Texas governor sends migrants to New York City as immigration standoff accelerates – Reuters Canada
Texas governor sends migrants to New York City as immigration standoff accelerates – Reuters Canada

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Friday he has started to send buses carrying migrants to New York City in an effort to push responsibility for border crossers to Democratic mayors and U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The first bus arrived early on Friday at the city’s Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan carrying around 50 migrants. Volunteers were helping to steer people who had no relatives in town to city resources.

“Most of them don’t have anybody to help. They don’t know where to go, so we’re taking them to shelters,” said one volunteer at the bus station, Evelin Zapata, from a group called Grannies Respond.

One family of four from Colombia, who ended up at a homeless intake center in the Bronx, were unsure of where they would spend the night. Byron and Leidy, both 28, said they left the country’s capital Bogota because they were having trouble finding work. They did not provide their last name.

“It’s a little easier to enter the country now, before it was very hard to come here with children,” said Leidy, who traveled with her kids Mariana, 7, and Nicolas, 13. She said the family had hoped someone they knew in New York would take them in, but that plan did not work out. “We came here because they said they would help us find a place to sleep to not have to stay in the street,” Leidy said.

Abbott, who is running for a third term as governor in November elections, has already sent more than 6,000 migrants to Washington since April in a broader effort to combat illegal immigration and call out Biden for his more welcoming policies. read more

Biden came into office in January 2021 pledging to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but some efforts have been blocked in court.

Abbott said New York City Mayor Eric Adams could provide services and housing for the new arrivals.

“I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief,” Abbott said in a statement.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, another Republican, has followed Abbott’s lead and bused another 1,000 to Washington.

U.S. border authorities have made record numbers of arrests under Biden although many are repeat crossers. Some migrants who are not able to be expelled quickly to Mexico or their home countries under a COVID-era policy are allowed into the United States, often to pursue asylum claims in U.S. immigration court.

‘POLITICAL PAWNS’

Adams’ office has in recent weeks criticized the busing efforts to Washington, saying some migrants were making their way to New York City and overwhelming its homeless shelter system.

On Friday the mayor’s press secretary Fabien Levy said Abbott was using “human beings as political pawns,” calling it “a disgusting, and an embarrassing stain on the state of Texas.”

Levy said New York would continue to “welcome asylum seekers with open arms, as we always have, but we are asking for resources to help do so,” calling for support from federal officials.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has also said her city’s shelter system has been taxed by migrant arrivals and last month called on the Biden administration to deploy military troops to assist with receiving the migrants, a request that has frustrated White House officials. read more

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had declined a request for D.C. National Guard to help with the transportation and reception of migrants in the city because it would hurt the troops’ readiness.

Many migrants are arriving after long and difficult journeys through South America.

Venezuelan migrant Jose Gregorio Forero said before traveling more than a day by bus from Texas he had crossed through eight countries. “It’s taken 31 days to get here, on foot and asking for rides,” he said, saying he was glad to be in New York where he thought there would be more job opportunities.

New York, he said, “is very beautiful. I love it.”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/texas-governor-sends-migrants-new-york-city-immigration-standoff-accelerates-2022-08-05/

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Mercedes driver arrested in Windsor Hills crash that killed 5 – Los Angeles Times
Mercedes driver arrested in Windsor Hills crash that killed 5 – Los Angeles Times

A 40-year-old nurse has been arrested and is being booked on vehicular manslaughter charges in the fiery Windsor Hills crash that killed five people, including a pregnant woman, law enforcement sources confirmed to The Times on Friday.

The woman, who is in the hospital, was identified as the driver of the Mercedes-Benz that hurtled down La Brea Ave toward Slauson Avenue between 80 and 100 miles per hour at the time of the crash Thursday afternoon, sources said. Investigators are checking her bloodwork to determine if she was under the influence, and she is cooperating with California Highway Patrol investigators, according to two sources.

She is to be formally charged by the Los Angeles County district attorney on Monday.

The arrest comes as the coroner identified the pregnant woman who died in the high-speed crash.

Asherey Ryan, 23, was the pregnant woman killed in Thursday’s crash, sources confirmed. It was not immediately known which car she was in or how she was involved in the crash.

The names of the four others who died have not been released.

Eight people were also injured in the crash. The L.A. County Fire Department responded to the crash just after 1:40 p.m.

After the crash, a streak of fire burned on the ground.

Smoke could be seen billowing from miles away.

Officer Franco Pepi, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson, said Thursday afternoon that three adults, including a pregnant woman, and an infant were killed in the crash.

Authorities later found another person’s remains inside one of the burned vehicles, he said. That person’s gender or age weren’t known Thursday night.

Ryan also lost her unborn child, which the CHP was counting as an additional fatality “due to rare circumstances,” Pepi said.

A Windsor Hills intersection turned fiery in a Thursday multi-vehicle collision.

Authorities took eight people to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for treatment, he said. Of those injured, six were teens and one suffered major injuries.

A woman who did not want to be named told The Times a Mercedes-Benz hit her car as she was leaving a United Oil gas station.

“I was getting out, had got gas,” she said. “All of a sudden that Mercedes is coming at me on … fire. I didn’t have any time to think about it. It hit my car. I veered, hit the bench on the side.”

The crash caused her to fear a gasoline-fueled explosion, she told The Times.

Nearby, the wrecked Mercedes-Benz with a smashed hood had crashed into a curb.

Investigators believe the driver of the Mercedes-Benz was responsible for the crash, Pepi said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the CHP spokesperson said investigators determined the Mercedes was traveling “at a high rate of speed” and ran a red light while traveling southbound on La Brea.

The woman was hospitalized but was conscious and speaking with CHP investigators Thursday night, he said, adding that he did not know the extent of her injuries.

