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CHICAGO (AP) — The beginning of the pandemic was devasting for the leader of the indie rock band Black Belt Eagle Scout, Katherine Paul. All her tours, including one headlining across North America, were canceled and she feared her ascending music career might be over.
She got a day job at a nonprofit and returned to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s homelands in Western Washington. But as Paul, or KP to her friends, spent time in the cedar forests and walked along the Skagit River, she turned to her guitar to deal with the isolation and stress. Those snippets, recorded on her phone, provided the foundation for what would become songs on her powerful, grunge-soaked new record “The Land, The Water, The Sky.”
“I feel like if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have made this record,” said KP, who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar in the band that was the only Native American artist at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this month.
“I spent a lot of time outside. I spent a lot more time than normal going on hikes, being part of the land,” she continued. “It’s not like I never do that stuff but it brought me back to a place where this is who I am.”
The new record, which came out in February, helped launch what has probably been the most successful year so far for Black Belt Eagle Scout. The band toured Europe and will go to Australia later this year. Two of her songs, “Soft Stud” from an earlier record and “Salmon Stinta” from her latest, appear this season on the television series “Reservation Dogs.”
Reservation Dogs Music Supervisor Tiffany Anders said she was introduced to the band’s music by the show’s creator, Sterlin Harjo, when they started working on the second season.
“It’s always been important for us on this show to include Native American artists, but beyond representation, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s music is beautiful and emotional, and fits these characters, their world and landscape — and the vibe of the show,’” she said in a statement.
Then there was Pitchfork, a three-day festival that is a significant milestone for indie musicians. The festival is held every year in Chicago’s Union Park and this year’s headliners included Bon Iver, Big Thief and The Smile, which has members of Radiohead.
She admitted stepping on that stage last weekend was nerve-wracking given her high hopes for the show, a feeling compounded by concerns that storms could scuttle their performance. But as she launched into the blistering set of mostly new songs in front of thousands of eager fans, KP found solace in her guitar. She launched several long jams that were punctuated by her twirling her jet-black hair around to the point it obscured her face.
“It was totally a moment,” she said with a laugh.
“I kind of cried after we played because it felt so meaningful,” she added. “Like, I’ve always wanted to play this music festival. I remember trying to play one of the years before the pandemic when I was touring and it didn’t happen. This year, I was just so stoked to play.”
Reaching Pitchfork has been a long journey for the 34-year-old artist, who is a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and left her home on the reservation in LaConner, Washington, when she was 17 to attend Lewis & Clark College in Oregon and play rock music.
Growing up on the reservation off the Washington coast on islands in the Salish Sea, she drummed and sang cultural songs. As a teenager, she discovered local Pacific Northwest bands like Mount Eerie and the sounds of the Riot Grrrl movement and played one of her first gigs at a small bar called Department of Safety. She moved to Portland, Oregon, due to its outsized role in the indie scene that featured bands like Sleater-Kinney and quickly immersed herself in the music scene playing drums and guitar.
She joined an all-female outfit whom she met at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland. She went on to play a lot of small, basement shows with bands like Genders — whose wolf tattoo she still has on her left arm.
But she wanted to write her own songs and formed Black Belt Eagle Scout in 2013. Her early music was defined by her ethereal singing about love, friendship and healing — often only accompanied by minimal guitar strumming. But she did rock out on songs like “Soft Stud,” which featured searing solos.
“She is a really an authentic musician and she carries a lot of power on stage with her presence and sound,” Claire Glass, who plays guitar in the band and first saw KP seven years ago.
KP has said her Native American identify has always been present on her records. But her latest music paints a more vivid picture of life on the Swinomish reservation. There are references to chinook salmon, which are traditionally fished, and a powwow dance.
“I started thinking of feeling grateful for the life that I have been given; this place that I’m from; how much the land, the water, the sky means to me — being surrounded by it,” KP said of writing the song ”Don’t Give Up.” “It has so much more meaning because the land, that’s where my people are from.”
Her songs aren’t meant to directly confront issues like the crisis of missing and murdered Native American women or tribes’ forced relocation. It’s not the way she writes songs. Instead, she envisions them connecting with people, drawing more Native Americans to indie rock shows in places like Minneapolis, which has a vibrant Native American community, and inspiring young Native Americans to connect with her after shows.
“Isn’t me like being here existing with my music good enough? Can’t I just be who I am?” she asked, adding she doesn’t need to speak out from stage about these issues because being Native often means she is already wrestling with them. A judge, for example, ruled in March that BNSF Railway intentionally violated the terms of an easement agreement with the tribe by running 100-car trains carrying crude oil over the reservation.
“As a Native person, you know someone who is missing. Your tribe is trying to get your land back. Those are topics that are part of your every day life,” she said. ”I care about those things deeply but there are certain ways in which my music is, maybe not as direct, but it can be healing.”
KP also doesn’t want to be seen just as a rock musician or as a Native artist. “I am a musician who happens to be Native, but I am also a Native musician … I think I am always both,” she said.
Her latest record aims to show that.
“I kind of had in the back of mind, just kept thinking what would Built to Spill do,” KP said of the guitar-heavy, indie-rock band from the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve gone on tour with them and seen their three guitars at one point playing together and how they overlap and all these other things.”
It’s also a more collaborative effort with more musicians playing on the record— a departure for KP, who is accustomed to doing everything herself. A cellist who played with Nirvana, Lori Goldston, is featured on several songs, as are two violinists, as well as a saxophone and mellotron player.
Takiaya Reed, a first-time producer who is also in a doom metal band, described the experience of working on the record as “beautiful and amazing” and said the two bonded over their love of punk. Reid also brought her classical training and love of “heavier sounds” to the studio.
“We approached it fearlessly. It was wonderful to be expansive in terms of sonic possibilities,” she said.
KP also wanted to find a place for her parents, whom she had grown especially close to during the pandemic, to play on the record. She chose the song “Spaces,” which she described as having a “healing vibe.” Her dad, who is one of the main singers at the tribe’s cultural events, embraced the idea of lending his powerful powwow chant to the song. Her mom sang harmonies.
KP said: “It meant the world to me to have my parents sing because it felt like it was full circle in who I am.” | https://www.fox16.com/entertainment-news/ap-black-belt-eagle-scouts-latest-record-inspired-by-return-home-to-swinomish-tribes-ancestral-lands/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:44 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/entertainment-news/ap-black-belt-eagle-scouts-latest-record-inspired-by-return-home-to-swinomish-tribes-ancestral-lands/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bronny James plays piano in a video posted by his father, LeBron James, on Saturday, five days after the teenager went into cardiac arrest during a basketball workout at the University of Southern California.
The 18-year-old plays a brief melody in front of his family, smiles and gets up without speaking in the video posted on his father's Instagram account. The video doesn't indicate where or when it was shot.
“A man of many talents,” the Los Angeles Lakers superstar can be heard saying in the background as Bronny finishes playing with his two younger siblings looking on.
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TMZ posted photos of Bronny out to dinner with his family, which it says were taken Friday night. They show the teenager with his father outside celebrity hot spot Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica.
Wearing black pants and a zip-up hoodie, Bronny carried his phone while standing outside the Italian restaurant.
Bronny was released from the hospital on Thursday. He will continue to undergo tests to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest, which occurred Monday morning during a workout at USC’s Galen Center.
Bronny, whose full name is LeBron James Jr., committed to USC in May after the 6-foot-3 guard became one of the nation’s top prospects out of Sierra Canyon School in nearby Chatsworth. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/bronny-james-plays-piano-dines-out-video-photos-emerging-days-after-he-suffers-cardiac-arrest/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:45 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/bronny-james-plays-piano-dines-out-video-photos-emerging-days-after-he-suffers-cardiac-arrest/ |
The 'dangerous' feminists behind a Lebanese media outlet
"What is it that scares our societies the most — but we think about it every 40 minutes?," presenter Maria Elayan asks at the beginning of the video. There's a drum roll, then the answer: "Sex. You're surprised, right?"
The character that Elayan plays in the video, who is also called Maria, is open and outspoken. The character is a woman from the Middle East and North African region who is courageous, has her own opinions and is not afraid to go her own way.
"Why are our societies so afraid of desire? Especially women's desire? And what is desire?" Maria, the presenter character, continues. "It is the feeling of wanting to have sex either with someone you love, you desire, or with yourself."
Surrounded by books in a colorfully decorated living room, Maria then offers a range of statistics and information all concerned with the topic of female sexual desire. She also compares them to research on male sexual desire.
This YouTube video is part of the second series of "Smatouha Minni" — translated into English, it means "you heard it from me" — produced by Khateera, a women-led media platform based in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The name itself is the feminine form of "dangerous" in Arabic. It was chosen not just because it can be understood throughout the region, but because it is also at the heart of what this media company is doing.
"Women like to be called 'khateera,'" Amanda Abou Abdallah, Khateera's founder, says. "It means all of these things: It means you're strong, it means you own your own decisions. You're more aware of the world. You're more aware of your rights. You're more aware of your own value."
Like talking with friends
This is what the Khateera team stands for and it is also what they're all about. The women wanted to establish a platform from which they could present facts, comedy and conversation that would strike a chord with as many people in the region as possible, and where they could also address sensitive topics, the kind that push against social taboos.
The producers' vison for Khateera is for it to be a safe space where one can discuss subjects like feminism, the patriarchy and other societal issues in a more light hearted way, as if you were talking with friends. They avoid the use of complicated terms, avoid any arrogant explanations, use easy-to-understand language and always add a dash of humor and even a little sarcasm, while simultaneously conveying the facts.
Abou Abdallah came up with the concept for Khateera before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the debut episode of "Smatouha Minni" went online, on Instagram and YouTube, during the first year of the pandemic.
The team has grown since then, with nine women now working on Khateera — three of them full-time. The show is supported financially by various nongovernmental organizations and Abou Abdallah acts as the co-chief executive officer along with her colleague, Rana Askoul.
Abou Abdallah recalls seeing a lot of misogyny in local comedy and she decided to fight back with the same tools. "And this is where the idea came from," says the woman who both produces and directs Khateera videos. "Let's use sarcasm as a delivery [method] and let's have a sassy woman say it," she explains.
This is how actor and producer Elayan ended up portraying up to 20 different characters in Khateera-produced videos. One segment, she will be Maria the presenter, but the next, she might also be an older Arab woman or an Arab man with a moustache. She represents the kinds of archetypal characters that many in the audience recognize from their own social circles or even their families.
The show's success indicates just how well the characters hit the mark. The first season of "Smathoua Minni" had over 26 million views from across the region on various platforms. After just a few weeks, the second season, which only launched recently, already has 10.3 million views on various platforms.
The show's 1.5 million followers, a number which only continues to rise, come mostly from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Libya, Iraq and Egypt, with 75% of them females aged between 15 and 24.
A distinctly Arabic discussion
The "Smathoua Minni" series is probably the group's most popular product, with its approach to a wide range of sensitive topics, everything from women's health and menstruation to access to the labor market. The show wants to expose the various prejudices and stereotypes that prevent women in the region from equality.
Khateera offers more than just this series though. On the group's website, the outlet also publishes writing from authors throughout the Middle East and North Africa who deal with topics like sexual harassment, discrimination and gender stereotyping in their texts.
Presenter and actor Elayan is 27 years old and has a Palestinian-Jordanian background. Abou Abdallah, 34, comes from Lebanon. Both of them say that they've wanted to see a show like "Smathoua Minni" ever since they were young.
"When I was a child, I would have liked to watch something like this in Arabic, not just in the Western content, which I don't always relate to," Abou Abdallah told DW. "It's not always the same context, even though the gender issue is a global one."
This is why Khateera deliberately targets women in all Arabic-speaking zones.
"We have different problems from the West, but we have common problems in the Arab world," Abou Abdallah explains. "I'm sure if you listen to an Egyptian woman and a Jordanian woman and you get to the basis of their problems, they're kind of the same."
Elayan sees it similarly. "To me, the aim is to bring forward an Arab feminist narrative, to separate our feminism from Western feminism and to fill the knowledge gap in order to allow young Arab girls and women to live a more just life," she says of her goal of conveying a distinctly Arab kind of feminism. "Another aim is to show women and girls that they're not alone in their thoughts. So many women think the same exact things but lack the tools to say them, or [they] might in danger if they do. And that's where 'Smatouha Minni' comes in."
Working for media platform 'not risk free'
Topics for Khateera's videos come from everyday life but the producers also keep an eye on social media to check what subjects are being discussed online. The topics they choose hit a nerve with many young people in the region and according to an internal review, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. A look into the various commentaries alongside their work confirms this.
Neither Elayan nor Abou Abdallah had expected that.
"Being the current face of Khateera comes with a lot of responsibility," Elayan says. "Mainly because we're producing content that is considered bold for the region and because we need to be very meticulous in how we deliver our messages."
Elayan is proud of what she's doing. "At the same time, I fully understand that it is not risk free," she adds.
Of course, there's also criticism. Sometimes their facts and figures are disputed. Other times they're accused of trying to drive a wedge between men and women. In fact, the two women argue, what they want is exactly the opposite.
In order to show that men can be allies in the fight for gender equality, there was occasionally a male host on the show during its first season — and also because gender stereotyping obviously also impacts males. The show actually also gets a lot of positive feedback from men, Abou Abdallah confirms.
This article was originally written in German. | https://www.dw.com/en/feminism-in-arabic-the-dangerous-women-behind-a-lebanese-media-outlet/a-66376626 | 2023-07-29T20:09:45 | 1 | https://www.dw.com/en/feminism-in-arabic-the-dangerous-women-behind-a-lebanese-media-outlet/a-66376626 |
There is a ways to go in the ninth Women’s World Cup. But even with the group stage far from complete, it is becoming clear the United States’ road to a three-peat will run through Europe.
Next up for the US is a must win (or tie) against Portugal Tuesday. To capture Group E, the Americans will likely have to pour it on against the Portuguese, but that is not probably going to happen. The US could only score three times against Vietnam, despite a 28-0 shot advantage (plus a missed penalty kick). And Portugal is sure to present a much more formidable obstacle than the Vietnamese.
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So, that means a probable Round of 16 meeting for the US with Sweden, which took a 5-0 victory over Italy on Saturday.
The Swedes are going to present a challenge, judging by their results against South Africa (2-1) and Italy. Sure, they had to rally late against the Banyana Banyana, but that turned out to be a morale booster. Then, they made things look easy against the Italians.
In both Sweden victories, the deciding goals were converted off corner kicks on headers by 5-foot-10-inch defender Amanda Ilestedt. The Swedes’ physicality has made the difference so far, though that is a quality the US should be able to counter.
But the Blagult complement height and strength with tactical nous and skillful setup play via Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Elin Rubensson, along with precise placements from Kosovare Asllani and Jonna Anderson. The best way to negate their aerial threat is to snuff things out before they get close to the penalty area. And that will be the responsibility of opposing holding midfielders — they simply have to make it difficult for the Swedes to slide through the midfield, or get to the wings. South Africa and Italy were able to limit Sweden in the run of play, but were vulnerable to set pieces. And the Swedes realized they didn’t have to produce many direct scoring opportunities, if they could just earn a few corner kicks.
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Most Euro opponents, as well as the US, will be able to match up with Sweden on dead-ball situations. But Sweden looks to be building momentum, as it closes group play against already eliminated Argentina. Like the US, Sweden is a team in transition, still developing chemistry and communication.
Coach Peter Gerhardsson has refreshed the squad since the Olympic Games, when Sweden took a 3-0 win over the US. Legendary goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl and veterans Sofia Jakobsson, Caroline Seger, and Linda Sembrant have been replaced in the lineup, though Jakobsson and Seger remain contributors off the bench. Asllani, who plays for AC Milan, is the only starter older than 30. And Gerhardsson’s combinations appear to be clicking. The Swedes are displaying few weaknesses but appeared vulnerable in the back against the speedy attackers of South Africa and Italy. Despite the five-goal difference against the Italians, Sweden seemed slow and ineffective for long periods — it did not get off a shot until the 23rd minute but remained composed and eventually took command.
Should the US get past Portugal and finish first in Group E, the path likely continues against Italy, then Canada or Norway in the quarterfinals. If the US finishes second, it is looking at Sweden, then Spain — a much more difficult route. And that assumes the US makes it past Portugal.
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Meanwhile, you have to figure most teams — including the US — are spending extra time working on corners and free kicks, both setting them up and defending. Veteran coaches realize those are the plays that often decide tournaments, and they made the difference in all three World Cup games Saturday. After Sweden’s victory, Wendie Renard converted France’s tiebreaking score against Brazil (2-1); then, Allyson Swaby redirected a corner for Jamaica (1-0 over Panama).
There has been little subtlety involved in Ilestedt’s goals — she simply sets up near the penalty spot (along with Magdalena Eriksson and Fridolina Rolfo) and waits. The only antidote is match her physically. In the men’s game, players such as Sergio Ramos have demonstrated they have tough ways of dealing with foes. The Women’s World Cup has been an admirably clean affair, so far, with few if any cheap shots. Dirty tactics might not be necessary against Sweden corner kicks, but negating them is going to require a rougher approach.
At 6-1½, Renard is the event’s tallest field player and will be a difficult matchup for anyone. But France varied the approach, and Renard made a back-post run to score on a headed half-volley that surprised Brazil. Credit to France coach Herve Renard.
As for Swaby, she made similar plays growing up with sister Chantelle in Hartford (Connecticut FC) and performing for Boston College before joining AS Roma during the administration of Bostonians Jim Pallotta and Alex Zecca.
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Jamaica, which utilized a third Connecticut FC player, Peyton McNamara, needs at least a tie against Brazil to advance from Group F. The Reggae Girlz, guided by Lorne Donaldson, who has coached and competed in Colorado since the 1980s, will be significant underdogs against the Brazilians.
Swaby’s score was only Jamaica’s second goal all time in five World Cup games, and the team will need striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw (suspended) to return to have a chance to stay in contention. The Brazilians were hoping to avoid a Round of 16 showdown with Germany, but now are facing a second-place group finish and will be motivated to take out their frustration on the Jamaicans.
Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at frankdellapa@gmail.com. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/its-becoming-clear-that-us-three-peat-chances-womens-world-cup-will-go-through-europe/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:51 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/sports/its-becoming-clear-that-us-three-peat-chances-womens-world-cup-will-go-through-europe/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Saturday that Sri Lanka is a key partner in a Tokyo-led initiative aimed at building security and economic cooperation around the Indo-Pacific but also at countering an increasingly assertive China.
Sri Lanka, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, is integral to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, Hayashi said. He was speaking after a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ali Sabry, in the capital, Colombo.
The initiative, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March includes Japan’s assistance to emerging economies, support for maritime security, a provision of coast guard patrol boats and equipment and other infrastructure cooperation.
Last year Sri Lanka, which owed $51 billion in foreign debt, became the first Asia-Pacific country since the late 1990s to default, sparking an economic crisis.
While Japan is Sri Lanka’s largest creditor, about 10% of its debt is held by China, which lent Colombo billions to build sea ports, airports and power plants as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. In March, China agreed to offer Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on loan repayments.
Hayashi said that he conveyed expectations for further progress in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process. He welcomed Sri Lanka’s efforts under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which includes anti-corruption measures and transparency in the policy-making process.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Sabry said that he, along with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, invited Japan to resume investment projects already in the pipeline and to consider fresh investments in sectors such as power generation, ports and highways, and dedicated investment zones, as well as in the green and digital economy.
Over many decades, Japan became one of Sri Lanka’s key donors, carrying out key projects under concessionary terms. However, relations between the two countries came under strain after Wickremesinghe’s predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa unilaterally scrapped a Japan-funded light railway project following his election in 2019.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has already approved a proposal to restart the railway project.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in July 2022 amid angry public protects over the country’s worst economic crisis. | https://www.fox16.com/news/business/ap-with-one-eye-on-china-japan-backs-sri-lanka-as-a-partner-in-the-indo-pacific/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:50 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/business/ap-with-one-eye-on-china-japan-backs-sri-lanka-as-a-partner-in-the-indo-pacific/ |
Paris Olympics: Seine booksellers furious over order to move
Open-air booksellers along the banks of the Seine reacted angrily to local authorities informing them they pose a security threat for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and that their stands will have to be removed for the sporting spectacle.
The main thrust of the threat, according to police, pertains to the games' July 26 opening ceremonies, which for the first time will be staged outside a stadium.
Some 600,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony and police informed booksellers in a letter that those inside a so-called perimeter of protection would have to be removed for "obvious security reasons."
The French government says it will deploy 35,000 police and military for the public ceremony.
Some 570 of the famous stalls — roughly 60% — will be affected.
‘We've been here for 450 years!' says president of booksellers' association
"People come to see us like they come to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, [but] they want to hide us during a ceremony that is supposed to represent Paris," said Jerome Callais, president of the Paris booksellers' association.
Callais said most booksellers had, "no intention of moving," exclaiming: "We're a symbol of Paris. We've been here for 450 years."
With a total length of three kilometers (1.86 miles), booksellers' green wooden boxes comprise Europe's largest open-air book market, with second-hand book and art booths extending from Pont Marie to Quai du Louvre on the Right Bank, and from Quai de la Tournelle to Quai Voltaire on the Left Bank.
City authorities say they will pay to have the booths, which are affixed to railings along the river, removed and later reinstalled, as well as covering the cost of "renovation" for any damage that may occur during that process.
Booksellers say historic stalls are too fragile to move
The banks where the stalls are installed were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991, and the booksellers are seeking "intangible cultural heritage" status, something city authorities say would be aided by the renovations being offered.
Still, booksellers are unhappy as they worry their stalls may be damaged.
"They are very fragile… our stalls will not be able to withstand this operation, nor will the morale of the booksellers," said Albert Abid, who has been selling books out of a 100-year-old stall for more than 10 years.
Association President Callais agrees, and estimates the total cost of such renovations would cost roughly €1.5 milion ($1.66 million).
He also scoffed at the city's plan to offer set up shop at an alternative venue in a "literary neighborhood near the Siene for the duration of the games," saying of the proposed site for a "bookseller village" at Place de la Bastille — "no one is going to go to that market."
js/jcg (AFP, SID, Reuters) | https://www.dw.com/en/paris-olympics-seine-booksellers-furious-over-order-to-move/a-66385781 | 2023-07-29T20:09:52 | 0 | https://www.dw.com/en/paris-olympics-seine-booksellers-furious-over-order-to-move/a-66385781 |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday to Dec. 25 from Jan. 7, the day when the Russian Orthodox Church observes it.
The explanatory note attached to the law said its goal is to “abandon the Russian heritage,” including that of “imposing the celebration of Christmas” on Jan. 7, and cited Ukrainians’ “relentless, successful struggle for their identity” and “the desire of all Ukrainians to live their lives with their own traditions, holidays,” fueled by Russia’s 17-month-old aggression against the country.
Last year, some Ukrainians already observed Christmas on Dec. 25, in a gesture that represented separation from Russia, its culture and religious traditions.
The law also moves the Day of Ukrainian Statehood to July 15 from July 28, and the Day of Defenders of Ukraine to Oct. 1 from Oct. 14.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims sovereignty over Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and some other Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the ancient Julian calendar. Christmas falls 13 days later on that calendar, or Jan. 7, than it does on the Gregorian calendar used by most church and secular groups.
The Catholic Church first adopted the modern, more astronomically precise Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Protestants and some Orthodox churches have since aligned their own calendars for the purpose of calculating Christmas and Easter.
Ukraine’s religious landscape has fractured for years. There are two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, one aligned with the Russian church, even as it enjoys broad autonomy, the other completely independent of it. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the branch that is separate from the Russian church, announced earlier this year that it was switching to the Revised Julian calendar, which marks Christmas on Dec. 25.
Its leadership last year allowed believers to celebrate the holiday on Dec. 25.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Saturday that the rival Orthodox Church, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed to continue observing Christmas on Jan. 7.
Zelenskyy on Saturday traveled to the war-torn Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia has illegally annexed, but only partially occupies, and met with members of the country’s Special Operation Forces. Zelenskyy noted in an online statement that Saturday marks their official day of recognition and also the anniversary of the deadly attack on the Olenivka prison in the Russian-held part of the region in which dozens of prisoners of war were killed.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of the attack, with both sides saying that the assault was premeditated in a bid to cover up atrocities. A United Nations fact-finding mission requested by Russia and Ukraine was sent to investigate the killings, but the team was disbanded in January 2023 due to security concerns.
Zelenskyy described the attack as one of Russia’s “most vile and cruel crimes” in a video statement Saturday. | https://www.fox16.com/news/national-news/ukraine-moves-date-of-christmas-day-to-distance-itself-from-russian-tradition/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:57 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/national-news/ukraine-moves-date-of-christmas-day-to-distance-itself-from-russian-tradition/ |
KYIV — Russian forces struck a grain terminal in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday, extending a bombardment of the country’s infrastructure that has raised alarm about Kyiv’s ability to ship grain to the world.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has vowed to enhance air defenses around the port and the southern coast, but Kyiv’s resources are stretched thin and it faces difficult choices about where to deploy the limited number of air defense systems that can shoot down Russia’s most sophisticated missiles.
Ukraine continues to ask its Western allies to speed up the delivery of more air defense systems and warn that continued Russian bombardment could leave it without the necessary infrastructure to ship grain even if Black Sea shipping lanes reopen. Moscow has struck Ukrainian ports nearly daily since pulling out of a deal last week that allowed Ukraine to ship its grain despite the war.
“In two or three months, we may not have a single port left,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military southern command, told French journalists this past week. “They want to dominate the Black Sea. They want to have a monopoly on grain,” she said.
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On Saturday, Humeniuk said that Ukraine had taken measures to better protect the ports but warned that Russia may once again be adjusting its tactics before striking again.
The attack reported Saturday hit a grain terminal in the Beryslav district and was one of 29 attacks by Russian forces directed at Kherson in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said. At least four civilians were injured in those attacks, which were carried out with mortars, artillery, tanks and aircraft, the Ukrainian military said.
The bombardment of the port city came as tensions in the waters off the southern coast of Ukraine continued to rise, with Kyiv accusing Russian warships of threatening a civilian vessel and Russia’s Black Sea fleet running drills off Ukraine’s southern coast this month. Moscow has warned that any ships sailing to Ukraine’s ports would be considered potentially hostile.
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The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Friday that the Russian naval posture in the Black Sea, which includes a warning that ships bound for Ukrainian ports would be potentially seen as carrying military cargo, was most “likely intentionally ambiguous to generate widespread concern about possible detention by the Russian navy or outright strikes on civilian vessels.”
“The Kremlin likely aims for this posturing to have a chilling effect on maritime activity so that Russian naval assets do not need to enforce an actual blockade of Ukrainian ports,” the analysts wrote.
Ukrainian border guards said they had intercepted a threatening message from a Russian warship communicating on an open channel to a civilian ship. The claim was amplified by Russian military bloggers who replayed a recording of the message. The message and the claim could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has vowed to step up its efforts to target Russian warships and vessels using Russian ports and has been working to expand its fleet of naval drones, which it has used to attack and harass the Russian Black Sea fleet.
In apparent recognition of the danger they pose, Russian authorities announced a nighttime navigation ban for all small vessels near the Kerch Strait. This month, Ukraine used naval drones in an attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge, which links the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula to Russia, and is a primary supply route for Russian troops fighting in the south of Ukraine. The attack left the roadway badly damaged. The rail line over the bridge, however, is functioning, and Ukraine has vowed to continue mounting attacks.
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Against this backdrop, it seemed unlikely that Moscow would bend to international pressure and rejoin a deal that for nearly a year had allowed Ukraine to export tens of millions of tons of grain from its ports. Moscow has complained that the deal is one-sided in Ukraine’s favor, and that Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine have continued to restrict the sale of its own agricultural products.
Still, African leaders meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in St. Petersburg on Friday called for the revival of the Black Sea grain deal, saying that the continent was disproportionately affected by disruptions to the global food supply, while stopping short of directly criticizing Moscow for pulling out of the agreement.
“The grain deal must be extended for the benefit of all the peoples of the world, Africans in particular,” Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union Commission, said at a Russia-Africa summit Friday. “This conflict is now directly affecting us as well,” President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said.
President Azali Assoumani of Comoros, chair of the African Union, said Russia’s promise of free grain for six African nations announced this week was “important but maybe not enough.”
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Here is what else is happening in the war:
— Zelensky Visit: The Ukrainian president said Saturday that he had traveled to the Donetsk region in the country’s east “to congratulate our warriors” and to “honor their strength.” In one of a series of posts on social media accompanied by photographs with soldiers, he said he had heard a commander’s report but could not share details of current operations.
Along with pushing toward the south, Ukraine is trying to advance eastward in the direction of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces in May after months of bloody fighting.
— Dnipro Strike: On Friday evening, at least one missile strike in the city of Dnipro, in central Ukraine, damaged a high-rise apartment building, hours after Russia accused Kyiv of firing missiles at two Russian cities.
Rescue efforts were completed overnight, the regional military administration said Saturday morning. Nine people, including two children, were injured, local officials said. There were no casualties reported at the apartment building. The 12-story building was new, and many apartments were still unoccupied, local residents said.
— North Korea and Russia: A visit by Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, this past week to North Korea, during which he met with the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was probably a bid to secure additional weapons and political support for the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday.
“We’re seeing Russia desperately looking for support for weapons wherever it can find them,” Blinken said, responding to a reporter’s question in Brisbane, Australia. “We see that in North Korea. We see that as well with Iran.”
Advertisement | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/world/russia-strikes-another-grain-terminal-extending-campaign-against-ukraines-ports/ | 2023-07-29T20:09:57 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/29/world/russia-strikes-another-grain-terminal-extending-campaign-against-ukraines-ports/ |
Putin’s gamble with Ukraine's grain drags on
After the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in spring for war crimes in Ukraine, this week's summit with African leaders in St. Petersburg served as a rare opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet international counterparts. Seventeen African leaders attended, far fewer than the 43 at the 2019 summit in Sochi. The Kremlin attributed the smaller turnout to Western pressure on African leaders.
Numerous topics were discussed at the summit, including economic, humanitarian and sport issues, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the food insecurity on the African continent took center stage.
The summit kicked off with Putin vowing free grain supplies for six African nations. According to the pledge, 25,000-50,000 tons of grain will be sent to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea in the coming months.
Questioning Putin's pledges
The pledge left many skeptical.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a "handful of donations to some countries" would not be enough to solve the food crisis caused by Russia's withdrawing from a deal to allow Ukraine to continue exporting grain during the war.
Amaka Anku, the director of the Africa practice at the Eurasia Group, said the Kremlin was trying to counter reports that the war in Ukraine was worsening the food crisis in the Global South. Still, she said, the grain would not be insignificant to the nations it was sent to.
"It is clearly part of a propaganda war with the West, but, if delivered, it could make a difference for the countries involved," Anku said. "It would be, on average, 9-19% of their 2022-23 wheat imports."
Grain as weapon
In a statement ahead of the summit, Putin claimed that the deal negotiated to allow Ukraine to continue exporting grain during the war was "shamelessly" used by the Western companies, and, as a result, less than 3% of the grain reached countries in dire need. However, Putin failed to mention that the deal had helped stabilize food prices globally after they spiked following his decision to invade Ukraine.
After the Kremlin walked out on the deal, Russia's military has been destroying grain stocks in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, from where the grain was being shipped worldwide. A recent attack targeting the Danube port, just 200 meters (650 feet) away from the border of NATO member Romania, sparked fears of a direct confrontation between Russia and the alliance.
Western leaders have accused Russia of using grain as a weapon in its war against Ukraine after the Kremlin's suspension of the deal. Some analysts suggested that, by bypassing Ukraine with direct shipments of grain from Russia, the Kremlin could increase its leverage over African countries, which represent a large voting block at the UN General Assembly.
Weapons deals, too
The Kremlin signed about 40 arms deals with African countries on the sidelines of the summit.
Russia does not have the economic ties with African countries that China and the European Union do. The Kremlin has also invested very little into African economies.
The arms trade is one of the rare areas where the interests of Russia and some African leaders meet. Despite a drop in weapons sales due to the war in Ukraine, Russia still accounts for 40% of weapons exports to Africa, with Angola, Nigeria, Algeria and Mali among its top clients.
"It really depends on what the substance of the military agreements is," Samuel Ramani, the author of "Russia in Africa," told DW. "Russia has already signed 20 military agreements. Some of them offer training of police forces and anti-piracy assistance ... and some are actually arm deliveries and the deployment of instructors. It remains to be seen in the coming months what unfolds from these agreements."
A Wagner cameo?
The leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary group was the least-expected guest at the summit. However, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who many believed was in exile in Belarus after a short-lived insurrection in June, stole the show on social media after a photo with a delegate from the Central African Republic emerged on Wagner-affiliated social media accounts on the first day of the summit.
Some independent Russian media reports suggested that the photo had been taken in the lobby of a St. Petersburg hotel that is reportedly owned by Prigozhin. DW was unable to clarify when and where the photo was taken.
The Wagner Group had been widely seen as a Kremlin foreign policy tool, dispatched to back authoritarian leaders in exchange for access to mineral resources for Russia. The mercenaries have been blamed for the mass slaughter of civilians in Mali, the Central African Republic and in the Sahel.
Ending the war
After Putin's announcement of free grain shipments, some African leaders continued to press him to reconsider the grain deal.
Macharia Munene, a professor of history at the United States International University-Africa, told DW that "Africans are saying that you can do a lot more than just offer free grain to six countries when the rest is hanging in the air."
In June, a delegation of seven African nations, led by Ramaphosa, visited both Kyiv and Moscow, seeking diplomatic solutions for ending the war.
"We didn’t come here to ask for some gifts," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told Putin at the summit. "Of course, we understand that you, out of generosity, have decided to donate grain to some African countries that are facing certain difficulties, but this is not our main goal here."
At the summit, African leaders again asked Putin to stop hostilities in Ukraine.
"This war must end," AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said. "And it can only end on the basis of justice and reason." | https://www.dw.com/en/russia-africa-summit-vladimir-putins-grain-gamble-goes-on/a-66383466 | 2023-07-29T20:09:58 | 1 | https://www.dw.com/en/russia-africa-summit-vladimir-putins-grain-gamble-goes-on/a-66383466 |
ATLANTA (AP) — “Excuse me, are you a city of Atlanta voter? Do you know about ‘Cop City?’”
Clipboards in hand, canvassers Sienna Giraldi and Gabriel Sanchez approached shopper after shopper at a Kroger supermarket lot on a recent evening collecting signatures for a referendum over whether to cancel the city’s lease of a proposed police and firefighter training center that’s become a national rallying cry for environmentalists and anti-police protesters.
Most people kept on walking. Others said they weren’t registered to vote or didn’t live within the city limits, both of which are required. Many seemed to have no idea what “Cop City” was and weren’t interested in finding out. The fact that it began raining certainly didn’t help. By the end of a 90-minute shift, 21 people had signed.
“We definitely need to come back here,” Sanchez said. “I was on a roll before the rain started.”
Over the past month, hundreds of people like them — many volunteers, some paid — have spread out across the city of about 500,000, in hopes of persuading more than 70,000 registered voters to sign on to the petition drive. The deadline had been mid-August, but the effort got a boost Thursday when a federal judge extended it to late September, though significant logistical and legal hurdles remain.
Technically, organizers say, they need just 58,203 signatures by Aug. 14 to qualify for the November ballot — the equivalent of 15% of registered voters as of the last city election — but they set the higher goal knowing some will be disqualified. If that’s not reached until late August or September, the referendum wouldn’t happen until March, when a competitive GOP presidential primary could turn out conservative voters and hurt its chances. The city also could move forward with construction in the meantime, unless a judge intervenes.
As of July 25, the drive had collected more than 30,000 signatures, according to Paul Glaze, a spokesperson for the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition. And with the paid canvassing effort still ramping up, he expects the pace to pick up significantly.
“We’re confident of hitting our number,” Glaze said. “How much extra padding we’re able to get is still a question. … Our experience is that when you talk about this with people, when they hear the price tag, when you ask them if they would choose this or something else to spend the money on, the vast majority are against it.”
Organizers of the drive say Mayor Andre Dickens and the City Council have failed to listen to a groundswell of opposition to the $90 million, 85-acre (34-hectare) training center, which they fear will lead to greater militarization of the police and exacerbate environmental damage in the South River Forest in a poor, predominantly Black area.
Officials counter that the campus would replace outdated, far-flung facilities and boost police morale, which is beset by hiring and retention struggles, especially in the wake of 2020 protests over racial injustice. Dickens has said that the facility will teach the “most progressive training and curriculum in the country” and that officials have repeatedly revised their plans to address concerns about noise pollution and environmental impact.
In June, after hearing about 14 hours of public testimony that was overwhelmingly against the training center, council members voted 11-4 to approve $67 million toward the project. Outraged but not surprised, organizers of the petition drive announced it the next day.
Outside the Kroger, located in a majority-Black neighborhood a few miles south of a Wendy’s parking lot where officers fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in 2020, Giraldi chatted with Lee Little, a Black construction worker who stopped to talk despite the rain, his hands full of bagged groceries.
Little was working near the proposed training center in March and saw the helicopters and mass of armed officers that descended on the area after about 150 masked activists stormed the site and torched construction equipment. He hadn’t thought about it much since, but he signed the petition after hearing Giraldi’s pitch.
“She was just saying that City Council approved 60-something million dollars without listening to the taxpayers. Does that sound fair to you? That should be for the voters to decide,” Little said afterward.
