Month: June 2021

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced Monday one additional body has been recovered, bringing the total to 10 killed and 151 still missing in the wreckage of a 12-story oceanfront apartment building that partially collapsed last week.
Levine Cava announced the latest body count during a media briefing near the scene of the incident. Rescue officials say the body was recovered as search crews removed rubble in what they called a “delayering” process to search for remains or possible survivors. The mayor stressed the numbers are “very fluid” and expected to change.
Asked why the process is going so slowly, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Ray Jadallah said that searching the wreckage is not simply a matter of moving large slabs of material but of going through pulverized concrete. He said much of the search is conducted by hand, and every time material is moved, other material falls into its place.
Jadallah said the process is also dangerous, saying a search and rescue worker Sunday tumbled seven meters into an opening in the rubble.  The crews have now been on scene for more than 100 consecutive hours.
The mayor said the pace of the search process is the main question she gets from families of the missing. She said family members and loved ones have been brought to the scene to observe the process. Workers continued to use rescue dogs and sonar to find possible survivors who were living in the south building of the Champlain Towers condominium complex.
Published reports have indicated that there had been warnings regarding the structural integrity of the building long before the collapse. Local, state, and federal officials at the news briefing all promised a thorough investigation into the cause of the structural failure of the building.
A section of the building containing about 55 apartments collapsed in the predawn hours Thursday in the beach town of Surfside, near Miami Beach. 
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The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to reconsider a major transgender rights case, letting stand a lower court ruling that a Virginia school district acted unlawfully by refusing to let a transgender male use a bathroom at his high school in accord with his gender identity. The justices decided not to hear an appeal from the Gloucester County School Board of a 2020 ruling by the federal appellate court, based in Richmond, that had gone against school officials and in favor of transgender student Gavin Grimm.  The court gave no explanation for the ruling. But two of its most conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, were in favor of hearing the case. FILE – Gavin Grimm attends the TIME 100 Gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, April 25, 2017, in New York.The ruling was a victory for sexual minority advocates. Grimm, who graduated in 2017, sued his school two years before that when it issued a policy to stop him from using a bathroom that corresponded to his gender identity. The school instead told him to use a unisex bathroom, which Grimm said left him feeling “stigmatized and isolated.” His lawyers said the school board decision violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and a U.S. law that bans discrimination in schools on the basis of sex. In 2016, the Supreme Court initially agreed to hear the case, after Grimm won a lower appeals court decision. The administration of former President Barack Obama ordered schools not to discriminate on the basis of gender identity, but the administration of his successor, President Donald Trump, rescinded the order. With the Trump-era order in place, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appellate court for reconsideration, but it again ruled in Grimm’s favor. The Gloucester school board sought a new Supreme Court consideration of the case after new U.S. President Joe Biden revoked the Trump administration policy that favored the school district. In its petition seeking review of the appellate court decision, the Gloucester board said, “For school officials, as for parents, the question of how best to respond to a teenager who identifies with the opposite biological sex is often excruciatingly difficult. On the one hand, the teenager deserves and needs everyone’s compassion.” FILE – In this May 17, 2016, photo, a sticker designates a gender neutral bathroom at Nathan Hale high school in Seattle in Washington state.But it added, “On the other hand, allowing the teenager to use multi-user restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities reserved for the opposite sex raises what this court has acknowledged to be serious concerns about bodily privacy — for the teenager and others.” Grimm’s attorneys had asked the court not to hear the case, saying, “The undisputed evidence establishes that, by treating Gavin differently from other boys because he is transgender, the [school board] subjected Gavin to discrimination.” “Excluding transgender students from common spaces based on the alleged discomfort of others ‘would very publicly brand all transgender students with a scarlet ‘T,’ and they should not have to endure that as the price of attending their public school,” Grimm’s lawyers said.  The high court decision to not consider the Virginia case again comes as numerous U.S. states consider transgender rights legislation. Several Republican-led states have moved to bar transgender girls from women’s sports teams. 
