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CARDIFF, Wales — Former Wales rugby captain and coach Clive Rowlands, who guided his country to a first Grand Slam in 19 years in 1971, has died. He was 85.
As coach, he led Wales to the Grand Slam in 1971 as well as its most successful-ever finish at a World Cup — placing third at the inaugural tournament in 1987 — before masterminding victory for the Lions on their tour of Australia two years later.
He was appointed WRU president in 1989.
“Achieved everything there was to achieve in the game at the time: Wales captain, coach, manager, Lions manager and Welsh Rugby Union president,” former England captain Bill Beaumont tweeted. “Revered as a coach. Gifted. A giant who will be greatly missed.”
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/clive-rowlands-wales-rugby-obituary/06c8f6f2-2f32-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:21 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/clive-rowlands-wales-rugby-obituary/06c8f6f2-2f32-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Seventeen-year-old American cyclist Magnus White, who was scheduled to race at the upcoming world championships in Scotland, was killed Saturday when he was struck by a vehicle on a training ride near his home in Boulder, Colorado.
White began to dabble in road cycling and mountain biking this season. He was on one of his final training rides before the junior world mountain bike championships in Glasgow, Scotland, when the accident occurred.
He is survived by his parents, Michael and Jill, and his brother, Eero.
“He was a rising star in the off-road cycling scene and his passion for cycling was evident through his racing and camaraderie with his teammates and local community,” USA Cycling said in a statement. “We offer our heartfelt condolences to the White family, his teammates, friends, and the Boulder community during this incredibly difficult time,”
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AP coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/cyclist-killed-colorado/2c4df2d2-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:22 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/07/30/cyclist-killed-colorado/2c4df2d2-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
RICHMOND, Va. — Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart with three laps to go and won at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, earning himself a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
He and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski led a combined 190 of the 400 laps, with Keselowski’s Ford pacing the field for 102 laps on the 0.75-mile oval.
Hamlin, coming off a victory last weekend at Pocono, finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece.
The race was slowed just three times by caution flags, the last sending the leaders to pit road for four tires with eight laps to go. When the green flag was shown again, Buescher used the inside line to pull away for his third career victory.
Hamlin’s bid for the victory ended on the second lap of the final sprint when he drove in too deep in the first turn and slid up the track. He finished 0.549 seconds behind Buescher, with Busch winding up 0.817 off the winning pace.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/2023/07/30/nascar-richmond-buescher-keselowski/a49052b0-2f2b-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:40 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/auto-racing/2023/07/30/nascar-richmond-buescher-keselowski/a49052b0-2f2b-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Two homes on Hazelwood Avenue in Buffalo went up in flames Sunday afternoon, and one homeowner who caught the incident on video said that the fire was started by neighborhood kids.
Carl Fleming, whose home was one of the two damaged, told News 4 that he returned from a trip to the store and found his neighbor’s house engulfed, with the blaze having spread to the side of his home. No one was injured in the fire.
“It’s just a shame man, good thing nobody got hurt, that’s all I can say,” Fleming said. “I’m upset, I’m mad, but thank God nobody got injured.”
Fleming claimed that footage from a neighbor’s Ring security camera shows that “little kids” from down the street started the house fire. Fleming had recently purchased a new bedroom set and left his old mattress out by the road for trash pickup.
“The little kids — the kids that live down the street — were in the driveway with a lighter, set the mattresses on fire and burned up the whole house,” Fleming said.
Fire investigators called the fire “intentional,” but stopped short of calling it arson. That’s because the mattresses were caught on fire, not the house itself. The incident remains under investigation.
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***
Justin McMullen is a Western New York native who joined the News 4 team in 2023. You can read more of his work here. | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/two-buffalo-homes-damaged-as-homeowner-says-kids-started-fire-on-hazelwood-ave/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:44 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/buffalo/two-buffalo-homes-damaged-as-homeowner-says-kids-started-fire-on-hazelwood-ave/ |
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — Céline Boutier became the third woman from France to win a major championship when she closed with a 3-under 68 for a six-shot victory in the Evian Championship.
Boutier is the first Frenchwoman to win the Amundi Evian Championship, which was designated an LPGA major in 2013. She finished at 14-under 270.
The other two French women to win LPGA majors were Patricia Meunier-Lebouc in the 2004 Kraft Nabisco Championship and Catherine Lacoste, who won the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur.
Nasa Hataoka of Japan, who started the final round in second place, could only manage a 70 and tied for third with former U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso (70), Celine Borge (68) Gaby Lopez (68) and A Lim Kim (69).
Rose Zhang closed with a 68 and tied for ninth, her third top 10 in a major since she turned pro in June.
PGA TOUR
BLAINE, Minn. — Lee Hodges shot 4-under 67 in the final round for a wire-to-wire victory Sunday in the 3M Open and his first PGA Tour victory, setting tournament records with a 260 and a seven-shot win.
The victory gets Hodges into the Masters next year and moved him to No. 33 in the FedEx Cup with one tournament left before the postseason.
Hodges, who led by five at the start of the round, led by three over J.T. Poston going to the par-5 18th. Poston took a risky shot trying to make eagle and went into the water, leading to triple bogey and a 69. He went from second place alone to a three-way for second, costing him $260,000 and 92 points in the FedEx Cup.
Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman also tied for second.
Tony Finau, the defending champion and highest-ranked player at 10th in the FedEx Cup standings participating in this field, shot a 70 to land in a three-way tie for seventh.
PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS
BRIDGEND, Wales — Alex Cejka defeated Padraig Harrington with a birdie on the second playoff hole Sunday to win the Senior British Open at Royal Porthcawl.
Cejka, who closed with 5-over 76, birdied the second extra hole to claim his third senior major title after he and Harrington (75) tied at 5-over 289 in miserable wet and windy conditions.
Harrington, who also finished runner-up to Darren Clarke last year, narrowly missed an eagle putt on the first extra hole at No. 18. Returning to the 18th, the Irishman duffed a chip from the back of the green and had to settle for a par.
Cejka began the final round with a double bogey on the first and dropped another shot on the fourth, but battled back to hold a two-shot lead with two holes to play. But he bogeyed the 17th hole, and Harrington caught him with a birdie on the par-5 18th.
Vijay Singh shot 77 and finished two shots out of the playoff. Conditions were so difficult that Y.E. Yang and Rob Labritz were the only players to match par.
KORN FERRY TOUR
GLENVIEW, Ill. — Trace Crowe made a 20-foot birdie on the first extra hole to extend the playoff, then won with a par on the second playoff hole to capture the NV5 Invitational for his first Korn Ferry Tour victory.
Patrick Fishburn made a 30-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole in regulation for a 7-under 64 that got him into the playoff with Crowe, who overcame a triple bogey on the second hole with eight birdies for a 66. They finished at 259.
Crowe had to made a 20-footer to match birdies with Fishburn on the first playoff hole. Back to the 18th, Fishburn took two shots from the bunker and made bogey.
Ryan McCormick birdied the last two holes for a 66 to finish one shot out of the playoff.
OTHER TOURS
Bryan Kim made a 7-foot birdie on the 35th hole and went on to a 2-up victory over Joshua Bai in the rain-delayed U.S. Junior Amateur. The victory gives the 18-year-old Kim, an incoming freshman at Duke, a spot in the U.S. Open next year at Pinehurst No. 2. ... Kensei Hirata lost an early lead and rallied for a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory in the Japan PGA Championship on the Japan Golf Tour. Taiga Semikawa and Takumi Kanaya tied for second. ... One week after Brandon Robinson Thompson made the cut in the British Open, he won his first Challenge Tour title on Sunday by closing with a 4-under 67 for a two-shot victory in the Irish Challenge. ... Davis Shore closed with a 4-under 67 and won the Osprey Valley Open by one shot over Myles Creighton on the PGA Tour Canada. ... Peter Kamis closed with a 2-under 70 for a one-shot victory in the FNB Eswatini Challenge on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa. ... Kokona Sakurai shot 6-under 66 and won the Rakuten Super Ladies by one shot on the Japan LPGA.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/2023/07/30/golf-capsules/6d8ea3c8-2f32-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:46 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/2023/07/30/golf-capsules/6d8ea3c8-2f32-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — When viewed through a wide lens, renters across the U.S. finally appear to be getting some relief, thanks in part to the biggest apartment construction boom in decades.
Median rent rose just 0.5% in June, year over year, after falling in May for the first time since the pandemic hit the U.S. Some economists project U.S. rents will be down modestly this year after soaring nearly 25% over the past four years.
A closer look, however, shows the trend will likely be little comfort for many U.S. renters who’ve had to put an increasing share of their income toward their monthly payment. Renters in cities such as Cincinnati and Indianapolis are still getting hit with increases of 5% or more. Much of the new construction is located in just a few metro areas, and many of the new units are luxury apartments, which rent for well north of $2,000.
Median U.S. rent has risen to $2,029 this June from $1,629 in June 2019, according to rental listings company Rent, which tracks rents in 50 of the largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Demand for apartments exploded during the pandemic as people who could work remotely sought more space or decided to relocate to another part of the country.
The steep rent increases have left tenants like Melissa Lombana, a high school teacher who lives in the South Florida city of Miramar, with progressively less income to spend on other needs.
The rent on her one-bedroom apartment jumped 13% last year to $1,700. It climbed another 6% to $1,800 this month when she renewed her lease.
“Even the $1,700 was a stretch for me,” said Lombana, 43, who supplements her teaching income with a side job doing educational testing. “In a year, I will not be able to afford living here at all.”
Lombana’s rent is now gobbling up nearly half her monthly income. That puts her in a category referred to as “cost-burdened” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, denoting households that pay 30% or more of their income toward rent. Last year, the average rent-to-income ratio per household rose to 30%. This March, it was 29.6%.
Lombana hasn’t had any luck finding a more affordable apartment. While South Florida is one of the metropolitan areas seeing a rise in apartment construction, the units are mostly high-end and not a viable option.
That scenario is playing out across the nation. Developers are rushing to complete projects that were green-lit during the pandemic-era surge in demand for rentals or left in limbo by delays in supplies of fixtures and building materials. Nearly 1.1 million apartments are currently under construction, according to the commercial real estate tracker CoStar, a pace not seen since the 1970s.
Increasing the supply of apartments tends to moderate rent increases over time and can give tenants more options on where to live. But more than 40% of the new rentals to be completed this year will be concentrated in about 10 high job growth metropolitan areas, including Austin, Nashville, Denver, Atlanta and New York, according to Marcus & Millichap. In many areas, the boost to overall inventory will be barely noticeable.
Even within metros where there’ll be a notable increase in available apartments, such as Nashville, most of it will be in the luxury category, where rents average $2,270, nationally. Some 70% of the new rental inventory will be the luxury class, said Jay Lybik, national director of multifamily analytics at CoStar.
That will leave most tenants unlikely to see a big enough reduction in rent to make a difference, industry experts and economists say.
“I think we’re in a period of rent flattening for 12 or 18 months, but it’s certainly not a big rent decline,” said Hessam Nadji, CEO of commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.
“We’re building a multi-decade record number of units,” Nadji said. “It’s going to cause some softening and some pockets of overbuilding, but it’s not going to fundamentally resolve the housing shortage or the affordability problem for renters across the U.S.”
The surge in rents has made it difficult for workers to keep up with inflation despite solid wage gains the past few years and exacerbated a long-term trend. Between 1999 and 2022, U.S. rents soared 135%, while income grew 77%, according to data from Moody’s Analytics.
Realtor.com is forecasting that rents will drop an average of 0.9% this year. But while down nationally, rents are still rising in many markets around the country, especially those where hiring remains robust.
In the New York metro area, the median rent climbed 4.7% in June from a year earlier to $2,899, according to Realtor.com. In the Midwest, rents surged 5.6% in the Cincinnati metro area to $1,188, and 6.9% to $1,350 in the Indianapolis metro area.
The current spike in apartment construction alone isn’t going to be enough to address how costly renting has become for many Americans.
“For the rest of the 2020s rents will continue to grow because millennials are such a big generation and we’re very much in the hole in terms of building housing for that generation,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. “It will take many good years of new construction to build adequate housing for millennials.”
The bigger challenge is building more work force housing, because the cost of land, labor and navigating the government approval process incentivize developers to put up luxury apartments buildings.
Expanding the supply of modestly priced rentals would help alleviate the strain from so many new apartments targeting renters with high incomes, “although additional subsidies will be needed to make housing affordable to households with the lowest incomes,” researchers at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies wrote in a recent report.
Despite the overall pullback in U.S. rents, Joey Di Girolamo, in Pembroke Pines, Florida, worries that he’ll face more sharp rent increases in coming years.
Last year, the web designer left a two-bedroom, two-bath townhome he rented for $2,200 a month to avoid a $600 a month increase. This year, his rent went up by $200, a nearly 10% jump.
“That blew me away,” said Di Girolamo, 50. “I’m just kind of dreading what it’s going to be like next year, but especially 3 or 4 years from now.” | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:50 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/renters-get-relief-from-rising-prices-except-in-certain-us-cities/ |
BLAINE, Minn. — Lee Hodges rarely gets rattled, except perhaps during Alabama football games when he’s rooting for his beloved Crimson Tide.
“The process I went through, I’ll take this week forever,” Hodges said. “I’ll just try to keep replicating this week every time I show up to a tournament.”
Hodges, who started the day with a five-stroke lead on J.T. Poston, was up by three entering the par-5 last hole on his 65th career start. After Poston’s go-for-broke approach yielded a triple bogey, Hodges tapped in a short putt for his third birdie of the round.
“I had to try and give it a shot and see if there was some way I could make 3 there at the end and put some pressure on Lee,” Poston said.
The 28-year-old Alabama native hugged and hoisted his wife, Savannah, in celebration after she hustled out to the green to greet him. Then Jay Seawell, Hodges’ college coach at Alabama, surprised him with a special appearance and a milkshake in hand. Not bad for a guy from the small town of Ardmore.
“I’m super proud to be from there and represent those people,” Hodges said. “Man, I’m sure there is a party going on in north Alabama right now.”
Poston shot a 69 to drop into a three-way tie for second place with Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman. Dylan Wu shot a 64 to match Keith Mitchell for fifth at 16 under.
Tony Finau, the defending champion and highest-ranked player at 10th in the FedEx Cup standings participating in this field, shot a 70 to land in a three-way tie for seventh.
Hodges shot a 63 on Thursday, a 64 on Friday and a 66 on Saturday to take a commanding lead into the final round at the TPC Twin Cities course in Blaine on a former sod farm in suburban Minneapolis. He had two eagles and two bogeys on Sunday, following an aggressive approach he .
With one previous top-three finish in 2022 at The American Express in La Quinta, California, Hodges said on Saturday he couldn’t recall a five-shot lead in his entire career, amateur competition included, and felt as if he was “playing with house money” with his place on the tour next season secured.
“Last night, me and my wife, we ate dinner here and then we went to get some ice cream and I slept like a baby,” Hodges said.
Entering the week in 74th place in the FedEx Cup standings, Hodges soared to 33rd with the $1.4 million prize for the win. He became the 23rd third-round leader or co-leader to win on tour this season, following Brian Harman last week at the British Open.
Poston entered the week in 60th place in the FedEx Cup standings and shot up to 38th.
Hodges set the 54-hole tournament record at 193, two strokes better than the score Scott Piercy took into the final round last year. Piercy proceeded to shoot a 76, including a triple bogey on No. 14, and squander a five-stroke lead with 11 holes to go. Finau shot a 67 and won the trophy by three strokes.
Hodges avoided that fate. His lead was cut from six to four when he three-putted the 15th hole and Poston, his final-round playing partner, smacked his second shot from the fairway to the green about 7 feet from the cup for his fourth birdie of the afternoon. But Hodges bounced right back to match Poston’s birdie on 16.
“He played great all day. We knew it was going to take something pretty special to pull it off,” Poston said.
Poston’s second shot from the rough on the edge of the water glanced off the rocks on the retaining wall and ricocheted backward off the floating tournament logo before a splash that cost him a penalty stroke. His fifth shot rolled down the slope on the front of the green, and he overshot his first putt.
Beau Hossler gave his postseason bid a bump with a blistering 62 in the final round to tie the course record and finish at 13 under for the tournament, tied for 13th place. Bryson DeChambeau, Lucas Glover, Scott Piercy and champion Matthew Wolff each shot a 62 during the inaugural event in 2019.
The 28-year-old Hossler entered the week in 62nd place on the FedEx Cup standings. The top 70 players qualify for the three-stage playoff event that begins Aug. 10 with the St. Jude Championship. There’s one more stop on the tour next weekend at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, to move up — or slide down.
Hossler made eight straight birdies from holes 9 through 16, one short of the PGA Tour record. That included a 45-foot putt he holed on his second shot on No. 13 that had “no business” going in.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/2023/07/30/pga-tour-3m-open-lee-hodges/b725d424-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:52 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/2023/07/30/pga-tour-3m-open-lee-hodges/b725d424-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
Senate GOP leaders didn’t want it to get to this point.
They tried and tried to get Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to lift the holds he’s placed on hundreds of military promotions — which have opened Republicans up to attacks from the Biden administration.
But their efforts have failed, and they are now in a situation where the earliest a resolution might be found is September — when lawmakers will also be busy trying to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“It’s hung around for a while. I support his goals,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. “The challenge obviously is the mechanism he used to get to the result has created some challenges. We want to figure out a way to resolve it and address that.”
“There are conversations now going on, which is good — between him and the military and others. We’ll have some time in August to work on a path forward, and hopefully we’ll find it,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been among those trying to find a resolution, Thune said. Tuberville said he and McConnell discussed the holds Wednesday, hours after the GOP leader froze and felt lightheaded in front of reporters.
“At this point, everybody’s engaged trying to figure out how to solve this,” Thune added.
Tuberville began his holds in early March to protest a new Defense Department policy to reimburse service members who must travel to seek an abortion for those travel expenses.
Six months later, the list of holds has grown to 300. Senate Republicans were hoping to find a solution before leaving Washington for five weeks — five additional weeks during which those military officers will remain in limbo, fueling Democratic attacks and frustrating the Pentagon.
One Senate Republican said finding an offramp agreeable to both Tuberville and those opposed to the holds has become a “recurring discussion” in the Senate GOP conference, and that McConnell has been personally involved in that quest.
“There’s not a lunch that goes by that we don’t talk about it,” the senator said, but added there’s “no chance of a resolution” any time soon.
Aside from the potential political and national security implications of the holds, McConnell is worried about the institutional implications.
The longtime GOP leader recently told reporters at a press conference that he is concerned this could lead to a renewed Democratic effort to change the chamber’s rules.
Despite disagreeing with Tuberville’s tactic, however, he says he recognizes it is the prerogative of any single senator to place a hold on a nominee.
Senators on both sides of the aisle for months have been musing publicly and privately about what it would take to get the Alabama Republican to set his hold aside, but have come up empty at every turn.
Initially, there had been hope that a vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would reverse the abortion travel policy could do the trick, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) led the effort.
But more recently, Tuberville has maintained that not only does any vote have to be standalone, but that the Pentagon would have to reverse its policy before any vote could be taken.
Trying to bridge that gap for lawmakers has become a herculean challenge no one has been able to complete.
Tuberville didn’t comment on efforts by Senate GOP leaders to seek a remedy, but he criticized the Biden administration and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for their lack of outreach in trying to strike a deal. He also hasn’t had any further conversations with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin since their July 17 call and said that the initial series of calls didn’t yield anything productive.
“There’s no conversation from the other side. It’s ‘our way or the highway.’ … How does that help?” Tuberville said. “They’re not worried about it, I guess. … I hate it, for the promotions and all that.”
He added that he has yet to talk to Schumer, who has refused to use up floor time moving the nominees through regular order because he believes it is the Senate GOP’s job to figure a way out of the maze of military holds.
“This is the responsibility of the Republican Senate caucus. … It’s up to them. I think in August, pressure will mount on Tuberville, and I think the Republicans are feeling that heat,” Schumer said late Thursday. “He’s boxing himself into a corner.”
But Democrats are trying to increase that pressure, with President Biden on Thursday night laying into the Alabama Republican and arguing his holds are harming military readiness and creating instability within the ranks of the armed forces.
“This partisan freeze is already harming military readiness, security and leadership, and troop morale,” Biden said in remarks at the Truman Civil Rights Symposium in Washington. “Freezing pay, freezing people in place. Military families who have already sacrificed so much, unsure of where and when they change stations, unable to get housing or start their kids in the new school.”
Senate Democrats also took to the floor before and after the NDAA vote Thursday to criticize their GOP colleague. Since the hold was put into place, Democratic senators have made 12 attempts to move the military promotions in bloc via unanimous request.
Perhaps adding to the difficulty, Tuberville has received a boost in support from voters at home and from conservative corners of the Senate GOP conference who believe he is making the right call, albeit a difficult one.
They also argue that if Senate Democrats truly want to move on some of the nominations, they can start to do so via regular order — a move Democrats have avoided in order to not set precedent.
“Democrats think they have a winning political thing on this. I don’t think they do, and I think Sen. Tuberville morally is in the right position with regard to the issue of abortion,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said. “The [Defense] Department has just as much of a responsibility to find a path forward as any single member does, and I’m not seeing the Department try to work in any fashion other than to simply put pressure on Sen. Tuberville.”
“They’re not trying to find a path forward. They think this is one of those items where if they keep putting pressure on him, he’ll cave, and I don’t think he will,” Rounds continued. “On the issue, he’s correct.” | https://www.wivb.com/news/political-news/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ | 2023-07-31T00:01:56 | 1 | https://www.wivb.com/news/political-news/hill-politics/gop-leaders-strike-out-on-getting-tuberville-to-bend/ |
PHOENIX — It’s been exactly one year since Seattle made a big trade-deadline move, adding ace right-hander Luis Castillo in a deal with the Cincinnati Reds.
“What a trade. He has changed the whole demeanor around our pitching staff,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “He’s the rock, he’s who we lean on and he showed up today.”
The Mariners took two of three games in the weekend series, improving to 54-51 for the season as the team’s front office tries to decide whether to be buyers, sellers, or do nothing as Tuesday’s trade deadline approaches. Seattle looked like a possible seller at the end of June, but has used a 16-9 mark in July to climb back into the playoff race.
The Diamondbacks are close to wrapping up a miserable month, with a 7-16 record in July. They were one of the surprise teams in the big leagues through the first half of the season, but at 56-50, it’s unclear whether Arizona is ready to make any big moves to bolster its postseason chances.
D-backs manager Torey Lovullo credited Seattle’s pitching staff with a good performance, but wasn’t happy with his team’s approach at the plate.
“We should never have an offensive day like that,” Lovullo said. “Because we’re a bunch of really good hitters. We’ve got to get this thing moving in the right direction offensively. We’ve got to get this moving in the right direction, period.”
Castillo (7-7) gave up just two hits, striking out seven and walking one while throwing 102 pitches. The right-hander has a 2.88 ERA this season, continuing his great performance since coming to the Pacific Northwest. He helped lead the Mariners to the playoffs last season after the trade and made his third All-Star team in July.
The Mariners finished with a 4-2 record on their road trip and have won three straight series.
“I felt that energy, a lot of good vibes,” Castillo said through a translator. “I felt them anxious to win and that’s why we’ve had the results we’ve had during this road trip.”
