Digital Alabama News

Post Politics Now: Biden To Mark 100 Days Since Supreme Court Overturned Roe V. Wade https://digitalalabamanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-to-mark-100-days-since-supreme-court-overturned-roe-v-wade/ Today, President Biden is convening a meeting at the White House to mark 100 days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and assess the impact that has had on the country. Administration officials plan to discuss a White House report noting that abortion bans have taken effect in more than a dozen states and close to 30 million women of reproductive age now live in a state with a ban. The event comes as Democrats seek to galvanize voters on the issue of abortion ahead of the November midterm elections. The report pointedly says that Republicans have blocked efforts to write reproductive protections into federal law and that “Republican elected officials at the state and national level have taken extreme steps to block women’s access to health care.” Your daily dashboard 10 a.m. Eastern time: The Supreme Court hears oral arguments. Listen live here. 1 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. Watch live here. 3:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden convenes at meeting of the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access at the White House. Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers. On our radar: Day 2 of testimony in Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial Return to menu An FBI agent who began investigating the Oath Keepers days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will continue testifying Tuesday morning as five people associated with the far-right paramilitary group stand trial on accusations of conspiring to forcibly prevent a presidential transfer of power. The Post’s Rachel Weiner and Spencer S. Hsu report that Michael Palian said that he had not heard of the Oath Keepers before Jan. 6, 2021, and that he specialized in health-care fraud, not domestic terrorism. But after shepherding U.S. senators to safety that evening, he began investigating the people responsible. Analysis: K Street prepares for a House Republican takeover Return to menu The midterm elections are five weeks away, but K Street is already preparing for the possibility of a Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) if Republicans retake the House in November. Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Theodoric Meyer and Leigh Ann Caldwell note that to prepare for divided government, Washington lobbying firms have been hiring aides to McCarthy, now the House minority leader, and other top House Republicans. Per our colleagues: They’ve held briefings and drafted memos for clients on what a Republican House would mean for them. And they’ve been shepherding clients to meet with Republican lawmakers and staffers who are likely to be in positions of power. Republicans are bullish on retaking the House, which requires them to flip only on a handful of seats. They face tougher odds in the Senate — and it may not be clear until December which party controls that chamber if neither Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) nor his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, secures 50 percent of the vote next month, forcing a runoff election. You can read the full analysis here. On our radar: Supreme Court examining Alabama’s congressional districts Return to menu On the second day of its new term, the Supreme Court will hear more oral arguments, including in a case concerning the Voting Rights Act that civil rights groups say could undercut Black voting strength across the country. The Post’s Robert Barnes reports that the court will consider whether the Voting Rights Act requires Alabama to create a second congressional district favorable to a Black candidate, a decision that could affect redistricting nationwide. Per Bob: A lower court threw out the state’s map drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature, which gave Black voters a significant chance to elect a candidate in only one of the state’s seven congressional districts, even though African Americans make up more than a quarter of the state’s population. But the Supreme Court stepped in, ordering that this fall’s elections will take place under the legislature’s map, and then later accepted the case for full briefing and argument. Civil rights leaders fear the court will weaken federal protections about redistricting decisions that disadvantage minority communities. But Alabama, joined by other Republican-led states, says the Constitution forbids an extended consideration of race in drawing voting districts. You can read previews of this case and others being heard by the Supreme Court this term here. On our radar: White House officials to assess impact of court ruling on abortion Return to menu President Biden is convening a meeting Tuesday at the White House to mark 100 days since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and assess the impact that has had on the country. Administration officials plan to discuss a White House report noting that abortion bans have taken effect in more than a dozen states and close to 30 million women of reproductive age now live in a state with a ban. “As the President has repeatedly said, the only way to fully protect women’s access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion, is for Congress to pass a law codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade,” says the report, written by Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council. Noted: Trump sues CNN claiming defamation, seeks $475 million in damages Return to menu Former president Donald Trump sued CNN on Monday, alleging defamation and seeking $475 million in punitive damages, a move that escalates his conflict with U.S. news organizations that have critically reported on his career. The Post’s Kelly Kasulis Cho reports that the 29-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that CNN took part in a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that “escalated in recent months” because the network feared Trump would again run for president. Per Kelly: Take a look: Democrats will hold the House, Pelosi tells Stephen Colbert Return to menu House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), during an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” predicted Monday that Democrats will hold the House in the midterms, pointing to her party’s performance in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles. “We will hold the House by winning more seats,” Pelosi said. “We won the 40 seats, then we lost some when Trump was on the ballot, we lost some in the Trump districts, but we held enough seats to hold the House. He’s not on the ballot now.” Pelosi, who doesn’t like to mention former president Donald Trump by name, quickly realized she had. The latest: Herschel Walker denies report that he paid for girlfriend’s abortion Return to menu Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, on Monday denied a claim that he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, saying in a televised interview on the Fox News Channel that the account published in the Daily Beast is a “flat-out lie.” The Post’s Annie Linskey and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. report that Walker’s denial came after the Daily Beast published a detailed description from an unnamed former girlfriend who said that Walker encouraged her to have an abortion after she became pregnant while they were dating, wrote her a $700 check to pay for the procedure and then sent her a subsequent “get well” card. The latest: White House condemns North Korean ballistic missile test Return to menu The White House on Monday night condemned a “dangerous and reckless” decision by North Korea to launch a suspected intermediate-range missile over Japan. “This action is destabilizing and shows [North Korea’s] blatant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. She added that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with officials in Japan and South Korea and reinforced the United States’ “ironclad commitments” to their defense. The latest: Trump’s lawyer refused his request in February to say all documents returned Return to menu Former president Donald Trump asked one of his lawyers to tell the National Archives and Records Administration in early 2022 that Trump had returned all materials requested by the agency, but the lawyer declined because he was not sure the statement was true, according to people familiar with the matter. The Post’s Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany report that, as it turned out, thousands more government documents — including some highly classified secrets — remained at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and private club. Per our colleagues: Read More…

A Lawyer For Donald Trump Refused To Sign Off His False Claim He Returned All Mar-A-Lago Documents In January, Reports Say https://digitalalabamanews.com/a-lawyer-for-donald-trump-refused-to-sign-off-his-false-claim-he-returned-all-mar-a-lago-documents-in-january-reports-say/ An attorney declined to back Donald Trump’s claim he’d returned all govt records in January, reports say.  The lawyer, Alex Cannon, was involved in negotiations between Trump and the National Archives.  Months later, The FBI retrieved stashes of government records from Mar-a-Lago in a search.  Loading Something is loading. Trump attorney Alex Cannon declined to put his name to on a statement by the former president asserting that he had returned all the government records held at Mar-a-Lago, several reports said. Former President Donald Trump wanted to release a statement in January saying that there were no more documents after many had been handed over, The Washington Post first reported. The report was later confirmed by The New York Times and CNN. Cannon had been liaising between Trump and National Archives as the agency repeatedly asked for Trump to return records he had been keeping in Florida. Trump’s push to make the statement came after Trump gave back 15 boxes of material voluntarily, months before the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and found more documents. But Cannon declined to convey the message to the archives because he didn’t know if it was true, the reports said.  According to CNN, Cannon decided not to affirm the statement because he had been dealing with the issue from New York and could not say whether all the material held at Mar-a-Lago was returned. Shortly after, the report said, Trump instructed him not to involve himself in the matter further.  The statement claiming all records had been returned was ultimately not released, the reports said. “Biden’s weaponized DOJ has no greater ally than the fake news media, which seems to only serve as the partisan microphone of leakers and liars buried deep within the bowels of America’s government. President Trump remains committed to defending the Constitution and the Office of the Presidency, ensuring the integrity of America for generations to come,” Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, said in response to the reports.  In the boxes of materials Trump returned to them in in January the National Archives found highly classified information, and alerted the Department of Justice. When FBI agents visited Mar-a-Lago in June, Trump aides handed over further boxes of government records and an attorney for Trump signed a statement affirming that no more classified material sought by the National Archives was still being held at Mar-a-Lago, a similar assertion to the January statement that was never sent, But the FBI said it found many more classified records when it executed its search, contradicting Trump’s earlier assertions. In court filings, the DOJ has said that Trump was keeping the material in a store room and his private offices, haphazardly stored alongside personal possessions.  Trump has used a range of defenses in response to the raid, claiming that the investigation is part of a political plot to destroy him. However, the NARA and DOJ apparently made multiple attempts to resolve the issue without having to resort to obtaining a search warrant, having initially made requests for him to return the documents shortly after he left office in 2021. Insider contacted Cannon and representatives for Trump for comment. Read More…

Takeaways From The Dramatic First Day And Opening Statements Of The Oath Keepers Trial – ABC17NEWS https://digitalalabamanews.com/takeaways-from-the-dramatic-first-day-and-opening-statements-of-the-oath-keepers-trial-abc17news/ By Tierney Sneed, Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand, CNN With the historic case that they had brought against Oath Keepers accused of plotting to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, prosecutors framed up how the jury should think about the allegations with an hour-plus opening statement that kicked off the trial in earnest. Five alleged members of the far-right militia, including its leader Stewart Rhodes, are on trial in Washington DC’s federal courthouse. They have pleaded not guilty to the charge of seditious conspiracy, a charge rarely brought by the Justice Department, and other charges. The Justice Department’s opening statement featured messages and other communications among the defendants that prosecutors say show the Oath Keepers’ unlawful plotting to disrupt Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral win. As the prosecutors sought to use the words of the defendants against them, they also played video capturing the Oath Keepers’ actions in the Capitol and displayed maps and charts to help the jury follow along. Each juror has their own screen to see evidence. “They said out loud and in writing what they planned to do,” Jeffrey Nestler, an assistant US Attorney, told the jury. “When the opportunity finally presented itself … they sprang into action.” A lawyer for Rhodes, the first defense attorney to deliver an opening statement told the jurors that they will see evidence that will show that the defendants “had no part in the bulk” of the violence that occurred on January 6. “You may not like what you see and hear our defendants did,” attorney Phillip Linder said, “but the evidence will show that they didn’t do anything illegal that day.” Here are takeaways from Monday’s trial so far: DOJ says defendants “concocted a plan for an armed rebellion” The Justice Department began its opening statement with the accusation that the defendants sought to “stop by any means necessary” the lawful transfer of presidential power, “including taking up arms against the United States government.” Nestler started with a reference to the “core democratic custom of the routine” transfer of power, which Nestler said stretched back to the time of George Washington. “These defendants tried to change that history. They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy,” Nestler said. The defendants got their opportunity two weeks before the Inauguration, Nestler said. “If Congress could not meet it could not declare the winner of the election. and that was their goal — to stop by any means necessary the lawful transfer of power, including taking up arms against the United States government,” he said. He said the defendants descended on DC to attack “not just the Capitol, not just our government, not just DC, but our country itself.” Prosecutors use January 6 video footage During the Justice Department’s opening, the jury was presented with video footage, maps and other audio-visual tools that prosecutors used to give an overview of their case. Nestler’s presentation included iPhone footage from the attack that the prosecutor used to identify the defendants and other alleged co-conspirators. When video showing defendant Kelly Meggs was presented, Nestler noted the patch he wore, which said, according to Nestler: “I don’t believe in anything, I’m just here for the violence.” As the video clips played, the jury also saw a map of the Capitol that Nestler used to situate the action that was recorded by video. Nestler also had a physical chart, perched on an easel in the courtroom, listing out the alleged co-conspirators. Jurors were also presented with the messages that the defendants allegedly sent in the weeks after the election, including their calls for a violent response to former President Donald Trump’s loss. “Its easy to chat here. The real question is who’s willing to DIE” Meggs wrote in one message shown by prosecutors. The DOJ also showed video and photographs of the Oath Keepers participating in tactical training sessions. A map of the Washington Mall — showing the site of the rally that preceded the Capitol attack and its distance from the Capitol — was presented while Nestler ticked through communications, including on the walkie talk app Zello, between the defendants that allegedly occurred that day. Prosecutors preemptively punch holes in Oath Keepers’ defense Nestler used the opening arguments to also preview how the Justice Department will respond to defenses the Oath Keepers’ attorneys are expected to put forward. “There is evidence that you will hear that they had more than one reason to be here in DC, in addition to attacking Congress,” the prosecutor said. The defendants may have been planning to attend the rally near the White House earlier in the day, Nestler noted, but so did thousands of others. Nestler also referenced to potential attempts by the defense to argue the Oath Keepers were preparing to come to DC to serve as security, noting that the defendants weren’t licensed, trained or paid for their security work. “Even being bad security guards isn’t itself illegal.” Nestler said. However, according to the prosecutor, the goal they were actually preparing for was “unlawful.” Additionally, Nestler alluded to the belief that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act; the defense has signaled it plans to argue that the Oath Keepers were preparing to respond to such an invocation. “President Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act,” Nestler said. “These defendants needed to take matters into their own hands. They needed to activate the plan they had agreed on.” The Justice Department also emphasized the backgrounds of some of the defendants and how that fit into the department’s theory of the case. Rhodes, as Nestler repeatedly noted, is a graduate of Yale Law school. He knew to be careful with his words and told his co-conspirators to be careful with theirs, Nestler said. Thomas Caldwell, another defendant, served in the military, Nestler said. “Based on that water experience, he planned to use boats to get across the Potomac.” DOJ detail “desperate” focus on January 6 The Justice Department detailed the preparations the Oath Keepers allegedly undertook before January 6 as well as what they’re accusing the defendants of doing during the Capitol breach. In December 2020, Rhodes told others that January 6 presented a “hard constitutional deadline,” according to prosecutors, and that they would need to “do it ourselves” if Trump didn’t stop the certification of the election. “With time, as their options dwindled and it became more and more likely that power would be transferred,” Nestler said Monday, “these defendants became more and more desperate and more and more focused on that date that Rhodes referred to as a constitutional deadline.” According to Nestler, the group organized a caravan of Florida members to drive up to Washington for January 6, and made preparations for where the organization could store firearms in Virginia, just outside DC. Some members of the group, according to prosecutors, brought weapons into DC that day, including chemical spray, thick pieces of wood, dressed in paramilitary gear. Nestler’s opening described the “stack” formations the defendants allegedly used to enter the Capitol. He played a video of defendant Jessica Watkins, who allegedly led the first group, pushing against a crowd outside the House chamber shouting “push, push, push! Get in there, they can’t hold us.” The second group positioned themselves outside of a suite of offices belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nestler said. Nestler said that Meggs had a “keen interest in Speaker Pelosi,” and later told associates that “we looked for her.” At first, the defendants saw the breach as a success, Nestler said, describing them as “elated,” “boastful” and “proud.” But, according to DOJ’s account, the defendants quickly realized they were in legal jeopardy, and instructed one another to flee town, delete messages and keep quiet. “Let me put it in infantry speak: SHUT THE F**K UP,” Rhodes said in one Signal message, as presented by prosecutors. Even with their criminal exposure, Nestler said, Rhodes continued to plot. On January 10, Rhodes met with someone in Texas to try and get a message to former President Trump. The meeting, which had not previously been reported, was secretly recorded by an attendee. “My only regret is that they should have brought rifles… we could have fixed it right then and there.” Rhodes said of January 6, according to the Justice Department’s opening. Oath Keepers attorney: Defendants “had no part in the bulk of” January 6 violence Rhodes attorney Linder told the jurors that they will see evidence that will show that defendants “had no part in the bulk” of the violence that occurred on January 6. He suggested that there will be gaps in the evidence, such as video, that the Justice Department will show the jury. He said that, once the prosecutors put on their case, the defense will fill in those gaps. “You may not like what you see and hear our defendants did, but the evidence will show that they didn’t do anything illegal that day,” Linder said. As the defense attorney delivered his opening, he was told by the judge to avoid topics that had been deemed out of bounds for the trial — with at one point, Judge Amit Mehta bringing him up to the bench for a private discussion. Among the off-limits topics brought up by Linder that prompted the interventions were comments about the amount prison time the charges bring, the congressional narrative around January 6, remarks about defendants sitting in jail, and certain details about the Insurrection Act. Mehta to...

