The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Category 4 Hurricane Ida “has continued to strengthen” and is “extremely dangerous” as it heads toward making landfall in southern Louisiana.The center said hurricane aircraft indicated that Ida is moving with “maximum sustained winds that have increased to 230 kilometers per hour.”Earlier Sunday, the agency reported that Ida “has continued to rapidly intensify” and was moving with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph.Ida is expected to reach Louisiana on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm blamed for 1,800 deaths, levee breaches and ruinous flooding in New Orleans. The city’s federal levee system has been improved since the 2005 storm.”This system is going to be tested,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.Men place plywood in front of a store in preparation for Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, Louisiana, Aug. 28, 2021.Edwards declared a state of emergency and said 5,000 National Guard troops were standing by along the coast for search and rescue efforts. In addition, 10,000 linemen were ready to respond to electrical outages once the storm passes.“By Saturday evening, everyone should be in the location where they intend to ride out the storm,” Edwards said.A hurricane warning was issued from near Lafayette, Louisiana, to the Mississippi state line, a distance of nearly 320 kilometers. Tropical storm warnings extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Alabama’s Mobile Bay is under a storm surge watch. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also declared a state of emergency for the state’s coastal and western counties.”We’re going to catch it head-on,” Bebe McElroy told the AP as she prepared to leave her home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. “I’m just going around praying, saying, ‘Dear Lord, just watch over us.'”New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has ordered people who live outside the city’s protective levee system to evacuate.“The forecast track has it headed straight toward New Orleans. Not good,” said Jim Kossin, a senior scientist with The Climate Service, a private consulting company.Traffic moves bumper to bumper along I-10 west as residents arrive into Texas from the Louisiana border ahead of Hurricane Ida in Orange, Texas, Aug. 28, 2021.From southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama, total rainfall could be from 20 to more than 40 centimeters, with more than 50 centimeters possible in some areas, the government weather service said. Heavy rain and storm surge could cause widespread flooding in the area.The region’s hospitals now face a natural disaster as they are struggling with a surge in patients with COVID-19, due to the highly contagious delta variant. “COVID has certainly added a challenge to this storm,” Mike Hulefeld, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Ochsner Health, told the AP.Since the start of the pandemic, Louisiana has had 679,796 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 12,359 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Its vaccine tracker says just 41.01% of the state’s nearly 4.7 million population are vaccinated.“Once again we find ourselves dealing with a natural disaster in the midst of a pandemic,” said Jennifer Avegno, the top health official for New Orleans, told the AP.Ida made landfall Friday in Cuba, and by Saturday the clean-up was underway. Trees were toppled and buildings damaged, but no deaths were reported.(Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.)
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Month: August 2021
Spacex Launches Ants, Avocados, Robot to Space Station
A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday.The delivery — due to arrive Monday — is the company’s 23rd for NASA in just under a decade.A recycled Falcon rocket blasted into the predawn sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. After hoisting the Dragon capsule, the first-stage booster landed upright on SpaceX’s newest ocean platform, named A Shortfall of Gravitas.SpaceX founder Elon Musk continued his tradition of naming the booster-recovery vessels in tribute to the late science fiction writer Iain Banks and his Culture series.The Dragon is carrying more than 2,170 kilograms of supplies and experiments, and fresh food, including avocados, lemons and even ice cream for the space station’s seven astronauts.The Girl Scouts are sending up ants, brine shrimp and plants as test subjects, while University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are flying up seeds from mouse-ear cress, a small flowering weed used in genetic research. Samples of concrete, solar cells and other materials also will be subjected to weightlessness.A Japanese start-up company’s experimental robotic arm, meanwhile, will attempt to screw items together in its orbital debut and perform other mundane chores normally done by astronauts. The first tests will be done inside the space station. Future models of Gitai Inc.’s robot will venture out into the vacuum of space to practice satellite and other repair jobs, said chief technology officer Toyotaka Kozuki.As early as 2025, a squad of these arms could help build lunar bases and mine the moon for precious resources, he added.SpaceX had to leave some experiments behind because of delays resulting from COVID-19.It was the second launch attempt; Saturday’s try was foiled by stormy weather.NASA turned to SpaceX and other U.S. companies to deliver cargo and crews to the space station, once the space shuttle program ended in 2011.
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Arizona to End Peremptory Challenges to Potential Jurors
Arizona’s top court is eliminating the longstanding practice of allowing lawyers in criminal and civil trials in state courts to remove potential jurors without explanation, a move that proponents said would help prevent discrimination in the selection of trial jurors.So-called peremptory challenges will end Jan. 1 under a groundbreaking rule change ordered Tuesday and released Friday by the Arizona Supreme court.In the meantime, a court task force will recommend possible changes to current court rules that also allow opposing sides in trials to ask judges to remove potential jurors for valid reasons such as stated bias or inability to serve, the order said.Peremptory challenges are a hot-button legal issue nationally as illustrated by jury selection in the trial that resulted in the conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd’s death.Robert Chang, a Seattle University law professor, said during an interview Saturday that he believed Arizona’s impending outright elimination of peremptory challenges is believed to be a first such step by a U.S. state, though others such as Washington and California have recently moved to place new restrictions on the challenges.”Arizona clearly has gone further,” said Chang, the director of a legal center that endorsed a competing Arizona rule-change proposal to restrict but not eliminate peremptory challenges. “Arizona’s move is big, and it will be fascinating to see what other states and courts do.”The Arizona court rejected the competing proposal and, as is its practice when it acts on requests to change rules, did not comment on its reasoning for its actions.However, the two state Court of Appeals judge who proposed the rule change in January said it was “a clear opportunity to end definitively one of the most obvious sources of racial injustice in the courts.”While many lawyers view peremptory challenges as a way to “structure a jury favorable to his or her cause,” that interest should be secondary “if elimination of racial, gender and religious bias in the court system a controlling goal,” Judges Peter Swann and Paul McMurdie wrote in their proposal.The current system of allowing a side to object to the other side’s peremptory challenge of a potential juror if discrimination is thought to be the unstated motive is ineffective and inefficient, according to the proposal by the two former trial judges.Their proposal drew some support but also strong opposition from within the state’s legal community while it was under consideration by the Supreme Court.Eliminating peremptory challenges would make it harder to pick a fair and impartial jury because some potential jurors would be chosen if they said they could be impartial even though one side in a trial thought they likely weren’t acknowledging biases, opponents said in comments on the proposal.”Expecting a prospective juror to candidly admit that they cannot be fair is not realistic,” Maricopa County attorney Allister Adel said in a comment.Supporters included nearly all the judges on a trial court in one mid-size county. Apart from preventing discriminatory abuse of peremptory challenges, their elimination presents opportunities to streamline jury selection, the Yavapai County Superior Court judges’ comment said.Chang, the Seattle University professor, said it’ll be important to follow up the elimination of peremptory challenges by changing other rules to allow lawyers more time in court to question potential jurors about potential biases.Otherwise, “it’s really hard to get the basis for making for-cause challenges,” Chang said.