The Mariners jumped ahead 2-0 in the first inning after Mike Ford drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs that forced home Crawford. Ty France followed with an RBI single. Arizona starter Merrill Kelly finally coaxed the third out on his 41st pitch when Cade Marlowe grounded out.
“We were laying off good pitches and grinding it out,” Crawford said.
Crawford homered in the second — his ninth long ball of the season — to make it 3-0. The shortstop added a double in the ninth and scored for the third time on Eugenio Suárez’s single.
Kelly (9-5) managed to shake off his 41-pitch first inning to deliver a decent outing. The right-hander gave up three runs and seven hits over five innings, striking out six while walking two.
The Diamondbacks finished with just three hits, one each for Ketel Marte, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Emmanuel Rivera.
DOUBLE DOUBLE PLAY
Arizona’s Dominic Canzone lined out to the right side twice — once in the second inning and again in the fourth — and both times Christian Walker was doubled off first base for another out.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: Placed LHP Tommy Henry (left elbow inflammation) on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to Saturday. Activated RHP Cole Sulser (strained right shoulder) from the 60-day injured list.
UP NEXT
Mariners: Return home to face the Red Sox in a three-game series starting Monday. Seattle will start RHP George Kirby (9-8, 3.49 ERA) in the first game. Boston hadn’t announced a starter.
Diamondbacks: Travel to face the Giants in a four-game series starting Monday. Arizona will start RHP Ryne Nelson (6-5, 4.97 ERA) in the first game. San Francisco hadn’t announced a starter.
___ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/mariners-diamondbacks/48f2a1c2-2f2d-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:01:59 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/mariners-diamondbacks/48f2a1c2-2f2d-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
SAN DIEGO — Gary Sanchez homered twice, Juan Soto doubled in Fernando Tatis Jr. from first base and left-hander Blake Snell had another strong start for the San Diego Padres, who beat the struggling Texas Rangers 5-3 on Sunday for a three-game sweep.
Josh Hader retired Josh Jung with the bases loaded in the ninth inning for his 25th save in 29 chances.
Padres second baseman Ha-Seong Kim exited with an apparent right shoulder injury after sliding headfirst into home plate on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly in the third.
The disappointing Padres, who reached the NL Championship Series last season and then bulked up their payroll to about $250 million, must decide by Tuesday’s trade deadline whether they’ll be buyers or sellers. They came into Sunday buried in fourth place in the NL West, nine games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, and 5 1/2 games out of the third wild-card spot.
The Padres’ three-game winning streak matches their season best. It came after two dismal losses to Pittsburgh, which at the time was last in the NL Central. It was just their second three-game sweep of the season.
Snell (8-8), who has been mentioned as a trade possibility, along with Hader, lowered his big league-leading ERA to 2.50 by holding the Rangers to an unearned run and four hits in five innings. He struck out nine and walked four. The only run he allowed came on his throwing error in the fourth.
Sanchez homered leading off the fourth against Jose Leclerc (0-2) for a 2-1 lead and connected again with two outs in the fifth off Brock Burke for a 4-1 lead. He has 12 this season.
Tatis reached on a fielder’s choice in the fourth and scored on Soto’s opposite-field double into the corner in left.
The Rangers pulled to 4-3 on Marcus Semien’s two-run single off Nick Martinez in the sixth.
Tatis hit an RBI single in the eighth.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: Placed RHP Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to Thursday, with a right forearm strain and recalled right-hander Grant Anderson from Triple-A Round Rock.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Hadn’t announced their starter for Tuesday night’s opener of a three-game home series against the Chicago White Sox.
Padres: RHP Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.62 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday night in the opener of a series at Colorado, which will counter with LHP Austin Gomber (8-8, 5.83).
___ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/padres-rangers-sanchez-snell/8ba0b6ae-2f31-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:05 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/padres-rangers-sanchez-snell/8ba0b6ae-2f31-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
SAN FRANCISCO — Joc Pederson singled in Patrick Bailey in the 10th inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat Boston 4-3 on Sunday for their first home series win against the Red Sox since 2004.
Pederson then lined a 1-2 sinker from Llovera into right field.
Wilmer Flores and Luis Matos each had two hits for San Francisco (58-48), which is on top of the NL wild-card standings after winning six of seven.
Justin Turner and Adam Duvall homered for Boston. The Red Sox have lost consecutive road series for the first time this season.
Boston missed a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th when Tristan Beck (2-0) got Yu Chang to strike out swinging with two runners on.
The Giants were up 3-1 when Turner hit his 17th homer, a tying two-run shot off Taylor Rogers in the eighth.
Turner’s drive to left spoiled a strong outing from Ross Stripling.
One of San Francisco’s top offseason acquisitions, Stripling pitched 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball in relief of opener Scott Alexander. He was in line for his first victory since last October before the Red Sox rallied.
Stripling retired 13 of his 17 batters. He allowed four hits, struck out three and walked none.
After Duvall chased Stripling with his leadoff homer in the seventh, the Red Sox put two runners on before Triston Casas flew out to center fielder Luis Matos, who threw to second for an inning-ending double play.
FOR OPENERS
Alexander threw 16 pitches and retired five batters. Boston’s Brennan Bernardino allowed one hit and one run on 27 pitches in one inning of work.
San Francisco improved to 13-4 this season when using an opener.
GOLD GLOVE GEM
The 36-year-old Crawford returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with left knee inflammation, and the shortstop showed why he’s still considered one of the best infielders in the game. The four-time Gold Glove winner snared Justin Turner’s sharp grounder then made a backhanded flip to second baseman Schmitt, who threw to first to complete a double play.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: RHP Anthony DeSclafani was placed on the injured list with an elbow flexor strain.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: Boston begins a three-game series in Seattle on Monday. Manager Alex Cora has not named a starter.
Giants: Manager Gabe Kapler has not announced a starter for Monday’s home game against the Diamondbacks.
___ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/red-sox-giants-mlb/e69c2c12-2f33-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:11 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/red-sox-giants-mlb/e69c2c12-2f33-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
LOS ANGELES — Elly De La Cruz, Joey Votto and Matt McLain homered, and the Cincinnati Reds routed the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-0 on Sunday to take over sole possession of first place in the NL Central.
Graham Ashcraft (6-7) scattered five hits over six innings and struck out two.
The Dodgers hit into three double plays on Friday and three more Sunday. They managed just two hits in a 3-2 loss Saturday. They didn’t get a runner past second base over the final five innings in the finale.
Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas made his first career pitching appearance in the ninth. He nearly hit Votto before the designated hitter answered with an RBI double that made it 9-0. Rojas then hit Christian Encarnacion-Strand.
Dodgers starter Michael Grove (2-3) got hit hard over the first three innings. Three pitches into the game, the Reds led 1-0 on TJ Friedl’s RBI double. Friedl scored on a throwing error by center fielder James Outman, and McLain hustled home on Spencer Steer’s groundout to third.
De La Cruz’s solo shot traveled 411 feet into the right-field pavilion with two outs in the second. It was De La Cruz’s seventh homer.
McLain hit his 11th homer into the Dodgers bullpen in left leading off the third. Votto’s 418-foot shot into the Reds bullpen in right field scored Jake Fraley, who singled, and extended the lead to 7-0.
Votto was robbed of a potential second homer on Outman’s leaping catch at the top of the wall in right-center in the fifth.
The Reds led 8-0 on Friedl’s RBI double with two outs in the sixth.
Grove gave up eight runs and 10 hits in six innings. The rookie right-hander struck out a career-best 10 and walked one on a career-high 96 pitches.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Reds: INF Jonathan India went on the IL with left heel pain.
Dodgers: DH J.D. Martinez left after the first inning with left hamstring tightness. ... C Will Smith left the game in the top of the fourth with a left elbow contusion. ... OF Mookie Betts (right ankle soreness) was out of the lineup for the second straight day. He got hurt in the batter’s box trying to avoid a pitch on Friday, but is expected back Tuesday. ... LHP Julio Urías is having his next start pushed back a couple days while he deals with a nail issue. ... LHP Clayton Kershaw (shoulder) played catch.
UP NEXT
Reds: LHP Andrew Abbott (6-2, 1.90 ERA) starts Monday night in the opener of a four-game series at the Chicago Cubs.
Dodgers: RHP Lance Lynn (6-9, 6.47 ERA) makes his Dodgers debut Tuesday in an interleague series opener against Oakland.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/reds-dodgers-elly-de-la-cruz-joey-votto/7d75dddc-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:17 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/reds-dodgers-elly-de-la-cruz-joey-votto/7d75dddc-2f29-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves added veteran infielder Nicky Lopez in a trade with the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Lopez hit .213 with 13 RBIs in 68 games with Kansas City this season. He is a .248 hitter with five homers and 119 RBIs in 520 career games — all with the Royals.
He was selected by Kansas City in the fifth round of the 2016 amateur draft and made his big league debut in 2019.
___ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/royals-braves-trade-mlb/f3c2d16c-2f2d-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:23 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/2023/07/30/royals-braves-trade-mlb/f3c2d16c-2f2d-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
ATLANTA — Taylor Fritz won his sixth career title Sunday, beating Aleksandar Vukic of Australia 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4 at the Atlanta Open.
He appeared en route to winning this title easily, reaching the final without dropping a set and then holding two match points while leading 6-5 in the second with Vukic serving. But the Australian erased those and then won the tiebreaker to force the deciding set.
Fritz, 25, recovered to take the third and deny Vukic his first ATP Tour title.
The 27-year-old Vukic, who played collegiately at Illinois, will rise to a career-high No. 62 in the ATP rankings. He would have climbed into the top 50 with a victory.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tennis/2023/07/30/fritz-atlanta-open-tennis/b5e4e656-2f2c-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:29 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/tennis/2023/07/30/fritz-atlanta-open-tennis/b5e4e656-2f2c-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
LOS ANGELES — Breanna Stewart scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Jonquel Jones added 13 points and 13 boards and New York never trailed Sunday in the Liberty’s 87-79 win over the Los Angeles Sparks.
New York, which played its seventh game in 12 days, is off to the best 25-game start in franchise history. The Liberty have won five of their last six.
Ionescu and Johannes each hit two 3-pointers in a 19-0 run that made it 21-2 with 2:52 left in the first quarter. Nneka Ogwumike scored for the Sparks to make it 2-2 but they went scoreless for the next nearly-six minutes, missing 12 straight field-goal attempts.
Los Angeles (9-16), which had won back-to-back games over the Indiana Fever, has lost nine of its last 11.
Dearica Hamby scored 21 points, Jordin Canada added 17 and Azurá Stevens 13 for the Sparks. Ogwumike had 10 points.
The Liberty moved a game in front of third-place Connecticut in the WNBA standings, 3 1/2 games back of first-place Las Vegas.
New York hit 15 3-pointers and finished with 26 assists on 32 made field goals. The Liberty became just the second team in WNBA history to have at least 12 games with 25-plus assists in a single-season, joining the 2022 Chicago Sky (18).
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/2023/07/30/liberty-sparks-wnba/3eacd81a-2f30-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:35 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/2023/07/30/liberty-sparks-wnba/3eacd81a-2f30-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
CHICAGO — Kahleah Copper scored 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Marina Mabrey hit four 3-pointers and finished with 23 points and the Chicago Sky beat the Phoenix Mercury 104-85 Sunday.
Mabrey and Copper hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cap a 9-0 run that made it 20-8 midway through the first quarter. Phoenix, which led for just 43 seconds, twice trimmed its deficit to six points but got no closer. Williams hit a 3-pointer that made it 64-53 with 8:34 left in the third quarter and the Sky led by double figures the rest of the way.
Diana Taurasi, who missed the Mercury’s last three games (quad/toe), hit five 3-pointers and scored 24 points. The 41-year-old three-time WNBA champion is just 47 points shy of 10,000 for her illustrious career, which includes 14 All-WNBA selections (10 first team) and two Finals MVPs (2009, 2014). Tina Thompson (7,488), Tamika Catchings (7,380) and Tina Charles (7,115) are the only other players to score at least 7,000 career points.
Chicago scored 32 points off 16 Phoenix turnovers.
Michaela Onyenwere scored 18 points and Megan Gustafson added 17 and eight rebounds for the Mercury (6-18), who have lost three consecutive games.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/2023/07/30/mercury-sky-wnba/1795d956-2f2c-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html | 2023-07-31T00:02:41 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/2023/07/30/mercury-sky-wnba/1795d956-2f2c-11ee-85dd-5c3c97d6acda_story.html |
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh police are investigating a shooting that left one person injured Sunday evening.
The shooting happened at around 5:45 p.m. in the 1200 block of Pettigrew Street. When officers arrived they found a man with a gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police say.
Police said there is no threat to the community.
No suspect was arrested.
Anyone who believes they may have information that might assist the investigation is asked to visit Crimestoppers at www.p3tips.com/89 for anonymous reporting options or call 919-996-1193.
Tracking crime and safety across Raleigh, Durham and your neighborhood | https://abc11.com/raleigh-shooting-person-injured-pettigrew-street/13574667/ | 2023-07-31T00:02:43 | 1 | https://abc11.com/raleigh-shooting-person-injured-pettigrew-street/13574667/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:04:22 | 1 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
GCSO deputies train for the upcoming school year
Published: Jul. 30, 2023 at 7:19 PM EDT|Updated: 44 minutes ago
TRENTON, Fla. (WCJB) - Gilchrist County Sheriff’s officials are preparing for the upcoming school year.
This summer, deputies are training with Gilchrist County public school officials to review policies and help squash any safety issues.
Deputies say they’re also working with armed school employees from the guardian program.
The Trenton Department of Public Safety has also been joining the training sessions, learning how to respond to active shooter situations at schools.
TRENDING: 72-year-old man arrested for felony DUI hit-and-run
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Copyright 2023 WCJB. All rights reserved. | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/gcso-deputies-train-upcoming-school-year/ | 2023-07-31T00:04:53 | 0 | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/gcso-deputies-train-upcoming-school-year/ |
LONDON (AP) — Britain's government acted unlawfully when it routinely housed newly arrived unaccompanied child asylum seekers in hotels, the High Court ruled Thursday.
A child protection charity brought legal action against Britain's Home Office and local authorities in Kent, on England's southern coast, over their treatment of unaccompanied migrant children, saying the temporary housing arrangements deny the youngsters the statutory child protection safeguards to which they are entitled.
Justice Martin Chamberlain ruled that authorities breached legal duties of care owed to all children who require looking after, irrespective of their immigration status.
“Ensuring the safety and welfare of children with no adult to look after them is among the most fundamental duties of any civilized state," the judge said.
Every Child Protected Against Trafficking, or ECPAT, the charity that brought the lawsuit, said hundreds of children had gone missing, with many potentially trafficked for criminal exploitation, as a result of the failures by government.
The judge said Home Office officials had been accommodating children in hotels for over two years.
Placing asylum-seeking children in hotels for “very short periods in true emergency situations” was acceptable, he said, but “it cannot be used systematically or routinely in circumstances where it is intended, or functions in practice, as a substitute for local authority care.”
The Home Office and Department for Education had opposed the legal challenges, saying the hotel use was “a matter of necessity.”
“It remains a child protection scandal that so many of the most vulnerable children remain missing at risk of significant harm as a consequence of these unlawful actions by the Secretary of State and Kent County Council,” said Patricia Durr, the charity's chief executive.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government has pledged to crackdown on asylum-seekers arriving by small boats that make the risky journey across the English Channel from northern France. He has stressed that “stopping the boats" is his key priority in office.
More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by crossing the Channel last year, and so far this year more than 12,000 others have made the crossing.
Earlier this month Parliament passed the government's controversial Illegal Migration Bill, which will bar anyone who reaches the U.K. by unauthorized means from claiming asylum. Under the new law, officials can detain and then deport refugees and migrants to their home country or a "safe third country,” such as Rwanda.
The bill has been widely criticized by rights groups as unethical and in violation of the U.K.'s international human rights obligations.
Critics have also condemned the government over a huge backlog of asylum claims, which has left scores of people in hotels or other unsuitable accommodation while they wait for their claims to be processed.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/uk-governments-routine-housing-of-unaccompanied-child-migrants-in-hotels-ruled-unlawful | 2023-07-31T00:04:59 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/27/uk-governments-routine-housing-of-unaccompanied-child-migrants-in-hotels-ruled-unlawful |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T00:04:59 | 1 | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
BEIRUT (AP) — An impasse at the United Nations over a border crossing with Syria's last rebel-held enclave is putting 4.1 million Syrian there in danger, the president of the International Rescue Committee warned this week.
David Miliband’s comments came more than two weeks after the U.N. Security Council failed to renew the mandate for the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which secures aid for Syrians in the enclave.
The vast majority of people in northwestern Syria live in poverty and rely on aid to survive — a crisis that was further worsened by a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria in February. The earthquake killed more than 50,000 people, including over 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. The quake also displaced hundreds of thousands of others.
“The people of northwest Syria can ill afford a new wave of suffering, having lived through the trauma of the earthquake,” Miliband told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday.
He urged the Security Council to “do its job” and resume the humanitarian border crossing.
The council earlier in July failed to adopt one of two rival resolutions on the crossing. Russia, a top ally of the Syrian government in Damascus, vetoed a Swiss-Brazilian compromise resolution backed by Western countries that renewed authorization for the crossing of aid through Bab al-Hawa for six months. Moscow’s draft resolution with additional requirements — including increasing aid delivery to the opposition enclave through Damascus — only received China’s backing.
The paralysis also comes as donor fatigue has led to aid cuts in aid to both northwestern Syria and neighboring countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees who fled the ongoing conflict, now in its 13th year.
Syrian President Bashar Assad opened two additional crossing points from Turkey at Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai to increase the aid flow to the quake victims. The U.N. says that some 85% of its aid to northwestern Syria goes through Bab al-Hawa, a more efficient route.
For the moment, Miliband said the International Rescue Committee is trying to cope by using other crossings and finding other ways of getting aid into the enclave.
“Our point of view is that interference with the humanitarian crossing point poses severe danger to the efficiency and the effectiveness of humanitarian aid,” he explained.
Additionally, the United States said Monday that it has joined major donors in demanding the U.N. be able to deliver aid through Bab al-Hawa independently and to everyone in need — a rejection of conditions set by Syria and backed by its ally Russia that Damascus control all aid and banning U.N. communications with rebels in the region.
The Security Council initially authorized aid deliveries in 2014 from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan through four border crossing points into rebel-held areas in Syria.
However, Russia, backed by China, over the years successfully applied pressure to reduce the authorized crossings to just Bab al-Hawa, and the mandates from a year to six months.
Moscow alleges that militant groups in the northwestern province of Idlib are taking the aid and preventing it from reaching families in need. Russia and China have been calling for all aid to be routed through Damascus instead.
But Syrians in the northwestern enclave, as well as Western countries critical of Assad, say they are skeptical of the push.
“There’s a lot of danger for people in need in northwest Syria,” Miliband said. “And it’s very important that they’re not forgotten.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/aid-group-official-warns-that-impasse-at-the-un-on-border-crossing-puts-41-million-syrians-at-risk | 2023-07-31T00:05:05 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/aid-group-official-warns-that-impasse-at-the-un-on-border-crossing-puts-41-million-syrians-at-risk |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-31T00:05:05 | 0 | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he was confident of securing bipartisan political support in the United States for a deal to provide his country with submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
The AUKUS partnership — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — is being discussed by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in meetings with Albanese and other Australian officials in Brisbane on Friday and Saturday.
Under the deal, Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.
Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden that warned the deal would “unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet” without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.
Albanese said he remained “very confident” that the United States would deliver the three submarines.
The prime minister said he'd been reassured by discussions he had with Republicans and Democrats earlier in July at a NATO summit in Lithuania.
“What struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, their unanimous support for the relationship between the Australia and United States,” Albanese told reporters in Brisbane.
Austin and Blinken arrived in Brisbane late Thursday ahead of annual bilateral meetings with their Australian counterparts: Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Marles said the AUKUS program was on track.
“Congress can be a complicated place as legislation makes its way through it, but actually we’re encouraged by how quickly it is going through it and we are expecting that there will be lots of discussions on the way through,” Marles said.
“Fundamentally, we have reached an agreement with the Biden administration about how Australia acquires the nuclear-powered submarine capability and we’re proceeding along that path with pace,” he added.
Australia understood there was “pressure on the American industrial base” and would contribute to submarine production, Marles said. The AUKUS deal is forecast to cost Australia up to 368 billion Australian dollars ($246 billion) over 30 years.
Albanese later publicly welcomed Austin and Blinken at a media event before the three began a meeting with Marles, Wong, U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy and Australian Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister.
“The relationship between Australia and the United States has never been stronger,” Albanese told the two visitors. The U.S. and Australia were working together to promote security, stability and prosperity in the region, Albanese said.
Albanese is planning state visits to both the United States and China before the end of the year.
The sharing of U.S. nuclear secrets with Australia takes that bilateral relationship to a new level, while Australia's icy relationship with Beijing was thawing since a change of Australian government at elections last year.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/australian-prime-minister-is-confident-the-us-will-deliver-nuclear-powered-submarines | 2023-07-31T00:05:11 | 1 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/australian-prime-minister-is-confident-the-us-will-deliver-nuclear-powered-submarines |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:05:12 | 1 | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shared center stage with senior delegates from Russia and China as he rolled out his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles in a military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, marking a major war anniversary with a show of defiance against the United States.
State media said Friday Kim attended Thursday evening’s parade with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese ruling party official Li Hongzhong from a balcony looking over a brightly illuminated Kim Il Sung Square, named after Kim’s state-founding grandfather.
The streets and stands were packed with tens of thousands of mobilized spectators, who roared in approval as waves of goose-stepping soldiers, tanks and huge, intercontinental ballistic missiles wheeled out on launcher trucks filled up the main road.
Photos showed Kim Jong Un smiling and talking with Shoigu and Li, who respectively stood to his right and left at the balcony’s center spot, and Kim and Shoigu raising their hands to salute the parading troops.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the parade also featured ceremonial flights of newly developed surveillance and attack drones, which were first unveiled by state media this week as they reported on an arms exhibition attended by Kim and Shoigu.
KCNA did not say whether Kim made a speech during the parade. It did summarize a speech by North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam, who described the parade as a historic celebration of the country’s “great victory against the American imperialists and the forces of their follower nations” and said the North under Kim’s leadership would “prosper indefinitely.”
Black-and-white synthetic aperture radar imagery from satellites showed what appeared to be a massing of people at the square at 1316 GMT (10:16 p.m. local) Thursday, said Dave Schmerler, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, which is part of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Clouds over Pyongyang in recent days made it difficult to make out the preparations for the parade, which took place at night.
Kim’s latest display of his military might comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years. North Korea has dialed up its weapons tests to a record pace in recent months and the U.S. has responded by strengthening combined military exercises and nuclear contingency planning with South Korea, in a cycle of tit-for-tat that has been punctuated by mutual, verbal threats of destruction.
North Korea’s invitation of Russian and Chinese delegates to the parade was a rare opening for the country since the start of the pandemic. Experts say Kim is trying to break out from diplomatic isolation and boost the visibility of his partnership with authoritarian allies to counter pressure from the United States, which has been strengthening its security cooperation with South Korea and Japan to contain the North’s nuclear threat.