Anders Carlson Still Has Auburn’s ‘full Support’ Despite Recent FG Struggles https://digitalalabamanews.com/anders-carlson-still-has-auburns-full-support-despite-recent-fg-struggles/ Unless Cincinnati Bengals kicker Evan McPherson suddenly walks through the door, Bryan Harsin isn’t prepared to make any changes at kicker for Auburn despite some recent struggles on field goal attempts. Anders Carlson is just 2-of-4 on field goals in SEC play, with two other misses waved off due to offside penalties by opponents, but Harsin is remaining confident in Auburn’s sixth-year placekicker as the team prepares for its first road game of the season Saturday at No. 2 Georgia. “We have faith in Anders,” Harsin said Monday. “…He’s been very good in practice. Anders is a very consistent guy, and we still believe in him.” Read more Auburn football: Auburn edge Eku Leota out for season with pectoral injury Statistically speaking: Auburn committing turnovers at alarming rate Auburn opens as four-touchdown underdog on road against rival Georgia Harsin’s comments were in response to a question about whether the second-year coach has considered giving freshman kicker Alex McPherson — the younger brother of Bengals kicker Evan McPherson — an opportunity, especially on longer field goal attempts. The reporter accidentally mixed up the two brothers, prompting Harsin to joke that, “we’d give (Evan) a chance, yeah; can we get him here?” Barring the older McPherson suddenly regaining eligibility following his career at Florida and now in the NFL, where he’s in his second season, Harsin appears content and confident in Carlson despite the recent misses. Carlson made one of his two field goal tries in last weekend’s loss to LSU, pushing a 40-yard attempt wide right late in the first half with Auburn ahead 17-7. Earlier in the second quarter, Carlson connected on a 29-yard try that gave Auburn a 17-point lead. A week prior against Missouri, Carlson officially made 1-of-2 field goals in Auburn’s 17-14 overtime win—including the game-winner from 39 yards out in the extra period. That make came after he missed a 44-yarder on the prior play, but Missouri jumped offside, providing Carlson with a mulligan. That sequence came after he missed two attempts just before halftime. He pushed a 50-yarder wide left but was afforded a do-over after Missouri was flagged for offside on that attempt. Carlson missed the second try from 45 yards, sending the teams into halftime knotted at 14-14. “We’ve missed a couple of kicks, that’s very apparent,” Harsin said. “We need to make those, and that’s not anything that we don’t talk about in this room.” Carlson, who opted to return for an extra season, is No. 2 on Auburn’s all-time scoring list with 380 career points. He ranks behind only his older brother, current Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, the SEC’s all-time leading scorer (480). The younger Carlson is also second in program history in field goals made (72) and is third in career PATs made (164). He’s seventh on the SEC’s all-time scoring list and eighth in career made field goals. Though his standing on those lists is noteworthy, Carlson has also connected on just 72 percent of his career field goals—including just 67.8 percent (19-of-28) since the start of last season. With the exception of his 2020 campaign, when he made 20-of-22 field goal tries (90.9 percent), Carlson has connected on just 66.7 percent of his career attempts (52-of-78). This season, after returning from ACL surgery last November, Carlson has converted five of his seven field goal attempts. Both of his misses have been from between 40 and 50 yards, though his first make of the season came from 45 yards out. He’s 2-of-2 on field goals between 20 and 29 yards out, and 2-of-2 on kicks between 30 and 39 yards. McPherson, the top-rated kicker in the 2022 class coming out of high school, has yet to attempt a field goal this season at Auburn, though he holds the Alabama high school state record for longest field goal (61 yards). “Alex is available,” Harsin said. “Alex can go out there and have opportunities as well. But we still believe in Anders and know he’s a guy who’s played. He’s played at a high level…. This week, we’re going to have to prepare a little bit differently, even in the kicking game. Obviously on the road, it’s going to be a different environment, so different things we have to do to get our guys prepared. “But the one thing about Anders, I know he will make any adjustments he needs to make to go out there and be successful for us in those moments. And he’s done that. Alex is ready, but Anders still has our full support, and this week is going to be a great week to get back on track and be consistent in the Georgia game.” Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Why The Visa Process Could Be https://digitalalabamanews.com/why-the-visa-process-could-be/ Tourist visas can be expensive and confusing to apply for. The process may discourage some travelers from visiting the U.S. Visa policies try to balance economic and national security priorities. It can be hard for international visitors to get permission to come to the U.S.  Onyi Apakama knows this firsthand. She’s a first-generation American born to two Nigerian immigrants, and much of her family is still living overseas. A convoluted and expensive tourist visa application process means her relatives have missed major milestones with family here in the U.S.  “It was definitely a sad thing because it was (my cousin’s) younger sister,” Apakama said. “She wasn’t able to attend her sister’s wedding.” For Americans, it can be easy to forget how complicated international travel can be depending on your passport. U.S. passport holders can access 186 international destinations without applying for visas in advance according to the Henley Passport Index, meaning we almost never need to go through the hassle and expense of filling out extra paperwork or turning up at a country’s embassy to prove ourselves before a trip. But many visitors coming to the U.S. face a process that’s much more arduous.  Forget the post office: You may be able to renew your passport online Summer airport meltdowns?: Things in Amsterdam are chilling out According to Esra Calvert, around 40% of international visitors to the U.S. need to apply for a visa to enter. Calvert is the principal at Esra Calvert Consulting, which focuses on data in the tourism industry. “There is paperwork you have to do online, and you wait for your appointment time,” she told USA TODAY. “When your appointment time comes, you go to the embassy for an interview. You have to show proof of finances, what your plans are, very basic pieces of information just for proof that you’re going on vacation or a business meeting.” In Nigeria, Apakama said, it can also be harder to get a visa appointment if your family isn’t politically well-connected.  Those extra barriers sometimes discourage people from applying for visas at all – to say nothing of those whose applications are rejected. That means the U.S. is potentially missing out on a lot of tourist dollars that would otherwise be generated every year. According to the Department of Commerce, tourism accounted for $1.9 trillion in economic output in 2019.  “There’s so many choices for travelers,” Calvert said. “If a traveler has to wait for a year,” just to get their visa interview, they’re going to go somewhere else for vacation. Raoul Bianchi, a reader in political economy at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Department of Economics Policy and International Business said that tourist visa applications disproportionately make it harder for people to travel from the developing world. ‘They should’ve helped me’: Booking through platforms like Expedia leaves some travelers stranded Looser COVID guidelines: What the CDC’s latest policy means for travel “The global north/global south division is very stark,” he said in an interview. “There is an enormous disparity between wealthy Westernized countries and sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central America and South Asia.” The process can be so opaque that experts suggest many visa applicants fear that talking about their experiences to the press could hinder their ability to get approved. What does a tourist visa cost to visit the US? According to the State Department, it costs $160 per person to apply for a tourist visa. They can be valid for up to 10 years, depending on the applicant’s nationality. The fees are becoming more prohibitive for some travelers as inflation rises.  “The cost has gone up. And right now with inflation (and) the exchange rate, the Nigerian naira has gotten a lot weaker in the last year or six months,” Apakama said. When she visited Nigeria in 2019 or 2020, it was around 350 naira to the dollar. Now it’s closer to 430 nairas to the dollar, meaning her relatives could wind up paying tens of thousands of naira just in visa fees for a whole family unit to visit. In a statement, the State Department said those fees are nonrefundable and nontransferable, even if the application is rejected.  “The department’s consular operations are largely funded by fees for services. Visa fees charged are generally based on the cost to the department of providing visa services, and are determined through periodic studies of the cost of consular services, including visa services,” a spokesperson said. “This means that there is no profit to the U.S. government from the collection of fees. Rather the fee is in place to recover the cost to the U.S. government of providing the service.” Is there a doctor onboard?: In-flight medical kits may not have everything a passenger could need in an emergency Who is required to get a tourist visa to come to the US? Visa requirements can change over time, and especially for visitors to the U.S., have gotten more stringent in recent decades. “An average of two-thirds of the people around the world have to obtain a visa prior to departure. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and more recent terrorist attacks worldwide, have changed the discourse of immigration and international tourism within Europe and North America,” Pooneh Torabian, a lecturer in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago’s business school in New Zealand said in a statement. “Since Sept. 11, international travel has become more regulated in the name of safety and security, and international movement for ethnic minority citizens, specifically Arab and Muslim travelers, has been hindered.” ‘The space was not built for me’: Plus-size flyers say airlines have room to improve Bianchi agreed and pointed out that visa policies often reflect a country’s broader geopolitical stances. For example, soon after President Donald Trump took office, his administration enacted a ban on visitors from many Muslim-majority countries, a reflection of the president’s immigration priorities. Even since President Joe Biden reversed that policy, however, advocates say little has changed in practical terms.  “Quite often visa policies can be a reflection of bilateral diplomatic relations or a proxy for something else that’s going on,” Bianchi said. Story continues below. For visa applicants, Apakama said, the restrictions can feel like discrimination at a high level. “Who are the folks that we as a country believe are going to contribute to the society and those who are not,” she said. Many applicants feel there’s a human arbitrariness to the process too. “My family members believe it’s whoever’s interviewing you that day and it’s just their mood,” Apakama said. When the visa interviewer seemed grumpy, her family felt their applications faced more scrutiny and were more likely to be denied. The U.S. has visa waiver agreements with 40 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and many European nations. Canadian citizens also usually do not need to apply for tourist visas to visit the U.S. Travelers using passports from countries not on the waiver list generally do need to apply for tourist visas before coming here.  Even when a visitor has a visa, border guards have the discretion to turn them away at passport control. Apakama said she’s had relatives who were denied entry after landing in the U.S. and put on flights back to Nigeria. How long does it take to get a tourist visa for the US? Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. embassies and consulates have been struggling to keep up with visa applications, and in some places, the wait time for an appointment is now longer than a year. “It’s discouraging visitors,” Calvert said. “All the hassle that travelers have to go through with the visa application process in this day and age, there could be some opportunities to bring the visa backlog numbers down.” The State Department’s wait time calculator estimates that the consulate in Mumbai is now scheduling tourist visa appointments 848 days out, though the department says that extreme wait is an outlier.  First look: American Airlines reveals new business class and premium economy seats Welcome aboard: An early tour of KLM airlines’ new Premium Comfort cabin “We are reducing appointment wait times in all visa classes as quickly as possible, worldwide. In fact, visa processing is rebounding faster than projected, after a near-complete shutdown and freezing of resources during the pandemic,” a spokesperson said. “The wait time for a routine visa appointment at half of our overseas posts is less than four months, and at some posts is far shorter than that. Applicants who have urgent travel needs and can apply away from their own home country should seek to do so.” Will US visas ever be easier to get? Bianchi, from Manchester Metropolitan University, said visa policies are constantly in flux. “There are tensions and conflicts within governments. They don’t work as a monolith,” he said. “You’ll get the tourism industry in alliance with the tourism ministries, but the ministries of the interior, or in your case the Department of Homeland Security, will be very much in favor of tightening visas because their concern is security.” Are airplane seats too small?: FAA soliciting public comments on minimum dimensions That push and pull means making visas more accessible is usually a slow and contested process. In the meantime Calvert said, the U.S. will keep missing out on potential tourist dollars. “I’m concerned about price as a barrier and these visa regulations,” she said. “Travel shouldn’t be that difficult. How do we keep the world open?” If you’d like to share your story of applying for a visa, please use this form. Read More…

America Is At A Turning Point This Midterm Campaign Season. The Choice Is Critical | Opinion – Pennsylvania Capital-Star https://digitalalabamanews.com/america-is-at-a-turning-point-this-midterm-campaign-season-the-choice-is-critical-opinion-pennsylvania-capital-star/ By Jonathan C. Rothermel The casual references to the empirically false claim of a 2020 stolen presidential election is a cancer on our democratic system. It is a cancer that threatens the health and well-being of U.S. democracy. The sanctity of elections is paramount to a thriving democracy, and if citizens cannot trust the mechanism by which the will of the people is executed, then our prognosis as a country is not good. The validity of the 2020 election is not a debatable political issue like abortion or gun control are. Yet, in a recent Monmouth poll, 29 percent of Americans, including 61 percent of Republicans, still believe that President Joe Biden won due to voter fraud. It is important to try to make sense of why so many people feel this way. When most Americans went to bed on election night on Nov. 3, 2020, it appeared that Donald Trump was on his way to a second term. By the time folks woke up the next day, the situation had changed dramatically. For many Americans, the simple explanation was Biden votes were somehow “discovered” or simply “added” to the vote count illegally overnight – an obvious indication of fraud. The U.S. Census reported that 43 percent of all voters cast their ballot by mail in 2020. In fact, the Biden surge was fully expected due to the higher proportion of mail-in and absentee ballots that went to Biden. According to the Pew Research Center, 58 percent of Biden voters voted by mail or absentee ballot versus 32 percent of Trump voters. For America’s best lawyers, Trump is radioactive | Dick Polman The sheer volume of mail-in ballots was a challenge for election officials, especially during a pandemic, who in most cases could not begin counting mail-in ballots until Election Day or even after polls had closed on Election Day. According to the U.S. Constitution, individual states determine the time and manner of elections, which can be quite different from state to state. Unless one is familiar with this dynamic of federalism and understood that Biden voters were more likely to vote by mail, it is reasonable that Trump-supporting Americans would initially be concerned the day after the election. To add to that concern, many Americans can relate a story whereby a deceased relative or person they know who moved outside of the state received a mail-in ballot. It is true that this occurred in several instances, but that alone does not equate to voter fraud. The fraudulent act only occurs if that ballot is actually filled out and submitted. A comprehensive Associated Press  investigation of voter fraud in the 2020 election identified less than 475 cases in six battleground states. In addition, receiving an application for a mail-in ballot in some states, such as Pennsylvania, is the first step of the vote-by-mail process. This is sometimes confusing to people. In other words, simply receiving an application to vote by mail is not the same as receiving a mail-in ballot. In all but a handful of states, an application must first be submitted, and then a mail-in ballot is sent to the applicant. Finally, so many Americans believe that the election was stolen because the political leaders who they admire and trust told them it was so. Donald Trump had already planted the seed of his intention not to accept the election outcome, in the event he lost, months prior to the election. Unfortunately, Trump has used this as a way to galvanize his own political support as witnessed at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021. Beyond this, he now uses this claim as a litmus test for those seeking his endorsement. Sadly, grown men and women are forced to kiss the ring of Trump, while he basks in their idolatry towards him. During a rally in Ohio, Trump ridiculed Ohio Republican senatorial candidate, JD Vance, by saying that JD Vance was “in love” with Trump and is “kissing my a**” for support. According to fivethirtyeight.com, “out of 552 total Republican nominees running for office, we found 201 who fully denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election.” Another 62 candidates raised questions and would not say whether the election was legitimate. This is not a good sign heading into the 2022 midterm elections. DeSantis’ compassionless conservatism underscores urgency of real immigration reform It was fair to initially raise concerns over the possibility of a fraudulent election in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election. However, the time for relying on a gut-feeling, an isolated story that one heard, an unverifiable report, innuendo, or a politician who has something to gain by perpetuating a false narrative is over. For the sake of our democracy, it is time to fully reckon with facts. Concerns over a fraudulent presidential election have been highly scrutinized and fully investigated, including by judicial court proceedings and even prominent conservatives. The empirical record has unequivocally shown that there is no truth to the widespread belief that the election was stolen. Elections are the vanguard of a democracy. In 2016, despite winning the national popular vote but losing the Electoral College, Hillary Clinton conceded to Trump the day after the election. Two days after the election, then President Barack Obama invited President-elect Trump and his wife to the White House to help facilitate a smooth transition. While many Republicans – including several among Trump’s own inner circle – have accepted the election outcome and repudiated the “stolen election” narrative, others are still clinging to it for their own political gain. It is up to the American people to call them out on this. Acknowledging the validity of our electoral system does not take away one’s Republican card. In fact, perpetuating the false claim undermines Republicans legitimately held conservative views on actual debatable issues. The upcoming 2022 midterm elections is a critical juncture. Will we be a country that continues down the path of illiberal democracy, or will we take back our democracy? Left untreated, the cancer that currently plagues US democracy will spread. Opinion contributor Jonathan C. Rothermel is a political science professor at Commonwealth University-Mansfield. His work appears frequently on the Capital-Star’s Commentary Page. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ProfJCR. Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics. Read More…

