“I’m totally worried. I’ve got teenage girls in there,” she said. “Surely we have people in the U.S. government who know who to press on. We can’t fix Afghanistan, but this is one thing we can fix.”

In a statement released on Sunday, the State Department said the United States government had few resources at its disposal to force an evacuation.

“We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the department said in its statement. “However, we do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region.”

Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan placed near the bottom of every list when it came to protections for women, and at the top in terms of the need for any efforts that would make it possible to keep them safe.

Since they swept to power last month Taliban leaders have sought to convince the world, that the harsh rule they imposed during their last stint in power, from 1996 to 2001, was a thing of the past. But there have been multiple reports of abuse of women, and on Saturday members of the Taliban beat women in Kabul who were protesting for their rights.

“As with all Taliban commitments, we are focused on deeds not words,” the State Department said in its statement, “but we remind the Taliban that the entire international community is focused on whether they live up to their commitments.”

Reporting was contributed by Lara Jakes, Luke Broadwater, Michael Crowley, Victor J. Blue and Julian E. Barnes.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/world/europe/afghanistan-us-citizens-taliban.html

The State Department said on Sunday it does not have the “reliable means” to confirm a claim made earlier by a Republican lawmaker that flights out of Afghanistan carrying some U.S. citizens were being prevented from taking off by the Taliban because it has no information on the ground about charter flights following the U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

Rep. Michael McCaulMichael Thomas McCaulSunday shows preview: States deal with fallout of Ida; Texas abortion law takes effect Biden faces unfinished mission of evacuating Americans Biden hands GOP rare unity moment in post-Trump era MORE (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Sunday that six airplanes have been sitting at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in northern Afghanistan “for the last couple of days” but have been unable to leave because the Taliban is preventing them from doing so.

McCaul said the Taliban is “holding them hostage for demands right now” without going into detail about what the Taliban was seeking. The Texas Republican said the flights had been cleared by the State Department.

When reached for comment and any other information on McCaul’s claims, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill that because it does not have personnel on the ground, air assets in the country or have any control of the airspace over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region, they do not have “reliable means” to confirm details of any charter flights.

“Given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues,” the spokesperson told The Hill.

“We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said the department would still “hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”

“As with all Taliban commitments, we are focused on deeds not words, but we remind the Taliban that the entire international community is focused on whether they live up to their commitments,” the spokesperson added.

The U.S. completed its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on Tuesday, ending America’s longest war after 20 years of military involvement.

A number of U.S. citizens, however, still remain in the country.

McCaul on Sunday said “hundreds of American citizens” are still in Afghanistan, but Secretary of State Antony BlinkenAntony BlinkenOvernight Defense & National Security — Out of Afghanistan, but stuck in limbo Blinken: Taliban must uphold commitments to international community Has Biden’s Afghanistan debacle sown the seeds of another 9/11? MORE last week said that “under 200 and likely closer to 100” U.S. citizens remain in the country.

When asked on Sunday how many U.S. citizens are still in Afghanistan, White House chief of staff Ron KlainRon KlainSunday shows preview: States deal with fallout of Ida; Texas abortion law takes effect Changing Joe Biden’s mind is no easy task Top Pakistani security official calls for engagement with Taliban MORE said the administration believes “it’s around 100.”

“We’re in touch with all of them who we have identified on a regular basis,” he added.

The Hill reached out to McCaul’s office for additional information.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/570930-state-department-says-it-has-no-reliable-means-to-confirm-claim-that

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are facing pressure to extend federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits set to expire this weekend for millions of American workers, as the Delta variant continues to surge and job growth slows.

Three federal jobless aid programs, first put in place by former President Donald Trump‘s administration last March, will lapse Monday, with an estimated 7.5 million unemployed workers set to lose all their benefits. An additional 3 million will no longer receive a $300 weekly boost to the unemployment benefits provided by their state, according to estimates from the Century Foundation.