The parade followed meetings between Kim and Shoigu in Pyongyang this week that demonstrated North Korea’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and added to suspicions the North was willing to provide arms supplies to Russia, whose war efforts have been compromised by defense procurement and inventory problems.
North Korean state media said Kim and Shoigu on Wednesday reached a consensus on unspecified military matters related to the “regional and international security environment.”
Kim also took Shoigu to an arms exhibition that displayed his most powerful weaponry, including new ICBMs that were flight-tested in recent months and demonstrated potential range to reach deep into the U.S. mainland. Those ICBMs — the Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 — were rolled out as the finale of Thursday's parade, the KCNA said.
“China’s representation at North Korea’s parading of nuclear-capable missiles raises serious questions about Beijing enabling Pyongyang’s threats to global security,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Given Russia’s need for ammunition for its illegal war in Ukraine and Kim Jong Un’s willingness to personally give the Russian defense minister a tour of North Korea’s arms exhibition, U.N. member states should increase vigilance for observing and penalizing sanctions violations,” he said.
The parade capped off the North Korean festivities for the 70th anniversary of the armistice that stopped fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea, which triggered the war with a surprise attack on the South in June 1950, was supported by Chinese troops and the then-Soviet air force. South Korea, the United States, and troops from various nations under the direction of the United Nations fought to push back the invasion.
The truce signed in July 1953 was never replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war, but the North still sees it as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”
The anniversary events were more somber in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a war cemetery in the city of Busan to honor the foreign troops who died while fighting for the South during the war.
In the face of growing North Korean threats, Yoon has pushed to expand South Korea’s military exercises with Washington and is seeking stronger U.S. reassurances that it would use its nuclear capabilities to defend the South in the event of a nuclear attack.
__
AP writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to the report.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/north-korean-leader-kim-shares-center-stage-with-russian-chinese-delegates-at-military-parade | 2023-07-31T00:05:17 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/north-korean-leader-kim-shares-center-stage-with-russian-chinese-delegates-at-military-parade |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singapore conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years on Friday and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking despite calls for the city-state to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes.
Activists said another execution is set next week.
Saridewi Djamani, 45, had been sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking nearly 31 grams (1.09 ounces) of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. Its statement said the amount was “sufficient to feed the addiction of about 370 abusers for a week.”
Singapore’s laws mandate the death penalty for anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.64 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.53 ounces) of heroin.
Djamani’s execution came two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking around 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin.
The narcotics bureau said both prisoners were accorded due process, including appeals of their conviction and sentence and petition for presidential clemency.
Human rights groups, international activists and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offenses and say there is increasing evidence it is ineffective as a deterrent. Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is important to halting drug demand and supply.
Human rights groups say it has executed 15 people for drug offenses since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one a month.
Anti-death penalty activists said the last woman known to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.
Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore group which advocates for the abolishment of capital punishment, said a new execution notice has been issued to another prisoner for Aug, 3 — the fifth this year alone.
It said the prisoner is an ethnic Malay citizen who worked as a delivery driver before his arrest in 2016. He was convicted in 2019 for trafficking around 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin, it said. The group said the man had maintained in his trial that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for a friend he owed money and he didn't verify the contents of the bag as he trusted his friend.
Although the court found he was merely a courier, the man still had to be given the mandatory death penalty, it said. The group “condemns, in the strongest terms, the state's bloodthirsty streak” and reiterated calls for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Critics say Singapore's harsh policy merely punish low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalized groups with vulnerabilities. They say Singapore is also out of step with the trend of more countries moving away from capital punishment. Neighboring Thailand has legalized cannabis while Malaysia ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes this year.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin | 2023-07-31T00:05:23 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-top-news/2023/07/28/singapore-hangs-first-woman-in-19-years-after-she-was-convicted-of-trafficking-31-grams-of-heroin |
MUNCIE, Ind. (WXIN) — A street party in Muncie, Indiana, turned into the scene of a deadly shooting early Sunday morning.
One man died and nearly two dozen others were injured. Of those wounded, 19 were treated at Ball Memorial Hospital’s emergency room, and four were taken to other hospitals. Thirteen victims remained hospitalized in stable condition Sunday afternoon.
After the mass shooting, police announced that there was no further danger to the general public.
”Stranger comes up and decides to take it personal on somebody he knows in the crowd,” said one anonymous man who claimed his nephew was the block party’s disc jockey. “And you can’t fight against an AR. He let loose in the crowd. Everywhere in the crowd.”
The Delaware County coroner identified the deceased victim as 30-year-old Joseph Bonner. There’s no indication if Bonner played an active role in the shooting, whether any other victims are suspected of firing guns, or if any firearms were recovered.
A witness at IU/Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie described a scene of emergency department chaos with more than 100 people descending on the facility — many of whom were victims that were taken to the hospital by private vehicles.
Officers from several agencies — including a Muncie-based FBI agent — secured the crime scene and collected evidence while doctors and nurses treated the wounded from the mass casualty event.
By midday, detectives were still walking the debris-strewn street and parking lot with brown bags filled with collected evidence. A tow truck was also seen hauling away a bullet-riddled red Buick that appeared to have crashed during an attempt to leave the scene.
The Muncie Homecoming Festival committee said the street party where the shooting happened was not part of the official MHF celebration going on this week.
Muncie Parks Superintendent Carl Malone told Nexstar’s WXIN he chaired a neighborhood crime watch meeting last Thursday, and residents expressed fear that this weekend could turn volatile.
”We was a little concerned about violence that we thought might happen,” said Malone, who described Muncie Homecoming as a city-wide welcome home celebration held once every four years for former residents and family members to reconnect with their hometown. ”You had a lot of people congregating in one area, just hanging out and wanting to be part of the neighborhood activities. And then, at that point at time, it got into late night, and when you get into late nights, you usually have some sort of curfew violations, alcohol, guns and drugs seem to be a problem.”
Malone said Muncie has not had a community-wide gun violence initiative since 2015.
”We’ve always had concerns about this area and teenagers involved with handguns,” said Malone, whose niece attended the party. ”She just got out of surgery. She’s doing well. She’s whole. And then my godson was being treated out at Ball Hospital.”
Malone said he will meet with the city’s police leadership Monday morning to review the shooting and plans for keeping Muncie streets safe the rest of the summer.
”The mayor knows my push for gun violence, the lack of gun violence education, the lack of gun violence awareness, the lack of how to report gun violence in and out of our homes,” Malone said. “There’s a way to report crime, there’s a way to report guns, and we just have to report guns in and out of our backpacks and homes.”
Muncie is about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. The city is home to about 65,000 people. | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:06 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/1-dead-23-wounded-after-street-party-shooting-in-indiana/ |
Far-Thro Axe tournament wraps up with recognition of those affected on July 14th
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - The 2nd Annual Far-Thro Axe Tournament officially wrapped up Sunday afternoon with a televised finale and recognition for those who were affected by the shooting on July 14th.
The event had vendors set up as well as t-shirts for sale, and the proceeds of the event will be going to the families of those affected.
For a moment of recognition, there was a 21 Gun Salute and ‘Taps’ was played to allow the guests a chance to remember fallen officer Jake Wallin.
The Tournament took place at the Fargo Billiards & Gastropub.
The tragedy on July 14th not only claimed the life of Officer Wallin, but it also injured officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes, as well as bystander Karlee Koswick.
Koswick works for United States Axe as a coach, and her fellow coworkers say the event was a great way to show their support to her and the others involved.
Jacob Weisser was a volunteer at the tournament and is an employee of United States Axe, and he said that he’s so happy to see the way the the community has come together.
“I talked to her father and they’re blown away with how nice everybody is here,” Weisser said. “It’s just been amazing and I’m just really proud of the place where I grew up, showing so much support for something so traggic and and so horrific.”
Copyright 2023 KVLY. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/far-thro-axe-tournament-wraps-up-with-recognition-those-affected-july-14th/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:06 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/far-thro-axe-tournament-wraps-up-with-recognition-those-affected-july-14th/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:13 | 1 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:20 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:28 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:35 | 1 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
Lynx vs. Sun Prediction & Picks: Line, Spread, Over/Under - August 1
The Connecticut Sun (18-7) host the Minnesota Lynx (13-13) one game after DeWanna Bonner scored 31 points in the Sun's 87-83 loss to the Lynx. This contest airs on ESPN at 7:00 PM ET on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
The matchup has no set line.
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Lynx vs. Sun Game Info & Odds
- When: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 7:00 PM ET
- Where: Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut
- TV: ESPN
Check out the latest odds and place your bets on the Sun or Lynx with BetMGM Sportsbook. Use our link for the best new user offer, no promo code required!
Lynx vs. Sun Score Prediction
Prediction: Sun 88 Lynx 75
Spread & Total Prediction for Lynx vs. Sun
- Computer Predicted Spread: Connecticut (-12.7)
- Computer Predicted Total: 163.6
Lynx vs. Sun Spread & Total Insights
- Minnesota is 13-12-0 against the spread this season.
- Minnesota has played 26 games this season, and 14 of them have gone over the total.
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Lynx Performance Insights
- The Lynx are eighth in the WNBA in points scored (80.5 per game) and second-worst in points allowed (85.3).
- Minnesota is fifth in the WNBA in rebounds per game (34.5) and sixth in rebounds conceded (34.6).
- In terms of turnovers, the Lynx are sixth in the WNBA in committing them (13.3 per game). They are ninth in forcing them (12.7 per game).
- Beyond the arc, the Lynx are ninth in the WNBA in 3-pointers made per game (6.6). They are third-worst in 3-point percentage at 31.4%.
- Defensively, the Lynx are worst in the WNBA in 3-pointers conceded per game at 9.2. They are ninth in 3-point percentage allowed at 35.4%.
- In 2023, Minnesota has taken 30.9% percent of its shots from behind the 3-point line, and 69.1% percent from inside it. In terms of made shots, 22.3% of Minnesota's baskets have been 3-pointers, and 77.7% have been 2-pointers.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/sports/betting/2023/08/01/lynx-sun-wnba-picks-predictions/ | 2023-07-31T00:06:43 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/sports/betting/2023/08/01/lynx-sun-wnba-picks-predictions/ |
A proposed agreement between Powhatan County and a local developer to construct a new convenience center in the county’s eastern end continues to vex local officials, who say they remain frustrated with the lack of specificity contained in the current proposal.
During a board of supervisors meeting on July 24, board chairman Mike Byerly attempted to terminate the process entirely, citing concerns over unanswered questions regarding the project’s timeline as well as a number of additional costs that the company, Branchway Development, LC, has listed in the proposal presented to the County.
These costs, including $212,500 for a water line extension from South Creek to the proposed convenience center and $226,000 for concrete paving in front of the new facility’s recycling containers, are listed in the proposal under “alternate pricing.”
“Most of you know that I’ve been in the car business,” Byerly said. “And that’s called building a ticket. You start at this price and you start raising it up and raising it up and raising it up.” In the case of the proposed convenience center, “you go in at $7.8 million and you start adding all of these things up and now you’re at $9.5 million,” Byerly said. “I’m not comfortable with that.”
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Also at issue for county leaders is the fact that Branchway has not built a convenience center or undertaken a project paid for through a public private partnership, the type of arrangement proposed for the eastern convenience center.
“If I’m going to pick a partner,” said District 5 supervisor Karin Carmack, “I’d rather pick one that has some experience doing this.”
While not all board members agreed that terminating the partnership with Branchway was the best path forward—instead suggesting that a scheduled Aug, 15 workshop will offer the opportunity to get more clarity from the developer and find a path forward--all were in agreement that a new convenience center in the county’s eastern end remains a top priority.
Currently, all county residents who need a place to dump household trash or bring items to be recycled must use the facility located at 2407 Mitchell Rd.
Originally brought forth in May of 2022, Branchway’s plan for the new convenience center is the result of discussions that began in 2018 under the previous board of supervisors. That board, which did not include Byerly, Carmack or District 2 representative Steve McClung, agreed that a new convenience center was needed and approved $1.7 million for the project.
The plan brought forth by Branchway, which was the only proposal the county received, includes a land swap in which the county will offer a 19.73 county-owned parcel of land in exchange for the privately-owned 18.89 acre site on which the convenience center will be built. That land would then need to be rezoned for commercial use.
As part of its proposal, Branchway will also agree to complete the Carter Gallier extension from South Creek One to Luck Stone Road, a project the county has been eyeing for a decade and one that is expected to decrease traffic on Route 60 and create future development sites for light manufacturing, warehouse, and commercial uses.
While all board members appeared in favor of what Branchway has proposed, the concern is that the project be executed with taxpayers in mind, said District 5 representative David Williams.
“Whatever we do has to be fair, transparent and cost effective for the public, for the developer—for everyone,” said Williams. “There is no other way to do it.”
Regardless of which direction the county ultimately takes, county administrator Brett Schardein said last week that the process so far has offered valuable experience in the process of building a convenience center.
Thanks to the things they are working through now, “We’ve learned quite a bit and will build a better facility that serves the county well and for longer,” Schardein said. | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/bos-wants-more-detail-on-new-transfer-station/article_09853400-2f28-11ee-8574-ff46ff23a705.html | 2023-07-31T00:08:14 | 0 | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/bos-wants-more-detail-on-new-transfer-station/article_09853400-2f28-11ee-8574-ff46ff23a705.html |
Whether you’re blowing yard debris from walkways or driving a tractor through a field, noisy equipment can exacerbate hearing loss.
As outdoor duties intensify, homeowners and farmers alike should take precautions to protect their ears when using loud equipment.
Damage to inner-ear hair cells, called cilia, is often caused by exposure to excessively loud sounds, and cannot be medically corrected. This type of hearing loss usually results from repeated exposure to loud sounds over an extended time, like when using a tractor or riding a mower without ear protection.
Most farmers have some degree of hearing loss, said Bedford County farmer and nurse practitioner Amy Johnson, who also serves as president of the Bedford County Farm Bureau. Hearing loss is related to both the intensity of sounds and length of exposure, she said in a safety webinar. Commonly used equipment like grain dryers and chainsaws reach unsafe decibels.
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Prolonged loud sound exposure may result in a “stopped-up” feeling or ringing in the ears that eventually fades. But that’s a bad sign.
“Once the damage is done to those organs that affect hearing, you really can’t undo that,” Johnson explained.
Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, may become constant.
“The effects of living with chronic tinnitus can range from annoying to completely debilitating,” wrote Jackie DiFrancesco for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Every year, about 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise—one of the most common occupational injuries.
Hearing loss is usually gradual and may go unnoticed for several years, according to AgriSafe, a collective formed by rural nurses to improve the health and safety of farmers. It affects not only older adults, but also young adults and teens.
Key indicators of hearing loss include frequently asking people to repeat things; continually turning up the volume on electronics; tinnitus; difficulty with hearing and understanding conversations in busy areas; and noticing that common environmental noises sound distant or quieter.
“Unfortunately, the tones people lose include women’s and children’s voices, so it’s hard to hear your grandchildren or wife talking!” Johnson added.
Fortunately, damage is preventable. Hearing protection devices reduce the force of the sound waves reaching the inner ear. The best HPD is one that fits well and is comfortable enough to wear consistently in high-noise environments.
There are three main types of HPD: formable ear plugs made of soft foam that must be rolled down to be inserted and then expand to block the ear canal; push-in ear plugs; and earmuff-style devices.
Stream an AgriSafe podcast on hearing loss at rb.gy/p8nk4. Find more safety resources at vafb.com/Safety.
--Submitted by the Virginia Farm Bureau | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/experts-exposure-to-noisy-yard-farm-equipment-can-damage-hearing/article_8ccbc8c6-2f26-11ee-ac1a-87902be1a880.html | 2023-07-31T00:08:20 | 1 | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/experts-exposure-to-noisy-yard-farm-equipment-can-damage-hearing/article_8ccbc8c6-2f26-11ee-ac1a-87902be1a880.html |
1.59 acres; Schelbi Price to Cameron Ward, $210,000.
4.736 acres; Sowers LLC to Flat Rock Crossing LLC, $300,000.
3097 Braehead Road, Powhatan; Robert Ratzlaff to David S. Jevsevar, $1,600,000.
2815 Corso Drive, Powhatan; Wallace Presley to David C. Von Bodungen Jr., $390,000.
1430 Donavon Mill Lane, Powhatan; Jennifer J. Lowery-Coppock to Brian P. Kohring, $592,500.
2231 Fall Line Drive, Powhatan; Andrew Dillon Beagle to Charles Leo Stanton IV, $290,000.
1634 Indian Pipe Court, Powhatan; James L. Cary Jr. to Dennis Simmons, $645,000.
4331 Lockin Road, Powhatan; Yvette C. Gerner Revocable Trust to Stephen Lamar Peatross, $350,000.
Lot 4, Bellson Estates, 19.06 acres; Marshall Allen Forbes to Randi Megan Colyer, $265,000.
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Lot A, Red Lane; Matthew E. Peterson to Ellis Mark Hopson, $240,000.
2551 Moon Glow Court, Powhatan; Matthew C. Young to Donavan Nathaniel Westbrook, $355,000.
Parcel 6, Worsham Farms, 10 acres; Nicholas Aron Scally to CMH Homes Inc., $165,000.
4310 Steger Creek Drive, Powhatan; Jonathan T. Barnett to Dorothy A. Sorg, $362,500.
2018 Walnut Tree Place, Powhatan; Joshua Williams to David James Bellot, $430,000. | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/property-transfers/article_8f4a02f6-2f27-11ee-8d0a-5bf2b55b16fb.html | 2023-07-31T00:08:26 | 1 | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/property-transfers/article_8f4a02f6-2f27-11ee-8d0a-5bf2b55b16fb.html |
Just when you think you’ve heard of every weirdness under the sun, along comes this: vampire facials.
If you don’t like being grossed-out, read no further.
If you get queasy reading or talking about blood, read no further.
If you are afraid of needles and, at the sight of them, will fall to the kitchen floor and flop around like a fish, read no further.
Vampire facials are when Transylvanian cosmeticians paint hot wax, jellied avocado and bat blood on the female faces of naïve but famous movie stars and the obscenely rich. This is performed in the dungeon of a Romanian castle while lying atop a sheet covered-coffin. No, it isn’t. I just made that up.
Truthfully, in a nutshell, a vampire facial is an anti-aging treatment for your facial skin. And yes, it’s a real thing.
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Before the start of your procedure – and this is the Transylvanian truth – they take a pint of your blood, separate the platelets from it, then mix it with hyaluronic acid and French’s honey mustard, making a coagulated paste.
I don’t know about you, but I’d be a little skittish about putting anything related to hyaluronic acid on my face. Maybe that’s just me. The honey mustard part sounds okay.
Then these licensed practitioners – I assume they’re licensed - spread a numbing cream like Lidocaine all over your face with a spatula. Lots of it, I presume, to keep you from screaming during the entire procedure.
After you can’t feel your face being hit by a ball peen hammer, they use enough microneedles to make a porcupine jealous and tenderize your face with them like it was an eighteen-ounce New York strip steak.
Lastly, with a paint sprayer, they spritz your visage with the aforementioned concoction after diluting it with WD-40. It plugs up the holes in your skin from the needling and keeps you from bleeding out.
For $1,500 you’re supposed to get tight, youthful skin and the glowing appearance of a 21-year-old. Unless you’re in your seventies and then all bets are off.
In their pamphlet’s small print under WARNING: You have to come back into the dermatologist’s office every six weeks for a “tune-up,” and – ahem - there is the remote possibility that your face could fall off.
But, girls, if you can stand everything else women go through in the name of beauty, then tish-tosh to this pain. | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/suffer-for-beauty-new-treatment-stings-face-and-wallet/article_97a37976-2f29-11ee-b1a3-c3ebe92da93e.html | 2023-07-31T00:08:32 | 0 | https://richmond.com/news/community/powhatan-today/suffer-for-beauty-new-treatment-stings-face-and-wallet/article_97a37976-2f29-11ee-b1a3-c3ebe92da93e.html |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T00:09:12 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-31T00:09:18 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:09:25 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
As rising racism and antisemitism on the far right bring bigotry increasingly into the mainstream of American life, a Super Bowl-winning NFL team owner and a platinum-selling musical artist took center stage at the NAACP convention in Boston on Sunday and said the Black and Jewish communities must work hand-in-hand to combat hate.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Grammy-nominated rapper Meek Mill, along with Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and NAACP president and chief executive Derrick Johnson, participated in a moderated discussion on racism, antisemitism, and “building bridges to fight all hate,” according to the civil rights organization.
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“People are trying to put boulders between the Black community and the Jewish community. And we’ve always been uniquely tied together,” Kraft said. “And I want us to continue [to] build those ties.”
Gates argued that the Black and Jewish communities must stand united. “We have to join hands together to defeat white supremacy, because Jews and Black people have a common enemy,” Gates said.
The discussion came less than a day after US Vice President Kamala Harris came to the convention with a warning that people must remain vigilant in protecting their rights amid a resurgence of white supremacy and efforts to restrict voting rights.
“There is so much that we have achieved, and so, so much to celebrate,” Harris said Saturday night. “And we are in a moment where there is a full-on attempt to attack hard-fought and hard-won rights and freedoms and liberty.”
Organizations that track extremist activity say hate crimes have been increasing in recent years. In Massachusetts, the Anti-Defamation League reported in May that hate crimes had grown overall by a third in 2022. That violence included a surge in antisemitic incidents, as well as white supremacist activity and attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, the organization said.
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Across the United States, hate crimes soared in 2020 and 2021, according to FBI statistics examined by the New York Times in March.
Sunday’s discussion of intersecting biases, moderated by Fox Sports analyst Joy Taylor, was part of the NAACP’s 114th annual convention, which drew more than 10,000 people to the Seaport’s Boston Convention and Exposition Center for the national civil rights group’s first conference in Boston in more than 40 years.
During the hour-long discussion, Gates said anti-Black racism is the “twin side” of antisemitism, and someone who hates Black people will also hate Jews. And both forms of hate are deeply rooted in Western culture, he said.
He said former president Donald J. Trump has been nurturing people who feel this animosity.
“Donald Trump feeds these people. He feeds their hatred, and they’re looking for scapegoats,” Gates said.
Kraft launched a $25 million “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign in March through the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which he established in 2019. He noted the violence that has targeted Jews in recent years, including the deadly Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, and linked it to the threats directed at other marginalized groups.
“We need people not to be silent, when they see [hate] against any minority, whether [they] be Jewish, Black, gay, Asian, Muslim — whatever it may be — we have to push back to keep the values of this country strong,” Kraft said.
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The discussion also turned to the years-long friendship between Kraft and Mill.
In 2019 the pair, along with Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin, rapper Jay-Z, and CNN commentator Van Jones started the REFORM Alliance, a group that has been lobbying states to change local probation and parole laws as part of criminal justice reform.
Mill — born Robert Rihmeek Williams — has spoken about his experiences in the criminal justice system. In 2017, Mill was sentenced to two to four years in prison by a Philadelphia judge for probation violations in connection with an arrest in 2007, when Mill was 19, according to National Public Radio.
Mill’s case drew the attention of criminal justice reform advocates, including Kraft and Rubin, who visited Mill in a Pennsylvania prison in 2018.