Trump Rallies Drift To Fringe Ahead Of Potential 2024 Bid https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-rallies-drift-to-fringe-ahead-of-potential-2024-bid/ WARREN, Mich. (AP) — Paige Cole is one of the “Anons.” The mother of three from Eastpointe, Michigan, says Joe Biden is a sham president and believes Donald Trump will soon be reinstated to the White House to finish the remainder of Biden’s term. “His whole inauguration was fake. He didn’t have real military people. He had, like, fake badges, fake people. And Trump is actually our president,” she said while waiting in line for his latest rally on Saturday at Macomb Community College. Wearing a pink “Trump 2024” hat and draped in a large “TRUMP WON” flag, Cole — a former Democrat who says she voted twice for Barack Obama — began to cry as she described the significance of Trump’s return and the 1,000 years of peace she believes will be ushered in with it. “It’s gonna change everything,” she says, “like we have never in humanity seen before.” Trump’s rallies have always attracted a broad swath of supporters, from first timers taking advantage of their chance to see a president in person, to devotees who camp out for days and follow him around the country like rock band groupies. But after spending much of the last two years obsessively peddling false claims of a stolen election, Trump is increasingly attracting those who have broken with reality, including adherents of the baseless QAnon conspiracy, which began in the dark corners of the internet and is premised on the belief that the country is run by a ring of child sex traffickers, satanic pedophiles and cannibals that only Trump can defeat. As he eyes another White House bid, Trump is increasingly flirting with the conspiracy. He’s reposted Q memes on his social media platform and amplified users who have promoted the movement’s slogans, videos and imagery. And in recent weeks, he has been closing out his rally speeches with an instrumental song that QAnon adherents have claimed as their anthem and renamed “WWG1WGA” after the group’s “Where we go one, we go all” slogan. Trump and his allies often dismiss suggestions that he advances conspiracy theories or condones violence. “The continued attempts by the media to invent and amplify conspiracies, while also fanning the flames of division, is truly sick,” his spokesperson, Taylor Budowich, said in a statement. “America is a nation in decline and our people are suffering, President Trump and his America First movement will not be distracted by the media’s nonsense, and he will instead continue fighting to Make America Great Again.” But interviews with more than a dozen Michigan rallygoers Saturday underscore his influence and serve as a reminder that many cling to his every word and see his actions as validation. Several of those interviewed said they only began attending Trump’s rallies after the 2020 election, when they said they had become more politically engaged. Several, like Virginia Greenlee, of Holland, Michigan, said they had been in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, trying to halt the peaceful transition of power by disrupting the certification of Biden’s win. “President Trump really woke people up because I didn’t even know there was a deep state or fake media, fake news, until he started bringing light,” said Greenlee, who said she did not go inside the building but watched from outside. She blamed the violence on leftist protesters masquerading as Trump supporters, though there is no evidence to support that claim. Meanwhile, Trump continues to elevate those who peddle conspiracies. Mike Lindell, the MyPillow salesman who has spent millions trying (and failing) to prove the election was stolen, spoke twice Saturday — once outside to attendees waiting in line to enter and again during the rally program. Also in attendance was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman who told the crowd that “Democrats want Republicans dead. And they’ve already started the killings.” Trump has long used angry and violent rhetoric to rile up his supporters, even after Jan. 6 made clear that some may act on that anger. As he inches closer to a possible announcement, Trump has leaned into the kind of racist and violent language that helped him clinch victory in 2016, when his ever-more-shocking statements — and the inevitable backlash — helped him dominate the news. On Friday, he again attacked Mitch McConnell, this time in a racist post on his social media site that accused the Senate Republican leader of having a “death wish” and derided McConnell’s wife, who was born in Taiwan and served in Trump’s administration as a Cabinet secretary. On Saturday, the crowd cheered enthusiastically as Trump touted plans to use the death penalty to kill drug dealers and traffickers if he returns to the White House, emulating the strongman leaders he’s often admired. And again, he empathized with the Jan. 6 defendants who have been jailed for their role in the insurrection, casting the rioters — whom he has already pledged to pardon if he runs and wins — as “political prisoners” and accusing authorities of “persecuting people who just happened to be there, many of them didn’t even go in.” The crowd in turn, broke into numerous “Lock her up!” chants directed at Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as well as the state’s Democratic governor, secretary of state and attorney general, whom his endorsed candidates are trying to unseat. Still, Trump aides seem to want to have it both ways. As he began to wrap up his speech, some in the crowd raised their index fingers in what has been described as a QAnon salute. But for the second week in a row, burly event staff with tattoos carefully scanned the crowd, quickly asking those who raised their fingers to put them down. “They said they didn’t want hands in the air,” one of them explained he’d been told. Still, Trump’s nods to QAnon are encouraging to people like Cole, who said Trump had opened her eyes “to everything, to the evil in the world.” A 55-year-old semi-retired certified nursing assistant who relies on a bevy of fringe podcasts for information since eschewing cable news, Cole believes “our money’s no good because it was controlled by the Rothschilds,” an anti-Semitic trope, and that the Supreme Court has “already overturned” the 2020 election, but “they’re just sitting on it and they’re waiting for things to come about.” “We have to listen to underground news to get the truth of what’s going on, really,” she said. Trump’s decision to play the song, she said after the rally, shows the American people “and all those affiliated and committed in with the WWG1WGA bond and mission, that President Trump, too, is doing his best to help all involved to eradicate worldwide evil and helping to make the world better for all. It brings me strength in my mind to hold onto the hope and promises for a better life for all.” But some in the crowd voiced discomfort. Christina Whipkey, 50, who lives in Warren, Michigan, said she found Trump’s flirtations with QAnon “kind of weird” and “odd” and worried their presence at his rallies was playing into negative stereotypes. “I didn’t like that,” she said. “It’s telling people what they said about us all along, that we’re all just a bunch of QAnon supporters.” “You don’t want people to think just because you support him that you’re that far into it, that you’re one of those people,” she went on. “You don’t want people to think that about you.” A longtime Trump supporter who remembers talking about him running for president while playing his board game in high school, Whipkey also said she thinks it’s time for Trump to move on from the 2020 election, even if she has concerns about the vote. “I just wish he’d let that go now. Focus more on the future than on the past,” she said, worried he was turning off potential voters. “They’re tired of hearing it … You get to a point where it’s like, ‘All right, buddy. We heard it enough. We got it. We know.’” Laurie Letzgus, 51, a machine operator from Port Huron, Michigan, and another longtime supporter, agreed. “It is time to move on, I think,” she said. “Let’s look forward. And let’s look to 2024.” But Sharon Anderson, a member of the “Front Row Joes” group that travels the country to see Trump and who was attending her 29th rally Saturday, including the one held Jan. 6, disagreed. While she doesn’t “put a lot of faith in some of their beliefs,” she took no issue with QAnon’s growing presence at the rallies. “There’s a lot of people, a big group that comes to his rallies. And they are for him, too. They’re for his policies. Now whether they are trying to push their beliefs, I don’t know,” said Anderson, who lives in East Tennessee. “But I do know that everybody here that I’ve encountered supports Donald J. Trump. That’s what matters.” Read More…

A More Unequal, Divided, Violent United States Is Seeing Its Democracy Decay https://digitalalabamanews.com/a-more-unequal-divided-violent-united-states-is-seeing-its-democracy-decay/ * “Income and wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country, and it is rising,” said an April report. * “Largely driven by the pandemic,” life expectancy at birth in the United States declined by nearly a year to 76.1 years from 2020 to 2021, reaching its lowest since 1996. * Firearm-related deaths increased by 15 percent to 45,222 in 2020, the highest ever recorded. BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) — In a recent measurement of how countries have progressed towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the United States ranked 41, after Cuba and before Bulgaria. American experts consider it a dismal rating. Having dropped from its 2021 ranking of 32, the country has declined in indicators such as inequalities, labor rights protections and carbon emissions, according to the report by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in June. The rating is “the inevitable result of two problems,” namely racism and a devotion to “American exceptionalism,” political historian Kathleen Frydl wrote on Sept. 15, citing a February index that deemed the United States to be a “flawed democracy.” More reports have revealed the ills of today’s America, where ordinary people have suffered too much from a system stuck in partisanship amid rising gun violence and an unprecedented pandemic. People wearing face masks are seen at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 5, 2022. (Xinhua) TOUGHER LIFE “Let our voices be heard, knowing that enough is enough,” said Adrienne J. Gaymon, who sat through an eight-hour bus ride from Columbia, South Carolina, to join thousands of Americans in downtown Washington D.C. this June for a rally to call attention to the living conditions of low-income people. She criticized what she called tax breaks for the rich and the rising cost of living, while “nothing’s being done to help those that are struggling.” The rally took place near Capitol Hill, with protestors holding signs with messages such as “money for the poor, not for war,” “lift from the bottom everybody rises,” “stop racism now,” and “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” “Income and wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country, and it is rising,” said an April report by the Council on Foreign Relations headquartered in New York, noting that between 1978 and 2018, CEO compensation and worker compensation increased by more than 900 percent and just 11.9 percent respectively. In 1980, households in the top 10 percent in the United States had incomes about nine times that of households in the bottom 10 percent, while the ratio increased every decade since, reaching 12.6 in 2018, according to a report by the Pew Research Center in January 2020. People attend a rally calling for attention to the living conditions of the low-income people and urging policymakers to do more to support those in the bottom, in Washington, D.C., the United States, June 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Gloria Brandman, a retired school teacher from New York City, told Xinhua at the rally that “so many people are just struggling right now, and we’ve seen the pandemic has just made it even worse for everyone, especially people without the money to take the precautions that they need.” “Largely driven by the pandemic,” life expectancy at birth in the United States declined by nearly a year to 76.1 years from 2020 to 2021, reaching its lowest since 1996, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in August. “In this country, by systematically neglecting public health over the last 30 to 40 years, we’ve lost a lot of ground,” said Phil Landrigan, an epidemiologist at Boston College, the Boston Herald reported. A breakdown of the data speaks more. In the first half of 2020, life expectancy at birth for African American populations dropped the most from 2019, by 2.7 years to 72 years, hitting a new low since 2001. Latinos experienced the second-biggest decline. In January, the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that the level of trust among U.S. citizens in their government was merely 39 percent, down by 3 percentage points from 2021. A yellow school bus convoy heads to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s home and office in Houston, the United States, July 14, 2022. (Change the Ref/Handout via Xinhua) RISING VIOLENCE With less public confidence comes more violence. On July 14, a mile-long convoy consisted of 52 yellow school buses headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s home and office in Houston, the largest city of the gun-friendly state of Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform. The empty bus seats represented the 4,368 children killed by guns since 2020, according to the organizers, who said that Cruz was the leading recipient of gun lobbyist funding in Texas, with nearly 750,000 dollars in total. Since 2020, firearms have overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of death in children in the United States, said the CDC. In 2020, firearm-related deaths increased by 15 percent to 45,222, the highest ever recorded by the CDC since it began tracking firearm deaths in 1968. Twenty-one percent of U.S. adults say either themselves, a family member, or a close friend has had an experience with gun violence in the past five years, showed an August study from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But still, gun control remains stagnant between parties, with a century-old New York state law restricting a citizen’s ability to carry a concealed handgun squashed by the Supreme Court in June. Demonstrators march during a protest after U.S. Supreme Court made decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, in New York, the United States, June 24, 2022. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua) DECAYING DEMOCRACY The increasingly unequal, split and violent society has laid bare the malfunctions of American democracy. As the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance said in November 2021, the United States was undergoing “democratic backsliding.” The Jan. 6 Capitol riot last year, which a Le Monde columnist this May has called “a symbol of a sick democracy,” has shown how partisanship could undermine democracy, while 2022 has seen even more fierce antagonism between Democrats and Republicans, as well as between their supporters, in abortion, gun control and other issues concerning people’s fundamental rights and wellbeing. Now, after the search of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate by federal agents in August, part of a probe launched by the U.S. Department of Justice into whether Trump had mishandled classified documents, violent threats and calls for “civil war” erupted on pro-Trump forums online, with some far-right figures publicly spreading violent rhetoric. Supporters of Donald Trump gather near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, Jan. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they have seen an increase in “violent threats” against law enforcement, judiciary and government personnel, including a particular threat to “place a so-called Dirty Bomb in front of FBI headquarters.” In a speech on Sept. 1, U.S. President Joe Biden himself admitted that “equality and democracy are under assault,” lashing out at Trump and “MAGA Republicans” — those who support Trump. “For the West, the growth of social cleavages should come as a warning … democratic institutions can provide cover for social divisions and allow them to be exploited for political gain, as has occurred in the United States and elsewhere in recent years,” Amitav Acharya, professor of international relations at American University, wrote for Foreign Affairs in its July/August edition. Marc Fisher, senior editor of The Washington Post, lamented in August that “it’s easy and logical to conclude that the United States today stands as close to the edge of civil war as it has since 1861.” “We already live in a ‘backsliding’ democracy …” Max Boot, a senior fellow for national security studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in July. “We seem to be sleepwalking to disaster.” (Video reporters: Zhang Mocheng, Hu Yousong, Zhao Xu; video editors: Zhu Cong, Yin Le, Zhao Yuchao, Hui Peipei)■ Read More…

This Is How The Voting Rights Act Ends https://digitalalabamanews.com/this-is-how-the-voting-rights-act-ends/ This is a column. When I was a kid in rural Alabama, I didn’t enjoy professional wrestling — or rasslin’ — nearly as much as my friends seemed to. Before the bell rang at school, I’d hear breathless reports of what Rowdy Roddy Piper had done the night before, but for me, there was something about a predetermined contest that took the excitement out of the so-called sport. The few times I tried to get into it, I figured out pretty early on who was going to win. And today, there’s something equally less thrilling about to happen inside this courthouse across the street from the U.S. Capitol. Above the front door, it says “Equal Justice Under Law” etched into the facade, but I can’t shake the feeling it’s only that — a facade. This here has all the markings of a rigged game. But unlike those matches on TBS so long ago, this one will have consequences — for Alabama. And for America. On Tuesday, the state of Alabama will defend its congressional district map before the United States Supreme Court. Few expect Alabama to lose. The only question is what this country looks like after the state wins. Earlier this year, a three-judge panel — including two Trump appointees — found that Alabama had violated the Constitution by drawing too many Black people into the state’s only majority-Black congressional district. It was a surprising outcome unfavorable to the state’s Republican supermajority. The judges ordered the Alabama Legislature to draw a new district map, but the Legislature — which had drawn the original map in a matter of days — said it couldn’t meet the court’s deadline. The three-judge panel gave the state a deadline, after which it would draw the state’s new congressional map for it. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court intervened. Using its so-called “shadow docket,” the court stayed the lower court ruling until it could hear the case — after Alabama’s 2022 primaries. For now, the Supreme Court reinstated the Alabama Legislature’s district map. And the court may not deliver a ruling in the case until next year, well after the general election next month. The higher court’s intervention sent a clear message. If Constitutional rights or fair representation for Black voters were at risk, the court cared less about those things than it did getting another election done with. Putting something on the back burner says everything about where it lands on your list of priorities. But this case isn’t only about how many seats one party or the other has in Alabama and in Congress. It’s about the Voting Rights Act, or what’s left of it. And that’s what’s really at stake when the court hears oral arguments today. Already, Alabama has played an outsized role in the voting rights of Black Americans. It was the march from Selma to Montgomery that set the Voting Rights Act on its way into law. And Alabama is where, too, the Voting Rights Act might meet its end. Already, Shelby v. Holder gutted the pre-clearance provisions of the law, which required states and counties with a history of racial discrimination and voter suppression to seek the Justice Department’s permission before changing district lines or voting practices. No sooner had the court struck that part of the law than Alabama had enacted voter ID and it attempted to close drivers license offices in predominately Black counties. Now comes our home state for the rest of the VRA — Section 2, which draws a fine line regarding drawing districts. Section 2 prohibits states from diluting the influence of minority voters. The plaintiffs in Merrill v. Milligan have argued that the latest district map packs too many Black voters into one oddly shaped congressional district, winding from downtown Birmingham to Tuscaloosa to the Black Belt and back around to Montgomery all while avoiding GOP enclaves in Shelby County and other suburbs. The drawing of Alabama’s 7th District effectively limits the influence of Black voters in Alabama when there are enough Black voters to justify two majority- (or near-majority) Black districts. The trouble here is — and this is the metal folding chair propped conspicuously outside the ring — is that it’s hard to tell Alabama, on one hand, it must give Black voters fair influence in congressional elections but then, on the other hand, tell the state it can’t draw district lines based on race. The signs are there that the conservative majority on the court could use this case to gut Section 2 and severely limit what’s left of the law. At which point, there’s no guarantee the state will not act as it did before, using its new license to the advantage of its majority partisan interests. And as Alabama goes, so goes the nation. This script seems to be written. The winner is set. But this ain’t rasslin’. When it’s over, somebody’s going to get hurt. For real. Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group, 2020 winner of the Walker Stone Award, winner of the 2021 SPJ award for opinion writing, and 2021 winner of the Molly Ivins prize for political commentary. You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram. MORE COLUMNS BY KYLE WHITMIRE Alabama GOP chairman made the photo ID he used to vote Alabama GOP chair refused to show license to vote. That became a problem for poll workers. Alabama GOP chair’s family believed voter ID was mark of the beast, brother said in deposition If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Voting Rights: Supreme Court To Dig Into Claims Of Racial Gerrymandering In Alabama https://digitalalabamanews.com/voting-rights-supreme-court-to-dig-into-claims-of-racial-gerrymandering-in-alabama/ WASHINGTON – Just over a year ago the Supreme Court walloped a key provision of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, making it tougher to establish that a change to an election law – say, cutting back on early voting – discriminated against minority voters.  Now, voting rights advocates fear, the court is winding up for another swing. The justices will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a challenge to Alabama’s recently redrawn congressional map, which includes one district out of seven with a majority of Black voters – even though African Americans make up 27% of the state’s population. The court’s ruling could have sweeping implications for congressional maps nationwide.  Alabama officials assert the new districts are race-neutral and that creating a second African American district would require mapmakers to focus on race as their top priority, a command they say would itself amount to unconstitutional discrimination. Opponents say that argument turns the whole point of the Voting Rights Act on its head. “The Voting Rights Act was created precisely to prevent the kind of manipulation of district lines that undermine the political power of Black communities that we see in Alabama,” said Sophia Lin Lakin of the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups that initially challenged Alabama’s new congressional districts last fall. Impact: Supreme Court ruling could give advantage to restrictive voting laws Midterms: How the Supreme Court is influencing the November midterm elections Race: America’s fierce debate over voting access intensifies as midterm elections loom The case arrives at the high court weeks before the November midterms, though the decision won’t land in time to affect this year’s election. It is one of several cases involving race the justices are considering as the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority has viewed policies that focus to combat discrimination with skepticism.  Conservatives who side with Alabama argue that lower courts have misread the Voting Rights Act. The intention is to bar discrimination, they say, not to compel states to go out of their way to do everything possible to avoid the appearance of discrimination. “Alabama enacted districts in 2021 for the purely race-neutral purpose of equalizing the population across districts, while making minor changes to the overall map,” said Carrie Severino, president of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. “The plaintiffs are now demanding that the state’s race-neutral map be thrown out in favor of a racially gerrymandered map that makes radical changes to Alabama’s longstanding congressional districts. Nothing in the Voting Rights Act requires this.” Looked at one way, the case is partly about a much broader question courts and lawmakers have wrestled with: Whether plaintiffs must show a state intended to discriminate against minority voters or whether the discrimination was a byproduct of other motives. Robert Redford: Supreme Court should not dishonor 50th anniversary of Clean Water Act More from Opinion: The Supreme Court’s new term could be historic. Remember that ‘legitimacy’ works both ways. The Alabama litigation, Merrill v. Milligan, is one of two major election cases before the court this term. The other comes from North Carolina and raises the question of how much power state legislatures have to create the rules for federal elections without oversight from state courts. At issue there is the meaning of a clause in the Constitution that delegates responsibility for federal elections to the “legislature” of each state.  Guide: A look at the key cases pending at the Supreme Court On the docket: Supreme Court to grapple with race, elections in new term States redraw their congressional boundaries every decade following the census. In some states the process is governed by a non-partisan body, but in most cases the endeavor is a political one – led by state lawmakers who seek an advantage for their party. The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts would not get involved in partisan gerrymandering suits. Racial gerrymandering, though, is another matter.  A 1986 Supreme Court decision, Thornburg v. Gingles, lays out how federal courts are supposed to determine whether a congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act. Courts must first consider factors such as whether there is a majority group large enough and compact enough to make up a district. Plaintiffs also must demonstrate that white residents vote together cohesively enough to defeat a minority group’s preferred candidate.   A three-judge federal court in January ruled against Alabama, asserting that its congressional map likely violated  the Voting Rights Act in light of the factors set forth in Thornburg. The court said it didn’t regard the question of whether the maps violated the law “as a close one.” Two of the three judges were nominated by a Republican president. The state asked the Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold temporarily and a 5-4 majority in February ruled that it was too late to change the map ahead of the state’s primary election in May. “Filing deadlines need to be met, but candidates cannot be sure what district they need to file for,” Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in an opinion joined by Associate Justice Samuel Alito. “Indeed, at this point, some potential candidates do not even know which district they live in. Nor do incumbents know if they now might be running against other incumbents in the upcoming primaries.” Shadow docket: Alabama redistricting case renews procedure fight among justices Ruling: Supreme Court OKs congressional map lower court said may dilute Black vote But the emergency order drew a dissent from Chief Justice John Roberts as well as the court’s three liberal justices. Associate Justice Elena Kagan said the decision “does a disservice to Black Alabamians who…have had their electoral power diminished – in violation of a law this court once knew to buttress all of American democracy.” In a related decision in June, the Supreme Court allowed Louisiana to use a map in this year’s election that includes white majorities in five of six congressional districts. That litigation is on hold pending the outcome of the Alabama case.     In the most significant case to deal with voting rights since 2013, the Supreme Court last year upheld an Arizona law barring unions and advocacy organizations from collecting voters’ mail-in ballots, a practice critics call “ballot harvesting.” The court signaled that challenges to voting rules brought under the Voting Rights Act’s prohibition on discrimination – though still possible –  may become far harder to win.    That opinion came eight years after the court gutted another provision of the Voting Rights Act that permitted the Justice Department to review election laws in states with a history of racial discrimination.  Read More…

