July, 2022 | últimas notícias - Part 15

L.A. County’s push for COVID mask rules ignites familiar debate – Los Angeles Times

Sustained growth in coronavirus-positive hospitalizations has Los Angeles County on the brink of a new public indoor mask mandate, a move officials say could help curb still-widespread transmission, but it has raised some concerns among business groups and sparked questions about its necessity.

Though the count remains well below the peaks of earlier surges, hospitalizations have swelled. In L.A. County, 1,299 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized as of Monday — up 60% since the start of the month. The story is much the same in intensive care units, where the latest daily census, 137, is far below the highs of previous waves but has increased almost 51% since July 1.

Although they’re not as high as during the peak of previous waves, the current number of coronavirus-positive patients in ICUs is roughly the same as when L.A. County last implemented an indoor mask mandate, on July 17, 2021. On that date, there were 134 coronavirus-positive patients in intensive care units.

Deaths have dramatically increased, too, but still remain far below the last wave. Over the last month, weekly COVID-19 death rates in L.A. County have roughly doubled.

The decision L.A. County public health officials have had to grapple with is whether to implement a mask mandate, and at what point to do so.

There are a significant number of people who have become infected but are not falling severely ill and ICUs are less crowded than in previous waves. The availability of vaccines and treatments and changes with the virus itself are also helping.

But the soaring rate of both cases and coronavirus-positive hospitalizations is worrying local public health officials.

In parts of California, infections may have reached levels higher than the initial Omicron wave, based on data emerging from coronavirus levels in wastewater. In Los Angeles County, some emergency rooms and community clinics are growing increasingly strapped, the number of nursing homes seeing significant outbreaks have dramatically increased and more workplaces are seeing clusters of cases.

And L.A. County health officials are quite concerned about the notable increase in weekly deaths, a pattern that has not been seen in other parts of the state.

The point of a mask mandate is to prevent significant harm to public health, local officials say, following significant warning signs in L.A. County, which has a large number of vulnerable, lower-income people.

Here is what we know:

Where does L.A. County stand?

L.A. County on Thursday reported 10.5 new coronavirus-positive hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents — enough to land the nation’s most populous county in the high COVID-19 community level defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Should it remain in that category for the next two Thursdays, a new masking order would be issued with an effective date of July 29.

However, if the county moves back to the medium level during either of the next two weeks, the clock would reset, pushing the earliest date for any new mask order into August.

At the end of June, roughly 20% of coronavirus-positive patients at L.A. County’s four public hospitals were being treated for COVID-19 illnesses. At all hospitals — public and private — about 42% of coronavirus-positive patients are being seen for a COVID-19 illness. Statewide, the share is about 50%.

New data show the county’s coronavirus case rate continues to rise. It is now averaging about 6,900 coronavirus cases a day, nearly double the peak rate from last summer’s Delta surge and 27% higher than the previous week.

On a per capita basis, L.A. County’s case rate is 476 cases a week for every 100,000 residents.

Given continued increases in cases — and the potential for a corresponding rise in hospitalizations in the weeks to come — “at this point, it’s much more likely that we will stay in ‘high’ for these two weeks,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said last week.

COVID-19 deaths across L.A. County have increased significantly in the last month, from about 50 a week to between 88 and 100. That’s the first significant increase since the end of the winter Omicron wave. During the peak of that surge, weekly deaths topped 500.

California is recording about 21,000 coronavirus cases a day, up 16% from the prior week. On a per capita basis, the state is reporting 368 cases a week for every 100,000 residents and roughly 255 COVID-19 deaths per week.

What would a new mandate look like?

A renewed masking rule would apply indoors for those 2 and older at numerous venues — including shared office space, manufacturing and retail settings, event spaces, restaurants and bars, gyms and yoga studios, educational settings and children’s programs.

Masks would not be required for those using outdoor spaces, as the risk of transmission in those settings is significantly lower.

Patrons also would be able to take off masks indoors when actively eating or drinking.

Though the county still has not pulled the trigger on a mandate, health officials have strongly recommended the practice for months — and continue to do so.

Ferrer said the period ahead of the potential issuance of a mandate will be spent reaching out to businesses “so that they’re clear about their need to both supply those masks for all of their employees, make sure that their employees are masked appropriately indoors, and to do their best to message to their customers.”

What are the concerns?

Some have questioned the wisdom of L.A. County’s approach, as well as whether there’d be widespread compliance with any new masking rules.

Maria Salinas, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and Jessica Lall, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn., a downtown business group, sent a letter to Ferrer last week expressing concerns.

Requiring masks, they wrote, “puts employees in the increasingly challenging position of enforcing a mandate that many customers no longer wish to — or are unwilling to — comply with.”

“L.A.’s restaurants, retail stores, museums, amusement parks, sports centers and so many other establishments are working every day to recover from the pandemic, all while facing workforce shortages, supply chain challenges and more,” they wrote. “Businesses should not be expected to enforce a mask mandate in addition to these ongoing constraints. Businesses cannot shoulder this burden of compliance alone as they have been required to do so in the past.”

If L.A. County does mandate indoor public masking, and no other counties follow suit, “residents and visitors may choose to take their spending power to businesses in other parts of Southern California, which would only harm our local economy,” they wrote.

No other California counties currently have public indoor mask mandates. The state Department of Public Health strongly recommends — but does not require — the practice.

The only other county that reinstituted indoor masking during this latest wave, Alameda, rescinded it three weeks later, and the efficacy of that short-lived mandate has been called into question.

Some experts, though, have noted that Alameda County’s mask mandate was the only time a lone county in the San Francisco Bay Area has issued a mask order without other major counties doing so as well.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-19/l-a-countys-push-for-covid-mask-rules-ignites-familiar-debate

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Steve Bannon thought he was ‘above the law,’ prosecutors say in contempt trial – NBC News

WASHINGTON — Former Donald Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon “decided he was above the law” when he blew off the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, a federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in opening statements of Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial.

Bannon “chose to show his contempt for Congress’ authority and its processes” by refusing to comply with a subpoena, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Rose Vaughn told jurors.

“It wasn’t optional, it wasn’t a request and it wasn’t an invitation. It was mandatory,” Vaughn said.

But Bannon lawyer Evan Corcoran told jurors they should question whether the evidence they’ll be presented with during the trial was “affected by politics” and declared that Bannon was “innocent of the charges.” He suggested that the dates of the two subpoenas delivered to Bannon last September — one for documents, the other for testimony — were subject to negotiation.

“The dates on the subpoena were not fixed,” Corcoran said. “They were flexible.”

Bannon’s case boils down to whether Bannon’s defiance of the subpoenas was purposeful. The government argued that Bannon was “thumbing his nose at the orderly process” of the government.

