Month: August 2021

The United States conducted an airstrike Sunday against a vehicle that posed a threat to the Kabul airport, following U.S. warnings of an imminent attack in the area. “U.S. military forces conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K [Islamic State Khorasan] threat to Hamad Karzai International airport,” said Capt. Bill Urban, CENTCOM spokesperson. “We are confident we successfully hit the target. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material.” A broken window of a house is seen after US drone strike in Kabul, Aug. 29, 2021.Islamic State Khorasan had claimed responsibility for a suicide attack outside the airport that killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members last Thursday. A U.S. airstrike last Friday killed two members of the terror group. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul had urged U.S. citizens to leave the vicinity of the airport, citing a specific and credible threat. U.S. President Joe Biden Saturday said another attack was likely within the next 24- to 36 hours. Warnings of additional attacks come as the U.S. and its allies wind down an evacuation of their citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. US Embassy in Kabul Issues Threat AlertEarlier Biden warned that another attack on the airport is likely soon“This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission, these last couple of days,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.   Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, also on ABC, criticized the Biden administration’s  evacuation plan. “There is clearly no plan. There has been no plan. Their plan has basically been happy talk,” he said. Sasse also said people have died and people are going to die “because President Biden decided to rely on happy talk instead of reality.” The White House says about 2,900 people were evacuated from Kabul in a 12-hour period that ended at 3 a.m. EDT Sunday. It says that since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated or helped evacuate more than 114,000 people. Blinken said in an interview on CNN that about 300 American citizens are seeking evacuation from Afghanistan. Separately, a U.S. airstrike Friday night against the Islamic State Afghan affiliate group — retaliation for Thursday’s attack — resulted in the deaths of two important members of the group, the U.S. Defense Department said Saturday. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Fox News Sunday that President Biden “will stop at nothing” to make the terror group pay for last week’s attack. Biden on Saturday said the airstrike was “not the last” and that the U.S. will “continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.” 
 
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid reportedly denounced the airstrike, saying it was a “clear attack on Afghan territory,” according to the Reuters news agency. He also reportedly said the Taliban expects to take full control of the airport when U.S. forces complete their pullout from the country, scheduled for Tuesday.  Ongoing threats Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at a briefing Saturday that threats against the airport “are still very real, they’re very dynamic, and we are monitoring them literally in real time. And, as I said yesterday, we are taking all the means necessary to make sure we remain focused on that threat stream and doing what we can for force protection.”The security threats have made the evacuation of Americans and some Afghans more difficult. “There doesn’t appear to be any concerted effort to get SIVs [Special Immigrant Visa holders] out at this point,” a State Department official told VOA from the airport. But the department is still trying to evacuate local embassy staff, U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. 
 
The U.S. evacuation of Afghans at the airport has wound down significantly, with most of the remaining 100 American civilian government staffers set to leave before midnight, according to a State Department official who spoke with VOA Saturday on the condition of anonymity. In this image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit process evacuees as they go through the evacuation control center at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 28, 2021.The airport terminals are mostly empty, said the official, who expressed mixed feelings about the operation. “I feel the frustration of the failure of the operation overall,” said the official, who described the decision-making process of getting Afghans evacuated as “chaotic” and “subjective.” 
 
“But I’m extremely proud of the work of the guys on the ground, just the kind of bare-knuckled diplomacy of getting to know the Afghans, even though some of us didn’t know the language,” the official said.
 VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report, which includes information from the Associated Press and Reuters.   
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A SpaceX shipment of ants, avocados and a human-sized robotic arm rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday.The delivery — due to arrive Monday — is the company’s 23rd for NASA in just under a decade.A recycled Falcon rocket blasted into the predawn sky from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. After hoisting the Dragon capsule, the first-stage booster landed upright on SpaceX’s newest ocean platform, named A Shortfall of Gravitas.SpaceX founder Elon Musk continued his tradition of naming the booster-recovery vessels in tribute to the late science fiction writer Iain Banks and his Culture series.The Dragon is carrying more than 2,170 kilograms of supplies and experiments, and fresh food, including avocados, lemons and even ice cream for the space station’s seven astronauts.The Girl Scouts are sending up ants, brine shrimp and plants as test subjects, while University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists are flying up seeds from mouse-ear cress, a small flowering weed used in genetic research. Samples of concrete, solar cells and other materials also will be subjected to weightlessness.A Japanese start-up company’s experimental robotic arm, meanwhile, will attempt to screw items together in its orbital debut and perform other mundane chores normally done by astronauts. The first tests will be done inside the space station. Future models of Gitai Inc.’s robot will venture out into the vacuum of space to practice satellite and other repair jobs, said chief technology officer Toyotaka Kozuki.As early as 2025, a squad of these arms could help build lunar bases and mine the moon for precious resources, he added.SpaceX had to leave some experiments behind because of delays resulting from COVID-19.It was the second launch attempt; Saturday’s try was foiled by stormy weather.NASA turned to SpaceX and other U.S. companies to deliver cargo and crews to the space station, once the space shuttle program ended in 2011. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Sunday that Category 4 Hurricane Ida “has continued to strengthen” and is “extremely dangerous” as it heads toward making landfall in southern Louisiana.The center said hurricane aircraft indicated that Ida is moving with “maximum sustained winds that have increased to 230 kilometers per hour.”Earlier Sunday, the agency reported that Ida “has continued to rapidly intensify” and was moving with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph.Ida is expected to reach Louisiana on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm blamed for 1,800 deaths, levee breaches and ruinous flooding in New Orleans. The city’s federal levee system has been improved since the 2005 storm.”This system is going to be tested,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.Men place plywood in front of a store in preparation for Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, Louisiana, Aug. 28, 2021.Edwards declared a state of emergency and said 5,000 National Guard troops were standing by along the coast for search and rescue efforts. In addition, 10,000 linemen were ready to respond to electrical outages once the storm passes.“By Saturday evening, everyone should be in the location where they intend to ride out the storm,” Edwards said.A hurricane warning was issued from near Lafayette, Louisiana, to the Mississippi state line, a distance of nearly 320 kilometers. Tropical storm warnings extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Alabama’s Mobile Bay is under a storm surge watch. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also declared a state of emergency for the state’s coastal and western counties.”We’re going to catch it head-on,” Bebe McElroy told the AP as she prepared to leave her home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. “I’m just going around praying, saying, ‘Dear Lord, just watch over us.'”New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has ordered people who live outside the city’s protective levee system to evacuate.“The forecast track has it headed straight toward New Orleans. Not good,” said Jim Kossin, a senior scientist with The Climate Service, a private consulting company.Traffic moves bumper to bumper along I-10 west as residents arrive into Texas from the Louisiana border ahead of Hurricane Ida in Orange, Texas, Aug. 28, 2021.From southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama, total rainfall could be from 20 to more than 40 centimeters, with more than 50 centimeters possible in some areas, the government weather service said. Heavy rain and storm surge could cause widespread flooding in the area.The region’s hospitals now face a natural disaster as they are struggling with a surge in patients with COVID-19, due to the highly contagious delta variant. “COVID has certainly added a challenge to this storm,” Mike Hulefeld, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Ochsner Health, told the AP.Since the start of the pandemic, Louisiana has had 679,796 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 12,359 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Its vaccine tracker says just 41.01% of the state’s nearly 4.7 million population are vaccinated.“Once again we find ourselves dealing with a natural disaster in the midst of a pandemic,” said Jennifer Avegno, the top health official for New Orleans, told the AP.Ida made landfall Friday in Cuba, and by Saturday the clean-up was underway. Trees were toppled and buildings damaged, but no deaths were reported.(Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.) 