Hydroxymethylation Profile Of Cell-Free DNA Is A Biomarker For Early Colorectal Cancer – Scientific Reports https://digitalalabamanews.com/hydroxymethylation-profile-of-cell-free-dna-is-a-biomarker-for-early-colorectal-cancer-scientific-reports/ Abstract Early detection of cancer will improve survival rates. The blood biomarker 5-hydroxymethylcytosine has been shown to discriminate cancer. In a large covariate-controlled study of over two thousand individual blood samples, we created, tested and explored the properties of a 5-hydroxymethylcytosine-based classifier to detect colorectal cancer (CRC). In an independent validation sample set, the classifier discriminated CRC samples from controls with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 90% (95% CI [87, 93]). Sensitivity was 55% at 95% specificity. Performance was similar for early stage 1 (AUC 89%; 95% CI [83, 94]) and late stage 4 CRC (AUC 94%; 95% CI [89, 98]). The classifier could detect CRC even when the proportion of tumor DNA in blood was undetectable by other methods. Expanding the classifier to include information about cell-free DNA fragment size and abundance across the genome led to gains in sensitivity (63% at 95% specificity), with similar overall performance (AUC 91%; 95% CI [89, 94]). We confirm that 5-hydroxymethylcytosine can be used to detect CRC, even in early-stage disease. Therefore, the inclusion of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in multianalyte testing could improve sensitivity for the detection of early-stage cancer. Introduction The detection and treatment of cancer when the disease is still at an early stage could save many lives, reduce morbidity, and relieve the burden of cancer on healthcare systems1,2. Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive approach to detect early cancer in body fluids such as blood and urine3,4,5. There are many challenges to developing a liquid biopsy test that is sufficiently powerful to detect cancer, especially in early-stage disease when the tumor is releasing only minute amounts of biomarkers into the bloodstream. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) represents just 0.1–1% of overall cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in early disease6,7,8. Multianalyte approaches that measure multiple biomarkers from the same blood sample could be useful for the detection of early-stage cancer9,10. Changes in the epigenome may precede genetic changes in tumorigenesis11. Therefore, there is growing interest in utilizing the epigenome of cfDNA for cancer detection. Several groups have investigated whether cancer can be detected via epigenetic modifications in the tumor fraction of cfDNA, due to DNA methylation8,12, DNA hydroxymethylation13,14,15 and cfDNA characteristics which may reveal chromatin structure16. Methylation of cystosine bases to produce methylcytosine (5mC) is a well-known epigenetic mechanism controlling gene expression. 5mC is oxidized to form 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC). 5mC and 5hmC have different functional roles: 5mC is present in heterochromatin and euchromatin and generally represses gene expression17, whereas 5hmC is mainly present in euchromatin and is associated with the mostly highly transcribed gene bodies and their enhancers18,19, as well as with poised enhancers20. 5mC and 5hmC have differential affinity to epigenetic readers; for instance, methyl binding proteins (MBD) preferentially bind 5mC. UHRF2 has been reported to have preferential affinity for 5hmC21, and there are a limited number of proteins that bind both modifications, such as MeCP222,23,24. Both 5mC and 5hmC are actively replaced after mitosis25. The different functional roles and distribution in cancer samples suggest that 5mC and 5hmC have independent utility as biomarkers22,26. However, to date, the hunt for epigenetic markers of cancer has been constrained by available technologies, with limited options available to distinguish between 5mC and 5hmC. Efforts have traditionally focused on the use of bisulfite to sequence both 5mC and 5hmC without distinguishing one from another8,27. Recently however, several techniques have emerged to quantify and utilize 5hmC signatures for cancer detection via liquid biopsy13,14,15,28,29. The information provided about cancer by 5hmC profiles has been shown to be orthogonal and additive to 5mC14,30. However, studies in colorectal cancer (CRC) have been somewhat limited by their small sample size and limited quantitative performance of the methodology used13,14,15,28,29. In addition, the observation that 5hmC is progressively lost in later, metastatic cancers13,31 suggests that its power as a biomarker may be stage specific. We set out to further quantify and validate 5hmC’s potential in a robust study of CRC, with collection and incorporation of covariate information and a sample set sufficient to study stage-specific performance. In this study, we measured 5hmC levels across the cell-free genome and trained a classifier to distinguish individuals with colorectal cancer (CRC) from controls. We assessed the performance of the classifier in an independent validation set and assessed its dependence on cancer stage and ctDNA levels. We evaluated how classifier performance evolved when orthogonal information about cfDNA fragment characteristics was added to 5hmC information. The study showed that 5hmC profiles of cfDNA are a strong predictor of cancer, including high sensitivity for the detection of early-stage cancer. The performance achieved in this large well-controlled study with internal validation is at least comparable to performance in CRC reported for other analytes8,12,32,33,34 and for 5hmC in smaller studies13,14. Our data suggest that the 5hmC signal derived from epigenetic changes in cfDNA is more sensitive at an early stage than that from other analytes. This sensitivity is retained when the 5hmC signal is combined with cfDNA fragment characteristics to produce an additive signal. Results Study population Blood samples were donated by 2483 individuals prior to undergoing colonoscopy. These double-spun plasma samples were purchased from multiple vendors and included biobanked and prospectively collected samples. Experimental batches for cfDNA extraction, hydroxymethylome library preparation and sequencing were balanced for key sample characteristics (vendor, age, sex, ethnicity and diagnosis) (Fig. 1, Tables 1, 2). The cfDNA from each individual was processed to generate two sequencing libraries: a whole genome library (denoted “input”) and a hydroxymethylome library. Figure 1 Flow chart of subjects included in the study. Control samples were made up of individuals who were CRC and adenomatous polyp negative (colonoscopy confirmed). A total of 8.3% of the control individuals were diagnosed with peptic ulcers, arthritis or COPD. Sequenced libraries were assessed for quality by scoring samples across multiple parameters, including overall read count, spike-in control amplification and uniformity. Libraries for 2106 individuals (685 with CRC, 480 controls and 941 with other conditions such as adenoma and other cancers) successfully passed sequencing and quality control (Fig. 1). Of the 2106 individuals, mean age was 64 years, and 52% were female. Samples that did not produce successful libraries were excluded; in most cases this was due to poor cfDNA yield (Fig. 1) The individuals who donated these samples had similar characteristics to the 2106 individuals who comprised the study population (Tables 1, 2). 5hmC is efficiently captured from cfDNA to produce hydroxymethylome libraries We captured the hydroxymethylome of cfDNA fragments containing 5hmC residues using just 5 ng of cfDNA. The high-throughput methodology has similarities to the technique described by Song et al.13,18 but differs in that DNA molecules labeled for 5hmC are copied and it is the copied strand that is captured, thus avoiding steric hindrance caused by the labels and ensuring quantitative capture of 5hmC density. The technique was automated on 96-well plates using liquid handlers. Briefly, cfDNA was extracted from 2 ml double spun plasma and quantified. Illumina-compatible sequencing libraries were prepared using 5 ng input cfDNA. A portion of this ‘input’ library was reserved for sequencing. The remaining sequencing library was denatured, and the single-stranded library was copied to create a double-stranded library where only one strand retained epigenetic information. 5hmC residues were enzymatically labeled with a modified glucose group, which was then biotinylated. 5hmC-containing double-stranded DNA fragments were captured using streptavidin beads. The copied strand without epigenetic modifications was recovered from the 5hmC-captured libraries and amplified to form the hydroxymethylome-enriched sequencing library (Fig. 2A). Figure 2 (A) Hydroxymethylome capture procedure. (B) 166 bp synthetic spike-in controls with 1, 3, 6 5hmC residues demonstrate that the hydroxymethylome enriches for 5hmC over controls containing 6 5mC residues and unmodified cytosines. Input and hydroxymethylome libraries were paired-end sequenced with an average of 62 M reads per library. The input libraries covered on average 85% of the human genome with at least one read and ~ 17% with a read depth of more than five reads. In contrast, the hydroxymethylome libraries were more localized to distinct genomic regions and tended to form peaks that could be characterized at both broad and narrow resolution and covered only 31% of the genome with at least one read and ~ 5% at more than five reads. This is consistent with previous reports describing the genomic distribution of 5hmC13,15,35. 5hmC was enriched in genic regions with an average ratio of 1.8 times that of intergenic regions, as many reads fell in the genic regions compared to intergenic regions. In contrast, input libraries had an average genic to intergenic ratio of 0.8. This is consistent with previous reports that cfDNA is preferentially hydroxymethyla...

Notebook: Hurricanes’ Defense Haunted By Big Plays With UNC QB Drake Maye Looming https://digitalalabamanews.com/notebook-hurricanes-defense-haunted-by-big-plays-with-unc-qb-drake-maye-looming/ CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Only two teams in the country have allowed more 60-yard plays than Miami this season. What makes it worse, all four big plays came in the same game, a 45-31 upset loss to Middle Tennessee in their last game on Sept. 24. “It was really very uniquely different,” defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said. “I’ve been in games before where you would play a certain coverage and they would attack it a certain way or maybe a personnel mismatch where they keep attacking the same thing. That was a really a different deal in that we had four big plays that probably defined the game.” The four plays all came through the air as the Hurricanes have been plagued at times this season in getting beat in man-to-man coverage as they also rank 115th nationally and last in the ACC in allowing 10 passes of at least 30 yards. “If you see something on tape or on the field and it doesn’t look right, that’s on me,” Steele said. “The players play, the coaches coach, that’s a coach’s job. It’s my responsibility. It totally falls on me, 100 percent, to get it rectified.” Whether or not the Hurricanes (2-2, 0-0 ACC) remain heavy in their man-to-man coverages will wait to be seen especially with the Tar Heels (4-1, 1-0), who boast the top passing attack in the ACC in a number of categories, up next on Saturday (4:00 p.m., ESPN2). “Everything is always assessed,” head coach Mario Cristobal said. “Some things you have to get better at, some things you have to provide help for and some things you just have to throw out. In college football you can’t throw out man coverage. At some point in time you have to play man. We’ve had guys who have played very well in man coverage and other times we haven’t played well. Our approach is very meticulous and very to the point. Assess who can do it, how well we can do it. If we’re not doing it well because of technique, let’s improve technique. If we’re not doing it well because of ability, then we have to do something else. That approach is taken for every single scheme that we have and if we’re at a point where we can do this and improve upon it, we’re going to do it. If we feel that we can’t, then we move on.” The Tar Heels are averaging 319.6 passing yards per game, which leads the conference and ranks 12th nationally. NEWS & NOTES • The Hurricanes are preparing to face North Carolina standout QB Drake Maye, who is tied for the national lead with 19 touchdown passes, is seventh in passing yards per game at 318.8 and fourth in quarterback rating at 187.6. Maye leads the conference in all three categories and is coming off his second ACC quarterback of the week honor and his third ACC rookie of the week honor after accounting for 436 yards and five touchdowns in a 41-10 win over Virginia Tech. “He’s a big guy, number one,” Steele said. “When you look at him you kind of think the prototype quarterback, NFL build, but he’s like the Buffalo Bills guy (Josh Allen) in that he is a willing runner and a very capable runner. He throws the ball very accurately, he disperses it around. Phil Longo, the offensive coordinator, does a really good job schematically. They’ve got very talented receivers. They get the ball out of their hand quick. They do run tempo offense. He gets it out of hand really, really quick. He’s accurate with it, but probably the thing that pops up more than anything particularly when he’s starting out in the first quarter is he keeps the chains moving. He extends drives with not 40, 50-yard scrambles like Lamar Jackson where he’s just bouncing around and you can’t make a tackle. He can make a big play because he can run, but he just extends drive. If they have a 3rd-and-10 and he scrambles for 12. If it’s 2nd-and-6 and everything is bottled up, he scrambles for seven. He just extends plays.” • UNC also features one of the best wide receivers in the conference in Josh Downs who caught a career-high 11 passes in last year’s 45-42 win over the Hurricanes to go with 96 yards and a score. Downs is coming off an 8-catch, 120-yard performance against the Hokies. “Their wide receivers corps across the board is very good, but obviously number 11 (Downs) is the go-to guy. He missed some games, but he’s a good player.” • CB Tyrique Stevenson (undisclosed) did not play in the second half against Middle Tennessee with an injury. “As an assistant coach I do comment on injuries at all,” Steele said. “I’ve been doing this long enough to not know that so I don’t go there. But as far as I know, he’s doing fine.” • S Al Blades Jr. could be switched back to cornerback to help with the depth issues although Steele was non-committal when asked about the possibility. “Everything’s on the table to play the best players in the situation that presents itself,” Steele said. “You catch me in a rough spot here. Do you show your cards when you’re playing cards at the card table? I’d rather not mind either. If it was just for the Miami fans I’d be great. Back in the day you could have a press conference in Miami no one in North Carolina was going to get the paper unless their grandmother brought it back from vacation to them. When you all walk out here they’re going to be able to read exactly what I said in three minutes. Forgive me on that if you don’t mind. All I want is an unfair advantage.” • Steele has faced North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo twice in his career, winning 44-23 in 2017 and 31-16 in 2018 while at Auburn with Longo at Ole Miss, and has coached with three UNC assistants. “All of those guys are very intelligent and can read so I don’t think I’m going to expose the game plan,” Steele said. • S Gilbert Frierson only appeared in two snaps last game and has appeared in just 46 (20th most on the team) in the first four games, but could see his role increase. “Yes, we’re searching that,” Steele said. “He’s got a very, very high football IQ. He’s a really, really smart player. When you get into those personnel matchups and where to put him, we’ve done some searching there. We’ve tweaked it a few times, recently tweaked it again, but he’s smart enough to do that. It’s not like he has to move a position and it’s six weeks before he can play. That’s not him at all. He’s very communicative and he understands what he does plus what somebody else does so it makes it a little easier. We’re working that hard.” • CB Daryl Porter played a season-high 20 snaps against Middle Tennessee after playing in a total of four in the previous two games combined. “Much improved,” Steele said. “He’s kind of feeling the confidence of things. He’s a transfer guy at a very, very high-pressure driven position in a new system. There’s some growth there. It was evident on the tape.” • The ACC announced Miami’s game at Virginia Tech on Oct. 15 will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and be televised on RSN. • The ACC also announced championship game tickets are on sale for the Dec. 3 game in Charlotte, N.C. Miami, which was picked in the preseason to represent the Coastal, has played in the title game once in 2017 while North Carolina made its lone appearance in 2015. • Practice resumes Tuesday morning. It is expected to be closed to the media. Christopher Stock has covered the Miami Hurricanes since 2003 and can be reached by e-mail at stock@insidetheu.com and on Twitter @InsideTheU. “247Sports Read More…

