Protesters arrested after clash with police outside Chicago’s Israeli consulate

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CHICAGO — Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters charged a line of police in an intense standoff with hundreds of officers outside the Israeli consulate Tuesday on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

After the larger gathering began to disperse, splintering off into smaller groups, other interactions with police led to more than a dozen arrests. Officers called the demonstrations “an unlawful assembly.”

Earlier in the night, officers carrying wooden clubs shouted “move” and penned the demonstrators in on the street, preventing them from marching.

Some demonstrators set an American flag on fire in the street as the celebratory roll call for Vice President Kamala Harris took place inside the United Center about 3.2 kilometers away. Others carried Palestinian flags, while many others wore black and covered their faces.

As protesters regrouped and approached a line of police in riot gear in front of a Chicago skyscraper that houses the Israeli consulate, an officer said into a megaphone, “You are ordered to immediately disburse.” A woman in the front of the march shouted back with her own megaphone: “We’re not scared of you.”

A man in a Chicago Bulls hat, his face covered by a balaclava, called on protesters to “shut down the DNC.” The group, which is not affiliated with the coalition of over 200 groups that organized Monday’s protests, advertised the demonstration Tuesday under the slogan of “Make it great like ’68,” invoking the anti-Vietnam War protests that seized the city during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The atmosphere with rows of police in riot gear was a stark contrast to a day earlier when thousands of pro-Palestinian activists, including families pushing babies in strollers, marched near the convention site calling for a cease-fire.

Police kept protesters confined to a block of Madison Street, a normally bustling downtown thoroughfare where traffic was halted on both ends Tuesday evening.

Law enforcement had closed down most of the entrances to the building on Tuesday, allowing commuters to come in only one entrance where armed officers were also posted. Many of the building’s shops were closed. Martha Hill, a spokeswoman for the Metra commuter rail service, said train service was running as normal.

The consulate has been the site of numerous demonstrations since the war in Gaza began in October. It is in a building connected to the Ogilvie Transportation Center, a major commuter rail station.

Mohammed Ismail, a 29-year-old psychiatry resident who lives in Chicago, described the police presence as “excessive,” and questioned why the group had been blocked from marching. He said he joined the protest to urge Democrats to cease funding to Israel.

“It’s not right that we’re sending our tax money to fund an ongoing slaughter, an ongoing genocide,” Ismail said. “We’re a part of this conflict because our money is paying for it.”

Meanwhile, the sites of demonstrations from the previous night were largely quiet. Thirteen people were arrested during Monday’s protests, most them related to a “brief breach” of security fencing “within sight and sound of the United Center,” the city’s police superintendent said.

Israel supporters, including some relatives of people kidnapped by Hamas, gathered earlier in the day at a pro-Israel art installation not far from the consulate to call on U.S. leaders to continue backing Israel and pushing for the release of hostages. The art installation included giant milk cartons bearing photos of some of the hostages.

Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli-American Council, condemned the pro-Palestinian protesters who have descended on Chicago this week, calling them “fringe crazies” and demanding that U.S. leaders “stand unequivocally with the state of Israel.”

More protests were planned throughout the week. However, attendance at the main rally on Monday was far below estimates of organizers who had predicted more than 20,000 would show up.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said Tuesday that the crowd was around 3,500 strong and that the vast majority of the protesters were peaceful.

However, some clashed with police, used pepper spray against them and threw water bottles at officers during the clash in the park where there was a breach in security fencing, Snelling said. He said officers did not use any chemical sprays.

“Our officers showed great restraint,” he said at a news conference. “We’re not going to tolerate vandalism and violence in our city. … We’re going to continue to protect the city.”

Snelling said with more protests planned, his department is prepared to de-escalate situations whenever possible.

“Again, we’re up to the challenge,” Snelling said. “The city is up to the challenge.”

The park where the most arrests were made, located a block from the convention arena, served as a destination point for a march of thousands calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Several dozen activists broke off from the main group, breached the fencing, and were pushed back by police.

Authorities said the inner security perimeter surrounding the United Center was not breached and there was no threat to those attending the convention.

On Tuesday morning, an extra line of fencing was installed at the park and the tall metal barriers were reinforced to prevent protesters from lifting and removing the panels. No police officers or protesters were in the park early Tuesday.

