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TORONTO (AP) — The man behind a series of fatal shootings in the Greater Toronto Area this week was likely looking to target a police officer, Canadian police said Thursday, as they asked for the public’s help in learning more about the gunman who killed a traffic officer and one other person.
Toronto police Const. Andrew Hong was killed while at a coffee shop in Mississauga, Ontario, on Monday before the same suspect killed an auto shop owner in Milton, Ontario, later that day. Another man injured in the Milton shooting is not expected to survive, police said.
The gunman, identified Thursday as 40-year-old Sean Petrie, died shortly after the shootings in a confrontation with police in Hamilton.
Petrie was at the Tim Hortons where Hong was killed for a little over two hours before the shooting took place, police said.
Peel region Det. Michael Mavity said he believes Hong was targeted.
“I believe he was looking for a police officer,” Mavity said.
Peel Region Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah added that investigators believe Petrie “was just waiting for someone in uniform.”
Duraiappah said Petrie had an “extensive” criminal record – with convictions for weapons offences, armed robbery and assault among others – and in 2007 was placed on a national flagging system as someone with a high risk to reoffend.
Petrie’s last conviction was in 2015 for a criminal driving infraction, police said, adding that they did not know much about Petrie’s life in the time leading up to the shootings.
“We have spoken to three immediate family members and … all of them have communicated that they had estranged relationship with Sean, as little as not being in contact for one year all the way up to hasn’t talked to them in five years” Duraiappah said. “Hence this vacuum of understanding of who he was connected with.”
Duraiappah said police are now asking members of the public for help gathering information on Petrie, particularly on his activity and lifestyle leading up to the shootings.
Monday’s shootings began in Mississauga, where Petrie parked his car near the Tim Hortons where Hong was killed. Police said they believed Petrie was living out of that car, a red Toyota Corolla.
Petrie waited at the Tim Hortons for two hours and 15 minutes before shooting Hong at close range in what police have called an ambush attack. Petrie then moved on to Milton, where he fatally shot Shakeel Ashraf, 38, at an auto shop.
Police said Petrie had worked for a short time at the auto shop, but don’t know whether he was employed at the time of the shooting.
Petrie shot three people – Ashraf and two others – at the auto shop. Halton Region Police Chief Steve Tanner said Thursday that a 28-year-old international exchange student working part-time at the auto shop is on life support and is “not expected to survive.”
“We are not releasing his name at this time out of respect to his family, but we anticipate doing so at a future date and time,” Tanner said.
A 34 year-old man was also shot in the leg while working at the same auto shop and he is recovering at home after being released from hospital, Tanner said.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:09Z
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YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — A cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan held Thursday following two days of fighting that killed 176 soldiers from both sides.
Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, said the truce brokered thanks to international mediation took effect at 8 p.m. Wednesday. A previous cease-fire that Russia brokered Tuesday had quickly failed.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said late Thursday that the situation on the border with Azerbaijan has been quiet since the cease-fire started and no violations were reported. There was no immediate comment from Azerbaijan.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price welcomed the parties’ “continued adherence to the ceasefire.”
“We continue to engage and encourage the work needed to reach a lasting peace again, there can be no military solution to this,” he said.
The cease-fire declaration followed two days of heavy fighting that marked the largest outbreak of hostilities in nearly two years.
Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for the shelling, with Armenian authorities accusing Baku of unprovoked aggression and Azerbaijani officials saying their country was responding to Armenian attacks.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday that 105 of his country’s soldiers had been killed since fighting erupted early Tuesday, while Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it had lost 71.
The ex-Soviet countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Moscow expects Armenia and Azerbaijan to abide by all the agreements of the cease-fire.
“We are in close contact with both countries so as to arrive at a sustainable cease-fire and the return of Azerbaijani and Armenian military to their positions of origin,” the Russian ambassador said.
He said that ways of lowering tensions were discussed in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call with Pashinyan and conversations between top diplomats of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the defense ministers of Russia and Armenia.
Putin is also scheduled to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand.
At the council meeting, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of starting the latest fighting.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers under the deal.
Pashinyan said his government has asked Russia for military support amid the latest fighting under a friendship treaty and also requested assistance from the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Yerevan’s plea for help has put the Kremlin in a precarious position as it has sought to maintain close relations with Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, and also develop warm ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan.
On Wednesday, Pashinyan told lawmakers that Armenia is ready to recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity in a future peace treaty, provided that it relinquishes control of areas in Armenia its forces have seized.
“We want to sign a document, for which many people will criticize and denounce us and call us traitors, and they may even decide to remove us from office, but we would be grateful if Armenia gets a lasting peace and security as a result of it,” Pashinyan said.
Some in the opposition saw the statement as a sign of Pashinyan’s readiness to cave in to Azerbaijani demands and recognize Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh. Crowds of angry protesters quickly descended on the government’s headquarters, accusing Pashinyan of treason. Protests were also held in other Armenian cities.
Thousands of opposition supporters rallied again late Thursday in front of the country’s parliament, calling for Pashinyan to be impeached. One opposition leader, Karin Tonoyan, urged protesters to start blockading government buildings on Friday and also issued a call for a nationwide strike.
___
Aida Sultanova in London, Matthew Lee in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:16Z
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SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday for his “balanced” approach to the Ukrainian crisis and blasted Washington’s “ugly” policies at a meeting that followed a major setback for Moscow on the battlefield.
Speaking at the start of talks with Xi in Uzbekistan, Putin said he was ready to discuss unspecified “concerns” by China about Ukraine.
“We highly appreciate the well-balanced position of our Chinese friends in connection with the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said, facing Xi across a long table.
“We understand your questions and your concerns in this regard, and we certainly will offer a detailed explanation of our stand on this issue during today’s meeting, even though we already talked about it earlier,” he added.
Putin’s rare mention of Chinese worries comes as Beijing has been anxious about the impact of volatile oil prices and economic uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine that has dragged on for nearly seven months.
The two met on the sidelines of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization that includes India, Pakistan and four ex-Soviet nations in Central Asia. The security alliance was created as a counterweight to U.S. influence.
A Chinese government statement issued after the meeting didn’t specifically mention Ukraine, but said Xi promised “strong support” to Russia’s “core interests.” While the statement gave no details, Beijing uses “core interests” to describe issues such as national sovereignty and the ruling Communist Party’s claim to Taiwan, over which it is willing to go to war.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called Putin’s apparent admission “striking,” but said that China’s concerns are not surprising given its verbal gymnastics to avoid criticizing the Russian invasion.
“It is somewhat curious that President Putin would be the one to admit it and to admit it so openly,” Price said in Washington, D.C.
Speaking after the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the assessments of the international situation by Moscow and Beijing “fully coincide. We don’t have any differences.”
He added that both countries “will continue coordinating our actions, including at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly.”
Lavrov described the talks as “excellent,” saying they were “very businesslike and concrete, involving a discussion of tasks for various ministries and agencies.”
The Biden administration described the Putin-Xi talks as part of a rapprochement that has worried Washington.
’We’ve made clear our concerns about the depth of China’s alignment and ties with Russia,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding that Thursday’s meeting “is an example of that alignment.”
Xi’s government, which said it had a “no-limits” friendship with Moscow before the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, has refused to criticize Russia’s military actions. Beijing and India are buying more Russian oil and gas, which helps Moscow offset Western sanctions imposed over the invasion.
Observers say Russia will likely grow increasingly reliant on China as a market for its oil and gas as the West moves to establish a price cap on Russian energy resources and potentially cut their imports altogether.
In trying to strengthen an alliance with China, Moscow has strongly backed Beijing amid tensions with the U.S. that followed a recent visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“We condemn the provocations of the U.S. and its satellites in the Taiwan Strait,” Putin told Xi.
Along with Russian’s attack on Ukraine, the summit is taking place against the backdrop of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan not far from Uzbekistan, as well as strains in China’s relations with Washington, Europe, Japan and India due to disputes over technology, security and territory.
Speaking at the start of his one-on-one talks with Xi, Putin blasted efforts by the United States and its allies to dominate global affairs.
“Attempts to create a unipolar world have recently taken an absolutely ugly shape. They are absolutely unacceptable for the vast majority of countries on the globe,” he said in opening remarks.
“The tandem of Moscow and Beijing plays a key role in ensuring global and regional stability,” Putin said. “We jointly stand for forming a just, democratic and multipolar world based on international law and the central role of the United Nations, not rules invented by some who try to enforce them on others without explaining what they are.”
Xi was more careful, saying that “in the face of changes in the world, times and history, China is willing to work with Russia to reflect the responsibility of a major country, play a leading role and inject stability into a troubled and interconnected world.”
The meeting came after Russia was forced to pull back its forces from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week amid a swift Ukrainian counteroffensive. Ukraine regaining control of several Russian-occupied cities and villages represented Moscow’s largest setback since its forces had to retreat from areas near the capital early in the war.
The SCO summit in the ancient city of Samarkand is part of Xi’s first foreign trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic 2 1/2 years ago, underscoring Beijing’s desire to assert itself as a regional power.
Putin also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose country is on track to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Raisi said Moscow and Tehran were finalizing a major treaty that would bring their relations to a “strategic level.”
He and Putin both criticized the U.S. at the start of their meeting. Raisi accused the U.S. of breaching its obligations under Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Putin gibed American officials, saying “They are masters of their word — they give it and then take it back whenever they want.”
The Russian leader also met with Central Asian leaders and planned a session with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
There was no indication whether Modi would meet Xi. Relations between India and China are strained due to clashes between the countries’ soldiers from a border dispute involving a remote area of the Himalayas.
Putin also is scheduled for a one-on-one meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan. Turkey and Azerbaijan have the status of “dialogue partners” with the SCO.
Earlier this week, Azerbaijan and Armenia engaged in cross-border shelling that killed 176 troops on both sides, the most serious hostilities in nearly two years between the decades-long adversaries. The fighting has put Moscow, which has tried to maintain close ties with both countries, in a precarious position.
Putin’s meeting with Erdogan will be closely watched for their statements on Ukraine and a July deal brokered by Turkey and the U.N. to clear the way for exports of grain and other agricultural products that were stuck at Ukraine’s Black Sea ports after the invasion.
The Chinese leader is promoting a “Global Security Initiative” announced in April following the formation of the Quad by the U.S., Japan, Australia and India in response to Beijing’s more assertive foreign policy. Xi has given few details, but U.S. officials complain it echoes Russian arguments in support of Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
The region is part of China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to expand trade by building ports, railways and other infrastructure across an arc of dozens of countries from the South Pacific through Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
On Thursday, Xi met with President Sadyr Zhaparov of Kyrgyzstan and said Beijing supports the “early operation” of a planned railway linking China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
China’s economic inroads into Central Asia have fueled unease in Russia, which sees the region as its sphere of influence.
Xi visited Kazakhstan on Wednesday en route to Uzbekistan. Pope Francis was in Kazakhstan, but they didn’t meet.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:23Z
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BANGKOK (AP) — China’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating its commitment to the “One China” principle and interfering in internal Chinese affairs Thursday, after the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee approved a new bill that could significantly increase American defense support for the island of Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing that China had “lodged serious complaints” with Washington over the legislation, which still needs U.S. House and President Joe Biden’s approval to become law.
“The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relations,” she said. “If the bill continues to be deliberated, pushed forward or even signed into law, it will greatly shake the political foundation of China-U.S. relations and cause extremely serious consequences to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
China claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as its own territory, and has not ruled out retaking the island by force if necessary. The sides split after a civil war in 1949 and have no official relations, with China cutting off even informal contacts following the election of independence-leaning Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016.
Under its “One China” policy, the United States recognizes the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
It takes a stance of “strategic ambiguity” toward the defense of Taiwan — leaving it open whether it would respond militarily were the island attacked.
The Taiwan Policy Act of 2022, approved by the committee on Wednesday, sets out to “support the security of Taiwan and its right of self determination,” providing billions of dollars in defense funding to enhance its “counter intervention capabilities.”
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who coauthored the bipartisan bill with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, stressed that its focus is on deterrence and that China should not see it as a threat.
“The bill we are approving today makes clear the United States does not seek war or increased tensions with Beijing. Just the opposite,” he said in a statement. “We are carefully and strategically lowering the existential threats facing Taiwan by raising the cost of taking the island by force so that it becomes too high a risk and unachievable.”
The committee’s approval of the bill comes at a time when tensions between Beijing and Washington were already high over Taiwan following the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei last month.
That prompted China to fire missiles into the Taiwan Strait and mobilize large numbers of ships and warplanes for exercises around the island.
China sees high-level foreign visits to the island as interference in its affairs and de facto recognition of Taiwanese sovereignty, and there has been a steady stream of high-level U.S. visitors since Pelosi’s visit.
The Biden administration has insisted that the United States’ “One China” policy has not changed.
Despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the U.S. is its strongest political backer and source of defensive arms, and during her visit Pelosi said she wants to help the island defend itself.
In a statement, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would continue to maintain close communication with the U.S. government on the bill, with the hope “it could become law and make further progress in deepening U.S-Taiwan’s friendly relationship, and ensure the freedom, peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific area.”
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Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu contributed from Taipei.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:31Z
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LONDON (AP) — Thousands of mourners waited for hours Thursday in a line that stretched for almost 5 miles (8 kilometers) across London for the chance to spend a few minutes filing past Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin while she lies in state. King Charles III spent the day in private to reflect on his first week on the throne.
The queue to pay respects to the late queen at Westminster Hall in Parliament was at least a nine-hour wait, snaking across a bridge and along the south bank of the River Thames beyond Tower Bridge. But people said they didn’t mind the wait, and authorities brought in portable toilets and other facilities to make the slog bearable.
“I’m glad there was a queue, because that gave us time to see what was ahead of us, prepared us and absorbed the whole atmosphere,” health care professional Nimisha Maroo said. “I wouldn’t have liked it if I’d had to just rush through.”
A week after the queen died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after 70 years on the throne, the focus of commemorations was in Westminster — the heart of political power in London. Her coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall until Monday, when it will be taken across the street to Westminster Abbey for the queen’s funeral.
Buckingham Palace on Thursday released details about the service, the first state funeral held in Britain since the death of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965. Royalty and heads of state from around the world are expected to be among the 2,000 people attending, with a smaller, private burial service planned for later Monday at Windsor Castle.
The queen will be buried at Windsor alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.
The guest list for the state funeral is a roll call of power and pomp, from Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and King Felipe VI of Spain to U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who first met the queen when he was a child and his father Pierre Trudeau was Canada’s leader — said the queen was “one of my favorite people in the world.”
“Her conversations with me were always candid, we talked about anything and everything, she gave her best advice on a range of issues, she was always curious, engaged and thoughtful,” he said at a special session of the Canadian parliament in Ottawa.
After a day of high ceremony and high emotions on Wednesday as the queen’s coffin was carried in somber procession from Buckingham Palace, the king was spending Thursday working and in “private reflection” at his Highgrove residence in western England. Charles has had calls with Biden and Macron and has been speaking to a host of world leaders.
Prince William, the heir to the throne, and his wife Catherine, the Princess of Wales, visited the royal family’s Sandringham estate in eastern England on Thursday to admire some of the tributes left by well-wishers. The couple walked slowly along metal barriers as they received bouquets from the public.
William told well-wishers that walking behind his grandmother’s coffin on Wednesday had been “challenging” and “brought back memories” of the funeral of his mother, Princess Diana after her death in 1997, when William was 15.
“I said how proud his mother would have been of him, and he said how hard it was yesterday because it brought back memories of his mother’s funeral,” Jane Wells, 54, said after meeting the prince Thursday.
The queen left Buckingham Palace on Wednesday for the last time, borne on a horse-drawn carriage and saluted by cannons and the tolling of Big Ben, in a solemn procession through the flag-draped, crowd-lined streets of London to Westminster Hall.
Charles, his siblings and sons marched behind the coffin, which was topped by a wreath of white roses and the queen’s diamond-studded crown on a purple velvet pillow. The military procession underscored Elizabeth’s seven decades as head of state.
Her lying-in-state, meanwhile, allowed many Britons to say a personal goodbye to the only monarch most have ever known.
It’s also a huge logistical operation, with a designated 10-mile (16 kilometer) queuing route lined with first aid points and more than 500 portable toilets. There are 1,000 stewards and marshals working at any given time, and 30 religious leaders from a range of faiths to talk to those in line.
Monica Thorpe said she walked for two hours to get to the back of the line and join the queue.
“People were just walking and walking and the policemen were like ‘Keep going, keep going.’ It was like the yellow brick road,” she said.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the spiritual leader of the Church of England, wore a high-visibility vest emblazoned with the words “Faith Team” as he spoke to mourners. Welby, who will deliver a sermon at Elizabeth’s funeral, paid tribute to the queen as “someone you could trust totally, completely and absolutely, whose wisdom was remarkable.”
People old and young, dressed in dark suits or jeans and sneakers, walked in a steady stream through the historic hall, where Guy Fawkes and Charles I were tried, where kings and queens hosted magnificent medieval banquets, and where previous monarchs have lain in state.
After passing the coffin, most mourners paused to look back before leaving through the hall’s great oak doors. Some were in tears; others bowed their heads or curtseyed. One sank onto a knee and blew a farewell kiss.
Keith Smart, an engineer and British Army veteran, wiped away tears as he left the hall. He had waited more than 10 hours for the chance to say goodbye.
“Everybody in the crowd was impeccably behaved. There was no malice, everybody was friends. It was fantastic,” he said. “And then, to come into that room and see that, I just broke down inside. I didn’t bow — I knelt to the floor, on my knees, bowed my head to the queen.”
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Follow AP coverage of the Queen at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:39Z
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AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordanian rescue teams pulled another body from the rubble of a collapsed building in the capital on Thursday, bringing the death toll from the incident to 10.
It remained unclear what caused the collapse of the four-story residential building in Amman on Tuesday. Ten people were wounded. Rescue teams have been searching for survivors and on Wednesday saved an infant. The number of people still missing is unclear.
A spokesman of the official public security directorate said the death toll rose to 10 with the discovery of the body Thursday.
Authorities have charged three people with multiple counts of causing death and harm in the building collapse. State media identified the suspects as one of the building’s owners, its maintenance contractor and its maintenance technician.
The building was located in Jabal al-Weibdeh, an older district of the Jordanian capital that is popular among wealthier residents and expatriates but also includes some poorer areas.
Jordan is a close Western ally that has long been seen as a bastion of stability in the volatile Middle East.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:46Z
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GENEVA (AP) — All European Union nations except Hungary are moving forward at the U.N.’s human rights body to hold Russia’s government accountable for a crackdown on media, arbitrary arrests, restrictions on free speech and other rights concerns after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine this year, diplomats said Thursday.
Back-channel negotiations at the Human Rights Council by 26 EU nations hope to give teeth — such as by appointing a rights expert to work on Russia — to efforts to keep tabs on rights violations in Russia. The move, if successful, would add a new element of scrutiny on Russia. A team of U.N.-backed investigators is already looking into rights abuses related to the war in Ukraine.
Efforts to draft a resolution, spearheaded by EU member Luxembourg, would create a “special rapporteur” on Russia to chronicle and call out rights violations in Russia — such as arbitrary detentions, arrests of members of civil society, the closure of NGOs and independent press groups, said a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Two Western diplomats said Hungary, whose government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has resisted some EU efforts to punish Russia over the war, had not joined with other EU members in pushing for the resolution.
The Russian government has taken a number of steps to limit dissent over the war at home. Russia had been a member of the 47-member state council until earlier this year, when it suspended its participation on its own just as the U.N. General Assembly was set to strip Russia of its council membership over the war.
The council’s four-week autumn session began Monday, and resolutions will not be voted on until the final days of the session.
On Tuesday, Vaclav Balek, the Czech ambassador in Geneva, spoke on behalf of the EU to say the bloc condemned media censorship, the silencing of independent voices and abuse of Russian legislation that forbids “so-called ‘discrediting’ of the Russian armed forces and raising of any allegations of crimes committed by Russian armed forces in Ukraine.”
Russia has fired back, accusing some EU nations of reviving “Nazism” and faulting some Western countries for restricting broadcasts of the Russia Today network, among other things.
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Follow all AP stories on the impact of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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| 2022-09-21T00:40:53Z
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RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former deputy Nevada attorney general who ran for the state Supreme Court and was later affiliated with the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel has been arrested in Reno as a suspect in a 1972 homicide in Hawaii.
Tudor Chirila Jr., 77, was being held Thursday in the Washoe County Jail without bail on a charge of being a fugitive from another state.
In a criminal complaint accusing Chirila of second-degree murder, Honolulu police said DNA evidence linked him to the fatal stabbing of 19-year-old Nancy Anderson.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser first reported that Chirila was arrested Wednesday — five decades after police say he stabbed the teen more than 60 times and left her body in her Waikiki apartment on Jan. 7, 1972. Anderson had moved to Hawaii in October 1971 and was working at a McDonald’s restaurant after graduating from high school the year before in Bay City, Michigan, the newspaper said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Chirila had an attorney or will be appointed one. Jail records don’t indicate when he’s scheduled to make his initial court appearance.
The criminal complaint filed this week in district court in Hawaii said police had reopened the cold case multiple times since the killing and received a tip in December that Chirila could be a suspect.
In March, police obtained a DNA sample from Chirila’s son, John Chirila of Newport Beach, California, that identified him as the biological child of a DNA sample found at the crime scene, according to the criminal complaint.
On Sept. 6, Reno police served a search warrant and collected a DNA sample from Tudor Chirila at his Reno apartment. Two days later he tried to commit suicide, and on Wednesday was booked into the county jail in Reno, the Reno Gazette Journal reported Thursday.
Over the years, police in Hawaii investigated multiple suspects, including door-to-door knife salesmen who were there to to try to sell knives hours earlier, the newspaper said. But the salesmen volunteered fingerprints and passed polygraph tests.
Other potential suspects questioned over the years included Anderson’s former boyfriends and the property manager where she lived.
Chirila, a longtime attorney in Reno, Carson City and the Lake Tahoe area, served as a deputy attorney general in the late 1970s and ran unsuccessfully for the Nevada Supreme Court in 1994.
In a 1998 federal indictment, U.S. prosecutors in Reno identified him as the former president of a company, A.G.E. Corp., that served a front for Nevada brothel boss Joe Conforte.
The indictment accused Conforte and others of being part of an elaborate conspiracy to defraud the government in bankruptcy proceedings when the Mustang Ranch east of Reno was seized by the IRS, sold for back taxes in 1990 and illegally repurchased by Conforte and his cohorts.
The government claimed Conforte hid his assets during bankruptcy proceedings to cheat the government and buy back the legal brothel under hidden ownership, The Associated Press reported at the time.
Testifying as a government witness, Chirila acknowledged he knew the corporation was owned and controlled by Conforte, who had disappeared and was believed to be a fugitive in South America when the case went to trial in 1999.
Chirila filed suit against Conforte in 1998 seeking $14 million in damages, alleging Conforte wrongly fired him for cooperating with federal prosecutors.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Almost three months after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the landscape of abortion access is still shifting significantly in some states, sometimes very quickly.
Changing restrictions and litigation in neighboring Indiana and Ohio this week illustrate the whiplash for providers and patients navigating sudden changes in what is allowed where.
Sister clinics who just weeks ago were sending patients from Ohio, where most abortions were banned, to Indiana, where the procedure was allowed, have now flip-flopped roles after the two states’ access restrictions reversed, at least temporarily.
Here is a deeper look at the current state of the shifting national landscape:
WHAT CHANGED THIS WEEK?
An Ohio judge blocked enforcement on Wednesday of the state’s ban on most abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. The ban had been in effect since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24. The judge’s action allows abortions to resume in pregnancies up to 20 weeks’ gestation for 14 days.
Then, on Thursday, a new Indiana law took effect that bans most abortions, marking its status as the first state in the nation to approve new abortion restrictions since the high court’s abortion ruling. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the ban into law Aug. 5.
Under the new law, abortions are permitted only in cases of rape and incest before 10-weeks post-fertilization; to protect the life and physical health of the patient; or if a fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly. A doctor who performs an illegal abortion or who fails to file required reports must lose their medical license.
HOW IS THIS AFFECTING PROVIDERS?
All seven Indiana abortion clinics lost their licenses Thursday under the state’s new law, which allows abortions to only be performed in hospitals or outpatient surgical centers owned by hospitals. More than 98% of the state’s abortions were done by those clinics in 2021.
Abortion clinics in the state told The Associated Press they will remain open to refer patients out of state, including to neighboring Ohio.
“I thought that today would be the worst day,” Dr. Katie McHugh, a provider at the Indianapolis abortion clinic Women’s Med, told the AP on Thursday. “But I think the worst day was yesterday, knowing that the patients that we saw in the office yesterday were the last ones that we would see, and knowing how much it meant for all of us that were there — the staff, the physicians and the patients — that we were able to provide that care to the last moment.”
Dr. Alison Case — who since 2020 provided medication abortions at the South Bend abortion clinic Whole Woman’s Health — will continue her work as a family practice doctor in Indianapolis.
She said she worries for the labor and delivery patients she oversees at a hospital in the city.
“I think there’s going to be more people forced to carry their pregnancies to term, so I think we’ll see more deliveries,” she said. “But I think, important to note, we’re also going to see more of these complications.”
In Ohio, clinics were preparing for a high volume of patients coming in from surrounding states following the judge’s ruling — though they realize it could be short-lived.
“Well, I never expected to be a surge state,” said Iris Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, using the new lingo of the field. “For 14 days, we might be.”
Ohio clinics that had been prohibited from performing most abortions will resume those services beginning Friday.
HOW IS THIS AFFECTING PATIENTS?
The shifting legal landscape has required patients in affected states to regroup, sometimes repeatedly. Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, an abortion rights advocacy group, said some have been unable to terminate their pregnancies.
Harvey said Planned Parenthood has set up a central location for abortion requests and hired additional staff, oftentimes social workers, to help people navigate various states’ laws as they change.
McHugh said Women’s Med received “dozens” of calls Wednesday from patients who could not schedule an abortion that day due to Indiana’s 18-hour waiting period on the procedure.
“Every time it was a difficult conversation, because every time it was like breaking the news to someone that they couldn’t get their care,” McHugh said.
Lawyers were still reviewing whether patients traveling from Indiana to Ohio would be able to get anything but a surgical abortion. The two-pill regimen used in medication abortions would generally mean taking one pill in a permissive state and one in a restrictive state, the latter potentially breaking the law, providers said.
Anti-abortion groups continue to tout existing restrictions and the new ones being passed in the states in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Ohio is pro-life and this law was supported by the people,” said Margie Christie, president of the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio. “Women do not need abortion in Ohio. We have abundant resources for mothers and their children to thrive.”
WHEN WILL THE LANDSCAPE SHIFT AGAIN?
With Indiana’s ban taking effect, the nation has 13 states with current bans on abortion at any point in pregnancy and one more, Georgia, with a ban on abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected — usually around six weeks, often before women realize they’re pregnant.
Though it had not yet been signed by the governor, a ban approved by West Virginia lawmakers Wednesday had already prompted the state’s only abortion clinic to close, pushing potentially more patients to neighboring Ohio. Arizona’s ban is scheduled to kick in Sept. 24, with legal cases and legislative action expected to continue to change the status of abortion access of some states.
Then, on Nov. 8, abortion-related measures will be on ballots in at least five states. In California, Michigan and Vermont, voters will be asked to protect the right to abortion. In Kentucky, the question is whether to amend the state constitution to declare that it does not include the right to abortion. And Montana voters will decide on a measure to require medical care for infants born alive after an attempted abortion.
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Reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report. Arleigh Rodgers 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. Follow Arleigh Rodgers on Twitter: @arleighrodgers
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas City, Kansas, police detective who has long been accused of sexually preying on Black women during criminal investigations was indicted Thursday on charges that he sexually abused two women, the FBI said.
Roger Golubski, 69, was arrested at his home in Edwardsville after a federal grand jury indicted him on six counts of civil rights violations.
During a 15-minute hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Rebecca Schwarz entered a not guilty plea to all six charges for Golubski, who asked to remain silent. She set a hearing for 3 p.m. Monday on whether he should remain behind bars before his trial. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Oct. 12.
“I am so happy and stunned at the arrest of that man,” one of his alleged victims, Ophelia Williams, said in a statement released by MORE2, a civil rights organization. “I pray that after so many years we finally get justice, people can finally relax, and I can finally sleep at night.”
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has allowed her name to be used in previous stories.
Golubski’s court-appointed attorney, Tom Lemon of Topeka, indicated that he will ask that Golubski be released before trial because he undergoes daily treatments for serious health issues, including dialysis three or four days a week for failing kidneys.
Golubski is also receiving treatment after quintuple heart bypass surgery in April and takes insulin shots for diabetes, said Lemon, who declined to comment after the hearing.
“He has been told that if he misses six dialysis treatments, he is going to die,” Lemon said in court. “If he doesn’t receive that daily treatment, he’s going to have trouble helping me in his defense.”
Golubski spoke only when Schwarz asked him whether he wanted her to appoint an attorney for him.
Golubski retired in 2010 after working for the Kansas City Police Department for 35 years. The FBI has been investigating allegations that Golubski, who is white, sexually assaulted Black women in the city and exchanged drugs for information during criminal investigations.
The federal indictment announced Thursday accuses Golubski of sexually assaulting two women, identified as S.K., and O.W., on several occasions between 1998 and 2002. The indictment does not state the race of the women.
He is accused of raping both women and forcing them to perform oral sex on him several times in his vehicle and at the women’s homes. Golubski’s conduct included aggravated sexual abuse and kidnapping, according to the indictment.
If convicted of any of the counts, Golubski could be sentenced to life in prison.
Civil rights groups for years sought an investigation into Golubski’s conduct. The allegations against him drew more attention after Lamont McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit, sued Golubski and other Kansas City, Kansas, officers after he was released.
McIntyre and his mother, Rose McIntyre, alleged in the lawsuit that Golubski framed Lamont for a double homicide in 1994 because she refused the detective’s sexual demands. The local government agreed in June to settle the lawsuit for $12.5 million.
When deposed by McIntyre’s lawyers in the case, Golubski invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination hundreds of times. He has consistently declined media requests to comment on the allegations.
Cheryl Pilate and Lindsay Runnels, attorneys for the McIntyres, commended federal law enforcement agencies on the arrest.
“We are hopeful the justice system delivers the accountability that the Kansas City, Kansas community deserves,” they said in a statement.
The Midwest Innocence Project, a civil rights group that works to free wrongfully convicted inmates, said in a statement that Golubski’s arrest was “the first step” in finding justice for those harmed by law enforcement officials, particularly Black women.
“A full investigation into the abuses in Wyandotte County and systemic reforms are needed to ensure that no other police officers and public officials can continue to abuse their power,” the organization said in a news release.
Kansas City police Chief Karl Oakman and Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree each issued a statement pledging to continue cooperating with the investigation and said the arrest proved that no one was above the law.
Executives with MORE2, which also pushed for an investigation into Golubski, applauded his arrest.
“It took over three decades, thirty years of this man living like he is a law-abiding citizen and he is one of the biggest criminals we have in Wyandotte County,” MORE 2 board member Violet Martin said in a statement. She believes her brother and cousin are wrongfully incarcerated because of Golubski.
In 2020, a coalition of Kansas lawmakers, religious leaders and racial justice advocates asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to investigate Golubski and other members of the department who were accused of misconduct and abuse.
And in 2021, an organization run by rapper Jay-Z filed a petition seeking records from the police department related to what it called a history of officer misconduct within the department.
___
This story was updated to correct that Morgan Roach is no longer Golubski’s attorney.
___
Stafford reported from Liberty, Missouri.
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BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Austria said Thursday that a police firearms instructor is being investigated for accidentally shooting dead a fellow officer during a training exercise.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Graz said the 39-year-old instructor had handed practice weapons to the officers, but forgotten that he was still carrying his own service firearm.
Intending to show the group that one them was standing in a dangerous position, the instructor drew his gun and shot the 27-year-old officer in the back at close range, wounding him fatally.
Christian Kroschl, a spokesman for the prosecutors office, said there was no doubt the incident Wednesday had been an accident.
The instructor is now being investigated on suspicion of grossly negligent killing, he said.
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MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Queen Letizia turned 50 on Thursday.
It’s only a birthday but Spain is taking the opportunity to assess its scarred monarchy and ponder how the arrival of a middle-class commoner may help shake up one of Europe’s most storied royal dynasties into a modern and more palatable institution.
Divorced and a seasoned national television journalist, Letizia Ortíz became princess on marrying then Prince Felipe — now King Felipe VI — in 2004. When King Juan Carlos abdicated 10 years later, she became the first woman without blue blood to reach the throne of Spain.
After initially been questioned by many, these days the media is full of articles and books abound about her, with most giving her the thumbs-up approval.
On Thursday, daily El Mundo ran a front-page headline, “Queen Letizia’s Revolution to Modernize the Crown” with its royal correspondent writing, “She turns 50 in a sweet moment. Even the less pro-monarchy media praise her and exalt her as the savior of the monarchy.”
But Letizia has had to battle to get there.
From the beginning of her royal life, the spotlight has been on her. Alongside possibly Penélope Cruz, no other woman in Spain is more talked about, whether it be about how she looks and dresses, her commitment to social causes or any perceived transgression from tradition.
“Letizia has always been talked about since she arrived in the monarchy because she is such an interesting and complex person who eclipses all others, including the King Emeritus Juan Carlos, when he was king,” said Alberto Lardiés, journalist and author of several books on the Spanish royals.
Letizia became queen consort at a time when the Spanish monarchy was on a downward roll following successive scandals involving Juan Carlos and her brother-in-law, Inaki Urdangarín.
She is known not to have had an easy time fitting in. Juan Carlos is known to have had little time for her because of her background. Letizia soon also distanced herself from Sofía, her predecessor and a model of conformity, as well as many of the rest of the what has always been known as a very conservative family.
In one of the most commented-on occasions, Letizia, now queen, was seen having words and stepping in the way to prevent Sofía, from posing with Letizia’s children at Palma de Mallorca cathedral in 2018. The reason why wasn’t clear, but her insistence was.