“He didn’t get stuck on a broken-down Metro car,” Vaughn said. “He just decided not to follow the rules.”

The jury of 12 and two alternates, the majority of whom are nonwhite, were seated from a pool of 22 jurors who were qualified. The jury selection process ran long on Monday, as many potential jurors voiced their dislike of Bannon and his work in the Trump White House. Those who did so were eliminated and were not on the final panel.

Corcoran noted Tuesday that Bannon worked for the White House, but was vague about his work for Breitbart News, describing it as a “successful media company that provided news and commentary across the country” but not referring to it by name.

While avoiding specifics about the issue of Trump’s purported claim of executive privilege, Vaughn noted that Bannon had an unspecified claim of an exemption from cooperating that was deemed not valid by the committee.

“It’s up to the committee,” Vaughn said. “The committee told him that his privilege did not excuse him from complying.”

Bannon only has a narrow argument to make in his defense due to rulings from the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the case.

Among the only defenses he can deploy, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols ruled, is to offer evidence to the jury that he believed he was engaged in ongoing negotiations with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, and that the dates on his subpoenas requiring him to provide documents and testimony to the committee in October 2021 were “malleable.”

Testimony is set to begin in the trial on Tuesday and pick up again on Wednesday morning.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/steve-bannon-thought-was-law-prosecutors-say-contempt-trial-rcna38619

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Democratic lawmakers including Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Speier and more arrested in abortion rights protest in front of the Supreme Court – CNN

More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress were among those arrested by Capitol Police on Tuesday afternoon as part of an abortion rights protest in front of the Supreme Court.

Wearing specially made green bandanas with “Won’t Back Down,” they marched from the Capitol to the Court, which has been fenced off for weeks, since shortly after the leak of the draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Within two minutes of their arriving, police began ordering them to “cease and desist.” Instead, they sat on the street, and were one by one led off by officers as they chanted, “The people, united, will never be divided.”

The US Capitol Police tweeted: “Demonstrators are starting to block First Street, NE. It is against the law to block traffic, so officers are going to give our standard three warnings before they start making arrests.”

Capitol Police later said they had arrested 34 people total, including 16 members of Congress.

Among those arrested:

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/politics/congress-members-arrested-abortion-protest-supreme-court/index.html

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"Shame on you": Uvalde parents lash out at school board after release of scathing report on police response to shooting – CBS News

Parents took out their wrath on Uvalde, Texas school board members Monday night after the release Sunday of a damning 80-page report by the Texas House on the response to the Uvalde school massacre.

A man gestures as parents and family attend a special meeting on July 18, 2022 of the Board of Trustees of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District where parents addressed the May shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas.

Eric Gay / AP

Earlier Monday, Texas state police announced an internal review into the actions of dozens of troopers who were at Robb Elementary on May 24 during 73 minutes of bewildering inaction by law enforcement as a gunman slaughtered 19 children and two teachers.

The announcement appeared to widen the fallout of the weekend report by the Texas House that revealed failures at all levels of law enforcement and identified 91 state troopers at the scene – more than all Uvalde officers combined. It also amounted to a public shift by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which until now has largely criticized local authorities for failing to confront the gunman sooner.

The report made public Sunday laid bare for the first time just how massive a presence state police and U.S. Border Patrol had on the scene during one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

“You got 91 troopers on the scene. You got all the equipment you could possibly want, and you’re listening to the local school cop?” said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes Uvalde and who has accused DPS of seeking to minimize its role in the response.

Report spreads the blame

The findings that Border Patrol agents and state troopers made up more than half of the 376 law enforcement officials who rushed to the South Texas school on May 24 spread the responsibility for a slow and bungled response far wider than previous accounts that emphasized mistakes by Uvalde officers.

The report made clear that “egregiously poor decision making” by authorities went beyond local law enforcement in Uvalde, who were eventually outnumbered more than 5-to-1 by state and federal officers at the scene. Other local police from the area around Uvalde also responded to the shooting.

The report puts a new spotlight on the roles of state and federal agencies whose leaders, unlike local authorities, haven’t had to sit through meetings where they were confronted by the furious parents of the dead children.

Of the nearly 400 officers who converged on the school, only two are currently known to be on leave pending investigation into their actions: Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated School District police chief, and Lt. Mariano Pargas, a Uvalde Police Department officer who was the city’s acting police chief during the massacre.

State police have previously said no troopers at the scene have been suspended. On Monday, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the findings in the report “are beyond disturbing” but did not single out any one agency.

Texas DPS did not put a timeline on when the review would be complete. It said the actions of every trooper, state police agent and Texas Ranger on the scene would be examined “to determine if any violations of policy, law, or doctrine occurred.”

Col. Steve McCraw, the director of Texas DPS, has previously laid much of the blame for the response at Arredondo, identifying him as the incident commander and criticizing him for treating the gunman in the classroom as a barricaded subject and not an active shooter.

Body camera video shows confusion and chaos in Uvalde police response

04:30

New light shed on Arredondo’s actions

The new report – the fullest accounting yet of the tragedy – also says Arredondo wasted critical time during the shooting by searching for a key to the classroom and not treating the gunman with more urgency. But it also emphasized that all law enforcement at the scene fumbled the response.

“There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making,” the report said.

Abbott said there are “critical changes needed” but in a statement did not address whether any officers or agencies should be held accountable.

In Uvalde, meetings of the city council and school board in the eight weeks since the shooting have become recurring scenes of residents shouting at elected leaders for police accountability, which continued after the report was made public.

Parents don’t hold back

“It’s disgusting. Disgusting,” said Michael Brown, whose 9-year-old son was in the school’s cafeteria on the day of the shooting and survived. “They’re cowards.”

“Shame on you! Shame on you!” the families of the slain children and teachers and their supporters chanted at school board members at the special meeting Monday night.

Brett Cross, an uncle of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, who was among those slain, berated board members at length as not holding themselves accountable for the massacre. He particularly challenged members for not knowing school exit doors were locked to the outside and for not firing Arredondo.

“If he’s not fired by noon tomorrow, I want your resignation and every single one of these board members because you don’t give a damn about us or our children,” Cross said, addressing Superintendent Hal Harrell.

A family member holds a portrait of shooting victim Jackie Cazares as she is hugged following a special meeting on July 18, 2022 of the Board of Trustees of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District where parents addressed the May shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Eric Gay / AP

Harrell said the report released over the weekend will help the board decide Arredondo’s future. However, he also noted that Arredondo is employed under a contract and cannot be fired at will.

Harrell said he “lies awake at night” worrying about what can be done to “secure our campuses for your children and regain that trust,” reports CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV.

The station said one resident vowed, “Nobody has accepted accountability, so we’re going to force y’all to.”

Several people yelled “Shame on you!” regarding Arredondo still being employed with the Uvalde school system.