Robert Kraft On #MeekMill Visit: 'This Guy Is A Great Guy And Shouldn't Be Here' https://t.co/lLSjQjHR1G pic.twitter.com/PPAUrtKDDM
— CBS Philadelphia (@CBSPhiladelphia) April 10, 2018
A year later, Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor firearm charge, and prosecutors dismissed all remaining charges in the case, NPR reported.
During Sunday’s conversation, Mill talked about how Kraft’s outreach led Mill to learn more about the Jewish community. Mill described a deeply personal experience that he and Kraft shared earlier this year while visiting Poland, where the two participated in the “March of the Living” at the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex to commemorate Holocaust victims and survivors.
“We got a tour in Poland about what they did to Jewish people. . . . They tattooed numbers on them and called them by numbers,” Mill said. “It was so humiliating to them that it made them not value themselves.”
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Mill drew a comparison with his experience in prison. “They was calling us by numbers, you know, when they could have called us by our names,” he said.
Before the discussion, Governor Maura Healey, in a roughly 14-minute speech, said the NAACP convention comes at a time when the “hard won” gains of civil rights are under attack.
Some leaders empower white nationalism, and deny young people “knowledge of our country’s history in the dangerous belief that our ignorance should guide our future,” Healey said.
Voting rights are being taken away, and bans are being enacted on affirmative action, as well as diversity and inclusion, she said. But Massachusetts is poised to push back, Healey argued.
“At this time, in this moment, you are in the right place to fight back, you are in the right place to move forward and advance the cause of freedom,” Healey said.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Follow him @NickStoico. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/metro/robert-kraft-meek-mill-tell-naacp-convention-that-jewish-black-communities-must-combat-hate-together/ | 2023-07-31T00:09:40 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/metro/robert-kraft-meek-mill-tell-naacp-convention-that-jewish-black-communities-must-combat-hate-together/ |
Just 4 minutes of intense daily activity could slash cancer risk among ‘non-exercisers,’ study finds
‘Short bursts’ of fast walking or stair climbing can help keep certain cancers at bay
Logging hours in the gym isn't the only way to reap the health benefits of exercise.
Just four to five minutes of "vigorous physical activity" could reduce cancer risk significantly among people who have been generally inactive, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Oncology.
Researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, analyzed data from 22,398 non-exercising adults averaging 62 years of age who wore activity trackers on their wrists for a seven-day span.
The researchers then looked at cancer-related diagnoses, hospitalizations and deaths for the participants over a period of several years.
EXERCISE OF ANY AMOUNT COULD HELP INCREASE PAIN TOLERANCE, NEW STUDY FINDS
Those who participated in daily vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) for an average of 4.5 minutes per day had a 32% reduced risk of "physical activity-related cancer incidence" — including kidney, bladder, stomach and lung cancers — based on six to seven years of medical records, the study found.
For participants who exercised 3.4 to 3.6 minutes per day, the risk of cancer was reduced by 17% to 18%.
Those who received a previous cancer diagnosis were excluded from the study, according to the journal article.
The researchers adjusted for factors including age, BMI, heart disease history, sleep habits, diet, family cancer history and smoking status, the release said.
AI TECH AIMS TO DETECT BREAST CANCER BY MIMICKING RADIOLOGISTS’ EYE MOVEMENTS: 'A CRITICAL FRIEND'
"We know the majority of middle-aged people don’t regularly exercise, which puts them at increased cancer risk, but it’s only through the advent of wearable technology like activity trackers that we are able to look at the impact of short bursts of incidental physical activity done as part of daily living," said lead author Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, in a press release announcing the study findings.
"It’s quite remarkable to see that upping the intensity of daily tasks for as little as four to five minutes a day, done in short bursts of around one minute each, is linked to an overall reduction in cancer risk by up to 18%, and up to 32% for cancer types linked to physical activity," he added.
VILPA is defined as "brief and sporadic bouts of vigorous physical activity during daily living," the study authors wrote.
Examples include climbing stairs, carrying heavy grocery bags, completing physical household tasks, walking fast and playing high-energy games with children.
"The potential impact on cancer prevention and a host of other health outcomes is enormous."
"VILPA is a bit like applying the principles of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to your everyday life," said Stamatakis.
This is thought to be the first study to evaluate the association of VILPA with cancer incidence, the authors wrote.
The study did have some limitations — primarily the fact that a vast majority (96%) of the adults analyzed were White.
The study is also observational and is not intended to prove a cause-and-effect relationship, the release stated.
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Additionally, the participants answered the original screening questions about their activity levels 5.5 years before they wore the fitness trackers.
"We need to further investigate this link through robust trials, but it appears that VILPA may be a promising cost-free recommendation for lowering cancer risk in people who find structured exercise difficult or unappealing," said Stamatakis in the release.
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"We are just starting to glimpse the potential of wearable technology to track physical activity and understand how unexplored aspects of our lives affect our long-term health," he added.
"The potential impact on cancer prevention and a host of other health outcomes is enormous." | https://www.foxnews.com/health/4-minutes-intense-daily-activity-could-slash-cancer-risk-among-non-exercisers-new-study-finds | 2023-07-31T00:09:41 | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/health/4-minutes-intense-daily-activity-could-slash-cancer-risk-among-non-exercisers-new-study-finds |
Hunter Biden told Devon Archer they would get 'last laugh' after conviction was thrown out: 'Motherf---ers'
Hunter Biden repeatedly praised Devon Archer in emails and said in a 2014 email that he has been a 'great friend through thick and thin'
Hunter Biden told his longtime friend and business partner Devon Archer that they would get the "last laugh" after Archer said that the judge threw out his conviction, according to 2018 text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Archer, who is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee Monday and is reportedly preparing to tell lawmakers about President Biden's interactions with dozens of Hunter's business associates while he was serving as vice president, informed Hunter Biden in a November 2018 text message that the "judge threw out my conviction today."
"Thank f---ing god! First good news in way too long my friend. I am so happy for you. I know its [sic] been a living hell but put it behind you now and take great steps forward," Hunter replied.
"Love you brother," Archer said.
Hunter then appeared to refer to the Department of Justice as "motherf---ers' and said he and Archer will "have the last laugh."
"I swear to god we’ll have the last laugh," Hunter said.
"I know. And I mean it. Can I please come see you now that I'm not a felon!?!" Archer said. "Don't answer that. Just when and where?"
Hunter joked that he liked Archer "better as a felon" and that he was in Newburyport, Massachusetts for the next week, but to call him.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan ruled on that day that evidence that was presented earlier that year against Archer did not show that he "knew that the bond issue was fraudulent, or that he received any personal benefit from it," according to Reuters.
Abrams added that she was "left with an unwavering concern that Archer is innocent of the crimes charged."
HUNTER'S BUSINESS PARTNER DEVON ARCHER IN 'HIDING' AHEAD OF BOMBSHELL TESTIMONY: REPORT
The 2018 text exchange and thousands of emails exchanged between Hunter Biden, Archer, and dozens of business associates over the course of a decade will be front and center as Archer goes before the House Oversight Committee to testify behind closed-doors on his business dealings with Hunter and reportedly explosive allegations about the elder Biden joining his son on business calls and meeting with his business associates.
"Devon Archer believes strongly in the rule of law and the democratic system, and is prepared to answer the Committee's questions just as he has already answered similar questions from a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice, and several other government agencies in their investigations concerning the Biden family," Archer's attorney Matthew Schwartz said this past week.
BIDEN’S NARRATIVE ON NEVER DISCUSSING BUSINESS DEALS WITH HUNTER CONTINUES TO CRUMBLE
Archer’s intimate knowledge of the business arrangements come after years of working closely with Hunter, including on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings with him, beginning in 2014.
He also co-founded investment firm Rosemont Seneca alongside the president’s son and Climate Envoy John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz. Archer served as managing director.
Archer co-founded BHR Partners in 2013— a joint-venture between Rosemont Seneca and Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital. BHR Partners is a Beijing-backed private equity firm controlled by Bank of China Limited.
Months after Hunter and Archer joined the Burisma board, Hunter expressed gratitude for Archer's friendship in an unprompted email.
"Just wanted to let you know- at the risk of sounding melodramatic- how much I love you. You have been a great friend through thick and thin, and I wanted to make sure you know how much I appreciate it,"Hunter said to Archer. "I know I haven't made it easy being my partner at times, but more than anyone outside my brother you have been there for me. And don't worry I'm not planning on jumping off bridge or anything- just thought I should let you know how much your friendship means to me. Love, H"
"Thank you my brother! I genuinely appreciate that and I'm really excited about what's ahead for us and our families and very happy to being doing it with you," Archer replied.
In April, Fox News Digital reported that at least four business partners, a vice president and two assistants at Rosemont Seneca Partners visited the White House more than 80 times when Biden was vice president, including Archer.
Archer visited Biden at least twice in 2009 and 2014 during his vice presidency. The December 2009 visit was a holiday reception at Biden's vice presidential residence, and the April 2014 visit was with Biden in the West Wing.
Archer also played golf with Biden and Hunter at least once during the Obama administration in August 2014 in the Hamptons, four months after Hunter and Archer joined the board of Burisma Holdings. A few days after Biden returned from the infamous December 2015 Ukraine trip, Archer also attended Biden's holiday party at Biden's vice presidential residence along with Hunter, his longtime business partner Eric Schwerim, and Sebastian Momtazi, who also had a Burisma.com email address.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Biden met at least 14 of Hunter's business associates while he was vice president.
Archer is facing legal issues of his own. Despite his conviction being thrown out in 2018, it was reinstated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals a month before the 2020 election and he was sentenced to a year and a day prison last February.
He is expected to report to prison soon for his role in defrauding a Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through "fraudulent and deceptive means," according to the Department of Justice. He was convicted last February, but his sentence has been postponed by a series of appeals.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on Saturday wrote to trial judge Ronnie Abrams requesting her to schedule a date for Archer to report to prison. However, a DOJ letter says Archer's counsel argues it is "premature" to set a sentencing date, citing Archer mulling over further appeals.
Attorneys for Hunter Biden and Devon Archer did not respond to Fox News Digital inquiries on who is expected to have the "last laugh" after Archer testifies.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Jessica Chasmar contributed reporting. | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-told-devon-archer-last-laugh-after-conviction-thrown-out | 2023-07-31T00:09:47 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-told-devon-archer-last-laugh-after-conviction-thrown-out |
PITTSBURGH — Josh Palacios hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning, and the Pirates rallied twice from two runs down to beat the Phillies, 6-4, on Sunday and clinch the three-game series.
With Jared Triolo on as the automatic runner, Palacios led off the 10th by driving a slider from Andrew Vasquez (2-1) 367 feet to right. He celebrated his 28th birthday with his second homer of the season as the Pirates (47-58) took two of three from the Phillies (56-49), who fell a half-game behind in the hunt for the third NL wild card.
Palacios, who went 3 for 5, is the first Pirates player to hit a walkoff home run on his birthday, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
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“After I hit that ball, I think I blacked out,” Palacios said. “I don’t know. I still might be blacked out right now. Best birthday I can ask for, aside for probably my first birthday, coming into this Earth.”
Alec Bohm singled to start the 10th for Philadelphia and went to second on a throwing error by Triolo, putting automatic runner Bryce Harper on third. Harper hesitated to run when Trea Turner flew out to right, ultimately charging home when catcher Endy Rodriguez threw to second with Bohm scrambling back to the base. Nick Gonzales’s throw back to Rodriguez beat Harper for the second out. Angel Perdomo (2-1) struck out Edmundo Sosa to end the threat.
“I’ve seen us play better, that’s for sure,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We have to clean it up. We made some fundamental mistakes. ... We have to clean it all up and we will.”
With two outs in the seventh, Harper bounced a 2-2 pitch down the first-base line that kicked off the glove of Connor Joe, who attempted a diving stop at first. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs scored to break a 2-2 tie before Bohm tacked on another run with an RBI single.
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“When talent doesn’t play well or play smart, you get beat,” Harper said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, it’s still professional baseball.”
Bryan Reynolds cut the deficit to 4-3 on a single in the seventh, with Joe scoring on an error by rookie Johan Rojas in center. Triolo singled off Yunior Marte to start the eighth before advancing to third on Palacios’ double and scoring the tying run on a sacrifice to right from Gonzales.
Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez did not allow a hit in five innings, lowering his ERA to 2.66 this season. The 26-year-old lefthander struck out three, walked two, and hit three before being pulled after 73 pitches (46 strikes) with an upset stomach.
“I had a little stomachache going on. I didn’t feel like I had much energy today,” Sánchez said. “I think I did a good job. Even if I don’t feel well because I have something going on, I’m going to go out and compete.”
After Sánchez exited, Joe sent a leadoff single trickling through the right side of the infield off Seranthony Domínguez. Reynolds followed with his 12th home run of the season, belting a fastball 418 feet to right-center field to tie it 2-all.
“Our guys kept going,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We were getting no-hit through five. We get the base hit, Bryan gets the homer. We just continued to play and made good plays.”
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Bohm had three RBIs, giving the Phillies a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the fourth that went 396 feet to right-center field off a first-pitch changeup from Rich Hill, who gave up five hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in five innings. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/josh-palacios-celebrates-birthday-with-walkoff-homer-10th-lift-pirates-over-phillies/ | 2023-07-31T00:09:47 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/josh-palacios-celebrates-birthday-with-walkoff-homer-10th-lift-pirates-over-phillies/ |
Authorities late Saturday night arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old on Friday, according to the Zachary Police Department.
William Cage was booked on a count of second-degree murder in the death of Makayla Moore.
Moore was shot 8 p.m. Friday at the corner of New Weis Road and Lee Street. She was pronounced dead on the scene, according to officers.
Two additional suspects remain at large.
"Efforts to locate the two additional suspects are underway," Zachary Police Chief Darryl Lawrence Sr., Zachary Chief of Police, in a press release. "We appreciate the assistance of the Baton Rouge Police Department and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office." | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/one-arrested-in-fatal-shooting-in-zachary/article_0781fd1e-2f28-11ee-9dc2-9f5eb548ba09.html | 2023-07-31T00:10:03 | 1 | https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/one-arrested-in-fatal-shooting-in-zachary/article_0781fd1e-2f28-11ee-9dc2-9f5eb548ba09.html |
Lee Hodges shot a 4-under-par 67 in the final round on Sunday for a wire-to-wire title at the 3M Open and his first PGA Tour victory, setting tournament records with a 260 total and a seven-stroke win in Blaine, Minn.
Hodges, who started the day with a five-stroke lead on J.T. Poston, was up by three entering the par-5 last hole on his 65th career start. After Poston’s go-for-broke approach yielded a triple bogey, Hodges tapped in a short putt for his third birdie of the round.
“The process I went through, I’ll take this week forever,” Hodges said. “I’ll just try to keep replicating this week every time I show up to a tournament.”
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Poston shot a 69 to drop into a three-way tie for second place with Martin Laird and Kevin Streelman. Dylan Wu shot a 64 to match Keith Mitchell for fifth at 16 under.
Tony Finau, the defending champion and highest-ranked player at 10th in the FedEx Cup standings participating in this field, shot a 70 to land in a three-way tie for seventh.
Hodges shot a 63 on Thursday, a 64 on Friday and a 66 on Saturday to take a commanding lead into the final round at the TPC Twin Cities course in Blaine on a former sod farm in suburban Minneapolis. He had two eagles and two bogeys on Sunday.
With one previous top-three finish in 2022 at The American Express in La Quinta, Calif., Hodges said on Saturday he couldn’t recall a five-shot lead in his entire career, amateur competition included, and felt as if he was “playing with house money” with his place on the tour next season secured.
Entering the week in 74th place in the FedEx Cup standings, Hodges soared to 33rd with the $1.4 million prize for the win. He became the 23rd third-round leader or co-leader to win on tour this season, following Brian Harman last week at the British Open.
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Poston entered the week in 60th place in the FedEx Cup standings and shot up to 38th.
Hodges set the 54-hole tournament record at 193, two strokes better than the score Scott Piercy took into the final round last year.
Hodges had his lead cut from six to four when he three-putted the 15th hole and Poston, his final-round playing partner, smacked his second shot from the fairway to the green about 7 feet from the cup for his fourth birdie of the afternoon. But Hodges bounced right back to match Poston’s birdie on 16.
Poston’s second shot from the rough on the edge of the water glanced off the rocks on the retaining wall and ricocheted backward off the floating tournament logo before a splash that cost him a penalty stroke. His fifth shot rolled down the slope on the front of the green, and he overshot his first putt.
Beau Hossler gave his postseason bid a bump with a blistering 62 in the final round to tie the course record and finish at 13 under for the tournament, tied for 13th place.
The 28-year-old Hossler entered the week in 62nd place on the FedEx Cup standings. The top 70 players qualify for the three-stage playoff event that begins Aug. 10 with the St. Jude Championship. There’s one more stop on the tour next weekend at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., to move up — or slide down.
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Hossler made eight straight birdies from holes 9 through 16, one short of the PGA Tour record. That included a 45-foot putt he holed on his second shot on No. 13 that had “no business” going in.
LPGA — Céline Boutier carded a final round of 3-under-par 68 to win the Évian Championship by six shots for her first major title.
The 29-year-old Boutier finished at 14-under 270 overall in Évian-les-Bains, France. She is the first Frenchwoman to win the tournament, which became a major in 2013.
“It has been my biggest dream since I started watching golf,” Boutier said. “This tournament has always been very special to me, even just watching as a teenager and just to be able to hold this trophy is pretty unbelievable.”
Boutier is the third woman from France to win a major, following Patricia Meunier-Lebouc at the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship and Catherine Lacoste, who was an amateur when she captured the 1967 US Women’s Amateur.
Boutier, who had never finished better than 29th in six previous appearances at the tournament, was six shots clear of second-place Brooke Henderson of Canada, who was 8 under after her final round of 70.
Boutier took a three-shot lead into the final round and eased any worries she may have had with two birdies to start and another on the fifth hole.
Boutier had a total of four birdies in the final round and a bogey on the par-4 13th.
Five players — Norway’s Celine Borge (68), Mexican Gaby Lopez (68), South Korea’s A Lim Kim (69), and Japan’s Yuka Saso (70) and Nasa Hataoka (72) — were tied for third at 7 under.
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Champions — Germany’s Alex Cejka prevailed over Ireland’s Padraig Harrington on the second playoff hole to win the Senior British Open at Royal Porthcawl at Bridgend, Wales.
Cejka birdied the second extra hole to claim his third senior major title after he and Harrington had finished tied on 5 over par following a final round played in miserable wet and windy conditions.
Harrington narrowly missed an eagle putt on the first extra hole and could only make par when the players returned to the 18th after duffing a chip from the back of the green.
Overnight leader Cejka began the final round with a double bogey on the first and dropped another shot on the fourth, but battled back to hold a two-shot lead with two holes to play.
A bogey on the 17th halved the 52-year-old Cejka’s advantage and Harrington birdied the last to force extra holes.
Cejka carded a final round of 76 and Harrington returned a 75, with South Korea’s Y.E. Yang and American Rob Labritz the only players able to match the par of 71.
Former top-ranked Vijay Singh finished two shots outside the playoff following a closing 77.
US Junior Amateur — Bryan Kim won the US Junior Amateur championship, winning the final two holes for a 2-up victory over Joshua Bai at Charleston, S.C.
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Kim led when the 36-hole final was suspended Saturday, fell behind when the players returned Sunday and then went back ahead for good by winning the 35th hole.
The victory earned the incoming Duke freshman, an 18-year-old from Brookeville, Md., an exemption into the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst No. 2 next June.
After the start of the final round was delayed 3½ hours by rain Saturday, Kim had a 1-up lead through 25 holes when play was suspended.
The 17-year-old Bai quickly won Nos. 26 and 27 to take the lead when play resumed on the Daniel Island Club’s Ralston Creek Course.
The match was tied before Kim hit his approach on the 376-yard, par-4 35th hole to 7 feet. Bai missed a long birdie try before Kim made his putt for a 1-up lead.
Trying to square the match on the par-5 36th hole, Bai missed the green well right from 250 yards with his second shot and then chipped over the green before conceding Kim’s birdie.
Both finalists already earned spots next month in the US Amateur at Cherry Hills in the Denver suburbs, while Kim also got a spot in the 2024 US Amateur at Hazeltine in Minnesota. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/lee-hodges-goes-wire-wire-pick-up-first-pga-tour-victory-with-record-setting-performance/ | 2023-07-31T00:10:28 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/lee-hodges-goes-wire-wire-pick-up-first-pga-tour-victory-with-record-setting-performance/ |
Paige Spiranac says 'the girls' got her 'shadow banned' on TikTok
Spiranac has millions of followers on TikTok
Paige Spiranac is one of the most followed golf influencers in the sport, with millions of followers between Instagram and TikTok with her brand. However, she seemed to take issue with her views recently.
Spiranac has 1.5 million followers on her TikTok account alone. She said in a video last week that she was "shadow banned" over the content she puts out.
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"So I was told that all of my content is shadow banned because of the girls," she said as she zoomed in on her breasts. "I don’t get it, because when I’m scrolling through the ‘For You page,’ I have girls in bikinis dancing to ‘One Margarita,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, girl, get it!’ but I also want to get it!"
She asked in the screencap, "make the guidelines make sense." It wasn't immediately clear who told Spiranac she had been "shadow banned."
Spiranac’ views went from more than a million down to just over 100,000 on some of her posts to barely 60,000 on others. The last time she received more than 1 million views came in May when she was showing fans how to hit a certain shot – with some sexual innuendo thrown in there as well.
She received more than 2 million views on that post and 2 million on the one video before that.
GOLFER JUSTIN DOEDEN ADMITS TO CHEATING AT CANADA EVENT: 'I PRAY FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS'
She had more than 450,000 views on a separate golf-swing video at the beginning of the month.
The term "shadow ban" refers to a user’s videos being restricted without the user being notified.
A TikTok spokesperson told Fox News Digital the company doesn’t "shadow ban" creators on its app. The spokesperson added that the company only takes measures against creators if there have been repeated violations of the guidelines and the creator is notified of the discipline.
The community guidelines state that its content moderation process is built on four pillars – remove content that violates its policies, age-restrict mature content so it's viewed by those who are 18 years or older, maintain the "For You Feed" so that any content promoted by the recommendation system is appropriate for the broader audience, and "empower" the community with info, tools and resources.
The company also has specific guidelines about different types of mature content, including "nudity and body exposure" and "sexually suggested content." Users also have the ability to view their account status and a reports records page where creators can see the status of reports they have made on other content.
About two of Spiranac’s videos have been marked as age-restricted content since she opened her account in March 2019, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson declined to give a time frame, citing user privacy.
Spiranac routinely takes down those who disrespect her on social media, especially when it comes to the way she looks. In April, she clapped back at one commenter.
"This is so insulting to men," the comment reads. "Don’t toy with our love of golf. You’re beautiful, yes. But you don’t need to be overt. Dress proper and u’d still be hot."
Spiranac lost the robe she was wearing in the video and responded.
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"So, what I’m gathering is that you hate boobs," she said. "But everyone loves boobs. Boobs are great!" | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/paige-spiranac-claims-girls-got-her-shadow-banned-tiktok | 2023-07-31T00:10:28 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/paige-spiranac-claims-girls-got-her-shadow-banned-tiktok |
Rangers acquire Jordan Montgomery from Cardinals in latest move to bolster rotation for postseason push
Montgomery follows Max Scherzer to Rangers
The Texas Rangers have loaded up the pitching rotation for a run at the Fall Classic.