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A woman who cradled a baby in her arms at the airport and posted on social media that she loved her job. A young husband with a child on the way. Another man who always wanted to be in the military. A man who planned to become a sheriff’s deputy when his deployment ended. Heart-wrenching details have emerged about some of the 13 U.S. troops killed in a suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport, which also claimed the lives of more than 160 Afghans.Eleven Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier were among the dead, while 18 other U.S. service members were wounded in Thursday’s bombing, which was blamed on Afghanistan’s offshoot of the Islamic State group. The U.S. said it was the most lethal day for American forces in Afghanistan since 2011. The White House said President Joe Biden will look for opportunities to honor the service members who lost their lives, many of whom were men in their early 20s.Here are the stories of some of the victims and the people who are mourning them:Nicole Gee, 23A week before she was killed, Sgt. Nicole Gee cradled a baby in her arms at the Kabul airport. She posted the photo on Instagram and wrote, “I love my job.”Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California, was a maintenance technician with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.Sgt. Mallory Harrison, who lived with Gee for three years and called her a “sister forever” and best friend, wrote about the magnitude of her loss.”I can’t quite describe the feeling I get when I force myself to come back to reality & think about how I’m never going to see her again,” Harrison wrote on Facebook. “How her last breath was taken doing what she loved — helping people. … Then there was an explosion. And just like that, she’s gone.”Gee’s Instagram page shows another photo of her in fatigues, holding a rifle next to a line of people walking into the belly of a large transport plane. She wrote: “escorting evacuees onto the bird.”The social media account that includes many selfies after working out at the gym lists her location as California, North Carolina and “somewhere overseas.”Photos show her on a camel in Saudi Arabia, in a bikini on a Greek isle and holding a beer in Spain. One from this month in Kuwait shows her beaming with her meritorious promotion to sergeant.Harrison said her generation of Marines hears war stories from veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, but they seem distant amid boring deployments until “the peaceful float you were on turns into … your friends never coming home.”Rylee McCollum, 20Rylee McCollum, a Marine and native of Bondurant, Wyoming, was married and his wife is expecting a baby in three weeks, his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, said.Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum”He was so excited to be a dad, and he was going to be a great dad,” McCollum said. She said her brother “was a Marine before he knew he was allowed to be a Marine. … He’d carry around his toy rifle and wear his sister’s pink princess snow boots and he’d either be hunting or he was a Marine. Sometimes it would be with nothing on underneath, just a T-shirt.”McCollum said her brother wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach once he completed his service. Another sister, Roice McCollum, told the Casper Star Tribune that her brother was on his first deployment when the evacuation in Afghanistan began.”We want to make sure that people know that these are the kids that are sacrificing themselves, and he’s got a family who loves him and a wife who loves him and a baby that he’ll never get to meet,” Cheyenne McCollum said.Regi Stone, the father of one of Rylee McCollum’s friends, described McCollum as “a good kid,” who was resilient, smart and courageous. Stone shared a note that his wife, Kim, sent to their son Eli Stone, who is also in the military and deployed elsewhere. In the note, Kim wrote that she remembered telling the friends to run the other way if they had to go in first and that both of them said, “If we die doing this, we die doing what we love.”Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui, 20Lance Corporal Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui, of Norco, California, sent videos to his family hours before he died, showing himself interacting with children in Afghanistan. In one clip, he asked a young boy to say hello.Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui”Want to take a video together, buddy?” Nikoui said, leaning in to take a video of himself with the boy. “All right, we’re heroes now, man.”Family friend Paul Arreola said the videos show “the heart of this young man, the love he has.””The family is just heartbroken,” he said. Arreola described Nikoui as an “amazing young man” full of promise who always wanted to be a Marine and set out to achieve his goal. He is survived by his parents and three siblings.”He loved this country and everything we stand for. It’s just so hard to know that we’ve lost him,” he said, crying.Nikoui was also in the JROTC, and the Norco High School Air Force JROTC posted on Facebook that he was “one of our best Air Force JROTC cadets” and that “Kareem was set on being a Marine & always wanted to serve his country.”Jared Schmitz, 20Lance Cpl. Jared M. SchmitzMarine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz grew up in the St. Louis area and was among a group of Marines sent back to Afghanistan to assist with evacuation efforts, his father, Mark Schmitz, told KMOX Radio.”This was something he always wanted to do, and I never seen a young man train as hard as he did to be the best soldier he could be,” Schmitz said of his son. “His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming.”Taylor Hoover, 31Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, of Utah, had been in the Marines for 11 years and was remembered as a hero who died serving others, his father, Darin Hoover, said.”He is a hero. He gave his life protecting those that can’t protect themselves, doing what he loved, serving his country,” said Darin Hoover, who lives in a Salt Lake City suburb.He said he had heard from Marines who said they were grateful they had his son as their sergeant.”They look back on him and say that they’ve learned so much from him,” Hoover said. “One heck of a leader.”Hoover said his son was also a best friend to his two sisters and loved all his extended family. He had a girlfriend in California and was the kind of guy who “lit up a room” when he came in, his father said.Nate Thompson of Murray, Utah, first met Hoover when they were 10 years old in Little League football. They stayed friends through high school, where Hoover played lineman. He was undersized for the position, but his heart and hard work more than made up for what he lacked in statute, Thompson said. As a friend, he was selfless and kind.”If we had trouble with grades, trouble with family or trouble on the field, we always called Taylor. He’s always level-headed, even if he’s struggling himself,” he said.Deagan William-Tyeler Page, 23Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page served in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, California, and planned to go to trade school and possibly become a lineman after his enlistment ended, his family said in a statement.Page was raised in Red Oak, Iowa, and in the Omaha area and joined the Marines after graduating from Millard South High School. He is mourned by his girlfriend, parents, stepmom and stepdad, four siblings and grandparents, the family statement said.”Daegan will always be remembered for his tough outer shell and giant heart,” the statement said. “Our hearts are broken, but we are thankful for the friends and family who are surrounding us during this time. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the other Marine and Navy families whose loved ones died alongside Daegan.”Ryan Knauss, 23Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was remembered as a motivated man who loved his country and was looking forward to coming back to the U.S. and eventually moving to Washington, D.C., family members told WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.Staff Sgt. Ryan C. KnaussKnauss’ grandfather, Wayne Knauss, told the television station that his grandson attended Gibbs High School and grew up in a Christian home.”A motivated young man who loved his country,” Wayne Knauss said. “He was a believer, so we will see him again in God’s heaven.”Stepmother Linnae Knauss said Ryan planned to move to Washington after he returned to the U.S.”He was a super-smart, hilarious young man,” she said.Hunter Lopez, 22Cpl. Hunter LopezHunter Lopez, whose parents work at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California, was a sheriff’s Explorer for three years before joining the Marine Corps in September 2017, Sheriff Chad Bianco said.Bianco said Lopez planned to follow in his parents’ footsteps and become a Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy after his deployment.David Lee Espinoza, 20Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza, a Marine from Laredo, Texas, joined the military after high school, and is remembered as a hero by his mother.”He was just brave enough to go do what he wanted and to help out people. That’s who he was, he was just perfect,” his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, told the Laredo Morning Times.In a statement, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar said Espinoza “embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service.”Cuellar concluded, “The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.” 
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A U.S. teacher who read aloud to her students while not wearing a mask is serving as a cautionary tale as schools across the country begin to open for the new school year.In May, an unvaccinated teacher in an elementary school in California’s Marin County read aloud to her students after removing her mask, despite a school mandate requiring everyone to wear a mask while indoors.The teacher became symptomatic on May 19, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.  She continued to work for two days before taking a COVID-19 test on May 21. The teacher tested positive for the delta variant.On May 23, the school began receiving reports of COVID-19 cases from students, parents, teachers and staff associated with the school. Marin County Public Health conducted contact tracing that included whole genome sequencing.The CDC report says 26 cases were found to be connected with the teacher, including 12 of her students. In her classroom, “the attack rate” in the two rows of students closest to her was 80%, the report said, and 28% in the three back rows.Students in another classroom also tested positive for the coronavirus. All the students in both classes were too young to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations.Meanwhile, England’s Office for National Statistics says coronavirus infections in the country are 26 times higher this year than they were last year at this time. Officials are warning that the imminent opening of schools and universities could cause the caseload to grow.On Sunday, India’s health ministry reported 45,083 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours.India has more than 32 million COVID cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Only the U.S. has more, with 38.7 million, Johns Hopkins reports, and the U.S. reported 49,712 new cases in the past 24 hours.
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More than half of Americans questioned in a new survey said they favor using U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China was to invade the island. Analysts say that reflects a growing awareness in the United States about Taiwan and the challenges it faces.The Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey found that 52% of Americans support using U.S. troops to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion of the island. A smaller percentage of respondents — 19% — supported a U.S. defense of Taiwan when Glaser told VOA she was surprised at the percentage of Americans who think the U.S. should recognize Taiwan as an independent country. “I think Americans, not surprisingly, don’t understand all of the complicated factors involved in that kind of decision,” she said.She pointed out that the results of the survey had a lot to do with how the questions were asked.”If you asked Americans, ‘Should the United States recognize Taiwan as an independent country even if it would lead to an all-out war with China?’ You’d probably get a different response.” she said.Julian Ku, an expert on China’s relationship with international law and a law professor at Hofstra University, agreed that the polling results suggest that Americans have limited knowledge of Taipei.He wrote on Twitter that while this trend toward much greater public support for defending Taiwan is important, “it is very iffy to use polls as a basis for foreign policy.”It is very iffy to use polls as a basis for foreign policy, but this trend line toward much greater public support for defending Taiwan in the US seems very important. https://t.co/GxFk29qkXJpic.twitter.com/lqWAz7WVuk— Julian Ku 古舉倫 (@julianku) August 26, 2021Glaser agreed, telling VOA that public opinion should be taken into account, but it shouldn’t be the decisive factor in the formation of any policy.”At the end of the day, what this poll reveals to me is that we need to have a lot more education for Americans about these kinds of subjects,” she said.  
