Fifty years after humans first set foot on the moon, the rock samples collected by Apollo astronauts are being studied by volcanologists who believe what they learn could help predict eruptions on Earth more accurately. Faith Lapidus reports.
Influenza Cases Mount In Australia
Australia’s annual influenza season started unusually early in 2019, and already there are more than 144,000 confirmed cases. At least 231 people have died, so far, including some children, although most of the victims were frail, elderly Australians.
This year is likely to be one of Australia’s most severe for influenza, and the government, worried about a vaccine shortage, has ordered 400,000 more doses.
Dr. Chris Zappala, vice president of the Australian Medical Association, hopes the community can cope.
“We’ve had millions and millions of vaccines through the country already, and we hope it’s enough. I think we can put some trust in the epidemiologists who do this every year. Remember, what’s happened here is we’ve got an extremely wily organism that mutates and makes things difficult,” Zappala said.
Multiple flu viruses circulate each year, and they are broadly grouped into two types: A and B. A particularly potent strain may well be to blame for an early start to Australia’s influenza season. Experts hope it will end before its usual peak in August, the last month of winter.
But Professor Brendan Murphy, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, says it is hard to tell.
“The one thing you can say definitely about flu is that you can’t predict (it),” Murphy said. “This season may be a very early season that may fade away and not have the big, late winter peak or it may continue. We just don’t know. That is why we recommend everybody get vaccinated and be prepared.”
Australia suffered its worst flu season on record in 2017, when more than 250,000 cases were reported. More than 1,100 people died, slightly less than those killed in road accidents.
The government recommends that every Australian older than 6 months should get a flu shot every year.
Flu season in Australia usually runs from June to September, peaking in August.
Man Screams ‘You Die,’ Sets Japan Animation Studio on Fire
A man screaming “You die!” burst into an animation production studio in Kyoto and set it on fire early Thursday, killing one person, leaving 12 others presumed dead and a dozen possibly trapped inside.
The blaze injured another 36 people, some of them critically, Japanese authorities said.
The fire broke out in the three-story Kyoto Animation building in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto, after the suspect sprayed an unidentified liquid to accelerate the blaze, Kyoto prefectural police and fire department officials said.
One person died of severe burns, said fire department official Satoshi Fujiwara. Most of the 10 seriously injured had burns. Rescuers found 12 people presumed dead on the first and second floors, Fujiwara said.
As many as 18 others could be still trapped on the third floor, he said.
The suspect was also injured and taken to a hospital, officials said. Police are investigating the man on suspicion of arson.
Survivors who saw the attacker said he was not their colleague and that he was screaming “(You) die!” when he dumped the liquid and started the fire, according to Japanese media reports.
Footage on Japan’s NHK national television showed gray smoke billowing from the charred building. Other footage showed windows blown out.
“There was an explosion, then I heard people shouting, some asking for help,” a female witness told TBS TV. “Black smoke was rising from windows on upper floors, then there was a man struggling to crawl out of the window.”
Witnesses in the neighborhood said they heard bangs coming from the building, others said they saw people coming out blackened, bleeding, walking barefoot, Kyodo News reported.
Rescue officials set up an orange tent outside the studio building to provide first aid and sort out the injured.
Fire department officials said more than 70 people were in the building at the time of the fire and many of them ran outside.
Kyoto Animation, better known as KyoAni, was founded in 1981 as an animation and comic book production studio, and is known for mega-hit stories featuring high school girls, including “Lucky Star,” “K-On!” and “Haruhi Suzumiya.”
Trump Meets Victims of Religious Persecution at White House
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made religious freedom a centerpiece of his foreign policy, met Wednesday with victims of religious persecution from countries like China, Turkey, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar.
Trump counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters and the State Department is hosting a conference on the topic this week that will be attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Four of the 27 participants in the Oval Office meeting were from China, the White House said: Jewher Ilham, an Uighur Muslim; Yuhua Zhang, a Falun Gong practitioner; Nyima Lhamo, a Tibetan Buddhist; and Manping Ouyang, a Christian.
Ilham told Trump her father was one of many Uighurs “locked up in concentration camps” in the Xinjiang region and that she had not spoken with him since 2017.