Amir Eshel’s Torpedoing Of The Trump Peace Plan Cost Us Dearly https://digitalalabamanews.com/amir-eshels-torpedoing-of-the-trump-peace-plan-cost-us-dearly/ (October 4, 2022 / JNS) Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, a former Israeli Air Force chief who has been Defense Ministry director general for the past two years, is by all accounts a serious man who has done a lot for the state. As such, it was jaw-dropping to learn how he thwarted one of the most historic potential developments in recent years, which could have been on the same scale as the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Reading Ben Caspit’s interview with Eshel in Maariv earlier this month, one cannot but feel both surprise and disappointment. To understand just how much damage was inflicted by Eshel, one has to go back three years. In January 2020, after some two years of meticulous preparations and another year of delay because of Israel’s elections, the Trump administration unveiled its “deal of the century”— perhaps the most detailed, creative and most pro-Israel plan ever produced. Among other things, it stipulated that Israel would incorporate large swaths of Judea and Samaria, and according to Trump officials Jared Kushner and David Friedman, also ensured that “no one would be uprooted from their homes.” For the first time, a U.S. peace plan did not include provisions that threatened Israel’s security. One of the measures announced as part of the plan’s implementation was a U.S. green light to an immediate Israeli application of Israeli law in areas in Judea and Samaria that were to remain in Israeli control under the deal. That measure was agreed upon by Kushner, Friedman and then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It stipulates that about 50% of Area C would become part of Israel, including the Jordan Valley and all the Jewish settlements. These areas are considered essential for Israel’s security according to most Israelis and the majority of senior security officials both past and present. The other 50% was to be subject to negotiations by the two parties, but only if the Palestinians met various stringent benchmarks such as stopping incitement and cracking down on corruption; connecting Gaza and Judea and Samaria under one authority; and adopting of democratic norms. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories The plan, officially called “Peace to Prosperity,” was launched at the White House on Jan. 28, 2020. Trump said at the time that “recognition can be immediately achieved” and that the United States “will form a joint committee with Israel to convert the conceptual map into a more detailed and calibrated rendering” so that the lines of sovereignty be clearly defined. Moments later Netanyahu told the press entourage that he would pass a resolution to that effect in the upcoming weekly Cabinet meeting. That’s when things got messy. Even as Netanyahu made those comments, Kushner said the exact opposite to the U.S. media. Despite his prearranged understanding with Netanyahu, Kushner said that the sovereignty bid would be carried out only after the Israeli election two months later. This put Netanyahu in an embarrassing situation, as it turned the prime minister’s comments to the press into a farce; Netanyahu was once again cast as a liar and the trip to Washington was considered a failure. Sovereignty slipped between Israel’s fingers. It’s still not clear why Kushner effectively misled Netanyahu. In his book, he writes that the sovereignty bid was part of the plan and thus it should not have unfolded in the way Netanyahu envisioned. But this runs contrary to what all the other actors have said, including Trump in his speech. There is a big difference between “immediately” and in two months. In his interview with Caspit, Eshel seems to complete this puzzle. He admitted to telling Kushner that the sovereignty push should not go through so fast. He convinced Defense Minister Benny Gantz that the United States should be pressured on this so that Netanyahu would be stopped. At the time, Gantz was the main challenger to Netanyahu in the race to become the next prime minister. The Trump administration was careful not to treat him with disrespect because they were worried about being portrayed as meddling in the election. That’s why Gantz and Eshel were invited to White House. Eshel claimed that if the sovereignty bid was carried out immediately, “This would kill the Trump plan … No Arab ruler would agree to have Israel reap the benefits of the deal without giving anything in return. No one would be able to support having Israel get upfront payment, whereas the Palestinians wait indefinitely for their back-loaded end of the bargain.” When Eshel told this to Kushner, the latter responded that the White House had gotten the Arab rulers to agree to the move. But Eshel put his foot down, and apparently managed to have Kushner slam the brakes. The unfortunate truth is that Israeli defense officials (both serving and retired) are wedded to a paradigm that ultimately prevented Israel from realizing this historic move—even though those very officials agreed that Israel would be well served by it. Looking back, it is clear that Eshel’s move resulted in the entire Trump plan being shelved. As soon as the sovereignty bid collapsed, the “deal of the century” joined a whole host of other peace plans that would never go forward. But this time, the plan was actually pro-Israel. Eshel’s rationale about Arab rulers supposedly being against the measure is disappointing. Why should Israel not take something if it is offered by the United States? Why is it Eshel’s job to think for the Arab rulers? If Kushner said that he had their support, why would Eshel undermine this without even talking to them? Why try to outsmart the prime minister, the White House and the Arab rulers? The entire rationale of the Trump peace plan, as Kushner and then Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer explained, was to bring Israel closer to the Gulf states. With the Palestinian issue no longer topping the Arab agenda—as was made clear by Gulf officials in direct and indirect conversations—why would the sovereignty move have stopped this? In 2019, I saw with my own eyes how a Bahraini official lashed out at the Palestinians, employing coarse language. If that’s what the senior Gulf official was willing to show an Israeli journalist even before the Abraham Accords were signed, just imagine what he was actually thinking. So it is quite possible Eshel missed the mark with regard to the Arab rulers’ sentiments. Moreover, despite Eshel’s claim—that Israel would be cashing in the rewards of the deal too early—the deal does involve Israeli concessions. Netanyahu agreed to a Palestinian state and was essentially willing to give up 50% of Area C. The proof in the pudding is that even on the Israeli right there was opposition to the plan; Eshel’s claim that “Israel was not giving anything in return” was flat wrong. This is what the timeline of the deal included: Israel was to adopt the plan, which was indeed good for Israel despite forcing it to make concessions, and this would have made Gulf states and other countries tell the Palestinians, “Look, we’ve made sure that you will get your share from Israel and the United States. Now it’s our turn for normalization.” Eshel and Gantz, unfortunately, killed this before it got underway. Only because Netanyahu remained laser-focused on sovereignty were the Abraham Accords eventually finalized, miraculously. Eshel claimed that his views were professional advice, not political. But it is clear that he inflicted major political damage on Netanyahu, and perhaps cost him the March 2020 election. It is also clear that Eshel’s move put Israel in a diplomatic quagmire. It is too bad that this crisis was triggered by a former major general in the IDF. It is not the first time that former generals turn out to be bunglers of diplomacy despite being experts in security. Ariel Kahana is Israel Hayom’s senior diplomatic correspondent. This article was originally published by Israel Hayom. Read More…

Biden Administration Falls 80% Short Of 2022 Refugee Admissions Target https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-administration-falls-80-short-of-2022-refugee-admissions-target/ Tuesday, October 4th 2022, 3:45 am By: CBS News The U.S. allowed more than 25,000 refugees into the country in fiscal year 2022, using only 20% of 125,000 refugee spots allocated by the Biden administration, which continued to struggle to rebuild a resettlement system gutted by Trump-era limits and the COVID-19 pandemic, a top State Department official told CBS News. Deputy Assistant State Department Secretary Sarah Cross said in an interview with CBS News that in fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30, the U.S. received approximately 25,400 refugees under the Refugee Admissions Program, which resettles the most vulnerable immigrants displaced by war and violence across the globe. Cross noted the number is a preliminary figure that could be updated. While the annual refugee ceiling is an aspirational target that does not require the U.S. to receive a minimum number of refugees, the Biden administration’s move to dramatically increase the cap symbolized a seismic departure from former President Donald Trump’s decision to slash refugee spots to record lows. But during the two fiscal years since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. has failed to come close to reaching the refugee ceiling, leaving tens of thousands of spots unused. In fiscal year 2021, when Mr. Biden allocated 62,500 refugee spots, the U.S. resettled 11,411 refugees, the lowest tally in the refugee program’s history. Last week, Mr. Biden authorized a 125,000-spot refugee ceiling for fiscal year 2023, an objective immigration policy experts said will again prove to be a difficult, if not improbable, task for federal officials to accomplish. “We are going to do everything in our power to welcome as many refugees as we can this year, recognizing that 125,000 remains a very ambitious target and it will take some time to get there,” said Cross, who serves in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. “But we are very optimistic that we’re going to reach much higher levels than this year.” Over the past year, Cross said, the Biden administration has deployed roughly 600 additional personnel at U.S. refugee process centers overseas; increased the number of local domestic resettlement offices from 199 to 270; and taken steps to expedite the processing of refugees. The reasons behind the low refugee admissions in recent years vary, but one catalyst is the decimation of the resettlement program under Mr. Trump, whose policies led the non-governmental organizations that assist refugees integrate into American communities to close local offices and lay off staff.  Under Mr. Trump, who argued that refugees posed a national security, economic and cultural threat to the country, the U.S. set record low refugee caps; severely limited who qualified for resettlement; and attempted to allow states to veto the placement of refugees in their communities. The COVID-19 public health emergency also hindered U.S. refugee processing, leading to a months-long suspension of the program in 2020 and a more than one-year pause in in-person interviews of refugee applicants that was only lifted by Mr. Biden’s administration in the summer of 2021. However, the refugee admissions tally does not fully represent the number of immigrants received by the U.S. on humanitarian grounds under Mr. Biden, including the hundreds of thousands of migrants who U.S. border officials have allowed to seek asylum, which is only available to those already on American soil. The tally also does not include the nearly 90,000 Afghan evacuees and 62,000 displaced Ukrainians who the Biden administration has allowed to enter the U.S. over the past year under humanitarian parole, a temporary legal classification that, unlike refugee status, does not provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship. Still, the low refugee admissions have alarmed advocates, who have called on the U.S. to speed up refugee processing, citing an unprecedented displacement crisis across the globe exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, the exodus of millions of Venezuelans, ethnic strife in Africa and the persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingyas.  Indeed, the contraction of the U.S. refugee program over the past five years, during which admissions have fallen sharply below the 50,000 21st century average, has come as the number of people displaced globally by war, violence and human rights abuses has surpassed 100 million, the highest tally in recorded history.  For Chantal Nabageni, a Congolese refugee living in East Moline, Illinois, the ongoing struggle to reinvigorate the U.S. refugee program is personal. She has been waiting for husband to come to the U.S. through the refugee process for nearly four years.­ When she was a little girl, Nabageni left the Congo with her mother and siblings to escape attacks against their Banyamulenge community, a minority group that has been persecuted for decades, including through mass killings. The ethnic violence, Nabageni said, claimed the lives of some of her relatives, including her grandfather.  Nabageni and her family settled in Burundi, where they lived as refugees for 13 years. In Burundi, she met her and married her husband, James Nzungu. In 2018, the U.S. agreed to resettle Nabageni, her parents and her siblings. But because Nabageni married Nzungu before her refugee case began; he was not able to come to the U.S. On Feb. 8, 2019, Nabageni petitioned for him to join her as the spouse of a refugee. “I came here legally, with papers. I’m married legally. I even have money to support my husband. I can pay his ticket to come here. I’m working full-time. I can support him while he doesn’t have a job. I don’t understand why the process takes so long,” Nabageni said. The couple’s three-year-old daughter, who was born after Nabageni’s arrival in the U.S., often reminds her mother she misses her father. Nzungu’s absence, Nabageni said, has also been emotionally draining. She said it’s been difficult raising her daughter alone, while studying and working full-time to provide for her baby and elderly parents.  “It’s a lot,” said Nabageni, who helps other refugees as a caseworker for World Relief, a resettlement group. “It’s stressful. Sometimes, I just feel like I’m tired. I don’t know if I can do it. But good thing we pray every day.” While the Biden administration has struggled to increase refugee admissions in significant numbers, there are signs that officials are gradually ramping up processing of pending refugee cases, which typically take years to complete because of referrals­­, interviews, security checks, medical exams and other bureaucratic steps. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interviewed nearly 44,000 refugee applicants in fiscal year 2022, a 382% increase from 2021, when 9,100 interviews were conducted, unpublished government figures obtained by CBS News show. The tally still remains well below the historical average of 65,000 annual interviews.  So-called “circuit rides” in which USCIS officers interview refugee applicants overseas also increased sharply in fiscal year 2022. USCIS recorded 72 circuit rides in 2022, compared to 12 in 2021, the government data show. Cross, the State Department official, said the administration is planning to launch a sponsorship program later this year that will allow private U.S. citizens to sponsor the resettlement of refugees. Citing the hundreds of Afghans and tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have been sponsored by private U.S. citizens under policies enacted over the past year, Cross said the broader sponsorship program has considerable potential. “We’ve just really been tremendously impressed and excited by the interest and are looking to really harness it as we launch this new program,” she said. Citing “the historic numbers of displacement” across the world, Cross said the Biden administration is also working to convince other countries to resettle larger numbers of refugees. “The U.S. has been a historical leader in refugee resettlement and a leader globally on humanitarian response,” Cross added. “But we know it’s not going to be enough to solve the global problem, and the crisis is more than one country alone can respond to.”  Read More…

Links: Runoff Vote In Brazil; Rewilding A River; Waffle House And Hurricane Ian https://digitalalabamanews.com/links-runoff-vote-in-brazil-rewilding-a-river-waffle-house-and-hurricane-ian/ A reminder to readers in the Bay area. This Thursday evening, at 6:30 p.m., I will be giving a talk at St. Ignatius Church, located on the campus of the University of San Francisco. Mine is the first in a series of talks about the Second Vatican Council, and I will be sketching some of the history that led up to the council as well as starting to answer the “So what?” question of why it remains so important. More information can be found here. Politico looks at the surprisingly close result in the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential contest. Former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva was just shy of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff, garnering 48.1% to incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro’s 43.5%. In pre-election polling, Bolsonaro was in the low 30s. The two men will face off on Oct. 30 in what may be the most consequential election for the planet this decade. Bolsonaro is a climate change skeptic and refuses to take steps to save the Amazon rainforest. CNN reports on the town of Babcock Ranch, Florida, which is about 12 miles northeast of Fort Myers, and which was designed in an environmentally conscious way, 100% reliant on solar power, and with streets designed to direct floodwaters away from homes. It came through Ian with only some roof shingles torn off and some trees uprooted. Are there lessons here for Puerto Rico and other hurricane-prone regions? Relatedly, at The Guardian, a fascinating look at efforts in the Netherlands to “rewild” the Meuse river. The Meuse likely has seen more battles than any other over time, but usually it was humans fighting other humans. Here, it is contemporary humans aligning with nature to defeat the progressive changes of earlier times, all of which at that time made the river more technologically efficient, but robbed it of the biodiversity a river should generate. In The New York Times, Washington correspondent Charlie Savage explains why former President Donald Trump’s decision to request a special master to look at the documents seized by the FBI during their search at Mar-a-Lago is turning into a “giant backfire.” An appeals court ruling allows the Department of Justice to continue its probe into the documents that were seized. And Trump has to pay for the special master’s work, a bill that could become sizeable when one of Judge Raymond Dearie’s assistants charges $500 an hour. Seeing as Trump proposed Dearie for the job, it is hard to complain about his work. In The American Prospect, managing editor Ryan Cooper brings together a lot of recent studies that explain that the climate “dystopia” is already here, and why policies that worry about the cost of combating climate change are now conclusively proven to be ridiculous, given the costs associated with recovering from a storm like Ian. FiveThirtyEight republished a 2016 story about how Waffle House, the iconic breakfast joint throughout the South, prepares for hurricanes. Turns out, even the federal government has studied the company’s approach to honoring its commitment to remaining open. Just a great piece of longform journalism. And if you haven’t had their home fries, you don’t know what you are missing. At Architecture Daily, a look at how the concept of the “megalopolis,” in which distinct urban areas grow and eventually merge into a unit with shared communications and transportation infrastructure, does and does not fit in the context of emerging patterns of urbanization in the Global South. I had not known that the term was coined to describe the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington. I am blessed to live in the Northeast Corridor’s North Korea, that is, if you look at the corridor from space at night, the northeast corner of Connecticut is the only section that is dark. Join the Conversation Send your thoughts and reactions to Letters to the Editor. Learn more here 3 ways to support NCR 1 Sign up for our free newsletters. 2 Subscribe to our newspaper. 3 Support our journalism: Become a member. Read More…

Stocks, Sterling Rally After UK's Tax Climbdown Injects Some Confidence https://digitalalabamanews.com/stocks-sterling-rally-after-uks-tax-climbdown-injects-some-confidence/ Britain scraps small part of tax plan; markets relieved Reserve Bank of Australia surprises with a small hike High VIX points to more volatility LONDON/SYDNEY, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Global stocks climbed for a second day on Tuesday, after Britain’s decision to ditch part of a controversial tax-cut plan and slightly paler expectations for aggressive central bank action returned some confidence to investors. UK Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng on Monday announced the government would back down on reversing a tax break for top earners that formed part of a package aimed at boosting growth. This measure only makes up a small part of the 45 billion pounds in unfunded tax cuts that sent the pound crashing to record lows and wreaked havoc in the gilts market. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com But it was enough to soothe some of the recent angst in the market and, together with emergency bond buying from the Bank of England, sterling was set to make up most of the losses incurred since the mini budget was unveiled on Sept. 23. Adding to the sense of relief among investors, who endured one of the most volatile quarters in recent history in the three months to September, was Australia’s central bank, which lifted interest rates by far less than expected. . A weaker read of U.S. manufacturing activity helped temper expectations for more hefty rate rises by the Federal Reserve. However, some analysts said this optimism may be misplaced. “My firm view, however, is that this will not be the case. While, technically, having a dual mandate, the Fed have effectively become a single-issue central bank; that issue being bringing inflation back to the 2% target,” Michael Brown, chief strategist at CaxtonFX, said. “Unless we see a few months of consecutive improvement in inflation data, it’s tough to envisage any sort of pivot, with another 75 bps hike remaining my base case for next month’s decision. It’s tough to be long risk with that on the radar.” The MSCI All-World index (.MIWD00000PUS) was last up 0.8% on the day, while stocks in Europe enjoyed a decent bounce, with the Stoxx 600 (.STOXX) trading almost 2% higher and London’s FTSE (.FTSE) gaining over 1%. The pound , meanwhile, gained 0.6% against the dollar to trade at $1.1390. Sterling has risen by more than 10% since the mini-budget. The dollar slid against a basket of major currencies , as the euro and the pound made upward headway and Treasury yields slipped in light of a shift in investor expectations for the path of U.S. interest rates. U.S. benchmark 10-year yields fell by nearly 20 basis points on Monday, having topped 4.0% just last week. They were last down 7 bps at 3.5795%. “Noticeably, that move lower was entirely driven by a fall in real yields, with inflation breakevens moving higher on the day, which is again a sign that investors are pricing in a much less aggressive reaction from the Fed,” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said in a daily note. In trade thinned by holidays in China and Hong Kong, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 1.7%, led by gains in Australia. ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS After September, when global bonds witnessed one of the biggest sell-offs in decades and any currency other than the dollar appeared to crumble, market watchers said a snap back, aided by better sentiment in the UK market, was not unusual, but would likely be short-lived. “The about-face … will not have a huge impact on the overall UK fiscal situation in our view,” said NatWest Markets’ head of economics and markets strategy John Briggs. “(But) investors took it as a signal that the UK government could and is at least partially willing to walk back from its intentions that so disrupted markets over the past week.” S&P 500 futures rose 1%, following a 2.6% bounce for the index (.SPX) overnight, suggesting a second day of gains may be in the offing on Wall Street later. Other indicators of market stress are still flashing red. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) remains elevated and above 30. Shares (CSGN.S) and bonds of Credit Suisse hit record lows on Monday as worry about the bank’s restructuring plans swept markets, although some of these losses reversed on Tuesday. Japan’s yen hit 145 to the dollar on Monday – a level that prompted official intervention last week – and was last at 144.65, while the euro was up 0.6% at $0.9878, about three cents above last week’s 20-year trough. “More volatility is almost certainly assured as FX markets re-focus on U.S. recession risks, which continue to build,” said ANZ senior economist Miles Workman, with U.S. jobs data on Friday the next major data point on the horizon. Oil held overnight gains on news of possible production cuts, and Brent futures were last up 43 cents to $89.29 a barrel. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Editing by Sam Holmes and David Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Trump Sues CNN For Defamation, Seeking $475 Million https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-sues-cnn-for-defamation-seeking-475-million/ Media|Trump Sues CNN for Defamation, Seeking $475 Million https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/business/media/trump-cnn-lawsuit.html The former president has a history of threatening, and occasionally filing, lawsuits against media organizations whose coverage he deems unfair. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Former President Donald J. Trump accused CNN of escalating a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander.” Credit…Brittany Greeson for The New York Times Published Oct. 3, 2022Updated Oct. 4, 2022, 4:35 a.m. ET Former President Donald J. Trump sued CNN on Monday, claiming that the network defamed him and demanding $475 million in damages. Over the course of his business and political career, Mr. Trump has frequently threatened to sue media organizations over news coverage that he deems unfair or disrespectful. Although he rarely followed through, his attacks on the media became a staple of his political messaging and have often been cited in fund-raising entreaties in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections. In 2020, his re-election campaign sued The New York Times and The Washington Post over opinion articles that linked Mr. Trump to Russian interference in American elections. His suit against The Times was dismissed; the suit involving The Post is pending. Mr. Trump’s complaint against CNN was filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The lawsuit alleges a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that, Mr. Trump asserts, has recently escalated “as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024.” The 29-page suit cites numerous times when CNN hosts and guests criticized Mr. Trump over his policies and his questioning of the 2020 presidential election result. It also laments that some guests have invoked Adolf Hitler and the history of Nazi Germany in criticizing Mr. Trump’s behavior. Among the on-air guests cited as having defamed Mr. Trump is the singer Linda Ronstadt. A CNN spokesman declined to comment. A footnote in the lawsuit shows that Mr. Trump’s representatives contacted CNN in July to give notice of prospective litigation and request that the network stop referring to Mr. Trump’s comments about the 2020 election as “lies.” According to the suit, CNN declined Mr. Trump’s request and replied, “You have not identified a single false or defamatory statement in your letter.” In 2019, Mr. Trump threatened CNN with a lawsuit over “unethical and unlawful attacks.” CNN called that threat “a desperate P.R. stunt.” A suit never materialized. In Monday’s suit, Mr. Trump’s lawyers justified their demand for $475 million in damages in part by alleging that CNN’s coverage has caused the former president to suffer “embarrassment, pain, humiliation and mental anguish.” Read More…