Another who signed was Makela Atchison, who was wearing a “Black Voters Matter” T-shirt as she left the store with her two children.
“I’m not saying I’m for it or against it,” Atchison said, “but I want to be able to have my input.”
The signature drive is the most ambitious in terms of numbers that has ever been launched in a Georgia city, but it has precedent from last year in Camden County, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a planned launchpad for blasting commercial rockets into space. The Georgia Supreme Court in February unanimously upheld the legality of that referendum, though it remains an open question whether citizens can veto decisions of city governments.
In a recent court filing seeking to quash the Atlanta referendum, attorneys for the city said residents can’t force officials to retroactively revoke the lease agreement, which was made in 2021. They called organizers’ efforts “futile” and “invalid.” The state agreed with the city in a separate filing, though that dispute is on hold for now.
Still, activists see the referendum as the best remaining option to block the project. They’ve gotten support from numerous groups, including the Working Families Party and the New Georgia Project Action Fund, which pledged to get 15,000 signatures over the next few weeks.
Activist Hannah Riley tries to collect a handful of them whenever she is out in public, including on a recent afternoon as she worked remotely from Muchacho, a popular taco restaurant in the ultra-liberal Reynoldstown neighborhood. At the end of her table, she taped a sign that read: “Voter? Sign Stop Cop City Petition Here.”
“This is a bit of a Hail Mary, but it’s a Hail Mary that makes a lot of sense,” Riley said. “They’ve begun to clear-cut the trees. They’re getting close to pouring concrete. … Our options are quite limited right now, so this does feel like the most practical, effective next step.”
At the same time, a small number of activists have continued taking a more violent tack, including torching eight police motorcycles over the Fourth of July weekend, actions that canvass organizers have not condemned.
Curtis Duncan, 40, said the first day he went out canvassing, a man approached and accused him of being one of the vandals.
“I said, ‘Well, sir, respectfully, I wasn’t burning cars, and the majority of people within this movement have not been engaging in any type of violent actions,’” Duncan said. He added that troopers fatally shot an activist in the forest and that authorities have brought dozens of “very flimsy” domestic terrorism charges against “Stop Cop City” protesters this year — actions he considers far worse.
Sanchez, who works for a voting rights nonprofit, said that even if the signature drive falls short, it will have made an important impact.
“I feel like we’ve exhausted all the other options, aside from full-on revolution, which I don’t think we need for this,” he said. “There’s a lot of obstacles in our way. … If we only get to 50,000, I think that still shows a real warning sign for these politicians for the 2025 election.” | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-atlanta-cop-city-activists-say-theyre-confident-of-getting-70k-signatures-but-big-hurdles-remain/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:03 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-atlanta-cop-city-activists-say-theyre-confident-of-getting-70k-signatures-but-big-hurdles-remain/ |
What are the Niger coup leaders' intentions?
There was initially a power vacuum in the Sahel after the leaders of the uprising in Niger read out their declaration that President Mohamed Bazoum had been deposed on Wednesday. The soldiers left the public in the dark as to whom they had chosen to lead the country. It apparently took two days of internal wrangling for them to reach a decision.
It wasn't until midday on Friday that General Abdourahmane Tchiani, who goes by the name Omar, appeared on state television with the title "president of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Fatherland." Tchiani, the long-standing head of the presidential guard, was reportedly involved in an unsuccessful coup attempt shortly before the democratic transfer of power in 2021.
Observers believe that other senior generals had also sensed an opportunity to seize power. Prior to Tchiani's appearance on TV, DW correspondent Gazali Abdou reported a degree of anxiety in Niger's capital, Niamey: "If, after a few days, they can't agree on the leadership, there's a risk that the situation among them will escalate." It remains to be seen whether Tchiani will now stabilize things as the new and undisputed ruler.
Security 'extremely worrying'
One key question about the coup is what has motivated its leaders. Daniel Kere is the executive director of the association Cercle d'Etudes Afriques-Mondes in neighboring Burkina Faso, a country that experienced two coups in 2022. Kere told DW that the demands that Niger's insurgents made shortly after the coup on Wednesday were not clear.
"The political situation there is not nearly as threatening as in other countries," Kere said. "Even the challenge to imperialism was not in fact sufficiently developed in Niger to justify this coup. And, if we analyze the coup plotters' explanation of their takeover, we don't see any fundamental motive that could justify this takeover."
In his televised statement, Tchiani repeated that the coup was motivated by the "ongoing deterioration of the security situation."
Close observers of Niger disagree with that statement. "Compared to 2021 and 2022, we can say that 2023 is one of the best years in terms of security policy," the political analyst Alkassoum Abdourahmane told DW. "This spurious argument, as used in other Sahelian countries in relation to coups d'etat, is, I believe, inadequate in the case of Niger."
The security researcher Moussa Zangarou also told DW that the situation had improved so far in 2023. However, he said, 12 people were killed last week in various places in the triborder region with Mali and Burkina Faso. "So the security situation is extremely worrying," Zangarou said. "Whoever comes to power will ultimately fail if they don't take the security issue seriously."
Military governments are in power in both neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso following coups. And, while Kaou Abdrahamane Diallo, the party secretary of the junta-affiliated PACP in Mali, condemns the coup in Niger, he also told DW that there could be advantages to a military government in Niger. "Burkina Faso and Mali are already working hand in hand," he said, "and we can only hope that the new Nigerien rulers share our view of the situation, and that together we can overcome the challenge of terrorism."
EU's Sahel partner
Niger's EU allies do not share this optimism. They saw Bazoum as a reliable and, above all, democratically legitimate partner in the Sahel, especially after the coups in Mali and Burkina Faso. In 2022, France transferred its remaining soldiers from Mali to Niger. Germany is also organizing for Bundeswehr troops to withdraw from Mali by the end of this year, and had been collaborating on the establishment of a new training mission in Niger. These plans are now likely to be reassessed. Furthermore, France needs Niger as a supplier of uranium for its nuclear power plants.
After the coup, the French and German governments repeatedly positioned themselves on the side of Bazoum and called for the return of the constitutional order. It is notable that Russia, which was able significantly to expand its influence in the wake of the other coups, particularly in Mali, has also called for the constitutional order to be restored. The West African alliance ECOWAS, the AU and a number of African heads of state, as well as the US, have expressed similar views.
Remy Arsene Diousse, program manager at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Peace and Security Centre of Competence Sub-Saharan Africa in Dakar, told DW that such statements are a "warning to the coup leaders that the country will lose the benefits of cooperation if they persist." They would lose logistical support, intelligence exchange and strategic cooperation, he said: "This would have a serious negative impact."
Indeed, Josep Borrell, the EU's representative on foreign affairs and security policy, was quick to warn that the coup would have consequences for Niger's cooperation with the bloc, "including the immediate suspension of all budgetary assistance." ECOWAS states may also decide to impose sanctions on Sunday, as they did after the coups in Niger's neighbors.
The plotters seem willing to factor in a further deterioration of the economic situation, having said from the start that they would not tolerate foreign interference. The armed forces of Germany and other partners have also been affected by the closure of Nigerien airspace. It remains unclear whether Tchiani and his followers intend to break with the West entirely, as the junta in Mali did.
There does seem to be some support for this among the Nigerien population, if the burning of French flags at a rally in the capital, Niamey, is anything to go by. "The French army base must leave," one demonstrator told the AFP news agency: "We don't need the French to keep us safe."
Charles Bako, Gazali Abdou, Carole Assignon, Dirke Köpp and Mahamadou Kane contributed to this report.
The article has been translated from German. | https://www.dw.com/en/the-coup-installed-a-military-leader-in-niger-now-what/a-66384330 | 2023-07-29T20:10:05 | 1 | https://www.dw.com/en/the-coup-installed-a-military-leader-in-niger-now-what/a-66384330 |
The intense heat wave continued its grip on many parts of the country, including in New York City, where temperatures were expected to surge into the lower 90s (around 35 C) on Saturday, but the humid, thick air could make it feel well over the century mark.
The sizzling air has heated up everything from the ocean to pools, making it difficult to cool off. One woman in the Southwest has been throwing blocks of ice in her pool.
Metro Phoenix could see its 30th day of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) or higher on Saturday before temperatures start dropping in the city and other areas that saw some of the most extreme temperatures in July. Scientists expect this month will be the hottest globally on record and likely the warmest human civilization has seen.
Here’s what’s happening related to extreme weather and the climate right now:
— Heat advisories continued in New York City, where high humidity has made it uncomfortable and dangerous. Some 500 cooling centers have opened across the city’s five boroughs, and the governor authorized the state’s swimming pools to stay open later. The extreme heat was forecast to ease Sunday.
— Parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut were under a heat advisory through Saturday night. In northern New England, temperatures were down 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit after getting into the 90s (around 35 C) on Friday, but the humidity lingered throughout the region. Afternoon and evening storms were forecast and could bring a chance of flash flooding.
— The weather was equally stifling and muggy in the center of the United States. An excessive heat warning was issued for much of Missouri, Kansas and western Illinois, where the sweaty mix of heat and humidity could make it feel like up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (about 44 C) in parts. St. Louis health director Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis said the risk of heat stroke was high and warned that interior car temperatures could reach lethal levels in minutes.
— Temperatures are forecast to start to drop in the hottest areas in the southwest of the United States, including Phoenix, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
— With the scorching heat, even going for a swim offered little to no relief. Sea surface temperatures rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 C) at a spot off Florida’s southern tip, while pools in the Southwest gave the sensation of being in soup.
— The high temperatures are reaching across the globe, including in Bolivia, where a drought alert has been declared for Lake Titicaca after water levels of the world’s highest navigable lake receded to a critically low threshold.
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Associated Press writers Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Ken Ritter in Las Vegas; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed to this report.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
) | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-climate-glimpse-heres-what-you-need-to-see-and-know-today-8/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:12 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-climate-glimpse-heres-what-you-need-to-see-and-know-today-8/ |
Compared with the devil, angels carry more credence in America.
Angels even get more credence than, well, hell. More than astrology, reincarnation, and the belief that physical things can have spiritual energies.
In fact, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they believe in angels, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
“People are yearning for something greater than themselves — beyond their own understanding,” said Jack Grogger, a chaplain for the Los Angeles Angels and a longtime Southern California fire captain who has aided many people in their gravest moments.
That search for something bigger, he said, can take on many forms, from following a religion to crafting a self-driven purpose to believing in, of course, angels.
“For a lot of people, angels are a lot safer to worship,” said Grogger, who also pastors a nondenominational church in Orange, California, and is a chaplain for the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks.
People turn to angels for comfort, he said. They are familiar, regularly showing up in pop culture as well as in the Bible. Comparably, worshipping Jesus is far more involved; when Grogger preaches about angels it is with the context that they are part of God’s kingdom.
American’s belief in angels (69%) is about on par with belief in heaven and the power of prayer, but bested by belief in God or a higher power (79%). Fewer U.S. adults believe in the devil or Satan (56%), astrology (34%), reincarnation (34%), and that physical things can have spiritual energies, such as plants, rivers or crystals (42%).
The widespread acceptance of angels shown in the AP-NORC poll makes sense to Susan Garrett, an angel expert and New Testament professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky. It tracks with historical surveys, she said, adding that the U.S. remains a faith-filled country even as more Americans reject organized religion.
But if the devil is in the details, so are people’s understandings of angels.
“They’re very malleable,” Garrett said of angels. “You can have any one of a number of quite different worldviews in terms of your understanding of how the cosmos is arranged, whether there’s spirit beings, whether there’s life after death, whether there’s a God … and still find a place for angels in that worldview.”
Talk of angels, Garrett said, is often also about something else, like the ways God interacts with the world and other hard-to-articulate ideas.
The large number of U.S. adults who say they believe in angels includes 84% of those with a religious affiliation — 94% of evangelical Protestants, 81% of mainline Protestants and 82% of Catholics — and 33% of those without one. And of those angel-believing religiously unaffiliated, that includes 2% of atheists, 25% of agnostics and 50% of those identified as “nothing in particular.”
The broad acceptance is what fascinates San Francisco-based witch and author Devin Hunter: Angels show up independently in different religions and traditions, making them part of the fabric that unites humanity.
“We’re all getting to the same conclusion,” said Hunter, who spent 16 years as a professional medium, and started communicating as a child with what he believed were angels.
Hunter estimates that a belief in angels applies to about half of those practicing modern witchcraft today, and for some who don’t believe, their rejection is often rooted in the religious trauma they experienced growing up.
“Angels become a very big deal” for long-time practitioners who’ve made occultism their primary focus, said Hunter, an angel-loving occultist. “We cannot escape them in any way, shape or form.”
Jennifer Goodwin of Oviedo, Florida, also is among the roughly seven in 10 U.S. adults who say they believe in angels. She isn’t sure if God exists and rejects the afterlife dichotomy of heaven and hell, but the recent deaths of her parents solidified her views on these celestial beings.
Goodwin believes her parents are still keeping an eye on the family — not in any physical way or as a supernatural apparition, but that they manifest in those moments when she feels a general sense of comfort.
“I think that they are around us, but it’s in a way that we can’t understand,” Goodwin said. “I don’t know what else to call it except an angel.”
Angels mean different things to different people, and the idea of loved ones becoming heavenly angels after death is neither an unusual belief nor a universally held one.
In his reading of Scripture as an evangelical Protestant, Grogger said he believes angels are something else entirely — they have never been human and are on another level in heaven’s hierarchy. “We are higher than angels,” he said. “We do not become an angel.”
Angels do interact with humans though, said Grogger, but what “that looks like we’re not 100% sure.” They worship God who created this angelic legion of unknown numbers, he said, adding that evangelicals often attribute the demonic forces in the world to the angels who fell from heaven when the devil rebelled.
The Western ideas about angels can be traced through the Bible — and to the worldviews of its monotheistic authors, Garrett said. Those beliefs have changed and developed for millennia, influenced by cultures, theologians and even the ancient polytheistic beliefs that came before the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, she said.
“There are sort of lines of continuity from the Bible that you can trace all the way up to the New Age movement,” said Susan Garrett, who wrote “No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus.”
The angels in the Bible do God’s bidding, and angelic violence is one part of their job description, said Esther Hamori, author of the upcoming book, “God’s Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible.”
“The angels of the Bible are just as likely to assassinate individuals and slaughter entire populations as they are to offer help and protect and deliver,” said Hamori. She doesn’t believe in these angels, but studies them as a Hebrew Bible professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York where she teaches a popular “Monster Heaven” class.
“They’re just God’s obedient soldiers doing the task at hand, and sometimes that task is in human beings’ best interests, and sometimes it’s not,” she said.
The perception that angels act angelic and look like the idyllic, winged figurines atop Christmas trees could be attributed to an early centuries belief that people are assigned one good angel and one bad — or have a good and bad spirit to guide them, Garrett said.
This idea shows up on the shoulders of cartoon characters and is likely what Abraham Lincoln was alluding to in his famous appeal for unity when he referenced “the better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural address, she said.
“It’s also tied in with ideas about guardian angels, which again, very ancient views that got developed over the centuries,” Garrett said.
For Sheila Avery of Chicago, angels are protectors, capable of keeping someone from harm. Avery, who belongs to a nondenominational church, credits them with those moments like when a person’s plans fall through, but ultimately it saves them from being in the thick of an unexpected disaster.
“They turn on the news and a terrible tragedy happened at that particular place,” Avery said, suggesting it was an “angel that was probably watching over them.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-do-you-believe-in-angels-about-7-in-10-u-s-adults-do-a-new-ap-norc-poll-shows/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:18 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-do-you-believe-in-angels-about-7-in-10-u-s-adults-do-a-new-ap-norc-poll-shows/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Trader Joe’s is recalling a broccoli cheddar soup that may contain insects and cooked falafel that may contain rocks, about one week after the grocery chain recalled two cookie products over similar concerns.
The soup recall impacts Trader Joe’s Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup with “Use By” dates ranging from July 18 to Sept. 15, according to a Thursday announcement from the company. On Friday, the grocer announced that Trader Joe’s Fully Cooked Falafel sold in 35 states and Washington, D.C., was also under recall.
On July 21, Trader Joe’s announced that it was recalling Trader Joe’s Almond Windmill Cookies and Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Chunk and Almond Cookies with “sell by” dates ranging from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21. Like the falafel, the cookies may also contain rocks, the company said.
When asked for further information about how the insects and rocks may have gotten into these products, a Trader Joe’s spokesperson said that “there was an issue in the manufacturing processes in the facilities.” Suppliers alerted Trader Joe’s of the possible foreign material for each recall, the company said.
“We pulled the product from our shelves as soon as we were made aware of the issue. Once we understood the issue we notified our customers,” the spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Saturday.
All of the recalled cookies, soup and falafel have been removed from sale or destroyed, Trader Joe’s said in its announcements. But the Monrovia, California-based company is still urging consumers to check their kitchens for the products.
Trader Joe’s says customers who have the recalled products should throw them away or return them to any store for a full refund. Lot codes and further details about the products under recall, as well as customer service contact information, can be found on the company’s website.
Trader Joe’s did not specify how many products were impacted with each recall or identify suppliers. But one Food and Drug Administration notice cited by NBC News says that the Unexpected Broccoli Cheddar Soup recall impacts around 10,889 cases sold in seven states. Winter Gardens Quality Foods, Inc. is identified as the recalling firm, per the notice.
No formal releases about the three recalls were published on the FDA’s Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts page as of Saturday. The Associated Press reached out to the FDA and Winter Gardens Quality Foods for information on Saturday.
“We have a close relationship with our vendors and they alerted us of these issues. We don’t hesitate or wait for regulatory agencies to tell us what to do,” the Trader Joe’s spokesperson said. “We will never leave to chance the safety of the products we offer.” | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-more-trader-joes-recalls-this-soup-may-contain-bugs-and-falafel-may-have-rocks-grocer-says/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:24 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/national/ap-more-trader-joes-recalls-this-soup-may-contain-bugs-and-falafel-may-have-rocks-grocer-says/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri is joining No Labels ‘ increasingly contentious effort to lay the groundwork for a moderate third-party presidential ticket in the 2024 election. He gives the embattled organization another prominent ally amid escalating concerns from Democratic officials that the No Labels campaign could unintentionally help Republican Donald Trump return to the White House.
Nixon, a 67-year-old lawyer, is stepping back into national politics for the first time since leaving office in 2017 and will serve as No Labels’ director of ballot integrity. He said in an interview that he was drawn to the role after learning that well-funded groups aligned with Democrats were working to stop No Labels from securing ballot access in key states.
He said that those seeking to block the group’s right to appear on the presidential ballot are attacking a pillar of American democracy.
“What do I say to those Democrats? I say, ‘You’re entitled to your opinion. But we are also entitled to use our constitutional and statutory rights to allow Americans to have another choice,’” Nixon told The Associated Press.
President Joe Biden and Trump have dominated the 2024 campaign conversation so far. But No Labels, a Washington-based group that promotes compromise, national unity and centrist policy solutions, has been preparing for the strongest third-party presidential bid at least since Texas businessman Ross Perot earned nearly 19% of the popular vote in 1992.
Working with an operating budget of roughly $70 million, No Labels is taking steps to secure presidential ballot spots in roughly 20 states this year; the group has done so already in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Oregon and Utah.
While No Labels has yet to nominate candidates for president and vice president, its leadership insists there is a path to victory for a centrist third-party ticket “if the two parties select unreasonably divisive presidential nominees.”
The group’s critics across the Democratic Party are terrified that No Labels will siphon votes that would otherwise go to Biden, who narrowly beat Trump in 2020 with a coalition that included moderate Democrats, independents and disaffected Republicans.
No Labels’ leadership has promised a series of checks and balances that would allow the organization to withdraw its presidential ticket if it appears the group’s participation would help Trump win. No Labels has not outlined a detailed plan about that, and leaders acknowledge privately there is some urgency to come out with their specific safeguards, which would vary state by state. They intend to do so by “early fall.”
Anxious Democrats are unconvinced.
On Thursday, two prominent Democratic groups, the centrist Third Way and more progressive MoveOn, hosted private meetings on Capitol Hill with dozens of chiefs of staff and senior aides to House and Senate Democrats to emphasize the need to stop No Label’s presidential ambitions. In a nod to the seriousness of the Democratic establishment’s concerns, the meetings were held in both the House and Senate Democrats’ campaign headquarters.
“We told them what we have been saying consistently now for a long time: This is dangerous,” said Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett, who helped lead the briefing along with MoveOn’s executive director, Rahna Epting.
The organizers detailed data showing that a No Labels ticket would undercut Biden in the general election and warned that it could handicap vulnerable House and Senate candidates is tight elections. They also questioned that No Labels’ promise to withdraw its ticket if necessary to stop Trump.
No Labels’ leaders are furious.
“They are telling the elected leaders of this country right now that our ballot is a runaway train. And that is categorically false. That is propaganda. And that is why we’re bringing on a director of ballot integrity to stop it because it’s outrageous,” said No Labels’ founder Nancy Jacobson, a former Democratic fundraiser.
For now, Democrats are not willing to take Jacobson’s word for it.
“I don’t want to be doing this. I’d much rather focus on other things. I am concerned, genuinely,” Epting said. “They’re in over their head. They have not given any assurances that they’re clear and sober in their analysis. And when they talk about being able to put the horse back in the barn, they are not consistent about when or how they’re going to do that.”
“They’re just saying, ‘Trust us,’” Epting said. “We can’t. We don’t know you. And the stakes are too high.”
Meanwhile, Nixon joins a growing roster of former elected officials in both parties now affiliated with No Labels. Among the others: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; former Govs. Jon Huntsman Jr., R-Utah, Larry Hogan, R-Md., and Pat McCrory, R-N.C.; and former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat who became an independent late in his political career.
Manchin and Huntsman, ambassador to China under President Barack Obama and to Russia under Trump, hosted a town hall in New Hampshire this month, driving speculation they may ultimately become the No Labels presidential ticket.
No Labels plans to hold a presidential nominating convention next April in Dallas, and the group is showing no signs of backing off its 2024 plans. With a massive budget fueled by anonymous donations, No Labels can afford to be patient in the fights ahead.
Democrats in Arizona filed a complaint this month with the secretary of state asking to have the group suspended until it discloses it donors. In May, Maine’s top elections official sent a cease-and-desist letter regarding No Labels voter registration efforts after claiming the group was misleading voters.
The group Citizens to Save Our Republic formed a super political action committee this month specifically designed to stop No Labels. The group’s members includes Bennett from Third Way, several advisers to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.
Nixon, who declined to criticize Biden or Trump, said he understands that he is walking into a political firestorm. But he said he is passionate about No Labels’ constitutional right to secure a place on the ballot.
“I feel calm. I feel correct. I think we have a high moral ground here,” he said. | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-ex-missouri-gov-jay-nixon-joins-push-for-third-party-presidential-bid-as-democrats-try-to-stop-it/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:31 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-ex-missouri-gov-jay-nixon-joins-push-for-third-party-presidential-bid-as-democrats-try-to-stop-it/ |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The oldest historically Black collegiate fraternity in the U.S. says it is relocating a planned convention in two years from Florida because of what it described as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s “harmful, racist and insensitive” policies towards African Americans.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said this week that it would move its 2025 convention from Orlando to another location that is yet undecided. The convention draws between 4,000 and 6,000 people and has an economic impact of $4.6 million, the fraternity said.
The decision comes after the NAACP and other civil rights organizations this spring issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that recently passed laws and policies are openly hostile to African Americans, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Willis Lonzer, the fraternity’s general president, said in statement on Wednesday that the decision was motivated in part by Florida’s new education standards that require teachers to instruct middle school students that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis,” Lonzer said.
An email seeking comment on Saturday about the fraternity’s decision was sent to Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s press secretary and the governor’s office.
DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has come under fire this week over Florida’s new education standards. Among those criticizing the Florida governor on Friday was a rival for the Republican nomination, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole Black Republican in the Senate.
Responding to the criticism, DeSantis said Friday that he was “defending” Florida “against false accusations and against lies. And we’re going to continue to speak the truth.”
In May, the NAACP joined the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group, in issuing travel advisories for the Sunshine State, where tourism is one of the state’s largest job sectors. The groups cited recent laws that prohibited state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory, and the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses.
They also cited laws that they say made life more difficult for immigrants in Florida and limited discussions on LGBTQ topics in schools.
At least nine other organizations or associations have pulled the plug on hosting conventions in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, two of the state’s most population convention cities, because of Florida’s political climate, according to local media reports.
Florida is one of the most popular states in the U.S. for tourists, and tourism is one of its biggest industries. More than 137.5 million tourists visited Florida last year, marking a return to pre-pandemic levels, according to Visit Florida, the state’s tourism promotion agency. Tourism supports 1.6 million full-time and part-time jobs, and visitors spent $98.8 billion in Florida in 2019, the last year figures are available.
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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-historically-black-fraternity-drops-florida-for-convention-because-of-desantis-policies/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:38 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-historically-black-fraternity-drops-florida-for-convention-because-of-desantis-policies/ |
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Not long ago, Marine Col. Jennifer Nash, a combat engineer with war deployments under her belt, made a vow to fellow officers as they headed to a dinner in Atlanta: She would get two new recruiting contacts by the end of the evening.
She admits recruiting is not the job that she or other Marines had in mind when they enlisted. But after stints as a recruiter and senior officer at the Eastern recruiting command, she has become emblematic of the Corps’ tradition of putting its best, battle-tested Marines on enlistment duty. They get results.
Marine leaders say they will make their recruiting goal this year, while the active-duty Army, Navy and Air Force all expect to fall short. The services have struggled in the tight job market to compete with higher-paying businesses for the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.
On that night, Nash achieved her own goal. She had gotten the valet at the hotel and the hostess at the restaurant to provide their phone numbers and to consider a Marine career.
Nash’s boss, Brig. Gen. Walker Field, who head the Eastern recruiting region, says the Corps has historically put an emphasis on selecting top-performing Marines to fill recruiting jobs. He says that has been a key to the Marines’ recruiting success, along with efforts to increase the number of recruiters, extend those who do well and speed their return to high schools, where in-person recruiting stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said his recruiters — who cover the territory between Canada and Puerto Rico and as far west as Mississippi — will meet their mission and expect to have 30% of their 2024 goal when they start the next fiscal year, Oct. 1. More broadly, Marine officials say they expect the Corps to achieve its recruiting target of more than 33,000.
Last year, the Navy, Air Force and Marines had to eat into their pools of delayed entry applicants in order to make their goals. The Marines will avoid that this year.
“That would be a great ending,” said Field, speaking to The Associated Press on a recent steamy day at South Carolina’s Parris Island, along the Atlantic Coast. “I’m bearish for not only concluding FY23 on a strong footing, but also how we set the conditions for FY24.”
The Marine Corps may get some help from its small size. The Army, for example, has a recruiting goal of 65,000 this year, which is nearly double the Corps’, and expects to fall substantially short of that. Air Force and Navy officials say they will also miss their goals, although the Space Force, which is the smallest service and does its recruiting within Air Force stations, is expected to meet its goal of about 500 recruits.
Sitting in the shadow of Parris Island’s replica of the Iwo Jima monument, Field said his biggest challenge is that a number of Marine hopefuls cannot pass the military’s academic test, known as the Armed Services Voluntary Aptitude Battery.
That is a widespread problem, but the Army recently set up a program that targets recruits who score below 30 on the test and provides schooling for several weeks to help them pass. Already more than 8,800 recruits have successfully gone through the classes, raised their scores and moved on to basic training.
The Navy is taking another route with a pilot program that allows up to 20% of their recruits to score below 30 on the test, as long as they meet specific standards for their chosen naval job. Marine leaders, however, do not take those lowest scoring recruits, and so far have no plans for any type of formal improvement program such as the Army’s.
Field said the Marines are repositioning recruiting stations, moving them around based on where population totals have increased in the latest census. More important, he said, the Corps maintains its focus on choosing the right recruiters, encouraging successful ones to stay in the job and increasing the number of Marine reservists tapped for recruit duties from the current 31 to 96 by the end of next year.
Nash, who until last month was assistant chief of staff for the Eastern region, said Marines are hand-selected for recruiting command jobs. Many three- and four-star Marines, including former Defense Secretary James Mattis, will cite their years doing enlistment duty.
“We put our best and brightest in those positions,” said Nash, adding that those chosen for recruiting posts have a proven track record of success in previous assignments and have demonstrated critical leadership skills. “That’s why they got selected, because they were above their peers.”
She acknowledged that the first time she was picked for a recruiting job she was “voluntold.” But now, recounting her sales pitch in Atlanta, her rapid fire pitch comes without taking a breath.
“I say, ‘Hey, ever thought about being Marine? We’re a bunch of Marines. And, you know, I think you potentially could be a good Marine. You ever thought about it?’ And usually you get, ‘Yeah, I thought about it.’ And I’m, like, ‘What’s holding you back? Would you like to learn more about your opportunities?’ ‘Absolutely.’ `OK. Mind giving me your name and phone number? I’ll have one of my recruiters give you a phone call.’”
The Marines have resisted increasing bonuses to attract recruits — something the other services have found helpful.
Gen. Eric Smith, the acting Marine Corps commandant, got some ribbing for his response when he was asked about bonuses during a naval conference in February.
“Your bonus is you get to call yourself a Marine,” he said. “That’s your bonus, right? There’s no dollar amount that goes with that.”
Field, Nash and others also say the Corps prefers to give a lot of recruits a few thousand dollars, rather than increasing the amount and giving money to far fewer people.
Field said that getting Marine recruiters in uniform back into high schools this year, after several years of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a key driver. There, young people line up to compete in pull-up contests, vying for a free T-shirt if they can do 20. And recruiters say many are drawn to the cache of being a Marine.
“If you told me you’ll give me $10 million worth of advertising and I can do something with it, or you’ll give me 10 great-looking Marines in a Marine uniform — what’s going to get the most value? Give me those 10 Marines and give me a day,” Nash said. “We’ll go out and we’ll get more out of that, I think, than $10 million in advertising.” | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-the-few-and-the-proud-arent-so-few-marines-recruiting-surges-while-other-services-struggle/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:45 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-the-few-and-the-proud-arent-so-few-marines-recruiting-surges-while-other-services-struggle/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The United States will expand its military industrial base by helping Australia manufacture guided missiles and rockets for both countries within two years, the allies announced on Saturday as they ramped up defense cooperation to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.
The new cooperation on guided weapon production follows a trilateral partnership announcement in March that will see Britain provide Australia with a fleet of eight submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
The greater integration of U.S. and Australian militaries was announced after annual talks between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their Australian counterparts, Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
They agreed to cooperate on Australia producing Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems by 2025, a communique said.
U.S. companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin only established an Australian enterprise to build such weapons last year. That followed the drain on Western countries’ munitions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Austin said the move on missiles would strengthen the two allies’ defense industrial base and technological edge.
“We’re racing to accelerate Australia’s priority access to munitions through a streamlined acquisition process,” Austin told reporters in Brisbane, Australia.
Marles welcomed U.S. support to achieve Australian missile production within two years.
“We are really pleased with the steps that we are taking in respect of establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance enterprise in this country,” Marles said.
The two governments also agreed to upgrade joint military facilities in Australia and to increase U.S. nuclear submarine visits as the United States increases its focus on the South Pacific.
The region came to the forefront of the U.S. competition with China for influence last year, when Beijing signed a security pact with Solomon Islands and raised the prospect of a Chinese naval base being established there.
Austin became the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Papua New Guinea and Blinken visited New Zealand and Tonga before they arrived in Australia.
Saturday’s meeting was overshadowed by the loss of an Australian Army helicopter with four air crew late Friday, during military exercises with the U.S. off the northeastern coast of Australia.
U.S., Australian and Canadian militaries are taking part in the search for potential survivors near Whitsunday Islands off the Queensland state coast.
Austin and Marles will travel to north Queensland on Sunday to inspect Talisman Sabre, a biennial military exercise between the two countries that this year includes 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel. | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-us-pledges-to-help-australia-manufacture-guided-missiles-by-2025/ | 2023-07-29T20:10:52 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-us-pledges-to-help-australia-manufacture-guided-missiles-by-2025/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pamela Smith’s voice soared and quivered like a preacher in midsermon as she recalled her troubled childhood and how it helped prepare her for the challenges she faces as the new police chief in the nation’s capital.
“I stand before you as a child who had no hopes, who had no dreams — they were far beyond my reach. But I believe that all things are possible,” she said at her introductory news conference in Washington, in cadences honed by years as an ordained Baptist minister. “I believe I bring a fresh perspective, a different kind of energy, a different level of passion to what I’m going to do.”
Smith takes on the job at a precarious time.
Violent crime is rising sharply, fueled by more homicides and carjackings. The District of Columbia’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, and the D.C. Council have, at times, been at odds about crime legislation. On Capitol Hill, the Republican-led House has begun citing the city’s crime statistics while aggressively reviewing local public safety laws.
On July 24, the Mexican Consulate posted a tweet urging its nationals to “take precautions” in the city due to “a significant increase in crime in areas previously considered safe.”
Smith, 55, now becomes one of the public faces of this long-term fight even before the Council votes on her nomination as chief. She brings an inspirational story to her new role leading the Metropolitan Police Department. Raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, by a single mother who battled substance abuse, Smith and her siblings were at one point removed from their home and spent time in foster care. Smith emerged as a track star and went on to a 24-year career in the U.S. Park Police, where she served as the agency’s first Black female chief before retiring in 2022 to take up a senior leadership position at the MPD.
Law enforcement and government officials repeatedly point out that overall crime numbers in Washington have stayed relatively stable. But the crimes that have increased the most — murders and carjackings — are the ones most likely to damage public confidence.
“The scariest crimes are going up and regardless of what’s happening with other crimes, that’s what’s going to fuel the overall perception,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves told The Associated Press.
Graves’ office prosecutes most felonies in Washington, in a unique arrangement due to the district’s status as a nonstate. The city’s attorney general’s office prosecutes misdemeanors and juvenile crime, which is also on the rise.
This intricate dynamic among two separate sets of prosecutors, the city’s police force, Bowser’s administration and the Council has been publicly tested as the crime numbers have stayed high — all with Congress taking an increasing interest in the district’s affairs. Public safety was a primary topic of debate last year when Bowser, 50, successfully ran for a third term in office. She has spent this term sparring with both the Council and the House Oversight and Accountability Committee over how best to address crime.
July has been a particular bloody month, with 22 homicides as of Friday, including murders on the campuses of both Howard and Catholic universities. The victims include an Afghan man who survived years of working as a translator for the U.S. Army in Afghanistan only to be murdered in America while driving for Lyft. Nine people, including two children, were shot at a July Fourth party, when an assailant in an SUV opened fire on the crowd. A 12-year old girl remains hospitalized after being shot in the back Tuesday night by a bullet that penetrated the walls of her home.
Although the local murder rate is well below the levels in the 1980s and early 1990s, when Washington regularly led the nation in murders per capita, it has climbed steadily in recent years. In 2022, there was a roughly 10% drop in homicides, but now, homicides are up 15 percent compared with this time a year ago and the city is on pace to surpass 200 for the third year in a row. Police also reported 140 carjacking incidents in the month of June — the highest monthly total in more than five years.
Crime in Washington is now a national headline issue in Congress. In the spring, Bowser and Council members were summoned before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee for a heated session on local crime rates.
Congress voted to completely overturn the Council’s comprehensive rewrite of the district’s criminal code. Bowser was caught in the middle of the dispute. She had vetoed the overhaul, saying the reduction of maximum penalties for certain violent crimes “sent the wrong message,” but was overridden by the Council.
The mayor opposes congressional intervention in local affairs as part of Washington’s long push for statehood, but her initial veto was frequently cited by Republican lawmakers as proof that the rewrite was soft on crime. In an embarrassment for the heavily Democratic city, the move to cancel the criminal code revision drew support from dozens of congressional Democratic and was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Earlier this month, the Council, with Bowser’s support, passed emergency public safety legislation meant to serve as a temporary fix. The bill makes it a felony to fire a gun in public and makes it easier for judges, in cases where people are charged with a violent crime, to detain them before trial. As an emergency bill, the changes will only last 90 days and will not be subject to congressional review; plans to make the changes permanent in the fall will face scrutiny by lawmakers.
“It is no secret … to the public that we are in a state of emergency right now,” said Brooke Pinto, the D.C. Council member who was the bill’s architect. “Like in any emergency, we have to act like it and we have to act urgently to address the problem we’re seeing.”
But some pushing for a criminal justice overhaul said city lawmakers were reverting to mass incarceration policies that had long ago been discredited.
“We’re way beyond thinking that we can just incarcerate more people,” said Patrice Sulton, executive director of the D.C. Justice Lab, who helped draft the now-canceled criminal code revision. “I think everybody who voted for it knows that it will not have an impact.”
The local branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement on Twitter that the new bill “essentially flips due process on its head — treating people as guilty and detaining them.”
All sides point to one primary factor fueling the violence: a flood to firearms entering Washington.
Graves, the district’s federal prosecutor, said the number of guns being used in crimes has skyrocketed, turning petty disputes into deadly battles. This includes a new wave of “ghost guns” — firearms that can be ordered in kits and assembled at home. Other kits can easily turn a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic, enabling a rapid-fire and generally less accurate spray of dozens of bullets. In 2018, authorities recovered three such guns; in 2022, the number was 461.
Graves compared the illegal guns to “a virus” in the neighborhood.