The 13 people arrested during Monday’s protest were detained on charges ranging from criminal trespass and resisting and obstructing an arrest, to aggravated battery of police officers, Snelling said.

At least 10 of them were arrested in connection with the fence, he said.

Snelling said he did not connect those who tore down the fence with the entirety of the march. He said the vast majority of participants were peaceful, and he praised his officers’ conduct in the moment.

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said two of the people arrested were hospitalized. Snelling said they were not taken to the hospital for injuries, but “so they could be provided the treatment they needed when it came to their medications.”

Two people were also arrested on misdemeanor property damage and resisting arrest charges during a protest march Sunday night. As of Tuesday morning, 15 people had been arrested.

Most of the largest demonstrations have been organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC, which has focused on calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. But smaller protests have popped up around the city, during the convention’s welcome party at Navy Pier.
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Political criticism and controversy swirls ahead of China video game release

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washington —  The release of a Chinese video game touted as the country’s first to meet Triple-A standards, has sparked a flurry of online criticism of the Chinese government.

Video games are given a AAA label when they are backed by big funds, highly developed and distributed by well-known publishers.

The Aug. 20 worldwide release of the Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong has been anticipated since its demo got more than 56 million views on the Chinese video-sharing website Bilibili in 2020.

On YouTube, which is banned in China, the game demo had more than 10 million views.

Developed by China-based Game Science, the game has players take on the role of the Monkey King, a character from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, and defeat monsters wreaking havoc on the world.

Although the game has no direct connection to politics, Chinese commenters took to a U.S.–based gaming discussion board ahead of the release to criticize the Chinese government and President Xi Jinping.  

The discussion board on Steam, a Washington state-based online gaming platform, was hit with a slew of comments in Chinese last week that directly and indirectly criticized Chinese authorities and Xi.  

One mocked Xi’s unprecedented third term as leader, saying, “I will continue to be Jade Emperor in Black Myth: Wukong. Raise your hands if you oppose it.”

Most critical posts ranted against the Chinese government, in ways unrelated to the game.

“Overthrow the Communist Party of China and establish a democratic constitutional system where everyone has a vote,” read what appeared to be the first critical comment.  

“Thank you to the party, thank you to our great chief accelerator, Xi Jinping,” another comment reads, mocking Xi’s policies as accelerating China’s economic decline.

Another post listed the timeline of the weeks-long 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests and the subsequent violent crackdown that occurred when Chinese troops used lethal force against student-led demonstrators, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands.

Such critical comments of China’s government and leaders are not allowed on China’s internet, where an army of censors frequently scrubs websites and discussion boards of comments that do not follow the Chinese Communist Party’s line.  

Observers were surprised to find by the afternoon of Aug. 16, many of the critical posts on Steam’s U.S. discussion board had similarly been removed.  

Li Ying, a Chinese social media influencer and government critic known online as Teacher Li, posted his opposition to the removal on Aug. 14 on X with screenshots of the original posts.

“Steam is inherently a free platform, with a wide variety of games here, and players are free to express any opinions and opinions about the game,” he wrote on X.

Steam’s China-based website does not have a discussion board, and the U.S.-based discussion board is only available to users outside China. Those inside China need to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which helps users bypass controls to access internet content outside the country that is blocked.

VOA reached out to Steam seeking comment about why the posts were deleted but did not receive a reply. Steam’s discussion board rules do not explicitly prohibit political posts but say that users are not allowed to post “disrespectful” content and to avoid posting content unrelated to the topic.

While the game is not directly connected to the Chinese government, it did receive some official help and praise. The city government of Hangzhou, where Game Science is located, gave the game a grant in 2022. State media in the province, Zhejiang, described the game as “one of the most important explorers in the history of AAA games in China – an explorer that deserves applause and encouragement.”

It’s not the first time Black Myth: Wukong has stirred up some controversy.

The game’s developers have been accused of making lewd and sexist remarks.

Feng Ji, the founder and CEO of Game Science, in a Weibo post last year lamenting the difficulties in development, used words with erotic connotations and compared his desire for expanding development to oral sex.

Yang Qi, the game’s artistic director, remarked as early as 2013 on Weibo that they would not pander to female players in the game’s production.

