'SNL' Opens 48th Season With Manning Bros Sketch John Hamm Cameo Social News XYZ
'SNL' Opens 48th Season With Manning Bros Sketch, John Hamm Cameo – Social News XYZ https://digitalarkansasnews.com/snl-opens-48th-season-with-manning-bros-sketch-john-hamm-cameo-social-news-xyz/
Los Angeles, Oct 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) ‘Saturday Night Live’ flagged off its 48th Season by poking fun at both frequent target former US President Donald Trump, and its own rebuilding period after a summer filled with cast exits and goodbyes, reports Variety.
The sketch starred the premiere’s host Miles Teller and cast member Andrew Dismukes as sports stars and brother’s Peyton and Eli Manning, in a parody of their ‘Monday Night Football’ commentary show ‘Manningcast’.
Instead of analysing a football game, the two turned their insight into the opening sketch of the new season of ‘Saturday Night Live’.
According to Variety, at the top of the sketch, Teller as Peyton addressed the shake ups that the series has gone through other the summer, which saw eight cast members – Chris Redd, Alex Moffat, Aristotle Athari, Melissa Villasenor, Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney – announce their departures from the long-running sketch comedy series.
“There are a lot of changes at the show, which could be exciting,” Teller said, quoted by Variety. “Let’s see what they came up with.”
But the sketch-within-a-sketch proved to be a typical opening for the programme, with James Austin Johnson reprising his role as Donald Trump in a sketch located at the Mar-a-Lago club during Hurricane Ian.
Although Johnson was joined by Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang, the focus was on the Mannings’ commentary, with Teller proclaiming that the sketch served “14 attempted jokes, one mild laugh and three chuckles.”
Variety adds that the sketch also acknowledged the cast changes that mark the season by having Teller – following a purposefully weak impression from Heidi Gardner as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem – bemoan the lack of memorable political figures in the sketch: “What about a fun impression like Anthony Fauci or Lindsey Graham or Rudy Giuliani?”
“Those were all Kate McKinnon,” Dismukes replied, referencing the now-departed long running cast member.
Stopping by for surprise appearances were three-time ‘SNL’ host – and Teller’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ co-star – Jon Hamm as a guest commentator with the Mannings, and a somewhat inexplicable appearance from Shaun White in the sketch-within-a-sketch.
Source: IANS
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Crime Crisis Threatens Our Future https://digitalarkansasnews.com/crime-crisis-threatens-our-future/
“Police investigating 17 shootings that happened this weekend.” A headline like that is usually associated with cities like Detroit or Chicago. Unfortunately, it’s a headline from right here in our great state.
After decades of bad crime policy, Arkansas is paying a heavy price. Our culture, our way of life, and our economy are all now at risk.
And this isn’t a problem that those of us from rural Arkansas can afford to ignore any longer. Much of the lifeblood of our economy stems from our capital city, which is now one of the most dangerous cities in America. As Little Rock goes, so goes the rest of Arkansas, even in the rural areas that I am proud to represent.
While some of the effects of this crime wave are obvious–rises in the number of victims, a decline in our quality of life, and the massive overcrowding of our local jails–there are also massive economic consequences we should all be worried about.
There are three numbers that should give all of us serious pause: 33, 69, and 216.
Over the last decade, violent crime in Arkansas has skyrocketed by 33 percent–more than any of our neighboring states.
Violent crime is a staggering 69 percent higher rate than the national average.
And every day in our great state, there are 216 property crimes. That’s right: 216 property crimes per day, 216 victims.
What is going on? This isn’t the Arkansas we know and love.
Our crime crisis is being driven by a variety of factors. From a record number of Americans battling addiction to a failing education system that is not meeting the needs of our students to the lingering effects of the pandemic–there is plenty of blame to go around.
But we also have a broken parole system that allows far too many violent criminals to be turned loose back onto our streets. And that’s exactly what’s playing out in many of our communities.
Hardened criminals who have 15- or 20-year sentences have been unleashed after serving only a few years of their time and they are preying on our people.
If you don’t believe me, let me tell you about Mrs. Esther Hudson: this woman, our neighbor, was struck by a car and died at the Monticello Walmart on Nov. 20, 2021, while loading her car with groceries.
Jarvis Dillard, a criminal sentenced to 20 years in prison, was released after serving less than 25 percent of his sentence. While high on meth and marijuana, Dillard struck and killed Mrs. Hudson.
According to the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) records, Dillard had 40 disciplinary violations while in custody but was still released early.
You shouldn’t have to assume the worst when it comes to routine tasks like going to your local grocery store. Nor should you worry that hardened criminals will be released far too early. You should be able to take comfort in knowing that criminals are locked away, serving their sentences where they cannot commit more crimes.
But all too often we find, like in this case, the perpetrator is a parolee–someone who was released far too early because of a broken system reliant on out-of-touch policies.
What an insult to our brave law enforcement officers who often must risk their lives chasing down the same criminals over and over and over again.
Rampant unchecked crime will make it increasingly more difficult for us to recruit good, high-paying jobs. After all, what company would want to take on the risk and cost of moving a plant or headquarters here if they can’t safely operate? How would they be able to recruit quality employees if crime continues to ravage our streets, particularly our cities?
But here is perhaps the worst part: If this crisis kills good jobs in Arkansas, that will only make the problem worse, because more Arkansans, especially in rural areas, will be jobless and therefore more likely to fall into crime. And if more Arkansans fall into crime, our economy will suffer even more, leading to even more unemployment and lawlessness in places we need economic growth the most.
It’s an economic death spiral we have to stop.
In the coming legislative session, we need big, bold ideas to solve our crime crisis. Tweaking around the edges isn’t going to cut it. We need total sweeping reform, and this crime crisis should be at the top of the docket on Day 1.
It may not be easy, but I am committed to being a part of the solution. Because we can’t sit idly by and watch the state we love continue to go down this path. Our families and our communities deserve better.
Senator Ben Gilmore (R) currently represents Arkansas Senate District 26 in south Arkansas. District 26 includes Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, and Drew Counties and parts of Cleveland, Desha, and Lincoln Counties.
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Charges Filed https://digitalarkansasnews.com/charges-filed/
File these developments under better late than never.
Some 19 months after a school investigation began into Huntsville junior high basketball players being sexually abused by older teammates in the locker room, the prosecutor has issued summons to former superintendent Audra Kimball, now the school’s compliance coordinator, and former basketball coach Kaleb Houston to face first-degree misdemeanor charges for failing to report the assaults as mandated.
The charges were filed after Fort Smith Attorney Joey McCutchen, who represents victims and their families in the matter, requested a legislative audit of the Arkansas State Police investigative unit.
Initial appearances in the case are tentatively set for Thursday in Madison County District Court. Fourth District Prosecutor Matt Durrett told the Madison County Record that other summons and citations may be forthcoming; Principal Roxanne Enix and Athletic Director Tom McCollough remain under investigation.
Ellen Kreth’s weekly paper has earned national recognition for its role in exposing the story and keeping it alive.
Under the Title IX program, mandated reporters of suspected student abuse (teachers, administrators, coaches) are legally required to report them to the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline.
The Huntsville Board of Education in July admitted liability in the case underway since February 2021. The action involved allegations by male Huntsville Junior High School students that older basketball players had restrained younger teammates while other players placed their genitals on or in their faces.
A settlement request was filed by McCutchen in the fall of 2021. A federal judge approved the settlement on Sept. 7, 2022, in the amount of $1, and the acknowledgement of liability.
McCutchen, who represents Becky Nelle, a parent on behalf of her son, says the agreement meant Huntsville District administration admitted to the violations, since they knew students were being sexually assaulted and did nothing about it under the guidelines.
McCutchen summarized the meaning behind Title IX and such abuses going unreported: “There’s nothing more important than the safety of our children and of our students.”
He said Durrett’s latest action sends a very strong message across Arkansas that those in supervisory and teaching positions mandated to report abuses should take their jobs very seriously. Then, when those acts are reported, the state needs to fully investigate the allegations.
Those of us from smaller towns with so many interlocking family and friend connections know that when such scandals arise, there can be a strong desire for powers that be to deal with them quietly. There can be friends to favor and a tendency to follow that path. But in this era under Title IX, the reporting laws are clear, as embarrassing as it might be to lose control of the information.
In the Record, Kreth wrote that, when asked about the allegations in June, Madison County Sheriff Rick Evans told the paper, “The school’s handling it.”
“After The Record published reports of the allegations on June 10, the sheriff’s office reversed course and began investigating,” Kreth writes. “In an email exchange on June 21 with [attorney Charles] Harwell, Kimball stated that the sheriff’s office had requested documents from the Title IX investigation. ‘The sheriff explained to me that the heat is now on them,’ Kimball wrote. ‘I reminded him that the [school resource officer] has known about the situation all along.'”
Durrett, who received a parent’s criminal complaint against the administrators and coach on Oct. 22, 2021, initially closed the case in April. But after meeting with a family and learning new information, Kreth wrote, he reopened the case and began investigating further, leading to this latest action. Good for Durrett for realizing just how significant this mess is and reversing course.
Six new school board members were elected to the seven-member Huntsville School Board this summer in what most can agree was a badly needed house cleaning.
Kreth said one of the first actions on which the new board voted was to accept liability for knowing about the assault allegations but taking no action to prevent or stop the abuse. Sounds like integrity to me. Good for them as well.
I wonder how many people in and around Huntsville realize the vital role their courageous newspaper played (and make no mistake, it required a lot of courage), taking on this controversy in such an assertive and fair manner and seeing it through to a proper and honorable conclusion.
I understand Kreth and her determination to bring hidden truths into the light in the public interest simply because it’s the right thing and beneficial to readers to practice journalism as the First Amendment intended in our smaller communities.
For that, the good people of Huntsville owe her a debt of gratitude and respect.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master’s journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
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Live Updates: Death Toll Rises As Extent Of Damage Remains Unclear
Live Updates: Death Toll Rises As Extent Of Damage Remains Unclear https://digitalarkansasnews.com/live-updates-death-toll-rises-as-extent-of-damage-remains-unclear/
Oct. 2, 2022, 2:07 a.m. ET
Oct. 2, 2022, 2:07 a.m. ET
The New York Times
Hurricane Ian plodded northeast through Virginia as a weakened storm on Sunday, bringing rain and the risk of limited flooding to parts of West Virginia, Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. In Florida, the death toll from one of the worst storms to ever hit the state rose again as rivers continued to swell, complicating ongoing rescue efforts.
The latest:
President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will travel this week to Puerto Rico to survey the damage left by Hurricane Fiona, and to Florida to assess recovery efforts from Ian.
The lack of clean drinking water remained a major issue in Florida. Some communities, including islands, remained completely cut off making it harder for rescuers to reach victims.
The Florida Medical Examiners Commission said late Saturday that 44 people had died in Hurricane Ian including 30 in Lee County on the state’s southwest coast. The Lee County sheriff had earlier said about 35 people had died there. It is normal in a disaster to see such numbers change, and the final death toll is still yet undetermined.
More than 900,000 people in Florida, 143,000 in Puerto Rico, 35,000 in North Carolina and 12,000 in Virginia are without power.
Oct. 1, 2022, 10:57 p.m. ET
Oct. 1, 2022, 10:57 p.m. ET
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President Biden at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington on Thursday. The agency’s administrator, Deanne Criswell, is at right.Credit…Kenny Holston for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to Puerto Rico on Monday to survey damage to the island from Hurricane Fiona and will go on Wednesday to Florida, where Hurricane Ian left parts of the state in ruins, the White House announced on Saturday night.
White House officials did not provide details of the president’s visits to the sites of the two natural disasters. But Mr. Biden had said in the past several days that he expected to travel to both places to reassure residents that the federal government will help in their recoveries.
“In addition to what we’re doing for Florida and South Carolina, we remain focused on recovery efforts in Puerto Rico as well,” Mr. Biden said Friday at the White House. “We’re going to stay with and stay at it as long it takes.”
The president’s visit to Florida will be the first since he and Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor, have spent months clashing over transgender rights, abortion, immigration and other issues that are at the center of congressional elections next month. Mr. DeSantis has said that the storm, which made landfall on the state’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4, will go down in history as one of the strongest to hit Florida because of the catastrophic flooding that wiped away whole towns and killed dozens.
As the hurricane approached in the last week, however, Mr. Biden and Mr. DeSantis have stayed away from political attacks. Asked by a reporter in Washington about his relationship with Mr. DeSantis, the president called it irrelevant.
“In fact, very fine. He complimented me,” Mr. Biden said. “He thanked me for the immediate response we had. He told me how much he appreciated it. He said he was extremely happy with what’s going on.”
The president added: “This is not about anything having to do with our disagreements politically. This is about saving people’s lives, homes, and businesses.”