“The more virus there is in the community, the more people are going to get sick,” he said. “The more illegal firearms are in the community, the more likelihood those illegal firearms are going to be used.” | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-violent-crime-is-rising-in-the-nations-capital-dc-seeks-solutions-as-congress-keeps-close-watch/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:00 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-violent-crime-is-rising-in-the-nations-capital-dc-seeks-solutions-as-congress-keeps-close-watch/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Political instability in Niger resulting from a military takeover that deposed the president this week threatens the economic support provided by Washington to the African nation, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Saturday.
Members of the Niger military announced on Wednesday they had deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and on Friday named Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the country’s new leader, adding Niger to a growing list of military regimes in West Africa’s Sahel region.
Blinken, who is in Australia as part of a Pacific tour, said the continued security and economic arrangements that Niger has with the U.S. hinged on the release of Bazoum and “the immediate restoration of the democratic order in Niger.”
“Our economic and security partnership with Niger — which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars — depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted by the actions in the last few days,” Blinken said. “So that assistance, that support, is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed.”
Blinken stopped short of calling the military actions in Niger a coup, a designation that could result in the African country losing millions of dollars of military aid and assistance.
Speaking in Brisbane, Blinken said he had spoken with President Bazoum on Saturday but did not provide details. He cited the support of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and other regional entities in trying to bring an end to the unrest.
“The very significant assistance that we have in place that’s making a material difference in the lives of the people of Niger is clearly in jeopardy and we’ve communicated that as clearly as we possibly can to those responsible for disrupting the constitutional order and Niger’s democracy,” Blinken said.
Blinken said the U.S. Embassy in Niger had accounted for the safety of all staff members and their families, while issuing a security alert advising U.S. citizens in the country to limit unnecessary movements and avoid areas impacted by the coup.
The military group that conducted the coup, calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, said its members remained committed to engaging with the international and national community.
“This is as a result of the continuing degradation of the security situation, the bad economic and social governance,” air force Col. Major Amadou Abdramane said in the video released by the coup leaders Wednesday. He said aerial and land borders were closed and a curfew was in place until the situation stabilized.
Bazoum was elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France.
Niger is seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence in the fight against extremism.
France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with Niger’s military, while the U.S. and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.
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Hannon reported from Bangkok. | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-blinken-says-us-economic-support-for-niger-is-at-risk-as-military-takeover-threatens-stability/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:07 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-blinken-says-us-economic-support-for-niger-is-at-risk-as-military-takeover-threatens-stability/ |
TOKYO (AP) — Toshihiro Mutsuda was only 5 years old when he last saw his father, who was drafted by Japan’s Imperial Army in 1943 and killed in action. For him, his father was a bespectacled man in an old family photo standing by a signed good-luck flag that he carried to war.
On Saturday, when the flag was returned to him from a U.S. war museum where it had been on display for 29 years, Mutsuda, now 83, said: “It’s a miracle.”
The flag, known as “Yosegaki Hinomaru,” or Good Luck Flag, carries the soldier’s name, Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, and the signatures of his relatives, friends and neighbors wishing him luck. It was given to him before he was drafted by the Army. His family was later told he died in Saipan, but his remains were never returned.
The flag was donated in 1994 and displayed at the museum aboard the USS Lexington, a WWII aircraft carrier, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Its meaning was not known until it was identified by the family earlier this year, said museum director Steve Banta, who brought the flag to Tokyo.
Banta said he learned the story behind the flag earlier this year when he was contacted by the Obon Society, a nonprofit organization that has returned about 500 similar flags as non-biological remains, to the descendants of Japanese servicemembers killed in the war.
The search for the flag’s original owner started in April when a museum visitor took a photo and asked an expert about the description that it had belonged to a “kamikaze” suicide pilot. When Shigeyoshi Mutsuda’s grandson saw the photo, he sought help from the Obon Society, group co-founder Keiko Ziak said.
“When we learned all of this, and that the family would like to have the flag, we knew immediately that the flag did not belong to us,” Banta said at the handover ceremony. “We knew that the right thing to do would be to send the flag home, to be in Japan and to the family.”
The soldier’s eldest son, Toshihiro Mutsuda, was speechless for a few seconds when Banta, wearing white gloves, gently placed the neatly folded flag into his hands. Two of his younger siblings, both in their 80s, stood by and looked on silently. The three children, all wearing cotton gloves so they wouldn’t damage the decades-old flag, carefully unfolded it to show to the audience.
“After receiving the flag today, I earnestly felt that the war like that should never be fought again and that I do not wish anyone else to go through this sadness (of separation),” Toshihiro Mutsuda said.
The soldier’s daughter, Misako Matsukuchi, touched the flag with both hands and prayed. “After nearly 80 years, the spirit of our father returned to us. I hope he can finally rest in peace,” Matsukuchi said later.
Toshihiro Mutsuda said his memory of his father was foggy. However, he clearly remembers his mother, Masae Mutsuda, who died five years ago at age 102, used to make the long-distance bus trip almost every year from the farming town in Gifu, central Japan, to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the 2.5 million war dead are enshrined, to pay tribute to her husband’s spirit.
The shrine is controversial, as it includes convicted war criminals among those commemorated. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japanese militarism. However, for the Mutsuda family, it’s a place to remember the loss of a father and husband.
“It’s like an old love story across the ages coming together … It doesn’t matter where,” Banta said, referring to the Yasukuni controversy. “The important thing is this flag goes to the family.”
That’s why Toshihiro Mutsuda and his siblings chose to receive the flag at Yasukuni and brought the framed photos of their parents.
“My mother missed him and wanted to see him so much and that’s why she used to pray here,” he said. “Today her wish finally came true, and she was able to be reunited.”
Keeping the flag on his lap, he said, “I feel the weight of the flag.” | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-its-a-miracle-say-family-of-japanese-soldier-killed-in-wwii-as-flag-he-carried-returns-from-us/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:14 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-its-a-miracle-say-family-of-japanese-soldier-killed-in-wwii-as-flag-he-carried-returns-from-us/ |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand striker Hannah Wilkinson has helped create two milestones at the Women’s World Cup.
With her 48th-minute goal in the tournament opener against Norway, she led the co-host Football Ferns to their first win in six trips to the Women’s World Cup. She’s also one of at least 95 out members of the LGBTQ+ community competing in this year’s tournament, according to a count being kept by Outsports, a website that covers the LGBTQ+ sports.
The Ferns were greeted with a fan-made sign at their next match in Wellington: “Gay for soccer, gay for Wilkie,” it read.
The 95 out participants make up roughly 13% of the 736 total players at the Women’s World Cup, more than doubling the 40 players and coaches Outsports counted in 2019.
The 2023 tournament also is hosting the first openly trans and non-binary player in either a men’s or Women’s World Cup, Quinn of Canada.
“Last World Cup was so big, especially with the visibility of the U.S. women’s national team winning and (Megan Rapinoe) fighting with (Donald) Trump. So I think that was a huge year for LGBTQ+ visibility,” said Lindsey Freeman, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
“It’s just the ad hoc, fun culture of women’s soccer that you’re seeing in this World Cup,” said Freeman, who is in New Zealand conducting research on the topic.
Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports, agreed. “In the Western world, it’s such a non-issue that it really just doesn’t get talked about,” he said. “And I think that’s in a good way.”
VISIBILITY
Prior to the start of the tournament, FIFA designated eight socially conscious armbands team captains could wear throughout the Women’s World Cup. The decision came after “One Love” armbands were denied to men’s teams in Qatar in 2022.
The armbands being used this year include anti-discriminatory sayings and multiple colors, but the rainbow version Germany wanted to use is not allowed. None of the available options explicitly mention LGBTQ+ rights.
The decision has led many players to express their support in more creative ways across Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand midfielder Ali Riley was interviewed on the official Women’s World Cup broadcast after her team’s upset of Norway. Her painted fingernails, left hand in the colors of the pride flag and right hand as the trans flag, were clearly visible as she held her head and fought back tears.
“She’s such an advocate and she’s definitely someone who uses her platform in such a positive way. We are all so proud of her and the way she represents the LGBTQ+ community,” teammate CJ Bott said. “Good on her. We’re all backing her, and we all back the community as well.”
The Philippines, making its Women’s World Cup debut, took home its own historic win over New Zealand 1-0 thanks to the foot of Sarina Bolden. Bolden’s Instagram bio reads, “i just wanna have fun n b gay.”
Irish star Katie McCabe wowed fans with a goal directly from a corner kick. She’s also made tabloid news for her relationships with other players.
Thembi Kgatlana, who has scored in the tournament for South Africa, has a patch of her hair dyed rainbow colors.
“My personality is very big for me, and my hair has become a part of my personality,” Kgatlana said. “And I did this rainbow because I want to represent all the people that are part of the LGBTQ and cannot talk while in countries where they’re oppressed.”
FAN EXPERIENCE
Kristen Pariseau and her wife started a U.S. women’s national team supporters group on Facebook ahead of traveling to this year’s Women’s World Cup. Aside from some hateful users she blocked, it’s been “super LGBT friendly.”
She and her wife did not go to Qatar for the 2022 men’s World Cup to avoid referencing each other as friends and receiving questions on their sexuality. In New Zealand, she said she’s met many same-sex couples at games and while traveling around the country.
“Everywhere you turn, it’s like, ‘Oh, my wife, my girlfriend.’ It’s been so welcoming and open,” Pariseau said. “In a way, it is kind of cool to be where there’s a lot of other people like you.”
Kelsie Bozart took her own pride flag armband to the United States’ second match in Wellington, along with a pride scarf.
“If you look back a couple years, I feel like it just wasn’t really talked about or there just wasn’t much of a presence,” Bozart said. “But moving forward I feel like, especially for the U.S., they’ve done an amazing job of just incorporating pride and LGBTQ.”
NOT UNIVERSAL
Though this year’s tournament has highlighted vast gains for the LGBTQ+ community in women’s soccer, advocates feel there is still work to be done.
According to Buzinski and Outsports, there were at least 186 LGBTQ+ athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. Women outnumbered men by a 9:1 ratio. There also were no confirmed out players at the 2022 men’s World Cup.
“I think women’s sports have always been open,” Denmark striker Pernille Harder said, adding that there are many role models for women who want to come out.
Freeman said it would be good to see men feel the same level of comfort.
“What can happen in the women’s game, I would love to spill over to the men’s game,” she said. “Because obviously, there’s way more queer players in the men’s game and it’s just not safe for them to come out.
“If you want to say that you’re in an inclusive space, you really have to be an inclusive space,” Freeman added. “And I think that that includes also holding the World Cup in places where it’s fine to be a queer person.”
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Max Ralph is a student in John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
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Contributing reporters included Joe Lister in Wellington and Rafaela Pontes in Auckland, students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, and Clay Witt in Sydney, Australia, a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-lgbtq-community-proud-and-visible-at-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:20 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-lgbtq-community-proud-and-visible-at-womens-world-cup/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers broke for their August recess this week with work on funding the government largely incomplete, fueling worries about whether Congress will be able to avoid a partial government shutdown this fall.
Congress has until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to act on government funding. They could pass spending bills to fund government agencies into next year, or simply pass a stopgap measure that keeps agencies running until they strike a longer-term agreement. No matter which route they take, it won’t be easy.
“We’re going to scare the hell out of the American people before we get this done,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
Coons’ assessment is widely shared in Congress, reflecting the gulf between the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate, which are charting vastly different — and mostly incompatible — paths on spending.
The Senate is adhering mostly to the top-line spending levels that President Joe Biden negotiated with House Republicans in late May as part of the debt-ceiling deal that extended the government’s borrowing authority and avoided an economically devastating default.
That agreement holds discretionary spending generally flat for the coming year while allowing increases for military and veterans accounts. On top of that, the Senate is looking to add $13.7 billion in additional emergency appropriations, including $8 billion for defense and $5.7 billion for nondefense.
House Republicans, many of whom opposed the debt-ceiling deal and refused to vote for it, are going a different way.
GOP leaders have teed up bills with far less spending than the agreement allows in an effort to win over members who insist on rolling back spending to fiscal year 2022 levels. They are also adding scores of policy add-ons broadly opposed by Democrats. There are proposals to reduce access to abortion pills, bans on the funding of hormone therapy and certain surgeries for transgender veterans, and a prohibition on training programs promoting diversity in the federal workplace, among many others.
At a press conference at the Capitol this past week, some members of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction within the House GOP, said that voters elected a Republican majority in that chamber to rein in government spending and it was time for House Republicans to use every tool available to get the spending cuts they want.
“We should not fear a government shutdown,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “Most of the American people won’t even miss if the government is shut down temporarily.”
Many House Republicans disagree with that assessment. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, called it an oversimplification to say most Americans wouldn’t feel an impact. And he warned Republicans would take the blame for a shutdown.
“We always get blamed for it, no matter what,” Simpson said. ”So it’s bad policy, it’s bad politics.”
But the slim five-seat majority Republicans hold amplifies the power that a small group can wield. Even though the debt ceiling agreement passed with a significant majority of both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives opponents were so unhappy in the aftermath that they shut down House votes for a few days, stalling the entire GOP agenda.
Shortly thereafter, McCarthy argued the numbers he negotiated with the White House amounted to a cap and “you can always do less.” GOP Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, followed that she would seek to limit nondefense spending at 2022 budget levels, saying the debt agreement “set a top-line spending cap — a ceiling, not a floor.”
The decision to cut spending below levels in the the debt ceiling deal helped get the House moving again, but put them on a collision course with the Senate, where the spending bills hew much closer to the agreement.
“What the House has done is they essentially tore up that agreement as soon as it was signed,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “And so we are in for a bumpy ride.”
Even as House Republicans have been moving their spending bills out of committee on party-line votes, the key committee in the Senate has been operating in a bipartisan fashion, drafting spending bills with sometimes unanimous support.
“The way to make this work is do it in a bipartisan way like we are doing in the Senate. If you do it in a partisan way, you’re heading to a shutdown. And I am really worried that that’s where the House Republicans are headed,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters this week.
McCarthy countered that people had the same doubts about whether House Republicans and the White House could reach an agreement to pass a debt ceiling extension and avoid a default.
“We’ve got ’til Sept. 30. I think we can get this all done,” McCarthy said.
In a subsequent press conference, McCarthy said he had just met with Schumer to talk about the road ahead on an array of bills, including the spending bills.
“I don’t want the government to shut down,” McCarthy said. “I want to find that we can find common ground.”
In all, there are 12 spending bills. The House has passed one so far, and moved others out of committee. The Senate has passed none, though it has advanced all 12 out of committee, something that hasn’t happened since 2018.
Still, the difficulty ahead was evident on the House side, where Republicans gave up until after the recess on trying to pass a spending measure to fund federal agriculture and rural programs and the Food and Drug Administration, amid disagreements over its contents. They began their August recess a day early instead of holding votes Friday.
Simpson said some of his Republican colleagues don’t want to take money approved already outside the appropriations process to cover some of this year’s spending and avoid deeper cuts. For example, the House bills would take almost all of the money approved last year for the Internal Revenue Service in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and use the savings to avoid deeper spending cuts elsewhere.
Simpson said that without such rescissions, as they are called in Washington, he couldn’t vote for the agriculture spending bill because the cuts “would have just been devastating.”
“That’s the challenge we’re going to have when we get back in September,” he said.
Further complicating things in the House, a few Republicans are opposed to some of the policy riders being included in the spending bills. For example, the agriculture spending bill would reverse the FDA’s decision to allow abortion pills to be dispensed in certified pharmacies, instead of only by prescribers in hospitals, clinics, and medical offices.
“I had a problem with abortion being put inside an ag bill,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. “I think that’s ridiculous.”
It’s a strong possibility that Congress will have to pass a stopgap spending bill before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. The Senate can vote first on the measure, which would put the onus on House Republicans to bring it up for a vote or allow for a shutdown. | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-members-of-congress-break-for-august-with-no-clear-path-to-avoiding-a-shutdown-this-fall/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:28 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-members-of-congress-break-for-august-with-no-clear-path-to-avoiding-a-shutdown-this-fall/ |
PHOENIX (AP) — A historic heat wave that turned the U.S. Southwest into a blast furnace throughout July is beginning to abate with the late arrival of monsoon rains.
Forecasters expect that by Monday at the latest, people in metro Phoenix will begin seeing high temperatures under 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) for the first time in a month. As of Friday, the high temperature in the desert city had been at or above that mark for 29 consecutive days.
Already this week, the overnight low at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport fell under 90 (32.2 C) for the first time in 16 days, finally allowing people some respite from the stifling heat once the sun goes down.
Temperatures are also expected to ease in Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Death Valley, California.
The downward trend started Wednesday night, when Phoenix saw its first major monsoon storm since the traditional start of the season on June 15. While more than half of the greater Phoenix area saw no rainfall from that storm, some eastern suburbs were pummeled by high winds, swirling dust and localized downfalls of up to an inch (2.5 centimeters) of precipitation.
Storms gradually increasing in strength are expected over the weekend.
Scientists calculate that July will prove to be the hottest globally on record and perhaps the warmest human civilization has seen. The extreme heat is now hitting the eastern part of the U.S, as soaring temperatures moved from the Midwest into the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, where some places are seeing their warmest days so far this year.
The new heat records being set this summer are just some of the extreme weather being seen around the U.S. this month, such as flash floods in Pennsylvania and parts of the Northeast.
And while relief may be on the way for the Southwest, for now it’s still dangerously hot. Phoenix’s high temperature reached 116 (46.7 C) Friday afternoon, which is far above the average temperature of 106 (41.1 C).
“Anyone can be at risk outside in this record heat,” the fire department in Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, warned residents on social media while offering ideas to stay safe.
For many people such as older adults, those with health issues and those without access to air conditioning, the heat can be dangerous or even deadly.
Maricopa County, the most populous in Arizona and home to Phoenix, reported this week that its public health department had confirmed 25 heat-associated deaths this year as of July 21, with 249 more under investigation.
Results from toxicological tests that can takes weeks or months after an autopsy is conducted could eventually result in many deaths listed as under investigation as heat associated being changed to confirmed.
Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-associated deaths last year, and more than half of them occurred in July.
Elsewhere in Arizona next week, the agricultural desert community of Yuma is expecting highs ranging from 104 to 112 (40 C to 44.4 C) and Tucson is looking at highs ranging from 99 to 111 (37.2 C to 43.9 C).
The highs in Las Vegas are forecast to slip as low as 94 (34.4 C) next Tuesday after a long spell of highs above 110 (43.3 C). Death Valley, which hit 128 (53.3 C) in mid-July, will cool as well, though only to a still blistering hot 116 (46.7 C).
In New Mexico, the highs in Albuquerque next week are expected to be in the mid to high 90s (around 35 C), with party cloudy skies. | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-the-extreme-heat-wave-that-blasted-the-southwest-is-abating-with-late-arriving-monsoon-rains/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:35 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-the-extreme-heat-wave-that-blasted-the-southwest-is-abating-with-late-arriving-monsoon-rains/ |
Danielle Hunter still has not been spotted at TCO Performance Center. Though the 28-year-old pass rusher reported to training camp earlier this week, according to head coach Kevin O’Connell, he hasn’t participated with his teammates on the practice field.
“We’re still kind of in that ongoing process where Danielle is in the building and I’m having daily dialogue personally with him,” O’Connell said. “My hope is that we continue to work towards him being out on the practice field with us sooner rather than later.”
That won’t happen unless Hunter gets a new contract. He’s set to make about $5.5 million this season and clearly isn’t interested in putting on the pads until he gets a raise. As if the situation wasn’t already murky enough, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported on Saturday that multiple teams have said the Vikings have made Hunter available via trade.
In a vacuum, the Vikings would love to retain Hunter’s services. He’s a dynamic player who could be a chess piece for new defensive coordinator Brian Flores. That said, the Vikings reportedly haven’t been able to appease Hunter’s representatives, who are in search of a lengthy deal.
What has Hunter has been doing in the meantime?
“He’s got a schedule,” O’Connell said. “I’m not going to get really into the details. That’s kind of part of that daily dialogue.”
With no resolution in sight, and Hunter still sitting out on a daily basis, O’Connell will have to continue answer question about Hunter each time he steps to the podium.
“Just looking forward to taking it a day at a time,” Hunter said. “I have not tried to hide my feelings. Danielle Hunter is a very special player. As soon as we can get him out here, you guys will see him out there.”
O’Neill still rehabbing
Never mind that right tackle Brian O’Neill hasn’t been on the practice field in training camp. He’s still ahead of schedule as he works his way back from a partially torn Achilles. The next step for O’Neill would be participating in walkthroughs rather than working off to the side by himself.
“We really don’t want to put a timeline on it,” O’Connell said. “We want to give him the best possible opportunity to when the time is right he can fully go through repetitions so that he can be prepared for the season.
The fact that O’Neill is a veteran in the NFL goes a long way. He likely won’t need as much time to get on the same page as the rest of the offensive line. | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/as-trade-rumors-swirl-vikings-star-pass-rusher-danielle-hunter-still-not-at-practice/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:36 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/as-trade-rumors-swirl-vikings-star-pass-rusher-danielle-hunter-still-not-at-practice/ |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons culminating in a rare blue moon.
Catch the first show Tuesday evening as the full moon rises in the southeast, appearing slightly brighter and bigger than normal. That’s because it will be closer than usual, just 222,159 miles (357,530 kilometers) away, thus the supermoon label.
The moon will be even closer the night of Aug. 30 — a scant 222,043 miles (357,344 kilometers) distant. Because it’s the second full moon in the same month, it will be what’s called a blue moon.
“Warm summer nights are the ideal time to watch the full moon rise in the eastern sky within minutes of sunset. And it happens twice in August,” said retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak, dubbed Mr. Eclipse for his eclipse-chasing expertise.
The last time two full supermoons graced the sky in the same month was in 2018. It won’t happen again until 2037, according to Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project.
Masi will provide a live webcast of Tuesday evening’s supermoon, as it rises over the Coliseum in Rome.
“My plans are to capture the beauty of this … hopefully bringing the emotion of the show to our viewers,” Masi said in an email.
“The supermoon offers us a great opportunity to look up and discover the sky,” he added.
This year’s first supermoon was in July. The fourth and last will be in September. The two in August will be closer than either of those.
Provided clear skies, binoculars or backyard telescopes can enhance the experience, Espenak said, revealing such features as lunar maria — the dark plains formed by ancient volcanic lava flows — and rays emanating from lunar craters.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the August full moon is traditionally known as the sturgeon moon. That’s because of the abundance of that fish in the Great Lakes in August, hundreds of years ago.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-two-supermoons-in-august-mean-double-the-stargazing-fun/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:41 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-two-supermoons-in-august-mean-double-the-stargazing-fun/ |
St. Paul homicide detectives are investigating a stabbing death in the 1100 block of Bowdoin Street South.
No further details were available Saturday afternoon.
Check back for updates.
St. Paul homicide detectives are investigating a stabbing death in the 1100 block of Bowdoin Street South.
No further details were available Saturday afternoon.
Check back for updates. | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/homicide-stabbing-st-paul-highland-park-neighborhood/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:42 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/homicide-stabbing-st-paul-highland-park-neighborhood/ |
HUARINA, Bolivia (AP) — A 70-year-old man’s feet sink into the soil as he passes abandoned boats where there used to be the water of Lake Titicaca. The highest navigable lake in the world has receded to what Bolivian authorities say are critically low levels due to a persistent drought.
“It’s completely dry,” Jaime Mamani said in exasperation while walking along the new shoreline in Huarina, a farming town 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of La Paz where he is a community leader.
The National Service of Naval Hydrography declared an alert this week for the iconic lake after its surface fell 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) below the drought warning stage, or 3,807.8 meters (12492.7 feet) above sea level. But the agency says this is just the beginning of a situation that is worrying Indigenous Aymara communities that rely on the lake for their livelihoods and fear the dry spell could permanently impact the region’s flora and fauna.
The hydrology unit of Bolivia’s navy warned that water levels could reach historically low levels in the coming months. By December, there is a “high probability” Lake Titicaca will be 64 centimeters (more than 25 inches) below the drought alert level, breaking a low water record set in 1998 by 33 centimeters (almost 13 inches).
“In three months, the water has decreased by 30 centimeters (11.8 inches), and considering that radiation is much stronger during this time of the year … we expect it to keep decreasing,” Carlos Carrasco, a hydraulic engineer for the hydrography service said.
The drought is the result of a combination of factors, including natural phenomena like La Niña and El Niño, which arrived unusually early this year and have been particularly strong due in part to climate change, according to Lucía Walper, who heads up the Hydrological Forecasting Unit at Bolivia’s National Meteorology and Hydrology Service.
But the vast lake is vital for this region of the Bolivian highlands, where hundreds of Aymara rural communities have relied on the blue body of water for millennia to practice subsistence farming and raise livestock.
Authorities in the Peruvian city of Puno also issued a warning about the declining water levels and expressed concern about the potential impact on tourism.
“We’re reaching a critical point. There will be a significant loss of water,” said Juan José Ocola, president of the Binational Authority of Lake Titicaca. The lake serves as the border between Bolivia and Peru.
Mateo Vargas, 56, a fisherman who has lived off the Lake Titicaca for 28 years, said he used to catch “lots” of fish daily. Now he considers himself lucky if he can catch six.
Vargas’ wife, Justina Condori, shares his concerns.
“The fish have vanished,” Condori, 58, said, predicting there will be famine if the current conditions persist.
Condori makes a living by renting boats to tourists. She worries fewer people will come to visit the lake, which at an elevation of 3,810 meters above sea level, is the largest body of freshwater in the Andes mountain range.
Evidence of the receding lake is seemingly everywhere. Women who sell fried fish and other snacks by the lake face rising costs for ingredients. Those who make a living transporting people from one side of the lake to the other are altering their routes because their rafts and boats no longer reach their usual docks.
Livestock farmers who rely on the plants that grow on the shores of the Titicaca to feed their animals are also seeing their livelihoods threatened.
The economic hardship is causing many residents of Huarina to migrate to other areas of the country, leaving behind mostly older townspeople, Mamani said. The waters of the Titicaca have always been shallow around the town, so the drought is even more visible there.
“There is a detriment to the economy of the inhabitants of the region,” he said.
Vargas, the fisherman, is also concerned about what the declining water levels will mean for the future.
“It looks like it will continue to decrease, day by day,” he said. “We’re worried because if we continue like this, what’s going to happen to our children?”
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Follow AP’s coverage of the climate and environment at https://apnews.com/climate-and-environment | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-a-drought-alert-for-receding-lake-titicaca-has-indigenous-communities-worried-for-their-future/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:47 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-a-drought-alert-for-receding-lake-titicaca-has-indigenous-communities-worried-for-their-future/ |
Most of July had been a grind for Mets star Pete Alonso.
The slugger endured a 13-game drought without a home run and, after July 19 ended with a third consecutive hitless performance, his season average dipped to .203.
The All-Star first baseman has been scorching ever since. Friday night’s win over the Nationals marked Alonso’s second two-home run game in four days, following up the two blasts he hit against the Yankees on Tuesday to end the homer-less streak.
Alonso is batting .400 since July 20 and has at least one hit in all but one of the eight games during that stretch.
“I feel like I’m in a really good spot, and I just want to fight like hell to keep staying where I’m at,” Alonso said after Friday’s game.
Alonso led all MLB batters with 22 home runs when he was struck on the left wrist by a fastball from the Braves’ Charlie Morton on July 7. Alonso left that game and missed eight more with a bone bruise and sprain but returned from the injured list faster than the anticipated three-to-four-week timeline.
The 28-year-old would only connect on four home runs over his next 30 games, however, and ended up hitting .152 in June.
“You go through periods, first of all, that they’re just making pitches on you,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said Friday. “Then you get frustrated and you start going out of the zone. The answer usually is being more selective, but you don’t hit a home run if you don’t swing the bat.”
Alonso boosted his season average to .220 with his two-hit game Friday and drove in all five of the Mets’ runs in their 5-1 victory.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with Pete in my office, late after everybody’s left,” Showalter said. “When you get it going again, somebody’s going to pay. You always feel that with Pete.”
Alonso’s 30 home runs are the third-most in Major League Baseball this season. The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani leads all hitters with 39, while the Braves’ Matt Olson leads the National League with 33. Alonso’s 73 RBI are tied for the eighth most in baseball.
The Mets have disappointed this season, entering Saturday night’s game against Washington with a 49-54 record despite the largest payroll in MLB history. On Thursday, they traded closer David Robertson to the Marlins for a pair of teenage prospects.
Still, Alonso says the Mets will have “a hell of a chance at the end of the year” if the players do their jobs.
“It’s really enjoyable to help the team win and do my job and play a part and help this team win,” Alonso said. “It’s great, but also every single day, it’s a new challenge. It’s a new adversity.”
() | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/mets-star-pete-alonsos-home-run-surge-has-him-in-a-really-good-spot-after-slump/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:48 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/07/29/mets-star-pete-alonsos-home-run-surge-has-him-in-a-really-good-spot-after-slump/ |
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — The African Union has issued a 15-day ultimatum to the junta in Niger to reinstall the country’s democratically elected government just as the coup leaders met with senior civil servants to discuss how they would run the country and as the U.S. and the European Union threatened sanctions against the regime.
Brig. Gen. Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted President Mohamed Bazoum on Wednesday, told state television that the junta met with civil servants on Friday and asked them to continue their work as usual following the suspension of the constitution. “The message given was not to stop the processes underway, to keep on with things,” said Brig. Gen. Toumba.
“Everything that must be done will be done,” he said, signaling the intention of the regime led by Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who also goes by Omar, to remain in power.
After its meeting on Friday, the African Union Peace and Security Council said it was concerned by the “alarming resurgence” of coups that undermine democracy and stability on the continent. It asked the soldiers to “return immediately and unconditionally to their barracks and restore constitutional authority, within a maximum of fifteen (15) days.”
Bazoum, whose condition and that of his officials remains unknown since the government was overthrown, should also be released immediately and unconditionally, the AU said. Failure to do so would compel the bloc to take “necessary action, including punitive measures against the perpetrators.”
On the streets of the Nigerien capital Niamey on Saturday, things appeared to be returning to normal, though many in the international community were still on lockdown with hotels full of foreigners, many given instructions not to leave.
Locals say they’re waiting to see what unfolds, with many still in support of Bazoum who has not yet resigned. “I’m with him, he does a good work. (But) what can we do?” said Mohamed Cisse, a street seller. “This is (the new leader’s) time, Bazoum’s time is over,” he said.
Tchiani, the junta leader and commander of Niger’s presidential guard, is close to former Nigerien president Mahamadou Issoufou, who stepped down in 2021 after a decade in office. Tchiani’s takeover of power will reinforce speculation that Issoufou is behind the coup, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think tank and consultancy.
The U.S. threatened to halt its economic support to Niger while the European Union announced the immediate indefinite suspension of budgetary support and security assistance.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who is in Australia as part of a Pacific tour, estimated America’s economic and security partnership with Niger at hundreds of millions of dollars and said its continuity depends on “the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order.”
“So that assistance, that support, is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed,” Blinken said.
While there are no signs of the junta backing down amid growing international pressure, analysts called for synergy in the interventions of the international community and continental organizations such as the AU and the regional bloc of ECOWAS, which is scheduled to meet over the coup on Sunday.
A successful coup in Niger and the sanctions in the aftermath could cause more hardship for millions of poor and hungry people in West Africa and could further threaten international relations with the region, which is seeing a resurgence of coups in recent years, according to Idayat Hassan, senior Africa program fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“A non-reversal of the coup also means that we are defining a new world order in West Africa in particular as you are pitching the west and other countries against few military regimes which may be backed by Russia,” said Hassan.
———
Asadu reported from Abuja, Nigeria. Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-african-union-gives-15-day-ultimatum-to-niger-junta-to-end-regime-but-soldiers-seek-continuity/ | 2023-07-29T20:11:54 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-african-union-gives-15-day-ultimatum-to-niger-junta-to-end-regime-but-soldiers-seek-continuity/ |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Salvage crews were preparing Saturday to tow a car-carrying cargo ship that has been burning for days to an anchor point in the North Sea after flames and smoke on board subsided, the Dutch government said.
Fire erupted in the Fremantle Highway late Tuesday night near a chain of islands in the northern Netherlands and has been blazing ever since. The ship is carrying 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, the company that chartered the vessel said.
One crew member died and others were injured after the fire broke out on the ship that was heading from Bremerhaven in Germany to Singapore. The crew was evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday. The cause of the fire has not been established.
Measurements Friday showed that heat, flames and smoke had subsided enough for salvage experts to board the ship for the first time and establish a strong towing connection with a tugboat, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said.
It will be towed, likely over the weekend, to a new position 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the island of Schiermonnikoog , the ministry said in a statement. The timing of the operation that is expected to take 12-14 hours depends on smoke development and weather, the ministry added. The aim is ultimately “once conditions on board allow,” to tow the ship to a port, though the destination has not yet been decided.
The ministry said the ship is stable and intact below the waterline.
The burning vessel is close to the shallow Wadden Sea, a World Heritage-listed area that is considered one of the world’s most significant habitats for migratory birds. It’s also near the Netherlands’ border with Germany, whose environment minister, Steffi Lemke, has warned of “an environmental catastrophe of unknown proportions,” if the ship were to sink. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-burning-cargo-ship-off-dutch-coast-will-be-towed-to-a-new-location-after-flames-and-smoke-subsided/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:00 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-burning-cargo-ship-off-dutch-coast-will-be-towed-to-a-new-location-after-flames-and-smoke-subsided/ |
BAGHDAD (AP) — The leader of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah said Saturday that if governments of Muslim-majority nations do not act against countries that allow the desecration of the Quran, Muslims should “punish” those who facilitate attacks on Islam’s holy book.
The comments by Hassan Nasrallah came in a video address to tens of thousands gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs to mark Ashoura, a Shiite holy day commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.
Nasrallah often uses religious occasions to send political messages to followers, and on Saturday slammed recent incidents in which the Quran was burned or otherwise desecrated at authorized demonstrations in Sweden and Denmark.
He said Muslims should watch for the outcome of an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, scheduled to take place in Baghdad on Monday to discuss the organization’s response to the Quran burnings.
The organization and its member states should “send a firm, decisive and unequivocal message to these governments that any repeat of the attacks will be met with a boycott,” Nasrallah said. If they do not, he said, Muslim youth should “punish the desecrators.”
He did not elaborate what such a boycott and punishment should entail.
Members of the crowd, who carried banners with religious slogans alongside the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Palestine, chanted, “Oh, Quran, we are at your service; Oh, Hussein, we are at your service.”
Shiites represent over 10% of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims and view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein’s death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, ingrained a deep rift in Islam and continues to this day to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity.
Millions of Shiite Muslims in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and around the world on Friday commemorated Ashoura, while Saturday marked the culmination of the observances in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gathered in the Iraqi city of Karbala, where Hussein is entombed in a gold-domed shrine. In the streets of the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, mourners gathered to watch reenactments of the Battle of Karbala and Hussein’s death.
In the streets, young men clad in black and white slashed their heads with swords and knives to demonstrate their grief. Friends swabbed each other’s heads with tissues and handed each other water.
In Syria’s capital, Damascus, the crowds were mourning not only the death of Hussein but a deadly attack in the suburb of Sayida Zeinab, home to a shrine to Zeinab, the daughter of the first Shiite imam, Ali, and granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
A bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded there on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens more. On Tuesday, another bomb in a motorcycle had wounded two people.
On Friday, the Islamic State group — a Sunni militant group that often targets Shiites — claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying Thursday’s bombing came “during their annual polytheistic rituals.” The group’s extreme interpretation of Islam holds Shiite Muslims to be apostates.
___
Associated Press writers Anmar Khalil in Karbala, Iraq, and Hassan Ammar in Beirut contributed to this report. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-lebanons-hezbollah-leader-urges-muslims-to-punish-quran-desecrators-if-governments-fail-to-do-so/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:08 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-lebanons-hezbollah-leader-urges-muslims-to-punish-quran-desecrators-if-governments-fail-to-do-so/ |
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid a coordinated effort to undermine No Labels' work to secure ballot access in states nationwide, we have named Jay Nixon – a lifelong Democrat who spent 30 years serving Missouri as a governor, attorney general and state senator – as director of our new Ballot Integrity Project.
Since early last year, No Labels has gathered over 700,000 signatures and qualified for the ballot in five states. We have a strategy to get on the ballot in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., with the aim of potentially offering our line to an independent Unity presidential ticket in 2024. No Labels is responding to the overwhelming desire of Americans for more choices and voices in our politics – with two-thirds of voters saying they don't want a rematch of the 2020 election – but we now face organized opposition from a group of political operatives and former elected officials intent on keeping us off the ballot.
"At a moment when so many Americans' are losing trust in our democracy, we need to hold even tighter to the pillars that have held our democracy up for almost 250 years. In our country, you win by persuading more people and getting more votes, not by limiting voters' choices and denying competitors a place on the ballot," said Nixon. "Americans have the constitutional right to put any person or party on the ballot and to vote for whomever they want. Anyone who is against that isn't standing up for democracy. They are standing in the way."
Former Gov. Larry Hogan will welcome Nixon to the No Labels community in his first scheduled public appearance at a town hall on Tuesday, August 1, at 5 p.m. ET. Register here to join the town hall.