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Owners of units in a Florida oceanfront condo building that collapsed with deadly consequences were just days away from a deadline to start making steep payments toward more than $9 million in major repairs that had been recommended nearly three years earlier. That cost estimate, from the Morabito Consultants engineering firm in 2018, meant owners at Champlain Towers South were facing payments of anywhere from $80,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $330,000 or so for a penthouse, to be paid all at once or in installments. Their first deadline was July 1. One resident whose apartment was spared, Adalberto Aguero, had just taken out a loan to cover his $80,000 bill.  “I figured I would pay it off after they fixed the building. I didn’t want to pay it off before because you never know,” said Aguero, adding that he pulled paperwork to make the installment payments a day after Thursday’s collapse. “I said cancel everything.” An itemized bill sent by the condo board in April to owners of the building’s 136 units showed that much of the planned work was in the pool area and the façade. Installing new pavers and waterproofing the pool deck and building entrance would cost $1.8 million, with another $1 million going to “structural repairs” and “planter landscaping,” according to a condo board email obtained by The Associated Press. A line item of “miscellaneous repairs” that included work on the garage was estimated to cost $280,000. Total costs assessed, including many items that appeared to be for aesthetic purpose: $15 million. In this image, released by the Miami-Dade Fire Department, rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida, on June 25, 2021.Engineers and construction experts say the Morabito documents that focused just on the structural work make clear there were several major repairs that needed to be done as soon as possible. Other than some roof repairs, that work had not begun, officials said. The cost estimate emailed by Morabito Consultants to Surfside officials was among a series of documents released as rescue efforts continued at the site of the collapsed building, where more than 150 people remained unaccounted for. At least nine people were killed in the collapse, authorities said Sunday. Another 2018 Morabito report submitted to the city said waterproofing under the pool deck had failed and had been improperly laid flat instead of sloped, preventing water from draining off. “The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” the report said. The firm recommended that the damaged slabs be replaced in what would be a major repair. That came as news to Susana Alvarez, who lived on the 10th floor of the doomed tower and said a Surfside official assured residents in a 2018 meeting that there was no danger. It wasn’t clear who that official was. “The Town of Surfside told us the building was not in bad shape. That is what they said,” Alvarez said on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition program. “No one ever told us that building was in such bad shape.” A daughter of Claudio Bonnefoy, a resident from Chile who is missing, said it appears that someone ignored key signals the building was in danger. “This is starting to make me angry because reports from years ago reporting serious structural damage to the building are little by little being known,” said the daughter, Pascale Bonnefoy. “It seems this was predictable because the technicians alerted [others about it] and nobody did anything.” The Morabito firm said in a statement that it was hired in June 2020 by Champlain Towers South to begin the 40-year recertification process required of all buildings in Miami-Dade County that reach that age. The Champlain building was constructed in 1981. “At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were under way, but concrete restoration had not yet begun,” the statement said. An attorney for the Champlain Towers South condominium association, which was in charge of the repair work, did not immediately respond Sunday to an email seeking comment. Surfside officials also did not respond to an email seeking comment. A new batch of emails from building officials and condo board members that were made public Sunday has added to the mystery.  In one email, a Surfside official praised the building’s board for plans to start the 40-year recertification process early after attending a November 2018 meeting. “This particular building is not due to begin their forty year until 2021 but they have decided to start the process early which I wholeheartedly endorse and wish that this trend would catch on with other properties,” said Surfside Building Official Ross Prieto.  A few months later, a board member wrote to Prieto that workers next door were digging “too close to our property, and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building.” Prieto wrote back to monitor a nearby fence, the building’s pool and adjacent areas for damage. Surfside has hired Allyn Kilsheimer of KCE Structural Engineers to consult on the Champlain Towers disaster. Surfside officials say Kilsheimer has worked on numerous such cases, including the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks and the collapse of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University. Stephanie Walkup, an engineering professor at Villanova University, said it will take time to pinpoint the cause — or series of causes — that brought down Champlain Towers South. “The ultimate cause of the collapse may have been related to design error, construction error, deterioration or other event,” Walkup said in an email. “We all want answers and engineers will want to learn from this collapse as we have others, but we want to make sure we have the right ones,” she added.  
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Hush-hush diplomacy. In-person visits. And a very public no-surprises agreement on Iran.
                