According to KHOU, a mother of four Uvalde children told the board, “You need to clean house. Hire experienced, trained officers who are prepared to take on the responsibility to protect our children. Not people who are complacent.”

Pointing to one of her children’s fear about returning to school, she asked, “What are you going to do about your failures? Are you going to make this right?”

Uvalde High School alumna Angela Villescaz, the founder of the group Fierce Madres, told board members her organization has been surveying officials of schools that have suffered similar mass shootings. She offered the board her findings as advice so district officials do not try to “reinvent the wheel.”

However, she took note of the DPS troopers standing in the room, and said she “can’t help but wonder if they just didn’t find our children worthy of being saved.”

A troubled past

Historically, the DPS has endured fraught relations with the Mexican-American community in Texas dating back to the 19th century. In the early 20th century, the Texas Rangers, from which the DPS evolved and of which it remains a part, participated in numerous bloody attacks on Mexican nationals.

According to the report, the gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the school – and it is “almost certain” that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered, according to the committee, which laid out numerous failures.

Among them: No one assumed command despite scores of officers on the scene, and no officer immediately tried to breach the classroom despite a dispatcher relaying a 911 call that there were victims in the room.

The report also criticized a Border Patrol tactical team, saying it waited for a bulletproof shield and working master key for a door to the classroom, which was most likely never locked, before entering. In all, the report put nearly 150 Border Patrol agents at the scene.

Cecilia Barreda, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Monday that a review of the agency’s response was still underway and hasn’t reached any final conclusions.

Hours after the report was released, Uvalde officials separately made public for the first time hours of body camera footage from the city’s police officers who responded to the attack

One video from Uvalde Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales, the head of the city’s SWAT team, showed the officer approaching the classroom when gunfire rang out at 11:37 a.m.

A minute later, Canales said: “Dude, we’ve got to get in there. We’ve got to get in there, he just keeps shooting. We’ve got to get in there.” Another officer could be heard saying “DPS is sending their people.”

It was 72 minutes later, at 12:50 p.m., when officers finally breached the classroom and kill the shooter.

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-parents-board-meeting-scathing-report-law-enforcement-response/

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Secret Service cannot recover texts; no new details for Jan. 6 committee – The Washington Post

The agency, which made this determination after reviewing its communication databases over the past four days, will provide thousands of records, but nearly all of them have been shared previously with an agency watchdog and congressional committees, the senior official said. None is expected to shed new light on the key matters the committee is probing, including whether Trump attacked a Secret Service agent, an account a senior White House aide described to the Jan. 6 committee.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/secret-service-texts/

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UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles – The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe, as the U.K.’s national weather forecaster said such highs are now a fact of life in a country ill-prepared for such extremes.

The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering — even at the seaside — have driven home concerns about climate change.

The U.K. Met Office weather agency registered a provisional reading of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at Coningsby in eastern England — breaking the record set just hours earlier. Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), set in 2019. By later afternoon, 29 places in the UK had broken the record.

As the nation watched with a combination of horror and fascination, Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher said such temperatures in Britain were “virtually impossible” without human-driven climate change.

He warned that “we could see temperatures like this every three years” without serious action on carbon emissions.

The sweltering weather has disrupted travel, health care and schools. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings, including hospitals, in Britain don’t have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.

The intense heat since Monday has damaged the runway at London’s Luton airport, forcing it to shut for several hours, and warped a main road in eastern England, leaving it looking like a “skatepark,” police said. Major train stations were shut or near-empty Tuesday, as trains were canceled or ran at low speeds out of concern rails could buckle.

London faced what Mayor Sadiq Khan called a “huge surge” in fires because of the heat. The London Fire Brigade listed 10 major blazes it was fighting across the city Tuesday, half of them grass fires. Images showed several houses engulfed in flames as smoke billowed from burning fields in Wennington, a village on the eastern outskirts of London.

Sales of fans at one retailer, Asda, increased by 1,300%. Electric fans cooled the traditional mounted troops of the Household Cavalry as they stood guard in central London in heavy ceremonial uniforms. The length of the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace was shortened. The capital’s Hyde Park, normally busy with walkers, was eerily quiet — except for the long lines to take a dip in the Serpentine lake.

“I’m going to my office because it is nice and cool,” said geologist Tom Elliott, 31, after taking a swim. “I’m cycling around instead of taking the Tube.’’

Ever the stalwart, Queen Elizabeth II carried on working. The 96-year-old monarch held a virtual audience with new U.S. ambassador Jane Hartley from the safety of Windsor Castle.

A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, remained under the country’s first “red” warning for extreme heat Tuesday, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people.

Such dangers could be seen in Britain and across Europe. At least six people were reported to have drowned while trying to cool off in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the U.K. In Spain and neighboring Portugal, hundreds of heat-related deaths have been reported in the heat wave.

Climate experts warn that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that the likelihood of temperatures in the U.K. reaching 40 C (104 F) is now 10 times higher than in the pre-industrial era.

The head of the U.N. weather agency expressed hope that the heat gripping Europe would serve as a “wake-up call” for governments to do more on climate change. Other scientists used the milestone moment to underscore that it was time to act.

“While still rare, 40C is now a reality of British summers,” said Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change. “Whether it will become a very common occurrence or remains relatively infrequent is in our hands and is determined by when and at what global mean temperature we reach net zero.”

Extreme heat broiled other parts of Europe, too. In Paris, the thermometer in the French capital’s oldest weather station – opened in 1873 – topped 40 C (104 F) for just the third time. The 40.5 C (104.9 F) measured there by weather service Meteo-France on Tuesday was the station’s second-highest reading ever, topped only by a blistering 42.6 C (108.7 F) in July 2019.

Drought and heat waves tied to climate change have also made wildfires more common and harder to fight.

In the Gironde region of southwestern France, ferocious wildfires continued to spread through tinder-dry pines forests, frustrating firefighting efforts by more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and summer vacation spots since the fires broke out July 12, Gironde authorities said.

A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing resources. Five camping sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone where blazes raged around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts.

In Greece, a large forest fire broke out northeast of Athens, fanned by high winds. Fire Service officials said nine firefighting aircraft and four helicopters were deployed to try to stop the flames from reaching inhabited areas on the slopes of Mount Penteli, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of the capital. Smoke from the fire blanketed part of the city’s skyline.

But weather forecasts offered some consolation, with temperatures expected to ease along the Atlantic seaboard Tuesday and the possibility of rains rolling in late in the day.