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Hurricane Ida is intensifying and is forecast to come ashore Sunday in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm, with winds of 209 kph (130 mph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Saturday.Ida is expected to reach Louisiana on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm blamed for 1,800 deaths, levee breaches and ruinous flooding in New Orleans. The city’s federal levee system has been improved since the 2005 storm.”This system is going to be tested,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.The governor declared a state of emergency and said 5,000 National Guard troops were standing by along the coast for search and rescue efforts. And 10,000 linemen were ready to respond to electrical outages once the storm passes.“By Saturday evening, everyone should be in the location where they intend to ride out the storm,” Edwards said.A hurricane warning was issued from near Lafayette, Louisiana, to the Mississippi state line, a distance of nearly 320 kilometers (200 miles). Tropical storm warnings extended to the Alabama-Florida line, and Alabama’s Mobile Bay was under a storm surge watch. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also declared a state of emergency for the state’s coastal and western counties.”We’re going to catch it head-on,” Bebe McElroy told The Associated Press as she prepared to leave her home in the coastal Louisiana village of Cocodrie. “I’m just going around praying, saying, ‘Dear Lord, just watch over us.’ “New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has ordered people who live outside the city’s protective levee system to evacuate.“The forecast track has it headed straight toward New Orleans. Not good,” said Jim Kossin, a senior scientist with The Climate Service, a private consulting company.From southeast Louisiana to coastal Mississippi and Alabama, total rainfall could be from 20 to more than 40 centimeters (8-16 inches), with more than 50 centimeters (20 inches) possible in some areas, the government weather service said. Heavy rain and storm surge could cause widespread flooding in the area. Ida made landfall Friday in Cuba, and by Saturday the cleanup was underway. Trees were toppled and buildings damaged, but no deaths were reported.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. 
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A top Iranian security official accused U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday of illegally threatening Iran by saying he may consider other options if nuclear diplomacy with Tehran fails.“The emphasis on using ‘other options’ against [Iran] amounts to threatening another country illegally and establishes Iran’s right to reciprocate … against ‘available options’,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Twitter.Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in White House talks on Friday that he was putting “diplomacy first” to try to rein in Iran’s nuclear program but that if negotiations fail, he would be prepared to turn to other unspecified options.Biden Hosts Israeli Leader After One-Day DelayUS leader tells prime minister there are ‘other options’ if diplomacy fails to dissuade Iran from attempting to make nuclear weaponsThe U.N. atomic watchdog said in a report this month that Iran had accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, a move raising tensions with the West as both sides seek to resume talks on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal.    
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The House panel investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol issued sweeping document requests on Friday to social media companies, expanding the scope of its investigation as it seeks to examine the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot.The requests were issued to technology giants, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, and also to Reddit, Parler, Telegram, 4chan, 8kun and other platforms.The committee asked 15 companies to provide copies of any reviews, studies, reports or analysis about misinformation related to the 2020 election, foreign influence in the election, efforts to stop the election certification and “domestic violent extremists” associated with efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the attack on the Capitol.”We have received the request and look forward to continuing to work with the committee,” Facebook said in an emailed statement.Google, which owns YouTube, also confirmed receipt of the letter and said it would work with Congress.”The events of January 6 were unprecedented and tragic, and Google and YouTube strongly condemn them. We’re committed to protecting our platforms from abuse, including by rigorously enforcing our policies for content related to the events of January 6,” the company said.Twitter declined to comment about the document request.The requested documents are being sought in what is expected to be a lengthy, partisan and rancorous investigation into how the mob was able to infiltrate the Capitol and disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, inflicting the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries.Earlier this week, the committee sent out another request for documents from intelligence, law enforcement and other government agencies. The largest request so far was made to the National Archives for information on former President Donald Trump and his former team. Trump accused the committee of violating “long-standing legal principles of privilege.”Committee members are also considering asking telecommunications companies to preserve phone records of several people, including members of Congress, to try to determine who knew what about the unfolding riot and when they knew it. With chants of “hang Mike Pence,” the rioters sent the then-vice president and members of Congress running for their lives, wounded dozens of police officers and did more than $1 million in damage. 
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Steve Nikoui had been glued to TV reports on Thursday, desperate for hints his son, Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, survived the deadly airport suicide bombing in Afghanistan when three Marines arrived at his door with the worst news possible.The 20-year-old Marine, who the previous day had sent home a video of himself giving candy to Afghan children, was among 13 U.S. service members killed in the bombing. Others included an expectant father from Wyoming, the son of a California police officer and a medic from Ohio.“He was born the same year it started and ended his life with the end of this war,” Nikoui said from his home in Norco, California, referring to the 2001 start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.The U.S. Defense Department has not formally announced the names of the service members killed in the attack at Kabul airport, but details of their lives began to emerge on Friday as family and friends were notified.Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, carried out during a massive evacuation of U.S. and other foreign nationals as well as some Afghan civilians following the Taliban takeover.On Friday, Nikoui was waiting for a Marine liaison to come to his house to help with arrangements to fly him and his wife to an Air Force base in Delaware, where their son’s body will arrive in the coming days.He said he was angry.“I’m really disappointed in the way that the president has handled this, even more so the way the military has handled it. The commanders on the ground should have recognized this threat and addressed it,” Nikoui said.Also, among the troops killed was Rylee McCollum of Wyoming, a Marine who was married with a baby due in three weeks, his sister, Roice, said in a Facebook post on Friday.“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” his sister wrote, adding that he wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach upon leaving the military.Along with wrestling, McCollum played football before graduating from Wyoming’s Jackson Hole High School in 2019.“Saying that I am grateful for Rylee’s service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow said in a statement. “My heart and prayers are with Rylee’s family, friends, and the entire Jackson community.”Regi Stone, whose son Eli enlisted around the same time as McCollum, described him as “smart, strong and courageous” and said he drew comfort when the two hung out together.”We always knew that Rylee had his back and my son his,” Stone told Reuters, adding that he got to know McCollum during visits for dinner at their house. “He’s a defender. He loved his country and wanted to make a difference.”Cool older brotherNavy medic Max Soviak’s sister Marilyn described him as only a sibling could.“My beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” she wrote on Instagram.Soviak’s death was confirmed on Twitter by U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, the medic’s home state.Pictures on Max Soviak’s Instagram page show him laughing on the beach, rock-climbing, skiing and posing with two young children. “Not just an older brother, I’m the cool older brother,” Soviak wrote in 2019.His last post was more foreboding.“It’s kill or be killed, definitely trynna be on the kill side,” Soviak wrote on June 10.The accompanying photo appeared to show him alongside two other troops in uniform holding weapons.Hunter Lopez, 22, another Marine killed in the blast, was the son of a captain and a deputy in the Riverside County, California, sheriff’s office, according to a Facebook post by Sheriff Chad Bianco. Lopez had planned on following in his parents’ footsteps and becoming a deputy when he returned home, the post said.“I am unbelievably saddened and heartbroken for the Lopez family as they grieve over the loss of their American Hero,” Bianco wrote in a different post on his personal Facebook page.The explosion also took the life of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover from Utah, according to a Facebook post by his aunt, Brittany Jones Barnett. She and other relatives described him on social media as brave and kind.“The world has lost a true light. Our hearts are broken. Shock, disbelief, horror, sadness, sorrow, anger and grief,” she wrote.The father of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, 20 called into a local radio station in Missouri on Friday to speak about his son’s death and his passion for military service.“He was not the type that liked to just sit around and get his four years done and walk away,” Mark Schmitz told KMOX. “He wanted to be in a situation where he actually made a difference.”Schmitz said his son had been stationed in Jordan before being called to Afghanistan two weeks before the attack.The last publicly visible post on Jared Schmitz’s Facebook page was a July 29 photograph of him at the archeological site of Petra, in Jordan. A friend commented that he hoped Schmitz was staying safe, to which Schmitz replied, “always my guy.” 