Individuals set to lose benefits have shared their stories on social media in an apparent effort to encourage lawmakers to get behind an extension—while other supporters of an extension have criticized Biden and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin—a moderate Democrat who has indicated he will vote against an extension in a Democrat-only budget bill—over the abrupt end to aid.

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are facing pressure to extend federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits set to expire this weekend for millions of American workers. Here, Biden delivers remarks about the situation in Afghanistan in the East Room of the White House on August 16, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

“Over the next few weeks, millions of Americans will lose their enhanced unemployment and will face eviction and food insecurity. Biden’s response: ‘We’re ending all those things that are things keeping people from going back to work,'” tweeted professor Anthony Zenkus of the School of Social Work at Columbia University. “Joe Biden. He is our enemy.”

Salem Snow, a Pennsylvania activist running for the U.S. House in 2022, tweeted: “Extend unemployment benefits. There are millions of people that have been relying on these programs to survive. We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. Congress is going to have more American blood on their hands if they don’t do something.”

“Biden needs to reverse his position on unemployment insurance today and call on Congress to extend benefits. The facts on the ground have changed since he first announced he supported benefits expiring in September,” said Lindsey Owens, executive director of Groundwork collaborative, a center-left activist group with a focus on economic issues.

The benefits have previously been renewed after lapsing, but the Biden administration has indicated reluctance to extend the aid.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh sent a letter to lawmakers last month, saying it’s “appropriate” to allow the expanded $300 weekly boost to expire on September 6 as scheduled. And while the Biden administration has suggested that states can reallocate existing federal funds to continue aid, none have moved to do so.

In renewing the unemployment programs in March, the Biden administration and lawmakers had anticipated that the economy would largely recover by September with an aggressive vaccine rollout. But the unforeseen explosion of the highly contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 94 percent of America’s coronavirus cases, has limited that plan.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data on Friday that showed 235,000 jobs were created in August—a steep decline from the 1.1 million jobs created in July and far below economists’ projections of 733,000 jobs.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment.

Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-under-fire-over-unemployment-benefits-cliff-covid-surges-job-growth-slows-1626258

In a satellite image, an oil slick is shown on Sept. 2, south of Port Fourchon, La., following Hurricane Ida.

Maxar Technologies/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Maxar Technologies/AP

In a satellite image, an oil slick is shown on Sept. 2, south of Port Fourchon, La., following Hurricane Ida.

Maxar Technologies/AP

Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

Two additional 4-inch pipelines were also identified in the area that are open and apparently abandoned. The company’s statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19 kilometers) eastward along the Gulf coast.

The AP first reported Wednesday that aerial photos showed a miles-long brown and black oil slick spreading about 2 miles south of Port Fourchon, La. The broken pipe is in relatively shallow water, at about 34 feet of depth.

Talos said the rate of oil appearing on the surface had slowed dramatically in the last 48 hours and no new heavy black crude had been seen in the last day.

So far, the spill appears to have remained out to sea and has not impacted the Louisiana shoreline. There is not yet any estimate for how much oil was in the water.

The Coast Guard said Saturday its response teams are monitoring reports and satellite imagery to determine the scope of the discharge, which is located in Bay Marchand, Block 4. Talos previously leased Bay Marchand, Block 5, but ceased production there in 2017, plugged its wells and removed all pipeline infrastructure by 2019, according to the company.

The area where the spill is located has been drilled for oil and gas for decades. Federal leasing maps show it contains a latticework of old pipelines, plugged wells and abandoned platforms, along with newer infrastructure still in use.

With the source of the oil unclear, Talos hired Clean Gulf Associates to respond to the spill. Clean Gulf, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, has had two 95-foot vessels at the scene of the spill since Wednesday attempting to contain and recover crude from the water.

The Bay Marchand spill is one of dozens of reported environmental hazards state and federal regulators are tracking in Louisiana and the Gulf following the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall at Port Fourchon a week ago. The region is a major production center of the U.S. petrochemical industry.