The Rangers on Sunday acquired Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals – just a day after the team received Max Scherzer in a deal with the New York Mets. Texas also received pitcher Chris Stratton and international pool bonus money for pitchers John King and T.K. Roby and infielder Tommy Saggese.
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St. Louis dealt Jordan Hicks to the Toronto Blue Jays earlier in the day.
Montgomery was in his second season with the Cardinals. He had spent more than six seasons with the New York Yankees before he was traded to the Cardinals last season.
METS GM DENIES TEAM'S REBUILDING AS MAX SCHERZER TRADE TO RANGERS BECOMES OFFICIAL
In 21 starts this year, Montgomery is 6-9 with a 3.42 ERA and 108 strikeouts. He now joins a race for the American League West with the likes of Scherzer, Dane Dunning, Martin Perez, Cody Bradford, Jon Gray and Andrew Heaney.
Stratton also heads to the Rangers with Montgomery. The reliever has a 4.36 ERA in 42 appearances.
King made 15 appearances for the Rangers this season. He has a 5.79 ERA with 10 strikeouts. Roby has spent his time in Double-A Frisco this year. He has a 5.05 ERA in 10 starts. Saggese has also spent his year in Frisco. He’s hitting .314 with 15 home runs and 78 RBI.
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Texas has made clear it’s locked and loaded for a postseason run. | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/rangers-acquire-jordan-montgomery-cardinals-latest-move-bolster-rotation-postseason-push | 2023-07-31T00:10:28 | 0 | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/rangers-acquire-jordan-montgomery-cardinals-latest-move-bolster-rotation-postseason-push |
What was once professional sports’ most glamourous position — because of its grace, its power, its speed and its elusiveness — is now the most openly disrespected responsibility in professional sports.
There is no other sport that denigrates its own like the National Football League does. The league refuses guaranteed contracts. It dismisses and disregards players the moment they lose a step, the moment their superpowers are slightly dinged and replaces him with a younger, cheaper model and keeps it moving.
But what is even more demoralizing by the league’s latest trend is that elite players are now being disparaged with their simple crime being too productive for their age.
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Top-10 backs such as the New York Giants Saquon Barkley and Las Vegas Raiders Josh Jacobs were not re-signed to long-term contracts by their respective teams because the risk was too high. Running backs generally decline as they reach their late 20s, so signing a 26-year-old coming off a career season to a long-term, salary-cap clogging extension is apparently foolish because the deterioration is coming. Years of pounding, thousands of carries and relentless training turns the running back into a perceived has-been before 30.
Statistics do prove that this once glorified position shouldn’t be played by anyone over 27, but the NFL is cruel to deny those men who have paid their physical dues the opportunity for generational wealth because of the decline of their predecessors.
Barkley, who returned from an ACL tear to become a top-five running back because of his speed and toughness, was denied a long-term deal by the Giants — although they gave barely-average quarterback Daniel Jones $40 million per season. Barkley will play this season on a one-year, $11 million contract despite rushing for 1,326 yards, 10 touchdowns and catching 57 passes out of the backfield.
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Jones, by comparison, threw for 15 touchdowns in 16 games. The Giants made the playoffs on the back of Barkley and a bruising rushing game while Jones was simply asked not to muck up the offense. Yet, Jones gets the big check.
NFL teams have figured out they can get just as much production out of late-round picks and undrafted free agents as first-rounders. And that’s been a trend for more than a decade. There were no running backs taken in the first round of neither the 2013 draft nor the 2011 draft. The Indianapolis Colts took a calculated risk of selecting a runner with the third overall pick, and Alabama back Trent Richardson was a major bust.
But it’s one thing not to draft running backs high and another to refuse to pay them when they do perform and thrive. A high-level running back used to be essential for NFL offenses in the 1970s, ‘80s and even the ‘90s, despite the expansion of the passing game.
Chris Johnson, a borderline Hall of Famer who rushed for a whopping 7,965 yards in his first six seasons with the Tennessee Titans (2008-13) but played just 35 more games after his final Titans season, said playing the position just isn’t financially and physically worth the risk anymore.
“I feel like we do so much within the offense — running the ball, blocking to protect the quarterback, catching the ball — we do so many components to help out the offense,” he said. “And for us to be the one taking the most brutal hits, and for us not to be one of the top paid positions on the team just baffles me.
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“When running backs get to the later part of their career, we know teams want to go younger. They want to start paying us less, so it’s a situation of putting in all this work and not really knowing what the outcome is with playing time and how you’re going to be used in the offense.”
And when running backs do get paid, like Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott, whose contract talks lingered and the Cowboys almost felt obligated to pay him after a 1,357-yard season and 12 touchdowns. In Sept. 2019, he received $90 million over six years with $50 million guaranteed, but his production dropped off considerably, averaging 3.8 yards per carry last season by comparison to 5.1 as a rookie.
The Cowboys released Elliott, now a free agent who met with the Patriots this weekend, and other NFL teams took heed to the cap hit and havoc that rewarding any running back in his late 20s can wreak financially. So there’s been a boycott of sorts, and those currently productive ball carriers are left to ponder whether they will receive generational wealth to accompany the arthritis, deteriorating knees and hips and possible CTE that is sure to beset them when the glory is long gone.
Johnson made an astute suggestion, that the salary structure for running backs should be shortened to allow those All-pro runners to get highly compensated during their peak years. The NFL is taking advantage of these players by overusing them during the rookie contracts, when they are cheapest, and then holding back the bag when it’s time to make a true financial commitment.
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It’s not surprising. For generations the NFL has churned up and spit out thousands of men without a concern for their long-term health or wealth. As long as we keep watching every Sunday, viewing these men as fantasy players and not flawed human beings, and as long as we pour billions into sports betting and other income streams for the NFL, there is no reason for these teams to care.
Barkley just took the Giants’ one-year, $11 million offer fully realizing that’s the most he’ll ever make in one season. Jacobs is still holding out and could potentially sit out the season. But the way the Raiders view it, Jacobs’ NFL-best 1,653 yards only resulted in six team wins.
So Jacobs gets jobbed. Josh McDaniel remains the coach and often-injured Jimmy Garoppolo, who has played just one full NFL season, gets $72 million to play quarterback in Vegas, $45 million of that guaranteed.
It ain’t right, and eventually the next generation will figure out that running backs get as much respect as public school teachers.
When asked his advice to young running backs, Johnson was brutally honest: “Change your position, play receiver. For real.”
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/once-glory-position-elite-running-back-is-now-treated-like-leper-nfl/ | 2023-07-31T00:10:28 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/sports/once-glory-position-elite-running-back-is-now-treated-like-leper-nfl/ |
An explosion at a political rally on Sunday in northwest Pakistan killed at least 43 people and wounded 200 more, officials said, the latest sign of the deteriorating security situation in the country, where some militant groups have become more active over the past two years since finding a haven in neighboring Afghanistan under the Taliban administration there.
The blast occurred at about 4 p.m. in Bajaur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, said Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister. It targeted a political rally organized by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, an Islamist party that is part of the governing coalition in Pakistan.
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A video from the rally recorded before the explosion shows hundreds of men sitting outside beneath a cloth canopy as party officials addressed the crowd. As one district leader took the stage, enthusiastic party workers stood up, chanting, “Allah is great,” according to one rallygoer, Sharifullah Mamond, 19. Then an explosion rocked the crowd.
“I lost consciousness for a few minutes because of the power of the explosion,” Mamond said in a telephone interview from a hospital in Bajaur where he was being treated for minor injuries.
Provincial police Chief Akhtar Hayat Khan told the local news media that the explosion was set off by a suicide bomber. Initial evidence suggests that the bomber appeared to have been near the stage when he detonated the explosives, according to an intelligence officer in Bajaur who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The death toll was expected to rise, officials said, and a rescue operation to recover the wounded was underway on Sunday evening. “The government is trying to shift critical patients to Peshawar and other hospitals through helicopters,” Jamal said. A state of emergency was imposed in the hospitals in Peshawar, the provincial capital.
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Among those killed was Maulana Ziaullah, a local leader of the political party who was onstage when the explosion occurred. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials said they suspected it might have been orchestrated by an Islamic State group affiliate in the region that is active in northwest Pakistan.
The group has previously targeted members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl because of the close relationships the party’s local leaders maintain with the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, experts say.
The Islamic State group affiliate, known as the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, has attacked the Taliban administration for not instituting what it considers a strict enough interpretation of Islamic principles in Afghanistan. In April 2022, the group renewed calls for the assassinations of religious scholars and activists associated with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl in Pakistan.
That is part of ISIS-K’s “broader strategy to eliminate religious scholars from rival sects and religious parties,” said Riccardo Valle, director of research at The Khorasan Diary, an Islamabad-based news and research platform focusing on jihadist networks.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, expressed sorrow and regret over the explosion in a statement published by the party’s media wing. Rehman called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to thoroughly investigate the explosion.
The blast was the latest attack to rattle Pakistan, where militant groups — including the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and ISIS-K — have become more active in recent years. This year, the TTP has carried out several major attacks that have jolted Pakistanis’ tenuous sense of security. In January, TTP militants attacked a mosque in Peshawar, killing more than 100 people, and one month later they waged an hours-long assault on the police headquarters of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi.
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The attack Sunday “is yet another reminder that militancy remains ascendant in Pakistan, and insecurity is likely to rise in the coming months,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior specialist at the United States Institute of Peace.
“A few different groups — from the TTP to ISIS — are trying to carve out space for themselves in the country, and that creates incentives for each of these groups to try to distinguish themselves” in whom they choose to target, where those attacks happen and the scale of the violence they create, he added.
The rise of militant violence in recent months has stoked tension between Pakistan and the Taliban administration in Afghanistan. While Taliban security forces have cracked down on Islamic State group militants since seizing power in August 2021, Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban administration of providing a haven for the Pakistani Taliban. Taliban officials have denied that.
On Sunday, the Taliban administration also condemned the attack in Bajaur. “Such crimes are neither permissible nor justifiable in any way,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the administration, on Twitter.
The attacks have also raised concerns that the deteriorating security situation could dampen political campaigning ahead of Pakistan’s next general election, expected in the fall, and dissuade people from voting.
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The elections come after over a year of political turmoil since former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted in a vote of no-confidence in April 2022 and a coalition government led by Sharif came to power. The elections this fall are considered a critical step toward establishing more political stability after a year of mass protests and a crackdown by the country’s powerful security establishment on Khan and his supporters.
The attacks “will play on the minds of the public and politicians both,” said Abdul Basit, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies who covers extremism and militancy in South Asia, adding, “It can result in dull election campaigns and low voter turnout, undermining the credibility of upcoming general elections.” | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/least-43-killed-blast-political-rally-pakistan/ | 2023-07-31T00:10:29 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/30/world/least-43-killed-blast-political-rally-pakistan/ |
Mob beats security guard to death outside Hollywood nightclub
Police said a mob of around 10 people confronted the security guard for unknown reasons
A mob of people beat a security guard to death outside a Hollywood nightclub early Sunday morning, according to reports.
The violence broke out around 2 a.m. outside the Dragonfly Hollywood at 6510 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Police told Fox 11.
The circumstances leading up to the assault – including whether or not it was gang-related – remain unclear.
LAPD West Bureau Homicide Division Detective Samuel Marullo told KTLA the security guard was confronted by a group of about 10 people and fell into the street. The mob then kicked and stomped him to death.
INDIANA ‘MASS SHOOTING’ LEAVES 1 PERSON DEAD, AT LEAST 19 OTHERS: POLICE
The security guard was taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries. His identity has not been released.
No arrests have been made as of Sunday evening.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Dragonfly and the LAPD for more information. | https://www.foxnews.com/us/mob-beats-security-guard-death-outside-hollywood-nightclub | 2023-07-31T00:10:30 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/us/mob-beats-security-guard-death-outside-hollywood-nightclub |
SAG-AFTRA waivers under scrutiny as Viola Davis says filming movie wouldn’t ‘be appropriate’
Viola Davis says she is opposed to filming her next movie amid the simmering actors’ and writers’ labor strikes — even though she has SAG-AFTRA’s blessing to do so.
The Oscar-winning actor’s move comes amid scrutiny over SAG-AFTRA’s decision to exempt some productions from the strike that are not affiliated with any major studios or streaming platforms. The dispensations have sparked questions in recent days.
Davis released a statement this weekend after her upcoming action-thriller “G20” was among dozens of independent projects granted waivers by the guild to move forward during the strike. Davis is attached to produce and star in the picture, which is partially backed by her company, JuVee Productions.
“I love this movie, but I do not feel that it would be appropriate for this production to move forward during the strike,” Davis said in a statement provided Sunday to the Los Angeles Times.
“I appreciate that the producers on the project agree with this decision. JuVee Productions and I stand in solidarity with actors, SAG/AFTRA and the WGA. “
Because Davis is such a vital part of the project, the current status of “G20” is unclear. When asked whether this means the production will shut down entirely until the strikes are over, Davis’ representative declined to comment further.
Though much of Hollywood has come to a standstill amid the writers’ and actors’ strikes, more than 40 productions have been granted waivers to continue shooting during the mass work stoppage. But whether actors are crossing a picket line by participating in those productions has become a point of contention in the industry.
SAG-AFTRA is allowing a select number of films and shows to keep filming amid the actors’ strike. Titles include two A24 movies and another by Mel Gibson.
Davis is not the only famous actor to speak out after SAG-AFTRA decided to exempt from the strike select projects that are not affiliated with any major studios or streaming platforms that make up the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. (Although “G20” is set to be distributed by Amazon Studios — which is part of the AMPTP — SAG-AFTRA gave it a pass because no members of the AMPTP are producing it, according to Deadline.)
Under the terms of the waiver, said projects are required to abide by the guidelines SAG-AFTRA has presented to the AMPTP in bargaining. The guild is fighting for higher wages, greater shares of revenue generated by streaming hits and limitations on the use of artificial intelligence, among other benefits and protections. The exempt productions must operate under these terms until the union and the AMPTP agree on and ratify a new contract.
In an Instagram video posted on Friday, actor and comedian Sarah Silverman said she was “pissed off” at the idea of movie stars continuing to work on independent projects when they “know the goal is to sell them to streaming” giants. She accused her peers of “scabbing” by working on those titles — SAG-AFTRA waivers be damned.
SAG-AFTRA’s national board on Thursday approved a strike action after negotiations with the major studios failed to reach an agreement on a new film and TV contract.
“I got offered an indie movie. I f— said no. And so did a bunch of my friends. And now some of my friends are saying yes, and I’m really pissed. Please explain to me why I shouldn’t be angry, because people are ... sacrificing their livelihood for this cause. It’s called union strong. ... We should see every movie star out there striking along.”
In a follow-up video, Silverman said she met with SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, who explained the union’s justification for granting the waivers. According to Silverman, SAG-AFTRA’s position is that — by allowing certain productions to move forward under its “ideal” working conditions — the union can prove to the AMPTP that such conditions are reasonable.
The actors’ union published its proposals, with what it says were the counterproposals from Hollywood studios. The AMPTP accused SAG-AFTRA of mischaracterizing the talks.
After hearing the SAG-AFTRA leaders out, Silverman doubled down on her stance.
“This cause is a work stoppage,” Silverman said. “That’s our power.”
“On the other ... hand, I’m so happy that at least a whole bunch of crew members are going to be able to work on narrative projects,” Silverman added, acknowledging that the waivers are “a release valve for a whole bunch of people who have been paying a ... price” for the strikes.
Silverman also questioned whether all of the exempt projects are truly independent, saying some productions carry a “real stink of loophole-iness.” The Times has reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment.
George R.R. Martin explains why HBO is still filming Season 2 of ‘House of the Dragon’ amid writers’ and actors’ strikes. He gave a book-progress update too.
Several other high-profile productions — including “Death of a Unicorn” and “Mother Mary” from Oscar-winning studio A24 and Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk,” which is set to be distributed by Lionsgate — have received waivers from SAG-AFTRA.
While the waivers have certainly sparked debate among SAG-AFTRA members — many of whom voiced their opinions under Silverman’s Instagram posts — Silverman stated for the record that she is “extremely comfortable agreeing to disagree” while “working together, picketing and telling the AMPTP that they can ... kick rocks.”
“The truth is, we all want the same thing,” she said.
“We want a swift end to this strike. We want to get back to work having won crucial new benefits. So whichever side of this particular issue you fall on, we can’t let disagreeing on it weaken our resolve.”
Times staff writer Jonah Valdez contributed to this report.
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You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. | https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-07-30/viola-davis-g20-film-sag-aftra-waiver-sarah-silverman | 2023-07-31T00:11:25 | 1 | https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-07-30/viola-davis-g20-film-sag-aftra-waiver-sarah-silverman |
A Mostly Dry Week Ahead
We have yet another week where outside of small rain chances, most of us are looking to stay dry. We won’t have an abundance of any of the ingredients needed for thunderstorms, especially moisture to help fuel any thunderstorms that get close to our area. Any fronts or other mechanisms that allow for moisture to be lifted high in the atmosphere will stay out of our area until later this week. Finally, we won’t be getting the same instability as what we experienced towards the end of last week.
We still could see a couple isolated showers in northern Iowa Monday afternoon or Wednesday morning. Although, any rainfall we do get is going to be very light (if we even get it). | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/a-mostly-dry-week-ahead/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:25 | 0 | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/a-mostly-dry-week-ahead/ |
Lee Hodges won the 3M Open on Sunday by seven strokes for his first PGA Tour victory.
Hodges started the final round at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, with a five-shot lead and carded a 4-under 67 on Sunday to complete the tournament at 24-under par and become the first wire-to-wire winner of the 3M Open.
Hodges set tournament scoring records for 36, 54 and 72 holes.
The closest that anyone came to catching Hodges came on the 71st hole, when J.T. Poston got within three of the lead when Hodges bogeyed the par 3.
But while Hodges birdied the final hole of the tournament, Poston triple-bogeyed the par-5 18th when his second shot landed in the lake. Hodges played the par-5 holes in 5 under on Sunday with eagles at the sixth and 12th.
“This has been a dream week,” Hodges said. “I’ve got the best caddie in the world. I’ve got the best wife in the world. I’ve got Mom and Dad – sorry that y’all aren’t here. I wish you were. I’ve got the best everybody, I mean, I’ve got the best team in the whole world, and they work so hard, and I couldn’t do it without them.”
Hodges won the AHSAA Class 4A boys’ golf individual championship in 2014 while playing for Ardmore High School. Hodges was the Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2015 during the first of his two seasons at UAB. He finished his college career with two seasons at Alabama.
After the round, Hodges was surprised by Alabama men’s golf coach Jay Seawell, who came to TPC Twin Cities on Sunday to watch his former player in the final round.
Hodges, who plays out of the Canebrake Club in Athens, earned his first victory in his 65th PGA Tour start.
“I’m just proud to be from Alabama,” Hodges said. “It’s unbelievable the support I get from home. Coach Seawell, I didn’t see him until right now. I just saw my buddy Robbie’s here. Man, I’m just happy everybody’s here, and everybody back home I hope is going insane.”
In addition to garnering a $1.404 million prize for Hodges, it also secured an invitation to next year’s Masters and vaulted him into the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Hodges entered the 3M Open 74th in the standings with two regular-season tournaments remaining on the schedule. The top 70 in PGA Tour points advance to the FedEx Cup playoffs. The victory moved Hodges to 33rd in the standings.
The FedEx Cup playoffs start with the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Aug. 10-13 in Memphis, Tennessee. From there, the top 50 move on to the BMW Championship on Aug. 17-20 in Olympia Fields, Illinois, before the top 30 play in the Tour Championship on Aug. 24-27 in Atlanta.
Hodges’ best previous finish on the PGA Tour had come at the American Express on Jan. 23, 2022, when he tied for third in La Quinta, California.
RELATED: WITH MOM AS CADDIE, FORMER ALABAMA GOLFER MAKES HIS FIRST PGA TOUR CUT
Seawell had two of his former Crimson Tide players win tournaments on Sunday.
In the PGA Tour Canada’s Osprey Valley Open at TPC Toronto in Caledon, Ontario, Davis Shore posted his first PGA Tour-affiliated victory in his second outing on the circuit this season.
Shore carded a 4-under 67 to finish at 19 under for the tournament, good for a one-stroke victory.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. | https://www.al.com/sports/2023/07/former-alabama-golfer-rolls-to-his-first-pga-tour-victory.html | 2023-07-31T00:11:27 | 0 | https://www.al.com/sports/2023/07/former-alabama-golfer-rolls-to-his-first-pga-tour-victory.html |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
____
Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
——
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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:27 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
Chris Buescher wins at Richmond to clinch NASCAR Cup playoff spot
Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart with three laps to go and won at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, earning himself a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Buescher led 88 laps. He was ahead by nearly six seconds when a caution came out with under 10 laps to go. That erased his sizeable lead over local favorite Denny Hamlin, but when the race went back to green, Buescher pulled away easily.
He and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski led a combined 190 of the 400 laps, with Keselowski’s Ford pacing the field for 102 laps on the 0.75-mile oval.
Brandon Staley watched his parents battle cancer and then had his own bout, but the Chargers coach believes the experience can help him be a stronger coach.
Hamlin, coming off a victory last weekend at Pocono, finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece.
The race was slowed just three times by caution flags, the last sending the leaders to pit road for four tires with eight laps to go. When the green flag was shown again, Buescher used the inside line to pull away for his third career victory.
Hamlin’s bid for the victory ended on the second lap of the final sprint when he drove in too deep in the first turn and slid up the track. He finished 0.549 seconds behind Buescher, with Busch winding up 0.817 off the winning pace.
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You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. | https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-07-30/chris-buescher-wins-richmond-nascar-cup | 2023-07-31T00:11:31 | 0 | https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-07-30/chris-buescher-wins-richmond-nascar-cup |
Cool Start, Summery Monday Afternoon
Monday starts out a little cool with temperatures in the upper-50s and low-60s out the door heading to work. Although a lack of cloud cover will allow us to warm up swiftly. Temperatures reach the low to mid-80s during the afternoon hours. Low-80s are expected around Highway 14 and mid-80s are expected around I-90 and south.
Outside of a couple potential isolated showers in northern Iowa, we are looking to stay dry. Even then, I would not count on those showers taking place. | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/cool-start-summery-monday-afternoon/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:31 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/cool-start-summery-monday-afternoon/ |
Remains of WWII veteran killed in Romania identified, laid to rest
NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - The remains of a missing U.S. Army Lieutenant were laid to rest with full military honors on Saturday.
According to WOIO, First Lieutenant Army Air Corps George “Bud” Julius Reuter was buried at Sunset Memorial Park in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Reuter, who was 25 years old at the time, was killed in action on August 1, 1943 near Ploiesti, Romania.
Reuter’s remains were identified January 10, 2023 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
After the war, many airmen were interred by Romanian citizens in the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploiesti. The American Graves Registration Command exhumed many unknown remains to identify U.S. veterans who went missing. The organization eventually reinterred the remains that could not be identified.
Reuter was laid to rest near his parents John George and Elizabeth Theodocia Reuter.
A memorial service was held for the lieutenant which included the presentation of four military medals: the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Air Medal for conspicuous gallantry in action against the enemy.