China sanctions possible
The Trump administration has been weighing sanctions against Chinese officials over the treatment of the Uighurs, including the Communist Party chief of Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, but has so far held back amid Chinese threats of retaliation.
Relations between the United States and China are already tense over a tit-for-tat trade war, with the United States alleging that China engages in unfair trading practices.
Reuters reported in May that the U.S. administration was considering sanctions on Chinese video surveillance firm Hikvision over the country’s treatment of its Uighur minority, citing a person briefed on the matter.
Nearly two dozen nations at the U.N. Human Rights Council this week urged China to halt persecution of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, where U.N. experts and activists say at least 1 million are held in detention centers.
The Chinese government has traditionally rejected any suggestion that it abuses religious rights and human rights.
Rohingya from Myanmar
Also present at the meeting were Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, the White House said. On Tuesday, Pompeo announced sanctions against Myanmar military’s Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and other leaders it said were responsible for extrajudicial killings of Rohingya in 2017, barring them from entry to the United States.
Trump’s ambassador for religious freedom, Sam Brownback, said during Wednesday’s meeting that the administration would announce “additional measures” on religious freedom at the State Department meeting Thursday.
Among the other victims who met with Trump were Christians from Myanmar, Vietnam, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, Eritrea, Nigeria and Sudan; Muslims from Afghanistan, Sudan, Pakistan and New Zealand; Jews from Yemen and Germany; a practitioner of Cao Dai from Vietnam; and a Yezidi from Iraq.
Protesters Arrested Trying to Stop Giant Hawaii Telescope
Police have begun arresting protesters gathered at the base of Hawaii’s tallest volcano, Mauna Kea, to stop the construction of a giant telescope on what they say is their most sacred ground.
Protest leader Kealoha Pisciotta told The Associated Press that police had arrested 30 elders, called kupuna in Hawaiian, on Wednesday.
Some of the elders used canes and strollers to walk, while others were taken in wheelchairs to police vans. Those who could walk on their own were led away with their hands in zip ties.
The elders were among about 2,000 people blocking the road to the summit of Mauna Kea in an attempt to stop construction material and workers from reaching the top.
The $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope is expected to be one of the world’s most advanced.
Opponents of the the telescope say it will desecrate sacred land. According to the University of Hawaii, ancient Hawaiians considered the location kapu, or forbidden. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and priests were allowed to make the long trek to Mauna Kea’s summit above the clouds.
Supporters of the telescope, however, say it will not only make important scientific discoveries but bring educational and economic opportunities to Hawaii.
The company behind the telescope is made up of a group of universities in California and Canada, with partners from China, India and Japan.
Astronomers hope the telescope will help them look back 13 billion years to the time, just after the Big Bang, and answer fundamental questions about the universe.
Air Force ‘Highly’ Discourages People From Storming Area 51
The U.S. Air Force has a warning for the more than 1 million people who have signed up to “storm Area 51” in search of aliens as part of an internet joke that has gone viral.
“Any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged,” the Air Force said in a statement Wednesday.
The Air Force said it does not discuss its security measures and that the test and training range, known as Area 51, provides “flexible, realistic and multidimensional battle space” for testing and “advanced training in support of U.S. national interests.”
The Facebook event “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us,” invites people to attempt to run into the mysterious site at 3 a.m. September 20.
“If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets,” the event description says, referring to a Japanese manga character known for running with his arms stretched out backward and his head forward.
Area 51 is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range. It has been the subject of conspiracy theories that say the U.S. military keeps aliens and UFOs there.
After decades of government officials refusing to acknowledge Area 51, the CIA released declassified documents in 2013 referring to the 20,700-square-kilometer installation by name and locating it on a map near the dry Groom Lake bed.
Jailed Uighur Scholar’s Daughter Pleads for His Freedom
STATE DEPARTMENT — “My father is a fixer, a bridge-builder, a connector. He knows that a better future is one where Han Chinese and Uighur children are in school together, are friends together and have the same opportunities,” said Jewher Ilham, who pleaded for the release of her father, prominent jailed Uighur scholar and economist Ilham Tohti.
