Month: September 2022

US Marks 21st Anniversary of 9/11 Terror Attacks  

Posted on by SeeUS

Americans are remembering 9/11 with moments of silence, readings of victims’ names, volunteer work and other tributes 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

Victims’ relatives and dignitaries will convene Sunday at the places where hijacked jets crashed on Sept. 11, 2001 — the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Other communities around the country are marking the day with candlelight vigils, interfaith services and other commemorations. Some Americans are joining in volunteer projects on a day that is federally recognized as both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The observances follow a fraught milestone anniversary last year. It came weeks after the chaotic and humbling end of the Afghanistan war that the U.S. launched in response to the attacks.

But if this Sept. 11 may be less of an inflection point, it remains a point for reflection on the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people, spurred a U.S. “war on terror” worldwide and reconfigured national security policy.

It also stirred — for a time — a sense of national pride and unity for many, while subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties. In ways both subtle and plain, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.

And the attacks have cast a long shadow into the personal lives of thousands of people who survived, responded or lost loved ones, friends and colleagues.

More than 70 of Sekou Siby’s co-workers perished at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the trade center’s north tower. Siby had been scheduled to work that morning until another cook asked him to switch shifts.

Siby never took a restaurant job again; it would have brought back too many memories. The Ivorian immigrant wrestled with how to comprehend such horror in a country where he’d come looking for a better life.

He found it difficult to form the type of close, family-like friendships he and his Windows on the World co-workers had shared. It was too painful, he had learned, to become attached to people when “you have no control over what’s going to happen to them next.”

“Every 9/11 is a reminder of what I lost that I can never recover,” says Siby, who is now president and CEO of ROC United. The restaurant workers’ advocacy group evolved from a relief center for Windows on the World workers who lost their jobs when the twin towers fell.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden plans to speak and lay a wreath at the Pentagon, while first lady Jill Biden is scheduled to speak in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes went down after passengers and crew members tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers headed for Washington. Al-Qaida conspirators had seized control of the jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles.

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff are due at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, but by tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony. It centers instead on victims’ relatives reading aloud the names of the dead.

Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about Sept. 11 — grief, anger, toughness, appreciation for first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, occasional political barbs, and a poignant accounting of the graduations, weddings, births and daily lives that victims have missed.

Some relatives also lament that a nation which came together — to some extent — after the attacks has since splintered apart. So much so that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which were reshaped to focus on international terrorism after 9/11, now see the threat of domestic violent extremism as equally urgent.
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Ukraine Says Final Reactor at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Switched Off 

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Ukraine said Sunday the sixth and final reactor at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in the south of the country was no longer generating electricity.

“Today, September 11, 2022, at night, at 03:41 am (0141 GMT), unit No. 6 of the ZNPP was disconnected from the power grid. Preparations are underway for its cooling and transfer to a cold state,” state nuclear agency Energoatom said in statement.

Ukraine and its allies have been increasingly concerned about the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest in Europe — and recent fighting there has raised fears of serious incident.

The U.N.’s atomic watchdog warned earlier this week that a blackout in the nearby town of Energodar had “compromised the safe operation” of the nuclear facility.

Energoatom said Sunday that a cold shutdown was the “safest state” for the reactor.

Energoatom said that the sixth reactor had been generating energy for the plant itself for three days and that the decision to halt its operations came when external power had been restored to the facility.

“In case of repeated damage to the transmission lines linking the facility to the power system — the risk of which remains high the [plant’s] in-house needs will be powered by diesel generators,” it cautioned in a statement.

Energoatom in its statement again called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the plant, saying it was the only way to sure plant’s safety.
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UK Defense Ministry: Ukraine Has Made ‘Significant Gains’

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Britain’s defense ministry says Ukrainian forces have continued to make significant gains in the Kharkiv region.

The agency’s intelligence report, posted Sunday on Twitter, said, “Russia has likely withdrawn units from the area, but fighting continues around the strategically important cities of Kupiansk and Izium.”

Ukrainian forces reported Saturday that they had gained control of Izyum and pushed Russian soldiers across the Oskil River. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed it had pulled its forces out of Izyum, claiming the move was planned.

Western military analysts said if the advances were confirmed, it would put the Ukrainians in control of a main railway that Moscow uses to supply thousands of troops in eastern Ukraine.

In other developments, a pro-Russia separatist leader was quoted as saying there also was fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region.

Denis Pushilin said the situation in the town of Lyman was “very difficult” and there was fighting in “a number of other localities,” particularly in the northern part of the region.

Military analysts say Russia is believed to be sending reinforcements to the area, where it plans to launch new attacks against Ukrainian-controlled sections of Donetsk.

Meanwhile, Moscow announced it was regrouping its forces in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.

“To achieve the goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas, a decision was made to regroup Russian troops stationed in the Balakliya and Izyum regions, to bolster efforts along the Donetsk front,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The regrouping of Russian soldiers comes as residents in parts of the Kharkiv region had been advised to evacuate to Russia, according to the state-run news agency Tass. The area’s Russian-installed administrator, Vitaly Ganchev, reportedly said doing so would “save lives.”

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and it is one of the biggest gains in the war since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital, Kyiv, in March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country’s armed forces have liberated about 2,000 square kilometers of territory since a counteroffensive against Russia started earlier this month.

On the diplomatic front, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday, pledging Berlin’s unwavering support for Ukraine.

“I have traveled to Kyiv to show that they can continue to rely on us. That we will continue to stand by Ukraine for as long as necessary with deliveries of weapons, and with humanitarian and financial support,” Baerbock said in a statement.

Over the last weeks, Germany has sent howitzers, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. Heavier weapons such as anti-aircraft systems, rocket launchers mounted on pickup trucks and anti-drone equipment are also expected in a further military aid package worth more than $500 million.

Meanwhile, Britain’s defense ministry also said in its intelligence report Sunday that “Russia is pursuing a deliberate misinformation strategy as it seeks to deflect blame for food insecurity issues, discredit Ukraine and minimize opposition to its invasion.”

The ministry said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim on Sept. 7 that only 60,000 tons of grain exported from Ukraine since August had been sent to developing countries, with the majority delivered to EU states, was false.

The ministry said, “According to UN figures, around 30% has been supplied to low and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press. 
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Decades Later, 9/11 Self-Professed Mastermind Awaits Trial

Posted on by SeeUS

Hours before dawn on March 1, 2003, the U.S. scored its most thrilling victory yet against the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks — the capture of a disheveled Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence agents from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

The global manhunt for al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader had taken 18 months. But America’s attempt to bring him to justice, in a legal sense, has taken much, much longer. Critics say it has become one of the war on terror’s greatest failures.

As Sunday’s 21st anniversary of the terror attacks approaches, Mohammed and four other men accused of 9/11-related crimes still sit in a U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, their planned trials before a military tribunal endlessly postponed.

The latest setback came last month when pretrial hearings scheduled for early fall were canceled. The delay was one more in a string of disappointments for relatives of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attack. They’ve long hoped that a trial would bring closure and perhaps resolve unanswered questions.

“Now, I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” said Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea died after a hijacked plane crashed into the the World Trade Center, a floor above her office.

He’s traveled to Guantanamo four times from his home in West Bend, Wisconsin, to watch the legal proceedings in person, only to leave frustrated.

“It’s important to me that America finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done,” said Haberman. “I personally want to see this go to trial.”

If convicted at trial, Mohammed could face the death penalty.

When asked about the case, James Connell, an attorney for one of Mohammed’s co-defendants — one accused of transferring money to 9/11 attackers — confirmed reports both sides are still “attempting to reach a pretrial agreement” that could still avoid a trial and result in lesser but still lengthy sentences.

David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney in New York who co-chaired the Justice Department’s nationwide investigation into the attacks, called the delays and failure to prosecute “an awful tragedy for the families of the victims.”

He called the effort to put Mohammed on trial before a military tribunal, rather than in the regular U.S. court system, “a tremendous failure” that was “as offensive to our Constitution as to our rule of law.”

“It’s a tremendous blemish on the country’s history,” he said.

The difficulty in holding a trial for Mohammed and other Guantanamo prisoners is partly rooted in what the U.S. did with him after his 2003 capture.

Mohammed and his co-defendants were initially held in secret prisons abroad. Hungry for information that might lead to the capture of other al-Qaida figures, CIA operatives subjected them to enhanced interrogation techniques that were tantamount to torture, human rights groups say. Mohammed was waterboarded — made to feel that he was drowning — 183 times.

A Senate investigation later concluded the interrogations didn’t lead to any valuable intelligence. But it has sparked endless pretrial litigation over whether FBI reports on their statements can be used against them — a process not subject to speedy trial rules used in civilian courts.

The torture allegations led to concerns that the U.S. might have ruined its chance to put Mohammed on trial in a civilian court.

But in 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration decided to try, announcing that Mohammed would be transferred to New York City and put on trial at a federal court in Manhattan.