Copyright 2023 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:34 | 1 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/remains-wwii-veteran-killed-romania-identified-laid-rest/ |
There’s Still Some Heat
Just like last week, Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be the hottest days of the week, and temperatures are going to be well above average. Unlike last week, we won’t see dew points get up into the upper-70s and low-80s. The only day to watch for even low-70s would be Thursday on the hottest day of the week. While it will still feel hot out during this timeframe, it’s nothing compared to the triple-digit heat index of last Thursday. | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/theres-still-some-heat/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:38 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/kaal-weather/theres-still-some-heat/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:40 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
You-pick farms lose customers and crops through heat, drought and haze in Iowa
BRIGHTON, Iowa (AP) — You-pick farms are struggling through heat, drought and haze as customers cancel picking appointments and crops across Iowa refuse to grow.
These farms offer visitors the chance to harvest their own produce straight from the tree, bush or ground.
But this summer marks Iowa’s third year in a row of drought. And that is hurting farmers who grow water-intensive crops like blueberries and strawberries that are particularly sensitive to heat and drought, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.
Kim Anderson told The Gazette that her well started faltering during last summer’s heat and drought at her 5-acre Blueberry Bottom Farm near Brighton in southeastern Iowa.
Many of her blueberry bushes became parched. And recently, for the first time in the farm’s five-season history, she had to cancel a day of picking appointments because there weren’t enough ripe berries.
“I just never anticipated something like this, that the well wouldn’t have enough water,” she said.
Similarly, Dean Henry told The Gazette that these are the worst conditions he has seen in his 56 years of operating the Berry Patch Farm in Nevada in central Iowa.
Henry said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources restricted his well water usage from 20 acres a day to 1 acre a day. But his strawberry plants need lots of water.
This year, his entire crop failed.
The heat has affected customers too. Some you-pick farms reported a decrease in customer visits, according to The Gazette. If people do come, they aren’t staying as long as normal to take in the entertainment at the farms, like picnic tables or games.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires also caused Iowa skies to grow hazy and air quality to be poor several times this summer. Customers canceled their appointments on especially hazy days, Anderson said.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/business-news/you-pick-farms-lose-customers-and-crops-through-heat-drought-and-haze-in-iowa/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:44 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/business-news/you-pick-farms-lose-customers-and-crops-through-heat-drought-and-haze-in-iowa/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:46 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
Olmsted County Fair comes to a close
(ABC 6 News) – As the weekend comes to a close, so too does another county fair, with the Olmsted County Fair wrapping up Sunday.
“Lots of ices. Seen a lot of that. The temperature has been crazy,” said Wyatt Roe.
Fair goers battled the extreme heat and adjusted to a few changes to the fair this year. The big one was the temporary bleachers for grandstand events.
“It’s not as good as it has been in years past. But they are doing the best with what they could,” said Hunter Krizan.
“A lot less spectators, a lot less coverage. When you’re so low to the ground you can’t see over the pits,” said Roe.
But the new bleachers didn’t stop these two from attending the big attraction for the day: the demolition derby. Even taking a little bit of the fair home with them.
“They dumped like an entire bumper in one of the trash cans. So yeah, we are carrying it out pretty much,” said Krizan.
Dozens of visitors, Dirt flying through the air, and cars crashing into each other, many simply couldn’t miss the junior derby. Some might say they save the best for last.
“I think this brings a lot to the fair every year. This brings in thousands of people every year,” said Krizan.
The Olmsted County Fair even brings people from out of town. Daniel Heimsness moved to Texas nine years ago and is back visiting family. He knew the fair had to be one of his stops.
“They keep a great fairground. It’s always clean, it’s always safe and nice. It’s always just awesome. The people are here for fun and that’s what it is. It’s just a great time to be here,” said Heimsnesss.
And what would a fair be without its famous food?
“Tom’s Thumbs and now we are going to get a gyro and then after that I’ll probably be done,” said Heimsness.
And while the suns setting on the county fair for this year, many are already eagerly awaiting its return next summer. | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/omsted-county-fair-comes-to-a-close/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:51 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/omsted-county-fair-comes-to-a-close/ |
4 killed in fiery ATV rollover crash in central Washington
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (AP) — Four people are dead after the all-terrain vehicle they were in rolled over and burst into flames on a dirt road in central Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.
Kittitas County sheriff’s officials say 24-year-old Conner Jenkins of Orting crashed his side-by-side ATV west of the town of Liberty on Saturday afternoon. First responders arrived within minutes and prevented the gas-fueled fire from spreading.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
Also in the vehicle were Jenkins’ friend, 23-year-old Benjamin Gomez Santana of Covington, and a couple they met that day; 26-year-old Devon Anonson of Kent and 24-year-old Halle Cole of Maple Valley.
Gomez Santana and Cole died at the scene. Jenkins and Anonson were flown by helicopter to a burn center in Seattle, where they both died.
The open field where the crash happened is a popular spot for campers and off-roaders. Investigators have not said what caused the ATV to roll.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/us-world-news/4-killed-in-fiery-atv-rollover-crash-in-central-washington/ | 2023-07-31T00:11:57 | 1 | https://www.kaaltv.com/news/us-world-news/4-killed-in-fiery-atv-rollover-crash-in-central-washington/ |
COLUMBUS, OH (WLIO) - Early voting hours are changing leading up to the special election on August 8th. The Secretary of State’s office says county board of elections will be open extended hours starting Monday for the final week of early voting. Monday July 31st, Wednesday August 2nd, Thursday August 3rd, and Friday August 4th, the offices will be open 7:30 am to 7:30 pm. On Tuesday the office will be open 7:30 am to 8:30 pm. Then on Saturday August 5th, the county boards of election will be open from 8 am to 4 pm. Then on Sunday, they will be open from 1 to 5 pm. If you are mailing in an absentee ballot, it must be postmarked by August 7th and must be delivered by August 12th to be counted.
Copyright 2023 by Lima Communications Corporation. All rights reserved. | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/allen_county/early-voting-hours-extend-leading-up-to-ohios-special-election/article_4ebbca0a-2f2f-11ee-8c62-739e4e2e9d83.html | 2023-07-31T00:13:04 | 1 | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/allen_county/early-voting-hours-extend-leading-up-to-ohios-special-election/article_4ebbca0a-2f2f-11ee-8c62-739e4e2e9d83.html |
WAPAKONETA, OH (WLIO) - The Auglaize County Fair is ready for a week of food, 4H, and fun. Fair officials opened the 2023 fair Sunday in front of its newest addition to the fairgrounds, a new entrance to the Piehl Family Arena. The entrance, complete with a grain bin, was always in the works for the arena to help reflect the county's agricultural roots. A patio was also unveiled to honor the 4H members. With the help of Bambauer Fertilizer and Seed, the new additions also include an air-conditioned community room. The fair is gearing up for a big week, with all sorts of free entertainment for people to check out.
“We have the trapezes, the Flying Cortes, which was here last year, but they have added a human cannonball to it this year. So, we are excited to see that,” says Ed Doenges, Auglaize Co. Fair Secretary and Manager. “We got an XPogo Stunt Team, which is a pogo stick stunt team. They told me that I had 20 feet of clearance on them, so we will see if they can reach that or not. And we got the Wheels of Agriculture trivia. Please come out and visit us, we are glad to have you out.”
The grandstand has some free events which include Wiener Dog Races at 5 pm and Kiddie Tractor Pulls at 7 pm on Monday. Harness racing Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 pm. Demolition Derby hits the grandstand on Thursday at 7:30 pm and the A-Bar Rodeo at 7 pm on Friday. The Bear Hallow Wood Carving Auction at 4 pm and the Truck and Tractor Pull at 7 pm wrap up the fair on Saturday. For more information about events log onto the Auglaize County Fair website. | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/auglaize_county/the-auglaize-co-fair-is-ready-for-a-week-of-food-4h-and-fun/article_cae2d74c-2f2d-11ee-a9e1-dfe96820076a.html | 2023-07-31T00:13:10 | 1 | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/auglaize_county/the-auglaize-co-fair-is-ready-for-a-week-of-food-4h-and-fun/article_cae2d74c-2f2d-11ee-a9e1-dfe96820076a.html |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
___
Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:13:33 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
Jewell Loyd scores 26, Jordan Horston adds 15 points as Storm beat Fever 85-62
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jewell Loyd scored 26 points with eight assists, Jordan Horston made 7 of 11 from the field and finished with 15 points to help the Seattle Storm beat the Indiana Fever 85-62 on Sunday.
Seattle (6-19), which snapped a franchise-record 10-game losing streak with a 97-74 win Friday over the Chicago Sky, has won back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Indiana (6-19) has lost four games in a row and 12 of its last 13 to fall into a tie with the Storm for last in the WNBA standings — a half-game behind the Phoenix Mercury.
Loyd made 4 of 6 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3-point range, and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the first half and had 15 points and four assists as the Storm took a 47-27 lead into halftime. Indiana went scoreless for six-plus minutes in the second quarter as Seattle scored 15 points to open its biggest lead of the game at 44-19 with 2:32 left in the first half.
Kelsey Mitchell hit a 3-pointer to cap a 9-2 spurt that trimmed Indiana’s deficit to 57-51 late in the third quarter but Loyd answered with a three-point play and then hit two free throws and the Fever trailed by double figures throughout the fourth.
The Storm had 23 assists on 31 made field goals and shot 53.4% from the field, made 12 of 24 from behind the arc and hit 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. Indiana was 25-of-66 (38%) shooting and made just 4 of 16 from 3-point range.
Mitchell hit three 3s and led the Fever with 19 points. Alliyah Boston added 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wishtv.com/sports/indiana-fever/jewell-loyd-scores-26-jordan-horston-adds-15-points-as-storm-beat-fever-85-62/ | 2023-07-31T00:13:55 | 1 | https://www.wishtv.com/sports/indiana-fever/jewell-loyd-scores-26-jordan-horston-adds-15-points-as-storm-beat-fever-85-62/ |
Chris Buescher wins at Richmond and secures spot in NASCAR playoffs
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart with three laps to go and won at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, earning himself a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Buescher led 88 laps. He was ahead by nearly six seconds when a caution came out with under 10 laps to go. That erased his sizeable lead over local favorite Denny Hamlin, but when the race went back to green, Buescher pulled away easily.
He and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski led a combined 190 of the 400 laps, with Keselowski’s Ford pacing the field for 102 laps on the 0.75-mile oval.
Hamlin, coming off a victory last weekend at Pocono, finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece.
The race was slowed just three times by caution flags, the last sending the leaders to pit road for four tires with eight laps to go. When the green flag was shown again, Buescher used the inside line to pull away for his third career victory.
Hamlin’s bid for the victory ended on the second lap of the final sprint when he drove in too deep in the first turn and slid up the track. He finished 0.549 seconds behind Buescher, with Busch winding up 0.817 off the winning pace.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wishtv.com/sports/motorsports/chris-buescher-wins-at-richmond-and-secures-spot-in-nascar-playoffs/ | 2023-07-31T00:14:01 | 1 | https://www.wishtv.com/sports/motorsports/chris-buescher-wins-at-richmond-and-secures-spot-in-nascar-playoffs/ |
PORTAGE, Wis. — The 2023 Columbia County Fair ended Sunday after seven event-filled days.
Taking place on the fairgrounds in Portage, there was something for every member of the family to enjoy.
PORTAGE, Wis. — The 2023 Columbia County Fair ended Sunday after seven event-filled days.
Taking place on the fairgrounds in Portage, there was something for every member of the family to enjoy.
“I think that everybody has a little something that they enjoy, and that's why we try to bring so many different things and activities and events and bands and animals,” said Nicky Oetzman, the fair’s beer and wine garden manager. “Even at the carnival, they've got a whole bunch of different stuff that you can eat or do.”
Whether it be the animal showings in the barns filled with pigs, cows and goats, the array of food or the carnival rides and games, there is always something to do.
The fairgrounds in Portage are known for their 88-year-old grandstand which hosts multiple events. This year, a demolition derby, a handful of tractor and truck pulls and ATV races could all be seen from the historic stands.
The 2023 ‘Fairest of the Fair’ Marin Stauffacher said that restoring the grandstands is a goal of hers and community members because of their history and significance to the fair.
“We’re working really hard to restore it as it is a historical landmark and a lot of people are pushing to destroy it, but we are really pushing to preserve it and keep it here,” Stauffacher said. “So, I think that’s a really huge point to our fair and why it’s so important to keep these fairs alive because there’s a lot of history behind the fairs here.”
At the fair, 50/50 raffles helped raise money for the cause, but if you want to help restore the grandstands on the Columbia County fairgrounds, you can support the effort here.
COPYRIGHT 2023 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
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Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart with three laps to go and won at Richmond Raceway on Sunday, earning himself a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
Buescher led 88 laps. He was ahead by nearly six seconds when a caution came out with under 10 laps to go. That erased his sizeable lead over local favorite Denny Hamlin, but when the race went back to green, Buescher pulled away easily.
He and RFK Racing teammate Brad Keselowski led a combined 190 of the 400 laps, with Keselowski's Ford pacing the field for 102 laps on the 0.75-mile oval.
Hamlin, coming off a victory last weekend at Pocono, finished second, followed by Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece.
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The race was slowed just three times by caution flags, the last sending the leaders to pit road for four tires with eight laps to go. When the green flag was shown again, Buescher used the inside line to pull away for his third career victory.
Hamlin's bid for the victory ended on the second lap of the final sprint when he drove in too deep in the first turn and slid up the track. He finished 0.549 seconds behind Buescher, with Busch winding up 0.817 off the winning pace. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/chris-buescher-wins-cook-out-400-at-richmond-secures-nascar-playoffs-spot/4549403/ | 2023-07-31T00:15:46 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/chris-buescher-wins-cook-out-400-at-richmond-secures-nascar-playoffs-spot/4549403/ |
A program without a home finds temporary place
JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Southwest Church is lending a hand to First Methodist Church to keep a program running.
On Sunday, First Methodist Church held its final service in the downtown building. The move comes after a judge ruled in June that the group known as “Stay UMC” was the rightful owner of the building.
The group leaving the building of First Methodist Church has found a temporary place to worship at Arkansas State University’s Fowler Center and Cooper Alumni Center.
Just down the road from the downtown building, Adam Brewer, lead minister of Southwest Church wanted to lend a helping hand.
“Everyone is connected to people from First Methodist Church and saw that there were people that hurting people, people who are in need and our first instinct is kind of to say, how can we help?” he said.
Programs from the church, like Breaking Bonds, didn’t have a home. That’s when Southwest Church stepped in.
“For us, we have this common goal and that is to love our community in the name of Jesus, and we know that Breaking Bonds was doing good things for that,” he said.
Brewer said their work was too important to the community and wanted to make sure they could continue to work.
“Breaking Bonds has done a phenomenal job in our community of helping people break those chains of addiction but also preaching Jesus and giving people hope,” he said.
While the Breaking Bonds team makes a temporary home at Southwest Church, Brewer said he hopes they can make a permanent impact on his community.
“They’re gonna come and do the work and they’re gonna come and have worship, so I would love to see people come and be involved in what they’ve got going on,” he said.
Southwest Church said it would lend its space to Breaking Bonds for as long as they need it.
Copyright 2023 KAIT. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/program-without-home-finds-temporary-place/ | 2023-07-31T00:17:18 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/2023/07/30/program-without-home-finds-temporary-place/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:17:24 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:17:54 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
___
Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.yourbasin.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:10 | 0 | https://www.yourbasin.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
Earlier this month, North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said a medical marijuana bill is likely dead for this session.
It passed the Senate. And a majority of House members back it.
But a majority of the GOP House caucus isn’t on board, and Moore said he wants a House Republican majority to support anything that moves forward.
So for now, North Carolina remains one of the most strict states when it comes to marijuana. The Old North State is one of just 12 states that doesn’t allow either recreational or medical marijuana.
But while lawmakers are squabbling over medical marijuana, they are missing the (hemp) forest for the trees.
Stores across Charlotte are now selling legal hemp-based products that will get you high. I did a story about it for WFAE. You can read it here.
The background:
In 2018, the federal government removed hemp from a list of controlled substances, so long as it contained less than 0.3% Delta 9 THC. That’s part of the plant that gets you high.
In North Carolina, lawmakers last year passed a law that aligned the state’s hemp regulations with the federal government, specifically allowing for hemp derivatives.
Over the last few years, the power of the market went to work. Growers and manufacturers found ways to extract psychoactive substances from hemp that doesn’t have Delta 9 THC.
Some, like Delta 8, have been around for a while. One of the newest products is THC-A, which is not psychoactive on its own. But proponents say that when exposed to heat — by baking, vaping or smoking — it converts to regular THC.
Between six months and a year ago, traditional CBD stores began selling THC-A flower and pre-rolled joints that get you high.
I spoke to one woman at Greenlife Remedies on Pineville-Matthews Road. She said she spends about $200 a month on hemp flower “just to mellow out a little bit and go on with my day.”
“Honestly, I like this stuff better (than marijuana) and compared to going to Denver (Colorado) the quality of it is pretty much the same,” she said. “I still get the same effects if I go to a state where it’s legal.”
Today, there is almost no regulation of the state’s hemp industry, including an age limit on who can buy it. (The stores I visited, however, were enforcing their own age limits.)
“I have prosecutors calling me all the time saying, ‘Hey I have a kid, I found him with a bag Delta 8 gummies in middle school, and I want to charge him,’” said Phil Dixon with UNC’s School of Government. “And it’s not a crime.”
Democrats and Republicans introduced a bill this year in the General Assembly to place some regulations on hemp sales, such as having age minimums. The bill appears to be stalled.
Meanwhile, the legal hemp industry is flourishing.
Said Dixon: “These are intoxicating hemp products that do cause impairment.”
The feds torpedo Triangle’s commuter train. Will they do the same to Charlotte?
Charlotte leaders trying to build support for a $13.5 billion transit plan have said one reason to move forward is the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, which is pumping billions of dollars into transit.*
The argument is that there is essentially money for the taking.
But The News & Observer reported Wednesday that the Federal Transit Administration told Triangle leaders it won’t fund a proposed commuter rail line from Durham through Raleigh and to Johnston County.
The paper wrote: Representatives of the Federal Transit Administration told a group of Triangle leaders that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how people use transit and that trains that serve morning and evening commuters to central business districts have become outdated.
Instead, FTA officials said the government will provide money for cheaper and more flexible bus rapid transit systems like the ones Raleigh and Chapel Hill plan to build in the coming years, according to Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin.
This is important to the city of Charlotte for several reasons.
The biggest part of Charlotte’s $13.5 billion plan is the Silver Line light-rail from Matthews to the airport. But there are also plans to build the Red Line, a commuter rail line from uptown to Mooresville.
The biggest roadblock so far has been that Norfolk-Southern won’t allow the Charlotte Area Transit System to use its tracks. Now the federal government is saying it’s not interested in commuter rail at all because of low ridership. That’s strike two.
Will Charlotte leaders discuss the FTA’s bad news with the northern Mecklenburg towns and Iredell County? Or will city leaders press ahead, saying the Red Line is different and that it can convince the federal government it’s a worthwhile project?
The problem is that it will be hard for CATS to make the case that its commuter line would be better than Raleigh’s.
Here is how Charlotte Area Transit System ridership compares to pre-pandemic levels from 2019:
- Ridership in the spring of 2023 (March, April, May) was 58% of the ridership in the spring of 2019.
- Ridership in the winter of 2022/2023 (December, January, February) was 58% of the ridership in the winter of 2019/2020.
- Ridership in the fall of 2022 (September, October, November) was 55% of the ridership in the fall of 2019.
- Ridership in the summer of 2022 (June, July, August) was 56% of the ridership in the summer of 2019.
- Ridership in the spring of 2022 (March, April, May) was 55% of the ridership in the spring of 2019.
There is a more detailed metric to illustrate why the Red Line may not get funded: Ridership on the 77x express bus, which follows a similar route to where the new train would go.
In 2012, that route carried nearly 17,000 passengers a month. In April of this year, it carried between 3,400 and 5,200 passengers. (CATS has two different ways of counting riders. One is by how many people pay and the other is an estimate.)
Using the most optimistic number for CATS, ridership is down nearly 70%. Using the lower number, it’s down 80%.
City Council member Ed Driggs, who is helping lead the city’s efforts for the transit plan, said Charlotte hasn’t been told that commuter rail is out.
“If there were a blanket statement that (the federal government) isn’t doing commuter rail then that would be a big deal,” he said. “But we are not hearing that.”
He said Charlotte plans to move forward with plans to build rail.
The FTA’s position on Raleigh’s commuter train could also impact the Silver Line.
CATS has chosen a route that skirts uptown rather than passing straight through it. One reason is that city leaders believe the second route would create more development.
But the route that goes into the heart of uptown would have about 25% more riders today than the alignment that loops around the city. CATS also did ridership projections for the future, but WFAE found numerous problems with those forecasts..
If the FTA is scrutinizing ridership, perhaps Charlotte might want to follow the plan that … has the most riders.
GOP gives up in Charlotte citywide races
Filing for the September primary ended the week before last.
One thing notable: For the first time since Charlotte went to partisan elections in 1975, there are no Republicans running for the four City Council at-large seats.
The GOP last won a citywide seat in 2009. The party came close to winning a seat in 2015, when Republican John Powell was 248 votes away from the fourth at-large seat.
The party only ran one candidate in 2019, but it fielded council member Tariq Bokhari’s “slate” in 2022. All lost badly. Kyle Luebke finished fifth — nearly 14,000 votes behind the fourth-place finisher.
Democrats hold a 9-2 advantage on City Council.
It could become a 10-1 advantage, if Democrat Stephanie Hand defeats Republican Tariq Bokhari in a District 6 rematch. Hand lost by only 357 votes last year. | https://www.wunc.org/2023-07-30/why-north-carolinas-medical-marijuana-debate-is-moot | 2023-07-31T00:18:14 | 1 | https://www.wunc.org/2023-07-30/why-north-carolinas-medical-marijuana-debate-is-moot |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.yourbasin.com/health-2/ap-health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:16 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/health-2/ap-health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan. | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:23 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ |
SANTA MARIA DE JESUS, Guatemala (AP) — Presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo stood before a few hundred residents of this small Indigenous community on the slopes of the Agua Volcano and told them they could be the seeds of a brighter, more corruption-free spring in Guatemala.
The metaphor fits neatly with his political party, the Seed Movement, and allows the 64-year-old academic and former diplomat to riff on themes of renewal and growth.
But it also alludes to Guatemala’s “democratic spring,” considered a more inclusive period in the country’s history during the presidency in the 1940s and early 1950s of his late father, Juan José Arévalo.
Bernardo Arévalo won just 11% of the vote in the presidential election’s first round June 25, but it was enough to give him the surprise second slot in the Aug. 20 runoff ballot. He will face Sandra Torres, a conservative and former first lady who was the leading vote-getter in the first round and is making her third bid for the presidency.
Arévalo’s recent speech in Santa Maria de Jesus was similar to those he has given in Guatemala’s capital, but the imagery could be especially important in rural Indigenous communities as he seeks to rapidly expand his largely urban, youthful base before the runoff.
He won in Guatemala City and other important cities, including Sacatepequez and Quetzaltenango. It remains to be seen whether he can convince people in rural communities that he can address their daily problems.