In Nixon's decorated public service career, he established a stellar record as a champion for the civil and voting rights of Americans. In his new role with No Labels, Nixon will work closely with No Labels national co-chair and civil rights icon, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., to monitor legal developments, provide strategic counsel and serve as a public advocate for No Labels' ballot access efforts.
Since the start of its ballot access effort, No Labels has rigorously followed the letter and spirit of all applicable election laws. In recent months, however, it has become the target of an undemocratic campaign by organized and powerful partisan interests determined to keep No Labels off the ballot.
Local parties and partisan election officials have filed baseless lawsuits, invented spurious charges and delayed certification without justification in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina. Now, a new well-resourced group, organized under the name "Citizens to Save our Republic," has embarked on an effort to pressure No Labels and its members to abandon our ballot access effort.
"No Labels is a movement dedicated to democracy, and democracy can't stop because the powers that be think it's 'dangerous' to have competition," said Chavis. "The way to unite this country and to restore Americans faith in our future is to have more democracy, not less. I'm eager to begin working side by side with former Gov. Nixon to protect Americans' most fundamental constitutional rights."
On July 18, No Labels launched its Common Sense policy booklet at an overflow town hall event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., featuring Dr. Chavis, his fellow No Labels co-chairs former Gov. Pat McCrory and Sen. Joe Lieberman and special guests Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman. It was the first of many town halls No Labels will host in the months ahead – with different leaders in different states – to spur a long overdue discussion about where America needs to go in 2024 and beyond.
By early 2024, No Labels will gauge the mood of the American public and their openness to an independent Unity ticket and will offer our ballot line to a ticket if and only if, such a ticket has a viable path to victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Since its founding in 2009, No Labels has spent 13 years working to give voice to America's commonsense majority. We are now getting ballot access in states across the country to ensure Americans have the choice to vote for a 2024 presidential ticket that features strong, effective, and honest leaders who will commit to working closely with both parties to find commonsense solutions to America's biggest problems. www.nolabels.org.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE No Labels | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:14 | 1 | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ |
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) —
A 9-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother have been called as witnesses in a criminal case against their mother after she was accused of repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
Lidia Prudovskaya and her two children were summoned by investigators in the northern Russian region of Arkhangelsk on Friday to give testimony in the case, Russian news outlet Sota reported.
Prudovskaya previously faced administrative charges on similar allegations after sharing anti-war posts on Russian social media platform VKontakte in September 2022.
Discrediting the Russian military is a criminal offense under a law adopted after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The law is regularly used against Kremlin critics.
In April, Russian authorities petitioned to restrict the parental rights of a single father convicted of discrediting the army following an anti-war sketch drawn by his daughter at school.
Alexei Moskalyov, 54, was sentenced to two years in prison for social media comments he had made criticizing Moscow’s war in Ukraine, while his daughter Maria was placed in an orphanage.
The 13-year-old was later moved to live with her mother. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-russian-investigators-call-children-as-witnesses-against-their-mother-accused-of-discrediting-army/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:15 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-russian-investigators-call-children-as-witnesses-against-their-mother-accused-of-discrediting-army/ |
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid a coordinated effort to undermine No Labels' work to secure ballot access in states nationwide, we have named Jay Nixon – a lifelong Democrat who spent 30 years serving Missouri as a governor, attorney general and state senator – as director of our new Ballot Integrity Project.
Since early last year, No Labels has gathered over 700,000 signatures and qualified for the ballot in five states. We have a strategy to get on the ballot in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., with the aim of potentially offering our line to an independent Unity presidential ticket in 2024. No Labels is responding to the overwhelming desire of Americans for more choices and voices in our politics – with two-thirds of voters saying they don't want a rematch of the 2020 election – but we now face organized opposition from a group of political operatives and former elected officials intent on keeping us off the ballot.
"At a moment when so many Americans' are losing trust in our democracy, we need to hold even tighter to the pillars that have held our democracy up for almost 250 years. In our country, you win by persuading more people and getting more votes, not by limiting voters' choices and denying competitors a place on the ballot," said Nixon. "Americans have the constitutional right to put any person or party on the ballot and to vote for whomever they want. Anyone who is against that isn't standing up for democracy. They are standing in the way."
Former Gov. Larry Hogan will welcome Nixon to the No Labels community in his first scheduled public appearance at a town hall on Tuesday, August 1, at 5 p.m. ET. Register here to join the town hall.
In Nixon's decorated public service career, he established a stellar record as a champion for the civil and voting rights of Americans. In his new role with No Labels, Nixon will work closely with No Labels national co-chair and civil rights icon, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., to monitor legal developments, provide strategic counsel and serve as a public advocate for No Labels' ballot access efforts.
Since the start of its ballot access effort, No Labels has rigorously followed the letter and spirit of all applicable election laws. In recent months, however, it has become the target of an undemocratic campaign by organized and powerful partisan interests determined to keep No Labels off the ballot.
Local parties and partisan election officials have filed baseless lawsuits, invented spurious charges and delayed certification without justification in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina. Now, a new well-resourced group, organized under the name "Citizens to Save our Republic," has embarked on an effort to pressure No Labels and its members to abandon our ballot access effort.
"No Labels is a movement dedicated to democracy, and democracy can't stop because the powers that be think it's 'dangerous' to have competition," said Chavis. "The way to unite this country and to restore Americans faith in our future is to have more democracy, not less. I'm eager to begin working side by side with former Gov. Nixon to protect Americans' most fundamental constitutional rights."
On July 18, No Labels launched its Common Sense policy booklet at an overflow town hall event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., featuring Dr. Chavis, his fellow No Labels co-chairs former Gov. Pat McCrory and Sen. Joe Lieberman and special guests Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman. It was the first of many town halls No Labels will host in the months ahead – with different leaders in different states – to spur a long overdue discussion about where America needs to go in 2024 and beyond.
By early 2024, No Labels will gauge the mood of the American public and their openness to an independent Unity ticket and will offer our ballot line to a ticket if and only if, such a ticket has a viable path to victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Since its founding in 2009, No Labels has spent 13 years working to give voice to America's commonsense majority. We are now getting ballot access in states across the country to ensure Americans have the choice to vote for a 2024 presidential ticket that features strong, effective, and honest leaders who will commit to working closely with both parties to find commonsense solutions to America's biggest problems. www.nolabels.org.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE No Labels | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:16 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ |
LOMPOC, Calif., July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation this week thanked the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee for including language in its Fiscal Year 2024 funding package that can improve the management of America's wild horses and burros.
A national nonprofit advocacy organization, Return to Freedom (RTF) works with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to press the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the immediate scaling up of safe, proven and humane fertility control for wild horses and burros as well as with a diverse array of public lands stakeholders to create broader acceptance of fertility control use.
If implemented correctly and robustly, fertility control would slow (not stop) the growth of wild herds, keeping them on their home ranges rather than relying on the costly and traumatic capture, removal and warehousing of wild horses and burros.
"We are grateful to the Senate for again supporting protections for wild horses by taking the vitally important step of directing — in clear language — that the Bureau of Land Management implement thoughtful management that results in the kinds of humane approaches for which Return to Freedom has tirelessly advocated," said Neda DeMayo, president of RTF.
The Senate Committee's guiding report language calls for $11 million "to be spent to continue implementation of a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines."
The Senate Committee's report emphasized that it "expects" the BLM to place "specific attention on:"
- "increasing the use of fertility control, including measurable objectives in reducing population growth with fertility controls,
- "targeting removals from the most heavily ecologically impacted and populated areas,
- "expanding long-term, off-range humane holding, and continuing adoptions while fully implementing and enforcing existing safeguards."
The Senate Committee on Thursday approved a total of $148 million for wild horse and burro management for 2024. Congress allocated the same amount in 2023.
By comparison, the House Interior Appropriations Committee on June 19 approved $155 million for wild horse management in 2024.
The House Committee's report language also sets aside $11 million for fertility control; however, it does not specify using the funding solely for immediate on-range implementation. The House also allows the money to be used for research, including on permanent sterilization, which RTF strongly opposes.
The Senate and House must now reconcile their differences.
RTF is calling on the House and Senate conferees to adopt the House's funding level alongside the Senate's guiding report language. RTF will continue to advocate for stricter wild horse and burro protections and for greater funding until the final bill is approved later this year.
Background
As it has for decades, the BLM continues to emphasize capture-and-removal, putting off fertility control use while also failing to reach the agency's own wild horse population targets. In FY 2022, for example, 20,193 wild horses and burros were removed from their home ranges while just 1,622 mares were treated and released with some form of fertility control.
Out of the BLM-estimated 141,000 federally protected wild horses and burros that the agency is charged with overseeing, 58,000 now live not on the range but in overcrowded government corrals or on leased pastures.
The cost to taxpayers of continued off-range holding of captured wild horses has climbed to more than $83 million annually. That has left little funding for prioritizing range management, restoration, personnel and administration, let alone fertility control.
Population modeling by RTF and other stakeholders has shown that immediately implementing fertility control alongside any removal that BLM conducts is the only way to catch up with and stabilize herd growth so that on-range management can replace removals.
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education, conservation, and advocacy since 1998. It also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at three California locations, caring for more than 450 wild horses and burros managing the population with fertility control since 1999. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates about wild horses and burros on the range and at our sanctuary.
View original content:
SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:20 | 1 | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ |
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal’s opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has been charged with conspiracy against the state and calls for insurrections among other offenses, the public prosecutor said Saturday.
The announcement comes weeks after Sonko was convicted on separate charges of corrupting youth and sentenced to two years in prison, which ignited deadly protests across the nation.
Prosecutor Abdou Karim Diop made the announcement on state television, a day after Sonko’s lawyer said he was taken into custody for questioning at the police courthouse in the capital, Dakar.
In June, Sonko was acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlor and making death threats against her. But he was convicted on a lighter sentence of corrupting young people, which includes using one’s position of power to have sex with people under age 21. Corrupting youth is a criminal offense in Senegal that is punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to more than $6,000.
The conviction led to deadly clashes across the country between Sonko supporters and police, where at least 23 people were killed and dozens injured.
Sonko placed third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and is popular with the country’s youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.
Sonko’s ongoing legal battles may bar him from running. Once in prison, he can ask for a retrial for his June conviction.
Saturday’s charges are separate, said the public prosecutor. The accusations include calling an insurrection, criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism, compromising public security and theft.
It is unclear what led to the charges. Sonko has mostly stayed in his house since being sentenced to prison.
In a tweet posted shortly before his arrest on Friday afternoon, Sonko said a team of soldiers were breaking down the door following an altercation with secret service agents who were taking videoing him.
Friday evening, an AP reporter saw around 20 protesters burning tires in the middle of the road in Parcelles Assainies, an outer neighborhood of Dakar. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-senegals-opposition-leader-charged-with-conspiracy-against-the-state-and-calls-for-insurrection/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:22 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-senegals-opposition-leader-charged-with-conspiracy-against-the-state-and-calls-for-insurrection/ |
LOMPOC, Calif., July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation this week thanked the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee for including language in its Fiscal Year 2024 funding package that can improve the management of America's wild horses and burros.
A national nonprofit advocacy organization, Return to Freedom (RTF) works with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to press the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the immediate scaling up of safe, proven and humane fertility control for wild horses and burros as well as with a diverse array of public lands stakeholders to create broader acceptance of fertility control use.
If implemented correctly and robustly, fertility control would slow (not stop) the growth of wild herds, keeping them on their home ranges rather than relying on the costly and traumatic capture, removal and warehousing of wild horses and burros.
"We are grateful to the Senate for again supporting protections for wild horses by taking the vitally important step of directing — in clear language — that the Bureau of Land Management implement thoughtful management that results in the kinds of humane approaches for which Return to Freedom has tirelessly advocated," said Neda DeMayo, president of RTF.
The Senate Committee's guiding report language calls for $11 million "to be spent to continue implementation of a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines."
The Senate Committee's report emphasized that it "expects" the BLM to place "specific attention on:"
- "increasing the use of fertility control, including measurable objectives in reducing population growth with fertility controls,
- "targeting removals from the most heavily ecologically impacted and populated areas,
- "expanding long-term, off-range humane holding, and continuing adoptions while fully implementing and enforcing existing safeguards."
The Senate Committee on Thursday approved a total of $148 million for wild horse and burro management for 2024. Congress allocated the same amount in 2023.
By comparison, the House Interior Appropriations Committee on June 19 approved $155 million for wild horse management in 2024.
The House Committee's report language also sets aside $11 million for fertility control; however, it does not specify using the funding solely for immediate on-range implementation. The House also allows the money to be used for research, including on permanent sterilization, which RTF strongly opposes.
The Senate and House must now reconcile their differences.
RTF is calling on the House and Senate conferees to adopt the House's funding level alongside the Senate's guiding report language. RTF will continue to advocate for stricter wild horse and burro protections and for greater funding until the final bill is approved later this year.
Background
As it has for decades, the BLM continues to emphasize capture-and-removal, putting off fertility control use while also failing to reach the agency's own wild horse population targets. In FY 2022, for example, 20,193 wild horses and burros were removed from their home ranges while just 1,622 mares were treated and released with some form of fertility control.
Out of the BLM-estimated 141,000 federally protected wild horses and burros that the agency is charged with overseeing, 58,000 now live not on the range but in overcrowded government corrals or on leased pastures.
The cost to taxpayers of continued off-range holding of captured wild horses has climbed to more than $83 million annually. That has left little funding for prioritizing range management, restoration, personnel and administration, let alone fertility control.
Population modeling by RTF and other stakeholders has shown that immediately implementing fertility control alongside any removal that BLM conducts is the only way to catch up with and stabilize herd growth so that on-range management can replace removals.
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education, conservation, and advocacy since 1998. It also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at three California locations, caring for more than 450 wild horses and burros managing the population with fertility control since 1999. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates about wild horses and burros on the range and at our sanctuary.
View original content:
SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:22 | 1 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ |
NEW YORK, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Tingo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIO) between December 1, 2022 and June 6, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 7, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Tingo securities during the 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 Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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 August 7, 2023. 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. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. 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, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Tingo overstated its revenue and other accounting metrics, creating a false impression of success; (2) Tingo was not meaningfully engaged in many of the business activities that it claimed would drive future growth; (3) many of Tingo's supposed contracts with customers and suppliers did not exist; and (4) in light of the above, defendants' positive statements about Tingo's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:26 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ |
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian police arrested the president’s son Saturday as part of a high-profile money laundering probe into funds he allegedly collected from convicted drug traffickers during last year’s presidential campaign.
President Gustavo Petro, a former rebel who rose through Colombia’s political ranks as an anti-corruption crusader, said he wouldn’t interfere with the investigation.
“As an individual and father, it pains me to see so much self destruction and one of my sons going to jail,” Petro said in an early morning message on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “As president of the republic, I’ve assured the chief prosecutor’s office that it will have all of the guarantees so it can proceed according to the law.”
The arrest of Nicolas Petro is a major blow to the government, which has been buffeted by conservative attacks from day one at the same time it has struggled to maintain bipartisan support for Colombia in the U.S., a longtime ally in the war on drugs and fight against illegal armed groups.
The investigation stems from shocking declarations made by Nicolas Petro’s ex-wife, Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, to local media outlet Semana earlier this year.
In the extended interview, Vasquez detailed how she was present at meetings when her husband arranged a donation of more than 600 million pesos (around $150,000) from a politician once convicted in Washington of drug trafficking and who was seeking the Petro campaign’s support to resume his political career.
She said President Petro was unaware of her son’s dealings and the money he collected in his campaign’s name was kept inside a safe inside the couple’s home in the coastal city of Barranquilla.
Nicolas Petro has denied his ex wife’s claims as unfounded.
The chief prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Nicolas Petro and his ex-wife were taken into custody on orders of a court in Bogota around 6 a.m. local time Saturday. It said that once brought before a judge, prosecutors would seek their provisional detention as it investigates the two for money laundering. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-son-of-colombias-president-arrested-as-part-of-money-laundering-probe/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:28 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-son-of-colombias-president-arrested-as-part-of-money-laundering-probe/ |
‘I’m still in shock’: Woman wins lottery jackpot while taking break from work
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) - A North Carolina woman won a triple-digit jackpot thanks to purchasing a lucky scratch-off ticket.
According to the North Carolina Educational Lottery, Jodi Owens won a $100,000 prize by putting her break time to good use and buying a lottery ticket.
Officials said Owens, a retired nurse practitioner, took a break from doing some work around her house and stopped at a Civietown Mini Mart in Shallotte. She picked up a few items including a Black Titanium scratch-off.
She returned home to scratch her winning ticket.
“I’m still in shock,” Owens said. “It’s truly a blessing.”
Owens claimed her prize on Friday and took home $71,259 after taxes.
“I’m going to pay my mortgage off and pay my car off,” she said. “I’m thinking about getting a manicure and pedicure too!”
Lottery officials said the Black Titanium scratch-off game just launched last month and is available for $30.
Copyright 2023 WECT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/im-still-shock-woman-wins-lottery-jackpot-while-taking-break-work/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:29 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/im-still-shock-woman-wins-lottery-jackpot-while-taking-break-work/ |
NEW YORK, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Tingo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIO) between December 1, 2022 and June 6, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 7, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Tingo securities during the 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 Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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 August 7, 2023. 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. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. 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, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Tingo overstated its revenue and other accounting metrics, creating a false impression of success; (2) Tingo was not meaningfully engaged in many of the business activities that it claimed would drive future growth; (3) many of Tingo's supposed contracts with customers and suppliers did not exist; and (4) in light of the above, defendants' positive statements about Tingo's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:29 | 1 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday to Dec. 25 from Jan. 7, the day when the Russian Orthodox Church observes it.
The explanatory note attached to the law said its goal is to “abandon the Russian heritage,” including that of “imposing the celebration of Christmas” on Jan. 7, and cited Ukrainians’ “relentless, successful struggle for their identity” and “the desire of all Ukrainians to live their lives with their own traditions, holidays,” fueled by Russia’s 17-month-old aggression against the country.
Last year, some Ukrainians already observed Christmas on Dec. 25, in a gesture that represented separation from Russia, its culture and religious traditions.
The law also moves the Day of Ukrainian Statehood to July 15 from July 28, and the Day of Defenders of Ukraine to Oct. 1 from Oct. 14.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which claims sovereignty over Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and some other Eastern Orthodox churches continue to use the ancient Julian calendar. Christmas falls 13 days later on that calendar, or Jan. 7, than it does on the Gregorian calendar used by most church and secular groups.
The Catholic Church first adopted the modern, more astronomically precise Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. Protestants and some Orthodox churches have since aligned their own calendars for the purpose of calculating Christmas and Easter.
Ukraine’s religious landscape has fractured for years. There are two branches of Orthodox Christianity in the country, one aligned with the Russian church, even as it enjoys broad autonomy, the other completely independent of it. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the branch that is separate from the Russian church, announced earlier this year that it was switching to the Revised Julian calendar, which marks Christmas on Dec. 25.
Its leadership last year allowed believers to celebrate the holiday on Dec. 25.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported on Saturday that the rival Orthodox Church, which is aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church, vowed to continue observing Christmas on Jan. 7.
Zelenskyy on Saturday traveled to the war-torn Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia has illegally annexed, but only partially occupies, and met with members of the country’s Special Operation Forces. Zelenskyy noted in an online statement that Saturday marks their official day of recognition and also the anniversary of the deadly attack on the Olenivka prison in the Russian-held part of the region in which dozens of prisoners of war were killed.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of the attack, with both sides saying that the assault was premeditated in a bid to cover up atrocities. A United Nations fact-finding mission requested by Russia and Ukraine was sent to investigate the killings, but the team was disbanded in January 2023 due to security concerns.
Zelenskyy described the attack as one of Russia’s “most vile and cruel crimes” in a video statement Saturday. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-ukraine-moves-official-christmas-day-holiday-to-dec-25-denouncing-russian-imposed-traditions/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:34 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-ukraine-moves-official-christmas-day-holiday-to-dec-25-denouncing-russian-imposed-traditions/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday pushed back against Australian demands for an end to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s prosecution, saying the Australian citizen was accused of “very serious criminal conduct” in publishing a trove of classified documents more than a decade ago.
Australia’s center-left Labor Party government has been arguing since winning the elections last year that the United States should end its pursuit of the 52-year-old, who has spent four years in a British prison fighting extradition to the United States.
Assange’s freedom is widely seen as a test of Australia’s leverage with President Joe Biden’s administration.
Blinken confirmed on Saturday that Assange had been discussed in annual talks with Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane, Australia.
“I understand the concerns and views of Australians. I think it’s very important that our friends here understand our concerns about this matter,” Blinken told reporters.
“Mr. Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country,” he added.
Wong said Assange’s prosecution had “dragged for too long” and that Australia wanted the charges “brought to a conclusion.”
Australia remains ambiguous about whether the United States should drop the prosecution or strike a plea bargain.
Assange faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of of hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic and military documents in 2010.
American prosecutors allege he helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks later published, putting lives at risk.
Australia argues there is a “disconnect” between the U.S. treatment of Assange and Manning. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence to seven years, which allowed her release in 2017. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-us-secretary-of-state-tells-australia-that-wikileaks-founder-is-accused-of-very-serious-crime/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:40 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-us-secretary-of-state-tells-australia-that-wikileaks-founder-is-accused-of-very-serious-crime/ |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Over 100 mercenaries belonging to the Russian-linked Wagner group in Belarus have moved close to the border with Poland, the Polish prime minister said Saturday.
Mateusz Morawiecki said at a news conference that the mercenaries had moved close to the Suwalki Gap, a strategic stretch of Polish territory situated between Belarus and Kaliningrad, a Russian territory separated from the mainland.
Poland is a member of both the European Union and NATO, and it has worried about its security with Russian ally Belarus and Ukraine on its eastern border.
Those fears have grown since Wagner group mercenaries arrived in Belarus since the group’s short-lived rebellion earlier this summer.
The Poland-Belarus border has already been a tense place for a couple of years, ever since large numbers of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa began arriving, seeking to enter the EU by crossing into Poland, as well as Lithuania.
Poland’s government accuses Russia and Belarus of using the migrants to destabilize Poland and other EU countries. It calls the migration a form of hybrid warfare, and has responded by building a high wall along part of its border with Belarus.
“Now the situation becomes even more dangerous,” Morawiecki told reporters.
He added that “this is certainly a step towards a further hybrid attack on Polish territory.”
Morawiecki spoke during a visit to an arms factory in Gliwice, in southern Poland, where Leopard tanks used by the Ukrainian army are being repaired. | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-wagner-mercenaries-in-belarus-move-closer-to-the-polish-border-polands-prime-minister-says/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:47 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/news/world-news/ap-international/ap-wagner-mercenaries-in-belarus-move-closer-to-the-polish-border-polands-prime-minister-says/ |
While the kids are on home instruction, there’s no better time than now to school them — on the 80s and 90s movies, that is. These decades are pop-culture treasure troves from which many of our fondest memories are plucked.
That’s why you and the kiddos should curl up on the couch and revisit your favorite flicks. Believe it or not, many of them are rich in educational value, even if it’s a matter of drawing the line with feathered bangs.
Our team rounded up essential 80s and 90s cinematic masterpieces for you to share with your kids as they begin their new favorite class, Film Studies 101: The Wonder Years.
Shop this article: Sister Act (1993), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) and Sixteen Candles (1984)
Rated PG
Sister Act (1993)
Witness protection doesn’t need to be boring, especially when you send a Vegas lounge singer into a nunnery for selling out her mob boyfriend. Sister Mary Clarence brings a little jazz to the sisterhood, and you’ll probably sing along to this one — much to the chagrin of the kids.
Other subjects covered: Music theory, criminal justice, religion
Also available at Disney+
The Sandlot (1993)
The summer of 1962 is a formative one for this motley crew of young baseball players. From awkward interactions with girls to dealing with bullying, it’s an all-ages relatable story. And yes, there are plenty of inside jokes that only true baseball fans will appreciate.
Other subjects covered: Bildungsroman, baseball history, bullying
Also available at Starz
Beetlejuice (1988)
Introduce the kiddos to Lydia, a teen undergoing major life adjustments. Moving and making new friends in less-than-ideal situations isn’t easy, especially when you befriend the ghosts of tenants past in your new home — some of whom have colorful personalities.
Other subjects covered: Blended families, real estate ethics, exorcisms
Life is Beautiful (1998)
In an attempt to shield his son from the reality of Nazi occupation in Italy, a quirky Jewish bookshop owner turns their new way of life into a game. The lighthearted approach to keeping young Guido out of harm’s way without further traumatizing him is truly touching.
Other subjects covered: WW2 history, European geography, family dynamics
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Soul-sucking witches from 1693 surface 300 years later to give young Max a run for his money in Salem, Mass. Kids will be enthralled with his journey, as it shows how the actions of a single person has the potential to impact — or save — an entire town.
Other subjects covered: Early American history, time management, the effervescent Bette Midler
Also available at Disney+
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Whoa! Bill and Ted are the unintentional professors of this crash-course in world history. Join them as they adapt to ancient cultures and interact with historical figures — in a most excellent way.
Other subjects covered: the French Revolution, Greek philosophy, DIY repairs
Also available at Starz
Jungle 2 Jungle (1997)
The concrete jungle of New York City is a far cry from where Mimi-Siku was raised in the remote Canaima region of Venezuela. Upon arrival, he has to get used to Western traditions, a father he’s never met, and unexpected shenanigans involving the Russian mob.
Other subjects covered: Cultural diffusion, New York City architecture, table manners
Top Gun (1986)
Follow Kenny Loggins’s advice: Ride into the danger zone. Few things are as cool as Maverick rocking Ray-Bans and breaking the sound barrier. Cruise through the skies in style — and in preparation for this summer’s second installment to the iconic 80s blockbuster.
Other subjects covered: Aerospace engineering, gravity, classic 80s music
Rated PG-13
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
A star-studded cast does Shakespeare justice in this modern spin on The Taming of the Shrew. High school can be the cruelest of times with unrequited love, impenetrable cliques, and popularity contests. Personality perseveres, though: being nice matters, and true love can prevail.
Other subjects covered: Courtly love, sibling rivalries, puberty
Also available at Disney+
Jurassic Park (1993)
Who doesn’t love a nature versus nurture story told through misadventures in a dinosaur theme park? Kids can flex their problem-solving skills by coming up with ways to escape velociraptors running amok — and may emerge as budding paleontologists.
Other subjects covered: Evolution, GMOs, the dangers of portable toilets
Titanic (1997)
Follow the larger-than-life story of Jack and Rose, star-crossed lovers divided by class, set on the ill-fated Titanic. Besides learning about the ship’s history, you’ll also explore how this mega-budget movie managed to pull off its special effects.
Other subjects covered: Early 20th century history, cinematic history, anatomy of a ship
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Think it’s hard to relate to a high school slacker cutting class when you miss school? Think again. Ferris Bueller plays hooky and bites off more than he can chew trying to evade the principal. It’s a great lesson on the snowball effects of decision-making — not to mention joyriding.
Other subjects covered: Driver’s education, historic Chicago, the dramatic fourth wall
Clueless (1995)
This satirical commentary on 90s Valley Girls is very loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma. Slice through the vivacious verbiage to see the true heart of the story. Cher’s tireless mission as a social butterfly reveals good intentions, despite hang-ups with designer clothing.
Other subjects covered: 90s fashion, British Romantic literature, epic closet organization
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Running with scissors is not encouraged, and neither is falling in love when you have them for hands. This Franken-fantasy love story is endearing and illustrates the importance of not judging others by their appearance. Besides, we’re all one snip away from having our hearts broken, too.
Other subjects covered: Human anatomy, Johnny Depp as a film icon, landscape architecture
Wayne’s World (1992)
Your kids will never hear an electric guitar the same way again. This 90s spectacle incorporates all things pop culture, including the music and fashion of the era. It’s also fascinating to draw similarities between this low-budget basement show and modern-day live-streaming.
Other subjects covered: History of social media, 80s classic rock and metal, fashionable flannel
Rated R
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Sixteen is already hard enough, and things get more complicated when your sister’s wedding overshadows your birthday. Follow Sam as she becomes embroiled in a challenging relationship with her crush and navigates the antics of nerdy teenage boys.
Other subjects covered: Sex education, Molly Ringwald as a cultural icon, event planning
Also available at Starz
Coming to America (1988)
When Crown Prince Akeem of Zamunda breaks with tradition and refuses an arranged marriage, he travels to none other than New York City to find an independent woman. East and West collide during Akeem’s courtship attempts, which are awkward and borderline inappropriate.
Other subjects covered: Cultural diffusion, courtship, international travel
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1994)
To be fair, this film is technically PG-13, but it should be R. Set in jolly England, this comical delight is an un-PC retelling of Robin Hood. Toilet humor abounds, including a character named Latrine. The puns are awful, the names are worse, and if you do nothing else, duck and cover when Blinkin picks up a crossbow.
Other subjects covered: Medieval times, scriptwriting, personal hygiene
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/internet-streaming-br/best-movies-to-watch-with-your-kids/ | 2023-07-29T20:12:55 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/internet-streaming-br/best-movies-to-watch-with-your-kids/ |
Types of residential water heaters
Residential water heaters come in tank, tankless and hybrid varieties. Each type has its own distinct characteristics; benefits as well as drawbacks. By looking at factors including cost, energy efficiency, maintenance and lifespan, you’ll be able to determine which type is right for your home.
Shop this article: Rheem 50-Gallon Residential Electric Water Heater, Stiebel Eltron Tempra 36 Plus Tankless Heater, A.O. Smith 50-Gallon Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heater
Tank water heaters
Traditional water heaters feature a tank that stores hot water until it’s needed. They range in size from 30-50 gallons and run on either gas or electricity. These units cost less upfront compared to tankless and hybrid water heaters. Since they’re the most common type, costs associated with installation, repairs and maintenance are relatively low in comparison. Tank water heaters are associated with the most energy loss, referred to as standby heat loss. They waste energy by maintaining hot water in the tank when not in use.
Traditional water heaters have the shortest lifespan compared to the other types, typically lasting 8-12 years. Exposure to water, oxygen and minerals corrodes the tank over time, causing it to leak; this process is usually what causes a tank water heater to cease functioning.
Tankless water heaters
Also referred to as on-demand water heaters, tankless models are powered by gas or electricity. According to the Department of Energy, “for homes that use 41 gallons or less of hot water daily, demand water heaters can be 24–34% more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters.” While tankless water heaters cost more up-front and are pricier to install compared to tank units, energy savings make them more cost-effective in the long run. Tankless heaters also take up significantly less space compared to tank and hybrid models.
Tankless water heaters have the longest lifespan, capable of lasting around 15 to 20 years. This is in part due to the fact that they do not operate constantly the way a traditional tank heater does. However, tankless water heater components may also experience corrosion, eventually.
Hybrid water heaters
Hybrid water heaters run on minimal electricity, consisting of a tank and a heat pump. They’re larger than tank water heaters, with sizes ranging from 50 to 80 gallons. Unlike tank and tankless units, they don’t directly generate heat — heat is taken from the surrounding air and transferred into the tank. For this reason, hybrid water heaters are among the most energy-efficient options on the market. However, they are costly and more expensive to install compared to traditional storage tank heaters. Hybrid water heaters function best when the temperature of the surrounding air remains at or above 40 degrees.
Hybrid water heaters tend to last around 13-15 years. Similar to tankless water heaters, they do not run continuously, which increases their lifespan. They still contain a tank capable of corroding, though, so they won’t last as long as tankless units.
Best tank water heaters
Rheem 50-Gallon Residential Electric Water Heater
This electric water heater has a 50-gallon capacity suitable for households of 3-5 people. The water heater includes a 6-year tank and parts warranty.
Sold by Walmart
Rheem 40-Gallon Residential Electric Water Heater
If you’re looking for an electric model for a smaller household, this unit is a better option. It can reliably heat water for two to four people, with an included six-year tank and parts warranty.
Sold by Walmart
Rheem 40-Gallon Natural Gas Water Heater
This natural gas heater with a 40-gallon capacity can support households of 2-4 people. It features a push-button ignition for an easier startup process. You’re covered with a 6-year tank and parts warranty, as well.
Sold by Walmart
Best tankless water heaters
Stiebel Eltron Tempra 36 Plus Tankless Heater
This tankless electric option provides a continuous output of hot water for three to four bathrooms in warm climates or two to three bathrooms in cooler climates. It has a digital display and preset temperature buttons that simplify operation. This heater comes with seven-year leakage and three-year parts warranties.
Sold by Amazon
EcoSmart ECO 27 Tankless Water Heater
Another electric pick, this tankless model can heat up to 6 gallons of water per minute, ideal for apartment and condo units in warmer climates. It features a digital display and dial temperature controls. The lifetime warranty offers peace of mind.
Sold by Amazon
Eemax Electric Tankless Water Heater
In cold climates, this tankless electric model produces enough hot water for one shower and two sinks to run simultaneously. In warmer climates, this heater can support up to four showers running at once. It features a digital display and dial controls, plus 5-year leak and 1-year parts warranties with purchase.
Sold by Amazon
Best hybrid water heater
A.O. Smith 50-Gallon Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heater
This hybrid water heater has a 50-gallon tank capable of servicing households of three to five people. You can access efficiency, hybrid, electric and vacation operating modes using the electronic interface. The electric heater comes with a six-year tank and parts warranty.
Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/home-br/heating-cooling-air-quality-br/which-type-of-water-heater-is-best-for-you/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:01 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/home-br/heating-cooling-air-quality-br/which-type-of-water-heater-is-best-for-you/ |
Adult lawn games
When you’re a kid, outdoor games help you develop both fine and gross motor skills. They can increase your coordination, teach you admirable character traits such as good sportsmanship and help you burn off excess energy.
However, when you become an adult, outdoor games serve a different purpose. While they still provide entertainment and recreation, outdoor games encourage and facilitate social interaction. The best outdoor games for adults create an atmosphere that sparks conversation and healthy but not too serious competition.
Read on for a list of favorite outdoor games that are best suited for backyard gatherings of adult friends and family members. To make it easy for you to find one that’s best for your needs, they’re organized in five categories: classic games, tossing games, active games, supersized games and novelty options.
Shop this article: Franklin Sports Croquet Set, Hey! Play! Family Bocce Ball Set and St. Pierre American Professional Series Horseshoes
Classic games
These lawn games are timeless favorites that have been around for a hundred years or more.
Croquet is a fun game of skill that’s been around for nearly 200 years. It involves hitting a ball through a course made of wire hoops and a peg. This set comes with everything you need: six durable mallets, six balls, nine hoops, two pegs and a carrying case.
Sold by Amazon
Hey! Play! Family Bocce Ball Set
Bocce is a simple game of skill that’s been around for over 7,000 years. This set from Hey! Play! offers quality materials at a low price, which translates to value. The balls come in two colors with two distinct patterns to facilitate four-person play.
Sold by Amazon
You thought bowling was only an indoor sport? In 5,000 B.C., ancient Egyptians used to have fun knocking down objects by rolling stones. With this quality set of ten hardwood pins and two hardwood balls, you can carry on the tradition at your next picnic. This game works best on level, short-cut lawns or dirt.
Sold by Amazon
Tossing games
Whether tossing steel or beanbags, these fun adult games are designed to test your underarm throwing skills.
St. Pierre American Professional Series Horseshoes
This is not a set for kids. The durable blue and gray horseshoes in this kit are manufactured using forged steel. The set also includes two solid steel 24-inch stakes, an official rule book and a carrying case.
Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
GoSports Premium Metal Ladder Toss Game Set
If you’re looking for a high-quality ladder toss game, this model is made out of steel, is easy to assemble and comes with a carrying case. The bolos are manufactured using soft rubber with thicker strings to help prevent tangles.
Sold by Amazon
This regulation-size cornhole game has a vintage style and is manufactured to look like steel-framed barnwood planks but is UV- and water-resistant. The set comes with eight 16-ounce, all-weather beanbags.
Sold by Amazon
Active games
These active games are best for individuals who like to get a little workout in while playing.
For the individual who takes paddle ball seriously, this high-quality, solid wooden set is made using pine, sapele and beechwood to create a distinctive design. The handles are wrapped in neoprene to provide a confident grip, and the set comes with a canvas drawstring bag for storage and transport.
Sold by Amazon
Franklin Sports Family Badminton Set
If you’d like to save a little money and still get a great badminton set, this is the way to go. This family-friendly unit features a net that is 20 feet x 1 foot, 6 inches. It’s easy to set up and comes with four steel badminton rackets, two nylon birdies and six ropes and stakes.
Sold by Amazon
Park & Sun Sports Permanent Outdoor Tetherball Set
Tetherball is a fun and challenging game that is permanently installed so you can play whenever you’d like. The object is simply to wrap the rope completely around the pole. This kit features a two-piece galvanized steel pole to resist rusting along with a soft-touch ball with a durable nylon-wound bladder.
Sold by Amazon
Supersized games
The fun only gets bigger when you play these tabletop games in extra-large size.
This is the official Hasbro version of the popular stacking game. However, in this supersized version, you can use the 54 hardwood blocks to create towers that are over 5 feet tall.
Sold by Amazon
ECR4Kids Jumbo 4-to-Score Game Set
Yes, this is the popular kids’ game that goes by a slightly different name when sold by other manufacturers. The object is to connect four giant rings in a straight line on the huge 4-foot-tall game grid. It’s manufactured using lightweight, weather-resistant material so it can be played either indoors or outdoors.