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South Sudan Police Warn Against Anti-Government Protests
The South Sudan National Police Service has deployed officers on the streets of the capital, Juba, and warned South Sudanese not to take part in the scheduled nationwide Monday protests against the government.A group calling itself the People’s Coalition for Civil Action is organizing the protests after launching a public campaign for change in July, saying the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity led by President Salva Kiir is doing very little to address the many challenges facing the people of South Sudan.Abraham Awolic, a member of the group, said it notified the police by letter of the planned protests even though such notification is not required.“The people of South Sudan are coming out on the 30th to protest, it is their constitutional right,” he told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus. “You don’t need approval from anyone to exercise that power. … You cannot ask the same state which has aggrieved you to give you permission to protest against it.”South Sudan police service spokesperson Major General Daniel Justin said the planned protests will “cause public disorder” and will not be tolerated by authorities.Justin invited protest organizers to meet with the police.“You have to coordinate with the police to give you protection. And these people, we invite them to come such that we sit and arrange, so it will not be allowed,” Justin told VOA.South Sudan has been in political turmoil after the leaders of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, part of the ruling alliance, fired three generals in the command of the Upper Nile state shortly after the generals declared First Vice President Riek Machar had been ousted as head of the movement.Bol Deng Bol, head of the civil society organization in Jonglei state, said some of South Sudan’s political parties have done more harm by rebelling against the government.“This time is the right time for us as citizens of this hard-earned country, South Sudan, to express our views, to express our dissatisfaction as long as they are not going to go violent,” Bol told VOA.Bol said he will attend the protests. Other political leaders are wary.The South Sudan National Youth Union this week urged young people across the country to stay away from the demonstrations.Gola Boyoi, chairperson of the Youth Union, condemned the protests, calling them an undemocratic way of toppling a government. He told South Sudan in Focus that the people should give the signatories to the 2018 peace deal ending the country’s civil war a chance to fully implement the agreement.”We are also calling on the business community and the working class to ignore this uprising and go about their normal duties,” Boyoi said.Peter Malir, a youth rights activist and a representative of the South Sudan Youth coalition, said that although citizens have the right to hold a peaceful protest, it is not the right time because the country is facing several challenges, including road ambushes and ethnic fighting.A heavy police presence could be seen along several streets in Juba on Friday. Officers have orders to arrest anyone who takes to the streets to participate in the protests, police spokesperson Justin said.
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Arc De Triomphe to be Wrapped for Posthumous Work by Christo
The Arc de Triomphe has seen parades, protests and tourists galore, but never before has the war monument in Paris been wrapped in silver and blue recyclable polypropylene fabric. That’s about to happen next month in a posthumous art installation designed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.”Christo has wrapped museums, parliaments as in Germany, but a monument like this? Not really. This is the first time. This is the first monument of this importance and scale that he has done,” Vladimir Yavachev, the late collaborating couple’s nephew, told The Associated Press.Preparations have already started on the Napoleon-era arch, where workers are covering statues to protect them from the wrapping.The idea for L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped was formed in 1961, when Christo and Jeanne-Claude lived in Paris. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and in spite of Christo’s death in May 2020, the project carried on.”He wanted to complete this project. He made us promise him that we will do it,” Yavachev told The Associated Press.It was to be realized last fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the installation.The $16.4 million project is being self-financed through the sale of Christo’s preparatory studies, drawings, scale models and other pieces of work, Yavachev said.Visitors to the foot of the Arc de Triomphe during the installation, scheduled for Sept. 18-Oct. 3, will be able to touch the fabric, and those climbing to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace, as intended by the artists.Born in Bulgaria in 1935, Christo Vladimirov Javacheff met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, born in Morocco on the exact same day as him, in Paris in 1958.The artists were known for elaborate, temporary creations that involved blanketing familiar public places with fabric, such as Berlin’s Reichstag and Paris’ Pont Neuf bridge, and creating giant site-specific installations, such as a series of 7,503 gates in New York City’s Central Park and the 39-kilometer Running Fence in California.Yavachev plans on completing another one of his uncle and aunt’s unfinished projects: a 150-meter-tall pyramid-like mastaba in Abu Dhabi.”We have the blueprints, we just have to do it,” he said.
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Paralympic Coverage Airs on NBC for the First Time on Sunday
NBC’s Olympics coverage has long been built on a foundation of human-interest stories and showcasing athletes’ road to the Games. The same philosophies will apply to the coverage of Paralympics, which will air on the network for the first time.Sunday will mark the first time that Paralympics coverage will air on the main NBC network and is part of 1,200 hours of programming airing across NBC, NBCSN, Olympic Channel and digital properties. The Paralympics began in Tokyo on Aug. 24 and continue through Sept. 5.NBC will have three weekend docu-follow series episodes which will show the stories and performances of athletes competing in Tokyo. Sunday’s episode, which will air at 7 p.m. EDT, will feature U.S. team flagbearers Melissa Stockwell (triathlon) and Chuck Aoki (wheelchair rugby), along with swimmer Jessica Long.NBC’s Mark Levy, the SVP of Original Production and Creative, said the one-year delay of the Games due to coronavirus allowed them to be able to dive deeper into athletes’ back stories.”We really want our viewers to feel connected to the Paralympians. We want to give them a chance to care and cheer for them,” Levy said. “It’s our opportunity through the primetime shows to reach a lot of people and share these back stories.”Long — who entered Tokyo with 23 career medals, including 13 gold — has had part of her story shown on Toyota ads that premiered earlier this year during the Super Bowl. Sunday, though, will allow viewers to see her visit to Russia for the first time in 2013 and meeting her birth mother for the first time.Long was born with fibular hemimelia, a genetic abnormality which caused her lower legs to not develop properly. She was given up for adoption and was adopted at 13 months old. Her lower legs were amputated five months later.Future episodes will show Long in competition, as well as how her Toyota ad has inspired people.Stockwell is the first female American soldier to lose a limb in active combat when a roadside bomb exploded while she was leading a convoy in Iraq. She was also the first Iraq War veteran who qualified for the Paralympics in 2008.Aoki and the wheelchair rugby team are looking to win gold after a tough loss to Australia in Rio in 2016.The shows will also show swimmer Abbas Karimi, who is part of the six-member Paralympic Refugee Team.”To be able to showcase all these athletes with disabilities and the opportunity to create a dialogue, we’re hoping that people’s perceptions might change,” Levy said. “That’s really compelling for us and a real important reason why we’re sharing these stories.”Levy is also hoping that people who watch Sunday will possibly tune in at some point to the 12 hours of daily coverage that is on NBCSN. NBC’s other Paralympic docu-follow series will air Sept. 4 and 5.