Mr. DeSantis has changed his tone as well in recent days. In the past, he criticized federal hurricane assistance as a “boondoggle” and a “put it on the credit card mentality.” But last week, Mr. DeSantis urged the federal government to come to his state’s aid.
“You know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything — if you can’t put politics aside for that, then you’re just not going to be able to,” the governor said.
There is a long history of presidents from both parties visiting disaster areas, in part to demonstrate that they understand the magnitude of the crisis and that political affiliation will not determine how much help the state gets. Former President George W. Bush was criticized for flying over the devastation wrought in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and not, initially, touring the damage on the ground.
But the reality is that it can be difficult for presidents to visit too soon after a disaster strikes. Their presence — along with the large number of vehicles, secret service officers, local police protection and other staff — can distract from the efforts to recover and rebuild.
After a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters on Thursday, just after Hurricane Ian made landfall, Mr. Biden said he would travel as soon as possible to support the local first responders and federal officials who were already rescuing people from rooftops.
“When the conditions allow it, I’m going to going to Florida to thank them personally so we don’t get in the way.” Mr. Biden said at the time. “I’ll do our best — we’re going to do our best to build Florida back as quickly as possible. But we’re not going to be leaving.”
“We’re going to build it back with the state and local government,” he added. “However long it takes, we’re going to be there. That’s my commitment to you.”
The hurricanes wrought devastation in both places. But the damage in Puerto Rico may prove especially difficult to recover from since the island had yet to fully recover from Hurricane Maria almost five years ago.
Ten days after Hurricane Fiona struck on Sept. 16, more than 365,000 people on the island remained without power, raising questions about the inability of the federal and local efforts to rebuild the island’s fragile electric grid.
Mr. Biden noted the island’s difficult history with hurricanes on Sept. 22, just days after the storm swept through the island.
“To the people of Puerto Rico, who are still hurting from Hurricane Maria five years later, I know that we’re — they should know that this — we are with you,” he said. “We’re not going to walk away. We mean it.”
Oct. 1, 2022, 5:20 p.m. ET
Oct. 1, 2022, 5:20 p.m. ET
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The line at a Wawa convenience store in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Saturday.Credit…Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs/The New York Times
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The parking lot of a Wawa convenience store here was transformed into a sea of red gasoline cans on Saturday as hundreds of residents waited for hours in hopes of powering generators and cars after the city, about 30 miles northwest of Fort Myers, was battered by Hurricane Ian.
The store, one of only a few purveyors of gas that had reopened since Wednesday’s storm, corralled cars into a line that stretched for more than a mile along a suburban road. One woman was pushing her van, which appeared to have run out of gas, as the line inched forward. Hundreds more people arrived carrying empty gas cans or pushing them in wheelbarrows.
“This is the furthest I’ve gotten,” said Mark Eidys, who had waited in his truck for hours on two other days but had to leave before ever reaching the pumps. On Saturday, he tried a new strategy: joining the walk-up line and bringing a lawn chair, as well as three gas cans.
As the line grew longer under the beating sun, several people fumed that much of the national attention appeared to be focused on wealthier areas like Naples or Cape Coral.
One man at the very end of the line, who declined to give his name, said he had not seen any power company workers in his neighborhood and wondered aloud why federal aid had not arrived to help him. He said he needed gas to buy food, but he grew frustrated when he learned that the Wawa was accepting only cash.
At the front of the line was Gary Jaworski, who said he had waited for about six hours, beginning at 7 a.m., to fill up four cans of gas. He said that although he fully supported Gov. Ron DeSantis, he was frustrated at what he viewed as a broken promise by the governor — that gas stations would be able to quickly reopen after the storm.
“Where’s all the fuel?” he asked. “Every gas station or filling station was to have a generator prepared to go at all times.”
In a news conference on Saturday, Mr. DeSantis said 1.6 million gallons of fuel had been moved to southwest Florida, but he acknowledged that some stations “may not have the electricity to operate their pumps.”
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting.
Oct. 1, 2022, 3:03 p.m. ET
Oct. 1, 2022, 3:03 p.m. ET
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Osceola County authorities rescuing a 93-year-old resident from flooding on Friday in Kissimmee, Fla.Credit…Bryan R. Smith/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
CLEWISTON, Fla. — When Brandon Arrington, chairman of the Osceola County Commission, went to bed at his home in Kissimmee, Fla., a little more than 20 miles south of Orlando, on Friday night, his neighborhood was mostly dry.
When he walked out to his car on Saturday morning, preparing to go to a 10 a.m. news conference, the entire landscape had changed.
“I was greeted with water up half my driveway,” he said.
Flagging down a city crew that was rolling through the neighborhood in a high-water vehicle, he was taken to dry land. But Mr. Arrington’s rescue on Saturday highlighted that the flooding from Hurricane Ian had not finished, and in some areas, the worst was still to come.
The heavy rainfall from the storm is moving slowly down rivers and creeks in central Florida, swelling waterways as it goes downstream, like a snake digesting an egg. Some areas that had not been flooded during the hurricane will see water in the coming days, and some areas that had flooded on Thursday are going to see even more water.
“It’s creating a lot of problems really all across the state,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a ...
129 Killed In Stampede Riot At Indonesia Football Match
129 Killed In Stampede, Riot At Indonesia Football Match https://digitalarkansasnews.com/129-killed-in-stampede-riot-at-indonesia-football-match/
At least 129 people have been killed and dozens injured in a riot and a stampede at an Indonesian football stadium.
The tragedy on Saturday night in the eastern city of Malang was one of the world’s deadliest sporting stadium disasters.
Police in East Java province said thousands of fans of Arema FC stormed the pitch at Kanjuruhan Stadium after their team lost 3-2 to Persebaya Surabaya. Officers tried to control the “riots” by firing tear gas, triggering a stampede as panicked fans rushed to an exit gate.
Some suffocated in the chaos while others were trampled to death.
“Thirty-four people died inside the stadium and the rest died in hospital,” said East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta.
The death toll is likely still increasing, he said, since many of about 180 injured victims’ conditions were deteriorating.
A hospital director told local television that one of the victims was five years old.
Video footage from local news channels showed fans streaming onto the pitch in the Kanjurujan Stadium in Malang after Arema FC lost to Persebaya Surabaya. Scuffles can be seen, with what appeared to be tear gas in the air. Images also showed people who appeared to have lost consciousness being carried away by other fans.
The stadium holds 42,000 people and authorities said it was a sell-out. Police said about 3,000 people had stormed the pitch. Vehicles outside the stadium were also torched, including a police truck.
Members of the Indonesian army secure the pitch after a stampede at a football match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya at Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, East Java, October 1, 2022 [AFP]
Survivors described panicking spectators in a packed crowd as tear gas rained down on them.
“Officers fired tear gas, and automatically people were rushing to come out, pushing each other and it caused many victims,” a 43-year-old spectator told the AFP news agency. “Nothing was happening, there was no riot. I don’t know what the issue was, they suddenly fired tear gas. That’s what shocked me, didn’t they think about kids, women?”
League suspended
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation into the tragedy, a safety review into all football matches and directed the country’s football association to suspend all matches until “security improvements” were completed.
“I deeply regret this tragedy and I hope this football tragedy will be the last in our country,” Widodo said.
Fan violence is an enduring problem in Indonesia, with a strong rivalry between clubs sometimes leading to violence among supporters. Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya are longtime rivals and the latter’s fans were not allowed to buy tickets for Saturday’s game due to fears of violence.
Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Mahfud MD, said organisers had ignored authorities’ recommendation to hold the match in the afternoon instead of the evening. He also said the government had recommended only 38,000 tickets be printed, but there was instead a sell-out crowd of 42,000. “The government has made improvements to the implementation of football matches… and will continue to improve. But this sport, which is a favourite of the wider community, often provokes supporters to express emotions suddenly,” he said in an Instagram post.
A group of people carry a man after a stampede at a football match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya at Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, East Java, October 1, 2022 [AFP]
World soccer’s governing body FIFA specifies in its safety regulations that no firearms or “crowd control gas” should be carried or used by stewards or police. East Java police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they were aware of such regulations.
Referring to the FIFA rules, Amnesty International criticised the use of tear gas in the stadium and urged authorities to “conduct a swift, thorough, and independent investigation” and “ensure that those who are found to have committed violations are tried in open court and do not merely receive internal or administrative sanctions”.
“This loss of life cannot go unanswered,” said Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia.
The Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) said it would send its own investigation team to Malang to establish the cause of the crush. It also banned Arema FC from hosting home games for the rest of the season.
“We’re sorry and apologise to families of the victims and all parties over the incident,” PSSI Chairman Mochamad Iriawan said.
The tragedy comes as Indonesia is scheduled to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in May and June next year. They are also one of three countries bidding to stage next year’s Asian Cup, the continent’s equivalent of the Euros, after China pulled out as host.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said Saturday’s disaster was “historic”.
“Violence and riots are a common occurrence at football matches in Indonesia, but we have never seen something like this before,” she said.
“This is a historic tragedy, not only for football in Indonesia but football internationally. This is one of the biggest tragedies the sport has seen, in terms of fan violence, in terms of deaths of fans at a match,” she added.
Other stadium disasters include a 1964 crush at a Peru-Argentina Olympic qualifier at Lima’s National Stadium that killed some 320 people, and the 2012 Port Said stadium tragedy in Egypt where 74 people died in clashes.
In 1989, some 96 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death in the United Kingdom, when an overcrowded and fenced-in enclosure collapsed at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
This picture shows a torched car outside Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, on October 2, 2022 [Putri/ AFP]
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AP News Summary At 12:40 A.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1240-a-m-edt/
129 dead after fans stampede to exit Indonesian soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Panic at an Indonesian soccer match left 129 dead, most of whom were trampled to death after police fired tear gas to dispel riots. Around 180 more are being treated for injuries. Riots broke out after the game ended Saturday evening with host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city losing to Persebaya of Surabaya 3-2. The rioting spread outside the stadium where at least five police vehicles were toppled and set ablaze. Riot police responded by firing tear gas — which is banned at soccer stadiums by FIFA — that sent hundreds of fans running for the exits. The premier league game is already one of the deadliest sports events in the world. East Java’s police chief says more deaths are likely.
Russia withdraws troops after Ukraine encircles key city
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia has pulled troops out from an eastern Ukrainian city that it had been using as a front-line hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has humiliated and angered the Kremlin. The city of Lyman was a key transportation hub for the Russian front line. A day earlier Moscow had annexed as part of Russia. Kyiv has retaken vast swaths of territory beginning in September. With Lyman recaptured, Ukraine can now push further into the occupied Luhansk region, one of the four regions that Russia annexed Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military have vowed to keep fighting to liberate all regions from Russian control.
Allies aim for risky Russian oil price cap as winter nears
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials celebrated at the start of September when top allies agreed to back an audacious, never-before-tried plan to clamp down on Vladimir Putin’s access to cash. The countries would pay only cut-rate prices for Russian oil. That would deprive Putin of money to keep prosecuting his war in Ukraine, but also ensure that oil kept gushing out of Russia and kept global prices low. But nearly a month later, the organization made up of some of the world’s leading economies, the Group of Seven, is still figuring out how to execute their plan and gather participants.
Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover from Ian
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers have evacuated stunned survivors cut off by Hurricane Ian on Florida’s largest barrier island, and the state’s death toll has risen sharply amid recovery efforts. Hundreds of thousands of people are still sweltering without power in the state, days after Ian’s rampage from Florida to the Carolinas. Florida now has 47 confirmed deaths. Ian was one of the strongest U.S. hurricanes on record when the Category 4 monster smashed ashore at midweek. Many storm victims were left isolated with limited cellphone service and lacking basic amenities like water and power. As of Saturday night, nearly 1 million customers in Florida still had not had electricity restored.
Pine Island residents recount horror, fear as Ian bore down
PINE ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Emergency responders are seeking to evacuate residents from the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, and survivors there spoke of the terror of riding out Hurricane Ian in flooded homes and howling winds. A volunteer group, Medic Corps, was flying residents off Pine island by helicopter on Saturday. The bridge to Pine Island was heavily damaged by the hurricane, leaving it reachable only by boat or air. Some residents said they hadn’t seen anyone from outside the island for days and spoke of being trapped in flooded homes as boats and other debris crashed around their houses in the storm surge. Some feared they wouldn’t make it.
Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Experts say that Hurricane Ian is shining a spotlight once again on the vulnerability of the nation’s barrier islands and the increasing cost of people living on them. Florida’s Sanibel Island was hard hit by the storm. Homes were destroyed. Two people have been confirmed dead. And Sanibel’s lone bridge to the mainland collapsed. Barrier island communities like Sanibel anchor tourist economies that provide crucial tax dollars. But the cost of rebuilding them is often high because they’re home to many high-value properties. Jesse Keenan is a real estate professor at Tulane University. He questions whether such communities can keep rebuilding as hurricanes become more and more destructive from climate change.