She also petitioned Chinese authorities to release all Uighur girls from so-called re-education camps before Beijing hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Tohti has been serving a life sentence on separatism-related charges since 2014. Chinese authorities accused him of encouraging terrorism and advocating separatism in his lectures, articles and comments to foreign media.
The scholar and economist founded the website Uyghur Online, which is aimed at promoting understanding between Uighurs and Han Chinese. He also has been outspoken about Beijing’s treatment of the minority Muslim Uighurs in the far-western Xinjiang region.
“I have not spoken to him since 2014, and I have not seen him since we were separated at the airport in 2013. We were on our way to Indiana University, where my father was supposed to start a yearlong residency,” Jewher Ilham told participants of the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, hosted by the U.S. State Department on Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers’ push
The appeal came amid a renewed push from American lawmakers urging China to change how it treats Uighurs in Xinjiang.
“The violations [in Xinjiang] are of such scale, are so big, and the commercial interests are so significant that it sometimes tempers our values in terms of how we should act,” said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Tuesday at the ministerial.
“Unless we are willing to speak out against the violations of religious freedom in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it any other place in the world,” added Pelosi.
The House speaker also called for U.S. sanctions against Chinese Communist Party leaders in Xinjiang, who are responsible for the re-education camps.
More than 1 million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in re-education camps that critics say are aimed at destroying indigenous culture and religious beliefs.
American officials say the United States has stressed to Chinese authorities the importance of differentiating between peaceful dissent and violent extremism. They say Tohti’s arrest “silenced an important Uighur voice that peacefully promoted harmony and understanding among China’s ethnic groups, particularly Uighurs.”
In January 2019, Tohti was nominated by a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers for the Nobel Peace Prize.
China rejected the nomination, calling Tohti a separatist.
“Ilham Tohti is convicted of dismembering the nation. What he did was meant to split the country, stoke hatred and justify violence and terrorism, which cannot be condoned in any country. The international community should have a clear understanding of this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said this year.
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Currency Ban Spurs Demand for Cryptocurrency
Zimbabwe’s ban on foreign currency, and the nation’s record inflation, has spurred demand for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin to try to preserve wealth. Zimbabwean authorities last year banned banks from processing bitcoin and is warning that cryptocurrencies are open to hacking. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.
Fatal Drug Overdoses Drop in US for First Time in Decades
WASHINGTON — Fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. declined by 5.1 percent in 2018, according to preliminary official data released Wednesday, the first drop in two decades.
The trend was driven by a steep decline in deaths linked to prescription painkillers.
“The latest provisional data on overdose deaths show that America’s united efforts to curb opioid use disorder and addiction are working,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said, though he cautioned the epidemic would not be stopped overnight.
The total number of estimated deaths dropped to 68,557 in 2018 against 72,224 the year before, according to the figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But that number is still far higher than the 16,849 overdose deaths in 1999, a figure that rose every year until 2017, with a particularly sharp increase seen from 2014 to 2017.
Deaths attributed to natural and semisynthetic opioids, such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxymorphone, which are prescribed as painkillers, saw a drop from 14,926 to 12,757, or 14.5 percent.
That was the steepest drop for any category of drug, though deaths linked to synthetic opioids excluding methadone (drugs like tramadol and fentanyl) continued to rise sharply, while cocaine deaths also increased slightly.
Overprescription
The U.S. opioid epidemic is rooted in decades of overprescription of addictive painkillers.
The crisis is responsible for about 400,000 deaths involving prescription or illicit opioids, including high-profile victims such as pop icon Prince and rocker Tom Petty.
But there are some signs the tide is beginning to turn.
In recent months, federal and state authorities have taken on drug giants in court for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe their medicines or for deceptive marketing that downplayed the risks of addiction.
The overall opioid prescribing rate peaked in 2012 at 81 prescriptions for every 100 Americans and had dropped to 58 by 2017, according to data suggesting that health care providers have become more cautious.
But the amount of opioids prescribed per person is still around three times higher than it was in 1999, according to the CDC, which uses a unit called morphine milligram equivalents (MME) to account for differences in drug type and strength.
After Record Heat Wave, Parts of Europe Now Face Drought
After weathering record-breaking temperatures, parts of Europe are now gripped by a punishing drought that is shriveling harvests, sparking water shortages and taking a toll on wildlife. experts now warn Europeans must better prepare for today’s ‘new normal.’