___

Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui and Jo Kearney in London, John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-france-fires-london-england-b9bc07c1685b76ddf377b65f19fb811b

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Uvalde parents call for school board to fire district’s police chief: ‘Why the hell does he still have a job with y’all?’ – CNN

By Raja Razek and Steve Almasy, CNN

Updated 11:45 AM ET, Tue July 19, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/19/us/uvalde-school-board-meeting/index.html

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Indiana Attorney General Rokita could face lawsuit over abortion doctor comment – NPR

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita was sent a “cease and desist” letter last week asking him to stop making what an attorney for Indiana abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard describes as defamatory statements. Rokita’s office responded that “no false or misleading statements have been made.”

Darron Cummings/AP

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Darron Cummings/AP

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita was sent a “cease and desist” letter last week asking him to stop making what an attorney for Indiana abortion provider Dr. Caitlin Bernard describes as defamatory statements. Rokita’s office responded that “no false or misleading statements have been made.”

Darron Cummings/AP

An Indiana doctor who provided an abortion for a 10-year-old abuse victim from Ohio is taking a key step toward a possible defamation lawsuit against Indiana’s Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita.

“He is wrongly accusing her of misconduct in her profession, so we want that smear campaign to stop,” attorney Kathleen DeLaney said in an interview Tuesday with NPR. “We want him and his office to stop intimidating and harassing healthcare providers generally who are simply doing the job that they went to medical school to do.”

In a letter sent to Rokita and other Indiana state officials on Tuesday, Bernard’s attorney says she believes her client has suffered harm as a result of Rokita’s recent public statements about Bernard and her work as an abortion provider, after she spoke publicly about caring for the 10-year-old patient.

“Statements that Dr. Bernard has a ‘history of failing to report,’ which Mr. Rokita indicated would constitute a crime, made in the absence of reasonable investigation, serve no legitimate law enforcement purpose. Given the current political atmosphere in the United States, Mr. Rokita’s comments were intended to heighten public condemnation of Dr. Bernard, who legally provided legitimate medical care,” the letter reads, in part.

Rokita’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

The story became the focus of national attention following the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which allowed Ohio’s six-week abortion ban to take effect. Rokita was among prominent conservatives who questioned the veracity of the account that Bernard gave to The Indianapolis Star in a story about patients crossing state lines.

After a 27-year-old man was arraigned on charges of rape against the 10-year-old girl in Franklin County, Ohio, on July 13, Rokita called for an investigation of Bernard. In a Fox News interview that day, Rokita claimed without producing evidence that Bernard had a “history of failing to report” abortions as required under Indiana law.

The next day, Indiana health officials released a document in response to records requests from NPR and other media that appeared to contradict Rokita’s claim, demonstrating that Bernard had reported the procedure on July 2. In that report, Bernard said she’d provided a medication abortion to a 10-year-old abuse victim on June 30, who was approximately six weeks pregnant.

Indiana University Health, which employs Bernard, has also said it conducted a review and determined she had not violated any privacy laws.

The document newly filed by Bernard’s attorney, called a tort claim notice, is required by state law before Bernard could file a defamation suit against Rokita. In it, DeLaney says she intends to seek damages from the state for “security costs, legal fees, reputational harm, and emotional distress” in an amount yet to be determined. State officials have 90 days to respond.

In the letter, DeLaney also notes that Rokita has limited authority to investigate complaints against certain professionals, including physicians, and that state law requires him to “maintain the confidentiality of such complaints” unless he intends to prosecute. It states that as of July 13, Bernard’s license in Indiana was “active with no disciplinary history.”

A county prosecutor in the Indianapolis area, where Bernard works, said in an Associated Press report that he believes he has sole authority to investigate in such circumstances, and that Bernard was being “subjected to intimidation and bullying.”

Last week, Bernard’s attorney also sent a “cease and desist” letter to Rokita asking him to stop making what she describes as defamatory statements. In response, Rokita spokeswoman Kelly Stevenson told NPR in an email that, “Like any correspondence, it will be reviewed if and when it arrives. Regardless, no false or misleading statements have been made.”

DeLaney said her office has not received any communication from Rokita indicating that an investigation into Bernard is underway. She said Rokita and his staff have continued to make false statements online and in the press about Bernard.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112246418/indianas-ag-could-face-a-lawsuit-by-the-abortion-provider-for-10-year-old-rape-v

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National Archives asks Secret Service to investigate ‘potential unauthorized deletion’ of Jan. 6 texts – CNBC

WATCH LIVE

The agency responsible for maintaining federal government records on Tuesday asked the U.S. Secret Service to investigate the “potential unauthorized deletion” of text messages on Secret Service phones on the day before and day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The request by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) came nearly a week after the Homeland Security inspector general told two congressional committees that many messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 had been erased by the Secret Service on agency phones “as a part of a device-replacement program.”

Chief Records Officer Laurence Brewer told the Secret Service in an email Tuesday that “if it is determined that any text messages have been improperly deleted … then the Secret Service must send NARA a report within 30 calendar days of the date of this letter with a report documenting the deletion.”

“This report must include a complete description of the records affected, a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages, a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss of documentation, and details of all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records,” Brewer wrote.

The select House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Friday issued a subpoena to the Secret Service demanding text messages and other related records.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment by CNBC.

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Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/19/national-archives-asks-secret-service-to-investigate-jan-6-texts-deletions.html

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Biden signs executive order on Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad – ABC News

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that codifies a 2020 law dealing with Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.

Drawing on the 2020 Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, the new executive order will reinforce the U.S. government’s efforts to support families of Americans wrongfully detained or held hostage overseas, according to the White House.

The order will authorize the federal government to impose financial sanctions on those who are involved — directly or indirectly — in wrongful detaining Americans abroad, the White House said. Moreover, government agencies will be directed to improve engagement with those Americans’ families, including sharing intelligence information about their loved ones and the government’s efforts to free them. The order will also charge experts across agencies with developing “options and strategies to deter future hostage-takings,” the White House said.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters that new sanctions will not be announced on Tuesday.

In addition to the executive order, Biden will introduce a new “risk indicator” — “the ‘D’ indicator” — to the U.S. Department of State’s travel advisories for particular countries to alert Americans of the risk of wrongful detention by a foreign government, according to the White House.

Starting Tuesday, the first countries to receive this additional risk indicator will be China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, another senior administration official told reporters. The “D” indicator joins the existing “K” indicator that covers the risk of kidnapping and hostage-taking by non-state actors, as well as a range of other existing risk indicators.

China’s “D” risk designation may spark ire in Beijing, where Chinese officials have largely tried to avoid the subject of wrongful detentions and where Western sanctions are a constant trigger.