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met in Rome on Sunday as their new governments look to turn the page on former President Donald Trump and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose close alliance aggravated partisan divisions within both countries.
                
Now, with Trump sidelined in Florida and Netanyahu leading the opposition, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are focused on pragmatic diplomacy rather than dramatic initiatives that risk fomenting opposition at home or distracting from other priorities.
                
“In the past few years, mistakes were made,” Lapid told Blinken as they sat down for talks in a Rome hotel. “Israel’s bipartisan standing was hurt. We will fix those mistakes together.”
                
Lapid said he had spoken with Democrats and Republicans since taking office and had “reminded them all that we share America’s most basic, basic values – freedom, democracy, free markets and constant search for peace.”
                
Blinken noted that even though the two governments are new, “the foundation that we’re working on is one of an enduring partnership, a relationship, friendship between the United States and Israel.”
                
The push means aiming for smaller achievements, such as shoring up the informal cease-fire that ended last month’s war with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. A major push to revive the long-dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians could unsettle the delicate balance.
                
“Nobody thinks it’s a good idea to start charging through on a major new peace initiative,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a Mideast security expert at the nonprofit Center for a New American Security. “But there are things you can do quietly under the radar, on the ground, to improve the situation.”
                
That approach – of managing the conflict rather than trying to solve it – may succeed in papering over domestic divisions. But it also maintains a status quo that the Palestinians find increasingly oppressive and hopeless, and which has fueled countless cycles of unrest.  
                
The Americans and Israelis will try to work out differences away from the public, as in Biden’s “quiet” diplomacy, when he privately urged Netanyahu to wind down the Israel-Hamas war ahead of a truce that took effect May 21.  
                
“We believe the way to discuss those disagreements is through direct and professional conversation, not a press conference,” Lapid said.
                
Both governments will try to preserve Israel’s fragile governing coalition, in part by reducing provocations that played a part in sparking the 11-day war that claimed at least 254 Palestinian lives and killed 13 people in Israel.  
                
The new coalition in Israel shares little beyond the conviction that Netanyahu had to go. It’s composed of eight parties, each effectively with veto power on decisions. So, if even one party bolts, Israel’s government would be at serious risk of collapse, with Netanyahu waiting just offstage.
                
At least in the short term, Lapid, a centrist, will be Israel’s point man on repairs to the tattered relationship with Biden and the Democrats. The party controls both houses of Congress but is increasingly divided on the Mideast conflict, with progressive members calling for the U.S. to exert more pressure on Israel.  
                
“What they’re building now is mutual trust,” said Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States under Netanyahu. “I expect a change of tone rather than of substance… but there’s a possibility that it could produce something better for Israel.”
                
Topping the agenda in both countries are talks in Vienna over reviving Iran’s 2015 accord with world powers to limit Tehran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. Trump, with Netanyahu’s backing, pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018 and imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Biden promised to restore and expand the agreement.  
                
Now, Israel’s new government seems intent on staying engaged and trying to influence the talks, rather than scuttle them.  
                
“Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal that is being put together in Vienna,” Lapid said, before pledging that Israel would make its objections privately. Netanyahu had loudly and publicly opposed the deal when the Obama administration was negotiating it.
                
“We have the same objective,” Blinken said. “Sometimes we differ on the tactics, and we, I think, are very clear and direct to each other when that’s the case and that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.”
                
Even the right-leaning Bennett, who is ideologically aligned with the hawkish Netanyahu, has toned down the rhetoric on Iran.
                
“We will continue to consult with our friends, persuade, discuss, and share information and insights out of mutual respect,” Bennett said Thursday. “But at the end of the day, we will be responsible for our own fate, nobody else.”
                
Tamping down tensions – or at least not inflaming them – is a key strategy, the officials said.  
                
Blinken spoke of the need to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but did not offer any kind of timetable or any strategy to “offer a more hopeful future for everyone: Palestinians and Israelis alike with equal measures of opportunity and dignity.”
                
And, while the Biden administration supports and hopes to expand on the Trump-era Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab countries, Blinken said they “are not a substitute for engaging on the issues between Israelis and Palestinians that need to be resolved.”  
                
On the U.S. side, the Biden administration has made clear it wants to extricate the country from intractable conflicts in the Middle East and focus on other challenges, such as climate change and competition with China.
                
On Monday, outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is to visit Washington at Biden’s invitation. A group of House Democrats are planning an official trip to Israel as soon as Congress’ July 4th recess.
                
There’s even talk of Lapid and Bennett traveling to Washington later in the summer, separately or together, the officials said. Bennett will serve as prime minister for the first two years, followed by Lapid, the architect of the coalition.  
                
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss administration plans and logistics, which have not been finalized.
                
So far, the reset seems to be functioning. But with the Israeli coalition barely two weeks old, significant challenges loom.  
                
Biden has moved to reverse Netanyahu-backed Trump policies that alienated the Palestinians, and the administration has said Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of security and prosperity.
                
