The U.S. military carried out airstrikes Sunday against Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria in response to drone attacks by the militia against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, the Pentagon said.The strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, the Pentagon said.”As demonstrated by this evening’s strikes, President Biden has been clear that he will act to protect U.S. personnel,” the Pentagon said in a statement. 
 
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Dr. Rania Awaad was attending a virtual religion program this Ramadan when discussion turned to an unexpected question: Is it religiously acceptable to say a prayer for someone who died by suicide?Suicide is a complex and delicate topic that Awaad, as director of the Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab at Stanford University, knows much about — but one she says isn’t discussed nearly enough in U.S. Muslim communities. When it is, she said, it’s often poorly understood and shrouded in misconceptions.Awaad and other mental health professionals are trying to change that, working alongside some faith leaders and activists to bring nuance and compassion to such conversations, raise awareness in Muslim communities about suicide prevention and mental health and provide religiously and culturally sensitive guidance.The effort took on new urgency in the aftermath of an apparent murder-suicide that left six family members dead in Allen, Texas, in April, sending shock waves through Muslim communities in the area and beyond. Investigators believe two brothers made a pact to kill their parents, sister and grandmother before taking their own lives.The incident sparked a flurry of activity in Muslim spaces, from public discussions on mental health and trainings on suicide response to healing circles and private conversations.“The initial reaction of the community was total shock,” said Imam Abdul Rahman Bashir of the Islamic Association of Allen, where the family’s funeral was held. “Their reaction went from shock, grief to then concern about other families around them: Are they saying something that they can’t hear? Is something out there that they can’t see?”“It definitely opened up the conversation for understanding what mental health is and the importance of mental well-being,” he added.Suicide is theologically proscribed under Islam, and Awaad while acknowledging that, takes a nuanced view on the issue, arguing that it’s not up to people to judge. Contrary to what she’s heard some say about people who took their own lives, she believes the deceased may receive prayers regardless of how they died.“We don’t know the state of a person when they reach this point in their life, and we don’t know their mental state in that moment,” she said. ”… Only God can judge on this.”The importance of seeking professional help for mental health struggles, without worrying about what people may say, is a message the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation sought to drive home in a recent video. Aimed at the South Asian American community, it featured actors, young activists and others sharing their experiences to help break the stigma.Some community leaders in Texas addressed suicide and mental health issues after a Muslim American woman took her own life in 2018, according to Saadia Ahmed, director of the foundation’s youth leadership program. Following the Allen tragedy, she’s heard from lots of people who have reached out to share their personal battles or ask how to get help for loved ones.One young man opened up about having previously had suicidal thoughts and about how getting help made things better. There was a high school student who needed therapy, but her parents weren’t getting her any; with the aid of a school counselor, she ended up getting help. Ahmed also heard from parents worried about their kids.“I feel like at least I see progress,” Ahmed said.Sameera Ahmed — no relation — a psychologist and executive director of The Family & Youth Institute, a not-for-profit research and education institute, said that when her group was developing suicide prevention resources for Muslim communities a few years ago, some questioned the need.“People wouldn’t share what was happening because they were afraid of the stigma,” Ahmed said. “They were afraid people wouldn’t come to their loved one’s janazah,” or funeral.But today she sees more openness to conversation and says some well-known imams have begun addressing the issue from more compassionate perspectives. Still, much work remains, she added.Following the Allen tragedy, Awaad gave virtual trainings on suicide response from her base in California to help people navigate the aftermath, including to religious and community leaders. Her lab at Stanford provided guidelines for Islamic sermons.  “The crisis response is the hardest part,” she said. Many imams and religious leaders grapple with “striking a balance between healing the community and Islam’s stance on the impressibility of suicide.”She also co-authored a piece detailing do’s and don’ts after a suicide, like providing resources and support to those who may be struggling, while refraining from speculation on spiritual implications such as whether someone who took their life will go to paradise.By the end of 2022, Awaad hopes 500 Muslim religious leaders will have received training on suicide using material developed by a nonprofit, Maristan, in collaboration with her lab at Stanford that’s grounded in both science and the teachings of Islam.Several religious leaders have thrown their weight behind the effort.One of them, Imam Bashir, of the Islamic Association of Allen, said that while Islam doesn’t allow suicide as a way to solve problems, the faith “encourages the community to be one body with ears, eyes and arms to help each other not get to a point where that would be a consideration.”Wrestling with difficult questions around suicide isn’t unique to Muslims. Mathew Schmalz, a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, said a belief common to theistic traditions is that one’s life belongs to God, so taking it “fundamentally violates” God’s most precious gift.Yet attitudes have been evolving with a greater appreciation of the complexities of mental illness, he added, and it’s important to challenge beliefs that suicide signals moral weakness or a failure to be grateful of God.“While an understanding of God as merciful is important,” Schmalz said, “equally important is being part of a faith community in which mental health issues are taken seriously and not stigmatized.”  