Earlier this year, she stood out by not blessing herself like the rest of her immediate family and nearby priests during a televised religious ceremony.
All eyes will now be on Felipe, Letizia, Juan Carlos and Sofía when they turn up for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, the first time they will be seen together in a long time.
It was Juan Carlos, once Spain’s most popular figure, who came close to shattering the monarchy’s reputation on many occasions, most recently when he was mentioned in 2020 in financial investigations along with a one-time lover.
He subsequently left the country and has since been residing in Abu Dhabi.
And although better known as a progressive feminist rather than a fervent monarchist, Letizia is now accredited with playing a major role in Felipe’s decision to forge a new path and break ties with the palace’s corruption-linked past so as to save the monarchy.
Lardiés says royal watchers now say Letizia is “turning out to be the good one and Juan Carlos was not that good after all.”
Mábel Galaz, El Pais palace correspondent for three decades and author of “Royal Letizia,” told her paper in an interview that a key attribute of Letizia’s is that people can identify with her.
“She has traveled in the subway, she has paid a mortgage, she has had problems making it to the end of the month, like the rest of us,” Galaz said. “She knows the monarchy has to reinvent itself and be more ordinary.”
As princess she was obliged to fulfill many official functions and by the looks on her face, it didn’t seem to always suit her. But once she became queen she freed herself up to dedicate time to things that genuinely interest her, such as organizations dealing with cancer and rare diseases, education, culture and Spain’s international cooperation projects for developing countries.
“She has become an icon,” Lardiés said. “Not on the level of the late Lady Di, but she is considered unique and very different from anyone else in the Spanish royalty.”
One of the rare moments when she talked about herself candidly since becoming queen occurred when she revisited her alma mater, Madrid’s Complutense University, for the 50th anniversary of the journalism faculty last year.
In a speech, she recounted how once one of her professors, a bit fed up with her, interrupted a class shouting, “Ortíz, look, I obviously don’t know what is going to come of your life, but when it comes to being annoying, you have no rival.”
Letizia said he was referring to her questions and curiosity. She said she continues to question but now doesn’t reveal the answers they give her.
Commenting on her age, she said:
“The faculty is 50 years old and I am about to be too, as all of Spain knows¨……. I think that 50 years is a nice figure to continue trying to do things well in the place that corresponds to each of us.”
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister is putting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to decide soon whether to supply Ukraine with advanced tanks as it seeks to reclaim more of its captured territory from Russia.
Kyiv has said it would like to get German Leopard-2 tanks, but Berlin has so far rebuffed that request while delivering other weaponry, such as howitzers and self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons.
In an interview with daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published Thursday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a decision on delivering modern battle tanks to Ukraine could only be taken jointly by Germany’s governing three-party coalition and its international partners.
“But in the decisive phase that Ukraine currently finds itself, I also don’t believe that it’s a decision which can be delayed for long,” she was quoted as saying.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck, a fellow member of the Greens party, said Thursday that he expected Germany to deliver more of “the right weapons” to Ukraine soon.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is not in government and has close ties to Moscow, warned, meanwhile, against providing tanks to Ukraine.
“The Ukraine war is not our war,” said its co-leader, Tino Chrupalla. He called instead for Germany to open the Nord Stream 2 pipeline so the country can import gas from Russia.
Meanwhile, Germany’s defense minister announced Thursday that her country would send two additional MARS II multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine, as well as 50 DINGO armored vehicles.
___
Follow all AP stories on the impact of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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| 2022-09-21T00:41:37Z
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WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — Infowars’ revenues and website viewership spiked as Alex Jones alleged on his show in 2014 that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, according to documents shown to a jury Thursday.
Jones and his Free Speech Systems company are on trial in Connecticut in a lawsuit brought by an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight of the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the December 2012 massacre in Newtown. They say Jones inflicted emotional and psychological harm on them, and they have been threatened and harassed by Jones’ followers.
Jones has already been found liable for spreading the myth that the shooting never happened and the six-member jury in Waterbury will be deciding how much he and his company should pay the plaintiffs in damages. The trial started Tuesday and is expected to last a month.
Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families, showed internal Infowars documents detailing the revenue and website-visit spikes around the time of an article on Sept. 24, 2014, on the Infowars website that said no one died at Sandy Hook and Jones discussing the article on his show the next day.
The families’ lawsuit claims that Jones trafficked in lies to increase his audience and sales of the nutritional supplements, clothing and other merchandise he sells on the Infowars website and hawks on his web show. Jones and guests on his show said the shooting was staged with crisis actors as part of gun control efforts.
The discussion of revenue and web viewership came Thursday as Mattei spent a second day questioning Brittany Paz, a Connecticut lawyer hired by Jones to testify about his companies’ operations.
Documents showed daily revenues to the Infowars online store increased from $48,000 on Sept. 24 to more than $230,000 on Sept. 25. Total user sessions on the Infowars website, meanwhile, increased from about 543,000 on Sept. 23 to about 1 million on Sept. 24, the documents showed.
Paz also was asked about Infowars videos that show Jones and guests using lies and misinformation to claiming the massacre was staged. She acknowledged that much of what was said was not true.
In the videos, Jones says the school shooting was a “giant hoax” and “the fakest thing since the $3 bill.” He said there were aerial images of student actors running in circles in and out of the school when the images actually were of a nearby firehouse where people gathered after the shooting. He also claimed CNN was using green screens in fake interviews with people in Sandy Hook.
Mattei later showed an email from a company executive showing internal conflict within Infowars about continuing to discuss conspiracy theories about the school shooting.
“The Sandy Hook stuff is killing us,” Infowars editor Paul Watson wrote, asking why the company was risking its reputation and audience by harassing the parents of dead children.
Last month, a jury in Texas awarded the parents of one of the slain Sandy Hook children nearly $50 million in a similar lawsuit against Jones and his company.
Paz acknowledged that Infowars broadcasted misinformation. She also acknowledged that Jones did not check the qualifications of a guest who appeared numerous times on his show—- a conspiracy theorist who claimed to be a school security expert who had investigating the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado — even as Jones boasted of his credentials and Infowars received emails questioning the guest’s credibility.
Paz testified that she believes Jones and his companies have made at least $100 million in the decade since the massacre and Jones is now worth millions of dollars. Website traffic data reports run by Infowars employees and presented at the trial also show that by 2016, his show aired on 150 affiliate radio stations, and the Infowars website got 40 million page views a month.
Mattei showed Paz internal Infowars emails between employees sharing Google Analytics data. Paz earlier testified that she was told by Infowars employees that they didn’t use Google Analytics regularly to track website viewing data. After showing her the emails, Mattei asked if it was still her testimony that Infowars didn’t regularly use Google Analytics.
“I don’t know at this point,” she said.
Jones now says he believes the shooting happened, but he insists his comments were protected by free speech rights, which he cannot argue at trial because he has already been found liable for damages.
The families say the emotional and psychological harm to them was profound and persistent. Relatives say they were subjected to social media harassment, death threats, strangers videotaping them and their children, and the surreal pain of being told that they were faking their loss.
Jones’ lawyer, Norman Pattis, said in his opening statement Tuesday that any damages should be minimal and claimed the families were exaggerating the harm they say they have suffered.
On his Infowars show Thursday, Jones once again called the proceedings in Connecticut “a show trial.”
The judge “now has to carry out this fraud,” he said. “But across the legal community, people are just saying, ’My God, this is something worthy of Venezuela. This is unbelievable.’”
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the Alex Jones trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/alex-jones
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BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — Props are a familiar part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s repertoire when delivering public speeches — from cartoon bombs at the United Nations to a wall of CDs and binders supposedly seized from Iran by Mossad agents.
Now, the former prime minister — famed for his flair for the dramatic — is hitting the campaign trail with a new shtick. Behold: the Bibibus.
The bizarre bulletproof vehicle is part popemobile, part movie set and 100% vintage Netanyahu. As Israel heads to the polls for the fifth time in under four years, the veteran politician is using the Bibibus to attract passionate crowds of supporters and once again make himself the focus of attention among a weary electorate.
At a rally in the southern city of Beersheba on Tuesday, Netanyahu addressed a crowd of around 200 people in a mall parking lot. Flanked by his former finance minister, he spoke at a podium from the back of the modified delivery truck. Its side wall had been replaced with bulletproof glass, and its air-conditioned interior was backlit with an enormous LED screen projecting the logo of his Likud party over a fluttering Israeli flag.
Netanyahu does not actually ride in the vehicle. Instead, it serves as a mobile stage that is moved from city to city to serve as the backdrop for his campaign appearances.
Commentators have variously dubbed it the “aquarium truck,” the “Bibimobile” and the “Bibibus” — riffing on Netanyahu’s nickname. The Likud promotes the mobile rallies as “Bibiba,” or “Bibi is coming,” and says the truck is a necessary security precaution.
“I have to stand here, unfortunately,” he told the crowd, tapping his hand against the glass separating him from the throngs of cheering supporters before delivering pledges to combat rising costs of living and inflation.
The Likud says the vehicle and its bulletproof glass were adopted to comply with safety measures required by the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.
But there may be more to the story. No other politicians have adopted similar protocols, and the bus is not entirely fortified. The bulletproof glass appears to cover only part of the vehicle, and when he spoke at the podium, a window was open and Netanyahu was exposed to the crowd. Netanyahu has also in the past repeatedly appeared at crowded markets and malls with no such protection. The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel is holding parliamentary elections on Nov. 1, the fifth since the beginning of a protracted political crisis in early 2019. Like the other four, the upcoming vote will largely be a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule, and he could once again fail to form a durable coalition even if his party gets the most votes.
Netanyahu, who led the country from 2009 until last year, has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three different cases, and his high-profile trial has been dragging on for over two years. He has denied any wrongdoing and has lashed out against law enforcement and the courts, accusing them of conducting a politically motivated witch-hunt.
Netanyahu remains the country’s most popular politician, and his supporters adore him with cult-like reverence. But the corruption allegations have deeply divided Israelis, and last year he was driven from office for the first time in 12 years by an unwieldy coalition united in large part by its opposition to his continued rule.
That coalition collapsed in June, triggering new elections and raising the possibility of Netanyahu’s return to power after a year in the wilderness as opposition leader.
The former prime minister, who turns 73 next month, remains a tireless campaigner and has near-daily whistle stops, holding campaign rallies from the back of the Bibibus.
The bulletproof glass hasn’t protected Netanyahu from critics, who regard the Bibibus as another symbol of his disconnection from ordinary Israelis. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the truck rental for two months of campaigning cost the Likud party 700,000 shekels ($200,000), a massive expense at a time when many are tightening their belts.
One of Likud’s main rivals, the Machane Mamlachti party, released a video mocking Netanyahu, contrasting his appearance behind glass with a clip of its leader, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, surrounded by a crowd of supporters. Ben Caspit, an Israeli columnist and longtime Netanyahu critic, has called the Bibibus “grotesque” and “a strange mistake.”
In the face of criticism, Netanyahu has doubled down and embraced the Bibibus. Likud released a campaign video with the former leader stepping dramatically out of the truck cab and wiping clean its enormous glass panes.
“No bulletproof glass will separate my heart from yours,” the beaming former leader says.
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LONDON — Prince William has told well-wishers that walking behind the coffin of his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II was “challenging” and brought back memories of the funeral of his mother, Princess Diana.
William and his wife, Catherine, the new Princess of Wales, spent almost an hour Thursday chatting with dozens of people and viewed floral tributes outside Sandringham Estate, the royal country residence in Norfolk.
During Wednesday’s coffin procession, William and his brother, Prince Harry, walked behind the queen’s coffin along with their father, King Charles III, and the king’s siblings from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.
William, speaking of the procession, said: “The walk yesterday was challenging.”
Jane Wells, 54, was among the thousands who turned up outside Sandringham Thursday. “I said how proud his mother would have been of him, and he said how hard it was yesterday because it brought back memories of his mother’s funeral,” she told reporters afterward.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Many in Britain still remember the image of a young William and his brother Harry walking with their father behind her coffin.
___
KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
— London mourners brave 9-hour wait to say goodbye to queen
— What to know about the queen’s lying in state
— Queen’s reign saw British leave Mideast with a mixed legacy
— With its queen gone, Britain ponders how to discuss death
— Palace reveals details of queen’s state funeral on Monday
— Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday it would be “perfectly acceptable” for King Charles III to continue to advocate for climate change action in his new apolitical role as monarch.
Albanese was speaking ahead of his departure for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
Albanese said the new king would decide whether he continues to advocate for reduced greenhouse gas emissions, as he has done for years as a prince.
“It’s important that the monarchy distance from party political issues. But there are issues like climate change where I think if he chooses to continue to make statements in that area, I think that is perfectly acceptable,” Albanese said. “It should be something that’s above politics, the need to act on climate change.”
The British monarch is also Australia’s head of state.
In his first speech as king last week, Charles suggested he would be more circumspect as monarch and step back from his advocacy on a range of issues.
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KAMPALA, Uganda — Hundreds of Ugandans attended a memorial service in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, a somber ceremony that underscored affection for the departed British monarch in this East African country.
Speakers in the Anglican cathedral in the Ugandan capital on Thursday included Foreign Affairs Minister Jeje Odongo, who paid tribute to the queen as an “endearing” leader.
“She wasn’t the queen of England alone,” she said. “She was the queen of all of us in the Commonwealth.”
The Rev. Jonathan Kisawuzi, the cathedral’s dean, spoke of the queen’s “faith, courage and direction” in her 70-year reign. “We will remember her always,” he said.
Uganda is one of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth, a group of mostly former British colonies that now includes others, such as Rwanda, that were not part of the British Empire.
Elizabeth is fondly remembered among Ugandans, who recall her attendance at the 2007 Commonwealth summit held in Kampala.
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TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’ll travel to London with former prime ministers for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and that Canadians will continue to benefit from the stability the monarchy provides.
Trudeau and Canada’s opposition leaders paid tribute to the late queen in a special session of Parliament on Thursday. She visited the country 22 times as monarch.
Trudeau said she embraced her role as queen of Canada and said “her sudden absence has struck us all palpably and profoundly.”
“Her Majesty was everywhere. Her face on our coins. Her portrait hanging in Parliament and post offices. Her televised Christmas address a cozy ritual in homes from coast to coast to coast,” Trudeau said.
“Canadians feel like they’ve lost a family member – a family member who grew up alongside us.”
Trudeau said in Canada’s constitutional monarchy, the crown’s function is to be a bedrock for the constitution, and to transcend daily political debates.
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LONDON — A group of British legislators sanctioned by China have written to officials expressing concerns that the Chinese government has been invited to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
Conservative lawmaker Tim Loughton told the BBC on Thursday the invitation to China should be rescinded, citing the country’s human rights abuses and treatment of Uyghurs in the far western region of Xinjiang.
Britain “can’t possibly have official representatives of the Chinese government attending such an important occasion,” he said.
The Chinese ambassador to the U.K. is banned from Parliament after Beijing sanctioned seven British legislators last year over their stance on China.
It is not clear whether President Xi Jinping, currently meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Uzbekistan, will attend Monday’s state funeral. Media reports suggest Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan may attend.
Russia, Belarus and Myanmar were not included in the funeral invitation list.
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LONDON — Thousands of people have turned up at Sandringham Estate, the royal country estate in Norfolk, to greet Prince William and his wife Catherine.
The royal couple appeared outside the gates of the estate to view the sea of floral tributes left for Queen Elizabeth II and to greet thousands of well-wishers.
A large crowd gathered outside the country residence on the eastern English coast early Thursday, hoping for a chance to meet and speak with the couple.
William and Kate, known since the queen’s death as the Prince and Princess of Wales, walked slowly along metal barriers as they received bouquets from the public and chatted to well-wishers.
Sandringham was the queen’s country retreat, where she spent some of her childhood years and where she presided over many Christmas family gatherings.
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LONDON — Buckingham Palace has announced that two minutes of silence will be observed across the United Kingdom at the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral.
The funeral is to be held at Westminster Abbey on Monday, with some 2,000 guests attending, including visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.
Officials said Thursday that after the funeral, the late queen’s coffin will be transported through the historic heart of London on a horse-drawn gun carriage.
It will then be taken in a hearse to Windsor, where the queen will be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.
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LONDON — While mourners in London are standing in a 4-mile (6.5-kilometer) line to view Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin lying in state, members of the royal family are meeting crowds gathered in other parts of Britain.
Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, went to Manchester in northern England on Thursday to view tributes left for the queen and speak to well-wishers.
Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was due to visit Glasgow in Scotland later in the day with her husband, Sir Tim Laurence.
Meanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales were to view flowers left outside Sandringham House in Norfolk, in eastern England.
King Charles III, the new monarch, spent a day in private.
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LONDON — Standing in line to see the queen’s coffin as it lies in state in London is proving a test of patience and stamina for thousands of people.
By late Thursday morning, the line had grown to about 3½ miles (5.6 kilometers) long on the south bank of the River Thames, reaching as far as Tower Bridge.
Authorities warn those planning to come: “You will need to stand for many hours, possibly overnight, with very little opportunity to sit down, as the queue will keep moving.”
The closed coffin sits on a raised platform, called a catafalque, inside Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament.
Visitors go through airport-style security. Only small bags are permitted.
The venue is to stay open 24 hours a day until just after dawn on Monday, the day of the queen’s state funeral.
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LONDON — The spiritual leader of the Church of England has been meeting mourners in the long line of people waiting patiently to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II.
Wearing a high-visibility vest, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was on hand Thursday to speak to some of the thousands of people in the queue along the south bank of the River Thames.
He paid tribute to the late monarch, who died last Thursday at age 96, ending a 70-year reign.
“She was someone you could trust totally, completely and absolutely, whose wisdom was remarkable,” he said.
Her death and transfer of the crown to her son, King Charles III, “means we will move seamlessly to another person who will demonstrate service for the country, and see their role not as over everyone, but to serve the country and the constitution,” Welby said.
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LONDON — Thousands of people have stood in line through the night in London, waiting their turn to view Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin as it lies in state.
Authorities said the line on Thursday stretched about 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) along the south bank of the River Thames.
The queen’s flag-draped oak coffin is lying in state at 900-year-old Westminster Hall for four days before her funeral on Monday.
People, hushed and somber, streamed past each side of the coffin.
Military detachments standing guard are rotated every 20 minutes.
One of the ceremonial guards appeared to faint early Thursday and fell off the raised platform. His condition was not immediately clear.
The queen died in Scotland last Thursday at age 96, ending a 70-year reign.
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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has sent King Charles III his condolences and offered him his full support in addressing “common challenges.”
Those challenges include “the protection of the climate and the planet,” a statement from the French presidency said.
Before he became monarch after last week’s death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles often spoke out on those issues. But as sovereign he is expected to tread more carefully in his political comments.
Macron spoke with the king by phone on Wednesday. He said on Twitter he will attend the Queen’s funeral.
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BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Just hours after a Montana judge blocked health officials from enforcing a state rule that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate, the state on Thursday said it would defy the order.
District Court Judge Michael Moses chided attorneys for the state during a hearing in Billings for circumventing his April order that temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it harder to change birth certificates.
Moses said there was no question that state officials violated his earlier order by creating the new rule. Moses said his order reinstates a 2017 Department of Public Health and Human Services rule that allowed people to update the gender on their birth certificate by filing an affidavit with the department.
However, the state said it would disregard the ruling.
“The Department thoroughly evaluated the judge’s vague April 2022 decision and crafted our final rule to be consistent with the decision. It’s unfortunate that the judge’s ruling today does not square with his vague April decision. The 2022 final rule that the Department issued on September 9 remains in effect, and we are carefully considering next steps,” said Charlie Brereton, director of the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
ACLU attorney Malita Picasso expressed dismay with the agency’s stance and said officials should immediately start processing requests for birth certificate changes.
“It’s shocking that after this morning’s hearing the department would allege there was any lack of clarity in the court’s ruling from the bench,” Picasso said. “It was very clear that Judge Moses expressly required a reversion to the 2017 policy, and anything short of that is a continued flagrant violation of the court’s order.”
Such open defiance of judge’s order is very unusual from a government agency, said Carl Tobias, a former University of Montana Law School professor now at the University of Richmond. When officials disagree with a ruling, the typical response is to appeal to a higher court, he said.
“Appeal is what you contemplate — not that you can nullify a judge’s orders. Otherwise, people just wouldn’t obey the law,” Tobias said. “The system can’t work that way.”’
The move could leave state officials open to contempt of court charges, which in some cases can lead to jail time for offenders, Tobias said. He added that the attorneys representing the state were likely aware of the potential consequences but were “caught in the middle” between a recalcitrant agency and the judge.
The legal dispute comes as conservative lawmakers in numerous states have sought to restrict transgender rights, including with bans on transgender girls competing in girls school sports.
The Montana law said people had to have a “surgical procedure” before they could change the sex listed on their birth certificate, something Moses found to be unconstitutional because it did not specify what type of procedure was required.
Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration then created a new rule that blocked changes to birth certificates entirely, unless there was a clerical error.
“We knew from the beginning the Gianforte administration was going against the will of Montanans and the court’s orders,” said Shawn Reagor, director of equality and economic justice with the Montana Human Rights Network and a member of the transgender community.
After learning the state planned to defy the court order, Reagor said the Montana Human Rights Network “will not stand by while the Gianforte administration blatantly disregards rulings from the courts to continue a vindictive attack on the trans community.”
Moses said during Thursday morning’s hearing that his April ruling had been “clear as a bell” and compared the state’s subsequent actions to a person twice convicted of assault who tries to change their name following a third accusation to avoid a harsher punishment.
“Isn’t that exactly what happened here?” Moses asked. “I’m a bit offended the department thinks they can do anything they want.”
Only Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia have sweeping prohibitions against birth certificate changes similar to what Montana has pursued, advocates for transgender rights say. Bans in Idaho and Ohio were struck down in 2020.
A Republican lawmaker who voted in favor of the 2021 law suggested Moses was biased in favor of the plaintiffs in the case. Moses was appointed to the court by former Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat.
“Like clockwork, Judge Moses issued yet another predetermined order in favor of liberal plaintiffs without thoroughly engaging with the legal issues at hand,” Sen. Greg Hertz of Polson said in a statement.
The ACLU of Montana had asked Moses to clarify his order after the state health department enacted its new temporary rule effectively banning birth certificate changes a month after Moses handed down his temporary injunction in the case. That rule was made permanent last week.
The state argued the injunction did not prevent the health department from making rules, but Moses said under case law the injunction reinstated the 2017 rules and any other changes are on hold while the case is decided.
State officials denied that the new rule preventing birth certificate changes was adopted in bad faith. Montana Assistant Solicitor Kathleen Smithgall said the state came up with the new rule to fill a gap in regulations after the 2021 law was blocked.
“Judge Moses mischaracterized the words of his own order, the parties’ motives, and the state of the law,” said Kyler Nerison, a spokesperson for Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
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SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — A group of 142 migrants was detained near North Macedonia’s southern border with Greece early Thursday, authorities said.
A police statement said the detainees were mostly from Syria and Pakistan, and had entered from Greece. They were taken to a shelter pending deportation to Greece.
Police say the number of people illegally entering North Macedonia has doubled so far this year, compared to the same period in 2021.
More than 11,000 people — mostly from Pakistan, Syria and India — have been stopped this year. They usually pay criminal gangs to be smuggled through the Balkans to Europe’s prosperous heartland.
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Follow AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani engineers and troops cleared a key highway Thursday that will enable aid workers to speed supplies to survivors of devastating floods that have left thousands homeless and killed 1,486 people.
Traffic between the flood-hit city of Quetta and southern Sindh province remained suspended for weeks after floods damaged the key highway. The blockage had forced the military to deliver aid to victims by helicopters and boats.
As they reopened the route, engineers in flood-hit Baluchistan provinces also restored the power supply for millions, according to a government statement. And the disaster’s deady toll became more clear. On Thursday, the United Nations’ children agency said 528 children were among those killed in the floods.
The National Flood Response and Coordination Centre said the worst-ever deluge destroyed 390 bridges and washed away over 12,000 kilometers of roads across the country. The inundation of roads affected the government’s response to floods, and people complained they were still waiting for the government’s help.
The crisis affected over 33 million people and displaced over half a million people who are still living in tents and make-shift homes. The water has destroyed 70% of wheat, cotton and other crops in Pakistan. At one point, a third of the country’s territory was submerged.
Initially, Pakistan estimated that the floods caused $10 billion in damages, but now multiple economists say the cost is more like $30 billion in damages. That’s five times more than what Pakistan’s government will get under the 2019 bailout signed with the International Monetary Fund.
So far, 100 flights from different countries and international aid agencies have delivered the much-needed supplies to Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. The U.N. weeks ago urged the international community to generously help Pakistan in relief, rescue and rehabilitation work.
On Wednesday, the U.N. resident coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis, told reporters that the member states had committed so far $150 million in response to an emergency appeal for $160 million. So far, he said, $38 million pledges from the world community had been converted into assistance for Pakistan.
The impoverished nation is diverting funds allocated for development projects to help flood victims. Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif this week promised the country’s homeless people that the government will ensure they are paid to rebuild and return to their lives. With winter just weeks away, displaced people living in tents are worried about their future.
Sharif on Thursday traveled to Uzbekistan to attend a summit of a security group formed by Beijing and Moscow as a counterweight to U.S. influence. Washington is one of the most generous responders to floods in Pakistan. The United States has announced $50 million aid, which is being delivered by military planes.
On the sideline of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, Sharif was expected to brief world leaders about the climate-induced damages caused by floods in his struggling Islamic nation.
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in the occupied West Bank Thursday, Palestinian officials said, as troops operated in the area a day after an attack killed a military officer.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Odai Salah, 17, was shot in the head, although the exact circumstances behind his death were not immediately clear.
The Israeli military said forces were operating in the hometown of two Palestinian gunmen who killed the Israeli officer in a shootout on Wednesday and were then shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. Troops were preparing the gunmen’s homes for demolition and making arrests in the village of Kufr Dan, near the city of Jenin, a bastion or armed struggle against Israel. Israel says it demolishes the homes of attackers as a way to deter future violence, while critics say the tactic amounts to collective punishment.
Israel has been carrying out nightly arrest raids in West Bank cities, towns and villages since a spate of attacks against Israelis in the spring killed 19 people.
Israeli fire has killed dozens of Palestinians during that time, making it the deadliest year in the occupied territory since 2016.
The Israeli military says the vast majority of those killed were militants or stone-throwers who endangered the soldiers. But several civilians have also been killed during Israel’s monthslong operation, including a veteran journalist and a lawyer who apparently drove unwittingly into a battle zone. Local youths who took to the streets in response to the invasion of their neighborhoods have also been killed.
Israel has rounded up scores of Palestinians, holding many without trial or charge in what’s known as administrative detention. Israel says it uses administrative detention to thwart attacks and to hold dangerous militants without revealing sensitive intelligence. Palestinians and rights groups say the system denies due process, with some detainees held for months or years without seeing the evidence against them.
Israel says the arrest raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and prevent future attacks. The Palestinians say the operations are aimed at maintaining Israel’s 55-year military occupation of territories they want for an independent state.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek those territories for a future state.
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IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT, Arizona (AP) — After strapping on knee-high snake guards and bowing his head to invoke God’s protection, Óscar Andrade marched off into a remote desert at dawn on a recent Sunday to look for a Honduran migrant. His family said he had gone missing in late July “between the two hills where the backpacks are.”
The Tucson-based Pentecostal pastor bushwhacked for three hours in heat that rose above 100 degrees (38 Celsius), detouring around a mountain lion, two rattlesnakes and at least one scorpion before taking a short break to call the aunt of another missing man. Andrade believed he found the young man’s skull the previous day.
“Much strength, my dear sister,” Andrade told her, while she repeated incredulously that the “guide” had assured her he left the young man with injured feet but alive. “Sometimes we don’t understand, but there is a reason that God allowed this. And if you need anything, we’re here.”
On the fourth search for that 25-year-old man from the Mexican state of Guerrero, the pastor and his Capellanes del Desierto (Desert Chaplains) rescue and recovery group had found his ID card in a wallet 40 feet (12 meters) away from a skull and other bones, picked clean by animals and the relentless sun in the Tohono O’odham Reservation.
Since March, Andrade has received more than 400 calls from families in Mexico and Central America whose relatives – sick, injured or exhausted – were left behind by smugglers in the borderlands.
Forensic experts estimate 80% of bodies in the desert are never found, identified or recovered. But those that are, added to massive casualties like 53 migrants trapped in an abandoned trailer in San Antonio, Texas, in June and nine migrants swept away in the Rio Grande this month, point to one of the deadliest seasons on record on the always dangerous southwest border.
Fragile economies pummeled by the pandemic in Latin America, ruthless trafficking networks that control virtually all illegal crossings, and shifting U.S. asylum policies that affect migrants of different nationality and family status in drastically different ways all contribute to the toll – as does the Southwest’s extreme heat.
Andrade, his group, and an Associated Press journalist accompanying them among towering saguaro cacti quickly came across evidence of distress on this popular smuggling route – abandoned backpacks, still full of clothes, coins and even deodorant, and half-full water jugs, several days’ walk from the closest towns.
“To be out in the desert is more difficult than to be in a church,” said the 44-year-old pastor and father of three teens, who sometimes join him and his wife, Lupita, on these missions. “Our commitment is firstly with God, and with the families.”
The group didn’t find the missing 45-year-old Honduran, but planned to look again; it usually takes several trips to locate remains in this desert.
It’s one of the deadliest corridors, according to aid groups and the U.S. Border Patrol, for migrants who, fearing being rejected under a pandemic provision called Title 42, try to evade authorities instead of turning themselves in right after crossing or applying for protection legally.
From staging camps guarded by cartel scouts in areas where the border has no fencing or bollard barriers, the migrants – usually men from Mexico and Central America – walk north for more than a week. They have to cross dozens of miles of desert mountains and dry washes before reaching major highways where smugglers’ vehicles will take them to destinations across the United States.
“Once a person told me, ‘How can I believe, look where my brother is, who always did praise and worship,’” Andrade recalled during the recent search. “For God, there are no mistakes. Yes, there are painful things, like the young man from yesterday, who died because of some blisters.”
Faith often motivates volunteer organizations providing aid along the border. The Capellanes, who search for the missing at least once a week in this rough desert, pray with the grieving families as they share updates and somber news.
Being a Christian ministry also reassures families, many of whom are targeted by fake ransom requests after they turn to social media looking for their missing relative. The aunt of the young man from Guerrero, who asked the AP not to use their names because his parents haven’t been told yet of Andrade’s discovery, said she had been targeted repeatedly.
To bring the comfort of God’s word is what motivated Elda Hawkins to be one of the first volunteers to join Andrade’s group, she said at a recent church meeting. A dozen members gathered in a small Tucson church to pray for the young man, receive CPR credentials, and discuss a fundraising food drive.
“We can be a light of hope, for those about to die or for their families,” Hawkins said.
Andrade’s group doesn’t charge families for the searches, though some contribute to the cost of gas for his truck ferrying the group down rough dirt roads to where they set out on foot. It also works closely with law enforcement, notifying the Border Patrol of every search and then local authorities if it finds human remains, as it has nearly 50 times.
Even then, the migrant’s body still has a long journey home. It takes time for authorities to retrieve the remains, which are then subject to forensic analysis to determine the cause of death. Often, that’s never established; in other cases, the cause is listed as “environmental,” especially heat stroke and dehydration, said Dr. Greg Hess, chief medical examiner for Pima County.
His office, covering migrant deaths also in two adjacent border counties in southern Arizona, received 30 migrant bodies found in July alone, about half of them dead less than three weeks, said Mike Kreyche of Humane Borders, an aid group that maps border deaths.
That puts 2022 on track to match the last two years, when cases were almost double other years in the last decade recorded by the office. Along the entire US-Mexican border, since last fall Customs and Border Protection agents stopped migrants for crossing the border illegally more than 1.8 million times, historically an extraordinarily high number. The agency recorded 557 Southwest border deaths the previous year, the highest since it began tracking them in 1998.
Given how quickly a body decomposes in the desert, unless it’s found within a day of dying, identification might require expensive and time-consuming DNA analysis, Hess said.
“The desert does a good job covering up crimes,” said Mirza Monterroso, a forensic scientist and missing migrant program director for the Colibrí Center, a Tucson-based group that works with the examiner’s office.
Her database has 4,000 missing migrants – 1,300 in Pima County alone – from reports from 14 countries and 43 U.S. states. She helps coordinate DNA analysis, costing more than $1,100 per body with a bulk discount.
Consulates help cover some of those expenses, as well as the nearly $4,000 it takes to repatriate the remains, which is what most families want, said Azhar Dabdoub, who manages a Tucson funeral home. It was arranging for flights of five migrants’ bodies to Guatemala and one to El Salvador last week.
“This is what forced migration looks like at the end,” he said, standing next to dozens of just-delivered caskets. They were customized with a small viewing window so families can see something of their relative, even if just a small belonging Dabdoub tapes to the glass.
As soon as the remains Andrade just found are recovered, Monterroso will start working on confirming if they are indeed the young Mexican man’s. That might take up to a year unless there’s a lucky break, like dental records.
The young man’s aunt, who’s lived in the United States since she was 14, told the AP from her home in New York that she still hopes for a miracle. But if the remains are his, “we fought to the end to recover what little is left.”
“My nephew’s dream died at the border, but a person shouldn’t end up like this,” she said, her voice breaking. “They left him in the desert because he had injured his feet.”
A 38-year-old father of two from Mexico City nearly died the same way last week after he developed debilitating foot blisters near the Baboquivari Peak, just 14 miles (23 kilometers) north of the border in Pima County.
Without food for two days and now out of water, he called 911 and was helped down the mountain by Daniel Bolin, an agent with the Border Patrol’s search, trauma and rescue team who said this was his fifth rescue this year in the same spot. Bolin brought him Gatorade and water before walking him down the precipitous mountain ridge for an hour to an area reachable by all-terrain vehicle.
The agency performed 3,000 rescues in the Tucson sector alone over the last 12 months, and another 911 call came from the same mountain that afternoon.