But the U.S. has yet to explain how it intends to bring that about without ending Israel’s half-century military occupation of the West Bank, its blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza and discriminatory policies in Jerusalem that fueled a spring of unrest.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Monday with Pope Francis and other officials at the Vatican, with climate change, human rights and human trafficking among the topics of discussion. The visit comes ahead of an expected October meeting between the pope and U.S. President Joe Biden, who is the second Catholic to lead the United States. Also Monday, Blinken and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio co-chair a meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS where State Department officials said ministers will discuss maintaining pressure on the militant group in Iraq and Syria while also working to counter affiliates elsewhere in the world. Patrick Worman, acting director of the U.S. Office of the Special Envoy to Defeat ISIS, told reporters a particular focus of the meeting will be “new challenges ISIS is posing in Africa,” particularly West Africa and the Sahel. The United States launched a coalition effort, now involving 83 members, aimed at defeating the Islamic State group in 2014 after the militants seized control of a large area across northern Syria and Iraq, and in 2019 declared the militants had been ousted from their last remaining territory. “ISIS remains a determined enemy,” Worman told reporters.  “There is still much work to do in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS continues to conduct attacks and sow fear among local populations.” Worman said the coalition is working with the Iraqi government, including supporting Iraq’s security forces, to “target remaining ISIS cells, deny ISIS sanctuary, and to eliminate ISIS media, finance, and facilitation networks.” Worman also highlighted a need to help victims of ISIS atrocities, hold those who committed crimes accountable, and to focus on humanitarian efforts. Another meeting Monday focuses specifically on Syria, where in addition to issues related to the Islamic State group, Blinken, De Maio and other ministers will focus on renewing efforts to bring an end to the decade-long conflict in Syria. Humanitarian access, in particular the ability for the United Nations to deliver cross-border aid, will be among the issues Blinken highlights, the State Department said. He is also expected to discuss U.S. support for an immediate cease-fire in Syria. “Stability in Syria, and the greater region, can only be achieved through a political process that represents the will of all Syrians,” Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Joey Hood told reporters.  “We’re committed to working with allies, partners, and the UN to ensure that a durable political solution remains within reach.” Efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict, through a combination of halting the fighting and carrying out a political roadmap endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, have seen little progress in recent years. Hood said the international community “must renew its shared resolve to ensure the protection, dignity, and human rights of the Syrian people.” Blinken is on a multination tour of Europe, which on Tuesday brings him to Matera, Italy for a meeting of G-20 foreign ministers. The agenda for those talks includes the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and equitable economic recovery. 
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For the second consecutive year, the lingering pandemic consigned New York’s annual Pride march Sunday to the virtual world, even as its alter-ego, the Queer Liberation March, took its edgier message through the streets of Manhattan.The NYC Pride march, the city’s marquee LGBTQ+ event now in its 51st year, became a made-for-TV production as a cautionary measure to prevent coronavirus infections, which have dropped sharply as the number of vaccinated people has grown.Only a small number of guests were invited to the three-block area where the group’s floats and musical acts paraded for the cameras, but organizer Sue Doster said “something in the millions” of viewers were expected to tune in.Guests included Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, who has since become an advocate for LGBTQ rights legislation.“Six days after the shooting, we had a funeral service for my best friend and I made a promise to him that day that I would never stop fighting for a world that he would be proud of,” he told ABC, which aired the event.“We’ve made incredible progress in equality across the country, but trans people are under attack,” he added.HIV/AIDS expert Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, one of the event’s grand marshals, urged all LGBTQ+ community members to get tested frequently for the virus.