The delayed certification of the first round results shortened the already small window that Arévalo has to reintroduce himself to much of the country as his opponents rush to paint their own negative picture.
“Do you feel what is happening?” Arévalo told the crowd in Santa Maria de Jesus. “The new spring is arriving, that’s what you feel, and you all are the seeds of that new spring.”
“A new spring that is going to bring us well-being, the water we lack, the education they owe us, the health that they have denied us thanks to those corrupt contracts that serve few,” Arévalo said, standing in front of an old, damaged Roman Catholic church, in a wide-brimmed hat and untucked shirt against the tropical heat.
Among those listening was Juana Orón, a 67-year-old homemaker of the Kaqchikel people. She is one of the older voters who remember hearing about Arévalo’s father, one of only two leftist presidents in Guatemala’s democratic era.
The elder Arévalo, who governed from 1945 to 1951, is credited with establishing key social programs that remain in place today, including Guatemala’s labor code and social security. Guatemala’s democratic spring was cut short in 1954 by the CIA-backed overthrow of his successor, President Jacobo Arbenz.
Under Juan José Arévalo, the state advocated for rights for Indigenous peoples and others beyond the country’s small elite.
“I remember I was little and (my parents) said he had done good things,” said Orón whose first language as a child was Kaqchikel. If his father was good, Arévalo could be a good president, too, she said.
Opponents have tried to frame Arévalo’s candidacy as a step toward some of the region’s more notorious leftist regimes, such as Cuba and Nicaragua. They warn that the progressive candidate will bring expropriations, abortion and same-sex marriage to the conservative country.
Arévalo has been the election’s surprise.
In the days before the June 25 vote, he was polling below 3% and trailing at least seven of the other 21 candidates. But his anti-corruption message resonated in the country where gains against corruption have been erased and the justice system reoriented to pursue the prosecutors and judges who formerly led that fight.
In the month since that initial result, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into his party and had a judge suspend its legal status until the Constitutional Court stepped in to block that move.
In Santa Maria de Jesus, people wanted to compare Arévalo in person to what they were hearing about him. Some handed him flowers, posed for photos or reached out to touch him as he made his way through the throng.
Arévalo pushed back against attempts to frame him as a left-wing radical — he has said private property rights are not up for discussion — and pounded the issue of corruption.
“Let us work, let us get ahead on our own effort, let’s get rid of the corrupt once and for all,” he said.
For Francisco Jiménez, a political scientist at Rafael Landivar University, Arévalo will need concrete proposals to make inroads with the base of Torres, who has spent two decades assembling it.
“He will have to make governing proposals with a social agenda, where the people see that he is going to have an impact on their lives and communities,” Jiménez said. “The other part is continuing to present himself as the different model. That has been his success, someone totally different from the other candidates.”
Evangelical churches in Guatemala have painted Arévalo as an existential threat to the family.
Gladys Sunun, a 35-year-old Kaqchikel vendor from an evangelical family, said she came to hear Arévalo for herself. She said she had heard that Arévalo would convert Guatemala into another Cuba or Nicaragua, but left feeling that might not be true, though she wants to investigate more.
“He came to tell us not to worry,” she said. “It sounds real, but we don’t know.”
Her sister July Sunun said she wanted to hear more about Arévalo’s positions on gender ideology. “As a mother I’m afraid, because we’ve grown up with a Christian background. I don’t want to marry my daughter with another woman,” she said.
July Sunun acknowledged that Arévalo said he would respect the identities and decisions of the people, “but what he hasn’t said is that he won’t allow (same-sex marriage) to happen here.” | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:31 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, officials said Sunday.
The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said one official, who spoke early Sunday on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit. Russia was not invited, the official added.
Hours later, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia, without naming Jeddah as the location.
“The Ukrainian Peace Formula contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world,” Yermak said in a statement. “We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land.”
Yermak;s statement described the 10 points as being “discussed individually and in groups with representatives of more than 50 countries on an almost weekly basis.”
Previously, Ukraine has described the 10-point peace formula as including the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Other peace plans have been floated amid the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin just finished meetings in St. Petersburg with African leaders about their own proposed plan. China and Pope Francis also been working separately on their own. No details of those plans have been released.
Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the upcoming summit Sunday and did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official who spoke to AP said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend the event, which is being planned by Kyiv, the official said.
Details remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks, nor did Yermak.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit citing “diplomats involved in the discussion,” said the talks would take place Aug. 5 and 6, with some 30 countries attending. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom Thursday.
The official who spoke to AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen in June.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah in May to press those nations to back Kyiv.
Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.
Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.
But hosting such talks also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a détente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen.
Ties remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was ordered by Prince Mohammed.
For Ukraine, the talks coincide with its efforts to beef up its security posture.
Yermak also said Sunday that Ukraine will begin talks with the United States next week on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees. He said the talks stem from a declaration by leaders of the Group of 7 nations earlier this month laying the groundwork for each nation to negotiate agreements to help Ukraine bolster its military.
Yermak said Ukraine is looking for “specific and long-term commitments that will ensure Ukraine’s ability to win now and deter Russian aggression in the future.”
U.S. officials had not confirmed the negotiations.
___
Madhani reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Associated Press writer Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report. | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:38 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/international/ap-official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ |
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — Two people were killed and two others injured Saturday in a midair collision at an airport in Wisconsin.
A Rotorway 162F helicopter and an ELA Eclipse 10 gyrocopter collided shortly after noon local time at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, authorities said. The aircraft belonged to individuals attending the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in convention in Oshkosh but were not involved in the air show, a statement from the organization said.
The association, citing the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, said two people were killed and two injured. The injured were taken to a local hospital and were in stable condition.
The association said further information would be released as additional details are confirmed. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Separately, a plane earlier Saturday crashed into Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, killing two people, according to the sheriff’s office. The NTSB is also investigating that case, which involved a single-engine North American T-6 aircraft. | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/national/ap-4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/ | 2023-07-31T00:18:44 | 0 | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/national/ap-4-dead-2-injured-in-separate-aircraft-accidents-in-wisconsin-authorities-say/ |
BALTIMORE (AP) — Aaron Judge is giving the New York Yankees an immediate boost — at a time when their front office has some tough decisions to make.
Judge homered and singled twice in his second game back from the injured list and the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-3 on Saturday night. Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka went deep as well for New York, which is still 3 1/2 games behind Toronto and Houston for the last two wild cards in the American League.
That’s a tricky spot with Tuesday’s trade deadline approaching.
“We’ve had years where we stick with who we got. We’ve had years where we get some bullpen arms, starters, a big bat,” Judge said. “It comes down to us doing our job on the field and then letting them take care of the rest. We’ll see what happens.”
The Yankees knocked out struggling Orioles starter Tyler Wells (7-6) in the third inning. In the sixth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa capped a 10-pitch at-bat with a three-run double to make it 8-3.
Judge has three walks and three hits in nine plate appearances since returning Friday from the toe injury that kept him out since early June.
Ryan Mountcastle homered for the Orioles, but Clarke Schmidt (7-6) made it through five tough innings and the New York bullpen took it from there.
The Orioles remained 1 1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay atop the AL East.
Judge walked three times Friday night, but the Yankees lost that game 1-0 on a ninth-inning homer by Baltimore’s Anthony Santander. New York’s offense was relentless a night later.
Stanton’s first-inning drive easily cleared the big wall in left field at Camden Yards. Mountcastle tied it in the second, and Baltimore went ahead 2-1 on an RBI infield single by Ramón Urías. That lead was short-lived.
Judge hit a two-run shot — 442 feet to center field — in the third. Then Gleyber Torres added a sacrifice fly an inning later.
Santander made it 4-3 with an RBI groundout in the fifth, but New York broke the game open in the sixth. Cole Irvin allowed a leadoff homer by Higashioka — his third hit of the night — and then one-out singles to Judge, Stanton and Anthony Rizzo.
Bryan Baker came in and struck out DJ LeMahieu, but after fouling off five pitches, Kiner-Falefa cleared the bases with a line drive to left.
“One of the best at-bats of the season right there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Wells entered the game with a major league-leading WHIP of 0.99, but he allowed three runs, three hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings. In three starts since the All-Star break, he’s lasted just nine innings total.
“I think we’re going to be talking about a lot of things here coming up,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Obviously, we’re in a weird week. He’s had tough times his last few starts. I think there are going to be discussions going on.”
Boone said he’s leaning toward giving Judge a day off in the series finale Sunday night. The Yankees are in a stretch of 13 games in 13 days.
“I kind of look at it as, hopefully he’s in a position to start nine or 10 of them,” Boone said. “Forget the toe. He hasn’t come close to playing games for almost two months. As much as I want him in there, we’ve got to be smart here a little bit, especially in this run.”
DIFFERENT ORDER
The Orioles used catcher Adley Rutschman in the leadoff spot because of his ability to get on base. He was hit by a pitch, walked and scored a run.
UP NEXT
New York’s Luis Severino (2-4) starts Sunday night against Baltimore’s Dean Kremer (10-4). It’s the final game of the season series, which is tied 6-all.
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BALTIMORE (AP) — Aaron Judge homered for the first time since returning from a toe injury, sending a 442-foot drive over the wall in center field in the third inning against Baltimore on Saturday night.
The two-run shot gave the New York Yankees a 3-2 advantage. Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo homer in the first.
Judge was hitless since returning Friday, although he drew three walks in that game. He hit a towering flyout in his first plate appearance Saturday. Then he connected off Tyler Wells two innings later.
It was his 20th home run of the season. Judge started in right field Saturday after he was the designated hitter Friday.
Judge had been out since tearing a ligament in his right big toe June 3.
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GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyler Murray’s football career was nearly flawless for the first 25 years of his life: First, he was a Texas high school phenom, then a Heisman Trophy winner, then the No. 1 overall pick for the Arizona Cardinals, then a two-time Pro Bowl selection.
In all those situations, Murray was being compared to other football players.
These days, the competition is with himself.
“This is different,” Murray said. “This is you-on-you. Nobody really knows what you’re going through except for yourself and whoever you’re working out with.”
Murray, who turns 26 on Aug. 7, is working his way back to football relevancy following an underwhelming fourth season that was cut short by a torn ACL in his right knee against the New England Patriots on Dec. 12.
The quarterback acknowledged some tough days after the surgery — nights when it was tough to sleep because of the pain — but said he’s not feeling sorry for himself as he works to get back to the field.
“I get to do what I love every day — play quarterback in the NFL,” Murray said. “Did I get hurt? Yeah. Did I experience something no one wants to experience? Yeah. But it’s nothing for me to get up and work out. I was already doing that before I got hurt.”
Murray’s expected to miss at least a few games of the upcoming season while he continues to recover, and the quarterback watched Saturday’s practice at State Farm Stadium in a gray hooded sweatshirt and long black sleeve over his entire right leg.
His impending return is the hottest topic for the Cardinals during camp, but says he’s not committing to a certain return date.
“I don’t have a timetable,” Murray said.
Murray said he saw Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow at a recent UFC event and the two discussed the perils of an ACL injury. Burrow tore the ACL in his left knee during his rookie season in 2020, but returned to play 16 games in 2021.
“I wouldn’t want to go out there and hurt the team or hurt myself,” Murray said. “The advice that I’ve gotten from a lot of people around me is to go when you’re ready. Don’t listen to outside noise. Don’t feel pressure to come back because of this situation or that situation.
“Whenever you’re ready, you’ll know you’re ready.”
Murray has been very good — at times spectacular — for much of his first four seasons. His uncanny scrambling ability has produced several highlight-reel plays and he’s got plenty of arm to make all the throws he needs to make.
The apex of his pro career came in 2021, when the Cardinals started the season with a 10-2 record and looked like a Super Bowl favorite. But the franchise collapsed, losing four of the next five games before getting blown out against the Los Angeles Rams in an embarrassing playoff performance.
With high hopes in 2022, the Cardinals were one of the league’s most disappointing teams, finishing with a 4-13 record. Murray was far from the only reason for those struggles, but also wasn’t blameless, as his performance regressed in several areas.
“It’s not a bad thing to sit back, watch, and try to make this a positive deal,” Murray said. “I feel good. Getting better each and every day, taking one day at a time. Just trying to be there for my teammates and learn as much as possible before I do stuff on the field.”
Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill made big changes after last season’s debacle, bringing in a defensive-minded coach in Jonathan Gannon and a new general manager in Monti Ossenfort. The new regime seems just as smitten with Murray as the previous one — Gannon said one major reason he took the Cardinals job was Murray’s presence.
Murray says he’s excited about what the changes can bring.
The Cardinals have a large monetary interest in making things work: Murray signed a $230.5 million, five-year deal before last offseason that keeps him in the desert until 2028.
“It’s been great so far,” Murray said. “We’re actually establishing a run game. I believe we’ll be able to run the ball a lot better, which will only be a weapon for us. Get under center, mix it up, not be as predictable.”
Veteran Colt McCoy is the Cardinals’ most likely quarterback while Murray continues to recover. The 36-year-old has been the team’s backup for the past two seasons and has a 3-3 record in the six games he’s started.
The other current options are David Blough, who played decently in two starts last season, and Clayton Tune, a rookie fifth-round pick out of Houston.
“To me, whoever is available, we’re trying to put the best guy out there to win football games,” Gannon said. “Obviously, Kyler’s not available right now, but we’ve got a lot of guys who are very capable who I’m excited to see play and compete if he’s not ready to go.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-cardinals-kyler-murray-says-his-knee-rehab-is-going-well-but-has-no-timetable-for-his-return/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:04 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-cardinals-kyler-murray-says-his-knee-rehab-is-going-well-but-has-no-timetable-for-his-return/ |
Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning
DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees (43 Celsius) Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color, from Kansas City to Detroit to New York City and beyond, who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kansas, as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only about 16% of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70%, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4% of Detroit’s white households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15% for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house on Detroit’s westside. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Lewis’s bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her queen-size bed to sleep, eat meals and watch television.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local non-profit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly elderly people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
Lucy Molina, a single mom in Commerce City, one of Denver’s poorest areas, said her home has reached 107 degrees without air conditioning. Nearby, Molina’s two teenage children slurped popsicles to cool off, lingering in front of the open freezer.
For Molina, who bustled around her kitchen on a recent day when temperatures reached 99 degrees outdoors, it’s hard to see any path to a cooling respite.
“We’re just too poor,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Kansas, and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
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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.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:09 | 1 | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/30/record-heat-waves-illuminate-plight-poorest-americans-who-suffer-without-air-conditioning/ |
WESTFIELD, Ind. (AP) — Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor has requested a trade, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday night.
Taylor, the 2021 NFL rushing champ, has been seeking a contract extension before his rookie contract expires at the end of this season and he’s been one of several running backs to publicly air their grievances throughout the offseason.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the request hadn’t been made public. NFL Network first reported Taylor’s request to be traded.
It came shortly after Taylor left team owner Jim Irsay’s motorhome after a meeting that lasted nearly an hour as the Colts conducted a night practice.
“It was just a good conversation and, you know, hopeful going forward,” Irsay told reporters after practice. “We’re looking forward to a great season, hoping that Jonathan’s a big part of that and I think we had a good conversation.”
Taylor has not spoken with reporters since being placed on the physically unable to perform list Tuesday. General manager Chris Ballard said then the Colts wanted to wait for a new deal until they could see how a healthy Taylor fit the new offense installed by first-year coach Shane Steichen.
Taylor topped the 2,000-yard mark twice in college at Wisconsin and rushed for 2,980 yards and 29 TDs in his first two NFL seasons. He was a unanimous All-Pro selection in 2021, when he led the league with 2,171 total yards and tied for the league lead in total touchdowns with 20.
Last year, he rushed for 861 yards despite missing six games with an ankle injury that required offseason surgery. Indy also struggled, finishing the season 4-11-1.
Irsay posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday suggesting some player agents were acting in bad faith by complaining about how much running backs earned with a franchise tag designation after the collective bargaining agreement was negotiated in good faith. The $10.1 million price tag is the lowest of any position other than kickers or punters.
On Saturday, in front of a capacity crowd at Grand Park in Westfield a staff member took Taylor to the nearby motorhome. Irsay did not divulge details of the meeting afterward, but did talk about two other former Colts star runners — Marshall Faulk, who was traded after Peyton Manning’s rookie season in 1998, and Edgerrin James, who left as a free agent between the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
“I’m responsible for everyone on the team and to look at the cap money as you go forward,” Irsay said. “It’s a great responsibility and you try to be as fair as you possibly can be with the whole football team. So again, I’m hopeful.”
Now the Colts may be looking to move Taylor before he even gets a chance to team up rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in April.
“We need to make sure he (Taylor) is healthy, and we expect he should have an outstanding year,” Irsay said. “(Linebacker) E.J. Speed had the same surgery and is doing well, but it’s early in the process and we want to make sure Jonathan is 100%.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-jonathan-taylor-requests-trade-after-meeting-with-owner-jim-irsay-at-colts-practice-source-says/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:11 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-jonathan-taylor-requests-trade-after-meeting-with-owner-jim-irsay-at-colts-practice-source-says/ |
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Shawn Steik and his wife were forced from a long-term motel room onto the streets of Anchorage after their rent shot up to $800 a month. Now they live in a tent encampment by a train depot, and as an Alaska winter looms they are growing desperate and fearful of what lies ahead.
A proposal last week by Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to buy one-way plane tickets out of Alaska’s biggest city for its homeless residents gave Steik a much-needed glimmer of hope. He would move to the relative warmth of Seattle.
“I heard it’s probably warmer than this place,” said Steik, who is Aleut.
But the mayor’s unfunded idea also came under immediate attack as a Band-Aid solution glossing over the tremendous, and still unaddressed, crisis facing Anchorage as a swelling homeless population struggles to survive in a unique and extreme environment. Frigid temperatures stalk the homeless in the winter and bears infiltrate homeless encampments in the summer.
A record eight people died of exposure while living outside last winter and this year promises to be worse after the city closed an arena that housed 500 people during the winter months. Bickering between the city’s liberal assembly and its conservative mayor about how to address the crisis, and a lack of state funding, have further stymied efforts to find a solution.
With winter fast approaching in Alaska, it’s “past time for state and local leaders to address the underlying causes of homelessness — airplane tickets are a distraction, not a solution,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said in a statement to The Associated Press.
About 43% of Anchorage’s more than 3,000 unsheltered residents are Alaska Natives, and Bronson’s proposal also drew harsh criticism from those who called it culturally insensitive.
“The reality is there is no place to send these people because this is their land. Any policy that we make has to pay credence to that simple fact. This is Dena’ina land, this is Native land,” said Christopher Constant, chair of the Anchorage Assembly. “And so we cannot be supporting policies that would take people and displace them from their home, even if their home is not what you or I would call home.”
Bronson’s airfare proposal caps a turbulent few years as Anchorage, like many cities in the U.S. West, struggles to deal with a burgeoning homeless population.
In May, the city shut down the 500-bed homeless shelter in the city’s arena so it could once more be used for concerts and hockey games after neighbors complained about open drug use, trespassing, violence and litter. A plan to build a large shelter and navigation center fell through when Bronson approved a contract without approval from the Anchorage Assembly.
That leaves a gaping hole in the city’s ability to house the thousands of homeless people who have to contend with temperatures well below zero for days at a time and unrelenting winds blasting off Cook Inlet. At the end of June, Anchorage was estimated to have a little more than 3,150 homeless people, according to the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. Last week, there were only 614 beds at shelters citywide, with no vacancies.
New tent cities have sprung up across Anchorage this summer: on a slope facing the city’s historic railroad depot, on a busy road near the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson and near soup kitchens and shelters downtown.
Assembly members are slated to consider a winter stop-gap option in August falling far short of the need: a large, warmed, tent-like structure for 150 people.
Summer brings its own challenges: hungry bears last year roamed a city-owned campground where homeless people were resettled after the arena closed. Wildlife officials killed four bears after they broke into tents.
Bronson said he prefers to spend a few hundred dollars per person for a plane ticket rather than spending about $100 daily to shelter and feed them. He said he doesn’t care where they want to go; his job is to “make sure they don’t die on Anchorage streets.”
It’s not clear if his proposal will move forward. There is not yet a plan or a funding source.
Dr. Ted Mala, an Inupiaq who in 1990 became the first Alaska Native to serve as the state’s health commissioner, said Anchorage should be working with social workers and law enforcement to discover people’s individual reasons for homelessness and connect them with resources.
Buying the unsheltered a ticket to another city is a political game that’s been around for years. A number of U.S. cities struggling with homelessness, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, have also offered bus or plane tickets to homeless residents.
“People are not pawns, they’re human beings,” Mala said.
The mayor’s proposal, while focused on warmer cities, also would fund tickets to other Alaska locations for those who want them.
Clarita Clark became homeless after her medical team wanted her to move from Point Hope to Anchorage for cancer treatment because Anchorage is warmer. The medical facility wouldn’t allow her husband to stay with her, so they pitched a tent in a sprawling camp to stay together.
Having recently found the body of a dead teenager who overdosed in a portable toilet, Clark yearns to return to the Chukchi Sea coastal village of Point Hope, where her three grandchildren live.
“I got a family that loves me,” she said, adding she would use the ticket and seek treatment closer to home.
Danny Parish also is leaving Alaska, but for another reason: He’s fed up.
Parish is selling his home of 29 years because it sits directly across the street from Sullivan Arena. Bad acts by some homeless people — including harassment, throwing vodka bottles in his yard, poisoning his dog and using his driveway as a toilet — made his life “a holy hell,” he said.
Parish is convinced the arena will be used again this winter since there isn’t another plan.
He, too, hopes to move to the contiguous U.S. — Oregon, for starters — but not before asking Anchorage leaders for his own plane ticket out.
“If they’re going to give them to everybody else,” Parish said, “then they need to give me one.” | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/ap-health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:12 | 0 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/ap-health/ap-anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/ |
Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain
(AP) -PAVLIVKA, Ukraine (AP) — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.
The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.
Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.
They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.
“We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.
She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.
“They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.
But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.
The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.
Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.
That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.
From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.
He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.
“We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”
Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.
“The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.
“If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.
The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.
The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.
Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.
“I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”
The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.
In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.
“It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”
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Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:16 | 1 | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/30/russian-missile-attacks-leave-few-options-ukrainian-farmers-looking-export-grain/ |
BLAINE, Minn. (AP) — Chasing his first PGA Tour victory Lee Hodges shot a 5-under 66 on Saturday to stretch his lead to five strokes with a round left in the 3M Open.
Hodges had a 20-under 193 total at the TPC Twin Cities to break the tournament 54-hole mark of 195 set last year by Scott Piercy. Hodges led at 8 under after the first round and a record 15 under after the second.
“I have nothing to lose,” Hodges said. “I’m out here playing with house money. I have a job next year on the PGA Tour, this is all great. This is just icing on the cake.”
J.T. Poston was second after a 66. Defending champion Tony Finau was another stroke back at 14 under after a 67.
Hodges’ best finish in 64 prior events was a tie for third at The American Express in 2022, the only other time the 28-year-old Alabama player has led or shared the lead after 54 holes.
And he almost certainly has played himself into the playoffs that begin in two weeks. He began the week 74th in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 70 players qualifying.