Ukraine Pushes Further Into Territory 'annexed' By Moscow; Poorly Trained Russian Conscripts Dying Just Days Into Fighting https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-pushes-further-into-territory-annexed-by-moscow-poorly-trained-russian-conscripts-dying-just-days-into-fighting/ Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east and south of the country continues to build momentum, with President Zelenskyy announcing last night that there were “new liberated settlements in several regions.” On Monday, Ukrainian forces saw more successes on the battlefield, pushing through Russian defenses in the south of the country, as well as consolidating their hold on territory around Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region, and looking to push further into neighboring Luhansk. President Putin announced Russia was annexing both regions last Friday, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south, but Moscow’s hold on them looks increasingly fragile with none of the regions fully occupied by Russian forces. In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said “fierce fighting continues in many areas of the front” but said an increasing number of occupying forces were trying to escape and “more and more losses are being inflicted on the enemy army.” Zelenskyy said Russian men who had been mobilized to fight in Ukraine just a few weeks ago were already dying in Ukraine. Ukraine’s upper house greenlights annexation, Putin’s signature will seal it Russian President Vladimir Putin on a screen at Red Square as he addresses a rally and a concert marking the annexation of four regions of Ukraine — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — in central Moscow on Sept. 30, 2022. Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty Images Ukraine’s upper house of parliament has approved laws incorporating four regions of Ukraine that Russia announced it was annexing last week, into the Russian Federation. The move to annex Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk — following sham referendums in the occupied regions on whether to join Russia — was internationally condemned, with Ukraine and its allies calling the votes illegal and illegitimate. Despite the prospect of further sanctions in response to the annexation, Russian lawmakers have plowed ahead with the legal process to annex the territories. The State Duma, or lower house of parliament, yesterday approved the annexation and the upper house, the Federation Council, today unanimously approved legislation ratifying the annexation. It now remains for Russian President Vladimir Putin to put his signature to the documents to complete the formal annexation process. (From left) The Moscow-appointed heads of Kherson region Vladimir Saldo and Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin and Luhansk separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik listen to the Russian national anthem after signing treaties formally annexing four regions of Ukraine Russian troops occupy, at the Kremlin in Moscow on Sept. 30, 2022. Mikhail Metzel | AFP | Getty Images It’s still unclear where the boundaries of Russia’s new so-called “territory” are, with none of the regions fully occupied by Russian forces and with Ukrainian troops making advances into Donetsk in the east and Kherson in the south. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the DPR and LPR (so-called “people’s republics in eastern Ukraine) will become a part of the Russian Federation according to their current boundaries but that Russia will consult with the residents of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia over where the borders of those regions are set. When asked whether the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that are now under control of the Ukrainian army are Russian or Ukrainian territory, Peskov said “I have nothing more to add to what I said right now.” — Holly Ellyatt What’s happening in the war? Here’s the latest assessment by defense analysts Ukraine’s counteroffensive continues in the south in the Kherson region and in the northeast, with Ukrainian forces looking to push further into the Donetsk region and toward Luhansk. Here’s how defense analysts at the Institute for the Study of War assessed Ukraine’s progress late on Monday: Ukrainian forces have made substantial gains around Lyman and in northern Kherson Oblast [a province or region] over the last 24 hours. The Russian units defeated on these fronts were previously considered to be among Russia’s premier conventional fighting forces. Ukrainian forces made advances on the Oskil River-Kreminna line toward the Luhansk Oblast border. Ukrainian forces advanced in northern Kherson Oblast. Ukraine recaptures Lyman, a key logistics hub for Russian forces. Institute for the Study of War Summing up Ukraine’s progress following the recapturing of Lyman (a key logistics hub for Russian forces in the area) on Saturday, analysts at the ISW wrote that the country’s forces “continued to make substantial gains around Lyman and in Kherson Oblast in the last 48 hours.”  “Ukrainian and Russian sources reported that Ukrainian troops made significant breakthroughs in northern Kherson Oblast between October 2 and 3. Geolocated footage corroborates Russian claims that Ukrainian troops are continuing to push east of Lyman and may have broken through the Luhansk Oblast border in the direction of Kreminna.” The ISW noted again that Russian groupings in northern Kherson Oblast and on the Lyman front were largely comprised of units that had been regarded as among Russia’s premier conventional fighting forces before the war but said “their apparent failures to hold territory against major Ukrainian counter-offensive actions is consistent with ISW’s previous assessment that even the most elite Russian military forces are becoming increasingly degraded as the war continues.” — Holly Ellyatt Zelenskyy says there are newly liberated settlements in several regions Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast and south of the country continues to build momentum, with President Zelenskyy announcing last night that there were “new liberated settlements in several regions.” On Monday, Ukrainian forces saw more successes on the battlefield, pushing through Russian defenses in the south of the country, as well as consolidating their hold on territory around Lyman in the northeast Donetsk region, and looking to push further eastward into Luhansk. President Putin announced Russia was annexing both regions last Friday but Moscow’s hold on them looks increasingly fragile. Wreckage of a car marked with a Russian military symbol “Z” at a Russian military base, which Ukrainian forces destroyed by HIMARS during a counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, on Sept. 26, 2022 in Balakliia, Ukraine. Balakliia was under Russian occupation for half a year. On Sept. 10, Ukraine’s armed forces liberated the city. Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images In his nightly address, Zelenskyy didn’t name the newly liberated towns but said “fierce fighting continues in many areas of the front” but said an increasing number of occupying forces were trying to escape and “more and more losses are being inflicted on the enemy army.” Zelenskyy said Russian men who had been mobilized to fight in Ukraine just a few weeks ago were already dying in Ukraine. “Among the dead occupiers we can already see those who were taken [brought to fight in Ukraine] just a week or two ago. People were not trained for combat, they have no experience to fight in such a war. But the Russian command just needs some people – any kind – to replace the dead. And when these new ones die, more people will be sent. This is how Russia fights. That’s how it will lose as well,” he said. “No sham referenda, announcements about annexations, conversations about the borders they invented and drew somewhere, will help them,” he added, referring to a set of fake referendums in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine that led to Moscow announcing their annexation last week, a move branded as illegitimate and illegal by Ukraine and its allies. — Holly Ellyatt Elon Musk is publicly rebuked by Zelenskyy over his Twitter poll SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk takes part in a joint news conference with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert (not pictured) at the SpaceX Starbase, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., August 25, 2022. Adrees Latif | Reuters American tech billionaire Elon Musk drew public ire from Ukraine’s top officials after the Tesla CEO posted a Twitter poll asking the public to agree or disagree with what he claimed is the most likely outcome of Russia’s invasion. “F– off is my very diplomatic reply to you,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, wrote in response to Musk’s tweet. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy responded with a Twitter poll of his own. “Which Elon Musk do you like more,” Zelenskyy asked. “The one who supports Ukraine” or “The one who supports Russia.” What Musk calls a “highly likely” outcome presumes that Russia accomplishes several of its major goals, including permanently annexing Crimea, using referendums to determine the fates of 4 other attempted annexations, and prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO. For Ukrainians, these outcomes would never, ever be acceptable. — Christina Wilkie Photos show destroyed Russian armored vehicles left behind in Izium, Kharkiv Ukrainian forces transport Russian vehicles and missile launch pads left behind by the Russian forces in Izium, Kharkiv, Ukraine on October 02, 2022. Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Over the weekend Ukrainian forces seized the strategic city of Lyman and continued a stunning counteroffensive in the northeast of the country. The following photos show destroyed Russian armored vehicles and tanks left behind as Ukrainian forces battle for Izium, Kharkiv and continue to push east through Russian lines. Destroyed Russian armored vehicles left behind by the Russian forces in Izium, Kharkiv, Ukra...

UK Vows To See Ukraine ‘through To Victory’ In War Against Russia: FM Cleverly https://digitalalabamanews.com/uk-vows-to-see-ukraine-through-to-victory-in-war-against-russia-fm-cleverly/ British Foreign Minister James Cleverly will on Tuesday declare that Britain has the “strategic endurance” to see Ukraine “through to victory” over Russia. In a speech to his Conservative Party’s annual conference, Cleverly will say Ukraine has Britain’s unwavering support in its efforts to push back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. It comes after Britain ramped up sanctions against Moscow, with new measures targeting vulnerable sectors of the economy, in response to the Russian president’s “illegal” annexation of swathes of Ukrainian territory. Cleverly will repeat Prime Minister Liz Truss’s vow that Britain will never accept Putin’s claim to the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia or Crimea. Cleverly is expected to tell the conference in Birmingham, central England: “We aren’t commentators. We are players on the pitch. Making a difference. Promoting our values. Competing on the world stage for what we believe is right. “We believe in freedom. We believe in the rule of law. We believe that an aggressor cannot invade its neighbor with impunity. “This is why we stand shoulder to shoulder with those brave Ukrainians defending their homeland. And Britain has the strategic endurance to see them through to victory.” He will say Ukrainians have defended their homeland “ferociously” and that their bravery has been “amplified” by arms and training supplied by the UK. “We will support them until this war is won. We will support them until their sovereignty is restored. “We will never recognize the annexation of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia or Crimea. “They are Ukraine. And when Ukraine has won this war then we will support them as they rebuild their homes, their economy, and their society.” The latest annexations by Russia, currently under pressure after a series of Ukrainian successes on the battlefield, have prompted condemnation globally and have been rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Putin recently threatened to use “all the means at our disposal” to protect his country, seen as a sign that he could use tactical nuclear weapons in response to attacks on parts of Ukraine he has annexed. In another sign of escalation, the Russian president last month announced a partial military mobilization. Read more: North Korea defends Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian land One-way airline tickets from Russia up 27 pct after mobilization: Data Britain’s FM Cleverly says committed to forming closer ties with Indo-Pacific region Read More…

Walk-On Quarterback Trey Lindsey Awarded Scholarship By Bryan Harsin https://digitalalabamanews.com/walk-on-quarterback-trey-lindsey-awarded-scholarship-by-bryan-harsin/ Auburn Football Updated: Oct. 03, 2022, 4:41 p.m.| Published: Oct. 03, 2022, 4:41 p.m. Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin confirmed the team awarded walk-on quarterback Trey Lindsey with a scholarship during Harsin’s Monday press conference. Lindsey is from Montgomery and grew up as an Auburn fan. He had offers at an FCS school, some Division II and III, but chose to walk on at Auburn in 2019 out of Montgomery Academy. He graduated as the school leader in touchdown passes in a career (48), season (24), and game (5) and was a star on the basketball team. “He’s out there every single week, and this guy’s a future coach,” Harsin said about Lindsey. “And he brings a tremendous amount of value and a lot of really positive things to this team.” Read More Auburn Baseball: Auburn edge Eku Leota out for season with pectoral injury Statistically speaking: Auburn committing turnovers at alarming rate What Bryan Harsin said during Monday’s press conference to preview UGA Lindsey will likely be third on the depth chart when the Tigers (3-2, 1-1) travel to play No. 2 Georgia (5-0, 2-0) on Saturday (2:30 CT CBS) at Sanford Stadium. Harsin told reporters that Zach Calzada wouldn’t return because he’s having season-ending shoulder surgery. T.J. Finley’s status remains unknown since he got injured during the 29-point loss against Penn State. Robby Ashford started the win against Missouri and the LSU loss. Freshman Holden Geriner saw some action against Missouri and was the backup quarterback in both games. “As far as our quarterbacks, you have Robby (Ashford) out there, you have Holden (Geriner) out there, and we’ll see where T.J. (Finley) is at this week,” Harsin said. “Those guys are getting prepared to play. They are ready to play. They’re going to get out there. We can worry about depth and those things. That’s certainly a concern when you don’t have four guys like you want to have on scholarship that are available to play.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Both Candidates Courting Veterans In Nevada Senate Race | News Channel 3-12 https://digitalalabamanews.com/both-candidates-courting-veterans-in-nevada-senate-race-news-channel-3-12/ By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press RENO, Nev. (AP) — Common sense more than any campaign strategy dictated that Adam Laxalt not trumpet his own military service in Nevada’s sometimes-heated Republican Senate primary. After all, the ex-attorney general, who served as a Navy judge advocate general in Iraq, was running against retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, a war hero who was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan and whose badly scarred face serves as a more powerful reminder of his sacrifice than his Purple Heart. But with his former foe now turned patriotic ally, Laxalt, the son of a U.S. senator and grandson of another, is trying to make the most of his own military career. He is relying on familiar GOP buzzwords in appealing to veterans to help save the country from “the left” and calling Democrats the party of the “megarich” as he tries to unseat Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. In some cases he is also capitalizing further on his military experience — and Cortez Masto’s lack of it — with links to conservative issues from U.S. border safety to government overreach on things like COVID-19. He warns about the dangers of Afghan terrorists, prematurely released from captivity, sneaking into the U.S. and pledges to reinstate military members who were discharged for refusing to get coronavirus vaccinations. They’re the kind of campaign issues that strike a chord with many rallying around candidates like Laxalt, backed by former President Trump in a Western battleground that Republicans view as one of their best chances to turn a blue Senate seat red. “First and foremost, there is no substitute for service. And we all know that,” Laxalt said recently at the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, where he and Brown served up free hot dogs. “Obviously, Sen. Masto hasn’t served.” It’s a line he couldn’t use in debates with Brown, who denounced Laxalt during the primary as part of the “elite” Washington establishment. Laxalt — the grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt, and son of former Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. — spent much of his early life in the D.C. area. He graduated from Georgetown law school, was an assistant law professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and served with the JAG Corps in Iraq but didn’t engage in the sort of field combat Brown saw with the 1st Infantry in 2008. At the VFW, Laxalt was introduced by an ex-commander of a B-2 test squad who created a potentially awkward moment when referencing Laxalt’s role in the military before the room eventually erupted into laughter. “I’ll forgive him for being a JAG,” Air Force Col. Tony Grady said. “But then, not really, because when I was a commander, the JAG was in my hip pocket, to keep me out of trouble.” Brown never claimed his military record outranked Laxalt’s, but he did make veiled references during the primary to the way each got where they are. “I wasn’t born into power,” Brown said in his first ad, describing the Taliban bomb that “nearly killed me,” the soldiers who dragged his burning body to safety under mortar fire and his subsequent 30 surgeries. Each pitch ended with the same tag line: “Career politicians can’t fix Washington; they broke it.” Initially, the quote was juxtaposed with images of Cortez Masto and President Joe Biden but later was accompanied by photos of Cortez Masto and Laxalt. Now, Brown is singing Laxalt’s praises and pleading with vets of all political stripes to rally behind him. “What we do in primaries as Republicans is identify who can lay down the most effective fire, and they become the main effort,” Brown said. “Our duty is to go out there and be those foot soldiers for Adam Laxalt.” At the VFW, Laxalt linked Cortez Masto to Democratic policies he says have weakened the U.S. military, disrespected its soldiers and made young Americans less likely to enlist. His biggest applause came when he ridiculed those who “wonder why” military recruiting is down. “Well, how about because they kicked out service members for refusing to take the COVID shots?” Laxalt said. “We have Navy SEALS after 12-year investments and 15 tours of duty to terrible places. I’m a guaranteed vote to reinstate those people.” Laxalt said he’d heard Cortez Masto hadn’t held a town hall meeting with veterans for at least a year. Not true, her campaign said. Cortez Masto, whose father and grandfather served in the U.S. Army, hosted at least a dozen events with Nevada veterans in the past year “to make sure she’s hearing their concerns and is able to deliver the federal support they need,” her campaign said in an email. Her accomplishments include approval of the construction of a national veterans cemetery in Elko that locals had sought for nearly a decade. She helped pass a bill guaranteeing health and compensation benefits for veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Her legislation to protect VA benefits for student veterans was signed into law, as was a measure she backed to improve veterans’ access to mental health services. As he did during the primary, Laxalt reminds vets he founded the nation’s first state office of military legal services as Nevada’s attorney general — a creation the Pentagon eventually embraced and several states later adopted. He touts his JAG work in Iraq — where his legal team oversaw more than 20,000 detainees — when blasting the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, “leaving billions of dollars of weapons behind” for potential terrorists. He said the “Afghan debacle” marked the first time Americans “took the measure of this commander in chief and knew he was not up to the job.” “Sen. Masto is not holding him accountable,” Laxalt said. “A terrorist that was released in Afghanistan could actually be in this country today. This is a huge issue, and it’s an absolute shame that Sen. Masto is dead silent on this.” Cortez Masto insists she has pushed back on Biden’s method of withdrawal from Afghanistan after criticizing Trump’s proposal to withdraw without a plan in place. She gets high marks from Ross Bryant, a retired Army veteran who is the executive director of UNLV’s Military & Veteran Services Center in Las Vegas. Bryant describes himself as a moderate Republican who has voted for candidates in both parties. He’s glad when veterans are elected to Congress and acknowledges the veteran community “is sometimes very harsh: ‘If you are not a vet, you don’t know what it’s like.’” He said that Laxalt “did great for us” as attorney general, and that Brown’s backing should carry weight with some: “He’s been wounded, he’s one of us.’” But, he said, it’s wrong to portray Cortez Masto as anything but a staunch, effective advocate for veterans. He ticks off a list that includes expanding Agent Orange coverage to toxic burn-pit exposures, pressuring federal agencies to set up booths at UNLV’s veteran job fairs, and reversing benefit formulas during the COVID pandemic that would have drastically reduced $9 million worth of vet benefits for remote-students at UNLV alone. “At the end of the day, she has delivered. She’s been a rock star for us,” Bryant said. Read More…