The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

After AP published the photos, the Environmental Protection Agency tasked a specially outfitted survey aircraft to fly over that refinery on Thursday, as well as other industrial sites in the area hardest hit by the hurricane’s 150-mph winds and storm surge.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said a state assessment team sent to the Alliance Refinery observed a spill of heavy oil being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

State environmental officials said there was also no estimate yet available for how much oil might have spilled from the Phillips 66 refinery.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/05/1034519831/divers-point-to-a-broken-pipeline-as-the-source-of-the-gulf-oil-spill

A former US marine has shot and killed four people in Florida, including a woman and her three-month-old baby boy in her arms, before surrendering, acccording to police.

The shooter, alleged by police to be Bryan Riley, 33, a former US marine, also allegedly wounded an 11-year-old girl in a shootout in Lakeland near Tampa in central Florida on Sunday. The girl underwent surgery for seven gunshot injuries.

Riley, who had no connection to the victims, allegedly exchanged fire with police before giving up. He later tried to grab an officer’s gun while being treated in the hospital for his own gunshot wound, before being subdued again, Polk county sheriff Grady Judd told a news conference.

A veteran of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Riley was working as a bodyguard and a security guard. His girlfriend of four years told investigators he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and occasional depression, Judd said.

About a week ago his mental health worsened and he told his girlfriend he had started speaking with God, Judd said.

“He said at one point to our detectives: ‘They begged for their lives and I killed them anyway’,” Judd said at a second news conference.

Riley also told sheriff’s deputies he was allegedly high on methamphetamine, Judd said.

Police allege the shooter first appeared randomly at the house where the shooting occurred on Saturday night, making nonsensical statements, but left by the time police responded.

He returned early on Sunday morning, killing a 40-year-old man, the 33-year-old mother and her baby boy, Judd said. In the home next door, he also killed the 62-year-old mother of the woman, the sheriff said.

“In addition to that, if he’s not evil enough, he shot and killed the family dog,” Judd said.

Deputies responding to reports of two volleys of automatic gunfire arrived to find the suspect unarmed outside, wearing camouflage and body armour. Riley then went back inside and “we heard another volley, and a woman scream and a baby whimper”, Judd said.

A gunfight ensued before he came out unarmed and was arrested.

“It would have been nice if he would have come out with a gun … We would have shot him up a lot. But he didn’t because he was a coward,” Judd said. “When someone chooses to give up, we take them into custody peacefully.”

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/06/florida-shooting-ex-us-marine-suspected-of-killing-four-including-a-baby

  • A restrictive abortion law went into effect on Wednesday in Texas. 
  • The Supreme Court refused to block the law in a 5-4 ruling.
  • A GOP senator said they’ll eventually “swat it” away and that it’s being used to distract from other issues. 

GOP Senator Bill Cassidy said he expects the US Supreme Court will “swat” away Texas’ restrictive abortion law. 

“I think the Supreme Court will swat it away once it comes to them in an appropriate manner,” Cassidy said during an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. 

 

The Texas Heartbeat law, or SB 8, went into effect on Wednesday and bans abortions after six weeks, before most women know they’re pregnant. 

The Supreme Court refused to block the law in a 5-4 ruling. The ruling was not on the merits of the law or the landmark 1973 Roe V. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the US. Instead, the court said it couldn’t step into the dispute, with a majority of the justices saying they were not ready for a full hearing.

“This order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’ law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts,” they wrote.

Cassidy told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the ruling “had nothing to do with the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade,” but was about those bringing the case not having “standing” or not enough stake in the case to file the challenge. 

“If it is as terrible as people say it is, it will be destroyed by the Supreme Court,” Cassidy said. 

Some supporters of legal abortion have called the decision a “soft” overturn of Roe v. Wade.

President Joe Biden was critical of the law and said it “will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need.”

“It just seems, I know this sounds ridiculous, almost un-American,” Biden said on Friday.

Cassidy said Democrats were using the ruling to distract from other issues, like the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

“People are using it to gin up their base to distract from disastrous policies in Afghanistan, maybe for fundraising appeals,” Cassidy said. “I wish we would focus on issues as opposed to theater. It was about if they had standing, nothing to do with constitutionality. I think we should move on to other issues.” 