About then, sitting in the back of a Border Patrol truck and facing almost certain expulsion to Mexico, the rescued man, who gave his name as Leonardo, said he lost his business during the pandemic and came to the United States to find the work he’s been unable to get for two years.
“But now I don’t think I’ll come back here. I’m too old to walk,” he said.
Asked about his future, he murmured “I don’t know” and burst into sobs, tears rolling down his sunburned face.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police on Thursday arrested two teenage boys in connection with the death of a 15-year-old girl who overdosed in a restroom at her high school after buying pills possibly laced with fentanyl on campus, authorities said.
Police served a search warrant around 8:30 a.m. as part of an investigation into the overdose death of a girl a day earlier at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, police Chief Michel Moore said.
A 15-year-old boy who lives with his grandmother was taken into custody on suspicion of manslaughter, Moore said. Investigators believe he sold pills touted as Percocet to two 15-year-old friends around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday who later crushed and snorted the narcotics in the restroom at their school.
The Los Angeles County Coroner identified the student who died as Melanie Ramos, 15. Her unidentified friend who also overdosed remained hospitalized and was expected to recover.
Moore said police also arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of selling fentanyl-laced pills to two other high school students who suffered overdoses after buying the drugs at nearby Lexington Park. He could face narcotics-related charges, the chief said.
Police will work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to find the distributors who provided the 15- and 16-year-old boys with the pills, Moore said.
“There is a drug organization behind this,” he said.
The teen suspects knew each other, and both attend Apex Academy, an independent charter school that shares a campus with Bernstein.
Dealers lacing common painkillers with fentanyl is an increasingly common practice, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference.
“These are not overdoses. These are people who have been poisoned,” Garcetti said. “One pill can kill.”
Officers were called to Bernstein High Tuesday night after a man said his 15-year-old stepdaughter had overdosed on campus, police said.
The girl and her friend had not come home from school in the afternoon and the man began driving around town looking for the pair. He found his stepdaughter around 8 p.m. in a school courtyard, said police Lt. John Radke.
She had suffered an overdose but managed to tell her stepfather that her friend was in a girls’ restroom on campus, Radke said Wednesday.
The man and a school employee found the other girl unresponsive in the restroom at the school where students and parents had gathered for evening athletic events. The man administered aid until paramedics arrived and pronounced her dead, police said. His stepdaughter was hospitalized.
Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to separate calls reporting possible overdoses of two teens in the area of Lexington Park, a few blocks from Bernstein High and a cluster of other schools, according to police.
“It is believed that the overdose victims are students of Bernstein and local high schools,” a police statement said.
One of the victims was a 17-year-old student at nearby Hollywood High School, said Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Including the latest victims, there have been a total of six cases of drug-related incidents including overdoses stemming from illicit narcotics purchased in recent at Lexington Park in a residential area of East Hollywood near the U.S. 101 freeway, Carvalho said.
“It is a park well known for allowing individuals to sell drugs to provide drugs to some of our students,” the superintendent told reporters Wednesday.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who represents the area, ordered the park closed Wednesday, Carvalho said.
Grief and crisis counselors were on hand at Bernstein High, LA Unified said in a statement.
Law enforcement officials nationwide have for months warned about the dangers of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It’s frequently mixed into illicit pills made to look like prescription painkillers or other medicines.
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| 2022-09-21T00:42:58Z
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s National Police said it is investigating the recent slaying of three officers that it blamed on gang members.
The agency said a gang called “Ti Makak,” which means Little Macaques, killed the officers Tuesday in Laboule, a largely gated community just south of Port-au-Prince.
It is also the site of recent turf wars between gangs that have led to other killings in the area. Two journalists were fatally shot and set on fire in January, and a former senator who worked for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and his nephew were killed in August in the same fashion.
The gang violence comes amid growing unrest over Haiti’s economic troubles. People protested in the streets Thursday for a second day over the government’s announcement of increases in prices for gasoline and other fuels.
Police said Wednesday that they had opened an investigation into the killings of the officers, which the statement called an “odious and repugnant” act.
A video circulating on social media appears to show the slain officers sprawled on the ground, stripped of their shirts, with various guns and automatic weapons lying on their bodies.
“Here they are, here they are,” a man says as the camera pans across the bodies.
Gangs have grown more powerful since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and have overpowered police, who are understaffed and have limited resources.
The international community has tried to help boost Haiti’s National Police by providing training and resources in recent months.
The increase in violence prompted police to announce Thursday that all gun license permits were being suspended, adding that security companies would take the measures needed to comply with the new order.
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:06Z
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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Thursday that he didn’t understand China but respected it, as another opportunity to improve ties came and went when the pope and Chinese president were within a few miles (kilometers) of one another in Kazakhstan but didn’t meet.
The Holy See had sent an “expression of availability” to Beijing that Francis would be free to meet with President Xi Jinping during the Chinese leader’s brief state visit Wednesday to the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan. But China replied there wouldn’t be time, a Vatican official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He had a state visit but I didn’t see him,” Francis said Thursday during an in-flight press conference on his trip home from Kazakhstan, where he attended an interfaith conference.
With another lost opportunity, Francis was asked to assess the state of religious freedom in China, amid a crackdown on religious minorities and continued strained relations with the Catholic Church.
The Vatican hasn’t had diplomatic relations with China for over five decades, and the Catholic faithful are supposed to worship in churches affiliated with the party-controlled Patriotic Catholic Association. Those who practice outside state churches and remained loyal to Rome for decades have faced pressure and harassment.
“It’s not easy to understand the Chinese mentality, but it must be respected. I respect it,” Francis said. He declined to weigh in on the upcoming trial of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, saying he didn’t feel qualified to determine if China was democratic or not.
Zen, a staunch critic of China’s Communist Party, was arrested in May as part of a crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
“Yes it’s true, there are things that to us seem undemocratic,” Francis said.
But he said the Vatican was intent on pursuing a path of dialogue with Beijing and was committed to a bilateral commission that is overseeing a 2018 accord on bishop nominations.
“It’s something slow, but it always takes steps forward,” Francis said.
The two sides are expected to renew the bishop deal at the end of the month.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:14Z
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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis is studying a possible visit to Bahrain in November and said Thursday he is looking to reschedule his trip to South Sudan and Congo for February.
Francis told reporters en route home from Kazakhstan that his strained knee ligaments still hadn’t healed and that travelling was “difficult.” But the 85-year-old pontiff said he would undertake a next trip — a reference to a three-day visit to Bahrain in early November that is currently under study by the Vatican, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Francis had to cancel a planned July trip to South Sudan and Congo after his doctors said he needed more time to undergo therapy on his right knee. Francis has been using a wheelchair and cane for months since he strained the ligaments, and he was in visible pain during the three-day trip to Kazakhstan to participate in an interfaith conference.
Francis has declined to undergo surgery, saying he had a bad reaction to anesthesia when he had a chunk of his large intestine removed in July 2021.
The South Sudan leg of the Africa trip was supposed to have included the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as the moderator for the Church of Scotland. Francis said Thursday he had recently spoken with Archbishop Justin Welby “and we saw a possibility of going to South Sudan in February. And if I go to South Sudan, I’d go to Congo.”
Other papal trips expected in 2023 are closing out World Youth Day, scheduled for August in Lisbon, Portugal.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:21Z
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ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Thursday the Vatican was in contact with the Nicaraguan government about its crackdown on the Catholic Church and hoped “at the very least” that nuns from Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity religious order would be allowed to return to operations in the country.
Francis said he didn’t understand the government’s actions: it has forced out the Vatican ambassador, closed the Sisters of Charity local operation and placed a bishop under house arrest. But Francis stressed that the Vatican was not prepared to sever contact or relations with the Nicaraguan government.
“There is dialogue. That doesn’t mean we approve of everything the government is doing, or disapprove of it. There is dialogue,” he said. “When there’s dialogue it means we must resolve problems. In this moment, there are problems.”
Speaking while traveling home from a trip to Kazakhstan, Francis termed Managua’s expulsion of Ambassador Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag a “serious diplomatic” incident, especially since the ambassador was very capable diplomat, who has recently been appointed to head the Vatican’s embassy in West Africa.
Francis said he hoped at least the Sisters of Charity could return.
“These women are great revolutionaries, of the Gospel. They aren’t making war against anyone. Actually, we all need them. One cannot understand this gesture. But we hope they can go back.”
The Vatican has been exceedingly measured in its public reaction to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown, limiting itself to a statement of concern after Sommertag was forced out as the Holy See’s ambassador and then again last month when Matagalpa Bishop Rolando Alvarez was put under house arrest.
Vatican officials have said they haven’t wanted to escalate the conflict by publicly admonishing Ortega’s administration. Sommertag’s appointment in West Africa creates a formal opening in the Vatican’s Managua embassy that the Vatican would presumably seek to fill with someone else if the Ortega government approves his credentials.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:29Z
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IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities found a mass burial site near a recaptured northeastern city previously occupied by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Thursday night.
The grave was discovered close to Izium in the Kharkiv region.
“The necessary procedures have already begun there. More information — clear, verifiable information — should be available tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly televised address.
Associated Press journalists saw the site Thursday in a forest outside Izium. Amid the trees were hundreds of graves with simple wooden crosses, most of them marked only with numbers. A larger grave bore a marker saying it contained the bodies of 17 Ukrainian soldiers.
Investigators with metal detectors were scanning the site for any hidden explosives.
Oleg Kotenko, an official with the Ukrainian ministry tasked with reintegrating occupied territories, said videos that Russian soldiers posted on social media indicated there were likely more than 17 bodies in the grave.
“We haven’t counted them yet, but I think there are more than 25 or even 30,” he said.
Izium resident Sergei Gorodko said that among the hundreds buried in individual graves were dozens of adults and children killed in a Russian airstrike on an apartment building.
He said he pulled some of them out of the rubble “with my own hands.”
Zelenskyy invoked the names of other Ukrainian cities where authorities said retreating Russian troops left behind mass graves of civilians and evidence of possible war crimes.
“ Bucha, Mariupol, now, unfortunately, Izium. … Russia leaves death everywhere. And it must be held accountable for it. The world must bring Russia to real responsibility for this war,” he said in the address.
Sergei Bolvinov, a senior investigator for Ukrainian police in the eastern Kharkiv region, told British TV broadcaster Sky News that a pit containing more than 440 bodies was discovered near Izium after Kyiv’s forces swept in. He described the grave as “one of the largest burial sites in any one liberated city.”
Some of the people buried in the pit were shot. Others died from artillery fire, mines or airstrikes. Many of the bodies have not been identified yet, Bolvinov said.
Russian forces left Izium and other parts of the Kharkiv region last week amid a stunning Ukrainian counteroffensive. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy made a rare trip outside the capital to watch the national flag being raised over Izium’s city hall.
Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Enin said Thursday night that other evidence found after Kyiv’s sweeping advance into the Kharkiv region included multiple “torture chambers” where both Ukrainian citizens and foreigners were detained “in completely inhuman conditions.”
“We have already come across the exhumation of individual bodies, not only with traces of a violent death, but also of torture — cut off ears, etc. This is just the beginning,” Enin said in an interview with Ukraine’s Radio NV.
He claimed that among those held at one of the sites were students from an unspecified Asian country who were captured at a Russian checkpoint as they tried to leave for Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Enin did not specify where the students were held, although he named the small cities of Balakliya and Volchansk as two locations where torture chambers were found. His account could not be independently verified.
“All these traces of war crimes are now carefully documented by us. And we know from the experience of Bucha that the worst crimes can only be exposed over time,” Enin said, in a reference to a Kyiv suburb where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were discovered following the Russian army’s withdrawal from the area in March.
Earlier Thursday, Zelenskyy said that during the five months the Russians occupied the region, they “only destroyed, only deprived, only took away.”
“They left behind devastated villages; in some of them there is not a single undamaged house. The occupiers turned schools into garbage dumps and churches — shattered, literally turned into toilets.”
In other developments Thursday, Zelenskyy worked to add political momentum to Ukraine’s recent military gains, while missile strikes that caused flooding near his hometown demonstrated Moscow’s determination to reclaim the battlefield advantage.
A week after the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Zelenskyy met with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen during her third wartime visit to Kyiv. Von der Leyen publicly conveyed the wholehearted support of the 27-nation bloc and wore an outfit in Ukraine’s national colors.
“It’s absolutely vital and necessary to support Ukraine with the military equipment they need to defend themselves. And they have proven that they are able to do this, if they are well equipped,” she said.
Air raid sirens blared twice in Kyiv during von der Leyen’s meeting with Zelenskyy, a reminder that Russia has long-range weapons that can reach any location in Ukraine even though the capital has been spared attacks in recent weeks.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles late Wednesday struck a reservoir dam near Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s birthplace and the largest city in central Ukraine. The strikes flooded over 100 homes.
Russian military bloggers said the attack was intended to flood areas downstream where Ukrainian forces made inroads as part of their counteroffensive.
The head of the local government on Thursday reported a new attack on the dam and said emergency crews were working to prevent more water from escaping.
The first attack so close to his roots angered Zelenskyy, who said the strikes had no military value.
“In fact, hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians is another reason why Russia will lose,” he said.
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Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv and Joanna Koslowska in London contributed reporting.
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Follow AP war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:44Z
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When a water crisis forced schools back online in Jackson, Mississippi, fifth-grade teacher Ryan Johnson saw reminders everywhere of pandemic times.
Two and a half years after schools switched to remote learning for COVID-19, he once again logged into online learning to see kids lying in bed at home while tuning in for his classes.
This time, Johnson also had to assist his young daughter, who was stuck at home trying to keep up with second grade. She asked repeatedly when she could go back to school.
The stint in remote learning was short-lived for the 20,000-student school system in Jackson. But it highlighted an alarming reality: Schools are relying on online classes when communities face their most trying times — disasters like wildfires, storms or a lack of water. And experts say it’s not a sustainable solution.
When Jackson’s troubled water system left the city with dry taps and unflushable toilets for several days, school went online for a week. Enough water pressure was restored last week for children to go back in person, and the boil-water notice was lifted Thursday after nearly seven weeks.
Still, online learning compounded the disruption for children and teachers. Families waited in lines for hours to get water to drink or wash. Back at home, children slogged through internet classes, often with the whole family in the house once again.
Johnson said he did his best to juggle it all and keep his students engaged, drawing on his extended experience from the pandemic, but it was far from perfect.
“You try to look at the glass half full as much as possible,” he said.
There was a time, early in the pandemic, when hopes were high for remote learning. It made snow days obsolete, and some schools experimented with online learning in place of substitute teachers. The potential seemed endless.
But remote learning’s shortcomings have become more clear. The shift to remote learning for COVID-19 left many students behind where they should be academically and added to strains on their mental health.
At the same time, it led to increased access to technology and skills that make remote instruction doable on a large scale — an impossibility just four years ago.
In 2018, two hurricanes — Florence and Michael — struck the same regions in North Carolina, causing schools to close. Some students were out of school for weeks. There were attempts at remote learning, but many lacked access to laptops and other technology. Most schools tried to redistribute students to other in-person facilities, said Gary Henry, dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development, who has been part of a long-term research effort studying the impact.
Now, Henry thinks districts will reach first for remote learning. In the short term — a few weeks, perhaps — he thinks it could be a way to keep students on track, but the pandemic showed it’s not a sustainable model.
“I think it will be an automatic response in most places to short-term disruptions in schooling,” he said. “It’s going to be the first reaction, whereas, back during the hurricanes, it was: Where can we get these students in another physical location where they can resume their school experience? Now I think it’s going to be: How can we get organized to provide remote learning?”
Schools in Mora, New Mexico, switched to remote learning last April when the town was evacuated due to a wildfire.
It was a rocky start, Superintendent Marvin MacAuley said. Some of the displaced students and teachers were in evacuation centers, without access to their technology. As time went on, people were able to access computers or tablets and the internet.
In mid-August, students went back to school, in person, for the first time since the fire. The year started with an emphasis on social-emotional learning, to address the difficulties students have faced. Even with social workers reaching out, MacAuley said it was difficult gauging how students were doing during remote learning.
“When there’s a lot of stuff that has happened, it’s better to have the kids in person so you can see how they are, take note of their behaviors and provide the support to them,” he said.
In Cresskill, New Jersey, after Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, the building housing the high school and middle school was left underwater. The school system had no choice but to start the school year virtually.
“That’s rough,” Superintendent Michael Burke said. “That’s rough for kids for mental health issues. It’s rough for kids for socialization. And it’s hard for parents who have to arrange for someone to be home. You know, and that’s the most frustrating part, is that it came on the heels of COVID. And people were at a breaking point.”
Eventually, Cresskill offered hybrid learning, working with a local church, utilizing its 14 classrooms. Later, in February, the school moved into a neighboring town’s church building, which allowed students to go back every day.
Sarah Barrs’ daughter, who is now a seventh grader, was scheduled to go to orientation the week the storm decimated the school. She said some considered remote learning an adequate solution because they had done it before out of necessity.
“It’s not school,” she said. “It’s a last resort and it shouldn’t be a crutch that we rely on for school.”
In Jackson, Johnson used his experience from the pandemic to help new teachers at his school when the district moved online during the water crisis. For one, he tried to ensure students had their laptop cameras on, in hopes of keeping them focused. Teachers worked hard last year to help students catch up, he said, and he worried about the potential effects of another extended closure.
As the water pressure came back, the school system bused some students and teachers to alternate sites to bring them back to in-person instruction as quickly as possible.
“It’s certainly not our first option,” said Sherwin Johnson, a spokesman for Jackson Public Schools. “Having them not learning at all, which would be the other option, is unacceptable.”
___
Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report from Atlanta.
___
Brooke Schultz 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.
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| 2022-09-21T00:43:51Z
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia has denied parole to convicted sniper killer Lee Boyd Malvo, ruling that he is still a risk to the community two decades after he and his partner terrorized the Washington, D.C., region with a series of random shootings.
Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others over a three-week span in October 2002. Multiple other victims were shot and killed across the country in the prior months as the duo made their way to the nation’s capital region from Washington state.
Malvo was convicted of capital murder in Virginia and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But a series of Supreme Court rulings and a change in Virginia law gave Malvo the opportunity to seek parole after serving nearly 20 years in custody.
The Virginia Parole Board rejected his request on Aug. 30, finding that Malvo remains a risk to the community and should serve more of his sentence before being released on parole, state records of Parole Board decisions for August show.
“Release at this time would diminish seriousness of crime; Serious nature and circumstances of your offense(s),” the Parole Board wrote.
Malvo’s accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in Virginia in 2009. Malvo, now 37, was sentenced to life without parole for the three Virginia killings. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional, two federal courts found that Malvo was entitled to new sentencing hearings. The Virginia legislature also passed a law in 2020 that gave juvenile offenders an opportunity to seek parole after serving 20 years.
Malvo was a 15-year-old from Jamaica who had been sent to live in Antigua when he met the much older Muhammad. Muhammad trained and indoctrinated Malvo, and in 2002 the pair embarked on a nationwide killing spree that ended with the 10 slayings in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Trial testimony indicated the shootings were a plan for Muhammad to regain custody of his children by killing his ex-wife and making her death appear to be a result of random violence.
Malvo is serving his sentence at the super maximum-security Red Onion State Prison in Virginia.
Even if Malvo had been granted parole in Virginia, he also received a life prison sentence in Maryland for crimes in the neighboring state. Last month, Maryland’s highest court ruled that Malvo must be resentenced for his crimes there.
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STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Sweden Democrats party was founded by neo-Nazis and skinheads in the 1980s. Today, the rebranded and reformed nationalist party stands on the edge of unprecedented influence.
Following a weekend election held amid fears of rising crime, the anti-immigration party is the now second-most popular party in the Scandinavian country.
The development is the latest global example of a political force once widely deemed socially unacceptable moving into the political mainstream.
Vowing to put “Sweden first” and to “make Sweden good again,” the slogans of party leader Jimmie Akesson echo those that have resonated with ex-President Donald Trump’s supporters in the United States.
Its surge has energized right-wing forces in Europe as they eye further gains against the left.
“Let this be an omen and model for the rest of Europe,” said a tweet from the European Conservatives and Reformists party, whose president is Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party.
In 10 days, Italians will elect a new Parliament in balloting that, if opinion polls prove right, could see Meloni triumph as part of a center-right electoral alliance and even possibly become Italy’s premier.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime ally, also hailed the Sweden Democrats’ surge on his “War Room” podcast, calling the shift to the right in traditionally progressive Sweden a “political earthquake.” He praised the Sweden Democrats because “they want their borders, they want their sovereignty.”
Bannon described Sweden as a destroyed society — a right-wing trope that exaggerates the scale of Sweden’s challenges.
Sweden is for the most part a prosperous and thriving European Union member, though many have been shaken by shootings and gang-related violence. Some, though not all, of the rising violence, has taken place in largely immigrant neighborhoods.
The populist party’s strong showing was confirmed Wednesday evening, three days after a vote so close that the final result had to wait for postal and other outstanding votes to be counted.
With the tally clarified, the right-wing bloc of parties has 176 seats while Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s center-left bloc has 173. On Thursday, Andersson submitted her resignation to the speaker of Parliament.
Despite the Sweden Democrats’ surge — it won 20.5% of the vote, making it the largest right-of-center party — the stigma which it cannot entirely shake means that it will not be the first party to be tapped to form the government. Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderates party, another member of the right-of-center bloc, is expected to be the first to get a chance to try to form a governing coalition.
Many Swedes worry that the Sweden Democrats’ history and hard-line stance on immigration threaten the democratic identity of a nation that is home to the Nobel Prizes and where generations of refugees have been welcomed, and thrived.
Emily Jeremias, a 45-year-old musician, said that she was worried but not surprised about “a right-wing kind of extremist party … gaining so much power.”
“We see kind of a right-wing movement in the whole of Europe, so it’s not surprising that’s happening here as well,” she said.
During her campaign, the outgoing prime minister depicted the Sweden Democrats as a possible threat to the country’s pluralism and tolerance.
And as Andersson acknowledged defeat, she said she personally had been subject to a “hate campaign,” and alleged that the party used “organized trolls” to target young activists.
She and others on the left have also accused the Moderates of being complicit in normalizing the Sweden Democrats by being willing to work with them.
The populist party’s more acceptable image is the result of years of efforts by Akesson, its 43-year-old leader. He says the party’s transformation from its early days is sincere and that it rejects fascism and Nazism.
Under his leadership, the party long ago traded its torch symbol for a flower, aiming to underscore its reformation.
Akesson’s interest in politics started as a teenager when Sweden became a member of the EU in 1995. He opposed it at the time, but in another shift, the party today supports membership in the 27-member bloc. It also supports NATO membership, which Sweden applied for this year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Akesson’s personal image is of someone smooth and well-groomed. He plays keyboard in a soft rock band, and in his speeches avoids inflammatory language, using humor and irony instead with his opponents.
As part of its reckoning with the past, the party recently published a study into the roots of the Sweden Democrats. Swedish newspaper Expressen revealed the author was a party member. Nonetheless, the investigation confirmed that several of the party’s founders in the 1980s had links to fascist and neo-Nazi movements.
The party says immigration to Sweden in the past was mostly acceptable, but that it has become too much in recent years. In 2015 alone the country of 10 million took in a record 163,000 refugees — the highest per capita of any European country.
Party members say they welcome Ukrainian refugees, but that Sweden should not have to accept more from the Middle East or Africa.
The party is vowing to limit asylum approval to a bare minimum and to deport any migrants or refugees who commit crimes. In its election program it alleged that there are cases of asylum-seekers who claim dishonestly to be persecuted because they are gay or rejected Islam, suggesting it would limit such claims.
The Sweden Democrats say that Sweden has become “a magnet for the world’s migrants” and their aim is “to restore Sweden to what it once was.”
While it is unclear whether the Sweden Democrats will join the eventual government — not all the center-right parties in the bloc are ready to agree to that — it is clear that any right-wing government would need their support in order to muster a majority in Parliament to pass legislation. The star is on the rise for Akesson and his party.
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Olsen reported from Copenhagen, Denmark.
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:13Z
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Thursday handed in her resignation after a right-wing bloc that includes a nationalist, anti-immigration party won a narrow majority in Sweden’s parliament.
Andersson met with Andreas Norlen, the speaker of Sweden’s 349-seat Riksdag, to formally inform him of her departure. Andersson will continue in a caretaking capacity until a new government is formed. He has accepted her resignation.
Norlen said he would start talks with party leaders after the weekend. He is expected to ask the leader of the center-right Moderates, Ulf Kristersson, to try to form a governing coalition. Following Sunday’s general elections, the right-wing bloc has 176 seats while the center-left bloc with the Social Democrats has 173.
On Wednesday, once 99.9% of votes had been counted, Andersson conceded while populist Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson declared victory for the four-party right-of-center bloc.
The Sweden Democrats won more votes than the Moderates but are not considered likely to lead the next government. The party was founded in the 1980s by far-right extremists, and while it has moved to the mainstream in recent years it has not fully shaken off that stigma.
Still, because it won more seats than any other party on the right, and is now the country’s second largest party in parliament, it is expected to have significant leverage in any government.
The Sweden Democrats stood on a platform of cracking down on crime and strictly limiting immigration. Sweden has in recent years seen an increase in gang violence and so far this year there have been 273 shootings, 47 of them fatal, according to police statistics. Those shootings also wounded 74 people, including innocent bystanders.
After her 25-minute meeting with Norlen, Andersson said that “if the Moderates should come up with other ideas and want to cooperate with me instead of the Sweden Democrats, then my door is open.” She added that she is willing to work with all parties except the Sweden Democrats.
Andersson, who heads the largest party, resigned less than a year after she became Sweden’s first female head of government. Her appointment as prime minister had marked a milestone for Sweden, viewed for decades as one of Europe’s most progressive countries when it comes to gender relations, but which had never previously had a woman in the top political post.
Andersson led Sweden’s historic bid to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
The newly elected Riksdag is scheduled to gather for the first time on Sept. 26.
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:21Z
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GENEVA (AP) — Swiss police are investigating a fake advertising campaign that appeared on social media and shows a poster urging people to snitch on their neighbors if they heat their homes too much this winter — when an energy crunch is expected to hit Western Europe.
The bogus ad, which appears to be in public such as on a bus stop shelter, offers 200 Swiss francs (about $200) for anonymous tips that point the finger at people who heat their homes more than 19 C (66 F) this winter. Pictures of the poster reportedly turned up on the Russian social media platform Telegram.
The ad shows a young woman on a mobile phone above the message: “Is your neighbor heating his home above 19 degrees? Please inform us,” above a phone number — reportedly of the Swiss federal energy department. At top left is the Swiss Confederation’s coat of arms — a logo unmistakable to nearly all Swiss.
On its website, the department warned against the “false” message and called it a “manipulation.” Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported that pictures of the poster appeared on Russian Telegram channels, were picked up by Belarus’ Belta news agency, and the Russian television channel RT recently ran a fake report on fines for people who heat their homes excessively in Switzerland.
The Swiss federal police said Thursday they had received a complaint for “abusive use” of the coat of arms and other possible misdemeanors, and were investigating.
The Swiss government has launched a campaign encouraging the Swiss not to waste energy amid the expected energy crunch linked to reduced supplies of oil and gas from Russia in the wake of its war in Ukraine. Consumers have been advised to take measures such as lowering the thermostat, covering pots and pans while cooking, and turning off lights and appliances when not in use.
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:28Z
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TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will travel to London with four former Canadian prime ministers as well as indigenous leaders for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, his office announced Thursday, hours after Trudeau and Canada’s opposition leaders paid tribute to her during a special session of Parliament.
Trudeau said Canadians will continue to benefit from the stability the monarchy provides in his speech in the House of Commons in Ottawa. The late queen was head of state for 45% of Canada’s existence and visited the country 22 times as monarch.
Trudeau said the queen embraced her role as queen of Canada and said “her sudden absence has struck us all palpably and profoundly.”
“Her Majesty was everywhere. Her face on our coins. Her portrait hanging in Parliament and post offices. Her televised Christmas address a cozy ritual in homes from coast to coast to coast,” Trudeau said.
“Canadians feel like they’ve lost a family member – a family member who grew up alongside us.”
He recalled first meeting her as a little boy when his late father, Pierre Trudeau, was prime minister. And he noted she was with Canadians for important moments, like in 1967, when she cut Canada’s centennial cake on Parliament Hill and when she proclaimed and signed Canada’s Constitution Act of 1982.
Trudeau said in Canada’s constitutional monarchy, the crown’s function is to be a bedrock for the constitution, and to transcend daily political debates.
“We all know our new sovereign, his majesty King Charles III, will uphold these very values that we speak today and continue her legacy. Long live the king,” Trudeau said.
King Charles III was officially proclaimed Canada’s monarch on Saturday in a ceremony in Ottawa attended by Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon, who is the representative of the British monarch as head of state, a mostly ceremonial and symbolic position.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien will be a part of Canada’s delegation for the funeral on Monday. They will be joined by Simon, two ex governor generals as well as Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Natan Obed, and President of the Métis National Council Cassidy Caron.
Though Canadians are somewhat indifferent to the monarchy, many had great affection for Elizabeth, whose silhouette marks their coins.
Overall, the antiroyal movement in Canada is minuscule, meaning that Charles will almost certainly remain the country’s king. Abolishing the monarchy would mean changing the constitution. That’s an inherently risky undertaking, given how delicately it is engineered to unite a nation of 37 million that embraces English-speakers, French-speakers, Indigenous peoples and a constant flow of new immigrants.
Trudeau has said Canadians are preoccupied with big issues like inflation and climate change and not constitutional issues. He noted in his speech Thursday that the world is a tough place too and Canada has enviable stability.
“Around the globe, democratic institutions are being challenged. But, Canadians can rightly be proud of living in one of the strongest democracies in the world,” Trudeau said.
“Our institutions are healthy. Our debates are robust … It is this very strength and stability represented by the crown, and embodied by the queen, that Canadians have always benefited from.”
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:36Z
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The president of the University of Vermont issued a blistering denial Thursday of allegations the university failed to adequately respond to complaints of anti-Jewish behavior on the Burlington campus.
In a message to the university community, President Suresh Garimella said the complaints being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights have “painted our community in a patently false light.”
“While common wisdom dictates remaining patiently silent as we cooperate diligently with an agency’s investigation, I simply cannot do so,” Garimella’s message said. “These public allegations and our community’s deeply held values call for a strong and immediate response.”
Garimella said the university promptly and thoroughly investigated the allegations outlined in the complaint last year after learning of them.
“The uninformed narrative published this week has been harmful to UVM,” he said. “Equally importantly, it is harmful to our Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”
On Tuesday, when the complaint and the Department of Education’s investigation were made public, university officials said they were aware of the complaint and were cooperating. At the time, they reiterated the university’s commitment to inclusiveness.
Alyza Lewin, the president of the the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law , who helped file the complaint, said it was discouraging to see the university double-down on its denial of antisemitism on its campus.
“The rationalizations they provide are the same excuses that they gave me a year ago when I spoke to them,” she said Thursday. “They are stubbornly refusing to see and acknowledge that Jewish students on their campus are being targeted and marginalized and excluded on the basis of a key component of their Jewish identity.”
The allegations in the complaint filed by the Center for Human Rights and the organization Jewish on Campus said that Jewish students were excluded from campus clubs, a teaching assistant threatened to reduce the grades of students who supported the state of Israel and rocks were thrown at a building where Jewish students lived.
After investigating the complaint made Sept. 30. 2021, that two groups excluded from membership students who supported Israel as the homeland for Jewish people, the university determined the groups were not recognized student organizations, received no university support and were not bound by the university’s policies governing student organizations.
The university also investigated allegations that an undergraduate teaching assistant made anti-Semitic remarks and had threatened to lower the grades of Jewish students. The university determined that no grades were lowered ,and no student reported they had been discriminated against.
Finally, after learning that rocks had been thrown at a campus building where Jewish students lived, police determined small rocks were thrown at the building to get the attention of a friend, and there was no evidence it was motivated by antisemitic bias, Garimella said.
Lewin said all three explanations fell short, and the university should have forcefully spoken out against antisemitism in all the cases.
The allegations of antisemitism at the university come after antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached a record high last year. Earlier this year The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, a 34% increase over the previous year and the highest number since the New York City-based group began tracking such incidents in 1979.
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:43Z
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Hundreds of Ugandans attended a memorial service Thursday in honor of Queen Elizabeth II, a somber ceremony that underscored affection for the departed British monarch in this East African country.
Speakers in the Anglican cathedral in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, included Foreign Affairs Minister Jeje Odongo, who paid tribute to the queen as an “endearing” leader.
“She wasn’t the queen of England alone,” she said. “She was the queen of all of us in the Commonwealth.”
The Rev. Jonathan Kisawuzi, the cathedral’s dean, spoke of the queen’s “faith, courage and direction” in her 70-year reign. “We will remember her always,” he said.
Uganda is one of the 56 member states of the Commonwealth, a group of mostly former British colonies that now includes others, such as Rwanda, that were not part of the British Empire.
Elizabeth is fondly remembered among Ugandans, who recall her attendance in Kampala of the 2007 Commonwealth summit.
“It was a great occasion for Uganda,” Eunice Okullo, a political activist who was among those attending Thursday’s memorial service, said of the queen’s visit 15 years ago. “She ate Ugandan foods — that’s what they told us.”
Others spoke of the queen’s ability to connect with the people she had met.
“”Much as we are mourning, we are also celebrating the queen’s achievements,” said retired prisons commissioner Mary Kaddu. “We are celebrating her life.”
The queen, who died Sept. 8, will get a state funeral Monday at Westminster Abbey in London.
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:50Z
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LONDON (AP) — The U.N. atomic agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution Thursday calling on Moscow to immediately end its occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, where shelling of the facility and nearby areas in recent weeks heightened fears of a possible radiation disaster.
Poland and Canada proposed the resolution on behalf of Ukraine, which is not a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s top decision-making body. It passed with 26 votes. Russia and China voted against it while seven Asian and African countries abstained.
The document adopted a markedly harsher tone than previous statements by officials from the Vienna-based IAEA, who largely limited themselves to calling for a “security zone” around Europe’s largest nuclear plant. The resolution says the board “deplores the Russian Federation’s persistent violent actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including forcefully seizing control of nuclear facilities.”