“At the end of the day, HIV is just a virus, and we have the ability to prevent it and to treat it,” said Daskalakis, who is the director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.’Liberation and justice’Meanwhile, thousands of people organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition, whose parade began as a protest to the Pride march two years ago, marched more than 30 blocks down New York’s Seventh Avenue with rainbow flags and signs that included “Liberation and Justice.”Coalition co-founder Jay W. Walker said the group was hoping to attract up to 70,000 marchers.Under sunny skies with muggy conditions that felt like 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), a racially mixed crowd of men and women chanted “No Justice, No Peace,” and other slogans, some critical of the New York Police Department.After linking last year’s message to the Black Lives Matter movement, Walker said this year’s theme is returning to the coalition’s standard: “None of us are free until all of us are free.”Although the group had urged marchers to wear masks, few did. Last year’s march produced no discernable spike in new coronavirus cases, he said.Both events commemorate the June 28, 1969, uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, when patrons fought back during a police raid. The defiant stand gave birth to the modern LGBTQ rights movement.The two groups have differed over their policies on police participation in their events, which the Reclaim Pride Coalition opposes. But Heritage of Pride last month also decided to bar uniformed police officers from its future parades. Doster said many of its Black, brown and trans members feel threatened by their presence.   
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The Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure agreement on spending to rebuild roads, bridges and other projects faces a critical week that could determine the scope of U.S. infrastructure investment. Michelle Quinn reports.
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A key U.S. Republican lawmaker said Sunday he takes President Joe Biden at his word that he has no intention of vetoing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure Biden agreed to last week even though initially the U.S. leader said he would reject it if Congress does not also approve social spending legislation. FILE – Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, arrives for a meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 23, 2021.Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, one of the five Republican centrists who negotiated the infrastructure package with Biden to repair the country’s deteriorating roads and bridges, told CNN, “I do trust the president” to sign the funding measure if Congress approves it alone in the coming months. Biden created confusion about his support for the politically bipartisan roads-and-bridges bill by first saying Thursday he had agreed to the deal with the handful of opposition lawmakers. Shortly after, Biden said he would veto it if it was not passed by Congress in tandem with trillions more in spending on expanding the social safety for U.S. families and advancing the use of clean energy.  On Saturday, Biden said that his comments “created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.” Biden said he hopes Congress approves both pieces of legislation, even though he well understands Republicans will oppose the social safety net spending, with that legislation likely only garnering support from Democrats in the politically divided Congress. “So, to be clear: our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem,” Biden said. “We will let the American people—and the Congress—decide.” Romney said, “We Republicans are saying, ‘Absolutely, no,’ to what Democrats are calling the “human infrastructure” spending. “Don’t raise taxes; fix the (roads and bridges) infrastructure,” Romney said. “Get it done.” But Romney added, “I think [Biden] is making a huge mistake” with the social spending bill. “We’re not going to sign up for a multi-trillion-dollar bill.” Another of the Republicans who negotiated the infrastructure package with Biden, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show that the lawmakers who negotiated with Biden had been assured it would not be linked with the Democratic package on spending to benefit families. “Why is that important?” Cassidy said. “First, there’s bipartisan opposition to the non-hard infrastructure portion of [the Democrats’] bill. Bipartisan in both chambers, that’s Number One. Number Two, Republicans think that portion is bad for our country. We have an inflation rate that is higher than it’s been in quite some time. And that bill would make it higher.” “This infrastructure bill is good for America, for all Americans,” Cassidy said. “It is going to make us more productive; it’s going to create lots of jobs.” 
 