 

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-senator-supreme-court-will-swat-down-texas-abortion-law-2021-9

A pregnant California woman identified only as Nasaria is one of the 100-200 Americans who remain stranded in Afghanistan at the mercy of the new Taliban regime.

Nasaria says the Taliban are “hunting Americans” now that the U.S. military presence has completely withdrawn from the region.

“I think to myself, ‘Am I going to make it home? Am I going to end up living here? Am I going to end up dying here? What’s going to happen?'” she told Voice of America in an interview. “Apparently they’re [the Taliban] going door-to-door… trying to see if anybody has a blue passport.”

EXCLUSIVE: FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER CALLS FOR AFGHANISTAN ‘ACCOUNTABILITY’

Nasaria says she and her Afghan husband scrambled to try to make a flight out of the country during the U.S. evacuation effort.

“The situation at the airport felt surreal,” she said. “It was so hard to get on a flight. There were a couple of days where we had to sleep on streets… People were literally stepping over people. That’s how bad it was.”

“I’ve never in my life have experienced anything like this… It was like literally a movie scene,” she continued.

Nasaria explains that she and her husband were confronted and even shot at by the Taliban when they attempted to walk toward a boarding flight.

“Our troops were literally at the gate just waiting for us to continue walking and they had blocked us,” she explained. She began walking faster, trying to blast past the obstructing Taliban, when they “started shooting right by my leg and told me to come back or they will shoot me,” she said.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, has been working to rescue stranded U.S. citizens in Afghanistan since the U.S. withdrawal. She said that Nasaria was assaulted by Taliban soldiers and kicked in the stomach while pregnant. “Anyone who says there aren’t people stranded is wrong,” Issa said last week.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Afghanistan, Taliban, California

Original Author: Matthew Miller

Original Location: Pregnant California woman stuck in Afghanistan says Taliban ‘hunting Americans’

Source Article from https://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-california-woman-stuck-afghanistan-164400221.html

Before investigators could enter the home, he said, robots were sent in to check for explosives or other booby traps. He did not say whether investigators found any.

“This is a horrific incident,” Brian Haas, the state attorney for Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit, said at the news conference. “Our community and many families are hurting this morning.”

Sheriff Judd said that Mr. Riley’s girlfriend was cooperating with investigators and that she had told them that he had become more erratic in the past week.

In addition to serving in Afghanistan, Mr. Riley had also deployed to Iraq during his four years in the Marines and three years as a reservist, the sheriff said. Mr. Riley had been honorably discharged, he said, and had “virtually no criminal history.”

“So we’re not dealing with a traditional criminal here,” Sheriff Judd said.

Mr. Riley’s girlfriend told the authorities that he had worked in security at a church in Orlando and began having delusions, the sheriff said.

“He came home and said God spoke to him and now he can talk directly to God,” the sheriff said, citing the account Mr. Riley’s girlfriend had given investigators.

The girlfriend said that Mr. Riley claimed to have received instructions from God to help the survivors of Hurricane Ida, and that he bought $1,000 worth of cigars to give to them, the sheriff said.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/us/shooting-lakeland-florida.html

The Afghans left behind by the U.S. airlift in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of the country include longtime U.S. Embassy contractors, Special Immigrant Visas applicants and members of the Afghan military, among others.

Driving the news: In one of the largest airlifts in history, the U.S. evacuated 120,000 people from Afghanistan prior to their withdrawal. But at least 100 Americans and thousands of Afghan allies were left behind.

  • The U.S. and 97 other countries announced last week that they had reached an agreement with the Taliban to allow them to continue to get their citizens and Afghan allies out of the country after the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.

But, but, but: Negotiations for plane departures in the days since the withdrawal was completed have dragged out, as flights to Al Udeid Air Base approved by the U.S. and Qatar await final approval by the Taliban, the New York Times reported.

The big picture: Although President Biden toasted the airlift as an “extraordinary success,” Afghans left behind—some of whom made repeated attempts to evacuate— fear what the future holds.

