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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41862567
| 2022-12-14T01:49:13
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en
| 0.738227
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CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — It is a new day across the nation for the LGBTQIA+ community when it comes to marriage rights.
Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 13, 2022, President Biden signed the “Respect for Marriage Act” into law.
Back in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal, but a future court could have repealed that decision. That’s what’s happened this year when the high court overturned a previous decision to legalize abortion.
Because Congress and President Biden enacted this new law, the Supreme Court can’t overturn it. Among those at the White House for the signing was Andrew Schneider from Fairness West Virginia.
“It’s a huge honor. This is my first time (visiting the White House). This law would protect both marriages, interracial marriages and same-sex marriages, and bring about at long last, full marriage equality under statute,” said Schneider.
The bill had significant bipartisan support. All Democrats in Congress voted yes. 39 Republicans supported the bill in the House, and 12 GOP senators said yes. They included Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who authored the bill.
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https://www.wowktv.com/news/west-virginia/west-virginia-resident-attends-white-house-same-sex-marriage-bill-signing/
| 2022-12-14T01:49:19
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en
| 0.94882
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41862625
| 2022-12-14T01:49:19
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41862837
| 2022-12-14T01:49:25
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41862884
| 2022-12-14T01:49:31
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41862887
| 2022-12-14T01:49:38
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41863113
| 2022-12-14T01:49:44
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/milwaukee-bucks/articles/41863267
| 2022-12-14T01:49:50
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/clemson-tigers-football/articles/41862520
| 2022-12-14T01:50:02
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/clemson-tigers-football/articles/41862667
| 2022-12-14T01:50:08
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/clemson-tigers-football/articles/41862804
| 2022-12-14T01:50:14
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/clemson-tigers-football/articles/41863060
| 2022-12-14T01:50:27
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/clemson-tigers-football/articles/41863260
| 2022-12-14T01:50:34
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| 0.738227
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Lifestyle
5 edible mushrooms found in India
Mushrooms are spore-bearing fleshy bodies of a fungus. There are more than 2000 varieties of mushrooms found around the world, of which only a few are edible. They are an essential ingredient in a variety of dishes in multiple cuisines, notably Chinese, Korean, European, and Japanese. Read on to know what types of mushrooms are found in India and what are their health benefits.
Oyster mushroom
Oyster mushrooms are one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms worldwide. These mushrooms have an oyster-shaped cap with a fleshy arm. These grow in overlapping clusters and are usually white and brown. These mushrooms have antioxidant, antitumor, and anti-inflammatory properties. These are rich in nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin C, folic acid, niacin, and vitamins B-1 and B-2.
Lingzhi mushroom
Also known as reishi, the lingzhi mushroom has a large and red kidney-shaped cap with a shiny exterior and woody texture. When fresh, the lingzhi mushroom is soft, cork-like, and flat. They have traditionally been used to treat lifestyle diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, hepatitis, ulcer, arthritis, nephritis, and insomnia. These mushrooms are protein-rich and packed with potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and iron.
White button mushroom
As indicative of its name, the caps of these mushrooms look like small white buttons. These are one of the most consumed varieties and are rich in nutrients like niacin and selenium. These nutrients help in weight loss and are known to prevent breast cancer. White button mushrooms have special carbohydrates that give a strong metabolism rate and also maintain glucose levels.
Shiitake mushroom
Shiitake mushrooms are considered medicinal as they are packed with anticaries agents. They are tan to dark brown, with umbrella-shaped caps that grow between two and four inches. Shiitake mushrooms contain eritadenine, a compound known to reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. They also contain beta-glucans that reduce inflammation and help prevent the intestines from absorbing cholesterol.
Porcini mushroom
Porcini mushrooms are a cult favorite in the culinary arts for their rich flavor and numerous health benefits. They have brown semi-circle-shaped convex caps with thick white stalks. This meat-like mushroom contains ergosterol which helps fight against infection-causing diseases. These mushrooms are a good source of B vitamins, protein, copper, potassium, zinc, and selenium. They are also rich in dietary fiber.
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https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/lifestyle/5-types-of-mushrooms-found-in-india/story
| 2022-12-14T01:51:04
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en
| 0.943677
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Lifestyle
Health benefits of sandalwood oil, an Ayurvedic ingredient
One of the most fragrant oils, sandalwood oil has been a major ingredient in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for centuries. Extensively used in health, beauty, and traditional Indian rituals, this antiseptic oil has a mild earthy aroma and is rich in naturally occurring chemical compounds called sesquiterpenes which help improve your health and well-being. Here are five health benefits of sandalwood oil.
Lowers stress and anxiety
Well-known for its relaxing and calming properties, the woody, warm and refreshing aroma of the oil helps pacify your mind and keeps your emotions under control. It also helps reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. You can rub sandalwood oil on your ankles and wrist and inhale it directly to reduce anxiety and stress. It also improves your sleep quality.
Good for your skin
Packed with antioxidant properties, sandalwood oil promotes your skin's health and makes it healthy and glowing. It eliminates free radicals from the body and reduces oxidative damage. Rich in anti-inflammatory properties, it soothes your skin and reduces pimples and acne. This oil is also effective against scars, wrinkles, fine lines, blemishes, and dark spots and fights aging signs. It also protects against skin tanning.
Boosts your dental health
Packed with astringent properties, sandalwood oil helps prevent the growth of cavity-causing bacteria in your mouth and promotes your dental health. It helps cleanse your mouth, treats bleeding gums, and heals minor wounds in your mouth. This oil also strengthens the gums and improves secretions in the gastrointestinal tract that helps enhance salivation. This mild therapeutic oil also helps treat oral mucositis.
Helps control blood pressure
A hypotensive agent present in sandalwood oil helps control your systolic blood pressure and reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. According to research, a specific type of mildly sedative ganglionic blockers or hypotensive agents present in sandalwood oil helps lower your blood pressure levels. You can mix edible sandalwood oil in milk and drink it regularly to regulate your blood pressure.
Great for your hair
Packed with anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, sandalwood oil helps treat hair problems like hair fall and dandruff and makes it soft, smooth, and healthy. The astringent properties in it prevent excess sebum production in the scalp, treat split ends, and add luster to your mane. It will also soothe your scalp and promote hair growth while adding moisture and shine to your strands.
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https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/lifestyle/health-benefits-of-sandalwood-oil/story
| 2022-12-14T01:51:10
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en
| 0.933785
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Technology
Samsung's Good Lock app expanded to 20 more regions
Tech giant Samsung is finally expanding its Good Lock app service to more markets. At least 20 more countries, which include the Netherlands, Mexico, Portugal, and Malaysia, will have access to this app. The app offers a range of customization features which include but are not limited to the home screen and lock screen for Galaxy smartphones and tablets.
Why does this story matter?
- One long-standing drawback of the Good Lock app was that it was limited to certain regions.
- At the time of launch in 2016, it was only available in six countries, including South Korea and the US. Fortunately, things are changing now as the service is being made available to more areas across the globe.
- However, the company is yet to release an official statement.
The Good Lock app is now available in these countries
The Good Lock app is being released in multiple nations, including Brazil, Malaysia, Chile, the Netherlands, Colombia, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, Sweden, and Thailand. Among the earliest regions that had access to this app were Korea, India, the US, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UAE, and China.
What features does the Good Lock app offer?
The Good Lock app offers a wide range of customizations that allows you to personalize your home screen, lock screen, recent app layout, clock face, Quick Settings, and more. Recently, the company released an add-on module called Galaxy to Share, which easily transfers and syncs the system settings from the Good Lock app to other Samsung devices as well.
These modules are compatible with Galaxy to Share
As of now, you can share settings from the Good Lock modules to Galaxy to Share. The compatible modules include HomeUp, ClockFace, Theme Park, Keys Cafe, LockStar, QuickStar, One Hand Operation+, and Sound Assistant. The Good Lock app can be downloaded from the Galaxy Store.
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https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/samsung-expands-good-lock-app-to-more-countries/story
| 2022-12-14T01:51:16
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en
| 0.95659
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/chicago-bears/articles/41863337
| 2022-12-14T01:52:40
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/chicago-bears/articles/41863362
| 2022-12-14T01:52:46
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/phoenix-suns/articles/41862838
| 2022-12-14T01:52:52
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/phoenix-suns/articles/41862911
| 2022-12-14T01:52:59
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings/articles/41862420
| 2022-12-14T01:53:05
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings/articles/41862519
| 2022-12-14T01:53:11
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings/articles/41863278
| 2022-12-14T01:53:17
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings/articles/41863298
| 2022-12-14T01:53:23
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/indianapolis-colts/articles/41862314
| 2022-12-14T01:53:29
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/indianapolis-colts/articles/41862687
| 2022-12-14T01:53:35
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/indianapolis-colts/articles/41863046
| 2022-12-14T01:53:41
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/indianapolis-colts/articles/41863132
| 2022-12-14T01:53:47
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/columbus-blue-jackets/articles/41862442
| 2022-12-14T01:53:53
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nhl/columbus-blue-jackets/articles/41863242
| 2022-12-14T01:53:59
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| 0.738227
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Parents anxious to finally vaccinate their youngest children against COVID-19, strap in: A lot is set to happen over the next week.
On Wednesday, both Moderna and Pfizer will have to convince what’s essentially a science court — advisers to the Food and Drug Administration — that their shots work well in babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
The FDA weighed in late Friday with its own analysis of Moderna’s vaccine, finding the shots appear safe and effective for children as young as 6 months old. A federal review of Pfizer’s vaccine for the littlest kids is expected by Monday.
Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. If the FDA’s advisers endorse one or both shots for them — and the FDA agrees — there’s still another hurdle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend whether all tots need immunization or just those at high risk from the virus.
Adding to the complexity, each company is offering different dose sizes and number of shots. And the week won’t even start with the littlest kid debate: Moderna first will ask FDA’s advisers to support its vaccine for older children.
Only a handful of countries, including China and Cuba, have offered different types of COVID-19 vaccinations to children younger than 5.
Here’s a primer to help keep all the developments straight.
PFIZER’S PLAN FOR THE LITTLEST
Pfizer has a pediatric track record — its COVID-19 vaccine is the only type the FDA allows for children of any age. Two doses plus a booster are cleared for everyone 5 and older. Shots for the 5- to 11-year-olds contain a third of the dose given to teens and adults.
For kids younger than 5, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech lowered the dose even more, to a tenth of the adult dose. The trade-off is a need for three shots, the first two given three weeks apart and the last at least two months later.
MODERNA’S PLAN FOR THE LITTLEST
Moderna is seeking FDA clearance for two shots, each a quarter of its adult dose, given about four weeks apart for kids younger than 6. (Moderna tested a slightly different age limit than Pfizer.)
The FDA currently allows Moderna’s vaccine to be used only in adults. But some countries allow two full-size doses for teens and half-size shots for kids ages 6 to 11 — which Moderna also hopes to offer in the U.S.
MAKING THEIR CASE
Pfizer disappointed parents back in December when a study found two shots weren’t quite strong enough. So researchers tested a third shot in youngsters age 6 months through 4 years during the winter surge of the omicron variant.
Pfizer’s preliminary data showed after three shots, children developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies with no safety problems. In addition, the vaccine appeared 80% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. But that calculation was based on just 10 cases diagnosed among study participants by the end of April, and it could change if more cases have occurred since.
Moderna’s study found tots ages 6 months through 5 years developed high antibody levels after two of its shots. But while there were no severe cases of COVID-19 during the trial, the vaccine was only about 40% to 50% effective at preventing milder infections.
In their review, FDA scientists noted the study was too short to determine how long the vaccine’s effectiveness would last. They also said that it was likely that a booster would be needed, based on the experience with adults.
Moderna recently added a booster dose to the tot study — and disclosed in a presentation for Wednesday’s meeting that it also plans to allow participants a chance to help test an omicron-targeting booster.
WHEN COULD SHOTS START?
If the FDA authorizes one or both shots — a decision expected shortly after its advisory panel’s meeting — all eyes move to the CDC. That agency recommends how to use vaccines. Which tots should get COVID-19 vaccination will be an important debate as the coronavirus doesn’t tend to make children as sick as adults yet nearly 500 deaths in U.S. children under 5 have been reported.
The CDC’s own vaccine advisers are scheduled to meet next Friday and Saturday, and a final decision by the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, should come shortly after they’re done.
If all those steps fall into place, vaccinations could begin in many areas June 21.
VACCINATION SITES
Pediatricians, other primary care physicians and children’s hospitals are expected to vaccinate most of the youngest kids. Limited drugstores will offer them for at least some of the under-5 group — parents should check local availability for different ages. The Biden administration says it also is working with a variety of other groups, such as children’s museums, to offer pop-up clinics and reach even more youngsters.
WHAT IF MY CHILD RECENTLY HAD COVID-19?
About three-quarters of children of all ages are estimated to have been infected at some point during the pandemic. It’s a question sure to come up as CDC’s advisers make recommendations for the littlest kids, so stay tuned.
For older ages, the CDC has recommended vaccination anyway to lower the chances of reinfection. There’s no firm guidance on how long to wait; the CDC has said people may wait as long as three months.
DEMAND IS UNCLEAR
There are roughly 18 million children younger than 5, and many parents are eager to get their tots vaccinated. But it’s unclear how many ultimately will, given disappointing vaccine uptake by older children.
According to the CDC, just 29% of kids ages 5 to 11 have gotten two doses, and about 60% of 12- to 17-year-olds.
WHAT ABOUT MODERNA AND OLDER KIDS?
On Tuesday, the FDA’s advisers will consider Moderna shots for older kids, those 6 to 17 — a decision that might alleviate some parent confusion. The FDA review released Friday also included an analysis of the company’s shots for that age group.
The FDA has held up Moderna’s teen vaccine for months while it investigated a rare side effect, heart inflammation. That’s mostly a risk for teen boys and young men, and also can occur with the Pfizer vaccine. The FDA review said its latest analysis of reports of myocarditis both in the U.S. and in other countries did not find conclusive evidence of a difference in risk between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/health-news/ap-health/marathon-us-hearings-to-decide-fate-of-covid-shots-for-tots/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:11
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en
| 0.954788
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BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s health minister kicked off a marijuana giveaway Friday, handing out the first 100 seedlings of a planned distribution of 1 million plants a day after the country legalized cultivation and possession of the drug.
Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who has been the driving force behind legalization, presided over the giveaway at a fair and exhibition held in the northeastern province of Buriram, a stronghold of his Bhumjai Thai party.
Anutin has touted growing marijuana, also called cannabis, as a way to increase farmers’ incomes.
His party draws heavily on the support of low-income farmers in the largely agricultural northeast. He was cheered by a crowd of thousands as he gave a speech taking credit for legalizing marijuana, which he said would bring financial benefits to “individual growers, community farmers (and) entrepreneurs.”
His party said more than 350,000 households have already registered as cannabis growers.
Officials said the 1 million plants will be distributed nationwide through the Agriculture Department’s regional offices over the next six months to promote marijuana cultivation.
The government insists that officially, only medical marijuana has been legalized. Despite that, there are no plans for serious monitoring of small-scale cultivation and sales, so at least in the privacy of one’s home there appears to be no reason to believe a person can get into trouble for recreational smoking.
Officials have warned, however, that smoking in public will be frowned upon and subject to possible fines. Regulations are expected to be issued for marijuana similar to those for cigarettes and alcohol, such as minimum age requirements for purchasing and restricting driving under the influence.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/health-news/ap-health/plant-giveaway-promotes-thailands-medical-marijuana-sector/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:18
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en
| 0.971408
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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government is buying more monkeypox vaccine as a surprising international outbreak continues to grow, health officials said Friday.
As of Friday, the U.S. had identified 45 cases in 15 states and the District of Columbia. More than 1,300 cases have been found in about 30 other countries outside the areas of Africa where the virus is endemic.
Officials say the risk to the American public is low, but they are taking steps to assure people that medical measures are in place to deal with the growing problem.
A two-dose vaccine, Jynneos, is approved for monkeypox in the U.S.
The U.S. government has 72,000 Jynneos doses, and will get 300,000 more doses from its manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, over the next several weeks, said Dawn O’Connell, who oversees the government’s stockpile of emergency vaccines and treatments.
On Friday, the government announced it had ordered 500,000 more Jynneos doses from Bavarian Nordic to be delivered late this year. The company also is holding other doses owned by the U.S. government, she said.
“We have the vaccines and treatments we need to respond,” said O’Connell, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. It does not usually spread easily among people.
Last month, cases began emerging in Europe and the United States. Many — but not all — of those who contracted the virus had traveled internationally. Most were men who have sex with men, but health officials stress that anyone can get monkeypox.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that every U.S. case they had looked at involved very close contact.
Officials have alerted doctors to watch for monkeypox cases and offered vaccinations to people in contact with those who were infected.
So far, over 1,400 vaccine courses and over 110 treatment courses have been sent to affected state and local jurisdictions, officials said.
___
The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/health-news/ap-health/us-buys-more-monkeypox-vaccine-as-global-case-count-grows/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:25
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en
| 0.974802
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LONDON (AP) — A British judge on Friday rejected a bid to ground a flight due to take more than 30 asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda next week, but gave the migrants permission for a last-minute appeal.
The flight leaving Tuesday is the first under a controversial deal between the U.K. and the East African country. Britain plans to send some migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in small boats to Rwanda, where their asylum claims will be processed. If successful, they will stay in the African country. Human rights groups have called the idea unworkable and inhumane.
Judge Jonathan Swift on Friday refused a request from a group of the asylum-seekers, backed by a trade union and refugee groups, for an injunction grounding the flight. But he said an appeal could be heard on Monday, and a full legal challenge to the British government’s new Rwanda deportation policy is to be held before the end of July.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Britain’s immigration minister, Home Secretary Priti Patel, welcomed the ruling. Patel said the government would “not be deterred” by further challenges.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said he was disappointed and called the situation “extremely worrying.”
At the High Court in London, government lawyer Mathew Gullick said 37 people had been due to be aboard Tuesday’s flight, but six have had their deportation orders canceled. He said the government still intended to operate the flight, as well as future ones.
The British government has not provided details of those selected but refugee groups say the group includes people fleeing Syria and Afghanistan who arrived in Britain across the English Channel. The U.K. has paid Rwanda 120 million pounds ($158 million) upfront for the plan.
The claimants’ lawyer, Raza Husain, said “the system is not safe” and U.N. officials say the U.K. plan violates the international Refugee Convention.
Laura Dubinsky, a lawyer representing the U.N. refugee agency, said refugees sent to Rwanda under the program were at risk of “serious, irreparable harm.” She said the agency had “serious concerns about Rwandan capacity” to handle the arrivals.
Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and already home to tens of thousands of refugees. Competition for land and resources contributed to decades of ethnic and political tensions that culminated in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsi and the moderate Hutu who tried to protect them were killed.
President Paul Kagame’s government has achieved significant economic progress since the genocide, but critics say it has come at the cost of political repression. Obedience to authorities is widely enforced, one reason Rwandan cities and towns are clean and among the most orderly in Africa. There is little political opposition.
Patel said “Rwanda is a safe country and has previously been recognized for providing a safe haven for refugees.”
“We will continue preparations for the first flight to Rwanda, alongside the range of other measures intended to reduce small boat crossings,” she said.
The British government says it welcomes refugees who come by approved immigration routes but wants to put the criminal smuggling gangs who operate dangerous Channel crossings out of business.
“We cannot allow people traffickers to put lives at risk and our world-leading partnership will help break the business model of these ruthless criminals,” Johnson said on Twitter.
More than 28,000 migrants entered the U.K. across the Channel last year, up from 8,500 in 2020. Dozens have died, including 27 people in November when a single boat capsized.
___
Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/asylum-seekers-make-uk-legal-bid-to-stop-rwanda-deportations/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:32
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en
| 0.970245
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities on the Gulf coast of Mexico said the bodies of seven men have been found dumped on a roadway in the Huasteca region, long popular among tourists.
Prosecutors in San Luis Potosi state said late Thursday the bodies did not appear to be from the township of Aquismon, and may have been killed elsewhere and dumped in the rural area.
Photos of the bodies showed extensive bruising on the corpses, suggesting they had been beaten.
Writing scrawled in markers on the corpses said “this is what happened to me for working with the Gulf,” an apparent reference to the Gulf cartel, which operates mainly along the U.S. border to the north.
The messages were signed “Valles Operation O.B.,” apparently a reference to a rival gang.
The Huasteca region has long been popular with Mexican tourists for its waterfalls and crystalline rivers.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/battered-bodies-of-7-men-dumped-on-road-in-mexico/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:39
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en
| 0.971807
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LONDON (AP) — When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no-confidence vote this week, at least one other world leader shared his relief.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was “great news” that “we have not lost a very important ally.”
It was a welcome boost for a British leader who divides his country, and his party, but has won wide praise as an ally of Ukraine.
Johnson’s relatively narrow victory in Monday’s Conservative Party vote — which left him in power but in danger of further rebellions — has implications beyond Britain’s shores.
“It’s quite hard to address whatever international challenges we face while you are battling your own political party,” said David Lawrence, a research fellow at international affairs think-tank Chatham House.
Johnson has many opponents in London and at European Union headquarters in Brussels, but he gets a warmer reception in Kyiv. His staunch backing for Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion, backed by some 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) in U.K. military and humanitarian aid, has won him many fans. A bakery in Ukraine’s capital has even created a sweet treat named the “Boris Johnson”: a puff pastry cake topped with meringue and ice cream, vaguely reminiscent of the British leader’s blond mop.
Lawrence says Johnson’s rapport with Zelenskyy — “both quite big personalities” — has been an asset for both leaders. But experts say Johnson’s weakness is unlikely to have a serious impact on Britain’s backing for Ukraine.
Support for military aid to Kyiv and tough sanctions on Moscow is strong among both Britain’s governing Conservatives and the left-of-center Labour Party opposition.
“I think any British government would have done the same,” Lawrence said.
Johnson’s woes have more immediate repercussions for Britain’s relations with the EU. He won election in 2019 on a promise to “get Brexit done” and has since feuded with the bloc over trade rules for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU member.
A dispute over customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. has sparked a political crisis in Belfast that is destabilizing the delicate balance between Irish nationalist and British unionist communities that maintains Northern Ireland’s peace.
Britain and the EU each accuse the other of refusing to compromise. Now Johnson says he will act unilaterally — and, critics say, illegally — by passing a law to rip up part of the binding treaty he signed with the bloc.
The no-confidence vote has delayed that bill, which had been expected this week. Experts say the vote has reduced Johnson’s room to maneuver, because he can’t afford to anger either Brexit hard-liners or more pro-EU lawmakers in his party. It has also made the EU less willing to compromise, increasing the chances of a trade war between Britain and the bloc.
“The European Union increasingly thinks that Boris Johnson is too weak to be worth making concessions to,” said Anand Menon, director of the U.K. in a Changing Europe think-tank. “(There’s) a sense on the EU side of ‘Why the hell would we make concessions now, because this guy might not be in charge for very long?’”
Brexit is central to Johnson’s foreign policy. He has long argued that leaving the EU gives the U.K. the chance to become a “Global Britain,” striking new trade deals and alliances around the world.
He has given U.K. foreign policy an “Indo-Pacific tilt” that seeks to strengthen economic, diplomatic and military ties with countries including India and Japan to counter the growing assertiveness of China. At the same time, however, his government has cut foreign aid and proposed shrinking the diplomatic service — moves Lawrence says are “completely contradictory to ‘Global Britain.’”