At least six vehicles were involved in the crash, three of which were engulfed in flames, Pepi said. The others sustained moderate damage.

Mourners began to gather at the crash site Friday. Witnesses described a horrific scene.

Eran Hall has worked at La Brea Gas across the street for about eight months and has seen several car crashes, but never like the one that unfolded Thursday.

“Everyone was just shocked,” Hall told The Times on Friday morning. “Some people started to run away from the gas station because of all the flames. Other people started helping the drivers in the other cars that were pushed to the side.”

At least two people ran out with fire extinguishers, Hall said.

Henry Sanchez, who works at the Sinclair gas station, said the flames were out of control.

“At that point it was just too late for people to do anything,” Sanchez said.

Before the crash, Sanchez heard the scraping sound of the car coming down the hill.

“You hear the tires grinding,” Sanchez said. “The sound stuck with me.”

Noel Senior who works at Little Kingston Jamaican heard a loud boom and when he stepped outside his business and looked down the street he saw a column of flames lapping up at the gas station sign. “There was nothing we could have done. Nobody was going to come from the fire,” Senior said.

Veronica Esquival told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that a baby came to rest in the intersection. “One of the workers came and saw me with the baby and took the baby out of my hands. Somebody tried to resuscitate the baby, but the baby was gone,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-04/windsor-hills-fiery-crash-kills-multiple-people-pregnant-woman

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Gaza: Palestinian commander killed as Israel strikes after militant threats – BBC
Gaza: Palestinian commander killed as Israel strikes after militant threats – BBC

PIJ, which is backed by Iran, has its headquarters in Damascus, Syria, and is one of the strongest militant groups in Gaza. It has been responsible for many attacks, including rocket-fire and shootings against Israel.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62440155

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announces deal on Inflation Reduction Act – USA TODAY
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announces deal on Inflation Reduction Act – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/04/krysten-sinema-inflation-reduction-act-senator-democrats-vote/10234906002/

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Wisconsin couple dead after lightning strike Thursday near White House – The Washington Post
Wisconsin couple dead after lightning strike Thursday near White House – The Washington Post

Police identified those who died as Donna Mueller, 75, and James Mueller, 76, a married couple from Wisconsin. The others remain in critical condition, police said.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/08/05/two-dead-white-house-lightning/

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‘Bull in a china shop’: Ukrainian-born GOP lawmaker rankles colleagues with her aggressive criticism of Kyiv – CNN
‘Bull in a china shop’: Ukrainian-born GOP lawmaker rankles colleagues with her aggressive criticism of Kyiv – CNN

By Melanie Zanona and Natasha Bertrand, CNN

Updated 10:59 AM ET, Fri August 5, 2022

(CNN)When a bipartisan group of lawmakers visited the Ukraine border in March, an unexpected guest showed up on the trip: GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/politics/victoria-spartz-ukraine-republican-reaction/index.html

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    China halts climate, military ties over Pelosi Taiwan visit – The Associated Press
    China halts climate, military ties over Pelosi Taiwan visit – The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON (AP) — China declared Friday it was stopping all dialogue with the United States on major issues, from climate change to military relations, in a day of rapidly escalating tensions over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The White House summoned China’s ambassador to protest what it called China’s “irresponsible” actions since the visit.

    China’s military exercises off Taiwan in reaction to Pelosi’s visit earlier this week were of “concern to Taiwan, to us, and to our partners around the world,” spokesman John Kirby said in a statement after Thursday’s formal diplomatic rebuke to Ambassador Qin Gang at the White House.

    China’s measures, which come amid cratering relations between Beijing and Washington, are the latest in a promised series of steps intended to punish the U.S. for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. China on Thursday launched threatening military exercises in six zones just off Taiwan’s coasts, and they will run through Sunday.

    Missiles have also been fired over Taiwan, Chinese officials told state media. China routinely opposes the self-governing island having its own contacts with foreign governments, but its response to the Pelosi visit has been unusually strong.

    China’s Foreign Ministry said dialogue between U.S. and Chinese regional commanders and defense department heads would be canceled, along with talks on military maritime safety.

    Cooperation on returning illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change will be suspended, the ministry said.

    The actions were taken because Pelosi visited Taiwan “in disregard of China’s strong opposition and serious representations,” the ministry said in a statement.

    China has accused the Biden administration of an attack on Chinese sovereignty, although Pelosi is head of the legislative branch of government and Biden had no authority to prevent her visit.

    Kirby said that senior U.S. officials have been meeting regularly with their Chinese counterparts over the dispute. Calling China’s actions “provocative,” Kirby said the Biden administration condemned China’s military maneuvers as irresponsible and “at odds with our long-standing goal of maintaining peace and stability and across the Taiwan Strait.”

    “Finally, we made clear once again as we have done privately at the highest levels and publicly: Nothing has changed about our one-China policy. We also made clear that the United States is prepared for what Beijing chooses to do.”

    “We will not seek and do not want a crisis,” Kirby said, in language that acknowledged the risky conflict between the two rivals over Taiwan. “At the same time, we will not be deterred from operating in the seas and skies of the Western Pacific, consistent with international law, as we have for decades – supporting Taiwan and defending a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

    China’s actions come ahead of a key congress of the ruling Communist Party later this year at which President Xi Jinping is expected to obtain a third five-year term as party leader. With the economy stumbling, the party has stoked nationalism and issued near-daily attacks on the government of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, which refuses to recognize Taiwan as part of China.

    China said Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships have taken part in the live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan over the past two days, while announcing mainly symbolic sanctions against Pelosi and her family.

    The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockage operations.”

    The military’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “with precision.”

    The Rocket Force also fired projectiles over Taiwan into the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major ratcheting up of China’s threats to attack and invade the island.