“Failure is not an option,” Obama said.

But New York City balked at the cost of security and the move never came. Eventually, it was announced Mohammed would face a military tribunal. And then over a dozen years passed.

Kelley said talk of military tribunals two decades ago surprised many in the legal community who had been successfully prosecuting terrorism cases in the decade before. The concept of a tribunal, he said, “came out of the blue. Nobody knew it was coming.”

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was not in favor of tribunals and had been supportive of the Manhattan federal terrorism prosecutions, he said.

Now, Kelley said, with the passage of time it will be much more difficult to prosecute Mohammed in a tribunal, much less a courtroom. “Evidence goes stale, witness memories fail.”

The passage of time hasn’t dulled the memories of the victims’ families or dampened their interest in witnessing justice.

Eddie Bracken’s sister Lucy Fishman was killed at the trade center. The New Yorker opposed Obama’s proposal to move the trial to federal court — Mohammed is charged with “a military act,” and should be tried by the military, he reasoned. And while he is somewhat frustrated by the delays, he understands them.

“The whole world is looking at us and saying, ‘What are they doing after all this time?'” he said. But he realizes the case is “a process that the world is seeing, that needs to be done under a microscope. … It’s up to the United States to do their due diligence, make sure it’s done right.”

“The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they turn. And when the time comes, and it’s said and done, the world will know what happened,” he adds.

While Mohammed has lingered at Guantanamo, the U.S. killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid and deputy-turned-successor Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike just this August.

Investigators with the military commission at Guantanamo Bay said he plotted the 9/11 attacks for three years. They cited a computer hard drive seized at his arrest which they said contained photographs of the 19 hijackers, three letters from bin Laden and information about some hijackers.

Mohammed, at his tribunal hearing, conceded in a written statement that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaida’s council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot “from A to Z.”

According to the statement, he also took credit for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; an attempt to down U.S. jetliners using bombs hidden in shoes; the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia; and plans for a second wave of attacks after the 2001 attacks targeting landmarks like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Manhattan’s Empire State Building.

He also claimed credit for other planned attacks, including assassination attempts against then-President Bill Clinton in 1994 or 1995 and an assassination plot against Pope John Paul II at about the same time, the statement said.

Mohammed’s nearly two decades in legal limbo differs from the fate of his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people, injured 1,000 others and left a crater in the parking garage beneath the twin towers.

Yousef is serving life in prison after being convicted at two separate civilian trials. He was also captured in Pakistan, in 1995, but was brought to the United States for trial.

At the time, Yousef said his right to kill people was comparable to the U.S. decision to drop a nuclear bomb in World War II. Mohammed has offered a similar justification, saying through an interpreter at a Guantanamo proceeding that killing people was the “language of any war.”

Bracken traveled to Guantanamo in 2012 to watch one hearing for Mohammed and his co-defendants, and would probably go again if a trial ever happened.

“I don’t know if I want to go there again to bring back all the hurt and pain. But if I’m allowed to go, then I guess I would go. Yeah. My sister would do that for me.”

“She’s that type of a woman,” he added. Then he corrected himself: “She was that type of a woman.”
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The Green King: Charles the Environmentalist

Posted on by SeeEU

Britain’s new King Charles III is a committed environmentalist with a long history of campaigning for better conservation, organic farming and tackling climate change, which is likely to sit well with more eco-conscious younger Britons.

Interspersed between photos of official meetings and other royal duties, his Instagram account as Prince of Wales typically featured pictures showing him furthering environmental causes in Britain and beyond.

They included planting trees, showing off organic fruit and vegetables from his Clarence House residence and colorful flowers growing in the garden at his beloved Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, western England.

One photo even captured Charles — who has now passed the prince of Wales title to his son and heir William — on a visit to threatened mangrove swamps in St. Vincent and Grenadines in the Caribbean.

When Britain hosted the COP26 climate summit in Scotland last year, he gave the opening speech, urging world leaders seated in front of him to redouble their efforts to confront global warming and warning: “Time has quite literally run out.”

Since his first big public speech on the subject in 1970, Charles has “been raising awareness about all aspects of the environment for a very long time,” said Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

“In many ways he has been ahead of the public awareness and political awareness” on the issue, he told AFP.

Sustainability

At Highgrove, Charles has cultivated a garden, which is open to the public, as well as a fully organic farm.

It initially left some neighboring farmers skeptical but has gradually become a successful business and sells its produce under the “Duchy Organic” brand in the high-end supermarket chain Waitrose.

“His Royal Highness has taken many steps personally to live in a more sustainable way,” his official website for his tenure as prince of Wales said.

It noted about 90% of energy for office and domestic use now came from renewable sources, with around half that generated from on-site renewable sources such as solar panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps and the remainder from electricity and gas purchased from renewable sources.

For several years Charles has published his annual carbon footprint — including unofficial travel — which amounted to 490 tons in the year to March 2022.

His car, an Aston Martin owned for more than 50 years, has been modified to run on surplus English white wine and whey from the cheesemaking process.

It runs on a mixture of 8% bioethanol and 15% unleaded petrol.

The monarch has been president of the WWF-UK animal charity since 2011, emulating his late father, Prince Philip, who performed the same role from 1981-96.

He is also the patron of several other associations, such as “Surfers Against Sewage,” and made numerous speeches warning of the disappearance of biodiversity.

More recently, in April, he wrote an article for Newsweek magazine — and also graced its cover — headlined “our children are judging us.”

Sensitive

His vocal stances on issues including the environment have prompted some criticism that he is departing from constitutional norms which see the royal family remain politically neutral at all times.

Charles has repeatedly vowed to remain true to constitutional practices, as recently as this week when he ascended to the throne.

But he may not see environmental and conservation causes as overtly political.

“He would be very sensitive as a head of state,” predicted Ward.

“He must be very careful about being seen to act in a way that might be seen as putting pressure on the government. But I don’t expect him not to speak at all.”

Ruby Wright, a 42-year-old illustrator who came to Buckingham Palace to pay her respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, said on Friday that she hopes “he sticks to his guns.”

“I think he needs to be more modest and really push the environmental agenda and make that his legacy,” she told AFP.

“I know he’s not allowed to be political at all but this isn’t politics. This is the future of humanity.”

Laura Beirne, a 30-year-old fashion designer, agreed. “I think it’s positive he supports the environment. That’s important, I think, for my generation.”

As king, he will have less time for his passions of gardening and farming. He admitted in an interview in 1986 that he talked to plants, attracting some mockery.

But the baton has already been passed to his son William, who shares his commitment to the environment.

Last year William created the Earthshot prize, which rewards projects that propose solutions to the climate crisis.
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Bidens to Commemorate 9/11 Anniversary at Pentagon, Pennsylvania

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President Joe Biden will mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Sunday by delivering remarks and laying a wreath at the Pentagon, the White House said Tuesday.

The day will commemorate the 2001 terrorist attacks when hijackers took control of commercial planes and used them as missiles, crashing into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks by al-Qaida. The U.S. and its allies responded by launching the Afghanistan war.

Jill Biden, the first lady, will speak Sunday at the Flight 93 National Memorial Observance in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband will go to New York City for a commemoration ceremony at the National September 11th Memorial.

In New York, the smaller of two museums dedicated to preserving the memory of the attacks has closed.

The 9/11 Tribute Museum, which opened in 2006, offered tours led by volunteers who had lost a family member or were connected in some other way to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. It was sometimes confused with the much larger Sept. 11 museum, which opened in 2014 near the memorial pools that mark where the twin towers stood.

“Financial hardship including lost revenue caused by the pandemic prevents us from generating sufficient funding to continue to operate the physical museum,” Jennifer Adams, co-founder and CEO of the 9/11 Tribute Museum, said in a statement.

She said the Tribute Museum would maintain an online presence to provide educational resources and support for the 9/11 community.

Most of the museum’s collection of artifacts from the Sept. 11 attacks is being moved to the New York State Museum in Albany, Adams said. The nonprofit September 11th Families’ Association, which founded the Tribute Museum, is coordinating with its donors to make sure that the artifacts are handled property, she said.
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Visa to Start Categorizing Gun Shop Sales Separately

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Payment processor Visa Inc. said late Saturday that it plans to start separately categorizing sales at gun shops.

It’s a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting. But gun rights advocates have argued that step would unfairly segregate legal gun sales when most sales do not lead to mass shootings.

Visa said it would adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant code for gun sales, which was announced on Friday. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise.”

“Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” the payment processor said in a statement.

Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network and will likely add pressure for Mastercard and American Express to adopt the code as well.

Gun control advocates made significant wins on this front in recent weeks. New York City officials and pension funds had pressured the ISO and banks to adopt this code.

Two of the country’s largest public pension funds, in California and New York, are pressing the country’s largest credit card firms to establish sales codes specifically for firearm-related sales that could flag suspicious purchases or more easily trace how guns and ammo are sold.