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U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin was granted parole Friday after two of RFK’s sons spoke in favor of Sirhan Sirhan’s release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. The decision was a major victory for the 77-year-old prisoner, though it did not assure his release. The ruling by the two-person panel at Sirhan’s 16th parole hearing will be reviewed over the next 90 days by the California Parole Board’s staff. Then it will be sent to the governor, who will have 30 days to decide whether to grant it, reverse it or modify it. Douglas Kennedy, who was a toddler when his father was gunned down in 1968, said that he was moved to tears by Sirhan’s remorse and that he should be released if he’s not a threat to others. “I’m overwhelmed just by being able to view Mr. Sirhan face to face,” he said. “I think I’ve lived my life both in fear of him and his name in one way or another. And I am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love.” FILE – Sirhan Sirhan is escorted by his attorney, Russell E. Parsons, from Los Angeles County Jail’s chapel to enter a plea to a charge of murder in Los Angeles, in the fatal shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, June 28, 1968.The New York senator and brother of President John F. Kennedy was a Democratic presidential candidate when he was gunned down June 6, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after delivering a victory speech in the pivotal California primary. Sirhan, who was convicted of first-degree murder, has said he doesn’t remember the killing. His lawyer, Angela Berry, argued that the board should base its decision on who Sirhan is today.  Prosecutors declined to participate or oppose his release under a policy by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a former police officer who took office last year after running on a reform platform.  Gascón, who said he idolized the Kennedys and mourned RFK’s assassination, believes the prosecutors’ role ends at sentencing and they should not influence decisions to release prisoners. 
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The chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve said Friday that the nation’s economy continues to recover from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it might be time to consider scaling back some emergency programs the central bank implemented to stimulate that recovery, though he indicated that might not happen soon. In a speech delivered virtually to an annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve remained committed to supporting the economy “as long as is needed to achieve full recovery.”The Fed has been buying $120 billion a month in mortgage and Treasury bonds to try to hold down longer-term loan interest rates to spur borrowing and spending. Powell’s comments indicated the Fed would most likely announce a reduction or “tapering” of those purchases sometime in the final three months of this year.Still some uncertaintyBut he was careful to add that uncertainty remained in the economy. As an example, he noted that July showed encouraging employment numbers, but also the spread of the more virulent delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which threatens to prolong the pandemic.  Powell said the Fed would be “carefully assessing incoming data and the evolving risks.”  But he said while the delta variant presented a short-term risk, prospects look good for continued progress toward maximum employment. He noted that vaccination rates are increasing, schools are reopening and enhanced unemployment benefits are ending, all things that will motivate people to seek jobs.Powell also continued to defend his position that a recent spike in inflation is only temporary, saying price increases should ease as the economy continues to normalize and supply chains reopen, ending shortages of consumer goods.  Some economists and members of Congress have pressured the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to counter inflation, but Powell said he was reluctant to overreact to something that he believes is a short-term problem. He said a poorly timed move could drive inflation below desired rates. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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After a delay of a day due to the crisis in Afghanistan, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, on Friday, discussing issues ranging from the plight of the Palestinians to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions.To ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon, Biden said at the White House, “we’re putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options.”The president did not elaborate on those other options and declined to take questions following his and Bennett’s Oval Office comments.”I was happy to hear your clear words that Iran will never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon and that you emphasize that we’ll try the diplomatic route, but there’s other options if that doesn’t work out,” the Israeli leader responded. “The first goal is to stop Iran on its regional aggression and start rolling it back into the box. And the second is to permanently keep Iran away from ever being able to break out the nuclear weapon.”Asked by VOA about the other options mentioned by the president, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded at Friday’s daily briefing, “Any president has a range of options at their disposal. I’m not going to outline those from here.”  Iran nuclear dealThe United States and Iran have held several rounds of indirect talks about rejoining the 2015 international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. That agreement came about amid concerns Iran was working to develop nuclear weapons, which it has denied.FILE – President Donald Trump signs a Presidential Memorandum on the Iran nuclear deal from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, May 8, 2018.Former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018. Iran subsequently took steps away from its commitments, including boosting its stockpiles of enriched uranium and enriching the material to higher levels of purity.The two leaders, in their first face-to-face meeting, also renewed a pledge to maintain the close relationship between their countries.”The U.S. will always be there for Israel. It’s an unshakeable partnership between our two nations,” Biden said.”You’ve always stood up for us, especially during tough times, like a few months ago, when thousands of rockets were being shot on Israeli towns and cities,” replied the Israeli prime minister, who took office in June.Losses in AfghanistanBennett also extended “condolences and deep sadness for the loss of American lives in Kabul. American service members lost their lives while on a mission to save other people’s lives.”The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, punctured by the suicide bombing Thursday outside Kabul’s airport, which killed and wounded American military personnel and Afghan civilians, is also seen as having ramifications for the Middle East and the fight against terrorism.”I just think everybody, and certainly the Israelis, have to be very concerned about what this does to evolving and empowering other terrorist regimes and certainly the Iranian question first and foremost,” Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told VOA.Both Bennett’s and Biden’s predecessors enjoyed a close relationship and were seen as being in sync on hardline policies toward the Palestinians, Iranians and regional security.”You could tell that there was a great personal chemistry and a mutual respect and friendship” between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Brooks