Experts estimate that roughly 200 Americans are arbitrarily jailed in China, and that even more are subject to unlawful “exit bans,” barring them from leaving the country. Some advocates have pushed for the Biden administration to take a more vocal approach to secure their freedom, rather than the standard behind-the-scenes diplomacy. But the State Department has recently tried a similar strategy — updating their official advisory to American and instructing them to reconsider travel plans to China due to “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”

Syria, with which the United States does not currently have formal diplomatic relations, will be notably excluded from the “D” risk designation on Tuesday. U.S. officials believe that while the Syrian government may not be currently holding American journalist Austin Tice in its custody, it could have valuable information on his whereabouts and perhaps those of other missing Americans. Tice, 40, was abducted in Syria nearly 10 years ago.

The White House recently held a telephone call for the relatives of detained Americans to share information with them about these new announcements. Some of them are in Washington, D.C., this week for the unveiling of a public mural depicting their loved ones, according to Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for many of the families.

The mural in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood will depict the faces of 18 American hostages and wrongful detainees, according to Franks, who represents a group called the Bring Our Families Home Campaign. Among those featured will be American basketball star Brittney Griner, 31, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, 52, both of whom remain detained in Russia, as well as U.S. permanent resident Paul Rusesabagina, 68, who inspired the acclaimed 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda” and was sentenced last September to 25 years in Rwandan prison over terrorism charges.

Franks accused U.S. officials of ignoring these relatives’ requests to meet with Biden, and said the phone call the White House held with the relatives was a “one-way conversation with families.” He said the Biden administration was rolling out these new steps in order to “pre-manage the press attention from many hostage families being in D.C. this week to unveil their mural,” saying the White House was “taking executive action to direct itself to follow existing law.”

A spokesperson for the White House told ABC News that it had invited the families to learn about the new announcements before they were announced publicly.

“As part of our regular communication with families of those who are held hostage or wrongfully detained, we invited them to hear about new policy efforts we are launching to help bring their loved ones home,” the spokesperson said. “We wanted to share information with the families first before we announce them publicly, which the families deserve.”

The spokesperson added that the Biden administration would “continue to be in regular touch with these families through the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, and the president’s national security team as we do everything we can to support them during these difficult times.”

Whelan’s brother, David Whelan, told ABC News the executive order was “a good next step and shows a long-term commitment by the Biden administration, both in the amount of time it must have taken to craft the framework … and the focus on continued deterrence.”

He said the White House holding the call with families in advance of the public announcement “was exactly what families had been asking for: communication in advance of new announcements that would impact our families.”

According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, there are actually 64 publicly known cases of Americans being held hostage or wrongfully detained around the world.

ABC News’ Cindy Smith contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-sign-executive-order-americans-held-hostage-wrongfully/story?id=87050103

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London fires: Major incident declared as crews tackle blazes – BBC

“Literally within no time at all, with the winds and everything, it just got horrendous,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-62224618

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The 7 things you need to know for Tuesday, July 19 – The Washington Post

A massive, deadly heat wave is boiling Europe.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/07/19/what-to-know-for-july-19/

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Britain confronts possibly hottest day on record – NBC News

“Temperatures didn’t fall below 25 C (77 F) in places, exceeding the previous highest daily minimum record of 23.9 C (75.02 F), recorded in Brighton on 3rd August 1990,” it said in a tweet.

The Met Office warned that Tuesday’s extreme heat could lead to “serious illness or danger to life.” As a result, it has said that “substantial changes in working practices and daily routines will be required.”

It also warned of a “high risk of failure” of heat-sensitive systems and equipment, which could lead to localized losses of power and other essential services, including water or cellphone services.

The soaring temperatures have already had a major impact on travel, with London Luton Airport on Monday forced to temporarily suspend flights to allow for a runway repair after it said high surface temperatures “caused a small section of the runway to lift.” The issue was fixed and the runway was fully operational within hours.

In the capital, London’s busy Oxford Circus station was evacuated Tuesday morning following reports of smoke from an escalator machine room.

The London Fire Brigade said the smoke was due to escalator brake pads overheating.

Network Rail, which runs most of the railway network in Britain, issued a “do not travel warning” for services traveling through the “red zone” Tuesday. Meanwhile, other rail and train services have been canceled or reduced due to the extreme heat warning.

The rail network also recorded its “hottest rail,” which clocked in at 144 F.

While the U.K. has experienced warm weather before, scientists have said these soaring temperatures are becoming increasingly common due to climate change propelled by the greenhouse gases that humans are pumping into the atmosphere.

Snell noted that this week’s hot weather came after scientists for decades predicted increasing heatwaves and other extreme weather due to climate change.

“We can’t directly link everything to climate change, but what we can probably say is that this heatwave has probably been enhanced by climate change,” he said.

In Britain, many homes and businesses are not equipped to deal with high temperatures, with air conditioning uncommon outside of offices and public spaces, while many homes were built in the 1800s and have thick brick walls that absorb heat in the day and retain it at night.

Politicians and government advisers have increasingly warned that homes and essential services in the U.K. must be adapted to prepare for rising temperatures in the years to come.

Swimmers on Moulleau beach in southwestern France watch as smoke rises from a forest fire at La Teste-de-Buch on Monday. Thibaud Moritz / AFP – Getty Images

“The planet is hotter than it’s been for 125,000 years. We’ve got 1 degree of warming so far, but I don’t want to be a doom-monger, but we’re going to get more than 1 degree of warming, that’s the average, and that will mean more extreme heat … and we are not ready as a country,” Ed Miliband, Britain’s shadow climate change secretary, told Sky News, which is owned by NBC News’ parent company, Comcast.

In the U.K., the “shadow cabinet” consists of opposition members who scrutinize the policies and practices of their corresponding government ministers and propose alternatives.

“We are not ready on this at all,” Miliband said. “Not by a long shot.”

In Spain, shocking video emerged this week of a man in the northwestern town of Tábara forced to jump from an excavator after trying to dig a trench to safeguard his town from a wildfire.

As the blaze closed in and started to engulf the digger, Angel Martin Arjona was forced to jump out and run for his life, Reuters reported.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/europe/britain-hottest-day-on-record-hot-sunlight-heat-soaring-temperatures-rcna38840

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‘Heat apocalypse’: Photos show Europe’s devastating wildfires as temperatures surge – CNBC

Dubbed a “heat apocalypse” by one French meteorologist, many nations in Europe are sweltering under record temperatures, causing devastating wildfires in some parts of the continent.

Spain and Portugal have seen over 1,000 deaths in the last week attributed to the weather, according to Reuters. Firefighters in France and Greece have also been out in force to try to combat huge wildfires in rural areas.

Heat records have been broken in many parts of Western Europe, with Britain recording its hottest-ever day Tuesday, with temperatures hitting a high of 39.1 degrees Celsius (102.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

In Germany, fears are growing over falling water levels in the Rhine River, a vital shipping route in Europe’s economic heart.