Merchant Category Codes now exist for almost every kind of purchase, including those made at supermarkets, clothing stores, coffee shops and many other retailers.

“When you buy an airline ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a special code for those retailers. It’s just common sense that we have the same policies in place for gun and ammunition stores,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain who blames the proliferation of guns for his city’s deadly violence.

The city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, said it made moral and financial sense as a tool to push back against gun violence.

“Unfortunately, the credit card companies have failed to support this simple, practical, potentially lifesaving tool. The time has come for them to do so,” Lander said recently, before Visa’s announcement.

Landers is a trustee of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System, which together own 667,200 shares in American Express valued around $92.49 million; 1.1 million shares in MasterCard valued around $347.59 million; and 1.85 million shares in Visa valued around $363.86 million.

In letters to the companies, the New York pensions funds, joined by the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, sought support for such a move, saying the companies have a responsibility to prohibit the use of their networks for what public officials deemed illegal activity.

“Failing to do so can result in regulatory, reputational, and litigation risks that may harm long-term shareholder value,” the letters asserted.

Over the years, public pension funds have used their extensive investment portfolios to influence public policy and the marketplace.

The California teacher’s fund, the second largest pension fund in the country, has long taken aim on the gun industry. It has divested its holdings from gun manufacturers and has sought to persuade some retailers not to sell guns.

The pension funds argue that creating a merchant category code for standalone firearm and ammunition stores could aid in the battle against gun violence.

In letters to the credit card companies, a pattern of purchases could flag suspicious activity.

Officials said that a week before the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people died after a shooter opened fire in 2016, the assailant used credit cards to purchase more than $26,000 worth of guns and ammunition, including purchases at a stand-alone gun retailer.
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What’s Up for Grabs in Sweden’s Election Sunday

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Sweden is holding an election Sunday to elect lawmakers to the 349-seat Riksdag as well as to local offices across the nation of 10 million. Early voting began Aug. 24. Here are some key things to know about the vote.

What is at stake?

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson is fighting to keep her center-left Social Democrats at the helm of a left-wing coalition but is facing a strong challenge from the right.

Sweden is known for being a cradle-to-grave welfare society and Andersson would like to preserve the social protections that have long defined Sweden, and reverse some of the market-oriented changes by an earlier government. Her party feels that some of the changes, like state subsidies going to private schools, are creating greater inequalities.

The once-mighty Social Democrats have been in power since 2014. But as the party’s popularity has sunk, it has presided over a weak government that relies more on other parties to pass laws, creating political instability for the past eight years.

Who is likely to win?

There are two major blocs: one with four parties on the left and another with four on the right. The polls leading up to the election say it is impossible to predict.

“It’s basically a coin toss. It’s 50-50 between the two different sides,” Zeth Isaksson, a sociologist in electoral behavior at Stockholm University, said Saturday.

Under Swedish law, the party that wins the most seats forms the next government. Polls show this is likely to be Andersson’s party, which will need to create a coalition with other parties.

But if the left has a poor showing, she might not be able to form a coalition. In that case, the baton would be passed to the second-largest party to try to form a government.

Which party is in the No. 2 spot?

In the last election in 2018, the Moderates led by Ulf Kristersson, a center-right party, won the second-highest number of seats. The conservative party promotes a market economy, lower taxes and a smaller role for government in a country with a generous welfare state supported by high taxes.

But like the Social Democrats and other mainstream parties across Europe, the Moderates have also seen their popularity decline amid a populist challenge coming from further right.

Who are the populists?

The Sweden Democrats, a populist right-wing party that takes a hard line on immigration and crime, first entered parliament in 2010 and has been growing steadily ever since.

The party won 13% of the vote in 2018, becoming the third-largest force in parliament. Polls show it is likely to improve on that showing Sunday.

Some Swedes compare the party to Trump-style populism and note it was founded by far-right extremists decades ago. They do not trust it in its reported transformation to a more traditional conservative party.

The party is led by Jimmie Akesson, a 43-year-old former web designer who has been the driving force in trying to moderate the party’s image.

The party has clearly tapped into the social mood, however, and other parties have been moving closer to its positions, as many Swedes believe that they can no longer bear the costs of the country’s generous refugee policies and are seeking a crackdown on crime.

Once a pariah, other conservative parties have grown increasingly willing to deal with the Sweden Democrats.

Andersson told reporters Saturday that “the rise of the far right” was partly the fault of the right-wing opposition, which she said, “spent so much time and effort to try to convince people that the Sweden Democrats aren’t the party that they actually are.”

How serious is crime in Sweden?

Some immigrants have had difficulties assimilating into Swedish society, leading to segregated neighborhoods with high crime rates.

Gang violence mostly takes place among criminal networks dealing drugs or involved in other illicit activity. But there have been recent cases of innocent bystanders being hurt. So far this year, 48 people have been killed by firearms in Sweden, three more than in all of 2021.

The fears triggered by shootings and explosions in disadvantaged neighborhoods have made crime one of the most pressing issues for Swedish voters.

“Shootings and explosions of bombs have increased in the last few years and (this violence) is now considered a great social problem,” said Anders Sannerstedt, a political scientist at Lund University in southern Sweden.

The gender factor

Andersson became Sweden’s first female prime minister less than a year ago — a milestone late in coming for a country that in many ways is an example of gender equality.

“I was really proud,” said Ulrika Hoonk, a 39-year-old who voted early in Stockholm on Friday, saying it took “far too long” for that to happen.

Polls show that Andersson’s party is especially popular with women, with men tending to vote more conservative.

Even though Andersson is the first prime minister, there are still many women represented in positions of authority. Four party leaders are women, and one party has a woman and a man sharing the leadership. In parliament, the gender balance has long been split roughly 50-50.

Several women voters interviewed this week said that finally having a woman in the top leadership job was very important for them, and one factor they considered when choosing which party to support. 
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Trains Collide in Croatia, Killing at Least 3, Injuring 11

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A passenger train and freight train collided Friday night in central Croatia, killing at least three people and injuring another 11 or more, authorities said.

The collision happened around 9:30 p.m. near the town of Novska, which is close to Croatia’s border with Bosnia, police said in a statement.

“The impact was huge,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who rushed to the scene with other government officials.

Plenkovic confirmed that so far the bodies of three people were found at the site of the accident, but he said more victims could still be found.

The injured have been hospitalized, some with serious injuries but none in life-threatening condition, he added.

“It’s nighttime, there is no light, we don’t know at the moment if there are more victims,” said Plenkovic.

The cause of the collision was not immediately clear.

The passenger train was a local line carrying 13 people, while only the engine driver was in the freight train, said Plenkovic. He said foreign citizens were among the injured.

Officials said both trains were pushed off the rails after the collision. An investigation has been launched to determine what caused the collision.
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Oregon Weathers Fire Evacuations, Power Outages in Dry Winds

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Campers at a state park in Oregon had to evacuate after a wildfire ignited, and thousands in the state remained without power Saturday after utilities did targeted shut-offs in an effort to lessen the danger in dry and windy conditions. 

Late Friday night, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office announced the evacuation order from Milo McIver State Park, which is about 24 miles (38.6 kilometers) southeast of Portland. Early Saturday morning, residents in several communities west of the park were told to be ready to evacuate. 

 

In hopes of lessening the risk of more fires, Portland General Electric initially halted power to about 30,000 customers in 12 service areas but that number increased to more than 37,000 by Saturday. Pacific Power shut down service to more than 7,000 customers in a small community on the Pacific Coast, where a wildfire burned two years ago, and in pockets southeast of the state capital of Salem. The number of Pacific Power customers without service increased to 12,000 Saturday. 

The largest fire in Oregon is the Double Creek Fire burning in the northeastern part of the state near the Idaho border. As of Saturday, the fire had burned more than 230 square miles (595 square kilometers). The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said that the fire grew by 65 square miles (168 square kilometers) overnight. 

In central Oregon, the Cedar Creek Fire east of Oakridge has burned nearly 81 square miles (210 square kilometers). On Friday, officials ordered residents to immediately leave the greater Oakridge, Westfir and High Prairie areas due to increased fire activity. 

The Van Meter Fire, which started Wednesday, is burning on Stukel Mountain about 13 miles (21 kilometers) southeast of Klamath Falls. One home and four structures have been destroyed and about 260 structures are threatened by that blaze, officials said. 

In Washington state, the Goat Rocks Fire, south of Mount Rainier National Park, was started by lightning and has led to the closure of U.S. Highway 12 and the evacuation of neighborhoods east of the city of Packwood. Evacuations were also issued for several communities in Cowlitz County in response to the Kalama fire in Gifford Pinchot National Forest southwest of Mount St. Helens. 

A red flag warming in Washington remains in effect through Sunday night, meaning that high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds will complicate fire conditions. 
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Ukraine Forces Retake Control of Key Russian Stronghold

Posted on by SeeEU

Ukraine announced major advancements in a strategic military counteroffensive against Russian forces, retaking a vital city and causing thousands of Russian soldiers to retreat from territory in northeastern Ukraine that they had held since the start of the war in late February. 

