July begin as brilliant healthy silver and then turn to red as they waste toward their end.

Salmon fishing is very different than trout fishing.

With trout, you try to lay the fly for the fish to eat by choice, as a tasty breakfast. Salmon, in contrast, are essentially hooked as the line passes them by.

A salmon cast throws the line out, lets it float slow, and then jerks hard for five or six feet, perpendicular across the current, to set a hook. When the bobber sinks, it is key to get tension on the line immediately and keep the rod pointing low, to stop the salmon from slipping off. I caught one, and hooked but lost four or five, as I sought the right speed and feel.

We moved on to other spots, and near the end of our time, came to a pool of two or three salmon near a fallen log. I had time for just five casts before the day was done, and  as luck would have it  got a bite on the very last cast.

This fish was a real fighter, but I had learned better to position the rod and keep tension. Our guide Steve worked the net as the salmon was brought nearer. The salmon fought left, right, sought to cross below the guides legs. But finally, there it was, gloriously silver and healthy as if it had just arrived from the salt water, and more than two hands wide.

When the author threw his last cast of the day, this silver beauty grabbed hold KS Bruce

This salmon, like all his running brethren, was set to die soon. But I have always had empathy for the desire to achieve a goal (or, for that matter, to spawn), and I didnt have the heart to keep him. We released him to finish his long journey to the heavenly salmon singles bar he had long sought, and I hope he made it.

The fishing day ended as we drifted down and into Skilak Lake, as pristine and beautiful as Teddy Roosevelt might have found it. The Kenai Riverside Lodge has some wilderness cabins hidden along the south bank, but we headed past bird-sanctuary rock islands to the other side, and to our pickup landing. After fileting our catch back at the lodge, we ended up sending 17 pounds of salmon meat home for just a few hours effort. Other, more determined guests sent home many times that.

Next day, we got a different perspective on the run, hiking the easy nearby trail to the Russian Lakes. At the end of that trail is the last major waterfall the salmon climb. We watched from above as fish battled and jumped up through the white roar of foam against them.

We then went off piste, picking our way carefully down right to the edge of the rushing water at the lower part of the falls. Later, on the way back, we took two unmarked detours off the trail.

One took us up to a spot where we could view across the lakes to the Skilak glacier.

A glimpse of the Skilak Glacier KS Bruce

Another, at the top of the falls, led us to the weir where the fish are ultimately counted by Tom and Tom, the two elderly park rangers who live all alone in a summer cabin at the top. One of the Toms came down from his lonely perch to chat with us.

There is a fence across the still pond-like weir, with salmon literally banging nose-first to get across to their final goal. At the far end of the fence is an opening where the fish can pass, and be counted one by one. Tom advised us that 45,000 salmon had made it through in the June run, and 14,000 so far in July. A good and healthy haul. The salmon, having passed the fence and with nowhere left to go, lined up stark-still and nose to tail, like ships parked in a harbor.

Is that all there is, I thought? You fight past bears, fishermen, waterfalls, eagles and travel writers from InsideHook to reach  still waters with Tom and Tom?

But so it goes, and thousands more salmon to live, love, fight and die tomorrow.

As the earthquake comes.

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The post In an Alaskan Salmon Season, Even an Earthquake Cant Phase the Fishermen appeared first on InsideHook.

The article In Alaska, Even an Earthquake Can't Interrupt Salmon Season by K.S. Bruce was originally published on InsideHook.
Black doll head

Source: saulgranda / Getty

Students from a California High School have been exposed for regularly defacing and emulating abuse towards a Black baby doll on its own Instagram page.

The now deactivated page, shaniqua.shs, had many pictures of Salinas High School students posing with the doll, stomping on the doll and showing how they had gave the doll a facial tattoo and big lips, The Mercury News reported. The doll was discovered after being passed around between students at the Salinas High Schools jamboree Friday, August 20.

On Saturday, August 21st, Salinas High School administration became aware of disturbing images and videos circulating on social media, a statement released by the Salinas Unified High School District (SUHSD) read. The administration promptly initiated a full investigation which will include identifying those who were directly involved.

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The student who created the account has been disciplined, according to a statement from SUHSD Superintendent Dan Burns.

Initial investigation resulted in student discipline administered to the student that initiated the incident, which included creating an Instagram account named after the doll, Burns said. Student disciplinary consequences for students in this incident will be administered in accordance with CA Ed Code.

The disturbing images and behavior of the Shaniqua doll was addressed at a board of supervisors meeting at the Salinas Union High School District office on August 24, 2021. Over 100 people gathered outside of the meeting. In response to this incident, 21 Black baby dolls were placed outside of the Salinas Union High School District office on the sidewalk with a sign that read Representing for the real Shiniquas on August 24.

The SUHSD does not condone this type of behavior and although the District has taken steps to support our African American students and staff, this recent incident demonstrates how much more support is needed, the statement from the district continued. We urge families to also take time to talk with their students about the damaging effects of racist behavior. Counseling is available at all of our school sites for any students who may need support.

Video: Naomi Osaka Barbie doll in the works
Some buildings are so cinematic they appear tailor-made for the screen, their unique lines and dramatic features seemingly constructed for the sole purpose of illuminating a scene and delighting audiences far and wide. The Trans World Airlines Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, which today operates as the TWA Hotel, is one such structure. A monument to midcentury architecture, as Mr. Modernism George Smart noted in a 2019 episode of his popular podcast USModernist Radio, the terminal literally has no bad angles and filmmakers have certainly taken advantage of that fact, featuring it in numerous productions over the years.

The dazzling property is the work of Eero Saarinen and Associates. Headed up by prominent Finnish-born architect/furniture designer Eero Saarinen, the Michigan-based firm was also responsible for St. Louis, Missouris famed Gateway Arch and Washington Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.

Boasting a complex concrete shell roof, the looming terminal was constructed from 1959 to 1962. Sadly, Eero passed away while undergoing brain surgery in 1961, a year before its completion. Though he never got to see the finished work, it remains one of his finest legacies, not to mention one of the most celebrated mid-century structures ever erected.

With its expressive wing-like forms and swooping, curvilinear lines, the National Park Service deems the daring design a compelling visual metaphor for the modern airport terminal. The Jetsons-esque property is indeed a feast for the eyes, its butterflied roofline, which rises 75 above the street below, conjuring images of flight at every glance.

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Scientists have found the fossil of a deadly 4-legged whale that had a jackal-like head and lived both on land and in the sea

The Phiomicetus anubis (top). Abdullah Gohar

Researchers in Egypt found the fossil of an extinct, four-legged whale that lived both on land and in the sea.

It weighed around 1,300 pounds and had a head shaped like a jackal's, and a powerful jaw.

It offers clues as to how whales transitioned from being land animals to the sea-dwellers they are today.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Scientists in Egypt have discovered the 43-million-year-old fossil of a four-legged whale species that both walked on land and swam in the water.

The finding offers clues as to how early whales transitioned from being land dwellers to the sea creatures they are today, according to the findings published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Named "Phiomicetus anubis," the newly-discovered species is part of a group of semiaquatic whales called Protocetids, which existed in the Eocene period, which was 56 million to 33.9 million years ago, per the report. Because they are amphibious, Protocetids represent a unique stage in whale evolution that still largely remains a mystery to researchers.

The Phiomectus anubis had an estimated length of 10 feet, weighed around 1,300 pounds, had a head shaped like a jackal's, and had a powerful jaw that gave it a "raptorial feeding style," according to the study.

Its skull was one of the main reasons why the research team named it after the Egyptian god of death Anubis, Abdullah Gohar, the lead author of the paper, told Insider.

"We discovered how fierce and deadly its powerful jaws are capable of tearing a wide range of prey ... this whale was a god of death to most of the animals that lived in its area," he said.

The paleontologists sit around the fossil of the newly-discovered whale. From left to right: Mohamed Sameh Antar, Abdullah Gohar, and Hesham Sallam. Abdullah Gohar

The fossil came from the Fayum Depression in Egypt's Western Desert, which was once an undersea region, where many other Protocetids have been discovered since German paleontologist Eberhard Fraas unearthed the first one in 1904.

Researchers studied the fossil at the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, in the lab of co-author and center founder Hesham Sallam.

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Gohar also said this was the first time that an Arab team had discovered, scientifically described, and named a whale fossil.

"This paper represents a breakthrough for Arab paleontologists ... this science remained the preserve of foreign scientists for a long period of time, despite the richness of the Egyptian natural heritage with important fossils of the ancestors of whales," he said.

Read the original article on Insider
Clinicians work on intubating a COVID-19 patient. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Delta variant doubled the risk of hospitalization compared to the formerly-dominant Alpha variant.

About 74% of people in the UK-based study were unvaccinated, and few were fully vaccinated.

The study authors said it was "crucial" to get people fully vaccinated to protect against Delta.

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People who get sick with the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus have more than twice the risk of being hospitalized compared with those who catch the Alpha variant, a large UK study suggests.

Scientists from Cambridge University and Public Health England who led the study, said in a statement Friday that Delta could be a "greater burden" on health services than the Alpha variant, "particularly in unvaccinated people and other vulnerable populations".

The paper, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal late on Friday, analyzed 43,340 COVID-19 cases. About 74% of the cases were in people who were unvaccinated, while less than 2% were in people who were fully vaccinated. The rest were in partially vaccinated individuals.

Delta is more infectious and increases your risk of hospitalization

Overall, just over 2% of people who contracted COVID-19 were hospitalized within 14 days of testing positive. The researchers found that the risk of being hospitalized was 2.26 times greater for people who were sickened by the Delta variant, compared with Alpha, taking into account factors that may affect someone's propensity to develop severe COVID-19, such as age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic factors. They didn't take into account pre-existing medical conditions.

The study's findings are focused on the risks to unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people. The authors said that they were unable to draw firm conclusions about whether Delta increases the risk of hospitalization in vaccinated people, because there weren't enough vaccinated people admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 during the study period.

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Other research has shown that fully vaccinated people have strong protection against being hospitalized, should they become sick with the Delta variant.

Delta is at least 50% more infectious than the Alpha variant, which overwhelmed UK hospitals over Christmas, and has additional mutations that help it avoid the immune response.

The study is the largest to date and first to look at the genetic code of the virus in the lab to determine the variant - the most accurate technique.

Delta was detected in the UK in March and overtook Alpha as the dominant variant in June . The proportion of Delta tests increased from 20% to 74% during the study period, which ran from March 29 to May 23, the authors said. Overall, they looked at 8,682 Delta cases and 34,656 Alpha cases.

The study confirms previous data from Scotland in June that found Delta increased the risk of hospitalization compared with Alpha. The Scottish researchers used a proxy measure to determine the variant that caused COVID-19.

Vaccines are 'crucial'

Dr. Anne Presanis, one of the study's lead authors, said in a statement Friday that getting fully vaccinated was "crucial" to protect against Delta. "For reducing an individual's risk of symptomatic infection with Delta in the first place, and, importantly, of reducing a Delta patient's risk of severe illness and hospital admission," she said.

Dr. David Strain, senior clinical lecturer at University of Exeter, said in a statement to the Science Media Centre on Friday that the study confirmed what "we are seeing in clinical practice." Strain wasn't involved in the research.