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire next to the village of Tabara, near Zamora in northern Spain

Paramedics help a patient into an ambulance during a heat wave in Barcelona, Spain

Firefighters take positions as smoke rises from a forest fire near Louchats, in the Gironde region of southwestern France

Firefighters operate at the site of a wildfire in Pumarejo de Tera near Zamora, northern Spain

Firefighters respond to a wildfire that broke out in woodland at Lickey Hills Country Park on the edge of Birmingham, England

A helicopter works during a forest fire in Cebreros in Avila, Spain

Firefighters try to control a forest fire near Louchats in Gironde, southwestern France

Tourists look at the plume of dark smoke over the Dune of Pilat from Cap Ferret due to a wildfire in a forest near La Teste, southwestern France

A puddle of water amid the nearly dried-up river bed of the Rhine in Cologne, western Germany

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Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/19/heat-apocalypse-photos-show-europes-devastating-wildfires-as-temperatures-surge.html

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First on CNN: Former Trump National Security Council official will testify at Thursday’s January 6 hearing – CNN

By Evan Perez and Zachary Cohen, CNN

Updated 11:42 PM ET, Mon July 18, 2022

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/politics/matthew-pottinger-testify-january-6/index.html

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First on CNN: Former Trump National Security Council official will testify at Thursday’s January 6 hearing – CNN

Matthew Pottinger, who served on former President Donald Trump’s National Security Council before resigning in the immediate aftermath of January 6, 2021, will testify publicly at Thursday’s prime-time hearing held by the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.

Pottinger is slated to appear alongside former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews.

CNN previously reported that Matthews, who served as deputy press secretary in the Trump White House until resigning shortly after January 6, 2021, was expected to testify publicly. When she resigned, Matthews said she was honored to serve in Trump’s administration but “was deeply disturbed by what I saw.” She said at the time, “Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power.”

Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, stepped down in response to Trump’s reaction to his supporters breaching the US Capitol, a person close to Pottinger confirmed to CNN at the time of his resignation. He told people there was very little for him to consider, the person said at the time.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. A spokesperson for Pottinger did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The public has now heard live testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and seen clips from the recorded depositions of more than 40 others, including members of the Trump family, former administration officials, GOP officials from key battleground states, and members of the former President’s legal team.

Thursday’s hearing will mark the panel’s second prime-time session, and committee members have said it will examine Trump’s inaction for 187 minutes while the US Capitol riot was unfolding.

Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia, who will be leading Thursday’s hearing with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, told CNN the committee will “go through pretty much minute by minute” the then-President’s actions.

“He was doing nothing to actually stop the riot,” the Virginia Democrat told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

This headline and story have been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Jamie Gangel contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/politics/matthew-pottinger-testify-january-6/index.html

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Uvalde officer who casually used hand sanitizer during massacre IDed as Eric Gonzales – New York Post

The Uvalde cop who was caught on video nonchalantly using hand sanitizer inside the Robb Elementary School as children were dying in a nearby classroom has been identified.

Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Gonzales — who faced intense backlash for the bizarrely timed act — was IDed by the Daily Mail as a one-time recipient of a medal of valor for “bravery in the line of duty.”

The 30-year-old cop, who was wearing a helmet and bulletproof vest, casually pumped the hand sanitizer wall unit to clean his hands as officers mulled around the hallway for more than an hour before taking out the shooter, the footage first obtained by the Austin-American Statesman showed.

Viewers of the 77-minute clip were outraged by the officers’ retreat and hour of inaction as the 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos slaughtered 19 children and two teachers.

Social media users found Gonzales’ act particularly off-putting.

“[S]o let me get this straight. Uvalde officers were inside within five minutes, stood around for over an hour, made sure to get HAND SANITIZER … while still hearing rounds being fired and the kids screaming,” Kayce Smith, a Barstool Sports media personality, tweeted. “What the F— are we doing here?? This is revolting.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Gonzales casually pumped the hand sanitizer wall unit to clean his hands an active shooter roamed the school.

Austin American-Statesman

“Would love to hear from this Uvalde cop why he was worried about putting on hand sanitizer while a shooter was massacring kids twenty feet down the hall,” tweeted Cabot Phillips, a senior editor at the Daily Wire, a conservative outlet.

Ironically, Gonzales was awarded a bronze star for valor and bravery in the line of duty in December 2020 after he exchanged gunfire with a man during a traffic stop, according to the Uvalde Leader News.

The Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a Post inquiry. However, Sheriff Ruben Nolasco told the Daily Mail that Gonzales was sanitizing his hands in preparation to assist medics in tending to injured victims.

No medical team, however, can be seen nearby the deputy in the video.

A special Texas House panel investigating the May 24 mass shooting and police response concluded that the nearly 400 cops who showed up to the deadly scene “failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety” in a scathing new report.

“No amount of hand sanitizer is going to wash off those hands in Uvalde. None,” tweeted Jack Posobic, senior editor of the conservative news site Human Events.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/07/18/uvalde-officer-who-used-hand-sanitizer-during-massacre-ided-as-eric-gonzales/

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Dem senators call for Biden ‘unchained’ on climate executive action, despite recent Supreme Court EPA ruling – Fox News

Video

Climate activists are ‘completely unhinged’ after Manchin decision: Climate publisher

Climatedepot.com publisher Marc Morano praises Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., for rejecting a climate spending bill and slams climate activists for pushing ‘necessary bitter medicine’ solutions to the climate.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jeff Merkley Monday said it’s time for Biden to take massive, unilateral executive actions on climate change, even if it’s likely the Supreme Court will strike down at least some of them as unconstitutional.

The senators said now is the time for Biden to make those moves because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., last week rejected including any legislation on climate change in a reconciliation bill Democrats want to pass this month.

With a 50-50 Senate, Democrats need Manchin’s assent for anything to pass on party lines – even when using the reconciliation process to avoid the filibuster.

“We have a president who campaigned on climate, who has been chained to the legislative process, thinking about his past as a senator,” Merkley, D-Ore., said. “Now he’s unchained, and he has to go.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., last week rejected including climate provisions in a reconciliation bill Democrats plan to pass this month.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

SENATE POISED FOR VOTE ON SEMICONDUCTOR BILL AFTER MANCHN AGAIN SHRINKS DEMS’ RECONCILIATION PACKAGE

“President Biden is an optimist and a trusting soul and a very patient man,” Whitehouse, D-R.I., said. “That trust has not been rewarded. I believe, I hope, that that patience is exhausted.”

Whitehouse added that some Senate Democrats, now refusing to count on anything they can negotiate with Manchin, are “eager to see really broad, robust, rapid executive action.”

But their calls for Biden to take major action come as the Supreme Court just dealt the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a major loss. In the case West Virginia v. EPA, the justices ruled that the agency can’t pass sweeping regulations that could overhaul entire industries without additional congressional approval.