Sold by Amazon
Triumph Sports 28-Piece Lawn Domino Set
If you’ve ever wanted to play dominoes outside, this is your chance. This wooden set features 28 pieces that are 3 1/2 x 7 inches, making them large enough to play on a picnic table or in the grass. The color-coded pips add a splash of fun while the varnish finish helps with durability.
Sold by Amazon
Novelty options
If you’d like to look a little off the beaten path for backyard entertainment, these outdoor novelty games might be the best option for you.
University Games Flickin’ Chicken
This creative novelty game is modeled after golf. There’s a target that serves as the hole, and each round, players see who can land their chicken on the target with the least number of throws. Up to four players can play a game.
Sold by Amazon
GoSports Foam Fire Trophy Hunt
Admittedly, this game was designed for kids, but that doesn’t mean adults can’t have just as much fun playing. Players take turns shooting foam balls at a target that features big game animals to try and earn the most points. The set includes two blasters, 40 foam balls, a target, a carrying case and a rule book.
Sold by Amazon
GoPong 8-Foot Portable Beer Pong Table
Yes, we’ve saved the best for last! This regulation-size beer pong table is what every serious competitor needs. The compact, fold-up design turns this table into a 2-foot square case in a matter of seconds. While the table comes with six pong balls, you need to supply your own red Solo cups.
Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/outdoor-toys-br/best-adult-lawn-games/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:07 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/reviews/br/toys-games-br/outdoor-toys-br/best-adult-lawn-games/ |
Melting ice near Matterhorn reveals remains of climber missing for 37 years
(CNN) - The remains of a climber who disappeared while hiking along a glacier near Switzerland’s Matterhorn 37 years ago have been found.
Police say the melting ice on the glacier helped lead to the discovery of the remains.
They were found on July 12 by climbers hiking along the Theodul Glacier.
Several pieces of equipment were also found.
Police say a DNA analysis helped identify the remains as belonging to a 38-year-old German mountain climber who was reported missing in September 1986.
Police also say they had searched for the climber at the time, but they were unsuccessful.
No further details about the climber’s identity or his cause of death have been revealed.
Police say the melting glaciers have led to the reemergence of bodies of those who were reported missing several decades ago.
Scientists announced earlier this week that July is on track to be Earth’s hottest month ever recorded.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/melting-ice-near-matterhorn-reveals-remains-climber-missing-37-years/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:11 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/melting-ice-near-matterhorn-reveals-remains-climber-missing-37-years/ |
COLFAX, Iowa (AP) — In the small central Iowa town of Colfax, thousands of cyclists participating in the largest and oldest recreational bike ride in the world were stopped along its historic main street, staring ahead at a daunting climb that would lead them out of town.
The hill, coupled with soaring temps and the vibrant downtown, made a morning sitting in the shade quite appealing.
It’s become almost simplistic to say that “small-town America” is slowly dying. That opportunities for young people have dried up, just like businesses and main streets. That the only way forward in life involves moving to a big city. But the reality is towns such as Colfax are flourishing, and that was especially evident on RAGBRAI, the annual bike ride across the state, where dozens of small towns dotting the 500-mile route welcomed some 50,000 riders with open arms.
Colfax is a prime example. It experienced a nearly 8% increase in population from the 2010 census to the most recent in 2020, turning around two decades of decline. Its population of 2,255 represented its highest since the 1990s.
Sure, many small towns are still struggling, but what has allowed those such as Colfax to thrive?
“Mostly, a wonderful mayor and council and volunteers that just ensure a vital community,” explains Wade Wagoner, the former city manager for the small town of Lake Park, and now the city administrator for Colfax.
“Des Moines and the metro growing to the east doesn’t hurt,” Wagoner said. “Also, the fact that we still have a high school and citizens just approved a $14 million bond for athletic and academic improvements make people want to raise a family here.”
Wagoner underscores that location is important. After the COVID-19 pandemic, when many jobs became partially or fully remote, people who may have once worked in a city could suddenly live just about anywhere, including small towns across America.
Wagoner goes on to talk about the smallest Fareway grocery store in the state, the coffee shop and bank and city hall, all of which make for a bustling hub. There’s also a rich history with mineral water that makes Colfax’s downtown large for its size.
In other words, Colfax has leaned into its strengths to create a community that people want to call home.
And every few years, big events such as RAGBRAI roll through, giving them a chance to shine.
“Lots of trash and (Port-o-potties,” Wagoner said of the traveling circus, “but it is actually pretty cool. It lets us show off the town and certain businesses do make some money. Others find it a pain. But it’s only for a single day.”
If nothing else, the horde of cyclists are good for making money.
In Polk City, between the busy metros of Ames and Des Moines, high school students collected money to fund their after-prom party. Elsewhere on the ride, residents of Slater were using donations to build a new community center and library. In Breda, where the route went through Monday, the town was trying to raise $300,000 to replace the lights at its baseball grandstand, which was built in 1946 and has withstood the test of time.
Breda, population 500, is another example of a small town doing well. It has steadily gained residents for the past 30 years.
In the quiet hamlet of Oxford, just past the fire department and the Deja Brew Coffee House & Bakery, four boys took turns in a dunk tank Friday as cyclists passed through on a day of unrelenting heat — the index topped out at 112 degrees.
For just $5, riders got three shots at the tank. All the proceeds went to their little league program.
The boys were winning on two fronts: staying cool and making cash.
The population of Slater, just north of Polk City, has steadily grown the past three decades.
“Many young families have moved into Slater recently for the school system, and safety of our small town, and ease of getting around,” said Evy Raes of the Slater Area Historical Association. “Our sense of community was tested when a derecho roared through in August 2020. Never fear: anyone with a pickup truck, a chain saw and a six-pack was out in the streets after the storm, helping neighbors clear and dispose of the debris. People really pulled together and no one was a stranger.”
That sense of community isn’t always felt in bigger cities. And more than anything, Raes said, that has helped them to thrive.
“We are a small town with big ideals,” Raes said. “Many people who move into Slater feel an instant connection with the community. It is said though, ‘Don’t gossip about anybody who’s lived here awhile, because they may be related to the person you’re talking to.’ My family has lived here over 74 years, and some days we feel like the new people.”
Turns out that, at least in some small towns, there are in fact plenty of new people.
___
Dave Skretta is a Kansas City, Missouri-based AP Sports Writer. He grew up in the small-but-vibrant northeast Iowa town of Decorah and and has ridden RAGBRAI many times, though he’s never written about it while doing it. Skretta wrote periodic updates from the road. He covered 579 miles from start to finish.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-bike-ride-across-iowa-puts-vibrant-small-town-america-into-sharp-focus/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:13 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-bike-ride-across-iowa-puts-vibrant-small-town-america-into-sharp-focus/ |
‘I’m still in shock’: Woman wins lottery jackpot while taking break from work
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT/Gray News) - A North Carolina woman won a triple-digit jackpot thanks to purchasing a lucky scratch-off ticket.
According to the North Carolina Educational Lottery, Jodi Owens won a $100,000 prize by putting her break time to good use and buying a lottery ticket.
Officials said Owens, a retired nurse practitioner, took a break from doing some work around her house and stopped at a Civietown Mini Mart in Shallotte. She picked up a few items including a Black Titanium scratch-off.
She returned home to scratch her winning ticket.
“I’m still in shock,” Owens said. “It’s truly a blessing.”
Owens claimed her prize on Friday and took home $71,259 after taxes.
“I’m going to pay my mortgage off and pay my car off,” she said. “I’m thinking about getting a manicure and pedicure too!”
Lottery officials said the Black Titanium scratch-off game just launched last month and is available for $30.
Copyright 2023 WECT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/29/im-still-shock-woman-wins-lottery-jackpot-while-taking-break-work/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:14 | 1 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/29/im-still-shock-woman-wins-lottery-jackpot-while-taking-break-work/ |
DreamCloud Premier Rest Mattress Review: Most Plush Luxury Bed?
Speaker 1: So will the Dream Cloud Premier Rest mattress actually help you get premier rest? We're gonna talk about that in today's video.
Speaker 1: Hey, how's it going? This is Owen, and we have our solar review of the Dream Cloud Premier Rest Mattress. In today's video. This is the most high-end luxurious mattress in the Dream Cloud mattress lineup. They have two other mattresses we just did a whole Dream cloud mattress guide. Video should be linked down below in the description, it goes in in more detail on [00:00:30] the differences between the three beds. We're mostly gonna be focusing on the premiere rest. In today's video, we're gonna talk about what it's actually made of, what it feels like for you to sleep on, how firm it is, how much it costs, and who might wanna pick one up for themselves. That sounds good, and you find this video helpful, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. Let's just quickly breeze through the policy information for this mattress. They'll be up on screen for you to read, and there'll be more details in the description if you wanna learn more.
Speaker 1: Basically, this mattress will arrive in a box. It's pretty easy to unbox a thing. And this bed comes with an exceptionally long trial period an entire year, which is pretty cool, and it comes to a lifetime warranty and free returns [00:01:00] within the trial period. Now, one thing I've heard people kind of be confused about is the returns process. You don't actually have to somehow ship the mattress back to the company because once it's outta the box, you're not getting it back in the box. So what you actually will happen is you'll call up the company and say you wanna return the bed, and then they'll coordinate with someone in your area to pick up the mattress, and most likely it'll actually get donated. So the returns process is really easy. Don't be intimidated by it. If you buy a mattress and you don't like it, that's what the trial period is here for.
Speaker 1: So that's all the policy stuff. [00:01:30] Let's just dive right into the construction of the Dream Cloud Premier arrest mattress. And what's gonna feel like for you to sleep on on a nightly basis. So this is a 16 inch thick mattress, which makes it very tall. A lot of mattresses you buy online are somewhere between 10 and 12, sometimes up to 14, but this one is very thick and there's a lot of layers underneath the cover. At the very, very bottom, you have a super thin layer of base foam. This is just here. So the layer of pocketed coils, which is the main support layer, has something to sit on. So pocketed coils are pretty different [00:02:00] than traditional Inners Springs. You've done a lot of stuff talking about it. Basically you get the same level of support as Inners Springs, but it does a way better job at isolating motion.
Speaker 1: And coils will give you a little extra bounce of your mattresses. Some people like and they're gonna be more supportive and durable over the long term. Then right above those coils, you have a layer of dynamic transition foam. This is extremely common in mattress constructions to have some kind of transition layer that goes between the primary comfort foams and the main support layer. It's really here, so you only feel the support from the support layer as opposed to the layer itself. [00:02:30] You don't want to really be feeling coils that much while you're sleeping. And then right above that, you have another layer of a more neutral, responsive foam that goes above that, that adds to the comfort and responsiveness of the mattress. Then you have another layer of a more soft contouring comfort foam that's kind of a blend between a more neutral foam and a memory foam.
Speaker 1: And then the top comfort layer is indeed a layer of memory foam. And you also have this really nice quilted cover. And the cover itself has a little bit of cashmere woven in. And I say little bit of cashmere because the amount of cashmere in the cover [00:03:00] in comparison to the rest of the materials in the cover is pretty small. But it's always nice to have that added little bit of luxury. And so the construction of the Dream Cloud Premier Mattress adds up to giving it more of a responsive memory foam feel because the top layer is a memory foam than the layer right above that is a more neutral foam that is trying to kind of mimic memory foam. You get some nice sink in bodying informing quality you would expect from a memory foam. But thanks to the coils and the more responsive foams underneath, it's not gonna be quite as dense and viscous as a more traditional [00:03:30] memory foam bed.
Speaker 1: So it strikes a nice balance between having memory foam and being more responsive. And when I say responsive, I mean that the foams kind of bounce back into their original shape a lot more quickly than a more traditional memory foam. So I think fans of memory foam will enjoy the feel of the premiere rest. And even people like myself who aren't huge fans of memory foam won't really find it off-putting. So I think it strikes a nice balance. Let's move over to the subject of firmness now, which is another super important factor when deciding on your next mattress. And in our testing, we found the dream cloud premiere [00:04:00] rest to be right between a medium and a medium soft on our scale, which means it's gonna be most ideal for side sleepers and certain combination sleepers. In general, if you are a primary side sleeper, you are gonna be looking for a mattress that's at least a medium, if not a little bit softer because it really helps cradle your pressure points like your hips and your shoulders.
Speaker 1: I am a primary side sleeper. I definitely prefer softer beds because if I'm sleeping on a bed that's too firm, I'll wake up in the middle of the night with some hip and shoulder pain and have to rotate to my other side, and then, you know, a few hours later kind of the same deal. So I think if you are a side sleeper, [00:04:30] you'll probably really enjoy the firmest level of this mattress. Bearing in mind that firmness is always fairly subjective based on your body weight. I'm a pretty heavy guy, and so I generally feel beds to be a bit softer. And if you are a much more lightweight person, you generally feel beds to be a bit firmer. So if you are a lightweight person, probably closer to a medium. If you're a bit heavier like me, probably closer to a medium soft, but the firmness lies somewhere in between.
Speaker 1: And then the last really big thing I wanna talk about is pricing, because Dream Cloud does something a little bit funky with their pricing structure. So generally they say their MSRP is super high and then are offering steep discounts. [00:05:00] And if you go on their website, they usually say there's only 12 more hours to claim this deal, or else the price will go way up. Don't buy into that. The discounted price is the price you should probably be paying pretty much year round. And once you factor in those discounts, the Dream Cloud premier rest for a queen size comes in at around 1400 bucks. Pricing and discounts are always subject to change though, so make sure you look down below in the description for what's current on the premier rest. We've been watching these prices for many, many years now, and from what we've seen, dream Cloud pretty much always has some kind of offer on hand.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the overall [00:05:30] price might increase a little bit, but they're also including free extras like sheets and pillows. Right now, sheets and pillows are not included with a mattress purchase, so just make sure you look down below in that description for what is current on this mattress. The pricing might have changed by the time you're watching this video, but overall, I still think the Dream Club premier Rest is a solid value from what we've seen. A lot of brands like to offer a good better, best model with the best in the lineup, being more geared towards side sleepers because a lot of sleepers do favor their side, and so they tend to mark those up a little bit. [00:06:00] I think the Dream Cloud Premier Rest does compare favorably to a lot of other beds in its class. Like say the Casper Nova Hybrid, the Puffy Luxe hybrid.
Speaker 1: So if you like the idea of a more responsive memory home feel in your mattress and you like the idea of something softer, I think you'll probably really enjoy the Dream Cloud premier rest, and it is not unreasonably priced. So I think that's really who should be looking at this particular mattress. But let us know what you think right down below in the comment section. We'd love to get your thoughts and again, tons of stuff in the description to help you with your mattress search. So we sure to take a look. You found this video helpful or interesting, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. But [00:06:30] this is gonna do it for me. This is Onus Seen at Home Now. See you the next one.
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How to Install Ring's New Car Cam | https://www.cnet.com/videos/dreamcloud-premier-rest-mattress-review-most-plush-luxury-bed/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:15 | 0 | https://www.cnet.com/videos/dreamcloud-premier-rest-mattress-review-most-plush-luxury-bed/ |
TEP working to restore power following Friday’s storm
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - TEP is continuing restoration efforts after Friday’s storm. They say they are working around the clock, but some customers should expect to remain without power at least through the weekend.
They say more than 56,000 people were without power at the height of Friday’s storm. Multiple crews worked through the night, restoring power to about 40,000 customers.
The storm caused widespread damage and at least 40 poles will need to be replaced. Crews are working on 400 jobs, with more expected as more damage is discovered.
They’ve set up two ice stations for those without power. Both are open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. They can be found at:
Kino Sports Complex at 2500 W Ajo Way near Forgeus Avenue and Milber Street
5550 E. Grant Road, East of Craycroft Road, in the Chuze Fitness parking lot.
TEP ask those with power to conserve energy. This will help ensure that operational circuits are not overloaded by additional usage. The local energy grid has been temporarily reconfigured in several areas of town to restore service to some customers while repairs continue.
Steps you can take to help include:
Setting the thermostat to 78 degrees.
Avoiding using large appliances.
Using ceiling fans.
Avoiding using your pool pump until the evening.
You can find more outage information here.
Copyright 2023 13 News. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/tep-working-restore-power-following-fridays-storm/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:18 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/2023/07/29/tep-working-restore-power-following-fridays-storm/ |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bronny James plays piano in a video posted by his father, LeBron James, on Saturday, five days after the teenager went into cardiac arrest during a basketball workout at the University of Southern California.
The 18-year-old plays a brief melody in front of his family, smiles and gets up without speaking in the video posted on his father’s Instagram account. The video doesn’t indicate where or when it was shot.
“A man of many talents,” the Los Angeles Lakers superstar can be heard saying in the background as Bronny finishes playing with his two younger siblings looking on.
TMZ posted photos of Bronny out to dinner with his family, which it says were taken Friday night. They show the teenager with his father outside celebrity hot spot Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica.
Wearing black pants and a zip-up hoodie, Bronny carried his phone while standing outside the Italian restaurant.
Bronny was released from the hospital on Thursday. He will continue to undergo tests to determine the cause of his cardiac arrest, which occurred Monday morning during a workout at USC’s Galen Center.
Bronny, whose full name is LeBron James Jr., committed to USC in May after the 6-foot-3 guard became one of the nation’s top prospects out of Sierra Canyon School in nearby Chatsworth.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/lebron-james | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-bronny-james-plays-piano-dines-out-in-video-photos-emerging-days-after-he-suffers-cardiac-arrest/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:19 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-bronny-james-plays-piano-dines-out-in-video-photos-emerging-days-after-he-suffers-cardiac-arrest/ |
WASHINGTON, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid a coordinated effort to undermine No Labels' work to secure ballot access in states nationwide, we have named Jay Nixon – a lifelong Democrat who spent 30 years serving Missouri as a governor, attorney general and state senator – as director of our new Ballot Integrity Project.
Since early last year, No Labels has gathered over 700,000 signatures and qualified for the ballot in five states. We have a strategy to get on the ballot in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., with the aim of potentially offering our line to an independent Unity presidential ticket in 2024. No Labels is responding to the overwhelming desire of Americans for more choices and voices in our politics – with two-thirds of voters saying they don't want a rematch of the 2020 election – but we now face organized opposition from a group of political operatives and former elected officials intent on keeping us off the ballot.
"At a moment when so many Americans' are losing trust in our democracy, we need to hold even tighter to the pillars that have held our democracy up for almost 250 years. In our country, you win by persuading more people and getting more votes, not by limiting voters' choices and denying competitors a place on the ballot," said Nixon. "Americans have the constitutional right to put any person or party on the ballot and to vote for whomever they want. Anyone who is against that isn't standing up for democracy. They are standing in the way."
Former Gov. Larry Hogan will welcome Nixon to the No Labels community in his first scheduled public appearance at a town hall on Tuesday, August 1, at 5 p.m. ET. Register here to join the town hall.
In Nixon's decorated public service career, he established a stellar record as a champion for the civil and voting rights of Americans. In his new role with No Labels, Nixon will work closely with No Labels national co-chair and civil rights icon, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., to monitor legal developments, provide strategic counsel and serve as a public advocate for No Labels' ballot access efforts.
Since the start of its ballot access effort, No Labels has rigorously followed the letter and spirit of all applicable election laws. In recent months, however, it has become the target of an undemocratic campaign by organized and powerful partisan interests determined to keep No Labels off the ballot.
Local parties and partisan election officials have filed baseless lawsuits, invented spurious charges and delayed certification without justification in Arizona, Maine and North Carolina. Now, a new well-resourced group, organized under the name "Citizens to Save our Republic," has embarked on an effort to pressure No Labels and its members to abandon our ballot access effort.
"No Labels is a movement dedicated to democracy, and democracy can't stop because the powers that be think it's 'dangerous' to have competition," said Chavis. "The way to unite this country and to restore Americans faith in our future is to have more democracy, not less. I'm eager to begin working side by side with former Gov. Nixon to protect Americans' most fundamental constitutional rights."
On July 18, No Labels launched its Common Sense policy booklet at an overflow town hall event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., featuring Dr. Chavis, his fellow No Labels co-chairs former Gov. Pat McCrory and Sen. Joe Lieberman and special guests Sen. Joe Manchin and Gov. Jon Huntsman. It was the first of many town halls No Labels will host in the months ahead – with different leaders in different states – to spur a long overdue discussion about where America needs to go in 2024 and beyond.
By early 2024, No Labels will gauge the mood of the American public and their openness to an independent Unity ticket and will offer our ballot line to a ticket if and only if, such a ticket has a viable path to victory in the 2024 presidential election.
Since its founding in 2009, No Labels has spent 13 years working to give voice to America's commonsense majority. We are now getting ballot access in states across the country to ensure Americans have the choice to vote for a 2024 presidential ticket that features strong, effective, and honest leaders who will commit to working closely with both parties to find commonsense solutions to America's biggest problems. www.nolabels.org.
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SOURCE No Labels | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:24 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/former-missouri-governor-attorney-general-jay-nixon-joins-no-labels-protect-constitutional-right-americans-choose-their-leaders/ |
FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Here’s why Katie Ledecky is one of the greatest freestyle swimmers in the history of the sport: She is never quite satisfied.
The 26-year-old American won the 800-meter freestyle on Saturday at the world championships to become the first swimmer to win six golds in the same event at worlds. It was also her 16th individual world title, breaking a tie with Michael Phelps for the most golds at worlds.
She also is a seven-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in both the 800 and 1,500.
But that winning time — 8 minutes, 8.87 seconds, which is the seventh-quickest she’d ever swum — wasn’t quite good enough in her favorite event.
“I’m just always trying to think of new ways to improve. I mean I’ve already got everything turning in my head right now. I kind of wanted to be better than I was tonight,” she said, twirling her right hand beside her right ear, trying to stir up ideas.
“I’m pretty tough on myself,” she said. “But I think I have found the balance of being tough on myself but also having that grace.”
The 800 was Ledecky’s second individual gold following her win in the 1,500 free on Tuesday. She also took silver in the 400 free. Li Bingjie of China took silver in 8:13.31, and Ariarne Titmus of Australia got the bronze in 8:13.59.
“It’s fun to leave a meet with your favorite event, and I just wanted to leave it all in the pool,” Ledecky said.
It was only the fourth gold for the United States in the seventh of eight days in the pool. Meanwhile, Australia has been piling it on with 13 golds, matching its best at the worlds. Australia won three more golds on Saturday.
The Americans lead the overall table with 31 medals (16 silver), Australia has 20 and China 13.
Kaylee McKeown of Australia made history of her own with gold in the women’s 200 backstroke. McKeown’s victory gave her a sweep of all three backstroke events after earlier wins in the 50 and 100. She became the first swimmer to sweep all three backstrokes at the worlds.
It all made up for her disqualification earlier in the 200 IM.
“You can’t change the rules,” she said. “I got ruled out. It’s just the cards I was dealt with and I couldn’t do much more than that. So I just had to carry myself the best I could and channel all my anger and turn a huge negative into a positive.”
Regan Smith of the United States picked up the silver in 2:04.94, while Peng Xuwei of China got the bronze in 2:06.74.
Sarah Sjöström of Sweden continued her dominance with gold in the 50 butterfly. The 29-year-old won in 24.77 seconds and has now won the event five consecutive times at the worlds. The win brought Sjöström’s individual medals at the worlds to 20, equaling Phelps’ mark.
Sjöström also broke her own record in the 50 free, going 23.61 in a semifinal heat. Her old mark was 23.67 set in 2017.
“There are not too many secrets,” Sjöström said about her longevity. “Just do the work every day, go to practice, and stay humble.”
Zhang Yufei of China, who took gold in the 100 fly, claimed the silver in 25.05, while American Gretchen Walsh got the bronze in 25.46.
Japanese fan favorite Rikako Ikee finished seventh (25.78) in the 50 fly but was greeted warmly by the home crowd.
The 23-year-old Ikee won six gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games and was expected to be a favorite in the Tokyo Olympics. But she was diagnosed with leukemia in February 2019. Her comeback continues to resonate with both the Japanese public and her fellow competitors.
Cameron McEvoy of Australia led all the way to capture the gold in the 50 free in 21.06. It was his first individual gold in the worlds or Olympics.
American Jack Alexy collected his second silver of the worlds in 21.57 to go with his silver in the 100 free. Benjamin Proud of Britian, last year’s world champion, took the bronze in 21.58.
Caeleb Dressel won the event at the Olympics but did not qualify for the U.S. team. McEvoy’s time was quicker than Dressel’s winning time in Tokyo — 21.07.
Maxime Grousset of France won gold in the 100 fly in 50.14. The 24-year-old took the early lead and held on. Josh Liendo of Canada earned the silver in 50.34, while American Dare Rose made the podium with the bronze (50.46).
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania equaled the world record of 29.30 in her semifinal in the 50 breaststroke.
Australia won the 4×100 mixed freestyle relay in a world record of 3:18.83. The Americans took silver in 3:20.82, with Britain getting the bronze in 3:21.68. The relay is not an Olympic event.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-katie-ledecky-passes-michael-phelps-for-most-individual-golds-at-world-championships/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:25 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-katie-ledecky-passes-michael-phelps-for-most-individual-golds-at-world-championships/ |
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Wendie Renard was threatening to skip the Women’s World Cup and Eugénie Le Sommer wasn’t in selection contention just a few months ago under France’s previous coaching regime.
A management overhaul and a change of heart ultimately led to two of French football’s most experienced players combining for Les Bleues on Saturday to deliver a 2-1 win over Brazil that put them into a strong position to progress to the round of 16.
Le Sommer missed with a diving header in the 13th minute but needed only four more minutes to convert her next chance, beating Brazilian goalkeeper Leticia with a more emphatic header to score her record-extending 90th international goal.
Debinha equalized for Brazil as the hour approached, and the game opened up as both teams pressed for a winner. That’s when Renaud stepped in.
Renard, who’d been in doubt for the match because of a calf injury she picked up in France’s lackluster opening 0-0 draw against Jamaica, drifted unmarked to the back edge of the box to meet a corner kick with a powerful header in the 83rd and clinch victory.
It meant the well-traveled Hervé Renard, who was hired in March to replace Corinne Diacre, became the first head coach to win games at both the women’s and men’s World Cups.
His upset victory with Saudi Arabia over eventual champion Argentina was one of the highlights of the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year. His French women’s team showed signs against Brazil that it could go deep in the tournament.
He credited his veteran players, either recalled or convinced to remain, for the turnaround.
Wendie Renard “is the most important player in the dressing room. Always talking, motivating the the other girls,” the France coach said, describing his captain’s influence on the team. Of other veterans like Le Sommer and Kadidiatou Diani, he added: “You need leaders in the team — they have a good experience and we need them to motivate also the other players.”
Le Sommer, who missed selection for the 2022 Euros under former coach Diacre, was in the thick of the early action for France.
The French started with a high tempo and had three chances before Sakina Karchaoui’s long floating ball into the area found Diani, who leaped and headed square for Le Sommer to finish off from directly in front.
The Brazilian women had never beaten France but started to meet them for intensity as halftime approached, helped by the majority of an almost 50,000-strong crowd.
Debinha equalized in the 58th, finishing off a quick passing movement into the area, controlling a deflected ball with the outside of her leg before firing in a right-foot shot.
Leticia kept Brazil in the game with a string of impressive saves, and Selma Bacha hit the side netting with her shot from the right in the 75th, unable to break the deadlock for France.
After Renard broke the deadlock, Brazil sent Marta in the 86th for her 22nd World Cup appearance — moving her to outright second on the country’s all-time list — but she wasn’t able to equalize in a frenetic finish.
Brazil is now winless in 12 women’s internationals against France, a setback for a team that opened the Women’s World Cup with a thumping 4-0 win over Panama, with Ary Borges scoring three goals and providing the back-heel assist for one of the goals of the tournament.
Against a more disciplined defense, the Brazilians weren’t able to finish despite creating ample opportunities.
Coach Pia Sundhage said she was disappointed with her Brazilian team’s first half and overall lack of cohesion.
The defensive lapse on the set piece that led to France’s winning goal was discouraging, she said, before adding: “I’m more disappointed we couldn’t make this a game where we play like the Brazilian style.”
Jamaica edged Panama 1-0 later Saturday in Perth to join France on four competition points in Group F, one ahead of Brazil. On Wednesday, three teams will be vying for two spots in the next round when Brazil meets Jamaica in Melbourne and France takes on Panama in Sydney.
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-le-sommer-renard-score-as-france-edges-brazil-2-1-at-the-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:31 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-le-sommer-renard-score-as-france-edges-brazil-2-1-at-the-womens-world-cup/ |
LOMPOC, Calif., July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation this week thanked the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee for including language in its Fiscal Year 2024 funding package that can improve the management of America's wild horses and burros.
A national nonprofit advocacy organization, Return to Freedom (RTF) works with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to press the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on the immediate scaling up of safe, proven and humane fertility control for wild horses and burros as well as with a diverse array of public lands stakeholders to create broader acceptance of fertility control use.
If implemented correctly and robustly, fertility control would slow (not stop) the growth of wild herds, keeping them on their home ranges rather than relying on the costly and traumatic capture, removal and warehousing of wild horses and burros.
"We are grateful to the Senate for again supporting protections for wild horses by taking the vitally important step of directing — in clear language — that the Bureau of Land Management implement thoughtful management that results in the kinds of humane approaches for which Return to Freedom has tirelessly advocated," said Neda DeMayo, president of RTF.
The Senate Committee's guiding report language calls for $11 million "to be spent to continue implementation of a robust and humane fertility control strategy of reversible immunocontraceptive vaccines."
The Senate Committee's report emphasized that it "expects" the BLM to place "specific attention on:"
- "increasing the use of fertility control, including measurable objectives in reducing population growth with fertility controls,
- "targeting removals from the most heavily ecologically impacted and populated areas,
- "expanding long-term, off-range humane holding, and continuing adoptions while fully implementing and enforcing existing safeguards."
The Senate Committee on Thursday approved a total of $148 million for wild horse and burro management for 2024. Congress allocated the same amount in 2023.
By comparison, the House Interior Appropriations Committee on June 19 approved $155 million for wild horse management in 2024.
The House Committee's report language also sets aside $11 million for fertility control; however, it does not specify using the funding solely for immediate on-range implementation. The House also allows the money to be used for research, including on permanent sterilization, which RTF strongly opposes.
The Senate and House must now reconcile their differences.
RTF is calling on the House and Senate conferees to adopt the House's funding level alongside the Senate's guiding report language. RTF will continue to advocate for stricter wild horse and burro protections and for greater funding until the final bill is approved later this year.
Background
As it has for decades, the BLM continues to emphasize capture-and-removal, putting off fertility control use while also failing to reach the agency's own wild horse population targets. In FY 2022, for example, 20,193 wild horses and burros were removed from their home ranges while just 1,622 mares were treated and released with some form of fertility control.
Out of the BLM-estimated 141,000 federally protected wild horses and burros that the agency is charged with overseeing, 58,000 now live not on the range but in overcrowded government corrals or on leased pastures.
The cost to taxpayers of continued off-range holding of captured wild horses has climbed to more than $83 million annually. That has left little funding for prioritizing range management, restoration, personnel and administration, let alone fertility control.
Population modeling by RTF and other stakeholders has shown that immediately implementing fertility control alongside any removal that BLM conducts is the only way to catch up with and stabilize herd growth so that on-range management can replace removals.
Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education, conservation, and advocacy since 1998. It also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at three California locations, caring for more than 450 wild horses and burros managing the population with fertility control since 1999. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates about wild horses and burros on the range and at our sanctuary.
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SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:31 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/return-freedom-applauds-senates-continued-emphasis-wild-horse-fertility-control/ |
BALTIMORE (AP) — Anthony Santander said it felt like a playoff game at Camden Yards.
A few more performances like this, and the Baltimore Orioles will be there.
Santander homered off Tommy Kahnle in the ninth inning to give the Orioles a 1-0 victory over New York on Friday night, spoiling Aaron Judge’s return for the Yankees. Judge walked three times in his first game back from a toe injury, but the Orioles kept New York off the scoreboard with a spectacular defensive effort.
In the eighth inning alone, Santander made a lunging, sliding catch in right field, and second baseman Adam Frazier made a diving stop on Anthony Rizzo’s grounder with a man on second.
“Great defense, great pitching, that’s how we win baseball games,” Santander said.
Orioles rookie Grayson Rodriguez pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings, going toe to toe with New York’s Gerrit Cole, who went seven. Félix Bautista (6-1) struck out two in a scoreless ninth. Kahnle (1-1) couldn’t match that in the bottom half, allowing Santander’s one-out drive that went well beyond the fence in right-center field.
The Orioles remained 1 1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay atop the AL East, and they now lead the last-place Yankees by nine.
The game was delayed 2 hours, 32 minutes by rain, but that did little to dampen the enthusiasm of a crowd that included a mix of Yankees fans cheering Judge and Orioles fans embracing their first-place team.
“Right before the start of the game, it felt like a playoff game,” Santander said. “That’s good to have those fans to support us. Hopefully they can continue to do that.”
Judge lined out to right field on the first pitch to him in the first, but he reached base the other three times he came up.
Anthony Volpe was robbed twice by stellar Baltimore defense. Third baseman Ramón Urías made a diving stop on his one-hopper in the fifth. In the eighth, Volpe led off with a fly to right that Santander reached out and caught before sliding on his stomach across the grass.
New York eventually had two on and two out that inning when Rizzo’s grounder looked headed to right field. Frazier’s diving play prevented that.
“Defense won us the game,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Adam Frazier, diving play off Rizz. Santander with a great diving catch. We turned some double plays.”
Each team had only four hits. Rodriguez was one of Baltimore’s prized prospects, and after being sent back to the minors for a bit, he may be finding a groove.
“I just love his delivery right now and the tempo of his delivery,” Hyde said. “Just really, really competitive.”
DEADLINE OUTLOOK
Orioles general manager Mike Elias said it’s no secret that the Orioles are working on potentially adding pitching upgrades at the trade deadline. He said the team has the wherewithal to make “good baseball trades” even if it means adding payroll.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: Elias said he hopes OFs Cedric Mullins (right adductor groin strain) and Aaron Hicks (left hamstring strain) can return and play a large part of August. … Elias said LHP John Means (left elbow UCL surgery) and RHP Mychal Givens (right shoulder inflammation) will probably be pitching in games in the Florida Complex League in the early part of August.
UP NEXT
Baltimore’s Tyler Wells (7-5) takes the mound against New York’s Clarke Schmidt (6-6) on Saturday night. Schmidt will be on extended rest, having last pitched July 21.
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Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-santander-hits-9th-inning-homer-to-give-orioles-1-0-win-over-yankees-and-spoil-judges-return/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:37 | 0 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-santander-hits-9th-inning-homer-to-give-orioles-1-0-win-over-yankees-and-spoil-judges-return/ |
NEW YORK, July 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Tingo Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TIO) between December 1, 2022 and June 6, 2023, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important August 7, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Tingo securities during the 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 Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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 August 7, 2023. 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. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. 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, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Tingo overstated its revenue and other accounting metrics, creating a false impression of success; (2) Tingo was not meaningfully engaged in many of the business activities that it claimed would drive future growth; (3) many of Tingo's supposed contracts with customers and suppliers did not exist; and (4) in light of the above, defendants' positive statements about Tingo's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Tingo class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=16856 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com 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
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
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cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:37 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/07/29/tio-deadline-rosen-ranked-leading-firm-encourages-tingo-group-inc-investors-with-losses-secure-counsel-before-important-august-7-deadline-securities-class-action-tio/ |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — United States midfielder Savannah DeMelo can speak some Portuguese and may be able to put it to use in the Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. plays Portugal on Tuesday to wrap up the tournament’s group stage, and a fter a disappointing 1-1 draw against the Netherlands, the Americans needs a win. At stake is both the top spot in Group E and also a much-needed boost to team confidence.
That’s where DeMelo can help.
The 25-year-old’s dad, Robert, is from Portugal and had a successful career as a player in that country before becoming a coach. DeMelo has dual citizenship and understands Portuguese.
“I’ll definitely be listening for it,” she laughed.
DeMelo made her first international start for the United States against Vietnam in the group opener, a 3-0 victory for the Americans.
Prior to the World Cup, DeMelo had played in only one other match for the United States: she was a substitute in the team’s send-off match against Wales in San Jose in early July. DeMelo, who plays for Racing Louisville FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, was the first U.S. player since Shannon Boxx in 2003 and third overall to be named to the World Cup roster without any previous appearances for the national team.
U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski started DeMelo in the both of the American’s World Cup matches. She played both opening halves before being subbed off for veteran Rose Lavelle, who has been playing limited minutes for the United States because of a knee injury suffered in April.
The journey from being named to the team to getting a start in the World Cup has “been a crazy roller coaster of emotions,” said DeMelo.
“But I think I’ve had a lot of great people, including the girls on the team, who have been super helpful with getting me acclimated to the team,” she said. “And I’m just super grateful to be here.”
The United States may need to switch up its tactics against Portugal.
The Americans are tied on points with the Netherlands in Group E and have an advantage over the Dutch on goal difference. The top two teams in the group advance to the knockout round.
But the results haven’t been as emphatic as they were in 2019, when the U.S. opened with a 13-0 victory over Thailand and went on to win their second straight World Cup title, and fourth overall.
The United States trailed the Netherlands by a goal in the first half before Lindsey Horan scored a game-tying header in the 62nd minute.
One reason for the less-than-dominant play could be inexperience. DeMelo is among 14 U.S. players appearing in their first World Cup.