"In addition to the Delta variant being more infectious than the original or the Alpha variants, it is also causing more severe illness, in populations that previously would have had only mild infections," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate reported this week that new safety measures deployed this summer in the Oceanfront resort area are making a difference, including the seizure of more than 100 firearms.

The city earmarked nearly $2 million for the police department to curb violence in the resort area after a shooting incident March 26 left two people dead  including one from officer gunfire  and eight others injured.

The police department plans to use newly acquired ballistic imaging equipment to conduct tests on the seized guns, Neudigate told the City Council in a meeting Tuesday.

My experience tells me if youre illegally carrying a firearm or using it, its not the first time. That guns been involved in other crimes, he said.

New officers assigned to the resort area have been working with code enforcement and landscape management to increase lighting and trim overgrowth, which resulted in the recovery of additional guns.

When the landscapers cut the bushes around a city parking lot at 19th Street in May, they discovered more than a dozen weapons.

Individuals, I think in a direct result of the some of the increased attention that we were providing down there, were starting to stash their firearms in the foliage, Neudigate told council members.

Shooting incidents dropped from 21 last year at this time to 17 this year, including the March violence.

Before the start of the summer tourist season, the City Council approved $1.2 million for 42 new police cameras in the resort area. More than half have been installed and the rest will be coming soon.

The police also moved into a new substation on Atlantic Avenue in July and held a meeting with resort area business owners. The space will close temporarily over the winter for a full renovation, then reopen in the spring.

A gunshot detection system also went live July 14, covering 2 square miles, the chief said.

Since then, the sensors alerted police of two separate incidences of shots fired, in which no one called 911. Shell casings were recovered and will be tested.

We have had some violence at the Oceanfront, but we are making incredible steps to mitigate it and negate that activity, he said.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
Aug. 27The campus-wide mask mandate issued by North Idaho College President Rick MacLennan officially lasted four days.

The college's Board of Trustees moved Thursday to rescind the mandate after a majority of members voted to amend college policy, giving the board powers as the final authority on preventative measures for communicable diseases. The move effectively takes away that authority from the college president.

The mandate, which took effect Monday and was set to be in place for at least two weeks, required students, staff and visitors to wear double-layer face coverings at all times while inside college buildings when two or more people are present.

The mandate was rescinded during a contentious board meeting Thursday that saw recommendations from Kootenai Health questioned by Board Chair Todd Banducci.

The board majority  Banducci, Vice Chair Greg McKenzie and Trustee Michael Barnes  moved to amend the college's internal policy in light of Idaho Code 33-2145, which states a community college's board of trustees "must adopt a policy for measures and procedures to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious disease."

The policy amendment, drafted by McKenzie, was reportedly circulated via email to MacLennan and the Panhandle Health District, resulting in two separate revisions.

The board voted to pass an initial version. A second, reportedly more comprehensive version of the legislation, will be circulated to the NIC Senate and administration for further review prior to a board vote.

Several trustees were eager to approve the new legislation before Sunday's deadline for class adds or drops .

McKenzie said he has heard of students either withdrawing from NIC or considering a withdrawal due to the mask mandate.

"Updating this policy is resolving a tough spot that this board is in, and there is no easy choice," McKenzie said. He added, "This is not a debate about mask efficacy. This is a debate about who gets the final say, and right now, this college is out of compliance with (state law)."

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MacLennan said "very few" students have been unable to access college programs due to the mandate. The college did not allow exceptions, instead offering access to a class taught online or a refund for withdrawal from the class, according to records obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

The board's speed to act was at issue Thursday, as the board majority approved the measure despite warnings from MacLennan and their fellow trustees that doing so could result in legal action.

"This would be the sort of document that I think as the events on the ground unfold and the situation is very fluid and dynamic, we probably have to review this thing again at the next meeting or at the next couple meetings to make sure it's where we want it and the balance between the administration and the board," Banducci said.

MacLennan said the typical procedure for adopting changes to college policy involves a much more comprehensive process, with multiple readings and opportunities for public comment.

Thursday's contention was the latest chapter in the fractured relationship between MacLennan and the board majority  particularly with Banducci, who has faced complaints from the president and others in the college community of aggressive, unprofessional and threatening behavior.

Those complaints have led to an inquiry by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), through which North Idaho College receives regional accreditation. The commission's investigation, which particularly concerns the board's leadership role in relation to the college administration, is pending ad hoc report as an attachment with the college's 2022 annual report due by Aug. 1, 2022.

MacLennan said with the board's decision to pass the policy, "you are beginning to write the first paragraph of the ad hoc report."

"There's nothing in the state law that would compel the board to forgo the policy development process that it has developed in policy," he said.

The legislation was introduced for the first time during Thursday's meeting, one Banducci called without a public comment period. The measure passed 3-2, with Trustees Ken Howard and Christie Wood opposed.

"I have sympathy for people who can't come on the campus for a lot of reasons, and we can't accommodate everybody  not just in a COVID environment," Howard said. "So yes, do I have feelings and compassion for those who can't come? Absolutely. But I still have an obligation to make sure that what we do on this campus is safe for as many people as possible."

Wood described the legislation as "some policy I haven't even read."

"If the three of you ... want to move forward and adopt some policy that we don't even know is legally vetted  our attorney has told us not to rush this, but you choose to ignore that  that's on you," she said.

The measure to rescind the mask mandate passed by the same vote.

"I encourage you to wear (masks) if you believe that's what's going to help, but don't shun and don't mock and don't demean those who choose not to," Barnes said. "I am one who chooses not to, and I won't because it restricts my oxygen so severely that within 30 seconds, I'm about to pass out."

MacLennan said, "If the board chooses to do something different, you are sending a very clear message to this college community that the board does not put the health and welfare of its faculty, staff and students at front of mind. You're telling them that you do not care."

As trustees debated the issued, MacLennan read a letter the college received Wednesday from Kootenai Health. In it, district officials applauded the college policy on masks.

After MacLennan was done, Banducci questioned the letter's legitimacy given that it was received a day before the meeting.

"I just find it interesting that you're going to bring up a letter," Banducci said, "and I question, did those folks just wake up that morning and go, 'You know, I think we're going to generate this letter today and send it to NIC just because it just came to us to do this today.' "

Wood responded, "Todd, you understand you're questioning the motivations of a major health partner in the region."

"Actually I do, Christie, on this one," Banducci replied. "I think there's been a lot of things done behind the scenes, and I think there's a lot of orchestration of things that go on, and I think this is just an example of it."
Sirhan Sirhan arrives for a parole hearing, in San Diego. Sirhan faces his 16th parole hearing Friday for fatally shooting U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968

Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock

Sirhan Bushara Sirhan, who was convicted of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 murder, is "in disbelief" after officials voted to grant him parole on Friday.

More than 52 years after he was sentenced to death (which was commuted to a life sentence when capital punishment was outlawed in California), the 77-year-old's 16th request for parole was approved by a two-person panel. "He's happy. He's just trying to still process it," Sirhan's attorney Angela Berry tells PEOPLE.

Although six of Kennedy's children decried the decision, Sirhan's case was bolstered by two of the late senator's sons, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy. Sirhan and Robert Jr. met in December 2017 ahead of the 50th anniversary of his father's assassination. "They spoke for about three hours, and Robert Kennedy has been outspoken about his support for Sirhan over the years," Berry recalls.

RELATED: Robert F. Kennedy's Assassin Granted Parole After Late Senator's Sons Spoke in Favor of Release

"The two sat together. They held hands. I mean, they were face-to-face. Sirhan cried. Robert Jr. accepted his apology. ... At that point, Robert Jr. was convinced that there is way more to the story than what came out at trial and that there could be a second gunman, and he has been on Sirhan's side since."

For more on Sirhan Bushara Sirhan being granted parole and other top stories, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

The support from Douglas, who was a toddler when his father died in 1968, turned out to be a welcomed surprise for Sirhan, as he and Berry were notified a day before the hearing that Kennedy's youngest son would make an appearance.

Sirhan Bishara Sirhan

getty

"I'm overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face-to-face," Douglas said in the virtual hearing, according to the Associated Press. "I think I've lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love."

Story continues

Although Berry says that Robert Jr. thought Douglas would also be in support of Sirhan's parole, she adds that his testimony was "sort of a wild card," as he "has not been part of this discourse at all."

"I think it was very heartening to Sirhan to hear that Douglas Kennedy did see his humanity and as somebody who was deserving redemption and release because of his rehabilitation," Berry explains.

After Sirhan's parole was approved Friday, the California Parole Board's staff has 120 days to review a transcript of the hearing and make a recommendation to Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom, who is currently facing a recall election on Sept. 14, will have 30 days to uphold, reverse or modify the decision.

RELATED VIDEO: Robert F. Kennedy's Friend and REI Founder Jim Whittaker Recalls Climbing Mount Kennedy with Him

"The law says if somebody is no longer a danger to society, they must be released," Barry notes. "So if we stick to the law, then the governor should go along with it."

Under a new directive by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, parole is the presumption, which means that a prisoner cannot be denied parole unless it is found they are a current danger to society. "It really gave the board no other choice than to grant or make a suitability finding," says Berry.

"And so that's where we focused on, all of the positive programming he's been doing over the last 52 years, but specifically over the last five years, since his last denial," she adds.

RELATED: 6 of Robert F. Kennedy's Children Say They Are 'Devastated' Father's Killer Was Granted Parole

Additionally, Sirhan is eligible for youth offender parole, which took effect in its current form in January 2018, applying to inmates who were under the age of 26 when they committed their crime (Sirhan was 24). He also qualifies for the elderly parole program, which was modified last September to apply to inmates over 50 years old who have been incarcerated for at least 20 years.

"He has a lot of physical ailments that are related to his age, and those became relevant for this elderly prisoner release consideration," Berry explains. "And quite frankly, it's not fair to the taxpayers to be paying to treat somebody with all of these ailments, particularly when they're no longer a risk to society."

Robert F Kennedy

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Sen. Kennedy, who served as the 64th attorney general before being elected to represent New York in the U.S. Senate, was mortally wounded in a shooting on the night of June 4, 1968. After winning the presidential primaries in California and South Dakota that day, he was shot in the kitchen of The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles while leaving a campaign event at the hotel's ballroom.

According to an Evening Journal report at the time, Kennedy died at "1:44 a.m., PDT, little more than 25 hours after the assault." He was 42.

Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder in 1969 and was sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life in prison three years later when the California Supreme Court outlawed capital punishment.

"I would never put myself in jeopardy again," Sirhan said during Friday's hearing, according to the AP. "You have my pledge. I will always look to safety and peace and non-violence."
Nurses needed

RNs can apply to help at Yakima Valley Memorial at the Yakima Valley Memorial website under the careers page, then "Jobs at Yakima Valley Memorial." Search for the Registered Nurse (RN)  Temporary posting.

The hospital can accept temporary and permanent RNs licenses under state law.
Dr. Marty Brueggemann, chief medical officer at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, provides an update on hospitalizations during a news conference Friday, Aug. 27, 2021, at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital in Yakima, Wash. Any nurses who are retired or not currently working and would like to assist in this pandemic, we do need the help, Brueggemann said during the news conference.