    The drills, which Xinhua described as being held on an “unprecedented scale,” are China’s most strident response to Pelosi’s visit. The speaker is the highest-ranking U.S. politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

    Dialogue and exchanges between China and the U.S., particularly on military matters and economic exchanges, have generally been halting at best. Climate change and fighting trade in illegal drugs such as fentanyl were, however, areas where they had found common cause. Beijing’s suspension of cooperation could have significant implications for efforts to achieve progress in those issues.

    China and the United States are the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 climate polluters, together producing nearly 40% of all fossil-fuel emissions. Their top climate diplomats, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua, have maintained a cordial relationship that dated back to the 2015 Paris climate accord, which was made possible by a breakthrough negotiated among the two and others.

    China under Kerry’s prodding committed at last year’s U.N. global climate summit in Glasgow to working with the U.S. “with urgency” to cut climate-wrecking emissions, but Kerry was unable to persuade it to significantly speed up China’s move away from coal.

    On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area.

    Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot in Fujian province.

    Pelosi’s visit stirred emotions among the Chinese public, and the government’s response “makes us feel our motherland is very powerful and gives us confidence that the return of Taiwan is the irresistible trend,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang province.

    China is a “powerful country and it will not allow anyone to offend its own territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student visiting the island.

    His mother, Zheng Zhidan, was somewhat more circumspect.

    “We are compatriots and we hope to live in peace,” Zheng said. “We should live peacefully with each other.”

    China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and its threat to use force to bring it under its control have featured highly in ruling Communist Party propaganda, the education system and the entirely state-controlled media for more than seven decades since the sides were divided amid civil war in 1949.

    Taiwan residents overwhelmingly favor maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands that the island unify with the mainland under Communist control.

    Five of the missiles fired by China since the military exercises began Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”

    Japan’s Defense Ministry later said they believe four other missiles fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian flew over Taiwan.

    Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security.

    In Tokyo, where Pelosi is winding up her Asia trip, she said China cannot stop U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan. Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”

    China said it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union criticizing the Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called the drills a “significant escalation” and said he has urged Beijing to back down.

    Taiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defense drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been canceled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid the Chinese drills.

    ___

    AP writers Huizhong Wu in Taipei, David Rising in Phnom Penh and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-china-asia-beijing-b252479810add6a225fa1e4a6d441983

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    Sinema says she will ‘move forward’ on economic bill, putting Biden’s agenda on the cusp of Senate approval – CNN
    Sinema says she will ‘move forward’ on economic bill, putting Biden’s agenda on the cusp of Senate approval – CNN

    By Manu Raju and Ali Zaslav, CNN

    Updated 9:32 AM ET, Fri August 5, 2022

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/politics/chuck-schumer-economic-bill-saturday/index.html

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    Analyzing how 3 U.S. presidents announced the deaths of terrorist leaders – NPR
    Analyzing how 3 U.S. presidents announced the deaths of terrorist leaders – NPR

    President Barack Obama delivers a televised statement that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. President Donald Trump makes a statement announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. President Biden announces on Monday that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

    Brendan Smialowski/Pool; Alex Wong; Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images


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    Brendan Smialowski/Pool; Alex Wong; Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images

    President Barack Obama delivers a televised statement that Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. President Donald Trump makes a statement announcing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019. President Biden announces on Monday that a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

    Brendan Smialowski/Pool; Alex Wong; Jim Watson/Pool/Getty Images

    The sight of a U.S. president announcing the death of a terrorist leader has been a fixture in American politics over the past 11 years.

    The words each president uttered and their mannerisms at the podium reveal a lot about the type of leaders former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump attempted to be and in the case of President Joe Biden, attempt to be.

    This week, Biden announced that the U.S. had killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul over the weekend.

    In 2019, Trump revealed that the U.S. killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. And in 2011, Obama shared with the American people that Osama bin Laden, the architect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., was killed.

    In the days following Biden’s announcement, edited videos have popped up online comparing the speeches by Biden, Obama and Trump. Though some of the videos are created to put certain leaders in a bad light, analyzing these three speeches is worthwhile, according to historians and rhetoric experts that spoke to NPR.

    Taking a deeper look at each speech, their delivery, even down to the words each used, provides a small window into each man, those experts said.

    Though starkly different characters, there are similarities worth noting, said Thomas Schwartz, a professor of history, political science, and European studies at Vanderbilt University.

    The fact that Obama, Trump and Biden took center stage to announce the execution of another person is “a little bloodthirsty,” Schwartz said.

    “But they do recognize that there’s a domestic political gain from taking out terrorist leaders, and they want to claim it,” he added.

    Each president in their speech makes special note to say that they directed the military and intelligence officers to act on the intel provided, that they gave the orders, Schwartz said. Each man ultimately wants to assert his leadership on the global stage, he said.

    “Underneath it all are presidents trying to justify themselves politically and gain something politically,” Schwartz said. “So I think our comparison on that level is probably justified even if, on stylistic things, it also reminds people what they liked and didn’t like about various presidents.”

    Obama’s speech on bin Laden looms large

    President Barack Obama reads his statement to photographers after making a televised statement on the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP


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    Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

    President Barack Obama reads his statement to photographers after making a televised statement on the death of Osama bin Laden from the East Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

    Each expert that spoke to NPR agreed: Obama’s speech was iconic. Though Trump and Biden took out major terrorist leaders, the gravity of killing bin Laden is unmatched. To some degree, Trump and Biden attempted to even emulate Obama’s bin Laden speech, Schwartz said.

    “Bin Laden was, of course, someone who was a household name in a way that the other two men were not,” said Margaret O’Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington. “So it was sort of an extraordinary historic moment, and something that in a way looms larger than the other two, because it was bin Laden.”