It urges Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.” Russia seized radioactive waste facilities in Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, at the start of the war but later withdrew.
The resolution also appeals to Russia to return control of the power station to Ukrainian authorities, adding that the presence of Russian troops at the plant significantly increases the risk of a nuclear accident. The plant continues to be operated by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff, in conditions that the IAEA previously described as endangering the site’s safety.
Russia’s permanent mission to international organizations in Vienna, including the IAEA, hit out at the resolution as “anti-Russian.”
“The Achilles’ heel of this resolution is that it does not say a word about the systematic shelling of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is the main problem in terms of ensuring nuclear safety and security in the world,” the Russian mission said in a statement Thursday, according to the Russian Interfax agency.
“The reason is simple – the shelling is carried out by Ukraine, which Western countries support and protect in every possible way,” the statement added. Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of firing at and around the plant.
The Russian mission noted the abstentions of the seven Asian and African countries, including Burundi, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Senegal, and South Africa.
“Most of humanity refused to support this project,” it said.
Ukrainian officials, for their part, hailed the resolution as evidence of the IAEA’s “adequate response” to the situation around the crippled plant.
“The resolution of the IAEA Board of Governors, demanding that Russia de-occupy the Zaporizhzhia plant, is a good example of an adequate response from an international institution to the actions of a terrorist country,” Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Halushchenko thanked the board for “calling everything by its proper name” and accused Moscow of unleashing “a shower of manipulative statements” around the situation at the plant.
He also expressed hope that the seven abstaining countries would revise their positions ahead of the IAEA’s general conference later this month.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T00:44:58Z
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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo on Thursday described claims by the Bosnian Serb leader that his security services are eavesdropping on the American ambassador to Sarajevo as “blustering” and added that his separatist policies are “gambling” with the future of the Serb entity in the Balkan state.
Milorad Dodik, a member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, claimed at a pre-election rally Wednesday that the Bosnian Serb spying agency is now capable of listening to the conversations by U.S. Ambassador Michael Murphy and his staff.
“We also listening in on to them now, it’s not only them listening in on us,” Dodik told his supporters. “I know what they are talking about.”
He said this was not possible to do this just a few years ago.
“What we say in private is the same as what we say in public — the United States remains committed to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and multiethnic character and we will respond to any destabilizing, anti-Dayton activity,” the U.S. Embassy tweeted, referring to a 1995 peace deal reached in Dayton, Ohio, between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats that ended a war that left at least 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.
Although the peace deal ended the bloodshed, it left Bosnia deeply divided between the Bosniak-Croat federation and the Serb entity called Republika Srpska. Dodik has openly been striving to split the Serb entity from Bosnia and join it with neighboring Serbia.
“All of Mr. Dodik’s blustering cannot change the fundamental fact that the RS is not a state. It is one of BiH’s two entities,” the embassy tweet said. “His pursuit of an “Independent Srpska in BIH” isn’t protecting the RS or its residents, it is gambling with their future.”
Dodik, known for his staunchly pro-Russian stance, has been under U.S. financial and travel sanctions since January after the Biden administration accused him of “corrupt activities” that threaten to destabilize the region.
Media in Bosnia say Dodik is among politicians in more than two dozen countries who since 2014 were paid by Russia in exchange for exerting pro-Kremlin influence. According to a newly declassified review by U.S. intelligence agencies Russia has spent at least $300 million to sway both politics and policy in those states.
There are fears in the West that Russia is — through the Bosnian Serbs and its Balkan ally Serbia — working on destabilizing Bosnia to shift at least part of world attention from its war on Ukraine.
Celebrating a recently established holiday that promotes Serb unity in the Balkans, Dodik said joining Serbia remains the main goal for Bosnian Serbs.
“Today Serbs have two states, Republika Srpska and Serbia, but we will always strive to fight for unity,” he said.
Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic attended the celebrations in northern Bosnia on Thursday, saying “the historical moment demands that we unite and together defeat the madness that can turn these regions into a slaughterhouse again.”
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| 2022-09-21T00:45:13Z
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After nearly seven weeks of being forced to boil their water before drinking it or using it to brush teeth, people in Mississippi’s largest city were told Thursday that water from the tap is safe to consume — but Jackson’s water system still needs big repairs that the mayor says the cash-strapped city cannot afford on its own.
Gov. Tate Reeves and Jackson officials said in separate announcements that the state health department lifted a boil-water notice that had been in place since July 29 in the city of 150,000.
“We have restored clean water to the city of Jackson,” Reeves said during a news conference.
However, a state health department official, Jim Craig, said households with pregnant women or young children should take precautions because of lead levels previously found in some homes on the Jackson water system. Craig said although recent testing showed “no lead or lead below the action levels” set by the EPA, people should continue to avoid using city water to prepare baby formula.
Emergency repairs are still underway after problems at Jackson’s main water treatment plant caused most customers to lose service for several days in late August and early September.
Reeves said the water system remains “imperfect.”
“It is possible, although I pray not inevitable, that there will be further interruptions,” Reeves said. “We cannot perfectly predict what may go wrong with such a broken system in the future.”
Problems started days after torrential rain fell in central Mississippi, altering the quality of the raw water entering Jackson’s treatment plants. That slowed the treatment process, depleted supplies in water tanks and caused a precipitous drop in pressure.
When water pressure drops, there’s a possibility that untreated groundwater can enter the water system through cracked pipes, so customers are told to boil water to kill potentially harmful bacteria.
Even before the rainfall, officials said some water pumps had failed and a treatment plant was using backup pumps. The state health department had set the boil-water notice because of cloudy water that could make people ill.
The National Guard and volunteer groups have distributed millions of bottles of drinking water in Jackson since late August.
During a community meeting Tuesday, Jackson resident Evelyn Ford said she could only pick up water for herself and her older neighbors on weekends because of her weekday work schedule. Ford told Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba that workers at one distribution site criticized her for getting multiple cases of water and a state trooper told her to leave.
“I felt humiliated,” Ford said.
Lumumba told Ford: “You’re not begging for water. You deserve it. And nobody should make you feel like you’re begging. Nobody should make you feel as if you’re simply trying to take advantage.”
Jackson is the largest city in one of the poorest states in the U.S. The city has a shrinking tax base that resulted from white flight, which began about a decade after public schools were integrated in 1970. Jackson’s population is more than 80% Black, and about 25% of its residents live in poverty.
Like many American cities, Jackson struggles with aging infrastructure with water lines that crack or collapse. Lumumba, a Democrat in a Republican-led state, said the city’s water problems come from decades of deferred maintenance.
Some equipment froze at Jackson’s main water treatment plant during a cold snap in early 2020, leaving thousands of customers with dangerously low water pressure or no water at all. The National Guard helped distribute drinking water. People gathered water in buckets to flush toilets. Similar problems happened on a smaller scale earlier this year.
Jackson frequently has boil-water notices because of loss of pressure or other problems that can contaminate the water. Some of the mandates are in place for only a few days, while others last weeks.
In 2016, the state health department found an inadequate application of water treatment chemicals because of a failing corrosion control system at the Curtis plant. The EPA required the city to correct this problem. In 2017, the city began installation of corrosion control treatment.
A water quality notice published in July said the majority of tested samples showed lead levels “below the action level set by the EPA.” But it also listed precautions from the state Health Department, including that baby formula should be made only with filtered or bottled water and that children younger than 5 should have lead screening and blood testing.
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HOUSTON (KIAH) — As the seasons change, some foods are taking on the vibes of fall, and Blue Bell is no exception.
Salted Caramel Brownie is coming to store shelves near you. The company described it as a “creamy vanilla ice cream combined with luscious chocolate brownies and a salted caramel swirl.”
“Ice cream is a favorite dessert throughout the year, no matter what the weather is outside,” Carl Breed, general sales manager for Blue Bell, said in a statement. “Our new Salted Caramel Brownie Ice Cream is the perfect flavor to usher in the cooler temperatures.”
Breed said the new flavor has chunks of brownies along with a “hint of salt.” It’s available in the half-gallon and pint sizes while supplies last.
Blue Bell also said it has created a new recipe for a Salted Caramel Brownie Ice Cream Pie made with
its new flavor.
Find out how to make it along with other recipes on the company’s official Pinterest page or on its website.
In addition, Blue Bell’s Strawberry Lemonade Ice Cream is in stores. The flavor, also sold in pint and half-gallon sizes, is described as “a delicious strawberry ice cream swirled with a refreshing lemonade sherbet sprinkled with lemon-flavored flakes.”
For more information about Blue Bell and for a complete list of available products, visit www.bluebell.com.
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| 2022-09-21T00:45:35Z
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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Police say a set of remains found in Ohio last month belong to a woman missing since 2017.
Amy Hambrick, 29, was last seen in November 11, 2017. She was leaving Youngstown, Ohio, to visit a friend in North Jackson, but her family said she never made it.
“I know that there are people who know what happened to Amy,” Debby Dolin, Hambrick’s mother, told Nexstar’s WKBN in 2018.
On Tuesday morning, officials with the Youngstown Police Department confirmed that human bones, later identified as Hambrick’s remains, had been found in a wooded area on the east side of the city.
At the press conference, Chief of Detectives Capt. Jason Simon said the remains were found by a woman who was looking for her missing dog in the woods. They were wrapped in a cloth that was then taken to the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.
The bones were assembled by Dr. Loren Lease of the anthropology department at Youngstown State University, and forensic dentists were able to identify Hambrick based on her jawbone and dental records, Simon said.
Because of the condition of the remains, the cause of death will be listed as undetermined, Simon said. He added that the case is actively under investigation.
“Someone knows what happened,” Simon said.
Although investigators know the bones had been in the woods for some time, there was no way to tell by their condition how long they had been in that location, or even how long it has been since Hambrick died, the chief said.
Detectives will be interviewing and reinterviewing anyone believed to have information, and further tests on the remains will be performed to determine if additional evidence can be found, according to Simon.
Since Hambrick’s disappearance, the Youngstown Police Department has used interviews, cadaver-searching dogs and warrants on electronic devices to try and find her, to no avail. Family members were also active in trying to find out what happened to her.
Hambrick also left behind a daughter, who was only 10 when she disappeared.
They “were like two peas in a pod,” Dolin told WKBN in 2018. “She misses her mommy so much.”
Three of Hambrick’s family members were at the press conference on Tuesday morning. They were ushered out by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown after officials were done speaking, so they would not have to answer questions from the media. Simon said in a statement that the family had asked for privacy.
The discovery of Hambrick pares the list of long-term missing person cases the Youngstown Police Department is working to 14. Simon urged anyone who may have information on any of those cases to contact police.
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(The Hill) – Text messages newly revealed on Monday indicate that former NFL quarterback Brett Favre and former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) communicated over an effort to use their state’s welfare funds to help build a new volleyball center at the University of Southern Mississippi.
According to a report by Mississippi Today published Tuesday, Favre, Bryant and others discussed ways to funnel at least $5 million in state welfare funds for the new Southern Mississippi volleyball center.
The texts were filed in the state of Mississippi’s civil lawsuit over the scandal. Southern Mississippi’s volleyball stadium is not a part of the state’s civil lawsuit.
An attorney representing the Mississippi Community Education Center (MCEC), whose founder, Nancy New, previously pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of bribery, fraud and racketeering for her role in the welfare scheme, filed the text messages into court records.
The reported conversations took place between 2017 and 2019, when Favre’s daughter was on Southern Mississippi’s volleyball team. Favre, who spent most of his 20-year NFL career with the Green Bay Packers, had played football at the university.
“If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?” Favre asked New in 2017.
In response, New texted Favre that “we never have that information publicized,” adding that Bryant, who served two terms as Mississippi’s governor, approved of the plan.
“Wow, just got off the phone with Phil Bryant! He is on board with us! We will get this done!” New texted Favre.
In a text message sent in 2019, Bryant told New, who was tasked with spending tens of millions of federal welfare funds in the state, that he got out of a meeting with Favre and asked if she can help with their project, according to Mississippi Today.
“Just left Brett Favre,” Bryant told New. “Can we help him with his project. We should meet soon to see how I can make sure we keep your projects on course.”
Favre, a three-time NFL MVP, paid the remaining $600,000 he owed to the state of Mississippi last year over improperly receiving welfare money as a result of an extensive scheme.
The 52-year-old former quarterback received up to $1.1 million in welfare funds between December 2017 and June 2018 from MCEC for public speaking appearances he never made.
Mississippi’s Department of Human Services filed a civil lawsuit against Favre in May, alleging that he did not pay back interest of the $1.1 million owed, which amounted to $228,000.
In a statement to Mississippi Today, Favre’s attorney Bud Holmes denies that his client knew he received welfare funds, saying, “Brett Favre has been honorable throughout this whole thing.”
Favre, who along with Bryant hasn’t been criminally charged in the scandal, had previously told the nonprofit news organization in 2020 that he did not have any contact with Bryant about his alma mater’s volleyball center.
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NEW YORK (WPIX) — Rapper Cardi B pleaded guilty on Thursday to assault in the third degree and reckless endangerment in connection with a 2018 fight in a New York City strip club, the district attorney’s office confirmed.
The New York City native was sentenced to 15 days community service, officials said. Two full orders of protection were also issued for the two victims.
At the time of the October 2018 assault, police said Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, and her entourage were at Angels Strip Club in Queens. Cardi B argued with a bartender and a fight broke out.
Chairs, bottles and hookah pipes were thrown. Both the bartender and another employee were hurt.
In 2019, Cardi B rejected a plea deal in the case. She then pleaded not guilty later in the year. The rapper was indicted on 14 charges, including two felony counts of attempted assault.
“The defendants in this case are accused of two premeditated attacks on two women working at a club in Queens last summer,” Acting District Attorney John Ryan said at the time. “The victims allegedly had glass bottles hurled at them, alcoholic drinks thrown in their faces and one woman’s head was slammed into the bar. This kind of violence won’t be tolerated in our community. The defendants will be held accountable for their alleged actions.”
This is a developing story.
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HONOLULU (KHON) – A DNA comparison has led to an arrest in a cold murder case in Hawaii that dates back decades.
Honolulu police investigated after Nancy Elaine Anderson was found slain in her Waikiki apartment in January 1972.
There were no witnesses. Anderson’s roommate, who was asleep in another bedroom, as well neighbors, reported that they did not hear or see anything suspicious.
Anderson’s body was found after her roommate, believing Anderson had left for work already, heard water running in Anderson’s bathroom. She pushed the already ajar bedroom door open and discovered Anderson’s body on the floor.
According to police records, Anderson had stab wounds on her chest and there was blood in the bathroom, on the bed and on the floor on which she was found. There were also a number of bloodied towels in the apartment.
Police interviewed more than a dozen people but the investigation went cold after no viable leads were found.
Her brother said in 2019 that the family wanted answers, not revenge.
The Honolulu Police Department renewed their plead for information in 2020 after enlisting Parabon Nano Labs to assist with a DNA comparison.
“So we’re not looking so much for any kind of retribution or anything, we just simply want as much closure as closure can possibly give,” said Jack Anderson.
Police then worked with DNA technology company Parabon Nanolabs to create a sketch of a possible suspect.
Traditional forensic analysis looks at things like fingerprints and compares them with a national database of people already in the system — but this technology goes beyond that.
“The snapshot actually generates new information from that DNA, tells us more about that person, things that the police couldn’t have known before,” said Dr. Ellen Greytak, Parabon Nanolabs Snapshot Advance DNA Analysis Division director.
Honolulu police tracked down Tudor Chirila, Jr. — now 77 years old — and worked with police in Nevada and California to obtain a DNA sample from Chirila’s son in April 2022. According to officials, the sample linked blood that was found at the Anderson scene to his father.
A murder charge was officially filed against Chirila in Honolulu and he was arrested by police in Reno on Tuesday, Sept. 13.
A forensic DNA lecturer at Chaminade University said using a child can help skirt national and state databases of DNA, which only come back with a result if the person has previously been arrested or convicted.
“If the son is giving up a DNA profile, the son would inherit what they call a Y-STR profile and he would have the same Y-STR profile as his father, so that’s probably how they matched them up,” said Kari Inda, Chaminade University forensic DNA lecturer.
“So it’s really hard to say what are the chances of someone getting caught, but it’s definitely a lot more than in the 1970s,” Inda said.
Honolulu police said on Tuesday that Chirila’s extradition to Hawaii is pending.
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(NewsNation) — Denisha Montgomery’s family is demanding answers after they say she was murdered while serving her country overseas.
Montgomery, 27, pursued her dreams and joined the Army two years ago. She was determined to help provide for her three young boys.
However, her trust in the military abruptly changed when she was assigned to the 139th Military Police Company stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany for the summer.
According to her family, she no longer felt safe with her fellow soldiers.
On July 19, she made a frantic video call to her family and asked them to record it.
“I just want to come home. Look what they did to me,” Montgomery said in the recorded video. She is seen with serious bruises and open wounds on her body.
In the 12-minute video call with her family, she said she went with a group military police from her unit, off base to a water park, and said they had been drinking. On the car ride back, they assaulted her.
“They choked me out like they was doing this in the car. I kept telling them … I cant breathe,” Montgomery said in the video.
In and out of tears on the call, she vowed to report her assault the next day.
Her family also called the Red Cross and reported what she had told them: that four military police officers assaulted and strangled her.
In a text message to her uncle the next day she wrote, “they told me if I report an assault I’ll be charged with assault too because I mushed the female and bit the male that was choking me.”
On Aug. 9, 21 days later, Montgomery was found dead in her barracks. That same day, the Army told her family that she took her own life.
“They said, ‘We’re sorry to inform you that your daughter has committed suicide by suffocation.’ And I said, ‘How do you suffocate yourself? How can you possibly suffocate yourself?’ mother Heather Montgomery said.
Rodney Montgomery, Denisha’s father, said he knows his daughter would never kill herself.
“I know my daughter, she’s strong. She’s not a weak person. she’s a very strong person.”
The Army released a statement five days later confirming Montgomery was found unresponsive in her barracks and said “the incident is currently under investigation by the U.S. Army criminal investigation division.”
“It doesn’t make any sense. How are you still investigating when you prematurely said she committed suicide? That tells me that you’ve already have a determination,” said Tomeka Light, Denisha’s aunt.
Light served 13 years as an Army sergeant and was awarded the Purple Heart. She worries that something bigger may be at play.
“Something told me that her life was in danger,” Light said.
None of Montgomery’s family believes she took her own life. Her husband, Joshua Smith, also said he knows that she did not commit suicide.
NewsNation has asked the Army about the investigation, but officials declined our request for an interview.
They sent the following statement: “special agents with department of the army criminal investigation division are investigating the death of Spc. Denisha Montgomery.”
Executive Director of Combat Sexual Assault Lindsey Knapp, who represents Denisha’s family, said that the military was too quick to call this a suicide.
“We’ve got a service member who was afraid for her life, and assaulted, 21 days prior to her death,” Knapp said Wednesday night on “NewsNation Prime.” Knapp has also personally reached out to numerous military officials but hasn’t heard back.
“What we’re calling for now is that the FBI immediately take this case over. Because what the military has shown us is that they are unable to take this case and give Denisha the justice that she deserves,” Knapp said.
Never Alone Advocacy founder Amy Frank, who is also representing Denisha’s family, said that no one was looking into an “attempted murder on her life” after the reported assault.
“If leadership believed that she was suicidal, she should have not been walking around with a gun. What I do know is none of this makes sense,” Frank said on “NewsNation Prime.”
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Poudre Valley Hospital launches $12 million fundraising campaign for ongoing renovations
UCHealth's Northern Colorado Foundation has launched a $12 million capital campaign to support two major renovation projects at Poudre Valley Hospital, which will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2025.
Fueled by "significant" but undisclosed contributions by the Woodward Charitable Trust and the Markley family, the campaign will fund features and upgrades that may not have been otherwise possible at the Fort Collins hospital, including an activity area planned for the behavioral health units, spokesperson Kelly Tracer said.
The renovations' $76.5 million first phase, which started a year ago, adds a new heart and vascular care clinic and testing area just inside the main entrance, revamps surgical, imaging, gastroenterology and pulmonary areas, moves the gift shop, coffee shop and chapel, and updates hallways.
The birth center, women's care unit and pediatrics on the third floor will get updates with upgrades in equipment. A new front entrance, new signage and a redesigned traffic flow off of Lemay Avenue and Robertson Street will bring patients and visitors in through a new main entrance with new lobby, seating, fireplace and information desk. The $47 million second phase will add an inpatient behavioral health unit on the third floor that increases the number of beds from 41 to 50 with more private rooms, Tracer said.
In honor of the Woodward and Markley donations, an area of the hospital will be named for each donor.
“Their generosity will have a significant impact on the health of our community now and for generations to come as we carry out this project," Kevin Unger, president and CEO of the hospital, said in a UCHealth news release. "The Woodward Charitable Trust and the Markleys each have venerable reputations as community builders, and we cherish our decades-long relationship with them. Their contributions to this campaign are a profound example of the vital role philanthropy plays in accelerating and advancing health care for our region.”
A separate space on the first floor of the Westbridge medical office building across Lemay Avenue from the hospital will be renovated to house UCHealth’s outpatient behavioral health visits and more small-group meeting areas. A space on the lower level of PVH will be renovated to offer electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation and other new services.
More:A survey shows Colorado kids are having more mental health issues. Here's what we learned.
While PVH seems to have been in the throes of construction for more than a decade, phase one and two of the latest renovation focus on most of the areas of the hospital that have not been renovated or updated for many years, Tracer said. "This will bring the remaining areas up to similar standards of the areas in the hospital that have been renovated in the past 10 years, such as the emergency department, neonatal intensive care unit, etc."
UCHealth Northern includes PVH, Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont and Greeley Hospital.
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Bustang to Broncos games is back for another season
Denver Broncos fans can practice their play clock count to help head coach Nathaniel Hackett get the offensive plays to quarterback Russell Wilson on time while riding Bustang to Broncos home games.
This the fifth year of the service along the Front Range, and this season started with Sunday's win vs. Houston, when fans at Empower Field at Mile High first helped Hackett count down the play clock.
Here's what you need to know for the seven home games Bustang will serve the rest of the season:
When are the home dates and who do the Broncos play?
- Sept. 25: 6:20 p.m. kickoff vs. San Francisco
- Oct. 6: 6:15 p.m. kickoff vs. Indianapolis
- Oct. 23: 2:05 p.m. kickoff vs. New York Jets
- Nov. 20: 2:05 p.m. kickoff vs. Las Vegas
- Dec. 11: 6:20 p.m. kickoff vs. Kansas City
- Dec. 18: 2:05 p.m. kickoff vs. Arizona
- Jan. 8: TBD, vs. Los Angeles Chargers
When and where do you get on and off the bus?
In Fort Collins, board the bus at the Fort Collins Downtown Transit Center or Harmony Park & Ride. In Loveland, board at the U.S. Highway 34 Park & Ride along Interstate 25.
Departure times will vary depending on game time. Check times when ordering your seat.
Passenger drop-off and pick-up is near Lot A parking lot at Empower Field in Denver. Buses arrive approximately 90 minutes before kickoff, allowing fans to enjoy pregame activities, and will depart the stadium 30 minutes following the conclusion of the game.
What is the cost of the ride?
A round-trip fare from Fort Collins or Loveland is $30 per person. Buy fares at https://ridebustang.com/bustang-to-broncos.
What are the buses like?
All coaches are climate controlled and equipped with Wi-Fi, USB and power outlets, restrooms, comfortable seats and wheelchair access.
More: Interstate 25 fundingNorthern Colorado to receive $350 to add express lanes
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(NewsNation) — Irene Gakwa, 32, thrived upon her move to America. The recent immigrant from Kenya lived with her family in Idaho before moving to Gillette, Wyoming.
While in Idaho, Gakwa split time living with her brothers, making friends and taking classes in hopes of becoming a nurse. Then, she met a man on Craigslist named Nathan Hightman.
“It seemed OK. At that time, everything seemed OK. I didn’t really know Nathan, but I said, ‘If you’re going to date my sister, I really need to know about you and it’s going to take a time or two to hang out,’” Gakwa’s brother Kennedy Wainaiana recalled.
Wainaiana learned that in the summer of 2021, Gakwa moved with Hightman to Wyoming. The couple was engaged.
But Wainaiana grew concerned when he noticed that Gakwa’s texts had changed.
“We’re from Kenya and sometimes we mix English and a language called Swahili,” Wainaiana said.
He added that, “We mix a word of English and a word of Swahili, so I can tell that’s her. But then, on March 5, I texted her and asked her something. She texted back, and it was only English. So now that I know what I know, maybe it wasn’t her.”
Still, Wainaiana is desperate to know more. Gakwa was reported missing in March.
Hightman told police that Gakwa packed clothing into two plastic bags and announced that she was leaving Gillette, Wyoming. He said she entered a dark-colored SUV and left the area.
“I think that’s false,” Wainaiana said. “That’s a false story, something he was just saying to get the police off his porch.”
Police were back on his porch soon enough. They arrested Hightman and charged him with draining Gakwa’s bank accounts, deleting her email account and using her credit card at Walmart to buy a shovel, a pair of boots and a pair of pants.
Police report that Hightman said he did it to force her to contact him in the event she needed money.
Stacy Koester never met Gakwa and is not a professional searcher, but that hasn’t stopped her from putting in hundreds of hours of time looking for her.
Koester organized a search with horses that specialize in human decomposition, used cadaver dogs, and covered hundreds of miles.
“There’s a lot of vast open country and one main road may have 50 to 60 side roads, twists and turns. So, it’s covering the areas and making sure that you don’t go over those same places repeatedly,” Koester said.
Wyoming Truth journalist Jennifer Kocher is amazed at the determination of the searchers.
“I’ve covered many missing persons cases, and this one felt different because nobody at the searches knew who she was,” Kocher said.
Police have asked the public to be on the lookout for a 55-gallon metal drum that could be burned and abandoned.
“Most recent searches are kind of zeroing in on that barrel, which helps save time too because you can see a barrel from … in some cases, along the highway, so we’re kind of clumping through stuff. I have a ski pole that I use,” Kocher said.
Meanwhile the use of social media to find Gakwa is making for a bizarre twist in the case. Search organizer Stacy Koester was hit with a protective stalking order by none other than Nathan Hightman. He objected to her using his name and other information on TikTok.
“I was blown away by this because I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m looking for a missing woman,” Koester said.
Back in Idaho, “my parents spend sleepless nights,” Wainaiana said. “Just tell us the truth.”
NewsNation has reached out to Hightman’s attorney. We have not heard back yet.
Stacy Koester is expected to appear in court Thursday to deal with the protective stalking order that’s been filed against her.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to call the Gillette Police Department at 307-682-5155.
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'Heroes' display vandalized at Fort Collins' Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado
Just over two years after its military service flags were stolen, a Fort Collins veterans monument is facing its latest — and largest — act of vandalism.
An LCD monitor used for an interactive "heroes" display of veterans' names was found smashed in its stone pillar at Fort Collins' Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado on the morning of Sept. 13.
Calling the incident a "gut punch," Veterans Plaza board member Bob Loner estimated the monitor will cost roughly $12,000 to replace. As one of two monitors at the plaza, the damaged one housed an interactive display where people could scroll through the names of U.S. veterans who served honorably, some of whom date back to the Revolutionary War, he said.
Loner said the monitor's destruction is the biggest act of vandalism he's seen at the plaza in its 11-year history, followed by the June 2020 theft of five service flags from its grounds.
The plaza's other monitor, which was not damaged and previously held plaza information, historical facts, videos and more, has been changed to display veterans' names temporarily, according to Loner.
Since the Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado has a contract with Fort Collins' parks department, the plaza is insured through the city and the damaged monitor is covered by the city's insurance policy, Fort Collins Director of Parks Mike Calhoon confirmed Tuesday.
The parks department is in the process of filing necessary paperwork for an insurance claim, investigating the monitor's replacement cost and discussing security options with the plaza board, including security cameras, Calhoon said. No decisions on increased security measures have been made yet, he added.
In the meantime, the Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado has asked for donations from the public to help offset the cost of replacing the damaged monitor. The funds will go toward any insurance deductible for the monitor, and any leftover funds will be set aside for possible security cameras, Loner said.
More:Meet Greta: Giant pumpkin growing in Fort Collins yard eyes Colorado record
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies.
Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.
While DeSantis’ office didn’t elaborate on their legal status, many migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are temporarily shielded from deportation after being freed by U.S. authorities to pursue asylum in immigration court — as allowed under U.S law and international treaty — or released on humanitarian parole.
Massachusetts’ Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said he was in touch with local officials and that short-term shelter was being provided.
State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, tweeted: “Our island jumped into action putting together 50 beds, giving everyone a good meal, providing a play area for the children, making sure people have the healthcare and support they need. We are a community that comes together to support immigrants.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began busing thousands of migrants to Washington in April and recently added New York and Chicago as destinations. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has been busing migrants to Washington since May. Passengers must sign waivers that the free trips are voluntary.
DeSantis, who is mentioned as potential presidential candidate, appears to be taking the strategy to a new level by using planes and choosing Martha’s Vineyard, whose harbor towns that are home to about 15,000 people are far less prepared than New York or Washington for large influxes of migrants.
The move is likely to delight DeSantis’ supporters who deride Democrat-led, immigrant-friendly “sanctuary” cities and anger critics who say he is weaponizing migrants as pawns for political gain.
The Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to transport “illegal immigrants” from the state consistent with federal law, Fenske said.
“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies,” Fenske said.
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Colorado 14er death: National park rangers texted with man who died on Longs Peak
Rocky Mountain National Park said its search and rescue members were briefly able to communicate with the man who became lost in wintry conditions and died on Longs Peak over the weekend.
The park in a Tuesday morning news release identified the man who died as Russell Jacobs, 25, of Westminster. His body was recovered Sunday.
Details emerge on how Jacobs got lost amid wintry conditions
According to the release, Jacobs contacted a friend from his cellphone late Friday afternoon, informing his friend he was lost and the weather was rapidly deteriorating. He told his friend he was unprepared for winter conditions or to spend an unplanned night at elevations above 13,000 feet.
The friend relayed the information to park rangers, who were briefly able to contact Jacobs via text message to determine his location. They learned Jacobs, who was hiking the Keyhole Route, was going to attempt to move toward the Agnes Vaille Shelter.
But then communication was lost.
Snow, wind hamper search efforts
Rocky Mountain National Park’s search and rescue team began searching Friday afternoon for Jacobs in the area from the Boulder Field to the Keyhole. The Boulder Field is located just below the Keyhole, which starts the 1.5-mile technical stretch of the 7.5-mile hike/climb to the top of 14,259-foot Longs Peak.
The Agnes Vaille Shelter is located between the Keyhole and Boulder Field and was built to shelter hikers/climbers from the harsh elements of the demanding climb.
Friday's search was hampered by accumulating snow and ice and below-freezing temperatures made colder by 35 mph winds. Despite the conditions, rangers were able to reach the Agnes Vaille Shelter but could not find Jacobs.
The search team set up shelter in the Boulder Field overnight in case Jacobs was still attempting to reach the trailhead. Searchers in the field reported snow and sleet continuing through the night in the search area.
Park visitors discover body above Ledges section
Saturday's search before sunrise was met with more winter-like conditions. But a clearing in the weather allowed for a Northern Colorado Med Evac air ambulance from Greeley to fly over the search area.
Jacob's body was eventually located by park visitors approximately 80 feet above the Ledges section, which is just past the Keyhole and the start of the technical section of the Keyhole Route to the summit.
On Sunday, the park contracted with Trans Aero helicopter to assist with positioning park rangers and aerial recovery operations of the body, which was recovered approximately 5 p.m. Sunday by helicopter and transferred to the Boulder County Coroner’s Office.
Longs Peak leads Colorado in climbing deaths
One of the state's most popular fourteeners, peaks above 14,000 feet, also is the deadliest.
According to records, more than 70 people have died climbing Longs Peak since the park's inception in 1915.
According to Coloradoan reporting, this is the sixth known fatality in Rocky Mountain National Park this year.
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(The Hill) — Health experts are warning the nation to brace for what could be an exceptionally severe flu season this fall and winter, as more people who have not built up immunity over the last few years mix and mingle. There are two big reasons why more people could be vulnerable to the flu this year.
The first is that with coronavirus restrictions such as the wearing of masks all but forgotten, people are more likely to come into contact with the flu virus this year than over the last two years.
The second reason is that fewer people are likely to be immune from the flu virus this year because fewer people have been getting the flu over the last two years — as the pandemic locked people down and as people worried more about getting COVID-19.
Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s infectious diseases department, said the past two flu seasons simply have not seen the same levels of exposure to the flu.
“As a population, our immunity to the flu is down a bit,” Webby said. “When the virus comes back, it’s probably going to have a little bit more room to spread, a little bit more room to potentially cause disease.”
In a normal year, exposure to the influenza virus generates some community immunity as about 10 to 30 percent of people are exposed to the flu in a normal season.
But fewer people were exposed in 2020 and 2021, resulting in a decline in natural immunity.
For example, pediatric flu deaths normally exceeded 100 every year before the pandemic.
But the past two flu seasons have seen reported pediatric flu deaths fall under 40, with only one pediatric death confirmed in 2020.
This lowered population immunity means that people are at a higher risk of contracting the flu this year, according to Webby.
Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the flu season for the past two years has essentially been “nonexistent” and added that this trend was always bound to end once social distancing became less practiced.
According to Adalja, evidence of the flu picking back up is a sign that people are returning to “some semblance of their life pre-COVID.”
The Southern Hemisphere is giving the United States a preview of sorts of what is to come.
It’s been winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and those countries have experienced a tough flu season. Australia, as one example, experienced its worst flu season in five years, with the rate of cases peaking earlier than it usually does in the country.
In both 2020 and 2021, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care noted a lower rate of reported flu cases and severity, with only 37 laboratory-confirmed flu-associated deaths reported in 2020 and zero reported in 2021. Flu hospitalizations and deaths reached an all-time low in Australia last year.