“I don’t need the reverse drive of female players. I don’t take care of those lewd insects who come to pick up girls; some things are made for pure men,” he wrote.

In response, a female influencer posted on the gender-focused WeChat account Orange Umbrella, urging Game Science to respect female gamers.

“As a fellow player, I know how much hard work and dedication it takes to make a game, and Black Myth: Wukong’s dedication and seriousness in the production are commendable,” she wrote. “However, don’t let the backward gender consciousness push players who are also full of expectations for the game in the opposite direction more and more.”

When Western media, including IGN, one of the most influential U.S. online news sites for video games, reported last year on the controversial comments, nationalist Chinese commenters called the coverage an attempt to impose western values and put down China’s gaming industry.

“Judging the Chinese game with the politically correct stance of the West is really biased for the media,” a review article reads. The article said whether the developers’ remarks constituted sexism “depends on the perspective.”

On Weibo, one commenter called IGN a “clown” and wrote, “In order to suppress the rise of Chinese games, the gender card is unsurprisingly played again.”

Despite the controversies, gaming industry experts expect Black Myth: Wukong to be a big hit.

Daniel Camilo, a game industry consultant based in southern China’s Shenzhen city, noted to VOA that sexism in the gaming industry is not new and has little impact on commercial success.

“Hardcore gamers and fans that actively discuss these issues and are aware of them usually represent a very small [loud] minority online that accounts for a small residual amount of those who actually buy games,” he said.

The game has already received high praise from reviewers in China and abroad.

IGN gave the game an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 on Aug. 16, calling it a “great action game with great fights and exciting and powerful opponents, albeit with a few bugs.”

The Chinese version of IGN gave the game a perfect score of 10, writing, “This is a truly competitive domestic game in the global market, and I believe it will be a strong contender for this year’s Game of the Year.”

Camilo noted the high quality of the homegrown game has given Chinese players something to be proud of that might even help improve China’s international image.

“Black Myth will change perceptions people have regarding Chinese games and, to some extent, China and its cultural output and soft power really,” he said.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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From ‘Cobra Kai’ to ‘Blue Beetle’: Actor Xolo Maridueña’s journey to first Latino superhero

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Xolo Maridueña is currently starring in the sixth and final season of the hit karate series “Cobra Kai,” which premiered on Netflix in July. But he also made waves last year when he was cast as the first Latino superhero lead in “Blue Beetle.” The actor spoke with Veronica Villafañe about the impact of these roles in his career and the need for Latino representation in Hollywood.
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Myanmar fighting blocks key trade route with China, impacting economy

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Bangkok — Ethnic and resistance forces in Myanmar have completely blocked a key trade route to China, halting cross-border commerce and further damaging Myanmar’s already struggling economy.

The Mandalay-Lashio-Muse Road is considered the most strategically important road in the country’s northern Shan State.

Formerly known as the “Burma Road,” locals commonly call it the “pearl necklace,” as it connects Myanmar’s second largest city of Mandalay with the Chinese border. The string of pearls of trade towns already captured by rebel forces include Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, Lashio, Hsenwi, Kutkai and Muse near China’s southern border of Yunan province.

Lway Yay Oo, spokeswoman for the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, or TNLA, told VOA that right now “there are battles all along the trade route.” That has increasingly been the case, she said, since the second phase of operation 1027 began several weeks ago.

The TNLA is part of the “Three Brotherhood Alliance,” along with the Arakan Army, AA and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA.

The first phase of the 1027 rebel offensive, which is named after the date it began, began on October 27, 2023.

The recent capture of several key towns along the trade route in a relatively short span of time has been widely seen as a potential turning point in the resistance as rebels look to cement control and further loosen the grip of junta forces the region.

The military government isn’t giving in easily, however, with intense battles along the route making trade nearly impossible.

“The TNLA and joint forces control the entire border trade route with the cities of Kutkai, Lashio, Kyaukme and Hsipaw, except for Muse,” Lway Yay Oo added. “Although we are prepared to keep businesses operating, we’ve had to stop border trade due to fierce fighting.”

Myanmar’s trade crisis deepens

The ongoing conflict and capture of key trading towns is already having an impact.

“Myanmar’s trade sector depends mostly on border trade,” said one Yangon-based businessman, who requested anonymity due to security reasons during a phone interview with VOA. “Air trade is very expensive now, and maritime trade takes a long time, so we must rely on border trade routes.”