said. “It was at a different level than the normal perfunctory kind of cordial relationships.”U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the Willard Hotel in Washington, Aug. 25, 2021.Bennett, the son of American immigrants to Israel, on Wednesday held separate meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.Brooks said that while he considers Biden a friend of Israel, “on a number of critical policy issues he is absolutely misguided and wrong.”Bennett opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, as well as peace talks with the Palestinians. He supports the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the disputed West Bank and has also expressed opposition to the Biden administration’s plan to reopen a U.S. consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem.”It’s clear that there is a very welcome interest from both the U.S. administration and the Israeli government in working well together and finding numerous areas of common ground and close collaboration,” J Street, a group advocating American leadership to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said in a statement. “At the same time, we believe it’s also critical for the Biden administration to be transparent and firm in stating its disagreement with key aspects of Prime Minister Bennett’s policies and worldview.”Bennett’s careerBennett, who made his fortune in Israel’s high-tech industry, started his political career as Netanyahu’s chief of staff in 2006. He later served in different ministerial positions from 2013 to 2020 under Netanyahu before ousting his former mentor after Israel’s fourth parliamentary election in two years.His fragile ruling coalition is composed of eight parties ranging across the political spectrum and includes a small Islamist faction representing Israel’s Arab minority.Bennett will be in office for two years, having agreed to a rotating government with Yair Lapid, who is set to take over as prime minister next year.Noting the common challenges they face, from battling the coronavirus pandemic to combating terrorism, Bennett, after citing a biblical verse from the Book of Isaiah, told Biden they are both “a lighthouse in a very, very stormy world.”This is Bennett’s first official foreign trip, although he did travel to Jordan for a then-secret meeting with King Abdullah.The one-day delay in his meeting with Biden means Bennett, an observant Jew who does not travel on the Sabbath, will remain in Washington until after sundown Saturday.
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Some 14,000 firefighters facing changing weather conditions battled more than a dozen large wildfires across California, including a growing blaze that was slowly pushing toward the Lake Tahoe resort region.Winds and temperatures were expected to pick up in coming days while humidity drops, adding to the challenges endured by crews working in rugged terrain.”That’s what’s closing the window of opportunity we’ve had to make progress and really get hold of the fire,” said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director of the state firefighting agency.Flames churned through mountains just southwest of the Tahoe Basin, a home to thousands and recreational playground for millions of tourists who visit the alpine lake in summer, ski at the many resorts in winter and gamble at its casinos year-round.Johnny White and Lauren McCauley decided to flee their home in the mountains above Lake Tahoe once they could see flames on the webcam at their local ski resort.Even as ash rained down under a cloud of heavy smoke, the couple wasn’t panicked because they had an early warning Thursday to leave their home near Echo Summit, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the lake, and wanted to avoid last-minute pandemonium if the wildfire continued its march toward the tourist destination on the California and Nevada border.”You don’t want everyone in the basin panicking and scrambling to try and leave at the same time,” McCauley said.Echo Summit, a mountain pass where cliff-hanging U.S. Route 50 begins its descent toward Lake Tahoe, is where firefighters plan to make their stand if the Caldor Fire keeps burning through dense forest in the Sierra Nevada.”Everything’s holding real good along Highway 50,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Cody Bogan. “The fire has been backing down real slowly … we’ve just been allowing it to do it on its own speed. It’s working in our favor.”The fire is one of nearly 90 large blazes in the U.S. There were more than a dozen big fires in California, including one that destroyed 18 homes in Southern California, which has so far escaped the scale of wildfires plaguing the north all summer.A new fire broke out Thursday in the Sierra foothills forcing evacuations near the historic Gold Rush town of Sonora, just dozens of miles from Yosemite National Park.Fires in California have destroyed around 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate while also blanketing large swaths of the West in unhealthy smoke.Climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.The Caldor Fire has been the nation’s top firefighting priority because of its proximity to Lake Tahoe, where its tourist economy should be in full swing this time of year.”This is the week before Labor Day weekend — a busy weekend, normally,” South Lake Tahoe City Manager Joe Irvin said. “That is not going to be the case this year.”The Federal Emergency Management Agency noted in a report on the fire that “social, political, and economic concerns will increase as the fire progresses toward the Lake Tahoe Basin.” The agency did not immediately respond to a request to elaborate beyond that statement.Visitors are still crowding the highway that loops the massive lake and riding bikes and walking the beaches, but many are wearing masks. The lake, known for its water clarity and the granite peaks that surround it, has been shrouded in dense smoke that has reached hazardous levels.The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority reversed its advice from earlier in the week and recommended tourists postpone their travel. Previously the group that promotes tourism on the south side of the lake advised letting visitors decide whether to cancel their trips amid smoke and approaching fire.Carol Chaplin, the president and CEO, said hotels and lodges were in lockstep with public safety officials.”They understand that this is not the experience that their guests are used to or look forward to,” she said.Irvin issued an emergency proclamation Thursday so the city that’s home to Heavenly Ski Resort can be better prepared if evacuation orders come and be reimbursed for related expenses.The last time the city declared a wildfire emergency was during the 2007 Angora Fire, which destroyed nearly 250 homes in neighboring Meyers and was the last major fire in the basin.Not far from the neighborhood that was largely wiped out in that fire, residents hurried to clear pine cones and needles from their roofs and gutters to prepare for the possibility of fire.The Angora Fire, which was driven by strong winds and took residents by surprise, burned just 3,100 acres, fewer than 5 square miles (13 square kilometers).The Caldor Fire has burned nearly 144,000 acres — or 225 square miles (583 square kilometers) — and remained only 12% contained early Friday.Retired fire district captain Joe McAvoy, who lost his own home in the fire, said wildfires larger than 100,000 acres were once-in-a-lifetime events in his career. Not anymore.”Now it seems like they’re all 100,000 acres,” McAvoy said. It’s way more extreme. … Now (fires) are 100,000 acres and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, big deal.’ You know, it’s every fire.”