Many Democrats, especially progressives, argue that aggressively combating climate change and expanding America’s social safety net are just as important as repairing physical infrastructure. Biden proposed raising taxes on some U.S. corporations to pay for an initial infrastructure plan of about $2 trillion. 
 
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Rescue crews in southern Florida continue scouring the rubble of a 12-story condominium building days after its collapse. The death toll was raised to nine Sunday and, as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, time is running out for more than 150 people still reported missing.
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Oregon’s largest city broke its all-time heat record on Saturday. It could beat the new mark on Sunday.Forecasters say many Pacific Northwest communities may sweat through the hottest days in their histories as temperatures soar during a heat wave that has sent residents scrambling for relief.Stores sold out of portable air conditioners and fans, hospitals canceled outdoor vaccination clinics, cities opened cooling centers, baseball teams canceled or moved up weekend games, and utilities braced for possible power outages.Portland, Oregon reached 42.2° C (108° F) Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The previous heat record for Oregon’s largest city was 41.7° C (107° F), a mark hit in 1965 and 1981.Seattle reached 38.3° C (101° F) Saturday, making it the hottest June day on record and only the fourth time in recorded history the usually temperate city had topped 100 degrees.The forecast was for even hotter temperatures on Sunday and Monday. Many all-time heat records could be broken. In Seattle, the highest temperature ever measured was 39.4° C (103° F), in 2009.Other cities and towns from eastern Washington state to Portland to southern Oregon were also expected to break records, with temperatures in many areas likely to top out significantly above normal.That’s dangerous for a region accustomed to mild weather, and where many don’t have air conditioning.The extended “heat dome” over the Pacific Northwest was a taste of the future as climate change reshapes weather patterns worldwide, said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington who studies global warming and its effects on public health.“We know from evidence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves. We’re going to have to get used to this going forward,” she said.James Bryant, a Seattle resident, picked up an air conditioner in anticipation of the extreme heat.“My house is already hot, and so with the added heat over the next few days, I’ve got kids. I got to make sure they don’t get too hot as well,” Bryant said. “It seems to be a trend … So I’m not sure what’s driving it, but it’s not fun, that’s for sure.”Officials in Multnomah County, Oregon, were asking for volunteers to help staff cooling centers as older people, homeless residents and others struggled with the heat. Cascades Street Outreach, an advocacy group for people experiencing homelessness, was going to homeless camps in the region to encourage people to use the cooling centers.Peter Tiso, who works with Multnomah County’s Joint office of Homeless Services, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that the Oregon Convention Center can hold about 300 people, but no one will be turned away from the cooling shelter. The shelter also allows pets, he said.“We don’t want anyone to be making the dangerous decision between leaving their pet behind or not,” he said.Unusually hot weather was expected to extend into next week for much of the region.The hot weather had berry farmers scrambling to pick crops before they rot on the vine. Columbia Basin fisheries managers are worried about how the heat wave will affect endangered Snake River sockeye and other species of protected salmon.State, tribal and federal officials are trying to mitigate rising water temperatures in the lower Snake River, The Lewiston Tribune reported, in part by releasing cooler water from Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir.They began releasing the water earlier this week, hoping to keep the water temperature at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River at or below 20 C. Officials fear a repeat of 2015, when water temperatures in Columbia and Snake river reservoirs reached lethal levels for sockeye salmon.Washington Gov. Jay Inslee lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on publicly owned or operated and non-profit cooling centers in light of the heat. Capacity is currently limited to 50% until the state fully reopens next Wednesday. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown suspended capacity limits for movie theaters and shopping malls — places with air-conditioning — as well as swimming pools ahead of a statewide reopening Wednesday. 
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Dr. Rania Awaad was attending a virtual religion program this Ramadan when discussion turned to an unexpected question: Is it religiously acceptable to say a prayer for someone who died by suicide?Suicide is a complex and delicate topic that Awaad, as director of the Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab at Stanford University, knows much about — but one she says isn’t discussed nearly enough in U.S. Muslim communities. When it is, she said, it’s often poorly understood and shrouded in misconceptions.Awaad and other mental health professionals are trying to change that, working alongside some faith leaders and activists to bring nuance and compassion to such conversations, raise awareness in Muslim communities about suicide prevention and mental health and provide religiously and culturally sensitive guidance.The effort took on new urgency in the aftermath of an apparent murder-suicide that left six family members dead in Allen, Texas, in April, sending shock waves through Muslim communities in the area and beyond. Investigators believe two brothers made a pact to kill their parents, sister and grandmother before taking their own lives.The incident sparked a flurry of activity in Muslim spaces, from public discussions on mental health and trainings on suicide response to healing circles and private conversations.“The initial reaction of the community was total shock,” said Imam Abdul Rahman Bashir of the Islamic Association of Allen, where the family’s funeral was held. “Their reaction went from shock, grief to then concern about other families around them: Are they saying something that they can’t hear? Is something out there that they can’t see?”