Fellow midfielder Andi Sullivan, who is also making her tournament debut, said it takes some adjustment to play together as newcomers.
“That’s definitely a challenge that we’re going through, is that we just kind of came together,” Sullivan said. “It’s not like a team that you’re training with all year round, constantly. You’re in and out all the time. So I think you’re constantly adjusting.
“But the way that you get in sync is we watch a lot of stuff together, we communicate constantly. We’re very direct when something’s not going the way we want it to go,” Sullivan added. “You have to be direct and clear and honest and loud.”
DeMelo is also among six players at the World Cup who play for Racing Louisville. Among the Racing Louisville representatives are Ary Borges, who scored a hat trick for Brazil in its 4-0 victory over Panama to start the tournament.
DeMelo, who said her father never pushed her into soccer growing up, could have played for Portugal at the senior level.
“It could have been an option,” she said, “but I think my heart was always with the United States.”
___
AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-savannah-demelos-ability-to-speak-portuguese-may-help-us-in-critical-womens-world-cup-match/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:43 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/sports/ap-savannah-demelos-ability-to-speak-portuguese-may-help-us-in-critical-womens-world-cup-match/ |
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Predictions & Picks: Odds, Moneyline, Spread - July 29
Saturday's contest between the Arizona Diamondbacks (55-49) and Seattle Mariners (53-50) matching up at Chase Field has a projected final score of 6-4 (according to our computer prediction) in favor of the Diamondbacks, so it should be a tight matchup. The game will begin at 8:10 PM ET on July 29.
This contest's pitching matchup is set, as the Mariners will send Bryan Woo (1-3) to the mound, while Brandon Pfaadt (0-4) will take the ball for the Diamondbacks.
Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Game Info & Odds
- When: Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 8:10 PM ET
- Where: Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona
- How to Watch on TV: ARID
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
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Diamondbacks vs. Mariners Score Prediction
Our prediction for this game is Diamondbacks 6, Mariners 5.
Total Prediction for Diamondbacks vs. Mariners
- Total Prediction: Over 9.5 runs
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Diamondbacks Performance Insights
- In five games as the underdog over the last 10 matchups, the Diamondbacks have posted a mark of 2-3.
- When it comes to the over/under, Arizona and its foes are 5-5-0 in its last 10 contests.
- Oddsmakers have yet to post a spread in any of the Diamondbacks' past 10 games.
- The Diamondbacks have been underdogs in 53 games this season and have come away with the win 25 times (47.2%) in those contests.
- Arizona has a win-loss record of 18-25 when favored by +100 or worse by oddsmakers this year.
- The Diamondbacks have an implied victory probability of 50% according to the moneyline set for this matchup.
- The offense for Arizona is No. 7 in baseball, scoring 4.9 runs per game (513 total runs).
- The Diamondbacks have the 26th-ranked ERA (4.70) in the majors this season.
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Diamondbacks Schedule
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diamondbacks-mariners-mlb-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:44 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/29/diamondbacks-mariners-mlb-picks-predictions/ |
2023 Amundi Evian Championship Betting Odds, Favorites & Insights – Round 4
Celine Boutier is the current leader (-100) at the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship after three rounds of play.
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Amundi Evian Championship Fourth Round Information
- Start Time: 12:45 AM ET
- Venue: Evian Resort Golf Club
- Location: Évian-les-Bains, France
- Par/Distance: Par 71/6,527 yards
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Amundi Evian Championship Best Odds to Win
Celine Boutier
- Tee Time: 6:25 AM ET
- Current Rank: 1st (-11)
- Odds to Win: -100
Boutier Round by Round Results
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Nasa Hataoka
- Tee Time: 6:25 AM ET
- Current Rank: 2nd (-8)
- Odds to Win: +400
Hataoka Round by Round Results
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Minjee Lee
- Tee Time: 6:15 AM ET
- Current Rank: 3rd (-7)
- Odds to Win: +700
Lee Round by Round Results
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Brooke Mackenzie Henderson
- Tee Time: 6:15 AM ET
- Current Rank: 3rd (-7)
- Odds to Win: +800
Mackenzie Henderson Round by Round Results
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Nelly Korda
- Tee Time: 6:05 AM ET
- Current Rank: 5th (-6)
- Odds to Win: +1200
Korda Round by Round Results
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Amundi Evian Championship Odds (Rest of Field)
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/amundi-evian-championship-lpga-tournament-betting-odds-round-4/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:51 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/sports/betting/2023/07/30/amundi-evian-championship-lpga-tournament-betting-odds-round-4/ |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A judge in Florida on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Gov. Ron DeSantis appointees against Disney’s efforts to neutralize the governor’s takeover of Disney World’s governing district.
The judge in state court in Orlando denied Disney’s motion in the lawsuit that says the company wrongly stripped appointees of powers over design and construction at Disney World when it made agreements with predecessors, who were supporters.
The case is one of two lawsuits stemming from the takeover, which was retaliation for the company’s public opposition to the so-called Don’t Say Gay legislation championed by DeSantis and Republican lawmakers. In the other lawsuit, in federal court in Tallahassee, Disney says DeSantis violated the company’s free speech rights.
The governor has touted his yearlong feud with Disney in his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, often accusing the entertainment giant of being too “woke.” Disney has accused the governor of violating its First Amendment rights.
Attorneys for Disney had argued that any decision in state court would be moot since the Republican-controlled Legislature already has passed a law voiding agreements that the company made with a prior governing board made up of Disney supporters that gave design and construction powers to the company.
The entertainment giant had asked that the state court case be put on hold if it’s not dismissed until the federal lawsuit in Tallahassee was resolved since they covered the same ground and that lawsuit was filed first.
In that case, Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in an effort to stop the takeover, saying the governor was violating the company’s free speech and “weaponizing the power of government to punish private business.”
DeSantis wasn’t a party in the state court lawsuit.
The fight between DeSantis and Disney began last year after the company, facing significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Florida lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. But before the new board came in, the company made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and construction.
In response, DeSantis and Florida lawmakers passed the legislation that repealed those agreements.
Disney announced in May that it was scrapping plans to build a new campus in central Florida and relocate 2,000 employees from Southern California to work in digital technology, finance and product development. Disney had planned to build the campus about 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the giant Walt Disney World theme park resort.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-judge-refuses-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-disneys-efforts-to-neutralize-governing-district-takeover/ | 2023-07-29T20:13:54 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-judge-refuses-to-dismiss-lawsuit-against-disneys-efforts-to-neutralize-governing-district-takeover/ |
REDFIELD, S.D. -- A seven-run first inning was all Tabor Post 183 needed on Saturday morning in an elimination game victory over Platte/Geddes in an 8-1 win in the Class B state Legion baseball tournament at American Legion Field.
The Bluebirds (19-6) will advance to another elimination game at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday against either Clark/Willow Lake or Redfield. Platte/Geddes’ season ends at 11-7.
Tabor starter Riley Rothschadl allowed one hit and struck out eight batters in 3 2/3 innings, throwing a mere 45 pitches, leaving the door open for Rothschadl to return to the mound in the state tournament. At the plate, Rothschadl had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI.
The game was a solid bounce back from Tabor, which lost 15-2 on Friday night to Salem/Montrose/Canova in the opening round. Tabor had only three RBIs on offense, benefitting from seven WhiteCaps errors, including four in the first inning when Tabor posted seven runs. Logan Winckler added two hits for Tabor, plus threw 3 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and one run, and Brady Bierema had a double at the plate.
Tanner Dyk and Aiden Bultje each had two hits for P/G, with Dyk posting the lone RBI in the sixth inning, while Carter Lenz had a double. P/G struck out nine times as a team.
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On the mound, Dakota Munger pitched all six innings with seven hits and eight runs (two earned) allowed, and seven strikeouts.
Elk Point/Jefferson won the other elimination game played Saturday afternoon, defeating Castlewood/Clear Lake by a 5-1 score. EPJ (18-11) will face the loser of the Salem/Montrose/Canova and Dell Rapids game at 1 p.m. Sunday. | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/tabor-bounces-back-in-class-b-state-legion-elimination-game-win-over-platte-geddes | 2023-07-29T20:13:54 | 1 | https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/sports/prep/tabor-bounces-back-in-class-b-state-legion-elimination-game-win-over-platte-geddes |
NEW YORK (AP) — The entertainment publication Variety, under fire this week for an article it published about former CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s interest in his old employer, revised the piece on Friday to reflect some of the complaints about it.
None of its changes affected what was written about Zucker, however. He has called for the story to be retracted.
The article by Tatiana Siegel, which initially ran online Tuesday, depicted Zucker as badmouthing his successor at CNN, Chris Licht, while simultaneously trying to buy the news organization that fired him in early 2021. Licht’s unsuccessful run atop the struggling news network ended with his firing in May.
The dispute also points to the dangers inherent in the use of confidential sources by journalists. There are at least a dozen claims made in the story that Variety did not attribute to a named source that were denied on the record, either in the story or after publication, leaving it up to readers to decide who to believe.
“There used to be a time when Variety held its content and its reporters to a high standard of truth and facts in journalism, but those days are clearly over,” said Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Zucker. “It is stunning to read a piece that is so patently and aggressively false. On numerous occasions, we made it clear to the reporter and her editors that they were planning to publish countless anecdotes and alleged incidents that never happened. They did so anyway. The piece is a total joke.”
Variety’s co-editor-in-chiefs, Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh, said in a statement Friday that they have been carefully following the conversation about the story.
“The story was heavily vetted and deeply sourced,” they said. “Everyone included in the story was asked to comment and given the chance to respond. We stand by our reporting and our award-winning reporter.”
The piece is also critical of two reporters who have covered CNN, Tim Alberta of The Atlantic and Dylan Byers of Puck. Both of those news organizations complained of inaccuracies and, in the changes made on Friday, Variety added their specific denials.
Zucker’s team hasn’t sought to hide ill feelings toward Licht, but strongly denied he has tried to buy CNN.
The story begins with an anecdote about Zucker, “with tears in his eyes,” approaching David Zaslav in Miami Beach in March. Zaslav is CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, current owners of CNN, and Variety said Zucker complained that Licht was unfairly maligning him in the press. Zaslav wanted to know if Zucker was trying to assemble investors to buy CNN.
Byers, writing for Puck, said “multiple sources” said no such run-in at the Faena Hotel ever took place and Zucker’s spokeswoman said that anecdote wasn’t checked with them; Variety says it was.
The story outlines several specific efforts made by Zucker, or on his behalf, to convince investors to join him in buying CNN. The story includes his denials: “Any allegation or insinuation that Jeff has made any effort to purchase CNN is unequivocally false,” Heller said. Zucker is now head of a private equity firm, RedBird IMI.
At one point, Variety also floated the theory that a secret group of investors was using Zucker’s name without his knowledge to approach Warner Bros. Discovery about buying CNN.
In a June 4 article, The New York Times reported that Zucker was not in talks to buy CNN, although “he has told some associates he would be interested in acquiring the network” if it came up for sale one day, the newspaper said.
The Variety article “struck me as utterly implausible and sophomoric,” Byers wrote for Puck this week.
Variety’s piece called Byers “a former Zucker disciple at CNN who, by his own admission, wrote about Licht incessantly and even took a victory lap after his exit.” The piece described Byers as a writer of “Zucker fan fiction” and criticized him for a conflict of interest in not disclosing in any of his articles that Zucker once had discussions about funding Puck, an online subscription news service.
In its revision on Friday, Variety quoted Puck’s co-founder, Jon Kelly, saying the discussions with RedBird were not disclosed by Byers because “Dylan was intentionally unaware of them.”
For The Atlantic, Alberta wrote a widely-read story that seen by many as being instrumental in Licht’s dismissal by Zaslav. Variety was critical of Alberta, and accused the reporter of using material in his story that he had agreed to keep off the record — a serious charge of malfeasance against a journalist.
As with Byers, Variety didn’t change what it had written about Alberta. But it added a paragraph to its story using some of what Alberta had written on social media, including a denial that he had used off-the-record material, and disputing Variety’s claim of how many times he had met with Licht while reporting the story.
The story was reposted on Variety’s home page. The only indication that it had been changed was a note at its end: “This story was updated on July 28 to reflect new statements from Kelly and Alberta.” | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:00 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-variety-revises-article-on-former-cnn-chief-jeff-zucker-that-was-sharply-criticized/ |
Tesla is ramping up efforts to open showrooms on tribal lands where it can sell directly to consumers, circumventing laws in states that bar vehicle manufacturers from also being retailers in favor of the dealership model.
Mohegan Sun, a casino and entertainment complex in Connecticut owned by the federally recognized Mohegan Tribe, announced this week that the California-based electric automaker will open a showroom with a sales and delivery center this fall on its sovereign property where the state’s law doesn’t apply.
The news comes after another new Tesla showroom was announced in June, set to open in 2025 on lands of the Oneida Indian Nation in upstate New York.
“I think it was a move that made complete sense,” said Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, which has lobbied for years to change Connecticut’s law.
“It is just surprising that it took this long, because Tesla had really tried, along with Lucid and Rivian,” she said, referring to two other electric carmakers. “Anything that puts more electric vehicles on the road is a good thing for the public.”
Brown noted that lawmakers with car dealerships that are active in their districts, no matter their political affiliation, have traditionally opposed bills allowing direct-to-consumer sales.
The Connecticut Automotive Retail Association, which has opposed such bills for years, says there needs to be a balance between respecting tribal sovereignty and “maintaining a level playing field” for all car dealerships in the state.
“We respect the Mohegan Tribe’s sovereignty and the unique circumstance in which they operate their businesses on Tribal land but we strongly believe that this does not change the discussion about Tesla and other EV manufacturers with direct-to-consumer sales, and we continue to oppose that model,” Hayden Reynolds, the association’s chairperson, said in a statement. “Connecticut’s dealer franchise laws benefit consumers and provide a competitive marketplace.”
Over the years in numerous states, Tesla has sought and been denied dealership licenses, pushed for law changes and challenged decisions in courts. The company scored a victory earlier this year when Delaware’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling upholding a decision by state officials to prohibit Tesla from selling its cars to directly customers.
At least 16 states have effectively changed their laws to allow Tesla and other direct-to-consumer manufacturers to sell there, said Jeff Aiosa, executive director of the Connecticut dealers association. He doesn’t foresee Connecticut changing its law, noting that 32 “original equipment manufacturers,” a list that includes major car companies like Toyota and Ford, currently abide by it.
“It’s not fair to have an unlevel playing field when all the other manufacturers abide by the state franchise laws and Tesla wants this exception to go around the law,” he said. “I would suggest their pivoting to the sovereign nation is representative of them not wanting to abide by the law.”
Tesla opened its first store as well as a repair shop on Native American land in 2021 in New Mexico. The facility, built in Nambé Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, marked the first time the company partnered with a tribe to get around state laws, though the idea had been in the works for years.
Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico, predicted at the time that states that are home to tribal nations and also have laws banning direct car sales by manufacturers would likely follow New Mexico’s lead.
“I don’t believe at all that this will be the last,” he said.
Tesla’s facility at Mohegan Sun, dubbed the Tesla Sales & Delivery Center, will be located at a shopping and dining pavilion within the sprawling casino complex. Customers will be able to test drive models around the resort. and gamblers will be able to use their loyalty rewards toward Tesla purchases.
Tesla also plans to exhibit its solar and storage products at the location. | https://www.ksn.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-automaker-tesla-is-opening-more-showrooms-on-tribal-lands-to-avoid-state-laws-barring-direct-sales/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:06 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-automaker-tesla-is-opening-more-showrooms-on-tribal-lands-to-avoid-state-laws-barring-direct-sales/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — The fate of U.S. trucking company Yellow Corp. isn’t looking good.
After years of financial struggles, Yellow is reportedly preparing for bankruptcy and seeing customers leave in large numbers — heightening risk for future liquidation. While no official decision has been announced by the company, the prospect of bankruptcy has renewed attention around Yellow’s ongoing negotiations with unionized workers, a $700 million pandemic-era loan from the government and other bills the trucker has racked up over time.
Yellow, formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc., is one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company has some 30,000 employees across the country.
Here’s what you need to know.
Not yet. But industry experts suspect that a bankruptcy filing could come any day now.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the company could seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week — with some noting that a significant amount of customers have already started to leave the carrier.
Meanwhile, according to FreightWaves, employees were told to expect the filing Monday. Yellow laid off an unknown number of employees Friday, the outlet later reported, citing a memo that stated the company was “shutting down its regular operations.”
According to Satish Jindel, president of transportation and logistics firm SJ Consulting, Yellow handled an average of 49,000 shipments per day in 2022. As of this week, he estimates that number is down to between 10,000 and 15,000 daily shipments.
With customers leaving — as well reports of Yellow stopping freight pickups earlier this week — bankruptcy would “be the end of Yellow,” Jindel told The Associated Press, noting increased risk for liquidation.
“The likelihood of them surviving and remaining solvent diminishes really by the day,” added Bruce Chan, a research director at investment banking firm Stifel.
Yellow media contacts did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’ requests for comment on Friday. In a Wednesday statement to The Journal, the company said it was continuing “to prepare for a range of contingencies.” On Thursday, Yellow said it was in talks with multiple parties about selling its third-party logistics organization.
Even if Yellow was able to sell its logistics firm, it would “not generate a sufficient amount of cash to keep them operational on any sort of permanent basis,” Chan said. “Without a major equity injection, it would be very difficult for them to survive.”
As of late March, Yellow had an outstanding debt of about $1.5 billion. Of that, $729.2 million was owed to the federal government.
In 2020, under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department granted the company a $700 million pandemic-era loan on national security grounds. Last month, a congressional probe concluded that the Treasury and Defense Departments “made missteps” in this decision — and noted that Yellow’s “precarious financial position at the time of the loan, and continued struggles, expose taxpayers to a significant risk of loss.”
The government loan is due in September 2024. As of March, Yellow had made $54.8 million in interest payments and repaid just $230 million of the principal owed, according to government documents.
Yellow’s current finances and prospect of bankruptcy “is probably two decades in the making,” Chan said, pointing to poor management and strategic decisions dating back to the early 2000s. “At this point, after each party has bailed them out so many times, there is a limited appetite to do that anymore.”
In May, Yellow reported a loss of $54.6 million, a decline of $1.06 per share, for its first quarter of 2023. Operating revenue was about $1.16 billion in the period.
A Wednesday investors note from financial service firm Stephens estimated that Yellow could be burning between $9 million and $10 million each day. Using a liquidity disclosure from earlier this month, Yellow had roughly $100 million in cash at the end of June, the note added — estimating that the company has been burning through increasing amounts of money through July.
“It is reasonable to believe that the Company could breach its $35 mil. liquidity requirement at any moment,” Stephens analyst Jack Atkins and associate Grant Smith wrote.
The reports of bankruptcy preparations arrive just days after a strike from the Teamsters, which represents Yellow’s 22,000 unionized workers, was averted.
A series of heated exchanges have built up between the Teamsters and Yellow, who sued the union in June after alleging it was “unjustifiably blocking” restructuring plans needed for the company’s survival. The Teamsters called the litigation “baseless” — with general president Sean O’Brien pointing to Yellow’s “decades of gross mismanagement,” which included exhausting the $700 million federal loan.
On Sunday, a pension fund agreed to extend health benefits for workers at two Yellow Corp. operating companies, averting a strike — and giving Yellow “30 days to pay its bills,” notably $50 million that Yellow failed to pay the Central States Health and Welfare Fund on July 15, the union said. While the strike didn’t occur, talks of a walkout may have caused some Yellow customers to pull back, Chan said.
Talks between Yellow and the Teamsters, which also represents UPS’s unionized workers, are ongoing. The current contract expires in March 2024.
“The financial struggles of Yellow are not related to the union and the contracts,” Jindel said, pointing to management’s responsibility around its services and prices. He added the union wages from Yellow are “lower than any competitor.”
If Yellow files for bankruptcy and customers continue to take their shipments to other carriers, like FedEx or ABF Freight, prices will go up.
Yellow’s prices have historically been the cheapest compared to other carriers, Jindel said. “That’s why they obviously were not making money,” he added. “And while there is capacity with the other LTL carriers to handle the diversions from Yellow, it will come at a high price for (current shippers and customers) of Yellow.”
Chan adds that we’re in an interesting time for the LTL marketplace — noting that, if Yellow declares bankruptcy and liquidates, “the freight would find a home” with other carriers, which may not have been true in recent years.
“It may take time, but there’s room for it to be absorbed,” he said. | https://www.ksn.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:13 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-trucking-company-yellow-corp-is-reportedly-preparing-for-bankruptcy-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ |
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police are investigating a fatal hit-and-run crash that took place early Saturday morning.
Officials say it happened on the 6400 block of North 8th Street just after 1 a.m.
A 50-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and transported to Einstein Medical Center, according to police.
The victim was pronounced dead a short time later.
Officers say the striking vehicle fled the scene.
No arrests have been made in this case. | https://6abc.com/hit-and-run-philadelphia-police-50-year-old-man-killed-car-crash/13569428/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:17 | 1 | https://6abc.com/hit-and-run-philadelphia-police-50-year-old-man-killed-car-crash/13569428/ |
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — The Tippecanoe County Coroner's office has released the preliminary cause of death for 43-year-old Tracy Bondurant and her 5-year-old daughter Rayleigh Bloyd. Their bodies were found in a south side home Thursday.
In a news release sent Saturday, the coroner's office said Bondurant's preliminary cause of death is suicide by a gunshot wound to the head. Bloyd's preliminary cause of death is homicide by a gunshot wound to the head.
The coroner's office is waiting for toxicology results before releasing final autopsy results. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/autopsy-results-are-murder-suicide-for-daughter-mother-found-dead/article_20886518-2d4e-11ee-b793-6775d5961c6b.html | 2023-07-29T20:14:17 | 0 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/autopsy-results-are-murder-suicide-for-daughter-mother-found-dead/article_20886518-2d4e-11ee-b793-6775d5961c6b.html |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron held discussions with his Sri Lankan counterpart Saturday on an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region in the first-ever visit by a French leader to the Indian Ocean island nation.
As the fourth-largest creditor to Sri Lanka, France had pledged cooperation in debt restructuring to help the island nation recover from its economic crisis.
Macron arrived in Sri Lanka Friday night, following his trip to the South Pacific region, to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations, Sri Lanka’s president’s office said.
Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe praised France’s significant role in global affairs, particularly in areas such as climate mitigation, global debt restructuring, and matters related to the Indo-Pacific region, the statement said.
“Sri Lanka and France are two Indian Ocean nations that share the same goal: an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific. In Colombo we confirmed it: strengthened by 75 years of diplomatic relations, we can open a new era of our partnership,” Macron said in a Twitter message after the meeting. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-french-president-macron-visits-his-counterpart-in-sri-lanka/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:19 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-french-president-macron-visits-his-counterpart-in-sri-lanka/ |
(CNN) — A Bay Area man faces a murder charge after allegedly stabbing a woman to death and posting video of her “last moments” on Facebook, San Mateo Police say.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office in Nevada notified San Mateo Police Wednesday afternoon that a caller reported having witnessed a stabbing on Facebook, police said in a statement.
The caller provided the name and phone number of the man who posted the video, according to San Mateo police. The phone number was traced to an apartment complex in San Mateo.
Investigators later arrested the 39-year-old suspect, Mark Mechikoff, in San Jose, police said.
“While the motive for stabbing the victim is still under investigation, we do know Mechikoff mercilessly filmed the last moments of the victim’s life and posted the video to Facebook, then fled the area,” San Mateo police said in the statement.
Before the arrest, police officers spent nearly three hours going door to door in the large complex before finding the victim in an apartment, the statement said.
The suspect had fled but officers arrested him within two hours of finding the victim, police said.
Mechikoff knew the victim, according to police.
The suspect faces a felony murder charge with enhancements, court records show. He made an initial court appearance Friday and is due back in court August 4. It’s unclear if he has an attorney.
CNN sought comment from Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, but has not received a response.
Anyone with information or security footage related to this homicide is asked to contact the San Mateo Police Department.
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™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/bay-area-man-fatally-stabbed-a-woman-and-posted-video-of-her-last-moments-on/article_abb16f64-7db7-50cf-bbfc-23e7ae6c8c09.html | 2023-07-29T20:14:23 | 1 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/bay-area-man-fatally-stabbed-a-woman-and-posted-video-of-her-last-moments-on/article_abb16f64-7db7-50cf-bbfc-23e7ae6c8c09.html |
MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami on Friday criticized prosecutors for an apparent attempt to undercut a court order and take control of a oceanside condo belonging to a former Republican congressman ahead of a high-profile trial connected to a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela’s socialist government.
When David Rivera and an associate were charged last November with money laundering and acting as unregistered foreign agents for President Nicolás Maduro’s government, prosecutors obtained a judge’s order freezing several banking and brokerage accounts as well as Florida properties that they said were the product of some $24 million in ill-gotten gains.
Prosecutors also blocked eight more properties belonging to Rivera and his associate in Florida and Georgia that, while unrelated to criminal activity, would likely be seized if the two are found guilty.
This month, in a harshly worded ruling, Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said that the government had no right to take the “innocent” Florida assets without a conviction. Rather than lift the restraining order, the government then asked the court to reconsider and said that it had since determined that three of the properties — including a condo that Rivera and his wife purchased in 2019 for $301,000 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida — could also be traced to the defendants’ alleged lobbying on behalf of Maduro’s government.
Judge Darrin Gayles on Friday expressed frustration with the government’s change in strategy.
“This reeks of gamesmanship,” said Gayles, who reversed his own sealed order of a week ago granting prosecutors’ request that the real estate properties once again be frozen. “It seems like the government simply filed this because it lost.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nalina Sombuntham said prosecutors first learned from investigators that the property could be directly “tainted” by Rivera’s consulting work with Venezuela in May or June but didn’t alert the court until July 14 — a week after Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres issued his 23-page order freeing up the properties.
Gayles, who is overseeing the criminal case, was unimpressed. “It seems like you’re wasting the court’s time,” he said.
Rivera has been marred by scandals stretching back to his days in Congress from 2011 to 2013. He was arrested late last year on an eight-count criminal indictment alleging that at the start of the Trump administration he was part of a conspiracy to lobby on behalf of Venezuela to lower tensions with the U.S., resolve a legal dispute with a U.S. oil company and end U.S. sanctions against the South American nation — all without registering as a foreign agent.
As part of that effort, he arranged meetings in Washington, New York and Dallas for allies of Maduro with U.S. lawmakers and a top aide to former President Donald Trump, according to the indictment. To hide the sensitive nature of his work, prosecutors allege Rivera referred to Maduro in chat messages as the “bus driver,” a congressman as “Sombrero” and millions of dollars as “melons.”
Court records show Rivera’s consulting work was closely coordinated with Raúl Gorrín, a Venezuelan insider and media tycoon who has himself been sanctioned and indicted in the U.S. on money laundering charges. Part of the more than $20 million that Rivera was alleged to have received from Venezuela was used to pay maintenance on one of Gorrin’s yachts, according to prosecutors.
Rivera maintains that Gorrín was his attorney in Venezuela and that all of his work was conducted on behalf of PDV USA — a Delaware-based affiliate of Venezuelan-owned Citgo — and didn’t require he register as a foreign agent.
The dispute over Rivera’s assets has slowed the government’s prosecution of the high-profile case. Eight months after being charged, Rivera has yet to be formally arraigned — normally a routine procedural step — because he said he needs access to the disputed assets to pay his attorneys.
Rivera’s attorneys in filings have accused prosecutors of waging a “scorched earth attack” against the south Florida GOP stalwart who once shared an apartment in Tallahassee with now Sen. Marco Rubio when both were state lawmakers.
“They lost, they got caught and they came to this court and it is wrong,” David Oscar Markus, an attorney for Rivera’s co-defendant Esther Nuhfer said.
Rivera was triumphant following Friday’s hearing, accusing the prosecutors of “misconduct.” Judge Gayles was more restrained, making no such finding of wrongdoing even as he questioned prosecutors’ actions.
“Today’s decision shows that there are still honorable judges in America who will not tolerate misconduct from dishonest government prosecutors,” Rivera wrote The Associated Press in a text message. “Another victory for truth and justice.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida didn’t immediately comment.
___
Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-judge-blasts-prosecutors-handling-of-venezuela-case-against-ex-miami-congressman/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:26 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-judge-blasts-prosecutors-handling-of-venezuela-case-against-ex-miami-congressman/ |
(CNN) — Robert Chambers, known as the “Preppy Killer” for murdering a teenager in Central Park in 1986, was released again this week from prison after serving time for unrelated drug crimes.
Chambers, then 19, strangled Jennifer Levin, 18, to death in the case that became a tabloid sensation. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter after admitting in a taped confession to killing Levin during rough sex, CNN previously reported.
Chambers served a 15-year sentence for first-degree manslaughter and second-degree burglary beginning in 1988 and was released in 2003, according to New York State Department of Corrections records.
He was imprisoned again in 2008 on unrelated charges of first-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and second-degree assault, according to Department of Corrections records. After serving 15 years at New York’s Shawangunk Correctional Facility, Chambers was released on parole Tuesday. He had a maximum sentence of 19 years, according to state records.
CNN has reached out to an attorney representing Chambers for comment.
Chambers will be under post-release supervision until July 2028, Department of Corrections records say.
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™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/preppy-killer-robert-chambers-is-released-again-from-prison-after-serving-years-for-unrelated-drug/article_7a0d3ce0-c4ac-552b-b6b9-b0a19470188b.html | 2023-07-29T20:14:29 | 0 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/national/preppy-killer-robert-chambers-is-released-again-from-prison-after-serving-years-for-unrelated-drug/article_7a0d3ce0-c4ac-552b-b6b9-b0a19470188b.html |
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Typhoon Doksuri weakened into a tropical storm late Friday night after bringing heavy winds and rain that left more than a million people without power in southern China.
After making landfall Friday morning in southern Fujian province, where at least 400,000 people were evacuated, the storm flooded streets and toppled electric transmission towers in the province. Over a million households were left without power, according to the state-backed Xiamen Evening News.
The typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm at 11 p.m. Friday night, China’s state-owned broadcaster CCTV announced.
Businesses and summer school classes had been ordered suspended and the public was urged to stay indoors. In the city of Quanzhou by China’s southern coast, authorities reported some 50 individuals sustained minor injuries. Residents shared photos on social media showing downed trees with roots fully out of the ground Saturday morning.
The tropical storm is expected to move its way farther inland in China, bringing heavy rains to the capital, Beijing.
Earlier in the week, the storm grazed past Taiwan’s main island after hitting the Philippines ‘ main island of Luzon, where it produced landslides, flooding and downed trees. The storm displaced thousands and caused 41 deaths — including 27 killed in the capsizing of a passenger ship. About 20 others remained missing, including four coast guard personnel whose boat overturned while on a rescue mission in hard-hit Cagayan province, officials said Saturday, adding that they were monitoring another approaching storm. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-is-downgraded-to-tropical-storm-status-as-it-leaves-southern-china/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:33 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-typhoon-doksuri-is-downgraded-to-tropical-storm-status-as-it-leaves-southern-china/ |
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Earlier Saturday, Main Street in Lafayette hosted a new Farmer's Market-like event.
Food trucks, boutiques, art, and other goods filled the streets as vendors circled the courthouse.
The event occurred in Historic Downtown Lafayette this morning until 2 p.m.
One of the founders of this event Nolan Willhite said they branched off from the Farmer's Market because it helps the vendors more.
It also was well-received by the crowds.
"Seeing people just having fun and supporting other small local businesses makes me really, really happy. All the businesses that I've talked to today seem to be doing really well which makes my heart happy. As a small business owner myself...seeing people thrive, and like smile and there are so many kids here having fun. We have a bounce house, they're playing in the fountain, which makes me really happy too...We just kind of wanted to use our court house square more. It doesn't get utilized very often, and we're really, really fortunate to have such a beautiful square...I think any community event that we have, it just brings the community together, which is what I think downtown is all about. The downtown area just wants to be together, and have fun, and it's going to bring so many more people downtown having more events," he said.
Willhite says they hope to make this annually and add a Christmas Market in the future.
To stay updated, click here for their Instagram account. | https://www.wlfi.com/news/new-event-summer-on-the-square-planned-to-be-annual/article_6a4d8112-2e19-11ee-bf6b-535c3056a969.html | 2023-07-29T20:14:35 | 1 | https://www.wlfi.com/news/new-event-summer-on-the-square-planned-to-be-annual/article_6a4d8112-2e19-11ee-bf6b-535c3056a969.html |
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations has been forced to cut food, cash payments and assistance to millions of people in many countries because of “a crippling funding crisis” that has seen its donations plummet by about half as acute hunger is hitting record levels, a top official said Friday.
Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program, told a news conference that at least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already seen cuts or plan to cut assistance soon — including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa.
He said WFP’s operating requirement is $20 billion to deliver aid to everyone in need, but it was aiming for between $10 billion and $14 billion, which was what the agency had received in the past few years.
“We’re still aiming at that, but we have only so far this year gotten to about half of that, around $5 billion,” Skau said.
He said humanitarian needs were “going through the roof” in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine and its global implications. “Those needs continue to grow, those drivers are still there,” he said, “but the funding is drying up. So we’re looking at 2024 (being) even more dire.”
“The largest food and nutrition crisis in history today persists,” Skau said. “This year, 345 million people continue to be acutely food insecure while hundreds of millions of people are at risk of worsening hunger.”
Skau said conflict and insecurity remain the primary drivers of acute hunger around the world, along with climate change, unrelenting disasters, persistent food price inflation and mounting debt stress — all during a slowdown in the global economy.
WFP is looking to diversify its funding base, but he also urged the agency’s traditional donors to “step up and support us through this very difficult time.”
Asked why funding was drying up, Skau said to ask the donors.
“But it’s clear that aid budgets, humanitarian budgets, both in Europe and the United States, (are) not where they were in 2021-2022,” he said.
Skau said that in March, WFP was forced to cut rations from 75% to 50% for communities in Afghanistan facing emergency levels of hunger, and in May it was forced to cut food for 8 million people — 66% of the people it was assisting. Now, it is helping just 5 million people, he said. In Syria, 5.5 million people who relied on WFP for food were already on 50% rations, Skau said, and in July the agency cut all rations to 2.5 million of them. In the Palestinian territories, WFP cut its cash assistance by 20% in May and in June. It cut its caseload by 60%, or 200,000 people. And in Yemen, he said, a huge funding gap will force WFP to cut aid to 7 million people as early as August.
In West Africa, where acute hunger is on the rise, Skau said, most countries are facing extensive ration cuts, particularly WFP’s seven largest crisis operations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.
He said cutting aid to people who are only at the hunger level of crisis to help save those literally starving or in the category of catastrophic hunger means that those dropped will rapidly fall into the emergency and catastrophe categories, “and so we will have an additional humanitarian emergency on our hands down the road.”
“Ration cuts are clearly not the way to go forward,” Skau said.
He urged world leaders to prioritize humanitarian funding and invest in long-tern solutions to conflicts, poverty, development and other root causes of the current crisis. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-un-says-its-forced-to-cut-food-aid-to-millions-globally-because-of-a-funding-crisis/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:40 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-un-says-its-forced-to-cut-food-aid-to-millions-globally-because-of-a-funding-crisis/ |
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The new prosecutor in Oklahoma’s biggest county announced Friday she’s dropping criminal charges against seven police officers in three separate fatal shootings from 2020, including one in which five officers were charged with killing a 15-year-old boy outside a convenience store.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna’s predecessor and fellow Democrat, David Prater, had filed criminal charges against the police officers before leaving office. Behenna said she hired a use-of-force expert to examine the evidence, and her office spent hundreds of hours reviewing the three cases.
“Under Oklahoma law, these shootings were justified,” Behenna said at a news conference.
“This was not just a quick, spur-of-the-moment decision. This was a very difficult, very fact-intensive decision and review,” she said.
The charges were dismissed with prejudice, which means they are permanently dismissed and can’t be refiled, she said.
A former federal prosecutor and defense attorney from the suburb of Edmond, Behenna is the first woman elected top prosecutor in the state’s most populous county. She defeated conservative Republican Kevin Calvey last year to win a four-year term.
The most high-profile case dismissed Friday involved five Oklahoma City officers charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Stavian Rodriguez. The teen was shot on Nov. 23, 2020, by officers responding to reports of an attempted armed robbery at a convenience store.
TV news reports of the shooting showed video of the boy dropping a gun then reaching toward his waist before being shot.
Willard Paige, the investigator for the previous district attorney, said the officers fired live rounds “unnecessarily,” and that an autopsy determined Rodriguez suffered 13 gunshot wounds.
Initially charged in the shooting were officers Bethany Sears, Jared Barton, Corey Adams, John Skuta and Brad Pemberton. All five have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
The teen’s mother, Cameo Holland, said in a statement that she intends to work to change the law to make it easier for police to be criminally charged.
“When the district attorney of Oklahoma County apologizes to your face for the justice system failing you, it’s clear we need changes in the law,” Holland said.
Behenna said Friday that she does not take these decisions lightly.
“These families are grieving,” she said. “No matter what this office does or says, these families are forever changed.”
Holland has a pending civil rights excessive force lawsuit against Oklahoma City and the five officers in federal court.
In another Oklahoma City case, Sgt. Clifford Holman was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 60-year-old Bennie Edward.
Holman, who is white, had responded to a call of a Black man harassing customers at a business in north Oklahoma City, according to a police affidavit by homicide detective Bryn Carter. When he arrived at the scene, Holman encountered Edwards, who was holding a knife and refusing officers’ commands to drop it, the affidavit states.