    O’Mara noted that Obama took time to acknowledge the emotion for victims of 9/11 nearly a decade after the attacks.

    “Obama’s speaking almost within a decade of 9/11 so it’s much more raw,” she said.

    Obama, in a measured and somber tone, said in his nine-minute speech: “It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history.”

    In this image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

    Pete Souza/AP


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    Pete Souza/AP

    In this image released by the White House and digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1, 2011.

    Pete Souza/AP

    He went on to say: “And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child’s embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.”

    Obama also carefully described how the White House came to receive intelligence on bin Laden and a short description of the steps special forces took to kill him.

    “There’s no question that watching Obama, you got reminded of how deliberative and almost academic his style could be in discussing things,” Schwartz noted.

    Trump rejects traditional presidential rhetoric

    Former President Donald Trump speaks on Oct. 27, 2019 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, announcing that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.

    Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP


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    Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

    Former President Donald Trump speaks on Oct. 27, 2019 in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, announcing that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, is dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria.

    Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

    Former President Trump took a far different approach in announcing the execution of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

    Taking a moment to analyze Trump’s speech in comparison to Obama and Biden provides “a window into a lot of things,” O’Mara said.

    “In kind of a very blunt way, it’s a window into how Trump was such a very different president — and not just different from the two men who were on either side of him, but modern presidents generally,” she said. “If you dial back and look at presidential oratory of presidents of both parties, it’s very different in terms of not only the tone, but what type of information is being relayed.”

    Trump, known for lengthy rally speeches during his presidency, spoke for far longer than Obama or Biden in this announcement. His initial speech went on for over eight minutes, but he went on to take questions from reporters for another 40 minutes.

    And with his usual flair, Trump spoke about the raid in dramatic detail using emotive language to describe both al-Baghdadi and the manner in which he died.

    “No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said.

    He went on describing the operation, saying, “The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him.”

    This goes back to Trump’s background not in politics, but as a businessman and reality TV star, these experts noted.

    “One of the things that was very noteworthy about Trump’s presidential rhetoric was that he claimed to not want to use it, he said that he didn’t want to be presidential,” said Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric and professor at Texas A&M University. “He thought that presidential [style] was boring and lame and he thought that he won the office of the presidency by being dynamic and interesting. And so that’s, I think, very clearly reflected.”

    In comparison, Biden and Obama delivered very somber speeches, she said.

    Biden tries to project strength

    President Biden speaks from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House on Monday as he announces that a U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan.

    Jim Watson/AP


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    Jim Watson/AP

    President Biden speaks from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House on Monday as he announces that a U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan.

    Jim Watson/AP

    Biden is known to struggle with blunders and flubs in speeches. He’s even sometimes said the opposite of what he means, as noted by a New York Times piece during the 2020 presidential campaign.

    For the announcement regarding the killing of al-Zawahiri, Biden (like the two presidents before him) wanted to communicate strength and power, Schwartz said.

    Both Obama and Biden showed restraint in the language and description used to explain the killing of al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, Mercieca said.

    Both men used the office of the president to sound official and to talk about justice owed to victims of 9/11.

    Biden said of al-Zawahiri: “He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats, and American interests. And since the United States delivered justice to bin Laden 11 years ago, Zawahiri has been a leader of al Qaeda — the leader.”

    He added: “Now justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more.”

    Presidents do this to “sort of elevate what could be a very crass event, which is that the United States has exacted revenge and murdered someone else,” Mercieca said.

    “What Donald Trump did was the opposite. He didn’t try to elevate it,” she said. “Instead, he called the person a ‘dog,’ he very crudely described how they died, and what it meant.”

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/08/05/1115413454/biden-trump-obama-speeches-terrorist-leaders

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    2 dead, 2 in critical condition after lightning strike near White House – CBS News
    2 dead, 2 in critical condition after lightning strike near White House – CBS News

    Two people who were critically injured in a lightning strike outside the White House have died, police confirmed to CBS News Friday. Two others remained hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

    James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, of Janesville, Wisconsin, died of their injuries after the lightning strike in Lafayette Park, located directly outside the White House complex, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

    The two other people, a man and a woman, were in critical condition, the police department said. Their identities were not immediately released.

    The lightning strike was reported at 6:52 p.m. The victims were near a statue of Andrew Jackson, Maggiolo said, adding that “it appeared they were in the vicinity of a tree.”

    Uniformed Secret Service agents and U.S. Park Police officers who were in the area and witnessed the strike provided first aid to the victims, Maggiolo said.

    “Their agents, their officers, witnessed this lightning strike and immediately began to render aid,” Maggiolo said.

    It’s unclear exactly what the victims were doing at the time.

    “We are saddened by the tragic loss of life after the lightning strike in Lafayette Park,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “Our hearts are with the families who lost loved ones, and we are praying for those still fighting for their lives.”

    A CBS News camera that was recording on the White House North Lawn around the time of the lightning strike captured the powerful rumble of the thunder.

    “The thunder was so loud, @gabrielle_ake and I jumped up in fright,” CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes tweeted. “‘That’s too close – we’re shutting down’ advised photographer Ron Windham.” 

    Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightning-strike-white-house-lafayette-square/

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    Horrific crash leaves 5 dead, 8 hurt in Windsor Hills as speeding Mercedes slams into cars – Los Angeles Times
    Horrific crash leaves 5 dead, 8 hurt in Windsor Hills as speeding Mercedes slams into cars – Los Angeles Times

    Authorities on Friday were investigating a fiery multi-car crash left five dead, including a pregnant woman and an infant, in Windsor Hills neighborhood Thursday.

    Eight people were also injured in the crash at La Brea and Slauson avenues. The L.A. County Fire Department responded to the crash just after 1:40 p.m.