Labor Roundup: Union Approval Highest In More Than 50 Years – The Community Word https://digitalalabamanews.com/labor-roundup-union-approval-highest-in-more-than-50-years-the-community-word/ Labor Notes, Uncategorized by Community Word Staff • October 3, 2022 • 0 Comments Pro-union support highest since 1965: Gallup. Public support for unions has hit its highest point since 1965, the Gallup Organization reported, as 71% of respondents approve of unions. The all-time record in the union poll, which started in 1936, is 75% in 1953 and also in 1957. “After a year of victorious strikes, record union election filings and relentless efforts from corporate billionaires to silence workers, today comes as no surprise,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “Working people recognize the need for a collective voice — and it shows.” The support held across the board by gender and race, with some variations by political party. Democrats support unions 89%, while Republicans are at 58%. Independents are 68% and self-described conservatives are 54%, Gallup reported. Congressional Republicans telegraph plans to target labor. The GOP hasn’t officially unveiled its legislative agenda if Republicans retake the House in November, but they gave a “preview” in key committees. Politico reports that Republicans in the House Education and Labor Committee said they’ll go after labor if the GOP regains a House majority. Members of that committee include Illinois Congresswoman Mary Miller, a Trump-endorsed incumbent from the 15th District. Miller and Illinois Congressmen Darin LaHood (16th District) and Mike Bost (12th District) “all signed on to a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election,” Politico reports. Republicans are aiming at labor regulators in the Biden administration, like Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. Committee Republicans said they’ve sent 57 letters of complaint about labor and unions since Biden was inaugurated. “Targeting these figures and curbing pro-union policies that the administration has put in place will be one of their first orders of business,” Politico reports. In the House Rules Committee’s debate on the Inflation Reduction Act, Republican proposals included Rep. Lauren Brobert (R-Colo.) proposing reviving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the environmentally degrading project President Biden ended; GOP Reps. Ted Budd (N.C.) and Joe Duncan (S.C.) seeking to transfer funds budgeted to hire more IRS employees to instead build the Trump-era Mexican Wall; and Republican Reps. David Schweikert (Ariz.) and Kevin Bacon (Neb.) proposing killing prevailing wage requirements for “green” construction projects. On the Senate side, organized labor was stunned when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) suggested changing Social Security from automatic payments to Congress annually deciding whether to allot the money to send out checks. California fast-food workers score big win on Labor Day. After fast-food workers walked out from 350 eateries across California, the state legislature approved a landmark labor measure establishing a 10-member, labor-management-government council to set and enforce standards, and Gov. Gavin Newson signed the bill on Labor Day. “This landmark bill will be the most important piece of labor law to pass in decades,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of Service Employees International Union. “It will give 550,000 fast-food workers a chance to sit down with government and their employers to decide wages and working conditions.” Seven U.S. Postal Service unions and a coalition of 83 advocacy groups have accused USPS management of secretly planning to close Post Offices and other USPS facilities. “How many Post Offices will be closed?” asked Chuck Zlatkin, legislative and political director for the New York Metro Area Postal Union. “How many clerks and drivers will lose jobs? [Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy’s Great Consolidation is a true danger to the public Post Office.” Biden appointees now make up a majority of the Postal Service Board of Governors, but one of its Democrats (Donald Moak) has sided with the board’s Republicans backing DeJoy. However, Moak’s term and Republican William Zollars’s expire in December. News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper: “Like” us — www.facebook.com/The-Labor-Paper Read More…

Marc Short Says Trump's Post On Elaine Chao Was A 'racial Slur' That Was 'obviously Wrong' https://digitalalabamanews.com/marc-short-says-trumps-post-on-elaine-chao-was-a-racial-slur-that-was-obviously-wrong/ Marc Short, a senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence and onetime director of legislative affairs under then-President Trump, said it was ‘obviously wrong’ for the former president to use a ‘racial slur’ against Elaine Chao. Trump, in social media post last week, called Chao Mitch McConnell’s ‘China-loving wife, Coco Chow.’ Marc Short, a senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence and onetime director of legislative affairs under then-President Trump, said it was”obviously wrong” for the former president to use a”racial slur” against Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump’s former transportation secretary. Short made the comments in an interview on CBS News'”Red and Blue” Monday night, after Trump last week posted on his platform Truth Social that McConnell has a”DEATH WISH” for voting with Democrats to approve a stop-gap funding bill, and called Chao,”his China-loving wife, Coco Chow.” Short called the post”erroneous,” to say the last, highlighting how much Chao has done for the cause of freedom in China.  Read more:CBS News » Duh So if i call someone a American loving wife does that make me racist , last time i looked china was a country so i fail to see how that is racist Rick Scott responds to Trump’s ‘death wish’ attack on Mitch McConnellFlorida Sen. Rick Scott said that he does not ‘condone violence’ after Donald Trump lashed out at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and suggested McConnell had a ‘death wish’ — but Scott stopped short of condemning the former president. What did Tim Ryan say about MAGA that you didn’t cover? Oh yeah. Pathetic Spineless gimp Trump goes cuckoo over Cocaine Mitch — Sad!You can take Trump’s attack on McConnell any way you like — the two men are back to hating each other after a few years’ peace. But the gratuitous reference at the end to his ‘China-loving wife, Coco Chow,’ is obviously way over the top, freddoso writes. freddoso McConnel is terrible, GOP needs new leadership ASAP. freddoso Cochise Mitch has has been compromised for years. freddoso You guys are shills for the establishment, what a joke of an article Sen. Rick Scott on Trump attack against McConnell’s wife: ‘It’s never, ever OK to be a racist’Sen. Rick Scott on Sunday responded with reluctant criticism of former President Donald Trump ‘s verbal jab at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao. The senate gop suddenly found their anti trump voice. The GOP needs fresh leadership with truly conservative (limited government/limited spending) values, not these phony spineless weasels who use polls to determine their principles. What do you call systemic racial discrimination in hiring? Diversity Hiring is racism. Hypocritical jerks. Stop it now. Republicans have to figure that stuff out the hard way. GOP faces test as Trump’s contempt for McConnell turns dangerousNearly all of Trump’s rant against the Senate GOP leader was his usual gibberish, but one statement was particularly inflammatory, even for Trump. (via MaddowBlog) MaddowBlog Exactly. Its nothing of value in the slightest. Realistically the only people that seemed very concerned about it are the ones who want to keep his name in the news … Can we keep ignoring him? MaddowBlog What a very odd way to discuss a death threat MaddowBlog Scott declines to rebuke Trump’s comments attacking McConnellRepublican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida declined to criticize former President Donald Trump ‘s recent comments attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Cult Racist GOP the party of evil, spineless weasels LockHimUp 01:55 Marc Short, a senior adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence and onetime director of legislative affairs under then-President Trump, said it was”obviously wrong” for the former president to use a”racial slur” against Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump's former transportation secretary.”I don’t condone violence,” said the Florida lawmaker and leading Republican.That’s from Friday on Truth social, the platform he founded after Twitter (stupidly and wrongly, I continue to believe) banned him.Follow Us. Short made the comments in an interview on CBS News'”Red and Blue” Monday night, after Trump last week posted on his platform Truth Social that McConnell has a”DEATH WISH” for voting with Democrats to approve a stop-gap funding bill, and called Chao,”his China-loving wife, Coco Chow.” Short called the post”erroneous,” to say the last, highlighting how much Chao has done for the cause of freedom in China. Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE Florida Sen.  “When I — when I saw those tweets at midnight, I sort of assumed the president had taken to drinking at that point,” Short joked. But the gratuitous reference at the end to his”China-loving wife, Coco Chow,” is obviously way over the top.”I think that you know, it's important to remember that Elaine Chao and her family have been strong crusaders against communist China their whole lives. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social website last week, wrote that McConnell must have a “death wish” after supporting a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. She's devoted herself to that. She's spent time outside of government working at Heritage Foundation, fighting the cause for freedom. Chao served as Trump’s transportation secretary until she resigned after Jan. If we are allowed to raise questions about Joe Biden’s mental acuity — questions which are fully justified, by the way — then I think we have a right to raise questions about Trump’s stability right now. She, her family is actually from Taiwan. I think that that certainly was a misplaced and erroneous tweet, to say the least.” “I can never talk about and respond to why anybody else says what they said,” Scott said.” Trump, who doesn't drink, continues to criticize Republicans who don't fully align with him on Truth Social. Here, Trump is doing something unusual for him — he is saying something he demonstrably does not even believe himself. Although the former president is expected to announce a 2024 bid, exactly when he might do so isn't yet clear. We’ve got to make sure we don’t keep caving to Democrats, it’s causing unbelievable inflation and causing more and more debt. Pence has also  hasn't ruled out a presidential bid  and has made multiple trips to Iowa since the 2020 election.  CBS News correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns pointed out that most Republicans have offered little in the way of rebuke for the former president's”death wish” tweet. “As you know, the president likes to give people nicknames. Now, after seven years of this, I get how Trump’s outrage machine works. On CBS News”Face the Nation” Sunday, Sen. Rick Scott declined to criticize the former president's comments. “I’m sure he has a nickname for me.  “Caitlin, I can't speak for them,” Short said of other Republicans. He fills them with rage and then feeds off of it. “I think that Elaine Chao has been a strong crusader against communist China. “I don’t condone violence, and I hope no one else condones violence. I think the president's factually wrong in his tweet, much less to the notion of him taking a racial slur like that I think was obviously wrong.”  Short also suggested that”there's a sense that there's been such enormous bias against [Trump] in the mainstream media, that perhaps [Republicans] are overcompensating for that. Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE Trump’s team has insisted in the wake of the former president’s “death wish” comment that it was meant in a political sense and was not advocating physical harm. It was one of the greatest features of his presidential candidacy and his presidency. But again,” he added,”I don't think there's any place for the tweet he sent out the other night, and I think it's entirely wrong.” Trending News . He replied that “It’s never ever OK to be a racist. Read More…

Japan Issues Rare Alert As North Korea Fires Missile Without Warning Over Main Island | CNN https://digitalalabamanews.com/japan-issues-rare-alert-as-north-korea-fires-missile-without-warning-over-main-island-cnn/ Seoul, South Korea CNN  —  Japan urged residents to take shelter early Tuesday morning after North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over the country for the first time in five years, in a major and potentially dangerous escalation of recent weapons tests by the Kim Jong Un regime. The launch, which prompted immediate backlash from Tokyo and Seoul, comes amid a spate of missile tests, with five launches in the past 10 days, and follows renewed military drills between the United States and its regional allies. The intermediate-range missile was launched from Mupyong-ri near North Korea’s central border with China at around 7:23 a.m. local time, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It flew about 4,600 kilometers (2,858 miles) for 20 minutes at an estimated maximum altitude of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) over Japan’s Tohoku region on the main island of Honshu before falling into the Pacific Ocean, some 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) from the country’s shore, Japanese officials said. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida strongly condemned the launch and called North Korea’s recent ballistic missile launches “outrageous” in comments to reporters at his official residence. Tuesday’s launch is the country’s 23rd such missile test this year, including both ballistic and cruise missiles. There were no reports of damage to aircraft or vessels near the missile trajectory, according to Japanese authorities, but the unannounced missile triggered a rare J-alert, a system designed to inform the public of emergencies and threats in Japan. In such emergencies, alerts are sent out via sirens, through community radio stations and to individual smartphone users. On Tuesday, alerts were sent out at around 7:30 a.m. local time to people in Aomori prefecture, Hokkaido and Tokyo’s Izu and Ogasawara islands, according to Japanese officials. A tweet posted by Japan’s Prime Minister’s office urged residents to take shelter in buildings and to “not approach anything suspicious that is found and to immediately contact the police or fire department.” Other governments were quick to decry the launch, with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol branding it a “reckless” provocation, adding that North Korea will face a decisive response from the South Korean military and its allies. The White House also “strongly condemned” the test, with National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson calling it a “destabilizing” action that shows North Korea’s “blatant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms.” Kim Seung-kyum, chief of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and Paul LaCamera, the United States Forces Korea commander, held a meeting after the launch and reaffirmed the combined defense posture will be further strengthened against any threats and provocations from North Korea, the JCS said. The US Indo-Pacific Command also released a statement saying American commitments to the defense of Japan and South Korea “remain ironclad.” Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said regular missile testing was was part of North Korea’s plan to maintain its nuclear forces. “It is quite possible that the United States, South Korea and Japan will take away a message from this missile test that North Korea is continuing to assert itself to show that it has the ability to deliver nuclear weapons to targets including the US territory of Guam,” he said, adding that “risk reduction” to stop a crisis from escalating should be the current priority. “If such a crisis were to play out, it would play out under a significantly more advanced North Korean nuclear capability, which I think would significantly limit the options that the United States and South Korea would have, potentially to retaliate or manage escalation with North Korea,” he said. Tuesday’s launch could herald an intensification of provocations by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, experts told CNN. “Pyongyang is still in the middle of a provocation and testing cycle and is likely waiting until after China’s mid-October Communist Party Congress to conduct an even more significant test,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “The Kim regime is developing weapons such as tactical nuclear warheads and submarine-launched ballistic missiles as part of a long-term strategy to outrun South Korea in an arms race and drive wedges among US allies.” Four previous missile launches occurred in the space of a week in late September and early October, around the same time US Vice President Kamala Harris made an official visit to Japan and South Korea, and as US, Japanese and South Korean navies held joint exercises. North Korea’s tests also come as international attention remains firmly focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and as both Moscow and Beijing appear reluctant to side with the West to further censure Pyongyang. In May, Russia and China vetoed a US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution to strengthen sanctions on North Korea for its weapons testing, in a vote the US said was likely to fuel Pyongyang’s program to develop nuclear-capable missile systems. Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency have both warned this year that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test, which would be its first since 2017. Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute, drew a connection between the missile tests and a potential nuclear test. “North Korea is going to keep conducting missile tests until the current round of modernization is done. I don’t think a nuclear (test) explosion is far behind,” he told CNN. Read More…