Venezuela swaps 7 jailed Americans for Maduro relatives
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuela’s government has freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives imprisoned for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens that the Biden administration has ever carried out. It amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as he looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his opponents and follows months of secretive talks, including repeated visits to Venezuela over the last year by Washington’s top hostage negotiator.
Trump at center of Oath Keepers novel defense in Jan. 6 case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The defense team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the center. Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the riot were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president. But those orders never came. Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday.
Brazil holds historic election with Lula against Bolsonaro
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — More than 120 million Brazilians will vote Sunday in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his political nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Recent polls have given da Silva a commanding lead, pointing to a chance that he may be able to win the first round outright, without need for a run-off. Da Silva would have to get more than 50% of the votes cast Sunday, topping the total vote for Bolsonaro and the other nine candidates.
GOP attacks Georgia’s Abrams on voting as judge rejects suit
ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans are using the defeat of a voting suit brought by a group founded by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to attack her legitimacy as a voting rights advocate. They say a judge’s rejection on Friday of the last remaining claims in a suit brought by Fair Fight Action shows that Abrams was wrong all along to claim that she lost the 2018 Georgia governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp because of voter suppression by Kemp. But Abrams is far from backing down from her position, and says she won a number of victories that made elections fairer. Her advocacy has also helped make voting rights a defining issue for Black voters in Georgia.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Trump Likely To Announce His 2024 Presidential Run Within Weeks
Trump Likely To Announce His 2024 Presidential Run Within Weeks https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-likely-to-announce-his-2024-presidential-run-within-weeks/
Stating this, Kellyanne Conway, his 2016 campaign manager and close ally, said she had advised him to wait until after the midterms in November, according to Business Insider. .
Speaking on Friday with CBS News, Conway was asked whether Trump would announce his candidacy after the midterm elections and before Thanksgiving.
“Well, he would like to,” said Conway, as per CBS News. “He’s as active as anybody in these midterm elections. That’s important to the calculus also, Catherine, because we have the most ironic, if not unprecedented situation right now,” Conway continued.
“We have a president, a current president, whose party doesn’t really want him to campaign with them.” Trump will assess the timing of his announcement after the midterms, which take place on November 8, Conway said. “I will tell you why he wants to run for president,” she said. “Donald Trump wants his old job back.”
In July, Conway described Trump as “champing at the bit” to announce his third presidential bid. Speaking to CBS News, she said she advised him to wait until right after the midterms.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also said he lobbied the former president not to announce a 2024 presidential run before the midterms. “My point to him has always (been), ‘Let’s go win ’22,'” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol in July.
That same month, a top Republican strategist told Insider that a pre-midterm announcement from Trump would be a “train wreck for the party” and “a complete mess.”
Meanwhile, how Democrats, who aren’t named Joe Biden, are running for president – without running for president. Joe Biden plans to seek reelection in 2024, even though voters are souring on him.
Democrats aren’t expected to primary Biden, but questions linger about a backup plan. Would-be candidates have been seeking the national spotlight. President Joe Biden has been clear that he plans to run for a second term in 2024. His political team is even getting ready for a spring reelection announcement, according to the Washington Post.
But that hasn’t stopped the “will he really?” chatter, particularly after a New York Times poll found that 61 per cent of Democrats said they hoped someone other than Biden would be their nominee in 2024, largely because of his age and job performance.
Democratic insiders are questioning whether Biden, 79, can mount a vigorous campaign in 2024 – especially if former President Donald Trump decides to run again.
Despite the doubts, Biden is not expected to face a primary challenge given that it would alienate other people in the party as well as the donor class, said Mark Jones, Rice University (Houston, Texas) political science professor and Baker Institute fellow, the Insider said.
“The norm is that you do not challenge a sitting president from your party,” Jones said. “That’s a major political faux pas. It either isn’t done, or if it is done it’s done more for political ambition – not to actually win, but to put the spotlight on yourself for other reasons.”
A key factor helping Biden’s staying in power is Trump. The New York Times poll found that Biden would be favoured to win in another contest against Trump. “The belief is that if Biden beat Trump before, he can beat him again,” Jones said. If a Democrat were to try to primary Biden – and weaken him in the process – then that person would be blamed if a Republican, even Trump, were to win in 2024.
But none of these factors rule out politicians’ making under-the-radar moves. If Biden somehow reverses his plans, that’ll mean the party will need to find a backup.
Some ways that candidates begin to test the field through “invisible primaries” are by campaigning for other Democrats to build loyalty, particularly in swing districts. They also may appear at events in potential early voting states and offer noncommittal responses about whether they’ll support Biden in 2024, said Shawn Donahue, a University at Buffalo (New York) assistant professor of political science.
Other ways are through grabbing headlines through weighing in on national debates, holding leadership roles in the party, and raising huge sums particularly from out-of-staters. In the case of governors interested in the White House, they’ll need to crush the opposition if they’re up for reelection this year, in November, the Insider said.
“There will be a host of people who want to be waiting in the wings so the moment Biden says he’s not running they can sort of jump in,” Jones said. Even if Biden doesn’t change his mind, 2028 isn’t much further off. There are 15 politicians who are taking actions or gaining interest that might position them for a 2024 White House run if Biden changes his mind. And this includes the three top contenders, VP Kamala Harris, Florida Governor Gavin Newsom and senator Elizabeth.
–IANS
ashe/shs
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Burdet Advances At ITA All-Americans https://digitalarkansasnews.com/burdet-advances-at-ita-all-americans/
Victoria Guerra October 1, 2022
TULSA, Okla. – The Arkansas men’s tennis team kicked off the ITA All-American Championships today with four players competing in the first two rounds of the singles pre-qualifying draw on Saturday. The Razorbacks had three players advance to the second round with junior Adrien Burdet set to continue play in the third round of the prequalifying draw tomorrow.
Sophomore Jake Sweeney started out the day for the Razorbacks in the first pre-qualifying round against Daniel Linkuns-Morozovs of Abilene Christian University. Sweeney fought hard the entire match, dropping a first-set tiebreaker 6-7 (9) and then battling back to take a second-set tiebreaker 7(7)-6. In the forced third set, Sweeney dropped the set 4-6.
The newest Hog, Alan Sau Franco, won his first match of the day over South Carolina’s Carter Morgan. Sau Franco dropped the first set 4-6, but came back to win the next two 6-4, 6-2. In his second match of the day, Sau Franco was up against Bozo Barun of Wake Forest. He took the first set 7-5, but dropped the next 1-6 and 5-7.
The Little Rock native, Foster Rogers, got off to a quick start winning his match 6-3, 6-2 over Karlo Kajin of LSU. Rogers went on to drop his second match in straight sets, falling to Tennesse’s Boris Kozlov.
The junior Adrien Burdet continued with the Razorback wins in the first pre-qualifying round. Burdet got the straight set 6-4, 6-2 win to start his day against Alex De Soussa of Drexel. In the second round, Burdet faced Memphis’ Pau Fanlo to win his second match of the day 6-3, 6-2.
Burdet is back in action at the ITA All-American Championships as the pre-qualifying draw continues tomorrow, facing South Carolina’s Casey Hoole at 11:30 a.m. CT.
For the latest information on all things Arkansas Men’s Tennis, follow the Hogs on social media by liking us on Facebook (Arkansas Razorback Men’s Tennis) and following us on Twitter and Instagram (@RazorbackMTEN).
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Obituaries In Fort Smith, AR | Times Record https://digitalarkansasnews.com/obituaries-in-fort-smith-ar-times-record-58/
Emogene Kraus, 97, of Fort Smith, AR passed away on September 30, 2022 in a local nursing home. She was born on September 9, 1925 to T.E. and Anna (Jones) Bailey. Emogene was a homemaker, a longtime member of Bluff Avenue Baptist Church and a former baker at Von Hatten’s Bakery. She was preceded in death by her husband Gomer Kraus.
Graveside services are 2:00PM, Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at Woodlawn Memorial Park under the direction of Ocker-Putman Funeral Home of Fort Smith, AR.
She is survived her son, Mike Kraus and his wife Polly of Fort Smith; daughter, Margaret Wagoner of Fort Smith; five grandchildren, Rebecca Howe of Fort Smith, Shelly Rosseau of Melbourne Beach, FL, Sarah Rogers of Huntsville, AR, Casie Steele of Broken Arrow, OK and Grace Andrews of Fort Smith and eight great grandchildren.
Online tributes may be made at www.ockerputmanfuneralhome.com
Posted online on October 02, 2022
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Indonesia: Violence Breaks Out After Football Match At Least 129 Killed In Riot | Latest | WION
Indonesia: Violence Breaks Out After Football Match, At Least 129 Killed In Riot | Latest | WION https://digitalarkansasnews.com/indonesia-violence-breaks-out-after-football-match-at-least-129-killed-in-riot-latest-wion/
Indonesia: Violence breaks out after football match, at least 129 killed in riot | Latest | WION WION
Indonesia Football Incident LIVE | Indonesia Football Accident LIVE | 129 People Trampled To Death CNN-News18
Indonesian soccer match stampede leaves more than 120 dead ESPN
127 People Dead in Riot After Indonesian Soccer Match #shorts Voice of America
Indonesia stadium tragedy: 129 people dead following soccer match, police say CNN
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After Hurricane Ian Took Everything One Hard-Hit Block Banded Together
After Hurricane Ian Took Everything, One Hard-Hit Block Banded Together https://digitalarkansasnews.com/after-hurricane-ian-took-everything-one-hard-hit-block-banded-together/
SAN CARLOS ISLAND, Fla. — Nearly everyone at Joe Fernandez’s place lost everything in the storm.
Many lived in the RV parks and mobile home communities clustered along Main Street on this small patch of land between Fort Myers and Estero Island. The water to the north is known as Hurricane Bay, and for one terrifying stretch this week the line between land and sea blurred. Ian, one of the most fearsome hurricanes to ever hit the country, turned this patch of southwest Florida into an epicenter of devastation.
And it left many who live here with no place to go. No place but Joe Fernandez’s. The motor sport shop became a shelter first, then a food pantry. By Friday night, it turned into a place to process, to grieve. A place to find strength and fellowship. Most at the impromptu gathering didn’t evacuate, and they swapped stories of survival over cans of hard seltzer and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
Their accounts are harrowing and hard to fathom: Twenty people huddled in a small apartment on the second floor of one of just a few two-story buildings while water climbed the steps. The sight of boats lifted from the nearby marina slamming onto houses in the storm surge. The sound of trapped residents pounding on windows as their homes flooded. Close calls and heroic rescues.
“This was some ‘Walking Dead’ type of apocalypse,” Fernandez, 32, said. “This is what it feels like.”
Every disaster tests the mettle of a community, and while authorities dealt with the gargantuan task of rescuing the stranded and finding the dead, many residents were forced to help each other. All along Ian’s destructive path, people banded together, sharing generators, fuel and medicine, emptying their cupboards and warming freezers for collective cookouts.
Often, in the wake of such catastrophes, fraying nerves and petty crimes receive outsize attention. But reports of fights at the gas pump or a looted store overshadow a much more common characteristic of a hurricane’s aftermath: the tightening threads of a neighborhood’s social fabric. Residents swap insurance tips and help each other clear debris; they knock on doors and pass out water.
And this sort of camaraderie is even more important in vulnerable areas. Places home to the elderly or people without the means to evacuate. When a massive storm like Ian hits, neighbors in places like San Carlos Island are almost always the first responders.
San Carlos Island doesn’t have the glitzy, towering beach resorts like some of its neighbors. It’s home to snowbirds, service industry workers and a large commercial shrimping industry. Patrons of its waterside tiki bars can dock their boats outside and drink barefoot, and those that live there year-round are on a first-name basis.
A hurricane separated the island from mainland Florida in the 1920s and it’s now considered part of the town of Fort Myers Beach, which has emerged as a ground zero in Ian’s aftermath.
Fernandez has run Alls In Custom fixing up boats and bikes on the island for five years. He’s originally from Cuba, and he and his older brother, Yunior, left the island as children during the 1994 exodus. They were among the thousands who departed on rafts and boats after Fidel Castro said anyone who wanted to leave the island was free to flee. The siblings were apprehended about a dozen miles from Key West and held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
They’ve now spent more time in the United States than they did in Cuba, and Fernandez treats his San Carlos neighbors like extended family. Leaving the island was never a question — even in the thick of the storm.
Yunior recalled driving to his brother’s home when they lost contact and trying to convince him to join him at a safer spot inland. He refused.
“Any other person would’ve been like, ‘Let’s go,’” Yunior, 37, said. “But he was like just, ‘Do me a favor, bring back propane, bring back water. I’m gonna stay here and feed my friends.’”