The no-confidence vote in Johnson was spurred by lockdown-breaching parties in government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic, attended by Johnson’s staff and in some cases the prime minister himself. The revelation that government officials partied while millions of Britons were barred from socializing with friends or even visiting dying family members caused anger in the country. It also crystallized some Conservatives’ concerns about a leader who often behaves as if rules don’t apply to him.
Under party rules, Johnson can’t face another challenge for a year. But 41% of Conservative lawmakers voted to remove him, and few believe he is safe in his job.
If Johnson is ousted, or quits, the party will elect a new leader, who will also become prime minister. Several potential contenders have strong track records on foreign affairs and might tweak the focus of U.K. international policy. Current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss champions a “network of liberty” involving capitalist democracies. Ex-Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has spoken of a “values based” foreign policy. Lawmaker Tom Tugendhat heads the House of Commons’ influential foreign affairs committee and is hawkish on China.
Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at political consultancy the Eurasia Group, says that fixing the U.K.’s broken relationship with Europe remains the key challenge, not least to help patch up a trans-Atlantic relationship strained by Brexit. President Joe Biden, who is strongly attached to his Irish roots, has expressed concern that Britain’s actions over EU trade could undermine peace in Northern Ireland.
“A lot hangs on the relationship with Europe,” Rahman said. “If you recalibrate the relationship with the EU, that will obviously facilitate the relationship with the Biden administration.”
The obstacle to that, he believes, is Boris Johnson.
“I think it’s a structural issue with this government and Johnson,” he said. “I can’t see the conditions for improvement until he is replaced.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/boris-johnsons-weakness-brings-international-complications/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:46
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| 0.96351
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SINGAPORE (AP) — China’s defense minister complained to his American counterpart on Friday about the latest U.S. arms package for Taiwan and warned of a possible conflict over the self—governing island that China claims as its own territory.
Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a meeting in Singapore that the sale “seriously undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests,” according to state broadcaster CCTV’s military channel.
China “firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” and the Chinese government and military will “resolutely smash any Taiwan independence plot and resolutely safeguard the reunification of the motherland,” Wei said.
China and Taiwan split during a civil war in 1949 and China threatens to use force to annex the island republic.
Despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties, Washington is Taiwan’s strongest backer and source of arms, and U.S. law requires it to treat threats to the island as matters of “grave concern.”
In the latest arms package, the U.S. announced Wednesday the sale of parts for Taiwanese naval ships at an estimated cost of $120 million.
“The proposed sale will contribute to the sustainment of the recipient’s surface vessel fleet, enhancing its ability to meet current and future threats,” the State Department said in its announcement of the sale.
Some in Taiwan have been pushing for more big-ticket items, while the U.S. is focused on selling smaller systems it says would better help repel a Chinese attack, leading to a rare area of disagreement between the two sides.
In other comments, Wei warned against “using Taiwan to control China,” and laid out a list of conditions the U.S. must meet for relations to improve, including “not interfering in China’s internal affairs or harming China’s interests.”
In a further readout of the meeting, Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Wu Qian quoted Wei as saying China would respond to any move toward formal Taiwan independence by “smashing it even at any price, including war.”
Wu also accused “outside powers” of stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, and said Beijing would “resolutely counter” any efforts to harm China’s interests over the issue of Ukraine. China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion and has accused the West and NATO of provoking Moscow.
The combative tone, particularly over Taiwan, is typical of Chinese officials when meeting their U.S. counterparts, reflecting the overall deterioration in bilateral ties. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security conference held each year in the Southeast Asian city state.
In contrast, Austin emphasized the need to “responsibly manage competition and maintain open lines of communication,” according to the Department of Defense.
He said the U.S. remains committed to its longstanding policy on Taiwan and “reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the (Taiwan) Strait, opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo, and called on (China) to refrain from further destabilizing actions toward Taiwan,” the DOD said.
Taiwan and the South China Sea have been the main points of contention between the two sides, although they have also tangled over China’s push to expand its military influence into the Indian Ocean and beyond.
The U.S. and its allies have complained about reckless actions by Chinese pilots in international airspace toward surveillance aircraft and said they have put their flight crews at risk. China has also challenged foreign naval ships at sea, despite bilateral agreements intended to manage such encounters.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/china-complains-over-us-arms-sales-to-taiwan/
| 2022-06-11T06:01:53
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| 0.956904
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PRAGUE (AP) — A record amount of cocaine was seized in a shipment for supermarkets in the Czech Republic, police said Friday.
They said 840 kilograms (1,852 pounds) of cocaine were discovered in cardboard boxes with bananas by employees in supermarkets in northern towns of Jicin and Rychnov nad Kneznou. Officers are now searching other stores in the country where banana boxes from the same shipment abroad were delivered.
Police said they were cooperating on the case with their counterparts from other unspecified countries.
Jakub Frydrych, the head of the police anti-narcotics unit, told the Czech public radio the cocaine likely originated in Central America.
The street value of the drug is estimated to be more than 2 billion Czech crowns ($86 million).
In a similar case in 2015, over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cocaine was discovered in a Prague supermarket. In 1999, police seized 117 kilograms (258 pounds) of cocaine in a warehouse north of Prague packed among dry fruit.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/czechs-seize-record-amount-of-cocaine-in-banana-shipment/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:00
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| 0.96569
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police have detained several dozen truckers for blocking traffic and disrupting the movement of goods near factories as a nationwide strike extended into a fourth day.
The truckers are urging the government to provide a minimum wage in the face of soaring fuel prices that are squeezing their finances.
As of Friday morning, police had taken about 30 truckers into custody since the strike began Tuesday, the National Police Agency said. Sporadic clashes broke out around the country, including near an alcoholic beverages factory outside Seoul where 15 people were detained for allegedly obstructing business.
Lee Eung-joo, a representative of Cargo Truckers Solidarity, said police have released 29 out of 40 truckers who had been detained as of Friday evening. He said at least nine truckers were slightly hurt in scuffles with police, but none was hospitalized.
About 7,500 truckers joined the strike, demanding that the government extend temporary rules guaranteeing minimum freight rates which are set to expire at the end of 2022.
Government officials and business leaders worry the strike may further strain an economy strapped by inflation and possibly hit global supply chains by slowing shipments of semiconductors and other major South Korean exports.
However, disruptions seemed limited since companies ordered supplies in advance in anticipation of the strike. Officials also sought to keep shipments moving by providing police escorts and temporarily allowing private trucks to move industrial goods.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been negotiating with the truckers over the minimum wage scheme. It said the overall utilization rate of containers at ports and other major logistics hubs was 70.7% as of Friday afternoon, above the usual rate of 65.8%.
But it said shipments were slowed in the southern ports of Ulsan and Busan due to disruptions from the strike, which has mainly affected the automobile, steel and cement industries.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/dozens-of-s-korean-truckers-detained-in-strike-over-wages/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:07
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| 0.981658
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A senior Ethiopian official says his country is interested in resuming talks with Egypt and Sudan on a huge and controversial Blue Nile dam that will be Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant.
The comment by Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s former negotiator on the dam and now the country’s ambassador to the United States, came during a meeting with the new U.S. special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer.
A statement by Ethiopia’s foreign ministry on Friday cited the ambassador as highlighting “Ethiopia’s interest to resume the African Union-led trilateral negotiation over the GERD,” or Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
The multi-billion-dollar project is expected to bring electricity to millions of off-grid Ethiopians, but Sudan and Egypt fear it will reduce the amount of water they receive from the Nile River.
Several past rounds of negotiations among Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have failed. Egypt fears a quick filling of the dam will reduce its share of Nile waters and seeks a binding legal agreement in case of a dispute.
In February, Ethiopia said it had begun producing power from one unit of the dam.
Earlier on Friday, the foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told reporters the third filling of the dam is on schedule this year.
“We have been saying since the start of the dam’s construction that tripartite talks will continue,” he added.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/ethiopia-says-willing-to-resume-dam-talks-with-egypt-sudan/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:13
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| 0.944857
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MADRID (AP) — Algeria on Friday appeared to have backed down in its dispute with Spain after its mission at the European Union issued a statement saying the northwest African country had never suspended the friendship treaty it holds with Spain.
In an odd development, Algeria said, “As regards the alleged measure by the Government to stop current transactions with a European partner, it exists in fact only in the minds of those who claim it and those who hastened to stigmatize it.”
There was no immediate comment by the Spanish government.
The statement came hours after top European Union officials said the bloc was treating the crisis between Algeria and Spain with the “utmost concern” and warned it was prepared to take action to defend the interests of its members.
The Algerian mission said it “deplores the haste with which the European Commission has reacted without prior consultation or verification with the Algerian government to Algeria’s suspension of a bilateral political treaty with a European partner, in this case Spain.”
The Algerian president’s office announced Wednesday that the North African nation was “immediately” suspending a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain, indicating a freeze on trade and cooperation between the two countries.
The suspension was seen as the latest move by Algeria to put pressure on Madrid after it changed its long-standing policy regarding the contested territory of Western Sahara. Algeria recalled its ambassador to Spain in March after Madrid came out in support of Morocco’s attempts to keep Western Sahara under its rule. Algeria supports the territory’s independence movement.
Earlier Friday, European Commission executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell issued a statement saying the decision to suspension appeared “to be in violation of the EU-Algeria Association Agreement, in particular in the area of trade and investment.”
“This would lead to a discriminatory treatment of an EU member state and adversely affect the exercise of the Union’s rights under the Agreement,” the EU said.
While urging dialogue to resolve the dispute, the EU officials said “the EU is ready to stand up against any type of coercive measures applied against” an EU nation.
That statement came after Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares traveled to Brussels to discuss the crisis.
Albares said “the unilateral measure” taken by Algeria violated the accord with the EU but insisted that “what we want is dialogue and we’re not going to give any excuse for any escalation.”
The EU on Thursday had urged Algeria to reverse its decision.
Spain’s chief worry had been that the suspension might affect important gas supplies from Algeria, but the government said that so far this has not happened. Algeria supplies 23% of Spain’s gas needs.
Spain and the rest of the 27-nation bloc are hustling now to find alternatives to Russian energy imports to protest Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Spain was the colonial power in Western Sahara until it was annexed by Morocco in 1975. Since then, neighbors Algeria and Morocco have been at odds over the fate of the region.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/eu-warns-it-may-act-to-defend-spain-in-dispute-with-algeria/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:20
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| 0.96876
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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbia and Kosovo must recognize each other in order to join the European Union, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday said as he expressed support for quicker integration of the Western Balkans into the bloc amid the war in Ukraine.
Scholz, on a visit to the Western Balkans, also pressed Serbia to join Western sanctions against Russia despite its historic and current ties to Moscow, which supplies most of Serbia’s energy needs.
“It is important that we all together show solidarity and help Ukraine defend against the aggression,” Scholz said during a joint press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade. “It is our expectation that these sanctions must be supported by all those who are candidates for EU membership.”
Vucic said Scholz requested in a “decisive, clear and strict” way that Serbia join the sanctions.
While Serbia is formally a candidate for EU membership, it has maintained friendly ties with its fellow Slavic ally Russia despite the war. Russia has backed Serbia’s effort to retain claim on Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008 with Western backing.
Earlier Friday in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina, Scholz called for a clear commitment to reaching a lasting political solution to the long-standing dispute over Kosovo’s independence that has remained a source of tensions in the Balkans.
Scholz said Russia’s war in Ukraine made the region’s stability even more important. Kosovo and Serbia have held normalization talks facilitated by the EU for years, but the talks have had little impact.
“It is clear that an agreement must ultimately also clear up the question of the recognition of Kosovo, because it is not conceivable that two countries that don’t recognize each other become members of the EU,” Scholz said in Pristina.
Later in Belgrade, Scholz added that “our view on the Kosovo question isn’t new. It’s been known for a long time.”
But Vucic said Scholz’s remarks on mutual recognition was “the first time that we hear” this was a condition for EU membership, and that Serbia must consider what to do next.
“We have never heard from anyone in Europe that they are asking for mutual recognition,” he said, adding defiantly that “as much as you like (the territorial) integrity of Ukraine, that much we love Serbia’s (territorial integrity).”
Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence a decade after a brutal 1998-1999 war between separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and Serb forces. The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign that drove Serb troops out.
Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s sovereignty, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China do not.
The six Western Balkan countries are at different stages of their EU membership aspirations. Serbia and Montenegro have started full negotiations, while Albania and North Macedonia have faced delays in the EU launching their talks. Kosovo and Bosnia are in the early stages of the membership process.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti earlier said the country would apply for EU candidacy status, which Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have done. Kurti described joining the EU as “the only future.”
Scholz next flew to Greece, where he attended a dinner following a meeting of southeastern European leaders hosted by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the northern city of Thessaloniki. He was later due to travel to North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Mitsotakis called for an “active commitment” from the EU that the Western Balkans’ accession bids will be accelerated.
“I … propose 2033 as the target date for all the countries (of the Western Balkans) to enter the EU,” he said. “It’s an ambitious target but I think it can be realistic if the idea of expansion returns to the union’s core values.”
In Tallinn, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer urged Friday that Western Balkan countries seeking EU membership should not be forgotten as Ukraine knocks at the EU door.
“We must give these states the same chance as Ukraine. They need this just as urgently and have been waiting for decades in some cases,” Nehammer said.
European leaders are expected to consider Ukraine’s bid for EU candidate status at the end of June.
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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania; Geir Moulson in Berlin, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen and Philip-Moritz Jenne in Vienna contributed. Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade, Serbia, and Nicholas Paphitis from Athens, Greece.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Follow Llazar Semini at https://twitter.com/lsemini
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/germanys-scholz-urges-kosovo-serbia-to-commit-to-dialogue/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:27
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| 0.95975
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PARIS (AP) — Leftist parties that had nearly disappeared from the French political landscape have grown wings in the runup to Sunday’s legislative elections and now threaten to weaken President Emmanuel Macron and his hopes of slam-dunking his agenda through parliament.
An alliance of leftist parties cobbled together by hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is now soaring in polls. The campaign poster “Melenchon Prime Minister” no longer draws chuckles from opponents.
Commentators have yet to agree on how to pronounce Nupes, the French acronym for the alliance, the New Popular Ecological and Social Union. Melenchon simply calls it the Popular Union. It combines his party, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Socialists, Communists and Greens.
“It is amazing, so inspiring and motivating. All of the left wing is in line behind Melenchon,” said Michael Gorre, a 45-year-old computer scientist attending a Paris rally last week by the coalition. “It feels good to have someone who talks about concrete things.”
Macron, a centrist, has made clear that it is he alone who names the prime minister, although in practice his choice is governed by the outcome of the election, which will not be clear until the second round on June 19. So if Nupes won a majority, he would likely pick someone from the coalition, but it might not be Melenchon.
Macron won a second mandate in April’s presidential elections and is now looking for an absolute majority — 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, the lower house — to swiftly pass legislation. Among laws on his radar is his controversial decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65. Melenchon, meanwhile, wants to lower it to 60.
The audacious bid by the 70-year-old Melenchon to be named head of government is symptomatic of France’s shattered political landscape. Traditional mainstream parties like the Socialists and the conservative right The Republicans slid off voters’ radar following losses in previous elections. Three blocs emerged: Melenchon’s hard left, Marine Le Pen’s far right and the centrists of Macron, who warn against “the extremes.”
Melenchon’s alliance is jockeying for the lead with Macron’s centrists in polls. Nupes was on top in one poll this week, although within the margin of error. Le Pen, who lost to Macron in the presidential runoff, was third.
Le Pen is keenly aware that her anti-immigration National Rally party cannot compete with Melenchon’s alliance under the current voting system.
In calls to get out the vote, Le Pen asks supporters to help her party get as many deputies as possible in “last chance elections” to block the French president’s highway to unshackled power.
Unlike Melenchon’s bid for the job of prime minister, Le Pen’s more modest goal is to form a parliamentary group to gain more speaking time and other benefits. That requires a minimum of 15 lawmakers. Her party won only eight seats in 2017 voting.
“Jean-Luc Melenchon will never be prime minister. He is lying to the French … a few days before his retirement,” Le Pen tweeted mockingly during a campaign trip Thursday to the southern beach town of Agde. She was referring to his decision not to try to renew his parliamentary seat, while she campaigns to keep hers.
Melenchon, a wily politician with an oratorical gift, has long been a figure on the French left, first in the Socialist Party and as senator. But it was only in 2016, when he founded the hard-left France Unbowed party that his profile matched his ambitions.
Melenchon’s appeal for social justice is among the draws for numerous voters, like Christelle Baker, 32, who sees his alliance as a helpline for her autistic brother.
“Nupes stands for social justice and … themes like the health system, the environment, education, or the the situation of the disabled,” Baker said at the Paris rally in a packed theater. “We may not win but we can have a large parliamentary group. We can have our word to say.”
Melenchon’s alliance would raise minimum wages along with salaries in a plethora of sectors, and nationalize airports and highways. He slams “neoliberalism and the financialized economy.”
“Foreign commentators,” he said at last week’s Paris event, “If you want to know what France is, it is this: Liberty, equality, fraternity, and social welfare.”
For Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, Melenchon is the “Gallic Chavez.” That reference to one-time Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, known for his socialist revolution, has stuck on the man who seems to relish controversy.
Melenchon triggered his latest uproar by tweeting last weekend that “police kill,” after the death of a female passenger in a car that police on bicycles fired on when it refused to stop for a check.
Macron’s view of Melenchon is that his views are extreme. “Nothing could be more dangerous than to add to world disorder the French disorder proposed by the extremes,” he was quoted in the French press as saying during a visit Thursday to the Tarn region.
A day earlier, a crowd of jubilant children surrounded the president, one jumping into his arms, during a visit to the impoverished Seine-Saint-Denis region outside Paris. One young girl asked where Melenchon was, saying, “I want Melenchon to win.”
The president told her that Melenchon wasn’t there, then added, “I don’t want him to win, you see, in the legislatives. Otherwise, I can’t do things.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/hard-left-leader-sees-win-in-french-vote-himself-as-new-pm/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:34
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| 0.970518
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BERLIN (AP) — A 100 billion-euro ($107 billion) fund to strengthen the German military cleared its final legislative hurdle on Friday, winning approval from parliament’s upper house.
The decision clears the way for the government to move ahead with a massive procurement drive that Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Parliament’s upper house, which represents Germany’s 16 state governments, signed off on the plan a week after the lower house gave its blessing. Scholz’s governing coalition held lengthy negotiations with the main opposition Union bloc to secure wide backing ahead of the votes.
Scholz announced the fund on Feb. 27, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, and said that Germany would now spend over 2% of its gross domestic product on defense — a NATO target on which it has long lagged. The government and the opposition agreed that defense spending would meet the 2% target “on a multi-year average,” with help from the special fund.
Officials acknowledge that the German military, the Bundeswehr, has for years suffered from neglect and in particular from aging, poorly functioning equipment.
Among other things on the shopping list, the defense ministry says it will buy 60 Chinook CH-47F transport helicopters, made by Boeing. The government also wants to buy up to 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets to replace aging Tornado aircraft.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/huge-german-military-fund-clears-last-parliamentary-hurdle/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:41
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| 0.954634
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Since the late 1990s, El Salvador has had a complete ban on abortion including in cases of rape, incest, fetal malformation or danger to a pregnant woman’s life.
Not only planned abortions but also miscarriages, stillbirths and other pregnancy complications can sometimes result in prosecution and lengthy prison terms. Often women who end up being targeted by authorities are poor and live in rural areas.
The Associated Press spoke with several women who served time in such cases. Some belong to Mujeres Libres — Spanish for “free women” — which offers support such as job assistance and small business workshops, and others to the nonprofit Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.
Some asked to be identified by only their first names out of concerns over privacy, possible reprisals and the societal stigma surrounding abortion; one is a victim of sexual assault.
Here are their stories:
CINTHIA
Cinthia Rodríguez, 33, had a stillbirth at home in 2008. Her family called an ambulance but instead a police patrol took her to a hospital, where she was handcuffed to a gurney. Officers told her she was under arrest for allegedly inducing an abortion. She was later charged with aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“My dreams were to study, to work, to help my family, to take care of my baby,” she said. “All of that was thwarted when I heard, ‘30 years.’ My world stopped.”
In prison, guards advised her not to reveal why she had been convicted. When other inmates found out, they beat her up. “They used to call us the baby killers,” she recalled.
A tattoo on her hand reminds her of the date in 2014 when her father died while she was behind bars. She was released after 11 years when a court commuted her sentence in 2019.
Rodriguez hopes that telling her story publicly may help other women win their freedom and help bring about an end to the country’s strict abortion policy.
As she spoke, two friends who also served time in similar cases played with her young daughter.
“I’m always going to be there supporting her,” Rodriguez said. “And I also hope she joins me and my friends in this struggle. I hope she’s a courageous, independent woman — like her mom.”
ZULEYMA
Zuleyma Beltrán was expecting a second child in 1999 when she felt an intense pain and fainted. She lost the pregnancy. Police suspected abortion and interrogated her aggressively. She was ultimately convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 26 years.
“It’s a lifetime,” she said. “I used to say to myself, ‘I’m never going to leave this place.’”
While in prison, one of her sisters took in her toddler daughter. The girl hardly recognized Beltrán when she was released more than a decade later.
Beltrán struggled to find a job at first and felt stigmatized, but her daughter encouraged her to persist. They fixed up a cart and sold hot dogs on the streets of the capital, San Salvador,
“She taught me a lot about how to face the world,” she said. The daughter recently died at age 22.
Beltrán joined Mujeres Libres years ago.
“We cry, we laugh, we talk about everything we’ve gone through,” she said.
Today she lives with another daughter, 8, at a house where the group meets. She sells perfume to get by, and dreams of owning a business.
“I want to show people that we can make it even though we’ve had a huge obstacle,” Beltrán said.
MARIANA
Mariana López was imprisoned in 2000 after losing her pregnancy and being arrested on suspicion of having an abortion. She was ultimately convicted of aggravated homicide and served 17 years before her 25-year sentence was commuted.
When she went to jail, she was already mother to a 4-year-old son. He is now 26. Since her release, she has been unable to repair their relationship.
“There’s resentment,” López said. “The fact that he didn’t live a normal life has been really tough.”
She lives with her mother and 7-year-old daughter in a modest home northwest of San Salvador. She learned how to bake bread in prison, and now earns a living selling baguettes that she prepares every day before dawn. One day she hopes to own her own bakery.
Her daughter takes violin lessons at Mujeres Libres. Recently the women and children in the group traveled to the beach in what has become an annual tradition.
“We see it as a family,” López said. “We see each other as sisters, because it was a family when our own blood was not around.”
KAREN
Karen was 21 and pregnant when she fainted alone in her grandmother’s home. She woke up handcuffed to a hospital gurney. She was convicted in 2015 and given 30 years for aggravated homicide for allegedly terminating her pregnancy.
“They told me that I was a murderer and that I was going to pay for what I had done,” she said, “that I was going to rot in jail.”
In prison, other inmates told Karen she didn’t deserve to live. She served seven years before being released last December.
Today she tries to make up for lost time by playing soccer with her 14-year-old son and cooking his favorite meals, refried beans and fried plantains.
“I never lost faith in God that I would recover my freedom, because I was innocent,” Karen said. “And I asked God every day to reunite me with my son.”
CINDY
Cindy’s son, Justin, was 4 when she was imprisoned in 2014 after a stillbirth in a shopping mall bathroom. It would be four years before she saw him again.
At the time she was studying tourism and taking English lessons. But all that was put on hold.
“What I reflect on the most is the losses,” she said. “Everything is lost. … How are you going to start over? How are you going to recover time with your family?”
Today she lives with her son and parents and is back in school. She and her mother make piñatas for children’s birthdays. She crafted one in the form of a dinosaur for Justin, who wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up.