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More than a year and a half after Louisiana state troopers were captured on body camera video brutalizing Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal arrest, police brass were still trying to blame his death on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase.Police officials quietly commissioned a study late last year into the role the crash could have played in Greene’s 2019 death, part of a behind-the-scenes bid to reduce the agency’s legal liability, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.The effort came despite the footage showing troopers stunning, punching and dragging the unarmed man — and one trooper’s admission that he bashed him in the head with a flashlight, a use of deadly force not previously reported.The documents, which also detail how four troopers grossly exaggerated Greene’s threat to justify their uses of force, provide the fullest account yet of the deadly May 10, 2019, arrest. And they show the extent to which top brass and troopers alike sought to cover up or explain away actions in a case that is now the focus of a federal civil rights investigation.“It’s horrific,” Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, told the AP. “There’s nothing they can say to change, to warp, what’s shown. I don’t care which way they want to coat it, what different colors of paint they want to layer on this mess — they can’t erase it.”Greene, a 49-year-old barber, failed to pull over for a traffic violation and led troopers on a midnight chase across rural northern Louisiana at speeds of up to 185 kph before his car spun to a stop on a roadside near Monroe.Troopers told Greene’s relatives hours later that he died on impact after crashing into a tree, an explanation called into question by photos of Greene’s body on a gurney showing his bruised and battered face, a hospital report noting he had two stun gun prongs in his back, and the fact that his SUV had only minor damage.Even Louisiana State Police appeared to back off the crash explanation later when they issued a one-page statement saying only that Greene struggled with troopers who were trying to arrest him and that he died on his way to the hospital.FILE – Demonstrators block a highway access ramp after a march from the state Capitol to the governor’s mansion, May 27, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La., protesting the death of Ronald Greene, who died in police custody.The truth about what really happened began to emerge last month when the AP obtained and published body camera video showing troopers converging on Greene’s car, repeatedly jolting him with a stun gun, wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face, all while he apologizes and cries for mercy. A trooper can later be seen dragging a shackled Greene facedown and then leaving him unattended in a prone position for more than nine minutes before he finally became unresponsive.But even after viewing that footage internally, and just three weeks after showing it privately to Greene’s family, ranking police officials last November remained fixated on blaming the man’s death on a car crash. They quietly asked a crash reconstructionist to estimate the “g-force” Greene might have suffered in a crash, suggesting that may have accounted for his fatal injuries.Though the autopsy listed Greene’s cause of death as “cocaine induced agitated delirium complicated by motor vehicle collision, physical struggle, inflicted head injury and restraint,” it notably left unresolved whether some of Greene’s most significant injuries —a fractured breastbone and lacerated aorta — were caused by the crash or state troopers.One high-ranking official, Capt. John Peters, wrote in a November email to a state police attorney that the crash reconstructionist estimated that the “violent rotation” of Greene’s vehicle — combined with “impacts” and the sudden speed reduction when the chase ended — “generated approximately 19g’s of force.” Aortic ruptures can occur in crashes, experts said, but depend on many factors.“That could have significant value on the civil side as we try to reduce our percentage of liability,” he added.Faye Morrison, a state police attorney, responded: “This will definitely be important re cause of death and damages.”Morrison was reassigned this week as the agency investigates her role in the Greene case.Capt. Nick Manale, a state police spokesperson, said only that the crash reconstruction “was part of an ongoing investigation.”FILE – This image from video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary’s body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La.“It shows misplaced efforts and attention,” said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group. “They’re more focused on civil liability issues than the conduct of the troopers.”Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth told investigators that Greene “didn’t have any apparent injuries” when he rushed the man’s SUV following the chase.Hollingsworth, who was later recorded saying “he beat the ever-living f— out of” Greene, told investigators he was aware the head was a “red zone” of deadly force but acknowledged striking Greene in the head three times with a flashlight and jolting him six times with a stun gun out of fear for his own safety.“He was much bigger than I was and much stronger, and he had already kept two troopers from being able to handcuff him,” Hollingsworth said. “He could have done anything once my hold was broke off of him.”Shown the gurney pictures of Greene’s body, Hollingsworth acknowledged the flashlight could have caused the half-moon shaped gashes on his head but added, “I’m not a doctor.”Police spokesperson Manale did not comment on Hollingsworth’s use of deadly force. Hollingsworth died in a single vehicle crash last year just hours after learning he would be fired for his role in Greene’s arrest.The documents show Hollingsworth and three other troopers greatly overstated Greene’s resistance to justify their use of force, with one telling investigators he had survived “a fight for his life” and another falsely contending that even after Greene was cuffed and shackled, he was “constantly moving, trying to get up.”But investigators said those concerns weren’t justified based on body camera footage that showed Greene appearing to raise his hands and saying over and over, “OK, OK. I’m sorry” and “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”“I’ve had a female fight me and put up a much bigger fight than what I’m seeing on this video,” one investigator remarked, contending Hollingsworth and another responding trooper, Dakota DeMoss, never gave Greene a chance to surrender.DeMoss, who was recently fired, also admitted to investigators it was a “rookie move” to leave Greene handcuffed face down on the ground with his hands and feet restrained for more than nine minutes — a tactic use-of-force experts have criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.DeMoss said he “got a knot in his stomach” when he learned Greene had died.“I could tell by the way the paramedics were looking at each other,” he told investigators. “I just got this gut-wrenching sick feeling.”  
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Record high temperatures were set across the U.S. Pacific Northwest on Saturday.Portland, Oregon’s largest city, officially hit 42.2 Celsius to set an all-time record. It was one of at least eight cities in the states of Washington and Oregon to surpass or tie old record high temperatures.Farther north, Seattle, Washington, reached 37.8 Celsius on Saturday, the hottest June day on record and only the fourth time in Seattle’s recorded history the temperature has climbed that high.It’s a potentially dangerous situation for a region where many live without air conditioning because they have seldom needed it.Temperatures on Sunday are also expected to remain significantly higher than normal levels. The trend is expected to continue into next week.In the states of Washington and Oregon, officials have lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on cooling centers, pools, movie theaters and shopping malls.In Portland, the Oregon Convention Center is open as a cooling center. It can hold about 300 people, but Peter Tiso, who works with Multnomah County’s Joint office of Homeless Services, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that no one, including those with pets, would be turned away.Many stores have sold all their air conditioners and fans.“We know from evidence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves,” University of Washington professor Kristie Ebi, who studies global warming, told the Associated Press. “We’re going to have to get used to this going forward.”The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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