“A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the Court’s opinion.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Monday said the fact Congress cannot pass a climate package is an embarrassment to the United States on a global scale.
(Tyler Olson/Fox News)

MANCHIN SAYS HE WON’T SUPPORT CLIMATE, TAX PROVISIONS IN SWEEPING DEMOCRATIC BILL

Whitehouse and Merkely acknowledged that the ruling will present a challenge. Whitehouse called it “evil,” and Merkley accused the court of trying to act like a “super-legislature.”

“The court is laying out a doctrine which they can employ to strike down whatever regulations they want,” Merkley said, referring to the “major questions doctrine,” which the court ruled under on the case.

“We have to live with that, but we cannot sit still for fear of what the court might do,” he added. “Let’s pursue every option and if a few of them are struck down, they’re struck down, we’ll double down on the rest.”

Whitehouse said he’s suggested several options in conversations with the White House. Asked whether those could be upheld in the Supreme Court, he said, “the vast bulk of them could, I believe.”

We cannot sit still for fear of what the court might do. Let’s pursue every option, if a few of them are struck down, they’re struck down. We’ll double down on the rest.

— Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

For his part, Manchin defended his decision to reject not just climate and energy provisions but also tax increases in Democrats’ reconciliation bill due to massive inflation.

“Political headlines are of no value to the millions of Americans struggling to afford groceries and gas as inflation soars to 9.1%,” Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon said last week. “Senator Manchin believes it’s time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”

Manchin also is not taking the possibility of some climate action off the table. He said on West Virginia’s MetroNews Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval that he could be open to passing climate and energy elements of reconciliation later this year if inflation appears to be slowing.

Democrat senators are calling on President Biden to take massive executive action on the climate, even if the Supreme Court will strike down some of it.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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But Merkley and Whitehouse don’t want to count on that. Whitehouse said among the immediate steps Biden can take is for the EPA to mandate carbon capture. Merkley said the president could declare the climate an emergency under the National Emergency Act former President Donald Trump used to redirect money to the border wall.

Doing so is critical, Merkley said, because it’s not clear when Democrats may next hold a trifecta in the House, Senate and White House to pass a climate bill.

“Am I concerned that it will be a decade before we have a climate majority? I am damn concerned about that,” he said. “We have to use every tool at our disposal, and certainly the tool right now is bold, intense executive action.”

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

Tyler Olson covers politics for Fox News Digital. You can contact him at tyler.olson@fox.com and follow him on Twitter at @TylerOlson1791.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-senators-biden-unchained-climate-executive-action-despite-supreme-court-epa

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Europe broils in heat wave that fuels fires in France, Spain – The Associated Press

LA TESTE-DE-BUCH, France (AP) — A heat wave broiling Europe spilled northward Monday to Britain and fueled ferocious wildfires in Spain and France, which evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters to battle flames in tinder-dry forests.

Two people were killed in the blazes in Spain that its prime minister linked to global warming, saying, “Climate change kills.”

That toll comes on top of the hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian peninsula, as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans. Some areas, including northern Italy, are also experiencing extended droughts. Climate change makes such life-threatening extremes less of a rarity — and heat waves have come even to places like Britain, which braced for possible record-breaking temperatures.

The hot weather in the U.K. was expected to be so severe this week that train operators warned it could warp the rails and some schools set up wading pools to help children cool off.

In France, heat records were broken and swirling hot winds complicated firefighting in the country’s southwest.

“The fire is literally exploding,” said Marc Vermeulen, the regional fire service chief who described tree trunks shattering as flames consumed them, sending burning embers into the air and further spreading the blazes.

“We’re facing extreme and exceptional circumstances,” he said.

Authorities evacuated more towns, moving another 14,900 people from areas that could find themselves in the path of the fires and choking smoke. In all, more than 31,000 people have been forced from their homes and summer vacation spots in the Gironde region since the wildfires began July 12.

Three additional planes were sent to join six others fighting the fires, scooping up seawater and making repeated runs through dense clouds of smoke, the Interior Ministry said Sunday night.

More than 200 reinforcements headed to join the 1,500 firefighters trying to contain the blazes in the Gironde, where flames neared prized vineyards and billowed smoke across the Arcachon maritime basin famed for its oysters and beaches.

Spain, meanwhile, reported a second fatality in two days in its own blazes. The body of a 69-year-old sheep farmer was found Monday in the same hilly area where a 62-year-old firefighter died a day earlier when he was trapped by flames in the northwestern Zamora province. More than 30 forest fires around Spain have forced the evacuation of thousands of people and blackened 220 square kilometers (85 square miles) of forest and scrub.

Passengers on a train through Zamora got a frightening, close look at a blaze, when their train halted in the countryside. Video of the unscheduled — and unnerving — stop showed about a dozen passengers in a railcar becoming alarmed as they looked out of the windows at the flames encroaching on both sides of the track.

Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense, more frequent and longer because of climate change — and coupled with droughts have made wildfires harder to fight. They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

“Climate change kills,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday during a visit to the Extremadura region, the site of three major blazes. “It kills people, it kills our ecosystems and biodiversity.”

Teresa Ribera, Spain’s minister for ecological transition, described her country as “literally under fire” as she attended talks on climate change in Berlin.

She warned of “terrifying prospects still for the days to come” — after more than 10 days of temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), cooling only moderately at night.

At least 748 heat-related deaths have been reported in the heat wave in Spain and neighboring Portugal, where temperatures reached 47 C (117 F) earlier this month.

The heat wave in Spain was forecast to ease on Tuesday, but the respite will be brief as temperatures rise again on Wednesday, especially in the dry western Extremadura region.

In Britain, officials have issued the first-ever extreme heat warning, and the weather service forecast that the record high of 38.7 C (101.7 F), set in 2019, could be shattered.

“Forty-one isn’t off the cards,” said Met Office CEO Penelope Endersby. “We’ve even got some 43s in the model, but we’re hoping it won’t be as high as that.”

France’s often-temperate Brittany region sweltered with a record 39.3 C (102.7 F) degrees in the port of Brest, surpassing a high of 35.1 C that had stood since September 2003, French weather service Meteo-France said.

Regional records in France were broken in over a dozen towns, as the weather service said Monday was “the hottest day of this heat wave.”

The Balkans region expected the worst of the heat later this week, but has already seen sporadic wildfires.

Early Monday, authorities in Slovenia said firefighters brought one fire under control. Croatia sent a water-dropping plane there to help after struggling last week with its own wildfires along the Adriatic Sea. A fire in Sibenik forced some people to evacuate their homes but was later extinguished.

In Portugal, much cooler weather Monday helped fire crews make progress. More than 600 firefighters attended four major fires in northern Portugal.