As the floodwaters receded, Fernandez had a sense the community would need to rely on each other. The shop where he modified speedboats, four-wheelers and motorcycles with shimmering paint jobs and ornate designs was ruined by nearly 10 feet of floodwater. But he had a couple generators. He set them up and began inviting people over.
Utilizing what wasn’t ruined in the storm, he put together a phone charging station and a couple hoses, providing residents two essentials services they had lost when the power and water went out: a way to check in on friends and a place to shower. He cracked open his freezer and began cooking sausage, chicken and fish. Hot meals had also been in short supply.
“I don’t care about the material stuff — I don’t know how I’m going to get it back, but …” he said, trailing off.
Soon enough his neighbors began to emerge — navigating through cracked streets and piles of debris to come together around his grill. They hugged. Once in a while someone cracked a joke, a bid to find some much needed comedic relief. But little by little, the reality of their ordeal began to sink in.
“All my people are accounted for,” Mike Smith said, pausing to blink back tears. “But it’s setting in, man.” The 46-year-old tallied his losses: the boat where he slept, the boat where he fished, his truck with $3,000 in tools for the contracting business he had just started.
“These guys are all my adopted family, I guess you can say,” he said, looking around. “Everybody here lost everything, literally lost everything.”
A few feet away, Christian Day worked the grill. It was a familiar spot for Day, a chef at an upscale restaurant in a Marriott nearby, but unusual conditions. For one, he didn’t have any spices. Another neighbor named Erika walked down the road to her home, where she, Day and more than a dozen other people, several cats and a dog rode out the storm together.
She returned with three jars: “Salt, pepper and Erika’s essence,” she said. “Same as in Emeril’s essence, except I’m not paying five bucks for it.”
Day described struggling through the ripping water in the middle of the storm and helping haul open a door to save someone trapped in a laundry room. The friends and neighbors squeezed together in patio chairs around a kitchen table and hoped their second-story refuge was high enough.
Later, when Day returned to his home off Main Street, he found a boat crashed through his living room.
A runaway boat hit Deborah Barton’s house, too, but that’s all she knows. She hasn’t been able to find her fifth-wheel RV since.
“It’s either under the boat or in the mangroves,” she said. Barton, 54, works at a bar on the island and has lived here for 23 years. She doesn’t have much of her own to give, but has been passing out water and canned goods to those who need them more. There are a lot of snowbirds on the island, she said, “but it’s also full of locals.”
“Servers, bartenders, everybody that lives down here, that’s what you’re seeing right now,” Barton said. “We all pull together and try to help each other no matter what.”
***
Several people at the cookout noted that they had not yet seen law enforcement or emergency response teams in their neighborhood, although rescue helicopters buzzed overhead, likely conducting missions in Sanibel Island, west of Fort Myers Beach, which was cut off from the mainland when Ian collapsed the only connecting bridge.
“We don’t count on the government, we hope the government comes through, but honestly, they’re rescuing people from Sanibel,” Barton said. “They’re pulling bodies out of the water. That’s their first priority, they’re still rescuing.”
She was in group texts with other locals, everyone checking in with one or two words: Alive. Alive. Homeless, alive.
An urban search and rescue team eventually arrived Saturday. Fernandez didn’t seem surprised that authorities went to other areas first: “You realize anything that’s tourism, it’s getting aid, it’s getting helped,” he said. “This is where everything gets stuck.”
People came and went on Friday, bringing gas and browsing the makeshift market set up on shelves in front of his shop. They carried dry socks, big cans of black beans, packets of ramen, tampons and hydrogen peroxide. Fernandez’s dogs — three pit bulls and a Rottweiler — picked at scraps from the grill.
His parrot, Marcos, wore the week’s stress most visibly, squawking and ruffling patchy feathers.
Sitting on a salvaged picnic table, Fernandez called out to people passing by, inviting them in for roast pork.
“These people,” he said, “they need something to lean on.”
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Why Most Twitter Users Don't Follow Political 'elites' But Celebrities
Why Most Twitter Users Don't Follow Political 'elites' But Celebrities https://digitalarkansasnews.com/why-most-twitter-users-dont-follow-political-elites-but-celebrities-2/
Most Twitter users don’t follow political elites and they are much more likely to follow celebrities than an elected official, suggest researchers.
Despite the prominence and impact of presidents, congressmen, journalists, pundits and the news media, researchers found that only 40 per cent of Twitter users follow one or more political “elites” and the remaining 60 per cent follow no political actors at all, according to the study published in the journal Science Advances.
“Those users who do follow political accounts on Twitter, however, stick to insular online communities and mostly follow and share information from their political in-group,” said Magdalena Wojcieszak, lead author and professor of communication at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Amsterdam.
In other words, speaking to ongoing debates about so-called “echo chambers” on social media platforms, the small group of users who do follow political elites display clear political biases and engage with these elites in a very one-sided way.
The findings come after researchers analysed four years’ worth of data from a sampling of 1.5 million Twitter users.
Researchers concluded that even though the group of social media users who display political biases in their online behaviours is small, it is nevertheless consequential.
“Given that we analysed over 2,500 American political elite accounts including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, prominent pundits including Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity, and the most popular media outlets such as MSNBC and Fox News, the fact that only 23 per cent of the representative sample of over 1.5 million users follow three of more of such elite accounts is revealing,” Wojcieszak informed.
The research also reveals important ideological asymmetries: conservative users are roughly twice as likely as liberals to share in-group versus out-group content, as well as to add negative commentary to out-group shares.
“Overall, the majority of American Twitter users are not sufficiently interested in politics to follow even a single political or media elite from our list,” Wojcieszak said.
Given a growing radicalisation in America, decreasing support for democratic norms, and rising support for political violence, concerns about political biases on social media platforms are valid, no matter how small the groups displaying those biases may be.
IANS
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Trump Back In Michigan Saturday To Fire Up Supporters
Trump Back In Michigan Saturday To Fire Up Supporters https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-back-in-michigan-saturday-to-fire-up-supporters/
WARREN, Mich. (WOOD) — Former President Donald Trump was back in Michigan Saturday, just days after the state began mailing out absentee voter ballots.
Trump took the stage Saturday evening at Macomb Community College in Warren, about 20 miles northeast of Detroit. He stumped for the Republican candidates he endorsed ahead of the November election, including Michigan Attorney General nominee Matthew DePerno, Secretary of State nominee Kristina Karamo and gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon.
“The people of Michigan are going to vote to fire your radical left Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, but you’re going to send a very good person, a very, very good woman, Tudor Dixon, to the governor’s mansion,” Trump said.
Trump’s supporters waited hours to get inside the venue at 2 p.m. and hours longer to hear from the former president. Before Trump arrived, the Republican nominees blamed their opponents for a long list of issues they believe exist in Michigan.
The candidates vowed to be supportive of law enforcement and protect elections while expressing their doubt about results from the 2020 race. They also talked about rebuilding an education system they say was destroyed during the COVID-19 shutdowns which they blame on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“We’re taking our schools back. Gretchen Whitmer is out there lying. You’ve probably seen these commercials that say I’m going to dismantle public ed? A little bit of stretching the truth, Gretchen. Gretchen Whitmer spent two years dismantling public ed, now we have to put it back together,” Dixon said.
DePerno and Karamo also talked with the crowd, but the main event was Trump who was quick to reiterate his disdain for the media.
“We are no longer a nation (that) has a fair and free press, fake news is all you get,” he said.
In typical Trump style, he did not hold back when it came to criticizing those with whom he disagrees, notably the FBI and the attorney general of New York.
“They illegally broke in, in my opinion illegally broke into my home in Florida which is a violation of the 4th amendment. Can you imagine that? Dozens and dozens of armed FBI agents,” Trump said.
The former president’s next “Save America Rally” is scheduled for next week in Minden, Nevada, his campaign website shows.
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Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Flopping Worldwide https://digitalarkansasnews.com/joe-biden-and-kamala-harris-flopping-worldwide/
With apologies to an old television comedy, the week that was in America was no laughing matter.
On Wednesday, President Biden asked a crowd whether a dead lawmaker, Indiana Republican Jackie Walorski, was in the audience.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? I didn’t think she was — she wasn’t going to be here,” Biden said.
Walorski and two aides died in an August car crash. At the time, the White House issued a condolence statement in the president’s name.
The next day, it was Vice President Kamala Harris’ turn to play the village idiot. Make that the global village idiot.
After touring the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, the vice president forgot whose side we’re on.
“The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea,” Harris said. “It is an alliance that is strong and enduring.”
Whatever her excuse, if past is prelude, some poor staffer will be sent packing under the ruse that the veep wasn’t properly briefed!
Mockeries and missiles
Meanwhile, North Korea marked her visit with a spree of weapon tests, firing ballistic missiles four times in a week.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during celebrations marking the incorporation of regions of Ukraine to join Russia on Sept. 30.
AP
That kind of response helped to cut short mockery over the White House’s Dumb & Dumber act, and Friday brought an even bigger reminder there is nothing funny about Vladimir Putin. Although his threats are growing almost as fast as his army’s losses in Ukraine, he got the world’s attention by declaring that Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions and would use nuclear weapons to defend them.
In a speech that twisted history to make Russia a victim, the czar-wanna-be called America the “enemy,” claimed it was possessed by “Satanism” and, in the most ominous passage, warned: “The United States is the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons twice, destroying the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. And they created a precedent.”
In response, Secretary of State Tony Blinken decried the “loose” nuke talk, but added: “We are looking very carefully to see if Russia is actually doing anything that suggests that they are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons. To date, we’ve not seen them take these actions.”
The world is almost always a dangerous place, but the boldness of our adversaries is uncommon and unnerving. They saw Biden’s cut-and-run act in Afghanistan, and having taken his measure, are making their moves.
China, which is propping up Putin with coal and oil purchases as part of a troubling new alliance, is poking Japan and menacing Taiwan in what looks like rehearsal for an invasion.
Biden’s reaction has been strange in that he vows America would put boots on the ground to help defend the island. In fact, he has promised a United States combat role four times, and four times aides have walked back his comments, saying the policy remains only that we would sell Taiwan military equipment to defend itself.
Strategic ambiguity is one thing, but utter confusion about whether the commander in chief has all his marbles and is still in charge is quite another.
Meanwhile, Iran’s regime, beset at home by growing demonstrations over women’s rights, took a break from killing its own citizens to fire ballistic missiles into Iraq’s Kurdistan, killing a number of civilians, including one unidentified American.
Recall that it was after a similar attack nearly three years ago that then-President Trump droned Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of Iran’s terror networks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping toasts during a dinner reception at the Great Hall of the People on the eve of the National Day holiday in Beijing on Sept. 30.
Ng Han Guan/AP
This time, the very-busy Blinken merely rolled out the condemnation machine, deplored the loss of life and criticized Iran for “threatening additional attacks against Iraq.”
Yet at no point has the White House suggested that such attacks on our allies, and Iran’s continuing threats against Israel, would cause Biden to scuttle his offer of a new nuke deal. Like climate change, an Iran pact has reached totem status on the left.
Keep up with today’s most important news
Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update.
Thankfully, a group of bipartisan senators say the mullahs’ repression at home is reason enough to walk away from the talks which, incredibly, Russia is still moderating.
New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, told Iran International, a British-based outlet, that the US should get ready for the fall of the regime, noting it was caught off guard in 2009 by the Green Movement protests.
Republican Mitt Romney, also citing the protests, told the same outlet that “Iran is a bad actor and providing more resources to them and relieving sanctions would be a big mistake.”
All this trouble abroad is a bookend to Biden’s troubles at home. Here is how The Wall Street Journal began its market report after trading ended for the week: “Stocks closed lower Friday, ending the third quarter on a downbeat note as investors fretted about the path ahead for earnings, interest rates and global economic growth. All three indexes are down at least 21% for the year.”
Yikes — downbeat, fretting and lower. If ever a stock market report also reflected a national mood, there it is.
What matters to voters
Biden delivers remarks on the ongoing federal response to Hurricane Ian.
Yuri Gripas/CNP/Polaris
A crucial run-up to elections is the battle to set the terms of the debate. Poll after poll shows that inflation, the economy, crime and immigration are at the top of most voters’ lists.
This is bad news for Biden and his party because they have no answers for any of those problems, most of which they created or allowed to fester. And time is not on their side, with signs suggesting everything could get worse before Election Day.
In that case, their only hope is the shiny object theory of politics, which involves trying to distract voters’ attention from the core issues. And so at every level, Dems are campaigning on Donald Trump, Jan. 6, and abortion.
Or as Biden puts it, MAGA, MAGA, MAGA!
That might work in selected swing districts, but even with the help of Big Media and Big Tech, Dems won’t be able to hide the fact that at home and abroad, America faces a heap of trouble.
Dem’s cheap Storm drain
Boats and houses are damaged following the landfall of Hurricane Ian.
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images
Some people have no shame.