Cindy hopes to work for a tourism agency and resume her English clashes. Mother and son dream of traveling abroad together.
“To forget everything,” Cindy said, “to start again in a new place.”
IMELDA
Imelda says she was repeatedly raped from age 8 to 18 by her mother’s partner and became pregnant by him. In 2017 she unexpectedly gave birth to the baby in a latrine and then lost consciousness.
The child survived, but Imelda was accused of attempted murder due to the circumstances of the birth. She was freed from prison in 2018 after a court determined that she had not tried to kill the baby.
Since her release she has been studying to become a nurse. She firmly believes that a woman should not be forced to carry to term a fetus conceived by rape.
“What young girl is going to want to be a mother? They’re innocent,” said Imelda, now 24. “Those 10-year-old girls who are raped, what they really want is to play, to study. I’ve always wanted to study, not be a mother.”
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Associated Press writer Marcos Aleman in San Salvador contributed to this report.
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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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| 2022-06-11T06:02:48
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| 0.987243
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ROME (AP) — Italian rescue crews resumed searching Friday for a helicopter carrying seven people, including four Turkish citizens, that went missing in a forested, mountainous area of northcentral Italy, authorities and Turkish news reports said.
Italian firefighters and the Alpine rescue service said the searches began Thursday after the private chopper disappeared from radar screens while flying over the province of Modena, in the Tuscan–Emilian Apennines.
The crews searching Friday used high-tech instruments to detect cellular pings even in areas without cell coverage, the firefighters said in a statement.
Turkish TV channel NTV said the helicopter took off from the city of Lucca heading for Treviso and that the four Turks on board worked for Turkish industrial group Eczacibasi.
Eczacibasi said its four employees were in Italy to take part in a paper technologies trade fair and were traveling to a tissue paper production facility. In a statement, the company said it was in contact with authorities in Italy, the Turkish Foreign Ministry and the Turkish Embassy in Italy, and expressed hope that it would receive “good news” as soon as possible.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/italy-searches-for-missing-chopper-4-turks-among-7-on-board/
| 2022-06-11T06:02:55
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| 0.973951
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VATICAN CITY — The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has met with Pope Francis to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine and relieve the global food crisis it has exacerbated.
In a tweet after the 20-minute audience Friday, von der Leyen wrote: “We stand with those suffering from the destruction in Ukraine. This war must end, bringing peace back to Europe.”
Von der Leyen also met with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who recently returned from Ukraine. The Vatican said their talks focused on the “common commitment to work to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, dedicating particular attention to the humanitarian aspects and the food consequences of the continuation of the conflict.”
___
KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Ukraine fears a long war might cause West to lose interest
— Ukraine: Drivers risk all to bring aid, help civilians flee
— West denounces death sentences for 3 who fought for Ukraine
— Ukraine soccer club Shakhtar survives into 9th year of exile
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
GENEVA — The U.N. human rights office has voiced concern about the death sentences imposed by pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine on three captured foreigners who were fighting on the Ukrainian side.
A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic found two Britons and one Moroccan guilty of seeking the violent overthrow of power. The men were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.
U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani noted Friday that, according to the Ukrainian military, all three were part of Ukraine’s armed forces. She said if that is the case they “should not be considered as mercenaries”
Shamdasani said that, since 2015, the office has observed that the judiciary in rebel-run separatist areas “has not complied with essential fair trial guarantees, such as public hearing, independence and impartiality of the court and the right not to be compelled to testify.”
She added that “such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime.”
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ZAGREB, Croatia — Croatia’s HRT state television says a Croatian citizen who has been wounded while fighting in Ukraine has been transferred home and hospitalized in the capital, Zagreb.
HRT reported Friday that the man is in stable condition after suffering serious injuries to an arm and leg. Doctors say they are assessing his condition to determine whether and when to perform surgery.
The man fought alongside Ukrainian forces against Russia. Another Croatian citizen was detained by Russian troops last month after fighting in the port city of Mariupol.
HRT identified the injured fighter as Jozinović Vuković.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A regional governor says Ukrainian soldiers are fighting for every house in street battles in a key city in eastern Ukraine.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press on Friday that the Ukrainian forces have retained control of the industrial area on the edge of the city of Sievierodonetsk and also control some other sections.
He said that “battles are going on for every house and every street.”
Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of Luhansk province in the Donbas industrial region, has been the focus of the Russian offensive in recent weeks.
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LONDON — The British government says Russia must take responsibility for the “sham trial” of two Britons who have been sentenced to death for fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were convicted along with a Moroccan man by a court run by Russia-backed rebels in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which is not recognized internationally.
The two Britons were members of a Ukrainian military unit and were captured in the southern port of Mariupol.
Government minister Robin Walker said it was “an illegal court in a sham government” but that the U.K. would use “all diplomatic channels to make the case that these are prisoners of war who should be treated accordingly.”
He said “Russia needs to take responsibility, its responsibilities under the Geneva Convention, for the treatment of prisoners of war.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is due to speak to her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba later Friday about the case. The U.K. has not announced any plans to speak to Russian officials.
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KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds into its fourth month, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the specter of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back Moscow’s aggression.
The U.S. and its allies have given billions of dollars in weaponry to Ukraine. Europe has taken in millions of people displaced by the war. And there has been unprecedent unity in post-World War II Europe in imposing sanctions on President Vladimir Putin and his country.
But as the shock of the Feb. 24 invasion subsides, analysts say the Kremlin could exploit a dragged-out, entrenched conflict and possible waning interest by the West that might lead to pressuring Ukraine into a settlement.
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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Volunteer drivers are risking everything to deliver humanitarian aid to Ukrainians behind the front lines of the war — and to help many of them escape.
The routes are dangerous and long and the drivers risk detention, injury or death. Ukrainian activists say more than two dozen drivers have been detained and held for more than two months by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region.
In Donetsk and the Luhansk region, vans and minibuses of volunteers zip through towns and down country roads, racing to evacuate civilians as artillery shells whistle through the air. Russian forces are doubling down on their offensive in the regions.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/live-updates-uk-russia-must-take-responsibility-for-trial/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:02
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| 0.957947
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MADRID (AP) — A stage structure being set up for a music festival collapsed Friday in northwestern Spain, injuring four workers, regional emergency services said.
Spanish National Television said 20 people had been working on the main stage when the accident occurred outside the city of Santiago de Compostela shortly before midday.
The four workers were temporarily trapped under the metal structure. One was in serious condition.
The stage was being prepared for the O Son do Camiño festival next week.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/music-stage-collapses-in-spain-four-workers-injured/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:09
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| 0.973705
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubled down on his arms buildup in the face of what he described as an aggravating security environment as he concluded a major political conference that came as outside governments monitor signs of a possibly imminent North Korean nuclear test explosion.
Kim’s comments published by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday didn’t include any direct criticism of the United States or rival South Korea amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear diplomacy during the three days of discussions that wrapped up Friday.
Kim defended his accelerating weapons development as a rightful exercise of sovereign rights to self-defense and set forth further “militant tasks” to be pursued by his armed forces and military scientists, according to the agency. But the report didn’t mention any specific goals or plans regarding testing activity, including the detonation of a nuclear device.
The plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee also reviewed key state affairs, including efforts to slow a COVID-19 outbreak the North first acknowledged last month and progress in economic goals Kim is desperate to keep alive amid strengthened virus restrictions.
“(Kim) said the right to self-defense is an issue of defending sovereignty, clarifying once again the party’s invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest,” KCNA said.
The meeting came amid a provocative streak in missile demonstrations that jolts an old pattern of brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
North Korea for years has mastered the art of manufacturing diplomatic crises with weapons tests and threats before eventually offering negotiations aimed at extracting concessions.
In a move that may have future foreign policy implications, Kim during the meeting promoted a veteran diplomat with deep experience in handling U.S. affairs as his new foreign minister.
Choe Sun Hui, who is among the North’s most powerful women along with the leader’s sister Kim Yo Jong, had a major role in preparing Kim Jong Un for his meetings with former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019. Talks between Pyongyang and Washington derailed after the collapse of Kim’s second meeting with Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for a major release of U.S.-led sanctions on the North in exchange for limited disarmament steps.
Choe replaces Ri Son Gwon, a hard-liner with a military background who during the meeting was announced as Kim’s new point person on rival South Korea.
North Korea has a history of dialing up pressure on Seoul when it doesn’t get what it wants from Washington. While KCNA’s report on the meeting didn’t include any comments specifically referring to South Korea, it said the participants clarified “principles and strategic and tactical orientations to be maintained in the struggle against the enemy and in the field of foreign affairs.”
North Korea also announced a partial reshuffle of its military leadership to accommodate an influx of former counterintelligence officials named to key posts, in a possible step by Kim to further strengthen his grip over the military bureaucracy.
North Korea has already set an annual record in ballistic launches through the first half of 2022, firing 31 missiles over 18 different launch events, including its first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years.
Kim may up the ante soon as U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea has all but finished preparations to detonate a nuclear device at its testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The site had been inactive since hosting the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, when it said it detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its ICBMs.
The North’s unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores Kim’s dual intent to advance his arsenal and pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled nuclear diplomacy, experts say.
While the United States has said it would push for additional sanctions if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, the divisions between permanent members of the U.N. Security Council make the prospects for meaningful punitive measures unclear. Russia and China this year vetoed U.S.-sponsored resolutions that would have increased sanctions, insisting Washington should focus on reviving dialogue.
Kim’s pressure campaign hasn’t been slowed by a COVID-19 outbreak spreading across the largely unvaccinated autocracy of 26 million people.
During the meeting, North Korea maintained a dubious claim that its outbreak was easing, despite outside concerns of huge death rates given the country’s broken health care system.
North Korea has restricted movement of people and supplies between regions, but large groups of workers have continued to gather at farms and industrial sites, being driven to shore up an economy decimated by decades of mismanagement, sanctions and pandemic border closures.
Kim during the meeting said the country’s “maximum emergency” anti-virus campaign of the past month has strengthened the economic sector’s ability to cope with the virus.
Kim has rejected U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other help. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program for vaccines, believes North Korea has begun administering doses given by its ally China. But the number of doses and how they were being distributed wasn’t known.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/north-korean-leader-reaffirms-arms-buildup-in-party-meeting/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:15
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| 0.962095
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — NATO-member Norway terminated its two-decade-old contract with a France-based manufacturer for 14 maritime helicopters, citing delays, errors and time-consuming maintenance, the defense minister said Friday, calling the move “a serious decision.”
The Norwegian government will return the NH90 helicopters it has received so far and expects a full refund of the nearly 5 billion kroner ($525 million) it paid, according to Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram.
“Regrettably, we have reached the conclusion that no matter how many hours our technicians work, and how many parts we order, it will never make the NH90 capable of meeting the requirements of the Norwegian Armed Forces,” Arild Gram said.
The helicopter was developed in the mid-1990s by NHIndustries, a partnership between European companies Airbus Helicopters, Leonardo Helicopters, and Fokker Technologies based in Aix-en-Provence, France. The aircraft is used by numerous countries.
Norway ordered 14 helicopters for coast guard and anti-submarine warfare duties in 2001, the Norwegian Armed Forces said. They were originally slated for delivery by the end of 2008, but only eight have been delivered ready to operate.
“The fleet is currently required to provide 3,900 flight hours annually, but in recent years it has averaged only about 700 hours,” the Armed Forces said.
NHIndustries in a statement said it was “extremely disappointed by the decision taken by the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and refutes the allegations being made against the NH90 as well as against the company.”
It added that it had not been given an opportunity to discuss its latest proposals and that it considers the Norwegian termination of the contract at “legally groundless.”
The Norwegian Defense Ministry said it will shortly begin the process of identifying an alternative maritime helicopter.
The NH90 is twin-engine helicopter that was developed to meet NATO’s requirements for a modern, medium-sized, multi-role military helicopter for both land and maritime operations.
A comprehensive review of the Norway’s maritime helicopter capabilities requested by the Defense Ministry in February concluded that even with significant additional financial investments, the performance and availability of the NH90 would not meet the country’s requirements.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/norway-ends-contract-for-nh90-helicopters-wants-full-refund/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:22
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| 0.968971
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors’ orders because of knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, dashing hopes of the faithful there and raising further questions about the health and mobility of the 85-year-old pontiff.
The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo and South Sudan would be rescheduled “to a later date to be determined.” The visit had sought to promote peace in two African countries long wrestling with deadly violence.
“At the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee, the Holy Father has been forced to postpone, with regret, his Apostolic Journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo and to South Sudan,” the Vatican said.
Francis has been using a wheelchair for a month due to strained ligaments in his right knee that have made walking and standing difficult and painful. He has refused so far to get surgery, and has instead received injections, kept the knee as immobile as possible and walked with a cane or the help of an aide.
Questions had swirled for months about Francis’ ability to negotiate the Africa journey, which would have been taxing for the pope even without the knee problems. Yet as recently as this week, plans were still proceeding.
Francis also has a July 24-30 visit to Canada scheduled; the Vatican statement Friday said nothing about that trip. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni would only say that the pope’s other commitments were confirmed.
Francis had been due to visit South Sudan with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Church of Scotland to make a joint, ecumenical appeal for peace. Such a trip had been discussed as early as 2017, when South Sudan was still in the grip of civil war, but security concerns kept postponing it.
The Rev. John Gbemyoro, an official with the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said Friday’s news dashed the expectations of Christians.
“We don’t love to hear it,” Gbemyoro told The Associated Press. “But we are asking God to heal him quickly because we still need him to come to South Sudan.”
The archbishop of Juba, Stephen Ameyu Martin, told reporters that South Sudan President Salva Kiir was “a bit sad” but understood: “What can we do? It’s a health problem.” The archbishop reminded disappointed South Sudanese that it could happen to anyone.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, said they were praying for Francis and regretted the trip would again be postponed.
“I continue to pray for the people of South Sudan in their challenges and hopes for peace, and look forward to this historic visit at a later date,” Welby tweeted.
The Congolese government said it wished Francis a prompt recovery and assured him that Congo still awaits him.
In the eastern Congo city of Goma, where Francis had been due to spend July 4 despite a new wave of violence, thousands of posters with Francis’ image already had been put up to advertise the visit. The Hotel New Grand Lac had already booked rooms for people, manager Jacques Ndayango said.
“We estimate a loss of around $5,000,” he said, adding that he hoped the pope would come later this year.
Martha Mwavit, a member of the Saint-Esprit Parish choir, said the singers had spent two months rehearsing songs for the papal Mass in Goma. The Catholic faithful in Congo now can only pray for Francis to come.
“I am 74 years old, and I don’t know if I will have the chance to sing in a Mass given by the pope. I would like his health to recover so that I can have this chance before I die,” she said.
The spokesman for the papal trip in Canada, Neil MacCarthy, said planning for the trip continued. The pontiff is scheduled to personally apologize to Indigenous peoples in Canada for abuses at residential schools.
“Great care is being taken to provide significant periods of rest for the Holy Father, and also to ensure his participation at events is for a limited period of time,” MacCarthy told the AP. “We continue to pray for the health of Pope Francis and that he will be able to join us in Canada next month.”
A Canadian official familiar with the trip, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Canadian organizers were in Rome this week to plan for Francis’ visit and reported no signals about a possible cancellation.
The pope has told friends he doesn’t want to undergo knee surgery, reportedly because of his reaction to anesthesia when he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his large intestine removed in July 2021.
Speculation has swirled about the future of Francis’ pontificate because of his health problems, his decision to create 16 new voting-age cardinals in August, and his plans to pay homage that month to a 13th century pope who resigned, Celestine V.
But Francis has given no indication he wants or plans to resign.
Vatican watchers say a papal resignation now would be unthinkable given that Francis’ 95-year-old predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, is still alive.
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Deng Machol in Juba, South Sudan, Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Goma, Congo, Robert Gillies in Toronto and Alessandra Tarantino in Vatican City contributed.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/pope-cancels-trip-to-congo-and-south-sudan-due-to-knee-issue/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:29
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| 0.982071
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PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors on Friday laid out their sentencing demands in the historic Paris trial of 20 men suspected of critical roles in France’s worst peacetime attack, the Islamic State massacres that killed 130 people in 2015. For Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of that night’s attacking jihadis, prosecutors demanded a life sentence.
Three prosecutors summarized nine months of testimony since the start of the marathon trial last September, held in a specially built secure complex inside Paris’ original 13th century Justice Palace, with 12 overflow rooms to accommodate victims, lawyers and journalists.
The Friday night killing spree on Nov. 13, 2015 at a Paris music hall, cafes and the national stadium led to intensified French military action against extremists abroad and a security crackdown at home.
Fourteen of the defendants have been in court. All but one of the six absent men are presumed — but not confirmed — to be dead in Syria or Iraq. Most suspects are accused of helping create false identities, transporting the attackers back to Europe from Syria, providing them with money, phones, explosives or weapons.
In all, French prosecutors demanded 10 life sentences; five for people presumed dead, five for other suspects who were physically in court.
Abdeslam, a leading suspect in the trial, waited until April to break his silence.
“Not everyone is a jihadi, but all of those you are judging accepted to take part in a terrorist group, either by conviction, cowardliness or greed,” prosecutor Nicolas Braconnay told the court this week.
Claims that France was targeted because of its role in the multinational coalition against the Islamic State — as some defendants have claimed — are “an alibi,” Braconnay contended, adding, “All of those who use it are obliged to add a religious argument: ’You are unbelievers.”
Abdeslam, the only member of the Paris attackers who did not join the self-proclaimed IS caliphate in Syria, has told the court that he was a last-minute add-on to the group. He said he “renounced” his mission to explode himself in a bar in northern Paris. Prosecutor Nicolas Le Bris rejected the claim, telling the court that “he’s trying to put you to sleep.”
Abdeslam’s brother, who was among those who attacked cafes in Paris, was killed on the spot.
Another key defendant, Mohammed Abrini, accompanied the group to Paris the night before the attacks then returned to Belgium. He was arrested after the March 2016 terror attacks in the Brussels airport and subway. Prosecutors want a life sentence for him as well.
“Salah Abdeslam and Mohammed Abrini made no mystery of their jihadi engagement, but both tried to cover the tracks about their ideas,” prosecutor Le Bris said.
He noted that the café in the Brussels district of Molenbeek run by Abdeslam and his brother “sold alcohol and drugs but also offered jihadi propaganda.”
The café “became the headquarters of a fan club for Abdelhamid Abaaoud,” the man presented as the mastermind of the attacks. He was killed by French police while holed up outside Paris.
The trial will continue with defense pleas. Final words from the defendants are set for June 27, with a verdict expected on June 29.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/prosecutors-in-2015-paris-attacks-trial-take-center-stage/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:36
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| 0.967465
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Teodora del Carmen Vásquez was nine months pregnant and working at a school cafeteria when she felt extreme pain in her back, like the crack of a hammer. She called 911 seven times before fainting in a bathroom in a pool of blood.
The nightmare that followed is common in El Salvador, a heavily Catholic country where abortion is banned under all circumstances and even women who suffer miscarriages and stillbirths are sometimes accused of killing their babies and sentenced to years or even decades in prison.
When Vásquez regained consciousness, she had lost her nearly full-term fetus. Instead of an ambulance, officers drove her in the bed of a pickup through heavy rain to a police station. There she was arrested on suspicion of violating El Salvador’s abortion law, one of the world’s strictest. Fearing she could die, authorities eventually rushed her to a hospital, where she was chained by her left foot to a gurney. She was prosecuted, convicted and given 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide.
“This is the reality that we have lived, and I am not alone,” said Vásquez, who ended up serving more than 10 years for what she has always said was a stillbirth. “Any woman who arrives to jail accused of having an abortion is seen as the most evil, heartless being.”
“From the moment we get pregnant, we become incubators,” said Vásquez, who was freed in 2018 after her sentence was commuted. “We lose our rights because the only possibility that we have of a life is taking care of the product inside us. It’s violence against us.”
Abortion rights activists say the law has led to widespread human rights violations against Salvadoran women and should serve as a cautionary tale for the United States, where more than 20 states are expected to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling in the coming weeks.
Some states may retain exceptions for cases such as rape or incest, but others are likely to have none save for a threat to a pregnant woman’s life. That would mean some rape victims may be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and obstetric emergencies could be mistaken for intentional abortions, according to Catalina Martínez Coral, Latin America and Caribbean director for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.
“These states are going to live similar situations that women are living in El Salvador,” Martínez Coral said.
Some anti-abortion leaders in the U.S. say they oppose prosecuting women who have abortions, but others think differently. Louisiana legislators unsuccessfully pushed a bill this year that would have allowed such prosecutions, for example, and Tom Ascol, a top contender to become the Southern Baptist Convention’s next president, favors classifying the procedure as homicide.
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Women used to be able to seek abortions in cases of risk to their life, severe fetal malformations incompatible with life, or rape in El Salvador, a country of 6.5 million people nestled between Guatemala and Honduras along Central America’s Pacific Coast.
But that ended in the late 1990s with a law championed by anti-abortion activists, conservative lawmakers and the Catholic Church, followed by a constitutional amendment defining life as starting at conception.
Today it is one of four countries in the Western Hemisphere with total bans — but it stands out for its aggressive prosecutions. While abortion carries a two- to eight-year prison sentence, dozens of women have, like Vásquez, been convicted of aggravated homicide, punishable by 30 years behind bars.
Overall, El Salvador has prosecuted at least 181 women who experienced obstetric emergencies in the past two decades, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, which has been working to win freedom for such women since 2009. At least 65 imprisoned women have been released with the help of the organization and its allies.
“Everywhere in the world it’s understood that there are pregnancy losses for natural reasons. … Here, that’s punished,” said Morena Herrera, the nonprofit’s director.
El Salvador expects doctors and nurses to report suspected abortions under threat of prosecution, so women who show up at hospitals following miscarriages or botched abortions are sometimes turned over for investigation.
Prosecution and punishment overwhelmingly fall on poor, young women who lack sufficient access to medical services and cannot afford to travel overseas for an abortion or pay for good legal defense if they run afoul of the law. Sometimes they are victims of rape, in a country with a high incidence of that crime.
One such woman, Imelda, was repeatedly raped from age 8 to 18 by her mother’s partner and became pregnant by him. In 2017 she unexpectedly gave birth to the baby in a latrine and then lost consciousness. The child survived, but Imelda was accused of attempted murder due to the circumstances of the birth.
She was freed from prison in 2018 after a court determined that she had not tried to kill her baby.
Imelda firmly believes that a woman should not be forced to carry to term a fetus conceived by rape. Since her release she has been studying to become a nurse and hopes to set an example to medical providers by treating patients in similar situations better than she was.
“What young girl is going to want to be a mother? They’re innocent,” Imelda said. “What they really want is to play, to study. I’ve always wanted to study, not be a mother.”
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted; The AP is identifying Imelda only by her first name.
Another woman, Karen, was 21 and pregnant when she fainted alone in her grandmother’s home. She woke up handcuffed to a hospital gurney and lost the pregnancy. A police interrogation led to an aggravated homicide conviction in 2015 and a 30-year prison sentence.
“They told me that I was a murderer and that I was going to pay for what I had done,” she said, “that I was going to rot in jail.”
In prison, other inmates told Karen she didn’t deserve to live. She spent seven years locked up, drawing strength from her son and belief in her innocence, and was released in December.
Like some other women interviewed by AP, Karen shared her story and agreed to be photographed on condition her full name not be disclosed out of concerns over privacy, possible reprisals and societal stigma over abortion.