The shooting sparked days of protests and demonstrations by Black Lives Matter groups and other activists.
The third case involved The Village officer Chance Avery, who was charged with second-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of Christopher Pool.
Avery was called to the home by Pool’s wife, who was retrieving personal belongings, when Pool ran inside carrying a bat and was shot by Avery after refusing to drop it, police said.
Gary James, an attorney for Avery and Adams, one of the officers charged in the Rodriguez shooting, said he was “ecstatic” about Behenna’s decision.
“We’ve got seven police officers who were just doing their duty, and were placed in a position by all three of the deceased that they had to use deadly force,” James said.
Although criminal charges against police officers are not common, previous district attorney Prater — himself an ex-cop who served 16 years as the county’s top prosecutor — had secured criminal convictions against officers before.
In 2013, Del City police Capt. Randy Harrison was sentenced to four years in prison for second-degree manslaughter after shooting an unarmed teenager in the back as he ran away following a scuffle.
In 2019, another Oklahoma City police sergeant, Keith Sweeney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed, suicidal man.
Behenna said that in future cases involving police shootings, she will present evidence to a multi-county grand jury to make a decision on whether to file criminal charges, rather than making that decision herself.
Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley said the department has implemented “significant changes” since the fatal shootings, such as creating a training unit that has worked with every officer on de-escalation strategies. The chief’s statement Friday said officers are also provided with additional less-lethal equipment, like stun guns and weapons that deploy bean bags, as well as crisis-intervention training. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:47 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-charges-dropped-against-7-oklahoma-police-officers-in-3-separate-fatal-shootings/ |
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal trial for the man who fatally shot 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue approached its conclusion Friday as the defense, trying to persuade a jury to spare his life, pressed its case that mental illness spurred the nation’s deadliest antisemitic attack.
Robert Bowers, a 50 year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, was convicted in June on 63 criminal counts for the 2018 massacre at Tree of Life synagogue. The jury has been hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial and will decide whether Bowers will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors have presented evidence that Bowers was motivated by his hatred of Jewish people when he opened fire at the synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018, killing members of three congregations gathered for Sabbath worship and study. The defense argues Bowers has schizophrenia and acted out of a delusional belief that Jews were participating in a genocide of white people.
On Friday, a defense psychiatrist who met with Bowers 10 times for nearly 40 hours said Bowers saw himself as a soldier of God in a war in which Satan was trying to use Jewish people to bring about the end of the world. Dr. George Corvin, of Raleigh, N.C., said it was a delusion brought on by psychosis.
Corvin said Bowers continues to express delusional beliefs about Jews — “disgustingly so” — and that he is incapable of remorse. He said Bowers should be on anti-psychotic medication.
Bowers “has a belief that we’re at the end of a war that’s been going on for thousands of years,” Corvin testified. “He still envisions what he did as an unfortunate act of violence at the direction of God — that it will save lives. He believes he’s a tool for God. I know it sounds absurd. It’s psychotic.”
Corvin continued: “This is the result of a mental illness.”
Corvin was one of several defense experts who diagnosed Bowers with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. A neurologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that Bowers has schizophrenia, saying Bowers has a personality disorder but is not delusional, and that mental illness did not appear to play a role in the attack. Prosecutors have noted Bowers spent six months planning the shooting.
Also testifying Friday were Bowers’ aunt and uncle.
The uncle, Clyde Munger, said he visited with Bowers in prison because “he is my nephew and I love him.” He said he prays for Bowers every morning.
The aunt, Patricia Fine, was expected to the final defense witness. She said Bowers had a difficult childhood from infancy, describing the house where he lived as unsafe. She said he was a sad child and that she “was convinced” he would take his own life. A defense expert previously described Bowers’ early life as deeply unstable and said he attempted suicide several times in his teens.
Fine’s testimony was scheduled to resume Monday, with closing arguments and jury deliberations expected to follow. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ | 2023-07-29T20:14:55 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-defense-presses-case-that-mental-illness-spurred-pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for justices in response to increased scrutiny of their activities beyond the bench.
“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Alito said in an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal opinion pages. An account of the interview, which the paper said took place in New York in early July, was published Friday.
Democrats last week pushed Supreme Court ethics legislation through a Senate committee, though the bill’s prospects in the full Senate are dim.
All federal judges other than the justices already adhere to an ethics code that was developed by the federal judiciary. But the Supreme Court’s unique status — it’s the only federal court created by the Constitution — puts it outside the reach of those standards that apply to other federal jurists.
Democrats first sought to address that after ProPublica reported earlier this year that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in lavish vacations and a real estate deal with a top Republican donor — and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify before the committee about the ethics of the court.
Since then, ProPublica also revealed that Alito had taken a luxury vacation in Alaska with a Republican donor who had business interests before the court. The Associated Press reported in early July that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade.
The 73-year-old Alito, who joined the court in 2006, has rejected the idea that he should have disclosed the Alaska trip or stepped away from cases involving the donor, hedge fund owner Paul Singer. Alito penned his own Wall Street Journal op-ed, which was published hours before ProPublica posted its story.
Alito said that he is unwilling to leave allegations unanswered, though he acknowledged judges and justices typically don’t respond to their critics.
“And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself,” he said in the newest column.
While no other justice has spoken so definitively about ethics legislation, Roberts has raised questions about Congress’ authority to oversee the high court.
In his year-end report in 2011, Roberts wrote that the justices comply with legislation that requires annual financial disclosures and limits their outside earned income. “The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court. The Justices nevertheless comply with those provisions,” Roberts wrote.
The justices have so far resisted adopting an ethics code on their own, although Roberts said in May that there is more the court can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of ethical conduct, without providing specifics.
The column is co-written by James Taranto, the paper’s editorial features editor, and David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer. Rivkin represents Leonard Leo, the onetime leader of the conservative legal group The Federalist Society, in his dealings with Senate Democrats who want details of Leo’s dealings with the justices. Leo helped arrange Alito’s trip to Alaska.
Rivkin, in a letter Tuesday to leading Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the request was politically motivated and violates Leo’s constitutional rights. Rivkin also wrote that a congressionally imposed ethics code for the Supreme Court would falter on constitutional grounds. Separately, Rivkin represents a couple whose tax case will be argued before the court in the fall.
Alito talked with the Taranto and Rivkin for four hours in interviews in April and July, they wrote. They published an account of the earlier interview in April. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:01 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-justice-alito-says-congress-lacks-the-power-to-impose-an-ethics-code-on-the-supreme-court/ |
Federal investigators renewed their recommendation that major freight railroads equip every locomotive with the kind of autonomous sensors that could have caught the track flaws that caused a fatal 2021 Amtrak derailment in northern Montana.
But installing the sensors on the tens of thousands of locomotives in the fleet could be cost prohibitive, and it’s not entirely clear if one would have caught the combination of rail flaws that the National Transportation Safety Board said caused the crash near Joplin, Montana, that killed three people and injured 49 others. And rail unions caution that no technology should be a substitute for human inspectors.
The NTSB report laid blame in part on BNSF railroad, which owns the tracks, and “a shortcoming in its safety culture.” But it noted that even if track inspections had been more frequent, the severity of the problems may not have been noticed the day of the crash without devices and technology designed to enhance the inspections.
“It is unlikely that the track deviations would have been detected through the current track inspection process,” the board concluded in the report released Thursday. But “autonomous monitoring systems … have the ability to monitor track conditions and provide real-time condition monitoring that could be used for early identification and mitigation of unsafe track conditions.”
BNSF defends its safety record and said it already employs a number of the sensors that the NTSB is recommending, but spokeswoman Lena Kent said the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad will review the report for any additional lessons and ways to improve safety.
But track problems have long been a safety concern for the NTSB, which can recommend but not mandate changes. In a 2021 report on the Joplin derailment, it attributed 592 U.S. derailments over a decade-long timespan to “track geometry,” which includes the distance between the rails and their horizontal and vertical alignment. Those issues were the second-leading cause of derailment in 2021.
Railroad safety expert Dave Clarke, the former director of University of Tennesse’s Center for Transportation Research, said it is important to remember that the NTSB doesn’t do any kind of cost-benefit analysis on its recommendations.
“If they think something is a good idea for safety they put it out there. In the real world there may be no way to economically or practically do everything NTSB recommends,” Clarke said.
Clarke said it’s also not clear that these sensors would have definitely caught the problems that caused the Montana derailment because none of the individual factors was severe enough to be considered a defect under Federal Railroad Administration rules. The NTSB said it was the combination of all those factors that caused the derailment.
The major freight railroads have more than 23,000 locomotives in their fleets, including thousands that have been put into storage in recent years as the railroads have overhauled their operations to rely more on longer trains that don’t need as many locomotives.
It would require a major investment to add detectors to every locomotive, although the Association of American Railroads trade group couldn’t immediately provide an estimate of how much each sensor costs. BNSF and the five other major U.S. freight railroads already spend roughly $23 billion every year on improving and maintaining their networks and investing in new equipment.
But attorney Jeff Goodman, who represented family members of the three passengers who died in the derailment, said he believes his clients would have lived if trains that had passed through the area before the Amtrak train had been equipped with these sensors.
Tracks will always bend or get out of sync because they’re exposed to the elements, but monitoring allows trains to know when to slow down and prevent accidents, he said.
“If the recommendations that the NTSB issued today were implemented prior to this tragedy, Zach Scheider and Don and Marjorie Varnadoe would all be alive today,” he said, naming the deceased family members of his clients.
Railroads have long resisted new regulations, Although there aren’t any rules requiring these automated inspection sensors or the thousands of trackside detectors they employ, railroads have spent millions developing the technology and installed them voluntarily to improve safety. But regulators are considering drafting rules for them in the wake of recent derailments.
An AAR trade group spokeswoman said that the type of sensors the NTSB singled out measure the force a locomotive exerts on the track and hasn’t proven as useful as other kinds of sensors railroads have developed.
“This technology has been difficult to maintain in real-world operations and lacks a strong correlation to track geometry defects,” Jessica Kahanek said.
Railroads are experimenting with a variety of technologies to find the best way to spot problems.
Another kind of autonomous sensor that can be installed on locomotives as well as the trucks inspectors use to ride along the rails can spot problems like misaligned track and wear on the rails by testing the track continuously.
Vehicle track interaction systems, like the ones the NTSB singled out, must be mounted on locomotives because they measure the force a train puts on the tracks.
Both kinds of sensors can help identify areas of concern for a human inspector to follow up on after computers analyze the data they generate. But the VTI sensors tend to be so sensitive that they flag areas where there aren’t true defects.
Kent said BNSF’s use of both kinds of sensors allows the railroad to check its track network multiple times — more than 450,000 miles (720,000 kilometers) of track each year — and that the technology has helped the railroad reduce the rate of defects that it finds by 82% over the past five years.
In the past, BNSF and other railroads have even petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration to get a waiver releasing them from some inspection requirements because they believe the track geometry sensors provide enough information that the frequency of human inspections can be safely reduced.
Federal officials approved a waiver allowing BNSF to reduce inspections on a couple of areas of its more than 30,000-mile (48,000-kilometer) network after the railroad successfully tested the devices for several years, but later declined to let the railroad expand that practice, including its tracks that cross Montana. BNSF took the FRA to court over that decision and the dispute is still pending.
Rail unions have opposed the waivers. They argue that while the new technology is helpful, it shouldn’t replace human inspections. Even with an interest in preserving jobs, they say safety is their primary concern.
Already, the unions say the widespread job cuts the major railroads have made — eliminating nearly one-third of all rail jobs over the past six years — have made it difficult for employees to keep up with inspection demands and meet all FRA requirements. The NTSB pointed out that the inspector responsible for the territory where the Montana derailment happened had worked an average of 13 hours a day in the four weeks prior to the crash.
Former NTSB director Bob Chipkevich, who spent years investigating rail crashes, said it often takes multiple derailments to force railroads to implement new safety technology.
One of the biggest recent advances in rail safety came after a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles in 2008, killing 25 people and injuring more than 100. Congress mandated a $15 billion automatic braking system that stops trains when they’re in danger of colliding, derailing and other situations — but it took 12 years to complete.
“When there are safety issues that have been raised after multiple accidents that occurred again and again, the question is to the industry,” Chipkevich said. “Why haven’t you done it after all these years?”
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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and Metz reported from Salt Lake City.
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Follow Josh Funk on Twitter at www.twitter.com/funkwrite | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-montana-train-derailment-report-renews-calls-for-automated-systems-to-detect-track-problems/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:09 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-montana-train-derailment-report-renews-calls-for-automated-systems-to-detect-track-problems/ |
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault but was acquitted of a third charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter during a trial Friday.
Jordan Steinke was the first of two officers to go to trial over the Sept. 16, 2022, crash that left Yareni Rios-Gonzalez seriously injured.
“There’s no reasonable doubt that placing a handcuffed person in the back of a patrol car, parked on railroad tracks, creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm by the train,” said Judge Timothy Kerns.
But the evidence didn’t convince Kerns that Steinke “knowingly intended to harm Ms. Rios-Gonzalez,” and he added that Stienke had shown “shock and remorse.”
Steinke testified that she did not know that the patrol car of another officer she was helping was parked on the tracks even though they can be seen on her body camera footage along with two railroad crossing signs. Steinke said she was focused on the threat that could come from Rios-Gonzalez and her pickup truck, not the ground.
Steinke said she put Rios-Gonzalez in the other officer’s vehicle because it was the nearest spot to temporarily hold her. She said she didn’t know the train was coming until just before it hit.
The judge found that Steinke observed the tracks, but failed to “appreciate the risk.”
There was no jury in Steinke’s trial, which started Monday. Instead, Kerns listened to the evidence and issued the verdict. Mallory Revel, Steinke’s attorney, didn’t immediately respond to requests by phone and email for comment.
Steinke, who was working for the Fort Lupton Police Department at the time of the crash, was charged with criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, a felony; and reckless endangerment and third-degree assault, both misdemeanors.
The other officer, Pablo Vazquez, who worked for the police department in nearby Platteville, is being prosecuted for misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and traffic offenses. He hasn’t entered a plea yet. His lawyer, Reid Elkus, didn’t immediately respond to a request by phone for comment.
Vazquez pulled over Rios-Gonzalez on a rural road that intersects U.S. Highway 85 after she was accused of pointing a gun at another driver. Trains pass on tracks that parallel the highway about a dozen times a day, prosecutors said, and the sound of their horns is common in the area north of Denver.
Rios-Gonzalez, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, is suing over her treatment. She later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor menacing, said one of her lawyers, Chris Ponce, who was in court to watch the trial. Rios-Gonzalez did not testify or attend herself.
Steinke said she placed Rios-Gonzalez in the other police car temporarily because it was the nearest place to keep her secure, a move that is standard practice for high-risk traffic stops, said defense expert witness Steve Ijames. He also testified that in dangerous situations officers can become hyperfocused on particular threats and overlook things that turn out to be important in hindsight.
Steinke, who drove at around 100 mph (161 kph) at times on her way to backup Vazquez, testified that she was surprised to see him sitting in his vehicle when she arrived, rather than pointing a gun at Rios-Gonzalez’s truck. She said she quickly parked her patrol vehicle behind his and got out because it was the quickest way “to get a gun in the fight.”
Steinke also said she did not notice the tracks or the ground when she squatted down to arrest a kneeling Rios-Gonzalez along the tracks after the suspect was ordered out of her pickup truck.
When pressed by Deputy District Attorney Christopher Jewkes, Steinke replied, “I am sure I saw the tracks sir, but I did not perceive them.” She said she was focused on the suspect and the potential threat she posed and was “fairly certain” that the traffic stop would end in gunfire.
“I never in a million years thought a train was going to come plowing through my scene,” Steinke said.
The Weld County District Attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request by phone for comment.
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This story has been updated to correct that the officer was acquitted of the charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, not manslaughter.
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Bedayn 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. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-officer-who-put-suspect-in-car-hit-by-train-found-guilty-of-reckless-endangerment/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:16 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-officer-who-put-suspect-in-car-hit-by-train-found-guilty-of-reckless-endangerment/ |
JEFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The nation’s top health official implored states to do more to keep lower-income residents enrolled in Medicaid, as the Biden administration released figures Friday confirming that many who had health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic are now losing it.
Though a decline in Medicaid coverage was expected, health officials are raising concerns about the large numbers of people being dropped from the rolls for failing to return forms or follow procedures.
In 18 states that began a post-pandemic review of their Medicaid rolls in April, health coverage was continued for about 1 million recipients and terminated for 715,000. Of those dropped, 4 in 5 were for procedural reasons, according to newly released data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter Friday to all governors encouraging them to bolster efforts to retain people on Medicaid. He particularly encouraged them to use electronic information from other federal programs, such as food stamps, to automatically confirm people’s eligibility for Medicaid. That would avert the need to mail and return documents.
“I am deeply concerned about high rates of procedural terminations due to ‘red tape’ and other paperwork issues,” Becerra told governors.
During the pandemic, states were prohibited from ending people’s Medicaid coverage. As a result, Medicaid enrollment swelled by nearly one-third, from 71 million people in February 2020 to 93 million in February 2023. The prohibition on trimming rolls ended in April, and states now have resumed annual eligibility redeterminations that had been required before the pandemic.
The new federal data captures only the first month of state Medicaid reviews from states that acted the most expeditiously. Since then, additional states also have submitted reports on those renewed and dropped from Medicaid in May and June.
Though the federal government hasn’t released data from the most recent reports, information gathered by The Associated Press and health care advocacy groups show that about 3.7 million people already have lost Medicaid coverage. That includes about 500,000 in Texas, around 400,000 in Florida and 225,000 in California. Of those who lost coverage, 89% were for procedural reasons in California, 81% in Texas and 59% in Florida, according to the AP’s data.
Many of those people may have still been eligible for Medicaid, “but they’re caught in a bureaucratic nightmare of confusing forms, notices sent to wrong addresses and other errors,” said Michelle Levander, founding director of the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California,
Top CMS officials said they have worked with several states to pause Medicaid removals and improve procedures for determining eligibility.
South Carolina is one state that voluntarily slowed down. It reported renewing Medicaid coverage for about 27,000 people in May while removing 118,000. Of those dropped, 95% were for procedural reasons. In a recent report to the federal government, South Carolina said it removed no one from Medicaid in June because it extended the eligibility renewal deadline from 60 days to 90 days.
Michigan reported renewing more than 103,000 Medicaid recipients in June and removing just 12,000. It told the federal government that the state opted to delay terminations for those who failed to respond to renewal requests while instead making additional outreach attempts. As a result, the state reported more than 100,000 people whose June eligibility cases remained incomplete.
People who are dropped from Medicaid can regain coverage retroactively if they submit information within 90 days proving their eligibility. But some advocacy groups say that still poses a challenge.
“State government is not necessarily nimble,” said Keesa Smith, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “When individuals are being disenrolled, the biggest concern … is that there is not a fast track to get those individuals back on the rolls.”
Arkansas officials have been at the forefront of defending Medicaid cuts. They contend that many people likely don’t return forms because they no longer need Medicaid.
People are “transitioning off of Medicaid” because “they are working, making more money, and have access to health care through their employers or the federal marketplace,” Arkansas Medicaid Director Janet Mann said earlier this month. “This should be celebrated, not criticized.”
Insurance companies that run Medicaid programs for states said they are trying to reduce procedural terminations and enroll people in new plans.
The Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer Elevance Health lost 130,000 Medicaid customers during the recently completed second quarter, as Medicaid eligibility redeterminations began. Chief Financial Officer John Gallina said earlier this month that many people lost Medicaid coverage for administrative reasons but are likely to reenroll in the near future.
Leaders of the insurer Molina Healthcare told analysts Thursday that the company lost about 93,000 Medicaid customers in the recently completed second quarter, mostly due to eligibility redeterminations. Molina officials said they are trying to switch people who no longer qualify for Medicaid to one of the individual insurance plans they sell through state-based marketplaces.
Federal data for April indicates that some states did a better job than others at handling a crush of questions from people about their Medicaid coverage.
In 19 states and the District of Columbia, the average Medicaid call center wait time was one minute or less in April. But in Idaho, the average caller to the state’s Medicaid help line waited 51 minutes. In Missouri, the average wait was 44 minutes, and in Florida 40 minutes.
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Associated Press writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-paperwork-problems-drive-surge-in-people-losing-medicaid-health-coverage/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:23 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-paperwork-problems-drive-surge-in-people-losing-medicaid-health-coverage/ |
The rapper G Herbo pleaded guilty Friday to his role in a scheme that used stolen credit card information to pay for a lavish lifestyle including private jets, exotic car rentals, a luxury vacation rental and even expensive designer puppies.
Under a deal with prosecutors, the 27-year-old Chicago rapper, whose real name is Herbert Wright III, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed several counts of aggravated identity theft.
He also agreed to forfeit nearly $140,000, the amount he benefited from what prosecutors have said was a $1.5 million scheme that involved several other people.
“Mr. Wright used stolen account information as his very own unlimited funding source, using victims’ payment cards to finance an extravagant lifestyle and advance his career,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7, and he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. A voicemail seeking comment was left with his attorney.
From at least March 2017 until November 2018, G Herbo and his promoter, Antonio Strong, used text messages, social media messages and emails to share account information taken from dark websites, authorities said.
On one occasion, the stolen account information was used to pay for a chartered jet to fly the rapper and members of his entourage from Chicago to Austin, Texas, authorities said. On another, a stolen account was used to pay nearly $15,000 for Wright and seven others to stay several days in a six-bedroom Jamaican villa.
In court documents, prosecutors said G Herbo “used the proceeds of these frauds to travel to various concert venues and to advance his career by posting photographs and/or videos of himself on the private jets, in the exotic cars, and at the Jamaican villa.”
G Herbo also helped Strong order two designer Yorkshire terrier puppies from a Michigan pet shop using a stolen credit card and a fake Washington state driver’s license, according to the indictment. The total cost was more than $10,000, prosecutors said.
When the pet shop’s owner asked to confirm the purchase with G Herbo, Strong directed her to do so through an Instagram message, and G Herbo confirmed he was buying the puppies, authorities said.
Because the stolen credit card information was authentic, the transactions went through and it wasn’t until later that the real credit card holders noticed and reported the fraud.
G Herbo was also charged in May 2021 with lying to investigators by denying that he had any ties to Strong when in fact the two had worked together since at least 2016, prosecutors said.
Strong has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
G Herbo’s music is centered on his experiences growing up on the East Side of Chicago in a neighborhood dubbed Terror Town, including gang and gun violence.
He released his debut mix tapes “Welcome to Fazoland” and “Pistol P Project” in 2014, both named for friends who had been killed in the city. His first album was 2017’s “Humble Beast,” and his latest is “Survivor’s Remorse,” released last year.
His 2020 album “PTSD” debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200.
G Herbo also started a program in Chicago called Swervin’ Through Stress, aimed at giving urban youths tools to navigate mental health crises, after publicly acknowledging his own struggle with PTSD. In 2021 he was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 music list. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:30 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-rapper-g-herbo-pleads-guilty-in-credit-card-fraud-that-paid-for-private-jets-and-designer-puppies/ |
HOUSTON (AP) — Just moments before rap superstar Travis Scott took the stage at the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, a contract worker had been so worried about what might happen after seeing people getting crushed that he texted an event organizer saying, “Someone’s going to end up dead,” according to a police report released Friday.
The texts by security contract worker Reece Wheeler were some of many examples in the nearly 1,300-page report in which festival workers highlighted problems and warned of possible deadly consequences. The report includes transcripts of concertgoers’ 911 calls and summaries of police interviews, including one with Scott conducted just days after the event.
The crowd surge at the Nov. 5, 2021, outdoor festival in Houston killed 10 attendees who ranged in age from 9 to 27. The official cause of death was compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car. About 50,000 people attended the festival.
“Pull tons over the rail unconscious. There’s panic in people eyes. This could get worse quickly,” Reece Wheeler texted Shawna Boardman, one of the private security directors, at 9 p.m. Wheeler then texted, “I know they’ll try to fight through it but I would want it on the record that I didn’t advise this to continue. Someone’s going to end up dead.”
Scott’s concert began at 9:02 p.m. In their review of video from the concert’s livestream, police investigators said that at 9:13 p.m., they heard the faint sound of someone saying, “Stop the show.” The same request could also be heard at 9:16 p.m. and 9:22 p.m.
In an Aug. 19, 2022, police interview, Boardman’s attorneys told investigators that Boardman “saw things were not as bad as Reece Wheeler stated” and decided not to pass along Wheeler’s concerns to anyone else.
A grand jury declined to indict anyone who was investigated over the event, including Scott, Boardman and four other people.
During a police interview conducted two days after the concert, Scott told investigators that although he did see one person near the stage getting medical attention, overall the crowd seemed to be enjoying the show and he did not see any signs of serious problems.
“We asked if he at any point heard the crowd telling him to stop the show. He stated that if he had heard something like that he would have done something,” police said in their summary of Scott’s interview.
Hip-hop artist Drake, who performed with Scott at the concert, told police that it was difficult to see from the stage what was going on in the crowd and that he didn’t hear concertgoers’ pleas to stop the show.
Drake found out about the tragedy later that night from his manager, while learning more on social media, police said in their summary.
Marty Wallgren, who worked for a security consulting firm hired by the festival, told police that when he went backstage and tried to tell representatives for Scott and Drake that the concert needed to end because people had been hurt and might have died, he was told “Drake still has three more songs,” according to an interview summary.
Daniel Johary, a college student who got trapped in the crush of concertgoers and later used his skills working as an EMT in Israel to help an injured woman, told investigators hundreds of people had chanted for Scott to stop the music and that the chants could be heard “from everywhere.”
“He stated staff members in the area gave thumbs-up and did not care,” according to the police report.
Richard Rickeada, a retired Houston police officer who was working for a private security company at the festival, told investigators that from 8 a.m. the day of the concert, things were “pretty much in chaos,” according to a police summary of his interview. His concerns and questions about whether the concert should be held were “met with a lot of shrugged shoulders,” he said.
About 23 minutes into the concert, cameraman Gregory Hoffman radioed into the show’s production trailer to warn that “people were dying.” Hoffman was operating a large crane that held a television camera before it was overrun with concertgoers who needed medical help, police said.
The production team radioed Hoffman to ask when they could get the crane back in operation.
Salvatore Livia, who was hired to direct the live show, told police that following Hoffman’s dire warning, people in the production trailer understood that something was not right, but “they were disconnected to the reality of (what) was happening out there,” according to a police summary of Livia’s interview.
Concertgoer Christopher Gates, then 22, told police that by the second or third song in Scott’s performance, he came across about five people on the ground who he believed were already dead.
Their bodies were “lifeless, pale, and their lips were blue/purple,” according to the police report. Random people in the crowd – not medics – provided CPR.
The police report was released about a month after the grand jury in Houston declined to indict Scott on any criminal charges in connection with the deadly concert. Police Chief Troy Finner had said the report was being made public so that people could “read the entire investigation” and come to their own conclusions about the case. During a news conference after the grand jury’s decision, Finner declined to say what the overall conclusion of his agency’s investigation was or whether police should have stopped the concert sooner.
The report’s release also came the same day that Scott released his new album, “Utopia.”
More than 500 lawsuits were filed over the deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against concert promoter Live Nation and Scott. Some have since been settled.
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
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Find more AP coverage of the Astroworld festival: https://apnews.com/hub/astroworld-festival-deaths | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:37 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-worker-warned-organizer-someones-going-to-end-up-dead-before-crowd-surge-at-21-travis-scott-show/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court Friday to reverse a federal judge’s decision to keep his hush-money criminal case in a New York state court that the former president claims is “very unfair” to him.
Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan after U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last week rejected his bid to move the case to federal court, where his lawyers were primed to argue he was immune from prosecution.
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, but Hellerstein ruled that the hush-money case involved a personal matter, not presidential duties.
Trump’s appeal notice came at the end of another busy week of legal action for the twice-indicted Republican as he seeks a return to the White House in next year’s election. On Thursday, he was indicted on new criminal charges in a separate case in federal court in Florida involving allegations that he illegally hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the hush-money case and fought to keep it in state court, declined to comment on Trump’s appeal.
Trump pleaded not guilty April 4 in state court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements made to his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen for his role in paying $130,000 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Cohen also arranged for the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story about an alleged affair, which the supermarket tabloid then squelched in a dubious journalism practice known as “catch-and-kill.”
Trump denied having sexual encounters with either woman. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
He is scheduled to stand trial in state court on March 25, 2024. In the meantime, his lawyers have asked the state court judge presiding over the case, Juan Manuel Merchan, to step aside, arguing that he’s biased in part because his daughter does political consulting work for some of Trump’s Democratic rivals. Trump has referred to Merchan as “a Trump-hating judge” with a family full of “Trump haters.” The judge has yet to rule on the request.
In seeking to try the hush-money case tried in federal court, Trump’s lawyers have argued that some of his alleged conduct amounted to official presidential duties because it occurred in 2017 while he was president, including checks he purportedly wrote while sitting in the Oval Office.
Moving the case from state court to federal court would have significant legal and practical consequences for Trump. In federal court, for example, his lawyers could then try to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that federal officials have immunity from prosecution over actions taken as part of their official job duties.
A shift to federal court would also mean a more politically diverse jury pool — drawing not only from heavily Democratic Manhattan, where Trump is wildly unpopular, but also from suburban counties north of the city where he has more political support. | https://www.ksn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:45 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-donald-trump-appeals-judges-decision-to-keep-hush-money-case-in-new-york-state-court/ |
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Saturday that Sri Lanka is a key partner in a Tokyo-led initiative aimed at building security and economic cooperation around the Indo-Pacific but also at countering an increasingly assertive China.
Sri Lanka, strategically located in the Indian Ocean, is integral to realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, Hayashi said. He was speaking after a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ali Sabry, in the capital, Colombo.
The initiative, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in March includes Japan’s assistance to emerging economies, support for maritime security, a provision of coast guard patrol boats and equipment and other infrastructure cooperation.
Last year Sri Lanka, which owed $51 billion in foreign debt, became the first Asia-Pacific country since the late 1990s to default, sparking an economic crisis.
While Japan is Sri Lanka’s largest creditor, about 10% of its debt is held by China, which lent Colombo billions to build sea ports, airports and power plants as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. In March, China agreed to offer Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on loan repayments.
Hayashi said that he conveyed expectations for further progress in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring process. He welcomed Sri Lanka’s efforts under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which includes anti-corruption measures and transparency in the policy-making process.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Sabry said that he, along with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, invited Japan to resume investment projects already in the pipeline and to consider fresh investments in sectors such as power generation, ports and highways, and dedicated investment zones, as well as in the green and digital economy.
Over many decades, Japan became one of Sri Lanka’s key donors, carrying out key projects under concessionary terms. However, relations between the two countries came under strain after Wickremesinghe’s predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa unilaterally scrapped a Japan-funded light railway project following his election in 2019.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet has already approved a proposal to restart the railway project.
Rajapaksa was forced to resign in July 2022 amid angry public protects over the country’s worst economic crisis. | https://who13.com/business/ap-business/ap-with-one-eye-on-china-japan-backs-sri-lanka-as-a-partner-in-the-indo-pacific/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:51 | 0 | https://who13.com/business/ap-business/ap-with-one-eye-on-china-japan-backs-sri-lanka-as-a-partner-in-the-indo-pacific/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a stunning new allegation in an already serious case: Former President Donald Trump sought to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of classified documents.
The latest criminal charges unsealed Thursday deepen Trump’s legal jeopardy, alleging a more central role for the former president than previously known in a cover-up that prosecutors say was meant to prevent them from recovering top-secret documents he took with him after he left the White House. Coming as Trump braces for possible additional indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the new allegations strengthen special counsel Jack Smith’s already powerful case against Trump while undercutting potential defenses floated by the former president, experts say.
“Before these new charges, you could maybe try some sort of defense that ‘this was all a mistake, it was my staff’ or confusion about what documents he actually had,” said former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor.
“But especially now, when you’re trying to destroy video footage,” he added, “that’s kind of the final nail in the coffin. I don’t see much in the way of a defense, not a real defense. All he can do is claim he’s being persecuted and hope for a holdout juror or something.”
Trump resorted to that familiar playbook on Friday, writing in a post on his Truth Social platform that “this is textbook Third World intimidation by rabid, lawless prosecutors.” He insisted during an interview with radio host John Fredericks that he did nothing wrong and accused prosecutors of trying to intimidate his staff into making up lies about him.
Later Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Mar-a-Lago security tapes were voluntarily handed over to prosecutors. Trump said he was told they were not “deleted in any way, shape or form.”
The new Florida charges came as a surprise given that Trump and his legal team have been focused on the prospect of an additional indictment in Washington — possibly within days — related to his efforts to cling to power after he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump received a letter this month informing him that he’s a target in that probe, and his lawyers met Thursday with special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Hours after that meeting, Smith revealed the new classified documents case charges on top of a 38-count indictment issued last month against Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta. The updated indictment includes a detailed chronology of phone conversations and other interactions between Trump, Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, in the days after the Justice Department last June drafted a subpoena for security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.
Video from the home would ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in an effort to hide records not only only from investigators but Trump’s own lawyers.
The day after a draft subpoena was sent to the Trump Organization, the indictment says, Trump called De Oliveira and spoke with him for about 24 minutes. Though the details of that conversation are not included in the indictment, De Oliveira is described by prosecutors as asking a Mar-a-Lago information technology staffer several days later how long the server retained footage for and is quoted as telling the employee that “the boss” wanted it deleted.
Lawyers for Nauta, who has pleaded not guilty, and De Oliveira declined to comment on the allegations. De Oliveira is expected to make his first court appearance in Miami on Monday.
To the extent that evidence of Trump’s involvement in trying to delete video is circumstantial rather than direct, it might present a challenge for prosecutors, said David Aaron, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor who has worked on cases involving the mishandling of classified documents.
But if they can tie the effort to Trump, he added, “it’s devastating in its own right, because it doesn’t matter at that point what he thought he had the right to do, or whatever other defense he’s going to have about the classified documents. That’s in and of itself very bad.”
It could also help prosecutors establish that Trump knew what he was doing was wrong because “you only delete video of what you’ve done if you think it’s going to get you in trouble,” Aaron said. And Trump’s own accusations against others, like his claims against Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential race, could boomerang against him.
Trump has claimed that Clinton deleted emails from her private server for the purpose of obstructing a criminal investigation into her own handling of classified information — something the FBI and Justice Department never alleged — but now stands himself accused of scheming to delete evidence he feared would be incriminating.
“He has specifically criticized other public figures for deleting data when he says they thought they were going to be in trouble,” Aaron said. “So if you needed to prove his consciousness of guilt, it’s not just an obvious thing that you would ask the jury to rely on common sense for — he’s actually made statements about what it means when someone does this.”
Trump and Nauta are set for trial next May, though it’s not clear if that date will hold.
Smith’s team also added a new count of willful retention of national defense information related to a classified document about a Pentagon plan of attack on a foreign country prosecutors say Trump showed off during a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
That charge comes after Trump repeatedly claimed he didn’t have any secret documents when he spoke, only magazine and newspaper clippings, even though an audio recording captured him saying “this is secret information.” The document was returned to the government in January 2022, months before the subpoena for classified records.
It’s not clear why prosecutors moved now to indict another one of Trump’s underlings, though bringing charges against De Oliveira that could carry significant prison time adds serious pressure on him, potentially increasing the odds that he could decide to cut a plea deal and cooperate.
“But, you know, Trump seems to inspire a lot of loyalty, at least in some people,” Eliason said. “Maybe they are holding out for the idea that he is reelected and he can pardon them.”
____
Richer reported from Boston. | https://www.ksn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-to-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:52 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-fresh-charges-tie-trump-even-more-closely-to-coverup-effort-that-could-deepen-his-legal-woes/ |
Nearly two years after 10 people were crushed to death during the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, no charges have been filed — even though some people, including event workers, expressed safety concerns.
Pinpointing “who exactly caused those deaths is not an easy question to answer,” said Sandra Guerra Thompson, a criminal law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
“It’s a very difficult thing to say, unless you have some kind of clear evidence that somebody in charge, whose job it was to ensure safety and who should have known better, failed to take action,” she said.
A nearly 1,300-page report on the investigation into the tragedy released by Houston police Friday said contract worker Reece Wheeler told authorities that he saw a crush of people and warned an event organizer that people could die, shortly before rapper Travis Scott went onstage.
In the report, investigators wrote that Scott said he did see one person near the stage getting medical attention, but said that overall, the crowd seemed to enjoy the show. He said he did not see any signs of serious problems, nor did he hear anyone tell him to stop the show.
Hip-hop artist Drake, who also performed, told police it was difficult to see from the stage what was going on in the crowd and that he didn’t hear anyone call for the show to stop.
Despite no charges being filed, more than 500 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths and injuries at the concert, including many against concert promoter Live Nation and Scott. Some of those suits have since been settled.
Those who were killed ranged in age from 9 to 27, and all 10 people died due to compression asphyxia, according to medical examiners.
In June, a Texas grand jury declined to indict six people in the case, including Scott. Prosecutors said, then, that the circumstances of the deaths limited what charges they were able to present, eliminating potential counts such as murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Thompson said the sheer number of people involved in putting on the event, the large scale of it, and the high bar for proving criminal negligence or recklessness are challenges for prosecutors in cases like this.