Ukrainian forces reported Saturday that they had gained control of Izyum and pushed Russian soldiers across the Oskil River. Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed it had pulled its forces out of Izyum, claiming the move was planned.   

Reports of the claims could not be independently verified. Western military analysts say if the advances are confirmed, it would put the Ukrainians in control of a main railway that Moscow uses to supply thousands of troops in eastern Ukraine. 

In other developments, a pro-Russia separatist leader was quoted as saying there also was fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region. 

Denis Pushilin said the situation in the town of Lyman was “very difficult” and there was fighting in “a number of other localities,” particularly in the northern part of the region. 

Military analysts say Russia is believed to be sending reinforcements to the area, where it plans to launch new attacks against Ukrainian controlled sections of Donetsk. 

Moscow regrouping

Meanwhile, Moscow announced it was regrouping its forces in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine. 

“To achieve the goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas, a decision was made to regroup Russian troops stationed in the Balakliya and Izyum regions, to bolster efforts along the Donetsk front,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement. 

The regrouping of Russian soldiers comes as residents in parts of the Kharkiv region had been advised to evacuate to Russia, according to the state-run news agency Tass. The area’s Russian-installed administrator, Vitaly Ganchev, reportedly said doing so would “save lives.” 

Lightning-fast advances

The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and it is one of the biggest gains in the war since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital, Kyiv, in March.  

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country’s armed forces have liberated about 2,000 square kilometers of territory since a counter-offensive against Russia started earlier this month. 

On the diplomatic front, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday pledging Berlin’s unwavering support for Ukraine.   

“I have traveled to Kyiv to show that they can continue to rely on us. That we will continue to stand by Ukraine for as long as necessary with deliveries of weapons, and with humanitarian and financial support,” Baerbock said in a statement.  

Over the last weeks, Germany has sent howitzers, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. Heavier weapons like anti-aircraft systems, rocket launchers mounted on pickup trucks and anti-drone equipment are also expected in a further military aid package worth more than $500 million. 

 

Nuclear fears   

Meanwhile, shelling destroyed the power infrastructure at the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar where staff operating the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant live, posing a growing threat to the plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Friday.  

The plant’s off-site power supplies, vital lines of defense against a potential nuclear meltdown, have been cut. And the shelling at Enerhodar has caused a lasting blackout there.  

That has prompted Ukraine to say it may have to shut down the last operating reactor supplying power to Zaporizhzhia, including the cooling systems for the plant’s nuclear fuel.  

Zaporizhzhia’s operator is not confident off-site power can be restored and that is prompting it to consider shutting down the last operating reactor, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement.   

“The entire power plant would then be fully reliant on emergency diesel generators for ensuring vital nuclear safety and security functions. And as a consequence, the operator would not be able to restart the reactors unless off-site power was reliably reestablished,” he noted.   

Grossi this week called for the creation of a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around Zaporizhzhia, repeating his call Friday.  

Military aid 

The United States said Thursday it plans to send $2.2 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine and 18 other European countries threatened by Russian aggression, and another $675 million directly to the Kyiv government in a new munitions package to fight Moscow’s invasion. 

European Union finance ministers Friday backed a $5 billion loan for Ukraine to help it keep schools, hospitals and other state operations running as it fights against Russia’s invasion, the Czech Finance Ministry said. 

The loan, to be backed by guarantees of EU member states, is part of an overall $9 billion package announced in May. The first $1 billion was sent in early August.   

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press. 
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Albania Suffers 2nd Cyberattack, Blames Iran

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Albania has suffered a renewed cyberattack, the country’s interior ministry said Saturday, blaming Iran which Tirana also accused of an earlier assault on its digital systems.

“The national police’s computer systems were hit Friday by a cyberattack which, according to initial information, was committed by the same actors who in July attacked the country’s public and government service systems,” the ministry said in a statement.

“In order to neutralize the criminal act and secure the systems,” the authorities have shut down computer control systems at seaports, airports and border posts, the statement said.  

In a tweet, Prime Minister Edi Rama denounced “another cyberattack (committed by) the same aggressors already condemned by Albania’s friendly countries and allies.”

Albania blamed Iran for the July attack and Wednesday cut diplomatic ties over the affair.

The two countries have been bitter foes for years, since the Balkan state began hosting members of the opposition People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), on its soil.

Rama on Wednesday accused Iran of directing a cyberattack against Albanian institutions July 15 in a bid to “paralyze public services and hack data and electronic communications from the government systems.”

It was the first time Tirana spoke about the alleged attack.

“The Council of Ministers has decided on the severance of diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran with immediate effect,” said Rama.

“The said attack failed its purpose. Damages may be considered minimal compared to the goals of the aggressor. All systems came back fully operational and there was no irreversible wiping of data.”

The prime minister went on to say that Iranian diplomats and embassy staff had 24 hours to leave the country.

Iranian denials

Iran rejected the accusation it was behind the cyberattack as “baseless” and called Albania’s decision to sever diplomatic ties “an ill-considered and shortsighted action.”

“Iran as one of the target countries of cyberattacks on its critical infrastructure rejects and condemns any use of cyberspace as a tool to attack the critical infrastructure of other countries,” its foreign ministry said.

The U.S. announced sanctions Friday on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its minister Esmail Khatib over Tehran’s alleged involvement.

The Islamic republic has also been targeted by cyberattacks, most notably in 2010 when the Stuxnet virus — believed to have been engineered by Israel and the U.S. — infected its nuclear program.

 
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What’s Behind the Violence in Ethiopia’s ‘Other’ Conflict?

Posted on by SeeAF

In Ethiopia’s Gambella region, a June attack on the capital by a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army, has raised fears of more civil war spreading in the country. VOA  spoke to local officials and analysts about what’s behind the violence and what it could mean for Ethiopia’s security.   

In Gambella city, security has been beefed up. Officials say local police have started working in cooperation with troops recently sent to the region by the federal government.  

A major attack by two rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the Gambella Liberation Front (GLF), caught the city by surprise in June. Local media said up to 37 people were killed. 

Analysts say it is the first time the Oromo conflict, a decades-old fight among local, federal forces and ethnic Oromo rebels, has reached Gambella city.  

One witness, civil servant Abdu Abubeker, recounts seeing the OLA enter the city.

He said the shooting began at around 6 a.m. No one was expecting it, so no one was well prepared, Abdu said the OLA and the GLF entered the city as far as the regional council building. He recalled that “they entered the city from three directions. I think the Gambella Liberation Front was leading the OLA.”  

Less than a week later, in the Oromia region, around 400 ethnic Amhara were killed by OLA militants. 

The rapid uptick in violence in what Human Rights Watch calls Ethiopia’s “other conflict” has led some to question if it constitutes a second civil war for the country. 

Information from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows that from August 2021 to July 2022, there were 3,784 deaths linked to the OLA, compared with 651 the previous year, a nearly five-fold increase.

William Davison, an analyst with International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based research organization, said the increased violence is the result of long-standing grievances related to Oromo self-determination and lack of political representation in Ethiopia’s federal system, especially since the current government came to power in 2018.

    

“I think that added fuel to the Oromo Liberation Army insurgency, after a failure to reintegrate those fighters and their rebellion.”

The Oromo comprise the largest ethnic group in the country. 

Asked if the conflict is as significant as Ethiopia’s headline-grabbing war with Tigrayan rebels in the north of the country, Davison said that it is a conflict in its own right.

“It probably doesn’t immediately threaten the regional government authority in Adama or the federal government authority in Addis Ababa, but it is affecting a huge number of people in Oromia, as well as leading to direct violence that’s killing combatants and civilians.” 

Adama is a city in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

For now, Gambella is calm, but fewer than 10 kilometers beyond its outskirts, local police say there are regular firefights with the OLA.  

Local officials are keen to project stability.

Chankot Chote, head of the Gambella Regional State Peace and Security Office, said with the help of the special forces, federal police and regular police and the community, the situation has improved. He added that, although the OLA is trying to attack on the outskirts of town, they will never enter the city again.

The OLA is an offshoot of another rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the Ethiopian government in 2018.
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Somali Military Kills Senior Al-Shabab Figures, Frees Hostages

Posted on by SeeAF

Somalia says the country’s elite military unit has killed a senior al-Shabab commander in an operation in the Lower Shabelle region. Federal police say civilian hostages were freed during the operation. 

Somali police spokesman Sadiq Adan Ali Doodishe said Somalia’s elite military unit had conducted an operation against the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist militant group al-Shabab, killing two senior commanders and wounding 10 others. 

Police say the operation’s aim was to destroy al-Shabab’s main extortion base in the small town of Mubarak, located 95 kilometers southwest of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

During a news conference in Mogadishu Saturday, the spokesman said the army killed a senior al-Shabab commander known by the name “Carab”, and Aw Maaye, who was in charge al-Shabab’s extortion operations in Mubarak. 