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A U.S. warship and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the latest in what Washington calls routine operations through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, which claims the self-ruled island.The passage comes amid a spike in military tensions in the past two years between Taiwan and China, and follows Chinese assault drills last week, with warships and fighter jets exercising off the island’s southwest and southeast.The Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, accompanied by the Coast Guard cutter Munro, transited “through international waters in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy said in a statement.”The ships’ lawful transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it said.The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations about every month or so, angering China, which sees Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is its most important international backer and a major seller of arms to the island.China’s state-controlled media have seized on the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks to portray U.S. support for Taiwan and regional allies as fickle.But U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been quick to dismiss any connection between Afghanistan and the United States’ commitment to the Indo-Pacific.Vice President Kamala Harris accused China of “bullying and excessive maritime claims” during trips to Vietnam and Singapore this week, the latest in a string of visits by top U.S. officials to the Indo-Pacific aimed at cementing U.S. commitment to the region.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is vowing vengeance on those responsible for Thursday’s deadly attacks outside the Kabul airport that killed at least 13 American military personnel and dozens of civilians who had gathered there in hopes of fleeing the Taliban-controlled country. ”To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive,” Biden said in a nationally broadcast address. “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks in a report on its news agency’s Telegram channel, hours after suicide bombers had struck two locations along the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport: near the Abbey Gate and outside a nearby hotel. A map of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, showing the location of two explosions on Aug. 26, 2021.A regional offshoot of Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, has been blamed for the attacks.Biden said he had ordered commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities, saying, “We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing.”  Shortly after the president’s remark, the White House press secretary amplified his message: “We will hunt down these terrorists and kill them wherever they are.”A screen grab shows people carrying an injured person to a hospital after an attack at Kabul’s airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan Aug. 26, 2021. An Islamic State offshoot claimed responsibility for deadly suicide attacks outside the airport.Biden and Psaki said there was no evidence, so far, of collusion between the Taliban, which seized control of Kabul nearly two weeks ago, and ISIS in carrying out the attacks. The United Nations and NATO condemned the attacks, as did Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. Speaking about the first blast, a senior Taliban source confirmed to VOA that a suicide bomber had blown himself up in an area holding a large number of people.   Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 8 MB540p | 10 MB720p | 22 MB1080p | 43 MBOriginal | 49 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe explosions came hours after Western governments had warned of the threat of a terror attack at the airport and said those gathered in the area should move to a safe location.    ”The overall sense of mission is focused right now at the (passenger) terminal. Lots of Marines and consular officers cared deeply about the Afghans we were helping,” said a U.S. State Department official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity. The U.S. is ”trying to carry on with the mission ahead while knowing our security is severely compromised,” the official said. “Attacks occurred right at our shift change; otherwise, consular officers might have been casualties, too.”  Many of those wounded Thursday arrived at Kabul’s Emergency Hospital, run by an international nongovernmental organization that treats victims of war and landmines. Afghan news channels tweeted pictures of civilians transporting their wounded in wheelbarrows.In Pictures: People injured in explosion near Kabul airport pic.twitter.com/WQ8sdjvODG— 1TVNewsAF (@1TVNewsAF) August 26, 2021 Pakistan officials have asked that beginning Friday, hotels across the capital, Islamabad, cancel reservations and keep all rooms at the government’s disposal for at least three weeks to accommodate the thousands of foreigners being urgently evacuated from Afghanistan. Biden on Thursday issued a proclamation lowering U.S. flags across the country through August 30 “as a mark of respect for the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack.”Minutes later, the flag above the White House was lowered to half-staff.The flag has just been lowered here at the @WhiteHouse. pic.twitter.com/0T4o4g7fn1— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) August 26, 2021Ayaz Gul, Ayesha Tanzeem, Carla Babb, Patsy Widakuswara  contributed to this report.    
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The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August.The court said in an unsigned opinion that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority.”If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote.The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the three, pointed to the increase in COVID-19 caused by the delta variant as one of the reasons the court should have left the moratorium in place. “The public interest strongly favors respecting the CDC’s judgment at this moment, when over 90% of counties are experiencing high transmission rates,” Breyer wrote. It was the second loss for the administration this week at the hands of the high court’s conservative majority. On Tuesday, the court effectively allowed the reinstatement of a Trump-era policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their hearings. The new administration had tried to end the Remain in Mexico program, as it is informally known.On evictions, President Joe Biden acknowledged the legal headwinds the new moratorium would likely encounter. But Biden said that even with doubts about what courts would do, it was worth a try because it would buy at least a few weeks of time for the distribution of more of the $46.5 billion in rental assistance Congress had approved.The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the pace of distribution has increased and nearly a million households have been helped. But only about 11% of the money, just over $5 billion, has been distributed by state and local governments, the department said.The administration has called on state and local officials to “move more aggressively” in distributing rental assistance funds and urged state and local courts to issue their own moratoriums to “discourage eviction filings” until landlords and tenants have sought the funds.FILE – A March on Billionaire Landlords is seen in New York City in August 2020.A handful of states, including California, Maryland and New Jersey, have put in place their own temporary bans on evictions. In a separate order earlier this month, the high court ended some protections for New York residents who had fallen behind on their rents during the pandemic.The high court hinted strongly in late June that it would take this path if asked again to intervene. At that time, the court allowed an earlier pause on evictions to continue through the end of July.But four conservative justices would have set the moratorium aside then and a fifth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said Congress would have to expressly authorize a new pause on evictions. Neither house of Congress has passed a new evictions moratorium.The administration at first allowed the earlier moratorium to lapse July 31, saying it had no legal authority to allow it to continue. But the CDC issued a new moratorium days later as pressure mounted from lawmakers and others to help vulnerable renters stay in their homes as the coronavirus’ delta variant surged. The moratorium had been scheduled to expire Oct. 3.Landlords in Alabama and Georgia who challenged the earlier evictions ban quickly returned to court, where they received a sympathetic hearing. U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the new moratorium was beyond the CDC’s authority.But Friedrich said she was powerless to stop it because of an earlier ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., that sits above her. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit likewise refused to put the CDC order on hold, prompting the landlords’ emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.The earlier versions of the moratorium, first ordered during Trump’s presidency, applied nationwide and were put in place out of fear that people who couldn’t pay their rent would end up in crowded living conditions like homeless shelters and help spread the virus.The new moratorium temporarily halted evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmissions and would cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.The Biden administration argued that the rise in the delta variant underscored the dangers of resuming evictions in areas of high transmission of COVID-19. But that argument did not win broad support at the high court.   