As the Hurricane Ian death toll climbs in Florida, a group supporting the Democrat running against GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is counting something else: fund-raising dollars.
“Polling shows Democrat Charlie Crist 1 POINT behind Ron DeSantis!” begins a Saturday email pitch from Remove Ron.
“After we ran attack ads against Ron, Charlie Crist started closing in on his lead — but there’s a big problem: So far, Ron’s raised more than 11 times what the official Democratic nominee has.”
I expect that, in a day or two, the same group will find a way to accuse DeSantis of injecting politics into recovery efforts.
Mayor or may not at Gracie
Reader William Hermance sees a silver lining in Mayor Adams’ fixation on the migrant influx. He writes: “Fortunately, Adams doesn’t finish anything he starts. Orchid Beach may never see a migrant and next spring the parking lot will be filled with abandoned and tattered tents.”
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At Least 129 Killed In Stampede After Soccer Game In Indonesia Police Say
At Least 129 Killed In Stampede After Soccer Game In Indonesia, Police Say https://digitalarkansasnews.com/at-least-129-killed-in-stampede-after-soccer-game-in-indonesia-police-say/
MEDAN, Indonesia — At least 129 people were killed and about 180 others were injured in a stampede following a Saturday evening soccer game in Indonesia, police said.
They suffered breathing problems and suffocated as they tried to exit the stadium, he said.
At least two police officers were among the dead, East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta told reporters.
Thirty-four people died at the scene, Afinta said, and the rest died at hospitals.
“Mass commotion” followed the match, the soccer league, Liga 1, said in a statement, calling the episode a “heartbreaking incident.”
The tramplings occurred after the home team, Arema FC, lost to Persebaya Surabaya at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, at which point dozens of fans stormed the field, according to videos on social media and reports by local media.
Videos showed fans charging toward the center of the field before they scattered, beat back by uniformed officers carrying batons and riot shields, as loud bangs and clouds of smoke erupted in the arena. People jumped over barriers and leaped onto railings as they fled, with the officers beating and kicking those on the field, as spectators looked on from the still-crowded stands.
Although the stampede was among the deadliest mass-casualty events at a soccer game in the country’s history, violence at matches is common in Indonesia. Stadiums often only allow fans of the home team to attend to prevent fights.
“Sampai mati,” or “until death,” is a common refrain among many dedicated Indonesian soccer fans. Violence associated with soccer spectating is so intense in Indonesia that teams often travel to games in armored vehicles to avoid being pelted with rocks and other projectiles.
Zainudin Amali, Indonesia’s sports minister, said he was heading to Malang after the incident. He called for a full investigation and said he hoped this “disaster” would be the last of its kind.
The Indonesian president’s office and the chairman of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI), Yunus Nusi, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Matches were suspended for a week, the league said. “Hopefully this will be a valuable lesson for all of us,” said the head of the league, Akhmad Hadian Lukita.
Pietsch reported from Denver.
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Trump, Michigan Republicans Put Faith In https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-michigan-republicans-put-faith-in/
Warren — Former President Donald Trump encouraged Michigan voters to support his slate of Republican candidates during a rally in Macomb County on Saturday, saying they could “save the day” in the battleground state.
Speaking inside the Macomb County Community College Sports and Expo Center in Warren, Trump was briefly joined on stage by Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon, attorney general hopeful Matt DePerno and Kristina Karamo, the GOP’s nominee for secretary of state.
“These people hate our guts because they are terrified of this political movement,” Karamo said as Trump stood nearby.
“There is nothing they can do to stop this MAGA movement,” Karamo added.
Trump said his political movement was standing up to “menacing forces.” He spoke in front of a crowd of a few thousand people for about an hour and 40 minutes. He criticized Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling her a “radical abortionist,” he targeted a handful of investigations into his actions and he even labeled some fellow Republicans as weak.
“Too many Republicans are weak and they’re afraid,” Trump said at one point. “And they better get strong fast, or you’re not going to have a Republican Party.”
Trump discussed rising prices, energy costs and crime rates. He drew loud applause from the audience when he mentioned his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton and his false claim that he won the 2020 election.
“Now, we might just have to do it again,” the former president said, referencing the possibility he could run for the White House again in 2024.
Talking to reporters, Dixon said her campaign was “within striking distance” of Whitmer.
The event took place 38 days before a pivotal election, in which the GOP is hoping to unseat three Democrats who control the executive branch of state government.
Dixon, a political commentator and businesswoman from Norton Shores, spoke for about 25 minutes before Trump took the stage at 7:15 p.m. Dixon used her speech to criticize Whitmer for running what she described as a “basement campaign” and vowed to make Michigan’s schools the best in the nation.
“After all of the spending, we’re still within striking distance,” Dixon told reporters afterward. “I think it means that our message is resonating and she doesn’t really have a message.”
More:Whitmer, Dixon present voters with diverging visions for Michigan’s schools
Karamo said she was planning to use the event with Trump to energize supporters to go out and knock doors and talk to voters in her bid to unseat Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
“It galvanizes the troops,” said Karamo, an educator from Oak Park. “It gets people involved. It helps spread the message.”
Karamo, Dixon and DePerno, the Republican candidate facing Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel in the Nov. 8 general election, have all been endorsed by Trump and spoke at Saturday’s rally.
The Democratic candidates have maintained leads in public polling. Whitmer was up by 13 percentage points, according to an Aug. 29 through Sept. 1 survey by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Dixon’s running mate, former state Rep. Shane Hernandez, participated in a tailgate in a parking lot outside the rally Saturday afternoon.
Hernandez, R-Port Huron, said Trump’s appearance would bring excitement to the Michigan campaigns and get the grassroots of the party involved.
“The message is what people are talking about at their kitchen table: education, public safety, the economy,” Hernandez said.
Ads promoting Dixon would ramp up soon, Hernandez predicted. So far, Democrats have spent millions of dollars on TV commercials promoting Whitmer and criticizing Dixon’s opposition to abortion in almost all cases, but Dixon’s side has been relatively quiet.
Trump won Michigan by less than 1 percentage point over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 but lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 3 points in 2020.
Trump has repeatedly made unproven claims that fraud cost him the 2020 race in Michigan. However, bipartisan boards of canvassers, a series of court rulings and investigation by the GOP-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee have upheld the result.
On Saturday night, Trump urged Dixon to be “careful.” He claimed the U.S. was headed toward becoming a third-world country.
“If you look at the way they counted the ballots, remember the ballot counter is far more important today in our country than the candidate,” Trump said.
In a statement Saturday, the Michigan Democratic Party accused Dixon, whom Trump has endorsed, of having “a long history of pushing baseless lies about the integrity of the 2020 election.”
“For years, Dixon has stoked public distrust in the democratic process and spread lies about Michigan’s elections with absolutely no proof to back up her claims,” the party’s statement said.
Ammar Moussa of the Democratic National Committee said the event was “a reminder of how beholden today’s Republican Party is to Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) agenda.”
“Every single Republican on stage with Trump has endorsed his Big Lie that incited an attack on our Capitol in an attempt to defy the will of nearly 3 million Michiganders,” Moussa said, referencing deniers of the 2020 election outcome.
But Jack Lodato of Eastpointe said he came to Saturday’s rally to support Trump, whom he described as “my president.”
He was wearing a shirt that suggested Trump would run again, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate, in 2024.
“I believe he’s going to run. And I think he’s going to win,” Lodato said.
Also, waiting to enter the venue Saturday was Sharon Anderson, a retiree who traveled from Tennessee. Anderson said it was her 29th Trump rally and she camped outside three nights in anticipation of the event.
Anderson said she came to support “the best president in the history of this country.”
There were other Trump allies from out of state, including My Pillow founder Mike Lindell and Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, in Macomb County on Saturday.
“I am traveling to as many of these rallies and to as many states as I can to support Republicans because I cannot believe what has happened to our country in less than two years,” Taylor Greene told reporters.
DePerno predicted the Trump’s rally would have a “significant impact” on the Michigan races.
Trump coming to the state would provide “at least a 4-point swing in terms of public perception or polling,” DePerno said.
“It will energize the base to get out there over the next 39 days or so and work very hard, knocking on doors, making phone calls, passing out literature and connecting with the voters,” DePerno said.
Trump last visited Michigan on April 2 for a rally in Washington Township.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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Tesla Robot Slowly Walks On Stage At AI Day | CNN Business
Tesla Robot Slowly Walks On Stage At AI Day | CNN Business https://digitalarkansasnews.com/tesla-robot-slowly-walks-on-stage-at-ai-day-cnn-business/
Washington, DC CNN —
Tesla revealed on Friday a prototype of a humanoid robot that it says could be a future product for the automaker.
The robot, dubbed Optimus by Tesla, walked stiffly on stage at Tesla’s AI Day, slowly waved at the crowed and gestured with its hands for roughly one minute. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the robot was operating without a tether for the first time. Robotics developers often use tethers to support robots because they aren’t capable enough to walk without falling and damaging themselves.
The Optimus’ abilities appear to significantly trail what robots from competitors like Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics are capable of. Boston Dynamics robots have been seen doing back flips and performing sophisticated dance routines without a tether.
“The robot can actually do a lot more than we just showed you,” Musk said at the event. “We just didn’t want it to fall on its face.”
Tesla also showed videos of its robot performing simple tasks like carrying boxes and watering plants with a watering can.
Musk claimed that if the robot was produced in mass volumes it would “probably” cost less than $20,000. Tesla maintains that Optimus’ advantage over competitors will be its ability to navigate independently using technology developed from Tesla’s driver-assistance system “Full Self Driving,” as well as cost savings from what it has learned about manufacturing from its automotive division. (Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” requires a human that is alert and attentive, ready to take over at any time, as it is not yet capable of fully driving itself.)
Tesla has a history of aggressive price targets that it doesn’t ultimately reach. The Tesla Model 3 was long promised as a $35,000 vehicle, but could only very briefly be purchased for that price, and not directly on its website. The most affordable Tesla Model 3 now costs $46,990. When Tesla revealed the Cybertruck in 2019, its pick-up truck that remains unavailable for purchase today, it was said to cost $39,990, but the price has since been removed from Tesla’s website.
Tesla AI Day is intended largely as a recruiting event to attract talented people to join the company.
Musk claimed the robot could be transformative for civilization. The robot displayed Friday, despite its limitations compared to competitors, was significantly ahead of what Tesla revealed a year ago, when a person jumped on stage in a robot suit and danced around.
“‘Last year was just a person in a robot suit,” Musk said before the robot walked on stage. “We’ve come a long way. Compared to that, it’s going to be very impressive.”
Tesla is not the first automaker to develop a humanoid robot. Along with Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics, Honda worked on robots dubbed “Asimo” for nearly 20 years. In its final form, Asimo was a child-size humanoid robot capable of untethered walking, running, climbing and descending stairs, and manipulating objects with its fingers.
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AP News Summary At 9:30 P.m. EDT https://digitalarkansasnews.com/ap-news-summary-at-930-p-m-edt/
129 dead after fans stampede to exit Indonesian soccer match
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Panic at an Indonesian soccer match after police fired tear gas to stop brawls left 129 dead, mostly trampled to death. Police said Sunday that several brawls between supporters of the two rival soccer teams were reported inside the stadium after the Indonesia premier league game ended with Persebaya beating Arema 3-2. East Java’s police chief says the fighting prompted riot police to fire tear gas, causing panic among supporters. Hundreds ran to an exit gate in an effort to avoid the tear gas. Some suffocated in the chaos and others were trampled. More than 300 have been rushed to nearby hospitals for their injuries. But many of them died on the way and during a treatment.
Russia withdraws troops after Ukraine encircles key city
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia has pulled troops out from an eastern Ukrainian city that it had been using as a front-line hub. It was the latest victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has humiliated and angered the Kremlin. The city of Lyman was a key transportation hub for the Russian front line. A day earlier Moscow had annexed as part of Russia. Kyiv has retaken vast swaths of territory beginning in September. With Lyman recaptured, Ukraine can now push further into the occupied Luhansk region, one of the four regions that Russia annexed Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military have vowed to keep fighting to liberate all regions from Russian control.
Ian leaves dozens dead as focus turns to rescue, recovery
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Dozens of Florida residents left their flooded and splintered homes by boat and by air as rescuers continued to search for survivors in the wake of Hurricane Ian. In South Carolina and North Carolina, authorities were surveying the damage on Saturday from Ian’s blow. The death toll from the storm grew to nearly three dozen, with deaths reported in Cuba, Florida and North Carolina. The storm has since weakened as it rolled into the mid-Atlantic, but not before it washed out bridges and piers. It also hurdled massive boats into buildings onshore and sheared roofs off of homes, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Experts say that Hurricane Ian is shining a spotlight once again on the vulnerability of the nation’s barrier islands and the increasing cost of people living on them. Florida’s Sanibel Island was hard hit by the storm. Homes were destroyed. Two people have been confirmed dead. And Sanibel’s lone bridge to the mainland collapsed. Barrier island communities like Sanibel anchor tourist economies that provide crucial tax dollars. But the cost of rebuilding them is often high because they’re home to many high-value properties. Jesse Keenan is a real estate professor at Tulane University. He questions whether such communities can keep rebuilding as hurricanes become more and more destructive from climate change.