Weeks of dry weather have left two-thirds of French departments facing water restrictions. Plants and wildlife are stressed. More than 20 departments are in the critical red category that restricts water use to only essential needs.
France is not the only European country facing a parched summer. This weather forecast in neighboring Spain indicates some rain up north, but overall the country is baking in its third driest year this century.
Dry weather also has hit parts of Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Scandinavian countries. This month, Lithuania declared an emergency, with drought expected to cut its harvests by half.
All of this follows a string of record-breaking temperatures in June across much of the continent.
Climate change and adaptation expert Blaz Kurnik, of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, says that’s no coincidence.
“Drought and heatwaves are connected,” he said. “And they are amplifying each other afterwards.”
Kurnik says its hard to just blame everything on climate change. But the last couple of years were the warmest ever recorded in Europe, mirroring the global temperature rise. And this is Europe’s second drought in as many years.
Not surprisingly, farmers are worried. We’re going to irrigate some plots, this farmer told French TV, while noting that not all of the crops can be saved.
Insurance companies estimate last year’s drought cost Europe several billion dollars. Expert Kurnik points up that’s only part of the bill.
“There are also losses, which cannot directly translate into money, which are the permanent damage of the forest, the loss of biodiversity … which can recover in the next years — or not,” he said.
Europe has long been considered a climate change leader. Experts say many European Union countries have drafted comprehensive plans to mitigate the impact of hotter and drier weather in the years to come. But that’s not enough.
When it comes to sustainable water management, for instance, environmental group WWF’s European Water Policy Officer Carla Freund says there’s a disconnect between good legislation and action.
“I think we see a lack of will overall,” she said. “It’s not an area of priority for a lot of member states. I think water is seen as something that’s ubiquitous regardless. So I don’t think governments are really aware that we’re going to be facing a huge shortage problem in the future.”
A different Europe
A Swiss study out earlier this month predicts that like other parts of the world, Europe will be drastically different by 2050. London’s climate may be more like Barcelona’s today. Madrid will be more like Marakesh.
Climate change expert Kurnik says that in some ways, Europe is preparing for these changes. France’s 2003 heatwave killed 15,000 people. That didn’t happen this year. Some farmers are planting drought-resistant crops and adopting more efficient irrigation methods. But he says the efforts are patchy.
Meanwhile, next week’s forecast predicts yet another heatwave in France — with no rain in sight.
US Cuts Turkey Out of F-35 Fighter Jet Program
The United States is officially removing Turkey from its F-35 stealth fighter jet program after Ankara accepted the Russian delivery of its S-400 missile defense system.
“Unfortunately, Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday. “The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”
U.S. officials believe NATO ally Turkey’s decision to use Russian advanced radar technology could compromise the alliance’s military systems in the country. The S-400 could potentially be used to target NATO jets in Turkey, including the U.S.-made F-35, which is NATO’s newest stealth fighter jet.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next secretary of defense slammed Turkey’s acceptance of the S-400, parts of which were delivered last week, as “wrong” and “disappointing.”
Mark Esper told lawmakers he emphasized in a phone call to Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar that “you can either have the S-400 or the F-35. You can’t have both.”
A Russian transport jet delivered the first parts of the $2.2 billion missile system last Friday to a Turkish military air base outside Ankara.
Washington’s decision to cut Turkey out of the F-35 problem means delivery of the aircraft has stopped, and Turkish firms will lose contracts to build significant parts of the expensive and complex U.S. jet.
Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense has said its purchase of the S-400 defense systems was “not an option but rather a necessity.”
The ministry said last week that Turkey was still assessing the bid to acquire U.S. Patriot air defense systems.
But the White House countered Turkey’s assertion on Wednesday.
“The United States has been actively working with Turkey to provide air defense solutions to meet its legitimate air defense needs, and this administration has made multiple offers to move Turkey to the front of the line to receive the U.S. PATRIOT air defense system,” the White House said.
The White House added that Turkey has been a “longstanding and trusted partner and NATO Ally for over 65 years,” but that “accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO Allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems.”