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Yankton, SD (57078)

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Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

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Representatives from that North Carolina-based company, Raven Advisory, said they were able to pay for the mission using money raised through Marcus' GoFundMe campaign. The company, which says it performs subcontract work for the U.S. military, said "an all-volunteer team consisting of former Special Forces soldiers and other veterans with expertise in Afghanistan were working with the military to coordinate their rescue efforts.

Sayara's Shadian said he had met Operation Flyaway members on Zoom only earlier in the week and in the chaos of the Kabul evacuations was thrilled they agreed to fund the flight.

They were one of many miracles we experienced in this time, Shadian said. Their last-minute funding, along with the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Schmidt Futures and other donors, was critical. Without Operation Flyaway's quick funding, that flight wouldnt have gotten off the ground.

Raven Advisory CEO Sheffield Ford told the AP that in order to transport the people into the airport, the U.S. government has to be comfortable with our organization saying these people are OK, and that they have actually done things to help their country, to help our country.
She considers her son and others who took their own lives to be casualties of war every bit as much as those killed in action.

When the Taliban swept back into control of Afghanistan just before the fifth anniversary of her son's death, she felt relief that a war that left more than 2,400 Americans dead and more than 20,700 wounded had finally come to an end. But there was also sadness that gains made by the Afghan people  especially women and children  may be temporary.

"As a mom, this kind of stabs you, because would he still be around, would any of these young men still be around if this whole war hadn't happened?" she said. "But I try to gently correct people when they say this was a waste or this was all for nothing. Because that's not true. We don't know what impacts it's had on the safety of our country, on the safety of the Afghan people."

___

Some who served with the Darkhorse Battalion are having a hard time seeing it any way other than that their efforts, their blood and the lives of their fallen friends were all for nothing.

"I'm starting to feel like how the Vietnam vets felt. There was no purpose to it whatsoever," said Sutton, 32, who now works in the veterans services office of a county outside Chicago, helping military vets get care.
New Delhi: The auspicious occasion of Shri Krishna Janmashtami will be celebrated countrywide on August 30 this year. The festival holds importance globally as many Indians including foreign nationals, who believe in the Lord and are settled abroad celebrate the day with equal vigour.

The festival of Janmashtami celebrates the birthday of Lord Krishna, also known by the name Gokulashtami at many places. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, celebrations remain low key but, however, that hasn't dampened the spirits of Krishna Bhakts.

With strict COVID protocol in place to avoid large gatherings and maintaining social distancing, preparations of Krishna Janmashtami is in full swing, and several Radha-Krishna temples are being beautifully adorned with flowers and embellishments.

Shri Krishna Janmashtami Puja Timings:

Shri Krishna Jayanti Yoga

5248th Birth Anniversary of Lord Krishna

Krishna Janmashtami on Monday, August 30, 2021

Nishita Puja Time - 11:59 PM to 12:44 AM, Aug 31

Duration - 00 Hours 45 Mins

Dahi Handi on Tuesday, August 31, 2021

(according to drikpanchang.com)

Parana as per Dharma Shastra

Parana Time - after 09:44 AM, Aug 31

On Parana Day Rohini Nakshatra End Time - 09:44 AM

On Parana Day Ashtami got over before Sunrise

Alternate Parana as per Dharma Shastra

Parana Time - after 05:59 AM, Aug 31

Parana can be done on next day sunrise after Deva Puja, Visarjan etc.

Parana as per modern tradition in society

Parana Time - after 12:44 AM, Aug 31

at many places in India, Parana is done after Nishita i.e. Hindu midnight

Mid Night Moment - 12:22 AM, Aug 31

Chandrodaya Moment - 11:35 PM Krishna Dashami

Ashtami Tithi Begins - 11:25 PM on Aug 29, 2021

Ashtami Tithi Ends - 01:59 AM on Aug 31, 2021

Rohini Nakshatra Begins - 06:39 AM on Aug 30, 2021

Rohini Nakshatra Ends - 09:44 AM on Aug 31, 2021

(as per drikpanchang.com)

JANMASHTAMI PUJA VIDHI:

The Lord is pleased with pure devotion and the intention behind the prayer. Therefore, even if an elaborate procedure is not followed, still he will listen to your genuine and heartfelt prayers.

Firstly, you can make or purchase a cradle and place Lord Krishna's idol in it.

Pray with utmost bhakti and pure mind, heart body and soul to invoke the Lord. With folded hands pray to him to accept your puja.

Then, clean his feet with water (you can also use the holy Ganga Jal) and perform the Abhishekam. Also, you can use milk and water to bathe the Lord.

Take a fresh, unused cloth to wipe the Lord's idol, and adorn him with new clothes. After that, tie a mouli thread to Laddoo Gopal.

You can offer a janeyu thread to the Lord also which is sacred in nature.

Apply Chandan or sandalwood to the Lord, adorn him with new jewellery items which are easily available with Krishna clothes in the market.

Place fresh flowers before him, lit the incense sticks and pray to the Lord.

Invoke the Lord and immerse yourself in his bhakti.

You can then place the prasad or naivedhyam prepared at home or sweets which you have bought. Lit the dhoop, incense sticks followed by Tamboolam which includes paan, supari, fruits and money.

Chant Shri Krishna's Aarti

As the clock strikes 12 at midnight, break your fast with the prasad. Devotees observing fast should keep the Prarna time in mind before breaking the fast or vrat.

JANMASHTAMI VRAT RITUAL:

Usually, on Janmashtami, devotees observe a day-long fast and break it only at the stroke of 12 (the midnight) with fruits and prasad which is first offered to the Lord.

Sweets are prepared and distributed amongst friends, relatives and others. During this time, Krishna bhajans are recited and devotees sing-dance and pray to the Lord.

Here's wishing everyone a very happy Janmashtami.

Bolo Radhey-Krishna Ki Jai!
Nagpur: The Dhaka-bound Biman Bangladesh Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at the Nagpur airport, left for the destination with the stranded passengers 11 hours later.

The pilot, who had suffered a heart attack mid-air, is critical and undergoing treatment at a private hospital, an official said on Saturday (August 28).

The plane, which was carrying 126 passengers to the Bangladesh capital from Muscat, had made an emergency landing in Nagpur around 11.40 am on Friday as the pilot suffered a heart attack mid-air.

Talking to PTI, a senior official of the Nagpur airport said, "Biman Bangladesh arranged an alternative crew, who flew to Nagpur. After that, the stranded flight departed for the destination along with the passengers at 10.37 pm on Friday."

The condition of the pilot is still critical and he is undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Nagpur, he said.

Sources said the pilot was taken to Kingsway Hospital, which is located around 10 kms from the Nagpur airport.

On Friday, when the plane was near Raipur it had contacted the Kolkata ATC for an emergency landing and was advised to land at the nearest airport Nagpur. The co-pilot landed the plane in Nagpur, the sources said.

Biman Bangladesh had recently resumed flight services with India after air travel between the two countries was suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

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New Delhi: Amid reports of row in Chhattisgarh Congress unit, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday (August 28) confirmed that Rahul Gandhi will visit the state next week.

Addressing the reporters upon his arrival in Raipur from Delhi, Baghel said, Rahul Gandhi will visit Chhattisgarh next week. He will visit Bastar, central and north Chhattisgarh and witness the development works done by us for tribals, farmers, women, the youth and the poor and industries.

Rahul Gandhi will visit Chhattisgarh next week. He will visit Bastar, central & north Chhattisgarh & witness the development works done by us for tribals, farmers, women, the youth & the poor and industries: CM Bhupesh Baghel upon arrival in Raipur after meeting Gandhi in Delhi pic.twitter.com/kFmNocpLPK  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

On Friday, Baghel held a three-hour meeting at Rahul Gandhi's residence in Delhi which was also attended by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. According to ANI sources, Baghel was successful in convincing the Congress top brass and there was no immediate threat to his CM post from his minister TS Singh Deo.

The supporters of Deo claim a two-and-a-half-year power-sharing formula for the chief minister's post was agreed upon in Chhattisgarh.

"The CM said that the governance of Chhattisgarh government under his leadership is better than the Gujarat government. The Congress party can present the Chhattisgarh Model of governance before the country. Baghel also said that his government has taken several initiatives on welfare schemes rolled out for Adivasis and development of rural economy," the source told ANI.

Moreover, the supporters of CM Baghel met Congress in-charge in Chhattisgarh PL Puniya and General Secretary of AICC KC Venugopal. However, TS Singh Deo was not present during any meeting with senior Congress leaders.

Congress won the Chhattisgarh assembly polls held in December 2018 with a majority. As the Baghel government completed two-and-a-half years in office in June, Deo's supporters have raised the issue of rotational chief ministership. Both the leaders have maintained that they will adhere to the orders of Congress high command.

(With ANI inputs)

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New Delhi: The Maharashtra government issued an order making a negative RT-PCR report mandatory for all international passengers arriving in the state even if they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte in an order released on Friday (August 27) night said that the step has been taken in compliance with the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), PTI reported.

All international passengers arriving in Maharashtra, including those from the European countries, Middle Eastern countries and South Africa, will be in line with the above-mentioned guidelines issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, the statement read.

In another statement issued later, the Maharashtra government added, Same rule is applicable for international passengers arriving in Maharashtra. Although the passenger has taken two doses of vaccine against COVID-19, the negative report of RT-PCR is mandatory.

Meanwhile, the Centre has asked the Maharashtra government to enforce 'restrictions' to stem the transmission of the coronavirus in view of the upcoming festival season. In a letter to Maharashtra chief secretary, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote on Friday, "In light of this order, and in view of mass events and public gatherings expected during celebration of upcoming festivals (including Dahi Handi and Ganpati Utsav) in Maharashtra, it is advised that the state may consider imposing and enforcing local restrictions in public observation of these festivals and mass gatherings.

Keeping in mind the COVID-19 spread, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has announced a near-total ban on the upcoming 'Dahi-Handi' celebrations.

Maharashtra on Friday logged 4,654 new COVID-19 cases and 170 fatalities, pushing the caseload to 64,47,442 and the toll to 1,36,900, a state health official said.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The Delhi police on Saturday (August 28) filed a chargesheet in a court in the rape and murder case of a nine-year-old Dalit girl that took place in Delhi Cantonment area earlier this month.

The chargesheet has been filed against four accused including Kuldeep Singh, Laxmi Narayan, Radhey Shyam and Salim Ahmad. The 400-page final report submitted by the Crime Branch in the Patiala House Court named Radhey Shyam, the 55-year-old priest of the crematorium in South-West district, and its employees - Kuldeep Singh, Salim Ahmad and Laxmi Narayan as accused - claiming there was sufficient evidence against them, PTI reported.

The accused were charged under sections 302 (murder), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 376D (gang rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. They have also been chargesheeted under Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and Section 3 (offences of atrocities) of SC/ST Act.

A statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, Filing of chargesheet today by Delhi Police shows the zero tolerance and commitment of Government of India under leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, to act speedily to ensure stringent punishment for those committing crimes against women and girls.

The rape and murder case was transferred to the Crime Branch of Delhi police on August 5, the police said.