  • A source told the Washington Post that about 2,000 U.S. Embassy contractors and immediate family members are among those left behind. The State Department declined to comment on the figure.

What they’re saying: One contractor who worked for the U.S. Embassy for six years told the Post that he received no calls or emails from the Embassy after Aug. 15.

  • “Everyone knows where I worked, that I worked with the Americans,” he added, noting that he eventually fled to another province.
  • An engineer who worked for the U.S. Army and was in the final stages of his SIV application managed to get to the airport gates twice only to be turned away both times, per the Post.
  • “My children, they don’t understand,” he told the Post. “But my wife is just crying: ‘Why did you work with those people? Look how you brought us under threat!’”

Many Afghan women and girls fear their rights will be severely curtailed under Taliban rule.

  • A young female graduate of the American University of Afghanistan told the Post that she held out hope for an evacuation that never materialized, as those connected to the school were not prioritized as “high risk” and had to navigate Taliban checkpoints without U.S. or NATO assistance.

Source Article from https://www.axios.com/afghans-left-behind-us-airlift-314093ad-3062-4fba-89a4-8aeb278943a5.html

ORLANDO, Fla. – The peak of hurricane season is upon us. Currently, there are two systems in the tropics.

The first, Hurricane Larry, is poised to remain a category 3 storm in the open waters of the Atlantic for the next several days.

As of 5 p.m., Larry has maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and is moving northwest at 13 mph.

Samara Cokinos (WKMG)

The forecast calls for this trough to move north to northeast over the next few days. Upper-level winds will limit development during this time. As the disturbance crosses the southeastern U.S. around midweek. the NHC anticipates some development as it moves into the Atlantic late in the week.

Puerto Rico may experience large swells and dangerous rip currents early this week, but the storm will not directly impact land. The storm will likely pass to the east of Bermuda.

Large swells will also make their way to much of the east coast of the U.S., including Florida, even though the storm will stay well offshore. The rip current risk will also increase for the middle of the upcoming week.

The second disturbance is expected to emerge into the Bay of Campeche/Gulf of Mexico Sunday. The disturbance will then travel through the Gulf of Mexico through the middle of next week. Upper-level winds are only expected to be marginally conducive for tropical cyclone formation, but some slow development is possible while the system moves across the Gulf of Mexico through the middle of the week. Areas along the north and west Gulf coast should monitor the progress of this system.

There is a 30% chance for development over the next five days.

So far the 2021 season has been more intense than the 2020 season, even with fewer named storms.

The next three named storms will be called Mindy, Nicholas and Odette.

The Atlantic Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30, with Sept. 10 marking the peak of storm season.

Source Article from https://www.clickorlando.com/weather/2021/09/05/larry-to-stay-a-major-hurricane-for-days-as-another-disturbance-could-develop-in-the-gulf/

WASHINGTON (AP) — Divers at the site of an ongoing oil spill that appeared in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Ida have identified the apparent source as one-foot diameter pipeline displaced from a trench on the ocean floor and broken open.

Talos Energy, the Houston-based company currently paying for the cleanup, said in a statement issued Sunday evening that the busted pipeline does not belong to them.

The company said it is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and other state and federal agencies to coordinate the response and identify the owner of the ruptured pipeline.

Two additional 4-inch pipelines were also identified in the area that are open and apparently abandoned. The company’s statement did not make clear if oil was leaking from the two smaller pipelines, but satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press on Saturday appeared to show at least three different slicks in the same area, the largest drifting more than a dozen miles (more than 19 kilometers) eastward along the Gulf coast.

The AP first reported Wednesday that aerial photos showed a miles-long brown and black oil slick spreading about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. The broken pipe is in relatively shallow water, at about 34 feet (10 meters) of depth.

Talos said the rate of oil appearing on the surface had slowed dramatically in the last 48 hours and no new heavy black crude had been seen in the last day.

So far, the spill appears to have remained out to sea and has not impacted the Louisiana shoreline. There is not yet any estimate for how much oil was in the water.