    Surveillance video of the crash shows a Mercedes-Benz barreling down La Brea at high speed as dozens of cars cross the intersection on Slauson. The Mercedes runs a red light and slams into cars in the intersection, then bursts into flames and hurtles into a light pole, where it comes to rest.

    After the crash, a streak of fire burns on the ground.

    Smoke could be seen billowing from miles away.

    Officer Franco Pepi, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson, said Thursday afternoon that three adults, including a pregnant woman, and an infant were killed in the crash.

    Authorities later found another person’s remains inside one of the burned vehicles, he said. That person’s gender or age weren’t known Thursday night.

    The pregnant woman also lost her unborn child, which the CHP was counting as an additional fatality “due to rare circumstances,” Pepi said.

    At least four people, including an infant and a pregnant woman, were killed in the fiery multi-vehicle crash in Los Angeles, authorities said.

    Authorities took eight people to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for treatment, he said. Of those injured, six were teens and one suffered major injuries.

    A woman who did not want to be named told The Times a Mercedes-Benz hit her car as she was leaving a United Oil gas station.

    “I was getting out, had got gas,” she said. “All of a sudden that Mercedes is coming at me on … fire. I didn’t have any time to think about it. It hit my car. I veered, hit the bench on the side.”

    The crash caused her to fear a gasoline-fueled explosion, she told The Times.

    Nearby, the wrecked Mercedes-Benz with a smashed hood had crashed into a curb.

    Investigators believe the driver of the Mercedes-Benz was responsible for the crash, Pepi said.

    The cause of the crash was not immediately known, but the CHP spokesperson said investigators determined the Mercedes was traveling “at a high rate of speed” and ran a red light while traveling southbound on La Brea.

    The driver has been identified only as a female adult, Pepi said.

    The woman was hospitalized but was conscious and speaking with CHP investigators Thursday night, he said, adding that he did not know the extent of her injuries.

    At least six vehicles were involved in the crash, three of which were engulfed in flames, Pepi said. The others sustained moderate damage.

    Witnesses described a horrific scene.

    “It looked like the whole intersection from corner to corner was on fire,” Harper Washington told KABC-TV. “A lot of sparks and electricity. I was under the impression that, really at first I thought they dropped a bomb on us. … Once the fire went away and the booming left, I realized it was two cars there. You could see the people on fire and that’s just sad. I really pray for the people and the community.”

    Veronica Esquival told KTLA that a baby came to rest in the intersection. “One of the workers came and saw me with the baby and took the baby out of my hands. Somebody tried to resuscitate the baby, but the baby was gone.” she said.

    Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-04/windsor-hills-fiery-crash-kills-multiple-people-pregnant-woman

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    The last time there was a Taiwan crisis, China’s military was outmatched by U.S. forces. Not now. – NBC News
    The last time there was a Taiwan crisis, China’s military was outmatched by U.S. forces. Not now. – NBC News
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    What’s Next in the Alex Jones Trial? Jury to Weigh Additional Damages – The New York Times
    What’s Next in the Alex Jones Trial? Jury to Weigh Additional Damages – The New York Times

    After ordering the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a child killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, jurors will return on Friday to consider awarding punitive damages.

    The jury, which announced the partial award on Thursday after several dramatic days in court, is scheduled to hear additional testimony about Mr. Jones and his misinformation-peddling media outlet Infowars that is likely to include discussion of his net worth and his company’s.

    Compensatory damages are based on proven harm, loss or injury, and are often calculated based on the fair market value of damaged property, lost wages and expenses, according to Cornell Law School. Punitive damages are designed to punish especially harmful behavior and tend to be granted at the court’s discretion, and are sometimes many multiples of a compensatory award.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/us/alex-jones-punitive-damages.html

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    China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan – The Associated Press
    China summons European diplomats over statement on Taiwan – The Associated Press

    BEIJING (AP) — China says it is canceling or suspending dialogue with the U.S. on issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation for a visit this week to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

    The measures announced Friday are the latest in a promised series of steps intended to punish Washington for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary. China is holding threatening military exercises in six zones off Taiwan’s coasts.

    Missiles were also fired over Taiwan, defense officials told state media. China opposes the self-governing island having its own engagements with foreign governments.

    The Foreign Ministry said dialogue between area commanders and defense department heads would be canceled, along with talks on military maritime safety. Cooperation on returning illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change would be suspended, the ministry said.

    THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

    BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships have taken part in live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan over the past two days, while announcing sanctions on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her visit to the self-governing island earlier this week.

    The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockage operations” taking place in six zones off the coast of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

    The military’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “with precision.”

    The Rocket Force also fired projectiles over Taiwan into the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major ratcheting up of China’s threats to attack and invade the island.

    The drills, which Xinhua described as being held on an “unprecedented scale,” are China’s response to a visit this week by Pelosi to Taiwan. The speaker is the highest ranking U.S. politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.

    China announced unspecified sanctions on Pelosi and her family. Such sanctions are generally mostly symbolic in nature.

    A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said that Pelosi had disregarded China’s serious concerns and resolute opposition to her visit. It called Pelosi’s visit provocative and said it undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

    China opposes Taiwan having its own engagements with foreign governments.

    On the Chinese coast across from Taiwan, tourists gathered Friday to try to catch a glimpse of any military aircraft heading toward the exercise area.

    Fighter jets could be heard flying overhead and tourists taking photos chanted, “Let’s take Taiwan back,” looking out into the blue waters of the Taiwan Strait from Pingtan island, a popular scenic spot in Fujian province.

    Pelosi’s visit stirred emotions among the Chinese public and the government’s response “makes us feel our motherland is very powerful and gives us confidence that the return of Taiwan is the irresistible trend,” said Wang Lu, a tourist from the neighboring Zhejiang province.