With main trade routes closed, businesses are looking to find alternate routes.

“Trade flows are slower than they should be, and we are spending more on transportation, leading to further losses,” the man said. There is also an impact on consumers as the ripple effect of higher transportation costs, currency fluctuations and slower trade spreads to the general population.

“When these things happen, consumers also suffer,” he said, adding that right now “with demand so low, our revenue has dropped by about 50%.”

Earlier in June, the World Bank downgraded Myanmar’s economic growth forecast to just 1% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, citing the intensifying conflict, labor shortages and a depreciating currency as key challenges. And that was just as the second phase of operation 1027 was beginning.

Impacting the junta

According to the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics, the border trade value between Myanmar and China totaled US$416.867 million in the first two months of the current financial year 2024-2025, which began on April 1.

It is a significant decline from the $640.43 million recorded during the same period last year, and a decrease of $223.564 million.

So far, for its part, Myanmar’s military rulers are playing down the impact the conflict is having.

“Despite the challenges posed by recent conflicts, we continue to facilitate trade with our neighboring countries, especially China,” a representative from Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce said in June, according to state media. The ministry has not commented on the impact fighting has had on the economy since then.

Opposition forces disagree and say the success of the resistance has significantly weakened the junta’s ability to manage the economy, including trade.

“The revolutionary forces have grown stronger militarily and now control more territory,” said Min Zayar Oo, the NUG Deputy Minister of Planning, Finance, and Investment, in an interview with VOA.

Min Zayar Oo added that part of this is because of the junta’s mismanagement.

“Stability and clear policy are essential for business, but the military council has failed to provide this,” he said.

Commodity prices are soaring due to inflation and recent efforts by the junta, such as printing new currency notes, have only worsened the economic situation, he adds.

“Cross-border trade routes are disrupted, foreign currency is scarce, and the junta is struggling to provide basic services. The economic front, like the military front, is already collapsing,” he said.

The economic downturn is also impacting military funding, former army Major Naung Yoe told VOA in a telephone interview.

“No matter how much the junta increases the military spending budget, if the country doesn’t have foreign currency, the military spending will also be affected,” he said.

Border trade stalls, Kyat at record low

As fighting continues and trade stalls and the value of Myanmar’s currency the Kyat plummets, many business owners are hoping a resumption of stability will come soon.

“Every day that the fighting continues, our businesses suffer,” one medium-sized entrepreneur based in Yangon told VOA, who requested anonymity for security reasons. “We rely on cross-border trade, and with the current situation, it feels as though we have been cut off from the rest of the world.”

In late June, the Kyat hit a record low in foreign exchange markets, exacerbating the financial crisis faced by many in the country.

“We are struggling to keep our operations afloat,” another entrepreneur noted. “The depreciation of the kyat is making imports prohibitively expensive, and we cannot raise prices without losing customers.”

As the conflict rages on, the future of Myanmar’s economy remains uncertain, with many calling for an urgent resolution to restore stability and revive trade. “We need peace to rebuild our businesses and our country,” the Yangon based entrepreneur added. “Without it, we are all at risk.”
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US sanctions former Haitian president over drug trafficking

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WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Haiti’s former president, Michel Joseph Martelly, over drug trafficking, accusing him of playing a significant role in perpetuating the ongoing crisis in the country.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said Martelly “abused his influence to facilitate the trafficking of dangerous drugs, including cocaine, destined for the United States.”

The department said he also worked with Haitian drug traffickers, sponsored multiple gangs and engaged in the laundering of illicit drug proceeds.

“Today’s action against Martelly emphasizes the significant and destabilizing role he and other corrupt political elites have played in perpetuating the ongoing crisis in Haiti,” Treasury’s Acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said in the statement.

“The United States, along with our international partners, is committed to disrupting those who facilitate the drug trafficking, corruption and other illicit activities fueling the horrific gang violence and political instability.”

Tuesday’s action freezes any of Martelly’s U.S. assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with him.

Gang wars have displaced more than 578,000 Haitians, while nearly 5 million — almost half the population of 11.7 million — face acute hunger, with 1.6 million of those people at risk of starvation, the United Nations says.