There were nearly 600 cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza in Australia in 2021. During this year’s flu season, the country has reported more than 217,000 cases, though this is still lower than in 2019, when Australia reported more than 300,000 cases, the highest number of cases on record for the country.
Webby noted flu deaths and hospitalizations in Australia were still relatively low this year despite the sizable flu season that the country saw. Deaths and hospitalizations are largely driven by infections among the elderly, and Australia still practiced precautions when it came to this demographic.
If such precautions are also taken in the U.S., then higher flu hospitalizations and deaths could similarly be avoided, Webby said.
Experts who spoke with The Hill agreed that what was observed in the Southern Hemisphere appeared to be something of a return to a normal flu season, one that was not “suppressed” by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Webby and Adalja were doubtful that a “twindemic” of both flu and coronavirus would occur this year.
“I don’t think that these two viruses can sort of go gangbusters at the same time,” Webby said.
With the recent authorization of the bivalent COVID-19 booster dose, the White House has begun recommending that people receive both their booster shots and flu shots at the same time, hoping to avoid surges of both viruses.
For the 2022-2023 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that September and October are good times to get vaccinated.
With many COVID-19–conscious people likely to get their booster shots sooner than later, some have questioned whether September, when COVID-19 boosters became available, is too soon to get immunized against the flu and if it would be better to get the two shots at different times.
Adalja said it was better to time your flu shot so that it is effective throughout the entire flu season.
“If you get it too early, there’s clear evidence that it wanes off by the end of the season,” he said. “Traditionally, it peaked around February. So if you’re getting a flu shot now in early September, you can’t expect it to be that effective at the tail end of the flu season. So I’ve always recommended people get their flu vaccine sometime in late October.”
Adalja further said he did not believe the White House’s recommendation of getting flu shots at the same time as COVID-19 shots was evidence-based.
“What they’re trying to do is increase uptake of both and come up with a kind of a gimmick for people to get, you know, a two-for-one, when it really may foul up the efficacy of the flu vaccine if it’s given too early,” said Adalja.
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| 2022-09-21T00:46:40Z
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Suspect arrested in hit-and-run crash that killed Weld County sheriff's deputy near Greeley
The suspected driver of a vehicle involved in a crash Sunday near Greeley that killed a Weld County sheriff’s deputy who was on her way to work at the county jail was arrested in Fort Collins on Monday night.
Alexis Hein-Nutz, 24, of Windsor, was declared dead at the scene of the two-vehicle crash that occurred at 5:31 p.m. Sunday, the Colorado State Patrol and Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams said in separate news releases Monday afternoon.
Norberto Garcia-Gonzales, originally identified as Octavio Gonzalez-Garcia, was arrested in connection with the crash Monday night after being located in Fort Collins, according to Weld sheriff's office spokesman Joe Moylan.
Garcia-Gonzales is accused of fleeing the scene of the crash on foot and could not be located for more than a day, despite an extensive search by Weld County sheriff’s deputies, including three K9 handlers and a drone pilot, with assistance from CSP, Eaton Fire Department and Greeley and Denver police departments, Reams said. Denver police sent a helicopter to assist with the search.
Moylan said the suspect was found in Fort Collins and arrested by the Weld County sheriff's office strike team, Colorado State Patrol and Fort Collins police at 10:15 p.m. Monday, more than a day after the crash, at 5:31 p.m. Sunday.
"The man was tracked to Fort Collins based off numerous tips we received from the public about this case," Moylan said in an email late Monday.
Online court records show he has a $50,000 bond and appeared in Weld County court for a bond hearing at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. His next court appearance is at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22.
More:Man who went missing in Horsetooth Mountain Park found dead Sunday
Hein-Nutz was riding a 2021 Kawasaki motorcycle to her job as a detentions deputy at the Weld County Jail when she was involved in a crash with a 2006 white Ford van at the intersection of Weld County Road 37 and AA Street, Weld County and Colorado State Patrol officials said. She was traveling southbound on WCR 37 when the van proceeded from a stop sign at the intersection into the path of the motorcycle. The motorcycle collided with the front passenger side of the van and caught fire, CSP said. No other parties were in either vehicle.
Evidence collected at the scene “shows (the suspect) was intoxicated at the time of the crash,” Reams said. Other evidence found in the vehicle he was said to be driving included “a falsified Green Card and a fake Social Security card,” suggesting he is in the country illegally, Reams said.
More:Rocky Mountain National Park rangers recover body from Longs Peak
Hein-Nutz was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, and had worked for the Weld County Sheriff’s Office since graduation from its jail academy in November 2018, the sheriff said, noting that it was her “childhood dream” to serve others as a peace officer. She would have celebrated her 25th birthday next week, he said.
“Alexis was a hard worker, a caring deputy and a positive force for our agency,” Reams said in his statement. “I share in my deputies’ grief and in their anger over her senseless and tragic passing. But we are a family, and we will get through this painful event together.”
The Weld County Sheriff’s Office is accepting donations to help Hein-Nutz's family through its nonprofit, charitable foundation, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office Posse. Checks, noting Deputy Alexis Hein-Nutz on the memo line, can be mailed or dropped off at the sheriff’s office headquarters at 1950 O St., Greeley, CO 80631. Those donating are asked to provide a name, address and phone number in order to receive confirmation of their donations for tax purposes.
Contact reporter KellyLyell@coloradoan.com or 970-214-1337.
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(AP) – A Virginia man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while wearing an antisemitic “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt over a Nazi-themed shirt was sentenced on Thursday to 75 days of imprisonment.
Robert Keith Packer, 57, declined to address U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols before he sentenced him during hearing held by video conference. The judge noted the “incredibly offensive” message on Packer’s sweatshirt before imposing the sentence.
“It seems to me that he wore that sweatshirt for a reason. We don’t know what the reason was because Mr. Packer hasn’t told us,” Nichols said.
Photographs of Packer wearing the sweatshirt went viral after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. When FBI agents asked him why he wore it, he “fatuously” replied, “Because I was cold,” a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.
Packer’s sweatshirt depicted an image of a human skull above the words “Camp Auschwitz.” The word “Staff” was on the back. It also bore the phrase “Work Brings Freedom,” a rough translation of the German words above the entrance gate to Auschwitz, the concentration camp in occupied Poland where Nazis killed more than 1 million men, women and children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst said she learned on Wednesday that Packer also wore an “SS” T-shirt — a reference to the Nazi Party paramilitary organization founded by Adolf Hitler — under his sweatshirt on Jan. 6. Packer “attacked the very government that gave him the freedom to express those beliefs, no matter how abhorrent or evil they may be” when he joined the mob supporting then-President Donald Trump, the prosecutor said
Packer “wanted to support the subversion of our republic and keep a dictatorial ruler in place by force and violence,” Furst told the judge.
Defense attorney Stephen Brennwald acknowledged that Packer’s attire was “seriously offensive” but argued that it shouldn’t be a sentencing factor because he has a free speech right to wear it.
“It’s just awful that he wore that shirt that day. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to give him extra time because of that because he’s allowed to wear it,” he said.
Brennwald added that Packer was offended and angry to be labeled a white supremacist “because he doesn’t see himself that way at all.” The defense lawyer said Packer wanted him to sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for linking him to white supremacy during a press conference several days after the riot.
Packer declined to speak during Thursday’s hearing because he didn’t want his words “splashed out there” on social media, his lawyer told the judge.
Packer, a resident of Newport News, Virginia, pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which carries a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment.
Packer told the FBI that he was about 10 to 12 feet away from a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, when a police officer fatally shot her as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.
“He told the agents he heard the shot and saw her fall back from the window she was trying to climb through,” Furst wrote in a court filing.
Furst said Packer didn’t express any remorse during his FBI interview.
“He was more interested in relaying how he received hate mail and how he was ‘hounded’ by the media for interviews,” she added.
Packer’s younger sister, Kimberly Rice, wrote a letter asking the judge for leniency. She said her brother’s sweatshirt “could be considered in poor taste” but added that “freedom of expression” isn’t a crime.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 75 days of incarceration followed by 36 months of probation. Brennwald sought a probationary sentence with no jail time.
FBI agents arrested Packer a week after the riot. He has remained free while awaiting sentencing.
Packer is a self-employed pipe fitter. Prosecutors say he has a lengthy criminal record, with approximately 21 convictions, mostly for drunken driving and other motor vehicle violations.
More than 870 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Approximately 400 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses. Over 250 riot defendants have been sentenced, with roughly half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.
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(NEXSTAR) — Jimmy Kimmel has apologized to “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson following criticism of a comedy bit he staged during her acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards earlier this week.
Kimmel’s show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” had been nominated for Outstanding Variety Talk Series at the ceremony, but it lost to HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” earlier in the evening.
Kimmel and actor Will Arnett later took the stage to present the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, with Arnett literally dragging Kimmel’s body over to their mark. Arnett explained that Kimmel, after having lost, had gotten drunk on “skinny margaritas” and passed out.
When Arnett announced Brunson as the winner, she took the stage with Kimmel’s motionless body next to the microphone.
“Jimmy, wake up. I won,” said Brunson, prompting laughter from the audience. She went on to deliver a heartfelt speech with Kimmel still on the ground beside her.
A number of viewers have since accused Kimmel of stealing Brunson’s spotlight, with one calling it a “dumb unfunny bit” that took away from her moment.
“Super disrespectful and inappropriate and completely on the nose for the antics Black women have to put up with,” the viewer wrote on YouTube.
“Abbott Elementary” actor Sherly Lee Ralph, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress, also said at a press engagement for the Television Critics Association that she was initially taken aback by Kimmel’s “disrespect.”
“I told him, too! To his face! And he understood,” said Ralph, as reported by Variety.
During Wednesday’s taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Kimmel apologized to Brunson, but not before she interrupted his monologue for a pre-planned bit.
“You know how when you win an Emmy, you only have 45 seconds to do an acceptance speech, which is not that much time?” she asked Kimmel while holding her Emmy. “And then … you get less time because someone does a dumb comedy bit that goes on too long?”
“You know, I have heard of that happening,” Kimmel responded.
Brunson followed up by jokingly demanding to finish her speech in front of Kimmel’s audience.
Later in the night, Kimmel formally apologized to Brunson.
“People got upset. They said I stole your moment. And maybe I did, and I’m very sorry if I did do that. I’m sorry I did do that, actually. And also, the last thing I would ever want to do is upset you, because I think so much of you,” Kimmel said. “And I think you know that. I hope you know that.”
Brunson told Kimmel she wasn’t personally upset by his actions at the Emmys, as she was “wrapped up in the moment.”
“Thank you,” she said. “That’s kind. But honestly, I had a good night.”
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| 2022-09-21T00:46:56Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed over 6% this week for the first time since the housing crash of 2008, threatening to sideline even more homebuyers from a rapidly cooling housing market.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate rose to 6.02% from 5.89% last week. The long-term average rate has more than doubled since a year ago and is the highest it’s been since November of 2008, just after the housing market collapse triggered the Great Recession. One year ago, the rate stood at 2.86%.
Rising interest rates — in part a result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive push to tamp down inflation — have cooled off a housing market that has been hot for years. Many potential home buyers are getting pushed out of the market as the higher rates have added hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. have fallen for six straight months, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The average rate on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, popular among those looking to refinance their homes, rose to 5.21% from 5.16% last week. Last year at this time the rate was 2.19%.
Mortgage rates don’t necessarily mirror the Fed’s rate increases, but tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. That’s influenced by a variety of factors, including investors’ expectations for future inflation and global demand for U.S. Treasurys.
Recently, faster inflation and strong U.S. economic growth have sent the 10-year Treasury rate up sharply, to 3.45%.
The Fed has raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times this year, and Chairman Jerome Powell has said that the central bank will likely need to keep interest rates high enough to slow the economy “for some time” in order to tame the worst inflation in 40 years.
More inflation data this week suggests that while gas prices have retreated significantly since early in the summer, prices for most other necessities have actually gone up, panicking investors who fear a possible recession if the Fed keeps boosting rates.
Most economists forecast that the Fed will jack up its primary lending rate another three-quarters of a point when the central bank’s leaders meet next week. Some fear the Fed could raise the rate by a full point, following consecutive jumbo increases of three-quarters of a point at its last two meetings.
The government reported that U.S. economy shrank at a 0.6% annual rate from April through June, a second straight quarter of economic contraction, which meets one informal sign of a recession. Most economists, though, have said they doubt that the economy is in or on the verge of a recession, given that the U.S. job market remains robust.
Applications for jobless aid fell again last week and remain at their lowest level since May, despite the Fed’s moves to tame inflation, which has a tendency to cool the job market as well.
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| 2022-09-21T00:47:03Z
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(The Hill) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) launched a billboard campaign in several red states on Thursday, touting access to abortion in the Golden State.
“Just launched billboards in 7 of the most restrictive anti-abortion states that explain how women can access care–no matter where they live,” Newsom said in a tweet. “To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your own health.”
The billboards — going up in Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Oklahoma — advertise the state’s new reproductive health website.
The website, abortion.ca.gov, provides information about accessing abortion in California, including traveling to obtain an abortion. Newsom announced the website’s launch on Tuesday, just hours after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled new legislation for a 15-week national abortion ban.
Newsom’s new billboard campaign features slogans like “Texas doesn’t own your body. You do.” and “Need an abortion? California is ready to help.” One billboard quotes the Bible — typically cited by anti-abortion activists — saying “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
This is not Newsom’s first foray into other states’ politics this election year, fueling rumors of a potential 2024 presidential run.
The California governor, who is running for reelection this year, ran ads in Florida in early July, slamming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and encouraging Floridians to move to California. Later that same month, Newsom ran ads in several Texas newspapers, criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on abortion access and gun violence.
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| 2022-09-21T00:47:16Z
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HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — Actor, rapper, comedian, and television host Nick Cannon is welcoming his ninth child into the world, according to TMZ.
The child’s mother, Lanisha Cole, announced the surprise birth of the baby girl, Onyx Ice Cole Cannon, in an Instagram post.
Cole is a model and actress best known for appearing as a rotating model on “The Price Is Right” from 2003-2010.
Cannon welcomed his eighth child a little over a month ago in late July, having a baby boy with model Bri Tiesi.
TMZ also announced in June that Cannon is expecting a child in October with Abby De La Rosa, their third together.
In an Instagram post in August, Cannon announced he is expecting a child with former beauty pageant winner Brittany Bell, also their third together.
In a post speaking on the birth of his ninth child, Cannon spoke directly to critics of his large family with the following statement.
“I’ve given up on attempting to define myself for the world or society but instead I’m doing the work to heal and grow into the infinite being God ordained me to be. Hopefully I can teach Onyx the same, to not let others shame or ridicule her with their outside opinions, because when they do they are only projecting their own harsh experiences, pain and social programming onto her unblemished beauty. As we all know I am not easily triggered and have quite tough skin and have always been an open book but not everyone in my family has that same level of strength. So I pray and ask others to please project all criticism and cynicism towards me and not the loving and precious mothers of my children. @MissLanishaCole is one of the most guileless, peaceful and nonconfrontational kind souls I’ve ever witnessed, and only deserves to revel in this moment of blissful joy of motherhood. Please give her that. She is so loving and pure hearted. As for me, if you are truly concerned during this time of Spiritual Warfare, my inner struggles with self, mental wellness and physical health concerns… Just continue to pray for me and my entire family that God will grant us peace that surpasses all understanding.”
Cannon’s Instagram post
Cannon is best known for his hosting work on “America’s Got Talent,” “The Masked Singer” and “Wild ‘n Out.” He also starred in the movie “Drumline” and was married to Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from 2008 to 2016.
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| 2022-09-21T00:47:24Z
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Swiss tennis star Roger Federer announced Thursday that he is retiring from professional tennis at age 41 after winning 20 Grand Slam titles.
This decision comes just days after the end of the U.S. Open, which is expected to be the last tournament of 23-time major champion Serena Williams’ career and signals the real end of an era in tennis.
Federer has not competed since Wimbledon in July 2021 — he has had a series of knee operations — and so in that sense, the news is not surprising.
But he had appeared at an event marking the 100-year anniversary of Centre Court at the All England Club this July and said he hoped to come back to play there “one more time.”
He also had said he would return to tournament action at the Swiss Indoors in October.
Federer posted his news on Twitter, saying his farewell event will be the Laver Cup in London next week. That is a team event run by his management company.
Federer’s last match anywhere came on July 7, 2021, when he lost at Centre Court in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-0.
Soon after, Federer had surgery to repair damage to his meniscus and cartilage in his right knee — his third operation on that knee in a span of 1 1/2 years.
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| 2022-09-21T00:47:31Z
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PLANO, Texas (KXAN) — A Dallas-based anesthesiologist was arrested on Tuesday on charges related to tampering with IV bags, which caused at least one death and multiple cardiac emergencies.
According to an arrest affidavit, Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. is an anesthesiologist who provides medical services to patients at a surgical center in Dallas. The U.S. Department of Justice said on or around June 21, a 55-year-old coworker of Ortiz had a medical emergency and died immediately after treating herself for dehydration using an IV bag of saline taken from the surgical center.
An autopsy report revealed that she died from a lethal dose of bupivacaine, a nerve blocking agent often used during the administration of anesthesia.
Two months later, on or around August 24, an 18-year-old had a cardiac emergency during surgery. He was intubated and transferred to a local ICU. Chemical analysis of the fluid from a saline bag used during his surgery revealed the presence of epinephrine (a stimulant that could have caused the patient’s symptoms), bupicavaine, and lidocaine.
According to a complaint, surgical center personnel concluded that the two incidents suggested a pattern of intentional adulteration of IV bags used at the surgical center.
They also identified around 10 other unexpected cardiac emergencies that happened during surgeries between May and August 2022. The complaint alleges that 10 is an exceptionally high rate of complications over such a short period of time.
Each patient in those cases was stabilized only through the use of emergency measures.
Most of the incidents happened during longer surgeries that used more than one IV bag, including one or more bags retrieved mid-surgery from a stainless steel bag warmer.
According to the complaint, none of the cardiac incidents happened during Ortiz’s surgeries, and they started two days after he was notified of a disciplinary inquiry stemming from another incident, in which he “deviated from the standard of care” during an anesthesia procedure.
The complaint alleges that all of the incidents happened around the time Ortiz performed services at the facility, and no incidents happened while he was on vacation.
The DOJ release also said that a nurse who worked on one of Ortiz’s surgeries at one point refused to use an IV bag that was retrieved from the warmer. The complaint said that surveillance video from the center’s operating room hallway showed Ortiz putting IV bags in the stainless-steel warmer shortly before other doctors’ patients experienced cardiac emergencies.
The affidavit said four IV bags were identified as possibly being compromised. Two of them showed small puncture holes in the plastic packaging that encases the IV bags. Those are believed to have been physically tampered with, as there is no explanation for a sealed IV bag to have holes in the packaging surrounding it.
Other evidence detailed in the affidavit gave probable cause for agents with the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations to charge Ortiz for crimes related to tampering with IV bags.
Ortiz faces the following charges:
- Tampering with a Consumer Product and Tampering with a Consumer Product Causing Death and/or Serious Bodily Injury
- Doing of an Act that Results in a Drug being Adulterated while Held for Sale after Shipment of the Drug in Interstate Commerce
- Intentional Adulteration of a Drug having a Reasonable Probability of Causing Serious Adverse Health Consequences
- Adulteration of a Drug by Mixing or Substituting Another Substance
Ortiz also has a history of disciplinary actions against him, according to the complaint and the arrest affidavit.
Ortiz’s history
Ortiz also provides services at other surgical facilities in the area, though a “substantial portion” of his income comes from the Dallas-surgical center, the affidavit says. He’s been a licensed physician in Texas since 1991.
Ortiz already has a disciplinary history with both the Texas Medical Board and medical facilities where he’s been previously employed, according to the affidavit. He was the anesthesiologist for a November 2020 procedure at a surgical facility in Garland, in which the patient suffered complications during anesthesia. In April 2021, Ortiz relinquished his medical staff membership and all clinical privileges at the facility.
On August 19, 2022, Ortiz entered into an agreed order with the Texas Medical Board related to the November 2020 incident. He agreed to several conditions, including submitting to extensive ongoing monitoring by a Board-selected physician at Ortiz’s expense, re-taking a Medical Jurisprudence Exam given by the Texas Medical Board, completing 16 hours of continuing medical education credits, and paying a penalty of $3,000.
There is also a private disciplinary inquiry pending at Ortiz’s main place of work — the medical center in Dallas — in which a patient under his care stopped breathing during a routine procedure.
According to a review commissioned by that facility, Ortiz did not maintain the patient’s airway and did not document critical aspects of the incident. Similar conduct was noted during the November 2020 incident.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A woman was arrested in South Korea on Thursday on two murder charges from New Zealand, where the bodies of two long-dead children were found last month in abandoned suitcases, authorities said.
Authorities didn’t immediately say if the 42-year-old suspect was the dead children’s mother. New Zealand police had earlier told their South Korean counterparts that the mother might be living in South Korea.
South Korean police detained the woman in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, based on a South Korean court warrant issued after New Zealand requested her provisional arrest as part of an extradition process, according to South Korea’s National Police Agency and Justice Ministry.
The unidentified woman covered her face with the hood of her coat as officers escorted her outside an Ulsan police station and put her in a car headed for the capital, Seoul, where she was expected to be questioned by prosecutors.
New Zealand authorities must submit the formal request for her extradition to the South Korean Justice Ministry within 45 days. The ministry will then decide whether to proceed with an extradition review at the Seoul High Court to rule whether she would be sent to New Zealand.
New Zealand police said the South Korean warrant was in connection with two charges of murder, and they have asked South Korean authorities to keep the woman in jail until she is extradited.
“To have someone in custody overseas within such a short period of time has all been down to the assistance of the Korean authorities and the coordination by our New Zealand Police Interpol staff,” Detective Inspector Tofilau Fa’amanuia Vaaelua said in a statement.
He said the investigation had been “very challenging” and that inquiries were continuing both in New Zealand and abroad.
Vaaelua said police weren’t going to comment further as the matter was now before the courts. Authorities in New Zealand typically don’t comment on pending court cases in order to avoid the possibility of influencing the outcome.
The children’s bodies were discovered last month after a New Zealand family bought abandoned goods, including two suitcases, from a storage unit in Auckland in an online auction. Police said the New Zealand family had nothing to do with the deaths.
The children were between 5 and 10 years old, had been dead for a number of years, and the suitcases had been in storage for at least three or four years, according to police.
South Korean police say the woman was born in South Korea and later moved to New Zealand, where she gained citizenship. She returned to South Korea in 2018, according to immigration records.
South Korean police say it was suspected she could be the mother of the two victims, as her past address in New Zealand was registered to the storage unit where the suitcases were kept for years.
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(The Hill) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was involved in a car accident early Thursday morning in Kyiv but suffered “no serious injuries,” his press secretary said.
Another car collided with the president’s car and his escort vehicles in Ukraine’s capital city, Zelensky’s press secretary Sergii Nykyforov said in a statement.
“The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found,” Nykyforov said.
The driver in the other car was treated by medics accompanying Zelensky and transferred to an ambulance, according to Nykyforov.
Law enforcement officials are investigating the circumstances of the accident, he added.
Zelensky visited Izyum in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, after Ukrainian forces retook the city from Russian forces as part of a major counteroffensive over the weekend.
The Ukrainian leader is seeking to address the U.N. General Assembly via video next week; however, Russia is looking to block the virtual speech.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Building on President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation plan, House Democrats on Thursday proposed new legislation that would increase federal student aid, lower interest rates on loans and take other steps to make college more affordable.
The bill is being pushed as a complement to Biden’s plan, which promises to wipe away student debt for millions of Americans but does little to help future students avoid heavy levels of debt. Democrats say their plan would tackle the root causes behind America’s $1.6 trillion in federal student debt.
“Simply put, by making loans cheaper to take out and easier to pay off, the LOAN Act will help improve the lives of student loan borrowers — both now and in the future,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
But similar to Biden’s loan cancellation plan, the proposed legislation does not address the rising cost of college itself, which has continued to increase for decades.
The election-season bill has dim odds of passage in the House and virtually no hope in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 50-50 edge and Republican votes would be needed even to take the bill up. Still, it spells out Democratic priorities as both parties vow to address the nation’s ballooning student debt.
Much of the proposal focuses on expanding federal Pell Grants, which are given to low-income students but have failed to keep pace with inflation and tuition rates. When the Pell program was started in the 1970s, the grants covered nearly 80% of tuition, fees and housing at a typical public university, according to federal data. Today, they cover about a quarter of those costs.
The legislation would double the maximum Pell Grant, to $13,000, over a five-year span, and then make sure it stays even with inflation. Families that receive food stamps or Medicaid would automatically get an additional $1,500 per year. And students would be able to use Pell Grants for up to 18 semesters, up from 12 now.
Interest rates on new federal student loans would be lowered starting in July 2023 to match the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, and all federal student loans would be capped at a 5% interest rate. Current caps vary depending on the type of loan but can reach as high as 10.5%. Older loans would be eligible for refinancing at the lower interest rates.
Democrats also aim to permanently relax the rules for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was created to help public servants get their student debt forgiven but has been marred by complex rules.
The proposal would allow public workers to get their debt cancelled after making 96 monthly payments, down from 120, and it would allow certain periods of non-payment to count, including military service or time in the Peace Corps. The Education Department recently loosened some rules during the pandemic, but the changes are set to expire at the end of October.
Several of the bill’s components are perennial aspirations for Democrats, who have long sought to increase Pell Grants and fix the loan forgiveness program. But those goals have been thwarted by a deeply divided Congress — Biden has repeatedly sought to double Pell Grants but had to settle for a $400 increase this year as part of a bipartisan budget bill.
House Republicans unveiled their own student loan proposal in August, looking to scale back lending — especially for costly graduate school programs — and rein in debt forgiveness.
The Republican legislation would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program entirely, and allow students to borrow no more than $100,000 in federal student debt for graduate school, down from an existing $138,500 cap. Additionally, it would allow students to use Pell Grants for short-term programs that focus on job training.
In a direct shot at the Biden administration, the GOP bill also sought to limit the education secretary’s ability to cancel student debt.
Biden’s cancellation plan, announced last month, promises to forgive $10,000 in federal student debt for individuals with incomes less than $125,000 a year or families below $250,000. Those who received Pell Grants to attend college get another $10,000.
The Education Department says an application will be available by early October. Whether borrowers actually see the relief depends on whether the plan survives legal challenges that are almost certain to come.
Although the broad details of the plan have been available for weeks, many with student debt have been left to wonder about exactly how it will be carried out.
Long before Biden announced his plan, the Education Department said borrowers could get refunds for payments made during the pandemic. But could borrowers undo those payments and then apply to get the debt canceled? Officials didn’t say, sowing confusion about what borrowers should do.
Answers started to emerge this week as the Education Department quietly updated a website with details on the plan.
According to the agency, borrowers who made payments during the pandemic will automatically get that money refunded if they apply for Biden’s cancellation — but only if their previous payments left them with a loan balance lower than the $10,000 or $20,000 they’re getting canceled.
The department offers an example: If someone is eligible for $10,000 in cancellation but made a $1,000 payment that left their balance at $9,500, they would get a refund of $500.
Borrowers who paid off their loans during the pause will need to request a refund first, then request cancellation, the department said.
Many Democrats applauded Biden’s plan, but some have said it does little to stop future students from piling on student debt. Even Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, acknowledged the limited scope of a one-time debt cancellation.
Talking to reporters last week, Cardona said it would be “short-sighted” to think the cancellation will solve the student debt problem.
Instead Cardona drew attention to on a new, more generous loan repayment plan that was unveiled alongside the cancellation. Under that proposal, borrowers’ monthly bills would be capped at 5% of their earnings, down from 10% now, and any remaining balance would be forgiven after 10 years, down from 20 years now.
“It’s not as flashy,” Cardona said of the repayment plan, “but it has generational impact.”
Democratic lawmakers agree that cancellation is only part of the solution. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a sponsor of the new bill, said it’s up to Congress to make sure borrowers don’t sink into debt again, especially students of color who are more likely to borrow debt and struggle to repay it.
“This legislation brings together some of the most forward-thinking and innovative proposals into one comprehensive proposal so that this generation is the last to experience America’s student loan debt crisis,” Wilson said.
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Find more on AP’s coverage of student loans at https://apnews.com/hub/student-loans
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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T00:48:21Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump, has complied with a Justice Department subpoena and turned over records as part of a federal investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a person familiar the matter said Thursday.
The records produced by Meadows are the same ones he earlier provided to a House committee conducting a similar investigation, according to the person, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing Justice Department probe.
The subpoena to Meadows, first reported by CNN, makes clear that Justice Department officials are seeking information from the most senior of Trump’s White House advisers as they examine wide-ranging efforts to overturn the results of the election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
The department, whose work at times has mirrored or overlapped with that of the committee, this month served a broad wave of grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to Trump allies.
Meadows has been a pivotal figure in the House investigation, his name invoked repeatedly in testimony by other Trump advisers, including by his own top aide. He had provided the committee with thousands of text messages, including communications with outside Trump allies and advisers.
In a filing in April in a federal lawsuit over his House subpoena, a lawyer for Meadows accused the committee of trying to vilify him publicly, noting that all of the texts it had been provided had been disclosed to the news media. The committee declined at the time to respond to the accusation.
Meadows did not provide to the committee records he believed were subject to claims of executive privilege and those documents were also not produced to the Justice Department.
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
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Follow the AP’s coverage of Jan. 6 at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege
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| 2022-09-21T00:48:29Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Joe Biden was quick to hail Thursday’s strike-averting rail agreement as a win for America, it was also a big win for him politically, allowing Democrats to sidestep what could have been an economic debacle before November’s midterm elections.
Pressured to choose between labor and business, the president pushed hard for them to work together.
Prodded by a strategic late-night phone call from Biden — and fortified with Italian takeout — corporate and union negotiators spent 20 hours in intense talks at the Labor Department. They reached wee-hours common ground following an appeal to act in the shared interests of the nation, avoiding a strike that would have shut down railroads across the country.
By keeping the trains running, Biden overcame a major economic threat that doubled as a political risk. His fellow Democrats already face a difficult fight to maintain their narrow hold on power in Congress amid soaring inflation. Biden’s own approval rating, though improving, is still underwater.
The tentative deal, which still requires approval from a dozen unions, would raise members’ pay 24% over five years and improve work schedules and health care in a way that Biden said recognizes “the dignity of their work.” Railroad companies could continue vital operations and avoid a costly shutdown, while being in a better place to recruit and retain employees.
“This agreement allows us to continue to rebuild a better America with an economy that truly works for working people and their families,” Biden said Thursday in celebratory remarks in the Rose Garden. “Today is a win, I mean it sincerely, a win for America.”
Members of one union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 19, voted to reject the tentative agreement, but the IAM agreed to delay any strike by its members to allow more time for possible additional negotiations and for other unions to vote.
White House officials had worried that a rail shutdown, no matter how long, would have perilous economic consequences just as voters make up their minds ahead of the November elections. The settlement, instead, now provides Biden an opportunity to show his administration is delivering for voters, as dire news coverage yields to relief at the cost of only a few canceled Amtrak trains.
Through the talks, Biden managed to avoid the disruption without offending either labor or corporate constituencies. Biden, his advisers and Democrats across the country know the broadest possible coalition is needed to help candidates compete in midterms that have historically favored the party out of political power.
Biden intentionally chose not to dictate the terms of the agreement to either side, said Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
“The president’s focus was making sure that a contract was done that is satisfactory to everybody — and also prevented a major disruption to our economy,” said Walsh, who moved the last six hours of negotiations into his office.
What initially appeared to be a worst-case scenario ultimately turned into a collective sigh of relief.
“This is the best outcome the Biden administration could have hoped for,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis who has researched the labor movement. He noted that the unions’ requests for sick leave and reliable scheduling aligned with Biden’s own values.
“Unlike in past labor disputes involving the railroads, the administration never had to put real pressure on the unions, but instead could act like an honest broker looking for a compromise between management and union positions,” Rosenfeld said. “That keeps the administration in good graces with labor more broadly.”
Business interests also praised the administration’s efforts. John Drake, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president of transportation policy, said Walsh came to the table with a level of expertise and the trust of stakeholders. That made it easier to finalize a deal.
“The ramifications of a rail strike were so catastrophic that we couldn’t even begin to catalog it,” Drake said. “This is 100% a win.”
Not everyone celebrated. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had proposed a measure on Wednesday that would have forced the unions to accept a contract. He criticized Senate Democrats for blocking his proposal, only to have aides stay silent on Thursday when asked whether the agreement was good for the economy.
Biden has gone out of his way to champion organized labor, often having members of local unions introduce him for speeches across the country.
UAW Local 598’s Ryan Buchalski, introduced Biden on Wednesday at the Detroit auto show as “the most union- and labor-friendly president in American history” and someone who was “kickin’ ass for the working class.” Buchalski harked back to pivotal sitdown strikes by autoworkers in the 1930s.
In the speech that followed, Biden recognized that he wouldn’t be in the White House without the support of unions such as the UAW and the IBEW electrical workers, saying that autoworkers “brung me to the dance.”
About 16% of voters in the 2020 election came from union households, which backed Biden 56% to 42% in the narrowly decided race, according to AP VoteCast.
The president’s approval took a major hit starting last year because of inflation worsened by supply chain disruptions for autos, furniture and other basic goods coming out of the pandemic recession. The problems intensified this year with a baby formula shortage and diminished supplies worldwide of food, oil and natural gas after Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. Consumer inflation hit a 40-year high in June, only to start drifting down in the two months since.
Biden’s popularity has been regaining ground as gasoline costs have declined. A new poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows his approval improving from a low of 36% in July to 45% in the most recent survey.
Estimates put the daily cost of a railroad shutdown at $2 billion. A stoppage would have left stranded raw materials for factories, fuel and even the chemicals needed to treat wastewater. That would have been a potentially debilitating blow just eight weeks before Election Day, which could determine control of the House, Senate and state governments.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said the deal will ultimately have an impact on the midterm elections because workers want officials who will stand up for them. The mix of the pandemic, high prices and economic inequality has left many workers at the breaking point and they want a different social contract, she said.