The final report includes a report by the special investigating team, which was formed by the Crime Branch.

During the investigation, scientific, technical and other evidence was gathered and analysed, besides recording testimonies of relevant witnesses. Assistance was taken from Forensic Science Laboratory, Rohini as well as Delhi Police's Forensic Experts on Biology and Odontology, the official release added.

A nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and killed by a priest and three employees of a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi on August 1, the police had said. On the basis of the victims mothers statement who said that her daughter was raped and murdered and later cremated without their consent, the Delhi police had registered a case against the four accused.

(With agency inputs)
Kerala: On Saturday (August 28), India reported 46,759 new COVID-19 cases (24 hours figure), taking the country's tally to 3,26,49,947, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. And Kerala continued to report a record number of cases and logged 32,801 fresh infections and 179 deaths.

According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, Kerala now accounts for more than half of all the active COVID-19 cases in the country, followed closely by Maharashtra.

Festivals - a source of concern

Today's (August 28) India figures show the highest single-day increase in nearly two months and this is a clear indication of the fact that COVID cases are spiking in the country, mainly driven by surges in specific states.

While the centre asked Maharashtra to place curbs ahead of Dahi Handi celebrations and Ganesh Chaturthi, it seems Onam festvities are a main cause behind Kerala's unprecedented growth in last few days. Many people defied social distancing norms and gathered in huge numbers to celebrate Onam, thus leading to growing COVID cases.

The Delta variant makes up for most of the cases

CSIR's Institute of Gemomics and Integrative Biology surveys show that 95% of the samples tested are of the Delta variant. Studies have already shown the Delta variant to be much more infectious and transmissible than the original Alpha variant.

The Delta variant also increases chances of hospitalisation and can be fatal too. On August 25, of 605 deaths reported in India, Kerala 215 deaths. Maharashtra had one more - 216. Today (August 28), India's 509 new fatalities include 179 from Kerala and 170 from Maharashtra.

More testing in Kerala

Some also point out the fact that the southern state conducts far more tests than the rest of the country for COVID, which can be one reason - though not the only reason - for reporting more cases. Kerala tests on an average 4,000 cases for COVID daily, while the figure for India stands at 1,300 on an average. Kerala's testing strategy has also been found effective - studies show Kerala is able to identify one in every six COVID cases, while if we consider the whole of India, the figure stands at 1 in 33.

ICMR's latest survey shows that India's seroprevalence is 67.6% while Kerala's is 42.7%. This means more people in Kerala are still vulnerable to the virus - either they are not fully vaccinated or have never been exposed to the virus before.

The worst affected districts

As on August 26, among districts, Ernakulam recorded the highest number with 4,048 cases, followed by Thrissur (3,865), Kozhikode (3,680), Malappuram (3,502), Palakkad (2,562), Kollam (2,479), Kottayam (2,050), Kannur (1,930) Alappuzha (1,874), Thiruvananthapuram (1,700), Idukki (1,166) Pathanamthitta (1,008) and Wayanad (962).

Fear of third wave

As Kerala continues to report high case load, experts fear that it can become the epicentre of the third wave, along with states like Maharashtra. The next two-three months have several festivals lined up - Dahi Handi celebrations, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja/Navaratri, Diwali - which have made experts worried about a spike in COVID cases.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan expressed concerns at the pace of rise in coronavirus cases and directed Kerala and other states to adopt a 5-fold strategy for controlling the sudden spurt in infections. Also, Centre asked Kerala and Maharashtra to consider night curfews in areas with high coronavirus case numbers as the country reported more than 40,000 new infections for three days in a row on Saturday (August 28).

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New Delhi: The festival season is just around the corner and the centre is naturally worried about a spike in COVID cases, something that has already been witnessed in Kerala post Onam. On Saturday (August 28), the Centre asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering and that they take proactive measures to check the spread of coronavirus.

Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states. The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs in identical letters.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8 am of August 28, 46,759 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the country in the previous 24 hours. "The state governments and UT administrations concerned, having high positivity in their districts, should take proactive containment measures so as to effectively arrest the spike in cases and to contain the spread of transmission. It is important to identify warning signs of potential surges early on and to take appropriate measures to curb the spread. This would require a localised approach, as has been mentioned in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) advisories dated April 25 and June 28," Ajay Bhalla said.

The home secretary further advised them to take suitable measures to avoid large gatherings during the coming festive season and, if required, impose local restrictions to prevent such gatherings.

A number of major festivals, including Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Navaratri, Diwali and Chhath, will be celebrated in the coming months. Covid-appropriate behaviour should be strictly enforced at all crowded places, he said. There is a need to continue focus on the five-fold strategy -- test-track-treat-vaccination and adherence to COVID-appropriate behaviour -- for an effective management of COVID-19, the home secretary added.

Adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour is essential for tackling the pandemic on a sustained basis, he said, adding that weekly data from states and UTs regarding wearing of facemask, maintaining social distancing, imposition of fines etc indicates a downward trend in enforcement.

"States and UTs are requested to augment their enforcement efforts for effectively checking transmission of the disease," Bhalla said.

He also said the country has made significant progress in vaccination and state governments and UT administrations should continue their drive so as to inoculate maximum number of eligible people. Further, the home secretary said, it must be ensured that areas having no virus or low transmission are adequately protected by progressively ramping up testing and other measures such as monitoring for ILI and SARI (Influenza-Like Illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection), and market surveillance.

Also read: Explained: Kerala's rising COVID cases a worry for India, sparks fear of third wave

"I would, therefore, urge you to issue strict directions to the district and all other local authorities concerned, to take necessary measures for management of COVID- 19. The officers concerned should be made personally responsible for any laxity in strict enforcement of COVID Appropriate Behaviour. I would also advise that orders issued by the respective state governments and UT administrations and district authorities in this regard should be widely disseminated to the public and to the field functionaries, for their proper implementation," he said.

India's infection tally rose to 3,26,49,947 Saturday as the number of active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, according to Union Health Ministry data. The death toll has climbed to 4,37,370 with 509 more fatalities being recorded, according to the updated data. The number of active cases has now increased to 3,59,775 which comprises 1.10 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 97.56 per cent, the health ministry said.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: As Indias active caseload rose to 3.44 lakh on Friday, five states account for around 70 per cent of the total caseload in the country, the Union Health Ministry data revealled.

At least 2.39 lakh cases are from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Kerala has recorded the highest number of active coronavirus cases across the country with 1.81 lakh active cases which is more than 52 per cent of the active tally.

Only three other states have more than 10,000 active cases; Karnataka with 19,326, Tamil Nadu with 18,069 and Andhra Pradesh with 14,448. The rest of the States and UTs have fewer cases. Telangana, with 6,246 active cases, is accountable for the countrys 1.81 per cent active load.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan expressed concerns at the pace of rise in coronavirus cases and directed the states to adopt a 5-fold strategy for controlling the sudden spurt in infections. Also, Centre asked Kerala and Maharashtra to consider night curfews in areas with high coronavirus case numbers as the country reported more than 40,000 new infections for two days in a row on Friday.

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New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday (August 28, 2021) slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that she has never come across such a 'vindictive party and government' in her political life. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief was speaking after her nephew Abhishek Banerjee was sent summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.

Mamata also accused the Narendra Modi-led government of trying to 'bulldoze the federal structure' of the country and snatching away the rights of the states.

"The BJP and the Union government can't fight us politically. The party was defeated in the assembly polls and now they are using central agencies against our leaders like Abhishek Banerjee and others. But let me tell them, they can't bulldoze or intimidate us by such threats. We will continue our fight against them," she said.

"If you (BJP) show us ED, we will also send proof against BJP leaders to the agency. A section of BJP ministers and leaders are working hand in glove with the coal mafia. They even stayed at hotels run by them during elections," Mamata Banerjee added.

Earlier in the day, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee were summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the case in the first week of September.

This is to be noted that the case was filed by the ED after studying a November 2020 FIR of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to the Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local state operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case.

The ED had earlier claimed that Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. However, he has been denying all charges.

(With agency inputs)

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Ahmedabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a three-day visit to Gujarat from Saturday (August 28) onwards, during which he will attend meetings and review development works in Ahmedabad district and his Lok Sabha constituency.

As per the tentative schedule shared with the media, Shah would attend a meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) at Ahmedabad Collector office on Saturday evening.

DISHA meetings ensure better coordination among all elected representatives - of Parliament, state legislatures and local bodies - for effective and time-bound implementation of various pro-people development works in a district.

The meeting will be attended by MPs, MLAs and heads of the municipal corporation, municipalities and district panchayats of Ahmedabad district, he said.

Shah is the Lok Sabha MP from Gandhinagar and several parts of Ahmedabad district and the city fall under his constituency.

On August 29, Shah would conduct a review meeting of various development works being carried out by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in the South West Zone, the official said.

The meeting will be held at the AMC office in Bodakdev. On Monday morning, Shah would attend an event of distributing sweets at Nidhrad village near Sanand town of Ahmedabad district under the 'poshan abhiyan', a central government scheme aimed at making India malnutrition-free by 2022, said the official.

(With inputs from news agency PTI)

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New Delhi: Amid third coronavirus wave concerns, Delhi AIIMS, HOD on Saturday (August 28) highlighted the need for vaccinating everyone for India to become COVID-19 free. His remark comes as India marked its highest-ever single-day vaccination by administering over 93 lakh doses on Friday.

Dr Naveet Wig, HOD, Medical Department, AIIMS praised the effort and said, It's an important feat and I think more vaccinations will be done in coming times. The country needs to be vaccinated. Until and unless everybody is vaccinated, we can't make the country COVID-free.

As the second wave of coronavirus is not yet over, Wig cautioned that people cannot lower their guards and must abide by COVID-19 appropriate behavior. Our aim is to make this country COVID-free. We'll be able to do it by wearing masks and giving vaccines to everybody. Vaccine research has to continue so we can come up with better and smarter solutions. People cannot lower their guards, he added.

Our aim is to make this country COVID-free. We'll be able to do it by wearing masks and giving vaccines to everybody. Vaccine research has to continue so we can come up with better and smarter solutions. People cannot lower their guards: Dr Naveet Wig, HOD, Medical Dept, AIIMS  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

Regarding the Delhi governments decision to reopen schools, colleges and universities from September 1, Wig said that school children will have to be treated as unvaccinated individuals. We have to weigh the pros and cons. We know that children are fed up at home. But we have to look at risks as well. These children are not vaccinated. Once they go to school, we have to treat them as unvaccinated individuals, he told ANI.

In addition, Wig said that after schools reopen it should be ensured that the COVID-19 test positivity rate remains below 0.5%. Children need their neurocognitive effects, their physical and mental health. We have to keep balance and ensure that test positivity rate is less than 0.5%. We have to save our children. Respiratory hygiene, cleanliness, masks should be ensured in schools, AIIMS Medical department HOD said.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Saturday, extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines till September 30, asked all states and union territories to ensure there are no large gatherings during the festival season.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has resumed flight operation between India and Bangladesh by this week under the air bubble agreement signed last year between the two countries to facilitate the movement of passengers and goods.