Doodishe said during the operation the military freed civilian hostages from the militant group.

He said around 5:00 p.m. local time, the elite unit from the Somali national army conducted the operation targeting a place the terrorists used to extort money from civilians. In accordance with the statement from the Ministry of Information, the army killed Carab, the deputy al-Shabab leader in the town of Mubarak, and Aw Maaye, who was the al-Shabab foreman in charge of extortion. He said during the operation dozens of others were wounded, including the group’s leader in charge of Mubarak. He said at the time of the operation al-Shabab was holding civilians hostage for extortion but the army freed the hostages. Some of them were hurt during the operation. 

Police have warned the public against aiding al-Shabab. 

Doodishe said the public has been told that it’s a crime to have sympathy toward al-Shabab and collaborate with the group. Anyone who is engaged in that activity will be brought to justice, he added. 

Local media and residents reported that there was an airstrike involved in the military operation against al-Shabab on Friday.

The Islamist group claimed that the airstrike killed 10 people and wounded 20 others, all civilians.

VOA could not independently verify the airstrike nor the civilian deaths. 

Somalia has been grappling with increasing insecurity in recent years. Al-Shabab is one of the main threats and is responsible for deadly attacks across the country and in neighboring Kenya.
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Turkey-Greece Tensions Could Disrupt NATO Unity, Experts Warn

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Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, have been at loggerheads for decades over territorial and airspace claims in and over the Aegean Sea. As the historic rivals escalate their war of words, analysts warn about the risk of current tension spilling into NATO business at a time when there is a need to focus on unity against Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. 

The latest spat began when Turkey accused its neighbor of locking onto Turkish fighter jets with its Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems deployed on the island of Crete. Ankara also said Greek pilots placed Turkish aircraft under a radar lock over the Eastern Mediterranean during a NATO mission last month. 

Athens dismissed Turkish claims and accused the country of violating its airspace.

As both countries lodged complaints with NATO about the incidents, the deletion of a tweet by NATO Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) congratulating Turkey on its Victory Day, following a demarche by Greece, caused fury in Ankara. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doubled down when he spoke earlier this week at Teknofest, an event dubbed as Turkey’s biggest aviation and aerospace festival. 

“Look at history. If you cross the line any further, there will be a heavy price to pay. Don’t forget Izmir,” he said, alluding to a defeat of occupying Greek forces in the western city in 1922. 

He echoed those words earlier this week, warning “Turkey could come all of a sudden one night.”

His remarks were perceived by Greek officials as threats, suggesting Turkey could take military action against the Aegean Sea islands. Athens says it is ready to defend its sovereignty. 

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias asked NATO, European Union partners and the United Nations to formally condemn what he described as “outrageous and increasingly aggressive talk by Turkish officials” in letters addressed to three international bodies, copies of which were seen by The Associated Press.

In a statement sent to VOA, a State Department representative called on the two allies to resolve their differences diplomatically.

Pointing to the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Washington said statements that could raise tensions between NATO allies are “particularly unhelpful,” adding “Greece’s sovereignty over the islands is not in question.” 

The Pentagon did not comment on Turkish claims that Greece locked its S-300 surface-to-air missiles onto Turkey’s jets last week but said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized the need to reduce tensions in the Aegean through constructive dialogue during his previous talks with Turkish and Greek counterparts.

Possibility of war  

 

Deep-rooted friction brought Turkey and Greece almost to the point of war three times in the last 50 years.

Analysts speaking to VOA say they don’t see a resolution any time soon, noting the troubled history of bilateral relations and the “tight politics” in the two nations’ capitals. 

“It will take a mediator who has the skill and some leverage to be able to come up with something that these two nations can agree with. But I don’t see that on the horizon,” said Jim Townsend, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense on European and NATO policy. Townsend is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security Transatlantic Security Program. 

Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. Air Force general who served as NATO supreme allied commander from 2013 to 2016, said the long-standing problems between Turkey and Greece rise and fall over time. 

“The leadership in Turkey is pushing the country in certain directions that have caused these tensions to rise once again as they have over the years,” the former top NATO commander said in a phone interview with VOA on Wednesday.   

 

Breedlove, who is now a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute, said NATO and the United States have managed similar tensions in the past and the alliance is still up to the task. 

Concerns about disrupting NATO unity 

The recent spat between Turkey and Greece takes place as NATO is focusing on displaying a united front against Russia in the face of its invasion in Ukraine.  

 

Experts are worried that if the tension escalates to the point of hostilities, Russian President Vladimir Putin can take advantage.  

 

“Whatever little cracks can appear in European unity, Putin can make them even larger and in fact split the rock. So, it not only undercuts European unity but also can spill over into NATO councils if one or the other country uses NATO as a weapon to hurt the other,” Townsend said.  

 

He warned that those cracks can be exploited by Moscow as winter approaches; Russia has already cut back on its gas exports to Europe. 

Election dynamics 

Turkey and Greece will both head to the polls for crucial elections next year. 

Turkish President Erdogan is said to be facing a major challenge to his 20-year rule amid the country’s economic woes and immigration problems. 

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, elected in 2019, reportedly suffered a popularity loss to some degree because of rising energy prices partly driven by the war in Ukraine. 

“Rhetoric on both sides has always been part of the problem and it’s something that doesn’t help things,” said Townsend. 

Breedlove agrees. He believes some of this is “playing to an internal audience.”

Balancing act 

The United States is known to have maintained a balance between regional rivals Turkey and Greece, which it says are both important NATO allies. 

Athens and Washington extended a bilateral military agreement for five years and the deal was ratified by the Greek parliament in the summer, days before the Greek prime minister’s visit to Washington in mid-May. The deal gives the U.S. more military access to bases in Greece.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley met with his Greek counterpart, Konstantinos Floros, at the Pentagon in July. “The military leaders discussed mutual items of interest,” said a statement from his office.

That visit was followed by Greek Defense Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos’ visit to the Pentagon July 18 to meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The two discussed the “growing defense partnership between the United States and Greece and the close cooperation on basing, [and] defense modernization,” according to a statement from the Pentagon.

They also discussed “the need to reduce tensions in the Aegean through constructive dialogue.” 

Austin spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, July 25, discussing “the need for continued efforts to reduce tensions in the Aegean through constructive dialogue.”

Turkish and Greek defense requests

Greece is seeking to acquire F-35 fighter jets from the United States. The country formally requested the fighter jets in June.  

Turkey was kicked out of the F-35 program because of its purchase of an advanced S-400 missile system from Russia. Ankara wants to buy F-16s and modernization kits from Washington. U.S. weapons sales to foreign countries are subject to congressional approval.

Analysts argue that Turkey’s decision to buy the Russian S-400 system was a huge blow to defense cooperation between Washington and Ankara, which they say has traditionally been very strong. 

Townsend, who spent 30 years at the Pentagon working on Turkey issues, tells VOA that he “mourns the loss of [the] close working relationship with Turkey,” hoping it can be restored again. 

He is hopeful that the United States will be able to provide the F-16s requested by Turkey, saying he thinks the administration — working with Congress — will be able to allow that transfer to happen. 

Retired U.S. Air Force General Breedlove maintains the same hope.

Focusing on ‘common threat’

The former NATO commander argues that Turkey made some security decisions that aligned it more closely with “NATO’s enemy,” in reference to its S-400 purchase from Russia, which was identified as the most significant and direct threat to the allies’ security in NATO’s strategic concept document. 

“The enemy is not Greece versus Turkey and Turkey versus Greece. It is NATO versus Russia. I would want Turkey to have that if they can’t have the F-35. We need to understand who the enemy is,” Breedlove tells VOA. 

He said the United States would want to move forward with Turkey because it is an incredibly important part of the NATO alliance despite recent lows in the relationship, adding he cannot speak to the policy of the current U.S. government. 

But he also acknowledged that “Greece is a little more aligned with where America wants to go in the area,” saying Washington would want to have the same kind of relationship with Turkey.

He calls on the United States and Turkey to focus on how they can bring back the same level of cooperation rather than growing apart.

Erdogan’s criticism of the West’s Russia policy

Meanwhile, Erdogan has recently accused Western nations of provoking Russia, without naming any.

Speaking at a news conference in Serbia, he suggested the “West’s policy on Russia was based on provocations.”

He vowed to continue Turkey’s balancing policy between Russia and Ukraine, adding Russia is not a country that one can underestimate.

“Russia has cut off natural gas now. Prices in Europe have skyrocketed. Everyone now broods on how they will get through this winter,” Erdogan said.

Turkey supplies Ukraine with combat drones, which are used by Kyiv to destroy Russian targets in the conflict.

Ankara also played a role with the United Nations as a mediator to secure the deal that allowed grain exports to resume from the ports in Ukraine. But it has not joined the Western sanctions against Russia.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service. The service’s Dilge Timocin contributed.
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Small Nuclear Reactors Emerge as Energy Option, but Risks Loom

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A global search for alternative sources to Russian energy in light of the war in Ukraine has refocused attention on smaller, easier-to-build nuclear power stations, which proponents say could provide a cheaper, more efficient alternative to older model mega-plants.