“That’s what this election is all about — rewriting the rules of the economy,” Shuler said.
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AP Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T00:48:36Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has nominated a Miami litigator and longtime government lawyer to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the office currently involved in the Justice Department’s investigation of classified records at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Markenzy Lapointe would replace Juan Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez, who has been a top prosecutor in Southern Florida involved in the investigation of the classified records and the debate over whether a judge should appoint a special master to review the documents taken by FBI in the search.
It was unclear why the Biden administration chose to announce the nomination for the position now, as the government’s case winds its way through the court system. Gonzalez, who had previously served as a senior prosecutor in the office, had been appointed to the position by Attorney General Merrick Garland. He was never formally nominated for the position.
Gonzalez has served as a federal prosecutor in southern Florida since 1998 and served as the first assistant U.S. attorney and the acting U.S. attorney. He succeeded Ariana Fajardo Orshan, who had been nominated by Trump.
Lapointe will likely be in the spotlight for months to come as the investigation continues. He is currently with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and before that he worked at Boies Schiller & Flexner. He worked in the Southern District of Florida as an assistant U.S. attorney from 2002 to 2006.
Biden also formally nominated Roger Handberg to be the United States attorney for the Middle District of Florida, which is handling a federal investigation into Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Handberg was appointed by Garland and has been serving in the role since 2021.
U.S. attorney picks must be confirmed by the Senate, and home-state senators usually have significant input on the nominees. Both Florida candidates were recommended by a bipartisan commission led by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who praised Biden’s choices.
“They have served their communities and country with distinction, and I expect both will respect the Constitution and uphold the rule of law without fear or favor,” he said in a statement.
The president also nominated McLain Schneider to the District of North Dakota. He was in private practice and served in the North Dakota state Senate from 2008 to 2016.
The White House said the lawyers were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, “their professionalism, their experience and credentials, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice.”
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More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
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| 2022-09-21T00:48:44Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order that administration officials say aims to sharpen the national security considerations taken in the federal government’s review process for foreign investment in the United States.
Administration officials said the the order will bolster oversight by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency group tasked with reviewing deals and mergers involving foreign people and entities.
The committee, known as CFIUS, is made up of members of the departments of State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security and is led by the Treasury secretary. It sends its findings and a recommendation to the president, who has the power to suspend or prohibit a deal.
While the White House said the new order is not targeted toward any particular country, it comes amid growing concern among U.S. officials about China’s investments in the U.S. technology sector and other industries.
The order calls for CFIUS to weigh whether a foreign investment or sale could affect the resilience of critical U.S. supply chains and the impact it could have on U.S. technological leadership in areas affecting U.S. national security and on broader investment trends.
It also calls on CFIUS to consider cybersecurity risks that could stem from a transaction and stipulates that the risks to U.S. residents’ sensitive data should also be considered.
“President Biden’s executive order highlights CFIUS’s increasing attention to national security risks in several key areas and sharpens the committee’s focus on protecting America’s national security, while maintaining the U.S. open investment policy,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Strengthening our supply chains and protecting against foreign threats enhances our national security, and this executive order highlights CFIUS’s important role in that work.”
Biden’s executive order comes after CFIUS’ oversight role of foreign investment was significantly expanded by 2018 legislation passed by Congress.
CFIUS already has been considering many of the criteria laid out in Biden’s executive order, according to senior administration officials, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. But the officials added that the administration hopes by publicly highlighting and sharpening the committee’s focus on what the administration sees as emerging risks, it will give greater clarity to businesses and investors as they look at national security risks that may arise from a potential transaction.
Before the 2018 legislation, CFIUS investigated cases in which a foreign company’s attempt to acquire or merge with an American company could pose a national security risk. The 2018 legislation expanded CFIUS’ oversight to review certain joint ventures, minority stakes and real estate deals near military bases or other sensitive national security facilities.
The legislation was prompted by complaints Chinese companies were taking advantage of gaps in U.S. law and improperly obtaining technology and possibly sensitive information. U.S. lawmakers also have expressed concern that Chinese companies were using joint ventures with foreign companies or minority stakes in ventures to gain access to sensitive technology.
An annual Treasury Department report released in August showed Chinese investors more than doubled the number of applications they filed in 2021 seeking U.S. regulatory clearance for proposed deals.
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| 2022-09-21T00:48:51Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden praised South Africa as a vital voice on the global stage as he hosted President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday at the White House for talks that touched on the two nations’ differences on Russia’s war in Ukraine and more.
In a brief appearance before the media at the start of their meeting, Biden made no direct mention that Ramaphosa is among African leaders who have maintained a neutral stance in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa abstained from a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s actions and calling for a mediated settlement.
But the president seemed to offer a subtle recognition that the two countries have their differences.
“We really need to make sure we fully understand one another,” said Biden, who heaped praise on Ramaphosa for his country’s leadership on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of climate change and other issues.
Following the meeting, Ramaphosa told reporters that South Africa’s position on the conflict is “respected” and that both he and Biden agreed they “would like this conflict to come to an end as soon as possible.”
Ahead of the meeting, South Africa’s international relations minister, Naledi Pandor, said finding an endgame to the Ukraine war will be South Africa’s focus when it participates in the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly next week.
“We would want a process of diplomacy to be initiated between the two parties and we believe the U.N. must lead, the U.N secretary-general in particular,” Pandor said.
The White House meeting came on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, in which he said the Biden administration sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems.
But the administration has been disappointed that South Africa and much of the continent have declined to follow the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During the Blinken visit, Pandor accused the U.S. and other Western powers of focusing on the Ukraine conflict to the detriment of crises around the globe.
“We should be equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine,” she said.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has sought to underscore that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has led to scarcities in grain, cooking oil and fertilizer — resulting in disproportionate impact on Africans. The White House said in a statement following the meeting that the leaders discussed the “negative consequences” the war has had on food security in Africa.
South Africa’s neutral position is largely because of the support the Soviet Union gave during the Cold War era to Ramaphosa’s African National Congress in its fight to end apartheid, South Africa’s regime of repression against the Black majority that ended in 1994. South Africa is seen as a leader of the several African countries that will not side against Russia.
Despite the differences on the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration recognizes the importance of strengthening relations in Africa as China has spent decades entrenching itself in the continent’s natural resources markets. Improving relations with South Africa — one of the continent’s biggest economies — is central to the U.S. effort.
John Stremlau, an international relations expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the talks underscore that the U.S. sees South Africa as having the “potential to lead Africa in a constructive way” on trade and other issues.
Earlier on Friday, Ramaphosa met with Vice President Kamala Harris for wide-ranging talks. The vice president’s office said in a statement that Harris and Ramaphosa discussed global health security, space cooperation, climate change, women’s empowerment and other matters, as they met over breakfast at the vice president’s residence.
In a brief exchange with reporters before his meeting with Harris, Ramaphosa said he would like to see the relationship between the two countries strengthened.
South Africa’s ambitious efforts to transition from coal to cleaner energy were also discussed during the leaders’ talks. The U.S., Britain, France and Germany announced a plan last year to provid e $8.5 billion in loans and grants over five years to help South Africa phase out coal.
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Magome reported from Johannesburg.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden sat down this week for his first interview of his presidency with the news magazine show “60 Minutes.”
CBS said on Thursday that Biden gave the interview to correspondent Scott Pelley while visiting Detroit on Wednesday, and that the two-part interview will air Sunday as part of the premiere of the program’s 55th season.
Biden discussed inflation, Russia’s war on Ukraine, U.S.-China tensions, the midterm elections and more, according to CBS. The network plans to air a preview on Friday of Pelly’s interview on “CBS Mornings.”
Biden has done fewer television interviews and press conferences than his recent White House predecessors in the early going of his presidency.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A long-delayed plan to dismantle Interstate 375, a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) depressed freeway in Detroit that was built by demolishing Black neighborhoods 60 years ago, was a big winner of federal money Thursday, the first Biden administration grant awarded to tear down a racially divisive roadway.
The $104.6 million is among $1.5 billion in transportation grants handed out to 26 projects nationwide thanks to increased funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
It allows Michigan to move forward on its $270 million effort to transform the stretch in Detroit into a street-level boulevard, reconnecting surrounding neighborhoods and adding amenities, such as bike lanes. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said he would make racial justice a priority in his department’s funding awards, pledging wide-ranging help to communities. Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, two of the city’s predominantly African American neighborhoods, were razed as part of the 1950s creation of an interstate highway system, displacing 100,000 Black residents and erecting a decades-long barrier between the downtown and communities to the east.
Hailed by city and state leaders as helping rectify a past racial wrong, the federal money represents a key first step that advocacy groups say will inspire dozens of citizen-led efforts underway in other cities to dismantle highways.
Still, advocates cautioned that Michigan’s plan to build a six-lane city boulevard risks simply replacing one busy roadway with another. Some long-time Black residents, meanwhile, worry they could be priced out of the city by new business development and shiny condo buildings that promise direct links to downtown.
After years of planning dating back to 2013, the highway removal is now estimated to begin as soon as 2025, two years earlier than expected, with construction finished by 2028.
“This stretch of I-375 cuts like a gash through the neighborhood, one of many examples I have seen in communities across the country where a piece of infrastructure has become a barrier,” Buttigieg told The Associated Press. He joined Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan later Thursday in Detroit along with several Black residents to highlight the grant.
“With these funds, we’re now partnering with the state and the community to transform it into a road that will connect rather than divide,” Buttigieg said.
Other winners Thursday of the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America, or INFRA, grants include $32.5 million for Flagstaff, Arizona, to build pedestrian underpasses to reconnect lower-income neighborhoods isolated by a 1-mile segment of railroad to downtown; $100 million to Clear Creek County, Colorado, for upgrades to 8 miles of the I-70 Mountain Corridor, including electric vehicle charging stations; $110 million to New York to expand refrigerated warehouse space at its Hunts Point food distribution center; and $70 million to improve rail track in Chicago.
Detroit’s project would create a slower-speed boulevard that aims to improve safety by removing a steep curve and adding LED lighting, while removing 15 old bridges and two stormwater runoff pump stations and building out wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes and pedestrian crossings.
Whitmer had originally sought as much as $180 million in federal money for the project. Because that would have been a tall order under the Biden administration’s Reconnecting Communities pilot program, which was funded by Congress at just $1 billion over five years, Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation opted to award $104 million to Michigan under the federal INFRA discretionary grant program, which has a bigger total pot of $8 billion over five years.
Christopher Coes, assistant secretary for transportation policy, said the Detroit grant reflected Buttigieg’s pledge to make Reconnecting Communities a broad “principle” of his department — not just a single program — with many efforts underway. Money under that specific $1 billion pilot will be awarded late this year or early next.
Ben Crowther, advocacy manager for America Walks and coordinator for the Freeway Fighters Network, praised the new federal grant. While there are over 50 grassroots efforts around the country aimed at removing or repurposing highways, only three cities — Detroit, Syracuse, New York and Somerville, Massachusetts — have demolition plans that are shovel-ready, making them prime candidates for federal funding.
“The fact the Detroit project is now moving forward really speaks to the priorities that U.S. DOT has set for reconnecting communities that are trickling down to the state level,” Crowther said. While community debate will likely continue over the best design and whether a six-lane boulevard is a good approach, he said, the new federal focus on equity is “a lot of inspiration for local groups for that reason alone.”
Still, some Black residents worry the new boulevard could only create more problems.
Sam Riddle, political director of the Michigan National Action Network and a longtime resident of the area, says to truly address racial inequity, city officials need to take a more holistic approach to improving Black livelihood, such as building affordable housing.
“They’re not going to right a historical wrong where Black businesses were wiped out,” Riddle said. “What they’re going to do is repeat the same mistake that prices out majority-Black Detroit.”
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:14Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Hanging out with Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia at a White House supper-dance. Swapping stories with Ronald Reagan about horseback riding. Bending the ears of Donald Trump and Joe Biden about climate change.
King Charles III, who became head of state following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has made the acquaintance of 10 of the 14 U.S. presidents who have held office since he was born in 1948.
He was just 10 when he checked off his first president in 1959. That was when Dwight Eisenhower visited the queen and her family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she died on Sept. 8 after a 70-year-reign.
“I guess you can’t start too early,” said Barbara A Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She noted that Charles’ grandson, Prince George, was a toddler when Kensington Palace released a photograph of him shaking hands with Barack Obama during the president’s trip to London in 2016.
Charles never met Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy, Perry said.
His encounters with U.S. presidents included what he recalled as an “amusing” weekend visit to Nixon White House in 1970 with his sister Anne, when the 20-year-old future king — one of the world’s most eligible bachelors — sensed there was an effort afoot to set him up.
“That was the time when they were trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon,” he later recalled.
The king has chatted up presidents on his visits to the U.S. and met others when they traveled in the United Kingdom. He was in the company of Donald Trump, Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when he represented the British monarchy at the state funeral for former President George H.W. Bush in 2018 in Washington.
Charles met President Joe Biden last year at a climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
The royal has visited America about 20 times since that memorable first trip in the Nixon years, he told CNN last year.
The royal siblings had been invited to Washington by Nixon’s daughters and son-in-law, Tricia Nixon, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband, David Eisenhower, grandson of President Eisenhower, for that three-day visit in July 1970.
The young VIPs had a packed schedule that included frolicking at the Camp David presidential retreat, a nighttime tour of Washington’s monuments, museum visits, a luncheon cruise down the Potomac River to George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, Virginia, a dance on the South Lawn for 700 guests, and a Washington Senators baseball game.
Charles and Nixon also met in the Oval Office. But if the president had his heart set a union between his family and the royals, it wasn’t meant to be.
In June 1971, less than a year after Charles’ visit, Tricia married longtime beau Edward Cox in the White House Rose Garden. A decade later, in July 1981, Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. They divorced in 1996.
Nixon, himself, had pushed for Charles to visit the U.S. for the perceived public relations bonanza, according to a January 1970 memo he sent his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.
“I think this could do an enormous amount of good for U.S.-British relations,” Nixon said. He wrote that he’d been told that Charles “is the real gem” of the royal family and “makes an enormously favorable impression wherever he goes.”
Charles returned the praise in a thank-you note.
“The kindness shown to us at the White House was almost overwhelming and for that we are immensely grateful,” the prince wrote to Nixon. “Both my sister and I take back to Britain the most heartwarming evidence of what is known as the special relationship between our two countries and of the great hospitality shown to us by you and your family.”
Many of the former Prince of Wales’ conversations with recent U.S. presidents centered on his interest in tackling climate change. Charles has campaigned for the environment for 50 years, but he acknowledged after becoming king that his new role requires that he set aside his activism on that and other issues.
Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall.
Biden rejoined the 2015 Paris climate agreement after Trump as president withdrew the U.S. from the accord.
Biden and the king spoke on Wednesday, with Biden offering his condolences over the queen.
Trump has said that during his visit with Charles, the former prince “did most of the talking” and pressed him on climate during a scheduled 15-minute meeting that stretched to 90 minutes in 2019 at Charles’ residence in London.
During a three-day visit to Washington in 2011, Charles, an advocate of environmentally friendly farming, met with President Obama. In a speech, he praised Michelle Obama’s campaign against childhood obesity and hunger, and U.S. manufacturers’ efforts to produce healthier foods.
He criticized U.S. government subsidies for large-scale agriculture and encouraged increased business and government support for organic and environmentally friendly food production.
In his toast at a White House dinner in 2005, the future king told President George W. Bush that the world looks to the United States “for a lead on the most crucial issues that face our planet and, indeed, the lives of our grandchildren.
“Truly, the burdens of the world rest on your shoulders,” he said.
In the remarks, Charles also said the trip reminded him of his first visit to America, “when the media were busy trying to marry me off to Tricia Nixon.”
Visiting with Reagan in the Oval Office in 1981, the two discussed their interest in horseback riding as a steward brought tea. But it was not served the British way.
Of the experience, Reagan later wrote in his diary:
“The ushers brought him tea — horror of horrors they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup and finally put it down on the table. I didn’t know what to do,” Reagan confessed.
___
AP News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of King Charles III at: https://apnews.com/hub/king-charles-iii
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:22Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Suzy Fitzgerald remembers looking out the windows as wildfire flames surrounded the hospital where she worked.
“We had fire in all three directions,” Fitzgerald recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh gosh, this is serious. We need to get these people out.’”
Fitzgerald helped with the evacuation of 122 patients from Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa Medical Center on that night nearly five years ago, as the blaze gobbled up homes and buildings across Northern California. The hospital, which had filled with smoke, closed for 17 days.
Medical centers around the country say that fires, flooding, heat waves and other extreme weather are jeopardizing medical services, damaging health care facilities and forcing patients to flee their hospital beds, according to a report released Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee.
At a hearing, Dr. Parinda Khatri, the CEO of Cherokee Health Systems, told the committee that a pediatric clinic in Knoxville, Tennessee, was forced to close for 10 days this summer during a heatwave after the air conditioning system broke down.
Nearby wildfires forced evacuations at facilities in Oregon during 2020, Elizabeth Schneck of Providence Health told the committee.
A majority of the 63 hospital systems and community health centers that responded to the committee’s questionnaire say they have experienced at least one extreme weather event at some point in the last five years, with many of those saying they had experienced more than one.
The health centers reported a wide range of economic impact from the weather events, with the emergencies they experienced costing between $28,000 to $22 million to cover building damages, closures, evacuations, overtime for employees or deferred elective procedures, for example.
The organizations are not necessarily representative of hospital systems nationwide and may overrepresent both “large health systems with more resources to implement high-cost interventions and small community-based providers on the frontline with limited supports,” according to the report.
The report indicated that medical facilities are investing more resources, staff and planning to prepare for emergency weather-related events.
Fitzgerald said officials at the Kaiser Permanente facility took a hard look at its plans after the 2017 wildfire evacuation and developed new policies, including a new information tag staff attaches to patients with details about their condition and needs during an evacuation.
“It made for a much more orderly response,” Fitzgerald said.
Paul Biddinger, the chief preparedness and continuity officer for the Mass General Brigham health care system in New England, said they had hired climate scientists and engineers to examine its 30 buildings after watching hurricanes and floods devastate hospitals in New Orleans, New York City and Kentucky over the last two decades.
“Our health care system is clearly vulnerable,” said Biddinger. “But many people, including leaders of the health care entities themselves, often do not appreciate the degree of vulnerability.”
Many of the facilities included in the report indicated that they’ve put together working groups or have staff dedicated to climate change issues.
New York’s Northwell health, the state’s largest health care provider, has an emergency command room where staff monitors the news across televisions. Two of the screens are always turned to the weather.
From flooding that’s made it difficult for ambulances navigating roads to gusty winds and snow that have threatened power, the health care system has had to deal with more than 20 weather events in the last five years, said Donna Drummond, Northwell’s chief expense and chief sustainability officer.
Extreme weather is also a consideration when Northwell constructs a new facility or hospital, she said.
“Climate change is here, it’s happening, it’s impacting us,” Drummond said. “We need to be resilient. Our facilities need to be able to withstand storms and that were prepared for these events.”
The health care system itself is a driver of climate change, accounting for an estimated 10% of the carbon dioxide emitted annually in the U.S. President Joe Biden has set a goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to release guidelines for health care centers to track and report those emissions.
“It’s clear more climate-related weather events and rising emissions will continue to worsen health care outcomes, and the time for action is now,” he said.
Roughly half of the facilities responding to the committee said they are tracking their carbon footprint or using programs to reduce their carbon footprint.
But many health care organizations are not doing enough to reduce pollution, Jodi Sherman, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine told the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Voluntary measures are insufficient to transform the health care sector,” Sherman said.
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:29Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials predicted two years ago that the Islamic State group would likely regain much of its former strength and global influence, particularly if American and other Western forces reduced their role in countering the extremist movement, according to a newly declassified report.
Analysts said many of the judgments in the 2020 report appear prescient today, particularly as the group is resurgent in Afghanistan following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of American forces last year.
The Islamic State group is no longer controlling huge swaths of territory or staging attacks in the United States as it did several years ago before a major U.S.-led offensive. But it is now slowly rebuilding some core capabilities in Iraq and Syria and increasingly fighting local governments in places including Afghanistan, where an affiliate of the IS group, also known by the acronym ISIS, is fighting the ruling Taliban following the U.S. withdrawal.
“If the United States and our partners pull back or withdraw further from areas where ISIS is active, the group’s trajectory will increasingly depend on local governments’ will and capability to fill the resulting security voids,” says the report, originally published in classified form in May 2020, months after then-President Donald Trump’s administration reached an agreement with the Taliban to pull out American troops.
Biden and top national security officials have cited the recent strike killing al-Qaida head Ayman al-Zawahri as evidence that America maintains an “over-the-horizon” counterterrorism capacity in Afghanistan after the withdrawal. U.S. special forces also killed the head of the Islamic State group in a February raid in northwest Syria.
“The fact of those operations are, I think, reflective how serious this threat environment remains,” said Christy Abizaid, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, on Thursday. But she added that analysts believe the terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland is “less acute than we’ve seen it” at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Analysts have recently seen growth in IS group branches around the world, particularly in Africa, said Abizaid, who spoke at the Intelligence and National Security Summit outside Washington.
“Afghanistan is a really interesting story along those lines about where the ISIS affiliate is and how we continue to be concerned about it,” she said.
Some outside analysts say al-Zawahri’s apparent presence in downtown Kabul suggests that extremist groups are more comfortable operating in Afghanistan — and that it will be tougher to counter the Islamic State group as it grows across the country.
Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow for counterterrorism at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, called the May 2020 report “very clear-eyed and forthright.”
“It’s very different operating against ISIS in the isolated mountain redoubts or deep valleys of Afghanistan,” he said. “The advantages that enabled us to so brilliantly take out al-Zawahri, I would guess, are absent outside of Kabul.”
While the White House last month released declassified points from an intelligence assessment saying al-Qaida had not reconstituted in Afghanistan, the points did not address the Islamic State in Khorasan, the local IS group affiliate. IS-K was responsible for killing 13 U.S. troops outside the Kabul airport during the withdrawal and has continued to mount an insurgency against the Taliban now in control of the country.
The National Security Council said in a statement that the U.S. is working to deny “ISIS-K access to financing, disrupt and deter foreign terrorist fighters from reaching Afghanistan and the region, and counter ISIS-K’s violent extremism.”
The May 2020 report was declassified this August and published online last week by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The ODNI periodically declassifies and releases older intelligence assessments. A spokesperson for the ODNI’s National Counterterrorism Center declined to answer questions about the assessment or address the intelligence community’s current view on the Islamic State group.
The report predicts that the Islamic State group’s global branches are likely to increase its “capability to conduct attacks in many regions of the world, including the West.” The U.S. would more likely face attacks from people inspired by the group’s ideology than plots directed or supported by the group, the report said.
Pressure by local governments where the IS group is active and their international partners “almost certainly will shape the scale of ISIS’ resurgence in Iraq and Syria and its expansion worldwide,” the report said.
Experts commonly agree with the report’s predictions, said Colin Clarke, an expert on counterterrorism who is director of research for The Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consultancy. But top intelligence analysts would have been involved in drafting and reviewing the assessment, formally known as a national intelligence estimate, he said.
Clarke noted several recent IS-linked attacks in Afghanistan, including an apparent suicide bombing outside the Russian embassy in Kabul that killed two diplomats, as well as ongoing fighting between militants and U.S.-backed forces at a sprawling camp in Syria.
“There are some things that have happened in the last few weeks,” he said, “that make you wonder if the situation is not more dire than is being presented.”
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the Islamic State group at https://apnews.com/hub/islamic-state-group.
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:36Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are punting a vote to protect same-sex and interracial marriages until after the November midterm elections, pulling back just days after Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed to put the Senate on the record on the issue “in the coming weeks.”
The delay was requested by key senators who have been negotiating changes to the legislation and comes at a time when many Republicans have been signaling opposition.
Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the lead champion of the bill, had predicted they would be able to secure the 10 Republican votes needed to break a filibuster and push it to passage. But hopes dimmed in recent days as some Republicans raised concerns about whether the bill would protect the rights of religious institutions, business owners or others who oppose same-sex marriage.
The decision adds to the uncertainty facing the legislation, as it gives interest groups and other lawmakers opposing the bill more time to rally Republicans against it. But supporters hope that by pushing the vote back, they will relieve election-year pressure from some conservative voters and persuade more Republicans to support the legislation.
“We’ve asked Leader Schumer for additional time and we appreciate he has agreed,” Baldwin said in a statement, along with other members of the bipartisan group that is negotiating the bill. “We are confident that when our legislation comes to the Senate floor for a vote, we will have the bipartisan support to pass the bill.”
The statement from Baldwin, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio and Thom Tillis of North Carolina came after a meeting with Schumer, who had been considering a vote as soon as next week.
A spokesman for Schumer said he is “100 percent committed” to holding a vote.
“Leader Schumer will not give up and will hold the bipartisan group to their promise that the votes to pass this marriage equality legislation will be there after the election,” said Schumer spokesman Justin Goodman.
Democrats and the small group of Republicans have moved to safeguard same-sex marriage following the Supreme Court decision over the summer that overturned Roe v. Wade and the federal right to an abortion. Lawmakers fear the court’s ruling, and a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas, indicate that an earlier high court decision protecting same-sex marriage could come under threat.
“We all want to pass this quickly,” Schumer said last week. “I hope there will be 10 Republicans to support it.”
The Senate push for the historic vote — and the openness by some Republicans to back it in an election year — reflects a large shift on the issue since the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide. Polling shows widespread public support for allowing such unions.
The bipartisan group has been working closely with the GOP senators who are open to the legislation but have religious liberty concerns. They finalized an amendment this week that would clarify that the legislation does not affect the rights of such private individuals or businesses — rights that are already enshrined in law. The legislation requires the federal government and states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed, along with interracial marriages.
“Through bipartisan collaboration, we’ve crafted commonsense language that respects religious liberty and Americans’ diverse beliefs, while upholding our view that marriage embodies the highest ideals of love, devotion, and family,” the group said in the statement.
But some Republicans who had wavered on the bill were not yet on board.
Responding to the group’s statement Thursday, the White House emphasized again that the administration was leaving the mechanics of the legislation — such as the timing of a vote — to the Senate.
“We believe the Senate should find consensus just as the American people have,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.
The bill protecting same-sex marriage cleared the House in a July vote with the support of 47 Republicans — a larger than expected number that gave the measure a boost in the Senate. But as the weeks went on, more Republicans raised religious liberty issues.
Another proposed tweak to the bill would make clear that a marriage is between two people, an effort to ward off some far-right criticism that the legislation could endorse polygamy.
It’s not clear how many Republicans would support the bill. In addition to Collins, Portman and Tillis, a fourth GOP senator, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has supported same-sex marriage in the past. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who is up for reelection this year, has said he doesn’t see a “reason to oppose it” but has talked on both sides of the issue in recent weeks.
Most Republicans opposing the legislation have said it is simply unnecessary because the court ruling still stands. But others have gone further.
One group that has been opposed, the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, has pushed back on the legislation.
“In the grander scheme, the Respect for Marriage Act is a way of putting an exclamation mark on the sexual revolution and its ideology,” wrote Ryan Womack, who works for the group, in a blog posted on its website.
___
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:44Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with a decline in the number of corporate criminal prosecutions over the last decade, a top Justice Department official on Thursday unveiled new sweeteners for companies that cooperate with the government and a $250 million Congressional budget request to expand its work.
Every division that prosecutes corporate crime must now develop programs to incentivize companies to report misconduct, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a speech at New York University Law School. In some cases, no one will have to plead guilty to criminal charges if the violation was self-reported and the company fixed it.
The Justice Department’s top priority is prosecuting individuals who commit corporate crime, she said. She pointed to companies like Theranos, whose disgraced CEO Elizabeth Holmes was convicted on felony counts earlier this year.
“We will hold those who break the law accountable, regardless of their position, status, or seniority,” Monaco said.
Companies will also be required to come forward more quickly with evidence of suspected misdeeds to get leniency, and could eventually be rewarded for clawing back money from executives that break the law.
The new policies include alluring carrots for companies, but if they’re not accompanied by the stick of increased enforcement they may not have a big impact, so the $250 million request is a key piece, said Julian Andre, a former federal prosecutor who is now in private practice with the Los Angeles-based firm McDermott Will and Emery.
“Corporate prosecutions are still declining,” he said. “Until the DOJ devotes substantial additional resources to pursuing these time-intensive and complex investigations … many companies may still decide that voluntary disclosures are not in its best interests.”
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:51Z
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RENO, Nev. (AP) — The GOP’s nominee for Nevada governor said Thursday he would fight against a national abortion ban if Congress were to pass one.
“It’s the vote of the people within the state of Nevada, and I will support that,” Joe Lombardo, who is generally anti-abortion, told reporters while campaigning in the state with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “That is an issue that doesn’t need to be in politics.”
Nevada voters codified the right to abortion up to 24 weeks into law in a 1990 referendum. Any order to further restrict abortion would have to come from a vote of the people, not the state legislature, unlike in many other states.
Earlier this week, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a near-total abortion ban after 15 weeks. The legislation undermined many GOP candidates’ arguments this summer that the future of abortion rights in the U.S. would be decided by individual states.
Lombardo, who is the Clark County sheriff, has long maintained that as governor he would respect the 1990 vote though he is Catholic and holds anti-abortion views.
Still, a nationwide abortion ban would supersede Nevada law, and it is unclear how Lombardo could fight one.
Lombardo’s announcement came in contrast to some Republicans who have shied away or supported Graham’s proposal. Republican April Becker, a candidate in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, opposes abortion except for instances of rape and incest. But she told NBC News this week that she would vote against a nationwide abortion ban, calling it unconstitutional for Congress to regulate abortion.
Also on Thursday, New Mexico’s Republican governor nominee proposed a referendum that could place new limitations on abortion access.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, Nevada Gov. Sisolak signed an executive order saying Nevada will not assist other states that try to prosecute residents who travel to Nevada for abortions. It also ensures medical boards and commissions that oversee medical licenses do not discipline or disqualify doctors who provide abortions.
Though he has stepped back from when he said he would overturn the executive order, Lombardo has maintained that he would “look at it from the lens of being a pro-life governor.”
After Thursday’s rally, Sisolak spokesperson Natalie Gould released a statement saying “Joe Lombardo is lying.”
Lombardo and Youngkin spent the day holding events in both Las Vegas and Reno, where the Virginia governor evoked his own high-profile victory a year ago.
Lombardo attacked the Democratic incumbent Sisolak on education, crime and for closing nonessential businesses early in the COVID-19 pandemic. He talked of further diversifying Nevada’s economy, more power for school decision-making to parents and expanding charter schools.
“This was a movement,” Youngkin said of his victory later on. “And that movement is here now. It’s your turn.”
___
Stern 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. Follow Stern on Twitter @gabestern326
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| 2022-09-21T00:49:59Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Thursday intended to make it harder for future presidents to interfere with the once-a-decade census that determines political power and federal funding, a move that comes in response to the Trump’s administration’s failed effort to make a citizenship question part of the 2020 headcount.
The legislation was approved 220-208 with only Democratic lawmakers voting for it. The bill requires the Commerce secretary to certify to Congress that any new question sought on a future census be adequately studied and tested, and that the Government Accountability Office conduct a review of the certification.
It also seeks to limit political influence by mandating that a U.S. Census Bureau director can be fired only in cases of neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. It vests the director with all technical, operational and statistical decisions and says a deputy director has to be a career staffer with experience in demographics, statistics or related fields.
“Partisan manipulation of the census is simply wrong,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the Committee on Oversight and Reform, which investigated the Trump administration’s efforts to add the citizenship question. “My bill would protect the census and ensure this cannot happen again regardless of which party is in power.”
Republicans unanimously opposed the bill, saying it places more power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, reducing accountability.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said that the changes are designed to make it easier for future census results to favor Democratic-leaning states over Republican-leaning states by making it harder to overrule the director even when the president or Congress is concerned about decisions they believe will yield an unfair or inaccurate count.
The bill faces an uphill climb in the evenly divided Senate given the party-line vote in the House. But Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said “clearly we will take a very serious look at it.”
The census determines how many congressional seats each state gets and the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year. Its results are used for redrawing political districts. The 2020 census was one of the most challenging in recent memory because of the attempts at political interference, the COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters.
In the years leading up to the 2020 census, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to add a citizenship question to the census questionnaire, a move that advocates feared would scare off Hispanics and immigrants from participating, whether they were in the country legally or not. The Supreme Court blocked the question.
The Trump administration also unsuccessfully tried to get the Census Bureau to exclude people in the country illegally from population figures used for divvying up congressional seats among the states, also called the apportionment numbers. The Trump administration tried to end data collection and processing earlier than the revised schedule put out by the Census Bureau in response to the pandemic, a move critics saw as an attempt by the administration to release the apportionment numbers while President Donald Trump was still in office.
The apportionment numbers were released in April 2021, four months after President Joe Biden took office and Trump left.
Critics claimed the citizenship question was inspired by a Republican redistricting expert who believed using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for the purpose of redrawing of congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.
Even though many of the Trump administration’s political efforts failed, some advocates believe they did have an impact, with significantly larger undercounts of most racial and ethnic minorities in the 2020 census compared to the 2010 census.
The Black population in the 2020 census had a net undercount of 3.3%, while it was almost 5% for Hispanics and 5.6% for American Indians and Native Alaskans living on reservations. Those identifying as some other race had a net undercount of 4.3%.
With the legislation, “we are reaffirming our commitment that every person in every community is counted,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:06Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A volunteer Ukrainian medic held captive three months by Russian forces in Ukraine’s besieged port city of Mariupol told U.S. lawmakers Thursday of cradling and comforting fellow prisoners as they died of torture and inadequately treated wounds.
Ukrainian Yuliia Paievska, who was captured by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held at shifting locations in Russian-allied territory in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, spoke to lawmakers with the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote international compliance with human rights.
Her accounts Thursday were her most detailed publicly of her treatment in captivity, in what Ukrainians and international rights groups say are widespread detentions of both Ukrainian noncombatants and fighters by Russia’s forces.
Known to Ukrainians by the nickname Taira, Paievska and her care of Mariupol’s wounded during the nearly seven-month Russian invasion of Ukraine received global attention after her bodycam footage was provided to The Associated Press.