“It goes back to, who knows what’s going on, is that being communicated?” she said. “Were they being told that people have died, and they still wanted the concert to go on? Or, were they being told that ‘Hey, some people are getting hurt, which might not be that unusual at an event like that?”
Assistant Harris County District Attorney Alycia Harvey said after the grand jury declined to issue indictments that prosecutors were left with only possible counts of endangering a child in connection with the deaths of the two youngest concertgoers, ages 9 and 14.
Scott’s lawyer, Kent Schaffer, has said that the performer was not responsible for the tragedy.
“He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said.
Scott has previously said he was unaware of the deaths until after the show. He has since created what he called Project HEAL, a $5 million initiative that includes funding for an effort to address safety challenges for festivals and large-scale events.
The police report said Scott told investigators that around the time Drake came onstage he was told to end the show after the performance, but that no one told him of an emergency.
Following the tragedy, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott formed a task force to study concert safety, and to recommend crowd control and security measures during mass gathering.
The task force in April 2022 reported that people without tickets entered the outdoor festival area hours before the performances began, overwhelming staff and leading to a variety of injuries. It also concluded that the process for issuing permits for mass gatherings is inconsistent statewide.
The task force recommended creating a command center that is authorized to pause or cancel a show in response to safety concerns.
“Sometimes, sadly, industries learn safety practices following disasters,” said Thompson, the law professor. “The standards for live concerts like this, I would imagine, are going to change.”
_____
Miller reported from Oklahoma City, Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-10-people-died-at-the-astroworld-music-festival-two-years-ago-what-happens-now/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:58 | 0 | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-10-people-died-at-the-astroworld-music-festival-two-years-ago-what-happens-now/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The city of San Francisco has opened a complaint and launched an investigation into a giant “X” sign that was installed Friday on top of the downtown building formerly known as Twitter headquarters as owner Elon Musk continues his rebrand of the social media platform.
City officials say replacing letters or symbols on buildings, or erecting a sign on top of one, requires a permit for design and safety reasons.
The X appeared after San Francisco police stopped workers on Monday from removing the brand’s iconic bird and logo from the side of the building, saying they hadn’t taped off the sidewalk to keep pedestrians safe if anything fell.
Any replacement letters or symbols would require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection said earlier this week.
Erecting a sign on top of a building also requires a permit, Hannan said Friday.
“Planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign. The city is opening a complaint and initiating an investigation,” he said in an email.
Musk unveiled a new “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he remakes the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year. The X started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, has long been fascinated with the letter X and had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. after he bought it in October. One of his children is called “X.” The child’s actual name is a collection of letters and symbols.
On Friday afternoon, a worker on a lift machine made adjustments to the sign and then left. | https://www.ksn.com/news/tech/ap-technology/ap-x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-to-investigate-permit-violation/ | 2023-07-29T20:15:59 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/news/tech/ap-technology/ap-x-logo-installed-atop-twitter-building-spurring-san-francisco-to-investigate-permit-violation/ |
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP) — For a single, unthinkable moment last summer, the Chautauqua Institution was a hostile place for the freedom of expression that has been its hallmark for 150 years: As Salman Rushdie was about to speak, an audience member leapt onto the stage and stabbed the celebrated author more than a dozen times.
By the next day, Chautauqua Institution President Michael Hill recently recounted, the decision had been made not only to resume programming, but to “double down on what Mr. Rushdie stands for, what our speakers and preachers and artists stand for — which is the free exchange of ideas and the belief that society is stronger when we do that.”
A year later, Rushdie, blinded in one eye by the assault, is recovering from the attack. The Chautauqua Institution is recovering, too.
Programming and revenue for the arts and intellectual retreat in the rural southwest corner of New York was disrupted for two seasons by COVID-19. Then the attack further shattered the return to normal that regular visitors had so craved.
With a new nine-week summer season now under way, well-tended gardens are in bloom and rocking chairs are back out on the porches of Victorian- and cottage-style homes.
Security has been strengthened, though the gated compound remains open to anyone who buys a pass to enter.
“We look at the work that we do under a different lens since” the stabbing, Hill said during an interview in his office, which overlooks Bestor Plaza, a lush expanse of greenery anchoring the 750-acre (303-hectare) grounds. “The attack was an attempt at silencing, which underscores the need for institutions like ours to not stay silent.”
As an institution, Chautauqua defies easy explanation.
“NPR camp for grown-ups” is the description preferred by Erica Higbie, who owns a house on the grounds.
Located on the shore of Chautauqua Lake, the institution is a self-contained community with lecture halls, houses of worship, cafes, shops, a library, post office and bookstore, along with private homes, rentals and the Athenaeum Hotel, which served as former President Bill Clinton’s executive mansion for a week in 1996 as he prepared for his debate with Republican challenger Bob Dole.
Aside from boating and golf, the 4,400-seat, open-air amphitheater is a main draw, with a summer entertainment lineup this year offering concerts by Diana Ross and Bonnie Raitt, ballet and theater productions and performances by the house Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
But for Higbie and many others, the primary appeal exists in the institution’s 19th Century beginnings as a summer educational experiment in which daily lectures are curated around weekly explorations of anything from politics to infrastructure and faith to friendship.
“I am a lecture junkie,” Higbie said from her porch as people navigated the grounds on foot, bikes and scooters. The speed limit for the rare vehicle traffic is 12 mph. The retired teacher takes in a daily morning lecture and may hear two more in the afternoon at the amphitheater and the Hall of Philosophy.
Through the decades, Susan B. Anthony advocated for women’s rights at the institution and President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his 1936 “I Hate War” speech in the amphitheater. Former Vice President Al Gore spoke about the climate crisis and Supreme Court Judges Robert H. Jackson and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are among countless others who have offered insights.
Rushdie’s appearance came during a week last year exploring home as “a place for human thriving.”
Henry Reese, co-founder of the City of Asylum Pittsburgh, was about to interview “The Satanic Verses” author about violence against writers when Rushdie was attacked as the men sat in armchairs on the amphitheater’s sunken stage.
Rushdie, the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death, was stabbed in the neck, stomach, chest, hand and right eye. Reese suffered bruises and a gash to his forehead.
With alleged assailant Hadi Matar awaiting trial in a nearby courthouse, Reese is scheduled to return to the institution on the anniversary of the attack, Aug. 12. His appearance is expected to kick off a week exploring freedom of expression, imagination and the resilience of democracy. Republican strategist Karl Rove and Democratic strategist David Axelrod are among other invited guests.
It would have been out of character for the institution to do anything but pick up where it left off after the assault, regular guest lecturer Eboo Patel said.
“Not a single artist or speaker canceled,” Patel, founder of Interfaith America in Chicago, said by phone.
“Chautauqua recognizes that it has a responsibility to its own community, honestly to American civilization and the human spirit, and it’s back up in 24 to 48 hours. That’s stunning,” he said.
Property owners differed on how far the institution should go to ensure personal safety, said Higbie, the president of the Chautauqua Property Owners Association.
“Everybody was in shock for a long time,“ Higbie said.
Visitors say they notice more security and protocols at events. Amphitheater patrons can bring only clear bags inside, for example, and may be scanned or asked to walk through a weapons detector.
Even so, “I never hesitated for a minute” to return, said Michael Crawford of Washington, D.C., as he chatted with Mary Pat McFarland of Philadelphia. The two sat on one of the red benches placed around the grounds to invite discussion.
A handful of musicians with violins, guitars and a small harp played an impromptu jam session beneath a tree nearby.
Hill said he sees his role as “teeing up” issues for engagement, so shying away from difficult ones would be a disservice at a time when civic discourse is in short supply.
“It’s about bringing divergent viewpoints for people to digest,” Hill said. “For us to have made the decision to stop bringing speakers who may be controversial in any way would have been for us to stop doing our mission.”
“It would have been,” he said, “to literally stop the reason this place was created.” | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-after-an-attack-on-salman-rushdie-the-chautauqua-institution-says-its-mission-wont-change/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:04 | 1 | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-after-an-attack-on-salman-rushdie-the-chautauqua-institution-says-its-mission-wont-change/ |
Amazon Essentials is offering low prices on pink apparel
If you are obsessed with the new “Barbie” movie, you aren’t alone. Not only is it an epic box office hit, but it’s the highest-grossing movie ever by a female director. Anyone who loves the flick understandably wants to update their wardrobe with pink clothing and accessories that Barbie would be proud to wear.
You can show your enthusiasm for Barbie by shopping Amazon’s private clothing line, Amazon Essentials, for deals on pink fashions. The retailer is celebrating with deals on everything from jackets to sandals that are sure to excite fans of all ages. We’ve rounded up our favorite Barbie-friendly fashion deals to help you shop.
Facts about the doll and the movie
“Barbie” has fans young and young at heart flocking to theaters to see what all the buzz is about. Here are a few facts about the movie and the iconic fashion doll:
- Greta Gerwig is the director of “Barbie.”
- Leading actress Margot Robbie is transformed into a real-life version of the beloved doll.
- The film made $470 million globally after only five days in theaters.
- The first Barbie doll was introduced on March 9, 1959, at the New York Toy Fair.
- All shades of pink are associated with Barbie, especially hot pink and bubble gum pink.
- Barbie merchandise is sold in 150-plus countries throughout the world.
Best Barbie pink apparel from Amazon Essentials
Amazon Essentials Pink Pullover Packable Windbreaker
You can sport your love of Barbie pink — even in inclement weather — with this bright pink windbreaker. It offers a pullover style with a protective hood and is packable for easy transport. It’s available at a low price too.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Thong Sandals
These simple thong sandals come in hot pink. They are perfect for hot summer days when you want to sport a splash of pink on casual outings.
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Amazon Essentials Classic Cap Sleeve Wrap Dress
If you want to dress like Barbie, you need a stylish dress in pink. This pretty one has a wrap-style that’s on-trend and figure-flattering. It’s available in a nice selection of sizes, from extra small to 6X.
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Amazon Essentials Neon Pink High-Rise Capri Leggings
With a vibrant pink color, these capri leggings are perfect for any Barbie enthusiast. Pair them with workout gear or a pretty tunic top for stylish looks in and out of the gym.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Knit Pull-On Shorts
These shorts boast a simple pull-style that’s easy to wear. They look great with flirty summer shirts for a warm-weather look that’s Barbie-approved.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Sleeveless Woven Shirt Dress
With a feminine design that offers a button-up front and waist bow, this fashionable dress certainly looks like something Barbie would wear. It has a stylish collar and flowing fit.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Tank Top
This affordable tank top comes in packs of two, which makes it a solid deal. The pink also comes with a white one, both of which can be paired with other pink items in summertime outfits.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Crop Puffer Jacket
Keep your Barbie style going when the weather turns chilly with this puffer jacket. The edgy crop style pairs perfectly with all types of pants and jeans. It has a cozy fill and high collar to lock out the cold.
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Amazon Essentials Hot Pink Swim Top
Pair this swim top with your favorite bikini bottoms for a Barbie look that’s ideal for the pool or beach. It’s made of a nylon blend that washes nicely and dries fast.
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Amazon Essentials Pink Active Seamless Long-Sleeve T-shirt
We love this long-sleeve T-shirt for yearlong wear with jeans, leggings or skirts. Featuring a comfortable fit and a breathable material, this shirt is likely to become your go-to pink top for casual days.
Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.ksn.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/shirts-tops-br/amazon-has-barbie-fever-too-and-the-fashion-deals-to-prove-it/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:05 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/reviews/br/apparel-br/shirts-tops-br/amazon-has-barbie-fever-too-and-the-fashion-deals-to-prove-it/ |
CHICAGO (AP) — The beginning of the pandemic was devasting for the leader of the indie rock band Black Belt Eagle Scout, Katherine Paul. All her tours, including one headlining across North America, were canceled and she feared her ascending music career might be over.
She got a day job at a nonprofit and returned to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community’s homelands in Western Washington. But as Paul, or KP to her friends, spent time in the cedar forests and walked along the Skagit River, she turned to her guitar to deal with the isolation and stress. Those snippets, recorded on her phone, provided the foundation for what would become songs on her powerful, grunge-soaked new record “The Land, The Water, The Sky.”
“I feel like if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have made this record,” said KP, who writes the songs, sings and plays guitar in the band that was the only Native American artist at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this month.
“I spent a lot of time outside. I spent a lot more time than normal going on hikes, being part of the land,” she continued. “It’s not like I never do that stuff but it brought me back to a place where this is who I am.”
The new record, which came out in February, helped launch what has probably been the most successful year so far for Black Belt Eagle Scout. The band toured Europe and will go to Australia later this year. Two of her songs, “Soft Stud” from an earlier record and “Salmon Stinta” from her latest, appear this season on the television series “Reservation Dogs.”
Reservation Dogs Music Supervisor Tiffany Anders said she was introduced to the band’s music by the show’s creator, Sterlin Harjo, when they started working on the second season.
“It’s always been important for us on this show to include Native American artists, but beyond representation, Black Belt Eagle Scout’s music is beautiful and emotional, and fits these characters, their world and landscape — and the vibe of the show,’” she said in a statement.
Then there was Pitchfork, a three-day festival that is a significant milestone for indie musicians. The festival is held every year in Chicago’s Union Park and this year’s headliners included Bon Iver, Big Thief and The Smile, which has members of Radiohead.
She admitted stepping on that stage last weekend was nerve-wracking given her high hopes for the show, a feeling compounded by concerns that storms could scuttle their performance. But as she launched into the blistering set of mostly new songs in front of thousands of eager fans, KP found solace in her guitar. She launched several long jams that were punctuated by her twirling her jet-black hair around to the point it obscured her face.
“It was totally a moment,” she said with a laugh.
“I kind of cried after we played because it felt so meaningful,” she added. “Like, I’ve always wanted to play this music festival. I remember trying to play one of the years before the pandemic when I was touring and it didn’t happen. This year, I was just so stoked to play.”
Reaching Pitchfork has been a long journey for the 34-year-old artist, who is a member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and left her home on the reservation in LaConner, Washington, when she was 17 to attend Lewis & Clark College in Oregon and play rock music.
Growing up on the reservation off the Washington coast on islands in the Salish Sea, she drummed and sang cultural songs. As a teenager, she discovered local Pacific Northwest bands like Mount Eerie and the sounds of the Riot Grrrl movement and played one of her first gigs at a small bar called Department of Safety. She moved to Portland, Oregon, due to its outsized role in the indie scene that featured bands like Sleater-Kinney and quickly immersed herself in the music scene playing drums and guitar.
She joined an all-female outfit whom she met at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland. She went on to play a lot of small, basement shows with bands like Genders — whose wolf tattoo she still has on her left arm.
But she wanted to write her own songs and formed Black Belt Eagle Scout in 2013. Her early music was defined by her ethereal singing about love, friendship and healing — often only accompanied by minimal guitar strumming. But she did rock out on songs like “Soft Stud,” which featured searing solos.
“She is a really an authentic musician and she carries a lot of power on stage with her presence and sound,” Claire Glass, who plays guitar in the band and first saw KP seven years ago.
KP has said her Native American identify has always been present on her records. But her latest music paints a more vivid picture of life on the Swinomish reservation. There are references to chinook salmon, which are traditionally fished, and a powwow dance.
“I started thinking of feeling grateful for the life that I have been given; this place that I’m from; how much the land, the water, the sky means to me — being surrounded by it,” KP said of writing the song ”Don’t Give Up.” “It has so much more meaning because the land, that’s where my people are from.”
Her songs aren’t meant to directly confront issues like the crisis of missing and murdered Native American women or tribes’ forced relocation. It’s not the way she writes songs. Instead, she envisions them connecting with people, drawing more Native Americans to indie rock shows in places like Minneapolis, which has a vibrant Native American community, and inspiring young Native Americans to connect with her after shows.
“Isn’t me like being here existing with my music good enough? Can’t I just be who I am?” she asked, adding she doesn’t need to speak out from stage about these issues because being Native often means she is already wrestling with them. A judge, for example, ruled in March that BNSF Railway intentionally violated the terms of an easement agreement with the tribe by running 100-car trains carrying crude oil over the reservation.
“As a Native person, you know someone who is missing. Your tribe is trying to get your land back. Those are topics that are part of your every day life,” she said. ”I care about those things deeply but there are certain ways in which my music is, maybe not as direct, but it can be healing.”
KP also doesn’t want to be seen just as a rock musician or as a Native artist. “I am a musician who happens to be Native, but I am also a Native musician … I think I am always both,” she said.
Her latest record aims to show that.
“I kind of had in the back of mind, just kept thinking what would Built to Spill do,” KP said of the guitar-heavy, indie-rock band from the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve gone on tour with them and seen their three guitars at one point playing together and how they overlap and all these other things.”
It’s also a more collaborative effort with more musicians playing on the record— a departure for KP, who is accustomed to doing everything herself. A cellist who played with Nirvana, Lori Goldston, is featured on several songs, as are two violinists, as well as a saxophone and mellotron player.
Takiaya Reed, a first-time producer who is also in a doom metal band, described the experience of working on the record as “beautiful and amazing” and said the two bonded over their love of punk. Reid also brought her classical training and love of “heavier sounds” to the studio.
“We approached it fearlessly. It was wonderful to be expansive in terms of sonic possibilities,” she said.
KP also wanted to find a place for her parents, whom she had grown especially close to during the pandemic, to play on the record. She chose the song “Spaces,” which she described as having a “healing vibe.” Her dad, who is one of the main singers at the tribe’s cultural events, embraced the idea of lending his powerful powwow chant to the song. Her mom sang harmonies.
KP said: “It meant the world to me to have my parents sing because it felt like it was full circle in who I am.” | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-black-belt-eagle-scouts-latest-record-inspired-by-return-home-to-swinomish-tribes-ancestral-lands/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:11 | 0 | https://who13.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/ap-black-belt-eagle-scouts-latest-record-inspired-by-return-home-to-swinomish-tribes-ancestral-lands/ |
With great power comes limited pre-order availability
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, from developer Insomniac Games, is one of the biggest games scheduled to release this year. The first game, released in 2018, and the Miles Morales spinoff, released in 2020, were massive critical and commercial hits, so expectations are sky-high.
To capitalize on the fervor, Sony is releasing a special, limited edition PlayStation 5 console packed with Spider-Man goodness. If you already have a PS5, don’t fret. All of the bundle’s contents are also available separately. You’d better act fast, though. Some pieces are already sold out at certain retailers.
What’s in the bundle?
The Spider-Man 2 bundle is composed of four parts. The console, special console covers, a special controller and a digital copy of the game. The total price of the bundle is $599.99. That’s a huge savings compared to the cost of each item separately: $714.96.
The console
There are two versions of the PS5 console. One with a disk drive, which costs $499.99, and one without, which costs $399.99.
The console included in the bundle is the disk version of the console. There’s nothing special or different about the console itself, such as improved performance. It’s just a regular disc PS5.
The console covers
Typically, limited edition console bundles featured special designs painted right onto the system. But, because the PS5 uses detachable covers instead of a built-on body, this bundle just includes covers that come pre-attached to the console. This means you can mix and match any covers you may have or get later.
Console covers for the PS5 generally cost anywhere from $25 to $70 depending on the seller. The limited edition Spider-Man 2 covers cost $64.99. Be careful when purchasing these separately; there is a different version for both the disc and the discless PS5.
The controller
The PS5 controller, known as the “DualSense” controller, has unique features such as a special rumble feature that can mimic the surfaces your character walks on in-game and triggers with adjustable tension so you can feel the weight of pulling a bowstring, for example. It costs $69.99.
The special Spider-Man 2 controller is no different from any other DualSense, save for its design mimicking that of the console cover. It costs $79.99.
The game
Likely the reason you’re considering grabbing any of the above items in the first place, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is set to greatly expand on the gameplay found in the first two games in the series. Some of the biggest changes include being able to swap between Peter Parker and Miles Morales at will, and the introduction of gliding on web wings in your suit. Story-wise, Kraven the Hunter and Venom have been revealed as two big antagonists.
There are three versions of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 you can buy.
- Base version: Also called the Launch Edition, this includes special bonuses for pre-ordering. That’s the version included in the console bundle, and it costs $69.99.
- Digital Deluxe: This includes the Launch Edition bonuses and further extras such as more suits and Photo Mode items. It costs $79.99. If you want those bonuses after buying the base version, you can later upgrade your copy of the game for $9.99.
- Collector’s Edition: This version includes everything in the Digital Deluxe version, plus a SteelBook case and a statue of Peter and Miles fighting Venom. It costs $229.99.
Limited edition purchase details
The Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 limited edition console bundle and all of the individual items are currently available for pre-order. All of the above items are set to start shipping out on Sept. 1. The game itself, however, is not due for release until Oct. 20. If you buy the console bundle with the digital code, you can still redeem it. You simply can’t access the software until the game officially releases.
Best Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 items
PlayStation Limited Edition Spider-Man 2 PlayStation 5 Console Bundle
This set includes everything you need to get started on your next-generation Spider-Man journey once the game launches. The console included is the version with a disc drive.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Launch Edition
The special Launch Edition of the game includes early unlocks of one suit each for Peter Parker and Miles Morales, three color variants for each suit, an early unlock of the Web Grabber skill and three free skill points.
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PlayStation Limited Edition Spider-Man 2 DualSense Controller
This gorgeous controller sports the same “Venom taking over Spider-Man” design featured on the limited edition PS5. The Spider-Man symbol from the video game’s version of Spider-Man’s main suit is front and center on the touchpad.
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PlayStation Limited Edition Spider-Man 2 PlayStation 5 Console Covers
These slick Venom-black covers are for the disc drive version of the console. Use caution when taking off your original ones and attaching these to avoid any damage to your system.
Sold by Best Buy
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.ksn.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/gaming-accessories-br/how-to-pre-order-the-spider-man-2-ps5-and-accessories/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:12 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/gaming-accessories-br/how-to-pre-order-the-spider-man-2-ps5-and-accessories/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Political instability in Niger resulting from a military takeover that deposed the president this week threatens the economic support provided by Washington to the African nation, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Saturday.
Members of the Niger military announced on Wednesday they had deposed democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum and on Friday named Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani as the country’s new leader, adding Niger to a growing list of military regimes in West Africa’s Sahel region.
Blinken, who is in Australia as part of a Pacific tour, said the continued security and economic arrangements that Niger has with the U.S. hinged on the release of Bazoum and “the immediate restoration of the democratic order in Niger.”
“Our economic and security partnership with Niger — which is significant, hundreds of millions of dollars — depends on the continuation of the democratic governance and constitutional order that has been disrupted by the actions in the last few days,” Blinken said. “So that assistance, that support, is in clear jeopardy as a result of these actions, which is another reason why they need to be immediately reversed.”
Blinken stopped short of calling the military actions in Niger a coup, a designation that could result in the African country losing millions of dollars of military aid and assistance.
Speaking in Brisbane, Blinken said he had spoken with President Bazoum on Saturday but did not provide details. He cited the support of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and other regional entities in trying to bring an end to the unrest.
“The very significant assistance that we have in place that’s making a material difference in the lives of the people of Niger is clearly in jeopardy and we’ve communicated that as clearly as we possibly can to those responsible for disrupting the constitutional order and Niger’s democracy,” Blinken said.
Blinken said the U.S. Embassy in Niger had accounted for the safety of all staff members and their families, while issuing a security alert advising U.S. citizens in the country to limit unnecessary movements and avoid areas impacted by the coup.
The military group that conducted the coup, calling itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, said its members remained committed to engaging with the international and national community.
“This is as a result of the continuing degradation of the security situation, the bad economic and social governance,” air force Col. Major Amadou Abdramane said in the video released by the coup leaders Wednesday. He said aerial and land borders were closed and a curfew was in place until the situation stabilized.
Bazoum was elected two years ago in Niger’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from France.
Niger is seen as the last reliable partner for the West in efforts to battle jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia and Western countries have vied for influence in the fight against extremism.
France has 1,500 soldiers in the country who conduct joint operations with Niger’s military, while the U.S. and other European countries have helped train the nation’s troops.
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Hannon reported from Bangkok. | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-blinken-says-us-economic-support-for-niger-is-at-risk-as-military-takeover-threatens-stability/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:18 | 1 | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-blinken-says-us-economic-support-for-niger-is-at-risk-as-military-takeover-threatens-stability/ |
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The troubled brother of the late NFL player Aaron Hernandez was charged Friday, now in federal court, with new counts of threatening and stalking after authorities say he threatened to shoot up the University of Connecticut and kill three people in another state.
Dennis Hernandez was ordered to be held in custody after his appearance in the court in Hartford. A message seeking comment was sent Friday night to his attorney.
The new charges came days after it emerged that Hernandez was arrested July 18 on state charges after police said he threatened to kill officers and then urged them to shoot him at his home in Bristol. Officers had gone there after two people close to him raised concerns about his mental health, police said.
The arrest report said the 37-year-old had sent threatening messages, including ones about carrying out a shooting at UConn. He was a Huskies quarterback and wide receiver who went by DJ Hernandez in the mid-2000s.
Court filings in the new federal case include the same messages. Some say the writer is struggling financially, is frustrated at seeing other people get hired as coaches, feels owed by UConn, is planning on “taking down everything” and doesn’t care “who gets caught in the crossfire.”
“I’ve died for years now and now its others peoples turn,” read a July 7 message sent to a woman in Hernandez’s life. It followed a message the day before that warned: “UConn’s gonna see how accurate I am too with my targets.”
Hernandez told another person that he drove July 7 to UConn’s campus in Storrs and to Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, where he coached quarterbacks during the 2010-11 season, according to court papers.
He had been due in state court that day on another case stemming from allegations that he threw a bag containing a brick and a note over a fence and onto ESPN’s property in Bristol.
UConn police confirmed that a vehicle linked to Hernandez was on campus that day. Brown has said that its investigation didn’t indicate Hernandez had been on campus in recent weeks.
Hernandez is due back in state court Tuesday and in federal court Aug. 11.
His younger brother, former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, killed himself in 2017 while serving a murder sentence. | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-aaron-hernandezs-brother-now-facing-federal-charges-over-alleged-threatening-messages/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:19 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-aaron-hernandezs-brother-now-facing-federal-charges-over-alleged-threatening-messages/ |
TOKYO (AP) — Toshihiro Mutsuda was only 5 years old when he last saw his father, who was drafted by Japan’s Imperial Army in 1943 and killed in action. For him, his father was a bespectacled man in an old family photo standing by a signed good-luck flag that he carried to war.
On Saturday, when the flag was returned to him from a U.S. war museum where it had been on display for 29 years, Mutsuda, now 83, said: “It’s a miracle.”
The flag, known as “Yosegaki Hinomaru,” or Good Luck Flag, carries the soldier’s name, Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, and the signatures of his relatives, friends and neighbors wishing him luck. It was given to him before he was drafted by the Army. His family was later told he died in Saipan, but his remains were never returned.
The flag was donated in 1994 and displayed at the museum aboard the USS Lexington, a WWII aircraft carrier, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Its meaning was not known until it was identified by the family earlier this year, said museum director Steve Banta, who brought the flag to Tokyo.
Banta said he learned the story behind the flag earlier this year when he was contacted by the Obon Society, a nonprofit organization that has returned about 500 similar flags as non-biological remains, to the descendants of Japanese servicemembers killed in the war.
The search for the flag’s original owner started in April when a museum visitor took a photo and asked an expert about the description that it had belonged to a “kamikaze” suicide pilot. When Shigeyoshi Mutsuda’s grandson saw the photo, he sought help from the Obon Society, group co-founder Keiko Ziak said.
“When we learned all of this, and that the family would like to have the flag, we knew immediately that the flag did not belong to us,” Banta said at the handover ceremony. “We knew that the right thing to do would be to send the flag home, to be in Japan and to the family.”
The soldier’s eldest son, Toshihiro Mutsuda, was speechless for a few seconds when Banta, wearing white gloves, gently placed the neatly folded flag into his hands. Two of his younger siblings, both in their 80s, stood by and looked on silently. The three children, all wearing cotton gloves so they wouldn’t damage the decades-old flag, carefully unfolded it to show to the audience.
“After receiving the flag today, I earnestly felt that the war like that should never be fought again and that I do not wish anyone else to go through this sadness (of separation),” Toshihiro Mutsuda said.
The soldier’s daughter, Misako Matsukuchi, touched the flag with both hands and prayed. “After nearly 80 years, the spirit of our father returned to us. I hope he can finally rest in peace,” Matsukuchi said later.
Toshihiro Mutsuda said his memory of his father was foggy. However, he clearly remembers his mother, Masae Mutsuda, who died five years ago at age 102, used to make the long-distance bus trip almost every year from the farming town in Gifu, central Japan, to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the 2.5 million war dead are enshrined, to pay tribute to her husband’s spirit.
The shrine is controversial, as it includes convicted war criminals among those commemorated. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japanese militarism. However, for the Mutsuda family, it’s a place to remember the loss of a father and husband.
“It’s like an old love story across the ages coming together … It doesn’t matter where,” Banta said, referring to the Yasukuni controversy. “The important thing is this flag goes to the family.”
That’s why Toshihiro Mutsuda and his siblings chose to receive the flag at Yasukuni and brought the framed photos of their parents.
“My mother missed him and wanted to see him so much and that’s why she used to pray here,” he said. “Today her wish finally came true, and she was able to be reunited.”
Keeping the flag on his lap, he said, “I feel the weight of the flag.” | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-its-a-miracle-say-family-of-japanese-soldier-killed-in-wwii-as-flag-he-carried-returns-from-us/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:25 | 0 | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-its-a-miracle-say-family-of-japanese-soldier-killed-in-wwii-as-flag-he-carried-returns-from-us/ |
CINCINNATI (AP) — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could miss “several weeks” with a right calf strain, coach Zac Taylor said Friday.
The 26-year-old franchise quarterback hobbled on one leg and then went to the ground after a scramble play near the end of Thursday’s practice. He rode off the field in a medical cart.
“It will take several weeks, and that’s all the information we have,” Taylor said.
Burrow did not practice Friday, with backup QBs Jake Browning and Trevor Siemian taking the snaps. The Bengals play their first preseason game on Aug. 11 and open the regular season Sept. 10.
Taylor said Burrow “has seen the doctors” and was present for meetings at the team’s training facility Friday. The quarterback was wearing a compression sleeve on his right calf when he pulled up with the injury, but Taylor said Friday he was unaware there was anything wrong before that play.
Burrow is still negotiating with the Bengals on a long-term contract that could make him one of the NFL’s highest-paid players.
The team’s top draft pick in 2020 had talked Wednesday about how good he felt at the opening of camp after his first three NFL training camps were disrupted and how he hoped to play in some preseason games.
Preseason practice was truncated in Burrow’s rookie year in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2001, he was still rehabbing after knee surgery the previous December. On the first day of camp last year, he was stricken with appendicitis.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-bengals-qb-joe-burrow-could-miss-several-weeks-with-calf-strain-coach-taylor-says/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:26 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-bengals-qb-joe-burrow-could-miss-several-weeks-with-calf-strain-coach-taylor-says/ |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand striker Hannah Wilkinson has helped create two milestones at the Women’s World Cup.
With her 48th-minute goal in the tournament opener against Norway, she led the co-host Football Ferns to their first win in six trips to the Women’s World Cup. She’s also one of at least 95 out members of the LGBTQ+ community competing in this year’s tournament, according to a count being kept by Outsports, a website that covers the LGBTQ+ sports.
The Ferns were greeted with a fan-made sign at their next match in Wellington: “Gay for soccer, gay for Wilkie,” it read.
The 95 out participants make up roughly 13% of the 736 total players at the Women’s World Cup, more than doubling the 40 players and coaches Outsports counted in 2019.
The 2023 tournament also is hosting the first openly trans and non-binary player in either a men’s or Women’s World Cup, Quinn of Canada.
“Last World Cup was so big, especially with the visibility of the U.S. women’s national team winning and (Megan Rapinoe) fighting with (Donald) Trump. So I think that was a huge year for LGBTQ+ visibility,” said Lindsey Freeman, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
“It’s just the ad hoc, fun culture of women’s soccer that you’re seeing in this World Cup,” said Freeman, who is in New Zealand conducting research on the topic.
Jim Buzinski, co-founder of Outsports, agreed. “In the Western world, it’s such a non-issue that it really just doesn’t get talked about,” he said. “And I think that’s in a good way.”
VISIBILITY
Prior to the start of the tournament, FIFA designated eight socially conscious armbands team captains could wear throughout the Women’s World Cup. The decision came after “One Love” armbands were denied to men’s teams in Qatar in 2022.
The armbands being used this year include anti-discriminatory sayings and multiple colors, but the rainbow version Germany wanted to use is not allowed. None of the available options explicitly mention LGBTQ+ rights.
The decision has led many players to express their support in more creative ways across Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand midfielder Ali Riley was interviewed on the official Women’s World Cup broadcast after her team’s upset of Norway. Her painted fingernails, left hand in the colors of the pride flag and right hand as the trans flag, were clearly visible as she held her head and fought back tears.
“She’s such an advocate and she’s definitely someone who uses her platform in such a positive way. We are all so proud of her and the way she represents the LGBTQ+ community,” teammate CJ Bott said. “Good on her. We’re all backing her, and we all back the community as well.”
The Philippines, making its Women’s World Cup debut, took home its own historic win over New Zealand 1-0 thanks to the foot of Sarina Bolden. Bolden’s Instagram bio reads, “i just wanna have fun n b gay.”
Irish star Katie McCabe wowed fans with a goal directly from a corner kick. She’s also made tabloid news for her relationships with other players.
Thembi Kgatlana, who has scored in the tournament for South Africa, has a patch of her hair dyed rainbow colors.
“My personality is very big for me, and my hair has become a part of my personality,” Kgatlana said. “And I did this rainbow because I want to represent all the people that are part of the LGBTQ and cannot talk while in countries where they’re oppressed.”
FAN EXPERIENCE
Kristen Pariseau and her wife started a U.S. women’s national team supporters group on Facebook ahead of traveling to this year’s Women’s World Cup. Aside from some hateful users she blocked, it’s been “super LGBT friendly.”
She and her wife did not go to Qatar for the 2022 men’s World Cup to avoid referencing each other as friends and receiving questions on their sexuality. In New Zealand, she said she’s met many same-sex couples at games and while traveling around the country.
“Everywhere you turn, it’s like, ‘Oh, my wife, my girlfriend.’ It’s been so welcoming and open,” Pariseau said. “In a way, it is kind of cool to be where there’s a lot of other people like you.”
Kelsie Bozart took her own pride flag armband to the United States’ second match in Wellington, along with a pride scarf.
“If you look back a couple years, I feel like it just wasn’t really talked about or there just wasn’t much of a presence,” Bozart said. “But moving forward I feel like, especially for the U.S., they’ve done an amazing job of just incorporating pride and LGBTQ.”
NOT UNIVERSAL
Though this year’s tournament has highlighted vast gains for the LGBTQ+ community in women’s soccer, advocates feel there is still work to be done.
According to Buzinski and Outsports, there were at least 186 LGBTQ+ athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. Women outnumbered men by a 9:1 ratio. There also were no confirmed out players at the 2022 men’s World Cup.
“I think women’s sports have always been open,” Denmark striker Pernille Harder said, adding that there are many role models for women who want to come out.
Freeman said it would be good to see men feel the same level of comfort.
“What can happen in the women’s game, I would love to spill over to the men’s game,” she said. “Because obviously, there’s way more queer players in the men’s game and it’s just not safe for them to come out.
“If you want to say that you’re in an inclusive space, you really have to be an inclusive space,” Freeman added. “And I think that that includes also holding the World Cup in places where it’s fine to be a queer person.”
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Max Ralph is a student in John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.
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Contributing reporters included Joe Lister in Wellington and Rafaela Pontes in Auckland, students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, and Clay Witt in Sydney, Australia, a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-lgbtq-community-proud-and-visible-at-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:31 | 0 | https://who13.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-lgbtq-community-proud-and-visible-at-womens-world-cup/ |
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — Celine Boutier posted a 2-under 69 in the second round of the Evian Championship to move to 7 under overall, giving her a one-shot lead on Friday.
But surprise overnight leader Paula Reto dropped down the leaderboard after a 4-over 75.
The 29-year-old Boutier, who was two shots back from Reto overnight, is looking to become the first Frenchwoman to win the tournament, which became a major in 2013.
“It’s really great to feel the support from the fans when you play some good shots and some good putts go in,” Boutier said. “This kind of support used to put me under pressure in the past, and I didn’t cope well with it, but this year I’m trying to stay very relaxed.”
Her solid round kept her narrowly ahead of Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit, who carded 67, and Japan’s Yuka Saso (69), in a tie for second.
They are one shot ahead of Nasa Hataoka of Japan (67), Mexico’s Gaby Lopez (68) and American Alison Lee (71).
Reto struggled badly on the back nine, with a double bogey on the 12th hole followed by three bogeys over the next four holes.
The 33-year-old South African ended the day in a tie for eighth at 3 under overall along with defending champion Brooke Henderson of Canada, who finished on 70.
Boutier was level with 2015 champion Lydia Ko of New Zealand overnight, but Ko drifted way back into a tie for 22nd after a dismal round of 76 at the Evian Resort Golf Club.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-boutier-holds-a-1-shot-lead-after-2nd-round-of-evian-championship/ | 2023-07-29T20:16:33 | 1 | https://www.ksn.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-boutier-holds-a-1-shot-lead-after-2nd-round-of-evian-championship/ |