Under the bilateral air bubble pact, airlines of both countries can operate international flights with certain restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Civil Aviation of India along with the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) has come to a decision to restart the flights under the India-Bangladesh air bubble arrangement.

In another development, the Indian Visa Application Centres (IVAC) in Bangladesh have resumed operations from August 10 in the wake of the lifting of countrywide lockdown in both countries.

The 15 IVAC across Bangladesh will accept all applications except tourist visa applications, a statement of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said.



Earlier, the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh has temporarily suspended operations at all its visa centres across Bangladesh due to a lockdown implemented by the Bangladesh government from April 14.

Reports said more than 3,500 Bangladeshis travel to India daily on an average basis and of them over 10 per cent used to travel for medical purposes.

Out of the foreigners who visit India for medical purposes, 45 percent are from Bangladesh, according to the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
New Delhi: Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Friday discussed the need for a special leaders level meeting on Afghanistan by G20 grouping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Italy is the chair for G20 this year and will host all meetings of the grouping this year, including the leaders' summit in October. The idea of a special meet on Afghanistan, which is an Italian idea, is being discussed with several other G20 member countries as well.

A readout from the Indian PMO on telephonic call said, "The leaders discussed the recent developments in Afghanistan and its implications for the region and the world". While condemning the terror attack at Kabul international airport, the statement said that the leaders, "stressed upon the need for international cooperation, including at the level of the G20, in addressing the humanitarian crisis and long-term security concerns arising out of the developments in Afghanistan."

During the talks, they also discussed issues like climate change and in that context, exchanged views on other forthcoming multilateral engagements too, such as COP-26 that will take place in November. Draghi is the second leader, Indian PM Modi has spoken to since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15. Earlier PM had a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Psaki, in response to a G20 meet on Afghanistan, directed it to state dept pointing to "planned engagements with international partners in the coming days.". Not for the first time a special meeting by G20 is being organized on an international crisis. Last year, under Saudi leadership, G20 hosted a special leaders level summit to deal with COVID crisis.

The grouping formed after the 2008 financial crisis is increasingly being seen as key to global world order even as the United Nations remain defunct, especially lack of reforms at the security council. Countries like China have been holding reforms at the security council, and blocking expansion of membership for countries like India.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (August 28, 2021) inaugurated a renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and expressed that it is a place that gave courage to innumerable revolutionaries. During the virtual event, the Prime Minister said that it is the responsibility of every nation to preserve its history.

"Our history teaches us a lot and show us the way forward. We've seen scenes similar to the Jallianwala Bagh incident during the Partition," he said.

"Jallianwala Bagh is the place that gave courage to an innumerable number of revolutionaries like Sardar Udham Singh and Bhagat Singh to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the nation," PM Modi added.

Renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak being dedicated to the nation. https://t.co/qvgSvFD422  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 28, 2021

He informed that like Jallianwala Bagh, the Centre is also remodelling every historical monument associated with India's Independence. PM Modi said that India's first interactive gallery which is dedicated to Chandra Shekhar Azad is also being constructed in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj.

According to the Prime Minister's Office, four museum galleries have been created through the adaptive reuse of redundant and underutilised buildings. The galleries showcase the historical value of events that unfolded in Punjab during that period, with the fusion of audio-visual technology, including projection mapping and 3D representation, as well as art and sculptural installations.

A Sound and Light show has also been set up to display the events that happened on April 13, 1919.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) 2021 will commence from today (August 28, 2021). KCET will be held on two days, August 28 and 29, 2021. The examination will be held in pen and paper format on both days. Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) will conduct KCET as per prescribed COVID guidelines, which are also available on the official website of the authority- kea.kar.nic.in.

KCET is a state-level entrance exam conducted for admissions to B.Tech, B.Pharma, B.V.Sc, AH, Pharm.D and other professional courses. KCET is a 60 marks paper that is objective type and lasts for 80 minutes. KCET 2021 will have papers on various subjects including Biology, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry.

The students who have registered with KEA and will be appearing in KCET need to carry KCET admit card to the exam centre or else they might not be allowed to sit for the exam. Students also need to take note of the last-minute instructions.

ALSO READ | FYJC Admissions 2021: Maharashtra Class 11 first merit list to release today, direct link to check here

KCET 2021: Exam day Instructions

Students must reach the examination centre at least 2 hours prior to the first bell.

KCET Admit Card 2021 is a mandatory document to be carried to the exam hall along with a valid Id proof for checking.

Students will have to take their seats in the exam hall after the first bell. Candidates need to note that they will not be allowed to enter the KCET 2021 exam hall after the third bell rings.

Candidates should carry a blue/black ballpoint pen to fill the OMR sheet. No pencils will be allowed.

Students will have to give their left-hand thumb impression in the space provided at the bottom portion of the OMR sheet or wherever they are asked to.

No wristwatch, electronic gadgets like calculators, mobile phones will be allowed in the exam hall.

Candidates must note that it is mandatory to wear masks at all times and social distancing is a must.

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New Delhi: As Kerala crossed the 30,000 daily cases mark for the fourth consecutive day, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday (August 28) announced that the night curfew will be reimposed from Monday (August 30).

The night curfew will be in force from 10pm till 6 am in the state from Monday, Vijayan said. Earlier, the Kerala government had decided to continue with Sunday lockdown.

The decision comes as Kerala has been reporting over 30,000 daily coronavirus cases since August 25, highest single-day spike since May this year. The Kerala CM told the reporters on Saturday that out of the 1,67,497 samples tested in the last 24 hours, 31,265 samples tested positive for coronavirus infection. With 153 fatalities, the death toll climbed to 20,466. The total caseload in the state reached 39,77,572, while the Test Positivity rate dropped to 18.67 per cent from 19.22 on August 27. As per official data, Kerala accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the national total of daily infections.

Of 1,67,497 samples tested today, 31,265 samples tested positive for #COVID19 and 153 deaths reported in the state: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

A health department release said, "Out of those found infected, 120 people reached the state from outside, while 29,891 contracted the disease from their contacts. The sources of infection of 1,158 are yet to be traced. Among those infected are 96 health workers.

Meanwhile, as festive season is around the corner, the Centre on Saturday extended the COVID-19 guidelines for another month till September 30. Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla in a letter to chief secretaries of states and union territories asked them to ensure there are no large gatherings. He also directed them to take proactive measures to check the spread of coronavirus.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan slammed the Kerala government over the spike in COVID-19 cases and said the Vijayan government is trying to blame the public, instead of identifying failures in adopting a strategy, ANI reported.

Defending the Kerala model, in an article published in Communist Party of India (Marxist)s magazine Chintha, Kerala CM Vijayan had termed the criticism of his government "unwanted and claimed no deaths occurred in the state due to lack of oxygen. If Kerala model is wrong in Covid containment, then which model should we follow? No one had died in Kerala due to a lack of oxygen. No person was deprived of medical aid or medical bed, he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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New Delhi: The Kerala government on Saturday (August 28) announced that a one-time financial support of Rs 3 lakh will be provided to minors who lost their parents to COVID-19 next week.

The state government will also bear the educational expenses of these children till graduation, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. Taking to Twitter, he said that the state government has sanctioned Rs 3.20 crore for this project. Children who've lost their parents or guardians due to Covid-19 will get 3 lakh as a one-time deposit next week and Rs 2000 every month till they turn 18. The expense of their education till graduation will also be taken care of by GoK. Sanctioned 3.20 Cr for the project, the Kerala CM tweeted.

Children who've lost their parents or guardians due to Covid-19 will get 3 lakh as a one-time deposit next week & 2000 every month till they turn 18. The expense of their education till graduation will also be taken care of by GoK. Sanctioned 3.20 Cr for the project.  Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) August 28, 2021

On Thursday, the Supreme Court had said that the state governments should bear the fee of children who lost either one or both parents to coronavirus for this academic year if private schools are not willing to waive off their fee.

The apex court noted that these children may not have the means to fend for themselves, so, it is the state which has to protect them. The bench was hearing a suo motu matter on contagion of COVID-19 in children protection homes.

Meanwhile, Kerala will reimpose night curfew from Monday (August 30) in view of spike in coronavirus infections. The decision comes as Kerala has been reporting over 30,000 daily coronavirus cases since August 25, highest single-day spike since May this year. The Kerala CM told the reporters on Saturday that out of the 1,67,497 samples tested in the last 24 hours, 31,265 samples tested positive for coronavirus infection.

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Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) nabbed seven persons, including two Nigerians, during a drive to flush out the suppliers and peddlers of Mephedrone (MD) drug in Mumbai and neighbouring suburbs, an official said on Saturday (August 28).

During the drive, launched on Thursday, two NCB officials sustained injuries while conducting a raid in Navi Mumbai, the official said, adding the NCB team recovered a commercial quantity of MD from the accused persons.

"Arrest of TV actor Gaurav Dixit in a drug case on Friday was also part of the operation," he said, adding Dixit was remanded in NCB custody till Monday.

On Thursday, NCB's Mumbai Zonal team intercepted MD drug peddler Abusufiyan Khan from suburban Jogeshwari and recovered an intermediate quantity of MD from him, he said. Khan, a history-sheeter, is one of the main peddlers cum suppliers in a drug case, he said.

In another operation, NCB officials seized 57.3 grams of MD along with a small quantity of Charas and Ganja (cannabis) in Vasai and Nallasopara East in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, he said, adding one Rafiq Mohammed Ali Shaikh and Nigerian national Jonhcen Maka were arrested in this case.

The official said Maka is a major supplier of MD in the Nallasopara area. He also supplies this drug to peddlers and clients in Mumbai and the suburbs. Separately, NCB officials seized 52 grams of MD from Irfan Ikramuddin Khan, a history-sheeter, from suburban Goregaon.

In an operation conducted in Navi Mumba's Kharghar area, NCB officials seized at least 55 grams of MD and a small quantity of Ganja from Nigerian drug peddler Kingsley Ukwueza on the intermediate night of Thursday and Friday, he said.

During the raid, the Nigerian hid in a Nigerian community kitchen along with around 50 compatriots who charged at the NCB team, injuring two officials, he said.

Ukwueza is a big trafficker of MD and supplier in Navi Mumbai. He has international links, the official said. In another operation, a team of NCB Mumbai seized 65 grams of MD (commercial quantity) on Friday at Mira Road in the Thane district and intercepted a man identified as Riyaaz Iqbal Tandel, he added.

(With agency inputs)
Pune: A fake railway job racket was busted in Pune after the personnel of Crime Investigation Bureau of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Pune, apprehended a person at Pune station recently.

The trap was laid based on a verbal complaint by a woman, who is a resident of Kalyan. The complainant said that she was offered a job in the railways for money, according to news agency ANI.

Acting on the complaint, the RPF formed a team under LK Sagar, Inspector of RPF.

The suspect has been identified as Mayur Kambli and he was identified by the complainant. He was later brought to Bhandup RPF office. A case was registered under Sections 420, 465, 471, 476 and 507 of the IPC against Mayur and a woman named Smruti.

Meanwhile, amid reports that actors Ritiesh Deshmukh, Sonu Sood or fitness enthusiast Milind Soman may be roped in by the Mumbai Congress as mayoral candidate for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, Mumbai Congress chief Bhai Jagtap denied the claims on Friday.

Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) president Bhai Jagtap said, "In a meeting of the strategy committee, a member had proposed the name of these celebrities, but we do not agree with the suggestion. We will be contesting on all the 227 seats in BMC and if we win, the mayor will be our party member."

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Jaipur: A day after undergoing angioplasty, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday (August 28) said he was unable to go among the people during the past several days as he was suffering from post-Covid health issues.

The 70-year-old Congress leader had tested positive for the viral infection in April and after recovery in May, he faced post-COVID issues.

Gehlot issued a statement here, saying he was working day and night after recovering from the disease and did not get proper rest.

"I could not take proper rest as advised by doctors. Due to this, I am having post-COVID problems for so long. This is the reason why in the last several days, I was unable to go among the people of the state," he said in the statement.

Gehlot had been targeted by the Opposition for some time for apparently not leaving his residence to meet people.

The chief minister further said that he did not have cardiac issues before, and as per doctors, it is a post-COVID effect. He also thanked everybody for wishing him good health.

Doctors say COVID has varied effects on people. It affects organs like the heart, brain, kidney, liver etc. Even after recovering from it, problems like headache, exhaustion and breathlessness persist, and so both COVID and post-COVID should be taken seriously, the chief minister added in the statement.

He underwent angioplasty, a procedure to open clogged arteries, at a government hospital in Lucknow on Friday.

Gehlot said he would be under supervision of doctors at the Sawai Mansingh Hospital (SMS) for the time being.

He asked people to follow COVID-19 protocols, including mask, social distancing and hand washing, seriously, and get themselves vaccinated on time.

The chief minister also urged people to consult a doctor if they have any symptoms after recovering from Covid as even the slightest negligence can be serious.

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Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has allowed colleges and universities to reopen from September 1. As per the latest order, colleges and universities for Arts, Science, (both Shift I and Shift II) Technical Engineering, Agriculture, Fisheries and Veterinary can resume if they adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

As per orders, second and third-year students in undergraduate courses can attend classes on an alternative basis.

Second-year PG students can attend classes on all six days.

For students enrolled under 5-year long courses, 2nd and 4th-year students can attend classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Third and 5th-year students can go to college on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Online classes will be held for students in their first year. In case classrooms are available, then physical classes can be commenced.

School Reopening in Tamil Nadu

Prior to this, the state government announced reopening of schools for classes 9-12 from September 1. Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin had said that the state would reopen for students of classes 9-12 from September 1 onwards if the pandemic situation is under control.

Schools that were shut since the closure due to Covid in 2020 are conducting major renovation work to welcome students in their schools. While several schools need total renovation especially those in the government sector, aided schools need minor work to make the classes fit for the return of students.

Tamil Nadu on Friday (August 27) registered 1,542 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the overall case count to 26,08,748, while the toll soared to 34,835 with 21 people succumbing to the deadly virus. Recoveries outnumbered new infections with 1,793 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,56,116, leaving 17,797 active cases, a medical bulletin said.
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday (August 28) adopted a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw the three new farm laws.

The resolution, through a voice vote, was moved by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin in the assembly during the monsoon session. Opposing the resolution, AIADMK and BJP legislators staged a walkout from the assembly.

AIADMK MLAs said that the resolution has been moved in haste and the state government should seek the views of farmers by convening an all-party meeting.

The resolution was supported by the legislators of Congress, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and Thamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi.

Stalin also announced that all the cases lodged against farmers protesting against the three new laws during the past year will be withdrawn.

Farmers have been protesting at the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers` Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Farmer leaders and the Centre have held several rounds of talks but the impasse remains.

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Lucknow: In record-breaking progress, Uttar Pradesh has crossed an important landmark of 7- crore vaccinations on Saturday. In a momentous feat, breaking its own record, UP administered more than 30 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses on August 27, the highest ever in a day by any State.

In just 11 days, Uttar Pradesh administered One crore doses and with this impressive pace of COVID vaccination, it became the top state with the largest population in the country. Uttar Pradesh reported 30,00,680 doses, in a mega vaccination campaign for Covid-19 conducted on August 27.

Earlier, on August 3, UP gave around 29.5 lakh doses of vaccine against Covid-19 which was also an all-time high record in single-day coverage.

While India hit the one-crore mark on Friday logging its highest ever daily vaccination figure, Uttar Pradesh led the way by contributing around 30 percent to the national record.



According to the experts, it is a significant step by the UP government that will play a significant role in restricting mortality and severe disease when the probable third Covid wave strikes the state.

On August 17, the state crossed the milestone of administering 6-crore doses. Soaring high on vaccination, the state has achieved the target of vaccinating one crore people in merely 11 days, which is a kind of record in itself. It is noteworthy that in the same month,on August 3, UP crossed the 5 crore mark too.

So far, over 5,90,16,053 have received their first doses while over 1,11,43,560 are fully vaccinated in the state.

On the contrary, Maharashtra lags behind with 5.64 crore doses delivered so far. The vaccination numbers in Rajasthan stand at 4.23 crore, West Bengal has vaccinated around 3.86 crore people, in Tamil Nadu only 3.08 crore vaccine doses have been given and Kerala has vaccinated only 2.77 crores of its population.

Aggressive Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of the Uttar Pradesh Government for containment and management of the pandemic, along with T3 and adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Ensuring that no section is left under this massive vaccination campaign, the Chief Minister has instructed the officials to cover each and everyone in getting their doses in a hassle-free manner.

The state-wide launch of the cluster model for the Covid-19 vaccination drive has made the task easy, equitable, and seamless by eliminating crucial roadblocks like transport and the digital divide.
New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed another FIR against arrested former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and his wife Nutun, who have now been booked for assaulting police and obstructing the government work.

Thakur who was arrested from his residence in Lucknow on Friday (August 27, 2021) on serious charges, including abetment of suicide of a rape victim and her friend in Delhi recently, was seen in a video resisting arrest and trying to clamber onto the roof of the police vehicle outside his residence.

He was also heard saying that he will not go unless he is given a copy of the FIR and was then shoved into the vehicle.

In a tweet, the former IPS officer had also claimed that the police has forcibly taken him to Hazratganj Kotwali without giving any reason.

Earlier, the 24-year-old woman, who had accused a BSP MP Atul Rai of rape in 2019, died this week after she and her friend Satyam Rai set themselves afire outside the Supreme Court complex on August 16.

Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur had confirmed that the former IPS officer has been arrested in a case registered after the death of the rape victim.

Director-General of Police Mukul Goel in a statement on Friday said, "In connection with the self-immolation attempt by the victim and her aide before the Supreme Court on August 16, the government had constituted an inquiry committee which in its interim investigation report, found BSP MP from Ghosi, Atul Rai and Amitabh Thakur prima facie guilty of abetting the victim and her associate witness to commit suicide and of other charges and also recommended registering a case against them."

Amitabh Thakur, notably, was given compulsory retirement ahead of time by the government and he had announced to contest against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the upcoming assembly elections.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (August 28, 2021) said that the country is standing up for Indians, be it during the COVID-19 period or the crisis of Afghanistan.

While virtually inaugurating the renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial, Prime Minister said, "Today, if Indians are in trouble, anywhere in the world, then India stands up to help them with all its might. Be it the Corona period or the crisis of Afghanistan, the world has experienced it continuously."

PM Modi added that hundreds of friends from Afghanistan are being brought to India under Operation 'Devi Shakti'. He said that due to 'Guru Kripa', the government could bring 'swaroop' of holy Guru Granth Sahib along with people to India.

He stated that the teachings of Gurus help in preparing policies for people suffering from such circumstances.

Prime Minister Modi said that current global conditions underline the importance of 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat' and underscore the need for AatmaNirbharta (self-reliant) and Aatmavishwas (self-confidence).

India, notably, has so far evacuated over 260 Indians from war-torn Afghanistan. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the country had operated several flights under the 'Vande Bharat' mission to bring back Indians stuck abroad.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, PM Modi said the dreams of the innocent boys and girls, of the sisters and brothers, are still visible in the bullet marks on the walls of Jallianwala Bagh. He said that Jallianwala Bagh is the place that inspired countless revolutionaries and fighters like Sardar Udham Singh, Sardar Bhagat Singh to die for the freedom of India.

Renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh Smarak being dedicated to the nation. https://t.co/qvgSvFD422  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 28, 2021

He added that those 10 minutes of April 13, 1919, became the immortal story of India's freedom struggle and that dedication of the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial in the modern version in the 75 years of independence, is an opportunity for great inspiration for everyone.

Prime Minister Modi said that freedom fighters are being commemorated in every village and are being honoured. He also stated that efforts are made to preserve the places associated with the important stages of the freedom struggle and with national heroes and bring them to the fore.

He mentioned, like Jallianwala Bagh, national monuments being renovated across the country such as Interactive Gallery in Allahabad Museum, Biplobi Bharat Gallery in Kolkata, etc.



PM Modi also wished that the land of Jallianwala Bagh continues to give continuous energy for the resolutions to make the country fulfil its goals soon.

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New Delhi: As India recorded a milestone of administering 1 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses in a single day on Friday, World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan congratulated for vaccinating 50 per cent of the adult population with the first dose.

Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Dr Soumya Swaminathan wrote, "India achieves 50% coverage (at least one dose) of adult populn - > 620 million doses administered, 10 million in the past day! Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved. Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!"

India achieves 50% coverage (at least one dose) of adult populn - > 620 million doses administered, 10 million in the past day! Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved. Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!  Soumya Swaminathan (@doctorsoumya) August 27, 2021

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too applauded the feat calling it 'momentous'. "Record vaccination numbers today! Crossing 1 crore is a momentous feat. Kudos to those getting vaccinated and those making the vaccination drive a success," PM Modi tweeted.

On Friday, Chief of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation in India (NTAGI) NK Arora called it is a matter of pride for the Indian health system. Arora also said that the country hopes to vaccinate 1.25 crore in a single day soon.

India has to administer 1 crore doses daily until December 31 to achieve complete vaccination by the end of this year.

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New Delhi: After facing flak for its order, the University of Mysore withdrew its circular imposing restrictions on the movement of girl students alone on its Manasagangotri campus after 6.30 pm, PTI reported.

Informing about the decision, Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said on Saturday (August 28) that he instructed Vice-Chancellors of Universities to withdraw the order as soon as it was issued and asked them to take security measures and create safe campuses. He added that generally campuses of Universities are vast but to ban the movement of girl students is not correct.

In the wake of the tragic incident in Mysore, I informed VCs to withdraw the order as soon as circular issued by University of Mysore forbidding student movement at university campus after 6.30 pm. Accordingly, it was withdrawn, ANI quoted Ashwath Narayan as saying.

All University Chancellors are advised to take safety measures to create safe University campuses. For proper monitoring, security personal must do patrolling, all VCs have been directed to take necessary actions to maintain law and order: Karnataka Minister for Higher Education  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

The order came in the backdrop of the gang-rape of a college student near Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24. As per PTI sources, the circular was issued as part of "safety and precautionary measure" following verbal instructions by police. Further, the sources informed that the entry of visitors to the Kukkarahalli lake premises has also been banned after 6.30 pm.