“Do you know why we do this to you?” a Russian asked Paievska as he tortured her, she recounted to the commission. She told the panel her answer to him: “Because you can.”
Searing descriptions of the suffering of detainees poured out. A 7-year-old boy died in her lap because she had none of the medical gear she needed to treat him, she said.
Torture sessions usually launched with their captors forcing the Ukrainian prisoners to remove their clothes, before the Russians set to bloodying and tormenting the detainees, she said.
The result was some “prisoners in cells screaming for weeks, and then dying from the torture without any medical help,” she said. “Then in this torment of hell, the only things they feel before death is abuse and additional beating.”
She continued, recounting the toll among the imprisoned Ukrainians. “My friend whose eyes I closed before his body cooled down. Another friend. And another. Another.”
Paievska said she was taken into custody after being stopped in a routine document check. She had been one of thousands of Ukrainians believed to have been taken prisoner by Russian forces. Mariupol’s mayor said that 10,000 people from his city alone disappeared during what was the monthslong Russian siege of that city. It fell to Russians in April, with the city all but destroyed by Russian bombardment, and with countless dead.
The Geneva Conventions single out medics, both military and civilian, for protection “in all circumstance.” Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat and co-chair of the Helsinki Commission underscored that the conditions she described for civilian and military detainees violated international law.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
“It is critical that the world hear the stories of those who endured the worst under captivity,” Wilson said. “Evidence is essential to prosecution of war crimes.”
Before she was captured, Paievska had recorded more than 256 gigabytes of harrowing bodycam footage showing her team’s efforts to save the wounded in the cut-off city. She got the footage to Associated Press journalists, the last international team in Mariupol, on a tiny data card.
The journalists fled the city on March 15 with the card embedded inside a tampon, carrying it through 15 Russian checkpoints. The next day, Paievska was taken by pro-Russia forces. Lawmakers played the AP’s video of her footage Thursday.
She emerged on June 17, thin and haggard, her athlete’s body more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) lighter from lack of nourishment and activity. She said the AP report that showed her caring for Russian and Ukrainian soldiers alike, along with civilians of Mariupol, was critical to her release, in a prisoner exchange.
Paievska previously had declined to speak in detail to journalists about conditions in detention, only describing it broadly as hell. She swallowed heavily at times Thursday while testifying.
Ukraine’s government says it has documented nearly 34,000 Russian war crimes since the war began in February. The International Criminal Court and 14 European Union member nations also have launched investigations.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says it has documented that prisoners of war in Russian custody have suffered torture and ill-treatment, as well as insufficient food, water healthcare and sanitation.
Russia has not responded to the allegations. Both the United Nations and the international Red Cross say they have been denied access to prisoners.
Paievska, who said she suffered headaches during her detention as the result of a concussion from an earlier explosion, told lawmakers she asked her captors to let her call her husband, to let him know what had happened to her.
“They said, ‘You have seen too many American movies. There will be no phone call,’” she recounted.
Her tormentors during her detention would sometimes urge her to kill herself, she said.
“I said, ‘No. I will see what happens tomorrow,”’ she said.
—-
Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.
Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:12Z
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A Virginia man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while wearing an antisemitic “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt over a Nazi-themed shirt was sentenced on Thursday to 75 days of imprisonment.
Robert Keith Packer, 57, declined to address U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols before he sentenced him during hearing held by video conference. The judge noted the “incredibly offensive” message on Packer’s sweatshirt before imposing the sentence.
“It seems to me that he wore that sweatshirt for a reason. We don’t know what the reason was because Mr. Packer hasn’t told us,” Nichols said.
Photographs of Packer wearing the sweatshirt went viral after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. When FBI agents asked him why he wore it, he “fatuously” replied, “Because I was cold,” a federal prosecutor said in a court filing.
Packer’s sweatshirt depicted an image of a human skull above the words “Camp Auschwitz.” The word “Staff” was on the back. It also bore the phrase “Work Brings Freedom,” a rough translation of the German words above the entrance gate to Auschwitz, the concentration camp in occupied Poland where Nazis killed more than 1 million men, women and children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst said she learned on Wednesday that Packer also wore an “SS” T-shirt — a reference to the Nazi Party paramilitary organization founded by Adolf Hitler — under his sweatshirt on Jan. 6. Packer “attacked the very government that gave him the freedom to express those beliefs, no matter how abhorrent or evil they may be” when he joined the mob supporting then-President Donald Trump, the prosecutor said
Packer “wanted to support the subversion of our republic and keep a dictatorial ruler in place by force and violence,” Furst told the judge.
Defense attorney Stephen Brennwald acknowledged that Packer’s attire was “seriously offensive” but argued that it shouldn’t be a sentencing factor because he has a free speech right to wear it.
“It’s just awful that he wore that shirt that day. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to give him extra time because of that because he’s allowed to wear it,” he said.
Brennwald added that Packer was offended and angry to be labeled a white supremacist “because he doesn’t see himself that way at all.” The defense lawyer said Packer wanted him to sue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for linking him to white supremacy during a press conference several days after the riot.
Packer declined to speak during Thursday’s hearing because he didn’t want his words “splashed out there” on social media, his lawyer told the judge.
Packer, a resident of Newport News, Virginia, pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which carries a maximum sentence of six months of imprisonment.
Packer told the FBI that he was about 10 to 12 feet away from a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, when a police officer fatally shot her as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.
“He told the agents he heard the shot and saw her fall back from the window she was trying to climb through,” Furst wrote in a court filing.
Furst said Packer didn’t express any remorse during his FBI interview.
“He was more interested in relaying how he received hate mail and how he was ‘hounded’ by the media for interviews,” she added.
Packer’s younger sister, Kimberly Rice, wrote a letter asking the judge for leniency. She said her brother’s sweatshirt “could be considered in poor taste” but added that “freedom of expression” isn’t a crime.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of 75 days of incarceration followed by 36 months of probation. Brennwald sought a probationary sentence with no jail time.
FBI agents arrested Packer a week after the riot. He has remained free while awaiting sentencing.
Packer is a self-employed pipe fitter. Prosecutors say he has a lengthy criminal record, with approximately 21 convictions, mostly for drunken driving and other motor vehicle violations.
More than 870 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Approximately 400 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanor offenses. Over 250 riot defendants have been sentenced, with roughly half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 10 years.
Follow the AP’s coverage Jan. 6 at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:27Z
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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is headed to the United States, where aides say he’s expected to press for more negotiations between Russia and Ukraine during talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.
Ramaphosa is among the African leaders who have maintained a neutral stance on the war, with South Africa abstaining from a U.N. vote condemning Russia’s actions and calling for a mediated settlement.
South Africa’s international relations minister, Naledi Pandor, said Ramaphosa would emphasize the need for dialogue during meetings with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
This also will be the country’s focus when it participates at the U.N. General Assembly next week, she said.
“We would want a process of diplomacy to be initiated between the two parties and we believe the U.N. must lead, the U.N secretary-general in particular,” Pandor said.
“We did indicate that we were pleased that the negotiations on the transportation of grain had proceeded well and grain has begun to be transported,” Pandor said. “But in the context of the General Assembly, we will insist that there needs to be greater effort at finding a resolution on this terrible conflict and that the only way to do so would really be through a negotiated settlement.”
Ramaphosa is also expected to travel to the U.K. to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:34Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday slapped sanctions on dozens of Russian and Ukrainian officials and a number of Russian companies for human rights abuses and the theft of Ukrainian grain.
The State Department said it had imposed sanctions on at least 23 officials and 31 Russian government agencies and firms for their roles in supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some, but not all, of those penalized were already subject to U.S. sanctions, which include asset freezes and a ban on Americans conducting business with them.
“Those designated today — from perpetrators of violence to an official facilitating the purposeful removal of children from Ukraine — provide examples of the behavior that has become synonymous with the Government of Russia’s unprovoked war,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“The United States will continue to take actions against those who support Russia’s defense-industrial base, its violation of human rights, and its attempts to legitimize its occupation of Ukrainian territory, wherever they may be,” he said in a statement.
Among those targeted on Thursday include 17 Russian and Ukrainian officials who were said to be working for, or on behalf of, the Russian government to destabilize Ukraine. Another five people were sanctioned for participating in the alleged theft of Ukrainian grain. Many of them were appointed by Russia to local leadership positions in parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Among the government agencies and companies hit with sanctions were Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, which has been subject to U.S. penalties since 2016, but has since been accused of running so-called “filtration” camps through which Ukrainians have been forcibly deported.
Other companies include high-tech firms involved in Russia’s space and satellite sectors and computer companies that produce micro-processors and semiconductors used by the Russian armed forces.
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:40Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Thursday it will send another $600 million in military aid to Ukraine, as the U.S. rushes more weapons to fuel Kyiv’s counteroffensive that has reclaimed large stretches of the embattled country and forced Russian troops to retreat.
The White House said it was the 21st time that the Defense Department has pulled weapons and other equipment off the shelves to deliver to Ukraine.
The package will include more of the same types of ammunition and equipment that have helped Ukrainian forces beat back the Russian forces in portions of the east and south.
“With admirable grit and determination, the people of Ukraine are defending their homeland and fighting for their future,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield and strengthen Ukraine’s hand at the negotiating table when the time is right,” he said in a statement.
The decision to move on new aid quickly — on the heels of a nearly $2.9 billion infusion of aid and financing support announced last week and more than $3 billion announced in late August — underscore the U.S. intent to ensure that Ukraine can sustain its stunning counterattack that was launched early this month.
That most recent funding included $2.2 billion in long-term military financing announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced during a visit to Ukraine last week, and a $675 million weapons package announced by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Europe that same day.
The $2.2 billion that Blinken announced in Kyiv is for Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners, that are potentially at risk of future Russian aggression, the U.S. said.
Moscow’s recent rout in northeast Ukraine was its largest military defeat since the withdrawal of Russian troops from areas near Kyiv more than five months ago.
The latest package of weapons systems brings the total amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine to nearly $15.9 billion since President Joe Biden took office.
U.S. officials watching the counteroffensive have been careful not to declare a premature victory, noting that Russia still has substantial troops and resources. And they are wary of what Russian President Vladimir Putin may do to turn the tide.
But U.S. leaders also have made clear that the precision weapons and rocket systems provided by the U.S. and allies — including the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile, or HARM — have been key to the dramatic shift in momentum.
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:42Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A grocery store in Buffalo. A nightclub in Orlando. A Walmart in El Paso: All sites of hate-fueled violence against Black, Hispanic or LGBTQ Americans over the past five years. And all somber symbols of a “through line” of hate that must be rooted out, President Joe Biden said Thursday.
The administration gathered educators, faith leaders and others who have experienced violence firsthand for a discussion on how stop the violence, and promised action.
In 2020, hate crimes in the U.S. were the highest in more than a decade, and the Justice Department has pledged to increase efforts to counter it. Now, political violence fueled by lies about the 2020 election is overlapping with hate crimes: A growing number of ardent Donald Trump supporters seem ready to strike back against the FBI or others whom they believe are going too far in investigating the former president.
Biden spoke of a hate “through-line” that, along with racism, bigotry and violence, has long plagued the nation. Hate never goes away, he said, it only hides. And it is up to everyday Americans to stop giving it any air and to stamp it out.
“All forms of hate fueled by violence have no place in America,” he said.
The president’s somber, reflective tone on America’s long history of hate crime was in stark contrast to his sharp-tongued speech a few weeks ago, when he rebuked Trump-supporting Republicans for proliferating falsehoods about the 2020 election that have taken root and fueled violence.
On Thursday, Biden briefly mentioned the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as a moment that didn’t reflect “who we are” as a nation. And he said that hate had been given too much oxygen in politics, media and on the internet lately.
“The violence and the haters are in a minority. … Unless we speak out, it’s going to continue,” he said.
Biden pointed to new federal efforts to help schools, local law enforcement agencies and cultural institutions prevent and respond to such violence. He also called on Congress to impose stronger transparency requirements on social media companies, whose platforms allow anonymous hate to proliferate hate.
Among the attendees Thursday was Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. In remarks introducing Biden, Bro spoke about how losing her daughter was part of a bigger story.
“Her murder resonated around the world. But the hate did not begin nor end there,” Bro said. “While my daughter’s death received so much national and international attention, all too often these hateful attacks are committed against people of color with unacceptably little public attention.”
Other attendees included Sarah Collins Rudolph, who lost an eye and still has pieces of glass inside her body from a Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed her sister and three other Black girls at a Birmingham, Alabama, church 59 years ago. And the family of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh man from Arizona who was killed in a hate crime four days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Law enforcement officials across the country are warning and being warned about an increase in threats and the potential for violent attacks on federal agents or buildings in the wake of the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
“We must stand together and we must clearly say that a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in her opening remarks Thursday. “We are at an inflection point in our history, and indeed, our democracy. Years from now, our children and our grandchildren, they’re going to ask us, ‘What did you do in that moment?’”
Brandon Wolf, an LGBTQ activist, recounted from the lectern at the “United We Stand Summit” his experience being inside Pulse nightclub in 2016 in Florida when a shooter opened fire. He was in the bathroom at the time the shooting started.
“I remember panic, a sprint for the emergency exit,” he said. “I remember willing myself to put one foot in front of other, eyes locked on a sliver of light from a door left ajar.”
Wolf survived, but the shooter killed 49 people who were mostly LGBTQ and people of color. He told the crowd he knows firsthand how important it is to counter hate.
Civil rights groups in attendance said the summit was not just lip service, and they were planning for action.
“There was simply not talk and reflection today, but a commitment to action, by the government,” said Marc Morial of the National Urban League.
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| 2022-09-21T00:50:51Z
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President Biden will address a summit on Thursday aimed at combating “hate-fueled violence” as the White House and technology platforms announce actions intended to prevent and respond to acts of religious and racial intolerance.
Biden will host dozens of elected officials from both parties, as well as community activists and individuals who survived or lost loved ones in mass shootings and other hate-motivated acts of violence at the “United We Stand” summit, a senior administration official told reporters.
The White House said in a fact sheet that technology companies like YouTube, Twitch, Microsoft and Meta will announce new actions on their platforms to prevent hate-fueled violence, responding to concerns about mass shooters who are radicalized on the internet.
“The summit will put forward a shared vision for a more united America, demonstrating that the vast majority of Americans agree that there is no place for hate-fueled violence in our country, and that when Americans stand united to renew civic bonds and heal divides, we can help prevent acts of hate and violence,” the White House said in a fact sheet previewing the event.
Federal agencies will announce new steps to improve resources available to schools, law enforcement agencies, museums and libraries to respond to hate-fueled violence, the White House said.
The summit will also feature the launch of a bipartisan initiative led by former White House officials who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations to foster dialogues in communities across the country.
A senior administration official said Biden’s message to the summit would be that “we are more united than we are divided,” and Americans must work together to stop acts of hate.
A senior administration official noted that the threat of hate-fueled violence, which can include white supremacist groups and religious intolerance, is of personal importance to Biden. The president frequently cites the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and then-President Trump’s response, as a turning point in his decision to run for the White House.
The official pointed to the signing of a bill last year called the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act intended to improve hate crime tracking and reporting in response to a spike in anti-Asian American sentiment during the pandemic as further proof of Biden’s focus on the issue.
The country has seen a wave of hate-fueled crimes in recent years: A mass shooting at an Orlando LGBTQ nightclub in 2016; a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; a mass shooting at a grocery store in an African American neighborhood in Buffalo earlier this year; and a string of crimes targeting Asian Americans during the pandemic.
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| 2022-09-21T00:51:14Z
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BOSTON (AP) — College photos of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and memorabilia from his girlfriend at the time sold for $165,000 at auction, a Boston auction house said Thursday.
Boston-based RR Auction said it was a collection of never-before-seen photos and memorabilia from Musk’s college girlfriend, Jennifer Gwynne.
Musk changed his Twitter profile to one of the photos Wednesday. He’s currently in a public fight with Twitter to try to get out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media company, with a high-stakes October trial over the dispute looming.
Gwynne told The Boston Globe she read about an auction of test papers that Musk graded and realized she had far more personal items she could sell, including candid photos, a birthday card from him and a necklace he gave her.
Musk and Gwynne dated from 1994 to 1995 when they were both at the University of Pennsylvania. They split when Musk graduated, moved to California and said he couldn’t talk on the phone because it seemed like a waste of time to him, Gwynne said.
“We broke up just before he started conquering the world,” Gwynne said.
The gold necklace with a small green emerald that Musk gave to Gwynne in late 1994 as a birthday present sold for $51,000. A photo of Musk and Gwynne posing with four other resident advisors before a school formal in 1995 sold for $42,000, the auction house said. The birthday card Musk signed to Gwynne, calling her “Boo-Boo,” sold for nearly $17,000.
The 18 candid photos were sold individually. Some show Musk in North Providence, Rhode Island, where Gwynne is from. She now lives in South Carolina and told The Globe she plans to use some of the proceeds for her stepson’s college education. She and Musk have not kept in touch.
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| 2022-09-21T00:51:21Z
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Which outdoor dining chairs are best?
Outdoor dining chairs are a great addition to any outside space, from the front porch to the back deck. Whether you want to entertain guests or enjoy lounging outside, outside seating can let you expand your living space and liven up the area.
The best wooden dining chairs for outdoor use are the Christopher Knight Teague Outdoor Acacia Wood Dining Chairs. They’re durable, aesthetically pleasing and versatile enough for any space.
What to know before you buy outdoor dining chairs
Location and terrain
Before setting up an outside living space, consider the environment and terrain. This can affect the style, aesthetic, setup and type of furniture you get.
You can set up outdoor dining chairs and other furniture in many places, such as:
- On the porch.
- Beneath a large tree.
- On the patio or deck.
- Near a swimming pool.
- In a lounge area.
- Near a garden or greenhouse.
- By a firepit or outdoor portable campfire.
Wherever you put it, check the terrain. If the ground is uneven, it could make placing furniture tricky. Chairs, in particular, can more easily tip over or wobble when placed on rocky ground. The same goes for wet or slippery areas, such as by the pool or in a dip in the land.
It’s possible to place chairs and other dining furniture outside on uneven terrain, but this could require leveling out the area or adding support to the furniture’s feet or base.
Available space
Outdoor furniture takes up space, even smaller pieces such as dining chairs, so it’s a good idea to know how much room you have before filling it up. Measure the area to determine a few things, such as:
- How many chairs and other pieces of furniture you can easily fit.
- The ideal placement of the outdoor furniture.
- Any potential obstacles, such as a post or potted plants, which could limit the space.
- How many people you can realistically accommodate in the given space.
- How far back the chairs can go when pushed back or otherwise moved.
Once you have a rough idea of the available space, you can set up the furniture. Make adjustments as you go.
Weather and care
Outdoor dining chairs are usually made to handle general environmental conditions, such as rain or direct sunlight. That doesn’t mean they’re immune to damage, though. Common issues with outside furniture include:
- Sun damage from when ultraviolet rays hit the furniture. This could cause discoloration and fading. If the furniture is cheaply made, the sun and high heat could also melt or otherwise damage it. An outdoor umbrella could help prevent sun damage.
- Rust or rot when certain materials, such as wood, are exposed to frequent moisture. If you live in a rainy area or a place that hails or snows a lot, consider keeping the furniture covered.
- Mildew, a type of mold, is commonly found on outdoor furniture and can slowly ruin it.
- High temperatures can, among other things, cause furniture to expand, shrink or warp.
It’s often a good idea to store patio furniture in a covered space, such as a shed or in the garage, when not in use for long periods. This can extend its longevity and keep it in good condition for when you want to bring it back out. Additionally, clean the furniture regularly to prevent such issues as mildew or moisture damage.
What to look for in quality outdoor dining chairs
Style
Outdoor dining chairs come in different styles. Some have arms, and a few swivel. Many come with a cushioned seat and back for additional comfort. This cushion is often removable, making it easy to clean and replace if needed.
The designs and themes are limitless and include:
- Rattan garden furniture with woven patterns.
- Single or solid material and color.
- Minimalistic print or pattern (for example: geometric, floral and stripes).
- Rustic or vintage design or color.
- Contrasting frame and cushion colors or patterns.
- Different shapes for the cushion or seat.
Material
The material used in constructing the chairs is important because it affects everything from their durability to how comfortable they are. Common materials for the frame include:
- Wood: Teak, cypress and cedar are popular, and they are sometimes mixed with resin for a more natural appearance. Resin is used, especially in wicker furniture, because it is lightweight and resists environmental damage.
- Rattan: Popular in wicker weaves, rattan is durable but not water-resistant.
- Metal: Strong and long-lasting, common metals are stainless steel and aluminum. Metal can corrode or rust over time when it gets and stays wet. It can also heat up easily, making it uncomfortable to touch.
- Plastic: Although less durable in harsh weather, plastic chairs are often inexpensive. Some consist of high-density polyethylene, which is stronger.
The cushions often consist of synthetic materials somewhat resistant to weather damage. They include:
- Polyester.
- Acrylic.
- Polypropylene.
- Olefin.
Comfort
How comfortable the chairs are is especially important if you plan to sit in them for long periods. While some have cushions for extra support, not all do. Some use mesh that tailors itself to the way you sit. Others, such as metal or plastic chairs that don’t have cushions or mesh, can be uncomfortable to sit on. There are also ergonomic chairs, which can handle different postures and support the spine, arms, hips and legs.
Sets
It’s possible to buy individual outdoor dining chairs, but most come in sets of two to four.
Additional pieces
If you’re interested in sprucing up your outdoor space even more, here are some other pieces to add to your setup:
- Dining table.
- Footrests or ottomans.
- Benches.
- Standing umbrellas.
- Patio beds.
- Sofas.
- Side tables.
Many of these pieces serve two or more functions. Ottomans, for example, offer extra storage space. Umbrellas, meanwhile, can shield you and the furniture from the sun.
How much you can expect to spend on outdoor dining chairs
This depends on how many chairs are in the set, the materials and the build quality. A small set of outdoor dining chairs usually costs $100-$200. An individual chair could cost closer to $40-$60. Larger or more intricate sets go up to around $400.
Outdoor dining chairs FAQ
Can indoor dining chairs go outside?
A. Most indoor furniture is not designed for outdoor use. Their fabrics and other materials generally don’t resist things such as mold or sun damage. Placing inside chairs and other furniture outside could also lead to discoloration or deterioration.
Can I leave outdoor dining chairs outside all year?
A. Typically, yes. Be sure to cover the furniture during heavy rainfall, snow and hail. Winterizing outdoor furniture can also help preserve it much longer.
What are the best outdoor dining chairs to buy?
Top outdoor dining chairs
Christopher Knight Outdoor Acacia Wood Dining Chairs
What you need to know: These beautifully designed chairs are minimalistic and versatile enough for any outdoor space.
What you’ll love: This set’s two acacia chairs have a rich texture and are easy to assemble. They are also sturdy and can be positioned on uneven terrain.
What you should consider: The finish doesn’t resist heavy rainfall, snow or hail.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top outdoor dining chair for the money
Flash Furniture Black Rattan Indoor-Outdoor Stack Chairs
What you need to know: These rattan chairs are large enough for adults and go well with any outdoor dining table or furniture set.
What you’ll love: Available in four colors, including black and beige, these reliable chairs are lightweight and easy to position. They have a powder-coated metal frame that resists environmental damage. They come in sets of one, two and four.
What you should consider: The legs aren’t sturdy enough for rocky ground.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Kurz Stacking Patio Dining Armchair
What you need to know: This set of five stackable armchairs is perfect for entertaining guests outside.
What you’ll love: Constructed with powder-coated steel, these chairs are durable and can support up to 300 pounds. They have comfortable armrests and a breathable fabric back that keeps you from overheating during hot days.
What you should consider: They could start to rust if left outside in the rain for long.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
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Angela Watson writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-09-21T00:51:34Z
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What we learned at Nintendo Direct
Nintendo Direct happened on Tuesday, Sept.13. Similar to an Apple Event, this is where the company informs the public what new and remastered products will be released in the near future. This Nintendo Direct was all about Nintendo Switch games. Dozens of releases were covered in the 45-minute event. Most of the news was about products that will be released in 2023. However, some are currently available for preorder and others are already available for purchase. Here’s the breakdown.
Nintendo games currently available for preorder
While these games are not out yet, you can preorder them now.
Tunic (Sept. 27)
This game features a fox that washes up on the shore of a ruined island. The only help the fox has is a manual that’s missing pages. Help the fox find the pages by traveling to interconnected realms and surviving dangerous monsters and traps.
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Oct. 20)
Freely roam worlds with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Rabbid Peach, Rabbid Luigi and more to find coins, unlock secret paths, help the locals and earn rewards to grow stronger. Your goal is to defeat a malevolent entity to save your Spark friends.
Bayonetta 3 (Oct. 28)
In this new game, Bayonetta and her team are fighting to protect the world from invading manmade bio-weapons called Homunculi. It features old and new allies, as well as familiar abilities and new powers that will help you survive this demon-summoning adventure game.
Resident Evil Village Cloud (Oct. 28)
This is the eighth installment in the hugely popular survival horror franchise. It takes place a few years after Biohazard. Ethan and Mia Winters are living peacefully in a new location until tragedy befalls them once again. Resident Evil Biohazard, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are also slated for release as cloud versions in the near future.
It Takes Two (Nov. 4)
Cody and May are not the kindest people, and through a bizarre turn of events, the quarrelsome couple has been turned into dolls. To return to their human forms, the two will need to work together to overcome many challenges in this creative two-player platform game.
Sifu (Nov. 8)
Sifu follows the journey of a young Kung Fu student who is hunting down the murderers of his family. He has a unique mastery of Kung Fu, but no allies. Each time he loses a battle, he grows older and weaker. Can he complete his quest before his time runs out?
Romancing SaGa – Minstrel Song – Remastered (Dec. 1)
Originally released nearly two decades ago, this remastered and upgraded version of the classic game features eight heroes on a journey to save the land of Mardias.
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Feb. 24)
Nearly 30 years ago, Kirby’s Adventure was released. To help celebrate the milestone, you can preorder an upgraded version designed for up to four players. Besides Kirby’s familiar battle techniques, you can now use the new Mecha Copy Ability to blast foes from a distance. When you want to take a break from the adventure, there are new and returning sub-games to play.
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (Feb. 26)
This rhythm action game has 385 carefully selected music tracks that have been chosen from the Final Fantasy series. Two players can compete locally or up to four players can play online. After the game launches, 90 more songs will be available.
New Nintendo games you can buy right now
There are two Nintendo Switch games that were announced at the most recent Nintendo Direct that are already available: Various Daylife and Radiant Silvergun.
Various Daylife
Various Daylife is the all-new RPG adventure that lets you increase character strength and magic through over 100 types of daily tasks. Players use these skills to battle monsters, bad weather and more as they trail blaze their way across the continent of Antoecia.
Radiant Silvergun
While this title mysteriously vanished from the North American store, it was announced on Tuesday as being available for purchase. We’re hoping this is just a temporary glitch, so we’re still including it in this article.
Radiant Silvergun (originally released in 1998) is the classic arcade shooting game where players navigate a ship to take down waves of attacking enemies. Defeat enemies to get bonus points and rack up a high score.
Upcoming Nintendo Switch game releases
Here are some of the games currently planned for release in late 2022 or 2023.
- Fire Emblem Engage
- Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
- Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star
- Oddballers
- Front Mission 1st: Remake
- Front Mission 2: Remake
- Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life
- Octopath Traveler II
- Fae Farm
- Rune Factory 3 Special
- Factorio
- Ib
- Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End + the Secret Key
- Pilotwings 64
- Mario Party
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party 3
- Pokemon Stadium
- Pokemon Stadium 2
- 1080º Snowboarding
- Excitebike 64
- Golden Eye
- Just Dance 2023 Edition
- Harvestella
- Life Is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection
- Lego Bricktales
- Disney Speedstorm
- Fall Guys Season 2
- Cris Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
- Endless Dungeon
- Master Detectives Archives: Rain Code
- Tales of Symphonia Remastered
- Pikmin 4
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Nintendo Switch consoles
This is the standard Nintendo Switch. It offers up to nine hours of battery life (depending on software usage conditions) and has a 6.2-inch screen. You can connect up to eight consoles for local multiplayer gaming. Sold by Amazon
If all you’re interested in is handheld gaming, the Nintendo Switch Lite is the way to go. It’s compatible with any Nintendo Switch game that can be played in handheld mode.
Sold by Amazon
The OLED model of the Nintendo Switch gives you highly desirable features, such as a 7-inch OLED screen, a wired LAN port, 64GB of internal storage and enhanced speakers. It also has a built-in stand so you can adjust the console to your comfort in tabletop mode. Sold by Amazon
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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What are the best products to make the transition back to the office smoother?
With schools returning to classroom teaching, restaurants opening for business and travelers enjoying regular vacations, life is gradually returning to a new normal. After operating remotely for two years, many companies are also transitioning back to the office. From your daily commute to your eating and exercise habits, returning to the office changes your entire routine. So, whether your workplace has already decided to shift back to the office or you want to prepare for the eventual return, here are 12 things you need to transition out of WFH life.
How to make the transition back to the office smoother
Establish a new routine
While returning to the office is just one change, it affects your entire day, including what time you get up in the morning, what you eat for lunch and when you exercise. Instead of fitting your office work schedule into your current work-from-home schedule, which will ultimately end in frustration, consider setting a new routine. So, if you usually walk your dog during your lunch break, switch after work to let your dogs stretch their legs after a long day at the office. Or, if you know you can’t make it through a long day without yoga, consider waking up early.
Set boundaries for a healthy work-life balance
Heading back to the office doesn’t mean neglecting your current work-from-home balance. Before returning to the office, consider the positive aspects of your current routine and how to keep that healthy balance. For example, if spending extra time with your family is important, set boundaries to enable you to keep that family time.
Don’t neglect health and wellness
While working from home, practicing self-care or prioritizing health is more accessible. For instance, you can make a salad for lunch from your kitchen or meditate for 15 minutes in the afternoon. However, it’s easy to neglect your health when sitting in a desk chair all day, and the only snack you brought was potato chips. Prioritizing your health and wellness is vital when returning to the office.
Best products to transition out of WFH life
Health and wellness
Touchland Power Mist Hydrating Hand Sanitizer
With an abundance of new people and devices in the office, staying safe is essential. Hand sanitizer is a must-have, and this one replaces that alcohol smell with the scent of aloe, lime, pear and apple. Plus, it’s hydrating, travel-friendly and kills 99.99% of germs and bacteria. Sold by Ulta and Sephora
Sunny Health and Fitness Under Desk Mini Bike Exerciser
Those sitting at a desk all day will love this under-desk mini bike exerciser. It uses magnetic resistance to effortlessly bump up the intensity when cycling through the eight levels. It can also be placed on top of the desk and used to engage muscles in the arms. Sold by Amazon
Bentgo Stackable Lunch Container
Staying healthy while commuting to work is challenging. However, this stackable lunch container helps anyone pack a filling salad in individual compartments to prevent soggy lettuce. With a 54-ounce bowl, a large 10-ounce compartment and two 5-ounce sections, you can use it for much more than salad. Sold by Amazon
Tech
Thanks to this portable charger, don’t be caught without a phone or iPad on a long commute. The multi-protect safety system offers protection against overcharging, short-circuits and temperature control. It’s also slim and ideal for traveling. Sold by Amazon
Ember Temperature Control Smart Mug 2
Keeping a mug of coffee warm is challenging without a microwave or coffee pot nearby. This smart mug keeps drinks steaming hot for up to 1.5 hours, allowing users to choose their preferred temperature. You can also control it with an app, including temperature control, presets and notifications. Sold by Amazon
Leaving furry friends at home may be one of the hardest parts of transitioning back to the office. However, this dog camera gives pet owners the ability to check the video on their smartphones at any time of the day or toss a treat out. Sold by Amazon
Working from home provided peace and quiet that the office atmosphere doesn’t always allow. Those who want to focus on work without outside noise will need this pair of Bluetooth headphones. They feature active noise cancellation to block out surrounding noise and transparency noise to interact with others. Sold by Amazon
Self-care
Tower 28 Beauty SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray
From excess air conditioning to unknown allergens, new spaces can cause stress to the skin. This facial spray is designed to minimize visible skin irritation and redness. Plus, it can also help keep acne and blemish flare-ups at bay. Sold by Sephora and Kohl’s
Hydro Flask Stainless Steel Reusable Water Bottle
Water consumption is the key to staying healthy at work. This reusable water bottle cuts down on plastic use and holds 40 ounces of water for fewer refills. It also keeps drinks cold for up to 24 hours, is dishwasher-safe and completely leakproof. Sold by Amazon
Accessories
Opt for a shoulder bag to carry a laptop, notebook and other work essentials. This one is made with water-resistant fabric for rainy days and features several pockets. Plus, the strap is adjustable or removable for those who prefer to carry it with the handle. Sold by Amazon
Nixplay 10.1-Inch Smart Digital Photo Frame
This photo frame allows anyone to bring a little bit of home to the office. It uses Wi-Fi to allow anyone to add pictures from wherever they’re at using the app. Also, the smart sensor automatically wakes up the picture frame when you walk into the room, so you can be greeted with pictures of your loved one as soon as you enter the office. Sold by Amazon
Costa Farms Lucky Bamboo Tabletop Plant
Sometimes offices can seem dreary and stale. To brighten up the space, add this live tabletop bamboo plant. It’s effortless to take care of and thrives in both natural and artificial light, making it ideal for any building. Sold by Amazon
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Bre Richey writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Ilia Malinin made history late Wednesday when the 17-year-old wunderkind, and the heir apparent to Olympic champion Nathan Chen among American figure skaters, successfully landed the first quad axel in competition.
Malinin pulled off the four-and-a-half revolution jump while winning the lower-level U.S. Classic in Lake Placid, New York, before a small crowd in a mostly empty arena. It nonetheless sent shockwaves through the sport as the final and most difficult of the quadruple jumps had finally been conquered.