Russia blindfolds, detains Ukraine nuclear plant chief
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s nuclear power provider says Russian forces blindfolded and detained the head of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant hours after Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory. In a possible attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 p.m. Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed treaties to absorb Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, including the area around the nuclear plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.”
Venezuela swaps 7 jailed Americans for Maduro relatives
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuela’s government has freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives imprisoned for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens that the Biden administration has ever carried out. It amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as he looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his opponents and follows months of secretive talks, including repeated visits to Venezuela over the last year by Washington’s top hostage negotiator.
Trump at center of Oath Keepers novel defense in Jan. 6 case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The defense team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the center. Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the riot were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president. But those orders never came. Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday.
Supreme Court poised to keep marching to right in new term
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court begins a new term on Monday at a time of diminished public confidence and justices sparring openly over the institution’s legitimacy. The court seems poised to push American law to the right on issues of race, voting and the environment. Back in June, the conservative majority overturned nearly 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights. Now, the court is diving back in with an aggressive agenda that appears likely to split the six conservative justices from the three liberals. Joining the nine-member court is new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black woman.
GOP attacks Georgia’s Abrams on voting as judge rejects suit
ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans are using the defeat of a voting suit brought by a group founded by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to attack her legitimacy as a voting rights advocate. They say a judge’s rejection on Friday of the last remaining claims in a suit brought by Fair Fight Action shows that Abrams was wrong all along to claim that she lost the 2018 Georgia governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp because of voter suppression by Kemp. But Abrams is far from backing down from her position, and says she won a number of victories that made elections fairer. Her advocacy has also helped make voting rights a defining issue for Black voters in Georgia.
What the war in Ukraine means for Asia’s climate goals
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — Most Asian countries are prioritizing keeping the country running, no matter the energy source. For rich countries like South Korea or Japan, this means a foray into nuclear energy as an option. For China and India, whose energy needs are enormous, it implies relying on dirty coal power in the short term. But developing countries with finances already strained due to the pandemic, the war is having a disproportionate impact, said Kanika Chawla, of United Nation’s sustainable energy unit. How Asian countries choose to go ahead would have far-reaching consequences: To choose between doubling down on clean energy or deciding to not phase out fossil fuels immediately.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Trump At Center Of Oath Keepers Leader’s Defense https://digitalarkansasnews.com/trump-at-center-of-oath-keepers-leaders-defense/
Rhodes charged for role in Jan. 6 siege; trial begins Monday
By Associated Press
Published: October 1, 2022, 6:52pm
3 Photos
FILE – Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. In his trial in the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, attorneys for the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group will mount an unusual defense with former President Donald Trump at its center. Defense attorneys are poised to argue that Rhodes can’t be found guilty of seditious conspiracy because everything he did was in preparation for orders he anticipated coming down from the Republican president. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) (Associated Press files) Photo Gallery
WASHINGTON — The defense team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the center.
Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group, are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the siege on Jan. 6, 2021, were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president — orders that never came.
Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power from the Republican incumbent to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters.
Opening statements in the trial are to begin Monday.
Rhodes intends to take the stand to argue that he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act to call up a militia to support him, his lawyers have said. Trump didn’t do that, but Rhodes’ team says that what prosecutors allege was an illegal conspiracy was “actually lobbying and preparation for the President to utilize” the law.
It’s a novel legal argument in a trial that’s one of the most serious cases coming out of the Capitol attack.
“This is an incredibly complicated defense of theory, and I don’t think that it’s ever played out in this fashion in American jurisprudence,” said one of Rhodes’ lawyers, James Lee Bright.
The Insurrection Act gives a president broad authority to call up the military and decide what shape that force will take. Trump did float that kind of action at other points in his presidency.
To succeed with this line of defense, Bright would have to convince a jury that Rhodes was waiting on the go-ahead from the president, which could be a major hurdle.
Rhodes’ lawyers have argued that Trump could have called up a militia in response to “what he perceived as a conspiracy to deprive a class of persons in several states of their voting rights.” Rhodes published an open letter on the Oath Keepers’ website in December 2020 urging Trump to use the Insurrection Act to “‘stop the steal’ and defeat the coup.”
If Rhodes testifies, he could face intense questioning from prosecutors, who say his own words show the Oath Keepers would act no matter what Trump did.
Bright said Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate, understands the risks of testifying but has insisted since the first day they met that he be able to “speak his piece.”
Rhodes and his associates — Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson — are the first Jan. 6 defendants to be tried for seditious conspiracy, a rarely used, Civil War-era charge that can be difficult to prove.
The defense would have to convince the jury that the Oath Keepers really intended to defend the government, not use force against it, said David Alan Sklansky, a former federal prosecutor who’s now a professor at Stanford Law School.
“If you think you are plotting to help protect the government, there is an argument that that means you don’t have the required guilty mindset that’s necessary in order to be guilty of seditious conspiracy,” he said.
Court records show the Oath Keepers repeatedly warning of the prospect of violence if Biden were to become president. The group amassed weapons and stationed armed “quick reaction force” teams at a Virginia hotel in case they were needed, prosecutors say.
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Thinks Shes My Biographer! Trump Trashes Maggie Haberman At Michigan Rally But Doesnt Use Her Name
‘Thinks She’s My Biographer!’ Trump Trashes Maggie Haberman At Michigan Rally – But Doesn’t Use Her Name https://digitalarkansasnews.com/thinks-shes-my-biographer-trump-trashes-maggie-haberman-at-michigan-rally-but-doesnt-use-her-name/
At his Michigan rally on Saturday ex-president Donald Trump attacked Maggie Haberman by reference but not name over her new book, specifically attacking the story about him almost firing Ivanka Trump.
Among the many startling or wild anecdotes chronicled by New York Times reporter Haberman in her new book Confidence Man is the story that Trump came close to firing his daughter and her husband Jared Kushner by tweet.
Trump has been after Haberman with extra gusto this week, including in a Truth Social post on Friday in which he spelled her name wrong and called the book “boring.”
At his rally on Saturday, Trump didn’t spell her name wrong — or use it at all.
Trump was trashing former members of his administration over their own books, saying they “gave in to the dark side” and “fabricated stories.”
“They had a story the other day that I wanted to fire my daughter Ivanka. That didn’t happen,” said Trump. “No, but how do you call your daughter and explain this, right? You know, they read this disgusting — that was a writer from the fake New York Times, the failing New York Times, lot of unfunded liability.”
After giving the crowd time to boo the paper, he was more direct about Haberman.
“That was a really bad reporter. Thinks, thinks that she’s my biographer!” he said mockingly. He compared her unfavorably to the press at the event. “Even though she knows me a lot less than some of the people standing right on that platform right back there. Some of whom are okay! Like about ten percent.”
Usually when Trump gets to the part of the rally where he points at that platform, he’s come to bury the press not to praise them.
You can find more of Haberman’s Trump biographical excerpts here.
Watch the clip above, via C-SPAN.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
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Home Is Where The Hog Is: The James Jointer Story https://digitalarkansasnews.com/home-is-where-the-hog-is-the-james-jointer-story/
FAYETTEVILLE, Ar. (KNWA/KFTA) – Arkansas freshman running back James Jointer grew up playing football in Little Rock with his little brother Jalen.
“I mean every time we got the chance we either outside playing football in our backyard or either round the corner at our friends house playing football in their front yard. It was always football we would be out there sun up to the pole light came on type of football we used to be there all day,” Jalen said.
Of course, growing up in Arkansas meant James had dreams of playing for the Razorbacks.
“He always said he wanted to play for the Razorbacks so he actually found a team with the Hogs in it, he played for the Wild Hogs right around the corner from us,” Jalen said.
It was on that team where his mom realized he had something special.
“When he was playing in little league, when he was playing with the Wild Hogs, I could see it. Cause James always wanted the ball, always wanted the ball. That’s one thing his coach talked about, they had to give James the ball cause he wanted to run it, if they didn’t give James the ball, he was not happy. He was not happy,” Landa Burns, James’ mom said.
For Jalen, he saw his brother’s potential further down the road.
“It had to be the eighth grade game championship, it was 0-0, 30 seconds left. He broke for 90 yards and won the game,” Jalen said.
It wasn’t a surprise when James started getting offers from multiple DI schools, but it was the Razorbacks who stood out from the pack.
A decision his mom was very happy about, but he didn’t tell her about it until announcing his commitment to the Hogs.
“We came home we played it smooth. I’m in the backseat with my mom, jacket zipped up knowing I have my Arkansas shirt on, she’s mad, oh he didn’t, and ready to cry almost. Getting to see my mom’s reaction was the best part about it,” Jalen said.
James’ mom actually wasn’t a huge Arkansas fan before her son committed, but you would have no idea now after stepping into her Hog Heaven home.
“When he told me he was going to the Razorbacks, I cam home immediately changed everything into Razorbacks, I even went to his room,” Burns said.
You painted your kitchen table red right?
“Yes, to go along with the Razorbacks.”
The weekends will be busy for the Jointer family, going to Jalen’s games on Friday night and then heading to Fayetteville on Saturday to see James play.
Even though it will be a busy time for James, his brother knows he will still support him from afar.
“When I get out from the game, I’m gonna have that message you should have did this or you could have did this better, good job, I’m gonna get that message from him, he’ll probably be watching on YouTube off of his TV but I know he’ll be watching Friday nights,” Jalen said.
Who knows? The Jointer brothers could be reunited on the field soon, if Jalen gets a chance to play for the Razorbacks.
If that happens, their family might just go full Hog.
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Congressman Dan Newhouse Explains Why He Voted Against The Electoral Reform Bill
Congressman Dan Newhouse Explains Why He Voted Against The Electoral Reform Bill https://digitalarkansasnews.com/congressman-dan-newhouse-explains-why-he-voted-against-the-electoral-reform-bill/
Congressman Dan Newhouse explains why he voted against the Electoral Reform Bill on Sep. 21.
The Electoral Reform bill is fashioned to reform and modernize the Electoral Count Act, which was first enacted back in 1887.
Congressman Dan Newhouse is one of the hundreds of representatives who voted along party lines. 220 democratic representatives voted for the bill, while 203 republicans voted against it.
This act was created to replace ambiguous texts, better illustrate state and federal roles in selecting the next President and Vice President, and require the courts to get involved if state legislators try to delay or refuse election results.
AP News reports that this bill was drafted in response to President Trump and his legal team trying to find loopholes within this law to try and overturn his defeat in the 2020 Presidential election.
Newhouse’s vote came as a surprise due to him being one of the ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6th insurrection.
Newhouse said he voted against the bill due to not being well versed on the bill beforehand, stating that the bill was kept secret from representatives until the day before the vote.
“It could have been the best bill ever proposed. It may well have been, but I heard some concerns from some people that there were some constitutional issues as it related to states rights,” Newhouse said. “I had no opportunity to ask clarifying questions to decide whether that was true or not. So I couldn’t support something that I just didn’t have a chance to consider.”
Newhouse also states that the Senate had months in advance to read over their version of the bill before voting on it.
“I really look forward to seeing what their product is and I hope that we have an opportunity to consider that version and do so in good faith,” Newhouse said. “So that the process is bipartisan and transparent, and we can provide a good product that will make sure that our elections, in fact, are as good as they can be moving forward.”
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National Archives Says Its Still Missing Records From Trump Officials
National Archives Says It’s Still Missing Records From Trump Officials https://digitalarkansasnews.com/national-archives-says-its-still-missing-records-from-trump-officials-2/
The National Archives has told the House Oversight Committee that it has not yet recovered all of the records from Trump administration officials that should have been transferred under the Presidential Records Act.
The Archives will consult with the Department of Justice “on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,’ as established under the Federal Records Act,” acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall said in a letter sent on Friday to the committee’s chairwoman, Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.).
Steidel Wall added that the Archives has been unable to obtain federal records related to “non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts.” Presidential advisers are required to forward such messages to their official accounts under the law, she noted.
“While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Steidel Wall wrote, according to the letter provided to The Washington Post.
Steidel Wall cited the ongoing lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the National Archives against former Trump adviser Peter Navarro over failing to turn over private emails involving official White House business during his stint serving in the Trump administration.
Under the Presidential Records Act, the immediate staff of the president, the vice president and anyone who advises the president must preserve records and phone calls pertaining to official duties.
Although the latest letter referred to Trump officials, the spotlight on former president Donald Trump and the documents he kept after leaving the White House has increased since a court-approved FBI search of the Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8.