Today Karen tries to make up for lost time by playing soccer with her 14-year-old son and cooking his favorite meals, refried beans and fried plantains. She holds onto her Catholic faith but has grown disenchanted by some of the church’s positions, including its staunch opposition to abortion.
“If it was up to them, we shouldn’t have been freed,” Karen said. “We should still be paying a sentence for a crime that we committed, according to society and the church.”
___
The Catholic Church and the growing number of evangelical churches have vast influence in the overwhelmingly Christian country, where some lawmakers cited Scripture last year as they voted to uphold the abortion ban.
In his office in El Salvador’s congress, lawmaker Guillermo Gallegos maintains what he calls his altar — a wooden table with an open Bible; images of Jesus that he got on a trip to Russia; a plastic bottle filled with water blessed by Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican; a statue of the Virgin Mary; and a silver one of Moses holding the Ten Commandments.
In an interview, Gallegos said allowing abortion would countermand deeply held beliefs among a large majority in El Salvador.
“There is no valid reason why abortion can be decriminalized in our country,” Gallegos said. “There are strong movements in the country in favor of abortion for some reasons, but fortunately that has not been able to prosper here in the parliament, where the decision would have to be made.”
“Approving abortion, well, that would go against our faith,” he added.
The Vatican has long been strenuously opposed to abortion, and that hasn’t changed under Francis. The pontiff has repeatedly denounced it as evidence of “throwaway culture,” and in 2019 he asked at a Catholic-sponsored conference, “Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
After celebrating Mass on a recent morning at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez praised Francis’ views and echoed his theme of abortion as a violent act.
“We live in a culture of death,” the cardinal told the AP, saying it “leads us to a total disaster.”
Anti-abortion activists say that women sharing their stories did kill their babies and that their arguments are led by abortion-rights nonprofits to try to ease the law. Local anti-abortion groups did not respond to interview requests or declined to talk to the AP.
El Salvador’s health minister declined to comment via a spokesperson for the presidency, who also said no other government officials would be available for interviews.
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With Roe v. Wade in jeopardy in the United States, Latin American abortion rights activists who once looked to their northern neighbor as a model have shifted their sights elsewhere to countries such as Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, which have loosened restrictions in recent years under pressure from women’s movements pushing the issue through the courts.
The Center for Reproductive Rights was one of several organizations that litigated and lobbied for decriminalizing abortion up to 24 weeks in Colombia. It is now working to preserve Roe.
“We hope that this green wave is also going to inspire our sisters in the United States,” Martínez Coral said, referring to the colorful handkerchiefs worn at demonstrations by supporters of abortion rights in the region. “It needs to be protected everywhere.”
Jocelyn Viterna, a Harvard University sociologist, has reviewed court documents from dozens of cases in which Salvadoran women were convicted of pregnancy-related homicide.
“If this plays out the way it does in El Salvador, in the United States women who have naturally occurring miscarriages may much more frequently be under suspicion for abortion,” Viterna said. “We may be asking, ‘Did they take a pill? Did they drink too much when they shouldn’t? What leads you to lose that child?’”
Herrera, of the Citizen Group, agreed with U.S. activists’ fears that their country may see a disproportionate impact among women of color and low-income women if Roe disappears — similar to the ban’s effect in El Salvador, where it has upended poor families.
Jesús, 22, was 8 years old when his mother was arrested in 2008 after losing her pregnancy. He and his 5-year-old brother were left in the care of their grandparents, subsistence farmers. The boys’ mother, who in court proceedings was identified only as Manuela, succumbed to cancer in 2010 while serving a 30-year sentence.
“Death,” Jesús said. “That’s what the state of El Salvador caused when it sentenced my mom — it killed her and sentenced her children to a bad life.”
Tormented for years by the accusations against his mother, he finally found some closure last November when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that El Salvador had violated her rights.
The court found that Manuela’s lost pregnancy was due to a complication known as preeclampsia and that health care workers wrongly prioritized reporting her to authorities instead of treating her health situation. It ordered the government to pay damages to her two boys.
Tapping his feet nervously during an interview, Jesús said he decided to tell their story in hopes that other children won’t have to face the same suffering: “My mom’s name is a memory that will never fade.”
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Vásquez also grew up poor in rural El Salvador, helping her parents farm before moving to the capital as a teen. She entered prison at age 24. Having attended school through just the fourth grade, she earned her high school degree behind bars and became a de facto spokesperson for others serving time.
When she was released in 2018, she vowed to fight to free other women and help them transition to new lives. Today she has become the public face of the abortion rights movement in El Salvador, traveling nationwide to meet with women in similar cases and recruit them to join her group, Mujeres Libres — Spanish for “free women.” Its motto: Don’t let this history repeat itself.
Inside a loaned home that the group helped repair, Mujeres Libres holds theater performances, music lessons for their children and workshops on how to run small businesses. The walls are decorated with a photo of Nelson Mandela and pictures of the women from their time in incarceration.
“The pain of one woman is every woman’s pain,” said Vásquez, who was awarded a human rights and democracy prize by Sweden in 2018. She recently graduated from college with a degree in communications and was featured in a documentary.
The group attracts women like Mariana López, 40, who was also imprisoned after losing a pregnancy in 2000 and served 17 years. Back on the outside, she joined Mujeres Libres and took out a loan to become a baker, a childhood dream.
“Teodora has had the greatest struggle, because she’s the one who has had enough courage to stand up to others,” López said.
Her 7-year-old daughter takes music lessons at the home with other children, and they live off sales of the baguettes that López bakes before dawn in her humble home about two hours from San Salvador.
“Perhaps we could have had the courage, but we needed someone to give us a little push,” López said, adding, “Now we feel a bit better, maybe even happy, because we can share with each other in another stage of life — in freedom.”
Another woman, Cindy, was imprisoned in 2014 after having a stillbirth in a shopping mall bathroom. At the time she had a 4-year-old son, Justin, and was studying tourism and English. Parenting and her education were put on hold, and it was four years before she was able to see Justin again.
“What I reflect on the most is the losses. … The total loss of all family, homes, houses, studies, work, children. Everything is lost,” Cindy said. “What makes you think the most is how are you going to start over? How are you going to recover time with your family?”
Now 30 and out of prison, she has to travel to a judicial office in the capital every month to sign her parole papers. She and Justin live with her parents, and she’s back in school. She makes and sells piñatas to get by, and crafted one for her son’s birthday in the form of a dinosaur — he wants to become a paleontologist.
They dream of traveling abroad together: “To forget everything,” Cindy said, “to start again in a new place.”
Vásquez said she is heartened by the children of the women, who tell her they will carry on her legacy long after she’s gone.
“It gets my hopes up because I really think that these processes must start when we’re young,” Vásquez said. “So the message … especially for mothers worldwide should be: Teach your girls to know their rights now, so that they will be able to defend human rights.
“It’s really important to try to change El Salvador,” she continued, “so our history doesn’t get repeated elsewhere and by future generations.”
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Associated Press journalists Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and Marko Alvarez in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
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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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| 2022-06-11T06:03:42
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Embroiled in controversy, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday refused to answer questions about his alleged cover-up of a theft of large amounts of cash from his farm, saying only that he will appear before his party’s integrity committee over the accusations.
Ramaphosa, 69, endured a second day of being shouted down in Parliament by opposition members before being peppered with questions from the press over the growing scandal.
Ramaphosa is facing allegations of money laundering, bribery and breaking South Africa’s foreign currency laws over the theft, which reportedly involved $4 million in cash being stolen two years ago from his Phala Phala game farm in the northern Limpopo province.
He has confirmed that the theft took place and has denied any wrongdoing. He has said the money came from the sale of animals from the game farm. But Ramaphosa has dodged all questions seeking specific information about the robbery.
He repeatedly declined to answer questions from reporters including: How much cash was stolen? How did he obtain the foreign currency? Was it legally declared to South African authorities? Did he try to cover up his possession of the cash by bribing the thieves to keep quiet?
The story of the theft came to light earlier this month when the country’s former intelligence chief, Arthur Fraser, filed a criminal complaint with police alleging that Ramaphosa had tried to cover up the robbery.
Fraser alleges that Ramaphosa had been keeping the cash hidden in furniture at his ranch when it was stolen. Instead of reporting the theft to police, Ramaphosa tried to cover it up by having members of his presidential protection unit track down the thieves, said Fraser in the affidavit filed with police.
Ramaphosa told reporters at the parliament complex in Cape Town that he wanted a full investigation to take place before answering questions about it.
“Let the due process happen as regards things like was this laundering of money … the issue of how much money was there,” Ramaphosa said. “I’d like to hold onto that. And I do that with respect because … I’m a process person. The process must unfold.”
Ramaphosa said he has offered to appear before his African National Congress party’s integrity committee. A date for that hearing has not yet been set, he said. If Ramaphosa is found to have broken the law or the party’s ethics code, the ANC committee could ask him to step aside as the party’s leader or suspend him, which could be the first step to Parliament removing him as president.
The scandal surrounding the farm theft is the biggest challenge to Ramaphosa’s leadership of Africa’s most developed economy and comes six months before a critical party elective conference in December, when Ramaphosa had already been expected to face a tough battle to be re-elected the party’s leader.
Earlier, his attempts to speak in Parliament were disrupted for a second straight day as opposition lawmakers confronted him. Lawmakers from the populist Economic Freedom Fighters, the second biggest opposition party in Parliament, scuffled with security guards as they shouted that Ramaphosa should not be allowed to address the house. Eventually they were removed from parliament.
But not before they loudly and repeatedly accused Ramaphosa of laundering money and trying to hide it. The party is also demanding that Ramaphosa step down as president pending the investigations into the theft.
“The president of the republic, there are serious allegations against him, so he can’t come to the house to address us. He must step aside and allow the law to take its course,” protested EFF lawmaker Omphile Maotwe, interrupting Ramaphosa’s attempts to speak.
Ramaphosa also told lawmakers that the robbery is under investigation and that “the law must be able to take its course.”
“I have listened very carefully to the views of members of this house who have raised thoughts, suggestions and proposals on this matter,” said Ramaphosa. “Some of the views have been to counsel me, and yet others have been laced with insults. I will not respond to insults, but will say that the counsel and suggestions that have been made raise points that I will consider.”
Appearing exhausted after the tumultuous time in parliament, Ramaphosa then fended off questions at the press conference over what is called “farmgate.” At the end of the briefing, he turned to an aide and said: “Can I go home now?”
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Magome reported from Johannesburg.
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NEW YORK — The New York attorney general's lawsuit against the National Rifle Association is no mere "witch hunt," a New York judge ruled Friday in dismissing the gun rights advocacy group's claims that the case is a political vendetta.
Manhattan Judge Joel M. Cohen's decision means the nearly 2-year-long legal fight can continue.
The ruling comes after mass shootings last month in New York and Texas reanimated debate over U.S. gun policy and refocused attention on the NRA.
The New York case began when James, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit that accused some top NRA executives of financial improprieties and sought to dissolve the group. The attorney general's job includes oversight of nonprofit organizations incorporated in the New York, where the NRA was chartered in 1871.
In March, Cohen rebuffed James' bid to shutter the NRA. But the judge let the case go on, with the potential for fines or other remedies if the attorney general prevails.
The NRA accused James in a court filing last year of waging "a blatant and malicious retaliation campaign" because of its views. The group sought to halt the lawsuit.
Cohen rejected those arguments.
"The narrative that the attorney general's investigation into these undeniably serious matters was nothing more than a politically motivated — and unconstitutional — witch hunt is simply not supported by the record," he wrote, noting that the probe was sparked by reports of misconduct and "uncovered additional evidence."
James applauded the decision, saying it confirms the suit's "legitimacy and viability."
"Our fight for transparency and accountability will continue," she said in a statement.
NRA lawyer William A. Brewer III said the group was disappointed but would keep fighting the case and still believes it was unfairly targeted.
"The NRA believes the NYAG's pursuit was fueled by her opposition to the association and its First Amendment activities in support of the Second Amendment," he said in a statement, using an abbreviation for the attorney general's title.
In the wake of the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Congress is under renewed pressure to respond after years of partisan logjams over gun legislation.
The House has passed bills that would raise the age limit to buy semiautomatic weapons and establish federal "red flag" laws, which allow for taking guns from people at extreme risk of harming themselves or others. Such initiatives traditionally have faltered in the Senate.
Democratic and Republican senators have been talking about a framework for addressing the issue, but no agreement has been announced.
The NRA — a longtime political force that has lost some influence amid financial scandals in recent years — has long insisted that mass shootings are no reason to limit access to guns, arguing that the solution instead is for law-abiding people to have firearms to defend themselves and others.
The message was echoed at the group's convention in Houston last month, days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde.
Rallies calling for significant changes to gun laws are planned in Washington and around the country this weekend and are expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also is caught up in the national tug of war over the place of guns in America. The justices are expected soon to issue their most consequential gun ruling in more than a decade, potentially making it easier to be armed on the streets of New York and other large cities.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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| 2022-06-11T06:03:54
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The earliest photo Joo-Rei Mathieson has of herself was taken when she was about four. Her head is shaved, her eyes cast downward. She has just arrived at perhaps the worst place a child could be sent in South Korea.
The black-and-white mugshot is from a November 1982 Brothers Home intake document that describes Mathieson as a lost street kid brought in by police. It notes, chillingly for a government-sponsored vagrants’ facility that survivors have told The Associated Press often worked children to death, that she’s “capable of labor.”
She spoke no words for days, the document says, after entering Brothers, a now-destroyed facility in the southern port city of Busan where thousands of children and adults — most of whom were grabbed off the streets — were enslaved and often killed, raped and beaten in the 1970s and 1980s.
“She was so scared and traumatized,” Mathieson said of herself, as she imagined in an AP interview the feelings of the girl in the photo who’d been given the name Hwang Joo Rei because of the Jurye-dong district where Brothers once stood.
Mathieson was one of the lucky ones. In August 1983, she and 21 other young children from Brothers were transferred to an orphanage in another part of the city. Her escape may have been made possible because of overcrowding at the Brothers’ sprawling compound.
Mathieson then slipped into an international adoption system that separated thousands of Korean children from their families as part of a lucrative business under the military governments that ruled South Korea from the 1960s to the late 1980s.
She was given an approximate birth date and other arbitrary details to accommodate a haphazard immigration process that was designed to send more children abroad as fast as possible. Mathieson was then flown to meet her Canadian adoptive parents in November 1984, becoming part of a child export frenzy that created the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees.
Mathieson said she spent most of her adult life in a “tunnel vision moving forward,” never questioning her past and living as a Canadian while traveling around the world, before settling in Hong Kong to work in the hospitality industry.
But her Korean past “jumped back” at her in recent months as she began to feel she was “on a mission” to discover her roots and locate her Korean parents if they are alive.
Because of privacy worries, she used the name on her adoption documents in a 2019 AP report that broke the news that Brothers was in the adoption business. Mathieson, however, is now willing to speak publicly for the first time to improve her chances of finding her Korean relatives, including a possible sibling named Lee Chang-keun.
That name appears on the adoption papers of another Korean adoptee who, along with his younger brother, was sent to a family in Belgium in 1986. Mathieson connected with him in October last year after commercial DNA tests — increasingly used by Korean adoptees seeking reunions — found that they were most likely siblings.
Mathieson said it was “exhilarating” to discover a blood relative and gain a tangible connection to her biological roots despite not knowing her true name, birthdate or hometown.
“I think no other human on this earth except for adoptees will understand what it’s like to go through life with no link to their origins. It’s something that normal people will take for granted,” Mathieson said in a Zoom interview, using air quotes for the word “normal.” “To see someone that looked so much like me was so exciting.”
The finding also raised disturbing questions about the circumstances of her adoption and that of her newfound kin, who didn’t respond to AP’s requests for comment.
His paperwork says he and his younger brother were adopted from an orphanage in Anyang, a city near the capital, Seoul, that is about 190 miles away from Busan. It says the boys were found abandoned in August 1982, months before Mathieson’s arrival at Brothers, and that they had another brother, Lee Chang-keun, who was at a different Anyang orphanage.
There’s no mention whether Lee was adopted. Mathieson hopes Lee remained in Korea and that she can now find him. She’s desperate for information about her Korean parents, and how they were separated from their children.
Neither Mathieson’s adoption papers nor those of the brothers in Belgium describe any meaningful effort to locate their original families despite the years they spent in the orphanage system.
Mathieson says she’s filled with questions: Did her parents leave her with a relative in Busan while scrambling to search for their missing sons? Was she kidnapped by police, like many other inmates at Brothers?
“A lot of the adoptions, rather, were from new parents that had to give up their child right after birth,” Mathieson said. “For a family to relinquish, voluntarily relinquish, three kids between the ages of four and six? It just didn’t add up for me … I knew that (the) true story was so far deep.”
Through documents obtained from officials, lawmakers or through freedom of information requests, the AP found direct evidence that 19 children were adopted out of Brothers between 1979 and 1986, and indirect evidence suggesting at least 51 more adoptions.
Mathieson’s memories from before she left Korea — of watching children playing in an almost empty outdoor pool, of towering black iron gates, of flowers in a garden courtyard where she was hurried out for a photograph — were all vague and benign before the AP first told her that she’d been at Brothers in 2016.
She now connects those memories with Brothers photos showing children playing in the low water of a concrete pit behind huge barred gates that confined thousands — including homeless and disabled people as well as random pedestrians who’d been snatched off the streets — before a prosecutor exposed the facility’s horrors in 1987.
Brothers was the largest of the nationwide facilities that accommodated aggressive roundups ordered by military leaders eager to clean the country’s streets. Adoptions were another way to remove the socially undesirable, including children from unwed mothers or poor families, and to reduce the number of mouths to feed.
About 200,000 Korean children were adopted by families in the West in the past six decades, including 7,924 in 1984, the year Mathieson was adopted. Roots are often untraceable because most of the children were listed as abandoned, even when they had known relatives, which made them easily adoptable.
Mathieson plans to bring her case to Seoul’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has interviewed hundreds of Brothers survivors or their families, but so far no adoptee. While still determined to get information about her biological parents, Mathieson treasures the snippets of her past that have emerged as she presses on with her search.
“It was nice to get additional photos,” Mathieson said about images recently sent from the Korea Welfare Service, her adoption agency. “I will cherish them.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/survivor-of-abusive-facility-searches-for-lost-korean-roots/
| 2022-06-11T06:03:56
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/articles/39763673
| 2022-06-11T06:04:00
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LONDON (AP) — The British government said Friday it will introduce a bill next week to override parts of the Brexit trade treaty it signed with the European Union before the U.K. quit the bloc in 2020. The move will be a major escalation in a festering U.K-EU dispute over trade rules for Northern Ireland.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Jamie Davies, said “the bill has been agreed by the relevant cabinet committees and will be introduced to Parliament on Monday.”
The legislation, if approved by lawmakers, would scrap parts of a trade treaty with the EU that Johnson signed less than two years ago, by removing checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
The EU has threatened to retaliate, raising the specter of a trade war between the two major economic partners.
Some legal experts say the move is unlawful but the U.K. government says it will “publish a summary of the legal advice” it has received about the legislation.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU country, Ireland. When Britain left the European Union and its borderless free-trade zone, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Instead, to protect the EU’s single market, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
British unionists in Northern Ireland say the new checks have put a burden on businesses and frayed the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. — seen by some unionists as a threat to their British identity.
Britain’s Conservative government says the Brexit rules also are undermining peace in Northern Ireland, where they have caused a political crisis. Northern Ireland’s main unionist party is blocking the formation of a new power-sharing government in Belfast, saying it won’t take part until the Brexit trade rules are scrapped.
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Follow all AP stories on Brexit at https://apnews.com/hub/Brexit.
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| 2022-06-11T06:04:03
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Seoul, South Korea (CNN)North Korea has named a top nuclear negotiator as the nation's first female foreign minister, state media reported Saturday, amid warnings from the US that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a nuclear test.
Career diplomat Choe Son Hui was appointed at a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea from June 8-10, overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, state-run outlet KCNA said.
Her appointment comes at a time of tension on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea aggressively ramps up its weapons testing program in defiance of United Nations sanctions.
On Tuesday, US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim warned that Washington believes North Korea is preparing to conduct a seventh nuclear test -- which would be its first since 2017.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also said Tuesday that North Korea is "readying their nuclear test site," warning the situation surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear program "is quite concerning because we have seen a fast-forward in every line," based on the activity at the Punggye-ri site.
North Korea has conducted 17 missile launches this year alone, including two successful tests of presumed intercontinental ballistic missiles.
South Korea and the US put on an aerial show of force to North Korea on Tuesday, flying 20 fighter jets over waters west of the Korean Peninsula in response to Pyongyang's recent missile tests.
It came a day after the two allies fired eight missiles into nearby waters, which they said demonstrated that "even if North Korea provokes with missiles from multiple locations, (South Korea and the US have) the ability and readiness to immediately strike with precision."
The KCNA report of the plenary meeting Saturday made no mention of North Korea's nuclear capability, missile tests, the US or South Korea.
However, Kim reaffirmed the principle of "power to power," which "will not yield a single inch," in defending national sovereignty, and presented military tasks for North Korea's forces and defense research department, KCNA said.
Who is Choe Son Hui?
Born in 1964 in Pyongyang, Choe is the daughter of former North Korean prime minister Choe Yong Rim, according to South Korean Unification Ministry data.
She first appeared in the media in 1997 as the interpreter for North Korean delegates in four-party nuclear negotiations with its neighbors. She again joined the negotiation during six-party talks in the 2000s.
Choe played a key role during North Korea's summits with the US, leading an aggressive negotiation effort aimed at the US leadership of former President Donald Trump. Her statements published on North Korean state media alternated between threatening a "nuclear showdown" to offers of dialogue.
She accompanied North Korean leader Kim for summits in Singapore in 2018 and Hanoi a year later, sitting alongside him at the negotiation table.
In her latest statement in March of last year, she demanded the US cease its "hostile policy" against North Korea, including its joint drills with South Korea.
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https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/asia/north-korea-choe-son-hui-intl-hnk/index.html
| 2022-06-11T06:04:06
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/articles/39763746
| 2022-06-11T06:04:06
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SINGAPORE (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stressed American support for Taiwan on Saturday, suggesting at Asia’s premier defense forum that recent Chinese military activity around the self-governing island threatens to change the status quo.
Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Austin noted a “steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan,” including almost daily military flights near the island by the People’s Republic of China.
“Our policy hasn’t changed, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be true for the PRC,” he said.
Austin said Washington remains committed to the “one-China policy,” which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949, but China claims the island as its own territory and has not ruled out using military force to take it.
China has stepped up its military provocations against democratic Taiwan in recent years, aimed at intimidating it into accepting Beijing’s demands to unify with the communist mainland.
“We remain focused on maintaining peace, stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” Austin said in his address. “But the PRC’s moves threaten to undermine security, and stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
He drew a parallel with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that the “indefensible assault on a peaceful neighbor has galvanized the world and … has reminded us all of the dangers of undercutting an international order rooted in rules and respect.”
Austin stressed that the “rules-based international order matters just as much in the Indo-Pacific as it does in Europe.”
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all,” he said. “It’s what happens when big powers decide that their imperial appetites matter more than the rights of their peaceful neighbors. And it’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”
Austin met Friday with Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the conference for discussions where Taiwan featured prominently, according to a senior American defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details of the private meeting.
Austin made clear at the meeting that while the U.S. does not support Taiwanese independence, it also has major concerns about China’s recent behavior and suggested that Beijing might be attempting to change the status quo.
Wei, meanwhile, complained to Austin about new American arms sales to Taiwan announced this week, saying it “seriously undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests,” according to a Chinese state-run CCTV report after the meeting.