U.K.-based Rolls-Royce SMR says its small modular reactors, or SMRs, are much cheaper and quicker to get running than standard plants, delivering the kind of energy security that many nations are seeking. France already relies on nuclear power for a majority of its electricity, and Germany kept the option of reactivating two nuclear plants it will shut down at the end of the year as Russia cuts natural gas supplies.

While Rolls-Royce SMR and its competitors have signed deals with countries from Britain to Poland to start building the stations, they are many years away from operating and cannot solve the energy crisis now hitting Europe.

 

Nuclear power also poses risks, including disposing of highly radioactive waste and keeping that technology out of the hands of rogue countries or nefarious groups that may pursue a nuclear weapons program.

Those risks have been accentuated following the shelling around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which has raised fears of potential nuclear disaster.

In the wake of the war, however, “the reliance on gas imports and Russian energy sources has focused people’s minds on energy security,” Rolls-Royce SMR spokesman Dan Gould said.  

An SMR’s components can be built in a factory, moved to a site in tractor trailers and assembled there, making the technology more attractive to frugal buyers, he said.

“It’s like building Lego,” Gould said. “Building on a smaller scale reduces risks and makes it a more investible project.”  

SMRs are essentially pressurized water reactors identical to some 400 reactors worldwide. The key advantages are their size — about one-tenth as big as a standard reactor — the ease of construction and the price tag.

The estimated cost of a Rolls-Royce SMR is $2.5 billion to $3.2 billion, with an estimated construction time of 5 1/2 years. That’s two years faster than it took to build a standard nuclear plant between 2016 and 2021, according to International Atomic Energy Agency statistics. Some estimates put the cost of building a 1,100-megawatt nuclear plant at between $6 billion and $9 billion.  

Rolls-Royce aims to build its first stations in the U.K. within 5 1/2 years, Gould said. Similarly, Oklahoma-based NuScale Power signed agreements last year with two Polish companies — copper and silver producer KGHM and energy producer UNIMOT — to explore the possibility of building SMRs to power heavy industry. Poland wants to switch from polluting, coal-powered electricity generation.  

Rolls-Royce SMR said last month that it signed a deal with Dutch development company ULC-Energy to look into setting up SMRs in the Netherlands.  

Another partner is Turkey, where Russia is building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant on the southern coast. Environmentalists say the region is seismically active and could be a target for terrorists.

The introduction of “unproven” nuclear power technology in the form of SMRs doesn’t sit well with environmentalists, who argue that proliferation of small reactors will exacerbate the problem of how to dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

“Unfortunately, Turkey is governed by an incompetent administration that has turned it into a ‘test bed’ for corporations,” said Koray Dogan Urbarli, a spokesman for Turkey’s Green Party.

“It is giving up the sovereignty of a certain region for at least 100 years for Russia to build a nuclear power plant. This incompetence and lobbying power make Turkey an easy target for SMRs,” said Koray, adding that his party eschews technology with an “uncertain future.”

Gould said one Rolls-Royce SMR would generate nuclear waste the size of a “tennis court piled 1-meter high” throughout the plant’s 60-year lifetime. He said initially, waste would be stored on site at the U.K. plants and would eventually be transferred to a long-term disposal site selected by the British government.

M.V. Ramana, professor of public policy and global affairs at the University of British Columbia, cites research suggesting there’s “no demonstrated way” to ensure nuclear waste stored in what authorities consider to be secure sites won’t escape in the future.

The constant heat generated by the waste could alter rock formations where it’s stored and allow water seepage, while future mining activities could compromise a nuclear waste site’s integrity, said Ramana, who specializes in international security and nuclear energy.

Skeptics also raise the risks of possibly exporting such technology in politically tumultuous regions. Gould said Rolls-Royce is “completely compliant” with U.K. and international requirements in exporting its SMR technology “only in territories that are signatories to the necessary international treaties for the peaceful use of nuclear power for energy generation.”

Ramana said, however, there’s no guarantee nations will follow the rules.  

“Any country acquiring nuclear reactors automatically enhances its capacity to make nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that every SMR could produce “around 10 bombs worth of plutonium each year.”  

Rolls-Royce SMR could opt to stop supplying fuel and other services to anyone flouting the rules, but “should any country choose to do so, it can simply tell the International Atomic Energy Agency to stop inspections, as Iran has done, for example,” Ramana said.

Although spent fuel normally undergoes chemical reprocessing to generate the kind of plutonium used in nuclear weapons, Ramana said such reprocessing technology is widely known and that a very sophisticated reprocessing plant isn’t required to produce the amount of plutonium needed for weapons.
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Poliovirus Detected in More Wastewater Near New York City

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday the state was stepping up its polio-fighting efforts as the virus that causes the life-threatening disease was detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area.

Health officials began checking for signs of the virus in sewage water after the first case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade was identified in July in Rockland County, which is north of the city. The latest detection involved a wastewater sample collected last month in Nassau County on Long Island, directly east of the city.

The sample is genetically linked to the polio case from Rockland and provides further evidence of expanding community spread, state health officials said. The poliovirus had previously been detected in wastewater in New York City and three counties to its north: Rockland, Orange and Sullivan.

Hochul declared a state disaster emergency that allows EMS workers, midwives and pharmacists to administer polio vaccines and allows doctors to issue standing orders for the vaccine. Data on immunizations will be used to focus vaccination efforts where they’re needed the most.

“On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice,” state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a prepared statement. “If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real. I urge New Yorkers to not accept any risk at all.”

Health officials said all unvaccinated New York residents — including children by 2 months of age, pregnant people and those who haven’t completed their vaccine series — should get immunized immediately. They also urged boosters for certain people, such as health care workers in affected areas who treat patients who might have polio.

The statewide polio vaccination rate is 79%, but the counties of Rockland, Orange and Sullivan had lower rates.

Officials have said that it is possible that hundreds of people in the state have gotten polio and don’t know it. Most people infected with polio have no symptoms but can still give the virus to others for days or weeks.

The lone confirmed case in New York involved an unidentified young adult who was unvaccinated.
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Charles to be Formally Proclaimed King

Posted on by SeeEU

Britain’s former prince of Wales will be formally proclaimed king Saturday at St. James’s Palace in London.

Charles automatically became Britain’s king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Thursday. He will be known as King Charles III.

Saturday’s procedure at the Accession Council will be the formal proclamation of his sovereignty and it will be the first time the ceremony will be televised.

On Friday, Charles paid tribute to his late mother, calling her “darling Mama” during his first address as head of state.

Charles, who is 73 and the oldest monarch to ascend the throne, said he would serve with “loyalty, respect and love” as his mother had done for more than seven decades until her death Thursday at age 96.

“That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today,” Charles said Friday in his televised address from Buckingham Palace to a nation in mourning.

He said Elizabeth’s death brought a “sense of loss, beyond measure” and paid tribute to his mother.

“To my darling Mama: As you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May ‘flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,’” Charles said.

The new king said he would follow the example of his mother.

“As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation,” he said.

Charles was greeted by well-wishers as he arrived at the palace Friday alongside Camilla, the queen consort, from Balmoral Castle in Scotland where Elizabeth died.

The king also held his first audience Friday with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace, in only her third day in the job.

Elizabeth appointed Truss to her new position as prime minister Tuesday.

Parliament held a special midday session Friday to pay its respects to the queen, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

“She was the rock on which modern Britain was built,” Truss told lawmakers.

Around 2,000 people attended a service of remembrance for the queen at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, including Truss and other government officials.

Elizabeth’s funeral will be held in the coming days at London’s Westminster Abbey, and that day will be designated as a National Day of Mourning, a public holiday.

Growing mountains of flowers and tributes to the queen are gathering not only at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but also at British embassies and cathedrals around the world.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Voice-Operated Smartphones Target Africa’s Illiterate

Posted on by SeeAF

Voice-operated smartphones are aiming at a vast yet widely overlooked market in sub-Saharan Africa — the tens of millions of people who face huge challenges in life because they cannot read or write.

In Ivory Coast, a so-called “Superphone” using a vocal assistant that responds to commands in a local language is being pitched to the large segment of the population — as many as 40 percent — who are illiterate.

Developed and assembled locally, the phone is designed to make everyday tasks more accessible, from understanding a document and checking a bank balance to communicating with government agencies.

“I’ve just bought this phone for my parents back home in the village, who don’t know how to read or write,” said Floride Jogbe, a young woman who was impressed by adverts on social media.

She believed the 60,000 CFA francs ($92) she forked out was money well spent.

The smartphone uses an operating system called “Kone” that is unique to the Cerco company, and covers 17 languages spoken in Ivory Coast, including Baoule, Bete, and Dioula, as well as 50 other African languages.