The FBI has recovered more than 300 classified documents from Mar-a-Lago this year: 184 in a set of 15 boxes sent to the National Archives and Records Administration in January, 38 more handed over by a Trump lawyer to investigators in June, and more than 100 additional documents found in the Aug. 8 search.
In September, Maloney had asked the Archives to assess whether Trump has surrendered all presidential records or classified materials. In her latest letter, Steidel Wall deferred to the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.
Maloney said she found the latest disclosure troubling.
“The National Archives has confirmed to the Oversight Committee that they still have not received all presidential records from the Trump White House,” Maloney said in a statement. “Presidential records are the property of the American people, and it is outrageous that these records remain unaccounted for 20 months after former President Trump left office.”
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CPAC Backpedals On Pro-Russia Tweet As Some U.S. Conservatives Back Putin
CPAC Backpedals On Pro-Russia Tweet As Some U.S. Conservatives Back Putin https://digitalarkansasnews.com/cpac-backpedals-on-pro-russia-tweet-as-some-u-s-conservatives-back-putin/
Prominent Republicans are digging in against American support for Ukraine despite Russia’s threats to use nuclear weapons and evidence of mass graves and war crimes facilitated by Moscow.
The Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday tweeted — and then hours later deleted — a message that called on Democrats to “end the gift-giving to Ukraine” while featuring a fluttering Russian flag. The tweet also referred to “Ukraine-occupied territories,” appearing to legitimize Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims to annex provinces based on a referendum that the U.S. and allies view as illegal.
CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp on Saturday said the tweet did not clear the normal approval process because he was traveling for a conference in Australia. “Due to my travel into a distant time zone it was never approved per usual,” he said in a text message.
In a statement, CPAC expressed support for Ukraine but maintained opposition to American aid for the embattled country.
“We must oppose Putin, but American taxpayers should not be shouldering the vast majority of the cost,” the statement said. “The tweet belittled the plight of the innocent Ukrainian people.”
CPAC has repeatedly flirted with pro-Putin views in recent years, including hosting pro-Russian Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban at a Dallas conference in August.
CPAC is not alone among American conservatives in opposing Ukrainian aid despite Putin’s invasion. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has alleged U.S. sabotage for leaks in a Russian gas pipeline to Europe, baseless claims that have earned him airtime on Russian state television. Former president Donald Trump also posted a message on his Truth Social platform offering himself as a negotiator for the conflict.
At a Trump rally in Michigan on Saturday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reiterated her opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should negotiate a peace settlement with Russia.
“We have so many problems here at home, I cannot even think about sending our money over to fund a proxy war with Russia,” she said in an interview. “Zelensky doesn’t run the United States government. He is not our president, but for some reason Joe Biden bends over every single time. … The American people don’t care about that war over there.”
At a rally in Warren, Mich., on Saturday night, Trump suggested he could have prevented Putin from invading Ukraine.
“That war would never ever have happened if I were president and it didn’t happen,” Trump said.
Many Republicans have followed Trump’s lead in waffling on Putin, whom Trump avoided condemning and sided with over his own intelligence agencies in doubting Russian interference in the 2016 election. Relations with Ukraine became partisan during Trump’s first impeachment, after he tried to use U.S. aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelensky to announce an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in the country.
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Venezuela Swaps 7 Jailed Americans For Maduro Relatives
Venezuela Swaps 7 Jailed Americans For Maduro Relatives https://digitalarkansasnews.com/venezuela-swaps-7-jailed-americans-for-maduro-relatives/
Published Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022 | 5:41 p.m.
Updated 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare softening of hostile relations, Venezuela freed on Saturday seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions.
The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, follows months of back channel diplomacy by senior U.S. officials — secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices.
The deal amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents. While the White House denied any change in policy toward Venezuela is afoot, the freeing of Americans could create political space for the Biden administration to ease crippling oil sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro shows progress in on-again, off-again talks with his opponents.
“I can’t believe it,” Cristina Vadell, the daughter of Tomeu Vadell, one of the freed Americans, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Holding back tears of joy on her 31st birthday, she said: “This is the best birthday present ever. I’m just so happy.”
The transfer took place Saturday in the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and Grenadines, which is ruled by an ally of Maduro, three people in Venezuela briefed on the matter told the AP on the condition of anonymity. The prisoners arrived from their respective locations in separate planes, the Biden administration said.
“These individuals will soon be reunited with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Those freed include five employees of Houston-based Citgo — Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira — who were lured to Venezuela right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, state-run-oil giant PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled away by masked security agents who busted into a Caracas conference room.
The men were convicted of embezzlement in 2020 in a trial marred by delays and irregularities and sentenced to between eight years and 13 years in prison for a never-executed proposal to refinance billions in the oil company’s bonds.
Also released was Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Marine corporal from Tennessee who was arrested in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela, and a Florida man, Osman Khan, who was arrested in January.
The State Department had regarded all the men as wrongfully detained.
To facilitate a deal, Biden granted clemency for Franqui Flores and his cousin Efrain Campo, nephews of “First Combatant” Cilia Flores, as Maduro calls his wife. The men were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and convicted the following year in New York in a highly charged case that cast a hard look at U.S. accusations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of Maduro’s administration.
Referring to the men only as Venezuelans “unjustly imprisoned” in the U.S., the Maduro government in a statement said it “welcomes the outcome of these talks and hopes for the preservation of peace and harmony with all the nations of our region and the world.”
The Biden administration has been under pressure to do more to bring home the roughly 60 Americans it believes are held hostage abroad or wrongfully detained by hostile foreign governments. While much of the focus is on Russia, where the U.S. has so far tried unsuccessfully to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, Venezuela has been holding the largest contingent of Americans suspected of being used as bargaining chips.
At least four other Americans remain detained in Venezuela, including two former Green Berets — Luke Denman and Airan Berry — involved in a slapdash attempt to oust Maduro in 2019, and two other men — Eyvin Hernandez and Jerrel Kenemore — who, like Khan, were detained for allegedly entering the country illegally from neighboring Colombia.
“To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained — know that we remain dedicated to securing their release,” Biden said in his statement.
Saturday’s swap came together quietly over several months of backchannel talks. Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, has made multiple visits to Venezuela over the last year to discuss potential deals and to meet with the detained Americans.
In July, Maduro officials upped the ante in meetings in Caracas with Carstens and Ambassador James Story, who heads the Venezuela Affairs Unit in neighboring Colombia. It substitutes for the U.S. Embassy the Trump administration shuttered in 2019 to protest Maduro’s reelection in what was widely seen as a sham election.
In exchange for freeing the nephews and insider businessman Alex Saab, Maduro was willing to release all Americans, a U.S. official briefed on the outreach told the AP.
In the end, Saab — Venezuela considers him a diplomat and U.S. prosecutors a corrupt regime enabler — was never seriously considered, according to the U.S. official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the talks.
Unlike the nephews, who were arrested as a result of a drug sting and are about halfway through 18-year sentences, Saab bitterly fought his extradition to the U.S. from Cape Verde, where he was arrested in 2020 during a stopover en route to Iran. He is now awaiting trial in Miami federal court on charges of siphoning off millions in state contracts.
Still, it’s unclear if the prisoner release will lead to a broader thaw in relations.
The Biden administration is constrained in its engagement with Maduro, especially in the battleground state of Florida, where Latino voters whose families fled authoritarian rule in Cuba and Venezuela hold major sway.
“Another Biden appeasement that will result in more anti-U.S. dictators taking more innocent Americans hostage in the future,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on Twitter about Saturday’s exchange.
Although the U.S. in the last six months has struck similar deals with Russia, and more recently with the Taliban, a senior Biden administration official downplayed any suggestion that it was caving to hostage-takers, saying such exchanges remain “extraordinarily rare.” The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration, also pointed to an executive order from this summe r that sought to impose new costs on countries that jail Americans without cause.
Meanwhile, many Maduro supporters remain distrustful of the U.S. “Empire,” recalling the Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions on a Venezuelan governor who brokered the release of another American, Joshua Holt, in 2018.
However, some longtime Venezuela watchers say they’re hopeful this time will be different.
A visit to Caracas in March by Juan Gonzalez, the top National Security Council adviser on Latin America, was itself a remarkable gesture toward a leader whom the U.S. considers illegitimate and has indicted on narco-terrorism charges. The Biden administration has also promised to review sanctions if Maduro can point to progress in talks with opponents that had been taking place in Mexico that are aimed at creating fairer conditions for 2024 presidential elections
“President Biden did the right thing,” said Caleb McCarry, a former Republican staffer who met recently with Maduro in a bid to free Americans and improve bilateral relations. “This is serious diplomacy and can only help put the Mexico negotiations back on track. It’s a win for the families, the American people and the Venezuelan people.”
____
Goodman reported from Miami.
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Americans Captured By Russia Detail Months Of Beatings Interrogation
Americans Captured By Russia Detail Months Of Beatings, Interrogation https://digitalarkansasnews.com/americans-captured-by-russia-detail-months-of-beatings-interrogation/
Andy Tai Huynh, left, and Alex Drueke were released from captivity Sept. 21. In their first extensive media interview since their release, the pair say they were interrogated, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and given little food or clean water. (William DeShazer/For The Washington Post)
In their first extensive interview since being freed, Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh recount the physical and psychological abuse they endured over 104 days in captivity
October 1, 2022 at 6:36 p.m. EDT
TRINITY, Ala. — Alex Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh evaded Russian forces for hours, slogging through pine forests and marshes in Ukraine to avoid detection. The U.S. military veterans were left behind — “abandoned,” they said — after their Ukrainian task force was attacked, and determined that their best chance of survival was to hike back to their base in Kharkiv.
What followed was an excruciating, often terrifying 104 days in captivity. They were interrogated, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and given little food or clean water, Drueke and Huynh recalled. Initially, they were taken into Russia, to a detention complex dotted with tents and ringed by barbed wire, they said. Their captors later moved them, first to a “black site” where the beatings worsened, Drueke said, and then to what they called a more traditional prison run by Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Drueke, 40, and Huynh, 27, met with The Washington Post for three hours at the home of Huynh’s fiancee, Joy Black, in this rural town of about 2,500 outside Huntsville. It was their first extensive media interview since being freed on Sept. 21 as part of a sprawling prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
Each man lost nearly 30 pounds during the ordeal, they said, suffering injuries most evident in the red and purple welts still present where their wrists were bound. Their account provides disturbing new insight into how Russia and its proxy forces in Ukraine treat those taken off the battlefield.
The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Drueke and Huynh, who met in Ukraine, went to the country despite stern warnings from the U.S. State Department that taking up arms against Russian forces was unsafe and ill-advised. They joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a force comprising hundreds of Americans, Europeans and other foreign nationals who responded to public entreaties from the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Drueke and Huynh said they are grateful to be alive and free, and to have had each other’s support and friendship through their captivity. They expressed no regret. Their goals now, they said, are to draw attention to Ukraine’s military needs, and raise awareness about another American veteran with whom they were imprisoned, Suedi Murekezi, who shared a cell with them for weeks but was not included in the prisoner swap. He’s among the handful of U.S. citizens detained by Russia for whom a diplomatic breakthrough has so far proved elusive.
“Alex and I never did this to become famous,” Huynh said. “We never wanted to become famous.”
Drueke, a U.S. Army veteran, and Huynh, who served in the Marines, said they were compelled to act after seeing images, early in the war, of Ukrainian families fleeing their homes as Russian forces leveled cities in their savage but ultimately failed bid to seize the capital, Kyiv, and topple Zelensky’s Western-backed government.
Drueke had been living with family members in Tuscaloosa, Ala., after being diagnosed as a 100-percent combat disabled veteran with post-traumatic stress, he said. He’d grown enthusiastic about long-distance mountain hiking. Huynh, a California native, had moved to northern Alabama to be with his fiancee, taking community college classes and working as a delivery driver for O’Reilly Auto Parts.
Huynh left the United States on April 8 to join a humanitarian group helping in Ukraine, he said. Drueke left four days later, believing that his experience during the Iraq War and familiarity with Western weapons could prove helpful to Ukrainian forces, he said.
Within days, they signed contracts with the foreign legion in Lviv, in western Ukraine near Poland’s border, joining the same battalion and receiving AK-74 rifles for training far from the fighting. They had brought their own camouflage uniforms and other equipment.
Both adopted noms de guerre. Drueke was named “Bama,” in honor of his home state. Huynh went by “Hate,” a shortened version of “Reaper of Hate,” a moniker he used in online video games.
“It was kind of a satire name because I’m not really a hateful person,” Huynh said. “Quite the opposite.”
“We called him Care Bear,” Drueke interjected with a laugh.