The Coast Guard said Saturday its response teams are monitoring reports and satellite imagery to determine the scope of the discharge, which is located in Bay Marchand, Block 4. Talos previously leased Bay Marchand, Block 5, but ceased production there in 2017, plugged its wells and removed all pipeline infrastructure by 2019, according to the company.

The area where the spill is located has been drilled for oil and gas for decades. Federal leasing maps show it contains a latticework of old pipelines, plugged wells and abandoned platforms, along with newer infrastructure still in use.

With the source of the oil unclear, Talos hired Clean Gulf Associates to respond to the spill. Clean Gulf, a nonprofit oil-spill response cooperative that works with the energy exploration and production industry, has had two 95-foot vessels at the scene of the spill since Wednesday attempting to contain and recover crude from the water.

The Bay Marchand spill is one of dozens of reported environmental hazards state and federal regulators are tracking in Louisiana and the Gulf following the Category 4 hurricane that made landfall at Port Fourchon a week ago. The region is a major production center of the U.S. petrochemical industry.

The AP also first reported Wednesday on images from a National Atmospheric and Oceanic Survey that showed extensive flooding and what appeared to be petroleum in the water at the sprawling Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery located along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

After AP published the photos, the Environmental Protection Agency tasked a specially outfitted survey aircraft to fly over that refinery on Thursday, as well as other industrial sites in the area hardest hit by the hurricane’s 150-mph (240-kph) winds and storm surge.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said a state assessment team sent to the Alliance Refinery observed a spill of heavy oil being addressed with booms and absorbent pads. A levee meant to protect the plant had breached, allowing floodwaters to flow in during the storm and then back out as the surge receded.

State environmental officials said there was also no estimate yet available for how much oil might have spilled from the Phillips 66 refinery.

___

Follow AP Investigative Reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/business-environment-and-nature-oil-spills-1c41bfc63b17f35cf699c45ab0d77c02

Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, on Sunday blasted President Biden for the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, saying that he has “blood on his hands” for the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in the Kabul airport blast.

McCaul also asserted that the Taliban has blocked Americans aboard six planes at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport from leaving Afghanistan while they make demands of the U.S.

“I’ve said all along this president has blood on his hands, and this week, this last week, we had 13 servicemen and women come home, flag draped coffins at Dover Air Base,” McCaul said during his “Fox News Sunday” interview. “This problem is going to get worse, not better, and we have left them behind. That’s the basic creed of the military.”

Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked McCaul, a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked how many Americans have gotten out of Afghanistan since the withdrawal deadline on Aug. 31, prompting McCaul to say, “I understand, zero.”

TALIBAN IS ‘HUNTING AMERICANS,’ SAYS CALIFORNIA MOM-TO-BE LEFT BEHIND IN AFGHANISTAN

McCaul later talked about the mass killings of former Afghan government officials and former Afghan defense forces, saying the retaliation against those who have helped US military has been “severe.”

“The retaliation has been severe, Chris. You have stories of interpreters being taken home to their families and watching their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter,” McCaul said. “This is not a new and improved Taliban. This is the same old Taliban. They are reverting back to with the same brutal practices.”

The Texas Republican went on to blast the Biden Administration for stranding over 250 Afghan orphan girls at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, saying the “U.S. government would not open the gate to let them in.”

“Now they’ve returned and now they are under Taliban enslavement and we know that they marry off young women as young as 12, many times 14 years old,” McCaul said. “It’s a very sick culture and they treat women like property. I worry about the women left behind as well.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Wallace later asked McCaul whether the United States can find a way to work with the Taliban, leading McCaul to slam the Biden administration for putting Americans and Afghan interpreters in a “precarious, dangerous situation” where Taliban is “dictating terms to us.”

“Now we are left to this very desperate situation, a very bad foreign policy of having to negotiate with the Taliban, which I was always skeptical of having to do and yeah we do have frozen assets,” McCaul said. “That’s the only leverage we have left, because we have no military on the ground and we have no intelligence capability on the ground.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-mccaul-taliban-blocking-americans-afghanistan

This story is being continuously updated as more information becomes available.