Turkish officials argue Turkey is in a complicated geopolitical region, as it borders Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Three years ago, the Turkish presidential palace was bombed by rogue elements of its military in an attempted coup, and some analysts suggest the missiles could be used to protect Turkish President Erdogan.
While the S-400 is widely recognized as one of the most advanced missile systems in the world, its practical use is in question, given its incompatibility with the rest of Turkey’s NATO military systems.
“From a military perspective there is no logic,” said retired General Haldun Solmazturk, who now heads the Ankara-based 21st Century Institute research institution. “This is not only a problem between Turkey and the United States, but it is a problem between Turkey and the rest of the 28 NATO members, so it’s a serious problem.”
Prosecutors Drop Sex Assault Case Against Actor Kevin Spacey
Massachusetts prosecutors on Wednesday announced they had dropped a criminal case alleging that former “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted an 18-year-old man at a bar in Nantucket over three years ago.
Prosecutors said they made the decision to drop the felony indecent assault and battery charge against the Oscar winner after the alleged victim invoked his right under the U.S. Constitution against giving self-incriminating testimony.
Spacey’s lawyers had previously accused the man of deleting text messages that would support the actor’s defense. The man invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a hearing earlier this month concerning the whereabouts of his cellphone, which was missing.
Spacey, who won an Academy Award in 2000 for his role in “American Beauty,” had pleaded not guilty to the charge. His lawyers had called the allegations against him “patently false.”
Lawyers for Spacey and the accuser did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The actor, 59, was one of dozens of men in the entertainment industry, business and politics who have been accused of sexual misconduct following the emergence in 2017 of the #MeToo movement.
Prosecutors had charged Spacey in the Nantucket case in December.
The accuser told police Spacey had bought him several rounds of beer and whiskey at the Club Car Restaurant on Nantucket in July 2016 when he was 18 and said at one point, “Let’s get drunk,” according to charging documents.
As they stood next to a piano, Spacey groped him, he told investigators.
Victims’ Families, Nations Commemorate MH17 Tragedy
Families of victims and their countries’ embassies are marking the fifth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, amid mounting evidence of Russia’s involvement in shooting the passenger plane out of the sky.
The airliner flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a Buk missile on July 17, 2014, over territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists, killing all 298 people on board, including 80 children.
In the Netherlands, which lost 193 citizens, commemorations began on July 16, when family members of 15 of the victims assembled in the town of Hilversum for a vigil.
It was led by a priest who grows sunflowers from seeds brought from eastern Ukraine where the plane was shot down.
A separate MH17 conference took place in the Netherlands on July 16, as well as a roundtable in Washington, D.C.
Speaking in Washington, George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said that “Russia set the stage for the shoot-down of MH17 by financing, organizing, and leading proxies in eastern Ukraine.”
He also said that “Russia continues to deny the presence of its forces and materiel” in non-government-controlled parts of Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied any involvement in the MH17 tragedy.
Nine embassies whose citizens perished on the flight plan to hold a memorial on July 17 in Malaysia, which lost 43 citizens.
Another memorial is taking place at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam that is closed to the media.
Investigators from the Dutch-led Joint Investigative Team (JIT) have concluded that a Russian antiaircraft-missile brigade transported the sophisticated projectile system from and back to Russia into Ukraine.
The JIT in June furthermore indicted three Russians with military and intelligence backgrounds and a Ukrainian man with no prior military experience on murder charges.
The four suspects are scheduled to be tried starting in March 2020 in the Netherlands, although all are believed to be in Russia.
And investigators promised to continue investigating suspects, including those in the “chain of command.”
Western states imposed sanctions on Russia after the incident, bolstering existing measures that were put into force after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Dutch prosecutors might get to question a possible key witness of the events after an elite Ukrainian unit on June 27 detained Volodymyr Tsemakh at his home in a separatist-held city in the Donetsk region.
Tsemakh oversaw an air-defense unit in a town near the crash site.
His lawyer and daughter told local media that Ukrainian authorities are charging him with terrorism that carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, Tsemakh’s wife sent a pro-Moscow separatist official a picture of her husband after he was arrested with a bandaged wound on his forehead, according to online open-source sleuth Bellingcat.