The men decided that “their skills could be better applied elsewhere” in the war, and requested a release from the contract they had signed with their first unit, Drueke said. For the next few weeks, they traveled the country by bus and train in what they called “vacation mode,” meeting with Ukrainian military officials about possible opportunities and marveling as civilians returned to their homes in and around the capital.
With time running out on their 90-day visas, they connected in Kyiv with a representative from Task Force Baguette, a military unit affiliated with the foreign legion that included French soldiers and other Westerners. The unit promised a Ukrainian military contract, allowing them to stay in the country and fight. This time, they were sent east and issued Czech-made CZ 208 rifles, to a base close to Russia’s border.
Their first mission, on June 9, would be their last.
That morning, the unit left Kharkiv in a pickup truck and two small sport-utility vehicles, heading north. Their assignment was to launch small drones, watch for Russian military forces and report what they saw, Drueke said.
But the unit was ambushed, and in the ensuing firefight everyone scattered, the Americans said. Drueke, Huynh and their team leader began searching for a machine-gunner and sniper who’d gone missing, only to learn that other members of the unit had taken their vehicles — and most of their food and water — and returned to base without them, Drueke said.
A representative for Task Force Baguette denied that Drueke and Huynh were left behind, saying the team scattered in five groups and that each had to make it back to safety on their own “as nobody knew what happened to the others.” He declined to elaborate. In a tweet, the unit celebrated the Americans’ release, thanking them for their service and calling Drueke and Huynh “heroes.”
Drueke and Huynh declined to detail the precise location or nature of their capture, but acknowledged opening fire during the ambush. After they were taken into custody, they were stripped of their gear and weapons, and bound. As they crossed the border into Russia, Drueke said, their captors noted their new location, slugged them in the gut, and said “Welcome to Russia.”
The Americans were blindfolded for most of the next few days, they said. Occasionally, their captors would take the blindfolds off, allowing them to catch a glimpse of their surroundings. The Russians hid their faces behind tan balaclavas.
The camp, the Americans said, was a “tent city,” with six or seven prisoners of war held in each tent, Huynh said. Twin chain-link fences and barbed wire surrounded the compound.
The interrogations there, Drueke said, were “horrible.” The Russians appeared to doubt that they were rank-and-file members of a Ukrainian military unit. They asked Drueke and Huynh repeatedly if they were with the CIA, the Americans recalled. They ordered them onto their hands and knees, leaving them like that until their feet grew numb. If they moved, they were beaten, they recalled. At night, Drueke and Huynh were forced to remain on their feet for hours at a time to prevent them from sleeping.
“They really thought that we had been sent by our government, or had a large amount of government support,” Drueke said. “They really wanted to make sure we weren’t lying about that — and they had their ways of doing that.”
Most of the prisoners appeared to be Ukrainian, the Americans said. One who spoke English appeared to possibly be a British national. In the Sept. 21 prisoner swap, five British citizens also were freed, along with individuals from Morocco, Sweden and Croatia, more than 200 Ukrainians, 55 Russian troops and a close acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Four days later, the Americans were on the move again, they said, taken to a black site detention center in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian separatists have power. The prisoners traveled for hours with bags over their heads, the Americans said, and swapped vehicles four times.
Drueke realized Huynh was with him only because he was tossed on top of him in one of the vehicles, prompting Huynh to respond with an “ouch” that Drueke recognized, he said. In such a dire situation, it was a relief.
Their treatment worsened at the next location, they said.
Most of the detainees were kept in a cold basement divided into tiled cells, each about 5 feet long and 2 feet wide, Huynh recalled. They received a loaf of bread each day, along with water that often appeared to be contaminated. Huynh said he could hear screams — and cries of pain — as interrogations were conducted.
“That was one of the worst parts,” Huynh said. “Hearing people being hurt and not being able to do anything about it.”
Upstairs, a slightly larger room was used for solitary confinement. Huynh spent the first two days there before Drueke was put there for several weeks. About 80 songs of popular music, including from the rapper Eminem and the German...
WATCH: Sam Pittman Rocket Pool Wagner & More All Come To Podium After Alabama Loss
WATCH: Sam Pittman, Rocket, Pool, Wagner & More All Come To Podium After Alabama Loss https://digitalarkansasnews.com/watch-sam-pittman-rocket-pool-wagner-more-all-come-to-podium-after-alabama-loss/
by: Courtney Mims
Posted: Oct 1, 2022 / 06:22 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 1, 2022 / 07:43 PM CDT
FAYETTEVILLE, Ar. (KNWA/KFTA) – Despite their best efforts, the No. 20 Arkansas Razorbacks fell to No. 2 Alabama 49-26 on Saturday in Razorback Stadium.
Alabama started with the ball in this matchup and got it down the field quickly, but before they could make the drive end in a score, Dwight McGlothern picked off Bryce Young at the Hogs’ one-yard line.
However, even with the momentum, the Crimson Tide still stuck first in this game. Bryce Young found Kobe Prentice for a 47-yard touchdown pass to put Alabama up 7-0 with 7:41 left to go in the first quarter.
A little later in the first quarter, Alabama finds its way into the endzone again. Young threw a bomb to Isaiah Bond for 53 yards and that put the Crimson Tide at Arkansas’s 8-yard line.
Then, Young took the ball into the endzone for the touchdown to put the Crimson Tide up 14-0 on Arkansas with 2:35 left to go in the first quarter.
However, Arkansas’ defense doesn’t let them go up three scores on them. Drew Sanders takes down Bryce Young on a third down and forces them to kick a 53-yard field goal, but Alabama kicker Will Reichard misses it.
Arkansas’ offense tried to take that momentum and use it with a nice Rashod Dubinion catch and run for 14 yards, but on the very next play, Dubinion fumbles the ball, and Alabama recovers.
Sanders and the Hogs’ defense stepping up on the Tide’s next possession though as they get a stop and force them to punt.
Once again, Arkansas’ offense can’t seem to get anything going so it goes back to the Crimson Tide.
This time the Hogs’ defense can’t make the stop and Alabama scores again, their backup QB Jalen Milroe takes it in from three yards out for the touchdown to put the Crimson Tide up 21-0 with 8:29 left go until the half.
Alabama scores again after that to make it 28-0 with 2:51 left to go until the half.
Before the first half ends, Arkansas finally gets on the board as KJ Jefferson finds Ketron Jackson in the endzone, the 6-yard touchdown pass cuts down on Alabama’s lead 28-7 going into the locker room.
To kick off the second half, it’s the Hogs who score first and put some more points on the board for them.
A 7-play, 78-yard drive is capped off with an AJ Green 13-yard rushing touchdown to put the Hogs behind Alabama 28-14 with 7:47 left to go in the third quarter.
After that, Arkansas gets a huge momentum swing when they attempt an onside kick and it’s good.
The Hogs get the ball back and end up getting it down to the Alabama 4-yard line, but the Crimson Tide’s stop them and forces them to kick a field goal, which Cam Little makes.
With 1:38 left to go in the third quarter, Alabama leads 28-17 over the Hogs.
In another wild turn of events, Hogs’ defense gets a stop and then a bad snap on Alabama’s punt puts the Hogs on the Alabama 3-yard line.
It’s Rocket Sanders who takes it in from 3 yards out for the touchdown. The Hogs attempt the two-point conversion, but it fails, so Alabama still leads 28-23 with 19 seconds left in the third quarter.
To start off the fourth quarter, Alabama starts to look more like Bama. On third and 15, Jalen Milroe scrambles up the middle for 77 yards to get the Tide on the Hogs’ 2-yard line.
Jase McClellan finishes off the drive and punches it in from a few yards out to put the Crimson Tide up 35-23 on Arkansas.
They extend their lead some more when they next get the ball back. Jahmyr Gibbs takes the ball 72 yards to the house to put the Crimson Tide up 42-23.
On the Hogs’ next possession, a couple of penalties on Alabama help the Hogs get down the field, but Alabama stops them before they can score a touchdown.
Arkansas settles for a field goal and Cam Little makes a 34-yarder to put the Hogs behind Alabama 42-26.
The Crimson Tide weren’t done yet as Gibbs takes it once again, 76 yards this time for another Alabama touchdown. The Tide lead 49-26 after that score with 6:55 left in the game.
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California's Gas-Powered Vehicle Ban Will Be 'difficult' To Meet Toyota's President Says
California's Gas-Powered Vehicle Ban Will Be 'difficult' To Meet, Toyota's President Says https://digitalarkansasnews.com/californias-gas-powered-vehicle-ban-will-be-difficult-to-meet-toyotas-president-says/
Will Newsom run if Biden doesn’t?
‘Kennedy’ panelists Charlie Hurt, Richard Fowler and Spike Cohen discuss reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom will only run in 2024 if President Biden does not.
The president of Toyota Motor Corporation said this week that adhering to California’s plan to ban gas emission vehicles will be “difficult” to achieve, and battery powered cars will take longer to phase in than the “mainstream media” believes.
“Realistically speaking, it seems rather difficult to really achieve them,” Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda told reporters through a translator on Thursday discussing California’s new mandates.
“But just like the fully autonomous cars that we were all supposed to be driving by now, BEVs are just going to take longer to become mainstream than the media would like us to believe,” Toyoda told car dealers at the event.
Toyoda’s comments come after California’s Air Resources Board, at the direction of the state’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, adopted rules that would mandate all new cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs be electric or hydrogen powered by 2035.
TOYOTA INVESTING $5.6B IN US, JAPAN EV BATTERY PRODUCTION
Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda ((Photo by YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
In August, Toyota said it would boost its planned investment in a new U.S. battery plant from $1.29 billion to $3.8 billion, partly in response to rising consumer demand for electric vehicles. Toyota, the best-selling auto brand in California, last month recognized the state’s authority to set vehicle emissions standards under the U.S. Clean Air Act.
“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” Newsom said in 2020 outlining the emissions plan. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”
Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, said in Wednesday’s video that “playing to win means playing with all the cards in the deck – not just a select few. So that’s our strategy, and we’re sticking to it.”
CALIFORNIA ‘BLEEDING RED INK’ AS NEWSOM EYES WHITE HOUSE: REP. DARRELL ISSA
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters during a visit the Antioch Water Treatment Plant ((Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
Toyoda compared the automaker to a “department store” selling a variety of vehicles to customers with different needs.
Toyoda outlined challenges to EV adoption including impacts on the electrical grid and lack of easy access to electricity by about 1 billion people around the world.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS
A 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime electric car recharges its batteries November 5, 2021 at a charging station next to the town hall in Charlotte, Vermont. ((Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
This week, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said her state is set to adopt a similar plan to California’s, saying that she has directed a state environmental agency to propose and finalize rules setting yearly rising zero-emission vehicle rules starting in 2026 that phases out gasoline-only new car sales by 2035.
Reuters contributed to this report
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Governor Looks To Expand Electric Vehicle Infrastructure In Arkansas
Governor Looks To Expand Electric Vehicle Infrastructure In Arkansas https://digitalarkansasnews.com/governor-looks-to-expand-electric-vehicle-infrastructure-in-arkansas/
LITTLE ROCK – I would like to talk about how we are expanding opportunities for electric vehicle industries in our state.
First, to make driving electric vehicles in Arkansas a possibility for many, the infrastructure must be there to support it. We are working hard to make that happen.
Recently, Arkansas was approved to receive $54 million dollars in federal grants over the next five years, which will be used to work with partners in the installation of accessible charging stations throughout the state. The deployment of the charging stations will be led by the Arkansas Department of Transportation in coordination with my Department of Energy and Environment.
The goal is to have as many charging stations around the state as we can. Step one includes locating stations at every 50 miles along the most used Arkansas interstates. Step two is to build out infrastructure in rural areas. Anyone in Arkansas who wants to drive electric vehicles should have no worries about the availability of charging stations, no matter where they live within the state.
In addition to the $54 million plan, we are also receiving funding assistance for the installation of 150-kW DC fast charging stations, which can charge electric vehicles in as little as 30 minutes. And we also plan to provide rebates for the installation of Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations, which can fully charge electric vehicles in eight hours or less. Both programs are possible thanks to the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund, and they are moving quickly to establish EV charging in key locations throughout the state.
In Arkansas, we have been working to make our state a leader in using advanced energy technologies. With the creation of teams like the Arkansas Council on Future Mobility, and our focus on innovative technologies, Arkansas is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the electric vehicle industry.
Improving the electric vehicle infrastructure will benefit Arkansans, but it will also benefit many out-of-state travelers and our tourism economy. When people plan to visit, they will have confidence that Arkansas can accommodate their charging needs.
This week is a time many states have established as Electric Vehicle Week. It is a week meant to provide education and spread awareness about the benefits of electric vehicles to our country. I have joined in and proclaimed this time as National Drive Electric Week in Arkansas.
EV charging infrastructure has been a key priority of mine for several years, and I want it to remain a priority well into the future. Arkansas has the potential to develop the best infrastructure in the region and continue leading the nation in advanced technology.
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