POLK COUNTY, Fla. — In a “bizarre occurrence,” four people were killed, including a baby, during a “shooting rampage” in Lakeland early Sunday morning. 

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the suspect shot at two different homes along North Socrum Loop Road, killing four and injuring an 11-year-old girl. The girl, who was shot multiple times, is being treated at Tampa General, according to authorities. She’s expected to survive.

The suspect also shot the family’s dog.

Judd says the crime scene and investigation is just beginning and will take days. He identified the suspect as Bryan Riley, 33, of Brandon. 

The sheriff’s office says Riley claimed he was on meth and that he was a survivalist when he was taken into custody. Judd says Riley’s girlfriend and family also say he was an honorably-discharged Marine who suffered from PTSD and in the last week or so believed he could talk to God.

However, Grady said Riley was very in tune with his statements and admission, “playing word games,” and at one point told deputies the victims begged for their lives and he killed them anyway.

Judd said the man was “a rabid animal”, and the crime scene was easily one of the worst he had ever seen. 

“This man is evil in the flesh,” Judd said.

The sheriff’s office received multiple 911 calls about an active shooter around 4:30 a.m.

Sheriff deputies, Lakeland Police, SWAT, and other agencies responded to the area near Fulton Greed Road in unincorporated Polk County. 

According to the report, “deputies came under attack when they arrived near a residence.” They also heard a woman screaming.

Sheriff Judd said 100 rounds were fired between Riley and deputies, who they said was in camp and a bulletproof vest. The suspect was shot once, but no law enforcement officers were injured.

Eventually deputies were able to get into the house, and that’s where they found the injured 11-year-old girl, who told deputies there were three others in the house.  

Deputies and Lakeland Police, who assisted in the case, found three suspects in the home: 

  • Justice Gleason, 40
  • A white female, age 33
  • A white male, 3 months old (the woman was still holding the baby boy, deputies said)

Judd said the deputies found a 64-year-old woman, believed to be the younger female’s mother and the baby’s grandmother, in a home behind the first house.

Those four did not survive. The unnamed victims are not being identified because family members invoked Marsy’s Law.

It’s not entirely known what the motive is in the mass shooting. Judd said Riley was not related to any of them. 

However, on Saturday evening Riley stopped near the home and spoke to a man on a lawnmower (possibly Gleason), and said God sent him to speak to an “Amber” one of his daughters, because she is going to commit suicide. The man said there was no one named Amber here, but Riley insisted. The man called the sheriff’s office, and deputies searched the area for more than 20 minutes but Riley had gone. 

Judd said that, according to Riley’s girlfriend, Riley had had depressive episodes since returning from his tours overseas, but was never violent. 

However, last week Riley came back from a job as a security guard at an Orlando church and told her that he could now talk directly to God. 

Over the week he became more erratic, but remained non-violent. For instance, Judd said Riley told his girlfriend that God told him to get relief supplies for Hurricane Ida victims. He also bought a $1,000 in cigars as gifts.

After the suspect came home Saturday evening, the girlfriend allegedly told Riley that God was not talking to him. Riley told her there was no room for doubters in his life, and he went into his mancave. 

When she woke up early Sunday morning, Riley was gone. 

Judd says the girlfriend is fully cooperating.

Riley was taken to Lakeland Regional and was treated before being released and booked into jail. 

As a Marine and in the reserves, Riley served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he was designated as a sharpshooter. 

He did have a concealed carry permit and no criminal history.  

Judd said that just because someone has a mental health issue, it doesn’t mean they’re going to become a mass shooter. 

“The reality is this nation doesn’t do enough to help the mentally ill,” Judd said. 

However, it was clear the crime scene rattled Judd through the news conference, as the normally fearlessly blunt sheriff at one point said he probably shouldn’t say much more about his thoughts on the suspect. 