TV footage uncovered by Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA, showed Tsemakh claiming that he was in charge of an antiaircraft unit and that he helped hide the Buk missile in July 2014.
He furthermore shows the interviewer where the civilian airliner fell.
A July 15 RFE/RL report also outlined how Russian and Moscow-controlled media in nongovernment-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine first reported that separatists had downed a Ukrainian military plane during the time when MH17 was downed.
Texas Town Drops Measure to be ‘Sanctuary City for Unborn’
Leaders of a small town in Texas are abandoning a proposal that would have essentially banned abortions in their community.
Mineral Wells Mayor Christopher Perricone says he proposed making his town a “sanctuary city for the unborn” after the town of Waskom became the first in Texas to do so . But at a meeting Tuesday in Mineral Wells, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Dallas, city leaders voted 5-2 to take no action at the recommendation of the city’s legal staff.
The Star-Telegram reports that earlier Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sent a letter to Mineral Wells council members warning that its proposal was unconstitutional.
There are currently no abortion clinics in either Waskom or Mineral Wells, so the measures are largely symbolic.
ACLU Asks Judge to Block Trump Asylum Rule as Case Is Heard
Civil liberties groups are asking a federal judge for a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s effort to effectively end asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others filed the request Wednesday, seeking a Thursday hearing in San Francisco. The groups sued Tuesday and want the judge to block the policy while the case is heard.
The Trump administration rules went into effect Tuesday and prevent most migrants from seeking protection as refugees if they have passed through another country first. It targets tens of thousands of Central Americans who cross into the U.S. through Mexico. But it also affects people from Africa, Asia, and South America who come to the southern border.
Immigrant advocates say the plan illegally circumvents the asylum process Congress established.
Finland Says Russian Aircraft Suspected of Air Violation
Finland’s defense ministry says a Russian aircraft is suspected of having violated the Nordic country’s airspace.
The ministry said in a short statement that the alleged violation took place Wednesday morning on the Baltic Sea near the town of Porvoo, east of Helsinki. It provided no further details and said the Finnish Border Guard is investigating the matter.
Spokesman Kristian Vakkuri separately told Finnish newspaper Iltalehti that the alleged violation by a Russian aircraft lasted for about two minutes, entering about one kilometer (0.6 miles) into the airspace of Finland, which is not a member of NATO.
It was the second reported air violation of Finland’s airspace this year.
In April, the Portuguese Air Force said one of its surveillance planes unintentionally strayed into Finnish airspace during a NATO mission over the Baltic Sea.
Gardner Had Good News for Colorado. But Trump Had Tweets.
Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner had reeled in a big political fish.
A major government agency, the Bureau of Land Management, was moving to his state and marking a victory years in the making for one of the Senate’s most vulnerable Republicans. But Gardner’s moment of triumph rolled out Monday in the shadow of President Donald Trump’s racist tweets calling for four congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from. Republicans, perhaps Gardner most of all, struggled to respond.
A conservative radio show host wanted to know: Had Gardner heard about Trump’s tweets?
“We have been working on the BLM move, and that’s basically everything we’ve been trying to get done,” Gardner replied.
“I translate that as `I don’t want to talk about it,”’ chortled Denver host Steffan Tubbs.
It’s a feeling widely shared among Republicans in Congress weary of answering for Trump’s assorted provocations about Mexicans, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, women and more.
But as Gardner’s response showed, Trump’s pass-or-fail loyalty tests don’t leave “no comment” as much of an option for the Republican senators running for reelection in 2020. The president has a record of helping unseat “disloyal” members of the GOP in the House and the Senate. Love, hate or tolerate Trump, Gardner and other endangered Republicans will need his support as the president amps up his own bid for reelection.
There was a sense this week that Trump’s “go home” controversy marked an intensifying phase in the president’s approach and that Gardner may have offered an early clue for 2020 campaigns on how to respond when the president steps on an accomplishment. The answer: blandly and minimally, with relentless pivots back to issues.
On Sunday, Trump launched an unapologetic stream of tweets suggesting that the four women leave the United States and casting them as haters of America, Jews and Israel. He didn’t name the members of the self-styled “squad,” but his remarks were in clear reference to liberal freshmen Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Condemnation rolled in from Democrats and a few Republicans, and Trump offered no apologies.