Cerco hopes to expand this to 1,000 languages, reaching half of the continent’s population, thanks to help from a network of 3,000 volunteers.

The goal is to address the “frustration” illiterate people feel with technology that requires them to be able to read or write or spell effectively, said Cerco president Alain Capo-Chichi, a Benin national.

“Various institutions set down the priority of making people literate before making technology available to them,” he told AFP.

“Our way skips reading and writing and goes straight to integrating people into economic and social life.”

Of the 750 million adults around the world who cannot read or write, 27 percent live south of the Sahara, according to UN figures for 2016, the latest year for which data is available.

The continent also hosts nearly 2,000 languages, some of which are spoken by tens of millions of people and are used for inter-ethnic communication, while others are dialects with a small geographical spread.

Lack of numbers or economic clout often means these languages are overlooked by developers who have already devised vocal assistants for languages in bigger markets.

Twi and Kiswahili

Other companies investing in the voice-operation field in Africa include Mobobi, which has created a Twi language voice assistant in Ghana called Abena AI, while Mozilla is working on an assistant in Kiswahili, which has an estimated 100 million speakers in East Africa.

Telecommunications expert Jean-Marie Akepo questioned whether voice operation needed the platform of a dedicated mobile phone.

Existing technology “manages to satisfy people”, he said.

“With the voice message services offered by WhatsApp, for example, a large part of the problem has already been solved.”

Instead of a new phone, he recommended “software with local languages that could be installed on any smartphone”.

The Ivorian phone is being produced at the ICT and Biotechnology Village in Grand-Bassam, a free-trade zone located near the Ivorian capital.

It came about through close collaboration with the government. The company pays no taxes or customs duties and the assembly plant has benefited from a subsidy of more than two billion CFA francs.

In exchange, Cerco is to pay 3.5 percent of its income to the state and train around 1,200 young people each year.

The company says it has received 200,000 orders since launch on July 21.

Thanks to a partnership with French telecommunications giant Orange, the phone will be distributed in 200 shops across Ivory Coast.
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Inmates at US Prison Find Community Through Tennis

Posted on by SeeUS

Stefan Schneider needed a nickname, or a handle as they call it in prison.

So the inmates quickly began brainstorming for the college tennis player making his first visit to San Quentin.

“Finesse,” offered 22-year-old Braydon Tennison.

“Twinkle Toes,” suggested another inmate named Kenny, who preferred not to give his last name out of respect for his victim’s family.

A winner — Twinkle Toes immediately stuck.

“Twinkle for short,” Tennison said with a grin. “We couldn’t give him a hardcore one because he looks like such a nice kid.”

Later, “Ten” beamed and clapped as the now-20-year-old Schneider showed everyone his strong game.

“See, I knew you were taking it easy,” Tennison said emphatically.

For a few hours, these prisoners were just tennis players out for some competitive fun and a chance to forget their life behind bars for a little while — even with the cell blocks in view at every direction.

Hundreds of inmates fill San Quentin’s sprawling exercise yard every Saturday morning to work out in all ways — walking lunges, chin-ups, pull-ups and pushups, jabs into a punching bag, abdominal moves, even bench-pressing picnic tables. There are basketball and baseball games going simultaneously in the space some three football fields in size.

Every corner is filled with activity and energy. Others wait their turn for haircuts or to play checkers, dominoes and horseshoes.

A single tennis court sits on one side of the grounds, its back fences so close to the lines that a well-placed lob will send someone crashing into the chain links with little chance at keeping a point alive. A half-dozen regulars start playing at straight up 8 a.m.

“Are you ready, Ten?” hollered inmate James Duff, beaming. He picked up tennis only last August and already is a highly skilled player.

Tennison — who notes “you’ll never believe my last name, I was meant to play”— cherishes the chance to be back on the court. The 6-foot-3 lefty began playing tennis in high school at 16.

“I would have kept playing but I got into legal trouble,” said Tennison, who also writes poetry and performs in prison Shakespearean plays. “I just have a supreme love for it, I love it. I’m just grateful to be somewhere I can play.”

The close-knit tennis crew gathers at every chance, many of them aiming to get out on the court every day, typically after their work shifts or college courses. They are thrilled to be outside again after almost constant lockdown for 2 1/2 years during the pandemic.

“It gives us a piece of community to get out of the mode of prison drudgery,” said Earl Wilson, San Quentin’s tennis team captain who has been incarcerated since 1985 — about 37 of his 60 years. “It gives us a sense of family. People love coming in and say it’s better coming in here because we don’t argue.”

That’s because they have their own tennis etiquette: Any close balls are typically called in to avoid confrontation.

That’s not to say there’s no trash talk. When he’s not playing baseball nearby, Kolby Southwood might join the tennis group and razz Matt “Doc” Montana by calling him “Grandpa” and slicing a short ball to make Montana run.

An ex-tennis pro and key leader in the players’ improvement, Montana easily holds his own. The 67-year-old former chiropractor is from the Bay Area and taught for 30 years. He has spent countless hours with some of the inmates, guiding them in fundamentals while always sending newcomers to the hitting wall so they can develop some rhythm on their own.

“I give these guys some tips to try to help them out,” said Montana, who stretches and does yoga on the court, too. “It’s been very difficult with the pandemic. We’ve had lockdown after lockdown.”

Montana, who has been in San Quentin for 3 1/2 years and takes sociology and psychology classes, is so grateful to have the court.

“When the bus came here and I saw the tennis court, I was like, ‘Ahhh,'” he recalled.

Kenny Rogers has found joy in trying something fresh as he serves his sentence. He has been in for 14 years and notes, “This tennis has been my new spark.”

Patrick Leong helps run the “Inside-Outside” program by coordinating those volunteer visiting players like Schneider to play doubles with inmates at San Quentin — California’s oldest correctional institution, and home of the state’s only gas chamber.

An English professor at Diablo Valley College, Leong also plays. He sports an old-school headband, and the inmates cheer fondly for their friend “Alley Pat” — the handle a nod to his precise accuracy down the lines.

Schneider and his mother, Margie Moran — a longtime tennis player from the East Bay suburb of Alameda who plays on several USTA teams at once — were some of the first visitors allowed into San Quentin for this program as pandemic restrictions lifted.

These unique sports programs aren’t new. Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers played inside San Quentin five years ago, a tradition of the team’s employees taking on the inmates. San Quentin also has hosted athletes in softball, soccer, flag football and a 100-mile running club.

The experience for those who are invited into the prison to participate is often life-changing, providing a profound glimpse into what it’s like for a population that is largely forgotten.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like that … there are so many of them all in one place,” Schneider said. “I really liked how they found a community for tennis with those 10 guys, and it seemed like they were having a lot of fun. They obviously are really good for the amount of time they’ve played, so it was pretty cool to see.”

Wilson restrings the rackets, runs tennis team tryouts and is accountable for equipment.

He loves the days when players come in to give the San Quentin team much-needed competition. It brightens up the monotony of prison life.

Wilson’s mom introduced him to tennis at around age 7. Yet he always stuck with the major sports growing up — football, basketball and baseball, which “conflicted with tennis” in the spring. Wilson hopes to one day play beyond the walls again.

“Keep learning, keep healthy and get to my mother before she passes,” he said of what keeps him going after nearly four decades inside. “She’s my rock.”

“Whoa! Good shot, Stefan!” Wilson hollered.

“Yay, Kenny! Nice get!” cheered Moran.

Fist bumps. Rackets clinking to celebrate good shots or to encourage for the next chance. It felt an awful lot like a friendly day of tennis that could have been at any public park instead of inside these prison walls.

At the end of a 2 1/2-hour session on that sunny and warm mid-August morning, with a modest speaker under the bench quietly playing classic rock, Wilson brought the group together for a team huddle: “One, two, three, Inside-Outside tennis!”

They said their goodbyes, and the visitors made their way out the prison gates, only to see each other again in two weeks.

By then, Ten had practiced to take on Twinkle Toes — and the inmate proudly hit an ace serve past Schneider.

“I accomplished my goal! I aced Stefan!” he announced.

“It made his day,” Moran said, overjoyed for Tennison’s feat.

So, how about a nickname for Twinkle’s mom, Moran?

A smiling Ten just shrugged, put a finger to his head as if pondering, then exhaled, “These things take time.”
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Justice Department, Trump to Make Recommendations for Arbiter in Documents Case

Posted on by SeeUS

The U.S. Justice Department and attorneys for former President Donald Trump have submitted a list of potential candidates who could serve the role of a “special master” to review materials seized from Trump’s Florida residence.

Legal teams for the two sides submitted the names of candidates who could qualify for the job Friday night.  A special master is an independent third party appointed by a court to review documents in sensitive legal cases.

During the Aug. 8 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, FBI agents removed nearly 13,000 documents and items. Among the documents, more than 100 were classified, some labeled “top secret.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the appointment of a special master on Monday, granting the Trump team’s request. The judge also prohibited prosecutors from viewing classified documents while an independent review is conducted but said U.S. intelligence officials can continue using the seized records to conduct a national security assessment.