China “firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” and the Chinese government and military will “resolutely smash any Taiwan independence plot and resolutely safeguard the reunification of the motherland,” Wei reportedly told Austin.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Wu Qian quoted Wei as saying China would respond to any move toward formal Taiwan independence by “smashing it even at any price, including war.”
In his speech, Austin said the U.S. stands “firmly behind the principle that cross-strait differences must be resolved by peaceful means,” but also would continue to fulfill its commitments to Taiwan.
“That includes assisting Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability,” he said.
“And it means maintaining our own capacity to resist any use of force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or the social or economic system of the people of Taiwan.”
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed U.S. relations with the island, does not require the U.S. to step in militarily if China invades, but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status by Beijing.
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Rising reported from Bangkok
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/us-chinas-military-activity-around-taiwan-threatens-region/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:10
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/articles/39763800
| 2022-06-11T06:04:12
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LONDON (AP) — Explorers and historians are telling the world about the discovery of the wreck of a royal warship that sank in 1682 while carrying a future king of England, Ireland and Scotland.
The HMS Gloucester, traveling from southern England to Scotland, ran aground while navigating sandbanks off the town of Great Yarmouth on the eastern English coast. It sank within an hour, killing an estimated 130 to 250 crew and passengers.
James Stuart, the son of King Charles I, survived. He went on to reign as King James II of England and Ireland, and as James VII of Scotland from 1685 to 1688, when he was deposed by the Glorious Revolution.
The wreck of the Gloucester was found in 2007 by brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell and others after a four-year search. It was firmly identified in 2012 with discovery of the ship’s bell.
The discovery was only made public Friday because of the time it took to confirm the identity of the ship and the need to protect the historical site.
Claire Jowitt, an expert in maritime history at the University of East Anglia, said the wreck was “one of the important ‘almost’ moments in English history.” The Gloucester’s sinking almost caused the death of the Catholic heir to the Protestant throne at a time of great political and religious tension in Britain.
“If he had died, we would have had a very different British and European history as a result,” Jowitt said.
“I think this is a time capsule that offers the opportunity to find it out so much about life on a 17th-century ship. The royal nature of the ship is absolutely incredible and unique,” she added.
She believes the wreck is the most important maritime discovery since the Mary Rose, the warship from the Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. The Mary Rose capsized with a crew of around 500 in 1545 in the Solent, a strait between the Isle of Wight and the British mainland. A huge salvage operation brought it back to the surface in 1982.
There are no current plans to raise the wreck of the Gloucester because much of it is buried under sand.
“We’ve only just touched the tip of an iceberg,” Julian Barnwell said.
Artifacts rescued from the wreck include clothes, shoes, navigational equipment and many wine bottles. One bottle bears a seal with the crest of the Legge family — the ancestors of George Washington, the first U.S president. The crest was a forerunner to the Stars and Stripes flag.
An exhibition is planned next spring at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery to display finds from the wreck and share ongoing research.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/international/wreck-of-17th-century-royal-warship-found-off-uk-coast/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:16
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| 0.965825
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/articles/39763906
| 2022-06-11T06:04:18
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KENT, Wash. (AP) — A suburban Seattle city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the Holocaust.
Former Kent Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell, who had been with the department for nearly three decades, was initially given two weeks of unpaid leave after the 2020 incident. Outraged residents and members of the Jewish community prompted Mayor Dana Ralph to put Kammerzell on paid administrative leave and demand his resignation.
The city’s attempt to essentially discipline Kammerzell a second time led to a dispute between his lawyers and the city that appeared headed for litigation. But interim city Chief Administrative Officer Arthur “Pat” Fiztpatrick, who is also the city attorney, said Friday the city had resolved the matter through negotiation, The Seattle Times reported.
Ralph, in calling for Kammerzell’s resignation in January, acknowledged that the decision to revisit the discipline issue would likely “come at a high cost.” The city said Friday it would pay him $1,520,000 to resign.
Had the city simply fired him, officials said, he likely would have won back his job through arbitration due to federal and state labor laws.
An internal investigation concluded Kammerzell knew the meaning of the insignia he placed above the nameplate on his office door in September 2020 — that of an “obergruppenfuhrer” — a high official in Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II.
The insignia was taken down after four days when a detective in the investigations bureau, which Kammerzell commanded, filed a complaint.
Kammerzell also was overheard joking about the Holocaust, according to the internal investigation.
Messages left by the newspaper with Kammerzell’s attorney and with the Kent Police Officers Association were not immediately returned.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/1-5m-to-be-paid-to-police-chief-who-displayed-nazi-insignia/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:22
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| 0.979577
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/kansas-city-royals/articles/39763543
| 2022-06-11T06:04:24
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Eight years after Congress created the program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking a first step toward offering more than $7 billion of federally backed loans to repair aging dams owned by states, local governments and private entities across the U.S.
The Corps published a proposed rule for the low-interest loan program on Friday, starting a process that is expected to open applications for the aid in 2023, said Aaron Snyder, interim director of the Corps’ Water Infrastructure Financing Program.
The Corps’ National Inventory of Dams lists more than 92,000 structures across the U.S., most of which are privately owned. The safety of the nation’s dams has garnered increased public scrutiny in recent years, in part because of high-profile failures that forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in Michigan and California.
“There is a need to rehabilitate quite a number of our dams in the U.S.,” said Chuck Thompson, chief of the New Mexico Dam Safety Bureau and president of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.
But he added: “The rehabilitation of a large facility like a dam requires quite a bit of funding, and it’s the sort of thing that even the larger owners often struggle with.”
A recent Associated Press analysis tallied more than 2,200 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition that are classified as high-hazard, meaning their failure likely would unleash a flood killing at least one person. That figure was up substantially from a similar AP analysis three years earlier.
The nation’s dams have an average age of 61 years and often pose a greater risk than when they were designed and constructed. Homes, businesses and highways have been built below dams that once were in remote locations. A changing climate with intense rainstorms has strained some dams beyond their original designs. Maintenance also has been deferred, often because dam owners lack the money to pay for it.
The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates it could cost nearly $76 billion to rehabilitate the almost 89,000 dams owned by individuals, companies, community associations, states, local governments and other entities besides the U.S. government.
The new federal loan program “puts a pretty good dent in the existing need,” Snyder said.
Most states don’t have grant or loan programs specifically targeted for repairing dams. Until recently, federal money for dam improvements also has been limited.
Since 2019, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has divided nearly $32 million among 35 states and Puerto Rico to design and make repairs on high-hazard dams. Last year’s infrastructure law pumped an additional $585 million into that program, including $75 million set aside for dam removal. It also provided $118 million to rehabilitate aging dams built through the National Resources Conservation Service, among other things.
But all that pales in comparison to the billions of dollars in loans soon to be available through the Corps.
“This program is critically important to provide improved public safety, reduce risk to vulnerable communities, and enhance climate resiliency to bring our aging infrastructure into the future,” Michael L. Connor, assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, said in a statement announcing the proposed rule.
The Corps’ loan program was authorized under a 2014 law that also enabled water system loans from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has provided 88 loans totaling $15 billion from 2018 through this year.
But until recently, Congress had not set aside money specifically for dam-related loans. Consequently, the Corps hadn’t developed rules needed to issue loans for those repairs, Snyder said.
That changed in December 2020 when Congress began taking a series of steps appropriating money to support the loan program. It got a big funding boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden last November.
Under the proposed rule published Friday, the loans would be available only for projects of at least $20 million, though repairs on multiple dams could be bundled to reach that threshold, Snyder said. Loans generally could cover up to 49% of the costs. But that could extend up to 80% of the costs for projects serving “economically disadvantaged communities” with low-income levels, persistent poverty or high unemployment.
Recipients could have up to 35 years to repay the loans.
___
Follow David A. Lieb at: http://twitter.com/DavidALieb
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/aging-dams-could-soon-benefit-from-7b-federal-loan-program/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:29
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| 0.969823
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/kansas-city-royals/articles/39763613
| 2022-06-11T06:04:30
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The leaders of the National Governors Association said Friday they’re forming a bipartisan working group to come up with recommendations to stop mass shootings following the Texas school massacre.
Reaching consensus could be a tall order given that the nation’s governors have been divided along partisan lines on how to approach issues of gun control and school safety.
Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, the group’s chairman, and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, the vice chair, told the White House in a letter that they will convene a group of six to 10 governors, with a particular focus on making schools safe.
Hutchinson and Murphy appeared to leave open the possibility that the recommendations could include some gun control proposals. The U.S. House this week approved a wide-ranging gun control bill that has little chance of passing the Senate.
“It is our hope that the task force can provide suggestions to keep our schools and communities safe in a manner that is consistent with the demands of the American people, who overwhelmingly support gun safety measures,” the governors’ letter said. “We can all agree that there are commonsense ways to prevent these tragic events, and we must work together to do everything in our collective power to protect our communities and our most vulnerable citizens – our children.”
The letter comes as governors have been split along partisan lines on the best response to the Uvalde, Texas, shooting that killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers. A recent survey by The Associated Press showed governors divided, with Democrats calling for more restrictions on guns and Republicans focusing instead on beefing up school security.
Hutchinson has said that raising the minimum age to buy an AR-style rifle from 18 to 21 should be part of the discussion. But Hutchinson, who leaves office in January and is considering running for president, isn’t calling for such a move in his state and has said gun control measures won’t be on the agenda if he asks the Republican-controlled Legislature to take up school safety ideas during a potential special session.
The letter was sent the same day Hutchinson announced he was reinstating a school safety commission he formed to come up with recommendations following the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/governors-forming-task-force-to-address-mass-shootings/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:35
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/kansas-city-royals/articles/39763904
| 2022-06-11T06:04:36
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VICTORIA, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Friday dismissed the bankruptcy protection case of Infowars and two other companies controlled by Alex Jones, the result of an agreement between lawyers for the conspiracy theorist and parents of some of the children slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez approved the deal after a brief court hearing. The judge’s action allows the parents’ defamation lawsuits against Jones to continue in Texas and Connecticut, where trials are pending on how much he should pay families after judges in both states found Jones and his companies liable for damages.
The families’ lawsuits say they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy. Jones, based in Austin, Texas, has since said he believes the shooting did occur.
Relatives of eight of the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the school in Newtown, Connecticut, are suing Jones and Free Speech Systems.
Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health consented to dismissing the bankruptcy case last week after the families agreed to drop the three companies from their defamation lawsuits. Those lawsuits will continue against Jones himself and his largest moneymaking company, Free Speech Systems.
The families and the U.S. trustee’s office — a Justice Department agency that oversees bankruptcy cases — had questioned the legitimacy of the three companies’ bankruptcy filing and sought to throw out the case, saying it was only a tactic to delay the lawsuits. Jones’ lawyers denied the allegations.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/infowars-bankruptcy-tossed-in-deal-with-sandy-hook-parents/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:41
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/los-angeles-chargers/articles/39762827
| 2022-06-11T06:04:42
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A Texas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from investigating families of transgender children who have received gender-confirming medical care, a new obstacle to the state labeling such treatments as child abuse.
The temporary restraining order issued by Judge Jan Soifer halts investigations against three families who sued, and prevents any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas.
“I do find that there is sufficient reason to believe that the plaintiffs will suffer immediate and irreparable injury if the commissioner and the (Department of Family and Protective Services) are allowed to continue to implement and enforce this new Department rule that equates gender affirming care with child abuse,” Soifer said at the end of a roughly 40-minute hearing.
The ruling comes about a month after the Texas Supreme Court allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
“That families will be protected from invasive, unnecessary, and unnerving investigations by DFPS simply for helping their transgender children thrive and be themselves is a very good thing,” Brian K. Bond, executive director of PFLAG National, said in a statement. “However, let’s be clear: These investigations into loving and affirming families shouldn’t be happening in the first place.”
The latest challenge was brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys — two 16-year-olds and a 14-year-old — and PFLAG. An attorney for Lambda Legal told the judge that the 14-year-old’s family had learned after the lawsuit’s filing that the state’s investigation into them had been dropped.
Spokespeople for Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
An attorney for the state had argued during the hearing that applying the order to any member of PFLAG was “untenable” and would be difficult for the department to comply with. But Lambda Legal senior counsel Paul Castillo said that parents could simply show their membership receipt or some other proof of membership.
The families had talked in court filings about the anxiety that the investigations had created for them and their children. The mother of one of the teens said her son attempted suicide and was hospitalized the day Abbott issued his directive. The outpatient psychiatric facility where the teen was referred reported the family for child abuse after learning he had been prescribed hormone therapy, she said in a court filing.
A judge in March put Abbott’s order on hold after a lawsuit brought on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said it was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court in May ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority by blocking all investigations going forward.
That lawsuit marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Paxton labeling certain gender-confirming treatments as “child abuse.” The Texas Department of Family and Protective Service has said it opened nine investigations following the directive and opinion.
Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.
Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender-confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. A judge blocked Arkansas’ law, and a federal appeals court will hear arguments in the case next week.
The judge set a June 21 hearing on whether to extend the order into a temporary injunction blocking the investigations.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/judge-blocks-texas-investigating-families-of-trans-youth/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:47
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| 0.975272
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/los-angeles-chargers/articles/39762930
| 2022-06-11T06:04:48
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Black civil rights activists in April demanded that a Michigan prosecutor stand aside in the investigation of the police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya with a shot to the back of the head, claiming he was too cozy with local law enforcement.
Chris Becker’s response: This is what I was elected to do.
Becker, a Republican, filed a second-degree murder charge Thursday against Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr, whose fatal shot following a traffic stop on April 4 was recorded on a bystander’s phone. The announcement was praised by critics who for weeks had said that Michigan’s Democratic attorney general should take over.
“I was shocked, to be quite honest. I was absolutely shocked. I didn’t expect that,” said Cle Jackson, president of the Greater Grand Rapids NAACP, who previously had said that an unbiased investigation by Becker’s office was not possible.
“We’re thankful for Chris having that fortitude to bring the charge that we feel comfortable with. Now we’ll have to continue to fight in the courts,” Jackson said.
Schurr, 31, was released from jail Friday after appearing in court by video. Bond was set at $100,000, and a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. Defense attorneys insist the officer feared for his safety when he shot Lyoya, 26, a refugee from Congo.
The courtroom benches were full of spectators, some wearing T-shirts with pro-police slogans, including #StandwithSchurr. As dozens of Schurr supporters departed, many embracing, they were met by pro-Lyoya demonstrators chanting, “Justice for Patrick!” The Schurr crowd said little. One white man tried to debate with the pro-Lyoya group but was quickly shouted down.
The practice of state prosecutors handling police shootings has become common, especially in tense, high-profile cases with diverging public opinion and perceptions that local authorities favor officers. In Minnesota, the attorney general’s office won convictions against Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd and Kim Potter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright.
Maine has long given its attorney general sole power in such cases. California requires the attorney general to investigate fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians. New York created a special unit within the attorney general’s office. Minnesota state prosecutors take cases upon request.
In Michigan, Becker could have asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to step in — an option for a prosecutor who has a conflict of interest or needs certain expertise — but he said it wasn’t necessary.
The son of a longtime local newspaper sports editor, Becker was elected Kent County prosecutor in 2016 after years as a trial lawyer in the same office.
He dismissed claims that he couldn’t fairly examine the acts of a police officer in Grand Rapids, the largest city in western Michigan with a population of roughly 200,000.
“We are our own entity,” he said Thursday. “We have a duty to enforce the law. We work a lot with them, but we don’t work for them.”
Local defense attorney Rick Zambon said earlier criticism of Becker was unfair.
“I’ve been dealing with him for 30 years,” Zambon said. “I’ve always found him to be a forthright, open-minded person. He doesn’t play politics. … I don’t always agree with his charging decisions, but I can’t say they’re not without a lot of thought.”
Nessel, who repeatedly said she was willing to take the Lyoya case if asked, complimented the “exhaustive review” by state police and Becker’s office. Lyoya’s family, too, said the second-degree murder charge fit.
Ven Johnson, a lawyer who is expected to file a lawsuit over the shooting, was scheduling media interviews this week with Lyoya’s family to express anger over the pace of the investigation before Becker signaled that his decision was in.
“While the road to justice for Patrick and his family has just begun, this decision is a crucial step in the right direction,” co-counsel Ben Crump said.
After the charge was announced, protesters gathered outside City Hall and the Grand Rapids Police Department. Some weren’t satisfied.
“I appreciate the second-degree murder, but to me it’s still like a slap in the face, to be honest, because I need first-degree,” said Jimmy Barwan, 25, of Grand Rapids. “Life without parole.”
Second-degree murder in Michigan can carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, but offenders typically get an opportunity for parole.
“A Black man would not get any chance of parole,” Jalauna Williams, 20, of Grand Rapids, said.
Becker was asked by a reporter if he was trying to send a message to police with the murder charge.
“I’m never big on sending messages with charges,” he replied. “I’m not thinking that Kent County officers or any police officers in general thought they had a license to go out and do something like this. This is not a message. This is just based on the facts.”
___
White reported from Detroit. Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed.
___
Find the AP’s full coverage of the fatal police shooting of Patrick Lyoya: https://apnews.com/hub/patrick-lyoya
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/michigan-officer-charged-in-lyoya-shooting-set-for-hearing/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:53
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| 0.97427
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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/los-angeles-chargers/articles/39763473
| 2022-06-11T06:04:54
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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A local district attorney’s race in Maine wasn’t generating much attention until a political action committee linked to a deep-pocketed liberal donor with international name recognition suddenly took an interest.
A super PAC funded by George Soros, the billionaire investor, philanthropist and conspiracy-theory target, dropped $300,000 on behalf of the challenger, dwarfing the $70,000 combined that had been raised by both candidates until then.
The cash infusion — a stunning sum for a local race in Maine — shows how national groups are seeking to influence district attorney’s contests across the country. The spending highlights a mostly under-the-radar jostling for control of an office that some see as being on the front lines of the movement for criminal justice reforms.
Left-leaning groups have stepped in to fund candidates who support those reforms, while conservatives are pushing back amid concerns that crime in America’s cities is out of control.
Whitney Tymas, president of the Justice & Public Safety PAC, which supports progressive district attorney candidates, said political money is necessary to bring change to an office that is overwhelmingly white and male, and where most incumbents run unopposed for reelection.
“It takes real money to meet this moment,” said Tymas, who leads political action committees funding races in Maine and several other states.
In Maine, a Soros-backed super PAC funneled the $300,000 windfall to Tymas’ political action committee, which has been sending mailings in advance of Tuesday’s primary attacking incumbent Jonathan Sahrbeck, a Democrat. It also has been mailing fliers in favor Democratic challenger Jacqueline Sartoris.
Sahrbeck called on his opponent to denounce the ads and described the spending amount in the county that includes Maine’s most populous city, Portland, as “outrageous.”
“Folks in Cumberland County should be disgusted by this attempt to buy this race,” he said in a statement.
The spending is not unique to Maine.
Money also poured into this week’s recall election that gave the boot to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a Democrat. Among other things, Boudin’s critics said he had failed to prosecute repeat offenders.
Boudin’s supporters raised more than $3 million, with money coming from the ACLU and Real Justice, a political action committee that has supported more than 50 progressives running for prosecutors’ positions across the U.S. over the past five years.
Opponents had raised at least $7 million, with the majority of that coming from an organization fueled by large donations from individuals, including more than $500,000 each from San Francisco investors Jean-Pierre Conte and William Oberndorf.
Boudin was elected on a platform of reducing incarceration and had implemented policies against seeking cash bail and not trying juveniles as adults. While many crime numbers are lower since he took office less than three years ago, the city has been shaken by a spate of attacks against Asian-Americans, smash-and-grab retail robberies and open drug use on the streets.
While Soros-funded groups did not play a role in the San Francisco recall, the billionaire has spent sizable sums in other states.
In Arkansas, some $321,000 from Soros flowed through a PAC in a failed attempt to help Alicia Walton beat Will Jones in a race last month for prosecutor in a judicial district that includes Little Rock, the state capital. Special interest money cut both ways in the race to fill an open seat, with a pair of Republican billionaires spending $316,000 to support Jones.
The outside money funded direct-mail ads to voters. One from the Soros-backed group misleadingly suggested Jones was anti-victim by using portions of a quote from his argument before jurors when he prosecuted a man on trial for rape. Jurors convicted the man in the 2008 case.
Fair Courts America, the super PAC supporting Jones, sent a mailer calling Walton “soft on crime” and criticizing her work as a public defender.
Soros-funded groups also have gotten involved in at least two other local prosecutor races. In Northern California’s Contra Costa County, California Justice & Public Safety PAC spent at least $950,000 to help District Attorney Diana Benton fend off challenger Mary Knox in this week’s Democratic primary, according to an Associated Press analysis of campaign finance filings. The group paid for TV ads to promote Benton and criticize Knox, who was supported by more than $200,000 in independent expenditures from a group funded mostly by police organizations.
In Iowa’s Polk County, which includes Des Moines, the Justice & Public Safety PAC spent at least $136,000 on behalf of Kimberly Graham as she defeated two other Democrats running for county attorney in this week’s primary, filings show. The seat is open for the first time in more than 30 years.
Soros has donated billions of dollars over the years in support of liberal and anti-authoritarian causes. The Hungarian-American has been the subject of conspiracy theories spread by right-wing groups, as well as antisemitic attacks.
Earlier this year, he gave more than $125 million to Democracy PAC II to spend on midterm elections and said in a statement that he was looking to make a “long-term investment” in races nationwide.
Races for local district attorneys have been gaining attention because those offices are often at the center of debates over law enforcement reforms and problems in the criminal justice system, which incarcerates poor people and people of color at higher rates.
A study released this month by the Prosecutors and Politics Project at the University of North Carolina Law School showed money and incumbency play important roles in local district attorney’s races in 45 states where they’re elected.
Incumbents usually don’t face a challenger, and 38% of them won contested elections even when the challenger raised more money, the study found. Challengers won only 20% of the time when they lost the fundraising battle. The study focused on individual fundraising, not independent expenditures on a candidate’s behalf.
“It takes a lot of money for a challenger to be able to break through and have a chance at winning,” said Carisssa Hessick, director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project.
The stakes are high in Maine’s primary election.
Because both district attorney candidates are running as Democrats, and there are no other candidates, the race effectively will be decided during Tuesday’s primary.
Sartoris, an assistant district attorney in another county, told the AP that the outside donations show the importance of the job — and recognize that she’s the “only lifelong Democrat” in the race.
She said she stands for Democratic values by seeking to address underreported crimes such as sexual assault and hate crimes and helping those struggling with substance use disorder. She vowed to “finally take seriously questions of racial disparities in charging and convictions.”
Sahrbeck said he has worked on practical reforms in some of those same areas and organized training to examine implicit bias, racism, racial equity and inclusion.
While he’s registered as a Democrat, an attack ad noted he won the previous race for district attorney as an independent.
Sahrbeck said the community would be much better served if the $300,000 linked to Soros was being spent on addressing homelessness, substance use disorder and mental health issues.
Sartoris said she can’t accept responsibility for independent spending over which she has no control.
“I’m responsible for my campaign,” she said. “He’s responsible for his.”
___
DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/national-groups-flooding-local-prosecutor-races-with-money/
| 2022-06-11T06:04:59
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Dozens of residents in a small New Mexico community impacted by massive wildfires that merged in April are suing the U.S. Forest Service over what they called a failure to provide information about the government’s role in starting the blazes.
The Forest Service has acknowledged that two prescribed burns it set to clear out brush and small trees that can serve as wildfire fuel sparked two blazes that came together as the largest in New Mexico’s recorded history and the biggest burning in the U.S. right now.