Armed gangs have formed a broad alliance while carrying out widespread killings, ransom kidnappings and sexual violence.
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Депутати ухвалили у першому читанні законопроєкт про позбавлення держнагород зрадників України

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Пропонується передбачити, що особа може бути позбавлена державної нагороди України за обвинувальним вироком суду, або рішенням РНБО
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Powell may use Jackson Hole speech to hint at how fast and how far the Fed could cut rates

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Washington — Federal Reserve officials have said they’re increasingly confident that they’ve nearly tamed inflation. Now, it’s the health of the job market that’s starting to draw their concern.

With inflation cooling toward its 2% target, the pace of hiring slowing and the unemployment rate edging up, the Fed is poised to cut its benchmark interest rate next month from its 23-year high. How fast it may cut rates after that, though, will be determined mainly by whether employers keep hiring. A lower Fed benchmark rate would eventually lead to lower rates for auto loans, mortgages and other forms of consumer borrowing.

Chair Jerome Powell will likely provide some hints about how the Fed sees the economy and what its next steps may be in a high-profile speech Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the Fed’s annual conference of central bankers. It’s a platform that Powell and his predecessors have often used to signal changes in their thinking or approach.

Powell will likely indicate that the Fed has grown more confident that inflation is headed back to the 2% target, which it has long said would be necessary before rate cuts would begin.

Economists generally agree that the Fed is getting closer to conquering high inflation, which brought financial pain to millions of households beginning three years ago as the economy rebounded from the pandemic recession. Few economists, though, think Powell or any other Fed official is prepared to declare “mission accomplished.”

“I don’t think that the Fed has to fear inflation,” said Tom Porcelli, U.S. chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “At this point, it’s right that the Fed is now more focused on labor versus inflation. Their policy is calibrated for inflation that is much higher than this.”

Still, how fast the Fed cuts rates in the coming months will depend on what the economic data shows. After the government reported this month that hiring in July was much less than expected and that the jobless rate reached 4.3%, the highest in three years, stock prices plunged for two days on fears that the U.S. might fall into a recession. Some economists began speculating about a half-point Fed rate cut in September and perhaps another identical cut in November.

But healthier economic reports last week, including another decline in inflation and a robust gain in retail sales, have largely dispelled those concerns. Wall Street traders now expect three quarter-point Fed cuts in September, November and December, though in December it’s nearly a coin-toss between a quarter- and a half-point cut. Mortgage rates have already started to decline in anticipation of a rate reduction.

A half-point Fed rate cut in September would become more likely if there were signs of a further slowdown in hiring, some officials have said. The next jobs report will be issued on Sept. 6, after the Jackson Hole conference but before the Fed’s next meeting in mid-September.

Raphael Bostic, president of the Fed’s Atlanta branch, said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that “evidence of accelerating weakness in labor markets may warrant a more rapid move, either in terms of the increments of movement or the speed at which we try to get back” to a level of rates that no longer restricts the economy.

Even if hiring stays solid, the Fed is set to cut rates this year given the steady progress that’s been made on inflation, economists say. Last week, the government said consumer prices rose just 2.9% in July from a year ago, the smallest such increase in more than three years.

Bostic noted that the economy has changed from just a couple of months ago, when he was suggesting that a rate cut might not be necessary until the final three months of the year.

“I’ve got more confidence that we are likely to get to our target for inflation,” he said. “And we’ve seen labor markets weaken considerably relative to where they were” last year. “We might need to shift our policy stance sooner than I would have thought before.”

Both Bostic and Austan Goolsbee, president of the Fed’s Chicago branch, say that with inflation falling, inflation-adjusted interest rates — which are what many businesses and investors pay most attention to — are rising even as inflation has slowed. When the Fed first set its key rate at its current 5.3%, inflation — excluding volatile energy and food costs — was 4.7%. Now, it’s just 3.2%.

“Our policies are getting tighter with every moment in that type of situation,” Bostic said. “We have to be concerned” that rates are so high they could cause an economic slowdown.

Still, Bostic said that for now, the job market and the economy appear mostly healthy, and he still expects a “soft landing,” whereby inflation falls back to the Fed’s 2% target without a recession occurring.

With the economy’s outlook unclear and the Fed focusing heavily on what future data shows, there may be only so much Powell will be able to say Friday about the central bank’s next steps.