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Slain Marine Who Cradled Baby at Kabul Airport Loved Her Job
A woman who cradled a baby in her arms at the airport and posted on social media that she loved her job. A young husband with a child on the way. Another man who always wanted to be in the military. A man who planned to become a sheriff’s deputy when his deployment ended. Heart-wrenching details have emerged about some of the 13 U.S. troops killed in a suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 160 Afghans.Eleven Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier were among the dead, while 18 other U.S. service members were wounded in Thursday’s bombing, which was blamed on Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State group. The U.S. said it was the most lethal day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011. The White House said President Joe Biden will look for opportunities to honor the service members who lost their lives, many of whom were men in their early 20s.Here are the stories of some of the victims and the people who are mourning them:Nicole Gee, 23A week before she was killed, Sgt. Nicole Gee cradled a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport. She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, “I love my job.”Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California, was a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a “sister forever” and best friend, wrote about the magnitude of her loss.”I can’t quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how I’m never going to see her again,” Harrison wrote on Facebook. “How her last breath was taken doing what she loved — helping people. … Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.”Gee’s Instagram page shows another photo of her in fatigues, holding a rifle next to a line of people walking into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: “escorting evacuees onto the bird.”The social media account that includes many selfies after working out at the gym lists her location as California, North Carolina and “somewhere overseas.”Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek isle and holding a beer in Spain. One from this month in Kuwait shows her beaming with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.Harrison said her generation of Marines hears war stories from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, but they seem distant amid boring deployments until “the peaceful float you were on turns into … your friends never coming home.”Rylee McCollum, 20Rylee McCollum, a Marine and native of Bondurant, Wyoming, was married and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, said.Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum”He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad,” McCollum said. She said her brother “was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine. … He’d carry around his toy rifle and wear his sister’s pink princess snow boots and he’d either be hunting or he was a Marine. Sometimes it would be with nothing on underneath, just a T-shirt.”McCollum said her brother wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach once he completed his service. Another sister, Roice McCollum, told the Casper Star Tribune that her brother was on his first deployment when the evacuation in Afghanistan began.”We want to make sure that people know that these are the kids that are sacrificing themselves, and he’s got a family who loves him and a wife who loves him and a baby that he’ll never get to meet,” Cheyenne McCollum said.Regi Stone, the father of one of Rylee McCollum’s friends, described McCollum as “a good kid,” who was resilient, smart and courageous. Stone shared a note that his wife, Kim, sent to their son Eli Stone, who is also in the military and deployed elsewhere. In the note, Kim wrote that she remembered telling the friends to run the other way if they had to go in first and that both of them said, “If we die doing this, we die doing what we love.”Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui, 20Lance Corporal Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui, of Norco, California, sent videos to his family hours before he died, showing himself interacting with children in Afghanistan. In one clip, he asked a young boy to say hello.Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui”Want to take a video together, buddy?” Nikoui said, leaning in to take a video of himself with the boy. “All right, we’re heroes now, man.”Family friend Paul Arreola said the videos show “the heart of this young man, the love he has.””The family is just heartbroken,” he said. Arreola described Nikoui as an “amazing young man” full of promise who always wanted to be a Marine and set out to achieve his goal. He is survived by his parents and three siblings.”He loved this country and everything we stand for. It’s just so hard to know that we’ve lost him,” he said, crying.Nikoui was also in the JROTC, and the Norco High School Air Force JROTC posted on Facebook that he was “one of our best Air Force JROTC cadets” and that “Kareem was set on being a Marine & always wanted to serve his country.”Jared Schmitz, 20Lance Cpl. Jared M. SchmitzMarine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz grew up in the St. Louis area and was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts, his father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX Radio.”This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be,” Schmitz said of his son. “His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.”Taylor Hoover, 31Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Utah, had been in the Marines for 11 years and was remembered as a hero who died serving others, his father, Darin Hoover, said.”He is a hero. He gave his life protecting those that can’t protect themselves, doing what he loved, serving his country,” said Darin Hoover, who lives in a Salt Lake City suburb.He said he had heard from Marines who said they were grateful they had his son as their sergeant.”They look back on him and say that they’ve learned so much from him,” Hoover said. “One heck of a leader.”Hoover said his son was also a best friend to his two sisters and loved all his extended family. He had a girlfriend in California and was the kind of guy who “lit up a room” when he came in, his father said.Nate Thompson of Murray, Utah, first met Hoover when they were 10 years old in Little League football. They stayed friends through high school, where Hoover played lineman. He was undersized for the position, but his heart and hard work more than made up for what he lacked in statute, Thompson said. As a friend, he was selfless and kind.”If we had trouble with grades, trouble with family or trouble on the field, we always called Taylor. He’s always level-headed, even if he’s struggling himself,” he said.Deagan William-Tyeler Page, 23Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California, and planned to go to trade school and possibly become a lineman after his enlistment ended, his family said in a statement.Page was raised in Red Oak, Iowa, and in the Omaha area and joined the Marines after graduating from Millard South High School. He is mourned by his girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents, the family statement said.”Daegan will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart,” the statement said. “Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful for the friends and family who are surrounding us during this time. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the other Marine and Navy families whose loved ones died alongside Daegan.”Ryan Knauss, 23Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was remembered as a motivated man who loved his country and was looking forward to coming back to the U.S. and eventually moving to Washington, D.C., family members told WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.Staff Sgt. Ryan C. KnaussKnauss’ grandfather, Wayne Knauss, told the television station that his grandson attended Gibbs High School and grew up in a Christian home.”A motivated young man who loved his country,” Wayne Knauss said. “He was a believer, so we will see him again in God’s heaven.”Stepmother Linnae Knauss said Ryan planned to move to Washington after he returned to the U.S.”He was a super-smart, hilarious young man,” she said.Hunter Lopez, 22Cpl. Hunter LopezHunter Lopez, whose parents work at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California, was a sheriff’s Explorer for three years before joining the Marine Corps in September 2017, Sheriff Chad Bianco said.Bianco said Lopez planned to follow in his parents’ footsteps and become a Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy after his deployment.David Lee Espinoza, 20Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza, a Marine from Laredo, Texas, joined the military after high school, and is remembered as a hero by his mother.”He was just brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. That’s who he was, he was just perfect,” his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, told the Laredo Morning Times.In a statement, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said Espinoza “embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service.”Cuellar concluded, “The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.”
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War-weary Libyans Yearn for End to Daily Blackouts
Walk down any commercial street in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and the pavements will be lined with generators ready to spring into action whenever the mains electricity supply cuts out.In the decade since the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, repeated outbreaks of fighting have caused heavy damage to the power distribution network, while there has been virtually no new investment in generating capacity.On most days, Tripoli residents can expect multiple outages, totaling as much as 12 hours a day.The hum of generators and the acrid fumes and smoke of diesel fuel have become one of the most hated aspects of daily life in the once-affluent city.”We’ve put up with this mess for the past 10 years. … It has a big impact on our daily lives,” said 23-year-old pharmacist Sufian Zerkani. “It’s a basic right the state should guarantee.”Keeping the generators fueled up has become a daily chore for many.At service stations, pedestrians equipped with funnels and jerrycans for the generators line up alongside motorists.The destruction and decay have come as a shock in a country that boasts Africa’s largest reserves of oil and gas, and a population of just 7 million.Promises unkeptThe most recent round of fighting ended with a U.N.-backed cease-fire last year. That paved the way for peace talks and the formation of a transitional government this March, ahead of elections set for December.The new peace process has raised hopes that there might be light at the end of the tunnel after a decade of rival governments fighting with the support of shifting alliances of local militias.But for many, the promise of a return to peace and normality is not coming quickly enough.”Nothing’s changed. The promises made by one government after another have never been kept,” said 25-year-old student Nader al-Naas.In the hottest months, temperatures in Tripoli regularly touch 40 degrees Celsius.”It’s a disastrous situation, especially in the summer,” Naas said.It is worse for those without the means to buy a generator, who sleep outside on rooftops to escape the stifling heat at night.Basic generators sell for around $470, but more reliable models cost thousands.Blackouts bad for businessLast year’s cease-fire came after forces in Tripoli fought off a yearlong offensive by a rival administration based in the east.For a time, the east and its main city Benghazi enjoyed more reliable electric supply than Tripoli and the west.But as the conflict intensified, it too was forced to adapt to the daily grind of power cuts.”When there’s no power, we stop work,” said Benghazi mechanic Ali Wami.”It’s been a week since I was able to carry out any repairs to that vehicle,” he said, pointing to a heavily damaged car.Nearby, grocery shop manager Osama al-Dalah said the blackouts were bad for profits and bad for staff.”All these power cuts wear us down, dampen our spirits and lose us money,” he said. “We need a radical solution.”But while the country basks in a plentiful supply of sunshine, few Libyans are yet to set up solar panels as an alternative source of energy.Decade of decayIn a recent report, the Libyan Audit Bureau took the state-run General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) to task for unfinished projects and investments that “brought nothing to the network.”A GECOL official told AFP the problem was the infrastructure, which has been “decaying for 10 years and requires extensive maintenance.”During the abortive 2019-20 assault on Tripoli, hundreds of high-tension lines serving the capital and its suburbs were destroyed.Foreign firms pulled out, fearful for the safety of their employees, delaying the construction of new generating capacity. And in the meantime, thieves pulled out the distribution cables to scavenge copper wire.Generating capacity from oil and gas power stations of between 5,000 and 5,500 megawatts falls well short of the demand of 7,000 MW in winter and 8,000 MW in summer, the GECOL official said.Two new power stations are under construction by a German-Turkish consortium in Tripoli and in Libya’s third city Misrata. They are expected to add 1,300 MW of capacity to the grid in the first quarter of next year.A third new power station, in Tobruk in the far east of Libya, is scheduled to follow.