Then came what was supposed to be Gardner’s rollout Monday, when he tweeted midafternoon that he was “thrilled” to announce that the administration was moving the agency from Washington to Grand Junction, Colorado. The Interior Department, which oversees the bureau, said about 300 jobs would move to Western states, with about 85 jobs for Colorado.
“This is a victory for local communities, advocates for public lands and proponents for a more responsible and accountable federal government,” Gardner said in a statement.
By Tuesday, Gardner offered up a more on-point answer to the question of whether and how much he supports Trump’s racist tweets.
“I disagree with the president,” Gardner told Denver-area KOA NewsRadio. “I wouldn’t have sent these tweets.”
But asked by CNN later at the Capitol, he would not say whether he thought Trump’s tweets were racist.
His caution may have been informed by the election math. Gardner was elected to the Senate by a little under 2 percentage points in the Republican wave year of 2014, while Democrats swept statewide offices in Colorado last year, winning the governorship by 11 percentage points. Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in Colorado by 5 percentage points in 2016. Voter registration in the state is divided more or less evenly three ways, among Republicans, Democrats and independents.
That makes Gardner perhaps the most vulnerable GOP senator in the country as Republicans defend 22 seats and their Senate majority.
Like many in his party, Gardner has a complicated history with Trump. Gardner briefly endorsed the reality television star-turned-presidential candidate in 2016 but rescinded that backing after the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted of groping women.
This time, Gardner has already endorsed Trump’s reelection campaign.
He’s had to walk a political tightrope. To win another term, Gardner will need to hold the votes of Colorado’s Trump-allied Republicans who remain suspicious of the senator’s rescinded endorsement in 2016, while winning over independents who reject the president but are wary of the Democrats’ agenda.
Gardner has occasionally chastised the president after controversial moments – notably after Trump praised “both sides” following a confrontation between neo-Nazis and activists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that left a counterprotester dead – and he’s carved out a distinct path on immigration. But Gardner has also voted for most of Trump’s priorities. He’s supported the president’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his tax cut, both his Supreme Court justices and several other federal judges, along with most of his Cabinet.
Gardner, who has a sunny disposition, has also embraced elements of Trump’s incendiary remarks. In a speech at a conservative gathering in Denver on Friday, Gardner, who has bemoaned Democrats’ embrace of “socialism,” slammed what Republicans describe as the leftward drift of Democrats.
“Since when did wearing the Betsy Ross flag become akin to wearing a swastika?” Gardner asked. “Since when did men and women trying to protect our borders and keep our country safe become Nazis running concentration camps?
Gardner’s approach apparently passed Trump’s loyalty test and by late Tuesday was being cited as an example for others in the party.
“Sen. Gardner is rightly focused on policies, not personalities,” said Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, chairman of the Senate’s Republican campaign arm. “If we do that, we win.”
But Trump’s efforts to rally his base of supporters can flip well-laid plans, said one pollster.
“It’s difficult to have that be an effective strategy when the president decides to blast away at four women of color,” GOP pollster David Flaherty said of Gardner’s efforts to focus on a pro-Colorado agenda.
Cuba Says Nationwide Blackouts to End by Saturday
Cuba’s energy minister says breakdowns in the country’s power plants have caused a string of blackouts across the country this week, and he promises the problem will be solved by Saturday.
Minster of Energy and Mining Raul Garcia Barreiro told state media Tuesday night that a series of blackouts in cities and towns throughout Cuba was due to mechanical problems in three power plants as two others were down for maintenance.
The statement came after days of official silence in response to reports on Twitter from Cubans experiencing power cuts. Dozens of users reported the times, duration and locations of blackouts, in a dramatic example of the government’s broken monopoly on information in the face of increased access to mobile internet, which came into wide use this year.
Bolivia Declares Emergency Plan to End Gender Killings
Bolivia, which has one of South America’s highest rates of women being killed because of their gender, has declared femicide a national priority and will step up efforts to tackle growing violence, a top government rights official said on Tuesday.
Since January authorities have recorded 73 femicides – the killing of a woman by a man due to her gender – in the highest toll since 2013. The murders amount to one woman killed every two days.