“It definitely opened up the conversation for understanding what mental health is and the importance of mental well-being,” he added.Suicide is theologically proscribed under Islam, and Awaad while acknowledging that, takes a nuanced view on the issue, arguing that it’s not up to people to judge. Contrary to what she’s heard some say about people who took their own lives, she believes the deceased may receive prayers regardless of how they died.“We don’t know the state of a person when they reach this point in their life, and we don’t know their mental state in that moment,” she said. ”… Only God can judge on this.”The importance of seeking professional help for mental health struggles, without worrying about what people may say, is a message the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation sought to drive home in a recent video. Aimed at the South Asian American community, it featured actors, young activists and others sharing their experiences to help break the stigma.Some community leaders in Texas addressed suicide and mental health issues after a Muslim American woman took her own life in 2018, according to Saadia Ahmed, director of the foundation’s youth leadership program. Following the Allen tragedy, she’s heard from lots of people who have reached out to share their personal battles or ask how to get help for loved ones.One young man opened up about having previously had suicidal thoughts and about how getting help made things better. There was a high school student who needed therapy, but her parents weren’t getting her any; with the aid of a school counselor, she ended up getting help. Ahmed also heard from parents worried about their kids.“I feel like at least I see progress,” Ahmed said.Sameera Ahmed — no relation — a psychologist and executive director of The Family & Youth Institute, a not-for-profit research and education institute, said that when her group was developing suicide prevention resources for Muslim communities a few years ago, some questioned the need.“People wouldn’t share what was happening because they were afraid of the stigma,” Ahmed said. “They were afraid people wouldn’t come to their loved one’s janazah,” or funeral.But today she sees more openness to conversation and says some well-known imams have begun addressing the issue from more compassionate perspectives. Still, much work remains, she added.Following the Allen tragedy, Awaad gave virtual trainings on suicide response from her base in California to help people navigate the aftermath, including to religious and community leaders. Her lab at Stanford provided guidelines for Islamic sermons.  “The crisis response is the hardest part,” she said. Many imams and religious leaders grapple with “striking a balance between healing the community and Islam’s stance on the impressibility of suicide.”She also co-authored a piece detailing do’s and don’ts after a suicide, like providing resources and support to those who may be struggling, while refraining from speculation on spiritual implications such as whether someone who took their life will go to paradise.By the end of 2022, Awaad hopes 500 Muslim religious leaders will have received training on suicide using material developed by a nonprofit, Maristan, in collaboration with her lab at Stanford that’s grounded in both science and the teachings of Islam.Several religious leaders have thrown their weight behind the effort.One of them, Imam Bashir, of the Islamic Association of Allen, said that while Islam doesn’t allow suicide as a way to solve problems, the faith “encourages the community to be one body with ears, eyes and arms to help each other not get to a point where that would be a consideration.”Wrestling with difficult questions around suicide isn’t unique to Muslims. Mathew Schmalz, a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, said a belief common to theistic traditions is that one’s life belongs to God, so taking it “fundamentally violates” God’s most precious gift.Yet attitudes have been evolving with a greater appreciation of the complexities of mental illness, he added, and it’s important to challenge beliefs that suicide signals moral weakness or a failure to be grateful of God.“While an understanding of God as merciful is important,” Schmalz said, “equally important is being part of a faith community in which mental health issues are taken seriously and not stigmatized.”  
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More than a year and a half after Louisiana state troopers were captured on body camera video brutalizing Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal arrest, police brass were still trying to blame his death on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase.Police officials quietly commissioned a study late last year into the role the crash could have played in Greene’s 2019 death, part of a behind-the-scenes bid to reduce the agency’s legal liability, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.The effort came despite the footage showing troopers stunning, punching and dragging the unarmed man — and one trooper’s admission that he bashed him in the head with a flashlight, a use of deadly force not previously reported.The documents, which also detail how four troopers grossly exaggerated Greene’s threat to justify their uses of force, provide the fullest account yet of the deadly May 10, 2019, arrest. And they show the extent to which top brass and troopers alike sought to cover up or explain away actions in a case that is now the focus of a federal civil rights investigation.“It’s horrific,” Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, told the AP. “There’s nothing they can say to change, to warp, what’s shown. I don’t care which way they want to coat it, what different colors of paint they want to layer on this mess — they can’t erase it.”Greene, a 49-year-old barber, failed to pull over for a traffic violation and led troopers on a midnight chase across rural northern Louisiana at speeds of up to 185 kph before his car spun to a stop on a roadside near Monroe.Troopers told Greene’s relatives hours later that he died on impact after crashing into a tree, an explanation called into question by photos of Greene’s body on a gurney showing his bruised and battered face, a hospital report noting he had two stun gun prongs in his back, and the fact that his SUV had only minor damage.Even Louisiana State Police appeared to back off the crash explanation later when they issued a one-page statement saying only that Greene struggled with troopers who were trying to arrest him and that he died on his way to the hospital.FILE – Demonstrators block a highway access ramp after a march from the state Capitol to the governor’s mansion, May 27, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La., protesting the death of Ronald Greene, who died in police custody.The truth about what really happened began to emerge last month when the AP obtained and published body