Security guards have been asked to patrol the campus from 6 pm to 9 pm, they added.

Meanwhile, five people were arrested in the Mysuru gang rape case on Saturday. Four accused were arrested in Sathyamangala, Tamil Nadu while the fifth was apprehended in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, IANS cited police sources as saying.

A student was allegedly gangraped by unidentified people at Chamundi Hills in the Mysuru district of Karnataka. The victim, a student of a private college, was crossing through that area on a bike with her male friend when she was attacked and raped by some men. The girl and her male friend, who was assaulted by the gang, are undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET) Result 2021 will be announced by September 20, state Higher Education minister CN Ashwath Narayan said on Saturday (August 28).

The Karnataka CET exams are being held on August 28 and 29 at 86 centres in Bengaluru and 444 centers across the rest of the state.

As per IANS, Narayan, who was visiting Sheshadripuram college CET centre to examine the arrangements, told reporters that the counseling process would commence in the first week of October. He informed that the exam was conducted smoothly today and the students who had tested COVID-19 positive, also appeared for the exams using the separate arrangements facilitated for them.

There are no reports of any inconvenience from any location including the border area districts despite lockdown and weekend curfew being in effect. The examination is being run smoothly in the districts of Dakshina Kannada, Chamarajanagar, Mysuru, Kodagu and Udupi which are adjacent or near the state of Kerala, the Higher Education minister said.

As many as 2,01,816 candidates registered for Karnataka CET 2021. Narayan had earlier said that Kannada Language Test for Horanadu and Gadinadu Kannadiga candidates will be held on August 30 at 6 locations.

He had also informed that 530 observers, 1,060 special invigilation squad members, 530 custodians, nearly 8,409 invigilators and a total of 20,415 officers/officials have been deployed for conducting the exams smoothly.

(With IANS inputs)

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New Delhi: Karnataka Police on Saturday have reportedly arrested the five accused persons in the Mysuru gang rape case. State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, on his way to brief Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the latest development, told reporters that an operation to nab the perpetrators was conducted successfully. He gave no further details but promised to reveal more by noon.

Four accused were arrested in Sathyamangala, Tamil Nadu while the fifth was nabbed in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka, police sources told IANS. As many as five special teams were investigating the case from different angles.

Investigators secured beer bottles and cans from the crime scene, traced the MRP from the liquor shop and obtained CCTV footage. The special teams obtained information from Tamil Nadu police on local criminals and matched the details, including the video footage obtained in Mysuru.

The investigations also revealed that the accused were habitual offenders, they had committed another rape in Kuvempunagar area of Mysuru city five months ago, the police sources told IANS.

According to the police, all the arrested accused persons are coolies, they were often seen at Mysuru vegetable market selling bananas. Later, the accused would consume alcohol in an isolated area of Lalithadripura, where the incident took place.

Police claim that the accused had followed the couple for three days and on fourth day they attacked with a plan to rob the couple, but gang raped the victim.

The victim, 23-year-old MBA student from another state, was returning from a forested area with a male friend in Mysuru on Tuesday night when the incident took place in the Tippayyanakere region, in Lalithadripura area of Mysuru, police said.

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New Delhi: Bollywood actress Minissha Lamba is dating Delhi-based businessman, Akash Malik, whose identity she had managed to keep a secret until now. On his birthday, the ravishing Minissha decided to announce their relationship and make it Instagram official with a bunch of lovey-dovey pictures.

Minissha Lamba took to her IG account and wrote in the caption: Happy Happy Akki Mal.... I wish you so much love and happiness < primarily with me of course. Here's to the most fun person I know ..the Best Jacuzzi partner I could ask for...the Most fun Travel buddy.. My best date for a dinner out... The life of any party.. The most chilled out chiller person ..and the Best and Most Honourable Codenames Player in town. To many more Birthdays together...Have a great one sweety ..( with me of course)

Minissha and her husband Ryan Tham's marriage hit rock bottom and recently she opened up on her divorce. The couple tied the knot in 2015 after dating for about two years. The couple separated last year.

When asked about her relationship status, the actress told Times of India, ", "Yes. Currently, Im in a happy relationship with a lovely person."

Minissha Lamba married Ryan Tham on July 6, 2015. He is a restaurateur and owner of Juhu nightclub 'Trilogy'. Ryan is actress Pooja Bedi's cousin. The couple had announced the finalisation of their divorce proceedings in August last year.
New Delhi: After actor Gaurav Dixit's arrest in a drug case, former Bigg Boss contestant Armaan Kohli's house was raided on Saturday (August 28) by the Narcotics Control Bureau and drugs were found at his residence.

As per an ANI report, the actor has been taking to the NCB office and is being questioned on the team.

In the latest update, the NCB Zonal Director (Mumbai) Sameer Wankhede said, "After the raid, actor Armaan Kohli gave ambiguous answers to questions put up by NCB. He was then taken to custody for questioning at the NCB office."

Check out ANI's tweets to get an understanding of the timeline of events:

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) says it is conducting a raid on the residence of actor Armaan Kohli in Mumbai (File photo) pic.twitter.com/MtdwsXL7VY  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

#UPDATE | Following a raid, NCB team takes actor Armaan Kohli to its office from his residence in Mumbai  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

After the raid, actor Armaan Kohli gave ambiguous answers to questions put up by NCB. He was then taken to custody for questioning at the NCB office: NCB Zonal Director (Mumbai) Sameer Wankhede (File photo) pic.twitter.com/8GlemyLkUn  ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021

Check out his pics outside the NCB office:

Actor Armaan Kohli has starred in many films such as Dushman Zamana, Anaam, Aulad Ke Dushman. However, many of his films had flopped and even when he tried to revive his career with films such as Qahar.

Later, he went came back to the limelight with Bigg Biss 7 as a contestant. His time on the show is embroiled in controversy as she was accused of physical abuse by his then-housemate Sofia Hayat in the Bigg Boss house.
Mumbai: Superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone will be shooting a song in Spain for the upcoming film "Pathan", directed by Siddharth Anand.

Shah Rukh and Deepika will not only shoot crucial parts of their film in Spain but will also shoot a massively mounted song there.

A source said: "No Bollywood film has ever shot song sequences in these places. Sid Anand will shoot a spectacle of a song in Spain and things are totally under wraps to control all possible leaks. The intent is to create a song that is visually so grand that it is an instant hit.

"All necessary permissions are being worked on for a smooth shooting experience in Spain."

The source shared that 'Pathan' is "turning out to be an insanely awaited visual extravaganza".

Added the source: "Sid Anand and Aditya Chopra want to redefine Indian cinema on the world map and every attempt is being made to achieve this goal."

"Pathan" also stars John Abraham.

Other details about the movie are still under wraps.
New Delhi: Seems like Shah Rukh Khans daughter Suhana Khan was having a fun time while holidaying at an undisclosed location. But now her vacation mode is over.

Well, her recent picture suggests so.

In her latest Instagram story, she shared a picture of herself and wrote, last day as the caption.

In the picture, Suhana can be seen wearing a white crisp shirt over a spaghetti top, and paired it with denim shorts.

For the unversed, SRK and Gauri Khan's daughter headed to New York University in 2019 where she is studying acting. She completed her graduation from Ardingly College in England.

She has plans to follow in the footsteps of her father and pursue acting professionally.

Suhana has two siblings  Aryan Khan and AbRam Khan.

Aryan completed his education at Londons Sevenoaks School and later, went on to study filmmaking and writing at the University of Southern California.
New Delhi: Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat described the horrific scenes at Kabul airport before she escaped Afghanistan to fly to Paris in an interview with an agency. She revealed that because of her international connections, she had received an offer to leave the country as the Taliban was taking over. However, she didn't take it up, not until later.

When she finally did, she described her feelings about the same in a conversation with Reuters. She said, "I was lucky but this is not the situation for many people. They do not speak English, they are not a filmmaker, they don't have any international friends and their life is in danger."

The filmmaker recalled the Taliban walking with cables, funs and even an RPG. Sadat revealed, "(The Taliban) wanted to (make people queue) which was impossible because the crowd was pushing from all directions and Taliban were walking with cables and with guns and with even with (an) RPG."

"Children were crying and the old people were fainting ... because it was so hot," she added.

In a scary turn of events, her father was about to be singled out by the Taliban members but to protect him, she shielded him and since they were less aggressive with men compared to women, they let them go.

Shahrbanoo Sadat is a renowned filmmaker who spent her childhood in Tehran, Afghanistan. With an interest in movie-making, she studied documentary filmmaking at the Kabul workshop of Ateliers Varan. The brilliant director had won the top prize at Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight for her debut feature film titled Wolf and Sheep in 2016.
New Delhi: Its no secret that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been doubling down on its efforts to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or what could be known as a digital rupee in the coming future.

Now, the central banks governor Shaktikanta Das has revealed that the pilot of the central bank digital currency could begin as early as December 2021. The Reserve Bank of India may launch its first digital currency trial programs by December," Das told CNBC in an interview.

He also pointed out that the RBI is extremely careful about the project since its completely a new product not just for RBI, but globally. I think by the end of the year, we should be able to  we would be in a position, perhaps  to start our first trials," he was quoted as saying.

What are Central bank digital currencies or CBDCs?



CBDCs are basically virtual currencies usually issued by the same authority that is in charge of managing the fiat currency in a country. In simple words, CBDCs are just digital versions of fiat currencies.

At present, the RBI is understanding the various aspects of CBDCs. The central bank is studying coins security, impact on the financial sector, monetary policy and currency that is already in circulation. Also Read: Odisha approves Electric Vehicle Policy, state to offer incentives, interest-free loans on EV purchase

During the interview, Das also pointed out that the RBI is also exploring the choice between having a centralized ledger for the digital currency or the so-called distributed ledger technology (DLT). Also Read: Railways recruitment: Pune police arrest one involved in fake job racket

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#mute
New Delhi: Apple is reportedly planning to launch a new Apple Watch this year and now images purported to be a counterfeit of the upcoming Watch Series 7 models have been shared online, giving a closer look at the device`s expected redesign.

The images shared by a Twitter user @MajinBuOfficial and they show the knock-ff Watch Series 7 in space gray, silver and space black colours.

The design of the Watch Series 7 resembles with the previously leaked CAD renders of the next-gen Apple Watch. It is expected that the Apple Watch will use a square edge much like those of the iPhone 12 lineup, iPad Air, iPad Pro, and 24-inch iMac.

Majin Bu also mentioned that these Apple Watch Series 7 clones will sell for around $60 in China.

Watch Series 7 is expected to come in larger 41mm and 45mm case sizes, replacing the current 40mm and 44m options offered since the Apple Watch Series 4. Upcoming Apple Watch is expected to feature smaller bezels and a flat-edged design, which would naturally allow for a slightly bigger surface area for the display.

The Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to feature a smaller "S7" chip, potentially providing more space for a larger battery or other components.