“It felt really good. When I’m practicing it, it’s pretty easy for me to figure out how to get the right timing and everything to have it be a good attempt,” said Malinin, whose supreme confidence in his jumping ability is evidenced by use of “quadg0d” on his social media platforms. ”To do it in competition is a different story because you have nerves and pressure that can get in the way of that. So I have to treat it like I’m at home and it feels pretty good.”
Chen, who for now has stepped away from the sport following his triumph at the Beijing Olympics, has toyed with the jump in practice. And two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu was unsuccessful in trying to land it at the Winter Games.
But there had been brief snippets of video Malinin had put out on social media over the past six months that indicated it was a work in progress. There were some reports from his training camp that he had landed the quad axel in practice.
What makes the axel more difficult than the other quads — the flip, toe flip, lutz, salchow, loops and toe loop — is that skaters face forward when they enter the jump, forcing them to complete an extra half revolution. Even the triple axel is hard enough that most women, and many men, have trouble getting it right.
“I had an idea for trying it for a little while now. March or April was when I really started to work on the technique and try to improve it,” Malinin said. “(Hanyu) definitely inspired me to try it here.”
Malinin put the jump first in his free skate, set to “Euphoria” by Labrinth and choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne, when he knew that he would be freshest. The base value of 12.50 is more than any other jump, and the 1.00 that Malinin received in grade-of-execution from the judging panel indicated they considered it clean.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do on the ice,” said Adam Rippon, a member of the 2018 Olympic team.
Malinin scored 185.44 points for his free skate and 257.28 points in total to win the competition. Kevin Aymoz of France was second with 236.17 points while Malinin’s American teammate, Camden Pulkinen, was third with 219.49 points.
Malinin was born in Virginia to Russian-born Uzbekistani skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov. He’s been considered the next big thing in American figure skating for years. He won Junior Grand Prix events in France and Austria, along with the world championship last year, and was second to Chen at the U.S. championships.
In most Olympic years, that would have made him a lock for the team. But officials with U.S. Figure Skating use a series of factors in making their decision, and they bypassed him in favor of adding Vincent Zhou and Jason Brown.
Chen ultimately won gold in record-setting fashion. He joined Zhou in skating the team competition, where the Americans won a silver medal that could still be elevated to gold pending the results of a Russian doping investigation.
Meanwhile, Malinin continued to work away from the spotlight on a jump that some thought impossible.
“Ilia Malinin landed the first quadruple axel in history tonight at an event in Lake Placid, NY, home of so many great American sporting moments,” two-time U.S. Olympian Johnny Weir, now a figure skating analyst for NBC Sports, tweeted afterward. “ 4.5 revolutions in the blink of an eye. Bravo!”
The U.S. Classic is an early season event that doesn’t get the attention of the Grand Prix events, which begin with Skate America on Oct. 21 in Boston. Malinin is scheduled to make his senior debut there in a field that includes Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan, a two-time runner-up at the world championships.
Malinin’s other Grand Prix assignment this season is Nov. 25 in Espoo, Finland.
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Roger Federer never let ’em see him sweat.
He played tennis with a style that only rarely betrayed the effort behind the masterful serving, the rare-in-its-day attacking and the flawless footwork. He was not one to grunt loudly on shots or celebrate wildly after them.
The way he wielded a racket helped him to win, yes, and win a lot, to the tune of 20 Grand Slam championships — a half-dozen more than any man before him — across a 15-year stretch, and 103 tournament titles in all, plus a Davis Cup trophy and Olympic medals for Switzerland, and spend week after week at No. 1 in the rankings. It also helped him manage to avoid serious injuries for so long and achieve the consistent excellence over decades he prized.
“Every time people write me off, or try to write me off, I’m able to bounce back,” Federer once said in an interview with The Associated Press. On Thursday, at a little more than a month past his 41st birthday and after a series of knee operations, he announced that there would be no more comebacks.
It is a loss for tennis, to be sure, and a loss for the sports world. The news arrives less than two weeks after Serena Williams, who owns 23 Grand Slam singles titles, played what she indicated would be the last match of her own illustrious career shortly before she turns 41.
“Some depart, others come and the world keeps going,” one of Federer’s great rivals, Rafael Nadal, said recently. “It’s a natural cycle.”
OK, the world will keep going. But tennis will not be the same.
Not without Williams, who was feted at the just-concluded U.S. Open. And not without Federer, whose last tournament came last year at Wimbledon, and whose final appearance on court will be next week in London at the Laver Cup, a team event his management group founded.
Tennis will miss Federer, the player. And Federer, the statesman and ambassador who spoke several languages. And Federer, the instantly recognizable global pitchman who brought his sport to places all over the world that didn’t even have tournaments through exhibitions to raise money for his charitable foundation.
Once a tantrum-throwing kid — on the court and off, where he would overturn a chess table when losing to his father — who grew up admiring basketball stars such as Michael Jordan and soccer players more than tennis players, Federer became a symbol of his sport and someone known as much for the way he carried himself as the hardware he accumulated.
“He was the epitome of a champion; class, grace, humility, beloved by everyone,” Hall of Famer Chris Evert wrote on Twitter.
He became friends with Vogue editor Anna Wintour and showed up at the Met Gala. He had a special jacket with a gold “15” on it to don right there on Centre Court after winning Wimbledon in 2009 to break Pete Sampras’ men’s mark of 14 career major trophies. He kept playing, and winning, well past an age that is customary for that sort of thing in tennis, to the point that his two sets of twins — now ages 13 and 8 — eventually were able to be present in courtside guest boxes. He returned after left knee surgery in 2016, the first significant absence of his career, and used a larger racket head and a rebuilt backhand to collect his last three Slams.
“There won’t be anybody like him,” said Tony Godsick, Federer’s agent since 2005. “There will be people who will win more tournaments or will have more Grand Slams. There will always be a new No. 1. There will always be someone holding a trophy up. But no one has had such a big impact and will continue to have such a big impact.”
When it came to defining success, Federer cared about longevity as much as anything. He was proud of facing — and defeating — stars from an earlier generation (Sampras and Andre Agassi), from his own generation (Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin), from the next generation (Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka) and from the current crop (Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas).
He chased the first group, dominated the second, dueled with the third — Nadal, with 22, and Djokovic with 21, eventually surpassed Federer’s Grand Slam total — and set an example for the fourth.
Aside from those major trophies won from 2003 to 2018, Federer put together unprecedented stretches of elite play, appearing in 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (and 18 of 19), along with 23 semifinals and 36 quarterfinals in a row.
His contests against Nadal, now 36, and Djokovic, 35, were happenings, tantalizing matchups against a backdrop of differing ways of play and contrasting personalities.
“I was lucky enough to play so many epic matches that I will never forget,” Federer wrote in the section of his goodbye post addressed to his competitors. “We battled fairly, with passion and intensity, and I always tried my best to respect the history of the game. I feel extremely grateful. We pushed each other, and together we took tennis to new levels.”
Predicted to be a star from the time he won the Wimbledon junior title as a teenager — a sentiment that only built when he stunned Sampras in the fourth round there in 2001 — it took Federer a little time to get pointed in the right direction: He did not win a quarterfinal match in his first 16 Grand Slam appearances.
There were six first-round exits in that span, including at the 2003 French Open. So then came this concern: Might Federer not quite be as good as he, and others, thought?
It all came together at Wimbledon that year, where Federer claimed his first Grand Slam title at the tournament that always meant the most to him. And off he went.
“There was pressure from all sides; also from myself. I wanted to do better in Slams,” Federer said that day. “I’ve always believed, but then in the end, when it happens, you don’t think that it is possible. It’s an absolute dream for me. I was always joking around when I was a boy: ’I’m going to win this.’”
He would end up with those men’s-record eight at Wimbledon, plus six at the Australian Open, five at the U.S. Open and one at the French Open. He is one of eight men with a career Grand Slam, holds the records for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the ATP computerized rankings and for oldest to get there, and set a mark for most total weeks that Djokovic eclipsed.
If anyone worried that Federer is gone for good, one of those athletes who wants to disappear after the playing days are done, he concluded his farewell note with these words: “To the game of tennis: I love you and will never leave you.”
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In a showdown between the Chiefs and Chargers, two of the league’s best teams led by two of the game’s bright young quarterbacks, an unheralded seventh-round draft pick who a few years ago was working alongside his mother in a Wendy’s restaurant stole the show.
The Chiefs’ Jaylen Watson picked off Justin Herbert at the goal line early in the fourth quarter Thursday night, headed the other way and was never touched on a 99-yard go-ahead touchdown that propelled Kansas City to a 27-24 victory.
“I don’t even remember what happened at that moment,” Watson said later. “It’s all so surreal.”
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 235 yards with TD passes to Jerick McKinnon and Justin Watson, and fill-in kicker Matt Ammendola was perfect in place of injured Harrison Butker. But it was the Chiefs’ defense, and Watson’s highlight-reel interception, that allowed Kansas City (2-0) to overcome its early problems in an early divisional test.
“The thing that I’m most proud of,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, “is that we stuck together. Nobody pointed any fingers.”
Two series after Watson’s go-ahead touchdown, things got even worse for the Chargers (1-1) when Herbert was drilled by defensive end Mike Danna while delivering a throw. He left the field clutching his side, returned one play later, then threw an incompletion that forced the Chargers to punt while trailing 24-17.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire promptly split the defense on a 52-yard run to set up a field goal for Kansas City.
Herbert, who finished with 334 yards and three touchdown passes, gamely tried to keep the Chargers alive. He threw a 36-yard dart on fourth down to extend their ensuing possession, then hit Joshua Palmer in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-goal to pull Los Angeles within 27-24 with just over a minute to go.
Kansas City recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock to end the game.
“You’re not going to see a quarterback in any level of football play tougher and do more for his team and will his team and give them a chance than him,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said of Herbert, who was getting X-rays and wasn’t available after the game. “There’s nobody who can do what he can do. Nobody. He showed a lot of guts. He showed what he shows us every day, that we’re never out of the fight. He brought us back and gave us a chance.”
The highly anticipated showdown between two of the league’s most prolific quarterbacks, each surrounded by premier playmakers, turned out early on to be a defensive slugfest.
The Chargers held the Chiefs to 13 yards in the first quarter, thanks to relentless pressure from Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack and the fact that Derwin James Jr. was just about everywhere, and kept a team that scored 44 points last week in Arizona off the scoreboard until Mahomes slung a sidearm pass to McKinnon early in the second quarter.
The Chargers fared better offensively, even though Staley opted to play conservatively, twice punting on fourth-and-2 near midfield. Dustin Hopkins kicked an early field goal before Mike Williams, dominating smaller Chiefs defensive backs, put the Chargers in position for Zander Horvath to catch a short TD pass.
Staley finally went for it on fourth down on the opening drive of the second half. And one play after Austin Ekeler picked it up, Williams made a one-handed grab around Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed to give the Chargers a 17-7 lead.
The game appeared to be getting away from the Chiefs when Mahomes was intercepted by Asante Samuel Jr. on their next possession. But replays showed Samuel didn’t control the ball and the call was overturned, and Mahomes capitalized on his second chance by throwing a 41-yard strike to Justin Watson for a touchdown.
The Chiefs tied it 17-all on the first play of the fourth quarter when Ammendola, who was signed earlier this week, knocked through a chip shot on fourth down at the goal line.
That set up Jaylen Watson’s pick-6 and the first lead Kansas City had all night.
“This is what it’s going to be. We know we’re playing in the toughest division,” Chiefs safety Justin Reid said. “We know we’re going to get everyone’s best shot. We have to come out and we have to perform.”
PRIME TIME
The game was the first in the $13 billion, 11-year deal between the NFL and Amazon Prime to exclusively stream Thursday night games. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on the sideline before kickoff.
INJURIES
Chargers C Corey Linsley (knee) and RT Trey Pipkins III (ankle) left in the third quarter. … Chiefs WR Mecole Hardman hurt his ankle in the third quarter but returned to the game. … Danna left in the fourth quarter with a calf injury.
UP NEXT
The Chargers return home to face Jacksonville on Sept. 25. The Chiefs visit Indianapolis the same day.
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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T00:52:19Z
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SUGAR GROVE, Ill. (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau insisted he has no regrets about his decision to jump from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series.
“I couldn’t be happier to be over here,” he said. “I have no buyer’s remorse.”
The 2020 U.S. Open champion called it the biggest decision he has made besides choosing his agent and added he has the “ultimate respect” for the PGA Tour and the opportunities it provided him.
DeChambeau spoke Thursday at Rich Harvest Farms in suburban Chicago, best known for hosting the Solheim Cup in 2009. It’s where the fifth LIV Golf event and fourth on U.S. soil is being held this weekend.
He is part of a field of 48 that includes Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia. Players on 12 teams of four will compete for points and prize money in a 54-hole stroke-play format with no cut and shotgun starts. The purse is $25 million, with $4 million going to the individual winner and $3 million to the winning team.
“What LIV Golf has provided is something new and unique, different, and with that to be said, there’s going to be some disruption and people aren’t going to like it, and I respect every single person that doesn’t think it’s good for the game of golf,” DeChambeau said. “I understand it, but I hope they are open-minded enough to go, you know what, let me just give it a chance, and if you give it a chance, you might see something pretty cool.”
The breakaway series remains a source of controversy.
DeChambeau and Mickelson along with several other players and LIV Golf are involved in an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, claiming it has used monopoly power to try to squash competition and has unfairly suspended players. Players who did not resign their PGA Tour memberships were suspended for competing in LIV events, and most of those suspensions are through March 2024.
There’s also the issue of where the funding is coming from, given Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. Critics say the players are essentially taking blood money.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat, is one of them. The Majority Whip and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman tweeted Thursday he was not happy to have the event in his state.
“This weekend, a golf glove will try and cover a blood-stained hand as the LIV golf tournament comes to Chicago in the Saudi government’s continued, desperate attempt to clean up its image,” Durbin wrote.
The players tried to avoid politics and keep the focus on golf.
“Everybody is obviously entitled to their opinion,” Anirban Lahiri said. “I have mine. But I don’t think it’s relevant. My golf is relevant. What we do with our actions for the community here are relevant. Those are all visible, and I think that’s what people need to see. That’s what people need to focus on because there’s a lot of good happening, but no one is talking about it.”
Joaquin Niemann, playing his second LIV event, sees the series helping “grow the game in a good way doing this team format.”
“It’s getting so exciting,” he added. “I’ve been loving it.”
DeChambeau hopes the PGA Tour and LIV Golf come together someday and allow players to compete on both tours. He insisted his goal is not to overtake the PGA Tour.
DeChambeau would love nothing more than to compete in the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina, next weekend. But because he made the jump, that won’t happen.
“I personally think that the team events are only hurting themselves by not allowing us to play, not allowing us to qualify through some capacity, in some facet,” he said.
Instead, he’ll watch the Presidents Cup from afar.
“I’m a golf fan, first and foremost,” DeChambeau said. “I’m going to watch golf wherever it’s played with some of the best players in the world, whoever it is. I think down the road that’ll change. I think that this will become something special, even more special than what it is now, and moving forward in the future, I’ll still watch other tournaments that I’ve won and done well at before.”
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T00:52:26Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, the White House announced Thursday.
“He wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Thursday’s press briefing at the White House.
The separate meetings are to be the first in-person encounter between Biden and the families and are taking place amid sustained but so far unsuccessful efforts by the administration to secure the Americans’ release. The administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to get them home, but despite plans for the White House meetings, there is no sign a breakthrough is imminent.
“While I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home — that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” Jean-Pierre said.
She added: “The Russians should accept our offer. The Russians should accept our offer today.”
Griner has been held in Russia since February on drug-related charges. She was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and has appealed the punishment. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are false. The U.S. government regards both as wrongfully detained, placing their cases with the office of its top hostage negotiator.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of announcing two months ago that the administration had made a substantial proposal to Russia. Since then, U.S officials have continued to press that offer in hopes of getting serious negotiations underway, and have been following up through the same channel that produced an April prisoner swap that brought Marine veteran Trevor Reed home from Russia, said a senior administration official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in advance of Thursday’s formal announcement.
The negotiations, already strained because of tense relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have also been complicated by Russia’s apparent resistance to the proposal the Americans put on the table.
The Russians, who have indicated that they are open to negotiations but have chided the Americans to conduct them in private, have come back with suggestions that are not within the administration’s ability to deliver, said the administration official, declining to elaborate.
The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but a person familiar with the matter previously confirmed it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer who is imprisoned in the U.S. and who has long been sought by Moscow. It is also possible that, in the interests of symmetry, Russia might insist on having two of its citizens released from prison.
Biden spoke by phone in July with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, but both families have also requested in-person meetings. On Friday, Biden plans to speak at the White House with Cherelle Griner and with the player’s agent in one meeting and with Elizabeth Whelan in the other, according to the official.
The meetings are being done separately so as to ensure that each family has private time with the president. But the fact that they are happening on the same day shows the extent to which the two cases have become intertwined since the only deal that is presumably palatable to the U.S. is one that gets both Americans — a famous WNBA player and a Michigan man who until recently was little known to the public — home together at the same time,
In the past several months, representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they perceived as a lack of aggressive action and coordination from the administration.
Cherelle Griner, for instance, told The Associated Press in an interview in June that she was dismayed after the failure of a phone call from her wife that was supposed to have been patched through by the American Embassy in Moscow left the couple unable to connect on their fourth anniversary.
Whelan’s relatives have sought to keep attention on his case, anxious that it has been overshadowed in the public eye by the focus on the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also conveyed disappointment when Whelan, despite having been held in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap last April that brought home Reed.
Friday’s meetings were scheduled before news broke this week of an unconnected trip to Russia by Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has been a veteran emissary in hostage and detainee cases. Administration officials reacted coolly to that trip, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Wednesday that dialogue with Russia outside the “established channel” risks hindering efforts to get Griner and Whelan home.
Administration officials say work on hostage and detainee cases persists regardless of whether a family receives a meeting with the president, though there is also no question such an encounter can help establish a meaningful connection.
Biden met in the Oval Office in March with Reed’s parents after the Texas couple stood with a large sign outside the White House calling for their son’s release. The following month, he returned home.
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Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter/com/etuckerAP
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| 2022-09-21T00:52:41Z
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DETROIT (AP) — Attorneys representing sexual-assault victims of a former University of Michigan sports doctor are asking a judge to approve a settlement fund, a key step in a $490 million deal between the school and more than 1,000 people.
The settlement between the school and victims of the late Dr. Robert Anderson was announced in January, but there has been no public activity.
A request was filed under seal Monday in Detroit federal court, seeking the establishment of a “survivors settlement fund” and the appointment of someone to oversee the fund.
“The documents are currently under seal and I cannot comment on them,” attorney Richard Schulte, lead negotiator for victims, said Thursday. “The settlement is progressing overall. We are hopeful we’ll have more concrete news in the near future.”
Anderson died in 2008 after working at the university for nearly 40 years. He was director of the campus Health Service and a physician for multiple sports teams, including football.
Former athletes, students and others who had no connection to the university — mostly men — said they were molested by Anderson during routine physicals or other visits.
Coaches, trainers and other staff in the athletic department did not question Anderson’s status, despite complaints, rumors and even jokes among athletes about his behavior, according to a report commissioned by the school.
The settlement is one of several by universities following sex abuse scandals. Michigan State University paid $500 million to settle claims from more than 300 women and girls who said they were assaulted by Larry Nassar, a campus sports doctor and a doctor for USA Gymnastics.
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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
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HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon expects to sign contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche soon, and it could make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.
MacKinnon wants to get something done before the season starts next month, adding he’ll shelve talks if an agreement isn’t reached by Oct. 12 when the reigning champions raise their Stanley Cup banner and begin their title defense.
“We’re pretty close,” MacKinnon said Thursday at the NHL/NHLPA player media tour outside Las Vegas. “I’d prefer it to be done. … It gets emotional. You feel like it’s personal sometimes. I’d like to get it done just so it’s not a distraction at all.”
Agent Pat Brisson said the sides are trying to get a deal done relatively soon. MacKinnon’s current contract expires after this season.
When it’s finalized, the deal could surpass Connor McDavid’s $100 million over eight years as the richest signed since the salary cap era began in 2005. McDavid, Edmonton’s captain whose $12.5 million cap hit is the highest in the league, said he hasn’t thought much about others passing him.
“It’d be good for hockey, I guess, to keep raising the bar,” McDavid said. “But ultimately the salary cap system’s a weird system where the more money you make, the less money someone else can make. It’s kind of a weird system that way.”
MacKinnon has said he’d be willing to take less money to keep Colorado competitive. It helps that the Avalanche have already signed Norris Trophy-winning and playoff MVP defenseman Cale Makar, captain Gabriel Landeskog and valuable forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen long term.
“I think the deal I sign will be fair,” MacKinnon said. “It’s not going to be a single digit (salary cap hit) or anything, but it’ll be good, I think, for both sides. Denver’s the only place I want to be.”
MacKinnon has been a finalist for the Hart Trophy as league MVP three times in the past five seasons and was one of Colorado’s best players during their Cup run with 24 points in 20 games.
At $6.3 million against the cap, MacKinnon has for quite some time been one of the most underpaid players in hockey.
“It’s not what you want, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s not the title you’re looking for. I’m glad we won a Cup though.”
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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NEW YORK (AP) — For the big leaguers who saw him play, Roberto Clemente was a breathtaking talent and unmistakable force on the field who made a powerful impact on young ballplayers.
His selfless humanitarianism left a lasting impression, too.
Major League Baseball celebrated its 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day on Thursday, with festivities centered in New York, where the Mets hosted the Hall of Fame outfielder’s former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Clemente died in a plane crash at age 38 attempting to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve 1972. To mark the 50th anniversary year of that tragedy, more than a dozen winners of baseball’s treasured Roberto Clemente Award for philanthropy and playing excellence joined Clemente family members at Citi Field for the pregame ceremony.
“The most important trophy that I have in my house. Because it’s not just a trophy,” said former Mets slugger and 2006 winner Carlos Delgado, like Clemente a proud native of Puerto Rico.
Hall of Famers Dave Winfield and Jim Thome were among the Clemente Award winners introduced on the field before highlights of the 15-time All-Star’s life and career played on the large video board in center field.
Players and coaches from both teams — all wearing Clemente’s No. 21, as did some others around the majors — lined the baselines. Puerto Rican musician José Feliciano performed the national anthem of Puerto Rico and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and Clemente’s 4-year-old grandson threw out a first pitch in an RC III Pirates jersey.
“It is a very special energy today,” said Luis Clemente, Roberto’s son. “The energy is totally different this year.”
Clemente, a cherished icon in baseball-loving Puerto Rico, became the first Caribbean and Latin American player enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1973.
The strong-armed right fielder won 12 Gold Gloves, four batting titles and the 1966 NL MVP award. He helped lead the Pirates to a pair of championships in 18 brilliant seasons and was the 1971 World Series MVP.
“I came in the league in ’73. I knew who Roberto Clemente was and I was going to be a right fielder, so I watched the way he charged the ball, picked it up, threw people out. I wish (we) would have been able to play so we could test each other’s arms. But he was an incredible player and an even more incredible human being,” Winfield said.
“Before I go, man, that was one of the things that I wanted to do was win this Roberto Clemente Award, because it would just acknowledge some of the work that had been done throughout my career,” he added. “I missed him by a year. But his legacy continues and we’re all part of that.”
Clemente got his 3,000th hit in his final at-bat, a double off Mets left-hander Jon Matlack on Sept. 30, 1972.
“You look back through the history and some of the things he did and what he means,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said, “it’s a great thing baseball is doing.”
“I think of him catching the ball down the right field line and spinning and throwing,” Showalter added, noting he swung a Roberto Clemente model bat in high school. “I think about his reckless abandon and how loud a runner he was. Can you imagine what it was like trying to tag him at second, coming in, back when you could actually slide with your spikes and stay hooked to the bag because it wasn’t hard and plastic and slick?”
There’s been a push in recent years for MLB to retire Clemente’s No. 21 for all teams, the way the sport did in 1997 to honor Dodgers pioneer Jackie Robinson for breaking baseball’s color barrier 50 years earlier.
“It’s a situation where I think it is gaining more momentum,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think today’s one of the best days of the year.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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BOSTON (AP) — Venezuelan migrants flown to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, “which was completely false," and were induced with perks such as $10 McDonald's gift certificates.
“No human being should be used as a political pawn,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is seeking class-action status in the lawsuit filed on behalf of several migrants who were aboard last week's flights and Alianza Americas, a network of advocacy groups.
DeSantis' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which also names Secretary of Transportation Jared W. Perdue as a defendant.
The lawsuit alleges that migrants were induced to cross state lines under false pretenses, a line that some Democratic officials are using to urge a federal investigation.
On Monday, Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, opened an investigation into the flights, but the elected Democrat did not say what laws may have been broken. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio, have asked the Justice Department to begin a probe.
Guesswork was rampant among government officials, advocates and journalists Tuesday about DeSantis’ next move, consistent with the element of surprise that he and another Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, have sought to achieve by busing and flying migrants across the country to Democratic strongholds with little or no notice.
Asked Tuesday about speculation that DeSantis may send migrants to his home state of Delaware, President Joe Biden said: “He should come visit. We have a beautiful shoreline.”
DeSantis declined to confirm speculation, based on flight-tracking software, that more migrants were on the move. He again defended his decision to fly about 50 Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard, saying their decisions were completely voluntary and, without evidence, that they were in awful condition when Florida got involved.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Nike released the United States’ World Cup jerseys Thursday, including a mostly white design for home matches that was criticized in advance by a pair of American players and some fans.
The home jerseys have red and blue stripes on each sleeve, somewhat similar to the stripes down each side of the Americans’ 2002 World Cup uniforms.
“We just as angry as y’all !!!” forward Tim Weah wrote last month after a version of the home jersey was posted online.
“Tried to tell them,” midfielder Weston McKennie wrote.
The bright blue away jersey has an ice-dying technique somewhat akin to a tie-dye pattern.
More than 100 people signed a change.org online petition calling for different designs.
“I rate it in the middle,” American midfielder Yunus Musah said during an Aug. 25 conference call. putting his right thumb sideways. “It’s not there,” he said with a thumbs up, then flipping to a thumbs down, “or there. It’s the middle.”
Donald Wine, a national board member of the American Outlaws supporters group, said he likely will purchase one of the new jerseys but hoped Nike and the U.S. Soccer Federation would take criticism into account in future designs. Wine said fans prefer a more distinctive look the team could become known for, such as Croatia’s adoption of a checkerboard pattern.
As an example, Wine cited the red and white horizontal stripes of the 2012-13 U.S. jersey that became known as Waldo, after the character’s attire in a children’s book.
“The outcry is not necessarily over the design of the jersey, or at least lack of design on the home, but it’s about the fact that I think a lot of people are looking for a jersey identity to call their own,” Wine said. “I am one of those people who have been long in the team Waldo camp for it being a permanent national team jersey. I think in the end people just want a jersey identity and these don’t do that. ”
Aaron Barnett, senior product director of Nike global football apparel, said Rolando Cruz, the apparel product line manager, coordinated with the USSF on the design.
“We know that our products always will elicit response,” Barnett said. “We’ve been doing products for multiple sports, not just soccer. And so we’re going to have some athletes that are super-excited about it and some they’re not excited about. And that’s just the balance that you always have in the process.”
The U.S. is back in the World Cup for this year’s tournament in Qatar after failing to qualify for 2018. The Americans open Nov. 21 against Wales
Barnett said most of the jersey manufacturing takes place in Asia. He said he did not know whether the workers who manufactured the kits were unionized.
Nike took over as the USSF equipment supplier in 1995 from Adidas, which had provided uniforms since 1973. The USSF announced a longterm extension with Nike last November without specifying a length.
Nike released the jerseys of 12 of its 13 World Cup teams Thursday: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, France, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The company delayed announcing England’s designs until Sept. 21 following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Adidas supplies seven — Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Spain and Wales — and Puma six — Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Serbia, Switzerland and Uruguay.
New Balance has Costa Rica and Panama, while four brands have one each Errea (Iceland), Hummel (Denmark), Marathon (Ecuador) and Majid (Iran).
Defending champion France has jerseys inspired by Toile de Jouy fabric that includes subtle prints of famous landmarks, such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Old Mill of Vernon, a Romanesque tower
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T00:53:25Z
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LOS ANGELES — With nearly all of the drama drained from the Dodgers’ regular season, much of what remains is backwash from last winter’s lockout – a five-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks including Tuesday’s doubleheader and a six-game series against the Colorado Rockies to come, the product of baseball’s drive to play 162 despite the late start this spring.
It doesn’t matter. The Dodgers just keep winning.
Trailing by four, the Dodgers scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat the Diamondbacks, 6-5, in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader.
“We came out pretty flat today,” said Austin Barnes, who had three hits including a two-run home run in the eighth. “It was kind of a weird, 12 o’clock game and a doubleheader.
“We came out a little flat. But it was nice to see us come to life in the later innings.”
With Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Will Smith all given the first game off, the Dodgers’ offense made some noise early but did little damage.
They loaded the bases with one out in the first inning but scored just one run on a sacrifice fly by Trayce Thompson, loaded them again with one out in the third and got nothing then put two on with one out in the fourth only to strand both of those runners as well.
In all, the Dodgers had seven hits in the first four innings but scored just that lone run. They went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position – the lone hit (a bases-loading single by Thompson in the third inning) didn’t produce a run – and stranded 12 runners on base before Barnes’ two-run home run in the eighth inning tightened the score.
Things got interesting after that. Hanser Alberto reached base on a throwing error by Diamondbacks third baseman Josh Rojas. Freddie Freeman and Justin Turner walked to load the bases yet again.
This time, Will Smith came off the bench to drive in one run with a single. Thompson drove in another with an infield single to third, tying the game. After Chris Taylor and Betts struck out, Rojas’ rough inning continued when Miguel Vargas’ hard ground ball to his left glanced off his glove for the go-ahead RBI single.
“I think it was just they gave us extra outs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We sort of hung in there. We pretty much did everything we could to give them the game and they just gave us extra outs.
“They just kind of let us hang around and then we got some big at-bats and won a ballgame.”
Veteran left-hander Tyler Anderson was activated from the paternity list and will start the second game Tuesday night.
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| 2022-09-21T00:53:30Z
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Patriots quarterback Mac Jones sat out Thursday’s practice with an illness.
Jones was a full participant for Wednesday’s practice after suffering a back injury during New England’s Week 1 loss at Miami.
He said on Wednesday that his back was feeling good and he expected to play on Sunday at Pittsburgh.
“It feels good. Everything feels good,” he said.
If Jones does have to miss Sunday’s game, backup Brian Hoyer would be in line to make his first start since Week 4 of the 2020 season. He stepped in that week for Cam Newton, who sat out the Patriots’ 25-10 loss at Kansas City with COVID-19.
Rookie Bailey Zappe is the third quarterback on New England’s roster. He was a healthy scratch in Week 1.
Hoyer has made starts for seven NFL teams during his 14-year career, but has lost his past 11 and amassed a record of just 16-23. The 2020 loss to Kansas City was his lone start with the Patriots. He was benched during the game in favor of Jarrett Stidham.
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More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T00:53:32Z
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LONDON (AP) — Reaction to Roger Federer’s announcement that he will retire from tennis after the Laver Cup in London next week.
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“I wish this day would have never come… it’s a sad day for me personally and for sports people around the world. I said it to you when we spoke and now it’s here. It’s been a pleasure but also an honor and privilege to share all these years with you, living so many amazing moments on and off the court.” — Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion and one of Federer’s biggest rivals on the court.
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“Roger Federer is a champion’s champion. He has the most complete game of his generation & captured the hearts of sports fans around the world with an amazing quickness on the court & a powerful tennis mind. He has had a historic career w/memories that will live on and on.” — Billie Jean King, a 12-time major champion.
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“Thank you for everything Roger. See you soon. Rocket.” — Rod Laver, who won 11 Grand Slam titles.
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“Roger has been one of my idols and a source of inspiration! Thank you for everything you have done for our sport! I still want to play with you! Wish you all the luck in the world for what comes next!” — Carlos Alcaraz, the top-ranked Spaniard who won the U.S. Open last week.
___
“What a heartfelt message, full of love, life, hope, passion and gratitude. Which is exactly how Roger played the game we love so much. Thank you thank you thank you, for all the magic!!!” — Martina Navratilova, a nine-time Wimbledon champion with 18 majors overall.
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“I had suggested to him years ago that he should stop. Not many tennis players at his level push into their 40s. But he was always interested in challenging himself. And at the end of the day, after 1,500-plus matches, the tires finally wore out. And he’s got things to do in his next stage.” — Tony Godsick, Federer’s agent since 2005.
___
“There was that incredible speed. There was the unreal work close to the net. And there was the way he made it all look devastatingly easy. But there was also, just as importantly, a kindness and a grace — one might even say a dignity — in the way he carried himself on the court and off.” — Anna Wintour, Federer’s friend and Vogue editor-in-chief.
___
“Cheers Roger. Thanks for the shared memories my friend. It was an honor to share time/experiences on the most hallowed grounds in our sport. Don’t be a stranger.” — Andy Roddick, a former No. 1 who lost to Federer 16-14 in the fifth set of the 2009 Wimbledon final.
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”Roger – you have always been such a huge inspiration to me. Your elegance, your grace, your beautiful game. I have always held you in the highest regard and want to congratulate you for an amazing career. Tennis won’t be the same without you!” — Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic.
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“Thank you for doing more for tennis than any single individual. Thanks to you competitors and fans across the world get to experience and enjoy it all over the world. Congratulations on your achievements and the people you continue to impact in and away from tennis.” — Milos Raonic, the 2016 Wimbledon runner-up from Canada.
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“I LOVE YOU, Roger. Thank you for everything you’ve done in tennis and with myself. Tennis world will never be the same without you.” — Juan Martín del Potro, an Argentine player who beat Federer in the 2009 U.S. Open final for his only major title.
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“Roger, there was and never will be anyone like you. You crushed me on the court, but were so nice and genuine that I couldn’t hate you for it. You made the game better on and off the court and you will be missed. Good luck, you have earned all the success and joy in the world.” — James Blake, a former player from the United States.
___
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://www.ktalnews.com/sports/ap-quote-box-reaction-to-federers-retirement-from-tennis/
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