Source Article from https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2021/09/05/polk-sheriff-office-investigating–shooting-rampage-

The U.S. will likely start to widely distribute Pfizer Covid-19 booster shots during the week of Sept. 20, but the rollout for Moderna‘s vaccine could be delayed, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

The Biden administration has announced plans to offer third doses to people who received the Pfizer and Moderna shots, pending approval from public health officials. The U.S. recommends an additional shot eight months after the second dose.

Only the Pfizer vaccine booster may get Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approval in time for a rollout the week of Sept. 20, Fauci said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” People who received Moderna shots may have to hold off for longer as the company waits for regulators to sign off on a third dose.

“Looks like Pfizer has their data in, likely would meet the deadline,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CBS. “We hope that Moderna would also be able to do it, so we could do it simultaneously.”

“But if not, we’ll do it sequentially,” he continued. “So the bottom line is, very likely, at least part of the plan will be implemented, but ultimately the entire plan will be.”

Later Sunday, Fauci told CNN that for people who got two doses of the Moderna vaccine, “it’s better to wait” for a third Moderna dose than get a Pfizer shot. He noted that the U.S. plans to release data in the coming weeks on mixing vaccines from different manufacturers.

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is the most widely administered in the U.S. More than 95 million people have received the full two-shot regimen, according to CDC data.

About 66 million people have been fully vaccinated with the Moderna shot. Meanwhile, about 14 million people have received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot. Regulators have not announced plans for a J&J booster.

In calling for third Pfizer and Moderna doses, U.S. health officials cited CDC data that found protection against infection waned several months after the second shot. More than 1.3 million people have received an additional shot after the U.S. authorized them for certain immunocompromised individuals, according to the CDC.

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the administration will have booster shots “ready to go” whenever regulators approve them for wider use.

An FDA advisory panel will review Pfizer’s application for a booster on Sept. 17, only three days before shots are supposed to start.

The Biden administration’s booster plan has sparked criticism within the U.S. and around the world. The World Health Organization has urged wealthy countries with higher vaccination rates to hold off on additional shots until poorer countries can give more people first vaccine doses.

As the virus spreads around the globe, it raises the prospect of new — and potentially more dangerous — variants emerging.

The White House has defended its booster plan, citing U.S. donations of vaccine doses to other countries. Last month, Fauci told CNBC that the U.S. has given 120 million doses to 80 countries.

“We are doing both,” he said of vaccinating Americans and people around the world.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/05/pfizer-covid-booster-shots-likely-ready-sept-20-anthony-fauci-says.html

Special forces for the Taliban abruptly ended a demonstration for women’s rights in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday, The Associated Press reported, prompting further anxiety about the insurgent group’s rule in the country.

The women peacefully marched to the Ministry of Defense in Kabul, where they placed a wreath to commemorate the Afghan soldiers who died in combat while fighting Taliban members, the news service noted.

Members of the Taliban reportedly started to address demonstrators as the protesters, who were moving on to the presidential palace, started to get louder. When the women explained that they were protesting for their rights, one of the Taliban members told them that the insurgent group would give them their rights, according to the AP.

However, the situation soon turned chaotic. Protesters started to run away upon reaching the palace as Taliban members started to shoot into the air and run toward the demonstrators, abruptly ending the protest. 

The Taliban also fired tear gas, one witness told the AP.

Afghanistan changed rapidly last month as the insurgent group took control of provinces and major cities, culminating in the capture of Kabul in mid-August as Taliban members entered the presidential palace after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

The Taliban have claimed that they will recognize the rights of women within the Islamic framework and will not go after old enemies. However, recent events, including the abrupt end to the women’s march, may indicate otherwise.

Afghan women who spoke to The Hill last month expressed fear and apprehension over what Taliban rule will look like in the country. They warned that the international community should not trust previous statements made by the Taliban.

“I want to see if women are able to sing on stage without a scarf. I want to know if a man or woman can stand next to each other and sing on TV. I want to see women play at the soccer stadium. That is the level of freedom I want in that country if I want to live under their flag,” one Afghan woman told The Hill.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/international/570891-taliban-special-forces-end-protest-march-for-womens-rights