“In terms of the femicide rate, Bolivia is in the top rankings,” said Tania Sanchez, head of the Plurinational Service for Women and Ending Patriarchy at Bolivia’s justice ministry, despite legal protections being in place.
A 2013 law defined femicide as a specific crime and provided tougher sentences for convicted offenders.
“We are not indifferent,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “The national priority is the lives of women, of all ages, and for that reason the president has raised this issue of femicide as the most extreme form (of violence),” Sanchez said.
Emergency Plan
The latest femicide victim was 26-year-old mother Mery Vila, killed last week by her partner who beat her on the head with a hammer.
This week, the government announced a 10-point “emergency plan.”
Worldwide, a third of all women experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives, according to the U.N. In Bolivia, violence against women is driven by entrenched machismo culture, which tends to blame victims and even condones it.
According to a 2016 national government survey, seven of every 10 women in Bolivia said they had suffered some type of violence inflicted by a partner.
Sanchez said the new plan “takes into account prevention, as well as care to victims and punishing violence, macho violence.”
A commission will also look at increasing government spending on gender violence and prevention, and evaluate various initiatives’ success.
“Funding is insufficient. There’s a great need in the regions,” Sanchez said.
Other measures include obligatory training courses for civil servants and public sector employees on gender violence and prevention.
School and university teachers will also receive training about “the psychological, sexual and physical violence” women and girls face.
The commission will also consider if femicide should be regarded as a crime of lesser humanity.
Widespread Gender Violence
Latin America and the Caribbean have the world’s highest rates of femicide, according to the United Nations.
Some 15 other countries in the region have introduced laws against femicide in recent years.
Victims of femicides in Bolivia and across the region often die at the hands of current or former boyfriends and husbands with a history of domestic abuse, experts say.
“We believe that this increase (in femicides) is related to a patriarchal system that appropriates the bodies and lives of women,” said Violeta Dominguez, head of U.N. Women in Bolivia.
Femicide cases in Bolivia often go unpunished, with victims’ families struggling for justice, Sanchez said.
Of 627 cases recorded since 2013, 288 remain open without a conviction, which Sanchez called “alarming.”
Bolivian President Evo Morales posted on Twitter on Monday “It’s time to end impunity, and tackle problems as a society.”
FBI Report: Mailed Pipe Bomb Devices Wouldn’t Have Worked
An FBI analysis of crudely made pipe bombs mailed to prominently critics of President Donald Trump has concluded they wouldn’t have worked, according to a report made public Tuesday.
The January report on the analysis was filed in Manhattan federal court, where U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff is scheduled to sentence Cesar Sayoc in September after the Florida man pleaded guilty to explosives-related charges in the scary episode weeks before midterm elections last year.
Sayoc, 57, faces a mandatory 10-year prison term and up to life. Sayoc has repeatedly said he never intended to injure anyone, a claim that his lawyers will likely argue was supported by the report.
The FBI said the devices wouldn’t have functioned because of their design, though it couldn’t be determined whether that was from poor design or the intent of the builder.
It said the fuzing system for each device lacked the proper components and assembly to enable it to function as a method of initiation for an explosive.
It also said the devices contained small fragments of broken glass, fragmentation often added to explosives to injure or kill people nearby.
Whether the devices might have exploded became a major focal point of recent hearings when Sayoc asserted that they could not and prosecutors seemed to leave the question open.
Sarah Baumbartel, an assistant federal defender, declined comment, though the issue was likely to be addressed when his lawyers submit written sentencing arguments next week.
In a letter to the judge several months ago, Sayoc wrote: “Under no circumstances my intent was to hurt or harm anyone. The intention was to only intimidate and scare.”
Sayoc admitted sending 16 rudimentary bombs – none of which detonated – to targets including Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, several members of Congress, former President Barack Obama and actor Robert De Niro. Devices were also mailed to CNN offices in New York and Atlanta.
The bombs began turning up over a five-day stretch weeks before the midterms. They were mailed to addresses in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia.
Sayoc was arrested in late October at a Florida auto parts store. He had been living in a van plastered with Trump stickers and images of Trump opponents with crosshairs over their faces.