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Thousands March for Fair, Easy Access to Vote for All
Thousands of Americans gathered Saturday in Washington to demand federal legislation to protect voting rights. Saqib Islam reports from the protest, March On for Voting Rights, which also marked the 58th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall.
Camera: Saqib Ul Islam Producer: Saqib Ul Islam
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Survey: Most Americans Support Defending Taiwan if China Invades
More than half of Americans questioned in a new survey said they favor using U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China was to invade the island. Analysts say that reflects a growing awareness in the United States about Taiwan and the challenges it faces.The Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey found that 52% of Americans support using U.S. troops to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion of the island. A smaller percentage of respondents — 19% — supported a U.S. defense of Taiwan when Glaser told VOA she was surprised at the percentage of Americans who think the U.S. should recognize Taiwan as an independent country. “I think Americans, not surprisingly, don’t understand all of the complicated factors involved in that kind of decision,” she said.She pointed out that the results of the survey had a lot to do with how the questions were asked.”If you asked Americans, ‘Should the United States recognize Taiwan as an independent country even if it would lead to an all-out war with China?’ You’d probably get a different response.” she said.Julian Ku, an expert on China’s relationship with international law and a law professor at Hofstra University, agreed that the polling results suggest that Americans have limited knowledge of Taipei.He wrote on Twitter that while this trend toward much greater public support for defending Taiwan is important, “it is very iffy to use polls as a basis for foreign policy.”It is very iffy to use polls as a basis for foreign policy, but this trend line toward much greater public support for defending Taiwan in the US seems very important. https://t.co/GxFk29qkXJpic.twitter.com/lqWAz7WVuk— Julian Ku 古舉倫 (@julianku) August 26, 2021Glaser agreed, telling VOA that public opinion should be taken into account, but it shouldn’t be the decisive factor in the formation of any policy.”At the end of the day, what this poll reveals to me is that we need to have a lot more education for Americans about these kinds of subjects,” she said.
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France, Britain to Call for Kabul ‘Safe Zone,’ Macron Says
France and Britain on Monday will urge the United Nations to work for the creation of a “safe zone” in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to protect humanitarian operations, French President Emmanuel Macron said. “This is very important. This would provide a framework for the United Nations to act in an emergency,” Macron said in comments published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche. Above all, such a safe zone would allow the international community “to maintain pressure on the Taliban,” who are now in power in Afghanistan, the French leader added. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — France, Britain, the U.S., Russia and China — will meet on Monday to discuss the Afghanistan situation. Paris and London will take the opportunity to present a draft resolution that “aims to define, under U.N. control, a ‘safe zone’ in Kabul, that will allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron said. His comments came as international efforts to airlift foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghanis out of the country neared an end. France ended its evacuation efforts on Friday, and the United Kingdom followed suit on Saturday. U.S. troops have been scrambling in dangerous and chaotic conditions to complete a massive evacuation operation from the Kabul airport by an August 31 deadline. Macron announced on Saturday that discussions had been “started with the Taliban” to “protect and repatriate” Afghan nationals at risk beyond August 31. Speaking to reporters in Iraq, where he was attending a meeting of key regional leaders, Macron added that with help from Qatar, which maintains good relations with the Taliban, there was a possibility of further airlift operations. He added that France had evacuated 2,834 people from Afghanistan since August 17. In the article published by the French Sunday newspaper, Macron said he envisaged targeted evacuations in future, “which would not be carried out at the military airport in Kabul” but perhaps via civil airports in the Afghan capital or from neighboring countries.
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Acclaim for ‘Afterparties’ Illuminates Cambodian American Experience
The late Cambodian American writer Anthony Veasna So once reportedly described his work as “post-khmer genocide queer stoner fiction,” a narrowly defined niche blown wide open by widespread critical acclaim for his collection of short stories, Afterparties.So’s book is hailed as an exciting and highly original work that captures what it is like to grow up in contemporary American society as a child of Cambodian refugees. Enthusiasm for So’s work bridges seemingly dissimilar universes – literary critics who see its universal appeal and the Cambodian American community that sees family.Uniting the two are So’s vivid descriptions – full of humor and compassion – of families grappling with the traumas of surviving the murderous Khmer Rouge while navigating the cultural dislocation and socio-economic challenges of refugee resettlement.Until now, most depictions of Cambodians in English-language writing and film have been memoirs, nonfiction books and a few well-known movies that focus on an older generation’s stories of surviving the Khmer Rouge killing fields — the “purification” of Cambodia that resulted in the deaths of at least 1.7 million people in a quest by Pol Pot to create an agrarian Marxist utopia in the 1970s.As The New Yorker magazine observed, “Classics of immigrant storytelling can feel sparse and solemn. The stories in So’s Afterparties fill the silence, spilling over with transgressive humor and exuberant language.”The Man Behind Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge ‘Died Easier Than the People He Killed’Cambodians found little comfort in the death of Nuon Chea, believed to be the mastermind behind the Khmer Rouge regime that killed 1.7 million of its countrymen between 1975-1979 “He writes the voices of our Cambodian elders in a way that just feels so accurate,” Monica Sok, a poet who was a friend of So’s, told a recent panel discussion at Book Passage, a Bay Area bookstore. Sok said that as she read So’s work, “I was always thinking like: ‘Yeah, I do know an auntie like that, I know an auntie who thinks she knows how I should live my life.”‘Immense promise’The well-known American literary house Ecco launched Afterparties in early August, printing 100,000 copies after it reportedly signed a $300,000 deal for two books with So, who died in December 2020 of an accidental drug overdose at his home in San Francisco. Another book based on segments from an unfinished novel is expected in 2023.The New Yorker, which first published some of his early stories, described So’s death at 28 as “cutting short a literary career of extraordinary achievement and immense promise.”The headline of a glowing Washington Post review called Afterparties “a bittersweet testament to the late author’s talents.”Alexander Torres, the writer who was So’s partner for seven years, told VOA Khmer “the humor, the lightheartedness, the jokes, but also the really beautiful descriptions” are what made So’s writing unique with a style that “combines humor with high art and with low art.”Younger perspectiveSo’s writing captures the second generation’s perspective on the effects of lingering trauma and other issues at the heart of the Cambodian American community, while touching on more universal contemporary themes such as the complexities of race, youth and sexuality.As any Cambodian born to Khmer Rouge survivors can attest, the horror stories and traumas inflicted by the murderous 1970s regime are part of growing up.So’s sharp observations about his parents’ coping mechanisms and the effects of their traumas on their children offer an unflinching look at the multigenerational impact of war and violence. Yet, he never overlooks the humor and absurdity this can create for an Americanized second generation. In one incident he describes a father shouting at a teen drinking iced water: “There were no ice cubes in the genocide!”Afterparties contains nine short stories, including Somaly Serey, Serey Somaly, about the Buddhist belief in reincarnation set in an Alzheimer’s and dementia unit. Generational Differences is about a 1989 shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, a small California city that is home to one of the largest Cambodian communities in the U.S. Most of the victims were children of Southeast Asian descent. Five died. So’s mother, who worked at the school, witnessed the violence.Cambodian Refugees ‘Accomplished So Much’New photography book bears witness to resilience of Cambodians who created a close-knit community in a poor Chicago neighborhood after fleeing war, genocide So’s book built on a reputation from work published in various outlets, including a 2018 story in n+1 magazine called Superking Son Scores Again, about a legendary badminton player turned grocery store owner who tries to relive his glory days.Mark Krotov, the magazine’s co-editor and publisher, told VOA Khmer that So’s work would likely affect many young writers. “There is so much wisdom in it, there is so much adventure … so much risk-taking, so much beauty, so much intelligence, so much provocation. And all those things in combination suggest to me that this is the book that’s going to be remembered,” Krotov said in a recent phone interview.N+1 magazine recently established an award called “Anthony Veasna So’s Fiction Prize” in his honor. The first recipient is Trevor Shikaze, a writer for n+1 from Canada.