___

Leicester reported from Le Pecq. Associated Press journalists Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Raquel Redondo in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Jovana Gec from Belgrade, Serbia, contributed.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-france-fires-heat-waves-b7c3ecaba66d9851ba0381e68d207784

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Uvalde school board lambasted by parents, called on to quit – NBC News

One by one, dozens of angry parents and residents lambasted the Uvalde school board, repeatedly calling for the superintendent to be fired and trustees to step down after more law enforcement failures were revealed in the response to the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

“Shame on you!” a chorus erupted as the meeting got underway Monday evening.

Hundreds of community members crammed into an auditorium at Uvalde High School, questioning school officials’ handling of safety and demanding accountability from the people paid to protect children and school staff.

Several speakers reinforced calls for the firing of embattled Uvalde School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who remains on paid administrative leave even after resigning his City Council seat.

“If he’s not fired by noon tomorrow, I want your resignation and every single one of you board members because y’all do not give a damn about our children or us,” Brett Cross told Superintendent Hal Harrell and other board members.

Cross’ niece, 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, died in the May 24 shooting.

While some board members attempted to respond to the flurry of complaints and criticisms, none offered concrete information or details that assuaged the audience’s apparent fury. Instead, they appeared dumbfounded by continued calls for transparency and a change in leadership.

Monday’s school board meeting, which lasted more than three hours, followed the release of dramatic police bodycam video that showed multiple officers expressing confusion and doubt over the delay in moving in on the shooter.

A man makes comments as parents and family attend a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District where parents addressed last month’s shooting at Robb Elementary School, on July 18, 2022.Eric Gay / AP

Release of the footage follows a blistering report, released Sunday, by a Texas committee that found “systemic failure and egregiously poor decision making” by law enforcement and the school district.

Investigators found a lack of leadership and coordinated response among responding law enforcement agencies, problems with school infrastructure and communication, including poor Wi-Fi, unlocked doors and a failure to identify the gunman’s previous behavior as a potential threat.

“I am disgusted with your leadership,” Robb Elementary School parent Tina Ann Quintanilla-Taylor said at Monday’s meeting.

Her daughter, Mehle Taylor, 10, lost her best friend, Rogelio Torres, in the shooting. He was one of several of Taylor’s close friends killed in the massacre.

“I don’t want to go to your school if you don’t have protection,” Taylor told the school board Monday evening.

Last week, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District announced security plans for the upcoming academic year including relocating elementary students to other schools and adding more security and fencing to campuses.

School officials said they plan to propose postponing the start of the academic year to after Labor Day as officials finalize security plans upgrades, including hiring additional law enforcement officers.

But parents, residents and even students from other Uvalde-area schools say more needs to be done to protect children, criticizing current plans as insufficient.

“How am I supposed to come back here?” asked Uvalde High School student Jazmin Cazares, whose younger sister, Jaclyn, was among those killed May 24.

“What are you going to do to make sure I don’t have to watch my friends die?” she asked. “What are you going to do make sure I don’t have to wait 77 minutes bleeding out on the floor just like my sister did?”

Robb Elementary School parent Rachel Martinez said her daughter cries at the thought of returning to school and feels safe only at home with her parents.

“This failure falls on all of you,” she said.

“You need to clean house,” Martinez said. “You need to start from zero. Hire experienced trained officers who are prepared to take the responsibility to protect our children.”

Monday’s calls for accountability echoes what community members have been demanding since the deadly shooting. Residents have gathered in auditoriums, flooded the streets in protest and even attended hearings across Texas in an attempt to secure justice for the victims and understand how the law enforcement response failed so spectacularly.

“I can hold myself together now because I’ve done my crying. Now it’s time to do my fighting,” said Vicente Salazar, grandfather of Robb Elementary School victim Layla Salazar. “This is just the beginning of a war you guys created.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uvalde-school-board-lambasted-parents-called-quit-rcna38831

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Police identify "Good Samaritan" who stopped Indiana mall shooting – CBS News

Police on Monday provided more details about the shooting at a mall in Indiana on Sunday that left three victims dead — including the name of the “Good Samaritan” who is believed to have killed the shooter and stopped the attack. Officials called the actions of the armed civilian “nothing short of heroic,” noting that the gunman likely would have killed many more people had he not intervened.

Police said the incident began at approximately 4:54 p.m. local time, when a shooter entered the mall and went straight to a food court bathroom. He stayed there for an hour and two minutes before exiting and beginning to shoot, striking several people and killing three, police said. At 5:57 p.m., less than two minutes after leaving the bathroom, he was confronted by the Good Samaritan, who was visiting the mall with his girlfriend.

The armed civilian was identified by police as 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken.

In a press conference Monday, Mayor Mark M. Meyers called Dicken a “Greenwood Good Samaritan” and thanked him for his quick actions in stopping the shooter. Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said that “Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen who took action within the first two minutes of this shooting.”

Ison also commended Dicken for his skills neutralizing the shooter, saying he engaged the gunman from “quite a distance” and that his actions were “very tactically sound.” He said he does not believe Dicken had any law enforcement or military background.

At the press conference, Johns County Coroner Michael Pruitt identified the deceased victims as Pedro Pineda, 56; and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37; and Victor Gomez, 30. Pedro and Rosa were a married couple having dinner in the food court, Ison said.

A 22-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl were wounded in the shooting. Both are expected to survive.

Police identified the shooter as 20-year-old Jonathan Douglas Sapirman. Police said he was a White man, but did not provide any motive.

Police said Monday that the alleged shooter had a juvenile record but no criminal history as an adult. His juvenile encounters with police were related to minor offenses, such as a fight at school and being listed as a juvenile runaway. Police said they believe he walked to the mall, as he does not drive.

A group of people wait outside of an entrance to Greenwood Park Mall on July 18, 2022 in Greenwood, Indiana. A

Getty Images

Police added the suspect lived alone and they were told by family members he had been recently served an eviction notice. He also left a warehouse job in May, police said.

When police searched the apartment, they found the suspect’s oven was turned on a high temperature. Inside, police said they found a laptop and a can of butane.

Officials recovered two rifles and a Glock pistol after the shooting. Both of the rifles were purchased in Greenwood. Police also recovered multiple magazines and at least 100 rounds of ammo. Only one of the rifles was used in the shooting, police said.

Family members told police there were no indicators the alleged shooter was violent or unstable, Ison said. Police have recovered a cell phone from inside a toilet in the mall bathroom they believe belonged to the alleged shooter and are currently working to extract information from it.

A spokesperson for the Greenwood Park Mall said Monday that “We grieve for the victims of yesterday’s horrific tragedy.”

“Violence has no place in this or any other community,” the spokesperson said. “We are grateful for the strong response of the first responders, including the heroic actions of the Good Samaritan who stopped the suspect.”

Shooting
Indiana

Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/greenwood-park-mall-indiana-mass-shooting-suspect-victims/

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