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At least 13 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans were killed Thursday by two Islamic State suicide bombings at and near the Kabul international airport, which has been so critical to the ongoing evacuation and has so far brought out more than 100,000 people. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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The U.S. Capitol Police officer who fatally shot a woman as she tried to force her way into the House of Representatives during the January 6 attack said the shooting was a “last resort” because he believed she posed a threat to members of Congress. “I tried to wait as long as I could,” police Lieutenant Michael Byrd said in an interview with “NBC Nightly News” that aired Thursday, in what were his first public remarks since the violence. FILE – This undated driver’s license photo from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, provided to AP by the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, shows Ashli Babbitt.”I hoped and prayed no one tried to enter through those doors,” Byrd said. “But their failure to comply required me to take the appropriate action to save the lives of members of Congress and myself and my fellow officers.” Byrd described the shooting as an act of “last resort” as he spoke publicly three days after a review by the Capitol Police concluded he had acted lawfully and within department policy in shooting the supporter of then-President Donald Trump as she tried to force her way through a smashed window into the House of Representatives’ Speaker’s Lobby. “It was a very terrifying situation,” Byrd said. The shooting of Ashli Babbitt, 35, came on a day of violence that saw hundreds of Trump supporters fight their way into the Capitol, attacking police and sending lawmakers running. Babbitt was a U.S. Air Force veteran who embraced far-right conspiracy theories on social media, including Trump’s false assertions that his 2020 presidential election loss was the result of fraud. She was one of four participants in the riot to die on January 6. Far-right groups have embraced Babbitt as a martyr, arguing she was murdered. Her cause has also been taken up by Trump, who falsely claimed last month that the officer who shot her was the “head of security” for a “high-ranking” Democratic member of Congress. Police officers who fought the mob, in testimony given last month to a congressional committee, recounted scenes of violence in which rioters beat them, taunted them with racist insults and threatened to kill an officer “with his own gun.”  FILE – Ashli Babbitt walks through the U.S. Capitol shortly before being shot and killed on Jan. 6 in a still photo from U.S. Capitol Security footage that was introduced as evidence by House impeachment managers, Feb. 10, 2021. (U.S. Senate/Handout)A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by rioters died the following day. Four police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than 100 police officers were injured. The Capitol Police review of the shooting concluded that it may have saved lives. “The actions of the officer in this case potentially saved Members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters,” the department said. It added that the officer’s family had “been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats.” The Justice Department in April closed its investigation into the death of Babbitt, saying there was no evidence that the officer had acted criminally in the shooting. The worst violence at the Capitol since the War of 1812 delayed the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory by several hours and brought a huge military presence into the city for several months.
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The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1, according to the nation’s most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.In other words, what the coronavirus has in store this fall depends on human behavior.”Behavior is really going to determine if, when and how sustainably the current wave subsides,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. “We cannot stop delta in its tracks, but we can change our behavior overnight.”That means doubling down again on masks, limiting social gatherings, staying home when sick and getting vaccinated.”Those things are within our control,” Meyers said.The U.S. is in the grip of a fourth wave of infection this summer, powered by the highly contagious delta variant, which has sent cases, hospitalizations and deaths soaring again, swamped medical centers, burned out nurses and erased months of progress against the virus.Deaths are running at more than 1,100 a day on average, turning the clock back to mid-March. One influential model, from the University of Washington, projects an additional 98,000 Americans will die by the start of December, for an overall death toll of nearly 730,000.The projection says deaths will rise to nearly 1,400 a day by mid-September, then decline slowly.But the model also says many of those deaths can be averted if Americans change their ways.”We can save 50,000 lives simply by wearing masks. That’s how important behaviors are,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle who is involved in the making of the projections.Already there are signs that Americans are taking the threat more seriously.Amid the alarm over the delta variant in the past several weeks, the slump in demand for COVID-19 shots reversed course. The number of vaccinations dispensed per day has climbed around 80% over the past month to an average of about 900,000.White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday that in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, “more people got their first shots in the past month than in the prior two months combined.”Shahir Sanchez, 5, grimaces as Dr. Neal Schwartz collects a nasal swab sample for COVID-19 testing at Families Together of Orange County Aug. 26, 2021, in Tustin, Calif.Also, millions of students are required to wear masks. A growing number of employers are demanding their workers get the vaccine after the federal government gave Pfizer’s shot full approval earlier this week. And cities like New York and New Orleans are insisting people get vaccinated if they want to eat at a restaurant.Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.Early signs suggest behavior changes may be flattening the curve in a few places where the virus raged this summer.An Associated Press analysis shows the rate of new cases is slowing in Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas, some of the same states where first shots are on the rise. In Florida, pleas from hospitals and a furor over masks in schools may have nudged some to take more precautions.However, the troubling trends persist in Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming, where new infections continue to rise steadily.Mokdad said he is frustrated that Americans “aren’t doing what it takes to control this virus.””I don’t get it,” he said. “We have a fire, and nobody wants to deploy a firetruck.”A woman is injected with her second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a Dallas County Health and Human Services vaccination site in Dallas, Aug. 26, 2021.One explanation: The good news in the spring — vaccinations rising, cases declining — gave people a glimpse of the way things used to be, said Elizabeth Stuart of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and that made it tough for them to resume the precautions they thought they left behind.”We don’t need to fully hunker down,” she said, “but we can make some choices that reduce risk.”Even vaccinated people should stay vigilant, said Dr. Gaby Sauza, 30, of Seattle, who was inoculated over the winter but tested positive for COVID-19 along with other guests days after an Aug. 14 Vermont wedding, even though the festivities were mostly outdoors and those attending had to submit photos of their vaccination cards.”In retrospect, absolutely, I do wish I had worn a mask,” she said.Sauza credits the vaccine with keeping her infection manageable, though she suffered several days of body aches, fevers, night sweats, fatigue, coughing and chest pain.”If we behave, we can contain this virus. If we don’t behave, this virus is waiting for us,” Mokdad said. “It’s going to find the weak among us.”
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