‘Centering’ Cambodian AmericansSo’s parents fled northwestern Cambodia’s Battambang province and settled as refugees in Stockton, a river city in California’s Central Valley. His father ran an auto repair shop and his mother worked as a civil servant. So was born in Stockton in 1992.Cambodian American intellectuals said So’s fiction masterfully conveyed their experiences, family life and sense of community.“Reading through Afterparties, it was so resonant, it was so refreshing, to see the Cambodian diaspora, which is not represented in literature – apart from the survival literature,” said So’s friend Sok.“Anthony is really centering Cambodian people in America and the second generation as well, those who are born in this country and inheriting their parents’ traumas, but also trying to find their own way in life,” she added.Sokunthary Svay, a Cambodian American writer and librettist from New York City, told VOA Khmer, “I think what makes his writing particularly important for our diaspora is that he would speak about experiences that a lot of us knew growing up here in the States.”So was from a large family, and all the children were high-achieving students. He graduated from Stanford University, where he enrolled for computer science and graduated with a degree in English, a switch that initially dismayed his family. He earned his MFA in fiction at Syracuse University.’Cambodian Space Project’ Brings Psychedelic Rock Back to US
The Cambodian Space Project, long on the forefront of a local rock'n'roll revival, is a band making good with their pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia sound.The Cambodian-Australian group, kicked off a mini-U.S. tour on Tuesday with a performance at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage. Channthy Kak, 38, also known as Srey Thy, said she was honored to have been invited to perform at the Washington venue, where the band played their original brand of psychedelic rock, before heading to New York City and…
According to his sister, Samantha Lamb, So loved television shows and movies and he discovered his talent while trying to write a script for a television show about a Cambodian American family based on his own life.Lamb reacted to So’s stories with recognition. “OK yes, yes, that is the story about my grandma’s sister, that’s the story about my aunt,” Lamb told VOA Khmer. “This person represents this person in my family.”Processing genocideLamb said Khmer Rouge-era experiences are a recurrent theme in So’s work, as “it is a big part of who we are and growing up my parents talked about it all the time.”In Duplex, a story published in The New Yorker, So wrote, “I had grown up hearing the stories of the genocide, worked to help build our new American identities, and mourned, alongside everyone else in my family, the gaps in our history that could never be recovered.”Lamb said her brother found a way to process this family history and turn it into a new, contemporary experience.His work “tells the stories of the Cambodian genocide, but from a young person’s perspective,” Lamb said. “There hasn’t really been any book or movie or TV show about Cambodians in the Western eyes, you know in the American eyes, that has been about just like who we are as Cambodian Americans now. So, I think that’s what makes it more relatable to people.”According to Lamb, the family continues to struggle with So’s death, although they are immensely proud to see his writing being so well received. His father sleeps in So’s bed to console himself, while his mother is going to a therapist and their grandmother is claiming So may soon be reincarnated.“I am pregnant right now,’’ Lamb said, ‘’and it is a boy. … And especially my grandma has been like ‘Oh! Anthony is coming back. He is being reincarnated.’”
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Thousands March in US Cities for Voting Rights
Thousands of protesters rallied in Washington and other U.S. cities on Saturday to demand protections for voting rights, aiming to pressure lawmakers to pass legislation to counter a wave of ballot restrictions in Republican-led states. Held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1963 March on Washington, organizers of the “March On for Voting Rights” say the state-level moves to curb voting access disproportionately affect people of color. In Washington, protesters holding “Black Lives Matter” flags and signs calling for federal legislation marched from McPherson Square toward the final meeting point at the National Mall, where King gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech 58 years ago. Activist Carolyn Ruff, 74, said she made the trip from Chicago to Washington to push for the passage of a federal law that would restore key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices. The bill, named after the late civil rights hero John Lewis, was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives this week but faces poor prospects in the Senate because of rules there that allow a minority to block legislation. Demonstrators hold signs during a march for voting rights, marking the 58th anniversary of the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 2021, in Washington.Lewis’ youngest brother urged Republican senators to put aside partisanship and pass the law, saying that fundamental rights secured in the 1960s were at stake. “Just think, 58 years later we are still fighting for those same rights. Something about that just don’t sound right,” said Grant Lewis, one of a series of civil rights leaders to address the crowd. “It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you are on. It’s more important to be on the right side of history.” Republican reactionAfter Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, Republican lawmakers in many states reined in use of dropboxes and mail-in voting. The moves came after Republican former President Donald Trump tried unsuccessfully to overturn the election based on unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. So far this year, at least 18 states have enacted laws restricting voter access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Demonstrators stop at the John Lewis Mural during a march for voting rights, Aug. 28, 2021, in Atlanta.Organizers expected 50,000 demonstrators in Washington. Rallies also took place in Phoenix, Miami and several other cities. In addition to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a more expansive voting reform bill was passed by the House earlier this year, but Senate Republicans blocked it in June, saying voting rules should be left to the states. The lack of meaningful Republican support appears set to doom any legislation in the Senate, which is divided 50-50 along party lines and where filibuster rules mean Democrats need to secure the votes of 10 Republicans to advance measures. ‘It’s worth ending the filibuster’Kathleen Kennedy, 27, said she joined the Washington march after reading about a bill in Texas that had garnered national attention when Democratic lawmakers fled the state to deny a quorum needed for Republicans to pass it. The bill, which would outlaw drive-through and 24-hour voting locations and add new identification requirements to mail-in voting, among other restrictions, was approved by the state’s House of Representatives on Friday. “So many of these laws are getting passed. Elections are coming up. Elections will be impacted by these laws,” said Kennedy, a resident of nearby Silver Spring, Maryland. “It’s worth ending the filibuster.” Some speakers also promoted the idea of making the nation’s capital the next state. A coalition of groups advocating for Washington, D.C., statehood, 51 for 51, was one of the leading organizers of Saturday’s event.