“I honestly don’t think I’ll be that nervous tonight.” Hodges said. “I’ll hang out with my wife. We’ll go do something fun. I mean, yeah, it’s just golf at the end of the day. I’m lucky to be here.”
Hodges opened with an up-and-down even nine holes, then had five birdies on the back nine.
“I didn’t think I played bad on the front nine, I just couldn’t really get it close to the hole and when I did, I couldn’t make the putt,” he said.
Things were much different after the turn.
Hodges dropped birdie putts from 12 feet on No. 10 and nearly 11 feet on No. 11. His tee shot on the par-3 13th stopped 4 1/2 feet from the cup for another birdie. He added a 5-foorter for birdie on 16 and a 7-footer on 18.
He’ll be paired with Poston on Sunday the final group.
“We play some practice rounds together and I know him really well,” Poston said. “He’s a good friend. So, if I can’t get it done tomorrow, I’ll be pulling for him.”
Finau birdied four of his final eight holes. Last year, he trailed by five shots early in the final round and won by three at 17 under.
“It was just nice to make a run on the back nine today just to give myself a chance,” Finau said. “If I’m eight back, that’s a whole different feeling than five or six. I was just happy with the way I finished my round today and to creep up and just be a little closer to the lead.”
Aaron Baddeley was fourth at 13 under after a 65.
Sam Ryder (65), Keith Mitchell (67), Billy Horschel (68) and Kevin Streelman (69) were 12 under. Ryder birdied in his final five holes — and seven of nine — to toe the tournament back-nine record of 29. Mitchell set that mark two years ago.
Kevin Yu shot 29 on his first nine, tying a score recorded by five others, but he was 5 over for his final six holes to finish with a 67. He was tied for 11th.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-looking-for-1st-pga-tour-title-lee-hodges-takes-5-shot-lead-onto-3m-open-final-round/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:17 | 0 | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-looking-for-1st-pga-tour-title-lee-hodges-takes-5-shot-lead-onto-3m-open-final-round/ |
NEW YORK (AP) — Six straight days of 12-hour driving. Single digit paychecks. The complaints come from workers in vastly different industries: UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors and writers.
But they point to an underlying factor driving a surge of labor unrest: The cost to workers whose jobs have changed drastically as companies scramble to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience in industries transformed by technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated those changes, pushing retailers to shift online and intensifying the streaming competition among entertainment companies. Now, from the picket lines, workers are trying to give consumers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a show that can be binged any time or get dog food delivered to their doorstep with a phone swipe.
Overworked and underpaid employees is an enduring complaint across industries — from delivery drivers to Starbucks baristas and airline pilots — where surges in consumer demand have collided with persistent labor shortages. Workers are pushing back against forced overtime, punishing schedules or company reliance on lower-paid, part-time or contract forces.
At issue for Hollywood screenwriters and actors staging their first simultaneous strikes in 40 years is the way streaming has upended entertainment economics, slashing pay and forcing showrunners to produce content faster with smaller teams.
“This seems to happen to many places when the tech companies come in. Who are we crushing? It doesn’t matter,” said Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, a screenwriter and showrunner on the negotiating team for the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike since May. Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists joined the writers’ union on the picket line.
Actors and writers have long relied on residuals, or long-term payments, for reruns and other airings of films and televisions shows. But reruns aren’t a thing on streaming services, where series and films simply land and stay with no easy way, such as box office returns or ratings, to determine their popularity.
Consequently, whatever residuals streaming companies do pay often amount to a pittance, and screenwriters have been sharing tales of receiving single digit checks.
Adam Shapiro, an actor known for the Netflix hit “Never Have I Ever,” said many actors were initially content to accept lower pay for the plethora of roles that streaming suddenly offered. But the need for a more sustainable compensation model gained urgency when it became clear streaming is not a sideshow, but rather the future of the business, he said.
“Over the past 10 years, we realized: ‘Oh, that’s now how Hollywood works. Everything is streaming,’” Shapiro said during a recent union event.
Shapiro, who has been acting for 25 years, said he agreed to a contract offering 20% of his normal rate for “Never Have I Ever” because it seemed like “a great opportunity, and it’s going to be all over the world. And it was. It really was. Unfortunately, we’re all starting to realize that if we keep doing this we’re not going to be able to pay our bills.”
Then there’s the rising use of “mini rooms,” in which a handful of writers are hired to work only during pre-production, sometimes for a series that may take a year to be greenlit, or never get picked up at all.
Sanchez-Witzel, co-creator of the recently released Netflix series “Survival of the Thickest,” said television shows traditionally hire robust writing teams for the duration of production. But Netflix refused to allow her to keep her team of five writers past pre-production, forcing round-the-clock work on rewrites with just one other writer.
“It’s not sustainable and I’ll never do that again,” she said.
Sanchez-Witzel said she was struck by the similarities between her experience and those of UPS drivers, some of whom joined the WGA for protests as they threatened their own potentially crippling strike. UPS and the Teamsters last week reached a tentative contract staving off the strike.
Jeffrey Palmerino, a full-time UPS driver near Albany, New York, said forced overtime emerged as a top issue during the pandemic as drivers coped with a crush of orders on par with the holiday season. Drivers never knew what time they would get home or if they could count on two days off each week, while 14-hour days in trucks without air conditioning became the norm.
“It was basically like Christmas on steroids for two straight years. A lot of us were forced to work six days a week, and that is not any way to live your life,” said Palmerino, a Teamsters shop steward.
Along with pay raises and air conditioning, the Teamsters won concessions that Palmerino hopes will ease overwork. UPS agreed to end forced overtime on days off and eliminate a lower-paid category of drivers who work shifts that include weekends, converting them to full-time drivers. Union members have yet to ratify the deal.
The Teamsters and labor activists hailed the tentative deal as a game-changer that would pressure other companies facing labor unrest to raise their standards. But similar outcomes are far from certain in industries lacking the sheer economic indispensability of UPS or the clout of its 340,000-member union.
Efforts to organize at Starbucks and Amazon stalled as both companies aggressively fought against unionization.
Still, labor protests will likely gain momentum following the UPS contract, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, which released a report this year that found the number of labor strikes rose 52% in 2022.
“The whole idea that consumer convenience is above everything broke down during the pandemic. We started to think, ‘I’m at home ordering, but there is actually a worker who has to go the grocery store, who has to cook this for me so that I can be comfortable,’” Campos-Medina said.
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Associated Press video journalist Leslie Ambriz contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:19 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/entertainment-news/ap-consumer-demand-for-speed-and-convenience-drives-labor-unrest-among-workers-in-hollywood-and-at-ups/ |
After a full week of air shows and aviation events, EAA came to an end with record numbers
OSHKOSH, Wis. (WBAY) - On Sunday, July 30, 2023, some preliminary attendance numbers were released.
Organizers announced they tied a record with people from 93 different countries on hand for the event.
Attendance is on-par or expected to be better than last year based on preliminary numbers.
As previously reported, thousands of volunteers helped out with setting up the event months ahead of schedule. EAA CEO and Chairman Jack Pelton said overall it was a very busy week to be on the grounds.
“We had nearly 3,300 show planes, more than 1,400 vintage aircraft. We had more than a thousand home builds. We had 380 war birds. Which is up three percent over last year. 194 ultra lights. 65 C-planes. Uhm, and 52 Aerobatic Aircrafts,” Jack Pelton summarized.
it was also a busy week, for keeping track of all the planes in the air with about 19,000 aircraft movements at the Wittman Airport as of this morning.
Copyright 2023 WBAY. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/31/after-full-week-air-shows-aviation-events-eaa-came-an-end-with-record-numbers/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:22 | 1 | https://www.wbay.com/2023/07/31/after-full-week-air-shows-aviation-events-eaa-came-an-end-with-record-numbers/ |
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.
“No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.
On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.
Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.
China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.
Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.
While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:25 | 0 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-china-says-us-military-aid-to-taiwan-will-not-deter-its-will-to-unify-the-island/ |
SYDNEY (AP) — Some of the biggest names in soccer have yet to show up at the Women’s World Cup.
That’s literally been the case of Australian star Sam Kerr, who missed the first two games with a calf injury.
Kerr has recovered in time to play for Australia in a crucial final Group B game against Canada on Monday. The Matildas need to beat the Canadians to ensure they advance to the knockout round, and the Chelsea striker’s return to the lineup brings needed energy to the team.
“Mentally, it’s massive. It brings so much to our team and obviously also a lot to the opposition knowing that we have Sam available for this game,” Australia defender Ellie Carpenter said.
Kerr’s injury on the eve of Australia’s opening game against Ireland set the tone for a tournament that hasn’t been kind to some of its biggest stars. She was the face of co-host Australia’s preparations for the tournament, which is also being staged in New Zealand.
She dominated the covers of magazines across newsstands, while the autobiography she released late last year chronicled her rise to become arguably the best player in the women’s game right now. Kerr’s popularity transcends women’s soccer and she is considered a national icon.
So the disappointment was palpable when news broke about an hour before the opening match that Kerr was going to be sidelined at least two games in this tournament.
Kerr’s absence was felt in the 3-2 loss to Nigeria in Australia’s second game, a loss that put the Matildas in danger of elimination. It is not known what her role will be against Canada, but Australia needs Kerr to deliver in the final game of group play.
“I’m definitely going to be available, but how we decide to use that is not to be given to the opposition,” said Kerr.
The World Cup is supposed to be a showcase for the finest talent and biggest names, but injuries have always robbed the tournament of some its star players.
Norway forward Ada Hegerberg has had her playing time curtailed. Often referred to as “the Lionel Messi of women’s soccer,” Hederberg was part of a Norway’s 1-0 upset loss to New Zealand in the opening game of the World Cup.
It got worse for the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner when she suffered a groin injury in the warm-up ahead of Norway’s game against Switzerland, and she’s been ruled out of the final Group A game against the Philippines.
Keira Walsh of England suffered a knee injury against Denmark that will sidenline her for the Lionesses’ final Group D game against China. Described as irreplaceable, it is not known how much she will be able to play.
Even for some stars who have seen plenty of playing time, it has been difficult to make an impact.
American icon Alex Morgan has underwhelmed so far at her fourth World Cup, where she is hoping to help the United States to an unprecedented third consecutive title.
Morgan, the co-leading scorer at the last World Cup, has yet to score at this year’s event and missed a penalty in the 3-0 win against Vietnam. U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said Morgan was adapting to playing in a forward line with Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman.
“I think it’s not hard to realize that Alex’s role is slightly different than the Alex that we’re used to maybe in the past,” Andonovski said. “She does set up the other two forwards a lot more. It’s not that she’s not capable of scoring goals or getting behind crosses, but we can also see her playing balls to Trinity and Soph, but also getting crosses for them as well.”
Morgan, at 34, is now one of the older players at the tournament.
Christine Sinclair of Canada is also searching for first goal of the tournament. Sinclair is highest scorer in international soccer — men or women — with 190 goals.
Like Morgan, she also missed a penalty, in a 0-0 draw with Nigeria that could still prove costly. She was benched for Canada’s second game against Ireland before coming in as a substitute at halftime as the gold medalist from the Tokyo Olympics logged a come-from-behind 2-1 win.
At 40 years old, Sinclair is having to accept a more limited role for Canada.
Brazil great Marta, at 37, has also been used sparingly in her sixth World Cup.
Her teammate, Debinha, who is also an iconic figure to Brazil fans, has been one of the standout players for her country so far. But she wasn’t able to stop a 2-1 loss to France on Saturday despite scoring in that match.
The gap appears to be closing in the women’s game, with underdogs proving more of a test for the more established nations. That’s one reason some of the big name stars have yet to impress in tournament.
One of the few standouts who has not disappointed so far has been Alexandra Popp, who scored twice in Germany’s 6-0 rout of Morocco.
Major tournaments are traditionally a mix of rising talents coming to the surface, while established stars have the chance to confirm their status among the greats.
Linda Caicedo of Colombia, Lauren James of England and Melchie Dumornay of Haiti have proven their worth as some of the brightest prospects in the game. But as the second round of games nears its completion, it feels like the tournament is still waiting for many of its big hitters to make an impact.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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More AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-some-of-soccers-biggest-stars-are-struggling-to-make-an-impact-at-the-womens-world-cup/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:24 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/sports/ap-some-of-soccers-biggest-stars-are-struggling-to-make-an-impact-at-the-womens-world-cup/ |
- Innovative Relay Event Introduces Korean Ginseng Across to the East and West Coast
- with Billboard Ads Featuring Hollywood Stars Arden Cho and Kieu Chin
- HSW Brand expanding its lineup with Two New Sparkling Beverages Designed to Beat the Summer Heat: Recharge and Calm
LOS ANGELES and NEW YORK, July 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Korea Ginseng Corp., the world's number one ginseng brand and leading next-generation global herbal brand, is spreading the word about its new beverage product, HSW, which reflects the health functional food's major trend keyword, 'Food as Medicine,' in a guerilla marketing campaign in key areas of the United States.
Korea Ginseng Corp., unveiled a brand advertisement on a billboard in Times square, Manhattan in the past month. Building on this momentum, Korea Ginseng Corp. has recently announced their plans for a relay guerilla marketing campaign, starting from the K-week event held at the Rockefeller center in New York. The event showcased their newest product, HSW, and featured traditional Korean games like Yut-nori and Dddakji-chiji, capturing the attention of American K-Culture fans. Building on the success of this first event, the brand is currently holding relay events across the city.
On the West Coast, Korea Ginseng Corp. will send its new mobile Ginseng Museum Café to this year's editions of the 626 Night Market, the largest night market in the United States, and to the Moon Festival, which celebrates LA's booming Asian street food scene. To draw attention to their one-of-a-kind trailer café, KGC will be running a fun social media awareness campaign and hosting on-the-spot game events and interactive samplings.
HSW is Korea Ginseng Corp.'s latest beverage offering, a contemporary twist on its best-selling energy tonic, Hong Sam Won. The new product is very much in sync with the hottest health food trend – 'Food as Medicine' – and caters to consumers seeking healthy, natural beverage options. With less than 40 calories per serving and zero caffeine, HSW is a light and guilt-free indulgence for the diet-conscious. In addition, Korea Ginseng Corp. is expanding its lineup with 'Recharge' and 'Calm,' two sparkling beverages designed for this year's hot summer season.
Rian Heung Sil Lee, a representative of Korea Ginseng Corp. U.S., notes, "Korean culture is being embraced by Americans, and interest in Korean health foods is at all-time high. We will be redoubling our efforts to make Korean red ginseng's unparalleled role as a food-as-medicine better known."
Korea Ginseng Corp.'s U.S. expansion began in 2002 and reached a new high point in 2021 with the opening of its flagship Ginseng Museum Café, in Manhattan. Since then, the global brand has introduced a new American-specific product line, KORESELECT, and has broadened its appeal with new distribution channels, including Amazon and Costco. Over the past three years, sales have more than doubled, confirming the impressive potential of the American market.
Leveraging its new American R&D Center, the company is committed to a proactive localization strategy and is planning to launch even more new products with the major marketing support of Korea's aT Center for Globalizing Korean Foods.
About Korea Ginseng Corp.
Korea Ginseng Corp.(KGC) is the world's number one ginseng brand and herbal dietary company. Established in 1899, it is one of the most proven and trusted herbal dietary supplement manufacturers, providing the highest quality, traditionally harvested Korean Red Ginseng products to support health and well-being. KGC runs four regional headquarters in the United States, China, Japan, and Taiwan, in addition to South Korea, and exports products to over 40 countries. With over 40% world market share, its presence spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East region and the U.S. KGC's family of brands include KORESELECT, CheongKwanJang, Good Base, and Donginbi. The KGC brands, inclusive of over 250 products, use the most exceptional ginseng combined with the finest herbs and ingredients to deliver superior products to meet everyone's needs.
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SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:28 | 1 | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2023/07/30/expanding-global-presence-korea-ginseng-corp-leads-guerrilla-marketing-new-york-times-square-rockefeller-center-la-street-fair-taking-lead-capturing-us-herbal-market/ |
SANTA MARIA DE JESUS, Guatemala (AP) — Presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo stood before a few hundred residents of this small Indigenous community on the slopes of the Agua Volcano and told them they could be the seeds of a brighter, more corruption-free spring in Guatemala.
The metaphor fits neatly with his political party, the Seed Movement, and allows the 64-year-old academic and former diplomat to riff on themes of renewal and growth.
But it also alludes to Guatemala’s “democratic spring,” considered a more inclusive period in the country’s history during the presidency in the 1940s and early 1950s of his late father, Juan José Arévalo.
Bernardo Arévalo won just 11% of the vote in the presidential election’s first round June 25, but it was enough to give him the surprise second slot in the Aug. 20 runoff ballot. He will face Sandra Torres, a conservative and former first lady who was the leading vote-getter in the first round and is making her third bid for the presidency.
Arévalo’s recent speech in Santa Maria de Jesus was similar to those he has given in Guatemala’s capital, but the imagery could be especially important in rural Indigenous communities as he seeks to rapidly expand his largely urban, youthful base before the runoff.
He won in Guatemala City and other important cities, including Sacatepequez and Quetzaltenango. It remains to be seen whether he can convince people in rural communities that he can address their daily problems.
The delayed certification of the first round results shortened the already small window that Arévalo has to reintroduce himself to much of the country as his opponents rush to paint their own negative picture.
“Do you feel what is happening?” Arévalo told the crowd in Santa Maria de Jesus. “The new spring is arriving, that’s what you feel, and you all are the seeds of that new spring.”
“A new spring that is going to bring us well-being, the water we lack, the education they owe us, the health that they have denied us thanks to those corrupt contracts that serve few,” Arévalo said, standing in front of an old, damaged Roman Catholic church, in a wide-brimmed hat and untucked shirt against the tropical heat.
Among those listening was Juana Orón, a 67-year-old homemaker of the Kaqchikel people. She is one of the older voters who remember hearing about Arévalo’s father, one of only two leftist presidents in Guatemala’s democratic era.
The elder Arévalo, who governed from 1945 to 1951, is credited with establishing key social programs that remain in place today, including Guatemala’s labor code and social security. Guatemala’s democratic spring was cut short in 1954 by the CIA-backed overthrow of his successor, President Jacobo Arbenz.
Under Juan José Arévalo, the state advocated for rights for Indigenous peoples and others beyond the country’s small elite.
“I remember I was little and (my parents) said he had done good things,” said Orón whose first language as a child was Kaqchikel. If his father was good, Arévalo could be a good president, too, she said.
Opponents have tried to frame Arévalo’s candidacy as a step toward some of the region’s more notorious leftist regimes, such as Cuba and Nicaragua. They warn that the progressive candidate will bring expropriations, abortion and same-sex marriage to the conservative country.
Arévalo has been the election’s surprise.
In the days before the June 25 vote, he was polling below 3% and trailing at least seven of the other 21 candidates. But his anti-corruption message resonated in the country where gains against corruption have been erased and the justice system reoriented to pursue the prosecutors and judges who formerly led that fight.
In the month since that initial result, the Attorney General’s Office announced an investigation into his party and had a judge suspend its legal status until the Constitutional Court stepped in to block that move.
In Santa Maria de Jesus, people wanted to compare Arévalo in person to what they were hearing about him. Some handed him flowers, posed for photos or reached out to touch him as he made his way through the throng.
Arévalo pushed back against attempts to frame him as a left-wing radical — he has said private property rights are not up for discussion — and pounded the issue of corruption.
“Let us work, let us get ahead on our own effort, let’s get rid of the corrupt once and for all,” he said.
For Francisco Jiménez, a political scientist at Rafael Landivar University, Arévalo will need concrete proposals to make inroads with the base of Torres, who has spent two decades assembling it.
“He will have to make governing proposals with a social agenda, where the people see that he is going to have an impact on their lives and communities,” Jiménez said. “The other part is continuing to present himself as the different model. That has been his success, someone totally different from the other candidates.”
Evangelical churches in Guatemala have painted Arévalo as an existential threat to the family.
Gladys Sunun, a 35-year-old Kaqchikel vendor from an evangelical family, said she came to hear Arévalo for herself. She said she had heard that Arévalo would convert Guatemala into another Cuba or Nicaragua, but left feeling that might not be true, though she wants to investigate more.
“He came to tell us not to worry,” she said. “It sounds real, but we don’t know.”
Her sister July Sunun said she wanted to hear more about Arévalo’s positions on gender ideology. “As a mother I’m afraid, because we’ve grown up with a Christian background. I don’t want to marry my daughter with another woman,” she said.
July Sunun acknowledged that Arévalo said he would respect the identities and decisions of the people, “but what he hasn’t said is that he won’t allow (same-sex marriage) to happen here.” | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:31 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-guatemala-presidential-candidate-rushes-to-expand-base-beyond-urban-youth/ |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia will host a Ukrainian-organized peace summit in early August seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country, officials said Sunday.
The summit will be held in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, said one official, who spoke early Sunday on condition of anonymity as no authorization had been given to publicly discuss the summit. Russia was not invited, the official added.
Hours later, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, confirmed the talks would be held in Saudi Arabia, without naming Jeddah as the location.
“The Ukrainian Peace Formula contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world,” Yermak said in a statement. “We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land.”
Yermak;s statement described the 10 points as being “discussed individually and in groups with representatives of more than 50 countries on an almost weekly basis.”
Previously, Ukraine has described the 10-point peace formula as including the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Other peace plans have been floated amid the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin just finished meetings in St. Petersburg with African leaders about their own proposed plan. China and Pope Francis also been working separately on their own. No details of those plans have been released.
Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the upcoming summit Sunday and did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Those taking part in the summit will include Ukraine, Brazil, India, South Africa and several other countries, the official who spoke to AP said. A high-level official from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration also is expected to attend the event, which is being planned by Kyiv, the official said.
Details remain in flux and the official did not offer dates for the talks, nor did Yermak.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the summit citing “diplomats involved in the discussion,” said the talks would take place Aug. 5 and 6, with some 30 countries attending. News of the summit comes after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited the kingdom Thursday.
The official who spoke to AP said the summit would be the next step after talks that took place in Copenhagen in June.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended an Arab League summit in Jeddah in May to press those nations to back Kyiv.
Arab nations largely have remained neutral since Russia launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022, in part over their military and economic ties to Moscow.
Saudi Arabia also has maintained a close relationship with Russia as part of the OPEC+ group. The organization’s oil production cuts, even as Moscow’s war on Ukraine boosted energy prices, have angered Biden and American lawmakers.
But hosting such talks also help raise the profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to reach a détente with Iran and push for a peace in the kingdom’s yearslong war in Yemen.
Ties remain strained between Riyadh and the West over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was ordered by Prince Mohammed.
For Ukraine, the talks coincide with its efforts to beef up its security posture.
Yermak also said Sunday that Ukraine will begin talks with the United States next week on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees. He said the talks stem from a declaration by leaders of the Group of 7 nations earlier this month laying the groundwork for each nation to negotiate agreements to help Ukraine bolster its military.
Yermak said Ukraine is looking for “specific and long-term commitments that will ensure Ukraine’s ability to win now and deter Russian aggression in the future.”
U.S. officials had not confirmed the negotiations.
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Madhani reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Associated Press writer Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ | 2023-07-31T00:19:38 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/international/ap-official-tells-ap-that-saudi-arabia-will-host-ukrainian-organized-peace-summit-in-august/ |