The wildfire has charred 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers) in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, which sits at the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Several hundred homes have been destroyed.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on behalf of 50 Mora County residents, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
It asks the court to declare that the Forest Service improperly withheld planning documents for the burns, agreements or contracts with anyone who helped carry out the burns and information on the rules and regulations that govern the prescribed burns.
Without the information, the lawsuit alleges, the residents “cannot determine the Forest Service’s responsibility — other than media accounts — for starting the fire.”
The Forest Service told the Santa Fe New Mexican that it does not comment on pending litigation. The agency has said unexpected, erratic winds during one prescribed burn carried embers outside the targeted area. The other wildfire emerged from a burn set on a pile of dead vegetation in January that smoldered for weeks, even under snow.
The agency has put a hold on prescribed burns nationwide pending its own investigation.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit New Mexico on Saturday for a briefing about the wildfires and recovery efforts.
Another wildfire in southwestern New Mexico has burned 466 square miles (1,206 square kilometers), prompting New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to declare an emergency for Sierra County on Friday.
The declaration came as the fire grew to become the second largest wildfire in state history. The governor’s office said it’s now burning beyond the boundaries of the Gila National Forest, affecting communities and requiring evacuations.
In northern New Mexico, Mora County residents said they requested documents from the Forest Service on May 4 about the fire in northern New Mexico, but that the agency failed to respond within 20 working days as required under the law. The lawsuit also seeks attorneys’ fees.
Herman Lujan, 80, his brother and nephew are among the Mora County residents who are suing. Lujan’s home was spared, but he said he has 30 hungry cattle that he might have to sell because they can’t graze in a burned pasture his family has used for generations.
“Everything burned,” he said. “Timber, everything. I even had an old dozer up there to make ponds for the cows, and everything burned.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/new-mexico-residents-sue-for-information-on-massive-wildfire/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:05
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NEW YORK (AP) — The New York attorney general’s lawsuit against the National Rifle Association is no mere “witch hunt,” a New York judge ruled Friday in dismissing the gun rights advocacy group’s claims that the case is a political vendetta.
Manhattan Judge Joel M. Cohen’s decision means the nearly 2-year-long legal fight can continue.
The ruling comes after mass shootings last month in New York and Texas reanimated debate over U.S. gun policy and refocused attention on the NRA.
The New York case began when James, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit that accused some top NRA executives of financial improprieties and sought to dissolve the group. The attorney general’s job includes oversight of nonprofit organizations incorporated in the New York, where the NRA was chartered in 1871.
In March, Cohen rebuffed James’ bid to shutter the NRA. But the judge let the case go on, with the potential for fines or other remedies if the attorney general prevails.
The NRA accused James in a court filing last year of waging “a blatant and malicious retaliation campaign” because of its views. The group sought to halt the lawsuit.
Cohen rejected those arguments.
“The narrative that the attorney general’s investigation into these undeniably serious matters was nothing more than a politically motivated — and unconstitutional — witch hunt is simply not supported by the record,” he wrote, noting that the probe was sparked by reports of misconduct and “uncovered additional evidence.”
James applauded the decision, saying it confirms the suit’s “legitimacy and viability.”
“Our fight for transparency and accountability will continue,” she said in a statement.
NRA lawyer William A. Brewer III said the group was disappointed but would keep fighting the case and still believes it was unfairly targeted.
“The NRA believes the NYAG’s pursuit was fueled by her opposition to the association and its First Amendment activities in support of the Second Amendment,” he said in a statement, using an abbreviation for the attorney general’s title.
In the wake of the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Congress is under renewed pressure to respond after years of partisan logjams over gun legislation.
The House has passed bills that would raise the age limit to buy semiautomatic weapons and establish federal “red flag” laws, which allow for taking guns from people at extreme risk of harming themselves or others. Such initiatives traditionally have faltered in the Senate.
Democratic and Republican senators have been talking about a framework for addressing the issue, but no agreement has been announced.
The NRA — a longtime political force that has lost some influence amid financial scandals in recent years — has long insisted that mass shootings are no reason to limit access to guns, arguing that the solution instead is for law-abiding people to have firearms to defend themselves and others.
The message was echoed at the group’s convention in Houston last month, days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde.
Rallies calling for significant changes to gun laws are planned in Washington and around the country this weekend and are expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court also is caught up in the national tug of war over the place of guns in America. The justices are expected soon to issue their most consequential gun ruling in more than a decade, potentially making it easier to be armed on the streets of New York and other large cities.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/new-yorks-lawsuit-against-nra-can-move-forward-judge-rules/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:11
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| 0.963486
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A West Virginia man accused of fatally shooting three co-workers at a western Maryland machine shop remained under police guard at a hospital Friday, but authorities said a Maryland state trooper injured in a shootout with the suspect was treated and released.
The 25-year veteran of the Maryland State Police was shot when police said the fleeing suspect fired multiple rounds at troopers who tracked him down in western Maryland. At least one trooper returned fire, striking the suspect, state police said. The injured trooper and suspect were both taken to a hospital.
The trooper has been released, but the suspect remained under police guard while undergoing treatment, police said late Thursday. Charges are pending consultation with the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office, police said. The troopers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative duty while an investigation is conducted.
Washington County Sheriff Doug Mullendore said three men were found dead at Columbia Machine Inc. in Smithsburg on Thursday afternoon and a fourth was critically injured. The victims and suspect were all employees at the facility, he said. The sheriff identified those killed in the shooting as Mark Alan Frey, 50; Charles Edward Minnick Jr., 31; and Joshua Robert Wallace, 30.
Reached by telephone Friday, Nelson Michael, the father of Brandon Michael, 42, who was wounded in the machine shop shooting, said his son was still in the hospital, but he didn’t know more about his condition.
“He’s surviving,” he said. “I’m glad he’s alive, but it’s going to work on his nerves. I know that.”
Nelson Michael said he didn’t know why the gunman shot the victims.
“I’m not saying any more. I’m just glad my son’s alive, and I feel so bad for the families of the other ones,” he said.
The shooting suspect was identified as a 23-year-old man who lives in West Virginia, but the sheriff’s office said his name wouldn’t be released until charging documents are filed. Authorities declined to release a motive.
Mullendore said the suspect used a semiautomatic handgun, which was recovered after the shootout.
Smithsburg, a community of nearly 3,000 people, is just west of the Camp David presidential retreat and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore. The manufacturing facility was in a sparsely populated area northeast of the town’s center with a church, several businesses and farmland nearby.
Columbia Machine manufactures equipment for concrete products, and its Smithsburg location builds molds and works on parts and repairs for other plants. The company’s CEO, Rick Goode, issued a statement calling the deaths of three employees and the wounding of a fourth tragic.
“Our highest priority during this tragic event is the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families,” he said.
Frey, one of the victims, lived about a half-mile from Dennis Stouffer.
He described Frey as “a solid individual” and “a good guy.”
,Stouffer said he would see Frey at the mailbox when he drove by. Stouffer said in a phone interview that Frey once made meat hooks for a deer-meat processing shop he used to run in the small rural community of Smithsburg.
“He didn’t make a bunch of noise or anything. He just went about his work,” Stouffer said.
Speaking late Friday morning, Stouffer said the reason for the shooting remained “a big mystery” to people in the community.
“We’re all in shock and disbelief, and that’s an understatement,” Stouffer said.
As mass shootings continue to fuel debate about gun control around the nation, Stouffer said the Maryland deaths did not change his mind about Second Amendment rights.
“It’s most unfortunate, but you always have to be prepared,” Stouffer said. “Whether it’s church property or your own property or wherever you go, you’re not going to prevent criminals from having guns by passing gun-control laws.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/police-shooting-suspect-under-guard-hurt-trooper-released/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:17
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| 0.975696
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JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — A woman accused of intentionally providing wrong information in the search for a missing Irish hiker in Grand Teton National Park has been banned from the park and ordered to pay restitution.
Heather Mycoskie, 40, must stay out of the park in northeastern Wyoming for five years and pay $17,600 under a deferred-prosecution agreement, park officials said in a statement Thursday.
Such agreements allow defendants to avoid prosecution if they meet certain requirements.
Mycoskie allegedly reported last June that she had seen Cian McLaughlin, 27, of Jackson, the day he disappeared almost two weeks earlier and that he was headed toward Taggart Lake because he planned to jump off his favorite rock into the water.
The information proved false, and other people told investigators Mycoskie fabricated the sighting to ensure that search efforts continued, the statement from park officials said.
All other sightings put McLaughlin, who is still missing following his disappearance June 8, 2021, on trails heading toward a different area of the park, according to the statement.
It wasn’t clear whether McLaughlin knew Mycoskie. McLaughlin’s mother, Gráinne McLaughlin, told The Associated Press she was not aware of any connection between the two.
McLaughlin had dual Irish-U.S. citizenship and in 2019 moved to Jackson Hole, where he worked as a bartender and snowboard instructor, she said.
While Cian McLaughlin spent most of his life in Ireland, his father was from Montana and he lived there for several years as a young child. He maintained a “close connection with the States and the mountains in particular,” his mother said.
“Cian was an incredible person, full of ‘joi de Vive’ and we miss him dearly,” Gráinne McLaughlin said in an email to the AP.
The allegedly false report from Mycoskie meant officials spent more than 500 fruitless hours searching, conducting investigations and completing reports, park officials said.
The deferred prosecution agreement allows Mycoskie to continue to use Jackson Hole Airport, which is located within Grand Teton, and the main highway through the park, as long as she does not stop or recreate.
Mycoskie’s attorney until the deferred prosecution agreement was signed in February, Darci Phillips, has since been appointed as a Wyoming district judge and declined to comment Friday.
Mycoskie, formerly of Jackson, recently moved to Costa Rica. She did not immediately return an Instagram message Friday seeking comment.
She was previously married to TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, who sold his Jackson home in November, the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported.
Searchers plan to continue looking for McLaughlin this summer.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/national/woman-banned-from-grand-teton-in-missing-man-false-report/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:23
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| 0.97713
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was told the same thing over and over, by his campaign team, the data crunchers, and a steady stream of lawyers, investigators and inner-circle allies: There was no voting fraud that could have tipped the 2020 presidential election.
But in the eight weeks after losing to Joe Biden, the defeated Trump publicly, privately and relentlessly pushed his false claims of a rigged 2020 election and intensified an extraordinary scheme to overturn Biden’s victory. When all else failed in his effort to stay in power, Trump beckoned thousands of his supporters to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, where extremists groups led the deadly Capitol siege.
The scale and virulence of that scheme began to take shape at the opening House hearing by the committee investigating 1/6. The prime-time hearing was watched by an estimated 20 million people on the TV networks, almost double the number who tuned in to the opening of Trump’s two impeachment trials.
When the panel resumes Monday, it will delve into its findings that Trump and his advisers knew early on that he had in fact lost the election but engaged in a “massive effort” to spread false information to convince the public otherwise.
Biden spoke of the importance of the committee’s investigation in remarks Friday in Los Angeles. “The insurrection on Jan. 6 was one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history,” the president said, “a brutal assault on our democracy.”
Americans, he said, must “understand what truly happened and to understand that the same forces that led to Jan. 6 remain at work today.”
The House panel investigating the 1/6 attack on the Capitol is prepared next week to reveal more details and testimony about its assessment that Trump was made well aware of his election loss. With 1,000 interviews and 140,000 documents over the year-long probe, it will lay out how Trump was told repeatedly that there were no hidden ballots, rigged voting machines or support for his claims. Nevertheless Trump refused to accept defeat and his desperate attempt to cling to the presidency resulted in the most violent domestic attack on the Capitol in history.
“Over multiple months, Donald Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told the hearing Thursday night. “Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States,” she said.
On Wednesday, the panel will hear testimony from the highest levels of the Trump-era Department of Justice — acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his top deputy Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel, the former head of the department’s Office of Legal Counsel — according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss their appearances.
The testimony from the three former Justice Department officials is expected to center on a chaotic stretch in the final weeks of the administration when Trump openly weighed the idea of replacing Rosen with a lower-ranking official, Jeffrey Clark, who was seen as more willing to champion in court the president’s false claims of voter fraud.
The situation came to a head in an hours-long meeting at the White House on Jan. 3, 2021, attended by Rosen, Donoghue, Engel and Clark, when top Justice Department officials and White House lawyers told Trump they would resign if he went ahead with his plan to replace Rosen. The president ultimately let Rosen finish out the administration as acting attorney general.
Thursday will turn to Trump’s efforts to press Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes on Jan. 6, a scheme proposed at the White House by an outside lawyer, John Eastman. During the insurrection, rioters prowled the halls of the Capitol shouting “hang Mike Pence” when the vice president refused Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election.
“I’d like to see the truth come out,” said Ken Sicknick, whose brother, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, died after suffering a stroke defending the Capitol, said Friday on CNN.
He said while the family received countless condolences after his brother died, including from the vice president, “not one tweet, not one note, not one card, nothing” from Trump. “Because he knows he’s the cause of the whole thing.”
The hearings are intended to stand as the public record of the attack and the circumstances around it and could result in referrals for prosecution. With Trump considering another White House run, the committee’s final report aims to account for the most violent attack on the Capitol since 1814.
Trump responded on his social media site Friday, decrying the “WITCH HUNT!” even as he fully acknowledged he refused to accept defeat.
“Many people spoke to me about the Election results, both pro and con, but I never wavered one bit,” he said, pushing his false claim of a stolen election.
Trump declared that Jan. 6 “represented the greatest movement in the history of our country.”
At the outset, the panel put the blame for the insurrection squarely on Trump, saying the assault was not spontaneous but an “attempted coup” driven by Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
With a new 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump’s most inner circle, the committee provided new detail of an imperiled democracy.
“Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the panel. “The violence was no accident.”
In a previously unseen video clip, the panel played a remark from former Attorney General Bill Barr, who testified that he told Trump the claims of a rigged election were “bull——.”
In another clip, the former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, testified to the committee that she respected Barr’s view that there was no election fraud. “I accepted what he said.”
Others showed leaders of the extremist Oath Keepers and Proud Boys preparing to storm the Capitol to stand up for Trump. One rioter after another told the committee they came to the Capitol because Trump asked them to.
In wrenching testimony U.S. Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards told the panel that she slipped in other people’s blood as rioters pushed past her into the Capitol. She suffered brain injuries in the melee.
“It was carnage. It was chaos,” she said.
The riot left more than 100 police officers injured, many beaten and bloodied, as the crowd of Trump supporters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged into the Capitol. At least nine people who were there died during or after the rioting, including a woman who was shot and killed by police.
Court documents show that members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were discussing as early as November a need to fight to keep Trump in office. Leaders both groups and some members have since been indicted on rare sedition charges over the military-style attack.
The Justice Department has arrested and charged more than 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Los Angeles the purpose of the committee is “to seek the truth” to make sure “that never again will anybody think that it’s OK to have a coup, to have an assault on the Capitol of the United States, an assault on the democracy of our country.”
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Farnoush Amir, Kevin Freking, Michael Balsamo, Jill Colvin, Darlene Superville and Zeke Miller in Washington and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
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For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.
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| 2022-06-11T06:05:29
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders on Friday announced what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees.
“The Los Angeles Declaration” is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas, which was undercut by differences over Biden’s invitation list. Leaders of Mexico and several Central American countries sent top diplomats instead after the U.S. excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
A set of principles announced on the summit’s final day includes legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses.
“Each of us is signing up to commitments that recognize the challenges that we all share,” Biden said on a podium with flags for the 20 countries that joined the accord extending from Chile in the south to Canada in the north.
“This is just a start,” Biden said, expressing hope that more countries join. “Much more work remains, to state the obvious.”
The White House highlighted measures that were recently announced and some new commitments. Costa Rica will extend protections for Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who arrived before March 2020. Mexico will add temporary worker visas for up to 20,000 Guatemalans a year.
The United States is committing $314 million to assist countries hosting refugees and migrants, and is resuming or expanding efforts to reunite Haitian and Cuban families. Belize will “regularize” Central American and Caribbean migrants in the country.
It is a blueprint already being followed to a large extent by Colombia and Ecuador, whose right-leaning leaders were saluted at the summit for giving temporary legal status to many of the 6 million people who have left Venezuela in recent years.
President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador last week announced temporary status for Venezuelans in his country, estimated to be around 500,000. He said at a panel discussion Tuesday that his country was paying back the generosity of Spain and the United States for welcoming large numbers of Ecuadoreans who fled more than two decades ago.
Lasso was the only other leader to speak at a brief ceremony Friday. President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil arrived late.
“I would like to highlight that migration is a significant phenomenon and it demands joint actions under the principle of shared responsibility and differentiated between countries of the region,” Lasso said.
President Iván Duque of Colombia, who stood next to Biden at the ceremony, got standing ovations at an appearance Thursday for describing how his government has granted temporary status to 1 million Venezuelans in the last 14 months and is processing another 800,000 applications.
“We did it out of conviction,” Duque told The Associated Press, saying he couldn’t be indifferent to Venezuelans who lost their homes and livelihoods and was prepared to suffer in approval ratings.
“They were invisible (in Colombia),” he said. “They couldn’t open bank accounts, they couldn’t work, they couldn’t get health care. They were practically a community with no future.”
While the measures are not universally popular — Duque’s vice president, Marta Lucia Ramirez, has said Colombia has reached its limit and Ecuadoreans notice when a Venezuelan commits a high-profile crime — Venezuelans have generally assimilated without major backlash.
“The two most dangerous phenomena are xenophobia and indifference, and I believe we have managed to conquer both (in Colombia),” Duque said.
The United States has been the most popular destination for asylum-seekers since 2017, posing a challenge that has stumped Biden and his immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
But the U.S. is far from alone. Colombia and neighboring South American countries host millions of people who have fled Venezuela. Mexico fielded more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, many of them Haitians, which was triple from 2020. Many Nicaraguans escape to Costa Rica, while displaced Venezuelans account for about one-sixth the population of tiny Aruba.
Key countries that send or receive migrants, or serve as transit corridors joined the agreement: Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the United States. Also participating are Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The absence of the presidents of Mexico, northern Central America and other counties deprived Biden of symbolic heft.
“What are those countries expected to do to contribute to shared responsibility?” said Adam Isacson of the human rights advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that the summit declaration acknowledged migration’s regional dimensions. He and other U.S. officials applauded efforts of Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Panama, among others, for accepting migrants and refugees, and noted that the U.S. has granted refuge from natural disasters and civil strife to hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Haitians, Venezuelans and others under what is known as Temporary Protected Status.
“It’s a hemispheric challenge,” Mayorkas said.
The responses of Colombia and Ecuador cannot be replicated, said José Samaniego, the U.N. refugee agency’s regional director for the Americas. Each country is different, and migration from Central America is more complicated than Venezuela.
“You don’t want to copy and paste,” he said, “but there are good practices.”
Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at University of Rosario in Colombia, said some Venezuelans have faced problems with bank or commercial transactions despite having legal status and that much will depend on who voters select in June 19 elections to succeed Duque, who is limited to a single term.
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Associated Press writers Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, and Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, contributed.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/biden-leaders-reach-migration-pact-despite-attendance-flap/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:36
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| 0.958155
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration has scrapped former President Donald Trump’s red, white and blue design for the new generation of presidential aircraft after an Air Force review suggested it would raise costs and delay the delivery of the new jets.
Boeing is currently modifying two Boeing 747-800 aircraft that will bear the Air Force One callsign when the president is onboard to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft. Trump, in 2018, directed that the new jumbo jets shed the iconic Kennedy-era robin’s egg blue and white design for a deeper navy and streak of dark red.
The Trump paint scheme is not being considered because it could drive additional engineering, time and cost, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the program.
Politico first reported that the Air Force study of the new paint job had concluded that the dark shade of blue Trump proposed for the plane’s underbelly and engines would have created heating issues for the aircraft, requiring costly redesigns and additional delays to the already behind-schedule program. The current generation of planes first carried President George H.W. Bush.
When he was in office, Trump kept a mockup of the new presidential plane in the new color scheme on a coffee table in the Oval Office.
“The baby blue doesn’t fit with us,” he told Fox News in 2019 after earlier unveiling sketches of his ideal redesign for the plane’s exterior.
Trump’s design utilized the colors of the American flag. The top half of the plane would be white, while dark blue would cover the bottom half, including the belly. A bold red stripe would streak from cockpit to tail across the midsection — almost identical to the color scheme on Trump’s personal plane, except that the white and blue were reversed.
The administration did not formally unveil a new design for the replacement aircraft, which are currently at a Boeing plant in San Antonio undergoing extensive modifications to prepare them to carry the president. They currently sport a simple white and blue paint job with U.S. Air Force markings as the work proceeds.
Formally known as the VC-25B, the new aircraft are estimated to replace the older VC-25A planes in 2026, years behind schedule.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/biden-nixes-trump-design-for-air-force-one-over-cost-delay/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:43
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| 0.958382
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a pair of fundraisers here on Friday, President Joe Biden urged Democratic donors to send him reinforcements on Capitol Hill to keep Republicans out of power and help dislodge his agenda from the current gridlock.
“We need two more senators,” Biden said at the second fundraiser, a reference to Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, two members of the Democratic caucus that he’s struggled to win over.
Without naming either of them, he said they’re “slowing up what we’re able to do.”
It will be difficult for Democrats to pick up any seats in this year’s midterm elections, and Republicans are poised to retake control of Congress.
But Biden described himself as an optimist as he urged donors to continue opening their wallets to support his party. Each fundraiser raised about $2.5 million, according to a Democratic National Committee official.
The first was intimate, with a couple dozen attendees. It was held on the back patio of the home of Andrew Hauptman, a private investor. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood producer, was also there.
The second fundraiser was at the Muholland Drive estate of Haim Saban, an entertainment mogul. Scores of donors sat under a tent that was pitched on the property’s tennis court.
During the fundraiser there, Biden touted the economic progress under his watch but conceded that prices will likely continue to rise.
“We’re going to live with this inflation for a while,” he said. It’s going to come down gradually, but we’re going to live with it for a while.”
Biden also spoke emotionally about the toll of two recent gun massacres, in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.
He mocked the idea that teachers should be armed, noting how long it takes to train a soldier to use a firearm.
Pantomiming a pistol with his fingers, he said, “It’s not easy to pick up a rifle or a gun and blow somebody’s brains out.”
At the first fundraiser, first lady Jill Biden spoke before the president.
“He is working as hard as he can,” she said. “We are moving in the right direction.”
Biden spoke about rallying allies to support Ukraine, recalling how some people doubted U.S. intelligence about Russia’s pending invasion.
“Zelenskyy didn’t want to hear it,” he said in a reference to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Biden also appeared raw over some of the media coverage of the Summit of the Americas, which was held this week in Los Angeles. Many stories focused on how some Latin American leaders, notably the Mexican president, boycotted the summit, and others who attended gave speeches criticizing how the U.S. handled the event.
Speaking of the press, Biden said, “I wish they would go back and interview all the heads of state,” insisting that “there was overwhelming, overwhelming support” for working together.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/biden-tells-democratic-donors-we-need-two-more-senators/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:50
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| 0.96936
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In President Joe Biden’s estimation, the U.S. is in a strong position to overcome the worst inflation in more than 40 years. But so far, inflation just keeps getting the better of the U.S. economy and of the Biden administration.
The president’s policies, his deals with the private sector, regulatory actions and public jawboning have failed so far to stop prices from marching upward.
Biden on Friday pledged to keep fighting against inflation while touring the Port of Los Angeles, America’s busiest port and a place that the White House said last October would be key for reducing price pressures.