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Botswana Assures Unauthorized Immigrants of COVID-19 Vaccinations
The Botswana government has sought to assure thousands of undocumented immigrants they will not be left out of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program.Thousands of immigrants are crossing into Botswana, the majority fleeing economic hardships in neighboring Zimbabwe. Some undocumented migrants say they are being turned away from vaccination centers.But Botswana’s assistant minister of health, Sethomo Lelatisitswe, told the National Assembly on Friday that no one, including immigrants, would be left out of the COVID-19 vaccination program. He said that if undocumented immigrants and refugees were left out, the country’s hospitals would be full tomorrow.Member of Parliament Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked during a National Assembly session whether undocumented immigrants were being vaccinated. Need to publicizeKeorapetse said he didn’t understand why records weren’t being kept about the number of migrants who have been vaccinated, in order to formulate a solid policy. He also said the migrants needed to know they were eligible for vaccination.Mkhululi Moyo, one of the thousands of immigrants from neighboring Zimbabwe who left in search of better economic opportunities, said he was happy Botswana authorities had explained the policy on the vaccination of migrants.“I am happy the [assistant] minister has clarified the issue of papers for foreigners,” Moyo said. “We have a problem, but it means everything is well. We hope it will go smoothly according to what the minister said, and there will be no difficulties.”Health authorities are emphasizing now they are unconditionally assisting undocumented migrants.Botswana deports an estimated 22,000 unauthorized immigrants every year, mostly from Zimbabwe.
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2 People Die in Japan After Moderna Shots From Tainted Batch
Japan’s health ministry said Saturday that two people in their 30s have died days after receiving their second Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shot.
Officials say the shots used came from supplies that were suspended Thursday following the discovery of contaminants. The ministry said the cause of the deaths, which occurred earlier this month, is under investigation.
The Japanese government and Moderna had said earlier that no issues had been identified with the suspended vaccine and the suspension was a precautionary measure.
In India, authorities reported more than 46,700 new coronavirus infections, the highest number of cases in nearly two months, a surge that occurred after a festival in the southern state of Kerala.
Total COVID-19 cases in the country rose to nearly 32.7 million and deaths increased by 500 in the 24-hour period prior to Saturday afternoon to 437,370, according to Indian government data.
India has the world’s second largest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths after the U.S.
More than 10 million vaccine doses were administered in 24 hours prior to Saturday afternoon, a record that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a “momentous feat.”
In the United State, officials in charge of handling the COVID-19 pandemic say that half of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received at least their first dose of a vaccine.
Speaking to reporters at a Friday briefing, White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said, “We have now hit a major milestone. This is critical progress as millions of kids head back to school.”
Zients said that teenagers are being vaccinated at a faster pace than other age groups.
Among the larger American population, 61%, or nearly 203 million people, have received at least one shot of coronavirus vaccine. Vaccines are not yet authorized for children under 12.FILE – A boy, 12, meeting the age requirement to get vaccinated against COVID-19, gets his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, in Miami, Florida, Aug. 9, 2021.Speaking Friday at a Senate hearing on the 2022 budget, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said hospitalizations have increased, with a rising toll of COVID-19 among children.
She said that in order to protect children until they meet eligibility criteria to be vaccinated, adults around them should be vaccinated, “to effectively shield them.”
Walensky said surges and outbreaks have occurred in places that are not implementing CDC guidelines for schools to protect children from the transmission of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, a new report published in the medical journal The Lancet says the symptoms that linger after a person has survived the coronavirus are little understood by the medical community.
The report says the syndrome, known as “long haul COVID-19,” must be studied and understood in order to launch an appropriate response for what the journal calls “a modern medical challenge of the first order.”
The Lancet article said recovery can take more than a year. The lingering symptoms include “persistent fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and depression.”
The report says finding answers to the mystery of long haul COVID-19 “while providing compassionate and multidisciplinary care, will require the full breadth of scientific and medical ingenuity.”
Elsewhere in the world, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday the government will ease its nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, while the nation’s largest city, Auckland, the epicenter of the latest outbreak, will remain closed for two more weeks.People cross nearly empty streets in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand, Aug. 27, 2021.At a news briefing, Ardern said that beginning August 31 most of the country will move to a level-three shut down, which allows businesses to fill online orders and do takeout services. Bars and restaurants remain closed, except for takeaways.
Ardern said Auckland will remain under alert level 4, which requires all schools, offices and all businesses to be closed, with only essential services operational. Before this latest lockdown, the nation’s last stay-at-home orders were lifted in March.
The government took the measures to stop the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. New Zealand’s health service reported 70 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infections during this outbreak, which began this month, to 347.
New Zealand has been a global leader in effectively controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Top Iran Security Official Says Biden Illegally Threatened Tehran
A top Iranian security official accused U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday of illegally threatening Iran by saying he may consider other options if nuclear diplomacy with Tehran fails.“The emphasis on using ‘other options’ against [Iran] amounts to threatening another country illegally and establishes Iran’s right to reciprocate … against ‘available options’,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Twitter.Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in White House talks on Friday that he was putting “diplomacy first” to try to rein in Iran’s nuclear program but that if negotiations fail, he would be prepared to turn to other unspecified options.Biden Hosts Israeli Leader After One-Day DelayUS leader tells prime minister there are ‘other options’ if diplomacy fails to dissuade Iran from attempting to make nuclear weaponsThe U.N. atomic watchdog said in a report this month that Iran had accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, a move raising tensions with the West as both sides seek to resume talks on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal.
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China Protests US Navy, Coast Guard Ships in Taiwan Strait
China’s defense ministry protested Saturday the passage of a U.S. Navy warship and Coast Guard cutter through the waters between China and Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by China.A statement posted on the ministry’s website called the move provocative and said it shows that the United States is the biggest threat to peace and stability and creator of security risks in the 160-kilometer-wide Taiwan Strait.“We express firm opposition and strong condemnation,” the statement said.The USS Kidd guided-missile destroyer and Coast Guard cutter Munro sailed through the strait Friday in international waters, the U.S. Navy said. Such exercises are seen as a warning to China, which recently conducted drills near Taiwan and has not renounced the use of force if needed to bring the island under its control.“The ships’ lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a statement from the Navy’s Japan-based 7th Fleet said.Taiwan, home to 23.6 million people, split from China during a civil war that led to the Communist Party taking control of the mainland in 1949. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains a representative office in the capital, Taipei, and is its biggest supplier of military equipment for its defense.The U.S. Coast Guard has been stepping up its presence in Asia, as the Chinese coast guard patrols near disputed islands that both China and other governments claim in the South and East China Seas.The 127-meter-long Munro, which is based in Alameda, California, arrived in the region in mid-August for what the U.S. Coast Guard said would be a monthslong deployment. It trained with a Japanese coast guard ship, the Aso, in the East China Sea for two days earlier this week.The U.S. and Taiwan coast guards held talks this month after the two signed a cooperation agreement in March. China has denounced the agreement.Saturday’s defense ministry statement said that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China,” and that China would not tolerate any interference in what it called its internal affairs.