Australia Stocks Jump After Smaller-Than-Expected Rate Hike; Asia Markets Rise https://digitalalabamanews.com/australia-stocks-jump-after-smaller-than-expected-rate-hike-asia-markets-rise/ Pedestrians wearing face masks walk past a monitor displaying the Nikkei 225 index on February 25 in Tokyo, Japan. Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images Asia-Pacific shares traded higher on Tuesday after stocks on Wall Street rallied overnight. The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 2.96% to close at 26,992.21, and the Topix index gained 3.21% to close at 1,906.89. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.58% to close at 2,211.04. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 1.86%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 jumped 3.75% to close at 6,699.3. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points. Markets in mainland China and Hong Kong were closed for a holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 765.38 points, or nearly 2.7%, to close at 29,490.89. The S&P 500 advanced about 2.6% to 3,678.43. The Nasdaq Composite added nearly 2.3% to end at 10,815.43. It was the best day since June 24 for the Dow, and the S&P 500′s the best day since July 27. — CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel and Samantha Subin contributed to this report. Oil prices climb ahead expectations of output cut from OPEC+ meeting Oil prices climbed on Tuesday ahead of an upcoming OPEC+ meeting which could see a huge output cut of more than a million barrels per day. Brent crude futures strengthened 0.64% to stand at $89.43 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate inched up 0.49% to $84.04 per barrel. “The Saudi-led cartel’s desire for elevated prices is no surprise after last month’s meeting,” Mizuho Bank’s Vishnu Varathan wrote in a note, referring to the group’s announcement in September, when it announced to cut oil production by 100,000 barrels per day. The move would be a “natural progression for OPEC+ to backstop prices,” Varathan wrote. — Lee Ying Shan Australia’s rate hike will help balance demand and supply: RBA statement The Reserve Bank of Australia said its rate hike of 25 basis points will “help achieve a more sustainable balance of demand and supply” in the nation’s economy. The central bank said it expects to continue increasing rates over the period ahead. It also noted that Australia’s unemployment rate is at its lowest in almost 50 years and said an increase in the rate is expected with slowing economic growth. –Jihye Lee Australia’s central bank raises interest rates by 25 basis points The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.60%, missing expectations forecasted by economists in a Reuters poll. RBA’s board members had said “the case for a slower pace of increase in interest rates as becoming stronger,” according to minutes from its meeting in September. This is the sixth consecutive move by the central bank in its attempt to control inflationary pressures in the economy. The Australian dollar was down 0.8% at $0.64625 against the greenback shortly after the decision. –Jihye Lee South Korea, Japan defense stocks rise following North’s missile test South Korea’s Naver slips more than 4% on Poshmark deal announcement Shares of Naver fell in early trade after the South Korean internet giant said Monday it would buy U.S. e-retailer Poshmark for around $1.2 billion. Naver’s stock dropped 4.65%, compared to a rise of 1.34% on the broader Kospi index. Poshmark shares jumped around 14% overnight in the U.S. after the announcement. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Want a ‘defensive move’ with up to 5% return? Buy this fund, says strategist It’s been a volatile year for both stocks and bonds, with major Wall Street indexes just ending their worst month since March 2020, and Treasury yields remaining elevated. However David Dietze, chief investment strategist at Point View Wealth Management, says “pockets of opportunity” still exist. “Short-term defensive measures probably are warranted,” Dietze told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday, and named his favorite fund to play the market right now. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan Australia’s central bank expected to hike rates by 50 basis points: Reuters poll A Reuters poll of economists expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to hike its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.85%. RBA’s board members said the case for a slower pace of rate hikes was growing, according to minutes from its Sept. 6 meeting, when it raised its interest rate by 50 basis points. Analysts at Nomura are expecting the central bank to raise rates by 40 basis points, “to convey the view of RBA nearing the end of upsized hikes.” Economists at Commonwealth Bank Australia see a higher chance for a 25-basis-point hike than a 50-basis-point hike. –Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: Here’s what’s next for stocks, according to Wall Street pros September is finally behind us, much to the relief of many equity investors who endured a difficult month, with all major U.S. indexes posted steep losses. With a historically weak month now firmly in the rearview mirror, what is the outlook for stocks as we enter into the fourth quarter of the year? CNBC Pro combed through the research to find out what Wall Street thinks. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Read More…

Planned Saudi Arabia Resort Trojena Awarded 2029 Asian Winter Games https://digitalalabamanews.com/planned-saudi-arabia-resort-trojena-awarded-2029-asian-winter-games/ You have viewed over 50 articles in the last 12 months. Keep Olympic News Free Support insidethegames.biz for as little as £10 For nearly 15 years now, insidethegames.biz has been at the forefront of reporting fearlessly on what happens in the Olympic Movement. As the first website not to be placed behind a paywall, we have made news about the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Commonwealth Games and other major events more accessible than ever to everybody.  insidethegames.biz has established a global reputation for the excellence of its reporting and breadth of its coverage. For many of our readers from more than 200 countries and territories around the world the website is a vital part of their daily lives. The ping of our free daily email alert, sent every morning at 6.30am UK time 365 days a year, landing in their inbox, is as a familiar part of their day as their first cup of coffee. Even during the worst times of the COVID-19 pandemic, insidethegames.biz maintained its high standard of reporting on all the news from around the globe on a daily basis. We were the first publication in the world to signal the threat that the Olympic Movement faced from the coronavirus and have provided unparalleled coverage of the pandemic since.  As the world begins to emerge from the COVID crisis, insidethegames.biz would like to invite you to help us on our journey by funding our independent journalism. Your vital support would mean we can continue to report so comprehensively on the Olympic Movement and the events that shape it. It would mean we can keep our website open for everyone. Last year, nearly 25 million people read insidethegames.biz, making us by far the biggest source of independent news on what is happening in world sport.  Every contribution, however big or small, will help maintain and improve our worldwide coverage in the year ahead. Our small and dedicated team were extremely busy last year covering the re-arranged Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, an unprecedented logistical challenge that stretched our tight resources to the limit.  The remainder of 2022 is not going to be any less busy, or less challenging. We had the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, where we sent a team of four reporters, and coming up are the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Summer World University and Asian Games in China, the World Games in Alabama and multiple World Championships. Plus, of course, there is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Unlike many others, insidethegames.biz is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe that sport belongs to everybody, and everybody should be able to read information regardless of their financial situation. While others try to benefit financially from information, we are committed to sharing it with as many people as possible. The greater the number of people that can keep up to date with global events, and understand their impact, the more sport will be forced to be transparent. Support insidethegames.biz for as little as £10 – it only takes a minute. If you can, please consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. Read more Read More…

Trump's Defamation Suit Against CNN Demands $475 Million https://digitalalabamanews.com/trumps-defamation-suit-against-cnn-demands-475-million/ US ex-president Donald J. Trump sued CNN on Monday (local time), accusing the network of running a smear campaign against him in advance of the 2024 presidential elections. On Monday (local time), former US President Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit against CNN, accusing the network of running a smear campaign against him in advance of the 2024 presidential elections. Trump is reportedly asking for more than $475 million in compensation, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The complaint, filed in a federal court in southern Florida, argues that CNN intentionally circulated false information about Trump to its viewers to bring about his political demise. A report in The Wall Street Journal claims that Trump has accused CNN of presenting him as a Russian puppet and a Nazi, likening him to Adolf Hitler. He claimed that the network’s efforts to discredit him have been increasing recently because of speculation that he would seek the presidency again in 2024. Trump’s Defamation Suit Against CNN Demands $475 Million (3) It is worth noting that throughout his business and political career, Trump has regularly threatened to sue media organizations over news coverage. According to The New York Times, in 2020, his re-election campaign filed a lawsuit against both the newspaper and its editorial board for publishing pieces that implied a connection between the former US President and Russian intervention in American elections. Trump threatened legal action against CNN in 2019 for “unethical and unlawful attacks.” That warning was labelled by CNN as “a desperate PR stunt.” According to The New York Times, a lawsuit was never filed. Also, the day after Trump’s legal team sued CNN, the ex-president threatened legal action against other news organisations and the House select committee looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Former President Donald Trump has filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN. He is seeking punitive damages, claiming that the network used its influence to defeat him politically with a “campaign of libel and slander.” More: https://t.co/46UoV4T9hw pic.twitter.com/aAzgnXte6F — NewsNation (@NewsNation) October 3, 2022  According to The Hill, Trump did not name any other media sites that he intends to sue, but he did say he will sue them for spreading “disinformation” about the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Trump said in a statement reported by The Hill that the administration plans to sue “a significant number of other Fake News Media Companies for their lies, slander, and misconduct,” including “The Big Lie” used to describe the media’s disinformation campaign against the 2020 presidential election. For failing to look into his allegations of electoral fraud, the former president has threatened to sue the Jan. 6 commission. Trump continued, “The Unselect Committee has refused to acknowledge, as was done by the Biden Inspector General at the Department of Defense, and others, that days ahead of January 6th. I recommended and authorized thousands of troops to be deployed to ensure that there was peace, safety, and security at the Capitol and throughout the Country.”(The Business Standard staff may have modified the headline and accompanying image, but the remainder of this report was likely created automatically from a syndicated feed.) Read More…

Trump Threatens 'Appropriate Action' Against Jan. 6 Committee https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-threatens-appropriate-action-against-jan-6-committee/ Former President Donald Trump on Monday said he “may bring appropriate action” against the Jan. 6 Committee. The statement, issued through the Save America political action committee (PAC) and shared on Trump’s Truth Social account, came as part of an announcement about a lawsuit he brought against CNN, alleging defamation. It is unclear whether Trump was threatening to bring legal action against the Jan. 6 Committee, or something else. A spokesperson for the Jan. 6 Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s threat. In his statement on Monday, Trump said of the Jan. 6 Committee: “notwithstanding overwhelming evidence, they REFUSED to investigate the massive Presidential Election Fraud which took place, but only investigate and harass the people and Patriots who complained and asked questions about it.” He added: “The rigging and stealing of our Presidential Election was perhaps The Crime Of The Century, and look at what is happening to our Country now!” Trump also said that the committee has “refused to acknowledge” that he had “recommended and authorized thousands of troops to be deployed to ensure that that there was peace, safety, and security at the Capitol and throughout the Country.” “That offer of National Guard was rejected by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Mayor Bowser of Washington, D.C.-the law requires their request, they failed to make one, and in turn failed the Country,” Trump added. Former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel previously noted that Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops for use in D.C. or elsewhere on Jan. 6, 2021, but the use of those troops was later rejected by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the U.S. Capitol Police. Patel explained in an EpochTV documentary published in July called “The Real Story of Jan. 6”  that Trump several days before Jan. 6 had authorized as many as 20,000 Guard troops for use on the day. But Bowser and Pelosi rejected the request. Background The Jan. 6 Committee was formed after the Democrat-majority House narrowly voted in its favor on June 30, 2021. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had initiated a resolution to create the committee to probe the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The nine-member committee has been criticized for its apparent partisanship, in part because the only two Republicans on the panel—Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)—are both known for their strong opposition to Trump. Republican leaders have denounced the Jan. 6 Committee, saying it wasn’t formed according to House rules, because Pelosi had selected Kinzinger and Cheney after having refused to seat Reps Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who were chosen by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to be on the panel. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chair, alleged in June that the committee “does not serve any true legislative or oversight purpose.” She had also previously accused the Jan. 6 panel of being a political weapon “used to cover up for Nancy Pelosi’s failures.” The Jan. 6 committee, on its website, describes Jan. 6, 2021, as “one of the darkest days of our democracy,” when “insurrectionists … launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members.” Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) preside over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after protestors stormed the Capitol earlier in the day in Washington on Jan. 6, 2020. (Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Lawmakers that day had gathered for a joint session of Congress to count and certify the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election. It was temporarily interrupted when a sizable group of protesters entered the building and its surrounds. Outside were thousands of other mostly peaceful protesters who had gathered in Washington on the day to express concerns about election integrity. Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was determined to have died from homicide on Jan. 6, having been shot and killed by Lt. Michael L. Byrd, a Capitol Police officer. Another death involved a woman in her 30s, Rosanne Boyland. The D.C. medical examiner ruled her death as an accident from a drug overdose. But video unsealed in December 2021 showed that Boyland was crushed and trampled when the crowd of protesters was pushed out of a tunnel in the Capitol building. She was then repeatedly struck by a police officer as she lay unconscious. Another three people died of what were ultimately determined to be natural causes that coincided but were unrelated to the protests in Washington and the Capitol breach itself. One of them was Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died on Jan. 7; he was initially believed to have died due to injuries caused by protesters but was ultimately determined to have died due to a stroke. The other two people were men in their 50s who died on Jan. 6 due to hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. As of early October, more than 900 people have been dealt charges by the Justice Department under the Biden administration, accusing them of having committed federal crimes on Jan. 6, 2021. About 400 of them have pleaded guilty. Juries have convicted eight Jan. 6 defendants after trials. None of the defendants who had jury trials were acquitted of any charges. Joseph M. Hanneman contributed to this report. Follow Mimi Nguyen Ly covers world news with a focus on U.S. news. Contact her at mimi.nl@epochtimes.com Read More…

Donald Trump News: CNN Charged With DefamationFGN News https://digitalalabamanews.com/donald-trump-news-cnn-charged-with-defamationfgn-news/ Former US President Donald Trump sued CNN for defamation on Monday, demanding $475 million in punitive damages, and claiming the network carried out a “slander and defamation campaign” against him. Trump claimed in his lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that CNN used its significant influence as a leading news organization to defeat him politically. CNN declined to comment on the case. Trump, a Republican, claims in the 29-page lawsuit that CNN has a track record of criticizing him, but has intensified its attacks in recent months because the network fears he will run for president again in 2024. “As part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance left, CNN attempted to smear the plaintiff with an ever-increasing series of obscene, false and defamatory labels under the headings of ‘racist’, ‘Russian servant’, ‘rebel’ and ultimately ‘Hitler’. ‘, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit lists several instances in which CNN appears to have compared Trump to Hitler, including a January 2022 special report by host Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the German dictator. Trump, who lost in 2020 his re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden, has not said whether he would seek re-election. In a statement, the former president said he will file lawsuits against other major media companies “in the coming weeks and months,” and that he may take action against a congressional investigative committee on January 6, 2021, on the United States. The Capitol by its supporters. The lawsuit comes as the 76-year-old former president faces major legal problems, including a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice for keeping government records at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida home after leaving office in January 2021. New York State Attorney General Leticia James sued Trump last month, accusing him of lying to banks and insurance companies about the value of his assets. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb) Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Tim Ahman; Editing by Jonathan Otis and Chris Reese Read More…

Central Valley Family, Including 8-Month-Old Child, Kidnapped, Officials Say https://digitalalabamanews.com/central-valley-family-including-8-month-old-child-kidnapped-officials-say/ THAT BREAKING NEWS TONIGHT OUT OF MERCED COUNTY WHERE AUTHORITIES ARE SEARCHING FOR A FAMILY, INCLUDING AN EIGHT-MONTH-OLD BABY THEY SAY WAS KIDNAPPED BY AN ARMED MAN. THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE RELEASED THESE PHOTOS. THEY ARE LOOKING FOR 8-MONTH OLD AROOHI DHERI. HER MOTHER JASLEEN KAUR, AND FATHER JASDEEP SINGH, AND THE BABY’S UNCLE AMANDEEP SINGH. DETECTIVES SAY THE FAMILY WAS TAKEN AGAINST THEIR WILL FROM A BUSINESS NEAR HIGHWAY 59 AND HIGHWAY 99. AND TAKE A LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS JUST IN TO OUR NEWSROOM. AUTHORITIES BELIEVE THIS IS THE SUSPECT IN TODAY’S KIDNAPPING. HE’S DESCRIBED AS A LIGHT-COMPLECTED MAN WITH A SHAVED HEAD LAST SEEN WEARING A HOODIE. HE IS CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS. THE MERCED COUNTY SHERIFF RELEASED A VIDEO STATEMENT TO RELEASE MORE DETAILS. SO FAR WE HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE KIDNAPPING, WE HAVE NO MOTIVATION BEHIND IT WE JUST KNOW THAT THEY ARE GONE. WE’VE GOT EVIDENCE TO INDICATE THAT THE INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED IN THIS DESTROYED EVIDENCE IN AN ATTEMPT TO COVER THEIR TRACKS. THE SHERIFF SAYS THEY ARE WORKING THROUGH THE NIGHT TO TRY TO FIND THIS FAMILY AND GET THEM HOME SAFE. IF YOU SEE THE FAMILY OR T Central Valley family, including 8-month-old child, kidnapped, officials say A Central Valley family of four, including an 8-month-old child, was kidnapped on Monday, by a person the sheriff’s office believes to be armed and dangerous. The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said the family was taken against their will from a business in the 800 block of South Highway 59 in the south Merced area of the county.The family was identified as 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her 27-year-old mother Jasleen Kaur, her 36-year-old father Jasdeep Singh, and her 39-year-old uncle Amandeep Singh.The sheriff’s office released two images of a person they believe to be the abductor, describing him as having a shaved head and wearing a hoodie.Merced County Sheriff Vernon Warnke in a video update said there are signs indicating that the “individuals involved” destroyed evidence to cover their tracks. As of Monday night, Warnke also said that as of Monday night, no contact has been made about any demands or ransom.It is unknown if the family knew their kidnapper, but the sheriff’s office is urging people to not approach the family or kidnapper and to instead call 911 if spotted.Detectives are canvassing the area for leads, and Warnke said aircraft were also out to assist.Anyone with information is asked to call 209-385-7445. MERCED, Calif. — A Central Valley family of four, including an 8-month-old child, was kidnapped on Monday, by a person the sheriff’s office believes to be armed and dangerous. The Merced County Sheriff’s Office said the family was taken against their will from a business in the 800 block of South Highway 59 in the south Merced area of the county. The family was identified as 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her 27-year-old mother Jasleen Kaur, her 36-year-old father Jasdeep Singh, and her 39-year-old uncle Amandeep Singh. The sheriff’s office released two images of a person they believe to be the abductor, describing him as having a shaved head and wearing a hoodie. Merced County Sheriff’s Office Merced County Sheriff Vernon Warnke in a video update said there are signs indicating that the “individuals involved” destroyed evidence to cover their tracks. As of Monday night, Warnke also said that as of Monday night, no contact has been made about any demands or ransom. It is unknown if the family knew their kidnapper, but the sheriff’s office is urging people to not approach the family or kidnapper and to instead call 911 if spotted. Detectives are canvassing the area for leads, and Warnke said aircraft were also out to assist. Anyone with information is asked to call 209-385-7445. Read More…