“My administration is going to continue to do everything we can to lower the prices for the American people,” the president said after a decidedly bleak new report on consumer prices.
The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices climbed 8.6% in May from a year ago. That’s the worst reading since December 1981 and a troubling sign for the economy as rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have yet to tamp down inflation as gasoline costs are surging upward. Rising prices are imperiling the U.S. economy as well as Democratic control of the House and Senate, putting Biden on the defensive.
AAA separately reported that average U.S. gas prices reached a record $4.99 a gallon, an increase that has overwhelmed the president’s previous efforts to reduce overall inflation. The pain at the pump is hurting Biden’s public approval ahead of the midterm elections.
The president on Friday also blamed corporate profits for inflation, saying that some companies — including shipping firms and the oil industry — are focused on maximizing profits. Biden specifically targeted ExxonMobil for not doing more to increase oil production.
“Exxon made more money than God this year,” he said.
ExxonMobil responded to Biden’s comment by saying that it is producing more oil.
“We have been in regular contact with the administration, informing them of our planned investments to increase production and expand refining capacity in the United States,” Casey Norton, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email. “We increased production in the Permian Basin by 70%, or 190,000 barrels per day, between 2019 and 2021. We expect to increase production from the Permian by another 25% this year.”
The Port of Los Angeles moved to round-the-clock operations last October under an agreement that the White House helped to shepherd. The goal was to clear backlogs of ships waiting to dock and containers waiting to flow into the country, a logjam that was pumping up prices as the world began to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
The port is now moving out a record 200,000 containers on a rolling 30-day average. But the forces driving inflation have largely shifted to rising energy and food costs in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There has also been a broader increase in prices that go beyond supply chain issues. Housing, airfare and medical services expenses rose significantly in May.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said there were many levers that caused performance to improve in terms of getting goods to consumers and businesses faster. But he specifically credited the “convening powers of the federal government to bring people to the table” and the Biden administration’s focus on the supply chain.
“We’ve reduced those ships that have been waiting to get into the port by 75% this year,” Seroka said. “These guys are really working because we’ve got strong consumer demand still.”
The Biden administration is seeking to further reduce shipping prices with a bipartisan bill that the House could pass as soon as next week. The bill would give the Federal Maritime Commission tools to make ocean-based trade more efficient and price competitive, improving the flow of exports and imports.
“What I have found here in California is that they want us to do whatever we could possibly do to address the inflation problem — and this is clearly one significant part of the problem,” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., a sponsor of the bill.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said he saw a need for the additional tools in part after a cheese processor in his state had two million pounds of lactose rot because no carriers would take the product even though 60% of shipping containers were going back to Asia empty.
“This is not a silver bullet with regard to inflation,” said Johnson, who sponsored the bill. But he noted that, as the provisions get implemented, “this will absolutely have an impact on inflation.”
Strong consumer demand has been a mixed blessing for Biden. It reflects the robust job growth and solid household balance sheets that followed the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package passed last year. But demand has consistently outpaced supply, causing prices to rise to levels that are forcing the Federal Reserve to try to slow growth and possibly risk a recession.
The White House contends that the U.S. can tackle inflation without stumbling into a downturn because the economy is so strong with its 3.6% unemployment rate that it can withstand a slowdown.
Biden is also trying to frame inflation as a global challenge, having been triggered first by the pandemic and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The president is attempting to rebut criticism by Republican lawmakers that inflation was the result of his government aid being too generous and his restrictions on U.S. oil production too onerous.
Biden has attempted to slow inflation by improving port operations and twice releasing oil from the U.S. strategic reserve, in addition to other regulatory initiatives and a domestic agenda that includes budget deficit reduction and would need congressional approval.
The visit to the port occurs as Biden has been hosting the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. On Friday, he will also announce a declaration on migration and hold a working luncheon with the heads of government and state attending the conference for nations in the Western Hemisphere.
And mindful of the campaign season, Biden on Friday will attend two fundraising receptions for the Democratic National Committee.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/biden-visiting-la-port-as-high-prices-persist-as-threat/
| 2022-06-11T06:05:57
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BENSALEM, Pa. (AP) — When he was in elementary school, Dan Pigott just happened to be visiting Washington with his parents in 1973 as the Watergate hearings were underway. He managed to get a seat to watch history unfold.
That memory was particularly resonant Thursday night when Pigott watched the opening hearing as another special congressional committee unveiled evidence of what it said was then-President Donald’ Trump’s “attempted coup” on Jan. 6, 2021, when he beckoned supporters to come to Washington as part of his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
“I think what this administration did is far worse. We all see what happened,” said Pigott, 58, a Democrat who lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. “I’m convinced he instigated all of it. … I think this is the worst attack on our system of government since the Civil War.”
His was hardly a consensus view. Others among more than a dozen voters interviewed — in coffee shops, stores and by phone — dismissed the hearing as “rubbish,” or simply did not watch.
But opinions in Bucks County, a blend of rolling farmland and densely packed well-to-do suburbs, matter more than most places because it is one of a small cluster of areas in the country where both major political parties are still competitive. And few states will be more central to the midterm elections, with highly competitive races for the U.S. Senate and governor.
The Jan. 6 riots are certain to play a prominent role in both. The Republican gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano, was seen outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and has supported Trump’s false assertions that the election in 2020 was stolen. The GOP Senate nominee, Dr. Mehmet Oz, was endorsed by Trump.
The Nielsen Company reported Friday that an estimated 20 million people watched Thursday night’s hearing on the 12 television networks that aired it.
The depth of political fallout will be measured in the coming months. Republicans so far have tried to parry criticism of Trump for the riot by emphasizing rising inflation — consumer prices climbed 8.6% in May, the worst reading in more than 40 years — and blaming Democrats. The competition will be for that narrow band of voters who remain persuadable.
Bucks County is closely watched precisely because it has an ample supply of swing voters. It sided with Democrats in the presidential contests in 2016 and 2020, but helped reelect GOP Sen. Patrick Toomey in 2016 and sent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick to the House in 2016, reelecting him in 2018 and 2020. President Joe Biden carried the county by more than four percentage points over Trump in 2020.
In the interviews, Democrats said they wanted to see Trump held accountable. Republicans said the hearings amounted to a concocted excuse to persecute the former president.
Others simply had tuned out. One woman who declined to give her name said she was on her way to work with a coffee and doughnut bag in hand. Asked about the hearings she looked momentarily confused. “The what?” she asked.
“I hope that it is impossible to ignore the evidence that they come up with,” Pigott said. “I believe and I don’t think this is original but 40% always vote on the Democratic side and 40% on the Republican so it’s the 20%. Is it gonna impact them? I’m hoping it does.”
Ron Soto, 84, a retired truck driver from Langhorne, is an immovable Trump supporter. He sounded aghast that anyone would tune into the hearing. He was watching Fox News, he said, which talked about the hearings, but didn’t air it.
“Who would watch that rubbish anyway? All they’re trying to do is isolate Trump and pick on all of his friends,” he said. “They want to find him guilty of something.”
Judy Dixon, 62, of Doylestown, said she’s a Democrat and watched because she heard there was going to be new information. She thought the hearing showed for the first time how closely Trump was involved in the events of Jan. 6.
“I think for a long time there’s been the thought that we were only prosecuting the low-level people that were breaking in. The committee clearly said it was driven by Trump,” she said.
Will the hearings change anyone’s mind about the events of Jan. 6?
“I don’t know if it’ll change minds now but it will go down in history and people will read it and get that information and digest. Maybe in the moment you won’t want to digest the facts but one day,” she said.
She recalled her parents’ political views and the Iran-Contra affair, when the Reagan administration secretly sold arms to Iran in exchange for freedom of Western hostages in the Middle East, and passed the proceeds the contra rebels in Nicaragua for their fight against the Marxist Sandinista government.
“When I was growing up my parents were Ronald Reagan Republicans and Oliver North ” — a Marine and military aide at the center of the scandal — “was the story and selling arms to Nicaragua and I remember you parrot what your parents think. They were Republicans I was a Republican. I read later about that hearing and all the information that was published that made me the Democrat I am today,” she said.
She added, “Hopefully this will be the same thing for this generation coming up.”
Mike Domanico operates a Trump merchandise store in Bensalem, not far from Philadelphia, with another one set to open in central Bucks County. He’s a Republican and a stalwart Trump supporter.
“I watched as much as I could stomach and then I was like this is a bunch of crap,” he said. “I couldn’t take it any more.”
Kathie Beans, 68, of Warrington, is a Democrat and tuned in because she’s a self-described “political junkie.” She’s skeptical the hearing will have any impact.
“I see these Trump flags still flying. I live in a very Democratic area but do they come out and vote?” she said. “People just — they’re busy with their lives.”
People bustling about their morning routines Friday reflected that.
John Helpburn, who said he votes Democratic now but has voted for Republicans, worked overtime last night at his job as a state worker and missed the hearing. He said he would have watched it if he’d been home but was ambivalent about the impact. High gas and grocery prices were the biggest issues for him.
Nicole Suto, who recently moved from New Jersey to Bucks County, said she didn’t realize the hearings were on TV but said she would watch them later on TikTok.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:04
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In launching its case to the American public, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection made a central argument: Look at the tape.
The centerpiece of Thursday night’s hearing was a video reconstruction of the attack on the Capitol. Over 10 minutes, it went point by point, showing the rioters overwhelming and beating police officers as the mob broke into the building to stop the certification of Donald Trump’s election loss.
The video had a powerful impact inside the hearing room and among Democrats. Police officers in the audience consoled one another as they relived the violence. U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn teared up during the footage of rioters hitting his colleagues with flagpoles and baseball bats.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York posted a photo on Instagram of her television with images of the riot. “There was (and continues to be) a widespread GOP campaign to downplay the scale of this attack,” she wrote in a caption.
“We were trapped on the campus with no way out,” she added. “This is what a US terrorist attack looks like.”
Meanwhile, many Republicans downplayed the new footage or didn’t watch it at all. Unlike other networks, Fox News did not air the committee hearing and allotted hours to hosts and guests who denigrated it. Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, said: “This isn’t a legislative hearing, it’s a production.”
Here are some of the key moments from the committee’s video.
THE PROUD BOYS
Three months after Trump said they should “stand back and stand by,” the Proud Boys had many members stationed in Washington.
The committee’s video shows members of the far-right extremist group gathering on the National Mall hours before Trump’s speech exhorting his supporters to “fight like hell.” By the time Trump spoke near the White House, members of the Proud Boys had already reached the Capitol several blocks away.
The group’s former top leader is now charged with seditious conspiracy, as are other members. Federal prosecutors allege they carried out a coordinated attack on the Capitol.
THE BREACH
By 1 p.m., as Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the certification of electoral votes, rioters had already breached police lines east of the Capitol.
A riot was declared at 1:50 p.m., and lawmakers were soon moved to safety. New video aired Thursday shows people running in the office of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
THE POLICE
Undermanned officers fought assailants who came with weapons and bear spray. The officers’ body cameras and overhead security footage captured much of the melee.
Why the National Guard wasn’t already there and why it took so long for Guard members to arrive are questions that remain disputed among key figures. The U.S. Capitol Police chief that day has alleged that the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms delayed responding to his pleas, which those officials have denied. The Pentagon has said it did not have full forces ready and needed several hours to deploy.
The chief and both sergeants-at-arms resigned after the attack.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:11
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Angered by the unrelenting toll from gun violence, tens of thousands of people are expected at rallies this weekend in the nation’s capital and around the United States demanding that Congress pass meaningful changes to gun laws.
The second March For Our Lives rally will take place Saturday in front of the Washington Monument, a successor to the 2018 march organized by student protestors after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Now with recent shootings from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, bringing gun control back into the national conversation, organizers of this weekend’s events say the time is right to renew their push for a national overhaul.
“Right now we are angry,” said Mariah Cooley, a March For Our Lives board member and a senior at Washington’s Howard University. “This will be a demonstration to show that us as Americans, we’re not stopping anytime soon until Congress does their jobs. And if not, we’ll be voting them out.”
About 50,000 participants are predicted to turn out in the District of Columbia, with rain in the forecast. That’s far less than the original march, which filled downtown Washington with more than 200,000 people. This time, organizers are focusing on holding smaller marches at an estimated 300 locations.
“We want to make sure that this work is happening across the country,” said Daud Mumin, co-chairman of the march’s board of directors and a recent graduate of Westminster College in Salt Lake City. “This work is not just about D.C., it’s not just about senators.”
The protest comes at a time of renewed political activity on guns and a crucial moment for possible action in Congress.
Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence have lobbied legislators and testified on Capitol Hill this week. Among them was Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old girl who survived the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. She told lawmakers how she covered herself with a dead classmate’s blood to avoid being shot.
On Tuesday, actor Matthew McConaughey appeared at the White House briefing room to press for gun legislation and made highly personal remarks about the violence in his hometown of Uvalde.
The House has passed bills that would raise the age limit to buy semi-automatic weapons and establish federal “red flag” laws. But such initiatives have traditionally stalled or been heavily watered down in the Senate. Democratic and Republican senators had hoped to reach agreement this week on a framework for addressing the issue and talked Friday, but they had not announced an accord by early evening.
Mumin referred to the Senate as “where substantive action goes to die,” and said the new march is meant to spend a message to lawmakers that public opinion on gun control is shifting under their feet. ”If they’re not on our side, there are going to be consequences — voting them out of office and making their lives a living hell when they’re in office,” he said.
The March for Our Lives movement was born out of the massacre when 14 students and three staff members were gunned down on Feb. 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by a former student. Surviving students organized bus trips to the state capital to lobby in person, and they succeeded in pressuring the Republican-dominated state government to buck the National Rifle Association’s influence and pass substantial measures targeting gun violence.
Then-Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, signed legislation that banned bump stocks, raised the gun buying age to 21, imposed a three-day waiting period for purchases and authorized police to seek court orders seizing guns from people deemed threats to themselves and others.
The Parkland students then took aim at guns laws in other states and nationally, launching March for Our Lives and holding the big rally in Washington on March 24, 2018.
The group did not match the Florida results at the national level, but has persisted in advocating for gun restrictions since then, as well as participating in voter registration drives.
One of the group’s highest-profile activists, co-founder David Hogg, said in a tweet Friday that he believed “this time is different,” pointing to his opinion piece on Fox News.
He wrote that his group is not “anti-gun” and supports the Second Amendment, but wants measures with bipartisan support. “Let’s start there and find common ground to take action, because the next shooter is already planning his attack,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Ian Mader in Miami contributed to this report.
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Follow Ashraf Khalil at: https://twitter.com/ashrafkhalil
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:17
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday rolled out guidelines for a new youth service program meant to create job opportunities for Native Americans while boosting their cultural connections to nature through conservation projects on tribal and public land.
The Indian Youth Service Corps is the latest addition to the Biden administration’s plans for building a 21st century version of the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps. The mission includes everything from clearing brush to reduce wildfire threats and restore forests to preserving historic sites, helping with archaeological research and building trails.
Haaland talked about a childhood spent hiking to the top of high desert mesas, wading through ice-cold streams and learning about the world’s interconnectedness from her grandparents while walking through corn fields at Laguna Pueblo in west-central New Mexico.
“I want everyone to have that profound connection to the great outdoors that I was gifted, and we can help more people access nature no matter where they’re from or what their background,” she said Friday during a call with reporters. “We will help lift up the next generation of stewards for this Earth.”
Haaland described Native Americans as original stewards of the land, saying they have learned over many generations how to sustain communities and that it’s time for Indigenous youth to have a seat at the table.
The Interior Department is funneling a combined $3.3 million this year to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Bureau of Reclamation to establish the Indian Youth Service Corps.
The U.S. Forest Service is investing up to $5 million as part of its partnership with the corps, and the National Park Foundation is committing $1 million.
Future funding will depend on agency budgets and private philanthropy.
Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, said enthusiasm is increasing for programs that give young people paying jobs and training for professions related to public lands and natural resource management.
“It checks a lot of really important boxes for donors, and I think the future is very bright for private funding to support these efforts,” he said.
The foundation is funding more than 10 conservation and preservation projects from Maine to New Mexico that involve tribal youth crews. Some of the work is aimed at protecting cultural practices, languages and traditional ecological knowledge used for land management.
One of the first Indian Youth Service Corps projects will be in southern Arizona. Six members of the Tohono O’Odham Nation will work as a crew on the Coronado National Forest.
Other work around the Southwest will include native seed collection as land managers work with scientists to reforest areas charred by wildfire.
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico said the new corps will ultimately lead to more traditional knowledge being incorporated into future conservation efforts as participants move into leadership roles as adults.
“With this program, knowledge is going to flow both ways,” she said.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:24
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BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Nine NATO nations on the alliance’s eastern flank held talks Friday in Romania ahead of a key NATO summit later this month, with some leaders urging NATO to step up protections for them in light of Russia’s protracted war against Ukraine.
Friday’s summit in Bucharest provided a platform for NATO’s Eastern members to discuss regional security issues and forge a united voice within the 30-member security alliance. Those attending included Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
“We need to make sure that NATO is able and prepared to respond effectively and calibrated to the threats it faces,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis told reporters after Friday’s meeting. “The alliance needs to be able to defend every inch of its territory.”
“The result we are pursuing is a consolidated NATO presence on the Eastern Flank, united and coherent, robust, credible and sustainable, especially on the Black Sea — the most exposed to Russia’s threats,” Iohannis added.
Three NATO members — Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey — border the Black Sea, which has turned into a key battleground in the war in Ukraine.
NATO is set to hold a “Strategic Concept” summit at the end of June in Madrid to reaffirm its values and purpose and to map out future goals.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said Friday that “we are also counting on an increase of U.S. presence in our part of Europe” and that he wants the number of NATO troops in each Eastern Flank country to be increased.
“We want the enhanced forward presence that we have today on NATO’s eastern flank to be extended,” he said. “We want the existing battalion groups to be transformed into brigade groups.”
Duda said a brigade group has 3,000 troops, which would mean a “significant and visible strengthening.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO bolstered its presence on the Eastern Flank by adding four multinational battle groups to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. It brings the total number of battle groups to eight, which stretch from the Black Sea in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who was set to join the leaders in Bucharest, joined the forum via video after contracting shingles. Stoltenberg stressed the importance of continued defense spending to the Eastern Flank leaders and commended “the fact that many of them meet or exceed the 2% target of GDP on defense spending.”
Iohannis said he supports “strengthening NATO relations with partners in the region, who are deeply exposed to Russian pressure and aggression” and expressed “firm support for NATO’s ‘Open Doors’ policy and for Sweden and Finland’s” bids to join NATO.
“The accession of these states will contribute to strengthening the security of the Alliance as a whole,” he said.
During the Cold War, the Eastern Flank nations that constitute the Bucharest Nine group — which was launched by Romania and Poland in 2015 — were all controlled by Moscow, with the three Baltic states incorporated into the Soviet Union. Today they are all members of NATO and the European Union.
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Dumitrache contributed from Bucharest; McGrath contributed from Sighisoara, Romania; Monika Scislowska contributed from Warsaw, Poland.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:31
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| 0.949172
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin elections officials voted Friday to allow Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate to stay on the Republican primary ballot in the presidential battleground state, pushing aside a Democratic challenge to his nomination papers.
The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission voted unanimously to allow construction company co-owner Tim Michels to appear on the ballot.
Michels entered the race in late April, joining three other candidates vying for the Republican nomination: former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, state Rep. Tim Ramthun and business consultant Kevin Nicholson.
Trump endorsed Michels this month, calling him in an email an “America First Conservative” who will support gun rights and police and stand against what Trump called “the woke mob.”
Two days later, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint with the elections commission alleging that Michels used the wrong address on his nomination papers. It alleged that the mistake left Michels with only about 350 valid signatures. Michels needed 2,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Michels’ campaign acknowledged that some of the nominating forms list his physical address in the village of Chenequa instead of his official mailing address that is in the nearby town of Hartland. But it said all of the forms include the campaign’s post office box mailing address.
Commissioners said the address was close enough and Michels didn’t deserve to be thrown off the ballot over the issue.
“There is no question in my mind (the Michels campaign is) in substantial compliance,” Democratic Commissioner Mark Thomsen said.
Michels has called for eliminating the elections commission. The six-person panel has drawn intense criticism from Republicans for decisions commissioners made leading up to the 2020 presidential election, including the expanded use of absentee ballot drop boxes and prohibiting special voting deputies from helping nursing home residents fill out their ballots. The commission made the move after nursing homes across the state refused to allow visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic and before vaccines were available.
Thomsen got in a jab just before the vote, saying he hopes the experience with his nomination papers helps Michels realize how complicated Wisconsin election law is and how interpretations of it can differ. He said Michels is always “yelling” about following the letter of the law, but if the commission had followed that philosophy, it might have thrown him off the ballot.
The winner of the Aug. 9 primary will advance to face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in the Nov. 8 general election.
The commission’s decision comes after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled this month that three Republican gubernatorial candidates — Perry Johnson, Michael Markey and Donna Brandenburg — can’t appear on that state’s primary ballot.
All three were doomed by fraudulent signatures on their nomination papers.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/panel-allows-trump-pick-to-run-for-wisconsin-governor/
| 2022-06-11T06:06:38
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| 0.955578
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NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 20 million people watched Thursday night’s hearing of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The figures released Friday by the Nielsen Company include viewers from 12 television networks that aired the rare primetime hearing, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX Business Network.
The numbers do not include online viewers or those who watched on PBS.
The hearing, which aired from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the U.S. East Coast, made many elements of the ongoing investigation public for the first time, including a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege, and startling testimony from President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
By comparison, the opening day of each of the Trump impeachment trials drew about 11 million viewers. Those aired during the day on fewer networks, but the far higher figures from Thursday suggest that the primetime experiment succeeded in capturing national attention in a way usually reserved for live sporting events.
Fox News, which did not air the hearings, drew nearly 3 million viewers for the same two hours.
Last week’s highest rated television shows, the first two games of the NBA finals on ABC, each had between 11 million and 12 million viewers.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:45
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| 0.94986
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court has put on hold a district judge’s order for Louisiana to redraw new congressional districts by June 20 to include a second majority Black district.
The order late Thursday from the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals is the latest move in a legal battle between the Republican legislature and secretary of state and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Edwards had vetoed the new districts drawn up after the latest census, saying that since Louisiana is nearly one-third African American, a single majority-Black district violates the Voting Rights Act. However, the legislature overrode his veto in late March.
A 5th Circuit panel stepped in and paused the remap order Thursday night, hours after U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick refused to delay her deadline while it was appealed.
Lawyers for Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin wrote in a motion filed Friday that Dick’s order would itself require a racial gerrymander that would violate the Voting Rights Act.
State Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder made much the same argument in a motion filed Thursday.
Ardoin said Dick ignored legal precedent and election officials.
“On the record, there is no basis for allowing the State to conduct the coming election in likely violation of federal law and the rights of the State’s Black voters,” responded attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which represents one of the two groups of voters who challenged the plan.
“Defendants point to nothing in the district court’s order that indicates it made a mistake of law or fact,” said lawyers for the other group.
Cortez and Schexnayder said Friday that a special session scheduled for next week to revise House district boundaries should be canceled.
“Before the judicial redistricting process is complete, any special session would be premature and a waste of taxpayer money,” they wrote.
Edwards, who scheduled the June 15-20 redistricting session, said it’s too early to cancel it.
The appeals court is likely to act again before June 15, said a news release from his office.
If Dick’s order for a new map June 20 remains on hold, he told lawmakers in a letter, the session should be delayed until a definitive court decision is reached.