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Anger, Grief for Family Members of 13 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan
Steve Nikoui had been glued to TV reports on Thursday, desperate for hints his son, Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, survived the deadly airport suicide bombing in Afghanistan when three Marines arrived at his door with the worst news possible.The 20-year-old Marine, who the previous day had sent home a video of himself giving candy to Afghan children, was among 13 U.S. service members killed in the bombing. Others included an expectant father from Wyoming, the son of a California police officer and a medic from Ohio.“He was born the same year it started and ended his life with the end of this war,” Nikoui said from his home in Norco, California, referring to the 2001 start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.The U.S. Defense Department has not formally announced the names of the service members killed in the attack at Kabul airport, but details of their lives began to emerge on Friday as family and friends were notified.Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, carried out during a massive evacuation of U.S. and other foreign nationals as well as some Afghan civilians following the Taliban takeover.On Friday, Nikoui was waiting for a Marine liaison to come to his house to help with arrangements to fly him and his wife to an Air Force base in Delaware, where their son’s body will arrive in the coming days.He said he was angry.“I’m really disappointed in the way that the president has handled this, even more so the way the military has handled it. The commanders on the ground should have recognized this threat and addressed it,” Nikoui said.Also, among the troops killed was Rylee McCollum of Wyoming, a Marine who was married with a baby due in three weeks, his sister, Roice, said in a Facebook post on Friday.“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” his sister wrote, adding that he wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach upon leaving the military.Along with wrestling, McCollum played football before graduating from Wyoming’s Jackson Hole High School in 2019.“Saying that I am grateful for Rylee’s service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow said in a statement. “My heart and prayers are with Rylee’s family, friends, and the entire Jackson community.”Regi Stone, whose son Eli enlisted around the same time as McCollum, described him as “smart, strong and courageous” and said he drew comfort when the two hung out together.”We always knew that Rylee had his back and my son his,” Stone told Reuters, adding that he got to know McCollum during visits for dinner at their house. “He’s a defender. He loved his country and wanted to make a difference.”Cool older brotherNavy medic Max Soviak’s sister Marilyn described him as only a sibling could.“My beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” she wrote on Instagram.Soviak’s death was confirmed on Twitter by U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, the medic’s home state.Pictures on Max Soviak’s Instagram page show him laughing on the beach, rock-climbing, skiing and posing with two young children. “Not just an older brother, I’m the cool older brother,” Soviak wrote in 2019.His last post was more foreboding.“It’s kill or be killed, definitely trynna be on the kill side,” Soviak wrote on June 10.The accompanying photo appeared to show him alongside two other troops in uniform holding weapons.Hunter Lopez, 22, another Marine killed in the blast, was the son of a captain and a deputy in the Riverside County, California, sheriff’s office, according to a Facebook post by Sheriff Chad Bianco. Lopez had planned on following in his parents’ footsteps and becoming a deputy when he returned home, the post said.“I am unbelievably saddened and heartbroken for the Lopez family as they grieve over the loss of their American Hero,” Bianco wrote in a different post on his personal Facebook page.The explosion also took the life of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover from Utah, according to a Facebook post by his aunt, Brittany Jones Barnett. She and other relatives described him on social media as brave and kind.“The world has lost a true light. Our hearts are broken. Shock, disbelief, horror, sadness, sorrow, anger and grief,” she wrote.The father of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, 20 called into a local radio station in Missouri on Friday to speak about his son’s death and his passion for military service.“He was not the type that liked to just sit around and get his four years done and walk away,” Mark Schmitz told KMOX. “He wanted to be in a situation where he actually made a difference.”Schmitz said his son had been stationed in Jordan before being called to Afghanistan two weeks before the attack.The last publicly visible post on Jared Schmitz’s Facebook page was a July 29 photograph of him at the archeological site of Petra, in Jordan. A friend commented that he hoped Schmitz was staying safe, to which Schmitz replied, “always my guy.”
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Macron to Attend Baghdad Summit Amid Fears Over IS
French President Emmanuel Macron is among the leaders set to attend a regional summit Saturday in Iraq, with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and a deadly jihadist attack in Kabul overshadowing the meeting.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II also are to attend the Baghdad summit, while the foreign ministers of arch-foes Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be present.Organizers have been tight-lipped on the agenda, but the meeting comes as Iraq, long a casualty of jihadist militancy, tries to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.Iraq seeks to play a “unifying role” to tackle crises shaking the region, sources close to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi have said.Oil-rich Iraq has been caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies, Iran and the United States.Iran exerts major clout in Iraq through allied armed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful state-sponsored paramilitary network.Baghdad has been brokering talks since April between U.S. ally Riyadh and Tehran on mending ties severed in 2016.Macron aims to highlight France’s role in the region and its determination to press the fight against terrorism, his office said.The French president considers Iraq “essential” to stability in the troubled Middle East, it added.’More urgent than ever’An Islamic State (IS) group affiliate claimed Thursday’s suicide bombing in Kabul that killed scores of people, including 13 U.S. service members.The attack has revived global concerns that the extremist organization, which seized swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed from both countries, is emerging anew, analysts said.According to Colin Clarke, senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, IS “still has access to tens of millions of dollars and will likely continue to rebuild its network throughout Iraq and Syria.”Its “primary goal at the moment is to have its affiliates maintain momentum until it can sufficiently rebuild its core in the Levant,” he said.”(IS) affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa and now Afghanistan will have the opportunity to make strides in the coming year.”In July, President Joe Biden said U.S. combat operations in Iraq would end this year, but that U.S. soldiers would continue to train, advise and support the country’s military in the fight against IS.Washington currently has 2,500 troops deployed to Iraq.Rasha Al Aqeedi, senior analyst at Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said coalition forces believed Iraq’s security personnel could prevent another IS advance.”Maybe they’re not ideal, but they’re good enough for America to leave the country believing that Iraq is not going to live through another 2014,” she said.
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Chad Rebel Group FACT Says It’s Willing to Join National Dialogue
A Chadian military-political rebel group behind this year’s deadly insurgency said on Friday it was prepared to take part in a national dialogue proposed by transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby.Deby seized power in April after his father, the former president, was killed while visiting troops fighting the rebels, who had crossed the border from Libya to take a stand against the elder’s 30-year rule.The Libya-based rebel group that claimed responsibility for Deby’s death, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), has now welcomed his son’s offer to hold talks with all stakeholders, including opposition armed groups.”If there are peaceful initiatives to build a new democratic Chad without dictatorship and the absolute confiscation of power, of course we will join them,” said FACT spokesperson Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol.Deby’s Transitional Military Council (CMT) has previously refused to negotiate with rebel groups, in particular members of FACT, which in April swept south from bases in Libya and reached within 300 kilometers of the capital, N’Djamena, before being pushed back by the army.
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House Panel Seeks Records From Tech Companies In Riot Probe
The House panel investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol issued sweeping document requests on Friday to social media companies, expanding the scope of its investigation as it seeks to examine the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot.The requests were issued to technology giants, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, and also to Reddit, Parler, Telegram, 4chan, 8kun and other platforms.The committee asked 15 companies to provide copies of any reviews, studies, reports or analysis about misinformation related to the 2020 election, foreign influence in the election, efforts to stop the election certification and “domestic violent extremists” associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the attack on the Capitol.”We have received the request and look forward to continuing to work with the committee,” Facebook said in an emailed statement.Google, which owns YouTube, also confirmed receipt of the letter and said it would work with Congress.”The events of January 6 were unprecedented and tragic, and Google and YouTube strongly condemn them. We’re committed to protecting our platforms from abuse, including by rigorously enforcing our policies for content related to the events of January 6,” the company said.Twitter declined to comment about the document request.The requested documents are being sought in what is expected to be a lengthy, partisan and rancorous investigation into how the mob was able to infiltrate the Capitol and disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, inflicting the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries.Earlier this week, the committee sent out another request for documents from intelligence, law enforcement and other government agencies. The largest request so far was made to the National Archives for information on former President Donald Trump and his former team. Trump accused the committee of violating “long-standing legal principles of privilege.”Committee members are also considering asking telecommunications companies to preserve phone records of several people, including members of Congress, to try to determine who knew what about the unfolding riot and when they knew it. With chants of “hang Mike Pence,” the rioters sent the then-vice president and members of Congress running for their lives, wounded dozens of police officers and did more than $1 million in damage.