The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday it could not easily separate the national security review from its criminal work and has put a “pause” on its assessment.

It asked Cannon on Thursday to suspend parts of her order, saying an ongoing FBI investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records is being impeded by the ruling.

The department requested a partial stay of the ruling, which it said would allow the special master to be able to view nonclassified records seized by the FBI, including Trump’s personal items and information protected by attorney-client privilege.

“Without a stay, the government and the public will suffer irreparable harm,” Justice Department officials wrote.

The Justice Department and Donald Trump’s legal team are expected to make proposals in their Friday filings about the scope of the special master’s duties.

The FBI is investigating several potential criminal violations in connection with Trump’s retention of the documents more than a year after he left the White House.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Trump was required to turn over all documents related his presidency to the National Archives.

Cannon’s order came in response to a request by Trump for a special master to review all materials seized from his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate to determine whether any were protected by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege and should be returned to him.

Any candidate for the special master role would need to be skilled in the laws surrounding executive privilege as well as possibly having a top-level security clearance, if sensitive documents are included in the review.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Coins, Anthem: What Will Change With Accession of Charles III?

Posted on by SeeEU

From the national anthem to banknotes and coins, stamps and passports, many aspects of daily life in the U.K. will change with the accession of Charles III to the throne. 

Currency and stamps 

The face of the new King Charles III will begin to appear on coins and banknotes in the U.K. and other countries around the world, replacing the profile of Queen Elizabeth II.

His effigy will also appear on several other currencies used in the Eastern Caribbean, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Ditto in the Channel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, on the Isle of Man as well as in Gibraltar, Saint Helena and in the Falklands, islands and territories controlled by the British crown.

In 1936, during the reign of King Edward VIII, which lasted 326 days, coins had been minted, but the monarch abdicated before they came into circulation.

The face of Elizabeth II also appears on the stamps, while the letters EIIR, for Elizabeth II Regina, are affixed to the post boxes, so this will need to be changed. The insignia on police helmets will also change.

Anthem and passports 

The British national anthem will become “God Save the King,” with a masculinized version of the lyrics.

A habit that will undoubtedly be difficult for the British, who have been singing “God Save the Queen” since 1952. It is also one of the two national anthems of New Zealand and the royal anthem in Australia and Canada— which have their own national anthems.  

Wording on the inside cover of U.K. passports, issued in the name of the crown, will need to be updated, as will similar text that appears inside Australian, Canadian and New Zealand passports.

When you raise your glass during official meetings, you should no longer say “the queen” but “the king.” In the Channel Islands, the unofficial formula “La reine, notre duc” pronounced in French when toasting will become “Le roi, notre duc.”

Politics and rights 

The names of Her Majesty’s Government (“Her Majesty”), Treasury and Customs will change to “His Majesty.”

It will be the speech of the king (“the king’s speech”) and not that of the queen that will present to the parliament the program of the government, opening the parliamentary session.

The Queen’s Guard, immortalized by tourists in front of Buckingham Palace, will also change its name.

The police will no longer preserve the peace of the queen but that of the king and the experienced lawyers will pass from the status of QC (“queen’s counsel”) to that of KC (“king’s counsel”).

Prisoners will no longer be held at the pleasure of “her majesty,” but will continue their terms of imprisonment at the pleasure of “his majesty,” the king.

In the army, new recruits will no longer take “the queen’s shilling,” when enlisting, as the formula indicates. Nor will they have to submit to the queen’s regulations.

The name of “Her Majesty’s Theatre” in London’s West End theater district, where The Phantom of the Opera has been performed since 1986, will also be masculinized.

And those who aspire to speak “the queen’s English” will now have to strive to speak like Charles III: “the king’s English.”  
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California: Drought, Record Heat, Fires and Now, Maybe Floods

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Californians tried to weather the extremes of a changing climate Friday, as a punishing heat wave that has helped fuel deadly wildfires had the state teetering on the edge of blackouts for a 10th consecutive day while a tropical storm barreled ashore with the promise of cooler temperatures but also possible flooding.

The abrupt swing in conditions even whipsawed weather junkies.

“This is perhaps the singularly most unusual and extreme weather week in quite some time in California — and that is saying something. Whew,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles wrote on his Western weather blog.

While the rains may be welcome in the drought-plagued state and will bring relief with more normal temperatures, deluges and more brutal heat waves are forecast to become regular fixtures as climate change warms the planet and weather-related disasters become more extreme.

“We’ll see these heat waves continue to get hotter and hotter, longer and longer, more wildfire-plagued,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. “The odds of really intense precipitation are going up. And so that’s why we are worried about flooding associated with this remnant hurricane.”

California is just the latest casualty in a year of sometimes deadly heat waves that began in Pakistan and India this spring and swept across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including China, Europe and other areas of the U.S.

Climate change also has exacerbated droughts, dried up rivers, made wildfires more intense and — conversely — led to massive flooding around the globe as moisture evaporating from land and water is held in the atmosphere and then redeposited by intense rains.

Scientists are reluctant to attribute any specific weather event, such as Hurricane Kay, now downgraded to a tropical storm as it heads into California, to global warming. But they say heat waves are exactly the type of change that will become more common.

The so-called heat dome that cooked California was stuck in place by an exceptional high-pressure region over Greenland, of all places, that essentially created a meteorological traffic jam, said Paul Ullrich, a professor of regional climate modeling at the University of California, Davis. That prevented the high-pressure system that was forcing hot air over California from moving along.

A marquee outside a former theater in Los Angeles’ Chinatown said: “Satan called. He wants his weather back.”

Record high temperatures

Temperatures hit an all-time high in Sacramento of 46.7 Celsius on Tuesday. Many other locations hit record highs for September, and even more set daily high marks.

The heat that colored weather maps dark red for more than a week in California is only a preview of coming attractions.

Sacramento, the state capital, has about 10 “extreme heat” days per year, and that will double again by the middle of the century. In the 1970s, the city had five, Ullrich said.

“That’s pretty much going to be the story for much of the Central Valley and much of Southern California,” Ullrich said. “This kind of exponential growth in the number of extreme heat days. If you tie those all together, then you end up with heat waves like we’ve experienced.”

For nine days through Thursday, the vast energy network that includes power plants, solar farms and a web of transmission lines strained under record-setting demand driven by air conditioners.

“If we’re going to build a statue to anybody in the West, it will be a Willis Carrier,” said Bill Patzert, retired climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about the inventor of the air conditioner. “Really large areas of Southern California would essentially be unlivable without air conditioning.”

Threat of power outages

Air conditioning puts the biggest strain on power sources during a heat wave, and operators of the electrical grid called for conservation and warned of the threat of power outages as usage hit an all-time high Tuesday, surpassing a record set in 2006.

The state may have averted a repeat of the rolling outages two summers ago by sending a first-ever text alert that blared on 27 million phones, urging Californians to “take action” and turn off nonessential power. Enough turned up thermostats, turned off lights or pulled the plug on appliances to avoid power cuts, though thousands of customers did lose power at various times for other reasons.

The West is in the throes of a 23-year megadrought that has nearly drained reservoirs and put water supplies in jeopardy. That, in turn, led to a sharp decrease in the hydropower that California relies on when power is in peak demand.

“Part of the country that’s getting hit worst is the Southwest and western United States,” Overpeck said. “It is a global poster child for the climate crisis. And this year, this summer, it’s really the Northern Hemisphere [that] has been just an unusually hot and wildfire-plagued hemisphere.”

The extreme heat helped fuel deadly wildfires at both ends of the state as flames fed on grass, brush and timber already “preconditioned to burn” by drought and then pushed over the edge by the heat wave, Overpeck said.

Firefighters struggled to control major wildfires in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada that exploded in growth, forced thousands to evacuate, and produced smoke that could interfere with solar power and further hamper electricity supplies.

Two people were killed in the fire that erupted last Friday in the Northern California community of Weed at the base of Mount Shasta. Two others died trying to flee in their car from a fire in Riverside County that was threatening 18,000 homes.

What remains of the hurricane is expected to bring heavy rains and even flash floods to Southern California from Friday night through Saturday. Strong winds could initially make it difficult and dangerous for firefighters trying to corral blazes, Patzert said.

Heavy downpours could also unleash mudslides on mountainsides charred by recent fires. While several inches of rain could fall, much of it will run off the arid landscape and will not make a dent in the drought.

“It comes at you like a firehose, and you’re trying to fill your champagne glass,” Patzert said. “Everybody’s sort of excited, but on Saturday night, a lot of people will be saying, ‘Yeah, we could have done without that.'”
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‘Darling Mama’: Britain’s King Charles III Addresses Nation on Death of Elizabeth II

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Britain’s King Charles III has addressed the nation and the Commonwealth — a day after ascending to the throne upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Thursday. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, Charles must lead a nation that shares his sense of loss and sadness.
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