“While I am mindful of the costs to the taxpayers as pointed out in your press release, it is clear that the state would have saved the unknown thousands of dollars being spent on out-of-state lawyers if the legislature had originally enacted maps that comply with the Voting Rights Act and the standard of fundamental fairness,” he wrote. “It is not too late for the legislature to do the right thing.”
Court papers for Ardoin call the deadline “unworkable” — an argument that Dick described as “insincere and not persuasive.”
The state requires seven days’ notice of the start of the session and three days for bill reading, she wrote. That “would require ten days total, and this Court gave the Legislature fourteen,” she said.
A friend-of-the-court brief from Alabama and 11 other states argued that Dick turned part of the Voting Rights Act from protection against discrimination “into a tool for compelling racially discriminatory redistricting.”
The section makes it illegal to keep people from voting because of their race, but doesn’t require “that wherever a majority-minority district can be drawn, it must be drawn,” the states said.
If it did, it would be unconstitutional, the brief contended.
Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah joined with Alabama.
Under Dick’s order, “to avoid liability, the State must consider race first and everything else second,” they wrote. “That cannot be the law.”
Kathryn Sadasivan, redistricting counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the new map “continues to pack Black voters from New Orleans and Baton Rouge into a single congressional district despite the significant changes in the Black population and the shared interests and needs of Black voters in Baton Rouge and the Delta parishes” north of Baton Rouge along and east of the Mississippi River.
She said Dick’s 152-page ruling recognized that the single majority African American district dilutes Black political power.
“We are confident that the November primary election is sufficiently far away to allow this decision to stand,” Sadasivan wrote.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:52
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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — When Raevahnna Richardson spotted a woman standing outside a library in Salem, Oregon, gathering signatures for a gun-safety initiative, she made a beeline to her and added her name.
“I signed it to keep our kids safe, because something needs to change. I have a kid that’s going to be in first grade this upcoming season, and I don’t want her to have to be scared at school,” Richardson said.
“To keep our kids safe.” It’s something so many parents across the United States are worried about after the horrific massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. That mass shooting has given the Oregon ballot initiative huge momentum, with the number of volunteers doubling to 1,200 and signatures increasing exponentially, organizers said.
With the U.S. Senate unlikely to pass a “red flag” bill and the majority of state legislatures having taken no action on gun safety in recent years, or moving in the opposite direction, activists see voter-driven initiatives as a viable alternative.
“To get really strong action at this moment in time, it’s going to take people in a democracy to exercise that democratic right to get on the ballot and get it voted for,” said the Rev. Mark Knutson, a chief petitioner of the Oregon initiative.
Oregon appears to be the only state in America with a gun safety initiative underway for the 2022 election, according to Sean Holihan, state legislative director for Giffords, an organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence.
If the initiative gets on the ballot and it passes, anyone wanting to acquire a firearm would first have to get a permit, valid for five years, from local law enforcement after completing safety training, passing a criminal background check and meeting other requirements. The measure would ban ammunition magazines over 10 rounds, except for current owners, law enforcement and the military, and the state police would create a firearms database.
The age range of those gathering signatures from registered voters runs from middle-schoolers to a 94-year-old, Knutson said. Volunteers are ensconced in a room at Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland, sorting through baskets of envelopes containing mailed-in signatures.
The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action has already come out strongly against the initiative, saying on its website that “these anti-gun citizens are coming after YOU, the law-abiding firearm owners of Oregon, and YOUR guns. They don’t care about the Constitution, your right to keep and bear arms, or your God-given right of self-defense.”
Knutson says the effort in Oregon “can start to build hope across the nation for others to do the same.”
Voters in two predominantly Democratic neighboring states have already passed gun safety ballot measures.
In 2018, Washington state voters approved restrictions on the purchase and ownership of firearms, including raising the minimum purchasing age to 21, adding background checks and increasing waiting periods. In 2016, voters there overwhelmingly approved a measure authorizing courts to issue extreme risk protection orders to remove an individual’s access to firearms.
California voters in 2016 passed a measure prohibiting the possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring certain individuals to pass a background check to buy ammunition.
The same year, voters in Maine narrowly defeated a proposal to require background checks before a gun sale.
Daniel Webster, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University, said ballot initiatives “are a great way to advance gun policies that are popular.”
“But I honestly don’t know how much one state’s ballot initiative affects the likelihood of other states taking action,” he added.
The Oregon initiative needs to deliver at least 112,080 registered voters’ signatures — verified by the secretary of state’s office — by July 8 to get on the ballot, Knutson said. By this week, more than 52,000 signatures were received by the campaign. Knutson is already planning to have teenagers travel to the secretary of state’s office in Salem aboard school buses to deliver boxes of sheets of signatures.
Meanwhile, pro-gun activists are also using ballot initiatives to protect what they see as their Second Amendment rights.
In 2020, Montana voters narrowly approved a ballot measure to remove local governments’ authority to regulate the carrying of permitted concealed weapons and to limit their authority to regulate the carrying of unconcealed weapons.
Voters in Iowa this November will decide whether to add gun rights language to their state constitution, after majority Republicans in the Legislature passed a resolution last year that got it onto the ballot, with no signature-gathering required.
Opponents said if the Iowa measure passes, courts might wind up striking down restrictions on gun background checks, permits required to carry a gun, and a ban on gun possession by people convicted of a felony.
An initiative in Nebraska, one of several there this year, would allow concealed or open-carry weapons to be carried in public places. And in Washington state, an initiative would prohibit state and local governments imposing limits on purchasing and owning firearms.
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| 2022-06-11T06:06:59
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When Republican Glenn Youngkin was running to be Virginia’s governor, he defended a teacher suspended over an objection to using students’ preferred pronouns. He opposed transgender children playing on sports teams aligned with their gender identity, and he indicated a personal objection to same-sex marriage.
Given those positions, it generated some bipartisan surprise in Richmond this week when he hosted a reception celebrating Pride month at the Virginia Capitol.
The event astonished and angered many LGBTQ advocates, who called the festivities hypocritical and chose not to attend. But Youngkin’s supporters held up the event as an example of the conservative governor living up to a central campaign promise to serve as a unifier who cares for all his constituents.
“I think this demonstration of outreach, of genuine communication is reflective of why he was elected,” said Michael Berlucchi, a city councilman from Virginia Beach, Republican and member of the state’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board who attended the reception.
Youngkin, a former private equity executive, became the first Republican in almost a decade to occupy the governor’s mansion in this blue-leaning state after defeating former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in a costly, high-profile race last year.
Openly religious — he once helped found a church in his basement and often opens meetings in prayer — Youngkin essentially avoided the issue of gay marriage on the campaign trail, declining to say in one interview whether he supported it. The Associated Press pressed him again in October, and he indicated that while he did not personally support same-sex marriage, it was “legally acceptable” and he would “support that.” He also emphasized that his faith calls him “to love everyone.”
Lisa Turner, who serves on the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board with Berlucchi and chairs the group created to advise the governor, said the Youngkin administration has been less than engaged with its efforts so far and took issue with how Pride month was handled.
Turner said she asked the administration for a Pride month proclamation — a ceremonial recognition that’s standard for other heritage months. It didn’t happen. She also said she was initially told by an administration liaison that there would be no Pride month programming and that perhaps the group should convene somewhere other than Richmond for a meeting that also happened to be on Wednesday. She wasn’t informed of the reception — which she opted not to attend — until a week prior, she said.
However, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said the June events were planned well in advance.
“The Governor is committed to leading on behalf of all Virginians. We are one Virginia and engagements help strengthen our communities and the spirit of Virginia,” she said in a statement.
Berlucchi said about 50 people attended the reception in the Capitol rotunda, smaller than similar events during the past two Democratic administrations. The reception was closed to the press, typical for such events, but the administration also took the step of closing the public building entirely at the time.
Several of the state’s leading LGBTQ advocacy groups issued a joint news release condemning what they called the governor’s “hypocrisy” in hosting the event.
“I was shocked. I was disappointed. I was slightly amused,” Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, said of her reaction to learning that the event would take place. Rahaman said she was not extended an invitation.
James Millner, director of Virginia Pride, said in a statement that he was invited but would not attend.
“I appreciate the Governor’s invitation, but I think it is premature for this administration to celebrate LGBTQ+ equality when it has yet to take any meaningful steps to advance it,” Millner said.
Meanwhile, Victoria Cobb, president of the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia — which opposes same-sex marriage — stopped short of criticizing Youngkin.
“The Governor should meet with citizen groups to discuss their concerns but given that nothing less than total capitulation to the LGBT agenda will appease these groups, this seems like a distraction,” she said in a statement.
Veteran political analyst Bob Holsworth said he couldn’t recall a similar Pride commemoration by another Republican administration. But he noted that public opinion on the issue has shifted since Virginia last had a GOP chief executive.
Youngkin also hosted a luncheon at the governor’s mansion this month with members of the LGBTQ community and attended a roundtable Thursday hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ advocacy group whose endorsement he touted during his campaign.
Casey Flores, president of the group’s newly organized Richmond chapter and an attendee of the luncheon, said he had no problem with a governor maintaining a faith-based opposition to homosexuality, and he criticized the backlash to this week’s events.
“The Democrat Party and the people on the left, the left-leaning organizations, they all lambaste Republicans for not embracing the gay community. And then when one does, they lambaste and they lose their minds,” he said.
No LGBTQ state lawmakers were extended an invitation to Wednesday’s reception, according to Turner.
Democratic Del. Danica Roem, who is transgender, equated the event to sending LGBTQ constituents “thoughts and prayers.”
Roem was particularly disappointed that the governor’s office was publicly silent earlier this year on a legislative push blocked by House Republicans to remove a defunct provision prohibiting gay marriage from the state constitution. It’s a matter of urgency, she said, at a time when some advocates increasingly fear the right of same-sex couples to marry could someday be stripped away by the Supreme Court.
Turner wondered if what seemed like a last-minute jostling to schedule a few Pride events was a response to a recent virtual attack against her group, when an online meeting was flooded with racist and homophobic messages and imagery, according to VPM News. She noted that Youngkin made an appearance at the group’s Wednesday meeting, where he condemned the harassment, but said she thinks the administration could do far more to advocate for Virginia’s LGBTQ community.
“Just having a Pride event is not as significant as actually putting in the footwork to make sure that the community has protections,” she said.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/to-some-surprise-youngkin-hosts-series-of-pride-events/
| 2022-06-11T06:07:06
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| 0.979353
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Donald Trump endorsed Katie Britt on Friday in an Alabama U.S. Senate race, doubling down on the former president’s decision to spurn his previous choice in the Republican primary.
Trump called Britt “an incredible fighter for the people of Alabama.” The former president had originally backed U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks in the race, but rescinded that endorsement in March after their relationship soured.
Britt was chief of staff to retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby before stepping down to lead a state business group, and is now running to fill Shelby’s vacant seat. Britt and Brooks face off in the June 21 runoff that will decide the Republican nominee.
“Above all, Katie Britt will never let you down,” Trump wrote, adding, “she has my complete and total endorsement!”
The decision was another blow to Brooks, who had sought to regain Trump’s support. “Mo has been wanting it back ever since,” Trump said Friday of his endorsement, “but I cannot give it to him! Katie Britt, on the other hand, is a fearless America First Warrior.”
Trump endorsed Brooks last year, rewarding the conservative firebrand who had been an ardent supporter of Trump’s false 2020 election fraud claims. Brooks had whipped up a crowd of Trump supporters at the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol insurrection.
But Trump pulled that endorsement, citing Brooks’ languishing performance in the race. He also accused Brooks of going “woke” for saying at a Cullman rally that it was time to move on from litigating the 2020 presidential election and focus that energy on upcoming elections instead.
Britt led the primary field in the May primary, and has been seeking Trump’s support since he backed away from Brooks.
Trump’s glowing endorsement of Britt is a stark contrast to statements he made a year ago about her when he called her “not in any way qualified” and describing her as an “assistant” to a “RINO Senator,” referring to Shelby as a “Republican in name only.”
Britt said Friday that she was thankful to have Trump’s support. “President Trump knows that Alabamians are sick and tired of failed, do-nothing career politicians,” she said in a statement. “It’s time for the next generation of conservatives to step up and shake things up in Washington to save the country we know and love for our children and our children’s children.”
Despite losing Trump’s endorsement in March, Brooks had continued to campaign under the label of “MAGA Mo,” a reference to the Make America Great Again slogan, and had challenged Britt to a debate on the singular topic of whether the 2020 election was “stolen.”
Brooks tweeted Friday that the voters of Alabama will decide the race.
“Let’s just admit it: Trump endorses the wrong people sometimes,” Brooks wrote, noting that a Trump-endorsed candidate lost the 2017 Senate race in Alabama.
Trump burnished his kingmaker status last month by lifting a trailing Senate candidate in Ohio to the Republican nomination, and in Pennsylvania, Republican voters chose his preferred gubernatorial candidate, who said he wouldn’t have certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 win of the state.
However, voters in Georgia rejected Trump’s efforts to unseat the state’s Republican governor and secretary of state, both of whom rebuffed his extraordinary pressure to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That has raised questions about whether Republican voters are beginning to move on from Trump, ahead of another possible White House run.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/trump-endorses-katie-britt-in-alabama-senate-race/
| 2022-06-11T06:07:13
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| 0.969565
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international travelers test negative for COVID-19 within a day before boarding a flight to the United States, ending one of the last remaining government mandates designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that the requirement will end early Sunday morning. The health agency said it will continue to monitor state of the pandemic and will reassess the need for a testing requirement if the situation changes.
“This step is possible because of the progress we’ve made in our fight against COVID-19,” said U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Airline and tourism groups have been pressing the administration for months to eliminate the testing requirement, saying it discourages people from booking international trips because they could be stranded overseas if they contract the virus on their trip.
Roger Dow, president of the U.S. Travel Association, called lifting the testing rule “another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States.”
Airlines argued that the rule was put into effect when few Americans were vaccinated — now 71% of those 5 and older are fully vaccinated, according to CDC figures. They also complained that people entering the U.S. at land borders are not required to test negative for COVID-19, although they must show proof of vaccination.
While domestic U.S. travel has returned nearly to pre-pandemic levels, international travel — which is very lucrative for the airlines — has continued to lag. In May, U.S. international air travel remained 24% below 2019 levels, with declines among both U.S. and foreign citizens, according to trade group Airlines for America.
Many other countries have lifted their testing requirements for fully vaccinated and boosted travelers in a bid to increase tourism.
Some infectious-disease experts said they were comfortable with the CDC’s decision, and that lifting the restriction is unlikely to cause further spread of the virus in the U.S.
Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University said the rule was designed to prevent importing the virus, “but we’ve got plenty of COVID here. It’s like telling someone not to pour a bucket of water in their swimming pool.”
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong at the University of California, San Francisco, said travel restrictions demonstrate that officials are trying to keep variants out, “but they haven’t really shown to be beneficial, ever.” However, he said, requiring foreign visitors to be vaccinated makes sense to avoid straining the U.S. health-care system with people who could develop severe disease.
The requirement for a negative COVID-19 test before flying to the U.S. dates to January 2021 and is the most visible remaining U.S. travel restriction of the pandemic era.
In April, a federal judge in Florida struck down a requirement that passengers wear masks on planes and public transportation, saying that the CDC had exceeded its authority. The Biden administration is appealing that ruling, saying it aims to protect the CDC’s ability to respond to future health emergencies.
The Biden administration put the testing requirement in place as it moved away from rules that banned nonessential travel from dozens of countries — most of Europe, China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Iran — and focused instead on classifying individuals by the risk they pose to others. It was coupled with a requirement that foreign, non-immigrant adults traveling to the United States need to be fully vaccinated, with only limited exceptions.
The initial mandate allowed those who were fully vaccinated to show proof of a negative test within three days of travel, while unvaccinated people had to present a test taken within one day of travel.
In November, as the highly transmissible omicron variant swept the world, the Biden administration toughened the requirement and required all travelers — regardless of vaccination status — to test negative within a day of travel to the U.S.
In February, travel groups argued that the testing requirement was obsolete because of the high number of omicron cases already in every state, higher vaccinations rates and new treatments for the virus.
Meanwhile, travelers found creative ways around the rule. This spring, several Canadian teams in the National Hockey League flew to cities near the border, then took buses into the U.S. to avoid the risk of losing players who tested positive.
U.S. airlines estimate that dropping the test requirement will mean 4.3 million more passengers in one year.
It is unclear, however, whether airlines can boost flights quickly enough to handle that kind of increase. Airlines facing a shortage of pilots have already scaled back their original schedules for the peak summer vacation season.
Brett Snyder, a travel adviser who writes about the industry at CrankyFlier.com, said the requirement has caused some people to postpone international travel.
“It’s not that they are afraid of getting sick, they don’t want to get stuck,” Snyder said. He thinks there will now be a surge in booking those trips, “which, if anything, will lead to higher fares.”
Hotels, theme parks and other travel businesses also lobbied the administration to drop the rule.
“The whole industry has been waiting for this announcement,” said Martin Ferguson, a spokesman for American Express Global Business Travel, which advises companies on travel policy. He said there are few remaining pandemic policies that cause so much consternation for the travel sector, with China’s “zero-COVID” restrictions being another.
Despite ending the testing requirement, the CDC said it still recommends COVID-19 testing prior to air travel of any kind as a safety precaution.
___
___
Koenig reported from Dallas. AP Medical Reporter Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/us-lifts-covid-19-test-requirement-for-international-travel/
| 2022-06-11T06:07:20
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| 0.958144
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BANGKOK (AP) — The American diplomatic push aimed at countering China’s increasing influence in the Asia-Pacific region appears to be paying dividends, with many nations showing a willingness to partner with the United States, a top State Department official said Friday.
U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet told The Associated Press it was noteworthy that 13 nations representing 40% of the world’s economy had signed on to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that President Joe Biden launched in Japan at the end of May. He said that China at around the same time failed in its attempt to get a group of Pacific islands to endorse a sweeping agreement with Beijing.
China had broken from its traditional approach of negotiating one-on-one with countries behind the scenes to send Foreign Minister Wang Yi on an island-hopping trip last month to try and rally 10 Pacific nations behind the agreement, which covered a broad range of areas including security and fisheries.
But he was unable to find consensus on the deal at a meeting in Fiji, and instead had to settle for smaller bilateral agreements with some of them.
“I think the fact that the Chinese foreign minister’s trip, where they tried to roll out this very bold ‘take it or leave it’ initiative or partnership cooperation, wasn’t really well received, indicates to me that the Pacific island countries want to have an engagement with us,” Chollet said in an interview in Bangkok.
Chollet is in the middle of a trip to Thailand, Brunei and Singapore, as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is concurrently visiting the Philippines, South Korea, Laos and Vietnam.
In addition, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is a featured speaker on the weekend at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia’s premier defense and security forum, and will visit Thailand next week.
The in-person outreach is part of an approach that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in May meant putting “diplomacy back at the center of American foreign policy.”
“We are determined … to be present, be engaged — not just as visitors from Washington but on a permanent basis,” Chollet said.
The push in Asia comes amid growing concerns over China’s own efforts to expand its influence in the area.
Part of Beijing’s focus has been the South China Sea, where the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, have squared off with China’s efforts to dominate the strategic waterway it claims virtually in its entirety. The U.S. and its allies have responded with so-called freedom of navigation patrols, sometimes encountering a pushback from China’s military.
Beijing already signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands in April that the U.S., Australia and others worry could lead to a Chinese naval base in the South Pacific. And on Wednesday, China and Cambodia broke ground on a port expansion project at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, which give China a strategically important military facility on the Gulf of Thailand, though Cambodia has denied that will be the case.
In Blinken’s speech at the end of May outlining the Biden administration’s approach to China, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine was a “clear and present threat,” but that China’s ambitions were an even greater challenge.
“Even as President Putin’s war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order – and that is the one posed by the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
Many countries in the region have close ties with China, and Chollet said the U.S. approach has not been to ask any nation to choose one side or the other, but to recognize their relationships with Beijing while also being forthright with Washington’s concerns.
“We are hearing that we are not just clients or countries that one transacts with, we want to be partners, and that’s certainly the spirit with which we are engaging them,” he said.
At the same time, the U.S. also realizes the need to work with a global power like China on international issues, like the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, with China and the U.S. the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, he said.
“There are parts of the relationship that are conflictual where the U.S. and China just fundamentally disagree, there are parts that are competitive … and there are parts of the relationship that are cooperative, or at least we hope that they’re cooperative,” he said.
“That’s unfortunately a narrowing band of issues but, for example, on climate change it’s just math that we have to be able to find a way to work together if we’re going to be successful.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/us-official-says-diplomatic-push-in-asia-paying-dividends/
| 2022-06-11T06:07:26
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| 0.965179
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance that day.
The next round of hearings won’t take place in prime time like the debut on Thursday, but lawmakers will go into greater detail about specific aspects of the insurrection.
Here’s a snapshot of what the committee says is ahead:
‘FALSE AND FRAUDULENT’
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican vice chair of the committee, said lawmakers will present evidence Monday at the second hearing showing that Trump “engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information” that the election had been stolen — even though advisers and allies told him repeatedly he had lost.
The panel touched on that theme in its first hearing with a clip from former Attorney General Bill Barr, testifying that he repeatedly told the president “in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud” that would have affected the election.
As well, Trump campaign lawyer Alex Cannon was shown discussing conversations with then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sometime in November 2020.
“I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states,” Cannon said.
When asked how Meadows responded, Cannon said: “I believe the words he used were, ‘so there’s no there there.'”
PRESSURE ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Cheney says the third hearing Wednesday will focus on how Trump pushed for the Justice Department to “spread his false stolen election claims in the days before January 6.” Senior Justice Department officials refused, telling him his claims were not true.
She noted how Trump sought to elevate Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer at the department, to the job of acting attorney general. Clark had drafted a letter to send to Georgia and five other states saying the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election.”
Trump nearly gave the top job to Clark but backed down when senior Justice Department leadership and White House lawyers threatened to resign, testimony has shown.
“The men involved, including Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, were appointed by President Trump,” Cheney said. “These men honored their oaths of office. They did their duty, and you will hear from them in our hearings.”
Clark has invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify to the committee.
SPOTLIGHT: MIKE PENCE
Cheney said the fourth hearing will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to stop Congress from certifying some electoral votes for Biden on Jan. 6 — something he had no power to do in his ceremonial role.
There was a gasp in the hearing room when Cheney read an account Thursday from inside the White House. When Trump was told the Capitol mob was chanting for Pence to be hanged for refusing to block the election results. Trump responded that maybe the mob was right, that he “deserves it,” Cheney said.
The day promises plenty of political intrigue as both Trump and Pence seek to shape the Republican Party for years to come, and perhaps make a run for the presidency in 2024.
‘FIND’ THE VOTES
Cheney said the fifth hearing, expected the following week, will focus on the president’s efforts to pressure state legislators and state election officials to change the election results, including additional details about Trump’s call to Georgia officials urging them to “find” 11,780 votes.
She also is promising new details about efforts to instruct Republican officials in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress, Pence and the National Archives, falsely certifying that Trump won states he had actually lost.
BACK TO TRUMP
Cheney said the final two hearings will focus on how Trump summoned supporters to march on the Capitol, and when the violence was underway, failed to take immediate action to stop them.
The last hearing will have a moment-by-moment account of Trump’s response to the attack from former White House staff, both through live testimony in the hearing room and via videotape.
“There is no doubt the President Trump was well aware of the violence as it developed,” Cheney said. “White House staff urged President Trump to intervene and call off the mob.”
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https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/ap-politics/whats-next-for-the-jan-6-panel-more-hearings-more-trump/
| 2022-06-11T06:07:34
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| 0.976272
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