This new chipset will be built from Taiwanese supplier ASE Technology. On its website, ASE Technology confirmed that its double sided technology will allow for module miniaturization. Also Read: RBIs digital rupee trial could begin by December: Governor Shaktikanta Das

The Cupertino-based tech giant is also planning to introduce a new lamination technique that reduces the gap between the display and the cover glass, due to this the overall chassis of the Watch may be slightly thicker. Also Read: Odisha approves Electric Vehicle Policy, state to offer incentives, interest-free loans on EV purchase
New Delhi: Popular social media app Snapchat is upgrading its visual search features and putting them at the centre of its app. The app is now rolling out changes it announced back in May during its Partner Summit event. The updates include more prominent placement of the "scan" feature -- now located directly under the camera`s shutter button -- and new capabilities that will suggest lenses and music based on your surroundings.

Snap has been experimenting with visual search, called "scan" since 2019. The feature allows Snapchat users to identify plants and music, solve math problems and scan food and wine labels with the in-app camera, reports Engadget.

But up until now, much of this functionality was easily overlooked as it required a few extra taps to access. With the update now rolling out, "scan" visible whenever the camera is open, the report said.

Snapchat is also adding a few new features it previewed earlier this year, like the ability to shop for outfits by pointing the camera at articles of clothing. It`s also adding Camera Shortcuts, which will suggest a combination of augmented reality lenses and music based on your surroundings. Also Read: WhatsApp Scam Alert! Dont share THIS code with hackers; check how to remain safe

The company has also integrated scanning abilities into its latest AR Spectacles, which can similarly suggest lenses based on what`s around you (unlike previous versions of Spectacles, the newest ones aren`t for sale just yet). Also Read: Sovereign Gold Bond Series VI: Buy gold at cheap rates for 5 days, check issue price, dates, other details
New Delhi: Amid rushed evacuations due to Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and visuals of the violence in the country, a particular picture of a rescued refugee family has brought some sunshine to netizens.

In the picture the family is seen walking on the tarmac of an airport while their little daughter skips freely alongside them.

The picture comes like a breath of fresh air after the suicide bombing attack at Afghanistans Kabul airport and the horror of the visuals from that distressing event.

The heart-warming picture was shared on Twitter by the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, welcoming the family to Belgium.

This is what happens when you protect refugees... Welcome to Belgium, little girl! he wrote, giving credit to Reuters for the wholesome picture.

This is what happens when you protect refugees... Welcome to Belgium, little girl ! Wonderful @Reuters picture via @POLITICOEurope pic.twitter.com/v1127frvf9  Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) August 26, 2021

Take a look at how the internet responded to the post:

Its wonderful and great how the international community have come together to help so many reach safety and offer them refuge. But the very fact so many need to leave and find safety is a sad indictment on the west and how we have failed Afghanistan and its people.  Grumpty Dumpty (@just_simple_egg) August 26, 2021

What a photo! My heart breaks for those left behind though  Jennifer Beattie (@nowMrsMFL) August 26, 2021

The little one holding their daddy's hand reminds me of my eldest grandson... Such joy to see that little girl - there but for the grace of God go any of us #Afghanistan  SarahB (@mollsgrandma) August 26, 2021

This made me smile on a day that has been Hell. Thank you so much for posting this picture.  JetSetChristy (@JetSetChristy) August 27, 2021

The image has garnered over 24.5k likes since it was posted and crossed 3000 re-tweets. This image has restored a little glimmer of hope for those devastated by the news and visuals of the situation in Afghanistan.

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New Delhi: For the last 24 hours guns are silent in the famed Panjshir valley as negotiations between the Northern Alliance, the flagbearer of armed resistance, and the Taliban, the new rulers of Afghanistan, begin.

According to news emerging from Panjshir, both the groups had their first direct talks on Wednesday and Thursday, which, so far, have remained inconclusive. The dialogue was held in Charikar, the capital of Parwan province, neighbouring Panjshir.

"After three hours of discussion, it was decided that both delegations will share the message with their leadership and resume the negotiations to reach a durable peace in the country. It was also decided that the parties should not attack each other until the second round of negotiations," Mohammad Alam Ezedyar, a representative of the resistance front told the Tolo news.

Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the resistance movement did not participate in the first round of the talks.

"There were some of the former ministers, some of the former MPs (members of parliament), not only from Panjshir, but from other provinces, too," Fahim Dashty, who is working closely in Panjshir with Ahmad Massoud, was quoted as saying by the news channel.

Despite the de facto ceasefire, the dialogue, as expected did reach any firm conclusion. Yet the outlines of the agenda for talks did emerge. The Taliban wanted to discuss the future of Panjshir, while Massoud`s representatives wanted to discuss the structure of the future government. The Panjshir resistance has made it clear that the future government of the country will have to be an inclusive one where there will be equal rights for the women and minorities.

And in the meeting Massoud`s representatives were more focused on the overall structure of the governance system. Since there were big gap between the two sides` demands?a power sharing deal as proposed by the resistance and the status of Panjshir by the Taliban-- both sides decided to take the messages to their leaders and it is expected they will meet soon.

"We are still waiting for the outcome of the negotiations. Despite this, we have all the military preparations as well," Massoud told the media that he will never surrender the Panjshir valley to the extremist group, but is ready for a dialogue.

The Taliban has claimed that their fighters have surrounded the Panjshir Valley and they want peaceful negotiations.

"The enemy is under siege. We are fighting for a peaceful settlement and trying to solve the problem through negotiations," says Taliban`s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid.

Massoud, the son of legendary Afghan rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, is presently residing in the Panjshir valley along with former vice-president and "acting" president Amrullah Saleh.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Hazara leader and chairman of the People`s Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan has announced support for Massoud`s fight for inclusive government. Mohaqiq is also known to be close to the Iranians, who share close ethnic and linguistic bonds with the Hazara, mainly residing in the Bamiyan plains, north of the famous Salang pass in the Hindukush mountain ranges.

"We support Ahmad Massoub -- if the Taliban do not comply with an inclusive government and attack Panjshir Valley," Mohaqiq observed.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban on Friday claimed to have taken control of parts of the Kabul international airport.

Taking to Twitter, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said, "Today, three important locations in the military part of Kabul airport were evacuated by the Americans and are under the control of the Islamic Emirate... Now, a very small part remains with the Americans."

One senior commander said Taliban forces "just not a small part where the Americans still are." While Reuters quoted a second official as saying that the forces were ready to take full control. "As soon as the Americans leave, they just have to give us the signal and we will then take over," he said. "This can be done as early as this weekend," he said adding, "It`s just a matter of some more time."

The United States and its allies had set August 31 deadline to complete evacuations from the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon asserted that US remains in full control of military side of Kabul airport. It also assured that the Taliban was not in charge of flight operations.

Further, State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday said the US will transfer Kabul airport back to the Afghan people. "Upon our departure, we will transfer the Kabul airport back to the Afghan people," he said at a media briefing.

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Washington: The US has evacuated and facilitated the shifting of approximately 109,200 people from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul since August 14, the White House has said.

It also said that the US evacuated approximately 4,200 people in 12 hours on Friday, following the deadly suicide attack near the Kabul airport on Thursday.

This is the result of 12 US military flights (9 C-17s and 3 C-130s) which carried approximately 2,100 evacuees, and 29 coalition flights which carried approximately 2,100 people, the White House said in its latest update of the evacuation figures on Friday (August 27, 2021).

Since August 14, the US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 109,200 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 114,800 people, it said.

ALSO READ | We will hunt you down and make you pay: President Joe Biden pledges to strike back after Kabul blasts

Meanwhile, Senator Roger Marshall led Representatives Jimmy Panetta and Mike Gallagher in sending a bipartisan, bicameral letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to safely evacuate American citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and other at-risk populations, including women and children, from Afghanistan.

We urge you to provide transparency regarding how the administration will safeguard the approximately 1,500 American citizens still remaining in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, SIV applicants, and other at-risk populations," they said.

The lawmakers said the US military should commit to responding with overwhelming force to continued attacks on or around the Kabul airport, any attack on American citizens attempting to evacuate or any attempt to hold them hostage.

The administration must keep its commitment to our Afghan allies who risked their lives supporting the US or NATO campaigns by evacuating remaining SIV applicants," they said.

ALSO READ | Taliban takes control of parts of Kabul airport as US prepares to withdraw troops

The lawmakers said the Biden administration must ensure that the US military is prepared and committed to holding Hamid Karzai International Airport until the evacuation mission is complete.

In a separate letter, Senator Michael Bennet, a member of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, joined 28 other lawmakers in urging the Biden administration to expedite efforts to evacuate Afghans at risk as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates.

In their letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, they specifically pushed for the administration to explore the use of parole to speed up entry for Afghans with already approved visa petitions.

ALSO READ | Kabul blasts: Taliban denying ISIS link is like Pakistan's denial on Quetta Shura, says Afghan acting President Amrullah Saleh

As the situation on the ground in Afghanistan becomes more dangerous, thousands of Afghans are desperately seeking to leave the country to avoid possible persecution.

"We fully support efforts to provide humanitarian protection to those Afghan nationals in need. However, we write to draw your attention to the possibility that there are many nationals from Afghanistan in the family and employment-based immigration system for whom a visa is not yet available due to visa caps in immigration law, wrote Bennet and his colleagues.

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New Delhi: US President Joe Biden on Friday (August 27, 2021) launched a scathing attack on China on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and said that the world deserves answers. Biden was speaking after he received the report from his intelligence community into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I am grateful for the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals, and while this review has concluded, our efforts to understand the origins of this pandemic will not rest. We will do everything we can to trace the roots of this outbreak that has caused so much pain and death around the world, so that we can take every necessary precaution to prevent it from happening again," Biden said.

The US President added that 'critical information' about the origins of coronavirus exists in the People's Republic of China.

"Yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it. To this day, the PRC continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to rise," he said.

ALSO READ | US President Joe Biden's bowing head image in press conference goes viral, know why

"The world deserves answers, and I will not rest until we get them. Responsible nations do not shirk these kinds of responsibilities to the rest of the world. Pandemics do not respect international borders, and we all must better understand how COVID-19 came to be in order to prevent further pandemics," Biden stated while attacking China.

He said that the United States will continue working with 'like-minded partners' around the world to press the People's Republic of China to fully share information and to cooperate with the World Health Organization's Phase II evidence-based, expert-led determination into the origins of COVID-19.

"We will also continue to press the PRC to adhere to scientific norms and standards, including sharing information and data from the earliest days of the pandemic, protocols related to biosafety, and information from animal populations. We must have a full and transparent accounting of this global tragedy. Nothing less is acceptable," he said.

Earlier, the US intelligence community's assessment on the coronavirus origins claimed that cooperation from China will be needed to reach a conclusive assessment on the origins of COVID-19.

ALSO READ | We will hunt you down and make you pay: Joe Biden pledges to strike back after Kabul blasts

"China's cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States," the US Intelligence Community said in its unclassified summary of assessment on the novel coronavirus origins.

The US Intelligence Community also said that China's unwillingness to participate in the investigation reflects its own uncertainty about the possible consequences of the probe as well as Beijing's frustration with the international community that uses the issue to exert political pressure on China.

Meanwhile, China's embassy in Washington has issued a statement saying the report 'wrongly' claimed that China continued to hinder the investigation and added that 'a report fabricated by the US intelligence community is not scientifically credible'.

"The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts," it said.

This is to be noted that COVID-19 has now killed over 4.6 million people worldwide.

(With agency inputs)