Given the Fed’s focus on how the economic data comes in, “it will be difficult for Powell to pre-commit to a particular trajectory at Jackson Hole,” Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, said in a research note.
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Firefighters significantly tame California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record

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CHICO, Calif. — California’s largest wildfire this year has been significantly tamed as the state’s initially fierce fire season has, at least temporarily, fallen into a relative calm.

The Park Fire was 53% contained Monday after scorching nearly 1,738 square kilometers in several northern counties, destroying 637 structures and damaging 49 as it became the state’s fourth-largest wildfire on record.

A large portion of the fire area has been in mop-up stages, which involves extinguishing smoldering material along containment lines, and residents of evacuated areas are returning home. Timber in its northeast corner continues to burn.

The fire is burning islands of vegetation within containment lines, the Cal Fire situation summary said.

The Park Fire was allegedly started by arson on July 24 in a wilderness park outside the Central Valley city of Chico. It spread northward with astonishing speed in withering conditions as it climbed the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.

July was marked by extraordinary heat in most of California, where back-to-back wet winters left the state flush with grasses and vegetation that dried and became ready to burn. Wildfires erupted up and down the state.

The first half of August has been warmer than average but not record-breaking, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“We’re still seeing pretty regular ignitions and we’re still seeing significant fire activity, but the pace has slowed and the degree of that activity, the intensity, rates of initial spread, are not as high as they were,” he said in an online briefing Friday.

“Nonetheless, vegetation remains drier than average in most places in California and will likely remain so nearly everywhere in California for the foreseeable future,” he said.

There are signs of a return of high heat in parts of the West by late August and early September, Swain said.

“I would expect to see another resurgence in wildfire activity then across a broad swath of the West, including California,” he said.
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Final report on Lewiston mass shooting to be released

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LEWISTON, Maine — After more than a dozen public meetings, scores of witnesses and thousands of pages of evidence, a special commission created to investigate the deadliest shooting in Maine history is ready to issue its final report on Tuesday.

The independent commission began its work a month after the Oct. 25 mass shooting by an Army reservist that killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar and grill in Lewiston. Over nine months, there has been emotional testimony from family members and survivors of the shooting, law enforcement officials and U.S. Army Reserves personnel, and others.

The commission created by Gov. Janet Mills will hold a news conference to release the full report at Lewiston City Hall — less than 5 kilometers from the two sites where the shootings took place.

It’s unclear if the report will contain any surprises. An interim report released in March said law enforcement should have seized the shooter’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before the shootings.

The commission’s public hearings revealed the swift response by police to the shootings, but also the ensuing chaos during the massive search for the gunman. Also revealed were missed opportunities to stop the shooter, 40-year-old Robert Card, an Army Reservist whose mental health was spiraling.

Card’s sister testified at a hearing, her hand resting on his military helmet as she spoke.

Kathleen Walker, whose husband Jason was killed while rushing at Card to try to stop him, also testified, and said: “The system failed, and we can’t allow this to happen again.”

Family members and fellow reservists said Card had exhibited delusional and paranoid behavior months before the shootings. He was hospitalized by the Army during training in July 2023, but a commanding officer acknowledged not checking to ensure compliance on follow-up care.

The starkest warning came in September when a fellow reservist texted an Army supervisor, saying, “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.” Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a search that followed the shootings.

Army officials conducted their own investigation after the shootings that Lt. Gen. Jody Daniels, then the chief of the Army Reserves, said found “a series of failures by unit leadership.” Three Army Reserve officers were disciplined for dereliction of duty, according to the report, which noted communication failures within the chain of command and between military and civilian hospitals.

Maine’s legislature passed new guns laws for the state, which has a tradition of firearms ownership, in the wake of the shootings. A three-day waiting period for gun purchases went into effect earlier this month.

The Lewiston commission is chaired by Daniel Wathen, a former chief justice of Maine’s highest court. The seven-member commission also included two former federal prosecutors, two additional former judges, a psychiatrist and executive at a psychiatric hospital, and the state’s former chief forensic psychologist.
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Russia court rejects US soldier’s appeal of jail term

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Moscow — A Russian court rejected an appeal Monday by a U.S. soldier who has been jailed for three years and nine months for alleged death threats and theft.

Gordon Black was sentenced in June by a court in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok, where he was arrested in May while visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while serving in South Korea.