    China is a “powerful country and it will not allow anyone to offend its own territory,” said Liu Bolin, a high school student who is visiting the island.

    His mother, Zheng Zhidan, was somewhat more circumspect.

    “We are compatriots and we hope to live in peace,” Zheng said. “We should live peacefully with each other.”

    China’s insistence that Taiwan is its territory and threat to use force to bring it under its control has featured highly in ruling Communist Party propaganda, the education system and the entirely state-controlled media for the more than seven decades since the sides divided amid civil war in 1949.

    Island residents overwhelmingly favor maintaining the status quo of de facto independence and reject China’s demands that Taiwan unify with the mainland under Communist control.

    On Friday morning, China sent military ships and war planes across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said, crossing what had for decades been an unofficial buffer zone between China and Taiwan.

    Five of the missiles fired by China since the military exercises began Thursday landed in Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said. He said Japan protested the missile landings to China as “serious threats to Japan’s national security and the safety of the Japanese people.”

    Japan’s Defense Ministry later said they believe the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan.

    Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said China’s actions were in line with “international law and international practices,” though she provided no evidence.

    “As for the Exclusive Economic Zone, China and Japan have not carried out maritime delimitation in relevant waters, so there is no such thing as an EEZ of Japan,” Hua told reporters at a daily briefing.

    In Tokyo, where Pelosi is winding up her Asia trip, she said China cannot stop U.S. officials from visiting Taiwan. Speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, Kishida said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”

    China said it summoned European diplomats in the country to protest statements issued by the Group of Seven nations and the European Union criticizing threatening Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan.

    The Foreign Ministry on Friday said Vice Minister Deng Li made “solemn representations” over what he called “wanton interference in China’s internal affairs.”

    Deng said China would “prevent the country from splitting with the strongest determination, using all means and at any cost.”

    “Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is a blatant political manipulation and a blatant and serious violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Deng said. “In response to the U.S.-Taiwan collusion and provocation, China’s counterattack is only natural.”

    China’s Foreign Ministry said the meeting was held Thursday night but gave no information on which countries participated. Earlier Thursday, China canceled a foreign ministers’ meeting with Japan to protest the G-7 statement that there was no justification for the exercises.

    Both ministers were attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Cambodia.

    China has promoted the overseas support it has received for its response to Pelosi’s visit, mainly from fellow authoritarian states such as Russia and North Korea.

    China had earlier summoned U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns to protest Pelosi’s visit. The speaker left Taiwan on Wednesday after meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen and holding other public events. She traveled on to South Korea and then Japan. Both countries host U.S. military bases and could be drawn into a conflict involving Taiwan.

    The Chinese exercises involve troops from the navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force and logistic support force, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

    They are believed to be the largest held near Taiwan in geographical terms, with Beijing announcing six exercise zones surrounding the island.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday called the drills a “significant escalation” and said he has urged Beijing to back down.

    Blinken told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with ASEAN in Cambodia that Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and did not represent a change in American policy toward Taiwan, accusing China of using it as a “pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait.”

    He said the situation had led to a “vigorous communication” during East Asia Summit meetings in Phnom Penh in which both he and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took part along with the ASEAN nations, Russia and others.

    U.S. law requires the government to treat threats to Taiwan, including blockades, as matters of “grave concern.”

    The drills are due to run from Thursday to Sunday and include missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters held in 1995 and 1996.

    Taiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defense drills, but the overall mood remained calm on Friday. Flights have been canceled or diverted and fishermen have remained in port to avoid the Chinese drills.

    In the northern port of Keelung, Lu Chuan-hsiong, 63, was enjoying his morning swim Thursday, saying he wasn’t worried.

    “Everyone should want money, not bullets,” Lu said.

    Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-china-asia-beijing-b252479810add6a225fa1e4a6d441983

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    Jury finds Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million for Sandy Hook hoax claims – Reuters
    Jury finds Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million for Sandy Hook hoax claims – Reuters

    Aug 4 (Reuters) – U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre at least $4.1 million for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax, a Texas jury said on Thursday.

    The verdict followed a two-week trial in Austin, Texas, where Jones’s radio show and webcast Infowars are based. The amount fell far short of the millions of dollars in compensatory damages that had been sought.

    Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, separated parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, testified that Jones’ followers harassed them and sent them death threats for years in the false belief that the parents were lying about their son’s death.

    The 12-person jury will next consider the parents’ request for punitive damages from Jones for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

    Those deliberations are expected to begin after both sides on Friday present arguments on Jones’ net worth.

    The jurors, who voted 10-2 on compensatory damages, could still award the parents a large punitive damages verdict if they think Jones’ conduct was not highly damaging but worthy of punishment, legal experts said.

    “We are very pleased with the verdict, and we are looking forward to the punitive damages phase that starts tomorrow,” Kyle Farrar, an attorney for the parents, said in an email.

    Lawyers for Jones, who was not present in the courtroom while the verdict was read, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Trial consultant Jill Huntley Taylor said it is not uncommon for a jury to award higher punitive damages than compensatory ones.

    “If jurors’ motivation for an award is their anger at the defendant, then they often award a bigger punitive damage number,” she said in an interview.

    During closing arguments on Wednesday, Farrar urged jurors to end what he called their nightmare and hold Jones accountable for profiting off their son’s death.

    ‘100% REAL’

    1/10

    Alex Jones steps outside of the Travis County Courthouse, to do interviews with media after he was questioned under oath about text messages and emails by lawyer Mark Bankston, in Austin, Texas, U.S. August 3, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS

    Federico Reynal, an attorney for Jones, acknowledged during his closing argument that Jones and Infowars reported “irresponsibly” on Sandy Hook but said his client was not responsible for the harassment.

    Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors.

    He later acknowledged that the shooting took place and sought to distance himself from previous falsehoods during the trial, telling jurors it was “crazy” of him to repeatedly make the claim that the shooting was a hoax.

    He said that the shooting was “100% real.”

    In a surprising development, Heslin and Lewis’ lawyers disclosed Wednesday that Jones’ lawyers had inadvertently sent them two years worth of his texts and failed to request them back in time.

    Gamble on Thursday denied a motion for a mistrial by Jones’s lawyer who argued that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. The parents may now use the records as they wish.

    Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

    Judge Maya Guerra Gamble admonished Jones on Tuesday for not telling the truth about his bankruptcy and compliance with discovery during his testimony.

    The parents’ lawyer also accused Jones of approaching the trial in bad faith, citing broadcasts where Jones said the trial was rigged against him and that the jury pool was full of people who “don’t know what planet they’re on.”

    Heslin and Lewis joined other Sandy Hook parents in urging a judge to block Free Speech System from sending Jones or his companies any money until they get to the bottom of their finances. read more

    The parents claim that Jones took $62 million from the company while burdening it with $65 million in “fabricated” debt owed to PQPR Holdings, a company owned by Jones and his parents.

    Jones was set to stand trial in a similar suit in Connecticut in September, but that case is now on hold while the bankruptcy proceeds.

    The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.

    Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/mistrial-denied-jury-weighs-damages-against-alex-jones-sandy-hook-defamation-2022-08-04/

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    Democrats secure breakthrough with Kyrsten Sinema on climate bill – The Guardian US
    Democrats secure breakthrough with Kyrsten Sinema on climate bill – The Guardian US

    Senate Democratic leaders say they have reached an agreement on the party’s major climate and economic bill with Kyrsten Sinema – the centrist Democrat whose opposition remained a major hurdle to passing the most ambitious US climate legislation yet.

    The support of Sinema, a former member of the Green Party who has evolved into one of Congress’ most conservative Democrats, was crucial to the passage of the bill, which tackles energy, environment, health and tax measures. Its success is seen as the Democratic party’s most substantive chance to deliver domestic policy progress before the midterm elections.

    Backing from all 50 Democratic senators will be needed to pass any legislation in the evenly-divided Senate given the party’s narrow majority and Republican resistance to acting on the climate crisis.

    Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, said lawmakers had achieved a compromise “that I believe will receive the support” of all Democrats in the chamber. His party needs unanimity to move the measure through the 50-50 Senate, along with vice-president Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.

    Sinema, the Arizona senator seen as the pivotal vote, said in a statement that she had agreed to eleventh-hour changes in the measure’s tax and energy provisions and was ready to “move forward” on the bill.

    She said Democrats had agreed to remove a provision raising taxes on “carried interest,” or profits that go to executives of private equity firms. That’s been a proposal she has long opposed, though it is a favorite of other Democrats, including the conservative West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin, an architect of the overall bill.

    The carried interest provision was estimated to produce $13bn for the government over the coming decade, a small portion of the measure’s $739bn in total revenue.

    Securing Sinema’s support was the next challenge for Democrats after Manchin, the centrist Democrat famed for thwarting his own party’s climate goals, surprised Washington last week by backing the plan.

    Manchin, who has made millions of dollars from his ownership of a coal-trading firm, made an abrupt U-turn last week and announced support for $369bn in spending to support renewable energy and reduce emissions.

    Schumer has said he hopes the Senate can begin voting on the bill – known as the Inflation Reduction Act – on Saturday. Passage by the House, which Democrats control narrowly, could come next week.

    Final congressional approval of the election-year measure would be a marquee achievement for Joe Biden and his party, notching an accomplishment they could tout to voters as November approaches.

    Oliver Milman contributed reporting

    Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/04/democrats-kyrsten-sinema-agreement-climate-and-economic-bill

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    Pelosi: China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan – The Associated Press – en Español
    Pelosi: China cannot stop US officials from visiting Taiwan – The Associated Press – en Español

    TOKYO (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that China will not isolate Taiwan by preventing U.S. officials from traveling there.

    She made the remarks in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taiwan that infuriated China.

    The Chinese have tried to isolate Taiwan, Pelosi said, including most recently by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization.

    “They may try to keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there,” she said.

    Pelosi said her trip to Taiwan was not intended to change the status quo for the island but to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait. She also praised Taiwan’s hard-fought democracy, including its progress in diversity and success in technology and business, and criticized China’s violations of trade agreements, proliferation of weapons and human rights problems.

    Pelosi, the first House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the U.S. commitment to democracy on the island and elsewhere “remains ironclad.”

    Pelosi and five other members of Congress arrived in Tokyo late Thursday after visiting Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.

    In Taipei on Wednesday, Pelosi said the American commitment to democracy in Taiwan and elsewhere “remains ironclad.” She became the first House speaker to visit the island in 25 years.

    China, which claims Taiwan and has threatened to annex it by force if necessary, called her visit to the island a provocation and on Thursday began military drills, including missile strike training, in six zones surrounding Taiwan, in what could be its biggest since the mid-1990s.

    Pelosi said that China had launched the “strikes probably using our visit as an excuse.”

    Earlier Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that China’s military exercises aimed at Taiwan represent a “grave problem” that threatens regional peace and security after five ballistic missiles launched as part of the drills landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

    Kishida, speaking after breakfast with Pelosi and her congressional delegation, said the missile launches need to be “stopped immediately.”

    Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said five missiles landed on Thursday in Japan’s exclusive economic zone off Hateruma, an island far south of Japan’s main islands. He said Japan protested to China, saying the missiles “threatened Japan’s national security and the lives of the Japanese people, which we strongly condemn.”