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3 Groups of Students Freed in Nigeria in 24 Hours
Authorities in northern Nigeria announced three separate groups of kidnapped students were freed within 24 hours, prompting speculation late Friday that large ransoms had been paid to the gunmen blamed for a spate of recent abductions.Among those now free are some of the youngest children ever taken hostage in Nigeria, a group of 90 pupils who had spent three months in captivity. Hours after those youngsters were brought to the Niger state capital, police in Zamfara state said that 15 older students also had been freed there.Then late Friday, word came of a third hostage liberation in Kaduna state. Thirty-two more of the students taken from a Baptist high school in early July also had been freed, according to the Rev. Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.The wave of releases comes after more than 1,000 students have been kidnapped since December, according to an AP tally. While earlier school abductions had been blamed on Islamic extremists in the northeast, authorities have only said that bandits are behind the latest kidnappings for ransom.”The happiness can’t be quantified,” said Yahya Aliyu Babangida, 54, a teacher whose two children aged 7 and 17 were among those who had been kidnapped from the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Tegina in late May.Some of the kidnapped preschoolers who spent months in captivity were just 4 years old, and authorities said Friday that one child had died during the ordeal. Several others were undergoing medical treatment after their release late Thursday.”They are exposed to this harsh weather, no food, mosquitos everywhere,” he said. “Some of them had never been outside the comfort of their homes.”News of the children’s release was celebrated across Nigeria, where abductions have stepped up pressure on the government to do more to secure educational facilities in remote areas.A freed student of Salihu Tanko Islamic School reunites with her father in Minna, Nigeria, Aug 27, 2021.But questions remained Friday about how much ransom had been paid to secure the children’s release, and if so whether that could in turn fuel further abductions by the unknown armed groups referred to locally as bandits.Muhammad Musa Kawule, 42, acknowledged paying intermediaries in hopes of securing his 6-year-old daughter’s freedom.”I spent a lot of money but today, I’m happy,” he told The Associated Press on Friday. He did not specify how much he had paid nor whether government officials had been involved.The youngsters were later brought to the Niger state capital, Minna, where they underwent medical checkups and met the governor. Video showed scores of children as young as kindergartners coming out of white minibuses, the little girls wearing long blue hijabs known as chadors.While Nigeria has seen scores of school abductions for ransom, the Niger state kidnappings left people aghast because the children were so young. The ramifications also could be long lasting as parents reconsider whether to send their children to school.”This has affected the morale and confidence of the people and has even made parents think twice before they send their children to school,” Niger state Gov. Abubakar Sani Bello said of the children’s abduction. “We will do whatever it takes to bring (the kidnappers) to justice.”As the attacks have mounted across the north, there are also signs they are becoming more violent.After one kidnapping at a university in Kaduna state earlier this year, gunmen demanded ransoms equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars. They killed five students to compel other students’ parents to raise the money and later released 14.Also Friday, Zamfara state police spokesperson Mohammed Shehu said that 15 other students had been handed over to officials on Friday, 11 days after they were abducted from the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Nigeria’s troubled northwest.It was not immediately clear how they were rescued, but the students are now being looked after by Zamfara state officials and will soon be reunited with their parents, authorities said.
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US Embassy Warns Americans to Stay Away from Kabul Airport
The U.S. Embassy urged U.S. citizens not to come to the Kabul airport because of security threats and to leave immediately if they were near any of four gates to the airport, according to a statement on the State Department website Friday.The warning comes one day after a suicide bomber killed more than 170 Afghans, according to press reports, and 13 U.S. service members outside Kabul’s airport on Thursday, the U.S. Defense Department said Friday.Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at the briefing the U.S. believes there are other “specific, credible” threats against the airport, noting that “we certainly are prepared and would expect future attempts.”The security threats have made the evacuation of Americans and some Afghans more difficult.”There doesn’t appear to be any concerted effort to get SIVs [Special Immigrant Visa holders] out at this point,” a State Department official told VOA from Hamid Karzai International Airport. But the department is still trying to evacuate local embassy staff, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.Thursday’s deadly attack was carried out by a single suicide bomber, not two as previously believed, the Defense Department said Friday.“It’s not any surprise that the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled,” U.S. Army General Hank Taylor told reporters at a Pentagon media briefing.He went on to say, “we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber.” But many witnesses reported hearing two blasts, The New York Times reported.Despite the risks, crowds of people desperate to leave Afghanistan gathered outside Kabul’s airport early Friday as evacuation flights resumed.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
An Afghan woman tries to identify a body at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2021, a day after a deadly attack outside the airport.A regional offshoot of the Islamic State group known as ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, has been blamed for the attacks.U.S. President Joe Biden is vowing vengeance on those responsible.”To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive,” Biden said in a nationally broadcast address. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”Biden said he had ordered commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities, saying, “We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing.”When asked if the U.S. is capable of simultaneously planning and executing counterattacks while leading the evacuation, Taylor said, “We have resources with the Centcom commander, with the commanders on the ground and the capabilities to allow us to execute any type of those operations.”About 170 Afghans died in the attack, according to The New York Times, The Associated Press and Afghan news agency Pajhwok. Including the 13 American service members, nearly 200 people died.The U.S. service members who were killed included 11 Marines, one on his first tour in Afghanistan, a Navy sailor and an Army soldier.Two British citizens and the child of another were killed in the blast, Dominic Raab, British foreign minister said.Afghan refugees arrive at Dulles International Airport on Aug. 27, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.Eighteen injured American military personnel were evacuated from Afghanistan on specially equipped C-17s with surgical units, according to Captain Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command.Taylor said that two flights carrying injured service members arrived Friday in Germany, and the personnel were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for treatment.About 109,000 people have left Afghanistan on evacuation flights since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban entered Kabul, and a total of almost 115,000 people since the end of July, a White House official said late Friday.Taylor said that more than 300 Americans had been evacuated since Thursday, increasing the total to about 5,100 since the evacuations began. He said the State Department continues to process evacuations, despite the risks.“Some gates have been closed … but American citizens, SIV applicants and vulnerable Afghans who have the designated and proper credentials will continue to be processed for departure from the airfield.”Meanwhile, Kirby said Friday the Pentagon has authorized three military installations in the U.S. to join four other U.S. military bases in providing “support to the U.S. mission to evacuate Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants, their families and other at-risk individuals.”Biden vowed Thursday the evacuations would continue until the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all troops. More than 20 allies helped with the evacuations. Most have completed their operations.”We will get Americans out who want to get out,” the president said.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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RFK Assassin Sirhan Wins Parole With Support of 2 Kennedys
U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was granted parole Friday after two of RFK’s sons spoke in favor of Sirhan Sirhan’s release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. The decision was a major victory for the 77-year-old prisoner, though it did not assure his release. The ruling by the two-person panel at Sirhan’s 16th parole hearing will be reviewed over the next 90 days by the California Parole Board’s staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that he should be released if he’s not a threat to others. “I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” he said. “I think I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.” FILE – Sirhan Sirhan is escorted by his attorney, Russell E. Parsons, from Los Angeles County Jail’s chapel to enter a plea to a charge of murder in Los Angeles, in the fatal shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, June 28, 1968.The New York senator and brother of President John F. Kennedy was a Democratic presidential candidate when he was gunned down June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Sirhan, who was convicted of first-degree murder, has said he doesn’t remember the killing. His lawyer, Angela Berry, argued that the board should base its decision on who Sirhan is today. Prosecutors declined to participate or oppose his release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform. Gascón, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFK’s assassination, believes the prosecutors’ role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners.
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