camera video showing troopers converging on Greene’s car, repeatedly jolting him with a stun gun, wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face, all while he apologizes and cries for mercy. A trooper can later be seen dragging a shackled Greene facedown and then leaving him unattended in a prone position for more than nine minutes before he finally became unresponsive.But even after viewing that footage internally, and just three weeks after showing it privately to Greene’s family, ranking police officials last November remained fixated on blaming the man’s death on a car crash. They quietly asked a crash reconstructionist to estimate the “g-force” Greene might have suffered in a crash, suggesting that may have accounted for his fatal injuries.Though the autopsy listed Greene’s cause of death as “cocaine induced agitated delirium complicated by motor vehicle collision, physical struggle, inflicted head injury and restraint,” it notably left unresolved whether some of Greene’s most significant injuries —a fractured breastbone and lacerated aorta — were caused by the crash or state troopers.One high-ranking official, Capt. John Peters, wrote in a November email to a state police attorney that the crash reconstructionist estimated that the “violent rotation” of Greene’s vehicle — combined with “impacts” and the sudden speed reduction when the chase ended — “generated approximately 19g’s of force.” Aortic ruptures can occur in crashes, experts said, but depend on many factors.“That could have significant value on the civil side as we try to reduce our percentage of liability,” he added.Faye Morrison, a state police attorney, responded: “This will definitely be important re cause of death and damages.”Morrison was reassigned this week as the agency investigates her role in the Greene case.Capt. Nick Manale, a state police spokesperson, said only that the crash reconstruction “was part of an ongoing investigation.”FILE – This image from video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary’s body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La.“It shows misplaced efforts and attention,” said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a New Orleans-based watchdog group. “They’re more focused on civil liability issues than the conduct of the troopers.”Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth told investigators that Greene “didn’t have any apparent injuries” when he rushed the man’s SUV following the chase.Hollingsworth, who was later recorded saying “he beat the ever-living f— out of” Greene, told investigators he was aware the head was a “red zone” of deadly force but acknowledged striking Greene in the head three times with a flashlight and jolting him six times with a stun gun out of fear for his own safety.“He was much bigger than I was and much stronger, and he had already kept two troopers from being able to handcuff him,” Hollingsworth said. “He could have done anything once my hold was broke off of him.”Shown the gurney pictures of Greene’s body, Hollingsworth acknowledged the flashlight could have caused the half-moon shaped gashes on his head but added, “I’m not a doctor.”Police spokesperson Manale did not comment on Hollingsworth’s use of deadly force. Hollingsworth died in a single vehicle crash last year just hours after learning he would be fired for his role in Greene’s arrest.The documents show Hollingsworth and three other troopers greatly overstated Greene’s resistance to justify their use of force, with one telling investigators he had survived “a fight for his life” and another falsely contending that even after Greene was cuffed and shackled, he was “constantly moving, trying to get up.”But investigators said those concerns weren’t justified based on body camera footage that showed Greene appearing to raise his hands and saying over and over, “OK, OK. I’m sorry” and “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”“I’ve had a female fight me and put up a much bigger fight than what I’m seeing on this video,” one investigator remarked, contending Hollingsworth and another responding trooper, Dakota DeMoss, never gave Greene a chance to surrender.DeMoss, who was recently fired, also admitted to investigators it was a “rookie move” to leave Greene handcuffed face down on the ground with his hands and feet restrained for more than nine minutes — a tactic use-of-force experts have criticized as dangerous and likely to have restricted his breathing.DeMoss said he “got a knot in his stomach” when he learned Greene had died.“I could tell by the way the paramedics were looking at each other,” he told investigators. “I just got this gut-wrenching sick feeling.”  
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After being warmly welcomed in France and Germany, Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Italy on Sunday to meet with top Italian leaders and the pope and to take part in ministerial level meetings on Syria and defeating Islamic State fighters and attending a G-20 meeting. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Paris.
Camera: Bronwyn Benito
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Record high temperatures were set across the U.S. Pacific Northwest on Saturday.Portland, Oregon’s largest city, officially hit 42.2 Celsius to set an all-time record. It was one of at least eight cities in the states of Washington and Oregon to surpass or tie old record high temperatures.Farther north, Seattle, Washington, reached 37.8 Celsius on Saturday, the hottest June day on record and only the fourth time in Seattle’s recorded history the temperature has climbed that high.It’s a potentially dangerous situation for a region where many live without air conditioning because they have seldom needed it.Temperatures on Sunday are also expected to remain significantly higher than normal levels. The trend is expected to continue into next week.In the states of Washington and Oregon, officials have lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on cooling centers, pools, movie theaters and shopping malls.In Portland, the Oregon Convention Center is open as a cooling center. It can hold about 300 people, but Peter Tiso, who works with Multnomah County’s Joint office of Homeless Services, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.com that no one, including those with pets, would be turned away.Many stores have sold all their air conditioners and fans.“We know from evidence around the world that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves,” University of Washington professor Kristie Ebi, who studies global warming, told the Associated Press. “We’re going to have to get used to this going forward.”The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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