    The Defense Ministry later said it believed the other four missiles, fired from China’s southeastern coast of Fujian, flew over Taiwan.

    Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, attending a regional meeting in Cambodia, said China’s actions are “severely impacting peace and stability in the region and the international community, and we demand the immediate suspension of the military exercises.”

    Japan has in recent years bolstered its defense capability and troop presence in southwestern Japan and remote islands, including Okinawa, which is about 700 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of Taiwan. Many residents say they worry their island will be quickly embroiled in any Taiwan conflict. Okinawa is home to the majority of about 50,000 American troops based in Japan under a bilateral security pact.

    At the breakfast earlier Friday, Pelosi and her congressional delegation also discussed their shared security concern over China, North Korea and Russia, and pledged their commitment to working toward peace and stability in Taiwan, Kishida said. Pelosi was also to hold talks with her Japanese counterpart, lower house Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda.

    Japan and its key ally, the U.S., have been pushing for new security and economic frameworks with other democracies in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe as a counter to China’s growing influence amid rising tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

    Days before Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, a group of senior Japanese lawmakers, including former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, visited the island and discussed regional security with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Ishiba said Japan, while working with the United States to prevent conflict in the Indo-Pacific, wants a defense agreement with Taiwan.

    On Thursday, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations issued a statement saying “there is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait.” It said China’s “escalatory response risks increasing tensions and destabilizing the region.”

    China cited its displeasure over the statement for the last-minute cancellation of talks between the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia on Thursday.

    Pelosi held talks on Thursday in South Korea, also a key U.S. ally, which stayed away from the Taiwan issue, apparently to avoid upsetting China, focusing instead on North Korea’s increasing nuclear threat.

    In recent years, South Korea has been struggling to strike a balance between the United States and China as their rivalry has deepened.

    The Chinese military exercises launched Thursday involve its navy, air force and other departments and are to last until Sunday. They include missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills in 1995 and 1996 aimed at intimidating Taiwan’s leaders and voters.

    Taiwan has put its military on alert and staged civil defense drills, while the U.S. has numerous naval assets in the area.

    China also flew war planes toward Taiwan and blocked imports of its citrus and fish.

    China sees the island as a breakaway province and considers visits to Taiwan by foreign officials as recognizing its sovereignty.

    The Biden administration and Pelosi have said the United States remains committed to the so-called one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. The administration discouraged but did not prevent Pelosi from visiting.

    Pelosi has been a long-time advocate of human rights in China. She, along with other lawmakers, visited Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1991 to support democracy two years after a bloody military crackdown on protesters at the square.

    As leader of the House of Representatives, Pelosi’s trip has heightened U.S.-China tensions more than visits by other members of Congress. The last House speaker to visit Taiwan was Newt Gingrich in 1997.

    China and Taiwan, which split in 1949 after a civil war, have no official relations but multibillion-dollar business ties.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-china-japan-nancy-pelosi-taipei-7114ce2a974d0a806ba5c85665287bb4

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    Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones’ phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says – CNN
    Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones’ phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says – CNN

    By Devan Cole and Oliver Darcy, CNN

    Updated 9:49 PM ET, Thu August 4, 2022

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/04/politics/alex-jones-texts-federal-state-investigators-january-6/index.html

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    What Pro-Lifers Should Learn From Kansas – The Wall Street Journal
    What Pro-Lifers Should Learn From Kansas – The Wall Street Journal

    Peggy Noonan is an opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal where her column, “Declarations,” has run since 2000.

    She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2017.  A political analyst for NBC News, she is the author of nine books on American politics, history and culture, from her most recent, “The Time of Our Lives,” to her first, “What I Saw at the Revolution.” She is one of ten historians and writers who contributed essays on the American presidency for the book, “Character Above All.” Noonan was a special assistant and speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. In 2010 she was given the Award for Media Excellence by the living recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor; the following year she was chosen as Columnist of the Year by The Week. She has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, and has taught in the history department at Yale University.

    Before entering the Reagan White House, Noonan was a producer and writer at CBS News in New York, and an adjunct professor of Journalism at New York University. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up there, in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and in Rutherford, New Jersey. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford. She lives in New York City. In November, 2016 she was named one of the city’s Literary Lions by the New York Public Library.

    Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-pro-lifers-lost-in-kansas-state-constitution-referendum-abortion-roe-dobbs-republican-party-messaging-mothers-15-week-11659644420

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    Democrats, Sinema reach deal on new taxes in Inflation Reduction Act – The Washington Post
    Democrats, Sinema reach deal on new taxes in Inflation Reduction Act – The Washington Post

    As part of it, Democrats opted to seek a new 1 percent tax on corporate stock buybacks, a move that would make up at least some of the revenue that might have lost as a result of the changes, the two people familiar with the matter said. And they agreed to set aside new money at Sinema’s request to respond to climate issues including drought, according to the sources.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/08/04/inflation-reduction-act-sinema/

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    4 people in critical condition after apparent lightning strike at DC park – ABC News
    4 people in critical condition after apparent lightning strike at DC park – ABC News

    Four people are in critical condition following an apparent lightning strike at a Washington, D.C., park, authorities said Thursday evening.

    D.C. Fire and EMS said it had responded to Lafayette Park, located in front of the White House, and was treating the four patients.

    Two men and two women were transported to area hospitals with “life-threatening injuries” after the apparent lightning strike, D.C. Fire and EMS said.

    Uniformed U.S. Park Police officers and members of the Secret Service were also on the scene and immediately rendered aid to the victims, an EMS official said during a news conference.

    The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area Thursday evening.

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

    Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/people-critical-condition-apparent-lightning-strike-dc-park/story?id=87957127

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