The 34-year-old was detained after the woman, named by Russian media as Alexandra Vashuk, reported him to the police after an argument, saying he physically attacked her and stole about $110 from her.

Black pleaded “partially guilty” to theft and not guilty to threatening to kill Vashuk, saying she had started an argument after drinking.

Black appealed his sentence and Monday, the Primorye regional court rejected the appeal, saying in a statement that it decided “to leave the verdict in place” after examining the case.

The pair met in October 2022 on the dating app Tinder in South Korea and had dated there, Black said, before Vashuk then invited him to come to Vladivostok.

Black is one of several American citizens imprisoned in Russia.

Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

On August 1, Russia freed U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and 14 others in its biggest prisoner swap with the West since the Cold War.
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Floods from thunderstorms lead to dramatic rescues and 2 deaths in Connecticut

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oxford, connecticut — Torrential rains turned streets into raging rivers in parts of Connecticut and New York’s Long Island, trapping people in cars and a restaurant, covering vehicles in mud, and sweeping two women to their deaths, authorities said.

Dramatic rescues unfolded as a foot (30 centimeters) of rain fell on some parts of western Connecticut late Sunday and early Monday, coming down so fast that it caught drivers unaware. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said more than 100 people were evacuated by search and rescue teams Sunday evening.

The bodies of two women who had been in separate cars were recovered Monday in Oxford, a town of 13,000 about 35 miles southwest of Hartford, officials said. Both were Oxford residents.

Firefighters were trying to get the first woman to safety when the flooded Little River swept her away, Oxford Fire Chief Scott Pelletier said at a news conference with other Connecticut officials. The second woman got out of her car and tried to cling to a sign, but “the racing water was too much” and swept her away, too, he said.

“This is a tragic and devastating day for Oxford,” the town’s first selectman, George Temple, said.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal added, “Who would have thought the Little River would turn into a gushing torrent of destruction, which is what happened.”

In nearby Southbury, Lucas Barber used wilderness first responder techniques he learned as a backpacker and rock climber to wade through chest-high water to save Patrick Jennings, who has a prosthetic leg, and Jennings’ dog from a car outside the Southbury Plaza mall.

Barber, 30, said he drove to higher ground and grabbed rope he keeps in his car for emergencies. Jennings’ car, he said, looked like it was “turning in the tide and seemed to be sinking.”

Barber said he first tried to throw his rope to Jennings but changed his approach when he was told Jennings had a prosthetic leg. Barber waded and swam to the car, which was filling with water, he said.

He saw Jennings’ golden retriever, Stanley, in the back, scared, and Jennings worried about leaving him behind.

“‘Your dog is coming with us, but also I need to get you out right now,'” Barber said he told Jennings.

Jennings took off his prosthetic leg, and Barber wrapped his rope around the man’s waist and chest. Barber tried tying the rope around the dog’s collar, but it came undone. Once he got Jennings to safety and others could tend to him, he went back for Stanley. Halfway back, Barber said, the dog got excited to see Jennings and swam the rest of the way to his owner.

Barber said he went back a third time to fetch Jennings’ prosthetic leg, which was bobbing next to his car.

In Oxford, rushing waters surrounded the Brookside Inn, trapping 18 people. Firefighters had to stretch a ladder across the floodwaters to reach them as cars and other large debris carried by the torrent smashed into the building, said Jeremy Rodorigo, a firefighter from neighboring Beacon Falls.

The storm system that hit Connecticut and then moved on to Long Island was separate from Hurricane Ernesto, which on Monday was over the open Atlantic Ocean but still expected to cause powerful swells, dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast.

William Syrett, a professor of meteorology and atmospheric science at Penn State University, referred to the Connecticut-New York system as “training thunderstorms.”

“It’s like each thunderstorm is a car on a train track, and so they just keep going over the same place,” he said. He cited “perfect conditions” for the storms, thanks to the amount of moisture in the air and a slow weather system.

The unusual part was the amount of rain that fell over several hours, Syrett said, not the thunderstorms themselves.

Ed Romaine, the executive of Long Island’s Suffolk County, said that hundreds of homes were affected by flooding and that mudslides covered the roofs of cars in some areas.

The storms canceled more than 450 flights at Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, officials said.
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